Freelance Traveller

Ordeal by Eshaar

reviewed by Paul Anuni

This article originally appeared in the November/December 2025 issue.

Ordeal by Eshaar. J. Andrew Keith and William H. Keith.
FASA (defunct, no website)
PDF, 51pp.
Available on FFE Apocrypha 1 CD, or
US$6.00/UK£4.56 (via DTRPG)

Ordeal by Eshaar is one of the early Traveller adventures from FASA; it does not seem to be as remembered in the community as some of FASA’s other adventures. It is credited to the Keith brothers, which I consider a good sign; the Keiths credit Jordan Weisman and Marc Miller for the concept on which they based this adventure.

Like many of its contemporaries, this adventure only requires the basic Traveller rules (Books 1, 2, and 3); it does call out Book 4: Mercenary, Book 5: High Guard, Supplement 1: 1001 Characters, and Supplement 4: Citizens of the Imperium as being potentially useful, and doesn’t rule out the usefulness of any other Traveller material.

While not set in a theater of the Fifth Frontier War, it does take place during that conflict, and involves possible interaction between the Imperial player-characters and Zhodani and/or Vargr NPCs.

Eshaar is a quite unpleasant world (at least to humans and Vargr) in Far Frontiers sector. It has extreme temperatures (averaging 150°C) and a corrosive atmosphere containing sulfur, nitric acid and sulfuric acid vapors. Its biochemistry (if one may use that word) is based on silicones and sulfur compounds. It does, however, have native sophonts (the Eshaar Ashah, their own term, meaning approximately ‘companion-protectors of Eshaar’) who have achieved a tech level roughly equivalent to the Renaissance or the Napoleonic Wars on Earth.

Imperial and Zhodani interest in Eshaar arises from a substance that can be found on the world, a silicone-based substance that offers the possibility of better lubricants for high-temperature use, and which can also be made into a plastic-like substance (at low tech levels – the Eshaar Ashah do it) that can provide useful protection against corrosive atmospheres like Eshaar’s. However, the Eshaar Ashah are undecided about opening relations or trade with any off-worlders; while there are factions that support trade with the Zhodani, with the Imperium, or who believe that all offworlders are not alive and therefore may and should be destroyed as ‘not part of Eshaar’, the majority are undecided, and without a reasonable consensus, no decision will be made. Imperial activity on this world is ultimately centered on finding sources of the substance that can be exploited in ways that will not offend the Eshaar Ashah, and then negotiating an agreement that will allow them to so exploit it.

The “action” in this adventure occurs on several levels: there is diplomatic maneuvering, espionage, and exploration, with limited opportunities (or desire) for violence.

This adventure is run from the point of view of Imperial characters, and would take a significant amount of work to modify it for play from the Zhodani viewpoint. The referee is given a method to determine the current ‘balance of power’ among the various factions of Eshaar Ashah; there is a specific injunction not to reveal the details of this to the players (or their characters), only describe the attitudes and relative dominance of the various factions when they meet with the off-worlders.

As is usual in adventures from this era, there are a set of canned rumors for the referee to dole out to the players, and also some encounters and events that should occur during the course of the adventure. There are clues within these events and rumors that lead to an additional level of complications.

The eponymous Ordeal is, for the Eshaar Ashah, a rite of passage, and also a rite of reconciliation. It is a test of survival; those undertaking the Ordeal must trek about 15km through the lowlands, on foot, and survive the experience. This indicates that they are accepted by Eshaar (if taken as a rite of passage) or reconciled with and respectful of Eshaar (if taken as a rite of reconciliation).

Offworlders may voluntarily undertake the Ordeal in its ‘reconciliation’ mode; if they are witnessed breaking a cultural taboo or if they have provably ‘injured’ the planet, they are specifically expected to do so – not doing so will definitely harm the relationship between the particular group of offworlders and the Eshaar Ashah. If the offworlder(s) complete the Ordeal (that is, if they survive the trek across the Lowlands), the relationship between their group (Imperial or Zhodani) and the Eshaar Ashah will improve.

The referee is advised that a successful (for the Imperium) dénouement essentially requires the player-characters to undertake the Ordeal and survive; there will be certain very specific events that must happen during the Ordeal and be resolved in their favor to achieve this. Failing this, it is likely that the negotiations will drag on, or be resolved in favor of the Zhodani, depending on the outcome of other events.

This is, in my view, one of the better (if less acknowledged) adventures of the era; while certain events must happen, I don’t feel that the course of the adventure is “railroaded”; the player-characters do have agency. It’s definitely one of the less-mentioned adventures, but that shouldn’t cause you to turn away from it. Definitely recommended.