Traveller Adventure: Loose Ends

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Denouement: Loose Ends

An adventure for Classic Traveller Little Black Books set in the Elysium system.(Return to the Traveller Adventure Cover Page.)

Summary
Let's take a look at all the unexplored territory hanging off of the main plotline in this adventure arc.

Background
If you've read the rest of the series, I'm sure you'll have your own areas you'll want to explore. I'll summarize a few pertinent grey areas, and you're welcome to add and embellish as you see fit.

Adventure
Several areas have been brought up and vaguely sketched out. Each could spawn other adventures for the characters as they explore how far they can go.

Vesper Textile Company - Helping the Vespers could eventually let the characters retire as the company's primary distributors of cloth armor, vacc suits, and fine cloth. Rival producers could try to disrupt business, or there could be underhanded dealings while bidding on a contract from a local service branch.

The Elysium Indigenous Wildlife Preserve - Also called the Southern Continent, this land mass has been set aside as a preserve for all the local wildlife. An organization within the planetary government oversees and maintains the preserve. Anyone interested in Xenobiology or ecological conservation could spend some time researching the Ore Slugs and how they fit into the local non-human ecological structure. Or there could be recently-discovered ruins on the Southern Continent that need exploring.

The Marconi Family - Anyone planning anything underhanded on Elysium pays a cut to the Marconi family. This could lead to open warfare on a weapons-restricted planet with a dedicated opposing criminal group. The characters could stage a coup and take over the family, providing a kinder, gentler syndicate to receive kickbacks and provide protection. Or maybe the characters want to remove the family entirely, which would be much easier if the family wasn't so huge.

The Elysium Guard - Marcus Lee could work with the characters to become adjunct security forces on Elysium. They could help shut down the Marconi Family this way, or they could simply work to maintain order by putting down minor rebellions, and then tap into the local political structure in a bid for public office at some point in the future.

MediShield and Pandora Research Facility - MediShield could always use an experienced team to deliver supplies, salvage ships destroyed by piracy, or perform other deniable tasks. MediShield may even drop the Malicious Destruction of Starfaring Property charges if the characters perform a task or two for the local office. Pandora could always use a new Facility Administrator since Dr. Falken has moved on to greener pastures.

Calleigh MacRae and MacRae Interstellar - I haven't even fleshed out what MacRae Interstellar does, never mind the galactic-level tasks the characters could be asked to perform. I was thinking they produced jump engine parts, but they're still effectively a blank slate. Calleigh's proclivities came up in The Patron, but the range of missions the characters may be assigned really has no limits.

Baron Von Wulgalash - This organization could make a great regional antagonist for years to come. What awesome stories could fall out of a deluded noble who wants to be Emperor? Tales of conquest, of trying to take over warships and subvert planetary rule, of racing for alien artifacts rumored to have great powers - the galactic horizon is truly the limit with this thread.

Further Hooks
See above. Also, never be afraid to embellish your game regardless of what the pre-fab module tells you. Hook your players and they'll always want to play with you.

I hope you've enjoyed the adventure arc! I'm hoping to add a bit, edit out the clunky bits, and compile the entire arc into a single hyperlinked PDF for download. I'm not sure if I'll charge a couple of bucks for it or keep it free, so let me assemble it first and find some art.

Speaking of which, anyone know of any hard SF art in the public domain? How about cheap commissions?

Thanks for reading!

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Traveller Adventure: Whistleblowing

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Whistleblowing

An adventure for Classic Traveller Little Black Books set in the Elysium system.(Return to the Traveller Adventure Cover Page.)

Summary
Let the fallout from legal action commence!

Background
Based on the information found in MediShield's Black Market and the Dossier on the Pandora Research Facility, plus the evidence mentioned in Meeting With Dr. Laura Falken, the Black Market on Pandora should be dismantled in fairly short order. The criminal court proceedings will take some time to shake out, however.

Adventure

Once the immediate ship-to-ship action settles down, the characters may want to convince the MediShield security staff to not destroy Pandora Research Facility. Dr. Falken will mention the failsafe explosive charges that will plunge the facility into the sun within a few minutes if the characters don't think of it themselves. She feels responsible for everybody still on Pandora and will want them to live through any attempts to destroy evidence.

If the characters contact the remaining personnel on Pandora, they may convince some of the scientists to come forward about the Black Market. Those being blackmailed will happily testify in the case, but a few worked willingly for Admiral Greenberg. Half the security staff and the three scientists who profited from the Black Market will take what they can and escape in the next Free Trader leaving Elysium before the hammer falls.

Dr. Falken will need to take her evidence to someone who can do something about it. Any of the services, but especially the Army and Marines, will drag their feet about pursuing the evidence since MediShield has such a huge contract to protect every service member from disease and infection. Her best bet involves going directly to the sector capital on Corinth (a Jump-2 away) as soon as possible to meet with government representatives and the ethics department at the MediShield base of operations there. Any delay in leaving Elysium will allow word to reach Admiral Greenberg and give him a chance to plant evidence to frame Dr. Falken.

Within a month if all goes well, Admiral Greenberg will be out of a job and in custody pending trial. MediShield will take a hit in the public relations department and the "I hope this MediShield shot isn't laced with infectious agents" jokes will fly thick and furious through the ranks of all the services. The trial will be held on Corinth and take at least a year, during which time the characters will need to remain within a Jump-3 of Corinth pending testifying as witnesses. See Leaving Elysium for a few more local systems for the characters to explore in the interim.

Further Hooks
Dr. Falken will be under constant threat during the trial. Some remnants and ex-customers of the Black Market don't appreciate Pandora shutting down. If the characters want to sign on as bodyguards, there will be roughly one assassination attempt per month for the duration of the trial. Assassins will use poisons and drugs and hire local thugs to intimidate or try to kill Dr. Falken. Stopping the trial isn't the point. These assassination attempts come from a desire for revenge.

Characters can hunt down the remnants of the Black Market organization that escaped Pandora. They will have dossiers for the 3 scientists and 4 security personnel, and they can get leads from nearby worlds. Chances are at least some of them are now working for Baron Von Wulgalash's organization. Taking on Baron Von Wulgalash will be difficult, especially if the characters escaped from him during  Who's Chasing Whom? If the Baron was killed during that adventure, a lieutenant steps up and takes over. The organization will remain intact, but the leadership will change as needed until the characters can take it apart completely, either through direct action or by calling in favors to get a Navy Battle Squadron involved.

