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EDGE

OF THE

SUN

TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 4

PART 1: STELLAR ENGINES

7

Chapter 1: Engine of the Gods Chapter 2: Problems at the Edge

8 18

PART 2: THE SETTING

27

Chapter 3: Reaching the Sun’s Edge Chapter 4: Exploring the Engine Chapter 5: Exploring the Halo Chapter 6: Mapping the Engine

28 31 53 57

PART 3: THE NUMENERA

71

Chapter 7: Cyphers Chapter 8: Artifacts Chapter 9: Augmechs

72 77 84

PART 4: CREATURES

101

Chapter 10: Creatures Chapter 11: NPCs

102 123

PART 5: ADVENTURES

125

Chapter 12: The Sun Doth Move Chapter 13: Waking the Mega

126 155

INTRODUCTION

W Halo, page 53 Plasmar, page 116 Viridian, page 22

Even though the Engine no longer burns, the sun retains the velocity it had obtained up until the Engine malfunctioned.

“The Sun Doth Move,” page 126

Chapter 3: Reaching the Sun’s Edge, page 28 Chapter 9: Augmechs, page 84

Chapter 2: Problems at the Edge, page 18

elcome to the sun’s edge, where architects of the prior worlds built an engine without equal. An engine designed to move the entire solar system—the sun and all its children—out of the way of a looming hazard hurtling through space. This peril—call it the Viridian—threatened such an immense swath of interstellar void that nothing short of wholescale evacuation had any chance of successfully saving the solar system. Thus, the Engine of the Gods (as some call it) was built to do just that: accelerate the sun, and thus everything else in the solar system “glued” to it by gravity, to safety over a hundred-million-year period of time. This engineering feat likely numbers among the greatest undertakings of the prior worlds, since it not only resulted in the sun surfing just ahead of a catastrophic spatial inversion, but also continually siphons just enough material from the sun to avoid the gradual warming that would otherwise heat the inner planets enough to kill off normal life. The Engine of the Gods isn’t generally known by humans in the Ninth World. Even those who study the skies and note the rapid pace of the sun compared to other stars consider it normal, having no other situation to compare it to. Even before the Engine’s fires were dimmed (see chapter 2), it accomplished its job for time out of mind.

Meanwhile, the entities that reside on the Engine are not concerned with Earth or any of the other children of the sun. Their entire world is the Engine, an associated structure called the Halo, and for some creatures (such as the plasmars), the sun itself. Unfortunately, events in the last few centuries have endangered everything the builders of the Engine made safe. The special fires in the Engine’s heart that accelerated the solar system through the void fell cold. These and other problems now loom starkly. Perhaps residents of the Engine can rally to the cause. Then again, it may be that the player characters will be called on to provide aid, once they are convinced that the sun should move. Even if you don’t want to put PCs on the hook for restarting the Engine of the Gods, the structure makes an exciting and unique location for exploration and other adventures. While some might reach the sun’s edge via “standard” methods such as by flying there on a starship, others could learn how to pilot augmechs via telepresence or other control methods, enabling them to move through and on the Engine in prosthetic bodies. In addition to providing them with agency on the Engine, augmechs protect PCs from the deadly heat and radiation that such close confines to a star otherwise entails.

“Behold: an engine vast beyond imagination, one so magnificent that only the gods could have conceived of and built it.” ~Phius Livic

4

INTRODUCTION

So welcome to Edge of the Sun. As amazing a mechanism as it undeniably is, the Engine of the Gods is in urgent need of repair.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK If you’re looking for some direction on how to digest the material in this book, look no further. Part 1: Read Chapter 1: Engine of the Gods for specifics on what the Engine is, how it works, who built it, and why. Chapter 2: Problems at the Edge picks up immediately describing the ways in which the Engine isn’t working the way it was meant to after so many millennia, and the various unsettling repercussions. Part 2: Chapter 3: Reaching the Sun’s Edge provides specific options for getting the PCs to the Engine of the Gods. In Chapter 4: Exploring the Engine, a variety of specific locations on the Engine are described, complete with options available for new

arrivals, NPCs to help PCs understand what’s going on, and lots of places to explore. Chapter 5: Exploring the Halo is in keeping with chapter 4, but provides options for exploring the ring of material surrounding the sun that helps keep the Engine fed (at least, when everything is working properly). Finally, Chapter 6: Mapping the Engine provides a random map-generating system specifically designed for the Engine, useful for when PCs get lost, go exploring, or otherwise want to see what lies at the other end of a framework strut. Part 3: Chapter 7: Cyphers and Chapter 8: Artifacts provide useful and protective devices for PCs exploring the realm of the Engine (dangerous for beings of flesh), including many devices that actually require the radiant energy of the sun. Then in Chapter 9: Augmechs, options are provided for PCs to control, pilot, or even inhabit by telepresence a variety of specialized automatons called augmechs, which are ideal for operating in the extreme environment of solar space.

