2011-09-13

Traveller Adventures: The Rat-Faced Plan

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A September of Short Adventures
The Rat-Faced Plan

An adventure for Classic Traveller Little Black Books set on Elysium, a TL8 agrarian world.

Summary
The characters need to figure out what Dmitri Valentin's plan was for moving the data crystal off-world. Relatedly, they need to figure out what to do with Dmitri once they get the information from him.

Background
In Zoe's Rat-Faced Man, the characters confronted and captured Dmitri to find out why he wanted the data crystal to leave Elysium. For a refresher on how dangerous the data on the crystal is, refer to What's On The Crystal?

Adventure
Classic Traveller: Books 0-8
The characters need a safe place to hole up for a while and question Dmitri about the data crystal. Both Cronos and Athens have waterfront warehouse space available for a nominal rental fee. Dmitri is deceptive and amoral, though he has no real reason to lie to the party other than his own entertainment. If the characters start getting physical, he'll tell everything he knows. He's not prepared to die for his money, so he'll bargain to keep himself alive.

Dmitri has a device that can detect the data crystal, either by hooking into GPS satellites on a TL8+ world, or by direct detection within 100km. This is standard practice for data crystals containing research data, and Dmitri also knows how the tracking chip can be disabled temporarily.

The plan was to slip the crystal off Elysium in a random outbound freighter. The buyer has a team ready to retrieve the data crystal from the next planet the freighter stops at. They'll copy the data and put it back on the freighter. At some point MediShield will figure out that the crystal is missing and send their extraction team to take it back from the hapless freighter crew. The buyer deposits the remainder of the payment, and everyone involved in the Black Market takes their cut.

Dmitri's job was the field operative handling the initial placement of the crystal, plus keeping the "Missing Data Crystal" alert off of the executive summary sheet with his Computers skill. He takes direction from someone on the executive team, and he picked up the data crystal from Pandora Research Station, a MediShield-owned orbital lab facility elsewhere in the Elysium system.

Further Hooks
Dmitri won't be missed for a week or so, but he doesn't know that for sure. The characters can keep him with them, or they can let Marcus hold him in Elysium Guard detention for a week on an official-looking trumped-up charge to provide Dmitri some deniability to his bosses. Dmitri will propose the idea if nobody else thinks of it first, and if the characters work with Dmitri on this he'll owe the characters a favor. Either way he'll be polishing his resume since the Black Market won't be around for long with the characters investigating.

With Dmitri not blocking the daily alert about the data crystal, the extraction team will be on its way to Elysium by the next day, and they'll arrive within 10 days. Refer to Drop That MacGuffin! for more details on the extraction team.


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