I’m retiring. I’m done. Doesn’t matter how valuable I am to the township. You don’t understand what’s out there. The Void’s not just dangerous—I’ve handled danger. It’s beyond that. What’s out there is horrific. It’s an ugly solar system, and the more you look at it, the more you rub up against it, the uglier it makes you.

We’ve all watched friends die, but have you also seen them washed away? Have you seen the spark dying in their eyes, their faces hanging loose or twisted up in some alien rictus, and you just know that they’re not in there any more? The body’s been taken over by Something Else and they’re just…gone. That’s all that’s out there: hunger and oblivion.

Everything that’s out there…it all wants to be in here. It wants in so bad, when you’re out there, you can feel it in your bones, like a chill you can’t shake off. And you know how it’ll get in? Scaven-gers like me. You all depend on us to bring you things from out there. But the things out there de-pend on us, too, to bring them in here.

I can’t do it anymore. I won’t. If I keep going, I’ll be the weak link in the chain. The crack in the dyke. So I’m done. No, I’m staying right here with my whiskey. Give me a new job—anything but being a void vulture.

Void Vultures:

Horrors of tHe VoidA Rülsleit expansion for the Void Vultures RPG

created in the Sunset Syndicate Studios

designed by Josh Roby & edited by Ryan Macklin

art by Ed Heil, Khairul Hisham, Jared von Hindman, and Claudia Cangini

Backers rül: backers rule.The content and rüls in this book are the exclusive province of Void Vultures’ generous backers.

If you’re a backer, you can give your void vulture Psi powers.

If you’re a backer, you can outfit your void vulture with Cyber upgrades.

If you’re a backer, your void vulture can become a Medic, a valuable rarity in the solar system.

If you’re a backer, you can discover the strangest and most frightening corners of the universe… and share them with your friends.

Because if you’re a backer, you become the con-duit to awesome. When others play Void Vultures with you, you can open this book and invite them along, too.

If you’re not a backer, find one, because it’s only by playing with them that you can unlock the Horrors of the Void for yourself.

The scourge of humanity’s huddled remnants, Ice Mutants stalk the fringes of civilization, oc-cupying valuable derelicts and devouring weak townships. Their rough humanoid appear-ance, caked over by rough chitinous growths, is enough to send a ship full of refugees into a panic. Where there is one, there are always more. Like the wolves of what was once Earth, they hunt in packs.

The goal of their hunt is “ice,” which is a nice way of saying “corpses hung out in hard vacu-um until their blood flash-freezes.” Ice Mutants can probably survive of water ice, but they find it easier to make dead humans.

While most ice mutants recognizable simi-larities—each are about two meters tall and a meter wide, two arms, two legs, neanderthal brow, and jutting jaw—there are some varia-tions. “Rippers” can tear bulkheads apart with their wrist spikes. The arms of “slingers” can hurl chunks of ice or station debris over 1000 meters per second. Perhaps worst of all, the “commander” variant proves adept at whip-ping packs of mutants into coordinated attack parties.

However, the genetic modifications made the clones, in the words of their creators, “unruly and difficult to control.” That was a diplomatic way of saying their creations were psychotic. Before the scientists could terminate them, they smashed their way out of their creches and kicked off into the void.

Once in the asteroid belt, there they found a barren and austere place, ideal for hoard-ing their precious ice. All they needed was a source. A hunting ground. The clones found themselves turning back to human civiliza-tion, with their stations and ships full of air and water, all of which could be harvested like fruit trees.

ice Mutants: wolves of chitin, hungry for frozen bloodIce mutants are a new threat, unseen in the so-lar system even twenty years ago. Like many of today’s dangers, its genesis was the Last War. The Arabian Cartel’s military scientists created the “Vacuum Adapted Soldier,” a vat-grown clone designed to provide a decisive, unantici-pated advantage. VA soldiers could ride on the outside of a simple rocket, leap from rocket to target, and smash their way in. As a bonus, the resulting decompression would slow down the defenders but not the VAs.

HelMet sMasHIce mutants like to prove their superiority over humans by smashing hardsuit helmets and letting their enemies “enjoy” the hard vacuum. This is a simple Heave/Smack maneuver. If the target does not successfully defend, they suf-fer damage as normal.

However, after plucking out the precision and power of the roll, the GM keeps the remain-ing dice in front of him. On the next turn, the smashed helmet is still leaking air, and the PC must Soak damage equal to the next-highest die (which serves as precision and power). This trick is most fun when you don’t tell the players why you’re keeping the dice in front of you until they start feeling the damage. This continues until all the dice are gone and the hardsuit’s auto-seal repairs the cracks.

Optionally, another PC can Fix the damaged hardsuit with a precision that beats the small-est die remaining in front of the GM.

This is a signature move exclusive to Ice Mu-tants. It only works in vacuum (or, if you’re mean, toxic atmospheres).

rippersA common ice mutant variant, rippers have massive bone spikes protruding from above their wrists, and the bulging biceps to slam them home.

Smack 3d6+1d10/level (wrist spikes)Heave 4d6 (wiry)Dash 2d6 (lumbering)Rally 3d6 (too dumb to flee)

r r r surrenderr dead

slingersSpindly and ungainly, the limbs of slingers are elongated and strangely jointed to optimize their deadly throwing arms.

Throw 5d6+1d10/level (arm slings)Heave 1d6 (spindly)Dash 4d6 (skittering)Rally 2d6 (meek)

r r r surrender r dead

tanksHeaping towers of frozen chitin and endless rage, tanks can take and dish out obscene amounts of abuse.

Smack 3d6+1d10/odd level (knotted muscle)Heave 4d6+1d10/even level (chitinous skin)Dash 3d6 (trample!)Rally 2d6 (simple)

r r r surrender r dead another r per level

cryo WitcHesThe most tortured genome of all the ice mu-tants, there are luckily few “cryo witches” in existence. Their cackling jeers are almost worse than their conjured icicle daggers.

Cryo Witches are minibosses, although they sometimes travel in pairs (uh-oh).

Shoot 4d6+3d4+d4/level (induced icicles)Smack 0d6Heave 2d6 (frail)Dash 4d6 (ice slide)Rally 4d6 (superiority complex)Psi 4d6+3d8+d10/level (cryokinesis, telekinesis)

r r r crippled r r r surrender r dead

coMMandersThe least monstrous-looking variant, ice mu-tant commanders are easily the most psy-chotic. Their tactics are as vicious as they are effective…and they are very effective.

Commanders are minibosses and are always found in the company of mooks in their com-mand.

