Dark Stars XIII: Netherspace Sector Survey Part 5

This week's game was quieter, thanks to our guest players being absent. The group got a lot done, and there was much plot and serious effort at enjoying the game to be had! Good stuff all around.

Quinlon salvager/dreadnaught Dark Claw

Roster of the crew of the exploration cruiser ISS "Juan One":
101010 the combat robot
Erin the star pilot and her trusty emancipated void lord snub fighter Sole
Dyvinil the totally not Sailor Moon star girl and her cosmic space Nancat
Dirk the rugged mercenary
Tamralese the xenosociologist, aristocrat, super model and secret sociopath
Samaros the crewman and survivor of Blight (NPC)
Oski the engineer (NPC)
Max Fuller the crazy transporter who's lost his mind after touching a "Mother Box' (NPC)
Medical Bot NB8 (NPC)

The session more or less went like this:

The group left New Germanican space in a hurry, only to be ambushed by non-baryonic dark matter aliens in Transitional Space. Three of the alien ships, which were effectively invisible except for a gravitationally interactive "signature" that the PC's ship's sensors could detect and use to form a picture of sorts  showed two carrier craft and a warship of some sort. They had captured the cruiser in three gravity beams acting like tractor beams....and inside the beams a boarding party of dark matter aliens!

Erin's AI-infused void lord snub fighter Sole mentioned that the Void Lords called these beings the In-Betweeners, or the "Vogel" in the Void Lord language.

The crew did all it could to bust up the ships' gravity beams, which would quickly turn into powerful torque weapons, using increased graviton beams to rip and crush the ship. Erin could pilot "into" the torque to avoid too much damage while Dyvinil, Dirk and 101010 targeted the hell out of them....but the laser weapons weren't too effective, until they direclty targeted the actual ships; the lasers didn't seem to damage the ships but did disrupt the source of the beam energy. Once all three beams were interupted Erin jetted out of the area.

Meanwhile the vogel boarded in the upper crew quarter area. A fight ensued, during which it became clear they didn't care about lasers at all...the nearly invisible beings only displayed eerie colors of red and black energy as the light refracted through their bodies, which appears to be infused with gravitons to let the dark matter aliens interact. Using graviton particle guns the aliens managed to be formidable, but Sam the alien brute chopped one in half with a star sword....the dark energy of the star swords could harm them! 101010 figured out his newly installed particle beam cannon also harmed them. The aliens were defeated....but each one "imploded" in a graviton particle wave collapse on death, and being too close could cause harm...Sam lost some skin to the graviton implosion, and Dirk's arm was badly broken as he was almost sucked in.

After the dust cleared the ship had a massive engine failure and dropped out of t-space into the middle of nowhere, surrounded by other dead ships. They figure out they've jumped several parsecs, and are resting a light year from the Dark Twins, two immense black holes with a great nebula of gas between them, slowly engaged in a death spiral.

The group started on repairs but it was going to take at least a day. Once power was restored to minimum functionality a quick scan detected dozens of dead ships, and a few with faint heat or energy signatures. Several events took place from here:

1. A chilopteroid salvage ship showed up (suspicious!) and began investigating each ship with an energy reading....they powered their ship down although IR emissions would still give them away. Before the chilopteroid ship got to the ISS Juan One  (the cruiser), another ship dropped out of t-space and immediately cloaked....minutes later a quinlon dreadnaught blows the chilopteroid ship to bits!

2. Tamralese (corrected name! formerly Marlese) went into a chrysallid state in her room, as her form begins to change to the strange matter of the Stellar Librarian's universe in the midst of all this.

3. The crew investigates the mysterious hatch into the cargo unit attached to the bottom of the ship, which Dyvinil recently opened and discovered contains the frozen remains of the former captain of the ship, Ephemeron, along with an eerie growth of biomechanical substance that is super-cooled. Since the hatch was opened and closed the "growth" of silvery material has been creeping out of the hatch and quadrupled in covered area.

101010, Erin and Dyvinil decide that the substance is probably a variant of the Von Neuman Plague nanovirus, and they proceed to irradiate the area and repurpose some stasis units to freeze the area around the hatch to keep it under control. Efforts appear successful.

Amidst all of this Erin and 101010 read/process the diary of Captain Ephemeron she found. It reveals much interesting detail: the ship they are in was originally his, and was called the Star Dolphin before it was scrubbed of any IDs and repurposed by Captain Lars of the Makamian Imperial Navy for their "survey" mission. Ephemeron's last mission was to accompany Tesla Dane into Netherspace Sector! He believed in her mission, which started with a quest to find out the relationship between the Void Lords and the Dark Stars (the planet-sized starlike energy beings which created the star knights) and turned into a quest to stop "the void lords and the betrayers" but the diary doesn't elaborate. She intended to co-opt the Von Neumann Nanovirus to do this, reprogramming it...they found samples at Hapson's World, but this is where an accident happened and Ephemeron contracted the plague. They froze him to slow it down while a cure could be found. Ephemeron also confirms that Tesla Dane did release a version of the virus many years ago in New Germanican space that specifically targets and destroys t-space tech. Much was learned here.

4. The NPC Max Fuller who is obsessed with a "Mother Box" he was supposed to receive (I wrote about this subplot before, right? Hmmmm) is found in his underwear worshipping a metal fabrication of the mother box, and something about how it will reveal the true gods and the true way. Shades of apocalypse, but none of my players read DC comics so BWAH HAH HAH
...they try to keep him restrained.

5. The quinlons that blow up the chilopteroids begin investigating wrecks with signatures. They approach the PCs. Erin diplomatically invites them aboard before they blow the hull and send in salvagers armed with disruptors.

The quinlons are led by one Captain Zassa Tamralane. Recall that in Dark Stars quinlons are 1/3 klingon, 1/3 predator and 1/3 average dude from Mad Max. They are spooky looking. As it turns out, Captain Zassa is one of the many quinlon independent mercenaries in this area...they are salvagers. But apparently they are also actively at war with the chilopteroids. She offers to trade equipment or services to repair the PC ship in exchange for useful goods; she detects a faint trace of Void Lord tech on their ship, but the PCs decline, offering functional stasis pods instead. She agrees (inexplicably) and provides recovered engine parts from the recently destroyed chilopteroid ship in exchange.

No one seems to suspect (until they read this sentence) that the quinlons may have been so agreeable because they got what they wanted without having to fight. What that is remains a mystery.

6. While pulling out used stasis pods for trade the group notices a stasis pod assigned to one Thomas Hill is now vacant...he is missing. No one's been down here for days so they are not sure how long but initially assume it malfunctioned during the power loss when the ship dropped out of t-space. 101010 starts searching for the missing formerly frozen crewman. His record suggests a criminal thug, yet another of the hapless recruits of the devious Captain Lars.

101010 detects motion in the hangar bay....and finds evidence someone is tampering with Sole, the void lord snub fighter Erin re purposed long ago! He, Erin, and Dyvinil work to stop whatever is happening....

So it turns out Thomas Hill is an alias for a void knight spy who was awakened at a specific time. He had already gathered a great deal of information from the ship, and used an override code to gain control of Sole. Erin yanked the circuitry while the ship was powering up for an escape; the ship blasted the bay doors open and Erin's latent psi ability saves her as she develops vacuum adaptation. 101010 targeted the laser cannons and did enough damage to warp the barrels so they couldn't fire. The void lord "Hill" is using cloaking tech, but jumps out of the cockpit and almost disintegrates 101010 with a ball of corrupted energy. He then tries to kill Erin with a thought but fails...her psi resistance kicks in. Dyvinil transforms into an image of the space unicorn they had met on Blight and attacks...her cat attacks (remember, Dyvinil is a "totally not sailor moon" star girl) and 101010 blows holes in the void knight's armor....they defeat him.

