Agent 57 - Sol Federation Assassin
Neo Anderson - Chronically Depressed Tech Specialist
Capt. Richard "Dick" Falcon - Alcoholic Pilot/Ex-Cop
Bob Glob - Merchant Prince/Face Man
Nidalvar, Quann - 3 Days Until Party
Dick and Neo evaluated the defenses and sensors of the Quann Customs and Orbital Services HQ, but headed back to the Patrick when Neo remembered that his Honesty would prevent him from bugging the building or hacking their computers and Dick realized that neither of them had any applicable social skills. Neo decided to spend the next two days working on an electronic skeleton keycard for Alack Robenn's hovermansion, and thanks to a crit on Electronics Repair (Security), it would work perfectly. Dick did some Research and found that Quasar Shuttle Services was the company that would be ferrying guests to Robenn's party.
Quann Customs and Orbital Services HQ - 2 Days Until Party
While Neo continued his work, Agent 57 headed out to Quann C&OS HQ disguised as a pest exterminator and used Acting to bluff his way in ("I'll need to check every room, including the evidence room." "Uhhhh okay I guess"). After putting on a decent show, he found an empty office, and went through the police databases on Robenn, which revealed more info about the vanishing shipment:
- The shipment was seized when Ren Kolat, a known smuggler with suspected ties to the Pirate Princess Reena Neeb of the Mentak Coalition, was arrested.
- Ren Kolat was still in the holding cells in the basement, and had a long list of prior convictions like smuggling, petty theft, and grand theft spaceship.
- The shipment consisted of two packages: one addressed to K'Sani Murch care of Alack Robenn, the other to Moh Intergalactic Trading Company.
- C&OS officers were unable to contact Moh Intergalactic.
Agent 57 somehow talked his way into the holding cell area, but with an officer escorting him. He walked through the halls, "checking for space roaches", passing by force-shielded cells until he found Ren Kolat, a red humanoid with floppy tentacles on top of his head, at which point he started looking for "any crates or cabinets where [he] could hide a body". He found a janitorial cabinet full of cleaning supplies and, after failing to swipe the officer's taser, somehow tricked his escort into being sprayed in the face with space-Windex with default Fast-Talk, and, after getting the officer to the bathroom to wash out his eyes, went back to talk with Kolat.
57 claimed to be another smuggler (with another successful Fast-Talk default) working for the Winslett-Bentzen family, and told Kolat that he'd free him if he could provide him with useful info about the missing shipment. Kolat relayed that he had been hired by Tova Shipping Corporation, which he claimed was a Mentak front, to smuggle Robenn's package so as to avoid customs. With this new intel in hand, 57 left Kolat in his cell, and walked out of the headquarters.
K'Sani Murch's Apartment
In the morning, Bob called K'Sani Murch, the Xxcha scholar and guest of honour at the party, on his video phone, and, by pretending to be interested in galactic history, set up a meeting at K'Sani's apartment for later in the day with. Dick decided to tag along, to bug the place and search any computers for clues. They arrived at the apartment tower and made their way to the 53rd floor, and were greeted by the turtle man and entered his warm, humid apartment, which was covered, floor to ceiling, with tropical plants.
Bob introduced Dick as his assistant, and they were led past a glass display case holding an ancient computer processor to a wider meeting space, where they sat on giant flowers in lieu of chairs. Dick excused himself as having to need the washroom and got to scouting the rest of the apartment while Bob distracted K'Sani by getting him talking about the Twilight Wars. Bob was surprised to learn that the Sol Federation had been one of the main actors in causing the wars and subsequent downfall of the old Empire, and had bombarded one of the two Xxcha homeworlds to a barren rock, though K'Sani was tactful and didn't seem to judge all humans by those sins.
With practised skill, Bob was able to turn the conversation towards K'Sani's dealings with Robenn, and learned that Robenn had a deal with Tova Salvage Corporation, who delivered pre-Twilight databanks which he then used to complete his studies. Recently, he had also received a purple crystalline thing which was supposed to be delivered to Moh Intergalactic Trading Company, but he hadn't been able to get in contact and had been busy with his work. Dick snuck around the apartment, eventually finding a computer, which held communications with Robenn which confirmed that the latest package hadn't arrived.
Dick planted a video bug with line of sight to the computer, and rejoined the others while Bob inspected the crystal thing. Bob made an offer to drop it off at the Moh warehouse, claimed that he was already going to be meeting with them later, and K'Sani thanked him for his help. After a bit more historical blathering, Bob and Dick took their leave.