Shoot 2d6 (flung debris)Smack 3d6 (icicle-spiked clubs)Heave 2d6+3d4 (knotty muscles)Dash 4d6 (agile)Rally 3d6 (saw your move a mile away)Connect 4d6+3d8 (inspirational)

r r r crippled r r r surrender r dead +d4 & +d10 per level wherever it’s most effective

Ice Mutants 2/2

Scavvies like the PCs board derelicts, clear out whatever has taken up residence, and take the valuables home. The Syndicate does the same thing, except to townships. It is a massive criminal enterprise that preys on the weak and haunts the nightmares of township leaders.

HoW it WorksThe Syndicate is loosely organized, mostly by means of tradition. It exists primarily as an in-formation clearing house and communications network, with a complicated system of “cuts” on loot.

If an associate finds a lead on a juicy target, they let the network know about it. Other as-sociates organize a team (depending on the target, as few as ten and as many as a hun-dred hardened soldiers) to do the dirty work. The loot then gets distributed to all the opera-tives who participated, whether they contrib-uted information, coordination, equipment, or brute muscle power.

Whenever anyone gets a cut, they send a por-tion of that to their mentor in the organization. Associates of the Syndicate do need to main-tain “good standing,” which means sending a steady trickle of cuts to one’s mentor (and a cut of that goes to their mentor, and a cut of that to theirs, and so on, up to the shadowy spider at the center of the web).

MeMBersHip Has its Benefits…and draWBacksThe network of the Syndicate is vast and has access to an incredible amount of informa-tion, equipment, and other rarities. It always comes at a price, of course, and given how the network operates, it’s impossible to make con-nections without somebody noticing.

The Syndicate is ruthless about leaks; those who share its secrets—and those who they shared the secrets with—are designated en-emies of the Syndicate. Associates who start slacking off their work are threatened with the same designation.

The Syndicate deals with its enemies the same way it deals with its prey. The target’s informa-tion gets floated onto the network, somebody puts together a team, and then there’s a knock on the enemy’s door. Whatever loot they find on the body gets distributed just like anything else.

Void syndicate: evil space craigslist

recruitMentThe Syndicate is always looking for people tal-ented at killing and taking, which pretty suc-cinctly describes void vultures of even mod-erate experience. They have discovered an unassailable means of recruiting scavengers: offering them better gear at the negligible cost of a few CoINs. Sometimes the operative spruces this up a little and specifies that it must be three genestock CoINs or similar, but the de-tails of the deal are a smokescreen. Take the deal and you’re on the hook.

The gear they sell includes a transponder, and so the operative inevitably shows up at a later derelict. (Fancy meeting you here.) And then he makes the next offer. He has some valuable information about a heretofore lost station, long gone derelict but full of loot. He’ll supply the coordinates if they cut him in on the take. This can continue for a few rounds. The leads are sound; the derelicts have their dangers, but they always have good loot. They’re frequently occupied by outlaws and bandits—rivals of the Syndicate—but that’s common enough in what the PCs usually hit, right?

And then the targets aren’t so much derelicts as they are modest townships or beleaguered stations. The Syndicate handler always has a story about how they’re mutants or war crimi-nals or plague carriers, but eventually the lies start wearing thin. About the time the recruits have figured out who they are working for, their handler reels them in for the final stage of recruitment.

The offer is simple: if you become a full asso-ciate, your township goes on the Syndicate White List. No Syndicate teams will attack your home. And we know the location of your town-ship, and most likely its entire migratory route, because we’ve been tracking it via transpon-der this entire time.

And the PCs thought the frying pan was hot.

Luckily for scavengers, the decentralized, sus-picious, and backbiting nature of the Syndicate means that their handler almost certainly has kept the transponder logs secret and stashed somewhere. It’s a simple matter of finding them, destroying them, and killing him dead. Easy. I’m sure his bolt hole isn’t barricaded, guarded, and packed with special surprises.

syndicate enforcersIf and when the PCs fall afoul of the Syndicate, they’ll eventually find themselves in a “friendly altercation,” most likely in their township. At first, the enforcers will not seek to injure the PCs, just scare them and deliver an ultimatum. It’s only when they come back (and they make clear that they will) that they’ll intend some violence.

For confrontations on a township, PCs are as-sumed to not have any of their equipment, which makes fighting somewhat danger-ous. (If they want to start carrying weapons through the township, well, that’s a Home Field Advantage roll if I’ve ever heard of one.)

Additionally, damage incurred in a township isn’t healed up until after the PC goes out on a derelict run and comes back again. (Unless, again, they want to use their Home Field Ad-vantage.)

Syndiate Enforcers are created as normal mooks for the first (non-violent) and second (break an arm) confrontations. If they return, they’ll have a miniboss with them. The GM should pay attention to what the PCs say about their township: family and friends make great leverage for the Syndicate.

VoId syndIcate 2/2

新秩序的太阳系。

ةيسمشلا ةقاطلل ديدج بيترت

NEW SOLAR ORDER

In the power vacuum left by the collapse of Earth’s supernations, one organization is ag-gressively rising to prominence. While the agenda of the New Solar Order is ostensibly to rebuild human civilization, its preferred modes of action are brutal violence to outsiders and crushing oppression to its own “citizens.”

The Order’s insignia, an 18-pointed star em-braced within a hexagon, is well on its way to becoming universally feared. For the few brave enough to speak out, it is derisively referred to as “the box” or “the eye,” depending on which they hate more: the Order’s bald fascism or its policy of ubiquitous surveillance.

Originally an alliance of convenience between marooned military outposts severed from their planet-side masters, the New Solar Order has slowly and steadily drawn independent outposts of humanity into their power. Many of these gains were military conquests, but no small number acceded to realpolitik diplomacy and naked threats.

The Order is also not above fomenting civil un-rest through their many spies and sympathiz-ers (like the one in your township) and then in-vading in the name of peace and human rights.

citizens and suBjectsOnce a part of the Order, however, the new sub-jects quickly discover that human rights are only for the few, those privileged with the rank of citizen. There are a constellation of reasons why an individual might be denied citizenship. Minor and unobtrusive mutations (very com-mon after generations of space colonization), cybernetic alterations, and psychological “ab-normalities” are all grounds for disqualifica-tion. Worse, association with non-citizens threatens citizenship, and for this reason ev-eryone—including citizens—must submit to near-constant surveillance within New Solar Order space.

The plight of non-citizens is ugly. As they are not human in the eyes of the Order, their only purpose is to serve humanity. While their “compulsory labor” is usually menial, many of them are assigned to martial detail. Conscripts of the New Solar Order are heavily augmented with cybernetics, and many have undergone “full conversion.” All that remains of their natu-ral bodies are their brains and what organs are required to keep the brain alive. Electrodes im-planted in the brains ensure loyalty. When the attrition rate of the martial detail rises too high, conscripts are routinely cloned.

