Koltars Flying Circus
Created by: Jay P Hailey
Number of Members: about 2000 people more or less.
Nature of Members: Performers and traders who report to Koltar, plus some people detailed below
Organization:
Koltar's flying circus is an old bulk freighter fit out to be a mobile trade base. So there are people who are crew people, people who are performers and people who are traders, and some people who occupy multiple roles and more.
The Crew: These are the people who keep the ship running. There is some turn over here, and Koltar will always hire competent spacemen, although his pay rates are a touch low.
The Circus: Not an exageration. A group of people who can do surprising, entertaining and difficult things. Often combined with a music show. People who can pull double duty as crew and circus performers make the most money.
Subsidary ships: Since Koltar's flying Circus is so SLOW (Warp 4, tops) a number of subidiary ships hang on. they dock to the larger ship and take cargo and passengers to places somewhat off the path where the Circus is travelling. Occasional Mercenary ships tie on to provide security, or to enjoy the facilities.
This also includes a group of mercenary tenders. They provide field repair and resupply for the right price. They make good money fixing trade ships and mercenary vessels. It would be considered a serious failure for a naval unit to call them, unless the situation was dire. But if so called, they will show up with big smiles and bigger invoices.
Vendors: These people rent space on the Flying Circus to trade goods and services. It's unusual for such operations to be entirely independant of the crew or the circus, but it has happened. The most popular of these is Miss Gamza's, a Green Orion restaurant and whorehouse. Miss Gamza and her girls frequently send ruffians and thugs to the for profit clinic with knife wounds and blaster shot injuries. Koltar and his crew will always back up Gamza and take her side.
Many of the girls graduate from Miss Gamzas with decent starship crew skills and excellent cooking skills.
Game Role:
A source for adventure or an amusing encounter.
World Role:
A large slow trade base where all sorts of things might be available, if you know the right people and the right ways to ask.
Relative Influence:
Locally large. Many small planets and isolated bases enjoy getting a visit from Koltar.
In a larger sense, not too much
Public or Secret?:
There's a public side and a secret side
Publicly Stated Goal:
To make money via trade and entertainment
Relative Wealth:
Compared to an individual, large. Koltar manages a very large ship and subsidary trade ships. Koltar will always point out that this is VERY expensive and hes alway pressured by more bills.
Group advantages:
Koltar takes advantage of a gray market of talent. He doesn't care too much about a person's honor status, racial make up or back story. He cares if someone can do the job and make some money. That's all.
Special Abilities:
Koltars rolodex of whos who in the Klingon Empire and along border areas is the envy of all. Hes met all the movers and shakers and always seem to know a guy who knows a guy. He's a very useful guy to know for that reason.
Group disadvantages:
Koltar's ship is old and slow. It's very well armed for a civilian ship, but it cannot match a miliary cruiser. Taking down Koltar would be an exciting afteroon for any sizable starship. Koltar depends on having the right friends who will cover for him in case of such a problem.
Special disadvantages:
Because Koltar doesn't care about the backstory of people he hires, in some quarters Koltar's is viewed as a collection of thieves, smugglers, spies and assassins, and greeting appropriately to that.
Koltar is careful to maintain a clean public record, so anyone caught breaking the law is regretfully dismissed from the Flying Circus.
Relations:
The Klingon Empire officially considers Koltar somewhat suspicious and so won't let him visit Starbases where things of high classification are happening.
Different houses have different relationships with Koltar. Even the hardest of hard core Real Klingon houses will tolerate Koltar provided he keeps moving. Koltar is popular along the Federation/Klingon frontier and among the Sword Worlds. He frequently has parts for older traffic control and defense systems and often has second hand security and defense related material which he can sell to help planets upgrade their defenses.
If you have an old beater of a ship, Koltar and his people probably have or can find the part you need to keep it going.
Federation worlds either love or hate Koltar. Several worlds discovered that their security had been penetrated and information stolen. Or unfortunate acts of theft or violence occurred when Koltar visited. Koltar maintains that he is not involved and the people who committed such crimes have "moved on".
But on worlds that have NOT experienced crime or espionage, a visit from Koltar's flying circus is a treat.
Area of Operation:
The Klingon Empire, parts of the Federation. The Orion Colonies. They are denied permission to enter Romulan Space. Period.
Headquarters Location:
Koltar's Flying Circus. A 120 year Bulk Freighter, fit out as a slow flying mall.
Public Face:
Come see the show, get some real food and get your ship repaired. But look out for pick pockets and con men selling fast talk to slow thinkers.
Notable Members:
Koltar: A Klingon of non Warrior caste. He served as a junior engineer on Klingon Military ships until he realized that he probably would never make his fortune that way.
Then he became part of a mercenary crew that salvaged the old ship. How it came to be abandoned and what they had to accomplish to salvage the monster ship is a story that grows in the telling.
Most of his original crew has cashed out and retired in the intervening time.
Miss Gamza: A Green Orion rescued by Koltar. She assembled her own green gang. It is not clear if Gamza and Koltar are having a relationship or if she is a shareholder in the ship. Gamza and Koltar invite the curious to mind their own business if asked.
Loralta: A Klingon woman with serious scarring. She was a professional assassin. She is suspected in multiple high profile deaths. She retired from "The Life" and now acts as Chief of Security for The Flying Circus. Occasionally she performs a trick shooting show in the circus. Rumor is that if anyone crosses Koltar or causes a serious problem for the ship that Loralta kills them and feeds their bodies into the replicator.
(Meta: This is actually true. They'll put some effort into doing things above board and by-the-book, but if you cause too much of a problem, down you go. And yes, they feed incoveniently dead people through the ship's replicator system)
History of the Organization:
About 20 years ago, Koltar and his crew found the vessel and got it moving. Since then, it has been moving and making enough money to keep moving, although just barely according to Koltar.
