Venture Seeds (Also the Black Book of Ancient Atlantis)

Venture Seeds are inspired more than a bit by the capsule adventures (of various stripes and in different departments) in the old Journal of the Traveller’s Aid Society   Sometimes more a casual encounter, sometimes more of an Amber Zone.

Venture seeds are – obviously – adventure seeds. Which is to say, little mobile elements that the Judge  can pepper throughout their game  to serve as minor encounters or a full session or more of gaming.  From a more in-universe standpoint, they represent ‘opportunities’ for the Player Characters. 

Venture seeds should always, ideally, follow the maxim – “ take a risk, maybe get something.”

Always.

Sometimes they are hose jobs, and sometimes there are actual fortunes to be made. More often they will gain in experience both in the traditional gaming sense and in the seeing the universe sense. 

In Galaxy Black, being well-traveled is functionally a superpower, looked at in the right way….

Format  Pretty self-explainatory. Each Venture seed, where necessary will feature a name or catchy title then immediately below list first what the recommended or assumed size of group the seed is for, then what the group will need to qualify, and finally what elements from the game are especially featured should be listed thirdly.  

Other venture seeds already in this blog

Ithos IX

Necronauts

Castor Nine-Lilies

The Song of the Doomstar

The Green Hell Orb

Though I'm sure there's more you could use for this purpose.  
For example....

The Black Book of Ancient Atlantis also called the Book of Black Bindings, the White Book of Atlantis, and “the Holding of Darkness in Bands of White and Text”

History and Lore  Is an ancient work of Prehistoric Teranaya.  For much of Teranaya’s immediate pre-spaceflight history, it represented the greatest single sum total work of Black Magick known in the world at that time, a sort of compilation of all of a previous era’s greatest evils.

It is said that one of the first paths of vampiric un-death is due this book and it’s fell incantations and esoteric formulae. The final sinful decades of Last Atlantis saw many occult groups rise in power in that land but only in that time did such a scholarly work of such black evil come to be or could have come to be.

But this is Teranaya, where Hell has come and gone, in struggles both literal and figurative since literally intelligent life has existed upon it’s mass.   Here the first fallen was loosed, and then bound, and then loosed again for final destruction. Here the very prison at hell’s Centre itself was set in the bay of a mortal city in a monumental act of mortal hubris.  Here Hell itself came calling after the bill after Teranaya unleashed the Technarchy on a younger galaxy, a wave of extermination, genocide, and death ending in the comparative purity of hell’s own flame.   Here, Teranaya was burned and yet risen anew.

So, it may be inferred that even at a young stage of development, those Terran sorcerers knew something special about the black arts.

Description and Paraphysical Qualities

The book is wrought of what tests positive for a primitive strain of what the modern Imperium calls Saurid.  IT has been suggested that the theorized Ancient Empire of Saurids may have at some point established an equatorial colony on Prehistoric Teranaya at some point though no evidence currently exists to support such a hypothesis.

Thick black leather that has proven metaphysically resilient to fire, cold and other extremes of temperature (indeed, it is Void rated and could be – and has been – evacuated into the vacuum of space without apparent damage or degradation) notoriously the book also contains (some would maintain primarily exists as a strong magnetic field that is capable of discharging electrical impulses and weak plasma exposures. The upward limit of the book’s tensile strength has yet to be determined.

The pages are sewn together patches of Saurid and other, precursor species, skin, while the ink, the strange white ink used throughout upon it’s black pages tests 98.l9% positive for Homo sapiens recens, a sapiens sapiens precursor known primarily as the periodic inhabitants of ancient Atlantis, esp. in its second and final ages.

