Adventure Overview
Players: Mr. Rhyze, Morton, Faust and Hercule Poirot.
Enemies: Dracula, Neo, Mr. Green and Moriarty.
Started: With the defeat of Jabba's Attack Yaht.
Ended: As Mr. Green was arrested.
This adventure began as the Epsilon Space Fleet returned to the military bay after defeating the forces of Jabba the Hut. Of course, there wasn't much left to land in the hangar. All the ships had taken considerable damage, and left numerous parts floating in space. It seemed that Falco and Morton would have lots of repair work to do in the coming days. To make matters worse, it appeared that fully half the Falcon missiles fired during the battle had malfunctioned. Falco swore to get to the bottom of this. Meanwhile, Morton and Mr. Rhyze accompanied Sam up to Sick Bay for some personal medical treatment. While they were there, they happened to notice Faust laid out on another medical bed. He looked, quite literally, crushed. Apparently, his experiences with the comatose Big Boy in the back of the SG3 had not been pleasant. Sam believed he would recover, in his fashion. With Faust, it was always hard to say where the line between life and death was drawn.
Done with healing, the two pilots were instructed to report to the bridge. Once there, they found Commander Zaya and Picard ready for a debriefing. Before such a thing could occur, Mr. Rhyze noticed that his replacement was about to lose a game of Free-Cell. Mr. Rhyze rushed over to correct the situation, but ended up losing the game himself. This cost the communications officer the respect of his replacement, who still believed he could have won that game, and a reprimand from Picard which would be processed in four to six weeks. Meanwhile, Morton was doing his best Starfleet salute for Commander Zaya. She informed them that all the prisoners had been returned to the brig, as well as Guido and his crew. As far as Morton was concerned, this meant the Gambit was ripe for plundering. At this point, Vance stepped in with his own analysis. He had been working the computers, and had concluded that the only enemy survivors in the battle had been Mallistayre the Red and Gangster 1. As the officers were dismissed by Jean-Luc, some basic instinct told them all that they likely hadn't seen the last of the two aforementioned villains.
Work log: Recent events have convinced you more than ever that communications is the best job on the station. That said, you've been allowing your replacement to do a lot of the work, while you build up your Free-cell record on your laptop. Although some would claim this isn't real work, you are well aware of the dedication required to obtain a great winning streak.
Incoming Transmissions:
Outgoing Transmissions:
System Status: -Both your comm station and your laptop seem to be operating perfectly, which is almost too good to be true.
Personal Notes:
Mini-Objective:
-As always, the airwaves are fully of Blitzball news. In an exclusive interview with TBN, the Armorian Defenders of Virtue explained the secret to their success. Apparently, all Armorian players are required to take Kung-Fu training. The Armorians claim that Kung-Fu is great, and its principles lend them great Blitzball skills.
-Gangster 1 sent a threatening message to the station, stating his intention to order a hit on all Starfleet officers. After a great deal of 'Nyahs!', this villain cut off the transmission.
-You've sent several messages to the Spheran authorities about the defeat of Jabba the Hut, and of the overcrowding in the Brig. They've promised to send a ship to pick up these prisoners, and this time to keep them in the prison library instead of the metal shop.
-While flipping through the channels on your television, you happened to catch a commercial for the upcoming Blitzball Intergalactic Cup. You were thrilled to see a clip of your amazing Sphere Shot included in the ad. Although they never mention your name, you're sure this grants you great celebrity status.
-In less positive Blitzball news, Keepa has come to you with a big problem. Apparently, one of his official Blitzballs has gone missing. Official balls aren't easy to come by, so Keepa is quite understandably upset. You suspect foul play, although you are unaware of anyone else on the station who plays Blitzball.
-Rumours suggest that a private detective has been sent to the station to help deal with security issues.
-Help Keepa find his missing Blitzball.
Work Log: Considering the massive space battle against Jabba, it truly is amazing that none of your ships were destroyed. Then again, Mr. Rhyze wasn't flying any of those ships, so perhaps it's not so surprising. In any case, you and Falco have been hard at work repairing the damaged space fighters. Your work is lessened slightly by the fact that Fayde insisted on fixing his own Thunderer. As far as you're concerned, more pilots on the station should take that kind of responsibility for the ships they fly.
Space Fleet Status:
-3 Falcon Fighters in operational condition, all fully loaded.
-1 unarmed SG-3 military transport capable of holding 20 people.
-1 fully armed Thunderer. It seems Fayde brought some extra Thunderer missiles with him from the Electran Steel Star station.
