Following on from our discussion here is an adventure featuring pirates.
A Distant Shore
The TARDIS crew arrive on the peaceful planet of Korlis, millions of light years from Earth. The inhabitants are purple skinned herbivores who have yet to develop space travel, although they been visited by other space travelling aliens.
Upon meeting the time travellers the Korlisans panic, recognising them as the same ’demons’ that have been attacking them from the sea. Since the year is 1720 they shouldn’t yet have encountered any humans.
The Korlisans have ships of their own, although no tradition of naval warfare. Most of the ships are in harbour, afraid of being attacked. The player characters can persuade a crew to take them out or simply take a small vessel themselves.
It isn’t long before they see a pirate ship approaching, a skull and crossbones flag waving in the wind. Surrender is the best option here, as the ideal way to find out how the pirates came to be on an alien world is to ask them.
The pirates are surprised to see other humans (or at least any race that they think might be human). The explain that during a savage storm they were blown off course and passed through a shimmering portal.
They believe they are now in hell and the Korlisans are demons. The pirates are just trying to survive, having given up all hope of going hope. They have spent weeks searching for the portal without luck.
During the conversation the weather starts to turn. It is the first bad weather the pirates have encountered since their arrival and they compare it to the storm they experienced when they arrived.
When lightening strikes keen eyed player characters can spot a white flare in the distance. The scientifically minded among them, especially those with technology that allows them to scan their surroundings, can realise that the electrical activity is necessary to create the portal.
They must convince the pirates that there is a way home and to leave the Korlisans alone. Using the ships logs, working with the navigator and helping the pirates on deck they can battle their way towards the portal.
Beneath the waves and the portal is the wreck of an alien vessel. Experienced space travellers can recognise it as a race who use a Jump drive to open tears in the universe to travel through.
The drive must still be active, creating the portal between worlds. The Pirates can travel through but in order to stop this from happening again the Jump drive must either shut down or deactivated.
Luckily the player characters don’t have to go diving. Part of the ship is above water, allowing them to enter through a hatch. There are plenty of obstacles in their path, not least of which is the savage aquatic life forms that have made the wreck their home while they feed on the bodies within.
If the pirates didn’t accompany the player characters then they might still show up at the last minute to rescue them from danger. After everything the time travellers did for them they couldn’t abandon them.
Dealing with the Jump Drive causes the rest of the ship to break apart, letting the sea flood in. The player characters need to escape quickly before they all drown. Without the Jump drive the portal will begin to close so the pirates will also need to make sure they make it back to their ship in time.
Whether the player characters travel with the pirates depends entirely on whether they brought their TARDIS with them. If not they can sail back to the Korlisans to confirm that the problem has been dealt with and recover their Time Ship.
Bigger On The Inside 