• BTW
• ABetterMoon
• GMEvidence

Archived GM Notes: This page is unsealed GM-notes pertaining to BTW. It is not canonical to BTW. It main contain contradictions (even with itself), and preliminary ideas that were merely written down as I thought of them, for later consideration. The absence of something mentioned here from the canon does not necessarily mean that the party "missed" it, it could have been mooted for other reasons or simply discarded by me.

Timeline:

12/2505 (94:10 hours local time, nearly midnight) The attack. 27/2505 The present day. It's around noon local time (47:58) and in the morning of the Standard Day on which the indoor lights run. (0730).

Amy

Counter-Piracy

In your investigations so far, you've learned something about the local piracy situation and threats made against the shipping company.

Space Piracy on Rosmerta generally takes the form of extortion. Pirates threaten to destroy the freighters of companies that don't pay them off - a sort of 'protection money' scheme.

The local pirate ring, the Rusty Spears, extorted 50 AEC worth of Rosmertine Blockchain Units from the shipping company for the safety of the lost freighter, named Delicious Algene Health Drink The shipping company (Throbbing Bonobo Shipping) report that they've paid up in the past and, obviously, never had a freighter destroyed.

You have decent underworld contacts, but none of them seem to think the Spears were responsible. They were paid, after all. If you nontheless desire to get more information, you might try Feelgood Wanabe, an erotic virtual reality simulation programmer and operator in the 2784th Ward. He's supposedly in with the Rusty Spears, though nothing serious has ever been pinned on him. He'll want some sort of bribe. Money, maybe fresh fruit, or something more interesting.

Nice

Weapons Technology

In your investigation so far, you've learned some facts about the missile that was used to destroy the freighter. Spectra and telescopic imagery of the attack were shared with the Gendarmerie by an Arthurian League Space Police patrol ship that was too far away to respond. You've identified the propulsion system used as a relatively advanced military unit that used to be manufactured in the Rosmertine Fleet Yards industrial complex. The missile was a kinetic impactor, so no warhead was needed, it was just launched into a retrograde orbit and slammed into the freighter at about twice orbital velocity.

That complex has been shut down for a few years, but a lot of inventory is still there - the goods are tied up in contentious bankruptcy proceedings. It seems like the perpetrators got in and helped themselves. The missile must have had a weapons-grade navigation computer and sensors too, to manage to hit the freighter at all.

You also learned that the missile was launched from the tidal flats just West the Rosmertine Fleet Yards industrial complex. Giant space-planes used to take off from there to bring the factory's products into space for assembly in orbit. (The tide was out when the missile was launched, it's come in now; Rosmertine tides last several days and have a complex structure due to the gravitational interactions with several other moons.)

Some people in the 2780th ward of the Worldhouse reported seeing the launch, but only from a distance and they could provide no useful information. You got the name of a security operator at the shut-down industrial complex, though - Teflonia Waldo. She lives in the rather sketchy 2784th ward, a hotbed of petty (and not so petty) crime since the recent recession hit.

Igor

Local cultural knowledge

You've looked at the freighter's manifest, and have an idea of someone who might stand to gain by the destruction of the freighter and who might have a score to settle with the Allied Worlds.

The drone freighter IS137 Delicious Algene Health Drink

Those isotopic separation membranes are used to mine the atmospheres of gas planets rich in helium; they can be used to separate helium 3 from the more common helium 4. Their destruction will delay the construction of a nearly completed refinery on Lord British in the Guo's Star system, an Allied investment project in the infrastructure of the Dirac system.

You know a local investor and wealthy businessman with his own dome in the posh 2807th Ward, Simon Ione, has gone long on Helium 3 futures (i.e. he expects the price of Helium-3 to go up) despite most people thinking it will go down due to the new refinery. Did he know that the freighter would be destroyed ahead of time, and decide to do some insider trading? And then, people say he lost a lot when Rosmertine Fleet Yards went out of business... does he have a score to settle with the Alliance?

Sandal

Signals/IT, local cultural knowledge

In your investigation so far, you've gotten some logs from the wireless station that controlled the missile. It was hacked from a network infrastructure point in the 2784th Ward of the Worldhouse, not too far away, with a stolen access credential. It happened in the local morning. The controller was in a seedy erotic entertainment complex. Paid for their time with the same stolen credential. The attendant, Greattoe Watanabe says he doesn't remember anything about the client. There is no surveillance video that show the client. The cameras were supposedly on the fritz. Happens a lot, the attendant claimed. The Worldhouse cameras outside are in bad repair. None of them show the entrance of the entertainment complex. Maybe some local ward leader got busted visiting... or was afraid of it.