War of the Gods

[ghosty]

I admit that this started because of an overload of Stargate SG-1 but hey...a good idea is a good idea.

Anyway, the PCs are ordered to help in the search for a Trill transport vessel. They find that it had crashed on a desolate desert planet near what appears to be an elaborate temple complex. There are no survivors on board the ship but they do find what appears to be one survivor inside the empty temple. The survivor is a Trill host who is seriously injured. The crew is ordered to bring the Host back to Trill for medical attention or if necessary to transplant the symbiont to a new Host.

During the rescue mission, the joined Trill CMO feels incredible unease inside the temple, but she has no idea why. Although it seemed related to the survivor.

On the trip to Trill, extended due to a ion storm, the CMO notices that the injured Host is healing on his own at an increased rate far beyond those ever recorded before. Further, the CMO discovers no record of this particular Host/symbiont bonding...there is no records in an Trill database about a symbiont matching the symbiont's characteristics.

Meanwhile, down in the cargo hold where the bodies of the Trill crew are stored, the autopsies reveal that the crew did not die in the crash but were killed by some sort of ultrasonic beam weapon which shutdown all brain function.

The crashed vessel's log is badly damaged and very little information could be gleamed from it. Except a note from the captain that they were responding to a distress call which brought them to the desolate planet. The Chief Engineer is suspicious and brings it to the CO's attention. There were no signs of life anywhere on the planet. None and no trace of anything else other than the crashed ship and the temple complex.

The CO is preplexed by these strange occurances and assigns the Ops officer to look into it. The only person who can answer questions is the Trill Host but he's still unconscious. The Counselor tries to communicate with the symbiont through telepathy but there is a psyhic feedback and the counselor is injured.

The CO is now worried, something is definately not right and there could be a greater danger to the ship itself. So she orders the Host isolated and details two security guards to sickbay while the CMO works out why the Host is healing.

Anyway the Host regains consciousness. He claims he cannot remmber what happened, only that the ship received a distress call and then suddenly she crahsed. The next thing he recalls is waking up in sickbay. The CMO is uneasy during her entire interview with the Host, she later tells the CO that she felt something strange and "evil" in the room and her own symbiont has become agitated and bioreadings are well above the norm.

Meantime, the ops officer is doing an extensive search of all databases to see if she can learn anything but finds nothing except for some obscure reference in Trill myth to a type of symbiont which can actually heal their Hosts but it is considered a myth although the CMO is not so ready to discount it. She tries to contact her friends in the Symbiosis Council but is unable to get any information about the Host or the symbiont. In fact the Council seems to be hiding something.

The ship arrives at Trill and the Host is taken to the Symbiosis Council medical facility to be met by officers of Trill security who take the Host into custody. No explanations are given and the PCs are told that it is an internal Trill matter which is not their concern which raises the hackles of the CO who arranges for the ship to remain at Trill for a few days so that her crew can get some shore leave.

The CO's instincts prove correct, when the Host escapes from custody and dissapears into the wilds of Trill. Scans from orbit are uanble to detect the Host so a massive manhunt is underway until he is found in a secluded valley deep in Trill's greatest mountain range. The PCs and Trill security arrive to find a temple complex which is a duplicate of the one the crew found thousands of light years away. Only the Trill did not know it was there.

The Host appears wearing ancient Trill clothing and carrying a mysterious weapon. He speaks in a strange voice, the voice of God he says. He taps a control and more Trill Hosts come out of the complex all similarly dressed and armed. The Host calls on the Trill to surrender to kneel before their true Gods.

(end of Part I)

[Lt.Khrys Antos]

Evil Trill? Alright I'll bite

It's a cool idea, especially if they become a real power and begin to be capable of taking different hosts. Expanding and creating new cloned hosts. Kind of a SG-1 mixed with StarTrek. Interesting concept.

By any chance have you written up part 2?

[Robert Lai]

Some food for thought:

1. Consider the dilemma if a player-character Trill was part of this 'cult' or 'faction' in a previous cycle. They may begin feeling conflicting emotions or a summons from the 'god'.

2. Might this also be one of the reasons the Symbiosis Council is so dead-set against reassociation? Not because they're afraid you'll hook up with your former lover, but because that was one way to bury the cult members over the years ...

3. Someone HAS to have the full records, even if it's a big hush-hush secret, told only under pain of death, etc. A player-character Trill who spills the beans could later face censure ... even if they did the right thing and ultimately save the day.

4. What would the impact be if the Federation Council ruled this to be an internal conflict, and declared hands off. "Captain, your orders are to withdraw from the area immediately. You will receive a new assignment within 48 hours ..."

Bob

[ghosty]

As the stand-off at the temple site begins, onboard the ship, sensors begin to detect a starship dropping out of warp.

It turns out to be part of the temple complex from the desert planet (predictable huh)...as it approaches the temple site on Trill begins to rumble as if there was an earthquake. The strangely customed Trill rush inside and sections of it begin to launch into space. The ship manages to transport the crew and Trill security personnel onboard just in time to watch the temple site blast off into space to make rendevous with the temple from the desert planet.

