TEXT: 3
  
  1
  Heir to Darkness
  Written by
  Thorin Tabor
  Edited by
  Thorin Tabor
  Saga Machine system by
  Thorin Tabor
  Cover by
  Evelina Valieva
  Published by
  Tab Creations LLC
  Layout by
  Thorin Tabor
  Art by
  Aleksandra Klepacka, Cerberus Stock Art, Evelina Valieva,  
  Jason Moser, Jeshields, Joselito Mahilum, NASA, Sade
  Tab Creations is
  Ben Goreham, Jesse Pingenot, Matthew Pennell, Thorin Tabor
  Tab Creations, Saga Machine and Shadows Over Sol are trademarks owned by Thorin Tabor and Tab Creations LLC. All rights reserved. All 
  other content is ©2016 Tab Creations. The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark 
  or copyright concerned. This document is a work of fiction.
  
  2
  
  3
  Heir to Darkness is a complete inves-
  tigative horror scenario for Shadows 
  Over Sol. It should contain enough 
  mystery and excitement to cover between 
  one and three sessions of play, depending 
  on the pacing provided by the GM and 
  on the actions of the players.
  This scenario follows up on charac-
  ters and plot elements introduced in the 
  Small Mercy adventure. Playing through 
  the events of Small Mercy, however, is 
  not required. Heir to Darkness runs just 
  as well as a standalone adventure.
  While we recommend running Small 
  Mercy for maximum emotional impact, 
  for ease of use this text assumes that players 
  have not participated in that scenario. 
  Instead, we have included small sidebars 
  with recommendations on how to relate 
  this adventure back to the earlier events.
  Synopsis
  The Segalls are a powerful family who 
  own a significant share of the megacorp 
  Jenseitech. Some time ago, Jim Segall, a 
  younger member and the black sheep of 
  the family, ran off and joined a cult based 
  out of Fururi Station, a derelict mining 
  facility in the Belt. This was the last anyone 
  in the family ever saw their wayward son.
  Word has since reached the family that 
  Jim Segall has died, but not before siring 
  a child with Alethy Marzouk, another 
  cultist on the station. With Jim Segall’s 
  confirmed death, this child has just 
  unknowingly become the heir to a large 
  stake in the megacorp. Now powerful 
  elements within the family want the child 
  brought back into their fold.
  The problem is that Fururi Station 
  has since been decommissioned, and 
  the cultists forcibly removed. To pay for 
  the cost of their stubborn removal, the 
  surviving members of the cult were sold 
  into indenture and have been scattered 
  across several different outposts as 
  varying corps and their subcontractors 
  have transferred contracts, made deals 
  and shifted their workforce about. The 
  indenture industry being what it is, the 
  records are incomplete and murky at 
  best. Nobody at the top knows exactly 
  where Jim Segall’s heir is now.
  This scenario begins when Jim Segall’s 
  aunt, Edith Segall, contacts the team and 
  hires them to track down and safely return 
  the missing heir. With this background 
  information in hand, the scrappers can 
  begin their investigation. 
  After calling upon their contacts 
  or doing a bit of poking around on the 
  net, the team will discover that Alethy 
  Marzouk, Jim Segall’s wife and the heir’s 
  mother, was transferred to Durknow 
  Station. Authorities on the station can 
  confirm her arrival, but there her records 
  end. The team will have to travel to 
  Durknow to investigate further.
  Once they arrive at the station, 
  however, things won’t be easy. Not only 
  is the station on heightened security 
  due to a terrorist threat, but someone 
  has been killing the cultists, one by one. 
  When the player characters start poking 
  around, asking questions about the same 
  Introduction
  
  4
  group, this raises red flags with station 
  security. This will lead the scrappers to 
  be confronted by Detective Marjani, who 
  is investigating the case. Depending on 
  how the characters handle this meeting, 
  he may prove either a potential ally or a 
  potent enemy.
  In fact, the cultists are being killed 
  by covert operatives in the employ of 
  a faction within Jenseitech. While on 
  Fururi Station, the cultists came across 
  evidence of a secret Jenseitech bioen-
  gineering project located on a nearby 
  asteroid. Now they are a loose end that is 
  being “cleaned up.” The team will need to 
  investigate carefully, otherwise they may 
  draw the ire of either station security or 
  these secret Jenseitech agents.
  Eventually the scrappers will track 
  down Alethy Marzouk and her son, 
  Gudrun. From her they may learn about 
  Jim’s death from stumbling into the secret 
  bioengineering project, and learn that 
  the cultists have a cache of documents 
  proving Jenseitech’s involvement. She, 
  however, has her own demands, safe-
  guarding her family and acting on her 
  strange beliefs within the cult.
  At this point the investigation will be 
  interrupted. The terrorist threat facing 
  the station has seemingly manifested and 
  everything will be in chaos. The team will 
  need to escape the station with the heir, 
  and likely Alethy, in tow. This will be 
  complicated by her indenture contract, 
  by her link to the other cult members 
  and by the Jenseitech agents who wish to 
  see her silenced. The team may even have 
  to fight their way out in both personal 
  combat and possibly a ship-to-ship battle.
  Finally, as the team is heading off to 
  hand the heir over to Edith and secure 
  their pay, they will be contacted by 
  another Segall—Mallory, Jim’s mother. 
  She will make them her own offer to 
  bring her the heir instead of Edith. If the 
  scrappers have done their homework, 
  they may have uncovered evidence 
  linking her to the faction within Jensei-
  tech who wishes to see the cultists dead. 
  In the end, the players will have to decide 
  to whom they deliver the child.
  Modes of 
  Horror
  Heir to Darkness is written with 
  the investigative horror mode of play in 
  mind (see the Shadows Over Sol core 
  rulebook, page 164). Throughout the 
  events of this adventure, the team will 
  run up against hostile security forces, 
  Ready-Made 
  Heroes
  The nine player characters presented 
  in Shadows Over Sol: Ready-Made 
  Heroes are ideal for use with Heir 
  to Darkness. Simply print out the 
  character sheets, give them their listed 
  “Investigative Horror” loadouts and 
  they are good to go!
  Of particular interest are: Alex 
  Pryce, who has past experience dealing 
  with corps; Sam Wong, who has skills 
  from a shady past; and Viveka Wadhwa, 
  who may have some insight into the 
  bioengineering secrets that Jenseitech 
  wishes to keep.
  
  5
  corp agents, desperate cultists, bounty 
  hunters and powerful family politics.
  This scenario can be ran as a survival 
  horror adventure with very few changes. 
  The GM simply needs to keep in mind 
  that players will have fewer pieces of 
  useful equipment to get them through the 
  investigation, and will need to ensure that 
  players have the opportunity to survive or 
  avoid the bounty hunters that come for 
  them near the climax of the scenario.
  Running this adventure with the 
  action horror mode of play is more 
  difficult. Players will likely have gear at 
  their disposal that will either solve or 
  circumvent many of the challenges. To 
  adapt the adventure, GMs are advised to 
  have the Durknow Station security forces 
  crack down on such equipment. (“We’re 
  sorry, but these items are contraband on 
  Durknow Station. We will have to confis-
  cate them and you can pick them up when 
  you leave port.”) Additionally, GMs might 
  add new challenges as appropriate for the 
  player characters and their capabilities.
  Other Adventures
  Heir to Darkness can be used alone or in conjunction with other published 
  Shadows Over Sol adventures. Its connection to Small Mercy has already been 
  mentioned. Below are some notes on how to combine this scenario with others. 
   
  ■ Dreams and Dust: While this adventure also starts as Investigative Horror, 
  it assumes that the player characters have already developed a reputation for 
  themselves. As such, it may be best ran after the events of Heir to Darkness, 
  with the team’s performance here being part of that reputation.
   
  ■ Eviction Notice: As Eviction Notice assumes the Action Horror mode of play, 
  it is also best set after the events of Heir to Darkness. Perhaps the team picks up 
  new weapons and armaments as their reward for rescuing the heir. This might 
  also give them the reputation they need to get hired.
   
  ■ Ghost Ship: Found in the Shadows Over Sol core rulebook, the entire Ghost 
  Ship adventure could be set during the events of Heir to Darkness, while the 
  team is in transit either to or from Durknow Station.
  
