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Dead End CreditsWriting: Thomas Baroli

Editing: Carsten Damm, Angus McNicholl, Alex Wichert, Hank Woon

Line Developer: Alex Wichert

Product Director: Carsten Damm

Layout: Carsten Damm, James D. Flowers, Kathy Schad

Artwork: Brian LeBlanc, John Bridges, Larry MacDougall, John Poreda

Administration: James D. Flowers, Kim Flowers

Fading Suns™ was co-written by Bill Bridges and Andrew Greenberg and is a trademark and copyright of Holistic Design Inc. Dead End™ and Fading Suns Shards™ are Trademarks of Holistic Design, Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. Published by RedBrick Limited—Auckland, New Zealand.

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publishers. Permission is granted to copy the Appendix for personal use only.

Internet: http://www.fading-suns.com Contact: info@fading-suns.com

Version Information: RBL-1006—October 2008

CONTENTSRunning the Adventure 2

Adventure Background 2Plot Synopsis 3

Act One: Arrival at Escoral 3People & Places 3St Charissa’s Feast 5The Assassination Attempt 5After the Fight 6At Baron Sun Cho’s Estate 6Key Characters 7

Act Two: Investigations 8Li Halan Authorities 8The Corpse 8The Muster’s Office 8Halvar’s Involvement in the Attack on Satina 9Halvar’s Office 9An Intercepted Message 10Key Characters 10

Act Three: At the Mansion 10A Trip to the Countryside 11The Secret Meeting 11Beiju Copper Mines 11After Sunset 11Key Characters 12

Act Four: Pilgrimage to St Charissa’s Shrine 12Ambush 12Fighting Halvar and his Men 12Elayna’s Gratitude 13

Waiting for Rescue 13Key Characters 14

Act Five: Confrontation with Damaron 14The Baron’s Confessor 15Elayna’s Secret 16The Data Chip 16Chloé’s Confession 16A Difficult Decision 16The Dilemma 17

Act Six: We Need a Plan 17Doing Nothing 17Helping Chloé 17Helping Hohiro 17

Act Seven: Finishing the Job 18Doing Nothing 18Helping Chloé 18Helping Hohiro 18Sun Cho’s Return 18

Aftermath 18Satina’s Fate 18Awarding Experience 18

APPENDIx 19Sir Willas Justinian 19 Deacon Salomon Grayle 20Cassandra Liscari 20Edmond Thorne 21

SHARDS SuBMISSION GuIDELINES 22Sam

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Dead End is a short adventure for Fading Suns, suitable for groups of three to five players. It fits in especially well after a dangerous adventure or after the end of a campaign, when the player characters seek some peace and rest.

Very religious characters can easily be hooked in as they will have a natural interest in the Orthodox celebrations on Kish. Priests, guild members, and nobles (preferably from minor houses) are suitable. However, Li Halan and Hazat nobles should not take part in the adventure.

As the plot is set on Kish, one of the Li Halan main worlds, the group should not consist of too many aliens or Psi users. A selection of pre-generated characters is supplied in the Appendix of this Shard (see p. 19).

Running the Adventure

Dead End is laid out in acts. Each act is described for the gamemaster, who should use the information given to run each section. There is little text to be read aloud to the players, meaning the gamemaster will have to describe many of the scenes to the characters as he sees fit. Where possible, the text describes the terrain and areas the char-acters will encounter, but much of the detail is left to the gamemaster to devise.

During their first days on Kish, the player characters are free to explore the place and get to know local culture as well as taking part in the celebration in honor of Holy Charissa, Kish’s most worshipped saint.

After accepting Baron Sun Cho’s request, the characters have seven days to complete their investigations. The linear part of the plot ends on day four, when the characters must decide which side they join to solve the dilemma they are in. All different possible solutions are outlined and explained so that the gamemaster can grant the players a maximum of freedom concerning the outcome of the adventure.

Dead End consists mainly of detective work for the player

characters, and although there is some combat included, the plot focuses on roleplaying and social interaction.

The core of the plot is the dilemma the characters are put into at the end of day four. The players’ decision will ruin several lives, no matter how they try to overcome the obstacles.

As the plot is about a political intrigue during which sev-eral people were kidnapped and replaced by impostors, the gamemaster has to know all gamemaster characters well and their backgrounds to correctly manage their personal agendas.

Adventure Background Baron Sun Cho Li Halan is a renowned but aged hero

of the Emperor Wars. He has left active military service, but after receiving a commendation for his deeds by Prince Flavius, he unofficially accepted a politically charged mis-sion. Knowing Sun Cho as a reliable and loyal nobleman, Prince Flavius asked him to carry out a secret internal investigation.

The Li Halan court fears that despite all cleansing actions their own secret service Jingcha is still undermined by Dec-ados agents, which led to Baron Sun Cho being ordered to investigate this case.

This information was intercepted by House Decados agents. The Decados seized the opportunity when Sun Cho, being a widower for the second time now, accepted the offer of his old friend Alphonso del Arantes of the Hazat to marry his seventeen year old daughter, Satina.

