Deep Dive Sneak Peek: The Stargazers (Patreon)

Today I'm sharing a Standing 9 conspiracy that features the imminent threat of extraterrestrial invasion.

The usual caveats apply: This is a first draft. It's far from it's final form, and there will be significant changes as it goes through revisions.

The Stargazers

The Stargazers are a conspiracy of scientists, politicians, and activists working to ensure the smooth annexation of Earth by an interstellar empire that once had an outpost on the planet before extraterrestrial convicts and their early human allies destroyed the gateway connecting Earth to the rest of the empire.

According to tradition, the Mukulian Empire first established a colony on Earth approximately 100,000 years ago. The Mukulians relied on pairs of linked gateways for travel across the stars, which meant their expansion was slow and methodical when compared that of empires that relied on O-space or wormholes. The empire chose Earth for three reasons: First, it had no nearby wormholes, and the O-spaces near it were hazardous – making the world virtually inaccessible except through gateways. Second, it is rich in a resource the empire covets, although exactly what that resource is has been forgotten. Third, it completely lacks crucial materials required to build new gateways, making its inhabitants utterly reliant on the empire for basic necessities.

Most of the colonists were convicted criminals transported to Earth as laborers. Conditions were harsh, and deaths among the colonists in the first two years unacceptably high. Mukulian scientists became aware of a native species whose physiology was well-adapted for the planet’s environment. They modified the colonist’s genetic makeup to produce a servitor subspecies with physical characteristics nearly identical to those of these homo sapiens.

A century later, the unthinkable happened: The colony successfully rebelled and destroyed the gateway to prevent any retaliation. Declaring their new planet Lemuria and themselves Lemurians, the colonists set out to build a new civilization.

The Lemurians quickly discovered just how reliant on Mukulian industry and infrastructure the civilization familiar to them was. Most of them were minimally educated laborers who lacked the scientific and technical know-how to maintain the advanced technology that Mukulians took for granted. Within 500 years, Lemurians huddled in caves, and all they had left of the Mukulian Empire was their stories. A few millennia later, they assimilated into local human populations, for while they weren’t interfertile with humans (despite being morphologically indistinguishable from them), they brought other advantages to those communities that welcomed them.

Lemurians and humans shared the benefits of civilization and technological advancements of the next 99 millennia. Like humans, Lemurians had no unified goals beyond a desire to survive and ensure that the next generation thrived, and they had plenty of political and philosophical differences. One of the few things that does unite them is their stories about the Mukulian Empire and how they broke away from it, and even there, some have come to regard it as the story of how they rejected paradise.

In 1985, the SETI program discovered a radio signal source outside the Solar System, which it placed on a watchlist, although the U.S. military covered up this discovery. Five years of monitoring determined that its source was getting closer and that, at its current velocity and trajectory, it would reach the edge of the asteroid belt within fifty years. Thirty years ago, technology and increased proximity allowed observers to confirm that the Lemurians’ greatest fear had become reality: the signal’s source was a fleet of spaceships escorting a new interstellar gateway.

Although no Lemurians doubted the importance of this news, they fiercely debated its exact meaning and the most appropriate response to it. Many assumed that the gateway belonged to the Mukulian Empire, which undoubtedly intended to reconnect with its lost colony and that it would deal harshly with the Lemurians (and possibly the humans, as well). Some saw only uncertainty. Perhaps this gateway belonged to a different empire (but it likely still wanted Earth’s resources), or perhaps the Mikulian Empire had changed significantly over the last 100 millennia (although who could say whether it would be for better or for worse). These Lemurians couldn’t be sure that any resistance on Earth’s part wouldn’t be swiftly and easily put down, but they didn’t intend to give up their home world without a fight, either.

Some Lemurians didn’t respond with defiance or grim determination, however. They wanted to become part of an interstellar empire with technology far beyond anything available on Earth. Although they couldn’t be sure the invaders would grant them citizenship, they meant to do their best to earn it. These Lemurians – together with their human and occult allies – founded the Stargazers.

