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*** I posted this in the wrong forum before, I already flagged it but so far no response (completely understandable given COVID), so I'm reposting it here w/ some minor edits. I hope this doesn't break any rules??
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I decided to drop some lore about Absalom Station during some downtime, and my players became really hooked to the ever sp00ky Fardock from the Pact Worlds book. They have made it their life's goal to find out what's on the other side.
The book basically says anyone who tries to make it WILL DIE, either from station security, the insane laser guards or via spaghettification from the portal itself. I am happy my players are interested in the world, and, IMO, I would not be a good GM if I just insta-killed them for being curious and wanting to learn more. However, I don't want it to be an easy task, there should be a serious risk of death if either their plan isn't watertight or the dice aren't on their side.
I already have some ideas for what could be on the other side; maybe a Lovecraftian dimension with elder things and unimaginable horror, or straight up golarion like the book suggested and I could homebrew an arc where the pcs are sci-fi soldiers in a fantasy world doing maybe a dungeon crawl?? that'd be sick.
The problem lies in that I have not been able to find any more information online, or in the other books (I have all of the core). No stat blocks available, nor have I seen anyone else even mention this REALLY cool location.
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So here's what I need help with:
*Checks and DC ideas to make it past the guards, stealth v perception but I think they would have blindsight or something crazy. I
*Checks and DC to survive the portal? Maybe a high WIS or INT save??
*Any other ideas you want to share with the class that other campaigns could use
* I guess the aftermath is important too. If they succeed, how with the station react? Arrest? The infamous COURT CASE EPISODE??? If they fail, it will likely be a TPK and I feel that I could work that into the story relatively easily since, in my campaign, I am just running the society quests (even though it's not organized play).
Maybe the guards are there for show, because they're really studying what happens. But don't want liability, or to have to round up their own "volunteers."
Perhaps the spaghettification is just what happens when you have to disintegrate someone to transport them, and are a bit less concerned with the aesthetics?
As far as what's on the other side, why not both? They're (not really) sci-fi soldiers in a fantasy world. Because Lovecraftian horrors have put their brains in cylinders and have are testing simulations/illusions to delay the brains from disassociating into uselessness.
Success could be a disaster. Though it might take them a while to figure it out. Maybe have them wind up fighting Mi-Go with brain cylinders in Golarion, and finally starting to understand that something terrible has happened...
Or you could go with Grays. And have them arrive somewhere in the Vast with no idea how they got there or what happened on the way.
A few more thoughts in that vein: Let them get smeared by the defenses (just not in the head...)
And everyone who died (or is that "died"?) also wakes up on the far side of whatever...
Real world, it's difficult for elite soldiers to do endless guard duty. So defenses are probably mostly automated, or staffed by bored grunts. Even expensive, scry-shielded installations are probably cheaper than constant shift changes (and wind up with fewer bored troops that fling themselves through the spaghettifier, just to escape the tedium).
Elite troops are particularly unhappy at long term guard duty. Especially when there's more immediate threats elsewhere.
Traps could probably be researched or social engineered, if they can figure out how to find out who did the installations without triggering alerts (or worse, inadvertently contacting an interested party who demands they succeed for them instead).
Security theater fits as an interpretation of the situation, without contradicting appearances (only their substance), and it gives you easier options for showing them entertaining lies, hideous truths, and ugly deaths. Not necessarily in that order.
*** I posted this in the wrong forum before, I already flagged it but so far no response (completely understandable given COVID), so I'm reposting it here w/ some minor edits. I hope this doesn't break any rules??
Just so you know, a couple of us did respond to your questions yesterday on the post you made in the Homebrew forum.
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Maybe the guards are there for show, because they're really studying what happens. But don't want liability, or to have to round up their own "volunteers."
Perhaps the spaghettification is just what happens when you have to disintegrate someone to transport them, and are a bit less concerned with the aesthetics?
As far as what's on the other side, why not both? They're (not really) sci-fi soldiers in a fantasy world. Because Lovecraftian horrors have put their brains in cylinders and have are testing simulations/illusions to delay the brains from disassociating into uselessness.
Success could be a disaster. Though it might take them a while to figure it out. Maybe have them wind up fighting Mi-Go with brain cylinders in Golarion, and finally starting to understand that something terrible has happened...
All of this is INCREDIBLE!!! What an amazing imagination you have! This is basically exactly what I was brainstorming, but wasn't able to really formulate into coherent ideas lmao. I'm going to do this combined with the suggestions from others to make it first a bureaucratic fight to gain access to the portal as different groups fight for control, with their own theories as to what is on the other side, only to have everything they thought would be there be wrong. REAL LOVECRAFT SHI!
Also, you could give them an escape. There's some notes about brain cylinders "lucky" enough to be attached to drone bodies breaking free of their restraints, sometimes. If one of them is lucky enough, and manages to steal the others, and figure out a way to escape...
Even escape doesn't necessarily end their troubles.
Hope someone is interested in the knowledge they bring back, because that might be all that funds replacing anything they failed to recover/loot in the escape. Like their bodies. Or maybe they'll just have to get used to "life" as drones/powered armor.
Assuming that they don't just get snapped up and packed off to R&D. BOLO project, students of alien tech, magic, and medical science... there's no shortage of possible parties who might not place their well being over possible gains.
Regenerate only affects the part targeted, unless all the parts are in contact, in which case they reassemble themselves and the process is far faster.
Regenerate doesn't just regrow missing limbs, it regrows ruined organs and even missing heads of multiheaded creatures. So it should regrow everything, attached to the brain. Might requiring opening the cylinder during the process of regeneration, once things are far enough along...
1. Raise dead would either need to rapidly be followed with a regenerate spell, or revive them as a brain in a cylinder again. If there are no pieces missing, I'd assume it'd repair the cylinder, since that's part of the body. Just like if the target was an SRO. It's the creature part that matters, not the construct elements. There's some risk the soul might not be willing to be raised, if expecting to come back in the cylinder.
2. Reincarnate mentions the target being a dead creature. Brain in a cylinder is that. It comes back as a whole, randomly determined creature. No effect on existing body, whatever it is currently up to. They even get the choice to keep all their old augments, since it doesn't require the entire body be present.
Regenerate requires a living target. If the body is on some form of artificial maintenance, presumably nobody, but it might still count as alive. Growing a brain doesn't mean you create contents out of nothing. Plus there's the whole soul issue, which is presumably still in the brain in the cylinder.
Most RPGs count memory as tied to soul in situations like this. Except for bad writers who should stay away from science fiction, who persist in bringing out nonsense (at least for higher earthly life) like genetic memory.
Soul, mind & body distinctions often get a bit weird in RPGs, especially around life restoration.
I'm not sure there's any way to get a functional mind in the regenerated former-brainless body, outside of possession, or maybe using it to raise an alternate you. Which might require transporting that body to that alternate universe, first. Perhaps it is already there, through the portal...