Act 2 — The Rook Road

Level Range: 2–4 Primary Goal: Reach a hidden Tamsin Rook spaceport and escape Daegox-4 Structure: Open-route journey across the planet using safehouses, vehicles, wilderness paths, and covert transit corridors

Act Overview

Point Lotious is only the first link in a much larger resistance network.

The Tamsin Rooks maintain scattered refuges across Daegox-4: abandoned mines, buried worker shelters, disguised trading posts, mobile repair camps, and hidden settlements built inside old industrial ruins. Together, these locations form an underground route used to move escaped prisoners, defectors, witnesses, and contraband beyond Helix Meridian’s reach.

The party’s destination is Rookhaven Spaceport, a concealed launch facility built beneath an abandoned ore-processing basin.

Reaching it requires crossing several hundred kilometers of controlled territory.

The party does not need to visit every safehouse. Instead, the GM presents a regional route map with branching paths. Each safehouse offers a different advantage, but visiting more locations also gives Helix Meridian more opportunities to track the group.

The core decisions are:

• Travel quickly or remain concealed.
• Preserve vehicles or abandon them.
• Help threatened Rook cells or continue toward the spaceport.
• Trust local contacts or verify their identities.
• Keep the twins hidden or use their powers openly.
• Reduce Network Heat or accept pursuit in exchange for speed.

Regional Route Map

Act 2 should use a node-based regional map.

Point Lotious begins near the center-west of the map. Rookhaven Spaceport lies along the eastern edge beyond corporate-controlled mining territory.

The map should include approximately seven safehouse locations, but most groups will visit only three or four.

Route One — The Dust Road

Style: Vehicles, exposure, pursuit Likely Stops: Dustwell Station, Walking Yard, Red Quarry

The Dust Road follows old mining routes across open ash plains.

It is the fastest conventional route, but it offers little concealment. Corporate aircraft, prison search vehicles, and orbital scans can detect travelers who remain exposed too long.

Typical Challenges

• Repairing or stealing a functioning ground vehicle
• Navigating ash dunes that bury roads overnight
• Outrunning prison interceptors
• Crossing a collapsed industrial bridge
• Protecting a slow refugee convoy
• Choosing whether to spend fuel avoiding checkpoints
• Surviving a vehicle breakdown during an ashstorm

Route Benefit

The party reaches Rookhaven quickly and may arrive with a functioning combat-capable vehicle.

Route Risk

Network Heat rises rapidly unless the party creates false trails or disables surveillance systems.

Route Two — The Deep Road

Style: Stealth, exploration, native life Likely Stops: Glassroot Caverns, Saint Ardin’s Rest, Blackrail Junction

The Deep Road passes through natural caverns, abandoned mine tunnels, and subterranean river channels.

Helix Meridian patrols rarely enter these regions, but the tunnels are unstable and occupied by native creatures.

Typical Challenges

• Crossing underground chasms
• Navigating without reliable signals
• Avoiding territorial predators
• Repairing ancient mine elevators
• Passing through flooded mineral caverns
• Protecting the twins from resonance-sensitive wildlife
• Choosing whether to rescue trapped miners or conserve supplies

Route Benefit

The party can cross large sections of Daegox-4 without increasing Network Heat.

Route Risk

Travel is slow, and damaged passages can trap the group far from help.

Route Three — The Ghost Line

Style: Technical infiltration, disguises, rail travel Likely Stops: Relay Kestrel, Red Quarry, Blackrail Junction

The Ghost Line uses abandoned communication relays, maintenance roads, and sections of the old ore-transport network.

This route passes closer to active Helix Meridian installations but allows skilled characters to manipulate the corporation’s own systems.

Typical Challenges

• Forging transport authorizations
• Rebuilding a mag-rail engine
• Redirecting automated cargo shipments
• Passing inspection checkpoints
• Hiding the twins inside industrial freight
• Spoofing prison tracking signals
• Discovering a corporate operative inside a Rook cell

Route Benefit

Successful technical operations can reduce Network Heat and misdirect corporate pursuit teams.

Route Risk

A single major failure may expose both the party and several safehouses.

