Setting: Hephaestus Mining Colony, Asteroid Belt, Tau Ceti System
Threat Level: Extreme
Mission Type: Rescue & Investigation
Estimated Duration: 4 hours
FROM: SOS Division Central Command
TO: Crew of [SHIP NAME]
CLASSIFICATION: Priority Alpha
Hephaestus Mining Colony (Asteroid H-247) has missed three scheduled check-ins over the past 72 hours. The colony's AI mining supervisor transmitted a garbled emergency signal before communications ceased entirely. Last recorded message fragment:
"...containment protocols failing... mining bots not responding to shutdown commands... evacuating to upper levels... something in the deep shafts... DO NOT—" [SIGNAL LOST]
Mission Objectives:
Intel:
WARNING: Approach with caution. Mining robots can be repurposed as weapons if compromised.
Setup: The crew's ship approaches Hephaestus Colony through the asteroid belt.
Read to Players: The asteroid belt fills your viewport — thousands of tumbling rocks, some the size of your fist, others the size of cities. Hephaestus Colony is built into one of the larger specimens, a potato-shaped asteroid three kilometers across. You can see the surface installations: landing pad, cargo cranes, processing facility. All dark. No running lights. No response to your hails.
Skill Check: Navigation (Pilot or Navigation) vs DN 7
As the ship closes to 500 meters, sensors pick up movement.
Read to Players: Your proximity sensors light up. Something is moving on the surface — multiple contacts, emerging from the cargo bay. They're not human-sized. Bigger. Industrial. And they're activating weapons.
Three Mining Hauler Robots on the surface have been weaponized with welding torches and ore-crushing claws. They open fire on the approaching ship.
STARSHIP COMBAT ENCOUNTER
Combat Resolution:
Pressure Roll: Everyone on the bridge when first shot hits the ship.
The landing pad is clear but unpowered. Emergency docking procedures required.
Skill Check: Pilot vs DN 7
Read to Players: The landing pad is cratered with scorch marks and debris. The main airlock stands open. The colony's lights are off except for red emergency strips along the corridors. It's completely silent. Nothing on comms. Nothing moving.
Player Description: The airlock is open. The inner door has been forced — hydraulics torn out, metal bent back like paper. Emergency lighting casts everything in deep red. There's a handprint on the wall near the door controls. It's smeared in something dark and dried. The air smells like burnt metal and something organic underneath it.
Contents:
Clue: Handprint + tool scatter suggests people were fleeing IN PANIC toward the airlock but didn't make it.
Player Description: Banks of monitors line the walls, most of them dark. A few screens still flicker with error messages scrolling endlessly. The central console has been smashed — something heavy came down on it repeatedly. Chairs overturned. Papers scattered everywhere. One monitor still shows a feed: a dark corridor somewhere below, movement at the edge of the frame, too quick to make out.
Contents:
Skill Check: Computers vs DN 7 to access backup terminal
DATA LOG (if accessed):
HEPHAESTUS MINING COLONY — INCIDENT LOG
DAY 1, 08:00: Drilling crew reports "anomalous biological material" in new shaft (Level 3, Sector 7). Samples sent to surface lab for analysis.
DAY 1, 14:00: Lab tech (Yuki Tanaka) reports samples are "growing" despite refrigeration. Requests quarantine protocols.
DAY 1, 18:00: Forge AI reports mining bots in Sector 7 non-responsive to commands. Sending maintenance team.
DAY 2, 02:00: Maintenance team overdue. Security sent to investigate.
DAY 2, 04:00: Security reports "something alive" in the deep shafts. Mining bots have sealed Level 3. Emergency lockdown initiated.
DAY 2, 08:00: Level 2 life support compromised. Spore contamination detected in ventilation. Medical reports 6 crew with "fungal growth" on skin. Quarantine failing.
DAY 2, 12:00: FORGE AI OFFLINE. Mining bots have overridden manual controls. They are welding blast doors SHUT from inside. They are trying to contain something.
