TEXT: 1
  Written By Gareth Hanrahan
  Traveller
  The PiraTes of Drinax
  Treasure shiP
  “.... shall not contest, protest, intercede or in any way hinder the 
  annexation of these worlds, which are deemed to be within the 
  territory of the Aslan Hierate...
  - The Treaty of Fist 
  Treasure Ship is the second adventure in the Pirates of 
  Drinax campaign. If you are a player in this campaign, STOP 
  READING NOW! If you’re a Referee, then you should first read 
  The Pirates of Drinax Campaign document to get an overview 
  of the campaign.
  This adventure takes place in the Borderlands subsector of 
  the Spinward Marches. The year is assumed to be 1105. The 
  characters can begin the adventure in any system where 
  rumours can reach them.
  aDvenTure synoPsis
  The pirates learn that the engines of an Imperial Treasure Ship 
  have malfunctioned, and the ship is currently grounded at the 
  neutral port of Arunisiir. They’ve got a chance to steal one of the 
  greatest prizes in the Trojan Reach. 
  Arunisiir is a world divided between Humaniti and Aslan; once 
  the pirates arrive in-system, they need to either come up with a 
  plan to capture the grounded treasure ship or else infiltrate the 
  crew and get a berth on board. 
  Once on the Treasure Ship, the pirates discover that the ship 
  was sabotaged, as part of a pirate plan to rob the ship. The 
  saboteur is still on board, and the ship may jump into a pirate 
  ambush after leaving Arunisiir.
  Pirate saboteurs are not the only spies in the crew. The General 
  Development Company has a scheme that plays on the 
  Treasure Ship’s reputation. They intend to plant a fake treaty 
  in the vault. The Treasure ship jumps to Tech-World, where 
  GeDeCo’s agent obtains the codes needed to open the secure 
  vault. From there, the ship travels to Byrni, where it runs into a 
  standoff between the Imperial forces and the old Sindalian fleet 
  that still patrols that system. If GeDeCo’s plan (see the sidebar) 
  comes to fruition, then the Treasure Ship is boarded and the 
  false treaty is discovered.
  All that, however, depends on the actions of the pirates...
  running The aDvenTure 
  Treasure Ship is a non-linear adventure – the players can 
  approach the challenge of looting the eponymous ship in any 
  way they choose. The Referee should respond to the players’ 
  actions by adding detail wherever they investigate. The 
  adventure is divided into three sections:
  • 
  The Treasure Ship describes the treasure ship itself, its 
  crew, and its security systems. It also covers the Imperial 
  escorts that protect the treasure ship.
  • 
  The Thieves of Arunisiir covers how the pirates learn of 
  the downed ship, getting to Arunisiir, and the initial state 
  of the ship.
  • 
  Voyage to the Hierate describe the repaired Treasure 
  Ship’s journey from Arunisiir to Tech-World to Byrni, 
  visiting several other systems en route.
  Three subplots complicate the pirates’ task. 
  • 
  The GeDeCo’s plan to use the treasure ship to plant a 
  fake treaty, thus stirring tensions between the Aslan 
  Hierate and the neutral worlds of the Trojan Reach.
  • 
  The attempt by the pirate Hroal Irontooth to capture the 
  Treasure Ship.
  • 
  Tensions and intrigue on board the Treasure Ship.
  The most likely tactics used by the player characters are:
  • 
  Infiltrate the crew of the Treasure Ship on Arunisiir, gather 
  intelligence about it, then either steal some valuables or 
  sabotage it from within.
  • 
  Attack the ship while it’s grounded at Arunisiir
  
  2
  Secrets of the Reach 
  On one side of the Trojan Reach is the Imperium; on the other, the fast-expanding Aslan Hierate. Between the two are 
  hundreds of independent human worlds.
  The Aslan have an insatiable desire for territory. Biological and cultural forces demand that they expand. The Imperium, 
  hoping to avoid another border war, tries to slow the inexorable advance of the Hierate by either placating them with gifts 
  or diverting their growth into unclaimed space. The neutral worlds between the Imperium and the Hierate are pawns in this 
  game of empires. 
  The major brake on Aslan expansion is the Treaty of Fhaharl, which guarantees that the Aslan clans will never come within 
  thirty parsecs of the Imperial borders. Doing so would incur the displeasure of the most powerful clans – and it is in the 
  Imperium’s best interest to keep these clans strong, so they can enforce the treaty.
  The peace is imperfect. There are inevitable border skirmishes, raids, and renegades who defy the treaty, especially when 
  the major clans fall to infighting. Still, it has held for hundreds of years. The neutral worlds of the Reach are free because of 
  the treaty.
  The sinister megacorporation known as GeDeCo was founded to improve the standing of the disparate human colonies, 
  but it now aims to influence the course of history across the Reach. Their psychohistorians predict that unless the Aslan 
  are stopped, they will inevitably conquer the whole Domain of Deneb and cut the Spinward Marches off from the Imperium. 
  The Peace of Ftaharl cannot stand against the inevitability of demographics. The Imperium’s policy of containment and 
  appeasement is futile – the only way Humaniti can hold this region of space is through bloody war! GeDeCo intends to turn 
  the whole Trojan Reach into a firebreak to stop the Aslan advance.
  The Imperial Treasure Ships carry more than rare goods and valuable items – they also carry secret diplomatic messages 
  between the Imperial Moot and the Aslan Hierate. GeDeCo’s agents intend to plant a fake message in the cargo of the 
  Treasure Ship, a false treaty that sanctions the Aslan conquest of a dozen worlds on the far side of the Trojan Reach. If 
  this treaty were to be revealed – say, by a pirate attack on the Treasure Ship,or by an unexpected customs inspection that 
  somehow breaches the secure vault – then public sentiment across the Reach would turn towards war. Even if the Aslan 
  make no hostile moves (and they would not, as they would still be bound by the real Treaty of Ftaharl), the fake treaty would 
  drive the neutral worlds into GeDeCo’s arms. 
  Just spreading rumours about such a treaty is not enough. GeDeCo needs the legitimacy that comes from finding the treaty 
  on a Treasure Ship with an open vault. 
  Opening the Vault: GeDeCo has two agents on board the Martin II. The ship’s navigator and the purser are both employed 
  by the corporation. The vault’s door is connected to the ship’s navigation computer, and Navigator Osha has installed a black 
  box device that harvests data from the vault lock and the ship’s navigation system. When the ship arrives at Tech-World, 
  this black box will be taken to a TL15 supercomputer and used to crack the vault code, so the vault can be opened ahead of 
  schedule at Byrni.
  Purser Vaughan has the fake treaty concealed in his quarters. When the vault opens, his role is to ensure that the treaty 
  is ‘discovered’ at the right time. The two agents are unaware of each other’s identity, but both know that someone else is 
  working for GeDeCo.
  
  3
  • 
  Infiltrate the ship at Arunisiir, learn its planned course, 
  then intercept it
  • 
  Infiltrate the ship, learn about the GeDeCo scheme, and 
  use it to rob the vault
  • 
  Infiltrate the ship, stir up dissent in the crew, lead a 
  mutiny
  • 
  Ally with Hroal Irontooth to capture the Treasure Ship
  • 
  Shadow the ship until an opportunity arises to rob it at 
  Byrni
  • 
  Some PCs infiltrate the ship, while others shadow it in the 
  Drinaxi Harrier or some other pirate ship. 
  Any tactics has a chance of succeeding, but the players will need 
  to adapt to changing circumstances in order to win the prize.
  1. The Treasure shiP
  There are few ships in Charted Space as distinctive – or as 
  ugly – as a Treasure Ship. The basic design is a venerable one 
  – the earliest Treasure Ships were built in the First Imperium 
  as an expression of the Empire’s power. Treasure Ships were 
  a way of impressing petty kings to encourage them to join the 
  Imperium, or to haul away their wealth in safety. They are still 
  used today out of tradition. Poets compare the ship’s external 
  profile to a castle, or a turtle, or a mountain of crystaliron, but 
  the most accurate metaphor is that the Treasure Ship is a fist 
  – a big metal fist clenched tight around the Empire’s wealth.
  The ship barely qualifies as streamlined. It can enter a planet’s 
  atmosphere, supported by its vestigial lifting surfaces and 
  its overworked grav-plates, but it doesn’t so much fly as fall 
  in roughly the right direction. The prow of the ship is hinged, 
  allowing access to the cavernous cargo bay. 300 tons of cargo 
  space is unsecured, but the huge secure vault contains another 
  60 tons of space at the heart of the ship.
  The vault is the reason the Treasure Ship exists. Even if an 
  attacker punched through the ship’s thick armour and reinforced 
  hull, the vault is tough enough to withstand direct hits from 
  starship weapons. Anything powerful enough to crack the vault 
  would instantly incinerate anything inside. Some vaults even 
  have psionic shielding that blocks teleportation. The vault’s 
  locking mechanism is virtually unbreakable. The locking code is 
  derived from jump space co-ordinates and genetic material, so 
  it can only be opened in the right system by the right person. 
  Atop the vault and the cargo section are the crew decks. In 
  addition to engineers, pilots and gunners, every Treasure Ship 
  carries a squad of Imperial Marines equipped with sufficient 
  firepower to turn back any boarding parties. Conditions on 
  board ship are cramped but comfortable. As Treasure Ships 
  are part of Imperial diplomacy, the interior is richly decorated 
  and the public sections can be reconfigured into a conference 
  venue or ceremonial audience chamber. The officers’ decks and 
  flight deck are at the top of the ‘fist’. An escape launch nestles 
  between rows of laser turrets.
  Aft are the ship’s huge fuel tanks. Treasure Ships are ungainly, 
  but are capable of three-parsec jumps. The engineering deck is at 
  the tail of the ship, under the fuel tanks. The ship’s second escape 
  launch is also in the rear section, along with two more turrets.
  Flying a Treasure Ship is like strapping an m-drive on a bank. 
  Everything is massively heavy and unwieldy, there are security 
  checks and alarms everywhere, and while parts of the ship are 
  magnificently appointed to impress visitors, other sections are 
  cramped and crowded. Everyone knows that the ship has a giant 
  bullseye painted on it, and that every pirate and petty kingdom in 
  the Trojan Reach wants to kill them and take their stuff. 
  The Competition
  Another band of pirates have designs on the contents of the 
  Treasure Ship. The Aslan Hroal Irontooth plans to steal its 
  cargo. Three of the crew – a Marine named Salvesdes, a 
  mechanic called Felmar and a launch pilot called Hanshaw 
  – all work for the Aslan pirate. The original plan was to cause 
  the Martin II to misjump into the outer reaches of the Tech-
  World system, where Irontooth’s flotilla lurks in wait. Felmar 
  worked on the jump drive, and was under orders to alter the 
  plotted navigation solution so the ship jumped to the wrong 
  part of the target system. 
  Unfortunately, Felmar’s sabotage was discovered by Chief 
  Engineer Eco. Felmar panicked and opened the safety 
  interlocks on the jump drive, causing the explosion that 
  crippled the ship and forced it to land on Arunisiir.
  Now, the two surviving pirate spies, Salvesdes and Hanshaw, 
  need to work out another way to get the Martin II into the 
  trap – or they’ll face the wrath of Hroal Irontooth. 
  
