Hey all

I'm planning for an upcoming EotE campaign (a continuation, it's on hold at the moment). I'm writing the plot of a fairly large adventure where the PCs first have to find a way of getting to a planet under strict imperial control ( Vulpter actually) and then actually go there and do a fairly complex mission. I want to do a little side-encounter. I am planning to give the PCs an option of getting help from a friendly smuggler on Emperess Teta. The smuggler's ship is currently grounded by the Imperials and he can't get his hands on a good route to Vulpter past the imperials anyway. He helps the PCs by pointing them in the right direction and asks them in return that if they find a way to get to Vulpter to take a small box he was hired to smuggle there for him, for the lion's share of the profits of course.

I want this to lead to an encounter with the smuggler's contact on Vulpter. The contact had a personal grudge against the smuggler and had his thugs assembled to take delivery of the package (as he had done so many times before) and shoot the smuggler. When the PCs show up instead he decides to shoot them instead to send the smuggler a message.

The reasons for the grudge are not that important. But what really has me stumped is the very simple question: What's in the box?

Any suggestions?

The Vulpter contact is the father of the son/daughter that the smuggler is going to marry. The smuggler asks for permission for marriage, but the contact (who detests the smuggler) will only approve of the marriage if the smuggler can smuggle a priceless sculpture from Empress Teta (e.g. the seemingly impossible task). Well, looks like the smuggler did it. Tragic hilarity ensues.

Maybe the “priceless sculpture” is actually a coin that the Emperor gave to Princess Teta before he left for a semi-famous battle, as his promise that he would come back. Of course, he never did and now the coin is the only thing she has to remember him by.

Of course, the item itself is just a plain coin.

And the smuggler doesn’t find out what’s inside the box until he gets it back to his contact. And the only way the contact knows that the smuggler didn’t break his promise was by the fact that the box is pristine and intact, and has a monetary value greatly exceeding that of the monetary value of the contents.

But at the end of the day — It’s Just An Effin’ Coin.

So, when the box is handed over, can the contact manage to cover his dismay when he discovers that the smuggler really did achieve the impossible?

Can he manage to keep a straight face while claiming that the smuggler “obviously” substituted the real medallion for this simple plain coin, and therefore the marriage deal is null-and-void?

Lots of ways that this one could be twisted….

image: Jar Jar's bloody head in a box

Oh come on you knew one of us had to go there.

The Vulpter contact is the father of the son/daughter that the smuggler is going to marry. The smuggler asks for permission for marriage, but the contact (who detests the smuggler) will only approve of the marriage if the smuggler can smuggle a priceless sculpture from Empress Teta (e.g. the seemingly impossible task). Well, looks like the smuggler did it. Tragic hilarity ensues.

An excellent suggestion, but I want to use the encounter to reinforce the gritty side of Vulpter so that is not something I could use in this case. In my campaign world the Empire has had a strict blockade of Vulpter for a few months now, following years of very restricted travel to the system.

The reason for the blockade is the culmination of an older campaign set in the same timeline where my PCs (same players, different characters) ended the campaign by blowing up a nearly ready large super star destroyer with a built-in Deathstar-like laser in a secret shipyard in the Vulpter-system, sacrificing their lives to keep this new super weapon out of the hands of Emperor Vader (yes, emperor, that's a much longer story!).

The blockade has lead to massive food shortages on Vulpter. When the PCs finally find a way in, legal or not, parts of the capital will be dangerous due to constant riots and the brutal methods the Empire uses to quell such unrest.

And therein lies my problem. What item that fits in a small-ish box (shoebox-ish max) would someone pay good money for smugling into this hellhole?

image: Jar Jar's bloody head in a box

Oh come on you knew one of us had to go there.

He he, what took you so long? To bad I can't use this. In my Star Wars universe Gungans and Ewoks don't exist. Never have. Never will.

Edit: Spelling

A holodisk showing Darth Sidious lowering his hood and revealing he is Emperor Palpatine. Depending on the timeline you are at, this could be very valuable information... later on, not so much.

And yeah, you have to know what's in the box. I tried to do this once (Shadowrun) with astral seals and all kinds of things. They still found a way to get into the box and at that moment, I only had an inkling. I knew where we were going so I was able to put something together, but players will find a way, good or bad, to open the box.

