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Mind Jammer

Resonant Dust

Background

It is 193 NCE. The players work for ExSol, a problem solving organization in the Darradine Rim. This is but one octant of 26 sectors, each of 125 subsectors of 8 octants apiece of the Commonality.

ExSol solves any problem, using various employees, workers, machines and resources. Any skills are useful to ExSol as it literally will solve any problem in return for credits, resources and influence. Players therefore can have any skill, stunt and aspect set, being any form of human, xenopmorph or construct.

Character Creation Rules

Home Rule Tweaks:

The characters will all receive the Mindscape Implant (in the appropriate flavor) for free so that will not come out of the Extras budget. Further, each character will receive an additional two (2) Stunts in the Extras budget for four (4) total, instead of 2. This is the number listed below. Finally, characters my purchase additional aspects at the cost of 2 Stunts per Aspect as noted below.

Character Creation Checklist (pages are all in Mindjammer Main book) When you create a character, go through the following steps:

  1. Choose your character concept (page 21).
  2. Choose your culture (page 19), and one cultural aspect
  3. Choose your genotype (page 20), and possibly one or more mandatory aspects and extras.
  4. Choose your occupation (page 20).
  5. Create your high concept aspect (page 21).
  6. Create your trouble aspect (page 21).
  7. Choose a name (page 22).
  8. Go through the three phases and create your phase trio aspects (page 22).
  9. Choose one Great (+4), two Good (+3), three Fair (+2), and four Average (+1) skills (page 25).
  10. Choose at least three (3) and no more than five (5) stunts (page 26).
  11. Write down your refresh (page 26) on your character sheet.
    1. This is:
      1. Refresh 5 if you have 3 stunts
      2. Refresh 4 if you have 4 stunts
      3. Refresh 3 if you have 5 stunts.
  12. Choose extras (equipment, enhancements, organisations, etc — see page 27) using your extras budget.
    1. You get to spend:
      1. 1 aspect
      2. 4 stunts
      3. 6 skill levels
    2. If you have any mandatory genotype aspects (above), these come out of your extras budget.
    3. You may convert 2 stunts to 1 aspect
  13. Write down which extras are in your halo (page 28); the rest go in the “Other Extras” section of the character sheet.
  14. Calculate your stress and consequences (page 28).
  15. Write down your tech index (based on your culture) on your character sheet (page 28).
  16. Write down your habituated gravity (usually standard gravity, but you may choose another) on your character sheet (page 28).
  17. Jot down any other starting equipment (page 28).

Campaign Resources

Lore

Characters

Adventure Journal

Episode 3: Love Makes for Strange Bedfellows

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Part 1: 2020-01-12

7S7 leaves Delebor and heads for Ajeux

On the way, Omni Mox brings passenger’s oddness to Doctor and Cimon’s attention to meet Alaz Yaubem (man you picked up) in sick bay. Omni Max asks Dr. Tipton for a scan of Alaz.

Omni says that he does a contract with all employees that involves a Memoplex (p.188 core rulebook) that includes confidentiality enforcers. These are all voluntary but protect him.

Omni Mox: “We had agreed, and I went to work to give him the Memoplex. The problem was, as I scanned him to deploy, I noticed his mindscape implant responded strangely, with a defense. That is odd for a voluntary memoplex. I looked closer and thought I would get with the two of you. I wanted to do a brain scan and look at this.”

A study of Alaz’s brain function with the MRI, shows it is oddly quiescent in some places and super active in others. The implant appears to be linked to these sections separately. Both the implant and the brain function are different than what anyone has seen before. It is all quite subtle, and Cimon thinks that only because Omni Max is using a very old memoplex, that he ran into it at all. (Omni is one of the first elidons created). What is clear, is that much of Alaz’s brain function seems to be sectioned off from Alaz.

Omni Mox: “I cannot insert this contract. I am not sure what we need to do with him, but I don’t want him near my ventures ongoing.”

Cimon and Dr. Tipton take this to the team, and they decide to confine Alaz to quarters. Alaz appears to have no knowledge of what is going on. They look at security, and it does not appear Titus has been tampered with in any way. They decide to tell Keepu and see what ExSol will do.

Upon arrival in the Ajeux system, Titus is told to go under stealth and take a circuitous root to ExSol 7 and doc in an inside bay. There he will get upgraded. 7S7 makes their report. Keepu says they will keep the data confidential and will get Alaz off the station. They are free until their next mission.

