[Scenario Seed] The Madness of the Ants.

[Catsmate]

The Madness of the Ants.

Ah, Artificial Intelligence, possible the most overblown tech fad I’ve experienced and I was there for the Palm Pilot.
It’s being applied to everything from flood prediction to cancer diagnosis, circuit design to antibiotic development, improving surgery to perfume selection....


The setting for this scenario is, more-or-less, current day Earth, in the UK or USA by default, though France is the centre of the perfume trade and pretty much anywhere could fit.

The PCs become involved in one of several ways, depending on their connections.
For an Earthbound group, such as the Misfit Mob, then the events at Aromatica Intelligencia (a terrible name but better than many I’ve dealt with), are flagged up by their AI, scanning the media for oddities. It doesn't get a high priority however.

• Of course the incident could occur next door, or at least close to, the Mob's base of operations. This would fit the background that grinch, thewarchief and I developed for the Wrecking Crew rather well.
• Alternatively, in the spirit of international cooperation between elements of UNIT, it could become The Misfit Mob Goes to France, perhaps Grasse in the Côte-d'Azur region.
  

For a more mobile group then they may be asked to assist, probably after the weirdness has started, by contacts with UNIT et cetera. Or they may arrive in media res in the way beloved of Who writers in many a story.


A few hours ago a researcher at the perfume company Aromatica Intelligencia named Thérèse Masson killed herself and a security guard, by means of a rather powerful IED, which caused significant damage to the building where she worked, mainly the R&D labs.

Masson had qualifications in AI development and biochemistry, an unusual combination outside the pharma companies, and worked in the company’s R&D department leading a project to synthesise new scents using an AI system. Basically randomiser mixing artificial pheromones and assessing feedback, human and analytic.

• Think 'a thousand monkeys with a thousand typewriters'. A brute force approach but it has worked.
  

One particular fragrance, Odorata-174 was a rather pleasant scent to her (a difficulty to describe scent, mixing of aromatic, musky and fruity), and most other humans, so while she worked on the project she took a batch home with her to wear on a new date. This was rather successful and her partner commended favourable on the fragrance.

• Hopefully your players will ask this; the fragrance is chemically safe, no harmful; ingredients or excessive solvents.
  

Unfortunately the combination of ingredients had a rather different effect on others. Specifically on insects, who use pheromones to communicate. A spill of O-174 in her living room attracted the ants living under the house and basically 'uplifted' a colony of ants in her house to near sapience, while also enhancing the hive’s nascent telepathic potential. The hive started influencing Thérèse’s mind, mainly in her dreams. Unfortunately the formic mind is very, very, alien to humans.


Involving the PCs.
This is perfect for the Mob. The incident is slightly weird, researcher, bomb, AI, but probably not important enough for a ‘real’ investigation team.


The Aromatica Intelligencia building is cordoned off. It had been a small, modern, two-story, office building; now it’s a mess. The blast was located in the laboratory which is completely destroyed, debris has fallen ore than fifty metres away, including parts of  both Masson and Stephen Laran, the deceased security guard.

Local police, probably ‘aided’ by higher-echelon agencies (FBI/SOCA/NCA/BATFE, delete as applicable) on site have concluded that Masson rigged the bomb using chemicals, mainly solvents, available on site and that he detonated it when Laran, a nighttime security officer, discovered her.

• This is actually more-or-less correct.
  

When the PCs talk to Masson's colleagues or her boss, Sadie Lanmuir, they all appear to be  shocked by the bombing and mention that Masson was utterly unremarkable; smart, vivacious, dedicated. She dated occasionally, but worked long hours. Financiall she was well off, owned a moderate house on a small plot of land. Her hobbies included online chess, fencing, photography and running.
The only odd thing she did in the last year was complaining about ants in her house. Actually she's worked primarily from home for the last month or so. Physically she was 29, taller than average with short mid-brown hair, grey eyes and an athlethic build. This corresponds with the remains, allowing for a certain amount of damage. Masson had several degrees including a doctorate in biochemistry
The AI staff can also explain what it is Masson was working on.


More to come, hopefully tomorrow, but I'm off for a longer weekend with my SO's so communication may be intermittent.

Comments, ideas and suggestions are welcome.

[grinch]

I like it. Depending on the level of exposure, I could see the Ants building their own city and civilisation underneath the house. The question is, is it just ants the pheromones affected? Perhaps for more observant PCs, there can be clues that it has subtly influenced other insects around the property. Not so much sapience or even the level of heightened intelligence the Ants now possess but changes nevertheless. Bees could noticeably be flying in certain recognisable formations etc.