Vehicles of Act 2

Vehicles should provide tactical choices without replacing normal character actions.

Ash Skimmer

A light, fast vehicle designed to glide across compact ash.

Use: Scouting, fast travel, courier missions Strength: Speed and maneuverability Weakness: Little protection and limited passenger space

An ash skimmer can carry two to four creatures depending on its design.

Mining Crawler

A large tracked industrial vehicle used to transport equipment and ore.

Use: Convoys, mobile shelter, heavy cargo Strength: Armor, carrying capacity, environmental protection Weakness: Slow and easy to detect

A damaged crawler can become a temporary mobile safehouse.

Rook Sandrail

A modified resistance vehicle built from mining equipment and aircraft components.

Use: Main party transport Strength: Modular upgrades and concealed compartments Weakness: Requires frequent maintenance

Possible upgrades include:

• Reinforced armor
• Signal masking
• Additional fuel storage
• Medical compartment
• Mounted weapon
• Drone rack
• Concealed passenger space

Corporate Interceptor

A Helix Meridian security vehicle designed for pursuit.

Use: Enemy pursuit or captured transport Strength: Fast, armed, and connected to corporate networks Weakness: Constantly trackable unless heavily modified

Capturing an interceptor provides speed but creates an immediate technical problem: removing its surveillance systems.

Ore Tram

An industrial rail vehicle operating on abandoned mining lines.

Use: Rapid long-distance travel Strength: Carries many passengers and supplies Weakness: Restricted to surviving tracks

The ore tram can become the centerpiece of a moving encounter involving drones, track switches, collapsing tunnels, and boarding enemies.

Native Animal Life

Daegox-4 is harsh but not lifeless. Most native creatures are adapted to ash, mineral dust, darkness, and sudden temperature changes.

Ashback Grazer

A large six-legged herbivore covered in overlapping mineral plates.

Ashbacks dig through hardened ash to reach buried fungi and root systems. They are usually calm but become dangerous when protecting young.

Adventure Uses:

• A herd blocks a vehicle route.
• Their migration indicates an approaching storm.
• Poachers have wounded one near a safehouse.
• Their hollowed trails provide shelter from aerial scans.

Glasswing Scavenger

A gliding predator with transparent mineral membranes.

Glasswings ride ashstorm winds and descend on exposed creatures or electrical activity.

Adventure Uses:

• They attack a communications mast.
• They follow the twins’ resonance field.
• A flock surrounds a disabled vehicle.
• Their shed wing material is useful for signal insulation.

Tunnel Maw

A burrowing ambush predator that senses vibration through stone.

Tunnel maws remain beneath old mining roads and strike at heavy vehicles or walking groups.

Adventure Uses:

• A crawler awakens a nesting pair.
• The party must cross without creating vibration.
• A Rook safehouse unknowingly sits above a breeding chamber.
• A captured juvenile may reveal a safer tunnel route.

Ember Mite Swarm

Small heat-seeking insects that nest inside generators and vehicle engines.

They are not dangerous individually, but a swarm can disable machinery and ignite leaking fuel.

Adventure Uses:

• A vehicle overheats during pursuit.
• A safehouse generator becomes infested.
• The mites can be redirected toward corporate equipment.
• Their presence reveals a hidden geothermal vent.

Resonance Stalker

A rare native predator that reacts to gravity disturbances.

It may have been altered by naturally occurring exotic minerals or by leaked corporate waste.

The creature becomes fascinated or enraged when the twins use their abilities.

Adventure Uses:

• It follows the party between safehouses.
• The twins may calm it through controlled resonance.
• Helix Meridian attempts to capture it.
• Its behavior suggests the twins’ powers interact with Daegox-4 itself.

Returning Threat — Prison Pursuit Forces

The Omicron-9 prison does not stop functioning after the escape.

CUSTOS-9 deploys prison recovery teams to reclaim the twins and capture surviving fugitives.

Prison Pursuit Elements

• Cyber-hound tracking packs
• Warden drones
• Automated checkpoints
• Prisoner-transport interceptors
• Contract bounty teams
• Captured prisoners forced to provide information
• Portable resonance-dampening equipment

Prison forces are direct and procedural. They want the twins returned alive but treat most other fugitives as expendable.

