TEXT: The Modern Dispatch
  Alien�Artifacts
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  #36
  Alien Artifacts
  By Lizard
  In most space-opera or interstellar science-ﬁction 
  settings, there is usually a presumption that the 
  galaxy has been inhabited for a long time. Whether 
  they are called Precursors, Elder Races, First Ones, 
  or Ancients, the existence of once-mighty but 
  non-vanished races is a common trope. Of course, 
  the only way one knows of the existence of said 
  races is from what they left behind – their tools, 
  toys, constructs, and weapons, all of which are 
  phenomenally advanced compared to even the most 
  advanced science available to the current starfaring 
  species. Many seem to defy all known laws of 
  physics, or use materials whose physical properties 
  cannot be fully understood. Wars might be fought to 
  possess such items, and the rumor of one could set 
  off a mad rush of treasure hunters. 
  And they are here!
  Overview
  This supplement for futuristic campaigns (using the 
  D20 Modern system and supplements) presents a 
  number of powerful alien artifacts, relics of long-
  vanished races and cultures. They can be considered 
  Progress Level 9+ -- they are beyond common 
  manufacture or use. Many have a deﬁnite ‘science 
  fantasy’ ﬂavor to them. Introducing one of them 
  into a ‘hard science’ game will present an intriguing 
  mystery; introducing many more can change the 
  tone of the game, which may or may not be desired. 
  Overall, they ﬁt best into a space-opera or action-
  oriented game.
  No price is given for these items. They are never 
  offered for sale, at least not legitimately or 
  knowingly. If they are purchased, it is usually from 
  someone who does not know what they have. (This 
  then leads to the characters being pursued by forces 
  who want what they’ve just purchased and who will 
  happily kill them in order to keep them from telling 
  anyone about the item) If a relic is offered for sale at 
  a ‘reasonable’ price, it will always be either a scam 
  or a setup. Should the GM wish to have such items 
  bought and sold, the price should be a purchase DC 
  of 60 or more, at least equal to a small starship. In 
  most cases, the value is not so much for what the 
  item can do – sure, a tachyon blade is great, but, for 
  the cost, you can hire an army of mercenaries – but 
  for the potential to ﬁgure out how it works. In other 
  cases, the item allows the user to do things no one 
  else can – the chameleon cocoon, for example, can 
  allow someone to inﬁltrate an alien race.
  Because these are intended to be singular or very rare 
  items, they come with a bit of back-story and ﬂavor 
  text. This can, and should, be modiﬁed by the GM to 
  ﬁt in with his own campaign background. The items 
  should tie into whatever elder races or ancient powers 
  once walked in his universe.
  The Artifacts
  Chameleon Cocoon
  Perhaps the ultimate in inﬁltration or disguise 
  technology, the chameleon cocoon makes such 
  things as the hologuise seem no more effective than 
  
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  a false mustache and a plastic nose. When used, it 
  transforms an individual on a genetic level, making 
  him a truly perfect duplicate of his target.
  The device was believed to have been widely used in 
  a galaxy-wide ‘cold war’ aeons past; it is often put to 
  the same use today. A spy or inﬁltrator with access to 
  the cocoon can perform acts of espionage or sabotage 
  that no one else, no matter how skilled, can equal.
  In its natural, inactivated, state, the cocoon seems 
  like a small lump of orange wax, accompanied by a 
  plastic sphere roughly an inch in diameter. The sphere 
  can be opened, revealing a hollow interior. Placing 
  any genetic material – blood, hair, skin cells – into 
  this hollow begins the activation process. To use the 
  cocoon, the owner must then ﬁnd a safe spot, place 
  the sphere into the soft ‘wax’ of the cocoon, and 
  press the orange blob to his skin. In a few seconds, 
  the material will begin to seep into the skin; in a few 
  minutes, the user’s skin will turn orange and begin 
  secreting an orange-yellow liquid, which rapidly 
  hardens. (Hardness 6, 10 hit points) At this point, the 
  user loses consciousness.
