One Damn Thing After Another (Play Reports)

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So, I had decided off-the-cuff that there was exactly 1 ton of freight headed to Enos. I did that, not remembering anything about Enos from the Mongoose Sword Worlds book.

Reading the book, even 1 ton of freight is a lot! It's a low-pop E-class world with a Sword Worlder culture and some hinky Confederation Navy shenanigans apparently going on. So, last night while I was getting my daughter to sleep, I was laying there thinking about how to introduce Sword Worlder culture to the PCs and a few ideas gelled.

I thought it was time to introduce an interesting NPC. I like Cugel the Clever (from the Jack Vance books Eyes of the Overworld and Cugel's Saga) so I invented Reynard Fuchs (pronounce FEWks). In my head, I pictured his background: great-great-great-grandparents "emigrated" from the Sword Worlds to the 3I -- in the SWC, Holmgang Duels are illegal and supposed to be nonlethal, but people do get killed, and the survivor's family can leave the SWC to avoid retribution and legal consequences. Then, Reynard's parent emigrated back. So he's a sort-of-Imperial sort-of-Sword Worlder. Just to give him a lot of baggage, because baggage can be interesting, I decided he's also of Lapp extraction, and the Suomi (Lapps) were historically viewed by the Vikings as tricksters and sorcerers. So, he's basically a second-class citizen everywhere in the SWC.

I picture the likely series of events: the players land at the "starport" which is just a flat stone area surrounded by concrete baffles and lightning rods next to the airfields. There's no office. Travellers will be told to go to the Utlendingsbar if they all about the recipient of their cargo, "Clan Hevnarstead." The bartender pretends not to speak Anglic. If they mention Hevnarstead, a short guy at the bar takes an interest. It's Reynard, and he offers to be their guide for a small fee. Through him I can start to introduce Sword Worlds culture.

 

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My idea is that Reynard swore to follow Captain Slangr Hevnar as steward and pilot for, let's say four years. Slangr, however, eventually headed back to Enos to take over the clan holdings after someone passed away. Reynard is stuck in his contract (in the Sword Worlds, word is bond -- if he leaves he's broken the contract, and Slangr doesn't care about Reynard at all as he's not kin). But he has no work. He won't starve, he basically has a status of a bondr of clan Hevnar, so he gets subsistence food and drink on Enos, but he has no prospects. He's a bit of a scoundrel, though, and has a plan to liven things up. He signs on as "skald," and asks the PCs for a Cr100 advance, cash.

He can tell players the basic info about Enos from the Sword Worlds book: there's one main settlement at the South Pole (not given a name in the book, but I'm calling it Óskópnir, which is the spot where Ragnarok will be fought in one account). Clans have mostly-independent holds elsewhere on the planet, where they do some mining and petrochemical refinement, but it's not a Rich world by any standard. The outsystem is a bunch of smaller rocky bodies. The mainworld was destined to be a super-sized planet when an ancient impact caused it to shed much of its mass in blobs that became the outsystem while the dense, metallic core remained as Enos. It's non-Agricultural and Poor, but Sword Worlds traders frequently come here and sell their goods to the local clan leaders at ridiculously low prices. No Imperial ship has docked here in years.

He directs their air/raft to Hevnarstead. "The Hevnar clan is well-known for their generosity." (A patent lie.) When they get out, he falls and gets a black eye, but shrugs it off. When they enter the compound, the guards take control of the 1 dton shipment crate as Slangr comes over with his guards. My players will be curious, so I'll let them make Perception rolls to see if they see anything. I've no immediate ideas, so the old standby of "advanced weapons parts" may end up being what I go with; the local TL is 4 (CT)/7 (GT), but the implication in the MGT2 Sword Worlds book is that the system is being set up as an advance base for eventual SWC aggression towards District 268/Five Sisters/etc. So, having a cache of higher TL weapons in-system would be beneficial logistics for the Confederate Navy.