  4
  1600 tons
  Tons
  Price (Cr.)
  Hull
  Hull 32
  192,000,000
  Streamlined, Reinforced
  Structure 42 
  160 tons
  Armour
  Crystaliron (8)
  160
  64,000,000
  Jump Drive
  P
  Jump 3
  75
  140,000,000
  Manoeuvre Drive
  H
  Thrust 1
  15
  32,000,000
  Power Plant
  P
  43
  112,000,000
  Bridge
  40
  8,000,000
  Computer
  Model 3
  Rating 15
  2,000,000
  Electronics
  Military
  2
  1,000,000
  Weapons
  Hardpoint #1-8
  Double Turret
  8
  4,000,000
  Beam Laser 
  8,000,000
  Beam Laser 
  8,000,000
  Vehicles
  Launch
  20
  13,596,000
  Launch
  20
  13,596,000
  Fuel
  1 Jump-3, 4 Weeks of Operation
  536
  Cargo
  299
  Vault
  Hull 32
  120
  60,000,000
  Structure 32
  20 Staterooms
  80
  10,000,000
  Extras
  Luxuries
  20
  2,000,000
  Armour
  2
  500,000
  Software
  Manoeuvre/0
  Library/0
  Jump/3
  300,000
  Maintenance Cost (monthly)
  55,942
  Life Support Cost (monthly)
  40,000
  Total Tonnage & Cost
  1,600
  671,300,000
  Lower Cargo Deck
  The Lower Cargo Deck is unoccupied during flight. A stowaway 
  – or even a group of stowaways – could hide here in the cargo 
  holds if they can avoid the security systems (see page 12). 
  This deck smells of oil and burnt electrical wiring, and is poorly 
  lit. These are the bowels of the ship, crammed with junk and 
  spare parts. The hard landing on Arunisiir damaged many of 
  the light fittings in the hold, so the illumination flickers and dies 
  seemingly at random.
   
  1. Cargo Hatches: These large hatches can be over-ridden 
  from outside with a Hard (-4) Dexterity + Mechanic test. They 
  only open in atmosphere.
  2. Ventral Airlock: The ship’s grav plating does not extend to 
  this airlock. It is mainly used for maintenance and docking with 
  smaller spacecraft.
  
  One Square = 1.5 Metres
  Acceleration 
  Chair
  Lower Berth 
  Chair
  Machinery
  Bunk
  Access Panel
  Escape Capsule
  Hatch
  Iris Valve
  Hatch Floor
  Iris Valve Floor
  Hatch Ceiling
  Iris Valve Ceiling
  Hatch Both
  Iris Valve Both
  Fresher Unit
  Treasure Ship
  Lower Cargo Deck
  Level 5
  Engineering Deck
  6
  6
  Airlock
  1. Cargo Hatches
  2.  Ventral Airlock
  3.  Cargo Lift
  4.  Port Cargo Hold
  5.  Starboard Cargo Hold
  6.  Laser Turret
  1. Jump Drive
  2.  Power Plant
  3.  Machine Shop
  4.  Escape Launch
  5.  Laser Turret
  Fuel
  1
  1
  2
  3
  4
  5
  1
  2
  3
  4
  5
  5
   
   Manoeuvre
  Drive
  5
  
  6
  3. Cargo Lift: This grav lift connects to the vault entrance 
  above. It is locked down during flight, but this security measure 
  can be bypassed by an average (+0) Intelligence + Engineer 
  (electronics) check. 
  4. Port Cargo Hold: This cargo bay is packed full of 120 tons 
  of dust spice (6,000Cr/ton) destined for the Aslan market. The 
  crates are stamped with the Imperial sunburst, but the spice 
  itself is untraceable if moved to less ostentatious containers. 
  Like its starboard counterpart, this hold extends into the deck 
  above. 
  5. Starboard Cargo Hold: This hold contains 100 tons of 
  Advanced Electronics and Advanced Manufactured Goods 
  (both Cr. 100,000/ton). These items were constructed either in 
  Tobia subsector or deeper in the Imperium. The components 
  are all highly specialised and marked on a molecular level with 
  radiotracers and serial codes, making them hot goods that must 
  be sold through a fence. 
  6. Laser Turret. Each turret has a pair of lasers that are 
  manually controlled from a firing station. The Martin II is lightly 
  armed for its size, relying on its escort ships for protection. 
  Engineering Deck
  The whole engineering deck bears the scars of the explosion that 
  crippled the ship. There was a leak of high-pressure hydrogen 
  that blasted through a pipe and expanded into the engineering 
  section. Most of the crew were killed by flying debris, the 
  sudden increase in cabin pressure, or by secondary explosions 
  as hydrogen combusted with the oxygen in the atmosphere. 
  The rest were killed when automatic safety systems opened the 
  launch bay airlock, venting the atmosphere and saving the rest 
  of the ship. While the crew were able to repair the ship enough 
  to get it to Arunisiir, it is something of a miracle that the disaster 
  did not cause more damage.
  The narrow, cramped corridors of engineering were unpleasant 
  and oily even before the disaster – now any part of the engine 
  might be smeared with blood or bone fragments, and every 
  surface bears the signs of abrasions and explosion damage. 
  The explosion was centred on the jump drive; the power plant 
  and M-drive are mostly intact.
  1. Jump Drive: The jump drive was sabotaged by mechanic 
  Felmar (see page 9). He caused the failure that resulted in the 
  ship landing on Arunisiir. 
  • 
  The jump drive is severely damaged. It can be repaired by 
  a character with Mechanic 2 or Engineering (jump) 2 and 
  several days’ work, but the Martin II lacks the replacement 
  parts. New parts can be salvaged from another jump-
  capable ship, or delivered by the rescue flotilla. 
  • 
  A successful Intelligence + Engineering (jump) test  lets 
  a character determine the cause of the disaster. From 
  the looks of it, the safety interlocks were disabled and 
  the jump sequence halted at the last second. Instead of 
  pumping nearly 500 tons of hydrogen into the singularity, 
  the hydrogen vented into the engineering compartment. 
  Anyone standing near the jump engine was must have 
  been killed instantly.
  • 
  A successful Difficult (-2) Intelligence + Computers 
  (or Engineering (jump), or Astrogation) check lets the 
  pirates discover something strange in the jump drive’s 
  memory buffers. It looks like someone tampered with the 
  navigation data. It’s impossible to tell exactly what the 
  changes were, but someone tried to manually change the 
  ship’s destination by altering the jump solution – which is 
  like trying to change a plane’s destination by hammering 
  its rudder out of shape while it’s accelerating down the 
  runway.
  2. Power Plant: The only survivors in the engineering section 
  were both working on the power plant when the disaster hit. 
  They made it to a survival locker just before the atmosphere 
  was vented. 
  3. Machine Shop: The machine shop can produce basic spare 
  parts, but not enough to repair the jump drive. 
  4. Escape Launch: This is the launch piloted by Hanshaw. She 
  was in the launch when the explosion happened.
  5. Laser Turret: The engineering crew used these turrets as a 
  private recreation booth, as the scattered debris bears witness 
  to. Searching through the junk turns up items like cigarettes, 
  empty alcohol bottles, pornographic holos – and a credit chit 
  belonging to Mechanic Talis (see page 9), who used the port 
  turret for a sexual rendezvous with Felmar. 
  Upper Cargo Deck
  The upper cargo deck is where the crew gather most frequently. 
  The galley and the port cargo deck are the centre of socialising 
  when the ship is in flight. The crew mostly ignore the monolithic 
  black secure vault that dominates this section.
  1. Vault Entrance: The only way into the vault is via this titanic 
  hatch. The hatch is made out of the same material as the vault 
  – an exotic form of bonded superdense material. The locks 
  and grav-plates that hold the door shut are all contained inside 
  the vault walls. A golden Imperial seal marks the entrance. If 
  the right person (based on the genetic code programmed into 
  the vault) inserts the right key (a ceremonial key kept in the 
  captain’s safe) at the right time (when the ship is in the Tyokh 
  system), the vault opens. 
  
  One Square = 1.5 Metres
  Acceleration 
  Chair
  Lower Berth 
  Chair
  Machinery
  Bunk
  Access Panel
  Escape Capsule
  Hatch
  Iris Valve
  Hatch Floor
  Iris Valve Floor
  Hatch Ceiling
  Iris Valve Ceiling
  Hatch Both
  Iris Valve Both
  Fresher Unit
  Treasure Ship
  Upper Cargo Deck
  Level 4
  1.  Vault Entrance
  2.  Vault
  3.  Upper Port Cago Deck
  4.  Upper Starboard
      Cargo Deck
  5.  Galley
  6.  Ship’s Locker
  Fuel
  1
  Lift
  2
  3
  4
  5
  6
  Cargo Bay Door
  Cargo Bay Door
  Doors
  7
  
