The Foundling Contract

This is the complete adventure. Read it before session 1; reference the act-by-act sections during play. Players should read the spoiler-free overview instead — every twist, NPC, and ending is below.

If this is your first time running a SWURPG adventure, the Adventures hub covers how to run an encounter, the DC ladder, ad-hoc decision making, pacing, and other general guidance that applies to every adventure. This document handles the Foundling-Contract-specific content.

Synopsis

A Bothan broker named Lyn Ka'Tal hires the PCs from a neutral spaceport to track and recover Dr. Mira Vance, a defected Imperial xenobiology researcher who fled an Outer Rim research station two weeks ago. Lyn frames the contract as a simple recovery: Vance stole "Imperial property," she's running with it, the Empire wants her back alive, the pay is 3,000 credits (500 advance, 2,500 on delivery).

The PCs follow Vance's trail across three systems. Act 1 is intake and leg-work on a neutral hub world. Act 2 is a frontier mining colony, ending with an Imperial Customs Cutter intercepting the party's ship as they leave. Act 3 brings them to a forest moon over an old Jedi waystation, where they finally catch Vance — and discover the "property" she stole is a Force-sensitive child the Inquisitorius was conditioning for purposes Vance can barely speak.

The PCs face a moral choice in Act 3: deliver Vance and the child as contracted, walk away cleanly, or protect them. The default branch is protect — Act 4 is then a hard ship-combat blockade run as Inquisitor Tev Yorra arrives with a strike force to lock down the system. Act 5 resolves in one of three ways depending on the party's Act 3 choice.

The party ends the adventure advancing from Lv 3 to Lv 4, with at least one Imperial Inquisitor knowing their faces — and, if they chose to protect, a Rebel or temple contact who will remember the favor.

The Real Story

What the PCs uncover over the course of the adventure — staged as revelations across all 5 sessions, not dumped in Act 1:

• The "asset" Lyn won't describe is a Force-sensitive child, mute since the Inquisitorius lab, about seven standard years old. Vance calls her Tira.
• Tira is one of seven children the Inquisitorius has taken from frontier worlds over two years. The other six are still in Imperial custody at a station whose coordinates Vance can pinpoint.
• Vance's data — a sealed pendant Tira wears — contains the station coordinates, crew roster, and visit schedule. This is the sequel hook for a Lv 5-7 follow-up adventure ("recover the other six children").
• Lyn knew about Tira from the start. Her "asset is just Imperial property" framing was a lie of omission. Bothan Spynet sells the same intel to multiple buyers — the Inquisitorius is one of her clients on this transaction, but if the PCs walk away (Branch B), Lyn quietly sells the location to a different buyer.
• Inquisitor Tev Yorra is a "trial Inquisitor" — a former Jedi padawan who failed to break under torture and was instead recruited. Yorra has a sliver of remorse that survives. A Persuasion DC 25 in the right moment of the climax (with the right leverage — see Act 5 Branch A) can flip him, though this should be telegraphed only through passive Use the Force checks (no FP cost) and player initiative.
• Vance's ship was sabotaged by the Empire two weeks ago — a tracking beacon installed before her defection finally activated. She's been running on borrowed time ever since. The beacon is how Lyn knew her trail; it's also how Yorra catches up in Act 4.

Party assumption

This adventure does not include per-pre-made-character hook tie-ins. It assumes the GM brings their own ongoing party — already at Lv 3, with their own ship and their own reasons for taking work. The adventure provides the contract; the GM threads it into their campaign's existing fiction.

The "How the Party Met" framings from the Adventures hub still apply if you're running this as a one-shot or starting a new campaign at Lv 3, but no per-character hooks need to be authored.

Why your party would take this contract

Pick one or improvise. The pre-game pitch lands cleaner if the GM has a one-sentence reason ready.

• Credits. 3,000 cr is solid pay for a Lv 3 party — equipment upgrades, ship repairs, or just operating capital. Mira's contract is the kind of job that lets you buy your way to Lv 5.
• The broker has leverage. Lyn Ka'Tal has a past favor, a piece of compromising information, or a debt one of the PCs owes. She's pleasant about it but firm.
• The mark used to be a friend. One of the PCs has a personal connection to Vance (former colleague, distant relative, owed her a favor). The party isn't being told to hurt her — just bring her in.
• Curiosity. The PCs have a reputation for taking strange jobs. Word travels. Lyn finds them.
• Empire-flavored reasons (if the campaign already has Empire context): the contract gets the party access to Imperial-paid creds without working directly for the Empire — useful for Rebel-aligned crews running cover identities.

