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Wanted- Ancient Psionic Focus

E

Easterner9504

SOC-13
IMTU

A complex assassination of a Zhodani Consul General has occured in the Florian League. By coincidence the PC's were "just leaving" when a TDX charge went off.

A now deceased waiter is implicated. The Impie acting C.G. spotted something unusual at dinner and his aide confessed to the killing.

Unknown is that a 3rd party plus is involved.

An Ancient psionic focus was used to manipulate the two suspects. It inadvertantly killed the waiter.

What should the focus look like? Should in theory be small (or in 2 parts if not). So ideas needed on the form of an Ancient device. Brain differences from Droyne to Human can mean the item was not intended for mind control.

Creative folks help needed.
 
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Off the top of my head; a special Coyn that is unknown and undiscovered by the most devout Ancient scholars. Maybe it glows with power. It most certainly has a symbol that differs from all other coyns. It might be unique, or one of a handful from Grandfather's ancient realm... given only to the "trusted" of his children, so to speak.
 
Like for all my Ancient devices, I usually focus on the aesthetic dimension. For all their high tech, the Ancients perfected most of the common devices at a lower tech, as their tech progresses, they focus on making objects visually appealing. Hence many Ancient artifacts do not look like technological devices at all. They may appear as jewelery, tear drops, or something that is organic.

So, I would choose something really exotic like from H.R. Giger to convey the device but is just me.
 
Perhaps something transmutable or transformable, made of memory
metal that can change to reflect its ability to control two or more
sentients. Maybe subtle changes so that's it's not immediately
obvious. Something from Escher might do, a twisted, flowing piece
of chrome that seems to be bent one way, catches the reflection of
the target then alters its shape to work on that person ? Sort of
Pygmalion ? ;)

>
 
E9504,

It will depend on how you want to "present" the object in your campaign. There are two general ways to go about this; "Not What It Seems" and "Seemingly Odd".

The first is what Kafka suggested, the device is not what it seems. Now, by "not what it seems" I mean the players aren't going to look at it and immediately scream "ZOMG!! It's an Ancient artifact that must have been used to control the bomber's mind!!" This means the device isn't going to be a glowing iridium mobius strip floating in midair, an incredibly old statue worn by the touch of millions of hands to a point where it's little more than a lump, or an oddly shaped device covered with even more oddly shaped buttons.

Instead the device could be a seemingly prosaic object or part of a prosaic object. Think of jewelry, "objets d'art", archeological findings, even building materials. In this case, the culpable object is in plain sight. The players are going to have to become suspicious of it through means other than it's physical presence.

In the second case, the object is odd enough to attract suspicion as soon as your player's spot it. In this case, it is the floating mobius strip, old statue, or weird device. Naturally, you can use this to misdirect the players, but eventually one of the weird things they turn up will be the culpable object.

You mentioned possibly using two objects and that brings up all sorts of wonderful possibilities. If there are two objects at work here, one can "Not What It Seems" and the other "Seemingly Odd"!

Just off the top of my pointy head here and stealing, naturally, from a recent news story:

The waiter is a numismatist and so is your unknown third party. An ancient ship wreck dating from the pre-industrial era of Florian was recovered some time in the fairly recent past and a hoard of coins was salvaged. After the usual wranglings over ownership, the coins were sold to collectors and museums for a substantial profit. What made some of the coins interesting was not only there age but their incorporation of even earlier metal work. The coins are minted from gold but in the center of each is a ~5mm disc of electrum. Unknown to the scholars that examined them, those discs are actually Ancient devices.

Imagine small psionic comm-dots which look like naturally occurring electrum to both untrained and trained eyes. (After all, who's going to microscan an old gold coin from a shipwreck?) The discs are relics from the Ancients' time on Floria naturally and the early Floriani civilization which discovered them used them as and in precious objects. Over the millennia, most were lost, but enough were passed from kingdom to kingdom, hoard to hoard, and treasury to treasury to finally end up in the shipwreck's coins.

