183: Bear Safari

ENTRY 183: Bear Safari

On Gerlach, an O’Neill cylinder orbiting Venus, there is a single solid ring of the habitat that is off-limits to most visitors, though the transparent aluminum walls display a mix of carefully-cultivated forest and savannah. Only fifty meters wide, the ring of greenery is little more than an arboreal tunnel, like a small section of old Earth sliced off and brought around in a circle—most tourists can only stand and stare at the verdant growth, and perhaps get a peek at the residents of that small, strange stretch of land.

They stand on two legs, though they only grow to a maximum height of a meter, and their claws and fangs are tiny things, the paws modified into crude opposable thumbs, and with wide eyes on their expressive faces. A range of fur colors and patterns have been noted, some of which are distinctly unnatural (light purple, pale green, and pink being most notable, not to mention the infamous “Checkered Ted”). The BearWatch network believes that they are sub-sentient, and probably genetic chimerae combining aspects of koala, panda, and lemur. They are adorable. And they are hunted.

The Bear Safari is a game preserve, and their specialty is a short bipedal mammal which resemble nothing so much as a giant teddy bear. Given that the safari is located inside a populated station, some restrictions on weaponry apply, mainly kinetic and projectile weapons, though at least a few uplifted customers prefer a more “hands on” kill. Strict limits are applied to how many are killed, and the time period a group is allowed in, and the “Teds” are of course not restricted in how they can respond—there have been a few fatalities where hunters underestimated their prey and fell to fangs and claws. Any customer that does kill a Ted gets their carcass, which can be rendered in the Bear Safari office to separate pelt, meat, and skeleton. An average hunt for a single Ted starts at 10,000 credits.

Standard Ted Stats

Teds are not sentient but are intelligent animals, about on par with un-uplifted chimpanzees. They tend to be very territorial and will react aggressively to anyone entering their hunting grounds or near their lairs, which are often “nests” created at the base of trees. They are omnivorous and diurnal, mainly subsisting on insects and small animals that the Bear Safari keepers release each day. Each is tagged so that its movements may be tracked.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
6	6	6	20	20	12	8	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
5	2	16	2	32	20	6	30

Skills: Climbing 37, Fray 33, Free Fall (Microgravity) 26, Perception (Smell) 55, Scrounging 24, Spray Weapons (Urine) 25*, Unarmed Combat 45

Traits: Claw/Fang Attack (1d10 DV, use Unarmed Combat skill), Danger Sense, Enhanced Smell, Enhanced Taste, Enhanced Vision, Pain Tolerance (2)

* Teds may spray urine up to five meters away; a successful hit does no damage, but marks the target so that other Teds can easily distinguish them through their sense of smell.

Seed

• “Old Ted” is the most hardened survivor of the Bear Safari, a scarred silver-furred veteran of eighteen hunts who had pulled down and partially devoured over twenty flats and splicers that have ventured into the “forest.” An online petition has asked for the Bear Safari to retire Old Ted, and the Bear Safari appears to be considering it. However, an uplift rights group believes that Old Ted is in fact an uplift—which would make the entire Bear Safari venture illegal. To prove this, the group needs someone to venture into the Bear Safari and capture Old Ted so that he can be subject to a battery of intelligence tests. If the PCs accept, they’ll find that perhaps the hunters have become the prey.