Adventure Prompts

[masmanus]

IMHO, we need more adventures.

There are a ton of player options on this forum, and a fair number of monsters and adversaries to go up against, but aside from the adventure seeds included in the entry for each sphere, there's not much actual content to play through with all of these cool options. This thread is my humble attempt to fix that - post your adventure prompts here!

Here's a few to get started (using the Hook, Line and Sinker format borrowed from Rifts, nat.):

Requiem of a Fighter

• Hook: While drinking in a bar, one of the PCs is approached by a stranger who strikes up a conversation.
  
• Line: The stranger claims he is a famous gladiator. His curse is that he has never lost a fight and now tires of the sport and wants to retire. The problem is he doesn’t have enough money to start a new life. The Stranger then explains his plan to the player. He wants the player to fight him in the arena the next day. The stranger explains that he will bet against himself through a friend and 'throw' the fight. He will pay the player well for the favor. He also explains that once the player wins the fight, he will be bestowed with all manner of honors and prestige. "It's too sweet a deal to pass
  up." coos the stranger, "I'll be rich and you'll be famous for besting an unbeatable fighter."
  
• Sinker: The stranger is indeed a famous fighter. The problem is he is too famous and nobody will fight him. In order to find new opponents, the fighter frequents bars and finds newcomers to town he can con. The clincher is that the Arena fights are to the death. This fighter has no intention of laying down and will fight to the utmost of his ability.
  

Too Good to be True

• Hook: The party is browsing through an open market looking for supplies and equipment.
  
• Line: The party is approached by a traveling salesman in the classic "miracle-tonic" wagon and tacky suit. He's selling an assortment of gadgets and gizmos, bottles, etc. His main product line, however, is what he calls "Energy Savers." They're like small microcomputer modules that the user attaches to any energy- powered device (between the energy source and the device itself), which conserve power and effectively boost the number of shots or duration of use. "Buy 'em while they're cheap!"
  
• Sinker: While the components will register only as electronic gizmos, they're actually repurposed Modron technology (how this salesman acquired such a cache is anyone’s guess). When attached to a gun or suit of powered armor, the dormant intelligences slowly reawaken and the item gradually acquires a mind of its own. To make matters worse, each device will want to carry out its own goal in life, and guns may decide they will only fire in order to kill vermin, or power armor may decide it wants to explore Arctic terrain. The intelligences do increase the number of shots or duration by 10% though, due to better power management.
  

Ambrosia of the Gods

• Hook: The players stumble upon an old brewery, complete with its own side tavern, while exploring the urban slums of Dis (or a similar hive world). Inside the tavern is the mother of all parties. Several large silos of beer are apparent as they enter the large building housing the brewery and its tavern.
  
• Line: The players have a great time, free beer!! The bartender sets each of them up with a cold one and the patrons make themselves well known right away. "Ya gotta try this!" says the guy mixing drinks at the end of the bar. However, when the players finally decide they want to leave, their new found drinking buddies won't let them (After all, nobody likes to drink alone), and absolutely won't take no for an answer. The players lose stamina for continuing on with no sleep (not to mention the effects of intoxication). The patrons will retain their jolly demeanor even as they thrash the players attempting to forcefully leave the party.
  
• Sinker: This brewery/tavern has, unknown to the occupants, has become an impromptu temple to Slaanesh, transforming the local brew into a sort of Ambriosia empowered by the god of excess. The townspeople are made nigh tireless by it, not needing sleep or food, just the great company the players offer. The patrons are the proverbial town drunks, and for them it seems as if they have died and gone to heaven. Before the nexus opened, these players were the John Deere drivers who came to the bar every night, got drunk till they puked and went home. Now, the party never ends. 

One If by Land

• Hook: The players are sent in as an advanced recon team for a major assault (perhaps conscripted into the endless battle within the Grey Wastes, on the vanguard of the Imperium of Man’s latest campaign, or part of a force sent to counter a growing Ork Waaaagh!)
  
