Category Archives: NPCs

Obar Enterprises

I don’t have the UPF Assault Carrier done yet so this week you’ll be getting a new organization you can use in your game.

Obar Enterprises Logo – a stylized freighter with three engines

Those of you who follow along with the Detailed Frontier Timeline, either on the monthly posts here on the site or via the @StarFrontiers Twitter feed, may have noticed the introduction of a new organization into the timeline: Obar Enterprises.  Anyone that has played in my online games in the last few years has also probably run into, or worked for, Obar Enterprises.  And anyone that participates on any of the old online Star Frontiers forums might recognize the name since my handle on those forums is Terl Obar, the name of one of my early Star Frontiers characters and one of the founders of the company.

Obar Enterprises in My Games Today

The following description is the basis I use when players encounter Obar Enterprises in game, whether just in passing or as employees.  This is not how the characters were originally created, as that involves the module adventures and the PCs might run through those.  The section at the end of this post, entitled “The Real Story”, tells how they were created and advanced in real life. 

Background

The company is owned by two couples: Terl and Yala Obar and Leelab and Reesta Lar.  Terl and Yala are yazirians while the Lars are dralasites.  It’s an unlikely pairing given their races, but they form a tight group.

Terl and Leelab, or Lee as he typically goes by, originally met years ago when they were hired as troubleshooters for the Cassidine Development Corporation (CDC).  Terl was a medic with psycho-social skills and Lee was a weapons expert.   Lee would often joke that he “took ‘em apart and Terl put ‘em back together.”  Despite the general prejudices of their races, the two hit it off and were often assigned on the same team.  Over time, Reesta became part of their core team bringing environmental skills and Yala joined as a technician and computer expert.  Others came and went from the team to fill in needed skills but the four of them formed the core.

Over time romance blossomed and the two couples were married.  While this could have potentially been an issue, CDC was willing to bend the rules due to the effectiveness of the team.  Had their performance dropped, they might have been split up, but since their performance stayed high, and even possibly improved, they had no problem staying together as a unit.

CDC, especially after very successful missions, allows its employees to purchase stock in the company.  The four took advantage of that to greater or lesser extents over their time with the company.  CDC has done well over the years and this allowed the Obars and Lars to build up a very sizable nest egg.  After many years with CDC, the four decided that they were ready for something else.  They had made many contacts over the years and decided it was time to work for themselves. 

While at CDC they had picked up starship skills:  Yala was a capable Pilot, Lee an Energy Weapons gunner, Terl had picked up the Rocket gunnery skill, and Reesta had picked up a lot of computers over the years and had become a passable Astrogator.  They lacked an engineer but figured they could hire one. 

Cashing out a small portion of their CDC stock, combined with a sizable chunk of their savings, they were able to purchase an old, used hull size 7 tramp freighter, the TSS Searcher, and get it up and running.  Hiring a pair of engineers, they started hauling freight primarily between Dramune, Cassidine, and Prenglar with the occasional run out to Truane’s Star as well.  They organized their new endeavor under the name Obar Enterprises, Leelab and Reesta not wanting to put their name on it.

After about a year, they decided to take a gamble and chart a route through the Xagyg nebula from Cassidine to Truane’s Star cutting the travel time between those two systems down from three weeks to just one.  This would allow them to move desired commodities between those two systems quickly and turn a tidier profit.  With that in mind, they loaded up the Searcher with a cargo at Triad, made sure the main and backup life support were topped off, and picked up several extra jumps’ worth of fuel, just in case things went wrong.  Ready to go they set off on this new adventure.

Luckily, nothing went wrong and they safely arrived in the Truane’s Star system.  Similarly, the return jump to Cassidine went off without a hitch.  With the new jump fully charted, they decided to keep the route as a “company secret” figuring they could make more money having the private jump route than they could from reporting the route to the UPF.  This turned out to be the case and they made a sizable profit over the years before someone else charted the route and reported it, making it a standard route on the UPF maps.

Not long after the new route was charted, Reesta decided that the merchant life was not for her.  They had had several close calls with pirates over the years and especially since they had struck out on their own and she wanted to do something about that.  She also missed the more structured life working for CDC but, not wanting to go back there, decided to use her starship skills to secure a commission as part of Spacefleet and help fight the pirate problem directly.  She retained her partial ownership in Obar Enterprises but left the day to day operations to enroll in Gollwin Academy.  Given her existing experience, she was fast-tracked through the program graduating in only a year.

In the intervening years, Terl, Yala, and Lee have continued to grow Obar Enterprises as Reesta has begun working her way up through the ranks of Starfleet.  While still primarily a freight company, having expanded their ship roster to include several freighters and escort ships, they have also diversified some of their endeavors to include mining operations and, drawing on their experiences at CDC, some for-hire troubleshooting teams.  It’s also rumored that they have an exploration branch that is cataloging the unexplored systems in the Frontier but there is no public mention of this portion of their business.  Reesta currently commands an assault scout as part of Task Force Cassidine.

Current Activities

Cross-section of the Morning Glory

Terl, Yala, and Lee still typically make the run between Cassidine and Truane’s Star, although now in their company’s flagship, mobile headquarters, and their home, the TSSS Morning Glory, hull size 20 freighter.  In addition to their freight hauling activities, they have a couple of mining operations on Pale and New Pale in the Truane’s Star system, as well as one on Rupert’s Hole in the Cassidine system.

From their time at CDC, they still have many contacts in that corporation as well as contacts in Spacefleet (through Reesta) and in the Pale government on Truane’s Star.  They will often contract with those organizations to do specific jobs that those organizations don’t want to be associated with directly or don’t have the manpower to pursue.  As part of this portion of their business, Obar Enterprises maintains a small band of troubleshooters that they can assign out to various missions and assignments much like a small mercenary company.

The rumored exploration activity is also a reality although it is not something they talk about.  OE has purchased a Moraes class exploration vessel and have a crew exploring all the systems between Truane’s Star and Scree Fron.  As part of this they have discovered a habitable, although uninhabited world, that they are working on a plan to develop and colonize.  The TSS Searcher often disappears from the Frontier for weeks at a time to deliver supplies to this system.  All of this is a secret company project.

Current Resources

Ships

Obar Enterprises has a number of ships operating around the Frontier.  In addition to the Morning Glory, they still have the TSS Searcher in operation, along with a hull size 6 Pacific class freighter, the TSSS Dark Rose.  They operate two Stiletto-class assault scouts, the OESS Courage and OESS Excalibur, that typically serve as escorts for the Morning Glory.

For their troubleshooting teams, they developed a small, hull sized 2 spacecraft.  The prototype, the TSSS Dart (StarFrontiersman issue 11) has now been in operation for about 3 years.  They currently have three of these ships commissioned, the Dart, Bolt, and Quarrel, with a fourth, the Flechette, scheduled to be built in the future.

Their exploration ship is registered as a yacht, the OESS Enterprise.

In addition to the ships above, they have another hull size 20 freighter currently under construction in the Triad starship construction center.  The OESS Dusk’s Radiance will be Lee’s primary ship when it is completed in the next year.

Installations

To support their shipping operations, Obar Enterprises maintains offices on the major stations in Truane’s Star, Dixon’s Star, Cassidine, Prenglar, Dramune, and Fromeltar.  Being a registered corporation on Pale, they also have an office in Point True but it is minimally staffed as their true headquarters is onboard the Morning Glory.

As mentioned above, they have mining operations on Pale, New Pale, and Rupert’s hole.  Additionally, they have a mine on an asteroid somewhere in the Truane’s Star system and it’s rumored they have a compound on Laco in the Dixon’s Star system.  There are also rumors of another complex built into an asteroid in the Cassidine system but nothing is know about that complex if it exists (GM Note: it does, but it’s in the Truane’s Star System, not Cassidine, and it’s different than the mine).

Finally, they have a small science installation on the surface of a planet in the FS42 system and are in the process of constructing a small station in orbit around that planet.

Responses

Obar Enterprises is a fairly typical small business but has very deep pockets when it comes to resource acquisition.  The nest egg from their time at CDC is very large although they don’t really need to tap into it for regular operations due to successful business over the years and careful resource management.

The Obars and Lars don’t need to work.  They have so much money that they could retire and live extravagantly at any time.  They work because they want to and endeavor to make sure that their employees are well taken care off.  Because of this, their employees are quite loyal.

Individually and as a company they are much more willing than would be expected to take on risky or adventurous endeavors just for the excitement of it.  Since money isn’t an issue, a material loss is not a major setback.  On the flip side, they don’t hold back when defending their own and will bring all available resources to bear on any threat to their assets and especially to their people. 

Overall, Obar Enterprises is a friendly, upright organization but are willing to take on risk and expend resources to achieve their goals.  They will not start a fight but if one breaks out, they will end it as quickly and overwhelmingly in their favor as possible.  I’ll probably go into more detail about Terl, Yala, Lee, and Reesta themselves in a future post.

Plot Hooks

PCs might interact with Obar Enterprises in a number of ways if you include the company in your game.  These include, but are definitely not limited to:

  • Employment – As former adventurer’s themselves, they look for those type of beings to fill the ranks of their workforce, especially their troubleshooter/mercenary division.  The PCs could be hired as a troubleshooter team for the company and assigned missions for the company or contracted out to other organizations.  Or they could be recruited in the exploration division.  They will have fairly wide latitude in how they proceed.  They will be given objectives, not processes.
  • Competition – Maybe the PCs will be going after the same cargo, target, or other objective as a team from OE.  They’ll have to use ingenuity and resourcefulness to win out as the OE team will be well funded and equipped.
  • Collaboration – Maybe the PCs work for an organization that has contracted OE for help and some number of NPCs from OE will be working with them.

These interactions could occur in any of the areas where Obar Enterprises have interests or activities.

The Real Story

So that’s Obar Enterprises as I currently use them in my games.  If we were playing D&D, the company would probably be considered Neutral Good.  They want the Frontier to be a better place and follow the rules when possible but are not afraid to color outside the lines when that gets better results.

While the history given works in a generic campaign, that isn’t how the characters got to where they are.  Terl, Yala, Lee, and Reesta were some of my earliest characters when I first started running and playing Star Frontiers, along with four others, a human couple and a vrusk couple, that I used sort of as test cases for all the modules.  As a group of eight, I ran them through all the published modules, very much in the order that I talked about in my Module-based Campaign posts.  They left CDC sooner than described (and joined it later), joined the Clarion Royal Marines, and participated in the Beyond the Frontier series.  I’ve removed those references from their current form so that those adventures can be used for PCs in the game.  If you don’t plan on using those adventures for the PCs, feel free to add those details back into the background of the OE crew and give them contacts and connections in those systems.  They might even be local celebrities in certain parts of the Frontier.

