Planet: Bennec

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Overview

Bennec’s continents are mostly covered in dense forests and jungles. A cleared valley in the southern hemisphere holds high-tech human settlement. The planet’s singular city sits on an eastern coast, surrounded by farmlands on three sides. The starport is located further inland from the city, connected by train. Low-tech human descendants of a previous colony live in the forest.

Quick Facts

B9565A9-B

• Starport: B-class (good quality, refined fuel, non-starship construction)
• Gas giant in system
• Diameter: 9,000 miles / 14,500 km (slightly bigger than Earth)
• Atmosphere: Thin
• Water coverage: 60%
• Population: 600,000
• Government: Dictatorship
• Law level: 9 (all weapons prohibited)
• Tech level: 11 (interstellar)
• Trade classification: Agricultural, non-industrial
• Space lanes to: Sheen (jump-1), Braein (jump-2), outside the subsector (jump-2)

Government, Law, and Diplomacy

The planet is ruled by prince Enri de Manas. He enjoys high approval from his subjects thanks to frequent state-sponsored festivals, and discrete crushing of dissent. The police force, brightly attired in red and blue, is omnipresent in the city. The secret police goes unseen.

The nearby BST Triumvirate looms over Bennec, and prince Enri bows to their demands - anything to keep his throne.

Surface Travel

• Starport - City: 15 minutes by train, 1 hour by ground car, 1 day on foot
• Starport - Forest’s edge: 1 hour by train, 2 hours by ground car, 2 days on foot
• City - Forest’s edge: 1.5 hour by train, 3 hours by ground car, 3 days on foot

Interstellar Travel

In a given week, ships with the following destinations may be present at the starport.

• Sheen - 6+ chance
• Braein - 9+ chance
• Outside the subsector - 10+ chance

The Starport

Travellers arriving at Bennec’s starport will have to hand over any weapons to the customs office, to be returned when they leave the planet. A bribe of 200 credits or so will get most weapons through.

The starport is located in the midst of the farmlands, at the centre of a road and mag-rail network. Agricultural produce is taken to the starport and exported, while machinery and burner fuel is imported. The farmers’ constant battle against the encroaching forest requires huge amounts of fuel, which goes out from the starport on trucks and trains. Every safety measure is taken. If a container of burner fuel were to ignite, the consequences would be catastrophic. 6D wounds at short range, 3D at medium range. Anyone caught in the flames keeps burning for 1D wounds per round.

Next to the starport is the startown, where travellers and ship crews on leave go. There is a multitude of bars and cheap hostels, and also black market weapons and drugs. The police rarely visit the startown, but the gangs will come down on anyone causing trouble in their territory.

Bennec City

Bennec City, or just “The City” to most people, is the planet’s only city, and isn’t really that big. Home to around 300,000 people, it is a picturesque place with curving architecture, broad streets, and plentiful parks (with non-native trees).

The police are everywhere in the city, easily spotted in their bright blue and red uniforms. They treat middle and upper-class citizens cordially, and keep a close eye on travellers.

There is a gaggle of old Imperial noble families on Bennec, with palaces in the city, but none hold any real power save the ruling de Manas family. Power in the city lies with the police, the secret police, the army, and the mafia. Prince Enri carefully maintains the balance between them, to prevent anyone from coming for his throne.

Festivals are common in the city, filling the streets with citizens, vendors, entertainers, and parades. In a given week there is an 8+ chance for a festival to take place. Spend 1D x 50 credits to partake in the festivities, and throw Social Standing.

2 or less: Mugged by 1D3 goons. Want to beat you up and take your credits.

3-4: Entered a gambling den. If you have the Gambling skill, you win 1D x 500 credits. Otherwise, you lose 1D x 500 credits, and gain the Gambling skill at level 0.

5-6: Someone pretty wants to drag you into a bush in a park. If you go for it roll 1D. 1 - Misunderstanding, they get mad. 2-3 - A good time and then they’re gone. 4-5 - Friendly chat afterwards, can exchange contacts. 6 - They’ve fallen head over heels for you.

7: You eat lots of good food and see lots of good shows. A great day! DM+1 to all throws tomorrow.

8-9: Had a little too much to drink. Roll 1D to see where you wake up. 1 - A cargo train bound for the farmlands. 2-3 - A flowerbed, getting kicked by a cop. 4-5 - Outside a bar, some kids are rifling through your pockets. 6 - A married couple’s bed, one of them beside you. Steps are approaching the bedroom door...

10-11: Somehow made it into a private party. You are offered slow drug. If you partake, receive 1D wounds as normal, and you can pocket one dose.

12 or more: Helped a drunk noble get home. They give you a High Passage ticket as thanks!

