The Search for Dravik Elfarc

GM Overview

Dravik Elfarc, estranged younger son of the Elfarc Family of Kuai Qing, deliberately left Kuai Qing approximately 26 months before 1118.285.

He did not flee impulsively. He planned his departure sufficiently well to make casual attempts to locate him fail, but he did not possess the resources or apparent desire to erase himself completely.

His route was:

Kuai Qing → Singer → Tondoul → Wonstar → Candory → Mirriam

Dravik changed ships at Wonstar. On Mirriam he adopted the identity Lukas Ogzar and eventually obtained employment in security.

Each interstellar leg of the journey took approximately two weeks, including jump and the necessary turnaround/in-system time. Thus Dravik reached Mirriam approximately ten weeks after leaving Kuai Qing.

His basic technique was simple:

Leave Kuai Qing during a period when two Jump-2 vessels were departing for Singer.
Travel aboard one of them.
Continue aboard the same vessel through Singer and Tondoul to Wonstar.
At Wonstar, abandon that obvious trail.
Transfer to a Jump-3 vessel traveling toward Candory.
Continue from Candory to Mirriam.
Stop traveling.
Become Lukas Ogzar.

The last step is arguably the most important. Anyone attempting to find Dravik by searching passenger manifests indefinitely outward from Wonstar will eventually drown in possibilities.

Dravik is no longer moving.

What the Travellers Already Know

The crew has encountered the Elfarc family before.

During their conversation with Kworf Elfarc on the "dancing planet" on 1117.09.25, they learned three facts which may now become important:

Kworf knew approximately when his younger brother disappeared.
Dravik does not particularly like space travel.
Dravik was an accomplished swimmer and had won swimming awards.

At the time these facts were largely biographical trivia.

They are now investigative clues.

The most important is Dravik's dislike of space travel. If remembered, it argues against the assumption that Dravik became a wandering spacer, scout, corsair or perpetual traveller. He was much more likely to travel until he believed himself safely removed from Kuai Qing and then settle somewhere.

His competitive swimming history may eventually provide another way of recognizing or tracing Lukas Ogzar.

Timeline

Approximate Date	Location	Event	Investigative Significance
c. 1116.22x	Kuai Qing	Dravik Elfarc leaves Kuai Qing. Two Jump-2 ships depart for Singer within the relevant window.	This is the first ambiguity deliberately created by Dravik. Old departure records identify two plausible ships.
+2 weeks	Singer	Dravik arrives at Singer aboard Ship A. He remains aboard or otherwise continues with the same vessel.	Both candidate ships from Kuai Qing reached Singer. Investigators must determine which one actually carried Dravik.
+4 weeks	Tondoul	Ship A reaches Tondoul with Dravik aboard.	Once Ship A is correctly identified, the trail becomes considerably easier.
+6 weeks	Wonstar	Dravik arrives aboard Ship A and changes ships.	This is the deliberate break in his trail.
+8 weeks	Candory	Dravik arrives aboard Ship B, a Jump-3 vessel.	Passenger/crew/port records can establish that the same Vargr continued toward Mirriam.
+10 weeks	Mirriam	Dravik arrives on Mirriam.	His interstellar trail ends.
Shortly afterward	Mirriam	Dravik begins using the identity Lukas Ogzar.	Searches for "Dravik Elfarc" largely cease to work.
Following months	Mirriam	Lukas Ogzar obtains work in the security field and establishes an ordinary life.	Dravik has successfully hidden primarily by ceasing to behave like a fugitive.
1117.09.25	Dancing Planet	The Warbler crew speaks with Kworf Elfarc. Kworf mentions when his younger brother disappeared, Dravik's dislike of space travel, and his swimming awards.	Information that seemed incidental at the time becomes useful more than a year later.
1118.285	Present	Mittensby and crew have been charged by The Marmaduke Samoyed Vargr with locating Dravik and returning him to Uthith.	Current campaign date.

GM NOTE: Exact day numbers for the 1116 departure can remain fuzzy unless they become important. "Approximately 26 months ago" is enough for the initial records search. Once the Travellers identify the relevant traffic records, exact dates can be established.

The First Search: Kuai Qing

If the Travellers begin sensibly by asking what left Kuai Qing around the time Dravik disappeared, the search produces a manageable result.

Two plausible vessels departed for Singer.

Both were Jump-2 ships.

Both departed within the period in which Dravik could have disappeared.

This is not coincidence. Dravik knew enough about local traffic to choose a departure window that created precisely this ambiguity.

