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.

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.