212: A Thousand Words for Fire

ENTRY 212: A Thousand Words for Fire

For many, the Fall does not mark the period of rapid decline for transhumanity, but a new beginning—a time of challenge when transhumans can test themselves and push the limits of what they want and can achieve. A Thousand Words for Fire is a Mesh-based initiative to push the boundaries of transhuman achievement, a constantly-updating set of goals that mark the limits of what transhumanity has not yet broken…and everyone who publishes verifiable evidence of their achievement has received rewards in proportion to the difficulty of their task.

Using the Words

A Thousand Words for Fire is a set of adventures-in-a-can—but not your typical bounties or corporate jobs, or favors for a friend. These are tasks designed to push the limits of what egos and morphs can achieve, and all that the player characters are given is the goal itself. The plan of how to achieve it, the resources involved, are all up to them. Any difficulties that the PCs may run into and the actual award if they succeed is up to the gamemaster, but here are some examples and suggestions.

Sample Words

• Agni: The bioconservative brinker community of Goblinhead suffers from a series of mutated antibacterial-resistant syphillis strains. Find a way to deliver the nanite-based cure to the entire community.
  Suggested Reward: Medichines augmentation for each member.
• Blaze: A sunken TITAN-buster submarine lies in the deepest trench on Europa; fifteen missile children have been stuck there since the Fall. Rescue them.
  Suggested Reward: A brand-new submarine and +6 points divided among their rep.
• Campfire: Spend an entire month camping out in the open at the mouth of the Iktomi Vault on Echo V without outside supplies or communication.
  Suggested Reward: Gatecrashing contract to explore new world.
• Combustion: The Hero Necropolis in orbit of Earth houses the remains of some of the most famous astronauts, scientists, writers, thinkers, and military personal of old Earth, but has been abandoned since the Fall, when a stray missile damaged the power supply and forced evacuation. Restart the fusion reactor.
  Suggested Reward: Free drinks for life at Gagarin’s Rest and the Legitimate Bar.
• Conflagration: Convince Vo Nguyen to adopt thirty-three political refugees from the Jovian Republic outcast because they accepted extensive augmentations to deal with crippling genetic damage.
  Suggested Reward: +6 points divided among their rep.
• Inferno: On the surface of Mercury is an exsurgent factory-stronghold, dormant since the Fall. Built like a bunker, it is too tough to destroy with orbital weapons, even if it could be successfully target, and the crawling, masterless exsurgents inside made it too dangerous to storm. Slip into this Last Redoubt and set off the self-destruct on the fusion reactor.
  Suggested Reward: 250,000 credits, or the equivalent in grams of antimatter
• Wildfire: Capture a piece of the sun’s corona and transport it intact to Olympus on Mars.
  Suggested Reward: First tickets to the first Martian Olympic Games. (Can be sold for 50,000 credits…each.)

211: The Corps Wall

ENTRY 211: The Corps Wall

“Semper vigilantissimi.”

They came from every habitat. Transhumans of every nation and ethnicity who become a part of something greater than themselves, placed the needs of transhumanity above their own, and drove back the threat of annihilation. They were the ground-pounders who dropped on the TITAN’s rear in the battle of Majorca, the pilots that faced off against exsurgent blackwing fighters in the skies of Titan, the frogmen that fought against the Bloodseeker Eels on Europa. On every battlefield in the Fall, in every struggle until the conflict with the TITANs ended, they stood their ground and gave their lives and pushed back against the forces of extinction.

They were the Space Marines, and they will be forever honored.

Originally formed from the select of the combined militaries of the surviving corporations and nation-states during the Fall, the Space Marine Corps were the leading edge of the fight against the TITANs, given the best training and equipment that a desperate, crippled transhumanity could muster—and they won. Despite hideous losses and tremendous casualties, the Corps pressed on, pushing the TITANs back in battle after battle, until the threat retreated. Following the passage of the TITANs as an immediate threat, the Corps was largely downsized, its facilities repurposed, its component members rotated back to their surviving militaries—or, more often, let loose to find work as mercenaries or seek what peace they could in their lives.

Yet they are not forgotten. On the western border of the Zone stands the Corps Wall; a three-kilometer matte-black cenotaph commemorating those members of the Space Marines who gave their lives in the conflict, and which contains the remains of at least 15,000 of the fallen in grim and grisly tribute to those who will forever stand guard against extinction.

Using the Corps Wall

Every war needs heroes. Those who remember the Fall, its myriad conflicts and the extreme urgency of the times, when many transhumans fell into despondency and ennui, know well that the Space Marine Corps were not as loved when they were active as their memory is today, nor as successful. Many alliances were formed, some with unlikely partners, during the Fall, and the Corps stood out as one among many—but they made good press, and so they get the big memorial and the docudramas, even as many Space Marines veterans were left in crippled morphs with PTSD and no pension or organized care once the conflict ended.

