350: Charge Craters

ENTRY 350: Charge Craters

"Omar Patang was walking up the leeward edge of a crater near the Lunar north pole, scouting water ice. The spark came suddenly, and shorted out his suit. Unhurt, Omar managed to walk back to his landcraft before the oxygen in his tank gave out. Dozens of other transhumans haven't been so lucky."
- Charge Craters: The Hidden Menace, Lunar Chamber of Commerce

Even before Luna was permanently inhabited, scientists had theorized that under the right conditions certain crater rims - particularly near the poles - could become electrically charged from ions deposited by the solar wind. A given crater can build up a few hundred volts of static charge before eventually discharging naturally, either in an arc of incandescent dust or a spark to a transhuman's boot.

Static electricity is not a new or unexpected danger to Lunar exploration, and most transhumans who make a profession of moonwalks are aware of the possible dangers. Most vacsuits nowadays are designed as ESD garments, or with extra shielding on essential electrical equipment. Many charge craters have been identified and physically marked with signs and augmented reality tags to prevent random hikers and prospectors. Still, at least a few transhumans a year manage to fail to heed the warnings or take proper precautions, and ends up with a nasty shock or damaging their suit, and on average at least one will die, lending their name and likeness to the legendarium of charge crater ghost stories.

Seeds

• Lunar habitats have to deal with the build-up of static charge too, especially when the moon brushes the Earth's magnetosphere. The static can play hell with sensitive electronics, shorting out many sensors or causing them to give erroneous readings - and a clever yegg named Jowls thinks this is the perfect time to pull off the heist of a century. A remote secure server farm contains vast amounts of privileged financial data for companies in the Lunar-LaGrange Alliance - with most of the surrounding sensors disabled, all Jowls needs is for the PCs to get him to the front door so he can crack in and siphon off enough data to make them all millions of credits. Of course, that means an extended moonwalk and breaking in to a secure, static-sensitive complex...if they blow the doors or fail to take the proper precautions going in side, they'll fry the whole thing and be left with nothing for their troubles.
• Authorities are tired of idiots getting killed by charge craters, and have decided from this point on anyone stupid enough to be killed by them will have their body left to rot their for all time as a warning to others. This "Darwin Warning Statute" has infuriated the families and friends of at least a few of the dumbasses that get themselves killed every year, but until the law goes into effect they have little case in the eyes of the media - so the would-be victim's rights group seek to hire the PCs to stage an accidental death at a charge crater so that they have a case to rally to.
• Normally charge craters only build up a couple hundred of volts - more than enough for a shock, but only a danger to those with sensitive equipment and unshielded suits. However, lately scientists have been measuring a crater with a charge of 40,000 Volts...and rising. The local lunar scientists have set up a crowdfund reward for anybody that can go there and figure out what is causing the abnormality.

345: Kinaara

ENTRY 345: Kinaara

"Some said we would be the last generation. From now on, there would be no aging out. Endless immortals, moving body to Mesh, Mesh to body, down through the centuries. No more funerals, no more retirement. We would never outlive our parents and grandparents, never have that closure, never fill their place, never set down our own rules or figure things out through our own struggle. Where would it go from there? How far would parental rights and privileges extend, how great are our responsibilities to care for the ageless? Fuck all of that."
- Elie Kham Sangabat

"In the Planetary Consortium, 83% of CEOs are over a century old. 93% of those are sleeved into bodies in their biological prime-of-life. Over 60% have children, and 43% grandchildren or more distant descendants. None of whom need ever die in the traditional or legal sense. Polls show that the bulk of these centurions do not see any reason to retire from their positions while still able - and with resleeving, can retain their careers almost indefinitely. Adolescents have to compete for opening positions and internships with fresh-faced octogenarians who have lifetimes of experience over them, sending unemployment for the under-30 demographic to more than 89% in some habitats. The youth have been effectively marginalized, and their only options are an extended, possibly eternal adolescence or a complete break from the institutions that have disenfranchised them."
- Kinaara: A Preliminary Investigation (AF 9, Planetary Consortium Press)