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Traveller Adventure: The Patron

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The Patron

An adventure for Classic Traveller Little Black Books set in the Elysium system.(Return to the Traveller Adventure Cover Page.)

Summary
What can the players expect if they sign on to work for Calleigh MacRae and MacRae Interstellar?

Background
If the characters decide to accept Calleigh MacRae's offer from Who's Chasing Whom? they'll have a wealth of new opportunities.

Adventure

The first time the characters follow Calleigh MacRae's Yacht back to her base of operations on Artemis, the characters will need to fend off a pirate attack. The pirates will have a Free Trader and a Fighter that attaches externally to the Free Trader. Between the characters' ship and the Fighter on board MacRae's Yacht, the fight should be evenly matched.

The attack was purely an attack of opportunity. The pirates have no means of detecting when a ship will jump into existence. They saw a Yacht and thought it would be easy pickings. The characters' ship jumped in seconds after the attack started. The pirates have 14 crew total, including the Fighter pilot and a boarding party of 6 on board who can crew any captured ship. The captured pirate crew may decide to work for MacRae Interstellar after some intense questioning by Calleigh. This may be an opportunity to add a new character to the game if needed.

Further Hooks
Working for Calleigh MacRae will have its own challenges, though funding won't be one of them. The characters can get their ship refitted or they can commission a custom Safari Ship which they can use, but it will remain the property of MacRae Interstellar. Adventures for MacRae fall into a few broad categories.

• Alien Artifact Recovery. MacRae wants anything alien for research and collection purposes. This includes new ores as well as cultural and scientific items or technologies.
• Capture Specimens for Xenobiology Research. Same as above, though capturing and transporting alien life forms will provide more logistical issues than transporting items.
• Courier Missions. Anything from ferrying a MacRae Interstellar packet to one of their far-flung offices to protecting a company representative in a potentially hostile situation will force the characters to play defense.
• Intelligence Gathering. Scouting new worlds or trying to gather information on a rival company will cause no end of challenges for the characters.

The characters should have a full plate of missions for the forseeable future if they decide to sign on. Calleigh will impose no penalty on the characters should they decide to leave her service, though she will try to call on them as consultants in the future if they don't work for her directly. Also, she will want any long-term investments like ship repairs reimbursed through regular payments in cash or services.

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Traveller Adventure: Who's Chasing Whom?

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Who's Chasing Whom?

An adventure for Classic Traveller Little Black Books set in the Elysium system. (Return to the Traveller Adventure Cover Page.)

Summary
How many job offers have you had in the middle of a ship-to-ship battle? Would you care for 2 of them?

Background
This adventure continues the action started in The Chase Is Joined.

Adventure
Just after the Yacht hails the characters' ship, a custom-built 400 ton Warship jumps in not far away. Anyone with Navigation or Pilot skills knows that jumping this close to any large gravity well usually means a misjump or destruction of the ship, so whoever pilots that ship has enviable navigation skills and/or a death wish. Use statistics for a Patrol Cruiser when it opens fire.

The Warship hails the characters' ship also. Both use a private channel to keep anyone else from hearing the conversation. Both want to speak with Dr. Falken about the possibility of employment.

The Yacht offers employment by Calleigh MacRae, a brilliant entrepreneur with a well-known fascination for native planetary cultures and artifacts who owns two planets in nearby systems. She often trades for indigenous specimens and needs help to develop new ways to detect and prevent infestation by alien microbes, diseases, and other contaminants. She offers to make a custom lab ship to Dr. Falken's specifications, and if the characters want jobs as special agents or couriers of MacRae Interstellar, that can be arranged. She says if the position doesn't work out, she'll let everyone walk away with no hard feelings.

Her ship is unarmed except for three Sandcasters, which she will use to defend the characters' ship. She also has a fighter on board armed with a single laser, which she will deploy to help out if needed. Calleigh seems reasonable and shrewdly business-minded, so she's willing to offer a great amount to have one of the best Xenobiologists in the sector on his payroll. She will probably be able to get the MediShield ships to back off through force of personality and the threat of altering the business deal she has with MediShield.

The Warship holds Baron Von Wulgalash, the Pirate Lord of Dominia, a Jump-4 away from Elysium. He wants Dr. Falken to develop vaccines to defend against alien agents of infection. The characters are welcome to join his cause of removing corruption from the sector and uniting it under his rule. Unfortunately, he's gone a bit power-mad in trying to set up a new empire of his own, and he tends to destroy what he can't have. His navigators can do some amazing things, and many colonies and ships never see the attack coming.

Baron Von Wulgalash has a reputation as an unforgiving leader who rules with an iron fist, force of personality, superior skills, and willingness to risk everything for whatever he wants. An in-system landing on a Jump-4 should be evidence enough of that. He will destroy every other ship in the area if Dr. Falken agrees to work for him. If Dr. Falken refuses, he will try to disable or destroy the characters' ship.

The MediShield ships will attack the Wulgalash Warship as soon as they open fire on the characters' ship, especially once MacRae starts talking to them. They'll grudgingly respect MacRae's authority when she requests that they protect the characters, but they'll follow closely and start legal proceedings immediately when this situation resolves.

Further Hooks
We'll explore how having Calleigh MacRae as a patron could open up new avenues of alien exploration for the characters in a future installment. Working for Von Wulgalash ends up being nasty, brutish, and short. Eventually Navy capital ships will come to put down the rebellion. the battle will be glorious, but one-sided. If the characters survive, they will end up in jail or "rehabilitated" as part of a work detail in hazardous conditions. That may open up a fugitive-flavored campaign if the characters can steal a ship.

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Traveller Adventure: The Chase Is Joined

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The Chase Is Joined

An adventure for Classic Traveller Little Black Books set in the Elysium system. (Return to the Traveller Adventure Cover Page.)

Summary
Now that Dr. Falken on board, the race to escape begins.

Background
After Slipping Away with Dr. Falken got everybody on board the characters' ship, the next step is to break off from Pandora. But where are the characters taking Dr. Falken?

Adventure

The characters have a decision to make: Where are they running to? They could go back to Elysium, where a MediShield security team will be waiting for them. They could jump to a different system, but that will take time to get to a safe distance. They could fight off all comers, but the ship seems unlikely to survive after reinforcements arrive.