But, legends are useful in games. The Space Marines are an old trope in science fiction, and their participation in the central conflict of Eclipse Phase makes for good background for adventures—veterans, old battlefields, war orphans, buried crimes, tontines. Maybe some of the PCs are even members of the Space Marines, a group much-diminished in size and capabilities but continuing a proud and honored tradition of service. Semper vi!

The Space Marine Corps is as tight-knit as any faction or military unit, even the retirees, and take their traditions and honors very seriously. At the gamemaster’s discretion, this may be reflected with skills like Networking: Space Marines or a SMCorps-based *-rep.

210: Skinmorphs

ENTRY 210: Skinmorphs

Transhumans run on past extrapolation. For all that there are adventurous people seeking new experiences and new ways of living, the vast majority still prefer things at least recognizably descended from a bipedal plains ape. Even the majority of exhuman morphs still prefer to have something with a recognizable face, and some sort of manipulators for what’s in front of them, preferably with thumbs of some sort. In the pursuit of some balance between form and function, several enterprising amateurs around Saturn have been playing with a specialized swarmoid variant known as the skinmorph.

Cosmetically, a skimorph resembles a solid 3D-printed object of a transhuman; unlike a statue or typical synthmorph however, the skinmorph is an empty shell, generated and made mobile by thousands of swarm-bots linking up and acting in concert to mimic traditional bipedal appearance and movement. The advantage of the modified design is a degree of physical integrity alien to most swarmoids, with high-end models approaching average transhuman strength, at the cost of some of the swarmoid’s flexibility of form. While a skinmorph can collapse into a wave of bugs and scoot under doors and things and reform on the other side, they cannot fly or hop as other swarmoids, and the default setting for their form is a generic bipedal template, though this can be changed; at least one skinmorph (and former uplift) on Extropia likes to run around as a dog.

Skinmorph Stats

Macromorphs have all of the advantages of synthmorphs (Eclipse Phase, p.143).

Enhancements: 360-Degree Vision, Access Jacks, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Cyberbrain, Mnemonic Augmentation, Swarm Composition*

Mobility System (Movement Rate): Walker (4/16)

Aptitude Maximum: 30 (SOM 10)

Durability: 20

Wound Threshold: 2

CP Cost: 35

Disadvantages: -20 to SOM-based skills when in zero gravity.

Credit Cost: Expensive

* Skinmorphs are a variant, sturdier version of the typical swarm composition augmentation (Eclipse Phase, p.311). The swarm is capable of tackling physical tasks like grabbing, lifting, or holding as a unit, and can carry most gear or wear armor, and may make strength-based SOM-linked skill tests. However, skinmorphs are much less flexible in the forms that they can assume, and the individual “bugs” that make up the skin are only capable of crawling. Further, damage to the swarm lessens the physical integrity of the skinmorph and its ability to manipulate physical objects; for every wound suffered, the maximum SOM aptitude is reduced by 1 until the damage is “healed” by adding more bugs.

Using Skinmorphs

Hands are awesome. Players like having them, they like their player characters to have them. Having your character able to interact with the physical world of the setting—actually pick up and carry stuff—is generally a positive thing, though it is alien to some of the more exotic morphs available in Eclipse Phase. The skinmorph then is an intermediate design, for players and gamemasters that want their PCs to be able to look cool and literally go to pieces but also enjoy the power of picking stuff up and hauling it.

209: Juan Diez-Cancel

ENTRY 209: Juan Diez-Cancel

It’s an exciting time to be a dental surgeon and technologist. Dental implants are some of the earliest augmentations that transhumans have ever played with, with archaeological evidence showing tooth modification practiced by a number of prehistoric societies. Nowadays dental augmentation specialists are in high demand, not just for the design, installation, maintenance, and repair of transhuman teeth and tooth augmentation, but in gatecrashing expeditions—where xenoteeth and teeth-analogues are usually highly informative, portable, and safe compared to most other biosamples of advanced life forms, and adventuresome dentists are called upon to evaluate and collect samples.

