Next Lily Over
This adventure requires a party of four to seven player characters without their own ship.
Player's Information
The Situation
The party is on one of the worlds within jump 2 of Khtearle (Collin's World, Brandon, Banff, Marion, Gralyn, Venice or Aikhiy) looking for a patron. They are approached by a man calling himself Brice Jockson. Brice is a 6 foot tall, rough looking man. Well built he has black hair and what looks like a permanent five o'clock shadow. Brice is looking to hire some capable people to act as guards and stewards aboard his 200 dTon safari starship.
Brice tells the party that they are looking to jump from their current world to Khtearle to go hunting Lightning Reds, the huge fighting sea creatures native to that world. By "they" he means the other members of his crew, whom he will introduce if the party takes on the job. Khtearle is currently a balkanised world so he plans to locate the hunt in one of the neutral seas. However the political situation is a little unstable at the present time, which is why Brice is looking to hire guards for the hunt.
Brice intends to spend two weeks on Khtearle during the hunt, so will offer the party 5,000Cr each for the four week job, all expenses included. The party will have to provide their own weapons. Brice tells the party that the general law levels on Khtearle prohibit all weapons except short blades, however since they will be away from the main population areas he quietly suggests they pack something with a bit more punch.
Once the party accept the job Brice will direct them to a docking bay of the local downport where his ship, the Hunter's Prize, is docked. Once there he will show them around the ship and introduce the rest of the crew. At the end of the job the Hunter's Prize will return the players to the world they were picked up from.
The Hunter's Prize
The Hunter's Prize is a standard, if battered, Type K Safari Ship. She has the typical 200 ton wing shaped hull, jump drive B, manoeuvre A, and power plant B, giving a performance of jump 2 and 1G acceleration. Next to the bridge is a model 1/bis computer. There are eleven staterooms, but no low berths. The ship has two hardpoints with dual turrets and fire control on each. One turret has dual missile launchers and the other has dual sandcasters. The Hunter's Prize also carries an air/raft and a 20 ton launch. Cargo capacity is 5 tons, as well as the two 7 ton capture tanks. The ship is streamlined and has fuel scoops for wilderness refuelling.
The Hunter's Prize is routinely maintained, however its hard life means its engineer is constantly fine tuning the engines and fixing minor breaks. A roll of 10+ on 2D6 (no modifiers allowed) means a minor system has broken. This can even occur during jump. The Hunter's Prize was constructed 52 years earlier at the Garrison (Reavers' Deep 2221) shipyards.
The Hunter's Prize Crew
The Hunter's Prize requires 6 crew to operate her, a pilot, a navigator, an engineer, a medic and two gunners. The following is a list of the minimum NPCs required for this adventure;
Brice Jockson – Captain and pilot.
947DEC Age 50 8 terms Cr350,000
Pilot-3, Computer-2, Admin-1, Blade-1, SMG-1, Vacc Suit-1, Ship's Boat-1
Dane Stakval – Navigator
976675 Age 46 7 terms Cr85,000
Navigator-2, Jack-o-T-2, Vacc Suit-2, Carbine-1, Electronic-1, Pistol-1
Darpa Lane – Engineer
8A6878 Age 30 3 terms Cr50,000
Engineering-3, Mechanical-2, Electronic-1, Gambling-1, Dagger-1, Rifle-1
Thomas Griffith – Chief Gunner
498857 Age 38 5 terms Cr90,000
Gunnery-3, Air/raft-1, Vacc Suit-1, Pistol-1, Carbine-1, Streetwise-1, Bribe-1
Millis Fromburth – Native Khtearle Guide
87465A Age 32 0 terms Cr2,000
Blade-1, Club-1, Brawling-1, Pistol-1, Streetwise-1
At a minimum a medic, gunner and two guards are required to fill out the crew. Up to another two guards and/or thugs can be added as either players or NPCs. Each crew member can be allocated a stateroom. Brice, Dane and Thomas are old Navy friends and form the core of the group. Darpa has been with the Hunter's Prize for just two months and replaced the previous engineer who was killed in a bar fight on Drellesarr (Reavers' Deep 2029). Millis will join the Hunter's Pride at the downport of Khtearle once the ship arrives on-world. Brice and the other crew members appear to know Millis well and the Captain indicates that they have used Millis as a guide on previous hunts.
