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So I'm always a fan of repeatables because they are something everyone can play, and because of the changed biomes and aliens in this one, it seems like it could still be fun to play even after a playthrough or two. I'm really looking forward to running this one AND playing through it.
I do have one little question though. In area B1, it makes mention of crossing a hazardous bridge while the local storm is going strong. It says you need an acrobatics check, and then mentions checks to avoid taking damage every turn. So do you need to only make one check to avoid falling? Where do you make it? After the halfway point? When you are almost done? I only ask because you need to be in rounds to calculate how long it takes to cross the bridge Some players might be slower (Dwarves and heavy armor) or faster (Operatives) and players might pause to do things like heal another player or provide aid another. Just a little confused is all.
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I have two mostly bookkeeping questions regarding this one.
1) Does the GM have to pick the same organization for their chronicle as they run for players, I imagine the answer is no to avoid the situation where a certain organization would make sense for the PCs but not for the GM but the GM picks the organization they want for their PC.
2) On page 4 it identifies text for the hiring organizations, one of these organizations is the hellknight order of the nail, however, on page 19 it's identified as the order of the pike, which is correct?
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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So I'm always a fan of repeatables because they are something everyone can play, and because of the changed biomes and aliens in this one, it seems like it could still be fun to play even after a playthrough or two. I'm really looking forward to running this one AND playing through it.
I do have one little question though. In area B1, it makes mention of crossing a hazardous bridge while the local storm is going strong. It says you need an acrobatics check, and then mentions checks to avoid taking damage every turn. So do you need to only make one check to avoid falling? Where do you make it? After the halfway point? When you are almost done? I only ask because you need to be in rounds to calculate how long it takes to cross the bridge Some players might be slower (Dwarves and heavy armor) or faster (Operatives) and players might pause to do things like heal another player or provide aid another. Just a little confused is all.
I'm so glad you're excited for multiple playthroughs, and I'd love to hear the combinations that come up. For the bridge, the intent was to make the check once you entered any space on the bridge (just after leaving the central dome structure), and continue on any round you start on a bridge space. Once you start a turn on a square in the NE dome structure you can stop making acrobatics checks. The acrobatics check would be in addition to the save against damage from the storm. Hope that helps!
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So I'm always a fan of repeatables because they are something everyone can play, and because of the changed biomes and aliens in this one, it seems like it could still be fun to play even after a playthrough or two. I'm really looking forward to running this one AND playing through it.
I do have one little question though. In area B1, it makes mention of crossing a hazardous bridge while the local storm is going strong. It says you need an acrobatics check, and then mentions checks to avoid taking damage every turn. So do you need to only make one check to avoid falling? Where do you make it? After the halfway point? When you are almost done? I only ask because you need to be in rounds to calculate how long it takes to cross the bridge Some players might be slower (Dwarves and heavy armor) or faster (Operatives) and players might pause to do things like heal another player or provide aid another. Just a little confused is all.
I'm so glad you're excited for multiple playthroughs, and I'd love to hear the combinations that come up. For the bridge, the intent was to make the check once you entered any space on the bridge (just after leaving the central dome structure), and continue on any round you start on a bridge space. Once you start a turn on a square in the NE dome structure you can stop making acrobatics checks. The acrobatics check would be in addition to the save against damage from the storm. Hope that helps!
Thanks for the info! Look forward to running this on Monday!
2) On page 4 it identifies text for the hiring organizations, one of these organizations is the hellknight order of the nail, however, on page 19 it's identified as the order of the pike, which is correct?
I second the question. The description of their mission makes more sense for order of the nail, so until there's an official correction I'll be going with that one.
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Regional Venture-Coordinator, Central Europe
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After GMing it once (in low tier) i must say, the whole scenario feels very underpowered.
Especially in the space combat part i am not sure how the whelp is supposed to do anything to the ship unless it gets very lucky or the crew rolls really bad. The claws deal not enough damage, so the crew was able to regain shields nearly at the same rate.
