So one of my players chose an SRO as their PC. I'm toying with the idea that the Greys built him as a replacement for some non-sentient humanoid robot working in a neuralgic position somewhere and chose to give him a soul for the initial test on the Chimera just to see what would happen. Their plan was to remove it after the test but of course that never happens.
What do others here think about that? Any idea whatand where the possible target machine could be?
I'm also open to any completely different ideas how to fit an SRO into the premise of the AP.
I like your idea, and I think it fits much more with the story arc as written than what I’ve gotten myself into.
I’ve just done this for the android in our party last week, and called it Project Omicron.
If you think seriously about Zaxo’s motivations, he is kindof a weird Grey mad scientist who is willing to do anything to overcome the reptoid threat. So what if the Greys abducted a reptoid at some point, even a dead body, and used it or its soul to increase the statistical likelihood of Project Chimera? This hasn’t been fully fleshed out for me yet, but I think there is a lot of possibility. It also feeds into the Grey’s love and interest in experimentation.
I re-skinned the B2 room and made the vending machine a kind of bacta-tank and replaced it with this:
This room has been heavily damaged, leaving cracks in the walls and ceiling. Small chairs and delicate desks have been overturned. Glistening green stains spatter the stone ceiling. Pieces of what might have been models or similar craft projects, tangles of metallic wire, and crystal pebbles of many hues are scattered across the floor, mixed with detritus broken from the furniture. A pristine tank of fluid (like a Bacta tank) sits in the room’s center, above it is a plate with Aklo ruins written over it (DEATH TO.... you sound out phonetically, SO-BEK). Could it be a humanoid body inside…?
The quantum troll damaged many of these projects as it rampaged through here, but a few are still intact. A character who analyzes the green stains must succeed at a DC 17 Life Science or Medicine check to identify it as blood. If the check succeeds by 5 or more, the PC identifies the blood as troll blood. The blood is slightly radioactive, a fact the PCs can learn using the right tools, such as an advanced medkit or chemalyzer, or magic.
Inside is a biological body, distinctly covered in scales, that appear to be kept in stasis. It looks like a very thin... Vesk? You immediately recognize its sex, and has a distinct gunshot or laser wound that has opened his chest. SRO/Android PC peers closer, and you see a reflection of.... Yourself.
Computers check 10 on components or clearly destroyed computers in the room reveals:
There is a waiting unread reply message that appears as text on your hacking kit. It’s from a Director Zoltir and was sent only a few hours ago. You open it: “Hail the Mysteriarch. Death to Sobek. Your message is pleasing. While a 14.33% reduction in resolution time is positive, you are only now trending at four sigma and back on the original schedule. Indeed, this is the lowest resolution time since forming the current Chimera group in test #288. That Yoski was never a good fit. I am in agreement with your assertion that adding Omicron at Test #434 is the primary factor for this success. Recent projections from Extomi in the data foundry estimate that 73.66 tests are required before we reach six sigma. However, the replacement rate of Omicron is not improving even after rigorous reprogramming. I have sent a request to Zaxo myself to increase the frequency of omicron transplants, and triple efforts to obtain enough android components.”
Keep the same treasure, etc.
SOBEK is a play on the ancient Egyptian god of crocodiles, and Ill likely roll it into some Osirian lore that implies the war between reptoids and greys has spanned a very long time to spice up later books. But only if the PCs dig. If your SRO looks at the tank, perhaps it recalls the lizard person as extremely familiar, or that its name and skills are similar.
The downside of this approach is how grandiose it becomes. But it might make for an interesting post-AP home brew for later levels, I wonder if you could adapt Mummy’s Mask??
Anyway, the point is that I think this resolves the problem of androids and SROs having a believable and meaningful reason for being part of the party, AND it’s a reasonably consistent way of explaining the secrecy of this facility, the whacky experiments therein, and why this hidden outpost is being attacked by Reptoids. It also allows for interesting story differences between your PC clones and android/SROs.
I’m still not sue what you mean by target machine, would the vending machine work?
Thanks for the suggestions!
By target machine, I meant the machine the Greys want to replace with the SRO. Like, maybe there is a very specific non-sentient robot working near the Starstone reactor the they want to replace with something under their control.
I love your idea of connecting pre-Gap lore with the eternal Grays vs Reptoids war, by the way.
