Game Idea 07-28-2017 - The Sure thing

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jayphailey
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Game Idea 07-28-2017 - The Sure thing

Post by jayphailey » Sun Jul 08, 2018 10:20 am

Remember Rule 0!

Not my best work here, but feel free to scrape what you like out and ditch the rest

Also, this thing is a mess. Might be better to pick through it and grab good things to build your own scenarios out of.

Game Idea 07-28-2017 - The Sure thing

This may catch up to the PCs at Rojelais Station or Elsewhere.

Jonas Duhaan, is a law enforcement officer from Federation member planet Yiplor. He has a special role. He tracks down fleeing criminals for the Yiplor government. He has followed his prey into Federation Space.

He won't be specific about why, but his prey is Reola, a woman who fled Yiplor in the company of 3 accomplices. The Yiplor Government will pay big bucks if he brings her back alive. They really want her in one piece.

Her Accomplices are Kobi, Len and Bowie. The Yiplor government doesn't care if they're alive or dead or in someone else's custody. They do want to see them punished for kidnapping, but it's plain the Yiplor government doesn't care if Jonas shoots them.

Kobi was a former cop on Yiplor, he was fired for incompetence and made a living doing private detective work.

Len was a farm kid who was good at repair and improvised technology. Not afraid of hard work. But innocent and naive.

Bowie is a weird mix. In town he's fabulous, hitting all the right spots, meeting all the right people, making the scene, always dressed fabulously. Out in the bush, he's a tracker and hunter, considered pretty darned good.

At Rojelais Station or elsewhere, a little bit of palm greasing reveals the party made contact with Sal Holan and Borok. Sal and Borok are smugglers and adventurers. Starfleet records indicate that Sal was a Starfleet officer 20 years ago and quit over an incident. He has managed to avoid getting caught smuggling most of the time, and is viewed with a mix of respect and frustration by security. Borok is a Half Klingon man. He is very large, very scary. After a career as a soldier and mercenary, he seems content to be Sal's bodyguard and partner in crime.

Sal's Ship Ruby Dawn is one of the fastest couriers around, able to keep up with the fastest Starfleet ships for a while.

His limitation is one of waste heat. A Bigger ship can hold more waste heat and can carry machinery to dump it faster. The Ruby Dawn can drag race the fastest Federation Starship with an even chance of winning, but can't do it as long as a bigger ship, before over heating.

But at less than emergency speed, the Ruby Dawn has long legs and really moves.

People at various space dives report that Sal was looking for crew people to work for spec on a project he had going. But he has a reputation of being very optimistic about the results of his speculative ventures. Predictably he played it close to the vest and didn't give away much of what he was planning.

Witnesses say that Reola and her parry made contact with Sal and they boarded the Ruby Dawn and left Rojelais Station. Their flight plan had them heading for Planet Q, a Federation world closer to the Federation Core.

Closer to the core The Ruby Dawn was tracked towards Planet Q until they diverted for Nancy's world.

At Nancy's world, the crew finds the Rudy Dawn and an Ekosian ship

-*-

In the TOS Episode "Patterns of Force" Ekos goes all Nazi and threatens Zeon. In Jay Trek I had them keep hold of their Nazi ways because Space Nazis are fun bad guys, and it gives me a little space to talk about why Nazis want to be Nazis. But mostly because Space Nazis make fun bad guys.

I never mentioned in a game or in a story directly, but Zeon looks like Modern Israel with phasers. They're watching Ekos like a hawk.

Because Ekos is just one world it is badly outgunned. Zeon is itching for an excuse. Earth sternly disapproves. So they have to sneak. They have to use subterfuge and strategic thinking and actions to make up for being much, much weaker than everyone around them.

So if the Ekosians show up and the PCs rough them up and give them hell, then no one's going to say anything. Ekos doesn't want to pick the fight until they think they can win it, and the Federation is hoping they buy the clue and put the swastikas down eventually.

I am using these guys as antagonists and opponents in this scenario. But really any totalitarian state actors would do. The Cardassians, for instance.

-*-

At Nancy's world, the PCs find the Ruby Dawn on the ground, safely landed but with Ekosians are all over it.

There is an Ekosian Cruiser in orbit. In terms of size and crew numbers, it rivals the PCs ship. But the PCs ship has a technological edge over the Ekosian ship.

This is extremely rude and uncalled for. Nancy's world is Federation territory. The Ekosian ship had to cross Federation space to get to Nancy's world and seems to be conducting some operation in Federation territory.

Jonas Duhaan reports that there is a grouping of Ekosian life signs surrounding an old archeological dig some distance away from the Ruby Dawn.

Given the context and Sal Hanlon's prior record, Duhaan suggests the Ekosians have Holan and his party trapped inside.

Duhaan is very intent on breaking that up before Reola gets hurt.

