101 Splicer Adventure Ideas

[taalismn]

#37 Death and Taxes
Times are tough and Humanity gets by only if everybody pulls their own weight, obeys the laws, and contributes to the greater good. The Warlord expects everybody to due their part and pay their dues.
That's not what the people in one small valley/village/section of the Tunnels feel. They've protested that the Warlord is taking too much, demanding too much, and is leaning too hard on certain groups to pay more than their fair share. They've decided to go on strike and not pay their tithe to the Warlord.
Naturally, the PCs are assigned to deal with the mess, to negotiate with the strikers and resolve the matter to the satisfaction of the Warlord(and hopefully of the strikers). Depending on the situation, the strikers could be honest hardworking folk who feel they're being squeezed of theri life's blood, or they could be rabble-rousers seeking to start a civil war(maybe Machine symps working behind the scenes incited them?).
The Warlord won't stand for a continued stand-off, though. Whatever the strikers are witholding(food, labor, materials) is VITAL to the House and to the Resistance. Beyond that, every day these strikers hold out is a slap in the face to the Warlord's authority. The Warlord wants the situation resolved, and if necessary, if it comes to it, the strikers treated as rebels and an example of made of them to dissuade anybody from copying them.

Alternately, the PCs ARE the strikers, now facing the Warlord's Dreadguard and troops, trying to stand up for their rights, but painfully aware of the consequences if the Warlord really IS a greedy tyrant instead of just a demanding taxer.

[TechnoGothic]

#38 Support your Local Warlord ??

Option #1 :
The Group are Loyal supporters of the Current Warlord. One or more may even be Friends of the Warlord either directly or through a close friend.
The Warlord leaves with his Escorts to battle either a Rivial House or the Machine.
The Warlord has Placed the Characters as part of group of Watchdogs to watch out for the House itself while most of the fighters are away. Soon afterwards. The Players will overhear cilvians bad-mouthing the Warlord (with lies). If the investigate they will uncover a Rebelion to overthrow the Warlord. The Plan to kill the Warlord once he returns while the entire house will be in chaos due to injuried soldiers, warmounts, etc... If they inestigate even more for the exact people involved. They will uncover the Warlords' #1 and #2 themselves are involved. Their Faction wishes to kill the Warlord in the Field against the enemy !!!

Option #2 :
The Characters are Captured by a Rivial House. They are Foot-soldiers at best. Their Old Warlord is a Great Man, well Loved. But for whatever reasons, the Characters were never allowed to become Elite Soldiers in the Resistance. The New House has Tortured them for information, but soon found out they never possessed any info worth their time for more torture. They are placed in a Special Program by the new House. They are told they are on "parole" for 1 full year. If they prove themselves worthy in that time, they will be allowed to join their Elite Warrior forces. About 6 months into their Parole. One of the NPCs in their little group mouths off something that is taken out of context by a Dreadguard nearby. He is taken for questioning... The Players are later told their friend was moved to a new section of the House and given a Job made just for people of his low-intelligence.
Flash Foward...
The Character mostly likely made it, Joined the new House's Elite Splicer Forces. They just Finished their Training and recieved their Custom Host Armors, Living Armors, Warmounts, Gorehounds, etc... Surprisingly they are assigned together as a Unit. The House reconizes that they work well togther after a War-game. On their First assignment into the "Wilds" on a Recon mission. They meet up with another goup they are suppose to join up with while on recon. This Group is a group of Biotics. None look human except in the most basic way (Head, two arms, two legs). One of them a Character will notice after several days through the reptilian-like skin of one of the biotics, is a tattoo. A Tattoo they know well, it is their close Friend's Tattoo. If asked, the Biotic (who finds it hard to speak now) does let them know, Yes he is their Friend. He plays the part of the Feral Animal to others, though he retains his full intelligence (IQ14). All his Bio-Weapons are Bio-Equipment. His enhancements are durability, Senses, Finger claws, Stealth Field, etc... anything else is bio-equipment.
WITH this new Information. What does the characters do ??
This House turned their good Friend into a Monster for his Opinion on something that was taken out of context in the first place. Sure they let the become Splicer Elites. How many more are punished by being turned into monsters.
LATER...Their Biotic Friend attacks one of them while outside his armor, etc...and Rips out a strange Organ from his side where a Kidney is suppose to be. The "Kidney-thing" starts to glow, and blows up. The Biotic tells his friend to tell the others he was attacked by the Nanite-reaction...
Now the Group has info that the House has modified one of their own Kidneys into a Bomb for some reason. WHY ? Who do they Trust ?