• Line: The players have to sneak into enemy held territory and set up a recon post. It should be neither too easy nor too hard. After the players have set up their recon position, it is up to them to call in the assault and guide it.
  
• Sinker: The assault is doomed to fail. Overwhelming enemy reserves are passing through the area and are called in to wipe out the assault group the players are guiding in. One by one they hear the screams of their comrades, until the even more awful sound of silence fills their com links. Stuck in their forward recon position, deep in enemy held territory, they must either blast or sneak their way back to safety. However they choose to do it, they must act quickly before they are discovered.
  
  

An Errand of Mercy

• Hook: The party has accepted a contract to transport “sensitive material” rogue trader.
  
• Line: The cargo, as it happens, is the corpse of the trader’s brother. It seems the trader’s younger brother died while the two were circling the Wheel on their trade rout. The brother must continue his urgent business and cannot spare the time to accompany his brother's body back home (which is approximately four days travel via Spelljammer from the party’s currently location). He offers fair pay to the party if they will take his brother's corpse back home and is even willing to lend the party a basic Spelljammer for the journey if they otherwise lack one (Steamboat-class with a cargo bay and single Las Turret)
  
• Sinker: The trader has neglected to tell the party that his brother was killed by a vampire. The dead brother will rise as a vampire on the second night of the trip home, hungry, terrified, and without their patron to educate them in their new state.
  

[GuardianTempest]

Big List of RPG Plots

Covers all of the above and more but in a more concise and broader/generic way.

[masmanus]

May 26, 2020 17:48:19 GMT -6 GuardianTempest said:

Big List of RPG Plots

Covers all of the above and more but in a more concise and broader/generic way.

You're not wrong, but I'm not sure that's a good thing. I can only speak for myself, but I find it very hard to draw inspiration from the sort of setting, system, and story-agnostic prompts that you linked (which is the same reason I don't often use this abjectly well executed generator from Donjon, for another example). On the other hand, re-skin and/or permute those generic plots and you end up with something actually interesting - that's the difference between "The PCs get swindled" and "The PCs get swindled, and now their powered armor is autonomous Modron drone intent on starting a new Great March". 

All that being said, my intention here was less to push my adventure ideas and more to encourage other folks to contribute. It'd be rad to have a big list of DtD-inspired adventure prompts to sift through when planning sessions, and I'll happily continue to grow that pile if there's any interest. 

[GuardianTempest]

May 26, 2020 21:32:24 GMT -6 masmanus said:

All that being said, my intention here was less to push my adventure ideas and more to encourage other folks to contribute. It'd be rad to have a big list of DtD-inspired adventure prompts to sift through when planning sessions, and I'll happily continue to grow that pile if there's any interest. 

Oh yea? Well how about this?

Transmigration into the Final Terminus

• Hook: An already-powerful lategame exalt (at least 10k XP after character creation) is about to die, either in a perilous situation or on their death bed. He closes his eyes in anticipation for the sweet embrace of death...but it doesn't come. Instead he finds himself in a room surrounded by strangers along with other clueless folks like himself (the player characters). The weirdest part is that the crowd of strangers surrounding them are all exalts as well.
• Line: The players find themselves in a spelljammer with technology waaaay more advanced than they're used to. Communication across the Great Wheel is faster and easier than ever. There are less stars twinkling in the Astral Sea and a multitude of spelljammers wrecks litter the void. Sigil has shut itself off from the outside world, completely unreachable and impenetrable. Worldships carrying entire populations are making trips to Ravenholm, Carceri and the Beastlands. Players do not have to make Alignment tests no matter how badly they sin, and Psychic Phenomena works differently. The various NPC exalts (each one already powerful in their own right) accompany the players to do important and difficult missions like negotiating with a stronghold leader for an Infinity Gem, optimizing the recently-invented matter-erasure technology or liberating a planet from a small incursion of Modrons.
• Sinker: The player characters didn't actually die, they were just flung into the distant future of 99,999. In fact, a huge majority of the exalts in the present are abducted from the past. Why? Because everyone needed all the help they can get. The Modrons have broken out of Mechanus and begun their Great March all across the Great Wheel. No new Chosen/Seraphim have been, well, chosen because the gods are either dead, hiding or in a passive state. The Lady of Pain has decided to save herself the headache and put Sigil in a lockdown. The only reason why everyone's still alive is because the bulk of the Modron forces were somehow tricked into attacking The Abyss a few decades ago—a temporary solution like the Grey Wastes was. The remaining Modrons out there still prove to be formidable even against an entire battalion of exalts. The only way to permanently stop them is to enter Mechanus in a blaze of firepower and destroy Primus with the resources accumulated. It's a race against time before The Abyss breaks but every extra second of preparation counts.

