Beta-3 "Ghostworld"

[Bill]

Your party has been condemned to live out the remainder of your lives on Ghostworld (DB3, p28). How long you have until the planet vanishes is unknown.

What crimes against The Emperor and the people of the Trans-Galactic Empire were you convicted of? (Your guilt or innocence is unimportant.)

Why were you not summarily executed on capture?

Why were you not publicly executed for the pleasure of his Imperial Majesty and his loyal subjects?

How do you react to your certain doom? (Going insane is likely.)

What do you expect to find there? (Insane criminals and various kinds of ghost/entity are a given.)

How will you escape?

[say652]

My crime was being an Ambassador foolish enough to attempt Parlay with The TGE.

I want executed because that would be an open act of war, instead my shuttle vanished.

This is not Doom, I still draw breath. There is always hope.

I expect undead, ghosts, possible vampires and of course insane Aliens.

Hopefully I can find a transmission relay to up the power of my Bionic transmission and receiver and either radio for an escape shuttle or find a ship to repair and escape the old fashioned way.

[eliakon]

Convicted of illegally dealing in contraband magical items the wizard smuggler Ta'll'sif'all (Sif) and his gang were sentenced to the usual fate (perpetual Agony until death from malnutrition). However in exchange for making it easy on their interrogator (they gave up the entire stock with out actually making the local lord have to work) they were offered a deal. Their sentence would be commuted to Ghosting, with assistance from one of the court wizards, a diabolist, enchanted permanent crystal eyes were made for the noble. Each eye looks through their eye.
They can not escape, and everything they do is seen...but they might live, at least a little longer. And if they can solve the mystery they have been offered a full pardon and even a place in the court.

"I knew I should have listened to my mother and taken the family restaurant. Too late now, the drop pods going in three, two, one...."

[Glistam]

Your party has been condemned to live out the remainder of your lives on Ghostworld (DB3, p28). How long you have until the planet vanishes is unknown.

What crimes against The Emperor and the people of the Trans-Galactic Empire were you convicted of? (Your guilt or innocence is unimportant.)

Political rally, inciting rebellion.

Why were you not summarily executed on capture?

That could make us martyr's, better to have us disappear quietly.

Why were you not publicly executed for the pleasure of his Imperial Majesty and his loyal subjects?

Same reason as above.

How do you react to your certain doom? (Going insane is likely.)

Publicly we are nervous, scared, despondent... whichever emotions are necessary to "sell" the fact that we don't want to go to Ghostworld anymore than anyone else does.

What do you expect to find there? (Insane criminals and various kinds of ghost/entity are a given.)

Among the normal things expected there is the unexpected: a savage society. The convicts have taken it upon themselves to form a society where the strong survive and the weak exist only to serve. One criminal in particular has organized the rabble in such a way for one purpose - escape. They are looking to hijack a prison drop ship, and their attempts to take the one my party arrives on causes problems for my group's plans. The colony militia will not succeed but the party's capture by the feral society is an unexpected circumstance which will complicate the party's mission.

There are convicts who have been on this planet for more than nine years, so tension is high. The entities are having a feeding frenzy and the convicts are becoming desperate.

How will you escape?

Dimensional portals. This party is a covert team of psychic mages, trained rigorously for secret missions. The ultimate magical black ops. Through limited psionics they have altered their auras so their magical nature could remain undetected. They are the one of the UWW's elite special forces and they are completely unconcerned with how they will escape.

They do know when the planet will disappear next, and it is soon. They are here to find two prisoners and escape with them. Unfortunately those two prisoners gave in to hopelessness are are among "the weak." To find them, they will have to deal with the insane colony leader and his powerful guard. The group risks compromising their mission if they reveal what they can do too early - there's too many people on the planet right now, and ALL of them are desperate to escape. If any of them even think the group can get them off world there could be panic and riots which would make accomplishing their goal impossible.

[Axelmania]

Been a while since I read about Ghostworld, isn't it a lot like Fadetowns from Federation of Magic?

[Bill]

Not really. Every ten years the planet vanishes for three days. No trace of anybody on the planet when it vanishes is left when it returns. The TGE has been using it as a disposal system for anybody they can't execute. Oddly, satellites maintain their orbit while the planet is gone. Ghosts swarm the planet and feed on the despair of prisoners condemned to vanish with the planet. The swarms of entities might put a crimp in Glistam's plan in that they'll be attracted to ley lines and nexus points too. And, given the known existence of time and dimensional travel, if the planet's disappearance were sending victims anywhere or anywhen that they could escape from the researchers studying Beta-3 would probably figure it out.

[Glistam]

Yeah, it won't be easy.

[Axelmania]

How do you think the entities get there? Random rifts? Just show up when the planet re-appears?

What if the planet is actually changing the beings abandoned there into entities? Good place to farm them perhaps.

Perhaps Noro Ghostmakers could figure this out? Too bad they're not very friendly with TGE.

[Bill]

The mechanism is left open for the GM to do with as he or she likes. I figure that they're either traveling through the astral realm or rifting at the planet’s nexus points. The ghosts could just as easily be the remains of everyone trapped on the planet during its vanished phases though. I don't think deciding on that will be necessary for the scenario I've outlined.