The Yorra scaling table (read before session zero)

Inquisitor Tev Yorra is the primary antagonist of Acts 4 and 5. Adjust his stat block per the party size before session 1 and keep the same tier for the entire adventure — don't shift mid-game.

TR is the SWURPG Threat Rating — a single number summarizing how dangerous the enemy is for a typical 4-PC party at the same level. Acolyte tier is "Elite" (TR 3-5); Inquisitor and Senior tier are "Boss" (TR 6-10). Yorra's armor protection lives in his AC, not TR — TR is a meta-balance number, not a per-hit damage subtraction.

Other stats constant across tiers:

• Speed 30 ft
• STR 14 (+2) · DEX 16 (+3) · CON 14 (+2) · INT 13 (+1) · WIS 16 (+3) · CHA 13 (+1)
• Saves: STR +5 · DEX +6 · WIS +6
• Skills: Athletics +5 · Intimidation +4 · Perception +6 · Use the Force +6
• Force powers: Force Push (Action, 2 FP, 30 ft cone, STR save DC 14 or 2d6 kinetic + pushed 15 ft), Mind Probe (Action, 2 FP, 60 ft, WIS save DC 14 or surface thoughts read), Saber Throw (Action, 1 FP, lightsaber returns next turn), Detect Force-sensitive (passive — Yorra always knows Tira is nearby)
• Starting FP: 8

Force powers and signature abilities are constant across tiers; only HP, AC, and lightsaber attack scale. Same villain, more or less menacing per party size.

The starship-combat scaling table (read before session zero)

The adventure has three ship-combat encounters at Lv 3: the Imperial Customs Cutter (Scene 2.4), the Blockade Run (Scene 4.3), and the optional Yorra ship-pursuit branch in Act 5 Branch A. The baseline enemy rosters in those scenes assume a standard-tier party ship — roughly a Lv 3-appropriate light freighter with HP 100-140, shields 30-50, AC 14-17 (the Starship Builder's default civilian-freighter band).

If the party is flying something lighter (scratch-built, salvaged, or still in early-game refit), scale DOWN per the table below — don't TPK the campaign because the math is unforgiving on a hull that hasn't earned its upgrade slots yet. If they've upgraded into a military-tier hull, scale UP for parity.

Apply the same band to all three ship-combat encounters in the adventure — don't shift mid-adventure unless the party has materially upgraded their hull between sessions (Lv 4 advancement at adventure end is a natural moment to shift up).

Tira's Force Surge (the dramatic save)

Tira has no combat stats and takes no actions during play. She's a non-combatant NPC: terrified, mute, clinging to Vance, occasionally making eye contact with the PC she trusts most. The party can't ask her to do anything.

But she has one ability — a once-per-adventure Force pulse the GM triggers under genuine TPK-imminent conditions. This converts her from "she's a McGuffin" to "she's a Chekhov's gun" and makes the protect-the-child arc feel earned.

Trigger conditions (GM judgment — any of):

• Two or more PCs at 0 HP simultaneously, OR
• One PC has just died this round (failed death save, or massive damage that exceeds 0 HP by their HP max), OR
• The party is clearly going to lose the next round and the GM doesn't want to end the campaign here

The effect (narrate, don't pre-warn): Tira opens her eyes for the first time in the adventure. An unconscious cry of Force resonance pulses outward. Mechanically:

• All hostile NPCs within 30 ft of Tira are thrown back 15 ft and knocked Prone (no save).
• Yorra's lightsaber is torn from his grip and flies 30 ft in a random direction (Yorra spends his next Action retrieving it on foot, OR can summon it back with Force Pull at a cost of 2 FP — which costs his Action that turn either way).
• All downed PCs within 30 ft of Tira are stabilized (death-save countdown stops; they remain at 0 HP but cease bleeding out).
• Tira immediately falls unconscious. She remains unconscious for the rest of the encounter. PCs must physically extract her.

Cost / cooldown: Once per adventure, ever. Even if the party fights Yorra again in Act 5 Branch A, Tira can't intervene twice. The cost was real; she's spent.

