General An adventure in the style of a Patron Encounter

[Spinward Scout]

An adventure in the style of a Patron Encounter. Should be a quick adventure.

_____

The Scout Without...

While on your way out of the system, you set course for the large Gas Giant to refuel. As you get closer, a blip shows up on the sensors. When the scan gives you more detail, you see that it's a Scout/Courier.

Drifting.

Slowly rotating end to end.

Do you try to hail them?
Do you get closer to see what's wrong?
Do you try to board the ship?
Do you ignore it and keep on going??

Roll 1d6 if the Players choose to check out the ship and try to board it.

1.) No one is aboard.
The ship and crew were the victims of an accidental MisJump. The logs show the crew becoming more erratic as the weeks go by until they finally decide to blow themselves out of the airlock and get it over with quickly, instead of suffocating and freezing after they lose power. The timestamp on the log shows when the airlock was opened, and was almost immediately followed by the ship exiting JumpSpace as their bodies disrupted the already unstable Jump Bubble. The ship was caught up in the Gas Giant's gravity and was in a slowly decaying orbit. The Scout Service thanks you for recovering the ship. You're awarded MCr2.

2.) No one is aboard.
And you don't know why. The ship is just... empty. Checking the Logs, you find that all the Log Entries are normal. When you look closer, the timestamp on the Logs is 79 years ago. If you think to check, all of the remains were cleaned up by the Janitor Bot and are in the refuse bin. The Scout Service thanks you for recovering the ship. You're awarded MCr2.

3.) Someone is aboard.
And their ship had lost power just before getting to the Gas Giant to refuel. The Astrogator was able to get the ship in an orbit before losing power. The crew would be appreciative and grateful if you let the borrow some fuel.

4.) Someone is aboard.
And they warn you off. They caught a bug or something on the last world. Which became much worse during the week in JumpSpace. A rescue ship could be a long way away. Which is why they shut down and gave up.

5.) It's a trap.
As soon as you board the other ship, a Pirate ship comes out of the atmosphere of the Gas Giant on a course straight for you.

6.) Something else is aboard.
There is a creature aboard and when you roll a d6, odd numbers mean the creature stalks the crew, and even numbers mean the creature tries to get aboard YOUR ship!
The creature could be small or big, but it must be fast and be able to engage in Combat with the crew. And it might have acid for blood. Or not. The scene does need to be moody and spooky, so flickering lights and the floor grav plates are malfunctioning a little, so everything seems a bit tilted.
If you survive, the Scout Service thanks you for recovering the ship. You're awarded MCr2.

 

[robject]

Thank you! And now I have a question.

3.) Someone is aboard.
And their ship had lost power just before getting to the Gas Giant to refuel. The Astrogator was able to get the ship in an orbit before losing power. The crew would be appreciative and grateful if you let the borrow some fuel.

If it was the players who were in this situation, I suppose I might let them try to refuel via skimming... assuming they could place their ship into a decaying orbit that was slow enough for them to refuel before they reenter.

Thoughts?

 

[Spinward Scout]

Thank you! And now I have a question.
If it was the players who were in this situation, I suppose I might let them try to refuel via skimming... assuming they could place their ship into a decaying orbit that was slow enough for them to refuel before they reenter.

Thoughts?

You're welcome.

I thought about that, too. I was thinking it was just a far orbit and an inexperienced Astrogator. They couldn't quite make it to skim and would have hit the atmosphere too hard to brake. I'm not proficient in orbital mechanics.

 

[kilemall]

Gotta say the Scout Service are cheapskates, that's a whole ship!

Under marine salvage law as we backwater E TL8 types understand it, the salvors would be compensated by a percentage of the value of the ship.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_salvage



Given that it's damaged and in some cases decades of wear and tear it wouldn't be a full base value and the relative ease of salving should probably merit a lower percentage, even 10% of say a lower value of MCr20 is Mcr2.

And if the Scout Service DID persist in such low rewards, a LOT MORE of their distressed ships would end up never being heard from again while salvers part out the ship and earn far more in the secondhand parts market. False economy.

 

[whartung]

If it was the players who were in this situation, I suppose I might let them try to refuel via skimming... assuming they could place their ship into a decaying orbit that was slow enough for them to refuel before they reenter.

There's some technical hurdles.

Without power, can you open the scoops/vents to draw fuel?

Without power can you process the raw gasses into something useable as fuel?

Without power can you use the pumps to move fuel from where it is to where it needs to be?

And how little of all of this do you need to light the power plant/drive and can you get out of trouble in time?

 

[Spinward Scout]

Given that it's damaged and in some cases decades of wear and tear it wouldn't be a full base value and the relative ease of salving should probably merit a lower percentage, even 10% of say a lower value of MCr20 is MCr2.

Fixed it.

Thanks!

There's some technical hurdles.

Those are great!

I just thought if they didn't get the right orbit, they'd hit the atmosphere too hard.

 

[kilemall]

There's some technical hurdles.

Without power, can you open the scoops/vents to draw fuel?

Without power can you process the raw gasses into something useable as fuel?

Without power can you use the pumps to move fuel from where it is to where it needs to be?

And how little of all of this do you need to light the power plant/drive and can you get out of trouble in time?

Thought of a standard answer in the salver's toolkit-


The 36 EP capacitor from CT/HG.



Charge that bad boy up, have it onboard a small craft in most instances, run cabling in, jumpstart the fusion plant if intact or run power directly into the distribution system if that's all that is functional, and boost the ship into a stable orbit at a minimum.


1 ton for any ACS salvage should suffice.

 

[boomslang]

Thought of a standard answer in the salver's toolkit-

The 36 EP capacitor from CT/HG.

Charge that bad boy up, have it onboard a small craft in most instances, run cabling in, jumpstart the fusion plant if intact or run power directly into the distribution system if that's all that is functional, and boost the ship into a stable orbit at a minimum.

1 ton for any ACS salvage should suffice.

Ironically, a crew might even salvage these 4MCr-per-each capacitors themselves from wrecked Jump drives; CT/HG tells us that they make up half of the bulk of any given Jump drive, so they should be easy to come by, have their own resale value independent of precious lanthanum coils and zuchai crystals, and so on.