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Adventures, Traveller

Game Time

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Patron: Bureaucrat, Criminal
Required skills: starship operations
Required equipment: none
Beginning location: Foreven Sector, Xenough Subsector, Nesturgi
[0508 C699687-9 Ni Av G]

Players’ information:
The good news is, your group survived a misjump and seventeen days in jumpspace without casualties. The bad news is, you are over a sector away from home, stranded at the highport orbiting Nesturgi (C699687-9). Your ship suffered severe damage to its jump drive. It will take several weeks at a minimum to arrange letters of credit, purchase parts and have necessary repairs performed.

The owner of your subsidized merchant is present at the highport. He has graciously advanced the players enough salary so that ordinary expenses are covered. What you have to deal with now is boredom, due to this highport’s primitive facilities and being unable to go planetside.

While discussing their options, the players are approached by a woman wearing what appears to be a sports jacket made in the ancient ‘letterman’ style, with a stylized image of a scorpion on the upper left side and back. She introduces herself as Margaret Franklin, general manager of a powerball (arena football) team known as the Rheingold Stingers. She expresses an urgent desire to hire the group as starship crew so her team can travel the Avalar Consulate on a scheduled visitor’s tour. She is ready to pay double standard wages, and will pay triple if pushed.

Highport
Highport – Nasa Image – Public Domain

Referee’s information:
In an economy where human skilled labor is available at premium prices, there is always intense competition for obtaining qualified ship crew members. One of the players (the one with the highest intelligence) notices that there are an unusually high number of ‘STARSHIP CREW WANTED’ postings in the public database. If Franklin cannot fulfill her performance contract, there will be serious financial consequences.

1. All is as it seems. Franklin’s crew, along with a multitude of other people, are under quarantine on planet due to an outbreak of Denebian Spotted Fever. Her crew will be medically cleared and released in four weeks.

2. As 1, except that the planetary government has discovered that the virus is not the expected one, which causes flu-type symptoms, but a gene-spliced version that was released from a secret laboratory with ultimate funding by the Kamrati League. This new virus has a longer incubation period, during which time the victims are highly infectious, and has long-term debilitating effects. Public knowledge of a serious pandemic would devastate Nesturgi’s trading status and has the potential to destabilize the entire subsector.

3. As 1, but Franklin’s starship is in extremely poor condition. Jump and maneuver drives are up to maintenance standard, but there will be a rash of minor failures in other ship systems. The players will be extremely busy repairing items like the air circulation system, which produces smells of rotting garbage on a regular basis, a multitude of power plant spikes causing random system resets, and sliding doors which refuse to open or close fully, sometimes not moving at all.

4. Franklin is extremely anxious to depart immediately, chafing and fuming at any delay. She did not reveal to the players that she refused to ‘take a dive’ and lose to the local team, which cost a local underworld mob boss a lot of money. Hired thugs severely beat the former crew, and anyone else who hires on can expect the same treatment or worse.

5. Franklin is a local liaison with the Yo-Kuska pirate clan, and is helping to transfer their recently hijacked starship out of the Consulate. After four jumps, she will consider herself to be safely beyond known pursuit and will strand the players on a random world without payment or transportation. Additionally, a ship carrying an elite bank repossession team is on their trail, and will catch them in 1d6 jumps. Any players aboard when the repossession team assaults the ship will be treated as pirates and dealt with harshly.

6. None of the people aboard ship are athletes or support crew. They are an independent gang which spent four months planning an executing a bold robbery of the United Banking Guild’s sector deposit and transfer depot. With a detailed prepared cover story and documentation representing the group as a touring all-star exhibition team, they planned a quiet escape. Unfortunately, an encounter with random thugs caused them to lose their crew. Desperate for replacements, they are seeking anyone with spacehand credentials. The players will be hired on, but only long enough to provide orientation to the support crew so they can be emergency system watchstanders. After three jumps, the players will be killed and their bodies jettisoned into jumpspace.

Adventures, Traveller

The Oncoming Storm

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Location: Highbury (Foreven/Titan 0106) 0926 B566879-9  Ri  (PBG)203
Patron: Colonel Sandovar Fasola, military intelligence officer of Caxburgh, one of the major states of Highbury
Required skills and equipment: none

Players’ Information:
Highbury’s two main land masses are separated by fairly wide oceans, except at one point, known as the Channel. In this narrow passage (32 km at nearest point) is found the chain of islands that make up the country of Glostonburgh, home to 2400 souls. Glostonburgh’s economy is based on fishing, and they export fish and aquaculture goods to nations on both continents.