The records do not simply say:

DRAVIK ELFARC — PASSENGER.

He traveled under a less conspicuous identity or through arrangements sufficiently informal that the passenger database does not immediately resolve the question.

Nevertheless, the discovery that both plausible vessels went to Singer gives the Travellers their first solid destination.

GM Principle

Do not make finding the route depend upon one successful die roll.

A good investigation roll should determine how quickly and cleanly they identify the route.

Failure means additional interviews, expenses, false leads or time spent digging through records—not the destruction of the adventure.

Singer

Why Singer Matters

Singer was a particularly good first destination for Dravik.

It is not an Imperial world. It is poor, politically fragmented and technologically primitive by interstellar standards. Its only designated starport, Fird Starport, has deteriorated badly during Singer's ongoing planetary war.

The world therefore possesses enough interstellar traffic to disappear into, but its records are far less integrated than those of a major Imperial starport.

Dravik did not need Singer to conceal him forever.

He needed it to make the first step of his trail annoying.

Fird Starport

Fird Starport is Singer's only designated interstellar starport.

Once a Class C installation, years of warfare, neglect, air attack and occasional bombardment have reduced it to Class D status.

It lies in an arid region a few hundred kilometers north of the Crellan capital and relatively close to the coast.

Arrival Description

Fird looks less like a functioning interstellar transportation hub than a place that has stubbornly refused to stop being one.

The landing field is a broad expanse of faded ferrocrete interrupted by newer patches where bomb craters have been filled. Several old landing pads are simply closed, marked by painted crosses large enough to be seen from the air.

One hangar has no roof.

Another has a roof that is obviously newer than the walls.

A battered control tower rises over the field behind protective earthworks and sandbagged positions. Its upper windows have been replaced with armored shutters and external cameras.

A row of fuel tanks stands well away from everything else. One is blackened and abandoned.

The terminal building was constructed during better times. Its broad glass frontage has mostly disappeared behind blast walls, sheet metal and mismatched replacement panels.

The signs are still surprisingly optimistic.

WELCOME TO FIRD

appears above the entrance in three languages.

Someone has painted beneath it:

STILL OPEN

Ships arriving here attract attention.

Not necessarily hostile attention.

Singer simply doesn't get very many starships anymore.

The Lowport Atmosphere

The port population is an odd mixture of:

local starport workers
Crellan officials
freight agents
refugees trying to leave Singer
offworld merchants
arms dealers
mercenaries
aid workers
fixers
mechanics
people who make their living finding things that official systems have misplaced

Advanced offworld equipment is conspicuous.

So is money.

The Travellers will rapidly discover that nearly everything at Fird can be accomplished through either:

the official system, which is slow, damaged and bureaucratic; or
someone who knows where the paper copy is.

Arrival at Fird

From orbit, Singer doesn't look prosperous enough to support ninety million people.

The inhabited portions hug the diminishing seas and lakes. Beyond them are enormous regions of brown and dusty green. Smoke rises in several places where smoke probably shouldn't.

Fird Starport appears ahead as a geometric patch of ferrocrete in otherwise scrubby arid terrain.

Seymour gets the landing clearance eventually.

"Quetzal, Fird Control. Cleared approach corridor seven. Maintain assigned vector. Do not deviate south of the beacon line."

A pause.

"There is active military aviation south of the beacon line."

Seymour: "I had inferred that from the warning."

"Good. Some people don't."

Coming down, the crew can see old bomb craters outside the perimeter, several wrecked aircraft, earthworks, anti-aircraft positions and one enormous burned patch where something important used to be.

The starport itself is operational but battered.

One hangar lacks most of its roof. Another is obviously reconstructed from three different buildings. Freight containers have been stacked into blast walls. Several landing pads have large white X's painted across them.

Yet people are everywhere.

Refugees wait behind barriers with luggage. Cargo handlers move pallets of food. A mercenary in expensive battledress argues with a local officer wearing a uniform that looks as though it was designed in 1040. Two aid workers are screaming at a customs official about insulin.

And sitting in the middle of all this is the immaculate, enormous, extremely conspicuous Quetzal.

A ground worker looks at her.

Looks at the registration.

Looks at the pulse-laser turrets.

Then says:

"Research ship?"

"Yes."

"Sure."

The Air-Raid Warning

Shortly after the crew disembarks, an air-raid siren starts.

Nobody panics.

The locals look upward.

One baggage handler continues moving a cart.

Another says:

"That's the western warning."

