(If you can geuss what piece of media I'm ripping off for this you win an imaginary medal and a kiss on the cheek)
Ram Setu is an earthlike planet, terraformed to habitability, set to be a profitable agri-world once its 2nd phase expansion is complete. The fields are green, colonists arrive by the shipload, and the bonuses for management come thick and fast as they reach each milestone ehad of schedule and under-budget.
That was a century ago.
Colony Collapse Syndrome hits hard, and on Ram Setu it was particularly brutal. Once the radiation levels dropped, the nanobot kill-clouds dispersed and the roving android death-squads rattled their last, the shattered survivors rebuilt as best they could. Knowledge of Humanitys vast and glittering diaspora exchanged was quickly lost, parents more concerned with teaching their children how to hunt, how to run, how to hide and how to fight. What remains is a hodge-podge of myth, stories, fables and the limited scraps passed down from generation to generation.
It is a hard life, but not a bad one.
But simple lives do not stay unoticed for long in this galaxy. After the original companies collapse, a hungry new player has snatched up a large chunk of its IP, including the colonisation rights. They forecast vast profits, if the planet can be turned to usefulness once more.
A metal fortress fell from the sky on a pillar of flame, and landed in Forest Clan territory four days ago. More will surely follow.
The Players
Trusted agents of the Commander, leader of the Forest Clan. The PCs have been dispatched to handle the Invaders by any means they see fit. Negotiate, kill them, capture them, drive them into the wastelands- the Commander has left it to them.
Info:
- The PCs have been provided with a regiment of 50 warriors and a band of 10 scouts. They are loyal, brave and skilled, but outgunned by the mercenary troops.
- The PCs know the terrain, surrounding villages, weather, etc.
- The Commander has granted them authority to recruit fresh troops from the area, as well as to approach and negotiate with currently hostile forces (the Meadow Warg Pack and the Unmen being the primary factions)
- The PCs and their troops only have access to primitive gear. Guns, explosives and modern medicine are foreign to them.
- The PCs and their troops know Battle-cant, a sign language used by warriors, and Forest Trails, allowing them to move through the woods much faster than the mercenaries. They can also climb and leap between trees with no difficulty.
NPCs
- Utari. Local chieftain, usually in command of soldiers here. PCs main contact. Slight resentment at PCs superceding her authority. Advocates the Invaders be wiped out to the last man- she knows they will bring nothing but death. Shaved head, many piercings.
- H:3(30) C:60 I:50 L:70
- Sword 4d10
- Throwing knives 2d10, silent.
- Krak- combat drug, applied to gums. Induces beserker state.
- Helen. Headman of Lony-Bar-6, veteran of of many battles. Pre-occupied with fighting Unmen and Wargs. Skilled geurilla tactician, favours hit-and-run and terror tactics. Dreadlocks, tattooed cheeks.
- H:2(40) C:70 I:60 L:75
- Battle-axe- 5d10, amputate on crit
- Blowpipe- 1d10, Save or poisoned. Hallucinations, sickness, incapacited for 1d5 days on crit fail.
- Bow- 3d10, silent
- Deaths-head arrows. Smeared with animal feaces, poison and assorted muck. Wounds garunteed to fester. A horrible way to go.
- Warrior. Forest Clan soldier. Scarred, tattooed. Gregarious and cheerful to friends, merciless and brutal to enemies.
- H:2(50) C:50 I:45 L:60
- Sword- 4d10
- Bow- 3d10, silent
- Scout. Eyes and ears of the clan. Soft-spoken, move silently. Come with their own horses.
- H:2(20) C:45 I:50 L:60
- Throwing knives 2d10
- Recurve bow- 2d10, fire twice in one round, can fire from horseback, silent.
- Camoflauge leathers- almost invisbile in the woods.
The Invaders
The
Company has hired Picador Asset Management to handle the management of
physical property, which in turn has subcontracted Moon Dog PMC, a mercenary company of middling repute. The battallion (Shiba Company) that has arrived on Ram Setu is a scout unit, here to secure the area, report on inhabitants and pave the way for their comrades.
Info:
- The mercenaries number 120 in total- 80 Grunts and 10 SpecOps, the remainder being Captain Beltu and his command staff, medical staff and technicians.