The waiter and the third party bought these coins and, for whatever reason, had the coins on their person when each separately visited a newly opened museum exhibit. The museum exhibit dealt with Floria's "Ancient Past" and the centerpiece of the exhibit was a recently discovered wall panel fragment from what is believed to have been an Ancient-era planetoid base.

Of course, the panel fragment isn't a panel fragment at all. It's part of an Ancient computer, a particularly limited computer, one only tasked with environmental control and basic security for the base, but a computer nonetheless. Ever since being recovered and placed in what, is to it, an energy rich environment thanks to heat and lighting, the computer has been slowly repairing itself and trying to contact any other Ancient devices. Then the coins swam into it's ken...

The third party isn't a bad man, just a hopelessly frustrated one whose inner life is filled with an inarticulate rage. When the security computer connected with his coin, it plugged into that rage. When the security computer later connected to the waiter's coin, it transmitted that rage for so long that the waiter eventually acted upon it.

In this scenario, the third party is an asymptotic disease carrier, the panel/computer is the disease's vector, and the waiter is merely the disease's first victim. The players will have to solve the riddle of the coins, then the riddle of the panel, and then return to the coins to prevent further murders.

Hope this foolishness is of some help.


Regards,
Bill
 
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Object

Thanks,

I was leaning towards coyns but thought that might be too prosaic, same with statue. The self repairing comp though has potential.

The waiter is complete innocent; the 3rd party not, though side affects may be involved. The 2nd coyn (or whatever) would be in possession of Impie diplo and 3rd party, that is connection. Presumably comp is in local museum on Halka, perhaps on loan from Floria museum.

So just need to see if something else, perhaps jewelry, or coyns, are the focus. Or something Giger-ish.
 
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Object

GOT IT!!!!


At the sight the 'computer' was recovered the ground was an odd rainbow color. The artless Floriani analyzed it, learned nothing and ignored it.

Years later the Vilani refugees who ended up on Trossechs came across the material and found when wet it bacame an outstanding pigment material with incredible shine and vibrancy. It became popular in watercolors and for painting/decorating tourist trinkets.

In reality is is the remnants of computer fluid from a long destroyed Ancient installation. The resuscitating comp links to it but it affects only teeps and latents. A combination that came together for the assassination. the psi bleed-off killed the mundane waiter, no ill affects on the users each of whom possess a painted jewelry item.


Now so long as nosy players stay away from here.......
 
Or... it's a customizeable form fitting piece of clothing with all kinds of capabilities. It's not much larger than say a sleeve; i.e. larger than a glove, but smaller than a shirt, and it adhere's the wearer's body. Wearer thoughts are picked up as neural impulses through the arm, which are translated into some kind of manifestation.

Or... it's an energy force with very little physical presence, but with a cohesion coded into it. Kind of like an invisible wrench or hammer, but it does more than drive in nails and screws.

Just more of my two bits.
 
Easterner9504 said:
GOT IT!!!! At the sight the 'computer' was recovered the ground was an odd rainbow color. (snip) In reality is is the remnants of computer fluid from a long destroyed Ancient installation. (snip)
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E9504,

That is SWEET! What a mind boggling idea...

So, 300,000 years ago one of Yaskodray's kids or grandkids was running some unfathomable project on-world that involved molecular computing. He had these whopping huge tanks of gloop busily blurping and flurping away with a more "normal" (or as normal as the Ancients get) computer acting as some sort of interface.

The Final War swings by, the base goes blooey, the tanks are shattered, and the gloop drains away into the ground to eventually stop at some some strata it finds impermeable. Time flows by in a greased groove and the gloop spreads around a bit, slowly mixing with the material around it, and - this is really important - growing as it attempts to keep operating.