For the last few decades, they have sought to undermine Earth’s defenses, sowing disunity between human nations and Lemurian factions alike. Although they have not regained the lost technological knowhow of their Mukulian ancestors, their archaeologists have uncovered a handful of remnants of that civilization and restored them to limited functioning.

Conspiracy Traits

Standing: 9

Principles: Earth is a backwater; our ancestors never should have rebelled against the Mukulian Emprire; we shall return to the stars

Virtue: Self-interested

Vice: Overconfident

Attributes: Power 7, Finesse 10, Resistance 7

Conspiracy Actions: 5

Association: 10

Hierarchical Node: Envoys, Homesteaders, Neo-Mukulians

Temporal Node: Alien Cults, Counterintelligence, CyDocs, Enhancement

Exploitative Node: Astronomers, Dispairfluencers, Fifth Column, First Contact Forum, Occult Societies, Politicians

Structural Node: Charities, Evangelists, Private Rocketry, Satellites, Xenohistorians

Icon: Gridlock, Make Viral, Mukulian APCs, Occult Allies, Peacemaker

Nodes

Envoys (Hierarchical): These Stargazers intend to approach the gateway builders as an entirely new species – regardless of whether they turn out to be the same Mukulians who once ruled Earth. If it turns out the new arrivals aren’t hostile and have no designs on conquering Earth, these Lemurians hope to win them over with offers of friendship and cultural exchanges. They wish for Earth to join the galactic community – if not as equals, then at least as a promising civilization worth forging political and trade alliances with.

Homesteaders (Hierarchical): These Stargazers remain fond of Earth. They just don’t think humans should be in charge of it. They hope to convince the conquerors to make them stewards of the planet, allowing them to benefit from the empire’s highly advanced technology while being served by human vassals – free to leave Earth to see the galaxy but always welcome and worshipped when they return home.

Neo-Mukulians (Hierarchical): Most of these Stargazers are convinced that the approaching fleet belongs to the Mukulian Empire, and they hope to convince the new arrivals to let them assimilate into the empire as full citizens. A minority of them aren’t convinced that the gateway belongs to the same civilization (whether because Mukulian civilization has changed dramatically over the millennia or because the arrivals belong to a completely different alien species), but they intend to throw in their lot with the invaders anyway.

Alien Cults (Temporal): A certain segment of the Baseline population has always believed in aliens visiting Earth and ascribed benevolent intent to them. The Stargazers have recruited many of them throughout the world, cooking up stories about the Lemurians that paint themselves as the arbiters of which earthlings will partake of the technological marvels of the Mukulian Empire and which will be made to suffer for their lack of vision.

Counterintelligence (Temporal): This Node protects against Lemurian attempts to infiltrate the conspiracy. Its Baselines and Devoted lead enemy operatives on wild goose chases or feed them misinformation intended to mask the Stargazers’ real intentions.

CyDocs (Temporal): The Lemurians have long since rediscovered the science of manipulating bodies on a cellular level to alter their anatomy, but the casualty rate has always been alarmingly high, and their scientists never developed an ethical means of refining it. Once the Stargazers dispensed with concern about the lives and well-being of their human test subjects, however, they made real progress. They recruit candidates by a variety of means – mostly relying on deception to lure victims with promises of miracle cures or impossible health benefits. The process involves the implantation of an artificial organ that modifies the host’s body, so most of their human Devoted are Epimorph Invasives, although Mutants make up a large minority, and even Coactives and Chimerics occur, if infrequently. To the Stargazers’ annoyance, a Baseline conspiracy has found a way to retrieve the power cells of these implants and incorporate them into gadgets of their own, and they’ve taken to rooting out Lemurian Devoted to harvest their cybernetic organs.

Enhancement (Temporal): Most Lemurians are indistinguishable from humans except that they have up to 5 Magnitude of Subtle Natural Variations (although these have commensurate Natural Scars). These are not inherited from their parents in a predictable way, instead developing during early childhood as adaptation against the main problems the young Lemurian faces, whether it’s extreme temperatures, starvation, or bullies. The Stargazers’ scientists have found a way to enhance the natural Lemurian adaptability, producing Mutants with the Outsider Form and the Evolve, Forced Growth, and Unpredictable Adaptations, as well as significantly more Variations (and worse Scars). Lemurian Devoted are rare but frightening.

