Talk20060205

Ridge:

Enemies – an anti-soulmech group has made her their poster child.
She pilots the Perseverance.
She’ll follow whatever orders she gets from Admiral Rossner.

Fey:

Enemies – none, although the New Lunar Order and Gaia’s Order are both vying for her allegiance.
She might care about what happens to Everlily Nyx.
The New Lunar Order may trust her less now that she has assisted in the acquisition of Cain (although she could claim it was to protect Mars, and she has no part in whether or not the body is turned over to the Caretaker).

Laiden:

Enemies – Magitech Corporation and the elven clan.
Selena Sharptooth wants to capture him, to garner favor with Magitech.

Noun:

Enemies – the Destiny Force and the Destroyer.
He probably senses on the 28th that something odd with time happens (Future Nikolai being spewed from the Void.)

Trenton:

Enemies – a 3-point enemy: the Brotherhood.
Trenton’s parents, true human test subjects, instigated a coup against Pandora’s Box, a splinter group of the Arcane Order that opposed the unleashing of magic, and later the seeding of mystic worlds.
They killed the other members of Pandora’s Box (leaving only the test subjects), stole the technology responsible for engineering Trenton’s powers, and fled.
Thus, the Brotherhood, once they learn Trenton’s identity, have a personal grudge against him because of his parents’ actions, and because he is what they were supposed to be.
Trenton’s parents told Trenton the stories they did to convince him of their mission to reseal magic.

Malcolm:

Enemies – none.
Loyal to God, who has charged him with discovering what happened to Percepi.

Andrew:

Enemies – none.

The Arcane Order vs StratCo

The Arcane Order holds magic to be something special and sacred, that should not be universally accessible to just anyone. They are unhappy with StratCo for their announcement of the genetic treatments for mystic super-soldiers, and will take action against them.

Magitech & elves

Fey is a Gaian, the elves are Gaians.
Laiden was trained in psionics by elves, and used to work for Magitech, but betrayed them and stole a one-of-a-kind psicrystal from them, as well as the ship he was supposed to be procuring for them.
Dr. Peters was also trained in psionics by elves (because of his spontaneous manifestation, the elves took an interest – Andrew does not know they were elves, since he could not see).

The Brotherhood of Homo Sapiens Superior

Pandora’s Box had many failures in their engineering.
Dr. Peters is one such failure.
Trenton is their ultimate success.
Many of the failures ended up one on institute or another.
Many of them have banded together under the leadership of Erik Lensherr, a "former human."
The Brotherhood cannabilize each other via necrophagia (when you die, your parts are reused when possible).
When you join the Brotherhood, you donate a part and receive a necrophagic replacement.
Nald Pipwhistle is secretly a member of the Brotherhood.
The Brotherhood occasionally abducts Gaians for sacrifice and necrophagic use.
The Brotherhood lays a trap to capture William Moss and the crew of the Perseverance.
Dr. Peters is a member of the Brotherhood, but only insofar as he subscribes to the newsletter, and believes that genetically altered humans are not inferior to regular humans.
Selena Sharptooth is the head of the militant anti-Soulmech Brotherhood faction. She maintains her position on Luna to keep Adana Cassenti’s confidence and spy on Magitech.
Sharptooth occasionally transports dead Gaians to the Brotherhood’s necrophagic labs.
The Brotherhood is a pawn of StratCo, to test new black ops technologies without overtly violating international law, and for plausible deniability (and of course the Brotherhood also claims that StratCo is not involved).
Nald believes he has not been discovered as a member of the Brotherhood, but in actuality StratCo has known all along.
Sarah Morningcrow is also a member of the Brotherhood. She brought back a number of undead parts after the incident on Mars.

The conspiracy sites online are circulating the story that all the soulmechs on Mars turned against the humans and joined the undead forces:

The footage from the battle on Mars does not show the dark aura surrounding the "undead soulmechs."
One soulmech, known as Ridge Kilgerren, has fled Mars in a ship known as the Perseverance.
During the Cain conflict, a message was intercepted being sent from the Perseverance to the enemy (triggered by the Brotherhood and sent from a bug in Peters’s bag).
Once decoded, the message appears to be a communication between Ridge and the undead, with tactical data including the ship’s position and movements.

Tangent:

Vincent Von Doom is a soulmech, the head of another organization seeking to integrate technology and magic.

