The Song of the Doom Star
Discovered
early in the nebulous dawn of history called the First Empire, Cassius 193 B
has been known as a harbinger of and place of great doom for many tens of
thousands of years.
Navigators
can feel the ‘song’ far further than most, several lights distant, and all know
to avoid this region of space entirely. One presumes they are as subject
to the siren song as anyone else. Maybe more so.
The Cassius
193 system (it has never in current history been assigned a contemporary
catalog reference) is long dead. There is a planet of the yellow-orange
star Cassius 193 A with intact but deserted cities, only now starting to show
the wear of entropy. Long ago, whatever people settled on that world
departed, en masse, without exception, for the weird dark purple star
that is it’s B companion.
Doom Star
The
danger of the Cassius 193 B system is this - the star itself, a bizarre
as to be unique phenomenon, constantly emits a particular
sub-etheric/electromagnetic signal, strong but along a very specific
wavelength. Those who jump into the system will find that this mysterious
‘signal’ will broadcast from the star itself; while the (itself quite potent)
EM component of the signal is quite strong, it may be blocked or tuned out by
modern starship screens and technology. The true threat is the etheric
component of the signal; it (much like the wavelength of the EM aspect)
seem curiously tuned to the etheric body and CNI of particular sentient beings
(Imperial Humanoids are among the most susceptible) - some of strong will or
the psychically gifted (or psionically equipped) may hold off for a while
but inevitably, the strange droning ‘call’ of the star will seep into the
consciousness of even the strongest of wizards, navigators, or legionnaires.
Within a standard day, and usually much much less, the mindless, moronic
hijacking of sentient consciousness will be total and the ship will invariably
set it’s controls for the heart of the singing weird sun.
Myths:
- The Black Sirens
of Cygnus are believed to have their origin as a telling of an early
encounter with the Doomstar.
- Beware the Navigator that speaks of the
Doomstar; too easily the Song becomes their obsession and then their doom.
Travel not with Navigators who speak of the Doomstar.
- The inhabitants
of Cassius A-2 created the Doomstar; one day it shall begin expanding, a
new and hostile universe poised to consume our own dying one.
- The Doomstar is
an active, aware, and malevolent God of the Void, and it watches and sees
everything in all directions in several lights. One night far
in the future, it will proclaim judgement and then nightmares become real.
- Notorious
ex-Imperial Science Academy Dhanekynn exclaims that the Doomstar, which it
calls Hol’mi’biru is on a bizarre sub-ether course that will bring
it directly through the core systems in about 50,000 years. He is
also wanted on at least two counts of sabotage at ISA archeological sites
for destruction of xenotechnolgy and inciting anti-Imperial sentiment
(“There are things we are not meant to know!” is an anti-Imperial
sentiment, when convenient; the Empire is very progressive that
way.)
Historical
Theory
The C
star is a class II Hazard /Unstable Dwarf; believed to have been a
yellow-white star of some long stability, it is theorized that a passing black
hole or neutron star, moving at significant comparative velocity, ripped away a
large percentage of the star’s mass, leading to several thousand years of
instability and thus to its current, tiny yellow flare dwarf, state.
Some go
further and suggest that the Doomstar is the intruding object, drawn into a
trinary orbit and cooking slowly in whatever conflict masses it has absorbed.
Story Hooks
- The world of
Cassius A-2 is completely uninhabited; a small planet mostly covered
by super-tech, spherical cities that reach as high as they do wide.
Entropy is know to be somewhat retarded there for reasons even
Imperial super-science cannot explain. Further, the orbit of Cassius
A takes it far enough away from the Doomstar that there is an 18 month
period where landing on the planet is believed safe. An entire
planet full of supertech just waiting to be looted. What could go
wrong?
