The “Galactic South” of the Alpha Quadrant borders with several neighbors that like testing said boundaries. Tholians and Talarians are chief among them, especially during the Dominion War. While Starfleet is fielding every possible ship for battle against the Dominion, there is still a need for ships along the Federation’s other borders. Without such “flag waving” the lines would collapse and the Federation would be under attack from multiple angles. That’s where the USS Hurricane comes in.
Hello again! I’m excited for the opportunity to bring you another of my STA Mission Compendiums. Like the first, this compendium has four full-length missions inside complete with everything you’ll need to run the adventures at your own table. That includes an entirely new Alien Adversary species: The Tholians. The missions are designed to be played in linear fashion, though not necessarily back to back. They should provide at least 3 to 4 hours of gameplay for the average group of GM and players. Each mission also has a scene dedicated to combat in some form or another, meaning that they may or may not work for some groups.
This particular compendium is written with a specific ship in mind: The U.S.S. Hurricane, a Defiant-class. It starts with the basics one might expect for a fresh campaign of STA, including pre-generated characters. That said, the contents within can be easily adapted to suit other ships/campaigns/characters to suit your needs! Here’s how the missions break down:
- Calm Winds: The Player Characters arrive at the Antares Fleet Yards near Algol to pick up their brand new ship: the USS Hurricane, a Defiant-Class. They are tasked with overseeing the Hurricane’s launch and subsequent shakedown cruise. Come the end of the shakedown, a distress call comes in from a convoy en route to Starbase 214. They are under attack by Talarians, who are wielding weaponry far beyond what previous encounters with them showed. The Players must rush to the defense of the convoy and discover how the Talarians have gotten their hands on new technology.
- Shattered Time: The Player Characters are patrolling the Tholian Border when a Starfleet distress call catches their attention. The signal is coming from Kogbsite-2, a known Tholian colony just on the other side of the border. Attempts to get the Tholians to respond are met with silence, necessitating a trip across the border. Once there, the Players find that spacetime has been fractured within the system. They must race against the clock to rescue a Starfleet vessel literally out of time before the Tholians descend and destroy everything.
- Stormwall: A distress call from Cait redirects the Hurricane and her crew from its usual patrol route. A Tholian fleet heading towards the Cait system and is not answering any hails. Upon arrival, the Players find out that the Tholians are claiming the Cait System as their own. They must carefully weave their way through diplomacy to save the Cait System, else risk open conflict with the Tholians. And if that wasn’t bad enough, a double agent aboard the Hurricane tries to sabotage/destroy the ship!
- Caught in the Web: A strange, seemingly-sourceless hail interrupts an otherwise standard day of patrol along the Tholian Border. It comes from a member of the Chenelle Consortium, a species that is fleeing the destruction of their homeworld at the hands of the Tholians. They are down to a single ship of the twenty that launched. And to make matters worse, their cloaking device is failing while they are still within Tholian space. The Chenelle are desperate but have something very valuable to trade for assisting them: the plans for a Tholian Dreadnaught. The Players will have to weigh the consequences of saving the Chenelle (and thus risking angering the Tholians) versus dooming an entire species to oblivion.
Accompanying the PDF below is a Gamemaster’s Kit full of goodies like character sheets, token art, Roll20 assets, and so on.
My next Compendium will be centered around the alien known as Andromeda that has appeared in my Arcadia and Adiona games. Look for it in February!