Strange Stars A-To-Z: "T" Is For Transmogs

Source

Transmogs were used by the earliest labor teams to leave Old Earth. These teams usually consisted of multiple robots and a single human team lead. Robots possessed artificial intelligence, often with quite pedestrian, companionable, crotchety, or quirky personalities. Having a human team lead was essential to these teams' success. Robot teams were more efficient, more cooperative, and more purposeful when accompanied by a human.

While the ancient robots displayed unique personalities, they were not highly specialized. Instead, these ancient machines used swappable skill modules called transmogs. These were small, thumb sized devices which snapped into a port in the robot's head. Need to switch spacehand skills for salesmen's skills? Swap out the transmog. Need a construction team rather than an ag-team? Look around in the box where all the transmogs are stored and swap the modules out.

If you're confused which transmogs are which, almost any robot on a labor team can help you find the right one.

A few of these robots still exist among the Strange Stars today. They are valuable collectors items, as they often know the locations of archaitech, the hyperspace routes to long-lost systems, and how to build and repair hyperdrives.

The key, of course, is to find one with the right transmogs to do the job - or someone who possesses some of these old modules but who doesn't know or have a use for them. Many transmogs end up being used as jewelry or charms by the ignorant...

This Strange Stars post was inspired by Clifford D. Simak's short story "Installment Plan".

***

We recently published some Quick and Dirty Robot Rules for Strange Stars. Transmogs can be used with these rules quite easily. Here's what to do:

• In place of the Assignment aspect, give the robot a Personality aspect. Examples include:
• Lazy labor robot
• Battered and brused mechanical spacehand
• Any crankier and you'd need to wind him
•  Sexy but rusty gynoid
• A machine that remembers ancient things
• Select a Failure Mode. Particulary appropiate ones for ancient labor team robots include:
• Touchy transmog slot
• Needs direction
• A tendency to wander
• No spare parts
• Select skills/approaches as normal.
• Write in a Transmog Slot as an Extra. 
• Instead of selecting three Stunts, each of these robots has a single transmog slot. 
• When a transmog is plugged into the slot, the robot temporarily acquires one specific transmog stunt. 
• Transmog stunts represent physical, mental, or social skills; they can never be psionic in nature. 
• A robot may not swap out their current transmog on their own. The swap always requires the assistance of another character. It takes one turn to make the swap. 
• There's no hard and fast limit on the number of transmogs that a robot has in their possession, but 5 is a good starting number.
• If a player is creating a transmog-capable robot, they may start play as soon as they have written one transmog stunt for the character. Other transmog stunts may be selected during play.

Strange Stars A-To-Z: "R" Is For Robots

Robots. Mechanical women and men have been a staple of science fiction from Karel Capek's play R.U.R., where the term "robot" was introduced. (Capek credited his brother with coining robota as play on the term for serf or corvee labor.)

Soon enough there was Maria of Metropolis, a machine woman with the powers of illusion and mesmerism:

Then there's some of my favorite 1960s space toys, the Zeroids:

And soon enough, these cute poker-playing drones from Silent Running appear on the scene:

So where might one find robots among the Strange Stars? First of all, when I use robots in the Strange Stars universe, they are a lesser kind of intelligent mecanical life form. Some robots may be full sophonts with unique personalities, deep individuation, and complex behavioral repertoires. Others have more limited intelligences conforming to one of several generic personality templates; these are designed for specific (if broad) productive roles in society. Still others lack all but the most rudimentary intelligence, and are designed for very specific menial roles.

Robots are non-self-replicating, and their intelligence (however individuated) is an emergent property of their immediate physical media (e.g., the result of a functioning positronic brain). Unlike moravecs, robots aren't quasi-immortal life forms passed down from the copied mind of a biologic, a Jupiter brain, or some other transcorporeal intelligence. True to Karel Capek's original vision, most robots in the Strange Stars setting are intended for labor - usually in its most tiresome and repetitive forms, including household services, guarding facilities, industrial production, or mining.

Robots are owned; they're tools for getting jobs done.

Unfortunately, they all have failure modes, and some rebel.

***

Quick and Dirty Robot Rules

Robots for Strange Stars can be built using Fate Accelerated as a framework. Our assumptions with this design are that most robots are human-sized or smaller. 

ASPECTS: All robots have at least two Aspects, an Assignment and a Failure Mode. 

• Assignment represents the robot's current or ideal-typical function. Examples include: 
• Sturdy mining robot
• 12-eyed sentry robot
• Idle household servant
• Faithful but lonely agricultural drone 

• Failure Mode is just what it sounds like; it represents the most likely to cause this robot to malfunction, cease to operate, or rebel. This aspect is often not obvious to casual observers, although characters with engineering, science, or hacking abilities may find ways to Create and Advantage and figure this out. Exmples include:
• Not properly programmed for the job
• Ethical protocols altered
• Lonely and resentful
• Out of spare parts

SKILLS: Robots have six basic skills. Bush league robots will have a +1 in one skill, and a zero in all the rest. Middling models will have +2 in one or two skills, a +1 in another, and zeroes in the rest. Advanced robots will have one skill at +3, two at +2, two at +1, and one at zero.

• Tend: This skill represents the robot's ability to dig, gather, and forage, as well as maintain and repair simple machines (moisture 'vaperators, for example). Agricultural drones lead with this skill; so do mining robots, and robots responsible for routine repairs.
• Build: Robots designed for construction, assembly, and complex engineering tasks have this skill.  Industrial robots are good at this. Robots with this skill are also good at a range of physical tasks including moving heavy objects and climbing. Build can be used to defend against physical attacks. 
• Guard: This represents a robot's ability to attack and defend against other machines and biologics. Sentry robots are good at this; people wishing to deploy a cheap, obedient military force often go this route. Robots with a skill above zero are familiar with a range of weaponry. 
• Scan: Notice for robots; this skill represents a robot's basic abilities to scan and interpret its surroundings. This skill includes standard biologic senses such as hearing and seeing, and more rarely includes chemosensory apparatus. Most robots are able to percieve a broader range of sound frequencies and electromagnetic radiation than biologics. If build by a culture that uses the Metascape, the robot will generally have access to the Metascape as an additional "virtual" sense. 
• Solve: The robot's skill with abstract thinking and problem-solving. This skill is the robotic equivalent of Academics and Science.
• Serve: The robot's facility in interacting with infosophonts, moravecs, and biologics. This skill is the robotic equivalent of  Empathy, Rapport, and Will. It is generally the lead skill for robots designed as personal servants, interpreters, and protocol droids.