[Marr965]

Hmm. Let's see. I'll be borrowing from Traveller's Patron system: A patron has a job for the PCs, but the job comes with a twist of some sort, either picked from or rolled for on a list. In fact, I'll start by dropping some pulled directly from the various books, then tweaked to fit DtD better.

Jefri haut-Oschem, Planetologist
Players’ Information
His Excellency haut-Oschem is a widely respected Planetologist, specialising in worlds that are nearly habitable. A planet might be a little too cold, or too dry, or be infested with a lethal native species. Haut-Oschem’s genius is in making tiny changes to a planet’s ecosystem or climate. All too often, a change can ripple out through the complex balances of a planetary environment and have unforeseen consequences.
Haut-Oschem requires a spelljammer and a crew trained in the sciences for a brief period of research – no more than a few weeks, possibly a month or two. While haut-Oschem has worked with various governments in the past, this mission is entirely under the aegis of private research. The ship will be visiting worlds in unsettled Spheres.
Referee’s Information
Any character with contacts in the local goverment can find out that haut-Oschem has quarrelled with the branch which deals with expansion, and that his once-stellar career has dark clouds hanging over it. Something has gone wrong…

1. Haut-Oschem has been replaced in the eyes of the local government by a younger researcher, Harad Leish. Old haut-Oschem wants to prove that his theories and methodologies are still valid. Leish and a laboratory ship from the local government are currently surveying a jungle world inhabited by numerous hostile species. To prove his worth, haut-Oschem needs to find a way for humans to live safely on the world before the local government does.
2. As above, but haut-Oschem is bitter, and his real plan is to sabotage Leish’s survey team.
3. Haut-Oschem has discovered that he made a terrible mistake at the start of his career. He approved the settlement of a world before he fully understood the ecosystem. Every few centuries, a species of carnivorous locusts hatches in vast swarms and devours everything in their path. The characters need to find a way to stop the insects from hatching.
4. As above, but haut-Oschem wants to preserve his reputation above all else. The characters need to stop the insects without revealing what they’re doing to the settlers.
5. Haut-Oschem discovered something very valuable on his most recent survey, such as a massive deposit of precious metals or alien technology. He wants the characters to help him recover it.
6. As above, but haut-Oschem is in a race with an Exalt. He’s not the only one to have read between the lines in his latest survey.

Astor Kemble, Spy
Players’ Information
Astor Kemble is a ‘freelance researcher’ – a spy for hire. Her current mission is to investigate links between a shipping corporation, Jump Transit, and Ine Givar terrorist cells. Jump Transit may be shipping weapons past Imperial patrols. She suspects that the Ine Givar leaders in the area know she is on their trail, so she needs to use unfamiliar faces to finish her mission.
The mission is to infiltrate the shipping company, confirm that the weapons are being smuggled by Jump Transit, and if so, follow the weapons to their destination.
Referee’s Information
Kemble approaches the characters after observing them for some time, to learn the best way to win their confidence and trust. The mission is a lot more dangerous than Kemble initially suggests.

She has already infiltrated Jump Transit’s office on a hub world, and can arrange for the characters to get jobs with the company. Following the shipments is up to them.

1. Kemble is on the wrong trail – Jump Transit is almost entirely innocent. The weapons shipments are being transported by a band of illegal smugglers, who are using old Jump Transit cargo containers stolen from starports. The characters need to be on watch at the end of their journey.
   