CUSTOS-9 continues speaking through public terminals, abandoned machinery, and captured communication channels.

It may offer reduced sentences, medical treatment, or amnesty to characters who betray the twins.

Returning Threat — Corporate Infiltrators

Helix Meridian understands that destroying every safehouse would scatter the Tamsin Rooks and make the twins harder to locate.

Instead, the corporation places agents inside the underground route.

These operatives pose as:

• Escaped prisoners
• Injured Rooks
• Vehicle mechanics
• Refugees
• Traders
• Couriers from another safehouse
• Former corporate workers seeking asylum

Corporate infiltrators gather route information, tag vehicles, sabotage equipment, and identify which Rook cells are sheltering the twins.

Signs of Infiltration

• A contact knows a correct password but uses it unnaturally.
• Equipment has been repaired with corporate-standard components.
• A refugee carries an implant that appears disabled.
• A safehouse receives supplies it never requested.
• Patrols repeatedly arrive shortly after the party leaves.
• Someone asks detailed questions about the twins’ capabilities.
• Route maps contain subtle but dangerous errors.

The infiltrators should not all be obvious villains. Some may be coerced workers, threatened family members, or captured Rooks forced to cooperate.

Network Heat

Network Heat represents how accurately Helix Meridian can track the party.

Heat rises when the party:

• Uses the twins’ powers openly
• Fails infiltration checks
• Travels in identifiable vehicles
• Leaves surviving enemies able to report
• Uses compromised communications
• Remains at one safehouse too long

Heat falls when the party:

• Sends false signals
• Changes vehicles
• Destroys tracking devices
• Uses subterranean routes
• Exposes or turns an infiltrator
• Sabotages a regional surveillance node

Suggested Act Progression

Scene 1 — Leaving Point Lotious

The party chooses a route and secures transportation.

This scene introduces the regional map, Network Heat, and the first travel challenge.

Scene 2 — First Safehouse

The party reaches a functioning Rook refuge and sees how the underground route operates.

The location should offer supplies, information, and one optional local problem.

Scene 3 — The Road Tightens

Prison pursuit forces catch up.

This may be a vehicle chase, checkpoint infiltration, cyber-hound attack, or wilderness encounter complicated by active pursuit.

Scene 4 — The Compromised House

The party reaches a safehouse that has been infiltrated or placed under surveillance.

The characters must determine who can be trusted without alerting the operative.

Scene 5 — Broken Route

A planned safehouse is destroyed, abandoned, or inaccessible.

The party must change routes, enter dangerous wilderness, or use a damaged vehicle to continue.

Scene 6 — Blackrail or the Final Crossing

The different routes begin converging.

The party gains its final opportunity to reduce Network Heat, gather allies, or acquire transport for the approach to Rookhaven.

Scene 7 — Rookhaven Spaceport

The party reaches the hidden spaceport, but prison and corporate forces are closing in.

Act 2 ends with the party preparing a ship, defending the launch site, or discovering that an infiltrator has already compromised the escape plan.

Advancement

The party begins Act 2 at level 2.

Suggested advancement:

• Reach level 3 after completing two major safehouse or route challenges.
• Reach level 4 at Rookhaven or immediately after securing the escape ship.

Story XP should reward:

• Preserving safehouses
• Rescuing refugees
• Reducing Network Heat
• Capturing vehicles intact
• Resolving wildlife encounters without unnecessary killing
• Exposing infiltrators
• Keeping the twins hidden
• Recovering evidence of Helix Meridian’s operations
• Bringing additional Rooks safely to Rookhaven

Act 2 Roving Pursuit System

VantaCore and Helix Meridian are represented by separate enemy markers that move across the Act 2 regional map.

Neither faction remains tied to a specific encounter location. Their forces travel between safehouses, routes, settlements, and industrial sites while searching for the twins.

Pursuit Markers

Place two markers on the regional map:

The markers begin at different map edges or known corporate facilities.

Their exact starting locations can depend on how Act 1 ended.

Floating Across the Map

Each enemy marker occupies a map node but is not attached to a fixed encounter.