Now, I'm not suggesting nanites here. That's too passe. I'm suggesting something more along the lines of DNA; a self-replicating molecule. The gloop doesn't have much of what it needs to replicate and there's little energy down there either, but it perseveres over the millennia eventually producing a widespread layer of what seems to be a decayed organic pigment on top of the impermeable layer. This growth period is very slow, grows even slower, and finally stops but not before the "pigment" is spread across a few square kilometers. The cessation of growth is partially due to "supply" issues, critical trace minerals are scarce to begin with and get scarcer, and partially due to "evolution", the replication produces mistakes naturally and the mistakes either replicate more mistakes or not at all. It's like making a xerox copy of a xerox copy over and over again, the test and pictures on each new copy get fainter and fainter.

Geological actions like wind or water eventually uncover part of the layer and the pigment on it leading to it's discovery as a dye by the Vilani refugees. The Floriani noticed it too in their drilling samples around the site of the old base but, as you noted, saw no real use for it.

So, why does the goop need to spread out and grow? Because people are using it to paint knicknacks, that's why. There's got to be whole lot of it, otherwise it would be too unique a dye to use on trinket.

All the rest goes on as you've outlined, the dye gets reactivated in the presence of the recovered computer - which isn't recognized as a computer either - and the feces hits the rotary ventilation device.

Please keep a campaign log on this one. I just must know how your players figure it all out!


Regards,
Bill
 
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Next

One of the players decided on a scan of prisoners possessions. But broke it down into 3 rolls so depending on order of items scans she could learn a lot.


Your growing scenario is valid. I was thinking Krell sized base in which fluid was in lake sized quantity. Either way there had to be mega tons as you said. Vilani have been part of Floria since the Rule of Man started while Solomani Halkan's (as opposed to native minors) have been around but 80 years. (Dec. of 1110 current campaign date)

I'm using the Soli version of Halka rather than the Florian version both of which are floating around the web. I'm further assuming original Halkan's were the base stock for the Floriani mutant human Feskal and they left the world in an unvisited benign neglect from guilt which allowed Soli's to move in set up shop before being noticed and pulled into League.
 
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Easterner9504 said:
One of the players decided on a scan of prisoners possessions. But broke it down into 3 rolls so depending on order of items scans she could learn a lot.
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E9504,

How will you handle what she learns and how accurate it may be? Do you use MT's "two roll" system? You know, the one in which the player rolls openly, the GM rolls secretly, and the two are compared, again secretly, to set the level of truth?

Your growing scenario is valid. I was thinking Krell sized base in which fluid was in lake sized quantity.
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That growing scenario is valid because I didn't think of a lake like you did. I simply wasn't sufficiently imaginative, after all it's the Ancients were talking about! Make it a lake or even a sea that dried up between the Final War and the present leaving the pigment layer behind.

I'm using the Soli version of Halka rather than the Florian version both of which are floating around the web. I'm further assuming original Halkan's were the base stock for the Floriani mutant human Feskal and they left the world in an unvisited benign neglect from guilt which allowed Soli's to move in set up shop before being noticed and pulled into League.
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Entirely plausible given the Floriani's reactive mindset. More importantly, it fits the needs of you and your players. That's all that really matters, the fact that it's actually a good story is just icing on the cake.


Regards,
Bill
 
System

GURPS TRAV so she made 3 good rolls. One was critical success, but she failed to order wisely so that is no affect.

She's using Med Bay equipment for scan rolled a 7 (on 3d6) so if med tech rolls 6 or less they'll learn something. On a 7 the pigment will show as bio-residue. Otherwise they'll miss this....though Floriani lack of bio-science & Vilani lack of imagination and bio would have hindered both.

I'll have to figure a re-do opportunity if the two blow the rolls.

Critical failure could get interesting though. (evil GM chortle)
 
Easterner9504 said:
GURPS TRAV so she made 3 good rolls. One was critical success, but she failed to order wisely so that is no affect.
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E9504,

D'oh! I forgot you were using GT. GURPS has some excellent "interpersonal" and "investigative" mechanisms.

