NPCs for Caught Between an Eridani and a Hard Place

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Contents 1 Brick 2 Captain Heinriksson 3 Cully 4 Lukaz 5 Sterren Pax 6 Urga

Brick

Appears in: Caught Between an Eridani and a Hard Place: Chapter 4: The Sound and the Fury
Description: The ship's cook makes really lousy food, is slovenly and disagreeable, and in general, is disliked by everybody. But he has an ace up his sleeve. Brick used to be a demolitions expert when he served in the military, and has kept some "souveneirs" from those days. When Brick is taken over by the asteroid, he returns to his quarters to grab two things: a shotgun, which he keeps hidden there, and a small but powerful bomb which will really mess up the engine room. He then enters the maintenance tubes and makes his way back to the engine room. It takes Brick seven undisturbed rounds to plant and arm the bomb. Fifteen minutes after the bomb is armed, it goes off, inflicting from 8-48 (8d6) points of damage to everyone in the engine room and trashing all systems beyond repair. Not good! The party may attempt to disarm the bomb: this is a level 3 demolitions check.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Equipment: Bomb: Any attack hitting Brick's right hand has a 10% chance of detonating the bomb, causing 8-48 (8d6) points of damage to everyone in the immediate vicinity, double that to Brick and anyone in hand to hand combat range with him.
Notable Statements: "So what if there's flies in it? It's all protein, ain't it?" "I tellya, it wasn't always like this. Once I was a big shot. You ever had to plant a plasma fountain mine with mortar fire going off less'n ten meters from ya, kid? Didn't think so."

Race	Gender	Height	Weight	SC	BP	IM	Sighting Mod.	TOTAL XP
Human	M	-	-	-	6	0	-	0

STR	MD	IQ	AGL	CON	AGR	INT	CHA	TK	ML	Per	Bar
61	61	48	52	52	43	92	31	-	46	26	11

Skill	Level	UPS
Cooking	2	70
Demolitions	6	130
Archaic Powder Weapon	4	BW

Weapon	UAN	P	MN	SS	ROF	Q	Damage	Other
Ithaca	111/76/06	-	98	100	2	4+1	3d4	NA

Armor	THR	AI	AR	ELE	EMP	FIR	CLD	Other
NA	00	00	00	00	00	00	00	NA

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Captain Heinriksson

Appears in: Caught Between an Eridani and a Hard Place: Chapter 4: The Sound and the Fury
Description: The Captain of the Lady's Kiss is a big, dour Gen-Human, 6'1" and 220 pounds.
He hates people in general, and people who get his way or the way of his crew especially.
Any PCs who fit this description are likely to be chewed out at great length, in very colorful language!

Heinriksson is a veteran of space combat, tough and wary. He always carries at least one weapon on him. His combat-hardened strength of will makes him very difficult for the asteroid to control, which is why he remains free until all the other crewmembers have been dominated. Once under the alien's control, though, he becomes one of the worst threats to the engines and characters. Heinriksson retains enough presence of mind to go to the weapons locker and arm himself with the RKM carbine, the grenades, and the Bear armor. He uses these weapons to best effect, trying to incapacitate as many opponents as possible so that he can continue in to his main objective of destroying the engines.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Equipment: Captain Heinriksson carries an override cardkey, which will open all locks on the ship. He also has on his person 1 MBRI and a ruby ring worth 750Cr.
Notable Statements: "Grunt." "What are you doing on my bridge, maggot?" "This is my ship. You will do what I say. There will be no questions. Understood?"

Race	Gender	Height	Weight	SC	BP	IM	Sighting Mod.	TOTAL XP
Gen-Human	M	73"	220#	6	10	-1	-	91,000

STR	MD	IQ	AGL	CON	AGR	INT	CHA	TK	ML	Per	Bar
78	53	76	53	81	72	93	44	-	65	50	45

Skill	Level	UPS
Beam	5	BW
Hand-to-Hand	6	BW
Navigation	5	110
Computer Ops	5	110
Pilot: Starship	11	160
Alertness	1	-
Stealth	3	80
Throwing	3	86