  6
  
  7
  The adventure begins when the team 
  receives a message from Edith Segall of 
  the influential Segall family. She will ask 
  them to track down the son of her missing 
  nephew and family heir, the late Jim Segall. 
  This will lead the players to research the 
  whereabouts of the missing heir and his 
  mother, a task that will eventually bring 
  them to Durknow Station in the Belt.
  Message
  One of the players will receive a message 
  on her hand terminal. This message will 
  be encrypted and its metadata will read 
  simply that it is from Privacorp. Opening 
  the message will play a video in which 
  an older woman looks at the camera and 
  addresses the player characters: “Hello. My 
  name is Edith Segall. I am contacting you 
  with a potential job offer.  If you are inter-
  ested, I would like to arrange a meeting 
  in simspace at your earliest possible conve-
  nience.” This is followed by the address of 
  a particular simspace node and instruc-
  tions on how to set up a meeting there.
   
  ■ An Int-8 flip will reveal that Edith 
  Segall is a member of the powerful 
  Segall family, which owns a significant 
  share in Jenseitech. They are also asso-
  ciated with the Former subculture.
   
  ■ A successful Int/conspiracy-8 or 
  Int/comp-ops-10 flip will reveal 
  that Privacorp is a small firm which 
  specializes 
  in 
  offering 
  discrete 
  communications for the rich and 
  famous, allowing them to speak 
  outside the gaze of the paparazzi. 
  The simspace node spoken of in the 
  message is also one of theirs.
   
  ■ Examining the message and succeeding 
  on an Int/program-10 flip will reveal 
  that the message has the highest level of 
  encryption that Privacorp offers. Edith 
  can certainly afford it, but it is perhaps 
  an unusual choice for a message so 
  lacking in compromising information.
  The Family
  Following Up Small Mercy
  If the players have played through the events of Small Mercy, they will come 
  to this adventure already being familiar with the late Jim Segall, the Harbingers of 
  the Divine Form cult and may even know of the existence of Alethy and their son 
  Gudrun. This is excellent background knowledge for the scenario, and may give 
  the players additional insight into, and emotional impact, in the events to come.
  If this is the case, Edith Segall will approach the team, having received their 
  recommendation from Mr. Alessio West of the Jenseitech Investor Relations 
  Department. She will count on the scrappers being knowledgeable about the 
  situation, since they were, after all, the ones who discovered Jim Segall’s death.
  Furthermore, when doing the research to track down Alethy and Gudrun, 
  players who have played through the events of Small Mercy may be on good 
  terms with Mr. West and will have him to call upon as a contact.
  
  8
  Simspace 
  Meeting
  Once the players arrange a simspace 
  meeting with Edith and log onto the 
  specified node, they will find themselves 
  in a virtual environment resembling an 
  Earth garden at night. It is a high end 
  and expertly crafted simspace, albeit 
  one which is off-the-shelf and lacking 
  in personalized details. Similarly, Edith’s 
  choice of avatar is a high end, off-the-shelf 
  choice. It appears as a highly-detailed 
  middle aged woman with indistinctive, 
  albeit attractive, features.
  Let the players describe their own 
  avatars as they wish.
  Job Offer
  Before Edith Segall launches into her 
  job pitch, she first lets the team know that 
  everything she is about to say is confi-
  dential “family business.” She asks their 
  discretion in keeping the details to them-
  selves, whether or not they accept the job. 
  She then launches into the details:
   
  ■ The late Jim Segall is her nephew. 
  He was always the black sheep of 
  the family, but a couple years ago he 
  had a particularly bad fight with his 
  mother, Mallory, and stormed off. 
  This was the last anyone in the family 
  ever heard from him.
   
  ■ A while back, the family received 
  news from Jenseitech that Jim was 
  dead. It turns out that Jenseitech had 
  purchased a derelict mining station 
  in the belt, and as the corp was 
  decommissioning the station, they 
  located Jim’s body.
   
  ■ Before the decommission, the mining 
  station had been home to a group of 
  squatters who were also a bizarre cult 
  calling themselves the Harbingers of 
  the Divine Form. At first the family 
  thought the cult had killed Jim, but 
  upon further investigation it appears 
  that after the fight with Mallory, he 
  somehow met up with the cult and 
  eventually became a member.
   
  ■ This investigation also revealed that 
  while with the cult Jim had married 
  a fellow member and sired a child. 
  His wife’s name is Alethy. The family 
  doesn’t know her last name, nor does it 
  know the name or gender of the child.
   
  ■ This child is important to the family, as 
  it is Jim’s legal heir. Edith would like the 
  team to track the kid down and bring 
  it back to her. She wants to provide for 
  the safety of the child, and secure the 
  legacy of the family. She believes that 
  she can provide a better life for the 
  child than the one it currently faces.
   
  ■ She knows that the cultists were 
  removed from the derelict station by 
  force when Jenseitech decommissioned 
  it. She also knows that they were later 
  each charged a fee to cover the cost of 
  their removal. Having no credit to pay 
  the fee, the cultists were then forced 
  into indenture to pay the bill. She 
  doesn’t know what happened to them 
  after that—after all, that’s what she 
  wants to pay the team to find out.
  
  9
  Payment
  Edith is willing to offer an Income 7 
  payment to each team member if they 
  bring her the location of the child. She 
  will up this to Income 8 if they bring her 
  the child alive and well. She would prefer 
  that this whole affair be handled quietly. 
   
  ■ Players who wish to negotiate can 
  have one of their number make a 
  Chr/persuade-12 flip. On a success, 
  she will also cover the cost of 
  transport between stations while 
  working the job, and their lifestyle 
  payments this month.
  Edith Segall
  Geneline Modern Superman, Subculture Former
  Str 5, Dex 5, Spd 7, End 5, Int 6, Per 7, Chr 5, Det 7
  Defense 9/19, DR 0, Shock 12, Wound 5, Wealth 10, Lifestyle 10
  Skills: Awareness 2, Bureaucrat 3, Comp-Ops 2, Conspiracy 4, Deception 2, 
  Empathy 2, Lib-Arts 3, Persuade 2, Socialize 3, Vehicles 2
  Shockstick: +2 (♠23L/♥17L/♦11L/♣8L), Stun
  Gear: AR Implant, Biomonitor, Hand Terminal, Voice Mask
  Edith is one of the three elder members of the Segall clan. She is a veteran of 
  family squabbling and has become jaded to these sort of affairs. She rather liked 
  Jim, but was not overly close to him, as she detests his mother, Mallory. 
  Her interest in this matter is severalfold: Having Jim’s heir close at hand helps 
  ensure the kid’s physical wellbeing and survival, protects the family from kidnap-
  pers seeking ransom, and gives her leverage to speak for the kid’s shares of Jensei-
  tech at the Board of Directors meetings—something in which she is in fierce 
  competition with Mallory.
  Edith really does want to see Gudrun cared for and educated, but is afraid that 
  she is too emotionally damaged by the family to do the necessary caring. Instead, 
  in her charge, the best education money can buy will have to suffice for any 
  emotional deficiencies on her part.
  Notably absent is any regard for Gudrun’s mother, Alethy. As far as Edith is 
  concerned, Alethy is beneath the status of the family, and quite possibly insane.
  
  10
  Research
  Assuming the players accept Edith 
  offer, they will have their work cut out 
  for them. They have a starting point—the 
  cultists’ transfer from Fururi Station and 
  Alethy’s first name—but they’re going 
  to need to do some research to find out 
  where to head next. Thankfully, they have 
  a number of leads at their disposal. If the 
  players aren’t coming up with anything 
  on their own, the GM should gently 
  nudge them in the right direction.
  The Cultists
  The most obvious place to start 
  looking is to dig up information on the 
  cultists. The players could turn to any 
  number of sources, including net nodes, 
  news feeds, Jenseitech contacts, transport 
  logs or even members of the cult itself.
   
  ■ Success on an Int/conspiracy-8 flip will 
  turn up any of the public knowledge 
  about the cult found in the Shadows 
  Over Sol core rulebook (see page 66). 
  Any research will automatically reveal 
  the name of the cult: the Harbingers of 
  the Divine Form.
   
