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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WayneLigon" data-source="post: 6313194" data-attributes="member: 3649">This kind of thing is where Stuff That Happened In Your PC's Past can come in handy.Not knowing the details of the setting, I'll use Traveller as an example.One of the PC's has an Old Service Buddy in the police agency of the planet. The Police Agency, as do all good security agencies, gets a list of everyone matching certain profiles that lands on the planet. The Agency AI, being helpful, flags PC's file and alerts Old Buddy - hey, your Old Buddy just landed at bay 12.First Scene - PCs are flagged by the cops and pulled into the investigation - As it happens, you and Old Buddy investigated a terrorist group targeting Imperial Navy facilities back in the day. They used Symbol X. Symbol X has appeared in the recent mailings to the politician. So, Old Buddy calls up the PC and asks if he can consult on this. Oh, you belong to a whole group of triggerhappy freelance troubleshooters? Bring 'em along!Obviously, the terrorists want to do what? Generate terror and uncertainty in the populace. This is why they are advertising. They want to send the message 'we can kill your people and even let you know about it because there is nothing you can do to stop it. We're just that good and you're just that helpless'. Second Scene - action sceneThey do the obvious. They hire a Big Hitter to come in from the outside. Police AI flags him at a transport hub and police mobilize. The PC's wind up being in that same place, and chase him down. Big set-piece chase and fight scene. The PC's corner the Big Hitter and he takes the coward's way out - he blows himself to bits. Problem averted! Third Scene - investigationOnly not; the PC's should realize from Big Hitter's profile that he's in it for the cash, not for ideology. He certainly would never kill himself to make a point.At some point, someone will think to look at the transport hub security footage. They will see a seemingly innocent bump from a guy into the Big Hitter. Magic CSI Zoom and Pan reveals the face of a terrorist leader that the PC and Old Buddy recognize: he's a master of biochemical weaponry. Fourth Scene - investigationIt's really, really helpful if the PC's ship has better stuff on it than the planet does. Investigating the Big Hitter's body shows traces of a nanotech machine. It uses the person's body as raw materials to build a simple but very effective chemical incendiary. Boom. Fifth Scene - Action sceneWe're down to the wire on time. Knowing there are only a couple places on the planet capable of fabbing the needed materials for such a device. They find out that Manufacturing Center Two was recently purchased by some off-planet concern. It might be the terrorists. It is! Firefight ensues and the cell is wiped out to a man. But... the Terrorist Leader is not there. Sixth Scene - The SpeechThe Politician knows he cannot bow to terror, so he's going to give his speech. The PC's know The Terrorist Leader is there, somewhere. Cops are all over the area, convinced there will be a shooter nearby. Most of their manpower in fact is going towards that. The Politician himself has been quarantined and cops are right beside him at all times. Obviously it's impossible to shoot him and there's no way he could have been infected with the nanomachine bomb.He isn't. The Important Dude Standing Beside him has been. Midway through the speech, he's going to detonate like a carbomb and take the politician and lots of others with him. How you make that last important leap? They could be showing pictures of the Terrorist Leader around and Important Dude says 'Yeah, he shook my hand earlier, told me what a great thing is was we were doing'. At which point the PC's have to get him away from the massively crowded area before he goes off.</blockquote>

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