Dr. Juan is an jack-of-all-skills in the dental trade, and done everything from pulling denticles off Europan kraken-sharks to designing the modestly popular SuperTeeth augmentation that allows some exalts to chew through and help digest metal bars, from helping to educate about good dental augmentation care on the ‘Mesh to performing pro bono dental surgery on the Ilvanna conjoined hextuplets on Luna. He was on the front lines when the supercavities hit after an antibiotic strain of bacteria showed up on Titan, sharpened the teeth of cannibal street musicians on Extropia, and helped break up a tooth-harvesting operation on one of the Venusian aerostats. Nowadays, he’s been looking to get back into gatecrashing—visiting strange alien worlds, meeting strange new teeth, and pulling them out with his trusty “jaws of life” pliers.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
17	16	18	15	16	15	13	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
6	1	26	5	52	30	6	45

Morph: Splicer

Skills: Academics: Biology (Teeth) 66, Art: Dental Implants 57, Fray (Avoid Biting) 33, Hardware: Medical Equipment 50, Interests: Dental Augmentations 46, Interests: Dentistry Education 42, Interests: Tooth Disease 34, Interests: Xenoteeth 36, Intimidation (Dentistry) 44, Kinesics (Bedside Manner) 30, Language: Native Spanish 84, Language: English 76, Medicine: General Dentistry 65, Medicine: Dental Surgery 70, Networking: Medical Community 63, Networking: Scientists 47, Perception 45, Profession: Dentist 65, Scrounging 35

Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Clean Metabolism, Cortical Stack

Using Juan Diez-Cancel

In the future, even dentistry is exciting. Dr. Juan fulfills the niche roll of a medical-type that is adventurous and low-key; read between the lines and most people realize that he moves on about one step ahead of his reputation, chasing fast and loose opportunities where people need a skilled dentist and aren’t too picky on questions or qualifications beyond skill. As an ally or a contact, Dr. Juan is loyal until his past catches up to him—legal suits, allegations of illegal experimentation with anesthetics and dental regenerators, the time he kidnapped six hypercorp brats and ripped their platinum grills off—and then he’s gone. As an enemy, Juan tends to be unpredictable but practical, willing to write off losses that the PCs inflict until and unless they capture something he needs…then he breaks out the pliers and drill and goes old-school on anyone he can get to, striking at friends, family, and contacts instead of the PCs directly.

208: Randomly Accessible Memories

ENTRY 208: Randomly Accessible Memories

There are limitations to human-style long term memory storage and retrieval. Recollections are never stored and recalled as single, self-contained events; they are always allocated and dredged up by chains of associations, folded in on one another. Digital storage is more linear and efficient—once coded as XP data, a memory can be searched, sorted, and edited just like any other bit of code. Various personal augmentations (and infolife intelligence coding algorithms) work to combine the two methods, increasing the efficiency of transhuman memory storage, search, and retrieval—but even computer-aided recall is limited by the abilities of the user. If an ego doesn’t know what they’re looking for or when and where to look for it, then the perfection of their recollection doesn’t help much. Even if an ego downloads an entire library of works into their brain and can recite the data verbatim doesn’t mean they necessarily understand the contents.

The problem has attracted some big thinkers from all over the solar system, who have tossed about ideas and tinkered with different concepts off an on for years. The most popular and practical concept is a Mesh-based app called RAM—visually represented as a planet-sized sphere of liquid mirror hanging in a void. At the most basic user level, the RAM app is designed to act as a kind of mental prompt, interacting with the user’s memories over a set time period and forcibly drawing their attention to random details, looking for patterns. The algorithms aren’t perfect, but neither are they designed to be; it’s up to the ego to decide what it important and what is not, whether a detail they remembered but overlooked is critical or noise in the signal.

More advanced users have found other users for the RAM app: set the duration to a single moment and it becomes a tool for meditation, recalling the same experience continually to push out other thoughts; several artists have used selective RAM app options to record and construct elaborate memory trips or as a creative prompt. Most notoriously, the RAM app has seen a lot of its code stolen and incorporated into narcoalgorithms and petals, used to complement or exacerbate the effects of those drugs—attention focusing smart drugs tend to leave the user in a haze of hyper-attentive recollection over minutae, while hallucinations take on a guided, story-like structure based on the user’s memory of the last day.

Using Randomly Accessible Memories

As a general rule, the continuation of an adventure should never depend on a player character blowing a knowledge roll or failing to pick up on whatever hint or evidence the gamemaster has laid out. Yet there comes a time in many adventures where the player characters stand around indecisive, either having missed some action prompt or crucial bit of storyline, and the game grinds to a halt. This is bad, and the gamemaster and players should both work to prevent and correct this when it happens.There are several ways a gamemaster can deal with this situation—have an exhuman walk through the door with a gauss rifle is a personal favorite—but players should realize that their character’s actions define the game, and be proactive in resolving the issue as well. The RAM app is a tool in this regard, an in-game excuse to prompt the gamemaster to maybe re-drop a clue (with emphasis) to get the game going again. Now, what the PCs do with that clue is entirely up to them, but it is better to have something to go on rather than to wait around.

