Last Episode
Caught up in a revolution on Earth’s moon during a stopover for fuel and spare parts, our heroes threw their lot in with Ismael Li and his desperate rebels. As the CEGA military turned its awesome might upon the lunar revolutionaries, the battle became more desperate. As a favor to the rebels that had provided them with aid in their time of need, the crew of the Beautiful Dreamer agreed to take aboard a number of refugees. With her holds stuffed to bursting and CEGA Navy warships closing in, the Dreamer fled Earthspace as the CEGA Navy fired on the Copernicus dome, depressurizing the city and killing thousands.
The Scenario
Her holds crammed with refugees, there’s no way for the Beautiful Dreamer to make Jupiter without running out of supplies or fuel. Fortunately for her crew and desperate passengers, the ship can easily make Mars. There, Aglaee DesSources hopes that the Martian Republic will be able to provide homes to the refugees.
Unfortunately, the only feasible means of shipping that many people back down to the surface without the massive lifting infrastructure of Luna is the Martian Orbital Elevator… Which is solidly under Federation control. This means that the PCs (or NPCs if the GM chooses to focus on a different plot, see below) must pursuade the Federation not only to allow them to ship the refugees down to the surface, but to give them safe passage to Republic territory.
The PCs ability to elude their pursuit has made the Bank desperate to get some results from Project Methuselah before the PCs make it back to Jovian space. With Peyarje there, it would only be a matter of time before the Jovians discover the Floaters and puzzle out Slumbering Eidolon’s true purpose. To help hurry the project along, they’ve turned to the best bioscientists in the Solar System: the Martian Federation. Of course, they can’t exactly make an official request, so instead they’ve decided to kidnap a leading Federation biologist and his family and coerce him into helping them.
The operator of the Elevator, Administrator Yanna Summers, can get the refugees to the surface and use her influence to get them safe passage to Republican territory. The Federation doesn’t want a massive influx of refugees with ties to Li’s rebellion. However, Summers wants a favour in exchange for her help. The Federation’s lost track of a certain prominent biologist….
Character Involvement
The PCs will mainly become involved in this episode through the search for the kidnapped scientist. Unless they have strong bureaucratic leanings, Yanna Summers (or another NPC) can handle all the paperwork and wheeling-and-dealling involved in getting the refugees to the Republic. (Though this could provide a good subplot, see below for details) One thing to remember is that the characters will probably have few local contacts and not be used to the layout and customs in Federation cities.
JAF pilots are, as usual, best suited to action-oriented campaigns, but its also in-genre for them to be forced into investigative roles they’re not really suited for. If they do wind up having to do some investigative footwork, they should have a guide or assitant of some sort, and the GM must take their inexperience into account when designing encounters. The final rescue of the scientist should allow for the players to show off their piloting skills. Perhaps the scientist and his family have been loaded into a STO launch vehicle to be lifted to orbit and meet up with the CEGA fleet that will escort them to Venus. Or they manage to rescue the scientist just as the CEGA fleet arrives, and the fleet’s commander siezes the elevator and sends his troops down to the surface to eliminate the PCs and recapture the scientist.
JIS agents and reporters will generally be capable of handling the investigation themselves. Their effectiveness might be reduced somewhat, as they probably won’t have contacts in the Federation or know their way around. Yanna Summers or Aglaee DesSources could names some names as a starting point or provide a guide of some kind. For JIS agents, the final rescue of the scientist could take the form of a raid on the compound where his abductors have stashed him. Reporters, who usually lack combat skills, will either need to use a cunning plan to rescue the scientist or turn things over to the polizei for the actual rescue.
NPCs and Plot Points
Yanna Summers (NPC)
Faction: Martian Federation/Society of the Evolved Human
Suggested Stereotype: Curiousity, Veteran, or Expert
Suggested Archtype: Official
Yanna Summers is the decidated and hardworking administrator of the Martian Orbital Elevator. While her actual domain is very small - she only has direct control over Heaven and Hell stations - the amount of commerce that travels up and down the beanstalk has given her a sizable amount of influence within the Federation’s government. This is counterbalanced by her continued attempts to open Federation society up a little. Her position and efforts, however, did draw the attention of the Society of the Evolved Human, which she eagerly joined when offered membership.
Yanna’s connection to the Society could be what lead Aglaee to steer the players towards her, and inclined her to help them find a home for the refugees. It also could be what leads to her asking the PCs for help with the scientist case - another test by the Society to help them reach their potential. She has contacts all through the Federation bureaucracy, and could use them to help the players with their investigation… But there will likely be a price of some kind, as she’s already stretched her resources thin to secure passage for the refugees. This could, however, lead to the Refugees Under Attack
subplot. Or Yanna could be a background character that just serves to lead the PCs into the episode.