Astronomers (Exploitative): The gateway fleet is too small, too distant, and too dim for the average kid with a backyard telescope (or even a typical campground observatory) to detect, but a few astronomers with powerful telescopes are aware of a “fast-moving, exo-Solar object” travelling in the direction of Sol, and their data allows Stargazer infiltrators to track the gateway’s progress.

Despairfluencers (Exploitative): Some compare these influencers to preppers, but preppers actually believe they can do something to survive the inevitable apocalypse. Despairfluencers don’t. They’re the social media equivalent of the memento mori, but applying the principle to whole human species. They point at climate change, peak oil, pollution, overpopulation (or demographic collapse), wealth inequality, nuclear proliferation, conspiracies of occult creatures, and other large-scale problems faced by the world – not with the aim of solving them but as a steady drumbeat of their inevitability. Humans are destroying themselves, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it except feel guilty about failing to feel bad enough about it. Into this miasma of pessimism, the Stargazers have injected a single sarcastic caveat: Earth could be spared, but it would take an outside force with vastly superior technology seizing control of the planet by force with the intent of doing so. In opening the door to this futile hope, Despairfluencers have ironically planted the seeds of hope in their audiences, conditioning them to welcome invasion and subjugation of the planet by an alien civilization.

Make Viral: Despairfluencers are always looking for new content that proves that people are terrible and humanity is doomed, and the Stargazers are all too happy to give them new targets. As a Project, the conspiracy can impose the Conspicuous Appearance, Evil Twin, Lying Eyes, or Undesirable Scar on someone known to them and for whom they have some footage (video, old forum posts, a story in a local newspaper, etc.). This costs 1 Effort, affects a single target, imposes a Magnitude 2 Scar, and lasts until the end of the chapter. Additional Effort can be spent to impose an additional Scar (+1 Effort per Scar after the first), increase the Magnitude of the Scar or Scars (+1 Effort per +1 increase in Magnitude, which affects all Scars imposed by this Icon), affect additional people (+1 Effort for up to 10, +2 for up to 100, or +3 for it to affect anyone who shares three designated traits you possess, much like the Victim Profile Merit), or extend its duration (+1 for it to last until the end of the story). Remade victims may use this Scar to entangle Variations, but this makes the Scar permanent.

Fifth Column (Exploitative): Through a combination of bribery, deception, and rhetoric, the Stargazers have convinced Baseline to soldiers to agree to sabotage any war effort in the unlikely event of extraterrestrial invasion. Their pawns range from rank-and-file enlisted at strategically important posts to high-ranking officers serving as advisors to world leaders. The conspiracy reinforces this loyalty with Peacemaker.

Peacemaker: This synthetic compound resembles granulated white sugar, often packaged in sugar packets to make it easy to smuggle and administer. It dissolves instantly in liquid, which can be ingested or injected, after which the target becomes relaxed and susceptible to suggestion for approximately an hour, suffering a -2 penalty to Empathy rolls to assess others’ motives and reducing her effective number of Doors by 2. Any promise made while under the drug’s effect carries the weight of the Fate-Bind (Contempt) 3 Variation, which if violated, causes the victim to suffer the Dependency (Ill, Submissive; Rare) 3 Scar, the symptoms of which can only be eased by consuming more Peacemaker or by enduring deprivation for seven days. Although primarily used by the Fifth Column, agents of other Nodes can enjoy its benefits as though it were Experimental Equipment that granted a Magnitude 3 Variation; this can be deployed as part of a Power or Finesse Send Agents action.

