Solstice Rain Nodes & Clues

I now have a better understanding of the main villain of Solstice Rain and the resources at his disposal. Next, I want to provide my players with clues to understand, locate, and thwart VSAF deployments in Nov Elysia. To this end, I will break down Solstice Rain into nodes and revelations, and match them with clues to drive player exploration.

Step 1: Identify the Nodes and Revelations of Solstice Rain

Firstly, I want to identify the major “nodes,” or points of interest, of Operation Solstice Rain. To clarify, these points of interest aren’t always locations; sometimes they’re people or objects, too! By determining these nodes, I can decouple them from the module’s expected linear narrative. Following this, I can create a narrative sandbox of nodes for the players to explore, with the order of exploration developing organically through roleplay. To enumerate, Solstice Rain’s primary points of interest are its combat encounters and downtime scene:

Kirmani Plaza (Combat 1: It’s Not the Fall…)
Downtown Nov Elysia (Beat 1: On the Move… and Combat 2: Look Both Ways)
Train Depot (Beat 2: Broken Sky and Combat 3: Downpour)
Jamming Transmitter (Combat 4: Clear the Air)
Harbor (Beat 3: Bootleg Play and Combat 5: Leviathan)
Kiros & the Furies (Beat 4: Nemesis Pyre and Combat 6: Wake the Furies)
FOB Saber (Downtime: FOB Saber)

In the text, the jamming transmitter and Kiros’s team lack a clearly defined location. Therefore, I take some creative liberties: VSAF deployed the jamming transmitter in from a residential radio broadcast tower, and Kiros’s team loosely operates around the Hall of Consuls. (To be clear, I don’t need to assign a concrete location to Kiros’s team to make them discoverable. Nevertheless, knowing roughly where the Furies hunt will give me ammunition for clues later.)

Revelations from Nodes – And Mysteries

“Revelations” are simply conclusions I wish my players to reach. In the case of Solstice Rain, I want my players to explore Nov Elysia to find their missing allies. As such, my “revelations” are practically “how do I find this node?” Thus, Kirmani Plaza and FOB Saber aren’t true “revelations,” as they don’t require clues to discover. The PCs crash land in the plaza, and Rio can tell them exactly where FOB Saber is. Therefore, I will re-frame the remaining points of interest as discoveries to be made:

Downtown Nov Elysia – “Civilian evacuation clogs downtown.”
Train Depot – “Anti-air forces occupy the train depot.”
Jamming Transmitter – “High-tech Vestans jam comms from a broadcast center.”
Harbor – “The Vestan invasion originated from the Harbor.”
Kiros & the Furies – “Vestan elite forces hunt for diplomats.”

Besides these, I do want to include two more revelations, unrelated to the nodes, to seed future investigation:

An extremist sect of the VSAF has staged a coup against the Vestan government.
TARTARUS is secret project designed to encase Cressidium in an impenetrable blinkshield, isolating it from Union and any other extraplanetary threats.

These revelations are more like “enigmas”; each clue points at a smaller part of the larger conspiracy, but don’t necessarily paint a complete picture. Although these enigmas are not essential to the module, hinting at them may provide additional depth to the world of Cressidium.

NOTE: Originally, I considered defining TARTARUS as a secret, high-security VSAF prison. However, after some discussion with other GMs on Pilot NET, I came up with the “planet-scale blinkshield device” approach. While this approach may require some (limited) massaging to fit with the still-in-playtest Operation Winter Scar, I loved the villainous, over-the-top nature of such a project as a physical metaphor for the VSAF’s isolationist policies. Feel free to discard this version of TARTARUS if an alternative approach benefits your table.

Step 2: Match Clues to the Revelations

With revelations in hand, I want to provide three clues to each revelation I want my players to discover. These clues will ensure that the players always have another lead to explore among the nodes. To accomplish this, I will draw inspiration from my revised combat encounters and RATS analysis of Kiros. My target is for each revelation to have three clues pointing to it, and for each node to have at least three clues pointing to a different node.

Downtown Nov Elysia – “Civilian evacuation clogs downtown”

1st Lieutenant Kim provides a hopeful lead that Farris and Bannerjee (or someone who saw them) escaped to Downtown (post-Combat 1 briefing).
After the PCs stop the jamming transmitter, they receive distress signals from the LSA militia stationed Downtown (Node 4: Jamming Transmitter).
Nilan Bannerjee, once rescued, requests the PCs assist the evacuation efforts in Downtown to ensure the safety of the populace (Node 6: Kiros & the Furies).