On his body they find evidence that he was going to flee to a location called Void Station Vartinimos, only a parsec away. He knew the old code necessary to "leash" Sole and Erin works on fixing that backdoor control issue for her snub fighter. He also had downloaded all of the ship's data and survey information to date....with close attention evident in his data on two subjects: Tesla Dane, and the Mother Box! Apparently whatever Max Fuller was involved with, it's bigger than people realize...

The group gets some advice from Oski on possible locations where they can limp to a full feature star port for proper repairs, and set out to do so. Ironically they take about four times longer than necessary as they weave their way through The Tiberon Anomaly, but somehow they come out unscathed, although they get great survey data on the timepsace distortions in the area and record data on three massive wormholes spiraling around something undetectable except through gravity waves.

The group passes through Kedrak, and discovers a civilization on a moon around a gas giant at the edge of the system; but the system has an immense, old red giant nearing a collapse point. The moon's civilization is comprised of a race of cat-men who have developed 21st level space technology and even have space stations and some other moon colonies, but that's it. The ship is detected and contacted on primitive radio channels by three groups: two military groups of opposing factions trying to suss out what they are, and a scientific research group thinking they are the aliens destined to come save them from the imminent destruction of their star system when the star collapses. All three sides want help....but one does launch a missile (or something) at the ship's location, ETA 3 weeks.

The group finally decides to send the research group a pod containing an interface to a limited-AI computer they can hook up, which will teach them how to make foldspace drive tech. They send duds for the military groups to chase. They then leave....no one's feeling overly charitable right now!

The group heads for Curiosity 796, and they arrive in-system to find an indepenent space station orbiting the moon "Relic." The Taylor-9 Station is an independent station, part of the old Libertarian Commonwealth that survived (miraculously) the void lord incursion a decade ago. They are assigned a docking berth for repairs....the only rules are that they must not be harboring the Von Neuman Plague (uh oh) or smuggling cannicks. The group bribes the inspectors to look the other way.

At this point, the only real concern is that there's also a chilopteroid exploration vessel in port.....

TO BE CONTINUED!

Taylor-9 Commonwealth Freeport

The Last Parsec - Look at all this stuff!

Pinnacle's new setting for Savage Worlds, The Last Parsec, is just about complete and out. You can get a ton of Last Parsec goodness for a nice deal over on Pinnacle's website.  The Last Parsec Core was the last tome in waiting and I just secured my box along with an early copy thanks to Sara Quinn (Pinnacle) and Jim Searcy (Studio 2) who I want to add have excellent and very responsive customer service, some of the best I've experienced online so far.

I've barely done more than crack open the shipping box and start perusing its contents, but if you're curious what it's all about The Last Parsec is a space opera SF style setting aimed squarely at the high concept "real" SF of fiction and film.....unlike other SF offerings for Savage Worlds such as Slipstream this is an actual science fiction setting rather than a pulp space fantasy universe. There are three setting books, one core book, and a ton of extras you can secure to enhance your Last Parsec experience. The complete set (with all options added) includes:

Hard cover core book:
The Last Parsec Core (setting book)

Three hard cover setting/scenario books:
Eris Beta V
Leviathan
Scientorium

Supplemental stuff:
Enigma Equation (module and GM screen)
Two map packs
Last parsec Double Action Deck (two decks of cards)
a pack of Last Parsec dice
A bunch of bennie chips (actual poker chips with Last Parsec art!)
A mess of metal figures and stands - 12 total (my wife shall be assembling/painting them)

I don't think everything listed above is still available....from the looks of it the website is not showing physical copies of the map packs as still available for example. Per Sara they are there, I just failed my Notice roll.

But let me tell you: if you like your Savage Worlds, and you love your hard-hitting science fiction (and especially love stuff with a feel like Mass Effect or Neal Asher's novels), I think this series is a must-buy. I'll be blogging more about it soon, got to spend this weekend absorbing the entire setting.....especially since my Wednesday group is itching to get back to some Savage Worlds Sci Fi soon!

Traveller: Sirianthus Sector II - Utopia Incognita, Reardon's World and Apophis 2216R

Utopia Incognita

System Data: binary star system; 4 gas giants, 14 standard planets, 2 Type A civilian starports and 1 Type A Sector Authority starport

WPP: A766A85-12

Moons: Utopia Incognita is a moon around the Darius Gas Giant, closest in of the four large gas giants in the system.

Detailed Profile: SP: A; Size: 7; Atmos: 6, Temp: 6, Hydro: 6, Pop: A, Govt: 8, Law: 5, TL: 12

Homeworld Traits: high tech, high population, rich

Capitol City: Utopia Prime (also site of an A class starport)

   Utopia Incognita (Undiscovered Utopia) is the capitol world and center of Sector Authority in Sirianthus Sector. It is a slightly cold world, and most of the population is centered around the warmer equatorial regions. It is a near-earth size world with slightly lower average gravity (.92) than Earth normal. The planet has plenty of resources, but strict regional laws prevent the exploitation of the local environment and resources in favor of materials imported from other regions in the sector. Utopia Incognita’s governing system tries hard to live up to the name, enforcing living standards and insuring a measure of quality living for all citizens. Indeed, on the surface it appears to be an unusually idyllic and beautiful world, with a peaceful, eco-conscious society.

   As with all such worlds, this is only on the surface. The decadence of Utopia Incognita has led to a brisk trade in illegal goods, especially drugs, bio and cyber mods for a population of bored dilettantes. This has created an unintended “underworld” of sorts which is most evident in the star ports and the smaller cities and arcologies. More over, there is actually a healthy population of the underprivileged, poor and desperate who arrive at this world to receive the free handouts, only to find out that you must already be a member of the privileged wealthy to gain any perks. The Sector Authority takes time quarterly to round up illegals and haul them off to one of the colony worlds, but it is a thankless, fruitless task.

   Characters from Utopia Incognita have access to cybermods, biomods and other treatments not so common in other regions of the sector. It is likelier that denizens from this system are either very wealthy or very poor, and both the criminal underworld and the seat of the local naval power can be found here.

Reardon’s World

System Data: trinary star system, 17 semi-stable planets in orbit, 2 close gas giants

WPP: C303414-12

Moons: Reardon’s World is a moon of the immense ice ball Taurus 443B

Detailed Profile: SP: C; Size: 3; Atmos: 0, Temp: 2 Hydro: 3 (methane seas and ice), Pop: 4, Govt: 1(8), Law: 4(5), TL: 12

Homeworld Traits: ice capped, vaccuum

   Reardon’s World is an example of the many uninhabitable worlds of Sirianthus Sector that nonetheless garners lots of attention due to its natural resources. The bulk of the moon’s resources can be found in the thick ice sheets, in which copious amounts of frozen hydrogen can be found, along with a surprisingly rich variety of metals beneath the moon’s crust. More interesting than that is the presence of several prior xenoforms on the moon, who all established refineries and mining activities, then apparently abandoned their operations, though no one has yet established what happened to these former miners. The Von Neuman Institute pays handsomely for unusual artifacts found by the local belters and prospectors who discover unusual artifacts on the moon.

   Reardon’s World is in relatively close proxmimity to Taurus Station, which is an orbital refinery platform around the gas giant, where a great deal of mechanized fuel mining takes place. Although no bases have been built on Taurus 443B due to the crushing atmosphere and 4.7 gees local gravity on the surface, Taurus Station (a Class C port) is a primary lifeline to the local miners and belters in the area.

Apophis 2216R

System Data: single star system, 5 gas giants, 11 smaller planets

WPP: E844300-X

Moons: Apophis has no moons

Detailed Profile: SP: E; Size: 8; Atmos: 4, Temp: 5 Hydro: 4, Pop: 3, Govt: 0, Law: 0, TL: 8

Homeworld Traits: poor, desert

   Apophis was named by its first explorers, who felt that the world was a damnable location that showed every evidence of being a relic of some lost, evil age. The world has evidence of a dead civilization that wiped itself out countless millennia ago in a nuclear apocalypse. The aliens who perpetrated this crime are unknown, though evidence showed that they used orbital bombardment against a civilization just barely reaching the space age. The system is rife with relics in space and on other worlds of these cultures, though nothing but fossils and dust is left of the original inhabitants. Their technology was distinctly inferior to that of the precursors found on other planets in the sector, and they are believed to have existed within the llast forty thousand years, reaching the first space age thirty five thousand years ago, then being extinguished in nuclear fire within a few decades.