First Contact Forum (Exploitative): This Node began as a forum dedicated to first contact thought experiments. Forum members discussed and debated appropriate responses to encountering nonhuman intelligent life. The scenarios included the exploration (and/or colonization) of a distant world, discovering (or leaving) cultural remnants, and aliens visiting (or invading) Earth. It even included several “undercover aliens are already here” scenarios, which is what brought it to the Stargazers’ attention. Although a haven for crackpots and conspiracy theorists, it has also attracted a number of respectable linguists, political thinkers, and social scientists who earnestly formulate approaches to first contact. Even the staffs of some powerful sitting politicians participate, not yet aware that the discussion is about to move out of the hypothetical. Several Stargazers are forum moderators, and in addition to scouring the site for useful ideas (it’s not like the Lemurians had a formal first contact protocol in place a century ago) and to identify tactics the Mukulian Empire could use to win over Earth’s people, this has allowed them to shape the debate to make it even more applicable to the current situation.

Occult Societies (Exploitative): The Stargazers’ implants can produce Devoted who manifest capabilities indistinguishable from those possessed by other supernatural creatures, which has allowed them to infiltrate several occult societies. They wield their influence to keep the supernatural world at one another’s throats or otherwise focused on anything other than the approaching gateway fleet. When keeping this a secret isn’t possible, they work to engender curiosity that perceives an interstellar empire as an opportunity instead of as a threat. As a result, some of these groups work to prevent conflict between Earth and the fleet, preaching peace to their members and subtly bending Baseline society in that direction.

Occult Allies: The conspiracy enjoys a +4 bonus to the Patsy effect of Send Agents actions that originate from this Node. Unwitting agents of this Node do not suffer breaking points from witnessing the supernatural, and they may benefit from the Experimental Equipment and Suppression effects of Send Agent even when using Finesse instead of Power.

Politicians (Exploitative): The Stargazers have infiltrated the governments of powerful nations, securing posts as advisors or minor officials. They use their influence to sow division between and within these countries, encouraging leaders to focus on their personal advancement, the furtherance of their political party, or nationalist interests over larger concerns like how to respond to the discovery of an extraterrestrial fleet approaching the Solar System.

Gridlock: The Stargazers use their access to the levers of power to break the momentum of a political or enforcement action that would otherwise get traction. As a Project, the Node prevents a political body or agency from taking further action on a specific issue. This costs 1 Effort if the action is of local concern, 3 Effort for one that affects a region, or 5 Effort if it halts action worldwide. By default, this can’t prevent action on an urgent problem or an existential threat, but this can be overcome at the cost of +2 or +4 Effort respectively. Normally, this merely delays implementation for the duration of a chapter (unless the players’ characters actively work to move it forward), but the conspiracy can spend 1 Effort during the chapter to extend its duration until the end of the next chapter, potentially delaying an action (or multiple actions, although this requires additional Effort to maintain).

Charities (Structural): The Stargazers run an assortment of charitable organizations that ostensibly fund many worthy causes – from cancer research and disaster relief to arts fellowships and paying off the debts of those who can’t afford to pay them. These organizations do just enough good to build positive PR and feature in human interest stories, but their primary purpose is to build a war chest to advance the conspiracy’s other interests.

Privilege: +1 to Focused Action

Evangelists (Structural): The Stargazers know that not all Lemurians agree with them. Many of them are active in working to defend Earth from anyone who would threaten it. Members of this Node work to win them over and have made a surprising amount of headway, especially among those who have lost faith in humans’ ability to address large-scale problems like climate change, pollution, inequality, and nuclear proliferation.

Privilege: +2 to the Turn Traitor effect of Manufacture Complication.

Private Rocketry (Structural): The Stargazers are heavily invested in companies engaged in building and launching rockets for commercial use – whether it’s communications satellites or space tourism. This serves four purposes that suit the conspiracy. First, it permits them to get their own tech (and potentially a few of their agents) into orbit. Second, it positions them to direct government funds away from space agencies that are inclined to cooperate out of a sense of unity with the scientific community and places it in the hands of corporations that regard each other as competitors. Third, it allows them to get agents into restricted areas where they can perform sabotage more effectively, especially if humans move to defend Earth from invasion through force arms. Fourth, it allows them to make narcistic and toxic personalities the faces of space exploration, such that most Baselines cheer the companies’ failures and jeer at their successes.

Privilege: +2 to the Resource Denial effect of Manufacture Complication

Satellites (Structural): The Stargazers have fully compromised multiple satellite communication and navigation constellations, which they use to intercept or interfere with phone and web access.