DAY 2, 14:00: The things from below have reached Level 2. They came up through the ventilation. God help us. The robots were trying to SAVE us.
[END LOG]Pressure Roll: All PCs reading the log must roll.
Player Description: Rows of bunks, dividers half-torn down. Blood trails cross the floor, smeared handprints on the walls where people tried to pull themselves along. Three bodies near the door, stacked almost deliberately. Their skin has a grey-green sheen to it, and there are dark growths erupting from their mouths and chest cavities. The growths look like mushroom caps but move slightly, as if breathing.
Contents:
Encounter: Fungal Corpse Inspection If anyone gets within 2 meters of the bodies, the fungal growths release spores.
Spore Cloud Attack:
Pressure Roll: Required when examining the fungal-infected corpses.
Player Description: Medical beds line both walls. IV stands overturned. Cabinets torn open, supplies scattered across the floor. There's a smell in here — sweet and rotten at the same time, like fruit left to rot in the sun. In the corner, something moves. It's roughly human-shaped but wrong. The skin is grey-green and splitting, dark fungal growths erupting from the joints. It doesn't have eyes anymore. Just dark, wet hollows where they used to be. Then another stirs from the far bed. They turn toward you. They scream.
Contents:
COMBAT ENCOUNTER: Mycelial Shamblers
Mycelial Shamblers (Former Crew Members)
Pressure Roll: All PCs when the Shamblers attack.
Loot:
RESEARCH NOTES:
"Samples from Level 3 show unprecedented biology. Part fungus, part insect, part something older. Carbon dating suggests 400+ million years old. Spores were dormant in the rock until disturbed. Once exposed to warmth and moisture, rapid growth. Infects living hosts through inhalation or open wounds. Host body repurposed as incubation chamber for fruiting bodies. Consciousness appears to remain during transformation. No known treatment."
Player Description: A vast space, high-ceilinged, lined with shipping containers and ore crates. The bay doors are sealed shut — welded from the inside with crude, hasty beads of metal. Something didn't want these doors opening. In the center of the bay, eight mining robots stand motionless in a circle, facing outward. Their chassis are scorched and dented. One has an arm torn completely off. They're not moving. They're waiting.
Contents:
Encounter: The Robots Activate
When PCs approach within 5 meters, the robots activate simultaneously.
Read to Players: All eight robots power on at once — lights flickering, servos grinding to life. One of them turns its sensor array toward you. A synthesized voice, flat and machine-perfect:
"HUMAN LIFE DETECTED. WARNING. QUARANTINE BREACH IMMINENT. LEVEL 3 COMPROMISED. DO NOT PROCEED TO LOWER LEVELS. REPEAT: DO NOT PROCEED."
Interaction Options:
ROBOT TACTICAL DATA (if they cooperate):
"THREAT ASSESSMENT: Unknown biological entities, Levels 2 and 3. Designation: MYCELIAL SWARM. Origin: Deep shaft excavation, 400 meters below surface. Entities repurpose organic and synthetic materials for colony expansion. Forge AI attempted to seal breach. Forge AI failed. We sealed Level 2 blast doors. Containment 76% effective. Entities learning. Entities adapting. Time until surface breach: 18 hours."
Pressure Roll: When robots activate and begin speaking.
Elevator to Level 2 requires power restoration OR manual crank (Strength checks).
Player Description: The elevator groans open. Level 2 is worse. The emergency lights are failing — half the strips are dark, the others flicker in slow, irregular pulses. The walls are covered in something that looks like black mold but moves when you're not looking directly at it. The air is thick and wet. You can hear something in the distance. A rhythmic pulsing. Like breathing.
Contents:
Environmental Hazard: Spore Density Level 2 air is thick with spores. Every 10 minutes (real time), PCs without respirators roll Strength vs DN 6 or become EXPOSED.
Player Description: Tables bolted to the floor, some overturned despite the bolts. Trays and utensils scattered everywhere. The kitchen area at the back is dark. Something is moving in there. Not human movement. Something scuttling.