Average claw damage 7.5
Shield regeneration on a tier 2 pegasus with divert energy 7 points
The encounters on the ground did not work much better.
The party took more damage from the storm hazard than in all combat encounters combined.
And the only reason the exile was able to act once was his fire resistance.
On the upside the players liked the story, but felt not really challenged by the mechanical parts.
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Yeah, its way undertuned on low-tier. Nils nailed it on the space combat, though I will also add that the whelp's dependence on melee attacks means that it is guaranteed to be ineffective on rounds where it loses initiative (unless it does flyby maneuvers each round).
Of all SFS scenarios I've played and/or run so far (I think I've seen about 60% of them) the encounters here are by far the least threatening. Especially in low tier where the security forces are tiny sized and usually have to enter enemy squares to attack (not to mention their puny 6 HP). Two CR1/3 enemies in an empty room does not a respectable fight make.
Looking just from a "total HP of enemies you have to fight" perspective, the sum of encounters in 1-12 is less total HP than any of the individual encounters in 1-02 for example (which has 3 combats).
Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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Yeah, its way undertuned on low-tier. Nils nailed it on the space combat, though I will also add that the whelp's dependence on melee attacks means that it is guaranteed to be ineffective on rounds where it loses initiative (unless it does flyby maneuvers each round).
Since it succeeds on the flyby on a 6 on the die, this would seem to be a pretty good tactic for it.
But yes, all of the encounters in this senario are APL -1 to APL +1 (depending on if your party is in the lower half of the subtier or the higher.)
As such, I assume the scenario is not meant to be a serious challenge, but more a light hearted romp.
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Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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Question on the whelp. If it succeeds at the grab, when does the pilot roll to break free? Before both ships move? Or when the players ship moves? If the later, if they win initiative and then break the grapple, does the whelp just lose it's move phase entirely?
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Just noticed something about the natives/exile that looks like it needs clarification/correction:
The natives are awed by technology. Distracting hack (per the mechanic trick)
However it doesn't appear that the exile or natives have the computers skill, which is what the distracting hack trick lets you leverage.
The easiest fix I can see would be to give the exile a rank or three in that skill (since they've been camping at the technologically superior outpost and everything). Failing that, to change which mechanic trick the exile receives.
Thanks in advance!
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A few questions:
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When I played this, the GM flavored the Aliens as Troll Dolls (from the recent Trolls movie), and the scenario was light-hearted and fun (despite having a 7 player table and myself having to leave early for work).
When I GMed it the first time, I used my extensive knowledge of My Little Pony (don't judge me) to recreate that light-hearted feel, and the players didn't enjoy it. They wanted something more serious.
Tonight I'll be running it as a Dwarven "Sky Colony", and I'm researching Aliens more borderline serious but still comical.
What has everyone else used for their custom alien race?
Venture-Agent, Georgia—Atlanta
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I have run it with My Little Pony 3 times - Once, it was met with excitement! Once, it was met with the desire to nuke the planet from orbit. The third time was a mixed bag of response.
You definitely need to know your audience. The group that wanted to nuke the ponies really enjoyed the Klingon version. Especially the diplomacy via combat.
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I've run it twice now (or rather, I'm in progress of running it twice in PbP). Both times I've tried to make the aliens relatively serious and exceptionally bizarre:
- The Khh-tekh: These were red skinned crab-like humanoids with four legs and Daft Punk helmets for heads. Those guys had a highly industrialized society and sustained themselves on diesel fumes. Their language quirk was that they crackled and generated white noise as they spoke (once languages were shared via spell), ie: "Hhhhello skhhhhhy travlerrrs! Welkhhhome to thhhe Spire offff Industrrry!". My party seemed pretty ambivalent about these guys.
