Diluted Medicine

Beth decided to start a campaign based on James H. Schmidt's Hub stories, sf, which I still haven't read. The system is OTE, as modified to ensure fairly powerful PCs. While they need not be pure of heart, the PCs are basically the good guys. To ensure that Beth can run pick up sessions for any individual or combination of players, each PC has a private space yacht and some method of flying it.

GM: Elizabeth Bartley

Players:

1. Erik Hanson -- Patch Brierson, aka Briar Patch. Precognitive smuggler, not above taking legitimate jobs to test security.

2. Joshua Kronengold -- Jealousy Jones. Psi-resistant gadgeteer working for the Fifth Eye Detective Agency.

3. Lisa Padol -- Dr. Marius Lecks. Empath and surgeon.

A pharmaceutical company had discovered that some of its drugs were being watered down. Jealous Jones and Patch Brierson, aka Briar Patch, were hired to find out how this was happening. Lecks had patented one of the drugs that was being watered down. He was contacted, as were others like him, because the company was afraid the doctors would take the drugs elsewhere and wanted to prove that it was not to blame. When Lecks jokingly asked if perhaps water was dripping from a pipe into the medicine, the company spokesperson informed him that if this proved to be the case, the entire quality control division would be fired.

Jealousy planted several high tech bugs. Jealousy noted someone trying unsuccessfully to scan her mind. This was Lecks, who was empathically scanning everyone. I forget what he read off Patch. Patch's precognition told him he would be running into Lecks and Jealousy again and again.

The three went into an office to talk. Almost immediately, Patch's danger sense went off, and he left the room. It began to fill with gas an instant later, something that knocks victims out and, if the victims aren't moved, is eventually fatal. Jealousy's nanites detected this, and she and Lecks vacated the room.

Lecks (furious and aware of timing): Where's Patch?

Beth was surprised that Patch hadn't warned the others, and agreed that his behavior might well pique Lecks' suspicions. Lecks used his empathy to hunt Patch, not necessarily intending to hurt him, but wanting an explanation. Patch used his precog to avoid whoever was stalking him.

Either Lecks or Jealousy had sounded the alarm after escaping the gas, and the building was evacuated. Patch and Jealousy got in touch via communicator and set up a meeting. Jealousy contacted Lecks, inviting him to join them. Lecks was now suspicious of both Jealousy and Pike, but agreed to meet them at a restaurant. He checked a local data terminal, and was slightly reassured to note that the layout of the restaurant was not especially conducive to ambushes.

The trio met and exchanged some information, Patch explaining that he had a nose for trouble, kind of like a trick knee. His danger sense went off during dinner, and, this time, he told the others. Lecks did an empathic scan and realized there were a bunch of people in a nearby booth with hostile intent towards them.

Jealousy headed for the bathroom, while Lecks walked by the hostile booth. He was ready when its occupants began shooting, and he returned fire. Patch turned the lights off, and he and Jealousy dealt with additional thugs at front and back entrances, though one got off a shot that burned Jealousy's hair. Lecks used his empathy to take out one of the original attackers.

Lecks dragged the thug into the bathroom, restrained him, revived him with a stimulant, and asked questions. The thug said he knew only that he and his fellows had been hired by an anonymous third party to kill Lecks, Patch, and Jealousy. Lecks' empathy indicated this was true, and Lecks turned the thug over to the bouncers, who handed him to the local authorities.

Lecks went outside and used his empathy to find Patch and Jealousy. Unfortunately, this also meant he found the mind of the thug Jealousy was torturing for information. Well, for burning her hair, although she did want the information. She learned little more than Lecks had.

The three retired to their respective ships. Patch, ever paranoid, checked his fuel level, and noted that his full tank was now empty. He called Lecks and Jealousy. Lecks had topped off his fuel level in case of medical emergencies, and his tank, too, was empty, as was Jealousy's.

Patch and Lecks reported this situation to spaceport authorities, who were quite willing to look into it. Removing fuel from a spaceship was a non-trivial feat, requiring someone with specialized training. Watching footage from the spaceport security monitors, Lecks and Patch saw the person responsible. Patch used his underworld contacts to try to find the man, but learned he had been assassinated by a very competent hitman who had apparently left the planet immediately after. The hitman's ship had exploded en route to a nearby space station, but, as Patch noted, the trajectory it took was unusual, suggesting that the hitman either had not been on it or had not been piloting it.