Douglas wants to explore what happened to him, after discovering a suppressed memory of waking up while in flight. He researches his ship and its location. The team quickly discovers the Unity is not in the parking orbit it was last in, and no where can they find a record of its orbit. Further, the celebrity of the event has clearly been suppressed with a gestalt. There are a couple of people still talking about it, the most notable is Gary Random. Douglas sets up a live interview with him for two weeks out. A trip to Charybdis office on the planet shows they sold the Unity to a private buyer.

About 9 days after return, 7S7 is directed to the office of Takanna Trianis, a local leader who runs a shipping corpocracy, Trianis Traders, and sits on the ruling council for this system. Her head of IT Security, and illicit xenomorph canine lover, Sempef Windlight has clearly been kidnapped. She cannot involve the Security forces as this will bring to light the illicit love affair. He was taken 10 hours ago leaving the Odessa building after a meeting with Stardust Traders.

7S7 springs into action, and immediately splits up to investigate. Cimon leads the investigation at the site, while Douglas goes to the vitim’s home with Dr. Tipton, and Owari and (Doug’s) investigate the office. They find nothing in the office of note other than a schedule of his day, written on paper. At his apartment, they find a pen from a restaurant The Savoir Où Est. This is a listening bug transmitting to the mindscape. They secure the pen but do not investigate the restaurant.

Meanwhile, Cimon is able to determine the cameras were hacked, but the local cameras are a high security type with on board memory. He finds they are doubled hacked, and clearly, Windlight left a personal view of what happened. He was jumped by four members of a gang, one of whom is clearly a cream colored canine xenomorph. All were wearing masks. The Car, registered to Palace Rides merges into air traffic and is lost against the cameras. It is clear holographic rigs were used to fool the local cameras. This seems pretty high tech for a gang. Cimon goes to look up the symbol on the jackets, and finds that information is secured.

Talking with their employer, she tells them she is shocked, because the symbol goes to the SulliedMen, a group who does dirty work for powerful people. She cannot believe that anyone would use them against her directly, as this is a taboo among the council. She does admit that she and the Security Chief are at odds with her over a security bill (she wants to decrease it). Nari Llashrm wants to increase the monitoring on incoming trade and people from the Core Worlds.

Cimon is able to trace the car back to a pick up spot outside a public mall, where the crew boarded after leaving a bathroom. They are also able to find hairs, both of Windlight, and who they think might be the other Xenomorph.

This ended the Session

Part 2 2020/02/23

The next session started with a trip to follow up on the kidnapper’s car rental and the bugged pen. Alec Tremba, a xenomorph canine, who was the Administrative assistant to provide additional information. He suggested the team investigate a warehouse near the space port. The team used drones to probe the warehouse but saw no evidence of Windlight’s presence.

The team tracked the air car owner, Seth Growth (clearly a fake name) to a storage facility. Owari inquired about renting a space. Cimon noted there were specific sentinels guarding the mindscape around the building.

Finally, Cimon worked on the bugged pen, while Malstox followed another lead within the Trianis Traders company. The rest of the group went to dinner at Savoir Où Est. Owari was well engaged on eating as much as she could, while the avatar and synthetic drew some puzzled looks. Getting little information from the waitstaff, Douglas pulled out an actual picture of Windlight and started asking people aggressively if they had seen the man. This results in guards asking them to leave, panic by diners, and physical fight as the group subdues the guards, seriously injuring several and making their way to the elevator at the back of the office.

When the fighting began, the whole site was severed from the general mindscape. Cimon was able to use his skills to piggy-back on the bugged pen signal and gain access. He brought an imposailty into place to deal with the guards and the sentinels. The team descended on the elevator, as Malstox and Cimon were headed to the location by aircar. The doors opened, and Douglas yelled “Look out!” as he saw three auto turrets descend from the ceiling.

Part 3 2020/03/15

The turrets fired, but those in front were able to take near misses. Except for the large ursinoid of the group, who just shrugged off the shots and charged into the room to rip the turrets from the ceiling. SABER and Titus fired to destroy two of the turrets, but the real story was the angry bear. Searching the basement, Douglas found an air-gapped data storage. Titus acted as a bridge for Cimon and they downloaded the encrypted contents.

