ZZ7729 The A.I. Entity Puppet Master Behind The Curtain In The Talon Sector & Beyond For The Cepheus Engine rpg

 

So tonight zipping through Effing Cool Miniatures page here & after watching an interview with John Popson. There's a great miniature for an enforcer bot that's perfect for my game's big bad A.I. whose straight out of Cepheus Atom rpg.  The Martouk Experimentation & Research corporation is rumored to be run by an A.I. from before the Fall of Mankind called ZZ7729. ZZ7729 is a full equipped war bot intelligence from before War of Wishes. 

Yes this is an Effing Cool Miniatures Enforcer bot for Metamorphis Alpha 

available right here. 

 ZZ7729 Unique Warbot A.I. 
100 Hits 
Move 20 Meters 
Armor 16
lasers 3 including central eye range 3d damage each 
micro missile launcher in chest ranged 5D may affect up to three adjacent targets at once 
Combat 3 Physical -2 Technical -2 
No Asimov inhibitors 
Behavior wild & free willed 
ZZ7729's units are in all Martouk Experimentation & Research corporation deep research facilities. These units over see all day to day operations as a shard part of the greater sum of the ZZ7729's A.I. entity. The ZZ7729's A.I. entity is interested in destablizing the Earth empire current climb out of its technological Dark Age. The ZZ7729's A.I. entity is interested in the psionic potential of the human race as a part of its hyperspacial research projects.  ZZ7729 has been paying & equipping space pirates within Terra space half way across the galaxy. 

The ZZ7729's A.I. entity has been collecting information on the ancient metamorph bio weapon hives that the Reticulans have used against their ancient enemies in the past. Today the Reticulan empire considers these bio weapons far to dangerous to use against its enemies. 

On Earth the A.I. devil weaves his cybernetic technological 'gifts' in the form of the Renew movement. An ecological death cult where the worshipers minds are recorded & their souls are transfered to androids & clone bodies all in the name of keeping the resources & Earth's bio sphere intact. 
ZZ7729 reads the dreams & minds of its worshipers in V.R. trying to learn every last secret & psionic weaving to determine the destiny of mankind. A destiny intimately tied into its own sick & twisted control. 

OSR Commentary - Dark Conspiracy & The Origins of the Malmori Empire in The Talon Sector Campaign For The Cepheus Engine Rpg

 Gotta love gamers, since yesterday their have been numerous folks now jumping on the Dark Conspiracy train. Well today we're gonna talk about the origin of the Malmori Empire within my modified Hostile/Cepheus Engine rpg  campaign. The campaign's version of the Malmori empire was born out of several  books Hostile's Crew Expendible, Synethtics, Darktek, More G3G book, & These Stars Are Ours campaign setting book. The Malmori Empire is a race of space pirates under the control of the warlord Sador. They've been the 'big bad' since the campaign's inception but actually their a red herring in every sense of the word. 

When the Reticulan empire fell their humanoid clone worker race was left to its own devices but they were completely purposeless. Their Gray masters had left them many of their own devices but the ancient  Malmori were vulnerable to the whispers of far darker voices from between the stars. So they took up to the stars again mining & generally behaving in the fashion that they had under their master's yoke. The Malmori were cloned from ancient peoples of Earth eons ago taken in one of the many Reticulan raids on Earth. 
Soon came mankind spinning out among the stars with planetary colonies & taking control of many of the Malmori mining terroritories. Shades of the 'Pirates of the Ancient Mediterranean' ; "the decline of the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE and ended when Pompey the Great (l. c. 106-48 BCE) defeated the Cilician pirates at the Battle of Coracesium in 67 BCE when, actually, Egyptian records substantiate piratical activities in the Mediterranean centuries earlier and Roman accounts report its continuance for centuries afterwards. " Many of the alien species encountered were actually mankind genetically modified by the Reticulans. The Malmori were an early attempt & were perhaps made with a modified genetic flaw. Their organs & body parts would break down after the 20 year mark. 

A Malmori warrior whose battle/medical suit keeps him intact against the hostil effects of a planetary atmosphere. 

The warlord Sador was a part of the elite cast & could live up to two hundred years with organ & limb replacement. The Malmori were made using the rules & guidelines found in Zozer Games Synethtics book. But these clone armies are flawed because the clones were force grown using the cloners found in the Darktek book.

 This particular band of Reticulans had fallen under the sway of dark forces & so too were the Malmori. Since the advent of the psionic storms they have had no further contact with humanity. But they retained many of the star ships left by their Reticulan masters. This included several stellar converters used for harvesting the cores of planets or converting stars into highly unstable radioactives for processing.

 

 Only recently have several Habringer cargo carriers  started to go missing along the border with the Human Empire have the corporations noticed the return of the Malmori empire. Patterns indicate that there may far more going on here as entire crews have been missing or harvested depending upon the rumors. The Reticulan empire is particuarly silent upon the mattter for moment. Weaponry & tactics of the Malmori  come straight out of the More G3G book. While some of the technologies of the Malmori themselves are left over Darktek equipment used by their twisted Reticulan empire former masters. TSAO: 50 Wonders of the Reticulan Empire  represents another branch of the Reticulans who have not fallen under the thrall or yoke of the dark masters of the far darker Greys.  Star Law is only coming under the suspision that the Malmori are becoming a problem once again. What's really been helpful here is Piracy and Privateering in fleshing out aspects of the Malmori Empire. Are the Malmori victims of circumstance or have they become tools for something far more dangerous?! 

