 September 2, 2011 - 12:57pm | feel free to comment- I love stealing good ideas Bounty on Death is set on Pale in the early Frontier. Right after the Frist Sathar War and the founding of the UPF. The Reconstruction of Pale is winding up and this adventure could serve as a prequel to the Zebulon Series (or not). Background: Pale was occupied by the Sathar during the war and while many citizens fled to Dixons Star many formed resistence groups and fought back. The resistance groups eventually became "federalized" and officially became Pale militia at the time the UPF began landing Ground Fleet and other militia units to deal with the sathar. At the end of active military opperations there was judged to be no more living sathar on Pale but numerous attack monsters, namely Quickdeath and the artic version of the slitherer had effectively become invasive species on Pale. Naturally the standing army formations were trimmed back and the government of Pale offered bounties for sathar creatures. Bounty hunting became a boom business as numersous Pale militia veterans recently released leveraged their skills learned the hard way in the war to make some quick credits on quickdeath bounties. Eventually quickdeaths and other sathar creatures became scarce close to population centers and may bounty hunters sought other work. Some few, hardy individuals continued in this profession and continued to get by. This is the story of Carlos Kildare, a grizzled old veteran of the resistance and war. A crusty old character that looks like he's got a story and scares to prove he's the real deal. His unadorned hat looks like it may have been Pale militia issue and his sonic disrupter looks like its seen hard use. He's run a crew from his snow panther for years hiring capable hands to work with him. A string of bad luck and a hospitol stay has left him short on cash and with his former crew having moved on to other work. He's placed an ad on the news net for capable hands to split the take on a hazardous opertunity. The PC's have seen the ad and travelled to be interviewed by Carlos. At the interview he explains about the job being quickdeath bounty. That he has weapons, a snow panther, and the know how to land the big beast. He'll train them in the best way to take the animal down and since pickings have become slim the vicinity of Point True he's bound for the desolate waste further out where few bounty hunters have been in years. Since the Bounty is 1000 cr on a quick death alone and a little more on a snow slitherer the offer is tempting. Carlos cant hire them but will split the bounty with a share for everyone and a double share for him to recoop expenses. Referee Notes: If you're planning to play this adventure stop reading. This is a begininng level of adventure for 3-7 Characters. Its goals are to aquaint the players with some base line knowledge of sathar creatures and robots and how to deal with them. It will also highlight the dangers of the use of turncoats and spies by the sathar as well has provide a climatic show down with a sathar. As a prequel to Volturnus the successful PCs will have made the news and garnered some publicity as capable explorers in the frozen wastes of Pale. This will make it less so unusual that they were chosen for the Volturnus mission. Since the Volturnus mission is a building confrontation with the sathar these experiences should equip them to deal with that. Facing the quickdeath at the end of SF-0 should not be so traumatic but rather they should be able to formulate a good plan to take down the quickdeath efficently. Adventure starts with the player characters having basic gear and Carlos saying that they'll stop at Kumoo's ASS (Army Surplus Store) Kumoo is a stereotypical dralasite. He's a Land Fleet war veteran who went into the army surplus business as both Land Fleet and the Pale Militia dumped equipment after the war. Players will be able to buy up some cold weather and other new gear there. Next is the long trek to the wastes and along the way Carlos will run a few drills with the PCs to "train" them in quickdeath hunting. They encounter a derelick snow panther with large parallel rents in its metal skin where a quickdeath got the better of a bounty hunter. They will eventually find and engage a mated pair of quickdeaths, racking up their first bounties. Carlos will be drunk during the encounter with the 2nd quickdeath having celebrated getting the first so that the PCs will be on their own for that one. At some point though things will start to go a little wrong or a little funny, leading the the bulk of the adventure. A successful game designer told me that to write a good adventure you list every single thing that could happen in your setting. Then throw 1/2 away and write your adventure. so heres the list of ideas 1. Blizzard 2. encounter with a snow slitherer 3. encounter at a secret camp where a bounty hunter has been cheating the system, having found a batch of quickdeath eggs he's been raising them in cages and killing a few and bringing them back for the bounty. this bounty hunter cant let the PCs return and tell anyone lest he be arrested. so there is danger from him and from a quickdeath that may have gotten loose. 