2. Jump Transit is indeed smuggling weapons, but en route, the cargo ship is attacked by pirates. The characters will need to either defeat the pirates or retrieve the stolen goods to complete their mission.
3. Kemble is discovered and killed by the Ine Givar after the characters begin their time undercover. Fortunately, the cargo ship jumps away before the other terrorists are informed that the PCs are spies. They need to complete their mission before
   the word reaches the cargo ship’s destination.
4. The Ine Givar are aware that someone is on their trail. The ‘weapon’ they are smuggling is actually a bomb, designed to go off when the cargo ship is in jump space, killing any investigators on-board.
5. The weapons aren’t destined for the Ine Givar – they are for a group of rebels on an oppressed planet. The characters may find themselves sympathetic to their cause.
6. Kemble is actually working for the Ine Givar – the characters are actually protecting her cargo of weapons through pirate attacks and customs inspections.

First Lander Thu, Miner
Players’ Information
The miners of Dar Al’khubat went to space many generations ago. They hollowed out asteroids to build their cities and refineries; they lived as close to their ships as a nomad to his horse. They engineered their children to tolerate microgravity and high background radiation, and turned their back on the wider cosmos. Their only regular contacts with the outside world were the oreships that hauled metals from the belt to the mainworld every few weeks. When the resources of one belt are exhausted or the markets shift, the miners jump to another Sphere and begin again.
Now, one of the Dar Al’khubat miners has come to the starport, seeking aid. First Lander Thu is a small man, bowed by the unfamiliar weight of gravity. The miners have come under attack, and he needs help resolving the situation. Thu explains that the nomadic miners have a contract with the rulers of the local Sphere to deliver a certain quantity of ore every month, and that these attacks are threatening their ability to reach this quota. Calling for outside aid is an unpopular move among his people, but the First Lander believes it is better than breaking contract and having to flee the Sphere.

If the characters have their own ship, then they are paid more to cover damage and expenses. If they do not, then Thu offers them the use of a basic mining ship while they investigate.

Referee’s Information
The attacks are being aided by a faction within the miners who believe that Thu has tied them to an unfair contract. They intend to force a breach of contract so they can destroy Thu’s political standing. This faction is led by Thu’s estranged daughter, Saj dam-Thu.

1. The attacks have been on the ships that carry the ore. The attackers should not have been able to damage the massive ore-ships, and in fact the damage came from bombs hidden in the ore.
2. The attacks happen when the miner ships are refuelling at the system’s gas giant. The attacking vessels are lurking in the upper atmosphere.
3. Thu is more interested in payments from the mainworld’s corporations than in his people. The attacks have been protests, nothing more. The characters are on the wrong side.
4. The attacks are nothing to do with the miners’ contract – there’s something hidden in the asteroid belt that someone (or something) wants to protect.
5. The attacks have been at ships working at asteroids. The characters will need to set a trap for the attackers.
6. The rebel faction within the miners is in league with a foreign power that is manipulating events to use the Dar al’Khubat miners as a spy network.

Abber Koja, Desperate Peasant
Players’ Information
Koja is the headman of a village on a planet in a backwater Sphere, far from the arteries of commerce in the Great Wheel at large. Life is quiet, peaceful and slow there – until a few years ago. The previous planetary ruler died and his heir is cruel and greedy. He is oppressing the peasants and they have no choice but to rebel. They have no idea how to fight a modern war – they want to hire mercenaries to train them and help them.
Referee’s Information
Koja is being mostly honest. He does indeed need mercenaries to train and lead a peasant uprising, but things are not quite as simple as they seem.

