[d20 Future] 22nd Century: Solar Odyssey to Hell. [The game]

[Turanil]

Caine Freerover & Christopher Lambert vs. Guran Mopta (of Shabu-Avindranath Corp.)

Christopher doesn't sense anything about Guran Mopta [Sense Motive check of 8], but Caine [check of 17] gets the feeling that there is something wrong with the Indian scientist. Discussing bio-electricity, cybernetics, and related subjects, Caine thinks to discern that he is in fact embarrassed. When you ask him about his researches, he shows emotions that don't seem to betray a sense of failure. Likewise, if he just wanted to keep his activities secret, his expression would rather be distant and distrustful. However, it looks like Guran Mopta is worried and agitated, but not by you asking questions, rather by the subject itself. Anyway, during the discussion he only tells that his researches would need more work, and that he had to put them aside until later due to lack of funds and time. When he says that however, you think he must be lying. In any case, he declines your proposition of him paying a visit to the Telarion…

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Vincent Collins vs. Shemezgan & Balmers

Mr. Shemezgan greets Vincent with a warm smile. You however sense [psionics] this is but a clever facade. The guy feels more like a paranoid who only truly smiles at the dollars he can lay his hands on. For Mr. Balmers, it's something else entirely... The man is near expressionless, and he certainly doesn't waste energy in the myriad of insignificant useless movements that everyone normally does all the time. His mind is empty. This must be a droid in flesh… Anyway, after the usual introductory babbling, Shemezgan replies to your question: "Well, mister Collins, some people want things or services, yet don't know whom to ask, where to search, or what to choose among a plethora of options. Our job simply consists in doing it on their behalf. We always provide our clients with a solution to their problem, but our service comes at a hefty price." The man pauses, giving Vincent a meaningful look, then pursues: "Those who are interested in our services usually have a hard time getting what they want in conventional ways. Otherwise, why pay us? I want to nonetheless add that anything we do is perfectly legal, as will my associate Mr Balmers confirm. So… what kind of "acquisitions" is this that Sarteck inc. would like us to find mister Collins?"

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Kecia Tavernier on Watch

After a long and careful, yet discreet, observation, Kecia is sure that nothing or nobody threatens the crew [Spot check of 25]. She nonetheless notices something that looks suspicious. There is a table with three guys: a Chinese and two Indians accompanying and helping him. The Chinese, who is around 60 years old, looks dumb and clumsy, something reminding of a child trying to learn how to eat properly…

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Jay Purr in the temple of the Church of the Scientific Revelation

The temple is a large room which walls are decorated with mathematical symbols, formulas, and diagrams carved in an Antiquity-looking style (think Sumer, Ancient Egypt, etc.), in a decoy material that looks like stone. There are a few portraits of scientists from the past with religious quotes, such as Albert Einstein's "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind". Nonetheless, you don't notice anything suspicious in the temple; for instance, apparently nothing to hypnotize followers and turn them into mindless fanatics…

When Jay tells his story the "high priest" retains an air of disdainful ennui. Then, he gives you a condescending smile, and tells you that the Church of the Scientific Revelation will enlighten your mind with truth if you prove to be a faithful follower. Robert, the second attendant priest doesn't seem to like his odious air of self-importance very much. When the high priest has left, he turns to you and adds in a comforting manner: "Be assured that I understand you. Our new Guide is… huuuh… so busy in his new position of Church leader. Well, it's really unfortunate you didn't come earlier. Our precedent Guide would have been extremely interested in your story. He truly was a great man, but the Time of Reward eventually came for him, and he left for the Definite Transmogrification that come to those who undertake the Final Pilgrimage. But well, I shouldn't overwhelm you with so many new concepts all of a sudden." Robert smiles at you stupidly, and you guess that he probably doesn't understand the difference between knowledge and superstition. What the heck could mean "scientific" for such a guy remains a mystery…

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[Vincent Collins]

Vincent pauses to pull out yet another slim cigarette, lights it, and continues, "Mr. Shemezgan, the work we do at Sarteck inc. is of a rather experimental and sensitive nature, but what I can tell you is that we are conducting some very interesting research in the field of plasma physics and antimatter containment... non-military applications of course. Do you have any experience working with corporations on similar projects? The nature of the acquisitions is such that I would prefer to give details in a more private setting. Perhaps we could schedule a meeting at your private offices here on the Ashira_29 station? The monetary compensation for your work will not be a problem, providing your services are worth the asking price. Excuse me, how very impolite of me." Vincent offers his pack to both Shemezgan and Balmers.

"How does tomorrow morning around 0900 sound? That will give me a bit of time to round up my science team for the technical details."

Vincent makes sure to monitor Shemezgan's reaction to the antimatter questions utilizing both his knowledge of human reactions and his empathy abilities.

 

[Caine Freerover]

Caine Freerover & Christopher Lambert vs. Guran Mopta (of Shabu-Avindranath Corp.)