Devon Malachai (NPC)
Faction: VenusBank
Suggestions: See Episode 1.
Malachai’s getting desperate. So far, he’s failed to protect Slumbering Eidolon, let the PCs get away with Peyarje (though this may have been plainned, it will undoubtably have turned into a failure if they reach Jovian space), and his research teams haven’t made any progress on Project Methuselah. Unless he produces results soon, his superiors are going to start asking some very unpleasant questions. Just how unpleasant (or fatal) these questions are, of course, depends on how exactly the GM has been using Malachai.
Malachai is probably the most useful in this episode as the man behind the kidnapping of the Federation bioscientist. How exactly he’s involved is up to the GM. He could be the man behind the curtain, with his underlings doing all the actual work. Or he could be directing operations himself, to ensure that things go right. If Malachai’s been serving as a secondary villain, this could be a good episode for the players to defeat him, or appear to defeat him.
If they’ve encountered him before, Malachai could also be used to put the players on the trail of the kidnappers. He could be working at the Kurtzenheim branch of the VenusBank as a cover, and the PCs could encounter him there and move on from there. Perhaps they see him talking to a subordinate who they can then tail or interrogate, or someone from the Federation government. Or they could encounter/tail Malachai directly and discover something suspicious.
Malachai could also be using the kidnapped biologist to lure the PCs into a vulnerable position, either to kill them or to recapture Peyarje. They could discover this at the last minute, after recovering the biologist, and have to rush up the elevator to thwart his plot and protect Peyarje, thus explaining why they go to Ketchum for help.
Paul Treben (NPC)
Faction: SolaPol
Suggested Stereotype: Veteran or Expert
Suggseted Archtype: Official
Paul Treben is the head of the Martian Federation SolaPol bureau, widely regarded as one of the most difficult posts in the entire solar system. Thanks to Mars’ need for biotechnology for the terraforming effort, there’s a lot of research that skirts the edge of the Edicts, all of which SolaPol must keep a careful eye on. The meticulous, attentive Treben has done an excellent job of this.
Treben is very easy to involve in the episode in practically any way the GM desires. The GM could choose to make him an ally. He could work to help keep Peyarje away from CEGA or the Venusians, by using SolaPol’s authority to dissuade them. Or he could help to protect the refugees. The most likely use, other than protecting Peyarje, is to help the players track down and recover the missing biologist, something that, understandably, is of great concern to SolaPol.
Treben could also serve as an enemy for the PCs. If so, his true nature probably won’t become immediately obvious. He could be trying to claim Peyarje or the biologist for SolaPol, for some sinister plot of Director O’Grady or his own purposes. Or he (or one of his superiors) could have been turned by the Venusians, and be trying to exterminate the PCs and retrieve Peyarje for them.
If you choose to use both Treben and Novak, the two could play off against each other, making the players unsure about who to trust.
Mikael Novak (NPC)
Faction: Independent
Suggested Stereotype: Specialist or Expert
Suggested Archtype: Reporter
Mikael Novak was once SolaPol’s #1 special agent, with the touch of gold. Every mission he was sent on he completed with flying colours. Until he was assigned to Venus to monitor the ISC and contacted by one Dr. Agram Peyarje. The exact details about what happened are unclear, but Novak told Peyarje that he was better off not dealing with SolaPol and then vanished, reappearing on the agency’s ten most wanted list days later.
The encounter on Mars presents an opportunity for the GM to introduce Novak to the game. His position on SolaPol’s wanted list makes him a very ambiguous character. He could be seeking to help the PCs, protecting them and Peyarje from Treben’s (and O’Grady’s) machinations. Or he could be an evil villain, well-deserving of his ‘wanted’ status, seeking to abduct or kill Peyarje for his own purposes, or for those of his masters. Whoever those may be - VenusBank and CEGA are, as always, good choices, but other Venusian corporations or big players could work too. For an extremely unusual twist, he could be working for the Society of the Evolved Human.
Lydia Ketchum
Faction: Martian Republic (Isidisian Separatists)
Suggested Stereotype: Specialist
Suggested Archtype: Soldier
Lydia Ketchum is a Martian Republic Rook, a Ranger trained for deep-cover operations within the Federation. One of the Republic’s best rangers, she’s been assigned to watch the orbital elevator. She takes her job quite seriously, and has so far managed to avoid drawing the notice of the Federation.