At the end of every pursuit interval, each marker can:

• Move one connected route toward the party.
• Investigate its current node.
• Remain in place to establish surveillance.
• Move toward a detected safehouse.
• Follow a false trail created by the party.
• Move toward Rookhaven if it loses the party completely.

Enemy markers do not need to use the same routes as the party. Helix drones may cross exposed terrain, while VantaCore operatives may use vehicles, bribed contacts, or commercial routes.

The GM should normally keep the markers visible. The players may know where enemy forces were last reported without knowing exactly what those forces intend to do next.

Pursuit Interval

Make one pursuit check after:

• Every four hours of significant travel
• Every completed route segment
• Every extended rest outside a secure safehouse
• Any major use of the twins’ resonance powers
• Any loud vehicle encounter or open firefight

Only make one check when several triggers happen during the same scene.

A quiet night inside an uncompromised safehouse does not normally require a pursuit check.

Heat Index

Heat measures how accurately the two enemy factions can track the party.

Increasing Heat

Heat usually increases by 1 when the party:

• Uses the twins’ powers openly
• Travels in a recognizable vehicle
• Leaves witnesses able to report them
• Fails a major infiltration or stealth challenge
• Uses compromised communications
• Remains at one safehouse too long
• Leads an enemy directly to a Rook location

A major failure or public battle may increase Heat by 2.

Reducing Heat

Heat can be reduced by:

• Changing vehicles
• Traveling through subterranean routes
• Destroying tracking devices
• Sending false transmissions
• Exposing an infiltrator
• Leaving a convincing false trail
• Temporarily shutting down a surveillance network

Heat should rarely fall below 0 or rise above 10.

Travel Posture

Before each route segment, the party selects a travel posture.

Useful skills for concealed travel or false trails include Stealth, Survival, Computers, Deception, and appropriate Lore skills.

Pursuit Check

At each pursuit interval, the GM makes a secret pursuit check.

Roll:

1d20 + current Heat + route modifiers

against DC 16.

The party’s travel posture modifies this roll:

• Concealed Travel applies –2 to the GM’s roll.
• Hustle applies +2 to the GM’s roll.
• Particularly exposed terrain can apply +1 or +2.
• Underground or shielded routes can apply –1 or –2.

Critical Success

Both factions accurately converge on the party’s current or next map node.

VantaCore and Helix encounter each other before either can complete its attack on the party.

The collision occurs close enough that the party can:

• Avoid the battle and continue traveling.
• Observe the fight.
• Intervene against one or both factions.
• Wait and attack the survivors.
• Slip through while both sides are occupied.

If the party avoids involvement, resolve a quick conflict between the two factions.

Success

The nearest enemy marker moves into the party’s node.

The party encounters that faction.

The encounter’s difficulty depends on Heat:

The other enemy marker moves one route segment toward the disturbance.

Failure

No direct encounter occurs.

Move each enemy marker one route segment according to its current information.

The party may notice signs of nearby pursuit, such as drone contrails, intercepted transmissions, disturbed ash, abandoned equipment, or frightened travelers.

Critical Failure

The party’s concealment, misinformation, or route choice sends both factions toward the wrong location.

Move both enemy markers into the same map node away from the party.

They encounter one another and fight while the party remains clear.

Resolve their clash using the quick conflict rules.

Quick Conflict Between Pursuers

Each enemy marker has a Force Rating.

Modify the rating when appropriate:

• Strong reinforcements: +1
• Previously weakened: –1
• Ambushed: –1
• Defensive position: +1
• Major vehicle or heavy unit present: +1

Each faction rolls:

1d20 + Force Rating

The higher result wins.

Conflict Results

The surviving or retreating factions continue hunting the party in their weakened state.

A faction reduced to Force Rating 0 is temporarily removed from the map.

It returns after two pursuit intervals with Force Rating 2, representing replacement units or a newly assembled hunter cell.

Effects of a Weakened Force

A weakened force might appear with:

• Missing personnel
• Reduced ammunition
• Damaged vehicles
• Disabled communications
• Injured operatives
• Machines already below full Hit Points
• No access to its strongest special ability

The party may deliberately lure the two forces together to weaken both before reaching Rookhaven.