Reynard has been chatting with a guard, and now approaches Slangr and does the business stuff per Sword Worlds cultural norms: he gets the PCs' paperwork signed, and asks if he can get work with Slangr. "These offworlders, they are cruel masters! They beat me! Look at my black eye!" He throws himself at Slangr's feet, but Slangr recoils and then bursts out laughing. "I stay on-planet for now, worm! You should have been more circumspect with your bonds! Blame your own tongue!" "At least let me serve as carl to work through my remaining time! I could work at your farm!" (Enos requires dedicated hydroponic farms to allow for crop-growing. It's not going to be enough to support any population expansion, but I have a hard time seeing Sword Worlders not trying to be self-sufficient.) "Ha! You, a carl! Well... I am feeling generous. Currently, Vígríðr is full. But when we start with Surtshellir in a few years, I will see if you are... still alive! Ha ha ha!" He leaves. Reynard picks himself up, and talks to the same guard from before as they leave.

"We're in luck! He said we can take a full load from his water tanks!" "What?" "Yes, he has full tanks at one of his farms, I will direct you!" They go into the desolation many miles via air/raft and arrive at a monolithic enclosed hydroponic farm, in brutalist architectural style. "There's no one here! I doubt he said we could have water!" "If he didn't, why did he give me the keys?" Reynard jangles some keys on his finger. The place is set up, but nothing is planted yet. Water is stored in vast underground tanks, and transported by plane. I'm picturing the planes being clunky affairs, covered in heat-resistant tiles that constantly have to be replaced. One is in the hangar. Reynard helps them fill up 20 dtons of water tanks and put them in the plane. Of course, as a small craft pilot who has been to many low-tech systems, Reynard can fly the plane. They get back to the airfield, and Reynard helps them fill their starship fuel tanks. "I'll bring this back to our benefactor... Eventually! Perhaps I will test this old plane to make sure it is still airworthy by checking a few sites of interest I have heard of! Look me up if you are ever back on Enos!"

I'm not sure about this whole synopsis. I see many places where it could easily go off the rails. But at least its the bones of an idea... that came to me in the middle of a sleepless night. Hoping typing it all out will reveal the flaws!

Also, I've generated a donjon world map for Enos that I'll use:

 

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I also had fun when the PCs realized they could easily destroy their own vessel with their main gun.

"Wow! A direct hit from our Beam Laser would shoot through our ship like it was made of tin foil."
"Well, your character is remembering a old saying about the Scout Service. 'The Scouts fly around in itty-bitty little tin cans and get blown into space dust!' These are not military vessels in the strict sense; when impressed into service they're used for reconnaissance and minor transport so they Navy can send its warships to the front."

That was actually an old saying about the Scouts... in my old gaming group in the 80s when new players asked about the differences between the Service Branches.

 

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Sorry for the delay. Based on a suggestion on the Citizens of the Imperium boards I made a few changes.

My dream-inspired plan actually went off almost exactly as I dreamed, which is fairly rare. They ended up leaving the planet with no additional cargo, but plenty of questions. Afterwards they went to Caladbolg to deliver the rest of their freight.
The players ended up shopping a bit on Caladbolg. The Flatlined adventure means the characters start off considerably poorer than they do in many other campaigns; it felt like they were finally able to get to a point that they would ordinarily have started at! Afterward they were asked to come visit Commodore Natha Hamil Knowln, a noble working for Imperial Naval Intelligence. She offered them a job picking up a single passenger from Mithril, in the Sword Worlds, and bringing them back to Caladbolg. She impressed them as a no-nonsense military commander, despite her young age, and agreed to the task. She offered them double normal high passage rate. They looked around for some speculative cargo, but didn't find anything they felt was worthwhile.

When they arrived at Mithril. they descended to the landing pad, only for a cargo container on the pad to explode with an EMP burst that damaged the Highndry. They landed without other incident (thanks to a really fantastic piloting roll). After a wait where they were expecting an ambush, they went to check out the starport "complex" (four prefab buildings). They found them deserted and untouched. A check of the administration building led them to hack into the computers there, discovering that a ship had landed two days' previous, taken the guy who matched the photo they were given of their quarry, and then took him back to their ship and left after setting the EMP bomb.