- The Wofu: These were super tall, luminescent gangly humanoids with eyestalks and mouths that constantly irised open and shut. These guys loved making indecipherable sculptures from ice. Their language quirk was that their mouths constantly make puffing noises, especially at the end of sentences. Their normal language was just saying WO and FU in various intonations, and once they were granted the ability to speak common they ended each sentence with "-fu". These guys came off a bit silly, and I think the group latched on to some of that silliness. I played up their exile's foolishness later in the scenario as a result.
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Another question: One of the possible ways that the outpost could have been lost is that they were affected by a rogue strain of the Stardust Plague. The CRB has precious little to say about this plague, and my PCs were very interested in knowing more (especially if they could be infected by it by exploring the rest of the outpost). Is there any book that's added more detail on it?
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Avoid the plague like, well, the plague. At least for the first runthrough.
The first time I ran this I randomly rolled “plague.” Lacking any guidance on how a contagious character with an inhaled disease should work, I just ruled that anyone who got within 5’ of him had to make a save. Save once and you are immune. The players knocked out the exile with nonlethal, but two of them got the plague. With a medbay right there and much training in Medicine the disease wasn’t a big issue for them. But, being experienced players, they assumed that a lot (a.k.a Fame points) would hinge on what they did with him. So they spent quite a long time trying to figure out what to do with him without bringing a rogue strain of the Stardust Plague (which they had identified) back to the Pact Worlds. I let them RP for a while (which was fun) then realized they were stuck on the decision (which wasn’t). Eventually I broke far enough out of immersion to end it.
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Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area North & East
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I made mine the Unas from Stargate, but with 1920's tech. Used the grasslands, but the grass all grew to the same elevation, no matter what the ground underneath was like. And the ground underneath was treacherously uneven and pitted. So their vehicles were Walkers with telescoping legs. And they liked loud music that could carry signals across the plains.
Their tech had plateaued because of the electrical storms that plague the planet that eventually disable anything electrical. But which the besmaran whelp was happy to feast when it was in atmosphere. (And then turned into bio-shields and more speed).
Using the tech disruption storms is hard to remember to track, as it's a 1d6 chance of every shot failing to fire, amid all the other tech items.
And giving the critter bio-shields makes the fight a long slog.
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Just want to remind people I have a GM prep thread with 16 optional aliens from pop culture over Here. Yes, it includes ponies. Actually got to talk to the thread author at PaizoCon and he loved how people had come up with ways of portraying their favorite creatures (like ponies) in fun and varied ways.
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Venture-Agent, Georgia—Atlanta
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Just want to remind people I have a GM prep thread with 16 optional aliens from pop culture over Here. Yes, it includes ponies. Actually got to talk to the thread author at PaizoCon and he loved how people had come up with ways of portraying their favorite creatures (like ponies) in fun and varied ways.
Poor emo pony... so sad, misunderstood, and egomaniacal.
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Just want to remind people I have a GM prep thread with 16 optional aliens from pop culture over Here. Yes, it includes ponies. Actually got to talk to the thread author at PaizoCon and he loved how people had come up with ways of portraying their favorite creatures (like ponies) in fun and varied ways.Poor emo pony... so sad, misunderstood, and egomaniacal.
I’m actually running it right now where the exile believes they were meant to take down the Whelp, because that’s what she thinks her cutie mark means!
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Venture-Captain, Netherlands
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I played my rock aliens pretty aggressively in their interactions, but curious to the outsiders. They took time to study them, and I explained that they probably were so aggressive in their physical interactions because they could not feel light touch.
I described that they had railway systems under the planes (as opposed to vehicles), and they had a big underground city, with the buildings hanging from the ceiling like stalactites.
Since we had a rock loving dwarf, a soldier, and a technomancer with the gladiator theme, they became fast friends with the rock creatures.
Fun tidbit:
When they landed, the Vesk claimed the planet for the Veskarium. The half ocr claimed the planet for the venture company and the dwarf immediately started digging a hole.
So while they are bickering about who owns the planet, I let them make a perception check.
"I get 17"
"You could swear that rock was over there just a moment ago."
More bickering. Another round of perception.
"I get 16 this time."
"Wait, is that rock suddenly a lot closer?"