Chapter 5: Exploring the Halo, page 53

Chapter 6: Mapping the Engine, page 57

Chapter 1: Engine of the Gods, page 8 Chapter 2: Problems at the Edge, page 18 Chapter 7: Cyphers, page 72 Chapter 8: Artifacts, page 77 Chapter 3: Reaching the Sun’s Edge, page 28 Chapter 9: Augmechs, page 84 Chapter 4: Exploring the Engine, page 31

5

CHAPTER 3

REACHING THE SUN’S EDGE

A

Chapter 1: Engine of the Gods, page 8

bare handful of people in the Ninth World know that the Engine of the Gods exists. The few who have even a passing familiarity with the name—such as among those who study the stars— gained their knowledge from a scattering of old records, sculptures, or visual starfields called up from the datasphere that include the name, though without much context. The name is usually assumed to be fanciful, or wrongly assumed to be another name for the sun itself. Only an in-depth dive into old records, ones that reach back through the prior worlds, will eventually put a determined researcher on the track to learn the basics of what is described in chapter 1.

TRAVELING TO THE ENGINE Various methods can be used to reach the Engine, should a character be motivated to go. Specific examples include travel by prosthesis, travel by direct transference, and travel by spacecraft. Other means certainly exist beyond the methods described here.

TRAVEL BY PROSTHESIS Monopole, page 113 Chapter 9: Augmechs, page 84 Telepresence, page 86 Datapresence, page 87

Augmech throne, page 78 Augmech crèche, page 85

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One of the safest and easiest ways a character can “go” to the Engine is by using an augmech resting in a crèche on the Engine via a telepresence or datapresence controller located on Earth. The Augmodrome is an example of a telepresence option the PCs could discover.

THE AUGMODROME Located deep under Earth’s surface is a crumbling ruin of the prior worlds. At its heart is a dome-like structure of silvery translucent synthsteel. Thrones of Otherwhere: Under the dome, several chair-like devices protrude from the floor, forming a rough circle facing outward. The devices are only the most prominent of a clutter of other ancient machines that mostly lie in wreckage. Each “chair” is associated with several umbilicals designed to connect with whatever creature sits in the seat, but recognizing that is a difficulty 5 understanding numenera task. (A successful difficulty 7 understanding numenera task reveals that the chairs might allow someone who is seated to control some distant piece of machinery.) Fixing the Thrones: Success with that task also makes it obvious that the whole place is without power and in need of repair. Those who want to use the chairs must locate a power source. Potential sources include an installation of level 6 or higher designed for that purpose, a monopole, or attempting to cobble something together using a functioning artifact of level 7 or higher, sacrificing it to the cause (but only on a successful difficulty 8 crafting numenera task). Defeat the Defender: Returning power to the facility allows each of the chairs to act like an augmech throne, each keyed to one or more augmechs located in an augmech crèche on the Engine of the

REACHING THE SUN’S EDGE

It’s one thing to travel to the sun’s edge to explore. It’s another to survive the heat, vacuum, and radiation encountered there. Gods. However, unless a countermeasure is found and neutralized, a defense system fires up, waking a cyclops augmech from a nearby crèche. Controlled by an automaton intelligence, the defending cyclops ceases its attacks if characters flee or if an enterprising PC manages to rekey one of the augmech thrones to take control of the cyclops, which requires a successful difficulty 7 understanding numenera roll.

TRAVEL BY DIRECT TRANSFERENCE

One direct transference method would be to find a facility that folds space, allowing the PCs to step through a portal on the Ninth World and step out on the Engine. Installations and artifacts that provide this sort of instantaneous access are rare. Characters might have more luck finding a direct transference method if they learn of, then travel to, the Celestial Beacon. (If you run the adventure “The Sun Doth Move,” the characters may gain the benefit of a transference method called an Empyrean Coach.)

A potentially dangerous but relatively quick way to travel to the Engine is via a mechanism that directly transfers the characters to their destination. Such a transference method usually requires the PCs to make arrangements prior to their departure for protective gear; a sunsuit or something similar will be necessary once they arrive.