Even with that question hanging over their heads, the characters shouldn't get the chance to debate it. They'll have a chance to strap in and move away from Pandora, but the MediShield Pinnace will start firing missiles immediately after undocking. The MediShield Fast System Boat will join the fray and start firing immediately after that.

MediShield Pinance: A 40-ton craft with 5G acceleration armed with a pulse laser, two missile racks, and twin sandcasters.

MediShield Fast System Boat: A 30-ton craft with 6G acceleration armed with a beam laser, a missile rack, and a sandcaster.

If the characters bother to look in Stygia's direction, they'll see the 400 ton Patrol Cruiser headed their way at its full 6G acceleration. There's another Fast System Boat flying MediShield colors coming at them from Elysium.

Once they set a vector away from Pandora, they'll notice a heavily modified Yacht starting to follow their ship. The Yacht will hail the characters' ship on a secure channel and a red-haired woman will ask to speak with Dr. Falken.

Further Hooks
If the characters destroy or disable any of the MediShield ships, they'll be billed for damages. This bill may be waived as part of any legal proceedings that may result if Dr. Falken survives. If the characters commandeer any of the disabled vessels, they may do some fancy legal footwork and claim salvage rights even though they disabled the vessel in the first place.

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Traveller Adventure: Slipping Away with Dr. Falken

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Slipping Away with Dr. Falken

An adventure for Classic Traveller Little Black Books set on and around the Pandora Research Station in the Elysium system. (Return to the Traveller Adventure Cover Page.)

Summary
Dr. Falken wants to bring down the Black Market, but she can't do that under guard on Pandora. How will the characters get her out of there?

Background
After Meeting with Dr. Laura Falken, the characters should realize that leaving her on Pandora is risky at best. Her life is under constant threat and she's close to giving up. If she needs to, she will beg the characters to take her away if they show any inclination toward doing so in her presence.

Adventure
Once the characters decide to get Dr. Falken off of Pandora, things get interesting. The security forces have been tasked with keeping her from leaving, so either some tricky plan needs to work or the characters need to get ready for a fight. Remember that the security forces can scuttle the station into the sun, a process that will take about 2 minutes once the explosive charges go off and push Pandora out of stable orbit.

If the security forces are already on alert through the characters mentioning the Black Market in their presence, they will be much harder to fool with any trick. They will be much more resistant to anything the characters suggest and much more willing to use their standard-issue Snub Pistols to impose their will on the characters. Four guards will be waiting for Dr. Falken outside the conference room when the private meeting with the characters ends.

A quick sketch of Pandora's layout.
The conference room is in Pod E also.

You can roll up and personalize each of the eight security staff on Pandora, but you could just as easily reuse the following stats:
UPP 877767 Blade 1, Snub Pistol 1
If relevant, add 1 other randomly determined skill as needed.

Tricking the guards could work if they're not on alert. The characters could make it look like they're kidnapping Dr. Falken, a fact which will sow much confusion later on since the guards have intelligence that some rich lunatic will make a play for her sometime soon. The guards will not let her out of their sight, so getting her aboard the characters' ship without weapons coming out will be challenging at best, though something as simple as having her enter the airlock and shoving her onto the ship may work if done quickly enough.

Further Hooks
To discredit Dr. Falken, Pandora may be scuttled and evidence placed to indicate that she set the sequence to cover up the Black Market operation. If given the time to prepare, Admiral Greenberg will construct evidence that places Dr. Falken at the head of the entire operation. Having the characters rush to do whatever they're doing next would be a good idea before all those preparations are made.

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Traveller Adventure: Meeting With Dr. Laura Falken

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Meeting With Dr. Laura Falken

An adventure for Classic Traveller Little Black Books set on and around the Pandora Research Station in the Elysium system. (Return to the Traveller Adventure Cover Page.)

Summary
Dr. Laura Falken produced the planet-killer on the data crystal. But is she in charge of the Black Market or does the Black Market call the shots?

Background
After bluffing and blustering their way onto the station in Approaching Pandora, the characters get a chance to confront Dr. Laura Falken, Facility Administrator of Pandora. They can and should use anything from the Dossier on the Pandora Research Facility to guide their questions. Definitely raise their suspicions that a large operation will be hard for one person to run successfully if they don't think of it on their own.

Adventure
Dr. Laura Falken (UPP 85ACC8 Admin 1, Bureaucracy 2, Medical 3, Training 2) has reached middle age and is in the process of sweeping past it with vigor and grace. She's become more businesslike than academic, but she'll rise to the challenge of intellectual debate if engaged on matters of xenobiology or almost any other scientific topic. She looks tired and stressed which she will explain away as the rigors of running a research facility, but she really wants to leave the Black Market behind and get back to doing her life's work: research.

Dr. Falken will have at least two security guards with her when meeting the characters in one of the conference rooms on Pandora. If the characters talk to her about her published work and ask her to consult on some of their own research, she'll dismiss the guards and start talking more freely after she disengages the surveillance systems in the conference room. If the characters lead with a mention of the data crystal or any reference to the Black Market, one of the guards will stiffen up and put the rest of the security staff on alert after Dr. Falken dismisses the guards. The Patrol Cruiser around Stygia will start heading for Pandora minutes after the alert goes out, claiming unscheduled training maneuvers if asked.

Once the guards have left the room, Dr. Falken will ask why the characters are actually on Pandora. If they level with her, she will admit to creating the planet killer on the data crystal but say her life and the life of everyone on Pandora is being threatened to ensure her continued compliance. She realized she's in way to deep to disentangle herself from the Black Market, and there's no authority she can easily appeal to if she wanted to blow the whistle. Communications runs all messaging services, so her messages to the director of research never seem to get through.

If the characters give her hope that she may survive an escape attempt, she'll tell them that she has a backup copy of everything Pandora has created for the black market, complete with security footage, encrypted messages (including one from Admiral Greenberg and several others implicating him as the person in charge), evidence of payoffs, and the research itself. She'll want protection until they can get that information into clean enough hands to shut down the Black Market operations on Pandora and potentially other MediShield research stations as well.