Meta:
Koltar is a crime lord. He and his original crew were not nice people although this has been obfuscated and evidence has been "lost" enough to make it possible that Koltar and his crew were rogues with hearts of gold.
Koltar manages smuggling and some piracy, although always removed enough from his public persona to keep things doubtful.
Koltar mainly acts as a fence for pirates. Any pirate dumb enough to approach the Flying Circus directly would be fired upon. The trades and exchanges are handled by subsidary ships with careful deniability from Koltar and his crew.
Koltar is allied with the Orion Syndicate, and shares profit upwards to a control, who helps him find the right talents and targets.
Many of the "Mercenary" ships that visit the Flying Circus are pirate ships with good covers.
Koltar's cover as an eccentric circus ship merchant is his bread and butter and he will stack up bodies like cordwood to preserve it.
In order to keep his cover intact, Koltar spends a lot of time being just what he seems to be. PCs ships could come and go for years and Koltar will keep his operation low key enough for them not to be bothered. If his cover ever gets blown, he'll probably not survive that.
But, like every good evil overlord he has an escape plan that involved a cloaked scoutship, body sculpt and a hidden stash of Gold Pressed Latinum.
Loralta works for Koltars boss one level up. Her mission is to keep Koltar and his crew inside the lines.
Gamza is accidental but allowed to continue because she and her girls enhance the image. Gamza thinks she and Koltar have an arrangement. Koltar enjoys her and her girls but will ditch them in a second if his survival is on the line.
Koltar is a sociopath, but smart and very charming. This has served him well in his chosen lifestyle.
Starfleet Intelligence suspects that there's more than meets the eye going on there, but no one they've infiltrated has ever discovered direct evidence of wrong doing. SI has an Mole working for the Orion Syndicate people who run Koltar. So the mole knows when an asset goes into the Flying Circus. Koltar is able to feed such assets enough evidence to back up his cover, that He is an eccentric merchantman with a taste for bad friends in bad places, but is fundamentally innocent.
The Klingon Intelligence service generically assumes enough to be pretty accurate about Koltar, but has no evidence for much the same reasons. Koltar has friends among some unsavory Klingon House Lords. He makes a great source for deniable talent and activites, so even harshly racist Real Klingons will use him and his people.
Because of this, The KDF which would have long since used Koltar and his barge for target practice are prevented from moving. They work to pick their political battles and Koltar is not important enough, yet.
Not only that, but a sizable minority of Klingon KDF captains like to make visits to the Flying Circus for a debauched shore leave and to pick up illegal goods services and devices. If the KDF ever cuts orders for a task force to go splash Koltar, Koltar will be warned long in advance.
A Starfleet Character with a very high Streetwise skill will be able to see that there is something going on on Koltars Flying Circus. But strangers of non Klingon and non Orion background really have to prove themselves before they get any contacts there. Its a long term project of building up trust. People passing by might be able to make contact with people offering illicits goods and services, but they will be deniable and disposable cut outs.
Koltar's position as a fence and hidden support for Pirates is why he and his people always seem to have parts for old beater starships, for the right price.
Koltar and his people are not fans of The Green Hand and will exterminate them as their cover allows. The Green Hand returns the sentiment. Koltar and his crew represent everything the Green Hand hates. The Green Hand cannot gather enough forces in one place to take a run at Koltar or else they would.
If Koltar and his people get any info on The Green Hand, they'll drop a dime on The Green Hand in an instant. If a PC ship is damaaged fighting Green Hand Pirates, Koltar and his crew will support them for a 15% discount. They want to encourage the behavior.
Koltars Flying Circus
Re: Koltars Flying Circus
I might suggest one of these, bullock class bulk frighteners.
Builder: El Nanth Starships
First used: 2320
Speed: LWF 7 (old scale) empty, LWF 5 under load. Most of these vessels were built without RI or the HE warp drives.
Pods: 32
Crew: 200 without RI control. 100 With RI control.
Bullock class ships did not carry their own tugs. Accommodations were fairly conformable, but the slow speed compared to the early 24th century liners meant they were not popular with passengers unless you were really on a budget and time was not of the essence.
Bullocks suffered warp stability problems and were never built in numbers. The few built were converted to robot control within ten years of initial operation. Two are still in service in this role.
They are not quite old enough, but adjustments can be made. The are pretty much limited to warp 4. If you have the chops to get an abandoned one back into operational condition.Builder: El Nanth Starships
First used: 2320
Speed: LWF 7 (old scale) empty, LWF 5 under load. Most of these vessels were built without RI or the HE warp drives.
Pods: 32
Crew: 200 without RI control. 100 With RI control.
Bullock class ships did not carry their own tugs. Accommodations were fairly conformable, but the slow speed compared to the early 24th century liners meant they were not popular with passengers unless you were really on a budget and time was not of the essence.
Bullocks suffered warp stability problems and were never built in numbers. The few built were converted to robot control within ten years of initial operation. Two are still in service in this role.
-- The Innkeeper
- jayphailey
- Posts: 531
- Joined: Tue May 29, 2018 7:50 pm
Re: Koltars Flying Circus
Sure! Lovely!
Various pods, acquired in various ways, with shops and accomodations spread around.
Koltar's ship has a hull number of a ship that was abandoned.
And if you look carefully, has two more in places.
Was it pirated and Koltar wants to claim it was salvaged? Was it pieced together from other ships?
That' up to the GM!
Various pods, acquired in various ways, with shops and accomodations spread around.
Koltar's ship has a hull number of a ship that was abandoned.
And if you look carefully, has two more in places.
Was it pirated and Koltar wants to claim it was salvaged? Was it pieced together from other ships?
That' up to the GM!