ROSE BAILEY, BENJAMIN BAUGH, STORN COOK,

STEFFIE DE VAAN, MEGHAN FITZGERALD,

JORDAN GOLDFARB, DANIELLE LAUZON, ETHAN SKEMP,
LAUREN STONE, TRAVIS STOUT, AUDREY WHITMAN
 CAVALIERS OF MARS

Credits
Creator and Developer: Rose Bailey
Authors: Rose Bailey, Benjamin Baugh, Storn Cook,
Steffie de Vaan, Meghan Fitzgerald, Jordan Goldfarb, Dan-
ielle Lauzon, Ethan Skemp, Lauren Stone, Travis Stout
Senior Writer: Audrey Whitman
Battlehymn and the Damsel Messiah Created By:
Judd Karlman
Editor: Dixie Cochran
Indexer: Rita Tatum
Cover Artist: Chris Huth
Interior Artists: Andrew Trabbold, Eric Lofgren, Nate
Pride, Doug Stambaugh, Joel Biske, John Wilson, Alex
Sheikman
Art Director: Michael Chaney
Special Thanks
Benjamin Baugh, Craig Oxbrow, Neall Raemonn Price,
and Audrey Whitman, for reviewing countless early drafts.
Daniel Bayn, whose mechanics got the early versions of
the game up and running.
Cam Banks, CJ Carella, Chris Rutkowski, and Greg Stol-
ze, whose work influenced the system.
Judd Karlman, for letting me cross over with his own
Mars.
Dixie Cochran and Elizabeth Greenberg, for editing ear-
ly Cavaliers projects.
The Dead Gamers Society and the Wrecking Crew, for
running excellent convention games, and all of the attendees
at Gen Con and other shows who played in those games.
Logan Storm and Henry R. Moore III, for their generous
backing.
Richard Thomas, for early encouragement and ultimate-
ly picking up the game for publication.
RPGnet and its community, for providing the original
space for discussing the setting.
Eddy Webb, for being an eternal sounding board.
Playtesters
Devon Amnott, Cassandra Angel, Daniel Bayn, Landon
Beasley, Jesse Bockweg, Kari Brewer, David Brookshaw, Bill
Buchalter, Sarah Buchanan, Elliot Cavnaugh, Pauline Chan,
Ryan Chenoweth, Clete Collum, Brian Conley, William Darr,
Nicholas Davey, Roderick Easton, Nathan Emery, Henri Fei-
jge, Sarah Fitch, Thomas Franklin, Barnaby Fullerton, Chris
Johnson, Stephen Gawrit, Maarten Gilberts, Nathan Grego-
ry, Jonathan Harden, Nathan Henderson, Olivia Hill, Nick
Hoffman, Michael Holland, Ronald Hoogakker, Rory Hop-
kins, Jesse Hughes, Drew Hults, Matthew Knighton, John
Jaeger, Christopher Johnson, Jamie Kelley, Michelle Kruse, Pi-
otr Kubowicz, Tony Kuntzelman, Jeremiah Lamantia, Shawn
Lyons, Rick MacLennan, Thomas Martin, Gene McDonald,
Brett Murphy, Stephen Noa, Craig Oxbrow, Crystal Paras,
Michael Pareman, Nicholas Petroski, Rich Piraro, Alex Pota-
nos, Neall Raemonn Price, Sherry Raynor, Mallory Reaves,
Tyler Roberts, Ian Ruark, Jamie Russell, Ralph Shonemann,
Ethan Smith, Michael Smith, Travis Stout, Richard Stratton,
Faye Sutherland, Megan Suttner, Andrzej Szoka, Nathan
Thompson, James Tucker, Margaret Weddell, Charles Wells,
Jamie Wheeler, Quinn Wilson, Filamena Young, Piotr Zbier-
ski
On the Cover
Dubious heroes Valentine and Soteria flee the guards of
Lady Aldonza Arez. Valentine has stolen the head of a proph-
et, which yet speaks in tongues. Soteria has stolen the heart of
a courtier, somewhat less literally.
These two women, whose partnership varies in nature
as do the wind-blown sands, are archetypal examples of the
rogues of dying Mars.
Reckless, witty, and not a little dangerous, theirs are ad-
ventures your heroes' will rival and surpass.

© 2018 Rose Bailey. All rights reserved. Text and illustrations are the property of Rose Bailey.
Reproduction without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden, except for
the purposes of reviews, and one printed copy which may be reproduced for personal use
only. The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge
to the trademark or copyright concerned. This book uses the fantastic for settings, characters
and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are fiction and intended for entertainment
purposes only. This book contains mature content. Reader discretion is advised.

2
Introduction 8 Combat Maneuvers 28
Strike 28
Basics 8 Parry 28
Book Overview 8 Disarm 28
Draw Corps-a-Corps 28
Chapter 1: Feint 28
The Apprentice’s Tale 12 Lunge 29
Riposte 29
The Desert Towns 12 Shove 29
Sand and Sky 12 Sweep Attack 29
The Red Cities 13 Combo Talents 29
The People 14 Ranged Weapons 29
Warfare 16 Unarmed Combat 29
Medicine 16 Minions and Mobs 29
The Lost Places 16 Challenges 29
The Map 30
Chapter 2: Rules 20 The Uncanny 31
Basics 20 The Adept Arts 31
Characters 20 Astrology 32
Actions 20 Fixing 33
Lasting Consequences 20 Origins 34
Exerting and Exhausting Traits 21 Anger 34
Talents 21 Battlehymn 35
Drama Points 22 Chiaro 35
Trouble 22 Cimmeria 36
Strain 22 Coronal 36
Conditions 23 Foresight 37
Improvement and Change 23 Illium 37
Character Creation 24 Siren 38
Example of Character Creation 25 Skarras 38
Non-Player Characters 25 Surtur 39
Combat 26 Wyeth Valley 39
The Combat Round 26 Vance 39
Example 27 Zaiu Caravans 40
Ziggur 40
3
 CAVALIERS OF MARS

Zodiac 41 Assassin 53
Dust Towns 41 Bleeding Cut 53
Invisible Blade 53
Careers 42
Slip the Knife Deeper 53
Adept 42 Taste of Poison 53
Assassin 43 Astrologer 53
Astrologer 43 Foreordained 53
Master Astrologer 53
Cavalier 43
Portents 54
Courtesan 43 Quick Read 54
Entertainer 44 Cavalier 54
Fixer 45 Fast Footwork 54
Laborer 45 Flashing Blades 54
Merchant 46 Mounted Combatant 54
Noble 46 Courtesan 54
Physician 46 Accepted Everywhere 54
Importance of Ceremony 54
Pilot 46
Seduction 54
Priest 47 Whispered Secrets 54
Scavenger 48 Entertainer 54
Scholar 48 Distraction 54
Servant 49 Inspiration 54
Soldier 50 Impressive Physique 54
Keeping Up with the News 54
Thief 50
Fixer 55
Talents 51 Cobble Together 55
Cunning Talents 51 Director 55
Always a Way Out 51 I Made It, I Know How It Works 55
Bribery 51 Mastercrafter 55
Cheat 51 Laborer 55
Disguise 51 Basic Artisan 55
Hidden Pockets 51 Jack of All Trades 55
Improvised Tools 51 Scrapper 55
Lawyer 51 Merchant 55
Vouchsafe 51 Appraisal 55
Forceful Talents 51 Good Deal 55
Dangerous Reputation 51 Well-Traveled 55
Demolish 51 Noble 55
Dress to Impress 52 Command Respect 55
Offer They Can’t Refuse 52 Friends in High Places 55
In Demand 52 Put it on my Tab 55
Graceful Talents 52 Physician 56
Acrobat 52 Expert Treatment 56
Climber 52 Quick Treatment 56
Free Running 52 Soothe 56
Showoff 52 Pilot 56
Vanish in a Crowd 52 In Command 56
Career Talents 53 Navigational Expertise 56
Adept 53 They All Work the Same 56
Dowsing 53 Priest 56
Psychometric Master 53 Calming Presence 56
Telekinetic Control 53 Ritual Fervor 56
Windspeaking 53 Raise Morale 56

4
 Table of Con t en t s

Scavenger 56 The Wyeth 66

Friends in Low Places 56 The Zaius 67
This Will Do 56
Religions 69
Tomb Raider 56
Scholar 57 Astrology of Zodiac 69
Forge Documents 57 The Church of the Damsel Messiah 70
Ready to Research 57 Fire Priests of Surtur 71
Well-Read 57
Initiates of the Labyrinthine Mysteries 71
Servant 57
Wyeth Reincarnation Cycle 72
Blade Carrier 57
The Back Door 57 Yellow Silks of Ziggur 73
Unobtrusive 57 Zaius Ancestor Worship 73
Soldier 57 Mystery Cults 74
Deadly Force 57 Cities and Regions 75
Pistoleer 57
Tactician 57 Anger 75
Thief 57 Locations 75
Charlatan 57 Battlehymn 80
Pick Pocket 57 Locations 80
Sneak 57 Chiaro 83
Non-Player Combat Talents 58 Locations 84
Stand Together (Minion Only) 58
Cimmeria 88
Mob Violence (Minion Only) 58
Daring Reversal 58 Coronal 92
Evasive Footwork 58 Locations 93
Reckless Assault 58 Foresight 98
Paths 58 Locations 98
Path of the Barbarian 58 Illium 102
Path of Bloody Knives 58 Locations 102
Path of the Conqueror 58 Siren 106
Path of the Coward 58 Locations 107
Path of the Deceiver 58 Skarras 111
Path of the Devoted 59
Locations 111
Path of the Entranced 59
Path of the First Footstep 59 Surtur 116
Path of Giving Hands 59 Locations 116
Path of Jeweled Thrones 59 Vance 120
Path of Lamentation 59 Locations 121
Path of the Legendary 59
Wyeth 126
Path of Open Arms 59
Path of the Night-Thief 59 Locations 126
Path of Promises Kept 59 Ziggur 130
Path of the Vendetta 59 Locations 130
Zodiac 135
Chapter 3: Civilization 62 Locations 135
Peoples 62
Chapter 4:
The Red Martians 62
A World of Adventure 142
The Roundheads 64
The Pale The Poles 142
Martians 64
North 143
The Skarruts 66
Plains of the Pillar 143

5
 CAVALIERS OF MARS

The Bone Annals 145 Razok 198

Cycnus, the Drifting Ruin 148 Yummoc 198
South 149 Friends 199
Black Rubble 149 Eora 199
Gallow’s End 151 Meles 199
The Temple of the Poppy Brides 153 Singing Spider 200
Arcadia 154 Beasts of the Desert 200
Caute (or Ghost Cat) 200
The Shanties 155
Ghosts 200
Excavations 158
Machaira 202
The Memory of Waves 160
Weasels 202
Meridian 162 Beasts of the Wood 203
Hazard 162 Cerana 203
The Honeycomb 163 Fagun Bug 203
Muniqa 164 Ikkun Parasite (Deephome) 203
The Prismatic Wastes 165 Miyuk 204
Naruk 204
Rainbow 165
Wyeth Deer 204
Cave of
the Hyaline Mother 167 Beasts of the Wastes 205
Armonica Canyon 169 Jackal 205
Scorpion King 205
Skarras 171
Steppes Locust 206
Dangling Raster 171 Ursavas 206
Hirshel 172 Beasts of the City 207
Noachia 173 Pale Martian Cities 207
Tharsis 174 Automatons (or Machine Spiders) 207
The Lunar Mosaic 174 Lapin 207
The Sleeping Witches 175 Vulture 208
Zohar That Was Promised 175 Vance 208
Salamander 208
Chapter 5: Sand Spider 208
Game Master Resources 180 Sparrow 209
Chiaro 209
Characters: The Personagenesis Machine 180
Delve Beetle 209
Adventures: The Tribulation Engine 186
Ice Hornets 209
Location 186
Milak 210
Opening Conflict 188
Illium 210
Roles 191
Glasscutter (Prismatic) Wasp 210
Tilts 191
Radium Rat 210
Secrets 193
Silicon Crab 211
Example of Usage 194
Surtur 211
Appendix A: Bestiary 196 Bharal 211
Beasts of Burden 196 Glome Bug 211
Aepys 196 Ormerian Lizard 211
Horus 197 Skarras 212
Oleph 197 Gallum 212

6
 Table of Con t en t s
Laradill 212
Sandskin 212
Skulker 213
Beasts of the Water 213
Fishwife 213
Lamia 214
Lungfish 214
Beasts of Legend 215
Blind Snake 215
Roc 215
Tomb Stalker 215
Appendix B: Gear 217
Basic Gear 218
Clothing 218
Bone Angel Clasp 218
Ghostly Scarf the Color of Rain 218
Jade and Black Glass Bracelet 218
Leather Sawbones Satchel 218
Serpentsilk Shawl 218
Food 218
Heart of Palm Wine 218
Sweet Crescent Bread 219
Wildhoney Tea 219
Instruments 219
Aoide 219
Lark’s Tongue 219
Sea Bells 219
Objects and Tools 219
Book of Gondola Tickets 219
Ceramic Meles-hair Brush 219
Intarsia Jewelry Box 220
Maiden’s Finger 220
7
Missal of the Witch’s Cradle 220
Photinus Lamp 220
Weapons 220
Cold and Glittering Knife 220
Hide and Horn Bow 220
Lathed Whip 221
Sister’s Flintlaser Pistol 221
Two Feet Standing 221
Nephrite Dagger 221
Wolf Spider Rifle 221
Rarities 222
Clothing 222
Brooch of the Damsel Messiah 222
Caute Fur Cloak 222
Anchorite’s Veil 222
Food 222
Winnowgrass 222
Instruments 222
Wyeth Harp 222
Seven Cresting Waves 223
Wooden Drum, Inlaid with Silver Stars 223
Objects and Tools 223
A Spoke From The Wind’s Saddle 223
Clockwork Heart 223
Map of the Heavens (Stationary) 223
Weapons 224
Echidna’s Tooth 224
Opening of the Way 224
Staff of Life 224
Ten Devils Caught 224
Building Your Own 225
Appendix C: Inspiration 226
 Return now to dying Mars in its last age of glory. A
planet of flashing swords and choking sands, of winking
courtesans and lantern-lit canal cities. Mars, where fortune
and death are two sides of the same obsidian chit. Where lost
cities and dry oceans stretch between the last bastions of civ-
ilization. Where the First Martians, the monument-builders,
are but a haunted memory. Where the Red Martians have
become decadent and giddy in their last days. Where the
Pale Martians rule the wastes, remembering a history whose
weight would crush a lesser people.
Find yourself digging desperately for treasure in the lost
tombs of Chiaro, spitting defiance at the Roundhead priests
of wild Ziggur, dashing across the towered crypts of Vance.
Lock steel with the Princess Invincible, even as your hand
reaches towards your flintlaser for insurance.
Live, fight, and love on Mars, a world of red death and
strange mystery, a world of savagery and romance.
Cavaliers of Mars is a roleplaying game of adven-
ture on a dying world. It combines swashbuckling ac-
tion with desperation and ambition.
Mars is a world of pageantry, where masked balls
conceal dark intrigues. It’s also a world of crowded city
streets, where the people jostle each other in long wa-
ter lines. This is a world where a celebrated officer in a
shining army can be worn down to a nameless wander-
er, selling his sword in dusty desert towns.
In this dying, predatory world, there’s a place for
characters with their own morality. For people willing to
take a stand. And to kick a whole lot of ass.
Cavaliers of Mars is about hope and honor at the
end of the world.
8
Basics
Cavaliers of Mars is designed for two to five play-
ers, each of whom creates their own hero, and a single
Game Master (GM), who creates situations and threats
against which those heroes can shine.
When the outcome of an action is in doubt, players
roll a pool of dice (in sizes from d6 to d12), based on
their characters’ traits, and pick the two highest. They
compare the result to that of a similar pool rolled by the
GM, which includes dice for the action’s difficulty and/
or the traits of opposing characters. These rolls usually
provide a straight success or failure, but can have ongo-
ing consequences at the GM’s discretion.
Characters also have Talents, which enable players
to skip rolling under certain circumstances in favor of
an effect that “just works.”
For violent conflict, players select a pool of dice
representing their characters’ individual maneuvers.
Everyone rolls, then the maneuvers are resolved in or-
der from the highest die to the lowest.
Finally, players can tweak the odds of their heroes’
actions or assume narrative control by spending Drama
Points. Drama Points are regained when heroes get into
trouble or find themselves seriously disadvantaged.
Book Overview
• Chapter 1: The Apprentice’s Tale presents an
in-character overview of our Mars through the
eyes of a cavalier’s apprentice.
 In t rodu cti on
• Chapter 2: Rules introduces the DEIMOS sys-
tem, including character creation, combat, un-
canny abilities, and more.
• Chapter 3: Civilization describes the peoples,
religions, and major cities of Mars.
• Chapter 4: A World of Adventure details exotic
locations from across the world.
• Chapter 5: Game Master Resources includes
tools and generators to help the GM prepare ses-
sions and stories.
9
• Appendix A: Bestiary tells tales of the strange
creatures of Mars, and provides their game me-
chanics.
• Appendix B: Gear covers a selection of objects
and equipment useful (and hazardous) to heroes.
• Appendix C: Inspiration offers examples of fan-
tasy and historical fiction that inform our Mars
and can inspire your characters and adventures.
 “I have lived a long life,” my master used to say. “Soon it will be my
turn to die. And not long after, the world’s turn.” And then he would order
another drink.
When my master took me in, I might as well have been an orphan.
He bought me from my mother for a handful of ceramic chits laced with
the radium of Illium. They were worth a dozen rations of water, but he
might as well have handed her his flask of liquor directly. I know he was
carrying one.
Why my master did that, I don’t know. He told me, at various times,
that my father had been his brother-in-law, or that they had served
together in the war. There were other stories, too. Any or all of them could
have been true. I often suspect that he took me on because he pitied me.
Whatever the case, he raised me from the age of 13 as his own child.
He died three years ago.
The master was a man of wild stories. He had been across our Red
World a dozen times or more. He told me of hard-fought battles, of
daring deeds, of the love of princes and princesses. He talked most often
when we were practicing with swords. I think he talked to teach me how
to fight while distracted. He told me his stories, and he told me that one
day I would have as many of my own.
From the time he adopted me until his death, he made his way as a
fencing instructor and a hired bravo. He made little money this way, but
always enough to keep him in his cups and to keep me well-looked-after.
This book is our world as he saw it, the world in which he lived and
died. I am giving you his words as honestly as I can, and with care taken
not to reveal certain indelicate secrets. I am giving you the legacy of a
dying man on a dying world. I am giving you Mars.
The Desert Towns
I spent the first 13 years of my life in the desert. It
is, as anyone will tell you, a hard life, harder even than
in the cities. We were fortunate…we had an old well, an
artifact of the First Martians that plunged deep into the
permafrost and sucked out the water.
The desert brigands merely collected dues from our vil-
lage; we were spared the seasonal ravaging that came to so
many others. My master told me about the brigands. He
told me that no man joins them by choice, that they are
bands of outcasts driven farther away from society than any
others, save perhaps the lost inhabitants of the dusk cities.
He never said whether he fought with or against them.
Without walls or buildings, the desert towns are
also subject to the full fury of the elements, including
the dust storms. When those great red clouds come roll-
ing out of the desert, they bring scouring debris. Worse,
though, is the dust itself, fine as smoke. It seems to suck
the moisture from your tissue, and you must try desper-
ately to hold your breath, lest you be taken by a ghost.
Storms give voice and motive power to the dead, who
can otherwise travel only on the wind.
Still, there are reasons to stay. Overland trade can sup-
port many a community, as can the rare operating mine.
Some take the difficult path of raising meat animals, and
bring in a measure of prosperity in selling them to the larg-
er settlements. Some few are even located on oases, where
vegetables can be grown and water is not quite so scarce.
Desert towns aren’t precisely hospitable, but they
can be good places to go to ground. I can vouch for this
12
from experience. More than once, my master and I were
hunted across the desert by those would have our water.
Some towns will hire wanderers as protectors, to ward off
desert raiders, or even to enforce the law.
A few of our ill-omened expeditions into the lost
places began in towns like the one I grew up in. De-
spite the danger ahead, I was never tempted to stay
behind.
Sand and Sky
We live upon an old world, and you can find that in
every aspect of life and death. My master often spoke of
the world dying. As a child I imagined I could hear its
groaning sighs on the wind. As a grown woman, that is
not a fancy I have entirely left behind.
My first voyage across the desert began the day after
my master bought me. Or, as I’ve come to think, bought
my freedom. Clad in long desert robes and silk breath-
ing masks, we set out beyond the borders of the square
mile in which I had lived all my life. The desert, then as
now, was temperate by day, frigid by night, and extended
forever in all directions. Though we followed an ancient
track, no one could have seen it who had not learned it
by heart, master to apprentice, as it was with me.
My master often said that the sun no longer looms
as large as once it did. Certainly, it no longer warms the
planet with the same intensity. While the air itself is thin,
it is thick with dust, creating the strange scarlet skies. As
the sun rises or sets, the dust gives it an eerie blue halo.
Like many, my master was superstitious about night and
the color blue. Twilight lasts an hour or more at both at
 The Deser t Towns | San d an d S ky | The R e d Ci ties
sunrise and sunset, and at that time you can clearly see
the blue star called Earth.
Dust storms are common, and can cover huge re-
gions. We were fortunate not to encounter any during
my first desert crossing. A few times a century, a storm
will rise out of Hell’s Basin and engulf the entire world.
A planetwide dust storm can leave behind an epidem-
ic of the maddened and possessed. It fell to my master
sometimes to put such people to the sword.
Bodies of water are few, and rain is rare and precious.
Some parts of Mars have not seen a drop in thousands
of years. Sometimes I’ve seen ice clouds in the coldest,
highest parts of the sky, giving it a violet hue. This ice
can be harvested by intrepid flyers – one of the thousand
ways Illium maintains its flowing fountains and generous
water rations. Other water comes from ancient wells,
or is processed from layers of ice beneath the sand. The
marsh people of the old sea beds distill their water from
the muck. Indeed, I have been forced to do so myself,
and can say that the results are musty and unpleasant,
but as life-giving as a drink from any other source
Yet Mars’ greatest waterworks, those which sustain
our remaining societies, are the canals. The canals are
the final legacy of the First Martians, miraculous chan-
nels that melt water from the polar cap and irrigate large
sections of the planet. Nearly all of the Red Cities de-
pend on the canals for water and trade, and repairs to
the canal network are one of the few subjects that can
bring our feuding rulers together in cooperation.
The Red Cities
What to say of the cities? After he bought me, my
master brought me to Vance, where we lived modestly in
a room above his favorite tavern. Despite his occasion-
al protestations, I can think of no better place to have
grown up. In Vance, the canals divide into a spiderweb
of streams, which serve as the city’s streets. At night, a
thousand colored lanterns light the channels. The city
refuses to sleep. In those late hours, a handful of chits
can buy almost anything, though one must watch one’s
purse closely. My master would often say that Vance is a
city of thieves, yet I could say the same of any other city
we visited. Perhaps it was the company we kept.
The Red Cities number some two dozen. Every one is
located near some source of water. Thus, most are located
along the canals, as Vance is. Yet there are a few outli-
ers. Star-ruled Zodiac is an oasis within a great bowl of
13
rock, which somehow traps the water from the pole with
no need of canals. There, it even rains. In Ziggur, a place
I shall shun and curse all my days, the people are rationed
water that condenses within the atmosphere processor.
In any city, the majority of construction is stone
and mud brick. Sometimes, this construction can be
quite shoddy…my master told the story of being thrown
through a third-story wall in Chiaro.
Daily life is a struggle for all. No one is well-heeled
enough to be certain where their next skin of water will
come from. Every hand toils to earn food and water,
whether attached to the arm of a laborer, a scribe, or a
sellsword. Still, better the cities than the sort of town I
grew up in.
Traveling between cities can be difficult. Hire a boat
down the canals, and you risk pirates. Desert thieves say
the water pirates are soft; the two missing fingers on my
master’s left hand put the lie to that. Travel overland,
and you risk the desert thieves, not to mention the des-
ert itself.
Yet for all that, the journeys are worth it. Few of
the city-states are truly self-sufficient, and anyone who
can trade or steal commodities in one to sell in another
stands to earn more than their share of water.
Ah, but how to buy that water, or the knife you
need to earn it? Each city manufactures its own money,
backed at some level or another by rations of food or
water. Most use ceramic coins or chits, treated in some
way as to challenge the skills of counterfeiters. In Vance,
for example, an iridescent glaze is applied; a similar tech-
nique is used in Zodiac. Illium’s coins give off a radium
glow; I’ve used one to lure a mark down an alley on a
dark, cold night.
The greatest quantities of both money and resources
are naturally controlled by the upper classes, our sup-
posed betters. Different cities have different aristocra-
cies, ranging from Vance with its nobility of merchants
and thieves to the theocracy of cursed Ziggur. Yet the
divide between rich and poor is razor thin, a fact of
which every one of us is keenly aware. Thus, some of the
wealthy are given to acts of extreme generosity, in the
hopes that we will visit the same upon them should their
fortunes turn.
In general, the people of Mars are given to grand
gestures. We are keenly aware that we live in our planet’s
last days, and so we weep and curse and love openly and
with abandon.
 CHAPTER ONE: THE APPRENTICE’S TALE

This is true of no one more than the rogues of the claim that we were seeded from distant stars, that the
Red Cities, a fraternity of which I have sometimes been a First Martians themselves were survivors of some ear-
member. Gamblers curse their luck with the names of for- lier, more beautiful world. My master, though he could
gotten gods, while bravos seek satisfaction of one another wax philosophical given enough drink, dismissed these
in the streets and taverns. A slight against a hired sword questions as the domain of scholars hunched over
can find a man with a handspan of steel protruding from
his back. These rough characters inhabit the lower-class
portions of town, but are sometimes hired by the upper
crust as bodyguards and assassins. Many times, my master
was hired by a young noble to fight a duel in his place.

The People
Mars is home to many peoples. The most numerous
are the Red Martians, of which I am one. We are the
common people of the Red Cities, and I suppose I must
admit that our rulers are of the same descent.
We share our history with the Pales, though you’d
hardly know it to see them. They are giants, and my
master fought not a few. The Pales stand over eight
feet, with four arms. I would not have believed that ev-
ery one of those hands could hold a sword, but I have
seen it with my own eyes – and been lucky to survive.
Their eyes are large, their hair black and long, and their
mouths sport two small tusks.
Like us, they are the descendants of desert nomads
who survived the drying of the seas and the fall of the
cities of the First Martians. Unlike us, they choose to
reclaim these cities. Of course, there are not many of
them anymore – the First Cities are dangerous places,
as is the open desert – yet they live in small settlements
among rebuilt ruins. I have heard them called a savage
race, but my master often said that we are no less savage.
For, if we were not, how could we survive in a world that
also contains them?
We Reds and Pales are not alone, of course. The
Zaius, sought after as physicians and wise men, resem-
ble the apes even more than we. The women of Wyeth
are as much plant as animal, and much feared as war-
riors. The Skarruts survived where most other lizards
died, evolving to generate heat within their own bod-
ies. And there are others, smaller, stranger peoples who
might be found in the bazaars of Vance or their own
lost cities.
Whence came so many peoples and the fragments
of culture we share is unknown to me. I’ve heard it
said that we were created by the First Martians, each
with some purpose in a grand design. Some astrologers

14
 The Peo p le

books and bones. I myself think that when our world
truly lived, it was simply abundant in all things, think-
ing creatures included.
During my apprenticeship and in the years beyond, I
have never met a man quite like my master…yet I have
met many who share the same wanderlust, the same
greed, and the same passion for reckless adventure. I
have met these among all the people I have encoun-
tered on our Red World. For some, there is no place in
life but that carved with the point of a sword.

My Master’s Last Moments

15
 CHAPTER ONE: THE APPRENTICE’S TALE
Warfare
My master was not alone in living by the sword. In-
deed, he was slower to draw it in anger than many of
those he associated with. In this world, everything of
value must be protected with force, whether by fending
off desert raiders and canal pirates, or marching across
the desert to defend an oasis town. While we are not
by nature murderous, we are often driven to violence to
protect what is ours and take what we need from others.
Most warfare is conducted at little greater than arms’
length. Knives and spearpoints are made from bone.
When I was 15, I offended the honor of a young gen-
tleman. Or, rather, I refused both his advances and his
demands for my food. Ringed by his friends, we fought a
traditional duel. I slew him. After all, I was hungrier. But
afterwards, I retched for hours.
We left town under something of a cloud, but when
we next reached civilization, my master gave me my first
steel dagger. Metal weapons are valuable indeed, for
quality steel comes only from Surtur or the forges of far
Deimos.
Our most common firearm is the flintlaser, which is
slow to reload but deadly and reliable. My master insist-
ed that I carry at least one flintlaser ready to fire at all
times, a practice I have not abandoned.
Many sorts of beast are employed as cavalry mounts.
Flying terros and their landbound cousins, the ostoros,
are difficult to tame but highly prized. My master was
a peculiar breed of cutthroat, a cavalier who could ride
all manner of beast. Cavaliers keep their methods close
to their chests, but more than one has found employ-
ment training the army of a city-state or hill-tribe in the
mastery of a particular mount. I learned riding from my
master as I grew to womanhood and we spent more and
more time on the road. Someday, I think, I shall teach
another, provided the world lives that long.
Illium and Zodiac both possess flying ships, based
upon a secret anti-gravity element. When I was 16, my
master and I were caught in a bombardment by Illium’s
forces. We spent the entire night lying flat on the floor,
hoping that no bombs would fall upon the hovel we had
commandeered. I didn’t sleep a wink, between the ex-
plosions outside and the cooling body of the homeowner
lying next to me.
The capability to unleash such horrors makes most
cities afraid to challenge Illium or Zodiac on the field
16
of battle. Fortunately for the rest of us, the long enmity
between the two states prevents either from reaching
too far.
Wars between the city-states are sudden and short.
At 19, I fought alongside my master in one of Vance’s
mercenary companies. In that year as a soldier, I probably
learned as much of the world as I did in the entire six
prior. When the war ended, we were once again unem-
ployed, and took to guarding caravans for a while. Truth-
fully, we rarely had to draw steel. Most of the bandits
were people we had fought beside in the war.
Still, from time to time, we were forced to kill former
comrades. He never told me aloud, but I believe that is
why we soon left the caravans to seek our fortunes in the
lost places.
Medicine
The other reason we left guard duty was that I took a
nasty cut to my sword arm. My master always told me that
he needed me to watch his back. By the time I was 21 this
was actually true, and I needed a good arm to do it.
Our physicians are well educated in anatomy, and
skilled at the ugly art of surgery. Like most drugs, their
anesthetics are dangerously strong, and difficult to dose
safely. However, they are well-known and widely avail-
able, provided the physician’s price can be met.
My cut was treated with a peculiar gum derived from
trees in the canyon-forest of Wyeth. Wyeth gum is anti-
septic, and firms quickly when applied to a wound. It acts
as a coagulant, stopping bleeding, yet is porous enough
to allow drainage. Wounds treated this way heal quick-
ly and leave only light scars. My arm recovered swiftly,
though it still aches from time to time.
If a wounded person is treated quickly enough, they
can often return to at least light physical labor within
hours. I have heard soldiers boast that with a vial of
Wyeth gum and a pitcher of liquor, they can fight until
the end of days.
The Lost Places
As I was saying, during my recovery, we began to plan
an expedition to the lost places. We traveled to Chiaro.
We took up lodging in a tent city in Chiaro-that-is, but
within sight of our goal: Chiaro-that-was. Chiaro-that-is
is a reasonably hospitable place. Poor, but the basic ne-
cessities of life are available. Oases within the city space
 warfare | Me d i cine | Los t Places
provide food,  along with some yumocs raised for meat.
We were just two more would-be tomb robbers spending
our last chits on the chance of a fortune.
At night, by blue flames, we would stare out at Chia-
ro-that-was, silhouetted against the stars. Staring out at
what the First Martians left behind.
In that epoch, the world was filled with life. Plants,
beasts, and sentient creatures all thrived and multiplied.
The First Martians built grand cities along the azure seas,
yet still pushed back the many-colored jungles only a lit-
tle. They even built cities under the oceans, protected by
crystal domes from the water and from the great levia-
thans of that impossible age.
In Chiaro, as in a few other places, they left mon-
uments of unimaginable scale. Here were the pyra-
mid-tombs that must have housed their kings, and
sphinxes with their eyes towards heaven. Why they built
on this scale is hard for those of us who remain to imag-
ine, but I think they did so simply because they could.
Now, these places are abandoned. No throngs fill the
city streets, no worshippers gather at the feet of the pyra-
mids or in the eyes of the sphinxes. Many of the treasures
of the First Martians lay untouched, as they have since
times undreamt of. Not that that’s ever stopped anyone
from dreaming of the treasures themselves.
The First Martians are so long gone that even their
ghosts have likely scattered on the winds. Yet their trea-
sures still have guardians. The tomb stalkers are strange,
tripodal machines that move quietly through the ruins.
Their voices are keening and creaking…I only heard
them from miles away, and still the memory makes me
shudder. They sweep the abandoned streets of all life,
sparing the occasional beast only so it can chase intrud-
ers into their paths.
In Chiaro, I was told many times that those tomb
stalkers visible within the ruins are only a fraction of
17
their number. Many more, I was told, lie slumbering be-
neath the sand.
Of course, the ruins of the First Martians are not the
only forsaken places on the Red World. Lesser peoples have
risen and fallen, leaving their own abandoned cities and de-
generate remnants. These so-called dusk cities lie empty,
or are inhabited by small, cult-like populations who cling
to the homes of ancestors they can no longer comprehend.
All of these lost places are tempting targets for grav-
erobbers and treasure hunters, such as my master and I.
We spent weeks in Chiaro-that-was, hunting for an un-
touched tomb, for a cache of relics no one had yet dared
plunder. We carried blue flames to keep the tomb stalkers
at bay…perhaps they worked.
Perhaps we would have found our treasure there. But
one evening, as the blue star rose and we made camp, my
master’s coughing was a little worse than it had been. His
body seemed a little more bent than the day before, and
it had seemed a little more bent the day before that. As
the twilight dwindled, he told me stories about my father.
I don’t know if they were true; I hope some of them were.
He talked, and he sang, a little feebly. Old soldiers’
songs, maybe learned on the steppe in his youth. He told
me of the end of the world, of the days when the atmo-
sphere processors would breathe their last, of desert win-
ters that would last forever. He kept asking me to refill
his cup; when there was no more liquor, I filled it with
water. He didn’t seem to notice. And, as the ice of night
fell around us, my master died. His final words were sim-
ple, affectionate, and then he closed his eyes forever.
I packed up our camp. I could hear the tomb stalk-
ers, and had no desire to take any chances. In the icy
night, I began my walk back towards the blue lamps of
Chiaro-that-is.
And so, in the lost place, I left the man who found
me.
 Click. Click. Click.
I was locked in a hollowed-out tourmaline circuit breaker, windowless and too-warm
and faintly purring with piezoelectric discharge. But I was inside, and the bees (their
wings beating so hard I could still hear them hissing) were out there. And maybe, maybe
I’d finally found a control room that would shut them off. Panels one and four were
cracked and cold, probably broken when the city first crashed against the ice.
It had, admittedly, been an ambitious plan. Climb the shattered towers of Eos, find
the crystalline star chart within, and use it to turn the sky ever so slightly. To shift a
destiny a little, trading disaster now for only a brush with death later. Stealing from
the future to give a lover an extra 10 years of life isn’t much more selfish than praying
for Hy to pass over you, or for the Maiden to shield you with her hand when the sacred
moment comes. I was just being a little more proactive. A little moxie and a natural talent
for mischief can accomplish more than you might think.
The air over panel two was so hot it rippled. I tried to step back and fell against the bone
and brass door. The hissing outside picked back up. Great, I’d reminded them where I was.
And I had made it far, farther even than I’d really hoped. I told a thousand lies to
wheedle even a fragment of a polar map from a water trader, and a handful more to
talk my way onto his crew. Then I walked alone across the bare glacier for days when
a wandering ursavas from the steppes ravaged what was left of my caravan. I tore my
hands again and again climbing through crystal corridors so clear the arctic sun lit my
way. I’d reached out my hand and nudged the blue star into her future, the green into her
past. They wouldn’t be quiet years, but she’d have them. I don’t think she’d have been the
sort to retire, anyway. She’d die with her boots on or not at all.
Panel three wasn’t wrecked, probably wasn’t leaking radiant energy, and more
importantly, seemed responsive when I nudged it with the handle of my knife.
To suffocate now, hiding from a swarm of clockwork bees, seemed an undignified
end to the story, whatever the benefit might have been to a woman currently crossing a
different desert. One who was presumably still too angry at me to return my letters. And
sure, she could keep being mad at me if I was dead, but it wouldn’t be very satisfying for
either of us.
Of course, I’m not really conversant in ancient tongues. Vikos? What is that, water?
Town? A stinger bent the brass of the door in towards me. Wherever it was was
probably better than here, at least. I pressed the button and my stomach fell away as the
circuit slid free from its casing and plummeted.
Oh, right. Gorge.
 Cavaliers of Mars is powered by the DEIMOS sys-
tem, which mixes simple success-or-failure resolution
for non-combat tasks with a tactical combat engine
based on choosing several actions for your character
per round, then resolving those actions simultaneously
with those of your character’s opponents.
Basics
Characters
Your character is made up of Traits, each ranked as
a die size from d6 to d12. For example, your character’s
Traits might include For Love d8, With Force d6, and
Cavalier d8.
Traits include Motivations, Methods, Origins,
Careers, and Relationships.
Your character also has a special Trait, Speed,
which is rated as a number rather than a die type. Speed
determines how many actions your character can take
per round in closely-timed situations, like combat.
Finally, your character has Talents, which create
exceptions to the normal rules.
Actions
Basic actions are resolved by rolling a pool of dice
against an opposing pool belonging to another player
or the GM. To form your pool, first pick a Motivation
(For Honor, For Love, or For Self) and a Method (With
Cunning, With Force, or With Grace). Add these two
dice to your pool. Then, add one die each for any
20
Origin, Career, or Relationship that will help you. The
GM is the final arbiter of what Traits apply.
Another player can help by describing a way his
character helps yours, then contributing his highest rel-
evant die to your pool.
The GM then picks two dice. If the opposition is
inanimate, then the GM picks two dice of the same size
to represent the difficulty (2d6, 2d8, 2d10, or 2d12).
If the opposition is a non-player character or creature,
the GM takes the character’s Resolve die, and the die
for the non-player character’s most relevant Trait (like
Stubborn as a Steppes Bear d8). The GM may also in-
clude one die for difficulty (d6, d8, d10, or d12).
You and the GM each roll your dice, and each pick
the two highest. If your result is higher than the GM’s,
your character succeeds, and the GM narrates your suc-
cess. If the GM’s result is higher, the opposition over-
comes your character, and you narrate the result.
Basic actions can be used for fighting instead of the
combat system, in order to speed things up. But to kill
(or inflict any other Condition on) a significant charac-
ter, you must call for a combat.
Lasting Consequences
Some actions have lingering consequences beyond their im-
mediate effects. Examples include astrological predictions, build-
ing or repairing equipment, inspiring or tricking people, political
manipulations, and infiltrating a group or place. The GM is the
final arbiter of what actions may have lasting consequences.
A successful action generates a Windfall die: a d4 added
to a basic action or combat roll as a bonus die. When a player
 Basics
earns Windfall, he holds it in reserve until he chooses to use
it. In basic actions, the Windfall die is rolled and added to the
player’s result after he selects his top two dice. For combat
actions, the Windfall die is rolled and added to a single ac-
tion die of the player’s choice. This must be done after action
pools are rolled, but before the Clash of Steel phase begins.
A failed action generates a Misfortune die, also a
d4. Usually the GM holds Misfortune in reserve until
she chooses to add it to a player’s pool for a basic action
or a non-player character’s combat roll, though some
actions allow players to inflict Misfortune instead. If the
Misfortune die matches any other die in a basic action’s
pool, the GM or player introduces some complication
— reinforcements arrive, a sandstorm sweeps the area,
a character discovers her coin purse is missing, etc. If
nothing matches the Misfortune die, the characters
have cheated fate only temporarily; the GM retrieves
the Misfortune die to use again later.
In combat, Misfortune dice simply become Windfall
for the player’s opponent instead.
Most Windfall and Misfortune can be used on any
kind of action, although exceptions are noted in spe-
cific systems. For instance, consequences generated
21
A quartet of Vancians gamble on a story
by astrology must be used on actions relevant to the
prediction.
Only one Windfall or Misfortune die can apply to
any given roll. All unused Windfall and Misfortune
vanishes at the end of the session, unless otherwise not-
ed in a specific system.
Exerting and
Exhausting Traits
Some rules, such as basic and Career Talents, re-
quire you to exert a Trait, stepping its die down by one
until the end of the session. A Trait at d4 can no longer
be exerted.
A Trait can also be exhausted, meaning that it im-
mediately becomes a d4 for the rest of the session. A
Trait must currently be d8 or higher to be exhausted.
Talents
Talents give your character special abilities. Basic
or career Talents usually give you narrative effects
without requiring you to roll a basic action.
 CHAPTER TWO: RULES
Drama Points
Drama Points are a player resource for influencing the
flow of the game. They let players achieve great deeds and
insert plot twists, and compensate them when the tables turn.
Spending Drama Points
There are seven uses for Drama Points.
Activating the Benefit Side of a Piece of Gear:
The player can use the Benefit effect on her charac-
ter’s equipment.
Exceptional Action: When rolling a basic action,
the player can add a third die to her total result.
Just a Scratch: After combat, the player may re-
move half of her character’s current Strain.
Lore: The character just happens to know an ob-
scure truth or rumor that helps in the current situa-
tion. Her player can ask the GM, but it’s encouraged
that the player make up the fact herself.
Plot Twist: Fate intervenes in the character’s favor.
For example, an ally shows up just in time to help her
fend off assassins, or she stumbles across a piece of crit-
ical evidence. As with Lore, the player is encouraged to
come up with this themselves, subject to GM approval.
Rally: In combat, the player may roll a d4 and add
the result to any of her action dice.
Second Wind: In combat, after making a Resolve
Roll, the player can roll a d4 and add it to the result
of her Motivation die.
Gaining Drama Points
Players start each session with 5 Drama Points.
The GM awards Drama Points, but players should
speak up when they think one of their peers ought to
earn points. There are five ways to gain Drama Points.
Drama Points always reset to 5 at the beginning of
the next session.
Activating the Drawback Side of a Piece of Gear:
When the player or the GM activates a piece of equip-
ment’s Drawback effect, the player gains a Drama Point.
Disaster: When something deadly or tragic befalls
the player characters, and they didn’t have a chance
to prevent it, each affected character’s player should
receive 1 or 2 Drama Points.
22
PLOT TWISTS VERSUS
JUST ASKING
Cavaliers of Mars is designed to be a game
where everyone cooperates to experience
an entertaining story. A lot of the time, the
GM may just want to ask players what hap-
pens, or take suggestions. For example, look-
ing around a murder scene, the GM might
ask a player what his character’s looking for,
and go with that. For example, the player
might say “this guy was a champion pit fight-
er, I probably know him from my Entertainer
days.” Spending a Drama Point, though, is
for something weightier or more unlikely, like
“I turn over the body...and see my brother’s
face staring blankly back at me!”
Memorable Roleplaying: Particularly great dia-
logue, moving character interactions, or an ingenious
response to a problem should earn 1 or 2 Drama Points.
Self-Sacrifice: When a character gives up some-
thing vital or puts themselves at great risk for others,
the player should earn 1 or 2 Drama Points.
Trouble: When a character’s Trouble comes back
to haunt him, his player should earn a Drama Point.
Trouble
Each player character has a Trouble, like a partic-
ular disadvantage or a mysterious enemy in her past.
When a character’s Trouble comes back to haunt her,
her player takes a Drama Point. A player can earn a
point this way up to once per scene.
When a non-player character’s Trouble comes into
play, it grants an extra d6 to non-combat rolls against
that character. In combat, the player (or GM) who
triggered the Trouble chooses one of the non-player
character’s action dice to discard, after rolling.
Strain
Strain represents the effects of injury and fatigue
on characters, and setbacks on fixing projects.
After combat ends, a player can automatically reduce
her character’s Strain by half. After that, the character
 Basics
needs a full night’s rest to rid herself of the rest of the
Strain. Strain goes away completely at the end of a session.
Conditions
A conflict can inflict Conditions on a character,
reflecting the emotional or physical consequences of
being Taken Out. When a Condition disadvantages a
player character significantly, or prevents them from
doing something they’d otherwise be able to, the player
gets a Drama Point.
As with Trouble, a player can only earn one Drama
Point from Conditions per scene.
Conditions usually last until the end of a game
session, although a player can choose for her charac-
ter to suffer the Condition for longer. Occasionally,
it will make narrative sense to remove the Condition
from play before the end of a session, such as if enough
in-character time passes for an injury to heal on its
own. Just go ahead and do that if you need to.
The available Conditions are:
◊ Exhausted
◊ Injured
◊ In Love
◊ Melancholy
◊ Presumed Dead
◊ Trapped
◊ Vengeful
When non-player characters suffer Conditions,
they grant an extra d6 to non-combat rolls against
them that exploit those Conditions. In combat, when
a player character exploits a non-player character’s
Condition, the player chooses one of the non-player
character’s action dice to discard, after rolling.
A character can only have one instance of a
Condition. If a player wants to choose Injured twice,
then he should take Presumed Dead, instead.
Conditions expire for non-player characters as for
player characters, but the GM is encouraged to only
very rarely clear a Condition for a non-player character
before the end of a session, since that tends to make
players feel cheated of their victories.
23
Improvement and Change
Your character becomes more capable and gains
new abilities as the game goes on. These improvements
are purchased with Experience.
The main way to gain Experience is by following
your character’s Paths. Paths are general tendencies or
story arcs that you want your character to follow. For
example, the Path of the Barbarian encourages your
character to defy local laws and customs, while the
Path of the Night-Thief rewards daring thefts.
Each Path has two triggers: one that gives 1
Experience, and one that gives 2 Experience. When
your character fulfills a trigger, she gains the associat-
ed Experience reward. Each trigger only gives a reward
once per session.
You also gain 1 Experience just for attending a
session.
Experience Costs
You may spend Experience on the following
improvements.
Improve a Method by one step, while decreasing
another Method by one step: 2 Experience. When
you do this, add one Talent linked to the increasing
Method, and remove one Talent linked to the decreas-
ing Method. You may not decrease a Method below d6
this way, or increase a Method to d12.
Improve a Method by one step: 5 Experience.
When you do this, also pick a new basic Talent.
Improve a Career by one step: 3 Experience.
When you do this, also pick a new Career Talent.
Improve an Origin, Relationship, or Free Trait
by one step: 2 Experience
Master a Combat Maneuver: 2 Experience
Changing Motivations
Motivations may not be changed with Experience,
but instead are changed when you feel your charac-
ter’s story needs them to. At the end of any session,
you may increase a Motivation by one step if you also
decrease another Motivation by one step. You may not
increase a Motivation above d10, nor may you decrease
a Motivation below d6.
 CHAPTER TWO: RULES
Changing Trouble
At the end of any session where you feel your char-
acter’s biggest challenges have changed, you may re-
write your character’s Trouble.
Character
Creation
To create a character, follow the steps below, add-
ing Traits to your character sheet or stepping them up
as instructed. Reference the Origins and Careers in the
appendices.
1. For Origin, pick your starting point from the
following:
◊ The Court: Your character has an aristocratic
upbringing (although he may himself be a Servant
or some such rather than an Aristocrat).
◊ The Street: You began your life on the streets of
one of the city-states, perhaps begging or stealing,
or, maybe more likely, doing a lot of odd jobs to
get by.
◊ The Bazaar: You grew up in the bazaars, a craft-
er’s shop, or as a member of a merchant’s retinue.
He was most likely one of the commercially-cen-
tered middle class.
◊ The Caravans: As a child, you travelled desert
pathways or sailed the canals between cities, giv-
ing you a slightly more cosmopolitan experience
than others.
◊ The Dust Towns: You were raised in one of
Mars’ many tiny settlements that live on the
edge. Some survive because of ancient wells, oth-
ers because they’re located near a mine or other
resource.
◊ For the Court, the Street, or the Bazaar, pick a
city-state, giving you an Origin like Streets of
Chiaro.
◊ For the Dust Towns, do as above, but name your
hometown in place of the city-state.
◊ For the Caravans, pick two city-states, giving
yourself an Origin like Grew Up in a Caravan
Between Vance and Illium.
24
Rate your Origin d6.
2. Pick your first Career, and rate it d6.
3. Name a Relationship with a friend, a lover, or a
possession, and rate it d6.
4. Pick your second Career. Either rate a new Career
d6, or step up your first Career to d8.
5. Name a Relationship to another player’s charac-
ter and rate it d6.
6. Pick your third Career. Either rate a new Career
d6, or step up your first or second Career.
7. Step up any two previous Traits once, or step up
one previous Trait two times.
8. Name your Trouble.
9. Set your Motivations and Methods.
◊ Distribute a d10, a d8, and a d6 between the fol-
lowing Motivations:
◊ For Honor... Keeping your word, standing up for
the downtrodden, upholding your family name.
◊ For Love... Pursuing romance, standing up for
your friends, winning trust.
◊ For Self... Looking for a profit, avenging your
pride, saving your own skin.
◊ Likewise distribute a d10, a d8, and a d6 between
the following Methods:
◊ ...with Cunning: Hatching schemes, feinting, di-
verting suspicion.
◊ ...with Force: Breaking down barriers, smashing
through defenses, overwhelming objections.
◊ ...with Grace: Sleight of hand, slipping out of the
way, diplomacy.
10. Pick any two Paths to guide your advancement.
11. Set Speed to 3. Select Talents. Pick four Talents:
two from any list, and at least two connected to
your Careers.
 character creation | non-player characters
Example of
Character Creation
◊ I sit down to create Valentine, a devil-may-care
swordswoman who actually cares too much.
◊ I choose The Street and Illium for her Origin, at d6.
◊ I choose Thief for her first Career, at d6.
◊ I name a Relationship with a possession, a
Clockwork Heart, at d6.
◊ I choose Soldier for her second Career, at d6.
◊ I name her partnership with Soteria, the charac-
ter of the player to my right, at d6.
◊ I choose Thief again for her third Career, step-
ping up her existing Thief Trait to d8.
◊ I step up her Clockwork Heart Trait to d8 and
step up her Relationship with Soteria to d8.
◊ I name her Trouble, that she can’t stand to be outsmarted.
◊ I give her For Self d10, For Love d8, and For
Honor d6, then With Cunning d10, With Grace
d8, and With Force d6.
◊ I pick Path of the Night-Thief and Path of Open Arms.
◊ I set her Speed to 3. I select Always a Way Out
and Disguise. From her Careers, I select Deadly
Force from Soldier, and Charlatan from Thief.
Valentine
For Honor... d6 | For Love... d8 | For Self... d10
...with Cunning d10 | ...with Force d6 | ...with
Grace d8
Origin d6: Streets of Illium
Trouble: If there’s a trick afoot, it better be mine
Paths: Path of the Night-Thief, Path of Open Arms
Clockwork Heart d8: The damnable machine
gives me life and strength, but I don’t know how many
ticks I have left
Partnership with Soteria d8: We’ve been back to
back dozens of times, and front to front a dozen more
Soldier d6: I’ve sometimes made my living as a
hired blade; I’ve also lost it that way
25
Thief d8: I made my way stealing scraps, now my
prizes are... bigger
Talents:
Always a Way Out
Disguise
Deadly Force
Charlatan
Non-Player
Characters
To create a non-player character, use the following steps.
1. In place of Motivations, non-player characters
have a Resolve die. For most characters, set this
at d6 or d8. Someone very determined might
have a d10. A d12 is unusual, and should gener-
ally be reserved for a tough antagonist.
2. Allocate three basic Traits at d10, d8, and d6. An
exceptional character might have a d12, while a weak
one might go no higher than d8s. The character uses
these in place of the Methods, Motivations, and so on of
player characters. These Traits should cover the charac-
ter’s basic actions in the story, and give a sense of who
they are. For example, a character might have Incurable
Gossip, Thrillseeker, or A Thousand Battle Scars.
3. Decide the character’s Trouble, such as Starved
With Ambition, or Would Do Anything To See
Child’s Face Again.
4. Set the character’s combat Traits, if they’re likely to
end up in a conflict. Most non-player characters have
a Speed of 2. Regular combatants have 3 or 4, while
particularly tough ones have 5 or 6.This has a big im-
pact on how dangerous characters are in a fight.
For damage, an unarmed character will generally
inflict 1 Strain, a casually-armed character will
inflict 2 Strain, and someone both tough and
looking for trouble will inflict 3.
5. Pick the character’s default combat pool, with a
number of action dice equal to their Speed. For
example, an aggressive character might have
Strike/Strike/Parry. The GM is free to adjust
these on the fly, but picking a standard pool in
advance makes fight scenes move faster.
6. Pick or create any special abilities.
 CHAPTER TWO: RULES
DO YOU WANT TO HAVE A FIGHT SCENE?
Physical conflicts can be resolved as basic actions, which will speed along the flow of the ses-
sion. The combat rules are intended for dramatic duels and melees, and are only mechanically
necessary to inflict the Injured or Presumed Dead Conditions. If you don’t want to invest the time,
or don’t need to inflict a Condition, use a basic action instead.
Stat Block
A non-player character stat block looks like this.
[Name], [short description][tab]Resolve: [Resolve die]
Traits: [Trait 1] [Trait die], [Trait 2] [Trait die], [Trait 3]
[Trait die]
Trouble: [Trouble]
Combat Pool: [List of actions delineated by slashes, like
Strike/Strike/Parry][tab]Damage: [Damage]
Special Abilities: [If any.]
Combat Dice Pools
The GM can roll dice separately for individual char-
acters, or combine them all into a single pool. The former
is generally appropriate for duels with one or two antag-
onists, while the latter is better for large action scenes.
Action Points
In combat, the GM activates non-player character
abilities by spending from a pool of Action Points which
covers all characters.
Normally, each non-minion adversary contributes
1 Action Point to the scene. For a harder fight, or one
where multiple player characters oppose a single foe,
add 2 for the signature enemies.
Combat
In combat, you get a number of actions equal to
your character’s Speed rating. Each action is represent-
ed by a single die. At the beginning of a round, you
decide which actions your character will be performing,
and gather a hand of dice to represent them.
There are four types of action dice.
Red d10s: Strike dice, representing attacks and ag-
gressive actions.
Black d10s: Parry dice, representing blocks and
dodges.
26
White d10s: Stunt dice, representing moving
around the battlefield, or taking actions that change
the situation to your advantage.
Blue d4s: Bonus dice from sources like Drama
Points and Scenery.
The Combat Round
Each round is divided into three phases: Taking Up
Dice, Clash of Steel and Break.
Taking Up Dice
You and the other players decide your characters’
tactics. Fill your hand with as many dice as your charac-
ter’s Speed rating in any combination of Strike, Parry, and
Stunt dice. For example, a character with a Speed rating
of four might pick up two Strike dice, one Parry die, and
one Stunt die. All players take up dice simultaneously, and
don’t need to announce what dice they’re choosing.
Then, roll the dice in your hand. Sort your dice by
action type, and then from highest to lowest.
Clash of Steel
The GM counts down from 10 to 1.
When the GM calls a number that you have a
Strike or Stunt die equal to, it’s your character’s turn
to act.
Strikes and Parries
For a Strike die, select a target within your weapon
range. Compare your Strike die to the target’s highest
Parry die.
If your Strike die is greater than his Parry die, the
hit lands, and the Parry die is unaffected.
If your Strike die is equal to or lower than his Parry
die, both it and the Parry die are discarded, and no hit
lands.
When a Strike lands against a minion, compare
the rolled value of the Strike with the minion group’s
 C om bat
Parry Level. If the die is higher than the Threshold, the
minion is killed, knocked unconscious, or otherwise re-
moved from the conflict.
When a strike lands against a player character or
significant non-player character, it inflicts Strain on
that character based on your character’s weapon’s dam-
age rating.
Stunts
For a Stunt die, choose one of two effects. You
may move one space on the map for each die you have
that matches the current count. Alternatively, you may
change the scene to your advantage. For example, you
might knock a candelabrum over on a foe, forcing them
to Parry your attacks between blazing candles!
Stunts are usually things your character does, but
you can use them to create events that benefit you, as
well. Your love might dash into the room to see you
fighting the count, distracting him at a critical moment.
A Stunt gives you or an ally a +2 bonus to one
Strike or Parry die, in addition to the benefits of manip-
ulating the scene. The bonus must be used before the
end of the round. (Using the Stunt in this way is some-
times less advantageous than using it for movement,
27
since movement can allow you to withdraw from strik-
ing range for the rest of the round.)
Stunts can’t be Parried. The way to counter them is to
pull off a Stunt that counters the narrative advantage gained.
The GM may disallow a Stunt that doesn’t make sense.
Break
The final phase of the combat round determines
who’s too injured or exhausted to continue. Each play-
er makes a Resolve Roll, using their character’s most
relevant Motivation die.
If the die comes up greater than or equal to your
character’s Strain value, your character may participate
in the next round.
If the die comes up less than your character’s Strain
value, your character is Taken Out:  she is wounded, un-
conscious, or otherwise removed from combat for the rest of
the scene. At the end of the fight, she receives a Condition.
Example
The Apprentice, young ward of a cavalier, is sur-
rounded by a gang of boys demanding her water. She
 CHAPTER TWO: RULES
picks up a sharp rock and calls out their leader, who
responds by drawing a crude knife.
The Apprentice has a Speed of 3, and the boy has
a Speed of 2. She’s in an aggressive mood, so her player
picks two red Strike dice and one black Parry. The boy
is wary of her defiant attitude so the GM splits his pool
between one red Strike and one black Parry.
The player and the GM roll. The player rolls 8 and
6 on the Apprentice’s Strikes, and 7 on her Parry. The
GM rolls 7 on the boy’s Strike, and 4 on his Parry.
The Clash of Steel begins. The GM counts down
from 10.
On 8, the Apprentice lunges, making a savage
swing at the boy’s head with her rock. Since her Strike
die is higher than his only Parry, she connects, sending
him reeling. He takes 1 Strain. He keeps his Parry die.
On 7, the boy regains his footing and slashes with
his knife. Since the Apprentice has a Parry of 7, she
leaps lightly out of the way. She takes no Strain. Her
Parry die is discarded.
On 6, the Apprentice Strikes again, this time aim-
ing to sweep the boy’s legs out from under him. Since
he only has a Parry die of 4, she succeeds, and he lands
unceremoniously on his backside. He takes another 1
point of Strain.
At the Break, it’s time to make Resolve Rolls. Since
the Apprentice hasn’t taken any Strain so far in this
fight, the player doesn’t have to make one. If she did,
she’d use the Apprentice’s For Self Motivation, at d8.
The boy, meanwhile, has a Resolve of d4. The
GM rolls the die and gets a 1, so the boy is Taken Out.
The boy stays on the ground, humiliated. He still gets
water…in the form of the Apprentice’s spit upon his
cheek.
The player chooses to inflict the Injured
Condition…though after this defeat, she doesn’t ex-
pect to see the boy or his cronies again.
Combat Maneuvers
Combat maneuvers are optional special moves that
replace the effects of your regular action dice. Anyone can
use any maneuver, provided they meet the requirements
and pay any costs. Each maneuver also has a Mastery ef-
fect, which you can buy to add additional benefits.
28
You may use one maneuver per round. Except for
the basic Strike and Parry, you can’t use the same ma-
neuver in two consecutive rounds.
The variety of maneuvers can create some decision
paralysis for new players. Feel free to stick to the basic
Strike, Parry, and Stunt until you’re ready to experi-
ment with fancier moves.
STRIKE
You stab, slash, or bash your foe.
Action: Strike
Mastery: +1 damage
PARRY
You deftly block or evade an attack.
Action: Parry
Mastery: +2 to a single Parry
DISARM
You knock your opponent’s weapon from their hand.
Action: Stunt
Effect: Disarmed advantage; opponent can’t use ma-
neuvers like Riposte or Sweep Attack until they pick up
a weapon using a Stunt or during the Break phase.
Mastery: +2 bonus to Disarm Stunt die
DRAW CORPS-A-CORPS
You draw your opponent in, pressing body to body as
you grapple.
Action: Stunt
Effect: Corps-a-corps advantage; only fists and dag-
gers can be used while advantage is in play. You or
your foe may use a Stunt to break free.
Mastery: Make a single armed Strike immediately
after drawing close
FEINT
You make a false attack, and your enemy’s defense
gives you an opening.
Action: Stunt
Effect: Opponent is distracted until the end of the
round. One Strike against a distracted character counts
as +2 higher than normal.
Mastery: The second Strike against the character
counts as +1
 C om bat

LUNGE Most ranged weapons need to be reloaded between

You thrust forward with your entire body, putting dev- shots. This happens automatically in the Break phase. Thus,
astating force behind your weapon but leaving yourself they can only inflict a single successful Strike. However,
open to attack. ranged weapons can also be aimed, essentially combining
Action: Parry Strikes. Each Strike die in the player’s pool can be spent to
Effect: The Parry becomes a Strike. add +2 to the value of the highest Strike die in the pool.
Mastery: The Lunge deals +1 damage
Many ranged weapons can’t be used to Parry,
RIPOSTE meaning that the character must Parry as if unarmed.
Your opponent’s assault leaves her open, and you strike Parry dice can still be used to dodge ranged Strikes.
back.
Action: Parry Unarmed Combat
Effect: If your successful Parry is higher than the Strike
it counters, promote one Strike to the level of the Parry If a character lacks a weapon, she takes 1 Strain
and resolve it immediately.   for any successful Parry against an armed opponent in
Mastery: +1 damage close combat.

