Adventure Summary

The Resonance Run

A Starfinder Second Edition Prison-Break Adventure

The crew accepts what looks like an illegal but straightforward extraction contract inside Omicron-9, a corporate prison buried beneath the ash deserts of Daegox-4. Their employers promise clean identities, erased records, and enough credits to disappear. The actual plan is to use the crew as deniable breach support, recover two captive test subjects, and incinerate everyone left in the cell block.

The captives are Kaelen and Vanya Dax, twins whose shared presence bends gravity and interferes with nearby technology. When a rebel cell embedded in the extraction team turns on the corporation, the twins’ power surges, the prison locks down, and the crew discovers thermal-purge charges beneath their feet.

Act 1 follows the escape from Omicron-9. Act 2 crosses Daegox-4 under a rising corporate alert. Act 3 begins after the crew steals a blockade-runner and becomes the target of a system-wide pursuit. The campaign is built around practical choices: who the crew trusts, what evidence they carry, how much attention they attract, and whether the twins remain people or become somebody’s weapon.

Campaign Structure

Act	Levels	Primary Play	Current Development
Act 1 — Breakout from Omicron-9	1	Prison breach, timed escape, technical crisis, boss gate	Scene 1 complete; Scene 2 at 50%; Scene 3 at 30%; Scene 4 outline
Act 2 — Planetary Evasion	2–3	Heat management, route choice, survival, heist	Expanded outline
Act 3 — The Galactic Run	3–4	Starship pursuit, alliances, Drift complications, final choice	Expanded outline

Milestone advancement is recommended. The crew reaches level 2 after securing the safehouse, level 3 after stealing the blockade-runner, and level 4 before the final pursuit sequence.

GM Truths

Truth	How It Appears in Act 1
The contract was always a cleanup operation.	The crew’s payment channel is fake, their suit transponders are flagged disposable, and thermal charges were armed before the vault opened.
The Free Daegox Network did not create the twins’ powers.	Commander Tamsin Rook has incomplete research files proving Helix Meridian acquired the twins years ago.
The visible collars are only housings.	The gravity flare destroys the outer rings, but subdermal restraint anchors begin a delayed reboot in Scene 2.
The Warden AI is preserving a research asset, not prison security.	CUSTOS-9 repeatedly orders the crew to surrender “paired anomaly subjects DAX-K and DAX-V.”
The resonance is connected to Daegox-4 itself.	Gravity distortions intensify near old mine strata and briefly reveal geometric structures beneath the prison.

Rules Baseline

This module is written for the final Starfinder Second Edition rules and the remastered Second Edition engine. Use Starfinder Player Core, Starfinder GM Core, Alien Core, and current Paizo FAQ/errata. The mechanic pregen uses Paizo’s latest official Tech Class Playtest and remains playtest material until a final version is published.

Module Convention	Rules Treatment
Hardware repair, bypass, and field modification	Use Crafting checks.
Networks, programs, security nodes, and digital overrides	Use Computers checks.
Physical locks and delicate bypasses	Use Thievery checks.
Old “flat-footed” wording	Use the off-guard condition.
Encounter scaling	Budgets assume 4 PCs, then add the listed character adjustment for each additional PC. Award XP at the 4-PC value.
Unpublished or uncertain equipment	Use the closest common commercial item from the books available at the table.

Party Size and Action Economy

The adventure supports 4–7 level-1 PCs. The standard encounter budget is based on four characters. Additional PCs increase the budget, but the XP award remains the listed four-character award.

Threat	4 PCs	5 PCs	6 PCs	7 PCs	Adjustment per Extra PC
Low	60 XP	80 XP	100 XP	120 XP	20 XP
Moderate	80 XP	100 XP	120 XP	140 XP	20 XP
Severe	120 XP	150 XP	180 XP	210 XP	30 XP

For large parties, add enemies, independent devices, or separate objectives. Do not give one boss extra turns under a single stat block unless the extra initiative is represented by a separate hazard or creature.

Daegox-4

Daegox-4 is a dry mining world whose breathable settlements cling to buried water lines and old extraction tunnels. Helix Meridian Corrections converted one exhausted mine into a high-security corporate prison. The facility is technically outside Pact Worlds jurisdiction, and nearly every service—from oxygen allotments to legal representation—is owned by the same network of shell companies.

