Intrepid

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

The next mission followed on from the discovery of the excape pod, and was a direct use of the adventure, The Crusoe Effect, downloaded from the old LUG site. There's little to be said about this one, as it went mostly as written. The only issues perhaps worth mentioning are the extra dynamic of having a mixed Starfleet/Cardassian team. The Starfleet officers were torn, sympathetic towards the stranded ensign, and uncertain how to deal with the cultural contamination. The Cardassians (particularly Glinn Marok) wanted to simply take him into custody, and 'sterilise' the contaminated village.

Again, this was merely a warm up adventure to get everybody used to working as a team, albeit not the sort of easy-going bunch you'd expect form a standard Starfleet team. So far, everyhting was working out nicely, and Glinn Marok was quickly proving to be the standout character.

Following this adventure, I figured it was time to start introducing the points of the arc I wanted to play out. The next adventure would introduce the inhabitants of the time-hopping city, and give the players some indication of what their Original Series characters could expect at the end of their voyage [which was being run concurrently as a prequel of sorts]. I also wanted to play on the tension between the Federation and Cardassian personnel and colonists. And the next adventure managed to fulfil those criteria beautifully.

Gamesmaster: Nick

Cast of Player Characters: Rear Admiral [Lower Half] Aaron Prentice (Commander of Starfleet Forces)
Gul Idris Bretac (Station Commander)
Lieutenant [JG] Yanis Caed (Operations Officer, U.S.S. Intrepid)
Glinn Arwin Marok (Commander of Station Security)
Lieutenant Commander Sal Aelon (Aide to Admiral Prentice)

The adventure opens with Glinn Marok receiving a transmission from the colony. A Federation research team, working in the Federation Embassy, have been murdered. Marok informs Gul Bretac before comming Admiral Prentice. Prentice, meanwhile, has already received a similar notification from the Federation Embassy. Prentice gathers Caed and Aelon, and meets up with Marok and Bretac before taking a runabout down to the colony to investigate.

[Captain Zymmer]

I have never heard of this adventure.

Where can I get it? Does anyone here have a copy they could send out?

[Lancer]

It's one of the old LUG Icon Links. You can find it in the Icon Links sections of TrekRPG.net at http://216.40.212.6/trek/core/icon/T...soe_Effect.PDF

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

It's a quite a straightforward, but well-written adventure. I enjoyed running it. It can usually be played out in a single session.

[Michael Barratt]

Originally posted by Capt Daniel Hunter
It's a quite a straightforward, but well-written adventure. I enjoyed running it. It can usually be played out in a single session.

Agreed, we had quite the fun time with that one as a play-test for the system.

Oh, PS: Happy Birthday Cap'n.

The Doc

[Captain Zymmer]

Thanks for the link..

I look forward to reading it

Is it your B-day Cap?

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

It's even more fun when your party of characters is made up of two rather disparate value systems

Thanks for the birthday wishes.

32 yesterday (16th). Sheesh, those numbers just seem to clock up quicker and quicker.

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

Continued......

Prentice, Caed, Aelon, Bretac and Marok begin their study of the crime scene. Caed recognises some of the artifacts the scientists had been studying as bearing glyphs identifying them as originating in the abandoned city. The same city in which the time-hopping future inhabitants (the Neo-Lakarians) of Damar's World appeared, over a century ago.

Marok discovers one of the murdered scientists had become romantically linked with a Cardassian Doctor living in the colony. A relationship that had generated some resentment from some of the other Cardassians. Marok also discovers that the Cardssian doctor had once been romantically linked with the governor of the Cardassian settlement. A probing investigation by Marok suggests the governor was not involved, but Marok continues to watch him.

Further investigations of the crime scene reveal some traces of chroniton radiation, and one of the artifacts being studied proves to be a list of Romulan names. Caed recognises the names, as a list of Romulans who survived the battle the crew of the USS Odyssey fought in the city in 2269. (The Odyssey's crew helped the Neo-Lakarians prevent the Romulans from gaining access to the technological secrets buried beneath the city). Caed knows those same Romulans were taken into custody by the Neo-Lakarians, and promptly informs Prentice of the fact. Curiosity peaked, Caed suggests a visit to the archealogical dig in the city, the source of the artifacts under study.

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

Continued....

It becomes increasingly obvious that it will be impossible to keep everything Starfleet knows about the planet and the Neo-Lakarians secret from the Cardassians. Prentice reluctantly provides a minimal amount of information, that an alien race who claim to be from the future, can appear at will in the abandoned city. Bretac and Marok are intrigued, and Marok quietly passes on the information to his allies in what used to be the Obsidian Order.

