Deepnight Revelation - GMs Thread
- Thread starter Tea Rex
- Start date
MonsterX
Emperor Mongoose
My own plan, should the players lean toward NOT completing the mission, is to reemphasize the danger presented by the Entity through psionic pressure on certain players - one of them was controlled by the Entity for a period in Deepnight Legacy, and another was subject to dubious and unsafe genetic manipulation by Zydarans making her psionically sensitive to Droyne related things and subject to involuntary clairvoyant visions. The campaign has also involved beacon devices placed by the Ancients, which the DNR is now carrying two of - when appropriate they pick up signals from paired beacons which the Ancients expedition dropped along the route, similar to the beacon buoys the DNR carries. These I also use to shape the DNR's route, and placing a beacon in the system where the shell is located might be useful - maybe give it some relationship to the shell.
An early theme which played out as political intrigue during the expedition planning on Giikur was the possibility of weaponizing the Entity. The PCs had to deal with an IN admiral and a weapons' researcher who were plotting to genetically manipulate tissue from the Entity, in order to control it so as to use it as a bioweapon against the Zhodani. The potential for this to go very wrong is obvious, and the PCs immediately sided with the opposing faction. There was also an apocalyptic cult splinter group from the Church of Voskhod with similar plans, only skipping the steps where they get control of it and take it Zhodani space first. My long range plan is to remind them toward the end of this theme, by introducing a scenario where they find a civilization did just that, and wiped itself out. It could be related to the Commonwealth colonies, for example, or something else, but the PCs will probably find a report, or weapons lab or something. I haven't worked out the details as it's still quite far in the future. (This even raises the possibility that someone in the crew is a sleeper for one of the aforementioned factions who will try to keep the weaponization data to give to actors back home...)
They are also carrying a Royal Authorization given them by Princess Ciencia, which could if needed also turn out to contain a reminder of their patriotic duty to the Imperium, in the form of a secret message to reveal itself if the ship's computer finds that certain conditions have been met. A rousing speech by the Princess would not only remind the PCs of what they are supposed to do, but also make plausible the support of key NPCs for undertaking dangerous, even suicidal, activities. Obviously, it can't be too specific, since the Princess can't have been aware of what they would encounter exactly, but it would be designed to put them in the sort of self-sacrificing mood they might need at that moment. Also, there are a significant number of non-Imperials aboard, due to en route recruitment and their feelings about this could produce interesting tensions.
So there are a few tools in the toolkit that I have ready to bring out, when and if we ever get that far.
An early theme which played out as political intrigue during the expedition planning on Giikur was the possibility of weaponizing the Entity. The PCs had to deal with an IN admiral and a weapons' researcher who were plotting to genetically manipulate tissue from the Entity, in order to control it so as to use it as a bioweapon against the Zhodani. The potential for this to go very wrong is obvious, and the PCs immediately sided with the opposing faction. There was also an apocalyptic cult splinter group from the Church of Voskhod with similar plans, only skipping the steps where they get control of it and take it Zhodani space first. My long range plan is to remind them toward the end of this theme, by introducing a scenario where they find a civilization did just that, and wiped itself out. It could be related to the Commonwealth colonies, for example, or something else, but the PCs will probably find a report, or weapons lab or something. I haven't worked out the details as it's still quite far in the future. (This even raises the possibility that someone in the crew is a sleeper for one of the aforementioned factions who will try to keep the weaponization data to give to actors back home...)
They are also carrying a Royal Authorization given them by Princess Ciencia, which could if needed also turn out to contain a reminder of their patriotic duty to the Imperium, in the form of a secret message to reveal itself if the ship's computer finds that certain conditions have been met. A rousing speech by the Princess would not only remind the PCs of what they are supposed to do, but also make plausible the support of key NPCs for undertaking dangerous, even suicidal, activities. Obviously, it can't be too specific, since the Princess can't have been aware of what they would encounter exactly, but it would be designed to put them in the sort of self-sacrificing mood they might need at that moment. Also, there are a significant number of non-Imperials aboard, due to en route recruitment and their feelings about this could produce interesting tensions.
So there are a few tools in the toolkit that I have ready to bring out, when and if we ever get that far.
MonsterX
Emperor Mongoose
s. 3 ep 14: The Threat from Outside
Opens with a series of shots of famous images of Droyne and Ancients sites, taken from scientific, popular culture, and conspiracy theory sources, and set to dramatic music.