The Farmlands

Vast crop fields and grazing lands for (non-native) cattle stretch inland and up and down the coast, punctuated by the homesteads of wealthy farmers. Automated machines perform most of the labor. The extremely nutritious soil gives great yields. The farms at the forest’s edge must continually keep the fast-growing trees at bay, burning down new growth every week or so. This job is still done manually, by workers in silvery protective suits, carrying burners. Treat burners as shotguns with a max range of Short, which hit mesh and cloth the same as jack, and deal 2D wounds. Anyone hit keeps burning for 1D wounds per round.

Each farm is a small village, home to around 100 people (rising to 150 for farms bordering the forest), including the owner’s family, laborers, servants, and security. Security is not legally allowed to carry anything more dangerous than nightsticks, but police rarely patrol the farmlands, and many farms have heavier stuff. Most farmers dislike travellers and don’t want them on their property, but as long as you don’t stray too close to the homesteads, you are unlikely to be noticed in the huge fields.

The farmer families are organized into alliances, competing with each other. They aren’t above paying travellers and other deniable people to go mess with their rivals.

The Forest

The dense forests of Bennec consist of tall broadleaf trees. Their canopies block out the sun, leaving the forest floor in gloom. When an old tree dies and falls, seeds on the ground become saplings as soon as sunlight hits them, and race to claim the exposed spot. Evolutionary pressure and powerful nutrients in the soil has created species that grow at extraordinary speed, especially in their earliest stage of life. The young trees even attack each other, with mechanisms such as lashing branches, strangling roots, and toxic sap launchers. Meanwhile, smaller, opportunistic plants try to latch on to the spiking trees and ride them to the top. Getting caught in a sudden tree-growing frenzy is very dangerous. Throw Dex 8+ or take 3D wounds.

Animal life on Bennec is entirely insectile, ranging in size from microscopic to dog-sized. The top predators, however, are plants. Different species use different methods to catch insects, but one plant resembling a large stump is the most dangerous to humans. When they sense vibrations on the ground or in the air, they open up and launch sticky tendrils in all direction, snaring their prey, before pulling it in to be dissolved. Throw Dex 8+ to avoid being snared. If snared, take 1D wounds per round unless in a closed suit. Throw Str 10+ to escape, DM+3 for each person helping you.

There are also humans living in the forest. The first humans arrived on Bennec many centuries ago, but these early colonists were unable to keep the forest at bay. It engulfed their settlement and destroyed critical technology, leading to disaster. The descendants of the survivors still live in the forest, as a number of tribes and small nations. Their technology is limited to basic metalworking (tech level 1). There is mutual distrust between the forest people and the “fire people” of the farmlands. The forest people believe that if you cut down a tree, you must let the forest reclaim the land where it stood. To drive the forest back and claim the land for yourself is to invite its vengeance.

The forest people exploit the quickly-growing trees for hunting and warfare. A common tactic is to lure your foe into an area with partially cut trees, then pull them down and catch the enemy in the mayhem of growth.

The tree-grenade is a weapon made from tree seeds and soil sealed inside a bark pot. When the pot breaks, the seeds are tricked into growing from the relative increase in light, violently lashing in all directions for a few seconds. A tree-grenade can be used at short range, with the hit chances of a cudgel, and dealing 2D wounds. Also throw to hit anyone adjacent to the target, DM-3.

Scenarios

- A family from Bennec City wants the PCs to find their eldest son, who suddenly ran off to the forest. He had been researching Bennec’s flora at the university, and the family fears his scientific obsession drew him mad. Actually, he was studying the substances in the soil that permit the flora’s hypergrowth, and fled when he learned the army wanted to exploit his research to create giant supersoldiers. He was allowed to stay at a village of the forest people, where he continues his research. Unfortunately, the army is preparing an expedition to find him and bring him back.

- A farmer alliance hires the PCs to find out who has been stealing burner fuel from their transports, suspecting a rival alliance. The real culprits are an underground anarchist movement, stockpiling for an attack on the royal palace.

- A “migration” of creeping vines bursts out of the forest and tears across the farmlands, strangling crops and cattle alike. Burners are ineffective. There is huge demand for extra workers from farmers evacuating their livestock, and the PCs can make a quick if risky buck. Strangely, people who come near the vines glimpse visions of great mist-covered trees. After two days, the vines reach the coast and disappear into the ocean. The PCs might want to investigate the origins of the vines themselves, or they might be hired as escorts by an expedition. If they were to travel in the direction the vines came from, they would find great mist-covered trees deep in the forest, sending out and receiving great waves of creeping vines. The visions become clearer and grander: This is but one synapse among many, sending and receiving signals in a slow, planet-spanning brain. It is forming a thought years in the making: “I am.”