Bathtub! An adventure seed for Scouts

[gchuck]

A short (or not so short) adventure seed:

While surveying a world, from the air, one of the characters spots what looks like a bathtub, down in the heavy brush. In the middle of no where.

With nowhere to land in the immediate vicinity, the pc's must hack their way overland toward the site.

When they (finally) reach the site of the 'bathtub', the pc's discover an air-raft, half way sunk into the ground, almost completely filled with forest detritus, seats decayed, windshield gone. A small tree, growing out of the middle of it (easily removed).

The only markings, a very weathered 'poni' logo on one side. Serial numbers for various components are readily discovered, upon investigation.

Who did it belong too? What were they doing here?

The only 'artifact' discovered, is the owners manual, in the glove box. A cell phone sized black plastic tablet. It is dead. Nothing else is discovered in the air raft or immediate vicinity.

If the pc's take the manual with them, the charging systems of the air raft/scout ship/survey vessel, will immediately start charging the manual. The manual will charge itself, and sit quietly until the 'charger' is shut down.

Upon restarting the 'charger', the manual will immediately connect to the 'blue tooth' systems of the 'charger', causing a warning indicator to illuminate. (Allow AROM-77B4-1083C to connect: Y/N) If the pc's have ignored the 'manual', the identification of the source is a difficult task.

When the manual connects with the 'Scout Net', a voice will be heard speaking softly from the speakers of the connected equipment:"....and I haven't seen Bob in over three days now. I hope he's okay. I managed to get away from these a-holes, but I can't find Bob!
Anyways, 'Misty' is safe, so I'll keep looking...."

I wrote a short script, a couple of paragraphs, and gave it to one of the women I work with, and had her read it, after a few rehearsals, I used my phone, and recorded her reciting the script.

While the pc's were engaged in conversation between themselves, I just turned on the phone, and let it play!

Who is 'Bob'? Who is the woman speaking, and who is 'Misty'?

With a little luck, and investigation, the pc's will discover the air raft is almost three hundred years old. Part of the attached equipment for a scout ship on detached duty. Misty!

Write a script that suits your needs, and have someone recite it as you record them. Then play it in the middle of a session.

Hope some of you find this interesting.

 

[Whipsnade]

While the pc's were engaged in conversation between themselves, I just turned on the phone, and let it play!

Wow... talk about setting the hook!

What a wonderful way to introduce an adventure seed!

Please tell us, what did your players do?

 

[gchuck]

After several, "Would you please turn the radio down?"
Someone finally started listening, "Everybody shut up!"

Took them about 15 minutes to figure out where the voice was coming from, after checking coms, and computers.

Remember those 'notes' sections in the back of probably every owners manual you have ever owned?

Finally I read them the script, and the 'hook' was set! The mystery is now an obsession!

 

[Timerover51]

I certainly hope that you will continue with this story. I am definitely hooked.

Also a very creative piece of work with the use of the cell phone.

 

[Whipsnade]

The mystery is now an obsession!

After a hook like that it most certainly should be!

I used handouts - some xeroxed/clipped out of magazines and some typed up myself - during games. Occasionally, I'd use a picture or two. Nothing I ever came up with was as interesting or memorable as that however.

Robject has been mulling over "convention games" in a pair of threads. A "multimedia" hook like the one you created would grab any convention player and not let them go.

 

[gchuck]

This adventure is a giant conspiracy.

I had given the players a planetary map, Omen, 1128 Storr, a moon around a large gas giant. They had 'pathed' it, to show the progression of the survey route they were going to take. Quite efficient except for they missed the tiny island in the southern hemisphere.

They are supposed to find out where all the population has gone. There has been no word from Omen for almost 300 years. It's a Wise Council issue, so the Solomani and Imperium had ZERO interest. Until SolSec started poking around. THEN the Imperium takes notice.

Now there is a D class down port, and a startown. One of the pc's is the starport administrator.

After finding the manual, they spent a whole session going through the recordings, and looking up serial numbers for the air raft.

Turns out the air raft is Scout property, along with a standard Sulieman scout (I just gave it a random hull number), allotted to Senior Scout Robert Smith, for detached duty. 290 years ago!
It has been written off.

The next session, more clues arise. They are looking over the map, "Hey! Whats this little green dot?"

So! We need to check this out! The Boss lady says, "Go! Call us when you get there!"

It takes the 'Hurricane' almost a full day to get there. When they arrive they discover the island is the caldera of an extinct volcano, scrub on the southern faces, and dense jungle on the northern faces. Lots of birds, and small rodents. And some very large sea life in the flooded crater.

After they camped for the night, they start up the Hurricane, and the 'Scout Net' starts freaking out! (Allow 'random hull number' to connect: Y/N)

After exploring the island for most of a day, they discover 'Misty', backed into an old lava vent, in very good condition.

Several of the Asuran (see Contact forum) crew, offer to help. Mainly the Chief Engineer, who has taken up a romantic relationship with the Scout Engineer. About 10 people, a mix of pc's and npc's, take a fuel shuttle from the star port to the island. Only a couple of hours of flight time.

After little more than a day, (I was making scary good die rolls that day), 'Misty' is fueled, and flown back to the starport.

The 'Boss' lady, a Scout JAG (She has yet to figure out why she's at the back-ass of beyond running a star-port), informs the the two pc's and one npc, that they are now the proud owners of 'Random Hull Number'! Stunned looks, big grins!

 

[Grav_Moped]

I like that.
Clever method for revealing an apocalyptic log.

 

[whartung]

Kind of marveling at the state of 300 year old materials, myself.

 

[coliver988]

Kind of marveling at the state of 300 year old materials, myself.