Narration:
In 866, archeologist Erich von Danikin made an extraordinary discovery, investigating the ruins of an Ancient’s structure on Vanejen
[camera pans over stock footage of Ancients pyramid, definitely not on Vanejen, image of von Danikin looking at a tablet, a series of stock images of Ancients symbols flash over the screen, which have nothing to do with anything, but appear very dramatic].
von Danikin noticed references to a “doom” from “outside” in the texts and imagery
DRAMATIC DRUM MUSIC
Interview (presumably stolen from old recordings):
von Danikan: “I searched every possible existing literature, and came up with nothing. They were talking about a threat from outside.”
flashing through images of Ancients symbols again, this time artists’ interpretation of Ancients’ starships, in the frame with dramatic-looking stellar objects
Hardy Broderib sitting in front of shelves of serious looking books “Could Ancients explorers have ranged farther outside Charted Space than the current mainstream of Xenoarcheology is willing to admit? What dark threats might they have found there that so shook them to the core?”
DRAMATIC DRUM MUSIC
image of a piece of Ancients machinery with von Danikan standing in front of it
Narrator: badly shaken by his discovery, von Danikan began to search for evidence of Ancients expeditions beyond Charted Space.
AI simulated von Danikan voice reading from article text: “Certain neutrino bursts from distant sources may be evidence of beacons placed by Ancients’ expeditions to far flung locations. If we can find these locations, we might not only uncover the untold wonders of these Ancients site, but also uncover the secret which so disturbed the Ancients”
Flashing through images of satellites of exotic and improbable design in front of exotic and dramatic stellar objects, with lots of beeping.
Hardy Broderib sitting in front of serious looking scientific equipment: “Ancients were powerful beyond our imagining. Anything which scared them should also scare us”
Flashthrough of fanciful Ancients starships using fanciful weapons to destroy planets
DRAMATIC DRUM MUSIC
Narrator: von Danikan and his team died in an unexplained matter-antimatter detonation in 869. Was it an accident? Are Ancients somehow influencing human history even now? Was he ‘removed’ by rivals, or because he ‘knew to much’ and was too willing to share his knowledge with the public?
Image of a research station exploding, stolen without attribution from a popular film
Narrator: However, what he uncovered implies a dark future for humanity, a future which powerful forces are willing to kill to cover up.
DRAMATIC CONCLUDING MUSIC
roll credits
Hardy Broderib
Opens with a series of shots of famous images of Droyne and Ancients sites, taken from scientific, popular culture, and conspiracy theory sources, and set to dramatic music.
Narration:
In 866, archeologist Erich von Danikin made an extraordinary discovery, investigating the ruins of an Ancient’s structure on Vanejen
[camera pans over stock footage of Ancients pyramid, definitely not on Vanejen, image of von Danikin looking at a tablet, a series of stock images of Ancients symbols flash over the screen, which have nothing to do with anything, but appear very dramatic].
von Danikin noticed references to a “doom” from “outside” in the texts and imagery
DRAMATIC DRUM MUSIC
Interview (presumably stolen from old recordings):
von Danikan: “I searched every possible existing literature, and came up with nothing. They were talking about a threat from outside.”
flashing through images of Ancients symbols again, this time artists’ interpretation of Ancients’ starships, in the frame with dramatic-looking stellar objects
Hardy Broderib sitting in front of shelves of serious looking books “Could Ancients explorers have ranged farther outside Charted Space than the current mainstream of Xenoarcheology is willing to admit? What dark threats might they have found there that so shook them to the core?”
DRAMATIC DRUM MUSIC
image of a piece of Ancients machinery with von Danikan standing in front of it
Narrator: badly shaken by his discovery, von Danikan began to search for evidence of Ancients expeditions beyond Charted Space.
AI simulated von Danikan voice reading from article text: “Certain neutrino bursts from distant sources may be evidence of beacons placed by Ancients’ expeditions to far flung locations. If we can find these locations, we might not only uncover the untold wonders of these Ancients site, but also uncover the secret which so disturbed the Ancients”
Flashing through images of satellites of exotic and improbable design in front of exotic and dramatic stellar objects, with lots of beeping.
Hardy Broderib sitting in front of serious looking scientific equipment: “Ancients were powerful beyond our imagining. Anything which scared them should also scare us”
Flashthrough of fanciful Ancients starships using fanciful weapons to destroy planets
DRAMATIC DRUM MUSIC
Narrator: von Danikan and his team died in an unexplained matter-antimatter detonation in 869. Was it an accident? Are Ancients somehow influencing human history even now? Was he ‘removed’ by rivals, or because he ‘knew to much’ and was too willing to share his knowledge with the public?