4. This far away form Point True sathar agents have been meeting or doing something nefarious 5. there is a battle field this far out and sathar artifacts from the war 6. in the ares mag there was a sathar factory that produce tank like robots in the Von Neuman machine article perhaps a drop ship was trying to land such a factory and it crashed. Sathar agents are trying to bring the factory on line so that it will produce these robotic tanks. The factory is hidden in a crevase of a glacier/valley 7. there are a couple sathar (big bounty for them) directing the agents seeking to build an army with the factory to work in conjunction with a task force that is assembling (this task force is the sathar fleet that gets called to Volturnus). they have mining bots gathering resources from an underground mine and supplying the factory and have assembled a small army of bots, if the factory can be fully brought on line then they will be able to build a major army formation that will wipe out all of the standing militia in an afternoon. Plot TWist: if you are a player you really should not read this: I was intending that one or more PCs should meet and interact with the sathar and that the sathar special ability should come into play but with a hypnotic suggest that plays out latter in the volturnus series not as the "charm person" effect described in the book. The positives of this adventure: establishes the sathar early on as the borg of the Frontier. Its fairly well contained. it leaves the PCs without the "free vehicle" so they are free to take another job or go on some other tangent when its over. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 2, 2011 - 1:22pm | Carlos Kildare's operation, since quickdeaths have natural defenses to balistic and laser damage he equipped his snow cat with 2 holo projectors to project people doing stuff to either side of the snow pather as bait. there is a folding cat walk and railling that locks into place on the sides and back of the snow panther giving characters a ledge off the ground to fight from. there is also a hatch in the roof of the vehicle allowing Kildare to "sharp shoot with is sonic disrupter. He equips his crew with sonic stunners (short ranged yes but effective) and with pikes (pole arms) every weapon on board does full damage to a quick death except for the 1 auto rifle. He hasn't been out to the glacier and the mountains in something like 3 years and doesn't believe anyone else has so the pickings should be good. he has a kerosine powered generator Class A and a 50 liter barrel of fuel for it so he can recharge the snow panther's batteries and attain such a long range trip. (how long? dunno but 2000-3000 km seems good). Kildare's health, he has in-operable cancer. and has chosen to not spend his life in a VA hospital but would rather go out with a gun in his hand. He has put his affairs in order and willed his entire estate to a verteran's relief charity which includes his snow panther if the PCs bring it back to civilization. His part in the adventure is to provide the Captian Nemo of the ship and set the stage for the adventure but he should bow out at the point when things are just becoming serious. even extracting a dying mans promise from the PCs to make sure his shares go to the veterans charity. its at this point that the PCs who are well and truly cut off from civilization and realize there is a real threat to Pale from the sathar. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 2, 2011 - 1:42pm | possible sathar creatures: 1. quick death 2. Snow slitherer (to be detailed) 3. slave bot 4. sathar robots from one source (have to look them up) 5 sathar robot tanks from the ares article 6. sathar with recent ideas from the sathar project worked in namely the caste system these would be 1-2 middle cast maybe with some lower cast grunts 7. Agents. 8. cybo-slugs 9. cybo dragon? these creatures are cybernet and have huge power requirements to operate as per the encounter in SF-2 so they would not be ferral creatures left over from the war but actually snuck in with the sathar but perhaps these sathar were left over from the war? so for that reason then I'd for not including them other than in one of Kildare's somewhat tall tales from the war. so the mission now is to take the cast of characters above and turn out some 4-6 encounters building to a climax with the von neuhman factory, which could easily be a mini dungeon crawl at the end though the PCs dont want to take on a whole army of robots themselves. Likely a creative solution is needed- things that come to mind are overloading the factory's nuclear reactor, recovering a war artifact from the battle field (a nuke), something else but certianly a dice roll extravaganza of fighting a host of robots conventionally will not go well for the PCs. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 2, 2011 - 1:45pm | Locations: snowy wastes, Mountains Glacier, ice caves and rock cavern complex. and dont forget Kumoo's A.S.S.- actually have some fun stuff planned and written for that. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 2, 2011 - 3:38pm | I suppose some thought about sathar motives is in order. 1 prepare the way for invasion- Pale militia has been down sized since the war and Land Fleet is mostly withdrawn except for equipment depots and nominal forts and formations. Perhaps planetary defense installations are about to come on line and make it seriously tough for an invading.g fleet to land troops and the robotic army will be targeted with taking these out.