  8
  Examining the vault with a successful Difficult (-2) Intelligence 
  + Sensors or Intelligence + Engineering (electronics) test 
  discovers a microscopic data tap attached to the connection 
  between the vault and the ship’s navigation computer. Further 
  investigation turns up a mysterious black box attached to the 
  inside of the navigation computer (see Tech-World, page 18).
  2. Vault: The treasure vault on board the Martin II contains:
  • 
  Four 5-ton mail drums of secure electronic communications 
  between the Imperium and the Hierate. Cracking the 
  encryption on these drums requires an Impossible (-8) 
  Education + Computers test.
  • 
  Various legal documents relating to Imperial diplomacy 
  and mercantile ventures in the Hierate. If the GeDeCo 
  plan to plant a fake treaty goes ahead, it will be found 
  amid these documents. These documents can be used to 
  introduce future heists and plots, or just sold or ransomed 
  back to the Imperium for Cr. 10,000,000.
  • 
  40 tons of Luxury Goods (Cr 200,000 each).
  • 
  20 tons of Pharmaceuticals (Cr, 100,000 each).
  • 
  20 tons of Radioactives (Cr 1,000,000 each).
  • 
  Gemstones and other rare items of negligible mass worth 
  another Cr. 30,000,000.
  3. Upper Port Cargo Deck: This walkway overlooks the lower 
  port hold. The crew’s personal cargo and ship supplies like 
  food, water and other essentials are stored here.
  4. Upper Starboard Cargo Deck: The entrance to this hold is 
  locked.
  5. Galley: The ship’s small but well-equipped galley is a popular 
  place for the crew to relax.
  6. Ship’s Locker: A locked metal crate in the locker contains 
  eight stunners and twenty snub pistols, plus ammo. There are 
  also various forms of vacc suit and flak jackets. 
  Crew Deck
  The crew deck is the most heavily populated part of the ship. 
  1. Staterooms: Most of the staterooms on this level are double 
  occupancy. All staterooms are kept locked when unoccupied. 
  2. Marine Barracks: These staterooms are home to the Martin 
  II’s marine team. Commander Harc has a private stateroom; his 
  six subordinates all share their rooms. The marines stay aloof 
  from the rest of the crew.
  3. Marine Armoury: The marines keep their battle dress and 
  other weapons in this locked chamber. 
  4. Airlock: This airlock is used for boarding actions and close-
  range space combat exercises. 
  Officer’s Deck
  The small officers’ deck is off-limits to most of the crew – Captain 
  Torsa maintains a strict social hierarchy on board the ship.
  1. Staterooms: Most officers have private staterooms. Junior 
  officers are obliged to share rooms. There are two empty 
  staterooms on this deck, which are reserved for ambassadors 
  and other dignitaries.
  2. Computer Room: The Martin II’s computer is small and 
  outdated, but it copes with the relatively undemanding mission 
  profile required of a treasure ship. The second officer is stationed 
  here, working on the ship’s paperwork. Purser Vaughan also 
  works from this room.
  3. Conference Room: Also used as a dining room for senior 
  officers. The ship’s safe is in this room; it contains Cr. 5,000,000 
  in credits.
  4. Medbay: This small medbay is locked following the death of 
  the ship’s doctor. Until a new doctor is hired, the autodoc cares 
  for the crew’s medical problems.
  5. Airlock.
  6. Laser Turret: Captain Torsa demands regular battle-drills 
  when the ship is in flight; this is one of the few occasions when 
  crewmen are allowed onto this deck to man the turrets.
   
  Flight Deck
  1. Bridge: The ship’s comfortable and well-appointed bridge is 
  manned at all times, even in jump space.
  2. Escape Launch. 
  3. Laser Turret
  Crew Roster
  Individuals marked with a * were killed in the ‘accident’ that 
  forced the ship to land on Arunisiir. Those in italics have longer 
  write-ups below.
  Flight: The flight team is composed of the senior officers and 
  the pilots. 
  • 
  Captain Torsa 
  • 
  First Officer Jagad
  • 
  Second Officer Halbinar: Harried and overworked, 
  Halbinar deals with the ship’s logistics in concert with 
  the cargo chief. She remains on Arunisiir after the ship 
  departs to deal with the aftermath of the explosion and 
  subsequent repair work. She’s brusque, efficient and 
  prone to space-sickness.
  • 
  Navigator Osha
  
  Treasure Ship
  1.  Bridge
  2.  Escape Launch
  3.  Laser Turret
  4.  Captain’s Office
  5.  Utility Room
  Flight Deck
  Level 1
  Sensors / Avionics
  3
  3
  4
  5
  1
  2
  1.  Staterooms
  2.  Computer Room
  3.  Conference Room
  4.  Medbay
  5.  Airlock
  6.  Laser Turret
  Officer’s Deck
  Level 2
  1
  2
  3
  4
  5
  6
  1.  Staterooms
  2.  Marine Barracks
  3.  Armoury
  4.  Airlock
  5.  Utility/Office Room
  Crew Deck
  Level 3
  1
  2
  3
  4
  5
  Fuel
  9
  • 
  Assistant Navigator Ven Laffit: The young assistant 
  navigator is on his first tour of duty. Tobia-born, he’s a 
  firm believer in the superiority of the Imperium, and loudly 
  advocates punitive war with the Aslan instead of the current 
  policy of appeasement. Torsa plans to keep him well away 
  from any diplomats when the Martin II reaches Trokh.
  • 
  Lead Pilot Smith: The ship’s chief pilot is a conservative 
  naval officer on the verge of retirement. He knows the 
  Borderlands subsector very well, and can recognise many 
  famous pirate ships by their sensor signature.
  • 
  Co-Pilot Ashen: Ashen comes from the core worlds of the 
  Imperium, and has a strange accent and customs. Off-duty, 
  he wears bizarre garments made from tattered silk rags 
  which he claims are the height of fashion on Capital.
  Staff 
  • 
  Purser Vaughan
  • 
  Ship’s Doctor Bourke*: Bourke died in the aftermath of 
  the explosion – he opened the airlock into the engineering 
  section to tend to the wounded, and was then sucked 
  out into space when the automatic systems vented the 
  atmosphere.
  • 
  Cargo Chief Niven: Niven’s a stocky, foul-mouthed 
  stevedore. He’s named the ship’s two cargo robots after 
  his ex-husbands. 
  Marine Squad
  • 
  Marine Commander Harc: Paranoid Harc is convinced 
  that the ship – and, more importantly, one of his soldiers 
  - were the victims of sabotage. He suspects that there 
  is a Zhodani agent on board. Harc’s only happy when 
  dressed in battle armour with a gun in his hand and he’s 
  floating in deep space towards an enemy ship. He’s got 
  several cybernetic enhancements, including a misaligned 
  cranial jack. With the death of the ship’s doctor, he needs 
  someone with Medic 3 to realign the jack after every jump 
  or he suffers blinding headaches. 
  • 
  6 Marines
  • 
  Marine Jen Laral: She joined the Imperial Marines to see 
  the galaxy, and always goes out exploring each new world 
  the Martin II visits. She cultivates her popularity among 
  the crew so she can switch duty rosters and ensure she 
  can take time off on planetside. 
  
  10
  • 
  Marine Codenko*: Killed by the explosion.
  • 
  Marine Salvesdes
  • 
  Marines 4-6
  Gunnery
  • 
  Tactical Officer Grimsbold: A veteran naval officer and 
  a close friend of Pilot Smith, Grimsbold hails from the 
  Spinward Marches. She butts heads regularly with 
  Commander Harc. 
  • 
  Launch #1 Pilot Hanshaw  
  • 
  Launch #2 Pilot
  • 
  8 Gunners 
  • 
  Crewman O’Leary & Crewman Ilin: This pair of 
  troublemakers go drinking in every port. Captain Torsa 
  loathes them, and intends to have them both transferred 
  off the ship after the mission. The two know their days are 
  numbered, so they intend to make as much trouble for the 
  captain as possible. 
  • 
  Gunners 7-8*
  Engineering 
  • 
  Chief Engineer Eco*
  • 
  Mechanic Polo: With the death of the chief engineer, 
  Polo’s taken over the engineering section. He’s a simple, 
  salt-of-the-spaceways mechanic who never wanted to 
  be in command, but he feels that he owes it to the dead 
  crew to get the Martin II to its destination. Polo is very 
  superstitious and likes to hire people who seem ‘lucky’.
  • 
  Mechanic Talis: It’s an open secret on the lower decks that 
  she and Felmar were lovers. If questioned, she reveals 
  that Felmar kept talking about a ‘new beginning’ for both 
  of them where they’d be rich and free, but he refused to 
  explain the plan. He also spent a lot of time talking to 
  Launch Pilot Henshaw and Salvesdes.
  • 
  Mechanic Felmar*: Part of Hroal Irontooth’s team. Most of 
  the crew suspect Felmar was to blame for the explosion. 
  He was notoriously unlucky and sloppy, and he worked on 
  the jump drive.
  • 
  Engineers 4-6*
  Captain Torsa
  Commanding a treasure ship is a prestigious but ultimately 
  hollow assignment. Treasure Ships are a symbol of the power 
  and wealth of the Third Imperium, and are a vital part of 
  diplomatic and trade missions, so their captains are effectively 
  ambassadors and representatives of the Iridium Throne. At the 
  same time, a treasure ship is really just an overblown freighter, 
  and will never engage in combat or win glory. The captains 
  of the Treasure Ship fleet, therefore, tend to be those whose 
  political connections and family backing are balanced by their 
  lack of talent. 
  ‘Prestigious but ultimately hollow’ also describes Captain Torsa. His 
  family connections got him a command, but he is entirely lacking 
  in charisma or imagination. Charitably, he might be described as 
  ‘meticulously attentive to detail’ – he’s the sort of commander who 
  might berate a subordinate for failing to polish a computer screen 
  to a mirror finish, while remaining completely oblivious to the 
  approaching pirate ship on that screen. He runs his ship in strict 
  accordance with the manual, and tolerates no deviation.
  He’s precisely the wrong person to command the Martin II right 
  now. He panicked when the jump drive exploded, and effectively 
  gave over command to his first officer.  He knows that he needs 
  to reassert his authority if he is to have any hope of retaining 
  command after this mission.
  During flight, Torsa rarely leaves the top two decks; the only 
  time he descends into the crew or cargo sections is to berate the 
  crew for not scrubbing the deck plates or respond adequately 
  to his battle drills.
  Captain Torsa
  Age 42, 6 terms
  STR 6 
  DEX 6 END 9 INT 4 
  EDU 10 SOC 11
  Admin 2, Advocate 1, Astrogation 1, Battle Dress 0, Carouse 
  2, Comms 1, Diplomat 2, Leadership 1, Pilot (spaceship) 1, 
  Tactics (naval) 1, Vacc Suit 1, Zero-G 1
  Playing Torsa:
  • 
  Be snooty and superior. Look down on the rabble and 
  barbarians around you.
  • 
  Speak in a clipped tone. Give orders.
  • 
  Have a nervous twitch.
  Using Torsa: 
  • 
  If any of the pirates have a Naval background (especially 
  the Imperial navy), then they can convince Torsa to hire 
  them as temporary crew. 
  • 
  If the characters convince him that he can rely on them 
  instead of Jagad, then the pirates can manipulate themselves 
  into positions of authority on board the Martin II.
  First Officer Jagad
  When they assigned Mari Jagad to the Martin II, they made it 
  clear that her real role was to babysit Captain Torsa. Jagad’s a 
  fast-rising star in the Imperial Navy; she was top of her class 
  at the Tobia Naval College, and can expect to be promoted to 
  captain within five years. She won’t be given the Martin II – she 
  has her eye on a Gazelle, and that’s only a stepping stone 
  towards her dream of commanding a warship. 
  She took charge during the disaster, and gave the order to vent 
  the atmosphere from the engineering section. Some of the crew 
  blame her for the deaths, saying that if only she’d waited, more 
  of the engineering crew might have survived. Others credit 
  her with saving the ship. She’s also taken charge of the repair 
  efforts – if she carries the Martin II across the Trojan Reach, it 
  will boost her prospects of promotion immensely.
  