Further Hooks
Dr. Falken will make a great crew medic and can deal with portside bureaucracy, though the shipboard lifestyle will start to wear thin in a few months. She'll probably need to be out of action for the next few years testifying in various trials, providing she survives long enough to bring her evidence to light. Her list of Black Market research and the people who bought it could keep the characters busy for years tracking leads and making sure it's never used in anger.

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Traveller Adventure: Approaching Pandora

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Approaching Pandora

An adventure for Classic Traveller Little Black Books set on and around the Pandora Research Station in the Elysium system. (Return to the Traveller Adventure Cover Page.)

Summary
One does not simply walk onto Pandora Research Station.

Background
Characters who have gathered the information in the Dossier on the Pandora Research Station know that Pandora created the planet-killer on the data crystal, and that MediShield's Black Market operation works almost openly on board. The characters should be motivated to get on board somehow to figure out how to dismantle the Black Market. If the characters have captured a Quartz Leopard during Drafting Research Subjects, then they've got an easy way to get on Pandora.

Adventure
Approaching Pandora is fairly easy, but convincing Pandora to let them dock is the difficult part. If characters can provide video evidence of having a Quartz Leopard on board, Pandora Control will clear them to dock immediately. Otherwise it'll take some fast talking with the fairly straight-laced security forces to get on board. Using Bribery could work, as could Admin, Bureaucracy, Merchant, or Liason.

Inviting Dmitri Valentin along will get an instant invitation, but the security forces will also alert Admiral Greenberg to the fact that Dmitri went off the script as quickly as they can. Refer to MediShield's Black Market for the ramifications of that notification. Also know that the half of the security personnel in the know are under orders to scuttle the entire facility with all hands if anything threatens the Black Market.

Pandora has access to a Pinnace and a Fast System Boat, both armed well enough to give anything less than 200 tons pause before openly attacking. Characters with Pilot or Gunnery skills will get a decent enough look at the ships to know they won't be pushovers if the missiles start flying. The Patrol Cruiser in orbit around Stygia will track down any ship escaping from battle, and there may be other ships closer to Pandora that may get involved if a fight breaks out.

Assuming the characters eventually dock at Pandora, they deal with security and a low-level functionary. If they have a Quartz Leopard in good health, they'll get their 10kCr immediately and be sent on their way. If they have any other request, they're delayed as long as possible. If the characters can make a convincing enough argument or out-Bureaucracy the functionary who has Bureaucracy-1, they can get a meeting with Facility Administrator Dr. Laura Falken. Details of that meeting will come in the next article...

Further Hooks
It's possible the characters could find out that one of the security forces has a particular addiction (or a deep-seated penchant for collecting obscure art if you want to keep drugs out of your game) from information gathering efforts on Elysium. This could turn into an instant Bribery success to get the characters on board Pandora, and a possible means of leverage if push comes to shove later on.

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Traveller Adventure: Drafting Research Subjects

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Drafting Research Subjects

An adventure for Classic Traveller Little Black Books set on Elysium-7, also called Stygia, a frozen rock on the outer fringe of the Elysium system. (Return to the Traveller Adventure Cover Page.)

Summary
Pandora Research Facility is offering a bounty for healthy, undamaged Quartz Leopards. But how hard are they to capture unharmed?

Background
Characters find out about the bounty on Crystal Leopards from the Dossier on the Pandora Research Facility. Details on the fee structure and waiting period for permits can be found in Heading Off-World.

Adventure

Stygia is a frozen rock on the edge of the system (E230100-0 Poor Desert), home to a flat bed of rock for spacecraft landings and 8 MediShield employees to crew the landing pad. The rocky terrain juts up at odd angles as far as the eye can see. The methane snow usually falls horizontally, whipped by the incessant winds. The thin atmosphere tastes sweet, and more than one explorer has succumbed to oxygen deprivation by foolishly avoiding the processed taste of a respirator.

MediShield has bought all rights to the planet from the Elysium system government. It's experimented with mining, but the harsh conditions and lack of anything useful in the crust led them to abandon any thoughts of establishing a long-term mining operation. MediShield maintains tight control over the number of Quartz Leopards harvested to keep the research into this branch of xenobiology active for years to come. Anyone attempting to land without a Visitor's Permit or a Trapping License will be turned away by the four well-armed MediShield System Boats and the type T Patrol Cruiser in orbit around Stygia.

Quartz Leopards look like animated cat statues made from clear crystal with smoky spots. They weigh in at 900 pounds, and they use teeth and claws to catch prey, mostly consisting of rarely-seen Quartz Moles. They're fast, and they attack anything assuming it can be food, but they haven't learned they're not at the top of the food chain any more. They will never flee from anything except sustained loud noises or sonic devices, which resonate in their crystal bodies and cause pain.

Animal	Weight	Hits	Armor	Wounds/Weapons
Carnivore/Pouncer	900lbs	30/14	reflec+1	12 claws and teeth	A0 F0 S3

The trick here is to trap one without using force. Characters can rig up a cage and herd a leopard into it using sound. Entertainment devices or anything that makes a sustained sound will work, but single gunshots will only enrage a Crystal Leopard. Characters with Mechanics and Medical skills (or two characters working in tandem) can attempt to fine tune a sonic device to render a Crystal Leopard unconscious with a throw of 10+ on each skill. This technique has not been discovered by trappers using traditional game hunting methods, and finding the resonant frequency of a Crystal Leopard could open up avenues for further research.

Further Hooks
Characters can study the ecosystem of Stygia with clearance from MediShield. Many unanswered questions center around about how a crystal-based life form evolved in the same way as a classic Terran carnivore. There are twice as many questions about how crystal-based life forms even function. Many xenobiologists dream of studying life on Stygia for its uniqueness. However, it may not be biology to blame, but crystals animated with psionics by an as yet unseen intelligence or race...

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Traveller Adventure: Stowaway 2 - Ore Slugs in the Hold

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Stowaway 2 - Ore Slugs in the Hold

An adventure for Classic Traveller Little Black Books set in the Elysium system. This adventure could also surface in jumpspace or in a different system right after a jump from Elysium. (Return to the Traveller Adventure Cover Page.)

Summary
The characters discover another stowaway on board. This one has far fewer skills and is much less likely to join the crew. Ore Slugs can be used as a random encounter independent of the adventure arc on Elysium, as I'm sure the characters won't be the first ones to jettison an Ore Slug into space. In that case, this adventure could be the hook that brings the characters to Elysium to run into Alexis Vesper and start the rest of the adventure arc.

