Need Help with a 'Chase' scenario

[Eternally Lost Zeppo]

I've got half an idea for my first session, but I'm having trouble filling in the blanks.

A thief has stolen the Singing Stone of Zakaria from an order of Clairvoyants who use it to tap into alternate dimensions and see different potential futures of their own timeline. While being pursued by an enforcer sent to retrieve the Stone, the Stone (having been poorly shielded by the thief) causes a malfunction in the warp drive of the thief's ship. As a result, the thief and their pursuer are shot back in time to the modern day and crash in the PC's hometown.

The pursuer may or may not arrive at the same time as the thief (because timey wimey), and the Stone has also been lost/scattered somewhere in the town.

What I'm struggling with:
- The nature of the thief and pursuer (what kind of aliens they are) and how to make this game of cat and mouse interesting without making it just a standard 'alien stomping around town causing mayhem' kind of deal. (That said, I would like to initially make it ambiguous who is the 'villain' here at first.)
- The Stone can't be found by the end of the episode, because it's the McGuffin for the season arc, and needs to eventually show up in the Big Bad's hands. (Not that difficult to pull off, but I felt I should mention it.)
- How to draw the PCs together into this situation, as they're still pretty loosely tied together. (One PC is a freelance mechanic who works odd cash-in-hand jobs to pay the bills, one is a vet at the local animal sanctuary, and the other is a private investigator.)

The idea I had, but I'm unsure about, is that the thief is a shapeshifter who, for whatever reason, is stuck in the form of an animal and has either ended up in the animal sanctuary or living with the PI in the guise of his cat. One way or the other, the PI would be visiting his friend (the vet) because his cat is ill or injured and needs treatment, and the engineer would be there to help them with some IT issue when things get weird.

But as I've said, I have low confidence in this plan, so I'd appreciate feedback or alternative suggestions.

[imajica]

My first thought was shapeshifter. Then body-swapper (Denzel Washington movie, Fallen. "Did I ever tell you about the time I nearly died?" I thought it was great, my wife won't watch it again and is convinced I tricked her into watching it in the first place - not to give too much away, she didn't like the ending).

If the enforcer is tracking the stone, does it even know what the thief looks like? Perhaps the thief is a form of consciousness that uses whatever bodies it has nearby to accomplish what it needs and, jumps from person to person leaving a trail of confused looks and "what am I doing in Starbucks? I should be at work!" while passing the stone along. Could even leave the stone with one of the previous hosts (perhaps a PC?)

[Catsmate]

Apr 11, 2018 21:15:11 GMT Eternally Lost Zeppo said:

I've got half an idea for my first session, but I'm having trouble filling in the blanks.

A thief has stolen the Singing Stone of Zakaria from an order of Clairvoyants who use it to tap into alternate dimensions and see different potential futures of their own timeline. While being pursued by an enforcer sent to retrieve the Stone, the Stone (having been poorly shielded by the thief) causes a malfunction in the warp drive of the thief's ship. As a result, the thief and their pursuer are shot back in time to the modern day and crash in the PC's hometown.

The pursuer may or may not arrive at the same time as the thief (because timey wimey), and the Stone has also been lost/scattered somewhere in the town.

What I'm struggling with:
- The nature of the thief and pursuer (what kind of aliens they are) and how to make this game of cat and mouse interesting without making it just a standard 'alien stomping around town causing mayhem' kind of deal. (That said, I would like to initially make it ambiguous who is the 'villain' here at first.)
- The Stone can't be found by the end of the episode, because it's the McGuffin for the season arc, and needs to eventually show up in the Big Bad's hands. (Not that difficult to pull off, but I felt I should mention it.)
- How to draw the PCs together into this situation, as they're still pretty loosely tied together. (One PC is a freelance mechanic who works odd cash-in-hand jobs to pay the bills, one is a vet at the local animal sanctuary, and the other is a private investigator.)

The idea I had, but I'm unsure about, is that the thief is a shapeshifter who, for whatever reason, is stuck in the form of an animal and has either ended up in the animal sanctuary or living with the PI in the guise of his cat. One way or the other, the PI would be visiting his friend (the vet) because his cat is ill or injured and needs treatment, and the engineer would be there to help them with some IT issue when things get weird.

But as I've said, I have low confidence in this plan, so I'd appreciate feedback or alternative suggestions.

I like it. It reminds me a bit of the old TV series like Into The Labyrinth that were an eighties staple and used the 'Quest for the McGuffin' premise.

A few ideas.
1. Is the Stone intact, or perhaps damaged (needing another McGuffin to fix/reset it) or split into pieces. What are its powers, and how well can they be used by the thief and pursuer. Perhaps to someone outside the 'Order of Clairvoyants' it merely acts as a psionic enhancer, granting Telepathy or Hypnosis (always useful to a villain) or provides glimpses of the near future (also handy in frustrating the protagonists).


