Rodian Interfreight, owned and managed by Bollin the Grey, is a large shipping and manufacturing corporation in the Tyrius system and the chief business rival of Tyrius Sysworks Syndicate.
While they maintain a headquarters in parts unknown, they do have a substantial presence in the Market Sector of Karsteeku, a shipping hub on Rodia.
In addition to widely-available cargo hauling services, they specialize in the development of auxiliary ship systems for niche users, including such products as specialty sensor packages, slave circuitry, and communications jamming devices.
“This mission’s very personally important to me, you must understand. That Bollin’s stolen from me is something I can’t tolerate, and he knows I’ve got to act on it.”
“I’ll be at the gala, as one of Bollin’s guests.
He couldn’t resist the chance to rub my nose in it. That’ll just give you a better cover, though, so the mistake is his.”
“I can’t say how you might make it in, but you’ve probably got three ways of going about it – find an invitation of your own, find some way to get hired for the event, or find some way to sneak in unnoticed. Best of luck – you’ll need it.”
The top floor is accessible only from the dual lift tubes that run up the outside of the building and via the supply dock at the back of the kitchens.
The external faces of the building are relatively unguarded – the Rodian PSF patrols do intermittently patrol the skies of Kartsteeku, but there are no special exterior security devices. The building itself is surrounded by several buildings, all of which are at least twenty floors shorter than Redswamp Terrace.
Find an Invitation
Finding an invitation will require the greatest amount of political maneuvering, given the exclusivity of the invites. Because of their limited guest lists, the events are considered a social windfall and invitations are highly sought-after. Knowing this, Bollin’s treats his invitations as they are – hot commodities.
Most invitees are personal friends or business partners of Bollin the Grey. Unless the players manage to quickly build a rapport with Bollin or his associates, it’d be very difficult to get a ticket directly from Bollin.
On the other hand, Bollin also uses the invitations as social and entrepreneurial currency. Bollin’s company, Rodian Interfreight, has been courting several investors in a nascent starship development technologies project. This is an open secret, and other invitees may know that Bollin’s been generous with invitations to those who might be able to support his project financially.
Bollin also bribes local businesses and institutions with packages of tickets they can raffle off amongst themselves – for example, Bollin usually provides the local branch of the Rodian Planetary Security Force (the police)
with two or three tickets to distribute as they see fit.
Each ticket is going to be marked based off of how the ticket was acquired, with the tickets given to personal acquaintances being labeled by name. These tickets are slightly more different sources of outside help.
Private security: Bollin’s personal building security detail is taking care of most of the security arrangements, but they’ve contracted out a small portion to local security forces. All security personnel are required to submit to a background check, given that they’ll have the greatest amount of freedom to move around the gala once it’s started
Betu Symphonic Ensemble: The evening’s entertainment (outside of Bollin’s presentation) is to be handled by this touring ensemble, comprised of two dozen musicians from all over the continent of Betu.
Starflash Catering: This upscale catering company is providing and serving an evening’s worth of small-plate dishes.
They’ll take over the kitchens and bar on the upper floor of Redswamp Terrace. Given the vast number of un-screened individuals in this group, they’ll have the least amount of access outside the areas they’re assigned to.
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Bollin the Grey’s gala is a night-long affair. It is largely a free-flowing social event, with dancing, dining, and conversation anticipated for the whole period. Bollin has, however, scheduled a few important individual events:
Bollin’s main event for the night is the presentation of several rare artifacts, including the data cylinder the players seek. He plans on bringing this up, from the vault in his museum, for observation and presentation on the main stage about midway through the party.
Typically, Bollin also opens up his usually-private museum to guests at his party. It’s open for the lion’s share of the gala, although it isn’t opened until the party is already underway and it closes before the gala finishes.
The gala is populated by more than a hundred attendees, building staff and security, and additional hired help (security, musicians, food service).
Non-security personnel at the gala will be requested to check their weaponry at the lobby, to be returned upon their departure.
The guests at Bollin’s gala come from many different walks of life, although they usually tend to be drawn from the well-to-do of Rodian society.
