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THE STERLING
2
While The Shard was being recovered, your party made it on board The Roc, the Martian ship that was sent to retrieve the strange, extradimensional artifact.
The passage back to Mars is not long, but it may be uncomfortable, based upon how the party got on board and whether or not the Martians are considered allies. After the destruction of The Sterling and the fate of all the other crew, the party feels lucky, but even in the most agreeable of allegiances with the crew of The Roc, what was seen cannot be unseen. What was witnessed cannot be fully explained. The Sterling crew saw deep into the eyes of darkness and were forever changed.
and environments they were exposed to by clinging to the fuselage of The Roc. Any injuries they would have sustained would have been treated in The Roc’s medical bay. Being allowed to live and not being tortured (as you were led to believe the Martians delighted in) is a welcome respite from the previous trials endured regardless of the physical injures sustained getting to The Roc.
If the characters were friendly to Mars, they were treated with an unusual amount of suspicion despite the characters allegiance to The Red Hawk and his Martian army. The characters are kept in a series of containment cells for observation. This is a fate not dissimilar to the characters had they been the enemies of Mars and its people. This fact is not lost on the crew. But they are at least alive.
Either way... the characters are in containment.
SP by DifficultyThe difficulty of the campaign will determine how much SP a party needs to earn in order to count this session as a victory.Easy: 130 SPModerate: 250 SPHard: 350 SP
Starting EquipmentCharacters will have the same gear they had before, for quick reference, here are the options characters had for starting gear.
In this chapter...Characters continue using their characters from Part 1.
If the characters were stowaways or surrendered themselves in the previous scenario, they were assumed to have been caught and their gear stripped from them. The characters then are interrogated one by one as to what they saw on The Sterling and what happened to the scout team that The Roc had sent to the wreckage. The Stowaways will count as having taken d3 Health points of damage due to the variety of mechanisms
3
All characters will have access to the “BLUNK” Envirosuit (as will be described in the narration, but provided here for reference).
SI - Williams “BLUNK” EnviroSuitsThis rough and ready suit is nicknamed the “BLUNK Suit” for the noise it makes when switching out components. It is a low-tech suit that has become a standard among many space-faring explorers and workers that prefer a less complicated, highly modular suit to protect them from the variety of the hazards of space. This and the parts for it are the Williams Corporation’s most profitable product, having the market share of their three closest competitors combined.TP: 3 EM: 3Defense: 2 [Bl, Pi, Sl]Durability: 2Capacity: 20 (Air supply)Cargo: 3Special:All Enclosing - Each Time and once per Encounter, add a Depletion point and make an Depletion Roll. Failing it will mean that this Encounter or that period of Time will be the very last they have before their supply of air runs out. O2 Canisters can remove Depletion Points from the BLUNK Suit. Characters that enter areas that still have 02 can use the mechanism on the suit to absorb and compress the air to remove all Depletion points from the suit as well.
Upgrades (•) All Upgrades take up an EM as well.Armor Plating - Increase Defense by 2.Reserve O2 - Increase Capacity by 5.Modular Container Unit - Characters get +1 CargoChemical Light - Add ‘Dark’ Descriptor. Add 1 Difficulty to ‘Hide’ and ‘Sneak’ checks. Can be removed and used to mark points of interest like a modern road flare.Thrusters - Add bonus DoS to ‘Balance’ and Navigation checks in Zero-G. Requires its own power source (Universal Energy Cell). The Thrusters have a Capacity of 10.Tether - Add +2d5!Labor to any successful check that requires {Balance, Climb} checks to generate Labor.
O2 CanisterCU: 1Serve as an ‘Extra Supplies’ Kit for using and removing Depletion Points from All-Enclosing gear features. Each
canister will be able to remove 3 DP. Doing so requires an Action with 1d5! Moments.
BLUNK PartsCU: 1Replace damaged parts on a BLUNK suit. Restore one lost Durability point to the suit. This can even be a part from another BLUNK suit that is scavenged as opposed to finding it all by itself.
Chemical LightsCU: 1The popularity of chemical lights is that they do not use electricity, but instead a chemical reaction in order to generate light in the visible spectrum. This non-reliance on electricity makes them very popular emergency kit supplies as they can be put in a reflective tube to focus light as a flashlight would, or they can be used as trail markers. Some are color coded to be used in emergencies exclusively, so their use as an emergency signal will be a universally understood message of distress to rescue teams.