207: AF Ice Cream

ENTRY 207: AF Ice Cream

Humans are often at their most creative not when they have an infinite number of choices and tools at their disposal, but when they are faced with sharply limited constraints. Nowhere is this more obvious than when it comes to cooking after the Fall. Limited availability of many ingredients has forced transhumans to broaden their horizons both as to what is edible and what is acceptable to the palate, and spurred a wave of creative food preparation that has yet to diminish.

Ice cream, for example, was a relatively simple dish to prepare on earth before the Fall—ice and sugar, the two main ingredients in most forms of ice cream, were relatively abundant. After the Fall however, both are scarce, and true ice cream correspondingly rarer. Traditional ice cream is only really available on Mars and to a lesser extant Luna, where the number of transbovines and sugar crops are produced in sufficient quantities to make artisanal batches of homemade ice cream a viable commodity—and even frozen yogurt and custard, though the demand for these products is generally less. Most Martian and Lunar ice cream is consumed locally, with the remainder dehydrated and shipped to other habitats, especially Titan where it is often served with chocolate and coffee-flavored liqueurs—eating dehydrated ice cream plain is uncommon, and locally is the basis for several anecdotes about good fortune going with bad.

Most large habitats manage a near-ice cream product derived from dehydrated transbovine milk powder, crushed water ice, and the local sweetjuice or sugarin; the resultant product is vaguely similar to gelato, or if the milk powder left out and grain alcohol applied it becomes a kind of sorbet. Smaller and more isolated habitats make do with what they can; many scum barges in particular prefer a high-energy foodstuff based on akutaq and made from crumbled protein biscuit, sugarin, and congealed food-grade oil, blended together into a smooth paste. Several hypercorps around Luna and Venus are currently working on cheaper recipes of ice cream that can be produced in bulk, but so far have only produced a wide variety of artificial flavors and “extender” processes where air and filler materials are added to increase the “bulk” of ice cream products.

Makers have been working diligently on produce ice cream substitutes for years, but so far all they’ve managed is a flavorless low-grade foam similar in consistency and appearance to toothpaste. Some of them claim that it tastes just the same once you mix in the sweetjuice, but few of them can say that with a straight face.

Using AF Ice Cream

Eclipse Phase is mostly a post-scarcity economy; for any well-run habitat, running out of air, potable water, power, and for a stable population is unlikely. However, while you can survive off scummy recycled water and moldy break bread for quite a while, few transhumans hold it as a preference. Ice cream, because of the scarcity of its main components sugar (see Entry 179: Sweetjuice) and milk (see Entry 63: Transbovine), a fairly rare substance highly dependent on the availability of local foodstuff producers. On Mars for example, the cheaper ice cream alternatives are Trivial in cost and the really good handmade batches are Moderate; on Titan handmade ice cream is Expensive, and on the Outer Rim it isn’t available unless you have the resources to make it yourself. For most of the solar system, the hypercorp-produced filler-laden “ice cream” has a Low cost and is always available. Because of the scarcity of traditional ice cream and the tremendous local variations, there is a steady demand for it throughout the solar system, to the point where it is considered a luxury trade item in most habitats—while the PCs may balk at receiving a 5-gallon jug of homemade ice cream as payment for a job, that could potentially buy a decent used morph out on the Outer Rim. Dehydrated ice cream (astronaut’s ice cream) and milk powder are compact trade good favored by smugglers because they are non-perishable and can be hidden between the inner and outer hull. A fun but silly adventure might have the PCs running around a habitat trying to beg, borrow, steal, and otherwise scrape together the ingredients for a batch of ice cream for a client, all while fending off the jackals that want the ice cream for themselves!

206: Single Splicer Female

ENTRY 206: Single Splicer Female

She seeks company. Watches everything, learns quickly, and shows active interest in what her victim does. She shares their interest, asks to borrow their media, talks with them about it. Always, always, she wants to know about them, turns the attention and conversation back to them, their past, how they feel, what they think, what they want. The most egotistical and self-centered don’t seem to notice until she starts dressing like them. Borrowing clothes. Then maybe changes her hair to match theirs. Her eyes. Her face. By then, it’s almost too late…and she already has some of their passcodes and identification, passing herself off as them on far-flung parts of the Mesh, begging favors and squirreling away funds…

Whatever her original identity, the Single Splicer Female has long buried it under a chain of assumed identities. Her concept of self is unstable, and so she latches on to an individual—often a female splicer in need of a roommate or partner, though when at loose ends she is less picky. They may become friends or lovers. With connection comes identification; she sees her victim as her idealized self and seeks to become them. Given time and transhuman augmentation technology, there’s no telling how far she might go, but most of her victims interfere by the time she starts using her skinflex to assume their appearance and begins to steal their identity.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
15	22	18	16	13	15	16	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
7	1	32	6	64	30	6	45