    Apophis has a few rather notable traits worth avoiding. First, several attempts at colonization have tried and failed. There are still clusters of humanity dwelling on the world, struggling to survive, either forgotten or willfully exiling themselves to this planet due to religious or ideological issues. Pirates have made Apophis a base of operations on more than one occasion, and a crude class X starport called Trogan’s Respite is currently active, where known criminals can find a safe harbor. Third, it is a major stop over for smuggling vessels transporting illicit goods, such as drugs or slaves. Sector Patrol makes a fair habit of stopping in the system whenever possible; they always stir something up.

   On world, the harsh alien ecology is littered with the survivors of the lost age, including a crude species called Skizaddi in their own tongue who appear to be rather sophisticated organisms that evolved sentience rapidly after the collapse of the former sentient species in warfare. The Skizaddi are primitive hunters but have learned tool use. They are dimly reminiscent of human sized sapient centipedes with several longer, more ambulatory forelimbs. These hard predators are only one of several dangerous local species that local colonists contend with. There are plenty of ruined colonial cities and townships across the globe to attest to how hard life is here.

   Finally, the world has received a reputation for being haunted. Spacers and colonists in the region regularly report “sightings” of what some claim are ghostly alien remnants from the extinct sentients who once ruled the world, though no research has taken such claims seriously. Still, spacers in the region like to tell tales of ships whose crew went mad and sent themselves out of an airlock after an encounter with such apparitions.

Traveller: Sirianthus Sector I - Homeworld of the Erikathi

Have I ever posted this before? I think I may have put it in an old issue of TSS....but since this has been a tough week for generating posts, I think now is the time to offer up some sector data for a Traveller campaign I ran a while back. Easily useful for any contemporary SF game such as Savage Worlds Sci Fi, Stars Without Number or Mongoose's Traveller....

Sirianthus Sector

   Sirianthus is a remote sector of space with only one ruling presence: The Sector Authority. The S.A. is stationed off of the prime world in the region, called Utopia Incognita. It was founded hundreds of years ago, and falls nominally under the rule of the Terran Authority, but ignores most other governmental influences, including the Stellar Concord.

Sirianthus

System Data: single star system; 3 gas giants, 7 standard planets, 1 Type C civilian starport and 1 Type B Sector Authority starport

WPP: B8677702-2; note that the world is restricted by Sector Authority government (8) and law level (9).

Moons: Sirianthus has three small moons, called Eados, Tyrianos and Cleodor by the native.

Detailed Profile: SP: B; Size: 8; Atmos: 6, Temp: 9, Hydro: 7, Pop: 7, Govt: 7(8), Law: 0(9), TL: 2(12)-parenthesis reflect Sector Authority levels at the star port and by quarantine.

   The Sirianthus Sector is named after the most unusual world in this sector, Sirianthus. Sirianthus is a remote, fascinating world with a climate suitable for humans, and holds two unique marvels: a vast network of ancient ruins that employed an otherwise inscrutable crystalline technology for almost all computers and functions, and a degenerate race of hominids called Sirianthans who dwell upon its surface in a barbaric culture that has grown up with a mysterious fear and reverence for the precursor culture that preceded them. These people call themselves the Erikathi, and they are unusually close to the same hominid genus as man, leading some to speculate that the are related to humans, and may have been part of a genetic breeding program executed by the precursors nearly one hundred thousand years ago.

   Sirianthus is quaranteed an amber zone by both local and galactic authorities because of discoveries made by researchers on the planet. There is evidence that the otherwise fantastic remnants of the ruins of this planet are still functioning, and some act as gateways, opening wormholes to vastly different regions of the galaxy, or beyond. Indeed, some researchers feel that these are in fact quantum wormholes, opening up portals to parallel universes.

   The first incident in which this portal technology was discovered led to the accidental lethal contact with an foreign alien intelligence. This species, dubbed the “presence” by the only surviving researcher from the incident, appeared to be a form of collective entity which rapidly studied, read, and absorbed the DNA of the researchers, then turned them in to puppet-like hosts, turning them around and infiltrating the upper echelons of the Von Neuman Scientific Research and Astrographic Studies Institute (usually just abbreviated SRASI). It was two years before the full story of what had happened to the researchers on site was revealed, and an unknown amount of data had been compromised. Efforts to free the scientists who had been puppeteered by the parasitic organisms proved deadly to all but one, who remains scarred from the experience, and manifested strong psionic talents afterwards.

   Because of this incident, further research on Sirianthus has required that exceptionally careful effort be taken to insure the safety of the men and women involved. A second portal has been successfully activated since then, one which opened up on a remote airless world with additional precursor ruins, but to date the research team has failed to determine exactly where this world is in relationship to the source wormhole.

The Erikathi

   Physically Erikathi look much like humans, but with a rougher demeanor, and physical traits that seem to place them closer to Neanderthals in appearance than homo sapiens. They are tentatively identified as Sirianthus Xenosapien for cataloging purposes. DNA tests have so far shown a possible link to humans approximately 100,000 years ago along the evolutionary chain.

   Erikathi culture is diverse, and firmly rooted in an early age of steel, wind and horse power. There are dozens of small kingdoms and city states scattered across the three main continents of Sirianthus, and all are prone to bouts of warfare and intrigue.

   Erikathi have three unique traits beside their apparent ancestral connection to humanity. First, the dominant religion across the many Erikathi cultural groups is centered on the fear and worship of what they call the “Haaki”, the gods of before. The precursor ruins are the center of this fearful worship, and the religious beliefs of the Erikathi center around placating their deities, keeping them “asleep” as it were. Erikathi belief is centered on what they call the Formless Void, where they believe these precursor “gods” have gone to dwell in slumber. The early myth tales speak of great atrocities and a casual disregard for the Erikathi, as nothing but fodder and playthings. Although it is believed that the Erikathi have existed as a meaningful “modern” cultural group for at least ten thousand years, no anthropologist studying the Erikathi believes that the precursors actually had a physical presence during the rise of Erikathi culture. All evidence of ruins studied suggests that the last active remnant of this ancient species disappeared fifty thousand years ago. Still, due to a high degree of psionic talent (more below) amongst the Erikathi, some researchers wonder if there isn’t some sort of programmed ancestral or genetic memory in place bringing up a recollection of these entities.

    The second distinct trait among Erikathi is their predilection to natural psionic talent. This unusual potential is rare among most humans, but the Erikathi have as many as one in ten births displaying at least modest psionic talent. The ruins and their proximity are considered one possible reason for this, as many of the precursor sites have higher levels of radiation than normal, and over time a measure of natural and forced mutation could have accidentally led to this development. A second and likelier belief is that the precursors bred the Erikathi for psionics, tampering with them on a genetic level to induce stronger psionic talent. Some scientists are trying to discover the trace genes that lead to the development of psionic potential, to see if there is evidence that the genes are manufactured or even alien in nature.

   The third unusual trait of the Erikathi is their surprising resilience to unsusual climates and ecologies. They have a stronger immune system, and have displayed a tolerance for several viral xenoforms that humanity is more susceptible to. The indirect evidence is that the Sirianthus ecosystem may in fact be an amalgamation of several different alien ecosystems, imported long ago by the precursors, and then forced together through genetic modification. Because of this, Erikathi are more resilient in foreign environments, and a few who have been illegally removed from the planet have thrived in industries such as pharmaceuticals and terraforming as researchers and explorers due to this natural proclivity and heightened tolerance.