  11
  Jagad loathes pirates – she served on a pirate hunter patrol 
  early in her career, and saw firsthand the destruction wreaked 
  by raiders. 
  Commander Mari Jagad
  Age 34, 4 terms
  STR 7 
  DEX 9 END 7 INT 10 EDU 11 SOC 7
  Admin 2, Astrogation 1, Battle Dress 0, Comms 2, Computers 
  1, Engineer (power plant) 2, Gunner (turret) 2, Leadership 2, 
  Mechanic 1, Pilot (starship) 2, Recon 1, Sensors 1, Space 
  Science 0, Tactics (Naval) 2, Vacc Suit 1
  Playing Jagad:
  • 
  Imagine her as the slightly Mary-Sueish protagonist of 
  a series of military-sci-fi novels. She’s the heroine of an 
  adventure that’s happening parallel to the adventures of 
  the pirates.
  • 
  She’s forthright, charismatic and heroic. She’s always in 
  the thick of the action.
  • 
  Stay on your toes. She’s always ready for action.
  Using Jagad:
  • 
  If the pirates impress Jagad with their technical skills, she 
  may hire them for the repair work or even for the journey 
  to the Hierate.
  • 
  On board, the characters can exploit Jagad’s unpopularity 
  with the crew to turn them against her.
  • 
  Jagad leads any investigations on board ship.
  Navigator Osha
  Osha comes from the waterworld of Dolberg, in Sindal subsector, 
  and has the genetic modifications common to people from that 
  planet – bluish skin, gills, webbed fingers and strange ridges of 
  body fat. Few ever leave the cold waters of Dolberg, but Osha 
  is an exception. She joined the crew of a tramp trader at the 
  age of fifteen, and has travelled the stars ever since. She ran 
  away because her family name was disgraced with accusations 
  of gene-mod DNA corruption, and on Dolberg, your gene-line 
  counts for everything.
  Eight years ago, she helped the crew of a lost scoutship return 
  to Tobia, and was rewarded with the offer of a commission in the 
  navy. She knows many of the more obscure systems of the Reach 
  very well, and so is considered a valuable asset to the navy.
  Secretly, she’s working for the General Development 
  Corporation. GeDeCo’s agents control the government of 
  Dolberg; they’ve promised to erase the stain on her gene-line 
  if she completes her assigned task. She’s planted a black box 
  device inside the navigation console. This device harvests data 
  from the jump engines and from the locking mechanism of the 
  vault. The calculations needed to crack the vault’s encryption 
  are beyond anything on the ship – but GeDeCo has a computer 
  on Tech-World that uses cutting-edge TL15+ technology. With 
  the right data from the black box, it can crack the vault. 
  Navigator Osha
  Age 34, 4 terms
  STR 8 
  DEX 5 END 9 INT 7 
  EDU 9 SOC 5
  Athletics (swim) 2, Astrogation 3, Computers 2, Deception 1, 
  Mechanic 1,  Pilot (spacecraft) 2, Sensors 1, Space Science 
  (planetology) 2, Stealth 0, Streetwise 1
  Playing Osha:
  • 
  You’re really not cut out for intrigue and espionage. 
  Stammer and flap your hands nervously in any 
  conversation about the explosion or the plan to rob the 
  vault.
  • 
  Check your fingers for the black lesions that mark incipient 
  genetic corruption.
  • 
  Puff out your cheeks and act slightly fishy.
  Using Osha:
  • 
  Osha’s the weak link in the GeDeCo scheme – if the 
  players investigate Osha, they can find the black box. 
  Purser Vaughan
  The arm of the General Development Company is long indeed. 
  Their agents are everywhere in the Trojan Reach, pulling strings 
  and manipulating events to push the sector into the right sort of 
  war with the Aslan. Vaughan was an ambitious clerk in the naval 
  office in Tobia. A GeDeCo spy started by bribing him to pass on 
  gossip and internal rumours... then they bribed him a little more 
  to pass on shipping schedules and naval patrols. The bribes 
  grew bigger, and soon Vaughan crossed the line from criminal 
  to traitor. If his treachery were ever revealed, the Navy would 
  imprison or execute him.
  Now, Vaughan is so enmeshed in GeDeCo’s schemes that he 
  can’t back out. The company promised him an escape – if he 
  completes one last mission, they’ll set him up with a new identity 
  in some distant sector. All he needs to do is make sure that the 
  false treaty gets into the right hands.
  The fake treaty is concealed in his quarters (see page 7).
  Purser Vaughan
  Age 50, 8 terms
  STR 5 
  DEX 6 END 5 INT 9 
  EDU 10 SOC 8
  Admin 3, Broker 2, Comm 1, Computers 2, Deception 2, Gun 
  Combat (slug pistols) 1, Stealth 1, Steward 2, Streetwise 1, 
  Zero-G 0
  Concealed on his person, Vaughan carries a Gauss Pistol 
  (4d6).
  
  12
  Playing Vaughan:
  • 
  You come across as a grey bureaucrat, caring only about 
  paperwork and protocol – Captain Torsa’s right-hand 
  martinet.
  • 
  Secretly, you know this is the most important flight of your 
  life. If you get the fake treaty into the hands of the Byrni 
  Star Guard or even an influential pirate band, then you’re 
  guaranteed a retirement of sybaritic luxury on some distant 
  pleasure-world. Fail, and you’re a dead man.
  • 
  Be cold, unsympathetic, and even murderous if necessary. 
  Using Vaughan: 
  • 
  Vaughan should remain in the background until either the 
  players discover the GeDeCo plot, or until it’s time to get 
  the fake treaty into play. 
  Marine Salvesdes
  Salvesdes is a veteran of a pirate hunting expedition into the 
  Trojan Reach. He received the Medal of Tobia for his actions 
  when storming a pirate space station in Dpres subsector. 
  According to the official account, Salvesdes was separated 
  from his team, but managed to singlehandedly break through 
  enemy defences and forced the pirate leaders to retreat.
  The truth is very different. Salvesdes remembers cutting through 
  an airlock door with his battle dress’s built-in torch – and then 
  being overpowered by a huge Aslan, even though Salvesdes was 
  in power-assisted armour and the Aslan wore only a light vacc suit. 
  The Aslan – Hroal Irontooth – disarmed Salvesdes, and then held 
  him down while a woman removed his helmet. The woman was a 
  telepath... and Salvedes remembers nothing more.
  He knows, but cannot remember, that he must serve Hroal 
  Irontooth. The telepathic conditioning lodged in his brain 
  ensures his compliance with the pirate’s plans.
  Marine Salvesdes
  Age 26, 2 terms
  STR 9 
  DEX 8 END 10 INT 6 
  EDU 9 SOC 5
  Athletics 0, Battle Dress 2, Gun Combat (energy rifle) 2, Gun 
  Combat (slug pistol) 1, Melee (blade) 1, Melee (brawl) 3, Pilot 
  (small craft) 1, Sensors 1, Stealth 0, Zero-G 1, Vacc Suit 0
  Salvesdes carries a body pistol (3d6-3) at all times. If he can, 
  he wears his Battle Dress (TL13) and carries a laser rifle (5d6) 
  or PGMP-13 (12d6).
  Playing Salvesdes:
  • 
  You’re trapped in a living nightmare. You’re conditioned to 
  obey Hroal Irontooth, and he’s forcing you to break every 
  oath and turn on your fellow soldiers.
  • 
  When pressed, you use violence. The conditioning turns 
  you into an amoral, remorseless killer when necessary.
  • 
  Try to cram as much living as you can into the brief gaps when 
  you’re not controlled. Others see you as a wild, dissolute 
  pleasure-seeker, when in fact you’re living desperately.
  Using Salvesdes: 
  • 
  He’s the main combat threat on board the Martin II. If the 
  players try to thwart Hroal’s plans while onboard, then 
  they’ll have to deal with a psychotic space marine in 
  power armour.
   
  Launch Pilot Hanshaw
  Hroal Irontooth’s agents are thorough. They tracked Hanshaw’s 
  daughter to her school on Cyan in Pax Rulin subsector, and 
  told the child to pass on a message to her mother. ‘Do what we 
  tell you’, they said, ‘or the child suffers.’ As Hanshaw was an 
  offworlder, going to the notoriously insular Cyanese authorities 
  was pointless. She agreed to help the pirates. 
  She hoped that it would all end without bloodshed, that the 
  conservative Captain Torsa would surrender when his ship 
  misjumped into an ambush. That hope ended when the jump 
  drive exploded. Hanshaw was in her shuttle adjacent to 
  engineering section when the explosion happened, and saw 
  everything through the thick viewport. She watched as her 
  co-conspirator Felmar tried to insert a new jump solution into 
  the drive, watched when Chief Engineer Eco noticed Felmar’s 
  fumblings... and watched in horror as Felmar panicked and 
  blew up the engineering section. 
  Now, she’s trapped. If she doesn’t complete her mission for 
  Hroal Irontooth, they’ll kill her daughter. If she tries to alert the 
  captain, then Salvesdes’ programming will kick in and he’ll kill 
  her... but there’s so much blood on her hands now that she can’t 
  bring herself to go through with the crime. She wants to find a 
  way out – preferably, a way that doesn’t send her to a military 
  prison or an airlock.
  Launch Pilot Henshaw
  Age 30, 3 terms
  STR 6 
  DEX 10 END 4 INT 7 
  EDU 7 SOC 4
  Admin 0, Astrogation 1, Comms 1, Computers 0, Gunnery 
  (turret) 1, Pilot (spacecraft) 1, Pilot (small craft) 2, Mechanic 1.
  Playing Henshaw:
  • 
  You made a mistake when you let Hroal’s men intimidate 
  you, and you made a bigger mistake when you let Felmar 
  kill so many of your crewmates. You want to make amends, 
  but don’t know how.
  • 
  You’ve been a wanderer, bouncing from one starport 
  to another. You’re most at home with travellers and 
  vagabonds, and find the strait-laced naval crew boring. 
  Bond with the player characters.
  • 
  Your daughter is your anchor. She’s currently at a boarding 
  school on Cyan.
  Using Henshaw: 
  • 
  If the players befriend Henshaw, then she turns to them to 
  help her escape her predicament.
  