The CDC investment came from the Mission to Alcazzar module.  That module has a table you can roll on to see how their investment does.  It’s way too generous with only a 20% chance that something bad will happen (90% loss or 50% loss – 10% chance each), a 20% chance there will be no change, and the other 60% of the time the investments will multiply by 2 (20% chance), 5 (20% chance), 10 (10% chance), or even 50 (10% chance).  So if you invest the 5,000 Cr. the module allows and let it ride for a few years, you’re probably going to have a lot of money.  I’m sure I fudged some rolls in my early teens toward positive results.  The listed value of that “nest egg” on their character sheets is in the hundreds of billions of credits. Each.  But given the generosity of the table, that can be achieved in just 10-15 years of random rolling which is why I spread it out over more time in the write up.  They really can buy anything that they want if it is for sale.

In the character and ship sheets, the TSSS Dark Rose is really the Gullwind, acquired as part of the Dramune Run module.  That was the ship they started with and used to plot the jump from Truane’s Star to Cassidine.  The Searcher came later as their second ship.  Also, they have never cashed out their CDC stock.  Acquiring the Gullwind for free, plus the money saved from the other KH adventures where they were well paid, provided enough capital to get started and they’ve done well and grown their resources.  I used to play out running cargos around the Frontier.  Each ship sheet has a strip of cellophane tape across to top with its operating budget written in wet erase marker (dry erase wasn’t a thing).  I’d worn out the paper writing and erasing all the time that I hit on that as a solution.

I have a folder full of papers detailing the characters, their ships, and their installations.  A lot of those probably need revising from the wild imaginations of my teenage self and updated with a dose of realism.  There’s also a notebook containing the full plan for the FS42 system.  I had originally placed their system where Belnaefar is located on the Zeb’s Guide map but that was before I owned a copy of Zeb’s guide.  I had placed Benaefar in the system down to the left (FS22) originally.  With the move of Belnaefar, I’ve simply moved the location of the OE system (named Sadar in my notes).

Otherwise, the outline provided is pretty true to how I originally envisioned and ran the characters.  The only other major difference is that Reesta never really participated in the OE endeavor other than to be a part owner, she, plus the other four from the group, went right from the Beyond the Frontier series of adventures into Spacefleet.  They get together as often as they can when the Morning Glory is in Cassidine and she’s not on patrol.

That’s Obar Enterprises as it currently exists in my game and how it came to be.  I’m sure there are details or other information that I left out.  Let me know what you like about the write-up and where it could be improved in the comments below.

A Module Based Campaign – characters

As part of the “Module-based Campaign” posts, I thought it would be a good idea to have a set of characters to go along with the series to demonstrate the skill progression as they go through the adventures. It would also help me gauge the amount of additional XP needed between the modules to prepare them for the next ones.

To that end, I’m presenting a party of six PCs that will travel along on the adventures with us through this campaign. In this post I’ll present their starting stats and the updated ones after the Volturnus series, with XP added for Starmist but not spent. Going forward, I’ll post updates to the characters at the end of each installment in this series of posts.

Guidelines for skill increases

Each of these characters is progressing towards getting a spaceship skill per the standard Knight Hawks skill rules. They’ll need those skills to play in the modules starting with SFKH0: Warriors of White Light. As such, I’ll be developing the prerequisite skills needed.

In addition, I assume that the characters are not laser focused on that goal and will add branching skills to diversify their skill sets. They may not be as good as one of the other players in this other skills but if separated and in a bind, they might be able to pull something off. It’s been my experience that players will typically drive hard on their main skill but also pick up a variety of others along the way and I’ll represent that in the skill lists of these PCs.

Finally, in the standard rules, ability scores don’t really play into the skill chances except with military skills. As such, for Technological and Bio-social skills, there is little to no incentive to increase ability scores to get skill improvements. In the military skills, since the skill computation is one half the ability score plus 10x the skill level, and ability scores are increased at one point per XP, it doesn’t really make sense to start increasing DEX or STR until it costs more than 20 XP to increase the skill. Which means level 6 (the max) for military PSA characters and level 3 for non military characters.

Now this dynamic changes a bit if you have a lot of weapon skills as each point into a characteristic increase all your skills so you might shift a little sooner if you’re a military PSA character. Regardless, I’m going to focus more on the skill levels than the characteristics while improving these PCs. You might do it differently but that’s the fun of the game.

With the preliminaries out of the way, let’s meet our band of heros.

Starting Characters

These are our starting characters as initially rolled up (and yes, I did roll them up randomly).

Name: Yanni

Race: Yazirian, F

STR/STA: 40/40

DEX/RS: 55/55

INT/LOG: 55/55

PER/LDR: 45/45

Racial Abilities: Battle Rage 5%

XP: 0

PSA – Technological

Skills: Technician 1, Beam 1

Notes:

Born on Hentz, Araks. Yanni likes to tinker with gadgets and vehicles.  She’d love to be able to tinker on starships as well.

 

Name: Mekar

Race: Yazirian, M

STR/STA: 45/45

DEX/RS: 70/70

INT/LOG: 55/55

PER/LDR: 55/55

Racial Abilities: Battle Rage 5%

XP: 0

PSA – Bio-social

Skills: Medic 1, Environmental 1

Notes:

Born on Pale, Truane’s Star.  As Mekar will tell anyone who asks, his job is to understand the local critters and keep everyone else in one piece. [Mekar will eventually have a Rocket Weapons spaceship skill but getting a bio-social PSA character there takes a bit of work.]

 

Name: Dolnab

Race: Dralasite

STR/STA: 55/55

DEX/RS: 65/65

INT/LOG: 70/70

PER/LDR: 50/50

Racial Abilities: Lie Detection 5%

XP: 0

PSA -Techological

Skills: Computer 1, Projectile 1

Notes:

Born on Inner Reach, Dramune.  Dolnab loves to tinker with computers and also play flight simulator games. 

 

Name:  Michaella

Race: Human, F

STR/STA: 55/55

DEX/RS: 64/61

INT/LOG: 50/50

PER/LDR: 40/40

XP: 0 

PSA – Military

Skills: Beam 1, Melee 1

Notes:

Born on Minotaur, Theseus. Michaella grew up as the youngest of seven with six older brothers.  She learned to shoot and hold her own with her brothers’ rough-housing at a young age.

 

Name: K’sta’n

Race: Vrusk, F

STR/STA: 50/50

DEX/RS: 75/75

INT/LOG: 50/50

PER/LDR: 35/35

Racial Abilities: Comprehension 15%

XP: 0

PSA – Military

Skills: Gyrojet 1, Martial Arts 1

Notes:

Born on Terldrom, Fromeltar.  K’sta’n has always had an interest in weapons, but also in the forms of the various martial arts.

 

Name: T’vor

Race: Vrusk, M

STR/STA: 40/40

DEX/RS: 55/55

INT/LOG: 65/65

PER/LDR: 40/40

Racial Abilities: Comprehension 15%

XP: 0

PSA – Technological

Skills: Computer 1, Robotics 1

Notes:

Born on Gran Quivera, Prenglar.  T’vor used to hang aout at the University of Prenglar as a kid and chat up the tech professors.  He loves to hack computers and robots and can usually get anything working, eventually.  He also has a deep interest in astronomy.

So that’s our team – two yazirians, two vrusk, a dralasite, and a human. They somehow all ended up on Pale and were recuited to go on the Second Voltrunus Expedition.

After Volturnus

They all managed to survive the adventure (I said I was a nice Referee) and made it back to the Frontier with a sizable chunk of change and a bunch of XP points (I awarded them 70 for that bit of adventure). Spending their XP along the way, learning new skills from each other and out of necessity and practice, they have all increased their skills as follows.

Note that on the XP line I’m recording it as NN/MM where NN is the XP spent and MM is the total XP earned. The total earned includes the 13 XP for the Sundown on Starmist module.

Name: Yanni

Race: Yazirian, F

STR/STA: 40/40

DEX/RS: 55/55

INT/LOG: 55/55

PER/LDR: 45/45

Racial Abilities: Battle Rage 5%

XP: 70/83

PSA – Technological

Skills: Technician 4, Robotics 2, Computer 1, Beam 2, Melee 1

Notes:

Born on Hentz, Araks. Yanni likes to tinker with gadgets and vehicles.  She’d love to be able to tinker on starships as well.

 

Name: Mekar

Race: Yazirian, M

STR/STA: 45/45

DEX/RS: 70/70

INT/LOG: 55/55

PER/LDR: 55/55

Racial Abilities: Battle Rage 5%

XP: 70/83

PSA – Bio-social

Skills: Medic 3, Environmental 3, Projectile 2, Psycho-social 1, Melee 1, Gyrojet 1

Notes:

Born on Pale, Truane’s Star.  As Mekar will tell anyone who asks, his job is to understand the local critters and keep everyone else in one piece. [Mekar will eventually have a Rocket Weapons spaceship skill but getting a bio-social PSA character there takes a bit of work.]

 

Name: Dolnab

Race: Dralasite

STR/STA: 55/55

DEX/RS: 65/65

INT/LOG: 70/70

PER/LDR: 50/50

Racial Abilities: Lie Detection 5%

XP: 60/83

PSA – Techological

Skills: Technician 3, Computer 2, Robotics 1, Projectile 2, Melee 1, Demolitions 1

Notes:

Born on Inner Reach, Dramune.  Dolnab loves to tinker with computers and also play flight simulator games. 

 

Name:  Michaella

Race: Human, F

STR/STA: 55/55

DEX/RS: 64/61

INT/LOG: 50/50

PER/LDR: 40/40

XP: 68/83

PSA – Military

Skills: Beam 4, Melee 3, Environmental 1, Thrown 1, Martial Arts 1, Medic 1

Notes:

Born on Minotaur, Theseus. Michaella grew up as the youngest of seven with six older brothers.  She learned to shoot and hold her own with her brothers’ rough-housing at a young age.

 

Name: K’sta’n

Race: Vrusk, F

STR/STA: 50/50

DEX/RS: 75/75

INT/LOG: 50/50

PER/LDR: 35/35

Racial Abilities: Comprehension 15%

XP: 68/83

PSA – Military

Skills: Gyrojet 4, Martial Arts 3, Projectile 3, Technician 1

Notes:

Born on Terldrom, Fromeltar.  K’sta’n has always had an interest in weapons, but also in the forms of the various martial arts.