SHOVE Minions and Mobs

You crash into your foe with great force, pushing them
into a less advantageous position.
Action: Stunt
Effect: Your foe is moved one space.
Mastery: You may also resolve your next highest
Strike die while pushing your foe.
SWEEP ATTACK
You swing your weapon in a wide arc, sending your
enemies sprawling.
Action: Strike
Cost: Exert Force
Requirement: Using a heavy swinging weapon
Effect: Attack each enemy in space
Drawback: -2 to highest Parry
Mastery: No Parry penalty
Combo Talents
Certain Talents offer special effects based on combi-
nations of actions in combat. To use a combo Talent, you
need to have the listed actions in your pool. The Talent may
also list a cost in dice. Those dice count to meet the require-
ments, but are skipped during the Clash of Steel. Action
dice not spent to meet a cost are resolved normally. Each
action die can only count toward one combo per round.
Ranged Weapons
Slightly different rules apply when a combatant is
using a flintlaser, sling, or other weapon intended for
attacking at a distance.
Since having the GM track a hand of dice for each
individual non-player character in a big fight scene
could get cumbersome, mobs of minor characters (min-
ions) use a simplified set of rules.
Each minion group has a Parry Level: 2, 4, 6, or
8. When an individual minion gets hit with a Strike
equal to or greater than their group’s Threshold, they’re
killed, knocked unconscious, or otherwise removed
from action.
The GM rolls one pool of dice for an entire group,
with a Speed rating equal to the number of minions
in the group who haven’t yet been defeated. Minions
shouldn’t usually Parry -- their dice should typically be
Strikes and Stunt.
As the Clash of Steel resolves, the GM can use any
die for any minion in the group.
Some minions have special abilities that they can
spend Stunts to use.
Challenges
Not all dangers can be faced with steel. The he-
roes might find themselves in a burning building, or
traversing wind-worn cliffs which may crumble at any
moment, or playing a game of chance and skill against
a criminal to gain her aid. When you want to play out a
danger over multiple actions, you can use a challenge.
Challenges use similar rules to combat, just slightly
reframed. Strikes are active attempts to overcome the
danger, while Parries represent caution or quick think-
ing. Stunts have the same role as in combat.

29
 CHAPTER TWO: RULES
Challenges have the following Traits:
Parry Level: 2, 4, 6, or 8. This represents the chal-
lenge’s resistance to being resolved.
Strike Level: 2, 4, 6, or 8. Used like a Strike die.
Each turn, the challenge gets one Strike of this value
against each character it’s threatening.
Damage: The amount of Strain the challenge
inflicts if a character fails to meet or exceed its Parry
Threshold.
Challenge Rating: The number of successful
Strikes it takes to end the challenge. Used in place of a
Resolve Roll at the end of a turn. You should vary the
challenge rating based on the number of player charac-
ters involved. Usually, the Challenge Rating should be
1 or 2 points per player. (Alternatively, you can assign
a Resolve die and narrate a successful roll by the chal-
lenge as representing the situation getting worse.)
The Map
Maps are simple flow charts showing the different
places characters can move in the current scene. Map
spaces don’t represent exact distances, but instead areas
BALCONY
STAGE
ORCHESTRA
CHEAP
SEAT SEATS
30
which require an effort to move through. For example,
in a theater, the stage might be a single space, since
bounding from one side to another is trivial, while the
seating might be two or three spaces, representing the
challenge of pushing through the rowdy patrons.
Range
In the below example, each of the circles and rect-
angles counts as a space. Relative position between
characters affects what weapons they can use effective-
ly. Close combat weapons require characters to be in
the same space or adjacent spaces, while ranged weap-
ons can attack any space, as long at the GM rules that
the character using the weapon can see the target and
that field of fire isn’t blocked by obstacles.
Scenery Dice
Spaces on the map may have Scenery dice associ-
ated with them. These are d4s that represent features
like ropes to swing on, sandbags to knock over, curtains
to dodge behind, and so on. Once per turn, you may
describe how your character makes use of the Scenery,
and add the result to one of your action dice.
CORRIDOR
THEATRE
FOYER
 T he Uncanny
The Uncanny
No doubt clouds the minds of the Martian people
that skyships fly, Roundheads move boulders with their
minds, and sometimes prophecies come to pass. Beyond
that, though, a thousand arguments express a thousand
beliefs about those awe-inspiring savants with uncanny
powers who walk among them. When an astrologer tells
the princess that if she fights her rival on the second day
of the second month she’ll defeat him, and she does, is it
written in the stars or just a coincidence? Do adepts draw
their power from the gods, a curse, some cosmic force, or
sheer force of will? No one knows, though that doesn’t
stop some from claiming their truths as the only truth.
Fixing, astrology, and the adept arts make up the
known uncanny Careers in Cavaliers of Mars. Any char-
acter can dip into as many of these as she likes. The source
of such esoteric talents is a mystery, so no one can say why
some take well to all things mystical while others master
one or none; but sorcerers who command the skies, the
mind, and the past are feared and envied in every land.
The Adept Arts
Long have scholars studied history’s psychics to de-
fine and describe the limits of their power. Long have
they failed. While patterns do emerge, enough contra-
dictions and exceptions arise to refute any rules these
sages presume to pen.
Three adept arts appear commonly enough to be
considered core to the Career: psychometry, telekine-
sis, and telepathy. Whenever a character gains an ad-
ept Career die or steps it up to a larger die, her player
chooses one of these three arts and the character gains
access to its abilities. Players can purchase other, less
common arts as Talents (p. 51), such as dowsing or
windspeaking.
An adept can use minor expressions of her powers
without her player rolling dice, as long as she has at
least a d6 in the Career. She can perform more impres-
sive feats by exerting her Career die. Each art has spe-
cial guidelines around how these powers work. Unlike
normal exertion, adept dice can be exerted even at d4,
but doing so makes the entire art unavailable, including
for casual use, until the character rests fully.
Psychometry
Psychometers can read the histories of people and
objects with a simple touch, laying bare time’s tapestry. A
31
psychometer can touch a target and glean general impres-
sions of one event from its past, or one Trait from a charac-
ter’s sheet. He can’t learn details without exertion, though.
Relationships read as “this person has a lover in this city” or
“this person treasures something he carries,” for instance.
The player can exert his Career die to:
• Touch an object and take a basic action to relive
an event from its past. This includes details from
the object’s point of view and any emotional con-
text surrounding how it was used. It can also re-
veal the identity of the object’s owner or creator.
• Touch a person and take a basic action to relive a
memory from her past. This can reveal specifics,
such as the name and description of her lover or
the name of her hometown.
• Touch a piece of equipment to learn its Benefit
and Drawback functions, and any other special
modifications or abilities it possesses. Getting hit
by a weapon in close combat counts as a touch.
• Take a basic action to relive one scene from the
past that took place in the location where he
stands, learning who was present and what they
did.
Telekinesis
Telekinetics can affect the world through sheer
will, transcending the physical in favor of the cerebral.
A telekinetic can levitate over minor obstacles or reach
a vertical height up to the second floor of a building.
She can move light objects with her mind that she
could normally move by hand, with no fine control.
The player can exert her Career die to:
• Take a basic action to levitate over major obsta-
cles or reach any vertical height as long as she has
somewhere to alight.
• Take a basic action to move heavier objects up
to her own body weight; exerting her Career die
twice allows her to move something even heavier,
once per scene.
• In combat, use a Scenery die in a non-adjacent
space on the map.
• Make a telekinetic strike, attacking without a
weapon at a distance. A telekinetic strike deals 1
damage at any range.
 CHAPTER TWO: RULES
• In combat, alter one movement another char-
acter takes with a Stunt die. This includes mov-
ing one space in a different direction, depositing
them on top of a nearby obstacle, or stopping
them from moving at all on that count.
Telepathy
Telepaths can speak directly into others’ minds and
skim the seas of thought to fish for secrets. A telepath
can send messages to someone without speaking aloud,
and glean the surface thoughts and general attitude of
one target. He must be able to perceive his intended
target to use telepathy.
The player can exert his Career die to:
• Take a basic action to determine whether some-
one is deceitful or honest. This ability doesn’t
read specific statements, but rather the target’s
overall demeanor and aura.
• Take a basic action to learn someone’s Trouble
Trait, or another secret that’s relevant to current
events. This ability won’t reveal details, but could
reveal that someone has been to Chiaro before or
is hiding information about how the queen died.
• Spy on one character’s dice pool in combat before
it’s rolled.
• Mentally communicate with someone in both
directions for the rest of the scene, regardless
of where the target goes after he makes the
connection.
Astrology
From the gleaming Panopticon of Zodiac to the
fortune-tellers peddling their numbers under the tents
of Hazard, the turning of the heavens speaks volumes
to those Martians who tune their ears to listen. Whole
civilizations have risen and fallen on the word of an-
cient prophecies laid down when the sky was new, and
few rulers of modern Mars dare ignore the auguries of
the wise.
A player with the astrologer Career can roll a basic
action at any point during a scene to declare that some-
thing is auspicious or inauspicious, based on numero-
logical insights, previous divinations, or grand prophe-
cies she has studied. If she succeeds, her character may
make a recommendation to do or avoid doing some-
thing specific, such as sparing a thief’s life or declining a
32
party invitation. If another character takes her advice,
that character gains a Windfall die. If her advice is ig-
nored, she gains a Misfortune die to hold over whoever
disregarded her omen.
The player can earn a Drama Point by suggesting,
or accepting the GM’s suggestion, that something in
the scene is foretold and presages doom. If she does, she
introduces a major complication to the scene based on
whatever she decides her character has predicted.
An astrologer can use astrological and numerologi-
cal signs to build a horoscope for someone with a basic
action as long as she knows two important pieces of in-
formation: the date the subject was born, and the name
the subject was given at birth. Building a horoscope for
a Pale Martian requires his egg name. If successful, the
character may use that horoscope as the basis for fu-
ture divination about the subject. Learning the proper
details about powerful or reclusive people is a danger-
ous but rewarding proposition. Some luminaries, like
Illium’s Princess Invincible, carefully conceal their or-
igins and true name to thwart enemy astrologers.
With horoscope in hand, a character can take a
basic action to observe the night sky and make a pre-
diction about her subject’s future. She may ask one yes/
no question and receive a true answer from the GM, al-
though as every augur knows well, the knowledge itself
and the passage of time can shift events to invalidate
such answers.
If the character has access to mystical instruments
that chart the changing skies over time, she can per-
form much deeper and more accurate divinations. Such
instruments include orreries, astraria and other astro-
logical clocks, astrolabes, and documented star charts.
Telescopes, rare and expensive, also aid in the art of
divination by the stars. Some such instruments, left be-
hind by vanished civilizations and impossible to dupli-
cate, perform even more miraculous feats than simply
predicting the future.
Using instruments and a horoscope, the astrologer
can perform a ritual and take a basic action focusing
on a person, place, or upcoming event. The GM sets
the inanimate difficulty based on how much informa-
tion she has: 2d6 reflects basic horoscopic details and
nothing more, all the way up to 2d12 indicating inti-
mate personal knowledge of the subject or exhaustive
research. Success allows the player to ask any question
— not necessarily yes/no — about the subject and re-
ceive a true answer from the GM. Broad questions such
as “what will happen if…?” won’t yield useful clues,
 T he Uncanny
so the player should keep her questions fairly specific:
“Which captains will attend the festival?” or “if I accept
this deal will I find my brother?” are good examples.
The player also receives a Windfall die, which she
should keep separate from Windfall acquired in oth-
er ways. Later that session, she may declare that any
action relevant to the subject of the divination is gov-
erned by the signs, using the Windfall or lending it to
someone else if he takes her advice on the matter. In
addition to its usual effects, if this Windfall die comes
up a 4, the person who benefited from it gains another
Windfall die that she may then use or lend for anoth-
er roll relevant to the divination. This chain continues
until no 4 is rolled, until the divination is no longer
relevant, or until the session ends.
Failure on a ritual divination roll still allows the
player to ask a question and receive a true answer, but
the character’s reading hits upon a highly volatile or
unstable point in time that yields wildly unpredictable
results. The player gains two destiny dice, both d4s. At
any time later that session, she may declare a significant
moment as above and add both destiny dice to the pool
of a basic action. If they match, she adds them both to
the roll’s total; if not, she subtracts them both.
Fixing
The roving fixer, carrying his singular tools and for-
gotten lore from town to town and stopping at every
unexplored ruin along the way, is a fixture in many a
Martian oasis tale passed down throughout the genera-
tions. Fixers study rites and charms to appease machine
spirits, engineer rigs to solve problems from the person-
al to the societal, and repair ancient devices that keep
life on Mars from snuffing out like a candle in the black.
Anyone can use a basic action to build or repair
something, or figure out how a piece of equipment
works, if the object is simple enough. Carpenters and
weaponsmiths needn’t be fixers, and it doesn’t require
esoteric knowledge to make basic gear for one’s profes-
sion. Laborers often know a variety of crafty trades and
can produce a wide range of items that don’t rely on
engineering. A fixer’s job begins when a village relies
on a single piece of technology that’s impossible to find
in any bazaar, when an expedition into Chiaro-that-was
stumbles across a dangerous mechanical foe, or when
an Illian noble commissions a new skyship for her eldest
daughter’s 16th birthday. Any blacksmith can forge a
blade, but only a fixer can craft a flintlaser pistol.
33
A fixer can take a basic action to glean the Benefit
and Drawback functions of a piece of equipment, as well
as any special modifications or abilities it possesses. A
basic action can also aid a fixer in combat, allowing him
to study a mechanical opponent and glean insight into
its weaknesses, gaining a Windfall die to use against it.
A fixer can take a basic action at any point during a
scene to declare that he has made a temporary modifica-
tion to a piece of gear, allowing it to exceed its usual func-
tion for the scene. He might rig a crossbow with a grap-
pling hook to make the hook fly farther, or fuel a skyship
with a dangerously volatile substance to give it a speed
boost at some risk. If the roll fails, the fixer still makes the
modification, but the GM gains a Misfortune die to use for
the equipment.
Whenever a fixer wants to build, repair, or study
something significant that requires specialized exper-
tise, forgotten lore, mystical knowledge, or engineering
ingenuity, the GM should call for the fixing system.
Examples include building a skyship, repairing an at-
mosphere processor, studying the functions of a buried
automaton, or inventing a new type of water pump.
The fixing system is similar to combat. The fixer
and his allies can use four types of action dice:
• Red d10s: Work dice for the fixer, or Strike dice
for his allies. Work dice represent making prog-
ress on the project, while Strike dice represent
dealing with threats and obstacles.
• Black d10s: Research and Ritual (R&R) dice.
The fixer and his allies use these to lay ground-
work with lore and mystical preparations.
• White d10s: Component dice. The fixer and his
allies use these to represent materials and tools
already gathered, or to find or improvise what’s
needed.
• Blue d4s: Bonus dice from sources like Drama
Points and Windfall.
The GM uses four different and opposing types of
action dice:
• Red d10s: Opposition dice, which represent any
kind of direct hurdle or complication — enemies,
precarious debris, dangerous malfunctions, etc.
Work dice must oppose Opposition related to the
device itself, and every project must have at least
one such Opposition die.
 CHAPTER TWO: RULES
• Black d10s: Time dice, which represent the time
limit.
• White d10s: Rarity dice, which represent how
old, rare, and/or unknown the device is.
• Blue d4s: Bonus dice from Misfortune and other
sources.
Like combat, each round is divided into three phases:
Taking Up Dice, Calculated Risk, and Break.
Taking Up Dice
Players take up action dice equal to their Speed, in a
combination depending on their estimation of the situa-
tion. If they know they’re running out of time, they can
choose to focus more on R&R dice, for example. Each
round, the fixer adds his Career die to one action pool.
The GM doesn’t have a Speed — instead, she de-
cides on the total pool for the project based on circum-
stances. Unlike players, the GM doesn’t reset the num-
ber of dice she takes up each round. Instead, the players
work to eliminate all of the GM’s dice from the total
pool before Strain forces the fixer to stop working.
The GM’s pool typically contains three dice per
player, in any combination that makes sense for the
project. Studying a unique device imposes more Rarity
dice, while repairing a simple flintlaser pistol while ban-
dits attack all around imposes more Opposition dice. If
the characters are in a particularly stressful situation,
severely pressed for time, or unearthing something
unique and wondrous, the GM can add a few dice to
the pool to drive home the high stakes. Most projects
should only take a round or two if the players roll well.
Calculated Risk
During the Calculated Risk phase, opposed dice are
compared to each other from highest to lowest: Work/
Strike to Opposition dice, R&R to Time dice, and
Components to Rarity dice. In each pair, the higher
die eliminates the lower one. Eliminated GM dice don’t
return in subsequent rounds. Dice with no opposition
remain. For every GM die left in the pool at the end of
the phase, the project gains a point of Strain.
Break
During the Break phase, the GM and players should
narrate how each exchange ended up based on which
dice were rolled and eliminated. If the project accumu-
lated no Strain, it succeeds. When building something,
34
the fixer decides on Benefit and Drawback functions for
the equipment. When repairing or studying something,
the fixer learns these functions instead, as well as the
history and/or rumors surrounding the device, and hints
about who used it before him. The player is encouraged
to come up with the functions he learns, although he may
defer to the GM. A successful project attaches a number
of Windfall dice to the device equal to the number of
starting dice in the GM’s pool. These are added to ac-
tions that use the device, one per roll, until they run out.
If the project accumulated Strain, the fixer rolls his
Career die. If it comes up greater than or equal to the
Strain, the players may continue to the next round and
try to eliminate more GM dice. If not, the project fails.
The players may choose to fail rather than continue, if
they wish to avoid spending too many rounds on one
project. A failed project still works as intended, but all
GM dice remaining are converted to Misfortune dice
that attach to the device, as above. Any player may in-
stead take any number of these onto himself, ensuring
perfect results in exchange for personal complications.
Windfall and Misfortune generated this way persist
beyond the end of the session.
Origins
Anger
Just to the south of the Wyeth Valley lies the Pale
Martian city, Anger. The city is made up of gleaming,
white-and-red stone and metal structures built upon the
remains of an ancient First Martian terraforming machine.
The city is a series of circular plateaus set atop one anoth-
er, each smaller than the one before. Five major roads lead
from the highest plateau in the center of the city all the way
out to the farthest reaches, truncated with large white obe-
lisks. Firestorms and windstorms ravage the city on a regu-
lar basis, causing constant danger and change. The people
of Anger accept this change in stride, and are a people full
of passion. If you grew up in Anger, you could be a wide
range of social classes; scholars, merchants, military, fixers,
or even caravan traders. As a youth in Anger, you watched
the older generations before you enact change and push the
boundaries. When your time came, you too sought change.
Pick One
1. You spent a great deal of time in the Purple Light
with your friends philosophizing about a better
Anger. What was your passionate pursuit?
 O rigins
2. You once went on a caravan trip up to Wyeth
territory. What did you learn there?
3. Your best friend was forced to choose a gender
and occupation they did not completely identify
with. How did you console them?
4. You and a friend were once caught outside the
city during a firestorm. How did you survive?
5. Your mother had a gambling problem, and spent
way too much time at the Arena. How did this af-
fect you?
6. While still young, a repair crew displaced your
family from their homes as they tore it down to
repair the machine underneath. Where did you
end up living afterward?
Battlehymn
Battlehymn is the seat of power of the Church of
the Damsel Messiah. The Red Martian city is filled with
beautiful architecture, temples, universities, hospitals,
and merchants looking to make money from the pilgrims
traveling through. The city has equal parts wealthy
pilgrims seeking blessings from the Matriarch of the
Church and the sick and poor seeking solace from the
Church. The northern shores are home to docks and
the temple district teems with trade and religious cere-
mony. The southern shores are less used and are home
to the indigents and seedier elements of the city. The
Matriarch dictates the law of the city, though her reach
rarely extends farther south than the docks. Growing
up, you would have had relatives in one of three differ-
ent social groups; priests of the Church, merchants or
shop owners servicing the city, or the poor and destitute
looking to make a living through panhandling or theft.
Pick One
1. When you were young, you visited the Temple of
the Voice and a priestess there gave you words of
advice. What did she tell you?
2. As a teenager, you witnessed Templars harassing
shop owners for payments. How did you react?
3. Templars accused one of your friends of heresy
and tried her publicly for her crimes. What did
you do to help her?
35
4. Your best friend lived in the slums and eventually
joined up with the Red Fingers gang. What did
this do to your friendship?
5. As a teenager, someone offered you a decent sum
of money to sneak into the Damsel’s Tomb and
make a rubbing of one of the tombstones. Who
paid you, and why?
6. Your parents wanted you to join the Church as a
priestess. Why did you deny them?
Chiaro
Far to the north lies Chiaro, a Red Martian city
of monuments and mystery. The city was built upon
the ruins of past civilizations, which in turn were built
upon First Martian ruins. Chiaro-that-was is located
near great Cydonian pyramids and First Martian cat-
acombs. The area is rife with tomb raiders and artifact
hunters. Chiaro-that-is is a high-walled trade city lo-
cated on the Stygian canal. This area thrives on the
relics from Chiaro-that-was and the ice caravans trav-
eling between the poles. People of all ilk make their way
to Chiaro seeking adventure and glory within the ruins
near Chiaro-that-was, yet much of the surface has been
picked clean. Growing up in Chiaro, you would have
had relatives in the tomb-robbing trade, and probably
met a lot of foreigners seeking their fortunes the same
way.
Pick One
1. When you were a teenager, a young boy tried to
pick your pocket. What did you do?
2. One of your childhood friends ran away to join an
ice caravan. What was the last thing you said to
them?
3. A friend dared you to spend the night among the
Cydonian monuments, and you accepted. What
happened to you there?
4. Once, a blind monk stopped you in the middle of
the street. What did he tell you?
5. You and your friends went to investigate the bro-
ken atmosphere processor as children. What did
you find there?
6. As a child, you watched a tomb robber beaten
and robbed on the street. How did you react?
 CHAPTER TWO: RULES

Cimmeria’s Quinon Palace

Cimmeria 2. During your youth, rivals attacked your caravan

Nomadic Red Martians sparsely populate the violet
plains of Cimmeria. The Qan and the Ozaks have been
living in the area for millennia watching the rise and fall
of empires, including their own. A fungus that grows
on the dead, consuming corpses and creating walk-
ing dead that spread the fungus far and wide mars the
area. Those who make their homes there set fire to the
ground before making camp, and burn their dead as op-
posed to allowing the fungus to take them. Despite the
common threat, the Qan and Ozaks are at war with one
another and have been for centuries. Whenever cara-
vans or groups of the opposing factions happen upon
one another, it always ends in bloodshed, creating more
corpses for the fungus to proliferate. Life on the plains is
in the middle of the night. What did you do?
3. Your caravan once traveled near the Fibonacci
Knot, and you went inside the first rings. What
did you see there?
4. Your grandfather left your caravan to travel to
the Atai Monastery to spend his last days. What
was the last thing he said to you?
5. Your family lived in a small settlement near
Qinon until a Ozak attack forced everyone to
leave. Where did you go?
6. You once watched as someone ate a fruit from a
corpse tress. What happened?

Coronal
not easy, and your character is either a Qan or an Ozak
filled with hatred for the other. Qan create small tent
cities and attempt to carve space from the fungus to live
To the west of Vance sits her ancient sister-city of
normal lives. Ozaks are more nomadic and seek peace
Coronal, built on the side of an active volcano. The city
through hard work and training.
was built by a civilization long gone, but the buildings
Pick One and structures still remain in pristine condition, due to
mysterious silver spiders that come and repair and fix the
1. When you were young, you witnessed a beloved
buildings each night. For this reason, no new structures
family member’s corpse taken by the fungus and
ever remain built within the city, as the spiders destroy
given a semblance of life. How did this affect you?

36
 O rigins
them in the middle of the night. The city’s growth is sti-
fled in this way, and only the rich and powerful live in the
city proper. Anyone unable to secure one of the ancient
buildings is relegated to a small shanty town just outside
of Coronal called Almeida. The people of Coronal are
farmers and workers who make their living selling food
and crafts to Vance and other city-states. A military force
sent from Vance rules the city of Coronal. If you grew up
in Coronal, your family are likely farmers or crafters.
Pick One
1. Your friend once caught a spider at the Xeta
Geyser. What did you do with it?
2. As a child, you happened upon a mystery cult
who were attempting to read patterns in the spi-
der’s metallic webbing. What were they doing?
3. A city guard once grabbed you and attempted to
force you to run an errand for him for free. How
did you react?
4. City guards arrested your best friend for inciting
a riot in an attempt to get people to fight for de-
mocracy in the city. What did you do to help her?
5. You and a friend spent time scavenging near the
lava flows. What did you find?
6. You grew up in Vale, but your best friend grew up
in Almeida. How did this difference affect your
friendship?
Foresight
Seated on a carved plateau just within the impact
crater of Hell’s Basin, Foresight curls along the cliff face
around it—continually building out onto adjacent ridg-
es and burrowing into the stone itself. That cocoon of
rock protects it from the worst of the sandstorms that
regularly blast out of its neighbor, which boom past
them but do no more than scour the Southern Stair
clean and rattle their windows. It leaves them con-
tinually surrounded by a haze of dust though, turn-
ing the air perpetually dim and red. It was originally
a Pale Martian outpost, and they still make up a nar-
row majority of the population, so it is built to their
scale and smaller creatures may find the terrain rough
going. Everyone is welcome in Foresight, though, pro-
vided they share the city’s single-minded devotion to
the past and the knowledge ghosts may have of it. Pale
Martian pilgrims travel here to breathe in the smoky
37
fumes that arise from the depths and peer into the heart
of history. To try and record what they learn for fur-
ther study in Metanoia. Full-time residents include the
sort of Martians who have strong beliefs about ghosts,
whether to know them, learn from them, banish them,
or eat them. Cultists and historians, artists and priests
are called from all corners of Mars to stand at the edge
of the abyss and look into it.
Pick one:
1. You were 13 when you first saw the Lost Child in
your dreams, still searching the sand. What did
she tell you as you walked with her?
2. Soon you’ll be old enough to climb down the
Southern Stair and welcome your first ghost into
your mind. You’ve trained for this since you were
old enough to name the constellations in the sky.
What is staying your hand?
3. Day and night you study the book you stole from
Metanoia, trying to cast your mind into the past
to grasp the meaning of its strange script. What
do you hope to uncover in its pages?
4. When you were 31 and a day, you realized that
the ghosts around you were trapped, secretly
longing to return to the soil where they could
merge and be reborn as Mars’s green lands. Who
taught you to banish them?
5. In the glossolalia you record from street prophets
and lunatics, you think you are beginning to see
a pattern. When will you follow the map you’ve
drawn from their words?
Illium
The Red Martian city of Illium sits atop the Radium
Plateau. This high-walled city is built of reaching tow-
ers and sky bridges connecting buildings high above the
ground. The buildings are all glittering white stone and
lit at night by red, softly-glowing radium lamps. The
university is regarded as the most prestigious learning
facility on Mars, and people travel from all over for the
chance to study there. The city is prosperous due to
the unprecedented abundance of water afforded by the
underground reclamation system. Of course, the city’s
sky navy is the reason for much of the prosperity. The
fleet is one of the largest on Mars, rivaled only by that
of Zodiac. The city-state is quick to go to war when
 CHAPTER TWO: RULES
it suits, and reaps the benefits of such. Growing up in
Illium, you more than likely served the mandatory two-
year term in the sky navy. You know someone who is
still in the sky navy, and more than likely have fami-
ly members who still serve. Your family could be mer-
chants, fixers, scholars, or transplants who came from
another area looking for wealth in Illium.
Pick One
1. Your best friend decided to skip town before her
term of service in the sky navy came up. What
was the last thing she said to you?
2. When you were an adolescent, you saw Princess
Invincible give a speech from Horizon’s Terror.
How did this make you feel?
3. When you were a child, you got lost in the
University. What did you do?
4. After your two-year term was up with the sky
navy, you wanted to remain, but you were not
allowed. What happened?
5. One of the Masters of the University favored you
and were certain to get a coveted spot in his class.
Why didn’t you go?
6. You once ventured into the necropolis below the
city alone. What happened to you there?
Siren
The city of Siren lies near the Temple of the Poppy
Brides. Its closest neighbor is the city of Honor to the
north, with their outer reaches separated only by a
perpetual sand storm. The city is a multilevel sprawl-
ing place with dangers at every turn, and thriving life
despite constant sand storms, flooding, hungry ghosts,
and a twisting landscape that kills as often as it shel-
ters. Above, the city is filled with itinerant wayfarers
who cast their tents within a labyrinth of stone and
sand. In a nearby valley, farmers brave sheer rock fac-
es, floods, and intense sand storms to harvest food for
the rest of the city. Below it all resides the city’s elite,
the Queen and her entourage, in a crystalline castle
far beneath the wastes above. Growing up in Siren,
your family was either farmers, guards, or criminals.
Pick One
1. You once witnessed someone in Himk allow a ghost
to possess them for several days. What happened?
38
2. As a child, you watched the guards in Nadamban
forcibly remove a lost wanderer. How did you react?
3. Your best friend died in a sandstorm near Voshi.
How did this affect you?
4. You and a group of friends decided to travel the
labyrinth of Himk to visit the Temple of the
Poppy Brides. What happened to you?
5. Once, you and your friends were caught in a flash
flood in the halls of Nadamban. How did you
survive?
6. Your family survived by stealing what they could,
but all you wanted to do was live in the crystal
palace. How did you get out of the criminal life?
Skarras
Skarras is a relic of a better age and a more prosper-
ous time. The Skarruts continue to dwell in their city,
as old as any First Martian ruin, and just as dilapidated.
The city once sat gloriously on the shores of one of the
great Martian oceans. Now, it sits at the top of a moun-
tain surrounded by dust and raging storms. The city is a
monument to time, the buildings falling apart, and old-
er areas of the city are abandoned as they become unliv-
able. The Skarruts endure, unable or unwilling to relo-
cate, and in serious debt as their city continues to fall to
ruins around them. Now the Skarruts sell themselves as
guards and mercenaries, hoping to gain enough money
to keep their city alive, much less rebuild the broken
parts. Growing up in Skarras, you were trained as a war-
rior, learning the sling and pole in equal measures. Your
family could be workers, stone masons, mercenaries, or
itinerate architects.
Pick One
1. Your parents were commissioned onto a Zodiac
war ship when you were young. What happened
to them?
2. During your formative years, your best friend
joined the Revolution. How did you react to this?
3. You had a young cousin who was trapped in the
Shades. No one wanted to help get them out.
What did you do?
4. Your brother ran away from home in an attempt
to escape going to war for Illium. How did this
impact you?
 O rigins
5. You once traveled to the Sky Fields to scavenge
parts for sale. What did you see there?
6. You trained under a master stone mason during
your formative years. Why did you abandon him?
Surtur
Built on top of an ancient volcano, Surtur is the
home of Pale and Red Martians alike. Smoke and ash
from the volcano constantly covers the place, which
casts the city into a perpetual twilight state. The city is a
First Martian construct, but the wealth of minerals and
ores the city boasts causes it to keep a lively Red Martian
populace. They claim to house the first forge ever built
by First Martians, and still use it to this day to create holy
relics. Surtur is built in tiers across the volcano’s surface,
with mine entrances interspersed between homes and
shops. The people of Surtur are miners one and all; ev-
eryone gives time to work the earth as a sacred duty. The
Fire Priests, who worship the First Martians as gods, rule
the people of Surtur in both religion and government.
Growing up in Surtur means working the mines on a dai-
ly basis, and following the rule of the Fire Priests. You
could be either Red or Pale Martian from Surtur, as both
groups have equal representation in the city. Your family
contains artisans, merchants, and traders to some degree.
Pick One
1. On your first trip to the Obsidian Plaza, you were
caught there after dark when the Obsidian Block
started up. What happened to you?
2. When you were young, a Fire Priest told you he
saw your future in the flames. What did he tell
you?
3. Once, as an adolescent, a mine collapsed on you
and your best friend. How did you escape?
4. Your childhood friends dared you to walk alone
in the Volcanic Gardens. What did you do there?
5. A friendly Fire Priest once invited you to watch a
fire reading at a forge. How did you feel about the
experience?
6. As a small child, a friend dared you to run into
the First Forge and touch it with your bare hand.
How did you react?
39
Wyeth Valley
The Wyeth Valley is a deep crevice scarring the face
of Mars. Within it are lush forests, ancient trees, and the
Wyeth people. Cities in the Wyeth Valley are built in and
around the trees. Wyela is the easternmost, and one of the
greatest, Wyeth cities, and most well-known to outsiders.
The city is founded upon a knot of giant trees twisting up
and in upon one another. The crevices, trunks, root sys-
tems and leafy cover are all the makings of a Wyeth home.
The Wyeth people worship their ancestors, believing in an
elaborate reincarnation cycle. Growing up in the Wyeth
Valley, you watch the other Wyeth take up roles necessary
for the society at the time. Your family is likely to include
gatherers, gardeners, and warriors alike.
Pick One
1. Your seed sisters all wanted to stay in Wyela as
long as possible and did not leave when you did.
What did you say to them before you left?
2. In your adolescence, you spent some time in the
krem den training as a seer. What vision shaped
you the most?
3. You and your friends went into the south jun-
gle alone for several days. What happened to you
while you were away?
4. Before you left home, a Life Speaker sat with you
to speak with one of your ancestors. What advice
did you get?
5. Stories of Deephome always fascinated you as
a child. To what lengths did you go to find an
entrance?
6. Creatures from the jungle attacked your fami-
ly when you were still a seedling. How did you
react?
Vance
Built at an intersection of several major canals sits
Vance, a Red Martian merchant city. The canal system is
an intricate web of tiered cascades and interwoven locks
and flows. Water flows as streets in Vance, with buildings
towering up alongside them. The canals bring trade and
visitors to Vance, allowing the merchants to grow wealthy
and influential. Most everyone in Vance is a tradesman of
some sort. Even those who rule the city are the wealthiest
 CHAPTER TWO: RULES
of the merchant families. Growing up in Vance, you saw
your fair share of outsiders and traders. You could come
from many diverse backgrounds; your family could be mer-
chants as high as one of the great merchant families, or
beggars and thieves down in the Dredge.
Pick One
1. When you were young, a snotty noble challenged
your best friend to a duel in the Arez plaza. What
did you do to help her?
2. As a child, you were approached to help some
men steal from one of the lesser merchant fami-
lies. How did you respond?
3. You grew up in the Dredge as an orphan. What
did you have to do to survive?
4. When you were young, you witnessed one of the
Hounds harassing an old woman. What did you
do?
5. Your childhood friend was heir to one of the
great merchant families. She came to you to di-
vulge that she wanted to run away. How did you
counsel her?
6. Once, in the Hangman’s garden, you met a
stranger who was admiring the tortured sculp-
tures. He told you a story. What was it?
Zaiu Caravans
The Zaius do not have a single location they call
home, so much as a set of carts, cars, and beasts to pull
them. They are a nomadic people, traveling the face of
Mars, and while they claim no single location as their
home, they consider the caravans they travel in home
enough. The caravans tend to be large moving com-
munities with moving homes full of personality and
culture. Each wagon and cart is brightly painted with
the history of the caravan and hung with ornate dec-
orations and jewelry signifying important ancestors.
The Zaiu people are deeply intelligent and amazing
crafters and fixers. Growing up with these nomads,
you probably followed a specific route across Mars be-
tween a few different city-states. Your family makes its
living by making and selling wares to these city-states.
Pick One
1. You have learned all the ancestor stories for your car-
avan. Which one holds the most meaning for you?
40
2. When you were an adolescent, your friend decided
to remain in a city-state rather than continue on
with the rest of the caravan. How did you react?
3. As a child, your caravan once picked up a ghost
eater. What did you learn from him?
4. Your parents sold trinkets in towns to make a liv-
ing. Why did you refuse to take up their trade?
5. Your sister was married off to a man in another car-
avan. What advice did you give her before she left?
6. You visited the Fourier Spire once when you were
a small child. What part of Zaiu history did you
learn there?
Ziggur
Built on and around a large atmosphere processor,
Ziggur is the largest Roundhead settlement, and the
only city ruled by Roundheads. Much of the city is built
of mismatched blocks pulled from nearby Cydonian ru-
ins, or built directly on the processor. The city is filled
with cobbled-together hovels gathered in the shadow of
the great processor. The Yellow Silks rule the city and
live within garden terraces built up along the proces-
sor’s side. These quarters are decadent by comparison
to the rest of the houses in the city. Eu is the leader
of the Yellow Silks and controls the water in the city,
but is unable to police the area in a military fashion.
Due to this, Ziggur is a mostly lawless area, though the
few criminals who are caught are ritually sacrificed on
the steps leading up to the processor’s entrance. Such a
hefty punishment for crime serves as a good deterrent.
Life in Ziggur is not always easy, but it seems better than
any of the other atmosphere processor monasteries.
Pick One
1. As an adolescent, you aspired to be a Yellow Silk.
You spent some amount of time in the Yellow
Cloister. Why did you leave?
2. When you were young, you watched a crime hap-
pen in front of you and no one seemed to care.
How did you react?
3. The first time you witnessed a ritual sacrifice, Eu gave
a rare speech before the killing. What did he say?
4. You and your friends once snuck inside the atmo-
sphere processor to look around. What did you
find there?
 O rigins
5. Once, while in the Merchant Quarter, a criminal
beseeched you to help her hide from the Yellow
Silks. How did you react?
6. Your best friend growing up was a Roundhead
whose family made a long trek across Mars from
a different atmosphere processor. How did you
help her acclimate to Ziggur?
Zodiac
Zodiac is situated in the center of a vegetation-rich
crater in the northern hemisphere of Mars. The crater
captures polar moisture as it flows past, and is one of the
few places left on Mars with a natural water supply and
growth. The city is a beautiful masterpiece, with trees and
plants growing in and around the city, allowing for ornate
gardens and grass-filled lawns. The city is ruled by a spiri-
tual and theocratic leader, called the Arbiter, whose word
is law in the heavens. The people of Zodiac run their daily
lives by the stars and seek the wisdom of the stars through
contemplation and meditation. Zodiac boasts a sky fleet
large enough to match that of Illium, and even they follow
the movements of the stars with astrologers aboard each
ship. Growing up in Zodiac, the sign of the stars you were
born under meant as much as the job you did or the ac-
tions you took. You know people from all walks of life, but
the stars tell the real stories in Zodiac.
Pick One
1. You were born under an auspicious star sign.
What does your birth star say about you?
2. When you were an adolescent, you found out
your best friend was born under an unlucky star
sign, but was hiding it from everyone. How did
you react when you found out?
3. When you were young, you tried to join the sky
navy, but they turned you away. Why and how
did you react?
4. You served in the sky navy and in the shipyards
for several years when young. What stories did
you learn there?
41
5. You had a chance to have your stars read by an
important astrologer. What did she tell you?
6. As a child, someone picked a fight with you about
your star sign. How did you react?
Dust Towns
All across Mars stand small dust towns, not much
larger than a couple of hundred people, all gathered
near a small water source. Maybe there’s a nearly-de-
funct well, or a small polar runoff that ends at the set-
tlement. Whatever the people can use to survive, they
do. These towns are usually filled with Red Martians,
and run by the town elders. People in dust towns lead
hard and simple lives, not having the wherewithal to
engage in the decadence of the city-states. Growing up
in a dust town, your family was likely to be farmers or
herders.
Pick One
1. When you were young, a caravan came through
town and the people in it were rough and stole
from the townsfolk. How did you react?
2. Once, when you were an adolescent, you were
caught outside in a dust storm. What did you do
to survive?
3. When you were a child, a lone mercenary came
through town and stayed for a week. What did
you learn from her?
4. As a child, you befriended an elderly woman who
told you stories of her adventures. Who was she?
5. The summer of your 15th year, crops failed due
to drought. What did you do to help your family
survive the hardship?
6. Bandits raided your town in the middle of the
night, killing several elders. How did you help the
town?
 CHAPTER TWO: RULES

Careers
Careers help both tell the story of your character’s
life and what he can do.
If you don’t see something here, feel free to make
it up.
A few Careers listed here have notes on specific abil-
ities they possess. These aren’t the entirety of what they
can do with that Trait, but are instead special cases.
right to speak or to eat only by performing feats of
the mind.
While numerous orders attempt this training,
true adepts are few and far between. Some orders,
such as the Roundheads, combine psychic training
with the mastery of mathematics or other sciences.
Certainly, the results of these methods speak for
themselves, as most Roundheads demonstrate un-

Adept canny mental powers. Others combine the arts with

ecstatic religious experiences, believing
that the alternation of deprivation and
Adepts are those skilled in the psychic arts. A
excess can stretch the boundaries of
few are prodigies, whose abilities develop natural-
the mind.
ly during their youths. Others are “gifted” after
being struck with terrible illnesses or tragedies.
Most, however, learn
the arts through long
and arduous study.
Potential adepts are
brought up as ascet-
ics, earning the

ADEPT ASTROLOGER ASSASSIN

42
 C areers
Adepts are feared by common Martians, but not
unduly so. The average Martian cannot guess at the
powers of a psychic opponent, while he knows the
adept’s estimation of him will be flawless. Adepts
find employment as priests, advisors, and, in some
unusual cases, courtesans.
Trappings: A faint crackle in the air, as if before
a storm.
Assassin
Hired killers take many forms on Mars. Some are
elite warriors, able to best even the most dangerous
of opponents in single combat. Others are more sub-
tle, as adept at intrigue as poison. And many are sim-
ple butchers, blunt instruments moved into the right
place at the right time.
Career assassins work for hire, and are usually
found in the employ of one wealthy interest or an-
other. In Vance, assassination is a common ploy in
the politics of the merchant houses. There, political
murder is considered primarily the crime of the pa-
tron, rather than the hand that wields the knife. In
Ziggur, assassins pursue prey more vulnerable here
than elsewhere, or find employment with the small,
but dedicated, cells of revolutionaries.
A few assassins wander the desert paths, spend-
ing years tracking a single quarry, and striking them
down at the most poetic possible moment.
Trappings: Poison, small blades, a disguise.
Astrologer
Astrologers divine the will and ways of the heav-
ens. An astrologer’s tools are mathematics and charts,
much as a sailor in ancient days. Nearly every great
city has astrologers, even when they are forbidden, as
in Ziggur.
The wealthiest of astrologers have great tele-
scopes, mounted upon rooftops or even sacred hills.
A few telescopes survive from the age of the first
Martians, and an astrologer who can command one
of these is mighty indeed. Finding such an instrument
might well be the ultimate ambition of an adventuring
astrologer.
In Zodiac, astrologers are particularly respected. Far
from selling their services on the streets, as in Vance,
43
they live as the highest caste. They are held in greater
awe than any priest, for even gods are subject to the de-
crees of the stars. The Arbiter is first among astrologers.
Trappings: An astrolabe, star charts, horoscopes of
the powerful.
Cavalier
A cavalier is someone who knows how to seize the
reins and ride. To ride the terro that soars, the horus
that sees dangers in its rider’s future, the wind-ships of
the Zomek. A cavalier can ride anything. Some say that
the greatest of cavaliers ride the wind itself, as ghosts
do.
There are no formal rosters, no monastery...riding,
shooting and the blade are taught father to daughter,
master to apprentice, drunk to generous bartender.
Every cavalier is a different kind of person, but most are
for hire, and all but a spare few are killers.
The Qans and the Ozaks both employ cavaliers in
their centuries-long war across the steppe. Few Zaius
care to ride, but often a science-priest of the ape men
will employ a cavalier as a bodyguard.
The one sure mark of the cavalier trade are their
hats, broad and long, warding the sand out of their kill-
ers’ eyes.
Trappings: A long, broad black hat, a sword, treats
for various beasts.
Courtesan
Courtesans decorate the arms of their patrons, as
well as warm their beds. Even the lowest courtesans
dress in vivid and revealing clothing, hoping to catch
the eye of a noble or a wealthy merchant. In most cities,
courtesans can be distinguished not only by their cloth-
ing, but by the glass lanterns they carry.
An exquisite courtesan is the mark of a person who
has not only money, but taste as well. Courtesans often
practice other professions in order to make themselves
more attractive additions to a household. Astrologers
or fixers are common. A few are even physicians, caring
for the flesh’s every need.
Traveling courtesans are often seeking a place in
some new city, perhaps trading on their very foreign-
ness. Others have tired of the life of a living accessory,
and seek to make their own fortunes.
 CHAPTER TWO: RULES

Trappings: Silk garments and sparkling jewelry in Many entertainers practice traditional arts. There
bright colors. are dancers whose sinuous movements may trace their

Entertainer
descent all the way to the First Martians. Likewise, poets
are expected to have as much mastery of classical epics
as of composing new verse.
From the poets who speak flattery in the ears of no- Some entertainers do work of a bloodier sort. These
bles to the dancers who please their eyes, entertainers are the gladiators of the pits in Chiaro and Ziggur, or
are an important part of Martian society. Traveling sto- the show-duelists of Vance and Zodiac.
rytellers tell not only jokes and folktales, but also carry
Entertainers are often found traveling, for the favor
with them the news of the day.
of a city never seems to last quite as long as it should.
Entertainers serve, and occupy, every social class.
Trappings: A pleasant voice and a repertoire of po-
Street poets shout lyrically in the bazaars, hoping for a
ems or songs; for a gladiator, a sporting weapon.
few chits of ceramic or obsidian. In some places, such
as Illium, any performer of some talent is respected. In
others, such as Surtur, the entertainer is merely a ne-
cessity to maintain morale.

CAVALIER COURTESAN ENTERTAINER

44
 C areers
Fixer
Fixers maintain the machines left by the great civ-
ilizations of the past. Nearly every village has at least
one fixer, charged with keeping devices such as water
pumps or powered lights working. The great cities have
hundreds of fixers, available for hire.
Talented fixers are a necessity of survival on Mars.
The most fortunate and experienced fixers maintain
great works like canals or atmosphere processors, lit-
erally making life possible for the remaining Martians.
Fixers are also the keepers of esoteric lore. Often, a par-
ticularly great machine will have its own rituals and prayers,
as important to its upkeep as physical repair. Wandering fix-
ers are often in search of more of this lore, as well as exotic
machines with which they might build a reputation.
FIXER LABORER
45
Trappings: Metal oddments for use in manipulat-
ing machines, some kind of grease.
Laborer
Laborers make up the majority of the Martian pop-
ulation, whether canal-side dockworkers, skilled craft-
ers or peasant farmers. Martians say that toil by hand is
the oldest profession, for who other than laborers raised
the pyramids or other great monuments? Who else can
bring life from the dead soil?
Farmers raise the vegetables and fungi that feed
most of Mars. They use water in greater abundance than
other Martians, yet, if possible, hold it in even more rev-
erence. For if a soldier runs out of water, he alone dies.
If a farmer runs out of water, a whole village may die…
and not mercifully.
MERCHANT
 CHAPTER TWO: RULES
Crafters master arts like tanning and smithing, pro-
ducing the clothing and weapons needed so desperate-
ly by the rest of Mars. In their shops they weave gar-
ments of silk and carve knives of bone. They depend on
the labors of miners and hunters, who bring them raw
materials.
Many laborers are slaves, spat upon and worked to
the bone. There is not a one but dreams of rebellion…
and not a few rise up against their masters. On Mars,
who holds power can change with one swing of a sharp
rock.
Trappings: Workers’ clothing, tools appropriate to
the trade.
Merchant
On Mars, everything can be bought, and every-
thing will be sold. Merchants make their living off of
these exchanges, moving goods from one city to anoth-
er. Merchants range from scrawny peddlers selling trin-
kets from village to village, to water-fat princes whose
duties are largely administrative.
The great merchants are among the most powerful
people on Mars, ruling houses that may even span more
than one city. Surtur’s merchants are a breed apart
from the others, tight-lipped and tight-fisted traders
who return all of their wealth to the government of the
Fire Priests.
Most merchants have spent at least some of their
life as travelers and adventurers. For many, the lure of
exotic lands is as powerful as the lure of water. Others
are made to serve by their families, with treks from city
to city serving as rites of passage.
Trappings: Ledgers, ink-stained fingers, maps of
trade routes.
Noble
Nearly every land on dying Mars has its aristocracy.
Nobles inherit or buy positions of rulership and carry
out the duties of government. Few nobles are truly idle.
Every hand on Mars works, even if that work is the fu-
rious scribbling of pen on ledger.
The nature of nobility varies from land to land. In
Vance, the nobility are nearly all merchant-aristocrats
who sponsor city services and army units. In Illium, no-
bles are the most educated scholars. Zodiac’s aristocra-
cy is made up of the descendants of past Arbiters, with
46
favor shown to those born under the most auspicious
signs. Ziggur has few nobles; the closest equivalents are
the favored servants of Eu. Likewise Surtur, where pow-
er resides with those chosen to join the priesthood.
Disinherited nobles often seek adventure and the
means to return to their accustomed lifestyles. Some
young nobles travel on grand tours of Mars, or labor
alongside others in search of a taste of the real world.
Trappings: Books of law, palatial dwellings, hoards
of wealth.
Physician
From the witch-doctor of the streets to the court-
iers of the haughtiest noble, physicians tend the ills and
wounds of the populace. Physicians hold in their hands
the very powers of life and death, and are held in high
esteem accordingly.
The most successful physicians train under a mas-
ter, who in turn trained under another master. The se-
crets of the body are passed down with great reverence,
and some are closely guarded. Also passed down are se-
cret signs and greetings, so that members of this august
profession can distinguish each other from upstarts and
charlatans.
Physicians are much in demand for caravans and
expeditions, for travel on Mars is extremely hazardous
to the body. A physician might even be the keeper of
a traveling party’s water supply, rationing the essence
of life.
Trappings: Saws and knives, esoteric drugs.
Treat Wounds: When treating another character,
physicians can roll their Career die and remove a num-
ber of Strain equal to the die roll. Treatment takes half
as many hours as the rolled value.
Pilot
Pilots are those who steer the great ships of Illium
and Zodiac through the red sky. Becoming a pilot takes
years of training, beginning with sailing dust boats
across the desert in the manner of the Zomek. Pilots
are an elite social class. In Illium, they are the most re-
spected people in the military. In Zodiac, they sit at the
Arbiter’s great table.
Great legends surround the early pilots, and are told
across Mars. One of the most popular concerns the Ancient
Mariner, who spent 12 minutes crossing the sky, though it

NOBLE
seemed to him 12 years. Children are told that the voice of
the Mariner can still be heard on the wind, crying in exulta-
tion and horror at seeing the world revealed to him.
Trappings: Charts, navigational instruments, cere-
monial winged knife.
Priest
Priests keep alive the embers of the old religions,
which are as essential and endangered as any fire on
Mars. Zeal and sacrifice are the tools of a priest.
The priests of Illium are soldiers who go to war
alongside their fellows. The Silks of Ziggur teach the
worship of the great wind spirits in the atmosphere
processor, and make offerings to it. In Vance, priests
C areers
PHYSICIAN PILOT
shout on the corners and in the squares, decrying the
decadence of the populace and their devotion to flesh
and vanity. Among the Pale Martians, prophets exhort
their followers to follow the example of the moons, to
shine brightly even if it means shining alone. Surtur’s
Fire Priests preach the scripture of the First Martians,
read from the bands of hieroglyphs that circle the great
volcanoes. The populations of lost cities often cling to
their forsaken homes only because of misdirected piety.
Maverick priests teach the worship of new gods and
ideas. Their cults are often vital and devoted, though al-
ways small. There are always rumors of a new and dangerous
prophet rallying wanderers in the desert and raising an army.
Trappings: Scripture, on paper or tablet; tattoos
and piercings.
47
 CHAPTER TWO: RULES
Scavenger
The vast wastes of Mars are dotted with forgotten
cities, tombs, and mines. Scavengers seek out these
strange, lost places, looking to recover treasure or tech-
nological artifacts. Others act as prospectors, searching
for the last remains of Mars’ natural resources.
Scavengers are typically experienced desert survi-
vors, since they stray far from the canals and trade routes.
They walk the lonely old coasts, looking for the ruins
of great ports on dried-up seas. Red Martian scavengers
often find themselves in conflict with the Pale societies
that make the ruins their homes. Pale scavengers, on the
other hand, are often treated as thieves by their fellows.
PRIEST SCAVENGER
48
Fierce independence is another mark of a scaven-
ger. While few are above working together when the
need arises, many travel alone, hoping to keep the priz-
es of exploration for themselves.
Scavengers are often hired as guides by travelers,
for they are capable of guiding a party in the wilderness
when the beaten path must be avoided for fear of ban-
dits, or because of a secret mission.
Trappings: Red scarf, blue flame lantern, map with
strange symbols.
Scholar
Scholars are the keepers of history and law, as well
as delvers into forbidden secrets. They read and write
for the masses, or practice obscure arts in the highest
towers of the aristocracy.
SCHOLAR
 Talents
In Illium, the scholars of the University serve the
state. In most other lands, scholars must practice other
professions or find wealthy patrons from among the noble
or merchant classes. Some scholars serve mercenary sol-
diers as both guides and the custodians of well-worn maps.
Not a few scholars find themselves trekking across
the wastes in search of lost civilizations and the knowl-
edge they left behind. These dream of unearthing an-
cient secrets, bringing to light that which none has
dared stare upon in millennia.
Trappings: Books of lost lore, letters written for others.
Servant
The needs of the powerful must be tended to.
Princes must be dressed. Dinners must be cooked.
Callouses must be scraped from feet. Such are the
duties of servants, the oft-silent figures who take
care of households and businesses.
SERVANT
Many servants are indentured, paying off a debt
owed to or bought by their master. Others are members
of vassal families who have served a particular group
of masters since time immemorial. In merchant cities
such as Vance or even Chiaro, the customary robe of a
servant is black, reminding him not to spend too much
time dawdling in the sun.
Some servants hold high social status, such as the
architects who design cities and monuments. These ser-
vants are often considered indispensable by their mas-
ters, and the defection of one to another house, howev-
er legal, could ignite a deadly feud.
Trappings: Servants’ clothing,
tools appropriate to specific jobs.
SOLDIER THIEF
49
 CHAPTER TWO: RULES
Soldier
War-torn Mars is ever in need of soldiers. Whether
highly-trained professionals or rabble given spears and
slings, soldiers are the hands and claws of every ruler’s
strong arm.
The soldiers of Vance are mostly sellswords, their
units sponsored by the merchant houses. In Illium, they
are the personal servants of the Princess Invincible,
who often chooses her consort from among their ranks.
Every citizen of that city must serve a term in the army.
In Ziggur, the core of the army are the guards of Eu. All
of the people of Surtur conduct themselves with mili-
tary discipline, and the true warriors are legendary.
Many soldiers are mercenaries, the cause they serve
varying by day and by coin. Mercenaries often travel across
Mars, seeking their water from a wide range of princes,
priests, and warlords. The wealthy keep retinues of hired
guards to protect against thieves and assassins.
Trappings: Sword and spear, flintlock pistol, occa-
sionally armor.
50
Thief
Many are the thieves of dying Mars. For even now,
as the sands seek to claim the world forever, there
are great treasures to be had, and great fortunes to be
made. Some thieves are great dreamers, imagining one
grand haul that will elevate them to the merchant or
noble classes. Others dream of no more than a few ob-
sidian chits from a laborer’s pocket, enough to pay for
tonight’s water and a simple bed.
Thieves range from pickpockets to second-story
burglars to deadly brigands. They have no real organiza-
tion, but many know thief-marks, the secret symbols of
their profession. These marks sometimes contain warn-
ings, such as the presence of a guardian beast, or boasts,
recording that a great thief looted this house.
Whether driven out of the cities or tempted by
ancient maps they stole, many thieves eventually find
themselves drawn to Mars’ ruins and lost places. Those
are the places of the greatest dreams, and the greatest
nightmares.
Trappings: Hidden blades, lock-picks, rope,
pry-bar.
 Talents

Talents
Cunning Talents
ALWAYS A WAY OUT HIDDEN POCKETS
Despite the danger all around, you see a path to safe- You make an object disappear.
ty...at least for a little while. Trait: Cunning
Trait: Cunning Cost: Exert Cunning
Cost: Exert Cunning Effect: You may conceal a single hand-sized object on
Effect: You see a way to get out of immediate danger. your person. No inspection this scene will detect it.
Reaching it may still be a challenge.
IMPROVISED TOOLS
BRIBERY You’ve run into an unusual need...and found an unusual
You tempt an official into helping you. solution.
Trait: Cunning Trait: Cunning
Cost: Exert Cunning Cost: Exert Cunning
Effect: The official accepts your bribe. Effect: When you find you need a tool to practice one
of your Careers that you would not normally carry on
CHEAT your person, you can find an improvised alternative.
You don’t like the odds, so you make your own. LAWYER
Trait: Cunning
Your obscure knowledge of local law or culture lets
Cost: Exert Cunning you find a loophole.
Effect: You find an opportunity to rig a game of Trait: Cunning
chance, allowing you to pick one winner or one loser.
Cost: Exert Cunning
DISGUISE Effect: When in trouble, you may ask the GM to tell
you a local law or taboo that can help. (Feel free to
With a few simple tricks, you take on a new identity. make suggestions about what it is.)
Trait: Cunning
Cost: Exert Cunning VOUCHSAFE
Effect: For the rest of the scene, you convince witness- You know your people... and can convince them to hide
es that you are who you appear to be. You can take on you.
the identity of a real person, but may still need to roll to Trait: Cunning
fool those who have met them.
Cost: Exert Cunning
Effect: You convince a person who shares part of your
Origin (such as the Streets or the Bazaar) to hide you
from pursuers or investigators.

Forceful Talents
DANGEROUS REPUTATION DEMOLISH
You disclose your identity, and sow fear in the hearts of With fists or weapons, you smash through an obstacle.
those around you. Trait: Force
Trait: Force Cost: Exert Force
Cost: Exert Force Effect: If you could normally destroy an object within a
Effect: By revealing who you are (either by name or few hours, you may destroy it immediately instead.
talked-about past deeds), you intimidate those you
reveal your identity to.

51
 CHAPTER TWO: RULES

DRESS TO IMPRESS OFFER THEY CAN’T REFUSE

All eyes are on your attire, whether out of admiration, You put a business proposition in terms your audience
desire, or jealousy. has no choice but to accept.
Trait: Force Trait: Force
Cost: Exert Force Cost: Exert Force
Effect: You can determine exactly the right clothing Effect: The other party agrees to your offer, though
to impress a given audience. This can mean attracting they may not be happy about it.
attention at a social occasion, or bolstering the impres-
sion that you’re someone important. IN DEMAND
You’re rarely out of work.
Trait: Force (when selecting this Talent, also pick a
Career to link it to)
Cost: Exert the linked Career
Effect: Within less than a day, you can find work in
your linked Career.

Graceful Talents
ACROBAT SHOWOFF
You leap and tumble with almost impossible finesse. You do the impossible, and you make it look easy.
Trait: Grace Trait: Grace
Cost: Exert Grace Cost: Exert Grace
Effect: You can make a leap or handle a fall without Effect: When making a Grace roll, add a d12 to your
any adverse effects. pool and a d8 to the opposition.

CLIMBER VANISH IN A CROWD

You scramble up, never mind the sheerness of the You’re hard to notice, or keep eyes on. In a few mo-
surface. ments, you vanish into the bustle of the city streets.
Trait: Grace Trait: Grace
Cost: Exert Grace Cost: Exert Grace
Effect: You can climb surfaces which are completely Effect: When there’s a crowd around you, you can
smooth or otherwise have no handholds. lose pursuers in it and walk casually away.

FREE RUNNING
You sprint through buildings and past obstacles as
easily as down an empty street.
Trait: Grace
Cost: Exert Grace
Effect: Run unhindered by what’s in your way. You
can escape most pursuit or catch most quarries easily,
and on the rare occasion you can’t, you gain a d12 to
try.

52
 Talents
Career Talents
Adept
DOWSING
You are able to feel the presence of a certain natural-
ly-occurring phenomenon.
Cost: Exert Career
Effect: Your character can detect the presence of a
specific item within 10 miles, and its exact location with-
in a mile. When dowsing, the character must say what
she is looking for, such as water, photonic sand, volca-
noes, radium, krem, etc. Dowsing can be used to find
specific items, such as “Hilarity’s krem stash” or “Tess’s
water ration”, but the GM gains a Misfortune die.
PSYCHOMETRIC MASTER
You are capable of sensing histories without the need to
touch your subject.
Trait: Force
Cost: Exert an additional Career
Effect: When activating a psychometry power, you do
not need to touch the subject to learn its details. Your
character must still be able to see and sense the subject.
TELEKINETIC CONTROL
Your mental strike is powerful enough to move oppo-
nents as well as deal damage.
Combo: 1 Strike, 1 Stunt
Effect: When using Telekinesis to strike in combat, also
move the opponent up to one space in any direction.
WINDSPEAKING
You can commune with ghosts.
Trait: Grace
Cost: Exert Career
Effect: You can do one of the following actions: allow
a ghost to inhabit your body and speak through your
lips, allow a ghost to manifest and communicate with
those who are present, or ask the wind spirits to guide
your hand, giving you a bonus die to use on any action
in combat this round.
Assassin
BLEEDING CUT
Your strike opens arteries and leave lasting damage.
Combo: 1 Strike
Cost: 1 successful Strike
Effect: You inflict a -1 penalty to the opponent’s
Resolve Roll during the Break for the rest of the combat.
53
INVISIBLE BLADE
By taking advantage of distraction or the cover of
darkness, you can slip your blade through the best of
defenses.
Combo: 1 Strike, 1 Stunt
Cost: 1 Stunt
Effect: This Talent can only be used when previously
hidden, or after Stunting behind your opponent. When
applying your Strike die to an opponent, you choose
which Parry die they use against your attack.
SLIP THE KNIFE DEEPER
You use precision instead of force when striking, able to
find vulnerable areas or vital organs in a swift strike.
Combo: 2 Strike
Cost: 1 successful Strike
Effect: Deal an additional Strain with close-combat
weapons.
TASTE OF POISON
You know the tools of your trade well enough to recog-
nize poisons.
Trait: Cunning
Cost: Exert Career
Effect: You can identify any poison, including know-
ing where it came from and who is likely to use such a
poison.
Astrologer
FOREORDAINED
You have seen the future, and know exactly what to do.
Trait: Force
Cost: Exhaust Career
Effect: You gain one piece of information pertaining to the
plot, specifically what action to take next or how to solve
a problem.
MASTER ASTROLOGER
Your predictions are accurate, even with minimal
information.
Cost: Exert Career
Effect: When creating a horoscope for a person, you
only need to know their birth name. Additionally, when
performing a ritual divination, the character gains a
single die step above what she normally would, based
on the information she has about her subject.
 CHAPTER TWO: RULES

PORTENTS SEDUCTION
You predict someone’s doom. You know all the right things to say and do.
Cost: Exert Career Cost: Exert Career
Effect: You make a prediction of doom about your Effect: You seduce your intended target into spending
subject, which then comes true before the end of the the night with you. You can either gain a single secret
session. from her, or prevent her from taking action in the time
you are together.
QUICK READ
After speaking with someone for a short amount of time, WHISPERED SECRETS
you can do a quick reading, giving you an advantage You can gain even the most well-kept secrets within a
over them. single night.
Cost: Exert Career Cost: Exhaust Career
Effect: After having a conversation with someone, you Effect: You spend an evening with a person and learn
can quickly consult the stars to gain a single piece of their deepest or most carefully-held secret.
information about them.
Entertainer
Cavalier
DISTRACTION
FAST FOOTWORK You put on a performance that distracts those watching
You are able to move quickly across a battlefield you.
Combo: 1 Parry, 1 Stunt Cost: Exhaust Career
Effect: You can move up to two spaces on the map for Effect: You entertain a group of people, which
each Stunt die. distracts them from noticing other actions. Allies acting
outside your performance gain a Windfall die to their
FLASHING BLADES actions.
You put on a show with your weapons, impressing those INSPIRATION
who see you.
Cost: Exert Career Your performance inspires people to action.
Effect: You make a display of your swordwork, which Cost: Exhaust Career
impresses and pleases those watching. Effect: Anyone watching your performance is inspired
to take an action you have encouraged. If they were al-
MOUNTED COMBATANT ready inclined to take this action, they gain a Windfall
die when enacting it.
You are skilled at fighting while mounted.
Cost: Exert Career IMPRESSIVE PHYSIQUE
Effect: You gain an additional point of Speed for this Your physical training, either as an acrobat or a gladia-
turn while mounted. tor, impresses and intimidates those around you.