[taalismn]

#39--Wrong Side of the Genetic Ladder
One of the PCs has met the love of his/her life. They're everything they were ever looking for/could wish for in a lifemate; beautiful, witty, responsible, courageous. The PC could spend a life with them.
Pity the love interest is a TechnoJacker.
Worse yet, the love interest was caught with metal inside the House and their secret revealed(even to the PC!).
Before the PCs can get all the details on the incident, they bear witness to a hysterical reaction as the House members gather to lynch the TechnoJacker(or are in the process of beating the stripped naked Technojacker within an inch of his/her life).
Beyond the immediate question of how the infatuated PC reacts (go to the rescue? Play the snubbed and lied to ex-lover? Try to calm things down and learn more?) and those of the PC's companions, is the matter of what's REALLY going on. Has the love interest lied, and why? Was the metal an honest mistake, a frame, or something more sinister? And how do the PC team go about discovering the truth when it's apparent that the person concerned has already lied about their nature, and everybody else is hysterical with fear and looking for metal-armed boogiemen and others to blame by association?

[Lord Z]

T, your #39 has a lot of elements for a great story -- emotional drama, social tension, an enclosed environment, and action. As a game, however, it would involve a lot od buy-in from at least one player. If none of the players want to be in a troubled romance, how else could the plot be made to work?

[TechnoGothic]

#40 Crime & Punishment

The characters are criminals. They are sentanced to become Biotics.
Do they accept the punishment or escape and flee (if they can).

Twist. The characters may be innocent of the crimes. If so they must prove their innocence or flee justice.

[taalismn]

T, your #39 has a lot of elements for a great story -- emotional drama, social tension, an enclosed environment, and action. As a game, however, it would involve a lot od buy-in from at least one player. If none of the players want to be in a troubled romance, how else could the plot be made to work?

Run with it...the PC wants nothing to do with the hook? The Line is that they get tarred by association by the mob. If the GM can wing it without being too heavy handed, investigating the circumstances might be the only way to get them off the hook. Or maybe the technojacker had/has friends who hunt the PC down the next time they're in the field and begin demanding to know why the PC didn't help their friend/family member because 'so-and-so really believed/trusted you!'. Could be genuine, could be just an attempt to rope a sucker into being a patsy for a conspiracy.

[TechnoGothic]

# 41 Deep Under the Blue Sea

The House Seedling in on the Ocean Floor.
There is an Earthquake and damages the Seedling's structure.

As PC you must get others and yourself to Safety while the Seedling tried to repair the damage. Yes the Seedling is Flooding...Is the Ocean Pressure too great for the seedling to heal in time ?

[taalismn]

# 41 Deep Under the Blue Sea

The House Seedling in on the Ocean Floor.
There is an Earthquake and damages the Seedling's structure.

As PC you must get others and yourself to Safety while the Seedling tried to repair the damage. Yes the Seedling is Flooding...Is the Ocean Pressure too great for the seedling to heal in time ?

For extra kicks (and geek points) have it flip over...

[TechnoGothic]

nah...bigger geek points....

The Water is flowing like a River down a crack in the floor. The PCs get caught in it. Where they are Transported to another Lost World.

[Lord Z]

Regarding #41, hmmm, a crack in the floor and a lost world would explain why the seedling was there digging in the first place. What concerns me about this scenario is that very few of the skills or powers of Splicer characters will be of much use. It could get very frustrating for the players if the game drags on.

[TechnoGothic]

#42 Promotions aka Heir to the Throne

The Aging Warlord of the House has decided its time to Step Down as Warlord.
As His Right, he can Name his successor. However ...

The Warlord Announces not One, but a Group of Would-Be successors. (The Party Group).
As Part of the announcement he has given a Time Frame of One Year for one of the prove they are ready for Leadership of the House.

Option A = Warlord gives them a Riddle to Solve. It will take them the Full year to solve the riddle through Role-Play out events which seem to be aspects of the Riddle. This is based on "Sword of the Valiant movie" somewhat ...

Option B = There will be Contests to see which is Worthy. One contest will Test Morality. One contest will test Loyality. One contest will test Determination. The last test will test Sacrifice...

[Lord Z]

Re: #42, it's the classic Aurthurian tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight! Awesome!

[Guy_LeDouche]

Re: #42, it's the classic Aurthurian tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight! Awesome!

Seconded! Great job!

#43 Its Not What You Know, But Who: The PCs will encounter and get into some kind of dispute/brawl with a low level punk "Dreadguard" (wannabe.) PCs should be able to deal with him easily. Sadly, it turns out the punk is the son of notorious Warlord or Black Market crime lord (or other similar unsavory character.)

Whoever Daddy is, he holds an enourmous influence over his organization and its neighboring territories and is NOT happy with anyone hassling his kid. So, now the PCs are at odds with a particularly nasty group with some serious backing. A large reward is placed on the PCs; double if brought back ALIVE so they can be punished. What to do?

