Act 2 Climax — The Battle for Rookhaven
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
| Final Delay | Arrival State |
|---|---|
| 0–1 | The party reaches Rookhaven well before the assault |
| 2–3 | The party arrives shortly before enemy forces appear |
| 4–5 | The attack has just begun |
| 6+ | The spaceport is already under heavy assault |
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.
| Arrival | Preparation Tasks |
|---|---|
| Well before the assault | 5 tasks |
| Shortly before the assault | 3 tasks |
| Attack imminent | 1 task |
Each task should require a short scene, several checks, or the expenditure of equipment.
Preparation Options
| Preparation | Primary Skills | Battle Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Fortify the main approach | Crafting, Athletics | Add barricades and defensive cover |
| Repair defense turrets | Crafting, Computers | Activate one or more automated weapons |
| Conceal the launch hangars | Computers, Deception | Delay enemy targeting of the ships |
| Mine the vehicle approach | Crafting, Survival | Damage or delay corporate vehicles |
| Prepare medical stations | Medicine, Crafting | Improve battlefield recovery |
| Evacuate noncombatants | Diplomacy, Society | Prevent civilian casualties during the battle |
| Inspect ships for sabotage | Computers, Crafting, Thievery | Discover infiltrator tampering before launch |
| Establish sniper positions | Stealth, Perception | Grant defenders elevated firing positions |
| Secure the fuel depot | Crafting, Athletics | Prevent a major explosion |
| Create false launch signals | Computers, Deception | Split the attacking force |
| Train inexperienced defenders | Diplomacy, Warfare Lore | Improve the Rook militia |
| Prepare the twins’ resonance position | Occultism, Crafting, Diplomacy | Unlock a controlled battlefield resonance effect |
Safehouse Contributions
Earlier choices can add free preparations or improve existing ones.
| Act 2 Accomplishment | Rookhaven Benefit |
|---|---|
| Restore Relay Nine | Advance warning of the attack |
| Save a refugee or medical safehouse | Additional medics and medical supplies |
| Preserve a mining crawler | Heavy mobile cover |
| Repair Blackrail | Reinforcements arrive before the battle |
| Expose a corporate infiltrator | Sabotage is discovered early |
| Rescue stranded Rooks | Additional defenders |
| Recover corporate credentials | False orders confuse one enemy unit |
| Preserve Point Lotious’ workshops | Better repairs and additional equipment |
| Befriend or spare native creatures | Access to an unexpected wilderness route |
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.
| Zone | Threat | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| Outer Basin | Vehicles and advancing infantry | Delay the main assault |
| Refugee Concourse | Cyber-hounds and panic | Escort civilians to transports |
| Control Tower | Electronic warfare team | Restore launch control |
| Fuel Depot | Saboteurs and fire | Prevent catastrophic detonation |
| Main Hangar | Heavy assault force | Protect the escape ship |
| Secondary Pad | Damaged transport | Repair or evacuate stranded Rooks |
| Resonance Array | Dampening equipment | Free the twins’ powers |
| Maintenance Tunnels | Infiltrators | Stop internal sabotage |
| Launch Corridor | Warden Mech or heavy unit | Hold the final evacuation route |
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:
| Channel | Example Effect |
|---|---|
| Personal | Protect themselves from capture or dampening |
| Allied | Defend Rook troops, refugees, or the party |
| Hostile | Slow enemy advances or disrupt technology |
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
| Accomplishment | Suggested XP |
|---|---|
| Reach Rookhaven | 40 XP |
| Arrive before the attack begins | 30 XP |
| Complete a major preparation task | 10 XP each, maximum 40 XP |
| Save the refugee concourse | 30 XP |
| Stop the fuel depot explosion | 30 XP |
| Expose the internal infiltrator | 30 XP |
| Preserve launch control | 30 XP |
| Defeat or bypass the heavy gatekeeper unit | Encounter XP |
| Save an additional evacuation ship | 40 XP |
| Prevent capture of the twins | 30 XP |
| Launch from Daegox-4 | 80 XP major story award |
The party should reach level 4 at Rookhaven or immediately after escaping the planet.