Getting Under Way
The players will report to the star port and help load the unmarked crates form a secure holding facility to Kleevor’s cargo shuttle. A pilot PC can copilot the shuttle with Kleevor.
Any curious player with military background, security background, or familiarity with weapons can make an INT check to realize that the packing crates remind him of some shipping containers that occasionally are used for weapons. Treat any character with more than one weapon’s skill as having enough familiarity with weapons to make this check. The crates have coded locks that will require a technician to defeat if the players desire to look inside. If anyone wants to attempt that action they will have to wait till after the ship is underway for Timeon, but Kleevor will be aware of the attempt unless elaborate precautions are taken to disable monitoring devices. For the contents of the weapon’s shipment see Listing A (p21).
Once aboard the CFMS Venture, there are a host of chores and maintenance that needs to be done as the ship gets under way. Kleevor will assign these to the party and allow them to handle getting it done. He’s already computed the jump to Timeon but will spend time on the bridge refining his data while piloting the ship and brooding over what he feels is a betrayal of his former crew.
After a 10 hour shift Kleevor will hold a meal for everyone. This is the time when the players can quiz Kleevor and learn something about the job they are on. In fact, once per day it will be Kleevor’s habit to host a meal for the crew. The ship will be on automatic and if anything happens an alarms will sound.
This activity can be simulated at the RPG gaming table as the meal/chat will happen early in an adventure and many RPG gaming sessions have snacking at the beginning of the session before the game really gets going. The informal snack time can be used for this role play meal and cover background details on the adventure.
The trip to Lossend will take about 6 standard days. However, the player characters only have 3 working shifts with which to square away the ship. Captain Kleevor will want to run drills for two days while decelerating in Timeon system given the possibility of who might be lurking in that system these days. So the crew will lose two days to drills and the last will be lost to the time spent getting underway and arriving at Lossend.
Galactic Standard time is 20 hour days with a 10 hour work shift the norm. Players may opt to use up to 2 hours of their off time per day to try to get more done.
Their first voyage with the Venture will involve lots of work. The old rocket battery ammunition need to be pulled from the weapon’s magazine, disarmed and palletized before being replaced with the new HARM rockets that are designed to shred star ship hulls and potentially be a one shot kill on fighter craft. Someone has taken all the robots apart and was doing maintenance on all of them at once which means none of them can assist with any physical labor till they are put back together again. In addition there is a royal pain of a job requiring vacuum suits fixing a leaking seal on the cargo hold hatch.
Have the players compute their total available working hours: 30 hours times the number of player characters. This is the budget of work hours they have to complete the chores and maintenance tasks. Listing B (p21) gives the list of chores and their total work hours to accomplish. The exact list of tasks depends on the number of player characters in the crew. It is entirely possible that the players may not get everything done and it will be important to note what was not finished for later portions of the adventure, particularly if it impacts the ship in combat.
Experience Points: Getting Under Way
The actions and decision made during this phase of the adventure will have their benefits or hindrances latter on when combat erupts so no experience need be given for doing chores. If players go to lengths to learn details about the weapons deal or other details before Kleevor reveals the details at a meal then award 1 bonus EXP when experience is awarded for Beta Section.
A Day Late and a Credit Short
In Lossend orbit the Venture will be placed in a parking orbit assigned from the space station. Kleevor will remain with the ship while the PCs will take the weapons crates in the shuttle, Capitol, to Dawn’s Landing and rent a cargo variant jet copter to deliver the arms to the farming village. They have the necessary credit drafts to rent the copter and purchase the extra grain from the farmers. They may also use weapons from Ventures small arms locker (see Listing C, p21). The PCs mission is to complete the deal or no one is getting paid. In other words their pay will be deferred till the next completed delivery of which none are currently lined up without the expected grain.
Unbeknownst to Kleevor is that he is a little too late to reach Lossend and his customers have been forced to pay the extortion and that the Lucky Devil pirates committed rape, pillage, and burned the farming settlement to the ground anyway. The farm settlement cannot be raised by radio (if the PCs try) and Kleevor will instruct the PCs to complete the deal but be on their toes.
At the farm settlement the PCs find the moldering ruins of the burnt out settlement and bodies everywhere. A young human boy can be seen working on a heavy duty robot body that looks shot up. His name is Keyvan and he’s a level 1 roboticist. He’s attempting to get a shot up heavy duty equipment robot to work to plow a mass grave. He is so numb to his experiences that he will simply stare at the PCs copter expecting to be killed and welcoming it. He can tell the PCs what happened and answer some questions but will doggedly focus on getting the grave dug. He’s exhausted and characters with medical or psycho-social skills will realize he needs sleep.
Keyvan, older sister, Mim, is married to the leader of another co-op like farm settlement 30 km north of this location that would be the best place for the PCs to leave him and possibly find a buyer for their guns.