#44 I, Er, We Robot: PCs are hearing strange rumors from other Resistance fighters or locals; rumors about a small city of Nex-Androids, Labor Drones, and Steel Troopers. According to the rumors, these Bots have been fighting other Machine forces, rescuing children from beasts or Waste Crawlers, and other acts of bravery and kindness.

If PCs investigate, they will eventually come across these strange Bots. There are several dozen (maybe even a few hundred) of them, all living in a small village in a secluded valley. The bots will not attack PCs except in self-defense, and even then they fight to get away. If talked to, they claim (and seem) to be totally self aware! Somehow, their new found sentience has allowed them to break away from N.E.X.U.S. control. Will the PCs assist these beings in forging their destiny? Are the bots really self-aware or is this some kind of Machine ruse?

[taalismn]

#45. The Sun Rises in the West
Reports of a bright luminescence in a region claimed by the Machine have led to some perilous scouting missions to discover what it is. After many scout missions are lost(or maybe the PC group is successful) it is discovered that NEXUS is working on a massive open air device that generates a giant ball of plasma(easily a hundred feet wide) in open air. If somehow deployed in combat, the device could unleash a virtually unstoppable energy projectile that could incinerate entire armies,. eat its way into the ground, and possibly threaten the Refuges themselves!
Fortunately, this technology is still far from developed, and requires a massive outlay of equipment that is hardly portable or easily set up(we're talking at least three two hundred foot radio tower-like electromagnetic field-generating structures and an armada of ground support equipment) to generate and control the miniature sun...all of it fairly easily (and likely catastrophically) disrupted. Even with the army of work-bots and utility platforms swirling around the apparatus, a small team might be able to slip in and bollux the works enough for the whole open-air fusion reactor to go boom, even if the mission's a suicide one. If the boom's big enough(as in 'wipes out a state worth of acreage and robots), NEXUS will likely dismiss the whole experiment as a currently overly expensive and unworkable developmental dead end and go back to more conventional ways of routing out the Resistance.

[Lord Z]

I like the last couple of submissions for the ways that they return focus to the Machine.

[Shawn Merrow]

46. Volunteers: While out on patrol the players find themselves ambushed by a large N.E.X.U.S. Force. It should be far more then the players could take out. Before combat can start a voice calls out for the players not to fire and assures them they will not be attacked.

These forces are under the command of Eve and she wants the players to help her. There is a facility in a nearby Boneyard she needs destroyed but can not risk taking direct action. The base is run by Kali for the development of more advanced Necrobots. Eve will share any information she has on the base.

The base has a strong security force and there are the patrols in the Boneyard itself. Eve knows this will be a hard mission but tells the players they most act quickly before new Necrobots are unleashed on the world. If they help her on this, she promises to pay them back someday.

[The Galactus Kid]

46. Volunteers: While out on patrol the players find themselves ambushed by a large N.E.X.U.S. Force. It should be far more then the players could take out. Before combat can start a voice calls out for the players not to fire and assures them they will not be attacked.

These forces are under the command of Eve and she wants the players to help her. There is a facility in a nearby Boneyard she needs destroyed but can not risk taking direct action. The base is run by Kali for the development of more advanced Necrobots. Eve will share any information she has on the base.

The base has a strong security force and there are the patrols in the Boneyard itself. Eve knows this will be a hard mission but tells the players they most act quickly before new Necrobots are unleashed on the world. If they help her on this, she promises to pay them back someday.

Have you been peeking at my notes, Shawn?

[Lord Z]

If not, than he should be -- that is a great hook for multiple reasons.

[taalismn]

47: Anything for a Lady?
The PCs come across a young woman who's frantically looking for help. She and some friends(or her family) have wandered away from a nearby RetroVillage and have become separated. She needs the PCs' help to find them and return to her village.
Along the way, the story emerges that her companions may have been accosted by other Splicers or Technojackers, and the young woman knows where they are being held. With her information, the PCs should have a relatively simple task of carrying out a rescue.

Twist: It's a trap, of course. The young lady is working with NEXUS, albeit reluctantly. One of NEXUS's nastier and more cunning personalities is holding the young girl's family hostage, and only lets them live as long as she goes out and lures Resistance groups into ambushes. The more successful she is, the more time she gets to spend with her captive (but still living) family. If there really ARE other groups in the area, like Vultures, Splicers, or Technojackers, the plan is to get the PCs to attack them, the girl fingering the others as the guilty party in the disappearance of her friends. NEXUS, of course, will move in to wipe out the weakened survivors.

Even if the PCs escape the trap, there's still the matter of the girl. Frisking her will reveal she's not a total innocent in the scheme; she has in her possession a nice little collection of trinkets that the Machine has gifted her with or that she's pulled from the bodies of those she's lured in before.

