090: Otta Tvash

ENTRY 090: Otta Tvash

Genetic engineering and after-market modification of neo-avian morphs has caused them to diverge so far from the standard phenotypes that their origin species can become ambiguous; the distinctive outlines that marked them out become blurred as they too become a trans-species, as far removed from what their primal genestock as a Barsoomian is from Australopithecus. Whatever Otta Tvash once was, today she is a slick-scaled amphibious horror, skin grown over her useless eyes, body cadaverous and reptilian, the plumage between her scaly plates smooth and rippled black and white like a penguin’s. Otta’s anatomy has been adapted to allow her to slide into the strange waters of alien worlds and using her bat-like wings to “fly” through the lakes, rivers, and seas of other planets.

As a gatecrasher, Otta brings adaptability to potential expeditions, able to survey from land, air, and in the sea; she has studied other neo-avian morphs and developed aerial deep-dive and skimming techniques which have proven quite effective combinations on worlds where gravity and local conditions permit both flight and swimming. More than this, her lack of sight brings a unique perspective—where other gatecrashers may be overwhelmed by the sights of the strange worlds they visit, Otta focuses on the more subtle things, such as air pressure, viscosity, density, and gravity, mapping her surroundings with tiny intermittent chirps.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
10	18	19	20	12	17	13	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
8	1	26	5	52	20	4	30

Morph: Neo-Avian

Skills: Academics: Botany 50, Academics: Chemistry 55, Academics: Oceanography 50, Climbing 35, Flight 60, Free Fall 55, Freerunning 70, Infiltration 55, Interests: Gatecrashing 60, Interests: Neo-Avians 45, Investigation 35, Kinesics 30, Kinetic Weapons 40, Language: Native Czech 89, Language: English 40, Medicine: Paramedic 40, Navigation 60, Networking: Autonomists 55, Networking: Scientists 55, Perception 50, Pilot: Watercraft 40, Profession: Diver 75, Scrounging 60, Swimming 80

Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Carapace Armor, Clean Metabolism, Cortical Stack, Endocrine Control, Enhanced Senses (Direction Sense, Echolocation, Enhanced Smell), Medichines, Oxygen Reserve, Radiation Sense, Respirocytes, Temperature Tolerance, Toxin Filters, Vacuum Sealing

Traits: Neural Damage (Blind), Striking Appearance (1)

Using Otta Tvash

Birds are weird, people are weird, and neo-avians are very weird indeed. When the PCs run into Otta Tvash, feel free to indulge in more than a bit of descriptive text—she’s a sight even hardened transhumans might pause at, a streamlined bipedal bird-reptile thing, built for air and water, as strange a chimera as any Medieval bestiary ever produced—but she’s not an animal. Whether as antagonist, ally, hireling, or contact Otta is a gatecrasher, a blind explorer that discovers the world through her sense of hearing and smell, and gamemasters might use her to teach the PCs a few things about using their own enhanced senses—the ones they write on their character sheet and then forget about. For herself, Otta is content exploring new worlds, focusing not on what she was or is but what she will be.

089: The High Pools

ENTRY 089: The High Pools

The slope of Olympus Mons is so shallow and the volcano so high, that a biomorph with a bit of vacuum gear can practically walk from the Amazonis Planita to the edge of space. Even with more than half a century of terraforming efforts, the Martian atmosphere remains exceedingly thin compared to Earth, but by the same mechanics they pressure doesn’t drop quite so much as you ascend. The Olympus habitat has taken advantage of the physics to set a series of exposed water pools starting a couple kilometers up, where the water can boil at 70 degrees Celsius and drops even lower as you ascend the mountain.

Most of the boiling cold, mist-shrouded pools are the play places for anyone that can withstand the temperatures and pressure, and range from small “natural” saunas and springs to carefully constructed infinity pools with imported tilework from Luna. In these pools, people conduct business, socialize, exercise, and relax or engage in small games involving floating chunks of ice that subliminate in the exposed conditions, all while enjoying the tremendous vista as they hang back and look at the Martian panorama before them, sitting on the side of the largest volcano in the solar system.

