Running Glory with EclipseSHOE

CC-BY-NC-SA Posthuman Studios

Meeting Ming

Professor Magnus Qiao-Sen Ming

Appearance: Vaguely Asian menton morph with receding hairline in his 30’s, but with the air of someone older.

Character: Fatherly demeanor. Frequently tosses out bad puns.

Networking: mid @-rep, low e-rep, high i-rep, high r-rep

Ming’s Briefing:

Firewall needs you to find a missing agent, Tara Yu. To the best of our knowledge, Yu was most recently investigating the current whereabouts of military computer hardware recovered from a station in Earth orbit that was destroyed during the Fall, in the Battle of L4. Yu has been missing for over a month now. Long silences are not unusual during some of her undercover research missions, but she missed her last scheduled check-in. Last we knew, she was on Locus. We need you to track her down, ascertain her status if alive, recover her cortical stack if dead, and if necessary continue or assist her search for the missing hardware.

Other info:

• Yu’s backup cannot be reached, because insurance has a 6 month timeout
• Ming will cover the costs of egocasting and morphs if the characters have sufficient proof of being on the right track
• If characters are experienced sentinels:
  • Yu was looking for hardware fragments from a TITAN known as Myrmidon
  • Yu believed that the Myrmidon hardware was no longer in the inner system

Pursuing Leads

Researching Tara Yu

• No publicly accessible lifelog
• Kept a low profile on the mesh
• Associates at TAU believe she was on sabbatical
• Kept her researcher life and sentinel life strictly separate
• Using Research reveals:
  • A list of Yu’s associates (needs Networking to figure out the important associates, core clue)
  • Yu’s recent travels:
    • Slightly over a month ago, she egocast to Locus (core clue)
    • Yu sent several forks to Vishnukam station on Earth orbit in the past several months (Research 1)

Checking Social Networks

• @-rep, r-rep or i-rep: Yu received big favors both from Mason Wang and Morteza Bey in the past 2 months (moderate favor, cost is 1 lower if using Yu’s list of associates)
  • Figuring out where Yu egocast from Locus:
    • Yu egocast to Casa Arturo (core clue)
    • Yu borrowed a small spacecraft called Kesyrah, and promised to return it several weeks ago (core clue)
• C-rep: Yu interviewed the Air Marshall and several government officials and researched the White Khanhs crime gang (low favor)
• G-rep: Yu used her networking connections to track down and talk to someone named Nia Zheng (moderate favor) and was investigating White Khanh activities in the outer system (High favor) and took a special interest in the gang’s craft, Song Cai Flower (Expensive favor). (All this information is available on 1 test, reveal information based on the total result.)

Legwork

If all else fails, it is possible to figure out where Tara Yu went by persistence and legwork.

Figuring out where Yu traveled can be found out by asking around on Locus or searching the local mesh (Protocol or Research, core clue). Using Bureaucracy (core clue) on Casa Arturo reveals logs that show that Yu left with the Kesyrah several weeks ago.

Finding Kesyrah is possible by calculating its trajectory from Casa Arturo with Astronomy or Physics (core clue). The calculations take several hours of figuring out how Casa Arturo has moved since the launch. Finding Song Cai Flower from the final destination takes some sweeping, from few days (Investigation, core clue) to few hours (Investigation 1).

Researching the White Khanhs

Mesh research uncovers all kinds of rumors and information. The short version: The White Khanhs started out as Hanoi triad and survived the Fall. Mostly Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian.

More information with Investigative Abilities and Networking:

• History or Anthropology (1 point): They were part of the Oxygen Deck Riots by working as informants for the Yokyai Kong officers. The authorities turned a blind eye on their activities in response
• Research: They have recently lost ground to other gangs.
  • They have recently started acting more violently and have become more insular, even cult-like (1 point)
  • Dexter Vo become a leader of the gang in a violent coup about a year ago (2 points)
• G-rep: The White Khanhs have a secret hideout, a ship called Song Cai Flower (Moderate favor)
  • The location of Song Cai Flower (High favor)
  • It is difficult to find members of the gang. Sammy Li used to be involved with the gang (Minor favor)

Mason Wang

Appearance: South-East Asian hibernoid morph with striking good looks and charming smile.

Character: Sharp, ambitious, naive. Immature, insecure, minor sex addiction.

