Episode 9: Cross Purposes

One of the communications officers onboard has decided to assassinate (or sabotage) the captain (or some other bridge crew), and the fiance dude brings the PCs into his defense plan because reasons. Conversely, this is happening and the PCs have to do something else but they keep running into the dude as he works on this issue on his own because cross purposes is fun.

Outline and Session Targets

Lacroy French is helping the assassin but is not the most obvious element here. Mainly getting her into place and then leaving the situation alone.
The baseline episode should be clearing up a mess that Johanna Bonde left for Kalos to make him look less competent. Hiding stuff, repairing, running interference, cleaning, etc. Whatever the task, it needs to be something that they want to keep private, but fixing it will take them all over the ship.
Why would Rob involve them? Set that reason. Make the assassin challenging enough that he's risking injury and having a rough time on his own. Perhaps abilities that specifically act against concealed crew or something.
So, intro ostensible main task. Tell as an extended task and make it sound difficult but set up several people along the way to take over. Intersect Rob/assassin. Make that problem clear. We plot and plan together to catch this guy. Starfleet doesn't want the captain distracted by this particular threat so keep it on the down low. Takedown! Then denuoement.

Underlying Background - Assassin

This person is there because Evelyn's rising in the ranks and she's not just going along with the politics of the situation. She's bringing favor to some people this organization would rather get rid of. And thus now there's bounty hunters and assassins after her. This person did techincally join SF but only to get closer to targets and have the easiest veneer of a disguise.
Best results are to use a particular sonic pulse to disable Suthmeer so she can then be taken out by an alien drone that the ship picked up on a recent mission. (Gatrelix connection?) Weakened captain, tech gone wrong, only one person dies so it's not a whole big deal.
But she will devolve to destroying the whole ship if she has to. Using bits cannibalized from near the PCs quarters, she's cobbled togther an explosive to blast a hole in the officer quarters section of the ship. Doesn't want to do this, less because murder and more because sloppy.
She also has a virus as a backup. And a small stash of guns.
She needs all these things to work correctly.

• Drone in right spot (quarters undetected ahead of time)
• Assassin in right spot (PC bedroom for positioning)
• Captain in right spot (quarters)
• Sonic device works and targeted correctly
• Drone programmed correctly
• "Oh no, what happened"

Failing that, she sets off the explosive and runs for the shuttlebay.
See Gina Nakamura for more information.

Underlying Background - Fiance

Rob's job as a member of Starfleet Intelligence (not Section 31) is to keep this subtle and quiet. Also this is probably technically not his assignment and he had to fight for it and it got to the point where "We guess you're there doing this anyway so we like you enough that we'll just make it an official assignment but dude please stop pushing the boundaries or we'll have to censure you." So he's entirely on his own but he pretty much has carte blanche to handle this however he can.
Secrecy is encouraged but if it means keeping Evelyn safe then he'll bend the rules without any qualms. Do anything to get the allies he needs to defend her properly. The main thing is he doesn't want her to worry or have her decisions affected so he really wants to keep it away from her. And also by extension her bridge crew because they're loyal enough they would totally tell her.
His plan is to locate the assassin and take them out. Either with death or with subtle removal via concealed shuttle. He has the tools to bend records and recordings to fit whatever narrative he needs. Less of a plan since he doesn't know who is doing this stuff yet, and more of a directive.
See Roberto Sanabria for more details, and remember his moniker is currently Ensign Terrance Martinez.

Once he finds out?

He just got to the ship so it'll take him a minute to go through records and figure out who the assassin is. There's one other attempt that he knows of that Evelyn didn't notice, so he's got a set amount of data to work with. He'll know that she likes to use environmental elements, to make it look like tragic accidents. Someone who values not getting caught or even having anyone know that it was a deliberate attempt.
So his plan will be to isolate her, take her down, and then isolate whatever her plan is to ensure it doesn't go off. With allies helping him, it would become he'll take her down while they isolate the plan and stop it.

Interim

Between this and the last mission (remind of Session 8: Ahab's Whale Report ), they have done a bunch of things. Lots of medical emergencies, security teams in trouble on planets, daring shuttle piloting, etc. Also mainly happens during alpha shift and y'all are gamma, so you're actually getting a bit bored.
Most recently, there was a drone attack. Everyone's fine now, but the October is a bit of a mess.