Unfortunately, not all is as it appears with Ranger Ketchum. She is from the Isidis Planitia, an isolated area that recently (2207) declared its independence from the rest of the Republic. The Isidisians are even more militant about the Federation than ordinary Republic citizens, and see the Federation’s orbital elevator as a very personal and insufferable insult to their national pride. Lydia has recieved orders from her family telling her to destroy the elevator at any cost, and has a small group of Rangers with exo-suits and a massive explosive device waiting for the right moment.
The PCs actions should, somehow, give her the opportunity to make her move. They should either need her help to escape from a situation - CEGA or Federation troops closing in, need to pursue the scientist up the elevator, etc. - or somehow weaken the protection around the elevator (perhaps by causing troops to be diverted elsewhere) allowing her to make her move. In person, Ketchum will come off as nice, reasonable, helpful to the best of her ability. (Which is quite good)
Aglaee DesSources (NPC)
Faction: Society of the Evolved Human
Suggestions: See Episode 2.
Aglaee will probably spend most of the episode on the Dreamer, docked at Heaven Station. She can help the PCs if necessary through the usual means - equipment, contacts, etc. - and will do her best to protect Peyarje should someone (Federation troops working for the Bank or Kleb) try to take him off the ship. Unfortunately, there’s only so much she can do without endangering her vessel. Alternately, Aglaee could use her contacts with Summers to ensure the security of her ship and take a more active role in events.
Ysa Cantroni (NPC)
Faction: Independent
Suggestions: See Episode 2.
This episode could, if the GM wants, serve as an exit point for Ysa from the campaign. She could choose to follow the refugees into Martian Republic territory, to continue her story about their exodus and write about their new home. This has finally given her the opening she needs to “make it” as a journalist, and she doesn’t plan to waste that!
Ysa could also help out the PCs with their work, as usual. Her wandering could have given her at least a few contacts in the Martian Federation who might be able to help, but fewer than elsewhere. She might also have met Lydia Ketchum, and point the PCs in her direction when they need to escape - much to her dismay, when she discovers the truth about Lydia’s plans.
Agram Peyarje (NPC)
Faction: Jovian Confederation
Suggestions: See Episode 2.
Agram will probably spend the episode in hiding aboard the Dreamer, as usual. However, Malachai could have kidnapped the biologist in an attempt to draw out the PCs, so that he can make another attempt to recover Peyarje. This could, in turn, lead to the PCs scrambling to get up the Elevator and prevent Malachai’s agents (or CEGA marines) from taking the scientist away again. He could also provide scientific advice for the PCs, helping them analyse evidence left behind at the biologist’s laboratory or at intermediate holding areas the Venusians have been using, to give them some idea of why the Venusians want this man so badly.
Ranho Garand (NPC)
Faction: CEGA Navy
Suggestions: See Episode 2.
Garand was last seen travelling with the 4th Fleet pursuit force that the players somehow ditched before reaching Mars. As such, he won’t be involved with the start of the episode, but can come in midway through or towards the end.
If he comes in towards the middle, either the CEGA fleet has arrived early and its presence will start complicating things, or he took a fast ship and went on ahead. In this case, the PCs should have a few (relatively) peaceful encounters with him, which gives the GM another chance to make the enemy ace sympathetic. The encounter(s) could occur while the players are taking it easy or while they’re trying to investigate the scientist’s disappearance. Garand, finding CEGA’s involvement in the abduction dishonourable, might even point the PCs in the right direction. Subtly, of course.
Towards the end of the episode, the division of the CEGA 4th fleet assigned to pursue the Beautiful Dreamer arrives in Martian orbit and deploys troops to eliminate the PCs, including Ranho Garand in his custom Wyvern. The original Odyssey had the troops closing in on the elevator as the Isidisian forces siezed Hell station, and recapturing it as the PCs reached Heaven station. Garand and other troops were sent up in an elevator car, and were partway up the cable when the Isidisians detonated their bombs. Garand escaped by tearing his way out of the car and using his Wyvern’s rockets to boost himself to safety. If the GM decides to employ this, the PCs should, of course, have an opportunity to battle Garand at some point, most likely before they go up the elevator.
An interesting variation would be to have the PCs stuck on the elevator car with Garand when the Isidisians set off their bomb. They would then have to work together with their enemy to escape. Though getting the PCs back to the Beautiful Dreamer after this can be challenging.
