Dominion specialists, ideas welcome ...

Hello all ... here is a question akin to the "Post DS9 questions" thread.

For those who do not know it already, I am running a post DS9 campaign. I would like to throw my players on a salvage mission (what with having to use the Foch class carrier and all).
My first idea was to set it in a cardassian city/settlement. The dominion soldiers have already wreaked a havoc there, and the approaching winter does not make it a very jolly place. Starfleet is thinking about sending some homanitary aid there, but suddenly a strange plague starts in numerous points in cardassian space, last "gift" from the dominion. Back when the cardassian rebellion started gaining popularity, the female founder wanted some very efficient way to convince the cardassian to stop. She did not have the time to use it before the end, but somehow the virus broke free (have to figure out how ... any idea?).
Needless to say that the gene engineers have done a very good work there and that the plague is quite deadly, very contagious, and affects only cardassians.

The players will have to go there and do what they can to contain, then eradicate the plague (among other things, like keeping the Foch from falling from orbit (problems with impulse drives http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/wink.gif ), etc.).

Now, it does not need to be a plague ... "the quickening" is a very deep episode, but a bit dark for a rpg session. It could be ... dunnow, a time bomb ... the plague seems very "dominionish" but I would rather avoid it. Thus the question: What do you think of it? What would you use instead of a plague? (and if Steve is listening, would it be consistent with the DWS?)
Comments? Ideas?

I've been using the same idea.

I'm having it spread by Vorta "carriers" that don't get sick, but do spread it. They are poor waifs that got left behind by the Dominion to wander the Cardassian ruins as punishment for having lost the war. Cardassian's haven't treated them very well, and will kill them once they find out the real reason they were left behind (they, for the most part, didn't kill them right off as it was more fun to make them beg for food). If the PC's can get their hands on one of the Vortas before the mobs get them, they just *might* be able to figure out a treatment.

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TK

Here's two possible ways to go about it.

Set at the Cloning Facility on Rondak III, the characters are doing double duty serving as both humanitarian workers and collecting Dominion technology. Keep the players off base for a while, having them deal with the usual disaster relief scenarios: Searching through the remains of destroyed building looking for survivors; cleaning up any Jem'Hadar/Vorta remnants; dealing with all the logistics of coordinating the effort and so-on.

Then a lead appears regarding a previously unknown Obsidian Order lab in a distant part of the colony (maybe on an island?). An advanced survey team sent to investigate disappears, and the characters are next in line to find out what happened. After arriving at the site, they are confronted by a member of the survey team who attacks them in zombie-like fashion. Cue the scary music as the adventure turns a dark corner

As the characters soon discover, it wasn't an Obsidian Order lab, but a secret Vorta Lab working on a biogenic weapon to be used as a failsafe in case the Cardassians decided to switch sides. The virus is designed to kill the victim and turn them into your garden-variety walking dead. The Vorta were apparently working on a way to program the virus so that the dead would never attack a Founder, Vorta, or Jem'Hadar, but before they could, the lab was nearly destroyed in the attack (mentioned in the episode "The Changing Face of Evil").

Have the characters mode of transportation taken out (communications blocked if transported in, shuttlecraft/runabout destroyed if flown in). They need to figure out a way to save themselves and destroy all vestiges of the virus before it spreads.

*****

Set on Cardassia Prime, the players get to play spaceman as they assist the Zero-Gravity Specialists in the massive salvage operation in orbit around the ravaged planet.

Assisting them are a number of Cardassians that sided with the Alliance in that last days of the war. They are able to give valuable information on possible booby-traps still active in the wreckage, which ships should be salvages first for valuable tech, etc. Maybe even one of them saves the life of a character that has a grudge against them. Here's where you can have the wacky opposites-attract bonding stories you see so much in Star Trek episodes.

After the bonding takes place, one of the Cardassians reveals that he and some others have been approached by members of the Orion Syndicate. The Syndicate is looking for good remnants of Dominion technology for that edge they need against the Federation. And they are promising the Cardassians a lot. The opportunity is there for the characters to score a major victory against the Orion Syndicate. But information given by the Cardassians appears flimsy at best, and almost seems like a possible double cross. The characters must decide whether or not the Cardassians are telling the truth before its too late.

Hope either of these are worthy alternatives to the "Quickening."

Hey Alex... Been playing Resident Evil a lot lately?

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Dan.

"A couple of thoughts from a random mind!"

HAHA! Wow. I just reread the first adventure seed after the Resident Evil comment, and I have to agree with the old adage, "There are no new ideas."

Hmmm… well, actually what influenced me was the infamous unproduced TNG script “Blood and Fire,” by David Gerrold. Was rereading it a few days ago and thought that sometimes Starfleet personnel need to have their comfy views on what lurks in the dark shaken up every now and then.

Anyway, that comparison gave me a good laugh. I’ll see what else I can think up that might resemble a fun Playstation game. : )

Alex, where might I find this unpublished episode?

The out-of-print book "Lost Voyages of Trek and The Next Generation," by Bill Planer has summaries of a bunch of unused Trek scripts, including comments from David Gerrold on this great lost episode. Later, I happened to get a script from a friend at a convention.

I think you can purchase the script online from David himself at www.gerrold.com. It's worth it.

I'd suggest that the Dominion would probably want the Cardassians to get off the planet, so as to spread the disease. With that in mind, I think they would use agent provocateurs to try and get some of the injured Cardassians taken offworld by the FOch and taken to another Cardassian world.

Maybe the deisease mutates on the ship. Maybe they almost get these poor buggers to another Cardassian port. Maybe the Cardassians take Foch by force and try to get away, not realizing they are spreading contagion.

Any of these might be good to Foch with your characters. http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/wink.gif

Thanks Alex, the one with the Orion Syndicate it pretty good, specially if it is set at Rondak III. There is plenty of bad things the Syndicate could do with an advanced enough cloning technology, so my players had better keep it from getting its hands on it http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/wink.gif.
Actually, I think I'll still use the biogenic virus time bomb, but later. I need the Cardassians to be more than just "bloody spoonheads" (as Chief O'Brien could have said) to my players. And that will need time. Besides, no-one said the disease had to be ugly. As seen in "The Quickening", the Founders are not devoid of a certain sense of aesthetics. Somehow, I think that the appearance of the disease can be used to increase the dramatic dimension of the story, and not to darken it.
Anyhow, thanks a lot for the ideas http://www.trekrpg.net/Board/ubb/smile.gif.