Alphonso, suffering from an old war wound, is unable to travel, and his sons are on their military tour of duty on distant frontiers. Consequently, Satina was accompanied by her servants and guards only.

As Satina has never met her groom before, the Deca-dos kidnapped and replaced her during the journey to Kish. Chloé Van Gelder, being an ally of the Decados, took Satina’s position, bringing along her own henchmen.

Young noblewoman Chloé was educated and trained for undercover missions, and even as she has not finished

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her training yet and just reached adulthood, her family has forced her to take this assignment. High ranking Decados nobles are putting a great deal of pressure on the Van Gelder, so Chloé has no choice but to obey.

Initially the plan did not work out. Sun Cho dutifully kept all secrets from his new wife. In this situation, Sun Cho’s second born son Hohiro made advances to his young step-mother. Hesitating at first, Chloé finally took this chance knowing that she had to follow her family’s command. Using pictures of the love affair, she blackmailed Hohiro into granting her access to his father’s secret library. Chloé stole several documents containing results of Sun Cho’s investigations, and she immediately submitted them to her Decados contact.

Hohiro had no idea what Chloé was really up to. It was far too late when he finally realized the true dimensions of his treason. There is only one way to save himself and his family: he has to silence Chloé. In order to execute his plan, he decides to use the underworld contacts of a Muster vet-eran called Quintus Halvar.

Plot SynopsisThe attempt on Satina’s/Chloé’s life is carried out during

the festival in honor of Holy Charissa, Kish’s most beloved saint. Taking part in the celebrations, the player characters witness the attack and can save Chloé’s life without knowing into what kind of trouble they are getting themselves.

As a matter of courtly gratitude, Chloé invites the char-acters to her husband’s house. Baron Sun Cho asks the characters, who have proven their valor and honor now, to guard his wife during his absence and to investigate into the attack.

Observation and an intercepted message lead the char-acters to a hint: guild member Quintus Halvar and Hohiro’s cousin Damaron seem to be part of a conspiracy to murder Chloé on behalf of an unknown third party.

During a second assassination attempt, the charac-ters save the lives of Chloé and her handmaiden Elayna by defending them against the attackers. Afterwards, the player characters continue their efforts to find the master-mind behind these attacks.

Having interrogated several members of Sun Cho’s household, it is the grateful servant Elayna who gives the player characters the last piece of the puzzle about the love affair and the blackmailing.

Learning of Elayna’s betrayal, Chloé confesses the intrigue to the player characters to either win time or draw the characters to her side by being honest. This puts the player characters in a dilemma.

They can either decide to help Hohiro murder Chloé and her servants, or they can support Chloé in faking her own death and to escape from Kish. Both solutions hide the truth from Li Halan authorities and Baron Sun Cho. There is of course the possibility to tell Sun Cho the truth, which will ruin him and his family as he is duty-bound to report all incidents to his superiors. The player characters have the choice to either remain truthful and destroy the life and

honor of renowned and innocent Baron Sun Cho or to keep his family intact by lying to him about his son and wife, who has turned out to be an enemy spy. In this case, Sun Cho will never know that his work has been compromised.

Act One: Arrival at Escoral

There are several possibilities to get the player charac-ters to Kish. The celebration of St Charissa is well-known to Church members, and the chance to take part in the fes-tivities should be reason enough for religious characters to attend. Otherwise, after the mass there is always a big feast that lasts for several days, and even the player characters, no matter whether they are heroic knights, priests, or guild members, need a break from time to time. On top of that the celebration is a perfect opportunity to repent sins commit-ted in the past, just in case some of the player characters are haunted by their own dark deeds (i.e. if they are struggling with Urge or Hubris).

Escoral, Kish’s giant capital with approximately two mil-lion inhabitants, is also called the ‘city of bells and banners.’ This reputation is justified as there always seems to be one of the many church bells tolling, and buildings and streets alike are decorated with colorful banners. The city is very clean and local police ensures that is stays that way. Most buildings are made of solid stone and painted in white or other light colors. The combination of ancient and new build-ings standing next to each other is bearing witness of the city’s history, creating a picturesque view that is attracting many offworld visitors.

The hot and dry climate reminds visitors of the vast des-erts to the east of the city, and people’s clothing has adapted to the everyday heat. Most people wear light clothes, sandals, and tunics made of silk, if they can afford them.

On a desert world like Kish, water is always a valu-able asset. The city lies on the borders of Lake Cordimo, so water supply is assured. Escoral’s wealth is put on dis-play at almost every corner: artfully designed fountains, green gardens with palm trees and exotic plants, and even a menagerie leave no doubt that people have created their own little paradise under the constantly dark blue sky in the middle of a dangerous and hostile desert environment.

People & PlacesThe player characters arrive at Escoral’s own spaceport

and are transported into town by small motorized land-crafts. Everyone still garbed in thick leather or woolen tunics soon finds out that a change of clothes is sensible. During the journey, the player characters get a nice view of the shimmering white city, glowing intensively in the dazzling sunlight.

Outside the ancient city walls, pilgrims and visitors set up a camp of colorful tents as most of the accommodations in Escoral are already full or far too expensive. Many of the pilgrims spent almost their whole fortune just to get here. It

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