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by [[Bill Logan]]

This adventure was actually used in a game played with
my family. It lasted several sessions. I’ll leave off the
main storyline and present this as a storyline utility a
Referee can simply dump into any mission he chooses.

==Plague World==
The players are on an alien world (doesn’t matter where).
The world was once higher in technology, post-industrial
age but nowhere near achieving space flight. Their cities
were strong and their problems seemed few... until the
plagues struck.

The plagues spread rapidly and soon the cities were
quarantined. A desperate attempt to find a cure was
underway. It caused the natives who became infected to
suddenly grow ravenously hungry to the point of
aggression. If not kept constantly fed, they’d resort to
cannibalism and worse. As time went on, the cure was
nowhere to be found. The plague spread too rapidly. In
the present time (the time when the characters arrive),
the plague has mutated and subsided. The natives they
meet are primitive because they’ve been unable to enter
the dense cities. The planet is reduced to a post
holocaust-like state (think Mad Max movies). Vehicles are
plenty, though fuel is rare and carefully guarded.
Weapons are unfortunately more common than one would
like. Cities that have been reclaimed are decrepit husks
of their former glory incapable of supporting the riffraff
that try to eek out a meager existence there. That is, all
cities except one.

==Sanctuary City==
Sanctuary City was a potent military city that dated back
to before the times of the plagues. It looks to be in
excellent condition from afar. Natives cluster around the
city in shanties, but tend to never enter the city itself for
fear of death. The city’s former robotic police force
(“Sentries”) have somehow taken over the city and some
flaw in their program seems to be detecting any living
thing in the city as a military target.

In the story I ran with my family, the city was the
probable only remaining location that might have a
functional subspace radio, and they were crashed here
and in need of rescue. For your adventure, you should
find a reason that the characters need to get into the city.
Perhaps that’s the entire reason they’re here. Or maybe
they’re pursuing someone who has entered. Or maybe
this is just a side-adventure and the players feel
motivated to enter the city to get medicine for a sick
villager. Whatever the reason, the characters need to
enter the city and face the Sentries.

The city is simple to get around in. Roads are open and
no cars drive around. Several cars exist but have been
sitting there for a century, and dead natives that are over
100 years old can be found here and there in various
states of decomposition. It seems the location was the
site of some kind of war.

==Sentry Trouble==
As soon as the characters enter the city, the Sentries will
be a problem. They are everywhere. If one spots the
characters, it spends one turn standing there doing
nothing while blinking lights indicate communication
activity to the robot brain located in the old police station.
(it’s calling for backup). All Sentry bots attack on site,
indiscriminately.

The sentries are antiquated technology. Treat as
[[Standard Security Robots#Gamma_Class_Security_Robot|"Gamma" Security Robots]] from [[Star Frontiersman Issue 1|Star Frontiersman, May
2007, Issue #1]], with the following changes: May only fire
once per turn with their laser weapons, chance to hit is
only 60% because of antiquated sensor technology, and
Stamina is only 80. This makes the robots able to be
trapped by a Tangler grenade. Since they’re much less
effective than a typical robot of that type, make them
VERY plentiful. Two per character in some instances.
Make the players afraid of the city, and hint to them about
communication among them being moderated by a robot
brain computer. Hopefully they’ll figure out that they
need to get to the heart of the problem.

==The Heart of the Problem==
If the characters make their way to the old police station,
they’ll find the answers to the riddle of Sanctuary City:
This was where the plague began. The Sentry bots
weren’t just police; they were protection against
contamination. When the military lab located within the
city discovered that its project escaped, spreading its
plague fast and furious, they tried to contain it. When
containment looked impossible, they did the unspeakable:
initiated Project Omega... the extermination of everyone
living within the city. This was the military lab’s ultimate
final solution if their containment of the virus failed. The
robots have been stuck in Project Omega mode ever
since.

A clever player may wish to disable this “Omega” mode.
If they try this, the robot computer system has defenses,
as well as several Sentries nearby. The task won’t be
easy – and all the characters will have to work together to
pull it off.

==Bastion of Hope==
If the characters disable Project Omega, they’ll find that
suddenly the Sentries are very polite and protective
robots, very capable of keeping the peace. They can
convince those living in the shanty suburbs to re-enter the
city, and it will be a bastion of hope to a downtrodden
people.

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'''Author’s note:''' The [[City Tiles]] in the [[Locations]] article in
this issue were used to generate the city. I had several of
them printed off and available, and simply added one as
needed to keep the city feeling large and sprawling.
Ahead of time, I jotted some notes down to keep track of
the character’s progress. Below is a sample of what a
section of the city might look like. I used a felt-tip pen
and wrote words on the six dead-end buildings: Fire
Department, Police Department, Hospital, etc. If I would
have also had the [[Motion Tracker]] and [[Sentry Guns]] from
this issue, this adventure would have become even more
interesting.

[[File:SanctuaryCityMap.png|300px]]
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Sanctuary City - Revision history

Terl obar: Created page with ' Top:Star Frontiersman main page | Up: Star Frontiersman Issue 5 main index | Up: Adventure! …'

Terl obar: Created page with '
Top:Star Frontiersman main page | Up: Star Frontiersman Issue 5 main index | Up: Adventure! …'