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subplotkudzu) wrote2008-05-01 06:29 pm
USS Carter Epsiode 9: Sargasso GM Notes
USS Carter Ep 09 - Sargasso
Starring:
Jason: Ambassador Darius Rossad, Betazed envoy to the Federation; Ensign Bernie Liefson, astrogator.
Karen: Chief Petty Officer Xi'an Coy Mahn, security chief
GM Notes: Schedules have messed with me again, and it's time for emergency session design! Jason is suddenly not able to make the game on the 3rd, having been asked to do a scripture reading at his cousin's baptism. However, Jason's been putting in a slew of 15 hour days at work and really wants to game this month. So on Saturday the 2nd he and Karen are coming over for a session with just their PCs, and then on the 3rd I'm running something for all except Jason. Since I intend group 1 to not re-connect with the Carter until after the other session, Karen's secondary PC will not be present on 5/2. So, an emergency plot for the Ambassador, Security Chief and a novice astrogator? Not a problem!
The last time we saw either Bernie or Darius they had been dropped off at the Sagan Observatory before the Carter went Klingon hunting in the Burning Nebula (Season 1, Ep 8). A little bit of retconning says that the chief security officer of the Carter, Xi’an Coy Mahn, had been sent off to act as the Ambassador's bodyguard - things are sticky enough with the Betazeds that his getting injured would make things even worse. Since that time Bernie received word of his graduation and subsequent promotion to ensign. His first assignment? shuttling Darius & Xi'an to meet with Federation diplomats, part of a PR push to convince the Betazed of the Federation's good intentions and lack of culpability in Xenocrates' escape. He has been piloting the USS Adlai Stevenson, an aging diplomatic corvette under the command of Lt. Hiram Stein and carrying Margaret "Peggy" Fichetti of the diplomatic corps and a small crew of NCOs.[1]
As per usual, fear of the Betazed's full telepathic abilities means none of the ship's complement are high ranking or well informed on Federation military strength or technology. Darius has almost certainly noticed this but it too well skilled a diplomat to make an issue of it. The USS Adlai Stevenson is a little big for the minimal crew, but as a diplomatic corvette it has well-appointed meeting rooms. This lets Federation staff beam over to make use of the superior shipboard facilities as to limit Darius' access to other minds without it being an obvious insult. All of this will be covered in the "Ambassador's Log" that I'll give to Jason to read at the start of the session, so the players know where they are.
Synopsis: while en route to a diplomatic meeting Darius' ship is damaged by a subspace turbulence that inhibits warp fields. The Ambassador, his bodyguard & the survivors of the USS Adlai Stevenson must escape the Orion pirates who prey on such wounded ships. My hope is for at least one fight for both Xi’an and Darius, and for Darius to seduce an Orion slave girl. This is a chance for Darius to display his Kirkliness.
Hook: This scene opens with Darius (& bodyguard Xi'an
A similar explosion in engineering has killed the lieutenant and the science officer/medic. We have a few scenes of PCs discovering they are more or less in charge: Bernie, if he's on board, is the only officer left; if he's not, all of the conscious survivors are NCOs of which chief petty officer Coy Mahn is the highest rank. The remaining crew is just a handful of people in any event, and the ship suffered severe, but not irreparable damage: the engineering officer sacrificed himself to shut down the warp core before there was an explosion, the brunt of the energy spike was taken by some power conduits in the shield & weapons array that can be replaced, life support is up and running, and there is partial impulse power. Sensors should work, but don't - only the light-speed sensors work. This leads to Plot Turn 1: As they're chewing on that, those sensors pick up a ship coming in at full impulse, and a transmission informing them that they are now the prize of the ship Gulek Kolari and its captain, Dathio. Now what?
Pinch #1 Depends on how they respond to that, but the Stevenson is in no shape to fight a larger, better armed vessel. They might decide to do shipboard fighting against the boarding pirates - pretty cool if ultimately futile - or they could 'surrender' with the plan to get additional information later. Fighting will earn the respect of the enemy forces, talking will reveal more about the layout of the Gulek Kolari and the presence of a larger pirate brotherhood. In any event the Stevenson has docking clamps attached and its crew is dragged into the pirate's holding cell as the Gulek pulls them away from the accident site.