THE CELESTIAL BEACON Broken chunks of land drift high above the Sea of Secrets, each containing a portion of an ancient ruin. The central floating mass holds a two-pronged tower that brackets empty space most of the time. But sometimes the twin towers frame a beam of scintillating energy that shines up

Cyclops, page 92

Chapter 12: The Sun Doth Move, page 126 Empyrean Coach, page 143

Sunsuit, page 82

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ENGINE RESIDENTS

Sanctuary, page 49

Lliran, page 111 Shudder, page 46

Wraith, page 122

Wrawn, page 39

Spline, page 119

32

The Engine is fully inhabited, but almost none of the residents are human. (The only concentration of human presence is the colony of Sanctuary.) Instead, creatures more suited to the conditions—usually automatons or biomechanicals—are rampant. Lliran are encountered throughout the Engine, usually performing one of a seemingly countless number of sacred rituals to glorify the construct. They have forgotten how their rituals were started, but their ceremonies often include all kinds of ancient repair protocols (though lliran see their rituals as worship, not repair). Their continued activity in this regard keeps the Engine from breaking down completely. The center of Engine worship for the lliran is in the holy city of Wrawn, which has developed into one of the largest metropolises of any reach; it’s so large, it is considered its own reach. Many different groups live there, at the sufferance of the lliran. Splines are also common creatures of the Engine, though when encountered, these automatons are most likely inactive in a sleeplike state, brooding (which

appears quite similar), or engaged in a dreary activity to pass the time. Passing the time until what, no spline seems to know. Having evolved self-aware intelligence over the epochs, they’ve lost easy access to their original purpose: Engine repair. That hollowness haunts them. Many splines can be found in Wrawn. But if the splines can be said to have their own reach, it is the Shudder, where Engine processes are so compromised that the whole framework and attached cabling constantly shakes. Wraiths are a wilder, more savage group of creatures that exist in tribes all across the Engine, but especially in the Halo. Weirdly, wraiths are biological in nature, but so wildly modified by the numenera (or, as the wraiths believe, specifically by the Architects) that they hardly resemble anything else alive. According to wraith folklore, they were derived from an ancient species that is long extinct. However, should any human from the Ninth World ever appear on the Engine, the wraiths react with consternation. Apparently, humans resemble the long-extinct race that the

EXPLORING THE ENGINE

Most creatures encountered on the Engine are automatons, some are biomechanical, and a small fraction are some variety of flesh, though never something as fragile as human skin (unless protected by a vacuum- and radiation-proof suit). wraiths believe were their forebearers. While some wraiths might choose to accord humans special status because of this similarity, others react violently, believing humans to be deceivers of some sort. Other intelligent beings are littered across the Engine, including plasmars. Plasmars are actually native to the surface of the sun. On the Engine, they tend to conduct themselves peacefully, though can become territorial if threatened. They also can become dangerous if they fear that a creature might disclose their presence and location back to the “Solar Regime” that they fled from. Some entities of the Engine are dangerously unstable. Pruthastans fall into this category. They are seen as creatures of strife and misfortune—or, even more simply put, as demons. They’re intelligent but seem intent on destroying the Engine, or at least keeping it in a state of disrepair. Finally, countless predators have evolved on the Engine (or colonized it) over deep time, such as Engine parasites, lightning mourns, heliodurans, and many others. After the Engine malfunctioned and switched off, the problems posed by predators only worsened. Generally speaking, residents are sometimes friendly to other creatures of the Engine (and to visitors), and other times they violently defend their territory, viewing others as potential sources of loot or even food.

ENGINE CONFLICTS Conflict is not a normal situation for the Engine. If it were, the entire machine would have long ago failed and fallen into the sun. On the other hand, conflict is on the rise. Thanks to the Engine’s malfunction, all sorts of secondary systems that would normally clear vermin, clean surfaces, and provide energy for automatons and

biomechanicals have begun a long slide toward failure. This has created resource gaps, which means creatures that previously got along sometimes skirmish. Tensions continue to rise as the Engine remains unlit. This situation is exacerbated by Denizen and her many servitors, including several who unknowingly work toward her ends as members of the Freedom Society. Sowing lies and discord, they attempt to further weaken bonds between allies, erode trust of legitimate authorities, and otherwise muddy the situation to create a fog of war in which good decisions are difficult to make. As an example, a major conflict between two warring tribes of wraiths turned the once-peaceful reach of Gaussian Swale into a dangerous “wilderness” where anyone passing through is seen as a legitimate target, just in case they’re actually spies working for the other side. Other conflicts simmer on the edge of becoming just as bad, though diplomacy and careful investigation of the root causes could still defray them. Ultimately, and not unexpectedly, these conflicts can only really be solved if the underlying malfunction is addressed.