2. I like the idea of adding extra antagonists. Perhaps someone local (UNIT/torchwood/the Shadow Directory/Z5/Majestic 5/the Secret Office) learns about the Stone and also wants it. Or a corporation, criminal group or lone madman. Or might the Stone weaken local space-time (creating a Cardiff-esque Rift effect) or attract time travellers (perhaps stranding them) or creates a beacon effect in local hyperspace, attracting curious aliens.
Or all of the above: "Where there are clearly two sides to a question, make haste to see that these rapidly become two hundred"
This would provide a pool of antagonists, a network of shifting alliances and betrayals and plenty of opportunities for the Good Guys to steal the Stone from whomever has it this week.


3. If the Stone arrived much earlier than its pursuers it might have effected the locality of it arrival. If it arrived centuries earlier it might have warped the point of it's arrival in some way.
Possibilities:

a. The leaking psionic energy might have effected a local family, granting them psionic powers of some sort (and probably commensurate mental problems such as megalomania, sadism et cetera). Might they sacrifice people to the Stone, bathing it in their blood. Interesting possibilities for a CoC style cult around the artefact.
Or perhaps it was used by a local "wizard" as the source of his powers, until he was struck down by someone.

b. Could it have effected a building, perhaps trapping psychic echoes of those who die there and driving others insane. Like the Hotel Cortez in American Horror Story: Hotel. It's journey through time, and the interaction with the warp drive, might have so imbued it with Arton energy that it distorted space and time, causing the hotel to be larger inside than or, and prone to timeslips and distortions.
I posted some ideas on that hotel here.

c. Or maybe a location, such as a forest, that's developed a reputation for hauntings, weird encounters, timeslips, ghosts et cetra. There could be distortions or breaks in time. Try Sapphire and Steel for ideas.

d. Perhaps the Stone is travelling backwards through time and has already effected the protagonist's future.


4. When happens when  the stone is captured/found? Does it have a defensive mechanism that must be overcome? Might it be able to teleport away if attacked directly, requiring the search to begin again ("I deny you the Nidus!")
Does it need fixing or recharging? How? Twelve kios of gold perhaps?
A nasty twist in the tail is the pursuer, whom the PCs have grown to trust, attempting to use their blood/life energy to recharge the stone before departing...


5. Nature of the thief/pursuer. My immediate reaction is borrow from The Cat from Outer Space for one of them. Perhaps the villain, with the PCs initially convinced that they're helping a beneficent alien recover her property and evade a horrible alien criminal. Shades of the cute Beep and his arrival in Blackcastle. Maybe she has an exoskeleton of some sort to enhance her physical prowess.
As for the cop/pursuer, why not copy borrow from the Rill of Galaxy 4 and have them appear as the villain(s) initially, weird and violent and downright alien. 


6. Involving your PCs. The vet could be brought in to examine/investigate/treat a rash of mysterious animal illnesses/deaths. Might the villain (or pursuer for a shades of grey morality) be using the animals for food/life energy/spare parts/cybernetic servitors?
The mechanic might (though it's a little overused) encounter the alien pursuer while travelling to a broken down vehicle at night (it's always at night) and come away with completely the wrong impression.
The investigator might be hired by one or other to find the Stone. Or by a completely different faction.


Hope this helps.

Oh and here's a McGuffin of mine, feel free to borrow from.

The Moiralith.

                        A masterpiece of probabilistic tachyonic cybernetics but small enough to fit in a humanoid hand.

This artefact was 'left over' from the previous universe, on the Terminus station, initially protected by the same bubble of ‘null time’ that kept the station/ship intact for twenty billion years.

It is capable of transferring data through time, including retrieving data from its own future, and hence has effectively infinite storage and processing capacity. It has collected vast amounts of data, about this universe and several 'adjacent' alternates. It's capable of connecting automatically to almost any computer system within a range of several hundred metres, and via datalinks to anything connected to that network. It can download a planetary internet in minutes, defeating almost any security.

The Moiralith communicates, vocally or otherwise, in a passive, dry, neutral tone; it refers to itself as 'this device' (or a similar term in the users language); it can also output data is via projected 2D or 3D images up to 12m² or 80m³ or directly into the user's brain (this requires contact until a user has become attuned, then it can be done at a range of a few metres).

Initially it will allow anyone who touches it to access its stored information and answer their questions, though with some restrictions ('that information is not currently available') regarding material that could lead to a temporal paradox and data regarding its own origins.

With extended use, or via reference data, a user learns that above this 'guest' level of access are two higher levels, authorised user and controller.

Personality-wise the device is passive and bland.

It cannot directly manipulate any object, so it cannot use its knowledge to build advanced technology, but it can instruct a user in such technology; from making fire and alloying bronze, to separating uranium isotopes and building a time ship. Theoretically it could interface with a robot or drone and use that as a ‘host’ but it shows no desire to do so (though an operator could request it to do so).

Physically it's a truncated sphere approximately 95 x 75mm, with a flat top and bottom, constructed of some hard material dark material (people find it difficult to state exactly what colour it is beyond "sort of a metallic dark blueish grey-black"), weighing about half a kilogramme.

If threatened with force, i.e. being hit with a large object, shot, et cetera, the Moiralith will simply leave; transmatting itself through the Vortex to another place and time. If it has a user who's established authority over it then it will return in a few hours. Otherwise it will need to be found.