 

Name: T’vor

Race: Vrusk, M

STR/STA: 40/40

DEX/RS: 55/55

INT/LOG: 65/65

PER/LDR: 40/40

Racial Abilities: Comprehension 15%

XP: 68/83

PSA – Technological

Skills: Computer 4, Robotics 2, Beam 2, Melee 1

Notes:

Born on Gran Quivera, Prenglar.  T’vor used to hang aout at the University of Prenglar as a kid and chat up the tech professors.  He loves to hack computers and robots and can usually get anything working, eventually.  He also has a deep interest in astronomy.

Whether they had them before or not, the team picked up some weapons skills just to survive on Volturnus. They also diversified their skill areas a bit and significantly improved their primary skill.

Going Forward

Now that we’ve met the team. I’ll update their stats and skills at the end of each of module campaign posts in the future.

Do you have thoughts on how you’d develop the skills differently? How have your players advanced their skills across a long campaign? Have they been laser focused on a single skill or broadly diversified? Let me know in the comments.

Osiris Under Siege

This is section 4 of the the Ghost Ship Osiris module. In this section of the module, the PCs dock at Outpost Osiris and have to liberate it from the alien robots that have taken control and are exterminating the outpost’s staff. I’ve posted the maps and room descriptions already, this post fills in the rest of this section of the adventure. At the end you can find a PDF of the full adventure section that you can download.

While this section is basically done, it is just a draft for the final module. If you find any issues, or have questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to let me know in the comments below.

Arrival

Approaching the outpost, there is no response to any attempt to contact or communicate with the miners at the outpost.  Power appears to be on and there is nothing preventing the PCs from simply approaching and docking with the outpost.

As you approach the asteroid, you see that it is slowly rotating.  It is about 1.4 km long and 1 km wide, one of the smaller asteroids in the Outer Belt.  The stream of ejected tailings from the mining operation that you followed in ends several kilometers before reaching the base, as if the ore processing has stopped.  The docking bay doors are wide open with light spilling out into the darkness of space. You also see some lights through a few small windows about 50m from the docking bay.

The docking bay is more than large enough to accommodate the Mirage and is located right on the rotation axis of the asteroid.  Unless they try some strange maneuver, docking is straightforward.  There is no gravity in the docking bay at the moment but it can be turned on by a control panel next to the airlock if desired.  Gravity is present in the rest of the base.

As the PCs open the airlock’s inner door, they are greeted by a member of the mine staff, covered in blood, running down the corridor toward them.  Rounding the corner at the far end, is a Pursale combat robot exactly like the one encountered on the Dawn’s Luck. (see this post)  It takes aim at the mine staff member and fires, hitting her squarely in the back.  She collapses to the floor at the PCs’ feet, wounded but not dead. The robot shifts its attention to the PCs still standing.

The robot has orders to eliminate the alien lifeforms and will fight until it is destroyed or has killed all the PCs.

After defeating the robot, the PCs can stabilize the miner.  They learn that she is Kella Rezal, one of the scientists at the outpost.  A few hours after the scavengers left, a number of alien robots emerged from the deeper mine area and began attacking the staff.  She and another staff member had been holed up in the sensor and communications office and when they saw the PCs’ ship approaching, decided to try to reach them.  Unfortunately, they were detected by one of the robots roaming the halls. Her companion was killed as they tried to escape.

She can lead them back to the sensor and communications nexus where they can begin the process of clearing the outpost of the robots.

Clearing the Complex

Pursale Combat Coordinator Warbot

STR:    100        BP:    500
AGL:    60         INIT:    3
CRD:    70         Move:    13, Walking
PER:    65         Frame:    Huge
INT:    65         Docking: 15CU

Programming:  Warrior +0, Marksman +0, Commander +10 (Violent Plan)

Equipment: A/V, IR, motion, vocal, & lifeform scanners, communicator, military grade reflec & ballistic screens, heavy laser rifle, devastator, grenade rifle, comm jammer, 800 EU powerpack, military grade armor, computer link, 4 EMP grenades, 4 tangler grenades, 8 smoke grenades, & 8 frag grenades.

Styled similarly to the combat robot, the coordinator warbot is about the same size as a full grown Pursale.  It has a short squat body with six legs and two arms extending from the sides of the body near the front. Extending up from the front of the body are two long slender stalks, about 1.2 m in length that end in sensor clusters.

The arms end in manipulator hands that have three fingers and a thumb.  The left arm has a built in heavy laser while the right one is sporting a devastator and grenade rifle. The powerpack is built into the body as is the magazine that feeds the grenades to the grenade launcher.

These robots are designed for both front line combat and controlling and coordinating squads of combat robots in independent actions while communicating with a central command if necessary.

The Pursale robots have effectively taken control of the mine complex and are attempting to eliminate the mine staff.  There are a total of 16 combat robots all controlled by a single Combat Coordinator Warbot (see sidebar for stats). The arrival of the PCs and elimination of the combat robot at the airlock  has alerted the warbot to the PCs’ presence and it will begin marshalling its forces to oppose the PCs.

Complete maps of Outpost Osiris can be found in the room descriptions post.  The following sections describe the complex, the initial location of the robots and mining staff, and tactics that they will use to capture and eliminate the PCs.

The PCs should quickly realize that the robots they encounter are not just working at random but are being directed.  A successful skill check (Technician or Scientist) with a -20 modifier for working with alien technology should allow them to identify the communication channel being used by the robots to communicate and track it back to the warbot.  If the PCs attempt to jam the communications, see the section Jamming the Robots’ Communications near the end of this section for details on that process.

Initial Locations of Robots and Mine Staff

Mine Staff

When the PCs arrive, the surviving mine staff are scattered throughout the complex attempting to hide from the robots that are trying to eliminate them.  Of the original 16 staff members only 12 are still alive. Three were killed in the initial foray of the combat robots into the complex and the fourth was killed as she and Kella attempted to reach the Docking Bay and the PCs.  The staff members (both surviving and dead) are in the following locations.

  • Dr. Jamis Grandt (Hm) – Overwhelmed by the situation, Dr. Grandt has hidden himself in the hydroponics lab where he has so far been undetected.  If rescued, he will be able to provide lots of information about the staff and operations but will not have any suggestions as to solutions for the current situation.
  • Kella Rezal (Hf) – Kella is with the PCs and will either accompany them as they move through the complex or will stay on the Mirage.  She doesn’t want to stay anywhere else until she knows that the robots have been eliminated.
  • F’Vothee (Yf) – F’Vothee is hiding out inside the nuclear reactor on the power level figuring that would be one of the last places the robots would search for her.  Unbeknownst to her, in her haste to get into the reactor, she tore a very small hole in her radiation suit and is taking radiation damage (1D/hour – currently has 12 BP left).  If she is not found and treated within a couple of hours she will succumb to radiation poisoning.
  • Hiloo (Nm) – Hiloo is hiding  out in the Mineral Processing Plant (Docking Level).  He has backed himself up into one of the little side maintenance passages and wedged himself under some of the machinery.  The robots are a little too big to enter the maintenance passages directly but are starting to dismantle and destroy the machinery in an attempt to get to him.
  • Reid Esperon (Hm) – Reid had ventured down to the alien ship after Thrawl’s crew left to investigate and was caught by the robots leaving the vessel.  His body is about 2/3rds of the way from the mine airlock on the docking level to the alien ship. He was able to get a warning back to the staff allowing them to attempt to defend themselves or hide.
  • Clese Whayeson (Hm) & Vothi (E) – These two were killed in the Ore Loading Area (Docking Level) trying to defend the airlock connecting the mines to the outpost against the advancing robots.  They managed to destroy one of the robots whose body is in that area with them before they were overwhelmed by the other robots.
  • Petoph Baker (Hm) – Petoph is hiding in one of the robot storage room.  He’s working on trying to activate and reprogram the spare mining robot in that room to use it to attack the invading robots.  If he is not found, he will have the robot ready to go in 2d10+10 minutes after the PCs dock at the outpost.
  • Donio Welley (Hm) – Donio grabbed the blankets off of his bed and is hiding out in the Freezer.  He’s been there for a while though and is starting to succumb to the cold.
  • K’Yuuxan (Yf)- K’Yuuxan is hiding in the gym.  She has turned the lights out and set the area to zero gravity.  She has hidden himself in one of the upper corners of the room. She has a laser rifle and a 50 EU power pack and will fire on any robot that discovers her.
  • Melni (Nf), G’Vorta (Ym), & Taxu (E) – These three are attempting to hid out in the mine shafts.  They have managed to evade the robots searching the shafts for now but are slowly being herded toward capture.
  • Yo’Viltri (Yf) – Her body is in the stairwell between the Crew and Docking levels.  She and Kella were attempting to reach the PCs’ ship when they were caught by one of the combat robots (the one destroyed by the PCs) she was killed as they made their way through the stairwell buying Kella time to escape.
  • Chofa (Nf) – Chofa is hiding in the largest of the mineral storage bays.  She has squeezed herself into one of the shipping containers by removing some of the refined material that was originally in there which is spilled out on the floor.
  • Yuror (E)- Yuror is hiding out in one of the currently unused housing units.  They has barricaded themself into the bathroom with the lights out.

Robots

There are 16 robots currently active and moving throughout the outpost.  They are initially in the following locations but will start converging on the PC’s location as directed by the Combat Coordinator Warbot.  These are the positions of the robots when the PCs dock at the outpost.

  • Mine shafts – there are 6 robots here working in three pairs to search the shafts for the miners hiding there.
  • Stairwell – There are two robots in the stairwell.  One is sitting in the area between the crew and power level.  It is currently just on station watching for anyone to traverse this area.  The second is descending the stairwell between the docking deck and crew deck and is enroute to start searching the recreational areas of the crew deck.
  • Life Support and Hydroponics – A robot has just entered this area to start searching it.  
  • Central housing corridor – There is a robot in the central corridor between the housing units.  It is at the end of the corridor and will break down the door to and enter each room in turn working it’s way up the corridor.  It has already searched the units off the left corridor.
  • Raw Ore Intake – There is one robot in this area that has started to smash and dismantle its way down the maintenance access corridors searching for crew members.
  • Processing Control Center – There are two robots here attempting to dismantle and work their way into the maintenance passages looking for Hiloo whom they know is in the area somewhere.
  • Mineral Storage Corridor – There is a robot about to enter the leftmost Mineral storage area.  
  • Robot Repair Shop and Storage Rooms – A single robot is in this area looking for Petoph Baker.
  • Airlock to Mines – A single robot is stationed in this location to prevent any of the staff moving between the outpost and the mine shafts.
  • Alien ship access tunnel – About half way down this tunnel from the airlock to the ship is where the Combat Coordinator Warbot has stationed itself allowing it to communicate with all of its robots and the ship.

Robot Tactics & Timeline

Tactics

The destruction of the combat robot at the airlock has alerted the Combat Coordinator Warbot to the presence of a potential threat.  1d5 turns after the robot is destroyed, it will begin marshalling its other combat robots to identify and eliminate the threat.