Oh, and just had another thought... if their contact knows it will be death on sight, he might be sending in virulent plague to take out the contact group.

Of course, you could always pull out Kaylee's Strawberries...

Oh, and just had another thought... if their contact knows it will be death on sight, he might be sending in virulent plague to take out the contact group.

Of course, you could always pull out Kaylee's Strawberries...

Yeah, I was starting to think this could be slightly callous of the (suspicious) smuggler. Let the box contain a booby-trapped Thermal Detonator, set to activate when an inner-box is opened. Similar to the plague but less ... evil since it only affects the recipient (or the curious PCs trying to peek in the box on their way to Vulpter).

Although the strawberries (or similar) do sound nice, sort of a single ray of sunshine to demonstrate even better the ugliness of the rest of the plot taking place on Vulpter.

Choices choices...

Could go all Rosencrantz and Guildenstern on them. There's nothing in the box except an encrypted message saying "Kill whoever gave you this message."

Could go all Rosencrantz and Guildenstern on them. There's nothing in the box except an encrypted message saying "Kill whoever gave you this message."

Ooooo. I like that... SOLD!

That will give the whole scenario (meeting with the "friendly" smuggler) a whole new dimension... Who wants the PCs mission to fail and knows they are there?

Well, the PCs are going to Vulpter on the simple (yeah, right, simple, I'm up to 38 pages here...) mission to pick up a droid that a "colleague" of one of the most influential Hutts in my campaign, Jergel the Hutt, left in the system. The PCs won't know why this droid (an Imperial Viper-Probe droid no less) is so important or why it was supposedly programmed to go to certain coordinates and stay there. But if they know me they might suspect that one of the many vulptareen scrap-merchants operating in that area could have picked it up.

The interesting thing is that in the story arc I have firmly established that Jergel the Hutt's majordomo has recently double-crossed him and is now in reality working for a rival hutt that wants to ruin Jergel. The majordomo is the one that fills the PCs in on the details for the mission and his right-hand man will be the PCs primary contact. If the majordomo sees an opportunity to get rid of potentially useful allies of Jergel without ever exposing himself, why should he not?

Ah, the lovely lovely plot hooks

Thanks for your help everyone, Braendig just hit the home run on this one!

Seriously (switching from "What's int he box?" to "What's in the Case?" ) why not try making the item something that's valuable, but limited in use to the players, and exceedingly useful to the wrong people.

In Ronin one of the theorized items for the case was a nuclear trigger device (not the bomb itself, just the portable console to arm and activate a weapon). Why not have the box contain something similar? Something that in the right place, time, or paired with the other half of whatever, is extremely powerful, useful,ect. The player however aren't at the right place, or the right time, or have the other half. So to them the item is merely a McGuffin, nothing more. Just extra Enc the players need to unload without getting killed.

So something like "You open the case.... and inside is a transparasteel cylinder about 30 cm long and 10 wide with what looks like an attachment valve and data connection on one end. Inside the cylinder is a clear syrup like material." Scans show it to be an inert chemical compound. Slicing attempts show the data connection needs a VERY specific access code and handshake connection to open the valve and release the contents. If the players crack it open somehow it's exactly as above... just a syrupy liquid that tastes bad, doesn't really smell, and is totally harmless. A Very Hard Warfare or Stupid Hard Education will say it's the catalyst for a very powerful nerve agent. Alone it's nothing, when combine with another chemical compound there's a reaction and you now have enough gas to kill off a large city six times over.

1) Its the recipe for a legendary dish that's been kept secret since the fall of the Sith Empire exactly why they liked "Baked Alaska Pie" has been lost to history but a certain Emperor wants it back!

2) Its holds an odd silvery ring of some unknown metal.

It's actually the power source for an ancient super weapon, now if only they knew where the rest of the device is...

3) A button a really big red button care to press it?

4) A note with "I owe you" written on it apparently the smuggler lost the contents whilst gambling fortunately someone came along to spare him explaining in person...

image: Jar Jar's bloody head in a box

Oh come on you knew one of us had to go there.

VII

He he, what took you so long? To bad I can't use this. In my Star Wars universe Gungans and Ewoks don't exist. Never have. Never will.

So, what you’re saying is that no one will ever know how good Gungan Steaks taste, and therefore they’ll always go hungry?