Feature	At the Table
Thin, abrasive atmosphere	Unprotected travel during an ashstorm is hazardous. Prison and mining structures are pressure-sealed.
Legacy mine network	Maintenance shafts, coolant channels, and abandoned ore veins provide routes the prison map does not acknowledge.
Corporate information control	Official records describe the twins as violent terrorists. Internal files identify them as involuntary research subjects.
Unstable gravity seams	The twins’ resonance interacts with buried pre-Gap mineral structures, creating localized distortions.

Injected Character Sheets

The seven pregens are level-1 quick-play sheets built for the final Starfinder Second Edition Player Core framework. Each includes calculated encounter statistics, attacks, trained skills, equipment, class actions, and a background with no campaign-specific obligation or plot hook.

The skittermander mechanic uses Paizo's latest official Tech Class Playtest. It is explicitly marked as playtest material and should be reviewed against the newest playtest FAQ before use.

Every pregen leaves its 1st-level ancestry-feat slot open. Select an option from the current ancestry source before the first session; all other listed statistics are immediately usable.

The Resonance Run

Player Hook and Adventure Overview

Canon Status

Element	Status
Starfinder Second Edition	Official Starfinder canon and rules.
Near Space	Official Starfinder setting region.
Starfinder ancestries, classes, equipment, and general setting concepts	Official canon where drawn from published Starfinder material.
Daegox-4, Helix Meridian, VantaCore, Omicron-9, the Tamsin Rooks, Rookhaven, and the Resonance Twins	Original material created for this adventure.

Daegox-4 is a remote mining world buried beneath ashstorms, corporate security zones, and the remains of industries that were abandoned long before their machinery stopped running.

```

Most people who come here work for one of the corporations controlling the planet. The rest are usually trying to disappear.

Your crew has accepted a high-paying extraction contract inside Omicron-9, a fully automated prison operated by Helix Meridian. The assignment appears simple: enter alongside a recovery unit, provide specialist support, secure two high-value prisoners, and leave before the prison can fully react.

It does not remain simple.

```

The Campaign Premise

The crew begins as a group of independent professionals completing a dangerous but apparently legitimate contract. When the operation inside Omicron-9 breaks down, the characters are forced to escape the prison and cross Daegox-4 while several powerful interests search for them.

Their route leads through abandoned industrial complexes, hostile wilderness, hidden settlements, and a loose network of safehouses maintained by the Tamsin Rooks.

The crew will need to decide how quickly to travel, how visible they are willing to become, which strangers they can trust, and how much danger they will accept to help people encountered along the way.

Player Knowledge

The characters do not need an existing connection to Daegox-4, Helix Meridian, the Tamsin Rooks, or any major NPC. Their reason for being present is the extraction contract offered before the adventure begins.

Adventure Arc

Act 1 — Breakout from Omicron-9

```

The adventure begins inside a silent corporate prison controlled by cameras, automated doors, environmental systems, security drones, and mechanical wardens.

When the extraction operation collapses, the crew must cross the prison, protect one another, overcome its defenses, and find a route to the surface.

Expect	Adventure Style
Close-quarters firefights	Ranged combat involving cover, movement, and changing lines of fire
Automated security	Drones, cybernetic trackers, prison hazards, and mechanical wardens
Technical objectives	Computers, Crafting, Medicine, and Thievery used during active encounters
Branching escape routes	Combat, stealth, and technical approaches
Environmental danger	Heat, damaged machinery, flooded tunnels, and the ashstorm beyond the prison

```

Act 2 — The Rook Road

```

Beyond Omicron-9 lies a planet-sized pursuit.

The crew must travel across Daegox-4 using a clandestine network of safehouses, forgotten mining roads, underground passages, mobile settlements, and abandoned transit systems.

The party receives a regional map containing several possible routes. They are not expected to visit every safehouse or point of interest. Each route presents different benefits, dangers, vehicles, and opportunities.

Route Element	Possible Experience
Safehouses	Rest, repairs, supplies, local services, and optional side missions
Surface routes	Fast travel, vehicle encounters, exposed terrain, and pursuit
Underground routes	Stealth, exploration, damaged infrastructure, and native creatures
Industrial routes	Technical challenges, checkpoints, abandoned rail systems, and salvage
Points of interest	Equipment caches, ruins, natural hazards, stranded travelers, and hidden discoveries

Two independent enemy forces move across the regional map while searching for the crew. Their positions change as the party travels. Careful movement, false trails, underground routes, and disabled tracking systems can reduce the chance or difficulty of an encounter.

Open battles, recognizable vehicles, compromised communications, and conspicuous activity make pursuit more likely.