A further check revealed some bodies in the starport's dump. They also discovered a case. Checking it they found it to be a memory core with TL15 computer security; they immediately decided this was the property of the guy they were sent for, and stowed it on their ship. They also got the distress call from an Sword Worlder expedition. In the original Mission on Mithril module from GDW, the replacement parts they need are owned by the startport who will give it to them in return for an overland trek; I decided to update this by deciding the starport had a TL10 fabrication unit, so you could load it with a design and it would build it over (1d6+DM)x10 hours, like a modern 3D printer.

They decided to set up the print jobs, leave their NPC crewmember (Anson, from Flatlined) to keep an eye on the ship, and go rescue the scientists with the ATV they found there. The remake, Mongoose's Mission to Mithril, definitely reflavors Mithril a bit like Dune, and my players ate it up. They had a blast negotiating challenging terrain, and were suitably impressed by their first encounter with a snow-worm (as depicted on the cover of the module -- that was the image I used as a cliffhanger at the end of the first session).

They ended up doing the detour to save the two stranded starport employees, avoided another encounter with a snow-worm, and then finally made it back to the starport.

Just to see the mercenaries that shot up the port returning in their stolen starship.

They ended up having their NPC fly the ship to a rendesvous location (she'd repaired the burnt-out parts with the fabricated replacements as they came off the press). The mercenaries' ship dropped off a crew at the complex, then flew about to find out what their other radar ping was -- the Highndry. There was a brief engagement. The first ambush shot from the Highndry took out the mercenaries' communications; the second shot caused the stolen starship to crash, killing the two dudes on the ship. Despite this, there was minimal damage to the ship. They then headed to the starport complex and used the starport's PA system to tell the mercenaries to surrender. The Highndry pilot shot a "warning shot" which killed one of the mercenaries.

As it turned out, the PCs had killed both the leader of the mercenary band and the XO. The rest of the mercenaries surrendered, secure in their repatriation bonds.

With order more-or-less restored, the players settled in. They printed replacement parts to get the stolen starship spaceworthy and collected the mercenaries, figuring they might have outstanding bounties in Imperial space. They discovered a low berth on the stolen starship containing the guy they'd originally been sent to find. I figured the mercenaries tortured him for the information they were hired to retrieve; when they learned it was on a device he'd hidden back at Mithril, they loaded him into a low berth to bring him with them, so they could thaw him if they needed more information to locate the device.

I have to figure out what the PCs' should get for returning the stolen starship. It's an Empress Marava-class Far Trader, normal cost MCr52.7832 in Mongoose 2E. There was an article by Jolly R. Blacburn in the second Traveller Compendium for Mongoose 1E which suggested 2% of the value of the vessel, which is still an enormous amount of money. I'm considering they could get a set amount of it from the bank on Caladbolg, but then must wait for the owners (a clan of Bwaps) to send a representative with the rest. That gives me something I can drop into the campaign later, at the most inopportune time. For instance, if the characters are suddenly in a hurry to leave, say, Gungnir because they've been discovered to be involved in something, but suddenly they receive a message from the courier, who is en route to Gungnir and expects to arrive within the week with the balance of the money...

Anyway, we ended with them back on their way to Caladbolg.

 

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I'm actually thinking I might give them a finder's fee (say, Cr50,000) up front from the bank, and then the bank has to confirm with the Bwap Clan to complete the process. And that the Bwaps might offer the players a discount on a different ship instead of straight cash; a lot of businesses run very tight margins and have very little liquid capital. If I time it properly, I can probably time it that the players make things too hot for the Highndry right as the offer comes through, which would dramatically interesting.

That leaves me open to the idea that the Bwap Clan also has a small shipyard outside of the Spinward Marches. Maybe they'll offer them something like a discount on a Doru-class Far Trader. Hmmm...

I better make sure that my players don't automatically associate Bwaps with villainy, as the first Bwap they met in the campaign (in the Mongoose version of Death Station) tried to set them up for a fall...

To be clear, they'll still need to have a mortgage, but even a MCr2 discount is nothing to sneeze at.