About a third of the pools are given over for scientific pursuits, mainly in testing Martian-adapted extremophiles.

Users enjoy the privileges of the High Pools because of a hard-working, mostly informal groups of volunteers that maintain them, who do not solicit donations of service or resources, but readily accept them if offered. The closest thing to an authority in the High Pools are the plumbers who keep the piping operations and handle issues related to water quality and keeping “in stock” with sufficient liquid water for the pools to remain running.

Seeds

• An interruption in water-ice donations has led the plumbers to begin rationing water, leaving many of the social pools dry while giving priority to the science pools. This in turn lowers the popularity of the High Pool system, and could lead to the death of the system unless the water stocks are refilled. If the PCs can steal, beg, or bargain a couple tons of ice, their efforts will be well-appreciated by the locals (with a corresponding Rep increase).
• A murder has occurred in one of the most isolated High Pools, known as the Namaskar Pools. These are a set of three elliptical, shallow natural craters on the eastern face, filled and linked by short waterfalls. The headless body—a Barsoomian dirt miner named Ryu—was discovered in the lowest pool, and had evidently been moved from the first pool. Since the High Pools exist outside of agreed-upon authority, the bathers in the Namaskar Pools have agreed as a compromise to enlist an independent party (the PCs) to investigate, with the guilty party being taken back to their home habitat to face judgment and barred from using the High Pools ever again. It’s up to the PCs to sift out the murderer…if the Barsoomian didn’t die of other causes…or at least find the cortical stack in his missing head so they can resleeve Ryu and ask him what happened.

088: Sharktooth

ENTRY 088: Sharktooth

In habitats or areas with strict restrictions on personal weapons, transhumans are forced to get creative. A growing favorite among biomorphs is the sharktooth, a personal and effective short-range melee weapon that is easy to conceal and even easier to smuggle through an airlock. In its dormant form, the sharktooth is indistinguishable from a standard dental implant, grown to replace one of the user’s adult teeth. Once past customs the sharktooth is removed, the user cracks the outer shell to activate it, and places it in a small container with a mineral-rich solution. Within an hour, the tailored organisms in the sharktooth will incorporate the mineral into a sharp, bone-like spur between eight and ten centimeters long. Removing the sharktooth leaves a dental cap which regrows into a normal human tooth within the next hour and a half, provided the user does not eat or drink anything.

Sharkteeth are popular among criminals, autonomists, and politicians, particularly in high-surveillance stations where more complicated weapons would be easy to detect and trace. A considerable amount of DIY lore is available on the ‘Mesh concerning growing and shaping the sharktooth for greater effect, with many preferring to force it into an L-shape so that it can be used as a punching dagger, with the sharp tip protruding between the fingers. A larger and more effective weapon can be had from a variant that arose on Europa, the serrated sharktooth. The serrated sharktooth appears almost identical in dormant form, though it is often discolored, and takes three to four hours to grow, but becomes a much larger weapon, up to twenty centimeters and can be chipped into a wider blade that is better at slashing and cutting through armor.

Most Europan habitats are more permissive of sharkteeth, which are often worn on a cord around the neck or wrist and considered an emergency tool for both biomorphs and synthmorphs, as the salt-rich waters of Europa make an effective feeder solution. Aside from use as a weapon, Europans fashion sharkteeth into simple hand tools by shaping it as it grows and carving the end product. However, given the material these items tend to be brittle and fracture easily when used against hard metal, stone, or plastics, and so are mainly considered emergency tools. That being said, sharktooth carving remains a popular craft in many Europan habitats.

Mechanics

Blade	Armor Penetration (AP)	Damage Value (DV)	Average DV	Cost
Sharktooth	0	2d10 + (SOM ÷ 10)	7 + (SOM ÷ 10)	Low
Serrated Sharktooth	-1	2d10 + 1 + (SOM ÷ 10)	8 + (SOM ÷ 10)	Moderate

Sharkteeth are wielded with the Blades skill. In many habitats where weapons are restricted, so are sharkteeth. In the underwater habitats of Europa, sharkteeth are unrestricted, abundant, and ubiquitous; reduce the cost to Trivial for sharkteeth and Low for serrated sharkteeth when buying them in Europan habitats.