```

Act 2 Climax — The Battle for Rookhaven

```

The party’s destination is Rookhaven, a concealed spaceport used to move people beyond corporate-controlled territory.

An attack on the spaceport forms the climax of the journey. The party’s speed determines how the final battle begins.

Arrival	Situation
The party travels quickly	The crew arrives before the attack and has time to inspect the spaceport, prepare defenses, organize an evacuation, and choose where to make its stand.
The party suffers moderate delays	The crew arrives as warnings are sounding and has time to complete only a few preparations.
The party takes a slower route	The attack is already underway, and the crew enters the battle without a complete picture of what is happening.

Time spent helping safehouses may slow the journey, but those choices can provide defenders, vehicles, medical support, intelligence, equipment, or other advantages during the final battle.

The fastest route is not automatically the best route. The party decides what—and who—it is willing to leave behind.

```

Campaign Style

Theme	How It Appears
Science-fantasy action	Advanced weapons, alien abilities, strange environments, and cinematic set pieces
Prison-break tension	Lockdowns, pursuit, restricted routes, and objectives completed under pressure
Tactical combat	Cover, ranged weapons, suppressive fire, mobile objectives, and environmental interaction
Technical problem-solving	Computers, Crafting, Medicine, Piloting, and Thievery can change encounters
Open travel	The party chooses routes, safehouses, vehicles, and optional destinations
Vehicle action	Dustbikes, skimmer buggies, armored haulers, subterranean crawlers, and aircraft
Pursuit pressure	Enemy forces roam the map and become more dangerous as the party’s Heat rises
Personal agency	The story repeatedly asks who gets to make decisions about another person’s future

Character Guidance

Characters should have a reason to accept dangerous contract work and cooperate with a small independent crew.

They do not need to begin as heroes, rebels, fugitives, or enemies of corporate power. They may be mercenaries, explorers, technicians, medics, security professionals, pilots, negotiators, or specialists simply looking for their next paying assignment.

Useful Strength	Likely Application
Combat experience	Firefights, defensive positions, pursuit, and spaceport defense
Computers	Security systems, tracking networks, drones, communications, and false identities
Crafting	Vehicle repair, machinery, power systems, weapons, and improvised solutions
Medicine	Trauma care, environmental illness, implants, and safehouse infirmaries
Piloting	Ground vehicles, pursuit scenes, hazardous crossings, and aircraft
Stealth and reconnaissance	Reducing Heat, bypassing patrols, and scouting dangerous routes
Survival	Ashstorms, native life, underground routes, and navigation
Diplomacy and leadership	Coordinating allies, calming frightened survivors, and resolving disagreements

Recommended Party Agreement

The campaign works best when the characters may disagree about methods but will not casually abandon one another when the contract falls apart.

What the Characters Know

At the beginning of the adventure, the crew knows only the following:

The job takes place on Daegox-4, a remote mining world in Near Space.

Helix Meridian operates Omicron-9 and controls much of the surrounding territory.

The crew has been hired as specialist support for a high-value extraction.

The targets are two living prisoners who must be recovered together.

The prison is fully automated and is expected to resist unauthorized access.

The payment is large enough to justify a dangerous assignment far from ordinary support.

Everything beyond that must be discovered during play.

The Tamsin Rooks’ Mission

The Tamsin Rooks have been investigating Helix Meridian’s experiments on Kaelen and Vanya Dax for months.

The twins were not born with their current abilities. Helix Meridian exposed them to repeated gravitational, dimensional, and exotic-energy treatments intended to create living field generators. The experiments permanently altered both of them. Alone, each twin displays only minor anomalies. When they make physical contact, their altered nervous systems synchronize and produce a much larger resonance field.

The Rooks learned that Helix Meridian intended to transfer the twins out of Daegox-4 before erasing the remaining evidence. They infiltrated the recovery operation to rescue the twins during transport.