   The ecology of Sirianthus is a marvelous agglomeration of several different genera of flora and fauna from different archaic ecosystems across the galaxy. Although Erikathi are the dominant sentient species, several dozen lesser species have been identified as sapient or potentially so, although they are neither as dominant or aggressive as the Erikathi. Nonhuman members of the Concord have accused human researchers in the area of showing an unfavorable bias toward the Erikathi and their importance on the world.

   Today, Sirianthus is a quarantined world and only special research projects and citizens who pay for the privilege of visiting under strict guidelines, including restrictions on technology, are allowed to visit. As such, no technology greater than that presently available is allowed, and visitors who are not themselves psionic are given psionic dampeners to avoid accidental detection by telepaths.

Erikathi Characters

   Sirianthus as a homeworld has the following traits: agricultural, low technology.

   Erikathi may choose from the following career paths although barbarian is the most common, restricting any and all choices to those appropriate for Tech Level 1-2: infantry, worker, barbarian, wanderer, scavenger, artist, performer, thief, enforcer, pirate, and any psionic career. Any inappropriate skill (requiring better than TL 2) must be substituted by a more appropriate skill.

   Erikathi have a couple racial traits unique to their species, despite their similarities to humans: Notable Endurance +2, and Psionic. This reflects the natural predilection of the species towards psionic talents, and the unusual adaptivity of the Erikathi to unusually diverse biohabitats due to their own ecologically diverse homeworld.

  

Next....the rest of the sector!

Savage Space I: Verrin Cormac, Space Merc

Here's the goal: 28 days straight of Savage Worlds in space...ergo, Savage Space. The method? I will find random interesting SF pics and put some story to them. The long term goal: this story remains consistent from image to image, as it builds a mosaic of a galaxy.

I'll start off with an easy one first, a heroic type...

Verrin Cormac

Source

We begin our travel in Savage Space with Verrin Cormac, a middle aged warrior and occasional mercenary who has made a name for himself in the region of Independent Space known as the Hexen Expanse. Verrin is currently employed by a major local power, the cartel overlord called Sabasom Gripsa, a rather loathesome third rate criminal Syndirei, with no sense of style or culture due to it's vampiric race's inability to sustain its adopted culture any longer. Verrin seems to have some tie or bond to Sabasom, or perhaps the cartel overlord has something on the merc, but what is known is that they continue to work together despite the odds.

Verrin also got a reputation as a monster killer. This reputation was cemented three years earlier when he was stuck on the ISS Bellerophon when it was discovered that the cargo of the ship contained bioengineered hypermutational defense organisms. The organisms broke free early on and rapidly grew into large polymorphic predators. Verrin was able to kill them all, including those masquerading as crew, but it scarred his pysche a bit, and made him more prone to violence as a quick response to any question of deep thought.

Verrin carries his signature weapon with him: a monofilament-lined katana that can cut through steel chains in a single strike. His blade is known and feared. Verrin is also suspected of having gone to a cyberdoc chopship on Procyon IX where he was genetically rewire to accept Fadelik implants. It's well known that the neurosystem of the four-eyed aliens is far beyond unaugmented humans, but few are known to survive the process with their mind intact.

Verrin's favorite book is a ragged physical copy of Don Quixote.

Verrin Cormac's Stats (seasoned):
Human Male
Agility D10, Smarts D6, Strength D8, Spirit D6, Vigor D6
Charisma 0, Pace 6", Parry 7, Toughness 7(5), Strain Cap 6, Current Strain 5
Drawbacks: Bloodthirsty, Cautious, Loyal
Edges: Combat Reflexes, No Mercy, Assassin, Sweep, Trademark Weapon (katana)
Skills: Climbing D8, Driving D6, Intimidation D6, Lockpicking D4, Notice D6, Fighting D10, Shooting D6, Stealth D4
Weapons and Gear:
Light Pistol (2D6-1 damage, RoF 1, Shots 12)
Monofilament Katana (STR+D6+4 damage, AP 5; torso only)
Kevlar Vest (+2/+3 AP negation)
Cyberware:
Adrenal Surge
Communicator
Attribute Increase (Agility)

Supernova (2000) - Better With Age

Supervnova (2000)

This movie, starring James Spader and Angela Bassett in a sci fi horror adventure first came out in 2000, and I recall watching in in the theaters and generally experiencing a sense of overall disappointment. Interestingly, now many years later I recently stumbled across a copy of the film in DVD for cheap and realized that I couldn't remember a damned thing about the film. Never one to take that as a bad sign, I decided to watch it again and see if it was really as unmemorable as it seemed to be, or if I was simply experiencing the "attitude of the moment" when I watched it before. Plus, being on a Prometheus kick lately, I decided to try it again along with Pandorum, The Thing (original and remake), Event Horizon, and a few others yet to come.

[Tangent: If you've ever tried enjoying a film while stressed, over-worked, poorly rested, off your bipolar meds, or "insert unusual physical or mental state here," then you know what I'm talking about....sometimes, something may come off as crap through no fault of its own, and maybe its the viewer that needs an adjustment. For my purposes, lets just say that I distinctly remember having a number of issues involving poor sleep from a work schedule that had me awake from midnight to noon every day, followed by an afternoon job that left me with enough time to either sleep for two or three hours or catch movies (and I caught a lot of movies). Somewhere in there I occasionally got some sleep, too. All while becoming diabetic without even knowing it (news flash! Poor sleep contributes to diabetes).]

So anyway: Supernova is a film about a crew onboard a rescue vessel called Nightingale 229, in a relatively undefined future universe that has the following post-Alien required features: sleeper pods, a means of FTL travel that is weird, a small crew of highly aggressive or distinct (and sometimes unstable) personalities, and a quirky robot that unfortunately comes off as a painful addition included by someone on the production who absolutely thought it was going to be cute or endearing or something.

Spader plays Vanzant, a recovering addict and all around troubled badass with a past who immediately starts acting suspiciously like a man looking to start trouble, though he eventually comes around and by the end of the film is revealed to be a fairly reliable hero. He is contrasted with a motley crew of cohorts, though the only other key character here is Bassett's Dr. Evers. The film is worth watching just for her performance; she pulls off the by now stereotypical tough, competent female spacer role quite well, and manages to generate some decent chemistry with the somewhat less reputable Vanzant. Though less prominent, the other actors in the cast (including Lou Diamond Phillips) are all pretty decent; no one particularly feels "out of place" as long as you subscribe to the "poor psych profile screening" theory of starship crew management in the sci fi film future.

So the rescue vessel's troubles start with a deep space distress call from a remote mining station on a planetoid (described at IMDB as a comet but for the life of me I thought it was a moon while watching). The planetoid is part of a solar system with a sun which is about to imminently go supernova. This must mean that they have FTL communication in the future of Supernova, because timing is everything to this plot.

So the ship captain orders an FTL "jump" in which faster than light travel happens through some sort of near instantaneous time-space warping wormhole effect. It turns out the stasis pods are actually designed to keep people "intact" throughout the jump, so they don't show up on the other end all scrambled. It's not entirely clear why people would get scrambled but the machinery and hull of the ship wouldn't....but, well, it makes for a nice Cthulhuesque touch to the process. Of course the captain realizes he has a malfunctioning stasis pod on board but rather than abort the jump he takes the pod for himself and pays for it in suitably grizzly fashion. This is "what the hell???" moment #1 in the film for me; it is not properly established as to why they couldn't just take a bit of extra time to figure out what was wrong with the pod. Also, for a rescue ship, you would think they'd have a few extra stasis pods for --you know-- people they rescue!

Only a few minutes of screen time was enough to develop a deep hatred for that robot...

So with the captain a puddle of fused flesh, Vanzant takes over. They arrive (barely) at the mining colony and quickly discover a shuttle en route. On board is a single man named Larson, a seemingly young fellow who claims to be the son of a man Dr. Evers once had a very sour relationship with. Larson, naturally, is not all he seems to be...