The warbot does not have access to the outpost’s camera and security system so it only knows where the PCs are when they encounter one of the combat robots.  It will start by sending the combat robot from the Mineral Storage area to the airlock to investigate the destruction of the combat robot there.

If the PCs are still at the airlock when the combat robot arrives, or it sees them in the corridor, it will engage them immediately.  Otherwise it has a 60% chance per turn to pick up their trail and pursue them.

If a robot encounters the PCs and is destroyed, the warbot will retask the closest robot to that position to resume the pursuit.  If the PCs are making short work of the robots, feel free to direct two or more robots to their location.

It should become quickly obvious to the PCs that the actions of the robots are coordinated and being controls from somewhere.  If they can jam the communications, then the robots will just go about their last assigned task.

If the communications are jammed, the warbot will come out of the access tunnel to deal with the threat directly.  If needed the warbot can summon up to eight additional combat robots from the ship embedded in the heart of the asteroid (provided communications haven’t been jammed).  This gives the referee some flexibility to provide the necessary challenge for the PCs.

Timeline

The PCs can’t afford to take their time once they enter the outpost.  The robots are looking for them and for the mining staff. The longer the PCs take to eliminate the threat, the more of the mining staff will be killed by the robots.  The referee should convey this sense of urgency through the actions of the robots and any NPCs encountered.

The following timeline assumes the PCs do nothing to intervene or are ineffective.  Adjust events appropriately based on the PCs’ actions. All times are given in minutes after the initial encounter at the airlock with the combat robot.

Time (min)Event
3Chofa found in Mineral Storage Bay and killed.
5Petoph Baker found in robot repair shop.
8Yuror found in housing unit and killed.
13Dr. Jamis Grandt will be discovered in the Hydroponics lab and killed.
18Donio Welley will be found in the freezer by the robot that killed Dr. Grandt.
22K’Yuuxan will be discovered in the gym by the robot originally traversing the stairwell.  A short fight will ensue before he is killed.
26The robots will have smashed their way through enough of the mineral processing machinery to capture and kill Hiloo.
35Donio Welley will exit the freezer due to the cold if not previously discovered and start looking for survivors or a new place to hide.
60Melni, G’Vorta, & Taxu finally cornered and killed in the mines.
74F’Vothee  will succumb to radiation induced damage if not found and treated.

Jamming the Robots’ Communications

One option the PCs have for dealing with the coordinated assault of the combat robots is to jam the communications between them and the warbot.  To do this, a successful skill check with a -40 modifier would allow them to jam the communications. However, this check would have to be performed either using the equipment on the Mirage or in the Sensors and Communications room.  PCs with the relevant skills would know where they would have to be to jam the communications. Setting this up takes 1d10 minutes.

If the PCs jam the communications, the warbot no longer has input from the combat robots as to the PCs’ location and can no longer task robots to intercept and pursue the PCs allowing them to move around more freely.

The combat robots themselves will pursue their last assigned task, i.e. searching whatever set of rooms they were in, and then go idle and assume a defensive posture.  They will attack anyone that approaches them them will not actively patrol or seek out engagements.

Even with communications jammed, the warbot will still be broadcasting attempting to contact its combat robots and the PCs can still follow this signal to the warbot if they have thought to do so.

Destroying the Warbot

The warbot is actively controlling the combat robots as an extension of itself during this encounter.  If it is destroyed or deactivated, all robots without a specific target (e.g. the combat robots pursuing s3 and m3 or engaging the PCs) will immediately stop all action.  They will defend themselves if attacked but will not initiate an attack or pursue anyone. Those robots who are already pursuing someone or engaged in a fight will continue their current task and then stop when it is completed.

This deactivation only occurs if communications between the robots are not jammed.  If the warbot is destroyed or deactivated while the communications are being jammed, the robots will not stand down until the communications jamming stops.

Aftermath

Once the PCs have secured the outpost and defeated the warbot, the surviving mine staff can fill them in on the events that occured before they arrived.  The PCs can also send a message back to Nova Vista appraising them of the situation and outcome. If they have not already decided to do so, NVC will direct them to explore the ship embedded in the asteroid (Section 5) and secure it for future study.

Here’s a PDF of the full adventure section including the room descriptions:

GhostShipOsiris-section4Download

The Clarion Calendar

One of the things about sci-fi games that span multiple worlds is that each world has its own length of year and length of day that impact the way the planet operates. And while I’ve been pretty good about initially describing it for the worlds my on-line game has been set in, I’ve not been very good about keeping track of it during actual play.

I got to thinking about this some more as I was working on the Frontier Timeline. I needed an entry for a blank day and decided to make it the birthday of a notable person in the Frontier (Crown Princess Leotia Valentine Leotius of Clarion). And that got me to thinking about the time keeping on that planet.

Another thing that came out of this is the realization that so far, I’ve only really looked at this on planets that have really slow rotation periods. My online game has so far taken place on Pale in the Truane’s Star system which has a rotation period of about 55 hours and on Laco in the Dixon’s Star System which has a rotation period of about 60 hours. Clarion’s is 50 hours, 5 minutes. Which is funny to me since the length of a “Galactic Standard” day is only 20 hours. Maybe some day I’ll work on a system with a period close to that.

So this post is going to talk both about Clarion’s calendar and also about how I went about calculating it. We’ll start with what we know from published materials and work our way to a final calendar.

Stellar Data

From both the Expanded Game rules and the Warriors of White Light module, the star is described as a yellow-orange star. Zebulon’s Guide gives it a spectral type of F7 but that is a yellow-white star not a yellow-orange one. Yellow-orange would give it a spectral type of late G or early K so from notes I have in other places, I’ve assigned White Light the spectral type of K1.

This means that the star is about 72% the mass of our sun. The exact value I assigned is .72155 solar masses (actually I took it to a few more decimal places) or 1.43516×1030 kg.

Orbital Data

Orbital Distance

In the Warriors of White module there is this image of the White Light system:

Based on the scale on the image I estimated that the orbital distance of Clarion was about 93 million kilometers (for reference the Earth is about 150 million km from the sun). This makes sense for a K1 star that is less luminous than the Sun as a habitable planet would have to be closer. The exact value I gave for the semi-major axis of the orbit was 93,027,587 km. That was generated by simply rolling six d10s for the digits after 93. Had the first digit not been low, I might have rolled a d4-1 but I actually rolled a zero so I was happy.

Orbital Period

Now that we have the mass of the star and the orbital distance we can calculate the orbital period of the planet. This can be done simply by applying Newton’s form of Kepler’s Third Law of planetary motion:

Where we have the following:

  • P = the planet’s orbital period
  • a = the semi-major axis
  • G = the gravitational constant
  • M1 = the mass of the star
  • M2 = the mass of the planet (which we’ll ignore here as it is about half a million times smaller than M1)

I’m working in hours since I’ve decided that everyone in the Frontier uses that same unit of measure and it’s equal (for the convenience of us Earthlings playing the game) to an hour here on Earth. So an hour on Clarion is the same as an hour on Pale is the same as an hour on Gran Quivera (Prenglar system) is the same as an hour on Earth.

Plugging everything in in the correct units (left as an exercise for the reader) we get that the orbital period of Clarion around White Light is 5059.77 hours. This means that the “year” on Clarion is just under 253 Galactic Standard days; significantly shorter than the 400 Galactic Standard days in a Galactic Standard year (which is only ~91.3% of an Earth year). Compared to Earth, the year on Clarion is only 211 days long, about 58% of our year.

But we’re not quite done yet as we need to calculate that in terms of the local day.

Rotational Period

This one is easy. The Warriors of White Light module says that the rotation period of the planet is 50 hours and 5 minutes, with is just a little more precise than the 50 hours given in the Expanded Rules and Zebulon’s Guide so we’ll go with that number. I’m just going to leave it as is and not add any extra seconds on to it.

So if we take that value, it turns out that Clarion rotates 101.027 times every year. Or said another way, the year is 101.027 local days long. The fact that it was almost an integer number of days was a happy coincidence. I did not try to make that happen. I was pleasantly surprised when it did.

The Calendar

Okay, now we have everything we need to get the calendar set up. Well, almost everything. There is one more bit we need to do.

Clarion was settled by humans. Who we assume are somewhat like us Earthlings in that they work better on a 20-25 hour day than a 50 hour one. When the humans landed on Clarion, the decided to simply divide the long 50 hour diurnal period into two 25 hour days. They deal with the extra 5 minutes by adding in an hour the “night” period every 12 days and most people get a little extra rest that night.

Each of these 25 hour day periods are divided into a “day” period and a “night” period even though it may or may not be light or dark as one would expect by the name. Like the locals on Laco, they refer to the periods throughout a single diurnal cycle as “day-day” and “day-night” when the star is up and “night-day” and “night-night” when the star is down.

With this set up, there are 202.054 days in the year. They break it down as follows. (From here on out, unless specified, the term day refers to one of these 25 hour periods).

  • 1 week = 8 days (4 diurnal periods)
  • 1 month = 20 local days (10 diurnal periods)
  • 1 year contains 10 months with two special holidays occurring mid-year (between months 5 & 6) and on the last day of the year.
    • The mid-year day is Observance Day, set aside to remember and commemorate all those who have sacrificed for the survival and safety of the planet.
    • The end year holiday is Landing Day, commemorating the day the original settlers landed on the planet. In many ways it is also a celebration of the ruling Leotus family and is often the day for coronations of new monarchs or other events related to the ruling family.
  • Every 37 years, that 0.027 of a local day catches up with the calendar and they have a leap year. On that year, they add an extra day to both Observance Day and Landing day making each a 2 day holiday. The next such occurrence of the Clarion leap year occurs during FY 69.

Reckoning Age

One impact of the calendar is that people have a lot of birthdays. Because of the very short local year, and the fact that the rate that the settlers grow and mature is similar to us here on Earth, people on Clarion mature much slower than their “age” would indicate. A 16 year old Clarionite is only 9.25 Earth years old. You probably shouldn’t give them the keys to the hovercar.

Because of this, the early settlers established the age of 35 (in local years) as the age of majority on the planet. This roughly corresponds to someone that is 22.13 Galactic Standard years old (or 20.2 Earth years old). There has been a bit of a push in recent years to lower this to 30 local years but the movement has not gained much traction.

Crown Princess Leotia

Which brings me back to what started all of this in the first place – Crown Princess Leotia’s birthday. The Warriors of White Light module contains this little tidbit:

The current king, Leotus XIX, has ruled for 37 years and soon will no doubt abdicate in favor of his daughter, Leotia XX.

