| Courier, Avenger | Required Skills: none | Required Equipment: ship |
Player information. When the players are on a world that is reasonably well appointed for a starport, and has a reasonably sizable population (certainly both more advanced than the target world**, this patron approaches the players with a simple passenger contract. He’d like to pay for three middle-passages, one to use on the trip out to the target world, and two on the way back. If the players insist, he will be reluctant, but will agree to pay for four tickets: two on the way out, and two on the way back, even though one on the way out will not be used. The patron’s plight is that he can’t afford high passage, but wants a reasonable guarantee that he will have passage both ways.
The patron is even willing to pay an additional fee equivalent to a single high-passage on top of the four middle-passages, but will be quite reluctant to do so; he has no more resources available than that, and will take his plight elsewhere if pressed further.
Referee information. Pick, or roll, for what might be going on.
1-3. All is as represented. No surprised occur. The patron’s father was a somewhat notorious bunko artist, but now has an earnest intention to reform and is happy for the trip back home.
3-5. The patron is as he represents himself, but unbeknownst to him he’s being followed by criminal elements with a grudge against the father. When they find out patron’s means of transport out, they will attempt to place a passenger of their own on the PC’s ship, high or middle-passage as needed, whose job it is to track down the father and pick an opportune moment for assassination. This will most likely be done in the lowest law-level environment possible (likely off-world), and the assassin is entirely willing to throw away the return leg of the journey on the player’s ship if needed to best escape consequences.
If the assassin succeeds, the patron may want to appeal to the players to bring the assassin to justice.
6. The patron himself is misrepresenting himself as the son of the to-be-released prisoner, and is in fact an assassin hired to kill him. He will attempt to negotiate for payment on as few tickets as reasonably possible (i.e. passage for himself out with firm promises of two passages back, which he most likely will not need).
If the players have any reason to look into, or verify, the identity of the patron, they may discover the deception.