So the movie moves onward with a premise that leaves you wondering just how this rescue vessel can really be all that useful when they seem to have so many problems on their own. Meanwhile the plot moves forward, leaving one with the suspicion that an alien of some sort ought to show up soon (or pop out of Larson), but it takes a decidedly different twist as things progress, with Larson getting creepier by the minute. When Vanzant finds a mysterious alien artifact that seems to warp time and space, it begins to have an effect on all the crew (at this point "what the hell" moment #2 crops up, as its not clear to me that the crewmen were compelled to check out the artifact....instead, they were just being stupidly nosy). Meanwhile, the imminent supernova serves as a persistent countdown to doom.

Supernova proved more enjoyable to me twelve years later than it did initially. The suitably weird, Mythosesque elements make for an entertaining variant on the "haunted ship in space" theme that has resonated for decades in film, and while it's certainly not in the same league as Alien it is also a cut above the average sci fi horror flick. Well...it's slightly better than garbage like The Core or 2012, anyway; and it smokes most SyFy fare.

Supernova's key strengths: good lead characters, odd choice of villain but it works, interesting weird mythos subtext, great FX (excluding some zero gee pod sex scenes), and a nice twist by not including an actual (knockoff) alien. I have no friggin' idea how I forgot about Angela Bassett as Dr. Evers in this one.

Supernova's failures: Some bad fridge logic moments (especially the stasis pod bit), the usual problem with a space submarine full of borderline personality disorders, and a robot that, while not as painful to watch as some other icons of hideousness in cinema is nonetheless entirely superfluous to the plot until literally almost the very end.

2221 - After the Nemesis Cataclysm: The Second Story Arc

For the life of me I can't find the precis on the first story arc (although it is briefly summarized at the start of this) but there's some fun stuff in here for the second story arc, so I figured I might as well include it:

Campaign: Post-Apocalypse 2221 – Story Arc 2


Premise: The PCs have just finished rescuing (or so they believe) the new Chief Administrator of New Eden from certain death at the hands of what appeared to be a surviving cybernetically enhanced assassin, perhaps sent by the Jovians.

Shortly after affecting the rescue, the PCs discover that they have lost all communications with New Eden, and an investigation reveals that the air waves are simply dead....the air waves are silent, except for one sudden anomaly a comm officer might discover: a curious radio station broadcasting from a location calling itself the “White Mountain Getaway,” with the following message intermixed between stations:

“Welcome to the White Mountain Getaway Station, last bastion of civilization in the greater Southwest Territories. Remember that you can always come on up to the White Mountain resort to get away from all your worries. For all of you listeners out there who can't make it, here's some soothing music to sooth your aching souls. I'm Diana, your DJ, and here's a rare classic from 2094 by the cyberpunk bank 01011001...”

Other than this broadcast, and an occasional mysterious and inexplicable “screeching” data burs of encrypted data from some mysterious location in the north, the air waves remain dead.

Encounter Events:

The “Grish”

These are humanoid reptile men. They are led by one who calls himself “Gorm.” A study of their DNA reveals that someone has spliced (heavily) from human and gila monster DNA, to the point where it is difficult to tell which was the base species and which was the receptor species. There are six in the group, looking to trade (they mostly have food stuffs and salvaged metal worked in to simple tools and weapons). They have some local knowledge for sale as well, and speak reasonably good “spanglish.” They can mention that they know where Castle Warren is. They have a single solar-powered radio that they were given by a “shiny metal man” a year ago, and use it to listen to the radio station from White Mountain. They have never been there....Gorm says that all his kind who have gone that way are believed to have died, though none have a conclusive story as to how (but ghosts play a part). Finally, he knows of “Castle Warren” in the mountains and will mention it.

Tom Saw

This eccentric fellow lives in the wilderness and trades with both the cannibals and the apache. He is a shiny, metal-skinned man (thus not edible) and runs a small farm all by himself, from which he grows crops and sells them. Though he looks like an android with plastic-metal dermal protection, he is in fact a human replicant, with the working tissues of a real human inside the protective polymer shell. Tom Saw doesn't know who or what he was in his prior life....he has vague memories of working on a star ship, for example, but he seems to have forgotten most everything else about his old life. He is very helpful, and can offer up lots of produce and other goods to the PCs. He has no weaponry of any kind, but he says he doesn't need it....he hides in an old bunker when danger approaches. He does have lots of kerosene on hand, though, and a solar array for power. He also raises animals, including classic sheep, pigs and horses as well as one domesticated “grand cabbage” (one of the purple-cauliflower monsters) which it turns out provides edible honey-like pollen when it blooms.

Castle Warren and Professor Edmund Warren


The mysterious castle Warren is known by many locals, but few understand its occupant or his goals. Warren is a throwback, a transgenic survivor of the old age, who through telemerase resequencing treatments managed to extend his own life by centuries. He looks about 50, now, but he is well over 200 years of age.

Warren survived the apocalypse by hiding within one of a number of special bunkers created during the months leading up to the catastrophic bombardment, in which the greatest minds of the 22nd century were put in to hibernation, along with the materials necessary to aid in rebuilding society when they awakened after the cataclysm began to recede. Unfortunately, Bunker Phoenix-119 was right in the path of the “stitching” event that led to massive regional bombardment by the meteor debris field dragged by Nemesis. Of all those who were ensconced within the bunker, only a handful survived the devastating shockwaves that collapsed the vast bulk of the complex. Years later, self-repairing robots inside the complex at last reawakened and managed to revive Professor Warren and two others, including the physicist Victor Thane and Patricia Wells, the senior head of transgenic engineering at the New World Medical Institute. According to Warren, the latter two quickly left to parts unknown, seeing the complex as a total loss.

Warren stayed on. With the help of “Jack” a solitary advanced repairbot and two sentry drones he began salvaging whatever he could, then migrated to the nearby new mountain ranges (which were pushed up from tectonic shift caused by the bombardment). There he established his “castle,” which as of the current date now contains a working telescope, radio observatory and partially working particle relay equipment tied in to the rebuilt remnants of the subterranean Supercollider that he has used several additional repair drones to reconstruct beneath the earth.

Warren has now managed to observe a number of interesting details. One such detail is that the Seed Pods around the world seem to be communicating, but they are using high speed burst transmissions that are heavily encrypted and broadcasting on a very low end of frequency ranges in tiny amounts. They are also, he has observed, communicating through some sort of high-energy particle wave. He has a massive particle detector recovered beneath the earth that was orignally used for dark matter reasearch. This complex was, until recently, transmitting evidence of what the doctor now believes to be faster-than-light particles being transmitted in bursts by the Seed Pods. This complex recently went silent, and he doesn't know why. He'll likely want the PCs to go down below to see if they can fix it....although he sent a repair droid to do the work, it also has never been heard from again.

Warren thinks that a recent, increasing array of FTL bursts suggests a communcication is being carried out with parts unknown, and he is worried he's missing out on the data necessary to piece together what's happening. If the PCs do as he asks, then they will have to find the entrance to Phoenix Bunker, had on down, and see if they can “fix” the problem...

Warren will not tell PCs about one of the things he WAS doing: he had successfully captured and deactivated a Seed Pod using hibernation stasis equipment from the bunker and has been trying to replicate its communications abilities, to see if he can communicate with the xenoforms in control of these devices (if indeed they aren't the xenoforms themselves). He thinks that the terraforming process is well underway, and stage two is: colonization!

The Phoenix Bunker

This bunker is actually more intact than one would imagine, but hundreds of stasis hibernation pods failed for some reason early on. Much of the gear within this complex was lost in a cave-in around the storage compartments, but Prof. Warren has managed to gather a great deal of it. Some notable locations in the bunker are described below:

Hibernation Chambers (many dead people here after stasis pods failed...careful search may reveal that the failure was....deliberate!)