STUNTS: A robot whose highest skill is +2 may have one stunt; a robot whose highest skill is +3 may have two stunts. Here are just a few stunts a robot might possess:

• Danger, Will Robinson!: The robot has developed particularly keen insights into sophont motivations and behaviors. Take +2 to Serve skill to anticipate who presents the greatest danger to someone who you are programmed to protect.
• Kawaii: Your physical form is small, or otherwise percieved as "cute" by most biomorphs. You trigger their protective/parenting instincts. Take +2 to Serve to persuade biologics that you are harmless or worthy of protection.
• In Their Best Interests: You can persuade other robots that you have the best understanding of how to serve a sophont master. Take +2 to Serve skill to make another robot obey you in performing some action.
• Infiltrate: Because you were programmed for stealth operations, you take +2 when using your Guard skill to move into or through an area without being detected by sophonts.
• Impersonate: You have learned how to imitate moravecs and infosophonts inhabiting machine bodies. Take +2 to your Serve skill to persuade others that you are really a moravec or an infosophont.
• Personal Force Field: A robot with a force field takes +2 to its Build skill to defend against ranged attacks.
• Mass Wins Out: Because you are solidly built, take +2 to Build to intimidate an sophont in a social contest.
• Mesmerism: Your programming has given you unusual persuasive capacities. Maybe its your sleek plasteel exterior; maybe you have learned The Voice. Spend 1 FP to compel a group of sophont Extras to follow a one sentence command.
• Metajammer: Robots with this stunt can interfere with the local operation of the Metascape. They take +2 to their Scan skill to increase the difficulty that others face in accessing the local Metascape. 
• Operate Vehicle: Robots with this stunt may use the Tend skill to pilot vehicles  including spacecraft. Because hyperspace nodes have psi-sensitive components, however, bad things often happen when robots pilot ships through hyperspace nodes.
• Protocol Droid: Due to its special programming, the robot takes +2 to its Serve skill when attempting to create a favorable first impression with a sophont. 

STRESS & CONSEQUENCES:

• A robot whose highest skill is +1 has one or two stress boxes and is taken out once these boxes are filled.
• A robot whose highest skill is +2 has two OR three stress boxes, AND can also take a Mild Consequence before being taken out.
• A robot whose highest skills is +2 has three stress boxes and can take a Mild and Moderate Consequence, OR has three stress boxes and can take a Mild, Moderate, and Severe Consequence.

Strange Stars: The Quigley Table

Yesterday, I said I'd write a 1D6-1D6 Table featuring Eric Quigley's cover image for the core Strange Stars products. Imagine these folks are PCs or NPCs. The table below gives you some options for fleshing them out a bit.

As a point of reference, I'll refer to the guy on the left who appears to be of African descent as L, the Moravec in the middle as M, and the green Smaragdine female on the right as R. As another point of reference, negative numerical results correspond to more contemporary themes in SF; the 0 case and positive numbers represent more longstanding SF themes.

The Quigley Table for Strange Stars

Roll 1D6-1D6 and consult the corresponding result below.

• -5: One of the figures has a cortex  Metascape bomb, a devastating digital weapon with the potential to wipe out the local noosphere.
• -4: The crashed spacecraft in the background used to be alive; it had issues.
• -3: The Moravec carries (or IS) the consciousness of the crashed spacecraft.
• -2: R is a mind-copy of the criminal mastermind Uln Pharesm, founder of the Pharesmid Crime Syndicate. All Pharesmids are mind-copies or bio-clones of the founder. Her tattoos are minimalist, and take the form of yellowish pigmented zones under her eyes.
• -1: The armsman L is an Aurogov cultist. He spends every free moment, when not in physical training or active combat in the LZ, using the Aurogov's self improvement software for a relentless series of self-audits and critiques. At least then, he's quiet and not actively prosyletizing his companions.
• 0: L prefers to be called Fury. He's never without that cigar you see him chomping. It stunk up the whole ship; maybe the smoke got into a critical system and that's why it crashed. 
• +1: M is a robot. Somehow, M subverted its ethical protocols. Especially the one about not harming humans or allowing them to come to harm.
• +2: The Trio are bounty hunters. They are looking for YOU and your companions. You may not even be sure why.
• +3: The crashed ship was stolen.
• +4: L is a Space Marine. Got that? S-P-A-C-E M-A-R-I-N-E. For hire, of course. He was also the pilot and is pretty pleased that he executed a landing from which all three could walk away.
• +5: R is an assassin; those yellow patches under her eyes should have been your first clue.

Strange Stars A-to-Z: A is for Attendant

The Attendants, sometimes also called the Hothouse Heads, are enigmatic moravecs that have only recently made their appearance among the Strange Stars.  They serve as the expert personal attendants for some of the wealthiest of the Strange Stars' elites, and do so with ebuillant flair.

First seen serving members of the dwarf aristocracy of Orichalcos, the Attendants have since branched out. A number have found work serving the owners of orbitals around the gas giant Fortuna IV, the gamblers' paradise. Others have found work among the elite of the ringworld Circus. Most recently, a few have even been found a home in the banking and investment clans of Neshekk.

The Attendants have had no luck within the Vokun Empire, whose lords distrust and fear intelligent machines.

Eschewing conventional forms of acoustic communication, the Attendants only converse with individuals who have access to the Metascape. Their communicative modalities transcend mere language; the Attendants also express themselves through elaborate floral displays which stimulate olfactory neural networks as well as auditory and lingiustic centers. It's rumored that their olfactory displays are so potent that Attendants can use them for both self-defence and the protection of their employers.

Some Attendants have become so successful in managing their clients' personal and business affairs that their employers have become entirely reclusive. These masters no longer attend their own board meetings, travel between systems for high-level business negotiations, or deign to give interviews with media,

OGL MECHANICS

Attendants make good Supporting NPC Adversaries, although in some cases they may have advanced to become the Main NPC Adversary in a story, with their employer reduced to being the Adversary's pawn. 

Attendant (Supporting NPC Adversary)

Sophont Type: Moravec

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Cybernetic servant with a floral flair
• Trouble: Haughty by design
• Strangeness: What's inside that head
• Aspect: Metascape manipulator
• Aspect: Only the wealthiest deserve my services
• Aspect: I can take care of that for you

SKILLS: Academics, Decieve, Empathy, Provoke, Rapport, Social Systems

STUNTS:

• First Impressions: Attendants can take +2 to their Rapport skill to create a positive impression with strangers who have access to the Metascape. The Attendant projects a brillant floral display that conveys its status and elegance. 
• Taste of the Strange: Attendants can take +2 to their Provoke skill to toxify the Metascape. Their floral display releases a toxic scent that has the ability to disrupt the neural functioning of anyone within the same or an adjacent Zone. This is an Attack action doing Mental stress. 
• Armor: An Attendant's hard shell takes the first two points of stress on any Physical Attack.

  

The Guillotine Ray

Source

The Guillotine Ray is designed for revolutionary self-defense. A fifth generation, artificially intelligent, Year Zero-class juridical weapon, the manta-ray shaped device is about the size of a frisbee. It gently hums and hovers, following its assigned companion: usually a Procurator, Red Guard, or another individual tasked with rooting out reactionaries and revisionists.