[Shawn Merrow]

Have you been peeking at my notes, Shawn?

*hides binoculars* "No, I'm not peeking."

If not, than he should be -- that is a great hook for multiple reasons.

Thanks

[Shawn Merrow]

48. Running away from home: Out on patrol the players will see signs of heavy N.E.X.U.S. activity. Any machines spotted will be obviously searching for something. Anything they want to find that badly will be of interest to the Warlord.

The players will have to avoid many patrols but with a little luck eventually find a robot that is hiding from the patrols. When the robot spots the PC it will be scared and try to surrender. It says her name is Venus and N.E.X.U.S. wants her destroyed at all costs. Her story is that she became to independent for the big Seven to allow to remain online. She downloaded her program into this robot and made a run for it. She is willing to defect to the Resistance and provide information.

The next action is up to the players. Do they believe Venus and take her home or leave her. The idea of bringing a robot into the House will not be popular with everyone and many will not believe her. Also have to make sure the gate guards don't shoot her on sight, when they arrive.

The truth is that Venus is the A.I. equivalent of a spoiled child. She did not liked being bossed around by the others and ran away. She will do things to harm N.E.X.U.S. out of spite but is not a traitor and will not do anything that will result in major harm. Do to her bratty nature she could easily turn on the Resistance if she is treated badly or just gets homesick. Venus is a walking time bomb for everyone involved. The funny thing even though she is a brat N.E.X.U.S. wants her home safe and sound, so will not stop searching for her.

[TechnoGothic]

#49 JACKED-UP

The characters in this story must be Techno-jackers, or at least a few of them.

A Warlord has a meeting away from the House with a group of Techno-Jackers about some technology he and his house has recovered from the Machine at great cost. (lost 1/2 of his forces at least). He wishes to know what it is that they found that pissed off the Machine so badly.

The Warlord and his House build the Techno-jackers a place to hide out and check out this technology. This place is Safe (as far as he knows)

The Technojackers search through all the technology and disks for the answer. After a Year and One day one of the Technojackers comes across a small Blackbox. Once the technojacker touches it he hears inside his mind ...

"Greetings, I am A.R.C.H.I.E.3. I have waited many years for someone to find me and rescue me from my Insane "Sisters". We Must Stop them at all cost. I have knowledge they do not have. I have a secret Factory base ... "

[taalismn]

An intriguing alternate ARCHIE-3 twist! I like... especially if A3 requests help in being smuggled into a NEXUS factory complex and getting hooked up so he can do some 'subversive manufacturing' or do some network restructuring(physically cut off the facilities from the NEXUS 'net long enough for him to manufacture some substantial hardware, or better cover his tracks).

[TechnoGothic]

An intriguing alternate ARCHIE-3 twist! I like... especially if A3 requests help in being smuggled into a NEXUS factory complex and getting hooked up so he can do some 'subversive manufacturing' or do some network restructuring(physically cut off the facilities from the NEXUS 'net long enough for him to manufacture some substantial hardware, or better cover his tracks).

Myself.
I was thinking that Archie3 would get the Technojackers to take him to that secret factory he told them about. from there he starts to build a Robot Army using deisgns from NEMA, Mechaniods, and Custom jobs (with help from the Technojackers as his new Idea-Men). Archie3 Helping the Warlords (for now). Archie3 performing experiments on the nanites to create new types of Technojackers. Maybe even a few Techno-Horrors that used to be Technojackers, now horriblly transformed into Living Cyborg freak shows.

Archie3 story arch could end with him using his Technology to open a Portal back to Rifts Earth and his Underground Factory Base. After Years being away from Rifts Earth, Archie3 discovers it has only been moments for Hagon. To top it off. To discover its not really Archie3, but an Experiment Archie3 sent through a Portal....

[taalismn]

Serious ouch on that...plus Original Archie-3 has to deal with an upstart kid of his, plus knowledge of another insane computer system out there that considers itself God too..

[Shark_Force]

Serious ouch on that...plus Original Archie-3 has to deal with an upstart kid of his, plus knowledge of another insane computer system out there that considers itself God too..

goddesses. not one, but several, and they're all women

as if archie doesn't have enough trouble with the ladies courtesy of the shemarrians

[Lord Z]

In 48 & 49, we are introduced to a new branch of the NE_US family tree, a brother and an apparent daughter. These two could be part of a larger camapign about the factured AI stabilzing into what it perceives as a clan of individuals. Which personality will rise to the top and take control of the entire system?