But that’s all just fine to the Order, because they aren’t human in the first place.

neW solar order: when a nazi loves a cyberman very very much, they have a baby…derelict reHaBilitationWhen void vultures encounter the New Solar Order, it’s usually when they’re “reclaiming” derelicts.

The Order drops a detachment of marines and technicians into a promising derelict for the job. Since they have the force to do it, the first thing they do is seize a portion of the derelict and set up a beachhead.

Over the course of a few days to weeks, they slowly and methodically root out everything that is infesting the derelict. The techs repair and upgrade the station’s systems as best they can. When they’re done, the New Solar Order has yet another outpost.

neW solar order npcsBecause of their extensive cybernetic augmenta-tion, the foot soldiers of the New Solar Order are not created as normal mooks. They are created by splitting 12d8 between their four maneuvers, and they don’t need Rally very much.

Martial details operate with one or more officers. These are citizens in good genetic and civil stand-ing, and each carries a control baton to keep their soldiers in line. Create these as normal mooks or minibosses with an extra 3d6 in maneuvers. Add a new maneuver, the Control Baton maneuver, which they can use to replace their minions’ Rally maneuvers.

Control Batons are keyed the their registered user’s pristine DNA (so once you have one, you’ll have to Rig it to make it work for you).

WelcoMe to Martial detailIf you have the misfortune to fall into the hands of the New Solar Order, your prior experience as a void vulture will almost certainly classify you as a non-human (if you aren’t mutated or cybered up, you’ve associated closely with those who are) and placed in martial detail. What happens next isn’t pretty.

First, you will be fitted with a subjection collar that can be activated by a control baton. This blanks out your will and initiative, replacing it with the will of whoever is holding the baton. There may be ad-ditional cybernetics installed at this time, or they may use you au naturale for a few missions, un-til your arms or legs are blown off or your eyes gouged out, and then they’ll bring you back to the doc for the full conversion.

Your Shoot, Heave, and Dash maneuvers will be converted to cyber and hardlinked to standard-issue gauss gun, hardsuit, and exoskeleton, re-spectively. Your glitch score starts at 3 and never goes lower—they simply don’t care about you enough to install high-quality cybernetics. Once you are thus augmented, they’ll throw you back into the grinder until you die.

escapeAs your detail grinds its way slowly and steadily through a derelict, pacifying it and readying it for recolonization, you might find an opportunity to divest your commander of his control baton. Or some monstrous thing might eat your command-er. Or you might, while he’s not looking, push him into the gaping maw of some monstrous thing. Then you are free—assuming no one else comes along with another control baton. Surely your old township will welcome you back without any trace of suspicion.

If you retire a void vulture as your advancement option, you may create a martial detail escapee. Roll your maneuvers as normal, but of the first three you may select one to be d4s, one to be d8s, and one d10s. Pick equipment as normal; hard-link at least two of your cybernetic maneuvers to equipment. You also begin play with a subjection collar still installed (note this in Salvage).

Removing a subjection collar is a difficult proposi-tion, and often leaves the patient dead, drooling, or paralyzed. You may try to finagle such a procedure with your Home Field Advantage roll. Additionally, if all your New Solar Order cyber is replaced with different (and presumably better quality) compo-nents, your Glitch score will drop down to 1.

new solar order 2/2

p. diddy terry’s self-optiMizing algoritHMsOne of the core elements of the New Solar Order’s control are a set of algorithms that govern their control collars. Created by the third fork of the im-printed psyche of Sean Combs, these algorithms continually shift the “beat” of the control collar’s impulses, steadily eroding the victim’s self-control.

Out beyond the Oort Cloud, in the distant reach-es of space, live vast and ancient civilizations of alien life. Most of these are organized into the Collective of Civilized Worlds, a strange hybrid of galactic government, information network, and interplanetary market. While they have recently made peaceful contact with human colonies outside the solar system, they took one look at the cradle of humanity and slapped down a quarantine zone. Solar humans, after all, are prone to violence and political instabil-ity. Nobody is allowed in, nobody is allowed out. For everybody’s safety.

Which, of course, means that the only aliens that are here are criminals, predators, desper-ate revolutionaries, and the like.

Fugitives from the Collective rarely have the in-terests of humans at heart. They want cheap labor, adoring sycophants, or exotic brain chemicals. And those few that do want to help humans usually want to “help” in ways that are mind-bendingly incomprehensible or rep-rehensible…and always boils down to raising an army of savage humans to conquer the Col-lective.

Or they just want to eat you.

ciVilized patrol officerShoot 4d6+1d10/level (energy weapon)Heave 3d6 (bulky)Dash 3d6 (exosuit)Rally 2d6 (i hate my job)

r r r surrender r dead

ciVilized patrol coMManderShoot 4d6+d4/level (energy pistol)Smack 2d6 (gauntletted fist)Heave 3d6+d10/odd level (bulky)Dash 2d6 (flatfooted)Rally 3d6+3d8 (seeking promotion)Psi 4d6+3d4+d10/even level (aegis, mind spike)

r r r crippled r r r surrenderr dead one additional r every other level

collectiVe of ciVilized Worlds: civilizedier than thou

interdiction patrolThe Collective maintains a patrol detail on the fringes of the solar system, but its primary purpose is to intercept outgoing ships and screen them for “social sanity,” whatever that means.

Very occasionally, they rouse themselves to pursue an alien presence that has violated the quarantine and root it out of wherever it has burrowed. As their orders are the protection of the Collective—certainly not the gentle shep-herding of a young, psychotic race—these op-erations show little regard for human life. If a township has a piece of alien technology that the patrol deems dangerous, destroying the township is a perfectly acceptable solution.

it’s eitHer a gun or a tentacle styler.

In addition to their creepy alien agenda, Collec-tive fugitives often bring alien technology, and when they suffer unfortunate ends, this alien tech falls into human hands. Sometimes this is the spark for astounding breakthroughs; sometimes a township explodes, or gets con-sumed by alien brain-hacking viruses, or is otherwise never heard from again.

When the GM rolls a 10 on the d10 in a Loot roll, the PCs might turn up some alien tech. It doesn’t have obvious handles or labels, so the characteristics are all you’ve got to go on. Be creative; describe something strange and dis-turbing.

Alien technology must be deciphered before it can be used; this requires Hack maneuvers. The progress track has three thresholds: rough idea, misunderstood, and reliable pro-cedure. These thresholds may appear in any order. The GM will only tell you you’ve reached a threshold, not which one.

The number of bubbles may, of course, vary:

r r r rough idea r r r misunderstood r r r reliable procedure

r r r reliable procedure r r r rough idea r r r misunderstood

r r r misunderstood r r r reliable procedure r r r rough idea

r r r rough idea r r r reliable procedure r r r misunderstood

r r r reliable procedure r r r misunderstood r r r rough idea

r r r misunderstood r r r rough idea r r r reliable procedure

Rough Idea: you sort of understand the device’s intended use and operation. You can use half its dice.