  ■ Players may already have a contact 
  to turn to. Alternatively, success on 
  a Det/comp-ops-10 flip will allow 
  them to find someone to speak to 
  about what happened to the cult after 
  they were removed from Fururi Station. 
  Failure means that the contact they find 
  will also tip off hostile Jenseitech agents, 
  giving those agents an advantage against 
  the team later in the scenario.
   
  ■ Success on a Chr/persuade-10 flip will 
  convince a knowledgeable contact to 
  spill the beans on the cult’s current 
  whereabouts. On a failure, a character 
  will have to cough up a Cost 7 
  payment to get this information.
   
  ■ Eventually all investigation will point 
  at Durknow Station. Apparently after 
  the cultists were taken and entered into 
  indenture, their contracts were sold 
  to Unitech and they were transferred 
  there to work in the ore processing 
  facility. Durknow Station authori-
  ties can verify their arrival on the 
  station, but haven’t kept tabs after that, 
  meaning that the characters will need 
  to travel to Durknow to investigate.
  The Segall Family
  The players might also want to inves-
  tigate further into the Segall family. The 
  available information confirms that they 
  are a rich and powerful family who own 
  a significant stake of Jenseitech, as well 
  as a number of smaller corps. The two 
  major players in the family are Edith 
  Segall and her sister Mallory.
  Further Reading
  GMs running this adventure may want to brush up on background 
  knowledge. Further reading is available regarding Fururi Station (see the 
  Shadows Over Sol core rulebook, page 88), the Harbingers of the Divine Form 
  (see the Shadows Over Sol core rulebook, page 66) and Jenseitech (see the 
  Shadows Over Sol core rulebook, page 55).
  
  11
  Behind the Scenes
  The players won’t know it yet, but there is a power struggle going on inside 
  Jenseitech’s board of directors. Two factions have formed—one led by the group’s 
  new patron, Edith Segall, and the other led by her sister and Jim’s mother, Mallory 
  Segall. With news of Jim’s untimely death, these two are both well aware that his 
  shares of the company—long held in absentia—are now legally the property of 
  his child and heir. These shares total to enough voting power to sway the balance 
  of power on the board of directors towards one faction or the other. This means 
  that whomever controls the child, controls the future of the megacorp.
  The Kronos Initiative
  The two factions on the board have existed for some years now, and have been 
  building towards a climactic confrontation. Both factions are doing whatever 
  they can to gain a leg up on the other. 
  A couple years back, Mallory ordered that old project be unarchived and 
  reopened. Known as the Kronos Initiative, this project had focused on the study 
  of a novel protein of unknown, but extraterrestrial origin. The project had origi-
  nally been shuttered as being too dangerous even for Jenseitech’s lax ethics, 
  after the protein escaped containment and killed researchers multiple times. 
  “Without risk there is no reward,” Mallory argued, and so work began anew at 
  a secret Jenseitech research facility near Fururi Station. For more information 
  on the Kronos Protein see Fatal Frontier, page 30.
  Research having been restarted on the initiative, Jeneitech moved to purchase 
  Fururi, the derelict mining station, as it was too close for comfort to the secret 
  research center. Unfortunately, the station was inhabited by a group of squatters.
  Jenseitech had the squatters removed, but not before a group of them, 
  including Jim Segall, detected and broke into the secret facility. This was possibly 
  aided by Jim’s foreknowledge of the facility due to his family connections. 
  And as in the past, the study of the protein did not go without incident. 
  During the break in, the protein escaped containment and killed the staff of 
  the facility, as well as Jim and two other cultists. For more information see 
  Small Mercy, page 29.
  Meanwhile, all this has left a mess for Mallory’s faction to clean up. They 
  need to cover their tracks, and this begins with leaving no witnesses alive to 
  repeat the story. If these witnesses happen to be an insane fringe cult, then so 
  much the better. This faction has hired agents to track down and eliminate 
  the cult members.
  
  12
  
  13
  Eventually the scrappers should track 
  Alethy and Gudrun to Durknow Station, 
  then head there to retrieve them. Their 
  investigations on Durknow, and the trouble 
  they run into with Jenseitech agents, station 
  security, deranged cultists and illusory 
  terrorists, should compromise the bulk 
  of the adventure, leading up to the team’s 
  climactic escape in the next section.
  During this part of the adventure, 
  the GM should strive to impress upon 
  the players the importance of pursuing a 
  balance between covert actions and overt 
  actions. If the team is too overt, they will 
  attract the attention of the Jenseitech 
  agents on the station. On the other hand, 
  if they’re too covert, they will attract the 
  suspicious of station security.
  En Route
  Assuming that the team is in a station 
  or colony of any significant population, 
  getting to Durknow Station is as easy as 
  booking a ticket on one of the regular 
  passenger ships. These depart from most 
  ports once or twice a week. On the other 
  hand, if the players are lucky enough to 
  possess their own ship, they can travel 
  there at will. Regardless, unless the PCs 
  are already on Durknow, the trip is likely 
  to mean several months in stasis.
   
  ■ Booking a passenger ticket is a Cost 5 
  expense or covered by Lifestyle 7 and up.
  Durknow Station
  During the Trip
  The trip to Durknow may be just a few moments at the game table, but in the 
  game world months will have passed with the characters in stasis. During their time 
  in transit, the situation between the two Jenseitech factions has continued to evolve.
  Mallory has instructed her elements within Jenseitech to “eliminate” the 
  cultist problem. These agents are already on Durknow and have been killing the 
  indentured cultists one-by-one, arranging the murders to look like accidents. 
  Meanwhile, she has also learned of the existence of Jim Segall’s heir, and her 
  agents have been instructed to find both the heir and Alethy. Knowing that her 
  fellow believers have been dropping dead one-by-one and tipped off that people 
  are looking for her, Alethy has gone into hiding, along with her son, Gudrun.
  So far, however, unless the Jenseitech agents were tipped off by the team’s 
  earlier investigations, they aren’t aware that the PCs are involved.
  Durknow Station
  For more on the active and indus-
  trious Durknow Station, see page 87 of 
  the Shadows Over Sol core rulebook.
  
  14
  Initial  
  Investigation
  The team’s arrival on Durknow 
  Station should be uneventful. As most 
  long distance space travel involves a day 
  or so to recover from stasis sickness, they 
  will have a bit of time after their arrival 
  to catch up on the latest news or make 
  a few inquiries using the net. After this, 
  the team will likely begin tracking down 
  possible leads. With some effort, the 
  players should be able to turn up the 
  following information:
   
  ■ A successful Int/bureaucrat-12 or 
  Per/investigate-10 flip uncovers that 
  Unitech doesn’t maintain a public 
  list of personnel for whom they hold 
  an indenture contract. However, 
  they do maintain a public bulletin of 
  indentures who have abandoned their 
  work assignment in the off chance 
  that anyone can provide information 
  leading to their whereabouts. This list 
  includes the name “Alethy Marzouk,” 
  as well as her photo. This might be the 
  first the PCs learn of Alethy’s surname.
   
  ■ Asking around on the station and 
  succeeding on a Chr/socialize-8 flip 
  will allow one of the local workers 
  to point the character to the part of 
  the station where the indentures are 
  housed. This section is somewhat 
  separated from the rest of the station, 
  as the indentures tend to keep to 
  themselves. Similarly, the trans-
  planted cult members are an even 
  smaller tight-knit community within 
  the indenture community.
   
  ■ A successful Chr/conspiracy or 
  comp-ops-10 flip will turn up the 
  information that Unitech largely uses 
  its indentures for dangerous mining 
  and industrial manufacturing work. 
  Accidents are not uncommon in this 
  line of work, and there have been 
  several recently, although none of the 
  fatalities have been named “Alethy.” 
  In actuality, the recent “industrial 
  accidents” are Mallory’s agents elimi-
  nating cult members, but this isn’t 
  yet known.
   
  ■ Any failure on the above flips will 
  result in the character being stymied 
  by restricted access. The character will 
  learn that the station is currently in 
  a “code yellow” state of heightened 
  security due to terrorist threats made 
  by the Sovereign Liberation Front 
  against Unitech, the corp which owns 
  the station. For more on the SLF, see 
  page 72 of the Shadows Over Sol 
  core rulebook.
  Security 
  Concern
  So far Mallory’s agents on the station 
  have killed four members of the cult. 
  While these deaths have largely been 
  chalked up to “industrial accidents,” 
  themselves not uncommon among the 
  indentures, Detective Marjani of station 
  security has started to become suspicious. 
  While he has not yet alerted the media, 
  he has began monitoring the local net for 
  those inquiring about the cult members 
  or their whereabouts.
  
