Freelance Traveller

Look Away Home

by Michael Brown

This article originally appeared in the November/December 2012 issue.

Patron: Parent
No. Players: 2-6
Required Equipment: None
Required Skills: None; Diplomacy may be useful.

Players’ Information

A distraught mother approaches the party. Her daughter has disappeared along with a substantial portion of her mother’s savings. All indications are that she has run away with her on-again, off-again lover. The mother will pay the group Cr5,000—all she has left—to find her daughter and bring her home.

Referee’s Information

The mother has two clues as to the destination and intentions of her daughter: a receipt for a starliner ticket and travel brochures for a neighboring world.

Possible Directions to Take This Scenario

1. All is as represented. The daughter has decided to elope with her lover to a neighboring world. She will not willingly return home. Starport Security will come down hard on anyone creating a scene.
2. As 1, but the lover has no idea of the girl’s plans. He thinks they are simply taking a vacation.
3. As 1, except the pair are already aboard the starship, and it will depart within the hour. The referee should determine the chances for the PCs to get aboard regardless, especially if the liner is unstreamlined and therefore cannot land.
4. The lover is actually a con man, running an extended scam. He has been grooming the girl for over a year, scheming to get his hands on an inheritance he is convinced she has coming. Meanwhile, he’s milked as much money out of her as he can and will abandon the girl at the next port.
5. The lover is actually a kidnapper. As soon as he has the girl in the next port, he will imprison her and send a ransom note back to her mother.
6. As 5, except the “mother” is actually the would-be kidnapper, using the party to remove the girl’s bodyguard, whom the kidnapper is falsely painting as the girl’s lover. The bodyguard was hired to protect the daughter by her real mother, a successful businesswoman.

The referee should determine the flow of subsequent events.