Halvern Orestes
A Rim bondholder running a one-man Drift Logistics franchise on Vargo's Berth.
Halvern Orestes is half-Kith, dry, polite and broke, and unlike some people who present that way on a freeport, he is broke in the ordinary sense. He holds a bare-bones Drift Logistics licence and runs a one-man salvage office out of a converted cargo container on Vargo's Berth, in the Outer Belt of Holden's Wake. His contracts move through a public board and a back-channel of favours.
The job is the KSV Covenant's Promise, a Confederation-era refugee transport that dropped out of contact thirty-one years ago. It is silent on every modern channel and still emitting a faint Kadiss ping on an encryption nobody alive should be using. The ping has not stopped in thirty-one years. The reactor is at five percent and the working window is days.
He is honest about the parts he knows: the breach on Deck 1 is two metres wide, there is no confirmation of crew survival and none of crew death.
He does not say that his buyer has told him the cryo-coffin holds a proto-Kadiss mesh of pre-Fold design and that the buyer's interest is academic and well funded. He does not say that a pilot who passed the wreck five years ago watched its running lights come on for eleven seconds at 03:14 and did not stop. He does not say that his fuel budget is one trip, and that if the party fails he is finished.
Rules Reference
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Abilities / Cha | 14 |
| Abilities / Con | 11 |
| Abilities / Dex | 12 |
| Abilities / Int | 15 |
| Abilities / Str | 10 |
| Abilities / Wis | 13 |
| Armor Class | 12 |
| Base Attack Bonus | 1 |
| Creature Type | Humanoid |
| Flat Ac | 11 |
| Hd Count | 2 |
| Hd Sides | 8 |
| Hit Dice | 2d8+2 |
| Hit Points | 11 |
| Hp Bonus | 2 |
| Initiative | 1 |
| Languages | Trade Cant; Core Standard; Kith trade dialect |
| Senses | Normal human vision; a freeport broker's ear for who is about to default; passive Perception 13 |
| Size | M |
| Skills / Bureaucracy | 5 |
| Skills / Deception | 3 |
| Skills / Notice | 3 |
| Skills / Persuasion | 5 |
| Skills / Sense Motive | 4 |
| Skills / Streetwise | 6 |
| Speed | 30 |
| Threat Rating | 2 |
| Touch Ac | 11 |
| Xp | 300 |
| Dialogue Path | game/dialogue/npc-halvern-orestes.yaml |
Attacks
Worn slug pistol
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
bonus | 2 |
category | ranged |
damage | 1d6 |
name | Worn slug pistol |
notes | Range 30 ft. Licensed, and the licence costs more than the weapon is worth. |
Special Abilities
The Board And The Back-Channel
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
actionCost | Immediate (1/encounter) |
name | The Board And The Back-Channel |
description: Halvern produces a favour owed on Vargo's Berth: a berth held open, a scan re-run, a name confirmed. Grants +2 to one roll made through that contact. Player-visible: he does not promise, he says he will ask, and then it happens.
One Trip Of Fuel
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
actionCost | passive |
name | One Trip Of Fuel |
description: Halvern cannot mount a second expedition and will not admit it unprompted. If the party establish it, he negotiates from honesty rather than posture and his terms improve. Player-visible: the tranche schedule is generous in a way a solvent broker's would not be.