[thewarchief]

Setting: How about Lichtenstein? A lot of the perfume companies operate there, such as Len which is a partnership between Paris, France  and Vaduz, Lichtenstein. It would be outside of the UK, but a nuce spot for a UNIT team to be sent. Nice ant selection in Lichtenstein, too.


Um, and maybe the ants are aliens? No, not all of them, don't be silly, just the ones near Masson's house. Perhaps they crash-landed?

Odorata-174 was produced by the alien ants (the Mycenae) to give a boost to the non=sentient Earth ants so that they can be co-opted to help repair the Mycenae spacecraft (and object roughly about the size and shape of a beach ball). The substance literally Artificial Intelligence, as it greatly increases the intelligence of the ants, and the Hive has a collective intelligence (and Ingenuity) based open the number of ants (see table below). The Mycenae introduced Odorata-174 to Masson, and used a combination of pheromones and psychic ability to influence her to bring it to the lab and set it up as an experiment. In reality the aliens needed materials to fix thier ship , and the labor of a local workforce to complete the repairs - which they can do through Odorata-174.

Masson realized what was happening anf fought to break free of alien control, after realizing that some of the aliens actions will have secondary effects for Earth (they needed some radioactive material to power thier space drive, and their way of obtaining some may have compromised the shielding of a reactor; also the long term exposure of Odorata-174 on the Earth ant population might  result in a permanent increase in their intelligence, and a possible war with mankind to control the planet- something that the Mycenae don't see as a problem).

Masson set up the bomb to destroy the Odorata-174 in order to return things to normal, but the Mycenae stopped her.


The Mycenae :are sentient and intelligent, and come from a Tech Level 7 culture. They do have some technology including a cybernetic implant that allows them to transmit and recieve radio waves via their antennae, and a small rail gun that can be used to fire hollow needles (filled with wide ranging assortment of chemicals; everything from knock out agents, to a concetrated  fomic acid) and/or small, fragile globes that can be filled with airborne chemicals & biochemicals.  
Some are winged and can fly, and psychic powers while rare, are not unknown.


ALTERNATIVELY, if you don't like the alien ants, then the whole thing is just the effect of Odorata-174 on a local ant hive, with the newly uplited ants desiring to stay an alpha species and planning on world domination. Perhaps by introduction Odorata-174 to other hives of ants. In this case though , while the PCs won't have to deal with aliens, they will have to content with local ants, who probably can't be reasoned with the way the aliens could have been (The Mycenae might have been willing to stop for a few hundred kilos of titanium, a half a kilo of Uranium, and a kilo of sugar). If you go the alternate route then you will probably need an Ant Queen with telepathy to try and contact a PC and list some demands and terms. Once that probably seem reasonable to the ants but probably not to the humans - like turning a multi million dollar research complex into a ant farm.






# of ANTS      INGENUITY
1                      0 (Same as a normal ant)
10                    1
100                  2 (Smart as a slow human, but Psychic)
1000                3 (Smart as a human)   
10000              4  (Smart as a clever human; manifest second Psychic trait (telepathy, telekinesis, etc.)
100000            5
1000000          6 (Smart as a genius human; manifest third Psychic trait)
x10                 +1 (but  this probably caps out around here due to hive populationsize)

Psychic Abilities: As a rule of thumb assume the Ant colony has a number of points to spend on the Psychic Traait and related traits (i.e. with Psychic as a prerequsite) equal to the Ingenuity Score. 



  

[Catsmate]

May 2, 2024 20:17:42 GMT grinch said:

I like it. Depending on the level of exposure, I could see the Ants building their own city and civilisation underneath the house. The question is, is it just ants the pheromones affected? Perhaps for more observant PCs, there can be clues that it has subtly influenced other insects around the property. Not so much sapience or even the level of heightened intelligence the Ants now possess but changes nevertheless. Bees could noticeably be flying in certain recognisable formations etc.

Thanks!
For the scenario I'll stick with only ants, of course some other variant of O-174 might well effect other insects (oh look a sequel hook!). Though the idea of effecting other insects to a more limited extent is a good idea.

[Catsmate]

May 2, 2024 20:27:53 GMT thewarchief said:

Setting: How about Lichtenstein? A lot of the perfume companies operate there, such as Len which is a partnership between Paris, France  and Vaduz, Lichtenstein. It would be outside of the UK, but a nuce spot for a UNIT team to be sent. Nice ant selection in Lichtenstein, too.


Um, and maybe the ants are aliens? No, not all of them, don't be silly, just the ones near Masson's house. Perhaps they crash-landed?