Likes: Flattery, Stories, Food
Dislikes: Lower social strata, Bad manners Skills: Charm, Cool, Knowledge (Core Worlds), Knowledge (Outer Rim)
Talents: None Abilities: None
Equipment: Datapad, Comlink
These are Bollin’s personal security forces.
There are only a handful of these present, and they’ll take leadership roles amongst the other hired security. They’ll also be the security assigned to all non-public areas.
Likes: Order, Quiet, Drink Dislikes: Gala guests, Humans
Skills: Brawl 1, Coerce 1, Discipline 1, Ranged (Light) 2, Vigilance 1
Talents: None
Abilities: On Duty (security forces working with this character gain when making Vigilance or Perception checks)
Equipment: Heavy Blaster Pistol [Ranged (Light), Damage 7, Critical 3, Range: Medium, Stun Setting], Bolas [Ranged (Light), Damage 2, Critical N/A, Range: Short, Ensnare 3,
Knockdown, Limited Ammo 2]
Gala doors open 2200 hours Welcome speech 2300 hours Private museum Gala doors close 2900 hours
Hired through various security or security-related postings, they supplement the building’s security for the night of the gala.
Likes: Bribes, Relaxing
Dislikes: Being bossed around
Skills: Brawl, Ranged (Light), Streetwise, Vigilance
Talents: None Abilities: None
Equipment: Blaster Pistol [Ranged (Light), Damage 6, Critical 3, Range: Medium, Stun Setting], Shock Gloves [Brawl, Damage 3, Critical 5, Range: Engaged, Stun 3]
These are the various musicians, caterers, and any other non-security employees working the party.
Likes: Courtesy, Efficiency, Hard workers Dislikes: Surprises, Interruptions
Skills: Charm, Cool, Coordination, Discipline, Knowledge (Education)
Talents: None Abilities: None
Equipment: Cooking equipment or musical instruments, Datapad
Bollin, owner of Rodian Interfreight, is a somewhat-corpulent green-grey Rodian male.
He’s successfully managed his family’s company and expanded it from what was originally just a cargo-hauling business into a sector-wide transportation, manufactory, and smuggling enterprise. His closest business rival is Ranem Tiiv, owner of the Tyrius Sysworks Syndicate, and the two have been sniping at each other’s success for over a decade.
Likes: Classical orchestra, Sweet foods, Coruscanti culture and the Empire Dislikes: Ranem Tiiv and associates, Carelessness, Compassion
Skills: Charm 1, Coercion 3, Cool 1, Deception 2, Discipline 2, Knowledge (Education) 1,
Knowledge (Underworld) 2, Leadership 1, Melee 2, Negotiation 2, Perception 1, Ranged (Light) 1, Skulduggery 1, Streetwise 1, Vigilance 1
Talents: Supreme Scathing Tirade (As a maneuver, may make an Average ( ) Coercion check. Each causes one enemy in short range to suffer 1 strain and take a for 3 rounds. Spend to cause one affected enemy to suffer 1 additional strain.), Nobody’s Fool 2 (May upgrade difficulty of incoming Charm, Coercion, and Deception checks twice.) Abilities: Adversary 1
Equipment: Heavy Blaster Pistol [Ranged (Light), Damage 7, Critical 3, Range: Medium, Stun Setting], Neuronic Whip [Melee, Damage 4, Critical 4, Range: Short, Disorient 4, Ensnare 1, Stun Damage], Armored clothing, P-2 Pocket Attache (Slicing into this requires passing a Daunting ( ) Computers check)
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The gala hall is itself a wide-open space with a large fountain in the center. A semicircular staircase leads down to the central hall of Bollin’s private museum.
There is one primary entrance to the gala hall – the front lobby, which is reached by traveling up to the 64th floor of Redswamp Terrace in one of two transparisteel lift tubes. A secondary entrance to the building is through the kitchen via a cargo landing pad on the exterior of the building.
The café, normally an open area surrounding a long bar, is filled with several large tables for dining guests. The café’s regular seating area, a large open space on the veranda, is also open for seating and milling around.