She's using Med Bay equipment for scan rolled a 7 (on 3d6) so if med tech rolls 6 or less they'll learn something. On a 7 the pigment will show as bio-residue. Otherwise they'll miss this....though Floriani lack of bio-science & Vilani lack of imagination and bio would have hindered both.
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Nicely done. I loved this aspect of role-playing, when the players actually used the system in an in-game learning process instead of merely trying to "hack" it or simply asking whether they found/shot/saw something.

I was always intrigued by MT's research rules but never managed to successfully include them in any session. I'm very interested in GURPS:Mysteries for much the same reason but haven't been able to find a review of it.

I'll have to figure a re-do opportunity if the two blow the rolls.
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Have one of the tech's assisting her or working elsewhere in the lab mention offhand that they normally re-run tests in order to produce a greater level of certainty with the results. That won't be a prompt from you, it's an actual and important QC/QA technique!

Critical failure could get interesting though. (evil GM chortle)
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Oh, yes! ;)


Regards,
Bill
 
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Results- NEGATIVE

The lab guy wants a re-do on his own initiative (or he's spying here).

GURPS has an entire rules section on failing and re-doing so not cutting a roll is not the end if players are insistent.
 
Easterner9504 said:
The lab guy wants a re-do on his own initiative (or he's spying here).
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E9504,

That's a very nice red herring to confuse your players with. ;)

Did the lab guy re-run the tests because that's what he always does? Or because someone else asked him to? Are the results he reported accurate? Or has someone asked him to change or shade them?

A few simple hints from you can have your players chasing their tails about the lab guy.


Regards,
Bill
 
Easterner9504 said:
He rolled a 12 and wants a do-over I guess. -1 per each repeat attempt
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E9504,

Ooops, I didn't realize the lab guy was the player. You'd mentioned the player earlier as being a "she", so I assumed her character would be a "she" too because I'm an old sexist poop.

Adding penalties fro each re-roll is entirely correct. There's less of a usable sample each time, right? ;) The players may even have to go back and dig up some more...

Please do keep a campaign log, I know I'm not the only one who wants to see how your players either solve or don't solve this mystery.


Regards,
Bill
 
Game

The "she" is a beautiful blonde of the Paris Hilton set who joined the Navy at the end of the FFW after a life changing kidnapping. The "lab tech" is a grizzled Scout of much seniority and tremendous skills. Both are PC's.
 
Easterner9504 said:
The "she" is a beautiful blonde of the Paris Hilton set who joined the Navy at the end of the FFW after a life changing kidnapping. The "lab tech" is a grizzled Scout of much seniority and tremendous skills. Both are PC's.
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E9504,

So the lab tech is a PC and he may be spying? That's very intriguing.

It is something the player approached you with, something you approached the player with, and what do the other players suspect so far? He's ex-IISS so he could be working for the Imperium, couldn't he?

I ran a very short campaign in which the PCs weren't exactly mercs, they were more like bus drivers for the real mercs. They flew an armed transport which was subsidized by a planetary government. One of my players approached me early on and quickly convinced me that no government or corporation would hand out such a subsidized vessel to the first Tom, Dick, or Eneri that came along. Instead, they'd make sure they had a man on the inside, maybe even two men. The player then volunteered to be that inside man.

He played it very well and very low key. He used blind drops pass along his messages which contained little more than after action reports and damage assessments. He also became the voice of caution in the party.

The players deduced early on there was an inside man, but they never twigged to him as being it and instead suspected a number of NPCs. While they weren't especially upset with what their subsidy holder's questions revealed about the contents of those deduced inside reports, they were understandably curious about who was doing the reporting.

The campaign ended before I could use this secret relationship for my purposes as GM. I was going to give the player instructions from the subsidy holders that he would have to fulfill without letting the rest of the party know. IIRC, the orders would have been about getting the ship to a certain location by a certain date. The owners needed it there but they also needed to plausibly deny ever giving any such orders.


Regards,
Bill
 
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