Descent into the Atmo-Centre of Libellus III

Brave the planet storm. Delve into the secrets of the Urlanth. Fight the degenerate. Steal anything that isn’t bolted down.

Libellus III is a deathworld orbiting an angry red supergiant.

Every few thousand years, planet-wide plasma storms sweep across its surface. This time, the ancient machinery protecting the inhabited uplands is beginning to fail. The storm bunkers cannot support the population for long, aircraft cannot survive beyond the capital’s shrinking shield, and Atmospheric Control Centre Omega has stopped answering.

The local government has therefore turned to the traditional solution employed by desperate authorities everywhere:

Hire expendable freelancers.

Your mission is simple. Trek across the wilderness, penetrate the abandoned control centre, restart the planetary atmospheric defences and return in time to get paid.

As additional encouragement, anything you find in the ruins is yours.

That last part may prove rather important.

Welcome to Libellus III

The journey to Centre Omega leads through a psychedelic nightmare of crimson rain, green plasma lightning, psychic winds, sudden mudslides and scalding cloudbursts.

Ancient Urlanth signposts rise from the mire. Broken storm bunkers offer uncertain shelter. Strange creatures roam beneath the electrical skies, while abandoned mines and shattered cryogenic capsules promise valuable technology to anyone sufficiently brave, greedy or stupid to investigate.

The party is working to a two-week deadline.

The weather is getting worse.

And the old maps were not especially reliable when they were new.

The Wilderness Is Only the Front Door

Atmospheric Control Centre Omega is not merely a weather station.

Buried within the mountain is a multi-level Urlanth complex containing viewing galleries, sealed quarters, ruined entertainment arcades, decadent bathhouses, unstable engineering chambers, secret research laboratories and the machinery upon which millions of lives now depend.

The facility has been isolated for centuries.

Its inhabitants have not fared well.

The descendants of the original Urlanth personnel have been twisted by deprivation, cannibalism and the mutating influence of the Priapic Ooze. Now known as the Urlocks, they haunt the complex with their Skrout-hounds, crude weapons and degenerate tribal culture.

They are not alone.

Automated defences still obey ancient orders. Damaged maintenance machines continue their work with homicidal enthusiasm. Urlanth Royal Guards pursue a duty almost two thousand years out of date. Somewhere beneath it all, something vast and thoroughly biological waits in the dark.

The deeper the characters travel, the more frequently the Urlocks come hunting.

A Pleasure Palace Turned Deathtrap

Centre Omega is a relic of the decadent Urlanth Matriarchy: part essential infrastructure, part luxurious retreat and part secret imperial redoubt.

Its surviving chambers contain:

• Lost Urlanth weapons and armour.

• Ancient engineering equipment and power cells.

• Holographic disguises and reflex-enhancing boots.

• Psionic devices and experimental exo-technology.

• A fortune hidden by a malfunctioning entertainment AI.

• Perfumes, stimulants, hard-light pornography and other remnants of imperial civilisation.

• Clues to the collapse of the Matriarchy and the origin of the Urlocks.

• The locations of six other forgotten Urlanth bunkers.

Players can complete their mission and leave—or continue descending in search of greater secrets, better loot and considerably worse decisions.

The Secret Beneath the Centre

Atmospheric Control Centre Omega survived for a reason.

Hidden within its lowest level is a secret royal daughter of the Urlanth Matriarchy, preserved for nineteen centuries inside an ornate cryo-casket and guarded by near-immortal sentinels.

She can still be saved.

Unfortunately, the power required to awaken her may prevent the planetary shield from activating.

Save the princess, and the population may be left to the storm.

Save the planet, and the princess may die in her casket.

Attempt to save both, and the characters will need a plan sufficiently clever, reckless or magnificently dishonest to make it work.

Should they mishandle matters, they may instead awaken a hideous Mother of Urlanth bioweapon—or trigger the centre’s planet-sterilising Elegance Protocol.

Civilisation, treasure and an extremely well-preserved princess are all waiting below.

No pressure.

Inside This Adventure

Descent into the Atmo-Centre of Libellus III is a complete science-fantasy survival adventure for Machinations of the Space Princess, intended for 4–6 characters of Levels 2–4.

The PDF contains:

• A deathworld wilderness expedition with a two-week deadline.

• Twenty random travel events, hazards and discoveries.

• A large, multi-level Urlanth ruin to explore.

• Survival, exploration, combat and scavenging.

• Cannibal Urlocks, mutant beasts, malfunctioning machines and ancient guards.

• New equipment, exo-tech, vehicles, treasure and useful campaign material.

• Multiple possible resolutions with lasting consequences.

• Hooks leading to lost Urlanth bunkers, bounty hunters, planetary gratitude and yet another potential galactic warlord.

The adventure draws inspiration from grim science-fiction survival, body horror, ruined civilisations and the sort of colourful space opera in which the apocalypse may still have a functioning pleasure arcade.

The Storm Is Coming

The atmospheric shield is failing.

The bunkers are filling.

The wilds are crawling with things that regard travellers as mobile catering.

Somewhere inside the mountain, a yellow light is still blinking on the command console.

Cross the deathworld.

Enter Centre Omega.

Descend through the ruins.

Save whoever you can.

Then steal anything that isn’t bolted down.

This product is supplied as a digital PDF. No physical product is included. Machinations of the Space Princess is required to make full use of the rules and statistics. Contains mature themes, sexualised science fantasy and body horror.