Their objectives are:

Remove the twins’ restraint collars.
Extract them from Cell Block Omicron-9.
Recover evidence of the experimentation.
Reach the Hollow Vein safehouse.
Keep the twins out of Helix Meridian custody.

The Rooks know the mercenary party has been hired as outside support, but they do not initially know whether the party understands the corporation’s real plan.

What Onyx Team Knows

Onyx Team knows that the Tamsin Rooks operate on Daegox-4 and that the organization has attempted previous prison escapes, sabotage operations, and data thefts.

They do not know their own extraction unit has been infiltrated.

Onyx command believes the transfer team is secure. The embedded Rooks are using legitimate armor, identification signals, and mission credentials taken from personnel who were quietly intercepted before deployment.

Only Handler Ilex Mora and Onyx Team’s senior officer know the full cleanup plan. Most rank-and-file Onyx operatives believe the mercenaries are expendable contractors, but they do not necessarily know that thermal charges have been planted beneath the cell block.

The Opening Betrayal

The betrayal begins only after the containment vault opens.

Kaelen and Vanya emerge wearing heavy restraint collars connected to subdermal control anchors. The collars prevent the twins from touching and suppress the strongest manifestations of their shared field.

One of the embedded Rooks moves forward as though performing a routine restraint inspection. Using a stolen biometric authorization key, the Rook disables both collars at the same time.

The collars release with a sharp mechanical crack.

Kaelen immediately reaches for Vanya.

The moment they touch, the room’s gravity shifts. Loose ammunition rises from the floor, overhead lights bend toward the twins, and blue-white energy crawls across the surrounding metal.

Onyx Team is completely surprised. They expected a conventional prisoner transfer, not an internal attack or an uncontrolled resonance event.

The embedded Rooks draw their weapons and turn on the Onyx command personnel.

Opening Ambush Round

Treat the collar release as a scripted opening round rather than the normal surprise rules.

During this opening round:

The embedded Tamsin Rooks can each Stride, draw equipment, take cover, or make one Strike.
The twins activate one resonance effect.
Onyx Team cannot act or use reactions.
The PCs do not take full turns, but each PC can immediately draw a weapon, drop prone, or Step toward adjacent cover.
After these actions, roll initiative normally.

The twins’ most likely first effect is a defensive field protecting themselves and the Rooks from the expected return fire.

The Appeal to the Party

Mara Venn is the most charismatic Rook present. She was embedded in Onyx Team as a communications and prisoner-handling specialist.

As soon as the shooting begins, Mara moves into cover near the party. Rather than ordering them to join the Rooks, she speaks directly over their private contract channel.

“Mercenaries, hold your fire. We are not here for you. Check the thermal readings beneath your deployment positions.”

A PC who checks their suit telemetry, a nearby console, or the floor panels discovers several recently installed thermal packs beneath the central chamber.

Mara continues:

“Those charges are linked to your contract identifiers. Helix Meridian planned to recover the twins, destroy this block, and leave your bodies behind as proof that hired raiders carried out the attack.”

Handler Ilex Mora immediately cuts into the channel.

“Ignore her. The Tamsin Rooks are responsible for multiple terrorist attacks against this facility. Complete the extraction and your contract remains valid.”

Mara answers without hesitation.

“Then ask your handler why the blast doors locked behind you.”

At that moment, the thermal packs change from standby to armed.

Mara’s appeal is deliberately practical.

“You do not need to join the Rooks. You only need to survive what Helix Meridian planned for you.”

The party can support the Rooks, remain independent, continue siding with Onyx Team, or focus entirely on protecting the twins and escaping.

Primer: The Resonance Twins

Kaelen and Vanya are linked field generators created through involuntary corporate experimentation.

Their abilities are strongest when they are touching. Their field is not a spell, technological device, or ordinary psychic power. It is a shared physical reaction caused by the alterations Helix Meridian made to their bodies.

Resonance Contact

The twins must meet all of the following conditions to activate or change a resonance effect:

Both twins are conscious.
They are adjacent to one another.
They are physically touching.
Neither twin is completely restrained or inside a field that blocks their connection.