If you’re following along with my #SFTimeline posts on Twitter, and reading this on the day the post publishes (Jan 15, 2019), I’m going to spoil a timeline entry for next week:

FY60.017 – Leotia Valentine Leotus, crown princess of Clarion (White Light), celebrates her 32nd birthday (18.5 earth years) #SFTimeline

I’m taking the “soon” in the quote from the module to be within the next decade or so (GST) and have decided that it will probably occur during the 2-day Landing Day celebration in FY 69. I also want Leotia to be young but she will have had to reach her majority by then. So I decided that she is about to celebrate her 32nd birthday.

The abdication might have occurred sooner but by the time Leotia reaches her majority (which will occur on FY61.375, the Second Sathar War will be in full swing and Leotus XIX doesn’t feel that she’s quite up to that task at her young age and so decides to wait until the big celebration in FY69.

Final thoughts

I had a lot of fun working this out. I’ll probably be doing it for more of the Frontier worlds in the future, again probably tied to trying to tie a series of local events into my timeline project. Although I may go do Pale and Laco first as part of my game background.

Have you ever done this for any of your worlds? Do you think it adds to the verisimilitude of the game or is it just too much of a hassle? Is there anything I didn’t explain to your liking? Share your thoughts and ideas below.


PGC Records Vault – finished

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Season’s Greetings. Here’s a post just in time for you to enjoy as you’re snuggled up to your fireplace on Christmas Eve.

In my first post about the records vault, I provided the maps and room descriptions, then I posted a few robots that also make an appearance although I didn’t specifically call them out as part of this project. In this post I provide the rest of the information about the records vault as well as a PDF with the complete write-up of the location.

In this post we’ll add in the details on the staff, the main computer, how to get “official” access to the vault, and how the vault and its staff respond to external or internal threats or problems. Let’s get started.

Gaining Access

In order to gain access to the data in the records vault, a person or organization needs to file a request with the PGC headquarters on Laco, located in Point Glass. The request includes the dates they desire to visit, the number of people to visit the vault, and the research topic. If the request is granted, the requestor is given an appointment date and an access code that will allow them through the outer gatehouse.

Once inside the main building the visitors’ ID are checked by the security guard at the front desk and then on of the archivists are called to escort them to the research room. Each visitor is given a unique passcode to access the computer terminals. This code is keyed to the level of access (typically just public although private/full access is available to PGC employees) which determines which data in the vault they have access to. It is also used to record the queries in the system so that PGC can track who is searching for what information and the type of queries being performed.

The main computer only contains an index of all the data stored at the vault and provides an interface so that the user can search for the type of data they are looking for. Once found, the actual data is then requested. Once the request is submitted, one of the two data retrieval robots (area 6) is activated, goes down to the vault, retrieves the requested data cubes and brings them up, and places them in the data portals in the computer room (area 8). It takes 7-10 minutes from the time the request is submitted until the data is available. Once the data cubes are in place, the computer informs the user that the data are available and the researcher can begin searching and looking through the actual data for the information they need.

If a researcher has any questions, problems, or difficulties, they can page one of the archivists who will come over from their office (area 4) and attempt to help the researcher.

Repeated queries about classified/locked information may trigger the user to be locked out of the system. This typically only applies to queries on PGC corporate details and operations or some restricted Tetrarch data when using a public access account.

Robots

There are three types of robots at the records vault facility that help keep the facility running:

  • sixteen S-037 Security Robots
  • four M-022 Maintenance Robots
  • two G-092 Data Retrieval Robots

The details on each of these types of robots were given in the previous post. I’m not going to repeat them here.

Staff

The records vault nominally has a “daytime” staff of 10 PGC employees: the vault administrator and administrative assistant, two security officers, a roboticist/technician, and five researchers/archivists. In addition to the base staff, there are often outside researchers working with the data stored in the vault. The facility can accommodate up to six visitors.

During the “night” shift, there are just two security guards at the facility.  You can just reuse the stats for Nameer and Erich or create similar characters if the PCs decide to try a night raid on the facility.

Note:  Skill are taken from the “A Skilled Frontier” skill system published in Star Frontiersman issue 9 as that system provides some actual skills for the archivists to have.

Zat’zra K’tar

Vault Administrator/Lead Archivist

Vrusk, Male

STR/STA: 50/50   DEX/RS: 55/55   INT/LOG: 40/40   PER/LDR: 55/55

Skills:  History 4, Environmental 3, Politics 2, Computer 1

Equipment: chronocom, notebook, pen

Zat’zra is probably not the best of administrators or researchers which is probably why he’s assigned to this relatively out of the way records facility.  But that suits him just fine.  His administrative duties are light and he can spend his days working on his research.  He rarely leaves his office (area 3).

Weldon Tindal

Administrative Assistant

Human, Male

STR/STA: 30/30   DEX/RS: 50/45   INT/LOG: 55/55   PER/LDR: 45/45

Skills:  Law 2, Pop Culture 2, Persuasion 1, Projectile 1, Air vehicles 2, Literature 1

Equipment: chronocom, needler pistol, 2 needler clips

Weldon is bored out of his skull with his assignment here.  He has very little work to do as the facility is small and Zat’zra rarely has any assignments for him.  He can often be found in the break room chatting with whoever is in there.

Nameer Olnar

Head Security Officer

Yazirian, male

STR/STA: 45/45   DEX/RS: 65/65   INT/LOG: 75/75   PER/LDR: 50/50

Skills:  Beam 5, Melee 4, Unarmed combat 1, Thrown 1

Equipment:  chronocom, laser pistol, sonic stunner, sonic sword, 4 tangler grenades, albedo screen, military skeinsuit, power beltpack, 4 powerclips

Nameer is a career security officer and takes his assignment very seriously.  He considers any boring day a good one since there were no threats to the facility under his care.  While he takes his responsibility seriously, he also tries to keep the security requirements as much out of the way of the staff working at the vault as possible.

Erich Melchor

Security Officer

Human, male

STR/STA: 70/70   DEX/RS: 55/55   INT/LOG: 30/30   PER/LDR: 55/50

Skills: Beam 4, Unarmed Combat 2, Medic 1, Projectile 1, Technician 1

Equipment:  chronocom, laser pistol, electrostunner, albedo screen, military skiensuit, power belt pack, 4 power clips

Erich couldn’t be happier with his current assignment to man the front desk at the records vault.  Nothing ever happens and his busiest times are first thing after arriving and right before leaving for the day when he has to check all the visiting researchers in and out of the facility.  The rest of the day he typically spends reading or watching holovids at the front desk.

Pluami Krennta

Roboticist/Technician

Yazirian, female

STR/STA: 40/40   DEX/RS: 45/45   INT/LOG: 60/60   PER/LDR: 35/35

Skills:  Robotics 4, Computer 3, Technician 2, Enviromental 1

Equipment:  chronocom, techkit, robotcom kit, pocket tool, toxy-rad guage

While she doesn’t consider the records vault to be a plum assignment, Pluami can’t complain about the level of work or availability of interesting projects.  There are just enough robots at the facility that she has some maintenance that needs to be done each day alongside keeping the complex’s power system running in top shape.  When she does have some free time, she likes to peruse the vault’s vast data sets looking for interesting robotics and tech data.  She has starting looking through all the Tetrarch data for anything that might be robotics related and can often be found talking with Gh’dzz looking for new bits of data.

Kodub

Archivist

Dralasite, female

STR/STA: 35/35   DEX/RS: 35/35   INT/LOG: 55/55   PER/LDR: 35/35

Skills:  Economics 4, Philosophy/Theology 3, Law 1, Computers 2

Equipment:  chronocom

Kodub asked to be assigned to the records vault as she felt it would give her the best access to all the data she was interested in researching.  Not particularly interested in the Tetrarchs themselves, she studies how the presence of the ruins has shaped the economic structures on Laco.  She works out of the office on the main level (area 4).

Abigail Zemke

Archivist

Human, female

STR/STA: 50/50   DEX/RS: 55/55   INT/LOG: 55/50   PER/LDR: 45/45

Skills:  Space Science 4, Law 2, Pop Culture 1, History 1, Melee 1

Equipment:  chronocom, pocket tool, sonic knife w/powerclip

Abigail is a Laco native and grew up around the Tetrarch ruins at Point Glass.  She was always fascinated by the space motifs found in the ruins and works at the records vault studying the astronomical and physical data found in the ruins in an attempt to nail down the time period that the planet was occupied by the Tetrarchs.  She will be assigned as the PCs liaison when they arrive at the facility and has on office on the main level (area 4).

Gliprell Anthor

Archivist

Yaziran, female

STR/STA: 35/35   DEX/RS: 45/45   INT/LOG: 55/55   PER/LDR: 40/40

Skills:  Environmental 4, Psycho-social 3, History 2, Literature 2

Equipment:  chronocom

Gliprell is at the records facility studying Laco’s flora and fauna and how it has interacted and reacted to the presence of the Frontier races on the planet as well as the populace’s reactions to and interactions with the native life.  Her office is down in the records vault (area 5) as she is constantly accessing new data cubes and is not quite patient enough for the retrieval delay working on the main level.

Gh’dzz Kl’tak

Archivist

Vrusk, male

STR/STA: 50/50   DEX/RS: 45/45   INT/LOG: 65/65   PER/LDR: 50/50

Skills:  Literature 4, Robotics 2, Law 2, Xeno language (Tetrarchs) 1

Equipment: chronocom

Gh’dzz works out of the main level office (area 4) and is slowly researching the Tetrarch language.  His specific interest is literature and poetry but without understanding the language, it is kind of hard to tell what the writings are about.  Despite his main focus on literature, he also has an interest in robotics, specifically in task automation and keeps his eyes open for instances of that in the Tetrarch artifact data.

Yk’rtz T’tk

Archivist

Vrusk, female

STR/STA: 40/40   DEX/RS: 45/45   INT/LOG: 65/65   PER/LDR:70/70

Skills:  Structural Art 4, Visual Art 3, Environmental 2, History 1

Equipment: chronocom

Yk’rtz plays right into the stereotype of a vrusk art fanatic, animatedly interested in all forms of physical and visual art.  She works out of an office on the records vault level (area 4) where she is constantly reviewing the various artifact found across the planet.  She also studies the impact of these artifacts on the art produced by the residents of Laco looking for Tetrarch influences in modern culture.

Main Computer

The vault’s computer is housed on the main level of the complex (area 8) and can only be accessed by the research room (area 7). The computer is level 4 (115 FP) and has the following programs:

  • Analysis – 4
  • Communication – 1
  • Computer Security – 3
  • Information Storage – 5
  • Installation Security – 4
  • Language – 4
  • Life Support – 1
  • Maintenance – 1
  • Robot Management – 4

The installation security program controls the gate house, the door locks, all the security cameras, and the sonic stunner turrets throughout the compound. It does not control the security robots. It can issue orders but cannot disable them.