  Over the next 1d4 hours, the user is remade 
  genetically by the cocoon. When it is over, he will 
  be not merely a physical duplicate of the individual 
  whose DNA was placed in the sphere – he will 
  be a genetic duplicate. His DNA will have been 
  transformed. Only his thoughts and memories remain 
  his own; his entire body has been remade. This 
  transformation can include gender and species; the 
  character will be ‘fully functional’ when it is over. 
  When the process is complete, the crystalline shell 
  liqueﬁes and coalesces back into the original waxy 
  lump.
  The target of the transformation may be up to one 
  size category larger or smaller than the original user. 
  The mechanism by which the cocoon generates or 
  expels excess mass remains a mystery; the original 
  manufacturers had many technologies inconceivable 
  to the minds of lesser beings.
  The only traits that the cocoon cannot replicate 
  are such things as tattoos, birthmarks, and other 
  environmental factors. 
  A transformed being retains his natural Intelligence, 
  Wisdom, and Charisma, and all skill ranks. He has an 
  instinctive understanding of how to use any abilities 
  native to his new form – such as wings if he is 
  transformed into a ﬂying race. He does not gain any 
  learned knowledge, such as languages. 
  To any visual inspection, the user is the target – no 
  Disguise check is needed. Sense Motive may be used 
  to notice odd or uncharacteristic behavior, and gaps 
  in knowledge may tip off the wary. Since genetic 
  tests will show the character to be who he is claiming 
  to be, it is most likely that anyone who picks up on 
  something odd will assume mind control, hypnosis, 
  or insanity rather than disguise, unless the existence 
  of such devices as the cocoon is common knowledge.
  To change back, the user must place his own DNA 
  into the sphere and repeat the process. He can also 
  shift to another form without reverting to his original 
  form. However, the surviving cocoons are rather 
  old and prone to failure; there is a 10% chance per 
  use that the cocoon will not reform following the 
  transformation, leaving the user trapped in his new 
  form, unless, of course, he ﬁnds another cocoon.
  The cocoon can transform the user into any 
  aberration, animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, 
  magical beast, monstrous humanoid, or plant, subject 
  to the size limits noted above. It is up the Game 
  Master if any magical abilities (if such exist in the 
  campaign) are ‘genetic’ and thus duplicated or are 
  something ‘apart’ from DNA and thus are not.
  Dreamweb
  A dreamweb appears as a long length of thin cord, 
  most often striated in rainbow colors, with the ends 
  ﬁtted with connectors so that they can be linked 
  together, forming a loop. A small number of controls, 
  all unlabelled and confusing, are placed along the 
  length of the cord. There is one fairly prominent 
  control on the linking components; this control 
  cannot be activated until the two ends of the cord are 
  connected. When looped, the cord encloses an area 
  30 feet in diameter.
  If the cord is laid out so as to form a closed loop and 
  the primary switch (the one on the link) is thrown, 
  all those within the enclosed area are subsumed into 
  a powerful psionic induction ﬁeld. Those failing a 
  Will Save (DC 28), or choosing not to make one, are 
  mentally transported into a virtual world which is 
  completely indistinguishable, to them, from reality. 
  All input from their physical senses is blocked; 
  everything they perceive is sent to them directly via 
  psionic induction. The thin ‘cord’ of the dreamweb 
  contains advanced AI systems, immense amounts 
  of data storage and cultured neural tissue which 
  provides the basis for the psionic effects.
  There is no visual or auditory manifestation. Those 
  outside the bounds of the dreamweb see those inside 
  simply collapse into a comalike state. The dreamweb 
  is a mind-affecting device, and any being immune to 
  mind-affecting powers is likewise unaffected by it.
  The various controls along the edge of the dreamweb 
  set the parameters for the simulation, including such 
  things as lethality. Too few dreamwebs have been 
  discovered to allow anyone to understand what the 
  settings mean or even how to alter them; in general, 
  
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  one must accept whatever settings are already entered 
  into the web. 
  The world simulated by the dreamweb is perfect. 