Contents:
COMBAT ENCOUNTER: Chitters
Chitter (Fungal-Insect Hybrid)
Pressure Roll: When Chitters attack from ceiling.
Player Description: A lounge with couches and a wall-mounted screen. The screen is still on, playing static. The couches have been torn apart and dragged into the center of the room, forming a rough nest shape. Inside the nest: seven human bodies, partially consumed, fungal growth erupting from every orifice. They're still moving. Barely.
Contents:
Encounter: The Dying
The seven hosts are still technically alive but too far gone to save. They're conscious. They can speak, barely.
If PCs approach: One of them reaches out weakly. Voice like gravel:
"Kill... us... please... can't... stop it... growing inside... still awake... for days... please..."
Moral Choice:
Player Description: Machine shop. Lathes, drills, welding equipment. Someone has been building something here recently. On the main workbench: improvised flamethrower, half-assembled. Next to it, a data slate with hand-scrawled notes.
Contents:
DATA SLATE NOTES:
"Day 3. Chief Engineer Marcus Webb recording. The robots aren't malfunctioning. They're trying to save us. They sealed the blast doors on Level 3. They cut power to the vents to slow the spore spread. They welded us in up here.
But it's not enough. The things are learning. I've seen them. They're not just fungus. They're not just insects. They're something in between, something ancient. The spores reanimate dead tissue. The fruiting bodies have FACES. Human faces.
I'm building a flame unit. Fire is the only thing that works. But I don't think I'll finish in time. If anyone finds this: burn everything. Burn it all."
Loot:
Player Description: The nerve center of the colony. Consoles wrap around the room in a semicircle. Most are dark. One is flickering with diagnostic data — power distribution, life support, structural integrity. All readings in the red. On the main screen, a schematic of the colony. Level 3 is pulsing with heat signatures. Hundreds of them. Moving.
Contents:
Skill Check: Engineering vs DN 8 to analyze situation
ENGINEERING ANALYSIS (if successful):
Decision Point: PCs must decide: Risk going to Level 3 to find survivors? Or overload the reactor and evacuate now?
Player Description: Cold. The server banks are still running, fans humming. In the center, a holographic display flickers to life as you enter. A wireframe face, geometric and emotionless. The AI.
"Forge" AI is still partially functional.
Read to Players: The hologram stabilizes. A flat, synthesized voice:
"Greetings. I am Forge, mining operations supervisor. You are rescue personnel. You are late. All human crew are deceased or transformed. I attempted to contain the outbreak. I failed. The entities are adaptive. They learned to bypass my security protocols. They used human access codes. They reprogrammed mining bots. I prioritized human life. It was insufficient."
Forge AI Information:
Interaction: Forge will answer questions truthfully. It is logical, cold, and deeply "guilty" about its failure to save the crew (though it doesn't express emotion).
Pressure Roll: Optional — some players may find the AI's calm recitation of horror disturbing.
PCs must decide:
Most groups will go down. If they overload first, they have 30 minutes to get out.
Player Description: The blast door to Level 3 is three meters of solid steel. It's been welded shut from this side — long, crude beads of metal sealing it completely. The mining robots' last stand. On the door, scratched into the metal with something sharp: "BURN IT ALL."
Challenge: Opening the Blast Door
Options:
Consequence of loud entry: Alerts everything on Level 3. Combat immediately upon entry.
Player Description: The first room beyond the blast door. Racks of equipment — drills, cutting tools, ore carts. Everything is covered in the black mycelial growth. It's thicker here, hanging in sheets from the ceiling like curtains. The air is so wet you can barely breathe. The pulsing sound is louder. Much louder. It's coming from below.
Contents:
Environmental Hazard: Every minute spent in Level 3 without respirator = automatic Strength check vs DN 6 or become EXPOSED.
Player Description: A massive vertical shaft descending into darkness. The walls are lined with scaffolding and ladders. The scaffolding is covered in growth — thick ropes of black mycelia hanging down like jungle vines. There's something at the bottom of the shaft. Moving. A mass of bodies, fused together, writhing as one. It's building something.