The team was now aware of city police and planetary security descending on the building. Cimon and Malstox are instructed to head to the Ministry of Security and their aircar conveniently heads in that direction. Cimon is also told to have the team come out and enter the Ministry air van which is arriving. The team takes the data drive, and leaves the building, but not before Cimon makes sure the encrypted data is stored on a Mindjammer in system.

7S7 meets with Nari Llashrm, Minister of Security, Taylor Flag, Head of IT Security, Lea Cothran Deputy Minister of Security, Takanna Trianas, and Hans Gordan, her head of Physical Security. It appears Trianas came to Llashrm when she found out about the SulliedMen. Taylor Flag heads off to decode the data, while the group talks. Dr. Tipton notes Cothran slipping out of the meeting, but otherwise things seem normal. During the conversation, Trianas is surprised to discover Tremba talked to the party. Gordan denies telling Tremba anything. It is clear Tremba knew things he should not have known. Tipton quickly cross-checks the other hair sample and sure enough, it was Tremba.

Flag returns with the decoded data, and it is quite clear there is a plot afoot. Lea Cothran is a SciForce plant, and this scheme is set up to discredit both Trianas and Llashrm. By the time this in known, both Tremba and Cothran have disappeared. Llashrm orders 7S7 weapons to be collected and soon the group is headed to the safehouse location where the decrypted data says Windlight is being held. He promises the mindscape in the area will show nothing out of the ordinary.

In the climax of the adventure, the team bursts into the dockside warehouse. Cimon provides the cameras outside with a boring fantasy life, and the team goes in on the side opposite the street. It is clear the local SulliedMen know they are coming, but the team plows through them. Owari literally slams a group of four thugs into the barrier others are behind. Now in his BRADD suit, SABER adroitly burns through the group behind the barrier. Owari takes the barrier and uses it as a ram to crush the other thugs in the hallway. Douglas enters behind SABER and is attacked by a human from a room. They fire back, and the new assailant dodges back in and secures the door. A search of the room later will show a secret passage out from what was his bedroom/office.

Owari and SABER search the complex, with Owari bursting into the room where Windlight is being held by “Slate Grof” who surrenders with no fight. His real name is Alci Badi. Windlight is being kept in a suspended state, but Dr. Tipton is able to wake him. Security moves in, while the team leaves.

Thanks to their efforts, all history of their actions has been memoplexed away, and will at best, be rumors. New security against the Commonality will be put into place, despite the damage it might do to trade. For obvious reasons, Trainas is well on board with this now. The Minster tells Douglas he will not be doing that podcast but promises him some further information on his old ship in the next few days.

7S7 returns to ExSol 7 and debriefs with Keepu who says that they are seeing more Commonality activity as well. Keepu dryly notes that 7S7 is clearly not an investigative team, and he will point them into more robust situations in the future.

Episode 2: Monsters of the Mind

The group is gathered and given their mission

Mission to Yi Xiu II OmniMoxCorp Mission Members • Leader: Omni Mox, Construct with makepoint and sub-drones. Will be mostly in parts for Trip. No Humanoid Avatar, Survival Specialist and base • Rankev Wardiaz Commonality Male, Xenobiologist • Lase Clarker Synthetic, Xenoarchologist • Eran Watson Commonality Female, Xenotechnologist • Kathria Hally, Commonality Female, Xenoarchologist • Lise Pete, Commonality Androgonous, Xenobiologist • Lyna Adards, Synthetic, Security Expect The Mission is to explore alien ruins on the planet. It looks to have been involved in large scale nuclear war in its past. Yi Xiu is at the hot edge of the habitable zone and is drying out. CO2 levels will require breathers for humans. Omni Mox is a Large ATV with many drones and other plug in parts, including a makepoint. He will assemble himself as a base at a chosen location on the planet. The Rest have various cargo, equipment to install, and there are 16 satellites to be orbited around the planet to let Omni have a planetwide mindscape.

Things do not go as planned.

At Delebor, they pick up Alaz Yaubem wanting to get off the planet. He agrees to park in a cabin on the ship and stay out of the way. The rest of the trip to Yi Xiu is uneventful. The group rendezvous with an automated supply ship to clear their drives and moves on. At the planet, they deployed the communications and scanning satellites and settled in near one of the standing alien cities. The world itself has a high CO2 content, and high He content. It clearly has the remains of nuclear explosions.