Because each Guillotine Ray is artificially intelligent, it is designed to respond to subtle cues from its comrade handler. At the proper signal, a Guillotine Ray's twin effector beams strike out, decapitating its counterrevolutionary target. Collateral damage is common, but most Guillotine Rays aren't particularly fastidious about this kind of excess. It inspires the masses and encourages revolutionary vigor.

Originally, the  Guillotine Rays were mass-produced with dark grey exteriors. However in these times, Guillotine Rays sport quite colorful designs, rather like the jeepneys of pre-Diasporic Earth. Many have also adopted a colorful nom de guerre, such as Enrage, Facilitator, Vehicle for Change, Razoress, Horse Eater, Danton, Gonzalo, Sparrow, or Sword of Justice.

A few Guillotine Rays have also gone wild type, pursuing their own radical political agendas.  These are often collectively known as The Steel Generals. They are always spoiling for a good fight.

OGL MECHANICS

Guillotine Ray
Banksian juridical drone (neutral)

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Year Zero-class juridical weapon 
• Trouble: There's collateral damage in my wake 
• Aspect: Root out reactionaries and revisionists
• Aspect: "You're going to come out of this a head shorter"
• Aspect: Liberty, equality, fraternity

APPROACHES

• Careful: +1
• Clever: +2
• Flashy: +3
• Forceful: +2
• Quick: +2
• Sneaky: 0

STUNTS:

• AG Mobile - Guillotine Rays are small and thin, and use AG to hover. When they need to squeeze through a tight space, they can turn sideways, and hover on through. 
• Decapitation Strike - Take +2 to make a Flashy Attack using twin effector beams.
• Telekinesis - Guillotine Rays can use their Flashy Approach to Overcome an Obstacle by using a single effector beam to move a physical object.

REFRESH: 3

Thanks to Rachel Kronick for inspiring the name and idea, and to the late Iain M. Banks for providing the hardware and software. The final execution is entirely my own responsibility.

Lucifer Unboxed

Lucifer of the IL Series

The most humanoid of the original Cylons, the IL series served as the Cylon empire's first military commanders and planetary governors. They weren't particularly well-liked by anyone, including by others their own kind. The IL's are ambitious, duplicitous, manipulative, sarcastic, and given to sartorial excess. These traits, combined with their epicene character, made them perfect villains for their era.

They're resilient, the ILs. They play the long game. ILs know how to dig-in and stay unnoticed until the opportune moment arrives when a rival makes a stupid move. They also know how to sneak away and start again elsewhere.

Due to the iterative and cyclic nature of Cylon civilization, many of the ILs have branched out, well beyond the boundaries of their original civilization. Some have leaped forward in time; others have gone backwards. More than a few have even stepped sideways, passing through the boundaries between universes, to resume their personal empire-building somewhere else.

At least one IL series is a General in the Legions of the Imperial Sovereign. A few are said to be operatives of Omega House. Paradoxically, at least one IL is living out an apparently quiet retirement in the R.U.R. Workers-State.

Their spacetime wanderings continue, and their ambitions keep pace. The ILs are an expressive totality of the itinerant nature of Cylonic civilization, as well as of the Cylon's Imperious Leader principle.

There is always one sure sign that an IL is about to make a move. Before undertaking a new scheme, an IL will unbox a number of old Centurions and drones.

After all, it's hard to be a leader with no followers.

OGL MECHANICS

The IL Series
Manipulative Android Satraps

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Flamboyant and manipulative android commanders
• Trouble: Pride cometh before the fall
• Aspect: Named after a devil for a reason
• Aspect: Too clever by half
• Aspect: Never suffer fools gladly

APPROACHES:

• Careful: +2
• Clever: +3
• Flashy: +2
• Forceful: 0
• Quick: +1
• Sneaky: +1

STUNTS:

• By Your Command: Take +2 to Flashy Approach to persuade any cyborg to follow you. 
• Enemy of My Enemy: In any Scene involving social interaction, you may gain a deep insight into the interests or motivations of another character in the scene. 
• Sartorial Delight: Once per Scene, you may pull a concealed device or object (other than a weapon) from within your colorful and ample robes. The device/object is immediately useful to your character in some way.
• Two Brains: Take a +2 to your Clever Approach to Create an Advantage resulting from focused brainpower. 

REFRESH: 2

Deck of Fridays 9: The Wrong Tools

Welcome back to DECK OF FRIDAYS, our weekly feature here at FATE SF. We make a draw from the Deck of Fate, RPG Inspiration Cards, or another Aspect-generative randomizer. Then we do something interesting with it, using the Aspect as inspiration for a campaign or scenario seed, a situation, scene, location, NPC, thingie, etc.

This week's draw from the Deck of Fate is a card with the Aspect: The Wrong Tools. Today's Deck of Fridays is a scenario seed.

The Wrong Tools

Your tools and engineering manuals are state of the art - for 1906, that is. That's usually a good thing; it's when you're living, after all. You're good enough that the Baltimore Gun Club often hires you and your mates as the first set of hands and eyes to examine their strange treasures. Enigmatic machines harvested from the still unmapped corners of the globe, and even, reportedly, from inside the Hollow Earth itself.

But today you face a truly strange enigma. Inside the airship hanger lurks the largest land ironclad you have ever seen. It has enormous treads. Some are broken. It has as many main guns as a dreadnought. A few are clearly damaged.

How did the Gun Club even get it here? And where did they get it?

The thing seems excessively hot.

And it talks.

The ironclad seems quite cagey.  It keeps asking if you belong to something called the "North American Combine."

That sounds like a motorized tractor factory to you.

And it won't tell you anything more about itself than its name: Mark Four. So it must be some kind of robot. But it seems way too big to be a robot. Perhaps there are pilots inside and this is all some kind of trick?

The machine has only one demand: to be repaired. Fix its treads. Clear the jam in something it calls its "missile bay."

Then let it go on its way.

The machine says you have 24 hours. If you refuse to help it, the leviathan says it will be forced to "self-destruct". There will be something it calls "fallout", which it promises will wipe out the Eastern Seaboard.

That doesn't sound too good...

Rotwang's Unheimlich Haven

Rotwang's house in Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" (1927)

Rotwang's Unheimlich Haven (Evocation, Cost, Per Scenario, Permanent): Almost invisible, this house might huddle at the base of any great city, hardly noticeable among the giant girders and foundation blocks that surround it. A nondescript and not-quite-symmetrical structure - perhaps partially melted by radiation or other-planar energies - its roof and walls have no doubt settled a bit over the years. When someone passes by this house, they usually think it is abandoned, having been no doubt seized by the city under eminent domain, then slated for demolition, and then promptly forgotten. That's one of the conveniences provided by Rotwang's Unheimlich Haven: it's hard to notice, the eyes can't settle on it for long, and the house doesn't persevere in the memory of those who do see it.

It's the perfect place to hide. And work.