  All sensations, including taste, touch, and smell, are 
  present. The beings encountered react intelligently 
  and seem to have lives, histories, and desires far 
  beyond the limits of the ‘game’. The ‘rules’ of the 
  dreamweb can vary considerably – those within it 
  might have no skills or powers they do not possess 
  in reality, or they might be given special or unique 
  abilities, such as facility with a weapon they have no 
  genuine proﬁciency in or even ‘magical’ abilities. 
  Combat in the dreamweb seems real, but may or 
  may not be lethal. If the dreamweb is set to non-
  lethality, anyone ‘killed’ is simply removed from the 
  simulation. If it is set to lethality, anyone killed must 
  make a Fortitude save (DC 25) or be reduced to -5 hit 
  points by sudden shock. If he fails to stabilize before 
  reaching -10 hit points, he will die.
  Anyone entering the dreamweb after it has been 
  activated will be subsumed into its reality in 1d4+5 
  seconds.
  It is possible for those within the dreamweb to 
  activate certain internal controls, or deactivate the 
  web entirely – if this is allowed by the settings. If 
  it is, a Will save (DC 20) is needed to bring up the 
  ‘control panel’ – this will manifest in different ways 
  depending on the settings on the web. For example, 
  it might appear as a strange clockwork device, a 
  ﬂoating swarm of crystals, or an obedient servant.
  The Game Master must decide what species or 
  race designed the dreamwebs. If it was a very alien 
  species, the ‘worlds’ within the webs will likewise 
  be incomprehensibly alien. If it was some forgotten 
  human race (perhaps from a long-vanished human 
  interstellar society), then the worlds might be 
  recognizable or at least comprehensible. 
  Whether or not a dreamweb can be deactivated from 
  the outside is dependant on the settings, as is the 
  duration of the experience. The dreamweb might 
  keep itself active indeﬁnitely, or until some goal is 
  reached, or until a preset amount of time has passed. 
  The web provides no life support; those within it will 
  starve or die of thirst unless appropriate measures 
  were taken prior to entering the web.
  Physically dragging someone from the web causes 
  serious psychic trauma. A Will save (DC 20) must 
  be made. If it fails, the character takes 1d4 points 
  of temporary Intelligence and Charisma damage. 
  (The Game Master may wish to increase this; 
  some dreamwebs have an especially powerful grip. 
  Removal can cause permanent damage or even 
  death.)
  Immortality Serum
  Advances in medical technology as Progress Levels 
  increase greatly extend the lifespan of most sentient 
  races. Doubling or even tripling lifespan is not 
  unheard of, and old age is spent free of most of the 
  burdens of time – the mind is sharp and the body ﬁt. 
  However, not even the most advanced technology can 
  do more than slow the process and provide increased 
  resistance to the ravages of age. Even at PL 8, death 
  remains as certain as taxes.
  Beyond the limits of known science, however...
  Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the 
  immortality serum is that it works on any organic 
  life form. It seems to operate on something more 
  fundamental than genetics. Speculation of subspace 
  nanobots or temporal warps is common, but neither 
  hypothesis has much supporting evidence. What is 
  known is that those few people who have found and 
  used this artifact have become incapable of dying by 
  natural causes, and are very hard to kill unnaturally.
  The serum is always found in liquid form, a pale 
  yellow ﬂuid much like honey. It is found in sealed 
  containers; it rapidly degrades upon exposure to air. 
  When swallowed or even rubbed into the skin, it 
  begins to work, inducing the following changes:
  If the user is beyond the physical prime of his species 
  (around 25 for humans) he begins to de-age towards 
  that point, at a rate ten-fold that of passing time – for 
  each day which passes, he de-ages ten. This is not 
  noticeable immediately, but after a few months, it 
  is evident and after a year, impossible to conceal 
  without Disguise. 
  All tattoos, piercings, scars or birthmarks fade within 
  1d4 days.
  The user ceases to age, at all. There is no further 
  cellular degeneration. The process does not seem to 
  slow down, but to stop completely. 