Very fun to play out :)
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I am also pretty underwhelmed with the difficulty on this. When we got to the final room, I went first and cast Supercharge Weapon on the 1st level Barathu Soldier's Tactical Doshko, and she floated over the chair fort to crit the Exile for 46 damage in the second action of the first round. Now, while I don't expect anything in Tier 1-2 to eat that and stay standing, after the GM recovered, he told us that the Exile had 16 max hit points and I was like... that's less than one goon in The Commencement.
I did download the security camera footage of the strike to send to Eox's Funniest Home Holovids, though.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Ohio—Dayton
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I've run this twice. The trap in the first room is the closest I've come to killing a player, in both runnings. Both times I rolled randomly to see which PC it hit, both times it came up the technomancer who was low on stamina from the storm effects. We had to look up the massive damage rule to make sure one wasn't completely dead on the spot (level 2 at a 3-4 table).
Starfinder Society Developer
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I'm certainly recognizing that there's a balance to be struck in terms of difficulty. Up until recently, we've had a rash of feedback along the lines of "Oh, this is a cakewalk" with a couple people chiming in to indicate some scenarios seem to be TPK-fests. Overall, the trend of feedback I've seen is pretty decisive in the "This is too easy" court.
Now, I wouldn't expect us to publish a really punishing/difficult Tier 1-4 repeatable, since those products are often used by local events to help with recruiting. And yes, I know, some people have really good memories about a certain encounter in PFS First Steps Part 1, but from a gateway into Starfinder, we generally want to avoid high-lethality situations.
Now, I would let players know that as levels go up, there's certainly a ramp up in difficulty. I think #1-13 is a good example of a scenario that might surprise some players, as the difficulty is a bit higher than others. That's not to say I'm aiming for murderfest higher tier scenarios, but I do think as more options become available, higher tier encounters will be the real challenge for players.
All this being said, I'm still personally reviewing what kind of difficulty is appropriate, especially in Tier 1-4. I just finished developing a scenario that might test some groups, especially if the GM gets a few "hot dice" situations. :)
Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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I recently ran this scenario for the first time and to give the short version, it is likely going to be a two-star review and I blame the difficulty for it.
The starship combat was incredibly boring, but at least it was quick.
Sorry to be so harsh, the highlight of this one seems to be the "design your own species and roleplay to your heart's content" and I did that.. but I can't really credit the scenario for all of that.
I will try to give more constructive criticism at a later date, I had heard that the lower subtier was a cakewalk, but the higher subtier was not really different.
This might just be personal, but if the difficulty is unchallenging I am not too happy as a player or GMs unless the story is amazing enough to distract me. 1-09 is a good example here.
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I'm certainly recognizing that there's a balance to be struck in terms of difficulty. Up until recently, we've had a rash of feedback along the lines of "Oh, this is a cakewalk" with a couple people chiming in to indicate some scenarios seem to be TPK-fests. Overall, the trend of feedback I've seen is pretty decisive in the "This is too easy" court.
Now, I wouldn't expect us to publish a really punishing/difficult Tier 1-4 repeatable, since those products are often used by local events to help with recruiting. And yes, I know, some people have really good memories about a certain encounter in PFS First Steps Part 1, but from a gateway into Starfinder, we generally want to avoid high-lethality situations.
Now, I would let players know that as levels go up, there's certainly a ramp up in difficulty. I think #1-13 is a good example of a scenario that might surprise some players, as the difficulty is a bit higher than others. That's not to say I'm aiming for murderfest higher tier scenarios, but I do think as more options become available, higher tier encounters will be the real challenge for players.
All this being said, I'm still personally reviewing what kind of difficulty is appropriate, especially in Tier 1-4. I just finished developing a scenario that might test some groups, especially if the GM gets a few "hot dice" situations. :)
Well, the three Tier 3-6 scenarios I've been in, 1-06, 1-08 and 1-11, and each of them had one truly nasty encounter where I wasn't sure if we'd make it. So I think that the Tier 3-6 ones are pretty okay (or they would be, if I personally could roll a single hit instead of only contributing by being a meat shield :P ).