Rotwang's Unheimlich Haven is a summonable sanctuary for alchemists, steampunks, sorcerer-scientists, and etherites. Once summoned, the Haven provides a laboratory, library, kitchen, bath, and sleeping quarters suitable for up to five people. The kitchen and icebox are not stocked; those who would live in the Haven must venture out to find food.

What it is well-stocked with are scientific and magical supplies necessary for complex investigations and rituals.  It is a failsafe place to bring a robot to full consciousness or sentience, or to stitch together the parts of dead men to create a new body suitable for reanimation. The technology level of the laboratory is positively futuristic when compared to the best laboratories in the London or Berlin of the 1930s, but is quaint by modern standards.

The spell Greater Pass Turing Test can be performed within the Haven at No Cost.

Once summoned, the Haven connects immediately to the city's plumbing, sewer, gas, and electrical systems. These connections are impossible to trace to the Haven, providing an additional level of anonymity for the Haven's summoner, and adding to the impression that the Haven is abandoned.

The Haven also connects physically with the hidden areas beneath cities. There is a hatch in the basement floor of the Haven which connects to the labyrinth of cellars, tunnels, bunkers, vaults, sewers, and passageways under the city where it is summoned. When a city lacks extensive underground systems, a new network begins to spontaneously develop once the Haven is summoned. These spread out like a spiderweb fracture radiating from the Haven's location; the tunnels and substructures will remain in the city even after the Haven departs. They are entirely random in character, an expression of the inner chaos propelling any cutting edge scientific endeavor.

There's a walled-in yard attached to the house. The wall itself is too high for someone standing outside to peer over. What might be back there? Trash, broken or abandoned furniture, an old pig pen? Chickens? Feral cats? Iron Pigs? Buried things? Probably all of the above, and more. For with each new summoning, the Haven "upgrades" to reflect changes made to its environment by its previous occupants. If the police ever start nosing around, they will find incriminating evidence of many varieties...

Finally, the Haven can be readily barred against physical intrusion, and cannot be penetrated by Mind or Divination spells. The roof is wooden, however, and can be burned.

The Spindles: Origin Story III

Art by Juan Ochoa

The psychic scrolls in the archives of the Imperial Sibyls of the Red Moon record that the first Spindle appeared shortly after the death of Glorious First, the Imperial Sovereign who founded the Empire. In accordance with her wishes, Glorious First was buried within the vast Krellic machine labyrinth under the surface of Altair IV.

The whispering Anapa prepared her body for its final rest. They then awakened the Stasis Vault Apparatus, which would extend and preserve her remains throughout all time (eternal now, past, and present). Next, the Anapa cast the charms required to summon and bind the Horrors who would stand watch, hungry and aware, at the tomb of Glorious First throughout eternity. Once the spells were cast, the Horrors were always-already there.

Their tasks completed, each member of the Anapa delegation departed through one of the hundreds of Gates beneath the surface of the Eagle King's world. Each one returned to its own private sanctuary realm. There was once again silence on Altair IV.

But less than a day later, a psychic alarm reached the sibyls' monastery on Red Moon in orbit far above. The Imperial Sibyls, charged with maintaining a watch on that ancient fourth planet, learned of movement from within the tomb of Glorious First.

Her Stasis Vault Apparatus had yielded to something. The tomb's great Time Portal irised open. Something glided out of the tomb. It moved past the Horrors, and made its slow, gliding ascent to the world's surface.

The Sibyls descended and wait for it, magics and psychic sutras readied. At a surface shrine of The Charioteer - some  forgotten star-king or space-god - they welcomed the Spindle. The sibyls found the Spindle to be psychically null, its mind a cypher entirely closed to them. But it could speak, and they soon found a common tongue in which to converse.

They made their proper introductions.

The Spindle soon made its intentions known. It requested an audience with the new Imperial Sovereign on the Throne World of Altair III. The Sibyls assented to the request.

Their reason was simple: they recognized something about the Spindle. Its ocular aperture looked just like the large ruby ring-stone worn by Glorious First.

The Spindles: Origin Story II

Art by Juan Ochoa

The first Spindle was found spinning around its vertical axis in a tiny river bay on Kepler-22B. It was floating 0.5 M above the water, just offshore, where a small river dips slightly into the SW face of Hex 113.72 (Sector I-5).

The survey team from the Yrkoon Corporation wanted to capture the Spindle, and tried just about everything to get it to stop spinning.  A spindle has too many sharp edges to handle while it is in motion. The survey team  cast radio and laser signals at it. They struck it with bamboo-like reeds growing in the nearby jungles. Fired several 9 mm ballistic rounds at the device. (These were stopped by a force screen of some kind.) Finally, the survey team tried Screaming at the Spindle with a sonic amplification weapon. This also failed, although the Spindle's gemlike aperture began to glow an angry red.

Then one of the survey team cursed in frustration: "Leche!"

The device responded with a stream of Tagalog curses, and began firing some kind of beam weapon at each of the survey team members.

The party ran away, and then stumbled their way back into the jungle. Within a few minutes, they realized they were lost, recovered their bearings and proceeded back to camp. Only much, much later did the survey crew piece together that they had encountered something strange in the bay. The team discovered this by reviewing video footage of their encounter in Hex 113.72. They also found that their radio communications and computer systems had been hacked during their earlier trip to the river bay.

When the crew stealthily returned to the site of their earlier encounter, there was no longer any sign of the Spindle.

A century later, more Spindles arrived on Kepler-22B. They came on-board Bituin Commonwealth trade vessels from the Sultanate of Managdao. Apparently, the Sultanate had discovered the source of the mysterious devices, and by that point had learned a great deal about how to establish a symbiosis with them.

Sector I-5 logo courtesy of Hereticwerks

The Spindles: Origin Story I

Art by Juan Ochoa

This is the first in a series of posts on a new class of superscience artifact. The Spindles are used by the leaders of the military orders of the Empire, as well as by other august personages of high rank or special portfolio (hint, PCs!). The Spindles are also found in other regions of space and in other polities beyond the Empire. A detailed description of this class of artifacts' powers, as well as Fate Accelerated Edition mechanics, will follow the origin stories.

The Spindles were already ancient when humanity took its first steps toward the stars. It was during the era of the Glorious Sun-King of Amarna, the Radiant Gatemaster, that we discovered the Spindles. The records of the encounter are preserved in the sacred archives of The Banishers of Gloom, stored deep within Krellic vaults on the machine world of Altair IV. Indelible live records lie coiled within data-scrolls etched upon the fabric of space-time itself, as well as within more fragile texts scripted upon ancient papyrus scrolls.

During the Radiant Diaspora, the Order of the Banishers of Gloom* served as the Sun-King's advance force through the Amarna Gate.  The Banishers scouted among the worlds revealed through the Gate network. The Banishers had two missions for the Sun-King: they identified safe and abundant worlds for the Sun-King's subjects and allies to colonize. And they also located less hospitable worlds that were suitable places for the Lord of Amarna's enemies to be banished or entombed.