Enemy Movement Priorities

VantaCore

VantaCore follows people and information.

Its marker moves toward:

1. A compromised Rook contact
2. The party’s last known safehouse
3. A stolen or tagged vehicle
4. Reports of the twins
5. Rookhaven

VantaCore is more likely to wait, infiltrate, or establish an ambush than attack immediately.

Helix Meridian

Helix follows signals and infrastructure.

Its marker moves toward:

1. An active resonance signature
2. Omicron-9 tracking data
3. Helix-made vehicles or equipment
4. Automated surveillance detections
5. Major power or communications usage
6. Rookhaven

Helix machines usually take the shortest available route and attack once they confirm a target.

Safehouse Detection

When an enemy marker enters a safehouse node, the safehouse is not automatically destroyed.

The GM determines what the enemy finds based on Heat and the party’s precautions.

This allows the pursuit markers to threaten the network without automatically removing every location they visit.

Reaching Rookhaven

Both markers continue floating across the map until the Rookhaven climax.

Their condition determines the attack.

The party cannot completely prevent the climax, but it can determine when each enemy arrives, how strong it is, and whether the two hostile forces are already fighting each other.

Act 2 Climax — The Battle for Rookhaven

The journey across Daegox-4 ends at Rookhaven Spaceport, a concealed Tamsin Rook launch facility built beneath an abandoned ore-processing basin.

Helix Meridian and the Omicron-9 prison network both discover the spaceport during Act 2. Their forces launch a coordinated assault intended to seize the Resonance Twins, destroy the Rook escape network, and prevent any surviving witnesses from leaving the planet.

The attack occurs regardless of the party’s route. The party’s speed determines whether they arrive in time to prepare for it.

The Journey Clock

Track the party’s progress using Delay.

The party begins Act 2 with 0 Delay.

Delay increases when the party:

• Spends significant time at optional safehouses
• Fails major travel challenges
• Repairs heavily damaged vehicles
• Takes long rests in exposed locations
• Diverts to rescue civilians or Rook cells
• Backtracks after discovering a compromised route

Delay can be reduced when the party:

• Uses a fast vehicle route
• Restores Blackrail transport
• Acquires accurate weather or patrol data
• Sends pursuit teams toward false coordinates
• Skips optional safehouses
• Successfully uses corporate credentials or transport

Do not punish the party for roleplaying or helping people without warning. Present the tradeoff clearly: helping a location may provide allies, equipment, or defenses at Rookhaven, but it costs time.

Arrival Conditions

The GM can adjust these ranges based on the length of Act 2.

Early Arrival — Prepare the Spaceport

If the party arrives before the attack, Rookhaven appears tense but operational.

Technicians are preparing escape ships, refugees are being assigned to transports, and scouts report enemy forces moving toward the basin.

The party receives a limited preparation window before the assault.

Preparation Structure

The party can complete a number of preparation tasks based on its arrival time.

Each task should require a short scene, several checks, or the expenditure of equipment.

Preparation Options

Safehouse Contributions

Earlier choices can add free preparations or improve existing ones.

Late Arrival — Thrown into the Battle

If the party arrives after the attack begins, they enter through smoke, collapsing structures, and retreating defenders.

They receive no overview of the entire battlefield. The GM introduces objectives as the party encounters them.

The party may initially see:

• Corporate dropships descending into the basin
• Prison interceptors pushing through the outer barricades
• Cyber-hounds pursuing refugees
• Rook defenders falling back toward the hangars
• A damaged launch ship trapped on the pad
• Defense turrets firing at the wrong targets
• The twins reacting to resonance-dampening weapons

The battle should begin immediately, but the party should still have meaningful choices.

They are not required to defeat every enemy. Their objective is to keep the spaceport functioning long enough for the evacuation ships to launch.

Enemy Forces

The attack combines two distinct forces.

Helix Meridian Assault Force

The corporate force is organized, mobile, and focused on the twins.