Privilege: +2 to the Communications Blackout effect of Manufacture Complication

Xenohistorians (Structural): The Lemurians of 100,000 years ago were too focused on survival to concern themselves with preserving the abandoned outposts, settlements, and libraries of the Mukulian Empire. Were it not for their superhuman adaptability (and a few recently discovered genetic markers), there was no proof other than their stories that the Lemurians aren’t merely humans. Stargazer archaeologists have made a concerted effort to trace stories to real-world locations, and while they haven’t unearthed many, they’ve uncovered enough to have made the effort of cobbling together their ancestral history worthwhile.

Privilege: +2 to Weight of Numbers effect of Send Agents

Mukulian APCs: The Stargazers have located and restored a small APC manufacturing facility. When the conspiracy uses Power to initiate a Send Agent action, it may use an additional conspiracy action to include one Mukulian APC with pilot. This is treated as an Exo (Black Vans, p. XX) with Mass 2, Plating 2, a laser turret soul weapon (Cutting Firearms Lash [Deadly 2L; Line-of-Sight] 2), and Brachiation (Bounding) 1. It requires 15 minutes to start safely (as Boot Sequence [-2 dots]) but can carry up to 8 passengers in cramped quarters or 4 passengers comfortably (as Passenger Modules 2 dots). Each additional conspiracy action doubles the number of APCs in the same scene.

Optional Nodes

For each additional player connected to this conspiracy, add one of the following Nodes:

Counterinsurgency (Temporal): The Stargazers know not everyone on Earth will readily accept Mukulian rule. Human tribalism often runs into xenophobia, and most Lemurians still believe that their ancestors’ decision to rebel was the right one. The conspiracy attempts to identify and proactively neutralize anyone who could be a threat to the smooth transfer of power to extraterrestrial control. This usually involves discrediting or sabotaging potential insurgent leaders, but the Stargazers are not above resorting to assassination.

Trait Increases: +2 Power

Mukulian Ambassador (Temporal): The Stargazers present the world with an ambassador from the Mukulian Empire has arrived on Earth to open diplomatic relations. In fact, the ambassador and his entourage are merely several of the conspiracy’s Devoted, physically modified to look obviously alien. The Lemurians have no record of what the Mukulians look like, so the ambassador and his entourage are dissimilar from one another, which is passed off as his belonging to one of the many species who make up the Mukulian Empire. The Stargazers have access to a few technological tricks to support this ruse, but most of them are just that – tricks.

Trait Increases: +2 Resistance; +2 Association

Trade Delegation (Temporal): The Stargazers present key businesses with a secret trade delegation from the Mukulian Empire that promises access to advanced technology in exchange for the discreetly delivered resources. As with the Mukulian Ambassador ploy, this is an attempt to pit competing interests against one another to prevent them from uniting against a common foe, as well as a scam to coax organizations into handing over assets the Stargazers need.

Trait Increases: +2 Resistance; +2 Association

Contingencies (Structural): The Stargazers take steps to preserve themselves if the annexation of Earth does not go as smoothly as planned. They build expansive fallout shelters in case humanity (and their Lemurian protectors) wage nuclear war on the fleet. They develop a fast-acting mutagen to transform themselves into another species in case the fleet doesn’t come from the Mukulian Empire (or does but won’t accept Lemurians back into the fold). They even entertain the possibility that they will have to join battle against the fleet in case that’s the only way to avoid planetary sterilization.

Privilege: +2 to the Arrange Sabotage effect of Manufacture Complication

Trait Increases: +2 Finesse

Mukulian Communications (Structural): The conspiracy successfully contacts the approaching fleet and establishes a limited and slow communications channel with it. The Stargazers receive cryptic instructions they can only assume serve some larger goal of the empire, which they attempt to implement, as well as blueprints for advanced technology that give the conspiracy an edge in advancing their goals. These communications are not encrypted, however, instead relying on security through obscurity and their control over SETI and other groups monitoring space for alien signals.

Privilege: +2 to the Prototype effect of Send Agents

Trait Increases: +2 Power