The team return to the runabout, and Caed takes them to the huge, abandoned city. Landing just outside the city boundaries, Caed guides them through the quiet streets to the site of the archaeological dig. Her tricorder quickly begins to detect temporal eddies throughout the city. Bretac and Marok feel that the city is unsafe, and argue for making it off limits to all. Prentice and the others strongly disagree.

Caed sets to rummaging around the dig site, looking for any clues. After a few minutes, Aelon warns that he is detecting a huge surge of chroniton radiation, and then everyone is somewhat shaken as day turns to night, and the shadows of figures appear all around them, as the city comes to life.

(GM aside: think of the way Future Guy appears to Silik in Enterprise, which is pretty much the way I presented the Neo-Lakarians. Ironically, this was well before Enterprise aired.)

Several of the shadowy figures move towards the group. Bretac and Marok are tensed for action, hands ready to draw their phasers. One of the figures steps forward, approaching Caed and says "You've changed." Caed informs the Neo-Lakarian that it has been over a century by her time, and that this is her third host. Ral was her first. The Neo-Lakarian says that is good to see her again, but by his reckoning it has been only a few weeks. He goes on to say he wishes they could have become reacquianted under better circumstances, but he bears grave news. The Romulans he had promised to deal with have escaped their imprisonment, and have found the potential means to return to Caed's time (albeit her current time). He cannot explain too much without harming the timeline, but suffice to say they are using a device to 'anchor' them in Caed's time. He believes the Romulans are responsible for the deaths of the scientists, and that they are planning to contact the Romulan Empire, and hand them the secrets of the Neo-Lakarians. So far they have not been able to fully materialise themselves in the 24th century, but it is only a matter of time until they do. The only way to stop them, is to destroy the object they are using as a temporal anchor. The description he gives matches one of the artifacts in the lab back at the Embassy. The Neo-Lakarian bids Caed farewell, and he and his companions fade away, leaving the party standing back in the abandoned city, bathed in sunlight.

The group quickly return to the runabout and race back to the colony. Reaching the Embassy they must battle the partially out of phase Romulans to reach the lab. Finally bursting into the lab, they destroy the temporal anchor with concentrated phaser fire, banishing the Romulans back to their future prison.

Again, this adventure was another opportunity to have these characters work together and really start working as a team. Of course, the intention was also to let the Cardassians know that Starfleet had been keeping something from them, and that perhaps this planet was more valuable to them than they thought. So while they were starting to mesh as a team, there was also an extra element of distrust and intrigue thrown in. There were a few plot holes in this one, but they were by design, and sparked intentional questions that would be answered much later.

For the next adventure, I would hand over the GM reigns to Alan, Admiral Prentice's player, which would give me the opportunity to cross swords with Marok player to player.

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

As I didn't run this adventure, I'm actually a little fuzzier on the some of the details, so this is a slightly less in depth write up.

Gamesmaster: Alan

Cast of Player Characters: Captain Daniel Hunter (CO U.S.S. Intrepid)
Gul Idris Bretac (Station Commander)
Lieutenant [JG] Yanis Caed (Operations Officer, U.S.S. Intrepid)
Glinn Arwin Marok (Commander of Station Security)
Lieutenant [SG] Sal Aelon (Aide to Admiral Prentice)

News of a Cardassian dissident movement, dedicated to restoring Military regime reaches Entak Nor. The station goes on Yellow Alert as reports of terrorist attacks on Cardassia begin to increase. When a cloaked probe using technology salvaged from Romulan and Federation vessels lost during the Dominion War explodes just outside the habitat ring, Admiral Prentice is left missing presumed dead, the apparent victim of an elaborate assasination.

Assuming command of the meagre Starfleet forces, Captain Hunter negotiates with Romulan Ambassador Rekar to provide protection for the station, while the Intrepid hunts down the persons responsible for the attack. With Rekar's help, the terrorists are traced to a black market trading world (called Sumara) 10 light years away. Aided by information from a Ferengi merchant, Hunter, Caed, Bretac and Marok locate a possible source for the salvaged technology. However while investigating the lead, they are attacked by Cardassian agents, one of whom proves to be a past acquaintance of Marok. Unfortunately, the Cardassian is killed by a third party before he can answer any questions. Returning to the Intrepid, they detect transporter activity from the planet to an orbitting Cardassian freighter. Using a network of probes, they covertly pursue the freighter to an uninhabited star system. Once their, the freighter's Cardassian Commander reveals that he is in command of a group of Cardassian colonists, who are heading to a new world, to build a new Cardassia. He politely asks that he be left to continue unharassed, and to reinforce his request ten Galor class cruisers decloak, surrounding the Intrepid. With little reason to doubt his story, and little choice, Captain Hunter lets them go.