RelIable PRoceduRe: you understand exactly how to do exactly one thing. You can use the full dice value of the device to create advan-tages in exactly one way (the first thing you try). Besides that, nothing seems to work unless you also have a Rough Idea of its operation.

MIsundeRstood: you think you know how it works; you don’t. If you roll any 5s, Some-thing Bad Happens.

Any combination of these three may be active at the same time.

Note that nowhere on the progress track ap-pears the threshold “total understanding.”

soMetHing Bad Happens (2d4)2 VoIce: It starts talking to you; only you can

hear. It doesn’t say nice things. It also doesn’t stop.

3 lIghtshow: It has lights and noises like a kid’s toy. Every room, the NPCs hear you coming and gain a 5pt advantage.

4 blaMMo: It punches a hole in the hull. Whoops. You’re not on a township, are you?

5 oVeRload: It starts steaming and flashing. In two rounds, it’s an explosive hazard (die rating, tripled, becomes effect) and will self-destruct.

6 whIne: It emits a high-pitched whine. Every-thing in the room with ears rolls Rally (beat 3) to resist 8 damage. Every round. How do you turn it off?

7 stuck: It affixes itself to a nearby surface (floor? hardsuit?) and won’t come off.

8 beacon: One little light starts flashing. The Interdiction Patrol has been summoned. This tech was stolen from them, and they want it back.

alien tecH rül

Rumors are common enough in the townships, but one pernicious story warns that mutants hide among us, “humans” who possess psy-chic powers without spliced alien DNA. They call themselves Psions, say the suspicious whis-pers. Depending on who you’re talking to, they are an evolutionary offshoot destined to save the human race, or a sign of even worse times to come.

If they exist (and come on, of course they do), they meet clandestinely and carefully arrange beneficial genetic pairings between their num-bers, quietly tending their gifts like a garden, looking to the future of their race and—per-haps—all of humanity. Which of course means that if anybody in charge hears about them, they’ll send an extermination team.

Their status as a rumor is a great defense, but it is also a liability. Fears of their power have fueled further speculation that they drive whole townships insane, slowly poison popu-lations into sterility, or started the wars that destroyed civilization.

After all, what’s easier to swallow: we bombed ourselves to hell because we chose to, or be-cause evil Psions made us?

tHe MatriarcHuMThe secretive organization directing the orga-nized efforts of the Psions is the Matriarchum, an elected body of their oldest and most prolific women. These ladies maintain a database of genetic records and shepherd the promise of their nascent race. Their paramount goal is the survival of their species.

There are a handful of factions within the Ma-triarchum, and they are more than dabblers in the matters of intrigue. It was, after all, the Matriarchs who covered their own security breach by assassinating the president of the European Union and pinning the blame on Chi-na, igniting a war that quickly spread across all of Earth and out to the orbital and interplan-etary colonies. Whoops.

I guess it’s pretty easy to swallow that when it’s true. Still, to most Psions, such treatment is just thoughtless persecutive by the “norms.”

So there are two levels of the Matriarchum’s activities: the explicit agenda that they present to the majority of Psions who follow them, and their secret machinations.

psions: put your hand in the box.tHe daedalus agendaThe current stated effort of the Matriarchum is what they refer to as the Daedalus Agenda. Between the collapse of solar civilization and the rising threat of the New Solar Order, the Ma-triarchs have decided it is time for the Psions to leave.

This is more than a little difficult, on two fronts: first is the major undertaking of recalling all the Psions in the solar system to a single rally point. The second is the lack of a suitable rally point. The Psions, while populous, do not con-trol a township of their own.

They have identified a promising prospect, however. An out-of-the-way township that wouldn’t draw the attention of a few hundred people suddenly showing up (and even if it does, the town’s not critical to anyone, and easily expendable).

Say, what was the name of the PC’s township, again?

Hand of poenaOccasionally the Psions’ veil of secrecy is torn and humans turn against the mutants in their midsts. It’s usually only a short time later that the Hand of Poena arrives to make sure every-one forgets…and pays for their crimes.

Sometimes they reassert the masquerade by assassinating a handful of individuals, and this is done quickly and cleanly. Other times it requires a psychic cleansing, which usually wipes the memories of an entire township…which more than once has them all into gibber-ing madness.

The Hand is not a creature of the Matriar-chum—all its members are self-appointed—but a number of Matriarchs have ties with its organizers. Which is to say: it isn’t a secret po-lice force, it’s a lynch mob that some Matriarchs are friendly with.

tHerMopylaensAnd then there are a handful of Psions who have turned their facility with genetic engineer-ing to productive ends. They have developed a virus which affects humans but not Psions. Designed as a humane solution, it doesn’t kill them (much) or cause horrific mutations (much). It just interferes with the host’s abil-ity to bear children. After a full-scale release of the virus, it will be just a generation or two until Psions control the solar system.

playing a psionPsions have Psi instead of one of the latter three maneuvers and two specialties from the table. While they can rip apart minds and gain an advantage from doing so, they do not need to. They do not lash out when the advantage reaches zero (and indeed, they can’t).

If you retire a void vulture, you may create a Psion (see PsI Rul). Your true nature will un-doubtedly be secret. You may select which maneuver to replace with Psi, and you may do this after you roll maneuvers. You must roll 2d10 to determine your Psi specialties, but you may decide if they are precise or powerful along with the rest of your specialties.

Will you reveal yourself to your fellow void vul-tures or keep your powers secret? And if you reveal yourself, will they turn you in or keep your secret… the better to control you? And when a Matriarch comes calling for your loyal-ties, where will they lie?

daedalean sHock trooperThe Matriarchum is stockpiling a supply of for-mer enemies who have been psychically-dom-inated and brainwashed to serve as infantry for their agenda.

Shoot 6d6 (suicidal focus)Heave 2d6 (expendable)Dash 2d6 (stumbly)Rally 2d6+1d10/level (brainwashed)

r r r surrender r dead

agent of poenaUsually more than a little rabid, Agents are fo-cused solely on vengeance. They work solo or in pairs.

Shoot 5d6 (trigger happy)Smack 4d6 (hit ‘em hard)Heave 5d6 (rage issues)Dash 5d6 (hit ‘em fast)Rally 3d8 (rabid)Psi 3d4+d10/level (any two specialties)

r r r crippled r r r surrender r dead

PsIons 2/2

Psi is the province of aliens and mutants, cer-tainly not something that respectable salvage experts dabble with.