Denizen, page 124 Plasmar, page 116 Freedom Society, page 51

Pruthastan, page 117 Gaussian Swale, page 47

Engine parasites, page 105 Lightning mourns, page 110 Heliodurans, page 109

EXPERIENCING THE ENGINE First-time visitors to the Engine might experience the scene described below when they finally get close enough to the sun to pick it out of the glare. Characters who travel to the Engine will first experience it according to the specific method they used. For instance, PCs who travel by spacecraft will likely get a wide view, and PCs who travel via instantaneous teleportation or who wake up a prosthetic augmech body already located on the Engine may first experience it from a proximity view. If you find it helpful, read aloud or paraphrase the following text to describe the situation as the PCs first experience

Traveling to the Engine, page 28

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SPATIOTEMPORAL RESET

VACUUM PROTECTOR

Level: 1d6 Usable: Handheld device Effect (Prefers Extreme Sunlight): A target in long range is effectively regressed in time to the same state it was in at the beginning of its previous round. Anything it experienced personally is wiped away, including benefits conferred, damage dealt, and memories accumulated, up to and including a catastrophic effect, such as death. No other creature is affected by the reset.

Level: 1d6 + 2 Internal: Subdermal implant Wearable: Bodysuit, belt Usable: Injector Effect: Keeps the user alive in vacuum for 28 hours by protecting against extremes of heat and cold and eliminating the need to breathe for the duration. If the cypher is level 6 or higher, it also grants 5 Armor against environmental heat and radiation of the kind generated close to the sun.

SPLINE CODER

Spline, page 119

Level: 1d6 Wearable: Mask Effect (Prefers Extreme Sunlight): For 28 hours, the wearer has two assets on all interaction tasks with splines.

SUN SHIELD Level: 1d6 Wearable: Device-studded belt or sash Effect: For 28 hours, the wearer has 5 Armor against damage from vacuum, heat, and radiation.

SUN SHROUD Level: 1d6 + 3 Wearable: Cloak of translucent fabric Effect (Prefers Extreme Sunlight): When the cloak is activated, the wearer’s body is shrouded in flames for up to one hour. The fire doesn’t burn the wearer, but it automatically inflicts fire damage equal to the cypher level on anyone who tries to touch or strike the wearer. While the shroud is active, the wearer also gains Armor equal to the cypher level that protects against fire and radiation damage from other sources.

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ARTIFACTS is provided through datapresence control. Once a user goes through the portal, no one else can enter it until the user abandons control of the augmech (and, in most cases, returns through the portal). An autarch actuator is usually found keyed to a particular augmech, or with one of several options available in an augmech crèche anywhere in the solar system. Once control is established, the user can control the augmech indefinitely. The user has no normal body during a control session; their body is the augmech’s. If the autarch actuator is destroyed while a user is controlling an augmech, the user in their augmech body suffers no harm. However, returning to their own body will require finding another similar artifact or a vertice. Depletion: 1 in 1d20 (check per control session, no matter how long or short)

COURIER AUTOMATON Level: 1d6 + 2 Form: Cylindrical automaton about the size of a human Effect (Prefers Extreme Sunlight): Carries a message or a physical object across large distances, usually around the Engine, but it could be dispatched to other planets. The courier’s ability to accelerate high gravities means that messages or objects

are delivered within 1d6 + 2 days of being dispatched, though objects subject to ill effects from high gravity (like most life forms) are crushed in transit. Courier automatons of level 7 and higher can transport objects of up to human size in a stasis field that keeps them safe from high gravity and vacuum, at least during the transit. Depletion: 1 in 1d20

Datapresence, page 87

DIMENSIONAL MODULATOR Level: 1d6 + 3 Form: Marble-sized crisscross shape of unknown material Effect: A target within immediate range loses their dimension of breadth (which folds into a higher dimension), rendering them as flat as paper. The target adheres to whatever surface it was attached to, set upon, or standing upon, and resembles particularly realistic art. An affected creature enters stasis. While in stasis, it is unable to take actions, doesn’t age, and is immune to damage and effects. It remains in stasis indefinitely, or until the user returns the target’s missing dimension by using the artifact again, or the artifact depletes. Depletion: 1 in 1d10

Vertices, page 87

One out of every four pruthastans (page 117) carries a dimensional modulator.