  The user gains a +8 natural bonus on all Fortitude 
  saves against poison, disease, starvation, thirst, 
  suffocation, massive damage, or environmental 
  effects.
  The user gains Regeneration (Radiation).
  The user’s massive damage threshold is increased by 
  +6 if using the Massive Damage=Constitution rule, 
  or +25 if using Massive Damage=50 points rule. 
  The immortality serum will affect any humanoid, 
  animal, dragon, giant, magical beast, or monstrous 
  humanoid. It may or may not affect an aberration 
  – if the creature is basically a ﬂesh-and-blood mortal 
  
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  being, it will. Fey, outsiders, elementals, oozes and 
  plants cannot be affected by the serum.
  Gravitic Wand
  This artifact is the remnant of a culture which 
  believed that controlling a device should be as simple 
  as possible – even if the device was amazingly 
  powerful. The raw technology of the device is 
  only a millennia or two beyond an advanced PL 8 
  culture, but the small size, efﬁciency, and unique 
  control mechanism mark it as the product of a far 
  more advanced species. It is likely the wands were 
  primarily tools, not weapons, as countermeasures 
  would have been widely available in the original 
  culture. In the current era, however, the wand can be 
  remarkably useful in combat situations.
  The wand is a featureless silver cylinder an inch thick 
  and a foot long, tapered at one end. The non-tapered 
  end is where the wielder holds it. Once it is grasped, 
  the user receives a ﬂood of telepathic information 
  instructing him in the operation of the device. All that 
  is required is, literally, ‘point and think’.
  The wand can raise or lower local gravity, or the 
  mass of a speciﬁc object. It can reduce the gravity of 
  and area or the mass of an object to effectively 0, or 
  increase them to 5 times their natural levels. If used 
  to affect an area, the wand can affect a region up to 
  20 feet in diameter and 500 feet in height; if used 
  to affect an object or objects, it can affect 1 Huge, 
  2 Large, 4 Medium, 8 small or 16 Tiny or smaller 
  objects. The range of the wand is 500 feet.
  If an object has been reduced to 0 mass, the wand can 
  be used to move it from place to place. It can affect 
  multiple objects at once, but a group must all move in 
  the same manner; to move some objects left and some 
  right, two uses of the wand are required. Objects can 
  be moved to a maximum of 500 feet from the wand 
  and travel at a speed of 60 feet per round.
  The wand is controlled entirely by thought. There is 
  no need to set complex controls to narrow the beam 
  or switch it from ‘increase’ to ‘decrease’ or to select 
  a few objects out of a mass. The user merely aims the 
  wand in the general direction of the desired effect and 
  thinks of what he wishes down. This allows him to 
  pluck an individual out of a crowd, lower the gravity 
  in an area of any shape (within the maximum 20 foot 
  diameter radius), or lift the eggs out of a carton while 
  leaving the carton on the ground.  
  The mental control of the wand is so ﬁne that it can 
  be used to grab an object from someone’s hands, turn 
  screws at a distance, or perform other feats. The user 
  may make Sleight of Hand checks on ranged objects, 
  with a total bonus of 10+his Intelligence modiﬁer. He 
  may also attempt to tear a held object from someone’s 
  grip. The wand is assumed to have a Strength bonus 
  of +5; if it wins a contest of strength, the object has 
  been grabbed.
  Using the wand is a standard action which does not 
  provoke an attack of opportunity.
  Some uses for the wand include:
  • 
  Increasing local gravity to prevent 
  individuals from moving.
  • 
  Flying (the user may reduce his own mass 
  and direct himself with the wand; he ﬂies at 
  60 feet/round with Perfect maneuverability.
  • 
  Raising an object up and then increasing its 
  weight so that it does tremendous damage to 
  those below.
  • 
  Placing a person high in the air and then 
  allowing him to fall.
  • 
  Increasing gravity in a region in front of 
  the character, causing solid projectiles to 
  plummet or lose power (all attacks involving 
  solid missiles, such as arrows or bullets, 
  suffer a 20% miss chance and do half 
  damage if they hit.)
