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Alien Adventures


The Alien Anthology is full of aliens and monsters eager to liven up your Star Wars campaign. But with over a hundred different offerings, a Gamemaster might not know where to start. So the designers of the Anthology came up with a bundle of adventure hooks based on the aliens in the new book. And once they started, they just couldn't stop. Not all of the hooks could fit into the Anthology, but we've got the extras right here!

The following story seeds (some of which also appear in the Alien Anthology web enhancement) are meant to help fuel the creation of your own Star Wars adventures and campaigns. Have fun!

The Air That They Breathe
Kon Uuln is a Kel Dor who becomes acquainted with the heroes through previous exploits or mutual associates. He contacts them with a desperate message: The tanks that supply his home with the unusual atmosphere he needs to survive will run dry in less than two days, and the independent freighter captain that usually supplies them is a week overdue. Kon says that the captain contacted him 10 days ago, as soon as the ship landed, but so far the delivery has not been made. The Kel Dor is starting to get desperate -- once the atmosphere runs out, he, his mate, and their two children will have only a day's worth of protection in their breath masks. He has already contacted Dorin, but help is at least four days away, meaning he and his family will be dead by the time it arrives.

Kon Uuln asks the heroes to find the missing captain and atmosphere canisters. The captain's ship, the Renegade, is indeed at the local starport. But its holds are empty and no one knows where the captain is.

Has the captain been kidnapped and his cargo stolen? Was he perhaps in debt to a loan shark who has taken both him and the cargo in an effort to recoup lost credits? Perhaps an enemy or rival of Kon Uuln has bribed the captain to lay low until the Kel Dor is no longer alive. During the Rebellion era, the captain may even have been arrested by the ISB under suspicion of crimes against the Empire -- something that is little more than a cover for a desire to quietly eliminate aliens in the Human population.

To Go Boldly
Are the Dashade extinct, or do lost colonies survive in remote, inhospitable star systems? That's the question New Republic Security wants answered. They have become increasingly concerned that isolated communities of Dashade may be serving Imperial counter-revolutionaries and other criminal elements as assassins, either because the Dashade remain ignorant of the events that have taken place in the galaxy at large, or because they're simply greedy.

The player characters are charged with the task of exploring uninhabited star systems close to novas, supernovas, highly charged gas clouds, and even the occasional tide-locked world in a binary star system. If the Dashade are located, the heroes are supposed to make first contact. (It probably goes without saying, but this is the perfect set-up for an exploration campaign set in the vast expanses of the Star Wars galaxy.)

To complete this task, they are given command of a YT-class freighter that's been refitted with experimental heat shields and sensor suits that should counteract the harsh environments of the places they'll be visiting. The ship also carries a dozen message droids and a mobile HoloNet transceiver that the heroes may use to make reports. Heavy-duty environmental suits are also supplied. A first contact specialist and several protocol droids are assigned to the mission.

While this exploratory mission is supposed to find evidence of Dashade civilization, the heroes could also discover a whole range of other mysteries -- including hidden pirate bases, top secret Imperial weapons research facilities, and as-of-yet unimagined life forms and alien civilizations. And if the Dashade still exist, the party may even eventually locate a hidden colony.

Beware the Bantha
The heroes are protecting isolated moisture farms (either on Tatooine or another water-poor world such as Kirdo III) from bandit attacks. After repulsing one such assault, they find a clue to the bandit's hideout. While traveling through a narrow canyon en route, they must avoid being trampled by a bantha stampede -- 128 of the massive beasts come raging down the pass. While this could look like a trap staged by the bandits, the heroes soon find the hideout demolished by banthas, and the few survivors swear they had nothing to do with the stampede. "The beasts have gone crazy," the bandits claim. Worse, reports begin to emerge that bantha herds have been attacking farms and even small villages.

A crazed hermit claims the banthas have finally tired of servitude and are rising to destroy all sentient beings on the world. Could that be true? Or is the real explanation related to mysterious Lambda-class shuttles that are only seen on moonless nights? The answer could even lie with strange, unidentifiable trace chemicals that have been turning up in the water harvested by the local moisture farms.