Similarly, the robot management program controls the maintenance and data retrieval robots but cannot control or disable the security robots, they are designed to operate independently of the main computer.

The computer itself does not contain the archived data. Rather the information storage program contains a giant, detailed index of the data archived at the site. The data are stored on data cubes that can be plugged into ports and then accessed via the various computer terminals throughout the building.  One of the main roles of the archivists at the site is to keep this index updated as new data arrives each week.

All terminals in the building are connected to the main computer and grant access based on the passcodes supplied when logging into the program. Visitors only have access to the analysis, information storage, and language programs while the base staff have access to the programs needed to perform their functions.

The defeating security subskill can be used at any terminal, but the bypassing security subskill can only be employed on the main computer itself in area 8. Any failed attempt to use either of these skills immediately locks the terminal and notifies the security officers.

Threat Response

The exact response to any sort of threat will depend on the location and nature of the threat itself, some common possibilities are provided in this section. Any intruders captured will be detained, questioned, and transported to the PGC headquarters at Point Glass for further processing.

For the purpose of threat response, authorized personnel are the regular vault staff, whose visual, biometric, and id card information are stored in the main computer and robots, and visitors holding/wearing a special passcard only available from the PGC headquarters in Point Glass and used by visiting PGC personnel. Authorized visitors are those issued a visitor badge at the security desk (main level – area 1a) upon arrival. Anyone else is considered unauthorized.

Exterior threats

A common, low-level threat is a vehicle attempting to gain entrance through the gatehouse without a proper code. In this case, the main PGC compound in Point Glass is contacted to verify that there is not some mistake. If the visitor’s bonifides can be established, they are allowed to enter. Otherwise, they are simply turned away and asked to exit the gatehouse and leave the area.

If an air-vehicle (aircar, jetcopter, etc.) attempts to land in the compound, they are warned away unless proper clearance codes are provided before approaching within 1000 meters of the compound. At the 1000-meter range they are warned that deadly force will be used if they do not alter course. If the vehicle does not veer off, the robots in the guard towers will all open fire at 500 meters with the heavy lasers set to 20 SEU (maximum) damage in an attempt to down the intruding vehicle.

A similar response will occur for any land vehicles that attempt to approach the compound by any means other than the main access road.

If any group designated as hostile by the security officers or the vault’s installation security program are visible inside the compound or are attempting to escape, the robots will use their weapons to attack the intruders using their weapons in an attempt to get them to surrender. Beings will be attacked using a 5 SEU damage setting while vehicles will be attacked using a 20 SEU setting. Fleeing parties will be attacked both inside and outside the compound until out of range.

Main level threats

If an authorized visitor is found wandering the halls, one of the security officers or archivists will come find them and offer them assistance and remind them they are only allowed access to the restrooms, the break room, and the research room. A second offence will result is a stiffer warning, and a third offence will result in them being escorted from the complex.

If the security cameras detect unauthorized personnel in any of the offices, the robotics lab, or the computer room, the security officers will respond immediately and attempt to subdue the intruders. If necessary, they can call on the security robot from the hallway to the elevator (main level – area 11) and from the hallway (area 3) or robot storage area in the deep vault (area 12). Note that it will take at least 5 minutes for robots to come up from the deep vault due to the elevator travel times unless a data retrieval robot is currently down in the vault, in which case it will only take 3 minutes.

If any unauthorized personnel penetrate the security lock (main level – area 10), both the security robot and the stunner turrets will immediately engage the intruder with their stunners attempting to subdue them. If stunning is not effective, the robot will switch to its laser weapon set at 5 SEU to encourage surrender and will fight to kill if the target does not surrender.

Deep vault threats

Any access to any portion of the deep vault by unauthorized personnel will be meet by an immediate response from the robots and stunner turrets. Like the security hallway on the main level, stunning attacks will be employed initially but if they fail, the robots will switch to deadly force. If the three robots already in the halls are deemed insufficient for the task, the six extra robots in area 12 will be activated and sent to assist.

Final Thoughts

This took a lot longer than I thought it would. And ended up being a bit bigger than I expected as well. It started as two pages of maps in my notebook and five paragraphs (including the combat robot stat block) of description. In the end the PDF file (attached below) is 16 pages long.

I ran my group through the location using the five paragraphs of notes. If any of them are reading this, they have probably realized by now that I completely forgot about the security robots inside the complex. It would have made their life a bit harder. The staff details are really the only bit I added after the fact. I knew they were all their but didn’t have details on any of them when I ran the game. Everything else was in my head if not written down when they went through the vault.

I hope you enjoy the location and the details provided and can use it in your game one way or another. As always, feel free to leave comments, questions, or suggestions below. Here’s the PDF with the full write-up.

Pan Galactic Records VaultDownload

Alyssa Tinett

I had intended for Alyssa to play a larger role in the Death at Rosegard adventure when I ran it for my group.  But, like many of the things GMs put into their adventures, the party didn’t really take an interest in her.  I used her for the first role she was supposed to play and then I forgot about using her later on.  So it is at least partially on me. 

Alyssa is the daughter of Larroy & Camryn Tinett, the village’s vet and computer specialist respectively.  Her maternal grandparents also live in the village, Steven & Janie Hite.  She is very intelligent, inquisitive, and adventurous.  She is also an only child.

Alyssa Tinett

Picture of Alyssa in shorts, shirt, and shoes. Her hair is in a ponytail and she has a sword at her side.
Sketch by Danae Stephens

Physically, Alyssa is about 137 cm (4’6″) tall and weighs about 32 kg (70 lbs). She has long brown hair that reaches her mid-back which she typically wears in a pony tail. She has green eyes, and a light tan complexion.

She has her mother’s interest in computers and has picked up quite a bit of experience helping around her mom’s shop. 

Alyssa is curious and friendly and a xenophile, very interested in the non-human races of the Frontier.  As such, she likes to visit the Streel mine compound and talk to the staff there.  She has befriended the resident geologist, a yazirian named Talnor Malon, who has been teaching her how to sword fight, probably against her parents wishes. 

Note: If any of my players are reading this, they may notice that I describe Talnor here as a geologist.  In the game when I ran it I made him the roboticist but that was a mistake I made when introducing him and just went with it (as it really doesn’t affect the game much at all).  He was supposed to be the geologist and I just read my notes wrong.

Stats

STR/STA: 25/25
DEX/RS: 45/45
INT/LOG: 60/65
PER/LDR: 60/60
Skills: Computer – 1, Melee (sword only) – 1

In The Adventure

Introduction

When the PCs arrive in town, there will be a party going on at the city center and the PCs will be flagged down by one of the mine staff and escorted inside to join the celebrations.

The event is a birthday party for Alyssa who is turning 12. When the PCs enter, she will be seen across the hall in a pale blue summer dress. Despite her feminine attire she will be engaged in a mock sword fight with a boy that looks to be a year or two older and a few inches taller than her. She is also winning.  Any yazirian PC will notice that she is wielding her sword as a yazirian would wield a kha’dan (yazirian honor blade).

When Alyssa notices the PCs, she will let out a loud squeal of excitement, abandon the sword fight, and race over to talk with the PCs, especially the non-human ones. She will be full of questions and youthful curiosity but her questions will be very intelligent.

Regular interactions

As the PCs investigate and interact with the town, Alyssa will tail around with them if they let her.  She will mostly stay out of the way but will try to strike up conversations when they are not busy and will provide information if asked.  She received a short sword from Talnor as a birthday present and will be conspicuously wearing it whenever she is out and about.

Up until now she has typically gone by the nickname “Ali” and most of the townspeople will call or refer to her by that name.  However, now that she’s 12, she wants to go by her full name and will always introduce herself as Alyssa and correct anyone that calls her Ali.  The exception to that are her grandparents, they still get to call her Ali.

Leaving Town

When the PCs leave the village, she will attempt to hide in the back of their explorer. Unless the characters are explicitly looking or being careful to prevent it, she will not be discovered until they are many hours away from town.  For each hour of travel, there is a 5% cumulative chance that she will be discovered (i.e. 5% after one hour, 10% after 2 hours, and so on).

Because she ranges round the town and mine so much, she won’t be missed until near the end of the day that the PCs leave.  At which point, if they haven’t discovered her and let the village know that she is with them, they will get a call on their radiophone asking if they have seen her.  At which point she will accidentally give herself away in the back of the vehicle.

Alyssa has dressed and packed for an adventure.  She is wearing jeans, shirt and boot, and has a backpack containing a jacket, 2 liters of water, 4 days of travel rations, an all-weather blanket, a compass, a pocket tool, and a change of clothes.  She also has a chronocom and the short sword she received from Talnor on her birthday.

She wants to have an adventure and will do anything she can to convince the PCs to let her stay with them.  The referee should play up her excitement, desire to explore and learn, and willingness to help the PCs anyway she can to try to convince them to keep her with them as long as possible.

Further Interactions

What the PCs do with her is up to them.  Depending on when they discover her and where they are at, they can return to the village delaying what they were working on or can decide to keep her with them. 

Returning her home will result in a severe scolding for her from her parents and profuse thanks to the PCs for keeping her safe.  The longer they keep her with them, the less profuse the thanks will be, however, as her family will be worried about her.

On the other hand, if the PCs keep Allysa with them, she will be obedient and helpful, although very curious and inquisitive about what they are doing.  She realizes she is there only at their whim and wants to stay on the PCs’ good side.  It’s up to the referee to decide on the final responses and repercussions from the village and Streel for whatever course the PCs choose.

Trey Mulden, Bounty Hunter and Breeder

This article was supposed to come out last week but work intervened and I was severely lacking in free time to get it finished and published.  Sorry about the delay.

Trey was born on Lossend in the Timeon system.  He came to Pale as part of the liberation force in the Great Sathar War.  He participated in a few skirmishes with remnants of the sathar force on the planet but primarily was involved in efforts to eradicate the sathar bio-monsters.  Like all members of the liberating forces, he was offered full citizenship if he stayed after the war.  Trey decided to accept the offer and remained on Pale.

In the post-war years, he worked a variety of jobs to assist in rebuilding Point True but quickly became disenchanted with the work in the city.  Deciding to put his wartime training to use, he joined a bounty hunting group that continued to search out and eradicate the sathar bio-monsters.  While most of those he started with either gave up the hunt or became prey to the very creatures they were hunting, Trey excelled at the work and enjoyed it.