1. Koja’s planet is a hellhole of jungle and swamps. Just surviving there is a hazardous ordeal. Fighting a war there will be a nightmare.
2. There is a primitive indigenous species on the planet who Koja’s peasants have been using as servants – or slaves, depending on who you ask. The new ruler issued an edict freeing all the indentured servants.
3. As above, but the ruler never freed the servants. He promised he would but he has reneged. Koja is a member of the enslaved species and is trying to hold the ruler to his word.
4. The new ruler is a puppet of the corporations and the peasant army will be going up against corporate troops equipped with the best equipment. Fortunately, the corporations only control the capital city and the starport at the moment.
5. The planet was an agricultural backwater until the discovery of significant mineral resources. The peasants are paying the characters out of this sudden wealth.
6. As above, but the peasants do not control these resources. The characters will have to fight to get paid.

Grendel Thorn, Scrapper

Description

The wreck of an old 800–ton freighter, the Mirabel, is in orbit. The Warp drives and other key components have already been stripped but there are still thousands of kilometres of fibre–optic cabling, superconductive power cables, jump-gridding, computer terminals and other salvageable parts. The ship lacks life support, gravity and power; here is a vacc suit and a crowbar, salvage what you can. Oh, the ship will hit the atmosphere and start burning up in a few weeks.

Complications

The Mirabel has a secret…

1. The Mirabel was a former smuggler ship and there is still valuable cargo hidden in a concealed compartment. A band of smugglers knows this and intends to retrieve the cargo.
2. The Mirabel’s jump drives were not removed and a random fluke in the ship’s decaying power plant causes it to transition with the salvage team on board.
3. One of the Mirabel’s crew is still stowing away on board the wrecked ship. He is looking for some hidden treasure on board, such as a map to a rich asteroid belt or treasure cache. He is the ghost on board the ship.
4. There is a literal ghost on board – the psychic echo of a former crewman who was killed by pirates. Magic-using characters may be influenced by this echo.
5. The Mirabel is not quite as badly wrecked as it first appears and has not been as thoroughly stripped as Thorn believes; patch the holes in the hull, fix the fried computer and fill up the hydrogen tanks and you might be able to fly her again. Do the characters want to try stealing the wreck?
6. Grendel Thorn made a slight miscalculation when he plotted the Mirabel’s orbit. The ship hits the atmosphere and begins re–entry with the characters on board…

Alecca Broom, Trader

Description

Alecca has a 50–year lease on a booth in the starport’s main concourse, which she sublets to other traders. Unfortunately, the last trader she rented the booth to was arrested for fraud and one of the obscure clauses in her lease states that the booth has to be occupied for at least 95% of the year. She needs a business – any business – to occupy the booth for a few weeks while she finds a real tenant.

Complications

1. One of the other traders in the starport covets Broom’s lease and will sabotage whatever business the characters come up with.
2. There is a remarkably annoying and officious health inspector at the starport named Steanus Chwat, who will poke his nose into whatever the characters are doing.
3. Broom is actually running a front for an organised crime syndicate; whatever the characters’ business is, it will be visited by shady characters and smuggled goods.
4. It is a front for an organised crime syndicate all right but Broom had no idea what was going on. The previous tenant had the connections to organised crime. The syndicate contacts the characters – their contacts from offworld know to come to this booth at the starport, so they need the characters to play along.
5. The starport is attacked by terrorists, protesting against some official policy.
6. The business is too successful and promises to make the characters a lot of money but Broom has already found another tenant to take over the booth. What do the characters do?

Varo Moll, Starport Security Chief
Description

The characters will patrol the starport, looking for trouble. Their duties include dealing with rowdy drunks in the starport bar, watching for pickpockets and petty thieves, patrolling the edge of the port district and hangars and generally keeping order.
Complications

1. A gang of thieves intends to steal a ship from the starport hangars. The thieves’ plan is to cut through the starport fence, start a fire near the hydrogen storage tanks and then break into the hangar while the guards are distracted by the blaze.
   
2. Weapons are banned in the starport bar for everyone – including security guards – but there is a brawl involving a Dryad Matron. Everyone in the brawl is using fists and chairs, but the Matron's are as large as some of the other combatants.
3. A local religious or political group starts protesting just outside the starport, complaining about the influence of offworlders. The planetary government supports their right to protest but the starport wants them gone. How do the characters deal with this?
4. A starship carrying refugees from a war–torn world arrives. The starport authorities need the characters to keep order until they can process their applications for sanctuary. How do the characters deal with hundreds of terrified, sick and starving people?
5. A scout ship arrives in orbit and is brought to the starport. The lone scout on board is in a coma; something poisoned him and he obviously barely escaped with his life. What if that same danger is now loose on the starport?
   