Possible units include:

• Onyx Team assault operatives
• Corporate interceptors
• Dropship infantry
• Electronic warfare specialists
• Saboteurs already inside the spaceport
• Resonance-dampening weapons
• A corporate field commander linked to Ilex Mora

Helix Meridian attempts to capture the twins alive and destroy evidence stored at Rookhaven.

Omicron-9 Recovery Force

The prison force is controlled or coordinated by CUSTOS-9.

Possible units include:

• Warden drones
• Cyber-hound packs
• Automated sentry platforms
• Prisoner recovery teams
• Heavy restraint units
• A rebuilt or upgraded Warden Mech
• Remote-controlled mining equipment

The prison force follows rigid recovery directives and may clash with corporate personnel when their objectives differ.

This creates opportunities for the party to manipulate one enemy faction against the other.

Battlefield Zones

Rookhaven should function as a large, multi-objective battlefield.

The party cannot protect every zone. Their decisions determine what survives.

Battle Progress

Run the climax in three stages.

Stage 1 — The Outer Breach

Enemy forces enter the basin.

Early-arriving parties begin from prepared positions. Late-arriving parties encounter defenders already retreating.

Objectives may include:

• Destroying or disabling an interceptor
• Holding a barricade
• Saving scouts trapped outside
• Activating defenses
• Closing an exposed access tunnel

Stage 2 — The Spaceport Splinters

Multiple emergencies occur at once.

Present three objectives and make it clear the party can likely complete only two.

Example objectives:

• Stop the fuel depot from exploding
• Rescue civilians from the concourse
• Recover launch-control access
• Find and stop an infiltrator
• Protect the twins from a capture team
• Repair the primary escape ship

The ignored objective suffers a consequence but should not automatically end the act.

Stage 3 — The Final Launch

The last ships begin preparing to leave.

The party must hold the launch route while completing the final escape sequence.

Possible final threats include:

• An upgraded Warden Mech
• Onyx Team’s field commander
• A corporate gunship
• A resonance-dampening array
• CUSTOS-9 taking control of the launch systems
• An infiltrator aboard the escape ship

The twins can become central to the final defense, but the party should determine how their powers are used.

Twins’ Role in the Battle

At Rookhaven, the twins can maintain their three resonance channels:

The scale of the battle allows the twins to produce stronger area effects than earlier in the campaign.

Possible large-scale effects include:

• A kinetic dome protecting the launch pad
• A gravity field slowing enemy vehicles
• Energy resistance around the fuel depot
• Distorted targeting around the evacuation ships
• A repulsion wave clearing the launch corridor

Maintaining three channels for an extended period should carry a cost. The twins may become drained, injured, or temporarily unable to use their powers after launch.

Success Levels

Act 2 should end with escape from Daegox-4, but the state of Rookhaven changes what the party carries into Act 3.

Complete Victory

• The main escape ship launches intact
• Most civilians and Rooks escape
• The spaceport’s intelligence archive is preserved
• The twins remain free
• Enemy commanders are defeated or captured

Costly Victory

• The party escapes
• One or more ships, safehouse records, or important NPCs are lost
• Rookhaven is destroyed
• Survivors are scattered across multiple ships

Desperate Escape

• The party reaches a ship during the collapse
• Most of the spaceport falls
• The ship launches damaged or under pursuit
• Few Rooks escape with the party

Fail-Forward Result

If the party is defeated, surviving Rooks or the twins trigger an emergency launch.

The party awakens aboard a damaged ship leaving Daegox-4 while enemy vessels pursue them.

They escape the planet, but suffer major losses and begin Act 3 in immediate danger.

Story XP Opportunities

The party should reach level 4 at Rookhaven or immediately after escaping the planet.

Point Lotious Safehouse Sidequests

Sidequest 1 — A Signal Beneath the Skin

Location: Infirmary Primary Focus: Medicine, investigation, controlled resonance Recommended Level: 1 Expected Length: 30–45 minutes

Hook

The infirmary is already crowded when the party arrives. Injured Tamsin Rooks fill most of the cots, and the safehouse medic, Doctor Sera Vale, is working with scavenged equipment and dwindling supplies.

One of the Rooks rescued from Omicron-9, Joren Pell, begins suffering violent muscle spasms. A blue light pulses beneath the skin along his ribs. At first, everyone assumes he was struck by one of the twins’ resonance discharges.