087: Tam Uisge

ENTRY 087: Tam Uisge

One of only a handful of heavily-modified futura morphs designed for extensive underwater operation, Tam Uisge is one of the relatively few morphs on Europa that can survive for extended periods in the cold seas with minimal support equipment, provided he stays within the proper pressure and temperature bands. Psychologically disconnected from most other transhumans, Tam takes advantage of this ability to lose himself in the black waters of Europa, striking out on his own for sometimes days at a time, crawling inside an inflatable, buoyant “tent” for a few hours when he has to sleep, and switching to reserve oxygen when swimming through one of the low-oxygen zones of “dead water.” While a hard man to get a hold of, few are as intimately familiar with the seas of Europa as Tam Uisge.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
20	17	14	17	8	22	14	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
6	1	28	5	56	35	7	52

Morph: Futura

Skills: Academics: Biology 33, Academics: Oceanography 66, Academics: Physics 33, Art: Throat Singing 44, Demolitions 33, Infiltration 44, Interests: Aquatic Techology 44, Interests: Earth Oceans 44, Interests: Whalesong 33, Interfacing 30, Investigation 30, Kinetic Weapons 35, Language: Native Irish 84, Language: Japanese 47, Language: English 52, Navigation 77, Networking: Autonomists 30, Networking: Criminals 25, Networking: Ecologists 65, Palming 27, Perception (Smell) 55, Pilot: Watercraft 44, Profession: Oceanographer 48, Scrounging 44, Swimming 77, Unarmed Combat 44

Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Chameleon Skin, Circadian Regulation, Clean Metabolism, Cortical Stack, Eidetic Memory, Emotional Dampers, Enhanced Senses (Echolocation, Electrical Sense, Enhanced Smell, Enhanced Vision), Gills, Oxygen Reserve, Respirocytes, Temperature Tolerance, Toxin Filters

Traits: Striking Looks (1), Zero-G Nausea

Using Tam Uisge

In appearance Tam is less like the Creature from the Black Lagoon than a streamlined human with the skin of a dolphin; in personality he’s a broody teenager trapped in the body of seasoned underwater survivalist. If PCs need a “native guide” on Europa, Tam is their man. His penchant for getting lost in the depths also makes him an excellent hook to hang a plot on—Tam has gone missing (either in region X or looking for macguffin Y), and people want him found; in this way the gamemaster might be able to encourage the PCs to get their feet wet and explore Europa a little more than they might otherwise.

While designed for Europa, Tam can be transported to almost any setting where there’s enough water for him to operate—and where there isn’t enough, he’s a literal fish out of water.

Seed

• With his striking looks, Tam has admirers that even he doesn’t know about. In particular a scavenger named Dolphinboi has been stalking him through the Mesh for weeks—so when Tam hasn’t posted for a while, Dolphinboi sets out on a “rescue” mission. When Dolphinboi goes missing, his friends and relatives ask the PCs to track him down and bring him home. Two lost morphs, one big ocean.

086: First Spawning

ENTRY 086: First Spawning

In the floating bubble-cities of Europa, transhuman aquatic biomorphs prepares for the First Spawning, an organized mass water birth to herald the first generation of transhumans that are born as aquatic biomorphs. Though the parental units represent a diverse range of modified human and human-derived morphs, they are united in their desire to establish a generational presence beneath the ice of Europa—to make a solid biological commitment to stay and make it a transhuman world for their children and their children’s children to inhabit. Expectant parents stroll the promenades and practice their birth exercises, discussing the mostly-untested philosophies of amphibious childcare, looking forward to the big event.