Networking: mid @-rep, low c-rep, mid r-rep

Available information:

• Martian
• Did graduate work at TAU as a programmer-archaeologist. Was briefly Ming and Yu’s student
  • @-rep: Wang was Yu’s lover for a time and they remained in contact (High favor)
• After doctorate returned to Mars and spent 5 years on typical corp AI projects
• Moved to a private habitat near Locus 2 years ago
• Is part of Blue Pod, an Locus-based art/AI-collective
  • @-rep: Blue Pod is secretly studying the TITANs and the Exsurgent virus, collecting artefacts and information (High favor)
• Wang Industries is his private hab. It is few days’ travel from Locus. It is a modern matrioshka hab.
• Disappeared around the same time as Yu and emerged only recently again, citing problems with a programming project
  • @-rep: Wang spent the entire month in his private hab, seeing no one and not responding to any outside communications

Wang will cooperate with anyone with @-rep or anyone that proves that they work for Ming.

He will tell that Yu asked him to build a custom robot and AI package. Wang provides details on Tortoise and Achilles if asked, but will not mention what they were to be used for. The last place Wang knows Yu has been was on the Casa Arturo habitat.

Wang can be made to tell more by bribing, threatening or kidnapping/torturing him. This can be done with:

• Intimidation (cost 2). Wang must feel that the threat is credible.
• Interrogation (cost 1). Interrogation only works if Wang feels sufficiently threatened, e.g. by being helpless and surrounded with armed people
• Bribing (Resources High favor).

If forced/bribed, Wang tells what he knows:

• Yu asked Wang to make a custom robot and 2 AIs (Tortoise & Achilles).
  • Achilles: robotic shell, zero-G whip-like anthroform. Good at infiltrating.
  • Tortoise: AI designed to scan exotic hardware and data structures, with emergency systems. Carried in a ghost module in Achilles.

Under extreme duress, or if questioned about the month he spent isolated, Wang will confess that the AI was transmitting data back to him. He tried analysing the data, but was careless and the fork he used was infected. He has been cleaning house for the last month.

Wang is curious and will try to question/track the investigators.

Morteza Bey

Can be found from Xiu’s Greenhouse, an anarchist hydroponics outfit near Locus.

• Few weeks ago, the greenhouse was assaulted by a small group of unknown assailants.
• The local autonomist defense council shares the info with any character that has a rating in @-rep.
  • The data includes footage of exotic morphs slaughtering the locals.

Appearance: Young, Arabian, gentle, earthy.

Character: Down-to-Earth, gentle, likes plants.

Networking: mid @-rep, low e-rep

Public profile shows Bey running a gardening blog, dealing mostly with broccoli.

With reputation, more can be found out about Bey:

• @- or e-rep (Minor favor): Bey is a brilliant hacker and was recently romantically involved with Antoin Saul, a resident of Locus. Saul is a technician, a Reclaimer activist and associate of Tara Yu.
  • @- or e-rep (Moderate favor): Saul is part of Variegationists, a group of outer system reclaimers, who study TITAN relics.

Bey will not meet the investigators in person, but can be persuaded to a simulspace meeting by a character with a rating in @-rep or e-rep.

This requires the use of an Interpersonal Ability, with Negotiation or Reassurance being the most fitting, but others might also work (core clue).

Bey thought Yu was on reclaimer business. He feels misled about the nature of the mission and will try to pose questions to the investigators.

If questioned, Bey reveals:

• He met Yu through Saul
• Yu recruited him to run infosec and infiltration research on Song Cai Flower
• Bey sent a beta level fork of himself with Yu in a synthmorph
• He assumes the White Khanhs found the shuttle Kesyrah and traced it back to him, leading to the raid on Xiu’s Greenhouse.

If the investigators answer his questions or otherwise feels like he can trust them (Reassurance), Bey will reveal the location of the Song Cai Flower.

• With Reassurance 1, Bey reveals that Yu tried to contact a former White Khanh, Nia Zheng, who was last seen on Locus.
• Bey shares all his infosec work with some Interpersonal Ability use, e.g. Negotiate (cost 1).
  • This gives the character a shared pool of 6 points that can be used for Infiltration and Infosec.
  • However, Bey doesn’t have schematics of the ship or knowledge of the gangs daily routines

Bey managed to capture some external photos and nanobug footage that he will share with the investigators.

Clip 1: The smart dust camera cuts in on a close two-dimensional shot of a mass of wet noodles being messily slurped into an immense mouth. The scraggly mustache framing it drips with broth. Red, curvilinear graphics in a translucent AR frame swirl around a protuberant mole partially obscured by a dangling noodle. At last the noodle is sucked into the mouth, and the graphics blink twice. A positive ID. There is a flicker of recalibration as more nanobot spies come online, and the scene dissolves into a better three-D visual showing the owner of the giant mouth and his surroundings. The dimly lit, cramped quarters of a freighter are immediately apparent. The person in the scene is Dexter Vo.