Obviously a Ling-Standard product - those knock-offs would not last more than 50 years being abandoned like that.

 

[Whipsnade]

Kind of marveling at the state of 300 year old materials, myself.

Me too, but it worked for that group and that is all that matters.

That wonderful recorded massage "hook" is something I'm going to try and use. The rest of it? Not so much. Much of it snaps my suspenders as a referee and I know would have snapped the suspenders of my groups.

 

[mike wightman]

You could always just change the timescale - the scout ship went missing 30 years ago...

 

[Timerover51]

An interesting way of getting the players a scout ship. I am just not sure of those 300 year old drives and power plant. Would anyone still know how to operate them.

 

[BlackBat242]

The rules support PCs getting 40-year-old ships regularly - I expect that not much has changed over 300 years (the benefit/curse of a large slow-moving organization that sets standards is a glacial process to change standard designs/interfaces).

So I'd say that the PCs would be able to run the ship's systems - maybe with more referral to the manuals than normal, but not much more than that.

I'd say that the ship itself wouldn't be operative (or be made operative in the field), but could be rendered operational after a period in a Class A ship-repair facility (and expenditure of 10% of its new value).

However, a properly shut-down & buttoned-up scout would likely be operational after 60-80 years with no problem - although glitches and failures should start showing up sooner rather than later unless/until an overhaul at 1% of new value is done.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Quite likely, what with Vilani standardization and all.
That said, I second the question as to how well the ship would have endured three centuries of weathering, even in a cave. I mean, yeah, they're supposed to be able to tolerate re-entry heat and at least partial immersion in salt water, but gaskets and seals would eventually deteriorate from age. Also consider corrosive effects of pure hydrogen on the fuel tanks once the power fails and the tank chillers stop working (perhaps they'll be automatically vented as a precaution).

This is actually a concern for a scenario I'm developing that involves a 2000-year-old derelict floating in space. Not from the Ancients, so it can't have been magically* Ragnarok-proofed. There'd be problems with vacuum welding, precipitated frozen internal atmosphere shorting electronics out, seals and gaskets not tolerating zero degrees Kelvin welll -- stuff like that.

*sufficiently advanced technology and all that.

 

[Whipsnade]

That said, I second the question as to how well the ship would have endured three centuries of weathering, even in a cave.

In a cave. In a dense jungle. On an island. In a lake. In a volcano's caldera.

Not to mention all the birds and rodents. I wonder how much guano can build up in 300 years?

It's not just a matter of recognizing this control panel or that part of the jump drive.

 

[Enoki]

Not to mention the mold, slime, and other stuff that's going to grow on everything... No matter how well buttoned up it is, there's going to be microscopic bacteria and life inside and it will multiply. It's going to be like raising the Titanic and restoring it to service.

 

[Old School]

You guys are throwing out all these mundane yet scientific reasons an old ship won’t fly. Apply all that logic to the game rules or setting and everything would fall apart. Have a little fun. All that is required is a small dose of handwavium.

 

[BRJN]

I am just not sure of those 300 year old drives and power plant. Would anyone still know how to operate them?

The Pennsylvania Railroad called itself "The Standard Railroad of the World" for 100 years. (Nobody else would share their gear, though.) 40 years after the railroad disappeared, you can still find old manuals and individual pieces of equipment at collectors' meets, flea markets, auctions.

Is that 37-Million-Credit ship worth some effort to patch it up into working order?

For fun: Fly over an 'antique starship' fan convention. Then ask the vendors for discounts on repair / replacement parts.

 

[kilemall]

The Pennsylvania Railroad called itself "The Standard Railroad of the World" for 100 years. (Nobody else would share their gear, though.) 40 years after the railroad disappeared, you can still find old manuals and individual pieces of equipment at collectors' meets, flea markets, auctions.

Is that 37-Million-Credit ship worth some effort to patch it up into working order?

For fun: Fly over an 'antique starship' fan convention. Then ask the vendors for discounts on repair / replacement parts.

Well, locomotive as metaphor for old starship, they have successfully restored 1870s/1880s steam engines and even built them new using a mix of old and new techniques and standard blueprints for the National Park ones out at Promontory Point (youtube follows)-


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM2A2NEaRqg



Pretty much any restoration involves making custom parts, whether steam locomotive or say WWII warbirds. It costs, but can be done after technology and mass production part supply moves on.


Plus, there is no telling what parts are lying around in warehouses for something the size of our interstellar polities.

 

[gchuck]

300+ year old ship. Yep. Reading the history of the scout service, I believe that the Suleiman has NOT changed much at all. Other than the tech. But it's still manufactured at a TL of 12 I think. A tried and true design, IIRC. Standardized is apropos.

As far as flying it back, after a days maintenance, I realize I was pretty vague.
The sequence of events, and logic behind it were: 'Jump start' the batteries, and charge them(I've always held that the skin of a starship has a minimal solar/radiation charging capacity for a 'maintenance' charge) The ship was not in the bottom of a deep dark hole.

10 tons of fuel pumped in.

The power plant was started after a physical and technical(i.e. electronic) inspection.

I did say something about 'scary' die rolls, if you will recall.

And, most importantly, its CT! So there!

Plant was started, tested, and deemed 'adequate'.

Gravitics, were tested, and checked off as operational.(no deterioration of the 'bricks')
Remember the Soapstones from the novel Friday?

Maneuver thrusters engaged, nudging out of the cave. Several circuits around the island, on gravs, and they deemed it good to fly. But not out of the atmosphere, and only on thrusters.

The ship had been lovingly cared for(Those of you who have 'classic' cars know what that's like), and long term storage protocols followed.

The proud owners of the 'Misty' are under no illusions of what they're getting into money wise.