On the other hand, we breezed through 1-09 and 1-10 at Subtier 3-4. Overall I think that Tier 1-4 scenarios suffer from being gateway adventures, because not everything scales with subtier... most of the time, you still have Tier 1-2 DCs even if you play it at subtier 3-4.
In the particular instance of 1-12, I think that the minions being tiny summons was a huge miscalculation, because they needed to get into a PC's square to attack them, and suffer an AoO to do so... with only 5 hit points each, they die from a stiff wind (literally, if they'd been outside in the previous encounter...). Yes, GMs should tell players that they're not always going to be able to cakewalk it, but there's something to be said for the school of hard knocks sometimes...
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Venture-Agent, Georgia—Atlanta
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In the particular instance of 1-12, I think that the minions being tiny summons was a huge miscalculation, because they needed to get into a PC's square to attack them, and suffer an AoO to do so... with only 5 hit points each, they die from a stiff wind (literally, if they'd been outside in the previous encounter...). Yes, GMs should tell players that they're not always going to be able to cakewalk it, but there's something to be said for the school of hard knocks sometimes...
And softballs full of flavor, too.
The ones with ranged attacks do not fare much better, either.
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So quick question. The whelp is listed as
Maneuverability good (+1 Piloting, turn 2)
But good Maneuverability is normally a turn 1. Should the Whelp have turn 1 or turn 2?
And a bonus followup question. Brain damage critical effect. That is pretty nasty.. is that just the following round of combat that has a 25% failure chance, or all the rest of the battle?
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I played him as written, but did question that.
Having a turn 2 made it almost impossible for it to actually catch up, even with the drake.
I have a different question on the whelp.
If it does not win initiative, can it do a flyby attack and grab on (assuming it does hull damage).
It says it is ok, if it ends its move nest to the Starfinder's starship, but it gets awkward if it grabs on to a ship 10 hexes away...
Just ran this for my home campaign. At first, I rolled up the planet's details randomly (letting the players make blind rolls ahead of time), and the results were... enh. But then I noticed the advice to set aside random rolls and assign traits to complement the PCs. And that produced results so interesting I decided to share the backstory I ended up using for good ol' Colony-753.
Trying to attach as many planetary traits to their interests as possible, I ended up going with an atmosphere disruptive to technology and draconic native aliens who are awed by technology and see themselves as tasked with protecting the whelp's eggs. The natives' view of the whelp also reveals that the original colonists wiped themselves out in internal strife due to fear of shapeshifting infiltrators.
With future adventures in mind, I also assigned Ulrikka Clanholdings as the hiring organization, since choosing this now pays off in future scenarios.
Admittedly, the vesk ended up not having any adventure traits tailored specifically to him, but he has a "focus" adventure coming up soon.
Tossing in a few ingredients from the Alien Archives, the stew came together thusly:
In Colony-753's ancient history, long before the Gap, the planet was inhabited by a technologically primitive humanoid species. During this ancient stone age, the world was also home to a surprising number of horacalcum dragons. Known to the modern natives only through ancient legends and the fossil record, these creatures, known only as "the Ancients," appear to have engaged in widespread interbreeding with the humanoid population--perhaps as a purposeful hybridization program. True dragons can interbreed with most corporeal lifeforms (producing half-dragons), but this tends to be relatively uncommon, and the offspring's draconic traits gradually fade over the generations, usually ending in minor cosmetic traces or mystical bloodlines. However, the genetic structure of Colony-753's native fauna is unusual: draconic hybrids continue to breed true, the draconic traits remaining dominant generation after generation. By the end of the pre-Gap era, essentially the entire dominant sapient species was essentially a race of half-horacalum dragon humanoids, and many domesticated animals have draconic traits as well. In fact, the draconic genes are so dominant that by the modern era, the natives were aware that, like the Ancients, they too could interbreed with virtually any vertebrate lifeform (though taboos against bestiality remain strong). The last of the horacalcum dragons faded out during the Gap; the modern natives do not know what happened to them.
