Editing Blue Giant:Scenario Brain Food (section)

==Events==


===Action===

'''Stampede'''; Soon after the PCs arrive at the corporate base, the base will receive a distress call from a downed flyer. The cattle are stampeding and the flyer is in the way. This is to give the PCs a first sight of the size of the cattle. If they rescue the cowboys or investigate the stampede, they will discover that there was no obvious reason for it to occur. There are no Agrosaur tracks and no sign of settlers. The reason for the stampede is that the cattle didn't want to be rounded up for slaughter.

'''Agrosaur attack'''; During the investigations, either near a sea or in the canyons, an Agrosaur will attack the PCs. The PCs can solve this in the usual manner or run, hide or outwit it.

'''Cowboys V Settlers'''; The settlers make a tidy profit selling liquor to the cowboys. (The company has a strict no alcohol policy.) The cowboys get mean and drunk and decide to have a go at the rustlers. ie any settler in town and in their blurry field of vision.

'''Sabotage'''; If the PCs are going out onto the plains, the company will obviously provide appropriate vehicles, which for reasons of poor maintenance or sabotage will break down at least half a days hike from the nearest 'barn' with a transmitter.

'''Agrosaur V Cows V PCs V Cowboys V Terrain'''; The cattle are hiding out in caves in the canyons near the settlement. When the PCs discover their location, three Agrosaurs will be closing in for a meal, the cowboys will be coming to get the herd back and the cattle are going to make a run for it. All at the same time.


===Role Play===

'''The Settlers viewpoint'''; Jaamal Riddle speaks for the town, his brother is the sheriff and his cousin is the barman. As far as he is concerned, the settlers do not steal cattle any more, while there were a couple of incidents in the past, he put a stop to it. He blames missing cattle on either drunken cowboys, canyons, Agrosaurs, mismanagement or off world pirates. He has no proof of any of these things, and indeed he doesn't think he needs any. He will switch from one excuse to the next whenever the PCs disprove his current theory. Jaamal doesn't want the cattlemen to leave, it would set the settlement back, but things are getting iffy and it is his signature on the lease.

'''The Offworld Ranching Corporation Managers Viewpoint'''; Frankie McGill insists that cattle cannot just up and dissapear, something or someone must be taking them. Agrosaurs are the only indigenous wildlife big enough to do this and the cattle have ''been enhanced to be smart enough to avoid them''. There are 'barns' - Agrosaur proof domes scattered across the ranch and the cattle make for them at the first sign of trouble. All the Agrosaurs in the area were tagged and the cattle herds receive transmitted warnings whenever one comes near.

If the PCs don't think of it then a minor company official or ranch hand will suggest that an untagged Agrosaur could have strayed into the territory, but the management will not consider this until the PCs go out and find such a beast.

'''The Offworld Ranching Corporation Troubleshooter Viewpoint'''; 'This facility has a substantial investment behind it, manpower, time, research, ''genetic research''. My analysis shows that if this company were to leave this planet the local economy would collapse...' yada, yada, yada, money stuff. Dutton will argue from law and insist the PCs investigate and catch/exterminate the thieves. He may even offer the PCs a bribe if he thinks he can get away with it.

'''A big boy did it'''; Benjam Panzani has been hanging around the cattle herds nearest the settlers home, just doing kid stuff. He noticed that the cows seemed to be talking to each other, and with his genetic aptitude for languages soon began to understand them, then talk to them. It was he who let slip what happens to the cows when they go to the corporate slaughter yards. Benjam doesn't want the cows to be eaten and will lie, dissuade and obfuscate the facts as well as any 'nearly ten' year old can. Favourite lies include; 'I saw two cowboys there'. 'Ol' Snaptooth - the big grey agrosaur was here', and the perennial 'A big boy did it and ran away.'

'''The cattle are what???'''; Once it is discovered that the cattle are sentient, what do the PCs do with them? 


===Problems===

'''Forensics'''; There is no forensic evidence to prove any of the conflicting theories whatsoever. A search of the town shows nothing, a search of the corporate base, including computer records shows nothing. All the agrosaurs in the region are accounted for. Sensor scans show nothing because the corporate sensors are rubbish, and the cattle hid themselves under a mile of rocky caves made from a rare sensor blocking ore called Braggaium.

Benjam has been taking foodstuff to the cattle, they can't graze in a cave. He's been using one of the colonial self-loading ground vehicles, a caterpillar tractor ''(So simple a kid could use it.)'' at night, which will have some grass and grain debris in the back. Staking out the vehicle is easy.

Tracking is impossible because the grass the beasts feed on grows rapidly, obscuring tracks after an hour or two.


===Flexibility===

'''Understudies'''; If the PCs kill off a main character in a fit of pique, don't worry too much. Managers have assistant managers and colonists have political rivals. Simply introduce a very cautious or very grateful replacement and get on with the story, but dock the CP reward at the end of the story, no-one needs killing in this scenario.

'''Dumbass Players'''; If the players don't pick up on a point, forget about it. Send them on a wild goose chase, involving a brawl or protesters outside the facility. When the PCs return dusting their hands the next person they want to talk to will have left to check out the plot hook, leaving the PCs to follow. If they still don't get it, have a lonely longhorn (it got left behind) come up to them and keep mooing at them until they get it.

Be prepared to change the scenario to suit the investigation. It could be settlers after all. It could be stealth agrosaurs, or it could be another corporation messing about.

===Presentation===

Focus on the false leads to start with, avoid drawing attention to the cleverness of the cattle. Don't even mention that the cattle are enhanced until the PCs see one up close and then concentrate on telling the PCs how the enhancements don't spoil the flavour.

Have the manager feed them all steaks the first time they visit.

Build up the players hopes for each false lead before letting them disprove it.