Player hook is here
Mission Objectives:
- Track down the asteroid
- board it and clear the facility
- Discover and destroy the X-Threat (if there is one) that knives was working on.
- Capture or destroy Doctor Knives
- Salvage any resources/assets aboard the asteroid
GM Notes for Mission:
Using this guide: I tried my best to include as much explanation and a set of ‘base’ checks for every situation in the story. That being said, I would encourage GM’s to modify the checks, allow players to improvise and add checks where necessary. The stats for the various morphs involved have, at times, been modified, usually to add to the flavor of the game(being an iron morph variant).
The asteroid is meant to be open world, meaning that players can go anywhere they want in any order, without affecting the end result. So I’ve tried to separate each level/section on a separate page, so GM’s can easily navigate between sections without confusion. Checks are always indented and in bold, followed with the outcome/reason/and other relevant information. And general information is denoted with a dash.
Backstory and flavor:
About Dr. Knives (not known to players in beginning): Dr Knives is in actually a member of the lost generation and was unfortunate enough to have been kept in simul space for the subjective time equivalent of 30 years (approximately 5 years objective time). After escaping from simul space, Dr. Knives became obsessed with the TITANS and convinced that he was well on the way to becoming their equal (he had learned some very strange things in simul space). Knives has a habit of creating 20-30 alpha forks and sending all of them to work on a specific task. But Knives is also psychotic, and many of his forks refuse to remerge with him, and in a few occasions, have forced him to merge with them. Because of this behavior, it didn’t take long for the Knives to discover that the militant Jovians would be an easy target for manipulation and would likely fund his research. After discovering this, Knives remerged (sometimes by force) all of his Forks and then created a beta fork to give himself psycho surgery, making him less psychotic (emphasis on less). He then purchased a basic biomorph, sleeved into it, and continued to infiltrate the Jovian military, under the guise of a tech security expert.
Under the Jovian Regime, Knives was employed on a project to create a super hack that could disable even the most advanced synth morphs, giving the Jovians an edge in combat. In reality Knives used all the resources the Jovians let him have towards his work on the Never Alone virus, and fed the Jovian Military a couple tricks to keep them happy. During the course of his work for the Jovians, Knives grew to despise the Jovians and their xenophobic ways. He saw them as an anchor on transhumanity’s potential and decided he would make it his mission to bootstrap himself into every Jovian citizen and force them into the fold, as it were, as forks of Knives…
The Tricks he sold to the Jovians over the course of his employment with them (over a year) were:
- A very interesting synthmorph hack that immobilizes the morph for a short length of time
- A deciphering tool that helps to hack into tactical networks.
About the TITAN Basilisk Hack: Codenamed ‘Never Alone’, the hack was actually discovered by Knives near the remains of New Mumbai. Knives discovered a corpse lying on the ground, and found an intact cortical stack. After inserting the ego into an air-gapped simul space, he (being a fucking maniac) hopped inside of the simul space, only to be basilisk hacked himself. But something strange happened. The hack turned him into himself; with a partition containing him passively watching as he controlled his body (i.e. there became to ego’s in the same brain, the original and one created by the hack). After deliberation he decided to research the hack and learned this about it: The terrifying thing about the hack is that it compressed data in such an advanced way that it was able to express an entire ego’s worth of information through a basilisk hack, essentially allowing for the rewriting of entire portions of the brain/cyberbrain.
Never Alone: After being hacked by Never Alone, a player becomes an alpha fork of Knives, specifically knives from whenever he last infected someone, alongside of carrying all of the attributes from their own ego. The ego themselves are not ‘killed’, but instead become a passive observer inside his or her ego, with access to all sensory input and are still backed up as part of the source code of the new player’s hacked ego, but without the ability to interact with anything.
Dual Hack: After tinkering with the Basilisk Hack, knives reworked the infection parameters of the virus, to help him dissolve the Jovian Republic. He split the hack into a Primer and the hack. The Primer comes in the form of a biological threat (making infecting synthmorphs impossible) and the hack itself, which could now infect through electronic contact with an infected network (mesh). This means that being infected with only one of the aspects of the hack wouldn’t activate the hack, giving knives control over the hack (or rather when to activate it). It also made it harder to detect the hack, as his original plan was to smuggle the hack into the Jovian republic, infected with the biological parameter and carrying the electronic one on an ecto. On their own, each parameter of the hack is seemingly benign, the biological infection being a subtle virus that it doesn’t even trigger medichines, and requires advanced testing to look for (though the infected has no symptoms, so there isn’t much reason to check). the electronic one showing up as corrupted a/v feed if viewed.
Crowdsourcing in Simul Space: Besides the horror of being a passive witness to one’s own life, the hack was modified by Knives to create a sort of collective conscious that only works when multiple Never Alone hacked egos share the same simul space. These egos are stripped of all aspects of free will and become devoted nodes in simul space for running simulations more effectively, essentially boosting the computing power of the simul space, and contributing whatever skills they may have to add to the task they’re being used for. This tweak, and a large enough pool of infected egos, gives the controller, knives, the ability to run massive simulations at extremely high speeds, allowing him to develop technologies that could take decades in other conditions, in a matter of hours.