Act I — The Contract

Estimated length: 1 session (~3 hours) What it teaches: patron negotiation, group skill-challenge investigation, social/combat choice with a rival crew

Act 1 is the setup: get the contract, do the homework, leave the system with a target heading. The act ends with the party in hyperspace toward System 2. There's one optional combat (the rival hunter crew); everything else is roleplay and skill challenges.

Scene 1.1 — The Cantina Meeting

Location: A spaceport on a neutral Outer Rim hub world. Default: Bandari, a small Trade Federation-era trade post drifted into Imperial-era independence — multi-species, mid-corruption, "everyone has an angle" texture. Imperial garrison presence is minimal; the syndicates run the docks.

What Lyn offers

• The contract. Track Dr. Mira Vance. Recover her alive. Bring back any Imperial property she's carrying. Travel to System 2 first (last confirmed sighting); proceed from there.
• The pay. 500 credits advance on signing. 2,500 credits on delivery. Pre-cleaned Republic credits, untraceable.
• What she'll share. Vance's photo (a Human woman, late forties, dark hair, last seen in spaceport clothing). Last known heading. Approximate time of departure. A Bothan Spynet entry on Vance's research-station background.
• What she won't share unless pressed. That the "asset" Vance is hiding is a person, not a thing. (She'll say "Imperial property is loosely defined" and leave it.)

What Lyn won't say

• That she has a second buyer for the data Vance is carrying — a Rebel cell, contacted separately, paying her on a different timeline.
• That the "asset" is a Force-sensitive child.
• That Yorra is already in motion — Lyn doesn't know it yet, but the Imperial Liaison Office is paying her in exchange for the lead-time Yorra needs to catch up.

If the PCs press with Insight·DC 15, they sense she's holding something back. With Insight·DC 20, they correctly suss that the "asset" is a person.

Player questions and Lyn's answers

The scene ends when the party signs and Lyn hands over the 500cr advance + Vance's dossier. She gives them a hyperspace heading — Cesh Reach, the mining colony in System 2 — and a single piece of advice: "Don't break her face."

Scene 1.2 — Local leg-work

Location: Bandari's spaceport and adjoining districts. Half a day's downtime before the party lifts off.

This is a group skill challenge, designed to introduce Lv 3-appropriate skill-check difficulty and let every PC contribute. The party needs 3 successes before 2 failures to leave the system with a complete picture of Vance's likely route. Each PC contributes one roll per round (representing ~2 hours of leg-work each). Failures don't lock the party out; they just mean Act 2 starts with less information.

Scene 1.3 — The Crimson Spurs

Location: The docking bay where the party's ship is moored, as they're about to lift off.

Three rival hunters — the Crimson Spurs — accost the party at the ramp. They've heard Vance is the contract and they want the party to drop it. Roleplay-forward; combat is possible but discouraged for the GM (this crew should be a recurring foil, not a one-shot kill).

After the Spurs encounter, the party lifts off. End Act 1 here. The hyperspace transit to Cesh Reach is ~2 standard days — narrate downtime if your group wants ship-life roleplay, or hard-cut to arrival at the start of Session 2.

Act II — The Pursuit

Estimated length: 1 session (~3 hours) What it teaches: investigation chain across multiple NPCs, syndicate roleplay, first ship-combat encounter at Lv 3

Act 2 is the chase: arrive at Cesh Reach, follow Vance's trail through the colony, find her empty safehouse, leave with the next system's heading — and get jumped by an Imperial Customs Cutter on the way out. The act establishes ship combat as a real mechanical layer of the adventure.

Scene 2.1 — Arrival at Cesh Reach

Location: Cesh Reach — a frontier moon mining colony around a gas-giant primary. Hutt syndicate-controlled, semi-lawless, ~3,000 permanent residents plus transient miners. Imperial Customs visits every few weeks; the syndicate runs daily operations.

The party pays a 50cr docking fee (standard) and a 100cr "convenience tip" (extortion). They can refuse the tip with a Persuasion·DC 14 or Intimidation·DC 14 — but refusing leaves a mark on their record, and the syndicate's local enforcer (Scene 2.3) will treat them more aggressively.