Odorata-174 was produced by the alien ants (the Mycenae) to give a boost to the non=sentient Earth ants so that they can be co-opted to help repair the Mycenae spacecraft (and object roughly about the size and shape of a beach ball). The substance literally Artificial Intelligence, as it greatly increases the intelligence of the ants, and the Hive has a collective intelligence (and Ingenuity) based open the number of ants (see table below). The Mycenae introduced Odorata-174 to Masson, and used a combination of pheromones and psychic ability to influence her to bring it to the lab and set it up as an experiment. In reality the aliens needed materials to fix thier ship , and the labor of a local workforce to complete the repairs - which they can do through Odorata-174.

Masson realized what was happening anf fought to break free of alien control, after realizing that some of the aliens actions will have secondary effects for Earth (they needed some radioactive material to power thier space drive, and their way of obtaining some may have compromised the shielding of a reactor; also the long term exposure of Odorata-174 on the Earth ant population might  result in a permanent increase in their intelligence, and a possible war with mankind to control the planet- something that the Mycenae don't see as a problem).

Masson set up the bomb to destroy the Odorata-174 in order to return things to normal, but the Mycenae stopped her.


The Mycenae :are sentient and intelligent, and come from a Tech Level 7 culture. They do have some technology including a cybernetic implant that allows them to transmit and recieve radio waves via their antennae, and a small rail gun that can be used to fire hollow needles (filled with wide ranging assortment of chemicals; everything from knock out agents, to a concetrated  fomic acid) and/or small, fragile globes that can be filled with airborne chemicals & biochemicals.  
Some are winged and can fly, and psychic powers while rare, are not unknown.


ALTERNATIVELY, if you don't like the alien ants, then the whole thing is just the effect of Odorata-174 on a local ant hive, with the newly uplited ants desiring to stay an alpha species and planning on world domination. Perhaps by introduction Odorata-174 to other hives of ants. In this case though , while the PCs won't have to deal with aliens, they will have to content with local ants, who probably can't be reasoned with the way the aliens could have been (The Mycenae might have been willing to stop for a few hundred kilos of titanium, a half a kilo of Uranium, and a kilo of sugar). If you go the alternate route then you will probably need an Ant Queen with telepathy to try and contact a PC and list some demands and terms. Once that probably seem reasonable to the ants but probably not to the humans - like turning a multi million dollar research complex into a ant farm.






# of ANTS      INGENUITY
1                      0 (Same as a normal ant)
10                    1
100                  2 (Smart as a slow human, but Psychic)
1000                3 (Smart as a human)   
10000              4  (Smart as a clever human; manifest second Psychic trait (telepathy, telekinesis, etc.)
100000            5
1000000          6 (Smart as a genius human; manifest third Psychic trait)
x10                 +1 (but  this probably caps out around here due to hive populationsize)

Psychic Abilities: As a rule of thumb assume the Ant colony has a number of points to spend on the Psychic Traait and related traits (i.e. with Psychic as a prerequsite) equal to the Ingenuity Score. 



  

How odd, I was talking to someone a couple of days ago about Lichtenstein, she's planning a scenario set in the Ardennes area in the late first millennium. OK that's before the county/duchy/Grand Duchy existed but the same terrain, more-or-less. Anyway I suggested that, given the number of battles fought in the Ardennes over the centuries, the are might be prone to time slips. Perhaps a Tiger and accompanying infantry drop through from 1944?

Anyway, back to the psychic ants.

You idea about alien ants is an interesting addition, didn't Clarke have a short story with the ants guarding Earth from attack?

The plot could go in several directions, as you suggest the ants could now be motivated to try and supplant humanity. For a more peaceful (if perhaps ominous) option they might just want to survive, and might be utterly confused by the whole matter and trying to leave and find a sanctuary somewhere.
If they escape the PCs/UNIT they might manage to synthesise O-174 and uplift other hives, maybe establishing a civilisation somewhere remote.
Then, in a couple of years, UNIT starts getting odd reports from the Amazon.....
Imagine Polyergus and Paraponera developing a civilisation?

[thewarchief]

May 3, 2024 9:40:26 GMT Catsmate said:

How odd, I was talking to someone a couple of days ago about Lichtenstein,

The perfume thing came up years ago, I think I saw it in the CORPS World Fact Book. Anywhay I filed it away for a possible Bond mission, with the baddie using perfumes and pheromones. The ant thing just rememnded me of it. The location is great for a UNIT adventure. UNIT HQ is in Geneva, so you could have the PCs there for some sort of meeting, converfence, retirement party, etc. when something odd happens and they draw the short straw and have to go investigate.