2. The worms are out of touch with higher command and have planned what they planned on their own an plan to send an agent to Voltirnus to activate the monoliths sub-space radio Letting higher command know their status. But with the PCs being the monkey wrench on their plans a sathar plant a hypnotic suggestion in one or more PCs to go to Voltirnis and report to higher command implanted info. 3. Dunno what else could be a motive. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 2, 2011 - 4:43pm | I love the use of the ‘double cross’ in my games. For a while I was afraid that I was over using it and was too predictable. However, it produced an enjoyable effect on my players. Paranoia. Would/could there be a government official in this wilderness location such as a ranger/game warden/Environmental Protection Agent who traverses this region as part of their jurisdiction? This NPC could encounter the party out in the wilds and confront them under suspicion until they check out. At that point he/she could be very helpful to the party in superficial ways. At the most crucial time, this agent will show up as a major bad guy. If you are using Sathar agents, I’d pick this guy for one of them. He would be useful to monitor the presence of unauthorized persons in the area as well as keep an ear open to any news or attention from governmental authorities. |
September 2, 2011 - 5:06pm | Ahhhh, Inigo. The warden ranger is an agent and approaches them when the y enter the area just to ask questions. He turns up after they have a run in with the bounty hunter who is illegally raising quickdeaths for the bounty. Perhaps the warden even tries to deflect them by suggesting the take the extra heads of the raised quickdeaths as a reward for helping with apprehending the bad bounty hunter. Both of them, the warden and the baounty hunter turn back up later helping the sathar. Perhaps the ranger even calls in a report on them as that they'll have to deal with. Kildare will prevent them fromreturning to civilization as he's got his death wish prefering to die here then go back and end up in a hospice facility. Will it be too much to call him Ranger Rick? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 22, 2011 - 12:51pm | UPdate: there is now a download here: Refer to: A Bounty on DeathWIP The trip to the out back is being detialled and I thought that a random set of encounters were be the thing for that allowing the referee to cut to the chase if he felt he needed to but otherwise these encounters are to give the players a feel that this is an expedition into the cold wastes of Pale and they could be run in any order similar to the random desert encounters in Crash On Volturnus. 1. Blizzard lasting 1-3 days 2. Ranger shows up (jet copter) and questions them 3. passing encounter with another bounty hunter who acts suspicious of the PCs and Kildare, 4. another snow hazzard 5. a vehicle of a bounty hunter ripped open by a quickdeath-most things frozen stiff looks like some bones as players are rooting around this site a clutch of eggs has one hatch and the baby quickdeath which has killed/eaten the other eggs climbs out in the player's midst. Note in the download there are 3 appenices feed back on the backgrounds section would be helpful. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 22, 2011 - 5:25pm | Outline 1. Intro- lays some ground work and history quickly 2. shopping trip to Kumoo's Army Surplus Store- opportunity to outfit and check out some new equipment as well as make some ability checks (if anyone gets suspicious of the "deals to good to be true" and 1 point of EXP for the players if they detect the defects and avoid them) 3. The journey series of random occurances and their "training" by Kildare possibilities include a blizzard, first combat with a quick death, discovery of another snow panther openned like a tin can and the occupants dead and eaten, brief encounter with a surly bounty hunter, questioned by a ranger. Some combat, possibility of a few skill checks and some role play 4. discovering that the surley bounty hunter is illegally raising quick deaths. at least 1 combat, some chance for tech skills at other discoveries in his "lair" ; ranger Rick returns and takes the bounty hunter into custody. 5. Transition encounter that should lead the PCs deeper into the adventure, they at the crux of should they hunt more, the ranger has encouraged them to return to Point True. In the night an unusal number of quick deaths attack (normally they at most travel in pairs or singles) not sure the number but thinking 4-6 or 4 and a sathar robot- all came from the same direction. 