The aliens from "Conspiracy"

[Balok]

I have recently re-watched the TNG episode "Conspiracy". To the best of be recollection, I don't think these aliens ever appeared again, despite the fact that "Remmick" was sending them a beacon signal at the end of the episode.

Does anyone remember if these aliens ever reappeared? Has anyone used them for a campaign? I think they might be good ongoing foes, especially if someone the players come to trust turns out to be a host at some point...

[tonyg]

No they never appeared again.

I beleive it was stated by the writers than the aliens were supposed to return, but during the writing of the episode the aliens sort of evolved/mutated into the BORG.

I did use them in my camapign. I had them popped up during the end of the Dominion War. They took most of the crew of a Ferengi Maurader ship and used it to try and take over a outpost on the Federation/Romulan/Breen border (the player character's HQ)., and use it to slowly inflitrate the quadrant.

The adventure worked out pretty well. THe aliens managed to take over the Chief Medical Officer, Executive Officer, the PC Medical Officer, and nearly had the Chief Engineer, except he got word out before being stunned.

The PCs had to fight thier comrades on the station (and didn't know whay at first), and then go after the Ferengi ship.

Turned out very interestesting, as the Ferengi DaiMon hadn't been taken over yet (he was in sickback being fitted for his worm when the Chief Engineer raised the alert), and was reoccuring thorn in the palyers sides. Once he had a clue of what was happening, he made a strange ally for the players-he wanted his ship (and profit!) back.

Led to some interesting diplomacy when the mission was over, since the PCs were forced to destroy his vessel. And he had been attacked and abducted by Starfleet prsonnel.

[qerlin]

Like tony said, they never showed again.

I used them in our first campaign arc. The build-up took two years. They had come in a bit more ready, this time, grabbing major players in the Orion Syndicate and Orion Trading Confederacy. From there they worked their way out grabbing the REAL power in the UFP, Kilngon and Romulan Empires -- the mid to high level bureaucratic functionaries. They snagged the people in the right places of the FIS & SI, then worked out toward the more 'visible' power brokers. They never grabbed the Federation President, but did nab some of his political flunkies -- the guys that keep him informed and that make the real decisions; those types.

They aided in the breakdown of the Federation's governance, and when they were exposed, faith in the UFP to prtect their people (coming on the heels of the Borg and the Dominion War). They also managed to infiltrate Tal Shiar, and using that agency's own goals, made a grab for power. They succeeded for most of the camapign arc, in grabbing more and more power, but were finally discovered by accident.

After they spent months tracking how the beasties had vectored through the population, they were able to hit the mother creatures (3 of them) that were strategically placed in the Federation Cabinet, Tal Shiar, and Klingon High Council.

This lead to the Romulan Civil War, where Admiral (now Praetor) V'Kar -- daughter of Pardek & just as popular (she's a hero of the Dominion War & was the commander who took Enterprise c at Narendra III) -- grabbed by power and has been steadily exterminating the Tal Shiar, relying on her friends in the Tal Diaan for intelligence. She's also a Vulcan reunification person, and is working to bring the UFP & RSE togther...at the expense of the Klingons.

[Owen E Oulton]

"I beleive it was stated by the writers than the aliens were supposed to return, but during the writing of the episode the aliens sort of evolved/mutated into the BORG."

Considering that the very next episode (The Neutral Zone) was the setup for the Borg, I suspect not. I don't think they ever really intended to do any sequels.

[AslanC]

Originally posted by qerlin
This lead to the Romulan Civil War, where Admiral (now Praetor) V'Kar -- daughter of Pardek & just as popular (she's a hero of the Dominion War & was the commander who took Enterprise c at Narendra III) -- grabbed by power and has been steadily exterminating the Tal Shiar, relying on her friends in the Tal Diaan for intelligence. She's also a Vulcan reunification person, and is working to bring the UFP & RSE togther...at the expense of the Klingons.

I love this.

May I steal it for my new game?

On a side note, this is why Stalin had the families of his enemies killed as well... not endorsing, just pointing out.