Command Center (The bunker AI is still functional here, but has been cut off from all other activities in the complex. If it gets restored, it can inform the PCs that all bunker controls have been relayed to Warren's castle complex)

Storage Pods (most collapsed, although drones have recovered much here)

Supercollider Array (28 miles of tunnels; cleared and restored by drones)

Medical Bay (still works, but over-run by a strange group of subterranean mutants who use its facilities; Patricia Wells is held hostage here)

Particle Detector (elevator system leads to this location 4 miles deep; the detector is offline right now, sabotaged by Victor Thane, who has returned to stop what he sees as Warren's madness in attempting to communicate with the Nemesis Xenoforms)

Some Wandering Encounters:

1. cannibal hunter tribe

2. apache hunters looking for game

3. a fleet of immense flying manta-like creatures pass overhead; will attack flying vessels

4. a strange field of grass that dissolves rubber and metal

5. a “dead” Seed Pod. It appears to be inactive, until PCs get too close...it then opens up, and releases what appears to be a cloud of spores. PCs who are caught in the cloud begin to mutate!

6. The sky lights up in a fiery array that looks like the atmosphere itself had caught fire. This lasts for approximately half an hour, and dark clouds of sooty smoke descends to blanket the land. Shortly thereafter a curious, stringy substance of whispy material begins to blanket the region, sticking to everything it touches; petroleum-based liquids will dissolve it, but water seems to feed it. Anything it sticks to it also bonds to. Shortly thereafter, it begins to drain the vitreous liquids from its hosts, pulsing and growing new seed pods......these eventually hatch in to spidery xenoforms that are extremely aggressive, attacking everything in sight!

7. The remains of what appeared to be a large, active survivor city, now completely abandoned by everything except one mad, gimped robot and a small group of Gish who are scouring the city for supplies. The place was called Sinagua and it was full of 2,000 people only a year ago, survivors PCs may know. They also find working radios tuned only to the White Mountain station...

8. Vast pools of what appear at first to be oil, and indeed turns out to be such, but long, ropy tentacles will try to drag nearby creatures and vehicles in to the substance. Beneath is an immense creature that actually creates petroleum as a byproduct, with roots digging deep in to the mantle of the planet.

9. A hilltop along which several dozen survivors have been killed and staked to crosses. On closer inspection, it is evident that each victim had evidence of mutation or enhancement. Not a mile away is a small community of “pure strains” who follow the mad reverend Smith, who preaches that the mutations are demons trying to enter the world through human flesh. They have a plan to destroy Seed Pods, and claim to have already destroyed one (with a metallic carapace to show for it). Turns out the reverend in his younger days found one that was inactive....perhaps damaged on impact....and took claim for its destruction.

10. UFOs are spotted! On the horizon, bright objects moving in a random, impossibly fast pattern fly about. Approaching the area where they seem to be centered reveals nothing, but curious distortion-effects in the region are truly inexplicable, until one or more party members passes through one intentionally or by accident...revealing that these distortions are some sort of timewarp....it turns out the UFOs are from a future civilization of hominid that has returned to earth via wormhole to study the past...

2221 - After the Nemesis Cataclysm: Spacer Campaigns

Spacer Campaigns: The Jovian Expanses and Outliers


There are as many mysteries in space as there are on Earth. Here are a few:

The Jovian Expanses

This is a collection of loosely organized Free Colonies with a strong neo-libertarian bent. The region is dominated by three primary colonies, being Europa, Ganymede and Saturn’s Titan, while dozens of smaller colonies and hundreds of mining and development facilities can be found throughout the greater region. The need for cooperation and resource management has insured that the otherwise loosely allied colonies of the Jovian Expanses remain cooperative and not hostile; the only real “police force” in the region recognized by all the Expanses as a proper authority is that of the Europan-based Expanse Investigations Offices. The EIO serves primarily to address issues of piracy and sabotage among the many independent corporate agencies and private parties of the predominantly libertarian domain of the Expanses, and works on a per-contract basis; for a colony to gain the advantage of the EIO it must be willing to pay the necessary insurance to provide funding and support for the organization. In turn, the government of Europa out of Galileo City provide supplemental dollar-matching funding, in exchange for more favorable contracts with the outliers and free colonies. So far, this has worked, much to the detriment of the inner-system socialist Solar Collective.

Europa

The principle governing colony world in this region is Jupiter’s moon Europa, where the vast ice-floating city of Galileo can be found. Galileo was founded early on in the advancement to space, and it became a center of outer-system exploration due to its unique position, providing water resources from Europa’s buried ocean while also providing extensive research on the nature of its vast oceans.

Europa was discovered early on to hold ocean’s full of microbiotic life, but no advanced lifeforms had evolved there at the time of discovery. In the century and a half since, rapid advances in bioengineering led to the development of engineered lifeforms specifically designed to populate the waters of Europa and to serve as a specialized developmental ecosystem, as well as a food source. The runaway success of this project has led to Europa being the third most “terraformed” body in the solar system, after Mars and Europa. The rapidly developing aquatic ecosystem is contributing greatly toward a more oxygen-saturated planetary atmosphere, although the likelihood that the moon will ever hold onto a thicker shell of atmosphere remains improbable. At present, humans can only venture onto the surface of the moon in suits; lethal radiation due to lack of atmospheric shielding otherwise prevents the moon’s surface from being hospitable.

The bulk of the “floating city” is beneath the ice. The vast construct and its outliers were part of a massive works project that began well before the death of Old Earth and continued to this day. The first fully sentient and self-aware quantum AI, calling itself Simon Marius, serves as the functional administrator and arbiter of the city, providing a relatively safe environment and responsive body of governance that the Europans have come to accept. Unlike most futuristic “AI doom” predictions, Marius continued to function in a manner that was mutually beneficial to himself and his creators.

Ganymede

The second most important colony world in the Jovian Expanse, Ganymede provides much-needed mined water resources as well as silicate and other resources. Much of the human-inhabited region is underground in the somewhat more stable planetary geology, to take advantage of natural rock as a shelter from the extensive radiation in the region. Ganymede has become a center of activity for starship construction and development, a feature that predates the collapse of Old Earth, and it has several orbital shipyards that provide new and much improved designs for outer-system starships; it actually makes a fair amount of money selling hulls to the inner colonies of the Solar Collective, as well. This prosperity and independence has made Ganymede the center of trade and commerce in the region for industrial construction and manufacturing, while its sister colony Europa provides food and water resources.

Ganymede’s center of trade and commerce is the orbital station Commerce. Ground-side, its dominant industrial city is Tether, which is not coincidentally linked to Commerce by a Space Elevator, the largest and most effective of its kind; only the old Space Lifts of Earth were regarded as more impressive, and virtually all of those have long since decayed and collapsed, catastrophically.

Other Moons of Jupiter

Not all Jovian moons are suited to colonization, and some are only approached by local mobile fleets for brief resource mining operations. Still others have developed extensive habitats about them, and are now part of the regular trade lanes of activity. A quick summary follows:

Amalthea (Inner) Satellites: the inner satellites closest to Jupiter are dangerous and only independent miners (commonly called belters) tend to be crazy enough to look for precious metals and other resources on Metis, Adrastea, Amalthea and Thebe.

Plot Point: There is a story that there’s a permanent colony on Amalthea, the ellipsoid inner moon that skirts the edge of the Jovian rings. This otherwise hostile moon is said to have contained a secret, an ancient monument of extraterrestrial origin, according to the self-proclaimed space prophet (and madman) Johnias Whinn. Thirty years ago he, a former eccentric billionaire, left his position as CEO of the SysStar Corporation and poured his resources into an investigation of the moon after strange stories surfaced from local belters who claimed they had found extraterrestrial artifacts. Although no independent observation has corroborated this, Whinn nonetheless claimed to have found something, and built a terradome on the planet’s surface, protected by an orbital defense platform manned by an AI called Searcher. Contact with the colony was lost ten years ago when a major impact presumably disabled or destroyed it and its orbital watchdog platform, but no one really knows. Remnants of his group, called the Searchers, still exist in odd pockets, including on Saturn’s Iapetus, where they seek evidence that the entire moon is actually a constructed vessel.


