Discovery In The Wilds

I've put up a lot of chatter over the past few days about the complication for the next mission, but very little about the primary plot advancement: what do the players find out in the wilds of Montana that reveals more of the narrative of the campaign. Given that this part of the story is Clark's plot, it is particularly important for him to be engaged in what we find. Fortunately, Cameron gave me a fail-safe way to interest him in particular: Branths.

I have yet to decide exactly how to bring up the existence of Branths in Montana. My first thought is to have the very astute Dr. Clark Cameron find solid clues as to the existence of Branths at the lost campsite, but stop short of actually having such a creature appear in the session. His find, again, would likely be interrupted by the aforementioned arrest attempt. That will allow me to stretch the Bioweapons arc one session as the party tries to track the particular Branth they now know to be on the loose in Montana.

The other option is to have them find the remains of a Branth in the wild. This might carry more direct emotional payload, but would have rather less tension before the actual reveal, and that makes me less favorable to this option.

Now that I'm thinking it through, I could parry the hunt for the Branth with dealing with an outbreak of the Alarion plague in the Montanan or Albertan outbacks, either directly involving the players or as a backdrop to a session. That might be very exciting. I should go watch Outbreak again...