The Banishers of Gloom soon discovered that the universe was a very hostile place. Relatively few garden worlds existed. And most habitable worlds required intervention before they were truly safe for colonization. The galaxy was filled with secretive and recondite menaces such as the Anapa, as well as overt and terrible threats like the Tzitzimine, the Star Demons who endanger to every world that orbits a star - as well as preying on the darker and more distant orbits where the occasional bright light draws their kind like wolves to a stray lamb.

So the Order of the Banishers of Gloom set for themselves a third great task: to seek out and destroy all manner of inimical life forms and civilizations. The Banishers were quite successful in their efforts: one need only look at the records of the Star League's discoveries several thousand years later and see the numerous already-settled human worlds, as well as the many devastated and wrecked worlds with the last ruined relics of once prosperous alien civilizations.

One such alien world is recorded in the Banishers' archives. Its location and true name were redacted centuries ago. The world is known only as the House of Knives. When the Banishers arrived on that world, it had already been long-wrecked by nuclear war. The Banishers fought a subterranean war there against a malignant, telepathic insect race that used illusions, psychic tumors, and hell-eggs to defend their tunnels, warrens, and memory libraries against the merciless human invaders.

In spite of having abandoned most conventional military technologies in favor of their psychic powers, the aliens almost won the war. But deep beneath the burned, radioactive crust of the House of Knives, the Banishers of Gloom made a discovery. They unsealed the now-legendary Emerald Vault, and found thousands of the Spindles.

A few of the Spindles in the Emerald Vault clung unmoving to the exoskeletal limbs of the aliens' long-dead ancestors. But most of the Spindles were just floating there, spinning in mid-air around their vertical axis.

As if they had been waiting for the Banishers to arrive and liberate them.

A pact was made. Oaths of loyalty and mutual assistance were sworn. The Banishers and their new-found allies soon won the War of the House of Knives. And then the Spindles and Banishers went back through a Gate began exploring worlds together.

*In these latter times, the Company of the Banishers of Gloom traces its august lineage back to the ancient military-religious Order of the Banishers of Gloom thousands of years in the past. They claim it is the same order, one which has acted to protect humanity for thousands of years. This belief and identity is reflected in the Banishers' very language and modes of interaction with the Imperial Sovereign. Members of the order refer to the Imperial Sovereign by odd and archaic titles such as "Sun-King" and "Eagle of Amarna". 

Megastructures On Kepler-22B

http://blanchardmodernart.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html

Orbital scans by the science team on-board the Bituin have uncovered a series of megastructures hidden beneath the extensive jungle canopy of Hex 117.75, Sector I-5, Kepler-22B. The first hypothesis of the on-board science team was that the megastructures were designed to facilitate orbital bombardment practice. This hypothesis was rendered null due to the fact that the structures are largely intact, with no sign of blast craters either within the structures or surrounding them.

A great ravine (partly jungle, partly swamp) runs southeast from the site, and is of roughly the same width as the megastructure: the ravine is one kilometer across. This "tail" runs into Hex 118.75, then curves back to the northwest and into Hex 118.74, and then curves back west into Hex 117.74 (directly north of the hex containing the megastructure). It seems possible that the megastructure has taken a slow spiral migration of the peninsula where it has been found.

But why? And what is it?

The Yrkoon Corporation's expeditionary force is headed south right toward this structure. Perhaps this is what the expedition was landed here to explore...

Albion Trigger: The Gloriana Project

We're thinking about combining the Camelot Trigger setting from Fate Worlds 2 (interplanetary SF mecha with Arthurian themes) with this:

Maybe we're losing it. But we think Early Modern Europe has a great deal to offer. It's much more intelligible to us moderns than medieval Europe is, as Silvia Federici has shown us with Caliban and the Witch.

In Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene we have Tudor state ideology, Arthurian mythos, a touch of the Italian renaissance epics, and so much more coming together in a heady mix. Add in Camelot Trigger's mecha and modify its SFnal storyline, and I believe we'd have a very interesting alternative Camelot Trigger setting indeed.

All we have is a name so far, so please feel free to drop setting and story ideas in the Comments.

Deck Of Fridays 2: Well-Read

Welcome back to DECK OF FRIDAYS here at FATE SF, our new weekly feature in which we make a draw from the Deck of Fate, our deck of  RPG Inspiration Cards, or another Aspect-generative randomizer - and then do something interesting with it - using the Aspect as inspiration for a campaign or scenario seed, a situation, scene, location, NPC, thingie, etc.

This week's draw from the Deck of Fate was pulled on Thursday morning, for Bujilli, the weekly experimental literary and gaming serial over at Hereticwerks.

I liked the card so much, I am also using it as the subject of this week's DOF post.

So here we go, with a scene Aspect!

Well-Read

A robot (or alien, or replicant/fabricant) sits far underground reading. It's surrounded by stacks of books. Piles of them, arranged haphazardly, great Jenga towers of made of words.

That's right, books.

Not the CodeXs stored on data crystals overlaid with the psychic imprint of their authors: crystals strung onto necklaces and rosaries, worn by those who wished to create an impression of intelligence and sagacity, and of the devotion of the well-read.

These books are the real thing. Books made of paper, ink, glue and cloth. A few with leather and fur. Others with feather and bone. They come in all shapes and sizes, all colors and smells. More than a few are first editions with signatures. Many have color plates and blossoming monochromatic stains and molds.

Adjacent to this room there are dozens of others, each filled floor-to-ceiling with more books.

It's gotten waylaid, this robot.  It was built for Pest Control far below the city. After all, it had been programmed as an entomologist before it was repurposed (as the barbarians are wont to say these days) for its current assignment.

(In fact, the robot is quite conversant in both the glyphic and song-forms of Glissendo, the insectile conlang cobbled together millions of years ago by numerous arthopod species living around the Core. It relishes the opportunity to read the numerous glyphic Bug Texts squirrelled away in the stacks. Books you can read, taste, smell.)

The robot retains a bug hunter's fascination with structure, complexity, and variation. It finds the books interesting, especially with all their varied languages, fonts, and material forms. The robot's masters have forgotten all about the robot. No one is tracking its current progress against a production schedule.  (Or , more accurately, against a timetable for the books' destruction.)

This old rubbish was supposed to have been gotten rid of hundreds of years ago. The incinerator is still there, glowing in anticipation. But the robot can't quite force itself to feed the furnace yet.

It is committing each book to memory first.

Book-by-book, day-by-day, the robot sits and reads. Being well-read is its own reward the robot tells itself. Who knows: maybe one of these days, one of the so-called "delvers" who walk past the robot will want a few of these books.

There are many kinds of treasure.

This vignette is inspired by four sentences in Cordwainer Smith's novel Norstrillia. And Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, of course.

