Accursed: World of Morden

Melior Via had me at this amazing logo!

Okay my dear gamers, and especially my fellow Savages, let's have a brief chat…

Melior Via, the awesome group of folks behind Accursed, is in the middle of a Kickstarter for their new expansion sourcebook: Accursed: World of Morden!  If you aren't familiar with this Savage Worlds dark fantasy campaign setting here's a quick description by +Ross Watson:

"The fast, fun, and furious play of Savage Worlds is a perfect fit for the perils and triumphs of adventure in Accursed.  In Accursed, Hammer Horror films meet Hellboy, and Solomon Kane meets Castlevania. The game world allows players to take on the roles of characters with curses; they are Dhampir (Half-vampire charming rogues), Golems (living creatures crafted from unliving materials, similar to Frankenstein’s monster), Vargr (werewolves), Mummies, Mongrels (men with bestial limbs and other body parts grafted onto their bodies), and Revenants (the living dead)."

Note the section I put in bold.  With that one line, I was sold, and have enjoyed the crazy ride here with my friends and family.  

Boo yah, Melior Via… Boo yah!

Personally, I've run Accursed for my wife and kiddos with a bit of an Adams Family twist.  Here's an example of one of our sessions we ran for #SantaGaming:  Night of the Wereindeer

Accursed makes for great, albeit twisted, family fun!

The original Accursed Campaign Setting introduced Savage World players and GM's to this unique story of redemption, and Accursed: Sand and Stone expanded upon two of Morden's nations.  With the Accursed: World of Morden Kickstarter, Melior Via can deliver gazetteers for the rest of this gothic universe.

That's where you come in! 

It's important to note that the Accursed: World of Morden Kickstarter is already funded.  They knocked out the initial funding goal in less than a day.  But they need a bit more to hit those awesome stretch goals.  So I'm here to spread the word.  

Go check out the Accursed: World of Morden Kickstarter, and see if it's something you're interested in playing.  Heck, for $60, you get a PDF of everything, including the original book!

If you'd like more details about this cool setting, let me offer you a little more insight.  

First, I had the opportunity to interview +Jason Marker and +John Dunn on Living 4 Crits.

Or if you want to watch the game in play, I ran an online session last week with +Francois Labrecque, +Andrew Cady, +Jeff Scifert, +Marc Plourde, and +andrew lyon.  

Also, +Kristian Serrano and +Ron Blessing had a chat with the folks at Melior Via during their +Savage Bloggers Network show:

Finally, if you have any other questions feel free to post in the comments.  

Metal Myk's Mercs - A Numenera: Into the Night Adventure

The Orbital Listening Post SB-426 by Miska Fredman

A Recipe for Adventure

I've never shared a full, home-brewed adventure on Living 4 Crits.  I've come close several times, walking readers through my thought processes as I draft stories.  When I create a new creature or artifact, I'm quick to post the stats, and the same goes for any new and unusual game mechanics.  Recursions are a particular favorite of mine to share, as the small setting kernels are easily "plug and play" for anyone's campaign of The Strange.  

But still, I've never shared an adventure.

Like most role-playing game enthusiasts, I carry that dream of creating the next legendary module that fans will be talking about for decades.  The next "Ravenloft" or "Keep on the Borderlands."  Certainly I believe that I have the storytelling ability to "tell" a compelling story, which is why I enjoy being a game master.  But taking those thoughts and ideas, and putting them down on paper as guidelines for others (not myself) to use has always felt like an enormous obstacle.  

There are three barriers that obstruct my quest to write a publishable adventure:

1. The adventure documents I create are simple, fairly short outlines, no more than two to three pages.  
2. I never write out flavor text or dialogue, I just generate this on the fly.
3. If, mid-adventure, I feel like something isn't working, I have no problem changing the rest of the story, or even the plot.  

This totally works for me, as I believe it would for most GM's who write their own material.  But I'm still not sure how to translate this into something more sharable.

Well today I'm going to try! 

I'm still not ready to share a fully fleshed out adventure, but perhaps this is a step in the right direction.  In this post you will find an adventure outline that should a creative GM everything they would need to run this adventure again, as well as some room to add their own material.  Since I've never done this before, I'm interested in hearing your feedback on my process.  Maybe if I clean this up, and add some meat to the outline's bones, I can get it in a future CypherCaster Magazine issue! 