  15
  As the team has arrived and started 
  their investigations, their inquiries have 
  drawn the detective’s attention. He 
  doesn’t know where they fit into the 
  puzzle, but he does know that the people 
  the PCs are asking about keep dropping 
  dead, and that initially puts him in a foul 
  mood regarding the team.
  Come With Us
  At some point while the team is on 
  Durknow, they will be approached by a 
  group of station security guards. These 
  guards will ask the team to come with 
  them for questioning. They will be 
  polite, but firm and will not tell the 
  team what this is regarding until they 
  have been disarmed and have arrived at 
  the security station.
   
  ■ There are a number of security guards 
  equal to the number of PCs, plus two. 
  Use the Rent-a-Cop stats in the Shadows 
  Over Sol core rulebook, page 212.
   
  ■ If asked, the guards will tell the PCs that 
  they are not under arrest, but refusal to 
  come along peacefully may be grounds 
  to issue a warrant for their arrest.
  Security Station
  At the security station the scrappers 
  will be led to an interrogation room 
  where they will meet with Detective 
  Marjani. He will be brash and to-the-
  point, intentionally jumping to accusa-
  tions, as he hopes to rattle the characters 
  into revealing something incriminating. 
  His questions will include:
   
  ■ “How long have you been in the 
  employ of the Sovereign Libera-
  tion Front?” (Marjani hasn’t yet ruled 
  out that this whole mess is somehow 
  connected to the SLF threats against 
  Unitech and the station.)
   
  ■ “Why have you been killing members 
  of the Harbingers of the Divine Form 
  sect? Is this some sort of turf warfare or 
  Detective Jengo Marjani
  Geneline Spacer Standard, Subculture Neoret
  Str 5, Dex 4, Spd 5, End 6, Int 6, Per 8, Chr 5, Det 6
  Defense 8/17, DR 3, Shock 14, Wound 5, Wealth 5, Lifestyle 5
  Skills: Athletics 2, Awareness 4, Bureaucrat 2, Comp-Ops 2, Conspiracy 3, 
  Empathy 4, Guns 2, Investigate 4, Melee 2, Persuade 3, Stealth 2
  Light Laspistol: +4 (♠12M/♥8M/♦4M/♣2M), Range 10, Shots 5
  Gear: AR Glasses, Hand Terminal, P&W Wide-Trim Designer Coverjack 
  (Conceal 2, Worn)
  Detective Jengo Marjani is a bitter and jaded man who is long past his prime 
  and who is slowly losing whatever idealism he once had. He has been with the 
  Durknow Security Corporation for twenty years now, ten of those working 
  homicide investigations. He has seen some of the worst, violent and petty acts 
  that humanity has to offer. Few things surprise him these days. Marjani’s main 
  goal here is to prevent any more killings.
  
  16
  are these petty hate crimes?” (Marjani 
  has verified that the team arrived on the 
  station after the killings started, but he’s 
  not yet telling them that.)
   
  ■ “Who do you work for and what is 
  your business on Durknow Station?”
  Throughout the questioning, Marjani 
  will try to pry what information he can 
  out of the characters. If the team hasn’t 
  already uncovered information about 
  the murders, the SLF threats against 
  the station or that Alethy Marzouk 
  abandoned her work post and is missing, 
  the detective should let this information 
  slip during the interrogation.
  The team stands their best shot of 
  making a good impression if they answer 
  honestly and aren’t obviously concealing 
  anything too shady. They attract the detec-
  tive’s wrath if they make threats, attempt 
  anything violent or refuse to answer 
  questions. After this encounter, Detective 
  Marjani could end up as either a useful 
  contact or a potent enemy of the team’s.
  Further  
  Investigation
  After the team has talked to Detective 
  Marjani they, assuming they didn’t do 
  anything too incriminating, will be 
  released to go about their business and 
  continue the investigation. Afterward, 
  security will attempt to keep tabs on their 
  activity. Meanwhile, news of the team’s 
  actions will also leak out to the Jensei-
  tech agents who have been killing the 
  cult members. As the players continue to 
  investigate, they can learn the following:
   
  ■ With a Det/comp-ops-10 flip, a 
  character who knows Alethy’s full 
  name can do a search on the local 
  net looking for evidence of associated 
  children. On a success, the character 
  will find artwork posted by a local 
  daycare. One of the children’s names 
  is Gudrun Marzouk. The artwork 
  depicts a human form covered with 
  some sort of spiked tendrils. The eyes 
  are simply large black scribbles.
   
  ■ A character who wishes to talk to the 
  indentured cult members will find 
  them standoffish and scared. They 
  know that their people keep being 
  killed, and despite their protests, 
  everyone else keeps chalking the 
  deaths up to “industrial accidents” 
  and “insane cultists.” Make no 
  mistake, these cultists may be crazed, 
  but they’re not stupid. A successful 
  Chr/socialize-12 flip convinces one 
  of their number to tell the characters 
  that the “High Visionary” has arrived 
  on the station; he will know how 
  to contact Alethy. On a failure, the 
  cultist will still let this slip, but imme-
  diately afterward become suspicious 
  and attempt to forcibly “relieve the 
  character of some of the blood of her 
  flawed form.” This may start a fight 
  when one of the cultists attempts to 
  stick a needle in the character’s arm 
  without warning. Use the Cultist stats 
  on page 210 of the Shadows Over 
  Sol core rulebook.
   
  ■ Characters attempting to track down 
  the culprits behind the murders will 
  have to succeed on a Per/investi-
  gate-16 flip. Give them a +2 bonus 
  if they’ve secured Detective Marjani’s 
  
  17
  cooperation, and an additional +2 if 
  they’ve secured the cooperation of 
  the cultists. On a success, the trail of 
  clues will lead the team to a rental hab 
  where the Jenseitech agents have been 
  living since they arrived. This will also 
  reveal two of the aliases the agents 
  have used: Mr. Soto and Mrs. Dubois. 
  If the team decides to confront the 
  agents, this will lead to a variation on 
  the Agents Attack! event below, except 
  that the PCs will have an edge, as they 
  begin the encounter with the agents 
  off-guard. Failure will tip the agents 
  off, leading directly to the Agents 
  Attack! event, only with the agents 
  having the edge.
  Agents 
  Attack!
  By this point the Jenseitech agents 
  in the employ of Mallory’s faction are 
  aware that the team is looking for Alethy 
  Marzouk and the heir. This is a problem 
  for them, because it is their job to ensure 
  that none of the cultists live to spread 
  word of the faction’s activities. Further-
  more, Mallory has offered them a reward 
  if the heir is delivered to her, and the 
  agents would like to collect. To do this, 
  they will first need to deal with the team. 
  These agents specialize in death.
  They are contract killers who are 
  fairly good at their job. They will wait 
  until an opportune moment while the 
  team is out and about, doing their inves-
  tigation. Ideally, they will strike while 
  the team is distracted, disarmed or split 
  up. They will definitely wait until the 
  team is isolated from possible backup 
  and station security. Possible opportune 
  moments to attack include: breaking into 
  the team’s hab or ship and waiting for 
  them to return, sending them a message 
  falsely pretending to be Alethy and then 
  meeting the team in a dark and isolated 
  corridor, or simply waiting until the team 
  has voluntarily gone somewhere isolated 
  to do something shady.
   
  ■ Use the Contract Killer stats on page 
  210 of the Shadows Over Sol core 
  rulebook. There are a number of 
  agents equal to the number of PCs.
  Aftermath
  In the aftermath of the attack, the 
  team may have questions about who the 
  people were that attacked them. With 
  some work, the following information 
  can be gleaned:
   
  ■ Looking over the bodies of the 
  attackers, the PCs can easily find 
  access cards for a local rental hab. A 
  successful Chr/bureaucracy-8 flip will 
  trace these cards back to the specific 
  room and gain the team access.
  Small Mercy Veterans
  If the team has played through the events of Small Mercy, they have been to 
  the secret Jenseitech research base. This is exactly the information that Mallory’s 
  faction is trying to quash. This gives her agents extra incentive to see that the 
  player characters don’t make it off Durknow Station alive.
  