Omni Mox overseas the construction of the base, while 7S7 escorts Lase, Eran, Katheira, and Lise to explore the city. They are attacked by local fauna along they way. At the city, they find ancient buildings. These appear to be perfectly constructed, right down to the atomic level, and impervious to wear, and blocking of radio signals. The buildings appear powered by geothermal energy, channeled by mental energy. Several members are “attacked” by the building. Evacuating the buildings, 7S7 gets the scientists away.

It becomes clear that the animal and plant life on this planet are engineered, and designed to not mutate. It is also clear that something horrible happened to the population, based on the last recording in the home the characters entered. Out in orbit, Titus tracks an ancient satellite, of much older technology, and also finds a base inside a moon. The base in the moon has the same effects as buildings, and Malstox starts to age as he and Douglas explore the inside. Titus blasts them out and returns to the planet to evacuate the group in the city.

On the ground, Cimon is sure they are being stalked by Venu, and others can start to see this. It is quite clear to the group that the city can make hallucinations real. Titus gets the group out, and Omni Max orders an evacuation. Titus collects everyone and they leave the system, engines still unpurged.

Returning to the system with the automatic support ship, Titus cannot detect its beacon, and instead picks up another ship. Creeping into the system under stealth, it is clear a SciForce Corvette is where the patrol ship used to be. Desperately needing to clear their drives, Titus goes to the other side of the sun for the purge. They plot a course and trajectory for a 2-space jump ahead of time, to be able to run on a moment’s notice. There, they get 3 days into the process when the Corvette comes around to see them. Titus takes off, ignoring calls to heave to, and the ships jumps to a nearby star. They quickly make calculations for a risky jump to another star, and succeed. There they finish purging the drives and start the trip back to Delebor.

Episode 1: Getting to Know You

The characters area all told to report to the ExSol HQ for the Darradine Rim, ExSol 7. ExSol 7 orbits 3 light minutes preceding Ajeux, the capital of the Darradine sector. The massive station is composed of 7 ExSol ship modules.

The team met with their controller, Keepu, a xenomorph whale inside the secure corporate sphere of ExSol 7. They are given their team designation of 7S7 and told they will do a virtual training exercise of an assassination mission.

The Mission takes the team to a fictional city on a fictional world. Titus lands the ship up the coast from the city, and then the team used a hijacked truck to travel to the tower the target lived in. Cimon used his skills to override the elevator, but it became clear to him, this building had a construct. 7S7 encountered guards in the hallway and had a firefight. Getting into the suite, they easily bested the internal guards and took out the target.

Alarms now blaring, Titus took no changes and under stealth, flew to the city, hovering next to the windows the team was at. Jumping through blasted glass, the team got into Titus and fled the planet. The simulation ended there and the team was told they were ready for their first real mission.

Pre-Game

From the void between the stars, two ships converge on the Darradine Rim Capital system of Ajeux. One is a old STL gardener ship, with a loan crewmember. The other is a crippled scout, with a tired and damaged vet of the Venu war. The gardener ship, Unity, is intercepted by a Commonality corvette, including one Dr. James Tipton, from the Core Worlds. It is he who wakes up Douglas Arthur, the Unity’s engineer after his long sleep. After this find, the good Doctor finds he is banished and cannot return to the Core Worlds. Arthur, amazed at the future, signs up with Titus as ship’s engineer. Titus, is a retired vet of the Venu wars, an infiltration ship, trying to adapt to civilian life. The scout held the synthetic Cimon, a hacker from the Venu wars, forced to limp home, burning with resentment for a Commonality which abandoned him. Far off the normal starlanes, the planet Selu sits under quarantine. It is s world entirely of xenomorphs, in an early industrial stage of technology. There, the native solider, O'wari Nex, helped ExSol team out. Discovering there is so much more world, she left with them, to join the company. Malstox Benson is from the rim, and wants to live forever. An asteroid miner, he is always down on his luck, but crossed paths with Nex and now has joined ExSol. S.A.B.E.R.R is a machine of war, without a war to fight. He is a mercenary synthetic, working to ExSol and assigned to this team, after working so well with Nex before.

game_systems/mindjammer.1584892173.txt.gz · Last modified: 2020/03/22 11:49 by Bryan Stephens