Doctor Vale quickly determines that the object inside him is artificial.

“That is not shrapnel. It is transmitting.”

Helix Meridian implanted a medical tracking filament in Joren while he was briefly detained several weeks earlier. The device remained dormant until it detected the twins’ resonance field.

Unless it is removed or neutralized, it will begin transmitting Point Lotious’ location.

What Is Happening

The tracking filament is wrapped around a major nerve cluster. Cutting it out carelessly could paralyze or kill Joren. Leaving it active risks exposing the entire safehouse.

The party must gain 5 Treatment Points before accumulating 3 Trauma.

A critical failure increases Trauma by 1. Some failures may also cause Joren to take minor electricity or persistent bleed damage.

Transmission Pulses

At the end of each round or major treatment step, the filament attempts to transmit.

A character monitoring the infirmary equipment can attempt a DC 15 Computers check.

• Critical Success: Block the pulse and gain 1 Treatment Point.
• Success: Block the pulse.
• Failure: The safehouse gains 1 Trace.
• Critical Failure: Gain 2 Trace.

At 3 Trace, Helix Meridian identifies the general region around Point Lotious. This does not immediately reveal the safehouse but increases Network Heat at the beginning of Act 2.

Success

At 5 Treatment Points, the party can remove or disable the filament.

Doctor Vale stores the intact device in a shielded container. It contains partial records showing that Helix Meridian has implanted similar trackers in other prisoners and corporate laborers.

Failure

At 3 Trauma, Joren begins crashing. Doctor Vale completes the operation, but Joren survives with lasting nerve damage.

The filament is destroyed, preventing the party from studying or reusing it.

Optional Choice

The party can deliberately allow one final transmission while feeding the implant false coordinates.

This requires a DC 17 Computers check.

On a success, Helix Meridian dispatches a search team to an abandoned mining complex several kilometers away. On a critical failure, the corporation gains a much more accurate trace on Point Lotious.

Rewards

Act 2 Benefit

If the tracker is removed before transmitting, reduce starting Network Heat by 1.

If the false transmission succeeds, the party gains a temporary advantage when traveling away from Point Lotious.

Sidequest 2 — The Underworks Are Thirsty

Locations: Scrap Mechanic, Power Room, Water Recycler Primary Focus: Crafting, Computers, Athletics Recommended Level: 1 Expected Length: 45–60 minutes

Hook

The arrival of the party, the twins, and the surviving Rooks pushes the safehouse beyond its intended capacity.

The lights begin dimming. Water pressure drops to a trickle. The ventilation fans slow enough for ash to creep through the intake filters.

The safehouse mechanic, Orrin Pike, explains that all three failures are connected.

“The recycler needs the pump. The pump needs the generator. The generator needs a coolant regulator that became scrap twenty years ago.”

Point Lotious has enough stored power to maintain two of the following systems, but not all three:

• Water purification
• Ventilation and life support
• Long-range communications

Unless the party repairs the old ore-lift power junction, one system must remain offline.

Route Through the Safehouse

Phase 1 — Find a Replacement

Orrin has several possible regulator components, but none is complete.

The party must gain 3 Fabrication Points.

Phase 2 — Generator Restart

Installing the regulator requires three simultaneous tasks:

• Hold the magnetic coupling in place.
• Synchronize the generator controls.
• Vent excess heat.

The group attempts three checks:

• DC 15 Athletics check
• DC 15 Computers check
• DC 15 Crafting check

Each success stabilizes one system. A critical success can compensate for one failed check.

If two or more checks fail, the generator starts but overloads the water system.

Phase 3 — Contaminated Intake

The water recycler has drawn metallic ash and biological waste into its intake chamber.

Characters entering the chamber must deal with slippery surfaces, poor visibility, and contaminated water.

Possible solutions include:

• Clear the intake manually with a DC 15 Athletics check.
• Flush the obstruction using a DC 15 Crafting check.
• Reverse the pump through the control system with a DC 17 Computers check.
• Identify and isolate contamination with a DC 15 Medicine or Survival check.
• Use a controlled kinetic resonance pulse to force the obstruction free.

