Free content Friday

O:DS Special vol. 5

January 2015

the

terramartian war

Part 05 - the shard, part 2

by

christopher j. de la rosa and ivan van norman

art by

christian quinot and christopher j. de la rosa

Copyright 2015 by Hunters Books & Apparel, All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all illustrations, characters, and intellectual property in this book are the property of Hunters Books & Apparel.
Permission granted to distribute and copy for personal use only.

THE STERLING
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 Rocs 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.

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

SP by Difficulty

The 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 SP
Moderate: 250 SP
Hard: 350 SP

Starting Equipment

Characters will have the same gear they had before, for
quick reference, here are the options characters had for
starting gear.

All characters will have access to the BLUNK

Envirosuit (as will be described in the narration, but
provided here for reference).

SI - Williams BLUNK
EnviroSuits

This 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 Corporations most profitable
product, having the market share of their three closest
competitors combined.
TP: 3
EM: 3
Defense: 2 [Bl, Pi, Sl]
Durability: 2
Capacity: 20 (Air supply)
Cargo: 3
Special:
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 Cargo
Chemical 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 Canister

CU: 1
Serve 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 Parts

CU: 1
Replace 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 Lights

CU: 1
The 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
Special
Dark - 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 characters 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 characters 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
Zone 1

In the storage locker room...

Mission Time 01-03

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.

Containment

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

Possession

Risk: 20 per Morale

The character becomes possessed by one of the
Eyrines. See pg. 208 for details on how this works

Access Granted, Lockers

Labor: 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.

Zone 2
Mission Time 04 - 06

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.

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.

Phoenix Unit
Risk: 30
The crew are an elite member of The Red Hawks
army. They have the rules of Starship Crew and they
instead use the stats and upgrade options of Spec
Ops (pg. 205).

Solitude

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.

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.

Search Corpses

Labor: Special
{SC%}: {Balance, Search, Spot}
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 Catalog

Characters 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)

Upgrades The Infantrymen cannot take Risk

upgrades to be Cyborgs, Grenadiers or Riflemen.
They instead have the following upgrade options:
Starship Crew
Risk: 15
The crew have immediate access to certain areas of

THE STERLING
Zone 3

The Awakening
Mission 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
Homecoming

The 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.
Encounter
Possessed Characters
Motes
The 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
Jump

Risk: 5
A 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.

Mote

Risk: 15
Another Mote enters the Encounter. The Risk cost
for this is 0 if there are no Motes in the Encounter.

Reality Lance

Risk: 10
The 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.

Absorb

Risk: 15
The 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 Reality

Risk: 100
If 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.

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 Marked

A 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 Torment
A 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.
Injury Penalty: 5 SP
Death Penalty: 20 SP