Freelance Traveller

by Joel Callahan

Scenario

A Red Zone world, quarantined because the balkanised governments annihilated each other and almost every living thing on the planet in a Nuclear War.

A Scout Security Leader approaches the team. Seems there was a Scout Monitoring Station on the world, and records of its existence were lost.until recently. The team is to go in, find the base, recovered any recorded holocubes that might help explain how the nuclear war started, and return with the information. The hope is that the holocubes survived the war and can help shed some light as to the events leading up to the start of hostilities.

Referee Information

The planet has been declared a Red Zone for over 100 years. Most of the population died in the initial conflict. Most of the survivors died in the months that followed due to radiation sickness, lack of drinking water, disease, etc. The few that are left have been affected by the radiation, as well as the harsh conditions. Mental instability is common, as is mutation due to the radiation. In 100 years, the final survivors mated and had offspring, whose genes were horribly altered by years of radiation. Some of the mutations are not so bad (for example, acquiring a resistance to the radiation), while some are extreme (some no longer look human, some have mental powers, some have incredible strength, etc). Any animals that were not killed have also mutated in much the same manner as the humans.

The Monitoring Station survived the nuclear war intact. The base is located where the records show it to be. However, a band of mutants have discovered the base and have claimed it as their own. There are 6D6 of them there at any given time.

This planet is drenched in radiation, and even with standard-issued Radiation suits, the players cannot spend more than 1D6 hours outside of the ship (the armour and hull protects anyone inside the ship).

Possible directions for the adventure to go:

1. When the players' ship breaks orbit and begins to descend, it sets off what's left of Defence Systems and a nuclear-tipped missile is streaking towards their ship.
2. Upon successfully landing, the ship is attacked by mutants who have enhanced strength. They throw rocks, stones, boulders, old chunks of rubble, etc., at the ship. If they are not stopped, they will damage the ship and they may not be able to use sensors to locate the Monitoring Station, or maybe not even be able to lift off.
3. Upon finding the Monitoring Station, the players are unable to locate the holocubes. If they are able to question any of the not-so-mutated mutants, they are told the holocubes and some other items of technology were traded to the Clan across the river for food. The players must now track this other Clan down and retrieve the holocubes.
4. Upon finding the Monitoring Station, the Leader of the band of mutants declares that one of the players must battle one of their tribe. If the player wins, he gets the holocubes, if he loses...
5. Same as #4, only if the players win, the Leader reveals that he doesn't actually have the holocubes - he doesn't even know what they are.
6. The Monitoring Station is finally discovered, but all records have been destroyed by radiation from a bomb that landed near the facility.