>> Emerald Horizon After-Action Report

This week, I ran another Mothership adventure from Dissident Whispers. Emerald Horizon puts the players at the bottom of an acidic ocean in a filtering facility as temp workers. The situation starts stressful, since the tenured crew of the station view the PCs’ temp contracts as a threat, and things only get worse from there.

Characters

• Tommy “Two Toes” “Strong Arms” - Teamster - Engineer from New Brooklyn, uses a custom-built collapsible wheel-chair to get around
• Rawnee Jombes - Teamster - Aspiring phtographer, owner of Pics by Rawnee LLC, doing temp gigs to fund his hobby
• Sara Arker - Scientist - Attempts to make friends through shared recreational drugs
• Ortiz-83 - Android - Coldly logical, “Not programmed to carry things”

The crew arrives in the deep sea facility and meet Carmichael, the brash security chief, who leads them to the Mess Hall. The PCs pass up on the offered gross food-paste, exchange a few words with the disgruntled Chemical Engineer Ford, and grab some coffee. Carmichael then gives them their first task: to fix the air filters in Life Support.

In Life Support, they found out that the air filters are not just broken, but completely gone. Further investigation shows the filters have been cut away by a welder and removed entirely, but they’re nowhere to be found. Carmichael insists that they must be around, “air filters don’t just walk away.” He relunctantly leads Tommy and Ortiz-83 to storage to get a replacement, but tensions rise with Carmichael when he refuses to help carry the air filter back.

While the other half of the crew retrieve the air filter, Sara and Rawnee check security footage. They notice Ford and Felicity are the only crew members that appear in the Life Support footage, but the camera doesn’t show the vent clearly enough to see interactions with the air filters. They do notice one thing: nobody walked out with an air filter. They assume it has to be in the room or further down the vents somewhere.

Once the air filter is fixed, the crew has another confrontation with Carmichael. As tensions rise, the argument turns to blows. The scuffle is cut short however, as a rumble is felt throughout the base. The crew rush to the Dry Pump Room and find that the counterweight has exploded. Without the counterweight, the spinning centrifuge will shake the room apart. They quickly put on vacsuuits to protect against water leaks, and help Balsa, the engineer, stop the centrifuge before the room tears itself apart.

In the aftermath¹, Rawnee and Ortiz-83 head to Storage to salvage parts for a new counterweight, while Tommy and Balsa try to repair the centrifuge. As Ortiz-83 and Rawnee make their way back with a counterweight, everyone feels the rumble of another explosion. Balsa and Tommy notice in horror that water starts rushing in through the Dry Pump Room, this time the primary pump has exploded. Tommy is still in his vacsuit, but Balsa isn’t so lucky and dies to the acidic water as Tommy escapes.

Tommy meets Rawnee and Ortiz-83 in security where Carmichael engages anti-flooding measures and unlocks the emergency escape. Charmichael is noticeably upset at the loss of Balsa, but leads the way to the Wet Life Room where the escape berths are. Once they arrive, Carmichael confronts the PCs with a shotgun; there’s only room for four people to escape, and his people have priority. There’s only one extra spot now with Balsa gone, and the PCs have to decide which of them gets to escape.

The logical Ortiz-83 turns on his friends, but the standoff is interrupted by the reanimated and gelatinized corpse of Balsa. Tommy uses the distraction to push Rawnee into the water and begin their escape. Carmichael fires at the two in the water but misses, and chaos ensues as Balsa attacks. In the face off against Balsa, Felicity’s suit is ripped open by Balsa’s projectile spikes, and staggers in shock as her death is all but assured. Ford, Carmichael, and Ortiz-83 dive into the water to escape Balsa, and race towards the escape pods.

With a good headstart, Tommy and Rawnee make it to the pods first. Ford speeds ahead of his crew, but has no interest in fighting. Tommy and Ford take escape pods to the surface, while Rawnee waits for Ortiz-83, not fully believing his betrayal. Ortiz-83 and Carmichael see Rawnee with two escape pods remaining, and both rush to draw their weapons. Carmichael draws his shotgun on Ortiz-83, but Ortiz-83 draws his laser cutter faster. However, the logical android was truthful about his new loyalty, and fires upon Rawnee. The shot goes wide, and destroys one of the last two remaining pods. As Ortiz-83 fires upon Rawnee, Carmichael shreds the android with his shotgun. Seeing his former companion die, Rawnee quickly takes the last pod up to the surface.

Carmichael is left alone, at the bottom of the acidic ocean, with only his gelatinous crew to keep him company.