Overview

Metal Myk's Mercs is a short adventure intended as an introduction to both Numenera as well as the Into the Night campaign sourcebook.  The adventure takes characters from the city of Nihliesh to the floating remains of a dead outpost in The Phaeton Halo.  I admit, some of the inspiration for this adventure came from a classic 1980's sci-fi epic: The Last Starfighter!  

But the primary source of inspiration came from an incredible map by +Miska Fredman.  Orbital Listening Post SB-426.  This hand drawn map details a six level station that could be host for all sorts of adventures.  It's a virtual dungeon in space… perfect for Numenera.  Actually there are quite a few of Miska's maps that would be great for the Ninth World, from a crashed starship to the remains of a fallen giant mechanical being.  Make sure to visit Miska's Patreon page and become a patron!

My wife Jennifer wanted me to make sure to include one last source of inspiration for this adventure, or at least for the adventure name.  It involves Jimmy Fallon, Channing Tatum, and a certain "magic" movie.  You can watch the video on YouTube here.  

Metal Myk's Mercs - Adventure Outline

Opening

• The adventure begins in Nihliesh, the great city at the edge of The Beyond.
• The characters may have started their adventure in Nihliesh, or perhaps they are passing through.
• This adventure works best if the characters are strapped for shins.
• Perhaps the characters are Churn refiners, and they are looking to become adventurers.  
• In the session I ran, the characters are traveling from Seshar to the Sea Kingdom of Ghan and are broke.
• Bel's Bar & Coffins
• This establishment was first featured in Tales of the Broken Mask, Session 2, an adventure I ran for my weekly Cypher System group.
• Bel's Bar & Coffins is a small establishment in the First Tier of Nihliesh
• It barely qualifies as much more than a pair of rooms adjacent to a tube connecting two Churn workshops.
• Flickering lights line the ceiling, powered by unknown sources within Nihliesh.
• The floors haven't been swept in months, and are thick with orange buildup.
• The rooms are damp and smell of sewer gas masked by incense. 
• The rooms are both too hot and too cold.  Near the vents it is unbearably warm.  But anywhere else it is frigid.  
• The first room is the bar, worked by Bel.  
• Seven stools, each connected to the bar, line the front.  Massive jugs of various liquids sit behind the bar.  
• The Coffins are a room of sleeping pods.
• One wall has 45 total coffins.  Nine across, five high.
• Each coffin is two feet across by two feet high and eight feet deep.
• In a former world, these small chambers were possibly some sort of stasis pods, used to keep living creatures in suspended animation.  
• Bel just rents them out for one shin a night.  Typically they are all full.
• GM Intrusion Opportunity:  A player tries to wake from the pod, but accidentally engages the stasis cycle.  The pod closes and starts to flood with a viscous liquid designed for another life form.  A human or visitant submerged will take 3 Might damage for every round submerged in the substance.  Level 4 difficulty.
• Bel
• A blonde human woman who owns Bel's Bar & Coffins.
• Bel's face is never visible, it is always covered by a dark, visored mask.  
• Bel is a member of the Blessed Hunters of the Broken Mask, a religious order of bounty hunters and assassins, and acts as both a fixer as well as an agent.

Meeting Metal Myk

• Bel will introduce the characters to Metal Myk after they wake up from a night's rest.
• Perhaps she wants something in return, and is setting them up with this work as a trade.
• It is obvious that Bel has worked with Metal Myk before.
• Bel knows the following pieces of information about Metal Myk:
• Metal Myk is also a fixer, but not aligned directly with the Broken Mask.
• Metal Myk often approaches the Churn working collectives for possible work, before turning it over to Numenera hunters and adventurers. 
• Metal Myk has mentioned in the past that he works for someone known as Ghamalso the Collector.  Bel does not know who this is, nor does anyone else in Nihliesh.  
• For more information about Ghamalso the Collector see pages 76 - 79 of Numenera: Into the Night.  
• Metal Myk 
• Level 4 Sentient Automaton 
• Lover not a fighter: level 2 for all combat activity
• Mechanical mind:  level 6 mental defense
• Health 12, Armor 3
• Description
• Appears to be a shiny mechanical man, with angular plating around all of his features.
• His voice is masculine, bright, and cheerful, with a slight echo as if it is coming from the inside of a tin can.
• He is overly pleasant, and very prone to flattery.  
• If a character tries to notice anything in particular about Metal Myk, they will realize that being close to him causes a metallic taste in their mouth.  