The Patrick - 1 Day Until Party
Dick planted a video bug with line of sight to the computer, and rejoined the others while Bob inspected the crystal thing. Bob made an offer to drop it off at the Moh warehouse, claimed that he was already going to be meeting with them later, and K'Sani thanked him for his help. After a bit more historical blathering, Bob and Dick took their leave.
The Patrick - 1 Day Until Party
Neo decided to spend the day examining the strange crystal thing, and slunk back to his workstation in the engine room while the others worked out a plan. Dick started some Research on Moh Intergalactic while Bob and 57 headed out to the Moh warehouse that K'Sani's package had been addressed to. As they pulled up two blocks away in their rented hovercar, Dick piped up on their comms that Moh was a shell company of a shell company, but was ultimately owned by Alack Robenn. The warehouse looked abandoned, so 57 resolved to go in alone while Bob waited in the hovercar.
Moh Intergalactic Trading Company Warehouse
57 tried both the front door and the shipping entrance, but both were locked, and he failed to get either open, even with his electronic lockpicks. There were no windows on the exterior of the building, so he shimmied up a drain pipe to the roof, and noticed that the skylights were blacked out. 57 Gizmo'd a laser cutter and cut out a hole in a skylight, and swung down to a second-floor catwalk. The warehouse was dark and looked empty; there were just some empty shipping containers, similar to the one that the crystalline thing had been in, on the ground floor.
It seemed like there was nothing of import here, so 57 walked down to the shipping door, but found that it was booby-trapped with an explosive. He headed back up to the catwalk and an attached second-floor office, but it was pitch-black and he couldn't find a light switch. 57 did manage to turn on the lights in the warehouse, though, and noticed the telltale shimmer of advanced camouflage netting on the ground floor. He investigated, and found that the netting was covering a one-man crystalline spacecraft. As he put the netting back, 57 noticed a laser sight trained on his chest. He started sprinting towards the front door, but got hit with a dart and passed out.
Now that 57 was out of commission, Bob panicked and, due to Incompetence (Piloting) got out of the hovercar and started the long walk back to the Patrick, abandoning his teammate. By the time he got back, Neo had given up on the crystal device, having determined that it had something to do with brainwaves but nothing more. Neo set their comms to a new frequency, and they resolved to leave 57 to his fate. With all their gathered evidence, Dick put a plan for the assassination together...
Alack Robenn's Hovermansion - Party At Robenn's
The morning of the party, Dick bought a stolen Quasar Shuttle Services chauffeur uniform and got into the queue of shuttles transporting the guests to Alack Robenn's hovermansion, 2km off the coast. Bob and Neo went directly to the party with no actual gear, and, after passing through some scanners and being greeted by Robenn, split up to blend in to the party. Neo went to the bar and accidentally got entangled with an extremely drunken man ranting about how his girlfriend betrayed him and started dating his "nemesis", while Bob scouted the rest of the party.
The pirate princess Reena Neeb arrived and began regaling the nobles with fantastic tales from the edge of the galaxy, followed shortly by a Ghost of Creuss, an energy being encased behind a metal mask and floating robes, which moved off to the gardens to look out over the sea. Dick reported that he was going to drop off the package on his next run, and Neo, after messily extricating himself from his drunken companion, went out to the gardens and found a secluded spot.
A cluster of nobles roped Bob into a political conversation about whether Quann should join either the Sol Federation or the Mentak Coalition, and after a Lucked crit fail, managed to make a reasonable case for the Federation. Shortly after, a fat slugman arrived and flew into a rage when he saw Reena Neeb, and demanded that she own up to robbing his ships blind. Robenn announced that K'Sani Murch's newest holofilm "A History of the Twilight Wars" was about to premiere, and invited anyone interested to come and watch, which left the gardens empty, except for the Ghost, as the guests moved towards the viewing room.
Bob distracted the Ghost and found out a bit about their strange existence between two dimensions while Dick made a low pass and dropped off a duffle bag full of equipment, which Neo grabbed and concealed in a workshed after pocketing two vials of poison. Neo rejoined with Bob and suggested he and the Ghost go check out the holofilm, and covertly passed Bob the poison. They sat down and watched the documentary for a few minutes before hearing a ruckus out in the lounge which they went to investigate.