Caxburgh (103 million) on one continent and Breedony (86 million) on the other are gearing up towards a war. Glostonburgh is officially neutral but both sides have a reason to desire control the islands; the largest island has an excellent harbor, and the islands can serve as staging grounds for invading the other country.

Colonel Fasola wants the PCs to investigate the island, looking for military activity by the other side, to use as a pretext and justification for their own occupation. He’s using off-worlders to minimize risk of being recognized as spies. They are given a special military comm channel which can be utilized by their own comms, and two weeks in which to discover any military ships, planes or vehicles, any uniformed soldiers, or other evidence that Breedony has already violated the neutrality. They will have to provide tangible evidence for the Colonel to take to the high command, preferably visual recordings.

The PCs will be given a cover identity as off-world journalists there to investigate the local aquaculture. They can use this guise or create one of their own. They can use their own contra-grav craft if they have one, or Fasola will arrange for one to be available. At the end of two weeks, the PCs should return, with whatever intelligence they’ve been able to gather. Pay can be negotiated based upon PC’s military background and social skills.

On the Islands
On the Islands – image from wikimedia
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Referee’s Information:
Glostonburgh consists of three main islands and seven smaller ones. The people live along the coasts, in small towns and villages. There are some contra-grav and ground cars, but most islanders walk to get where they’re going. The interior of the islands has some agriculture but the land rises steeply, and much of it is uninhabited, with light to dense forests. Two of the small islands officially have zero population. The referee will have to prepare a sketch map of the island group.

The islanders are, understandably, very nervous and suspicious of visitors. No one will initially want to talk to the PCs. The referee should apply at least a -1 DM to all reaction rolls. The PC’s skills and behavior may influence reactions.

Many islanders are nearly in a panic, looking for any way to escape being occupied. As war news dominates the headlines, there will be increased incidents of looting, public rioting and people trying to beg/borrow/bribe the PCs into transporting them or their children off the islands. Most of the fishing vessels have already left for ports on one of the continents, so transports off the islands will be hard to find. If the PCs do not secure their ride, someone will steal it. The local economy is circling the drain as a result, further stoking tension and hostility. The PCs should encounter sad stories of desperate people wherever they turn.

It is the widely held opinion that if Caxburgh and Breedony start fighting for control of the islands, most everything will get destroyed in the process. The local leadership has secretly rigged all the government buildings with demolition charges to deny their use to either invader. If the PCs discover this, will they try to prevent it?

Possible circumstances arising while the PCs are there are:

1. Breedony is not planning to invade. There are no spies on the island except for the PCs. There are lots of people acting suspiciously, though.

2. Both sides assume the island residents will not put up a fight, since they are greatly outnumbered and have no army, only a small police force. In fact, groups of locals have quietly amassed a lot of weapons, and have a guerrilla campaign planned if they are invaded.

3. Breedony has already covertly taken control of the islands, and everyone they meet who is an official is working for them. The PCs will be ‘made’ as soon as they arrive and start asking questions. The Breedonian intelligence officers have a plan to feed them false or misleading data from the start. All the fortifications etc. are bogus. Give the PCs a chance to figure this out.

4. The leaders are trying to convince everyone that they will not be invaded, so everything coming from official sources is all morale-building and positive. They ask the PCs, as journalists, to assist them. A local priest disagrees, and asks the PCs to help him convince people to prepare.

5. One of the locals ‘makes’ the PCs but thinks they’re working for Breedony, and wants to expose them as such. The real Breedonian agents will subtly try to prevent this, without blowing their own cover.

6. Breedony, or even Caxburgh begins the invasion while the PCs are present – bombs start falling and they have to run for it.