Trey has been hunting the sathar monsters for decades now and has been quite successful making a comfortable living from the bounties collected.  However, in the last ten to fifteen years, the number of monsters has begun to dwindle, either because of successful hunting or some other process.  Either way, Trey was beginning to seen his income drop to levels that he felt was unacceptable.

Rather than embark on a new line of work, he decided on another path.  He had often joked with his companions that it would be easier to catch a few breeding pairs and raise their kids for the bounties instead of trying to hunt them in the wild.  As his income began to drop, he decided to try just that.

Setting up a remote outpost in the mountains NW of Point True, Trey captured a number of the sathar creatures and instead of killing them for the bounty, began breeding them and raising them.  Thus he could kill one of the captive creatures and collect the bounty whenever he needed additional income.  He also began offering a live capture service to those who wanted live specimens to study.  Since owning and breeding the sathar creatures was illegal, he has kept his operation in the shadows.

For decades he had been in contempt of the creatures as aberrations and was more than happy to hunt and kill them.  That attitude persisted for the first few years of his captive breeding program.  It was just a source of income.  He even continued to hunt wild creatures in addition to collecting the bounties on his bred creatures.  However, about six to seven years ago, his attitude toward the creatures changed.  He no longer saw them as aberrations or with contempt but rather as amazing creatures with positive qualities.  While he still bred the creatures and killed some for their bounties, he no longer hunted wild creatures and began to increase the number he raised, releasing those he didn’t kill for bounties into the wild.

Always fairly reclusive, he has become even more so since he started his breeding program and especially so since he started releasing the sathar creatures into the wild.  He has had little direct, personal contact with anyone in several years beyond delivering proof when needed of his kills to collect the bounty income that supports him.

Trey Munden

Human, male, age 63

STR/STA: 55/45
DEX/RS: 55/55
INT/LOG: 45/50
PER/LDR: 30/30
PS: +3, IM: +6, Ranged: Beam 70%, Projectile 50%, Melee: 53%

PSA: Military
Skills: Projectile weapons 5, Melee weapons 2, Beam weapons 2, Technician 2, Environmental 3, Medic 2

Equipment: Military Skeinsuit, Auto pistol w/ 4 clips, autorifle w/ 4 clips, sonic sword w/ 2 clips, chronocom, toxy-rad guage, sungoggles.

 

GM Notes

Trey Munden’s change of attitude toward the sathar creatures is not an artifact of his close association with them through his breeding program.  Rather it is due to an encounter he had with an actual sathar during one of his hunting expeditions.  The sathar caught him unaware and successfully hypnotized him.  Upon learning of his already existent breeding program, the sathar shifted his mindset about the creatures and set him on a path of breeding more and releasing them into the wild.  Trey has no recollection of this encounter and firmly believes that the ideas and actions he has taken over the past few years are completely his own.

He is directly responsible for the creation of the lesser quickdeath.  It was partially intentional, and partially a side effect of the selection of quickdeath to kill and turn in for bounties.  Each year he would select the largest of the quickdeaths to kill as the size of the quickdeaths for which he collected the bounties figured somewhat into his reputation.  Because of this, he was often breeding smaller and smaller specimens.  After his encounter with the sathar, this became even more deliberate and focused.  The larger pack behavior of the lesser quickdeath is due to the fact that they were raised together and naturally formed those bonds.

Encountering Munden

As part of the Death at Rosegard adventure, the PCs will not directly encounter Trey.  However, they will have an opportunity to search his breeding compound, recently deserted, and learn about his activities.  If the Referee wants to add additional encounters or the PCs want to chase him down, he provides an additional side adventure that they can engage in.

 

Carlos Kildare (Quickdeath Bounty Hunter)

Life has been a bit crazy recently and I haven’t posted anything for a couple of weeks but progress is being made.  I should be getting several post up over the next couple of weeks.  We start this month off with an NPC that you might encounter while traveling in the outback on Pale, Carlos Kildare.  The Death at Rosegard adventure features an opportunity for the PC’s to meet and possibly work with Carlos.  That interaction will be detailed in a different post but for now, here is his description and stats.

Carlos Kildare

Quickdeath hunter

Carlos was born on Minotaur but emigrated to Pale when the planet was first colonized. He is a first-wave colonist but has become a bit of curmudgeon as he has aged. Carlos is the classic “been there, done that and got the scars to prove it” sort of character that you might meet around the Frontier.

He grew up in Point True and was present when the sathar landed at the outset of the First Sathar War. He joined the Aletheia Resistance Band and fought the alien invaders for the duration of the war. With the defeat of the sathar fleets in space and material support from the Pan Galactic Corporation, the government of Pale inducted all the resistance fighters into ad hoc army formations. Carlos attained the rank of sergeant in one of these rag tag militia formations but left the military after the sathar infantry were wiped out on Pale.

Since that time he’s done well collecting bounties on sathar attack monsters that were let loose during the war. He uses a modified Snow Panther track vehicle (stats below) to get around. For a time right after the war, there was a glut of bounty hunters seeking quick cash but the pickings have become slim and only a few hardcore hunters remain in the business. Carlos had his crew quit after a recent run of bad luck and is seeking extra hands for his team.

He has also recently been diagnosed with a nearly inoperable cancer. He could allow the doctors to attempt to treat it but the “cure” will leave him weak and change little or nothing. He would rather spend his time going after bounties and may have a bit of a death wish.

Stats

Human, Male

Age: 140
STR/STA: 45/55
DEX/RS: 60/60
INT/LOG: 35/40
PER/LDR: 35/50
PS: +3, IM: +6, Ranged: Beam 70%, Projectile 50%, Melee: 53%
PSA: Military
Skills: Beam weapons 4, Melee weapons 3, Projectile weapons 2, Technician 2
Equipment: Military Skeinsuit, Sonic Disruptor & power belt, Machete, chronocom, ID, sun goggles, and military issue parka and snow pants.
Equipment stowed in the Snow Panther:  2 holo projectors and a type 3 parabattery, a kerosene powered type 1 generator, five 5 gallon jerry cans (for kerosene), 3 electro stunners, two pikes (pole arms), 4 solvaway, 5 tangler grenades, 5 frag grenades, 1 auto rifle, a dozen 20 SEU clips and 6 auto rifle clips, survival food & water, a single wire electric fence (100 m long with 20 SEU clip- acts as a stun stick if anything touches the wire), a depleted med kit (enough Biocort and supplies to perform first aid twice as well as 4 doses of anti-tox), and a half depleted tech kit (50% chance the kit is missing the part you need for the current skill check).

The Snow Panther

Vehicle:               Snow Panther
Cost (Cr):             17,500
Top Speed:         75 kph (125m/turn)
Cruise Speed:    60 kph (100m/turn)
Acceleration:     40m/turn
Deceleration:    30m/turn
Turn speed:       70 m/turn
Passengers:        6
Cargo Limits:      3000 kg, 8 cubic meters

The Snow Panther is a tracked working vehicle designed for the bitter cold of the planet Pale’s environment. Most that are used in the outback are optimized to be lived in with fold down cots, a small camp stove and a space heater. With a full complement of passengers, it can be a bit crowded but is still workable.

Kildare’s Snow Panther has been modified with a roof hatch and the roof has a low railing running around the roof. There is also a winch and swing arm for lifting heavy objects to the roof as well as a power port that connects to the parabattery. On the sides and back of the vehicle is a folding catwalk with railing that is just wide enough for one person to walk on. While the cat walk is deployed it is possible to walk on it entirely around the vehicle (but off the ground) except in front.

Note: The generator will operate for four hours on five gallons of fuel. It has a full tank and the jerry cans are full so the generator can be run for a total of 24 hours producing 500 SEU/hour. The snow panther uses 1 SEU/kilometer to travel. The life support systems and cook stove use 2 SEU/day.

Wrap-up – June RPG Blog Carnival – Favorite NPCs

This post originally appeared on the now-defunct Arcane Game Lore blog.

I’m a bit late getting to this wrap-up article as I’ve been busy getting Issue 5 of the Frontier Explorer magazine ready to go.  It should be out next week.  But enough of that, back to the issue at hand.

This month’s Blog Carnival topic was favorite NPC’s whether you encountered them as a player or played them as a game master.  We had a dozen entries, including mine from the original post plus my final one that I forgot to link to in the comments.  Here are the links to all the submissions:

There were many reasons why the NPC’s listed were favorites.  However, the two main reasons that stood out seemed to be comic relief and player consternation, whether the NPCs were ones the writers interacted with as players or ran as GMs.  The NPC’s that stood out seemed to either inject humor into the campaign or cause an endless stream of problems for the characters.  Or both.

So read over the various NPCs and get all the details.  Maybe it will provide you with ideas for NPCs of your own in games you are running or may run in the future.  And be sure to check out the July RPG Blog Carnival  on Summer Gaming over at the Dice Monkey Blog.

Favorite NPCs: The Aide

This post originally appeared on the now-defunct Arcane Game Lore blog.

Now that my co-bloggers here at Arcane Game Lore have chimed in as well, I figured I’d better put up my entry for the month’s RPG Blog Carnival and post one of my all time favorite NPCs.  I had intended to do this post a week or so ago near the middle of the month but life got a little crazy and I kept putting it off.  This is a bit of a long post.  I like to tell stories and it’s these stories that make my NPC memorable for the role the NPC played in them.

As I’ve thought about the topic and considered NPC’s from games I’ve played in and ones I’ve run, there is one particular NPC that always comes to mind.  I had considered an NPC from some Star Frontiers games I’ve run, but since that was really one of my old player characters turned NPC, I didn’t feel that really qualified in the spirit of the blog carnival topic I proposed.  And so my entry comes from the same world (and I believe the same campaign, it was 20+ years ago after all) as the highwayman I presented in the Blog Carnival announcement post.

The Military Aide

This NPC was my character’s aide de camp. She was the niece of Dalin Dafka, the Minster of Defense, who assigned her as my aide.  I’m sure Dafka’s rationale was that it was partly subtle harassment of my character (he was a “friendly antagonist” to our party after all) and partly a way to spy on our group.  You see this young lady was over-eager, over-zealous, and always did the “right” thing (in her eyes) and followed the rules and reminded you of what they were all the time.

As with the Highwayman, I have no recollection of this NPC’s name.  I have my old character sheet and looking over it I have all kinds of bits of trivia noted in the margin but the name of my aide doesn’t seem to be there.  The only name that I can find written down that I don’t recognize is Asimath.  That could be her name but I don’t think so, it doesn’t sound right.  And so I’ll just refer to her as we did in the game, as my aide.