Death is an opportunity space in transhuman society. Wealth is passed on, previously occupied positions are opened, roles and responsibilities reshuffled. Extended lifespan brings with it stabilization, but also stagnation - political, economic, and often moral power is invested in the emerging gerontocracy. With the advent of advanced age-retardation technologies, forking, and resleeving, the problems involved have been exacerbated; with any transhuman able, at least theoretically, to look and feel as young as they want, there is no need for actual young people. Why bring a shy virgin to your bed when you can hire a 120-year-old whore in the body of a 19-year-old Olympian? Why hire the kid who has never held a job, when you can hire the octogenarian with 60 years of programming experience? The transition from old economies to rep networks was led in part by the disenfranchised class of middle-aged transhumans looking to develop an alternative to the ageless fiscal authority of their parents; now their children are stuck in the same position, unable to generate the credits or the rep to come into their own.

The first kinaara arose on Luna, among the disaffected youth of Indian and Asian families, tired of the emotional blackmail and suzerainty of their older relatives. Legally emancipating themselves from their biological families, the youth joined together into kinaara cliques to pool their resources and gain rep as a group. Small, poor, and inexperienced, the kinaara act for mutual support to get by, and tend to live out on the edges of habitats where space is cheap, taking the nastiest and least desirable jobs - but away from the domination of their parents' and grandparents' rep and money, they can at least start to earn a living on their own.

Mechanics

At the gamemaster's discretion a group which has established a formal and distinctive identity, like a kinaara or a team of player characters, may establish a Group Rep with one or more networks. This works much the same as other forms of rep, save that any group member may contribute Rez Points toward buying up the Group Rep (the usual limit of 1 RP/+10 per network per month remains in effect), and any group member may also request favors or burn Group Rep - even without consulting the other members.

Using Kinaara

The kinaara cliques are small groups of youth that have no feasible chance of rising according to their own merits in a society which has no place for the poor and inexperienced. Some accept living under the financial and social control of their parents and grandparents for their entire lives; many don't even understand that they have a choice in the matter. Others self-destruct, sometimes only to find that suicide isn't an easy option. The kinaara preferred a clean break: emancipation from family, including the legal, social, and economic ties, and the opportunity to sink or swim on their own with their new affection-group of like-minded, like-age compatriots. Some groups fall apart, but most are having a good time at least trying to make a go of it. The kinaara represent both the hope and desperation of transhumanity as it transitions into a society of digital immortality, and PCs might approach them as friends, enemies, or role-models. The PCs may even start out as a kinaara, which is as good a reason as any for them to get together for a campaign and go on adventures.

337: EarthCon

ENTRY 337: EarthCon

"We gather here to remember Earth-that-was, and Earth-that-shall-be-again. Transhumans, charge your glasses and raise them high. In toast to the fallen, in memory still bright."
- J-Bird, EarthCon Opening Convocation

Every Earth year, transhumans from across the solar system converge on the Muir habitat on Luna for EarthCon. The population often increases in size by an order of magnitude during the 240 hour event, requiring temporary domes and tin cans to be established to house both the visitors and the exhibits. Parents and guardians bring their children to the greenhouses and micro-farms to smell the scents of Earth-life, take physical tours through reconstructions of Earth city streets, wade in the synthetic oceans of painfully rebuilt beaches, hear recitations of poetry in nearly-dead languages, old recipes followed with strict authenticity to produce foods unknown to most transhumans, experience Earth-gravity in spin chambers, see the artifacts and remnants brought up from Earth, all physical reminders of what transhumanity has left behind. There are rememberances and lessons on who and what was lost, the struggle that culminated in the abandonment of Earth. Visitors wear native costumes long discarded as impractical living in space, some going so far as to resleeve into simulacra of historical characters. Memorials are raised for the dead, oaths renewed, reclaimationist plans discussed, scholarship shared. It is EarthCon, one of the greatest events of the year.

EarthCon Corp. is a non-profit organization that stages EarthCon every year, in cooperation with the Muir Habitat Authority and Lunar-Lagrange Alliance. Admission is explicitly free to all attendees, and necessary materials are often volunteered by participating hypercorps in exchange for the rights to limited advertising, with many hypercorps competing for the most sensational, realistic, or poignant display. During the period of EarthCon, the ECC assumes special legislative control of the Muir habitat and temporary extensions, dedicated to allowing access to any transhuman, and permitting the full participation of all transhumans - no matter their morph, orientation, or affiliation. Troublemakers quickly find themselves shadowed by ushers - cockroach-headed security synthmorphs designed to evoke disgust in most transhumans; and if their crimes are heinous enough (rape, murder, or fire-production not arranged ahead of time with the ECC as a part of the festivities) they are escorted - forcibly if necessary - to the nearest airlock.

