Amber Zone - RoM Base

Last Updated 16 February 2004.

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1998 1130?

Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1998 12:45:13 -0800
From: "Leo Hale"
Subject: Plot

RoM Base

Player Brief

Detective Agency (ala-TechWar). Any of the following occupations will work:

Military-Ex Athlete
Law Enforcement-Ex Attorney
Bounty Hunter Undercover Agent-Ex
Computer Specialist Rogue
Scout-Ex Engineer
Scientist (Indiana Jones adventurous type)

The local government has asked your agency to examine a puzzle that they have discovered. A system defense boat, upon responding to a ship distress call, found an ancient station in a LaGrange point around the outermost planet of the system. There were no people to be found on either the trader or the station. There was power to the station and the trader, and neither showed any signs of a struggle. The station has been identified as a remnant from before the Rule of Man.

An insurance agency has also contacted you about finding a ship that has been registered as lost. The vessel 'Lucky' has not reported in over 3 months and it was to take a small hop to the outer planets to resupply a mining station at the Gas Giant.

The Government has hired your agency to keep this out of the public eye. If the Imperials were to discover that the station exists, the system would become quarantined until they had both examined the object completely and found nothing worth pursuing, or they were able to move it to another location for study. If the system becomes Red-zoned the planetary economy would fail. The reason for this fear is the object in the largest of the station labs. This object is undoubtably a relic of the Ancients. Imperial policy is to red-zone any place that may have Ancients ruins to allow their scientists time to study them before they are moved if possible. The other reason the government hired your company is to find out if the item has any value that this system could exploit before the Imperials take it.

The station is an archaeological find unsurpassed since the beginning of the Third Imperium. The station was built to sustain itself indefinitely, with an automated maintenance system. There are also other systems in the station that defy the known fact that the Vilani Empire did not allow any research into new and innovative ideas. The mysteries regarding this station continue to multiply the further anyone explores its depths.

Because of the presence of the Free Trader you will only have a couple of weeks, before they will have to tell the owners that they have recovered the ship without a crew. The government also wants to know what this ship is doing way out at the last orbit, when the location of its supply drop was the 6th orbit. They really want to know where the crew has gone, and what secrets they may have uncovered.

Any comments on this would be appreciated.

Leo

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#1131

Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 08:20:07 -0500
From: "Peter H. Brenton"
Subject: Re: Plot

Comments:
> The local government has asked your agency to examine a puzzle that
>they have discovered.

Q: Why doesn't the government investigate it themselves?
Possible Answer: Not the government, but a minister ("Orbital Affairs" or somesuch) out for his/her own gain. Deceiving or letting the players in on a good deal.

> A system defense boat, upon responding to a ship
>distress call, found an ancient station in a LaGrange point around the
>outermost planet of the system.

Ok, why didn't the SDB investigate? Why send a bunch of adventurers-for-hire out to do the government's work?

>There were no people to be found on either
>the trader or the station. There was power to the station and the trader,
>and neither showed any signs of a struggle. The station has been
>identified as a remnant from before the Rule of Man.

Identified by whom? From how far before the RoM? Ancients or Ziru Sirka? I think there needs to be just a few more details here. A lot of information is best left in the category of "if they ask" This may be one of them. A character of Vilani stock may recognize obselete symbology on the station, or its construction amy be so alien, and sensor readings ("corbaon dating") may give a vague indication of the station's age.

> An insurance agency has also contacted you about finding a ship that
>has been registered as lost. The vessel 'Lucky' has not reported in over 3
>months and it was to take a small hop to the outer planets to resupply a
>mining station at the Gas Giant.

This should be supplied by the government person, not an insurance company that just "happens" to contact the same group. My players would start getting paranoid if that happened.

> The Government has hired your agency to keep this out of the public's
>eye. If the Imperials were to discover that the station exists, the system
>would become quarantined until they had both examined the object completely
>and found nothing worth pursuing, or they were able to move it to another
>location for study.

The whole system? must be a pretty lame economy.

> The station is an archaeological find unsurpassed since the beginning
>of the Third Imperium. The station was built to sustain itself
>indefinitely, with an automated maintenance system. There are also other
>systems in the station that defy the known fact that the Vilani Empire did
>not allow any research into new and innovative ideas. The mysteries
>regarding this station continue to multiply the further anyone explores its
>depths.

Ok, I'm really confused now. Is this an Ancient site or a Vilani station? Or is it a combination of the two (Vilani Archeological station where an Ancient artifact was being examined?).

An interesting start. In my opinion it needs a bit more of a generic fit with Traveller to be published. Of course, it also needs to be finished out.

Pete

Peter H. Brenton : pbrenton@mit.edu
"A Good Traveller has no fixed plans and no intent on arriving."
     -Lao Tzu (570-490 BC)


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