Background
Ore Slugs first appeared in Fixing the Factory, where they were used by the Marconi family to trash the Vesper factory. Maybe the Marconis decided to give the characters a little bon voyage present on their way off of Elysium. Or maybe someone decides to keep one as a pet and it breaks free on board.

Adventure
Ore Slugs eat metal and lots of it. A single slug can eat through about a pound of metal an hour. With a 10 hour head start, an Ore Slug could cause a hull breach before anyone knew they were on board. Having a sudden hull breach would be one way to announce the presence of stowaways to the characters.

Roll 1d to determine how many Ore Slugs are on board the characters' ship.

If the characters have any precious metals in their ship's hold, that would attract the Ore Slugs' far more than the hull would. If allowed to eat for a standard day, they will be full enough to reproduce. A day after that there will be hundreds of tiny Ore Slugs attempting to devour the ship. If the bridge or computer core is close to the hold, they would eat the precious metals in the computer hardware, causing a computer failure - not the thing you want to have happen in jumpspace.

The same methods of capture apply here as they did in the factory. Glass enclosures work well, and baiting a trap with precious metals would bring them all out of the woodwork. They're a protected species on Elysium, so there will be consequences if they're killed or thrown out of an airlock and anyone on Elysium finds out.

Returning the Ore Slugs to Elysium will be a diplomatic matter as well, since they're illegal to remove from their preserve on the southern continent. If reports are filed and if Alexis will vouch for the characters (if she's on board at that point), the characters will be freed after only a week-long detainment for intense questioning.

Further Hooks
The characters can keep an Ore Slug as a pet. It may escape and threaten the ship, or someone who recognizes it will eventually call the authorities and the characters will be hunted down and returned to Elysium. If it escapes on a new planet, especially on metal-rich worlds, the characters will likely be the only common link between Elysium and the world with the outbreak. The Ore Slug population gains two orders of magnitude every 2 standard days, so in 6 days there will be a million Ore Slugs devouring all the metal they can find - 20 million pounds of metal in the next day before the reproduction cycle repeats. If the characters are found as the cause of the outbreak, they will be hunted mercilessly because it's exceedingly difficult to repay an interstellar corporation or a world government for destroying an entire world.

If the characters manage to herd the Ore Slugs into the airlock, they won't explode in vacuum. They'll wrap themselves into balls and float around dormant, waiting to bump into a ship so they can feed and breed. It may be years before an Ore Slug outbreak happens, but find a way to get that news back to the characters so they can ask themselves if they caused it.

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Traveller Adventure: Stowaway 1 - Will Urchins Never Cease?

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Stowaway 1 - Will Urchins Never Cease?

An adventure for Classic Traveller Little Black Books set in or near the Elysium system.(Return to the Traveller Adventure Cover Page.)

Summary
Guess who decides to stow away on board the characters' ship?

Background
You'll remember Alexis Vesper (UPP 497923 Mechanical-1) from Stop, Thief? and Fixing the Factory at the very beginning of this adventure arc. Turns out she's even more adventurous than her parents gave her credit for. This encounter can give the characters a reason to return to the adventure on Elysium if they decide to jump to a different system before investigating MediShield, or Alexis can complicate the characters' lives during the adventure arc, like when they head off to Stygia to try and capture a Quartz Leopard or when they arrive on Pandora Station.

Adventure
At some dramatically-appropriate point while their ship is under way, the characters become aware of Alexis being on board. She's a compulsive thief as a way to alleviate her boredom, so it's not a far stretch to have her sneak onto a ship and hide in hopes of having a grand adventure. She's enthusiastic and willing to earn her keep for a chance to learn skills to make her a better crew member and to see more of space.

Feel free to have the characters figure out how she slipped on board based on the security measures they left in place on the ship. She could have snuck into the hold while the characters were off dealing with getting permits and such, or she could have hidden in a cargo the characters purchased, or she could have disguised herself as someone purchasing a middle passage (and where she got the 8kCr to buy that passage could fill another adventure arc). In any case, she will try to sneak around and find something to fix before revealing herself in an attempt to prove her worth to the characters.

Alexis should at worst inconvenience the characters by returning her to her parents, but she can fill in as a crew member for the short term. She knows the rudiments of the Steward skill from her mother, so that's a potential role she can perform. If the characters allow her to stay on board, she shouldn't get underfoot too often, at least in the early days. She knows she's on probation, so she'll curb her pickpocket tendencies and be on her best behavior to keep earning her chance to fly between the stars.

Dealing with her parents will be a different matter. She has taken over the day-to-day maintenance of the Vesper's factory. Without her, the production schedule will slip slightly and the factory's bottom line will suffer for it. If the characters don't come clean about Alexis stowing away as soon as they know, that could strain the relationship and threaten the discounts promised in return for Fixing the Factory. Dorian and Amanda aren't domineering parents by any stretch, but taking their 13 year old daughter off-world stretches the limits of a harmless prank, even if she stowed away to begin with.

Further Hooks
If the characters decide to keep Alexis on as a crew member and allowed to train, she'll pick up Steward 1 within a year. If the characters don't tell her parents about her stowing away, they will file a missing persons report and the characters will see the notice in every port of call. They will eventually get reported somewhere along the line and get arrested for kidnapping. If this happens, Alexis will privately thank them but throw them under the proverbial bus by publicly saying that she kept asking the characters to take her home.

She's also a compulsive thief. She'll settle into the ship's routine after a while, but eventually she'll get bored. She's used to playing the "Cute and Innocent" card with the local police, so she's used to getting away with whatever she wants. That approach won't hold water on a new world where nobody knows her. Alexis could potentially provide an adventure seed in every port the characters visit if she stays on board for long.

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Traveller Adventure: Heading Off-World

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Heading Off-World

An adventure for Classic Traveller Little Black Books set on Elysium, a TL8 agrarian world. (Return to the Traveller Adventure Cover Page.)

Summary
Sooner or later, the characters will want or need to leave Elysium. Here's what most Travellers would be interested in before they clear the atmosphere.