Cold Open

Something weird has been happening with the power systems in one of the PCs' rooms, so they've been forced to double up while it gets fixed. Describe the problems and how y'all have been interacting with each other. Who's loving the company, whose stuff got all out of whack, why are two of you not talking to each other at breakfast? Which NPC has been forced to bear the brunt of whatever animosity is coming out of this?
Ask them what stuff they took with, insinuating that the work being done could cause problems. It's making the officer bathrooms not work properly so they're really tearing stuff apart.
Ends with a bridge officer stopping past and congratulating Guy on his upcoming promotion, going up a rank.

Promotion - side tangent

Velik is still an Ensign but hasn't played in a while and if he starts then I'll give him a promotion for all the offscreen stuff. Sounds like he's been a solid engineer.
Otherwise, Kalos and Moga are both Lt, so we'll just go ahead and move Guy up to full Lt instead of junior grade. It's been hinted at. They're looking to make him lead on security teams as well, to further his career. Solid work across the board, and it's high time he moved up.

Wrecked room - side tangent that's actually a big deal

Baseline, it's meant to be a box of a room on...Deck 10. Enough space for two people to share but not much more than if they were in bunks. Possibly mention access hatch nearby.
Then ask them to describe the details better, and also for the other room since they're moving in there for a minute. What personal touches, how are you working as roommates, that sort of stuff.
And then there's a bunch of ceiling panels down as they try and figure out what is going on in this room. Nothing, it's nothing but someone made up the problem and it's annoying without being urgent and not a drone attack so it's been cleared out still.
Try to have people occasionally reference the room and its sonic problem since it's a rather odd and silly problem.

Act 1 - Intro problem

Hanging around, heading to gamma shift, Kalos finds that Johanna has somewhat trashed one of the shuttles. In that there was some kind of incident during alpha shift with a bunch of alien drones and it's a total mess and she's fine with leaving it so that it looks like Kalos was the careless one. Even though she could have totally just explained that it was a big mess and there just wasn't time.
This starts an extended task to clean up one of the shuttles. Work track 20 (lots of stuff to fix), 4 breakthroughs required (clean it, organize it, repair it, sterilize it), difficulty 3. And only so many time intervals before it can be solved. Say, 8? (we're not going to finish this, someone else will). Get this challenge started.

• Debris needs clearing away, both from broken equipment and destroyed drones (so you need somewhere to chuck the stuff that was broken, either as garbage or as recycled)
• Need to properly reorganize and figure out what's left of the supplies, what needs requisitioned, and put away what is there (make a grocery list and gather it up)
• Repair the broken systems, most of which focus around emergency medical supplies and the ability to pilot this thing (raw materials, parts, extra equipment) (see pg 54 Science for specific equipment)
• Sterilize it (this shuttle gets used for a lot of medical emergencies, make sure it's suitable and also not infected with something; both in terms of biological crap and also computer viruses)

This is what they will devote their attention to initially. It should sound dull enough that they're looking for something else to do already. Like it's obviously not what the episode will do. Play with meta understanding, basically. Because if they don't notice, this is what they will spend the entire session doing. If they miss it, add in a few other crew having interpersonal problems to give something.
Have Rob pop in as a temporary assistant who no one else seems to recognize, because he was checking on his escape ship. Ducks out pretty fast. Other helpers have no idea who that guy is or what department. Offer guesses or make it blatant that they've never seen him before ever.

Reference past attempts

The assassin has tried before. There's been instances of nausea with the food, the showers got painfully hot, a series of similar environmental things to what's happening now in a kind of radius that's slowly honed in more and more on this particular location, hence why the banishment. Minor electrocutions, the captain's chair getting transported instead of the captain, temperature controls failing. The fact that an entire airlock malfunctioned during the recent attack which let on a bunch of drones and no one died (for longer than a minute) but everyone is super annoyed.
When assigned to the repair work, have someone mention that it's very important to really go down to the nitty gritty details because of all the little errors that have been happening lately. So it's important to look at the details. (There aren't too many in the shuttle itself, but

Act 2 - A little help from friends

Other people should come and also work on it and this is the part where we're dashing around the ship bumping into either our assassin or Rob. Once I have a list of places they might need to go, split between assassin and Rob as to who pops up unexpectedly.
Interpersonal drama should also crop up if it looks like they're missing the stuff. Have the helpers be active in their roles, that the PCs can call in favors and ask them to take this over as something pops up, or else participate in the drama.