Maybe the PCs can prevent the islands from being invaded, but maybe not. They should have the opportunity to rescue at least some people from harm’s way, and have the opportunity to be the islands’ advocates with Caxburgh. The referee must determine the flow of subsequent events. Continue reading The Oncoming Storm →

Adventures, Traveller

A Mighty Fortress

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Patron: Religious Pilgrims
Required Skills: nothing special
Required Equipment: starship with some middle passage space

Players’ Information:
The PC’s are contacted by Friar Grissom, the leader of a band of missionary monks who spread their version of “the Word” to offworld planets. They seek passage on the PC’s ship equal to the amount of staterooms available times two. Their destination is a monastery some six parsecs away. They say they all have taken a vow of poverty and only Friar Grissom handles the finances. Each of the brothers following Friar Grissom wears the same simple brown cassock robe with hood that he does and their only possessions fit in a small-sized sack. It is only on a rare occasion that the brothers show their faces or anything more than their hands.

If the PC’s accept the deal Friar Grissom will pay 50% down and 50% at their destination (he honestly does not have enough money for the entire transaction). During the trip the brothers stay in their quarters in prayerful meditation, only to come out during meals in which half of the meal is spent either in respectful silence or in prayer. Once a week, all the brothers will ask that they be allowed to conduct a service in the passenger’s galley/lounge where they will chant and pray for hours.

The Monks
The Monks – image from wikimedia – Public Domain

Referee’s Information:
If the players look up information on Friar Grissom they will uncover that he did register with the local and subsector government to perform missionary work on this system. He has been on the planet for three months and his funds require that he return home. If psionically scanned Friar Grissom appears to be who and what he is.

Outcomes:
1. Their offer is legitimate and there are few complications. When the monks arrive back at their monastery they will be paid immediately with the agreed upon amount. This does not mean that the crew – brother interaction is at least moderately annoying for the crew. The constant praying and meditating should be played up. (For example, Brother Jakob decides to go to the engine room to meditate because his roommate Brother Marius smells bad).

2. Their offer is legitimate and there are some complications. The brothers will be more than annoying with the constant prayers and meditations. During the meals the brothers will ask the crew about their religious beliefs in the hopes of engaging them into a religious discussion/debate. The crew will be exceptionally happy when the brothers depart, who do pay at their destination as promised.

3. Their offer is legitimate and there are few complications. The brothers are not as they seem, however. They are, in fact, a group of new psionic talents on their way to a clandestine training facility. Friar Grissom is a talented psionic instructor who can shield himself some most psi probes and avoid any kind of attention. The crew may suspect something is amiss when a fork at the dinner table suddenly elevates or one of the crew gets a headache for absolutely no reason. After all, these brother-adepts are completely untrained and have little control over their natural abilities. At their destination Friar Grissom will escort these brothers to another instructor and the PC’s will be paid double what they are expecting if they continue to remain discreet about what they have learned.

4. Their offer is legitimate and there are few complications. The brothers are not as they seem, however. Friar Grissom has a cybernetic brain implant that makes him immune to almost any psionic scan. The brothers he is escorting are actually clones of a very important nobleman who is having them moved away to another world for training as a body double. If the crew looks at the faces of the brothers they may notice they look like brothers from the same mother so to speak. At their destination Friar Grissom will escort these brothers to another instructor and the PC’s will be paid double what they are expecting if they continue to remain discreet about this secret if they had discovered who or what they were transporting.

5. The same as condition #3, with one big exception. One of the “adepts” (goes by the name of Brother Arias) is a “Psi cop” who is undercover. Brother Arias is trying to ferret out a group of rouge psionics who have been causing trouble throughout the sector. He will witness the PC’s being paid extra for their silence. Within a month or two, the PC’s will be hauled into a police interrogation and arrested for aiding and abetting fugitives. They will be fined 2d6 x 1000 credits or face six months in prison.

6. The offer is legitimate but there is a big problem. Apparently, due to the bad diet and the cramped conditions, three of the monks are suffering from a debilitating respiratory disease. This illness was not detected by any of the starport sensors nor will a medical scan see the problem until they have been aboard at least two days. Three days into hyperspace one of the brothers will start to cough up blood and he will; need immediate medical attention. The other two monks will fall sick the next day. Half of the rest of the monks will fall sick within the next 7-10 days and the crew has two weeks before they will need to roll versus C3 to risk being infected themselves. The disease is a type of virulent airborne tuberculosis and once it is detected a recovery time of two weeks is necessary. I hope the PC’s have a good ship’s doctor. When the PC’s deliver their human cargo to their destination they will be paid the amount of money as promised.

