BLOOD AND SPACE STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING BY CHARLES RICE THE BRAIN

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1 rpg objects presents: BLOOD AND SPACE STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING BY CHARLES RICE Lead Designer: Charles Rice Science Guru: Chris Nicholson Proof Reader: Donald Kiesling Cover Art: Scott Clark Layout: Chris Davis Creative Director: Chris Davis A Special Thanks to Pierre-Louis Casimir Morel, Carrie Baize, Charles Baize, Corey Hodges, Edward Lennon, Paula Rice, Malcolm MacDonald, John Bowden, Jake Bernstein, and Jeremy Reaban for their invaluable feedback and editing support. Requires the use of a Roleplaying Game Core Book published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. The d20 System and the d20 System logo are Trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast and are used according to the terms of the d20 System License version 1.0a. A copy of this License can be found at Portions of this work are derived from the d20 System Reference Document. d20 Modern(tm) is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and is used with permission. Dungeons & Dragons(R) and Wizards of the Coast(R) are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and are used with permission. VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT: INTRODUCTION Straight on till Morning is a campaign supplement for Blood and Space: d20 Starship Toolkit. Given the wide variety of uses for Blood and Space, from supplementing any of the other d20 science fiction games to creating your own vision of the future, Morning is not a typical site-based dungeon type adventure. What would work for one game would be unsuitable for another. Rather, Morning provides the GM with a series of plot hooks easily adapted to any kind of science fiction game that uses the Blood and Space rules. If you are a player you should stop reading now, as the information that follows will spoil the fun if your GM uses this supplement in your campaign. ADVENTURE HOOKS THE INHERITANCE The PCs introduction to the Aurora Angel will come at a meeting with Quentin Bazran, longtime friend, confidante and lawyer to their dear, departed Uncle, Lucius Blicker. He will tell them (via vidphone, , or whatever other message conveyance is appropriate to the campaign) that their Uncle has passed away and it is requested they be present for the reading of the will in person. If necessary, transportation will be provided. If the campaign is just getting underway, this makes a great way for the PCs to meet one another, and a great device to start the campaign with. For whatever reason, they all knew Uncle Lucius, and have all been named in his will, and have all been granted an equal share of the Aurora Angel. Now, no matter how disparate their backgrounds, the PCs have been joined together in a common purpose, and have a reason to stay together, attempting to make a go of things in their new ship. THE BRAIN Any scientifically oriented PC will immediately notice that the most expensive thing about the ship is its computer. In fact, though the ship is almost a century old, the computer is like nothing the PCs have ever seen, with the best anti-virus software money can buy. Hacking the system would require a Computer Use skill check of 30. Furthermore, the system Copyright 2003 RPG Objects. All rights Reserved. Visit our web site at