Courtesan
Cost: Exert Career
Effect: You flex your muscles and show off your body,
which intimidates those who are watching.
ACCEPTED EVERYWHERE
KEEPING UP WITH THE NEWS
You are particularly welcome in polite society.
Cost: Exert Career You are a source of news, and it finds its way to you
quickly.
Effect: You gain entrance into a social function, high- Cost: Exert Career
end establishment, or party without challenge.
Effect: You learn the latest and most up-to-date news
IMPORTANCE OF CEREMONY for the area you are in.
You are well versed in ceremony and social ritual.
Cost: Exert Career
Effect: You know exactly what to do in a social situ-
ation, even obscure social rituals that might otherwise
embarrass or trip up others.

54
 Talents

Fixer Merchant
COBBLE TOGETHER APPRAISAL
You can fix something on the fly, though it will likely You know the value of an item.
need further repair in the future. Cost: Exert Career
Cost: Exhaust Career Effect: You know what an item is used for, and its
Effect: Your character can modify or fix a single item im- going rate on the open market.
mediately, and it works perfectly for the rest of the scene.
GOOD DEAL
DIRECTOR You negotiate a good deal for buying or selling.
Your expertise allows you to direct others to assist you Cost: Exert Career
better.
Effect: You set a reasonable price for selling or buying
Combo: 1 Work, 1 Research and Ritual an item, which your patron willingly accepts.
Cost: 1 Work
Effect: You enable one ally to apply Strike dice as WELL-TRAVELED
Work dice for this phase of the fixing.
Traveling is common in your trade, and you know the
ins and outs of even the tiniest towns.
I MADE IT, I KNOW HOW IT WORKS Cost: Exert Career
Only you can unlock the full potential of your own Effect: You know the layout of whatever city or settle-
construct. ment you happen to be in, and can find your way easily.
Cost: Exhaust Career
Effect: Activate the Benefit effect on a piece of equip-
ment your character made, repaired, or assisted in
Noble
making.
COMMAND RESPECT
MASTERCRAFTER Your noble demeanor forces others to pay attention to
Fixing comes easily to you, making actions easier. you.
Cost: Exert Career Trait: Force
Effect: Gain an additional die for this fixing action. Cost: Exert Career
Effect: Others must defer to you in a conversation and
Laborer are unwilling to show you disrespect.

FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES

BASIC ARTISAN
You have a modicum of training in fixing, though you
are not as capable as a Fixer.
Combo: 1 Strike, 1 Component
Cost: 1 Strike
Effect: You may use the rest of your Strike dice as
Work dice for this phase of the fixing.
JACK OF ALL TRADES
You don’t need additional training to pick up any tools
and do a job.
Cost: Exert Career
Effect: When taking a basic action that involves any
kind of labor, add your Force die to the pool. If the
action already included Force, add an additional die.
You are a trusted confidant to important people.
Cost: Exert Career
Effect: You can gain a single piece of information
pertaining to the nobility in the area.
PUT IT ON MY TAB
You can procure even the most extravagant items, even
if you can’t actually afford them.
Cost: Exert Career
Effect: Just by stating your name and rank, you can
procure any item, no matter the expense, with expecta-
tion to pay later.

SCRAPPER
Your strength lends itself well to close combat.
Cost: Exert Career
Effect: You deal an additional point of Strain with
unarmed Strikes for the rest of scene.

55
 CHAPTER TWO: RULES

Physician Priest
EXPERT TREATMENT CALMING PRESENCE
Your healing touch reduces the aches and pains of the You know how to ease other’s minds.
injured. Cost: Exert Career
Cost: Exert Career Effect: You calm a person or a group, preventing them
Effect: When using the Treat Wounds action, your from taking rash actions.
character removes one additional Strain from her pa-
tient, and reduces the time it takes to treat by one hour. RITUAL FERVOR
QUICK TREATMENT You perform a religious ritual that incites others.
Cost: Exert Career
You can quickly patch up a wound to get people back
on their feet. Effect: Your ritual raises emotions and whips others
into religious frenzy. You can give the group a specific
Cost: Exert Career goal, which they will attempt to achieve when the ritual
Effect: During the Break phase of combat, you can al- is finished, or you can simply incite high emotions with
low one ally to reroll her Motivation die at a +1 bonus. no focus.

SOOTHE RAISE MORALE

You can help people overcome difficulties for a short Your wise words bolster those around you.
time. Cost: Exert Career
Cost: Exert Career Effect: Chose one other person who can recover a
Effect: You allow a character to ignore all her single exerted Trait by one step.
Conditions for the rest of the scene.
Scavenger
Pilot
FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES
IN COMMAND You know people in the underground market.
When you give orders, people follow them. Cost: Exert Career
Cost: Exert Career Effect: You make a deal with, or gain information
Effect: You give orders to a group of people, and they from, a person in the underground.
follow them, afraid to anger you.
THIS WILL DO
NAVIGATIONAL EXPERTISE You are able to find parts or materials for necessary
You cannot get lost when traveling. tasks.
Cost: Exert Career Cost: Exert Career
Effect: You are able to figure out how to get to the Effect: You find all the materials necessary for a
nearest major or minor landmark, or in which direction certain task. Additionally, when assisting with a fixing
your destination lies. action, you can use this Talent to gain an additional
Components die above your normal Speed.
THEY ALL WORK THE SAME
You can figure out how to pilot anything, even if you’ve TOMB RAIDER
never tried it before. If you’ve been in one cavern or tomb, you’ve been in
Cost: Exert Career them all.
Effect: You are able to pilot any craft. If you have nev- Cost: Exert Career
er encountered or dealt with the craft before, the Game Effect: You find your way through underground pas-
Master gains a Misfortune die. sages and mazes without getting lost.

56
 Talents

Scholar Soldier
FORGE DOCUMENTS DEADLY FORCE
You can make documents look authentic to fool Your training makes you a deadly combatant.
authorities. Cost: Exhaust Career
Cost: Exert Career Effect: Gain a +1 bonus to all Strike dice this action.
Effect: You make a convincing forgery of an official This Talent is activated after the dice are rolled, but
document. before Clash of Steel begins.

READY TO RESEARCH PISTOLEER

You are skilled in working against the clock to figure
out vital information.
Cost: Exert Career
Effect: When assisting in a fixing action, you can add
an additional Research and Ritual die to your pool,
above your normal Speed.
WELL-READ
You are able to remember obscure information you’ve
read previously.
Cost: Exert Career
Effect: You can ask the GM to give you a single piece
of information that your character would have read
pertaining to a particular situation or plot.
You are trained in the use of firearms.
Cost: Exert Career
Effect: You spend one fewer Stunt die to reload a
firearm than normal for the rest of the scene.
TACTICIAN
Your training allows you to direct others in combat.
Combo: 1 Strike, 1 Parry, 1 Stunt
Cost: 1 Stunt
Effect: You may lend a single Strike, Parry, or Stunt die
to a nearby ally, or you may allow an ally to donate
any one of his dice to another ally.
Thief

Servant
CHARLATAN
BLADE CARRIER You can convince anyone you’re telling the truth.
You always have a weapon or tool on hand for your Cost: Exert Career
master. Effect: You convince listeners that you are telling the
Cost: Exert Career truth about a situation, even to the point of believing
that anyone who tells a different version of the story is
Effect: You can say that you happen to have an ap- lying.
propriate weapon or item on hand to use for a special
occasion.
PICK POCKET
THE BACK DOOR You have light and quick fingers, able to relieve people
of their belongings without notice.
You know where the back doors and servants’ entranc-
es are on most houses. Cost: Exert Career
Cost: Exert Career Effect: You are able to take a single item from the
pockets of your target without anyone noticing.
Effect: You know a secret entrance into a house or
estate.
SNEAK
UNOBTRUSIVE You keep to the shadows, avoiding guards or other
unwanted attention.
People don’t notice you, and will say things they
wouldn’t normally in the presence of others. Cost: Exert Career
Cost: Exert Career Effect: You are able to bypass notice as long as you
do not engage another character for the rest of the
Effect: You listen in on an important conversation with- scene.
out being noticed.

57
 CHAPTER TWO: RULES
Non-Player Combat Talents
Non-player characters may benefit from Talents
the GM activates by spending action points.
STAND TOGETHER (MINION ONLY)
Your foes fight in close formation, covering each other’s
backs and guarding flanks.
Cost: 1 Action Point
Effect: The Parry Level of a single minion group
increases by the number of minions in the group, to a
maximum of 9. Any member of the minion group that is
more than one space away from another minion in the
group does not receive the benefit of this effect.
MOB VIOLENCE (MINION ONLY)
Enemies close in around you, promising violence from
every direction.
Cost: 1 Action Point.
Effect: When a minion group resolves multiple Strikes
on the same target this round, the GM may activate this
talent to increase the value of the Parry result needed to
cancel Strikes by 1 for each Strike the minion group has
already landed on that character.
Paths
PATH OF THE BARBARIAN
1 Experience: Defy local law or custom.
2 Experience: Overthrow a local law or custom.
PATH OF BLOODY KNIVES
1 Experience: Defeat a threat by killing someone, or
several someones.
2 Experience: Slay a person or beast mightier than
you.
PATH OF THE CONQUEROR
1 Experience: Increase in power or prominence.
2 Experience: Rise to a position of significant
leadership.
58
DARING REVERSAL
You found the perfect opening to attack. Unfortunately,
so did your opponent.
Cost: 1 Action Point
Effect: When a non-player character suffers strain from
a successful Strike, the GM may activate this talent to
allow that character to make a sudden counterattack.
The GM rolls a single Strike die, and if the result is
equal to or higher than the value of the Strike that
inflicted the initial strain, the Strike resolves immediately.
Otherwise, the counterattack is ineffectual, and does
not need to be Parried.
EVASIVE FOOTWORK
The grace of your opponent allows him to dance
between your strikes, denying you the advantage of
numbers.
Cost: 2 Action Points
Effect: A non-player character chosen by the GM
gains additional Parry dice for every enemy attacking
him past the first.
RECKLESS ASSAULT
Your foe throws everything she has into a series of
startling attacks. Her lowered guard could be a boon
to you, assuming you survive to exploit it.
Cost: 2 Action Points.
Effect: One non-player character chosen by the GM
may resolve all their Strikes for the round as if she had
rolled entirely 10s, for the purposes of determining the
order of actions only. Each Parry die that character
took up at the start of the round reduces the speed of
her strikes.
PATH OF THE COWARD
1 Experience: Escape danger by running from it.
(Maximum once per session.)
2 Experience: Escape danger by running from it and
endangering another character.
PATH OF THE DECEIVER
1 Experience: Deceive another character.
2 Experience: Deceive another character against
substantial evidence.
 Paths
PATH OF THE DEVOTED
When you choose this path, pick someone or some-
thing your character devotes themselves to.
1 Experience: Protect the subject of your devotion.
2 Experience: Risk your life to protect the subject of
your devotion.
PATH OF THE ENTRANCED
1 Experience: Pursue an item or tale of the uncanny.
2 Experience: Give over your own will to an uncanny
force.
PATH OF THE FIRST FOOTSTEP
1 Experience: Find a place that has never been
found before, abandoned for a long time, or kept
concealed.
2 Experience: Find a place that has never been
found before, abandoned for a long time, or kept con-
cealed, and find a great treasure there.
PATH OF GIVING HANDS
1 Experience: Help someone who cannot help
themselves.
2 Experience: Save someone from a threat as bad
as, or worse than, death.
PATH OF JEWELED THRONES
1 Experience: Obtain wealth over the course of an
adventure.
2 Experience: Spend your wealth in extravagant
fashion.
PATH OF LAMENTATION
1 Experience: Commemorate something or someone
great and lost.
2 Experience: Leave a glorious monument to some-
one or something great and lost.
59
PATH OF THE LEGENDARY
1 Experience: Do something that spreads your
reputation.
2 Experience: Risk death or worse to spread your
reputation.
PATH OF OPEN ARMS
1 Experience: Seduce another character.
2 Experience: Seduce another character...while or
after saving them from death or worse.
PATH OF THE NIGHT-THIEF
1 Experience: Take something that does not belong
to you.
2 Experience: Risk your life or something greater to
take something that does not belong to you.
PATH OF PROMISES KEPT
When you choose this path, pick a specific vow for
your character to make.
1 Experience: The vow is kept in the face of duress.
2 Experience: The vow is kept in the face of death or
worse.
PATH OF THE VENDETTA
When you choose this path, pick someone or some-
thing your character has a serious grudge against.
1 Experience: Inconvenience the subject of your
vendetta.
2 Experience: Seriously hurt the subject of your
vendetta.
 Valencia,
It’s been awhile.
No, that’s stupid.
I’m sorry I didn’t say goodbye. You would have tried to talk me out of it. You were always
telling me what to do.
No, too accusing. Darla kicked hard against the wagon, just above where I was sheltering
(hiding) in the lee of the wheel. I staggered up and shook the sand out of my scarf. She’d torn
her harness free and was running around loose, getting the other aepys riled up.
The dust storm was lifting, but maybe she didn’t like those forms that were weaving through
it ahead of us. There was already smoke on the wind, and I could hear fire snapping behind me.
Before I even turned, I knew our lamp oil was going up in flames.
I miss you, I love you, I’m sorry.
Independently, a raiding party and a pair of machaira had picked this moment to menace
our caravan. And, apparently, the cats were already among the pigeons. Some aepys were
furiously biting their way out of their ropes, and showing the raiders their spurs, while the
raiders tried to pacify them long enough to actually rustle them. The horus was already dead.
The machaira were ganging up on an oleph that had run out of room to retreat. And our
navigator was literally on fire.
Valencia, I wanted to be a cavalier. Someone with a name you’d recognize if you read it in
the papers.
I used to be a soldier, which is less helpful than you might think in a disaster. I’m still not
used to being the one who’s supposed to give orders. Really, I just yelled as loud as I could, and
let the aepys continue menacing the raiders while we drove off the machaira. It wasn’t much of a
fight, one was already dragging the quartermaster away, and the more stubborn one eventually
followed. The oleph was still standing, sort of. Not fit to pull a caravan for a few months, but
they might live long enough to recuperate in a town.
Half the caravan was burning, which is well enough, since the raiders made off with the
most tractable of the aepys and we were down several pack animals. A quarter of the travelers
were dead or wounded, and the doctor was looking at me like I’d done her a personal wrong.
Perhaps her and the quartermaster had been close.
Valencia, we didn’t win, but we didn’t lose. I’ll be back someday. I can’t ask you to wait
for me, but please wait. I’ll come back.
I’ll send it soon. Valencia deserves to know what happened. She might think I’m dead. I’ll
pick up some paper when we pass through the next town, maybe tomorrow. Maybe borrow a
clay pencil from the doctor. She’s always chewing on the end of one. I’ll write it tomorrow.
 In its last days, Mars yet boasts a dazzling array of peoples and cities. From many-spired Illium to ill-omened
Ziggur, the world’s last inhabitants build and feud and rush heedlessly toward the end of history.
Peoples
Mars is home to hundreds of distinct peoples and
cultures. Some of the peoples share physical similarities
and ancestry, though their cultures define them in ways
that make them completely alien to each other. Mars
was once teeming with life, and fringe populations of all
kinds still populate its dusty corners.
The Red Martians
Of all the Martians, the Reds are small, slow, and
frail. It is amazing they have survived as well as they have
considering all these weaknesses. Their strengths, though:
Perseverance, intelligence, and wit clearly make up for all
other lacks.
– Excerpts from Tiendle’s Anatomy of a Martian
An ambitious people full of passionate desires and
reckless abandon, the Red Martians are the most nu-
merous of the remaining people on Mars. They live
along the canals in expansive city-states, and cling to
life in dust-towns where the wells have all but dried up.
Others travel well-worn caravan routes across the end-
less deserts. Their society is fractious, with many differ-
ent governing bodies controlling one city or another,
and those who travel between or live on the edges seek
to find a niche to maintain a livelihood.
62
Red Martians claim to be the direct descendants of
the First Martians, making them superior to both their
distant relatives, the Roundheads, and the Pale Martians.
They have long since abandoned the ruined cities of the
First Martians, and leave those strange wonders to the
Pale Martians. Both groups look upon the Red Martians
with disdain for abandoning the wealth of knowledge
and heritage remaining in the ruins of the First Martians.
Red Martians are not actually red, but instead
range from tan to dark brown with a coppery undertone
to their skin, and have hair that ranges from coppery to
deep black, thin and wavy to thick and curly and some-
times even kinky. They have deep-set, expressive eyes
and hard-edged, yet rounded, facial features.
Red Martians follow a multitude of different reli-
gions, tending to fall into whatever faith the prevailing
city or culture they live near follows. The Reds have a
strange phenomenon of developing mystery cults to one
unknown technology or element or another. Some en-
tire city-states are ruled by these cults. The most pop-
ular Red Martian religion is the Church of the Damsel
Messiah.
Red Martian cities include Vance, Zodiac, Illium,
and Chiaro, and they live alongside the Pale Martians
in Surtur.
 Peo ples
The People of the Labyrinth
The rumors are many and varied. Cannibal tribes run
by a magical woman, people who can create water out of
nothing, glowing plants and animals that give any who eat
them mystical powers. I’m going to find out for myself what
lies in the Labyrinth of Night once and for all.
– The last entry in the diary of Diokel, explorer
Soon after the First Martians disappeared, as the
Red Martians made their way across the planet to set-
tle cities, a group of voyagers made their way into the
Wyeth Valley. They did not make contact with the
Wyeth, but instead traveled far to the northernmost
tip of the canyon, a place where the sun cannot
reach, and found a wondrous landscape of lumi-
nous flora and fauna. They built a city there
and lived in a perpetual twilight within the
glowing cavern. As the years passed and the
city became prosperous, trade between the
Red Martians and the Wyeth flourished,
despite the Wyeth’s misgivings about the
Reds living so close to their homeland.
One night a bright light fell from the
sky and all communication between the
Red Martians in the Labyrinth of Night
and those outside was shut off. Some
claim the Reds in the Labyrinth all died
that night and the city they built is a vast
abandoned wasteland. Others claim the
light was the landing of an alien creature
from the amber star, Venus. Those who
have traveled to the Labyrinth since then
come back with wild stories. One described
an indoctrinated people who devoutly
worship alien gods under the sway of a
Venusian witch-queen, who attempted
to control her through magic before
she made a daring escape. Another
told a tale in which he discovered a
nearly-abandoned city with a giant
monolith in the center, one whose
construction he could not deter-
mine and that was vastly different
from even First Martian artifacts.
Yet another told of barely surviving
a strange tempest within the can-
yon and being nursed back to
health by a Red female in a
A RED MARTIAN
63
dark city lit to dazzling beauty with brightly glowing
flowers and lichen. While not all stories and rumors
about the area can be believed, most Martians are
certain the Reds living in the city are still there in
some form or another.
The Qans and Ozaks
They kill us, we kill them. It is a war older than any
of us, and I’m not even sure why it’s going on. All I know,
is that if I don’t do something first, it will be my body that’s
burning in the field to keep the fungus at bay.
– Serenai, Clan Chieftan of the South Plains Ozaks
Long ago, on the plains of Cimmeria, reigned the
great Qan Empire. At the height of the Qans’ pow-
er, they ruled over the Ozaks. The Ozaks were
farmers and sometimes sellswords, but all their
efforts went unwillingly towards the
service of the Qans. The Qans
did not even bother to grow
their own food, instead tak-
ing what they needed from the
Ozaks. The Ozaks sought ways to
free themselves, and had even begun to
organize a resistance when the presence
of the purple fungus was first noticed.
No one really knows where the fungus
came from, or how it first spread along the
Cimmeria plains, but its presence gave the
Ozaks the leverage they needed to rise up
against the Qans.
The first reports of dead bodies rising
from their graves sent cities all across the
Cimmeria plains into a fearful frenzy. The
Ozaks took advantage of the heightened state
of paranoia and turned on their masters. Of
course, those dead bodies also rose from the
grave to eventually infect more people with
the fungus. Soon the Qan blamed the Ozaks
for the phenomenon and they declared war.
With most of the Qans’ infrastruc-
ture lost to the Ozaks, including food
and grain stores, the Qans took to raid-
ing Ozak camps to steal necessary sup-
plies. And where the bloodshed went,
the fungus followed. Within a single gen-
eration, the Cimmerian plains were cov-
ered in the fungus, and the Qan and Ozak
survivors learned to compensate for the
fungus. Still, to this day, when any of the re-
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
maining Qan or Ozak people meet one another, it ends
in bloodshed, which only serves to feed the fungus.
The Ozak people have always been very practical,
with roots in hard work and suffering for their people.
All Ozaks train as warriors, as well as any other duty
they may perform for their clan. When an Ozak is
too old or injured to continue fighting, she retires to
a monastery and devotes her life to religious callings.
The Roundheads
An extraordinary group of people that showcase the
Red Martian strengths. They have a few non-standard
appearance issues, but their mental capacity is definitely
beyond anything we have seen with any of the other
Red Martian subgroups. Simply astounding.
– Excerpts from Tiendle’s “Anatomy of a
Martian”
Roundheads are a brilliant group of Red
Martians. Like other Red Martians, they
maintain direct lineage to the First
Martians, though they claim their
intelligence and mental capacity
make them the true heirs to the
First Martians. They believe they
are entitled to respect and defer-
ence from what they refer to as lesser
Reds because of this. They disdain the
Pales’ similar claim and do not rec-
ognize the Pale Martians as actual
descendants of the First Martians
at all.
Roundhead society is
built on the idea that they
are the only ones who still
know and understand
the practices of the
First Martians. They
spend much of their
time practicing and train-
ing the mental arts. Some Round-
heads spend their entire lives around at-
mosphere processors, believing the pure air
found there enhances their faculties. They
claim to be able to maintain and operate
the processors, though few Martians
would know if that were true.
They practice a nearly slavish
worship of First Martian technol- A ROUNDHEAD
64
ogy, and spend a great deal of time searching out and
learning about all they can find. Some Roundheads
make pilgrimages across Mars to visit and enter every
single atmosphere processor on the planet, hoping to
gain enlightenment through their journeys.
The Roundheads are named such because their
brains have grown to such a prodigious size that they
forced a deformation of the skull and bleaching of the
skin. The shapes of their heads are not unlike those of
the Skarruts, but their foreheads bulge queerly, as if
an alien brain mass throbs beneath. They often deco-
rate their heads with ornate mathematical tattoos and
symbols.
Roundheads can be found in any of the Red Mar-
tian populations, though they gravitate towards one
another, seeking out like-brained individuals. All
major Roundhead monasteries are situated in or
near atmosphere processors, including the larg-
est and most famous such settlement, Ziggur.
The Pale
Martians
Tall, strong, lean, the perfect specimen
of Martian anatomy. The adaptation of
the third and fourth upper limbs lends
a grace of dexterity lost from all other
groups of Martians. Their intelligence
and steadfastness is clearly a great
asset that only assists their superior
physique.
– Excerpts from Tiendle’s Anat-
omy of a Martian
The Pale Martians are a
group of disciplined and grace-
ful people with long memories.
They believe they are related
to the Red Martians and are de-
scended from the First Martians.
Their numbers are small and they live
only in the ruins of the First Martian
cities. They claim to be faithful heirs
of the First Martians, the Reds hav-
ing abandoned their past to live
in their own city-states.
Pale Martian society is rig-
idly divided into societal roles.
Pale children are agendered
 Peo ples

and do not even have proper names — instead having issue. They do not dislike these people, but instead
temporary “egg names” — as they go through rigorous feel superior to them. Some Pale tribes can be found
training. Training of Pale Martian children follows along the vast Wyeth canyon trading their services as
a militaristic pattern in which children are sorted by mercenaries for food and Wyeth gum.
aptitude and trained from very early on to fit a single Pale Martians are aptly named, with nearly white
gender and social role. Once the child reaches majority, skin and glossy, flowing black hair. They are tall people
it has the option to choose a new name or keep its egg with four arms; a longer upper pair giving them great
name. In most cases, the final role is decided through reach, and a dexterous lower pair making them skilled
lineage, though some children may have the potential fixers.
to join a more prestigious caste, such as the military,
during assignment. Once a role has been assigned, the Their cities are named after emotional states and
Pale Martian is expected to remain in it for the rest of character traits, such as Anger, Crisis, and Foresight.
their life. During training and assignment, Pales are ex-
pected to take on a personal scholarly project in which
they learn to under-
stand and preserve
the knowledge of
the First Martians
in some way.
While their
society is not com-
pletely military,
most Pale Martian
cities operate un-
der martial law. The
culture of the Pales
is generally more uni-
form than that of the
Reds, but the divisions
between city-states and
their leaders are sharp.
In general, Pales disdain
Reds for betraying their
heritage, but they are not
above working with them if
the need arises. In the city of
Surtur, the Pales live along-
side the Reds, but only because
the Fire Priests have forged a
culture based on Pale beliefs
that bind the two groups
together. They tend to
look at other popula-
tions in a condescending
light. While the Skar-
ruts, Wyeth, and Zaius
do not uphold the First A SKARRUT
Martians’ ideals, they
are also not descended
from them, so it’s less of an
A PALE MARTIAN
65
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
The Skarruts
I learned in my travels that though the Skarrut people
seem to be always in someone else’s employ, they are not a
docile folk. No, not tamed, simply doing a job and doing it
well. When I see them, I always say a small prayer to the
stars that their job doesn’t have anything to do with me.
– Diary entry from Kiu, Zodiac sky ship operator
Within the walls of Skarras live master stone ma-
sons and crafters. World-renowned for their stone craft,
the Skarruts are also widely admired for their art and
architecture. The Skarruts are a graceful and proud
people, yet they live under an ancient, crippling
debt that renders their city-state in a constant
state of need. The city-state must hire its people
out to gain revenue to pay back all it owes, and
every Skarrut is expected to take on at least
one job for the city in her lifetime.
Skarruts are skilled stone crafters and
their art is highly praised and valuable. Be-
yond that, they create masterful works of
architecture, sometimes art in their own
right. Their stone cisterns are modern
wonders of aquaculture, eking water out
for a network of minor canals and irrigation
ditches from the northern pole.
The Skarruts fashion superb slings from the
tough leather of a yummoc, and are unique-
ly built to employ various stone ammunition
with deadly aplomb. They craft a variety of
rock ammunitions; obsidian to shatter and
fragment, tungsten for stunning, red jade
for piercing. Their elite slingers use pole
slings, but these rare wood weapons are
awarded only to the best. Skarrut pole
fighting is a beautiful art of defense and sub-
duing, involving not only the pole and the
body of the Skarrut, but the sling itself on
the pole for tripping, binding, and distrac-
tion.
Skarruts are lizard-like in appear-
ance, with golden scales and long, strong
arms. They are at a height similar to Red
Martians, though they rival the Wyeth
for strength and fortitude. The
Skarrut people are proud of
their warrior heritage and tend
to look with admiration on any A WYETH
66
who have earned scars or broken scales. For this rea-
son, they consider it fashionable to scar themselves af-
ter battle, or after great achievements, to show off their
accomplishments. Generally, the older a Skarrut is, the
more scars she will have to show for her life.
The Wyeth
The Wyeth women pose an interesting quandary.
They refuse to sit still long enough for a study, so we must
only report what they tell us. Which is simply that they are
Martians, and as the trees. Further study is needed.
– Excerpts from Tiendle’s
“Anatomy of a Martian”
The Wyeth are a nation of sentient plant-
like women. They make their home in the
Wyeth Valley and are believed to be one of
the very few indigenous Martian species.
The Wyeth are a proud and secretive
people, rarely inviting outsiders into
their home, though they are happy
to trade krem, Wyeth gum, and
food to their neighbors.
The Wyeth only leave their lush
forested valley to travel Mars as a type
of fertility rite. Few know the true na-
ture of the activity, though it is believed
that the Wyeth require several years in
the harsh Martian environment to reach
sexual maturity. Other Martians simply
refer to them as the Wyeth women. No
one other than the Wyeth knows if
they have a true gender, though they
present in the typical fashion of other
female Martians.
In truth, the Wyeth are agendered
conditional hermaphrodites. Young
Wyeth have female sex organs, but do
not present secondary sex characteris-
tics and will remain that way unless they
leave their forests. Upon leaving the
forested valley, they develop secondary
sexual characteristics indicative of fe-
males. Over a period of several years, they
develop male sex organs, and the ability
to present secondary sexual
characteristics indicative of
males. During that time, the
Wyeth makes her way doing
 Peo ples

itinerant work as a trader or a mercenary. Some take up extraordinarily intelligent and create some of the most
a calling to be priests and encourage the restoration of fantastic architecture on Mars. They are renowned for
Mars to that of their lush forested home. being physicians, priests, and fixers, and when their
Wyeth society is dictated by the roles the women caravans come near towns, people flock to them for all
must take on at any one time. In times of peace, the sorts of trade. Some city-states even dedicate festival
Wyeth may be content to reproduce and gather wealth days for known Zaiu arrivals.
for their families, and the societal roles will include The Zaius are a people who love pomp and circum-
those who provide sustenance, security, and guidance stance. Once a year each caravan sets down roots for
and those who provide seed and reproductive capabil- several days to repaint the brightly-colored patterns on
ities. In times of trouble more of the Wyeth may take their wagons as a way to remember the past. The paint-
up the role of warrior or hunter, setting aside reproduc- ings represent an im-
tion for a time to ensure the safety of her tribe. Each role portant part of his-
is just as revered as any other and Wyeth often choose tory, and as they
based on the needs of the group at the time. Those who paint they tell
choose to leave the forest for reproductive maturity are stories. Even the
expected to bring back new knowledge and techniques Zaiu children
for the betterment of society. Those who remain serve are expected
as the leaders and decision-makers for the group. Those to put on pag-
who gather food and Wyeth gum for use and trade, or eants display-
those who take up arms to protect the forests, are seen ing all they’ve
as wise, and their opinions carry great weight in decision learned in the
making. Despite all this, different tribes of Wyeth can previous year
be factious and prone to conflict among groups. They during this
present enough of a unified front to other Martians to fes-
form mutual defense pacts with some of their neighbors.
Wyeth are tall and slender, with dark, bark-like
skin and green or brown hair like sagebrush. They are
enough like other Martians to eat the vegetables
and fungi that form the staple diet of other peoples.

The Zaius
I’m glad they are peaceful enough when
they come through on their caravans. Could
you imagine fighting one? I mean, they
ride through dust storms and face
down ghosts for fun.
– Diary entry from Diona,
Vance city guard
The Zaius share some ancestry
with the Red and Pale Martians, yet
none claim to be descended from the
First Martians. The Zaius are a nomad-
ic people, traveling the dusty
wastes from one watering hole
to another in large caravans
of wooden carts and dust rid-
ers. Despite what appears to be a
poor and humble life, the Zaius are A ZAIU AND CHILD