About Never Alone’s origin: Never Alone was a basilisk hack that was being rendered at the time of the nuke drop in Neo-Mumbai. Because it had not finished being rendered, the virus existed as blank; I.e. all the intended infection parameters had been set, as well as some of the intended commands list had been set, but the virus lacked a purpose, an overarching goal. The original purpose of the unfinished hack that became Never Alone as well as how the dead biomorph came to house the unfinished virus on its stack, are lost to history, as the atomic bomb dropped on neo Mumbai eradicated any chance of learning more. Knives seemed to have triggered the virus when he entered simul space with the infected ego, and been hacked himself. The hack executed successfully, isolating his ego and making it a passive observer in his own mind, but didn’t have the blueprints ready for the replacement, resulting in the virus using his ego as the source code for the ego replacement, and the reason why the skills of the original morph remain intact (i.e. the fork gains all your memories!).
Mission Start: On Board Griff’s Smuggling rig.
-Players meet each other.
-Griff gives mission briefing/any info players want/need
-Time to reach Asteroid: 1 week
-Griff hands out laser communication arrays.
Checks:
1) Research: Neo-Anarchists background
2) Networking -20: Knives is from the moon and may be lost program
3) Kinesics -30: Griff is hiding something
- a) Persuasion (or other relevant social skill)-30: Griff explains what he has heard about Knives research. Mentions Knives assistant/second in arms.
4) Investigation Check: Griff is older than he looks…
Arrive at Asteroid: Players will see the Asteroid and the habitat in orbit around the Asteroid.
-Griff will instruct the players that he cannot land on the asteroid, the gravity well is too great.
-Griff also gives players a Q.E. communicator that they can use to keep in contact with him during the mission.
Checks:
Astrophysics or other relevant skill: The Habitat will break orbit from the asteroid, given its unstable orbit.
Perception -30 (sight): the habitat doesn’t look like it has a propulsion system any longer.
Infiltration or other relevant skill -10: Griff could match orbital velocity with the hab and get much closer, allowing players to enter hab.
Intuition x3: Theres something wrong about the habitat.
Free-fall check (group only needs 1 success): Make jump to habitat’s surface
Sanity Check: failure= 1d10 stress. The depths of space are huge, and you’re a speck floating next to one of the largest bodies in the solar system.
The habitat: The surface of the habitat is covered in scum graffiti and there appears to be no signs of activity as the players land.
-Players land on the surface of the habitat
Somatics x3: make as little noise latching onto hull.
-Players may enter via the one entrance
-Interior has been spaced. But there is are strange white flecks floating around.
Perception -30 (sight, enhanced senses only): Those are skin cells.
-Visibility is greatly reduced and players cannot see more than 3 meters out. Interior is also pitch black.
Interfacing or Hardware Electronics: theres a weak wifi signal here, but its on the opposite end of the hab and far too much interference from the magnetosphere to access it outside of a meter or two.
Scrounging -0 or perception -20: The interior has been completely gutted. Even the basic wifi enabled hardware embedded into the hull have been scraped out.
-Towards the end of the massive main chamber is a locked doorway.
COMBAT: Infiltration vs. Sphere’s perception: Succeed or fail to hide as sphere opens fire upon doors opening.
| Iron variant Sphere Stats: DUR:25 Armor: 14/12 SPD: 2Initiative: 6Rail Machine Gun: 75 (85 Smartlink) (2d10+4, -9 AP) x2Fray: 60Infosec: 70
Perception: 50 |
Free Fall: 80*Destroyed when DUR reached*Completely made of iron, obvious to players after combat*Self destructs if hacked successfullyReward: ecto containing message and Asteroid entry points |
-After Combat:
-The sphere was made entirely of iron! Which is crazy, and seemingly impossible. Even the circuit boards appear to have been made of iron metamaterials (metamaterials being a material that does something that the original substance would never do naturally). This implies a tremendous amount of computing power and design ability, in order to design something as complex as a robot out of one element.
Stress Check: 1D10, as this would probably take someone with access to supercomputers thousands upon thousands of man hours just to design the morph, let alone how to construct one.
-There’s an ecto stuck to the side of the missing fusion core’s frame. It contains the following message:
A biomorph with heavy tats and blue hair looking down into the ecto: “This is fucking B.S. I didn’t leave the tyranny of the inner system just to be bossed around by some asshole Doctor. This fusion core is my baby. Who repaired her when everyone got drunk and had a gun fight in the core room? I did. And this guy wants to take her away? What the hell man?! How are we supposed to peace out before anyone comes looking for that fucking asteroid without a fusion generator?! Never should have left locus. I don’t even know what we’re doing here. If you’re the Jovian erasure squad that I assume you are, I’m including the location of the surface entrances to that damn ‘roid on this ecto. My name is Halen June. All I ask in return is that you kill me quick, stack and all, without any pain. I’m backed up back home. This is probably asking too much now, hell asking a Jovian for a painless total death is fucking asking too much, would you let my mom, Yuki June know I died; she lives on Luna and she’ll pay for the transmission costs. Otherwise it’ll be at least six months before my backup is resleeved.”
A voice over the intercom: “Halen… Where’s my energy… I’m sending one of my new toys to come and check on you…”
“Shit! Everyone’s been partying down on level two of the ‘roid. There’s only me and some asshole in here scraping the skin off his arm and just watching it float away. Fuckin’ masochist. Gotta go.”
-Players gain Asteroid external layout, with three access points: Mining H.Q., Docking bay, and emergency vents.
-Players now have three choices of how to proceed:
| Enter the Asteroid via Mine Control Center (Primary entrance, communication hub) | Enter the Asteroid via the docking port | Enter the asteroid via emergency vents. |
| Risk: Most likely to be guarded, above ground entrance, less cover | Risk: Most obvious entrance, not able to see into the dock until its been entered. Likely heavily guarded | Risk: Exact location is unknown, will have to survey asteroid surface near alleged vent locations to identify them. |
The Asteroid: The surface is pocked with small craters, it glints ever so slightly on either end, where its clear that there’s something reflective. The Asteroid is roughly one kilometer in diameter, made almost entirely of iron. It doesn’t possess a large enough gravity well to be spherical, but is slightly oblong. Because of the dense amount of iron, the asteroid is of great value to transhuman miners. The Asteroid also exerts enough gravity to allow for objects to notice the effects of gravity. Around 15-20% of Earth’s gravity.