Now, what do the PCs do here? Bracing the Ekosian Ship and demanding that they stand down and withdraw is a thing. Any Starfleet Captain would be well within their rights here.

This will lead to a bluster fest with the Ekosian Commander as he tries to figure out if he can win a battle and seems to play for time.

Sending a team down to brace the Ekosians on the ground results in more bluster. The Ekosians will insist that they are properly following orders and will not tolerate any interference.

This could lead to conflict. Stunning space nazis sounds like fun.

If they continue a verbal engagement the same thing will happen. The Ekosian landing party Commander will bluster and obfuscate, using non-sequitors and word salad blather to try and buy time.

In a few moments troopers will come out of the entrance to an underground bunker, give the Commander a thumbs up and activate transporters.

The Commander will then concede that the PCs are quite correct and he will apologize for his rudeness. He will order his men back to the ship in order to directly leave the area, sorry.

As Ekosian people beam out, charges go off collapsing the roof of the Entrance. Sal, Reola and their companions are trapped inside the ancient installation.

-*-

The Ekosian landing party was racing the Ruby Dawn crew to the McGuffin. The Ruby Dawn crew beat the Ekosians to the McGuffin, but in typical Space Nazi Fashion, they lied to the Ruby Dawn crew and ditched them to die.

The Underground facility is pretty large and shielded. The natives knew something bad was coming and tried to make a bunker that would survive. Reading through their ancient bunker walls is difficult.

Reola and the Ruby Dawn crew are not hard to find once entrance has been dug out. Creative use of technology should be rewarded.

Also this city is an archaeological treasure trove. The Natives of Nancy's world fought a desperate last war against an unknown enemy. They stashed a lot of their history culture and knowledge in this place.

The Ruby Dawn crew were trying to dig out from being trapped by the Space Nazis

Once rescued, Duhaan and Sal meet each other. It's awkward and puzzling. They look identical. They have different personalities, but some of their body kinetics are the same.

Duhaan demands that Reola be arrested. He will take her accomplices into custody too, unless Starfleet wants them.

Holan warns that the Ekosians are racing for a doomsday weapon. He is not clear on what it is. He was hoping to salvage it and then hold the Federation up for a lot of money, while threatening to auction it. He'd let the Federation bribe him out of auctioning the doomsday weapon, handing it over after a decent payday.

But now the Ekosians are on the way to get it. And their intentions are not as benign as Holans

A thorough scan of Sal Holan and Jonas Duhaan show that Duhaan is a replicant. He is a sort of engineered clone of Holan. The engineering was mainly to allow the clone to be fully grown person and to stablize certain phsyological things that happen with clones. It does make Jonas more robust and more disease resistant than Sal.

Jonas refuses to believe it. "Your machines must be out of adjustment. It's not true." He categorically won't go there.

Scannning the others reveals Reola is also a replicant.

Kobi is a normal human. He explains. "We were all told that Replicants were a sort of slave class. I stumbled on the truth. Yiplor doesn't need slaves. In many cases the Replicants were used for PR. Reola is set to be a Princess on Yiplor. With a hand engineered royal on the throne, the elites figure Yiplor will stay stable and profitable. People love the royals and look up to them. They're a symbol of continuity with the history and culture of Yiplor.

Reola escaped, picked up these two, and they found me. The government of Yiplor will pull out all the stops to get Reola back. She's their magic feather. She gives the elites the appearance of legitimacy."

Sal remembers visiting Yiplor during his time as a young Starfleet Officer. He doesn't remember giving a tissue sample, but he does vaguely remember getting drunk.

Sal quit Starfleet when hiss ship was at a primitive world conducting covert surveillance. The people they were watching began to get sick. The reason was obvious to Sal and his companions, a nutritional deficiency.

Sal's CO ordered them not to say anything, to protect the prime directive. Sal quit, told the people what was happening to them, was arrested and did six months in the brig and was dishonorably dischargeed from Starfleet for the incident.

He prefers the life of a freelancer, now. He likes being free, even if it's uncertain and occasionally horrible. Borok and Sal are a romantic pair, but keep it on the downlow.

As far as anyone can decipher the ancient clues in the bunker, the weapon is called "The Destroyer of Worlds" and it was hidden in a secure location to prevent it's release.

What the PCs do with Sal, Borok and the other people from Yiplor is up to them. Jonass has a mission and he intended to see it through. He will suggest that the PCs can pursue the Ekosians and their putative super weapon while he commandeers the Ruby Dawn to take Reola home.

The Yiplor government's view is that Reola is their property. They'll cover this up with legalistic and politically correct language. But there's not much flex there. Reola is theirs and they want her back. Now.

If asked for a parrticular charge, they'll charge her with "Escape" which is a crime, for criminals who are in custody. She was in custody. And the Yiplor government asserts that it was legitimmate custody.