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CHAPTER 9

AUGMECHS

T

“There is no greater thrill than taking over an augmech directly, controlling it as you would control your own body.” ~Carsis Than, recent discoverer of an augmech crown Bloodfist, page 91 Infiltrator, page 93

Cyclops, page 92

Augmech Model, page 87

The Mega, page 99

Iotum, page 107

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he Architects of the Engine required mighty tools to build, service, repair, and protect their amazing creation. Many persist to this day. In the traditional sense, physical objects of all sorts can be found in the many workshops of the great structure. In a figurative sense, “tools” in the form of automatons, biomechanical creatures, and even a few flesh-enrobed descendants of servitor species left behind can still be found in the Engine and Halo.

AUGMECH LOCATIONS The majority of augmechs are ensconced in crèches on the Engine of the Gods, waiting for users to bring them to life. However, a few can be found elsewhere, including several resting in silent stasis on Earth. If a GM decides to include augmechs in a terrestrial adventure, it’s worthwhile keeping in mind that allowing PCs unrestricted access to an augmech in the Steadfast, for instance, could unbalance things. Consider using mitigation strategies, such as calling for depletion rolls and requiring regular infusions of high-level iotum to prevent malfunctions. An unused augmech is inactive in its crèche, which itself is usually hidden. Anyone who physically discovers a crèche usually also finds one or more control methods. If an augmech is roused from stasis by use of a control method, it may be just fine. Then again, after a sleep of a million years or more, sometimes minor repairs are required.

However, by far the mightiest tools created by the Architects were the augmechs.

AUGMECHS Augmechs are artificial bodies a character can temporarily use. Augmechs grant users an entirely different shape and suite of abilities than they normally have. Often, an augmech can be controlled remotely, which allows a character’s actual physical body to remain protected while the augmech is active. Some augmechs, like the bloodfist, are designed for combat. Others, like the infiltrator, are perfect for getting into small places without notice. Most have a single specialty, but a couple have two specialties, like the cyclops that can either snipe or protect a nearby ally. The full number of constructed augmechs stored in crèches across the solar system is not known. However, most fall into one model category or another, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. (According to clues in the datasphere, there is a singular model of augmech called the Mega. Unlike other augmechs that require only one user, several characters are required to activate and use the Mega.) Characters can access augmechs in a variety of ways.

AUGMECH CONTROL Four broad augmech control methods exist. Characters are usually not in a position to choose which method they use; instead, it’s a function of what method they find during

AUGMECHS

PARAMEDIC This bulky, white machine stands about 15 feet (5 m) tall and about half that around, with the barest humanoid form. The paramedic can walk or hover as the situation warrants. In addition to a couple of larger manipulators, it can extend a variety of smaller tools, medical instruments, or umbilicals specialized for repairing other augmechs and machines, as well as for healing any living creatures it has internal files for. In addition to a cockpit, the paramedic has two cramped cavities into which it can pop wounded creatures and store them in stasis for up to several months. Those in stasis do not suffer further harm from wounds or diseases, if any, while they remain encapsulated. Motive: As controlling character; if NPC-controlled, usually to aid allies Environment: Engine or Halo Might Pool: 22 (Edge 1) Speed Pool: 22 Intellect Pool: As controlling character Damage Inflicted: 4 points Armor: 1; Armor 5 against environmental heat and radiation Movement: Short when flying Modifications: Three augmech shifts to restoration, easing healing tasks by three steps and providing three additional recovery rolls a day, which the augmech can save for itself, or dole out to other augmechs or living creatures. Combat: Though not kitted out for fighting, a bulky paramedic can inflict 4 points of damage with an arm slam. They prefer to support allies. Thanks to their onboard systems, they can restore 5 points of health (or points to a Pool of the controlling character’s choice) to an adjacent target, as long as the paramedic takes no damage during the round (it acts in initiative order if using this automatic healing option). If forced to, a paramedic can use onboard chemicals to create an electrostatic spray that numbs the senses of living machines and creatures alike, stunning all such beings within immediate range on a successful attack so they lose their next turn. Each use of this ability uses up one of its three extra recovery rolls for the day. Interaction: As controlling character. Use: Someone the PCs need to talk to is stored in one of the stasis cavities of an augmech that is nowhere to be found. Loot: A paramedic can be broken down and salvaged for 1d6 cyphers and maybe an artifact.

