 September 29, 2014 - 7:56am | Seedy disreputable type is seen interviewing for the expedition same time as the PCs but is rejected. He then turns up as new hire on Serena Dawn crew as a deck hand. He and one or two others are pirate moles who are working on the inside to help with capture of SD. One plot is to plant a bomb on the weapons locker on the bridge level. Another plot is to reprogram a robot to help subdue the PCs and ship's crew. Another plot might be to poison the capture to cripple leadership on ship. And a backup plot would be to dawn a vacuum suit and bomb or cut loose the cargo module that contains expedition equipment (including more weapons). I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 29, 2014 - 8:00am | Clues: pirates moles all have the star devil tattoo, if they shut down the robot and access its programming they'll discover in its functions an order to attack anyone not presenting the tattoo. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 29, 2014 - 8:04am | A little bit of referee fiat can ensure that the weapons locker and expedition equipment, and subspace radio get taken out but PCs have opportunity to gain exp by unravelling plot by moles, to improvise weapons and and organize the remaining crew to defend the ship, though they should realize that is hopeless and opt to bug out. (Live to fight another day). Perhaps a captured mole can bluster and make a lot of threats about killing the PCs or watching them work to death in the mines. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 30, 2014 - 5:29am | What if the Star Devil was also a mole on the Serena Dawn and the PCs got to interact with him prior to the 2nd module of the series? corporate exec that appears timid and unlikely to really get his hands dirty but turns out to be a blood thirsty pirate? He of course needs to get away via escape pod or other means. His identity is unknown to most of the pirates thus a thug being questioned under tellol will not give him away. The first Volturnus Expedition caught the pirates by surprise but the second they have planned for and are planning on using the Serena Dawn to move a load of ore to a processing facility (perhaps owned by PGC or one with plausible deniability by PGC or one with links back to the Malthar). The Star Devil of course is a stage name for the pirate leader who has been hiding his real identity going back to the First Common Muster. It's thought that he was killed during the climatic action by the muster at Timeon Star and he wants to keep it that way. He realizes that his Volturnus operation, which has been incredibly profitable, is about to have the wheels come off since the government of Truane's Star is looking to develop the jump route and possibly planet an extra system colony here. To that end the Star Devil has instigated the riots on Cygnus Omicron IX as well as sabotaged food storage facilities leading to the food riots on Pale in an effort to distract the Pale government. His efforts to distract the government has succeeded to a point and the government is looking to license a private commercial developer who will shoulder the initial start up cost on Volturnus. MINER ("The Volturnus Connection" front company for the Star Devil) and Streel competed heavily for this but MINER won the contract. However, as per the Star Devil's wishes MINER never moved on it. The government is frustrated with MINER because of the time delay and lack of action to at least see if the members of the first expedition have survived has lead to investigations and caused the situation at the front company to unravel embarassing the government. In a surprise move, STreel has been awarded the contract with the proviso that they mount an expedition immediately and attempt to locate the survivors of the first expedition. Enter the PCs. The Star Devil fakes the death of this corporate president persona and infiltrates Streel and gets posted to the Expedition. or perhaps he infiltrates the Vrusk mapping trade house that the vrusk member of the first expedition was a member of (this trade house could easily be an affiliate of Streel) and thus under this new corporate persona the Star Devil is returning to Volturnus with a team of other infiltrators who will assist in the capture of the Serena Dawn. Which will in turn aid in moving stock piles of ore. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 30, 2014 - 5:44am | RE: The Serena Dawn. I'm toying with just using the deck plan form KHs of the large frieghter for this. Also, if the PCs bug out from the Serena Dawn and the pirates capture it there is no reason that the Serena Dawn cant be a post Volturnus encoutner with the PCs recovering it from the pirates or finding it abandoned and floating in an outer system of a star. Naturally they'll get a hefty salvage and insurance settlement. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 30, 2014 - 2:48pm | Didn't you do, KH style deck plans for the Serena Dawn with the vertical deck arrangement? I know someone did as we started and on-line adventure using them. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
September 30, 2014 - 6:57pm | Didn't you do, KH style deck plans for the Serena Dawn with the vertical deck arrangement? I know someone did as we started and on-line adventure using them. I did but I only did three decks and never finished the rest of the decks. What would be important to this adventure is having the whole deck plan. Been thinking about a Palamino looking freighter from Disney's Black Hole. Central elevator and some ladder wells on the outer circumfrence. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