Randos with problems

Make a handful then give them problems. Five, so they're going to have an easier time of it than the others would with fewer people. Use stats on pg314-5 if they don't have 'em already. Nurse on pg129 Science

• Ensign Liyana Trask: science. She's there because the shuttle's warp drive may be damaged and we need to diagnose. Competing with Emony to ensure that she gets to the truth first.
• Ensign Emony Idiron: also science. Does not feel prepared to deal with this problem yet but is better equipped to deal with it because she was there when the damage happened. Is also very tired.
• Lt jr R'Taal: engineering. Thinks she's found the problem with the navigational system. She has not. Unwilling to work on something else without a push.
• Ensign Lawd Norad: engineering. Trying to fix all the things at once. Not focusing on a specific project. Also trying to flirt with Liyana and she's not even noticing.
• Ensign Jasper Krieg: nurse. Refuses to answer direct questions. Meant to work with Kalos on the medical stuff but fussing with drone parts instead.
• Lt Varra Heliod: tactical officer. Supervising. Tired after the attack. Does her best to stay away from Moga.

List of problems: Liyana has a problem with Emony. Less dealing with this personally and more ensuring that she doesn't have a chance to act on her vengeful nature. Emony needs a confidence boost after having been knocked out during the recent attack. R'Taal needs someone to get in her face and get her on the right track or else she'll just keep doing what she's doing. Lawd could use some focus, but you could also try and get Liyana to notice that he's interested which will throw her off Emony. Varra will just do her absolute best to avoid Moga.
Jasper is my red herring so feel free to investigate how shady he's being (because he doesn't want to get accused of theft, again). He refuses to go anywhere by himself, refuses to go to the cargo bays, when asked questions always treats it like he's being interrogated, and the word "stuff" makes him twitch visibly. His focus is on staying in the middle of the room, visible to the cameras at all times.

Act 3 - A new problem

This is when either Rob or the assassin should specifically intersect with the players. We're getting close to go time, when the captain goes to bed, and they're both making their moves. Encounter a bit of a standoff, use any reasons why not to report to security immediately, etc.
After 2-3 location changes, bumping into one or the other, this is when the other one will have figured out what is up with the person they're hounding so either the players look for these guys or else the next spot they go to is where one is and the other one comes to confront.

Why these guys?

Why would Rob involve them? Because he'll need help dealing with the stuff he's already figured out, he needs backup fast, and either he's run into these guys a bunch already or else he knows they've run into the assassin a bunch already. They have a proximity to the issue, and also they're awake to deal with the problem.
He's attached to asking this particular group because he knows they're competent because they're all getting medals later. And again, they're already close enough that he won't have to introduce literally everything. And also the other characters are somewhat wrapped up in personal drama and fixing the ship so he has less confidence it would work.

Helpers need to help

Some combination of Liyana Trask, Emony Idiron, R'Taal, Lawd Norad, and Jasper Krieg should take over the tasks. The assassin should be targeted at this point so not offered. With the way this all works, it should be better if 3+ take over, which will be enough to finish the work, but more will be really well done and possibly better prepared for the future. If not thought of or considered, Rob can point out that they'll want to make it look like everything is okay, just to nudge to make sure they're staying on track.
They'll need to be set up for success. Either the PCs have gathered materials sufficiently, or else gotten the group to work together quickly, or something. Otherwise we might have to bring them into the secret and get them moving faster, or otherwise come up with a lie to keep them from spending too much time snooping around.
Liyana is easy to trick because she's focused on one-upping Emony. Emony will need to have made good success so far or she'll be nervous and choke a bit. R'Taal will succeed if she's been put on the right track. Lawd will need a bit of a lecture or else a very stringent list of tasks to keep him from "helping" them not fix things. Jasper needs reassurances, some kind of information, or else they've been friendly and he's already at ease with this lot.

Why no bridge crew?

Because they are either really loyal to Suthmeer so they'll tell her (or just not be capable of keeping it secret) or else they're looking for an edge in which case they would make it about themselves and make the whole mission worse and more public. Also a lot of them are asleep right now after the recent disaster.
Because it will change how she acts. You cannot tell her because when she becomes aware of the underlying problem, she'll try to fix it, and she can't. Trust that I (Rob) want to protect and defend her, even from herself.
Can potentially use Sayo Verdarn as the person currently in charge.

