Let's Make a Deal?

[plot description by original author]

The Hook, Line and Sinker format appeared in SHADIS magazine:

Hook: The current location or situation of the party.
Line: The situation which introduces the side-adventure.
Sinker: The twist, or what is unknown to the party, and the result.

HOOK: The PCs are space traders with [one of two enemy nations. They] have been doing well, cruising between the stars and exploiting the wild interplanetary differences of supply and demand.

LINE: The PCs are hired to ship several tons of refined durillium ore from [a planet in the first nation] to [a planet in the enemy nation]. They are to exchange this ore for crates of an innovative new twisting puzzle called "Greer's Sphere."

They are assured that this is a simple barter which minimizes probing by [the enemy nation's] customs. Landing and spaceport control seem uneventful.

SINKER: Surprisingly, the [enemy nation] is not the problem to expect. The PCs will find that their contact to make the exchange, an alien named Kralik, is not there, nor is his place of business. As the PCs investigate, their [contacts in the first nation] reveal that Kralik is wanted by the [enemy nation] -- but not by the usual political branch opposing [the first nation's] activity. The [enemy nation's] research branch wants Kralik, for reasons which are "classified." The PCs will be even more astonished when the [first nation's citizens] later withdraw their aid in finding Kralik, and their. . .superiors had ordered this for reasons which are even MORE classified!

With the help of Kralik's friends and associates, the PCs will gather clues and eventually stumble upon a secret society working for a new alien race, the INTERSTITIALS. These are so-named because they live on huge colony ships reminiscent of the TV show BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, which are drifting between the stars, unseen, at sublight speeds. Other spacefaring races have never contacted the Interstitials, because their faster-than-light ships jump from star to star, and it never occurs to them that anything would lie between those stars.

The Interstitials shun any contact with planets, but maintain a small trade in vital ores in exchange for various exotic products of their culture, such as the "Greer's Spheres."

They do this through small faster-than-light ships which contact various blinds and fronts, including Kralik, who was ordered to steal a crate from the [enemy nation's] research facility which contained the frozen remains of an Interstitial pilot who crashed. Kralik stole the crate and hid it, but was scanned doing so and is now in hiding.

This HLS [i.e. Hook, Line and Sinker presentation] was designed to yank the players from a routine game of trade and peaceful money-making. The Interstitials have momentous political and military implications, especially since they are slowly drifting from [the first nation's space] into [the enemy nation's] space. Both sides have a crash program of covert intelligence-gathering, and the PCs are caught in the middle.

Their wisest course would be to walk away, but curiosity and stubbornness about the deal may cause them to be recruited into the Interstitials' trade network despite themselves.