Three leads, one trail

Vance was on Cesh Reach three days ago. She's already gone. The party needs to figure out where she went. Three places to investigate in Scene 2.2, in any order:

• The mining barracks — where Vance might have hidden for a night.
• The medical station — Vance bought medical supplies for a small patient.
• A derelict hangar at the colony's edge — where Vance kept her ship, and where the Hutt syndicate is currently camped out.

Each location gives one piece of the next-system clue. The party needs all three to know which world Vance fled to. (If they only hit two, they leave with an incomplete picture and have to make a guess — a tradeoff the GM can use to ramp tension.) At least one of the three investigation NPCs (typically Doctor Reesa, but the GM can move this clue to whichever location best fits the party's path) also points the party at Vance's rented safehouse above a recycler shop a few blocks from the medical station — investigating that room becomes Scene 2.3.

Scene 2.2 — The Investigation

The three colony locations are bundled here. Run each as a tight 15-20 minute scene; don't let the act drag.

The mining barracks

A converted ore-hauler dorm where transient miners sleep. The night clerk — a one-eyed Devaronian named Mev — saw Vance.

Mev will share Vance's barracks-sign-in entry — including the next-system heading she logged when she left — for 50 credits, or a Persuasion·DC 13 success, or a Intimidation·DC 14 success (the last makes Mev hostile and the GM can have him quietly alert the syndicate enforcer in Scene 2.3).

The clue from Mev: Vance's sign-out log says "departing for refit at Tessen's Star, then onward — destination Devaron." Devaron is the third-system clue piece.

The medical station

A two-room infirmary run by a Mon Calamari medic named Doctor Reesa. She saw Vance buying broad-spectrum antibiotics and a small-doseage sedative — pediatric strength.

Reesa is reluctant. The PCs need to either:

• Lie convincingly about why they're looking for Vance: Deception·DC 15 (Reesa is hard to fool).
• Tell her the truth about the contract: she'll then refuse to help, but a Persuasion·DC 14 swayed by good roleplay (the party convinces her they'll do right by Vance) gets her to talk.
• Pay her enough to look the other way: 200 credits. She doesn't like it, but she takes it and tells them.

The clue from Reesa: Vance was traveling with a quiet child — "pale, dark-haired, didn't speak the whole visit, kept her arms wrapped around herself." Reesa estimates the child's age at 7-8 standard years. This is the first hard confirmation that the "asset" is a person, not a thing. The party can connect the dots from here or wait for Act 3 to confirm.

Reesa also volunteers — once she trusts the party, or once they've paid — that Vance asked for the address of a "quiet place to stay where the dockmasters don't check." Reesa pointed her at a sublet she'd recommended to other transients: a small room above the Yetuvian-owned recycler shop on the colony's third tier, four blocks from the station. This is the address the party investigates in Scene 2.3. If the party doesn't get this from Reesa (failed checks, refused to pay), Mev's barracks-sign-in entry includes a margin note where Vance scrawled the same address as a forwarding-mail destination — recoverable via the Mev clue.

The derelict hangar

The Hutt syndicate (specifically, a mid-rank Hutt enforcer named Crovath the Lesser) has set up shop in a half-abandoned hangar near the colony's edge. Vance kept her ship here for two days. Crovath wants to know who's been poking around his patch.

Entry: the thug checkpoint

Crovath doesn't greet visitors personally. He has his thugs gatekeep the entrance — anyone walking into the hangar gets stopped before they get more than a few paces in. Two of the thugs work the door; the third stays back near Crovath's office alcove.

The party has to get past the thug checkpoint to reach Crovath. Choose ONE:

• Tell the truth — "we're looking for someone who parked here." The thugs glance at each other, then the talker says "Yeah, the boss'll want to hear that. Slow walk. Hands visible." They escort the party deeper. No roll needed.
• Lie / bluff about the business — Deception·DC 13 ("we're here to scavenge that hyperdrive booster", "the dockmaster sent us"). On success, the thugs wave them through with the same "slow walk" warning. On failure, they refuse entry until the party either parleys (returns to truth/bribe) or fights — see the Force-entry branch below.
• Bribe the gatekeepers — 50cr to the talker. They pocket it and the party walks in unsearched.
• Force entry / shoot first — combat starts here (not at Crovath). The two door thugs open fire from the entry; the third thug + Crovath hear the shots and ready themselves in the office alcove. The party fights its way deeper across the hangar; use the map's cover positions for the running engagement.