Background
From the information gained in the Dossier on the Pandora Research Facility, the characters would probably want to travel to Pandora or to Elysium-7 (unofficially nicknamed Stygia). Even if they're heading completely out of the system, they'll still need to take care of a few things before leaving

Adventure

Passengers - Heading offworld from Elysium holds its appeal for those who want a little higher-tech action. The characters can typically find 2d-1d Low Passengers, 1d-1 Middle Passengers, and 1d-2 High Passengers at any given time. The Regional Capital of Corinth draws the most passengers by far, and it's only a Jump-2 away. Use a DM of -1 to each passenger roll for destinations other than Corinth, and a DM of -2 to each roll for Dilmun with its sparsely populated scientific and mining outposts.

Cargo - The most common cargo export from Elysium contains food. Fruit, Grains, Meat, and Spices are abundant on Elysium. Cargoes of Liquor, Textiles, and Wood are commonly available as well. Firearms are illegal and will never be available as cargo. Computers, Electronics, Machinery, and all sorts of Parts are in high demand on Elysium (DM +2 on the selling price table in addition to the Agricultural world DM) so they will almost never be found as available cargo. Textiles, Body Armor, and Vacc Suits from the Vesper Textile Company will be available at a discount to the characters if they helped with Fixing the Factory, but outside the scope of this adventure arc since the Vesper family needs at least a week or two to ramp up production again.

Trapping Permit for Stygia - Characters planning on stopping at Stygia to look for Quartz Leopards will not be able to land without a Visitor's Pass, and will be prevented from taking any life form off the planet without a Trapping Permit. The Visitor's Pass to the Stygian Exotic Game Preserve costs 500Cr and takes about 15 minutes to process in the Downport customs office. It is valid for one week, and it comes with a booklet warning of the dangers of attack by predators, the need for protection from the -120 degree temperatures, and some way to breathe in the extremely thin atmosphere.

A Trapping Permit costs 2.5kCr and takes 3 days to process. It remains valid for one week from the date of issue and will be scrupulously checked by the patrol boats constantly in orbit around Stygia. Admin, Bureaucracy, and Liason skills can each be used to shave a day off the processing time by throwing a 10+ (DM +Skill). Bribery could also speed up the process by a day if the character throws 10+ (DM +Skill), but if it fails (by throwing a 5-) the lawbreaking character may no longer be eligible for a Trapping Permit.

Travel Times - It'll take a half hour to clear the atmosphere, and another 1.5 hours to reach the minimum safe jump distance if heading out of the system. Travelling in-system from Elysium to either Pandora or Stygia takes another 3-4 hours. The trip between Stygia and Pandora takes 4-6 hours.

Nearby systems include Pendar (TL 7, Rich, Non-Agricultural, Jump-1), Dilmun (TL 10, Science and Mining Outposts, Jump-2), Corinth (TL 12, Regional Capital, Jump-2), and Radagast (TL 11, Industrial, Jump-3)

Further Hooks
The characters will have their share of trouble if they don't buy a Trapping Permit for their trip to Stygia, or if they try to bluff their way into Pandora without a Quartz Leopard in their hold. There are also a couple of random encounters to deal with detailed in Will urchins never cease? and Wait, we have Ore Slugs in the hold? (forthcoming).

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Traveller Adventure: Dossier on the Pandora Research Facility

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Dossier on the Pandora Research Facility

An adventure for Classic Traveller Little Black Books set on Elysium, a TL8 agrarian world. (Return to the Traveller Adventure Cover Page.)

Summary
The characters have traced the origin of the data cube to Pandora Research Facility. Now to dig up all the information they can about the Black Market based there.

Background
Refer to MediShield's Black Market for the immediate background on how and why the characters are researching the Pandora Research Facility. Suffice to say that any facility manufacturing and selling weaponized diseases should be shut down or at the very least monitored.

Adventure

This is a straight information-gathering outing using various skills noted below. As mentioned in MediShield's Black Market, each character can try once per day to throw a 9+ (DM +Skill) to discover information about the Black Market and Pandora Research Facility. Some are rumors, but most are facts that can be used to stop the Black Market and indict those responsible for organizing it. Give one piece of information from this Dossier per success with a relevant skill. Throwing a modified 5- will start raising eyebrows and only some fast talking or creative message interception from Dmitri will keep the strike teams from being activated.

The skills listed with each data point should guide what information results from research, not absolutely restrict it. If the story justifies using Carousing or Engineering to uncover something about the financials at Pandora, go for it. If the players want to use Jack of All Trades, have them describe how they're using it so you'll know what kind of information to give them if they succeed.

• The data crystal (see What's On The Crystal? for contents) was created at the Pandora Research Facility, which is a small lab station in a close orbit around Elysium's sun for abundant solar power and easy incineration in case of facility-wide contamination. (Free info from Zoe's preliminary research.)
• Dr. Laura Falken works as the Facility Administrator on Pandora. She keeps track of the station's entire budget and approves all requests for materials and personnel, so chances are she's involved in the Black Market. (Admin, Bureaucracy, Computer, Liason, Medial, Merchant - get this info into the character's hands however you can.)
• Dr. Falken is also a noted biomedical researcher who has worked with containing and preventing fast-spreading diseases in the past, but her research output has dropped to nothing since taking on the Administrator job. (Medical.)
• The station is very close to the sun, so it's well-shielded. It has a modular design, with each module connected to a spine running the entire length of the station so each section can be individually jettisoned if needs be. (Bureaucracy, Computer. Station blueprints forthcoming.)
• Pandora needs research specimens. Specifically, they'll pay 10kCr per Quartz Jaguar delivered to them in good health, no questions asked. Quartz Jaguars are killing machines and a real pain to catch without damage. They're found on the icy rock of Elysium-7, the outermost planet in the system. (Carousing, Liason, Merchant. Any of the local traders will know this.)
• Some recently delivered supplies and equipment don't fit with any of Pandora's declared research projects from their last update to the Chief Research Officer. They have 4 projects on that report, each dealing with the physiology of non-carbon-based life forms like the Quartz Jaguar. (Admin, Bureaucracy, Computer.)
• The extra supplies and equipment can be used for synthesizing infectious agents, psychotropic drugs, and nerve agents. (Medical.)
• MediShield has a broad agreement with the Imperium to provide vaccinations and medical care to the armed forces in exchange for lax oversight and tax breaks. The Imperium can't really pressure MediShield or they'll go broke vaccinating the Marines alone. (Computer, Liason.)
• Pandora is one of at least 8 autonomous research facilities maintained by MediShield and scattered throughout the sectors. They're treated as individual Skunk Works facilities to develop new products and research newly found infectious agents to develop vaccines and protocols for decontamination. They're ultimately deniable and any work that MediShield gets in trouble for can easily become the sole responsibility of the Facility's Administrator. (Bureaucracy, Liason.)
• There are 22 researchers and 12 security staff working at Pandora according to the last personnel manifest. A few researchers' families live on board as well, so a frontal assault on the station may not be the best plan. (Admin, Bureaucracy, Computer.)

