Seth Cambriel was a Human male who resided on the resort planet Spira during the Galactic Civil War. A self-made multi-millionaire playboy, Cambriel posed as a genteel gentlemen of leisure, moving within the high society of Spira's elite while also working as a spy for the Alliance to Restore the Republic. Using his access to high-ranking Imperial officials, along with a network of informants who had no idea of his true allegiance, he passed on sensitive information to the Alliance. Cambriel worked alongside Harbold Taft, a fellow spy and infiltrator, as a two-man cell on the planet.
During the Galactic Civil War, Cambriel and a group of Rebel agents entered the 345th annual Spira Regatta Open, a famous yacht race, as a cover to recover Alliance supplies from a derelict alien spacecraft known as the wreck that was submerged in Spira's oceans. The supplies, dropped on Spira by a smuggler and hidden by Cambriel and Taft, were vital to Alliance operations in the sector. Despite the threat of Imperial interference—and the unwanted presence of Regenald Hanniper Snopps III, son of Corulag's Imperial governor, Zafiel Snopps—Cambriel and the agents successfully recovered the supplies and smuggled them off-planet.
Seth Cambriel was a Human male who made a fortune in his youth by trading on companies being taken over by the Galactic Empire. Having made millions of credits, he retired to the resort planet Spira, in the Lytton sector of the Core Worlds, to live in comfort. He spent his days lounging around the Aspre Plunge hotel and casino, or sailing his V-53 Hydromancer yacht, the Cambus Gale, around Ataria Island. His evenings were spent playing sabacc in the casino until late. However, his appearance as a gentleman of leisure hid his allegiance to the Alliance to Restore the Republic. As a spy, he used his access to drunken high-ranking Imperial officials to obtain information useful to the Alliance. Only one other person on Spira knew of Cambriel's double-life: his cell partner, Harbold Taft, a spy and infiltrator specializing in military intelligence who worked at the Ataria Island spaceport. Cambriel maintained a network of informers—including bartenders, janitors and travel agents—none of whom was aware of his allegiance to the Rebellion. He knew most of the Aspre Plunge staff by name, and was on good terms with them as he was regarded as a good tipper. During his time on Spira, Cambriel retrofitted the Cambus Gale from a pleasure craft to a racing yacht, spending money to rerig the sails, reshape the hull and generally overhaul her to the point where she was a competitive racer.
During the Galactic Civil War, an Alliance-affiliated smuggler attempting to deliver supplies to a drop point on the planet was discovered by local Imperial forces. The smuggler ditched the cargo in the ocean and fled the planet with Skipray Blastboats in pursuit. Alerted to the incident, Cambriel, along with Taft, located the cargo and hid it in the wreck, an alien starship of unknown origin that had crashed on the planet thousands of years previously and had become a popular tourist diving spot. A Rebel team was subsequently sent to retrieve the supplies, and Cambriel was their contact on planet. He reserved them a modest room at the Aspre Plunge for the duration of their stay, and briefed them on the mission when they arrived and met him in the casino. Yet, due to the 345th annual Spira Regatta Open taking place, the wreck was off-limits to tourist vessels, as it was on the race route. Since only official race competitors were allowed on the racing route during the event, the team would have to pose as entrants to the race, as they could not afford an extra week's delay in retrieving the cargo. Cambriel entered them into the competition aboard his own Cambus Gale and planned to smuggle a sailing droid aboard, which was illegal under race rules, to assist in crewing the vessel. However, Cambriel felt there would be no problem in reaching the cargo and retrieving the supplies despite the race taking place. The real problem would be smuggling the cargo off-planet since only passenger liners, authorized freighters, and Imperial vessels were allowed to land on Spira. Cambriel's solution was to discourage investigation of the cargo and ship it out on a registered passenger liner by hiding the supplies in a crate containing the body of a Camray eel. The Camray eel was native to Spira, and a popular trophy for big-game hunters. However, until they were preserved correctly by a taxidermist, the dead eel gave off an extremely potent and disgusting smell, necessitating their encasement in a special storage tank. Customs Inspectors were reluctant to give crates with Camray eel remains a thorough inspection.
The Rebel agents hunt a Camray eel.
However, first the agents would have to hunt and capture an eel. As they would also have to learn to sail a nautical vessel, Cambriel suggested that they combine the two activities by sailing the boat out to the Shinkai Abyss, the eel's primary habitat. With the race due to begin in two days' time, Cambriel assisted the agents in gathering equipment and weapons for the mission, offering them the use of his own weapons cache which contained blaster pistols and rifles, grenades, and several blaster spearguns he had borrowed from the local Imperial Seatrooper armory. He also provided them with diving suits and other equipment needed to operate underwater. The group successfully hunted and killed a Camray eel in the Shinkai Abyss, and trained for the two days on the Cambus Gale alongside Cambriel and his sailing droid.