When the Signal went out, the natives' civilization was at a medieval level; they received they signal, but did not understand it, and it was simply recorded as a strange mystical vision in their histories.
In late 104 AG, Colony-753 experienced first contact with an alien world for the first time (assuming, of course, that the ancient horacalcum dragons were not themselves aliens) when a small team landed high in the planet's mountainous terrain with the materials to establish an outpost. These aliens were dwarves from Ulrikka Clanholdings, tasked with surveying the planet's dense reserves of horacalcum and other valuable minerals. The Ulrikka miners established limited but peaceful contact with the natives in a nearby village--the natives still developing concepts of science--but then withdrew to focus on the numerous technical problems they were facing. (To this day, the local natives use the word "Ulreeka" to mean "aliens" in general.)
The planet's electromagnetic field played havoc on the dwarves' systems, ranging from their vehicles to industrial equipment to personal electronics, so after laboriously constructing their pre-fab outpost, they spent months developing and installing specialized shielding to restore normal operations. By the end of 105 AG, they finally broadcast a communication that they had successfully established the surveying outpost and would now progress to the work itself.
The team consisted six dwarves: 1. the facility manager, a mystic of the dwarven pantheon with an interest in the supernatural; 2. a medical technician; 3. a chief engineer overseeing all mechanical operations; 4. a science officer, tasked with general scientific oversight (including maintaining the outpost's hydroponics bay), and 5-6. a pair of excavations operators--grunts, essentially, who operated the heavy machinery and mining vehicles.
While the chief engineer oversaw her excavation operators during the lengthy shielding process, the rest of the team was not idle. The science officer experimented with the trace amounts of horacalcum the team had collected in the hydroponics bay, discovering that with some minor modifications he could double the growth rate of the plants they grew. The team surmised that the planet's strange electromagic fields were enhancing the horacalcum's properties, and they expanded their experimentation. The most seemingly fruitful experiment was a team effort between the medical technician, the science officer, and the chief engineer to enhance the capabilities of the emergency stasis bed they had in the outpost's medical bay.
In early 106 AG, the outpost sent its final transmission to HQ: They were now prepared to conduct a deep scan to pinpoint the valuable mineral deposits within a radius of hundreds of miles. Basically just sending a powerful electromagnetic pulse deep into the planet's crust, this should have been a straightforward procedure. Instead, the deep probe was intensified by and rebounded off the planet's electromagetic field. Tons of super-conducting mineral deposits suddenly tore free from the surrounding mountains in a dozen miles in every direction, swirling through the air, colliding with each other, and spiraling out of control to come crashing back down at random.
The dwarves realized immediately that a disaster was unfolding and shut down the deep probe at once, so the massive rock storm lasted only a few minutes. But in that time, it wreaked havoc on the surroundings terrain. Located at the dead center of the storm, the outpost itself was mostly spared within the "eye" of the storm, but a nearby native village was thoroughly devastated, killing many of its inhabitants; the survivors would declare the region around the outpost taboo (for this and other reasons that would soon come to light) and retreated miles farther away (abandoning area B in the adventure to establish the town the PCs encounter after they land). But the dwarves were oblivious to this detail; they had immediate problems at their doorstep. The rain of rocks came pouring down on their surrounding grounds, pounding their heavy equipment and, even worse, catching an excavations operator who had been outside conducting some routine maintenance.
Rushing to find their fallen dwarf, the Ulrikka team found him on the brink of death, having suffered multiple impacts. The dwarves raced their dying compatriot to the med bay and got him into the stasis chamber in the nick of time. As the medical technician studied the modified stasis bed's readings, however, he discovered something fascinating: the horacalcum enhancements were working so efficiently that, if the readings were correct, he could not just slow time to a standstill within the stasis pod, but actually reverse it.