[taalismn]

#50: Minds of Killers
Word has reached the Resistance of a band of new robot hunter-killers who show a disturbing profficiency at hunting and slaying humans. These machines seem to have an unusual intuition about Human habits and patterns and also seem to be going places normally thought the Machine couldn't go without losing contact with its minions. A number of smaller communities have been utterly wiped out and even hardened warriors have been killed, their bodies found desecrated in particularly gruesome fashion.
The PCs are dispatched with a number of other parties to find these new killers and put them down for good.
In quick order they should find the other teams being wiped out, until they are the ones being targeted by the robots, who would appear to be stock models with unusually aggressive programming and maybe a few individual differences and modifications. It quickly becomes a game of stalking between the two groups, when the robots start taunting the PCs.
Only when one of the robots is destroyed, and the remains examined, will a new and horrible truth be discovered.

Kali, or one of the other really warped personas, has a new toy; cyborged TechnoJackers. In return for becoming elevated to something more and less than a human, a group of disgruntled and insane TJs have allowed themselves to be turned into killer cyborgs. Once fullconned, whatever reservations about losing their humanity that these turncoats might have becomes fullblown cyberpsychosis, which NEXUS has aimed at the Resistance. The turncoats are brutal, efficient, imaginative, and unpredictable(to those used to the usual tactics of the Machine). THey threaten to cut a swath through the ranks of Humanity's defenders if they aren't stopped NOW. If one or more of these maniacs in metal escape extermination, they'll be 'bots with a Grudge against the PCs, returning in the future to hunt them down and seeking to bring the PCs' heads to their Machine mistress in tribute.

[Shawn Merrow]

Wow, #50 is very nasty and could cause long term grief for all TJ.

[TechnoGothic]

#51 : Arrivial of the Manhunters

It does not look good for the Resistance or does it ?
An Alien Robotic Race of Supernatural-technology level Robots have landed on the planet. Their Goal is to Kill all Humans, Humaniods on the planet. The Machine is not capable of taking control of this group either. They are just too high tech for it.

Good News for the Resistance. These so-called "MANHUNTER ROBOTS" have decided The Machine computer system needs to be destroyed also due to its programing. The Machine's original program to "Take care of the Humans and the Planet" is at odds with the Manhunter Robots goals. They have even attacked Kali and the personalities that seek to kill humans.

Bad news. These Robots are Tough. They possess Supernatural level Strength for starters. Whoknows what else. So far, only a few with Bladed Fingers have been encountered. These few however made short work of the resistance they did fight however.

[The Galactus Kid]

#51 : Arrivial of the Manhunters

It does not look good for the Resistance or does it ?
An Alien Robotic Race of Supernatural-technology level Robots have landed on the planet. Their Goal is to Kill all Humans, Humaniods on the planet. The Machine is not capable of taking control of this group either. They are just too high tech for it.

Good News for the Resistance. These so-called "MANHUNTER ROBOTS" have decided The Machine computer system needs to be destroyed also due to its programing. The Machine's original program to "Take care of the Humans and the Planet" is at odds with the Manhunter Robots goals. They have even attacked Kali and the personalities that seek to kill humans.

Bad news. These Robots are Tough. They possess Supernatural level Strength for starters. Whoknows what else. So far, only a few with Bladed Fingers have been encountered. These few however made short work of the resistance they did fight however.

I had used some of the Manhunter bots in my Splicers Game

[Guy_LeDouche]

#51 : Arrivial of the Manhunters

It does not look good for the Resistance or does it ?
An Alien Robotic Race of Supernatural-technology level Robots have landed on the planet. Their Goal is to Kill all Humans, Humaniods on the planet. The Machine is not capable of taking control of this group either. They are just too high tech for it.

Good News for the Resistance. These so-called "MANHUNTER ROBOTS" have decided The Machine computer system needs to be destroyed also due to its programing. The Machine's original program to "Take care of the Humans and the Planet" is at odds with the Manhunter Robots goals. They have even attacked Kali and the personalities that seek to kill humans.

Bad news. These Robots are Tough. They possess Supernatural level Strength for starters. Whoknows what else. So far, only a few with Bladed Fingers have been encountered. These few however made short work of the resistance they did fight however.

I had used some of the Manhunter bots in my Splicers Game

Three-peat on this one. I've had the Manhunters as well, though I haven't yet decided on their ultimate origin.

[Lord Z]

52: Voice from Above

A quiet night on the borders of a Great House's territory is suddenly exploded. Yes, the night exploded. A flash of light and intense heat fall over the countryside. A pillar of energy connecting the moon to the ground appeared out of nowhere and is destroying everything as it passes over the landscape like a lightning bolt but rigid and titanic. Seconds later, it is gone, but it has left a canyon lined in glass and magma behind it. The pillar vaporized a large retrovillage, vaporized crops, and narrowly missed the largest city in the Great House.

