Casting Shadows

This week’s seed is for Serenity, for groups centered around a nomadic life aboard a ship.

The Seed:

As a complication in a regular scenario, have the crew stumble across a derelict, (‘Cause, who doesn’t like a good derelict ship drifting by?) which from the looks of things, might have been drifting for quite some time. There is a very faint distress beacon. Investigation, if undertaken, will turn up a boat full of corpses, gear fit for setting up a small bakery, and other sundries, and one emaciated survivor, Chan-Hong Smith.

The details:

Smith, overwhelmed to be discovered, will be very physically demonstrative; hugging, shaking hands, weeping in relief, etc. He will want to touch everyone and everything to make sure it is not a delusion. He will collapse from stress before too long, and need rest. Whatever happens, keep Smith as normal a survivor as possible, and let your original story resume. Smith can exit the ship whenever convenient for the characters, and can even be killed without threat to the plot, but…. wow… how sad is that?

The crew died of asphyxiation as the apparent result of a loss of life support, but the atmo on the ship is fine now. One crewman died from choking on his own vomit. An autopsy will turn up nothing else. Each person died because they could not breathe. Air passages are inflamed and closed off as though under extreme duress. Smith was found in a survival suit with expended air packs piled up around him. Later, in the session, have a character develop a fever just as part of the description of a scene. Then move on.

Allow some time to pass, but not much. Have the fever return when the characters are far from anywhere helpful, and have it slowly spread through the crew… just a fever. Play up how it is just a fever.

Anyone they might have interacted with since dispensing of Smith, however, will also have signs of an illness, some worse than others. It is all a massive coincidence, but ensure to mention it via complaints about the gear they sold, or something Smith did wherever he was dropped off, or whatever…  have anyone and everyone they meet, contact them later for some petty reason, and have them be visibly ill.

When the whole crew is ill, have them suffer from chills, shakes, some nausea, and cramps. There is really nothing wrong with them in a serious sense, but just describe their discomfort, give them a sense of the timeline with indirect references to Smith, and let their imaginations do the rest.

If you have done your part properly, they will begin to question how long they have to live, to whom they have spread the disease, and if they will wind up a derelict, too…

What’s going on:

Nothing is going on. The actual symptoms will pass in a day or so, but the psychosomatic symptoms…?

Have fun!