To gain Psi maneuvers in play, you need a Genetic Resonance Chamber and some alien DNA prepared for splicing. Then you climb in (or stumble in) and punch the button (or ac-cidentally trip the lever). The resonance cham-ber does the rest, ripping out a chunk of your personality and expertise and attempting to replace it with alien psychic powers.

Roll 2d4+1d6+1d8+2d10+1d12 and do the fol-lowing:

Check the d6 for Success: if the d6 comes up 1-3, the splicing fails and the scavenger loses two dice of the corresponding maneuver (if 1, lose two dice from Shoot). If the d6 comes up 4-6, the splicing is a success. Psi will replace the maneuver corresponding to the d6 (if 4, Psi replaces Rally). Erase everything in these three boxes. Cross out the master maneuver and its specializations; rename the maneuver Psi.

1 telekInesIs: works as Catch/Heave/Throw without requiring any physical contact.

2 MInd sPIke: a straightforward mental attack against enemy minds; if your precision overcomes their Banish precision, deal psych damage equal to your power die.

3 astRal PRojectIon: you may leave your body and scout the derelict unobserved (except by others with Psi). Your precision must beat the GM’s chaos of battle roll; power de-termines the advantage you gain from your reconnaissance.

4 Mental sPeech: you may make contact with the minds of others and speak with them. This requires no roll, although your conver-sation partners may Banish you from their mind.

5 PsychIc scReaM: you can broadcast the equivalent of a jamming signal to stop enemy minds in their tracks. Your preci-sion must beat the GM’s chaos of battle roll; power determines the number of targets that lose their action this turn. This is very taxing; for each room, each use beyond the first reduces your Psi by one die as if you took damage.

6 technoPathy: when you touch technology with your bare skin, you may use this maneuver as if it were Hack.

7 aegIs: you can project a shield of psychic energy that protects you and others from psychic attacks. You may substitute your Aegis roll for another character’s Rally or Banish.

8 telePoRtatIon: you may ‘flicker’ to any loca-tion within line-of-sight (which in space can be pretty far). Your precision must beat the GM’s roll for the chaos of battle; your power determines the advantage you gain.

9 doMInatIon: you may invade the mind of a mook, forcing their assistance in a battle. If your precision beats their Banish precision, they fight for you for a number of rounds equal to your power die.

10 PyRokInesIs: you may cause materials to ignite into a ball of fire. Fireballs cannot be induced in vacuum, of course. Pyrokinesis is most often used as a straightforward at-tack: precision to hit and power for damage.

If you roll doubles on the d10s, get the spe-cialization corresponding to the number you rolled, then roll the 2d10 again and gain two more specializations. No matter what you roll after that, you get a max of three.

psi rül: mutants have all the funConsult the 2d10 for your two specializations on the following chart:

tHe rest of tHe diceAdd the 2d4 for Power: add the two d4s to-gether and write this number into the master Psi box.

Check the d8 for the first specialization: if the d8 came out 1 or 2, the first specialization is precise; write d4 in its box. If the d8 came out 7 or 8, the specialization is powerful; write d10 in the box.

Check the d12 for the second specialization: if the d12 came out 1-3, your second special-ization is precise (d4); if it came out 10-12, it’s powerful (d10).

It’s a rare advantage that can modify the Psi Mutation roll, certainly not something that can be managed with a simple Fix/Rig/Hack. You’d need a genetic engineer (nearly all of whom are dead) or some sort of expert system (which are rare, expensive, and fought over).

If you’re particularly insane, you can undergo genetic restructuring multiple times; the rules work exactly the same each time. If the cham-ber is loaded up with your own DNA from be-fore your first restructuring, it’s possible—that is, a 1-in-6 chance—to rewrite the Psi maneu-ver back to what it was originally.

It should be noted that townships tend to frown on mutants (what with their tendency towards sociopathy). So you might want to exercise some discretion back in the township…

psycHic instaBilityGaining Psi powers comes at a price, and that price is your mind slowly collapsing under the stress of those alien powers. When a PC with Psi starts a new derelict, he rolls Rally and gains the advantage “Psychic Stability” equal to the power die (if you don’t have Rally, your advantage starts at 1). Upon clearing each room, the advantage decreases one point. You can also spend it as a normal advantage, espe-cially if you don’t care much for your travelling companions.

At any time you can bolster your own psychic stability by ripping apart the mind of another. This is the master Psi maneuver; it requires skin-to-skin contact and otherwise works as Mind Spike. When you do this, your Psychic Stability advantage resets to your power die.

If your Psychic Stability ever reaches 0, you lash out, ripping apart whatever minds are nearby. This does not require touch and is an area effect. Any other PCs in the same room are caught up in the psychic storm. Each mind you attack gains you one point of the Mental Stability advantage—and minds that success-fully defend with Banish inflict psych damage. Fun times.

psi for npcsWhenever Minibosses and Bosses are created with Psi, the GM may select any two specialties from the list. Or more, if you’re feeling extra nasty.

Building functioning cyberware is beyond the technical capabilities of existing townships. Relics of a brighter age, they must be recov-ered from derelicts.

Cyber is rated exactly like other equipment, in dice. You might find a 3d4 set of cyber-eyes, 4d8 piston arms, or 2d10 mechanical legs.

Few townships will take off a void vulture’s per-fectly good leg and replace it with metal; they are far more likely to use it for the benefit of some poor soul who has already lost his leg. Of course, if scavengers come in with severe injuries suffered in the last run, most town-ships will install the cyber that the wounded come limping back with. This is soundly within the scope of your home field advantage roll at the township.

To install cyberware, your Shoot, Heave, or Dash must first be reduced to 0d. Presumably the derelict does this; if you really want that cy-ber, though…

Medics on the township can then install the cy-ber. The cyber’s dice replace the maneuver’s old value, including die size. So if you install 3d8 prosthetic arms, you’d give yourself a brand-new 3d8 Heave maneuver. Erase your special-izations; all three maneuvers are now rated in the same dice.

glitcHesWhenever you roll a cybernetic maneuver, roll a d20 along with the rest of your dice. The d20 is not used for precision or for power; instead, it is the glitch die.

At the start of every derelict, your glitch count is 1 (you can jot that down next to the cybernetic maneuver). If the d20 rolls your glitch count or lower, the cyber suffers a glitch. It freezes, jams, or spasms, fouling your current maneu-ver (as if you rolled precision 12 and power 1). After each glitch, your glitch count increments by one.

You only have one glitch count, even if you have more than one cybernetic maneuver.

You may not reroll the glitch die by spending a token or any other means.