The Job

• Metal Myk state that he oversees several nearby outposts, and one (Outpost Ki) is currently under a terrible threat.
• According to Metal Myk, Outpost Ki is one of several outposts near Nihliesh that bear significance for the Churn refining operations of the city.  
• This is not true. 
• If the characters speak with anyone regarding Churn operations in Nihliesh, they will find that no one knows of these outposts.  No one has even heard of them.  No one but Metal Myk.
• His last crew was not able to take care of the attacks.  Requires problem solvers, not soldiers. 
• Says that the creatures attacking the outpost should be of no concern… they are like shellfish.  Learned in Ancuan of similar creatures called scallops.  
• He may also refer to them as "clam-like" or "bivalves."
• If pressured, he will say that they are very intelligent scallops, no larger than two hands in width.
• This is a lie.
• Metal Myk will downplay any discussion of these creature's size.
• Metal Myk is unwilling to go to the location of Outpost Ki, as he is needed in Nihliesh.  
• The threat of these scallops will eventually destroy the outpost.  May refer to an "insidious plot", but he does not elaborate. 
• Payment is 100 shins for each character, negotiable up to 125. 
• The characters are given a map showing Outpost Ki, which he refers to as a "plate."  He asks that the outpost is protected for one evening.  

Metal Myk's Motives

• Metal Myk is a pawn of Ghamalso the Collector, a strange humanoid who inhabits the Phaeton Halo in the Night out past Naharrai.
• Outpost Ki is actually the name of a long abandoned outpost in the Phaeton Halo.  
• Metal Myk is constantly on the lookout for humans from the Ninth World to send to Ghamalso.  
• What the Collector does with these humans is not Metal Myk's concern.  
• It most likely isn't pleasant.
• The Outpost serves as a holding cell for the humans sent there, and every several weeks Ghamalso will pilot his own Nightcraft to this outpost and pick up his new deliveries.  
• Recently a Sorg Warbreaker (Into the Night, pages 152 - 153) took an interest in this outpost, and it has killed the last two deliveries.  
• Metal Myk needed to find a crew with more useful skills to deal with this threat, so that it would not cause his master any trouble. 

The Plate

• Following the cloth map given to the party by Metal Myk, the characters end up at a metal disk is in the hills.
• The disk is at the top of a rocky hill, hovering just above the ground.
• The disk is 25 feet across, silver, and has a slight hum.  
• The top of the disk has a mirror finish.
• At the center of the disk is a thin spike, with a strange circular panel resting on the top showing various hard to describe images.
• There are definitely no scallops in sight.  No shells, no remains of shells.  
• GM Intrusion:  The sight of the disk causes one of the characters to vomit.  It should be explained to the player that somehow the sight is incredibly upsetting and nightmarish, despite not initially appearing so.  The affected character gains an inability when interacting with the disk.  
• As soon as one of the player characters steps onto the disk, the entire group is teleported elsewhere.

Transit to Outpost Ki

• There is an initial rush of speed as the character are dragged through space and time.
• They see light, fire, smoke, darkness.  
• If time permits, have each player share a story about their character's past.  Something from their childhood.  Award the most interesting story by letting that player gain training with a random skill (similar to Flex Skill) until they use their next recovery roll.  

Arriving at Outpost Ki

• The characters may not know it, but they are now on an outpost within the Phaeton Halo, slowly orbiting the sun amidst the wrecks and rubble of a billion years.  
• Once the characters arrive at the outpost, make all the players close their eyes.  
• The characters should feel alone, isolated, and afraid and this will help everyone stay in character.
• Don't let players open their eyes unless they need to briefly look at their character sheets.  Then they need to close their eyes again.
• Until the characters use some kind of light source, their eyes should remain shut.
• The situation:
• The characters feel like they are falling, and are a little sick to their stomach.
• They hear a low hum and many gears or machines grinding around them.
• The smell of burning electronics and synth is in the air.
• If the characters call out they can hear each other.
• This remains in place until someone turns on a light source, or if someone can see in the dark. 
• Weightlessness
• The characters are, and shall remain weightless in zero-g gravity throughout the entirety of this adventure.  
• While weightless, the characters must use handholds to move about, or any other pieces of equipment or numenera.  
• The Datasphere
• If a nano or other character with possible access to the datasphere attempts to make a connection, instead they are connected to Outpost Ki's onboard artificial intelligence: Guy.
• Guy was once the last resident of Outpost Ki, and rather than die, he chose to transfer his consciousness to the Outpost computer.  Unfortunately as the outpost's systems deteriorated, so did Guy.  
• GM Intrusion:  The character attempts to access either the datasphere or Guy, and Guy tries to take over part of the character's mind.  