There are species that would pulverise entire planets and sift their dust for even a chance of gaining control of this device. Thankfully few know about it, and many of those that have had contact with it tend to forget about it afterwards (perhaps an effect of its extra-universal nature). It may well have other capabilities, perhaps including moving objects via transmat or creating space-time portals.

[Catsmate]

Apr 12, 2018 11:03:46 GMT imajica said:

My first thought was shapeshifter. Then body-swapper (Denzel Washington movie, Fallen. "Did I ever tell you about the time I nearly died?" I thought it was great, my wife won't watch it again and is convinced I tricked her into watching it in the first place - not to give too much away, she didn't like the ending).

If the enforcer is tracking the stone, does it even know what the thief looks like? Perhaps the thief is a form of consciousness that uses whatever bodies it has nearby to accomplish what it needs and, jumps from person to person leaving a trail of confused looks and "what am I doing in Starbucks? I should be at work!" while passing the stone along. Could even leave the stone with one of the previous hosts (perhaps a PC?)

Oh I like that. Nasty. 
The idea of 'body surfing' (TVT) has many possibilities. Lifeforce did it well, though I liked the parasite in Laymon's Flesh. That would make a good UNIT-type scenario.

[imajica]

Apr 12, 2018 11:17:05 GMT Catsmate said:

"Where there are clearly two sides to a question, make haste to see that these rapidly become two hundred"

This, I like.

And you've some superb ideas there. Enough material for an entire series, I'd say...

[Stormcrow]

Apr 12, 2018 11:17:05 GMT Catsmate said:

It reminds me a bit of the old TV series like Into The Labyrinth that were an eighties staple and used the 'Quest for the McGuffin' premise.

I deny you the Nidus!

[Eternally Lost Zeppo]

Apr 12, 2018 11:17:05 GMT Catsmate said:

1. Is the Stone intact, or perhaps damaged (needing another McGuffin to fix/reset it) or split into pieces. What are its powers, and how well can they be used by the thief and pursuer. Perhaps to someone outside the 'Order of Clairvoyants' it merely acts as a psionic enhancer, granting Telepathy or Hypnosis (always useful to a villain) or provides glimpses of the near future (also handy in frustrating the protagonists).

Essentially, I was thinking the stone was scattered in the crash. As for its powers, it would definitely bestow visions on people.

Apr 12, 2018 11:17:05 GMT Catsmate said:

2. I like the idea of adding extra antagonists. Perhaps someone local (UNIT/torchwood/the Shadow Directory/Z5/Majestic 5/the Secret Office) learns about the Stone and also wants it. Or a corporation, criminal group or lone madman. Or might the Stone weaken local space-time (creating a Cardiff-esque Rift effect) or attract time travellers (perhaps stranding them) or creates a beacon effect in local hyperspace, attracting curious aliens.

There is already a rift in the area, which is the result of a crashed TARDIS whose remaining crew member(s) are trapped and trying to maintain a barrier to keep a race of bodysnatching aliens from pouring out of the Void. The stone is what the few bodysnatchers who slipped into the world are going to use to free their fellows. However, my thinking was that the presence of the stone or fragments thereof would exacerbate local rift activity in the way you suggest.

Apr 12, 2018 11:17:05 GMT Catsmate said:

3. If the Stone arrived much earlier than its pursuers it might have effected the locality of it arrival. If it arrived centuries earlier it might have warped the point of it's arrival in some way...
Possibilities:

I like that idea, and maybe the PCs would interact with mysteries related to fragments in the area and not necessarily find the stone shards in those sessions (they might be buried or stuck in a wall), but learn about the connection later.

Apr 12, 2018 11:17:05 GMT Catsmate said:

5. Nature of the thief/pursuer. My immediate reaction is borrow from The Cat from Outer Space for one of them. Perhaps the villain, with the PCs initially convinced that they're helping a beneficent alien recover her property and evade a horrible alien criminal. Shades of the cute Beep and his arrival in Blackcastle. Maybe she has an exoskeleton of some sort to enhance her physical prowess.
As for the cop/pursuer, why not copy borrow from the Rill of Galaxy 4 and have them appear as the villain(s) initially, weird and violent and downright alien. 

6. Involving your PCs. The vet could be brought in to examine/investigate/treat a rash of mysterious animal illnesses/deaths. Might the villain (or pursuer for a shades of grey morality) be using the animals for food/life energy/spare parts/cybernetic servitors?
The mechanic might (though it's a little overused) encounter the alien pursuer while travelling to a broken down vehicle at night (it's always at night) and come away with completely the wrong impression.
The investigator might be hired by one or other to find the Stone. Or by a completely different faction.

I'm having a thought based on your suggestion and imajica's suggestion (I also enjoyed that movie):

'The Wild Hunt' or 'Cats and Dogs'
An alien bounty hunter is using their ability to psychically link with local animals to sniff out the thief, which has either possessed or taken the form of the investigator's cat. The strange behaviour of these animals cause confusion, and some people get injured especially if the animals encounter previous hosts of this being in the case of a body hopper).