Morph: Splicer

Skills: Academics: Anthropology 35, Academics: Psychology 45, Academics: Sociology 30, Art: Acting 45, Art: Makeup 50, Blades 33, Deception 60, Disguise 38, Interests: Gossiping 25, Interests: Identity Theft 60, Interests: Stalking 55, Interfacing 30, Kinesis (Faces): 50, Language: Native English 85, Language: Spanish 70, Language: Portuguese 70, Language: French 50, Networking: Media 24

Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Mental Speed, Sex Switch, Skinflex, Skillware

Traits: Mental Disorder (Adaptive Identity Disorder)

Using Single Splicer Female

A doppelganger with a psychotic twist and a penchant of going for your online wallet, Single Splicer Female is a solid choice for a contact that goes from cool to clingy to scary. While presented as an individual, given the way that Eclipse Phase plays with identity there could be any number of egos with the same Adaptive Identity Disorder and a criminal bent—possibly an entire gang that mimics and then replaces a small group of people, uses their identities for some purpose, and then abandons them, fading away into the sea of transhumanity to pull the same con again.

On the other hand, the Single Splicer Female can be seen as a victim of their mental illness, driven by their impulses and lack of self-identity into an unhealthy lifestyle and a cycle of abusive relationships. “Fixing” them is probably beyond the PCs’ abilities or cares—a long-term project that involves a great deal of therapy, medication, and helping the SSF come to terms with and establish their own identity, a task better left to psychiatric care professionals and institutions. Although, an individual who understands their illness and has sufficiently strong will and resources could use it to their advantage, and turn the SSF from a minor criminal to a deadly assassin…

205: Skinchasers

ENTRY 205: Skinchasers

You’re a neo-hominid in a transhuman universe, and you’ll never be able to forget it. Uplifts are generally outnumbered, outsiders rubbing elbows (or comparable parts of the anatomy) with a wild and diverse array of transhumanity which they are constantly in contact with but rarely a part of. Imagine being a neo-hominid where your gut-level reaction if that someone baring their teeth is a form of threat display, faced every day with hundreds or thousands of Mesh ads showing smiling, laughing humans. Imagine growing up where you might not see another member of your species for months or years on end. Yet as social creatures, they need to connect with someone.

Uplifts are not human. Members of a different species, they do not think or act in human ways, their instincts and responses are alien to much of human experience. Yet they are raised to transhuman intellect, immersed in transhuman culture, and often raised by and interacting with humans as much if not more than with other members of their own species. So it should come as no surprise that many an uplift comes to crave transhuman companionship. Individuals derisive of such uplifts call them skinchasers, a label containing the suggestion of both bestiality and betrayal.

This is not necessarily a sexual attraction, though such relationships do happen. The mental and biological hurdles of stimulus and attractiveness for such relationships generally require special expertise from qualified therapists (though more than a few adventurous couples make do with Mesh-based advice). No, for most uplifts that find themselves in this situation, they simply feel more comfortable being around and interacting with humans than members of their own kind. It is, to many psychologists, a special class of alienation where the uplifts feel that they belong more strongly with humans than other uplifts.

Using Skinchasers

This is not an excuse to introduce bestiality to your gametable. Honestly, if you want to include cross-species lovin’ between a neo-hominid and a sylph, that’s entirely between you and your table. This is about adding another wrinkle to the dynamic of roleplaying an uplift, and relationships (mental, spiritual, platonic, etc.) between uplifts and transhumans. An uplift accused of being a skinchaser is subject to bigotry, and while that should not dominate a campaign it might be appropriate if the uplift character is in a fairly conservative habitat, or if they encounter a fairly conservative population of uplifts. On the other hand, several organizations may support skinchasers to further integrate uplifts and transhumans socially.

Seeds

• Ezekial Jones is an octomorph a long way out. Lonely and depressed, Jones strikes up a working relationship with a local worker named Tafa, but fines it difficult to express his feelings and see if they are reciprocated. Jones asks the PCs to be his de Bergerac and guide him in bromancing Tafa according to transhuman customs.
• Memphistoles is a neo-hominid (orangutan) is worried about the perpetuation of the species, but his son/daughter (a neo-hominid orangutan with the Sex Switch augmentation) Manchester seems fixated on humans. Memphistoles offers the PCs a reward if they can convince Manchest to have a child with another neo-hominid orangutan.

204: Lunar Pimps & Hos Ball

ENTRY 204: Lunar Pimps & Hos Ball

Obscene implants wobbling in microgravity. Representatives from every part of the spectrum of sexual fetish, from the steaming genitals of the transhuman pets straining at their leashes to the streamlined and baroque New Sexes strutting their stuff, custom sex organs on careful display. Guests are allowed on the convention floor, but by tradition the Ball itself is reserved for registered Pimps and their Hos, resplendent in their finest. At the midnight hour the Queens will be crowned, the Grand Pimp named, and then the formal procession will begin, each pimp showing their strut in a loud, lazy parade. A celebration of transhuman sexuality, in every form and flavor.

