QUOTE (nezumi @ Apr 4 2011, 03:46 PM)
A friend arranges a social call. He swings by the station, enjoys lunch, makes small talk. He's been working closely with some gatecrashers through the Love & Hate Gate. He avoids talking about what he's doing so far from 'home', although it is clear he is actually travelling by shuttle, not egocasting.
After the meal, the group's hacker comes up with something odd on the security equiment. The party finds a small pouch hidden in a ventilation shaft. Inside is a strange artifact the size of a peach pit. A tag attached to it identifies it as being from the friend, that it should be kept safe until he can return to collect it. Using microscopy, the skin of the artifact is inscribed with an alien script.
News reports that the friend's morph was found dead a week and a half later on a circulator to Luna, his stack brutally removed. Digging deeper reveals that all of his possessions are mising and the morph was actually surgically opened, although it's unclear why.
How it continues depends on the PCs. The artifact may be induced to begin revealing information. It's a sort of treasure map, except instead of leading to treasure, it tracks the movements of this band of aliens as they were pursued by a highly advanced, automated device pursuing the extermination of their species. That detail is not revealed until later on. The mathematical work of establish routes and locations is much easier, and suggest that there is something at a particular location which the characters may get close to by gate. The artifact was recovered by a private team working through the Love-Hate gate, then purchased (through suspicious circumstances) by Go-Nin before it apparently disappeared. Go-Nin is intensely interested in the artifact, since they already began unlocking the map and believe it leads to more alien artifacts. They are actively pursuing it, and killing anyone in their way. They've hired several bands of mercenaries, including the Band of the Black Hand, a group of primate uplifts.
If a transhuman reaches the artifact, they will discover that it is the genocide device - and if interacted with, it will lock onto the transhuman and begin a campaign to exterminate all transhuman life in the galaxy - something which it is, without question, capable of.
The game took a bit longer to come to life, but next weekend it'll happen, so if anyone wants to contribute to nezumi's awesome scenario, feel free to do so. In the meantime two questions for clarification:
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The mathematical work of establish routes and locations is much easier
What do you mean with this?
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and suggest that there is something at a particular location which the characters may get close to by gate
Does the group has to use the gate to get to the location?