Capacity: 5
SpecialDark - This is usable when ‘Dark’ or ‘Space’ is an Active Descriptor.Multi-use - Chemical Lights are often packaged to have several individual tubes full of the illuminating chemicals. Each “Use” will represent using one or more of the tubes of chemical light to the character’s desired ends. Individual illuminated tubes can be secured or thrown into dark areas to provide illumination.Duration - Capacity, in regards to Chemical Lights, does not refer to the duration of the light. An activated Chemical Light will last days under certain conditions. Even under the worst conditions, they will last several hours. The Capacity entry describes the number of the chemical tubes remaining at a character’s disposal. It is assumed that, unless extinguished, the light will illuminate for the duration of the scenario.Distress Signal - A use of a Chemical Light can be dedicated to a Distress Signal. Its ‘Use’ will add a DoS to any Survival or Navigation checks when attempting to be rescued.Illumination - When ‘Dark’ is an Active Descriptor, a character has +3 Difficulty to ‘Hide’ checks. A character can discard or neutralize the chemical light to prevent this, but to use it again a character will have to count it as another ‘Use’ this gear.
THE STERLING
4
Zone 1 ContainmentMission Time 01-03
The characters ruminate in their containment rooms for what seems like an endless passage of time. The familiar hum of sublight drives propelling The Roc back towards Mars giving some strange degree of comfort, but a certain unease cannot be shaken. They had seen the bodies of the dead return to life. Not only dead, but sometimes frozen solid. Their companions aboard The Sterling were attempting to kill them.
The lights flicker and the sublight drives begin to stutter and stop. The concern for the unnatural was replaced by the concern again for their physical bodies. The characters look at each other in their respective cells, being able to communicate only in gestures and facial expressions across the hallway. As the characters converse in this limited way, a figure walks down the corridor between them. It does not make notice of the characters.
Spot/Listen checks will reveal that they are wearing the uniforms of The Sterling. Succeeding with multiple DoS will indicate that they are the dead crew that they had seen possessed earlier and had attempted to kill them.
Simultaneously, the locks on all the doors are undone and The Sterling crew are nowhere to be seen as soon as the characters summon the courage to look outside into the corridors.
The characters will now be able to exit the holding cells and attempt to get their gear.
Hazards for Zone 1
PossessionRisk: 20 per MoraleThe character becomes possessed by one of the Eyrines. See pg. 208 for details on how this works
In the storage locker room...
As the characters make their way towards the lockers they know their gear is stored in, they look behind themselves and see that The Sterling crew are walking in an unnatural manner towards them. They appear to blink and stutter in and out of focus as if they were projections on a screen, interrupted by the before unseen hands of fate and the underlying mechanisms that drive all forces in the universe.
Access Granted, LockersLabor: 10 per Locker (each character has their gear in a separate locker){SC%} {Digital Systems%, Search%}SP Reward: 25
Special:Digital Systems – The more advanced Digital Systems check will allow Labor generated to be multiplied by the number of lockers the characters are attempting to unlock.
Motes – The Encounter with the d3 Motes are piggybacked onto this mission. The characters must struggle to find a way into the lockers before they distort reality too greatly.
Repulse - These Motes will continue to torment the characters until they retrieve their gear and use the lights on their BLUNK suits to repulse them. This is the only manner by which the characters know to drive off Motes for the time being. In the meantime, they will continue to use their ‘Bend Reality’ rule to generate Risk until they are driven off. Hitting a Mote with a Energy (light)% check to use their lights in the manner that repulses the Motes as per their normal Repulse rule on pg. 210 of the Outbreak: Deep Space core rulebook.
5
Zone 2 Solitude Mission Time 04 - 06
Having driven off the Motes (for now) and having retrieved their old equipment from the lockers, they begin to explore The Roc. After looking in room after room, it is clear that the ship appears to be abandoned.
The characters eventually make their way to the observation deck, which has its transparent canopy sealed with ceramic plating. The circular chamber is dimly lit and the catwalk around the edge has a steep drop off into the darkness. They look over the edge and see the faint outline of The Shard, shimmering and distorted in the faint light.
Characters shining their lights down will see that there is only the floor below, The Shard is nowhere to be seen. However, two of the crew of The Roc can be seen conversing. Seeing the lights shine from above, they immediately see the characters and rush towards the wall console.
Characters may wish to prevent them from doing whatever it is they intend on doing, as it likely involves security measures.
Characters can charge down the stairs near the edge of the catwalk and try to intercept them.
Encounter
2 crew (Infantrymen, pg. 204)
Special:Indiscriminate Attacker – The characters will be attacked regardless of whether or not the characters are of the Martian faction or not. The characters will not know why.
Upgrades – The Infantrymen cannot take Risk upgrades to be Cyborgs, Grenadiers or Riflemen. They instead have the following upgrade options:
Starship CrewRisk: 15The crew have immediate access to certain areas of
the ship. They will be able to generate 3d5! Labor as an Action with 1d6 Speed for any feature of a starship they are crew on.
Phoenix UnitRisk: 30The crew are an elite member of The Red Hawk’s army. They have the rules of Starship Crew and they instead use the stats and upgrade options of Spec Ops (pg. 205).
Gear – The weapons used by the Infantrymen can be picked up and utilized by the characters. They carry 3 CU worth of weapons and 2 CU worth of ammo for them.