  • 
  Manipulating the controls of a device from a 
  distance.
  The wand is fairly obvious in use – the user must 
  hold it out and aim it, making it fairly obvious what 
  the source of the various effects is. Careless users 
  will ﬁnd their prize taken from them.
  The wand can affect one target per round; a 'target' is 
  an area, object, or group of objects moving together. 
  Switching targets is a free action.
  The wand draws power from an unknown source, 
  most likely zero-point energy. It never needs 
  recharging. There is a 1% chance per round of use 
  that it will fail due to age.
  Morphic Arsenal
  The wide variety of weapons available to an 
  advanced culture (and what better measure of 
  advancement than the number of ways in which you 
  can kill people?) means that for any job, there is a 
  proper tool. Unfortunately, most beings cannot carry 
  two or three dozen weapons around with them at all 
  times, leaving them to have to pick carefully among 
  the available options and hope they’re prepared. 
  Those few who have found a morphic arsenal have 
  no such problems.
  A morphic arsenal always appears to be a typical 
  hand weapon of excellent manufacture. If it is found 
  at some xenoarcheological site, the construction 
  and styling will most likely be very alien, but the 
  functionality will be no more than that of a well-
  made (masterwork) weapon of the current culture – it 
  will seem to have no unusual or exotic properties, and 
  relic-hunters may dismiss it as something of interest 
  to collectors or historians only.
  
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  However, careful examination of the weapon (Search 
  check, DC 25) will reveal some hidden controls. 
  The most important of these is the scanning beam. 
  This beam can scan an area up to 5 square feet. Any 
  weapon – gun, beam blade, rusting dagger – placed 
  in the beam will be scanned and then absorbed. Once 
  absorbed, the morphic arsenal can change itself into 
  that weapon. It is believed that the weapons are 
  modiﬁed by the scanning and absorption process to 
  add the necessary shifting controls, and then placed 
  in a subspace compartment. 
  The weapons have no other modiﬁcations to 
  functionality. Weapons which require power cells 
  will still require them; weapons which require 
  ammunition will need it. The morphic arsenal can 
  absorb grenades, but using it in this manner will 
  destroy the weapon. (The grenade will explode as 
  expected; this will destroy the controls which shift 
  weapons to and from their holding place.)
  A morphic arsenal can store 12 different weapons. 
  If a 13th is desired, the oldest stored weapon will be 
  ‘ejected’ from subspace.
  When found, a morphic arsenal will usually have 
  stored 1d4+1 weapons. These will be the alien 
  equivalents of PL7 to PL8 devices.
  A morphic arsenal has many uses. Smuggling is one 
  such; a person can be seen to be carrying nothing 
  more than a ceremonial dagger, then draw forth a 
  pulse riﬂe and begin a massacre.
  The scanning and storing system of the morphic 
  arsenal is capable of distinguishing ‘weapon’ from 
  ‘non weapon’, and will not scan items which are not 
  designed or intended to cause harm. Some form of AI 
  coupled with a low level telepathic ﬁeld is apparently 
  involved.
  Switching weapon modes is a free action which does 
  not incur an attack of opportunity. The user must 
  have the necessary hands free to wield the weapon 
  – if he switches from a one-handed to a two-handed 
  weapon, he must have nothing in his second hand.
  Subspace Storage Trunk
  It is unknown if these devices were extremely rare 
  items used by the elite of their creating culture, or if 
  they were so common that tourists in some forgotten 
  age considered them a simple necessity of life. Either 
  way, they are very rare today, and much prized.
  These trunks come in a variety of styles and shapes 
  – a dozen have been found in the galaxy, and no 
  two are like. Some speculate each is an artifact 
  of a different culture, but advanced dating and 
  archeological techniques imply this is not the case. 
  This has not ended the common-vs.-rare debate; some 
  xenoscientists claim this means they were unique and 
  handcrafted items, while others claim it proves they 
  were a consumer good made in a variety of styles.
