Glisten, Pt II

Date: Thu, 05 Jan 1995 22:32:58 -0500 (EST)
From: Alvin Plummer <alvin.plummer@sheridanc.on.ca>
Subject: Glisten, Pt II

This is the continuation of my rough draft for a Glisten adventure. 
First, I'm going to cover some of the databanks concerning the missing 
Aslan female, Hlausau' Ktyakukois.  Then more referee's detail (perhapse 
too much detail: but as I said, this is a rough draft).  No wizz-bang 
ending tonight!


Common knowledge: 

Name: Hlausau' Ktyakuhois
      Section Leader, Ilroei Industrial Products;
        Plant construction division.
 
      Citizenship: Aslan Hierate; Oikhoiseaha clan
      Homeworld: Iysewekh
                 Ranib: Trojan Reach/0640  A6205LA-E
      Age: 44
      Physical, DNA, visual ID provided in the datapac
      Arrived at Glisten 326-1200
      Missing since 359-1200             ('Christmas' - personal joke)
      Last seen: Entering an automated taxitram
                 Sarodon Asteroid, Clromov Belt, Glisten
  
      Resided at: Savekhyaktea Segment, in the Aslan Residential Quarter of 
                  Sarodon Asteroid.

--------------------

Common rumours about her fate:

      Quiet conversation with some of her peers and companions [largely 
Aslan, or humans that folow Aslan tradition] at Ilroei will result in 
these rumours...
  - she was killed in a duel due to a deadly insult she gave to a losing 
party in one of her cases back in Ranib subsector, four years ago.
  - she is being held for ransom, but the local clan chief is keeping it 
quiet
  - she has a reputation of being very difficult to fool
  - she is extremely adapt in company politics, having a 'golden' career 
history.  She understands who to befriend, who to avoid, and how to 
massage them to her point of view
  - a local human terrorist group - perhaps the dreaded Freedom League - 
has kidnapped her.  
  - political troubles back in Ranib subsector has forced her to return 
home, but strictly incognito
  - she left to scout the Regency for new markets, but choose to do so 
alone, and without alerting her local clan chief (after all, she does 
outrank him, being a representative of the great clan chief back home)

--------------------
 
Special knowledge - level I

  - she was born & raides in a lower-class family
  - trained as a purchaser for Ilroei's Consumer Products division
  - gained a reputation as an  adequate worker, but a True Master of 
    Tradition
  - eventually left the company, gaining a reputation as a professional 
    adjudicator of inter-clan financial disputes
  - obtained subsector-wide fame in 1192 by resolving a 30-year old 
    corporate dispute between two powerful clans
  - rejoined Ilroei Industrial Products in 1197
  - was proclaimed a clan elder (female: similar to a vice-president of a 
    company) in 1200

Special knowledge - level II

  - Kty[akuhois] has a very willful and hardheaded personality
  - she has a mate and seven children back on Iysewekh
  - she is the primary motivatior for her clan's expansion into 
    ex-Imperial space: in many ways, the Glisten project is her baby

Rumours 
  
  - she is rumoured to have been quite abusive to her personal servants 
    and those under her command
  - that her father was not merely lower-class, but actually an outcast
  - she's looking for *any* fault in local operations, to discredit the 
    current leadership and further her own ambition
  - that several of her most celebrated cases were actually carefully 
    arranged show trials, designed to increase her prestige among the clan 
    leadership.

----------------------


Where is Hlausau' Khyakuhois?

The first step is to realize that this is an "inside job", thai is, her 
     enemy is probably Aslan, rather than human
The second deduction is to determing that her abrasive personality, 
     ambition, and high competence would make enemies of both competitive 
     businessess and her superiors _back at Iysewekh_.  (Her skill in 
     politics has insured that the Aslans at Glisten are all "her people", 
     due to her highly astute sense of politics and judjement of 
     character.  There are a number of ways that the PC's may be able to 
     discover this fact)  
The third deduction is that whoever took her did not wish to kill her in 
     public.  *Why?*  A competitor would benefit more from a public duel 
     than a dishonourable kidnapping.  Indeed, they may not have killed  
     her at all.

You may leave the players to figure this out themselves - especially once 
they have the special, detailed knowledge they need to figure this out 
themselves.  Or yor may present it as a task (esp. if pressed for time) - 

      Formidable: Average of Intelligence and Education.

This task can be attempted twice a week.

--------------------

Once the above is known, you need to figure out who among her possible 
enemies would hesitate to kill her in public.  Attempting to find her 
enemies within Ilroei Industrial Products would be - in this adventure - 
not possible.  For one thing, none of them is at Glisten, and there is 
much too little info to work on.  Even if they are at Iysewekh, the PC's 
know too litle about the sublties (sp) os Aslan company politics to 
understand what to do.

===========================================================================

Who has Hlausau' Ktyakuhois?  Part II

The PC's *can*, however, try to find Kty's enemies outside the Ilroei 
company: 
           Difficult: Liaison or Research

Then, narrow the list of subjects by discussing who would prefer her to 
"dissapear" rather than either be killed, counter-attach in a non-violent 
(ie. political) manner, or simply wait for her to return to the Trojan Reach:
     
           Average: Research

>>> and the answer is...
         Ftaihkeaya Machinery, owned by the Ftaihkeaya clan of Tlaiowaha 
(Tlaiowaha: Trojan reach/1928 B1209L4-E T  411 A1 F4 D)

================================

Ftaihkeaya Machinery is in direct competition with Ilroei  in the area of 
constructiong some of the enormous pieces of gravitic machinery needed to 
suspend TL E gravitic cities in the air.