Patch and Lecks tracked down someone who had either helped or hired the pilot, drugged him, and dragged him off to a private hotel room. The man said he didn't know all that much, just the name of his fixer, who, no doubt, got the original job from an anonymous party. Lecks' empathy confirmed that the prisoner was telling the truth. He agreed not to go after Lecks, Patch, and Jealousy again, noting that he wasn't being paid enough. Patch and Lecks added that whoever was hiring people to go after the trio was not only not telling them enough to let them assess the danger, but was also setting up hits on the people they hired. They released the man, who agreed to spread this news through the underworld.

At this point, Lecks noted that setting up the deaths of outsiders and watering medicine did a lot of short term damage to the company's image, but little long term damage to its resources. This suggested a possible hostile takeover, either by an internal faction or by another company. Perhaps there was infighting in the company? Regardless, the comment about firing the entire quality control department disturbed him. One way or the other, the company wanted someone to blame everything on. And Lecks did not like being used as a pawn.

By now, Patch decided that hiring bodyguards would be a good idea. They got one woman who recommended a group of folks for muscle. Patch and Lecks also noted that all of the medicine going off planet shipped through the same nearby space station the hitman had supposedly been heading for. This seemed to be the next logical step.

Given the attempts on their lives, everyone decided to travel undercover. Jealousy simply disguised herself and bought a ticket on the next shuttle to the space station. Lecks said that a group of hired thugs was going to look like a group of hired thugs, no matter what, and that it would be easier for him and Patch to look like two more thugs than to blend in some other way. So, they needed an excuse for that much muscle. What if one of the musclemen posed as the person being protected, say, a wannabe musician?

Thug: I can do that. I've guarded no-talent gits before. Now -I- get to be the no-talent git! Cool.

Naturally, he would have to travel first class and rent the best accommodations on the station for himself and his guards. Ah, such sacrifices.

Poking around on the station, the group pinpointed an area that was more heavily guarded than they might expect, given that it seemed to be merely storage space. Jealousy snuck into it while the "rock star" and some of the other thugs gave a free performance outside, Patch acting as the band's agent. They were soon herded to another area by station security, which also prevented Lecks' attempt to slip inside the off limits area.

Jealousy's investigations paid off, however. Lecks' nasal spray, as prepared in the company's plant on the planet, was not watered down, but a small, sealed capsule was put into the bottle. This was done for all the bottles in a few lots. On the station, the pellets were removed, and the missing weight was replaced with colored water, accounting for the watered down spray. Then, the doctored lots were broken up and distributed among all the medicine, giving the appearance of randomness.

Patch got a sudden precognitive flash and warned everyone against eating the pellets.

Lecks (amused): Hadn't planned to. I suppose you're going to tell me I shouldn't inject them either?

Beth: As a matter of fact, Patch, you get the feeling that would be a really bad idea.

Lecks and Jealousy examined the capsules. The first couple imploded before they got the hang of opening them. Then, Lecks ran a few tests on the contents of the capsules and realized that they contained the drug Rejuv. This is a drug that makes one feel younger, for a brief time, but does considerable damage to the body, and is highly addictive. By the time it ceases having a beneficial effect, the body has probably aged more than it otherwise would. Rejuv was extremely illegal.

Jealousy sent off a carefully coded message to Fifth Eye, while Lecks sent off an uncoded message to a couple of doctors he knew. This tripped station alerts, and his message was blocked. Patch got a precognitive flash of trouble, and everyone hastened outside as gas filled their rooms. Oddly, this was strictly non-lethal knockout gas.

A firefight broke out between the group and members of the Rejuv ring in a suddenly non-trafficked corridor of the space station. The Rejuv movers were surprised to meet so much resistance.

Beth: They thought you just hired a really bad band as cover. They didn't expect the band to be able to shoot back.

Although the Rejuvies had attempted to kill the trio earlier, this time, their weapons were set on stun. This was because of Jealousy. Fifth Eye, like all solvent detective agencies, had a policy of strictly avenging any of their operatives who were killed. The Rejuvies were willing to try to kill her when she was on planet and didn't seem to know enough for Fifth Eye to trace the people on the station, but once she was closing in, they didn't dare try to kill her, not knowing what information she had already gotten out.

The Rejuv ring on station was rounded up and turned over to the authorities, and all stunned bodyguards recovered. They even discovered that they had a viable band once they switched who was playing which instrument around, changed singers, and ditched the drums altogether. Patch stayed the band's agent, getting a contract lucrative to both himself and the band.

Notes: This took 3 or 4 sessions, one of which Josh missed, hence Jealousy's absence from part of the write up. The stolen fuel was actually findable, as the villains had used it to set a trap, but none of the PCs thought of looking for it.