Plot

Serra reports that a signal was sent from Dr. Peters’s bag during the conflict.
It is encrypted, but it appears to be a message from Ridge to the undead forces (as described above).
Somehow it becomes public knowledge and begins circulating the nets.
The soulmechs are accused publically of siding with the undead.
Ridge is accused of having escaped justice.
Ridge receives a message from an unknown source saying that if she wants to see her family alive again, she and her crew must proceed in the ship to a set of coordinates in the asteroid belt.
Sharptooth’s plan is for space pirates to take the ship.
1. Ship 1: Obsidian Teknokon, Captain Bernard Blacksoul – gaze attack of an atropal beneath his covered eye – Compact, muscular man with three days of stubble, roguish good looks, and a horrifying monstrous eye beneath the patch. Charismatic 5 + Negotiator 5 (preemptive action is to use the gaze attack).
2. Ship 2: Tenacious Devil, Captain Laura (Morningbird) Strife – ‘‘mislead’’ at will (self or ship), ‘‘project image’’ at will (self only) – opposed rolls with Trenton for him to successfully see through these. She also has a cape of the mounteback. She is an invisible blade (from Complete Warrior). She is a gray-skinned half-elf, daughter of Moses and Anna.
3. Ship 3: Filthy Mongrel, Captain Ponce Dorian – troll regeneration. Ponce Dorian is a nasty dwarf (Cha 6 + Leadership), a Strong 5 + Reaving Mauler 5 (from Complete Warrior). "Cor blimey!"

Boris

He knows the secret to permanent necrophagic grafts, but has shared that information with no one. He offers a premium service to discerning customers. It is not known to anyone that Boris himself is the one actually capable of performing the grafts.

Boris has some connections with the Silent Syndicate, so has an acceptable stream of business.

Boris performed the graft on Dorian that gave him the troll regeneration abilities.

Boris is the one who originally taught psionics to Adana and Evan.

The abduction

The Perseverance receives a data feed from a pirate signal, source unknown.
The feed contains a significant quantity of observational data on Ridge’s descendants (described below), with a notification that they have been taken from their homes, and are being held until such time as their demands are met.
They are instructed to proceed to a certain set of coordinates within the far side of the asteroid belt for further instructions.
If they do not arrive at the rendezvous within 5 days, the message says, or they attempt any trickery or contact anyone for any reason, family members will be killed.

The demands

Five of Ridge’s descendants are being abducted during the travel time.
1. Two brothers (Drew and Gavin) and a sister (Arial), descended from Penn, one of Ridge’s siblings (or if no siblings then a cousin).
2. Drew’s wife (Jennifer), Arial’s husband (Donald), and Drew’s two children (Adara and Tristan).
The Perseverance is instructed to rendezvous with a ship (the Devil), which escorts them to the secret mobile asteroid base, Boneyard 47.
It takes them to 102 hours reach the coordinates given.
If they are smart and try to visit the familys’ homes (using teleportation), they may be able to save one family, but not all three.
They are ordered to dock at the Boneyard, so that they can make the exchange: the schematics for the Perseverance’s unique technologies in exchange for the lives of Ridge’s family.
The party will probably falsify the technological data. The pirates will be expecting that, so Ponce will ask Brains ("the smart one") to check it out. (Forgery vs Knowledge: Tech +15 – if successful, 1/3 of the crew leaves with Brains to begin work on implementing their own version of the technology.)
In reality, they want the Perseverance and the body parts of her crew. Once they dock, they are ordered to disembark for a face-to-face meeting with Blacksoul. He attempts to charm them, telling them that his crew normally does not engage in such despicable acts, but… well, actually, they do, and he’s not making any excuses. He admits it – they’re bastards. But he promises to let them and the hostages go if the information on the disappearing technology checks out, and offers them a drink while they wait (which of course they will decline).
Crew members have 14 wounds, 20-25 vitality, +6 to hit, Str 14, Dex 14, Con 14, some have evasion, some have damage reduction 1/-, and some have an extra +2 to damage. Each ship has 12 crew members (not counting the captains).
The first mates each have a minor nifty power, to be made up on the spot.

If the party succeeds in defeating the pirates, it is unlikely they killed Captain Dorian, due to his regeneration. Nor does he have an easy means of escape. Thus, they very likely could end up questioning him. He tells them some information fairly easily, because he is attempting to negotiate for his life and possibly freedom.

They were after not just the ship, but also body parts.
They were also supposed to kill Ridge and the family, and dispose of the bodies, to send a strong message to the soulmechs.
The other two captains, Dorian says, are members of Pandora’s Children, an anti-soulmech organization. But Dorian himself is not a member; he agreed to assist in the plan in exchange for a necrophagic graft.
The pirates were instructed to carry out the plan by someone on Mars, but Dorian do not know who.
His contact with Pandora’s Children was limited to Strife and Blacksoul. But he does know where he received the graft, and knows that the guy has performed grafts for a number of others. This is the only guy who can do permanent grafts, and thus must be the one who did the grafts for several members of Strife and Blacksoul’s crew.
He tells them to visit a space settlement called Arcadia in the Sirius system.
Research will reveal the owner.
Arcadia is defended by a small fleet (6) warships, as well as significant built-in defenses.
When they visit the Sirius system, they find the settlement gone.
With proper research and investigation, they can learn that the settlement recently appeared in the Canis atmosphere before teleporting away.
Eventually, they can track down Arcadia on its way from Luna to the asteroid belt. (Boris stopped by briefly to say hello to many of the elven children, then left.)