(NOTE: I'll probably be adding more data points here as time goes on, but this should be enough to get the characters on the right path.)

Further Hooks
There's not much here to tie the Black Market at Pandora to Admiral Greenberg, the CCO and suspected mastermind of the whole operation. Perhaps a visit to Pandora will turn up some concrete evidence.

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Traveller Adventure: MediShield's Black Market

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MediShield's Black Market

An adventure for Classic Traveller Little Black Books set on Elysium, a TL8 agrarian world. (Return to the Traveller Adventure Cover Page.)

Summary
With Zoe's and Dmitri's help, the characters can get a sense of how far up the corporate ladder the corruption has spread. Selling weaponized diseases to the highest bidder doesn't sound like it conforms to the Hippocratic Oath, which MediShield still uses and respects.

Background
Once the characters come to terms with Dmitri in The Rat-Faced Plan, they can start asking questions about who runs the Black Market industry at MediShield. The characters still have the data crystal with its volatile contents detailed in What's On The Crystal?

Adventure

Dmitri technically belongs to the Computer Maintenance department at MediShield, but he takes his orders from the CCO (Chief Communications Officer) of the company, Admiral Joel Greenberg. Dmitri will gladly tell the characters everything he knows, but will warn against using his login ID. Looking for evidence on MediShield's computers using his ID will alert Admiral Greenberg that Dmitri has been compromised. This will result in the deployment of four more retrieval teams (that's 20 special forces grade combat operatives - see Drop That MacGuffin! for stats and modify as need) to permanently remove Dmitri (and anyone he happens to be sharing a building with when he's found) from the playing field in about a week.

As a gesture of good faith, Dmitri will call off the local goons he hired to follow Zoe's sister and mother. Zoe will have a hard time working with Dmitri, so keeping them separated as much as possible will help speed things along.

Zoe might have better luck with finding information. She has lower clearance, but with some detective work and time she can find some useful information. She will discover early on that the crystal was created at the Pandora Research Facility, which is a small lab station orbiting much closer to Elysium's sun for abundant solar power and easy incineration in case of facility-wide contamination. Refer to the Dossier on the Pandora Research Facility (forthcoming) for the rest of the information she can uncover using her skills and access.

Zoe working by herself will take about a week to piece together all the information. If the characters want to speed that process along, they can spend some time to help Zoe using either Admin, Computer, Liason, Medical, or Merchant skills. Each character can try once per day to throw a 9+ (DM +Skill) to give the character one piece of information from the Dossier per success. Throwing a modified 5- will start raising eyebrows and only some fast talking or creative message interception from Dmitri will keep the strike teams from being activated.

Further Hooks
The characters can stop gathering information at any time, but attempting to take apart the Black Market without at least the research contact's name at Pandora Research Facility will prove difficult. If the facility gets destroyed then Admiral Greenberg will simply accelerate his operations at other research facilities. Bringing evidence against Admiral Greenberg will take down the Black Market and make sure it won't start again elsewhere. Available evidence will be summarized in a forthcoming adventure.

Dmitri will not alert Admiral Greenberg to the fact that he's been compromised. He values his life too much to roll those dice.

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Traveller Adventure: Drop That MacGuffin!

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Drop That MacGuffin!


An adventure for Classic Traveller Little Black Books set on or near Elysium, a TL8 agrarian world.

Summary
A 5-person extraction team from MediShield arrives and stealthily assesses the characters' capabilities, looking to retrieve the data crystal. They'll steal it if possible, but fight to overpower if provoked. This could happen on Elysium or another world entirely.

Background
Once the non-corrupt executives at MediShield figure out that the data crystal is missing, they'll send their best operatives to get it back by whatever means necessary. Feel free to spring this encounter on the characters if the action starts to drag.

These characters should be challenging. They're very experienced and well-funded. Assume they have whatever they need to pull off a quiet recovery mission, including wagonloads of bribery money.

Adventure

The extraction team will observe the characters and assess their capabilities. They will attempt to steal the data crystal and disappear. If they're caught looking or have no other way to obtain it, they'll open negotiations to get it back or take it by force depending on what they think will work best against the characters.

Matt Stern (UPP ABA9A6 Brawling-2, Cutlass-3, Forward Observer-2, Gauss Rifle-4, Gunnery-2, Leader-4, Recon-3, Ship Tactics-1, Tactics-3, Vacc Suit-1, Zero-G Combat-1) leads the team. He rose through the ranks in the Marines as a deadly sniper with a reputation for being tough but fair. He usually hangs back to observe and offer long-range firepower with his Gauss Rifle if needed.

Janet Faraday (UPP CAC755 ACR-4, Brawling-3, Cutlass-3, Demolitions-2, Gambling-1, Instruction-1, Recon-2, Rifle-2, Vacc Suit-2, Wilderness Survival-1, Zero-G Combat-2) focuses on combat and trains with weapons every day. She has a few dirty tricks up her sleeve which got her kicked out of the Army on her high-gravity homeworld, and she is extremely difficult to kill.

Lindsay Westlake (UPP 479AB9 Admin-1, Body Pistol-1, Bribery-2, Broker-2, Leader-1, Liason-4, Navigation-1, Pilot-2) knows someone on every planet she lands on. She can talk your ear off and then sell it back to you. She's on the Scout Bureau's speed dial for first contact situations, but she started her career on a merchant ship. Nobody knows she's a latent telepath (Psionic Strength 6) which lets her detect lies and read emotions, giving her an edge in any negotiation.

