Tempest Fury

[selek]

Greetings All!

I am working on a new adventure for my crew called Tempest Fury. Setting the stage for this adventure, the hook and the secondary obstacle is a massive subspace called a Gabriel.

I'm shamelessly stealing the idea from the TNG novel Spartacus and adapting it for my own use. Detailed below are the effects of the storm listed in the novel.

A Gabriel is a massive subspace/energy storm in space, and is the rough equivalent of a conventional typhoon. Massive energy bursts, plasma flares, and unusual subspace effects threaten the ship while high particle counts obscure sensors and communications. The storm severely affects electronic equipment, interfering with safe operation of shipboard systems and causing numerous false alarms. According to the novel, the Enterprise was struck by energy bolts repeatedly over a period of several days with little real damage, but the computer dutifully reported one or both warp nacelles destroyed, a warp core breach, fires, floods, etc., and phantom intercom calls.

Subspace turbulence and the buffeting from the ion currents kept the crew bouncing around and on edge for the duration of the storm. For obvious reasons, the replicators, transporters, and holodecks all had to be shut down, and most of the damage control systems were being run manually, with spotters throughout the ship.

While the storm was more of an annoyance and a trial for the Enterprise, it was also reported that the USS Ghandi was struck by one of the energy bolts and transmuted with all hands into a single large dilithium crystal! An asteroid floating near the Enterprise was struck and transmuted into a solid block of high explosive.

According to Picard, the only way to deal with a Gabriel was to shut everything down and ride it out, or get the hell out of the way. BTW, the storm isn't named for the archangel, but for the first captain to encounter one and survive long enough to report it.

Now here's how I intend to play it:
Warp drive is non-functional (due to the subspace instabilities) and the extreme ion currents make sublight navigation tricky. Throwing in the turbulence and the computer malfunctions just to make the players crazy. Phasers are at 1/4 potency (minimum of 1) and all Protection scores are +10 inside the Gabriel. Shields would have a maximum threshold of 1.
I figure the best way to handle the energy blasts is to roll 2d6 roughly every hour of game time- if the result is a 2, a bolt hits the ship. A second roll is made to determine if there's damage. If the second roll also comes up a 2, the ship suffers 1d6 damage. I figured to keep the spectacular effects at GM discretion and to advance the story.
I also thought that for each block of system (Ops, Tact, Life Support, Propulsion, etc.) active, I would reduce the 2d6 rolls mentioned above by 1 point (i.e., the more powerful and active the ship's systems, the greater the likelihood of a strike).
I also figured the only sure-fire protection against the effects of the storm would be a nice deep atmosphere, and allow creative players to hide in a nearby gas giant.

As a bit of a red herring, I'd decided that the spectacular effect for the storm (barring something incredibly stupid on the part of my players) would be minor hiccups in the timestream- with the PCs witnessing events from a few minutes in the future or in the past- which might allow them to save the ship from the freak lightning bolt that'll turn'em all into crystalline nick-nacks.

The real object of the mission isn't the storm, but rescuing a largish civilian liner that was also caught in the Gabriel, and now finds herself in shoal water on a lee shore.

Okay,

Feedback! Please! I will welcome (and entertain) any suggestions or advice on how to carry this out or to intensify the player's discomfort and anxiety level. Preferably, the more evil the better!

Thanks

Boy, this came out longer than I thought it would!

[kridenow]

Hello,

Questions, comments and suggestions :

The real object of the mission isn't the storm, but rescuing a largish civilian liner that was also caught in the Gabriel, and now finds herself in shoal water on a lee shore.

How the liner came there in first place ? I suppose the storm can be spotted easily if it's that massive and problematic for warp navigation. Unless the ship in on the storm outer edge but it will make the rescue far easier.
You'll either need a explanation on how the liner ended there (or that deep in the storm) or why the storm wasn't detected.

It's not a major question but players might ask it. I know I will (maybe the novel explains it).

If the player ship is more and more in danger by being in the storm, think about the liner, suffering the same storm with maybe less resources, and probably since a longer time.