Exploring Outpost Ki

• The ancient aliens that existed on this station were four to five foot tall, green skinned creatures.  
• They had eight tentacle like limbs, including two legs and six arms.  
• At the end of two "primary" arms were seven finger-like digits. 
• It is important to note that most of the outpost is not fully described.  GM's should customize portions of the map to suit their liking.  
• The rest of the chambers within the facility include:
• The holographic image of an ancient alien, going about their regular routine.  Cooking, cleaning, checking sensors that are no longer operational.  
• An old, alien janitor closet with several metal buckets and a weird vacuum that can be reversed with a successful difficulty 2 numenera roll.  That would allow it to be used as a transportation device while on the station.
• Some sleeping racks for the ancient alien crew of the station.  The racks are designed for their anatomy.  A successful difficulty 3 Intellect based search roll will reveal 1d3 oddities.  
• A weapon turret at the bottom of the outpost with three Spectral Bulb generators.  These are the only working computers on the craft, and if repaired they can be used to attack the Sorg Warbreaker.  
• Spectral Bulb: Level 5 difficulty to repair, Speed to use, 10 damage.  
• On the Outpost Map at the top of this page, the characters start in the center of the chamber on the top of the map. 
• The floors of the outpost are made of smooth metal, while the walls are made of aged, yellow-white synth that is often scarred and broken.
• Most of the controls and devices in the outpost are no longer operational.  Characters can attempt to open these controls for scrap, cyphers, or oddities with a difficulty 5 numenera knowledge roll.
• The doors inside the facility are all opened without difficulty.  

The Sorg Warbreaker

• Found on pages 152 and 153 of Numenera: Into the Night
• This massive, hippo-sized, weapon wielding, spacefaring bivalve is currently trying to break into Outpost Ki.  
• The Sorg Warbreaker, if contacted telepathically, is interested in numenera and raw materials.
• Once they know the characters are on board, it becomes even more interested in cracking open the station.
• Every once in a while the Sorg Warbreaker will attack the outpost.  
• The damage to the station forces every character to make a difficulty 3 speed defense roll, difficulty 4 if the characters are near a wall or piece of furniture.
• Failure on this roll causes the character to slap into an object, taking 3 points of Might damage.
• The third attack will cause more significant damage:
• A crack in the outpost's hull causes a loss of atmosphere.  Without a difficulty 5 repair roll, this will force all the characters in the room to start suffering from vacuum (difficulty 5 might defense roll, or go down one step on the damage track) in five rounds.  
• Acidic gas leak.  Difficulty 4 might defense roll, or the characters in the room will start taking 5 damage per round.  The gas persists for three rounds until it is vented, or the room is evacuated.
• A release of evaporated medical supplies from the outpost's laboratory.  Difficulty 4 Intellect defense roll or suffer from minor hallucination, giving the character a compulsion that another character is a threat.
• GM Intrusion:  The sight of the Sorg Warbreaker, coupled with the infinite darkness of space, causes the character to panic.  They refuse to allow other characters near a window for the next minute.  
• The Sorg Warbreaker will continue to attack the station, until they break through.  If the player characters don't find some way to deal with the creature it will continue to cause more damage to the station, eventually causing a crack in the hull that will vent the characters out into space.  
• If you have more than three players in your group, you should add a second Sorg Warbreaker.

End Game

• The most obvious solution would be to use the Spectral Bulb generators to attack the Sorg Warbreaker.  Each attack will anger the creature, causing it to attack the station again.  Without a character or two making necessary repairs, this could lead to a total party kill.  
• Another solution would be to lure the Sorg Warbreaker through the large cargo door on the main level and deal with it directly.  
• James' Note:  Often I do not have any idea how an adventure will end.  I like to see whatever ideas my players come up with, and I go with the flow.  Feel free to come up with even more options.  
• Once the Sorg Warbreaker is defeated, the characters are stuck.  
• There is no portal back to Earth.  
• They end up trapped on the outpost.
• If part of a campaign, let the players role-play this "survival mode".  Perhaps they need to bring the Sorg Warbreaker inside the station for food (and numenera.)  
• Alternatively they could raid some ancient food stores and see if anything remains, including water.
• After several weeks Ghamalso the Collector arrives, which could be the start of a whole new series of adventures Into the Night!