Act 4 - Plot and plan

Organize thinking, compare notes, figure out how to approach the problem. If we have to, we use special spy gear to track down the person. The fact that the PC's room was the one thing in the list of oddities that was previously a problem should match up with the idea that the assassin has been planning this for a while.

Why not just tell the captain?

Because plot. They can, but she's asleep, yesterday was a rough day, and Rob is adamant that things will go terribly wrong if you tell her. Up until now it should all seem innocuous enough that we wouldn't report to an officer anyway. Or if we do, they'd say it can be handled later, or it's a result of what happened. Trying to make it clear they're not being bad officers but everyone is just coming down from their A game and this doesn't seem like such a thing.
Also Rob can probably point out that this is an incredibly convoluted plan that has already failed multiple times.

Act 5 - And go

We duke it out, stop the plot. Rob is the one to go to the captain's quarters because he's better at thinking on his feet (demonstrate this!!!!!) and the PCs go to the room because it's their space and they literally know it and the ship and what to fix better.

Final scene

Hopefully everything has gone smoothly and we can just have a nice little ceremony to promote Guy to full Lt. Also give out Star Cross medals to all (Command pg102) in recognition of their achievements in recent missions. Once per mission, before attempting a Task and applying a Focus, the character may choose to double their Focus range. For the Task, the character will score two successes for any die that rolls equal to or less than twice their Discipline score. If, for example, the character has a Discipline score of 4, then any die that rolls an 8 or lower scores 2 Successes for that Task.
If fixing up the med bay hasn't gone well, they still get the medals but with a little more dubiety.
The party afterwards gets attended by various friends, notably not "Rob", who you eventually spot on the captain's arm.

Locations

Places we'll need to go, especially for the parts and such.
Kalos and Moga's room: for the finale. See above. Assassin hangs around here a lot. After Act 3 this is where they hide for the duration of a planning session (will make a run for it if the planning doesn't take very long and they arrive before she's prepared).
Guy and Velik's room: for intro, cramped. Might see Rob here as he gets close to figuring out where the assassin is.
Rear shuttle bay, shuttle: for repairs. It's a bit of a mess, scuff marks and burns and some of the shuttle moorings are a bit askew. Shuttle is in the center, with obvious fight marks and a few chunks taken out. It's not getting fixed in a hurry but it can at least be made functional again. See assassin because she's trying to ensure an escape route, but it's unlikely.
Sick bay for getting equipment. Lights are low, patients are sleeping, some supplies are low. Rob because he's looking at records to see who is his best candidate, who has the fakest records.
Cargo bay for parts and medical stuff. More here. Could go to shuttle or restock sick bay first. It's relatively well organized but some of the shelves are overturned and no one cleans in here. Rob is here seeing what stuff the assassin already took, tracking down the name.
Recycling center for the junk they find from the drones. Assassin is salvaging drones and taking them out of the center.

Don't forget PCs have "stuff" to do

Give Kalos the chance to heal someone (like a repair goes terribly wrong).
Give Moga the chance to pilot something (we're in a shuttlebay for crying out loud). Or at least specifically repair the control systems.
Guy is probably set with the security stuff and investigating, but make sure that he gets to interact with some fellows.
If Velik shows up, we're repairing a ship so we're set.

To Do List

• Outline general
• 5 act outline
• Assassin stats
• Fiance stats see Roberto Sanabria 
• What else are we doing if we don't notice the attempts?
• What is going on that the bridge crew doesn't notice this? Why would they be unwilling to listen or engage if told this is a problem?
• What clues to make it obvious that this is going on without wanting to involve captain?
• Someone's getting promoted soon, who is it?
• Set cold open to set "theme" and tone of ep
• What's been going on with the ship and the mission in between?
• Develop areas of ship that will likely be used
• Set assassin's plan
• Set Rob's plan for dealing with the assassin
• Set ending and reveal of who Rob really is
• Why would they get involved in this plot? Why would he want to involve them?
• Set up helpers to take over task
• Set interpersonal problems for helpers to offer distraction/clue points/in case of emergency possible b plots
• Set up finale area/chase/whatever
• Get one of the rooms described really well, and make sure what's wrong relates to the assassin's plan
• Ways to use PC backstory and abilities to full measure
• Stat security chief because they might go to him and he should be really sleepy/injured

Related Session Reports

• Session 9: Cross Purposes Report