  13
  Encounters & Events
  Timing on these events is left deliberately loose, but they 
  happen in the following order. They all assume inaction on the 
  part of the player characters – obviously, if the players stop 
  Salvesdes or intercept the ship themselves, then events will 
  play out very differently.
  Jump Restrictions (Before Leaving Arunisiir): Captain Torsa 
  inspects the repaired jump engines, and decides not to push 
  them. He announces that the ship will only be making two-parsec 
  jumps until she’s fully repaired. Instead of jumping directly to 
  Tech-World, she’s travel via Acrid to Exe, then Tech-World, then 
  Ergo, and then Byrni. The news is greeted with grumbling from 
  the crew, as it adds several weeks to the journey.
  • 
  This change in route gives the players several more 
  opportunities to intercept the Martin II. 
  • 
  See Voyage to the Hierate, page 16, for details on each 
  system along the way.
  Grumbling on the Lower Decks: Many of the crew, notably 
  Cargo Chief Niven, feel that the Martin II is too badly damaged 
  and the crew too demoralised to complete the mission. They 
  argue that the Treasure Ship should turn back and return to 
  Tobia – another ship can carry their cargo to the Aslan Hierate. 
  The captain refuses to listen to any such suggestions.
  • 
  The pirates can use this growing dissent to make allies 
  among the crew. 
  The New Plan (Before Exe): Salvesdes and Henshaw meet 
  secretly in Henshaw’s launch on the engineering deck, and 
  decide on a new approach – or, rather, another attempt at their 
  old approach. They need to make sure that the Martin II jumps 
  into Hroal’s ambush. Henshaw knows astrogation, so she can 
  calculate the necessary course, but neither of them have access 
  to the ship’s jump engines or navigation computer. 
  • 
  If the player characters are nearby, they can spot the 
  meeting and eavesdrop.
  Killing Laffit (Before Exe): After Henshaw completes the jump 
  calculations and gives them to Salvesdes, the marine goes 
  to the quarters of assistant navigator Ven Laffit and kills him. 
  He then takes Laffit’s log-in codes to the ship’s navigation 
  computer.
  • 
  Salvesdes uses a silenced body pistol to kill Laffit. 
  • 
  If possible, Salvesdes tries to set up a distraction or frame 
  the player characters for the crime. 
  • 
  If Laffit is not in his quarters, then Salvesdes roams the 
  ship until he finds him and then waits for an opportunity 
  to strike. This means that the murder may take place near 
  wherever the pirates are.
  Seizing the Bridge: Finally, Salvesdes takes his battle dress from 
  the locker on the crew deck, exits the ship via the airlock on that 
  level and then walks along the hull to the uppermost level. He 
  enters the ship again by forcing open the launch bay airlock and 
  storms the bridge, killing Habinar and Smith.. He inputs the new 
  jump co-ordinates and activates the jump engines. 
  • 
  A successful Intelligence + Social Science test confirms 
  that Salvesdes is under some sort of mental compulsion, 
  like a post-hypnotic conditioning or telepathic control.
  • 
  Salvesdes goes via the airlock to avoid attracting 
  attention (walking to the bridge in battle dress is pretty 
  much the definition of ‘attracting attention’). If the pirates 
  are shadowing the Martin II in space, they may spot 
  Salvesdes leaving the airlock.
  Seizing the Treasure Ship
  Instead of stealing some of the cargo or attacking the Martin 
  II, the player characters may prefer to steal the whole ship. 
  To do so, they need to:
  • 
  Eliminate or suborn the crew
  • 
  Seize control of the bridge
  • 
  Override the ship’s security systems (Formidable (-6) 
  Computer security)
  The vault can be opened by the Drinaxian scientists of the 
  Scholar’s Tower, using similar TL15 techniques to those 
  used by the GeDeCo conspirators. Selling the Treasure Ship 
  is impossible, but the pirates can use it as a pirate ship or 
  strip it for parts.
  Co-Ordinated Jumps
  Travel through jump space is always uncertain. The vagaries 
  of the little-understood alternate phenomenon mean that 
  even if two ships depart at exactly the same moment, they 
  may precipitate back into realspace at different times. A 
  jump takes, on average, 148+6d6 hours. This makes convoy 
  travel and co-ordinated attacks problematic – a freighter 
  might arrive thirty-six hours ahead of its escort. Ships can 
  also end up widely scattered. One ship might appear right 
  on the 100-diameter jump limit, and its escort might arrive a 
  few light-minutes out.
  It is possible to make co-ordinated jumps that allow multiple 
  ships to jump together, so they all arrive at the same place 
  at the same time. Making a co-ordinated jump gives a -1DM 
  to the Astrogation check (-2 if the two ships are more than 
  500 dtons apart in size, -3 or -4 if the proposed jump is 
  especially tricky or if lots of ships are involved). 
  Ships in a co-ordinated jump do not exist in the same jump 
  bubble – they still spend a week alone in a bubble universe, 
  and cannot communicate or interact with each other in jump 
  space. 
  
  14
  • 
  It takes Salvesdes several minutes to cut through the airlock. 
  While he avoids detection by the ship’s security systems, the 
  player characters can use this time to stop him.
  • 
  See Irontooth’s Ambush if this comes to pass.
  Trapped in Jump Space (only if Salvesdes succeeds): If Hroal’s 
  pawns complete their mission, then the Martin II is locked on 
  course for an ambush. The crew have a week in jumpspace to 
  prepare for their inevitable confrontation with Hroal’s fleet.
  • 
  The Martin II has no chance of prevailing in a stand-up 
  fight, and Captain Torsa isn’t tactically imaginative enough 
  to come up with an alternative. If the player characters 
  step forward with a plan, they can save the ship.
  • 
  Alternatively, this is an excellent time to whip up support 
  for a mutiny. Many of the crew argue that surrender is 
  their only hope, but Torsa refuses to even contemplate 
  abandoning the cargo to the pirates.
  • 
  See Irontooth’s Ambush for the confrontation with the 
  pirates.
  The Second Debate: After Irontooth’s ambush (or, alternatively, 
  after Salvesdes’ attempted take-over of the bridge is foiled), the 
  crew’s dissatisfaction with the ship’s course grows. They elect one 
  of the marines, the popular Jen Laral, to bring their concerns to 
  the senior officers. Captain Torsa refuses to listen, and threatens 
  to put Laral in the brig. He announces to the crew that the ship 
  has a vitally important mission to complete for the good of the 
  Imperium, and that nothing will convince him to turn back. 
  • 
  If the pirates have infiltrated the crew, one of them could 
  accompany Laral to the meeting with the captain.
  • 
  This incident can be used to stir up more dissent or spark 
  a mutiny.
  Jump Drive Blowout (After Exe): The damaged jump drive fails 
  to function again. Fortunately, the safety systems work this 
  time, so there isn’t a repeat of the previous explosion, but the 
  two Gazelle escorts jump away, leaving the Martin II to fend for 
  itself until they return. 
  • 
  If a player character is on hand in the engine room, a 
  successful Intelligence + Engineer (jump) can save the day.
  • 
  As the Gazelles are capable of Jump-4, and only made a 
  two-parsec jump, they will return in two weeks. Protocol 
  dictates that the Martin II wait for them to return.
  • 
  If the pirates are shadowing the Treasure Ship, then this 
  is an excellent opportunity for them to attack.
  Escort Ships
  Once the Martin II leaves Arunisiir, she is accompanied by 
  two other vessels – the Gazelle-class escorts Arshad and 
  Komino (see the Traveller Core Rulebook, page 123). All three 
  ships jump in unison, using co-ordinated jump solutions (see 
  sidebar). Technically, Captain Torsa of the Martin II commands 
  the flotilla, although the other two captains are well aware of 
  Torsa’s limitations as a tactician. 
  2. The Thieves of arunisiir
  Rumours are the lifeblood of piracy. There is little chance of 
  finding a valuable prize by chance alone. Pirates scour the 
  shipping registers and port schedules for clues about potential 
  victims. They pay spotters in ports to track the movements of 
  freighters and merchants; they shadow other ships as they go 
  to and from the starports, looking for any sign that a target is 
  worth the risk. In bars and dives across known space, rumours 
  are traded and sold. 
  Some rumours are evergreen. Knowing that a merchant makes 
  a regular round trip between five systems, or that a corporation 
  has a mining base on a particular moon is always useful to 
  pirates. Such rumours can be exploited at any time. Just lie in 
  wait in the right place, and your prey will come to you.
  Other rumours, though, must be acted on immediately. 
  The Treasure Ship Martin II was supposed to cross the Reach 
  as part of a convoy of Imperial megafreighters and their escorts, 
  but she suffered a critical failure of her jump drive and had to 
  land on the backwater world of Arunisiir for repairs. The convoy 
  carried on without her, leaving a single Gazelle-class escort in 
  orbit to watch over the grounded Martin II. As information can 
  only travel as fast as the ship that carries it, it may take several 
  weeks for rumours of the Treasure Ship to reach the pirates. 
  The news disseminates out from Arunisiir at a rate of 3 parsec/
  week, roughly. So, if the pirates are in the Borderlands subsector, 
  they hear of the grounded ship within two weeks; if they are in 
  Tliowaha, it takes another week or two for news to reach them.
  Rumours and Lies
  All the stories start out the same way – one of the fabled Imperial 
  Treasure Ships broke down and landed on Arunisiir. 
  The following rumours can be obtained in any starport bar 
  or pirate den with a successful Intelligence + Streetwise roll. 
  Rumours in italics are false. Roll a number of times equal to 
  the Effect of the check to determine how many rumours the 
  pirates pick up. The pirates can keep searching for rumours 
  (or analysing news stories, which amounts to the same thing) if 
  they wish, but each additional search takes 1-6 days. 
  The pirates can also pick up rumours at Arunisiir docks once 
  they arrive, at only 1-6 hours per Streetwise roll.
  Getting to Arunisiir
  Depending on when and where the pirates receive the rumour, 
  it may take them several weeks to reach Arunisiir in the 
  Borderlands subsector.
  Eight weeks after the Martin II lands, the rescue flotilla arrives 
  at Arunisiir.
  