6. A smuggler band is using the starport to fence goods. They offer to cut the characters in on the action if they ‘overlook’ a few shipments.

Captain Rorik, Freighter Captain

Description

Some species of vermin thrive on spacecraft. Even a tiny 100–ton 'jammer has hundreds of miles of corridors, access tubes, pipes, cargo spaces and other places for vermin to hide. Rats and other vermin pose a problem to a ship – they can damage cargo and supplies but worse, they breathe, putting extra stress on the life support systems. The vermin must be removed. Chemical sprays are not always effective – a tramp trader from a distant system might carry a weird alien vermin that is immune to conventional poisons. Sometimes, the only way to get rid of the bugs is to hunt them down.
Complications

1. The vermin are hunting spiders the size of a man’s hand. They are also poisonous, with fangs that can punch through a vacc suit.
2. The vermin are a colony of insects that breed at prodigious rates. There is a nest containing hundreds of thousands of bugs somewhere on the ship…
3. The vermin are carrying a dangerous disease, nown to be capable of infecting even Exalts. If the characters are infected, they will have to be quarantined.
4. The vermin are actually the ship’s cargo – they were intended as pets but they have escaped. The characters need to hunt down the cute fuzzy–wuzzy things without killing them.
5. The vermin are actually sapient; they have a hive mind. The vermin wandered onto the ship without understanding what they were doing and are terrified.
6. There are no vermin on the ship – there is actually a stowaway on board.

Customs Officer Cabreac

Description

The starport is seeing a marked increase in traffic and the existing customs officials cannot cope with the number of ships coming through. The characters will be employed to search ships for concealed cargo spaces and contraband goods. Officially, they are supposed to call in the actual bonded customs agents whenever a problem arises.
Complications

1. A smuggler tries to bribe the characters, offering them a sizeable sum if they report that his ship is clean.
2. As above but it is actually a test by Cabreac, to see if the characters are honest.
   
3. While the characters are on board a ship, they discover that the captain has left the security system offline. The characters could steal the ship with ease…
4. An organised crime syndicate targets one of the characters’ contacts, allies or family members, planning to kidnap the target and use him as leverage to force the characters to let contraband through.
5. A freighter captain panics and jettisons his cargo in orbit while the characters are on board. Hundreds of tons of freight are now plummeting into the atmosphere. What do the characters do?
6. In the course of an inspection, the characters find something unusual on board – not illegal but very unusual or suspicious.

Cunard Starlines, LLC
Description

A massive starliner, the Grand Spinward, docks at the starport. She is one of the biggest and most luxurious passenger liners in the whole Imperium. Several of her stewards and other staff have fallen ill, so the characters have an opportunity to work on board a prestigious starliner.
Complications

1. A band of Ine Givar terrorists attacks the ship, holding the rich passengers hostage.
2. The characters are assigned to serve one particularly troublesome passenger, a rich twit named Witerote Bores. He recently quarrelled with his manservant and is travelling alone and has a habit of getting into amusing scrapes and confusing situations.
3. One of the passengers is targeted by an assassin, who plans to infiltrate the stewards.
4. Captain Esmith of the Grand Spinward is a tyrant who mistreats his crew. Do the characters stand up to his unreasonable demands?
5. The characters discover that the Grand Spinward is about to be scuttled for the insurance and that the engines have been rigged to fail at a critical moment, sending the ship sailing into the sun. There is no danger to the passengers, who can flee in lifeboats – but if the characters hide about, they might be able to steal the whole liner!
6. The Grand Spinward misjumps and crashes on a jungle world. The characters and passengers need to survive until rescued.
   