6. If players follow up on that it leads to a glacier valley and a wreck of a sathar drop ship. The drop ship was bringing in an automated factory during the war and was more or less shot down. Overlooked as wreck or because a well placed agent diverted attention from it the factory complex was not destroyed and neither were all the sathar technicians killed. Investigation discovers that there are intact power sources on the drop frieghter as well as in the ice caverns that the factory has been moved to. Its taken all this time for the sathar and their minions to move the factory and get it to the brink of being on line. Players discover that Ranger Rick and Surely Bounty hunter are sathar agents. opportunity to root for tech in the wrecked drop ship and then a good old fashioned dungeon crawl/ swat team style take down of the sathar and their factory before it can ramp up and begin producing robots to send across the frozen wastes and take down the Planetary Defense centers before they can come on line and be able to prevent yet another landing by sathar ships in the future. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 22, 2011 - 7:20pm | RE: artwork I'd love to get a pairing of the art I put on the cover of my download and the art of the quickdeath from the Crash on Volturnus mod- where the party is fighting the quickdeath and the yaz and the dralasite are running at it with a spear. that pose of the quickdeath looking toward the reader but without the straw dummy in his mouth if it was rearing up over the characters I used on the cover of the down load but from behind; I think it would make an awesome cover for this. sort of like the quick death is a spector looming over the PCs and picking up the colors of the cover picture. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 22, 2011 - 9:07pm | Good start, but then, there's the sathar showing up again. At some point Star Law will need to be involved, perhaps the party receives a reward for their work or a pardon for a misdeed during the adventure. So far I'm excited about this adventure. At the end of the adventure when the final rewards are handed out consider making a Table of Rewards. Be imaginative, you can pawn my Bare Bones table if you want. |
September 23, 2011 - 3:12am | Good start, but then, there's the sathar showing up again. At some point Star Law will need to be involved, perhaps the party receives a reward for their work or a pardon for a misdeed during the adventure. So far I'm excited about this adventure. At the end of the adventure when the final rewards are handed out consider making a Table of Rewards. Be imaginative, you can pawn my Bare Bones table if you want. originally I wrote out a menu of bounties; with the thought that a number of things got released into the environment and offering the bounties to out of work veterans was a good deal for the government- I deleted the menu of bounties since time has gone by and pretty much all anyone expects to be left is the quickdeath. Quickdeaths produce 1000's of eggs a year and lay them in clutches of 50. The first to hatch eats the other eggs- so I figure its 1 clutch of eggs every two weeks and about 20 quickdeaths produced by a mated pair per year. Which for a big predator is pretty damn prolific. Yeah star law would have to get involved but then Star Law would have to know. The problem with star law being involved is that they invariably would take a, "Stand aside citizen, we'll handle this," attitude. Which while realistic is not very exciting in an adventure. I think that the transition in the adventure when the stakes get very high, the point when the PCs know that the sathar are involved and they have human agents, should move fast where com devices dont have the range and they are litterally running out of time and a do or die sort of decision rests upon them. I've intended to set up a sand box finale to this too, with lots of ways to let it end. Not all of them make the PCs big heros. Also have to make sure that Kildare as the NPC in charge is only a guiding force uptill crunch time when things really should fall on the PCs. This is why I wrote in health issues for him but he can easily succumb to wounds in the course of a fight as well, which would be his wish anyway. Certainly there would be an epiloge and Star Law investigation and a military investigation (at least the Pale Militia). The military investigation could be a way for introducing an interrogator NPC that could be a re-accuring NPC in the series (perhaps Luis V Jamison). I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 23, 2011 - 10:50am | Have one star law ranger, she needs the party, it's too big to handle on her own. So, either they work together or perhaps they get deputized. |
September 23, 2011 - 11:57am | Have one star law ranger, she needs the party, it's too big to handle on her own. So, either they work together or perhaps they get deputized.