Once the party has cleared the checkpoint (or escalated to combat), they cross the hangar floor toward the back. Crovath is waiting in his office alcove the whole time — he heard the door open, he hears every word.

Audience: Crovath's office

When the party reaches the back of the hangar (or pushes deep enough during a fight), Crovath finally speaks. Read this aloud:

The clue from Crovath: Vance was carrying a sealed metal cylinder — Crovath thought it was a "data canister" but couldn't open it. She left in a battered light freighter with the registry serial VC-887-K, heading sunward toward the inner system. The freighter's last known route plot was: leave Cesh Reach orbit, slingshot around the gas giant, jump to the Devaron system.

This is the second clue confirming Devaron. Combined with Mev's barracks log, the party has high confidence.

Scene 2.3 — The Empty Safehouse

Location: A small rented room above a recycler shop. Vance was here last night and left in a hurry.

The room has been hastily abandoned. Signs of recent occupation: a single bedroll, a child's drawing tacked to the wall (a stick-figure family fleeing some shadowy taller figures), a folded medical-supply receipt, and a half-burned datachit on the heat plate that contains a partial decryption key.

• Investigation DC 12 to read the room and confirm two people stayed here, one of them small.
• Mechanics DC 14 or Use Computer DC 13 to recover the burned datachit — it contains coordinates for a Devaron landing site (a clearing in the southern subcontinent) and a single encrypted phrase: "Waystation operational. Bring her home."
• Force-sensitive PC can spend 1 FP on Force Echo (Action, touch) to sense the residual emotional impression on the room — fear, exhaustion, the protective tension of a parent figure with a child. The strongest emotion the power reveals is fear, but not of harm — fear of pursuit. No mechanical effect on the scene, but the moral weight lands.

The party leaves the room with the Devaron coordinates and the partial decrypt. They return to the docking bay to lift off.

Scene 2.4 — Imperial Intercept (Ship Combat #1)

Location: Cesh Reach orbit, departing for the hyperspace lane.

As the party's ship clears the colony's atmospheric envelope, sensors flag a contact incoming on a sweep pattern — an Imperial Customs Cutter doing a routine system patrol. The cutter hails the party demanding inspection.

The party jumps to hyperspace for Devaron. End Act 2.

Act III — The Revelation

Estimated length: 1 session (~3 hours) What it teaches: sustained-roleplay scene, the moral pivot, NPC emotional weight, Force-Sense use

Act 3 brings the party to Devaron and the Jedi waystation. Vance is here. So is Tira. The session is light on combat and heavy on the conversation that defines the rest of the adventure.

Scene 3.1 — Devaron Approach

Location: Devaron's southern subcontinent. Forest moon over an old Jedi-era waystation that the Empire has not yet catalogued.

The waystation is half a kilometer through dense forest from the landing site. The party has to walk in.

The forest

• Survival DC 12 to navigate to the coordinates without getting lost. On failure, the trek takes an extra 2 hours and the party meets a low-stakes wildlife encounter (1-2 forest predators — use the bestiary Devaronian Hexapod or any Lv 1-2 predator from the bestiary).
• Knowledge: Galactic Lore DC 14 along the way to identify the area as old Jedi territory — a waystation from before the Empire, used by Jedi traveling between sectors. This primes the party for the recognition in Scene 3.2.
• Force-sensitive PC automatically feels a low resonance from the waystation's general direction — old, calm, layered with centuries of meditation. They can lead the party.

Scene 3.2 — The Waystation

Location: A half-buried stone structure with circuit-etched walls and a single working light source inside. About the size of a small chapel. Pre-Empire construction.

The waystation is lightly trapped (the original Jedi sealed it before the Empire's rise, and the locks still work). The trap is a stunning Force-resonance field that triggers if anyone enters without keying the door correctly.

• Mechanics DC 15 or Use the Force DC 14 to disarm the door's resonance trap. On failure, the triggering PC takes 2d6 force damage and is Stunned for 1 round.
• Force-sensitive PC can also key the door by simply touching it and projecting calm — no roll required. This rewards Force-sensitive characters for being present.

Inside: a single round room, walls cool to the touch, lit by a soft blue-white glyph in the ceiling. Vance sits cross-legged against the far wall, blaster across her lap, eyes red from sleep deprivation. The child — Tira — sits next to her, knees pulled up, head down.