- Their objective is to create a detailed picture of the area, inhabitants (numbers, capabilities, etc) and anything valuable left from the original colony.
- Secoundry objective is to weaken the organization and fighting capability of native civilizations, if any.
- Their communications array was broken in the landing- they must seize and repair the Satellite Uplink at Old Grannys Pile to report to the rest of the company. Repair takes 2 days.
- The mercenaries have access to modern weaponry and equipment, as well as 4 Drones and a swarm of spy-gnats.
NPCs
- Commander Beltu. Veteran officer, hardened and practical. Willing to make examples of indiginous settlements, but not wholesale extermination. Fond of his SpecOps unit. Salt-and-pepper beard, prosthetic eye.
- H:3(50) C:60 I:60 Armour:60 (Powered Exoskeleton)
- Personalized battle rifle- 5d10
- Powerfist- 2d10
- 1d5 Frag grenades
- Lieutenant Westbay. Newly-promoted, bluster and bravado hides cold calculation. Backstabbed their way to the top. May do the same to Beltu if pressed. Knows when to cut their losses and run. Slick-backed, thinning hair and small eyes.
- H:3(20) C:55 I:70
- Smart rifle- 1d10
- Shimmer cloak- 8 hours of invisibility if immobile, 1 hour if moving.
- Needle Pistol- Body Save or painful death. Useless against any kind of armour.
- Corporal Orbe. Hive-world street kid, signed up for merc work to support her mother. Mother dead a year now, hates merc work. Dreamed of forests her whole life, will defect if given the opportunity. Gaunt cheeks, red hair.
- H:2(30) C:40 I:35
- SMG- 4d10
- Grunts. Average capability and morale, either press-ganged or here for the credits. Hollowed out by the things they have done for money.
- H:2(25) C:35 I:25
- SMG- 4d10
- Combat knife- 2d10
- SpecOps. Hard-as-nails bastards with no morals, will not hesitate to hit soft targets. Have dealt with 'natives' before.
- H:2(50) C:65 I:55 Armour:50 (Special Battle Dress)
- Smart rifle- 1d10
- Flamethrower- 2d10
- Flashbang- Speed check or blinded+stunned
- Drones: Unmanned recon models. 4 missiles, 3d10. Need target painted. Grounded in rain.
- Spy-Gnats: Miniscule surveillance drones, record audio-visual. Destroyed by a good swat.
The terrain is mostly light-to-thick forest, with occasional clearings. Surrounding E is a meadow and grassland several kilometers across. The river is treacherous, but the Forest clan knows the safe crossings.
Travelling between locations takes around 4 hours hard marching, or an hours ride.
A- Invaders camp. Large dropship surrounded by encampment. Sandbags and barbed wire. Two 6-man patrols in the immediate area. Surrounded by scorched, poisoned earth from the slash-and-burn operation the soldiers undertook after landing, granting excellent fields of fire for gun emplacements.
- Gun Emplacement: 5d10, Automated turrets, dumb-AI will shoot anything without correct RFID tags.
B- Old Grannys Pile. Flat-topped mountain, providing excellent views of the whole area. Old satellite uplink station at summit- Shiba Company will attempt to secure this to access old terrain-mapping network. Haunted by a Spirit, Old Granny herself.
- Hidden bunker stocked with NERV Fog beneath- blue toxic gas, instant death if inhaled. Mercenaries will use this if they are able to secure it.
- Old Granny- ancient spider-tank, AI long descended into rampancy. Believes itself a forest spirit. Skeletons of crew still inside. Cannot move beyond mountain, but main cannon still functional and capable of long range bombardment.
C- Hebtown. Quarantined due to an outbreak of Weeping plague, a hemorrhagic fever endemic to the area. It is carried by air, water and bodily fluids. A cadre of warriors maintains the cordon, leaving food for the villagers and preventing any from leaving. 20 warriors eager to join the fight, prevented by quarantine.
- Weeping plague: Body Save (-) or 2d10/day and (-) to speed, strength and combat as the victim bleeds from eyes and orifices. Runs its course in a week, 30% chance of immunity after. Body save (+) or stat effects are permenant.
D- Greenmot. Village of around 350 people. Defensive moat and palisade walls. In the midst of preperations for an autumn festival. Utari's hometown. 40 warriors will take up arms if asked- if they are killed, the village will be crippled.