The Scent of Credits
A Human hero (most likely a noble or scoundrel) is approached by a representative of a cosmetic company who was referred to them by a mutual acquaintance. The representative wants to give the hero a supply of perfume that reportedly acts as an mild aphrodisiac on many species. The hero (and anyone else interested in testing the product) is required to write short reports on how the perfume seems to affect other beings. A fee of 100 credits will be paid for each report that the representative finds acceptable.

Under most circumstances, the perfume grants to its wearer +2 Charisma and an additional +2 circumstance bonus to Bluff and Diplomacy checks. Each phial of perfume has 30 doses, and each application lasts 15 hours or until washed off. However, there is a 5% chance that an alien species exposed to the compound will have an unforeseen reaction. Check whenever the character wearing the perfume interacts with a new species. If the percentile roll indicates the alien is adversely affected, roll on the following table to see the results.

Random Perfume Effects
1d6 Effect
1 Alien is extremely attracted to the character (grants +10 to Charisma when interacting with that alien).
2 Alien immediately falls in love with character (+15 to Charisma when interacting with that alien).
3 Alien takes a strong dislike to the character (-5 to Charisma when interacting with that alien).
4 Alien takes a violent dislike to the character (alien must make a DC 15 Will save; on failure, alien attacks character).
5 Alien attacks character in a sudden, homicidal rage 1d4 rounds after exposure.
6 Alien collapses and will die of respiratory failure in 1d6+4 minutes unless given medical care (Treat Injury check [DC 18, DC 20 if the character wearing the perfume is still present]).

How did the cosmetic company miss that their creation could have such an adverse effect upon non-Humans? Five percent is high enough a percentage that even the simplest of lab tests should have revealed it. The product clearly was not ready to be released in any public areas. Was this just another example of corporate greed or incompetence? Or were more sinister forces behind this, with intent to harm aliens and create animosity between aliens and Humans? On the other hand, perhaps the representative for the cosmetic company actually worked for an enemy of the heroes and merely wanted to make their lives difficult . . .

Masks
The heroes are approached by a wealthy merchant who wants them to find his run-away teenaged daughter and bring her home. He claims they had a fight, but that he can see that she was right and now wishes to apologize. He is willing to pay almost anything to see his daughter again.

The party traces the young woman to an Ubese enclave on an isolated island. Informants tell them that she and one of the Ubese have fallen in love and that she is living among them, dressed as they are, in armor and a breath mask when in public. The informant can point the party to a tenement, but is unsure which of the 100 residents is the girl they are seeking.

Once the party manages to locate the girl and avoid bringing the wrath of the entire Ubese enclave down on their heads, she tells them that she ran away from home because she discovered her father is engaged in a wide range of criminal activities. Just then, heavily armed thugs attack, having followed the party covertly as they searched for the girl. Can the party manage to convince paranoid Ubese that they had nothing do to with this assault, and thus avoid being attacked from two sides? Can they protect the love of a young Human and a young Ubese? Can they get revenge on the merchant for using them as patsies? And on the topic of the merchant -- is he really as bad as the daughter thinks? Maybe he was somehow being forced into the criminal activity she spoke of, and there's a much larger situation here than first met the eye.

The Squib Who Knew Nothing
A data storage device containing the only existing copy of a super-codebreaking computer program was stolen some months ago from a research lab. Now, it has turned up in the hands of a wandering Squib who has offered it for sale. Agents of every military and quasi-military organization in the galaxy, minions of every crime lord and smuggling ring, and representatives of every self-centered, ambitious politician in the galaxy are now racing to be the first ones to either meet the Squib's price or take the program by force. Of course, the heroes are involved, either on their own or at someone's behest.

After eliminating some of the competition and forging alliances with others (and then having to deal with the betrayal of some of those alliances), the heroes and perhaps one or two other groups finally confront the Squib. The good-natured alien doesn't even know the value of what he has. He will let it go to the highest bidder -- and a scavenger hunt ensues as all of the interested parties scramble to find obscure items that could have value only to a Squib.

For more alien freebies, check out the bogey and the hawk-bat
or the blackstalker and the garral!





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