The conversation

This is all roleplay. Vance won't fight unless directly attacked. She'll talk for as long as the party will listen. The party's job is to learn what's actually happening and decide what to do about it.

What Vance reveals, in rough order, as the conversation progresses:

1. She was the lead xenobiologist on "Project Foundling," a classified Imperial research program. She thought it was about Force-sensitive flora — anomalous plant biology. She was wrong.
2. Project Foundling was a program for harvesting and conditioning Force-sensitive children from frontier worlds. Six were already in custody when Vance arrived. She helped run intake protocols for four weeks before she realized what the protocols were FOR.
3. She defected with Tira because Tira was the seventh. Vance was about to be reassigned, and Tira was scheduled for the next phase of "conditioning" — which Vance will only describe as "the part of the program where the children stop being people."
4. She has data — the station coordinates, the crew roster, the visit schedule — on a pendant Tira wears around her neck. If anyone wants to free the other six children, this data is how. (Sequel hook seeded.)
5. The Inquisitorius is hunting them. Vance estimates they have 24-72 hours before an Inquisitor catches up.

Skill check moments during the conversation:

• Insight DC 14 to read Vance's affect — she's telling the truth, and the cost of telling it is visible in real-time.
• Treat Injury DC 13 to tend to Vance's shoulder wound — she'll let any PC with medical training help, and it builds trust significantly.
• Persuasion DC 14 to ask Vance about something she initially withholds (the specifics of the conditioning protocols) — on success, she describes one detail. It's worse than the party assumed.
• Telepathy (1 FP, Action) — a Force-sensitive PC reading Tira senses the conditioning trauma directly: not a coherent story, just felt impressions. Layered. Recent. Wrong. (Tira's mind is too damaged to surface narrative thought; what bleeds through is pure emotional residue.) Alternatively, a passive Use the Force check (DC 15, no FP cost) lets them sense the same impression at a more diffuse level — the raw, untrained Force pressure trapped behind a child's terrified composure.

Scene 3.3 — The Pivot

After the conversation, the party decides. No GM editorializing.

End Act 3 here. The next session opens with either Act 4 (protect branch) or jumps directly to Act 5 (walk away / deliver branches).

Act IV — The Blockade

Estimated length: 1 session (~3 hours) What it teaches: ground-combat under time pressure, full ship-combat with all four crew stations, party-size scaled encounter design Skipped if: the party picked "walk away" or "deliver" in Scene 3.3

Act 4 happens only if the party chose to protect Vance and Tira. Inquisitor Tev Yorra has arrived in the Devaron system with a strike force. The party has to fight their way off-planet, run the blockade, and reach hyperspace coordinates before the Imperial corvette can lock the system down.

Scene 4.1 — The Arrival

Location: The clearing outside the waystation, at dawn (or whenever the party returns to their ship).

This is the party's first sight of Yorra in person. He hasn't drawn his lightsaber. The stormtroopers haven't shouldered their weapons. The Imperial Customs Corvette is not visible — it's holding position at the hyperspace lane in orbit, ready to lock down the system the moment Yorra gives the signal.

Scene 4.2 — The Landing Zone Fight

Yorra deploys his stormtrooper escort (4 Imperial Stormtroopers from the bestiary — TR 0.5, HP 11, AC 14, Blaster Rifle +2) to capture the party while he assesses. Yorra himself does not engage in Act 4 — he's saving himself for the duel in Act 5. He stays back, observes, and lets the troopers do the work.

The party reaches their ship. Vance carries Tira aboard. They lift off into Devaron's atmosphere. End Scene 4.2.

Scene 4.3 — The Blockade Run (Ship Combat #2)

Location: Devaron's upper atmosphere transitioning to orbit. The Imperial Customs Corvette is in low orbit. Two TIE Interceptors are scrambling to intercept.

This is the mechanical climax of ship combat in the adventure. Every crew station has work to do across 4-6 rounds.

The setup

• The party's ship — whatever they built in the Starship Builder. The encounter assumes a Lv 3-appropriate freighter (medium-size, HP ~100-130, shields ~30-50, AC 14-17 depending on Handling).
• 2 TIE Interceptors — Tiny dogfighters. HP 30 each, Shields 0, AC 18 (Tiny + +3 Handling), Twin Laser Cannons +5 (2d6 energy at +1 accuracy per the rebalanced starship-weapons catalog).
• 1 Imperial Customs Corvette — Large patrol craft. HP 280, Shields 80, AC 12 (Large size), Multi-turret Heavy Laser +4 (2d10 energy), Tractor Beam (DC 16 Pilot to break free if locked).