67
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
tival. While the celebration is one of Zaiu tradition,
outsiders are welcome to come and enjoy the spectacle
if they can make it.
No festival is as great and spectacular, though, as
the great meeting in the desert. This festival happens
once every four years, when all the Zaiu caravans at-
tempt to meet at the Fourier Spire, the single largest
and most complex monolith on Mars. The Zaius claim
that their ancestors created the construct using com-
plex mathematical equations, though the veracity of
that claim can no longer be determined. Either way,
the Zaius have painted the whole structure from top
to bottom with the entirety of their history. Few other
than the Zaius even know of the structure’s existence,
68
A Zaiu and a Pale Martian
celebrate a successful journey
as it lies in the heart of the Nowhere Plains, guarded
by deadly sandstorms. When they come together, the
Zaius spend an entire fortnight repainting and sharing
stories among the caravans that could make it. Outsid-
ers may be welcome, though only those who come with
a caravan have any hope of finding the place.
Like the Red and Pales, the Zaius are a higher ape,
though larger, stronger, and faster than their distant cous-
ins. An adult Zaiu walks about seven feet erect. All but
their faces are covered in hair, the color and pattern of
which varies by family. While they walk upright, a sprint-
ing Zaiu will run on all fours, and can attain great speed.
They like to adorn themselves with jewelry of beaten met-
al, which is hung from braids all over their bodies.
 Rel ig i on s
Religions
The people of Mars are a superstitious lot. They at-
tribute much of what they don’t understand about their
world to higher powers or ancient designs. Those higher
powers are not always gods, and the ancient designs are
not always recognized as technology. For the current
inhabitants of Mars, the First Martians, their legacy,
and the technologies they left behind are mysterious
enough to warrant veneration. Below are only a few
examples of the multitudes of different beliefs on Mars.
Astrology of Zodiac
The people of Zodiac look to the stars for wisdom and
guidance in their daily lives. The stars are not gods, though
many of the people of Zodiac anthropomorphize them as a
way of trying to understand their messages. To outsiders,
the city of Zodiac may appear to worship the stars, but this
is not completely accurate. Zodiac’s religion is built on rev-
erence for the stars and their movements in the heavens.
All people of Zodiac conduct business and make
important life decisions based on the movement of the
stars. They plant, harvest, trade, stockpile, and make all
economic and military decisions based on the placement
of the stars in the sky above. The city has prospered in
this way for centuries. Zodiac’s religion doesn’t really
have a name. The people reverently call analyzing the
69
stars astrology, but it’s not a belief, so much as a prac-
tice. Everyone practices astrology, though only trained
priests can accurately measure and glean true meaning
from the stars. Even young children know some of the
most constant stars, and can map their trek through
the sky with little difficulty. The people generally follow
one or two stars across the night sky, using those stars’
placement to influence their decisions.
The highest priest, and the supreme astrologer, is the
Arbiter. The people of Zodiac say that he understands the
stars with such precision that his will is law in heaven and
on Mars, though his word as law generally only spreads
as far as Zodiac and its surrounding lands. The Arbiter’s
word rules the city of Zodiac, and his interpretation of the
stars keeps the city moving smoothly. His priests spread
his word throughout the city and relay his interpretations.
Each sky-ship in Zodiac’s enormous fleet houses at least
one astrologer-priest for guidance and protection in battle.
The stars play such a huge role in Zodiac’s daily busi-
ness that legends surrounding them are extremely com-
mon. One such legend relates the story of the creation
of Zodiac. In a time before the Arbiter and astrology, the
people of Mars refused to pay heed to the stars and their
alignments. The stars moved and danced in the heavens,
attempting to gain the people’s attentions, but few knew
what they were seeing. Time after time, the stars attempt-
Zaiu children perform a
religious pageant
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
ed to avert crisis on Mars, yet the Martians were ignorant
of the warnings. After one momentous occasion in which
war, famine, pestilence, and plague ravaged the cities of
Mars, the stars decided to give up on Martians. One star,
named Zodiac, felt an overwhelming sympathy for the
Martians. She decided to sacrifice her place among the
heavens and come to Mars to show them how to follow
the movements of the stars. Her brother and sister stars
mocked her, and told her she would become a Martian
and never be allowed a place in the heavens again if she
left them, yet she did anyway. She landed on Mars, and
created a huge crater upon impact. Those Martians who
looked to the sky, or watched the stars, traced her path
and came to find her. Zodiac taught any who came how
to read the stars and understand their message. She only
had a few initiates, but she taught them all she could.
The first to arrive at the site was the first Arbiter. To this
day, only the most devout priests are ever considered for
the prestigious title of Arbiter.
Another legend tells of Zodiac’s jealous brother, Do-
los, who wanted the people of Zodiac to worship him alone
in the heavens. He came to Mars in the guise of a talented
creator, who crafted wondrous technologies for the people
of Mars. During the nights, he spent his time building a
machine so vast that he had to hide it under the surface of
the planet. As an affront to Zodiac, Dolos built the tech-
nology directly under her crater, with her being none the
wiser. Dolos’s machine would gain control of the stars in
the heavens and allow him to move them as he saw fit. His
intention was to then reveal himself as the most supreme
star, whose will was enacted all across the heavens. One
night, as he was sneaking into his underground workshop,
the first Arbiter found him and subdued him. He brought
Dolos to Zodiac for judgment. Zodiac had pity on her
brother and forgave him for his attempt to gain control
of the Martians, but she could not let him go unpunished.
She pleaded to the other stars to not let him return to his
rightful place among them. Instead, she cast him into the
heavens, alone and nameless, to ever wander the night sky
as the Stranger. The first Arbiter hid the Stranger’s tech-
nology so no one on Mars could ever use it.
The last legend sits strangely with the people of
Zodiac. The idea that a machine might exist that can
move the stars makes people uncomfortable. They view
this as the domain of tricksters, and have a tendency to
view anyone well versed in machinery as suspect. This
creates a peculiar social standing for Zodiac’s fixers.
The city relies on them to maintain the sky fleet, in ad-
dition to the needs of any large Martian city, but they’re
often thought of as slippery and overly clever.
70
The Church of
the Damsel Messiah
Of all the religions and belief systems on Mars, the
Church of the Damsel Messiah is the most widespread.
Generally, beliefs do not pass beyond the borders of the
city-states that foster them, but the Church of the Dam-
sel has a militant branch of missionaries who spread the
word of the Damsel far across Mars, setting up temples
and monasteries in almost all Red Martian lands.
Legend has it that the Damsel was born in a moun-
tain village, overlooking a decadent merchant city of a
long-vanished empire. While visiting a temple in the
city, she noticed a priest had drawn a protective circle
incorrectly. She was very young and had no religious
training, but, despite this, she corrected a rather griev-
ous error. The temple viewed her as a prodigy and took
her in for priestess training. Against the orders of the
temple, the Damsel favored ministering to the poor and
downtrodden. Soon, she grew frustrated with the cor-
ruption of the temple by the wealthy donors and she
left, walking off into the desert.
As she walked in the endless red sand, she encoun-
tered a serpent who guided her to the top of an ancient
tomb, where she could see all the lands of Mars. The
serpent then offered her an empire of everything she
could see. The Damsel refused the offer. It offered her
supreme rule over the temple she had abandoned. She
refused again. Finally, the serpent offered her water.
The Damsel was sorely tempted, but refused for the
third and final time. At this, the serpent moved as if
to attack her, but the Damsel spoke in a holy Voice
and smote him down, binding the creature to her will
instead.
The Voice remained with her, and when she re-
turned to the city, she used it to drive the merchants
and corrupt priests from the temple. She opened it up
as a sanctuary for the homeless and destitute, and the
rest of the priests became her disciples. The power of
her Voice filled the imperial governor with shame, and
he surrendered the city to her.
The Damsel’s message and her miracles spread
throughout the empire. Over generations, the poor
joined political dissidents and rose up, eventually mak-
ing the ageless Damsel empress. She destroyed the
monuments to avarice left by her predecessors, and
continued to preach the virtues of piety and humili-
ty. She maintained a special bond with the poor of her
 Rel ig i on s
kingdom; in exchange for her generosity, they were her
eyes and ears. Her rule was a time of unprecedented
peace and prosperity for her empire. In the end, she
feared the power she wielded would corrupt her, so she
left this world, taking her serpent with her.
Whatever might have remained of the Damsel’s
empire is long since buried beneath the shifting sands,
lost to time. The disciples and those who followed the
Damsel remained, and created a church surrounding
her teachings. Power over the Church resides with the
Matriarch of Battlehymn, who oversees a network of
temples and monasteries across large parts of Mars.
Some say the Matriarch is the Damsel in disguise,
using anonymity to keep herself separated from the
power her followers would inevitably bestow upon her.
Others say the Matriarch is in contact with the Dam-
sel, and enacts her will as best she can. Either way, the
Matriarch is the supreme power for the church, and her
words are law for the clergy. The Church is still dedicat-
ed to ministering to the poor, but has opened its doors
to wealthy patronage once again. The Matriarch dwells
in a golden palace on a hill, and the monasteries and
temples of the Damsel are among the most beautiful-
ly-decorated holy sites on Mars.
The church has a tradition of spreading the Word
of the Damsel through missionaries, and those who
take up the sacred duty belong to the order of the Exalt-
ed Missionary Sisters. These priestesses train to speak
with the Voice and go out into the world to teach and
spread the word. As travel around Mars can be danger-
ous, the Missionary Sisters are battle-trained warriors.
The Church is organized in a military fashion, and their
priestesses are so well-known for their military prowess
that few people willingly cross their paths.
Fire Priests of Surtur
While many Pale Martians revere the First Mar-
tians and seek to learn all they can about their ancient
ancestors, the Red Martians of Surtur have taken that
reverence and turned it into full-on worship. In Surtur,
the people view the First Martians as gods. These dei-
ties walked the face of Mars and laid the foundation for
all of society to follow for millennia. The Fire Priests
lead the people in this worship, believing that the city
of Surtur is the only place that still practices the true
teachings of their gods. The jump from Pale Martian
reverence to Surtur worship is an easy one to make, and
may account for the integrated citizenry of Pale and
Red Martians that makes up Surtur’s society.
71
The Fire Priests see crafting and making as gifts
from the gods, and their metalworking is viewed as the
purest form of dedication and worship. The works of the
miner and the artisan are sacred above all things, their
arts dedicated to the great ancestors. Priests are usually
artisans and master crafters who oversee large shops of
apprentices. Some members form monastic orders, iso-
lated from the rest of Surtur to produce metalwork that
follows principles of sacred geometry. Outsiders might
call this work decorative, but for the Fire Priests, the act
of forging is an act of divination.
The Fire Priests rule Surtur as a theocracy. They
claim to divine the will of the ancestors in the flames
and molten metal of the forges, and guide the people
through these acts. Their chief holy site is the First
Forge, the place where ancient Martians alloyed metal
for the first time. The city leaders are not just a cabal
of priests sitting about divining meaning from fire. They
have a regimented hierarchy overseen by a council of
five of the most talented and educated Fire Priests.
Each council member is in charge of one level of bu-
reaucracy within the city: military, economy, civic mat-
ters, crafting, and mining. Below them, myriad priests
in different offices run the day-to-day affairs of the city.
Religious ceremonies are regimented, with specific
times of day dedicated to worship during which the en-
tire city seems to cease functioning as the people stop
what they’re doing to kneel and stare into the flames
for contemplation. Once a week, everyone is expected
to attend temple, though temple services are held daily
to stagger between worship and sacred work. Everyone
in the city works. Even the high council can be seen
every once in a while working the mines or in a lowly
shop’s forge to spread teaching in a personal manner.
Chaplains work daily beside the miners pulling the sa-
cred metals from the earth and blessing those who find
rich veins. The priests of Surtur aren’t afraid to get their
hands dirty, though they don’t see the grime of mining
and metalworking as dirt at all.
Initiates of
the Labyrinthine Mysteries
The people living in the dark reaches of the Laby-
rinth of Night are deeply entrenched in the teachings
and ways of the witch-queen. The people of the Lab-
yrinth cannot see the sky or the stars, but they know
of the amber star, and know it is named Venus. The
witch-queen has taught her people about the ways of
Venus and her own gods, leading them in a worship of
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
deities from a far distant world. Many of the people of
the Labyrinth mistake her gods for the people of Ve-
nus themselves. They go so far as to believe the witch-
queen herself is a god come to Mars to liberate them in
its dying hours.
The witch-queen is reclusive and secretive, and
rarely allows anyone to enter her fortress in the cen-
ter of the city. She does nothing to dissuade the belief
that she is a goddess, and often uses that belief to her
advantage when exhorting her people to do things they
cannot understand. The cult that has arisen around her
is loyal to a fault. Her moods dictate their every action,
from when they can travel, harvest the glowing plants,
or even rest. They refuse to act unless she has given
explicit permission. This behavior has roots in a legend
of early days in which people attempted to flee the city
after the witch-queen first arrived, and she smote them
all down one by one for fear that they would reveal her
secrets.
Despite her secretive nature, the people often wit-
ness the witch-queen’s power. She seems to be capable
of influencing water, keeping the city in a constant state
of abundance, and even causing rain when stores get
too low. She is credited with the health of the crops and
herds, and when the city falls on hard times, the citi-
zens drown animal sacrifices in her honor. Much of the
Labyrinth and the fortress the witch-queen lives in is a
mystery to its inhabitants. The people of the Labyrinth
whisper that those who prove themselves loyal and de-
vout to the witch-queen will be rewarded with knowl-
edge and direct teaching. These are the Initiates of the
Labyrinthine Mysteries, and they carry the word of the
witch-queen to the people, interpreting her moods and
serving as intermediaries. The people view Initiates as
blessed and holy people, and their words and orders are
followed without question.
Wyeth Reincarnation Cycle
Some Wyeth are rumored to speak with the trees
of their jungle. Few outside of the Wyeth women know
the truth of such claims. The Wyeth women believe a
sentience inhabits the trees who can and will communi-
cate with those who have training in the practice. The
ability to do so is very rare, and those Wyeth deeply
revere those who can as wise women and prophets.
Specifically, the Wyeth women believe the trees
house the souls of their dead, who are awaiting reincar-
nation. They believe that as their children grow in their
seed pods, a piece of the jungle sentience breaks off and
72
enters the seedling, giving it consciousness. This soul is
made up of many Wyeth who came before. The Wyeth
is then made whole and can be born of the seed pod.
When the Wyeth eventually dies, her soul returns to
the jungle, reuniting with the rest. The Wyeth do not
mourn the seed pods that do not flourish, as they clearly
were not ready to house the Wyeth souls.
Young Wyeth are deeply attuned to the jungle,
and at this time, it is the easiest to learn the ancient
art of tree speaking. Only those Wyeth thought to be
possessed of old and wise souls are chosen for training.
Most Wyeth are thought to be born of conglomerates
of the sentient souls of the jungle, and do not have any
recollection or sense of their previous lives. The Wyeth
believe that this connection to the jungle is what pre-
vents the young from developing the appropriate sex
characteristics for reproduction. While the truth per-
haps lies in the need for the drier and harsher Mars
climates, most Wyeth report losing whatever tenuous
connection they once had to the trees when they leave
the jungle. For this reason, those chosen to speak with
the trees never leave the jungle to reach sexual maturi-
ty. They are called Life Speakers, and have an honored
place among the Wyeth. Usually, only one Life Speaker
is present in any single generation, with several initiates
waiting to take her place when she dies. Life Speaker
training is a secretive practice, and potential initiates
remain cloistered with the current Life Speaker until
she dies. Many believe the process of speaking with the
trees involves krem use, but only the Life Speakers truly
know.
The Wyeth tell stories of some of the most famous
Life Speakers. One such story relates to the first-ever
incident of the Wyeth speaking to the trees. The sto-
ry goes that in the ancient time, when lush vegetation
covered all of Mars, the Wyeth spanned far and wide
across the world. They did not always visit each oth-
er, and the valley was only one of many havens for
the Wyeth. A young Wyeth was the only seedling to
emerge from her pod, and she had broken memories of
a great Wyeth warrior who had died a century before
in another grove. The child perplexed the Wyeth, and
she was shaken by her own inexplicable knowledge. She
cried and begged for guidance and assistance, but none
of the other Wyeth knew what to do for her.
One night, while crying alone, she heard a voice
within the jungle. It was comforting and embraced her
like a blanket. It whispered stories to her of the origin
of the Wyeth and her own long history, and the many
times of her life, death, and rebirth. When the Wyeth
 Rel ig i on s
found her, she was nestled into the branches of an an-
cient tree, sleeping peacefully. They woke her, and she
related the tales she had been told. No other Wyeth
had been in the grove with the child, and it didn’t take
long for her to realize the trees had spoken to her.
She spent the rest of the years of her life learning
to speak back to the trees, and ask questions of them.
She learned to see the souls in other Wyeth, and gauge
the strength and wisdom that each soul held. The First
lived many lifetimes, never leaving the grove she grew
up in and always in constant communication with the
trees. She had several apprentices who took over her
duties when she eventually died, and about once a cen-
tury the First is believed to be reborn into a Life Speak-
er of great influence and wisdom.
Yellow Silks of Ziggur
The Roundheads are a deeply-contemplative peo-
ple, with most practicing some degree of asceticism.
They all value knowledge and intelligence, and focus a
great deal of time towards developing the mental arts.
Large numbers of them dwell in or near atmosphere
processors, believing that the pure air from them helps
enhance the faculties.
For the most part, Roundheads live quiet and low-
key lives. The Yellow Silks are different. Led by the
charismatic and mentally powerful Eu, they not only
influence Ziggur’s affairs, they rule openly. While other
politically-minded Roundheads are content to be the
power behind the throne, the Silks wield political power
and relish it. The Silks’ power stems from control over
the condensation collected from the atmosphere pro-
cessor. Ziggur’s processor is one of the largest on Mars,
and the condensation is enough to provide water for
the largest enclave of Roundhead supplicants on Mars.
Eu rations the water out to the people of Ziggur,
ensuring their loyalty. Of course, the privilege of water
is highly taxed, allowing the Yellow Silks to live in a
state of relative luxury, though luxury for Roundheads
pales in comparison to the elegance and opulence of the
merchant princes of Vance. They clothe themselves in
their eponymous yellow silk, and have private quarters
that most Roundheads view as decadent.
The Yellow Silks do not need the tight, almost
military grip that the Fire Priests of Surtur maintain.
Instead, the people serve and support them out of ne-
cessity, but the city the Silks rule is often lawless. In the
wealthier neighborhoods, crime is almost nonexistent,
73
while in other places crime runs rampant. These crimes
go mostly unpunished unless the crime somehow affects
the Yellow Silks themselves. The people of the city are
expected to take care of their own affairs and heed the
words of Eu.
Eu’s religion is not all water rations and silken
clothing. The Silks preach the contemplation of the
atmosphere processor, and spend a great deal of their
focus on studying, maintaining, and improving Ziggur’s
processor. A great deal of ritual goes into these acts,
and it is said the Yellow Silks can listen to the thrum
and hum of the processor and gain great insight into
the mysteries of life and Mars. The Silks live within the
great processor, so they can be closer to it and cater to
its needs when necessary.
Many of the acts of maintenance and of fixing the
processor seem arcane and even barbaric. The Silks
pay close attention to the rhythmic throbbing hum of
the processor and base many judgements on its state of
function. Certain rhythms require certain rituals, such
as prayer, bloodletting, and even sentient sacrifice. The
Silks are one of the few major religious orders on Mars
to practice sentient sacrifice.
Each ritual is performed at the top of great black
steps leading up to the entrance of the atmosphere pro-
cessor. Most rituals are public, and are well attended
as Eu performs them. Sacrifice is the only acceptable
form of capital punishment for criminals, and therefore
these rituals draw the largest crowds. Eu stands above
the crowds and flays the sacrifice, bathing the steps in
blood.
Zaius Ancestor Worship
Every Zaiu caravan contains a story, a tale of the
past and the endeavors of that caravan’s ancestors.
Brightly-painted carts and wagons proudly declare the
honorable, and sometimes not so honorable, deeds of
past Zaius throughout the ages. They have a strong oral
tradition in which they recount tales of the past. Mostly
these tales are to remember and venerate those who
have come before, but many tales contain instructions
on how to live well and appease the ancestors.
For the Zaius, their ancestors take an active role
in their lives. The caravan’s prosperity and safety is in
their hands. They spend a great deal of time ensuring
the ancestors are content, and if someone does some-
thing to anger the ancestors, they must make amends
or risk being exiled. Most Zaius caravans are made up
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
of family groups, each with their own personal ances-
tors, and a few common ancestors for the whole cara-
van. They pass the time telling each other stories and
philosophizing about the lessons they could learn.
Legends and stories are only one part of the Zai-
us’ complicated religion. They also venerate their an-
cestors through learning and art. The paintings on the
caravans are artistic representations of the most pop-
ular ancestors’ stories, but the Zaius memorialize each
and every ancestor through art. Zaius create jewelry for
their personal ancestors, and many of the metal beads
and twists braided into their hair tell each of their sto-
ries.
The Zaius have an interesting relationship with the
ghosts of Mars. Ghosts represent the ancestors. Even
if the Zaiu does not know the ghost, or where it came
from, it is clearly someone’s ancestor, and has some
kind of story to tell. Most Zaius have very few encoun-
ters with ghosts. Meeting a ghost is considered a great
boon from the ancestors. When such an encounter oc-
curs, the Zaiu opens themself up to the ghost, hoping to
allow the ghost to possess them, so that they may give
the ancestor a voice to speak and tell the wisdom of the
past. These Zaius claim to have a way to speak directly
with the ghost and retain control over their own bodies.
Others refer to them as Ghost Eaters, and they have
a place of honor in all caravans, though they tend to
belong to no caravan in particular. These solitary Zaius
always have a place in a caravan when they meet up,
in return for whatever secrets they may have learned
during their searching.
Even though the Zaius are a nomadic people, they
have many religious sites all across Mars, which they
visit whenever they can. These sites are generally archi-
tectural wonders created by their ancestors, and certain
sites are more important to certain caravans, depending
on which ancestor is responsible for them.
The most well-known site is the Fourier Spire, a
mathematical construct in the Nowhere Plains. This
site is holy to every single Zaius, no matter which car-
avan they belong to. The Fourier Spire said to contain
the entirety of the Zaius’ history. The structure is so
large and complex that no one Zaiu knows the entire-
ty of the history contained there. Many caravans know
parts, and once every four years, as many caravans as
are able meet there to repaint the structure and recount
the stories found there. The site has a dual purpose, as
being located in the Nowhere Plains, the caravans of-
ten brave sandstorms to reach it. Encountering ghosts
74
on this pilgrimage is not only expected, but sought af-
ter, as the number of ghosts the caravan encounters de-
termines how prosperous and fortunate the caravan will
be for the next four years.
The legends surrounding the Fourier Spire vary de-
pending on which caravan is relating them. All the sto-
ries agree that the Zaius’ earliest ancestors created the
Spire. One legend states that the ancestors embedded
all their knowledge into a single mathematical equation
and then used that equation to create the architecture
for the Fourier Spire. If the Zaius can solve the equation
of the structure, they can unlock the secrets of the past.
Another, more obscure and slightly heretical leg-
end recounts that the Zaius’ ancestors did not build the
Spire. The story states that before the Zaius were on
Mars, the First Martians created structures of immense
technological power. One such building is the Fourier
Spire the Zaius now venerate. Shortly after it was built,
the Zaius came into being. The Zaius trace their roots
back to the monolith because this is where their people
were born. Their earliest ancestors did not create the
structure, but were somehow created by it.
Mystery Cults
All across Mars, in hidden shrines and beneath
nameless statues, citizens in hooded robes and masks
gather to sing ancient songs. In private apartments or
abandoned buildings, the opulent offer their faith to
gods that were old before the oceans vanished. They
mark their membership with secret phrases and arcane
hand gestures only those in the know would recognize.
These mystery cults spring up in every major Red
Martian city, and a few others as well, and number into
the hundreds across the world. In some places, like Zig-
gur or Surtur, the practitioners must maintain secrecy,
lest the authorities make an example of heretics. Zodi-
ac’s mystery cults are heavily influenced by the city’s
common belief in the dictates of the stars. In other cit-
ies, such as Vance or Illium, they are collectively the
most common faiths. Here, membership in different
cults tends to be an open secret. Devotees vie for ex-
clusive patronage from important members of the city,
and being in the right cult can be a powerful tool for
climbing the social hierarchy.
Every mystery cult is different, though they have
many similarities. Memberships in mystery cults tend
to be by invitation only, though how inviting one cult
is versus another depends a lot on the membership.
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
Some cults invite anyone who shows even the slightest
interest, while others are particularly exclusive. All the
cults promise access to secret knowledge or prosperity
to those who practice their clandestine rites. Many in-
volve the worship of a god whose name is spoken only
in whispers, for fear of angering it. Some offer mysteri-
Cities and
Below are some of Mars’ most populous or other-
wise important cities and regions. Each is presented
with several locations in which to set scenes, and each
location has story hooks to start you off, characters to
encounter, and hazards for your heroes to face. These
are given in lists of two, three, or six options, so that if
you want to get started right away, you can just roll a
few d6s to pick the elements of your adventure.
Anger
Anger is beautiful. Houses and towers, erected from
shining white stone and metal, sit on four circular pla-
teaus rising to the center. Deep red stones, pulled from
stone quarries nearby, alternate with the gleaming sur-
faces, and in the setting sun the city shines as if it were
made from living flame. Five great roads – once canals,
now paved over – cut outward across the circles, fan-
ning out from the center spoke pointing to the North
Pole. The roads run a few miles beyond the cityscape,
and a great towering obelisk, made of glassy white
stone, stands where each ends. The city is governed by
10 appointed Pale Martians: one for the smallest inner
circle and then one more again for every circle after.
Anger is passion. The Pale Martians of Anger give
their fullest to every endeavor, never doing anything
halfheartedly and treating each moment as if it is their
last. Young Pale Martians in Anger push the bound-
aries of their society. They engage in trade with other
species, and when they return from Wyeth, they bring
back more than fresh fruit – they bring fresh ideas. Even
the weather in Anger fits that pattern – hot and sultry,
it flares into firestorms in the summer season.
Anger is change. The youngsters of Anger ques-
tion why all mathematicians should be female, or all
engineers male. For that matter, since Pale Martians
choose their own gender, why shouldn’t they be free
to alternate between them? And, while they’re on the
subject, why should they even perform a task assigned
to them by their mentor – why not choose their own
75
ous power and possible transcendence beyond fleshly
afflictions and concerns. Some cults promote violence
and brutality, while others encourage quiet contempla-
tion, and still others endure self-mutilation and sacri-
fice to pay proper homage to their god.
Regions
career? While their elders push back with the authority
of those who believe the system works, Anger’s youth
rises up to demand change
Locations
The Market
In the outer ring’s bustling market, a Red Martian or
Skarrut need never worry about being too small or hav-
ing only two arms. Instead, stalls and equipment are the
right size and make for foreigners, as Anger’s merchants
are eager to accommodate their customers. The Pale
Martians themselves remain disciplined in all they do;
market stalls are perfectly aligned and even the busiest
trader keeps his wares meticulously ordered. But signs
of change are beginning to seep in, and frivolous cloths
decorate stalls while the Pale Martians themselves take a
break from their rigorous schedule to idle about.
HOOKS
1. A lone caravan guard named Hellinar gallops
into the market at breakneck speed. He is beat
up and bloodied, and reveals that brigands are
attacking the caravan from Wyeth. The citizens of
Anger need that food to survive.
2. In exchange for fruit, grain, and vegetables,
Anger lends military aid to Wyeth. Not keen on
foreigners, the Wyeth requested the troops remain
in Anger until needed. A battalion is getting ready
to head out now. Is Wyeth under attack? Enter-
prising sellswords can use this to earn some chits.
3. A firestorm has risen in the plains surrounding
Anger and is headed for the city. People frenzy
to pack up and evacuate indoors. Characters can
lend their aid to earn gratitude or chits, or use
the distraction to give themselves a five-fingered
discount.
4. Petar, a Pale Martian scientist, decides she would
rather look to the future than the past, and desires
employment with the sky engineers of Illium. Even
in forward-thinking Anger, this is a step too far.
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
She seeks foreigners who can smuggle her out of
Anger and into Illium.
5. One night, the obelisk nearest the market begins
to emit a soft, flute-like sound. When the first rays
of dawn hit the obelisk, it opens to reveal an
opaque stasis pod, tall enough to hold even the
largest Pale Martian. The characters are at hand
to witness this and have a moment to snatch the
pod before Anger’s military arrives.
6. Merchants use leashed sand burrowers to clear
caravans of pests. One burrower escaped a year
ago near Anger and, back in its natural habitat,
grew to 15 feet tall. The six-legged reptile is a
threat to caravans and citizens alike, and the
characters are hired to track and kill it (Large Sand
Burrower: Camouflage d10, Quick Strike d8,
Vicious Bite d6; Resolve d6; Combat: 1 Strike/1
Stunt; Trouble: Not Clever).
CHARACTERS
1. Sinom, Pale Martian fixer specializing in scav-
enging gear (New Inventions d12, Full of Stories
d8, Makeshift Weapons d6; Resolve d6; Trouble:
Checkered Past)
2. Aare, Pale Martian caravan master traveling from
Wyeth to Ziggur (Great Bargainer d10, Slick
Sword d8, Boisterous d6; Resolve d8; Trouble:
Loud)
3. Nutesh, Red Martian trader previously from Zig-
gur, run afoul of the Yellow Silks (Friends in Low
Places d10, Bodyguards d8, Eye for Detail d6;
Resolve d6; Trouble: Powerful Enemies)
4. Edris, Pale Martian scholar from Foresight re-
cording the changes in Anger (Meticulous d10,
Objective in All Things d8, Good Aim d6; Resolve
d8; Trouble: Unpleasant Demeanor)
5. Tanan, Ozak traveler new to Anger (Eager for
New Horizons d10, Swift Blade d8, Makes
Friends Easily d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Getting
Older)
6. Vesa, Pale Martian market guard eager to
meet new people (True Strike d10, Observant
d8, Open-Minded d6; Resolve d8; Combat: 1
Strike/1 Parry; Trouble: Easily Bored)
HAZARDS
1. While the firestorms plaguing Anger keep the city
meticulously clean, they cause severe burns or
death to those caught outside.
2. Anger lies squarely in the Martian desert, and
sandstorms regularly sweep over the city. When
the storms come from the northeast, they always
carry ghosts.
76
3. A band of marauders coming from the south
attacks the market regularly. Anger’s leaders don’t
know where they lair.
4. Rzak, winged serpents twice as long as any Pale
Martian, nest in the desert. Storms carry their
eggs into the city.
5. Ziik bugs have an obsidian carapace that is re-
sistant to firestorms. While their stings are painful,
they cause little harm – except when their eggs
hatch and they swarm.
6. Pale Martian con men have a great advantage:
four arms. Games of chance with dice, cards, or
cups end with visitors getting fleeced. To say noth-
ing of the dexterity of Pale Martian pickpockets.
The Purple Light
The Purple Light, named rather unimaginatively for its
indigo-lit front, is a music stage, dance floor, and debate club
rolled into one. Pale Martians of all ages gather here with
one purpose: to test, push, and break boundaries. If change is
coming gradually to Anger as a whole, the Purple Light exudes
a deep yearning for it now. The club is a miasma of illegal
substances, gender fluidity, and sexuality, and its patrons form
a tightly-knit circle of support and challenges. This is Anger’s
avant-garde, the rolling tide of change to wash over the city.
HOOKS
1. The Purple Light gathers to support Nea as she
changes to the male gender. Since they have no
access to the customary ceremony to accomplish
this, they’re using a homebrew of salutations
and support. Taking part in the makeshift ritual
is a great way for the characters to make lasting
friends at the Purple Light.
2. After an evening at the Purple Light, the charac-
ters are intercepted by a Pale Martian enforcer,
who orders them to leave the city come morning,
for “inciting arousal.” Manu, from the Purple Light,
overhears the exchange, and offers to put them
up at her place illegally.
3. Arvo invites the characters to join him on a krem
run to Wyela. He claims it will be fun, and the
profits good. When they smuggle the drugs back
into Anger, however, the group is caught and
Arvo places the blame squarely on them.
4. The characters wake up hung over, with an
elaborate pattern drawn on their bodies and no
recollection of the previous night. Does the pattern
have any meaning? The Purple Light is the first
stop as they retrace their steps.
5. Wayward is denouncing her egg name, and instead
assuming the name Sofias for ”knowledge.” Pale
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
Martians deliberately assign their children negative
names lest ghosts become jealous, though, and
sometimes parents really do know best.
6. The Purple Light is experimenting with a new drug
made from poppies and corpse fruit seeds. The
mix allows a user to relive their ancestors’ lives, but
also makes them susceptible to possession by them.
One night, a Pale Martian named Matte appears
to be possessed by a First Martian. Is he faking it?
CHARACTERS
1. Ada, Pale Martian scholar by day and dancer by
night (Empirical Mindset d10, All The Right Moves
d8, Hidden Blade d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Living
in Two Worlds)
2. Elide Pale, Pale Martian music master of the Purple
Light (Devoted Fans d12, Former Fixer d8, Good
Aim d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Disapproving Family)
3. Kirsi, Pale Martian scholar of antiquities and pro-
ponent of change (Knows the Past d10, Strong on
Issues d8, Dirty Fighting d6; Resolve d8; Trouble:
Belligerent)
4. Sorrow, Pale Martian adolescent frequenting
the Purple Light (Mathematics d8, Knows All the
Hiding Places d8, Quick Blade d6; Resolve d6;
Trouble: Rebelling Against Family)
5. Catalde, Red Martian noble from Vance, came
for a relaxing night out (Swordsmaster d10,
Well-Traveled d8, Cashflow d6; Resolve d8; Trou-
ble: Drinks Too Much)
6. Peliar, Wyeth krem supplier looking for new
customers (Access to Krem d10, Spear Fighter d8,
Great Bargainer d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Fierce
Competitors)
HAZARDS
1. Purple Lighters freely experiment with drugs, most
of which cause a harmlessly-pleasant buzz, if you
have a Pale Martian’s constitution.
2. Every revolution evokes a counter-movement. A
group of adolescents calling themselves the Pu-
rifiers roams Anger at night, and they are violent
towards foreigners.
3. A batch of smuggled krem brought fagun bugs.
The pests prove impossible to remove and the
Purple Light is considering leaving the doors open
during the next firestorm.
4. Someone spiked the drinks. While the patrons
themselves are perfectly safe while sleeping it off,
their possessions certainly aren’t.
5. A freak combination of experimental music and
pulsing strobe lights temporarily synchronizes
77
the patrons’ active thoughts. This allows for great
unity, and poor secret-keeping.
6. A Skarrut revolutionary has fled to the Purple
Light. Skarras’ authorities have tracked him and
are working with Anger’s leaders to raid the club
and bring him back in.
The Arena
The arena is a repurposed hole in the ground, a sunk-
en circle in the city’s second ring where Pale Martians and
foreigners test their martial prowess in friendly competition. It
was once part of the First Martian artifact under Anger, and
slitted metal pillars still move through the arena in an erratic
pattern. Nowadays, though, the eerily-soft sound as the metal
monstrosities shift and slide is drowned under the battle cries of
warriors and the thunderous roar of the audience. Anyone is
welcome here, as long as they have either blades or chits.
HOOKS
1. The arena’s pillars rise and fall in an arrhythmic
pace. One of the games sees warriors start on a
separate pillar each, and fight the other compet-
itors to claim the one that rises the highest. This
game yields a great payout to the winner.
2. Anger’s leaders feel conflicted about the arena.
The competition doesn’t threaten the machine – in
fact, the game’s organizers take care to leave
the arena spotless and well-oiled. Despite their
stewardship, though, holding a competition atop
a First Martian artifact is irreverent. One evening,
while the characters are competing or in the audi-
ence, enforcers crack down on the games.
3. Marek, champion of the pillar game, is offering
his Phobos-steel sword to a warrior who can beat
him. The blade is preternaturally sharp, and any-
one cut by it suffers terrible nightmares. Rumors
claim that Marek is an adept and the nightmares
fuel his psychic powers.
4. When one of the characters rises to be the clear
favorite in their next match, they are strong-
ly urged to “go down” in their next match. In
exchange for the blow to their pride, bookmaker
Iivan offers a cut of the earnings.
5. High-quality swords are frequently sold or traded
at the arena. After a character picks up a new
weapon, they are approached by Narseo, a
Red Martian warrior from Chiaro, claiming it
was stolen from her. She wants it back and will
ask nicely once. Meanwhile the seller, Tuure, is
nowhere to be found.
6. Though Anger’s citizens barely notice it anymore,
the metal rings continue to vibrate softly. One
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
A Skarrut with her net faces a Pale Martian
with his many blades in Anger’s arena
morning, the hum subtly changes, and that after-
noon people at the arena become violently ill. Is
the machine creating a viral agent, or trying to
counteract a virus released by a different source?
CHARACTERS
1. Bau, Skarrut champion from Skarras Plaza seek-
ing new challenges (Sling Pole d12, Strong Phy-
sique d8, Tactical Mind d8; Resolve d8; Combat:
1 Strike/1 Parry/1 Stunt; Trouble: Old Scars)
2. Hoth, Red Martian underdog hoping for luck in
the arena (Tenacious d10, Knows All The Fighters
d8, Sword Arm d6; Resolve d6; Combat: 1 Parry;
Trouble: Too Friendly)
3. Einar, Pale Martian organizer of arena matches
(Friendly Face d10, Former Champion d8, Big
Bulk d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Fading Fame)
4. Pele, Pale Martian mathematician working as
bookmaker (Great with Numbers d10, Unarmed
Fighter d8, Quick as Lightning d6; Resolve d6;
Trouble: Not Strictly Legal)
5. Nyuk, Red Martian spectator to the match (Jovial
d10, Hidden Blade d8, Glib Tongue d6; Resolve
d6; Trouble: Bets Too Much)
78
6. Ausil, Pale Martian post-match cleaner (Repair
Skills d10, Strong Stomach d8, Spear Fighter d6;
Resolve d6; Trouble: Dreams of Glory)
HAZARDS
1. The pillars rise to deadly heights, heat up to burn-
ing temperatures, and vent steam at unpredictable
intervals. They also move horizontally, crushing
anyone caught between them.
2. The pillars are part of the machine’s gaseous output
and, while they’re usually harmless, malfunctions some-
times purify the oxygen in the arena to toxic levels.
3. After being ridiculed for a particular bad loss, a
warrior from Sutur slinks off. He comes back with
friends to take revenge later.
4. Tiny blood worms feed off the mess left on the
arena floor before the cleaning crew gets in. They
crawl into the wounds of downed fighters and can
cause necrosis.
5. Some competitors cheat and line their blades with
poison to weaken opponents. While these are not
intended to be lethal, it’s easy to miscalculate the
effects on different races.
6. When the constellation of the Forge rises directly
overhead, strong electric currents run through the
pillars and the official fights are canceled.
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
The Machine
Perfect concentric plateaus. The great obelisks. Dry
weather and firestorms. All these hail back to a single
reason: Anger is built on an ancient terraforming machine
left behind by the First Martians. When the Pale Martians
claimed Anger, the machine was already broken far beyond
their ability to repair. Instead, they repaired what they could
and used massive red stones, cut from the bedrock, to prop
up what still stood. For a decade they worked on this and
when the work was done, the city of Anger slowly piled atop
it. The ringed machine remains accessible – sometimes legal-
ly, sometimes less so – for those interested in Anger’s past.
HOOKS
1. Part of the machine is accessible in the museum,
where tour guides explain its inner workings,
with great detail to Pale Martians, and much eye
rolling to foreigners. Even a cursory tour provides
interested characters with great knowledge about
the First Martians, and a plied guide can tell even
more.
2. The highlight of the museum is a glass orb holding
pink-flowered grass. No plant like it grows on
Mars, and Xeor, a merchant from Vance, offers
a great reward to anyone who can bring him the
orb. No thief has managed the heist yet, as the
orb is as high as two Pale Martians.
3. Anger is never still, as neighborhoods are torn
down to grant access to the machine, then rebuilt
once repairs are done. The leaders of Anger are
always looking for people to work in these build-
ing crews, and characters can make a few coins
this way. A young family – Illpa, Hator, and their
child Anguish – refuses to leave their home in the
characters’ assigned section.
4. A firestorm sweeps over Anger, and a crack
erupts in the machine’s hull as it settles back. If the
characters act before the Pale Martians become
aware of the breach, they can use it to gain entry
to the machine’s inner workings.
5. On nights when the blue star aligns with Phobos
and Deimos, strange glyphs swirl under the obe-
lisks’ glassy surface. Their meaning has always
eluded the Pale Martians, but a young scientist
named Varis claims she found a way to read
them. Her translation reveals disturbing informa-
tion about the First Martians, and could plunge
Anger into chaos.
6. Iari, an adept from Chiaro, believes their five-sid-
ed pyramid and Anger’s five-spoked rings are
related. He employs the characters to sneak him
into the machine. Once inside, he reveals that his
79
plan is to study the machine by activating it – an
endeavor that would doom Anger.
CHARACTERS
1. Atton, Pale Martian scientist with a passion for
tinkering (Good with Machines d10, First Martian
Lore d8, Competent Sword d6; Resolve d8; Trou-
ble: Confined by Rules)
2. Anxiety, adolescent Pale Martian working an
apprenticeship at the museum (Sharp Mind d8,
Scientist d8, Unarmed Combat d6; Resolve d6;
Trouble: Family Expectations)
3. Sadinu, Red Martian infiltrator from Ziggur (Black
Blade d10, Hidden Footfalls d8, Precognition d6;
Resolve d8; Trouble: Family Held Hostage)
4. Joubin, Red Martian scholar turned scavenger
(Quick Fingers d10, True Sword d8, Good Look-
ing d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Restless)
5. Allim, Red Martian thief with a taste for danger
(Against All Odds d10, Throwing Knives d8,
Melts with Shadows d8; Resolve d6; Trouble:
Unnecessary Risks)
6. Ossar, Pale Martian city guard (Knows the Beat
d10, Big Sword d8, Eye for Trouble d6; Resolve
d8; Combat: 1 Parry/1 Stunt; Trouble: Literal
Minded)
HAZARDS
1. The museum, patrolled by guards, yields access
to the machine. Cracks in the wall, caused by the
machine resettling, also grant entrance, but they
are prone to collapse.
2. Following on the heels of a sandstorm, scavenger
cats sneak into the machine through an undiscov-
ered crevasse. They attack people on the street.
3. Automaton spiders are plentiful inside the ma-
chine. Like their host, some malfunction and try to
recycle everything that moves into new spiders.
4. The machine heats up at random intervals, caus-
ing the metal floor, walls, and ceilings to burn
white hot.
5. The machine is divided into airtight compartments.
Behind some doors, pure nitrogen lingers; behind
others, airborne diseases.
6. The center of the rings holds a small collection of
unused biological samples, intended for terrafor-
ming. While not dangerous in and of themselves,
if a scientist actually grows a creature from the
samples, it will destabilize Mars’ ecosystem or
introduce a super predator.
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
Battlehymn
Located equidistant between Chiaro, Vance, and
Illium, along a canal running east to west from Vance,
sits the high temple of the Church of the Damsel, Bat-
tlehymn. Here, initiates of the Church are trained, or-
dained, and sent afield to man the temples and mon-
asteries all across Mars. The temple itself consists of a
magnificent palace complex at the top of a hill surround-
ed by lush garden grounds for reflection and contem-
plation. The compound includes the most ornate and
decorated temple for worship boasted by the Church,
with delicate spiral crenellations and gold-leaf inlays on
every stone. Also within is an extensive learning center
with a university-like atmosphere for training initiates.
Here is where the Exalted Missionary Sisters learn to
speak with the Voice, and is the only permanent home
for the order.
Battlehymn is more than just a temple and a place
of worship; it is the most holy site for members of the
Church of the Damsel and the seat of its power. A
thriving city has grown up just outside the grounds of
the temple that makes up the bulk of Battlehymn’s res-
idence. The temple-city is governed by the Matriarch
of the Church and follows Church law in all practices.
Residents of the city cater to a larger itinerate popu-
lation of pilgrims who travel down the canal to view
the holy temple and to hear the Word of the Damsel,
as spoken by those with the Voice. Much of the city’s
economic support comes from wealthy patrons to the
Church, who come to the city often to petition the Ma-
triarch for special considerations.
Locations
Temple of the Voice
The Temple of the Voice is a palace at the top of a
large hill north of the canal. The temple began as a modest
monastery, with quarters for just a few of the priests in
residence. As the Church gained patrons and funding, the
monastery grew to include a university, a second, larger
worship temple, a hospital, a dormitory, and a few other
auxiliary buildings. Each new Matriarch commissioned
a new building. Now, the temple district is a labyrinthine
complex of buildings connected with tunnels and covered
walkways haphazardly placed into whatever space is
available. The whole area is referred to as the Temple of
the Voice, and is mostly inhabited by priests and trainees.
80
The district is open to the public, and the streets around the
temples are filled with pilgrims, worshippers, the sick, and
the wealthy alike. All come to seek the Word.
HOOKS
1. Detterick, a lesser noble from Illium, has been
paying tribute to the Church for 10 years. He is
close to the priests, but he has never been al-
lowed to meet the Matriarch. He’s convinced that
the Matriarch is just a cover for the Damsel, who
is still alive and running the Church from behind
the scenes. He’s willing to pay handsomely for
someone to help him break into the Matriarch’s
private quarters.
2. Leyon, a newly-appointed temple priest, believes his
office is haunted. He requests Church exorcists, but
he is denied by his superior. He’s seeking outside
help with the situation against the Church’s wishes.
3. A group of the Exalted Missionary Sisters was
scheduled to return to the temple over a week
before, but they are late to arrive. The Church is
concerned that something might have happened
to hold them up and is looking for someone to
investigate.
4. Several people have come to the temple district
seeking help for an illness that has left them
unable to speak. The Exalted Missionary Sisters
in residence are cloistered away, for fear of
losing the Voice to the illness. Can someone find
the source of the illness and help develop a cure
before the Sisters are struck Voiceless?
5. Timin, a Skarrut architect, is working on the
newest addition to the temple. While surveying
an area, he inadvertently listened in on a plot
between Danese and several others to overthrow
the Matriarch. He’s looking for someone to help
him figure out what to do with the information.
6. Urmel Boshur is interested in discovering the
source of the Voice, and maybe learning it himself
to use to his advantage. He’s willing to pay some-
one to spy on Voice lessons in the temple district
and bring him back any information.
CHARACTERS
1. Danese, The Matriarch’s right hand (The Church
is My Home d8, Administrative Power d6, Keeper
of Secrets d4; Resolve d10; Trouble: Corrupted by
Power)
2. Silane, Teacher of the Voice (Master of the Voice
d10, Trained for Battle d4, Cares for the Sick d6;
Resolve d6; Trouble: Blindly Follows Orders)
3. Dax, Temple librarian and historian (Expert on
Damsel History d8, Lives to Teach d6, Been Here
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
Through Three Matriarchs d4; Resolve d6; Trou-
ble: Resistant to Change)
HAZARDS
1. The palace is made up of a complex of buildings
and temples, which can be tricky to navigate.
It’s easy to make a wrong turn and end up in the
wrong office or section without intending to.
2. The Matriarch’s chambers are guarded by Tem-
plars at all times. Anyone seeking an audience
with her must wait in the main audience chamber
with all other patrons.
3. Once a day, all the priests in the temple district
form a procession to the temple for services and
prayer. Everyone is expected to move aside and
stop what they are doing to allow the procession
to pass.
North Side Canal
Travelers entering Battlehymn via the canal must dock
at the east side canal. All canal boats must stop here, even
those just passing through on their way to Illium. The Tem-
plars check cargo and passengers from all boats wishing
to dock, and those passing through must check in with the
Church to ensure nothing is being smuggled to other parts
of the city. The canal docks host workers, sailors, new
visitors to the city, Church officials, and ruffians looking
for an easy score.
HOOKS
1. The priests are expecting a valuable shipment,
and a large contingent of guards are prowling
the docks. They’ve been secretive about what’s
coming in, and this is making some of the mer-
chants a little edgy. Nounce wants to know what
the Church is up to so she can sell the information.
She wants the characters to get close enough to
the cargo to sneak a peek and come back to tell
her what they found.
2. The Swift came into the canal dock two night ago
and was immediately placed under quarantine
with no explanation. Trielle, her captain, is con-
vinced that Mani Hern, a rival ship captain who
also deals in krem, paid off the harbor master to
get an upper hand. Trielle’s goods are of the best
quality, direct from the Wyeth krem dens. She
knows if she can get the cargo off the boat, she
can outsell Mani. She’s willing to pay someone
to sneak past the guards and gain access to her
boat to retrieve the krem. Rumor has it that if they
sabotage her rival’s krem stores, she’ll double
their pay.
3. As the characters come into town and off their
81
boat, they witness a woman snatch a package
from Solemn, a Pale Martian. She is beside her-
self because the package contains her life’s work
and all her possessions. She begs the characters
to help her recover the package and to maybe
give her a little money so she can find a place to
stay for the night. All of this is part of an elaborate
con the girl and Solemn use to get money from
unsuspecting travelers. The harbormaster clues the
characters in, but not before they offer assistance.
4. Someone is stealing cargo from ships docked in
the canal. The Templars have been unsuccessful in
finding the culprit; it’s possible they’ve been paid
off. The boat captains have come together to offer
anyone willing to help them a hefty sum.
5. The Templars are cracking down on smuggling
goods through the docks. Even honest boat
captains are held under suspicion. None of the
smugglers know why the Church is taking such a
strong interest, and suspect they are looking for
something specific. If someone could find what
the Templars are looking for, they’d certainly be
rewarded, not to mention the goodwill they’d
garner from the boat captains.
6. Warrin, a traveling Roundhead, was accused
of being a member of a mystery cult, which is a
crime punishable by death in Battlehymn. He can’t
afford to pay off the charge because his accuser
has more resources. He’s looking for someone
willing to smuggle him through the city and onto
a boat to get out before he’s picked up by the
Templars.
CHARACTERS
1. Nounce, Red Martian smuggling captain (Born to
Sail d10, Never Loses Cargo d6, Deception is My
Middle Name d4; Resolve d8; Trouble: Trusts No
One)
2. Chaques Vipon, Red Martian harbormaster (Has
Eyes Everywhere d8, Strong as Ten Zaius d8,
Keen Memory d4; Resolve d8; Trouble: In Debt to
the Church)
3. Feun Lavesk, Red Martian dockside religious
zealot (The Word is Law d10, Ready to Fight d6,
Judgement is its Own Reward d4; Resolve d6;
Trouble: Holier than Thou)
4. Ansile, Red Martian bartending rumor-monger
(Gift of Gab d8, Been Around for a While d6,
Bar Brawler d4; Resolve d8; Trouble: Accepts
Bribes from the Wrong People)
5. Lisse, Red Martian Templar patrolling the docks
(Sharp Eye d4, Sharper Sword d6, Knows the
Regulars d4; Resolve d6; Trouble: Too Deep in
The Cups)
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
6. Lotee, Wyeth traveling merchant and trader [At
Home on the Docks d8, Has What You Need d6,
Helping Hands d4; Resolve d6; Trouble: Young
and Full of Ideas]
HAZARDS
1. Swarms of beggars loiter around the canal docks
waiting to harass anyone who looks like they
might have money.
2. Canal boat operators tend to stick to the dockside
until their boats leave port. Generally, they have
nothing better to do than drink and start fights
until the morning they sail out.
3. Pickpockets prowl the docks looking for easy
marks. Loose chit bags, or displays of wealth,
could attract unwanted attention.
4. The Church officials are always on the lookout
for smugglers and thieves. Strangers are suspect
unless they are clearly wealthy.
5. Scavenger animals lurk around the docks look-
ing for scraps. Hungry scavengers can get bold
enough to attack someone who stands around in
one place for too long.
6. The population near the canals attracts carnivo-
rous creatures that live in the waters. Falling into
the water is dangerous, and not just because of
the swiftly-flowing current.
South Side Slums
Though the Church ministers to the sick and the
needy, not all gain admittance or get the help they need.
Those with chronic illnesses, addictions, mental issues, or
those simply seeking to disappear filter down to the slums.
Even the priests do not frequent the slums, though the
people here need the most care.
HOOKS
1. A scholar of the Church believes he’s found
concrete evidence that Battlehymn is built upon
the ruins of the Damsel’s original seat of power.
He needs to go to the site and verify his discov-
ery, but the ancient building is deep beneath the
slums. He’s looking for someone to guard him as
he searches the slums.
2. A young priestess has taken up residence in the
slums and is healing the sick and tending to the
poor. The gangs seem to ignore her, and the desti-
tute follow her around like she is the Damsel herself.
She denies such claims, but the people around her
say she should be the Matriarch of the Church and
clean out the corruption. Rumor has it the Matriarch
is looking to have the girl disappear quietly.
82
3. Some say Urmel Boshur of the Red Fingers gang
is attempting to organize the different criminal
elements in the slums. They want to work a deal
with the Templars to have them turn a blind eye
to thievery in the other parts of the city as long as
the criminals don’t bother members of the Church.
He’ll pay handsomely for information about both
the other gangs and which of the priests are cor-
rupt enough to take his offer.
CHARACTERS
1. Ophilee, Red Martian black market religious
artifact dealer (Master Con Artist d8, Willing to
Make a Deal d4, Expert in Church Artifacts d6;
Resolve d6; Trouble: Dangerous Goods, Danger-
ous Clients)
2. Urmel Boshur, Red Martian gang leader and mas-
ter thief (Knows the Right People d6, Light Fingers
d8, Most Comfortable at Night d4; Resolve d6;
Trouble: Trusts Too Easily)
3. Lon, Street urchin informant (Accepted Every-
where d10, Knows Too Much d6, Tight Lipped
d4; Resolve d4; Trouble: Does Anything for a
Coin)
HAZARDS
1. Gangs and ruffians flock to the deep slums and
fight over territory in the lawless section of town.
Each gang has a color or symbol used to recog-
nize each other, but they change so often it’s hard
to know when you might be wearing the wrong
color in the wrong part of town.
2. A maichara has escaped (and probably eaten) its
erstwhile owner. It prowls the streets at night, and
has so far eluded capture or death.
3. Sand spiders infest the slums and prey on anyone
too slow or stupid to avoid them.
4. Templars and priests rarely enter the slums. Crime
runs rampant in the area, as well as sickness and
disease. It’s just as easy to get sick as it is to lose
your coin.
5. Beggars are more aggressive in the slums; they
are as likely to attack as to ask for coins.
6. Gangs cut krem with all sorts of odd substances in
attempts to make it go further. The effects tend to
either make users comatose or filled with a relent-
less rage.
The Damsel’s Tomb
The story tells that the Damsel left her empire for fear
the power she wielded would corrupt her. No one knows if
she died, and if she did, her remains have never been recov-
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
ered. The Damsel’s Tomb is a large catacomb that spans
beneath the entirety of Battlehymn north of the canal.
Every Matriarch and high priestess of any importance is in-
terred there. The Church did not build the catacombs, they
simply built on top of an existing structure. Deep inside the
catacombs, deeper than the Church ever ventures, are un-
told artifacts and relics left by a people of a long past age.
Some think maybe the First Martians built the Damsel’s
Tomb, but few have ventured in far enough to find out.
HOOKS
1. Someone reported they saw a dead body rise
and walk around. They ran out of the catacombs,
but are sure it’s still down there. When the charac-
ters investigate, they find traces of purple fungus.
Someone brought the fungus into the tomb, and if
it spreads, the outcome could be devastating.
2. Screams heard in the middle of the night have the
tomb’s curator on edge. She can’t find any evi-
dence, but sees signs of a struggle. She asks the
characters to investigate. They find some of the
tombs were recently opened, and fresh corpses
have been placed inside. A killer is storing bodies
in the catacombs, and they must be found before
someone else dies.
3. Kuriost, a Pale Martian artifact collector, has
traced a ring of First Martian origin to the Six-
teenth Matriarch of the Church. He believes she
was buried with the artifact, and is offering to pay
the characters to enter the tomb and search for
the ring there. He’s sure she was buried with other
artifacts and treasures, and they can keep whatev-
er else they find.
4. Looters have been visiting the tomb at night and
breaking open the sacred burial places of the
Matriarchs. The church is willing to pay anyone
who can bring these heretics to justice.
5. A small group of priests entered the catacombs
to pay their respects to the buried Matriarchs.
They entered the tomb over a week before, but
no one has seen them since. A search and rescue
team was sent in after them a few days later, but
they have also yet to return. Getting anxious, and
unwilling to ask the Church to send more priests,
Yuvenne asks the characters to go in search of the
missing priests and the rescue party.
6. A mystery cult began performing rituals in the
catacombs at night. They deface the tombs inside
with arcane symbols and strange graffiti. The cura-
tor wants the cult found and stopped before they
do any more damage to the holy resting places.
The Church offers bounties on any confirmed cult
members, which could fetch the characters a nice
purse.
83
CHARACTERS
1. Yuvenne, Red Martian curator of the tomb,
(Knows all the Paths d10, A Vision for Every
Grave d6, Trusted by the Church d8; Resolve d6,
Trouble: Addicted to Krem)
2. Soliloquy, Pale Martian Damsel-era artifact col-
lector (Dedicated to Work d8, Finds What She’s
Looking For d6, Willing to Get Dirty d4; Resolve
d8; Trouble: Church Heretic)
3. Nameless, Wyeth Exalted Missionary Sister
speaker for the dead (Communes with Skulls d10,
Attuned to Death d4, Speaks with the Voice d6;
Resolve d8; Trouble: Has Heretical Beliefs)
HAZARDS
1. Tomb stalkers roam the deepest part of the cata-
combs.
2. The doors and hallways in the oldest parts of the
tomb open and close on their own. The path you
take down into the catacombs may not be the one
you need to use to escape.
3. Sections of the catacombs have been expanded
through the years by the Church. These areas are
not as structurally sound as the original complex
and are prone to cave-ins.
4. Yuvenne, the curator of the catacombs, patrols the
newer tombs, keeping an eye out for looters and
those looking to deface the tombs.
5. Templars guard the entrance to the tomb at night,
making it difficult to just walk right in.
6. Some areas of the catacombs have been sealed
for centuries. Opening such tombs can release
ancient horrors into the world.
Chiaro
Chiaro was once upon the edge of a mighty river of
Old Mars, built atop the ruins of a Cydonian city that it-
self was built atop one even older. As such, it lies among
a network of valleys containing some of the greatest First
Martian and Cydonian tombs and monuments.
Chiaro is ruled by a council of elders. Some are
alleged to have been children in past millennia when
the Silt Sea was parted and perhaps the last of the First
Martians still walked the world.
The “city” is divided into two parts:
Chiaro-that-was: Home base for tomb robbers and
those who supply and trade with them. A tent city sur-
rounded by a low wall, running as close to the monu-
ments’ edge as is (probably) safe. A few less ambitious
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
raiders dig here hoping to find remnants of layered ru-
ins, but this place is long since picked over.
Chiaro-that-is: Further to the southeast, a small
port along the Stygian canal. A more prosperous city,
high-walled and at less hazard from the things that walk
the desert at night. Chiaro-that-is benefits from the rel-
ic trade in Chiaro-that-was, while also producing its
own food and goods.
At night the torches of Chiaro burn with blue flame,
which the priests claim keeps the tomb stalkers at bay.
To the south of both Chiaros is a defunct atmo-
sphere processor, ruptured from the inside by incredi-
ble forces. Like all atmosphere processors, it is guarded
with death traps. Unlike many, the secrets of its traps
and chambers are unmapped, and no Roundhead is
known to dwell here with his cult.
Locations
Cloister of the Blind Saint
In Chiaro-that-is, a cavernous stone monastery lit
with enormous blue-flame beacons at each of its four cor-
ners stands aloof from the bustle. The monks here revere
the Blind Saint, whose story lies obscured in the dusts of
84
history. In emulation of their saint, they pluck out their eyes
in a holy initiation ceremony, believing that to truly see the
truths of time and space, one must cut out the distractions
of the here and now. When many chant in tandem, they
use echolocation to “see” their surroundings through the
blending harmonies of the sounds they produce. They also
know how to perform an ancient, sacred throat-singing
technique, which they claim allows them to see far beyond
the physical through its eerie overtones. Perhaps they view
parallel dimensions, or far-off realms, or even the distant
past or future. Or perhaps they view nothing at all.
HOOKS
1. A monk approaches the characters with a strange
warning: One of them is the crux of a looming
cosmic event, but the monks only know faint de-
tails. The monk beseeches the characters to come
to the Cloister and let the sacred chant reveal
more. What will the monks do once they learn
who is responsible and how?
2. The secretive Cloister’s vaults hold treasures from
ages past, guarded jealously by the monks and
their retainers. Word comes from a reliable source
in Chiaro-that-was that a harp with crystal strings has
begun to play itself within those vaults and is danger-
ous beyond measure, but the monks refuse to listen.
Can anyone prevent the disastrous consequences?
Monks of the Blind Saint
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
3. The Cloister’s flame beacons burn continuously
night and day, while most of the city’s torches
burn only at night. Superstition says these bea-
cons take the monks’ chorus into the sky and call
out to something far away. Now, rumor has it
that whatever it is has answered the call, and it’s
coming.
CHARACTERS
1. Djada, Red Martian monk and secret Cloister re-
cruiter (Expressive Gestures d10, Uncanny Senses
d8, Knows Too Much d6; Resolve d8; Trouble:
Blind when Alone)
2. Whisper, nervous Red Martian Cloister retain-
er (Orphan Raised by the Blind d8, Knows the
Cloister Inside and Out d8, Apprentice Scribe d6;
Resolve d6; Trouble: Terrified of the Unknown)
3. Docya, Wyeth scribe and superstition monger,
wants the Cloister’s secrets (Persuasive Pen d10,
Noble Connections d8, Blends into a Crowd d6;
Resolve d8; Trouble: Can’t Take a Hint)
HAZARDS
1. The Cloister is guarded by two imposing Skarrut
mercenary siblings who only allow authorized
visitors inside. (Sharp Blades d10, By Any Means
Necessary d8, Stone-Faced d6; Resolve d8; Com-
bat: 1 Strike/1 Parry)
2. During certain celestial alignments, the monks
shut themselves inside and chant for three days
and three nights. While they do, the sky for miles
around warps, showing otherworldly, disorienting
visions.
3. The monks are capable of uncannily-coordinated
combat when they fight while chanting in groups,
almost as though they could read each other’s
minds. (1 per player; Strike Threshold: 6)
Ruptured Atmosphere Processor
Long ago, a massive force ripped apart the atmosphere
processor to the south of both cities from the inside. The
Roundheads leave it be, having no interest in its broken
husk, and none of the few scavengers who have returned
from its labyrinthine guts can describe it accurately or act
as guides. The secret of its ruin lies buried somewhere in
its steel belly. Known, it might give great insight into the
ways of the First Martians. But its traps are deadly, and
its winding chambers stretch maze-like into the darkness,
made impassable here and there by malfunctioning machin-
ery, collapsed rubble, or razor-fanged traps exposed by the
damage.
85
HOOKS
1. A faint voice calls for help from within the proces-
sor’s shadowed recesses. The deeper in the char-
acters travel, the more urgent its cries become. Is
someone trapped in here? Is it the spirit of one
who died here, lost and forgotten? Or something
even more sinister?
2. A noble offers a ludicrous sum to any stout adven-
turer who can penetrate the processor’s defenses
and learn its secrets. The offer seems straightfor-
ward on the surface, but after the characters ac-
cept, a rival noble offers an even more ludicrous
sum for the same. Will either noble take no for an
answer? Why are the secrets suddenly so import-
ant?
3. The characters hear a rumor that the processor
has begun to emit a distant mechanical hum, as
though something was activated inside, and re-
ports say a peculiar odor lingers in the air around
it. Is it miraculously functioning again, or is it spew-
ing some kind of poison? Who’s responsible?
4. Somewhere inside the processor, a strange, multi-
faced clock counts down from 3,000 years. Only
a few days are left before the final hand strikes
zero. What happens then? Should it be prevent-
ed? Can it be prevented?
5. The characters find something of incredible value
inside the processor — a gem of lost First Martian
genius or a scrap of machinery made of pure ra-
dium, something that could win them riches. But as
soon as they try to leave with it, the entire place
locks down. Doors close and refuse to open, and
all lights extinguish.
6. One room inside the processor contains posed
and preserved corpses, positioned as though
working on the machinery. Were they killed when
the processor was ruptured, or at some other
time? The characters can find clues hidden in
nooks and crannies, if they can avoid the traps.
CHARACTERS
1. Taribat, Roundhead hiring fixers to repair the
processor (Utterly Ruthless d10, Eye for Character
d8, More Money than You d6; Resolve d8; Trou-
ble: Overzealous)
2. Yuyu, Red Martian scavenger who lives inside
the processor (Last of My Kind d10, Mechanical
Autodidact d8, Anything Is Food d6; Resolve d6;
Trouble: Alien to All)
3. Shyan, Zaiu scholar studying the processor (First
Martian Expert d12, Suffers No Fools d8, Quick
Wit d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Low on Resources)
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
4. Barra, Red Martian found sleeping in stasis (Fights
Dirty d8, Talks Dirty d8, Fearsome Mien d6; Re-
solve d10; Combat: 2 Strike; Trouble: Lost Memo-
ry)
5. Pimali, Red Martian peddling false processor
maps (Could Sell Sand in the Desert d10, Under-
world Connections d8, Mysterious Wealthy Bene-
factor d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: No True Allies)
6. Mun, Red Martian processor worshipper (Gen-
tle but Firm d10, Dutiful until Death d8, Talks to
the Wind d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Magnet for
Thieves)
HAZARDS
1. A fanatic with followers claims the broken pro-
cessor is blasphemous, and campaigns to have
it destroyed or walled off, threatening violence if
unheeded.
2. A great mechanical beast lurks in the processor’s
dark places, spewing smoke and working its
creaking limbs. It has lost its original purpose.
(Enormous Claws d12, Dangerous Fumes d8,
Erratic Function d6; Resolve d10; Combat: 1
Strike/1 Parry/1 Stunt)
3. It takes great concentration and an unerring sense
of direction to find the path back to the exit once
the characters enter the processor’s half-ruined
maze.
4. Large swaths of the interior shudder in their
instability, ready to collapse into rubble when
disturbed, crushing interlopers and cutting off
exploration — or escape — routes.
5. Explosives, hidden blades, noxious gas traps,
and steel cages await the unwary throughout the
processor.
6. Ice hornets, usually only found at the North
Pole, built a nest in an uncannily-cold part of the
processor. Their sting freezes skin and blood, and
they are roused to fury by heat.
Ice Caravan Camp
Just north of Chiaro-that-is towers the Chiaro Res-
ervoir, a hulking stone basin that holds the glacier water
brought down from the North Polar Cap and delivers it
into the city through channels controlled directly by the
elders. The ice caravan camp surrounds the reservoir,
with its Guardian barracks, its stables and craftsmen, and
its haphazard tents. Here, Chiaro’s two caravans take
turns living their lives — one rests its animals, restocks its
supplies, repairs its equipment, and pursues its whims while
the other takes up the hazardous journey to the North
Pole. The ice water is transported in watertight containers
86
bought from the Pale Martians, carried on the backs of
aepys and on wide canal barges.
Impromptu marketplaces rise and fall constantly here
as port merchant families and canal traders follow the
shifting trends of the camp’s cycling population. The Res-
ervoir Guardians are the camp’s most valuable, and most
closely-watched, denizens. To be a Reservoir Guardian is a
well-paid honor, but punishment is swift and harsh should
anything happen to the glacier water on a Guardian’s watch.
HOOKS
1. A reckless youth climbs the reservoir on a dare,
and falls in while fleeing the Guardians. The youth
can’t swim, but who will risk the wasting curse to
fish someone out? Will the Guardians allow such
a rescue to disturb the water further?
2. Canal pirates approach the characters with a
proposal for a lucrative scam that involves the
caravan master’s son and skimming a little water
off the top. Turning them down means knowing
too much and becoming a threat.
3. The camp falls prey to an earthquake, killing
several Guardians on the eve of a caravan’s
departure. Desperate to keep to the timetable
lest the city’s water reserves deplete, the caravan
master implores the characters to travel with them
and guard the precious cargo, for a handsome
reward.
4. A Reservoir Guardian is accused of sabotaging a
botched delivery, and the elders plan to put her
on trial. She approaches the characters, insisting
she has done nothing, and begging them to repre-
sent her in the trial to prove her innocence.
5. A sickness breaks out in the city, and some experts
claim the latest glacier water shipment contained
a contaminant. The characters are hired to inves-
tigate this claim and determine whether it’s true —
and if so, how such a contaminant came to be; or
if not, why such a claim was made.
6. For years, several foreign noble families have
quietly warred to see who could gain control of
Chiaro’s reservoir first. So far none have succeed-
ed, but they’re not above persuading or tricking
strangers into maneuvering for them.
CHARACTERS
1. Dust, Red Martian child and caravan stowaway
(Light Fingers d10, Big Brown Eyes d6, Stolen
Flintlaser Pistol d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Sought by
Abandoned Parent)
2. Anzoli, Red Martian captain of the Reservoir
Guardians (Merciless Blade d8, Eyes Everywhere
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
d8, Secret Lover d6; Resolve d10; Combat: 1
Strike/1 Parry; Trouble: Set in My Ways)
3. Namenzira, Skarrut marketplace trader (Wide
Smile d10, Exotic Tastes d8, Pretty Lies d6; Re-
solve d8; Trouble: Abject Cowardice)
4. Khebim, Red Martian aepys breeder (Speaks the
Wild Languages d10, Retired Cavalier d8, Just
Won’t Die d8; Resolve d8; Trouble: Seen Too
Much)
5. Maatu, Red Martian barge sailor (Can’t Be
Bought d10, Canal Rat d8, Worships the Ice
Gods d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Can’t Read)
6. Sejesta, Red Martian caravan entertainer (Rous-
ing Performer d12, Friends in Low Places d8,
Friends in High Places d6; Resolve d6; Trouble:
Falls in Love Easily)
HAZARDS
1. Longstanding superstition says anyone who dis-
turbs the glacier water before it reaches the city
is cursed with a deadly wasting sickness. Locals
have stories that back it up.
2. Some caravan camp denizens say they hear the
call of the North, an urge to go into the vast, cold
abyss and never return. Some have heeded it.
Eventually, they say, all will heed it.
3. A caravan merchant sells curios that come from
the North Pole. Soon, the curios thaw into para-
sites that leech blood from their hosts.
4. A feud breaks out between the two caravans
during the changeover. Naked blades and flintla-
ser pistols are drawn on both sides, with everyone
else caught in the middle.
5. A rare amphibious predator, the milak beast,
emerges from the canal to feast on the caravan’s
aepys. It attacks anyone who gets in its way.
6. Something came back from the North Pole with
the recently-returned caravan, unbeknownst to
them. It carries people off silently in the night,
evading the Guardians with ease.
Tomb Valleys
Beyond the drifting borders of Chiaro-that-was lie
river valleys where the nobility of Cydonia and, before
them, the panjandra of the First Martians were laid to
rest. Out of the red sands rise great stone pyramid-tombs
and grotesque, eroded quasi-Martian figures with distorted
proportions. Ruined mausolea, half-sunk in the desert’s
all-consuming maw, are built atop ungainly machines that
87
won’t run. Carven Skyward Faces gaze at the stars, so
massive that they can only be seen clearly from far above.
Those who venture out among these monuments to sample
their ancient secrets come first upon Cydonian marvels
of stonework and architecture, sculpted statues with alien
faces and labyrinthine crypts. Those who dig deeper and
stray farther from the beaten paths find a layer of ruins
and graveyards buried beneath the younger civilization’s
legacy, onyx black machine-structures choked with sand,
that show little hint of what they once were for. Among all
these stride the tomb stalkers, tall machines with ridged,
cyclopean heads walking on tripods of long metal limbs.
HOOKS
1. The Singing Tomb is a pyramid close to the edge
of Chiaro-that-was, unique for the indecipherable
pattern of gaps in its walls. A wind sings through
them, melodic and mourning, like the tomb itself
keening for its dead. Any who sing along relive
scenes from the lives of the entombed. Are they
possessed by spirits, doomed to reenact trage-
dies, or does the wind simply carry memories in its
ghostly dirge?
2. The Cydonian Labyrinth is said to house both the
lost people’s greatest treasure and a dream-eating
void at its center. No one has yet reached that
center, but every year one of Chiaro-that-is’ nobles
sponsors a band of adventurers to try their luck.
3. At the bottom of a crater shaped like an enor-
mous footprint lies the Lyot Mirror, a glassy black
surface that shows reflections of what might have
been. It mesmerizes those who linger, and after a
time they become dust devils, cursed to wander
the lonely land. Maybe they could communicate,
if anyone could survive being torn apart.
4. A scavenger gang takes up residence in a crum-
bling vault, claiming to have found a working First
Martian water pump inside. Rumor has it they’re
selling access at exorbitant prices, but is it real or
just a scam?
5. A series of grisly murders among the tomb raiders
has each group pointing fingers at the others, and
a turf war among the tombs is about to break out
— inevitably drawing the tomb stalkers’ attention.
Can someone solve the murders before blood-
shed starts?
6. A scholar hears about a living specimen of an
originally river-dwelling creature long thought ex-
tinct, in the river valley among the tombs, but the
area is too dangerous for her to investigate. She
offers a reward to any who study it in her stead.
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
CHARACTERS
1. Stray, Red Martian treasure hunter offering a
share for protection (Opportunity Is My Middle
Name d10, Nose for Trouble d8, Swift Dagger
d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Built Like a Twig)
2. Netjera, Red Martian self-proclaimed tomb guide
(Desert Survivor d10, Bandit Decoy d8, Disarm-
ing Smile d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Misplaced
Loyalties)
3. Julid, Pale Martian outcast seeking redemption
(Dedicated Relic Hunter d10, Adept-in-Training
d8, Dead Languages d6; Resolve d8; Trouble:
Homesick)
4. Maryu, Zaiu ancestor-worshipping pilgrim
(Ghost-Seeking Whistle d8, Believes All Are One
d8, Deft Hands d6; Resolve d10; Trouble: Trusts
Too Easily)
5. Diavol, Red Martian cavalier with a vendetta
(Valley Bandits Killed My Brother d10, Fencing
Master d8, Dune Lion Tamer d6; Resolve d12;
Combat: 1 Strike/1 Stunt; Trouble: Overweening
Pride)
6. Jiani, cutthroat Red Martian archaeologist (Sneer-
ing Intellectual d12, Bigger and Better Things
d8, Meticulous d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Attracts
Rivals)
HAZARDS
1. The characters think they’re excavating a Cy-
donian tomb, but in its bones is an ancient and
malevolent machine they accidentally activate
without knowing how. It seeks to capture and
preserve them in its cabinet of once-living toys.
2. The Valley Bandits aren’t an organization so much
as a plague. Small bands of savage guerrilla-fight-
ing brigands live and lurk among the tombs,
waiting for a ripe mark. (1 per player; Strike
Threshold: 6)
3. The largest of the Skyward Faces bears an
engraving at its base, posing a riddle to all who
dare approach. A wrong answer can be fatal.
4. What the characters think is the entrance to a
tomb turns out to be a sleeping tomb stalker
buried under the sand. When it wakes, the ground
trembles.
5. In some subterranean tombs live clumps of a
strange blue cactus that gives off a bright glow. Its
water is nourishing, but once aboveground it turns
yellow and causes a bloody rash.
6. The gargantuan delve beetles stand guard inside
pyramids, protecting Cydonian treasures.
88
Cimmeria
Protected from Cydonia’s lust for expansion by
sheer distance and a mighty ring of mountains, the an-
cient Qan built an empire in Cimmeria. Conquering the
Ozak people and setting them to work, the Qan turned
the steppes into an oasis of fields and cities — until the
fungus came. Old stories claim it was a biological attack
from the Cydonians, fearing the Qan might come to
rival them. Ozak legends say it was actually the Qan
themselves who developed the fungus and accidentally
set it loose upon themselves. Whatever the cause, the
Qan empire soon fell as fields and cities alike were over-
run by the violet creeper.
The Qan and Ozak yet remain, locked in a deadly
feud over ancient crimes that can neither be repaid nor
undone. They live in nomadic groups and continually
seek uninfected grounds where they can make camp or
let their yummoc graze. At night, the fungus edges ever
closer, as if drawn to the warmth and breath of living
bodies. It’s with the dead that the fungus does its worst,
though. Covering the dead like a shroud, the fungus
absorbs their corpses and rebuilds their forms in a vio-
let mockery. These corpse stalkers have a limited form
of sentience, and their only goal is spreading the fun-
gus wider. Qan and Ozak alike have taken to burning
any nearby fungus when they make camp, lest they die
in their sleep and are subsumed by it. Whenever Qan
and Ozak meet, they paint the steppes red in blood and
hope someone remains alive to burn the corpses.
Locations
Qinon Palace
Once the splendorous capital of Qan, Qinon now
lies deserted. Its five-ringed wall crumbled under Ozak
vengeance and the ravages of time. Though the stone is
blackened, from continual burnings to keep the fungus at
bay, and tents stand in place of the elegant structures, the
Qan have partially rebuilt the inner palace. They come
here to bury their dead, if natural rot or the fungus don’t
claim them first. To ensure a proper burial, many sickly
Qan make the trek to Qinon while they are still alive,
and the halls are filled with the weak and dying, and their
faithful guardians.
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
HOOKS
1. Matriarch Yeshuen came to die at Qinon’s
palace. She made a lot of enemies in her time,
and they are not content to let the old woman die
peacefully. Yeshuen’s family hires the characters
to guard her until it’s over.
2. Rumor claims the steppe fungus originated from
Qinon. The characters are hired by Jetei, a Yellow
Silk, to find this place of origin and return with a
sample of the fungus growing there. They discover
that Eu plans to use the fungus against rival city-
states.
3. Qinon is laid out in an ancient star pattern no
longer visible from Mars. Nasralla, an astrologer
from Zodiac, hires the characters to map the city.
When they arrive, Qinon has been struck by a
natural catastrophe that left only corpse stalkers.
4. After a bloody encounter, the Qan are rife with
Ozak prisoners. In an unexpected show of mercy,
they offer to trade the prisoners back to their
people in exchange for yummocs and grain. They
seek outsiders to negotiate the deal for them.
5. Bedesh, an Ozak scholar, wishes to study the
burial treasures of an ancient Qan oppressor. As
it’s too risky for her to go herself, she seeks out the
characters to do it for her. She provides them with
a map to Qinon’s inner sanctum, but it’s badly
outdated.
6. A Qan named Dologai emerges from one of the
burial chambers and claims to be an emperor of
old reawakened. He wishes to lead his people
into a renewed conquest of the Ozak and sends
out a call to arms, including for mercenaries.
Meanwhile, other Qan have no interest in a major
war, and hire the characters to kill him.
CHARACTERS
1. Burtan, famed Qan warrior, now frail and con-
fused (Doesn’t Get Sick d10, Trained Reflexes
d8, Powerful Family d6; Resolve d8; Combat: 1
Strike/1 Stunt; Trouble: Dazed Memories)
2. Ajan, Qan guardian of Qinon and loyal servant
of the elders (Steadfast d10, Sharp Swords d8,
Knows the Palace d6; Resolve d8; Combat: 1
Strike/1 Parry; Trouble: Cannot Leave)
3. Tagadir, Qan cavalier, accompanying their mas-
ter on their last journey (Quick Sword d10, Witty
Repartee d8, Eye to the Future d6; Resolve d6;
Trouble: No Family)
4. Temulan, Ozak taken prisoner decades ago,
serves at Qinon (Knows People d10, Survivor d8,
Multi-Lingual d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Old Bones)
89
5. Siran, Ozak servant new to Qinon and planning
to escape (Mental Mapping d10, Keen Ears d8,
Easily Overlooked d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Impa-
tient)
6. Asuran, Zaiu traveler far from home (Seeking
New Horizons d10, Friendly Face d8, Keen Bow
d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Restless Feet)
HAZARDS
1. A pack of ruin jackals has taken up residence in
the south corner of Qinon palace. These lean and
agile predators prey on the dying Qan.
2. Most of Qinon remains a ruin of broken floors
and collapsing ceilings, waiting to trap anyone
who dares explore its secrets.
3. The fungus is particularly active in Qinon. Patrols
must burn away the fungus several times a night,
lest it overrun the palace again.
4. The ghosts of ancient Qan and Ozak, killed when
Qinon fell, still dwell in dusty corners of the ruins.
5. Two rival Qan come to die in Qinon. Their mutual
hatred is not forgotten, and they set their follow-
ers on each other. The feud soon consumes the
palace ruins.
6. The old Qan treat all others as their inferiors.
Returning their subtle – or overt – signs of disdain
however, is a certain way to invite violence.
Atai Monastery
Perhaps in response to the age of their enslavement,
when they were worked until death, the Ozak take old age
very seriously. Atai is one of several monasteries where
Ozak spend their last years, and it is the most elaborate
one by far. Built on the ruins of an ancient Qan city, Atai
is painted in bright colors. Small flags, flying in every hue
from the walls and deformed trees, tell the history of the
Ozak – black for the age of enslavement, purple for years
when the fungus spread particularly fast, yellow for years
of happiness and peace. Every color has its own meaning
and all Ozak are taught to read them.
HOOKS
1. Toktah, an elder Ozak, wishes to retire to Atai
Monastery, but he can’t shake the Qan following
him and daren’t lead them to the refuge. He asks
the characters to take care of the tail, landing
them smack in the middle of the interracial con-
flict.
2. Whenever a new Ozak takes up monastery vows,
she leaves behind the burdens of her life — literally
— by adding them to an odd construct made of old
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
pictures, never-used baby clothes, and broken prom-
ises. One morning though, the construct is gone. Did
scavengers steal it? Did the fungus subsume it? The
monastery seeks people to investigate the matter.
3. A Qan force, led by the warrior Burhi, has found
Atai monastery and is moving to attack. The
monks send out a call to anyone willing to defend
the monastery, or at least help evacuate. This plea
reaches the characters’ ears.
4. The monks have discovered a massive under-
ground complex underneath the monastery. The
maze-like halls are made of an unknown metal,
through which a soft hum is emitted. As this is far
beyond their ken, they discreetly send word to
one of the characters to come investigate.
5. Verdis, an elderly Zaiu, wishes to retire at an
Ozak monastery. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know
where any of them are. Can the characters get
him in contact with the Ozaks? What if the monks
don’t accept him, and Verdis is too old to make
the return trip?
6. An astrologer from Zodiac, Riman, claims he
discovered a repeating pattern in the flags.
Unfortunately, he can’t read their colors, so he
doesn’t know what the pattern means. He asks the
characters to find an Ozak willing to translate.
CHARACTERS
1. Ganbata, Ozak monk with an old body and
brilliant mind (Sharp as a Razor d12, Herbology
d10, Steady Hands d6; Resolve d8; Trouble:
Survived their Family)
2. Ghila, young Ozak learning their letters and flags
(Clever Enough d10, Good Family d8, Beginning
Sword d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Follies of Youth)
3. Labbakan, Qan prisoner with wounded pride
(Great Rider d10, Good with a Bow d8, Keen
Eye d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Reckless)
4. Meran, Red Martian from Battlehym and guest at
Atai (Steady Pace d10, True Believer d8, Survivor
d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Cannot Stop Preaching)
5. Enbish, Ozak of middle years and caretaker of
the monks (Hidden Sword Skill d10, Great Cook
d8, Swift Rider d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Loyal ‘til
the End)
6. Chamba, Ozak monk not yet ready to retire (True
Aim d10, Quiet Feet d8, Stick to the Shadows d6;
Resolve d6; Trouble: Mean)
HAZARDS
1. When steppe locusts, valued for their strong and
iridescent armor, run rampant, the insect plague
90
spreads beyond the gardens and into the beds
and mouths of monks.
2. Initially drawn by the yummoc herd kept by the
monastery, a steppe bear begins to prey on the
monks.
3. At the heart of Atai lies a crack in the earth from
which multicolored smoke rises. The fumes grant
powerful visions, but also carry a deadly toxin.
4. Small, quick birds are drawn to the monastery’s
colored flags. They are pretty and usually silent —
they sing when Deimos shines blue, and their song
drives the listener mad.
5. The Qan attack any monastery they can find,
killing all inhabitants. They claim this is their ven-
geance for the sack of Qinon. Now they attack
Atai.
6. The fumes rising at the monastery’s heart are the
breath of an ancient creature not native to Mars.
The monks unknowingly guard its resting place
and ensure its continued sleep with their daily
rituals.
Fibonacci Knot
Deep within the purple steppes, several fields of fungus
meet and melt together. As if exchanging information, the
clusters rebuild the dead and, sometimes, constructs and
memories lost to time. At the Fibonacci Knot, the fungus
curves in an unending spiral, mimicking the dawn of the
universe. The Fibonacci Knot is large enough to enter, and
enterprising scavengers have indeed done so. Inside, they
claim, the violet walls are shaped in reliefs that reveal the
history of the Qan and Ozak. Deeper inward, their history
is replaced with depictions of towering creatures and
ancient ships, though few make it back outside to tell these
tales.
HOOKS
1. Shadin, a Pale Martian scholar from Foresight,
believes the Fibonacci Knot was pulled from the
memories of the fungus’ earliest victims, and is
actually a replica of a lost Cydonian construct.
He hires the characters to escort him into the knot
while he conducts his research.
2. A gash in the side of the Knot yields entry, but
explorers haven’t discovered anything besides the
wall relief and occasional predator nesting within.
Notably, they never found the beginning or end
of the spiral either. Cuarto, a scholar from Vance,
wishes to investigate this spatial anomaly, and
hires the characters to aid him.
3. The fungus at the ancient Fibonacci Knot no
longer needs to rely on corpses to inhabit, but can
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
instead create figures of its own. These tall, face-
less biped creatures now seek to communicate
with the Qan and Ozak. But is this a first overture
to peace, or to demand complete surrender of
the steppes? The characters are present when the
creatures make themselves known.
4. While they travel Cimmeria, the characters find the
fungus encroaching on them nightly. Eking ever
closer, it leaves only one path open and this leads
the characters to the Fibonacci Knot. What force
is steering them there?
5. Ozak legends tell of an ancient creature that
carried a cochlea on its back. Believing the knot
to be the overgrown remains of such a creature,
Mazir, a Pale Martian from Foresight, has hired
the characters to cut into the Knot and bring the
pieces to him for investigation.
6. Once a year, the sky at the Knot colors purple
with tiny flecks of the fungus. A scientist from
Illium, named Saman, wishes to examine this
phenomenon. Calling on personal favors, she
has been granted a small skyship to travel to the
Knot, but the crew has declined to join her on
the ground. She hires the characters to serve as
bodyguards and research crew.
CHARACTERS
1. Sokhar, Qan thief lost on their way to the next
big heist (Light Fingers d10, Fencing Master d8,
Easy Smile d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Impossible
Dreams)
2. Jihan, Ozak scholar investigating a cure for the
fungus (Mycologist d10, Hidden Knife d8, Brave
Heart d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Long Way From
Home)
3. Wakar, Pale Martian historian specializing in lost
relics (Ancient History d10, Master of Trivia d8,
Good Aim d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Unconven-
tional Theories)
4. Zalin, Red Martian scavenger staying away from
the competition (Ambitious d10, Knows a Tavern
in Every Town d8, Clockwork Hand d6; Resolve
d8; Trouble: Bad at their Job)
5. Sooran, Pale Martian scholar from Foresight plan-
ning to map the Fibonacci Knot (Mathematical
Mind d10, Seasoned Traveler d8, Good Aim d6;
Resolve d6; Trouble: Single-Minded)
6. Junos, Roundhead and self-proclaimed ambassa-
dor to the fungal creatures (Flair for Languages
d10, Eye for Opportunity d8, Quick Shot d6;
Resolve d8; Trouble: Weak Psionics)
91
HAZARDS
1. A large galak, a six-legged reptile, has made her lair
inside the spiral. She’s laid eggs and defends them
fiercely, not to mention that her babies need to eat.
2. A storm rages across the steppes, with the Knot
and its mysteries offering the only refuge nearby.
3. The Riders of Baal, comprised of exiled Qan and
Ozak, claim the Knot as altar to their dark god.
Little is known of them, but all travelers fear the
dust storms that herald the Riders’ coming.
4. Scavengers claim that simulacra tomb stalkers,
created from fungus, wait for any who return from
exploring the inside of the Knot.
5. Unlike the main fields of fungus, the Knot’s spores
can infect living bodies, albeit only for a short
time. The infected travel outward, hoping to cross
the natural barriers of Cimmeria and spread the
fungus to new locations.
6. Young Qan come to the Knot as part of their
combat trials, and must challenge the first thing
they see to a duel. Usually, that thing is a fungal
creature, but not always.
Forest of Corpses
The western border of Cimmeria is marked by small and
stunted trees. These trees rely on the fungus for sustenance,
using their prehensile roots to snake around the violet creeper
and gather it in. Occasionally, corpse trees entwine a decom-
posing corpse or corpse stalker along with the fungus, giving
them their ominous name. The trees’ pollen is carried on the
ever-present Martian winds, and they produce purple fruits,
which cast a waxen light. Eating the fruit opens a person to
possession — and draws the disembodied like water does trav-
elers in the desert. The host retains her mind at the beginning
and end of the possession, as her body absorbs and expels the
fruit, allowing her to “speak” with the possessing ghost.
HOOKS
1. Darian, a corpse fruit harvester from Vance, hires
the characters to protect his workers as they make
their way between the corpse trees. The process
takes about a week, during which time the group
must contend with threats from fungus, the trees
themselves, the occasional ghost, and underpaid
workers.
2. A caravan merchant named Jamyin seeks pas-
sage through the corpse tree forest and into
Cimmeria. Repelled by the trees, she hires the
characters to burn and carve a way through. But
they discover the trees play a vital part in keeping
the violet creeper contained to Cimmeria.
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
3. After a year of particularly-virulent fungal spread,
both the Qan and Ozaks take refuge in the
corpse forest. They’ve already had several violent
clashes and neither side can afford another
bloodbath. They ask the characters to negotiate a
peace that designates the corpse forest as neutral
zone, without either of them losing face.
4. Legend has it all corpse trees are runners from an
ancient tree sitting at the center of the forest. The
grandmother tree yields a single fruit each year,
which grants the eater power over the dead. A
Roundhead named Gulis tasks the characters to
retrieve this fruit, while his rivals hire teams of their
own.
5. An Ozak with rotting flesh makes her way through
the corpse forest. She claims she is dead, body
and soul reanimated by consuming a corpse fruit
while she died. If she is telling the truth, this is a
powerful and valuable secret. But what if she is
yet alive, and her rot is a contagious disease?
6. Two Ozak brothers, Arshan and Mardas, hope
to contact the ghost of their father. They cannot
decide who should eat the fruit and who should
keep watch, for neither trusts the other. They seek
someone to eat the fruit and be a conduit for the
dead.
CHARACTERS
1. Nayan, Red Martian thief looking for corpse fruit
(Knows the Way d10, Great Stamina d8, Gun-
slinger d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Lost Love)
2. Kiyuk, Red Martian harvest master from Vance
(Big Body d10, Trade Empire d8, Keen Wit d6;
Resolve d8; Trouble: Easily Bored)
3. Tajin, Qan warrior lost in the forest of corpses
(Keen Sword d10, Traveled Far d8, Loyal Steed
d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Haunted)
4. Mungka, Ozak scholar seeking the secrets of the
corpse trees (Cunning Mind d10, Silver Tongue
d8, Quick Draw d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Untrust-
worthy)
5. Jina, Poppy Bride collecting corpse fruit for
a draught of deathless sleep (Alchemist d10,
Dreamer d8, Ambitious d6; Resolve d8; Trouble:
Enemies at Home)
6. Yalina, Wyeth orchard master looking for the
grandmother tree (Pomologist d10, Strong d8,
Daring d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Ill-Risked Plans)
HAZARDS
1. While the corpse trees cannot feed on the living,
their prehensile roots gather the weak and sleep-
ing alike in a deadly embrace.
92
2. The fungus at the forest’s edge is extra thick and
heavy, allowing it to cover and suffocate the living
while they sleep.
3. Ghosts are drawn to the corpse fruit, adding dan-
ger to any dust storms in the area.
4. Animosity between groups of corpse fruit har-
vesters has come to a fevered pitch, and unwary
travelers are caught between their blades.
5. Beware killing a Martian who has recently eaten
corpse fruit, for his ghost will haunt the murderer
in her sleep.
6. The wood of a corpse tree is cursed. Stories tell of
Martians wounded by a mere splinter, and dying
from unknown causes days later.
Coronal
A “sister-state” to the west of Vance, Coronal es-
tablished itself as an outlying supply hub by harvesting
building supplies and mineral deposits for Meridian’s
agriculture and infrastructure.
Modern Coronals live in either the valley or the
ancient city carved into the side of an active volcano.
The predominantly Red Martian population shares the
city with a colony of spiders that spin metallic webs. In
the night, the spiders set to work repairing any damage
done to the city during the day. This symbiotic relation-
ship has allowed Coronal to thrive despite the harsh
conditions that come with living on the side of a vol-
cano.
The spiders charged with maintaining the city’s
infrastructure are seemingly immune to the hazards of
Coronal. Their thick metallic webs keep them ground-
ed in the high winds. Able to withstand extreme tem-
peratures, they traverse the surface lava flows with ease.
On cooler days, the spiders can be seen warming them-
selves by the geyser and the hot springs south of the
city. Unlike the Red Martians, since being introduced
to Coronal the spiders have evolved to live in this cli-
mate.
Most Coronals spend their lives in relative pover-
ty, while cultivating and harvesting the land to provide
wealth for the Vancian elite. Uprisings ae common, and
in the wake of the most recent, the royal families have
increased the military presence in the city. The increase
in military personnel has displaced many, forcing them
to move out of the valley, where the first settlement
was established, into the steep ruins built into the side
of the volcano. The swift migration of middle- and
working-class citizens, displaced by the military, has led
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
to an increase in makeshift townships among the an-
cient structures. Temporary housing made of cloth and
stone, fastened in place by the spiders’ metallic webbing
has replaced the natural façade of the volcano.
While the citizens were crammed into stinking,
overfull camps at Almeida, the military found them-
selves with rather pleasant accommodations. With the
open lava flow to the East and the geyser fields to the
south, the valley lying to the northwest is the most vul-
nerable point for an attack. In the mornings, a breeze
brings a fine mist across the valley as cool air condenses
the steam from the active lava flow. In the afternoons,
the heat of the day is swept away by the same breeze.
The morning mist allows vegetation to take root across
the valley, limiting the arid dust and keeping the popu-
lation of ghosts to a manageable amount.
With the recent mass relocation, old feuds have re-
ignited in the cramped quarters of Almeida. While the
older generation turns its hostility inward, the younger
generation is focused on the outside forces that drove
the Coronals into the ancient settlement and out of the
city center. The political climate and living conditions
create an explosive environment in the already-tumul-
tuous community. The families who once brokered
peace among the two settlements are now vying for
control of Almeida. As more lavish military quarters
and cramped makeshift villages are built, the hostility
between the city and the state increases.
Locations
Xeta Geyser
The Xeta Geyser south of the city of Coronal goes
off every 15 minutes. In ancient times, the geyser was a
beacon in the desert, guiding weary travelers to the city.
Those who came from the east were thwarted by the lava
flow, but those who approached from the west would find
sanctuary in the valley. The spiders, originally stowaways
with those first settlers, found the climate hospitable. They
would scurry to the geyser between eruptions and build
webs to capture the water, funneling it away from the
explosive mouth of the geyser down the mountain, where it
would cool and pool in a metallic, spider-web bowl down
the hill. The open water vessel attracted insects, which the
spiders feasted upon.
The Martians adapted this instinctual water collection
system and trained the spiders to build upon command.
After centuries of manipulation and maintenance, the
metallic web now spans the length of the geyser, stretching
93
fifty feet high. A large metal bubble, glistening in the sun,
consumes the head of the geyser, funneling every drop of
water into intricate metallic waterways that feed the city
and the farm system.
Before the clean water travels to the city, it goes
through a treatment facility at the geyser, separating the
sediment from the liquid, and collecting the excess heat and
kinetic energy to power the turbines in the plant. 90 percent
of the resulting sediment is separated into mineral compo-
nents that are packaged and sent out to the other districts
as an agricultural product. The remaining 10 percent is put
back into the water as it exits the plant, to feed Coronal’s
farms to the south, using the soil to extract the remaining
sediment before passing the filtered water to the city.
With the increased military presence in the city, a
secondary water system was ordered and installed, which
redirects 40 percent of the clean water directly to the valley.
Although there has been a 40-percent reduction in water to
the main pipeline, the sediment amounts remain the same,
causing clogs along the pipeline. Services to the farms and
the village on the north face of the volcano have been inter-
rupted as the spiders attempt to clear the clog system.
When asked why they could not simply decrease the
amount of sediment put back into the system, the royal
families stated that the sudden increase in mineral output
from Coronal would decrease the value of the export and
could potentially lead to a mineral shortage later, according
to the royal ecologist.
HOOKS
1. The workers at the water treatment plant have
threatened to strike, unless the royals increase the
percentage of sediment being exported.
2. A spider wrangler has been using the spiders to
build another pipeline to an undisclosed location,
stealing water and minerals from the main chan-
nel that feeds the city.
3. Fearful of a workers’ revolt, the military has in-
creased their presence at the plant. The six-person
security detail may be heavily armed, but they are
unfamiliar with the mechanics of the processing
plant.
4. Spiders are being redirected to maintain the
pipeline, leaving the maintenance crew on the
collection bubble understaffed.
5. Disgruntled citizens breached the treatment facility
and are trying to sabotage the military’s pipeline.
6. Sediment backed up the pipeline feeding the city,
and is flooding the treatment plant. Another gey-
ser burst is set to go off in 10 minutes, which will
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
send another rush of water into the plant, forcing
the water in the holding tank through the pipes.
CHARACTERS
1. Ferdinand Gaspar, Red Martian Foreman (Buy
and Sell Anyone d10, Poise d8, Flattery d6; Re-
solve d8; Trouble: Deceptive but Inept)
2. Yrahi Arujo, Zaiu Spider Wrangler (Spatially
Intelligent d10, Landscaping d8, Keeps Head
Down d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Doesn’t Respect
her Superiors)
3. Basurto, Red Martian Military Guard (Debonair
d10, Carousing d8, Trendy d6; Resolve d10;
Trouble: New to Coronal)
4. Bautista Ferro, Red Martian Geologist (Measured
d10, Antagonistic d8, Athletic d6; Resolve d8;
Trouble: Vocal Opponent of Royal Policy)
5. Leticia Cruz, Red Martian Military Guard (Knife in
the Dark d10, Silent Stalker of Prey d8, Provoking
Fights d6; Resolve d10; Combat 3 Strike/1 Parry;
Trouble: Always Looking for a Fight)
6. Maria Fonseca, Red Martian Rebel Leader (Self-
less d10, Political d8, Earnest d6; Resolve d10;
Trouble: Always in the Wrong Place at the Wrong
Time)
HAZARDS
1. The collection bubble is growing increasingly
unstable, due to decreased maintenance.
2. The water rushing from the geyser through
metallic tubes and collection chambers creates
a low-lying fog, obscuring the pipes filled with
boiling water.
3. Newly-deployed and heavily-armed military
guards do not understand the layout of the
factory. They frequently burn themselves on the
pipes and take out their frustrations on the factory
workers, or anyone unlucky enough to cross their
path.
4. Spiders with metallic webs become violent when
they feel mistreated.
5. The new military pipeline invaded the original
building. The new pipeline twists around the exist-
ing structure. Full of boiling water, the metal pipes
run along the ground and hover at head level in
the fog.
6. The increased humidity from the second pipeline
led to an infestation of toxic biota, which, if ingest-
ed, leaves the person in a hallucinogenic state.
94
Almeida
The once-historic ruins and stone houses of Coronal and
Almeida have blended into an uncomfortable concoction of
ancient stone housing, tent cities, and glistening metallic webs.
As the population of Almeida has tripled in the last year, the
strain of living on top of one another has destroyed the tenuous
peace between the people of the valley and the mountain.
The water- and waste-disposal systems are overbur-
dened. The waste tubes, that used to efficiently carry all
the waste in the city to the lava flow for disposal, are over-
run with debris and outgassing. The outgassing, which used
to ignite once a day, is now releasing every 10 minutes.
With scarce resources, the older generation is becoming
increasingly isolationist, segregating communities within
Almeida between the original inhabitants of the mountain
village and the “new” arrivals. Meanwhile, the younger
generation is focusing their frustration on the imposing
military force sent by the royals.
The younger generation of Red Martians seeks democ-
racy. They do not believe in the power of the class system,
and seek to advance and rule themselves. A rebellion is
growing within Almeida, and it seeks a means of redistrib-
uting the power back to the people of Coronal.
HOOKS
1. The old houses of Coronal are waging a war over
resources. Recruiting the disenfranchised, they en-
gage in street fights and duels to reclaim the lands
they feel are rightfully theirs.
2. Spider wranglers have smuggled in members of
the Royal Colony to build stronger infrastructure.
The old houses, rebels, and the military are seek-
ing to control the rogue spiders.
3. A young rebel is trying to recruit children to save
them from a life of crime for the old houses. As
the rebels see it, working for an old house is no
different from working for the royals.
4. Due to the increased sediment in the pipeline
feeding the city and the reduction in services,
Almeida’s water supply is dangerously low.
The intermittent service leads to street vendors
hoarding water and selling what was once a free
commodity.
5. The royals have learned about a growing rebel
threat. People are being detained and having
their homes searched by the military. The raids
are a nightly occurrence, as the city’s spider
population has decreased substantially in the last
year. Without the spiders, the city’s infrastructure
is falling into disrepair.
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
6. An old house faction has been using the military
raids to rob families in other parts of Almeida. With
the military police focused on executing the raids,
the rest of the city is left to their own devices.
CHARACTERS
1. Avo Mata, Red Martian Matriarch (Organization
and Materiel d10, Diplomatic Interpretation d8,
Maternal Manipulation d6; Resolve d8; Trouble:
Steady and Stubborn)
2. Ana Paredes, Red Martian Rebel Leader (Char-
ismatic Speaker d10, Veteran Campaigner d8,
Empathy d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Selfless Martyr
Syndrome)
3. Paulo Salazar, Red Martian Valley Patriarch
(Learning the Ropes d10, Egomaniacal d8,
Easily Underestimated d6; Resolve d10; Trouble:
Starved With Ambition)
4. Gomes, Red Martian Military Police Captain
(Knows Every Weapon d10, Interrogation d8,
Defend the City d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Suspects
all Lower-Class Citizens of Corruption)
5. Ladro Ferro, Red Martian Water Merchant
(Opportunistic Businessman d10, Salesman d8, A
Way with Spiders d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Using
Brother’s Position to Manipulate Market)
95
A market in Almeida.
6. Mateus Arujo, Retired Red Martian Spider Wran-
gler (Landscaping d10, Spatially Intelligent d8,
Tireless d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Over-Protective
Father)
HAZARDS
1. The increase in methane buildup in the waste
pipes creates a fire hazard throughout Almeida.
Poorly-constructed fabric dwellings are in constant
danger of catching fire.
2. Military police roam the village, ready to arrest
citizens for the slightest infractions.
3. Feral spiders have taken up residency in the vil-
lage. When threatened, they can become incred-
ibly violent and territorial. They are impervious
to fire and their metallic shells are very hard to
penetrate.
4. The old houses are demanding respect and loyal-
ty. The wars between the families have segregat-
ed the cramped quarters into safe zones, depen-
dent upon familial lines.
5. Water merchants have been gaining wealth and
hoarding other resources throughout the village.
The higher prices for goods has led to an increase
in crime and desperation amongst the population.
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
6. Surprise military raids turn the makeshift homes,
and sanctuaries from the ghosts and dust, into
a chaotic warzone. As people flee from their
homes, they also have to try to protect themselves
from being inhabited by the ghosts that arrive on
the evening wind from Anger.
Riberia Fogo
The banks along the open lava flow crumble and crash
into the molten river that borders Riberia Fogo. Yellow
and blue flames shoot through the ever-widening crevasse.
Black and green streaks throughout the liquid magma
reveal the remnants of the city’s waste management system.
An underground river of lava flows from the base of the
volcano out to the salt-laden ancient sea to the north of
Coronal, breaking through the ground a day’s walk east of
the city center. A skeleton crew guards the flow. Perched in
their watchtowers, the spider-web walls allow the wind to
sweep through the rooms, cooling the shelter and dispelling
the radiant heat from the lava flow below. The two guards
unlucky enough to be stationed at the watchtower are the
only official law enforcement in Riberia Fogo.
A treacherous journey across the eastern desert leads
to Vance. Only a desperate person would attempt such a
trek. But, in these times, desperation in Coronal is growing.
The two-person crew that guards the lava flow must watch
out for those few souls who try to cross the flow, or try to
abuse its power. A few people live in the surrounding area,
sustaining themselves by scavenging, hunting, and gathering
the few creatures and plants that can thrive in this environ-
ment.
Those who know how to desalinate the seawater have
been able to scrape out a living and trade amongst the
magma.
HOOKS
1. A group of scavengers is trying to break down the
watchtowers and collect the scrap metal. The two
guards are trapped inside.
2. A sandstorm brought ghosts from Vance across
the eastern desert, infecting one of the guards. A
homicidal ghost has taken control of the guard
and is hunting down anyone who tries to enter or
leave Riberia Fogo.
3. The last water desalination expert is infected
with a strange virus. The stores of fresh water are
running out. Without a way to filter the water, the
inhabitants of Riberia Fogo will perish.
4. A group of scavengers are building a boat to try
and sail around the boiling waters where lava
96
meets the sea. Each night they raid campgrounds
for supplies to build their boat.
5. A scavenger is making obsidian from lava collect-
ed from the open flow. They use the obsidian to
build and sell weapons to the highest bidder. They
have amassed a cache of weapons for an arms
deal with the rebels and Almeida gangs.
6. A rogue colony of spiders is trying to encase the
lava flow. The metallic bridge would allow people
to freely walk across the lava flow, with the right
heat protection.
CHARACTERS
1. Gelo, Red Martian Tower Guard (Patient d10,
Empathic d8, Dreamer d6; Resolve d6; Trouble:
Can Never Get Published)
2. Rios, Wyeth Water Magician (Upsell d10, Person-
al Histories of the Seas d8, Alchemist d6; Resolve
d8; Trouble: Irregularities On the Books)
3. Rosario, Red Martian Scavenger (Bone-Picker
d10, Exotic Herbologist d8, Petty Thief d6; Re-
solve d8; Trouble: Would Sell Her Mother for a
Jug of Water)
4. Joao, Morbid Red Martian Poet (Languishing
Beauty d10, Sepulchral Verses d8, Aristocratic
Gossip d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Romantically
Enthralled By Tragic Endings)
5. Luana, Red Martian Scavenger (Seen It All d10,
Frenetic Assassin d8, Philosopher d6; Resolve d8;
Trouble: Haunted by Ghosts of Those She’s Killed)
6. Thiago, Red Martian self-proclaimed speaker
with the dead (Dire Pronouncements d10, Knows
Everyone’s Story d8, Aura of Mystery d6; Resolve
d6; Trouble: Obsessed With “Last Requests”)
HAZARDS
1. Colony of feral spiders who build webbed bridg-
es over the lava in the night. The conductive metal
can incinerate nearby plant life.
2. A river of lava runs beneath the soft soil. A weary
traveler has to watch their step, or they could fall
through the brittle crust into the rushing magma.
3. Boiling sea water gives rise to creatures that can
thrive in the high temperatures and feast on the
nutrients in the cooling magma. Large sea crea-
tures with thick skins, razor-sharp teeth, and sweet
meat lurk offshore.
4. Scavengers raid camps in the night in search of
supplies and something, anything, to eat.
5. Life on the ground leaves travelers susceptible
to ghosts carried across the eastern desert from
Vance.
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
6. Minimal resources require trust and strong rela-
tionships with criminals for survival. The increased
military presence in Coronal has created a lucra-
tive industry for bounty hunters. The royals will
pay handsomely for the head of anyone selling or
buying goods from unregulated sources.
Vale
The city center. Vale (the Valley) is the cultural center
of Coronal. A fountain telling the history of Coronal desig-
nates the city square. The silver sculptures, maintained by
the spiders, glisten in the water. Lush greens sprawl across
the stone streets beneath the oppression of military boots.
The old houses and city service buildings have been trans-
formed into barracks and supply rooms, the architecture
indicative of the valley’s decadence.
Waste-disposal vents are intricately built into
metallic statues that line the streets. Flames burst from
a molded torch or out of the mouth of dragons. The
beautiful displays use the excess sewer gas to show-
case the upper-class prestige of the valley folk, in stark
contrast to the brutality of Almeida. Spiders, trained
to maintain the sculptures, swiftly repair the pipes if a
single strand is knocked out of place by the outgassing.
Even without a wrangler present, the spiders dutifully
tend to the sculpture gardens that line the streets, unlike
the feral spiders of Almeida, who returned to their baser
instincts.
HOOKS
1. Coronals who travel into Vale to tend to the needs
of the military find themselves underpaid and
facing increasing harassment and resentment from
the royals.
2. The noble residents allowed to remain in Vale
have become the target of harassment by the
rebels in Almeida.
3. Supplies, meant to be funneled into the city, have
been intercepted by scavengers on the road into
Vale, leading to food and fuel shortages, and
breeding hostility among the troops that have
been relocated to Coronal.
4. The local prince is more interested in finding a
princess than tending to the needs of his people.
The growing rebel threat and military unrest is be-
coming burdensome to a figurehead who doesn’t
care to make decisions.
5. Nurses at the health clinic have been smuggling
supplies to Almeida during their nightly commute.
The military police they enlisted to help them are
being court martialed.
97
6. The fountain at the center of town is beginning
to overflow and temporarily flood the square. A
strange fungus is starting to take root in the stone-
work.
CHARACTERS
1. Rei Barros, Red Martian Prince of Vale (Egomani-
acal d10, Aristocratic Upbringing d8, Romantic
d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Selfish Nobility)
2. Meira Barros, Red Martian Noble Nurse (Sexu-
ally Adventurous d10, Maternal d8, Cunning d6;
Resolve d8; Trouble: Rejects her Status as Heir to
the Throne)
3. Belo, Red Martian Military Police (Romantic d10;
Carnal Knowledge d8, Philosophical d6; Resolve
d8; Combat 2 Strike/1 Parry; Trouble: Lets the
Concept of Love Overrule Common Sense)
4. Droga, Red Martian Noble Drug Dealer
(Scrounges the Most Interesting Things d10, Inge-
nious d8, Hard to Kill d6; Resolve d6; Combat 2
Strike/1 Parry; Trouble: Aspirations to Rule Vale)
5. Aranha, Red Martian Master Spider Wrangler
(Master of Arachnids d10, Botany d8, Storyteller
d6; Resolve d8; Combat 2 Parry/2 Stunt; Trouble:
His Apprentices Keep Disappearing)
6. Vinicius Cruz, Red Martian Military General
(Funeral Preparations and Rites d10, Uncanny
Strength d8, Sensual d6; Resolve d8; Trouble:
Desire to be Nobility)
HAZARDS
1. A restless prince has recruited some of the military
to help advance his station. Armed with the best
weapons money can buy and a lack of self-re-
straint, he uses his personal garrison to harass
anyone he deems doesn’t belong in Vale.
2. Someone tried to clean the fungus around the
square, and placed bits of it over the gas line
exhaust pipes. When the fungus ignites, it fills
the square with smoke that makes anyone who
inhales it hallucinate.
3. Smugglers have been taking the new drug out
of Vale to Almeida, and the old houses are not
thrilled about the mind-altering substance. Enforc-
ers have been ordered to interrogate any strang-
ers and suspected dealers.
4. The flooding at the fountain is spreading to other
pressure releases in the water pipeline.
5. The infrastructure cannot keep up with the rapid in-
crease in population. The spiders, who are so attentive
to their task, become more hostile as the outgassing of
the waste system becomes more frequent.
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
6. Bored soldiers, looking for stimulation, turn to the
new street drug for entertainment. Armed and hal-
lucinating they run through the streets, defending
themselves against any perceived threats.
Foresight
What’s the earliest thing you can remember? Look
backward, and try to bring it out into the daylight. That’s
Foresight. A relentless search into the past, to hear the
words of the First Martians and walk in their footsteps. To
name the restless ghosts of Mars and tame them. Foresight
is as peaceful as any city populated by both Red and Pale
Martians can be, united as they are by a common need.
There are doctrinal differences, of course. Some
treasure ghosts as confidants, teachers, and a cache of as-
yet-untapped history. Some pity ghosts still trapped on
Mars, denied even the peace of death. Some care only
for the lives a ghost may destroy by stealing the body of
a living Martian. (Who can truly consent to give up the
sovereignty of their body?) But no one is indifferent to
them, because by mining the past, they hope to discov-
er Mars’ future. Common queries include what plan the
First Martians had for this world, whether they’ll come
back, and whether we can fix the damage they did.
The precariousness of their placement along the
inner ring of the impact crater precludes much of a mil-
itary presence, but it also dissuades would-be-warlords.
The Qans and the Ozak, who are within easy riding
distance, consider it far too dangerous to one’s soul to
be worth any spoils, no matter how rich. And any other
Martian unwise enough to ignore the constant threat
of possession will find themselves drawn there anyway.
Many Pale Martian astrologers and ghost eaters
spend a few years of service in the Hooded Sisters Pil-
grim Dormitories, but only Sister Esa and Brother Aki
are permanent residents. They are probably a bit mad.
Zaius priests frequently make pilgrimages to Foresight
to conduct certain services for those of their clan who
have died unexpectedly, or to confer with other priests
in the library of memory. A few more prosaically-mind-
ed Martians are more concerned with an unusual instal-
lation near the bottom of the crater. If you don’t mind a
little pressure sickness, or a few stretches of rope-assist-
ed climbing, you can find a massive city block of First
Martian machinery, designed to control the flow of a
canal (among other functions yet to be understood).
The only trouble is, the nearest canal is a several days’
ride to the east, and there’s no ravine under the crater
deep enough to carry a ship.
98
Locations
Hooded Sisters’
Pilgrim Dormitories
The Hooded Sisters accept any pilgrims engaged in
respectful study of Hell’s Basin, or the ghosts that emerge
from it. Most pilgrims stay only long enough to perform
such religious services as their faith requires, but there is
a small wing for long-term residents (Pale Martians may
spend a year or more studying in Foresight to complete
their spiritual education). Pilgrims have relatively free
rein within the grounds, and are expected to assume some
responsibility for their care. It’s too dry and dim for either
a garden or weeds that might choke it, but the lichen beds
need regular, careful tending (either harvesting or burning
out contaminated patches). And, of course, everything is
always dusty.
HOOKS
1. The lichen beds along the southern wall are
growing almost too fast to harvest, but the
pilgrims who eat the lichen have been reporting
strange side effects: voices, faces in the dust, and
a burning desire to find someone, whose name
they heard in a dream. The effect fades in a few
days, but travelers are sneaking back in — to eat
more and remember. One Zaiu priest discovered
that the man she’s been seeing in her dreams is
alive, in Anger, and she scraped up half the wall
filling a basket that will let her keep remember-
ing him.
2. Brother Aki shut himself in the Pale Martian chap-
el, seven days and nights ago. He still responds
when questioned, but won’t open the door, even
for Sister Esa. He says he’s on the verge of a
breakthrough in understanding the nature of
ghosts, and must stay close to the First Martian
artifacts they have been keeping in the sanctum’s
reliquary. Esa believes he’s failed to integrate an
old ghost, and is fighting for control over his body.
3. Özge has become increasingly secretive about
her research, and why it keeps taking her into the
honeycomb caverns just above the West Horn
Gate. Over time, sandstorms carved tunnels deep
into the stone, leaving a lattice of smooth tunnels
with papery-thin walls separating them. Now they
draw those punishing winds in, away from Fore-
sight, which gets a mist of dust and none of the
wind’s bite. Why would an academic regularly
forego what protection Foresight has to offer and
navigate that treacherous maze?
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
CHARACTERS
1. Sister Esa Who Goes With God, Pale Martian
Ecstatic (Eye for Detail d12, Knife Edge of Truth
d8, The People’s Flesh d6; Resolve d10; Trouble:
Put Away Worldly Things)
2. Ozge the Pale Martian Troublemaker (Paranatural
Academic d10, Ivory Tower Adept d8, Hungry for
Recognition d6; Resolve d12; Trouble: I’m Not a
Loner, You’re Just Awful)
3. Martina Three Towers Standing, Pale Martian (A
Lifetime’s Love of God d12, Everything Has a Sys-
tem d10, Ghost Speaker d8; Resolve d6; Trouble:
A Voice in a Dream)
HAZARDS
1. There’s a ghost eater lingering by the dormitory
gate, trying to bully pilgrims into letting him re-
move their ghosts. He’s already harassed at least
one dignitary, but he hasn’t been caught.
2. So close to the mouth of Mars, cautes grow to
tremendous size and, as they are siblings to Mars’
ghosts, the sisters have shown no interest in driv-
ing them off.
3. There’s an invasive colony of prismatic wasps
somewhere below the dormitory. Several attempts
have been made to destroy it, but the nests keep
returning. There must be another one somewhere
deeper in the cliffs.
Delphic Square
If you want a bespoke soul purgative brewed accord-
ing to your star sign, six offers to convert to religions that
are three weeks old, or a mediated conversation with your
choice of ancestor, come to Delphic Square. Foresight is a
city full of prophets and priests, cult leaders, and scientists,
and they all want a sympathetic audience. Naturally there
are conmen and grifters, but the most obvious don’t last
long. Annoy too many of the street preachers and you may
find that all the best corners are full tomorrow; play at
tarot too badly and your cards (or your fingers) might turn
up missing. The best games are the long ones, and in that
heady atmosphere, you may find your faith strengthening.
Perhaps you do need to personally banish 10,000 ghosts to
return Mars to its state of grace.
HOOKS
1. A schism is forming within the street-preacher
community. One of their number has made it into
a position of some little authority in local govern-
ment, and is using it to throw her weight around.
99
After getting her friends and co-religionists better
locations in the square, she’s started targeting po-
lice activity against cults she considers too young
to responsibly take on new followers. Several
young priests have been beaten or kicked out of
the square entirely. They, in turn, are recruiting
among the traditionally-disenfranchised ghost
eaters (whose work is so macabre they’re forced
to squat in the slaughterhouse district).
2. A new arrival, one who has sought no new fol-
lowers, nor joined another community, has been
building an effigy in the middle of the square.
Priests and astrologers alike have tried to tear it
down, but she’s been steadily building it despite
their interference for nearly a week. There’s a hol-
low inside just large enough for a Red Martian.
3. To rejuvenate an underused portion of Oleander
Alley, several shopkeepers were relocated into the
square while their buildings are demolished. The
street communities don’t want the additional com-
petition, the shopkeepers want their storefronts
back, and the contractors want to know who all
these bones belong to. From the moment the first
hammer hit the first wall, they’ve been tumbling
out clear down to the foundations, and they’re not
from any animal a Foresight citizen has ever seen.
CHARACTERS
1. Barteck, a Missionary of The Church of The Maid-
en’s Bounty, Pale Martian (To Bloom a Desert
d12, To Speak Her Name d10, Charm a Snake
from its Skin d8; Resolve d6; Trouble: Out of
Favor with City Council)
2. Talin the Silent, Pale Martian (Freedom in Work
d12, Raw and Bloody Edge of Faith d10, My
Body is a Choir d8; Resolve d6; Trouble: Shaken
Heart, Shaken Conviction)
3. Parvin, newly elevated by Deborah, Pale Martian
(Favorite of God and Woman d10, Peaceful
Voice in a Peaceful Body d8, Milk of Kindness
d6; Resolve d12; Trouble: Knowing Gentrificator)
HAZARDS
1. Arguments over the shape of the community
(between old and young cultists, shopkeepers and
street preachers, ghost eaters and priests, the po-
lice and everyone) are escalating to blows, and
spilling out into the street daily.
2. There’s a healthy aftermarket for ensuring that a
prophecy, once made, is fulfilled. Some providers
are freelance, listening around and following
anyone who looks displeased with their fortune
(in order to help it come true as soon as possible).
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION

Some work closely with one or more fortune

tellers, and collect a fixed percentage of
whatever they steal. The latter tend to be more
organized, the former more violent.
3. Anxious to return to their lives, some shop-
keepers have taken up hauling away the
bones that used to be their walls. Too long
carrying them, though, and they get pale and
sickly. Longer, and their bodies start to fail
entirely. It looks almost like radiation sickness.
Memory’s Last Rest
(The Library of Memory)
Recessed deep into the caverns of Foresight, pro-
tected even from some of the dust that coats the city, is
the Library of Memory. For as long as there has been a
Foresight, an elderly woman and a score of her person-
al assistants have recorded and dutifully maintained an
archive of every memory travelers offer her. The Archi-
vist is an excellent interviewer, and the library contains
hundreds of thousands of richly-recorded memories.
Good manners will get you a peek at the filing system
she uses to collect those memories, otherwise you’ll be
at the mercy of her shelving staff and what they think
you deserve to read.
HOOKS
1. There have been a number of attempted thefts
from the section of the library called “The Time
of Roses.” None have succeeded (the library’s
anti-theft deterrents are more formidable than
the scant staff might suggest), but it’s troubling
that multiple people have tried, and that all
the thefts have targeted a single subject.
2. The Archivist never answers to any other
name, but appears in heartbeats when she’s
mentioned or requested in low, soft tones. In
living memory, no other Foresight resident can
recall another Archivist holding her position,
and none of her assistants have even ex-
pressed a desire to fill her position when she
dies or retires. Who, or what, is she?
3. Travelers who have had their memories
recorded sometimes mention a blunting of
emotion that follows the experience. All of
the facts remain, but some of the weight and
meaning have gone. Yet, when you read their
accounts, you’re almost overcome by the pure
strength of feeling that permeates them.
The Archivist unveils
an ancient manuscript

