Infected with a sickness that threatens to turn them into twisted sadists, the heroes travel to the city of Cuvacara on the planet Verces to find the possible origin of their affliction! They soon discover that a sinister company plans to release a new social media app that will corrupt the entire city. If they can survive attacks from corporate assassins, the heroes must save the metropolis by shutting down the transmitters set to broadcast the corrupting signal. Along the way, they learn the location of the company's hidden underground base on the planet's Darkside, where a sinister executive awaits their arrival.
This volume of Starfinder Adventure Path continues the Signal of Screams Adventure Path and includes:
"The Penumbra Protocol," a Starfinder adventure for 9th-level characters, by Jenny Jarzabski.
An exploration of the twilight-drenched city of Cuvacara on the tidally locked planet of Verces, by Jenny Jarzabski.
A look at the history and motivations of the Shadow Plane outsiders known as velstracs, by Isabelle Lee.
An archive of alien horrors, including a skin-harvesting, wormlike humanoid and a cruel fey exiled from the First World, by Jenny Jarzabski and James L. Sutter.
Statistics and deck plans for a corporate attack vessel, by Jenny Jarzabski, plus a glimpse at a fiery planet infested with devils, by Owen K.C. Stephens.
ISBN-13: 978-1-64078-0-972
The Signal of Screams Adventure Path is sanctioned for use in Starfinder Society Organized Play. The rules for running this Adventure Path and Chronicle sheet are available as a free download (1.2 MB PDF).
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
I thought this was a pretty decent AP - not mind-blowing but some good interesting stuff in there. Part 2 is really where it gets to be the most open-ended and interesting with a lot of cyberpunk-y mini encounters scattered about.
The jarring part of this AP is the map design - you see this in two parts:
In part 1 you infiltrate a facility which has a Terminator-class Security Robot patrolling the C-suite section of the hallways. The problem is the Terminator is a LARGE construct and the hallways he's designated to patrol are 5 feet wide. This pretty clearly does not make sense.
In the final facility you go through the corridors are VERY tight -- Like 1-grid square corridors in a lot of places. Power armor is out of the question. And the final fight takes place in a 3x3 grid which is like a knife fight in a phone booth.
Just very poorly linear-designed encounters. Signal of Screams 1 had this in a few instances but not to this degree.
Also there are very few encounters in the finale - after you wreck the 1st floor you can basically stomp your way around it without encountering much resistance until the very last encounter.
So, Isabelle Lee, are Velstracs the Kytons of Starfinder? ;-)
Velstracs is the actual real name of these fiendish outsiders, and "kyton" is just how they came to be misnamed by commoners. So the Velstracs are the kytons of Starfinder AND Pathfinder too.
Creeping Shade (8 NE incorporeal Outsider) shadowy plant creature native to the Shadow Plane, they like to make creatures go comatose so they'll get killed by predators and there body will fertilize the nearby area.
Ihonva (4 NE Monstrous Humanoid) shelled wormlike creature with tentacles and lamprey mouth (and a weird single eye that look like 2 smushed together), they use humanoids to host their young, and like to wear the flayed skin of humanoids as clothing.
Niaq (6 N Magical Beast) space pterodactyl with quills for a face and tentacles for hair. They have a toxin that send people on a really bad trip. Rich people tend to collect those suffering from the toxin so they can synthesize a drug from the victim.
Terminator-Class Security Robot (10 N technological Construct) sexy robot, it can heal and haste itself.
Shadow Mastiff (5 NE evil extraplanar Outsider) shadow doggos!
Svartalfar (playable Fey) Fey Drow, they gain SLAs and can infuse their weapons with the Bane Quality.
Sexton Velstrac (11 LE lawful evil extraplanar Velstrac Outsider) 4 armed and sewn together with nanocarbon chains they have shadow spines sticking out of them that they can fire off. Literal pain addicts, if they don't take enough pain (damage) within a certain amount of time they're sickened and fatigued until they do.
I am not well-versed in kyton lore in Pathfinder, outside of the Iron Gods adventure path, but they don't look that different to me at all. They also look similarly capable combat-wise, outside of the usual PF/SF differences.
Creeping Shade (8 NE incorporeal Outsider) shadowy plant creature native to the Shadow Plane, they like to make creatures go comatose so they'll get killed by predators and there body will fertilize the nearby area.
Ihonva (4 NE Monstrous Humanoid) shelled wormlike creature with tentacles and lamprey mouth (and a weird single eye that look like 2 smushed together), they use humanoids to host their young, and like to wear the flayed skin of humanoids as clothing.
Niaq (6 N Magical Beast) space pterodactyl with quills for a face and tentacles for hair. They have a toxin that send people on a really bad trip. Rich people tend to collect those suffering from the toxin so they can synthesize a drug from the victim.
Terminator-Class Security Robot (10 N technological Construct) sexy robot, it can heal and haste itself.
Shadow Mastiff (5 NE evil extraplanar Outsider) shadow doggos!
Svartalfar (playable Fey) Fey Drow, they gain SLAs and can infuse their weapons with the Bane Quality.
Sexton Velstrac (11 LE lawful evil extraplanar Velstrac Outsider) 4 armed and sewn together with nanocarbon chains they have shadow spines sticking out of them that they can fire off. Literal pain addicts, if they don't take enough pain (damage) within a certain amount of time they're sickened and fatigued until they do.
Just as AP#10 gave us a Starfinder conversion of the "Gloomwing" & "Tenebrous Worm", AP#11 gives us the "Shadow Mastiff", which can be found in Pathfinder Bestiary 3 (same CR 5) & the Svartalfar from Bestiary 4 (CR 8).
Neat!
Here's hoping that we'll get two more shadow themed creatures in AP#12!