Train Depot – “Anti-air forces occupy the train depot”

1st Lieutenant Kim reports anti-aircraft missiles originating from a train depot, hindering reinforcements from the Rio Grande (post-Combat 1 briefing).
A witness fleeing from the train station saw Vestan forces launch a surprise attack from the nearby river. Curiously, a column with shimmering tactical camouflage split from the arriving anti-air team (Node 2: Downtown).
Captain Farris remarks that the Anti-Aircraft battalion will hamper ground-to-orbit extraction for herself and Bannerjee (Node 5: Harbor).

Jamming Transmitter – “High-tech Vestans jam comms from a broadcast center”

1st Lieutenant Kim mentions that communications without an omnihook are jammed. It’s not clear where the jamming signal originates from, but it has to be somewhere in the city (post-Combat 1 briefing, half a clue, requires proactive investigation).
The Specter at the train depot has different battalion markers than the rest of the Anti-Air team. In addition, its cloaking technology resonates with a distinct, trackable energy signature (Node 3: Train Depot).
At dawn of the second day, scouts from the Rio Grande pinpoint the jammer’s source to a residential broadcast center (Node 7: FOB Saber).
Plans extracted from Colonel Kiros or his team detail the location and high-tech loadout of the Jamming Team (Node 6: Kiros & the Furies).

Harbor – “Vestan invasion originated from the Harbor”

Civilians fled from the harbor as VSAF mechs poured out, but saw that VSAF prison transports were arriving at the harbor (Node 2: Downtown).
After the PCs disable the jammer, intercepted VSAF communications mention that “the Furies” secured the LSA representatives, who will be used “as leverage to buy time for TARTARUS.” “That Union captain” will be on the next submarine; the VSAF hope to convince the “Union scum” to leave with a POW exchange (Node 4: Jamming Transmitter).
During a breakfast briefing at FOB Saber, scouts report that the VSAF’s initial attack was amphibious. VSAF forces used submersible vehicles to deploy a main force at the harbor and specialized teams from the river (Node 7: FOB Saber).

Kiros & the Furies – “Vestan elite forces hunt for diplomats”

Civilians lament how they never thought a “Kiros Incident” would happen in Nov Elysia (Node 2: Downtown).
Eavesdropping or interrogating the Anti-Air team catches chatter regarding the Rainmaker’s envy of “the Colonel’s laser cannon.” They lament how the Furies are wasting its dropship-destroying potential while searching for “those Union reps” (Node 3: Train Depot).
LSA reports of a mech that “slips through space, with a wicked plasma rifle” roaming the Hall of Consuls and capturing diplomats (Node 4: Jamming Transmitter).
Colonel Kiros personally captured Captain Farris and handed her off to a prisoner transport. Farris recognizes him, and can provide his name and combat doctrine once rescued (Node 5: Harbor).

“VSAF staged a coup”

On the way to Nov Elysia, the PCs’ dropship pilot mentions off-hand that the Vestan Sovereignty representatives are running late to the morning negotiations. “Bus must’ve broken down,” they say (pre-Combat 1).
Sorvan Kiros is a hardline, anthrochauvinistic zealot. The LSA attributed many clandestine sabotage ops to him and his Furies, despite denial of responsibility from Vestan representatives (Captain Farris, post-Combat 5).
Vestan representatives were reportedly on the way to negotiations when the VSAF invasion started. However, contact was lost and the representatives were never found.

“TARTARUS is a secret project to imprison Cressidium”

A civilian laments how they never thought a “Kiros Incident” would happen in Nov Elysia, referencing mention several catastrophes surrounding sabotaged LSA space programs (this ties into the latest draft of Operation Winter Scar, currently in playtest)
VSAF transmissions recovered from the jamming transmitter mention leveraging captured LSA and Union diplomats to convince the “Union scum” to leave and “buy more time for TARTARUS” (Node 4: Jamming Transmitter).
Scans of Kiros’s mech indicate it uses a “miniaturized EREBUS power supply,” whose specs frequently reference a project called “TARTARUS.” Weirdly enough, the specs seem to originate from an unlisted Omninet node in the Republic of Okasnia. (Node 6: Kiros & the Furies).

Step 3: Using the Clues

My “revelation list” of clues serves as a checklist of information my players can discover in the setting. With it, I can tell at a glance what information my players might still need to progress. These clues are not wedded to their nodes, nor are they the only clues I can offer! Additional clues may emerge from play itself; one of the best sources of these improvisational clues are random encounters. In my next post, I will delve into creating a Nov Elysia point crawl that the PCs can comb for their allies and the clues to find them — including random encounters that will breathe life into the setting and provide additional opportunities for presenting clues.