  15
  Rumours
  11
  An explosion forced the Martin II to land.
  41
  Captain Torsa of the Martin II is a marionette who got his position 
  through family connections.
  12
  Her engineering section is damaged.
  42
  The first officer, Jagad, of the Martin II is a Naval veteran who 
  favours other veterans. 
  13
  Her chief engineer was killed.
  43
  The second engineer, Polo, is very superstitious.
  14
  All the engineering staff were killed.
  44
  The commander of the marine detachment, Harc, is a cyborg.
  15
  The ship’s jump drive is damaged.
  45
  The ship’s navigator, Osha, comes from the Reach. 
  16
  The Imperium is sending a repair crew to fix 
  the ship.
  46
  Tech-World is a lair of spies and strange creatures. Be on your 
  guard there.
  21
  She’ll never jump again.
  51
  All Treasure Ships carry a squad of Imperial Marines on board.
  22
  She was attacked by pirates.
  52
  All Treasure Ships have a built-in self-destruct device.
  23
  The ship is guarded by a single Gazelle.
  53
  The vault on a Treasure Ship can only be opened when the ship 
  arrives at its destination.
  24
  She’s unguarded.
  54
  The captain has a key that opens the vault.
  25
  The Imperium is sending another three ships to 
  escort the Martin II.
  55
  The vault on a Treasure Ship is locked using an unbreakable 
  mathematical code derived from stellar positions and jump data. 
  26
  The rescue flotilla arrives in eight weeks.
  56
  The vault is unbreakable.
  31
  Every Treasure Ship carries valuable goods.
  61
  The Treasure Ship’s route goes through Tech-World and Byrni.
  32
  The Martin II carries a secret treaty on board.
  62
  The Treasure Ship’s route goes through Exe, Falcon and Byrni.
  33
  The Martin II carries bioweapons on board.
  63
  This rumour gets the pirates the ship data of the Martin II.
  34
  The Martin II carries an Ancient artefact on board. 64
  This rumour gets the pirates the deck plans of the Martin II. 
  35
  The Martin II has a consignment of gemstones 
  on board.
  65
  This rumour gets the pirates the  crew manifest of the Martin II. 
  36
  The Martin II is a relatively small and 
  unimportant ship.
  66
  The Martin II was sabotaged.
   
  Twelve weeks after she lands, the repaired Martin II launches 
  again and jumps for Tech-World (see page 18). If the pirates do 
  not arrive within this time limit, their chances of intercepting the 
  Treasure Ship are extremely remote.
  Arrival at Arunisiir
  Arunisiir (see Worlds of the Reach, page 20) has few of its own 
  ships. Waiting in orbit, however, is the Gazelle-class escort 
  Arshad. Remember to check the pirates’ Standing with the 
  Imperium – if their standing is -6 or less, and the Arshad identifies 
  them, it will attack. The pirates can hide their identity from the 
  Arshad with a successful opposed Education + Sensors test.
  Arunisiir is a lawless world – once past the Imperial patrol, the 
  pirates can land anywhere they want, although landing too 
  close to the Martin II attracts unwanted attention.  
  Arunisiir StarPort
  Arunisiir’s Class B port consists of a few square kilometres 
  of packed pseudogranite landing pads surrounding a knot of 
  buildings. The Aslan invaders destroyed the old traffic control 
  building. Today, the hulk of an Aslan Sakhai assault carrier 
  serves as the heart of the port. Surrounding it are a dozen missile 
  turrets – while Arunisiir is officially TL6, it retains a few high-tech 
  industries and can produce surface-to-space missiles. 
  Six ships occupy pads in the starport.
  • 
  The Martin II Treasure Ship: The Treasure Ship occupies 
  a pad on the edge of the StarPort. Access to the ship 
  is strictly controlled (see Security Precautions, below). 
  She obviously landed badly – her stern is supported by 
  grav platforms, and her impact cracked the granite pad 
  underneath. Scaffolding surrounds the damaged ship.
  • 
  Far Trader Fafnir: An Imperium-registered independent 
  trader, owned by a husband-and wife team called Hral 
  and Gila Zafnen. They’ve dabbled in piracy in the past, 
  and were drawn here by the same rumours as the player 
  characters. However, they’ve learned that the vault on the 
  Treasure Ship is impenetrable, and have given up on their 
  grand schemes of robbing the Martin II. 
  • 
  Imperial Scout Service Ship (Type S) Whistlestop: This 
  ship, crewed by an eccentric scout called Yan and his 
  robot sidekick Bucket, served as a courier for the downed 
  Martin II. Yan jumped back to the Imperium, informed the 
  naval office at Fist about the crash of the Treasure Ship, 
  then returned to Arunisiir. He sees himself as the hero 
  of the hour, and can be found in the starport bar being 
  bought drinks by the grateful crew of the Martin II. 
  
  16
  • 
  Far Trader Hopeful Wanderer: The Hopeful Wanderer, out 
  of Acrid, is a fixture of shipping and trade in this subsector. 
  If the pirates befriend her captain, a woman named Bel, 
  she tells them that she spotted Hroal Irontooth’s flagship 
  lurking in the Exe asteroid belt (see Exe, page 17).
  • 
  Arunisiir Defence Force Ships Tiger and Lion: Arunisiir’s 
  home-grown ships are a mismatch of TL6 human 
  technology and a few bits of scavenged TL12 Aslan tech – 
  they look like eggs with grav drives. They’re lightly armed 
  and are no match for a modern vessel (no armour and a 
  single pulse laser each), but they still bravely challenge 
  any intruders.
  Encounters At The StarPort
  Timing on these events is left deliberately loose, but they 
  happen in the following order. 
  Aslan Extortion: Arunisiir is a human-dominated world, but the 
  aristocracy are the descendants of Aslan conquerors who landed 
  some three hundred years ago. The Aslan are figureheads now, kept 
  as pampered pets by their human retainers. Sometimes, though, 
  the Aslan remember a little of their former pride, and act out. 
  The pirates are approached by an angry Aslan male named 
  Ekaft. He tells them that their ship has landed in his territory, 
  and that they must pay him a fee based on the value of the 
  ship – a value he will determine personally by inspecting it. If 
  the pirates refuse, then Ekaft threatens to have them thrown 
  off the planet. It’s largely an empty threat, but Ekaft can draw 
  unwanted attention to the pirates.
  If they accept, then Ekaft demands a nominal payment (100 
  Cr/ton). 
  • 
  The main purpose of this scene is local colour, but it can 
  also lead into local politics (see the entry for Arunisiir in 
  Worlds of the Reach, page 20).
  • 
  Technically, the Martin II’s landing pad is also in Ekaft’s 
  territory. He lacks the confidence to demand payment 
  from the Imperium, but if the players feed his ego, they 
  can convince him to demand an inspection of the Treasure 
  Ship – this is a possible route for the players to get onto 
  the Martin II.
  Wild Times at the Arunisiir Bar: Crew from the Martin II, the 
  orbiting Arshad and the other ships at the starport crowd the bar. 
  The locals at Arunisiir welcome the extra customers – Arunisiir 
  is off the regular trade route. While at the bar, a successful 
  Routine (+2) Carouse test lets the pirates befriend Crewmen 
  O’Leary & Ilin from the Treasure Ship. This pair of hard-drinking 
  rogues may tell the players that their ship is looking for extra 
  hands, or even smuggle the players on board for a nice bribe.
  • 
  The bar is an excellent place to pick up rumours or 
  introduce NPCs.
  • 
  If the players are stuck, then have Mechanic Polo approach 
  them and offer them a job.
  The GeDeCo Man: If the pirates are still hesitant about approaching 
  the Martin II, then have them run into a strange offworlder in the 
  starport. Aparo claims to be a passenger on the Hopeful Wanderer, 
  and mentions that the Martin II is looking for qualified engineers. 
  He’s a broker in spare parts – if the pirates would do him a small 
  favour, he will reward them with a 1,000Cr bonus. All he wants is a 
  report on the status of the Martin II’s engines.
  Aparo works for the General Development Company; he is here 
  to ascertain whether or not their plan is still viable. He wants to 
  use the player characters to check on the engines so he does not 
  draw attention to the two GeDeCO agents already on board.
  • 
  If questioned, Aparo claims that he has replacement engine 
  parts in his cargo space on the Hopeful Wanderer, and wants 
  to find out how extortionate a margin he can charge.
  • 
  Investigation reveals that Aparo joined the Hopeful 
  Wanderer on Tech-World. Breaking into Aparo’s cabin/
  questioning Captain Bel or hacking into Aparo’s hand 
  computer reveals that he is renting a warehouse in the 
  starport under the name ‘CP Computing’.
  The Buzz of the Scout: A refitted scout (stripping out staterooms 
  for extra fuel and cargo space) buzzes the starport, dodging 
  past the vigilant Arshad to make a fast pass over Arunisiir before 
  jumping out again. This scout belongs to the pirate retinue 
  of Hroal Irontooth, and is here to check on his prize’s status. 
  Irontooth expected the Martin II to jump into his trap weeks ago.
  • 
  A successful Difficult (-2) Intelligence + Comms test lets 
  the players detect a burst transmission from the Martin II to 
  the scoutship. This is an encrypted report from Henshaw, 
  telling Hroal about the explosion and asking him to be 
  patient.
  • 
  If the pirates visited Theev (in Honour Among Thieves or 
  some other adventure), then a successful Intelligence + 
  Sensors test lets them recognise the scout ship as the 
  Dancing Spider, a ship belonging to Hroal Irontooth’s 
  band of pirates. (See Hroal Irontooth, page 17.).
  • 
  If the players intercept the scout and parlay with her 
  captain, Thedik Vance, then he may inform them about 
  Hroal’s plan to capture the Martin II. 
  The Imperial Cavalry: Three more ships jump into the Arunisiir 
  system – the Gazelle-class Komino, the repair ship Henry Ford 
  (Merchants and Cruisers, page 83) and the patrol cruiser Sincerity 
  (Traders and Gunboats, page 118). The Komino takes up a 
  defensive posture alongside her sister Arshad, while the Henry 
  Ford descends to carry out final repairs to the Martin II. The 
  Sincerity overflies the port (see below) before landing to refuel.
  Within 48 hours, the competent engineers of the Henry Ford 
  have the Martin II ready to take off again. After refuelling, the 
  
  17
  Ford heads coreward again. The Martin II joins the two Gazelles 
  in orbit, ready for her voyage to the Hierate.
  The Sincerity is on a pirate hunting mission. Before landing to 
  refuel, she scans every ship in the port. If the players have a 
  Standing with the Imperium of -6 or less, they again need to 
  disguise their ship or else hide to avoid arrest. The Sincerity has 
  better sensors than the Arshad, so the players need to make an 
  Education + Sensors test at a -4 DM to hide if they stay landed 
  at the starport. 
  The Sincerity’s pirate patrol takes her through the Borderlands 
  trade route and then out along the Sindalian main – the players 
  may run into her again on some future adventure. 
   