The book has been shown to have multidimensional existence and possesses Correct Geometry for a Sacred Vessel.   It bleeds unknown energies and negative energy fields at seemingly random intervals.  Attempts to duplicate the work metaphysically have failed and most spectacularly. At least two Grand Curses await any who attempt it, likely killing the idle curious. It will not scan or upload into virtual modeling.  IT is blank to pure data and most datalife cannot perceive much of the book or its contents. Attempting to fully replicate the book physically have been successful (see below) but even then, must be sufficiently flawed to avoid triggering the second of the two great curses, which even if survived, will pass on indefinitely to one’s offspring and or one’s heirs.

Contents

The book is a major work of necromantic and conjuration magic, as well as containing fair insights into self – directed transformation magics of a physical nature, including alchemy.  The book contains lavish summoning’s and invocations for a variety of ancient demons and space monsters, as well as mysterious spectral entities from a primitive Sub-ether.  There is also much metaphysical contemplation of the Void, presented as a ‘behavior guide’ to ‘hardening the heart and soul’ against the nature of the work.

The book contains many formulae for transformation into a variety of necromantic un-death states, though the Blight Curse that one invokes to induce a vampiric state is contained, in precise and complete detail, only within the Saurid skin pages of this Ancient work.

Summonings:                    Invocations:                      Transformations

Succubi & incubi                  Sutekh                                   Blight Curse (vampirism)  

Star demons                         the Black Pharaoh               living mummification prep

Psychopomps                        Yig of the Egg                        alchemy transform H to SF[1]

Lethe Elementals                 Great Cthulhu                      a poss. Path to lichdom

Spectres, Wraiths                various lords of death         alchemy ghoul creation rite

Memory Eaters                    minor Void entities             zombie salts

Space monsters                    Star beasts                             alchemy void mead body

The book also details the ancient-even-then language of the serpent people who were by then largely extinct, having been long hunted for their esoteric knowledge. Further it provides a basis for magic invoking that people’s great powers.  Yig of the Egg among others.  

Also, within the book’s pages are several pages dedicated to the ‘questionable alchemy’ of that people. 

Allegedly the book was used once in prehistoric times to banish all vampires from the world.  Possibly this is an echo however from a similar book in an adjacent Splinter.

When used as a focus for casting magic, +1 to the spell check results. When one with the arcane affinity for Black Magick uses it thus, they at +3 to their spell check results, and likely also unlock other aspects of the tome that are not otherwise observable in normal space-time conditions.

Collection and Location

The book is commonly (and falsely) believed to be on some private display within the Thetyel Family compound on Irzibete. However, this is a forgery, and a known one.  A single use transcription and fabrication copy, lacking any actual enchantments and fragmenting much of the lore inside, exists there instead…created by that noble family, in a private arrangement with the Dean of Esoteric Studies at the Imperial Science Academy. 

The Real book is located at the ISA’s Holdfast pyramid located at Teranaya’s Equator. There, it is under some manner of “contained study” within the Dean’s purview  

The Future and its’ Secrets

It is doubtful that anyone involved realizes how much more effective the book is at what it does on the world of its’ origin.   While the stars of that world’s night sky have changed considerably since this book was incepted, they are close enough to still effectively add 1 to all bonuses previously described while being used and studies on Teranaya itself.

This would effectively mean +4 to all spell check results in the hands of a black magician, and if they were invoking the forces of hell within, they would earn the like bonus from Teranaya’s metaphysical poles (Heaven and Hell respectively[2] +2/+3) making it a +7…bonused by the above to +8.

That could be dangerous.  But surely no one in the Imperial Science Academy would have more than scholarly interest in such a work, right?

Happy Halloween

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[1] Human to serpent folk; it’s a one way transformation, you wouldn’t like it.

[2] Teranaya’s double metaphysical poles are well known to the ISA

Heaven & Hell/ Progress & Catastrophie        +2/+3, and (order) +1 (chaos)+2

The Song of the Doom Star

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:

1. The Black Sirens of Cygnus are believed to have their origin as a telling of an early encounter with the Doomstar.
2.  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.
3. 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.  
4. 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.
5. 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

1. 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?
2. 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.
3. 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?
4. 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)  

  and (itch.io link)