  18
   
  ■ Inside the attackers’ hab, the team 
  can find hand terminals and identi-
  fication for the agents’ local aliases. 
  An Int/comp-ops-10 flip can use 
  this identification to trace their 
  arrival on the station to a passenger 
  ship that arrived roughly two weeks 
  before the team. The origin of the 
  passenger ship was Earth.
   
  ■ Characters wanting to break into 
  the hand terminals can spend a few 
  hours and make a Det/program-12 
  flip. On a success, they will gain 
  access and will notice receipts for 
  four credit transfers from “Mallory 
  Segall” to the attackers. 
   
  ■ A successful Int/investigate-10 flip 
  will note that these credit transfer 
  correspond to the four cultists’ 
  deaths on the station.
   
  ■ The agents on the station answer to 
  their handlers, who have remained 
  on a ship in orbit around Durknow. 
  Any failure investigating the attackers 
  will tip off the handlers, giving them 
  an edge when they confront the team 
  during their departure from the station.
  The High 
  Visionary
  Whetu Ngata, the current High 
  Visionary and the leader of the Harbin-
  gers of the Divine Form cult, has 
  recently arrived on Durknow Station. 
  Having learned that his people on 
  Fururi were forcibly relocated here, he 
  has made the long trip to ensure that 
  they remain within the cult’s fold and 
  to attend to their situation.
  Having arrived, recovered from stasis 
  sickness and learned of the murders, he 
  is currently hiding Alethy Marzouk and 
  her son Gudrun, protecting them from 
  the agents looking to kill the cultists, and 
  reinforcing their cult indoctrination. 
  From Alethy and the other cultists, 
  the High Visionary has learned that they 
  have in their possession a data cache they 
  took with them from Fururi Station. 
  This data cache includes sensor readings 
  and other information provably linking 
  Jenseitech to the secret research facility in 
  which Jim Segall died. 
  This is exactly the information that 
  Mallory’s faction is trying to silence. It 
  is also information, Whetu realizes, that 
  would be worth a lot of credit if sold to 
  one of Jenseitech’s competitors. He is 
  currently planning to obtain this informa-
  tion, sell it and use the profit to buy back 
  the indenture contracts of his people.
  Unfortunately for the cultists, this data 
  cache was in the possession of Haza Burns, 
  one of the first cultists killed by the Jensei-
  tech agents. The cache was located on a 
  physical data stick hidden in Burns’ hab 
  here on the station. Since his death, the 
  cultists haven’t been able to retrieve it.
  Meeting the 
  Cult Leader
  By this point the team may have 
  discovered that the High Visionary is 
  on the station and would be able to put 
  them in touch with Alethy Marzouk. 
  If this is the case, they may arrange a 
  meeting with Whetu themselves. If this 
  is not the case, after the team fights the 
  Jenseitech agents, Whetu will approach 
  
  19
  them, asking to meet and discuss their 
  business on the station.
  The High Visionary’s first goal when 
  meeting with the team is to size them 
  up, estimating their capabilities and level 
  of threat. He knows that they’re looking 
  for Alethy, and depending on the circum-
  stances of the meeting, he may know that 
  that they’ve defeated the agents preying on 
  the cult members. His second goal is to get 
  the team to acquire the data cache for him.
  Mother and Heir
  If Whetu decides that the team 
  doesn’t represent an immediate threat 
  to Alethy or himself, he will call her and 
  Gudrun into the room, from where they 
  are hiding in a different part of the hab. 
  He will introduce them and allow them 
  to talk to the scrappers while he remains 
  in the room to observe. Questions the 
  PCs might ask and answers they might 
  get from Alethy include:
   
  ■ Why are you in hiding? “Four fellow 
  believers have died recently. The station 
  officials say they all died in industrial 
  accidents, but we know better. We 
  know it was murder. I’ve been hiding 
  because I’m afraid that I am next.”
   
  ■ Why are cultists being killed? “Those 
  who have not accepted the divinity 
  of the ultimate form of ascended 
  humanity often fear the light of truth. 
  High Visionary Whetu Ngata
  Geneline Budget Upgrade, Subculture Serv
  Str 4, Dex 4, Spd 5, End 4, Int 7, Per 5, Chr 8, Det 6
  Defense 7/14, DR 0, Shock 10, Wound 4, Wealth 4, Lifestyle 7
  Skills: Awareness 3, Bio-Sci 3, Bureaucrat 2, Conspiracy 4, Deception 3, Lib-Arts 2, 
  Medic 3, Persuade 5, Socialize 2, Stealth 2
  Shockstick: +2 (♠23L/♥17L/♦11L/♣8L), Stun
  Gear: AR Glasses, Hand Terminal
  Whetu Ngata has been a member of the Harbingers of the Divine Form for 
  decades. He was recruited by Iokina Kamaka, the cult’s original founder, almost 
  forty years ago. Since then he has moved with the cult from Australia, to Luna 
  and then to their current diaspora in the Belt. Iokina was gunned down by station 
  security right here in Durknow over a decade ago, and since that time Whetu has 
  been the cult’s High Visionary.
  Whetu believes in the cult’s central tenant that the human form is an evolutionary 
  prison that must be overcome and transcended through radical genetic manipula-
  tion. His overarching goal at this point is to hold the cult together long enough 
  for their investment in Mandala Station to pay off, and for them to be able to 
  establish a new home there. Afterward they may be left in peace to pursue their 
  questionable experiments.
  
  20
  Genetic dead weight needs to be 
  stripped from the tree of life.”
   
  ■ Do you want to go with us to meet Jim’s 
  family? “Jim never had a kind word to 
  say about him family. ‘A pit of vipers, 
  every one,’ he would often say. No, I 
  do not wish to go. But I will consent 
  to go, if first you help me to provide 
  for my people.”
   
  ■ Can we take Gudrun [without you]? 
  “Absolutely not. I would sooner have 
  my life torn from its physical form 
  than to have my son taken from me.”
  Alethy Marzouk
  Geneline Groundside Standard, Subculture Serv
  Str 5, Dex 5, Spd 4, End 6, Int 5, Per 4, Chr 4, Det 7
  Defense 6/13, DR 0, Shock 13, Wound 5, Wealth 0, Lifestyle 1
  Skills: Awareness 2, Bio-Sci 3, Bureaucrat 2, Conspiracy 2, Empathy 3, 
  Mechanic 2, Melee 2, Stealth 3
  Shockstick: +2 (♠24L/♥18L/♦12L/♣9L), Stun
  Gear: Hand Terminal
  Alethy is a true believer in the cult. She fled Earth when she was a young 
  biologist, and since has found a home performing experiments for the Harbin-
  gers. Later, finding a kindred spirit in Jim Segall, the two had a whirlwind 
  romance and Gudrun is the result.
  If it were up to her, Alethy would take Gudrun, and once the station is opera-
  tional, run away with the cult to their new home on Mandala Station. There 
  she hopes to take over operation of one of the labs and help Gudrun to “reach 
  his genetic potential.”
  Gudrun Marzouk
  Gudrun Marzouk is the son of Alethy and Jim. To all outward appearances he 
  is a typical toddler, going on young child. He is about three years old, and most 
  of what’s going on around him is beyond his comprehension at this age. He loves 
  his mother and retains only vague memories of his father or Fururi Station. Being 
  in hiding seemed a game to him at first, but now he’s grown hungry and tired of 
  the game. Stats have not been included for Gudrun due to his young age.
  
  21
  Conditions
  Both cultists will make it clear to 
  the team that Alethy may be willing to 
  accompany them back to Edith with 
  her son in tow, but she has several 
  conditions that must be met before she 
  consents to do so:
   
  ■ First, the characters must agree to 
  take both Alethy and Gudrun. Alethy 
  refuses to be separated from her son 
  under any condition.
   
  ■ Second, the team must promise their 
  safety. They’re in hiding for a reason, 
  and they’re not going to jeopardize 
  their lives coming out of hiding, 
  unless their safety is assured.
   
  ■ Third, the team must first retrieve 
  and bring back to the High Visionary 
  the data cache that was lost after the 
  cultist, Haza Burns, was murdered.
   