Adventures, Traveller

The Thing in the Telescope

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Patron: Jedric Chang-Xi
Location: Apinanto (Foreven/Fessor 0604)
Required: starship skills, Vacc Suit skill

Players’ Information:
Chang-Xi contacts the PC group, offering to hire them as ship crew for an in-system exploration mission. If the PCs have a ship, they can use it, but if not then Chang-Xi has chartered a Slow Pinnace. He is an amateur astronomer, and recently he detected something in the L4 cluster of the second planet in the Apinanto system. The cluster is a mass of small asteroid bodies and ice clouds, which are in motion, making identification of the Thing difficult. Apinanto Prime is the fourth planet, a low population poor world that gets little interstellar traffic. If the object is a ship, Chang-Xi can sell it to the government which would pay handsomely for it. He offers the PCs either one month standard salary by position, or a total of 15% of the salvage price of whatever he finds.

Travel to the L4 cluster will take several hours to around a day, the inner planet orbits the sun much faster than Apinanto.

In the Telescope

Referee’s information:
The Thing in the Telescope is resting on one of the asteroid bodies that make up the Trojan Point. Trojan Points are much denser concentrations of cosmic debris than asteroid belts; a safe passage to the target asteroid requires the Pilot to roll 9+, DM for Pilot skill. DM +1 if assisted by a navigator with Navigation-2 or better. Landing the ship on the asteroid requires a Pilot roll of 6+. Failure by more than 1 calls for one roll on the Starship Damage table.

PCs moving about in the microgravity of the asteroid cluster will have to make as many Vacc Suit skill rolls as the referee wants to keep things interesting. Tiny rocks are floating by all the time, some may be large or fast enough to cause an accident. PCs with prospecting skill may search for resources, finding something on 11+, with DM for skill. The CT Module Beltstrike can provide helpful rules & information on operating in microgravity, and dealing with asteroids.

The Thing is, in fact,
1. A ship, a type-Y yacht, but it has already been claimed by another salvage operation. The other salvage operator shows up while the PCs are investigating, and accuses them of claim-jumping. Use the reaction table with a DM of -2 to determine the salvager’s attitude.

2. An abandoned pinnace. It belonged to a prospector, which is obvious from even a cursory search. If the PCs search the asteroid it is parked on, they will discover the body of the prospector on 7+, DM for Prospecting skill. On an 11+, the prospector discovered something of value before he died.

3. An emergency shelter type construct, looking like part of a starship’s escape gear. It has been there at least fifty years. The people who used it were rescued, and left the shelter behind, with some clues as to what happened to them. The shelter is not worth much except perhaps to a museum.

4. A type-A Free Trader which crashed. It is holed in several places and the drives are non-functional, but its cargo is still intact. Crew and/or passengers will be found within. Referee can use the Trade & speculation table to determine the nature of the cargo.

5. A subsidized merchant ship kitted out as a naval auxiliary ship, with a model/4 computer, triple turret weapons and nuclear missiles. Ship’s computer records will show that it was grounded on the asteroid with a drive failure and the crew left in a sub-craft; but the conflict was ended before the owning navy was able to get back and recover it. If it is returned to Apinanto, the government will overrule the salvage claim and nationalize the vessel. If the PCs do not have a ship, they may be offered jobs as crew aboard the new system patroller.

6. A listening post and forward base from Saphi (Fessor 0804). Saphi plans to raid Apinanto for water and agricultural resources. The base is manned by a group of equal size to the PCs. They will attempt to capture, rather than kill the PCs. If the PCs are captured, they will be taken back to Saphi when the next Scout ship arrives (within four days).

If the PCs return to Apinanto with salvage, Chang-Xi will pay up as promised. The local government will not be able to offer more than 15-20% of the value of the ships. The Referee must determine the flow of subsequent events.

Adventures, Traveller

C.O.D.

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Patron: Merchant starship captain
Required Skills: social, combat (?)
Required Equipment: None

Players’ Information:
Sendak is a world just beyond the edge of the Spinward Marches in Foreven sector. It is controlled by one of the Imperium’s submegacorporations, Universal Transamalgamated Incorporated, otherwise known as UTI. UTI raises a domesticated version of a native grazer for the benefit of its specialty foods and pharmaceutical divisions. Wild thing meat is prized by gourmets in this region of space, particularly by Vargr, and certain hormones which defy synthesis provide the basis for many lifesaving medications.