Image of a research station exploding, stolen without attribution from a popular film
Narrator: However, what he uncovered implies a dark future for humanity, a future which powerful forces are willing to kill to cover up.
DRAMATIC CONCLUDING MUSIC
roll credits
Hardy Broderib is not a real scientist, but he does play one on TV; he joined the crew at Dostoyevsky, together with his dubiously acquired Ancients beacon, and is now embedded with the very annoyed Archaeological team of the DNR, he'll definitely pop up if needed to shift their course. His ambiguous relationship to the more "conventional" archaeologists of the DNR allows me a bit of distance from what he asks the players to do, and tits consequence, thus retaining player agency (if things go badly --- well, you probably shouldn't be listening to this guy).
Hardy Broderib
shammond42
Cosmic Mongoose
One minor issue with the intro adventure Deepnight Legacy is that it is sort of hard to believe that a clump of Ancients wreckage was orbiting the planet for so long without being detected. The fix is easy, put it in a long, elliptical orbit around the star -- like a comet that only comes around every few thousand years. That would make it harder to discover. And, even after discovery it is only going to be readily accessible for the brief window around perihelion.
NotASnark
Mongoose
We didn't do the Deepnight Legacy adventure.
We started with the Deepnight Endeavour adventure, and because I did it as a follow on from Islands in the Rift, I set in the Islands cluster. The Deepnight Revelations came out around about that time, and the players showed interest in moving onto that next. So it was after doing Endeavour that I got the campaign set, and started retrofitting things to get the characters aboard the Revelation.
After rescuing the crew of the Endeavour, the players were hired to investigate the Anundarluu nebula, which was where I decided that the Endeavour had picked up its infection from. They discovered the Ancients wreckage there.
When they joined the Deepnight Revelations mission shortly after, then they heard about the events of Deepnight Legacy. But it was just a high level overview, and they got to see the recording.
We started with the Deepnight Endeavour adventure, and because I did it as a follow on from Islands in the Rift, I set in the Islands cluster. The Deepnight Revelations came out around about that time, and the players showed interest in moving onto that next. So it was after doing Endeavour that I got the campaign set, and started retrofitting things to get the characters aboard the Revelation.
After rescuing the crew of the Endeavour, the players were hired to investigate the Anundarluu nebula, which was where I decided that the Endeavour had picked up its infection from. They discovered the Ancients wreckage there.
When they joined the Deepnight Revelations mission shortly after, then they heard about the events of Deepnight Legacy. But it was just a high level overview, and they got to see the recording.
NotASnark
Mongoose
We have now reached the Terminus system.
- I had a pre-recorded speech play when they reached the final sector, giving general encouragement and reminding them of their mission.
- They've picked up "Droyne-GPT", a Droyne AI that isn't entirely trustworthy, but can provide advice and warnings. It's been pushing them to destroy the Entity, since that was the Droyne mission.
- I've added a few nearby primitive civilisations, that have religions based around 'dreamers', who have been receiving telepathic thoughts from the Entity (across multiple parsecs). It's encouraging them to build spaceships and come visit. So there's a risk of the Entity spreading in a few hundred years.
- Several of the NPC crew are survivors of the Endeavour and Deepnight Legacy adventure, and they want revenge. They've been cultivating a growing faction that really want to make sure it's destroyed.
- I've decided that the majority of the crew don't want to have come all this way, just to turn around and go home. So there's going to be a lot of push to investigate and figure out what the Entity actually is, even if there's a high risk.
MonsterX
Emperor Mongoose
The wreckage would have been orbiting the XF-1402 I think, not Alpha; the orbit around Alpha is unlikely to be stable. So five and six figure distances, or more. I had the impression the debris was small in size, no reason to think anyone would notice little bits of metal at possibly hundreds of thousand KM distance, and if they did, most likely they'd assume it was minor moons; probably there is a lot of rock and ice in orbit. And who says that people haven't picked up bits of it in the past? Just not the bits with viable Entity spores on them. And Alpha is not exactly on the main routes - a couple ships a year stop there. No reason it couldn't have been in a distant orbit, but it wouldn't have needed to be either to not be discovered.
shammond42
Cosmic Mongoose
Upon rereading the adventure doesn't actually specify what the wreckage is in orbit around; it just says "in orbit". I assumed they meant the planet, but maybe not. It isn't on a main route, but it does have an active astronomical observatory. In any case a distant orbit around the star, is more or less what I propose. The comet-like orbit I propose has the added advantage of bring the wreckage in closer to Alpha where it is easier for a rift hauler to get to.