The Sea of Senerriferis
Millis guides the Hunter's Pride to a point 30 kilometres off the coast of the Glarlops' mainland and 10 kilometres off the southern-most island of the Uawairlew clan territory. The point is just outside the territorial boundaries and although Millis says it is risky so near the aggressive Uawairlew clan he had heard reports of good sized Lightning Reds in the area. This part of Khtearle has relatively shallow seas, averaging 50 to 300 meters deep, which makes the area ideal for growths of the giant Nelumbunu water lilies. At 50 meters across, the top of the floating pads are sturdy enough for a small adult to walk across.
Large swaths of kelp are also found in the area, supplying abundant food sources for small marine animals, which in turn feeds the larger creatures like the Lightning Reds. The water is warm year round, and has a visibility of up to 50 meters. The Hunter's Pride will spend the two weeks drifting on the sea, while Brice, Dane and Millis take the air/raft underwater on the daily hunts. They will be gone for several hours at a time and sometimes even at night. They will occasionally they will be seen unloading crates into one of the holding tanks.
At least once a day the crew will observe a prop driven aircraft fly over their location. They will also see coastal craft in the distance moving along the coast and one particular black craft will be observed along the Uawairlew clan coast several times. After seven days the players will be required to take the cutter back to the downport for fresh supplies.
Referee's Information
This adventure is not a big game hunt but is in actual fact a treasure hunt. During his time in the Imperial Navy Brice came across an old report in the Naval archives about the Imperial White Fleet that was dispatched to the Deep to suppress the violent natives of Drexilthar (Reavers' Deep 1826). One of the starships of that fleet was the 10,000 dTon heavy escort Kjentkal's Revenge.
The records indicated that Kjentkal's Revenge mis-jumped from Stonehaven and was never seen again. The records also indicated that the starship was carrying part of the fleet's payroll at the time it disappeared, over 100 million credits in hard currency. Once out of the Navy Brice set about locating the lost escort and its hidden prize.
His endeavours were helped when he inherited the Hunter's Prize from an eccentric uncle. Searching Imperial and other records eventually lead Brice to a report of a possible starship crash listed by scouts during a routine survey of the Drinsaar subsector. After conducting an orbital survey of the world Brice located a possible sensor hit near to where the Hunter's Prize now sits.
Brice and his cohorts then use the air/raft to survey the wreck, looking for ways inside and attempting to locate the lost payroll. Brice will be able to locate the treasure inside the Kjentkal's Revenge after four days of surveying the wreck. He will then be able to retrieve crates containing 10 million Imperial credits per day, for a total of 100MCr after the two weeks. In the meantime the hired party look after and guard the Hunter's Prize from the locals who will inevitably come calling...
Local Encounters
Apart from encounters with the local wildlife like the Lightning Reds, the Hunter's Prize can attract the attention of the Human and Aslan who live near the sea.
The prop driven aircraft is a spotter plane for the black sea craft that belongs to the Uawairlew clan. The sea craft has a crew of 20 Aslan and is armed with two heavy cannons, deck mounted heavy machine guns and a missile turret (TL6). On a daily roll of 7+ (2D6) the craft will approach the Hunter's Prize, claiming they are in Uawairlew territorial waters and demanding duties and/or bribes. On a roll of 10+ (2D6) they will outright attack the Hunter's Prize and attempt to board her. The boarding party will consist of 10 Aslan warriors wearing mesh armour and carrying machine guns.
The party's activities will also attract the attention of the Glarlops' nation. They may (roll 9+ per day on 2D6) send a submarine to investigate the ship, but otherwise will not interfere with the Hunter's Prize activities. However if they do investigate they may detect the warship on the sea floor on 10+ (2D6) and attempt to seize both ships. This will most likely involve larger warships, as the GM sees fit. The crew of the Hunter's Prize will have time to detect the approaching warships, in which case Brice will most likely abandon the planet with whatever treasure he has managed to gain up to that point.
The following URLs contain deckplans for the Type K Safari Ship. http://classictraveller.wordpress.com/starships/safari-ship-type-k/ http://www.elvwood.org/Traveller/Animal.html