You might be wondering why the Minster of Defense would be assigning my character an aide.  It’s a long story but the short version was that by this point in the campaign our group were adventuring as the Queen’s Guards.  One of the girls in the group had managed to get her character married to the young king, as his second wife.  She didn’t give up adventuring and so the rest of us all became, eventually, part of the royal guards.  My character was one of the main holdouts (being lesser nobility from a distant, rival country) until he was given the choice between joining the Queen’s Guards or a heavy crossbow bolt through the back of the head. :-)   It was shortly after I finally “joined up” that I was assigned my aide.

My aide’s personality was such that she tended to rub her commanders the wrong way and drive them batty.  I know she did so to me a number of times.  It probably also didn’t help that her uncle was the Minister of Defense.  Digging a little into her back story we learned that she had bounced around from assignment to assignment, in each case with the officer she was assigned to requesting her transfer because they couldn’t stand her.  And she was a little obnoxious.  At least at first.

You see, I did something that none of her other commanders had done.  I was nice to her.  I’m sure that the other officers she had been assigned to looked at her connection to the Minister of Defense and saw her as a spy and there to evaluate them.  So they saw her as somewhat of a threat and treated her as such.  I knew she was a spy for her uncle, not necessary under orders, but just as a matter of course in reports she would file.  But unlike the other officers in the military, I couldn’t care less what her uncle thought.  So I didn’t see her as a threat and didn’t treat her as one.  I saw her more as a resource to help the group out and provide information.  I didn’t go out of my way to be nice to her.  I just simply treated her decently as befitting her position.  But that was apparently considerably better than any previous treatment she had had.  And because of that, she became intensely loyal to my character.

So why was this NPC so memorable.  It was because of some of the completely crazy things that happened as she went about in her “doing the right thing” mindset.  Two stories:

Near-complete Destruction of a Neighboring Country’s Air Force

Okay, so it wasn’t the country’s entire air force but it was the main force in the western region of the country.  In this campaign/setting there existed “flyers”.  These were magically enhanced boats that could float up to tens of meters above the ground.  They were primarily used as floating archery/artillery platforms in support of ground troops and for reconnaissance. Flyers were typically crewed by women as they tended to be smaller and lighter and it took more magic to sustain flight with heavier loads.

Flyers  came in a variety of sizes from little 2-man (or more accurately 2-woman)  scouting ships to the more typical 20- to 50- man sizes and there were even a few 100-man versions.  They sported arbalests or ballista in the prow and stern and also along the sides in the larger models and then the sides of the ships consisted of wicker breastworks with arrow slits to provide protection to the archers as they fired on troops below.

Our group had a 50-man flyer to transport the 20 or so characters in the group (we had a lot of gear and the PCs were physically larger than the average flyer crewwoman so we needed a bigger boat).  We had found the flyer in an old abandoned ruin that we had been exploring and were bringing it back to our home base.  Unfortunately, we had to cross a neighboring (friendly) country on the way home.

A storm came up and, since these boats are fairly fragile and don’t handle well in high winds (think about sitting in a hot air balloon in a major windstorm), we had to set down.  Being we were in a friendly country, we put in at the main town just twenty miles east of the border into our home country to wait out the storm.  Unfortunately, our flyer stirred up some interest and inspection by the town’s military wizards (all part of a routine inspection of course ;-) ) showed that this flyer had some magical enhancements that made it more efficient.  And so they wanted to impound it for further study.

We weren’t having any of that, and so made our plans to escape and make a run for it.  We only had to cover 20 miles and had plenty of magic points to fuel the ship and figured we could make it.  There might be a bit of fighting at first but, with the magic we had to spare and the wizards with fire spells we had as part of the crew, we figured we could pull away and get clear.  We also had the foresight to call ahead home via communication spell and let them know we were coming and so the eastern flyer forces of our home country would be waiting for us by the border (This was one of the few times it was to our advantage to be the Queen’s Guards).

During all our preparations to make good our escape, my aide vanished.  I had no clue where she went.  I was going to give her an assignment and was informed by the GM that she was gone.  There was nothing I could do but we weren’t going to wait for her.  We were just boarding our flyer in the predawn darkness, having knocked the guards out with sleep spells, when she showed back up.  She was a little disheveled (unusual for her) and a little out of breath.  We didn’t have time to question her as we were getting underway.

As we lifted off and started out of town, the alarm went up and we all braced for the pursuit that we knew was coming.  However, after a few minutes, no flyers had risen to pursue.  A little puzzled, those of us watching behind the ship noticed a reddish-orange glow on the horizon in the direction of the city.  It was neither the right color nor direction to be the early light from the sunrise.  One of the PC’s wondered out loud what the light could be when my aide answered.

“There was a fire back in the town,” she said.  Of course that got everyone’s attention.  So I asked her, “What sort of fire?” To which she responded, with a completely straight face, “Apparently someone accidentally spilled lamp oil all over the flyers at the fortress.  And then while trying to clean it up, they accidentally dropped a lamp and it all caught on fire.”

We all just stared at her for a moment and then the players all burst into laughter.  Needless to say we made it back home without any further incident.

My Elevation to Crown Prince

This one caught me completely off guard  when it happened and came completely out of the blue.  Some time after the incident with the flyers, we had traveled down to a city in the western wildernesses of the country my character was originally from in an attempt to rescue the crown princess (Jennifer) of an ally country.  She had been kidnapped and was supposed to be handed off from the kidnappers to those who had wanted the kidnapping at the slave market in that city.  And of course along the way, one of the girls in our group managed to get her character kidnapped by slavers and so we had to rescue her as well.

We failed to rescue Princess Jennifer at the slave market, although we weren’t too concerned about it as the person who “bought” her was someone we recognized as a very wealthy, very eccentric man from her home country that was completely loyal to the crown.  So in effect she was rescued, just not by us.  Also there to try to rescue her, traveling “incognito”, was her fiance, the crown prince from a neighboring country, and that county’s royal wizard.  Later that night, the prince, not knowing who the man was that had “bought” Jennifer, rescued her from his clutches and the pair, along with the royal wizard, escaped into the nearby jungle.  We eventually had to rescue the three of them from jungle but that’s another story.

In the process of trying to get our captured PC back, we were out-bid in the market and failed to get her as well.  She was actually sold just before the princess.  The problem was that the market was cash only and we didn’t have enough ready cash.  We had other valuables (in the form of two dozen 20 carat rubies) but they weren’t accepted as payment at the auction.  After the auction was over, we approached man who had purchased our PC and tried to buy her from him but he wouldn’t sell.

This is where my aide started to step in and take matters into her own hands.  About this time, as we were considering our next move to try to rescue the missing PC,  there was a ruckus in the hotel raised by the disappearance of Princess Jennifer and her “rescue” by the prince.  We went to investigate, not knowing at the time that it was the prince that had stolen her (we had recognized him at the market).  Once a little investigating had discovered the identity of the “thieves”, we were once again satisfied with the safety of the princess and returned to our rooms.

Upon our return, we found our missing PC and my aide waiting for us.  Apparently, she had used the diversion caused by the uproar to liberate our missing party member.  Of course since I had just been taking to him, when her “owner” discovered she was missing, our rooms were the first place he came looking for her.  There was no denying that we had her and after some persuasion and haggling, he agreed to accept compensation for the price he payed for her and then some in the form of a dozen of the rubies, and let us keep the character.  He only agreed, however, on the condition that we also take the other slave he had purchased since he didn’t want to have to deal with the added expenses of transport for just a single slave and had already made a profit on the trip from us.

We agreed, figuring we could at least free this other young girl as well.  We had seen her at the slave auction as she was a few lots ahead of our PC in the sale.  She was interesting in that she had waist-length silver hair but we had no idea who she was.  I think I had even bid on her in keeping up my disguise as a slave trader while waiting for our PC and the princess to show up.

After concluding our business with him, the man had the girl sent up to my rooms.  When she arrived, she seemed completely terrified.  She seemed to be about 18 or 19 years old and we couldn’t get her to say anything.  I tried everything, using all my character’s charm and communication skills to try to get her to open up, reassuring her that we weren’t going to hurt her and just wanted to help her get home to her family, wherever they might be.  Nothing seemed to work.  Finally my aide suggested that I let her talk to the young woman, “girl to girl” for a few minutes and that maybe she could get some information out of her.  I was  a little reluctant to let my aide take the lead knowing her past performance but nothing else was working so I finally gave in.

I should have known better.  A few minutes later my aid came out and said that Temera would talk to me.  A bit surprised I went back in to see an even greater look of terror on the young girl’s face than had been there before.  It turns out that my aide had decided to play the bad cop to my good cop to try to get the girl to talk.  I don’t know what she said, but apparently it worked since she learned the girl’s name and Temera had asked for me to come back.  But she wouldn’t talk while my aide was still in the room.  So I sent my aide out and tried once again to talk to the young woman.

However, she still wouldn’t talk at first and finally asked me to take my sword out and lay it on the ground between us.  Thinking this was  a little weird, but willing to humor her in the attempt to get her to open up and tell us where she was from so we could take her home, I did as she requested.  She then proceeded to preform some sort of ritual involving the sword.

It didn’t have anything to do with magic (I was a wizard and could tell.  And yes, in this setting wizards could carry and use swords) but I had no clue what it was (none of my lore skills helped).  It ended with her kneeling on her side of the sword, kissing the blade, standing, and stepping across the sword on the ground.  She then turned, picked up the sword and presented it back to me.  As I took the sword from her hands, she simply said, “Now we are wed.”

Alarm bells started going off everywhere in my head.  All I said was “What?!?”.  All I knew was that the GM was going to make my character’s life miserable.  It wasn’t that my character was now married.  It was more that he was married again.  You see, my character was already married.   My character’s (now) first wife was also a wizard and was trained as a flyer pilot and had been the one operating the flyer in the earlier adventure.  And it wasn’t that polygamy was illegal.  In fact, it was kind of expected for the upper social classes of which he was a member.  It was just that the first marriage was voluntary and this was completely out of the blue.  Plus I played my character’s first wife as a PC and this one I knew would be a pure NPC.

It all worked out in the end, however.  We learned that Temera was also a princess.  So we did rescue the princess, just not the one we had originally intended.  In fact, it turned out that she was the crown princess of the largest human kingdom on the planet.  And that ritual?  It was an official marriage ceremony from her country and completely valid.  So I was now the crown prince.  Needless to say our lives got quite interesting after that.  All thanks to my aide who had decided that the “best thing to do” was play bad cop to my good cop to try to get the girl to talk.

Final Thoughts

So my aide is probably my favorite NPC of all time.  She provided us with comic relief at times, she helped get us out of trouble, and she provided a way for the GM to introduce new plots and hooks into the game (usually by getting us into more trouble than she got us out of).  It’s a credit to my old GM that I still remember her after all these years.  He played her so well that we still loved her even with all the trouble she caused.