Adventure help...

[AslanC]

Okay I have a game this Thursday and I need to have an adventure ready. Here's what I have so far, based on an adventure seed I posted as Captain Zymmer...

Name: Captain X and the Pirate Princess
Idea: The adventure starts with the players responing to a distress call from a merchant ship besiged by pirates. Arriving on the scene, Orion pirates are hard at work. A warning shot should send them scurrying, but not before the Pirate Captain has one communication with the Captain. The Pirate Captain is a liberated Green Orion Woman, she is taken by the dashing Starfleet Captain and has developes a bit of a crush on him. She is captured by the crew and taken into custody for tansfer to a local Starbase. While on the way she will do everything she can to spend tiem with the Captain, seducing him as best she can. The hook is that her former Lieutenant has taken over now as Pirate Lord and needs to get her back, before the dreaded Starfleet Vulcans pilfer her mind and learn all their secrets. A daring plan has been concocted, involving an attack by two obvious ships, while one pirate vessel with a cloak slips inbehind the ship and beams a boarding party on board.

Okay so thinking about it, I need to go in a different direction.

They are trying to steal medicine for an outbreak of Rodian Pox, a deadly disease for which there is only treatment, no cure (so th doctor of course can deelop a cure in the adventure).

I figure the disease neds to break out on the ship as well, to really make it interesting.

I don't need to dothe rescue part either, I can just have the whole crew captured at once maybe?

I want so swashbuckling fighting on the ship, maybe the pirates are able to take control of th ship, but then the pox breakout forces them to work with the crew?

Help? Please?

[Balok]

Perhaps the pirates want the medicine not to sell, but because some of them have the disease? A fact they won't share with the crew until it becomes apparent that the disease is now aboard the crew's ship... Perhaps the disease is worse in Orions than in other species, so they're really desperate.

If the Orions are imprisoned in the brig, then perhaps one of them could have a small forcefield jammer, disguised as jewelry. Sure, security will search them, but people make mistakes all the time. Perhaps the female Orion captain vamped the junior security ensign. Flustered, he missed that key piece of jewelry in her hair...

When it becomes apparent the Orions cannot avoid capture, they beam a small cache of weapons to the *outside* of the Federation ship. They're in a magnetic box, and can be retrieved using a standard transporter, by anyone who knows the transponder frequency and code. Otherwise, they're so small and inconsequential, they'll be picked up only on a visual inspection (and who does THAT! ). They can disguise the transport by faking an engine overload, "polluting" nearby space with drive plasma, or some other trick that makes the sensor operations trick to detect their skulduggery harder...

Or, perhaps the Orions possess a replicator override code, and can coerce one of the larger engineering replications (normally used to make spare parts) into making what they want. Such codes must exist for emergency purposes, and if anyone would have 'em, the Orions would...

Let us know how the adventure goes, and, I hope these ideas are of some help...

[AslanC]

Originally posted by Fesarius
If the Orions are imprisoned in the brig, then perhaps one of them could have a small forcefield jammer, disguised as jewelry. Sure, security will search them, but people make mistakes all the time. Perhaps the female Orion captain vamped the junior security ensign. Flustered, he missed that key piece of jewelry in her hair...

I LOVE THIS! How very TOS of you

Excellent idea. I WILL be using this one

[AslanC]

So I had a thought. What if the Nautilus is transporting the medicine, instead of a merchant ship, due to the importance of the medicine?

They sneak one of the pirates on board as a new transfer (like in the old TOS ep I, Mudd). She disrupts the shields to allow them to slip a ship in between the nacelles (like Ro did in that TNG ep) and they beam on to grab the stuff.

On of my problems is, how can they be sympathetic without being evil? If they steal the medicine (even if they beed it) are they not condeming whoever the Nautilus is taking the medicine too? If the Nautilus doens't have to take the medicine to someone it loses the importance (also why divert a Connie refit to move something a transport could move).

Thoughts? ideas?

[AslanC]

Okay talking wiht Lancer on ICQ shows how I cna't use the inflitrate angle. I will save it for a later adventure.

1] the medicine is needed on a colony for an outbreak of Rodian Pox, the same disease has broken out amoungst a group of Orion Slaves, who are being left to die by their owners.

2] How can the Captain help both sides on this? How can he help the slaves and the colonists? Since UST does not allow the instant replicator fix... could it be (since replicators make food cubes) that there is a particular vitamin combination in Green Orions that would allow for them to be healed?