  Getting on Board
  There are three ways to get on board the Martin II.
  Getting Hired: While the ship’s grounded on Arunisiir, they 
  need deckhands and technicians to clear out the damaged 
  sections of engineering and repair cracks in the ship’s armour. 
  Any characters with the requisite skills (Engineer (any) 2+, 
  Mechanic 2+, appropriate Trade 2+) can get a job on the repair 
  crew (earning Effect x 100 Credits). 
  • 
  Repair crew workers are restricted to the engineering 
  section, and cannot explore the rest of the ship. They are 
  watched at all time by two armoured marines.
  • 
  Any repair workers that impress the officers (through 
  roleplaying, or by having useful skills like Engineer, 
  Computers, Sensors or Gunnery (turret) and who have 
  clean records (or suitable fake Ids) can bargain their way 
  into temporary contracts for the duration of the voyage to 
  the Hierate.  
  Stealth: Sneaking onto the ship is tricky. All approaches are 
  watched by armoured marines, and large signs warn that they 
  are under orders to shoot to kill. A successful Very Difficult (-4) 
  Dexterity + Stealth test is needed to make it past the guards.
  • 
  Once on board, the characters can easily hide in the cargo 
  bays, which are only rarely checked during flight.
  • 
  It is much easier for a member of the repair crew to slip 
  away and hide, requiring a Routine Stealth test. 
  Raiding: If the players want to abandon subtlety, they can just 
  tool up with armour and laser rifles and try to storm the ship. 
  The Martin II is protected by six Imperial Star Marines, and all 
  of her crew have at least basic training in firearms. The local 
  authorities also respond within minutes, sending groundcars full 
  of troops armed with slug rifles. On top of all that, there’s the 
  Arshad in orbit with her ortillery missiles and assault launch. A 
  direct assault on the Martin II is likely to be suicidal.
  • 
  That said, a small strike team might be able to sneak on 
  board and then either storm the bridge or try to break into 
  the vault, especially if backed up by a distraction. 
  3. voyage To The hieraTe
  The Martin II clambers out of Arunisiir’s gravity well, and takes 
  her place between the two Gazelles. The Treasure Ship is 
  obviously still damaged; she handles like a drowning cow, 
  and the fresh paint on her aft cannot hide all the scars. A good 
  captain would turn around and head for a proper drydock in 
  Imperial space, but Captain Torsa is determined to see his 
  mission through. 
  With her range restricted to two-parsec jumps, the Martin II 
  and her two escorts pass through seven systems en route to 
  the Hierate. In each system, unless otherwise noted, the three 
  ships land at the starport, refuel, and then jump out again as 
  soon as possible. On average, the Martin II spends three days 
  at each port and another seven days in jump space, so the 
  voyage takes around 70 days.
  Descriptions of each system are found in the relevant Library 
  Data entry. (Some systems are described in the forthcoming 
  Demon’s Eye adventure.)
  Following the Flotilla: If the player characters have their own 
  ship(s), they can try following the Martin II across the subsector. 
  Following the same course as the flotilla for one or two jumps 
  does not arouse suspicion, although the pirates may be hailed 
  by the Martin II or her escorts – it is standard practice to greet 
  one’s fellow travellers. 
  Following the flotilla for three or more jumps, though, is suspect 
  behaviour. Unless the players come up with a plausible excuse 
  to explain why they are sticking so close to the Martin II, they 
  may be intercepted and boarded by the Arshad. 
  Alternatively, the pirates can stalk the Martin II from a distance, 
  jumping into a different part of the system and then picking up 
  the Treasure Ship on long-range sensors.
  Acrid
  Acrid’s caustic atmosphere can eat through an inch of armour 
  plating in only a few hours, and acid storms and methane 
  hurricanes lash the arid surface constantly, but it is still one of the 
  more pleasant worlds visited en route to the Hierate. The population 
  here is only a few thousand, clustered around the settlement on 
  Sentinel Mount, the tallest mountain on the planet. 
  Weather control systems open a landing corridor for the Martin 
  II and her escorts to land. This corridor is an unnaturally calm 
  column within the raging storms. 
  • 
  Daring pirates can attack while the ships are in the landing 
  corridor. Moving outside the safe corridor means exposure 
  to the violent winds of Acrid (which give a -4 DM to Pilot 
  checks). The corridor is relatively narrow, constraining the 
  movements of ships within it. The pirates have a chance 
  to take on one Gazelle at a time instead of both at once.
  
  18
  • 
  Attacking within the corridor means exposure to Acrid’s 
  four automated missile turrets.
  Exe
  Hroal Irontooth’s pirate band lurk on the fringes of this system, 
  waiting for the hijacked Martin II to jump into their midst. Hroal’s 
  band consists of:
  • 
  His flagship, the Meatgrinder, a 1,200 ton Aslan Halaheike 
  pocket warship (Alien Module 1: Aslan, page 133)
  • 
  The Monkey Business, a 300-ton Bug-class Salvage Hauler 
  with four pulse lasers and a particle beam turret, piloted by 
  the uplifted ape Pirate George (Scoundrel, page 103).
  • 
  The refitted Far Trader Sindal’s Shame, fitted with a 
  missile/sandcaster turret and a twin pulse laser turret 
  (Traveller Core Rulebook, page 118).
  • 
  The scoutship Dancing Spider (Traveller Core Rulebook, 
  page 115). 
  Irontooth’s Ambush
  If Hroal’s plan works and the Martin II jumps into his trap, then 
  the Treasure Ship is in big trouble. She’s outgunned several 
  times over by the Meatgrinder alone, whose twin particle bays 
  can punch through even the Martin II’s armour. Unless the player 
  characters intervene, then the Martin II is pummelled until she’s 
  drifting in space. The Aslan’s forces then board the Treasure Ship 
  and fight a bloody battle with the surviving marines. Hroal has no 
  way to loot the vault, but he’ll steal the cargo and leave the carcass 
  to be picked over by scavengers like the player characters.
  The Martin II appears some 45,000,000 kilometres away from 
  the rest of the flotilla; it takes the two Gazelles the best part of 
  a day to respond. By then, the ship is dead and drifting, but the 
  vault is still intact. The Komino jumps out to bring word of the 
  disaster back to the Imperium, while the Arshad tows the hulk 
  to Exe. The pirates still have a chance to get the loot if they can 
  find a way to break into the vault. 
  Purser Vaughan (see page 10) tries to get the fake treaty into the 
  vault, or else plants it somewhere that the player characters find it. 
  If the player characters are on board, then they will be killed 
  unless they can come up with a way to outwit Hroal or (more 
  likely) change sides and form an alliance with Hroal.
  The Battle of Exe
  If Hroal’s plan doesn’t work, and the Martin II arrives safely 
  at Exe, then Hroal Irontooth switches to his Plan B. His band 
  outguns the two Gazelles, so he leads a direct assault on Exe, 
  hoping to capture the Martin II by sheer force of arms.
  It’s a bloody battle. The Gazelles are armed with nuclear 
  missiles, and the Meatgrinder takes the bulk of the punishment. 
  Hroal’s smaller ships dance around the fringes of the battle, 
  trying to score a lucky hit on the Martin II’s fuel tanks to stop 
  her jumping out. The Gazelles keep the majority of their fire 
  targeted on the Aslan ship, but the Martin’s sixteen beam lasers 
  are enough to dissuade most attackers from coming too close. 
  As the Meatgrinder approaches, she launches her ten fighters. 
  Swarmed by these interceptors, the Arshad chooses to take a 
  more aggressive approach. Leaving the Komino to guard the 
  Martin II, she heads at full speed towards the Meatgrinder. Twin 
  particle bays flare again and again, blasting the Arshad’s prow 
  to scrap, breaching her hull, destroying her weapons turrets 
  – but the hulk keeps coming, and even in her ruined state, she 
  is faster and more manoeuvrable than the Meatgrinder. 
  Hroal jumps out. The wreck of the burning Arshad tumbles through 
  the empty space where the pirate ship was seconds ago.
  With the loss of a big ship on both sides, the odds turn against 
  the pirates. The Komino’s nukes destroy Sindal’s Shame. The 
  Monkey Business retrieves six of the fighters, then jumps out, 
  followed instantly by the Dancing Spider. The Imperial forces 
  are victorious – but both ships have suffered heavy damage. 
  The Komino is down to Hull 0, Structure 5 and has lost both 
  beam turrets, while the Martin II is at Hull 30.  
  Tech-World
  After the carnage of Exe, Tech-World’s cool mechanical embrace is 
  a welcome relief. The Martin II docks here for repairs if necessary, 
  and the crew are given an extra three days shore leave. 
  The GeDeCo plan
  While on Tech-World, Navigator Osha leaves the ship carrying 
  the GeDeCo black box concealed in her backpack. Guided 
  by her personal robot, she goes to a warehouse rented by a 
  corporation called CP Computing. The players can follow her 
  with Streetwise or Stealth. 
  Hroal Irontooth
  The Aslan criminal is perhaps the most aggressive and daring 
  of the Theev pirates. The pirates may have encountered him 
  during Honour Among Thieves – if not, they quickly learn that 
  he is loud, aggressive and dangerous. 
  The pirates may be able to come to an agreement with 
  Irontooth to split the treasure from the Martin II or form an 
  alliance. Hroal expected that the captain of the Martin II 
  would be able to open the vault. He was wrong, so he needs 
  the player characters’ help to get into the vault. Once they 
  have served their purpose, he may honour his alliance or just 
  eliminate them depending on his mood.
  
  19
  Investigating with an Intelligence + Admin or Intelligence + 
  Computers test reveals that CP Computing is a fake company – 
  it’s a shell created by GeDeCo. The warehouse contains a super-
  advanced TL15 dedicated supercomputer built by the engineers 
  of Tech-World for CP Computing, designed specifically to crack 
  the vault lock. The warehouse is guarded by a swarm of TL15 
  Combat Robots (similar to the Combat Drones described on 
  page 95 of the Traveller rulebook, but with artificial intelligence 
  and improved targeting and self-repair systems.
  An android named Virgil oversees the computer. It refuses to 
  divulge its employers. (Optionally – the computer determines 
  that it needs Captain Torsa’s genetic data to crack the vault code, 
  so Virgil or Osha hire the player characters to steal a sample of 
  Torsa’s blood before the Martin II leaves Tech-World.)
  Before the Martin II leaves Tech-World, Virgil sends a package 
  to Purser Vaughan containing a small device. Activating this 
  device opens the Treasure Ship vault. 
  Ergo
  Ergo’s a Red system, so the Martin II visits only the automated 
  refuelling station before departing. Ergo is one of the last chances 
  for the pirates to intercept the Treasure Ship before Byrni.
   