UTI’s operations on Sendak are dependent on several key technologies used in the local processing plants which are not supported by the local infrastructure. Looking ahead, the corporation foresaw a time in the near future when critical replacement parts would be needed. It placed an order with a supplier several jumps away. The order was recently filled and placed aboard a ship destined for Sendak. It is being shipped C.O.D. or credits on delivery, meaning that the crew dropping off the shipment will receive the payment directly and be responsible for returning it to the supplier. UTI has a sterling reputation when it comes to paying its obligations, reputation being crucial given the slow relative speed of interstellar travel, so the chance of anyone getting “stiffed” is miniscule. At least that’s the presumption going in.

When the characters land at the starport they find it nearly deserted, the local police won’t let anyone leave the property and a rising smoke cloud is visible coming from the city in the distance . . .

The Deserted Starport
The Deserted Starport – image from wikimedia
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Referee’s Information:
This scenario assumes that the characters are aboard a starship at the outset of the scenario. They may be its crew, embarked passengers or a combination of both. The ship’s captain asks the characters to head into town to collect the payment for the cargo. For the sake of future business dealings, negotiation and peaceful interaction is preferred over a more kinetic approach but the actual execution of the mission remains in the PCs’ hands.

There are several possible complications in this scenario. Roll 1D6 to determine which is the case here.

1. There have been rising tensions of late between UTI and its workers, who have been agitating for better pay and working conditions. For the most part the two sides have tried to amicably work things out but the inevitable fringe elements on both sides have managed to escalate the situation. The UTI rep holding the payment the characters’ seek is based in the capital city but is unreachable via the commnet and in any case would likely be unable to get to the ‘port due to travel restrictions. (This is according to the police maintaining the cordon). If anyone is to be paid it looks like the characters will need to get past the local enforcers and find the company rep while avoiding local entanglements. The situation in the city is chaotic but for the most part non-violent.

2. Same as the first option except that tensions are much higher. Law and order, on both sides is beginning to break down. This leads to an increased chance of violence but there are also still a lot of innocent people trying to go about their lives as best as they can.

3. Same as the second option except that the situation has degenerated to sporadic street fighting between corporate police and workers using captured or improvised weapons.

4. Same as the third option but the characters encounter a group of workers requesting help in getting one or more important individuals off-planet. They may be emissaries being dispatched to curry off world support, perhaps in the form of funding, weapons or public opinion, or charismatic members of the workers’ leadership looking to continue the revolution from exile. In this case the characters are potentially faced with having to drag their charges along with them as they try to execute their primary mission.

5. Same as the third option but the characters will be subjects of a kidnapping attempt so that they can be used as bargaining chips by the workers or targeted for arrest by UTI on suspicion of being mercenaries hired to organize and train the workers. Or both.

6. Same as Option Three but in this case the characters are contacted by a representative of UTI who wishes to employ them to carry a message to the worker leaders surreptitiously so that a cessation of hostilities can be negotiated. The rep may be acting without the knowledge or permission of his superiors because he sees a window of opportunity for a peaceful settlement. Alternatively, he may seek to use the characters to ferret out the location of the leaders so that they can be captured or killed. (In that case he’ll likely use the idea of settlement talks as a cover for his true intentions). The rep will provide the name of a contact to get the process started and can be convinced to pay extra for this service.

Adventures, Traveller

The Bank Job

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Patron: Megacorporation
Required Skills: nothing special
Required Equipment: starship with some cargo and middle passage space
Location: system with asteroid belt

Players’ Information:
The PC’s are contacted by an agent of a known major megacorporation. The agent, named Dimitri Kumikov, wishes to charter the PC’s cargo space and buy the available middle passenger space (up to twelve cabins if available) for a trip to that system’s asteroid belt within the next 48 hours. He will offer the normal rate to charter cargo and buy passage. The megacorporation has a newly built ore processing center for mining a new vein of precious metals discovered by private prospectors. The megacorporation is keeping this discovery quiet as long as it can so it has made an agreement with these private miners to supply goods and supplies in exchange for these raw materials. Dimitri will also assist the PC’s with any cargo they may wish to carry back. (-1 DM on cost on raw materials one would find in an asteroid belt).