"Meaning?"

"Means they're probably not bombing us."

A pause.

"Probably."

About thirty seconds later several TL6 jet aircraft roar high overhead.

No bombs fall.

The all-clear sounds perhaps four minutes later.

The baggage handler resumes:

"Welcome to Singer."

GM NOTE: This need not become an encounter. It establishes the normal atmosphere of Singer and Fird. The locals have lived with the planetary war for years.

What Actually Happened Here

GM ONLY: Approximately 26 months ago, Dravik Elfarc passed through Fird during his planned escape from Kuai Qing.

Two Jump-2 vessels had left Kuai Qing for Singer during the relevant departure window:

Long Patience — 400-ton Jump-2 subsidized merchant of old Imperial construction, commanded by Captain Delia Marr, human. It regularly worked a Kuai Qing–Singer–Tondoul–Wonstar route.
Kforreng's Pride — 300-ton Jump-2 Vargr trader commanded by Captain Rraez Kforreng. It traveled from Kuai Qing to Singer but normally turned coreward rather than continuing along Dravik's eventual route.

Dravik actually traveled aboard Long Patience.

He was using the simple name Dravik Rraz rather than Dravik Elfarc. This was not yet the carefully established identity of Lukas Ogzar. Dravik merely wanted an ordinary passenger search for "Elfarc" to fail.

He traveled unusually lightly for a member of an important family: one substantial travel bag, a smaller case, no servant, no vehicle and no conspicuous arsenal.

Long Patience remained at Fird for approximately three days while taking on cargo and waiting for outbound clearance.

Dravik remained at or near the starport. He ate there, walked around, read, exercised and repeatedly investigated whether there was anywhere nearby where he could swim.

There wasn't anywhere sensible.

He subsequently departed Singer aboard Long Patience for Tondoul.

The Investigation

The purpose of the Fird investigation is to allow the Travellers to establish:

Both candidate ships from Kuai Qing actually reached Singer.
Dravik was almost certainly aboard one of them.
The correct vessel was Long Patience.
Long Patience subsequently departed for Tondoul.

There are several independent ways to reach this conclusion.

Do not make progress depend upon one successful skill check.

A failed check means that the investigation takes longer, costs money, requires another interview, produces an initially misleading recollection or attracts unwanted attention.

It should not permanently destroy the trail.

Arrivals and Traffic Office

The traffic office occupies part of Fird's battered old terminal.

Half of the original windows have been replaced with metal panels. Modern offworld computers sit alongside Singer-built equipment generations behind them technologically.

A handwritten sign reads:

RECORD REQUESTS: CURRENT YEAR — DESK 2

HISTORICAL — DESK 4

WAR DAMAGE CLAIMS — NOT HERE

Desk 4 belongs to Jessa Varn.

Jessa Varn

Jessa Varn is a human woman of 58 with short graying hair. She wears reading glasses despite the trivial availability of medical correction offworld.

She has worked at Fird for 29 years.

Jessa is neither friendly nor unfriendly. She is busy.

She particularly dislikes visitors who begin by explaining how important they are.

She appreciates people who can explain precisely what they need.

"Twenty-six months?"

"Yes."

"Arrival or departure?"

"Both."

"Ship?"

"Two possibilities."

Jessa finally looks up.

"That's actually a useful answer."

The central electronic archive from that period is incomplete. A bombing damaged the primary system approximately seven months after Dravik passed through.

Trixie can attempt to recover portions of the electronic data.

Jessa, however, has another source.

Paper.

During periods of unreliable electrical power, Fird printed daily ship-movement sheets.

The surviving copies are stored downstairs.

A straightforward search eventually establishes:

Long Patience arrived from Kuai Qing.
Kforreng's Pride arrived from Kuai Qing.
Both arrived during the expected period.
Both subsequently departed.

The crucial difference is their declared next destination:

LONG PATIENCE — NEXT DECLARED PORT: TONDOUL

Kforreng's Pride went elsewhere.

This alone does not prove that Dravik was aboard Long Patience, but it provides the Travellers with an excellent hypothesis.

The Archive Basement

The basement smells of dust, warm electronics and damp concrete despite Singer's generally dry climate.

There are shelves and shelves of boxes.

Some are beautifully labeled.

Some are not.

One entire section of wall has obviously been rebuilt.

Jessa points toward it.

"That's why we have paper."

An elderly employee sits at a desk repairing damaged documents.