*     *     *

If you are interested in seeing how this adventure played out during out online one-shot, here's the video:

My Gaming Books Smell

My books smell.

All of them.

To clarify, I am referring to my role-playing books.

My paper back novels all just smell the same.

But my role-playing game manuals give off some kind of imagination pheromone.

This is possible, as they are all alive.

To be sure, this is not a bad smell.

These strong sturdy books, some with flashy covers, while others dirty and frail, are all so very unique.

As I've grown older, I can identify many without using my eyes.

Just my nose.

I pondered this today while having coffee, enjoying a reread of Savage Worlds Deluxe.

Closing my eyes, the scent reminded me of the very first time I opened that very same book.

May 2012.  Atlantic City.  A work conference.  A boring hotel room.

Imagination pheromones.

Most likely something Studio 2 Publishing puts in their special ink.

Today I realized that my Savage Worlds books actually smell like Savage Worlds.

How perfect!

Other books on my shelf have their own distinctive perfumes.

Some, like Firefly or The Strange, are fragrant, cheerful, and new.  

They transport me somewhere completely unfamiliar, yet exciting and wonderful.  

It's a new car smell... for books.    

While I carefully clutch the older books the smells get more complex.  

Fine wine.

My Hackmaster 4th Edition Players Handbook, for instance, has a perfume of pungent ink mixed with unbalanced game mechanics and something else.

There is just a hint of my parents basement in Delaware.  

Several years ago we almost moved to Delaware, and closer to my mom and dad.

I remember sealing this book up with a bunch of others to be kept in their house for the move.

We didn't move.  

Eventually I had to bring them all back. 

Of all my books, the most classic smell is that of my Alternity Players Handbook.  

Alternity is the first game I learned completely on my own.

In college I taught Alternity to anyone willing to play.

Alternity was mine.

I recall reading those pages for the first time while waiting for a freshman history class. Crafting voyages across the stars in a dark and disheveled college apartment bedroom. There is still a slight scent of incense in the Mindwalking section.  

That old book smell is certainly present, and it makes me sad.  

One day these pages will certainly fall out, and the book will no longer be of use at a table. Not that I play Alternity anymore.

But one day again I may.

I hope.  

Yes, I could certainly identify my books by their smell alone.  

Some smell like tomorrow, while others of today.  

The very best smell like yesterday or the day before.  

Yet sadly, too many smell like never again.  

My favorites, of course, smell like forever. 

Cygnus Adrift - A Savage Worlds: The Last Parsec Adventure

Cygnus Adrift - An Adventure in Random Space

Happy New Year!  

This particular game session was very special for several reasons:

1. It's my first role-playing game session of 2016.
2. We got to celebrate the New Year with the Norwin Game Knights.
3. I got to play The Last Parsec, which is probably in the lead right now for my favorite Savage Worlds setting of all time!  

After announcing our New Years gaming celebration, I started thinking about what RPG I was going to run.  I needed something that I could pull off in 2-3 hours.  I wanted something that could be very visually appealing, as we would be playing in a public place: the Norwin Public Library.  But I also wanted science fiction, and space ships, and aliens, and airlocks.

Although we are right in middle of a Season of Star Wars, and I loved The Force Awakens, Star Wars never scratches my true science-fiction itch.  Between the easy space travel, weird tech level (Droids don't have WiFi!), and the Force, Star Wars seems too much like science fantasy for me.  When I'm craving science fiction, I tend to gravitate towards Firefly, Riddick, and Mass Effect, with a hint of Guardians of the Galaxy…

… that just happens to be my description of The Last Parsec!

This wouldn't be the first time I cracked open this Savage Worlds sci-fi setting at a Norwin Game Knights event.  Last summer I playtested my Gen Con Last Parsec adventure featuring the world of Leviathan.  While tempted to return to one of the worlds in the plot point campaign books, I wanted to come up with an adventure on my own…

… but I was short on time.