Christopher doesn't sense anything about Guran Mopta [Sense Motive check of 8], but Caine [check of 17] gets the feeling that there is something wrong with the Indian scientist. Discussing bio-electricity, cybernetics, and related subjects, Caine thinks to discern that he is in fact embarrassed. When you ask him about his researches, he shows emotions that don't seem to betray a sense of failure. Likewise, if he just wanted to keep his activities secret, his expression would rather be distant and distrustful. However, it looks like Guran Mopta is worried and agitated, but not by you asking questions, rather by the subject itself. Anyway, during the discussion he only tells that his researches would need more work, and that he had to put them aside until later due to lack of funds and time. When he says that however, you think he must be lying. In any case, he declines your proposition of him paying a visit to the Telarion…

After pressing the subject for a few minutes, Caine notices Dr. Mopta's agitation and relents. He turns the conversation towards safer topics such as life on the station, the quality of the cantine, and frequency of shuttles to Earth. After he settles down, Caine will ask: "And what about those church folks? They seem like real cranks to me, I hope they don't cause you any trouble?"

 

[Jay Purr]

"Be assured that I understand you. Our new Guide is… huuuh… so busy in his new position of Church leader. Well, it's really unfortunate you didn't come earlier. Our precedent Guide would have been extremely interested in your story. He truly was a great man, but the Time of Reward eventually came for him, and he left for the Definite Transmogrification that come to those who undertake the Final Pilgrimage. But well, I shouldn't overwhelm you with so many new concepts all of a sudden."

• Jay indicates his interest in the subject by asking for an explanation of the terms Time of Reward, Definite Transmogrification, Final Pilgrimage. Does the CotSR have written or AV material that Jay can study to learn more? Are there other believers on Ashira_29 to whom Jay can talk?
  
  
• As an aside (i.e., this is the significant question, so Bluff check if needed to make the question seem to be idle curiousity) Jay responds to the statement:
  
  "Our new Guide is… huuuh… so busy in his new position of Church leader"
  
  By asking: How long has the new Guide been the new Church Leader?
  
  
• Does Jay learn anything of significance concerning technological equipment installed in the temple?

 

[Turanil]

Caine Freerover & Christopher Lambert vs. Guran Mopta (2)

Guran Mopta relaxes when the discussion leaves the bio-electricity subject. Then, about the "church folk" his answer is more along a "Church folks? Here on Ashira_29? Mmmmh... Ah yes, have vaguely heard about them, now that you ask about it... Mmmmh... well, I don't know..."

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Vincent Collins vs. Shemezgan & Balmers (2)

Shemezgan of course reacts to the concept of conducting research in the field of antimatter containment. However, Vincent realizes two things: first, that the word "antimatter" is most likely to impress people, especially those who don't know anything about science. Then, Shemezgan has a reputation for being shady, and thus are the majority of his clients. As such, a company dealing in antimatter and wanting to get something probably of an illegal nature, can only arouse his interest! Now, you realize that it's probably the first time he hears about this subject, but will probably remember that Sarteck inc. = antimatter in the future (who knows what could happen?!). In any case, he is glad to meet you in his office tomorrow, to see what he can do for Sarteck inc.

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Jay Purr in the temple of the Church of the Scientific Revelation (2)

Jay doesn't learn anything of significance concerning technological equipment installed in the temple. It seems to be just that: a temple in a space station. He also learns that the current new Guide has been the new Church Leader for about one month. He was designated by the precedent "Guide" who departed 26 days ago from Ashira_29 for the deep space.

Otherwise, Robert gladly offers you to send a file of the Church's teachings. Nonetheless, he tells you a little about the Time of Reward, Definite Transmogrification and Final Pilgrimage. Normally these are allegories about the worthiness of a faithful going to Heaven upon his/her death. However, it appears that last year the precedent "Guide" had a revelation during a trip to Mars. He then explained to the faithful that now, one could be granted Definite Transmogrification by the "Ancient Creators" (that is: a race of extremely wise aliens). So, the precedent Guide decided to do his Final Pilgrimage physically, and not wait that his soul does it upon death. The church funds were thus used to buy a spaceship (The Pilgrim), that was fitted for a long journey in deep space. Of course, with such holy religious matters, the Guide could not reveal where he was heading exactly; yet it was supposed to be outside the solar system. In any case, none has heard of him since his departure, but most believe (or want to anyway) that everything will go well, and that he will reach his mystical destination, and then reveal to the world that they always knew the truth, etc. Note that the current Church Leader got the position for having being the greatest contributor to the church's wealth; without him the physical trip to deep space could probably have never been funded.

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Then, you all go back to the shuttle, and to the Telarion a few miles away.

 

[Caine Freerover]

Abord the Telarion, Caine will share his insight into Dr. Mopta's behavior with the crew.

Then he will bury himself in research. He wants to read all of Dr. Mopta's published work, followed by his company's scientific publications (if any), shareholder reports, and press releases. If he can he'll try to obtain a company personnel file (I guess this might require a computer use check for hacking) and look up the research backgrounds of other scientists that they employ.