  Trunks range in apparent, external, size from 1 foot 
  by 1 foot by 6 inches to 6 feet by 2 feet by 1 foot. 
  The outer surface is generally smooth and almost 
  featureless, and appears to be either a high-impact 
  plastic or a strong metal. No trunk with an ‘organic’ 
  surface texture has been found. The size of the trunk 
  limits only what can be placed within it, however, not 
  its internal size.
  The trunk always appears empty when opened. Any 
  item placed within will seemingly vanish when the 
  trunk is closed. In actuality, the item is teleported to 
  a subspace pocket dimension whose dimensions are 
  100 feet by 100 feet by 100 feet. In order to retrieve 
  an item deposited, the same person who placed it into 
  the trunk must visualize it while the trunk is open; it 
  will then materialize inside the trunk.
  This means that no item which cannot ﬁt into the 
  trunk when closed can ever be placed into it, and that 
  only the person who added an item can remove it. 
  Multiple people can add items to the same trunk. 
  If a trunk is found, 10+1d20% of its internal storage 
  capacity will already be consumed by other items 
  placed there by long-dead owners. 
  Items placed in the trunk lose all perception. Living 
  beings report nothing from the instant the trunk is 
  closed on them to the interest they are retrieved. 
  Time does not pass – the most sensitive instruments 
  show not much as a femtosecond passes between the 
  instant the lid is closed and the instant the item is 
  retrieved. This means that cameras, microphones, or 
  other means of seeing what is ‘inside’ a trunk fails. 
  A trunk weighs 1 pound (for the smallest sizes) to 8 
  pounds (for the largest). This weight is not affected 
  by what is stored within.
  Tachyon Blade
  These weapons were created for an elite warrior 
  corps. It is believed each is unique, hand-crafted, 
  probably via the use of extremely powerful 
  psychokinetic manipulation of matter at the sub-
  quantum level. Over countless aeons, most have been 
  lost, but once in a century or so, one is discovered 
  on some dead ruin of a world. If the ﬁnder possesses 
  the skill to wield it, it can be the most potent melee 
  weapon in the galaxy. An Exotic Weapon Proﬁciency 
  (Tachyon Blade) feat is required.
  The hilt of the blade is usually made of diamond, a 
  single stone of perfect clarity, shaped to ﬁt a typical 
  humanoid hand. (A few have been found which seem 
  to ﬁt somewhat more alien appendages...) Within the 
  diamond hilt, controls of ruby, emerald, and sapphire 
  are set. These gemstones move and slide through the 
  
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  Alien�Artifacts
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  diamond as if it were liquid, without disturbing the 
  crystal matrix in any noticeable way. It seems as if 
  the desire of the wielder to manipulate them causes 
  them to momentarily phase slightly out of the normal 
  universe, then, when they have been slid or set to 
  their desired location, they settle back in place. The 
  controls allow the generated blade to range in size 
  from 1 foot to 5 feet in length, and from 1/2 inch to 3 
  inches in width. 
  In general principle, the tachyon blade is similar to a 
  beam saber, and represents the ultimate evolution of 
  that device. When activated, an energy beam emerges 
  from the hilt, contained within a ﬁeld of negative 
  gravitic energy. The blade itself, though, is composed 
  of pure tachyons – faster than light particles. Their 
  effect on normal matter is astonishing.
  Firstly, the blade ignores all armor, force ﬁelds, or 
  damage reduction. Nothing which exists can resist it 
  – it cleaves through the most advanced Energy Age 
  armor as easily as it passes through air. Targets gain 
  no Natural, Equipment, or Armor bonuses to Defense, 
  and the Tachyon Blade can penetrate any form of 
  Damage Reduction, whether natural or the result of a 
  force ﬁeld.
  Secondly, the tachyon force of the weapon literally 
  warps time around the target. Any living being stuck 
  by the weapon must make a Fortitude save (DC 
  15+1/point of damage done, or increase one age 
  category – from Adulthood to Middle Age to Old to 
  Venerable. Effects of aging are covered in the D20 
  Modern rules. Once a character has passed Venerable, 
  if he fails the Fortitude save upon being struck, he 
  dies. 