Fortunately The Last Parsec: Core was part of my haul at Gen Con 2015!

As well as including all kinds of great campaign source material for your Jumpcorp operatives, The Last Parsec: Core also has a sweet little Adventure Generator!  The last time  I used an adventure generator for Savage Worlds, the one featured in East Texas University, I cooked up "Someone Banish Grandma", an adventure that I never would've thought up on my own.  

You'll soon find out that the generator in The Last Parsec: Core doesn't disappoint!  

To add some additional flavor, I also drew from the World Maker in the Science Fiction Companion.  

Remember when I mentioned that I wanted something "visual" for this session?  0-hr Art & Technology had me covered!  I printed out a full deck plan for the Cygnus, a large exploration vessel that could work in just about any sci-fi setting that involves spaceships.  Heck, given the "saucer/nacelle" look, you could use it as a scout craft in a Star Trek campaign.  

Before I go into my typical adventure summary, let's look at how I included the random tables.

Adventure Generation Basics

The Last Parsec Adventure Generator can be found in Chapter Five of the core book.  Included are eight random tables, powered by d12's, d20's, d100's, and a regular deck of playing cards.  Once the game master is ready to start rolling they follow this order:

• Objective
• Focus
• Conflict
• Other Elements

Objective gets its own table, while Focus, Conflict, and Other Elements share from these options:

• Obstacle
• Nonplayer Characters
• Fortune
• Enemies
• Complications
• Unique Phenomena

The last table included in the Adventure Generator is a Random Xenos Table, just in case you need to add a few more aliens to your adventure.

The World Maker in the Science Fiction Companion can be found on page 63.  Ten random tables that can populate an empty solar system in just a few mere minutes:

• Planetary Gravity
• Dominant Terrain
• Atmosphere
• Population Density
• Dominant Government
• Dominant Law
• Customs
• Group (Connected to the Customs)
• Technology Level
• Spaceport

Adventure Generation Results

From the Adventure Generator in The Last Parsec Corebook I got the following results:

• Objective:  13, Diplomacy
• Focus:  Ace of Hearts, Noneplayer Characters, News Crew
• Conflict:  5 of Clubs, Obstacle, Quarantine 
• Other Elements:
• 6 of Diamonds, Fortune, Power Armor
• Red Joker, Unique Phenomena, Celebrity

From the beginning of this process I intended the adventure to take place entirely in space.  Perhaps if this were part of a larger campaign I'd start the Jumpcorp team on a planet's surface, but with limited time we needed to start at the scene.  Still, I wanted to root the adventure in a planet… 

… as well as an excuse to use the World Maker from the Science Fiction Companion!

Here were the results of those rolls:

• Planetary Gravity:  Low Gravity
• Dominant Terrain:  Desert
• Atmosphere:  Dense
• Population Density:  Below Average
• Dominant Government:  Feudal
• Dominant Law:  Lenient Law
• Customs:  Specific Adulthood Rites
• Group:  Priests
• Technology Level:  21st Century Earth
• Spaceport:  Basic Space Port

Transformation

So, now to put this all into an adventure…

The planet Banav is under a strict quarantine, and Jumpcorp has been contracted to help the fractured and disorganized local lords restrict off-world travel.  Over sixty separate nations dot the small desert globe, each ruled by a chief that cannot stand any of their neighboring chiefs.  While the plague only seems to affect the Ban species, no one in the Known Worlds wants to risk an interplanetary pandemic.  

Banav has one basic space port operated by Jumpcorp, so only a single vessel has been necessary to maintain the quarantine: the Cygnus.  The first vessel of her name, the Cygnus was recently refurbished by Jumpcorp.  The Cygnus' primary mission to Banav was to be one of diplomacy, bringing technology and needed medicines to the Ugavi tribe as payment for the establishment of the small star port.  But as the outbreak of Thiptin's Scourge became more aggressive, the vessel remained on the planet, offering support where it could.  

Unfortunately for the famous Intergalactic News Network reporter Lana LaRaana, she's been  stuck on the Cygnus for several months now, first sent to cover the Jumpcorp star port opening, and then to cover the quarantine.  She was supposed to be going home soon… until a feisty Ban decide to stir the pot.  

Strivel, a Ban rebel, has been a vocal supporter of various peoples' movements in the Ugavi tribe.  He sees Thiptin's Scourge as an excuse to force the lowest classes of Ban society even lower, thus making them dependent on their many chieftains and lords.  But Strivel has a plan!