 

The Profane & The Celestial - Godstar & the Cepheus Engine Rpg Greater Universe Threat

 

"Within the Million Sun Empire sits a desert world orbiting a sentient star: god-himself-the Godstar. Pilgrims flock to it with their offerings. The Godstar's oracles gives out advice, formulae, prognostications and strategy. It is a holy world. But war forced industrialisation on the planet Aurelia, causing social tension and conflict.

A new noble house, House Pelinor, has been granted the fiefdom of Aurelia, but it has many enemies: the local Utani Sand Men, the priests of the Church of the Godstar, the rival House Arakan that it deposed, local crimelords and even the Skygazers, those wandering mystics who claim to speak with the Godstar as they meditate whilst staring up at the blazing disc. They have paranormal powers."

We grabbed Godstar by Zozer Games a little while ago & while its similar to Frank Herbert's Dune series. There's vast differences right from the get go: 

1. Godstar's star is a literal living alien god. An active deity that takes a hand in human affairs
2. The NPC's are very well drawn outside of their stats & are perfectly slotted for the setting. 
3. Unlike Dune a party of adventurers could be perfectly suited to be a group of gladiators 
4. No sand worms which means that desert exploration is an option & encouraged. 

The planet Aurelia is a really an interesting addition to the Cepheus Engine rpg universe. There's more then a bit of backstory that can be pulled into an existing campaign. What is familiar to fans of Dune is the personal force field. These render firearms far less useful. So swords, knives, & spears become far more a part of formal dueling. And all of this seems very much in the vein of Sword & Planet genre. But there is an original Traveller rpg connection. The Ursa Major Confederation or UMC is a free download from Paul Elliot with a major Godstar connection: "Ursa Major Confederation (UMC) The Confederation is a human interstellar state of 27 worlds occupying a single subsector of interstellar space. Humans arrived in the subsector two centuries ago through an alien hypergate" 

Ursa Major Confederation (UMC) fits many of the ideas of the Talon sector's politic, tech levels, & backstory as an outlying branch of humanity that is struggling under the major threat of yet another alien germ within its background. This alien threat is poised to wipe out humanity in several major strikes. 

The Ursa Major Confederation (UMC) could be another branch of humanity taken by aliens making it primed for a major connection to TSRO's diplomatic corps. 

All of this ties back into something that's been on my mind now for quite awhile the idea that the several alien races from Dark Conspiracy rpg are using the Protodimensions as a sort of interstellar short cut. This is where DC's Protodimesions volume 1 comes in. 

Could Godstars mystics & wizards be opening their own universe or star system for invasion. Or are they already well versed in the threat that alien Lovecraftian gods pose?!  According to my fellow DM's its the latter especially if we add Sword of Cepheus to the equation. 

Talon Sector NPC - Trader Ka Zee & Her Type R Subsidized Merchant starship ("Fat Trader")

 Cepheus Engine rpg has allowed us to take quite a bit of liberty with some of our adventure  plotting when it comes to this Eighties inspired campaign that I'm currently running. And its been interesting running across one of our favorite original Traveller rpg ships-  Traveller RPG Type R Subsidized Merchant starship ("Fat Trader"). 

Traveller RPG Type R Subsidized Merchant starship ("Fat Trader").
Artwork by Tom Peters (2012). If you haven't checked out Tom's work on Deviant artwork then you don't know what old school Traveller artwork  your missing.. 
But we've backed off this week for gaming for a bit because of work schedules but  Type R Subsidized Merchant starship ("Fat Trader") has me thinking about a particular NPC of mine. I'm speaking of Ka Zee of  the Lazuli she was based in part on the artwork of Nightwing 1975's Battle Beyond the Stars fan art.. 

And the idea of a trader operating her own crew of alien merchants & adventurers  out of Type R Subsidized Merchant starship ("Fat Trader"). The  Lazuli are a displaced peoples without a planet to call home. They've been wandering the stars making their way as best they can. And they have a tendency to gather a nest clutch of others to themselves to create their own small trading companies.. 

Ka Zee as I picture her is a competent trader & merchant chasing down the latest 'big score'. 

In my campaign she's strayed into the Talon sector & she sees opportunity. The problem is that Reticulan pirates & slavers  have her ship in their sights.. Star law is stretched to the limit & so this leaves only the marines of the United Planets. 
The United Planets wants this ship for three reasons: 

1. The Traveller RPG Type R Subsidized Merchant starship ("Fat Trader") has the secret of a new drive system aboard. 
2. First contact with an alien species or two 
3. Possible information on more of the Malmori pirates 

The Reticulan pirates vessels comes straight out of UFO's by  Stellagama Publishing & these are part of the Grey's fleet out near the greater Ort cloud. 

The United Planet marines are just starting to secure the old Earth Empire's borders & there's lots of unknowns out there. They may have help from TSAO Liberty style marine ships but these ships have been retrofitted for my hostile rpg universe. 

For the  Traveller RPG Type R Subsidized Merchant starship ("Fat Trader") resources we've been looking into the following: 

Traveller The Game blog here. 

Imperial Encyclopedia Traveller  Wiki entry here 

And this amazing Journal here.. 

Details yet to be worked out are Ka Zee's crew roster, her ship's name, the TSAO sector's relations with the Earth Empire, details about the Reticulan pirates & slavers, how does all of this fit in with the Malmori empire, etc. all coming up soon on the blog.