The drunken man had wandered over to his nemesis, slapped him, challenged him to a duel, and yelled at a servant to fetch sabers. With Robenn distracted, Bob emptied a vial of lethal poison into Robenn's drink, only for the bartender to swap the drink out for a new one. Bob went back out to the work shed and grabbed the other vial of poison, the crystal device, and a gun. By the time he made it back, the servant had brought forth energy sabers, and the drunk drew one and started to swing it around, disoriented but clearly skilled.
While the challenged man grew increasingly panicked, Bob returned and proposed a business deal with Robenn, and the two headed off to his office to work things out. The bartender pursued, followed by Neo; as they left, the drunken man passed out. In the office, Bob made an offer to supply Robenn with exotic parts, using the crystal device as a sample. Robenn was satisfied and poured out drinks to toast, which Bob, again, poisoned unnoticed thanks to Sleight of Hand.
The bartender had seen all of this, and jumped out to say that Robenn was about to be poisoned, but Bob's superior social skills turned Robenn against him, and he called for security to carry the bartender out for harassing his guests. Security came, ignored Neo, who was still in the hallway, and hauled the bartender away; once they passed a corner, they heard sounds of a scuffle followed by rapid blaster fire.
Neo called Dick for extraction, then ran into the office and chained the doors with a Gizmo, shouting that some mad gunman was killing people. Taking advantage of Robenn's surprise, Bob shot their target in the back of the skull and he slumped down onto his large desk with a large hole in his head. Someone tried the door from the far side, and Dick pulled up outside a window and comm'd that he was ready to evac. Bob shot out the window, lightning flashed in the distance, and the bartender shot the door and then kicked it open.
Now that he got a good look, Bob saw through the bartender's disguise and realized that it was Agent 57! As 57 raised his pistol, Bob started towards the window, but the shuttle drifted away due to the stormy winds that had picked up and he couldn't make it. He dodged a shot from 57, and then made it out the window and into the shuttle as it swung closer again. Neo sprinted out the window ("Can I make this an All-Out Jump for +2, but if I fail, I die?" "Sure!"), missed the shuttle, and started the 2km fall to the ocean below. Dick tried to catch him with the shuttle, but didn't make it, and Neo plunged to his death in the icy waters. The surviving pair flew off to the Patrick and left Quann immediately.
EpilogueMoh Intergalactic Trading Company Warehouse
57 tried both the front door and the shipping entrance, but both were locked, and he failed to get either open, even with his electronic lockpicks. There were no windows on the exterior of the building, so he shimmied up a drain pipe to the roof, and noticed that the skylights were blacked out. 57 Gizmo'd a laser cutter and cut out a hole in a skylight, and swung down to a second-floor catwalk. The warehouse was dark and looked empty; there were just some empty shipping containers, similar to the one that the crystalline thing had been in, on the ground floor.
It seemed like there was nothing of import here, so 57 walked down to the shipping door, but found that it was booby-trapped with an explosive. He headed back up to the catwalk and an attached second-floor office, but it was pitch-black and he couldn't find a light switch. 57 did manage to turn on the lights in the warehouse, though, and noticed the telltale shimmer of advanced camouflage netting on the ground floor. He investigated, and found that the netting was covering a one-man crystalline spacecraft. As he put the netting back, 57 noticed a laser sight trained on his chest. He started sprinting towards the front door, but got hit with a dart and passed out.
Now that 57 was out of commission, Bob panicked and, due to Incompetence (Piloting) got out of the hovercar and started the long walk back to the Patrick, abandoning his teammate. By the time he got back, Neo had given up on the crystal device, having determined that it had something to do with brainwaves but nothing more. Neo set their comms to a new frequency, and they resolved to leave 57 to his fate. With all their gathered evidence, Dick put a plan for the assassination together...
Alack Robenn's Hovermansion - Party At Robenn's
The morning of the party, Dick bought a stolen Quasar Shuttle Services chauffeur uniform and got into the queue of shuttles transporting the guests to Alack Robenn's hovermansion, 2km off the coast. Bob and Neo went directly to the party with no actual gear, and, after passing through some scanners and being greeted by Robenn, split up to blend in to the party. Neo went to the bar and accidentally got entangled with an extremely drunken man ranting about how his girlfriend betrayed him and started dating his "nemesis", while Bob scouted the rest of the party.
The pirate princess Reena Neeb arrived and began regaling the nobles with fantastic tales from the edge of the galaxy, followed shortly by a Ghost of Creuss, an energy being encased behind a metal mask and floating robes, which moved off to the gardens to look out over the sea. Dick reported that he was going to drop off the package on his next run, and Neo, after messily extricating himself from his drunken companion, went out to the gardens and found a secluded spot.