  ■ If the team refuses any of these condi-
  tions then Alethy refuses to cooperate. 
  The team must ether agree or resort 
  to kidnapping Gudrun, or some other 
  questionable means (see The Kidnap-
  ping Route below).
  The Kidnapping Route
  It’s possible that the team will decide to ignore the High Visionary’s and 
  Alethy’s conditions and instead opt to kidnap Gudrun. If the players choose this 
  route they will miss out on the information the data cache has to offer, but will 
  more than have their work cut out for them.
  Remember that Detective Marjani is keeping an eye a close eye on the char-
  acters. This sort of act is likely to attract his attention in a bad way—particularly 
  if the team is trying to abduct a child, tearing him away from the arms of his 
  loving mother. Furthermore, Unitech holds Alethy’s indenture contract, which 
  is a significant investment and one they’re not going to give up lightly. Finally, 
  should the team take the kidnapping route, the cultists themselves will act to 
  defend their own, and will take dire action against the scrappers.
  The Purchase Route
  Another avenue the team may attempt is to purchase Gudrun’s indenture 
  contract from Unitech, then legally transport him back to Edith without Alethy’s 
  cooperation. This route has its own complications. 
  First, it’s Unitech’s corporate policy not to separate mother and child, meaning 
  the team must purchase both of their contracts together. This requires a Cost 11 
  payment, which the team is unlikely to be able to afford. Even then, Alethy and 
  Gudrun must first be returned to Unitech to have her “missing from work assign-
  ment” status removed before the legal transfer can take place. This will be resisted 
  by Alethy and the other cultists. Acquiring the data cache can be skipped, but 
  the next section, The Delivery, will take place almost exactly as written, just with 
  Alethy’s lack of cooperation making everything more difficult.
  
  22
  Data Cache
  Before the cult was entered into 
  indenture and sent to Durknow Station, 
  they lived for some years as squatters on a 
  derelict mining station known as Fururi. 
  While there, they eked out an existence 
  selling residual ore, repairing the station’s 
  failing facilities and pursuing their strange 
  biological experiments. 
  Objects in the Belt orbit at different 
  velocities. Over time different objects 
  will come into alignment, growing closer 
  together, and then one will overtake 
  the other and they will again drift 
  further apart. Through a quirk of stellar 
  geography, this derelict station happened 
  to be in a period of alignment with a 
  secret Jenseitech research facility located 
  inside a nearby asteroid. 
  This secret facility had been home to 
  a covert Jenseitech project known as the 
  Kronos Initiative. The project had been 
  shut down two decades earlier, but now 
  due to the machinations of Mallory’s 
  faction within the megacorp, the project 
  and the facility were to be reopened.
  The administrators in charge of 
  reopening the Kronos Initiative were 
  concerned about the facility’s current 
  proximity to Fururi Station, and they 
  couldn’t afford to wait another couple 
  decades for the two objects to again 
  grow distant. So once the secret research 
  facility was back up and running, they 
  insisted that Jenseitech purchase Fururi 
  Station, forcibly removing the squatters 
  and recycling the station’s material.
  Meanwhile, however, the squatting 
  cultists had repaired the station’s sensors. 
  They took data readings and record-
  ings of ships coming and going from the 
  secret facility. They matched these ships to 
  known Jenseitech vessels. Then they sent a 
  shuttle to investigate the facility itself.
  Jim Segall led this mission along with 
  two other cultists. All three would die 
  in the secret research facility, but not 
  before they would broadcast data back 
  to the cult amounting to verification of 
  Jeneitech’s involvement, video of some 
  of the research being conducted and 
  other secret information gleaned from 
  the computers in the facility. 
  This information would make it into 
  a data chip, which the cultist Haza Burns 
  would take with him through the forced 
  removal. He would hide the chip in his 
  new hab on Durknow Station, and there 
  it would remain until his death at the 
  hands of Jenseitech’s agents.
  Haza’s Hab
  The small habs that the indentures live 
  in are not very nice. They are crammed 
  in four people to a room. Each room has 
  two bunks, meaning the residents have 
  to sleep in shifts. Each resident, however, 
  gets a small private lockbox located at the 
  end of their bunk. Shared toilet facilities 
  are located down the hall.
  When the cultists were moved to 
  Durknow Station, Unitech intention-
  ally split them up in an effort to prevent 
  them from organizing as a block. Haza 
  Burns was assigned to a hab with three 
  strangers, indentures from elsewhere. 
  These strangers were involved in 
  brewing contraband street Torpestat, a 
  risky and illegal endeavor. Eventually, 
  they decided that Haza was unlikely 
  
  23
  to turn them in to the authorities and 
  accepted his presence. His sudden death, 
  however, has put them on edge. Sudden 
  deaths mean that station security starts 
  poking around, and none of them want 
  to be caught. They were more than happy 
  to agree that his death must have been an 
  industrial accident.
  The three are now particularly 
  paranoid. They worry constantly that 
  security is going to investigate where 
  Haza lived and uncover their illegal 
  brew. Making them even more jumpy 
  is the fact that after Haza’s death, other 
  cult members started lurking around the 
  hab. (They were looking for an opening 
  to retrieve Haza’s stashed data cache, but 
  since have given up.)
  The three have stashed makeshift 
  weapons in the hab. They’re paranoid and 
  just waiting for everything to blow up in 
  their faces. Meanwhile, a replacement for 
  Haza hasn’t yet been assigned to the hab. 
  They’re not sure what they’re going to do 
  when that happens. Something is bound 
  to go wrong soon.
  Obtaining the 
  Data Chip
  The team can attempt to acquire 
  the data chip with the cache in many 
  different ways; let the players plan, and 
  roll with whatever they decide. The chip 
  itself is wedged in the slats beneath Haza’s 
  old bunk. He didn’t trust his assigned 
  lockbox as “it is the first place people 
  would look.” Some avenues that the team 
  might try include:
   
  ■ Breaking into the hab requires a 
  successful Dex/thievery-10 flip. The 
  team is unlikely to find it unoccupied, 
  however, due to the way the residents 
  sleep in shifts.
   
  ■ If the characters have won Detective 
  Marjani over, they might be able 
  to convince him to open the hab 
  for investigation. This requires a 
  successful Chr/persuade-12 flip. He, 
  however, will want to take the chip 
  as evidence unless a character either 
  hides it with sleight of hand—a 
  Dex/thievery-10 flip—or convinces 
  him otherwise.
   
  ■ Searching the room for the data chip 
  requires a Per/investigate-10 flip. On 
  a success, the character finds the chip. 
  On a failure, she finds the chip, but 
  not before springing a makeshift trap 
  one of the hab’s inhabitants left to foil 
  snoopers. This deals the character a 
  light wound and makes a lot of noise.
   
  ■ If the residents catch the characters 
  breaking in, they will attack. Use 
  the Thug stats on page 213 of the 
  Shadows Over Sol core rulebook.
  
  24
  
  25
  This section begins as soon as either 
  the characters acquire the data cache at 
  the behest of Alethy, or they try to force 
  Gudrun to come out of hiding. It repre-
  sents the climax of the scenario.
  During this part of the adventure the 
  team will need to deliver the data cache 
  and then make it off Durknow Station 
  alive, with Alethy and Gudrun in tow. 
  After the escape, they will be approached 
  by Mallory Segall with a competing offer, 
  and in the end they must decide where to 
  bring the heir.
  “Terrorist” 
  Lockdown
  The Jenseitech agents that the 
  scrappers fought in the last section were 
  not working alone. They answered to 
  handlers that have remained off station 
  on a ship orbiting nearby. By now these 
  handlers have ascertained that their agents 
  have encountered difficulties with the 
  PCs, and that the team is on the move. 
  If the players have been particularly overt 
  in their inquiries regarding Alethy and 
  Gudrun, the handlers will likely even 
  have a good idea of the team’s goal.
  To hinder the PCs’ attempts to make 
  it off the station with Gudrun, these 
  handlers have called in a false terrorist 
  threat, claiming to be the Sovereign 
  Liberation Front. In the message they 
  claim to have operatives on the station 
  with an explosive device capable of 
  blowing up an entire sector unless their 
  demands are met. The aim of this false 
  terrorist threat is to force station security 
  to lock everything down—particularly 
  reducing incoming and outgoing traffic 
  to a trickle. This should both delay the 
  team’s efforts and make it easier for 
  the operatives to secure information 
  on outgoing vessels, allowing them to 
  determine if the team is on board.
  This event should kick off as soon as 
  the players either secure the data cache 
  or make an attempt to force Gudrun out 
  of hiding. Ideally it should occur at the 
  most inconvenient moment for the team. 
  It begins with the alarms on the 
  station blaring and a monotone voice on 
  all station speakers asking residents to 
  immediately return to their habs due to 
  a security concern. Within half an hour 
  the hallways of the station will be empty 
  of civilian traffic, with only a few security 
  teams making the rounds. This will have 
  a number of effects on the team’s efforts.
   
