McGuffin/Red Herring Needed

[Easterner9504]

Have new player joining via the old crashed ship routine.

Decided something more needed. She carries an item aboard an IISS scout while headed out of Imperium into the Outrim Void.

It is unlikely to be biological or ancient tech.

Otherwise I'm open to suggestions or a point at an Adventure with such an item you recall. It can be worthless, yet seem important or vice-versa.

 

[Sturn]

An ancient family heirloom from Terra dating from the 2nd Imperium / Rule of Man (a revolver? a signet ring? a simple cup?). Not her heirloom, but one belonging to the dictator of a small pocket empire considering joining the Imperium. The Outrim Void was settled during the Rule of Man by the, "Terran Expansion". This dictator is a direct descendant of a family that came from Terra during this expansion. The heirloom was left behind with the family on Terra and the dictator asked for it to be recovered when it was discovered in a museum at Capital (war museum with spoils of battle from the Rim Wars).

 

[fiat_knox]

A metal statuette of a falcon, supposedly fabricated out of solid gold, purportedly crafted on a small Terran island called Malta.

 

[Higgipedia]

A metal statuette of a falcon, supposedly fabricated out of solid gold, purportedly crafted on a small Terran island called Malta.

Thanks to this, I now know that when hot tea travels from throat to nose, pain follows.

It was worth it.

 

[jatay3]

A password or key to an ancient library of information. Not necessarily a library from THE ancients: it could for instance be records left behind by the Zira Sirka or the Rule of Man.

 

[aramis]

The Duke's mistress?

 

[jatay3]

The Duke's mistress?

Who happens to be a serial killer?

 

[Sifu Blackirish]

How about an ancient notebook, with writing in an obscure language and code. It doesn't seem to have any practical value. In fact, no one around seems to speak or even recognize the language, or has had time to analyze the code (or even recognize that it is code).

You could take this several ways:
1) notes from an eccentric physicist on an alien hyperdrive. Not as fast as jump, but you can drop out anytime without misjumping. In a planetary gravity well it just doesn't work, no catastrophic failures.
2) personal diary of a Earth dictator, who happens to be an ancestor of the carrier. The carrier does not know about the connection and will be instantly unliked (or worse) when it is discovered.
3) a series of personal instructions from a future self, written in a military/clan/union code they would recognize from their pre-adventuring career. The first pages of instructions will correspond to the reader's present time in about six weeks.

Hope that tickles your creative bone!

 

[aramis]

Who happens to be a serial killer?

Or just misbelieved by the Duke's family to be one...

 

[by_the_sword]

A letter of appointment to a particular noble, to the title of Marquis of (whatever subsector you want) from the Archduke.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

An ancient family heirloom from Terra dating from the 2nd Imperium / Rule of Man (a revolver? a signet ring? a simple cup?).

A ruby pendant in the shape of a fish?

 

[Garyius2003]

A TL 12 data drive encased to look like a pendant on a necklace, worn around her neck. The pendant is strangely haunting in its design, even given its small size.

Her first scout leader--a man whose wife and child were killed in an ine givar attack on a sports complex--sort of took her under his wing. He guided her career over some initial rough spots. When his lungs were damaged in an vacc suit accident he decided not to accept a replacement set, citing the religion of his dead wife. He did hang on long enough to pass on his wife's pendant to the PC.

He was able to write down to her that he wanted the PC to keep the necklace safe, and pass it on to a worthy successor. "Someday the time will come to read the text on the chip and release it to the universe."

The PC paid over 1,000 credits to an imperial university for a full exam of the drive by grad students-- after her first efforts using scout labs didn't show much other than that the drive was not openable and held encrypted data that the scout computers could not break.

The data recorded on it is easily read by remote scanner--but the data uses an encryption so complex that not even TL 15 computers operated by university grad students can decode it. There is about 15GB of data encrypted.

The university noted that there is no known way to unseal the data drive without destroying the casing. One of the students forwarded the design of the pendant to the library data archives--where it was matched to a short tri-v recording taken from a noble society type gossip show. The short excerpt shows the wife of the Duchess of Glisten wearing a pendant just like the one worn by the PC.

The tri-v is dated 856, and is taken on the occasion of a state visit to Wurzburg/2237Glisten/Spinward Marches. The Lady Melididine is announcing a program to relocate orphan children from Wurzburg to Corridor to be adopted. The clip appears to have been news because she was surrounded by several of the children holding the first flowers they have ever seen—while the Lady wears a designer diplomatic suit designed by a then popular custom fashion designer from Capitol/Core. The relocation plan is being funded half by the Ducal household office, and half by subscription from residents of Corridor.

The short clip was saved in the archives as part of a doctoral thesis, accepted and approved in 972, written by a university grad student. The thesis decrys the cultural genocide of destroying Wurzburg’s unique living history. The thesis cites the source recording, but the actual source tri-v was purged during a computer system upgrade some 75 years ago.

Since then the PC has worn the necklace, respecting her friend and mentor's last wish.

 

[Ishmael]

an old old book with handwritten notes on the inside covers and in the margins that offer evidence/proof of a very important person's lineage ( or lack of it ).
( or is it a forgery? )

The book is so old that it is fragile.

 

[aramis]

A ruby pendant in the shape of a fish?

Inscribed on the back with Ghoti...

 

[FreeTrav]

A manuscript, not bound, written in a script that nobody recognizes. It is beautifully illustrated, and appears to be divided into sections, with each section seeming to focus on a single topic, which may be guessed at from the nature of the extremely detailed diagrams in the section. These diagrams are of various unrecognized plants, animals, crystals, machines, and so on, and the level of detail seems to suggest that the author had direct personal knowledge of what s/he was drawing.

 

[by_the_sword]

An instructional holovid on cutlass fighting from a prominent sword-master. Very rare.

 

[Sanjuro]

A signet ring with embedded chips to authenticate Imperial Stationery.

 

[slyen2002]

A functioning water chip for a purification system or perhaps a small suitcase based terraforming kit named after a mythical garden...

 

[robject]

The master passcodes to the Kinunir.

 

[fiat_knox]

A manuscript, not bound, written in a script that nobody recognizes. It is beautifully illustrated, and appears to be divided into sections, with each section seeming to focus on a single topic, which may be guessed at from the nature of the extremely detailed diagrams in the section. These diagrams are of various unrecognized plants, animals, crystals, machines, and so on, and the level of detail seems to suggest that the author had direct personal knowledge of what s/he was drawing.

The Codex Seraphinianus!