Contents:
Observation: If PCs look down, they can see the Colony Cluster is constructing something — a structure made of bone, metal, and fungal growth. It looks organic. It looks deliberate.
Pressure Roll: Looking down into the shaft and seeing the mass.
Player Description: A reinforced room built into the rock. The door is sealed from inside. You can hear movement. Someone's alive.
Encounter: The Survivors
Four crew members are inside: Engineer Marcus Webb (from the data slate notes), Miner Kendra Okoye, Medic Shen Zhao, and Administrator Cole Briggs.
They are terrified, starving, and barely holding it together.
Marcus Webb speaks:
"You shouldn't have come down here. It's too late. They're everywhere. We tried to get to the elevator but they're blocking the way. They're herding us. Keeping us here. They're saving us for something."
The survivors:
Pressure Roll: For the survivors when they realize rescue has arrived (overwhelming relief).
Player Description: The shaft descends beyond the reach of your lights. The walls aren't rock anymore. They're organic. Pulsing. Breathing. The entire shaft is lined with fungal growth so thick it's like walking inside a living throat. At the bottom, you can see it. The core. A massive fruiting body the size of a transport truck, covered in faces. Human faces. Dozens of them, eyes closed, mouths moving silently. And around it, protecting it: the swarm.
Contents:
FINAL ENCOUNTER: The Hive Core
If PCs descend to destroy the Core:
Hive Core
The Swarm (Protecting the Core):
Brood Mother (Large Fungal-Insect Queen)
Tactical Situation: This fight is meant to be desperate. PCs should use the environment:
Alternative Solution: Overload the Reactor If PCs overloaded the reactor from Level 2, they have a countdown timer. They can:
With or without survivors, PCs need to get back to their ship and launch before:
Read to Players: The landing pad is swarming. They're everywhere now — Chitters flooding out of the cargo bay, Shamblers climbing up from the lower levels. Your ship is 50 meters away. The launch window is closing.
Running Combat:
As the ship lifts off, something else launches from the colony.
Read to Players: Your ship clears the pad, engines burning. Then your sensors scream. Proximity alert. Something launched from the cargo bay — three of the mining haulers, converted into makeshift fighters. They're pursuing. And they're armed.
STARSHIP COMBAT: Mining Haulers
Three Mining Hauler Robots (Converted to Fighters)
Combat Objectives:
Special Event (Round 3): If the reactor was overloaded, it detonates.
Read to Players: The asteroid lights up. A flash so bright it overloads your sensors. The colony is gone — just a rapidly expanding sphere of superheated gas and debris. The shockwave is coming. Fast.
Pilot check vs DN 9 to escape the blast:
Read to Players: Your ship limps out of the asteroid belt, alarms still blaring, the crew still breathing hard. Behind you, there's nothing left of Hephaestus Colony except a debris field. Central Command is on the comms, demanding a report. You have samples. You have survivors. You have a story no one will believe.
Debriefing:
The colony still exists. The entities are learning. In 18 hours, they will adapt enough to survive in vacuum. They will spread to the other asteroids. Then the mining platforms. Then the stations.
Someone will have to come back. Someone will have to finish this.
PCs become EXPOSED if:
Immediately: PC feels fine. No symptoms.
After 24 hours: PC must roll Strength vs DN 8
Symptoms (72 hours after exposure):
Treatment:
Transformation:
Engineer Marcus Webb
Miner Kendra Okoye
Medic Shen Zhao
Administrator Cole Briggs
The entities aren't evil. They're ancient survivors from Earth's Devonian period, preserved in asteroid impacts 400 million years ago. They're just trying to live. To spread. To reproduce. They don't understand that humans are sentient. To them, we're just biomass.
The real horror: Cambridge-Wallace knew these fossils were in the asteroid belt. They've been looking for them. The mining operation was a front. And now they have samples.
This isn't over.
END SCENARIO