Military Supplies:
-15 'slightly-used' Falcon missiles purchased from Crazy Sam.
-8 Heatwave missiles purchased from the GAP.
-3 Space-suits complete with oxygen tanks providing fourty minutes of breathable air. Two of these space suits have been painted red, courtesy of the station's new engineer.
-Welding torches, masks and maintenance supplies. You feel like you have a bucket on your head when you wear ark-welder's mask…
Docked Flights:
-The Gambit, a Spheran trading ship, is currently docked in space bay two. You haven't yet had time to loot its contents, but you certainly intend to do so.
-The Manor, a large luxury transport, has docked in Space Bay one for resupplying. You've heard sounds of revelry from inside. Seems all these rich people do is party. You wouldn't mind at all, if you could find a way to be invited.
-A Silver Dust transport from Deksiil has brought some new personnel to the station. You've heard there were only two passengers aboard, so they must be quite important to warrant a flight of their own. Amazingly, it seems this ship arrived in one piece, despite being flown by Captain Over.
Personal Notes:
-Your webpage is down! And this time, you can't simply blame SOL. It appears that someone has hacked into your page and dismantled it. Anyone messing with such an amazing website is clearly asking for trouble. There has to be some way of finding out who was behind this cyber-crime!
-During the recent space fight, about half of the Falcon missiles launched seemed to malfunction. You and Falco have examined the remaining missiles supply, and have found that about half of them appear to be duds.
Mini-Objective:
-Discover the identity of this hacker and take them offline…permanently!
Work Log: Your attempts at creating a full morgue have faced a number of setbacks recently. The first of these setbacks involved the sizeable bout of unconsciousness you endured after being crushed by Big Boy in the back of the SG3. However, things only got worse from there. Upon waking up, you found that your supply of bodies has been tampered with. To be exact, several corspes have gone missing! You're quite sure you hadn't turned them into zombies yet which means someone must have taken them.
Body Count: (All these corpses are currently stored in the freezer of Sick Bay. Several have been taken, and removed from this list.)
-Three Red Shirts, all crushed by Big Boy.
-About twenty crushed bees.
-The brain of a Shoopuf. You've been tempted to feed it to Frankenstein, but for now it remains a part of your morgue.
-Geodude, partly crushed into gravel.
-Some dogs that once had bees in their mouths.
-The burnt skeleton you recovered from the asteroid.
-About half a dozen frozen chickens, taken from the Kenny Rogers
Roaster. These birds are clearly dead, which makes them part of your jurisdiction.
Medical Research:
-Neither you nor Sam have had much time for medical research. Apparently, the medical officer spent a fair amount of time restoring you from your Big Boy induced coma. That SG3 certainly didn't provide a smooth ride.
Necromancy Report:
-The most recent issue of Necromancy Monthly, the only official Necromancer's magazine (quite understandably), focuses on some new necromancy powers that have been discovered. In fact, you were instrumental in the creation of these new techniques.
Personal Notes:
-Obviously, you cannot allow the population of your morgue to be depleted by thieves. Strangely enough, security seems reluctant to devote proper resources to the recovery of these corpses. It looks like you'll have to take matters into your own hands. As far as you know, no one has seen this robber at work, but you intend to find them through whatever means necessary. At the same time, you must make sure to obtain any new corpses that are found. This station seems to be remarkably good at generating dead bodies.
Mini-Objective:
-Discover who has been stealing your corpses, and show them the errors of their ways!
-Of course, you must also repossess all Bodies found on the station for your morgue.
Work Log: Mon ami, you have only just arrived on the station. This means you haven't had much of a chance to begin your work. You have been briefed by the local police, or security as they call them here. This Blank told you of many mysterious events that have occurred on the station. Of course, you are certain that the police will not have a chance of solving these mysteries. Ahh oui, but before putting your little grey-cells to work, you must satisfy your appetite. After all, the mind of Hercule Poirot operates best on a full stomach.
The Usual Suspects: (Your eye is very observant, and already you have noted some suspicious people aboard this station. Et bien, you have employed your usual order and method to form the following list.)
-The Man in the Black Trenchcoat: You have seen this man only once. You don't know who he is, but you spotted him wandering the corridors. He didn't seem the type of person likely to be found in Starfleet, which seems suspicious indeed.
-Neo: A technician on the station distinguishable mainly by the fact that he wears a dark uniform and sunglasses, even in space. You happened to spot him using the computer lab for personal purposes. Of course, you will be discretion itself.
