Ivic Games
Hub is Elizabeth Bartley's campaign set in the universe of James Schmidt's Hub stories. Players for that session included:
1. Lisa Padol -- Marius Lecks, empathic doctor
2. Matthew Stevens -- Jim DeGris, suave retired catburglar with telekinesis
Ivic is a planet that values intelligence and ingenuity, and that does its best to avoid unpleasant violence where possible. This does not mean the planet's inhabitants are by any means incapable of it: Marius Lecks is a native of Ivic, and he is quite competent with a blaster. Competence is also highly valued on Ivic.
Nevertheless, it is true that competence implies avoiding unnecessary violence. To that end, Ivic had several tactics for avoiding civil wars. One of these was an odd competition held every 12 years.
The competition involved the ruling families attempting to steal designated items from each other for status points while protecting their own items. These items were of little monetary value. The competition drew many thieves, some of whom were hired by the various families. Keeping the prizes to items of small value made it easier to distinguish between ordinary thefts and thefts for the competition.
Marius came from the prestigious Lecks family. He had planned to avoid the competition, finding it silly, but had lost track of when it was, so had answered his family's summons unsuspecting. Annoyed, he stayed in his room. Doctor, soldier, and pilot, Marius was not sulking. At all. He was just monitoring experiments on various fauna.
Jim DeGris arrived on Ivic, having heard about the interesting possibilities for temporary employment. On learning that the Lecks family resided there, he decided that this was the family to whom he would first offer his services. After all, as he told Ancus Lecks, the family patriarch, he knew Ancus' grandson, Marius.
Jim: Yes, we shared quite the adventure together.
Ancus was intrigued, and he agreed that the family would hire Jim. He even had a specific job in mind.
As the youngest member of the Lecks family, Marius' sister, Serena, had the job of wearing a child's plastic charm bracelet which was one of the items up for contention in the competition. It wasn't worth many points, as it was easily stealable. Indeed, it had been stolen from Serena on her way home from dance practice, to her great displeasure, and she made that displeasure known at great length and volume.
Marius Lecks, doctor extraordinaire, holder of several patents, respectable soldier, and amateur pilot, was not sulking. At all. And he wasn't hiding from his kid sister's whinings. He was just monitoring experiments on various fauna. And when Marius showed Serena how to use the itching powder that a medical colleague developed, it was purely to educate her in the fine art of self defense, not because her whining was in any way getting to him.
Marius eventually discovered that Jim was there and had offered his services for hire because he wanted to help Marius. Marius was surprised, and wondered if Jim had a crush on him. He thought the offer was sweet, although he did explain to Jim that he'd hoped to miss the competition, and was only on Ivic because he'd lost track of time. This was something he hoped to avoid next time.
Jim: Fine, Lecks. I'll buy you an alarm clock.
From pictures from various street cameras, Jim figured out that Serena's bracelet had been stolen by two professional thieves of his acquaintance, Landry and Miko. He found out where Landry was staying and searched the place. The safe contained a couple of competition items, but not the bracelet.
One of these items was the Fabian family medal. Jim and Marius somehow learned that theft had been commissioned by the LaSalle family. This was impressive as the Fabians had far greater status. Marius spoke to Robert LaSalle, a man of his generation, breaking protocol to ask directly whether the LaSalles had also targetted the Lecks'. Robert managed to convey that they had not, without actually breaking protocol himself.
For reasons I forget now, Marius also spoke to Edmund and Anita Mousi. The Mousis had not taken the bracelet either, but Marius learned that Edmund knew Dr. Zy Blan from medical school. Zy had created the itching powder grenades Marius had shown Serena. Marius talked briefly to Zy, via interstellar communication, but did not mention his attraction to her.
Eventually, Marius and Jim met Landry. Landry prudently declined to visit the Lecks house at this time, and Jim made it very clear that he would not help Marius capture or commit other mayhem on Landry. Marius' grandfather would have agreed with Jim, as the whole point of the competition was to limit the amount of mayhem done. And, as Landry didn't have the bracelet anyway, Jim and Marius decided to find Miko.
She was at an Ivic resort. Jim and Marius were waiting in her room when she came back from swimming.
Marius (hastily): Please don't undress!
She didn't. Neither did she tell them who had Serena's bracelet, nor would she steal it back. Professional ethics, you know. She did point out that Marius could hire her to steal something else from her original employers, even if he didn't yet know who they were.
Marius agreed to this, and, a day or two later, Miko presented his family with another competition item, a key that the oldest member of the Drimba family was supposed to wear. It balanced Serena's bracelet nicely, and was actually worth slightly more.
Stolen items could be returned with great pomp at the closing ceremonies, or more discreetly beforehand. The Lecks and Drimba families arranged for the latter, trading key for bracelet. The LaSalles similarly returned the Fabians' medal discreetly, before the ceremonies, but everyone knew what had happened and that the LaSalles were an up and coming family by the tangled reckoning of Ivic.
