Starfinder Society Scenario # 2-21: 'Illegal Shipment' [RPG]

 NO SPOILERS

 

I allegedly played Illegal Shipment with my obnoxious journalist PC, Vitellius Kapopolis, in a live tabletop game.  I say “allegedly” because I genuinely have no recollection of it, even after reading the scenario for the purposes of this review.  But the documentary evidence is firm, so I’ll plead guilty!  Illegal Shipment has a very straightforward story and linear plot sequence, with little in the way of complex character or setting lore.  The way I’ve phrased it may make it sound like a bad thing, but the scenario could be a good one for players new to Starfinder.  They can jump in immediately and get their bearings on what they’re doing and why, trusting to general SF tropes to fill in any blanks.  The scenario is also at the right tier range to allow for brand-new Level 1 PCs or Level 4 Iconics (the latter’s not a bad idea, as I find Starfinder combats can be surprisingly deadly at low level, especially if the PCs aren’t optimised and are firing d4 pistols every round).  All of this is to say that although Illegal Shipment won’t win any awards (or a part in my heart or memory), it’s not a bad scenario for filler or to get new players into the game.

 

SPOILERS!

 

The set up for Illegal Shipment is a classic: someone tries to import wild monsters, they get loose in civilization, and all heck breaks loose.  It’s King Kong, one of the Jurassic Park movies, many of the Alien movies, and more.  In this particular instance, a ferran (a sort of dense, squat humanoid) named Zelrai Impressium runs an inter-system menagerie, collecting exotic creatures for viewing and sale throughout the Pact Worlds.  She’s just made the (very predictable!) mistake of bringing some cryogenically-frozen members of the insect-like and savage Swarm aboard Absalom Station.  I don’t know much about the Attack of the Swarm! Adventure path, but this scenario is, according to a sidebar, intentionally written as a handy prequel or tie-in for GMs so minded.  Anyway, a street gang called the Six Tip Gang hear about the ship’s arrival and decide the creatures would be a handy asset.  When they try to violently board the ship, a crewman deactivates the cryogenic systems hoping the Swarm creatures will drive them off.  The plan works in the sense that it does indeed drive off the gang members, but has the unintentional side effect of also killing most of the crew.  Now, the Swarm creatures have escaped into the station’s maintenance tunnels and are surely building a nest to reproduce unless someone can find them and incinerate the place pronto!  Enter the PCs.

 

The briefing is held aboard the Master of Stars, the flagship of the Starfinder Society.  Fitch and Zigvigix are there along with Zelrai.  Zelrai and Fitch are old comrades due to Wayfinder-related expeditions, while Ziggy has been called in as the leader of the Exo-Guardians.  What I really liked about this is that Fitch and Ziggy do not see eye-to-eye.  They both want the Swarm creatures located and exterminated (with the PCs called in on the classic “we don’t want to cause a panic by alerting station security” idea), but Fitch wants her old friend let off with a stern warning, while Ziggy wants her arrested for endangering innocent lives.  A solid, plausible moral question that the PCs are asked to weigh in on at the end of the scenario.  During the briefing, the PCs get a lead to get them started on tracking down the Swarm: a member of the Six Tip Gang was reported to have escaped the ship and probably went to hide in the gang’s hangout, a cantina in Little Absalom called Nurkops’s Rich Pick.

 

In the cantina, the PCs encounter a gang member named Del Shara (featured with pretty cool artwork).  Del is very protective of the injured gang member (a halfling named Toressa) who fled the Swarm, and this encounter can easily tip into combat unless the PCs are very diplomatic.  I like that both possibilities are available and contemplated by the scenario.  Through violence or verbosity, the PCs will learn that Toressa’s drone has footage of the Swarm creatures escaping through a numbered maintenance hatch leading to an area of Absalom Station called Fogtown.

 

The scenario does a nice job giving the GM some tips on how to make the multicolored gases and mists of  Fogtown more atmospheric (pun!).  Fans of Babylon 5 will know part of a space station customised for non-oxygen breathers can be pretty creepy and disorienting.  There are a few generic skill checks PCs can make to get information, but while they’re gathering it, they’ll be attacked by a flying Swarm creature that swoops down out of the mists in hit-and-run attacks.  It’s a good encounter, and something different than the standard “stand up and fight” foes.

 

The PCs will quickly find the Swarm’s nest in a warehouse.  Again, some effort has been given to help the GM set up the “creep/ick” factor here, in the sense of dripping slime and so forth.  There’s understandably a lot of combat in this area, and although the PCs will be aided in one encounter by either gang members or security guards, this could be a pretty deadly series of fights for the reasons I mentioned above.  For a group that’s just ill-equipped for such heavy and sustained combat, retreat might be sensible even if it results in mission failure.

 

The conclusion has the PCs asked their opinion on what should be done about Zelrai, and this is one of the reporting conditions.  I’m not sure if later scenario writers made use of the NPC again or not, but it’d be interesting to find out.  Anyway, in sum, this is a good introductory scenario for a tough group with lots of Obozayas or the equivalent; a group with too many non-combat PCs will really struggle.  As it turns out, there’s only one way to deal with the Swarm!