Several long performance risers have been erected on the stage for the symphonic
ensemble to perform from. They sit behind the speaker’s podium, with a large curtain dividing the two areas. Two substantial columns of chairs sit before the podium and stage.
Behind locked doors lies a hallway with Bollin’s executive office, an accounting office, and a monitoring station for Rodian Interfreight’s orbital and planetary holdings.
The hallway wraps around the outside of the building to a secure lift tube leading down to the offices adjacent to the Curiosities Museum.
The hallway is monitored by several ceiling-mounted security cameras.
Bollin’s Curiosities Museum, his private storehouse for trophies collected from various places across the galaxy, is located one floor immediately below the gala hall.
Similar to the gala hall, it is only really accessible through the front entrance, which is the 63rd floor stop of Redswamp Terrace’s twin external turbolifts. Normally, the building is completely closed off to the public, but during the gala, guests can also access the museum by traveling down the central staircase from the gala hall floor into the main hall of the museum.
The museum has several different wings, each containing a variety of treasures – for example, the Hall of Arms contains weapons both modern and ancient, while the Hall of the Hunt contains trophies from various hunting excursions. To the chagrin of Bollin’s collections manager, the displays are chosen based more
off of aesthetics than any real academically rigorous sorting.
A large portion of the museum is located behind locked doors, however. Besides the turbolift that leads from the gala hall secure zone into the museum secure zone, two hidden doors (one in the Hall of Arms and one in Special Collections) lead back into the secure hallway, which is again monitored by ceiling holocams.
Behind those doors sits the main security station and storage for the museum and gala, as well as a research lab where new acquisitions are catalogued and evaluated.
Several large storage rooms sit in the collections storage area, and in the center of those rooms a secure turbolift can take museum staff directly to Bollin’s vault, the location of his most precious or valuable items.
When 2630 arrives, Bollin will make his presentation of rare artifacts. This will entail the artifacts being brought up from his personal vault in a series of crates, through the museum secure hallway, out into the special collections wing of the museum, up through the circular staircase connecting the museum with the gala hall, and onto the gala hall floor. The crates will be arrayed on stage for a grand unveiling following a short, self-congratulatory speech made by Bollin.
While at the gala, the players may run into several different types of people. How these encounters proceed will depend heavily on the role players are taking at the party – guest, staff, or otherwise.
Optional Encounters
These optional encounters can be used as incentives to act, fulfillments of Advantage or Threat, or simply to set the tone of the scene.
The party is an opportunity to introduce many different social interactions, including those related to player Obligation or Morality.
Random Security Sweep
The Redswamp Terrace guards always get a little bit twitchy whenever these large parties are thrown. They’d prefer the quiet and security of day-to-day operations, and they’re doing random security checks on guests to make sure they aren’t carrying anything they shouldn’t be.
A Familiar Face
The players recognize Ranem Tiiv on the gala floor. Tiiv is there because, despite being Bollin’s business enemy, he’s still widely-influential, and Bollin knows the two need to play nice in the public eye. Plus, Bollin knows it’ll burn Tiiv up to see the data cylinder he
“liberated” from Tiiv’s possession. Tiiv will do his best to maintain his distance from the
players – he’s got to be very careful when Bollin has his eyes on him.
The Infatuated Lush
For whatever reason, one of the players has caught the eye of an extraordinarily drunk guest. He or she is unwilling to leave the player alone, and subtle clues seem to be just beyond his or her reach.
A Bump in the Night
One of the guests, fresh off of an argument, runs into one of the players. Despite the fact that the player isn’t at fault, the angry guest starts to raise her voice and accuse the player of
“trying to start something.” Even worse, the angry guest may be a personal friend of Bollin the Grey and attempt to pull him into the confrontation.
The Medical Emergency
While eating or drinking, one of the guests falls over or falls unconscious. The fallen guest’s proximity to the player(s) causes other guests to either cast suspicion or foist responsibility on the player(s).
Host With the Most
One or more of the players is noticed by Bollin, their host, and he is pleased by the player(s)’s service or presence. He offers to buy the player(s) a drink – and refusal would just be rude! The drink he offers is a strong one, and it may test the player(s)’s Resilience.