3] My buddy Jeff usggested keeping the captain of the Merchant ship around, so that I can add another level of tension. An ex-Starfleeter who was a hard ass and now isn't bound by the rules and wants payback maybe?

Just thinking out loud.

[Karg]

Sounds good Aslan, might have to try this with my group

[AslanC]

Originally posted by Karg
Sounds good Aslan, might have to try this with my group

Let me know how it works out since I have 1/3 of an adventure here and still need help

[Tobian]

Hmm interesting idea. A really good angle on this would have been to have the Orions actually stage the attack on a smaller ship so that they could draw in the crew of your bold starship and infiltrate her from the inside...

if the cargo ship was actually in league with the Orions then this would be a big help... The orion captain with her hair jewlerry (nice touch!) gets captured.. meanwhile the cargo ships crew gets transported onboard, and after a few doctors havehad a look at them they have to stay onboard while the Starfleet engineers take a look at their ship and see if they can repair it in enough time to get the medicine (which is in the starfleet ships cargo bay).. they can't.. because it's been heavilly damaged...

However conveniently the cargo ship is heading in the same direction and so the Starfleet captain might be convinved to take their cargo with them.... and there's the trap....! Inside the cargo boxes are Orion smugglers and a cachet of weapons (masked from the sensors) - who simply wait til the evening to break in to the medicine boxes and put them inside their own!!!

In the mean time (very TOS like) the Orion female captain is charming the pants of your own captain (or other major PC good guy) and ostensibly falling for him (or just faking it you chose!) hoping to keep him busy while her crew are doing their worst...

Just as she gets to the good part (camera rolls round to the fireplace ) she snaps a nail... which contains a sleeping draught which she runs down his neck or something (something like anesthazine but hey if it's TOS it's probably a magic potion )

She runs off to her comrades in the brigg - fiddles with her hair band and POP the brigg shields go down.. they run down to the cargo area...

Ariving they surprise the security guards from behnd and to the front and use the cargo room transporters to beam down to some fortified structure on the planet below which is shielded as soon as they beam in and has a waiting ship for them...

That's the plan! now depending on how far you want to push the envelope they might not get that far OR ifyou're looking for a two parter you could let them escape and then you have to catch them!

[AslanC]

Originally posted by Tobian
Hmm interesting idea. A really good angle on this would have been to have the Orions actually stage the attack on a smaller ship so that they could draw in the crew of your bold starship and infiltrate her from the inside...

So the attack isn't real? The merchant is in on it too?

if the cargo ship was actually in league with the Orions then this would be a big help... The orion captain with her hair jewlerry (nice touch!) gets captured.. meanwhile the cargo ships crew gets transported onboard, and after a few doctors havehad a look at them they have to stay onboard while the Starfleet engineers take a look at their ship and see if they can repair it in enough time to get the medicine (which is in the starfleet ships cargo bay).. they can't.. because it's been heavilly damaged...

Okay I see where you are going with this.

However conveniently the cargo ship is heading in the same direction and so the Starfleet captain might be convinved to take their cargo with them.... and there's the trap....! Inside the cargo boxes are Orion smugglers and a cachet of weapons (masked from the sensors) - who simply wait til the evening to break in to the medicine boxes and put them inside their own!!!

Nice! Very very nice!

In the mean time (very TOS like) the Orion female captain is charming the pants of your own captain (or other major PC good guy) and ostensibly falling for him (or just faking it you chose!) hoping to keep him busy while her crew are doing their worst...

Just as she gets to the good part (camera rolls round to the fireplace ) she snaps a nail... which contains a sleeping draught which she runs down his neck or something (something like anesthazine but hey if it's TOS it's probably a magic potion )

Excellent, very very cool. Plus since she is an Orion female... "No human man can resist her."

She runs off to her comrades in the brigg - fiddles with her hair band and POP the brigg shields go down.. they run down to the cargo area...

Ariving they surprise the security guards from behnd and to the front and use the cargo room transporters to beam down to some fortified structure on the planet below which is shielded as soon as they beam in and has a waiting ship for them...

That's the plan! now depending on how far you want to push the envelope they might not get that far OR ifyou're looking for a two parter you could let them escape and then you have to catch them!