A failure exposes the acting character to contaminated water. The character attempts a DC 15 Fortitude save or becomes sickened 1.

Complication — Maintenance Crawlers

If the party makes two critical failures during the sidequest, several damaged maintenance crawlers activate inside the service conduit.

The crawlers do not need to become a full combat encounter. They can be:

• Destroyed normally.
• Shut down with Computers.
• Trapped behind a pressure door.
• Reprogrammed to clean the water intake.
• Used as replacement parts.

If run as combat, use a Low-threat encounter appropriate to the party.

The Power Decision

If the repair succeeds, all systems return to normal.

If it fails, the party must choose one system to shut down until replacement parts can be obtained.

Rewards

Services Unlocked

After completion, Orrin Pike can provide:

• Equipment repair
• Battery recharging
• Basic weapon maintenance
• Identification of technological items
• Installation of common upgrades when parts are available

The water station can also refill the party’s environmental protection and emergency water supplies before they leave Point Lotious.

Sidequest 3 — The Dead Channel

Location: Comms Room Primary Focus: Computers, investigation, signal deception Recommended Level: 1 Expected Length: 30–45 minutes

Hook

The Point Lotious communications array receives a brief transmission on a Tamsin Rook emergency frequency.

The message contains only six words:

“Black sky. Broken crown. Rooks scattered.”

The transmission repeats every forty-seven seconds. No identification code accompanies it.

Comms operator Nia Sol cannot determine whether the message came from a surviving Rook cell, a Helix Meridian trap, or an automated beacon.

The signal is growing weaker.

What the Message Means

“Black sky” identifies Daegox-4.

“Broken crown” is an old Tamsin Rook emergency phrase indicating that a leadership cell has been compromised.

“Rooks scattered” means survivors are operating without orders or a secure extraction route.

Someone is calling for help—but Helix Meridian may already be listening.

Signal Investigation

The party must identify the sender before responding.

The message is real, but Helix Meridian has attached a tracking routine to the transmission. A surviving Rook cell is attempting to make contact without realizing its signal has been compromised.

The Response Challenge

The party must send a warning without revealing Point Lotious.

They need 5 Signal Points before accumulating 3 Exposure.

A critical success earns 2 Signal Points. A critical failure adds 1 Exposure.

Complication — CUSTOS-9 Answers

After the party earns its third Signal Point, CUSTOS-9 detects their interference.

The prison intelligence enters the channel using Handler Ilex Mora’s voice.

“You have been abandoned. Return the paired anomaly subjects and your involvement will be classified as coercion rather than terrorism.”

CUSTOS-9 attempts to force the party to maintain the connection long enough to trace them.

The party can:

• Immediately terminate the transmission.
• Continue while feeding it false coordinates.
• Attempt to extract information from CUSTOS-9.
• Allow the twins to distort the signal.
• Broadcast evidence of Helix Meridian’s experiments.

Remaining connected grants a +1 circumstance bonus to the next attempt to recover corporate information but automatically increases Exposure by 1.

Success

At 5 Signal Points, the party warns the stranded Rooks and obtains their coordinates.

The survivors are hiding near an abandoned surface refinery. They cannot reach Point Lotious immediately, but they can provide intelligence about corporate patrols in Act 2.

Exposure 3

Helix Meridian narrows the transmission to the Point Lotious region.

The warning still reaches the stranded Rooks, but Network Heat increases by 1 and the safehouse must shut down long-range communications for several hours.

Optional Outcomes

The party may choose one additional objective:

Rewards

Act 2 Benefit

If the pursuit map is recovered, the party can learn one danger associated with each Act 2 route before choosing.

If a false safehouse location is transmitted, reduce the severity of the first pursuit complication encountered after leaving Point Lotious.

Using the Three Sidequests

The sidequests do not all need to occur immediately.

Completing all three sidequests should make Point Lotious feel like a functioning base the party helped preserve rather than a location they merely visited.

For milestone advancement, the party reaches level 2 after resting at Point Lotious and committing to an escape route. For XP advancement, these missions provide enough additional story awards to bring a party that missed optional objectives close to level 2.