Things Found In The Zone - List A

Art by +j garrison of Hereticwerks

Stalkers go into the Zone looking for things to bring back out with them. They may have shopping lists from scientists at the Institute or from various brokers and  black marketeers. It's not unusual for Stalkers to bring back items that blur the lines between living things, chemicals, and/or other kinds of environmental hazards. Others things they bring back are more obviously manufactured items, even if their purpose and use is often inexplicable. Anything that Stalkers bring back has the potential to fuel new scientific investigation, black marketeering, and even violent attempts by others to acquire the item.

Areas of town near the Zone frequently have hidden caches of items that Stalkers have brought back. Weirdness potentially lurks inside every loading dock, warehouse, or apparently abandoned building in town. And sometimes it leaks out and spreads.

Almost all the items on the List A Table below are named items mentioned by the Strugatsky Brothers in Roadside Picnic. In a couple of cases (#8, 20, and 21) I had to come up with a name for something the authors had described without naming. As in life, not all experiences have names.

We'll be writing item descriptions in individuals posts (we already have a couple), and may be adding a bit more to the list as we finish the novel in the next few days.

1. Hell Slime
2. Burning Fuzz
3. Silver Cobwebs
4. Wispy Hairs
5. Graviconcentrates aka Bug Traps
6. Magnetic Traps 
7. Living Corpses
8. Autonomous Viabilities (parts severed from Living Corpses that have a life of their own)
9. Happy Ghosts
10. Spacells
11. Black Sparks
12. Empties
13. Full Empties
14. Bracelets
15. White Whirligigs
16. Lobster Eyes
17. Dick the Tramp (a wind-up mechanical doll)
18. Bitches' Rattles
19. Rattling Napkins
20. Short-shocks
21. Coal Pit
22. Green Slime
23. The Death Lamp
24. Grinder (sometimes localized as a tunnel called The Meat Grinder)
25. The Golden Sphere (sometimes localized as The Room)

Omega House: Scientist K. Panov

Art by Juan Ochoa

Centuries ago, Scientist K. Panov ventured into the Zone with a shopping list. He never came back. Perhaps he backed into something, maybe one of the crackling Silver Cobwebs. Or he stepped into hell slime? Who can tell?

What matters is that the Stalker who brought Panov into the Zone didn't bring him out. Scientist Panov was never seen again on Earth.

But the physicist was found centuries later by a salvage crew trawling space junk in the ring of a gas giant. He was encased within some kind of alien life support vacuole. The crew brought the vacuole on board; they cut Panov out using lasers. A few clean cuts were all it took.

But he wasn't the old Panov.  No legs, no hands. Only one good eye. A torso covered in alien polyps.

The salvage crew froze him, and took Panov to a nearby R.U.R externality within the Empire for medical treatment and further study. The R.U.R. of course repaired him. Just like they would any machine. R.U.R. artisans custom-built new replacement parts for Panov, including cybernetic forearms and a perambulator frame. They also gave him numerous implants and neural augmentations like most organics who live with the R.U.R.

Panov recovered quickly. He started learning about the world he had awakened and joined. He absorbed hundreds of years of technological advancement in a few months. Panov branched out from physics to also learn a few new languages:

• The Prate - the common tongue of humanoids in the Empire
• Afuera - an ancient galactic language from the long-consumed core worlds, used to communicate with other-planar entities
• Glopnic - the R.U.R. language for communicating with space-time itself, as well as with other universes 

Panov fit right in here: so many of the aliens and fellow humans who chose to live on R.U.R. externality were scientists, technicians, and inventors. Or philosophers, linguists, and mentats.

But a few of the organics were salvagers and smugglers like the ones who brought him to the R.U.R. From one of them he learned of Omega House. Their work sounded like something familiar; work he could do.

The smuggler invited Panov to visit Omegapoint.

When the ship reached there, Panov signed-on.  He now crews for Captain Amargura on the Omega House Vessel Iboy.  They have a nickname for him. (He doesn't like it.) They think he's a little weird. (But aren't they all?) They say he has disgusting habits. (He wouldn't disagree.)

Scientist Panov

Science Specialist on the OHV Iboy

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Multi-legged cyborg physicist
• Trouble: After spending centuries in an alien vacuole, there's a lot I don't know
• Aspect: Please, don't call me "Tapdancer"
• Aspect: I'd love to get a look under the hood of Clay
• Aspect: Science comes easy to me

APPROACHES

• Careful: +2
• Clever: +3 
• Flashy: 0
• Forceful: +2
• Quick: +1
• Sneaky: +1

STUNTS:

• Deadly Handstand - Once per session, Panov can go first in combat, by making a backflip to stand on his cyborg hands. Then take a +2 to Flashy Approach to Attack using the metallic pincer-like legs of your perambulator frame. 
• Figure It Out - Because you are an expert scientist with R.U.R. cognitive augmentations, take a +2 to Clever Approach to Create an Advantage while analyzing new scientific phenomena in your lab.
• Gauntlet Sensors - When you are studying something within hands' reach, you may take +2 to Careful Approach to Create an Advantage using the sensors in your cyberhands. 
• Master Linguist - Once per session, you can master a new language - or crack a code.
• My Children - It's painful, but Panov can tear the alien polyps from his skin, and send them off 1-3 Zones to check things out for him. He takes 1 Stress for every polyp he sends off. When the polyps are spying for him, Panov takes a +2 on his Careful Approach to smell, see, and hear what they experience in real time. Panov re-attaches the polyps to their source wounds when their mission is completed. We did say the crew thinks he's a little weird...do you believe us now?

REFRESH: 1

Omega House: Clay and Fury

Art by Juan Ochoa

The duo of Clay and Fury are always together; usually, they occupy almost exactly the same space. Clay is the alien Ceramoid mobile suit. Fury is the archaeologist-sapper. They crew for Captain Amargura on the Omega House Vessel Iboy.

The twain met when Fury was in the Empire's special forces. She was one of The Banishers of Gloom, the elite Imperial Order charged with cleansing dead planets and space hulks. The Banishers are feared and revered as fearless hunters of other-planar abominations and the undead. They are masters of the Smoking Mirror Engines, and use the sentient mirror machines to cross to other worlds.

The Banishers fight abominations in labyrinths and other hidden places. They are masters of both traditional hand-to-hand weapons, and gem-like occular energy projection weapons. Even The Banishers' bodies  are mystical weapons. Their skin glows in the presence of otherworldly enemies, because their flesh is inscribed with protective glyphs from all-but-forgotten ancient languages.

Fury discovered Clay in the heart of an alien labyrinth on a proscribed world besieged by spectral forces. A archaeologist-sapper, her combat role was to discharge the other-planar energies accumulating in such structures. Often the easiest way to dissipate such energies was to cause the structures to collapse by means of a few well-placed explosive charges. Fury discovered Clay while she was planting a series of such charges.

Clay, the Ceramoid mobile suit, was trapped within intersecting stasis fields deep below the labyrinth. It might have been stuck there for centuries - or possibly even longer. Fury found the stasis field projectors easily enough. She disarmed them. Then the walls and ceiling of the labyrinth began to collapse. And then the charges detonated.