Other habitats throughout the system have their own, smaller EarthCons; most of these are licensed from the ECC for a nominal fee and agreement to follow the spirit of EarthCon ("Open access for all transhumans."), and some of the largest and best-organized are staged at Olympus on Mars and at Liberty Station on Ganymede in the Jovian Republic.

Using EarthCon

The future is a study in contrasts, and while many Eclipse Phase campaigns will focus on what transhumanity has gained - resleevings, personal augmentations, space habitats, gatecrashing, etc. - it is also important to remember what has been lost. Not just the planet Earth, it's breathable air and natural wildlife, but the vast cultures that disappeared almost overnight, and the few remaining quickly dying out or becoming isolated. There are transhumans in AF 10 who only known Earth through second-hand memories, if at all, and their trips to EarthCon hold the same emotional resonance for them as a child visiting an elaborate movie set or theme park or museum. Emotions run high and deep, and as the setting for a scenario EarthCon can range from comedy over the reaction of morphs who have never been to the beach before to pathos as still-scarred veterans and survivors of the Fall weep at the memorial to their fallen comrades or leave floating candles to remember the family members that died on Earth. In addition to the bug-headed ushers, the ECC always contracts private shadow security forces to identify and shut down any disruptions to the planned events - and the ECC is willing to defy anyone, even the Planetary Consortium or Jovian Republic or a major hypercorp, who tries to keep anyone out or in other ways disrupt the freedom that characterizes the event. Even if the PCs don't care to participate directly, a minor Earthcon is one of their best chances to show up somewhere they're normally persona non grata.

325: Marin Buskovic

ENTRY 325: Marin Buskovic

“I went to sleep on Earth, I awoke to see the stars. Yet I knew I was in prison still. Only the cage had changed. Very well. I know prisons. They are not the end."
- Buskovic, post-hibernation interview

The first hibernoids were designed for sleeper-ships to the Outer Rim and beyond; explorers sleeping away the decades as they inched along at sub-light speeds. Exploration, however, could not account for the full cost of their development, and soon after other uses were looked at for these morphs - and found. "Sleeper prisons" enjoyed a brief vogue before the Fall as relatively cost-effective in terms of operating expenses and in some countries were considered relatively humane. Regrettably, the bulk of the sleeper prison populations are believed to have perished in the Fall, or in the months and years since as the automated systems failed and the hibernating prisoners starved or succumbed to infection in their sleep.

Yet not all the sleeper prisons were on Earth. Luna had one, as well as a few experimental orbital facilities and certain "hibernation brigs" on the oldest orbital habitats. With the fall of Earth and its political bodies, debate arose as to what to do with these prisoners. Most were woken up and released on their own cognizance or issued new trials; others were assessed as posing a danger and retained in their state, perhaps indefinitely; the Jovian Republic is said to have simply unplugged theirs and harvested the organs, though most experts consider that simple xenophobic libel.

Marin Buskovic was serving two life sentences in the Luna sleeper prison for a pair of murders he had committed, and opted for hibernation over regular prison. The authorities at the time of his trial had been unsympathetic - Buskovic had been a police officer, who had successfully solved the case of the marital kidnapping of a young woman and returned her to her true husband and family. Regrettably, the woman had been raped by her kidnapper, and her family considered her to have dishonored them with her "adultery" and killed her. Buskovic tracked down the men responsible and killed them in cold blood. In AF 6, as the debate about the sleeper prisons was the talk of Luna, the circumstances of Buskovic's case became a cause célèbre. An online petition for his release hit 1 million votes, and the Lunar authorities agreed to release him.

