Scenario 2 - Station 18

A Foundation research station deep in the Rimward Reach has fallen silent. What happened out on the edge of the Darkness between the Stars?
And this is where the crew of the Möngön Sum comes into the picture.

THE MISSION

The Player Characters find an interesting mission. They are asked to proceed to a set of coordinates and investigate the disappearance of a missing ship carrying one of its researchers, a professor Siyab Dahiljaba.
For valuable information about what has happened to the ship, they will be paid 10,000 birr. If they can return the ship or the researcher, they will be paid double that.
The scenario starts when the PCs ship arrives at the coordinates and find the old research station. Unfortunately for the PCs (and indeed for the crew of the survey ship), they have stumbled upon a century old secret, and will have to face the strange inhabitants of the station.

Plot points/Scenes

The adventure is divided into three parts.

Act 1 - the PCs approach the station and try to find a way to enter it.

Act 2 - the meat of the adventure - the PCs will explore the station, encounter its inhabitants and find clues as to what has happened here.

Act 3 - In the last part the PCs will be forced into the conflict between Wahina/The Growth and the surviving members of the research expedition. In the end they will have to choose if they will side with the living or help Wahina realize her century old dream of bringing the Seed of the Icons to Dabaran.

Themes

The Mystery

The mystery at the core of the scenario is what happened at the station. This is partly revealed through information discovered in the various scenes, but it is also important that the GM creates further clues himself for the players. When the scenario is completed, the Heroes should have understood the entire background as described above. Further important insights concern the Foundation's blackout, the Legion's interference, Wahina's goals and the events at the station.

Factions

If you want to develop the scenario further, it helps to know the attitude of the various factions towards SS-18 and the possible ways they might act in the scenario.

Foundation and Dr Youran

The Foundation has a local office at Djachroum although their staff there has never directly been involved with SS-18. When rumours of Darim's expedition began to circulate, they decided to send a science attaché to Djachroum, not a very popular mission for Coriolis-based researchers. Dr. Djali Youran, who wrote a previous report on SS-18, got handed the job - something he now bitterly regrets. Since the expedition disappeared, he has been hanging around at the Foundation’s Archaeological Foundation Institute feeling useless and forgotten. In this scenario he can act as client and he may be helpful in understanding the vacuum organisms and the sister creatures, but only in hurried explanations full of complicated jargon. If the GM desires, Dr. Youran can act as traitor and spy for Task Force Massar during the scenario.

The Legion and Task Force Massar

Unlike the Foundation, the Consortium has a plan to fix SS-18, once and for all. Not long after Jihan's expedition left, an encrypted order was sent to Legion base Thalus to board the station and, if possible, retrieve research data. The mission fell to Task Force Massar that takes care of the Legion's dirtier missions in the Reach. The Task Force was issued with a small battleship and a thermonuclear mine and sent on its way.
Other than this, the Legion does not consider the station a high priority. The patrols that the Legion performs in the area have has long been deprioritized for more important tasks, such as chasing subversive elements (read: nomads) along the Khea Route, where some torpedo boats recently disappeared.

Backdrops

Past Events

Wahina's gifts

Wahina's gift consists of several asteroids that she found in the vicinity of SS-18. She has seeded them with a new form of vacuum organism that will strike root when the gift is activated. Parts of the asteroid will then reshape into mass drives. The asteroids’ interior is filled with vacuum organisms and vegetation that produce oxygen and water from the asteroid mass and also act as a biological habitat. Each asteroid can thus become a dwelling, where the Reach’s people can settle, completely free from the great powers and conflicts that govern established stations. At least that's Wahina's idea ...

Khayaala’s Garden

Scattered around on various asteroids where Ahilar's swarm used to live there are the famous (if most often hidden) Khayala gardens. These gardens act as oases where asteroid hikers and wallahs can rest and refill their oxygen reserves. Unlike ordinary oxygen oases, the Khayaala are real gardens and not just glorified bunkers. Their appearance varies from covered tents in rocky crevices to cave gardens. All gardens are self-sufficient. In the cave garden on Hajia there are mosses in green and orange and as each cycle blooms, small butterflies emerge and fill the cave. When they die, they form new shoots and the cycle recommences. In the bamboo forest on the Farafra asteroid, bamboo shoots bloom in helix-shaped leaves in ever different colours that grow towards the ground to form new shoots. Each cycle gives a new an different pattern to the leaves.

IARS-18 Timeline

SHORT GLOSSARY

◆ ASTRODIARIUM - A database found on most space ships. Contains navigational and astronic data as well as a registry of known planets, vessels and stations.
◆ CC - Coriolis Cycle. The amount of years since the space station Coriolis was founded.
◆ DABARAN - A star system, and a planet with the same name.
◆ ICONS - The mystical entities worshiped as gods in the Horizon.
◆ INSTITUTE, THE - Short for The Zenithian Institute for Planar Research. An organization attached to the Zenithian faction The Consortium focusing on scientific research and exploration.
◆ FLOWER OF HEAVEN - A fabled plant said to have life giving powers. Mentioned by Suleiman the Elder.
◆ PORTAL WARS, THE – A catastrophic war spanning the entire Third Horizon. Ended with the collapse of the star portals and the complete isolation of the Horizon.
◆ SALAMANX - A vast gas giant. Famous for its deep gas mines.
◆ SULEIMAN, THE ELDER - A First come Dabarani scholar
◆ STASIS - A technology to put people in suspended sleep. Used for space travel and sometimes for medical purposes.

Plot type

Scenario

Parent Plot

The league of Misfits

This scenario is a full-length scenario that requires some extra work by the game master. What is described below is a suggestion of scenes and places that the heroes can experience. Not all places at the station are described as they are not important to the mystery itself.
Each scene contains a core clue that leads the Heroes to the next scene. Discovering these requires no special skill. They serve to drive the story forward. The difficulty lies in puzzling out the clues about the truth behind the events at the station, Wahina and her plans. There are also several free-form episodes and events, which the Game Master can throw in when they fit.