So Real It Burns
An Adventure for MOTHERSHIP
CW: Murder, Sexuality, Mind Control , Substance Abuse, Fire, Goo
Ingredients: Flaming Spirits, Harsh Reality, Gelatinous Pyramid, Dead to the World, Ancient Satellite, Knowledge Hoarder, Rampaging Gnomes
Apfel is an Earth-like agro-planet, perfect for fruit cultivation. Thirty years ago, during a settler boom, it sold to two couples. Four months after settlement, one last transmission was sent.
“My name is Michel Moreau. I’ve killed everyone. We’re all dead. I’m so sorry.”
No one has landed on Apfel since.
Hook
The PCs work for Corvidius Thoth, information broker.
You know what sells? Nostalgia and murder. The Apfel Massacre is turning thirty: ripe for holo-cinematic adaptation! Corvidius has several docu-drama murderporn producers interested.
Accordingly, Monsieur Thoth is paying for new information about the Massacre. Details gruesome, erotic, or salacious garner 4kcr apiece. Each colonist's DNA sample or Android memory core earns 20kcr. Exceptional investigators may even earn a secret.
Featured Alien
Three million years ago, gelatinous aliens founded an outpost here. They never left. When observed, they freeze and create a psycho-sensory illusion. They appear as members of their observer’s species: immobile, healthy, non-threateningly old, yet cute and young with a charming, happy look.
To humans, they seem like foot-tall garden gnomes.
Their true form is tiny, gelatinous pyramids: smaller copies of the orbiting gelatinous satellite and its underground double. With an alien gel sample, Chemistry or Pharmacology might yield a safe psychic inhibitor. Alcohol dispels the illusions but gives [-] to Checks.
The gels are highly flammable. If lit, they drop their illusions, expand their bodies, and begin smashing themselves against whatever is nearby. Destroying either of the larger Pyramids, in-orbit or underground, triggers planet-wide chaos (see Rampage).
Cycle of Events
Every five days, the gnomes reset the cycle. Creatures here appear as they were first perceived by the gnomes.
The Cycle (if undisturbed)
Day 1-The humans believe it’s day 90 of their settlement. Michel and Felicity believe KBot caught them in the Fields last night, and they dismantled him.
Day 2-KBot’s overdue. Robert worries.
Day 3-Robert finds KBot’s severed head in the field. He replays KBot’s last memory: being smashed by Michel after catching him and Felicity together. He returns to the village, angry but silent.
Day 4-Robert confronts Felicity and Michel at lunch. Robert goes for the rifle in his quarters, but Michel gets there first. Michel kills Robert, then the furious Felicity. That evening, Michel broadcasts his confession, not knowing his radio is broken.
Day 5-The gnomes psychically sedate Michel. He’s taken to the Mine and memory-wiped. Felicity and Robert are cloned. The cycle begins again.
The aliens, like the humans, see Apfel as a gigantic farm. Many species are non-native, introduced for agriculture. Humans produce rare psychic nourishment; the passionate affair and murder produce enough energy to maintain the satellite pyramid’s decaying orbit. Every Cycle is catalogued and stored in the gnome’s subterranean hoard.
Disrupt the loop or stop the Massacre, and the Satellite Pyramid’s orbit decays into atmo, igniting it (see Rampage).
Countermeasures
If the shuttle’s left unattended, the gnomes steal a critical engine piece and hide it in the Mine.
If the PCs talk to Katrina, investigate the Mine, or survive a Cycle, the gnomes try to erase their memories. Characters near gnomes (Close Range) make a Sanity Save each round unless inoculated. Should this fail, the aliens cause Michel, Robert, and Felicity to perceive the PCs as burning ghosts. They’ll scream and run for their weapons.
The aliens drag wounded humans to the Mine’s Healing Pyramids.
Space
From the Jump Point, it’s a week to Apfel (enough time to heal cryosickness). Scans detect industry, a Satellite, and a Landing Pad. Comms get no response. PCs arrive on Day 2 of the Cycle.
Satellite
A pyramidal orbital craft/comsat floats, point-down, in a near-collapsed orbit. It’s a small, unfamiliar model, charmingly old-fashioned, offline, and unarmed.
Docking with the pyramid reveals the ‘metal’ is actually a permeable gel. As the smaller aliens sense and imitate humans, so this larger orbiter detects and imitates your ship. Entering the gel causes psychic overwhelm (Sanity Save [-]), but also provides fractured glimpses of the Massacre.
Apfel
Illusion fields make everything picturesque. Michel, Robert, and Felicity’s expert knowledge has been extracted and stored underground; if professionally questioned, they’re befuddled. They believe Katrina died in a fire two months ago.
Landing Pad
Well-maintained, old-fashioned. A nearby sign says ‘Welcome to Apfel! Pop. 4!’. A cute garden gnome leans against the signpost. Michel greets shuttles here.
Michel Moreau
Miner. Carries Mine keycard, Laser Cutter. Katrina’s widower. Felicity’s secret lover. Ex-Marine. Doesn’t remember his broadcast confession.
