Crashed freighter

A cargo ship broken across a valley, its holds split open and its manifest a matter of rumour. Scavengers come from every side, the reactor may still be live, and some of the cargo was alive when it shipped.

Light
Lit
Going
Hard

Hear it

Hazards

  • Reactor leak. The reactor's shielding cracked in the crash. Near it, counters scream; a short visit is survivable, lingering is not. D&D 5e (House rule): House rule: a creature that ends its turn within 9 m (30 ft) of the reactor makes a DC 13 Constitution saving throw, taking 2d6 Necrotic damage on a failure or half as much on a success; its Hit Point maximum drops by the damage taken until it finishes a Long Rest. Starfinder 2e: Radiation sickness, severe (GM Core): disease 5, Fortitude DC 22, onset 4 hours; 2d6, 2d6, then 2d8 poison damage with sickened 1 to 3, each stage an hour. Archives of Nethys
  • Unstable wreck. Decks hang at odd angles over drops, plating gives way underfoot, and the whole hull shifts when the wind or the scavengers move it. D&D 5e: A fall deals 1d6 Bludgeoning damage per 3 m (10 ft), at most 20d6, and Prone unless no damage was taken. Spotting weak plating is a DC 12 Wisdom (Perception) check.

What may happen

  1. A torn page of the manifest lists cargo that no law allows to be shipped.
  2. Another scavenger crew is already here, and they were not expecting company.
  3. A container shakes from inside.
  4. The radiation counter rises steadily as the party nears the stern.
  5. The freighter's distress beacon is still calling; someone will answer it.
  6. A trail of debris runs for kilometres up the valley, panels and cargo strewn where the ship first struck.
  7. Containers lie split open on the slope, their contents spilled: machine parts, bolts of cloth, sealed food.
  8. A scavenger family offers to swap a working power cell for help moving a heavy crate.
  9. An insurance agent in a clean suit is cataloguing the wreck, and wants to know what the party has taken.
  10. The flight recorder is still in its slot, battered but whole.
  11. Beside the wreck, a row of graves dug by hand, each with a helmet set on top.
  12. A hold of livestock embryos, frozen in racks, their cryo units failing one by one.
  13. A crate of medical supplies, intact, sits in plain sight. Nobody has touched it, which is strange in itself.
  14. The hull groans and shifts on the slope. Dust trickles from a seam overhead.
  15. Something has nested in the engine housing, lining it with strips of insulation pulled from the walls.
  16. A slow leak of fuel has pooled under the wreck, and the air above it shimmers.
  17. The pilot’s cabin: a bunk, a photo of two children, a half-finished letter to them.
  18. Behind a rock outcrop, the remains of a survivor’s camp: a shelter from cargo panels, empty ration tins, tracks going away.
  19. The cargo count does not match the manifest: three containers are missing and the slots for them are clean.
  20. The bridge lies on its side, the screens dark, a coffee mug still clamped in its holder.
  21. A company recovery team lands with a heavy lifter and orders everyone off the site.
  22. A scavenger waves a salvage claim on a datapad. It may be forged, but it may also be real.
  23. Yellow tape and radiation tags close off the stern. Someone put them up carefully, then left in a hurry.
  24. At night, lamps move around the wreck: another crew working by the cover of dark.
  25. The crew list on the galley wall has nine names. The graves outside number seven.

Adventure hooks

  1. The freighter's insurers will pay well for the black box, and the owners will pay better to have it lost.
  2. Part of the cargo was a creature in a cage, and the cage is open.
  3. Two scavenger clans have agreed a truce to strip the wreck; one of them plans to break it.
  4. The reactor will breach in days unless someone goes in and shuts it down by hand.

Who and what is met

Each is an SRD stat block under another name, as game masters reskin them.

Other places among the stars

Orbital station, Derelict ship, Colony outpost, Precursor ruin, Asteroid field, Gas giant orbit, Deep space relay, Terraforming works, Prison hulk, Research lab, Nebula, Neon city, Junktown, Spaceport, War front, Alien hive, Living ship, Undersea base, Lava foundry

This work includes material from the System Reference Document 5.2.1 ("SRD 5.2.1") by Wizards of the Coast LLC, available at https://www.dndbeyond.com/srd. The SRD 5.2.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

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