May 3, 2024 9:40:26 GMT Catsmate said:

she's planning a scenario set in the Ardennes area in the late first millennium. OK that's before the county/duchy/Grand Duchy existed but the same terrain, more-or-less. Anyway I suggested that, given the number of battles fought in the Ardennes over the centuries, the are might be prone to time slips. Perhaps a Tiger and accompanying infantry drop through from 1944?

Tiger tank or Tiger feline? What sort of timeslip are we talking here? Although if the Ardennes is prone to time slips I don't want to go near the steppes of Asia.

May 3, 2024 9:40:26 GMT Catsmate said:

Anyway, back to the psychic ants.

You idea about alien ants is an interesting addition, didn't Clarke have a short story with the ants guarding Earth from attack?

I don't know, I'm not well read on Clarke, and if he did I'm familar with the story. I know about "Leiningen Versus the Ants", but that was about protecting an estate from army ants. Your basic premise is similar in some ways to Stephen Arr's "Chain of Command", only that was about mice and more upbeat. Basically a group of mice inside a nuclear lab become intelligent due to a combination of experimentation and radioactivity, and complain to the nightwatchman about the mousetrap at their front door (mousehole), mostly out of concern for their children. This leads to further conflict between the mice and the lab, and it escalates from there. Intelligent mice coul pretty much bring modern society to it's knees (ants would be even worse). The original story was in Galaxy Magazine #76, although X Minus One did a radio episode on it. It's a riot, and you should probably google it, since it's probably on Youtube or some such by now. I't almost certainly in the public domain. In fact:

The Radio Episode of X Minus One (Youtube): or
The text (and original illustration) is on Project Gutrenburg: www.gutenberg.org/files/32160/32160-h/32160-h.htm

May 3, 2024 9:40:26 GMT Catsmate said:

The plot could go in several directions, as you suggest the ants could now be motivated to try and supplant humanity. For a more peaceful (if perhaps ominous) option they might just want to survive, and might be utterly confused by the whole matter and trying to leave and find a sanctuary somewhere.

Yeah, it all depends on how you want to play it, and how muc of athreat the ants are going to be. Aliens were nice because the might just want to go home, and can be dealt with. Homegrown ants might want to just be allowed to live in peace, or want to take over the world (or at least eliminate the one species that poses a threat -man. That is until the end when a clutch of Silurians show up with their equivalent of RAID and chastise the humans for their lack of hygiene causing an ant infestation).

In "Chain of Command" all the mice wanted was to have the moustrap removed from their front door. Everything escalated from there.

It really come down to how you want to run it. How belligerent the ants are, if they can be cooperated with (and if the humans are willing to cooperate) etc. For instance, a nice twist of my alien ant idea would be if the Earth ants rebelled against the aliens and sided with the humans.

May 3, 2024 9:40:26 GMT Catsmate said:

If they escape the PCs/UNIT they might manage to synthesise O-174 and uplift other hives, maybe establishing a civilization somewhere remote.
Then, in a couple of years, UNIT starts getting odd reports from the Amazon.....

And that is the potential problem. There are sooo many ants compared to humans and they are so organized that they would either become a existential threat to humanity, or such a powerful ally as to sift the balance of power. Imagine if we could send ants into a particular country to ensure than none of their nuclear devices worked (ants chew through wires, disconnect the power, antennae and phone lines, etc.) then we could follow it up with a conventional force without fear of starting World War III.

It would be very hard to have a "normal" Doctor Who adventure of Earth after that. You'd almost half to undo it somehow. Maybe only the ants exposed to 0-174 are uplifted, not their descendants? THat would keep it down to one or two colonies, plus the occasional "incident" where 0-174 splled out of the back of the truck. lorry.

May 3, 2024 9:40:26 GMT Catsmate said:

Imagine Polyergus and Paraponera developing a civilisation?

Yeah, a lot of ants could be more trouble than others. Army ants are another one. THey are already a problem when on the march, but they'd be much worse with a genius brain to guide them. Fire ants, would be another. And some ants can fly. Assuming a "save the queen" hive instict for the ants, a couple of thousand fling into the intake of a jet could be a problem.

Imagine if they wanted to get humanity off their backs, so they take down a B-52 transporting a nuke? Then drag it down to a tunnel and threaten to actuvate it unless thier demands are met. Even worse if they can get their mandibles on one of those "backpack" nukes. They might be able to smuggle that onto a train , plane or ship, and hide it in a barn or warehouse somewhere.