Once the players have worked out a plan to take the data cylinder, they’ll need to put it into action. This may be occurring alongside events from the previous section, of course.
If the players manage to steal the data cylinder before its presentation at 2630, and no one notices, once the presentation rolls around, the situation will become very chaotic. Bollin and his security force will lock down the whole gala and begin hastily searching guests.
Otherwise, the missing item will likely not be noticed until the next morning, when one of the museum employees makes his rounds.
Once the rare artifacts are being moved from the museum vault to the gala hall floor, they’ll be accompanied by at least two security personnel at all times, and they’ll be traveling through corridors monitored by holocameras.
Once onto the museum floor, there will likely be assorted gala guests viewing the various exhibits, although it will probably have emptied out a little, in anticipation of the presentation upstairs.
Once the rare items are upstairs, Bollin will make his presentation. It includes:
A data cylinder of ancient design (the object of the players’ designs)
A holonovel penned by a blind Gand, Ymiz Varr, one of only two copies known to exist
A four-thousand year old prototype of a pulse-wave blaster, one of the first items out of Merr-Sonn Munitions
A set of memory engrams from a pre-Clone Wars war droid
Bollin will spend a few minutes describing each item, with a hurried rush through the description of the data cylinder – it’s here because he knows it’s valuable to Ranem Tiiv, but his scientists haven’t worked out its secrets yet.
Following his presentation, the rare items will be re-boxed and brought back downstairs and to the vault in the same way they came.
The museum will close one hour before the gala wraps up, and it will stay closed and largely unoccupied until the morning. Once closed, several security systems will be in place – in addition to the holocams that are monitored by the always-on-duty monitor in the security office, there is a floor-level motion sensing grid and a noise detection monitor. The only security personnel present after closing time are stationed at the facility lobbies and in the security station – there are none on the museum floor.
If, in the process of stealing the data cylinder, the players alert security, Bollin’s security will respond immediately and attempt to incapacitate the thieves. If an automatic alarm is triggered (door lock, motion sensor, etc.), the local police – the Rodian Planetary Security Force – will respond as well, with a slightly delayed reaction time but greater resources (i.e. airspeeders, etc.). Bollin’s security may opt to call the PSF if it looks like the players are getting away.
If the players are caught or incapacitated in their attempt:
If caught by Bollin’s men, they’ll turn them over to the PSF in anticipation of Bollin dealing with them later. The players will earn 3 points each of the Bounty obligation to Bollin the Grey as well as 2 points of Criminal obligation with the PSF.
If caught by the PSF, the players will be incarcerated in the local PSF prison, pending a trial. The players will each earn 4 points of Criminal obligation with the PSF.
In any case of being caught, Ranem Tiiv will use his influence or resources to surreptitiously remove the players from PSF custody. In most cases, the players should still be able to keep the data cylinder with their personal effects, given its unobtrusive appearance.
However the adventure resolves, if the players can successfully turn over the data cylinder to Ranem Tiiv, they’ll be rewarded with:
1000 credits per person on the team for the return of the data cylinder
500 credits per person on the team if the operation was undiscovered (i.e. it wasn’t noticed until the next morning during inventory) as well as up to 5 points of Obligation reduction or 5 points of Duty per person.
-500 credits per person on the team if the group had to be rescued from capture
-200 credits per person on the team if the data cylinder was damaged
The void of interstellar space holds innumerable secrets. Despite the thousands of years of travel in the stars, the galaxy has remained unsearchably vast and many mysteries have remained impenetrably sealed.
When a group of researchers make a breakthrough in the study of a historical artifact, one of these lost treasures seems to be within reach. Their employer reaches out to a group of space travelers to enlist their aid in recovering this prize from beyond the veil…
The players have been hired by a businessman1 of significant influence in a nearby system2 to hunt down a lost starship3 hidden in deep space. A research team employed by the businessman has deciphered the
The players have been hired by a businessman1 of significant influence in a nearby system2 to hunt down a lost starship3 hidden in deep space. A research team employed by the businessman has deciphered the