-Newt: You've seen this little girl running through the station. You're not quite sure what a child would be doing on this military station, but your little grey cells could likely easily answer such a question.
-Shaimus: The chief engineer of the station, and a very big bonhomme indeed. Sapristi! Even Hastings can probably tell that this man is not to be trusted!
-Captain Over: The pilot of the Silver Dust that brought you from Deksiil. He seemed constantly ill, and muttered about some kind of food poisoning. He also assumed you were French, and had a strange preferance for Gladiator movies.
-Moriarty: A master criminal, and your arch-nemesis. You've seen no
sign of him on Epsilon, but you wouldn't put it past him to show up where he's least expected.
Personal Notes:
-As you predicted, the journey to this maudit station has given you a bad case of 'space-sickness'. Even in the best of times, you can hardly stand space flight. And that Captain Over was far from the best pilot you've seen. Surely, a fine meal will settle your stomach.
-It seems there is only one restaurant on this station, and it apparently serves Irish cuisine. You're not sure what means, but you're positive your investigative skills will discover the true nature of this type of cooking in no time. Although you've been told the contrary, you're sure that this restaurant must have filet mignon. It would be a true mystery if such a restaurant could survive without that essential dish.
-Hastings seems thrilled by this whole Space Station. In fact, he's spent a great deal of time enthusiastically examining the engines on the space fighters docked here. As always, he remains a man of action, but that's just what you need him for.
Mini-Objective:
-Solve any mysteries on the station before security is called in.
-Recruit some more assistant detectives that you can later upstage and amaze with your conclusive accusations.
As always, the action resumed as the heroes make their way to Bennigan's for the afternoon meal. As usual, the pub was crowded, and there was only one free table. As Morton, Mr. Rhyze and Faust seated themselves beside Jamal and Falco, they all notice another pair of figures enter the room, fashionably late.
Hercule Poirot Captain Hastings As Poirot and Hastings seated themselves at the table, Morton leaped forward to get Hercule's autograph. Mr. Rhyze complained that no one had asked for his autograph, considering the Blitzball commercial that featured him. That aside, Lucky showed up to take the group's order. After all the regulars had ordered their routine meals, Lucky turned to Poirot, who asked for some Filet Mignon. Lucky was baffled by this request, and seemed to have no idea what Filet Mignon was. Poirot, of course, found this very suspicious. Fortunately, Mr. Rhyze had a solution. His whispered advice to Lucky involved cooking some Irish beef and shaping it like a steak. These were the kind of instructions which Lucky could understand. Satisfied, he went off to the kitchen to prepare the orders. Meanwhile, the group got to talking about mysteries. Faust first mentioned the missing corpses. Poirot and Hastings found the very idea of these corpses suspicious, until they were told that Faust was the mortician on the station. Mr. Rhyze also mentioned Keepa's missing Blitzball, and Falco wasted no time in relating that Morton's webpage was down. For his part, Morton claimed his page had been haxored, and intended to find the culprit. This entire conversation was littered with enthusiastic exclaimations from Hastings.
Poirot was intrigued by these mysteries, and offered to solve them all. By this point, the food had all been consumed, and the group began to disperse. Mr. Rhyze went to talk with Senor Nabob, and at Poirot's urging, Hastings followed them. Hiding under a nearby table, in plain sight, Captain Hastings shouted reports back to Poirot. Mr. Rhyze did not like being followed, and Senor Nabob liked it even less. In fact, the coffee baron even offered to shoot Hastings, although Mr. Rhyze disuaded him. Meanwhile, Poirot decided to investigate the decidedly odd taste of the Filet Mignon by going to the kitchen. Morton accompanied him, intending to ask Lucky if he had heard anything about his webpage being hacked in the pub. It turned out that Lucky had no knowledge about any hacking, and when confronted with Poirot's intense questions on the food, was ready to bolt and hide. However, in the above process, he did mention that a rare bottle of Irish Spirits had gone missing from the kitchen. Afraid that he might be implicated in such a crime, Morton quickly left.
Race: Tortalian
Occuapation: Private Detective
In most cases, this famous detective's reputation preceeds him. There are few in the police industry who haven't heard legends about Poirot's amazing investigative skills, and inexhaustible appetite for Filet Mignon. In fact, the man more than lives up to the legend. Hercule is a short Tortalian, more than a bit rotund, who always wears elaborate three-piece suits and bowler hats. His mustache is, in his own words, magnificent. Although Poirot disdains to get in combat, and usually leaves such matters to Hastings, he does use a D6 minigun. However, his main combat abilities involve baseless accusations and intellectual beratement, which can shake an opponent's confidence. Hercule Poirot was sent to the station to help security deal with all the mysteries. In so doing, this famous detective will likely make heavy use of his little grey cells.