If not controlled by a PC, treat the paramedic as a level 7 creature with 25 health.

GM intrusion: A medical reagent reservoir in the augmech begins leaking. Until a successful difficulty 7 repair task is completed, all healing tasks are hindered by two steps.

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DRAHQ

GM intrusion: On a failed Might defense roll, the character is effectively blinded by the drahq’s attack, as mechanisms that normally provide sight or similar sensing abilities short out.

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8 (24)

A solar storm is a disturbance on the sun that can affect the entire solar system, reaching all the way to Earth. Sometimes these storms birth self-aware entities of knotted magnetic force churning with rage, plasma, and metal-fusing induction. A drahq resembles a flare, miles long, with an interior “skeleton” of twisted magnetic field lines, creating a creepy, clawlike body limned in plasma. Drahqs can move under their own power, independent of the storm that created them. Usually they prey upon other entities that live in the upper layers of the sun. Sometimes they’re drawn to the nearby Engine, where they delight in causing as much destruction as possible, especially among automatons and biomechanicals sensitive to magnetic attacks. Motive: Delights in destruction Environment: Engine and Halo (and sun’s surface) Health: 40 Damage Inflicted: 12 points Armor: 3 (see Combat) Movement: Very long when flying Modifications: Perception as level 9; Speed defense as level 3 due to size Combat: A drahq can scour an area up to a very long distance away with violent magnetic flux, inflicting 12 points of damage to all creatures in an area up to a short distance in diameter. Automatons and biomechanicals (as well as augmechs, or even fleshy beings in bulky protective suits) in the area must also succeed on a Might defense roll if they are touching a solid metallic surface. Those who fail are fused to the surface and can’t move until they break free (inflicting 8 points of damage to themselves in the process). In areas of particularly strong energy fields (strong enough to damage regular creatures), drahqs regenerate up to 10 points of health per round and can double or triple their maximum health. If encountered directly on the surface of the sun, they can increase their health by an order of magnitude, rendering them effectively immune to the immense damage that would otherwise destroy most other life (except for that engineered to live on the sun). Interaction: A drahq possesses the instincts and intelligence of a predatory creature, and will attempt to flee back to the sun if faced with a credible threat. Use: The PCs are asked to deal with a marauding drahq by someone who the characters want a favor from in return.

CREATURES

PHANTOM ARCHITECT

9 (27)

Half composed of metal and half of fluid nanites held in a cradle of invisible force, phantom architects are sometimes witnessed moving along a strut or wandering through a station in the Halo. Most other beings give them a wide berth, because their name alone suggests an important lineage. If indeed these creatures are echoes of the Architects themselves, how could they be anything but disappointed at what has become of the Engine? Phantom architects don’t seem to have lairs—or, at least, not physical ones. Instead, they are somehow physically printed from special devices (which some call vertices), and remain for only a little while before returning to whatever non-realm they came from. If a phantom architect ever manifests near a pruthastan, the phantom does everything within its power to utterly destroy the pruthastan, demonstrating a brutal instinct to eradicate them. Motive: Defend the Engine Environment: Engine and Halo Health: 50 Damage Inflicted: 13 points Armor: 4; Armor 10 against heat, radiation, and effects of vacuum Movement: Long when flying Modifications: Speed defense as level 7 due to size Combat: In addition to being able to make two battering attacks each round, inflicting 13 points of damage per strike, a phantom architect can employ its deep connection with the Engine to create a variety of effects. These include raising an arbitrary number of level 5 long-range laser weapon turrets (one each round), opening previously undetected pocket chambers, creating force field barriers, and so on. Essentially, a phantom architect has a sort of remote control of nearby Engine devices and machines, including those lying inactive beneath a strut plating or just out of sight along a length of cable. Interaction: Generally, PCs must do something destructive to get the attention of a phantom architect, though that could lead to a conflict. However, sometimes a phantom architect decides that characters could be useful in an obscure repair project, and it sets the PCs on a task in return for something they want, popping up display screens out of a nearby Engine component to communicate visually. Use: When the PCs accidentally destroy a piece of Engine equipment, a phantom architect appears. Loot: A defeated phantom architect can be salvaged for several cyphers and a couple of artifacts.

Vertice, page 87 Pruthastan, page 117

Pocket chamber, page 60

GM intrusion: The character is sucked into a nearby pocket chamber and (on a failed Speed defense roll) trapped when the entrance fades away.

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