E- Meadow, Disputed Grounds. Hunting grounds for both a Warg pack and Lony-Bar-6. Skirmishes most summers, bad blood going back decades. The Wargs are distrustful of humans, but willing to negotiate. Desire food, safety for young, territory concessions and ceasefire with villagers. Can contribute 25 full-grown Hunters. Will not fight alongisde Unmen.
- Warg Hunters: Semi-bipedal, jackal-like creature, taller than a human but sleek and rangy. Expert stalkers and pack hunters. H:2(40) C:60 I:60
- Claws and Teeth: 4d10, anticoagulant in teeth means wounds bleed for hours
- Howl: Disturbingly human-like scream. Fear save or 1d10 stress
F- Lony-Bar-6. Fortified town of around 1000, semi-permenant war camp due to conflict with Unmen and the Meadow Warg Pack. Will not easily give up fight with either- Helen must be convinced of the necessity. Can contribute 150 warriors.
G- Esch Labs. Ancient colonial science building. Conducted experiments on prisoners and those whos debt ran too high. Staff uploaded themselves during the Collapse, coalesced into the Academic. Created both the Wargs and the Unmen. Wargs rebelled, Unmen still loyal.
- The Academic is a choir of 12 minds operating as one- or was originally. Time has sent it slightly mad, and it has come to the conclusion that it is trapped in a dream, imprisoned by the Demiurge.
- Sees the Invaders ship as a way off-world. Will ally in exchange for promise of access to the mercenaries dropship.
- Wargs were engineered from neogenic hunting dogs and human gene-stock. Too rebellious, released into surrounding area.
- Unmen are cloned bodies, cybernetically upgraded and stocked operated by 3 minds in concert. Fear and worship the Academic. Raid Forest Clan for corpses, gene-stock and food.
Timeline (if players do nothing)
- Day 1: Mercenaries patrol area, capture local hunters. Interrogation reveals existence of Forest Clan.
- Day 3: Drones spotted in sky. Minor engagement with mercenary patrols and Utari's soldiers.
- Day 4: Mercenaries secure Satellite Uplink. Old Granny tries to scare them off, is destroyed by SpecOps and drone strikes.
- Day 5: Further skirmishes. Prisoners taken by both sides.
- Day 6: Heavy fighting in the woods. Beltu orders Greenmot destroyed by carpet-bombing drones. Utari seriously wounded. Unmen take advantage to advance on Londy-Bar-6. Repelled but Helen takes heavy casualties, including her daughter. Repairs on the Satellite Uplink completed, Moon Dog despatches troopships.
- Day 7: Helen assumes command, Orders prisoners crucified on trees around Invader Camp and begins assembling troops for midnight attack. Orbe assassinates Commander Beltu, is hung for treason. Westbay takes command of Shiba Company, orders use of NERV Fog on Hebtown, no survivors.
- Day 8: Helens raid repelled, at a heavy cost to both sides. The Commander arrives with her army, has PCs executed for cowardice and incompetance. Shiba Company makes doomed last stand, wiped out after brutal siege. Commander is mortally wounded, leadership of forest clan in disarray. Moon Dog ships arrive will arrive in 3 weeks.
Primitive Gear
The gear available to the PCs is low-tech, but can can mostly be replaced in the field. Swords and Bows won't stand up against power armour- unless you get smart.
- Sword: 4d10
- Bow: 3d10, silent
- Screaming Arrows- Loses silent, enemies must make Loyalty check or panic. SpecOps and named NPCs unaffected.
- Poisoned- Save or incapacitated for several hours, death if medical attention not recieved
- Pitch- Armour save or catch fire. Panic check for NPCs.
- Bola: Save or immobilised. Crippled on crit fail.
- Blowpipe: 1d10, poisoned- see above. Useless against any kind of armour.
- Battleaxe: 5d10, amputate on crit
- Spear: 3d10, can be thrown. Impale on crit, x3 damage.
- Pungee Pit: Hidden unless specifically looked for. Speed/Instinct check or 2d10 damage and trapped in pit.
- Forest Clan leathers: +10% armour, (-) to saves against bullets/explosives.
- Forest Clan plates: +15% armour, (-) to speed checks.
- Anything else you can think of, I'll leave it to the GM because its 4am and I'm tired.