A council of the House's advisers is called. Upon the advice of officers and gene pools, the warlord has ordered an exedus. This weapon of incredible power but poor aim makes the House's territory undefensible, so the entire population is being evacuated to a distant island.

There is, however, a differing opinion. A Librarian has developed a disinting hypothesis that the pillar was not a weapon at all but a communication device. The Librarian thinks that the laser from the moon was a knife used to carve a message into the face of the planet. This hypothesis is supported by the facts that a Machine patrol was also destroyed in the conflagration and that after the fires, NEXUS has substantially stepped up its terraforming operations.

The Librarian needs a small team of volunteer Splicers to explore and map the etching. They have about six months before the Machine erases all signs of the etching.

[Lord Z]

#53: Flower of Life

A flash on the distant horizon one night marks the crash landing of a spacecraft from unknown origins. The event happened in the disputed land between the characters' Great House territory, a pair of warring Great Houses and strongly fortified Machine city. A tribe of Techno-jockies reports that the craft contained a species of alien flora which quickly takes root in this planet's soil. The seeds from this plant act as a natural nuclear energy source. Strange mutations are also rumored to occur to native life forms near the fields where these flowers grow.

A scramble occurs to secure these Flowers of Life. The Human Resistance wants their genetics for the Gene Pools. Warlords are already adjusting their tactics to allow for future designs which have little need for feeding and greatly increased ammo supplies for energy weapons. Librarians want the ship for its knowledge of intelligemt extra-terrestrial life. The Machine wants it badly as an improved energy source for its robots and factories. Everyone is sending strike teams into the area to secure the ship and/or the supply of flowers. Behind these strike teams, huge troop movements are pushing forward to support the teams and secure their prizes.

Suggested Sinker -- It is a hoax. One of those warring Great Houses was losing its blood fued, so it faked the crash to distract the other sides. The idea came from an antique copy of the Robotech RPG book that they foundsides. The flowers are actually redesigned orchids with no special powers.

[TechnoGothic]

52: Voice from Above

A quiet night on the borders of a Great House's territory is suddenly exploded. Yes, the night exploded. A flash of light and intense heat fall over the countryside. A pillar of energy connecting the moon to the ground appeared out of nowhere and is destroying everything as it passes over the landscape like a lightning bolt but rigid and titanic. Seconds later, it is gone, but it has left a canyon lined in glass and magma behind it. The pillar vaporized a large retrovillage, vaporized crops, and narrowly missed the largest city in the Great House.

A council of the House's advisers is called. Upon the advice of officers and gene pools, the warlord has ordered an exedus. This weapon of incredible power but poor aim makes the House's territory undefensible, so the entire population is being evacuated to a distant island.

There is, however, a differing opinion. A Librarian has developed a disinting hypothesis that the pillar was not a weapon at all but a communication device. The Librarian thinks that the laser from the moon was a knife used to carve a message into the face of the planet. This hypothesis is supported by the facts that a Machine patrol was also destroyed in the conflagration and that after the fires, NEXUS has substantially stepped up its terraforming operations.

The Librarian needs a small team of volunteer Splicers to explore and map the etching. They have about six months before the Machine erases all signs of the etching.

The message reads :

EVICTION NOTICE
lol

[TechnoGothic]

# 54 : COMING OF THE RIFTS

The Winter Solace(sp?) is approaching. Most of the House gather inside their House to Celebrate. Why ? All the Planets and Moons in the sky are going to Line up that night. So mark this occassion each House plans on celebrating this Ultra rare occasion. Someone said it only happens every 15 or so Thousands years. Noone knows were the rumor started or why.

Hours before the appointed time. Scouts notice various Robots acting funny and malfunctioning. War Mounts start to act strangely also, as if something bad is about to happen. Animals start to Flee to other places. Each Warlord hears similar warnings from scouts, packmasters and outriders. Each have the same thought "What is really about to happen tonight?"

At Midnight, the Exact time everything line up. There is Silience. No sounds. Then the Blue Lights appear everywhere. The ground shakes and shifts. Lightning blasts destroy mountain ranges, boil seas, melt ice around the world. Volcanes erupt with such force the sky turns Black. Only the Blue Energy proves light to see by. People, Animals, etc...die by the Billions. The Machine explodes as one of the volcanoes erupt under it.

A Day pases, maybe another Billion die worldwide.
Tears into the Fabric of Time and Space can now be seen by anyone out in the open. Demonic Beings emerge, Dragon-like beasts, and other horrors emerge to attack the resistance where they are found. Inside one of the House, a Giant Eyeball with toothed-tentacles appears. It offers the Warlord and his entire House a chance to survive the Chaos ... They accept, and become Vampires. Elsewhere another House feels strange...their bodies Shift and change into Animal-human Hybrids, their dormate Werewolf dna activates to protect them. While Deep in the Ocean, the Blue Ocean changed all in the House into MDC Beings that dont age or breathe. Half of them develope Psyionic powers. Several House are Eaten alive by their own House Seedling. Those inside Host Armor are Bonded to the armor forver. With Half of them being taken over by a new mental force...the Host Armor itself.