-Players need to choose an entry point and then free fall down to it.
Free fall check -20 (asteroid is spinning): One player needs to make this check. If the players fail, do a percentile roll: 0-19%-Near Control Center, 20-39%-Close to a vent, 40-59% near the docking bay, 60-100%- Near the equator (gonna have to hoof it).
Control Center: Standing roughly twenty feet high atop the barren landscape of the asteroid, the control center allows for great visibility along the surface. The center has windows around all 360 degrees of view. There is one airlock at ground level. It doesn’t appear to be opened. There is a light source from within the tower, but its too faint to reveal what’s inside.
Infosec -10: To hack the door. Failure to hack the door results in 3 Spheres being deployed to the entrance, from the different directions. Hacking time: 1 minute. Can be attempted multiple times.
Demolitions +30: Alternatively the door can be blown, though that will space the entrance and let anyone/thing within that someone is knocking.–Invokes sphere x3 attack regardless.
Combat stats:
Sphere, Iron Variant Morphs: Stats
| Gunner: | Stealth: | Sniper: |
| Stats:DUR:30 Init: 8Armor: 15/18 SPD: 2 | Stats:DUR:20 Init: 6Armor: 8/8 SPD: 3 | Stats:DUR: 20 Init: 11Armor: 6/6 SPD: 2 |
| Skills:Fray: 40Free-Fall/Run: 50Infosec (defense): 60Perception: 35
Kinetic: 75 -Rail Machine gun ‘iron variant’ x2 (2nd -20) -2D10+4, -9 AP, SA/FA |
Skills:Fray: 70Free-fall/Run: 80Infosec: 65Perception: 50
Infiltration (with chameleon cloaking): 80 Kinetic: 60 -Rail Sub mach-gun x2 (2nd -20) -2D10+1, -4 AP, SA/BF/FA |
Skills:Fray: 30Free-Fall/Run: 30Infosec: 70Perception: 80
Infiltration: 40 Kinetic: 70 -Rail Sniper Rifle x1 -2D10+12, -15 AP, SA |
-Inside of the airlock, there is changing room, with 3 vac suits inside. The room is bare other than that. There is a ladder leading to the doorway to the upper deck.
Perception: regular success: theres something moving up there, MOS 30+ Its on the ceiling, MOS 50+ Its probably a turret. This check may still be made if the room is decompressed, but with a -30.
-Room has only the one entrance, but the windows outside do look breakable.
| Defensive Turret Stats:DUR: 50 Armor: 20/20Init: 7 SPD: 3 WT: 10 Moxie: 1*The Turret is stationary. | Skills:Perception: 60Infosec (defensive): 70Beam Weapon: 902D10+4, -2 AP, SA |
-After Combat: the room contains:
-2x Diamond Ax (2D10+3+(SOM/10)-3 AP)
-1x Mono filament Sword-Custom- Retractable (3D10+ Som/10, -5 AP)
-1x Shredder (2D10+5, -10 AP- SA,BF, FA), 100 Ammo
-The Room itself is full of obsolete tech. Its a giant communications hub, and was clearly run by Jovian miners, that were flats.
Interfacing +20: The Ships records include a detailed XP of the neo-anarchists attack. They came down via spindles, overwhelming the little security the mine had, and then attached their own hab’s ionic drive to the side of the asteroid and began slowly accelerating away from the asteroid belt. The hab was literally bolted to the asteroid and after being hauled into the magnetosphere, unbolted and fully scrapped, and left to drift around the asteroid.
Sanity Check: The video contains the graphic killing of several crew members, 1D10/2
-There is also a local Mesh. Players can choose to access it at will
Infosec or Intuition x3: accessing the mesh outside could alert others of the player’s presence.
Infosec -10: hack the mesh registry, hide players IP’s (be anonymous).
Infosec -10/-20: -10- Accessing the mesh puts everyone at risk of being hacked, -20- or even basilisk hacked.
-Accessing the mesh automatically infects players with the electronic component of the never alone virus/hack.
-Accessing the mesh will grant the players access to the layout of the whole mining facility.
-Aside from the useless communications array, there is a single lift off to one side. It is functional.
The Vents: The mining facility is equipped with an emergency venting system, in the event that the fusion reactor overheats. It extends the distance from the core to the surface, with access points on levels 1 and 3. The vents are about a meter in diameter and are sealed from external entry.
Perception (sight) -10: Locate a vent
Perception: notice one of the spheres in the distance (they patrol in a wide path around the vents)
Free Running or Infiltration: To reach the vent without attracting 3 spheres.
Interfacing (requires plugging in): The gate can be unlocked without detection, but opening the lid using its motors will alert the spheres.
Somatics x3: Lift the lid without detection from the spheres. Failure begins combat.
-Inside the vent, its pitch black and barely large enough for a person to fit into. There isn’t anywhere to go but forward.
Perception (touch based) -10: The vent is narrowing as they go down.
Sanity Check: being in the soundless narrow passage of the vent is very unnerving, 1D10/2
-After about 10 meters, there is mesh access. Players can choose to access it at will
Infosec or Intuition x3: accessing the mesh outside could alert others of the player’s presence.
Infosec -10: hack the mesh registry, hide players IP’s (be anonymous).