2 Straight on till Morning has Restricted LaserNet access. Perhaps Uncle Lucius intended the Angel to be used as an exploration vessel. THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE VOID Gradually, as the PCs begin to make their way in the Aurora Angle, they will begin to notice odd things happening. The ship will drift off course, even though no malfunction in thruster control can be detected. A successful Navigation check (DC 25) will reveal that the ship always drifts toward the same location in spacethe Reliquary. The Reliquary is an ancient starship graveyard, the last remnants of an enormous battle between two star faring cultures. The Reliquary is a legend among scavengers, who tell tales of wondrous finds in the graveyard. Depending on the nature of the campaign, the Reliquary could be any of the following: The remains of a battle fought between two alien races. Neither race has ever been encountered, and it is theorized both were wiped out in an ancient war. Of these two races, only one of their languages has ever been deciphered. That race, the Fyr`Toll, were the vanguard of a larger alien fleet, said to control the entirety of a distant galaxy. Why that empire has never made its way here is unknown. Perhaps the Battle of the Reliquary ended their presence in our galaxy, and they were presumed lost by their empire. The identity of the other alien race, whose language has never been deciphered, is an even greater mystery. The remains of a battle fought between mankind and a savage alien race. As humanity took its first fledgling steps away from the cradle of Earth, they learned that this area of the Arm was controlled by a remnant of a vast empire: the Fyr`Toll. These aliens attempted to enslave Earth, and the Battle of the Reliquary broke their hold over this area of space. The vast empire the Fyr`Toll claimed to serve has never been discovered, and many scientists believe it was a myth created by the aliens to cement their hold over conquered races. comprehend the elaborate file system, except to note that he has never seen anything like it before. A PC with 10 Ranks of Computer Use can delve deeper into the computer s complex file structure. He will learn the following information based on his skill check: DC 15: DC 20: DC 25: DC 30: No Information (but the PC may try again later) The computer seems to rearrange file structures on its own periodically. This is one of the things that make it so hard to hack. There is a very large, very well protected file system in the data banks that cannot be accessed. The computer is accessing the LaserNet on its own. THE STRANGER This event occurs immediately after Things that go bump in the void. The PCs are in port, either to deliver cargo for trade, or perhaps seeking repairs. The PCs might even have come to port to deal with their thruster malfunction, or to deal with a malfunctioning computer, depending on the results of their investigations. Regardless of their purpose in port, the PCs will find that someone has invaded their ship, apparently in an attempt to access their computer. If the PCs capture or kill this intruder, they will learn the following: The intruder was seeking a map hidden in the computer by Uncle Lucius, which supposedly leads to a fantastic treasure contained in the Reliquary. The intruder s organization had been seeking the computer since before Lucius death, but they never dreamed he would take the gamble of installing the valuable computer, with its even more valuable information, on a relatively defenseless ship like the Aurora Angel. The Reliquary was a battle fought between Earth and its rebellious outlying colonies. In the early days of mankind s colonization of the Sol System, the socalled Jovian Colonies, set in the moons of Jupiter, attempted to break away from the fledgling United Earth Government. The result was Interplanetary Civil War. This is the graveyard described in the flavor text of Blood and Space. The ship s Autopilot and Navigation software are both state of the art, but perhaps the problem lies there. This might lead the PCs to attempt a diagnostic check of their sophisticated computer system. A PC with less than 10 Ranks of Computer Use will not even be able to The intruder s organization will depend on the campaign. The GM should take this opportunity to give the PCs a new recurring nemesis. The organization could be a shadowy, amoral Corporation, that tried to buy out Lucius, a government agency seeking access to the alien graveyard, or the dreaded Wolf Pirates, who have long believed there were still fantastically powerful weapons hidden in the Reliquary they could use to extend their power. Alternately, if Artificial Computer technology is completely unknown in the campaign, the computer itself might be what this organization seeks. 2