So, beside the player ship, time is also running against the survival capacity of the liner.

The liner should be deep enough inside the storm to make the rescue a long task
Are the players supposed to only rescue the liner passengers or tug the liner out of the storm ?
It can matter a lot. Rescuing only passengers may mean the players ship will go inside straight and fast and go out as quickly as possible. The players can balance their own survival capacity with the liner's and see that as long as their own ship is resisting, the rescue will be successful.

In all cases, I think balancing speed with survival capacity is good. Maybe going fast inside the storm means being hit more often, or going through other phenomenons best avoided ?

the storm isn't named for the archangel, but for the first captain to encounter one and survive long enough to report it.

Are the storm effects known and recorded ? Or is it, in this episode, a new astronomical event ?

If the storm is known and recorded, the players might ask to simulate the long terms effects of the storm by comparing with data and the previous encounter (my players are fond of computer simulations).
On one hand, it weakens the storm mysterious capacity to destroy ship.
On the other hand, it can become an interesting moral question if you say to your players their ship should be destroyed before being able to rescue and go out.
Because it's only statistical data.

When statistics say you won't make it, do you stop ? That's stuff for heroes : endangering your own ship and keep trying to rescue people despite unfavorable odds.

If the storm is not yet known and recorded, it will probably greatly help to worry the players with the computer false reports at the early stage of the episode (when a known storm deception effect will be immediately identified).
But as the player will be quick to realize the reports are false, make them mostly false. Maybe enhancing the potential damage of the energy bolts. The moment a warp nacelle is said being damaged, in an ocean of false reports and it actually really happened, things are different. Otherwise, your players might soon disregard computers reports.
As stated, the ship will be run manually. It may also mean damage control and surveying systems will be done "manually".
With mostly false reports, the players can decide to merely dispatch teams there and there, just to be sure the most alarming reports are false. Once they got it, the intensity will be lessened.
However, the accumulated fatigue of the crew can become an interesting element, in the late stages of the story.
Crew fatigue management can lead to use of administration skills (organizing rotating teams), psy support (counselor role) or pharmaceutical solution (for the doctor).
The easiest solution would be pharmaceutical but the replicators are down, aren't they ? The doc' will have to manage his limited stock, or be able to "create" new pharma, even if a lesser version.
On the long run, the senior officers might have to decide what are the teams supported by pharma and what are not. When the crew is exhausted physically and nervously, it can provoke errors. In the storm environment, it can be dangerous.



Indeed, when the yet-unknown storm is finally analyzed, you can drop some statistics to announce unfavorable odds and go back on the moral question.
The only problem is it can turn to a "false" moral question. The more the player ship will be inside when getting the statistics, the less chances are players decide to turn back and exit. They came here, they are in, they won't abandon, whatever the odds.
Here, I suppose it mostly depend of the GM style. If your players are usually thinking : ok, GM is saying we are going to endanger the ship but he won't punish us for doing the "right" thing, then the moral question is not really a question, only flavor.
So come the question of the storm lethality. If the end result is "be destroyed by the storm", your players may consider you won't make it a reality if they do the "right" thing. They won't expect to be punished for being good starfleet heroes.
So, the moral balance can come from the value of life, or numbers.
If the energy bolts or ship malfunctions are able to indirectly kill players' crewmembers, it can be a "number" thing : are we ready to lose X crewmembers to save Y liner passengers ?
Is the lives of the Y liner passengers worth the risk of losing X crewmembers ?
Losing crewmembers should be a real possibility.

Going for a full destruction possibility, only, might not work. The players can consider it only as flavor.
So... going back to the storm lethality. How lethal, dangerous, barring a full destruction of the players ship ?

Phasers are at 1/4 potency (minimum of 1) and all Protection scores are +10 inside the Gabriel. Shields would have a maximum threshold of 1

Apparently, there is no need to bother with that, no battle being foreseen.
However, if pirates/enemies are roaming around the storm, preying on the damaged ships able to get outside, it is different.
The storm effects are only happening inside, making the systems being again functionnal when exiting.
An awkward solution would be to imagine the enemy entering the outer storm area, suffering less problems and attacking the exiting ship.