I'll give them a little time to plan in the holding cells and meet the other captives. There they'll learn that this place is the Sargasso, an area where warp drives don't function (in case they had some theory about the Orion's having an anti-warp weapon), that the captured ships are either sold for parts or converted to new pirate vessels, that at impulse speed it will take several days to get to the closest outpost, that slaves are sold to a mining operation. If they didn't fight on their way in they'll have to 'earn their place' among the slaves by beating someone up - actually a pirate agent feeling them out as potential recruits. This tactic of things not being what they seem is common for the decadent Orion captain, who plans to amuse himself with the new prisoners for some time before handing them over to the mine complex.
The Midpoint is the 3 PCs being dragged out of the cells to meet with Captain Dathio. He'll be full of bonhomie for his captives, offering them food and wine, and a dance from his Orion slave girl Xellein. He'll them claim the food and wine were poisoned, just to see their reactions - it's not true, but his crew thinks it's a lovely joke. The second officer will take a shine to Xi'an Xi'an
Or is he? Enter Pinch #2! Dismissing all save Komar, Xellein & Darius (Bernie is dragged out for sure, Xi'an stays if she claims to be bound to Darius, or just doesn't leave), Dathio explains that his second officer was planning a coup, and so once he learned of Xi'an's competence from Komar, he had Xellein taunt the poor bastard into trying to claim the federation soldier, cementing his death. His setting the crew to clamber over the Adlai Stevenson should get poor Bernie's dander up while insuring the wiley Federation types don't make a break for their ship by swarming it with pirates. That explained, Dathio makes Rossad an offer: he sees the value of having a Betazed on his crew - oh yes, Orions are familiar with that race - and he'll ransom the Stevenson's crew's lives to that end. Otherwise, off to the dilithium mines with them. Darius is given a day to decide, and the pair are sent to a luxurious private chamber, well away from the now-hostage crew. If Darius tries any telepathy he'll find the captain is in earnest, Komar is both loyal and looking forward to beating up Xi'an
That brings us to the final Plot Turn. Xellein slips into the gilded cage, silently injecting Xi'an Xi'an Xi'an Xi'an Xi'an
From here, the Resolution is the players - they now have allies, an objective and a jump on the mad captain. I'm hoping for a chase with Bernie helming the Adlai Stevenson at full impulse away from pirate ships, but I'll accept other outcomes - like Xellein being made pirate queen.
[1] If Jason doesn't want to play 2 PCs who are in such constant contact I can always replace Bernie with another young Ensign. The important PCs are Darius and Xi'an
USS Carter Ep 09 - Sargasso
Starring:
Jason: Ambassador Darius Rossad, Betazed envoy to the Federation; Ensign Bernie Liefson, astrogator.
Karen: Chief Petty Officer Xi'an Coy Mahn, security chief
GM Notes: Schedules have messed with me again, and it's time for emergency session design! Jason is suddenly not able to make the game on the 3rd, having been asked to do a scripture reading at his cousin's baptism. However, Jason's been putting in a slew of 15 hour days at work and really wants to game this month. So on Saturday the 2nd he and Karen are coming over for a session with just their PCs, and then on the 3rd I'm running something for all except Jason. Since I intend group 1 to not re-connect with the Carter until after the other session, Karen's secondary PC will not be present on 5/2. So, an emergency plot for the Ambassador, Security Chief and a novice astrogator? Not a problem!
The last time we saw either Bernie or Darius they had been dropped off at the Sagan Observatory before the Carter went Klingon hunting in the Burning Nebula (Season 1, Ep 8). A little bit of retconning says that the chief security officer of the Carter, Xi’an Coy Mahn, had been sent off to act as the Ambassador's bodyguard - things are sticky enough with the Betazeds that his getting injured would make things even worse. Since that time Bernie received word of his graduation and subsequent promotion to ensign. His first assignment? shuttling Darius & Xi'an to meet with Federation diplomats, part of a PR push to convince the Betazed of the Federation's good intentions and lack of culpability in Xenocrates' escape. He has been piloting the USS Adlai Stevenson, an aging diplomatic corvette under the command of Lt. Hiram Stein and carrying Margaret "Peggy" Fichetti of the diplomatic corps and a small crew of NCOs.[1]
As per usual, fear of the Betazed's full telepathic abilities means none of the ship's complement are high ranking or well informed on Federation military strength or technology. Darius has almost certainly noticed this but it too well skilled a diplomat to make an issue of it. The USS Adlai Stevenson is a little big for the minimal crew, but as a diplomatic corvette it has well-appointed meeting rooms. This lets Federation staff beam over to make use of the superior shipboard facilities as to limit Darius' access to other minds without it being an obvious insult. All of this will be covered in the "Ambassador's Log" that I'll give to Jason to read at the start of the session, so the players know where they are.