3 COMPUTER HARDWARE Name Cost Effect Artificial Intelligence 1Kcr/Int Computer may act and learn on its own LaserNet Access, Standard 500cr +2 to Research skill checks LaserNet Access, Corporate 1Kcr +4 to Research skill checks LaserNet Access, Restricted 10Kcr +6 to Research skill checks LaserNet Access, Military 100Kcr +10 to Research skill checks WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? The GM now has to take the reins and decide the course of the PC s adventures on the Aurora Angel. The options available are many, and the GM can flesh out the mystery in many different ways over the course of his campaign. Some suggested courses for the adventure are The PCs allow the computer to guide the Aurora Angel into the reliquary. This could result in a large space battle, especially if the Wolf Pirates also seek the alien technology supposedly located in the Angel s memory banks. If the PC s have not improved the Angel enough to survive a space battle, perhaps they arrive at the computer s destination unmolested, and have to explore an ancient alien spacecraft. In this case, the PCs will find as they explore the vessel that they have been followed (by the Wolf Pirates, the Government, or a Corp), who want both the treasure and the Aurora Angel. In this case, the PCs will have to play a game of cat and mouse, attempting to outwit the larger, better armed force to get the treasure, and to keep the valuable computer from falling into the wrong hands. The PCs make contact with the computer itself. In a hard sci-fi game, the Aurora Angel s computer might be the real prize, and the PCs could be witness to the birth of a new, unique life form. Whatever group seeks the computer will continue to haunt the PCs, but actual space battle will be rare. They want the computer intact. The climax of this campaign thread could be a tense boarding action, with the PCs fighting in the hallways of their own ship against a large, well-armed force determined to seize the computer. The computer was a failsafe device, an emergency beacon from the ancient Battle of the Reliquary. When the Aurora Angel reaches its destination, the computer sends out a fateful call into the void: a signal to the Fyr`Toll empire that their hold on this section of the galaxy has been lost. COMPUTER HARDWARE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE In a Hard Sci-Fi campaign, this type of computer hardware will likely be non-existent. However, technology advances, secret government programs, and hidden caches of alien technology can all lead the introduction of Artificial Intelligence to the campaign on a limited basis. It is recommended that AI Hardware not be available for sale except in Space Opera campaigns. Artificial Intelligence systems have several abilities beyond those of a computer of equal intelligence including: +5 DC to any Hacking attempt, since the computer will actively resist intrusion. The ability to gain intelligence: each month of game time, roll an Intelligence check for the computer. The DC of this check is 30. On a successful check, the computer gains one point of intelligence. A natural 20 always results in the computer gaining a point of intelligence. The ability to learn new programs: each month of game time, roll an Intelligence check for the computer. The DC of this check is 25. If the computer has LaserNet access, the research modifier is added to the computer s Intelligence modifier for purposes of this check. If this check is successful, the computer may either add a new program, or upgrade an existing program one level of quality. What program is added or improved is up the GM s discretion, but remember to take the computer s survival instincts into account. So if the starship the computer is installed in has been in combat frequently in the last month, the computer will be more likely to seek information on targeting programs, or simply learn how to better target weapons through experience. LASERNET From the earliest days of space travel, allowing the Information Age so vital to exploration to travel with explorers to the stars has been a challenge. A computer with a LaserNet receiver will be able to tap into vast networks of information, gaining anyone on that ship a bonus to their Research skill. Straight on till Morning 3

4 ARCHANGEL-CLASS FREIGHTER (Hard Sci-Fi) An old out of date Archangel-Class freighter, the precursor to the Workhorse. Even the name speaks of how out of date this ship is, from a time when any ship, no matter how ugly and boxy it was, needed a romantic, adventurous sounding name. Back when traveling the spacelanes was supposed to be some sort of adventure. A holocube would have been a more useful gift. And to think you always thought your uncle liked you. One of the wealthiest Haulers in the system, and he leaves you this piece of junk. He probably only kept it as a tax write-off. Still, it s not like you can afford to complain, and a ship means a chance to make something of yourself, a chance to trade and become what your uncle was. (GM s Note: Only one write-up of the Aurora Angel, for a hard sci-fi game, is included. If the game is a space opera game, it is recommended the GM leave the stats as they are. This will make the Angel even more run down and pitiful.) Civ 6(Med) 3 2 Large Spica 50cr/month HULL (SIZE) PASSENGERS PORTS STAR DRIVE OPERATING COST CARGO 30 = 35-5 FREE used HULL POINTS 35 CURRENT STARSHIP FACILITIES NAME CARGO POWER ACCELERATION POWER TURN MODIFIER DEFENSE +4 = BASE WEAPONS MISC 21 = FREE BASE DEFENSE FACILITY +1 = size DEFENSE MISC 10 = SIZE PILOT Medical Ward 2 2 Gymnasium 2 0 DEFENSE SYSTEMS NAME dr turn MOD power Kevlar Cellulose Plating 15 Phys. 5 En, 10 Rad +1 0 CREW MAX: 4 TYPE QUALITY MODIFIER EXPERIENCE 2 Medical WEAPON SYSTEMS NAME TYPE SIZE ARC RANGE DAMAGE 2 Rail Gun II Phys large forward M (4) 7d6 Misc EQUIPMENT EQUIPMENT Aerodynamic Design EFFECT No penalties in atmosphere MISSILES AND MINES NAME TYPE SIZE BAB ACC DAMAGE computer int: 24 HARDWARE/SOFTWARE EFFECT Super Computer Int 24 Navigation (Superior) +6 to Navigation rolls Antivirus (Superior) +6 resisting viruses Autopilot pilot the ship out of combat

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