- A non-aware
dumb-matter probe has returned speedily to the Imperial Science Academy -
a small yellow orb, possibly some sort of magnificent transdimensional
eye, is presently in close orbit around the Doomstar, seemingly oblivious
to its effects. The ISA immediately puts together a team of
mind-blind explorers, all seemingly immune to psi and psychic contact, to
investigate the alien phenomenon, with haste they are equipped and thrown
into the action. Likely their survival is not considered a
priority.
- THe misjump was
bad. But then Navigator has disentangled herself from the interface tub
and gone catatonic. Now you have 20 scrubs on their first space
voyage staring blankly and speaking monotonously while trying to bust
their way into the command section. How badly do you need the new
crew? To confuse matters further, if the entire ‘loyal’ crew goes
down, pick one of the mutineers at random and assign one to each player.
Inexplicably their heads have cleared (and only theirs) … but they
have control of the ship. What do they want to do?
- Surrounding the
Cassius 1493-B is a LARGE ring, the ring is made entirely of spacecraft
that have been placed in a parking orbit or manage to somehow avoid
‘successfully diving into the sun.’ In any event, over 80.000 semi
to intact spacecraft exist in a tight, ‘narrow’ ring, very close in to the
star itself. Such a salvage run would be extraordinarily challenging
but almost anything could be found in those ships.
Game
effects
Every
game hour spent in the Cassius B system subjects all sentient minds to a once
hourly DC 15 Will save. Those who make the save find themselves feeling
edgy and tense but that’s all.
Those who
fail the Will Save are constantly being bombarded, psychically and, through
some means, sonically by a warbling high pitched tone that fluctuates wildly
and seems to ‘throb’ or thrum. Constantly distracted, they are actually
slowly having their wills broken down though it should not at first be apparent
what is happening.
An hour
after the first Will save is failed, the target of the Doomsong must make a
second will save (This time DC 20) or they will give into their highly
stimulated death urge and attempt to take the helm and direct the ship’s course
toward the star. Those who fail this second Will save take on the Doom
Song condition.
The Doom Song - the signal stimulates
the kirrillian-aetheric body as well as the CNI of the subject, and does so
constantly. By the time they can audibly (mentally) ‘hear’ the
‘song’ it is because their brain or equivalent has been stimulated sufficiently
to begin poking the ‘death urge.’
That is
what the obsession is. The ISA is close but they have misidentified the
phoneomenon. IT is essentially a naturally occuring (?) perception hack;
it stimulates the death urge until finally the subject gives in. And so
they set their controls for the heart of the sun, the source of the signal.
Only
removing the subject from the presence of the signal at this point can free
them of its effects. Subjects so ‘stimulated’ are operating
on a kind of autopilot, and their sense of self is both absent entirely and a
small flitting moth drawn to the weirdly shadowed purple star.
Commonly,
the weaker willed go first. Mutiny or mass violence ensues; eventually
there is a constant struggle for the control of the ship until either the craft
passes into the star’s corona, or the vessel manages to escape (usually by
jumping out system)
Once
removed from the effects of the signal, the mania remains but becomes less
intensive. IT will not begin to fade during sub-ether transit;
only after returning to material space (and away from the doomstar) will
the urge begin to fade, manifesting as a general mental disquiet and disturbing
dreams for 2d7 days thereafter.
Machine-life
characters may very well think they are immune but they are not.
Machine-life characters clever enough to remote access one of the
unawakened probes (via gear, magic, psi, or whatever) will find to their horror
that this serves only to expose them remotely to the signal. And who then
will expect the ship’s goldenrod protocol droid to then go reset jump
coordinates back into Doom hell? No one likely.
Exceptions
In
instances in which a target has no innate death urge (Judge’s option) a
differing part of the brain should be stimulated; either whatever the clade
equivalent is or some other random part of the brain - make it interesting.
A reptilian species might, for example, be motivated to put the
ship in the closest orbit possible and then lay as many eggs as possible.
“This article is reproduced in Apocrypha Obscura – Transmissions from the Dreaming Gynoid, available (drive thru link)