Macintosh Guyver (UPP 956996 Blade-2, Brawling-1, Communications-2, Electronics-3, Engineering-4, Gravitics-2, Gunnery-1, Mechanical-3, Vacc Suit-1, Zero-G Combat-1) usually goes by Mac, and he can fix anything. Age has slowed him down a bit, but he still packs a mean punch. His many years in the Imperial Navy taught him everything there is to know about how starships work, and he can jury-rig just about anything.

Uther "Nul" Thomasson (UPP 6A9CB4 Bribery-2, Computer-3, Forgery-3, Interrogation-2, JoT-3, Navigation-2, SMG-2, Streetwise-1) continues to gain computer expertise. His time in the Imperial Navy Intelligence School taught him to read obsessively, and his list of contingency plans dwarfs most chess analysis books.

Further Hooks
If negotiations work, they will be happy to open communications with their boss in MediShield. It's up to you exactly who they work for - if they work for one of the corrupt executives who are involved in the black market side of the business, then the infiltration of Pandora Research Station will be much harder. If they work for one of the above-board execs, then there may be rewards or future employment forthcoming from MediShield.

Traveller Adventures: The Rat-Faced Plan

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The Rat-Faced Plan

An adventure for Classic Traveller Little Black Books set on Elysium, a TL8 agrarian world.

Summary
The characters need to figure out what Dmitri Valentin's plan was for moving the data crystal off-world. Relatedly, they need to figure out what to do with Dmitri once they get the information from him.

Background
In Zoe's Rat-Faced Man, the characters confronted and captured Dmitri to find out why he wanted the data crystal to leave Elysium. For a refresher on how dangerous the data on the crystal is, refer to What's On The Crystal?

Adventure

The characters need a safe place to hole up for a while and question Dmitri about the data crystal. Both Cronos and Athens have waterfront warehouse space available for a nominal rental fee. Dmitri is deceptive and amoral, though he has no real reason to lie to the party other than his own entertainment. If the characters start getting physical, he'll tell everything he knows. He's not prepared to die for his money, so he'll bargain to keep himself alive.

Dmitri has a device that can detect the data crystal, either by hooking into GPS satellites on a TL8+ world, or by direct detection within 100km. This is standard practice for data crystals containing research data, and Dmitri also knows how the tracking chip can be disabled temporarily.

The plan was to slip the crystal off Elysium in a random outbound freighter. The buyer has a team ready to retrieve the data crystal from the next planet the freighter stops at. They'll copy the data and put it back on the freighter. At some point MediShield will figure out that the crystal is missing and send their extraction team to take it back from the hapless freighter crew. The buyer deposits the remainder of the payment, and everyone involved in the Black Market takes their cut.

Dmitri's job was the field operative handling the initial placement of the crystal, plus keeping the "Missing Data Crystal" alert off of the executive summary sheet with his Computers skill. He takes direction from someone on the executive team, and he picked up the data crystal from Pandora Research Station, a MediShield-owned orbital lab facility elsewhere in the Elysium system.

Further Hooks
Dmitri won't be missed for a week or so, but he doesn't know that for sure. The characters can keep him with them, or they can let Marcus hold him in Elysium Guard detention for a week on an official-looking trumped-up charge to provide Dmitri some deniability to his bosses. Dmitri will propose the idea if nobody else thinks of it first, and if the characters work with Dmitri on this he'll owe the characters a favor. Either way he'll be polishing his resume since the Black Market won't be around for long with the characters investigating.

With Dmitri not blocking the daily alert about the data crystal, the extraction team will be on its way to Elysium by the next day, and they'll arrive within 10 days. Refer to Drop That MacGuffin! for more details on the extraction team.

Traveller Adventure: Zoe's Rat-Faced Man

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Zoe's Rat-Faced Man

An adventure for Classic Traveller Little Black Books set in and around the MediShield office in Cronos on Elysium a TL8 agrarian world.

Summary
A little surveillance work pays off as the characters discover who blackmailed Zoe Pulchra into moving the data crystal off-world.

Background
If the characters want to do some research based on Zoe's inability to talk about her situation in About A Guardsman, they can wire her up with a camera and microphone to monitor what happens during her day at the office. If the characters don't have Communication skills, Marcus can call in a favor and have a fellow Elysium Guardsman provide the equipment and expertise.

Adventure

Stakeouts can drag on. The trick is to cut to the exciting part. Zoe will head to work as usual, and at some point during the day she'll get a visit from the rat-faced man. Zoe works in the MediShield office in Cronos, near the Downport. It's an urban environment, but the parking lot is behind the building so it provides a little privacy for any extraction activities the party may wish to engage in. The characters may want to rent or buy a van for surveillance purposes.

Zoe's rat-faced man is a mid-level independent operative for MediShield. Dmitri Valentin (UPP 6B88A6 Admin-2, Body Pistol-2, Brawling-1, Bribery-1, Computer-2, Medical-1). He will eventually drop by Zoe's desk and ask about how the crystal job is progressing. He checked the crystal's location earlier and he'll ask questions if the characters carried it back to her house. If they left it on their ship, they'll stay under his radar. Dmitri is confident, but a little paranoid, especially given the plan he's running.

Zoe will keep her composure, but be very stressed about the whole situation. Dmitri has a special diplomatic permit that allows him to carry a gun at all times, and he won't be afraid to use it to threaten her.

If the characters act quickly, they can confront Dmitri. If approached about the data crystal, he'll immediately fight back with his Body Pistol, so the best bet is a preemptive attempt to capture him. Once the characters capture the rat-faced man they can question him to find out The Rat-Faced Plan. The best plan would be to catch him as he's leaving the building. If he knows the data crystal visited Zoe's apartment that she shares with Marcus, he'll have a driver (UPP 988544 Baseball Bat-1, Brawling-1) with him that also needs to be neutralized.

Further Hooks
Marcus can supply a couple of thrown Tangler Grenades to help. To throw a grenade, throw 18+, DM +Dexterity. On a hit, the target is immobilized for 5 minutes or until released. Immobilized characters can attempt to break out by throwing 22+, DM +Strength. Don't bother trying unless your Strength is A or higher.

Note: Yes, Tangler Grenades are an import from Star Frontiers, but a device that explodes into sticky strands to immobilize a target without serious injury works in my book. And the strands break down in an oxygen atmosphere after 5 minutes, so no unsightly stains remain on your target's clothing. The U.S. Military has had similar technology for years, so I feel justified in having them on a TL8 world with a ban on firearms.