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Archives of Nethys

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Chapter 4: Running Starship Campaigns / Starship Adventure Seeds

Secure the Assets

Source Starship Operations Manual pg. 142
The following adventure seeds involve the PCs using their starship—or another they’ve acquired—to chase down valuable research, retrieve a stolen luxury ship, or track down a dangerous bioweapon and ensure it’s never used on innocents.

A Looming Bioweapon

Source Starship Operations Manual pg. 142
While working in the archives of Healthworks Innovations Inc., a lashunta bioengineer named Fayae discovered a tiny capsule of a virulent disease known as stardust plague. A dangerous communicative disease spread through the air, stardust plague is a potent potential bioweapon and, as such, was contained and all but eradicated in the Pact Worlds centuries ago. As part of this public health initiative, the Pact Council confiscated all vials of the plague for safekeeping—except, apparently, for the one in the Healthworks archives. Upon discovering the capsule in his employers’ archives, Fayae panicked and pocketed it. Days later, high-level Healthworks inspectors discovered that the capsule was missing, along with the bioengineer. They began a quiet search for Fayae and the stolen vial, but months have passed without a lead.

When the engineer steals a starship from the PCs to escape a close call, they are put in a conundrum when they find out Fayae’s identity and his suspected crime. Do the PCs join forces with the authorities trying to track down the lashunta? Or do they acquire a new starship and pursue him on their own, giving them leeway to hear Fayae’s side of the story and sort out the consequences themselves? As the PCs look into why Healthworks Innovations even had the vial in the first place, information emerges that points toward a sinister corporate plot.

The Schematics Hold the Key

Source Starship Operations Manual pg. 142
A shirren drive specialist for Hyvonix Industries named Nyshele is on the run. Absalom Station officials believe a dispute involving a new Drift engine prototype has boiled over at Lucent Shipyards in the Burning Archipelago, and the young Nyshele is at its center. A junior member of the company’s prodigious research and development team, Nyshele is rumored to be developing a cleaner, more efficient engine for starship travel into and out of the Drift. Details are spotty, but anonymous sources within Hyvonix claim a breakthrough is coming—one that might very well revolutionize the efficiency of Drift engine technology and earn the company a fortune.

The reason for Nyshele’s disappearance remains unknown— perhaps she’s been threatened, or perhaps she simply decided to keep her work for personal gain. Regardless, Hyvonix officials believe that she has absconded with the digital schematics for the new Drift engine, possibly intending to float the data on the open market or defect to a rival manufacturer. Industry insiders aren’t so sure, however. The shirren engineer—known to be introverted but fiercely opposed to political hostilities in the Pact Worlds—may be trying to keep the game-changing technology out of the hands of those who might misuse it.

Nevertheless, nearly every major manufacturer is allegedly hiring fugitive hunters to retrieve Nyshele and the Drift engine schematics—with Sanjaval Spaceflight Systems offering the largest reward. It’s up to the PCs to find the shirren and her schematics, either to collect a hefty reward or to sell the plans back to Hyvonix or another manufacturer, or even making a deal with the elusive Nyshele herself.

Starship Bandits on the Loose

Source Starship Operations Manual pg. 142
Redshift Revolution executives are frantically searching for a speedy ship crew to retrieve some runaway merchandise. Two days ago, a band of goblins scuttled up from the seedy bowels of Absalom Station and commandeered one of the company’s Pleasure Sails, inexplicably avoiding detection as they launched the luxury starship into open space. Station security pursued the craft for almost 30 minutes until its transponder blinked off ship sensors, confusing those tracking the seemingly easy-to-retrieve craft. Some believe the vessel was destroyed, but Redshift insists these thieves are more sophisticated than the average goblin tinkerer.

The company suspects that a more powerful force is at play in this theft, especially because it’s still a mystery how the goblins managed to gain entry to a privately docked vessel. Three guards assigned to watch over the Pleasure Sail in Redshift’s hangars claim they were attacked by at least a dozen of the cackling creatures, but security feeds throughout the sector show nothing of the sort. In fact, the cameras don’t show anything out of the ordinary.

One of the thieves, the guards insisted, carried a crystalline object spitting with wild energy, possibly explaining this anomaly. The company doesn’t know what to make of the situation, and it has brought the PCs in to investigate—through a reward, by calling in favors with connections of the PCs, or other such incentives. Although wild speculation about the reason for the heist abounds—a Veskarium conspiracy, insurance fraud, or a full-fledged goblin uprising, among others—many stationers delight in the idea that the joyriding goblins are simply having the time of their lives.