Hacking cyBerAnyone can make a Hack roll to overload cy-berware. In the absence of countermeasures, the Hack roll simply needs to have a precision lower than the target’s glitch count. Doing so forces a glitch: the target loses a turn and in-crements his glitch count.

cyBer rül: harder, better, faster, strongerfixing glitcHesIf your glitch count is getting uncomfortably high, you may make a Fix maneuver to realign the wha-who-sits and get the cyberware back to factory defaults.

The GM rolls the dice corresponding to all of your cybernetic maneuvers. If the Fix preci-sion beats the GM’s, your glitch count is re-duced by the Fix power. If the GM’s precision beats the Fix, the glitch count is increased by the GM’s power die.

You may only make one roll to Fix Glitches per room. Glitch count can never go below 1.

Cyber does not lend itself to significant repairs outside of a medical suite. You cannot Fix dam-age to Cyber; that falls somewhere between surgery and a mechanical overhaul and re-quires a township.

upgradesOnce installed, the now-cybernetic maneuver cannot be modified through normal advance-ment. The only way to alter or upgrade the maneuver is to replace the old cyber with new tech.

Hardlinking cyBerWare and equipMentOnce you have cyberware installed, you may hardlink it to equipment. Most equipment has standard access ports, and those that don’t can often have them easily installed. When you hardlink, draw a line from your cybernetic maneuver to the piece of equipment you want to link it to. Thereafter, whenever you roll that maneuver with that equipment, you may sacri-fice one rolled die to reroll any number of dice.

If you acquire new gear to replace the equip-ment you have hardlinked, the new equipment is not automatically hardlinked. You can do this for free when you get back to the township, or someone can attempt a Rig action. The GM will roll the dice for both the cybernetic maneuver and the piece of equipment. If the Rig’s preci-sion beats the GM’s precision, the hardlink is established.

Hardlinked equipment may have add-ons that provide countermeasures to Hack attempts. When your cyberware is targeted by a Hack roll, you may roll as a reaction any and all coun-termeasures you have. The Hack must beat your precision or your glitch count, whichever is lower.

cyBer for npcsThe GM can add Cyber to NPCs by adding dice at the cost of a Glitch count. Each die added to an NPC increases their Glitch count by one. The GM may add any sized die.

The GM may also hardlink maneuvers that have Cyber dice added to them; circle the maneuver and increase the Glitch count by one again. Hardlinked maneuvers can be rerolled by sac-rificing a rolled die.

There’s no limit to how many times the GM can use these options, but a Glitch count above 7 or so gets very annoying very quickly.

NPCs with Cyber can be targeted with Hack as normal.

cyber 2/2

A very few individuals in the world of Void Vul-tures have medical training. Those who do possess such knowledge and expertise are far too valuable to risk to the tender mercies of a derelict salvage run. So in other words: there are people who have the Medic maneu-ver. Those people aren’t you.

However, there is often medical technology lying about on derelicts which can perform miracles in trained hands. It’s also a common refrain that void vultures get mauled on the job, and sometimes you’re curled up in a ball in the corner of some derelict, with who-knows-what wailing down the corridors, and the only hope of getting out of there alive is to use that medtech with or without the training to use it properly.

untrained ManeuVersWhen using equipment for which you don’t have the appropriate maneuver to operate, roll the die rating of the equipment and either spend one token or sacrifice the lowest and highest dice you rolled.

patcHing upWhen you are attempting to heal damage, the GM will roll a number of dice equal to the dam-age you’ve already taken; if you’ve lost 6d from your maneuvers, he’ll roll 6d6.

If your precision beats the GM’s, you have suc-cessfully used the medtech and can heal one maneuver up to the value of your power die. If you had a 6d Shoot and took 3 damage to it, a power die of 5 will let you heal it back up to 5. You can’t heal it beyond what it originally was.

If you crit, you may heal another maneuver by sacrificing one of your rolled dice. That maneu-ver is healed up to the value of that die.

Medtech always has charges to represent its stock of drugs, sutures, drugs, bandages, drugs, and, well, more drugs. Each Medic roll, successful or not, consumes one of those charges.

Cybernetic maneuvers cannot be repaired with Medic (but they also don’t get rolled by the GM when healing other maneuvers, so some mer-cies, there).

on-tHe-joB trainingIn any salvage run in which you use medtech—successfully or not—you may spend your ad-vancement on increasing the Medic maneuver. The first time you do so, gain it at 1d. You’re not supposed to have this maneuver, so you can just scribble it wherever you can fit it on your character sheet’s.

Townships are almost always starving for us-able medical goods and rarely allow their scav-enge experts to hold on to them, so unless you’re going to smuggle the medtech onto the township and then back off again, you won’t have it for your next salvage run.

Medic rül: i’m a scavenger, not a doctor, dammit!

carVing notcHesAt the end of each room, while the GM rolls Loot, you make a notch roll. First, collect your dice:

wItness: For each dispatched enemy, add a d6.

kIllIng blow: For each enemy that you person-ally took out, add a d8.

teaMwoRk: For each advantage that you created and was used in the room, add a d4.

Roll the resulting pool of dice. Each critical you roll gains you one notch.

additional notcHessuRVIVal: Whenever you make it back to the

township after clearing a derelict, gain a notch.

chaRacteR gRowth: Whenever you change your alignment, gain a notch.

PullIng wool: If you did something on the derelict that you weren’t supposed to but your superiors don’t find out about it, gain a notch.

retiringWhen your void vulture has had enough, she may retire to safety, ignominy, or a messy death on the floor of a cheap dive bar. You may make a new character with the same number of notches your original character had. Roll starting maneuvers as normal and then spend notches to customize.

Your new character may be a Psion or escaped New Solar Order soldier; see the rules on the Psions or the New Solar Order sheets for these options.

Yes, you can retire your void vulture after her first derelict for one of these options. I like to call that the RetoolIng fRoM the PIlot ePIsode Rül.

adVanced adVanceMent rül: for when “you win, level up” just isn’t good enough

I like to use a single line on the edge of the char-acter sheet whenever I carve a notch. Then when I spend notches, I draw in a second line on each notch to make it look like there are real notches along the edge of my character sheet. Grrr, I’m tough!

The Advanced Advancement system mea-sures your growing competency with killing and looting in “notches” of experience.

spending notcHesAt any point in play, you may cash in your notches to improve the maneuvers on your character sheet. Every twenty notches, you may do one of the following:

uPgRade: increase the number of dice you roll for any one maneuver.

sPecIalIze: set one of your specialties to d4 (precise) or d10 (powerful).