  ■ From this point forward any attempts 
  to sneak around the station will be 
  significantly more difficult, requiring 
  at least a successful Dex/stealth-14 flip.
   
  ■ Characters who are caught wandering 
  the halls will be approached by a 
  security team demanding they return 
  to their hab. This team will then escort 
  them to their destination. Attempts 
  to flee will be met with force. Use the 
  Rent-a-Cop stats on page 212 of the 
  Shadows Over Sol core rulebook.
   
  ■ If the characters have made an ally of 
  Detective Marjani, he will be unable 
  to help them out, as station security 
  Delivery
  
  26
  has called “all hands on deck” and he 
  can’t leave his assigned patrol.
   
  ■ Characters looking to understand 
  what’s going on can read all about the 
  terrorist threat simply by checking 
  the local net. No flip is required.
  Electronic Intrusion
  The Jenseitech handlers will use 
  the time the terrorist lockdown buys 
  them to try to break into the characters’ 
  computers or hand terminals. Their 
  goal is to download any information 
  they can on the characters, particularly 
  anything they can use to turn security 
  against them or to intercept them when 
  they leave the station.
  While the team is either sneaking 
  around or waiting out the security 
  lockdown, one of their hand terminals will 
  chime, indicating that an external access 
  attempt is being made on the device.
   
  ■ A character may attempt counter-
  intrusion measures against the hacking 
  attempt if this is done immediately. 
  This is an opposed and extended 
  action: Spd/program vs. the hacker’s 
  Spd/program of +6. After three 
  intervals, the side with the highest 
  tally wins. If this was the PC, she has 
  locked the hackers out. If the hackers 
  won, they have gotten away with all 
  the character’s data. If the hackers 
  come out ahead in any single flip of 
  the extended action, they have gotten 
  some sort of data from the attempt. 
   
  ■ Alternatively, a character may forgo 
  a flip in the extended action and 
  attempt to trace the hacking attempt. 
  This is an Int/program-12 flip. A 
  success yields that the hacking attempt 
  is coming from nearby space outside 
  the station, likely a close ship of some 
  kind. Success with Mag 5+ yields the 
  name of the ship as well, The Cutter.
  Waiting it Out
  Characters may want to simply wait 
  out the terrorist threat. This is viable 
  course of action, but it does allow the 
  Jenseitech handlers to get things in 
  place behind the scenes. The lockdown 
  will last roughly 20 hours from start to 
  finish, while security teams search the 
  station from top to bottom for possible 
  explosives. This will include a search 
  of the team’s hab on the station if they 
  have one, or a search of the team’s shuttle 
  should they have one docked.
   
  ■ Hiding someone from the security 
  teams during this search requires a 
  successful Per/thievery-12 flip.
  By the time the security threat is over, 
  the Jenseitech handlers will have identi-
  fied the team’s ship if they have one, or 
  they will have breached the reservation 
  computers for the passenger ship lines, 
  meaning they will have an idea if and 
  when the characters book tickets off the 
  station. Finally, if they were successful in 
  their hacking attempt on the team, they 
  will know the team’s cover identities, 
  employer and other information.
  
  27
  Leaving the 
  Station
  Before the team can leave the station 
  with Gudrun, there are still a number of 
  hoops they must jump through. First, 
  they may need to hand the data cache over 
  to Alethy or the High Visionary to secure 
  Alethy’s cooperation. Second, they still 
  need to resolve the matter of Alethy and 
  Gudrun’s indenture contracts. Finally, the 
  Jenseitech handlers have another surprise 
  in store for the scrappers.
  Data Cache 
  Transfer
  Whetu, the High Visionary, will 
  be waiting for the team when they 
  return with the data cache. Once they 
  hand it over, he will insert it into his 
  hand terminal, verifying that the chip 
  is the correct one and contains Haza’s 
  encrypted information. If it’s good, he 
  will give the PCs his best maniacal smile 
  and offer a handshake.
  Once this transfer has been made, 
  he will tell the team that they have 
  “the blessing of humanity’s final form” 
  behind them. He says that he will spread 
  word to his fellow believers to cooperate. 
  Alethy will agree to take Gudrun and 
  come with the team. While Whetu 
  doesn’t like to see Alethy and Gudrun 
  leave the bosom of the cult, having a 
  true believer and her son embedded 
  with a rich and powerful family, like the 
  Segalls, is far from the worst thing in the 
  world as far as he is concerned.
  The Cult  
  Strikes Back
  If the team hasn’t secured Alethy’s 
  cooperation by delivering the data cache, 
  the cult will act to protect their own, 
  striking back at the characters as best they 
  are able. When the team is transporting 
  Gudrun down an isolated corridor to a 
  ship or elsewhere, cult members armed 
  with scavenged knives will swarm out 
  of nearby doors and will attempt to 
  overwhelm them. If Alethy is there, she 
  will join them in fighting back.
   
  ■ Use the Cultist stats on page 210 of 
  the Shadows Over Sol core rulebook. 
  There are two more cultists than there 
  are player characters.
   
  ■ One of the cultists has a knife coated 
  with a cyanide mixture (see page 155 of 
  the Shadows Over Sol core rulebook).
  Betrayal
  It’s possible that the team will decide to keep the data cache for themselves 
  instead of handing it over to Alethy or Whetu. This will obviously be a betrayal 
  in the eyes of the cult, who will then refuse to cooperate. Similarly, if the team 
  makes a copy of the cache for themselves and attempts to sell it before Whetu gets 
  a chance to do the same, this will be seen as a betrayal, as it undermines the value 
  of the data. For information on the cache contents see page 29.
  
  28
  Indenture Contracts
  Even if Alethy agrees to leave with 
  the team, both her and Gudrun still 
  have indenture contracts with Unitech. 
  As long as these contracts hold, they 
  aren’t legally allowed to leave. There 
  are several ways that the players might 
  decide to deal with this.
   
  ■ Unitech will only sell Alethy’s and 
  Gudrun’s contracts together. It is a 
  Cost 11 payment for the pair. The 
  team will likely be unable to afford 
  this, but if they contact Edith she 
  will foot the bill. Regardless, they 
  will need to convince station security 
  not to hold Alethy for punishment 
  due to leaving her work assign-
  ment. This requires a successful 
  Chr/persuade-10 flip. On a failure, 
  security will demand a Cost 7 bribe 
  to overlook her punishment.
   
  ■ Alternatively, the team may attempt 
  to sneak Alethy and Gudrun off of 
  the station. This will be easier if they 
  have their own ship to transport her 
  afterward, rather than buying tickets 
  for everyone on a passenger transport. 
  Run with whatever plan the team 
  comes up with. However, they will 
  encounter Detective Marjani on the 
  way out (see below).
  Detective Redux
  If the team tries to depart the station 
  with Gudrun without first acquiring his 
  indenture contract, Detective Marjani 
  and a security team will confront the 
  scrappers just as they are about to leave. 
  Kidnapping is a serious offense, as is 
  breaking an indenture contract.
   
  ■ If the team has both made an ally of 
  the detective and secured Alethy’s coop-
  eration, the detective will pull the team 
  aside to speak privately. Let the players 
  make their case. With a good argument 
  and a successful Chr/persuade-10 flip, 
  Marjani will “look the other way,” 
  letting them escape.
   
  ■ On the other hand, if the team doesn’t 
  meet both of these qualifications, 
  they will need to deal with security, 
  either through physical confrontation, 
  running or handling the legal charges. 
   