Another solution is to imagine an hostile specie inside the storm, able to resist its effects. Fishy if limited to this episode but why not. The specie can be a hook for following stories.

But, it makes the episode less "a rescue during storm". Sometimes, it's good to have noone trying to blast you and just shows dangers of space travel... A good reminder.

As a bit of a red herring, I'd decided that the spectacular effect for the storm (barring something incredibly stupid on the part of my players) would be minor hiccups in the timestream- with the PCs witnessing events from a few minutes in the future or in the past- which might allow them to save the ship from the freak lightning bolt that'll turn'em all into crystalline nick-nacks.

With subspace anomalies, I suppose it can happen.
I just suggest to make the timestream effect less "informative". If the only reason of the time effect is to confuse players at first, then hand them info, it will look at last as a Deus Ex Machina, the GM full in control of it and players only waiting to know what to do. Kinda like "let's hope/wait for the next time vision to know where to head the ship, or not".
The time effect becomes a passive element, like sensor reports.

I suggest to transform it by slowly separating it from the energy bolts effect, a thing the players have no control over. At first, the time vision can be tied to energy bolts. The players will get accustomed to it and will see it as an unexpected way to get info.

Then, give a vision of an accident on the ship. Like something severely mismanaged by the crew, maybe due to fatigue.
The players will know something awful is going to happen and saw the consequence. Unlike the energy bolts against which they can do nothing, they know the crew is responsible of the problem.
Analyzing the problem consequence to understand how it appears, in a limited amount of time, in order to prevent it.
A misunderstood sensor report, a mostly false computer report which wasn't false at all finally but was ignored, a crew technical error in the engineering room etc...
It can be something easily "fixed" when understood (like : replace that crewmember and send him to bed), or a string of mismanaged events needing a longer/more difficult task to correct.

Pierre

(edited : typos and added moral questionning)

[Tobian]

Hmm interesting.. While I do find the idea of objects being transmuted from one thing to another being more akin to magic or Q powers, than subspace storms.. It is otherwise a cool premise..

You do need to be careful that the unusual doesn't become mundane.. or the players will miss your hint that it is worse than 'usual' when something REALLY bad is hapening, as oposed to a false report.

As the storm comes from subspace, perhaps it can simply come into being, in pockets.. extrusions from subspace into raelspace. This would indeed cause MASSIVE problems for the ship, and warp drive would be a nono!

Other problems the ship may face, as a result of a storm like this could include.. radical gravity alteration (V. Fun!); possible spatial warping.. harder to navigate inside the ship, as well as out!; chaotic space (for which there are rules) making it hard to know where exactly you are, and suddenly find you've travelled 3 sectors in 5 minutes etc

The trick will be to not frustrate the players TOO much, or they might just think you're making it up to piss them off

[selek]

Sorry, should'a been a little more clear on a couple of things:

The storm is a known effect, having been encountered once before, but very little is known about it. Again, it's been a while since one was encountered- none of the officers and very few of the hands will know anything about it and the data in the records (like much of the advice about navigating typhoons) is either contradictory or left to the discretion of the captain. The only hard-and-fast rule is that there are no hard-and-fast-rules.

The storm will basically spring into being over a massive area. In the opening handouts (Captain's Logs, etc.) is a minor little note about widespread, but minor subspace interference (kinda like a minor redness or swelling). Once the storm is actually triggered, it'll spread through the sector faster than Paris Hilton's video.
It's kind of like sailing into a low-pressure area that suddenly develops into a full-blown typhoon.

Even though there are at least two other Starfleet vessels in the general area, with subspace communications shut down by the storm, the PCs are basically on their own- they must save the liner or die trying.

I'm thinking about adding in waves of subspace and gravitic distortion, allowing for clever maneuvers such as "turn her into the wave" and allowing the crew to brace for the impact.