Nilo Tem

Nilo Tem is a 72-year-old local human. He is heavyset, deeply wrinkled and has nicotine-stained fingers.

Officially, Nilo is retired.

He still comes to Fird four days a week because nobody has apparently succeeded in stopping him.

Nilo remembers ships considerably better than he remembers passengers.

Mention Long Patience:

"Marr's ship."

"You remember it?"

"Everybody remembers Marr. She complained about our fuel every time she came here and bought it every time she came here."

Mention Kforreng's Pride:

"Vargr ship. Good crew. Terrible music."

If shown Dravik or asked about an enormous white Vargr:

"Twenty-six months?"

"Approximately."

"There was one."

Nilo cannot reliably remember which ship the Vargr was associated with.

This is confirmation, not the solution.

The Broken Compass

The nearest thing Fird has to a traditional spacer bar was originally called The Compass.

Part of the building was subsequently destroyed.

Someone painted BROKEN above the surviving original sign.

Everyone now calls it The Broken Compass.

Its front wall is patched ferrocrete. Inside are cheap local beer, expensive imported alcohol, terrible coffee, decent stew and an astonishing collection of old starship patches attached to the walls.

Visiting crews frequently wait here.

Mara Quist

Mara Quist is a broad human woman in her early sixties. One arm is artificial and of noticeably higher technology than almost anything else she owns.

Mara remembers people.

Twenty-six months, however, is a long time.

If shown an image of Dravik:

"Maybe."

"He'd have been unusually large."

"They're all unusually something."

If someone mentions his white fur, she looks again.

"Oh."

Now she remembers.

"Didn't drink much."

"Was he here often?"

"Three nights, maybe."

"Who was he with?"

"Nobody."

Then another detail returns:

"Kept asking about swimming."

This is potentially the most satisfying confirmation available at Fird.

During the crew's conversation with Kworf Elfarc on 1117.09.25, they learned that Dravik had won swimming awards.

If the players remember that fact, Mara's recollection provides strong evidence that this really was Dravik.

Mara can then remember the crucial detail:

"He was waiting on Marr's ship."

"Long Patience?"

"That's her."

At this point the trail to Tondoul is extremely strong.

Portside Market

Immediately outside the extrality zone is a ragged collection of permanent shops, temporary stalls and people conducting business from tables, vehicles and cargo containers.

Available goods include food, clothing, local electronics, imported medicine, dubious weapons, replacement ship components, cigarettes, liquor and documents of varying legitimacy.

There are also numerous people promising transportation, introductions or access to things that officially cannot be obtained.

One of these people is Orlo Fenn.

Orlo Fenn

Orlo Fenn is a 44-year-old human male, skinny, animated and equipped with an enormous mustache.

He is a freight expediter, passenger finder, customs facilitator and occasional smuggler.

Orlo will initially claim to remember Dravik whether he does or not.

If shown a picture:

"Absolutely."

"You remember him?"

"Like yesterday."

"What ship?"

"Ah."

He doesn't know.

If challenged:

"I remember the gentleman. I don't remember every ship in the galaxy."

Mention swimming, however:

"Oh! The swimmer!"

Now he genuinely remembers.

Dravik asked Orlo whether he could arrange transportation to somewhere with clean water where he could swim.

Orlo told him:

"On Singer? Try another planet."

Dravik laughed.

This stuck in Orlo's memory because Dravik did not seem to laugh very often.

Orlo remembers that Dravik ultimately went nowhere on Singer.

He simply waited for his ship.

Refugee Processing Hall

The refugee-processing hall is enormous, crowded and emotionally grim.

Families with money attempt to purchase outbound passage.

Families without money attempt to get onto humanitarian evacuation lists.

This gives the Travellers a good visual explanation for why passenger records from the period are imperfect. Even 26 months ago, large numbers of desperate people were already moving through Fird.

Yani Dorr

Yani Dorr is a 51-year-old human woman and former Singer military logistics officer. She now coordinates refugee transportation at Fird.

People still sometimes call her Captain Dorr.

She understands passenger manifests better than almost anyone else in the port.

If the Travellers explain what they are attempting to reconstruct:

"You're assuming his name mattered."

"It didn't?"

"Twenty-six months ago? If he paid cash and the shipmaster declared the passenger count correctly, I was delighted."

Yani explains that passenger totals are often more reliable than passenger identities.

Comparison of the old Kuai Qing and Fird records can reveal a passenger-count irregularity involving Long Patience. This provides another route for Trixie or an administratively inclined Traveller to connect Dravik to the ship.