Even as the date of the First Spawning draws close, detractors and critics continue to find flaws with the program. The newborn children growing in their parent’s wombs are, they argue, already obsolete, the genetech that went into their design already months old. None of the Europan habitats are yet self-sufficient, though those holding first spawning events have already begun to plan for how to house, provide, and educate their forthcoming charges.

Using the First Spawning

The First Spawning, whether it is a success or a disaster, will prove to be a pivotal moment in the history of Europan colonization, provided the Europan habitats prove stable in the long term. In game, whether or not you choose to feature the First Spawning directly it can provide a basis for showcasing a key division in Europa, between those who seek to expand by traditional methods (i.e. standard or modified human reproduction) and those who try more novel methods (i.e. mass production of aquatic synthmorphs). The different views of the future espoused by groups promoting one method over the other can provide a good impetus for adventures, especially when contrasted with those Europans whose only concern is for immediate survival in the present.

Seeds

• Europans are taking any rumors of disruption or potential security risks of the First Spawning very seriously; in some cases this has led to “temporary” restrictions on personal freedoms and heightened public surveillance. A group of asexual morphs ask the player characters to help them evade the authorities so that they can stage a harmless “artbombing” in protest against the new restrictions.
• While the First Spawning is the first organized birthing event on Europa, it is far from the first live birth. Individual pregnancies carried to term on Europa have faced a number of difficulties given the environment, morph design, and lack of medical care; some transhumans have been trying repeatedly for live birth for years. With the First Spawning, these transhumans have now received the help and resources they require to successfully conceive and carry a child to term…but the latest medical scans show some of the fetuses have already developed serious defects commensurate with exposure to exsurgent viruses. Foul play is suspected, and the PCs are asked to come in as independent investigators to discover the culprit, before the entire First Spawning is infected…

085: The Pearlworks

ENTRY 085: The Pearlworks

The seas of Europa are, as researchers and explorers continue to discover, a distinct environment from the terrestrial waters that form the bulk of transhumanity’s ocean-lore. In the dark depths, where the pressure rises and the temperature drops, there are weird “rivers” of mineral-rich waters, heavier than the surrounding liquid, that can carve winding paths several kilometers long before the differentials in temperature and mineral content even out, and the “river” becomes indistinguishable from any of the other currents. These edge zones between warmer and cooler waters are prime habitats for some of Europa’s deep-sea lifeforms, particularly lithoderms that depend on the mineral-rich waters for sustenance.

The most spectacular of these under-ocean rivers is the Pearlworks, which emerges from the cone of Mt. Nacramater, a massive cryovolcano encrusted with Europan coral. The icy cryomagma sluggishly slips of the side of the underwater mountain, forming the first in a series of half-frozen waterfalls as gravity and density force the semiliquid downwards to the surface of a relatively flat plateau. Eventually pressure and temperature shifts force the emission into a liquid state, and it feeds into thirteen-kilometer winding canyon, gradually expanding in width and becoming more shallow as the mineral-rich waters diffuse into the open ocean.

The Pearlworks are home to one of the most unusual species on Europa, the Europan pearl. These creatures begin their life as seed-like multicellular organisms consisting of three thin tissue layers—an outer layer that filters the surrounding waters, a middle vasculature and transport layer, and an inner layer packed with symbiotic lithoderms. The minerals that the pearl absorbs but cannot digest are passed to the lithoderms, who process it and excrete it inside the growing seed-pearl as a spherical or near-spherical mineral nodule, causing the pearl to stretch and expand its surface area, allowing it to better capture additional minerals. The process is slow and the Europan pearls are not entirely without predators, but some of the oldest pearls have reached truly prodigious size—over one meter in diameter for the Grand Pearl of Europa.

Explorers in this underwater world have captured images of entire stretches of the Pearlworks filled with tiny, almost spherical nacreous seed-pearls, the light playing off their low-index outer membrane and high-index inner-membrane to produce strange optical effects in the dark. Some of the larger animal-analogue fish have been known to scoop up small or mid-sized Europan pearls; the exact reason is unknown but most xeno-   oceanographers believe it is either for the mineral content or to facilitate grinding and digestion.