The Intrepid receives a distress call from a Naussican freighter, under attack by Orion pirate vessels. Even pushing the engines to maximum, the Intrepid does not arrive in time to help, but is able to follow the plasma trail from on of the damaged Orion vessels. Although suspecting a trap, Hunter opts to follow the trail, eventually locating a cloaked Orion base, on a world with a Bronze Age civilisation. Confronting the Orions, the Intrepid's crew are confronted by an Orion orbital station, and overwhelming odds, and are forced to stand down to prevent the slaughter of 1000 natives. Beaming down to the Orion base, Hunter and an Away Team discover that the natives have amazing bio-restorative powers, linked to the natural biological 'nanites' in their bodies. The Orions have been harvesting the bio-nanites from the aliens, in the hopes of selling them throughout the Quadrant. Captain Hunter skillfully convinces the Orions that he is a corrupt Starfleet Officer, who wishes to help protect the secrecy of their operation, for a modest share of the profits. The Orion captain agrees, revealing that his people had been responsible for Prentice's assasination, as the Admiral's scientific research had been close to unearthing their operation. Hunter and the Away Team are permitted to return to their ship. Upon beaming back to the Intrepid, Hunter is surprised when Admiral Prentice and a Cardassian Squadron appear to deal with the Orions. Thinking quickly, Hunter convinces the Orion captain to beam to the Intrepid, and be granted safe passage from the system, and an opportunity to return later. With the Orions' commander and senior staff safely in the Brig, the remaining Orion vessels quickly lose the battle. Unfortunately, the Orions committ suicide, rather than be taken back for trial.


After game thougths: Well like I said, I didn't run this one. Alan's style is a little different to mine, and he sometimes has a tendency to fall into deus ex machina solutions, as he did here. Beyond that, this adventure turned out to be quite a blast. I got to play Hunter at his devious best, conning a sleazy Orion slaver/pirate. The friction between the Cardassians and Starfleet personnel was actually less prominent this time, largely because we were strongly united in our desire to deal with the villians of this piece. All in all, we had a lot of fun with this one, and once Alan had wrapped it up, I took over for about half an hour to present a little teaser for the next adventure.

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

As mentioned, this was a small teaser I ran at the end of the prior adventure.

Gamesmaster: Nick

Cast of Player Characters: Rear Admiral [Lower Half] Aaron Prentice (Commander of Starfleet Forces)
Gul Idris Bretac (Station Commander)
Lieutenant [JG] Yanis Caed (Operations Officer, U.S.S. Intrepid)
Glinn Arwin Marok (Commander of Station Security)
Lieutenant Commander Sal Aelon (Aide to Admiral Prentice)

The Romulans offer the Cardassians a new alliance in administering the Charybdis Sector, forcing Prentice to negotiate a new treaty with Gul Bretac. The new treaty reinstates Cardassian law at all Cardassian facilities in the Charybdis Sector. Federation law will apply only to Federation vessels and installations.

Legate Brel Assumes command of all Cardassian forces in the Charybdis Sector. Brel makes a point of flaunting Cardassian law in Admiral Prentice's face, in the case of a Yridian caught attempting to steal station access codes. Despite granting the Yridian amnesty and freedom on the charges in exchange for his cooperation in capturing his employer, Brel then ordered his rearrest and execution on new trumped up charges. Despite an angry protest from Prentice, who had granted the Yridian asylum, Brel ridigly enforces the execution.

This was a short but fun aside, which presented some information, characters, and events that would play out over the next couple of adventures.

[Captain Zymmer]

See I like the idea of the revolving GM, but with my group it would just never happen

Nice adventure, sounds like you guys had a fun time.

Not sure I would have, but you never know. You never know.

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

Actually the best part of that adventure was dealing with the Orion priates, and our adventures on the trade world, Sumara. A hive of scum and villiany Talking of Sumara, its going to feature heavily in another adventure I'll be running soon.

The revolving GM thing works well for us. I'm still the main GM, and direct the primary story arc, but I also get to play every 2-3 adventures, which is a good thing.

[Captain Zymmer]

We thought about doing it with my group, but there never seemed to be anyone who could make the time to run the game. So I just became the defacto head GM and have done the Lion's Share of GMIng for the past 15 years or so.

I get to play once in a blue moon, but never as much as I would like.

As for Orions, I have been hesitant to introduce them yet, but when i do Deth O'kay will be the man in charge

[Capt Daniel Hunter]

It makes a big difference getting the opportunity to play. It also helps to have a coGM to bounce ideas off of, espcially when you're discussing character events, commentdations, reprimands, or even court martials (which we've had twice)

Of course since we have ten players in total now, sharng the duties with someone else is almost essential.