Sometimes things just spin off from something; I began a minor writeup of the company Xiàncài and ended up with a potential patron, some adventure ideas and a colorful NPC. Xiàncài Information infrastructure auditing and certification company based in Extropia. Many companies stretch across the solar system, sending sensitive data – financial information, reputations, egos, nanotech blueprints – that must retain its integrity. Without guarantees of the integrity and proper handling of the information the customers would not want to use them. Xiàncài checks that the digital security is up to spec, providing a certification of sensitive data handling. It also provides various information security services, from design of advanced encryption logistics to devious ways of hunting down hackers. The company has expanded tremendously since Bartolome Shapaja, an ex-Jovian security specialist founded it shortly after the Fall. It is now one of the bigger ones in the IIA business, especially in the Belt and outer system. Mr Sharpaja sold off his stocks in 8 AF to various Extropian and lunar banks, using the proceedings to set up his Praxidike Foundation. He still maintains a few mostly ceremonial functions in the company. When Mr Shapaja sold most of his shares to in 8 AF, he gained a fortune he has used to set up the Praxidike Foundation, an anti-Fall criminal and anti-Junta foundation working to sabotage their activities across the solar system. Praxidike Foundation Foundation based in Extropia, promoting ‘Bringing crimes against transhumanity to justice’. While one of the bigger charitable foundations on Extropia it maintains a rather low profile. It is mostly visible as a staunch supporter of the Fall Justice Foundation and Democratic Jupiter Campaign. It is actually supporting a wide variety of activities: when Mr Shapaja founded it he took a broad view of what constitutes a crime. One of the major focuses is acting against the Jovian Junta. This is partially personal: Shapaja had to flee Jovian space during the coup, and has never forgiven the coup-makers. The foundation sponsors not just the usual anti-Jovian groups, but also various direct action groups that attempt to undermine the grip of the Junta, sabotage its military and economic activities, and counter the widespread Jovian intelligence networks. It also supports egohunters and mercenaries bringing ‘criminals against transhumanity’ to justice – be they Fall criminals, egotrading triads or governments that mistreat their citizens by limiting their freedoms. It has channeled funds to Barsoomian groups and secessionists within the Planetary Consortium. Most supported groups do not know where the money comes from: Praxidike employs some very clever legal and economic advisors, and makes excellent use of the lack of economic transparency on Extropia and Luna. Several groups have even been mildly misled, thinking they get support from entirely different sides: the Red Devils on Mars think they have Jovian support, the Arcas rebels on Callisto think they have support from a fraction of liberals within the Republic. The Jovian intelligence services know that Praxidike is an enemy and do their best to undermine and discredit the group – mainly as a cover for their real attempts to infiltrate it to find the true identities of their agents. Planetary consortium intelligence agencies are also doing their best to deal with the foundation: it has been very successful in making enemies. While the initial endowment from Shapaja was huge, the foundation is burning through it at an alarming rate. Several members of the board are worried that it will dissipate within a few years if the current campaigns are not stepped down, but Shapaja is insistent: if large parts of the solar system are unfree in the near future when he expects far more powerful and dangerous technologies of oppression, then they may never become free. He is also doing it as a safeguard: the more wealth he has distributed to resistance groups, the less important the foundation itself becomes. Adventure ideas Characters who are ego-hunters, investigators, rebels or other kinds of useful troublemakers might be sponsored or hired by the Foundation or its cut-outs to do all sorts of jobs. Catching Fall criminals, investigating Jovian abuses, unmasking PC election fraud, smuggling weapons and equipment to rebel groups, pirating Jupiter’s spacelanes, producing memetic propaganda or assassinating pro-repression gerontocrats – almost anything is possible. The Foundation makes a great hidden Patron, often appearing to be something different from what it truly is. Firewall has run afoul of the Foundation: a few of its operations have been viewed as crimes against transhumanity, and now the Foundation sponsors a hunt for the perpetrators that could