The corvette is at medium range (2-10 km) at the start of the encounter. The TIEs are at close range (500m-2km) and closing to dogfight range. The party's hyperspace exit vector is long range (10-50 km away — 3 rounds of full-speed flight to reach).

Crew station mechanics

This is where the Starship Builder pays off. Every PC has a role:

• Pilot — rolls Pilot (DEX) per round to maneuver. Pilot DC 14 = stay ahead of the TIEs. Pilot DC 16 = open distance from the corvette. Critical success = the corvette loses tractor-beam lock for a round. Failure = TIEs get +2 attack next round.
• Gunner — rolls Use Computer + DEX (or whatever the ship's gunner-station ability is) to fire turrets. Standard attack rolls per the weapon stats. Encourage focus-fire on one TIE at a time (they have low HP individually but high AC).
• Engineer — rolls Mechanics each round. Options: rebalance shields (heal 1d8 shields), prep hyperdrive (+1 segment toward the escape track), reroute power to engines (+1 to Pilot's next maneuver), patch hull damage (heal 1d6 HP).
• Commander — rolls Persuasion or Tactics each round. Options: Help (grant Advantage to one crew action), morale boost (one PC gains +PB to their next save), tactical scan (identify the corvette's weak shield arc for +2 attack on next turret shot).

The escape track

The party wins by completing 4 segments of the escape track before the corvette reduces their ship to 25% hull.

• Each round, the Pilot's maneuver roll contributes 1 segment on success, 2 on critical success, 0 on failure.
• The Engineer's "prep hyperdrive" action contributes 1 additional segment.
• Tractor-beam lock blocks all segment progress until broken (DC 16 Pilot or Engineer reroutes power to break free).

At 4 segments completed: hyperspace jump. Encounter ends. Party escapes.

TIE behavior

• Round 1: TIEs close to dogfight range, fire on the party.
• Round 2-3: TIEs maintain dogfight range, fire each round. Take down the slower TIE first (the one closest to the party); the second TIE retreats to long range if its wingman dies.
• Round 4+: surviving TIE breaks off if the party reaches 3 escape segments — pilot decides survival over engagement.

Corvette behavior

• Round 1: Corvette fires twin heavy turrets at the party. Tractor-beam attempt at +3 attack vs the party's ship's AC.
• Round 2-3: Continues attack pattern. Adjusts to track party's escape vector.
• Round 4+: If party has reached 3 escape segments, corvette pushes engines and gets one final volley before the party jumps. After the jump, the corvette breaks off — the corvette is too slow to follow.

On successful escape, the party jumps to hyperspace with Vance and Tira aboard. End Act 4. The trip to the Act 5 destination is ~1 standard day in hyperspace — narrate downtime as needed.

Act V — Resolution

Estimated length: 1 session (~3 hours) What it teaches: branching consequence, lightsaber duel mechanics, narrative epilogue

Act 5 resolves the adventure. The session's content depends on the Act 3 pivot choice.

Branch A — The Refuge (protect)

The party emerges from hyperspace at a hidden Rebel cell base on a backwater world — the contact Vance trusts is an old colleague who left the Empire's research division years earlier and has been quietly running a safehouse network for Force-sensitive children ever since.

The choice (sub-branch within Branch A)

The party has a real fork at this moment. Vance + Tira are still aboard the ship; Maris is visible at the tree line but the party hasn't crossed to her yet; Yorra's interceptor is seconds out. Three options:

• Commit to the landing — touch down, get Vance + Tira out to Maris, and meet Yorra on the ground as he lands his TIE. Use the Lightsaber duel branch.
• Pull back up — abort the landing with Vance + Tira still in the ship, and engage Yorra in atmosphere. Use the Ship-to-ship pursuit branch.
• Open the channel — try one last conversation before either side commits. Use the Negotiate / convert branch (resolves either to a clean walk-away, or to one of the combat branches if it fails).

