Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Captain's Log: Ep. 1 'Judge, Jury, Executioner'

I've decided to title my session recaps "Captain's Log," for obvious reasons. This series of blog posts will summarize the events of each individual gaming session in my campaign and maybe offer an insight or two along the way.

I ran the first episode sometime during the late summer of 2015, but I don't recall the exact date. It was intended to be a one shot, but the players wanted to keep going. So we decided to plan a full campaign, which didn't get underway until November of 2015 due to scheduling conflicts and real life.

I based the first session on the adventure "Shakedown Cruise," which was included in LUG's Star Trek TNG core book. I modified the adventure at a few key points in an attempt to give my players more choice and to heighten the tension of the climax. I also sprinkled in some elements from "A Fragile Peace: The Neutral Zone Campaign" supplement book.

All five PCs started as lieutenants junior grade. The party includes Dr. Noxana Vasor, a Betazoid medical officer; Jak Vin Karka, a Tellarite engineer; Troy McClure, a human counselor/diplomatic officer; Pus, a Vulcan science officer; and T'yr Th'tetrek, an Andorian security officer. The campaign takes place just a few weeks after the events of Star Trek Nemesis in the Arteline Sector near the Romulan Neutral Zone.

So without further ado, here's the blow-by-blow recap:

A group of fresh-faced lieutenants arrived on Starbase 39-Sierra near the Romulan Neutral Zone, awaiting long-term assignment to the USS Fearless. While waiting for the Fearless to arrive, Lt. Pus, a Vulcan science officer, met with the starbase’s chief science officer to review some mysterious subspace sensor readings from a nearby black hole known as Collapsar 49.

Pus recognized the sensor readings as artificial transmissions sent from an unknown source into the black hole, which then directed the transmissions into Romulan Space. The Fearless was ordered by Fleet Admiral Elsa Kiel to investigate the source of those transmissions, a small Harrellian mining facility on a remote moon.

Meanwhile, Counselor Troy McClure was approached by Commander Matthew Deleo, the chief intelligence officer aboard the starbase. Deleo asked McClure to give him regular reports on any valuable intelligence the Fearless may encounter.

En route to the mining facility, engineering officer Jak vin Karka discovered that Lt. Cmdr. Aliok, the chief engineering officer, had improperly modified the aging vessel’s warp engines. The crew suspected Aliok may actually be a Tal Shiar spy and arranged for Dr. Noxana Vasor, a Betazoid, to surreptitiously scan him with her telepathic powers. Turns out, Aliok was not a spy and his modifications were an honest mistake.

Upon arriving at the moon, the Fearless away team found that the mining operation was actually a front for a Tal Shiar communications post. In addition to illegal Romulan communications technology, the Harellians also harbored a Tal Shiar operative named Tyrion, who appeared to be suffering some sort of psychological distress due to her mental conditioning.

The Harellians managed to erase most of the Tal Shiar communications sent through the facility, but the away team recovered a single message from Romulan space. The message directed the Harrellians to transport Tyrion to Psellus III, where she could receive medical help from a Tal Shiar operative referred to only by the code name “Proteus.”

Tyrion, in a brief state of lucidity, told Dr. Vasor that DeLeo is actually a Section 31 agent and would summarily execute her if she were turned over to Starfleet Intelligence. In an effort to buy the crew some time and protect Tyrion from her own insanity, Vasor put Tyrion into a state of suspended animation.

The Fearless then set course for Psellus III to find the Tal Shiar agent Proteus and end the Tal Shiar presence in the Arteline Sector.

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