Let Sleeping Lugubraa Lie

Background

Twenty years ago, the crew of the Miser's Purse ran a smuggling operation under the guise of an asteroid mining business. They frequently traveled across the galaxy hauling contraband buried beneath cargo holds full of ore. Their final run would see them transporting live cargo from the Unknown Regions: three shipping containers full of lugubraa.

Towards the end of their journey, the captain had stopped off at a sparsely populated star system to collect ore when a freak navigation error resulted in the ship being rent in half, shuttering back into an uninhabited star system. Crewmen in the cargo holds and living quarters were vented into space in seconds, and the shipping containers full of lugubraa were thrown open. A few faster specimens held fast to the hull. Their ravenous hunger from the long journey drove them to attack the remaining unsuspecting crew when they attempted repair and recovery operations.

With only two men left and the lugubraa still in pursuit, the captain made a final stand save the others. With only a blaster pistol and vibrosword, the captain baited the monsters into the equipment room while the final two fled in an escape pod, never to return.

Though the ship has been exposed to the cold vacuum of space for nearly two decades, there are still treasures and dangers for intrepid explorers to discover within its walls.

Overview

The crew finds themselves violently and unexpectedly ripped from hyperspace by the same anomaly that destroyed the Miser's Purse. The navcomputer screeches that the fuel line has ruptured, venting the rest of the ship's fuel into the void. Their ship now drifts in real space at the edge of an asteroid field.

Though they are stranded with no fuel and finite supplies, a cursory scan of the area reveals a mining ship nearby. At first glance, it’s very obvious from the fact that it is in two distinct pieces that the ship will not be rescuing them. It has been floating in the black for months if not years. Further scanning reveals that the wreck is completely un-powered and that there are no life signs on board.

This could be the opportunity that the player characters need to find materials to repair their vessel and maybe, with a bit of luck, some fuel.

Part 1 | Introduction

The Wreck

The sensor anomaly that cropped up a few hours ago finally comes into view; a hulking mass of shattered bulkheads and floating debris fill the view screens. Whatever happened here looks like it happened a long time ago. The hull of the mining barge has been left fragmented and the bow has been torn from the ship, almost certainly killing the crew. The aft of the vessel looks almost intact, perhaps some sections survived. Player characters will need to use creative solutions to avoid being suspended in zero-g.

1. Main Cargo Hold

Characters without darkvision or blindsight will need a light source to see the areas in the ship not exposed to the starlight outside. The door to the secondary cargo hold, which is mostly caved in, can be removed without much effort.

The ruptured hull and twisted superstructure have caused significant damage here, but most of the machinery in this darkened space looks intact. A large drone maintenance dock fills one corner and a, now redundant, cargo door lies closed in the center of the room. A huge hole in the port bulkhead is only partly obstructed by floating debris. The door to the bridge and central control room is buckled. Peering through the cracks in the wall, nothing but the faint glow of distant stars lie beyond.

Mynock Roost. A swarm of mynocks has taken up residence in the dark, quiet recesses of the cargo hold. Player characters who disturb the roost will anger the sleeping creatures. Spotting them requires that players have a passive Perception of 15 or greater. Players can make a DC 12 Dexterity (Stealth) check to attempt to sneak past the sleeping swarm. Monster information for a mynock swarm can be found on pg. 109 of Scum and Villainy.

The single intact XK-V8 mining droid sits unpowered with its legs folded up beneath it in what looks to be a recharging station. The droid resembles an arachnid with three-pronged claws at the end of each appendage and its underbelly bristles with tools such as a circular saw and arc welders. Atop the droid are several large, forward facing sensors.

Maintenance Dock. The docking area contains three class V XK-V8 excavation droids, one of which is intact. Players can make a DC 12 Intelligence (Technology) check to try and attach a power source to the droid or the dock in an attempt to power the droid back up. All of the droids can be salvaged for parts. If the mynock swarm is still sleeping nearby, the players will need to continue making DC 12 Dexterity (Stealth) checks any time they take an action that generates noise. Failing this check will wake the swarm.

2. Secondary Cargo Hold

The hold contains a fuel canister filled to only 2% capacity. The durasteel door to the crew quarters and equipment rooms are unpowered and firmly in place though players can attempt to remove or move them, it will be a challenge to do so.

Little remains of this entire section of the derelict vessel. Its contents float aimlessly in the void around the scrapped remains of the bulk heads and structural frames. Two massive open shipping containers and a fuel canister stand out in the debris. The console adjacent to the forward bulkhead is shattered, any answers it might have held are long gone.

If players take the time to inspect the opened doors of the large, empty shipping containers, they will find thousands of fine lines etched deeply into the inside of the durasteel, cross-hatched in no discernible pattern.

3. Crew Quarters

Like the Secondary Cargo Hold, player characters must take care to secure themselves in this area or risk floating out into space.

Most of this section has been exposed to the vacuum for decades, slowly decaying in the background radiation that engulfs it. A terminal sits tucked away in the corner with a small safe underneath it while two bunk beds dominate the rest of what little room is left in the crew quarters. Floating just above the beds is a small storage container.

Work Station. The terminal beside the beds can be accessed with a successful DC 8 Intelligence (Technology) check. A success of 15 or higher will give the player character access to more detailed information. The first success grants access to a bill of lading detailing the generic cargo of the Miser's Purse: 115 tons of carvanium ore to be delivered to the Corporate Sector. The higher success reveals a second bill of lading for the contraband that includes three shipments of Leech Legions. The bill doesn't go into any further detail and players will probably have to pass a difficult Lore ability check to recognize them as Lugubraa.

Storage Container The contents of the container include 120 credits, half eaten expired rations, a dirty pair of miner's coveralls, and a well worn demolitions kit.

Part 3 | The Miser's Purse

4. Mining Control Station

The door leading to the central hallway is partially opened. Forcing it completely open would take little effort. This section will be plunged into darkness if the door slides closed behind them.

Lugubraa

Lugubraa possess twisted, maggot-white bipedal bodies of leeches. The main feature of a Lugubraa's face was its large gaping maw, filled with razor sharp teeth in a circular pattern. The numerous teeth overlapped, and chewed in a gearlike pattern. Once something (or someone) entered their maw, it was nearly impossible to escape. Though they can survive on organic matter, the average Lugubraa was obsessed with fresh meat, finding it delicious beyond compare.

Though a Lugubraa possessed four arms, the lower two were little more than useless stubs. Their upper arms were very long, with five long fingers that were tipped with large suction cups. Each suction cup was filled with needlelike barbs. These dangerous digits gave a Lugubraa extra purchase when climbing or holding down their prey.

Lugubraa had no ears, and their skin instead detected sound vibrations. They were naturally strong and very durable, able to stand at attention for days on end without rest and suffer numerous wounds before succumbing

Eater of Worlds. The Gree Enclave considered the Lugubraa to be one of two curses unleashed by the Rakata during their war with the Celestials. The Gree named the Lugubraa "the Eaters of Worlds."

While engaging in a vicious civil war among their own kind, the Croke introduced the Lugubraa to their homeworlds in the Croke Reach. For 300 years they spread, destroying Croke settlements across the region, no longer under the control of their original employers. The Croke sought the help of the cloners of Kamino. The Kaminoans created a genetic variant that became known as the Leech Legion, but these clones proved to be just as deadly to the Croke as their Lugubraa predecessors.