Race: Deksiilan
Occupation: Hercule Poirot's Action-Oriented Assistant
A retired Captain in the Deksiilan army, Hastings is a man of action. Usually dressed in a dignified grey suit and red tie, with combed grey hair, he is not afraid to use the PK-43 he carries with him at all times. Although it has been said that Hastings lacks certain observational skills, he does show incredible enthusiasm for his work, and genuine British amazement at Poirot's incredible deductions. Of course, for those who already know about this man, the above would be stating the obvious. Which is something else Hastings likes to do. He also likes any sort of new technology and machinery. In fact, it was mainly due to his urging that Poirot agreed to come visit this 'amazing' space station.
Faust had already left Bennigan's, with thoughts of recovering his corpses on his mind. His first step was to unleash Frankenstein, his zombie dog, on a search of the station. This alone caused another security alert as the monster ran through the hallways, doubtless wounding dozens of Red-Shirts. Meanwhile, Faust went up to Sick Bay and asked Sam if he had seen anyone remove the corpses from the morgue. The medical officer had seen no such thing, though he had admittedly been very busy since the battle with Jabba. A bit disappointed, Faust decided to head down to the boiler room. It was the only place on the station he could imagine hiding dead bodies, aside from in the Engineering Tunnels. His guess proved more correct than he could possibly have predicted. On the bottom floor, he met up with Frankenstein, and entered the boiler room. The door wasn't locked, and the two were soon investigating the dark room. Fortunately, Faust's necromancy powers allowed him to see perfectly in the dark. The boiler room was crowded with various items, more than could ever be properly catalogued. The most prominent was the large television and VCR. After watching a few minutes of Pokemon, and being entranced by the VCR clock (which was wrong), Faust set about quickly searching the room. Behind a stack of cleaning supplies, he found a human hand.
Such a discovery might have disturbed a normal person, but Faust was used to such things. His first response was to step on the hand, to ensure that its owner was truly dead. Such turned out to be the case. Further investigation revealed that it was the corpse of the Electran soldier, a former resident of Faust's morgue. Just then, the room suddenly seemed to dim further. As Faust whirled around, he saw a coffin which had been hidden behind another pile. It was opening slowly, to reveal a pale-faced man in a dark cape. The figure started laughing diabolically, instantly identifying himself as Dracula. He had escaped from the brig with the other prisoners, and had hidden down in the boiler room, after stealing a set of corpses and his coffin from the morgue. He intended to do no less than create an Undead Army which would sweep over Epsilon like a tide of darkness. A battle quickly ensued, in which Faust pulled out his scythe and sent Frankenstein on the attack. However, Dracula had grown more powerful than ever, and used a blast of psychic fire which downed the zombie dog and wounded Faust. Indeed, things seemed grim for the mortician until Dracula missed with his bite and ended up taking a chunk out of the nearby chair. This gave Faust the time he needed to launch a massive blow. Despite his claims, Dracula was bleeding badly, and he retreated back into his coffin, insisting that nothing could penetrate it. Faust didn't bother to try, and simply put the heavy television on top of the closed coffin.
As Faust began moving the recovered corpses back to the morgue, Morton was involved in some moving of his own. He and Falco had taken it upon themselves to 'repossess' all the useful parts of Guido's Gambit. This proved none too difficult, despite the occaisonal presence of Hercule Poirot. As Falco returned to the repairs, Morton decided to look into the mysterious hacking which had plagued his webpage. As such, his first stop was the computer labs. As he had hoped, he found Vance working at one of the terminals. After a few moments discussing the latter's amazing intellectual abilities, Vance agreed to look into the matter. After some quick computer commands, Vance discovered the IP address of the machine used to sabotage Morton's page. It turned out to be one of the terminals in the station's computer labs. It appeared that the hacker had attempted to hide his identity from the network, but Vance was still able to determine that this mysterious criminal had used the computer the night before between the hours of nine and midnight. A closer investigation of the terminal in question revealed a styrofoam cup kicked under the desk, which once certainly contained coffee.