Now, Buskovic is a man out of time, still sometimes struggling with the world he finds himself in - his post-hibernation assessment shows that he still believes he is in prison, resulting in the retention of certain prisoner behaviors like stashing home-made weapons about and paranoia about inspects. Unwilling to trade on his temporary moment of fame, he supports himself as a freelance investigator and part-time law enforcement agent, with a reputation for "old school" solutions to problems.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
14	13	18	18	18	25	21	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
7	2	42	8	84	35	7	53

Morph: Hibernoid

Skills: Academics: Anthropology 25, Academics: Philosophy (Law) 40, Art: Graffiti 24, Art: Harmonica 20, Blades 36, Clubs 36, Deception 25, Fray 36, Free Fall 30, Gunnery 19, Impersonation 25, Infiltration 36, Infosec 25,  Interests: Pre-Fall Earth 66, Interests: Neo-Slavic Culture 24, Interfacing 20, Kinetic Weapons 60, Language: Native Ukrainian 80, Language: English 75, Language: German 44, Language: Russian 60, Negotiation 35, Networking: Autonomists 15, Networking: Criminals 25, Profession: Bodyguard 37, Profession: Lawman 36, Spray Weapons 55, Unarmed Combat (Subdual) 40

Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Bioweave (Light), Circadian Regulation, Clean Metabolism, Cortical Stack, Eidetic Memory, Hibernation, Medichines, Neurachem (Level 1), Toxin Filters
Traits: Mental Disorder (Delusion - Still in Prison, Paranoia)

Using Buskovic

Buskovic is a freelancer, but his sense of justice is stronger than his attachment to a particular employer or code of law. He particularly dislikes violence against women and children, but his somewhat archaic understanding of sex, gender, relationships, and technology mean he can sometimes misunderstand a situation - he still hasn't quite grasped the implications of Neotenic morphs and the Sex Change augmentation for example, and has taken to calling them "hermaphrodites," even when people correct him. Most of those who know him overlook this, as he means well and will break some noses for "hermaphrodites" that are being harassed. Player characters may run up against Buskovic in many contexts, but most probably when they're doing something illegal or in the pay of a criminal figure (even if the job itself is legal), or else he's extra muscle for a job provided by their employer. Buskovic is also a good moral ruler to illustrate the difference between contemporary understanding of social issues versus the acceptance or nullification of those issues in Eclipse Phase - a Neotenic morph out on a date with a Splicer and getting a little touchy-feely will have Buskovic reaching for his gun, for example.

282: Macronauts & Micromorphs

ENTRY 282: Macronauts & Micromorphs

"There are minimum physical dimensions for old human-type brains to achieve and sustain transhuman-style intelligence; not just in terms of volume but surface area, which is critical for temperature control. However, we live in an age when technology can exceed these limits. We need no longer be transhuman-size to maintain transhuman intellect. Give up your size, and discover how big the universe really is."
- Rejected Ad Campaign for Micromorphs, c.AF 4

Micromorphs were an early fad which failed to gain wide adoption: classical human-style biomorphs that were approximately 1:12 human scale and proportional to normal flats and splicers, with most examples only 25 centimeters tall. Physical difficulties like brain surface area were overcome by cyberbrains and bioengineering, borrowing extensively from research on similar-sized lab animals. Unfortunately, the small scale of these enhancements drove up the relative cost of micromorphs, and the morph had limited appeal despite the claims of greater size economy. After only 30 months of production, the morph was officially removed from the general market, with a Lunar microcorp ("THE MicroCorp, Inc.") with ties to the micromorph community continuing to service existing micromorphs and operating a micromorph pod service.

That still leaves over ten thousand micromorphs, who working together have founded their own microscale habitats and set about exploring a universe at another scale. These "macronauts" who leave the micromorph habitats approach life as a challenge on a massive scale, and cover surprising ground given their stature, having adapted appropriately-sized small drones as vehicles and labor-saving machinery. Macronauts are often welcome technicians on spacecraft, due to their small mass and ability to access hard-to-reach areas, and have even had some success as gatecrashers. However, life is not all cornucopia machines and lilliputian sex workers for micromorphs; every one of the morphs is sterile, and many suffer cardiovascular and skeletal problems stemming from their small size and long exposure to microgravity. Augmentations that "normal scale" morphs take for granted the micromorph community has to scale down on their own, using a dedicated reverse engineering clique calling themselves Jultomten. Alcoholism and petal abuse are also rampant problems on the outskirts of micromorph communities, due to a cultural sense of doom - as no more micromorphs are being manufactured, and none can be born, some micromorphs feel the weight of obsolence and eventual extinction weighing down on them.