Rather than waste his life on Banav, and possibly die from Tiptin's Scourge, the Ban extremist wants to put his off world education to use.  He intends on stealing the Cygnus and taking it high into orbit and then off into the stars.  Most of the Cygnus' crew operates within the star port when the ship is planet side…

… leaving Strivel alone with a few security guards, and a very famous news reporter and her camera operator.  

Ban (New Species)

The ban are a small, rodent-like species native to the desert world of Banav.  Averaging just over a meter in height, ban have a tough, wrinkled pink/orange skin with patchy grey hair covering their body.  Ban evolved from colonies of subterranean dwelling creatures.  After learning to grow and farm various edible fungi and molds, and raise large beetles as livestock, the ban tribes created underground villages and towns.  The most wealthy beetle farmers in these villages would become the first feudal lords of a civilization that would last millennia.  

When Jumpcorp made first contact with the ban, they encountered a world much like Earth in the 20th century.  A few tribes enjoyed modern technology, while many were still medieval.  Unfortunately, most ban lords refused to share their technological advancements with other tribes.   

Traits:

• Burrowing (1)
• Immune to Disease (1)
• Keen Sense of Smell (1)
• Small (-1)

Strival

We have a new species for the adventure's primary adversary, so now it's time to put some stats together.  While educated off world, I kept Strival as a novice level non-player character with no advancements.  Since he got his hands on the Cygnus' one suit of Power Armor (provided with the "Fortune" roll on the Adventure Generator table), I factored those into the stats.  

• Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d6, Strength d4, Vigor d6
• Fighting d6, Repair d8, Notice d6, Shooting d6, Kn: Computers d8, Kn: Electronics d6
• Charisma 0, Pace 8 (Run d10), Parry 6, Toughness 16(12)
• Wearing Command Power Armor
• Minigun, 2d8+4 damage, ROF 4
• Targeting System
• Trauma System

Player Characters

Rather than spend a lot of time making up custom pre-gen characters, I used The Last Parsec Archetypes.

These sample characters are gorgeous, and they give players several options to choose from.  Pilots, scouts, science officers, security, not only are there several roles available, each alien species from the Science Fiction Companion is represented.  As well as giving my players printouts for their characters, the Archetypes PDF also provides Figure Flats…

… perfect for my big, fancy Cygnus map!

After reviewing all of the archetypes, my eight players made the following selections:

• Sergeant Elite Kitkat, Rakashan Team Leader, played by Jeremy
• Chen Kit, Kalian Pilot, played by Matthew
• 3Z52, Artificial Being (Construct), played by Craig
• Spike, Insectoid Scout, played by Dylan
• Squishy, Aurax Security, played by Ryan
• Officer Venus Techtrap, Floran Science Officer, played by Evan
• Mysterious Fawful, Human Scout, played by Zach
• Phonica, Serran Psychic, played by Carrie

Adventure Summary

The Jumpcorp Civil Security team, stationed out of Manayunk Base on Banav, received their mission to take back the Cygnus from Director Suwara, a Floran.  The team did not know who took vessel, only that it was stuck in orbit around Banav.  Jumpcorp security was able to at least disable the ship's ability to leave the system.  Grabbing a small shuttlecraft, the eight Jumpcorp operatives left Manayunk Base for the Cygnus.

After surveying the Cygnus from the outside, the Jumpcorp team decided to enter the vessel through the port side cargo-bay.  The door was sealed somehow, so an EVA would be necessary to winch it open.  3Z52 attempted to open the door on his own, but needed assistance so Officer Venus Techtrap donned a spacesuit and helped.  Once the door opened, the cargo-bay depressurized.  A blast of atmosphere knocked the Jumpcorp shuttle craft away from the Cygnus…

… and Officer Venus Techtrap into space!

But pilot Chen Kit was to the rescue!  The Kalian regained control of the ship and approached his spinning Floran.  Squishy the Aurax then put on a pair of spacesuits (since he was a centaur's creature), and dragged the floating flower back into the shuttle's airlock.  

When the shuttle returned to the Cygnus, landing in the cargo bay, 3Z52 was already on board the main vessel.  3Z52 closed the door manually from the inside and pressurized the compartment.  The rest of the crew then got out of the shuttle and started investigating.  The team noticed that the computer controls for the cargo bay had been shot up by a minigun, which caused some concern.