And since my Romulans are more like Cold War USSR....

Back on topic, I used them in a two parter in my Lexington campaign where they caused a coup of the Klinon Empire and even went so far as the Klingons invading Bajor. The players discovered the parasites, and then went undercover as Klingons to get to the High Council and find the Hive Mother.

They did, they destroyed her and the Klingons apologized to the Bajorans

[Greg Smith]

Originally posted by Owen E Oulton

Considering that the very next episode (The Neutral Zone) was the setup for the Borg, I suspect not. I don't think they ever really intended to do any sequels.

I think you're right Owen. I recall reading that the open ending was a tip of the hat to all of those fifties sci-fi alien invasion movies and that they never intended to have them return.

[Steele1701]

I had heard someone suggest that the signal the aliens sent was meant for the Borg. Just a rumor though, never did hear anything official about it.

[Kronok]

Are you guys talking about the little parasites in the base of the skull or some other alien.

Can't remember the episode all that well?

[CmdrBluejeans]

Originally posted by Fesarius

Does anyone remember if these aliens ever reappeared? Has anyone used them for a campaign? I think they might be good ongoing foes, especially if someone the players come to trust turns out to be a host at some point...

These guys -- I call them the Bombyx -- are pretty much the culmination of my "Star Trek: the High Frontier" game. They live 'above' the Federation in 3-D space, near the three races that 'evolved' from the original Kellinan, and their wars against two of these races will soon become known to the PCs of my game 50 episodes into the series. The 3 Post-Kellinan Races evolved as a direct result of political and economic strategies to deal with the same 'warp drives screw with subspace' problem encountered by the Federation -- one faction, the Centrists, chose to build less ships, but bigger ones, effectively evolving into a nomadic people in giant 'space arcs'; another, remaining the Kellinan in name, went the exact opposite route and built many tiny ships of middlin' fast speed and offensive power, effectively making them the Hell's Angel faction; the third completely abandoned warp drive to focus on interstellar transporter technology. The Iliarchs (the third race) will encounter the PCs in an an 8-story arc in which they agree to help settle the UFP-Klingon-Orion Syndicate war over the Iliarch ruins at Bridgetown and elsewhere in the High Frontier in exchange for Starfleet's military assistance in dispatching the Bombyx, who make war on them and on the Centrists (both factions hate the 'original Kellinan', and won't bother asking them for help).



The entire 3rd season, now in progress, consists of these two separate 3-way wars, and how they intersect, and how the PCs will help the Iliarchs and save the High Frontier, and the 4th season in its entirety will deal with the Bombyx's revenge on the Federation, their return invasion, etc.



It's rough going because when they showed Conspiracy a few weeks ago, and my players started making bluegill jokes, and asking 'hey, why wasn't anything more done with those guys?', I had to leave the room lest my complete lack of poker-face give it away.



Fortunately, none of them read this forum.







BJ

[Owen E Oulton]

"Are you guys talking about the little parasites in the base of the skull or some other alien?"

Those are the ones - the ones which stuck a little bluish-coloured breathing tube out the back of the neck, hence the term "Bluegill" used by Riker.

[qerlin]

Glad you like the Romulans stuff ASlan -- use ahead! IF you choose to use V'Kar, I can fire a bit on her character off to you. she was pretty popular with the players here --sexy, scary, and incredibly dangerous.

[khyber]

We used the parasites in a big way.

In our Trek universe, the parasites returned and targeted the Orion government which was known as the Medusa Network. They took control of the leadership of the Network called the Convocation, but the Ruddy parasites soon discovered they couldn't take control of the Green Orions. This lead to a major oppression of the Greens (some of our Green PCs at the time were severely tortured).

This oppression led to a civil war among the Orions. The story culminated after 6 years of war with the PCs tracking down the mother creature who was hiding aboard a space station in orbit of B'Morgia. My PC managed to destroy the mother creature. Afterwards, and still to this day when I play that character, I am known to the Orion people as the Hero of B"Morgia, Eradicator of Parasites.

It was a great 12 adventure arc which took about three years to play.