Mechanics

Micromorphs are biomorphs.

Enhancements: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Cortical Stack, Cyberbrain, Nanoscopic Vision

Aptitude Maximum: 25 (5 for Somatics)

Durability: 10

Wound Threshold: 2

Advantages: +5 to two aptitudes of the player's choice; non-personal augmentation equipment made for micromorphs (clothing, drugs, etc.) that can be nanofabricated is one cost category less, as fewer resources are required in their construction.
Disadvantages: Small Size Trait (see Transhuman: The Eclipse Phase Player's Guide)
CP Cost: 10

Credit Cost: High

Seeds

• The PCs win a Mesh contest, an all-expenses-paid pod-vacation at the Lunar micromorph habitat of Gernika II, where they can enjoy the luxury accommodations in micromorph pods (as above, but with puppet sock), and take in sights like the Gernika II bonsai tree, said to have been cultivated from the Gernikako Arbola from old Earth. As they settle in, the PCs are contacted by Firewall: they rigged the contest to get the PCs to Gernika II, for the purpose of making contact with a subset of the Jultomten who may have deciphered a scrap of TITAN-tech, and recruit them into Firewall...or eliminate them. Of course the PCs, as fish out of water, might find Gernika II a strange habitat, where tomato plants are, relative to the micromorphs, the size of trees and domestic rodents take the place of traditional pets...
• The PCs wake up with a hangover, in micromorphs, and in a cage - but still aboard their normal (full-sized) habitat. With few options, the PCs have to figure out what happened to them and escape. After having a bit of fun running around and getting creative to press buttons and climb up stairs and ladders, the PCs discover their full-sized selves - the micro-PCs are forks that their enemy got ahold of and stuck in micromorphs so that they could torture them. Now that they've reunited with their full-scale selves, it's up to the players what they want to do with their new forks and micromorphs.

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!

190: The Mirror of Earth

ENTRY 190: The Mirror of Earth

Luna. Weeks before the Fall. An artist called San Julian prepared a very special long-exposure photographic plate on the surface of Mars, the work of months of planning, calculation, and construction. A photograph the size of a football field—and it captured, in extraordinary detail, one full revolution of the Earth as it was. Captured there is humanity’s homeworld at the height of its civilization—not the darkened, burnt, and scarred face it shows today.

The significance of this achievement was not widely recognized given the more immediate concerns of the Fall. The Mirror was partially covered, and forgotten. The edges, which were thinner and most vulnerable to damage have partially cracked and fractured. Scroungers made off with whatever equipment was left, and may have broken up the whole plate for scrap silver if they hadn’t been discovered by Lunar explorers, out delving through forgotten outposts for a thrill. With re-discovery came recognition that this priceless record of Earth-that-was must be protected, and made available.

Today, the Mirror of Earth is regarded as something of a monument, carefully preserved within a special dome facility built over the vulnerable, fragile plate to keep it safe. Restoration artists work on the damaged boundaries, while high-quality digital scans of the Mirror have been archived on the Mesh, there for anyone to see, and if they are old enough to remember, where humanity came from…and where it might yet someday return.

Using The Mirror of Earth

At its most basic, The Mirror of Earth is a point of interest and nostalgia—a monument as distinct for Luna as the Statue of Liberty is for New York City, a public place where PCs and NPCs might meet, and a stage upon which to enact their struggles against a suitably awesome backdrop. On another level, The Mirror of Earth is a work of art, and like many works of art is probably not alone in its generation. The mysterious San Julian (who disappeared during the Fall, and may or may not be alive) may have done early, smaller models of The Mirror of Earth that remain to be discovered, and are worth a princely sum (if sold) or a considerable boost in rep (if donated to the public); likewise, San Julian might have gone on to attempt a similar Mirror of Mars waiting to be discovered. The Mirror itself may contain secrets of old pre-Fall Earth, unwittingly captured and kept in plain view.