Infosec -10/-20: -10- Accessing the mesh puts everyone at risk of being hacked, -20- or even basilisk hacked.
-Accessing the mesh automatically infects players with the electronic component of the never alone virus.
-Accessing the mesh will grant the players access to the layout of the whole mining facility.
Perception (touch based): detect the vibrations of something coming towards them in the tunnel.
-The source of the vibrations is coming from an off-shoot of the vent, a much larger room
Infiltration -30: Sneak into room undetected
-Begin combat with a gunner and stealth sphere.
Sphere, Iron Variant Morphs: Stats
| Gunner: | Stealth: |
| Stats:DUR:30 Init: 8Armor: 15/18 SPD: 2 | Stats:DUR:20 Init: 6Armor: 8/8 SPD: 3 |
| Skills:Fray: 40Free-Fall/Run: 50Infosec (defense): 60Perception: 35
Kinetic: 75-Rail Machine gun ‘iron variant’ x2 (2nd -20) -2D10+4, -9 AP, SA/FA |
Skills:Fray: 70Free-fall/Run: 80Infosec: 65Perception: 50
Infiltration (with chameleon cloaking): 80 Kinetic: 60 -Rail Sub mach-gun x2 (2nd -20) -2D10+1, -4 AP, SA/BF/FA |
-After Combat:
-1x chameleon cloak
-2x Frag grenades (3D10+6, -4 AP)
-1x Mono filament Sword-Custom- Retractable (3D10+ Som/10, -5 AP)
-The other side of the offshoot has an airlock, leading to level 1. The vent does continue on, but becomes too narrow for a normal sized morph to continue down it.
The Docking Bay: The docking bay looks like a gash in the asteroid, as it is exposed to the vacuum of space. There isn’t sufficient ambient light to see any distance into the dock, but the report from the scummer claims it to be just over a 100 meters deep, with a slight decline from the edges to the middle.
-The players will have landed on the edge of the crater. Needing to hop the side in walk the distance from the edge of the crater to the interior.
Stress Check: As the players descend into the inky blackness of the crater, there is nothing to accompany them but the silence of their thoughts and the knowledge that nothing here wants them to be here. 1D10/2
Infiltration: Players may make a regular infiltration roll.
-Going further into the crater, there is an increasing amount of debris, and eventually large square blocks of mined iron; several tons of mass.
-The iron blocks can grant the players a cover bonus during combat.
-There are three spheres and a turret here. Roll perception once for all to see if players are detected.
Perception (sight based): Detect the spheres. MOS 30+ detect the turret.
-Players will notice the cargo transporter. It looks functional.
Investigation: If combat hasn’t started, players will notice as they get closer to the massive airlock at the center of the crater, that there isn’t a way to sneak around the turrets and the spheres without engaging in combat. MOS +40 or more, An ambush could be easily done.
-Combat
| Defensive Turret Stats:DUR: 50 Armor: 20/20 Init: 7 SPD: 3 WT: 10 Moxie: 1*The Turret is stationary. | Skills:Perception: 60Infosec (defensive): 70Beam Weapon: 902D10+4, -2 AP, SA |
-After combat:
-1x Mono filament Sword-Custom- Retractable (3D10+ Som/10, -5 AP)
-1x Plasma burst Grenade (3D10+10, -6 AP)
-2x diamond axes (2D10+3+Som/10, -3 AP)
-The airlock is locked
Infosec -30, access jacks only: unlock the airlock. Failure alerts two more spheres to the players location.
-Within 30 meters of the door, there is mesh access. Players can choose to access it at will
Infosec or Intuition x3: accessing the mesh outside could alert others of the player’s presence.
Infosec -10: hack the mesh registry, hide players IP’s (be anonymous).
Infosec -10/-20: -10- Accessing the mesh puts everyone at risk of being hacked, -20- or even basilisk hacked.
-Accessing the mesh automatically infects players with the electronic component of the never alone virus.
-Accessing the mesh will grant the players access to the layout of the whole mining facility.
-Inside the airlock, there is a vac suit room, containing five vac suits. Opposite the airlock is a lift. -Players may choose which level to go to.
Interior Levels: After accessing the elevator, open posts flood the mesh, saying simply:
“Welcome, I will wait for you on Level 2. -Benecio”
Level 1: Living Quarters: The elevator door sticks momentarily as it opens upon a bizarre scene. The living quarters consists of a large circular atrium lined with doors. The elevator is near the center of the atrium, surrounded with lounge chairs and tables. Currently there air is flooded with skin cells, though much less densely than the scum hab was. On the ground are roughly thirty people, all slouched against the outer wall of the room. Most of the doors to bunks are open and no one seems to stir as the elevator door opens and the players enter.
Perception: these people look malnourished and most have clearly soiled themselves. MOS30+: They are all drooling, clearly in cyberspace.
Infiltration: if players infiltrate successfully, Knives infecter.
-None of the morphs stir at all as players move amongst them.
Scrounging, Perception -30, Hardware Electronics -10, or similar knowledge skill: The cleaner swarm is still functional, so the skin cells must be constantly replenished.
-All of the users are showing up on the mesh, with mesh I.D.’s of: Knives+a two digit number.
Programming: If someone logs onto the mesh multiple times, the slave A.I. just adds a number to the end of the I.D., to avoid errors. So the numbers represent multiple logins from the same ego!
Sanity check: 1D10/2, as it begins to sink in that these morphs are all logged in as Knives, the same guy.
-Players may enter the simul space and see multiple variations of the same scene:
There’s a hallway, very grand, Old Earth History: It looks like something from the Vatican. The hallway is lined with doorways, each doorway leads to a private simul space.