The Wrong Memory

Derrin Ko, a local mechanic, can provide a completely sincere false lead.

Derrin remembers working on Kforreng's Pride while:

"That enormous white Vargr was hanging around."

He is confident.

He is also wrong.

Derrin has combined memories of two different ship visits separated by several months.

Checking the date of the repair reveals that the event he remembers occurred after Dravik had already left Singer.

This is not deliberate deception. It is simply what happens when investigators ask people to reconstruct ordinary events from more than two years earlier.

Random People at Fird

These NPCs can be used whenever the Travellers approach someone who has not otherwise been established.

d8	Person	Current Activity	Information
1	Kel Vasso, teenage baggage handler	Driving an ancient electric tug considerably too fast	Knows where almost everything in Fird is located. Knows nothing about Dravik.
2	Harrik Noll, local policeman	Drinking coffee and watching foreigners	Can direct investigators to Jessa Varn. Becomes interested if the Travellers are carrying conspicuous weapons.
3	Ssa Renk, Aslan mercenary	Waiting for delayed transportation	Was not at Fird 26 months ago. Interesting but useless to this investigation.
4	Pella Jinn, aid worker	Arguing about movement of medical supplies through customs	Knows Mara Quist and recommends the Broken Compass if the Travellers are asking about old visiting spacers.
5	Derrin Ko, mechanic	Repairing an imported grav loader with locally manufactured parts	Remembers Long Patience and Kforreng's Pride, but initially combines events from different visits. See The Wrong Memory.
6	Varrgh Tek, Vargr trader	Selling imported electronics	Claims to know the Elfarc family. He does not. Immediately agrees that an image of Dravik depicts a very unusual and extremely large Vargr.
7	Iri Basso, sex worker and fixer	Waiting near the spacer hostel	Has an excellent memory for customers and potential customers. Remembers the huge white Vargr because he politely declined her services.
8	Lieutenant Aren Cole, Crellan officer	Searching for a missing military shipment	Irritable. Can make access to official records much easier if persuaded that helping the Travellers benefits Crella.

Suggested Skill Checks

These checks should be used according to the Travellers' chosen methods rather than presented as a formal skill challenge.

Skill	Difficulty	Use
Investigate / INT	Average (8+)	Reconstruct old traffic movements and identify discrepancies.
Admin / EDU	Average (8+)	Understand Fird's chaotic archival system and determine which records are authoritative.
Electronics (computers) / INT or EDU	Difficult (10+)	Recover useful information from damaged electronic archives.
Streetwise / INT or SOC	Average (8+)	Learn who at Fird is likely to remember visiting spacers.
Carouse / SOC	Average (8+)	Encourage memories and stories at the Broken Compass.
Persuade / SOC	Average (8+)	Convince busy locals to spend time helping strangers reconstruct events from 26 months ago.

Failure Consequences:

Failure should generally mean one or more of:

two hours rather than twenty minutes
Cr100 or another modest expense rather than free assistance
somebody wants a small favor
the Travellers search the wrong archive first
local authorities become curious
a witness initially provides an incorrect recollection
the Travellers discover Tondoul but cannot yet prove that Dravik was aboard

Failure should not mean that the route becomes impossible to discover.

Independent Clue Paths

The investigation has several redundant solutions.

Records Path

Kuai Qing departure records → both candidate ships reach Fird → Fird departure records → Long Patience continues to Tondoul → passenger irregularity → likely Dravik.

Witness Path

Huge white Vargr → Broken Compass → asked repeatedly about swimming → old Kworf information confirms identity → Mara remembers he was waiting for Captain Marr's ship → Long Patience.

Street Path

Ask around port → Orlo Fenn → remembers "the swimmer" → remembers Dravik remained at the port waiting for his ship → other information identifies Long Patience.

Computer Path

Trixie reconstructs damaged electronic records sufficiently to connect the relevant passenger movement with Long Patience.

Brute-Force Path

Investigate both candidate vessels.

Only one proceeds along the useful route:

Kuai Qing → Singer → Tondoul → Wonstar

Follow Long Patience.

A Memory of Dravik

If the Travellers establish a good rapport with Mara Quist, she eventually remembers something else about the large Vargr.

On his final night at Fird, Dravik sat alone in the Broken Compass drinking something nonalcoholic.

Singer news was showing footage of fighting around a reservoir.

Mara made some comment about what idiots everyone involved was being.

Dravik watched the footage for a while.

"There are ninety million of them?"

"Something like that."

