We had such a likable guy last week, so I figured this week we could look at a real jerk. In the online campaign that Mike Dismuke is running, we’ve been dealing with a sleeper agent for Section 31 who screwed us over and apparently has more than one confederate on the ship. It’s Mailys Sault, if you’re wondering, so that’s a lesson for creating characters that are so frustrating and then allowing your GM to read them. Apparently I haven’t learned my lesson, though, as I might have repeated this mistake again this week.
Lt. Cr’ara let me do a couple of things that I wanted to do for a while. First of all he’s a Caitian (oh, sorry, “spoilers” I guess), and second of all he’s part of a conspiracy. I decided to shy away from Section 31 since that’s been done and look at another revolution that we’ve seen in Star Trek: the New Essentialists. To refresh your memory, in the Deep Space Nine episode “Let He Who Is Without Sin…” you get a lovely vacation with Jadziah, Worf, Leeta, Bashir, and Quark all going for a fun time on Risa. Jadziah and Worf are fighting and the Klingon is approached by a man named Pascal Fullerton who tells him about the New Essentialists. This group believes that the Federation has gone soft, something that Worf can sympathize with, and that this puts them at risk against existential threats like the Borg or the Dominion.
Cr’ara was part of the original group called the Essentialists (I made that part up) and grew disillusioned. He likes what Fullerton is doing with the group, though, and he’s ready to be part of the group’s next great movement. He might be on the PC’s ship ready to sabotage them during an important mission, or even to push them to make a critical decision the way that the New Essentialists want. Remember, a good sleeper agent stays active for a long time so a bridge-burning final mission is not ideal. Have the sleeper agent working all along in subtle ways before he’s found out or, craftily, blame unfortunate rolls of the dice on Cr’ara after the fact. You’ll seem like an evil genius.
There are lots of ways you can use this character but here are a few plot hooks to get you started…
- After his arrest on Risa, Pascal Fullerton is transported back to Earth to stand trial and its up to the Player Characters to transport him. Pascal seems smug and midway through the trip he escapes containment. He’s found quickly enough but a hologram recording is released to the media showing Fullerton easily bypassing the security measures in the brig and obvious mistakes by the green ensign set to monitor him. Lt. Cr’ara looks into why an inexperienced crew member was given that task while the senior staff deals with fallout.
- A series of system failures onboard the ship causes an emergency shutdown of the warp engine. Crews get to work on repairs as Lt. Cr’ara heads up an internal investigation. They are halfway done when word comes from the conference that the ship was headed towards: Cardassian agents planted a bomb and killed a dozen of the attendees. If only the PC’s ship was there to help…
- The Player Character’s ship docks at Deep Space Nine to pick up an important guest: a Vorta envoy of the Dominion. Their trip to a starbase close to Earth is an important step in averting war, though many think it is acquiescing to the enemy. The ship is still twenty-four hours from its destination when the envoy and his Jem’Hadar guard are found dead in their assigned quarters. Lt. Cr’ara is in there as well, claiming to be responding to an automated security alert, but the crew begins to find holes in his story. Can they do it quickly enough to stop him from stealing a shuttlecraft?
Click on the image below for the PDF.