Finally, and most importantly, The Mirror of Earth is potent to destroy. It is unique, and even the high-resolution digital copies cannot capture the full details of the analog technique that went into its manufacture. There is a real sense of loss that may come with the Mirror’s destruction, and the depth of its effect on NPCs may well affect the players as well. If you as the gamemaster are in need of a suitable target for a bit of supervillainy or terrorism, there are few as iconic and emotion-laden spots—but it is new to players, so you won’t disrupt anyone’s view of the setting if it suddenly goes kaboom.

106: Modular Ganges

ENTRY 106: Modular Ganges

Trailing from the outskirts of New Varansis are a series of triangular arches, fifteen feet at the apex, and between them are sloping transparent walls through which a ribbon of gleaming blue can be glimpsed, and down each bank of this captive river bounce individual pilgrims and tourists. Sometimes visitors may even catch the rare cremation ceremonies, where the ashes of the pious deceased are immersed in the river for their salvation, and then almost immediately removed by scuttling filter-bots so the waters run pure as Lunar ice-melt once again.

One of the major community projects of the ethnic religious communities in New Varanasi on Luna is the recreation of the sacred river Ganges—eventually. Given that it is not currently feasible to reproduce the entire 2,000+ kilometer river in scale on the lunar surface, devotees of the project have embarked on a more workable approach, stringing together a series of 100-meter-long self-sustained habitat bubbles with separate airlocks for foot traffic along the riverbank and water locks that permit continuous waterflow from one module to the next. Each section has separate solar powers and back batteries for power, temperature control, oxygen supply, air filters, water pumps, and filtration system managed by an AGI. Like with most distributed habitat projects, in the event that a micrometeorite strike or other such incident punctures one or more of the bubbles, the remainder of the river network will automatically seal itself off to prevent loss in the non-damaged modules.

Currently, there are fifty-two sections of the Modular Ganges, for a total of 5.2 kilometers of river. Artists and ecologists are sculpting the first twenty modules into an arboretum, filled with traditional Indian flora to grace the walking trail. Long term goals for the project include a re-establishment of a freshwater ecosystem, including the eventual reintroduction of the Ganges river dolphin via cloning, though pragmatic estimates suggest that the river may take generations to complete at the current rate. Still, for the time being the ethnic communities in New Varanasi that view the river as sacred and the Modular Ganges River Trust, which maintains and extends the sight, has authority on all public and private usage of the river.

Seeds

• Not everyone in New Varanasi is in favor of the Modular Ganges, with some traditionalists considering it an affront to the true sacred river which (presumably) still exists on Earth and some non-believers that think it simply a waste of resources and sentiment. To this end, a group of local art provocateurs ask the PC’s help for a monumental prank—rearranging six segments of the modular river into a self-contained loop, an “infinite river.” All they need is some industrial vehicles and a big distraction…
• Citing concerns over radiation exposure to regular hikers, the Modular Ganges River Trust is exploring the possibility of partially burying the modules. A test module (#53) in the new configuration was placed at the end of the line and seemed to work perfectly, but soon operation malfunctions became apparent throughout the Modular Ganges as temperature and air controls became erratic, sometimes toxic. The Trust suspects a hacker or even a rogue AGI, and wishes to hire the player characters to find and eliminate whatever is causing the problem. This is a high-profile assignment that’s good for a bit of cred and rep.

099: Lunar Deep Delve

ENTRY 099: Lunar Deep Delve

Unlike some other bodies in the Solar system, beneath Luna’s relatively thin crust (~50km) and solidified mantle (~1,000km) lies a molten core, the cause of weak seismic activity (“moonquakes”) and internal heating of the planetoid. Ever since permanent habitation of Luna began, various proposals have been put forward for the relatively grandiose project of somehow tapping this thermal source, either for power or to heat a habitat. Most of the early theoretical models proved too expensive, unfeasible, or undesirable given current technology (including one project proposing a series of controlled antimatter explosions), and for decades the Lunar Deep Delve was only a pipedream.