The Lunar Pimps & Hos Ball is a tradition stretching back to before the Fall, and some say before the legalization of sex workers in most of the Lunar habitats. Originally an informal gathering for socialization and networking, in these later days the Ball has turned into a system-wide trade and career fair, where young hopefuls come to learn about and apply for positions, and hypercorps and groups of all types come together to educate, entertain, and advertise their latest research, products, and philosophies. On the convention floor, amateurs of every size and shape are engaged with interactive sex ed displays, torrents of pornography, meet their favorite himbos and bimbos, listen to talks from industry veterans, and buy or sell nearly anything. The trade floor is more corporate, but with a three drink/narcoalgorithm minimum, and often hosts academic lectures on economic prospects, fetishization tracking algorithms, and other metrics; new products and production techniques are laid out and big deals made on human furniture. The Adult Media Awards are often held the night before the Ball, and it is traditional that the facilities close with the Last Dance in honor of those pimps and hos of old who have passed on.

The Ball itself has a more select audience—invitation only, limited to 200 pimps and their selection of their two best hos. Despite the name, not every invitee is a sex work administrator, but all of them get into the style and mood of the party, and the extravagant escapades make for some of the highest viewer ratings of anything on the ‘Mesh.

Using the Lunar Pimps & Hos Ball

Sex in RPGs tends to be ignored unless it causes Drama. Rape, incest, bestiality, alien abductions and impregnations, etc. are fine to read about if that’s your particular kink, but at the table reading that stuff out loud tends to just make people squirm—and not in the good way. The Lunar Pimps & Hos Ball is primarily about allowing the gamemaster a venue to use sex creatively and positively in their Eclipse Phase game; the kind of openness and weirdness about sex you read about in old New Wave science fiction. From a gaming standpoint, the Lunar Pimps & Hos Ball also presents a collusion of social and hypercorp interests that you rarely get together, so there is plenty of room for corporate espionage, hurt feelings, stolen prototypes, and blackmail. Fun for the whole family!

203: The Green & The Black

ENTRY 203: The Green & The Black

Sunshine is a power-generating habitat out Mercury-way, a vast array of solar panels cranking out electricity, which is converted or stored in a variety of high-energy density storage units destined for the Vulcanoids and other Mercury habitats. The work is neither as cleanly efficient or pleasant as one would hope; involving a considerable amount of heavy chemical, industrial, and radiological processes, depending on type and amount of batteries involved. A communistic endeavor, with shared principles of clean energy and nudism Sunshine has a mixed population of morphs, the Green and the Black.

The Green are biomorphs of every stripe with a skin augmentation based on a plant’s leaf system, allowing them to perform photosynthesis. While the majority of them really do have green skin, a minority use a more efficient augmentation derived from the Black Pearl Pepper and are actually black-skinned. The Black are synthmorphs whose outer layer is covered by thin layer of photovoltaic cells that charge their own batteries when exposed to light. Both augmentations share attributes of directly providing energy that the morph requires and producing a pleasurable sensation when exposed to bright light. Central Planning regulates work schedules so that every part of the population spends four hours out of every ten basking in sunlight on one of the three sundecks.

However, after nearly eight years of operation, cracks have started to appear in the system. The majority of the Greens in the station receive administrative labor assignments, while the majority of the Blacks are assigned the more dangerous industrial job slots, and overall statistics show that the administrative group receives nearly five hours of sunbathing out of every ten. This, along with a rising disparity in the number of Greens versus Blacks, concerns about falling oxygen vs. carbon dioxide levels, and other glitches have set the stage for serious debates about the long-term plausibility of the Sunshine system.

Seeds

• A black-skinned Green has fallen in love with a Black member; but their family-groups are opposed to the relationship because they’re upset it will limit procreative choices and further exacerbate the imbalance between the two sides. The Green and the Black lovers have sent out an order for a surrogate pod to gestate new Green morphs and hopefully alleviate the approbation of their family-groups—all they need is the PCs to deliver it. Unfortunately, that means heading out during a period of heavy sunspot activity, and possibly dealing with a deadly micrometeorite shower! Will the PCs risk it to save two star-crossed lovers?
• A Green worker with an industrial skillbase has suffered severe, crippling injuries as a result of insufficient safety procedures for biomorphs on Sunshine station. Now undergoing surgery to accept various cyberlimbs to save their life and restore their functionality, the Green has had a vision to bridge the gap between Green and Black—but to do it, they need to apply the Black’s solar-power skin augmentation. This procedure is normally restricted, so they need the PCs to find a way…if they succeed, the Green/Black worker could be a strong ideological influence on the Sunshine communist habitat.

