that's an idea, Magnus
I like the crappy trade craft angle, because that's exactly what it is. I'm trying to prepare for possible courses of action on the part of the PCs.
At the moment, his creds are suspended. I didn't want to go deeply into the lengthy situation I put myself in in the original post, but now with your reply it is more relevant.
The other
players do not know he is ISS. He wanted to attempt it and we rolled it up privately according to MGT
Agent. All the players know is that he is some sort of agent because we all rolled up the characters together. So I developed his professional background according to his events and mishaps.
Originally, I wanted an Ancients narrative (with the preludes CT Canard [Dragon Magazine], Shadows, Research Station Gamma, Twilights Peak) before launching Mongoose SoA; centered around my Merchant Freetrader Captain (the Inheritor). Uncle Vlen sent the Inheritor across the Sector to check out interesting rumors on Canard, and they are now almost to the end of that adventure. While the Inheritor is not yet aware of Uncle Vlens motivations concerning Ancient Artifacts, it was a good job to take, so he went to the Mustering Out Center and recruited the other PCs for the job and Uncle Vlen paid for the trip aboard a high jump Luxury Liner (FASA I.S.C.V. King Richard) while his Free Trader is berthed in dry dock on Regina.
That meshed, so I thought, with Tripwire for my agent, thinking that after dropping off the body, they would take a side trip to run through Tripwire before continuing on with SoA. That way, the focus is neither squarely on the Ancient theme nor the prelude to the upcoming Fifth Frontier War but a good blending of the two. Because of events after dropping off the body, it doesn't look like that is feasible.
But back to the agent. He rolled 66
You are decorated for heroism beyond the call of duty. You are automatically promoted.
Since he mustered out with two networks, I had his original assignment as a standard Case Officer recruiting assets in criminal syndicates (hence Ven Yasha who he has never seen but is connected with through trade craft) and funding black market proceeds to insurgents in the Sword Worlds ala
Iran/Contra in the 80s.
However, he was pulled from that to something I made up called
Special Projects 30-G, based out of Regina, which is even compartmentalized within ISS. It gave him the Clearance TS/SCI/SP-30G (and a high Trust). It was created ad hoc to deal with growing Zhodani SORAG and Ine Grivar activity. He was with a platoon Imperial Marine Commandos who were to covertly gather information of Imperials in Ine Grivar on Esalin. They compromised themselves through accident and the guerillas provided stiff resistance but he succeeded in the mission, discovering in addition SORAG advisor involvement with the guerillas, and they were able to extract under fire shortly before a battalion of Zhodani Lift Infantry arrived as reenforcements.
He was awarded the
Order of the Silent Sun, something I made up based on awards that the CIA give out to Case Officers in real life but that only mean anything within intelligence circles because of the secretive nature. One day when he is retired he can wear a miniature medal on his lapel at the next Association of Retired Intelligence Professionals Convention and only they will know what it is.
He also gained a network and ally that I blended together with this
Your efforts also resulted in a close relationship, even friendship, with Rear Admiral Roland Tarquel, Imperial Navy CINCIMNAVINT/RS (Commander-in-Chief, Imperial Naval Intelligence, Regina Subsector) in the Imperial Admiralty Branch Office based on Regina (again, MTU but doesn't seem to conflict with Mongoose Sector Fleet). With the Rear Admiral’s blessing, you were able to establish a (Grey: social and professional, but not advertised) network of contacts within Naval Intelligence including a young analyst, Ensign Artura Gramlyn. [LT. Artura Gramlyn: OTU TAS News]
He rolled 45.
The information you acquired was integral to a greater goal that your employer shared with you afterwards, gaining you an additional corporate or governmental Ally and Network. And he also later rolled leaving the service and gaining an enemy, I don't recall the exact description off-hand but I blended those two together.
The information he got on a separate mission on Efate led to the discovery of clues that will eventually reveal traitors for the Sword Worlds high in the Regina government (OTU but don't remember the source). This politically embarrassed Chief of Naval Operations/RS Santanocheev severely and it made the agents position unteneble. He gained an enemy of the CNO or someone close to him on his staff, it is not clear yet but that is the scuttlebutt. However, due to his previous heroism and expertise, his superisor and her chief decided to put him out into the cold; idea based on John LeCarre's
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. So he really is not out of ISS but on paper only for political reasons.
So he gets drafted into the Army. He chose support. So I stuck him in 4518th Lift Infantry (Duke of Regina’s Own Huscarles) as a supply specialist. He was a terrible soldier (part of building his deep cover) and a slacker who only made it to Lance Corporal. He knows SP 30-G is still operational because while he was in the Army, Ine Grivar operatives were busted in the plot to nerve gas the 1200 year celebrations (OTU). However in his second term he discovered discrepancies, large discrepancies, in Class VI requisitions (alcohol, tobacco, and combat drugs). It seems his CO was trying to run a black market scheme and he was set up as the patsy if it ever got blown. Using his old criminal network and trade craft experience, he gathered enough evidence on his CO and reported it to Imperial Army Criminal Investigation Division (IACID). Unfortunately, just as the investigation got underway, his CO, in retaliation, drummed him out on trump-up charges based on his poor soldier record (call it a mixture of illogical military bureaucracy, manipulating the regs on the part of the CO and officer/minor noble privilege). Nevertheless, he now has a very strong cover.
But at the moment he doesn't have credentials and his trust has decreased while he was out in the cold. He will be activated and sent on a trust building mission to extract an ISS agent in Zhodani space (Mongoose
Tripwire).
To do this, he needs to convince the Merchant captain to incorporate his Trader into a registered company (Mongoose
Merchant Prince) so that they can go through the red tape and gain a commercial permit to enter and trade in Zhodani space. Unknown to the other PCs, this company will be a front company of the ISS and the PC will regain the slight decrease in Trust to get his creds back.
Again, the other players are unaware of any of this. While the players know he CHARGEN-ed an agent, they don't know the extent of it. As far as their characters are concerned, they know the agent character only as a support veteran, and low-ranking at that, of the Duke's Own Huscarles just trying to make a buck in the Galaxy.
I need to rework it a little, I can't have the agent player getting his creds then whipping them out when the IISS is chasing them on Alell. It would screw up the entire SoA campaign. There are good suggestions on this thread on how to handle it with Galen. I appreciate the help, everyone.
Nevertheless, this character and his bio gives me a lot of hooks and great role-play situations in the subterfuge between the players themselves at the gaming table.
IMPORTANT REFEREE TIP:
always read the details of the campaign before creating and handing out player backgounds!!!!!!
Well, learn from mistakes as they say, thanks every one for the input, I'd like to hear more ideas if you have them after posting this not-so-brief synopsis.
BTW: does anyone know of a civilian equivalent to the battle rider system? They are at the spinward side of the sector and I didn't want to spend a lot of time in jump space or we would never get out of the prologue. Which is why I used the high jump capable luxury liner to get there. However, on Canard they can salvage the abandoned
Mara class Far Trader and the adventure gives the a pinnace if successful. So, I need some sort of high-jump capable civilian tender to get them back to Regina as quickly as possible. I already backed up the campaign date to 1104 so that they could get out of the prologue in time to meet the OTU historical time-line of events. And I really don't want to deal with endless encounters as they travel forever across the sector on Jump-2 with the Far Trader. I can make up a mega-tender run by a mega corporation (passage may be paid for by selling the pinnace and some of the nifty Ancient gadgets, on the black market, found in the Ancient weather station on Canard) that could hold the Far Trader and the boat in its hold and that they could catch at Glisten, but I'm wondering if there is something like that already out there.