Weapon	UAN	P	MN	SS	ROF	Q	Damage	Other
BS-2	98/88/80/65/40	-	98	85	2	10	d6+1	NA

Armor	THR	AI	AR	ELE	EMP	FIR	CLD	Other
NA	00	00	00	00	00	00	00	NA

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Cully

Appears in: Caught Between an Eridani and a Hard Place: Chapter 4: The Sound and the Fury
Description: Cully stands 5'9", with brown hair, a wiry frame, and a sour facial expression. This cynical, disillusioned Human hoped to become a fighter pilot for the Alliance, but got thrown out of the academy for getting involved in a drunken brawl with a Major. He drifted from odd job to odd job before winding up on the Lady's Kiss. The rusted old freighter is a far cry from his dreams of heroism, but at least it's a ship.

Cully doesn't like the characters, plain and simple. They remind him of how he used to be: a sucker, ready to eat up all the lies about glory and heroism. He takes special pleasure in assigning menial tasks to the characters to show them exactly what life in space is all about. If there's an Eridani in the party, he or she is going to get the dirtiest jobs of all, because the Eridanis' superior attitude really gets on Cully's nerves.

Cully's line of attack will be simple: he will suit up in his spacesuit, open the pressure doors, and walk through to engineering. Opening the pressure doors on the other side, he will enter engineering and turn the powerful laser torch he's been using to make repairs on the delicate machinery ... and any character that gets in his way.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Equipment:
Notable Statements: "Well, lookie what we got here. A bunch of regular heroes! "Invite me to yer next dinner party with Madd Mike, willya, fellas?" "I want you to muck out the head, go back and patch the leaky coolant tubes in engineering, and then suit up and go scrape the carbon scoring off the outside hull. Oh, yeah...welcome to the Lady's Kiss."

Race	Gender	Height	Weight	SC	BP	IM	Sighting Mod.	TOTAL XP
Human	M	69"	-	-	6	-2	-	60,000

STR	MD	IQ	AGL	CON	AGR	INT	CHA	TK	ML	Per	Bar
58	56	59	89	54	52	48	45	-	40	35	20

Skill	Level	UPS
Pilot: Starship	12	170
EDC	3	80
EVM	5	116
Hand-to-Hand	4	BW
Energy Weapon	5	BW

Weapon	UAN	P	MN	SS	ROF	Q	Damage	Other
Laser Torch	115/80/10	-	98	100	1	10	4d4	NA

Armor	THR	AI	AR	ELE	EMP	FIR	CLD	Other
ES-3	2	8	8	35	20	50	98	NA
AKMH	2	8	8	35	50	55	45	NA

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Lukaz

Appears in: Caught Between an Eridani and a Hard Place: Chapter 4: The Sound and the Fury
Description: Lukaz, the ship's navigator, doesn't want to be bothered with things like this. All he wants is to do his job, calculate the jump coordinates, and then lock himself in his cabin and read. Sadly, things aren't going quite as planned for him. The influence of the asteroid causes the frail Mutzachan to go quite mad. Instead of heading for the engine room, he wanders randomly about the ship, asking anybody he meets, "Where's my book? Have you seen it? I'm sure I put it down around here somewhere." If the individual doesn't make at least a pretense of helping him find his book, he will scream, "YOU'RE ALL THE SAME!" and start throwing matrices in a berserk fury. This will continue until someone pacifies him by leading him back to his cabin and books, or until he passes out from the strain of throwing too many matrices.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Equipment:
Notable Statements: "This is no job for a bright, promising young Mutzachan like me." "Where's my book? Will you help me find it? I KNEW IT!" "You're one of THEM! Aaaaaargh..."