Synopsis: while en route to a diplomatic meeting Darius' ship is damaged by a subspace turbulence that inhibits warp fields. The Ambassador, his bodyguard & the survivors of the USS Adlai Stevenson must escape the Orion pirates who prey on such wounded ships. My hope is for at least one fight for both Xi’an and Darius, and for Darius to seduce an Orion slave girl. This is a chance for Darius to display his Kirkliness.
Hook: This scene opens with Darius (& bodyguard
A similar explosion in engineering has killed the lieutenant and the science officer/medic. We have a few scenes of PCs discovering they are more or less in charge: Bernie, if he's on board, is the only officer left; if he's not, all of the conscious survivors are NCOs of which chief petty officer Coy Mahn is the highest rank. The remaining crew is just a handful of people in any event, and the ship suffered severe, but not irreparable damage: the engineering officer sacrificed himself to shut down the warp core before there was an explosion, the brunt of the energy spike was taken by some power conduits in the shield & weapons array that can be replaced, life support is up and running, and there is partial impulse power. Sensors should work, but don't - only the light-speed sensors work. This leads to Plot Turn 1: As they're chewing on that, those sensors pick up a ship coming in at full impulse, and a transmission informing them that they are now the prize of the ship Gulek Kolari and its captain, Dathio. Now what?
Pinch #1 Depends on how they respond to that, but the Stevenson is in no shape to fight a larger, better armed vessel. They might decide to do shipboard fighting against the boarding pirates - pretty cool if ultimately futile - or they could 'surrender' with the plan to get additional information later. Fighting will earn the respect of the enemy forces, talking will reveal more about the layout of the Gulek Kolari and the presence of a larger pirate brotherhood. In any event the Stevenson has docking clamps attached and its crew is dragged into the pirate's holding cell as the Gulek pulls them away from the accident site.
I'll give them a little time to plan in the holding cells and meet the other captives. There they'll learn that this place is the Sargasso, an area where warp drives don't function (in case they had some theory about the Orion's having an anti-warp weapon), that the captured ships are either sold for parts or converted to new pirate vessels, that at impulse speed it will take several days to get to the closest outpost, that slaves are sold to a mining operation. If they didn't fight on their way in they'll have to 'earn their place' among the slaves by beating someone up - actually a pirate agent feeling them out as potential recruits. This tactic of things not being what they seem is common for the decadent Orion captain, who plans to amuse himself with the new prisoners for some time before handing them over to the mine complex.
The Midpoint is the 3 PCs being dragged out of the cells to meet with Captain Dathio. He'll be full of bonhomie for his captives, offering them food and wine, and a dance from his Orion slave girl Xellein. He'll them claim the food and wine were poisoned, just to see their reactions - it's not true, but his crew thinks it's a lovely joke. The second officer will take a shine to
Or is he? Enter Pinch #2! Dismissing all save Komar, Xellein & Darius (Bernie is dragged out for sure, Xi'an stays if she claims to be bound to Darius, or just doesn't leave), Dathio explains that his second officer was planning a coup, and so once he learned of Xi'an's competence from Komar, he had Xellein taunt the poor bastard into trying to claim the federation soldier, cementing his death. His setting the crew to clamber over the Adlai Stevenson should get poor Bernie's dander up while insuring the wiley Federation types don't make a break for their ship by swarming it with pirates. That explained, Dathio makes Rossad an offer: he sees the value of having a Betazed on his crew - oh yes, Orions are familiar with that race - and he'll ransom the Stevenson's crew's lives to that end. Otherwise, off to the dilithium mines with them. Darius is given a day to decide, and the pair are sent to a luxurious private chamber, well away from the now-hostage crew. If Darius tries any telepathy he'll find the captain is in earnest, Komar is both loyal and looking forward to beating up
That brings us to the final Plot Turn. Xellein slips into the gilded cage, silently injecting
From here, the Resolution is the players - they now have allies, an objective and a jump on the mad captain. I'm hoping for a chase with Bernie helming the Adlai Stevenson at full impulse away from pirate ships, but I'll accept other outcomes - like Xellein being made pirate queen.
[1] If Jason doesn't want to play 2 PCs who are in such constant contact I can always replace Bernie with another young Ensign. The important PCs are Darius and