And while the computer will be relaying a LOT of false information, I do intend to pepper the reports with real damage. I'm also toying with the idea of having the shields collapse (either as the result of the damage or simply GM fiat) and sending one of the bolts ricocheting down the corridor. I can imagine characters ducking for cover as the blast careens down the corridor and turns some unfortunate redshirt into a rather large (but fragile) twelve-sided die. Or was that an eight-sider?

The hiccups in time and space will be random and serve more as a red herring than anything else- they will carry no portent to the story itself (but my players will automagically jump to exactly the wrong conclusion). In addition to the five minutes before and after stuff, I'm visualizing a scene where the current XO sees the bridge at some point in the future (with himself as Captain) and several important NPCs missing. Nice and vague, indicating a possible future, but lacking any kind of useful information. Totally random, utterly useless, but it'll have the characters checking thier diaries for weeks.

For simplicity's sake, I referred to the damaged vessel as a liner. To be more accurate, she's an ancient cityship belonging to a friendly (but not allied) alien race. She's roughly size 14, and almost 10,000 souls aboard. The PCs are in a Remora class escort , so evacuation isn't high on the list of feasible ideas. Ditto for towing, thanks to the gravitic distortions. I'm also thinking about residual ionization interfering with transporters and maybe a solid dose of ionizing radiation contaminating the cityship's hull.

The real action begins at the ebb of the storm, with several vessels in the area damaged and requesting assistance (possibly including the PC's vessel). Battered, perhaps broken, with her resources stretched thin, the heroes must provide assistance and materiel to the cityship (cityship A). Since you mentioned it, however, it wouldn't be that difficult to rewrite things to set the encounters during an lull or in the "eye" of the storm. Bwaa, haa, haa!
Since this faction has been cordial, but not friendly to the Federation, we have a classic diplomatic opportunity (along with the humanitarian gesture).
Of course it all turns to ash when a rival vessel (cityship B) turns up. This faction is friendly to (and has several trade arrangements with) the Federation, but is involved in a blood feud with faction A.

By the time the shooting starts, the PCs have at least tentatively offered their assistance to a faction (A). This raises several ethical questions: Will the crew risk the treaty with faction B by defending their long-time rival? Will they stand clear and allow the battle to be waged? Given the damage that Cityship A has suffered from the storm, the PCs are now entangled in what might be a full blown massacre. Is there a third course that will allow a peaceful solution to the problem?

This mission is set in the 2270's and although the heroes don't know it, a major border conflict with the Klingons will start in the next several missions- and Faction B provides critical war materiel to Starfleet. So however they work it out, there will likely be long-term consequences.

As to the moral question: Do we go or don't we? Okay, okay I just gotta quote Kirk on that one: "Risk is part of our business...You want to sit in that chair you've got to learn to take chances." Sorry, couldn't resist.

More to the point, by the time the storm springs up, they're already up to their necks in Jello. They're already there. But the question is also irrelevent because I've proven repeatedly that I'll knock off any character, hero or not, who gets into trouble when he does something dumb.

When I run, there's just no percentage in being a hero- it offers no protection from what's going on around you- but if you DO succeed....

As an aside, and to give you an idea of just how deep things MIGHT get, during their previous mission, the encountered a Vulcan archaeologist who'd discovered an ancient Kolinahr text and became corrupted. Given powerful telekinetic and telepathic abilities, he murdered or subverted the rest of his team and was eyeing the heroes when they managed to shut him down. The ship's next port-of-call was to have been a Vulcan colony where the survivors (and the would-be mind lord) could receive proper care and treatment.
At the outset of this mission, he's stuffed, trussed, and sedated in Sickbay, but is developing an immunity both to the sedatives and the psylosinine inhibitors they've been dosing him with.
I haven't decided whether to keep this guy in the background (just to keep the players on their toes) or let him loose and really screw up their day. When it rains, it pours.

And for the record I AM doing it just to piss them off! I'm looking at this storm as a once-in-a-hundred years event, something that "the book" can provide little concrete guidance on.

I've played with a handful of people who were later taken under psychiatric care. I've never had the nerve to ask if it's a matter of the type of players I attract or merely a delightful side effect.