Treasure hunt

[rancke]

The other day I watched Treasure of the Peacock's Eye, one of the Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, and I decided to try to come up with something similar for Traveller. you know, a clue leads the treasure hunters to some place where they find another clue that leads to someplace else, and so on ad nauseam.

I decided to set it on Regina, a world that I've done a good deal of work detailing. I've come up with a quite ingenious set of clues, if I may be allowed to be immodest. The problem is, though, that the locations for these clues are various museums and document archives rather than ruined cities deep in jungles infested with wild animals, greedy pirates, savage headhunters, and fanatical idol-worshippers. The closest I come to anything like that is a tropical tourist paradise that used to be a pirate hideout 600 years ago.

So I need some adventures to spice up the various encounters. I can probably do something about the difficulties of getting access to the documents at least once, but I don't want to turn the whole thing into another Exit Visa.

Any ideas?


Hans

 

[Cryton]

A rival/competing group that's also on the trail is one way to spice things up.

Also, guardians of the secret/treasure would be a series of good encounters, especially if they do not wish the secret to be uncovered.

In both instances, the other groups could use shady tactics, releasing of dangerous animals to impede the searchers, the setting of traps, spreading or mis-information and deception, and in the final confrontation, outright violence.

Hope that helps.

Rich

 

[rancke]

A rival/competing group that's also on the trail is one way to spice things up.

Also, guardians of the secret/treasure would be a series of good encounters, especially if they do not wish the secret to be uncovered.

Hope that helps.

It does, which is a bit strange since I had already considered and rejected the idea of rival treasure hunters. But while reading your post two separate ideas for rivals popped into my head.

Funny how the mind works.


Hans

 

[DaveChase]

And at the end they come upon a large, fun loving party, who are drinking and having a good old time.

Turns out the clue they have been uncovering are for a scavenging hunt party put on by the local Baron of the area. It has been planned for years and ongoing for the last month (if planet bound, 3 months if systems are involved).



Dave Chase

 

[HiverLord]

What is the treasure they're eventually seeking? Other than the standard jewels, credits, technology, etc., you could develop a host of other possibilities. The treasure/knowledge the hunt leads to could provide a host of possible problems/rivals/locations:

-A holo/data crystal with missing/hidden stellar data (a lanthanum find? an unlisted/unknown Ancient site? A hidden base for survivors of the disbanded Order of the White Star? A secret, unknown to almost everyone jump route across the Great Rift?)
-Clues to the actual identity of some notorious individual in Imperial history, recent or ancient (what? Duke so-and-so was actually a Zhodani mole?!) o:
-Or perhaps it IS just a baron's party idea, and the party accidentally found clues meant for one of the involved groups... And it's all being recorded (secretly) for a local/regional "reality holovid" series, with the player group being the new, sudden 'stars' of the series... :rofl:

 

[rancke]

What is the treasure they're eventually seeking?

[Most of the following is non-canonical but, I hope, canon-compatible.]

Regina was settled in 75 by a order of nuns known as the Sisters of St. Regina who emigrated from their original world of Aiere (Core 1108) due to persecution. They brought along a group of devout lay people to support them in their new home. The sisters left it to the colonists to figure out the details of how to organize themselves as long as they provided for the upkeep of the abbey. This worked as long as the first generation of settlers were still dominant.

In 119 the 3rd Mayor of Credo, Adam Grant, organized a bloodless 'palace coup' that left the Abbess as the titular head of Regina, but took away her influence in secular affairs. The period that followed was later dubbed The Irreverence and was known for its exuberant and unrestrained artworks. Freed from the constraint of the sober ecclesiastical rule (or interference in the mayor's rule) of the Abbess, artists produced works that are still regarded as among the greatest artistic achievements in the history of Regina.

By 168 the pendulum of public opinion had swung from the side of the Irreverent back to the side of the Pious, and the ultra-pious Ezekiel Gordon looked certain to win the election for mayor by a comfortable margin. Fearing, not without reason, that Gordon would order the destruction of City Hall's collection of Irreverent art objects when he became mayor, Leviathan Daniels, the curator at City Hall, took steps to hide away the various Irreverent art objects of the collection, which was split into several lots and hidden in separate places.

Daniels was arrested but refused to reveal the location of the missing artwork. In 172 he was included in the first group of "apostates" exiled to the newly established Pomona Cove Penal Settlement in Madzaki (a continent on the opposite side of Regina "as far away from Credo as it was possible to go and still be on Regina" as Ezekiel Gordon put it).

Daniels became sick and died before Gordon was defeated six years later[*], but before he died he sent a package with detailed information about the various caches to Credo and a separate letter explaining what the directions were for. This package went astray. Most of the caches have been found but one, containing some very fine and very valuable paintings and statuettes, still remain hidden. The letter, long moldering[**] in some private collection, has recently come to the attention of a Patron who will hire the PCs to track down the package.

[*] And shortly afterwards included in the first batch of "zealots" exiled to Pomona Cove.

[**] Except the synthetic paper used on Regina does not actually molder.​

Hans

 

[saundby]

The museum has the box the next clue came in or the top half of the document. The rest is still Out There, as the underfunded scientist who had to close the dig down early will tell you.

Also, the other place that has the actual artifact? It only works if it's powered by the grid back where it came from, and only shows the next destination if you use it where the old capital city of the unfortunate band of too-early settlers used to be.

And when a trip to the boondocks turns up an alien artifact, it turns out it's just a key to a cache on another planet, not the thing itself.

And Professor Wilton, who has a crucial clue, always spends this time of year in his "rustic" lodge.

Etc., etc.

 

[Icosahedron]

Well, you already have two potential groups of seekers there, the Pious and the Irreverent, each with their own agenda.
I'm not sure about your 'treasure map', though. If the guy was in prison and the Pious crowd were still in control and desperate to find the stuff, I imagine they'd monitor anything coming out of his 'cell' pretty closely - especially if he seemed to be dying. So the map couldn't be anything obvious, especially with TL X interrogation and examination technology...

I'd look at Dan Brown and the 'National Treasure' movie series for further inspiration.

 

[rancke]

Well, you already have two potential groups of seekers there, the Pious and the Irreverent, each with their own agenda.

The social conflict between the Pious and the Irreverent was 900 years ago. Politics have changed a bit since then.

I'm not sure about your 'treasure map', though. If the guy was in prison and the Pious crowd were still in control and desperate to find the stuff, I imagine they'd monitor anything coming out of his 'cell' pretty closely - especially if he seemed to be dying.

They weren't desperate to find the artwork, and Pomona Cove was not a high-security prison.

I'd look at Dan Brown and the 'National Treasure' movie series for further inspiration.

I've had "The Da Vinci Code" lying around for a long time but haven't mustered the interest to begin on it. The two 'National Treasure' movies were fun, though.


Hans