be most troublesome. PCs could be the hunted after a mission, they could be sent by Firewall to uncover who is behind the hunt, and/or they could be tasked with secretly contacting the Foundation and showing them evidence of just why that habitat *needed* nuking. An enemy agent has caught some sensitive files from the Foundation, encoded as an encrypted pattern inside an object. There is now a race to find the agent and the files before he can copy them and transmit them home – this could mean life and death for many brave resistance fighters. This could be an action-filled race across the 3D cityscape of Nova York, a paranoid noir story on Extropia (“The Extropian Falcon”?) or a paranoid techno-thriller where agents switch bodies and fork in order to smuggle files in their own brains (“The Third Fork”?). And what if the files are actually evidence of Foundation wrongdoing? Not all of those supported groups are on the side of angels. Bartolome has been assassinated again (it happens from time to time). As usual his counter-kidnapping implants prevented any ego-ripping and made this a somewhat messy departure. However, this time the weapon interfered with the encryption of his emergency egocaster – his ego was transmitted but could not be decrypted. His backup copy from yesterday knows that he would have received some very important face-to-face information just before the assassination, information that he has to get. To make things worse, the most likely assassin appears to be one of his ex-wives. Can the PCs catch her and figure out what is going on? And what if the weapon made it possible to intercept the egocast to make an illicit fork? Can it be found before all the mental defenses Bartolome has breaks, and it spills sensitive information? An unexpected benefactor has appeared, promising massive funding to the Praxidike Foundation. However, Bartolome is suspicious – exactly who or *what* is this benefactor? He recruits the PCs, being completely outside of his normal contact network and actually selected more or less at random, to find things out while he negotiates. Bartolome Shapaja Extropian security magnate. Born in Lima, he graduated as a software security specialist from the Defion Academia de Seguridad. His career as a contractor brought him first to Earth orbit and then to the Jovian system, where he worked with various projects related to the Noumenon Inc. installations. During the Fall he participated in the infowar side by side with several people who would later become integral in the Jovian Republic. When the coup occurred he instead sided with the resistance forces. Always an outspoken critic of authoritarianism he was quickly targeted and killed, but he had a backup on Extropia. On Extropia he founded Xiàncài together with his friend and colleague Jean-Luc Foresby. Making use of their expertise and the rapid expansion outwards of inter-polity trade during the rebuilding after the Fall they became rich. While Jean-Luc stayed with the company (he is now CEO) Bartoleme sold his stock in order to fight for freedom full-time using the Praxidike Foundation. Bartoleme is headstrong, dedicated and outspoken. While he fits in great with Extropian high society he is a difficult person to work with. His in uncompromising in his views on transhuman freedom and the illegitimacy of most governments, often to the extent that he can be totally unreasonable. Many expect him to disappear from the scene sooner or later, yet another burning idealist heading towards a crash. But in the meantime he is the center of a circle of “revolutionaries” wanting to export the Extropian model to the rest of the solar system. A practicing catholic, he is one of the main donors to the Our Lady of the Heavens cathedral of Extropia. While being a benefactor to the church he maintains a stormy relationship to the clergy, especially after his multiple divorces. Democratic Jupiter Campaign A NGO attempting to make the Jovian Republic respect civil rights, democracy and morphological freedom. DJC does its best to document and disseminate evidence for the Republic’s crimes against its citizens, give what help it can (from moral support to secret information transmissions) to the Jovian citizens, and lobby various polities and hypercorps to pressure the Junta. Widely dispersed, it has official headquarters at Ceres but active members system-wide. It is mildly successful as a NGO: while most polities agree that the Junta is loathsome and may do symbolic acts against it, few are willing to make any drastic steps. Many members are also paranoid, expecting Jovian (or other) infiltrators to the extent that they sabotage their own efforts. Still, as a clear voice directed against the Junta the DJC does have reputational pull and manages to annoy the Junta fairly well.