100
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
CHARACTERS
1. The Archivist, Caretaker of the Past (The Right
Question d12, Servant of History d10, Living
Memory d8; Resolve d6; Trouble: Bound by Duty)
2. Deniz, Cautious Pale Martian Assistant (The Right
Answer d10, Handmaiden to Knowledge d8,
Love of The Word d6; Resolve d12; Trouble:
Church of Pure Reason)
3. Azad, Who is Nearly Ready to Publish, Pale Mar-
tian (Depth of Research d12, Way with Words
d10, A Brief History of Mars d8; Resolve d6;
Trouble: Loves the Sound of His Own Voice)
HAZARDS
1. Whoever is trying to steal texts from the library
isn’t succeeding, but they have the numbers to
keep trying despite the cost, and apparently no
fear of injury in the course of their theft attempts.
2. Reviewing a memory is more complex than read-
ing, though not quite the same as viewing, the
way an adept might project something into your
mind. The reader is subsumed, however briefly,
in someone else’s life, seeing and feeling all that
they felt and knew at that moment.
3. Access to the library is a privilege, and rowdy or
insufficiently-respectful guests may discover what
happens to would-be thieves.
Service Entrance to
the West Horn Gate Machine
Down the southern stairs, over deep crevasses strung
across with rope bridges and marked with cairns, so deep
the change in atmospheric pressure makes even seasoned
archaeologists ill, there’s a tall, narrow door set into the
basin wall. Roya Turhan was the first person to figure out
how to open it without blasting loose the whole hillside
and, honestly, one of few willing to risk ghosts and pressure
sickness on the strength of a damaged map and a telescope.
But Roya Turhan rode the canals before she was an engi-
neer; mortal danger in the depths of Mars is woven in the
fabric of her life. Together with her son Isaac and a series
of beleaguered assistants, she’s been exploring one of the
deepest First Martian installations ever discovered.
It extends at least a half a mile in every direction, and
her crew hasn’t found its borders yet. They’ve spent the last
six months carefully isolating blocks of machinery and ap-
plying power to them, and near as they’ve been able to tell,
it once regulated canal water, and filtered...something out
of it. But too much is broken or wholly unrecognizable, and
they’ve become convinced they are not alone in the tunnels.
101
There’s long, slow rustling, like scales through dead grass,
shallow gouges in the stonework underfoot, and also the
complete lack of so much as a wasp.
HOOKS
1. Something definitely lives in the machinery below
Foresight, though it has, as yet, not made itself
known to either the city in general or Roya’s
crew in specific. But while they haven’t found the
borders of this set of tunnels yet, no other mapped
canals or known First Martian installations go
anywhere near Hell’s Basin. So whatever it is, it’s
been there for a very long time.
2. There’s simply too much architecture to only be a
canal management system. Many of Mars’ canals
are mapped (after a fashion), and their control
panels are smaller than atmosphere processors.
They’re compact, ingenious in their design for a
system that complex. But there’s far more machin-
ery than they were expecting, more than they’ve
ever seen, and some of it is still quietly running,
drawing power from hand-thick cables drilled
straight into the stone around them, performing
unknown tasks.
3. Like all superstitious sailors, Roya has a theory.
There was a underground port here, a channel
through which all other canals passed, before
whatever struck Mars so hard it left a crater that
still pours out sand and ghosts. It was destroyed
so completely that no trace of it remains but this
block of relays, broken and sending the dan-
gerously erratic signals that make the canals so
treacherous today.
CHARACTERS
1. Roya Turhan, Pale Martian Head Engineer (To
Divine the Machine d12, Canal Captain’s Daugh-
ter d10, Gentler with Machines d6; Resolve d8;
Trouble: Longs for the Sea)
2. Isaac Turhan, Pale Martian Dedicated Son (I Can
Fix That d12, A Breadth of Understanding d10,
Poise in Peril d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: In the Shad-
ow of a Genius)
3. Étienne, Red Martian Mechanic of No Great
Fortune (Problem Solver d10, Mind for Maps d8,
Conflict Resolution in the Workplace d6; Resolve
d12; Trouble: Unluckiest Man on Mars)
HAZARDS
1. The few scales Étienne has discovered throughout
the mapped portions of the machine are pale and
as long as his outstretched hand. He’d really prefer
to never go back underground, but it’s a job undone,
and he remembers where each one was.
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
2. While no other creatures of any kind have made
themselves known, a dark fungus grows on some
of the deepest walls, and the clouds of spores
they release leave you dizzy and forgetful.
3. Blocks of the machinery whir to life periodically,
apparently without being touched by any mem-
bers of Roya’s dig. Are they being controlled from
elsewhere? Or is whatever is leaving those scales
more active while they are at base camp?
Illium
High on the Radium Plateau rises many-spired Illi-
um. Illium, city of learning and commerce…and of war.
Broad, well-paved streets thread their way throughout
the city, and the nights are lit by radium lamps. High,
white walls encircle the city, but do not rise as high as
the towered homes of the aristocracy.
Great machines pump water from the canal below the
plateau, through a labyrinth of caves whose layout is a close-
ly guarded secret. The caves also hide Illium’s wondrous
reclamation systems, which allow the people of the city to
live with an almost unheard-of abundance of water. In Illi-
um, there are fountains in every square, and baths in every
neighborhood. The University of Illium is widely considered
the greatest remaining seat of learning on Mars.
Yet, plentiful water is not the true wonder of Illium.
That honor belongs to the magnificent sky navy, 100
ships buoyed by a mysterious anti-gravity element. The
sky navy, docking at Illium’s highest towers and spread-
ing forth across all of Mars, gives Illium nearly unmatched
power in trade and war. Of the other city-states, only Illi-
um’s rival Zodiac possesses the secret of flight.
A term of two years’ service in the army or navy is
compulsory for citizens of Illium. Slaves may be eman-
cipated in exchange for military service, but must serve
until honorably discharged. Such discharges are usually
granted only for old age.
The dead are processed for their water, and then
laid to rest in the upper cave complexes. The mummies
of Illium figure heavily in the scare-stories other Mar-
tians tell their children.
The Princess Invincible and her Council of Judg-
ment rule Illium. The word of the Princess is law, and
disobedience is punishable by death in the Ray Cham-
ber. The people of Illium believe the Princess wise
beyond measure…for if they thought otherwise, they
might see that they live and die at the whim of an
all-powerful and unaccountable goddess.
102
Locations
The Fortress Invincible
The Fortress Invincible may be the most heavily-defend-
ed place on Mars. Here, in her shining palace that reaches
into the heavens, the Princess Invincible rules unequivocally.
In the Moon Chamber, her Council of Judgment decides
the fates of citizens and the shape of the city’s future. In the
Sun Chamber, the Princess mounts her silver throne and
dispenses wisdom to the people. In the Ray Chamber, those
who dare defy the Princess perish, disintegrated to ash in
the searing heat of a First Martian weapon of devastating
power. From its pier atop the Fortress’ highest spire, her own
personal skyship — Horizon’s Terror — scatters these ashes
on the wind over the city as a reminder to all. When Illium
goes to war, she draws her blade and takes to the sky with
her soldiers. The sight of her ship alone has been known to
send hardened troops scurrying to surrender.
HOOKS
1. One of the characters turns out to look nearly
identical to the Princess Invincible. They receive a
myriad of proposals and offers — everything from
impersonating the Princess for gain, to acting as
her official body double at boring society func-
tions, to posing with noble children for portraits.
2. The characters are called in by the Council of
Judgment, and ordered to provide testimony for a
crime they are meant to have witnessed. The only
problem is, they didn’t witness it. Is this all a misun-
derstanding, or has someone embroiled them in a
sticky situation on purpose?
3. While attending the Princess in the Sun Chamber,
the characters hear the plea of a family that lives
out on the Radium Plateau, asking for soldiers
to protect their village from roving bandits. The
Princess refuses and sends them away, giving no
reasons.
4. Someone the characters know is innocent is
arrested and dragged to the Fortress, destined for
the Ray Chamber. Do they dare intervene, risking
the same fate for themselves? Can they gather
enough evidence to convince the Council before
the deed is done?
5. The characters receive an offer: Go to the Sun
Chamber and copy down what the Princess says
into a specific book, word for word, in exchange
for payment. The offer is too generous to be on
the up-and-up, but the task seems so innocuous.
What’s so important about this book? Why hire
strangers to do such a small thing?
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
6. While exploring elsewhere in the city, the charac-
ters come across a door that should lead into a
storeroom, but instead leads into the Fortress’ ex-
tensive cellars. What treasures might such a place
hold in store, if they can avoid getting caught?
How did such a passage come to be?
CHARACTERS
1. Captain Kromis, Red Martian second-in-command
of Horizon’s Terror (Decorated Soldier d10, Right
Hand of Justice d8, Ships Are Better than People
d6; Resolve d8; Combat: 1 Strike/1 Parry/1
Stunt; Trouble: Criminal Past)
2. Vestai of Black Sand, Red Martian noble seeking
the Princess’ favor (Irresistible Good Looks d12,
Victory Is Worth Any Price d8, Fancy Footwork
d6; Resolve d8; Combat: 1 Strike/1 Stunt; Trou-
ble: Glory Hound)
3. Sebaste the August, Red Martian member of the
Council of Judgment (Brood of Many Scions d8,
Weighty Words d8, Smells a Rat d6; Resolve d12;
Trouble: Hard of Hearing)
4. Trif, Red Martian Sun Chamber petitioner (Impet-
uous Entrepreneur d10, If Wishes Were Horses
d8, Lights Up the Room d6; Resolve d6; Trouble:
Empty Purse)
103
The Princess Invincible presides in glory
over an execution in the Ray Chamber
5. Dinni, Skarrut Ray Chamber guard (Pole Sling
Master d10, Heart of Stone d8, Eyes of Steel d6;
Resolve d8; Combat: 1 Strike/ 1 Stunt; Trouble:
Gambling Habit)
6. Rhes, Red Martian Moon Chamber messenger
(Swift Feet d10, Sixth Child of a Noble House d8,
Fly on the Wall d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Sibling
Rivalry)
HAZARDS
1. When the Ray Chamber would create a martyr or
grant too quick a demise, the Princess Invincible
challenges the criminal to a duel to the death. No
one has ever defeated her.
2. The Sun Chamber is a battlefield of words, where
each question posed is an army’s advance and
each careful greeting a tactical maneuver.
3. Drunken beastmasters gossip about a vicious,
many-fanged beast with wings of enormous span
that lives beneath the Fortress, kept by the Princess
as a last resort against invasion or siege. (Aerial
Mobility d12, Toothy Maw d10, Doesn’t Take
Orders d6; Resolve d8; Combat: 2 Strike/1 Stunt)
4. Servants at the Fortress murmur that those who
wander where they shouldn’t come under a curse of
confusion, doomed to forget everything they knew.
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
5. Anyone who tries to stow away on Horizon’s
Terror must contend with the ship’s tenacious and
loyal crew. (1 per player; Strike Threshold: 4)
6. The wide plaza stretching out before the Fortress
gates is prime real estate for traders hawking
souvenirs and street fare with booming voices and
tantalizing deals. Beware, all who planned to
leave with any coin.
Sky Navy Port
The Pride of Illium, the Moonrise Fleet, the Living
Storm — all of Mars knows the city’s majestic sky navy by
these names, and many others besides. Its twin flagships,
Scythe of Phobos and Lance of Deimos, cut distinctive and
awe-inspiring figures against the sky. When the armada
comes home to roost, its ships dock atop the gleaming spires
of Sky Navy Port, a vast forest of towers, radium beacons,
and barracks. Its shipyard is guarded fiercely day and
night, protected by a high barricade and restricted to only
the most trusted personnel. The fixers and builders who
work on the sky navy’s ships are celebrities, and always
travel with assigned bodyguards lest their secrets fall into
foreign hands. The navy’s highest ranks are reserved for
those of aristocratic blood, and feuds break out over pro-
motions and medals given to rivals.
HOOKS
1. By chance, the characters stumble upon a
well-hidden group of dissidents among the navy’s
ranks who have grown disillusioned with the Prin-
cess Invincible’s omnipotent wisdom, and plan to
enlist like-minded souls to overthrow her.
2. The navy recruits volunteers for a mission to take
down infamous sky pirate and Illium deserter Cos-
malia Crimson. Once the characters join up, they
realize that details of the plan don’t fit together
quite right. Why would the navy need volunteers
to hunt pirates? What’s really going on?
3. An admiral gives a rousing speech, and the charac-
ters are part of a massive crowd assembled to hear
it. As they listen, they notice that the admiral speaks
oddly, as though hidden between the lines might
be an encoded message. Can they decipher it?
4. Reports of an approaching invasion force reache
the navy, and they mobilize for war. Citizens are
expected to participate, and many are rounded
up for emergency training at the port — including
at least one of the characters.
5. A prisoner from Illium’s last battle, kept for interro-
gation, escapes. The soldiers patrol the city relent-
lessly looking for the escapee, who approaches
the characters and begs for help.
104
6. The sky navy holds an auction for a newly-retired
ship. While attending, the characters discover that
a merchant consortium has rigged the outcome in
its favor and intends to sell the ship’s technology
to a foreign broker without the Princess’ permis-
sion…for an awful lot of money.
CHARACTERS
1. Novian, Red Martian illegitimate child of nobility
(Hardworking Young Soldier d10, Standard Issue
Blade d6, I Will Win a Title d6; Resolve d8; Com-
bat: 1 Strike/1 Parry; Trouble: Seeks Acceptance)
2. Volca (aka Qaysa), Red Martian Zodiac spy and
navy infiltrator (Hoarder of Secrets d10, Friend to
Birds d8, Crack Shot d6; Resolve d8; Combat: 1
Strike/1 Stunt; Trouble: Hidden Identity)
3. Vestai of a Thousand Lights, Red Martian naval
astrologer (Enigmatic Horoscope Reader d12,
Always on Course d10, Night Owl d6; Resolve
d8; Trouble: Incorrigible Dreamer)
4. Marchai of the Valiant Horn, Red Martian admi-
ral (Survived Ten Feuds d10, Voice of Command
d8, Mentor to All d8; Resolve d8; Trouble: Secret
Fatal Illness)
5. Kaesii, Red Martian naval shipwright (Anti-Gravity
Expert d10, Bon Vivant d8, Flock of Admirers d6;
Resolve d6; Trouble: Common-Blooded Narcissist)
6. Kismet, Red Martian soldier and ex-slave (Hears
Everything d12, Daring Maneuvers d8, Born in a
Far-Off Land d6; Resolve d8; Combat: 1 Strike/1
Stunt; Trouble: Wants Freedom and Peace)
HAZARDS
1. An accident at the shipyard causes the gravity in this
whole area of the city to fluctuate out of control.
2. One of the anti-gravity platforms that transports
passengers up and down the tall towers malfunc-
tions, leaving the characters stranded high above
the ground.
3. The sky navy has adopted the Princess’ dueling
traditions, but (usually) stops short of death. Insult-
ing a naval officer, even by accident, is grounds
for a challenge.
4. Reports say a disturbingly-large amount of
photonic sand has been stolen from the armory.
Whoever stole it could strike at any time.
5. An enthusiastic shipwright asks the characters to
help test an experimental weapon, but most of the
kinks have yet to be worked out.
6. A damaged ship on its way back to port is about
to crash — right into the square where the charac-
ters happen to be, along with dozens of others.
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
University of Illium
Would-be students travel from all over Mars to the
sprawling University of Illium, where if they prove them-
selves well enough (or they know the right people) they can
study with venerated scholars of all fields: science, astrology,
history, language, music, and even the secrets of the adepts.
A complex, towering fountain with many levels and radium
lights twinkling from within its waters graces the inner plaza.
The central spire stands like an anchor around which the
rest of the campus radiates in areologically-significant pat-
terns, with lofty sky bridges connecting the structures. The
spire was originally all there was to the university, one of the
first buildings of Illium. Over time, it expanded to embrace
the many Martians flocking to its learned halls. Today, it’s
one of the few places where one might see a Roundhead and
a Pale Martian sitting side by side — even if it’s only to see
who can impress the Master more.
HOOKS
1. The university clock tower has run continuously
since the founding of the city ages ago, chiming
the hours in perfect synchronization with the
world’s turning. Now it’s stopped. No one knows
why, but everyone knows that if it doesn’t chime
the swiftly-approaching hour, something terrible
will happen.
2. The abandoned tower on the west side of campus
is boarded up day and night, said to be the site
of monstrous crimes in the distant past. It’s been
empty as long as anyone can remember — but
the characters could swear they saw someone
peering down at them from the topmost window.
3. The university is holding a citywide competition
for musicians of all kinds to prove their performing
prowess. The winner is granted a significant sum
of money — and perhaps more importantly, a per-
sonal audience with the Princess Invincible herself.
4. A group of advanced students claims to have
discovered, through data collected and analyzed
over time, an ancient storm still writhing and thun-
dering, raining water into a faraway canyon on
the other side of the Radium Plateau. They need
someone to visit the place to confirm their find-
ings, and bring back samples.
5. The university guards catch an assassin trying to
kill one of Illium’s most renowned Masters. As
the characters witness the arrest, or perhaps the
intended punishment, one of them sees that the
assassin is someone from their past.
6. Only the top performers in each scholarly field
win invitations to the Floating Study, an anti-gravity
105
pavilion that takes students into the sky and away
from the city. What they learn there remains a
mystery, but some intrepid busybodies have dared
everyone they know to sneak in and find out.
CHARACTERS
1. Flint, Red Martian university servant (Reformed
Thief d8, Entrance Exam Junkie d6, Cheating Is
Wrong d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Not Very Bright)
2. Master Lipita, Roundhead scholar of antiquities
(Undisputed Cydonian Expert d12, Valuable
Pottery Collection d8, Polyglot d6; Resolve d8;
Trouble: Despises Students and Strangers)
3. Headmaster Marchai of Nebulae, Red Martian
university leader (Pleasantly Cunning d12, Master
of Commerce d10, Let’s Make a Deal d8; Resolve
d8; Trouble: Overprotective Parent)
4. Rubica, Red Martian university student (Library
Addict d8, Secret Stash of Relics d8, Problem
Solver d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Two Left Feet)
5. Rezzan, Pale Martian university student (Knows
Sacrifices to Every God d10, Fits in Everywhere
d8, High Fashion d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Tempt-
ed by Criminal Offers)
6. Theonin, Red Martian university student (Child of
a Vestai d10, Money Enough for Anything d8,
Tall but Meek d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Disastrous-
ly Untalented Adept)
HAZARDS
1. Two rival Masters recruit volunteers for their re-
search, performing increasingly strange and unset-
tling experiments. Eventually, they turn dangerous.
2. Hordes of large rodents called radium rats haunt
the university’s alleys. Their eyes glow a dull
crimson, their teeth are sharp, and they spread a
radiation sickness.
3. Students notice a bizarre shift in behavior and
habits in their favorite Master, and they suspect
he’s been replaced by someone — or something —
else.
4. The university claims to have one library, but in
fact it has two. The second is sealed and hidden
away, a prison that holds a powerful and danger-
ous adept.
5. Everyone loves the new Master. Even people who
just yesterday expressed the opposite. Soon, the
few people on campus who don’t love the new
Master know something’s wrong.
6. A student from Zodiac enrolls with the Headmas-
ter’s blessing. The Illium natives don’t trust or care
for this turn of events, and soon things get ugly.
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
Plateau Caves
Beneath the city, another world stretches its fingers
deep into the earth. Far from the clash of blades and chat-
ter of markets is a subtler noise: the distant, muted rush of
water gilding the silence of the tomb. Catacombs line the
upper cave system for miles, where the husk-dry, mummi-
fied corpses of Illium’s dead are interred after their water
is removed and returned to the reclamation systems for pro-
cessing. Those with money or prestige enough are buried in
ornate caskets with the weapons and tools they wielded in
life, while others are simply lined up in plain stone boxes or
even wrapped only in oilcloths, if stone is too rich for their
family’s blood. Deeper still than Illium’s necropolis runs the
elaborate network of pipes, pumps, and reclamation ma-
chines that connect the canal below to the city above and
transform the fluids of the dead into clean, usable water.
A spare few know how to navigate these caves, and even
fewer know how to operate the machines.
HOOKS
1. Somewhere inside the catacombs is a door that
only seldom exists. Its surface is carved with un-
recognizable runes and it vanishes unpredictably,
only to return with equal capriciousness. Where
does it lead? When it’s gone, where does it go?
And what happens if someone is inside when it
disappears?
2. A trader from Vance persuades the characters to
make their way down into the caves and study
one of the reclamation machines. She calls it
a “cultural exchange,” and promises they’ll be
rewarded handsomely for a thorough report.
3. The characters purchase a rare and extravagant
weapon, only to discover that the salesman was
a fence pawning off stolen grave goods from the
tomb of an influential Illian family. The family is
well-known for its sorcerous ties and the charac-
ters soon realize that the weapon is cursed.
CHARACTERS
1. Mystras, Red Martian catacomb tour guide (Illium
History Buff d10, Unafraid of the Dark d8, Trusty
Dagger d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Morbid Curiosi-
ty)
2. Kaniklai of Three Circles, Red Martian adept
(Deadspeaker d12, Renowned Mystic d8, Loyal
Pet Eora d6; Resolve d10; Trouble: Blind)
3. Oea, Red Martian reclamation system engineer
(Clever and Resourceful d10, Down to Mars d8,
Tough and Muscular d6; Resolve d8; Trouble:
Blunt Speech)
106
HAZARDS
1. One area of the cave system doesn’t function
within the normal three spatial dimensions. Tunnels
don’t lead where they should, and objects (or
people) tossed down a hole fall back down from
above.
2. In the dark of the catacombs, people have been
known to vanish without a trace, and some others
say they hear the footsteps of the walking dead
just like in the children’s tales.
3. It’s easy to get lost under the city without a map,
and maps are notoriously difficult to come by.
Siren
East of Anger, south of Honor, and North of the
Temple of the Poppy Brides, lies Siren. This waystation
protects the rest of the world from the Temple of the
Poppy Brides, and the Brides from the rest of the world.
Siren is a city wrought with traditions and people of
fortitude and merit. The life of a Sireni is difficult and
structured.
The scarcity of resources have made the Sireni very
protective of their lands and supplies. The ornate veils
worn by the women in Nadamban showcase the need
for protection and the aristocracy of the royal family
dwelling in the subterranean Crystal Palace. Steeped
in traditions, in Siren survival is paramount. Full-body
regalia made of thick, heavy fabric worn in Voshi by
the Sireni is as pragmatic as it is a cultural artifact. The
warm, heavy wrappings protect them from the sun, win-
ter chill, and incessant sandstorm. Juxtaposing these
traditional garments is the freedom and haphazard na-
ture of the Sireni in Himk.
The labyrinthine land above the Crystal Palace is
inhabited by nomadic outcasts, who turn against the
traditional fear of ghosts and the need to protect them-
selves against possession. The nomadic people of the
Himk sustain off the land and the travelers unfortu-
nate enough to lose themselves to the land. People who
would be labeled thieves, murderers, or charlatans in
other cities are considered ingenious or savvy in Himk.
Siren is a matriarchal society. The Queen of Siren
is host to all the past Sireni queens and is the keeper of
the historical record of Siren. In Nadamban, purity of
spirit is valued above class or station. Where nobility is
a fixed commodity in other kingdoms, the Sireni prin-
cess is free to choose any man who is pure of spirit and
make him the future king of Siren, regardless of birth.
The early passing of the King of Siren has left a cultural
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
void that the Sireni hope to fill in the near future as the
princess reaches a suitable marrying age.
Locations
Nadamban
Beneath the city of Siren lies a network of crystal
caves, Nadamban. The opaque walls allow light to trav-
el through the pathways, refracting against the crys-
tal walls, casting rainbows along the tunnels. Strong
winds blow through the chambers; the crystal vibrates
and sings. The Sireni use these songs to find their way
through Nadamban from the Crystal Palace to the
Temple of the Poppy Brides.
The northern winds that sweep through Nadam-
ban carry ghosts from surrounding kingdoms. To pro-
tect themselves, Sireni women wear ornate veils, and
the men protect their faces with thick handkerchiefs
knotted at the base of their skulls. Ghosts are highly
revered in Sireni culture. When a loved one passes on,
their ghost is taken in by their closest relative, so that
traditions and memories can be handed down through
the generations.
Foreign ghosts are feared by the Sireni, as their
memories may be absorbed and replace the ancestral
line. The Queen of Siren is heavily guarded, as she
carries all of the ghosts of previous Sireni Queens.
Her daughter, Maral, will carry this burden when her
mother passes. Her guards accompany her wherever she
goes, even within the Crystal Palace. When she comes
of age, Maral will be married to a suitor of her mother’s
choosing. The Sireni man who will become the king
must be free of foreign ghosts and prepared to invite
the ghosts of past kings into his body, as part of the
marriage ceremony.
Maral’s father passed away when she was 10. His
ghosts are stored in a crystal vial by an ancient order
of guardians, the Pashtpan. In this matriarchal society
the king is merely a figurehead. However, if one of the
other families were to obtain the ghosts of the Sireni
kings the results would be catastrophic. The kings have
a vast knowledge of Sireni holdings, secrets, and infra-
structure. This information would leave the Sireni vul-
nerable to attacks or blackmail by the other royals.
During rare rainstorms, Nadamban bristles to life. The
rushing water, percussive against the crystal walls, trickles
and funnels into water storage tanks built into the caves.
Sireni men and women line the tunnels with crystal sheets,
107
redirecting water to the storage caverns, to protect their
homes and businesses from flooding and replenish their
stores. Fearful of foreign ghosts, swept through the tunnels
before a rainstorm, the Sireni meticulously maintain the
crystal caves, removing all dust particles from the walls and
floors, to keep the water from being contaminated.
HOOKS
1. A weary traveler, coated in dust from lands
unknown, enters the caves trying to escape a
flash flood. His body is swept through the tunnels,
water rushing behind him and down through the
small cracks in the crystal to the water storage
tanks. Search the body and determine if the reser-
voir has been contaminated.
2. A visitor from the Zodiac’s Red Martian court has
been found searching for the kings’ ghosts.
3. Maral’s 16th birthday is quickly approaching,
and the Queen has demanded her daughter start
courting Sireni men to find an appropriate suitor.
4. The princess Maral is found with one of her hand-
maidens, not wearing her protective veil. There is
concern that she may be contaminated.
5. Several members of the royal court have recently
gone missing. They were last seen near Princess
Maral’s chambers.
6. A member of the Pashtpan abandoned his post,
guarding the kings’ ghosts. His veil is discovered
in the chamber near a broken vial.
CHARACTERS
1. Maral, Red Martian Princess of Siren (Poise d10,
Flattery d8, Empathetic d6; Resolve d8; Trouble:
Sheltered to the Point of Dependency)
2. Taguhi, Red Martian Queen of Siren (Historical
Knowledge d10, Keeper of Secrets d8, Political
Savvy d6; Resolve d12; Trouble: Holds Traditions
Highest)
3. Anot, Red Martian Stranger (Flattery d10, Ca-
rousing d8, Hustler d6; Resolve d6; Combat 1
Parry/2 Stunt; Trouble: Wrong Place Wrong Time)
4. Tarim, Pashtpan Loyal (Political d10, Spatially In-
telligent d8, Loyal d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Blindly
Follows)
5. Vartan, Pashtpan Betrayer (Knife in the Dark d10,
Keeper of Secrets d8, Ambitious d6; Resolve d6;
Combat 1 Strike/1 Stunt; Trouble: Always Looking
to Advance)
6. Anush, Handmaid (Selfless d10, Romantic d8,
Earnest d6; Resolve d10; Trouble: In Love with the
Princess)
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
HAZARDS
1. The queen is irrationally afraid of strangers. If she
perceives a threat, she will lock down the king-
dom.
2. The water system is not prepared to handle flash
floods or the frequency of the winter rain.
3. The winds have been increasing in frequency and
intensity, making it more difficult to maintain the
dust in the tunnels.
4. A stranger is found pouring a vial of red sand in
the tunnels near the crystal palace.
5. The queen believes someone has been spying
on the princess. She has stationed three guards
(Combat 2 Strike/1 Parry) outside the princess’s
chambers.
6. The water tanks are full and lower levels of the
caverns are flooding. The chamber holding the
kings’ ghosts is in a secret cavern near the flood-
ing.
Himk
The city on the ground, Himk, controls the gateway to
Nadamban. Strangers could wander the badlands for years
and never stumble upon the entrance to the crystal caves.
Circular trails wind travelers back to the beginning of a
labyrinth built of sand and stone. Straying from the path
usually results in one of three outcomes: a return to the
beginning, restless wandering, or death.
Weary travelers have established tent cities near caves
and at the base of the mountains. The few who call Himk
their home trade in wares and supplies, scavenging the
lands, and profit off the travelers who lose their way to the
Temple of the Poppy Brides or the Crystal Palace. A few
locals work as guides that can be rented out for a steep
price to those capable of paying their hefty fees.
Himk is home to several indigenous flora and fauna.
The creatures have evolved to survive in the arid and
windy desert climate, burrowing in the sand to escape the
heat of the day and the blistering cold of winter nights.
Straying from the road can end with a dinner invitation
from a spider colony. Quick travelers may find spiders a
delicacy, but most are discovered by other scavengers in the
morning.
When the winds are still and the sun is low, Himk
provides wonderful vistas overlooking the lands south of
Arcadia and west of Anger. The strong winds bring ghosts
from every kingdom. Unlike the Sireni of Nadamban, the
people in Himk revel in the experience of being inhabited by
ghosts from strange lands. Taking in a new ghost is like tak-
108
ing a vacation from their lives, and escaping the hardships
for a moment of adventure.
HOOKS
1. A new guide is providing tours to Nadamban, but
his first three parties have never been seen again.
2. Strangers have been flocking to Himk, clogging
the roads trying to find their way to the Temple of
the Poppy Brides. The merchants on the road have
a surplus of goods and fresh meat.
3. A royal caravan has come to Himk and is looking
for supplies and a guide to the Crystal Palace.
4. A new drug has found its way to Himk. A fungus
that causes severe hallucinations is being mixed
with dust containing ghosts.
5. Two merchants are fighting over a territory where
travelers have been known to veer off the main
path, leading them back to the beginning of the
labyrinth.
6. Colonies of spiders are moving out of the desert
into the settlements along the road.
CHARACTERS
1. Aram, Red Martian Merchant (Organization and
Materiel d10, Diplomatic Interpretation d8, Mar-
ket Manipulation d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Losing
Suppliers)
2. Sard, Red Martian Spider Chef (Culinary Exper-
tise d10, Expert Trapper d8, Empathy d6; Resolve
d6; Trouble: Respects His Ingredients More Than
His Customers)
3. Voski, Red Martian Scavenger (Learning the Ropes
d10, Egomaniacal d8, Easily Underestimated d6;
Resolve d4; Trouble: Starved With Ambition
4. Han, Red Martian Guide (Knows Every Weap-
on d10, Interrogation d8, Defend the City d6;
Resolve d6; Trouble: Favors the Highest Bidder)
5. Vorsord, Red Martian Retired Spider Wrangler
(Opportunistic Businessman d8, Salesman d8,
A Way with Spiders d6; Resolve d4; Trouble:
Addicted to Fungi Ghosts)
6. Katar, Red Martian Prince of Himk (Landscaping
d10, Historical Knowledge d8, Aristocratic d6;
Resolve d4; Trouble: Not Really a Prince)
HAZARDS
1. Hallucinating drug addicts possessed by murder-
ous ghosts.
2. Scavengers that would just as easily take your life
as your wallet.
3. Feral spiders are moving into the cities in droves.
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
4. Foreign ghosts do not know the routes in and out
of Himk.
5. Don’t ask about the meat.
6. Circular labyrinth populated by thieves, murder-
ers, and spiders.
Voshi
The city that borders Honor, Voshi, is protected by
an eternal sandstorm. The Sireni who live in Voshi wear
garments that cover their bodies from head to toe to protect
themselves from the blistering sands and the ghosts that howl
within. The wall of sand circulating in the valley between
Honor and Voshi has forced the people to settle underground,
as strong winds make it too difficult to build on the surface.
Dwelling sacks driven deep into the soft clay are
inflated from the surface and connected to one another via
narrow tunnels. Underground springs provide water for
the city. Food is grown on the bluff overlooking the valley.
Farmers rappel down the cliff with food and supplies for
the city. Working in three-day shifts, the workers climb the
sheer rock face with empty baskets and return with them
full of grains and fruits harvested from the ancient trees
and plants that grow on the bluff.
109
During rainstorms the cliff becomes a waterfall, and
farmers on the bluff are forced to seek refuge in the work-
ers’ caves until the cliff is dry enough to return to Voshi.
Beneath the sleeping chambers are food- and water-storage
pods, used to safeguard the city against starvation in the
rainy season.
HOOKS
1. Persistent rains have forced the farmers to stay on
the bluff, and food stores are running low.
2. A group of refugees have traveled through the
sandstorm wall to Voshi. These strangers seem to
be under some kind of trance.
3. The bluff has been spewing water into the
valley, threatening to flood the underground
city. The water level is rising in the underground
springs.
4. Mining debris was carried into the sandstorm. The
shards of stone cut holes in the protective fabric
worn by the Sireni, leaving them susceptible to the
ghosts swirling in the storm.
5. One of the elders was recently infested by a
murderous ghost and is confined to their sleeping
chamber, as the waters rise and threaten to flood
the makeshift cell.
The people of Voshi, eager to
escape the weather.
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
6. A group of farmers is stranded on the cliff face, in
the middle of rappelling down from a harvest, as
a storm rolls in.
CHARACTERS
1. Levon, Red Martian Farmer (Patient d10, Em-
pathic d8, Poet d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Overly
Cautious)
2. Nerses, Red Martian Elder (Record Keeper d10,
Personal Histories of the Sand d8, Alchemist d6;
Resolve d6; Trouble: A Scholar, Not a Practi-
tioner)
3. Hish, Pale Martian Medicine Man (Bone-Picker
d10, Charismatic d8, Exotic Botanist d6; Resolve
d8; Trouble: Better Showman than a Shaman)
4. Sirvard, Pale Martian Stranger (Languishing Beau-
ty d10, Sepulchral Verses d8, Gossip d6; Resolve
d6; Trouble: Romantically Enthralled with Tragic
Endings)
5. Hrod, Possessed Red Martian Elder (Seen It All
d10, Murderous Rampage d8, Philosopher d6;
Resolve d8; Trouble: Haunted by Ghosts of Those
She’s Killed)
6. Siranush, Red Martian Village Matriarch (Dire
Pronouncements d10, Knows Everyone’s Story
d8, Aura of Mystery d6; Resolve d8; Trouble:
Obsessed With “Last Requests”)
HAZARDS
1. Voshi sandstorms force travelers to seek refuge in
the underground cities, where bandits exploit the
unlucky who cross their path.
2. A heavy rainfall consumes the dry earth in a flash
flood. Travelers on the surface find themselves
between a wall of swirling sand and a wall of
rushing water.
3. Anyone wishing to escape the valley has to
traverse a sheer cliff face by following a centu-
ries-old climbing rope path.
4. Running low on supplies, the only way to gather
food requires a strong will, a stronger back, and
a vertical cliff to get to the farmlands on the ridge
above the valley.
5. An advantageous merchant has taken to renting
sleeping pods for the harvest. His high prices and
limited resources are breeding infighting amongst
the harvesters.
6. Angry ghosts trapped in the sandstorm fight to
escape the storm by hitching a ride inside of a
traveler.
110
Ferma
The farmland above Voshi is home to the oldest trees
in Siren. Ferma provides temporary housing for the farmers
in the valley during their three-day shifts. During the peak
harvest season, the farmland bustles with life as the num-
ber of harvesters doubles. The shortage of caves requires
the first shift to build a tent city for the additional workers.
The rest of the year, the tent supplies tuck into the caves,
providing additional bedding and warmth in the winter.
The prolific fruit trees and ancient grains have sup-
ported the people in Voshi for thousands of years. Without
the indigenous plants, life in the valley would cease to exist.
Over the last few decades, seeds carried on the wind from
foreign lands have settled into Ferma and threatened the
yearly crop. A growing population and dwindling food
source has increased the demand for cultivation and har-
vesters, a demand Ferma is struggling to meet.
HOOKS
1. One of the harvesters exceeded their quota. An
unripened fruit tree was harvested, destroying the
crop and diminishing the yield for the following
year.
2. In a heavy rain, fruit falls from the trees. Fruit
found on the ground is considered fair game; op-
portunistic harvesters fight one another to increase
their yield along the cliff.
3. Unseasonably-hot weather made the grains bolt
early, ruining the harvest. The grains are used to
feed the harvesters as they work Ferma. Without
the grain, the harvesters will need to find an al-
ternative source of food, or be forced to consume
their profits.
4. A strange plant has begun to grow among the
grains. Farmers who touch the weed with their
bare hands experience stomach pains and hallu-
cinations. One of the farmers, believes he had a
vision.
5. A man is found unconscious at the base of a tree,
with a fungus-covered piece of fruit in his hand. In
his pocket is a harvester quota book; the first three
pages are filled, but the man has no money or
crops with him, except the spoiled fruit.
6. Someone cut the ropes that lead from the cliff to
the valley floor. The harvesters have to find anoth-
er way down the sheer cliff face to deliver their
crops.
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
CHARACTERS
1. Ishkan, Red Martian Stranger (Egomaniacal d10,
Aristocratic Upbringing d8, Romantic d6; Resolve
d8; Trouble: Selfish Nobility)
2. Aghavni, Wyeth Camp Cook (Cleans Up Mi-
raculously d10, Master of Two Social Strata d8,
Structured d6; Resolve d10; Trouble: Needs to
Follow a Recipe)
3. Hogh, Red Martian Head Farmer (Romantic d10;
Botanical d8, Philosophical d6; Resolve d6; Trou-
ble: Fears Change)
4. Vora, Red Martian Novice Farmer (Book Smart
d10, Ingenious d8, Hard to Kill d6; Resolve d6;
Trouble: Hates Tradition)
5. Bahan, Red Martian Scavenger (Master of Arach-
nids d10, Tinkerer d8, Storyteller d6; Resolve d8;
Trouble: Haphazard Roguish Spirit)
6. Busaban, Zaiu Master Botanist (Apothecary d10,
Nostalgic d8, Traditional Healer d6; Resolve d8;
Trouble: Diminishing Physical Health)
HAZARDS
1. The sharp cliff face, imperceptible in the dark, has
been a quick end for many harvesters over the
years.
2. An invasive weed is making people fall ill and
hallucinate.
3. Scavengers strike in the night, stealing rations and
crops. Come morning, a harvester is missing.
4. Flash floods sweep farmers and harvesters over
the cliff into the valley below.
5. A generational war is raging between the elders,
who value tradition, and the Voshi youth, who
long to resettle in Ferma to live a simpler, peaceful,
and safer life outside of the valley. A young man
declares his intention to settle in Ferma; the next
morning his body is found at the base of the cliff.
6. After the young man’s body was found, someone
cut the ropes to the valley floor. A civil war is
brewing on the cliffs of Ferma.
Skarras
A great mountain once dominated this land, until
the Skarruts came. Carrying chisel and hammer, they
carved domes and spires, walls and bridges from the
mountain, until it yielded the greatest city since Arca-
dia: Skarras. Located perfectly for trade on the Martian
ocean, Skarras survived both the fall of the First Mar-
tians and the rise of the Cydonians. But then the waters
dried up, leaving only red dust and endless storms, and
111
the Skarruts, accustomed to thriving on trade, went into
debt. Its quick and adaptive people eventually learned
to make do, but not before Skarras’ debt was crippling.
Now, Skarrut children sell themselves as mercenaries
and their stone masonry, once famed, has come to a
grinding halt — in the dying days of Mars, more money
can be made from violence than from craftsmanship.
Skarras has long since fallen into disrepair. Most of
the underground rivers are as dust-swept as Mars’ sur-
face, but a few carry heavy brine water. Ruled by the
same mysterious forces as all of Mars’ rivers, the brine
water alternates between super-cooled — flash-freezing
anything it touches — and boiling. The plateaus of the
city itself have crumbled, the great domed harbor lies
dry, and the mighty towers have fallen. Entire swaths of
the city are no longer connected to the others, as bridg-
es leading to them lie broken. Only the towering walls
and famous stone cisterns, which ferry water from the
northern pole to Skarras’ web of underground canals, see
regular maintenance. Occasionally, a Skarrut leader pro-
poses to repair parts of the city. Very rarely, one proposes
delving deeper into the mountain-that-was in an attempt
to recapture the glory of the past. Mostly, though, the
Skarruts react with pragmatism, relocating inhabitants as
needed and sealing off the fallen areas. To live in ruins
while remembering greatness is the lot of Skarras.
Locations
The Plaza
The rings and plateaus of Skarras hold myriad market
squares, but ask for “the plaza” and a visitor is inevitably
directed to this one. The history of Skarras, carved by gen-
erations of masons into the plaza floor and buildings, lives
side by side with the modern era where market stalls bustle
with wares and trade. No doubt the highlight of the plaza is
the free-fighting Skarruts, whose movements flow like des-
ert sand and who take on challengers for a fee. Scarifica-
tion artists await their clientele with knife and nail, to etch
great deeds into their skin. This market is alive, a show of
what Skarras might yet be if it can rise above its debt.
HOOKS
1. Casmus, a free-fighting champion, is taking on
challengers and offers double money back to
anyone who can beat him. When one of the
characters does, the champion doesn’t have the
necessary chits, but he offers them a mysterious
amber gem instead. Rivets inside the amber sketch
a perfect map of the Labyrinth of Night.
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
2. Citizens go missing, and the trail of blood leads
to a small, unmarked building off the side of the
plaza. Here lies one of the entrances to Skarras
Mountain at the heart of the city, and caverns run
deep into the mountain’s core where dark things
reign.
3. Recognizing the skill of the Skarruts, the First
Martians proclaimed Skarras a sister to Arcadia
and a third, still-lost city far in the Martian Ocean.
The plaza is a massive portal to matching squares
in both broken Arcadia and the unnamed city. It’s
been dormant for years, but can be revived by
clever scavengers.
4. Rasul, a Red Martian thief, came to Skarras to
find a buyer for a piece of meteorite stolen from
a Yellow Silk. When a bounty hunter from Ziggur
spots him in the plaza, though, the thief quickly
discards of the stone — by slipping it into one of
the characters’ pockets.
5. The Kimmun mercenary company has found an
ancient, undetonated weapon in the Prismatic
Wastes. They’ve come to recruit Skarruts to guard
the dig site, and anyone good with a sword is wel-
come to sign up. What do the characters make of
this excavation of a First Martian weapon?
6. Bookkeepers offer great odds on fights, enticing
veterans and new travelers alike. When one of
the characters loses a shoo-in, the helpful book-
keeper, Otay, proposes to erase their debt if they
transport a small package to “a friend” in Vance.
CHARACTERS
1. Dagan, young Skarrut stone mason following a
dream (Skilled Hands d10, Patient d8, Lost Caus-
es d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Living in the Past)
2. Usilli, old Skarrut stone carver specializing in
weapons (Tough as Nails d10, Stone Cutter d8,
Pole Slinger d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Crippled)
3. Relinku, Skarrut guide showing visitors the plaza
(Knows the Way d10, Amateur Historian d8,
Keen Eye d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Talks too
Much)
4. Kashir, Skarrut free-fighting champion (Martial Art-
ist d12, Bluster d8, Gauge Opponent d6; Resolve
d8; Combat: 1 Strike/1 Parry/1 Stunt; Trouble:
Big Mouth)
5. Ninsun, Skarrut guard watching the plaza (Keen
Eye d10, Slingshot d8, Stern Voice d6; Resolve
d6; Combat: 1 Strike/1 Stunt/1M/0P; Trouble:
Corrupt Boss)
6. Anbat, Skarrut pickpocket operating from the pla-
za (Swift Fingers d10; Easy Smile d8; Catch Me
First d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Loves a Challenge)
112
HAZARDS
1. When Deimos aligns with the amber star, discern-
ing ears hear ocean waves, and people dream
of the time Mars still had water. The water dream
brings risk of drowning though, and some never
awake from it.
2. When Skarras is closest to the sun, the plaza floor
becomes scorchingly hot.
3. A small earthquake creates cracks in the plaza
floor, and toxic saline gasses rise up from the
boiling brine river below.
4. Skarras’ state of disrepair finally sends a tower
near the plaza tumbling down. Every day is mar-
ket day at the plaza, leading to panicked masses
in addition to falling stones.
5. Scarification artists etch great deeds in a suppli-
cant’s skin, but beware to those who exaggerate,
for the artist will cut out the offending falsehood.
6. On blue-star nights, when violence is in the air
and the heat is unbearable, people disappear
without a trace. It is rumored to be the wrath of
the ancients.
The Shades
The top of this tower crumbled three generations ago,
smashing through the bridge below and causing a cascade.
Only the lowest bridge, the seventh, remains, and it is
precariously piled with debris. Families gather together at
the lowest plateau, near the bridge and its tentative connec-
tion to the main city. The shadows of the tower’s jagged
silhouette cast these survivors in perpetual twilight, giving
rise to the area’s name. As time passes, the Skarruts at the
center of the Shades become less and less like their civilized
cousins, while strange creatures rise up from the bedrock
below to hunt the remaining families.
HOOKS
1. Mezur, patriarch of a rich Skarrut family, is
offering a reward to anyone willing to brave the
Shades and evacuate his lost cousins. It’s a noble
sentiment, but do the cousins even want to come?
And what prompted the rescue effort after three
generations?
2. When a family of seven is brutally eviscerated, in-
habitants of the Shades approach the characters
to investigate. Rather than monsters, they find the
trail leads to another family living in the Shades.
Are they being set up, or did they really commit
this atrocity?
3. Gray-skinned mutants roam the Shades, though
they are never seen where light falls. The charac-
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
ters are tasked with tracking the grays’ lair and
killing them, but discover the grays are sapient,
and have a civilization of their own in Skarras
Mountain.
4. A deadly and highly-infectious disease has sprung
up in the Shades, prompting Skarras’ leadership
to quarantine the fallen tower. Mashem, a leader
from the Shades, soon sends word they’ve all
been cured. Is this genuine, or a ruse to lift the
quarantine? Then, one of the characters begins to
show symptoms.
5. People in the Shades are hungry. If someone
risks their life to gather eggs from the gull nests
perched atop the tower, they’ll be a hero forever
— or at least, until hunger rears its head again.
6. Isolation and incest are taking their toll on the
Shades, and the inhabitants of the tower’s re-
cesses become increasingly feral. These Skarrut,
who barely speak, can be recognized by their
tarnished scales and hunchbacked posture. Their
families work to keep them safe and hidden, but
the characters come across a nest of these mu-
tants.
CHARACTERS
1. Ahum, Skarrut Shades community leader (Reason-
able Demands d10, Eye to the Future d8, Stern
Reprimands d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Seen Better
Days)
2. Silili, Skarrut inhabitant of the Shades who wants
to stay (Scavenger d10, Can Cook Anything
d8, Sure Footing d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Sticky
Fingers)
3. Nurrtu, Skarrut inhabitant of the Shades who is
planning to leave (Knows a Guy d10, Amiable
d8, Easy Chits d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Always
Looking for the Next Big Thing)
4. Urbaru, Skarrut trading food to the Shades at
impossible prices (Business Sense d10, Show Off
d8, Money Flow d6; Resolve d6; Trouble; Bit of a
Sleaze)
5. Nanni, small-time Skarrut criminal scraping to get
by (Nimble Fingers d10, Quick and Slippery d8,
Surprisingly Likeable d6; Resolve d6; Trouble:
Bad Timing)
6. Muiko, Red Martian delivering charitable aid to
the Shades (Rich Family d10, Makes Friends Eas-
ily d8, Well-Connected d6; Resolve d6; Trouble:
No Sense of Danger)
HAZARDS
1. The Shades knows no law. Robbers, bounty
hunters, and outright murderers operate openly. In
113
response, the remaining citizens organized their
own vigilante groups.
2. The spirits of Skarruts killed in the collapse still
roam the Shades. They attack anyone on sight.
3. Sandskins, bipedal creatures made of rock and
dust, stalk the Shades. They crave flesh, for they
have none of their own.
4. Though the seventh bridge yet stands, debris,
vermin, and predators form their own danger to
those seeking to cross.
5. Parts of the Shades remain unstable to this day,
and sections of the tower collapse when explored.
6. Large gulls nest on the highest parts of the crum-
bled tower. They are violently territorial during
mating season, and have no qualms about attack-
ing Martians for food when rearing their young.
The Revolution Underground
Though its headquarters lie in the long-defunct harbor,
the Revolution Underground is more than a single location.
It is a thought, a sentiment, a call for action spread from
seedy bars to elite salons, and it’s slowly rising throughout
Skarras. Members of the revolution feel the Skarrut people
are unfairly chained by debt; their sires and grandsires
have toiled to work it off, as will their children and their
children’s children. “The enslavement of Skarras through
debt must stop,” say the revolutionaries, and if this goal
cannot be attained peacefully, they are ready to overthrow
their leadership and go to war for it.
HOOKS
1. Mistaken for a revolutionary group, the characters
are invited to a secret meeting in the harbor. Do
they go? What do they do when someone recog-
nizes they’re not who they should be?
2. Bijan, a revolutionary, hires the characters to
ferry a strange ore to the city-state of Surtur, but
they discover the material is intended to create a
high-impact bomb.
3. The characters are asked to deliver a message
to a shopkeeper named Kalesh, near the plaza.
Before they can, though, Kalesh is arrested for
being a member of the revolution. The characters
can give the missive to the Skarras authorities and
risk being detained, too, or decipher the coded
message for themselves.
4. The characters are approached by Kian, a Skarrut
enforcer, who informs them one of their close con-
tacts is a member of the revolution. The characters
are tasked to spy on her, or suffer the enforcers’
wrath.
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
5. If the characters seem sympathetic to the revolu-
tion, they are quickly called upon to use their skills
to procure funds for the cause. After all, preparing
for war is expensive.
6. The characters hear that the revolution is planning
to assassinate a Skarrut leader for bending to the
will of the creditors. The leader visits the plaza
every morning and this is where the attack takes
place, catching innocent bystanders in the crossfire.
CHARACTERS
1. Lombak, Red Martian ideologue who believes in
equality (Believer d10, Foot Soldier d8, Daring
d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Overly Zealous)
2. Entanna, Skarrut who came for love and stayed
for the revolution (Sex Appeal d10, Pretty Tough
d8, Basic Fighting Skills d6; Resolve d6; Trouble:
Revolutionary by Accident)
3. Puizu, Skarrut leader of revolution cell (Strategic
Thinker d10, Slingshot d8, For the Cause d6;
Resolve d8; Combat: 1 Stunt; Trouble: Won’t
Compromise)
4. Taribat, Red Martian shopkeeper running a front for
the revolution (Sales Pitch d10, Discreet d8, Bribe
Money d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Has Been Made)
5. Varian, Red Martian spy from Zodiac, hoping to
destabilize and weaken Skarras (Glib Tongue
d10, Expert Sword d8, Secret Connections d6;
Resolve d8; Trouble: Wants to Defect)
6. Nashan, Skarrut spy for the establishment (Fight-
ing Skills d10, Watchful Eye d8, Knows the Revo-
lution d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Distrusted)
HAZARDS
1. The Revolutionary Underground deliberately holds
its meetings in locations that are either closed to
the public, or carry enough criminal elements and
natural dangers to discourage prying eyes.
2. The revolution shares the harbor with a pack of
skulkers — large, cat-like creatures with a taste for
flesh.
3. The Garana Inn, where the Revolution frequently
meets, is full of pickpockets and thieves.
4. The idyllically-named “River Retreat” takes place
deep inside Skarras Mountain. The revolution
meets here to discuss its long-term plans, as long
as nearby lava rivers don’t rise to kill them all.
5. The spirit of a Skarrut killed in a revolution attack
is going through the revolutionary ranks, killing
them one by one.
6. Revolutionaries meet in ancient underground
canals, long fallen dry, but Gnarbur worms also
114
lair here. They are as large as a Martian, and
ravenous for meat (Gnarbur Worm: Burrow d10,
Pack Hunting d8, Paralyzing Venom d6; Resolve
d8; Combat: 1 Strike; Trouble: Always Hungry).
Sky Fields
A little to the southeast of Skarras, cloaked by the
presence of hostile Cimmeria, lies Sky Fields. Gravity is
weak here, and massive boulders hang in the air while flying
reptiles, too fat to normally remain aloft, make their way
between. Sky Fields would be an incomparable resource for
the Skarruts — if they could only capitalize it. Skarras lacks
the funds and expertise to properly harness the forces active
in Sky Fields, nor can they be overt in their exploration of it,
for fear of drawing attention from their powerful and greedy
neighbors. As it is, the path to Skarras’ renewed greatness
lies right within their reach, yet far beyond their grasp.
HOOKS
1. Small groups of Skarruts have formed villages on
the largest floating boulders. These townsteads,
far away from politics and war, offer a perfect
refuge for characters needing to lie low.
2. The characters are invited on a Skarrut expedition
to investigate Sky Fields. When removed from the
Fields, both rocks and floating creatures are as
beholden to gravity as anything else on Mars. The
secret to Sky Fields lies neither in its ore, nor in the
natural capabilities of its fauna.
3. The characters are invited to razok harvesting
day! While young daredevils distract the parent
razoks, other daredevils steal their eggs so the
chicks may be hand-reared to yield slightly less
vicious razoks, suitable for riding.
4. Herds of gallum float through Sky Fields. These
large, fat herbivores aren’t aggressive, but their
bulk makes them dangerous. Occasionally a
gallum swallows a piece of rock, which is trans-
formed to a rare gemstone via the acids in its
stomachs. Sifting through gallum feces is a niche
occupation, but more lucrative than people think.
5. Despite Skarras’ efforts, the Princess Invincible
knows about Sky Fields. She hasn’t sent a force as
she doesn’t want to alert Zodiac and Vance, but
does want to claim Sky Fields and its anti-gravity
forces for herself. The characters make perfect
third-party spies.
6. A new species of flying predator has been introduced
by a traveler. The creature attacks everything in sight
and is destabilizing the ecosystem. The people of
Sky Fields offer a reward to anyone who brings back
either eggs or wings of the new creatures.
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
CHARACTERS
1. Pirum, Skarrut razok pilot (Expert Flier d10, Amaz-
ing Luck d8, Razok Whisperer d6; Resolve d8;
Trouble: Wanted by the Law)
2. Anu, elected Skarrut leader of Boulder Town
(Public Speaker d10, Tough Cookie d8, Eye to the
Future d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Won’t Bend)
3. Rishuk, Skarrut inhabitant of Boulder Town (Rock
Farming d10, Warm Personality d8, Improvised
Weapons d6; Resolve d8, Trouble: Single Parent)
4. Arukan, Red Martian gallumstone harvester (Sky
Sailing d10, Rough Soul d8, Affluent d6; Resolve
d8; Trouble: Stinks)
5. Hadan, Red Martian prospector from Illium (Eas-
ily Overlooked d10, Scientific Curiosity d8, Knife
Fighter d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Has No Answers)
6. Melodi, Red Martian escaped convict from Siren
(Con Artist d10, Sweet Smile d8, Eye for Marks d6;
Resolve d8; Combat: 1 Strike; Trouble: On the Run)
HAZARDS
1. New arrivals are beset by low-gravity illness.
Symptoms range from joint pain, sudden fatigue,
115
A Skarrut priest shows zir oldest
child Sky Fields for the first time
and a marbled skin rash, to a burning sensation in
the chest, trouble breathing, and possible death.
2. While the rocks of Sky Fields hover perfectly in
midair, they don’t keep still. Navigating them
without being squashed is tricky.
3. Razoks are winged predatory reptiles. While they
look fat and plump, they are surprisingly fast.
They also have strong muscles, sharp beaks, and
foul tempers.
4. A gallum herd is headed straight for a rock with
freshly-planted crops. If they eat the crops, people
in nearby townsteads will starve next harvest.
5. Sky Fielders travel the Fields on sailing ships and
flying mounts. Both carry risks. The ships rely on
airwaves in Sky Fields: some never-changing and
carefully documented, others capricious and sud-
den. The fliers range from small, vicious, and hard
to train, to overly large, gentle, and hard to steer.
6. Characters staying in the Fields for longer than
half a year suffer reduced bone density, muscle
strength, and circulation. That’s not a problem as
long as they remain in the Fields, but becomes
debilitating once they leave.
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
Surtur
Surtur lies in the land of Tharsis, atop Mars’ larg-
est volcano. The entire region is covered in a perpetual
cloud of smoke and ash. Day never dawns in Surtur,
only a sort of wan twilight. The landscape is harsh and
alien, populated by beasts strange even upon Mars.
The people of Surtur labor around the clock in their
mines and forges. Metals that are rare across the face of
Mars are common in Surtur, and the city has grown
rich through trade. Here, Pale Martians work alongside
Red for common cause. Yet Surtur is a harsh land, and
prosperity has made it no less harsh.
Surtur is ruled by the Fire Priests, who deify the
First Martians and consider the people of Surtur their
last true heirs. Only in the factory-forges of Surtur, they
say, are the ancient arts of metalwork still practiced.
Armed with some of the finest weaponry in the
world, the armies of Surtur are feared by their neigh-
bors. While they lack large quantities of photonic sand,
their swords are sharp and sturdy, and they fight with
unmatched discipline.
Recently, Surtur opened new mining projects to
the north of its traditional territory, protected by these
feared legions. Rumors say that prospectors found a
vein of radium, or of the precious anti-gravity element
used by Zodiac and Illium. If Surtur could mine these
elements for itself and combine them with its abun-
dance of conventional metals, it could become wealthy
beyond measure, or become the most-feared nation on
Mars.
Locations
The First Forge
Both workshop and place of worship, the First Forge
is a sacred foundry where only the most highly-respected
and pious artisans may work their will upon the elements
of Mars. The devout say that here in this forge is where the
First Martians invented the art of alloying metals. Each
piece crafted here is inscribed with prayers and sigils, and
never sold for money. Instead, the workshop’s bounty is
used by the Fire Priests alone. The song of hammer and
anvil is fortified by numinous chanting, which resonates
against the cavernous walls. The First Forge is the only
place on Mars where certain rare alloys can be made, and
the secrets of their making are closely kept.
116
HOOKS
1. The forge runs low on charstone, a precious
crystal said to absorb prayer and release it into
the fire, making the fire burn hotter. It’s used to
craft religious artifacts for the Fire Priests, who
implore the characters to obtain more from the
wild volcanic garden where it grows, guarded by
sharp-eyed ormerian lizards.
2. When the characters arrive in Surtur, they are
immediately greeted by a Fire Priest who claims
he saw them coming in the sparks of the forge.
The priest insists they must work in the mines, as
ordained by the sacred flame.
3. A ceremonial sword, forged with Surtur’s rarest
alloy, is stolen from the altar of the First Forge. The
priests hire the characters to track down the culprit
and bring the sword back. But, once found, the
culprit offers them a share of the profits from the
weapon’s imminent sale.
4. Surtur considers the constellation of the Forge to
be its patron. Whenever the sun passes into that
sign, the First Forge sponsors a festival to cele-
brate the legend: In Surtur, they say the constel-
lation is the anvil upon which the First Martians
forged the bones of the world, and after so many
millennia, the bones’ rust gives Mars its red color.
5. The characters are detained by a priest who
accuses them of forgery, showing higher author-
ities that something they carry is nigh-identical to
a sacramental item crafted at the First Forge. In
Surtur, the counterfeit of a sacred work is punish-
able by sacrificing the offender to the volcano.
6. A foreign smith claims to have evidence that, in
fact, First Martian alloys were invented in another
city. The Fire Priests ask the characters to inspect
this so-called evidence — and to prove it false, by
any means necessary.
CHARACTERS
1. Shildr, Pale Martian teller of fortunes (Flame Di-
viner d12, Numerologist d8, Wisdom Comes with
Age d8; Resolve d6; Trouble: Terrible Arthritis)
2. Skorla, Pale Martian master artisan (Innovative
Techniques d10, Known Worldwide d8, Humble
and Devout d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Overextend-
ed Workaholic)
3. Asvi, Red Martian Fire Priest (Chantmaster d10,
Keeper of the Electrum Chalice d8, No Mercy d6;
Resolve d12; Trouble: Rivals Covet My Position)
4. Borsny, Red Martian First Forge guard (No Funny
Business d10, Personal Arsenal d8, Child of
Priests d6; Resolve d8; Combat: 1 Strike/1 Parry;
Trouble: Low Tolerance for Liquor)
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
5. Volvaer, Pale Martian postulant (Student of
Runes d10, Steady Hand d8, My Father’s Burin
d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Constantly Underesti-
mated)
6. Udai, Zaiu pilgrim (Traveling Fixer d10, Religious
Scholar d8, Vivid Imagination d6; Resolve d6;
Trouble: Talks Too Much)
HAZARDS
1. A sacred artifact begins to emit strange, dissonant
sounds, sending priests into fits or unexplained
long sleeps. Some say it’s a message or warning
from the First Martians.
2. Surtur prefers swift justice at sword point or volca-
no’s edge. The Fire Priests despise long trials and
rarely show mercy. Ignorance is never an excuse.
3. An accident at the Forge creates a stream of mol-
ten metal that carves its way through the temple
and out into the streets. Somehow, it shows no
signs of stopping or cooling.
Volcanic Gardens
On the outskirts of Surtur, a series of deep clefts in the
volcano’s face form what the Fire Priests call the volcanic
gardens — places lush not with flora, but with natural-
ly-growing crystals of all kinds, and wildlife that thrives in
the harsh climate. Artificers and metallurgists value the
plethora of raw materials found here, and many risk their
lives to obtain rare and precious supplies, or send others
to do the same in their stead. The most common predators
are the ormerian lizards, known for their keen eyesight and
enormous, barbed tails. Surtur law forbids hunting the
living creatures in the volcanic gardens, considering their
ecosystem a gift from the First Martians.
HOOKS
1. A young apprentice came to gather crystals for
her master, but never returned. Her master begs
the characters to find her, being too old and frail
to brave the gardens.
2. The characters discover a new kind of crystal,
whether by accident or careful delving, and now
everyone wants a piece of the discovery. The
characters find the longer they possess the crystal
and its source, the less they want to share.
3. An injured, young ormerian lizard lies in the char-
acters’ path, ravaged by some larger predator.
They would need to take it back to the city to give
it proper care and save its life, but in between are
miles of treacherous terrain and other lizards who
won’t understand their benign intentions.
117
4. A strange creature that appears to be part living
animal and part rock formation follows one of the
characters wherever they go. It doesn’t appear
hostile, but it won’t leave no matter what threats or
enticements are brought to bear.
5. The characters excavate what seems to be a
valuable stone with amazing properties, but when
they try to bring their find back to the city to make
some profit, they become the laughingstock of the
marketplace. Why?
6. Two different merchants want the characters to
bring back an extremely rare bird native to the
gardens. One wants the bird alive for its capti-
vating song, but the other wants it dead for its
eyeballs and liver, considered delicacies in soup.
CHARACTERS
1. Dyrfin, Pale Martian trader (Crystallographer
d10, Eye for Rarity d8, Expensive Radium Lantern
d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Heedless of Danger)
2. Dweller in Corners, Red Martian poacher (Throw-
ing Spear d10, Hides in Shadows d8, No Loyal-
ties d6; Resolve d12; Combat: 1 Strike/1 Stunt;
Trouble: Wanted Everywhere)
3. Hvals, Red Martian runaway child (Friend to An-
imals d8, Won’t Go Home d6, Swift Runner d6;
Resolve d6; Trouble: Easy Mark)
HAZARDS
1. While exploring a narrow ridge, one of the
characters finds themselves trapped by a crystal
deposit that seems to be attracted to living flesh.
2. Garden travelers must beware crevices where
lava bubbles up from the volcano’s depths and
areas where the rocky ground heats up to unbear-
able temperatures.
3. Ormerian lizards are fiercely territorial.
4. A niche full of crystal statues turns out to be the
resting place for people turned to stone by an
insidious parasite that lives there.
5. The volcanic gardens are prime territory for
poachers, home to unique and exotic creatures.
Their traps are just as dangerous for people as
they are for prey.
6. Excavating the notorious and valuable tinder gem
is a hazardous undertaking. In its unrefined form,
it burns continuously like a miniature star.
Surtur Mines
The work of miners in Surtur is considered just as sa-
cred as the work of artisans and smiths. Miners and chap-
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
lains descend together into the bowels of Mars to collect
its bounty and sing their thanks to the First Martians for
the gift of endurance to withstand the mine’s perils. Clever
devices, rigged by ancient fixers, carry the workers up and
down between the mine’s levels and transport the raw met-
als to the surface. Shrines dot the tunnels, and workers say
that anyone who removes a haul from the mine without the
appropriate prayers is doomed to fade into a mere shadow.
HOOKS
1. The Fire Priests have failed to adequately hush
a rumor that someone has found evidence of a
potential subterranean water source adjacent to
the mines. Now, all manner of interested parties
scheme to claim it.
2. One of the worst mining accidents in Surtur’s his-
tory claimed dozens of lives 20 years ago. Now,
a priest presumed dead returns, alleged to have
survived in the mines all this time. But details of his
story don’t quite match up.
3. For one day a year, the skies above Surtur clear
as the smoke and ash howl down from the heights
to fill the mines. Some say the smoke carries the
spirits of those for whom the mine has become a
tomb. Anyone caught inside during this event is
certain to die, or worse.
CHARACTERS
1. Karli, Red Martian chaplain and foreman (Me-
ticulous Mind d8, Brawny Body d8, Beloved by
Workers d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Has Never
Seen the Sun)
2. Lifuin, Pale Martian youth new to mining (Dreams
of a Brighter Place d10, Nimble Fingers d8, Melo-
dious Voice d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Terrified of
the Dark)
3. Olubr, Pale Martian mine medic (Keeps Everyone
Going d10, Death Is Preferable to Blasphemy d8,
Gentle Manner d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Strict
Faith)
4. Zabaia, Pale Martian trying to purchase a mine
(Royalty of an Arcadian Tribe d10, Business Sav-
vy d8, Endless Resources d6; Resolve d8; Trouble:
Doesn’t Understand Surtur)
5. Gamelat, Roundhead adept working for the Fire
Priests (Sense for Deposits d12, Master Cartog-
rapher d8, Volcano Hermit d6; Resolve d10;
Trouble: Shunned by My Own People)
6. Canary, Red Martian thief posing as a miner
(Desperate Times, Desperate Measures d10, Lies
are Livelihood d8, Cheerful Grin d6; Resolve d8;
Trouble: Someone’s Onto Me)
118
HAZARDS
1. An ailment characterized by a chronic cough is
common in Surtur, especially among miners and
those who live near the mines. Outsiders call it
“Surtur syndrome.”
2. Down in the mines, wherever the torchlight doesn’t
reach, a sound like thousands of chirping insects
fills the pitch darkness. No one is certain what
makes the noise.
3. The miners train magma voles, large burrowing
creatures, to help them dig their tunnels. Normally
the voles are quite tame, but the scent of blood
drives them into a frenzy.
4. The priests learn that a newly-discovered ore
they’ve been mining for months is toxic to Red
Martians. Unfortunately, it’s already been used in
countless projects around town.
5. Miners must always be vigilant and cautious, lest
one incorrectly-opened tunnel brings down a
cave-in, or exposes workers to poisonous fumes.
6. A strong metal door blocks off a portion of the mine,
painted with the Surtur symbol for blasphemy. A
sickly light seeps through the cracks under the door.
The Plaza Obsidian
A wide plaza on the northern side of the city is a bus-
tling center for foreign trade, local social customs, and dip-
lomatic functions. It takes its name from the black, glassy
surface it’s built on, the result of a centuries-old volcanic
eruption that covered the area with swiftly-cooling magma.
The Plaza Obsidian is one of the most sweltering places
in Surtur, but such a rich culture grew up around it that
it’s always crowded anyway. Late at night, it’s home to the
Obsidian Block, a not-so-secret slave market, and exotic
masquerade parties where the highly-disciplined Surtur folk
can let their hair down anonymously. In Surtur, slaves ar-
en’t allowed to work in the mines — instead, they perform
domestic tasks or manual labor for construction crews.
HOOKS
1. One of the characters dances with a mesmerizing
masked partner several nights in a row, until they
suspect their partner is someone they call enemy
by day. By night, though, the sparks fly, and their
partner starts to show signs of deeper interest.
2. A black-market artisan promises to teach the
characters a holy secret of the Fire Priest smiths,
obtained at high cost, for a price. Such a secret
could be uniquely lucrative, but could also send
the characters to a fiery death should they be
discovered practicing it.
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
Revelers in Surtur celebrate
the Small Moon Festival.
3. An ambassador from the nearby kingdom of Vidar
insists that Surtur’s new northern mine belongs to
the Vidarese. The characters are tasked with infil-
trating the opposing kingdom to assess the truth of
the claim, while Surtur’s army prepares for war.
4. Fanatics from another city come to convince their
fellow Pale Martians that by living alongside the Red
Martians, they shame their ancestors. The newcomers
preach openly in the Plaza, and plan to abscond with
Surtur’s Pales by force if they refuse to come willingly.
5. People report headaches, dizziness, and strange
visions if they stay too long in the Plaza. Soon,
a priest approaches the characters and accuses
them of disrupting the Plaza’s sacred geometry.
If they don’t repair it immediately, they’ll be fed
to the volcano — but first they must figure out how
they broke it in the first place.
6. From across the Plaza late at night, one of the
characters’ names is called out in desperate
tones. An old friend languishes in chains on the
Obsidian Block, and begs for help.
CHARACTERS
1. Jolie, Zaiu street musician and assassin (Virtuoso
Player d12, Weaponized Instruments d8, Dis-
appears in a Crowd d6; Resolve d8; Combat: 1
119
Strike/1 Stunt; Trouble: Works for Two Opposing
Masters)
2. Aeling, Red Martian peddler of drugs and plea-
sures (Enticing Voice d10, Show-Off d8, Novice
Pickpocket d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Gets Greedy)
3. Thrima, Red Martian one-armed soldier (Outfights
Pales with Four Swords d10, Ancestral Artisan Blade
d8, Perfect Discipline d8; Resolve d12; Combat: 1
Strike/1 Parry; Trouble: Lost Family to Raiders)
4. Svindr, Red Martian youth (Adopted by Pale
Parents d10, Fulfills High Expectations d8, Quick
Temper d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Suffers Bullying)
5. Kizurra, Skarrut cavalier passing through (Mer-
cenary for Hire d10, Lifelong Quest d8, Wry
Humor d8; Resolve d8; Combat: 1 Strike/1 Stunt;
Trouble: Tilts at Windmills)
6. Geirol, Pale Martian artisan dreaming of starflight
(Seeks Secret of Flight d12, Expert Metalworker
d10, Red Martian Spouse d6; Resolve d6; Trou-
ble: Loose Tongue)
HAZARDS
1. Slavers in Surtur aren’t always picky about whom they
capture for the Obsidian Block. Angering the wrong
person could put the characters on their list of targets.
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
2. To be in the Plaza Obsidian at night without a
mask is a serious taboo, even if you lose it half-
way through the party.
3. An ostentatiously-dressed individual at the mas-
querade wears a perfume that enchants anyone
who lingers close by. Soon, a trail of obedient
servants follows their every step.
4. A beast tamer’s animals break loose — or are let
loose — in the Plaza and go berserk, sowing chaos
and attacking people. Among them are an enor-
mous steppes bear and a cageful of silicon crabs.
5. A Fire Priest goes undercover as a black-market
buyer to catch would-be fences daring enough to
try to peddle sacred wares.
6. The cutpurses in Surtur don’t always stick to cut-
ting purses, and some of them are organized into
well-funded guilds or highly structured gangs.
Vance
In the central portion of Meridian, Vance lies at
the intersection of several canals, and is thus rich in
Mars’ most valuable commodity: water. The city is ac-
tually built on top of the canals, creating, at the surface,
a network of subcanals that carry freight and people.
Vance, its many levels set
beneath its towering tombs.
120
The city is monumental in scope, carved from huge
blocks of red and white rock, and reaching nearly a
dozen stories towards the sky. Locally, the inhabitants
enjoy shade, sweet water, and the produce of the farms
along the canals. Trade, both by canal and caravan,
also brings exotic goods and great wealth.
At night, the city is lit with many-colored lanterns,
according to a superstition deeply held but long since for-
gotten. Windows are made from glass salvaged from the
Prismatic Wastes, fit together into intricate patterns.
Vance does not possess a skynavy as such, though
its greatest scientists are working long and hard at the
problem, and have perfected other means of short-term
flight. The city does have several towers with sky docks
for visiting dignitaries from Zodiac and Illium. A few
merchant houses own skyyachts, but, so far, none have
replicated the technology.
The Prince of Vance is chosen from among the
merchant houses, and the city employs a regular and
professional fighting force, the Hounds of the Prince.
The master of this force is the Dog of Vance, and is
nearly as powerful as the prince himself. In matters
of war, his power becomes supreme. However, since
companies of Hounds are sponsored by the merchant
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
houses, their loyalty quickly returns to the commercial
establishment when peace begins again.
Many conmen, mercenaries, and outright thieves
people the lower quarters of Vance, for such people
flock to wealth. It is not unusual to see a chief of a Pale
tribe drinking alongside a group of Red cavaliers, while
an urchin attempts to loosen their pockets.
The crypts in the city are in its highest towers. Sol-
diers refer to watching from the towers as “cryptwatch,”
and the term is sometimes used by civilians to refer to a
tedious nocturnal task.
The poor and the criminal dead are placed in the
outgoing canals, to be swept away forever.
Locations
The Plaza Arez
The wealth of the Arez family is one of the wonders
of Vance, or so the Arez’ have always felt. The plaza that
carries their name is a monument to their glory. Several
tiered orchards boast a colonnade of bronze statues lioniz-
ing the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Arez family, inter-
spersed with small, expensively-maintained trees. The park
is a popular place to be seen during the day, and famously
dangerous at night. Rich as the Arez are, they would rather
divert funds to the latest commissioned sculpture than pay
the Hounds’ wages to keep the Plaza safe after dark.
HOOKS
1. The Plaza sees many nighttime duels for honor
and love. The characters are asked to be the sec-
onds for one such duel, perhaps for both parties.
But the paramour in question shows more favor to
one of the characters than to the two duelists…
2. One of the rarer trees in the garden is ailing, and
nothing is working so far. The Arez know of a rare
alchemical treatment that may help, and will com-
mission adventurers to retrieve it rather than suffer
the loss of face from a visible failure.
3. A small band of refugees has taken to camping
in the Plaza at night. The Arez want the vagrants
gone, by any means necessary, but the drifters
offer a counterproposal — information about the
walking weapon that destroyed their village.
4. Rumor has it that one of the Arez ancestors steps
down from its pedestal and paces the Plaza at
night. It does not seem to respect its own blood-
line, and has driven Arez youths from the park.
Is it a powerful ghost, a mechanical wonder, or
something else entirely?
121
5. Two feuding Arez dignitaries insist on having stat-
ues made of themselves, each one finer than their
rival’s. They throw bribes and threats at artists,
commission even more outlandish models, and
are on the verge of hiring vandals.
6. A friend of the characters’ simply must deliver a
package to someone who will be waiting in the
Plaza on a moonlit night. The friend suspects it’s
the prince in disguise.
CHARACTERS
1. Niccol Arez, Red Martian noble patron (Buy
and Sell Anyone d10, Thrillseeker d8, Amateur
Swordfighter d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Brokering a
Grand Adventure)
2. Petal, Wyeth caretaker and rumormonger (Incur-
able Gossip d10, Landscaping d8, Keeps Head
Down d6; Resolve d4; Trouble: Loves a Good
Scandal)
3. Rhial, Red Martian admirer and hanger-on (Flat-
tery d10, Carousing d8, Fashionable d6; Resolve
d6; Trouble: Duelist Groupie)
4. Vanetto Furiosi, Red Martian assassin (Lethal Duel-
ist d10, Provoking Duels d8, Gambler d6; Resolve
d8; Combat: 1 Strike/1 Parry/1 Stunt; Trouble:
Detested Throughout the City)
5. Mirth, Pale Martian shadowy murderer (Knife in
the Dark d10, Silent Stalker of Prey d8, Signature
Bloodletting Style d6; Resolve d8; Combat: 1
Strike/1 Stunt; Trouble: Seeks a Worthy Opponent)
6. Andromache, Red Martian sculptor’s apprentice
(Humble and Inoffensive d8, Talent for Sculpture
d8, Earnest d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Caught an
Arez Noble’s Eye)
HAZARDS
1. There are robbers and assailants in the Plaza
more nights than not.
2. A disgraced Arez intends to commit suicide under
his grandfather’s eye, and isn’t above taking oth-
ers with him.
3. The Arez’ hired guards have instructions to spare no
force when evicting people from the Plaza at dusk.
4. Some say there are Arez ghosts entombed in the
statues, which emerge if anyone damages the
bronze in any way.
5. It’s rare for Hounds to come through the Plaza at
night, but when they do, they’re prone to assume
anyone they come across is a robber.
6. An Arez has planted poisonous thornbushes and
toxic fungi at the base of a “beloved” parent’s
statue.
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
The Palace of the Dog
If the palace of the prince is a brilliant jewel, the Pal-
ace of the Dog is the sharp-pronged steel clasp that clutches
it. The Dog of Vance makes his home in a simple-seeming
tower with narrow windows that gaze out over the bar-
racks, training yards, stables, and armories that comprise
his true holding. The stones here are caked with dust,
sweat, and even blood: the pigments of the city’s military
strength. One pack of Hounds or another is inevitably
sparring in the courtyards at any hour, and the poorer
soldiers drink within the Palace’s Spartan taverns instead
of the finer wineshops of Vance.
HOOKS
1. The Dog allows his soldiers some luxuries, for
the sake of morale, but sternly rations the num-
ber of indulgences per soldier. An enterprising
pleasure-broker could make fine coin smuggling
delights in past the quota-keeping pursers, and
back out the next morning.
2. One of the many mercenaries of Vance stands
out as a singular beauty, catching the hearts of
civilians and fellow Hounds alike. The guards
organize an impromptu tournament, in order to
establish a civilized queue for each enamored
warrior to try their suit in turn, while hoping the
object of their adoration is watching.
3. A timid merchant wishes to sever a contract with a
bullying guard, but lacks the spine to do so alone.
They contract the characters to accompany them
to the Palace of the Dog and help deliver the
unfortunate news to the hard-eyed slayers.
4. A Hound company has recently severed its con-
tract with its patron merchant house, citing irrecon-
cilable differences in religion and philosophy. The
Dog is concerned that an uncontracted company
with strong opinions is trouble waiting to happen,
and wants the freelancers reconciled, re-enlight-
ened, or relocated.
5. The Hound beast-tamers command a high price,
and merchants wealthy enough to hire them also
sponsor the trips to find eggs and young for the
beast-tamers to train. Bringing back a ferocious
pup or rare egg is also the only way to purchase
a master falconer’s trained beast for one’s own.
6. A pack of Hounds confiscated a cartload of
goods and drove it back to the Palace of the
Dog. Hidden among those goods is a rare and
wondrous treasure, or a box of secret letters,
something that is best stolen back before the Dog
notices this hidden bounty.
122
CHARACTERS
1. Solas Tireen, Red Martian adjutant to the Dog
(Organization and Materiel d10, Diplomatic
Interpretation d8, Every Hound Knows a Blade
d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Keeps the Dog’s Ugliest
Secret)
2. Miordas Cavenem, Skarrut grand swordmaster
(Lord of Blades d12, Veteran Campaigner d10,
Instruction Through Pain d8; Resolve d8; Combat
S1/P1/M1; Trouble: Would Do Anything To See
Child’s Face Again)
3. Cur, Red Martian raw Hound recruit (Learning the
Ropes d8, Raised in the Dredge d8, Easily Over-
looked d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Starved With
Ambition)
4. Toxotes, Zaiu Zodiac-born Hound quartermaster
(Knows Every Weapon d10, Supply Train Lo-
gistics d8, Defend the Supplies d6; Resolve d8;
Trouble: Suspected of Harboring Zodiac Secrets)
5. Nicola Dravant, Red Martian Hound stablemaster
(Rides Like a Storm d10, Veterinary Medicine
d8, A Way with Beasts d6; Resolve d8; Trouble:
Cares More for Beasts than Hounds)
6. Oriante, Red Martian obsessive military engineer
(Armorer and Shipwright d10, Scholar of the
Ancients d8, Tireless d6; Resolve d6; Trouble:
Promised Prince a Sky-Navy)
HAZARDS
1. When one is taking a stroll through any casual
approximation of a military compound, there is
always a danger of soldiers who decide they care
little for your face as is.
2. The trained beasts are sometimes ill-tempered and
prone to turn on those using them, and the stable-
master doesn’t accept “self-defense” as an excuse
for injuring them.
3. In times of peace, soldiers get bored. Alcohol
flows. Words are spoken. Fists fly with a remark-
able nonchalance as to the particulars of whom-
ever they contact.
4. A band of narcotic-crazed anarchists take it into
their heads to topple the Dog and thus usher in a
new order of disorder. Anyone nearby is likely to
be caught in their blast radius.
5. A band of Hounds makes an arrest on trumped-up
charges, having been paid very well — possibly
by one of the characters’ enemies — to carry out
some coin-weighted version of justice.
6. An impromptu sparring bout turns suddenly danger-
ous, as one of the principles switches to naked steel.
Was it a dire insult, or some infection in the spleen?
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
Hangman’s Garden
Beauty and morbidity can walk hand-in-hand in Vance.
A long-ago prince insisted on having the bodies of executed
traitors and criminals displayed for the public’s edification.
And so he built the Hangman’s Garden, a public park
dedicated to the fate of enemies of the state. His successor, a
kindlier sort, chose to beautify the grim spectacle with more
flowering plants and gently-curving sculpture — but she
kept the execution grounds, as a soft reminder of the rule of
law. Now the Hangman’s Garden is one of the most beau-
tiful places in Vance, if one doesn’t mind the sight of skulls
tangled in thorns or gilded corpses posed like statuary.
HOOKS
1. A particularly notorious criminal escapes justice,
and a sizable bounty is posted. The reward for
the fugitive’s cadaver is a mere tenth of what’s of-
fered for a live capture, especially with no marks
or blemishes that might spoil the display.
2. One of the executed corpses on display turns
out to still be alive, the beneficiary of insufficient
poison or electricity, or a botched strangulation.
A hasty argument begins in the Garden as to
whether this proves the culprit’s innocence, or if
the criminal is legally dead at this point.
3. The characters learn that the key to an enciphered
map is tattooed on the body of a murderer recent-
ly sentenced to death. If the corpse is transformed
into art, the tattoo will be lost. It’s a race to steal
the corpse — or at least its skin — before the em-
balmer artists transform it into a monument.
4. The characters obtain evidence that a captive is
innocent of the crime committed. Unfortunately,
the executioners find their prisoner exceptionally
beautiful, and have their hearts set on crafting a
masterpiece to move the hearts of all Vance.
5. A traveling troupe performs a satirical play
among the garden of corpses, lampooning the
so-called right of one Martian to give death to
another. The prince’s guards pay close attention —
is this insurgency, and if not, will it matter?
6. A young couple plans to commit suicide in the
Garden, and have their star-crossed love immor-
talized forever. They plead with the characters for
assistance in distracting the guards and setting up
the display. Can they be talked out of it? Or is the
artistic opportunity impossible to pass up?
CHARACTERS
1. Montresor Ketch, Red Martian maestro execu-
tioner artist (Gilded Cadaver Sculptor d12, End
123
It Quickly d8, Discerning Eye d8; Resolve d8;
Trouble: Wracked With Ennui)
2. Othell Catash, Zaiu grave-goods auctioneer (Up-
sell d8, Personal Histories of the Deceased d8,
Legalist d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Irregularities On
the Books)
3. Bier, Red Martian lowly gardener (Bone-Picker
d10, Exotic Herbologist d8, Petty Thief d6; Re-
solve d6; Trouble: Can’t Get Rid of This Ring)
4. Israfel, Pale Martian morbid poet (Languishing
Beauty d10, Sepulchral Verses d8, Aristocratic
Gossip d6; Resolve d4; Trouble: Romantically
Enthralled By Tragic Endings)
5. Mors Annuvin, Red Martian groundswarden
Hound (Seen It All d10, Deft Hand With a
Cudgel d8, Philosopher d6; Resolve d8; Trouble:
Targeted by Underworld)
6. Annataris, Pale Martian self-proclaimed speaker
with the dead (Dire Pronouncements d10, Knows
Everyone’s Story d8, Aura of Mystery d6; Resolve
d6; Trouble: Obsessed With “Last Requests”)
HAZARDS
1. The Hangman’s Garden is reputed to be an ideal
place for people who’ve “earned it” to meet an
appropriate fate. Old enemies keep an eye out
for rivals who enter the place.
2. Despite the rituals performed at dawn and dusk,
and the offerings left before the most tortured
displays, there is, of course, always a risk of
ghosts.
3. The Garden is a common destination for people
who feel they have little left to live for. Occasion-
ally one indulges in narcotics and strives for an
artistically-tragic death, blade in hand.
4. One of the displays was made from a criminal
who had a dangerous device implanted while
exploring an ancient ruin. The device’s countdown
has finally ended.
5. An elaborate sculpture comes crashing down,
the splinters of bone far less dangerous than the
razor-sharp glass shards.
6. A demented killer aspires to join the executioner
artists, and prowls the garden at night to find
someone to assist with an “audition.”
The Dredge
The finer the district in Vance, the quicker the canals
flow. The Dredge, then, is the lower section where the water
flows slowest. The canals are fetid and almost stagnant, and
so (by reputation) are the denizens. Disgraced nobles and
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
refugees set up tents of faded colors, and criminals operate
out of houseboats with narrow windows. The Hounds never
travel through the Dredge, leaving the locals in the hands of
“benevolent citizens’ associations.” For all that, the Dredge
still has a spark of defiance that belies its torpid canals. It’s a
dangerous place to live, but you can see and hear things here
you’d never encounter in any other part of Vance.
HOOKS
1. During festivals, Dredge citizens arm themselves
with sticks and fight brutal mock battles over the
district bridges. Making a good showing in a
bridge battle is a good way to earn the respect of
some of the dangerous locals.
2. A noble was accosted while walking one of the
many bridges high above the Dredge, and threw
a treasure down into the lower canals rather than
surrender it. Now the noble wants it back, subtly,
if at all possible.
3. The gangs of the Dredge are locked in constant
feuds. If the characters accept an offer of employ-
ment as enforcers, they can help one gang reach
a stronger (and more grateful) position, or help
distribute the power more equally.
4. A discredited scientist is forced to make do with
the scrap and salvage of the Dredge. She swears
she could complete the experiment that disgraced
her and win back her former station, if she could
get the right materials.
5. A pickpocket does the unusual, and attempts to
place something in a character’s purse. The object
turns out to be the seal of a lofty merchant family,
and a way to pose as a long-lost relative. Why
give something like that away — what’s the catch?
6. A strange boat appears and disappears in the
Dredge, seemingly from under the shadow of a
bridge. The locals assume it’s a ghost craft, but it
allegedly gives off a strange musical drone and
the smell of ozone.
CHARACTERS
1. Clars Nassist, Red Martian impoverished noble
turned guide (Vance’s Secrets d10, Aristocratic
Upbringing d8, Adept Negotiator d6; Resolve d6;
Trouble: Still In Debt)
2. Simohn, Red Martian beggar-courtesan (Cleans
Up Miraculously d10, Master of Two Social
Strata d8, Poison Tongue d6; Resolve d6; Trouble:
Trail of Broken Hearts)
3. Persavus, Zaiu murderer-for-hire (Strangler d12;
Philosophical d8, Rooftop to Rooftop d8; Resolve
d8; Combat: 1 Strike/1 Stunt; Trouble: Disowned
by Mate and Children)
124
4. Otharion, Red Martian sovereign of the canal
vermin (Scrounges the Most Interesting Things
d10, Vermin Piper d8, Hard to Kill d6; Resolve
d8; Trouble: Power Struggle With Rival Monarch)
5. Bauble, Zaiu tinker and gewgaw dealer (Re-
purpose d10, Here’s a One-of-a-Kind Thing d8,
Hidden Weapon d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Three
Prior Identities)
6. Sardonyx, Pale Martian mortician and gondolier
(Funeral Preparations and Rites d10, Uncanny
Strength d8, Canal Knowledge d6; Resolve d8;
Trouble: Stalked by Ghosts)
HAZARDS
1. The gangs of the Dredge are very territorial, tak-
ing any trespass as a potentially-dangerous loss of
face.
2. An old enemy of the characters managed to
survive a prior clash, but fell from grace and now
lurks among the penniless dispossessed.
3. A family of desperate murderers pose as boatfolk,
offering cut rates for canal transit and turning on
any passengers they can get away with attacking.
4. The Hounds sometimes visit the Dredge in dis-
guise, starting vicious brawls to “scout new
talent.”
5. A beetle-vendor keeps a rare soporific species,
prone to biting new owners with an intoxicating
venom. The insect-seller then catches up and rifles
the sleeping customer’s purse.
6. Fights in the Dredge sometimes turn into running
chases over rooftops with loose tiles, under bridg-
es where lungmold bats roost, and through rickety
scaffolds over the foul waters.
The Guildhall of the Mourners
On the canal-streets of Vance, just off the Plaza Arez, sits
a long, low, somber hall, all in grays and blacks and cool, muted
blues. Here, amid its many-columned halls and deep vaults, the
venerable Guild of Mourners practices its trade and teaches its
apprentices. The Garment-Renders study the Thirty-Nine Tear-
ings that express every kind of grief, the Keeners learn the cries
that unlock the heart and ward against the deceased’s ghost,
and the Whirling Threnodists master the steps of the Memoria,
which lifts the spirits of those who remain.
And in the deeper vaults, they learn the other secret
arts of the Guild of Mourners: the way of poison and knife
and strangling silks. Long ago, the guildmasters realized they
could increase their revenue by providing their own clients,
and from there it was a short step to hiring out their services
for both the death and the funeral. Today the Mourners’
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
Guild is one of the richest in Vance and the surrounding
regions. It’s something of an open secret among those wealthy
enough (and vicious enough) to hire assassins that the Guild
of Mourners is the best, and contracts often take guild
members all across Mars. While the Guild has few scruples
regarding contracts, the guildmasters hold all Mourners to
exacting standards of decorum, discretion, and dignity, all
vestiges of their services as comforters of the bereaved.
HOOKS
1. Who assassinates the assassins? Respected mem-
bers of the Guild are turning up dead all across
Vance. It could be a vendetta by a rival assassin
school, but why then are the targets all prominent
performers of the Guild’s legitimate services?
2. An onset of plague leaves the Mourners badly un-
derstaffed for funeral duties. With all guild members
busy paying professional respects to the important
dead, it’s a perfect time for enterprising independent
killers to carve out a niche for themselves.
3. When the Guild of Mourners goes on strike in re-
sponse to legislation restricting how many mourn-
ers can be hired per funeral, Vancian nobility
is faced with a crucial assassin shortage. What
happens when you do scab work against a guild
of elite hired killers?
4. Tastes in Vance change from ostentatious funer-
als to simple, subdued services and obscenely
expensive monuments. Suddenly there’s a shadow
war on between the Guild of Mourners and the
Stonecutters’ Fraternity. And no, the Stonecutters
aren’t secretly an elite mercenary unit. Yet.
5. It’s time for the annual labor negotiations between the
Guild of Mourners and the magistrates of Vance. At the
same time, a shadow negotiation is taking place be-
tween the Guild’s hired killers and the various ambitious
aristocrats, crime lords, and plutocrats who employ them.
6. Everyone knows that the Guild paymasters send all col-
lected profits to their counting house on the first of every
month. The shipment is never guarded, because in 150
years no one ever dared try to steal it. Until last night.
CHARACTERS
1. Guildmaster Parthos, Pale Martian Keener (Voice
That Shatters Glass d10, Improbable Number
of Knives d8, Savvy Politician d8; Resolve d10;
Combat: 3S/1 Stunt; Trouble: Radical Politics)
2. Mathos the Mourner, reformed Red Martian
assassin (Code of No Killing d10, Unfortunate
Moral Compass d8, Quick-Footed d6; Resolve
d8; Trouble: Hunted by the Guild)
3. Usu, Roundhead union negotiator (Drive a Hard
Bargain d10, Psychic Assassin d8, Aggressive
125
Negotiation d6; Resolve d8; Combat: 1 Strike/2
Parry; Trouble: Ambition)
4. Mithral, clueless Zaiu apprentice (Quick Study
d10, From a Good Family d8, Picking Up Some
Disturbing Skills d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: “Wait,
We’re Assassins?”)
5. Nerush the Shiv, Red Martian scab (Non-Union
Killer d10, Cut Prices, Cut Throats d8, No Loyalty
Whatsoever d6; Resolve d6; Combat: 1 Strike/1
Stunt; Trouble: Damn Dirty Scab)
6. Kuval Dax, Skarrut information broker (Knows a
Guy Who Knows a Guy d10; Password? I Can
Get the Password d8, Quid Pro Quo d6; Resolve
d6; Trouble: Nobody Likes a Tattletale)
HAZARDS
1. Many of the tunnels below the Guildhall are lad-
en with deadly traps, used to train apprentices in
the arts of infiltration.
2. The Cloister Bell in the single tower that rises from
the northeastern corner of the complex calls all
Mourners to the defense of the Guildhall. It is only
rung in times of great peril, for anyone within the
Guildhall when it sounds who is not marked with
the Guild’s tattoo of membership is struck dead.
3. The Fellowship of Keeners are rumored to have
the power to whistle up ghosts and command
stranger spirits still.
4. Each of the various Fellowships within the Guild
of Mourners has a particular specialty: The Gar-
ment-Renders are expert stranglers and alley-work-
ers, the Keeners excel in the use of poison, and the
Whirling Threnodists are unmatched as infiltrators
and duelists. While few can afford the astronomical
fees for hiring more than one Mourner, the Fellow-
ships are all trained to support each other, and an
assassination squad is very nearly unstoppable.
5. Apprentices of the Guild are earmarked early on
for whether they will play “the Black Game” (legit-
imate professional mourning) or “the Blue Game”
(assassination). A Black Player who discovers the
Blue Game is the only exception the Guild makes
to its rule against taking contracts on members.
6. The Guild of Mourners prefers to do its job with
a minimum of fuss and inconvenience to the
bereaved. Often an assassin will present herself
to the target, explain the situation as gently as
possible, and offer to meet somewhere private to
do the deed at the victim’s earliest convenience.
In the history of the Guild, only a dozen have
attempted to break that appointment or to cheat
their fate. The examples they made are still stud-
ied by the Guild of Torturers.
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
Wyeth
Wyeth Valley is the greatest canyon system on Mars,
a gash in the world’s surface thousands of miles long and
plunging to depths that even the First Martians did not fully
explore. Sheltered and set apart, the depths of Wyeth house
an ecosystem unlike any other on Mars. The Wyeth women
claim the valley’s upper range, building their cities in trees
that were already ancient when the Cydonians rose to pow-
er. Here, they tend orchards yielding thick, succulent fruit
for the tables of the rich and powerful, and farm the coveted
healing gum and esoteric krem spice. Trading in a bounty
that has no equal on Mars, Wyeths grow fat in chits.
Even opulent riches and towering canyon walls do not
protect Wyeth absolutely though. The Witch Queen rules
in her Labyrinth to the west of the valley, and she sets her
ambitions toward the Wyeth’s domain. The greatest threat
to the Wyeth women, however, comes from below. In the far
dark of Wyeth Valley lies a great rainforest, dangerous as it
is beautiful, home to predators that cast their gaze upward to
the sun — and prey that roams freely there. The Wyeth erect
great barriers against these incursions. They patrol the forests
surrounding their cities and seedling groves, where unborn
Wyeth children gestate under the attention of the Wyeth
husbands. Even with all the precautions, though, clever pred-
ators break through to remind the women that the greatest
danger to their way of life lies right beneath their feet.
Locations
Wyela
Twisting around and into each other, the trees of Wyela
form a massive labyrinthian knot of bark and leaves. Here,
inside the hollows of trunks, nooks of cradling branches,
and under deep roots, the people of Wyeth make their east-
ernmost city. Traders of every ilk visit Wyela for its wares.
Today, krem to the Arbiter, gum to the Princess Invincible,
and sweet fruits to the Merchant Prince; tomorrow, barter-
ing starts anew and the wares find different homes. Wyela
is the first — and often only — Wyeth city fleshlings see,
and the only one where they are readily welcomed.
HOOKS
1. A gum trader by the name of Zidaina has found
her incoming shipments missing. Is this a fluke, a
rival making trouble, or a forest predator disrupt-
ing the gum route? Zidaina hires the characters to
find out and, most importantly, put her shipments
back en route.
126
2. Niccia used to run a successful gum tree orchard,
but parasites have infected her trees. Now, she’s
nearing bankruptcy. In a last effort to regain her
position, Nicia seeks out the characters to carry
the parasite to other orchards, thus skyrocketing
the price of what little gum is left — including hers.
3. A new mutation of termites has erupted in Wyela,
burrowing into the trees and wooden houses, and
even attacking the Wyeth’s bark-skin. The Wyeth
seek a team of fleshlings, immune to the termites,
to stop the threat and find its source. Rumor quick-
ly spreads that the Witch Queen is behind the
plague.
4. The mayna tree yields fruit only once every four years.
Its fruits are incomparable in their bittersweet taste,
and awaken psychic powers in those who eat them.
Seven mayna fruits are up for auction, and the charac-
ters are hired to represent an anonymous bidder in the
prolonged, and at times bloody, bidding war.
5. The roots of Wyela have seen too much water
recently, causing them to rot. The lowest-lying
buildings needs to be evacuated, and their peo-
ple rehomed — a massive undertaking. In addition
to immediate help with the evacuation, the Wyeth
seek out people to find the responsible stream,
deep in the forest, and dam it.
6. A feud between two Wyeth families has escalat-
ed into open warfare. A third family employs the
characters to mediate between the rivals and restore
peace to Wyela’s streets — by any means necessary.
CHARACTERS
1. Mirrei, Wyeth gum trader, always looking for new
buyers (Shipping Network d10, Former Soldier
d8, Rich d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Old Enemies)
2. Sotia, ambitious Wyeth gum harvester (Access
to Wyeth Gum d10, Strong Back d8, Always
Planning a New Scheme d6; Resolve d8; Trouble:
Doesn’t Follow Through)
3. Alvar, Pale Martian gum trader from Anger with
money problems (Keeping Up Appearances d10,
Eye for Talent d8, Well-Connected d6; Resolve
d6; Trouble: Bad Cash Flow)
4. Cedroc, Zaiu planning to explore Wyeth Valley
(Off the Beaten Path d10, Resourceful d8, Fixer
d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Restless Feet)
5. Herlee, young Red Martian, perhaps too eager to
see the world (Brave d10, Quick Study d8, Fleet
of Foot d6; Resolve d6, Trouble: Inexperienced)
6. Jael, Red Martian Witch Queen spy come to
assess Wyela’s strength (Blends In d10, Reads
People d8, Silent Killer d6; Resolve d8; Combat:
1 Parry/1 Stunt; Trouble: Indebted)
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
HAZARDS
1. The journey to Wyela is full of dangers: Naruk
monkeys, blood ferns, and razor beetles abound
in the forest (see Seedling Grove Hazards).
2. While the most-frequented areas are made safe to
visitors, most of Wyela’s high, narrow, and unsta-
ble pathways have no railings.
3. An abandoned house near the top of the canopy
has become unstable and pieces come crashing
down, threatening those below.
4. Toxic resin drips down from the tree cluster. To the
Wyeth, this is common knowledge. To visitors, it’s
a very nasty surprise.
5. A miyuk, a six-legged reptilian predator the size
of a large dog, has made its way up from the
forest to look for prey.
6. When the ebon horns blow, it is best to get inside.
A biting wind descends on the forest, howling
through the canyon to scour flesh from bones.
Krem Den
Wyela’s krem den has no name, no sign to announce
its presence to the world. Smoke and the scent of cinnamon
greet the visitor upon entry, and benches are lined up on
127
either side of the room. People of every race visit here, eyes
half-closed, pupils dilated, mouths open in ecstasy as they
inhale the krem. They are mere posers, pleasure-seekers
mingling with criminals. The real seers lie in the rooms
beyond — Wyeth women whose bodies and minds are
saturated with krem, allowing them to unveil the mysteries
of the future, and sometimes the past, for those who can
afford their services.
HOOKS
1. Krem prophetess Milan foretells the fall of Vance’s
merchant prince. In response, the prince sends a
team of assassins to kill the prophetess, while his
enemies hire a team to protect her — after all, the
prince looks weak as long as the prophetess lives.
2. A batch of bad krem keeps users trapped inside a
nightmare state, and the den’s proprietress Hizar
seeks people to discreetly get them out. The char-
acters discover that they can use the nightmare
to travel a simulacra of Mars, accurate to every
detail.
3. Hizar, the owner of Wyela’s krem den, finds her
supply cut off without word or warning. She hires
the characters to investigate, and they soon find
that a Red Martian entrepreneur is also setting up
a krem den and is blocking access to the market.
An exhausted Wyeth relaxes
by inhaling Krem vapor.
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
4. Shaya, a once-famous cavalier, spends her dying
days in the comfort of the krem den. Before
she passes, she brags about an object of great
personal value stolen from the Princess Invincible.
Needless to say, the Princess wants it back — as
do her rivals. The characters, however, are closest
to grabbing it.
5. Baba, a Red Martian thief, believes an esoteric
mix of krem and poppies allows the user to create
a new universe from their dreams. He asks the
characters to aid him in this quest by stealing krem
for him. In return, he will make them gods in his
new universe.
6. The characters are hired to transport a shipment
of krem to Zodiac. Does this mean Zodiac’s as-
trologers are gaining their knowledge from spice
visions, rather than reading the heavens? The
resulting scandal would rock Zodiac, which is ex-
actly what its rivals want. The transport is attacked
on the way.
CHARACTERS
1. Baltu, Skarrut guard with an eye for the right
customer (Will Kick You Out d10, Good Judge of
Character d8, Protective d6; Resolve d8; Combat:
1 Parry; Trouble: Soft Spot for Women)
2. Lylan, Wyeth working at the krem den (Eye for
Money d10, Corrupting Influence d8, Steady
Supply of Krem d8; Resolve d8; Trouble: Skims off
the Top)
3. Mizre, Red Martian looking to waste their inheri-
tance (Famous Father d10, Cash Flow d8, Good
with a Sword d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Family
Feud)
4. Hungo, Roundhead adept seeking spice visions
(Telekinetic Abilities d10, Reader of Heavens d8,
Trade Connections d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Spent
All Savings on Krem)
5. Arliea, Wyeth prophetess who sees future oppor-
tunities (Loyal Customers d10, Palm Reader d8,
Cold Reader d6; Resolve d6, Trouble: Lied to the
Wrong People)
6. Cynan, Wyeth prophetess who sees dark things
(Interpret Omens d10, Cult Followers d8, Con Art-
ist d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Cannot See her Own
Fate)
HAZARDS
1. Krem is a highly-addictive substance. When a
character imbibes krem, their player rolls against
2d6, with the GM increasing the die size for
every time the character used krem before (with a
cap of 2d12).
128
2. Every spice den has its own recipe for cutting
krem to yield an esoteric high. Krem that is cut too
thinly or mixed with the wrong substances brings
bestial behavior, nightmares, or even death.
3. Small red spiders, named fagun bugs, are attract-
ed to the scent of spice and flesh, and prey upon
strung-out users. Quality krem dens have employ-
ees to keep the fagun bugs at bay, but not every
establishment is so scrupulous.
4. Wherever addled, semi-conscious people collect,
pickpockets are about. The krem den is no differ-
ent.
5. The krem den is experimenting with a new spice
mix, and seeks test subjects. The job is well-paying
(and the krem free), but dangerous.
6. Rumor has it that krem does not merely yield
visions, but opens a mental portal to a parallel
Mars. The inhabitants of this Mars seek to possess
the bodies of krem users.
Seedling Grove
Wyela’s seedling grove lies hidden in the forest, away
from the city proper and protected from outsiders. The air
carries the scent of life, the grass is soft, and sunlight filters
through the great canopy. Wyeth women give their unborn
children over to the care of the Wyeth husbands, who
regulate their own oxygen and temperature output to create
perfect conditions for the seed pods. The trees’ dexterous
vines gently turn the seeds, ensuring every child her time
in the sun. This symbiotic relationship is as old as Wyeth
itself, though only the women know what the husbands get
from it.
HOOKS
1. Leonor is wanted for crimes committed in Surtur,
and enforcers have followed her back to Wyeth.
Now the time has come for her to visit the nearby
seeding grove, and she asks the characters to
protect her on her journey.
2. A Wyeth husband killed the seed pods under
his care. Communicating with the tree as only
they can, the Wyeth women learn that he did so
because the pods were “infected.” But with what?
And is it true, or did the husband make a mistake,
or even lie? The women are too close to the mat-
ter to be objective, and hire the characters to get
to the truth.
3. A large, ape-like predator has emerged from
Wyeth’s deep. Having a taste for seed pods, the
creature has already decimated one seeding
grove. Can the characters stop it? And is the beast
a unique mutant, or the first of a new threat?
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
4. The Wyeth women hear of a plan from the Witch
Queen to steal seed pods and raise the children
as her servants. The women arm themselves to
protect the seedling groves, and seek warriors to
take the fight to the Labyrinth of Night. But is the
story even true?
5. Most seed pods hold three to six Wyeth children.
This one held only a single girl. She claims to be
the Damsel Messiah reincarnated, and asks the
characters to escort her to Battlehymn. Is this rein-
carnation the real deal, or did someone tamper
with the seed pod?
6. Ebbar, a Roundhead scientist, seeks to obtain a
seed pod for experimentation and research. He
hires the characters to steal one for him.
CHARACTERS
1. Spiridon, Wyeth heavy with seed pods, traveling
to the grove (Goes the Distance d10, Carries a
Large Stick d8, Walks Silently d6; Resolve d8;
Trouble: Loner)
2. Nemeain, Wyeth scout patrolling the seedling
grove (Neither Heard nor Seen d10, Knows the
Terrain d8, Expert Tracker d8; Resolve d8; Com-
bat: 1 Strike/1 Stunt; Trouble: Needs to Know All
the Angles First)
3. Diantha, Wyeth guarding Wyela’s seedling grove
(Talks to Trees d10, Formidable Opponent d8,
Soft-Spoken d6; Resolve d6; Combat: 1 Parry/1
Stunt; Trouble: Overly Protective )
4. Kirri, Red Martian thief with a talent for schemes
(Eye for Treasure d10, Seedy Contacts d8, Clever
Trickster d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Overconfident)
5. Marin, Zaiu scavenger with no real plans (Excellent
Spear Throw d10, Oxen Shield d8, Smarter Than He
Looks d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Just One More Drink)
6. Harm, rebellious Pale Martian studying Wyeth
gender identity (Sharp Eye d10, Keen Mind d8,
Immersed in Other Cultures d6; Resolve d6; Trou-
ble: Insecure)
HAZARDS
1. Wyeth husbands can produce pheromones that
induce drowsiness and sleep in potential preda-
tors, which definitely includes any non-Wyeth.
2. Naruk, small monkeys with bright sapphire fur
and sharp teeth, are addicted to the seed pods’
scent. They attack anyone trying to remove a seed
pod.
3. Blood ferns grow nearby, curling and twisting in the
wind. Their leaves are lined with miniscule, barbed
hooks, waiting to entrap any flesh they touch.
129
4. Razor beetles, aplenty in Wyeth, pose no threat
to the bark-skinned Wyeth women. They snack on
the flesh of softer creatures though.
5. The heat in the seedling grove becomes swelter-
ing at noon. It’s perfect for the pods, but fleshlings
suffer burns to their skin and eyes, if left unprotect-
ed.
6. Wyeth are very protective of the seedling grove.
Non-Wyeth, if they even discover the nature of
the Wyeth’s reproductive cycle, must follow a
strict protocol to be admitted. Failure to comply is
punished by death.
Deephome
Far under Wyela, below even the Valley’s moss-covered
floor, lies ancient and slumbering Deephome. Deephome is
a cyclopean construct built by the First Martians on vast
and impossible principles. The mists of eons obscure the
machine’s purpose and its workings, but none of that matters
in these last days. What matters is that Deephome, aban-
doned and sealed when the First Martian civilization was
still young, is in pristine condition. Claiming Deephome is no
easy prize by any stretch of the imagination, but if it can be
done, it would surely be the greatest of all.
HOOKS
1. An ancient, carved stone, rumored to open the
entrance to Deephome, surfaces in Vance’s
black market. Held up to the light of the Crucible
constellation, the carvings map the path to Deep-
home. The map assumes Mars to be as it once
was, and some routes are lost.
2. Ralond, a Red Martian scavenger, approaches
the characters. He has found Deephome and of-
fers to share the glory if they help him explore the
facility. Making inquiries quickly reveals that this
scavenger has a regular partner, but he claims
she found the job too dangerous. Is he being truth-
ful, or did another fate befall her?
3. A mutation of ikkun parasites has begun infecting
the Wyeth women. The women of the first infected
town have already slaughtered each other, and a
second town was burned to prevent the parasite
from spreading. Now, the Wyeth seek help from
outsiders to find the source of the mutation and
stop it.
4. The Arbiter and the Princess Invincible have both
discovered the location of Deephome. They have
equipped teams to claim the lost relic, kicking off
a rat race between Zodiac and Illium. But are the
characters on the actual exploration team, or on
the decoy team sent as sacrificial lambs to lead
the rivals in the wrong direction?
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
5. Deephome becomes active, causing tremors all over
Mars and leading to the partial cave-in of Wyeth
Valley. The city-states scramble to find out what
happened, none more so than the afflicted Wyeth.
The characters are called upon to follow one of the
research leads (eventually taking them to Deep-
home), or steal a rival city-state’s research notes.
6. Legend claims that the only way to find Deep-
home is through krem-induced dreams where the
machine speaks to the worthy. Do the characters
risk addiction to test this legend?
CHARACTERS
1. Shard, Roundhead scholar investigating rumors of
Deephome (Procurer of Ancient Knowledge d10,
Highly On-Task d8, Head of the Class d6; Resolve
d6; Trouble: Relies Solely on Books)
2. Niciama, Wyeth sentinel guarding the deep forest
from fleshlings (Camouflage d10, Silent Killer d8,
Gives One Warning d6; Resolve d6; Combat: 1
Strike/1 Parry/1 Stunt; Trouble: Cold Heart)
3. Riza, Red Martian fixer looking for fame (Comes
Prepared d10, Sharp as a Razor d8, Plays Well
with Others d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Scrawny).
4. Jaliqai, Skarrut bodyguard with nothing better to
do (One With his Weapon d10, Strong Arm d8,
Silent as Nightfall d6; Resolve d8; Combat: 1
Strike/1 Parry; Trouble: Listless)
5. Maruk, Red Martian Cryptozoologist, looking
for new species (Not Afraid of Anything d10,
Font of Knowledge d8, Can Make a Meal Out of
Anything d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Underestimates
Danger)
6. Kuchar, Qan veteran of a dozen expeditions
(Hard Boiled d10, Will Try Anything d8, Steady
hand d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Loyalty Issues)
HAZARDS
1. Deephome lies in the rainforest of Wyeth, which
is one of the most inaccessible regions on Mars.
Dangerous beasts are many, as well as quicksand
and deep chasms.
2. Ikkun parasites cause increasingly-violent halluci-
nations. The Wyeth are immune to the pests, but
creatures made of flesh aren’t.
3. Ikkun hounds, large, red-skinned predators with
rows of razor teeth, are certainly the most danger-
ous species appropriated by the Ikkun parasites.
4. A scavenger found her way to Deephome, only
to be infected by the parasites. She attacks other
Martians on sight, as her hallucinations paint them
into monsters.
130
5. The ghosts of the First Martians once operating
Deephome await on the dust within the machine.
6. The Machine Spirit, tasked with keeping the
First Martians safe, locked Deephome to keep
a parasite infection from spreading. As that act
condemned the Martians already infected, the
omnipresent Spirit malfunctioned. Millennia of
isolation have only furthered its madness.
Ziggur
Sprawling outward from one of the Atmosphere
Processors, Ziggur is ruled by the Roundhead Eu of the
Seven Yellow Silks and his acolytes. It’s a rough city
— Eu’s personal guards dispense law, and there aren’t
enough of them to create the kind of dictatorship some
other city-states enjoy.
Eu is reputed to be a mighty sorcerer and thauma-
turge, and can sometimes be seen surveying his city
from one of the gardened terraces of the Processor. The
exact nature of his personal powers is open to dispute,
but he is commonly believed to have developed abilities
of the mind as far beyond those of other Roundheads as
Roundheads are beyond ordinary Red Martians.
The safest places in the city are the Atmosphere
Processor itself, which serves as Eu’s manse, and the
merchant quarter, where traders from Vance, Surtur,
and other cities maintain a mercenary guard. Most for-
eigners stay in or near the merchant quarter.
The First Martians demolished a substantial complex of
ruins to build the waterway and the Processor, and most of
the surface stones from these ruins have been carried away
to build the houses and hovels of Ziggur. However, the base-
ments of Ziggur are often only a few layers above great ruins
of the Cydonians and other past Martian cultures.
An unusual site lies west of the city: a giant, ridged
dome resembling the head of a tomb stalker, but over a mile
in diameter. The dome can be seen clearly from high points
in Ziggur...as, occasionally, can the small army of lesser tomb
stalkers that prevent any from approaching it. This appears
to be the largest gathering of tomb stalkers anywhere be-
sides the Cydonian Labyrinth of Chiaro-that-was.
Locations
The Processor
There are many atmosphere processors on Mars, by
necessity; in Ziggur the emphasis is on The. This massive en-
gine is the source of the city’s water, its many terraces hous-
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
Illieu prepares a sacrifice
(not shown: a nigh-impossible rescue plan)
ing gardens and orchards that drink before anyone in Ziggur
save Eu and the Yellow Silks. The Roundheads claim to have
built the structure, but its elegant symmetry gives lie to that
claim — no other Roundhead-designed building in the city
has the same grandeur. The Yellow Silks reside in barracks
built into the edifice, and Eu has chosen a particularly-fine
terrace as his manse. Supplicants gather at the Processor
daily to plead for water, and are compelled to attend when
Eu announces another blood sacrifice atop the Scarlet Stair.
HOOKS
1. The sacrifices offered to the Processor are usu-
ally criminals, but exceptions do happen. The
characters learn that a friend of theirs has been
sentenced to the Scarlet Stair for refusing the
advances of a Yellow Silk priest. Such a rescue
could play out in the Processor’s corridors, or on
the Stair itself.
2. The Processor is behaving in a way the Yellow Silks
have never seen before. They grudgingly turn to
outsiders to bring in a Roundhead from another city’s
atmosphere processor to advise them. The pay is
exceptional if the operation’s utter secrecy is guaran-
teed; to admit ignorance would be humiliating.
3. The inhabitants of the Processor are suffering from
a sudden rash of hallucinations and spasms of
131
frenzy. Rumor has it that Eu has fallen ill, and his
fever dreams are infecting those around him. The
characters are commissioned to fetch a rare elixir
to alleviate the Yellow Silks’ suffering and allow
the water to flow safely again.
4. One of the Yellow Silks schemes to replace Eu,
but cannot find catspaws; the locals are too
fearful that Eu will read their plots like an open
book. She turns to the characters with a prop-
osition to sabotage the Processor and discredit
Eu, promising great rewards once she is master
of Ziggur.
5. Every year, Eu commissions an artistic compe-
tition, to add another portrait of himself to his
statuary garden. The creator of the likeness he
finds most flattering receives triple water rations
for a year. The characters may be asked to sab-
otage rival entries, convince Eu that a satirical
work actually flatters him, or even to smuggle
someone inside the garden in a hollow pedi-
ment.
6. One of the Yellow Silks takes a fancy to one of
the characters, and is very surprised to realize it.
It would certainly be a romance fraught with the
spice of danger, as would refusing the priest’s
affections.
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
CHARACTERS
1. Niurt, Roundhead harried Yellow Silk priest (Re-
lies on Status d10, Keeps the Processor Functions
Running d8, Menial Errands d6; Reslove d4;
Trouble: Bottom of the Pecking Order)
2. Obasya, Red Martian concubine to Eu (Waiflike
Charm d10, Slip Unseen Through the Corridors
d8, Epicurean d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Unwitting
Informant to Eu)
3. Darut, Roundhead dispassionate Keeper of the
Sacrifices (Loyal Gaoler d10, Master of Cudgel
and Scourge d8, Self-Taught Anatomist d6; Re-
solve d8; Trouble: Hated By his Underlings)
4. Shemaaz, Roundhead captain of Eu’s personal
guard (Ruthless Duelist d10, Interprets Orders as
Needed d8, Talent for Poetry d6; Resolve d8;
Combat 1 Strike/1 Parry/1 Stunt; Trouble: Divid-
ed Loyalties)
5. Yusut, Red Martian steward of the kitchens (Exacting
Bookkeeping d10, Knowledge of Worldly Cuisine
d8, Underappreciated d6; Resolve d6; Trouble:
Blackmailed for Dipping Into the Private Reserves)
6. Utnish, Roundhead Yellow Silk water-scrivener
(Water Logistics d10, Petty Bureaucratic Mischief
d8, Hard-Hearted d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Most
Hated Person in the Processor)
HAZARDS
1. A poorly-maintained condenser malfunctions,
sending gouts of scalding steam through a corri-
dor and necessitating quick repair.
2. A band of criminals attempts to rescue their com-
rade from the Scarlet Stair, inciting fearful riots as
the Yellow Silks try to quell the crowds.
3. A bookkeeping error cut off a small district’s
water rationing, leading the thirsty and desperate
citizens to protest at the Processor.
4. Razor-billed, short-tempered birds nest among the
upper reaches of the Processor’s tines, making
repair work even more dangerous.
5. The Yellow Silks claim to have disarmed all the death-
traps in the Processor. The truth is that they avoid those
they don’t understand. Beware disused corridors.
6. The guards chosen to escort sacrifices to the Scar-
let Stair are chosen for their stoicism in the face of
blood. Several have begun to enjoy the sight.
The Merchant Quarter
Foreigners in Ziggur usually stay within the bounds of
the merchant quarter, marked by its green roofs and pen-
nants. The area is slightly more prosperous than the rest of
132
the city, noticeably more welcoming, and arguably quite a
bit safer. The traders employ a small regiment of mercenary
guards, recognized by their gold-hued helms and facial scars.
Some exacting city planner laid out the quarter’s establish-
ments to match the geography of Mars itself, so the star-
marked inns catering to Zodiac are close to the skewer-hous-
es selling Chiaro cuisine. In the interests of diplomacy, the
Yellow Silks are officially prohibited from capturing sacrifices
in this quarter, making it a prime haven for escapees.
HOOKS
1. Ordinarily, the authorities look the other way
when valuable visitors bring some of the more
harmless “proscribed goods” into the quarter,
to permit comfort and maintain goodwill. A
rules-minded acolyte is changing that, in an at-
tempt to rise in Eu’s esteem. The acolyte will have
to be discredited, subverted, or vanished, whatev-
er causes the least stir.
2. The merchant guards’ scars are sometimes self-inflict-
ed, but it’s best to have witnesses. A guard is interest-
ed in acquiring some fresh scars in front of a crowd,
if she can find a blade skilled enough not to maim
her in the process, and morally flexible enough not
to mind the dubious honor of the situation.
3. The Yellow Silks are only officially prohibited from
capturing sacrifices in the Merchant Quarter. The ac-
tual rule is “don’t let the foreigners see you make the
capture.” When a fugitive begs for asylum among
the characters, the covert spies of the Yellow Silks
are certainly watching to see what they do.
4. Two merchants from rival cities have built
gray-market empires in the quarter, and each is
looking to edge the other out. Puissant characters
would make fine additional muscle, and there’s
even the opportunity to play both sides if one’s
subtle enough.
5. A recent theft left a merchant without coin to pay
his guards. He turns to the characters for help,
either in quickly acquiring some valuables to keep
the guards in line, or in providing security for a
dangerous but (he assures) very profitable deal.
6. Someone has been poisoning merchants, and
leaving xenophobic threats at the scene. It may
be an attempt to drive out the foreigners, or it may
be a ruse to conceal another series of thefts or the
elimination of rivals.
CHARACTERS
1. Hashmut, Roundhead local justice (Detail-Mind-
ed Legalist d10, Grudging Diplomat d8, Petty
Intrigues d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Irregularities in
the Records)
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
2. Ilnana, Roundhead shrewd fixer (Matching Prob-
lems to Solutions d10, Informants in Odd Places
d8, Fine Print d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: There’s
Always a Catch)
3. Augaste, Pale Martian Chiaro antiquities mer-
chant (Wonders of the Dead For Sale d10, Con-
stant Traveler d8; Gossip From Afar d8; Resolve
d6; Trouble: Macabre Fascination with Grave
Goods)
4. Valut, aging Skarrut mercenary guard (Still In My
Prime d10, Veteran Skirmisher d8, Carousing d6;
Resolve d6; Trouble: Heart Isn’t What It Used To
Be)
5. Turns, Red Martian extortionist bully (Nice Place You
Have Here d10, That Was Clumsy of Me d8, Let’s
Take This Outside d6; Resolve d6; Combat 1 Strike;
Trouble: Underestimates the Wrong People)
6. Urmaa, Zaiu dealer in exotic elixirs (Persuasive
Sales Pitch d10, Alchemy of Narcotics d8, Cut
and Run d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Indulges in the
Finer Distillations)
HAZARDS
1. The ruthless gangs that prowl other portions of
Ziggur sometimes cross over into the Merchant
Quarter, in search of fat purses who’ve neglected
to hire mercenary guards.
2. The problem with mercenaries is keeping them
happy — if they feel unappreciated or underpaid,
they may try to extort additional coin at the point
of a blade.
3. It is prohibited for priests to capture criminals for
sacrifice in the Merchant Quarter, but some dis-
reputable citizens are not above making “citizen’s
arrests” for a kickback.
4. Smugglers trade in everything, even live and dan-
gerous beasts. And some are foolish enough to let
one slip its chains.
5. It’s all too easy for a sick or infected merchant to
bring a contagious affliction to the quarter, and a
good healer’s hard to find.
6. The quarter’s men and women of pleasure have
long had to band together for survival, and they
take the slightest insults with deadly seriousness.
The Yellow Cloister
There’s no mistaking this training hall for aspiring Yel-
low Silks. The ugly pyramid sits near the Processor, its often
mismatched stones smeared with a mustard-colored paint. The
Yellow Cloister is where Roundheads go to rise to the highest tier,
and earn their saffron robes. The training process is designed
133
to grind the creativity and ambition out of them, while keeping
them logical and alert — Eu wants no rivals. Many of the exer-
cises channel the Roundhead intellect into the art of technologi-
cal design, meaning the Cloister also serves a secondary purpose
as a weaponry designer’s think-tank. A number of fascinating
experiments can be found on the upper floors.
HOOKS
1. Many cities’ agents have interests in the various
devices produced by the Cloister’s acolytes. Infil-
trating the Cloister is difficult enough for anyone
who isn’t a Roundhead, but the rewards are hand-
some for bringing out any discarded experiment
that shows promise.
2. A young acolyte chafes at the discipline, and has
deduced that completing the training would actu-
ally dull the mind in unpleasant ways. The charac-
ters are asked to help the Roundhead escape the
Cloister and settle somewhere out from under of
the watchful eye of Eu.
3. The higher up in the pyramid, the more the acolytes
become obsessed with little games of status. Senior
students are prone to hire outsiders as catspaws,
performing strange tasks and recovering unusual
relics to further their own esoteric “scores.”
4. A young genius has applied to the Cloister, but
the trouble is they aren’t a Roundhead. If the
characters can persuade the Dominus-Instructor to
admit the unusual applicant — all the harder for a
Pale Martian, Skarrut, or Zaiu — someday they’ll
have a genuine friend in the Processor, presuming
their friend survives the process.
5. The Cloister’s library is functional, but a long way
from astounding. The Dominus-Instructor is autho-
rized to pay well for strange and esoteric volumes
of science and lore, especially those that can’t just
be found in a book-merchant’s stall.
6. A Zigguran approaches the characters with a story
of revenge, having been wronged by someone
who is now an acolyte of the Cloister. If the acolyte
joins the Yellow Silks, rightful retribution will be all
but impossible. Acolytes are more expendable,
though, and a clever band could perhaps find a
way to seal the vendetta without infuriating Eu.
CHARACTERS
1. Pakul, Roundhead Dominus-Instructor (Shape the
Mind d10, Polymath d8, Administrate the Cloister
d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Very Closely Watched)
2. Akka, Roundhead promising student (Experimen-
tal Engineer d10, Focus on the Task At Hand d8,
Talent for Destruction d6; Resolve d6; Trouble:
Doesn’t Want To Surrender Ambition)
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
3. Ruap, Roundhead commander of the night guards
(Eye Out For Trouble d10, Subdue Interlopers d8, Cre-
ative Interrogator d6; Resolve d8; Combat: 1 Strike/1
Parry/1 Stunt; Trouble: Habit of Dangerous Liaisons)
4. Shurkul, Roundhead armorer-prefect (Weapon
Design d10, If I Can Make It I Can Use It d8,
Intimidating Presence d6; Resolve d8; Trouble:
Fascination with Tyranny)
5. Nium, Roundhead spy from Vance (Conceal Inten-
tions d10, Architect-Engineer d8, Contacts in the
Merchant Quarter d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Hates
the Assignment)
6. Tiok, manipulative Roundhead senior acolyte (Game
of Catspaws d8, Serve the Processor d8, Gloat d6;
Resolve d6; Trouble: Can’t Refuse a Game of Status)
HAZARDS
1. An experimental weapon goes haywire, and can’t
be shut off safely — certainly not by its creator,
who was its first victim.
2. The guards are often overzealous, prone to de-
taining any unfamiliar face that isn’t a Roundhead,
no explanations given.
3. When a servant brings in a foreign illness from
the Merchant Quarter, it quickly spreads in the
cramped barracks.
4. A bullying acolyte has subverted several of the
guards through blackmail, and wants to see them
spread a little fear for the sake of entertainment.
5. Some of the more dangerous alchemical research
required the acquisition of live venomous vermin.
It takes only a moment of carelessness for some of
them to get loose.
6. A flawed alchemical formula floods the Cloister with
dangerous fumes. Will they rise to the senior levels, or
sink to the lower levels and spill out into the streets?
The Inverted Court
Beneath the streets of Ziggur, in the arched vaults of Cy-
donian ruins, the lowest and most cunning gather in a clandes-
tine not-district they call the Inverted Court. Here criminals
keep exacting laws, beggars enforce a tense peace, and almost
anything is for sale. At the Court’s thriving black market, all
the vendors go masked and cloaked by tradition, though their
vizards and satins can range from dark and dour to vibrantly
baroque. The Court cultivates a reputation for bloody danger,
in part to keep out any visitors too timid to fit in.
HOOKS
1. A gang of kidnappers brings a Yellow Silk captive
to the court, with intentions of selling opportunities to
134
avenge old slights. Rescuing the Roundhead could
be a way to earn a favor from Eu’s priests, though it
would require subtlety to avoid angering the court.
2. A jester-masked vendor offers peculiar wonders
for sale, and has uncanny insight into the needs
of the customer — a fertility amulet for a child-
less wanderer, a strange humming dagger for
a woman with a vendetta, and so on. Spy or
savant? Many would like to know, and to divine
the source of these unique oddments.
3. A large criminal house from above plots to absorb
the Court into their territory. They lack the savvy
to outmaneuver the underdwellers, but they have
muscle and bullheadedness on their side. If the
Court loses its independence, its more interesting
facets will surely be lost.
4. A fortuneteller offers a free divination to the charac-
ters, speaking of murderous blades and opportunity in
far locales. Does the vision reflect a rare psychic gift,
or is the fortuneteller attempting to warn the characters
of an intrigue already in motion against them?
5. The largest gambling house offers wagers of
particularly-singular stakes. A player can wager
their personal freedom to gain the unquestioning
services of a skilled fighter, scholar, thief, or advo-
cate. Some of these games are rigged, serving as
a way for one party to hire another “by chance,”
concealing their true intent.
6. The Inverted Court gives up none of their own; if a
courtier assaults or robs a wealthy merchant from
above, it takes dedicated bounty hunters to bring
the offender to aboveground justice.
CHARACTERS
1. Elod, Red Martian Lord of Low Justice (Arbiter of
All Kinds d10, Knows Everyone by Reputation d8,
Encourages Donations d6; Resolve d6; Trouble:
Wanted by the Yellow Silks)
2. Aust, Pale Martian vengeance-monger (Retribu-
tion By the Sword d10, Ruiner of Reputations d8,
Property Damage Will Do d6; Resolve d8; Com-
bat: 1 Strike/1 Parry/1 Stunt; Trouble: Personal
Vendetta Beyond Reach)
3. Izrir, Roundhead scholar of antiquities (Knowl-
edge of the Ruins d10, Wheedling d8, Hide
Behind Bodyguards d6; Resolve d4; Trouble:
Paranoid Obsession with his Studies)
4. Nab, Red Martian innocent waif, guide, and
lookout (Knows the Tunnels d10, Smells a Guard
a League Away d8, Play Innocent d6; Resolve
d6; Trouble: Desperately Needs a Parent)
5. Grist, Red Martian beggar-enforcer (Innocuous
Pile of Rags d10, Keeps the Peace With a Knife
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
d8, Rumormill d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Degenera-
tive Nerve Disease)
6. Hrildr, Pale Martian outcast doctor of Surtur
(Medical Treatment d10, Make Do With What
I’ve Got d8, Exceptional Knife d6; Resolve d6;
Trouble: They’re Still Looking For Me)
HAZARDS
1. The Inverted Court is a place where cutpurses and
robbers of all stripes are free to ply their trade, and they
do so whenever they find a politically-suitable target.
2. Bounty hunters sent from the Merchant Quarter
rarely discriminate between the associates of their
target and people who just happened to be in a
conversation with the target at the time.
3. They say there’s a severed mechanical hand that
crawls the tunnels. It’s the size of an oleph, and
easily crushes flesh and bone like overripe berries.
4. Part of the ruins has been given over to a sewer
system, where fish-like reptiles with long, nee-
dle-toothed jaws prey on smaller vermin and
zealously guard their nests.
5. The more poorly-maintained tunnels are reput-
edly in constant danger of collapse. Many court
members have been lost to the occasional shifting
block or caved-in ceiling.
6. Sickness is easy to come by, whether from expo-
sure to sewage, unwholesome lichens, or spend-
ing too much time around other courtiers.
Zodiac
Towering above the rim of its shallow crater stands
Zodiac the defiant. Zodiac, which needs no waterway.
Zodiac, of a hundred soaring ships. Zodiac, blessed with
the power of artificial flight.
Zodiac is built in the center of a shallow, but lush, oa-
sis-crater. The walls of the crater trap polar moisture, allow-
ing flowers and trees to grow within and without the city.
Whether Zodiac or Illium was the first to develop
artificial flight is a matter of some argument. The flyers
of each city operate on the same principles, and har-
ness the same mysterious anti-gravity element, but oth-
erwise differ vastly in design. Both have possessed the
secret since early in this stage of Martian civilization.
Zodiac shuns the Pale Martians, but welcomes the
Zaius, provided, of course, that the House of the Ar-
biter is kept informed. The Arbiter’s will is said to be
supreme in the heavens. On Mars, it is chiefly supreme
within the bounds of Zodiac and its vassal lands.
135
Powerful as Zodiac’s skyships are, they are matched
by those of Illium, which is more than willing to arm other
city-states should Zodiac’s ambitions become imperial. If
the Arbiter ever shudders, it is because he fears the thought
of Vance and Ziggur armed for war in the heavens.
Locations
The Panopticon
The citadel of the Arbiter is a mirror. The Panopticon
shines with glass of many hues, blown from sands gathered
from across Mars, the reflections of all of Zodiac caught in
its turrets and buttresses. But it also mirrors the Arbiter,
for it is smooth and polished and always cool to the touch.
The tallest of its towers holds one of the grand wonders
of Zodiac, a gleaming orrery of lenses that responds to the
secret words passed down from one Arbiter to the next.
Many would kill to possess it, for it’s said to be as much
weapon as divining tool.
HOOKS
1. The Arbiter grants the characters an audience,
speaking in vague terms of a doom they carry
with them. If they are willing to visit this doom on
an enemy, preferably one far from Zodiac, he will
divine three true answers for them, of any sort.
2. An ambitious astrologer wishes to have a proph-
ecy placed in the Panopticon libraries, to encour-
age the Arbiter to name her as successor. Is the
prophecy false, or true? If true, why the intrigue?
3. A rich employer will give a king’s ransom to
anyone who can slip into the Panopticon, attune
the grand orrery to his time of birth, and bring
back the divination it foretells. He has already
purchased the loyalty of several guards — the rest
is “mere details.”
4. One of the Arbiter’s hand-picked guards was mur-
dered just before a major ritual. The call goes out for
someone with a nativity matching the dead guard’s,
which happens to be one of the characters. It’s a
prestigious opportunity, but whoever wants the ritual
to fail will surely target the replacement.
5. A young noble craves a rendezvous with a
colleague or one of the characters, but it must be
at a specific time on a specific evening, and the
guards make punctuality an issue. The noble’s
beauty is one enticement — the chance to spite a
petty, vindictive spouse who has already offended
the characters is another.
6. The Arbiter has learned of a Pale Martian who is
foretold to have a momentous destiny. The characters
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
The Panopticon,
observatory-palace of the Arbiter.
are employed to find the individual, convince him or
her to accept the Arbiter’s invitation, and then smuggle
the target into the Panopticon. It wouldn’t do to have a
Pale Martian enter through the front door.
CHARACTERS
1. Roshanak, Red Martian Shield of the Arbiter (Tire-
less Bodyguard d10, Unattainably Enticing d8,
Dishonorable Past d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Love
Doomed by the Stars)
2. Zayina, Red Martian handmaiden to the star
charts (Many Irons in the Fire d10, Researcher
d8, Fades Into the Background d6; Resolve d6;
Trouble: Secret Knowledge of Dire Portents)
3. Mussa, Zaiu glass-polisher (Drudge d10, Uninten-
tional Eavesdropper d8, Keeps His Head Down
d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Right Place, Wrong
Time)
4. Feyda, Red Martian would-be consort to the
Arbiter (Seductive d10, Talent for Intrigues d8,
Contacts in the City d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Jeal-
ous of the Wrong People)
5. Alradin, Red Martian appointed spy-catcher (Sees
Through You d10, Hidden Blades d8, Subverts
Enemy Agents d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Conflict-
ing Ambitions)
136
6. Talbur, Zaiu aspiring architect/weaponeer (Lens
Engineering d10, Architect d8, Works at All Hours
d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Frustrated That Nobody
Listens)
HAZARDS
1. Several of the guards are jostling for promotion,
and quick to “spot evidence” that visitors are
secretly thieves, or spies for another city.
2. The maze of reflections makes it very easy to
unintentionally eavesdrop on an event happening
two halls away. It is not unheard of to be drawn
into lethal intrigues against one’s will.
3. The Panopticon is an unparalleled stage for a
beautiful duel, and certain assassins loiter in its
public courts, eager to take offense with “foreor-
dained” prey.
4. When one of the lens weapons misfires into a
crystalline tower, the tower refracts the beam into
100 lesser searing rays. Chaos in the palace
ensues.
5. Many of the upper balconies used for stargazing
are also ideal locations for assassination attempts.
A simple push, and a victim plummets to land on
hard stone or unyielding crystal.
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
6. The sunlight at sunset during the equinoxes strikes
a particular northern beacon at just the right an-
gle to create kaleidoscopic refractions throughout
the tower. The refractions induce violent hallucina-
tions in those caught within the lights.
The Slanted Grove
The Slanted Grove rings the city as the procession of
star signs rings the night sky. The lush gardens and orchards
that feed the city are interspersed with 12 lesser parks, each
one housing a shrine to one of the zodiacal signs. The lesser
parks are, of course, popular spots for mediation, assigna-
tions, performances, and duels. They can even go largely
unnoticed, if one is daring enough to hold an event in a park
where the ruling sign is considered unlucky for the endeavor.
When two people meet in the Slanted Grove, for reasons of
love or war, it is considered foreordained.
HOOKS
1. The masters of the larger orchards pay exception-
ally well for rare plants. At present, the bulbs of
certain cultivars of constella-lilies fetch outrageous
sums in Zodiac and beyond. Status-seekers are
willing to risk bankruptcy to own these precious
flowers with the stars written in their petals.
2. The annual census of the Slanted Grove is a
solemn occasion, thick with ritual. The order of the
gardens is meant to reflect the order of the skies.
More than one gardener or even shrine-priest
is willing to hire clever rogues to help them trick
the Nominators, obscuring their true resources in
favor of something more respectably ordered.
3. At the great Conjunctional Festival, astrologer-priests
of the 12 shrines offer prizes to whoever can provide
the most moving testimonial about how their birth sign
aided them in a time of great need. They don’t even
care if the stories are true, as long as they’re inspira-
tional. Their rivals, though, might feel differently.
4. A priest fears she won’t go into labor in time for
her child to be born under the right sign. She insists
on a particular elixir made by a hermit alchemist
in the deserts outside Zodiac. She offers esoteric
blessings as a reward if the characters can retrieve
it before the sun passes from the house of her sign.
5. Two shrines are feuding over a donated work
of art that was begun under one star sign and
completed under the next. The characters are the
closest thing to impartial judges they can find.
6. A strange poison is seeping into the roots of an
orchard, apparently from below. The characters are
offered exotic alchemical rewards if they can explore
the lower tunnels of Zodiac and discover the source,
whether accident of nature or deliberate sabotage.
137
CHARACTERS
1. Zafir, Red Martian freelance duelist looking for
work (Taunting Manipulator d10, Canny Swords-
man d8, Trades on his Reputation d6; Resolve d8;
Combat: 1 Strike/1 Parry/1 Stunt; Trouble: Debts
Almost Without Number)
2. Safeera, Pale Martian shrine maiden to the Lost
Child (Soothsayer d10, Secret Cutthroat d8, Vul-
nerable Charm d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Burden
of Orphans’ Vengeance)
3. Iasmina, Red Martian black-market gardener
(Psychotropic Gardener d10, An Extract for Every
Taste d8, Silver-Tongued Barterer d6; Resolve d6;
Trouble: Under Threat of Acquisition)
4. Nasreen, Red Martian idle noble with peculiar
goals (Carouser and Gallivanter d10, Money-
lender d8, Amateur Astrologer d6; Resolve d6;
Trouble: Prisoner of Own Superstition)
5. Pira, young, disreputable Red Martian fog-monkey
trainer (Surprisingly Nimble d10, Fetch It While
Nobody’s Looking d8, Perfectly Innocuous d6;
Resolve d6; Trouble: Authorities Are Catching On)
6. Jafal, temporarily-embarrassed Zaiu scholar-poet
(Esoterically Verbose d10, Between Situations d8,
Thirsty for Opportunity d6; Resolve d6; Trouble:
Offended the Wrong People)
HAZARDS
1. In order to protect their precious crop of sap-
phire-pears, a family has taken to loosing semi-
trained glitterspindles in their orchards during the
evening. A few of the surly arachnids have begun
to roam.
2. The rivalry between the Desert Spider and River
shrines has grown worse of late, with each shrine
recruiting bands of bully-bravos to harass their
neighbor’s faithful.
3. When a meteor shower is predicted, the gardens
fill up with gamblers wagering on the starfalls. The
most potent liquors are produced for the event,
and often the sharpest knives.
4. Some gardeners grow poisonous fruits that are
easily mistaken for more succulent fare. A few
hide these trees among their more harmless rela-
tives, and allow would-be thieves to test the year’s
toxicity.
5. A few orchards attract rapacious birds that can
easily maim anyone drawing near without the
appropriate metal cage-masks.
6. Some of the trysts in the Orchard are more forbid-
den than others, and protected by overzealous
guards.
 CHAPTER THREE: CIVILIZATION
The Shipyards
Outlanders would argue that the bristling towers of
Zodiac’s shipyards are as magnificent a treasure as the
Panopticon itself. Here, workers sling themselves from
silken lines and clamber across lattices of scaffolding to
assemble the elegant starsailors, or to clean and repair
the veteran skyships resting at their elevated quays. The
shipyards’ overseers are selected from those with the most
auspicious nativity charts, for the strength of Zodiac must
be husbanded by the luckiest as well as the wisest. Dashing
captains sell transport across the skies even to outsiders, as
long as the omens are good and the price is appropriate.
HOOKS
1. The annual Dust Regatta is about to begin.
Wealthy and unscrupulous ship owners are
always looking for talented free agents to en-
sure them a win in the aerial race, whether hired
aboard their own ship or smuggled aboard a
rival’s.
2. A skyship captain made a wager that he can
retrieve a jewel from the floating ruin of Cycnus,
and rashly swore an oath on his birth stars to suc-
ceed. The captain is in desperate need of blades,
enough so to recruit them in any way possible.
3. An Illium spy attempts to infiltrate the shipyards
and learn the latest secrets of Zodiac shipbuild-
ing. The characters could be enlisted either to aid
the spy’s efforts, or to thwart them. It promises an
opportunity to rise in the esteem of either city (and
fall in the other’s), but beware of learning too
much…
4. A message from the Arbiter must reach the other
side of Mars, and at all possible speed. The
skyship Flare is hiring security for the voyage,
including outsider blades. They clearly anticipate
some danger that can attack from the skies — an Il-
lium warship, great predatory birds, or something
else?
5. A Zodiac skyship limps into port, badly damaged.
Its crew spins a tale of being attacked by a flying
ship manned by corsairs. Where could they have
gotten such a thing? The Arbiter immediately plac-
es a massive bounty on their heads, with triple
rewards if the stolen ship is brought back as well.
6. The shipwrights have discovered that a wondrous
glass-like metal drawn from ancient ruins has
excellent promise in creating more powerful and
reliable gravity engines. A hollow mountain filled
with such ruins becomes the site of a new gold
rush, with ample opportunity for profit.
138
CHARACTERS
1. Azimuth, eccentric Red Martian genius shipwright
(Skyship Engineering d10, Risky Modifications
d8, Cheerful Soliloquy d6; Resolve d6; Trouble:
Embarrassing His Rivals)
2. Antaryaz, Skarrut captain of security (Watching
For Foreigners d10, Capable Warrior d8, Pious
d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Targeted By Illium Spies)
3. Tiefa, nimble Zaiu bread-seller to the workers (Up
and Down the Scaffolds d10, Overhears Things
d8, Fine Breads For Sale d6; Resolve d6; Trouble:
Ailing Mother)
4. Masruun, Red Martian rabblerousing labor
leader (Rally the Workers d10, Skyship Engineer-
ing d8, Good with a Hammer d6; Resolve d8;
Trouble: Reputation as a Troublemaker)
5. Rahaz, Red Martian freelance navigator (Recall
Charts from Memory d10, Reading the Stars d8,
Old Skysailor’s Tales d6; Resolve d6; Trouble:
Urge To See Ancient Wonders)
6. Taburo, Pale Martian emotionless smuggler
(Intricate Planner d10, The Value of Things d8, It’s
Only Business d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Neglected
Family)
HAZARDS
1. When a plank, hammer, or gutter-torch falls from
a workman’s hand, or when a workman falls
entirely, the ricochets off the scaffold and spars
could send it, or them, in any direction.
2. Dangerous work means dangerous workers.
Some criminals work off their sentences in the
slings, but not all of them lose their taste for blood.
3. A crippled skyship lists in its dock, damaging the
tower to the point of possible collapse.
4. A saboteur strikes at a skyship under construction,
using explosives to bring it crashing to earth, and
possibly the docking tower as well.
5. A sniper chooses one of the higher towers to
take shots at a dignitary touring the construction
facilities, and any other targets of opportunity that
strike their fancy.
6. A damaged gravity engine begins leaking terrible
alchemical toxins, as likely to mutate a Martian’s
flesh as choke their lungs or hemorrhage their
veins.
The Shrouded District
Every city requires its underclass. In Zodiac, those
unlucky enough to be born under unfortunate con-
junctions, or even under those less-reputable star signs,
 C iti es and Reg i o ns
gather in the Shrouded District. The Inauspicious,
as they’re known, range from beggars and criminals
to honest drudges — certainly more honest than the
charlatan priests who make good business selling “lucky
hours” where beneficial stars might temporarily offset
one’s poor fate. The rough and asymmetrical district
attracts most foreign visitors, as there are no secrets to
steal here, and the luck of the Inauspicious isn’t some-
thing that can rub off on the more fortunately born.
HOOKS
1. Once a month, the priests of the ruling sign gather
to transfer children; those born Inauspicious are
given to the families of the district, while those
born into the district to luckier signs are escorted
to new homes. The event always sees a few peo-
ple try to hide, reclaim, or switch their children.
2. A heretical priest is preaching a creed that
describes the zodiacal signs as equal in celestial
fortune, and blames the low status of the Inauspi-
cious as human error. The priest is rapidly gaining
followers, which worries certain figures in the
Panopticon. But doomed causes have a way of
drawing heroes…
3. A beautiful youth approaches the characters for
assistance, claiming to have been born under a
nobler sky. It is a tale of jealous rivals who forged
a false nativity chart, and had the youth con-
demned as Inauspicious. If the characters obtain
proof of the true birth, they’d gain a most grateful
friend in high standing — assuming the story’s true.
4. An alchemist is attempting to refine a variant of
krem that would allow the partaker to view the
turning heavens in their true glory. Unfortunate-
ly, there are still some flaws in the product, and
a friend of the characters falls very ill, gasping
about the pitiless space between the stars.
5. A small group of Pale Martians have settled
into the district, much to the displeasure of many
neighbors. The dislike appears to be mutual,
leading many to question what it is they truly seek
in Zodiac. The theory is that they keep some First
Martian secret that must be unlocked by the key
of Zodiacal religious knowledge: two traditions
like two parts of a sundered amulet.
6. A scruffy insect breeder has developed a strain of
scintilla-scarabs that are practically identical to the
pedigreed pets of the highest-class districts. Other
breeders want to extinguish this business expedi-
ently, before their own prized strains become less
singular, and therefore less valuable.
139
CHARACTERS
1. Jokul, Zaiu roustabout and muscle-broker (Knows
Someone d10, Back Alley Brawler d8, Nose For
Trouble d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: No Such Thing
As Enough Coin)
2. Masreena, Red Martian philanthropic noble in
disguise (Tend To the Ailing d10, Earnest Intensity
d8, Elude the Family Guards d6; Resolve d6;
Trouble: Forbidden To Enter the Quarter)
3. Anrafir, Red Martian errant priest of an unlucky
sign (Visionary Soothsayer d10, Star Ritualist d8,
Petty Cutpurse d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Never
Leaves Well Enough Alone)
4. Shehab, “the Meteor,” Red Martian displaced
blade-for-hire (Merciless Reputation d10, Bru-
tal Fighting Style d8, Scrounging for Work d8;
Resolve d8; Combat: 1 Strike/1 Parry/1 Stunt
Trouble: Ruined a Prominent Marriage)
5. Rubiyar, Red Martian gossip and fortuneteller
(Rumormonger d10, A Hundred and One Divina-
tions d8, Always Moving d6; Resolve d6; Trouble:
Blasphemer)
6. Qalif, Red Martian beggar and assassin (Un-
expected Blades d10, Simply a Poor Maimed
Beggar d8, Cautious Observer d6; Resolve d10;
Trouble: Bent by Weighty Responsibilities)
HAZARDS
1. Though it’s highly illegal, small bands of thrill-seek-
ing, high-class citizens come slumming incognito
to prey on the Inauspicious, and also upon any
unfortunate witnesses.
2. When either moon crosses into one of the inaus-
picious zodiacal constellations, the district erupts
into a festival during which all laws are rescinded.
3. Shipyard workers maimed in accidents come
to the Shrouded Quarter to beg. Some turn to
robbery, convinced they’re still more star-favored
than the Inauspicious.
4. A gang of superstitious youths decides to do
something about their poor fortune, and begins
waylaying outsiders to prove that someone’s
worse off than they are.
5. A sickness spreads through the district. The Arbiter
declares it part of the inevitable misfortune of the
Inauspicious, and dispatches only a token force of
overworked doctors.
6. The quarter is home to many cheap distilleries
catering to the unlucky. The signature spirit, nadir,
tends to make drunks melancholic — and some-
times, nihilistically violent.
 My name is Étienne, and I’m the unluckiest man on Mars. Wait, let me go back.
Six weeks ago, I found a scale the size of a dinner plate. When I tried to hide it in
some machinery, I found another one. Just as I picked that one up, Issac (my boss’s
son, and too intense for my own good) walked by. And he wanted to go tell Ms.
Turhan himself, right now. Now, I was more than happy to give him all the credit,
but he dragged me along, too.
So, I found myself explaining to the Captain how these aren’t even the first scales
I’ve seen, and yes, probably I could point the locations out on a map. I mean, I made
those maps. Next thing I know I’m dangling in a rope harness above the central
block. Well, the block that’s at the center of our maps at least — I think we’re actually
southwest of the true center of the complex. But I’m swaying there in the stillness,
shining a penny-light down the midline, looking for a hidden cul de sac my sounding
says should be there. Unfortunately, I find it.
Two miserable tugs on my leash and down I go, slowly spinning as the rope twists.
And I wince almost before I hear the snap. The water I splash into is slimy with
algae, but fresh enough, and takes my fall without much complaint. It is, however,
absolutely devoid of fish. So I sigh, and wonder what they’ll tell my mother when
they can’t recover the body. I walk down the bank of the canal, and try to cheer myself
up by composing my obituary, but I feel this terrible ache in my ears and teeth and
the soles of my feet. Perhaps nothing will get a chance to eat me, and the tunnel will
collapse instead. It’s less exciting than being devoured by a monster, but maybe it’s
more respectable to be crushed by stones instead of sharp teeth.
That happy thought lasts just until I round the next corner, when I see something
that might be a Pale Martian, all dour and wide in the face, but attached to a body
twice as long as the cargo ship I rode to get from Chiaro to Vance. It opens its mouth
and flicks a tongue as long as my arm. Then it cocks its head, and my eardrums
shake like they’re going to pop out of my skull again.
I fell, I guess. There was a lot of blood in my corneas when I came to, floating in
the canal a mile or so from where I landed. Issac picked me up once I made it to an
emergency beacon, and asked me what I saw. So I told him (and then the Captain)
the whole awful story, but all they wanted to know is how soon I can go back, and
what I think it said.
I’m not quite sure, but I think the answer to both questions is “no”.
 Beyond the calls of the water sellers and the courtesans, beyond the struggling farms that dot the canals, lie
spectacles and treasures to tempt the imagination, and beasts and horrors to chill the blood. This chapter surveys
just some of the thousands of exotic and deadly locales of the Red World.
As in the previous chapter, locations are presented with lists of characters, story hooks, and hazards. They are
again numbered so you can roll a d6 to pick some out and dive right in.