Seeds

• Europan pearls are living creatures, sensitive to environmental stress and damage to their outer membranes. A smuggler in the PC’s colony has arrived with a high-pressure container with a dozen inch-diameter Europan pearls, and gotten themselves arrested. Now several factions are tearing the habitat apart looking for the container. The PCs may find it difficult to stay neutral as various groups form looking for the treasure, but unbeknownst to them all it is for naught. Cramped and neglected, the Europan pearls in the container have died and their outer layers peeled off, leaving behind rough spheres of unremarkable minerals.
• Miners in the Europan depths have been harvesting pearls from one of the branches of the Pearlworks whose nodules contain high concentrations of platinum-group metals. An environmental engineer has tried to convince them to use the pearls to find the load rather than to harvest the Europan wildlife directly, but without success. So she wishes to prove them wrong directly, by staking a rival claim at the load itself. If the PCs are willing to back her up and protect her, she’ll give each of them a share in the claim.

084: Decoded Transmission

ENTRY 084: Decoded Transmission

Cosmic transmissions from the deep dark vast emptiness, decoded in non-real time by the distributed consciousness of post-humanity, distilling meaning into poetry and pornography, weapons against the forces of extinction. The measure of time is a fluid, broken thing and if we have lost our history it also means we are no longer bound by it, the human caterpillar emerging at last as a fractal-winged insect thing with glittering genitals that asks what it means to be human...

…and so on and so forth, in an epic stream-of-conscious prose-poem that is consistently being added to, amended, analyzed, edited, reworked, and rehashed by transhumans across the system. The Decoded Transmission is part group artistic project, part game, spooling out on forums and sites throughout the mesh, bits and pieces of it archived and published in different media. There are stanzas from it carved onto the mountainside of Mars, and a few million lines etched in microscopic characters along a meter of wall in Extropia. Spies use it as a public dead-drop, encoding their secrets into drabbles, and portions have been removed from public view because they are encoded with basilisk hacks and dangerous philosophies.

Using the Decoded Transmission

Aside from indulging in a bit of prose or poesy, the Decoded Transmission is a transhuman art project on a monumental scale, a group effort that can show up nearly anywhere transhumanity has been, and contain nearly anything. As a gamemaster tool, the Decoded Transmission is an excellent way to provide a critical phrase or theme to the campaign, a recurring image or words that the player characters come across, time after time, to reinforce a sense of continuity about a game. This is best done in a subdued, unforced manner—tattoos, logos, background paintings with fragments of words, etc. Of course, the GM can also simply use the Decoded Transmission as a prop, providing fragments of messages hidden in plain sight, prophecies and predictions, or just shout-outs—if their reps are legendary enough, someone may capture the PCs and their adventures for all time as a fragment of the Decoded Transmission.

Seeds

• It’s said the oldest-known archive of the Decoded Transmission is on Luna, with parts dating back before the Fall. Leira 6, a female-identified infomorph and sixth-generation fork of one of the original contributors, hires the player characters to find it and make a copy—but at least one of her “aunts,” an fourth-generation fork called Ariela, is willing to kill to prevent that from happening.
• Firewall has identified a loose group of individuals assembling the Forbidden Transmission—the parts of the Decoded Transmission written during and immediately after the Fall, long suppressed for fear that they may be dangerous and contain basilisk hacks and digital viruses. Whether it contains the secrets of the TITANs or bad homemade transhuman erotica, Firewall believes the group must be stopped. The player characters are tapped to handle the situation, peaceably if possible, but if not, they have carte blanche to handle the situation as they see fit.

083: Unguam

ENTRY 083: Unguam

“Those in power fear the autodidact. The strictures of control that bind habitats, stations, societies, and governments are designed to channel the clanking masses into approved forms and methods of study, entertainment, research, and release. Theirs is the balance between positive and negative reinforcement—grants, student loans, database access, and one-on-one teaching versus denial, cost, censorship, and legal penalties. Even the natural countervailing forces of transhumanity are usurped and suborned; revolutionary instincts tamed by limited access to “approved” materials. All frightened of what one morph might learn, what they might do, if they had access to the truth.”

