The Dying Ship

About the adventure

The ice hauler Orun II has worked the route between the asteroid belt and Coriolis for three decades under the command of Captain Ardul Rajtun. Working this route for Melem Gesurra has been pure routine – the seasoned captain and his small but highly skilled crew have done the trip countless times without any trouble. But the darkness is growing stronger, and Orun II's luck has finally run out. On the ice mining station Merkut, life is a bleak and dangerous affair. A group of discontented stevedores have started a smuggling ring, hiding illegal goods – mainly drugs and controlled substances from the Rimward Reach and Transurha – deep inside the gigantic blocks of ice mined here and shipped to Coriolis and the light of civilization. When a group of miners discovered the remains of an ancient spacecraft and inside it, three stasis pods containing Firstcome spacefarers, they quickly realized the value of their discovery to collectors and scientists all across the Horizon. The artifacts were hidden in ice and then loaded by the unknowing crew of Orun II. The long journey home started out without any incidents, but then, something happened. The aging Captain Rajtun started acting increasingly strange and eventually, Orun II stopped responding to the company's hails. Some time after leaving Merkut, Orun II's cargo specialist Kolb spotted the stasis pods inside the ice during a routine scan and alerted the captain. Captain Rajtun understood the potential value of the extra cargo, and ordered Kolb to extract the pods from the ice and bring them to the ship's observatory. When the captain was left alone with the pods, he opened one of them and immediately became a slave of the reawakened djinn, sealing the fate of both his ship and its crew. On Coriolis, the Melem Gesurra shipping company started to suspect that something had gone wrong onboard their hauler, and decided to investigate why Orun II had diverted from its course and, if possible, return their property safely to Coriolis. Meanwhile, a Syndicate cell had found out that the shipment of contraband they are waiting for has encountered problems. A strike team made up of corrupt ex-Legionnaries has been hired to secure the cargo – no matter the cost.