As the site blasts off, it blasts several archeological sites on the planet surface, along with several monuments, ancient monuments from Trill's historical past.

The CO is summoned for a meeting with the Trill President and the Symbiosis Council. She brings the CMO with her to act as her Trill specialist. The Trill try to exclude the CMO from the meeting but the CO insists.

The Council gives the CO an ancient book they say is an artifact from Trill's pre-symbiosis past. Mellenia ago, the humanoid Trill were the only people who lived on Trill, the symbionts were not native of the planet but arrived in a mysterious ship. They claimed to be a dying race and required joining with the humanoids to survive. The Trill humanoids volunteer to serve as hosts in order to save the ancient, near immortal species.

Two distinct types of symbionts begin to appear, one group merge with the humanoids, sharing experiences and bodies, the other type, are purely selfish and take possession of the humanoid body rewriting its persona over that of the host.

At first life on Trill is normal until the dominant type symbionts try to force themselves on the Trill using their superior intelligence and weapons to conquer the planet. The symbiont Trills are forced to flee deep into the wilds of Trill and establish a resistance to the Dominants.

It takes several years, but the Dominants are defeated and they flee Trill never to be seen again.

The problem is that the temple site was the original landing place of the symbionts from mellinia ago and the sections that blasted off into space were parts of the original ship. At the end of the Dominants occupation, several Dominants and their hosts were unaccounted for and these unaccounted for Dominnants apparently hid in the old temple site until now. Where they were going and why is unknown. The sites they destroyed were also repositories of ancient symbiont knowledge, knowledge of the Dominants and their methods.

The CO communicates with Starfleet Command under secure comms. They learn that there have been other sightings of temples similar to the ones the PCs had first encountered and they have all blasted into space at about the same time as the Trill site blasted off. The CO is placed in charge of finding out where the Dominnants are and what they want.

(end of Part 2)

[Imagus]

Another weird and detailed campaign idea from the twisted imagination of Ghosty...

The Ken Hite of TrekRPG Net!

I think I'll sit back and enjoy the ride

[C5]

Same for me!
Nice work ghosty.

[ghosty]

Originally posted by Imagus
Another weird and detailed campaign idea from the twisted imagination of Ghosty...

The Ken Hite of TrekRPG Net!

I think I'll sit back and enjoy the ride

Moi, as good as Ken, perish the thought but I must say Ken's work on Suprressed Transmissions had an impact on a lot of my work. So strap on your seat belts boys and girls this promises to be a wild ride. Of course suggestions are always appreciated. Constructive ones at any rate.

[Aldaron]

This is way cool!
Sort of like what SG-1 would be if we'd met the Tokra before the Go'ould.
"Yeah, these guys with the <i>things</i> in 'em are cool."
"Not this one...his eyes glow and he sucks peoples' minds out with his hand!"

Hmmm...maybe a whole 'host' (sorry!) of new names for Trill characters...
Ra
Apophis
Chronos
Hathor
Seth...

Hehehe....

[ghosty]

Now that the swelling in my head has subsided (thanks for the compliments guys much appreciated proves that I am as good as I think I am ) I'll get back to work.

As we left off, more temple ships carrying the Dominant variant of Trill pop up all over Federation space, almost on a straight line between Trill and the depths of the an unexplored sector dominated by the Tantalus Nebula which is a sector of wild space which is extremely dangerous to navigate and all these temple ships are making a beeline for the Tantalus Nebula.

One distrubing report is that the Hosts that have been encountered don't consist only of the two humanoid Trill sub-species but other humanoid races as well including humans and Vulcans, but then all Trill experts agree that only a Trill can host a symbiont.

Meanwhile, two Starfleet vessels are crippled a temple ship when they tried to stop it from capturing a passenger liner filled with 768 passengers. The PC ship arrives just in time to see the temple ship blast off into deep space. Attempts to pursue fail when the temple ship hits warp 9.9999 and sustains it beyond what the time the ship can.

Starfleet is concerned and a meeting of the Alliance is called. Representatives from the Klingons, Romulans and Bajor are present along with observers from the Cardassian Union. It is decided that for now they will have the quarantine the Tantalus Nebula and a blockade is formed to prevent any temple ships from leaving the Nebula. The ship is assigned to the blockade force but the CO is bored and wants to do more than just sit and watch as the Dominants do who knows what inside the Nebula.

She goes to meet with the Admiral commanding the blockade and asks for permission to enter the Nebula to determine what the Dominants are doing inside the Nebula. At first the admiral is reluctant wild space would reduce the ship to impulse engines only, no shields, limited sensors and degraded weapons capability. However, the intelligence gain would outweigh the risk, so the admiral reluctantly agrees.

The ship penetrates the Nebula outer cloud and manages to evade patrols of small Dominiant fighters and get to the centre of the Nebula which is a hole of normal space. In this island of space they find a massive temple ship which seems to be an amalgamation of all the temple ships which had fled into the Nebula. Suddenly the ship is ambushed by a wave of Dominant fighters which forces them to surrender.

Dominant Hosts transport on board and takes everyone prisoner and the ship is taken into the the main temple ship and the senior staff is thrown into a cell onboard the main temple but the CMO is taken off by the guards for an audience with the Dominant leader, the Host the crew had rescued from the desert planet just a few days ago.