Tunnels

Beachhead

Isolation Paddock

MedBay

The Drop

Resonance Lab

Cryo Vault

ObservationBalcony

11251 IcarionDesignated Warcrime Quarantine

Officially DecommissionedDO NOT LAND OR BOARD

wItches’ cauldron 1/5

Icarion is a small Trojan asteroid in Jupiter’s L4 point which hosted the Witches’ Cauldron, one of the war’s most notorious genetic war-fare research bases. Officially destroyed and abandoned years ago, it was rediscovered—and brought back online—by Thermopylaen Psions. Here, they have almost completed a virus that will sterilize and eventually extermi-nate humanity. However, their presence has alerted the New Solar Order, which has already landed and intends to shut down the lab.

And into the midst of this arrive the PCs. It’s possible that they’re here to stop the Ther-mopylaens, too. It’s also possible that they’ve heard that there’s a Genetic Resonance Cham-ber here. Or they have a beef with the com-mander of the Solar martial detail here.

Or they just got a tip that this rock has some valuable loot, and they have no idea what they’re walking into…

The research base was originally constructed deep under the surface of the asteroid, al-though this meant little in the face of the orbital bombardment that “decommissioned” the base fifteen years ago.

WitcHes’ cauldron: a level four derelictNow the asteroid is riven with fissures and craters, many of which reach deep enough to reach the ruins of the base. The shattered rock and base are prone to tectonic shifting, but what’s inside is worth the possibility of cata-strophic collapse.

Witches’ Cauldron is a leVel fouR deRelIct written for five players. The derelict’s level is trivial to shift up or down. Increase the level by adding dice and squares to damage tracks; to lower the level, remove them. Exactly how many to add or remove can be found in the nPc Rül in Rüls of the Void.

wItches’ cauldron 2/5tunnelsThe easiest route into the Cauldron lies through tunnels from a landing site a kilometer away from the now-collapsed entrance. The tunnels are, like many asteroids, infested with rock-worms.

The tunnels are also littered with spent bul-let casings and a few portions are blackened with grenade scars. Somebody else has been through here, and recently. Did another sal-vage team get here first?

rockWorMsUsually as unobtrusive as the earthworms they resemble, the recent fighting on Icarion has rattled these rockworms, turning them territorial and hostile.

Shoot 4d6 (fire-breathing)Heave 3d6+3d10 (rocky hide)Dash 1d6 (worms)Rally 4d6 (rattled)

Shale Rockworm: r r r r r surrender r dead Obsidian Rockworm: r r r r r surrender r dead Rockworm of Gravel: r r r r r surrender r dead Granite Rockworm: r r r r r surrender r dead Rockworm w Striations: r r r r r surrender r dead Marble Rockworm: r r r r r surrender r dead Gneiss Rockworm: r r r r r surrender r dead Sandstone Rockworm: r r r r r surrender r dead Feldspar Rockworm: r r r r r surrender r dead Rockworm w Sparkly Flecks: r r r r r surrender r dead Craggy Rockworm: r r r r r surrender r dead

If the PCs move around outside the base—in the tunnels or on the asteroid’s surface—they’ll most likely find more rockworms.

tHe BeacHHeadOnce a recovery ward, this chamber was ran-sacked long ago. It was the first large space the New Solar Order detail found, so they se-lected it as their beachhead.

The far wall has been blown off, and now opens onto the empty space of a massive fissure.

aft partyLieutenant Hassan left behind a portion of his martial detail to hold the beachhead. These soldiers believe the only way off the rock is Hassan. They assume the PCs are mentally-dominated Psion puppets and act accordingly.

Shoot 4d6+2d12 (integrated autocannons)Heave 2d6+3d10 (piston arms)Dash 4d6 (fortified)Rally 2d6+1d10 (fighting for survival)Glitch Count: 6

Solar Soldier w Shoulderpads: r r r r r surrender r dead Solar Soldier w One Arm: r r r r r surrender r dead Solar Soldier w Red Cape: r r r r r surrender r dead Soldier w Shouldercannons: r r r r r surrender r dead Solar Soldier w Cyber Legs: r r r r r surrender r dead Solar Soldier w Charred Head: r r r r r surrender r dead Solar Soldier w Jetpack: r r r r r surrender r dead Solar Soldier w Blue Stripes: r r r r r surrender r dead

Once the Beachhead is cleared, the PCs can contemplate the far wall or lack thereof. Twist-ed catwalks frame where the next room should have been, but it has fallen off its moorings and plummeted into the depths of the asteroid. The edges and tips of the torn metal are still warm; the room fell recently (in fact, when the Solar Fore Party went through), and its absense is causing the whole fissure to groan.

tHe fissureIn the far end of the room, dislodged rock and boulders fall every round. Some are three or four times the size of the PCs. Further out, great spikes of rebar jut out in the air-less space as if grasping for the falling rocks.

Effect: 8d6 Falling RocksResist: 6d4+6d10 Twisted Rebar

r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r

r r r r r r r r r r r r crossed!

In addition to Rig, Heave and Catch may be used to effect a crossing.

route #1The catwalk leads to another room, its metal walls visible jutting out of the rock to the right. Another catwalk extends from the other side of that room and connects to the Medbay across the fissure. If the players move directly down the catwalk, they’ll be able to the door in a sin-gle round. Inside, they’ll find themselves in the Isolation Paddock.

route #2Alternately, the players may attempt to cross the fissure in the asteroid’s spare gravity. While this might normally be relatively simple, the jagged remains of the fallen room’s moor-ings and the cascades of falling rock make this a dangerous proposition at best.

wItches’ cauldron 3/5isolation paddockThe isolation ward is being used by the Ther-mopylaens for its original purpose: containing dangerous or infected patients. In this case, it holds the victims of the early, incomplete strains of their tailored virus. The “mistakes” have been kept alive so the geneticists can study them, trying to learn what transformed them into such monstrous forms.

The mistakes huddle in the cold chamber, con-stantly establishing dominance over each oth-er. When feeding time comes, the strongest eat best and the weakest hardly eat at all.

Big MistakeShoot 7d6+2d10 (throws a minor mistake)Smack 5d6 (giant fists)Heave 3d4+3d8+1d10 (mammoth physique)Dash 2d6 (lumbering)Rally 3d6 (enraged)Connect 2d6 (pack alpha)

r r r r crippled r r r r surrender r dead

Minor MistakesSmack 4d6+1d10 (claws, talons, and teeth)Heave 2d6+1d10 (grotesque muscles)Dash 4d6 (leaping)Rally 2d6+1d10 (ceaseless violence)

Mistake w Two Heads: r r r surrender r dead Screaming Mistake: r r r surrender r dead Hysterical Mistake: r r r surrender r dead Mistake w Tentacle Arms: r r r surrender r dead Lurching Mistake: r r r surrender r dead

MedBayThis large chamber, filled with partitions and screens, has long since ceased to be a medi-cal suite. The geneticists, working around the clock, used this as crash space. Occasion-ally, they’d vivisect one of the mistakes in their quest to perfect the virus. The pervasive sense of disuse is everywhere, punctuated only by spatters of blood and autopsy equipment.