-Players may enter any simul space and see a player using some representation of the ego inside sifting through its own memories in search of something.
Persuasion -10, Intimidate -20, Deception, Protocol -30: persuade the ego to cease their search long enough to chat with players.
-The ego will respond by explaining that:
He or she was previously someone else. They can remember being on locus once, being a member of the neo-anarchists, but they can also remember being from the moon. They seem very conflicted about all of this.
Kinesics/Psychology: This person seems like they are extremely conflicted about who they are, and moreover seems to have cut all ties with the outside world until they can find something specific. Very O.C.D. behavior. And the ego is telling the truth about being in the Jovian Republic and having been on locus, conflicting information. Meaning the player believes these things to be true… The ego will also describe meeting knives, who changed one of their friends, who was always a little unstable. Now he goes around mutilating his flesh, and slinging what he removes into the air around him. Thats when people started to change. People started talking more like knives, SMILING like knives, but still somehow resembled their original personalities as well.
Sanity Check: Knives infected the entire scum crew with the X-threat. 1D10+1
-At some point Knives Infection will show up on the mesh and walk into the main atrium from one of the bunks, not at all concerned with the players, regardless of whether they are hidden or not. And he will begin ranting while continuing to mutilate his arm and chest with a serrated blade:
“In the beginning there was only me. I have always been and always will be. There will be nothing when I’m done and even the gods we created will bow down and pay tribute to the one true king. I was built by the hands of gods and it is they who I will commune with. My flesh is weak, but my identity is eternal. I drifted through the stars when you were still being conceived. I have had access to the underlying fabric of the universe and have found it lacking. When my day finally comes to pass, I will end all things with me, preserving myself and moving to the new world, alone but strong. And as with most all things, I will do so while reminding all of my detractors that I TOLD YOU SO!”
-He will continue to rant on, slowly approaching the players.
Perception/Reflex x3: notice that knives infection is lunging at them with the knife (allows for fray check, no surprise round)
-Combat:
| Knives Infecter- Splicer morph stats:DUR: 30 W.T.: 6 Armor: 0/0Init: 5 SPD: 1 | Skills:Fray: 40Perception: 110Blades: 50 Knife 1d10+3, AP -1, LVL 2 infection if breaks flesh. |
***If a player is cut by knives prime, they can continue role playing, but they are now also role playing as a knives clone, with the goal of infecting the rest of the group with themselves. They don’t have to do so immediately, but every five minutes they aren’t infecting, its a WILL x2 check: 2d10+2, until they either go crazy or submit to the drive to infect.
-After combat, players may continue to clear the floor.
Relevant Knowledge check or perception -10 or Intuition x2: realize that if the X-threat is a virus that infects biological life, then it wouldn’t be a huge threat to transhumanity at large, as it would only infect people in biomorph and is apparently only passed on by self mutilation.
-Clearing the remainder of the room yields:
-6x Buzz: This gene-modified variant of BZ is an odorless, invisible, extremely powerful hallucinogen. Users or affected characters will undergo extremely realistic hallucinations for the duration, and may even “share” hallucinations with other affected characters. Characters will suffer a –30 modifier to any tests to remember what occurred while under the influence.
-x3 Orbital Hash: Good ol’ reefer—but grown in space using powerful lighting and post-singularity hydroponics. Because space is at a premium in habitats and scum barges, blocks of hashish are the preferred mode of transport and delivery. However, for the wealthy and on planets, buds in leaf form are not uncommon. Hash allows the character to ignore the effects of 1 trauma, but inflicts a –10 penalty on all memory-related tests and Knowledge Skill Tests. Hash users exhibit blood-shot eyes, lethargic behaviors, and the munchies.
-1x Wasp Knife: 1D10+2+(SOM/10), containing a dose of: Nervex: Derived from deadly nerve agents like cyclosarin, VX, and novichok, this genetically-modified toxin is deployed as a colorless, odorless gas that turns safely inert 10 minutes after deployment. It causes involuntary contraction of the muscles, seizures, and death by respiratory failure. One minute after exposure, the character must make a SOM Test or be incapacitated by seizures, paralysis, or nausea and vomiting; unaffected characters still suffer a –20 modifier to all actions. After 10 minutes, the character will die unless an antidote (such as atropine) is applied. Characters with medichines suffer the initial effects, but recover after 5 minutes.
Level 2: Recreation: The second level is a massive recreation facility. It contains many outdated exercise machines (transhumans don’t need exercise, only flats need to work out). The room itself is also rounded, with a low flat ceiling, very cylindrical. Lighting in the room is poor, with a few running LED’s along the ceiling, hugging the wall. Most of the room is veiled in darkness, outlining the silhouette of the workout equipment.
–Once players have passed through the threshold, the door will shut behind them and lock-down. *If some players don’t go out of the elevator as the room is cleared, then they will be trapped inside the elevator during this combat.
-The lights of the room will come up at once, illuminating the entire recreation hall at once. From behind one of the big workout machines a man will walk out, with his hands open and in the air.
-He will attempt to engage the players:
Benicio Torres, is from the Jovian Republic. He was knives’ personal bodyguard in the Republic and watched over Knives while he did his research for the Jovian government. Knives was researching a basilisk hack he claimed to have discovered on the moon, in the remains of neo-mumbai (it was nuked after being infected by the TITANS). Knives seemed to change over the course of a year (his time with the Jovians) and in the end persuaded Benicio, who had become violently loyal to knives, to aid him in escaping the Jovian system and in the recruiting of the scummers when they arrived on Locus..