The goal of all this it to make an educated guess as to what line of scientific inquiry was making Dr. Mopta so nervous, and what sort of research his company is pursuing right now. He shares Christopher's suspicion that they might be developing bioelectrical weapons, but tries not to let that bias his thinking too much.

 

[Jay Purr]

Jay takes the file on the CotSR, thanks the priest for his time, steps to the exit and (for effect) glances nervously up and down the corridor. Not finding any evidence of a hull breach, he launches himself into the corridor and races at best speed back to the shuttle.

Once there, he shares his observations with the others. In particular he thinks it is a bit suspicious that the current head of the Church apparently bought the position and disposed of his predecessor by giving the latter a ship named Pilgrim.

When not otherwise occupied, Jay will:

• Read the material provided by the priest of the CotSR.
  
  
• Research the ship Pilgrim, most likely port-of-departure Mars. Possibly there is a system-wide registry of ships that is publically available? If so, Jay will start there, making Computer Use skill checks as necessary.

 

[Turanil]

Aboard the Telarion for meeting and first exchange of impressions.

Inside the briefing room of the Telarion:
Jay Purr, John Tobermory, Caine Freerover, and the others around the table.​

Aboard the Telarion, Caine buries himself in research. He wants to read all of Dr. Mopta's published work, followed by his company's scientific publications (if any), shareholder reports, and press releases. If he can he'll try to obtain a company personnel file and look up the research backgrounds of other scientists that they employ.

Dr. Mopta is a reasonably good scientist, yet his unethical practices got him to be in disfavor with the scientific community. At first he simply appeared to study bioelectricity in living beings. (Eels for example, have the unique ability to discharge both weak and strong electric current: the weak current is used primarily to locate and stun prey; the strong current is used almost exclusively as a weapon to attack prey). But then, he bio-engineered mammals gifted with such electrical capabilities. However, he always got animals that would kill themselves and agonize in pain from the massive amounts of electricity they were able to produce. Furthermore, there was no practical use seen in (eventually) creating humans able to discharge electricity, except for creating assassins. So in the end Dr. Mopta went out of work. That was until five years ago, when he went to Mars and was not heard of thereafter (i.e.: there is no records of his whereabouts during that time, except that he was off in some minor colony, nobody knows which one exactly). Then, one year ago he came back from Mars and begun to work for Shabu-Avindranath Corp.

There is nothing of real interest in the backgrounds of the company's others scientists. You only note about one of them: Dr. Sarah Wenders. She is a U.S. scientist who got some judicial problems when she wanted to clone a dead relative, several years ago. She now works for Shabu-Avindranath Corp. in the Ashira_29 station.

• Jay reads the material provided by the priest of the CotSR.
• Jay researches the ship Pilgrim, most likely port-of-departure Mars. Possibly there is a system-wide registry of ships that is publically available? If so, Jay will start there, making Computer Use skill checks as necessary.

The main idea behind the Church of the Scientific Revelation dogma, is to re-explain everything biblical, so it gets a "rationale" explanation. They want to reconcile scientific facts with "religious truths" through absurd tales of aliens' interventions on Earth. For example: The Virgin Mary giving birth to Jesus is explained with aliens performing artificial insemination on a selected person, and giving birth to a genetically enhanced human. Then, this accounts for Jesus' ultimate wisdom, while many of his supernatural doings (walking on water, resurrecting the dead, etc.) are told to have been done with alien technology. It seems that the CotSR wants everything biblical to be actual facts rather than allegorical teachings and metaphors appropriate to the Antiquity (or just translation mistakes).

There is indeed an international registry of spaceships (as there is for boats in our present days). As such you easily find what pertains about the Pilgrim. It was built 80 years ago, so this is an extremely old vessel that was refitted several times, the last of which was for this long journey across space. The pilgrim departed not from Mars, but "from the temple" (i.e.: from Ashira_29). Official destination was Jupiter, as it isn't legal to tell the registry that a spaceship heads for an "unknown destination" (this has to do with international safety regulations). You can guess that the Pilgrim will reach Jupiter very soon, if it hasn't already reached it.

A photo of the Pilgrim. ​

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[OOC: I give two days (of RL time) to let you discuss of this first turn of events, and decide what to do next. Anyone who wants to make a skill check, roll (online) at the same time you post, so I can quickly give an answer.]

 

[Caine Freerover]

So we've got two possible Mars connections here. Dr. Mopta was likely recruited there, and the old Guide of the church had a revelation there that led him to leave his church in the hands of its biggest donator. If these two events happened in the same part of Mars, we're looking at a coincidence too big to ignore. And we were warned that the Martian triads might be involved at that.

Jay, you said that the current Guide seemed completely uninterested in your story. Not a man of faith, would you say? I wonder what he wants to use the church for if that's the case.

 

[Kecia Tavernier]

"I didn't see anything praticularly suspicious," commented Kecia. "Just an old man who look to be suffering from some mental illness. Nobody spying on us, or if there was, I didn't see them. Speaking of spying, if we're going to be doing any breaking and entering, we should figure out a way to smuggle my armor on board. It's got an active camouflage system, it'll make it a lot easier for me if I have to sneak in anywhere."