That makes the star law agent a replacement for kildare that I plan to phase out so that he would not be in charge. Its the pcs game not the gm's. Written right we can explain the star law not getting there till the shooting is over.I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 23, 2011 - 1:00pm | Someone I think it feels more like Star Frontiers if you include some aspect of Star Law. Their the organized heroes of the frontier. |
 September 23, 2011 - 5:24pm | Have you seen my article on playing Bounty Hunters? I did a lot of work on that. It might be helpful. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
October 1, 2011 - 4:20pm | Gamma Section I think the first stage of the adventure, after leaving the Army Surplus Store could be run exactly like the lost in the desert section of Crash on Volturnus. basically a series of random encounters that a GM can use in any order with the last encounter on the list being a tranisition encounter that shifts the game. Premise is they need to take a certain number of days to travel to the outback of Pale so every half day GM rolls for or chooses an encounter. Not all of the encounters are mandatory. Encounters; quickdeath, blizzard, ranger in jet copter questions them, destroyed snow cat and remains of a bounty hunter, encounter with gruff bounty hunter who doesn't wish to talk. Finale encounter is a double quickdeath with cybernetic control device on at least one of them. A quickdeath with an implant is bad news- those have not been seen since just after the war. Not likely that a quickdeath with a cyber implant would still be around after all this time. Kildare wants to track this quickdeath to see where it came from. Delta Section Leads to the gruff bounty hunter's camp and underground "zoo" filled with quickdeaths being raised (illegal as all get out) but understandable in that if you find a cache of eggs you can easily raise the quickdeaths and kill a few each week to bring in for bounties with little work. Reality is that he's a sathar agent and working with the sathar who are trying to bring their damaged factory module on line. After investigating the camp Mr Gruff Bounty Hunter shows and there is a confrontation with him and a cyber controlled quickdeath this should lead to his capture and calling for the Ranger to take the bounty hunter prisoner. Epsilon Section Needs a transition to lead the PCs deeper and discover the full scope of the sathar plot. originally thought to just have them attacked by quickdeath but perhaps thats getting stale. could be sathar equipment? robotic minions- several examples exist, and or slave bot. The Pale being nuked thread gave me an idea- at this point in the adventure the PCs are fairly close to a city that was nuked during the war but the sathar new that they were not going to hold the system so moved the von neuhman machine factory to this occupied city and carefully chose where the nukes would fall. The city was not rebuilt and lays in ruins since the new capitol of Pale: Point True was constructed on the coast. The factory was damaged and the cadre of sathar have been working for years to subvert agents from Pale's society and to lay plans for bringing the factory on line. By this time the city can be explored though digging into old snow layers could expose raditation. Hidden in the center of this ruined city is the sathar robotics factory and its fission reactor reactor. littered nearby is wrecks of tanks and other military equipment destroyed and abandoned during the war. Could even be a wreck of a star ship that could be explored. Note: both the ranger and the bounty hunter he took under arrest are here with the sathar. EDIT: Epsilon section will need to be about sneak and peak, at least in the beginning so the PCs may need to stash/hide the snow cat in the ruins and investigate what's going on. There is always the option for a Deus Ex Machina ending with this if the PCs obtain a com device with the range to reach someone in orbit or all the way to Point True and call for the calvary. A kinetic strike from space will sort of the sathar in the city double quick but this is not a very good ending. Army showing up will see all the sathar machine assets being activated and whoever shows up will be wiped out. The optimum ending is the PCs taking out the sathar, their agents, and preventing the activation of the sathar robots then calling space fleet and or the militia or star law. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 1, 2011 - 4:09pm | Map requirements: 1. Glacier Station and Kumoo's A.S.S. is an optional map but it becomes a strategic location for a GM to use for continuing adventures so a "Keep on the Borderlands" style map of the station: few bars, Kumoo's, the mono-rail stop, a dive hotel, some residences and other local businesses would be a good thing for a well rounded module. 