[Scenario Seed] Catherine's Advisor

[Catsmate]

Background.
Catherine of Prussia (better known as Catherine the Great) was Empress of Russia for thirty four years, from 1762 until 1796. She was German born and came to the Imperial throne by organising and leading a coup d'état that overthrew the unpopular Peter III, her husband. She may have had him killed¹.
Her long reign is considered the Golden Age of Russia; the country was revitalised, expanding and growing²; for the first time becoming recognised as one of the great powers of Europe. She introduced smallpox inoculation (then new and controversial³) and established the first state-funded higher education institution for women in Europe (the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens).

Alas she hasn't appeared much in Doctor Who, the addition of Captains Jack and John to her string of lovers⁴ in The Death of Captain Jack notwithstanding.


Outline.
In 1776, after the historical dismissal of her lover, confident and adviser Grigori Potemkin⁵, the PCs hear rumours that Catherine has a new advisor; a clockwork man who can play chess⁶ and speak. In act it can beat her at chess and is well versed in science, the arts, politics, languages and philosophy.


Introduction.
How do the PCs learn about this clockwork man? Five possibilities:

1. They arrive coincidentally in Russia in 1776 and pick up the gossip. Simple but hackneyed IMO.
2. They follow some sort of trail to Russia in 1776;
   perhaps a temporal signature in the Vortex. This tends to give a bit
   much away for my liking and restrict the plot (unless the train is an
   unrelated coincidence).
3. They PCs arrive somewhere else in 1776 and learn
   about the clockwork man from another source. Perhaps they're planning to
   visit the American Revolution but miss and end in London where they
   learn of the clockwork man (overhear civil servants gossiping or
   intercept a spy's report for example)
   
   • Alternatively they could be in London to watch in inaugural St. Leger race or pick up a first edition of The Wealth of Nations
     
   • Or in Salzburg in July for the first performance of Mozart's Serenade No. 7. Not one of his best pieces mind.
   This is my preference.
4. They may learn of the strange advisor in later
   sources, perhaps an obscure biography of Catherine or a recently
   unearthed Court diary from the period or documents buried in a time
   capsule⁷.
5. Reality could begin to change, with the PCs being
   protected by their exposure to elevated levels of Artron energy or
   otherwise. The decline of the Russian Empire has been erased and with it
   the Revolutions of 1917.
   

The Plot.
Who (or what) is the clockwork man?

1. A damaged Cyberman, perhaps one that was recently converted before their craft crashed. Hackneyed IMO and too similar to The Silver Turk.
   
2. A partially Cyber-converted human, one of those used as labour on Telos who escaped in a stolen time-craft (a variation on the plot of Attack of the Cybermen). None too stable and aware he (or she) is stuck in eighteenth century Russia they plan on altering the future to strengthen Earth against alien threats.
   • If mixing this with option 5 above then the modern
     day is likely to be either a Russian dominated world (if the plan
     succeeded) or a disaster area (if it failed badly)
3. A Clockwork Droids from the Madame de Pompadour, the Marie Antoinette or another sister ship⁹. What are they doing in eighteenth century Russia advising the Empress?
   • Rehashing The Girl in the Fireplace is (IMO) a bad idea, except to lead the players away from the real motive. Perhaps someone is using the Droids to manipulate events? A human (or alien) from the ship who's either in 1776 Russia or passing instructions via a time window.
     
4. Something else. An alien servitor robot perhaps? Perhaps companion to a scout surveying Earth? Or a temporally displaced android, perhaps a sex-bot from one of the decadent periods of the Terran Empire? One with human intelligence and a vast array of information in it's data store. So what's it doing in Catherinian Era Russia⁹? What are it's intentions?
5. A deliberate construct. Someone has travelled back in time to alter the future and is using the robot as her pawn, knowing Catherine's interest in attractive and intelligent men. What is her plan?
   
   

Complications.

1. Other time travellers I. Academics from the future (ArcHive? St. Marys?) who're investigating some aspect of Catherine's reign, such as the circumstances of the death of her husband.
2. Other time travellers II. The Alexandrian Society is planning a 'job'. They probably blend in fairly well, are few in number, have limited time travel capability and some advanced equipment but could interfere with the main plot and the PCs (especially if they've met¹⁰)
   
3. Other time travellers III. Unrelated distractions; someone is in the area for no reason related to Catherine or the Clockwork Man. The Doctor for example. An escaped war criminal. A bus full of tourists.
   
4. Court politics. There is a lot of jockeying for position and influence in Catherine's court, perfect for getting teh PCs in trouble, or more trouble.
5. Espionage. If the PCs learned about the Clockwork Man from a source in London (or Austria) then it's possible than British or Austrian spies are investigating. They probably believe the 'man' is a midget in a costume, unless they have agencies with experience in the outré. Even if the PCs didn't discover the oddity in this may other government might be interested in the rumours.
   • Alternatively British spies at least might be interested in the Russian reaction to the events in North America; Catherine believed "that the separation of the colonies from the mother country did not conflict with the interests of Russia and might even be advantageous to her".
     
   
    
   

OK this seed has gone on longer than I planned, good night everyone.
As usual ideas, suggestions and comments are very welcome.
 










1. A minor historical mystery someone might want to solve.

2. By diplomacy and conquest; the Crimean was acquired by defeating the Ottoman Empire, the Black and Azov sea coasts were colonised, much of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was also acquired. Russia also began to colonise Alaska.

3. I'm resisting the urge to comment on certain recent parallels.

4. Which is reasonably accurate, even if often overblown. Catherine was sexually independent and did have a string of attractive and intelligent men. The story about the horse is rubbish.

5. A peaceful dismissal. He even arranged for a replacement lover for her, her secretary Pyotr Zavadovsky,

6. A passion of hers.

7. There are a few from the period, though none from Russia. Which means it hasn't been found yet...

8. The SS Catherine the Great perhaps?

9. The misplaced toy of a aristocratic member of the Alexandrian Society perhaps? She may have lost it while reconnoitering Catherinian Moscow for something; the Imperial Crown of Russia (all 2.25kg and five thousand diamonds of it) for example.
This provides a second plot for the PCs to deal with, and the possibility of Alexandrian Society members as antagonists. What information  is held inside the sentient sex toy's memory?
Alternatively maybe one of the Supreme Alliance used a time craft to escape and now uses an android to manipulate Catherine while desperately trying to mitigate the effects of Zygma radiation on himself.

10. Which of course may not have happened to the PCs yet in their personal timeline.