Mr. Rhyze was working on a mystery of his own, which he considered much more important than any discovery in Morton's case. With Hastings still on his trail, the communications officer went to speak with Keepa. In the process, he also returned the Official Blitzball which he had borrowed several adventures earlier. Keepa was glad to regain this Blitzball, especially after the recent disappearance. It seemed that Keepa had gone off to lunch one day, leaving his door open. He had returned to find the Blitzball gone. He could only presume that someone had taken it, although he had no idea who might have been responsible. Mr. Rhyze vowed to help solve the case, and then invited Keepa for some practice in the Hydrosphere. Hastings was eager to see some live Blitzball action, and accompanied the two to the Hydrosphere.
Once they had finished this training, Mr. Rhyze and Hastings happened to meet up with both Morton and Faust. The pilot was beginning to suspect that the Engineers may have had a hand in the recent mysteries, especially given their love of pranks. As such, the group decided to head over to Gaston's room. A few knocks, and a promise that they had beer, got them into his quarters. The interior of the room demonstrated the fact that the Engineers had been celebrating heavily. The floor was littered with beer bottles and a rather intoxicated Max Planck. The more astute protagonists also noticed an empty bottle of Irish Spirits lying in a corner of the room. When confronted, Gaston slurringly admitted that the Engineers had taken the bottle of rare spirits while they prepared the pies for their most recent prank. Hastings wanted to arrest someone, but since everything was free in Bennigan's anyway, no one else could really see any point to it. Still, that was one mystery which had been solved.
Meanwhile, Hercule Poirot was hard at work solving the other mysteries. He had made his own inquiries, and after brief interviews with both Blank and Vance, he felt that he knew everything. Of course, before solving the mystery, he felt compelled to summon all those involved into Bennigan's for his official explaination of events. This was tradition, after all. As such, he made a list of all who had been involved with the two cases he had been investigating. He also asked his assistant detectives who they might suspect was involved with these crimes. Morton and Faust didn't want to venture an opinion, but Mr. Rhyze speculated that his replacement might have been responsible for such a deed. Accordingly, the latter was added to Poirot's list. A bit of work on the intercom, and all those summoned had gathered in the pub, with the exception of Moriarty, the master criminal, who had been placed on the list despite the fact that there had been no indication of his presence on the space station. Thus, the group included Vance, Keepa, Diego Zapata, Mr. Rhyze's replacement, Newt, necessarily Jamal, and one man who had not often been seen around the station.
Neo
With all the suspects gathered, Poirot was free to conduct this final meeting. Entering in grand style, the famous detective began by explaining the facts of the first case. Despite Mr. Rhyze's protests, this turned out to be the one about the haxoring of Morton's website. Poirot's speech quickly turned into a series of accusations. The first to be accused was Diego. Poirot speculated that the inventor of 'Yava' might have been angered by the fact that Morton chose Mr. Rhyze over him as the website designer. However, Poirot dismissed these charges moments later by declaring that Zapata would surely have put up a section on the history of computers with big pictures as part of any such hacking job. Once Diego was cleared, Poirot moved on to accuse someone else. The list of accusations grew to include Mr. Rhyze, Mr. Rhyze's replacement, and even Vance before finally centering on Neo.
Poirot declared that he had seen the technician in the computer lab at precisely the times when the hacking had occured. The crowd gasped, before Hastings lept forward to make an arrest. Neo was silent for a moment, before muttering something about the Matrix and leaping into the air. In the battle that followed, Morton and Faust eventually dropped the technician, despite the fact that Hastings didn't manage to hit with a single bullet. As security arrived to take the beaten hacker away to the brig, Poirot turned to the second case. He started by accusing Keepa of stealing his own Blitzball in some bizarre insurance scheme. However, before he could get far into his speech and other ridiculous accusations, Mr. Rhyze made a supposition of his own. He asked Newt whether she had taken the Blitzball. This turned out to be the solution. As her age might suggest, Newt was always looking for some form of amusement. Thus, she had borrowed Keepa's Blitzball to use as a toy. When asked, she was more than willing to return it.
Please proceed to Section Two for the rest of this adventure.
Race: Deksiilan
Occupation: Technician
By day, Neo was a model technician, but by night he was a master hacker. Unlike the grey of most technicians, his coveralls were black in color, just like his hair and gloves. Slightly more distinctive was the fact that he wore dark sunglasses at all times, despite being in space. This habit was hardly strange at all compared to some of the crazy ideas Neo seemed to enjoy mentioning. His excuse for hacking things somehow seemed to involve something called the Matrix. According to him, no one could be told what the Matrix was; you had to see it for yourself. In combat, Neo had impressive martial-arts skills, and could also move in slow motion, allowing him to avoid most bullets.
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