The Poles
Modern Mars is a desolation of sand and loss com-
pared to the green Mars the First Martians thrived on. The
dead ocean of Arcadia is testament to what the world has
lost since the Firsts’ passing. Scholars say it is the winds out
of space that dry the world, curing it like peppered meat.
And they say that once the world was protected, once it
was held between two great godly hands, shielded like a
match lit in a windstorm. But in these fallen times, one
hand is lost, the other weakens, and cold cosmic winds
threaten to snuff the world right out.
The Ancients saw the dangers and, like the thin-
ning atmosphere, and built wonders to counter the en-
tropy they found so abhorrent in nature. They raised
the Pillars, north and south, situating them upon the
exact points of the planet’s rotational axis. Until ones
makes pilgrimage to North Pillar, it is almost impossible
to conceive of the scale of these artifacts. North Pillar
is a cylinder of the same glossy, black, impossibly-strong
material in the Atmosphere Processor ziggurats. It is al-
most exactly 100 miles in circumference, and roughly
31 miles across. What truly challenges the mind is the
height of the edifice. Near as can be estimated, North
Pillar is 10,000 miles high, and capped with an enor-
mous ringlike structure that remains fixed in place, rel-
ative to the motion of Mars — and therefore, the rota-
tion of North Pillar — beneath it. This ring structure is
so black and unreflective that it can only be observed
when it obstructs the light from stars.
Thus, the Pillar socketed into the black ring struc-
ture rotates with the motion of the world, and like a
dynamo, generates weird forces. The chief measurable
effect is the creation of an invisible protective shield,
which, were the system functioning properly, would
shield Mars from the slow death of desiccation and suf-
focation of the baleful black of hungry space.  
North Pillar continues to grind, the ancient systems
straining to shield the world alone, while South Pillar lies
broken, victim to the cataclysms of some ancient eon.
Where North Pillar is a place of awe, of contagious religi-
osity, the Southern Black Rubble is a haunted place raw
with loss and the triumph of entropy. When the South
Pillar shattered, it rained down millions of tons of the
shiny black material of its making, devastating the region,
leaving broken chaos terrain, crater, and devastation.
Above the Southern Rubble, the ring still floats, locked
in place opposite its still-socketed northern fellow. From