Clip 2: This is actually a collection of speck bot footage from Yu’s actual infiltration attempt. The bots spread out and assemble an interior view of some parts of the ship, including the utility bay (Area 2), machine shop (Area 8), and a few parts of the crew torus, including the medical bay (Area 9a). The specks also catch shots of Yu emerging from the service airlock accompanied by a thin bot (Achilles). Both are cloaked in chameleon material, but an AR overlay on the feed silhouettes their positions. Yu cases the room, then flattens against a wall as the door from another room hisses open. The bot eerily mirrors her movements. A male breeder exsurgent (Quang) enters the room, stops and looks around as if smelling the air, but never spots Yu. He then passes through the room into another module.

Nia Zheng/Sammy Li

Appearance: Asian pleasure pod. Tiny, short hair, big eyes.

Character: Tough guy, likes his new body.

Networking: low @-rep, mid g-rep

Former White Khahns enforcer. Realized something was wrong with the gang and cut all ties to them.

Currently, a minor red market operator in the Barrows, the beehive Guanxi neighborhood dug into one the Patroclus asteroids rotating around Locus.

Researching Sammy Li:

• White Khanhs operative on Locus, originally from Vishnukam
• Went missing about 4 months ago

Researching Nia Zheng:

• Appeared on Locus about 4 months ago
• g-rep (High favor): verify that Zheng is Li’s new identity

There are three ways of getting Zheng to talk:

1. Promising enough rep/cred to move him to Mars in a new ruster morph (Expensive Resources/Networking favor, with c-rep, @-rep or i-rep being the most appropriate)
2. Kidnapping him and interrogating him (Psychosurgery 6 or Interrogation 1).
3. Talking about White Khahns to make him reminisce of Earth (Reassurance, Flattery or Flirting, cost 1)
   • If the investigators talk about going to the Song Cai Flower, they can negotiate with Zheng to fetch his fathers cufflinks in exchange for information. He will want a contract through Nomic, or equivalent assurance (Negotiate)

What Zheng knows:

• Schematics, inc. location of the cufflinks, minus the new engines
• Security procedures
• Number of gang members (8), and description of all of them

Patrona Vasquez (Floating Clue)

Character: All business, no humor. Very sharp at reading people, likes to point out what she reads.

Networking: High @-rep, mid c-rep and g-rep

Has a personal grudge against the White Khanhs.

Will contact the investigators if they publicly search for White Khanhs.

Will not meet the investigators in person, but will exchange text messages or send a beta-fork for a simulspace meeting.

Vasquez knows:

• That Song Cai Flower is White Khahns headquarters
• It is somewhere in the Greeks
• That the White Khanhs are savage in combat, probably a narcoalgorithm cult or a singularity experiment gone bad
• A few names: Dexter Vo and Sammy Li

Vasquez wants to know:

• How the investigators’ mission goes down
• Which gang members they encounter, if White Khanhs are still functional, how strong they are, and what happened to them

Vasquez will part with her information with the use of Negotiation (core clue) and promise that the investigators will fill her in after the mission. Remind the players that talking with Vasquezn might not sit well with Firewall.

Investigating the Song Cai Flower

Casa Arturo

In the Paloma Negra neighborhood of the Jovian Greeks.

• Cluster hab
• Connected to a metal-rich asteroid
• Has a mining, foundry, shipbuilding, egocasting and resleeving facilities (bouncer morphs common)
• Population 1200, speaks Spanish, English and Mandarin

Getting to the Flower

• @-rep (moderate favor) to borrow a small spacecraft
• If asked, Ming will use Firewall influence to get a transport

The Kesyrah

• Small Lander and Orbit Transfer Vehicle (SLOTV)
• Is anchored and blends against a small ice asteroid
  • A character watching the ship’s sensors can use Perception (cost 1) or the appropriate Craft skill (cost 2) to spot the Kesyrah
• Kesyrah is a matte black stealth ship
• Starboard airlock has been cut open with a plasma torch
• The ship has been ransacked, Yu and Bey’s gear floats everywhere and Bey’s flexbot morph is broken in the cockpit