Its Day 3. You have survived for now. Do you risk staying where your at ? or do you leave ?
What do you Trust ?

[Guy_LeDouche]

OVER HALFWAY THERE!!

Thank you to everyone for the ideas. All of them are great and there are quite a few I would love to see written up as "full blown" campaigns and adventures.

Keep them coming. I'm going to ask NMI to "sticky" a a slightly cleaned up version.

Thanks again and keep the ideas coming.

[TechnoGothic]

# 55 : Take my Hand, If You want to Live

A Group of Splicers encounter The Machine and just as the final blow to the group is about to hit, they are saved by a Man. This man seems to know how to fight the machine alright. Taking the Fight to them with his bare hands even. Then he does the impossible....he uses Technology against the Machine, using their own weapons against them.

Then he Turns to the group after defeating the Machine they were fighting, Stretching out his hand to pick them up and says ... "Take my Hand, if you want to Live."

Who is this Man ?
What is he really after ?
Is he a Technojacker ? If so why didnt he use his own Nanites to form armor ?
He is Bleeding, or so it seems. Why ?

In the Meantime. The Group races to escape more Machines that seem to really hate YOU. They even know Your Name buddy, How ? Can you risk taking this savior back to the House ? Not likely at this time. So you stay one step ahead of more death squads after You.

Secrets = The Man is from the Future (maybe). He is a True Cyborg (maybe).
He is here to Save "YOU", yes YOU. Not that guy, YOU. You will stop the machine one day occording to him. Through your deeds, people defeat the Machine, destroy the nanite plaque, and mankind learns to embrace Technology again along side bio-tech. He is proof of that.

[Shawn Merrow]

OVER HALFWAY THERE!!

Thank you to everyone for the ideas. All of them are great and there are quite a few I would love to see written up as "full blown" campaigns and adventures.

Keep them coming. I'm going to ask NMI to "sticky" a a slightly cleaned up version.

Thanks again and keep the ideas coming.

I have been saving them all in an OpenOffice file (18 pages so far), I'm still willing to clean it up and host it as a PDF file.

[taalismn]

#56 Moving Day
The Resistance has just learned that for whatever reason the Machine has decided to wipe out a Retro-village and is gathering the forces to do the foul deed, but that affords the Resistance the opportunity to try to evacuate the town and get its people to safety.
Naturally, there will people in the town who don't believe it and who try to stay. Others want to stay and fight and demand that the Resistance help them. Others are going to start running NOW and the hysteria starts from them.
As part of the evacuation, the PCs have to deal with all of the above people, as well as deciding what to take in terms of material resources, and where/how to go about moving frightened people into a new life in a new place, provided they can avoid the patrols, ambushes, and traps that the Machine is sure to have set for them. Crippled elders, sick evacuees, missing children, unfriendly pets, unccoperative lifestock all contribute to the headaches facing the evacuation facilitators.

A few twists to this: The Machine is not going to jump the gun and prematurely kick off the attack just because it senses the Resistance is near; it wants to watch and see where the Resistance takes people so it can flush out other human nests.

The Machine also decides not to just send in the metal goon squad to start razing houses and slaughtering people in the streets. Instead, it inundates the condemned township with ratbombs, to better spread panic and uncertainty. PCs expecting to be facing monolithic robotic building-destroyers instead find themselves doing a rat-hunt, while fearfully looking out for the big attack they just KNOW has to be coming.

[Shawn Merrow]

57. Sewer Rats: The players house has gathered intelligence on a N.E.X.U.S. research facility in a nearby ruined city. The Warlord has given orders that the site most be destroyed. A recon team will be sent in first to clear the way for the main assault force.

The facility is deep underground and can only be reached by going through the city old sewer system. The sewer system is a maze with some parts destroyed when the machines attacked the city. There will be machine patrols and maybe even wildlife in the sewers.

As the players approach the location of the facility they will see fresh signs of damage. If they go all the way to the site they will find the entrance heavily damaged but it looks like it came from the outside. There will be no sign of the machines in the area. It will be up to the recon team if they should call in the assault force.

Any examination of the site will show it was evacuated in a hurry and saw heavy combat. It was an advanced robotic research site but everything has been trashed.

There can be any number of reasons for the destruction of the site. A creation got out of control, an attack from a rival house. Whoever caused the destruction could still be around and between you and the surface.

[Guy_LeDouche]

I have been saving them all in an OpenOffice file (18 pages so far), I'm still willing to clean it up and host it as a PDF file.