Actually she frees them, they take control of the ship (that is TOS for sure). Then they force it to go to a certain planet where they find a lost colony of Green orion slaves maybe.

I am thinking of dropping the medicine aspect (too harsh) and instead going for Nautilus is transporting Food Replicators destined for a Federation colony.

While the Orion captain still steals them, she isn't condeming anyone to death by doing so.

If not food replicators, anyone have any other ideas?

Thanks Tobian, really slick stuff

[Tobian]

Actually yes that's a good point.. at that head count they have ... all of the orion ships crew (possibly multiple)... The secret cargo crew... and the cargo ship crew ... liberally scattered round the ship! That's probably enough to actually capture the vessel, especially if the captain is down!

hehe maybe it's the pheremones as I seem to find Orion women resistable blearghh

What would be good to costruct next would be a REASON for the Orions would want the ship.. One would be an afore mentioned cargo.. but it's likelly if they are going to go to that much trouble to capture one of Starfleets finest they want to use something it has .. something which springs to my mind is the reputation!

Ok here's a thought.. The food replicators are cover.. that's what they tell the crew if they are probed.. but the real target is actually some priceless treasure - this could be anything that fits with your current campaign.. a dilithium mine, a cache of quantum torpedoes, the govenor of a planet, an even more amazing ship! etc... the point is a Starfleet vessel and it's crew could walk in unsuspected on this thing where a band of orion pirates would be shot out of the skies..

So they move the ship to that location, and in the meanwhile your crew have to escape (perhaps someone was hiding and reprogrammed the computer to mask their sensor signature etc) one by one they begin to try and retake the ship...

Now at this point the Orions would reprogramme the ships computer to fool any possible onlookers into thinking they are going somewhere they are not.. While the crew were detained the Orions also skook a small ship on board (they have to have an escape plan!) which is lightly armed but with good stealth capabilities..)

Ariving at your scene the Orions communicate with the locals fooling them into believing they are officers and beam down and take the whatsit by force. By fate of plot device at this point the crew manage to surge on masse and retake the ship while the alien captain is on the planet...

Several of the crew may follow her down and a firefight happens.. then suddenly a surprise - they transport out... to your ship! So they begin running round and can't figure out where they transported too.. then suddenly BANG their shuttlebay door is blown out and your crew look on dejected as they make their escape....

If your crew were smart enough to time it right or realise what was going on it could be they foiled the stealing of the whatsit before it was too late, perhaps replacing it with a fake one etc.. but that is up to you and your players on the day!

One nice touch, especially given a more historical setting wouldbe something like the 'plans for a galaxy class starship' or a 'Linear Phser array blueprints' - something that would really sting Starfleet!

[Tobian]

It strikes me too that the Orions would probably want to completelly disable the ships weapons! In this mission they would lose in a slug out so they decided to use sneakiness and diplomacy to lie their way through it

that means when the crew omes to give them chase they can rattle their cane at them but not shoot

of course it would be a pure comedy moment in a TOS like style if a cartoon *BANG* appeared on the screen when they fired on the Orions hehe

[AslanC]

What if the Nautilus is the prize?

Basically the Orions (or an Orion Pirate King) wants to capture a Starfleet warship to be used as their pirate ship?

So they fake the attack on themselves, get rescued, trick the crew, do the whole pirates as cargo, and then whamo, they tke over the ship, but the one pirate woman has fallen for the Captain and helps them regain control of the ship.

What do you think?

[Lancer]

If they just want the Nautilus as their prize it might be difficult to have the pirates sympathetic without being evil, or at least showing them that way to your crew.

IMHO what you need is a motivation the crew can sympathize with, something that is neither about profit nor power.
Perhaps the pirate captain wants to free more Orion women, but she needs the Nautilus to pull it off. Certainly a noble goal the crew could sympathize with.

You could even have the pirates make their getaway, while all the freed Orion slave women end up on the Nautilus.

[AslanC]

Your point has merit, I see what you are saying.

Still I hink having an obnoxious "Pirate King" to deal with will provide them with enough happiness when the Pirate Princess turns on him, especially if she lets them take him prisoner for his pirate crimes.

Since I am playing tomorrow and I want this one to be light hearted I think I am going to go this way.

Thanks for all the help gang

[Kaiddin]

Originally posted by AslanC
but the one pirate woman has fallen for the Captain and helps them regain control of the ship.

What do you think?

A reverse Marla McGivers!