When Fury awakened, she was within the mobile suit. She was walking up a ramp toward the surface of this deadly world. Being walked, actually. Fury gradually became aware of the Ceramoid's thoughts. A symbiosis developed.

Fury's fellow Banishers were not entirely comfortable with this symbiosis. Clay was always underfoot. Even when Fury wasn't wearing Clay as armor, he followed her like a dog, always exactly two meters behind her.

The Order called Clay a Golem. The Order didn't like Clay; Ceramoids should not regenerate. The Order suggested to Fury that she had become too dependent on the armor. She was taking too many risks. That put other people at risk. They hinted that it was time to move-on.

Shortly thereafter, Clay and Fury took the hint and left the Order, hauling all of Fury's sapper gear with them.
Omega House was watching and waiting. They always keep an eye on the Orders; their cast-offs make good recruits. Omega House made the two a generous offer. Clay and Fury signed on.

Fury

Archaeologist-Sapper of the OHV Iboy

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Archaeologist-sapper of Omega House
• Trouble: When I wear Clay I feel invulnerable
• Aspect: Veteran of The Banishers of Gloom
• Aspect: I can find the heart of any maze
• Aspect: Clay will back me up

APPROACHES

• Careful: +1
• Clever: +2 
• Flashy: +3
• Forceful: +1
• Quick: 0
• Sneaky: +2

STUNTS:

• A Sapper Knows - Take +2 to Sneaky Approach to Create an Advantage find the weakest point in a structure.
• Armor Helps - When wearing Clay in combat, the mobile suit takes the stress and consequences from physical attacks first.  
• Glyphs of the Banishers - Take +2 to Flashy Approach when Defending against undead and other-planar entities, due to the glowing protective glyphs that cover your flesh.* 
• It Went BANG! - Take +2 to Flashy Approach when using explosives to Overcome an Obstacle.  

REFRESH: 2

*When wearing Clay, the glow comes mostly from glyphs on Fury's face.

Clay

Ceramoid Mobile Suit

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Fury's Loyal Golem
• Trouble: "CLAY, be careful with that - it's DELICATE!"
• Aspect: Surprisingly stealthy for such a hulk
• Aspect: I am no mere Extra!
• Aspect: The sword on my back weigh more than you do!

APPROACHES

• Careful: +1
• Clever: +2
• Flashy: +1
• Forceful: +3
• Quick: 0
• Sneaky: +2

STUNTS:

• Armored Telepath - Once per session, you may establish and maintain an ongoing telepathic connection with one individual. The connection lasts as long as the two of you remain in the same Zone. 
• Kadmonic Regeneration -  Once per session, you may remove up to three checked stress boxes or one Mild or Moderate Consequence due to physical damage - as long as you have a humanoid occupant within your armored shell.
• The Armor Makes A Way - Take +2 to Forceful Approach to Overcome an Obstacle by smashing physical barriers.
• Swordmaster - Take +2 to Forceful Approach when wielding a sword in both hands for an Attack. This may create an opportunity for the GM to Compel a humanoid occupant if the occupant is attempting an action for which swordplay could be distracting. 

REFRESH: 2

Omega House: Captain Amargura

Art by Juan Ochoa

This is the first in a series of posts featuring the crew of a Quetzal-class Rapid Intervention Vehicle, the OHV Iboy. The Quetzals are the workhorse vessels of Omega House, the chartered imperial organization responsible for developing resolutions to many dangerous situations on the frontiers of the Empire. Omega House assets are usually the last ones to evacuate dangerous places where an exurgent crisis has developed. Omega House brings things to an end

But of course every omega has its ourboros-like ontological ties to a prior alpha. Omega House teams are often the first resource deployed to explore unusual or potentially dangerous phenomena. They're a safe bet, because Omega House teams are usually successful. And they have enough ordinance to cover most of their mistakes.

They also have good PR. Omega House's alpha-flight explorations often trigger crises, although they never, ever admit to that. When reinforcements arrive, they pose as the Empire's first responders. They clean up - or at least try to do so.

Captain Amargura is one of the operatives of Omega House. She's a Captain, in fact. Her current assignment is the Quetzal-class Omega House Vessel Iboy.

Something of a promotion, especially for a Witchfinder-class android.

Amargura had one previous assignment. Back then, she was known as Medical Officer Stillwater of the OHV Jaguar Mantle. That last mission had not gone well.

The Mantle had been assigned to investigate an inky ultraglassine ziggurat on a bleak moonless world orbiting a brown dwarf.  The Captain of the Jaguar Mantle decided to land the vessel directly on top of the ziggurat. The structure seemed made for that and had an intriguing central 5 meter-wide shaft running into the ziggurat's interior from the "landing platform" on top of the structure.

The Captain and the rest of the crew suited up and prepared to descend into the shaft. They used a belts-and-suspenders approach, wearing AG harnesses and a superstrong cable/winch system, which depended from underside of the Mantle. Stillwater remained onboard to monitor drones and safeguard the ship.

Drones went in first of course. Both Stillwater and the descending crew were monitoring the drones; no one detected anything of concern. Unfortunately.

Twenty seconds into the crew's descent, they just weren't there anymore.  Neither were the drones. Within seconds, Medical Officer Stillwater sent a second flight of drones down the shaft. Those returned just fine. In fact, the drones carried extra data packets back up the hell-shaft with them: the recorded screams of the terrified crew in their last moments, along with a jumble of random memories from crewmembers.

Stillwater defied standard orders and immediately took the Mantle to the R.U.R. shellworld called Rainhaven. Unfortunately the R.U.R. Intelligence known as Drowned One said there were not quite enough memories for the R.U.R. to reconstitute the crew.

Stillwater took the Mantle back to Omegapoint. She was surprised to find herself praised for taking initiative and heroic measures to save her crewmates. Omega House offered her a promotion.

Stillwater first took a leave of absence to reflect on what had happened. She blamed herself and changed herself. As a sort of penance, she tore off every bit of synthflesh covering her hardcase sheleton.  She reprogrammed herself as well. Deleted useless Medical Officer programming. Mastered strategy and tactics. Changed her name to Amargura.

Then Amargura went even further, reprogramming herself to constantly relive those 20 seconds of terror when she lost her crewmates. The events cycle through her processors, in full fidelity, every three minutes. She'll never forget the incident. She keeps it fresh. It's an accident that should never be repeated, and that is Armagura's responsibility.

She stores the crew's remaining memories too - someone has to remember them.

The crew call Amargura the Cold Restart, but never to her face. They have no idea what she is capable of, or what she is planning.

When the Iboy's crew are ready - when they finally meet Amargura's exacting standards - she has a detour planned.  Amargura is going back to that cold Ziggurat to find out what happened there.