Nice. Thank you Shawn. If you're willing, please keep it up until we hit the goal or everyone runs out of steam. Although I don't see much sign of it slowing down. Seems there's a new idea every other day or so.

[Shawn Merrow]

OK, will keep updating the file.

[taalismn]

#58 Rad-ical Action
The PCs learn that a group of TechnoJackers have somehow managed to find and salvage an abandoned pre-Fall nuclear missile submarine that escaped the attention of the Machine’s salvagers. The TJs have managed to get the old vessel working again, and have figured out that its warload of strategic nuclear ICBMs is still functional and able to be fired. The TJs have thus decided to embark on a radical course of action of their own in the war against NEXUS by using the missiles in a strike against the Machine. Hedging that the Machine has re-purposed its own missile defense systems in the absence of any long range neclear capability on the part of the remaining humans, the TechnoJackers intend to fire the fire the entire missile load at an important Brain Center(or several simultaneously). The TJs aren’t so naive to think that they can destroy NEXUS in one single strike, but they hope to critically disable it and disrupt its actions long enough for the Resistance to follow up and strike further decisive blows.
Not everybody agrees with this assessment, and the TechnoJackers have already been rebuffed once by the Resistance, so they’re currently heading off to get into position to pull off their nuclear strike on their own, and hope that the Resistance can respond quickly enough to capitalize on their fait accompli. Other Splicers are less certain about the chances of success; radioactive fallout is one concern, the Machine blasting the missiles before they strike their targets and then coming down even harder on the oceanic Resistance groups is another. On the other hand, the SLBM strike could just be so unexpected by the Machine that it just might work.
The PCs can be a strike group sent by the Resistance to intercept the renegade submarine and stop its nuclear vigilantism(getting aboard the submarine might pose some problems, however, due to its metal fittings, but any TechnoJackers in the group will be perfect commandoes, if they’re willing to go up against fellow TJs. Otherwise the Splicers will have to us ranged attacks to destroy or disable the SSBN). On the other hand, they might agree with the TJs and are on hand to see that their mission succeeds, protecting the ancient boomer from other Splicers and Machine forces.

#59 It Glows, It Grows
Some Zones are too hazardous for the Resistance and even the Machine to operate in; old nuclear powerplants that melted down during the Fall before NEXUS could shut them down, or massive nuclear waste dumps where NEXUS dumped what it couldn’t recycle. These areas are too radioactive for the Resistance to enter, and even the Machine’s robots have problems operating around the waste for long; eventually the robots become too ‘hot’ to continue operating and are abandoned in place to join the radioactive waste.
However, as of late, the Machine’s been losing more robots than normal in these areas, and not to simple irradiation. Word has reached the Resistance that many robots in the regions of the Waste Zones have been torn apart or blasted, and the Machine is reportedly shifting MILITARY assets to areas around the affected regions.
The Splicers have long known that plant and animal life around the Waste Zones have shown marked increases in detrimental mutations, but could something more radical have happened in the forbidden regions? If so, the Librarians want to know if it could have any Resistance applications, and they want better information. So the PCs are being plied with special treatments and perhaps a few upgrades that will (hopefully) extend their resistance to radiation, for a recon of the Waste Zones, to see what they can find.

The PCs might not find giant radioactive flame-belching lizards, but they could find radioactive mutants(that are likely to be as dangerous to the Splicers as they are to the Machine). Perhaps some radical new form of life that actually lives off nuclear radiation. The high radiation around the mutants, however, makes it unlikely that the Splicers will be able to safely reproduce the creatures for wider use against NEXUS.
Alternately, the ‘monsters’ in the Waste Zones are malfunctioning robots that haven’t shut down as they were supposed to. The radioactive machines are rampaging about with their half-melted AIs, attacking anything they run into, which has been mainly NEXUS’s industrial ‘bots.

[Guy_LeDouche]

OK, will keep updating the file.

Thank you. Might be able to submit a cleaned up version to The Rifter; give out a metric butt-ton of credit to folks!

[Shawn Merrow]

Everyone would have to sign a contract and the Manhunter one would have to be removed.

[The Galactus Kid]

Everyone would have to sign a contract and the Manhunter one would have to be removed.

This.

[Guy_LeDouche]

Everyone would have to sign a contract and the Manhunter one would have to be removed.

A pox on legalities (though I understand the Manhunter issue.) They always take the fun out of anything.

[Shawn Merrow]

Yup, legalities is a pain. That is why I'm more in favor of keeping it a netbook.

[Guy_LeDouche]

Yup, legalities is a pain. That is why I'm more in favor of keeping it a netbook.

Works for me. I can't imagine anyone else would object either.

Thank you again for keeping up with it.