  ■ Detective Marjani’s stats are on page 
  15. For the security team, use the 
  Rent-a-Cop stats on page 212 of the 
  Shadows Over Sol core rulebook. 
  There are four security agents.
  Bounty Hunters
  If the team waited out the entire 
  lockdown, the Jenseitech handlers will 
  have had time to hire a pair of local 
  bounty hunters to capture the charac-
  ters. These bounty hunters will strike 
  as the team is preparing to leave the 
  station. Their goal will be to capture 
  the weakest looking team member, they 
  will then attempt to trade that team 
  member’s life for Gudrun.
   
  ■ For the bounty hunters, use the 
  Scrapper stats on page 212 of the 
  Shadows Over Sol core rulebook.
  
  29
  Data Cache Contents
  The data cache that the team is asked to retrieve for Whetu and Alethy has 
  basic encryption (see page 139 of the Shadows Over Sol core rulebook). If 
  the team tries to break the encryption, they can receive exploits through the 
  following means:
   
  ■ Investigating data chip standards, an Int/comp-ops-10 flip.
   
  ■ Questioning cult members about Haza, a Chr/empathy-10 flip.
   
  ■ Delving into the cult’s beliefs, a Per/conspiracy-10 flip.
  If the characters manage to break the encryption, they will have at their finger-
  tips a treasure trove of information regarding the activity of Jenseitech at their 
  secret research base. 
  If the team is the first to sell this information, to the right buyers it is 
  easily worth an Income 12 payment, but if the sale is traced back to them it 
  will make Jenseitech into a mortal enemy. If the cult beats them to the punch, 
  however, with the right salesmanship the team might still glean an Income 7 
  payment for the data.
  Contained in the data cache is the following information:
   
  ■ Jenseitech is operating a secret research facility near the former location of 
  Fururi Station. This facility is performing experimentation on live human 
  subjects with possible weaponized applications.
   
  ■ The subject of the experimentation is a heretofore unknown biological 
  agent, dubbed the Kronos Protein. This protein is extraterrestrial in origin, 
  having been retrieved from an anomalous site on Saturn’s moon Titan in 
  the early 2190’s.
   
  ■ Previous experiments with the protein have resulted in multiple deaths, and 
  it appears to have found a way to escape quarantine several times. In fact, as 
  experiments with the protein continue, it seems to be exhibiting an emergent 
  complexity, learning new ways to foil Jenseitech’s contamination protocols.
   
  ■ Research on the protein was previously shuttered, but it has started up again 
  under the direction of Mallory Segall, who holds a position of some clout on 
  Jenseitech’s corporate board.
   
  ■ The protein escaping quarantine was the cause of Jim Segall’s death. It 
  seems to have hijacked his biology and turned him into some sort of 
  monster. It then appears to have spread throughout the facility at the time 
  of the data’s final recording.
   
  ■ More information on the Kronos Protein can be found on page 30 of the 
  Fatal Frontier supplement.
  
  30
  Interception
  The Jenseitech handlers have one 
  final trick up their sleeves. Once the 
  team leaves Durknow Station, they will 
  maneuver their own ship, the Cutter, 
  into an intercept course. They plan to 
  board the ship that the team is on, and 
  seize Gudrun by force.
  If the team is on a passenger ship, 
  the attack will occur shortly before the 
  characters are put into stasis. Suddenly 
  an alarm starts blaring that the ship is 
  about to be boarded. A few moments 
  later there is a loud clank from the hull, 
  as the Cutter magnetically latches onto 
  the ship. The scrappers will have only a 
  few minutes to prepare themselves before 
  the Jenseitech forces makes their way on 
  board and personal combat begins.
  On the other hand, if the team is on 
  their own ship, right before they put them-
  selves into stasis, the computer will that 
  note the Cutter is on an intercept course. 
  The players can then react as they see fit. If 
  the GM has access to the Shiny New Toys 
  supplement, this can be ran as a full-fledged 
  vehicular combat. Stats for the Cutter have 
  been included below.
  Boarding Party
  The goal of the Cutter will be to 
  board the ship the team is on. Unfortu-
  nately for the Jenseitech handlers, they 
  are short on personnel; but those few 
  they do have are very well equipped. If 
  they manage to board, they will send 
  in one soldier in full power armor. This 
  soldier will attempt to seize Gudrun and 
  retreat with him back to their ship. Two 
  other combatants will remain in the dock 
  between the two ships, guarding the 
  entry point. The final two crew members 
  of the Cutter will remain on their ship, 
  ready to maneuver it away, or blow it up 
  in the event that the team tries to seize 
  the vessel for themselves.
   
  ■ For the soldier in power armor, use 
  the Soldier stats on page 213 of the 
  Shadows Over Sol core rulebook, but 
  give her power armor (see page 185).
   
  ■ For the four other combatants, use 
  the Spy stats found on page 213 of the 
  Shadows Over Sol core rulebook.
  The Cutter, Modified Freighter
   
  ■ Handling -2, Defense 6/13, DR 5, Shock 17, Structure 7, Cruise 7
   
  ■ Components: Armor 5, Attach Point, Cargo Bay 2, Comms Array, Control 
  Room, Freighter (Hull), Habitat (5 people), Heat Sink 2, Missile Turret, 
  Sensor Array, Stasis Pods (5 pods), Thorium Reactor (Small, Power)
   
  ■ Properties: Vehicle
   
  ■ Missiles: +5 (♠24M/♥16M/♦8M/♣4M), Range 100M
  The Cutter is a heavily-modified freighter. While it retains the civilian hull, giving 
  it ample disguise, inside it serves as a covert command-and-control vessel for 
  Jenseitech’s corporate interests. The ship itself is not registered in Jenseitech’s 
  name, but to Outsystem Industries, an obscure holding corp.
  
  31
  Mallory’s Offer
  When the team overcomes even the 
  Cutter’s last ditch attempt to stop them, 
  the operatives on the ship will send a final 
  message to Mallory Segall. This message 
  will travel at the speed of light for roughly 
  nine minutes, whereupon it will reach 
  Earth and will be received by Mallory on 
  her penthouse veranda.
  At this point, Mallory will know that 
  she cannot stop the team, but she may 
  be able to appeal to their wallets. She 
  will hastily send them a personal message 
  introducing herself, congratulating them 
  on their discovery of Gudrun Marzouk 
  and stating quite bluntly she is willing to 
  pay twice what Edith is for the delivery of 
  the heir. This would mean an Income 9 
  payment for each team member.
  The players are free to send messages 
  back asking questions, but keep in mind 
  that there is an 18 minute round trip 
  delay. If asked, Mallory will not deny that 
  the Jenseitech agents were in her employ, 
  although she will hedge and say “they 
  may have acted overzealously.” She will 
  repeat her offer and state that it is in their 
  best financial interest. They outmaneu-
  vered some of her best people, and she 
  would have many more future contracts 
  for a team of their talents.
  At this point, the team may want to 
  contact Edith for a competing offer. Edith 
  will be upset, stating that they already 
  had an agreement. If she’s already footed 
  the bill to purchase Alethy and Gudrun’s 
  indenture contracts, she will point this 
  out as well. However, if the team keeps 
  pressing, they have her in a corner. She 
  will reluctantly agree to meet Mallory’s 
  offer, but they have made an enemy of 
  her in the process.
  Making the 
  Handoff
  In the end, it is possible that the 
  players will decide to bring Gudrun to 
  Edith, to Mallory or even help Alethy 
  and Gudrun escape to be with the cult 
  on Mandala Station. What they choose 
  is up to them.
  Regardless of what the players choose, 
  however, there will be consequences. If 
  they bring the heir to Edith, they will 
  have made Mallory’s list as enemies 
  number one. If they double-cross Edith 
  and bring the heir to Mallory, she is sure 
  to seek retribution, taking it out on their 
  professional reputation, if nothing else. 
  Both factions control a good number of 
  unscrupulous scientists that specialize in 
  biological experimentation.
  If the players took Gudrun without 
  Alethy’s cooperation, they have made an 
  enemy of the Harbingers of the Divine 
  Form, yet another group with their own 
  bio-labs. If they took Gudrun without 
  purchasing the indenture contract, they 
  may have made an enemy of Unitech. If 
  they gave the Harbingers the data cache, 
  the information in it will be released and 
  will be a blow to Jenseitech itself, which 
  affects both factions.
  Whatever the players choose, there 
  is bound to be fallout, and these conse-
  quences may provide fodder for many 
  more adventures to come.
  
  2
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Shadows Over Sol/Heir To Darkness.pdf