The only machine on the Cygnus with a minigun was the Command Power Armor kept stowed for away missions.  Whoever or whatever stole the Cygnus was probably wearing that nearly impervious battle suit!  

Nothing else of interest was found in the port cargo bay so Squishy and Phonica entered the botany lab.  But as soon as they went through the door, it closed behind them and the lights went out.  Team leader Sergeant Elite Kitkat approached the door, looking through the window with his low-light vision.  On the other side of the botany lab Kitkat noticed that another door opened and then quickly closed.

That's when the lights turned on again.  

Squishy and Phonica both looked around but didn't see anything at first.  Upon closer inspection, however, Phonica noticed that a small circular disk was attached to the wall nearest the opposing door.  Figuring that this was some kind of bomb or mine, Chen decided to disarm the device… with a wrench.  Fortunately this worked!  While in the botany lab, Officer Venus chewed on some of the plants to heal his wounds.  The science officer also used the computer to track down the location of the power armor.  After realizing that the power armor was connected to the ship's wireless computer network, the Floran disabled the network permanently.  

The entire team soon stumbled into the escape pod chamber, noticing that there were three other doors leading to other rooms, a ladder leading up, and an airlock down into space.  As he wandered around, Mysterious Fawful realized that there was a thin wire heading from the chamber above into the chamber below.  Mysterious Fawful knew way this meant, and jumped into the engineering chamber just before a bomb went off in the airlock.  The rest of the Jumpcorp team struggled to stay onboard the Cygnus while Fawful looked around the engineering compartment for something to patch the hull breach.  Once he found some sealer, he ran into the airlock room and sprayed the sealing foam all over the floor. 

The Jumpcorp team spent the next several minutes on the lower deck of the Cygnus working out some of their problems.  They used the biological scanners to find the locations of Lana LaRaana and her cameraman, as well as the life-form inside the power armor.  It was one of the Ban!  Using the ship's computer in engineering, Officer Venus tried blowing the Ban out the airlock, but was unsuccessful.  The party would have to deal with the threat head on!

Using her psychic powers, the team's Serren Psychic, Phonica, searched the Ban's mind.  His name was Strivel, and he was an uninfected Ban who simply sought an escape from his homeworld.  

Team leader Sergeant Elite Kitkat grabbed his pilot Chen Kit and headed up to the flight deck level of the Cygnus.  His plan was to talk Strival down, and perhaps get him to cooperate.  After several minutes of talking, the Ban agreed to leave the Cygnus on board the shuttlecraft so long as Kitkat accompanied him to the craft.  Kitkat agreed, but quietly worked with his team to come up with a plan to ambush Strival on his way out of the Cygnus.  

Once Kitkat and Strivel were back in the botany lab, Phonica sprung the trap!  The serran stunned the Ban momentarily, but the creature was able to shake off the psionic effects in only a few seconds.  Realizing that it was a trap, Strival used the minigun to gun down Phonica, and send a stream of bullets towards Kitkat.  But 3Z52 and Spike were ready for this.  The construct and scout were both armed with Armor Piercing Gyrojet weapons.  Spike caught the Ban off-balance with a well placed shot, allowing 3Z52 to focus its attack on the minigun, shattering the weapon.  

With the Ban disarmed, Officer Venus ran up and hacked the power armor, shutting the equipment down.  Strival tried to pull himself free of the armor and flee to the ventilation shaft, but Squishy was ready to squish.  The Aurax ran forward with his energy mace and smashed the Ban with a single blow.

For not causing further damage to the Cygnus, and reclaiming the power armor, the Jumpcorp agents received an additional day's vacation… on Banav.  

Quotes

Admittedly, this session's written quotes were sparse, but I think it was because of the noise. Between eight players, and running a game in a small room full of more than fifty gamers, I had a little trouble hearing everything at the table.  Who knows?  Perhaps some of my gamers will send me some of the quotes they remembered!  That's worked fairly well in our Cypher System game.  

"Squishy has many tender organs!" - Ryan's reason that his Aurax Security specialist needed to stay away from the front of the party formation.

Evan - "Is 'Squishy' large enough to fit through the hole?"

Jim - "Have you ever seen Alien Resurrection?" 

Evan - "No."

Jim - "Good."