- Introduction to Exsurgent Darkcast, Transmission CXXIII

Most habitats, hypercorps, and media outlets in the solar system limit access to data on exsurgents, not just in fear of memetic hazards and anti-exsurgent operation security, but as part of a tacit—and sometimes legally binding—compact to suppress such information. Formal investigation of exsurgents and related phenomena are thus classified by various public and clandestine agencies, and their study largely restricted to a tier of academics with certain credentials, faction affiliations, and proven expertise. Counter to this trend are autonomous, self-educated investigators like Unguam, the editor/publisher of the underground ‘Mesh periodical the Exsurgent Darkcast. Unguam and his allies have all discovered something of exsurgent activity, artifacts, technology or philosophy and desired to know more, but were rebuffed and reviled by the conspiracy of silence. So through the auspices of Unguam and others like him they dig deeper into such dark matters, sharing information and seeking the hidden truth…but what they seek is far more dangerous than they think.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
26	12	21	12	17	13	19	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
7	1	38	7	76	30	6	45

Morph: Menton

Skills: Academics: Astrobiology 33, Academics: Chemistry 44, Academics: Engineering 44, Academics: Geology 44, Academics: Physics 44, Academics: Xenoarcheology 45, Art: Architecture 44, Infosec 66, Interests: Exsurgents 44, Interests: Psi 44, Interests: TITANs 77, Interfacing 77, Kinesics (Sense Motive) 34, Investigation 55, Language: Native Portuguese 91, Language French 44, Language English 66, Networking: Autonomists 55, Networking: Media 55, Networking: Scientists 25, Perception 55, Profession: Darkcasting 66, Protocol 44, Research 55

Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Eidetic Memory, Hyper-Linguist, Math Boost

Traits: Allies (Exsurgent Autodidacts), Enemy (Firewall)

Using Unguam

Unguam is somewhere between a conspiracy theorist and an info-terrorist; his intentions to discover, investigate, utilize, and spread knowledge about exsurgents, psi abilities and the like would be commendable if it didn’t mean accidentally or purposefully spreading digital and nanobiological viruses, activating latent TITANs technology, and possibly aiding and abetting covert exsurgent organizations. As a contact, he can be used as a mouthpiece to give the player characters “the real dark truth” behind certain events and subjects not normally available on the ‘Mesh; as an enemy he’s likely to be a slippery shadow figure on the trail of (or causing) one exsurgent event or the next. If Unguam ever finds out the PCs are working with or for Firewall, he will never trust them again.

082: The Breach

ENTRY 082: The Breach

Spinning lazily through the inner Oort Cloud is a dead habitat, a formerly self-sufficient ice-mining outpost that processed water, methane, and weird hydrocarbon compounds from the abundant planetismals. Alive, Far Horizon Station was a sizable brinker outpost capable of supporting up to two hundred morphs. Dead, the habitat is a blazing radioactive cenotaph. No one knows exactly what caused the death of Far Horizon, but visuals suggest that up to a quarter of the station was destroyed in a single catastrophic event centered on the reactor core, larger than would be expected from any standard breach. Composite data from probes and the last remaining transmissions from Far Horizon suggest excessive amounts of ionized radiation, contaminating over 90% of the station materials.

Many Exhumans have a strange fascination with Far Horizon, though the distance (nearly 2,000 AU from Sol) prevents most from going there directly. Conspiracy theories on the nature of its destruction, the uncharacteristic size of the explosion and the resulting radioactive contamination, and its true purpose abound. The most popular of these fringe theories comes from exhuman astrophysicist Gul Von Vander, who claims that he has recorded signals from Far Horizon have many characteristics in line with cosmic microwave background radiation—if the universe were a few billion years younger. Von Vander’s conclusion, naturally, is that this microwave source is a breach into a parallel universe.