The Federation Bureaucracy (Organization)
The Federation Bureaucracy is both monolithic and fractured. While it is generally united in its desire to hold on to power and keep out foreign influences, it is divided into a number of power blocs. Two of these have a major impact on the action of this episode. One is a loose grouping headed by Yanna Summers, composed of members of the Society of the Evolved Human and others that want to see the Federation open up to foreigners and internal dissent or differing opinions and practices. While they are protected to a degree by Yanna’s influence as administrator of the orbital elevator prototype, they still have to be very careful about what they say and do.
Another, larger, group is those that see CEGA and Venus as kindred spirits and seek to curry favour with them. Of course, this means helping them overcome difficulties
on a regular basis. Some just seek to be accomodating, while others are, for all intents and purporses, in the employ of one or both. Malachai (or whoever is behind the abduction of the biologist) could have manipulated members of this faction into helping him with his plans. At the very least, they could have set him up with the opportunity he needed to abduct the biologist. If the GM wants them to be more involved, they could have provided Malachai with extra operatives to grab and detain the scientist and his family.
The Refugees (Plot)
The refugees want nothing more than a quiet home where they can live free of CEGA and other oppressive governments. Unfortunately, the Martian orbital elevator is the only practical way to ship that many people down to the surface, and its lower end is in Federation territory. The Federation doesn’t want a bunch of known dissidents without much money settling in one of their cities, and the Selenite refugees don’t want to settle there anyway. So the only option is to secure passage to Republic territory.
Since this involves lots of bureaucratic wrangling, most groups will probably want to leave it to Yanna Summers while they work on repaying her by finding the missing biologist. If the GM wants to make it a bigger part of the episode, Yanna could need another favour from the PCs (eliminate an enemy, plant incriminating evidence, or any number of other things depending on PC skill sets) or elements of the Federation bureaucracy associated with CEGA and the Bank could try to eliminate them en route to safety in the Republic, to prevent more about the Copernicus Disaster from getting out. This could lead to the PCs needing to foil assassins or battle Federation exo-armors and hovertanks.
A Missing Biologist (Plot)
The most straightforward approach to the missing biologist subplot is probably to have him have been kidnapped by Malachai, to provide some additional brains and a badly-needed performance boost to the faltering Project Methuselah. For the sake of simplicity, the biologist is probably being kept on Mars for now, and is being moved around between makeshift research facilities, doing preliminary work until Malachai can load him onto an HLV and get him off Mars without alerting Administrator Summers. In this case, his family has probably been kidnapped and is being held hostage too. Agent Treben and ex-Agent Novak can be added easily - one can serve as a Venusian proxy, while the other can help the PCs, though which is which can easily be made uncertain.
Alternatively, one of Treben or Novak could be responsible for kidnapping the biologist. Novak, in this scenario, could be working for the Bank, CEGA, or even the Society of the Evolved Human (in which case, the players may want to help rather than hinder him). Treben would either be working for the Bank or on some ominous plot of SolaPol Director O’Grady’s. Again, there could be ample confusion over which is the bad guy and which is the good guy, though it should definitely be resolved satisfactorily by the end of the episode. Malachai can be used here as a fake lead.
Discussion of how, exactly, to run this subplot and how to integrate other NPCs and Organizations into it can be found throughout the rest of this page.
Rest & Recreation (Plot)
While there should be some pressure to find the missing biologist quickly, this episode is a lot slower-paced than the last one, or the suggested filler. If the players have been involved in non-stop high-pitched action for the last few episodes, now could be a good time to give them a chance for some low-stress R&R in the relatively safe cities of the Martian Federation. This also provides a good opportunity for them to encounter Garand, Malachai, or other villains in an environment where fighting is a distinctly bad idea.
If one of the PCs wound up especially close to one of the refugees, this would be the time to say goodbye, or find some way to convince the Selenite to stay aboard the Dreamer and continue on to Jupiter with them. While the Dreamer can’t handle all the Selenite refugees on a trip that long, it can handle a couple more people.
CEGA Pursuit Fleet & Admiral Kleb
After the Copernicus Dome Disaster, the Garand’s 3rd Squadron was probably dispatched alone to pursue the players again. During the trip to Mars, they should either have diverted their pursuers or otherwise delayed them so that they show up towards the end of the adventure. The 4th Fleet’s 1st Battlegroup, of course, is under orders from Kleb to recapture Peyarje at any cost. For this episode, that probably means dispatching troops (lead, of course, by Ranho Garand) to the Martian surface to eliminate the PCs and sending marines into Heaven station to attempt to extract Peyarje from the Dreamer.