The aftermath

If the party wins by any path:

• Vance and Tira are delivered safely to the contact. The contact — a Rebel-aligned former Imperial researcher who has been quietly evacuating Force-sensitive children for years — takes Vance and Tira into protective custody.
• Vance gives the party a copy of the pendant's data (the location of the other six children) before she goes. This is the sequel hook. A future Lv 5-7 adventure recovers the other six.
• The contact pays the party a stipend — 1,000 credits per PC, plus a single Tier-2 weapon or armor upgrade of their choice (from the relevant catalog). This is not the Lyn payment; it's a thank-you from people who can't pay much but recognize what the party did.
• The party gains a future-adventure contact — the Rebel-aligned safehouse network. This NPC can be called on for safehouse access, intel, or recruitment in future adventures.

Branch B — The Quiet Walk-Away

The party tells Vance they won't deliver her but won't escort her either. Vance gives them a copy of the pendant's data ("insurance") and goes her own way.

The party returns to Bandari. Lyn is waiting at her usual cantina table.

• Deception DC 16 to convincingly tell Lyn the trail went cold. On success, she accepts it, pays out only the advance they already received (no back-end), and the conversation ends.
• Tell her the truth ("we walked away") — Lyn nods slowly. "I see. The buyer won't be pleased. Neither will I, in the long term. But —" she taps the table once, "— I respect the decision. The advance is yours. Don't take another contract from me for at least a year."

In both cases, the party keeps the 500cr advance and walks away with no further reward. Lyn becomes a future foil — she knows what the party did or what they're hiding, and she'll quietly sell the lead to someone else (the Inquisitorius eventually catches Vance off-screen, or doesn't — the GM chooses for their campaign).

The party still advances from Lv 3 to Lv 4 at the end of the adventure. The reward is the moral choice, not the credits.

Branch C — The Dark Path (deliver)

The party hands Vance and Tira to Lyn (or, more profitably, makes a side-channel deal directly with Yorra).

Full payment: 3,000 credits total as contracted. Plus a 500cr "discretion bonus." Total payout: ~875cr per PC for a party of 4.

Long-term consequence:

• Vance is interrogated and executed off-screen within 24 hours. The party hears about it from a Spynet contact months later.
• Tira is taken back to Project Foundling. She does not survive the next phase of conditioning. The party may or may not learn this — depending on whether they pursue the seedling sequel hook.
• The Inquisitorius logs the party as "Reliable. Available. Discreet." Future Imperial contracts may flow their way through Lyn — a Faustian career path the party can ride or refuse.

Sequel hook: if the party later wants a redemption arc, the data on the other six children is still recoverable. Vance hid a backup in a dead-drop the party didn't know about. A future Spynet contact reveals the dead-drop location during a quiet session — the party can spend a Lv 5+ adventure recovering it and attempting to atone.

The party still advances from Lv 3 to Lv 4. The character growth is darker, but the math is the same.

Closing — Lv 3 → Lv 4 advancement

Regardless of branch, the party advances from Lv 3 to Lv 4 at the end of the adventure. No XP math; the adventure is the milestone.

For each PC:

• Roll new HP for Lv 4 (or take average) and add to max HP.
• Apply the Lv 4 class trait from their class (varies — see the classes catalog).
• Take an ASI — the Lv 4 Ability Score Improvement. Either +2 to one ability score, +1 to two ability scores, or choose one ASI Alternative Trait (see Leveling).
• Update Force Points (if Force-using) per the Force Points formula.
• If the party gained Yorra's lightsaber (Branch A combat sub-branch), add it to whichever PC takes responsibility for it.
• If the party gained the pendant data (Branch A, B, or atonement Branch C), one PC carries it into future adventures.

The party leaves this adventure changed. They've made a hard moral call, run a real ship-combat engagement, and tangled with the Inquisitorius. Whatever campaign comes next, the Foundling Contract is the dividing line between "we take work" and "we know what work costs."

Sequel hook — The Other Six

If the party ended on Branch A or atones from Branch C, the pendant data unlocks a follow-up adventure: recover the other six children from Project Foundling's holding station.

That adventure is not written yet. It's a Lv 5-7 module on the SWURPG roadmap. When it ships, it builds directly on this one — and your party's choices in The Foundling Contract shape the opening.

Until then, hold the pendant on a PC's sheet. Mention the data in downtime. Let the players carry the weight of it. The story isn't over.