Striking A Deal
Barlo’s Post is a repurposed mercenary base from the aborted corporate war between PGC and Tachton Industries (See included map). The mercenary base used to be identical to the town map on the back of the Port Loren poster map except the farmers recycled the fencing to protect important crops from wypong depredation. The fence posts remain as they were set into ceramacrete and the farmers have not yet invested energy into digging them up. The watch towers also remain and sport spotlights to drive off any nocturnally prowling wypongs that the community's dogs will alert on with barking.
Barlo James and his wife Mim lead the co-op though the community is democratic in governance. It’s just that Barlo is a forceful personality and most everyone will follow his lead. The community will welcome the PCs and the news of the other settlement’s demise will shock them. Some of the men will tell Barlo that they should have bought weapons to defend themselves but now what can they do if the pirates take the grain AND kill everyone.
Barlo is actually aware of what the other settlement’s deal was and will negotiate for the same deal with the stipulation that the PCs teach them how to use the weapons. He will ask for four weeks training but settle for two weeks knowing the pirates will show up in about a week. Barlo is looking to have the PCs present when the pirates do show up on the theory they will probably fight just to save themselves. After the PC’s strike the deal, each character has a chance to discover this fact each day they are in the village. Have each character make a PER ability check. Success means that they have learned of the timing of the pirates' arrival. If they learn of the impending arrival of the pirates, Barlo will hold them to the deal. If they consult with Kleevor, he feels responsible for the other farmers' deaths and will tell them that they cannot get the grain if these farmers are dead.
Every 2-3 days that the PCs are in the village, there is a 50% chance of something happening from this table or by referee fiat one or more things from this list will happen that week. Roll 1d5 and consult the list.
- Twelve and eleven year old boys were taunting a wypong by throwing sticks and rocks at it. The wypong responded by beating one of the youths unconscious and the others fled. If there is a medic in the PCs’ party he can treat the youth but if not the PCs can join the farmers in running off the closest pack of wypongs or tracking (provided someone has that skill) and killing the specific wypong that did this. Note that the wypongs are protected and indiscriminant killing of them will bring in the Lossend Rangers. This encounter can lead to a role play encounter with Lossend Rangers concerning activities involving the wypongs. A wypong that attacks a human or other sapient creature may be put down but just killing wypongs will likely lead to 1000 Cr fines per creature killed. They are easily run off with sonic weapons.
- Two Lossend Rnagers show up and question everyone about the destroyed farming settlement.
- A lossodragon is killing livestock. After two nights of its predation something must be done. It’s impossible to track which will require guards posted to watch for it during the night.
- Jet copter circles the compound and then flies away.
- One PC makes a connection with the farmers he’s training, roll 1d5 to determine how many of them are now level 1 at the weapon they were training with.
Storm Brewing
The players are in essence roped into defending the farm settlement and may have little time to prepare. There are 12 adult combatants, both men and women, and five non-combatant adults and 12 children. Any combatant farmer is effectively 0 level with a ranged weapon but due to hard work and experience working with farm tools they are effectively 1stlevel with melee weapons. Each farmer will be able to scrounge either: a knife, a machete or an improvised pole arm. Farmers' (RW 20, M 40, PS 3, IM 3, RS 30, STA 40) equipment is drawn from the weapons shipment, Listing A.
In addition there is any reasonable amount of material and equipment available on the farm at the referee’s discretion if the players ask for specific items. Players should be rewarded for trying to devise stratagems against the pirates. Simple stratagems will have more success and complicated ones are more likely to fail.
There are no robots at this farm and if the heavy duty robot is recovered from the other farm it will need 5 hours to restore it from 5 STA to 250. However, each failed repair roll reduces the maximum STA points by 50. It is only level 2 and programed for common farming tasks. To use it in combat it will need to be modified to mount a weapon, have an Attack/Defense program installed and its mission and functions rewritten.
Provide players with the map of the settlement (p22-23) and allow them to arrange the defenders. If they never discover that the pirates will show up when they are still there then allow the player to arrange their PCs and randomly place farmers. Mim is a combatant but she will defend the non-combatants with a sonic stunner. This leaves Barlo and 10 other farmers to defend the settlement with the PCs. Once the PCs and farmers are in place the players will control the farmers for the battle. The players can also divvy up the arms shipment among the farmers but cannot use it themselves.
Experience Points: Beta Section
Award 1-3 EXP for the players' performance since arriving planet side. Take note of whether they did the minimum at the destroyed settlement and how hard a bargain they drove with the farmers (1 EXP). The CFM believes strongly in a deal being good for both parties. Reward good role play with the farmers and discovering that the pirates will arrive within the week (1 EXP). Finally reward good preparation for the pirate’s arrival (1 EXP).