  Normal healing will not reverse aging. Exotic 
  methods, such as cloning a younger body and 
  then transplanting a brain into it, might work. The 
  immortality serum, described in this document, may 
  also prove useful. 
  The tachyon blade ages objects as well. In addition 
  to ignoring all Hardness associated with an object, it 
  does double damage. This also applies to robots.
  Beings which do not age and which are not constructs 
  suffer no effects from the tachyon blade other than 
  the damage done, which is often enough. 
  The blade of a tachyon beam is a deep black – light 
  cannot escape it.
  Transit Cards
  Transit cards are the remains of what was once a 
  galaxy-spanning transportation network. Each card is 
  5 inches by 3 inches by 1/2 inch thick, and composed 
  of a hard, wear resistant and transparent substance, 
  akin to diamond but stronger. Encased within the 
  clear shell is a holographic image – a city, a beach, 
  a mountain, a forest – which seems extremely sharp 
  and real. It does not look like an image so much as a 
  view through a window, frozen in an instant. A small 
  number of indentations can be felt along the edge of 
  the card; these are controls.
  When the indentations are touched in the proper 
  sequence (which usually requires experimentation), 
  the user and his gear is immediately teleported to 
  the location shown on the card. However, it must be 
  noted that the cards are very old and the civilization 
  which built them is long vanished. The city is most 
  likely an abandoned ruin or buried beneath miles of 
  debris; the forest may not be a savannah, a desert, 
  or an urban complex. The cards will never teleport 
  someone into a solid object or high above the ground, 
  but there are no other safety features – if the ocean 
  has eroded away the beach, the user will appear four 
  miles from shore.
  The cards are one-way; there is no ‘go back’ option. 
  The citizens of the original civilization would carry 
  packs of them, but time and chaos have resulted 
  in only single cards being found. Sometimes, it is 
  possible to calculate where a card may lead – for 
  example, if a starscape is visible, a Knowledge 
  (Astronomy) check (DC 30) may be able to reveal 
  what world is shown on the card. Most often, though, 
  using the cards is a one-way trip to an unknown 
  world.
  If the user is in physical contact with others, up ﬁve 
  other beings of size Large or smaller may be taken 
  along.
  There is a base 10% chance of any card burning out 
  upon use.
   
  
  The Modern Dispatch
  Alien�Artifacts
  Page 7
  OPEN GAME LICENSE
  OPEN GAME LICENSE Version 1.0a
  The following text is the property of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. and 
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  2. The License: This License applies to any Open Game Content that 
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  9. Updating the License: Wizards or its designated Agents may publish 
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  12 Inability to Comply: If it is impossible for You to comply with any 
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  15 COPYRIGHT NOTICE
  Open Game License v 1.0 Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
  Modern System Reference Document Copyright 2002, Wizards of 
  the Coast, Inc.; Authors Bill Slavicsek, Jeff Grubb, Rich Redman, 
  Charles Ryan, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip 
  Williams, Richard Baker, Peter Adkison, Bruce R. Cordell, John Tynes, 
  Andy Collins, and JD Wiker.
  System Reference Document Copyright 2000-2004, Wizards of the 
  Coast, Inc.: Authors Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, 
  Bruce R. Cordell, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and 
  Dave Arneson. 
  Modern Dispatch #36 2005, Ronin Arts; Author Lizard
  OPEN GAMING CONTENT
  Designation of Product Identity: The following terms are designated 
  as product identity as outline in section 1(a) of the Open Gaming 
  License: Modern Dispatch, .
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  Modern Dispatch #36 is designated as open gaming content except for 
  terms deﬁned as product identity above.  All illustrations, pictures, and 
  diagrams are Product identity and property of Ronin Arts™.
  All the text is open content.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/The Modern Dispatch/The Modern Dispatch 036 - Alien Artifacts.pdf