SF1: The Volturnus Adventure, Part2

ALPHA SECTION: INTRODUCTION

This is the second in a three-part series of adventure modules for STAR FRONTIERS^TMscience-fiction role-playing game. This module continues the adventure begun in the module CRASH ON VOLTURNUS included in the STAR FRONTIERS boxed set. To play this module, you must have one set of the rules for STAR FRONTIERS role-playing game. It is strongly recommended that CRASH ON VOLTURNUS be played before this module is played.

STOP! If you are going to be a player in this module, do not read any firther. The rest of the information in this booklet is for use by the referee only.

ALPHA SUBSECTION 1: REFEREE'S NOTES

Before beginning play, the referee should read this module thoroughly, becoming familiar with the overall outline of the adventure and the details concerning the intelligent races encountered. The referee should spend extra time reading the "STAR FRONTIERS Briefing Update" so that he or she can fully play the parts of the alien NPCs the player characters will meet.

During the play of this adventure, the counters and maps included in the STAR FRONTIERS game, as well as the large map of Volturnus included in SF0, will be used.

This module is designed to be played by four to eight characters. If at all possible, these should be the same characters used by the players in the module CRASH ON VOLTURNUS.

Two sections of the module have been bound into the center of the booklet as special pull-out sections. These sections can be removed by gently bending back the staples in the center of the booklet, removing the sections, and reclosing the staples. The "Alien Creature Update File" is a complete listing of all creatures introduced in this module. The "STAR FRONTIERS Briefing Update" contains a summary of new intelligent alien races encountered in the module. This summary is a supplement to the data in the STAR FRONTIERS System Brief in module SF0: CRASH ON VOLTURNUS. The rules in ALPHA SECTION of SF0 concerning survival and movement on Volturnus are used throughout this module.

ALPHA SUBSECTION 2:
PLAYER'S BACKGROUND

If your players have not played module SF0, read them this background section:

Some months ago, you were contracted by the government of Truane's Star to journey to Volturnus, a newly claimed planet in the Zebulon star system. Your mission was two-fold; to explore the planet, and, if possible, to rescue the original exploration team, which had disappeared shortly after entering the Zebulon system. Since then, your lives have been anything but dull.

Your starliner was hijacked by space pirates as soon as it entered the Zebulon system. You barely managed to escape with your lives by boarding a lifeboat and riding in it to Volturnus. Volturnus is a hot, inhospitable world, and your lifeboat crash-landed in the barren Volturian desert.

You wandered through the desert for days, nearly dying of hunger and thirst, before a band of Ul-Mor found you. (An Ul-Mor resembles an octopus with nine tentacles. The Ul-Mor are an intelligent race of desert nomads who ride a dinosaur called the Ioper.) After a brief, difficult attempt at verbal communication, the Ul-Mor demonstrated their primary means of communication. An Ul-Mor inserted its ninth tentacle into the base of your spine, and you found yourself in direct mind-link with a member of an alien race!

The Ul-Mor explained that although you and your people were obviously starving, tribal law prohibits the sharing of food and water with those who are not tribe members. However, if you were willing to undergo the Ritual of Manhood and become tribe members, they would save you.

You accepted their offer, and journeyed across the desert into the vast Forbidden Caverns. Shortly after entering the caverns, a cave-in separated you from the Ul-Mor. After a perilous Journey through the caverns you escaped and found the Ul-Mor camped nearby, waiting for you.

After allowing you to rest and recuperate for several days, the Ul-Mor led you to The Place of True Warriors, where you would undergo the Ritual of Manhood. Though they did not take your weapons, the Ul-Mor gave each of you a spear and a straw dummy, then retreated to a safe distance to watch the ritual.

Not long after, a tiger-sized creature moving at incredible speed approached you. This creature was a quickdeath. It had a long neck ending in a hideous head with four eyes mounted on stalks. Three small tentacles with suction cups hung from each side, and its whole body was covered with a natural reflective armor. Even as you studied the creature, it attacked you.

The creature was a terrible opponent, moving and striking with incredible speed and viciousness. Despite the quickdeath's ferocity, you killed it and were accepted as members of the Ul-Mor tribe.

The Ul-Mor then told you that they have seen people like yourselves living with the Kurabanda, a foolish tree-dwelling race. The Ul-Mor offered to guide you to the home of the Kurabanda.