Visiting The Breach

Given the distance, visiting the broken shell of Far Horizon Station is possible but difficult. Station-to-station transport would require the PCs to be egocast to waiting synthmorphs either at the station itself or a nearby vehicle from a mission sent years ago. Light-speed communication means that each leg of the farcast itself take at least three to four months just in transit; though the PCs wouldn’t be aware of the time difference until they get back. Given the distance, limitations, and expense, actually visiting the Breach might be better as a one-off adventure, something that the PC’s fork can go off and do while the primary ego does other things, and then eight months later the fork will return and reintegrate with the PC’s ego. The high radiation levels in the dead station itself will generally restrict the PCs to radiation-resistant (and disposable) synthmorphs that can operate in vacuum.

Seeds

• Gul Von Vander is raising money for a full research expedition to Far Horizon Station, but isn’t above “salting the well” to encourage investors. Von Vander offers to hire the player characters to plant false evidence that support Von Vander’s theory in a variety of digital archives; concurrently, potential investor Jun Minaka offers to hire the PCs to do investigative research into Far Horizon. If the PCs play their cards right, they can work both angles and get paid from both while figuring out the real secret behind The Breach…secrets someone might be willing to kill to keep secret.
• An auction house in Extropia is offering the archives of Far Horizon Station, recovered at great cost by a stalwart crew of mercenaries and data archaeologists. Bidding is expected to hit the at least half a million credits, with any number of interested parties willing to hire some local talent to tip things their way, if the PCs are interested.

081: Skincast

ENTRY 081: Skincast

One mutation of the ages-old broadcast entertainment that has adapted to the syntax of transhuman existence are Skincast and its various affiliate, derivative, and supplementary programming. A variation on the episodic trial-reward program, the conceit of Skincast is that member-participants can compete in a series of original and sometimes absurd weighted-scoring challenges, with the ultimate victor or victors of any particular series of trials being rewarded with a new or upgraded morph. While most popular in the Planetary Consortium due to cross-licensing agreements between participating hypercorps (“Our Beloved Sponsors”), the show or something similar to it exists in at least 65% of habitats in transhuman space, with the largest outliers bioconservative communities that frown on exotic morphs.

The in-character backstory of Skincast is that the contests are being judged by alien intelligences (who may be influenced by up to 45% by a send-in fan vote), who choose the participants that are worthy and desirous for the competition (pseudo-random pick from a pool of volunteers, paid actors, and charity cases in desperate need of a new morph) and subject them to “Xenochallenges” set in locales throughout the solar system (usually Mars or Luna) that prove them worthy of receiving the gifts of the space-gods. Those who accumulate sufficient points are deemed the “Select” and allowed to resleeve into a brand new and exotic morph, supposedly custom-designed for the winners. The truth is that the whole debacle is a mix of scripted drama and gameshow, sometimes cruel and often more than a bit ludicrous; viewers on video or XP are as likely to see a crippled synthmorph and an aging flat grapple to see which can place a gold apple on a pedestal as they to see a blatant pleasure pod plant try to sow an X-rated romantic subplot and pitch “Our Beloved Sponsors” latest synthmorph polish. Skincast continues to be seen by millions, and hey—you too might be a winner!

Using Skincast

At its basic, Skincast is the kind of background element you can drop into a game almost anywhere and pick up when convenient: the guard missed the PCs sneaking past the camera because they were streaming Skincast on duty; the Barsoomian contact makes small talk about the latest series of Skincast challenges set in Europa; the target is devoted to the show and will give up anything for a pair of tickets; the bouncer at the club’s morph is actually one of the old Skincast morphs from six seasons and twelve users ago, etc.

On the other hand, gamemasters may choose to use Skincast as the focus for one or more adventures, even letting the PCs compete to become one of the Select. Most challenges are not simply physical, but contain some element that requires players to outthink or outwit their opponents; rarely the judges even include a Moral challenge designed to test intangibles like courage and self-sacrifice, setting up scenarios where the PCs may complete their stated objectives or do the “right” thing. Unlike modern game shows, Skincast averages 2.73 “deaths” (destruction of morphs) per episode, so the danger in any given challenge, as insane as it may be, is very real. Forks of each participant are kept secure by Skincast Inc. just in case. The reward morphs are typically the latest corporate models from Our Beloved Sponsors, or standard models with enough cosmetic bodywork to appear new and flash; rarely the morphs are unique or experimental, and the GM is encouraged to get creative and go nuts—if the PC isn’t interested, the morph can always be donated to a charity of their choice.