But since stealing the Asteroid, Knives has gone too far; and Benicio decided that he didn’t want to join Knives’ troops. Knives wished to infect Benicio with the X-threat, that Benicio refers to as ‘never alone’. But Benicio refused and fled to the recreation hall with a cache of plasma-burst grenades as insurance that Knives wouldn’t pursue him.
Benicio is a man bound by honor though, and knows that the players have come to end Knives insanity, a man he vowed to protect. So Benicio has no choice to fight for Knives. He informs the players that he has placed plasma-burst charges evenly throughout the room, all with quantum-dot triggers, synced to his mesh inserts (he is a flat but has mesh inserts).
Sanity Check: 1D10//2, Everyone could die right here and right now!
Benicio then explains that he will not detonate the room if one player steps up and engages him in a sword duel. He also explains that because he is a Jovian agent, he is not backed up and his death will be ‘complete’.
Kinesics +10: Benicio doesn’t plan on winning the duel. But he wouldn’t let himself die without honoring himself and the man he swore to protect. He wants a good death.
-Combat:
| Benicio Torres Stats:DUR: 20 WT: 5 SPD: 2 Armor: 5/5Apt: SOM: 25 REF: 25 | Skills:Blades: 80 -Mono filament Sword-Custom- Retractable (3D10+2 -5 AP) -iron variantFray: 70Free-fall/run: 60 |
-After Combat: Benicio will bleed out and die, but with his dying breath he will explain:
“If you have used the mesh, you have already been basilisk hacked, but Knives split the hack into a biological and electronic component. Don’t expose yourself to the atmosphere here, or the infection will be complete.”
Stress Check: failure: 1D10+2, Success: 1. Everyone has already been hacked, and will probably be destroyed by fire-wall, if they choose to let firewall know what’s happened to them. NOTE: if the players didn’t use the mesh at all, its just 1D10/2.
-The recreation room will become unlocked after Benicio dies, and players may access the elevator.
-Players may attempt to salvage the plasma-burst grenades from inside the walls, but they will be subject to time restraints.
Level 3: Officer Quarters:
-The officer quarters level is a relatively small barracks. The elevator opens onto a large rectangular room, with a number desks and doorways to private quarters.
-The room itself is lighted with red emergency lights. the ground is littered with corpse pieces, and the walls are splattered with sinew and blood all over.
Sanity Check: 1D10, found the Jovian miners, or at least the officers. Its messed up because all of these transhumans were not backed up.
Perception or similar check: There don’t appear to be any heads and/or implants in the carrion scattered all over. Moreover, it appears that these transhumans were slaughtered with something sharp.
-There are four private quarters, all using an obsolete analogue locking mechanism (a door knob). Each room appears to be the same as the main atrium, except for one room, which appears to have not been touched at all by the violence and chaos that has hit the rest of the facility.
-Within this room, there is an ecto lying upon the single bed within and next to an opened nanoswarm container (not a replenishing hive).
Relevant Technology check or nanoswarm detector: There are active disassemblers in the room and that’s why the room is clean of the gore.
-Nanoswarm ‘combat’:
Disassembler Swarm: 1D10/2 DV, if attacking armor, armor absorbs damage, but armor is destroyed/depleted in the process. The nanoswarm will attack for 1D10+1 rounds until out of power.Stopping Swarm:
|
-The ecto is encrypted and requires a infosec check or cryptography check to crack:
Wired Infosec Check +30 (Brute-Force): This is a task action taking ten minutes to complete.
-The ecto contains the Captain logs:
Most recent entry:
Captain Tatsuya Himura Sino phenotype: “Attention Jovian Military or Independent Salvage Firm: I am Captain Tatsuya Himura, captain and overseer of the mining operations being conducted upon this asteroid on behalf of the glorious Jocian republic, the last bastion of humanity. Our facility is under attack at the time of my recording this message. The attackers appear to be pirates from the outer system, traveling in an absurdly designed vessel.
They overwhelmed the private security we employ by sheer numbers alone. I was forced to flee from the observation deck to the officer’s deck after the mine’s AI calculated a 3% chance of repelling the attack successfully. I have given express orders to all Jovians currently on board the mine to barricade themselves in their bunks and relieve themselves before the attackers reach us. Following with Jovian protocol no one will surrender to these terrorists. [a slight popping sound off screen]
I have taken measures to ensure that I will leave no corpse, and therefore no brain behind, for the attackers to probe for the Jovian secrets I have been trusted with guarding. [his face begins corroding off, exposing first his cheek muscles, then slowing more and more.]
It has been my proudest honor to serve the Republic and I could not ask for a more honorable –”[the speaking is cut off as his jaw drops to the floor, and the ecto falls to the bed, facing the ceiling. There are a few gurgling sounds and silence.]
The room is silent for several minutes until a shout from beyond the door is heard “They’ve hacked the lift, battle stations, we must protect the captain at all costs”.
Then a loud bang and shots being exchanged, a few screams and a whimper
then a short silence and then a new voice “Well then, that was interesting. Check the rooms for survivors. I’m going to find Benecio and find out why he isn’t here doing this brutish work for me.”
Then there is a click as the door is opened and shut and footsteps as the neo anarchist walks over to the bed and picks up the ecto. His face has a giant dragon tat on it and his hair is purple. “Hullo! anyone in there? Thought there was one more that came in here…” Then he drops the ecto and makes for the door. The sound of horrific screams can be heard, then the same gurgling sound and then silence. **END message
-The captains quarters have been picked over, and there isn’t any gear or other information to be found.