Farmer Ezakhel
Description

Frens are a large animal similar to the Terran bovine that are a vital part of the agricultural sector on many worlds. Frens are hardy, disease–resistant, good–natured and can eat a wide variety of plant matter. Also, they are delicious with a little garlic butter. There are a few problems with fren, though; they panic easily and when they panic, the fren either stampede (if there are lots of fren in sight) or freeze up and fall over (if they are alone). The farmer has a herd of some 10,000 fren that need to be moved to their winter feeding grounds. This means he needs a lot of farmhands to zip around the range on hoverbikes herding the fren south.
Complications

1. Fren rustlers are stealing the animals using an armed zeppelin.
2. A local landowner objects to the fren herd crossing his land, as he fears the voracious creatures will destroy his crops.
3. A damaged spacecraft plunges through the atmosphere over the herd, causing a huge stampede.
4. A mutant psionic fren takes control of the herd. This mutant fren is much more intelligent than the rest.
5. These fren are actually genetically engineered by a corporation for faster growth. A rival corporation wants samples of their DNA.
6. As above but ‘faster growth’ ends up meaning ‘carnivorous monsters’.
   

Uthgard Mining Corporation
Description

On many worlds water is a rare and precious commodity. Even a planet with minimal liquid water might have water locked in its ice caps or deep underground; in other Spheres, the best source of water is in ice asteroids. Either way, this ice must be mined, melted, purified and used.
Complications

1. The corporation has an extremely lax safety regimen. The characters will be exposed to dangerous conditions.
2. The ice miners complain about poor conditions and low pay and plan to go on strike. Do the characters support this industrial action?
3. A pirate band plans to use the hollowed–out ice asteroid as a base. Do the characters report these thieves to the authorities or take a cut of the profits as hush money?
4. A moonquake causes one of the ice mines to collapse, trapping the characters deep underground in freezing conditions.
5. The characters discover an eccentric hermit, living in the ice caves. The hermit objects to his home being melted away from
   under him.
6. There is something buried beneath the ice, such as an alien spaceship.
   

Telesma Research

Description

The research corporation has discovered a fascinating new life–form, an alien parasite that thrives in living flesh. They need a few volunteers to be implanted with parasite embryos so they can study the creature’s lifecycle.
Complications

1. The erupting alien bugs leave distinctive scars.
2. The alien bugs cause insanity and hallucinations.
3. The corporation wants the alien bugs smuggled through cordons.
4. The corporation vanishes before the bugs are removed; something about illegal experiments in genetically engineered killing machines. If the PCs report to the authorities, they will be arrested too.
5. The bugs reproduce quickly. The PCs are walking plague vectors.
6. The bugs are symbiotic, giving the characters enhanced abilities but also warping them over time. If they aren't Exalts, this might turn them into Symbiotes; if they are, this might cause some very interesting results.
   

Baron Vilad Horvath
Description

Dust–spice is a mildly euphoric hallucinogen harvested from various desert plants and other sources, such as dry river–beds or worm tailings. It must be gathered by hand or using basic tools, as industrialised methods of gathering dust–spice invariably ruin the subtle flavours and scents that make the spice so sought–after. Dust–spice can only be gathered for a short period each year, so thousands of migrant labourers travel to dust worlds to work the harvest.
Complications

1. The characters are contacted by a smuggler, who offers to buy any dust–spice they can steal.
2. A desert sandstorm strikes the harvest field. The workers are ordered to keep working, in the hopes of salvaging as much spice as possible before the winds ruin it. Do the characters step out into the teeth of the stinging winds?
3. The baron’s spice fields give a poor harvest this year, so he plans to invade his neighbour’s territory.
4. One of the characters develops a strange allergic reaction to dust–spice, turning the whites of his eyes turquoise.
5. Some fearsome monster is lurking in the desert, a predator that feeds on dust–spice and the workers who are dusted with it.
6. The characters hear a rumour that excessive dust–spice consumption gives magic powers. If the characters aren't Exalts, this might allow them to Exalt; if they are, they might get a free feat that's related to Magic Schools, or even Sword Schools or Gun Kata.