(end part 3)

Obviously the leader is about to disclose his master plan so stay tuned.

[Capt.Hunter]

If the evil symbionts control the host fully, they may not possess as wide a variety of skills and experiences as normal Trill seem to. Consider - if Dax had fully controlled his hosts, he would probably have done the same job down the years. He'd be very talented in his field. But instead he's been a diplomat, a gymnast, a counselor, a scientist, a pilot, an engineer... And he's pretty good at all of those. This wider experience might explain why the normal symbionts won out over the bad guys all those years ago.

[ghosty]

Originally posted by Aldaron
This is way cool!
Sort of like what SG-1 would be if we'd met the Tokra before the Go'ould.
"Yeah, these guys with the <i>things</i> in 'em are cool."
"Not this one...his eyes glow and he sucks peoples' minds out with his hand!"

Precisely my thinking

Hmmm...maybe a whole 'host' (sorry!) of new names for Trill characters...
Ra
Apophis
Chronos
Hathor
Seth...

Hehehe....

I don't think so...

[ghosty]

As the crew desparately plan their escape, the CMO confronts the Dominant Leader in his inner sanctum.

The Dominant Leader explains why his species is different from the normal Trill. Unlike the normal Trill, the Domininant variant does not reside in a pouch in the abdomnial cavity but attached to the brain stem of the host, taking direct control of the Host. While it can tap into the knowledge possessed by the Host, the Dominant (or Parasite) Trill is less talented than the symbiontic Trill for the simple reason taht they don't share experiences well. The parasitic relationship is also why the Dominants can be hosted by non-Trills, only Trills have the genetic disposition to meld with a Trill in a symbiotic relationship, the Dominant Trills don't need the melding, they just seize control.

The Dominant Leader tells the CMO that during their exile, the Dominants had built a strong following on many planets especially those with primative cultures where their powerful weapons made them Gods from which they built an army for the conquest of Trill and the Federation. Some Dominants having possessed non-Trills have been hiding in plain sight in mainstream Federation society, waiting for their opportunity to strike.

The Dominion War had severely weakened the Federation to an extent that the Dominants feel ready to confront the Federation and her allies in open warfare. The temple ships are just a first wave, other hidden weapons would be unleashed soon...the Dominants have planned for this moment for mellenia, this time they do not intend to loose. The Dominant leader gives the CMO a choice, join him or die. Obviously she doesn't give him a straight answer and is detained for the moment.

Using the bait and switch the executive officer manages to escape (well he and the strategic ops officers are identical - it'll take too long) and gains access to the main computer core. From there he is able to quietly regain control of the ship. The CO orders the assembly of the one tri-cobalt device on board ship while an assault force prepared to rescue the CMO.

As the crew prepare to make their escape, the blockade force is attacked by six more temple ships and quickly defeated, four Klingon, three Romulan and five Starfleet ships are destroyed or damaged and the rest are forced to retreat.

The strike force manages to penetrate the main temple ship and free the CMO and they capture one of the Dominant Hosts as they flee back to the ship. The ship using the element of surprise manages to blast their way free and launch the tri-cobalt device at the mother ship. The tri-cobalt device does not destroy the mother ship but cripples it badly enough that the Dominants are thrown into disarray allowing them to escape through the Nebula to find the blockade force defeated and scattered. They manage to evade pursuit and link up with additional allied forces. The intelligence they have gained would be helpful in the coming war.

(end Part 4)

[Capt.Hunter]

Lemme guess - the CMO has become a host and is thus a trojan horse?

'Course, if the CMO's a PC you'd need a lot of player-Narrator cooperation to pull it off... But there are ways the PC could be freed from the parasite.

Hey! The T'kon always seemed a bit medieval in appearance (if Portal was anything to go by) - they could be the "Asgards" here!!

And we've already got Stargates even - the Iconian Gateways!

[ghosty]

Originally posted by Capt.Hunter
Lemme guess - the CMO has become a host and is thus a trojan horse?

'Course, if the CMO's a PC you'd need a lot of player-Narrator cooperation to pull it off... But there are ways the PC could be freed from the parasite.

I plead the fifth. The CMO is a PC and is quite good at co-operating with the GM.

Hey! The T'kon always seemed a bit medieval in appearance (if Portal was anything to go by) - they could be the "Asgards" here!!

In a word...nope...you'll be surprised who are the Dominant's mortal enemy...stay tuned like everyone else.

And we've already got Stargates even - the Iconian Gateways!

Perish the thought.

[Capt.Hunter]

Let's see. The Dominants' mortal enemy...

Could be the parasites from TNG's "Conspiracy". They were pretty similar IIRC (actually, these guys could be the Dominants...)

Or it could be the Borg.

Or Species 8472 (maybe the symbionts were a bioweapon intended to pacify non-fluidic space, but they went rogue...)

Even the Dominion. Since the Founders can't be infected, they might have decided these "solid" parasites were a threat of the highest order.

Hell, I don't know. It could be Styro's killer Space Gnomes for all I know...