Ftai. has long been the primary supplier of this kind of equipment, but 
it's dominance in the field has been slowly worn away by complacency and 
the competition.  Ftai. decided to try and revitalize it's product line 
by setting up a TL F research office to gain new insights from Glisten 
(and nearby Regency) manufactourers.

But now, less than five years after the reasearch office was created, 
Ilroei is planning to establish a major factory in Glisten to take 
advantage of the ex-Imperial markets.  This is *very* bad news for 
Ftaihkeaya.

Then Hlausau' Ktyakuhois herself arrived, to take command of Ilroei 
operations and turn that factory into a reality.  Thjis upset all of 
Ftai's plan's,a ndwould decisively give Ilroei the upper hand.

Moreover, Ftai. couldn't directly attack eith er Ktyakuhois or her 
company: as an adjudicator, she sided with Ftai. in a controversial 
ruling over copyright.  Even though she is removed from the bench, for 
Ftai. to attack her publicly would almost certianly cause Ftai. to lose a 
lot of public standing, as a company _and_ as a clan.

Thus, they originally decided to kidnap and kill her in secret, using 
human mercenaries to cloak their involvement.  However, the humans who 
kidnapped her decided to blackmail Ftai. instead.  They recieve regular 
payments of 5 MCr every six months, thru a paper company.

Ftai. Machinery is currently in a quandry.  The - so far - have decided 
not to hinder the construction of Ilroei's factory, so as not to draw 
attention to themselves.  They _have_ sent out two squads of trusted, 
elite clan soldiers to kill Kty and ker captors, but they are following 
empty leads in the Regency.

There are two ways that the PC's can get hard proof connecting Ftai. 
Machinery with Kty's kidnapping: follow the electronic "paper chain" 
connecting Ftai.'s payments to the blackmailing merc's or ambush Ftai.'s 
outgoing company messenger.

-----------------------

One: The email trail!

Following the email trail will eventually lead the PC's to the xboat 
network, and onward to Mora, the capital of the Regency.  There, the 
message is copied 50 times and sent off to destinations throughout the 
Regency, via both xboat and merchant ship's.  The smart PC will return to 
Glisten at this point, the stupid PC would go on a mad romp across the 
Regency like the Aslan mercenaries.   [If they meet, the Aslan's may 
choose to 'team up' with the PC's until they find Kty, then kill both her 
and the PC's!  They are poor liar's however...]

The lucky PC will follow the copy sent to Gandr (Lunion: Spinward 
Marches/2245 E000347-8).  Gerard Winstion, an experienced money 
launderer, picks uo the money with fake ID's, spends a month cleaning it, 
then places 90% of it in a variety of subsector accounts, keeping 10% for 
himself.  If caught, he can be "persuaded" to lead the PC's directy to 
the mercenaries.  Warning: he alwars has one or two of the mercenaries 
with him, and a chartered scout with crew ready to jump.

------------------

Two: The Messanger ambush!

Ftaihkeaya's messanger can be ambushed in four places: in Ftai.'s 
industrial/residential complex, enroute to the starport, on the Aslan 
jump4 courier ship, or at his destination at Tlaiowaha starport in the 
Trojan Reach, about 10 four-parsec jumps away.

Finding out who the messanger is and his location is a computer task, 
using the same method needed to illegally enter Oikhoiseaha's computers: 
just this time, the target is Ftai's.  Getting inside Ftai's complex - with 
takes up half an asteroid - is more difficult. (you PC's had better have at 
least a ship's boat: some of these asteroids they are travelling to is clear
across the system..)  About 15,000 people - 1/3 Aslan - live and work in 
the complex, and the site is guarded to peasetime *Aslan* standards, 
including 5 20-disp fighters and 3 large laser bays.  Moreover, an attempt to
forcibily board the facility will quickly run into about 1250 adult Aslan 
males and TL E-F security precausions.

If the messanger is to be ambushed in transit to the starport, the PC's 
would need to plan carefully to insure that they are near the Frai. 
spaceship as it transport the messanger to a waiting jump4 courier ship.  
Tey're so many ships near Glisten Starport that they won't draw suspicion 
until the're within 300 km's of the transport.  Then, they must shoot 
down the spacship's HEPlaR, match vectors, close with the spacecraft and 
board it in under 30 minutes.  Then they must grapb the messanger (who 
would have suicided by this time), get back to their ship, and jump out 
before the Glisten systen navy arrives in force.  Fortunately, the 
Regency doesn't hav an extradition treaty with the Aslan New Lords, but a 
change in ID and [very expensive, rare TL G drugs (for TL F DNA tests), 
impossible-to-legally-get] drugs to mask the PC's DNA pattern are 
strongly advised.

Sneaking onboard the Aslan ship as Ftai. cargo requires enterind the 
starport, somehow getting rid of the cargo of a cargo container, and 
entering it yourself.  It's aslo wise to put a forged ID sticker with the 
new weight on the container, and wear Vacc suits.

Once onboard, they should wait until certain that the messanger is 
onboard (ie. until they feel the shift into jump space). THEN assult the 
crew.  If successful they can bring the dead messander (or, if there 
_really_ lucky, the Low Berthed messanger) back to Ilroei, so they can 
take out the TL E computer chip in his brain (wiped after death: that's why 
he's so willing to die, if he can't avoid capture.) to rebuild the wiped 
information (normally a Formidable: Computer test, but in this adventure 
there's automatic success after 1d6 weeks).

==============
==============

Break in the adventure.
Well, that's all most of the detail's : some more to follow, then the 
Adventure Finale!


Alvin Plummer