The Song Cai Flower

• Typical pre-Fall-era freighter
• Engineering: several additional fusion rockets have been attached to the ship’s frame
• Disabling airlock security measures requires Hardware difficulty 6 test.
• Opening the electronic locks on exterior airlocks can be done with a Hardware or Infiltration difficulty 4 test
• The ships exterior hull sensor systems are broken or are not monitored
• Anyone close to the ship can infiltrate its mesh
  • Test Infosec against difficulty 4 to infiltrate the mesh
  • Vo’s muse, Wei, monitors the mesh. When testing to infiltrate, have Wei test against the infiltrating character. If Wei beats their result, she knows that the mesh is infiltrated.
  • If Wei notes an intruder, she will try to lock in on them, testing Infosec against them. All defensive systems receive a boost against a locked in infiltrator.
  • A locked in character will also be exposed to the AOK hack
• The inside of the ship is monitored by Wei. Characters need to test Infiltration against difficulty 4 whenever they do something that Wei might notice or when they enter the ops center

Wei

Wei is Vo’s custom security muse and simulspace love doll. She looks like a tall, sultry Chinese woman.

Glory has warped Wei, made her more erratic and emphasized the “love doll” aspects of her personality.

Abilities: Infosec 8, only usable for defending the ship

Because Wei is confused by Glory, she can only use a maximum of 1 point of Infosec to tests.

1. Docking Spar

2. Utility Bay

3. Reactor Module

4. Life Support Pod

5. Solar Panel

6. Greenhouse/Recycling

6A. Recycling Vats

6B. Plant Beds

6C. Carniculture Vats

6D. Engine Room

7. Ops Center

8. Machine Shop/Drone Bay

9. Crew Torus

9A. Med Bay/Resleeving Center

9B. Rec Area/Kitchen

9C. Crew Quarters

Glory

AOK Hack

The AOK hack only affects characters that have 1 or more points in Engineering, Programming, or 8 or more points in Hardware.

Test against infection for any character encountering an infected system (Myrmidon, White Khanhs cortical stack, etc.). Sense Trouble and Stability can be used in this test. The difficulty is d6 + 3. Raise the difficulty by +2 for every 2 points in an applicable Investigative Ability or every 10 points of applicable General Ability.

If the player wins, nothing happens (this time). If they tie, they can spend 1 point from Sense Trouble or Stability to win the contest. Otherwise, they are catatonic for 5 minute + 1 minute for each point they lost the roll by. At the end of this period, they are infected with Glory. If a character is broken off from contact before this time, they are not infected, but lose 1 Stability for each minute they were affected.

The AOK hack infection manifests as an overpowering urge to build a Glory nanobot hive. This compulsion can be treated 3 days within the infection with Psychosurgery (difficulty 6 test). The patient must test against losing 3 Stability.

Physical Infection

Characters become physically infected by exchanging bodily fluids or by being exposed to nanobots from a hive. In some cases characters may test Athletics to avoid splattering blood etc.

The Exsurgents

Encountering the Exsurgents requires a cost 7 Stability test.

Breeders (5: Bian, Bui, Quang, Sang, and Thanh)

General Abilities: Athletics 10, Deep Scan 5, Ego Sense 5, Health 6, Melee Combat 6, Shooting 8, Psychic Stab 6

Combat Damage: spurs +1, plasma gun +2

Hit Threshold: 4

Armor: none

Alertness Modifier: +1

Stealth Modifier: +2

Drones (6: Diên, Nong, Quy, Sit, Smith, and Wu)

Morph: Bouncer

General Abilities: Athletics 8, Health 6, Hardware 7, Shooting 6

Combat Damage: fist -2

Hit Threshold: 4

Armor: Light Vacsuit: 1 vs. shooting, 1 vs. melee combat

Alertness Modifier: +0

Stealth Modifier: -1

Ji

Morph: Ghost

General Abilities: Athletics 8, Health 9, Shooting 6

Combat Damage: fist -2

Hit Threshold: 4

Armor: Light Vacsuit: 1 vs. shooting, 1 vs. melee combat

Alertness Modifier: +0

Stealth Modifier: +2

Dexter Vo

Morph: Bouncer

General Abilities: Athletics 10, Health 6, Infosec 7, Melee Combat 6, Shooting 8

Combat Damage: fist -2, plasma gun +2

Hit Threshold: 4

Armor: Light Vacsuit + Light Bioweave Armor: 2 vs. shooting, 1 vs. melee combat

Alertness Modifier: +2

Stealth Modifier: +0

The Mother

General Abilities: Health 16, Psychic Stab 8, Melee Combat 4

Combat Damage: psychic stab +0, tentacles -2, bite -1

Hit Threshold: 3

Armor: none

Alertness Modifier: -2

Stealth Modifier: NA