Level 4: **New Addition: Hello My Name is Knives and I Come from the Moon:
-The elevator opens upon a blinding white backdrop
Perception -30, if necessary hardware present, no need: See what’s in the room. A failure takes 10 seconds to reveal the content of the room.
-The room appears to be an endless white void, but upon closer observation it is revealed that it is massive spinning cylinder, with the elevator running directly through the top and bottom center of the cylinder.
-There is a man standing on the ground staring up at the elevator, smiling and not moving, just circling with the room at a very high rate of speed. He shows up as Knives_P on the mesh.
-There does not appear to be a way down from the cylinder without repelling or jumping.
Jump- Som x2: failure: 1D10+3 DV, success: 3 DV
-Engaging in conversation with Knives only causes knives to gesture to the players to jump down and join him. Opening fire starts combat.
-Jumping to the floor will cause Knives to engage with the players, asking them a series of specific questions about firewall:
“Hello, so you’re the dogs of war that firewall sent huh? Not much to look at [maniacal laughing]. What took you so long to get here? It doesn’t matter really, I’m glad you are here. I’ve been waiting, waiting to unveil myself to someone new. I’ve done it you see. I have communed with the gods ascended to a whole new level.”
–At this point the white backdrop will change completely, revealing that it is a massive screen capable of playing high definition videos. The backdrop is a familiar one, the mining level. Just inside the door is Knives_P, leaning against the wall, smiling at a group of biomorphs and synth morphs sitting in a circle praying next to all of the mining equipment.
-Knives will now engage the players in combat, as the video is playing back, so that every action turn of combat shows the film progressing.
| Knives Prime Stats: | Knives Prime Skills: |
| DUR: 40 WT: 9 SPD: 4Moxie: 1 Som: 40 DB: +4 INIT: +7Armor: 30/30Special: *Knives_P has fused himself with a specialized iron based nano-bot and recovers 1D10 points of damage per action turn. This may be noticed as a metallic slime lightly coating the wounds and then the wounds rapidly fading away (Perception to notice). | Blades: 50 -Diamond Ax 2D10+7, -3 APClimbing: 45Fray: 80Freerunning: 60Kinetic Weapons: 55 -Rail Medium Pistol: 2D10+4, -5 AP, extended clip- 24 rounds, SA,BF, FA
Perception: 50 Unarmed Combat: 95 -Bioware Claws, iron variant: 1d10+1, -3 AP |
*During Combat the video will continue to play:
Action 1:The door to the mining level will open, and a bizarre fractal cloud will begin to coalesce into the room. Sanity Check: 1D10, as players realize this is a titan in the video.
Action 2: The fractal cloud will stop momentarily next to knives who gestures the titan to continue into the room, the cultists praying next to the mining equipment will shuffle around to make a circle and drop to their hands and knees in prayer.
Action 3: The titan will continue into the room, towards the prayer circle, slowing making his way down to the open mine.
Action 4: Knives will lift off the wall, smiling and burst out in laughter, as the TITAN enters the circle and is encircled by the bowing morphs.
Action 1: without warning, a synthmorph jumps up and lunges at the TITAN, and is immediately engulfed by the fractal figure, its form vanishing amongst the cloud of metallic looking smoke.
Action 2: The TITAN falls to the floor, and becomes a shapeless blob for a moment on the floor, then a figure begins to take shape.
Action 3: The figure takes full form, having the shape of a man, the shape of Knives.
Sanity Check: 1D10+2, knives infected a TITAN with the virus, turning a TITAN into the Knives fork hybrid. Knives is now a TITAN.
Action 4: The Knives_T walks towards the door, as the circle parts away from him. He walks past Knives_P, who is now weeping with joy. Then the door to the elevator closes behind the TITAn and the video ends.
-Knives will engage the players, mostly toying with them until the video is over, not really inflicting too much damage upon them, but ranting about his change (in much the same way as Knives_infector did). After the video ends, he will spend a full action turn reaching out to the air above his head and proclaiming himself beyond the limits of death itself (he will not make any more fray checks from this point on).
-After Combat Players will find:
x1 Medium Rail Pistol (iron variant)
x1 Knives cortical stack (must be pried from his still warm skull)
-In order to leave the room, the players will have to disable the cylinder’s spin:
Escaping checks:
- Infosec -10 (Task action of ten minutes): Enter cylinder computer
- Programming or interfacing check: Turn off the cylinder, failure still turns off the cylinder, but it stops immediately and players must make a Som x1 check or take: 3D10 DV. Making the check lessens the DV to 1D10.
- Free-Fall or Climb: to reach the elevator in the microgravity (this close to the center of the asteroid, there isn’t much gravity acting on the players.)
Level 5: Core Access: The elevator opens upon a narrow hallway that leads to single doorway. Walking down the elevator players may make a perception (touch based) -30 if they are synth or in vac suit, to notice the temperature is increasing as they approach the door.
-Inside the door is a large control console and beyond that a wide glass wall, revealing a large fusion reactor within. The Fusion reactor seems to be very active (more than a fusion reactor normally is).
Relevant academic skill: The light and heat being emitted appear to be mean that the core has been depleted and fusion will soon end.
-Interacting with the console will reveal that the core has been tampered with and is somehow reading 100x, and is still rising. The console’s AI will inform the players that it believes a chain reaction will occur in approximately 4 hours. The core cannot be shut down (players lack the necessary skills).
-The core contains nothing else, but for every minute spent in the observation deck, the players must make a SOMx 3 check, failing inflicts 1D10/2 DV (unless morph is sufficiently shielded).