After a discussion among the team's officers, they decided to proceed with the experiment: they would throw the patient's timeline in reverse, effectively pulling him back from death not by healing his wounds but rather by "rewinding" him to an earlier, pre-injury state. If the experiment worked, the stasis pod could heal any wound at the cost of a few hours' memories; theoretically, it could reverse aging. Theoretically, they had stumbled into a form of time travel. What if, in some future iteration, they took some truly ancient volunteer and reversed their timeline to a point during the Gap?
All of those questions would have to wait, however. The experiment seemed to succeed: when they opened the stasis pod, the patient was physically as good as new--not a mark on them--but they had become mentally deranged, raving in a panic that while in the pod they had somehow seen "monsters," monster that had seen him too, and which were now "coming for us." The patient was so frantic and violent that the remaining team had little choice but to move him to the barracks and physically restrain him in his bunk while the medical technician, chief engineer, and science officer tried to determine what had gone wrong.
Within hours, something tore the restrained dwarf to shreds. A review of the top-down security footage showed only the door opening, the restrained dwarf craning his neck to look out into the hall, and then a spray of blood as the doomed dwarf's body seemingly ruptured on its own.
The dwarf's death was alarming, of course, and the remaining team split up to conduct needed work. While the chief engineer and remaining excavations operator dug a grave (even carving a headstone) on the grounds outside, something killed the medical technician as he tinkered with the stasis pod. This time, security footage showed the tech's attention being drawn by something out in the hall, wandering out of the room (and out of sight of cameras)--and then moments later others heard the screams. Horrifically torn apart like the first victim.
Paranoia now set in. The two dwarves working outside insisted that nothing could have come or gone from the outpost building without their seeing it. The facility manager and the science officer insisted they'd been working alone and had simply heard the screams. Video evidence supported them, but... could that be trusted?
The facility manager, possibly losing his grip, raised a disturbing topic. Fringe-science legends of a malign force of alien infiltrators called the Unseen. In the tales he'd heard, one of these malevolent shapeshifting species--called reptoids--had a great hunger starmetals, none more so than horacalcum. What if... what if not everyone here was who, or what, they claimed? With the medical technician dead, they'd lost their ability to conduct biometric tests. Should... should they use the stasis pod to bring the technician back to life? But who would operate the pod, and... could they be trusted?
The chief engineer came up with an idea: Blood tests. Simple enough that she and the science officer could both conduct them, and surely, good enough to reveal if someone's sample didn't match dwarven blood. Unexpectedly, the science officer suddenly grew nervous, unconvincingly trying to spin the idea as untrustworthy and refusing to comply. This immediately inflamed the remaining three dwarves' suspicions. There was a struggle; the science officer drew a pistol to defend himself; and in a moment, the other three shot him down. To their horror, the surviving dwarves watched as the science officer's corpse lost its shape, softening into a disgusting, tentacled mass that came spilling out of the slain officer's estex suit.
This revelation confirmed the dwarves' growing paranoia, though none of them had any idea what this shapeshifter actually was. (When the PCs review the outpost records in the present, they might be able to identify the shapeshifter as an astrazoan--a rare and misunderstood species even now, but little more than a legend back then. This astrazoan had no malign intentions, simply choosing to live as a dwarf, but had ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Of course, the revelation that a member of their team really was an alien infiltrator didn't absolve the others of suspicion. Sticking together, they buried the medical technician in a hastier grave and hauled the shapeshifter's boneless mass out to dispose of it in a shallow pit. They then retreated inside the outpost to begin the blood tests. They would never get the chance. As the dwarves gathered materials around the outpost, the true menace revealed itself:
One or more hounds of Tindalos, drawn across time and space by the dwarves' violation of the order of time. The cunning and malevolent entities had remained unseen by the outpost's cameras because they could not pass through the rounded corners inside the pre-fab rooms; they could only pass into and out of the outpost through the straight lines of the connecting, unmonitord halls. A hound pounced on the remaining excavations officer in one such hall, killing her while trying to drag her body into the space between the wall and floor. The chief engineer spotted another and tried to make a run for the exit, never making it. The outpost's roaming security, earth elementals summoned in the shape of small dwarves in ancient, traditional armor, were no match for the intruders, and thus could not report back.