Dimitri’s cargo is all contained in cargo containers that can be lifted and handed through airlocks. 20% of the cargo is labeled vacc suits. 20% of the cargo is listed as “PLSS” (Portable Life Support System) packs. 20% of the cargo is listed as foodstuffs. 20% of the cargo is listed as medical supplies and the last 20% is listed as “spare parts.” Dimitri’s fellow passengers are all obviously longshoreman-sized brutes who quickly and efficiently load the cargo. Each of these “hands” is sporting a sidearm openly strapped to a holster on their hip and if asked Dimitri tells them they all have system weapons permits that supersedes any system law level.

Asteroids
Asteroids – NASA – Public Domain

Referee’s Information:
This new mining strike is a relatively new area of precious metals and raw crystals. This megacorporation stands to make a heavy profit if the news is suppressed long enough for the market to stay strong. The story is true in that a private band of rogue prospectors found this area and they have been working in conjunction with this megacorporation to sell their findings on the spot. The catch in this plan? They want cash on the barrel for the work and they have established exclusive rights to their claim.

All the cargo the PC’s are bringing are indeed needed supplies that will be used in exchange for the newly mined ore. Dimitri will haggle a little over their contract, but nothing above 20% above the normal rate. The cargo labeled “spare parts” has one crate that is deliberately mislabeled. This crate contains cold hard cash worth no less than 50 million credits in currency no higher than 10,000 credit bills. There will be nothing special to call attention to this crate.

Outcomes:
1. Everything is as presented. These goods are delivered to the miners and when the last crate goes off the ship, so does Dimitri. There is plenty of unprocessed ores, raw precious metals and raw crystals available for purchase or charter. If they try to sell it in the same system they will incur a -1 DM to resale (so it is better if they jump to another location). As the cargo is being loaded on the ship a private prospector will suggest this to the PC’s.

2. Everything is as presented. The ship will be shadowed by another ship (it should be difficult to detect) all the way to their destination. As expected these goods are delivered to the miners and when the last crate goes off the ship, so does Dimitri. The same conditions in result #1 for resale apply here. The problem? A day or two after the delivery it is discovered that the cash crate and Dimitri are missing. They were picked up by the shadowing ship and they are on the run. The megacorporation will swear out a warrant for the PC’s to be brought in for questioning.

3. Everything is as presented. The ship will be shadowed by another ship (it should be difficult to detect) halfway to their way to their destination. The security team that has been helping Dimitri decides to mutiny and take over the ship. Meanwhile the shadowing ship is a privateer or corsair that decides to engage the ship. If the PC’s do not heave to and allow to be boarded they will be fired upon. When the PC’s are under control by the intruders they will be “relieved” of their cargo, personal effects and whatever can be carried through an airlock. Dimitri will be exceptionally upset and ask the PC’s to return to the starport so he can report this to the megacorporation immediately. The PC’s are asked to put in a claim with the corporation where they will be paid (d6x10% +40%) worth the original value of their personal effects after 72 hours.

4. The same as #3 with some notable exceptions. After the crew is robbed Dimitri will go into his quarters and commit suicide rather than face the wrath of his bosses. The PC’s will be detained by the system authorities for about a week until it is found they are not at fault. Compensation for their lost goods will be (d6x10%) of the original value.

5. Same as outcome #1 with a few exceptions. The hands are actually uniformed security guards. The ship is shadowed by a patrol cruiser from origin to destination. The rest is exactly as stated in outcome #1.

6. Halfway to the asteroid belt Dimitri will find his way to the cargo deck. He will try to find a way to secure the money crate and ensure he has a vacc suit on hand. He sets a timer on another piece of cargo and heads to his quarters. The crate in the cargo bay explodes enough to cause a breach in the hold where the cargo is expelled into space. The ship’s distress call is answered by another trader (who happened to be in the area thanks to Dimitri) who renders assistance to patch up the hull long enough for the PC’s to return to port. During the confusion, Dimitri and the cash crate will find their way to the “rescue ship.” The PC’s will return to port with the megacorporation asking questions about the whereabouts of the goods and Dimitri. There is a 50% chance they will pay to repair the PC’s ship.