"And they're killing each other over water?"

"Among other things."

Dravik considered this.

"Thirty thousand is a very small number."

Mara had no idea what he meant.

The Travellers may.

GM NOTE: This is an early indication that Dravik was already thinking about the fundamental strategic weakness of the Kaiquing. Thirty thousand genetically enhanced Vargr may be individually formidable, but they remain an extremely small population compared with ordinary Vargr society.

Resolution

Once the Travellers identify Long Patience, the Singer portion of the trail is effectively solved.

The ship's ordinary commercial itinerary was:

Kuai Qing → Singer → Tondoul → Wonstar

The investigative question now changes from:

Where did Dravik go?

to:

Where did Dravik get off?

The answer is ultimately:

Wonstar.

There Dravik changes ships for the first time, deliberately breaking the obvious chain that investigators following Long Patience would otherwise be able to reconstruct.

Fird Traffic Records

This is where Dravik's trail becomes playable.

Twenty-six months ago is not ancient history by local standards, but Singer's war has not been kind to its information systems.

The starport has suffered physical damage since Dravik passed through.

Some records survive electronically.

Some survive only as backups.

Some exist as printed manifests because one of the computer systems was offline during an air raid.

And some useful information survives only because somebody remembers it.

Initial Records Search

The Travellers can establish fairly easily that:

both Jump-2 vessels identified at Kuai Qing reached Singer;
both arrived within the expected time;
neither remained at Singer permanently.

This initially preserves the ambiguity.

A more careful investigation reveals the important difference:

Ship A continued onward toward Tondoul.

The second vessel went elsewhere.

Once that is established, the search narrows dramatically.

The Passenger Problem

The surviving passenger records are incomplete enough that Dravik cannot simply be found by name.

However, several possible clues remain.

A surviving arrival document describes one Vargr passenger in terms sufficiently general to be useless by itself.

A port worker may remember an unusually large Vargr.

A freight or purser record may contain the alias Dravik used at the time.

A surviving image from the terminal or landing apron may show him.

The investigators do not need all of these.

Each successful line of inquiry pushes them toward the same conclusion:

the Vargr they are looking for left Singer aboard Ship A for Tondoul.

People at Fird Who Might Help

Jessa Varn – Traffic Clerk

Jessa Varn is a human woman in her late fifties who has worked at Fird for nearly thirty years.

She has survived three governments, two direct attacks on the starport and approximately seventeen attempts to "modernize" the traffic-record system.

She trusts paper.

This has become an advantage.

Jessa knows that a substantial portion of the old arrival/departure information exists in emergency printouts stored in boxes because nobody ever authorized their destruction.

She is not corrupt exactly.

She is, however, tired.

Someone who treats her politely and explains what they actually need will get considerably farther than someone waving money or rank.

"Computer says we lost that year."

She taps the desk.

"Computer wasn't here that year. I was."

Orlo Fenn – Freight Expediter

Orlo Fenn is a thin, energetic local human who arranges freight, passengers, transport and occasionally things that would be described differently if customs officials were listening.

He was already working at Fird when Dravik passed through.

Orlo does not remember Dravik immediately.

Show him a picture and he becomes uncertain.

Mention the very large Vargr and the fact that he didn't seem to want to be here and something may click.

"Oh. Him."

"Didn't like the port. Didn't like the planet. Didn't like the ship much either, as I recall."

That last observation is useful.

Dravik's dislike of space travel was visible even to strangers.

Optional Swimming Breadcrumb

Singer should not solve the swimming clue.

But it can remind the players that the clue exists.

Fird is near Singer's coast, but Singer's waters are badly polluted and the planetary war has made travel unpleasant and dangerous.

If someone learns enough about Dravik's short stay, an old recollection may emerge:

"Big white Vargr? Yeah. Asked where he could swim."

The local laughs.

"Told him the Sickle Sea if he wanted chemical burns."

This does not locate Dravik.

It simply puts swimming back into the players' heads.

That becomes much more useful once they eventually reach Mirriam and start asking what Lukas Ogzar does when he isn't working security.

Leaving Singer

Once the crew correctly identifies Ship A, they have their next destination:

Tondoul.

From this point the trail becomes substantially easier.

Ship A followed an ordinary commercial itinerary:

Kuai Qing → Singer → Tondoul → Wonstar

The important question is no longer:

Where did Dravik go?

It becomes:

Where did Dravik get off?

The answer is:

Wonstar.

And at Wonstar, for the first time, Dravik changes ships.