Breaking contact does not immediately end every effect. An active effect normally lasts until the beginning of the twins’ next turn, giving them a moment to reconnect.

Resonance Channels

The twins can support up to three active resonance effects at once, but only one effect from each channel.

Channel	Affected Creatures	Purpose
Personal Resonance	Kaelen and Vanya	Protects the twins or helps them remain together.
Allied Resonance	The PCs and chosen allies	Provides an area buff or battlefield advantage.
Hostile Resonance	Enemies in the affected area	Creates an area debuff or deterrent.

The twins cannot maintain two Personal effects, two Allied effects, or two Hostile effects at the same time.

Changing the active effect within a channel replaces the previous effect from that channel.

Activating and Changing Effects

The twins share one initiative count.

Activating or changing one resonance effect normally costs them 1 action. The twins must be touching when they use this action.

During Act 1, the twins should rarely make ordinary attacks. Their actions are better spent moving, maintaining contact, and changing the battlefield through resonance effects.

The GM controls their actions, but the PCs can influence their choices by calling for a particular kind of protection or explaining a tactical need. The twins are more likely to follow requests from characters they trust.

Sample Personal Resonance Effects

Anchor Shell

A dense gravitational shell forms around the twins.

The twins gain a +1 status bonus to AC and resistance 2 against physical damage.

Energy Cocoon

The twins select acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic damage when activating the effect.

They gain resistance 3 against the selected damage type.

Shared Momentum

The twins move as though linked by an invisible tether.

When either twin Strides, the other can Step as a free action, provided they end adjacent to one another.

Stabilized Pattern

The twins suppress the violent feedback between their altered nervous systems.

They gain a +1 status bonus to Fortitude and Will saves and to recovery checks.

Sample Allied Resonance Effects

Kinetic Defense Field

A 20-foot emanation surrounds the twins.

Chosen allies in the area gain a +1 status bonus to AC against ranged attacks and resistance 2 against damage from area effects with the physical trait.

This is the twins’ most likely opening effect when the collars are removed.

Energy Defense Field

The twins select acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic damage.

Chosen allies within a 20-foot emanation gain resistance 2 against the selected damage type.

Vector Assistance

Gravity pulls allies toward safe footing and useful cover.

Chosen allies within a 20-foot emanation gain a +5-foot status bonus to Speed and ignore the first square of difficult terrain they enter during each movement action.

Resonant Aim

The twins bend trajectories toward hostile targets.

Chosen allies within a 20-foot emanation gain a +1 status bonus to ranged attack rolls against enemies also within the field.

This effect should not stack with other status bonuses to attack rolls.

Sample Hostile Resonance Effects

Gravity Drag

A 20-foot emanation around the twins becomes difficult terrain for enemies.

Enemies that begin their turn in the area also take a –5-foot status penalty to their Speeds until they leave the field.

Kinetic Deflection

Projectile paths bend away from the twins and their allies.

Enemies within a 20-foot emanation take a –1 status penalty to ranged attack rolls.

Resonance Static

The field interferes with targeting systems, communications, and fine electronic control.

Enemies within a 20-foot emanation take a –1 status penalty to Computers checks, Crafting checks involving technology, and attacks made by automated or tech-controlled weapons.

Vector Repulsion

The first time each round that an enemy enters a square within 10 feet of the twins, it must attempt a Reflex save.

Critical Success: The creature is unaffected.
Success: The creature enters the square normally.
Failure: The creature is pushed 5 feet away.
Critical Failure: The creature is pushed 10 feet away and falls prone.

A creature becomes temporarily immune to Vector Repulsion until the start of its next turn after attempting the save.

Act 1 Starting Configuration

When the collars open and the twins touch, begin with:

Personal Resonance: Anchor Shell
Allied Resonance: Kinetic Defense Field
Hostile Resonance: None

This gives the twins and the Tamsin Rooks immediate protection without overwhelming Onyx Team before the PCs can act.

During the battle, the twins can add a Hostile effect if the fight becomes dangerous. Gravity Drag or Kinetic Deflection are the most appropriate early choices.

The twins can maintain all three channels at once, but doing so is physically exhausting. The first time they activate a third simultaneous channel during an encounter, both twins become fatigued after the encounter ends. This limitation can weaken as they gain control over their powers later in the campaign.