On the first day of the race, Cambriel was careful to hide the sailing droid he had been using to instruct the Rebel agents aboard the Cambus Gale, and the team set off along the racing route for the ten-day journey that it would take to circumnavigate the planet. On the third day of racing, the agents noticed that the pace of the boat was slowing, and Cambriel informed them that a Galub slug had probably attached itself to the underside of the hull and the weight was slowing the vessel down. The agents cleared the sea slug from the boat by blasting it several times until it detached, and continued racing. After weathering the Point, a treacherous section of the ocean where two strong currents met at the southernmost point of Spira's largest island, the Cambus Gale arrived at the wreck on the eighth day. Cambriel provided the agents with a plastic divers' map and told them where he and Taft had stashed the supplies aboard the derelict craft. During the recovery operation, a modified Imperial AQ-5 Waveskimmer arrived, bearing Regenald Hanniper Snopps III, the son of Corulag governor Zafiel Snopps, and a guard of several Seatroopers. Snopps demanded that the crew leave the area as he wanted to inspect the wreck despite the fact that it was off-limits to tourists during the race, using the fact that he had connections within the Empire that would allow him to disregard local laws and edicts. Despite the interruption, the Rebels managed to recover the supplies and left the area.
The Cambus Gale eventually completed the race, placing almost last ahead of two boats that had encountered difficulties during the race. The loss was a blow to Cambriel's reputation, but one that he gladly accepted under the circumstances. His plan to smuggle the supplies off-world worked as predicted; sealed in plastic bags and concealed in coolant chips inside the Camray eel storage tank, the supplies escaped the notice of the inspectors, who only gave the tank a cursory inspection.
Seth Cambriel was a tall, handsome man with thinning blond hair. Outgoing and laid back, he was regarded as a generous and likeable individual, and he was able to accept blows to his own ego when it was for the greater good of the Alliance. A natural sportsman, Cambriel was a gifted sailor who could operate and repair sailed vessels, and he was a skilled swimmer and diver. He could use a blaster and carried a sporting variant about his person; he was trained in unarmed and melee combat as well. A skilled businessmen, Cambriel used his abilities to accrue a multi-million credit fortune. He was knowledgeable about bureaucratic procedure and was extremely well connected in Spira society. A skilled gambler, Cambriel was also a shrewd bargainer and could be persuasive when he needed to be. A talented spy and investigator, he successfully managed a network of informants who had no idea of his true allegiance. He could pilot repulsorlift craft, and could operate communications and security equipment. He was also trained in computer programming and repair and first aid. He generally wore dapper, but practical clothing and carried a comlink.
Regenald Hanniper Snopps III, the character's prospective antagonist during The Spira Regatta
Seth Cambriel first appeared in The Spira Regatta, a roleplaying adventure written by Paul Sudlow and published in West End Games' Star Wars Adventure Journal 1 in 1994. The illustration of Cambriel was provided by Doug Shuler. The adventure was later reprinted in 1996's The Best of the Star Wars Adventure Journal, Issues 1-4. During The Spira Regatta, if the players do not think of combining their attempts to learn to sail with the hunting of a Camray eel, then Cambriel suggests uniting the two exercises to save time. Cambriel is also used to supply the players with necessary equipment, such as diving gear, as the players are unable to bring large stores of equipment with them due to strict Imperial Customs checks on the planet. The final encounter of the adventure, in which the agents attempt to raise the supplies and are confronted with Snopps and his Seatrooper escort, can be played out in several ways. Snopps can be encountered by the players at several points earlier in the adventure, such as in the Aspre Plunge casino, or on a boat in the Shinkai Abyss where he and several friends are attempting to kill a Camray eel with grenades. The gamemaster has the option of using these encounters to build Snopps into an antagonistic presence for the players, leading to a tenser encounter in the finale.
The players have two main options: fight or bluff. The adventure outright states that a bluff has a better chance of working against Snopps and his escort, and that the Imperial force is favored in any firefight. Each Seatrooper is a crack soldier, and in the event of a fight, the crew of the Waveskimmer close the hatches and simply ram the Cambus Gale until it sinks. A well-thought-out and executed plan has the chance of succeeding at the gamemasters' discretion, but the characters face difficulty in leaving the planet due to an investigation into the ship's disappearance. The bluff option is more feasible, as Snopps is noted as being less than bright and his escort barely tolerate him. Unless lawbreaking or violence against him is likely, the Seatroopers do not intercede on his behalf. Indeed, even if the Rebel agents surface with the supplies while the confrontation is ongoing and are sufficiently convincing, they can bluff Snopps and the Seatroopers. Even if there is some doubt as to their intentions, the Seatroopers are likely to dismiss any weird goings-on if they sense that Snopps is being hoodwinked due to their distaste of him. Other options include the Rebel divers waiting out the encounter in the wreck, or hiding under the hull of the yacht itself. Snopps may also become bored if he believes that others are laughing behind his back and leave the area. Snopps' reaction to the players is tied directly to their previous dealings, and the gamemaster should tailor the encounter accordingly. This article assumes that the Rebel agents retrieved the supplies to complete the adventure, but does not specify which method was employed.