The Main Group: This group of moons includes Ganymede and Europa, as well as Callisto and Io. Io is an aggressively difficult moon to colonize, and most of the activities that go on are temporary operations staged from orbital platforms. Callisto, in contrast, suffers less from Jupiter’s magnetosphere and lacks any interior volcanism; dozens of small interdependent colonies exist on its surface and work in tandem to provide resources to one another. The local mining is mostly at the surface level, and three primary orbital platforms serve as the tether to the rest of the universe and the local colonies. Most of the colonies are a mix of subterranean and surface development, with the surface shielding less aggressive than at other inner system and main group colonies.

Plot Point: There’s currently something of a revolution going on in the many interdependent colonies of Callisto, where generations of regional interaction have led to several movements to develop a unified local government. Currently there are dozens of political parties lobbying for votes in the first round of elections, and the most outstanding party leader is one Clarence Durnham, leader of the Independence Party, which is strongly anti-outsider and also anti-AI. This has led to concern from neighbors Europa and Ganymede, who feel that such an isolationist party could be costly to the rest of the Expanse.

The Irregular Satellites: With so many irregular minor satellites in eccentric outer system orbits, its hard to even begin to keep track of the many colonies, private interests and other mysterious agencies out there, struggling to survive or otherwise looking for easily mined resources. As often as one finds an active colony or mining op you will just as likely stumble across an abandoned or defunct ruin. It’s a wilderness of survival.

Saturnian Space and Titan

Saturn is the edge of the outliers, the vast and untamed region of outer system activity that does not recognize the authority of any inner system powers, and engages in trade only with certain Jovian Expanse members. The only local authority of note is in the Diaspora of Titan, centered on the mining city of Herschel, which is managed by a benevolent AI called Devon. The Titan colonists are fiercely independent, and corporate and private influences are dominant in the Saturnian system, with absolutely no central authority or body of law outside of the all-mighty contractual agreement. What few disputes arise are often resolved in the free courts of Herschel, a loose civil protection system that moderates contractual obligations and rights. This movement toward total Capitolist Free Enterprise and the envelopment of personal and commercial rights into contractual obligations began during the dark years immediately following the destruction of Old Earth; in this period, the risk of death by asphyxiation due to lack of replenishable resources for air, water, food and other resources (never mind fuel) led to a rise in regional influence by corporate structures that quickly moved in to fill the void that was left with the destruction of Earth’s governance. It has steamrolled since then, and has rapidly become a cut-throat way of life in the region that even the quasi-unified libertarian colonies of Jupiter find disturbing in the way humans are regarded as commodities.

Enceladus

Aside from Titan, Saturn’s second most populous moon is Enceladus, where active regular mining groups produce much needed water and other resources for the region. This is also the moon with the largest concentration of shipyards. It is dominated by Cronos, the megacorporation that first founded the initial mining colonies and was given main privileges during the Old Earth years to administer local government. Cronos was a major factor in the contract-based rule of governance in the Saturnian region.

Iapetus

Iapetus is another moon on which numerous colonies can be found, including its largest which is Engelier City, built in the Engelier crater. There is a regional mystery, clouded by the efforts of local corporate powers, suggesting that evidence of extraterrestrial architecture related to Iapetus’ 1,300 km long equatorial ridge have surfaced. To date no one takes such claims seriously as groups like the Searchers appear to be fanatical and easily misled into believing natural formations are actually artificial, but some researchers feel there is evidence of writing found in petroglyphs along the ancient and mysterious ridge, and a few dedicated scholars (including Hans Orman of the Solar Collective) have made the study of this moon their life’s work, spending years at a time in the rough outlying colonies searching for clues, be they geologic or extraterrestrial as to the origin of Iapetus’s mysterious Equatorial Ridge and so-called writing.

2221 - After the Nemesis Cataclysm: Plots and Locations

Plot and Setting Point: New Eden



The Colony of New Eden

The first colony, established about fifty miles from the seemingly successful native city of Needles and close to the Hoover Dam collapse point along the new Great lake, is established as the frontline center for research and investigation in to New Earth. Once the New Eden project is complete, then the formal re-colonization of Earth will commence.

Some of the mysteries New Eden must face:

• Learning to communicate with and educate the natives

• Discovering how to deal with the incredibly hostile alien seed life

• The revelation that more than one alien seed race is intelligent

The Survivor City of Fenx

The successful survivor city of Fenx is organized by a council of elders, who are the wisest survivors of the region. It is populated by many resourceful people who work in a cooperative egalitarian society. The organization called the Recorders is centered here, where relics of the lost civilizations are gathered and studied.

Fenx has a bunch of stuff to deal with:

• The threat of the skullkin, raiders, zombie hybrids and other menaces

• Finding the sacred relics of old that the recorders need to help restore society

• The appearance of men from space, who seem less interested in working with the men of Fenx than in changing them forever

• Survival! Always vital

Fenx Details:

Rulership: A governing council and appointed “Administrator” usually referred to as The Boss. His name is Molten. He's an affable fellow, a large, heavy-set but muscular man who offsets his gruff attitude with a dark sense of humor. He is very focused on keeping the peace with Fenx; he came here a decade ago from the town of Agua Prieta down south, where he saw the entire hierarchy of the town descend in to anarchy and tear the place apart.

The Sheriff: Constable Paul Hearse is the appointed sheriff of Fenx. He's a Wandering Gun, who impressed Molten and the council a few years ago when he rode in to town on a working solar car and drove off the then-powerful Knockers gang of wasteland wanderers. Hearse is a bit of a mystery....he's old, very old, and some think he's a First Gen Survivor, with Old Blood (the term to refer to someone who survived the apocalypse first hand, or is directly descended from someone who did, and who inherited anti-aging longevity genetic enhancements). He's a bit of a mystery, and could be a useful ally. He's very protective of Fenx, and between Hearse and Molten this is one of the reason that Fenx has prospered so well for the last decade.

Doctor Tom Rhymer

The Scrapyard-- Jerold runs it

Gun Shop--Hearse runs a gun shop. He can make bullets and shotguns.

Cages--There are prison cages. One has a small terror claw. Another has a melting mutant thing.

(The following are just short notes for ideas I implemented or planned to implement in the campaign)

Plot Points for the Post Apocalyptic Wasteland:


Southland Mine – Site of many ancient derelict robots, submerged in lava fields



The Superstition Pass Community

Being Plagued by screamers

Close to the Autogang territory


The Superstition Mountains Resort Community

Threatened by Slimer Mutants

A small community of about 50 people who took up residence here in a community surprisingly intact, nestled in a small northern vale that protected the resort from destruction

Leader: Turus the Bright


The Purple Vale

The Cauliflower Bug Mushroom Monster Fields

The Bull Cauliflower monster

Mysterious towers and “hill” at the center of the valley

The Jovian Crash

The remains of a cybernetic Jovian Pilot

A Neural Plug found on site

Broken Rail Gun
Northside of the Purple Valley

Evidence the shuttle crash was dragged down here by the giant cauliflowers

The cauliflowers “bloom” in to trees during rain (called agoros)

Creeper Spines

Encountered in Valley 2 where the ship actually crashed.

The Crash Valley

Fire swept area of crash, evidence of remains hauled off by creatures, footprints of cannibals nearby, and hidden remnants of trail of the captor and the woman.

The path leads up in to eastern mountains where the admin was hauled off by the renegade cyber soldier. Bodies of cannibals rammed on fence posts warn the local savages away from the cyber soldier's turf.

Path is littered with explosive motion sensing trap mines along the way.

Also, fine young savage named Jon Grinning Bear; hunting for his sister (named Fawn).