080: Jhil Nightbreaker

ENTRY 080: Jhil Nightbreaker

In an age of transhumanity when people are more connected than ever before, there are communities that choose to stand apart—not just brinkers, but conservative communes, ultrapolitical clades that refuse to associate with anyone of a disparate ideology, distance-isolated habitats that have grown inward and strange, and all the hermits and fear-eyed survivors of the Fall that have yet to adapt to the ever-changing universe and the communities that they find themselves apart in. Left by their own, these bubbles of oldthink and weird beliefs might thrive or collapse under their own dynamic, potentially retaining strange, conservative traditions and technologies for decades or generations.

Jhil is a nightbreaker, a dedicated culture intrusion specialist. Her purpose in this life is to violently infiltrate and disrupt these cloistered, insulated societies. The weapons of the nightbreaker are broken taboos, violated social mores, and garish displays of counterculture. Some of her most famous antics include the flash-butcher mob during the drawing of the mandalas in a BuddhistClassicist™ monastery on Mars, and the Rape of the Unborn that occurred when artificial transgenic sperm fertilized all of the eggs stored in the First Genebank of the Jovian Republic. Yet she has also broken the night of some ultraconservative cultures with no more than a public display of affection.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
15	23	16	17	23	19	20	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
7	1	40	8	80	45	9	67

Morph: Ghost

Skills: Academics: Memetics 60, Academics: Political Science 40, Academics: Psychology 50, Art: Performance 65, Art: Tattooing: 55, Art: Writing 44, Deception (Acting) 67, Fray 50, Freerunning (Gymnastics) 45, Infiltration 40, Infosec 45, Interests: Politics (Conservative) 45, Interests: Religion (Conservative) 45, Interests: Isolated Communities 45, Interests: Cultural Taboos 60, Interfacing 45, Intimidation 25, Investigation 44, Kinesics 44, Language: Native Hindi 86, Language English 40, Language Mandarin 40, Networking: Autonomists 55, Networking: Criminal 55, Networking: Hypercorps 50, Networking: Media 55, Perception 55, Persuasion 55, Pilot: Aircraft 33, Pilot: Groundcraft 44, Profession: Social Engineering 66, Protocol 44, Research 44, Spray Weapons 27, Unarmed Combat 33

Implants: Adrenal Boost, Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Chameleon Skin, Cortical Stack, Enhanced Vision, Grip Pads

Traits: Addiction (Taboo Violation, Major), Allies (Nightbreaker cell), Brave, First Impression, On the Run

Using Jhil Nightbreaker

By herself, Jhil is charismatic, dedicated, and more than a little addicted to what she does. Her definition of freedom is more than a little scary, in-your-face and personal, and she has tremendous difficulty holding that back unless concentrated on a larger gig. Jhil’s sole affiliation is to her higher purpose, and she is willing to beg, borrow, and steal resources from or work with anyone if she can break the night and crash the artificial strictures that transhumans wrap themselves up with instead of embracing the universe.

Seeds

• The first part of any of Jhil’s larger schemes is founding a local Nightbreaker cell—a group of rebels against the current order, usually immature and nonviolent artist-types that she can bend to her will or her wiles. One of the PC’s contacts has fallen in with the group, but needs their help to get away from the demented, obsessive Jhil…
• A group of ultrarich hypercorp executives are abusing a conservative low-tech NeoMennonite Barsoomian settlement on Mars, masquerading as church elders to sexually abuse and psychologically degrade the residents under the guise of religious authority. Jhil approaches the PCs to help her expose the malefactors to the community…knowing that it will probably shatter the already unstable society.