A cluster of nobles roped Bob into a political conversation about whether Quann should join either the Sol Federation or the Mentak Coalition, and after a Lucked crit fail, managed to make a reasonable case for the Federation. Shortly after, a fat slugman arrived and flew into a rage when he saw Reena Neeb, and demanded that she own up to robbing his ships blind. Robenn announced that K'Sani Murch's newest holofilm "A History of the Twilight Wars" was about to premiere, and invited anyone interested to come and watch, which left the gardens empty, except for the Ghost, as the guests moved towards the viewing room.
Bob distracted the Ghost and found out a bit about their strange existence between two dimensions while Dick made a low pass and dropped off a duffle bag full of equipment, which Neo grabbed and concealed in a workshed after pocketing two vials of poison. Neo rejoined with Bob and suggested he and the Ghost go check out the holofilm, and covertly passed Bob the poison. They sat down and watched the documentary for a few minutes before hearing a ruckus out in the lounge which they went to investigate.
The drunken man had wandered over to his nemesis, slapped him, challenged him to a duel, and yelled at a servant to fetch sabers. With Robenn distracted, Bob emptied a vial of lethal poison into Robenn's drink, only for the bartender to swap the drink out for a new one. Bob went back out to the work shed and grabbed the other vial of poison, the crystal device, and a gun. By the time he made it back, the servant had brought forth energy sabers, and the drunk drew one and started to swing it around, disoriented but clearly skilled.
While the challenged man grew increasingly panicked, Bob returned and proposed a business deal with Robenn, and the two headed off to his office to work things out. The bartender pursued, followed by Neo; as they left, the drunken man passed out. In the office, Bob made an offer to supply Robenn with exotic parts, using the crystal device as a sample. Robenn was satisfied and poured out drinks to toast, which Bob, again, poisoned unnoticed thanks to Sleight of Hand.
The bartender had seen all of this, and jumped out to say that Robenn was about to be poisoned, but Bob's superior social skills turned Robenn against him, and he called for security to carry the bartender out for harassing his guests. Security came, ignored Neo, who was still in the hallway, and hauled the bartender away; once they passed a corner, they heard sounds of a scuffle followed by rapid blaster fire.
Neo called Dick for extraction, then ran into the office and chained the doors with a Gizmo, shouting that some mad gunman was killing people. Taking advantage of Robenn's surprise, Bob shot their target in the back of the skull and he slumped down onto his large desk with a large hole in his head. Someone tried the door from the far side, and Dick pulled up outside a window and comm'd that he was ready to evac. Bob shot out the window, lightning flashed in the distance, and the bartender shot the door and then kicked it open.
Now that he got a good look, Bob saw through the bartender's disguise and realized that it was Agent 57! As 57 raised his pistol, Bob started towards the window, but the shuttle drifted away due to the stormy winds that had picked up and he couldn't make it. He dodged a shot from 57, and then made it out the window and into the shuttle as it swung closer again. Neo sprinted out the window ("Can I make this an All-Out Jump for +2, but if I fail, I die?" "Sure!"), missed the shuttle, and started the 2km fall to the ocean below. Dick tried to catch him with the shuttle, but didn't make it, and Neo plunged to his death in the icy waters. The surviving pair flew off to the Patrick and left Quann immediately.
Agent 57 was captured and admitted that he was a Sol Federation special agent who had been sent to assassinate Alack Robenn. Political opinion turned drastically against the Federation, and, with peaceful annexation off the table, they started an outright invasion, as Quann's strategic location near the Beta Wormhole was too important to give up. The Mentak Coalition also wanted Quann, however, and funded the defence of the planet while harrying Sol convoys. A long, bloody war ensued.
Notes:
I used an "alert" system kind of stolen from Blades in the Dark, where the party are allowed to screw up at a location multiple times, each prompting small increases in security, before the alarms are fully sounded. It seemed to work quite well, and I'd use it again in the future.
I allowed the "kayo" rule from DF10, but nobody used it.
Humourously, they never did end up calling in their "one favour" with the Sol Federation.
Agent 57 was brainwashed to be on the antagonist's side, which meant that he took their place entirely in the final mission. He was directed to protect Robenn's life, preferably without Robenn knowing, and could probably have killed both the other PCs at the party if not for some poor choices.
The alien device they got was part of a brainwashing tool. A similar device had been used on Robenn to turn him drastically pro-SolFed. The original plan was for him to commit a terrorist attack in the name of the Federation, but this worked just as well for whoever was pulling the strings on the other side.
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