2. a map of snow with the snow cat centered in the middle to handle any of the encounters in Gamma section. 3. Delta Section: the Gruff bounty hunter's camp, 2 quanset huts with connecting covered walkway, one is a garage for Gruff's snow cat and the other is the access to his real quarters and underground and the snow tunnels that exit out to a snow cave .5km away 4. Region map showing the battle plain, gruff's camp, a wrecked star ship, the nuked city, mountains and a ravine, a glacier etc. 5. Ruined city map 6. map of the sathar installation. All told that is 6 maps with one being optional but I really hate to leave that one out. EDIT- I dont include a map of the planet in this and I dont really think its absolutely neccessary though one could be included with the one page planetary brief. I figure a 1 page planetary brief is a must like in SF-0 and SFKH-0 but this module can be run with just a region map like in SF-0 I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 1, 2011 - 5:04pm | Upon the discovery of their plans, the local agents send out a coded sub space message. If tracked the party will find its pointed towards the asteroid belt, not deep space. A few minutes or hours later a fast attack drone drops onto orbit dropping bombs in strategic areas to destroy evidence. |
October 7, 2011 - 1:01pm | In keeping with the 4 horsemen motif I'm planning to change Carlos Kildare's name to Zane Kildare (never really liked Carlos; just needed a first name) and the city ruins that should be the back drop of the final encounter will be named Thanatos I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 9, 2011 - 4:37am | Looking for input on this: The major NPC, Zane Kildare, is a sort of Captain Nemo NPC. He sets things in motion and provides the reason the PCs are doing what they are doing. What can happen with a Captain Nemo is railroading though, since he's in charge. So my plan was to use him to set things in motion and write him out leaving the adventure up to the PCs somewhere in the middle. Thus his incurrable health problems and his desire to die out in the OutBack hunting quickdeaths. So the question is should I or should I not write in Kildare's death into the module? Leave him an option for game masters who like to ride rails? Make him so sick that he can only offer advice but not take part in the adventure at about the 1/3 to 1/2 way point? Also I was thinking that the "bad bounty hunter" should not be killed in his show down with the PCs but captured so that the ranger shows up after the fight and takes him under arrest. Then when the PCs see this bounty hunter again it becomes a clue that the ranger is also a bad guy. Perhaps Kildare takes part in the fight with him and steps up at the climax and tangler grenades this guy so that he's captured by DM fiat? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 9, 2011 - 11:06am | Perhaps Kildare and this hunter are at odds. If Kildare gets to close the hunter takes him out. Like I mentioned before, use gray boxes in the mod7le as Referee advice or giving options in the story. Remember that Captain Dentin gave direction but didn't over shadow the parties choices in beyond the Frontier. |
September 28, 2012 - 11:27am | New thought: a quickdeath lays and buries 50 eggs per month and the first one to hatch eats the others. If a bounty hunter is digging up quick death eggs and hatching all 50 (or perhaps a significant percentage of that 50) then what is the impact on the quickdeath physiologically? Perhaps the quickdeath needs the protiens and nutrients in the other eggs much like a human baby needs the special stuff in breast milk right after it is born. So my idea is that the guy who is raising quickdeath is turning out under sized quickdeath half the size of normal. Making them individually weaker and more prone to work in packs. Lets also throw on a corporate sponsor that wants quickdeath for bio engineering research: Pale Integrated Synthetic Systems or PISS for short. They want the bounty hunter to continue supplying them with as many QD as possible but this guy has recently been subverted by the sathar and has been instructed by his new masters to allow the first one to hatch to eat the other eggs so that it reaches its full potential. Corporat sponsors suspect they're going to have a problem with their breeder and have dispatched a team to deal with him. Into this mix walks the innocent PCs who encounter a pack of mini QD full sized QD, corporate enforcers and a half crazed sathar agent. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 8, 2016 - 9:11am | Necro post: had a "duh" palm to the forehead moment. I had totally been over thinking this adventure. New adventure outline Kildare is a SW1 vertran turned bounty hunter collecting bounties on quickdeath released by the sathar during the war. He's dying and because of a recent stay in hospital he lost his "crew" for his snow panther to hunt the dreaded quickdeath. But he's determined to do what he loves and not die in a hospital bed. Thus he's posted a help wanted add. PCs get to respond. 1. Interview with Kildare, he's a crusty cross between Rooster Cogburn and Malcom Renalds. The PCs get to shop for equipment at local army surplus (new characters and existing characters- cold penalties will be enforced during the adventure stock up on cold weather gear). 2. Drill and travel to the hunting grounds, Kildare seems nostalgic and wants to hunt out on a frozen plain that was the sight of a major battle- hulks of destroyed armored vehicles litter the plain. Players will have first chance to test out their newly drilled quickdeath techniques. They will find a snow crawler owned by another bounty hunter, doors open and blood and very little remains of the crew- looks like a quickdeath or a mated pair got the best of them- that sort of thing happens but not very often. 3. They test there skills against some quickdeaths. Except there are 4 undersized quickdeath working as a pack which is odd since the creature is solitary or at most travels and hunts with a mate. 4. Kildare wants to warn another bounty hunter/ hermit he knows that lives out this way so they travel to this guy's spread. He's been digging up quickdeath eggs and hatching them in cages and collecting bounties on his easy kills. People have noticed he brings in undersized QDs but figure he hunts that size QD cause he lives alone. The truth is he's been a sathar agent since the war (POW) and has been hatching and mating QDs . his income is from bounties and he's actually bred a smaller pack hunting QD. His sathar handlers have a plot to terrorize and disrupt Frontier society by the simultaneous release of cargo containers full of QDs in the colony capitals on some of the most notable planets: Gran Quivera, Pale, Triad, and Clarion on VoS day (Victory over the Sathar). He's sent out shipments of QD and is about to deliver the last to Point True, Pale. So Kildare and crew show up at his compound as he's loading the last of his shipment in a hover truck (Kildare's snow cat can't catch it) the hermit releases 4 QDs with cybernetic control devices and sets them to attack Kildare and crew while he drives off with his last shipment. 5. After PCs deal with cyber controlled QDs Kildare's coughing up blood but orders them to find out what the hermit was into. Dungeon crawl/ investigation of compound and underground breeding pens. Info there to outline the plot. They also find a sathar tracking device that lets them track the hermit and his deadly cargo. 6. Kildare radios a friend at Star Law with findings and orders his crew to commandeer the hermit's hover car and get after him with it and the tracker and to take the heavy fire power he has with them. Race is on to catch the truck before it reaches Point True. They catch up at the small community where Kildare interviewed them and hermit heads for a school with his truck. PC's need to burn him down before he releases his deadly cargo. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief when this happens until someone realizes that there are small explosives on the truck wired to release the QD from confinement. Another tense problem to deal with. Epilogue: Notified by sub space Star Law agents intercept 2 shipments of QDs, 1 was released but with Star Law and Royal Marines on alert the damage was minimal and 1 shipment disappeared without a trace. Kildare is found dead beside his snow cat with the body of a dead QD nearby. The PCs receive letters of thanks an commendation from both Star Law and the Crown of Clarion. They are local heroes, and the gov of Pale awards them bounties on the whole shipment of QDs that the stopped from reaching Point True. PCs are now out of work looking for a new job but they have a fist full of credits for now. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 27, 2017 - 6:05am | Had another new idea: I never 100% liked the quickdeath in snow- creature with slime on its skin and all doesn't make sense. Well, another "duh" moment. next to pale is a New Pale and its warmer. - according to cannon jungle and large dangerous dino like creatures. I think I'll move this there. Jungle run/bug hunt Lost World/ Jurrasic Terrror vibe works. make the tracked crawler vehicle a "jungle cat" I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
March 20, 2019 - 12:16pm | “You don’t need a sad soul to feel the beauty of a dead grave Just stay with the pale moon when darkness wants the night to be brave” ? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