Reola doesn't want to be a captive princess in a guilded cage. If someone tells her it's a thing, she'll request asylumn.

Once the entrance to the old bunker is collaapsed, the Ekosians cloak and leave, headding for Camus II

Sal, Kobi, Reola and an Ekosian Archaeologist figured out that the Destroyeer of Worlds is hidden somewhere on Camus II. Camus II is a class M world. It has an Arcchaeology mission with small Starfleet support operation.

The people of Camus II were technologically advanced and could do things that mystify Federation science.

The people of Camus II had computers and devices that could directly interface with the human brain. This had a couple of bad effects in the past, including a weird incident where a device swapped the minds of a starship captain and an archaeologist, and drove the archaeologist insane.

To avoid this, its recommended that people landing on Camus II use Psionic Shields to prevent unwanted intrusions.

Specifications are in the database. It can take any form, but needs to be around the users head in some fashion. Some look like pretty tiaras. Others have been built into caps.

-*-

When the PCs ship arrives at Camus II they'll find the Ekossian Cruiser in orbit. The Ekosians have occupied the archeology misssion and their Starfleet support unit, annd have herded them together. They are searching the world and have parties all over.

If the PCs have called for backup, several Starfleet ships will alter course to meet them, in several days.

-*-

The Crypt of the Destroyer of Worlds hold a huge sarcophagus of something that looks like the love child of Obsidian and Emerald.

It is at the bottom of a labrynth. In ancient times it was a high tech vaault meant to stop any intrusion

These security measures were inventive, but they've been lying untended for thousands of years. So the GM is encouraged to only have traps, security bots, deceptive holograms working as are entertaaining for the PCs.


This is not a weapon. It's a Prison. The Destroyer of Worlds isn't something for militaries use against their enemies. It is a terrible enemy.

This was a creature like the Metrons or the Organians. But it is violently insane. Ancient powers trapped it in this device until they could figure out how to treat it.

It's only been a short while for them. The creature inside is not suffering, or being tortured. For a creature of it's type, the accomodations are nice. But it knows it's locked inside and it wants out. It feeds on despair pain sadness and fear.

It's attitude is similar to a psycho killer who has been trapped in his basement by animated M&Ms for several days.

if the Ekosians attempt to open it, they wind opening a metaphorical observation slot. The critter can't get out, but it can talk to people outside.

The Ekosians must make will saves of high DC or fall to the floor in screaming agony as their mindss are ripped apart by the angry thoughts hurled at them by this creature. (This karmic payback for seeking a doomsday weapon)

Psi-Shields seriously blunt this and make all damage temporary.

This is a sort of Star Trek gloss on the climax of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

But by the time the PCs get done here, rescuing archaeologists and foiling the Ekosians - there's no way of telling how this situation will actually play out.

No doubt it will be much different than expected.


-*-

If the Organians are alerted to this, they'll ask Starfleet to transsport the sarcophagus to their homeworld for safe keeping. They'll use their powers to restore anyone injured by this creature to full function.

They can't explain why, but how this works is this, the creature is imprisoned in it's own little pocket dimension. The sarcophagus is a sort of physical access point and key to the pocket dimension. Destroy the Sarcophagus and the pocket dimension is destroyed and the creature is released.

The pocket dimension and its sarcophagus are such that is boils everything down to basic reality. The Qrganians don't use their powers to teleport the sarcophagus back to their world because they can't. It doesn't exist as far as their powers are concerned. They'd have to whomp up a starship and cargo handling gear and then go use them to move the thing. They figure that Humans are better at that, since they've had more recent practice.

They lost track of the thing because it's invisible to their powers. They asked some mortal friends to hold on to it, but their old friends seem to have collapsed and wandered off.

-*-

The Metrons would hire a Gorn moving crew to come get it and will angrily refuse to talk about the whole incident. They are embarrassed about it.

-*-

What happens to Reola and Jonas and Sal? Good question! The PCs will have to decide if Reola get sent home, or is granted asylumn.

How does the Federation react to the idea that member world is making artificial royals and law enforcement officers and who all else?

Holan gets a reward for bringing all to the attention of Federation Authorities. Ekosians releasing a mad YAGLA would have been very bad, therefore a share of foiling that comes to a nice chunk of buying power.

What Sal is charged with an how hard the Ruby Dawn is searched is up to the PCs. Her engines have several illegal modifications. Sal could be forced to undo them.

Or the PCs may want to work a deaal with Sal, that they let him go and in return he helps them out when they need it.

Up to the PCs and the GM to work out.

The Replicants are obvious on a bio-molecular level. But on a macro level they are impossible to distinguish from a natural human. Their Personalities and memories are implants, borrowed from other people. What becomes of them? No idea. The PCs will guide the Federation's reaction to this revelation.

--
Jay ~Meow!~

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