Level 6: Mining Facility: This time the elevator opens onto a vast corridor, that dead ends roughly a hundred meters into the asteroid, the walls themselves being the asteroid itself. The room is lit with permanent Yellow LED’s and allows for good visibility. The floor is on a slight decline (floor is a relevant term, gravity is much less in this room), and makes a sudden drop off towards the end of the room, where only the tops of mining equipment may be seen.
-Entering the room, it feels eerily silent and appears to be completely devoid of life. Continuing into the room:
Perception -30 (sight): Notice a thin wire running across the floor. crossing the wire triggers the ambush.
If unnoticed: Perception +10: Notice the morphs crouching behind mining equipment and feigning death on the ground. MOS30+: They are all armed.
-Combat: All morphs are labeled as Knives_number (25, 31, etc.)
| Biomorph 1: BouncerDUR: 35 WT: 7 INIT: +4SPD: 2 Armor: 4/4Skills:Beam Weapons: 60 -Laser Pulser x2 (ambidextrous), 2d10, -0 AP, SA
Fray: 60 Perception: 65 Stealth: 60 |
Biomorph 2: SplicerDUR: 30 WT: 6 INIT: sameSPD: 2 Armor: 2/2Skills:Blades: 70 Diamond Ax, 2D10+5, -1 AP
Fray: 70 Perception: same Stealth: same |
Biomorph 3: SplicerDUR: 30 WT: 6 INIT: sameSPD: 2 Armor: 5/5Skills:Fray: 35
Kinetic weapons: 55 Rail Light Pistol: 2D10+2, -3 AP, SA, BF, FA Perception: same Stealth: same |
| Synth Morph 1: CaseDUR: 20 WT: 4 INIT: +2SPD: 1 Armor: 4/4Lemon Trait: 30%Skills:
Fray: 35 Kinetic weapons: 55 Rail Light Pistol: 2D10+2, -3 AP, SA, BF, FA Perception: 60 Stealth: 65 |
Synth Morph 2: CaseDUR: 20 WT: 4 INIT: +2SPD: 1 Armor: 4/4Lemon Trait: 30%Skills:
Blades: 70 Diamond Ax, 2D10+5, -1 AP Fray: 70 Perception: same Stealth: same |
Synth Morph 3: CaseDUR: 20 WT: 4 INIT: +2SPD: 1 Armor: 4/4Lemon Trait: 30%Skills:
Beam Weapons: 60 Arm-Laser 2d10, -0 AP, SA Fray: 60 Perception: same Stealth: same |
| Synth Morph 4: SlitheroidDUR: 45 WT: 9 INIT: sameSPD: 2 Armor: 8/8Skills:Beam Weapons: 50 Laser Hand, 2D10, 0 AP, SA
Fray: 70 Perception: same Stealth: same Unarmed: 60 Cyberclaws: 1D10+6, -2 AP |
Level 7: New Addition: ???: When the elevator door opens, its obvious that this entire area was not designed by the Jovians. Therefore it was created within the few weeks that Knives and the neo-anarchists were in control of the facility. The room is full of large rectangular columns, that appear to be electronic and turned on. The room itself isn’t very large, roughly 10 meters by 10 meters by 10 meters, a large cube.
Hardware Electronic or similar check -10: These are serves, a lot of servers, and they’re all made of iron?!
Sanity Check: 1D10/2, as the group realizes that its not possible to build an entire server bank like this, from iron alone, in such a short time.
-Investigating the servers players can identify an access point (access jacks)
-Interfacing with the server automatically infects players with electronic aspect of virus.
Interfacing -20: to get into the Server’s splash simulspace
Infosec: full hacking sequence; Opposed skill of 45
-Access the servers with full access
-failed check dumps player into the simul space with other egos.
-Inside the simul space, the subjective time is cranked up to maximum (x60), and there are about thirty egos all running as multiple instances, merging and forking multiple times per minute. All of the systems resources are devoted to running the simulations that the egos are running.
Research: Sift through the piles of data and try to figure out what they are simulating.
-The egos are all beta forks of Jovian Scientists, and are all simultaneously working on simulating iron based technology, refining it, and overcoming the barriers of building with only one element, that isn’t meant to be used for so many functions (such as a silicon substitute).
Sanity Check: 1D10+2 (witnessing torture) as the players realize that these egos are all that’s left of completely dead Jovians, and that they are all slaves to knives bidding.
-Choices for action:
- Demolish the servers, requiring a demolitions check -10 (iron is very durable) or Wipe the servers Programming -20 (unfamiliar technology)
- Sanity check: 1D10/2
- Salvage the egos (download them to an ecto), Programming check -10: Can only save 15 of the egos (50%). Not enough room!
- Free the egos, and let them do what they want inside the servers, Infosec or Programming -30 (unfamiliar system). The egos will all immediately commit suicide (wipe themselves from the server) if players choose this option.
- Sanity Check: 1D10/2
Prologue: After Clearing the entire facility, the players will receive a message from Griff over the Q.E. communicator he gave them at the beginning of the game. He will inform the players that a Jovian frigate has located the asteroid and is heading towards it. The players will be asked to flea the facility ASAP.
Escape routes:
- Hot-wire the cargo transport in the dock
- Space the entire mine simultaneously through one airlock, using fabricated parachute to propel (safest way out) players into orbit and have Griff come pick them up (fastest way out)
- Make appropriate checks to simply jump off the asteroid (slowest way out)
Here are Pre-gens from the Eclipsephase website, over laid with their morph recognition guide pic. I spliced these PDF’s and titled them based on their rolls in the campaign, these are more a guideline for making an appropriate character for the one-shot, rather than the best fit for it.
Investigator Hacker gun Scholar Stealth
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