A President in Peril
Hub is Elizabeth Bartley's campaign set in the universe of James Schmidt's Hub stories. Players for the session included:
1. Joshua Kronengold -- Jealousy Jones, psi resistant detective
2. Lisa Padol -- Marius Lecks, empathic doctor
3. Chien Tu -- Ryan Cutter, psychometric Space Scout Intelligence investigator with a talent for computer hacking on a par with the one known AI.
Marius and Jealousy were on Lauren, helping out Katrina, Lauren's President Pro Tem. Marius decided to ask her point blank how she felt about his brother, Curtis, who was in love with her and had decided that it was hopeless. Jealousy decided to plant a bug on Marius so that she could listen in.
Jealousy is very good at what she does, having nigh unique access to nanites. The Federation, however, had a vested interest in protecting Katrina from threats, as she was guiding her planet to join the Federation. Thus, the Federation had installed good enough equipment that, after a few minutes of conversation which confirmed that Katrina had not known that Curtis wanted to marry her, Katrina became aware of Jealousy's devices. After confirming Marius' ignorance of Jealousy's actions, Katrina had him inform the other woman that she owed Katrina a forfeiture. Marius paraphrased, and Jealousy asked for Katrina's exact words. She was relieved to know that Katrina would consider this a favor owed, rather than anything more dire.
Katrina soon had reason to call in the favor: an attempt on her life that failed due to a combination of the extremely good Federation security and her quick reflexes in dodging the explosion. She wanted Jealousy to make it appear as though the attempt had succeeded. Jealousy agreed, asking Marius for help. His help was, if anything, counterproductive, (1) but his empathy proved useful.
When he did an empathic scan, Katrina's assistant was overwhelmed by events and almost certainly trustworthy. He did pick up slightly more distant minds that felt satisfied after the rumors started to flow. He tried to track them, not bothering to explain.
Katrina contacted him, ordering him back. Caught between the desire to find the bodies attached to the minds and the instinct to obey a clearly competent commander, Marius quickly explained that he was following a hunch. Katrina accepted this for the moment.
Marius was able to track the minds to a cafeteria area, but not to narrow his search. He returned, and Katrina demanded an explanation. Marius decided that he didn't mind Katrina knowing that he was an empath, so he told her, adding that her mind was very centered and calm, so even if he were to pry into her mind, which he generally avoided, he wouldn't pick up much. She was glad to hear this, and she asked whether Curtis had similar abilities. Marius said that it was for his brother to say, but it was clear to Katrina that there was something to say.
She noted that the cafeteria area Marius had visited was near offices whose tenants rotated. Currently, the judiciary branch of the government were assigned there, and possibly interplanetary security as well. Neither branch was overly fond of Katrina, particularly interplanetary security, which would become redundant if Lauren joined the Federation.
Katrina's death was announced in a large auditorium, and Marius scanned the crowd empathically, getting a general sense of which clumps of people might not be displeased. Jealousy matched this to videos of people's reactions and basic knowledge of who knew whom and what people would find Katrina's death useful. There were three clumps of people who seemed to be worth investigating.
Marius left aboard his ship, the Galen, with Katrina secretly on board. Katrina hoped not only to give Jealousy time to catch a complacent assassin or conspiracy, but also to give the people of Lauren an opportunity to learn that they could indeed function without her.
Jealousy did eventually solve Katrina's "murder" with the help of Space Scout Ryan Cutter. (2) The group responsible was Interplanatary Security, though the people involved tried to frame a judge. (3) This was a judge that they did not like, and who had frequently disagreed with Katrina. They had sent the bomb via his personal maildrop, possibly working with someone in the judicial branch.
The conspiracy had a fairly low powered, but very persuasive telepath as one of its members. It had also been aided and encouraged by a corporation that wanted to delay Lauren's entry into the Federation for about 3 years -- long enough to do a subtle ad campaign to capture new markets, especially with native help.
(1) I rolled badly. Josh rolled quite well.
(2) This was a different session played after a couple of Marius solo adventures.
(3) Chen seemed a bit confused when one of the NPCs helping Ryan said that it looked like the judge had been set up, mistaking NPC helpfulness / GM clue dispensing for NPC reluctance to help.