Race	Gender	Height	Weight	SC	BP	IM	Sighting Mod.	TOTAL XP
Mutzachan	M	4	0	-	-	-	-	102,000

STR	MD	IQ	AGL	CON	AGR	INT	CHA	TK	ML	Per	Bar
33	48	121	47	31	42	87	62	-	58	61	51

Skill	Level	UPS
Navigation	11	195
Matrix Manipulation	6	145
Ionization Engineer	5	135
Computer Ops	6	145
Computer Progamming	6	145

Weapon	UAN	P	MN	SS	ROF	Q	Damage	Other
NA	-	-	-	-	-	-	0d0	NA

Armor	THR	AI	AR	ELE	EMP	FIR	CLD	Other
PDS	00	00	00	00	00	00	00	20 Points

Title	Robe	PP
Meson Controller	Green	16

Power	Bracket		Power	Bracket
Chill Veins	1		Drain	2
Darkness	1		Invisibility	2
Finger Laser	1		Fire Blast	3
KE Barrier	1		Fly	3
Bypass	2		Cellular Disruption	4

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Sterren Pax

Appears in: Caught Between an Eridani and a Hard Place: Chapter 4: The Sound and the Fury
Description: The ship's chief engineer isn't much to speak of in a fight, even when he's sober, and he's usually not sober. Even so, he's possibly the greatest threat to the characters, because he knows exactly where to strike to do the most damage. If not in engineering when taken over, Pax crawls back through the maintenance shafts. His primary instinct is flight, rather than fight; he will try to avoid confrontations, but will still resist if stopped from reaching the engine room. Once there, his assaults do double the normal damage (increasing the difficulty of repairs by 2 levels per round.)
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Equipment: Pax's primary equipment is his numerous tools and widgets. He also carries a deluxe economy sized hip flask.
Notable Statements: "Yessir, Cap'n, sir, gonna have thish plash shipshape and running smooth in no *hic!* time." "Pass me that magnetic wrench. (Pop!) Aaah, thash better. Stupid bottlecap wouldn't come off."

Race	Gender	Height	Weight	SC	BP	IM	Sighting Mod.	TOTAL XP
Orion	M	-	-	-	5	0	-	205,000

STR	MD	IQ	AGL	CON	AGR	INT	CHA	TK	ML	Per	Bar
47	93	89	61	46	35	77	63	-	51	66	71

Skill	Level	UPS
EDC	9	155
Identify Vessels	4	105
Hydraulic Engineer	8	145
Ionization Engineer	8	145
Mechanical Engineer	9	155
Computer Ops	8	145
Computer Repair	6	125
Pick Locks	5	115

Weapon	UAN	P	MN	SS	ROF	Q	Damage	Other
NA	-	-	-	-	-	-	0d0	NA

Armor	THR	AI	AR	ELE	EMP	FIR	CLD	Other
Street Clothes Skinsuit	00	00	60	00	00	00	00	NA

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Urga

Appears in: Caught Between an Eridani and a Hard Place: Chapter 4: The Sound and the Fury
Description: Urga is a pretty normal, straightforward Ram Python: he likes to shoot things. This aggressive nature makes him much more susceptible to the asteroid's control, which is why he is the first one to fall under its sway. Urga is a bit less refined in his approach than Cully. He simply grabs a large, heavy sledgehammer and starts marching towards the back of the ship, smashing anything that gets in his way: doors, characters, or what-have-you. Luckily for him, he's still wearing his spacesuit, or his attempt to reach the engine room would come to a very abrupt halt when he managed to knock down the pressure door.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Equipment:
Notable Statements: "Get out of my way." "I'm hungry. You got food?" "Check out gun. Double action, variable wattage plasma cannon. Urga fry half a city with this puppy-equivalent..."

Race	Gender	Height	Weight	SC	BP	IM	Sighting Mod.	TOTAL XP
Ram Python	M	-	-	8	25	-1	-	51,000

STR	MD	IQ	AGL	CON	AGR	INT	CHA	TK	ML	Per	Bar
140	39	43	82	108	101	28	10	-	63	21	6

Skill	Level	UPS
Gunnery: Pulse	10	BW
Pulse Weapon	10	BW
Archaic Powder Weapon	6	BW
Camouflage	4	90
Climbing	2	94
Stealth	3	84

Weapon	UAN	P	MN	SS	ROF	Q	Damage	Other
Sledgehammer	113	-	-	-	1/sec	-	2d6	NA

Armor	THR	AI	AR	ELE	EMP	FIR	CLD	Other
ES-3	2	16	4	35	20	50	98	NA
AKMH	7	16	6	15	35	50	55	NA

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