The medbay is being methodically searched by the Fore Party of the martial detail, although there is madness in the method. Lieutenant Hassan is sending his soldiers in circles and loops; he insists loudly that he saw something. This is not the case. Hassan is waiting for the PCs, but his will is not his own.

High above in the observation balcony, Doctor Polymentes lurks, watching the Medbay with interest. He has Hassan’s brain on puppet strings, and is looking forward to seeing if he can pit the Solars against the scavengers.

lieutenant HassanShoot 3d4+5d6+2d10 (twin pistols)Smack 2d6 (shoulder pauldrons)Heave 3d8+1d10 (exosuit)Dash 5d6 (lean & quick)Rally 4d6 (psychic domination)Connect 2d6 (in command)Control Baton 3d6

r r r r crippled r r r r surrender r dead

fore partyShoot 5d6+2d12 (integrated autocannons)Heave 2d6+4d10 (piston arms)Dash 3d6 (in formation)Rally 2d6 (fighting for survival)Glitch Count: 6

Teal Chested Solar Soldier: r r r r r r r surrender r dead Winged Solar Soldier: r r r r r r r surrender r dead Soldier w Exposed Wiring: r r r r r r r surrender r dead Solar Soldier w Braids: r r r r r r r surrender r dead Steaming Solar Soldier: r r r r r r r surrender r dead Soldier w Blasted Shoulders: r r r r r r r surrender r dead

wItches’ cauldron 4/5

There is very little space in the observation bal-cony, but it is also rather difficult to approach the good doctor, thanks to his frightening psy-chic powers.

doctor polyMentesOnce the leader of this lab, Polymentes be-came obsessed with “improving” the Psion genome and resorted to augmenting himself with spliced alien DNA. He was incarcerated by his fellows, but they released him to defend the base from the New Solar Order.

Shoot 2d6 (pistol)Smack 2d6 (feeble)Heave 5d6 (TK shield)Dash 3d4+4d6 (knows what you’re thinking)Rally 3d6 (enraged)Psi 2d6+3d8+3d10 (telekinesis, domination, mind spike, mental speech)Advantage: Psychic Stability 1pt

r r r crippled r r r surrender r dead

tHe dropThe observation balcony overlooks what was once a Critical Care Unit but is now a yawning chasm into the core of the asteroid.

When Polymentes uses his telekinesis to shove PCs, they will into the clutches of The Drop.

Effect: 8d6+3d10Resist: Frozen Shutter 6d4+3d10

r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r

r r r r r r r r r r r r shut

An airlock connects the Balcony to the Reso-nance Lab, which is pressurized. However, the airlock will admit the first scavenger and then slam closed on whoever is following. If they Dodge, they need to Dodge forward or back, and the doors seal shut. If they don’t Dodge, it will crush them every round until it is circum-vented or blown apart.

airlockEffect: 6d4+6d10 Crushing DoorsSoak: 6d6 Vacuum-Rated BulkheadResist: 2d6 Security Override

r r r r r r r r r r unlocked for 2 rounds r r r r r r r r r r unlocked 2 rounds r r r r r r r r r r unlocked 2 roundsr r r r r r r r r r jammed open

The airlock’s sudden appetite comes from the doctors within the lab, who use their technopa-thy to control the room’s machines. Both are barefoot to maintain contact with the technol-ogy. The doctors will attack whoever makes it through the door, attempting to divide and con-quer.

doctors HougHton and MifflinShoot 0d6 (unarmed)Smack 6d6+3d10 (plasma scalpel)Heave 2d6 (frail)Dash 6d6 (nimble)Rally 4d6 (terrified)Psi 3d4+3d8 (Houghton: psychic scream; Mifflin: py-rokinesis; Both: technopathy)

Houghton: r r r crippled r r r surrender r dead

Mifflin: r r r crippled r r r surrender r dead

genetic resonance cHaMBerEffect: 6d4+4d6 Hostile ResequencingResist: 2d6+6d10 Interfaceless Operation

r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r

r r r r r r r r r r r r disabled

oBserVation resonance laB

rockWorMs

rockerfly

wItches’ cauldron 5/5cryo VaultThe storage area for senescent genestock, the cryo vault is two stories tall and lined with gently steaming cryonic pods. The open floor, however, is covered with rocky protrusions that rustle and twitch. In the midst of them stands a figure in a hardsuit.

When the scavengers finally make it into the final room, they find themselves face-to-face with one of the Psion Matriarchs. She assumes that they are Solar soldiers, and gloats that the virus is already complete and ready for re-lease.

The geneticists have created a surprising deliv-ery vector. The rockworms of the asteroid are actually the larval form of the species; adults spin gossamer solar sails and use these to float to new asteroids. The rockerflies that are even now hatching from their cocoons are car-riers of the Quiet Genocide virus.

Rodriguez will use her first action to blow a hole in the room’s far wall, opening it onto the fis-sure. The rockerflies will flutter towards free-dom while she defends them from the players.

MatriarcH alta rodriguezShoot 6d6 (hip-mounted autocannon)Smack 2d6+3d10 (spiked gauntlet)Heave 2d6+3d10 (hardsuit)Dash 2d6 (slow)Rally 4d6 (determined)Psi 8d4+8d8 (telekinesis, psychic scream)

r r r r releases the rockerflies r r r r uses cryonic beam as area effect attack r r r r gloats r r r r uses TK to assist Rockerflies’ escape r r r r crippled r r r r surrender r r r r dead

cryonic BeaMNormally used to freeze samples for the vault, Rodriguez has keyed the beam to attack any-thing that isn’t a rockerfly.

Effect: 8d6 Cryonic BeamResist: 6d4+6d10 Targeting Computer

r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r targeting erratic (Hack can retarget for one round) r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r disabled

rockerfly carriersRockerflies must generate 20 points of the advantage “Freedom!” to escape. One or two may react poorly to the scavengers slaughter-ing their fellows and remember the territorial-ity of their larval forms.

Shoot 4d6 (fire-breathing)Heave 1d6 (fluttery)Dash 3d6+3d10 (solar sail)Rally 4d6 (rattled)

Shale Rockerfly: r r surrender r dead Obsidian Rockerfly: r r surrender r dead Rockerfly of Gravel: r r surrender r dead Granite Rockerfly: r r surrender r dead Rockerfly w Striations: r r surrender r dead Marble Rockerfly: r r surrender r dead Gneiss Rockerfly: r r surrender r dead Sandstone Rockerfly: r r surrender r dead

tHe cc rül: fold, spindle, mutilateHorrors of the Void by Josh Roby is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Un-ported License (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

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