202: Jhassa Autumnbringer

ENTRY 202: Jhassa Autumnbringer

“Autumn is coming.”
-- Mesh graffiti

Earth-life adapted itself to seasonal cycles. In the western hemisphere, autumn was the season when the days began to fail, the nights were longer and colder, and everyone prepared for the winter knew was coming. Sacrifices were made: herds culled of animals that would not survive the cold; practical decisions made to preserve precious resources during the period of want to come. The cruelty of the farmer was a kindness, to spare both individual suffering and the group suffering of the herd.

Jhassa is one of the Autumnbringers, ideological assassins that cull the transhuman herd, They target the weak and traitorous, those who will not fight for themselves, those who will not work or produce. In this way they hope to better prepare transhumanity for the conflict they feel is coming—when the TITANs return, or the Factors turn against them, or whatever other existential threat may arise. When that happens, some brave fools will seek to save all of transhumanity. The Autumnbringers know better. They see a long winter and hard decisions, where synthmorphs will need to scavenge each other for parts and biomorphs not bother to recycle the dying and the dead before they consume them. In their cruelty, they hope to spare transhumans the pain of making some of these decisions. Every where Jhassa goes, death and a message are left behind:

Beware. Autumn is coming.

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

Morph: Ghost

Skills: Academics: Memetics 40, Academics: Political Science 60, Academics: Psychology 50, Art: Acting 36, Art: Writing 44, Deception (Acting) 56, Fray 50, Freerunning (Microgravity) 45, Infiltration 40, Infosec 42, Interests: Existential Threats 45, Interests: Survivalist Groups 45, Interests: TITANs 45, Interests: Triage 60, Interfacing 45, Intimidation 25, Investigation 44, Kinesics 44, Language: Native Urdu 86, Language English 40, Language Hindi 40, Medicine (Euthanasia) 50, Networking: Autonomists 55, Networking: Criminal 55, Networking: Hypercorps 35, Networking: Media 55, Perception 55, Persuasion 35, Pilot: Aircraft 44, Pilot: Groundcraft 33, Profession: Social Engineering 66, Protocol 44, Research 44, Spray Weapons 27, Unarmed Combat 43

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

Traits: Allies (Autumnbringer cell), On the Run

Using Jhassa Autumnbringer

Not quite a “survival of the fittest” type, Jhassa targets individuals and populations that she sees as burdens to transhumanity in the event of the apocalyptic long war the Autumnbringers believe is coming. Individuals on perpetual life support, criminals incarcerated for life, any traitors or collaborators that worked with the TITANs, advocates of de-militarization, individuals that refuse to work and exist only as a drain on a habitat’s resources, etc. Her occasional terrorist bombing garners all the attention, but for the most part are rare; her specialization is euthanasia, sitting down and convincing individuals that it is in their best interests to die, and providing the means to do so—easily, and painlessly. Of course, if the victim resists she’ll put a bullet in them, erase their cortical stack, and release a digital virus to hunt down and exterminate as many forks as she can find—but she likes to at least make the offer.

201: The Burning Plague

ENTRY 201: The Burning Plague

“Burn. All burn.”
- Last transmission, Utica Station

There is an old legend, that one of the titans of myth stole fire from the gods and gave it to transhumanity. Perhaps it is ironic, then, that it was one of the TITANs that instigated the Burning Plague. First categorized as spontaneous human combustion and subsequently ignored, medical evidence eventually came forth of a new, deadly strain of the exsurgent virus that causes the subject to rapidly develop pyrokinetic abilities—in a process that is so rapid, most subjects lose control and explodes in a ball of flame.

It starts with a fever that you can never quite shake, running a little hot constantly, all the time. After a couple weeks you get used to it, the extra energy that seems to drive you a little faster during the day, and keeps your mind so busy you can hardly sleep at night. In a month, you’re past the little headaches and periods of light-headedness, face flushed all the time, incredibly energetic. Some victims report bursts of nymphomania or compulsive touching, spreading highly infectious body fluids with each contact. At the end of the event, the flashes start. No one knows quite what triggers them—agitation, stress, light cycles, hormones, anything. But things around the victim start to burn…anything they concentrate on starts to burn…and when they realize they are the one causing it, they start to burn. Most victims self-immolate at this point, the victims of their own developing psi power.

Mechanics

Stage 1 (initial infection to 30 days):

Upon initial infection, the character begins to feel feverish. Other physiological effects may include mild headaches, nausea, skin rashes, early onset of periods, light sensitivity, and priapism, but most victims report a sense of energy and alertness—treat this as temporary +1 to REF and COG. Medical attention at this point usually points to a mild viral infection, though a detailed scan of the brain will reveal tumors growing and the nervous tissue altering in subtle ways. If these tumors are surgically removed or treated, the infection resets to day 1, but does not go away. Resleeving at this point will save the character’s ego.