The project may have remained a low-priority thought experiment until a deep seismic survey conducted out of Shackle revealed an apparently natural cavern 49 km beneath the south pole, at the Mohorovičić discontinuity, where the crust meets the upper mantle. When the survey results hit the Mesh it captured imaginations throughout the Lunar-Lagrange Alliance, and hypercorp-matched public crowdfunding quickly provided the seed capital to begin a serious effort. Zbrny Group was quick to become a major backer of the project, donating a substantial amount of equipment from depleted comet mining operations, as well as encouraging its engineering employees to volunteer their time and expertise, with ZG counting it as part of their working hours.

The Deep Delve project was broken up into stages, both to assure the physical stability of the project and to accommodate any sudden lack of funds or resources to continue. Stage 1 of the Lunar Deep Delve was completed last year; a 13-kilometer bore ten meters in diameter, with a space excavating at the bottom of the shaft to build a microhabitat consisting of a stable drilling platform, waste rock processing, lunar geoscience station, and education center. The primary drilling for Stage 2, a secondary bore that will take the Deep Delve to a depth of 24 kilometers, is nearly complete, after which a cavern will be made as a platform for the Stage 3 bore.

Using the Lunar Deep Delve

On the one hand, the LDD is yet another impressive, if low-key, macroengineering feat, an heroic undertaking that can provide an exotic setting and backdrop for the adventures of player characters. On the other hand, it is, at the moment, just a rather large, deep hole in the ground, and so the gamemaster may need to spice things up a bit. One possible hook is the Zbrny Group, which is being uncharacteristically generous in its donation of equipment and personal for this rather low-key project—there are a thousand ways a hypercorp accountant can squeeze an environmental credit, tax deferment, or “transportation expense” out of any non-profit, and it is entirely possible that the whole scheme is a scam for ZG to pawn off their faulty, obsolete, and devaluated mining equipment while pocketing both an increased rep and a few credits. Alternately, ZG’s funding may have something to do with the target cavern itself—a bubble of space which, from a lunar geophysics standpoint, should not exist. Several parties might be interested in what caused the bubble, and what might still be trapped in it.

Seed

• In lunar gravity, a morph falling from thirteen kilometers up is never going to hit terminal velocity, but will continue to accelerate until it smacks into the bottom at about 200 meters per second—probably after smashing into the walls a few times. Naturally, security measures at the Deep Delve seek to prevent this, so when a volunteer engineer for the project turns into a nasty pink stain on top of the Stage 1 drilling platform, people want answers…even the whiff of scandal could cause the crowdfunding that supports the LDD to dry up, and the lead group need independent investigators to assure there was no foul play. The LDD has a good following, and it’ll be a sizable rep bonus if the PCs do a good job.

069: Elder Argentgrodd

ENTRY 069: Elder Argentgrodd

One of the most prominent neo-hominids in the solar system today is Elder Argentgrodd, an uplifted silverback gorilla. The self-described ultra-male of Luna, Argentgrodd is outspoken, intelligent, media-genic, and more than a little bit of an asshole. As an employer or a customer he is a complete nightmare, entirely self-centered, demanding, and with an innate driving need to dominate every situation through a combination of verbal and physical intimidation, using his size and intellect to browbeat and threaten other morphs, particularly males and combat-oriented morphs. On the other hand, Argentgrodd is also remarkably kind and playful with children and female biomorphs (regardless of age, gender, or appearance), often leaving a rage to tickle and educate them.

He has an average of six episodic programs airing on the Mesh at any given time, from an edutainment stream aimed at young uplifted neo-hominids to an adult-oriented program where female biomorphs compete in a variety of physical, sexual, and mental challenges to join his harem. Most of these programs are created under the auspices of his personal media hypercorp, Argentgrodd AG, and recorded in a small lunar dome habitat that replicates a variety of ape forest habitats from Earth.