The final survivor, the facility manager, realized too late what was happening. Hurriedly retreating into the armory, he locked the doors, grabbed a rifle, and crouched against the far wall, waiting for a final confrontation. He could hear the creatures clawing at the doors and their terrible howls, but... they never came through. And so he waited, and waited, and waited, until, half-mad, he starved.
Eventually, a party of natives dared to venture up the mountain to investigate the "Ulreeka" and see if they had any connection to the rock storm. After breaking through the outer lock, they found scenes of carnage, the dwarves having apparently gone mad and turned on each other. The outpost was still "haunted" by "spirits of the earth-folk" (the wandering security elementals) and guarded by "fiery magics" (the laser trap), so the medieval folk declared the entire site taboo and retreated, swearing never to return. They did, however, take a few trinkets with them (some analog tools and some personal electronics they could never make work), and over the following 200 years their lingering curiosity would help drive the species toward a scientific new age.
The first Besmaran whelp would arrive a century later, as the natives were developing their first steam engines, perhaps drawn by the same rare mineral deposits and strange electromagnetic fields that had drawn and confounded the "Ulreeka." Inclined to view the "great star beast" as a powerful being not unlike the "Ancients" of their pre-history, the natives viewed the arrival of the creature (which ignored them) as a good omen, swearing to preserve the creature's clutches of eggs.
By the present day, an industrial revolution had spread across the natives' civilization, but the inability to develop working electrical systems or electronics left them stymied in a "steampunk" level of technology, using petroleum-fueled ground vehicles and archaic gunpower projectile weapons. But one native who lived in the nearby village had a keen mind and higher ambitions. Though his understanding of technology remained weak, he developed a theory that the "starbeast's" eggs could be seeded with their own draconic blood, creating a hybridized species that they could control--and use to travel to the Uleeka's distant worlds--and to conquer them. Of course, the forbidden secrets of the Ulreeka themselves could prove invaluable in this endeavor.
A few years before the PCs arrive, this native presented his theories to his fellows--and was thoroughly rejected as having gone mad. The natives exiled the megalomaniacal mystic, confident that at least the "starbeast" still roaming their skies was more than capable of protecting the latest clutch of eggs (each egg being the size of a truck and taking a years to develop).
The Exile, in the fashion of true mad scientists, swore that they would prove their theories and journeyed straight to the abandoned Ulreeka outpost, living off the land while slowly learning his way around it. His first discovery: translating a hazard sign by the main entrance that read "WARNING: IDENTIFICATION MUST BE DISPLAYED AT ALL TIMES" in Dwarven runes and Common letterings. After partially digging up a nearby grave, the Exile obtained an Ulreeka ID card, and from that point on the outpost's security systems no longer regarded him as an intruder. Over the following years, he learned to use the dwarves' hybrid computer interfaces, used old records to teach himself Dwarven and Common, and then, finally, finally--just a few months before the PCs arrival--learned how to operate the outpost's major systems, including the deep mineral scanner. The Exile activated the probe--and left it running. The resulting "permanent" rock storm did not fully drive the "starbeast" away from its nest, simply agitating it as it patrolled the skies, but it did at least ensure that his "backwards" kin in the village below would not approach his "haunted" lab before his work was complete. Now, if he could just find a way to rid himself of the angry, territorial "starbeast" entirely, to be left alone with its eggs...
Oh, side note for folks running this as a home campaign: With a party of 1st-level PCs on their first adventure, I ran this using the Subtier 3-4 stats for all combat in the outpost. A long string of bad rolls did the PCs no favors, but it turned out to be a challenging but ultimately successful fight, with all of the PCs ending up seriously hurt but only one getting KOed.