  Byrni
  When the old Empire of Sindal fell, it left outposts and colonies 
  across the Trojan Reach. Some – like Drinax – survived and 
  thrived for a few generations. Others collapsed into barbarism 
  or decayed into dust.
  Byrni ossified. The system was a major naval base before the 
  Empire fell, and it stayed a naval base after the Empire fell. 
  Even as the planet’s technological base declined, the stalwart 
  sailors of Bynri kept their ships flying. Loyalty to the memory of 
  empire became the highest virtue in their society. 
  Now, the Aslan and Humans of Byrni are brave defenders of 
  civilisation and trade in the Trojan Reach. Massive investments by 
  GeDeCo rebuilt their crumbling infrastructure and upgraded their 
  aging ships. Byrni patrols guard against pirate attacks along the 
  Imperium-Hierate and Imperium-Florian League trade routes.
  Byrni Patrols: The Byrni patrol consists of three Systems 
  Defence Boats (Traders and Gunboats, page 92); a second 
  patrol of another three boats is only 20,000 kilometres away. 
  The GeDeCo Plot: The final section of the GeDeCo scheme to 
  plant the fake treaty comes into play in Byrni. The corporation 
  influences the Regent of Byrni to order all ships passing through 
  the system to be searched for contraband. Captain Torsa 
  grumbles, but allows the inspection. The ship’s vault will, of 
  course, remain sealed. 
  The Treaty of Fist
  GeDeCo’s forgers did an excellent job – the treaty is identical to 
  a genuine Imperial treaty, right down to the genetically-coded 
  seals affixed next to each signature. According to the Treaty, 
  the Aslan claim the right to annex any worlds in the subsectors 
  of Dpres, Sindal, Tliowaha or the Borderland, on condition that 
  they do not take any planet within six parsecs of the Imperial 
  frontier. In exchange for not protesting these territorial claims, 
  the Imperium is granted favourable trade terms. 
  Currently, the independent worlds of the Trojan Reach look 
  to the Imperium for protection. The independents have no 
  love for the Imperium, but they believe that the Imperium will 
  contest any large-scale advance by the Aslan to protect its own 
  borders. The Trojan Reach’s status as a buffer zone between 
  the two star empires is a major factor in interstellar politics. 
  The treaty strips away that status, casting hundreds of human 
  worlds into the maw of the Aslan in exchange for profit. 
  Such a treaty would not only panic the independent worlds 
  and drive them into the embrace of the General Development 
  Company, it would also stir up the anti-Aslan, pro-military 
  factions within the Imperial nobility. Currently, Imperial politics 
  is divided on the Aslan question, but the treaty would be seen 
  by those opposed to the Aslan as a massive, unconscionable 
  step towards abandoning the Reach.
  If word of the treaty spreads out into the Trojan Reach, then every 
  independent world will start looking for allies and support.
  The revelation of the Treaty would not only help GeDeCo 
  – it would also benefit the dreams of Drinax. If the players 
  allow the treaty to spread, then roll 2d for every independent 
  world visited by the player characters. On an 8+, that world 
  moves one step closer to Haven. However, revealing the 
  treaty also raises tensions with both the Imperium and the 
  Hierate, dropping the players’ Standing by 1d6 with regards 
  to both empires.
  A Byrni patrol vessel docks with the Martin II, and a team of 
  Byrni marines, wearing the antique armour of the Star Guard 
  of Sindal, board the ship. Notably, all the marines wear 
  communications headsets that transmit all they see and hear 
  back to their home base. They conduct a thorough inspection of 
  all the holds, and then come to the vault. Surreptitiously, Purser 
  Vaughan activates the control device obtained on Tech-World.
  The doors of the vault swing open. The Byrni marines enter, 
  over the objections of the Imperial officers present. Purser 
  Vaughan is one of several Imperial crew who enter the vault to 
  remonstrate with the Byrni soldiers. In the confusion, he puts 
  the fake treaty on a shelf in the vault.
  
  20
  One of the Byrni marines is under orders from GeDeCo to look 
  for any official documents, and she spots the treaty. If she picks 
  it up, then her headset will immediately transmit an image of it 
  back to Byrni – and once it’s transmitted, there will be no way 
  to hide it. 
  • 
  If the player characters are on the Martin II, they may be 
  in a position to spot Vaughan planting the treaty.
  • 
  They can also try stopping the Byrni marines.
  After the vault is opened, tensions between the Byrni ships and 
  the Imperial convoy are high. A shooting battle could easily 
  break out, if the players push the situation one way or another. 
  If the players do not intervene, then Captain Torsa decides to 
  continue with the mission. The ‘malfunction’ of the vault is a 
  disaster, but it’s not his fault – he’ll deliver the contents of the 
  vault to the Aslan as ordered. He orders one of the remaining 
  Gazelle escorts, if any, to jump back towards the Imperium at 
  high speed to warn them about the opening of the vault.
  Sink 
  At Sink, the Martin II is met by an Aslan escort flotilla consisting 
  of an Aositaoh-class 1,000dton cruiser and two 800dton 
  Ekawsiykua escorts. That is considerably more firepower 
  than the player characters are likely to be able to deal with. 
  The players have a small final window of opportunity to rob the 
  Treasure Ship before it joins up with the Aslan ships. If they fail, 
  the prize is lost.
  
  21
  WorlDs of The reach 
  Acrid
  Life on Acrid makes the surface of Venus look like a balmy 
  resort. The few thousand permanent residents of this world 
  are primarily miners and industrial chemists working for the 
  PRQ megacorporation, which also runs the nearby mining 
  colony of Argona. Most of the planet is unexplored, and the 
  miners recently discovered signs of bacterial life in caverns 
  underground. 
  Patron: Gera Hollis
  Reward: Acrid and Argona become Havens.
  Mission: Both Acrid and Argona chafe under the PRQ’s rule. 
  Conditions on both planets are extremely hazardous and 
  unpleasant, and the company treats the workers as slaves. 
  The revolt of ‘38 improved conditions for a time, but now PRQ 
  has decided to cut pay and increase the workforce on both 
  planets by 40%, making already cramped living quarters into 
  hellholes. The miners intend to revolt and declare both planets 
  independent – but they have no ships of their own. They want 
  military support from Drinax to fend off the PRQ’s strikebreakers. 
  The PRQ has two System Defence Boats at both planets, and 
  will dispatch mercenary cruisers to deal with any resistance. 
  The war for Acrid and Argona may be a brief one, but it will 
  certainly be bloody.
   
  Arunisiir
  An Aslan ihatei and his retinue conquered Arunisiir three 
  hundred years ago, but their descendants are now figureheads 
  in the government. 
  Patron: Ekaft
  Reward: Arunisiir becomes a Haven. 
  Mission: Ekaft is an Aslan landowner who dreams of reclaiming 
  lost glories. He wants the pirates to carry a message to his 
  distant cousins in the Hierate, telling them to come to Arunisiir 
  and conquer it once again. Upsetting the status quo on Arunisiir 
  will almost certainly lead to civil war, so Ekaft wants the players 
  to fetch an overwhelming Aslan force. 
  Byrni
  By rights, Byrni and Drinax should be natural allies, as both 
  claim to be part of the old Sindalian Empire. However, the 
  Regent of Byrni regards the Kings of Drinax as pretenders to 
  the throne, and has so far refused all diplomatic contact... until 
  now.
  Patron: Regent Stoylis of Byrni, Lord Commander of the 
  Antispin Star Guard
  Reward: Byrni becomes part of the Kingdom of Drinax
  Mission: Stoylis has heard through secret channels of Oleb’s 
  scheme to rebuild Sindal, and is willing to support the plan – 
  but only if Oleb proves that he is worthy to rule. The players 
  must come up with a way to demonstrate Oleb’s wisdom and 
  benevolence – two things that the King cannot be said to 
  possess in any large measure.
   
  Ergo
  Ergo was destroyed by civil war between different members of 
  the ruling Council of Barons, who squabbled over tax revenue 
  from the newly-built GeDeCo starport. Today, it’s a wasteland 
  inhabited by barbarian tribes.
  Patron: Imperial Scout Ballis of the No Stone Unturned
  Reward: A favour from the Scout Service.
  Mission: Ballis’s co-pilot, a scout named Ferish, was in an air-
  raft conducting a survey of the planet when an anti-aircraft 
  missile shot him down. Ballis wants the player characters to 
  help recover Ferish from the warring gangs.
  Inurin
  Inurin is a prize world, nearly Earthlike, with considerable 
  mineral deposits and rich farmland. The inhabitants – Sindalian 
  colonists – all follow a curious religion that claims that jump 
  travel steals the traveller’s soul. They prefer not to deal with 
  offworlders, as there is every chance they are husks possessed 
  by demons. Another major part of their faith is the use of a 
  hallucinogenic fungus, called Sarna. Production of the fungus 
  is strictly controlled by the xenophobic priests.
  Patron: Free Trader Laro Smith
  Reward: A share in the profits, if any
  Mission: Smith believes that sarna can be made into a highly 
  profitable recreational pharmaceutical, but his previous attempt 
  at stealing the secret of the fungal caves from the priests 
  resulted in him fleeing the planet pursued by a torch-wielding 
  mob. The Inurini now consider him to be the Prince of Lies and 
  
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  he cannot return to the planet. He wants the pirates to sneak 
  into the fungal caves and learn the origin of Sarna. 
  Tanith
  Tanith was recently settled by a long-range colony ship from the 
  Ayldem/Tobia system. The planetary government has applied 
  for client state status with the Imperium, and the newly-built 
  Class A startport stands as testament to their ambitions. Tanith 
  is a jungle world, amiable to human life.
  Patron: Councillor Abros
  Reward: Cr. 100,000
  Mission: Four ships – a scout, two traders, and an Aslan 
  vagabond – recently left Tanith starport. After they departed, it 
  was discovered that all four accidentally picked up stowaways. 
  Specifically, all four ships carried away small primates called 
  volays. The primates like to live in warm, dark caves, and find 
  the air ducts and storage lockers of starships to be ideal.
  Researchers just discovered that the volays carry a parasitic 
  mite in their fur. On Tanith, this parasite is harmless as it is 
  kept in check by its own predators, a form of local fly. Offworld, 
  without the flies to eat the mites, the parasites’ numbers expand 
  exponentially – and in large concentrations, they are deadly 
  poisonous to humans. All four ships could effectively be carrying 
  lethal poisons. Abros wants the pirates to hunt down all four 
  ships and eliminate the volays and the parasites. If they fail, 
  Tanith may be declared a Red Zone by the Imperium. 
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Traveller/08 - Mongoose Traveller/Third Party Materials/Adventures/The Pirates of Drinax - Adventure/Pirates of Drinax 2 - Treasure Ship.pdf