COG	COO	INT	REF	SAV	SOM	WIL	MOX
18	17	19	17	22	26	21	-
INIT	SPD	LUC	TT	IR	DUR	WT	DR
7	1	42	8	84	30	6	45

Morph: Neo-hominid (Gorilla)

Skills: Academics: Neurology 66, Academics: Philosophy 77, Academics: Psychology 55, Academics: Sociology 55, Art: Finger Painting 44, Control 60, Deception 77, Free Fall 33, Fray 66, Interests: Exsurgent Virus 44, Interests: Uplifts 80, Interfacing 65, Intimidation (Physical) 80, Kinesics: 55, Language: Native Arabic 89, Language: Afrikaans 44, Language: English 77, Language: French 58, Language: Swahili 50, Networking: Media 75, Networking: Scientists 55, Perception 66, Profession: Media Presenter 80, Protocol 40, Psi Assault 40, Psychosurgery 55, Research 50, Sense 55, Unarmed Combat (Punches) 67

Implants: Basic Biomods, Basic Mesh Inserts, Enhanced Pheromones*, Mnemonic Augmentation

Traits: Hyperlinguist, Illiterate, Math Boost, Mental Disorder (Atavism, Megalomania), No Cortical Stack, Psi (2), Zoosemiotics

* Custom implant, applies to neo-hominids only.

Using Elder Argentgrodd

Argentgrodd probably has more than a few dark secrets for gamemasters to use and players to uncover, including but not limited to media cover-ups of financial shenanigans at his hypercorp, violent episodes resulting in significant damage and at least three deaths, sexual crimes and paternity suits, and his very brief foray into politics, which may have resulted in him partially eating a visiting dignitary. All those are relatively par for the course when you’re a massive gorilla and a celebrity, but Argentgrodd’s darkest secret is his psi abilities. The incidents stem from an encounter with a TITANs artifact that is not in any of Argentgrodd’s official (or even unofficial) biographies, and which the uplifted silverback is extremely careful to conceal from the public because he still has that artifact, hidden in a lab beneath his lunar jungle dome. Argentgrodd has had a team of trusted neohominid researchers secretly studying the artifact for a decade, with vague plans of using it to infect and “upgrade” an entire neo-hominid society.

050: The Legitimate Bar

ENTRY 050: The Legitimate Bar

Early space colonization did not prioritize the creation of places to socialize and drink alcohol; such activities were generally constrained to mess halls or private quarters, and involved small bottles of imported booze or whatever the colonists could cook up in their stills. When the human diaspora did reach the level to support the creation of such recreational spaces, few of them focused entirely on alcohol—instead, they offered a variety of legal chemical and digital stimulants, narcotics, and associated products in a social setting designed to encourage their purchase and use.

Then there is The Legitimate Bar—the first and longest-lasting pub in the solar system off the homeworld. Tucked into a small corner of Erato, the Legitimate is a tunnel-like affair. A brushed-aluminum bar curves along the edge of the dome, with enough space for transhumans to squeeze by single-file behind the bar stools, and then descends into a porous underground chamber (“The Lower Bar”) with a dozen tables and a small stage for live music. Patronized mainly by the miners of Erato, the Legitimate mainly serves ethanol, mixed with distilled water to taste—clients will order a “70/30” for example, and receive a shot of 140 proof. Those interested in a bit of flavor can order tinctures made from various local-grown extracts, including gene-derivatives of marijuana and opium, and “stone wine,” which is made by dissolving various minerals in ethanol.

The owner of the Legitimate is Malik Ó Maonaigh, of the New Mumbai Maonaigh clan, though as a splicer he isn’t on good terms with the rest of the family, are all flats and proud of it. Rumors have circulated for years about some of the shadier bits of Malik’s business. They say, for example, that he has the most expensive and extensive collection of Terran alcohol in the entire solar system in cavern levels below the Lower Bar, funded by illicitly trading Helium-3 for exotic pornography, as facilitated by his criminal contacts. Malik enjoys this sort of reputation, but publicly denies any such rumors.

Using the Legitimate Bar

The bar is a venerable roleplaying location because it is a semi-public social setting where minor psychoactives are served—therefore, people can talk without being noticed, have a bit of fun, and if someone has too much fun strange things can happen. The Legitimate Bar isn’t the only place in the solar system where PCs can still do these things (you would be hard pressed to find a habitat without some social release mechanism/location), but it is one of the most traditional, and it has a few unique qualities beyond its dedication to serving alcohol. Erato is a hub where Lunar banking and mining interests overlap and mingle, and when they do rub cybernetic elbows together it is often over a shot of “50/50” at the Legitimate Bar, either to do or discuss business, revolution, criminal activity, sexual liaisons, or anything else. More importantly perhaps, the Legitimate Bar is one of the few places in Erato dedicated to having fun.