Chill

(Based on the Classic Traveller adventure from The Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society issue #15 by John M. Ford in 1983. GM's note: I usually write most of my own adventures, but I do have some real old school ones that I have have modified for other games. I have been planning to run this adventure for years.)

Gone Captain Gone
1/19/2516
After dropping off Niska's men on Ezra (All in the Syndicate), Captain Windsor takes the Britannia to Boros looking for work. He gets a cargo bound for Bernadette in White Sun, 512 tons of aircars. A couple days out of Boros, Ronnie asks Ruan to look at his daughter Sarah, she's not feeling well. Ruan diagnoses Sarah with a respiratory infection, and tries to treat her with his limited supply of medications. She does not improve and is actually worse when they reach Bernadette. Ronnie decides to leave the ship and take her to a local doctor and hope that they are not caught.

A few days from Bernadette, the captain calls Cid and Silas in to his quarters for a meeting. He has decided to leave the ship in Cid's command for a while, he is going to make a trip to Londinium for the first time since he left Alliance service during the war. He does not want to take the ship to a core world for fear of an inspection turning up Ronnie or Ruan, so he is going by himself. (GM's note: Lee was out of town, so I pitched the idea to him that Windsor would return to Londinium to look for more information on his lost fiancee). Once they reach their destination and offload cargo, Windsor takes commercial transport to Londinium and Ronnie and Sarah leave for her medical treatment.

Bound by Law
With the captain away, the crew decides to stay on Bernadette to do some shopping on a high tech world. Unfortunately, most of what they want are illegal weapons. Naomi tries to buy a mag charge and narrowly escapes the law. She decides to build one instead and goes shopping for electrical parts. It's the anniversary of Ruan's escape from the Academy, so he buys some fine food and spirits for a party. Cid also tries to buy weapons, but is caught, bound by law and sentenced to two days in jail and a 50 credit fine. Since they are stuck here for a few days, they pull routine maintenance. After Cid is released, they have Ruan's celebration dinner. Cid grabs the first cargo he can, 176 tons of isotopes bound for Ariel. Ronnie and Sarah rejoin the ship, she is better after receiving treatment.

Priority Cargo
On Ariel, Cid is contacted by a trade rep for the Hortalez and Lin company. He has a priority shipment that needs to go to St. Albans immediately. It's only 5 tons, but they will pay 800 credits for the ship's full capacity to get it to St. Albans in six days or less. There will be a substantial penalty if it is late. Cid agrees and the cargo is brought onboard two hours later. It's five one ton refrigerated containers that need to be connected to the ship's power. Ruan does some research and finds the company is the leading producer of synthetic blood…

Since it's a priority run, Cid decides to make a short hard burn to cut off some time. Unfortunately, the fuel pump jams on maximum flow and the ship is using fuel at double the normal rate. Silas whacks the pump with a rubber mallet and frees it. When they arrive at St. Alban's, the destination port is covered by a massive winter storm. They are directed to land at a minuscule landing field at a town just outside the storm. At the port, they are met by a local nobleman, Lord Jourdain, and a group of soldiers in unfamiliar uniforms with a convoy of three all terrain trucks. Lord Jourdain is heavily bundled in winter clothes of high quality and also wears a full face breathing mask. He speaks with an asthma like rasp. He informs them that they will take the cargo the rest of the way in the trucks. When the cargo reaches its destination, they will be paid. So the crew will need to wait here a day or two. They are unhappy with the conditions, since the cargo is out of their hands. They insist on coming along. Ruan and Naomi ride in the main truck, Cid and Silas in the third.

Ambush!
It's a long, slow drive through the mountains in a blizzard. Fortunately for the forward truck, Naomi knows a lot of travel games. Unfortunately, most travel games involve a certain amount of guessing, making them quite tedious to play with a psychic. Partway through, the road is blocked by a fallen tree and the troops in the first truck get out to cut the tree with power saws. A rifle shot comes from the hill on the left and knocks down one of the guards. More shots come from up hill and everyone piles out. The guards drag the wounded man to safety and Ruan jumps in to help. While everyone is shooting at the ambushers, Naomi looks around with her thermal goggles and spots three more ambushers behind them, setting up a sniper rifle or light machine gun. She opens fire with her railgun and warns everyone. Between the guards and the extra fire of the Britannia's crew, the ambush is broken. Ruan and Naomi check out the second team and take their squad light machine gun. The attackers have no identification, but all wear a curious pendant; a heart impaled by thorns. There's one survivor from the first team, he's dying but taunts Jourdain that they'll get nothing from him, he has taken poison.

Curious as to what's really going on, Ruan reads them. The locals are ruled by an old aristocracy of nobles, but they are somewhat inbred and hemophilia is common. The nobles rely on shipments of synthetic blood. The ambushers are terrorists, trying to wipe out the nobles. The local method of execution is exsanguination, but the terrorists are on a suicide mission and took a hemotoxin first. The tree is cleared and the convoy moves on to their destination. Once the cargo is unloaded, the crew is paid with a bonus for helping defend the shipment and they are given a ride back to the ship in one of the trucks. They lift ship and hop across world to St. Alban's main port. Wanting to go someplace warmer, they get a cargo bound for New Melbourne.

Quotes and Smart Remarks
Jim running Captain Windsor "I don't want to take the ship to Londinium…"
Emily "Because of rats?"

Raleigh "I've got a d6 in Pilot"
Emily "The 'd' stands for die…"

Emily "When someone asks you if you're the captain, you say 'Yes'!"

The fuel pump is stuck in hard burn mode so the ship is consuming double the normal amount of fuel
Kevin "I can get a rubber mallet and hit it"
Jim had Kevin roll Strength + Mechanical Repair and he got a 19 on 2d10

Raleigh "St. Albans is the Wyoming of the 'Verse"