Cannibal Tribe called the Eaters of the Dead

New chief admin Tabitha Haft

Next: Spacer Campaign Ideas

2221 - After the Nemesis Cataclysm: Flora and Fauna of New Earth

Flora and Fauna of New Earth:


“Zombie” Hybrids

Not all humans who succumb to the DNA altering gene viruses of the Seed Pods come out “normal” In the end. A large number of altered humans from what may have been an early experiment by the alien machines were turned for all practical purposes in to violent, nearly unkillable mutant zombies. There is a belief that the virus altered the biology of the affected humans such that their body achieved a sort of “collective independence” in function and neurology. Effectively, you could cut off a limb, even a head, of one of these beings and each piece kept on living.

The zombie hybrids are a major threat to most normal communities of humans. The transmit viral protein strands through their saliva, which can infect and alter prey, turning the new host in to another zombie. They seem to be immortal, living pretty much until killed and eaten, although some unusual indigenous and alien diseases can have strange effects on the altered morphology of the zombies.

Thrashers

Thrashers are vicious alien lifeforms introduced by the Progenitor. Thrashers look like grass, initially, except the blades of grass (average 3-5 feet in height) are part of a bristly network of appendages attached to a much larger form beneath. Thrashers are plant-like; they bloom, spreading seed pods, which are caught by other thrashers. A small percentage of thrashers live long enough to grow large and dangerous. The largest of the thrashers can be a terrible threat to everything around.

Thrashers can move, by flexing their large, flat body, rolling up in to a ball (tentacle/grass blades out) and roll and pull themselves to their destination. It’s remarkable and terrifying to see one in action all at once.

Terror Jaws

The terror jaws are another alien introduction, therapods reminiscent of dinosaurs, but with a four-hinged jaw structure that also has surprisingly fine manipulation skills, Terror Jaws appear in a variety of shapes and forms, with the smallest being no larger than dogs, and the largest dwarfing Old Earth skyscrapers. It is not at all clear to Solar Collective researchers how the largest of these beasts can even support their own weight, and efforts to perform a biopsy to discover something about the physical properties of the largest beings.

Terror Jaws are smart animals, and pack hunters. They tend to feed off of indigenous Terran prey, and are also fond of several alien herbivores that were introduced by the Seed Pods. They are not a theat as long as they are not hungry and do not sense danger, but if provoked they can be deadly in close combat.

Skull Collectors

This particularly terrifying creature is some sort of weird hybrid symbiont which seems to voraciously absorb victims in to its own mass, adding them to the collective consciousness of the alien host organism. Many skull collectors alter their human victims, lengthening their necks, so that their distorted heads, which have grown numerous odd sensory nodes. Thus, skull collectors appear to have a number of tentacle heads with skull-like, polyp-laden heads attached to the ends of the hideous limbs.

Skull collectors live on the DNA and integrated body mass of all other living Terran and alien animals They are highly territorial as well, and appear to reproduce asexually, quickly shedding their newborns and forcing them away less they be re-absorbed in to their mass again. It is this inherent territoriality that prevents skull collectors from a ceaseless advancement in growth and threat to local humans and animals.

Other Creatures in Brief:
Reavers

Mentally unstable survivors with adverse mutations….failures

Harvesters

Strange an immense gathering beetles migrating from south to north

Pincers

Large horned beetle-like creatures that are prime hunters

Wasteland Scavengers

Rabble of all sorts who have degenerated to barbarism

Bandits and Raiders

Professional criminals who prey on the efforts of others

Black Plague

A name given to the victims of this black-creeping tar like substance which covers victims and takes control of their bodies, in order to spread itself to more hosts.

Thumpers

Giant beetle-like monstrosities that can be heard for miles using chemicals to detonate the ground in search of mineral veins which they absorb.

Sky Whales

Strange ovoid balloon-like creatures which attack with numerous dangling tentacles. They live in the upper atmosphere, mostly, and are a flight hazard.

Skullkin

Monstrous wolf-like beasts with exoskeletons and a terrifying howl. They are fierce predators.

Watchers

The mysterious sentient alien beings appearing near the Grand Canyon. They are four-armed and two legged, with long lean carpaced bodies, light blue skin, and wedged heads. They are tool users apparently, and it is uncertain where they have come from, but they are genetically distinct. May be new products of the Seed Pods.
Next: Plots and Locations

2221 - After the Nemesis Cataclysm: Weaponry of the Solar Collective

Weapons of the Solar Collective


In Space, big guns can puncture spaceship hulls pretty effectively. Most space-born weapons tend to carry a light load with minimal risk of hull puncturing. On Earth it’s not the same deal. Most explorers, researchers, colonists and CDF forces preparing to venture to one of the new Earth colonies go through a rigorous routine involving muscle development using spin gravity to acclimate the spacers to life in 1 Gee. Then they learn how to use high-energy kinetic impact weapons: slug throwers.

Advanced weapons are all fair game, but plasma weapons are highly experimental and disintegrator weapons emit lethal radiation and a shielded suit must be worn for “safe” use. Laser weapons are fairly common and actually pretty useful on PA Earth, since the only people wearing proper reflec armor designed to thwart lasers are the colonists themselves. The most common hand weapon, however, is the less lethal electrolaser stun weaponry (stun pistol and rifle) which are remarkably simple yet sophisticated tasers. Neural weaponry is also fairly common and emp rifles are usually carried in squads of zero-gee units.

The simplest and most effective weaponry remains the slug thrower, a technology that is easier to maintain in the rough natural environment of Earth than more sophisticated and energy-intensive weaponry.

Armor is less sophisticated. Although the need for protective suits in space has helped develop some armor technology, there has never been a need to mass-produce such suits. As a result, complex body armor is rare among the colonists; light and heavy armor suits are available, but power assist armor is usually only found among the spacer colonies and rarely employed on the ground. Heavy power assist armor is extremely pricey and exists in the domain of the spacer militaries only at this time.

As it turns out, warfare either for sport or necessity was still a big thing on Old Earth, and as a result an alarming percentage of extremely durable, radiation-resistant, chemically resistant hazmat-style military combat suits still exist and are even in circulation among the survivors of PA Earth as a valuable commodity. Such a suit, even a partial suit, can be nearly impervious to the hand-made archaic melee and ranged weapons of survivors, and so is extremely valuable. The only thing that keeps it from being even MORE common is the predilection for such armor to be in the presence of derelict military bases, long abandoned by humans, but still managed by insane military robots. So there you go.

The really impressive Old Earth military armor can still be found in working order. These old-world Dragoon-Class Power Suits (Heavy Powered Assault Armor) are extremely rare and working suits must be found; they can’t be purchased at the start of play. Those who do own them are usually reluctant to give them up for obvious reasons. The old Dragoon-Class suits were powered by portable nuclear cores, which if breached could go critical and release lethal level doses of radiation in their immediate vicinity. The half-life of these cores is usually two or more centuries, and there are no Earth-side production facilities in place to replace them (that anyone knows of).


CDF Standard Gear

The Colonial Defense Force of the Solar Collective arms its field troops as follows; characters in the CDF automatically get one of the following packages (choose one):


Planetside Defense:

Armor: Light Assault Armor or Adaptive Mesh and a light helmet

Weapons: heavy pistol and assault rifle or stun pistol and stun rifle.

Melee: knife or baton (or both)


Heavy Weapons Specialist:

Armor: Assault Armor or Light Power Assault Armor and a heavy helmet

Weapons: Heavy pistol and assault rifle with undercarriage grenade launcher

Melee: vibro-knife



Security Defense:

Armor: Assault Armor and heavy helmet

Weapons: stun pistol or stun rifle, heavy pistol

Melee: stun lance and baton



Space Defense:

Armor: Vacuum-Sealed light power-assault armor

Weapons: laser pistol, laser rifle or electromagnetic pulse rifle, or plasma rifle

Melee: superfine knife or zap glove.


Next: New Eden