Special:Labor - Each 5 Labor will count as gathering 1 Resource from the bodies.Intel - Characters from the Technocracy faction will be able to gather intel by using 10 Labor. This Intel will earn 3d5! SP.Retries - Each time any character makes a check to generate Labor towards this mission, a GM may add d5! Risk.
Resource CatalogCharacters that search the bodies of the fallen will be able to make purchases from this Resource Catalog.
Name (Capacity on Catalog)Huron SI-Widowmaker (8)Halcyon Gryphon (10)Extra Supplies, Ammunition (15)Salvage Light (10)Universal Energy Cell(5)
THE STERLING
6
Zone 3The AwakeningMission Time 09 - 10
Upon defeating the soldiers, the entire area begins to change before their eyes. The walls and catwalks begin to corrode and disintegrate rapidly. In fear, the characters look and see themselves surrounded by the crew of The Sterling, their bodies shifting, decaying and reassembling themselves in a matter of moments. The floor begins to disintegrate even more rapidly and The Shard is revealed below the floor, visible between the fraying tangled wires and the support beams that are also being eaten away.
Characters make a Balance% check or they will take [3d5! Bl] damage.
The characters fall into The Shard chamber. It is now alive and active in a way they have not yet seen. The Motes descend to the room as well and the room begins to re-assemble itself as if it never rotted away.
Any characters that were ‘Possessed’ with an Eyrines will turn on the characters and begin to attack. The chorus of Motes will selectively distort reality in a way that will be harmful to the other characters. Their collective fury is amplified by the presence of the Shard.
Missions
HomecomingThe characters must survive until the extradimensional travelers complete their strange ritual at The Shard. The characters can only hope that they survive long enough so that the Eyrines are banished without causing the characters too much harm.
EncounterPossessed CharactersMotesThe Shard
Special:Possession – If no characters are possessed by an Eyrines, then the GM must possess at least one character with one if they have the Risk to do so. If they do not have enough Risk, then one random
character turns out to have been possessed, but the Eyrines only has DT 30 instead of the normal 50.
Hazards
JumpRisk: 5A possessed character will have the Eyrines jump from character to character in an effort to spare itself harm. The Eyrines must jump into another character, but in the process the Eyrines will take [1d5! + Wb] per DoS worth of damage from a Composure% of the new host.
MoteRisk: 15Another Mote enters the Encounter. The Risk cost for this is 0 if there are no Motes in the Encounter.
Reality LanceRisk: 10The Shard will pierce the fabric of reality in such a way as to devastate the inhabitants from the characters’ native dimension. The characters take 2d5! Damage that cannot be reduced by Defense. This will target possessed characters only and will harm the Eyrines possessing them.
AbsorbRisk: 15The Shard (for reasons unknown) will damage one Eyrines possessed character. It will inflict 4d5! To the Eyrines, but only half as much will translate to the possessed character. The targeted character will add 3d5! Moments worth of Delay until they are allowed to take an action.
Tear in the Fabric of RealityRisk: 100If no other characters are possessed by an Eyrines, this Hazard can be triggered. This ends the scenario. The characters are slammed with a brilliant flash of light and all laws of reality that they know are bent and broken. The Motes retreat into The Shard and the surviving characters are left, quivering shells of their former selves. The room is intact, The Shard is now inert. Shortly afterwards, the doors open and armored crew members arrive and take the badly mentally damaged characters away.
7
Conclusion
The Shard has become inert. The reality-distorting power it once demonstrated is gone. Only the physical form of the shard remains.
The characters look amongst themselves. They had inflicted considerable harm to each other in a desperate attempt to free themselves from possession. The echoes of madness still ring in their subconscious.
Looking about the room, the damage dealt by the warping of the material world remains. The twisted material looking as if had been melted and bent in a tortured fashion. It seems unlikely that it could tolerate the physical strain any more than the characters could tolerate the psychic strain they were put under by having a being inhabit the once invincible sanctuaries of their subconscious minds.
Like a lingering, bitter aftertaste, the emotions, desires, and thoughts remain within the far reaches of their mind of all those who shared in their mental intruder. This unwanted mental refuse cannot be ignored or removed by merely forgetting it. It is revealed as alien simply by it being there and the thoughts of such unknowable entities is a terrible burden.
Any character that was Possessed may take the “Void Marked” Paradigm as described below.
Void MarkedA character that has been possessed and lived to tell the harrowing tale will forever be haunted by the lingering thoughts of the entity that once held sway over their minds.
Mental TormentA character can spend 10 SP and lose 1 Morale in order to avoid the effects of any Diplomacy checks made against them. This includes Determine Motives, which may be strictly observational in nature without engaging the character in any sort of dialogue. Anyone attempting such checks against a character with this Paradigm will have to take a Composure check or lose d3 Morale. Being reduced to 0 Morale will break that character and will prevent them from wanting to interact with the Void Marked character ever again. Reducing an opponent to 0 Morale will add d5! Morale to the Void Marked character.