If the PCs are suited for it, a battle with Garand near the base of the elevator would fit well, especially if they encountered him earlier in the episode in a more peaceful context. The CEGA marines attacking the Dreamer could, in the absence of other incentives, provide the impetus for the PCs to go to Ranger Ketchum for help.
The Elevator Fall (Plot)
Constructed with the aid of VenusBank, the Martian Orbital Elevator is a marvel of 23rd century engineering. It stretches upwards from its base at Hell Station just north of the Federation capital of Kurtzenheim to the Heaven Station counterweight and beyond. To construct the elevator, Deimos was shifted to a higher orbit and Phobos was dismantled. The elevator cars have a cargo bay large enough to handle exo-armors, so the players’ vehicles can be shipped up and down from the surface as needed, though it does take some time.
This episode should end with Lydia Ketchum’s assault force destroying the Elevator. The PCs should somehow be involved in giving them access to it - a number of possible reasons have been suggested above. The method used by Ketchum’s forces in the original Odyssey was to detonate a bomb in an elevator car just below Heaven station, though they could also destroy the connector to Heaven Station itself. At any rate, the Dreamer should get clear just as the bomb goes off, treating the PCs to the striking and terrible view of the elevator dropping through the atmosphere, breaking up and glowing, and then crashing to the planet’s surface. The impact wraps all the way around the equator, raising a massive cloud of dust and leaving a huge canyon. The death toll is in the millions.
If the GM wants to make CEGA in general and Kleb in particular (or the Bank and Malachai) even more villanous, they could be responsible for the Elevator crash and simply set things up to blame it on, at first, STRIKE and later the Isidisians (Who, as usual, got used as pawns). In this scenario, the fleet or the troops dispatched to the surface could sever the cable in an attempt to destroy the Dreamer or prevent the PCs from returning to it.
Timing and Objectives
As usual, take your time with this adventure. Let the PCs relax a little and get involved in the search for the missing scientist. Throw some false leads and short, intermediate action sequences at them - like a good spy movie, only with giant robots. Be sure to highlight the restrained and sterile nature of life in the Federation. There’s a lot of different ways this episode could go, so you should probably have a planned “default route” and keep the other posibilities in mind to use if the players deviate from the plan. Don’t try to do everything. Like the Copernicus rebellion, the rescue of the Federation biologist and the subsequent battle for control of the Elevator should be fast-paced and chaotic. The exact events of both should be fine-tuned to the skills and interests of the group. Definitely highlight how horrible the elevator collapse is, but don’t make the players feel too guilty - there were forces at work beyond their control. (Gravity, for one) Despite the disaster, there should be some sense of victory and satisfaction from thwarting the plot to kidnap the biologist and helping the Selenite refugees find a new home.
The PCs’ primary objective is to find homes for the refugees and, toward that end, rescue the biologist Malachai and his cronies have kidnapped. They also want to prevent the Venusians and CEGA from taking Peyarje and, of course, escape with their lives. Any one of these objectives can be relegated to secondary status or ignored entirely, though some will be harder than others. There’s also plenty of room for subplots.
Next Episode
The Beautiful Dreamer finally delivers the PCs to Olympus once more. Peyarje (accompanied by the PCs) pays a visit to JAW Skunk Works, to once more dirty his hands with military technology before the Confederation (as promised) allows him to fade away and retire.
Unfortunately, Admiral Kleb and Devon Malachai have other plans. With Peyarje in Jovian space, its only a matter of time until the Confederation discovers the Floaters and follows the trail of clues left behind in Slumbering Eidolon (and, possibly, discovered by the PCs) and finds out about Project Methuselah. This would mean disaster for the Bank (and probably CEGA), and must be prevented. At any cost…
Filler Suggestions
The original Odyssey cut straight from the departure from Mars to the PCs’ arrival in Jovian space. With the collapse of the Martian orbital elevator, the eyes of the entire solar system (and SolaPol, in particular) are focused upon CEGA, hindering greatly what it can overtly do with its fleets. Its probably best to skim over the journey and straight to Episode 5. If the GM feels that some kind of filler is necessary, he could give the players some R&R time on Joshua Station while Peyarje works with the technicians at Skunk Works. This would provide a good opportunity to wrap up any Jovian space subplots started in Episode 1.
Vehicles
This episode could involve a great variety of vehicles, from the usual exo-armors, fighters, and exo-suits to Mars rovers and hovertanks. Any CEGA forces will probably be using brand-new Wyverns, as Syreens are ill-suited to atmospheric operation. Both Martian nations will be using Explorers/Defenders and their standard hovertanks. (See Mechanical Catalog #1 and Chaos Principle or the Mars planetbook for stats, respectively)