Welcome back to Tuesdays at Quark’s! This month I’m giving myself a break and coming up with plot hooks to pull together all the disparate NPCs in this column. Previously we had action-oriented hooks and science-oriented hooks but this time we’ve got hooks that are focused on the diplomatic storylines.
Obviously there are lots of connections here to the Command Division Supplement and also to the espionage ideas in the Operations Division Supplement. If you want some personalities to go with these themes, though, here you go!
- A Federation expedition to Bajor is helping to excavate a fragile religious site on the planet. The Bajorans have known and visited the site for centuries but it’s only since the end of the Cardassian Occupation and with the help of powerful technologies that they can hope to reach it. Experienced archeologist Dr. Velaz Matil heads up the expedition but the entire effort grinds to a halt when Vedek Lenaris publicly calls for it to stop. The crew needs to negotiate between these two groups with powerful personalities on both sides and no one willing to back down.
- The Player Characters head to the Romulan border for an important exchange of medical experts. Dr. Otak’ka of the Interspecies Medical Exchange has been given leave to assess and help treat a plague outbreak at an outlying Romulan colony, escorted by Senator Neerok and his personal warbird. Things seem unusual at the hand-off, though, and the crew will need to delicately assess whether Dr. Otak’ka will truly be safe with his hosts.
- A new warp signal has been detected in the region of Federation space near the Ferengi Alliance. A new warp-capable species requires a delicate hand and the First Contact specialist T’lar joins the crew to make sure it goes well. The crew finds they aren’t the first to arrive, though, and need to act quickly when they find Thot Pann‘s ship in orbit. Soon after, a vessel commanded by the Ferengi merchant Soloc enters the system, raising the new question of just what is going on in this star system.