Adventure Source: Living Campaign Adventure 01

Meetup Link: https://www.meetup.com/Star-Trek-Gaming/events/263895279/

Game Date: October 6 2019

Session Post: No Session Post

Teaser: The characters are part of a rescue mission to locate the S.S. Tesla, which crash-landed in a remote wilderness area of Orgun III. The planet is suffering from geological upheaval, as well as atmospheric electromagnetic interference, forcing an away team to take a shuttle to the surface to investigate.

• Ensign Wolfgang Ratzel (Terry)
• Lt. Kirkuurzhaav th’Zoarhi (Trevor)
• Lt. Asha (Jaime)
• Lt. Cmd Taemin Rahn (Garrett)
• Lt. Cmd. Dihas Krevo (Madison)
• Lt. Oqwadel (Raven)

Important NPCs:

• Captain Theema, Lormean Security
• Chief Minister Toorel, Head of Lormean Government
• Dr. Emmet Sherman, Lead Astrophysicist (Human)
• Dr. Norma Grange, Physicist (Human)
• Dr. Orimu Faz, Chemist and Xenobiologist (Trill)
• Dr. Scia Lort, M.D., Biologist (Human)

Notable Information: Ancient technology was used to move Orgun III to it’s current location and maintain it’s stability. This is breaking down and the planet will break apart within the next year.

The Federation scientists were allowed to stay and assist the Lermean’s with their plan to evacuate to Orgun II.

Mission Recap: The characters are part of a rescue mission to locate the S.S. Tesla, a civilian science vessel that has gone missing while investigating spatial anomalies in a particularly unstable region of the Shackleton Expanse. The crew tracks the missing ship to the Orgun system which, remarkably, has two Class M worlds, both protected by the Prime Directive.

Orgun II has a primitive civilization, equivalent to medieval Earth. The residents call themselves the Slithar and are a violent and warlike culture. The residents of Orgun III, who call themselves Lormeans, are quite different, being a mammalian species resembling humanoid lemurs that are noted for a peaceful and communal society. Their technology is equivalent to mid-21st century Earth, just pre-warp tech, but still covered by the Prime Directive. The plasma trail from the S.S. Tesla leads directly toward Orgun III.

The scans reveal that the S.S. Tesla crash-landed, relatively intact, in a wilderness region, about 200 km from the Lormean capital city. No humanoid life-forms are shown in the vicinity. The energy fluctuations around the planet are interfering with the sensors, making it difficult to differentiate human life-forms from the native Lormeans. The scan also shows an extremely powerful energy source, about 5 km underground, not far to the north of the capital city. Due to the unusual energy fluctuations around the planet, communicators are ineffective and the transporters are too dangerous to use.

The S.S. Tesla has crashed in a forested area, burning and leveling the forest for about 50 meters around the wreckage. There are two recent graves nearby, one containing a Human body, the other an Andorian.

The Tesla is damaged beyond repair and the computer data cores and the logs have been removed.

After 20 minutes of investigating, several flyers, each containing six humanoids approach and land at the crash site.

One of the Lormeans approaches and speaks to the crew. She identifies herself as Captain Theema, and she tells them that the scientists are safe at their capital city of Lorm and that the scientists revealed the existence of the Federation to the Lormeans.
She offers to take the crew to the scientists.

The scientists inform the crew that the planet is in dire straits (the planet is suffering an apparently natural geologic disaster that will destroy the planet in a matter of few weeks). In defiance of the Prime Directive (which doesn’t technically cover civilians) the scientists have already started helping the people of Orgun III come up with a plan for planetary evacuation to Orgun II. This could cause a massive upheaval for the residents of Orgun II since its people are a different species with a much lower tech level.

The scientists and the head of the Lormean government, Chief Minister Toorel implore the away team to assist them in coming up with an evacuation plan. Working together, they could drastically increase the numbers of survivors. The crew also discovers a massive energy surge coming from somewhere deep beneath the planet’s surface.

The crew returns to the shuttle to make better scans of the planet to see if they can learn more about the unusual electromagnetic energy fluctuations. The Captain Theema accompanies them as an observer

The source of the energy emissions that harm the planet come from a location 5 km beneath the surface. Scanning the area reveals the entrance to a series of natural caverns leading to the energy source.

The caverns are often narrow with sudden drop-offs and sharp bends and turns, with one particularly challenging ravine to cross.

Eventually they arrive at a spot where a cave-in has caused a rupture into an artificially carved and lit corridor. One direction of the corridor is destroyed but the other direction ends in a set of sliding metal doors, which open into an elevator as they approach. There are no buttons, devices, or markings inside, but once the team enters the elevator, the door closes and it moves. Moments later the doors open again.

It opens into a vast underground cavern filled with incredible machinery. There are rows of computers and control devices lining the walls, and large screens show mostly indecipherable information, with occasional flashes of familiar things such as geographic maps of the planet and a model of this solar system.

After considerable investigation, they determine that the machinery was built millennia ago and was used to monitor every aspect of the planet. It is also capable of affecting everything from the weather to the geological stability. They also determine that at some time in the past, the planet was moved from a different orbit to its current location, and event that would have required almost unimaginable power.

The machinery appears to, at least in part, be able to compensate for stresses that resulted from this move. There also seems to be some other purpose but it remained undecipherable.

They do discover that the machinery is malfunctioning. They figure out how to work some of the machine’s controls, gaining enough understanding to attempt some repairs.

The damage is the result of millennia of neglect, and the technology is too complex to be able to be repaired quickly. Years of study would be required for that. However, they are able to make some partial repairs to extend the machine’s operation.

This greatly reduces the geological and electromagnetic disturbances around the planet, extending the stability of the planet by about six months. However, it’s appears inevitable that the systems will fail and the planet will break apart.

This also means that communications, sensors, and other systems all start to function normally, and they can beam out of the complex.

The crew decides that helping the Lormeans evacuate to Orgun II would be a violation of the Prime Directive especially considering there is already a race of sentient beings living there, even if they are currently only occupying one area of the planet.

They also cannot interfere with the Lormeans own plans to evacuate. The biggest issue is whether they should allow the scientists to stay and assist. Because the Prime Directive does not technically prevent Federation citizens from interfering with undeveloped worlds, and the scientists are not members of Starfleet, they decide to allow them to stay and to file a report on their behalf to Starfleet asking for additional assistance.