Stage 2 (30 days to 35 days):

After a month, the tumors in the character’s head have reached full size, and they gain the Psi (Level 3) trait and the Pyrokinesis Psi-Epsilon sleight with all the usual psi drawbacks (Eclipse Phase, p.220); at this point the character is considered an NPC (though any forks of the ego prior to this point are still under the control of the player). At this point, the character’s pyrokinetic psi powers begin flaring almost uncontrollably. Every hour, make a Control Test—if the character succeeds, then they can determine how their pyrokinesis is used; if they fail, then the pyrokinetic effect is random, usually with some item nearby or that they are focusing on bursting into flames. As most victims do not have any ranks in the Control skill, few survive very long once the flares begin.

Stage 3 (36 days+):

At this stage, the mutations in the character’s brain and nervous system stabilize, and they gain control over their pyrokinetic psi abilities—at least enough to keep from frying themselves by accident. The neural damage also causes profound shifts in how the victim perceives the world and relationships with other transhumans. The original personality and memories are still present, but the NPC tends to feel alienated in their own skin, like a computer running an emulation of another operating system on top of the one built into it. Such characters also run a slightly higher body temperature, making them easy to pick out in a crowd with thermographic sensors.

200: Thermal Sword

ENTRY 200: Thermal Sword

“The tip of my sunblade seemed to just touch the faceplate—and then I drove it in. For a moment he stared into the sun, and in the next breath the white-hot tip had plunged through helmet and eye and bone, and the brain flash-boiled and exploded.”

– Ruster Graeme

There is a popular story told on Mars, about how a squad of exsurgent xenomorphs came down on a demolition site where the Barsoomians were cutting apart a dome that had fallen in on itself. The transhumans had only their tools to defend themselves with. The xenomorphs burned under the assault of a dozen thermal lances, and when the rods were exhausted what was left of them were broken into pieces by heavy hammers and wrenches. With all its variations, no one can say if the events of the story ever happened, but it is undoubtedly part of the reason thermal swords are so popular today—and perhaps it’s even true.

The progenitor of thermal swords and sunblades (also called “oxygen weapons”) is the thermal lance, a powerful and simple industrial cutting tool. An iron tube packed with iron rods; pressurized oxygen is fed through the assembly and the business end ignited. The result is a few minutes of molten magma being pumped out at around 3,000° C before the tube is consumed. Oxygen weapons work on an identical principle, with only a few refinements to the technology. The typical thermal sword is a shorter version of a thermal lance, with a specially-packed rod designed to burn hotter and a red-oxygen ignition at the end that can get the thermal sword burning in less than a second; the base contains the oxygen bottle and a heavily-insulated handle with flow-control knob and ignition switch. All of the parts can be manufactured by a maker, are relatively easy to assemble, and the plans are online—the red oxygen being by far the most expensive part of the whole weapon.

What a transhuman gets for their efforts is an easily disguisable melee weapon capable of melting or burning through most armor, and which can be wielded effectively using a few basic fencing maneuvers. However, the “blade” and oxygen supply lasts only for about a minute, and the igniter device is a one-shot; once lit the transhuman may have a burning sword of fiery vengeance, but unless they finish their business quickly will find themselves holding a handle with an empty oxygen bottle and the glowing stump of a weapon.

Sunblades are artisan-crafted thermal swords, made by Barsoomian fencing schools. Using higher-quality materials and better manufacturing techniques than random people with access to a maker and some duct tape, sunblades also have a better balance and are overall much better weapons in combat.

Mechanics

Blade	Armor Penetration (AP)	Damage Value (DV)	Average DV	Cost
Thermal Sword	-4	2d10 + 2 + (SOM ÷ 10)	16 + (SOM ÷ 10)	Low
Sunblade	-6	2d10 + 4 + (SOM ÷ 10)	18 + (SOM ÷ 10)	Moderate

Thermal swords and sunblades are wielded with the Blades skill. Any hit that is an Excellent Success (MoS 30+) sets the target on fire, where they will continue to take 2d10 damage per Action Turn provided the environment has oxygen available. Both weapons are one-shots; igniting them is a Quick Action, but they only last for one minute (20 Action Turns) and then the weapon is effectively destroyed. Gamemasters who don’t feel like handling this extra bit of bookkeeping are advised to rule that the oxygen weapon simply lasts until the end of the current combat. Oxygen weapons do work in vacuum, since they provide their own oxygen, but the gas and molten iron shooting out the business end will send the character flying unless they are carefully braced.