Likes the gnomes. Can’t remember who made them or why.
“C’mon into town, I’ll introduce you to Robert and Felicity.”
Town
A charming, two-house settlement. Allegedly two months old, rebuilt after the fire that killed Katrina. Robert and Felicity discuss KBot’s absence amidst the hab-units, sheds, and Felicity’s abstract sculptures. Several garden gnomes litter the area.
If sampled, Robert and Felicity’s DNA is partially alien gel, like the gnomes and pyramids. They don’t know they’re clones.
Robert Saul
Roboticist. Felicity’s jealous husband. Terse. Tightly-wound. Hides lewd android diagrams behind his Smart Rifle. What was between him and KBot?
Felicity Saul
Farmer. Sculptor. Robert’s wife. Secretly cheating with Michel. Lonely. Desperate for new friends. Saw Katrina’s burning ghost by the ruined house. Has a Vibechete in her shed
Fields
Illusion: Covered in tended Terran fruit trees. Garden gnomes nestle in branches and roots.
Reality: The trees grow lush and wild. Alien slimes feast on them.
A day’s searching reveals KBot’s shattered body. The last thing its eyes recorded was a romantic tryst between Michel and Felicity, followed by Michel destroying KBot. The recording’s thirty years old.
Ruined House
A half-day from Town.
A strange, radiant figure, glowing like a sun-caused afterimage, lurks outside the house. It tries to grab a PC, screaming with a voice like crackling fire, before fleeing behind the house to the still. It’ll attempt to leave Moonshine in the PCs’ path. The beakers are labelled ‘Drink me’ in desperate lettering.
This is Katrina Moreau, colony chemist. She’s discovered that alcohol blocks the gnome's mind control. To contain this knowledge, they’ve overlaid a psycho-sensory illusion on her; she appears to be a terrifying, burning ghost.
She’s been drunk for thirty years. She’s jaundiced, haggard. Despite constant vitamin cocktails, organ failure is imminent. She obsessively records every thought and observation onto video. She asks about Earth because she doesn’t trust her own memories. It always looks like she’s listening to a conversation in another room. She’ll burn every gnome she catches and prefers revenge to rescue.
The (highly explosive) still behind the house contains twenty beakers of Moonshine. They can block illusions (1 day, [-] on Checks) or act as firebombs (Flamethrower damage). If the still explodes, fire spreads quickly.
Mine
Locked. Michel has the keycard.
Shallow Tunnels - Knocking sounds distract interlopers from the deeper mine. It leads to semi-functional mining equipment and a rich silver vein. Repair the machinery to extract 12kcr of silver/day.
Ignore the knocking and head deeper to find caverns seemingly stuffed with garden gnomes. Visions of burning ghosts and the Massacre invade interlopers’ minds. Sanity Save or Panic. Stolen shuttle parts are stashed here.
Past these psychic defenses, three deeper chambers await.
The Hoard - Extracted thoughts and memories are suspended in gelatinous polyhedra. Touching them allows psychic transference. Roll 1d10: gain the listed Skill, stolen from the listed mind, or else suffer the effect.
1.Industrial Equipment (Michel).
2.Hacking (Robert).
3.Robotics (Robert).
4.Botany (Felicity).
5.Ecology (Felicity).
6.Geology (Michel).
7.Xenoesotericism (Aliens). Sanity Save or become unable to harm them.
8.Sophontology (Aliens). Sanity Save or become unable to harm them.
9.Horrors beyond comprehension (Aliens). Sanity Save or Panic.
0.Michel’s palimpsestuous memories of violence. Thirty years of stored five-day Cycles. Sanity Save or attack another PC. Worth 150kcr to Corvidius.
Underground Pyramid - This gelatinous Pyramid is a thought-loom, used to extract memories and broadcast illusions. It’s an essential hivemind component, telepathically entangled with the gnomes; whatever happens to it, happens to them. If exposed to fire, the Pyramid and its gnomes burst into flame (see Rampage).
Healing Pyramids - Midsized gelforms hold Robert and Felicity’s mangled (original) corpses. Their DNA is intact. Two gelforms remain empty; spending 12 hours inside heals 1 Wound and extracts 1 Skill to the Hoard.
Day 5: Michel and the clones’ bodies are dragged down here for processing. Dead characters in gelforms are cloned. Michel’s memories are extracted to the Hoard.
Rampage
The two big Pyramids (satellite and underground) telepathically entangle Apfel’s gel-aliens. If they burn, the slime gnomes thrash and burn with them. All illusions fail immediately. Ruin replaces fruit trees and charming buildings. The settlers show their true ages; Felicity and Robert are revealed as (now-flaming) alien gelatin clones.
Returning to the Shuttle requires Speed/Combat Checks, and Body Saves. Dodge, fight, and endure the chaos to survive!
Conclusions
Survive: Repair your ship and leave with your info and DNA.
Solve: Destroy the gel pyramids, dooming Apfel.
Save: Rescue Michel and/or Katrina. Both are forever scarred by the events here. Corvidius Thoth pays 60kcr for their acquaintance. Michel’s wanted for murder.