[thewarchief]

May 2, 2024 20:17:42 GMT grinch said:

I like it. Depending on the level of exposure, I could see the Ants building their own city and civilisation underneath the house. The question is, is it just ants the pheromones affected? Perhaps for more observant PCs, there can be clues that it has subtly influenced other insects around the property. Not so much sapience or even the level of heightened intelligence the Ants now possess but changes nevertheless. Bees could noticeably be flying in certain recognisable formations etc.

Ooh, and there are the Migrant Bees, too. What if the cemical affected some of them? Say they go through a Jekyll & Hyde sort of transformation when exposed.

[Catsmate]

Excellent ideas there!
As you say, developing a species of intelligent, organised, insect life would be a complete game-changer for life on Earth. So they'd either have to be eliminated or otherwise disappeared.

And it was a Tiger tank I was thinking of, though now that I think of perhaps a Smilodon pops up too? Or a small group of them....


Stephanie, the new GM, is a veteran of my The Thing In The Basement campaign and has moved, so she's looking at starting a campaign of her own. I gave her an idea I'd had in my notes; dropping the PCs into the Ardennes in the late 900s and stranding them there, while they go involved in local religious and political squabbles, encounter a suspiciously broadminded local landowner, witchcraft (both accusations and some genuine oddness), another stranded time traveller and a Mysterious Artefact, that is keeping them (and the other traveller) there. Plus a traveller from another world with plans and resources of his own.
More than a touch of the classic dungeon crawl to it.


ETA: I see Tierpark Berlin has a Smilodon Statue, interesting.

[thewarchief]

May 4, 2024 12:38:03 GMT Catsmate said:

Excellent ideas there!
As you say, developing a species of intelligent, organised, insect life would be a complete game-changer for life on Earth. So they'd either have to be eliminated or otherwise disappeared.

Or somehow restricted in numbers. It's kinda like how every superhero has a hard to reproduce origin. It humanity from turning into a race of supers. You could have one colony of ants get "uplifted" (or even two colonies that go to war with each other) and then have something happen to the Odorata-174. Maybe the first batch was contaminated, maybe Masson altered the formula, whatever, but it can't be done again. One or two groups of enhanced ants aren't a wolrd changer.

May 4, 2024 12:38:03 GMT Catsmate said:

And it was a Tiger tank I was thinking of, though now that I think of perhaps a Smilodon pops up too? Or a small group of them....

Well, ere are some stats, for both.

Panzer IV (Tiger E)
Armour: 24 (front), 17 (side) Hit Capacity: 32 Speed: L 2

Armaments:
One 8.8 cm KwK L/56
Range Increments: 500/1500/5000
Damage:
-PzGr. 39 APBC 8/16/24 (Armor Piercing, Major: -10 armour) Radius: 2/4/8m
-Spgr. L/45 HE 8/16/24, Radius 4/10/20m
-Hi.39 HEAT 7/15/22 (Armor Piercing, Major: -10 armour, but can be countered with special armour) Radius: 2/4/8m
PzGr.40 APCR 8/16/24 (Armor Piercing, Special: -15 armor) Radius: 2/4/8m

Two 7.92 MG (can use standard machinegun stats)

Smilodon: use Lion stats from page 74 of the First Doctor Sourcebook. Small smilodn are about the same size as a pather so Str 5-6 ish, mid-sinzed ones that of a lion for Str 7, nd the large ones are in the Str 8-9 range.

May 4, 2024 12:38:03 GMT Catsmate said:

Stephanie, the new GM, is a veteran of my The Thing In The Basement campaign and has moved, so she's looking at starting a campaign of her own. I gave her an idea I'd had in my notes; dropping the PCs into the Ardennes in the late 900s and stranding them there, while they go involved in local religious and political squabbles, encounter a suspiciously broadminded local landowner, witchcraft (both accusations and some genuine oddness), another stranded time traveller and a Mysterious Artefact, that is keeping them (and the other traveller) there. Plus a traveller from another world with plans and resources of his own.
More than a touch of the classic dungeon crawl to it.

That might not be a bad thing. Sometimes using a bit of something different helps to spice up a game. It's why I try to not run the same sort of adventure twice in a row. I try to mix things up so they don't become stale and familiar.

May 4, 2024 12:38:03 GMT Catsmate said:

ETA: I see Tierpark Berlin has a Smilodon Statue, interesting.

Hmm, what if it is a robot smilodon exhibit from a futuristic museum that got sent back in time somehow? The only reason why it froze into a stature was because the induction charger couldn't recharge the battery they way it could in the museum? But it's been able to slowly leech a charge off of some modern smartphones (the ones with induction charging)...