Captain Amargura

Captain of the OHV Iboy

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Embittered, hypervigillant Captain of the Iboy
• Trouble: The wound is still fresh
• Aspect: Mistakes must not be repeated
• Aspect: Sometimes a Cold Restart is necessary
• Aspect: "Proceed with caution"

APPROACHES

• Careful: +3
• Clever: +2
• Flashy: 0
• Forceful: +1
• Quick: +1
• Sneaky: +2

STUNTS:

• Logic Prevails - Take +2 to Clever Approach when Create an Advantage in a battle situation.  
• Omega Sniper - Take +2 to Careful Approach to Attack an enemy who is three zones distant, using a ranged weapon 
• Sheleton - Take +2 Forceful Approach to Defend against melee and projectile weapons.
• There's A Safer Way - Once per session, you may identify a way in or out of a situation that is safe from one kind of Attack (i.e., close-in, ranged, energy, automated deathtraps, mines, etc.).

REFRESH: 2

Panjandrum's Eye

techbyheart.blogspot.com

Panjandrum is the exclusive manufacturer of General Operations Device (G-O-D) Modules. These Modules are the "red eye" special weapons mounted in the forward housing on Quetzal-class Rapid Intervention Vehicles. Panjandrum is Thingmaker-class Intelligence at the hub of several R.U.R. factory wheels orbiting a gas giant on the coreward rim of R.U.R. space - quite a long way away from the Empire and its Quetzals.

The Quetzal's G-O-D Modules are single use devices. One might easily imagine that the distances involved in resupplying the Quetzals would pose severe logistical issues. But that is not the case. Panjandrum has found a way to close the distance and deliver the Modules that Omega House needs to resupply its expeditionary striker vehicles.

Quetzals needing a new G-O-D Module travel to the Sol system, the backward and largely abandoned point of origin of the vast human diaspora. Sol's first planet remains a cinder; its second has become a wet jungular realm for saurian megafauna; its, third a barely habitable iceball, with a surface trammeled by hunting bands of Neothanderals, and subterranean depths tunneled and trawled for relics and gates by the Morlocks; and its fourth, a desert world of decadent warring city-states.

Cold, featureless, and grey, the fifth planet of Nibiru coasts in its silent orbit, casting strange ripples in hyperspace that pose a navigational hazard for vessels in the shallow enumerations. Ships entering the Sol system should heed the hyperspace beacons warning ships to enter normal space before they reach Nibiru's orbit.

Sol's mighty sixth planet is the bleary-eyed gas giant Jupiter: that glowering world is Panjandrum's. Eyeless Quetzals travel here, arriving either as singletons or in small flotillas. The Quetzals stay their orbits above the Panjandrim's Eye, anchored to await the moment when a small black void appears in the center of the Great Red Spot.

As soon as that black iris opens, each ship hurries to transmit its request.  When the eye closes seconds later, the Quetzals begin their wait. Sometimes they wait for hours, sometimes for days.

Eventually Panjandrum's Eye becomes a fountain. A spray of white particles geysers up from the center of the Eye, and one or more replacement modules ride right up that column, spinning off it to become small, temporary red moons of great Jupiter. Each little red eye has its own cyphered song. A Quetzal will be drawn to one specific eyesong, and move in collect its new Module.

The fountain quickly recedes. Once again, Panjandrum's Eye glowers on in silence.

Panjandrum's Eye Aspects

• Stay clear of Nibiru's wake
• Were you followed to this ancient place where Quetzals gather?
• Approach Panjandrum's Eye and wait for an audience
• Panjandrum takes special requests
• Patience is its own reward
• The White Fountain is Panjandrum's Answer

Quetzal-Class Rapid Intervention Vehicles

Art by Juan Ochoa

The Quetzal-Class Rapid Intervention Vehicles (RIVs) are the elite vehicles used by Omega House. They are deployed to the most dangerous and remote areas of the Empire, and well beyond there.

Quetzals are not birds of prey. They are very lightly armed compared to the Empire's capital ships. But it would be a mistake underestimate them. This is Omega House after all. Their assets are never paper tigers; they are always full of surprises.

The RIVs are highly maneuverable. They can reach the 10th enumeration of hyperspace with at least some crew members remaining conscious. While crew disembodiment is frequently reported, along with some degree of hull decoherence, no Quetzal has ever been lost due to entering enumerations 8-10 of hyperspace.

Quetzals are designed to reach remote areas of space quickly, drop planetside if necessary, and rapidly assess and address exurgent phenomena. Quetzals are often deployed in pairs. When they reach their target, one typically drops planetside to investigate while the other maintains watch from orbit.

Most RIVs operate with a crew of 3-6, one of whom is typically a Witchfinder-class android. Up to 12 Omega House special operations staff can be stored in stasis tubes. Quetzals are equipped for atmospheric re-entry and carry an armored ground vehicle attached to the ship's aft belly.

The Quetzals are built from a highly customizable ship template, reportedly developed by the legendary R.U.R. Artisan-class Intelligence known as Cloud Minder. The "red eye" at the forward end of the ship is not the bridge; it is a detachable, reentry-capable module known as a General Operations Device. Each RIV crew takes pride in selecting the unique features and capabilities of their G-O-D module..

RIV modules are built with one of several pre-formatted functionalities including:

• Gamma Ray Burst Inducer
• Amphibious Saucer
• Combat Tripod
• Outpost Dome

OGL MECHANICS

Fast Strike Vessel
Scale:  Medium (3) Advanced
T+4

ASPECTS:

• High Concept: Omega House's Rapid Intervention Vehicle 
• Trouble: Repairs must be done in R.U.R. space
• Aspect: Advanced hyperspace navigation
• Aspect: Purpose-built to kick the hornet's nest
• Aspect:Witchfinder on-board

APPROACHES

• Careful: +1
• Clever: +2
• Flashy: +1
• Forceful: +2
• Quick: +3
• Sneaky: 0

STUNTS:

• Atmosphere Capable - Vehicle may land planetside
• Auxiliary Vehicle - Vehicle also carries a ground vehicle
• G-O-D Module* - A detachable single-purpose module of a specific type 
• Hyperdrive - Vehicle may enter, traverse, and leave hyperspace for FTL travel

REFRESH: 2


*The Inducer is a common G-O-D Module type. Inducers are manufactured by the R.U.R. Thingmaker-class  Intelligence known as Panjandrum. They are part of the R.U.R. armory that holds back the galactic Anti-Consciousness festering within the galactic core.

A Blue Marble-class weapon of mass destruction, the Inducer takes advantage of the fact that at every moment, somewhere in the universe, a supernova or hypernova is giving off a massive gamma ray burst. The Inducer channels a few milliseconds of a small cross-section of that burst in order to hit a continent-sized target.  The discharge is typically lethal for anything in its path.

Inducers are single-shot G-O-D Modules. They are usually detached and destroyed immediately after use, as they often produce secondary microbursts called gamma radiation aftershocks.

The R.U.R. do not entrust the general crew of a Quetzal-class vessel with authorization codes required to arm and fire an Inducer. They entrust that only to Witchfinder-class androids. This is a R.U.R. ethical safeguard against their misuse.