142
 The Poles
within this black object, a weird purple light shines, al-
most invisible to the eyes of most modern Martians. The
empty socket pours out this eerie, cold radiance, and it
makes some minerals and materials glow, including teeth.
If the religious are called to the north, then the hopeless
are drawn south. It is a place stage-dressed perfectly for
the most romantic, heartbroken suicide.
North
Plains of the Pillar
The cold plains of the Martian north were once
sea, the most striking remnants of which can be seen
in the silts and dead coral of Arcadia, though the ice of
the north was also once living ocean. Spearing upwards
from this tundra is the North Pillar, visible on most days
from 100 miles all around, though it is often hidden in
the storms and clouds of the region. The pillar defies
the mind to encompass it, and the eye bargains with
reality, trying to haggle the scale down to something un-
derstandable, but the pillar’s height cannot be so com-
fortably rationalized. When observed from the limit at
which it can be clearly seen, it is an inky slash drawn
from the horizon to vanish above. In the half-year po-
lar night, it is almost completely invisible. During the
day, it’s a featureless black line dividing the sky. As one
nears the base of the pillar, the scale begins to threaten
sanity, and it becomes obvious why so many cults are
born in the north. At the base, the pillar is wide as a
city, featureless, shiny, slick, and black.
Clustered around the base at regular intervals are
the 100 Temples of the Red Bone Bloom, where a ren-
egade sect of Roundheads worship and contemplate
the enormity of the pillar. They once were among those
sent north to tend to the canal heads, which are fed
from the polar icepack, but become so enraptured that
they stayed, and others of their kind have since been
drawn to fill their ranks. Most of their “temples” are
little more than hermitages, where a single acolyte sits
in meditation, in psychic rapport with the Roundheads
in the temples on either side of theirs. The largest of
their temples, and one fully deserving of the name, is
north of the Bone Annals, and is built from blocks of
bedrock shaped with psychokinetic force. There dwells
the cult’s Most Holy, the Roundhead who most perfect-
ly demonstrates the philosophies of the religion. With
regular exposure to the unseen radiations and psychic
emanations of the pillar, a roundhead may expand their
consciousness and the vessel of their consciousness,
143
until the sutures of their skull finally burst, freeing the
brain to emerge from the red bone bloom of the cult’s
name. The Most Holy is an enormous, livid red brain
enveloped in and carried by a field of psychic force, en-
gorged with power and trailing spinal nerves like ten-
drils. Aspirants of the cult all show signs of cranial com-
pression, beyond even that of ordinary Roundheads. As
they near their own apotheosis, the skin of their heads
stretches and tears, weeping blood, until finally the
brain is freed in a burst of bone and gore.
The adherents to Red Bone Bloom are increasingly
bound to the proximity of the pillar, as they depend on it
more and more for psychic sustenance. The more advanced
their transformation, the closer they must keep. But not all
the dwellers of the Northern Pillar Region are so constrained.
The Tribes of Ur and Wur roam the cold north,
cloaked head to foot in furs, and wearing elaborate masks,
each unique. The Tribes do not seem to hunt and do not
trade; indeed none have ever see members eat or remove
their masks or furs. They have a stature twice the height
of a Red Martian, but a thinness in keeping with the Pale
Martian people — though under the furs, this is difficult
to judge. If attacked, they reply with hoots and gleeful vi-
olence, using weapons improvised from horns, tusks, and
jawbones. None are ever known to have died, and no
small ones suggesting children are ever seen. When they
can be induced to speak, they do so in the same language
and accent of the one speaking to them, to a degree some
find mocking. They will sometimes demand to be given
things others carry with them, insisting that it be “made a
gift, make a gift of it” and they demand that when given,
their name be spoken. “Say you give this to Olok. Say you
make a gift to Olok.” Sometimes, they will give gifts, insist-
ing the gift be acknowledged with the use of their name.
“Say, you thank Olok for the gift.” There is a quality of
ritual to these exchanges, and the air is pregnant with vi-
olence until the names are spoken as demanded. What
only a few travelers know is that these immortal giants
are not whole creatures. Some cataclysm robbed them of
something essential, some element of self. Their masks are
their identities, their names only remembered as long as
they are regularly reminded of them. Without its mask,
the blank pale face of a tribesman stares questioning, exis-
tentially emptied of self. And, even stranger, all members
of Ur and Wur will consider anything wearing a mask to be
the individual or thing it depicts. Wear Olok’s mask, and
to the tribe, you are Olok, even if you are merely a mortal
come by a mask through accident or adventure.
The northern region is also lousy with mad proph-
ets, doomsday cults, gurus, and truthseekers. There are
 CHAPTER FOUR: A WORLD OF ADVENTURE
several rather famous pleasure resorts just on the edge
of the region, but still in sight of the Pillar, promising re-
fined and enlightened debauchery for the wealthy and
the bored who wish their gluttony given a sauce of spiri-
tuality, and their orgies the perfume of holiness. Among
these the House of the Black Pillar is the most famous,
and its master Chopo Congreico justly infamous.
HOOKS
1. A young Roundhead of the characters’ good ac-
quaintance abandons her duties, and leaves only
a cryptic note in the clipped efficient shorthand of
her people. SELF depart NorWes 334 degrees
- Dest. N.Pillar - ENTITY OTHER worry/negative
- SELF preparations/positive - SELF return/nega-
tive - SELF -> ENTITY OTHER affection/positive/
eternal. SELF DESIG. HUMMA ALDABARA SEC-
OND SINGLE CHILD SIGMA SIGMA. Young
Humma’s crèche-mother is concerned, despite the
assurances of Humma’s words... ENTITY OTHER
worry/negative. The characters and Humma’s
crèche-mother are most certainly worry/positive.
2. An expedition left Vance two weeks ago, led by
Doctor Deruga Sheol, the imminent expert on the
Northern Pillar’s construction and function. They
travel a complex route, which ultimately will bring
them to the base of the pillar, where Doctor Sehol
will deploy their hyperflash photoexcavator in
an effort to remove a sample of pillar material
for testing. The mechanism acts like a scaled-up
flintlock, with more exquisitely-refined focusing
elements. They rate their chance of success very
highly. All seems well, except for the furor erupt-
ing from the Astrologers’ quarter. A new disaster
looms over the world, then falls… unless someone
can intervene.
3. Famed Pillar Region explorer Brandywine Cutter
is missing, andpresumed lost. According to the
terms of her will, death must be confirmed and
witnessed — which was probably a deliberate
joke on her part, since given her avocation, she
was always most likely to die somewhere awful,
freezing, and remote.   Scholar d12, Inventor of Strange Scientific Instru-
4. The refined debauchery of Chopo Congreico’s
House of the Black Pillar attracts the wealthy and
the powerful, and among that number many who
prefer to do business while soaking in perfumed
water, sweating in a sauna, or cavorting with
nubile, professionally-attractive youths. Getting ac-
cess to the people and the information they need
leads the characters to Congreico’s establishment.
How they enter is up to them.
5. By way of messengers, Brother Face of the Red
Bone Bloom summons the characters at the re-
144
quest of an exceptional acolyte about to experi-
ence the bloom, and their apotheosis. The young
Roundhead wishes their last moments of confine-
ment with their chrysalis to be witnessed by those
who knew them in life.
6. Most Holy is missing! Their temple chambers
lie empty, with the crackling residue of psychic
struggle all that remains. Brother Face admits one
of his order’s great secrets — that they cannot long
survive separation from the pillar. If the Most Holy
is not recovered, the enormous ancient brain and
all the wisdom and power it contains will be lost.
CHARACTERS
1. Most Holy, eldest of the Red Bone Bloom, enor-
mous floating psychic brain (Entity of Pure Thought
and Psychic Force d12, The Poetics of Ancient
Engineering d10, Cult Politics d8, Resolve d12;
Trouble: A limbless, senseless, floating brain that
cannot leave the Pillar lest it wither away)
2. Brother Face, the Red Bone Bloom acolyte
tasked with speaking with outsiders, still reason-
ably presentable (Enhanced Psychic Force d10,
Open Honest Face d8, Defend the Order with
What Strength He Has d6, Resolve d8; Trouble:
Wracked with pain from his slowly splitting skull)
3. Chopo Congreico, master of the House of the
Black Pillar and many other famously erect things
(Deliciously Naughty Procurer of Exotic Pleasures
d12, Beneath the Pomp, a Shrewd Head for
Business d10, Knows all the Dirt d10, Resolve d8;
Trouble: Knows all the dirt but knows all the dirt)
4. Brandywine Cutter, adventurer and expert on
the pillar region, expedition leader, and master
brak sled driver (“I’ve seen this before!” d10, “It’s
simple, when you’ve got the nerve to give it your
all!” d8, “I’m Brandywine! Who might you be?”
d8, Resolve d12; Trouble: Expert at survival, but
no sense of her own mortality)
5. Doctor Deruga Sheol, monomaniacal student of
First Martian wonders, only partially possessed by
ancient ghosts, only nominally sane (First Martian
ments and Tools d10, Utter Spite for Lesser Minds
d8, Resolve d8; Trouble: His science might end
the world, and he may or may not care even if he
knew)
6. Humma Aldabara, Second Single Child Sigma
Sigma, promising young Roundhead experienc-
ing a crisis of personal meaning and a rebellious
phase (First Student in Her Crèche’s Mentalism
Coursework d8, Idealistic But Restless Truth Seek-
er d6, Dreams of an Elder Age d6, Resolve d8;
Trouble: Hopelessly Naive)
 The Poles
THREATS
1. The North Pillar Region is cold and savage.
Nothing grows here, so what lives in the region
lives by predation. Eat or be eaten.
2. The Ur and Wur are erratic and mercurial, intel-
ligent enough to seem clairvoyant, and given to
inexplicable cruelty.
3. The pillar itself seems to hum, rumble, and bur-
row into the mind. Stare too long at it, and a sort
of hypnosis steals time; look up and hours have
passed. It is the unmistakable proof that others
came before you, that they were mighty, and that
you would be an insect in their eyes. Madness and
religious mania are constant threats in the north.
4. The wastes are full of prophets and hermits and
cultists and seekers, many with only a tenuous
grasp on reality, and aching bellies that faith
alone won’t fill. That they’ve survived at all means
their knives are sharp, and their religions forgiv-
ing of the occasional bout of cannibalism.
5. Heavily-armed parties of soldiers out of Devotion,
Heartbreak, Dread, and Patience patrol the fring-
es of the North Pillar Region, seeking to contain
its strangeness, and stop any along the major
routes who look like they may endanger the
pillar, anger the Ur and Wur, or encourage the
maniacs to organize and make trouble for those
outland of the Pillar’s shadow.
6. The weather itself can be a killer — blowing salt,
wind cold enough to freeze tears, and erratic
storms of swirling snow, dust, and lightning.
The Bone Annals
Far in the desolate north, past Chiaro, past even
Zodiac the Defiant, lies a great storehouse of the First
Martians. What name they gave it is lost to time, but
scholars who brave the tundra to seek its mysteries name
it the Bone Annals, for every text, every image, even the
very halls themselves are made from the bones of living
things. Oleph legbones are the pillars holding up a roof
of interwoven vertebrae from beasts great and small, and
shelves of ribcages are filled with rattling wisdom. Poems
are delicately etched on the scapulae of Wyeth deer. Re-
cords of the lives of great Martians past are carved into
skulls, the text impossibly small and winding dizzyingly
along the contours of the bones. Even learning to follow
the flow of the text, to use the intricate array of magni-
fying lenses required to render the letters legible, is the
work of years, but for those willing to take the journey
and pay the scholar’s fees set by the Osseous Bibliognost,
the rewards are incalculable.
145
HOOKS
1. The keeper of the Bone Annals is a strange figure
in voluminous kaftans and a bone mask; scholars
who wish to peruse the Annals must pay her in
kind. She prefers skeletal writings (which, while
rare in other First Martian ruins, aren’t unheard
of), but will accept more traditional texts. She’ll
also accept bones of sufficient quality or rarity
— though what exactly that entails is anyone’s
guess.
2. An astrologer from Zodiac will pay a vast fortune
for an ancient orrery carved from the jaws of
a dune lion. Since the Bone Annals are a strict-
ly non-lending library, retrieving it will require
getting in undetected and hauling the seven-meter
jaws out — all without alerting the Bibliognost or
her clattering servitors.
3. A Chiaran scholar hires bodyguards for a jour-
ney to the Annals. As payment for her access,
she brings a rare treasure: the Life of St. Eccius,
etched with painstaking detail into the saint’s own
skull. Unfortunately, the Pious Assemblage of St.
Eccius takes exception to the theft of their relic.
4. A rare polar storm tears up the permafrost and
the dust beneath it. A storm of ghosts is now bear-
ing down on the Annals, all eager to reclaim their
bones.
5. In an ancient ruin in the Nowhere Plains, rumor
tells of a machine that can reconstitute the dead
from but a single flake of bone. A debased cult
has found the ruin, and even now its agents make
for the Bone Annals, where the spine of their twist-
ed messiah rests in the Political History stacks.
6. The Osseous Bibliognost sends tiny, skeletal au-
tomata to the greatest scholars across Mars, invit-
ing them to a symposium where the merits of their
work will be judged, and the one deemed wisest
will be richly rewarded. In truth, the Bibliognost is
dying, and the competition is her way of selecting
a worthy replacement to be flensed down and
made into a thing like her.
CHARACTERS
1. The Osseous Bibliognost, mysterious keeper of
the Annals (Secrets of the Ages d10, Terrifying
Apparition d8, Vicious Bony Talons d6; Resolve
d12; Combat: 2 Strike/2 Parry/1 Stunt; Trouble:
Slowly Falling Apart)
2. Kulak, Zaiu scholar and trophy hunter (Concise
History of Illium d10, Backbiting Academic Poli-
tics d8, Oleph-Caliber Flintlock d6; Resolve d8;
Combat: 1Strike/2 Stunt; Trouble: Wanted for
Poaching)
 CHAPTER FOUR: A WORLD OF ADVENTURE
3. Krew the Undertaker, opportunistic Skarrut mor-
tician (Solemn, Dignified Front d10; Lying Little
Weasel d8, Every Bone Has its Price d6; Resolve
d6; Trouble: Completely Morally Bankrupt)
4. Attilar, deranged Red Martian cultist (The Gibber-
ing Truth of Ithnol d10, Zealotry d8, Sacrificial
Dagger d6; Resolve d8; Combat: 3 Stunt; Trouble:
The Mask is Slipping)
5. Itli the Scrivener, Pale Martian Bone Carver (An
Artist in Ivory d10, Attention to Detail d8, Steady
Hands d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Why Are the
Skulls Talking to Me?)
6. Shinton the Apprentice, Roundhead novitiate
(Ambition d10, Eyes That Take in Everything d8,
Friends in Surprisingly Low Places d6; Resolve d8;
Combat: 1 Strike/1 Parry/1 Stunt; Trouble: Only
a Matter of Time Before the Bibliognost Detects
the Forgery)
HAZARDS
1. The Osseous Bibliognost is served by a variety
of automata constructed of bone and wire and
strange, ancient technology. Some of these serve
as docents or cataloguers, but a cadre of things
the size and shape of Pale Martians, the Clatter-
ing Hoplites (Bony Jaws and Osseous Claws d8;
Bone Armor d8; Feel Neither Pain Nor Pity d6;
Resolve d6; Combat: 2 Strike/1 Stunt; Trouble:
Limited Sapience) act as guards and enforcers.
2. The Bibliognost prohibits violence or the disrup-
tion of scholarly work, but academia can be a
vicious tangle of rivalries and political backstab-
bing. Unwary visitors often find themselves drawn
into proxy wars between the rival department
chairs of distant universities.
3. All who would study at the Bone Annals must pay
for the privilege up front. Should the guest over-
stay his welcome, or should the payment prove
less impressive than it first seemed, the Osseous
Bibliognost has been known to extract the re-
mainder of the payment from the debtor’s skeletal
system.
4. Not all the knowledge stored in the Bone Annals
is wholesome. Even scholars who can get past the
fact that their reading material is written on dead
things might stumble across a frank description
of how to build an ancient superweapon, or a
mathematical theorem that unlocks a means of
commanding the ghost storm.
5. Should the Annals ever be compromised, the
Osseous Bibliognost can, with a single command,
cause the entire library to sink beneath the ice,
never to be seen again.
148
6. Sterilization is not a part of the Bone Annals’ col-
lections process. It’s entirely possible some ancient
work still bears enough organic matter to host
a hibernating plague, just waiting for a luckless
carrier to come along.
Cycnus, the Drifting Ruin
Most who see Cycnus mistake it for a dust-col-
ored cloud. In reality, it is an asymmetrical tumble of
stones, of towers intact and half-fallen, atop a sev-
ered mountain that drifts through the sky wherever
the winds take it. Those few scholars who’ve reached
Cycnus and returned describe Cydonian machines still
feeding on unseen forces to keep the ruined city aloft,
long after the last of its masters perished. They also
describe ruthless, four-armed mechanical sentinels,
towers clouded with flying lampreys, and an inescap-
able sense of loss.
The Drifting Ruin is in two parts: the city proper,
and the berg-tunnels. The city is half-fallen, exposed
to constant weather, but it is also the least-plundered
Cydonian ruin known to civilization. The berg-tunnels
run through the mountain, and are occupied mostly by
the machines that keep the city afloat. Both portions
are protected by the Cycnus sentinels, which invariably
drag away the bodies of the slain for some strange and
mute purpose.
HOOKS
1. One of the many scholars fascinated by Cydonia
commissions the characters as an escort on a
Cycnus expedition. The scholar’s maps are largely
theoretical, but the exotic plunder to be had surely
outweighs any uncertainty.
2. Several cities offer a fine bounty for one of the
four-armed mechanical soldiers, disabled but
not destroyed. The trouble is discerning how to
disable them. Rumor has it an ex-Zodiac fixer
learned the trick, before being banished to the
wastes for an indiscretion.
3. A group of bandits has managed to set up a
temporary roost in one of the towers, and use odd
gliders with rocket boosters to raid any small set-
tlements Cycnus drifts over. Many wealthy patrons
want the bandits disposed of.
4. A maddened explorer returns from Cycnus, speak-
ing of a mechanical Mother-in-the-Deeps that
gave “birth” to a new sentinel. The tale is foolish,
but powerful patrons believe it’d be even more
foolish to ignore the possibility.
 The Poles
5. A salvager baron is hatching an audacious
scheme to break the gravity engines inside
Cycnus, bringing the city down in a selected
valley, that it may be more conveniently looted. If
volunteers don’t show themselves for this hazard-
ous errand, they might be coerced.
6. A group of lesser noble scions intend to colonize
Cycnus, taking control of the engines and estab-
lishing a new city-state. They have ships, engi-
neers, and guards, and are paying well to acquire
more of each. And they might even succeed….
CHARACTERS
1. Parthenos, Red Martian Zodiac explorer (Archae-
ologist d10, Skyship Engineer d8, Eyes on the
Horizon d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Reputation On
the Line)
2. Gaff, shipwrecked Illium Red Martian skysailor
(Make the Most of Luck d10, Avoid Being No-
ticed d8, Sail the Skies d6; Resolve 3; Trouble:
Desperate to Return Home)
3. Nul, amnesiac Red Martian hermit (Unexplained
Cydonian Memories 5, Mechanical Idiot Savant
4, Forager 3; Resolve 3; Trouble: Doesn’t Know
Face of Betrayer)
HAZARDS
1. The 10-foot-tall, four-armed mechanical sentinels
of Cycnus disable as often as they kill, and carry
away living and dead. (Three Crescent Swords
d10, One Interposing Shield d8, Implacable d6;
Resolve 5; Trouble: Inscrutable Orders)
2. Sky lampreys are ribbon-finned flying amphibians,
peculiar to Cycnus. (Diving Bite d10, Lashing
Tail d8, Awkward Flier d6; Resolve d8; Trouble:
Guard Rainwater Pools)
3. Sometimes the engines holding Cycnus aloft falter,
and the city plummets for a few seconds before
regaining its levitation, hurling its residents into
disarray.
4. The tunnels in the lower mountain are filled with
the traps and hazardous mechanical workings
common to Cydonian ruins.
5. With all the work it takes to get to Cycnus, rival
plunderers are often violently disinclined to share,
and sometimes come armed with old relics.
6. A gravity engine misfire causes one of the tum-
bled sections of ruin to fall up, along with anyone
within, and any ship lines tethered to the stones.
149
South
Black Rubble
Where the Northern Pillar defies the mind to en-
compass its scale, the debris fields of the Southern Black
Rubble defy the heart to encompass the tragedy. The cat-
aclysm that shattered the Southern Pillar must have rung
the world like a gong, the rain of fragments a hellish drum-
ming for hours. Whatever geography existed there before
the cataclysm was obliterated, leaving a broken landscape
of chaos terrain, craters, fissures, and twisted fangs of ice
caused when the polar snow pack was melted by impact
heat, then rapidly re-frozen into tortured forms. The lands
of the Southern pole are littered with fragments of the pil-
lar, from pieces the size of mountains to those merely the
size of boulders. Weirdly, there seems to be a minimum size
of these fragments - none are smaller than can be encom-
passed easily by twenty people linking hands.
The greatest fragment is Lamentations, a mountain
of black pillar material named for the tiny Pale Mar-
tian community huddled beneath it, tending the Field
of Farewell, a place of duels, suicides, and executions.
Those who die on the Field never leave ghosts or spirits
behind, but die utterly and beyond all recourse. Even
the stars forget those who die there.
The uncanny light of the Uncoupled Ring gives
the whole of the Southern Black Rubble an unsettling
quality, especially prominent in the half-year night of
the polar region. The barely-visible purple makes some
minerals glow with virulent, unhealthy light, as well as
some cloth, metals, certain grooming accoutrements,
and most people’s teeth. As the saying goes, “In the
South, assassins never smile.” Among those who dwell
under this light, tumors and lesions are epidemic on ex-
posed skin, and denizens of the region wear veils and
robes that completely hide their bodies.
The shattering of the Southern Pillar did serve
some scholars of the First Martians’ technologies. By
studying the largest fragments, they determined that
the pillar — and presumably its Northern sister — was
hollow. Further, that the wall thickness varied through
the pillar’s height, from a thickness of up to a mile,
to a thinness of only a few dozen feet. The pattern of
these thickenings and thinnings must have served some
purpose in the pillar’s function, but none know what it
might have been. Or indeed, what the interior of the
Southern Pillar might have once contained.
 CHAPTER FOUR: A WORLD OF ADVENTURE
A Weeper encampment among Black Rubble
Wandering among these fragments, ignoring ev-
erything but their hopeless labors, are the Weepers.
These enormous, ancient machine creatures hunch
inside their tatters and accretions, the rubbish they col-
lect with their tiny manipulator cilia to form robes of
garbage, perhaps in the hope of reassembling it all one
day. Their forms are something of the spider, something
of the ape, something of the form of modern folk, and
something older. It is hard to see, as they hunch, and
move with painful slowness. They sometimes move the
smaller fragments of the pillar, as if in half-hearted ef-
forts to reassemble it. They take their name from the
constant drip of black fluid trickling from the cracks in
their bent bodies, most visible on their exposed faces.
The tears of the Weepers are a sacrament to the Fel-
lowship of Futility, the cult of nihilistic vagabonds who
follow the Weepers in their wandering. The cult thinks
they are its angels, fallen to Mars, stripped of dignity
and purpose. So the disaffected who join the Fellow-
ship feel a kinship with them. The tears are bitter; they
stain the lips and teeth black, and pain the stomach
awfully. The Fellowship are of poor health all, from ex-
posure to the harsh climate, and from the malnutrition
that comes with their inflamed bellies. Yet, they are also
150
tireless. The tears grant energy without euphoria, the
energy of grinding water, able to cut mile-deep canyons
given time, and time is something else the tears seem
to offer — a sort of bleak immortality, washed clean of
hope, meaning, and purpose. “Drink the tears, and join
us Brother. Walk, and watch, and contemplate the endings
of all things.”  
HOOKS
1. When the characters hear the one they seek fled
south in the wake of tragedy, they may imagine
them dead on the cold fields, a lonely suicide in
the shadow of a Pillar fragment. But word comes
that they have been sighted, sipping tears with the
Fellowship, and following the Weeper known as
Grandfather Agony.
2. The price the collector offered for a fragment of the
South Pillar seemed exorbitant, until the characters
understood the minimum size of such things, and
saw the smallest fragment possible themselves. Get-
ting to the southern debris fields was hard enough.
Now, hauling the massive thing over the shattered
ground may prove their undoing.
3. When the pillar fell it broke the land open, reveal-
ing things buried since before even the First Mar-
 The Poles
tians walked the world. Knowledge of these things
and their location would be worth a fortune, but
no maps exist that chart the broken land.
4. The spy’s journal is coded and written in an ink
made from the blood of the pith fly, so it’s com-
pletely invisible to any means of detecting it,
save for the uncanny purple glow of the southern
ring-light. But the spy wants her journal back, and
given that it’s written to be read under ring-light,
she must know this place better than the charac-
ters do.
5. One of the characters has been challenged, and
their honor impugned. Society whispers they’re a
coward not to answer such insult. Their associates
are not at home to them when they pay a call, lest
the stain of scandal spread. The character must
face this enemy in the shadow of Lamentations,
and one of them will be lost to time and the night,
and the stars that rule that life will wink out.
6. The Merry Wives was blown off course on its route
from Vance to Anger by an unseasonal blow out
of Coronal. Her master struggled with torn rigging,
broken decking, and failing levitational machinery,
finally crashing somewhere in the edges of the
Southern Black Rubble. It would be one of those
inevitable tragedies of aviation, were the daughter of
Anger’s military commandant not aboard, traveling
home from her post in the Angeri embassy in Vance.
CHARACTERS
1. Captain Diargo Brecha Van Hialda, Red Martian
master of the ill-fated Merry Wives (Sky Captain
d10, Old Soldier d8, Tough Nut d8, Resolve d8;
Trouble: Wounded from the crash, and hiding the
extent from the other survivors)
2. Under-Commander Duul Heggasdaughter, ambi-
tious Red Martian daughter of a famously soldierly
mother (Ambitious Officer d10, Tactical Adept d8,
Traditional Warksills d8, Resolve d10; Trouble:
Impatient, impatient with the pace of her advance-
ment, impatient with everyone around her)
3. Sils Maladactal, Red Martian mercenary spy
drawn to the southern desolation (Vanish from
the Mind’s Eye d12, Thousand Faces d8, Survive
the Southern Desolation d8, Resolve d8; Trouble:
Secrets in the journal are enough to see 100
powerful people ruined, all with the wealth to hire
1,000 assassins to kill to protect their secrets)
4. Brakka Bergula, Red Martian chief of the Lamen-
tations clan, and Duels Master for the Fields of
Farewell (Old Clan Chief d10, Ritual Combat d8,
History of Mortal Duels d8, Resolve d10; Trouble:
Childless, with no heir. Fears the loss of traditions
and all he knows of his people)
151
5. Eight-Finger, Zaiu evangelical nihilist of Grandfa-
ther Agony’s entourage. (Utterly Inured to Pain
and Fear d12, Inflict Pain to Bless with Hopeless-
ness d10, d6 Lead his Fellowship, Resolve d10;
Trouble: Haunted by the life he had before this
endless desolation)
6. Reverend Otho, Zaiu cultist leading his followers
to the promised land (Preach the Words of the
First d10, Inspire Suicidal Loyalty d8, Fight for the
Faith d8, Resolve d12; Trouble: A true believer,
who will never be dissuaded from the notion that
there is a waiting paradise at the pole, beyond
the Black Rubble)
THREATS
1. The broken land is treacherous, full of fissures and
fangs of rock, and the black rubble demands so
many detours from planned routes that it is incredi-
bly easy to become hopelessly lost.
2. Cultists seeking some truth in the south often
become lost, maddened in the maze of black
fragments and chaos terrain, and go feral.
3. The Weepers are not generally considered
aggressive, though they sometimes crush people
entirely by accident. But if they see something that
sets them off, something that reminds them of what
they were before the Pillar’s fall, then they will
attack with all their strength and cyclopean mass.
4. Ring-light induces weird mutations and tumors in
those who dwell beneath it too long. Strange,
lonely things bask under its glow, creatures of
cancer and hate.
5. The Weeper’s black tears are a popular drug for
some who desire endurance without excitement
or judgement-affecting euphoria. Jurists, bankers,
and bookkeepers sometimes take it to maintain
their energy when working days without sleep.
And where there is a market, there are people
who exploit it — gangs will follow the oily trails
the Weepers leave, tracking them until they can
attack.
6. Watch them long enough, and the pieces of black
rubble seem to move. The small pieces might
move as much as a finger’s breadth a year. The
larger, no more than a hair. But they all seem to
be creeping toward the pole. Once noticed, it will
be all you can dream about, until you somehow
materially assist this weird “migration.”
Gallow’s End
A dozen atmosphere processors dot the wastes
around terraced Ziggur. Even the least worldly knows
this to be true. The constellation of 12 feeds into the
 CHAPTER FOUR: A WORLD OF ADVENTURE
central processor that is the heart of Ziggur, and the
Roundhead priests give offerings and prayers to each.
But what the unworldly do not know, what indeed no
one but the Hangman of Ziggur knows, is the location
of the final processor: the Dread 13th. The Blue Pyra-
mid. Gallow’s End. It is where Ziggur executes its most
heinous criminals, an unhallowed place at the center of
an endless typhoon of dust and angry ghosts.
And it is perilously close to breaking down.
Gallow’s End sits in a bowl-shaped crater, ringed
with impassable mountains, a day’s ride southeast of
Ziggur. The only road in or out is an underground tun-
nel that leads directly into the underbelly of the atmo-
spheric processor. The processor itself has been modi-
fied, or perhaps it is merely malfunctioning in a useful
way: Instead of releasing processed air in an upward
column, it ejects the air in a spiral pattern, churning
up a vast, rotary dust storm with the ziggurat as its eye.
Every month at the turning of Deimos, death-row
prisoners from Ziggur, guilty of the basest crimes and vil-
est treasons, are transported under heavy guard, along
with the Hangman of Ziggur, to Gallow’s End. There,
on the top of the ziggurat, open to the storm, they are
hanged. The hangman then flings the corpses from the
walls, giving the deceased over, body and soul, to the
storm. Ziggur has used Gallow’s End as an execution
ground for nearly a century, and the storm within now
holds thousands of angry ghosts.
HOOKS
1. Framed (or maybe just caught) for a capital
crime in Ziggur, the characters are loaded onto
the prison caravan to Gallow’s End. With only a
day’s journey to the hangman’s noose, they must
engineer an escape plan.
2. Ekbal the Architect designed and built Eu’s pal-
ace, and he alone knows the key that opens the
secret passage from the Cydonian ruins straight
to the great Eu’s meditation cloister. Pity, then, that
he was executed for treason days after the palace
was completed. His ghost might be willing to offer
up the information, but how to find one ghost
among thousands?
3. The endless storm of Gallow’s End is by no delib-
erate design, no matter what the Yellow Silks say.
The processor is malfunctioning, and soon — may-
be tomorrow, maybe in 100 years (but probably
tomorrow) — it will fail catastrophically. When it
does, the ghost storm will lose its anchor, and the
vengeful dead will descend on Ziggur and strip it
to the stones.
152
4. The last batch of execution victims managed to over-
power their guards and settle in for a siege. They
have hostages (three Roundhead technicians whose
prayer-maintenance keeps the processor working
as intended), supplies, and weapons, and they’re
threatening to collapse the only tunnel in if their de-
mands for a skyship and a lot of money aren’t met.
5. A minor malfunction in the ducting fans disrupts the
cyclonic circulation of the storm, causing the winds
to slam into the processor itself. Shame the atmo-
spheric seals haven’t been replaced in 75 years.
6. A prisoner makes a break for it, braving the ghost
storm while still alive. Probably he’s dead within
minutes, but who can say what the dead might do
for a chance at escape?
CHARACTERS
1. Ashurr, the Hangman of Ziggur (Left Hand of Eu
d10, Yellow Veil Training d6, Hands Like Cave
Spiders d8; Resolve d10; Combat: 2 Strike/1
Parry; Trouble: Morally Conflicted)
2. Enok, Red Martian escaped (and possessed) con-
vict (I Have a Ghost for That d10, All the Voices
in My Head 8, Criminal Connections d6; Resolve
d8; Combat: 1 Strike/1 Parry/1 Stunt Trouble:
Which Soul is Even Mine?)
3. Usa, Roundhead Chief Technician (Vast Techno-
logical Liturgy d10, Secret Passages Through the
Processor d8, Don’t Ask Questions d6; Resolve
d6; Trouble: Political Exile)
HAZARDS
1. No one’s ever seen such a concentrated mass of
ghosts before. At any moment, the storm could
reach critical mass and collapse in on itself,
tearing a hole in the world and creating a kind of
ghost singularity. The scholar-priests on site aren’t
sure what that means, but it’s probably not good.
2. The endless cyclone isn’t just full of ghosts; light-
ning strikes are common in the crater, and while
the processor is shielded, particularly bad strikes
can shut down critical systems for hours at a time
— and anyone caught outside seems to draw bolts
like a copper rod.
3. The only safe way into the crater is through the
underground tunnel, but it’s a straight shot with no-
where to hide and lots of guards. Anyone wanting
to get in (or out) undetected would have to try to
find a route over the surrounding mountains and
brave the storm.
4. Though the storm itself is mostly confined to the cra-
ter around the ziggurat, the massive cyclone cannot
help but disturb the weather for miles around the
 The Poles
canyon. Errant winds and sudden turbulence create
a hazard for skyships flying near the crater, and
since the existence of Gallow’s End is a close-
ly-guarded secret, few captains know to avoid it.
5. The storm is, of course, full of ghosts — and while
some ghosts are benevolent shades, or at worst
decent folk desperate for a body again, most of
those that died in Gallow’s End were violent crimi-
nals. Sure, Eu has the odd political dissident killed,
but for the most part it’s a bunch of dead killers,
slavers, and generally-vile examples of Martian life.
6. Eu is paranoid that any of Ziggur’s enemies who
discover the existence of Gallow’s End could find
a way to use it against the city. Thus, any unau-
thorized persons who learn of the crater’s exis-
tence are relentlessly pursued by the Stranglers
of Ziggur (Silent as the Grave d10, Silken Cords
d8, Unceasing Pursuit d6; Resolve d10; Combat:
1 Strike/1 Stunt; Trouble: Must Never Be Seen), a
secret sect of assassins within the Yellow Silks.
The Temple
of the Poppy Brides
The hills south of Siren bloom crimson like a sea of
blood, perfuming the air with a heavy, odorless, sopo-
foric miasma. These are the fields tended by the Poppy
Brides, whose sacred arts produce powerful dreams and
prophetic visions. The veiled priestesses with their oth-
erworldly voices (and, it’s rumored, faces) trade their
lesser draughts for food, water, and necessaries in the
markets of Siren, but if you brave the journey to their
temple, they will show you their greater mysteries. And
all it costs you is a single fresh corpse, not yet ripened.
The Poppy Brides brew 1,000 different draughts,
meant variously to be drunk, smoked, or even injected.
Blue Oculus is dripped into the eyes and grants visions
of those who are false. Yellow Veil grants a peaceful
sleep, untroubled by the guilt of deeds ill-done. Tholak
plunges the drinker into a deep dream in which they
experience the entire 87-year life of a Vancian rug mer-
chant named Tholak in a single night. Other concoc-
tions, it’s rumored, can bend the will of the mighty to
the Brides’ whims or instill subtle suggestions to ensure
that events proceed as the veiled ones desire.
HOOKS
1. It’s nearly impossible to remove a Poppy Bride’s
veil, and to do so is sure to earn the enmity of the
entire order. Naturally, when a Poppy Bride’s veil
turns up in a Sireni auction house, it draws the
curious and the wealthier-than-sensible set.
153
2. An unexpectedly-harsh winter kills many of the
Brides’ poppy fields, while at the same time tensions
rise between Siren and Honor. War seems inevitable
— is it coincidence, or is there truth to the rumor that
the holy poppies only grow atop Martian graves?
3. A prominent Anger dignitary dies by murder while
visiting Siren. The assassin is quickly arrested, but
claims she has no memory of anything between
imbibing a bilious liqueur, bought from the Poppy
Brides three days ago, and her arrest.
4. A violent criminal on the run from Wyeth claims
sanctuary at the Temple of the Poppy Brides.
When the law catches up to zir, they find zir lost
in the Catacombs of Memory, regressed to a
point in zir life before ze became a criminal. The
Wyeth insist on extradition, but the Brides say the
person who committed those crimes is dead.
SITES
1. The Catacombs of Memory: Deep below the Temple
of the Poppy Brides is a maze of twisting caverns
and passages. Some are natural, others appear
carved, but everyone who enters sees them as some-
how familiar, as though they visited regularly long
ago. Your memories are there — yours and anyone
else’s who wanders the subterranean grottoes. Walk
the right paths and you can relive parts of your life:
maybe to remember what’s forgotten, maybe just to
kiss your lover or hold your child one last time. Walk
the wrong ones and you might never return to the
present, or your mind might be undone entirely.
2. The Chamber of Trembling: Withdrawal from
the effects of the holy poppies is an unpleasant
process, replete with violent shaking fits, cramps,
fevers...and prophetic visions. In the Chamber of
Trembling, Poppy Brides let themselves become
addicted and undergo withdrawal, all for glimps-
es of the future to guide their order.
3. The Holy Poppy Fields: Acres of poppies grow
around the Temple of the Poppy Brides, but only
a single road cuts through the field. Trespassing
into the fields is not only forbidden, it’s dangerous:
If the Poppy Brides don’t kill you and bury you to
feed the next crop, the flowers’ perfume will draw
you into a sleep from which you never awaken.
4. The Processing Chamber: Part alchemical work-
station, part distillery, part chapel, full of vast
vats of bubbling, multicolored nectar and strange
smoke, this room is where the Brides prepare their
concoctions. Few who have not learned the Nine
Sacred Breaths and the Four Invisible Wardings
can stand the fumes for long.
5. Poppy Caravan: At regular intervals, a large cara-
van of Poppy Brides and mercenary guards makes
 CHAPTER FOUR: A WORLD OF ADVENTURE
the round trip from the temple to Siren. The caravan
takes two weeks for each leg of the journey, and is
frequently the target of bandits on its outgoing run.
Strangely, though, the same band of outlaws never
seems to attack the caravan twice.
CHARACTERS
1. Shouzai, Dream Brewer (I Have an Elixir for That
d10, Bottled Nightmares d8, Brew Your Heart’s
Desire d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Too-High Dream
Tolerance)
2. Kailon, Caravan Mistress (Quick Wits and Quick-
er Flintlocks d10, Ride Herd d8, Deal You Under
the Table d6; Resolve d8; Combat: 1 Strike/1
Parry/1 Stunt; Trouble: Illicit Side Business)
3. Chulien, the lost Matron (Respected Matron
d10, Keeper of Many Secrets d8, Wearer of the
Crimson Veil d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Regressed
to Five-Year-Old Self by Catacombs of Memory)
HAZARDS
1. The holy poppies aren’t the only things that feed
on charnel pits. Carrion voles burrow beneath the
roots, seeking the freshest corpses, and they aren’t
afraid of taking a bite out of a careless foot.
Arcadia
There is a ballad, once quite popular in Vance, with
a second verse sung thusly:
His lips, dried now, red wined and once kissed
A heart of memories, his heat, chilled embers
Coral broke, seas fled, salted sands all remained
Dead glory’s ghost, Arcadia remembers
Even when not sung with nine-string accompani-
ment, that sentiment is a common one — that Arcadia
is the easiest metaphor to describe something wonder-
ful, long lost, now dead.
When the First Martians built her, the world was
blue and green. Perhaps to celebrate themselves, their
technology, and their wisdom, they located their cities
not out of convenience, but to exalt in overcoming im-
possibility. So Arcadia they built beneath the waves of a
water so wide its far side hid below the horizon. The wa-
ters once lay like a blue veil across the head of Mars, but
now the hidden waters of North Pillar and the frozen
caverns beneath are all that remain of it. The norther-
ly region, now called Arcadia, takes its name from the
154
2. Mixing draughts of the holy poppy can have
deleterious effects, ranging from mild poisoning
to the imbiber’s body violently exploding. Very
rarely, mixing draughts imparts adept powers on
the imbiber.
3. It’s said that to look on the face of a Poppy Bride
is to look upon your deepest regret. Whether
that’s due to some strange psychic power or
because you will shortly be beaten to death by an
irate priestess is open to debate.
4. Only one petitioner is permitted in the Catacombs
of Memory at a time. If more than one person
descends into those caverns, they risk wandering
into each other’s’ memories and exchanging
whole parts of their lives.
5. Those who are not initiated into the mysteries
of the Poppy Brides are advised never to de-
scend below the third vault in the Catacombs of
Memory. Beyond that point, you find the genetic
memories of your ancestors, and the sudden rush
of conflicting memories can overwhelm even the
strongest mind.
6. Not all the dreams the Poppy Brides brew are
pleasant ones. Anger them, and you may find that
your every meal brings with it a new nightmare.
city Arcadia — the City of Seven Domes, now beached,
listing thirty degrees from true, equidistant from Devo-
tion and Heartbreak, but close to nothing.
The city’s architects were inspired by the shapes
of the deeps, and the city was a wonder of curves and
rounded forms. It was built on a foundation of metallic
coral, grown to shape by the Ancient’s sciences, and
thereon they raised seven transparent domes, huge as
foothills. The Three Lesser domes, the Three Greater,
and the Grand Dome — the only one that has not suc-
cumbed to entropy and the violence of greedy hands,
and is now called the Unbroken Dome. For, despite ly-
ing in sepulchral ease in one of the coldest and driest
places on Mars, Arcadia swarms with life, rapacious,
with violent hands.
People of desperate and avaricious character are
drawn to Arcadia, some seeking to dredge the sands
for miracles, and others to crack the dome open for its
wonders and the wealth they imagine it will grant. Too
many come for a taste of the drug extasia caerulea, called
also glory’s ghost, blue sand, and dream salt.
 Arc adi a
All around the foundered ancient city, there is
the wild growth of modern settlement, lawless and
ungoverned. These shanties are deadly for the un-
wary, always hungry to chew up the idealistic or in-
nocent. What order there is here is enforced by the
gangs that control the shanties, the excavations built
in and through Arcadia, and the surrounding territo-
ries — the silt-fine wastes of sand called the Memo-
ry of Waves. These gangs vie for control, each with a
firmer hold over one of Arcadia’s major locales, but
always striving to claim the other two. In the shanties,
the deadly newcomer Generous Hagatha is dominant.
In the excavations, Old Devontine of the Devontine
Clan still hangs on, his old-fashioned style of criminal-
ity marking him as the winner in the last generation’s
gang war for control of Arcadia. Out in the Memory
of Waves, it is the Sandfish Cult that holds sway, con-
trolling absolutely the water supply of Arcadia, and
worshipping at weather-worn altars with their strange
and secret rites.   tents and shacks, huts, and rubble-built compounds.
Arcadia balances precariously on the lip of chaos
and violence, held back only by the canny greed of its
ganglords, none of whom are entirely confident in their
ability to defeat the other two.
Shanties surround the
ruins of Arcadia.
155
The Shanties
For hundreds of years, the desperate, the greedy, the
hopeful, and the lost have wandered across the Memory
of Waves, and found their way to Arcadia. They were
lured by its half-buried Lower Domes, and the still-mag-
nificent Greater Dome, its once-clear material now
scuffed by the sandstorms of ages to dull semi-trans-
lucence. To those so lured, the hints of shapes within
make promises of desires become real. But these desper-
ate seekers cannot live on their dreams alone, cannot
sleep on beds of hope. They might aspire to the clouds,
but they live in the shanties, which are as ramshackle
and wild as a razor gull’s rookery.
The shanties surround Arcadia, but swell most at
the southeast and northwest, where the main caravan
routes from Devotion and Heartbreak come in.
They buildings of the shanties are a wild affair,
Most building materials, other than bagged sand, are
scavenged from Arcadia — plates of weird metal,
sheets of sail-like cloth, slabs of the dead, metallic coral
cut from the foundations of Arcadia by diamond wire
saws, and whatever rubble and rubbish can be dragged
 CHAPTER FOUR: A WORLD OF ADVENTURE
from the excavations and made into shelter. The ma-
terials are often cemented in place by the excretions
of the corpsemites kept by undertaker-builders. These
pale insects serve two purposes within the settlement.
Firstly, they consume the dead, keeping the place rela-
tively free of rotting corpses. Secondly, the secretions
they use to build their earthen mounds in more natural
settings serve as a universal cement. Thus, buildings in
the shanties are rated on a scale based on how many
corpses the mites must have eaten to secrete enough
resin to hold them together. A seven-corpse house is
what hardworking folk aspire to — large, comfortable,
with a walled private courtyard, and well-sealed against
night chills. Most folk are lucky to live in a split -corpse
dwelling though, with resin from some fraction of a sin-
gle corpse holding its material in place against the re-
lentless night winds. Old family dwellings are bound fast
by the digested flesh and bones of ancestors. Hauntings
are not unusual, and funerals are traditionally accom-
panied by home improvement.
The Merry Band of Generous Hagatha rules the
shanties, controlling the markets at So’ese Gate and
Nor’wes Gate, running fairly conventional protection
and extortion rackets among the populace of the shan-
ties, and taking a cut of almost every transaction above
a certain threshold. Most significantly, Hagatha controls
production and distribution of the extasia caerulea drug,
famous and prized for the visions of glory, and feelings
of confidence and certainty it grants. The dream sand
is sifted in the workshops Hagatha oversees, separated
from the dry silts duned around Arcadia, first through
wire mesh, then cloth, and finally after many refine-
ments, through silk screens so fine they can hold water.
The blue powder that results can be ingested in many
ways, but is commonly mixed with snuff and sniffed off
the back of the hand when one needs a boost in confi-
dence and energy. It is a potent drug, as it must be, since
it is composed of the desiccated and sand-ground mor-
tal remains of the long dead First Martians who once
dwelled in Arcadia.
Generous Hagatha is a relative newcomer to the Ar-
cadian gang world, emerging from the Memory of Waves
less than a decade ago, and within a few months elimi-
nating the previous ganglord ruler of the Shanties, and
sorely pressuring her two rivals. Nobody is sure where she
is from, and she will not reveal it. She’s spoken bitterly of
living in exile and squalor — despite the peerless luxury
her power affords her — and she has the manners of a
prince, and ruddy complexion and Vancian accent of a
noble of that city. Her gang is a mix of thuggish soldiers,
156
outland fellow exiles, and the Merry Band of ever-smiling
soulless puppets she controls with her will.  
She takes her title from her preferred method of ex-
ecution, when she wishes to make an example of some-
one who has betrayed her or personally insulted her.
She wears a phial of the highest-quality glory’s ghost
about her neck, dream salt refined to its purest form,
and from this will administer a lethal dose to her vic-
tims. These unfortunates take in one dose more extasia
caerulea than a wealthy addict would consume in their
whole life. A fortune’s worth of drug, as one generous
gift. Those who experience Hagatha’s generosity expe-
rience a perfect vision of lost Arcadia in its prime, and
are filled with the exultant joy and glory of her builders,
then die in ecstasy as the ghosts of the dead city crawl
into their veins and eat their soul, leaving them empty
and smiling. Into these empty vessels, Hagatha pours
a drop of her own soul, turning her victims into some-
thing akin to a limb, moving as she wills them, speaking
as she speaks, and showing her all they see.  
HOOKS
1. Brother Rat-Tooth, the wiry and cunning gutter
priest, begs the characters to deliver a message
for him, to one much too exalted and fancy for
him to approach personally. They find the brother
surprisingly heavy with coin, and outlandishly
generous in his pitch. He gives them a filthy but
sealed letter, and an empty snuffbox of silver and
shell elaborately worked with the initials of “J. V.”
When they present the letter and this item to Doc-
tor Sunshine, the Zaiu expert on dream salt, he
reacts with surprise and then surprising violence,
demanding to know who sent them, and threaten-
ing their lives if they do not tell.
2. In the shanties, a revel can become a riot without
warning, and a fist thrown over a spilled drink
can become spilled blood in the streets. Caught
in such a fray, the characters find themselves in
the company of a child who huddles close to
them for protection, a child far too clean and
far too expensively dressed to be a native of the
shanties.
3. Seeing trouble, and possible rivals, in the charac-
ters, Generous Hagatha invites them to her luxu-
rious compound — said to be a 40-corpse house
— to feed them, get them drunk, and size them up.
Any pleasure desired is provided, and Hagatha is
a generous host who might reveal more than she
intends to when she’s into her own cups. With at
least one character, Hagatha will have devastat-
ing sexual chemistry.
 Arc adi a
4. A nightmare creature the height of 60 men was
seen attacking one of the Devontine Clan’s store-
houses at the edge of the excavations last night,
and witnesses describe it’s wide-finned head
far above, suspended by saclike structures, and
from the head its dozens of whip-thin tendrils that
descended to the ground, which it used to slash
open the storehouse, smash and loot the contents,
and rip apart a dozen attendants and Devontine
gang soldiers. They say it moved off rapidly into
the shanties with a spiraling motion of its tentacles.
A friend of the characters witnessed the creature’s
attack, and is wanted by both Hagatha and the
Old Devontine for questioning, unlikely gently.
5. A devotee of dream sand, and friend, ally, or lov-
er to one of the characters succumbs to the drug,
and falls into a twitching nightmare coma. Investi-
gation reveals their supply is tainted, adulterated
by whatever it was cut with. Without knowing the
nature of the taint, no counterdrug can be formu-
lated. Worse, there is only so long the psyche
of their friend can endure the hell they’ve been
trapped in, before it leaves them with permanent
mental damage. They were sold the drug by Tcivit
T’cho, their regular dealer, but she is unwilling to
reveal her supplier, unless persuaded.
6. After many years apart, after the broken heart has
healed, one of the characters sees an old lover,
possibly a true love, lost to folly, lack of care, or
tragedy. At first, they don’t seem to recognize
the character, and look on with a vague smile,
but then seem to take life and become animated.
Though…something is very odd about them….
CHARACTERS
1. Generous Hagatha, exiled Red Martian no-
ble-turned-ganglord (Viciousness Channeled Like
a Vancian Canal d12, Knows the Street d10, But
Remembers the Court and Salon d8, Resolve d10;
Trouble: Despises her exile, even while dominat-
ing the shanties)
2. Six Stones, Skarrut pole-slinger and Hagatha’s
strong right arm (Wind Throw Stone Slingpole
Fighting d10, Knows the Score d8, Competent
Lieutenant, Resolve d6; Trouble: Violent Drunk)
3. Doctor Sunshine, Zaiu expert on formulating
extasia caerulea (Connoisseur of Drugs, Addicted
to None d12, Alchemical Narcosynthesis d10,
Cunning Survivor Hidden Beneath the Cheery
Fool d8, Resolve d8; Trouble: Experimental Drug
Subjects Seeking Revenge)
4. Tcivit T’Cho, three-armed Pale Martian and
reliable drug dealer (Read the Streets d10, Quick
with a Word of a Blade d8, Psychokinetic Fourth
Arm d6, Resolve d8; Trouble: Samples the Wares)
157
5. Daelebresa Bin Lebrou, lost Red Martian child
of wealth (Babe in the Woods d8, Tiny Emperor
d6, A child’s boundless energy d6, Resolve d6;
Trouble: Does not want to be returned to family)
6. Brother Rat-Tooth, priest-prophet of the Rites of the
Gutter Prince, knows the score (His Rats Lurk in
Every Wall d12, Wait, Where Did He Go? d10, The
dirtiest fighter d10, Resolve d12; Trouble: Broke, half-
drunk, coughing up phlegm — business as usual.)
HAZARDS
1. The shanties are lousy with thieves and thugs, will-
ing to pick your pocket, split your skull, or sell your
corpse to a builder for a half dram of brackish
water.
2. The gangs skirmish in the streets, and one can get
caught in the violence as Hagatha’s people fend
off raids by her rivals.
3. When dark comes down, a cold like the breath
of black space descends on Arcadia, and the
night-winds blow. When they blow from the north,
they extinguish any fire they touch, dim lights,
and muffle sounds. Being caught out of doors on
a Norwind Night can be deadly. Creatures that
abhor the light are free to walk openly on such
evenings.
4. Extasia caerulea is painstakingly sifted from the
sands of Arcadia, which means the sands are
laced with the drug, and even in such dilute con-
centrations, everyone who dwells here breathes it,
eats it, and drinks it all the time. It perhaps ex-
plains the restless arrogance of the typical Arcadi-
an, the swagger that marks them, the confidence
out of all proportion to their actual abilities. It also
explains the dreams, dreams of sea, dreams of
leviathans, dreams of sacrifice to the lords of the
lost deeps. Those of a psychical character may
find these dreams take on an unexpected reality.
5. A sickness sweeps the shanties, a ragged cough,
congested lungs, and hacked black sputum. For
the first time, the builders have more corpses than
their colonies of corpsemites can eat, and no
work for them in any case. The coughed-up black
ichor spat into the streets moves on its own, but
only when unwatched, and coalesces in pools
and crevices, merging, growing. It is something
from before history, reborn perhaps from a single
remaining spore lost in the sands of Arcadia.
6. They call it Tall Fellow, Daddy Longfingers, or the
Moon Stalker — the weird, tall creature, of bulbous
head and 100-yard tentacles has begun haunting
the fringes of the shanties, and though few claim to
have seen it personally, most swear it’s real as sin
and debt, stalking to catch the unwary.
 CHAPTER FOUR: A WORLD OF ADVENTURE
Excavations
Rising in rickety height all about the Arcadian domes
are the excavations, working structures where materials
and wonders are exhumed from the sand-choked city’s
carcass. They’re cleaned, sorted, catalogued, and then
filtered out into the shanties, to the markets, traders, car-
avans, relic hunters, private buyers, and others in the busi-
ness of selling the scraps of meat picked from the bones of
the dead city. The excavations almost form a city-within-
a-city, and are sharply delineated from the shanties. Those
who live in the excavations often consider the people of
the shanties parasitic, living off the labor of the excavator
guilds, and the trade their work attracts. This is an attitude
encouraged by the excavations’ dominant gang.
The excavations are controlled by the Devontine
Clan, who’ve organized for stability for decades. Each
profession with the excavation has their own guild or
association, and the Devontines encourage this, as ex-
torting a central organization is easier than extorting
individual workers. Within the excavation, there are
wine shops and brothels, dance halls, physikers, pro-
fessionally-associated mystery cults, and markets for
working and domestic supplies. The Devontine Clan
works to keep as many people as possible within the
excavations, and tries to prevent as much of the trade
as possible from leaking out to the shanties.
If Arcadia were a canal oyster, open on the half
shell, awaiting the lips of a decadent gourmand, then
domes are an embarrassment of pearls. There is a curve
of the Three Lesser domes, then a larger curve of the
Three Greater, and finally, raised high on the top edge
of the up-tilted city shell, the Grand Dome. This pearl
is still unbroken, and indeed is pearlescent when kissed
by the sister moons.
The Three Lesser domes are mostly buried, cracked
and filled with shifting sands. The lowliest excavators
scavenge what they can here, from digs prone to col-
lapse, shorn up poorly with scavenged materials. The
Three Lesser domes were, most likely, the residenc-
es of the city’s common citizens, fabulous by modern
standards, but merely adequate by the standards of the
First Martians. From here, many domestic artifacts of
unknown purposes and functions are scavenged, along
with baubles and trinkets, most nonfunctional, mere-
ly curiosities bound for the bulk market and sold by
weight, to one day find their way into a bazaar on the
outskirts of Foresight, having acquired a rich and color-
ful story and a polish of wax along the way.
158
The next domes, the Three Greater, are as broken
as the Three Lesser, though only two were destroyed
in the cataclysm. The centermost dome was breached
via unknown means by the grandfather of the Devon-
tine clan’s current elderly patriarch. The Pale Martian
known simply as Old Devontine maintains that the se-
cret to breaching First Martian domes is one his family
keeps, and this exclusive knowledge is one of the reasons
the other two gangs dare not strike directly, for if the
Old Devontine dies, that secret will be lost. The Great-
er Domes contained the residences of the priest-engi-
neers of the city, and the fabulous machinery and sacred
auto-occultic incanting engines that powered the city,
and allowed it to prosper beneath the crush of the lost
waters. These domes produce few trinkets, but much
wealth is made providing guided access to the wonders
they contain to academics, engineers, and those seek-
ing to reclaim the lost knowledge of the First.
Finally, the Unbreached Dome. It is twice the size
of the Greater domes, and holds unknowable wonders,
unlimited wealth, the power to change the world, gods,
goddesses, and all manner of sacred unions of divine
gender, depending on who you ask, and what drugs
they are addicted to. There are half a dozen religions
dedicated to the Mysterious Pearl, and the world’s great
cities and universities maintain (at not inconsiderable
expense) departments and agents who monitor the ex-
cavations around the Unbreached Dome. Some seek a
covert way to open it, others, by means cunning as a
stiletto or blunt as a bootheel, seek to stop all serious
efforts to breach it.
What it contains, none can say without recourse
to faith. But those who watch it will swear that they
can see movement within sometimes, and the vague
forms, suggesting perhaps buildings or palaces, change
over time.
HOOKS
1. Prandish Vineto approaches the characters with
an incredible offer — exquisite artifacts of the first
quality and functional tools of the old priest-en-
gineers of the Greater Domes. In trade for these,
Vineto asks that the characters assist in faking her
death, and exfiltrating her from Devontine-con-
trolled territory.
2. The characters are almost bowled over by a fleeing,
filthy youth. Reen Scutt is pursued by Huula Ver Ar-
gola and a skirmish party of Devontine soldiers. She
begs the characters to take a message to Brother
Rat-Tooth in the shanties, before vanishing into the
maze of digs and scaffolding. Huula will be very in-
 Arc adi a
terested in anything the urchin may have said to the
characters, the gist of which was: “Tell him, the old
one knows nothing! The secret is a bluff. The Dome
cannot be breached! He will reward you! I flee!”
3. Havish Kirklun has been behaving very strangely,
and the Association of Excavation Masters he
belongs to asks the characters to make discreet
inquiries. Kirklun seems to be spending an inordinate
amount of time with the Opening Eye cult, which is
not among those approved by the Association as
an acceptable cult for a Master to join. He and his
fellows spend hours standing with their faces pressed
to the Grand Dome’s clearest surfaces, staring hard
within while acolytes drip their own carefully-gath-
ered tears onto the watchers’ eyes, so they may
gaze without blinking into the dome. Kirklun has
seen things in there that have changed him. Things
which might change everything.
4. The Tall Fellow attacks! While going about their
business one night, the characters are caught in
an attack by the Tall Fellow. It swoops in silently,
hidden in the dark above the lights of the exca-
vation, to drop down onto a sorting warehouse
where artifacts are graded for sale, and rips
the roof off. When lights can be aimed upward,
the bulbous shape they’ve heard described is
revealed, but to their outland eyes a new detail
emerges — the bulbous structures seem to be
balloons, from which the actual finned head of the
thing hangs. If they’ve seen such a thing out in the
Memory of Waves, they’ll recognize it as some
kind of silt crawler, but unlike its creeping cousins
in the wastes, the Tall Fellow moves with eerie
aquatic grace when suspended by these balloons.
Who could have equipped this ancient, monstrous
thing with this prosthetic? And do the characters
have time to wonder about such things, when the
air is filled with screams and whiplike tendrils of
pale gray metal?
5. In a thirsty rage, Huula Ver Argola slays a Sandfish
water carrier, and all shipments of water to the ex-
cavations stop until the defiant Pale Martian can be
brought out into the Memory of Waves and made
to answer for the killing. It falls to the characters
to find him, defy those loyal to him who help him
hide, and see that the Sandfish are satisfied before
the excavation succumbs to thirst, and open war
breaks out as its dwellers seek water in the shanties.
6. Pualo Patrae sends Huula Ver Argola to invite the
characters to the Devontine villa, a surprisingly
elegant structure in the thick of the Grand Dome
excavations. The characters have come to the old
ganglord’s attention, as any extraordinary outsid-
ers of their stature must, and he wishes to ask them
a favor. “If you can find a way to murder me,
freeing me from this failing carcass, you will be
159
rewarded fabulously, and my daughter may claim
her place as Devontine. But, it must be clear nei-
ther Hagatha or Sandfish slew me, or there will be
war. I…regret the bargain I made when I claimed
my title. I regret swearing to my grandfather that
I would live until the Grand Dome cracked open.
When sworn under the wrong stars, such an oath
is sacrosanct.” Bound together with one fate,
Undying Pualo and the Unbreached Dome.
CHARACTERS
1. Pualo Patrae, the Old Devontine, Red Martian (Cun-
ning Old Bastard d12, Commands Loyalty, Inspires
Respect d10, Still Knows Which End of a Machete to
Hold d8, Resolve d12; Trouble: Dying But Can’t Die.)
2. Prisca Patrae, Red Martian restless favored child
of the Old Devontine (Mistress of Cat Paw and
Cat Rake Sword Styles d10, Educated at Foreign
Universities d10, A Poison for Every Occasion d8,
Resolve d6; Trouble: Easily Bored)
3. Huula Ver Argola, Red Martian captain of Devon-
tine gang soldiers (Old Street Monster d10, Vet-
eran of 1,000 Knife Fights d10, Knows What the
Old Man Would Want d8, Resolve d10; Trouble:
Loves Prisca Patrae, but believes he will one day
have to kill her)
4. Prandish Vineto, morally-conflicted Red Martian
antiquities expert (Value the Secrets of the First to
the Ha’penny d12, Commune with the Spirits of
the Dead First d10, Mercantile Adept d8, Resolve
d6; Trouble: Easily Possessed by Ancient Ghosts)
5. Havish Kirklun, Red Martian excavations master,
high officiant of the Opening Eye cult. (Master Ex-
cavator d12, Network of Cultists, Unblinking Evil
Eye d8, Resolve d12; Trouble: Increasingly bad at
his day job, courting disaster at his work site)
6. Reen Scutt, fourth-class Red Martian sand mov-
er, devotee of the Rites of the Gutter Prince (The
Invisibility of Poverty d12, Self-Taught Confidential
Agent d8, Initiate in the Gutter Prince’s Outer
Mystery d6, Resolve d10; Trouble: Rail thin, hun-
gry, stinks of fermented rat sauce)
HAZARDS
1. The excavations are a dangerous mix of industry
and housing, great teetering scaffolding looming
over rows of workers’ houses, the cracked domes
shadowing both homes and workshops. The place
operates at the speed of money, and safety is
a distant concern — heavy loads swing on long
cables, scaffoldings teeter and sway, overloaded
hauling animals are beaten until they bolt and
stampede, and the excavators of all classes work
hard, drink harder, and punch hardest.
 CHAPTER FOUR: A WORLD OF ADVENTURE
2. Strange things are dug from the shattered domes
sometimes, artifacts of unknown purpose, but still
potent function. Some can cause flesh to subli-
mate, evaporating like mist. Others can fuse ob-
jects or people together with unbreakable bonds.
Some simply explode violently when exposed to
any of dozens of possible stimuli, from sunlight, to
wind, to air, to warm skin, to particular emotions.
3. The Devontine Clan guards its territory aggressive-
ly, and if they suspect you are looking for trouble,
or serve Hagatha or Sandfish, they’ll set their gang
soldiers to watching, following, and harassing.
4. The approved mystery cults of the excavations are
all generally stable, and their devotees learn dis-
cipline, which serves their professions well (and is
why they are among the approved mysteries), but
this requirement does nothing to blunt the secret
horror of some of their sacred rites. The shanties
provide an unlimited supply of supplicant-victims,
and none of the guilds care if you come to the
work site with a sacrifice’s blood under your fin-
gernails, so long as you come on time and ready
to labor.
5. The trace concentrations of dream sand, mixed
with the silt and dust shifted by the ton in the
excavations, is higher than anywhere else in the
region, and so without ever deliberately using
the drug, the dwellers in the excavations are all
thoroughly addicted, a fact that makes leaving the
Devontine’s territory much more difficult for them,
as the depression of the dream sand crash is fear-
some, and lasts as long as the drug’s habitual use.
6. If Old Devontine passes, the star-sealed fate he
shares with the Grand Dome will be fulfilled, and
the mountainous edifice will shatter in exact corre-
spondence to how violently the old man dies.
The Memory of Waves
When the old waters vanished, they left behind
plains of sand and silt. This landscape is studded with
dead, razor-sharp corals, black nodules, hungry crevic-
es capped with thin layers of salt-cemented sand, and
leviathan bones, the skulls of which have become the
temple-houses of the Sandfish Cult. There are rumors
of things out there, too, wandering the wastes — per-
haps cousin-machines to the tomb stalkers of Cydonia.
Unlike the tomb stalkers, though, these waste ma-
chines seem broken or weak, unable to support their
own weight, and so they drag themselves along the sand
with their whiplike limbs, sometimes lying buried and
in wait for anything to walk upon them. Some possess
an ability not unlike the death ray of the tomb stalk-
160
ers, though rather than deadening and killing nerves, it
desiccates flesh. The silt crawlers, as they’re sometimes
called, are rarely spotted in sight of Arcadia itself.
There are only two known safe routes through
the Memory of Waves, those followed by the caravans
carrying the wealth of scavenge to Devotion or Heart-
break, and returning with supplies, foodstuffs, and pre-
cious commodities like wine, wool, beautiful youths,
and basic tools. Nothing grows in Arcadia; no herds
are pastured. It is a cold desolation like nothing else
on Mars, and so these caravan routes are tenuous life-
lines, and a testament to the value of Arcadian wonders
and the dream salt trade. Before the Sandfish came to
power in the Memory of Waves, banditry was common.
Now though, few dare take the risk, despite the value
of the cargo. The Sandfish charge a modest toll to car-
avans, and maintain their right to inspect the cargo to
and from. They will occasionally help themselves to an
artifact or supplies, though they are scrupulous about
paying the caravans a fair price for what they take for
themselves. What they do not permit the caravans to
carry is water. They claim water, and its distribution, as
their exclusive right, and are said to know all the secret
wells and soaks in the Memory of Waves, and to tend
the primitive canals, which direct a vital trickle to the
shanties and excavations, and which they supplement
with deliveries of water from their own caravans that
travel unknown routes in the wastes.
Those who raid caravans or who are caught smug-
gling water are often found dead, mauled as if by barra-
cuda or shark, crushed by tentacles, or pierced by poi-
soned fins, with their desiccated bodies covered in dried
blood and fine white sand. The Sandfish commune with
the lost waters; the ghost of an ocean is their god, and
at their command the fish and monsters of that dead
sea arise from their own dust and swim in the air, biting
and feeding, ripping and devouring. The ocean, when it
lived, was a place of beauty, but also of absolute savage-
ry and predation. The sand remember when they were
waves, and the Sandfish know another secret — blood
is sea water, the same salt, the same life. The folk of
Mars walk a dry land, but carry the seas within them-
selves, the last living waters of the dead ocean that they
sometimes name in their rites, Mother of Mars. They
are not a picky cult, and when called upon to free this
captive red sea, they can usually find a sacrificial victim
whose removal will be seen as a civic good rather than a
horrific cult murder. It is said that the water they grant
Arcadia’s modern people is paid for with the blood
memory of the lost sea.
 Arc adi a
HOOKS
1. The caravan the characters are traveling with
is stopped by a party of Sandfish cultists who
appear from the Memory of Waves in a swirl
of dust. The caravan master, Garl Reginto, with
whom the party may have become friendly, is
confronted, and presented with evidence of water
smuggling. He claims no knowledge of the illicit
water, admitting only to the Sandfish-approved
traveling ration all caravans are allowed. They
wish to take the master away, to ascertain the
truth of his statements. He and his guard wish oth-
erwise. If nobody intervenes, violence will erupt.
2. The famous adventurer, poet, socialite, and mer-
cantile force of nature Margolite De La Experita
Extravaganta wishes to travel rough in the Mem-
ory of Waves, plumbing its secrets. Who better to
hire as guards, guides, and companions than the
characters?
3. The renowned expert on First Martian civilization,
Professor Hershel Saenendoa is worried — his
research into modern and ancient astrological
systems has revealed what he believes to be a
flaw in the modern reckoning, a blind spot in the
prediction of world-altering events. To prove his
thesis, he must make astrological observations at
the geographic loci of events — seven locations in
the Memory of Sands — which will allow him to
pinpoint the causal nexus. He predicts cataclysm
within a decade if he cannot complete his re-
search.
4. Water carrier Anemone approaches the charac-
ters, conveying a request for them to attend upon
her master, Matron Eel Bone Bless at the Holy
Skull of Al’Aloon, the Sandfish cult’s most sacred
temple. “Do you see?” the stern head priest asks
them, after showing them an empty cistern, “The
waters dry, the wells empty. There is a great thirst
in our Mother, but only those who may walk free-
ly in shanty and excavation might find its cause.”
The characters may suspect they are being
dispatched to find a sacrifice for this mother of the
cult, one which might make the precious trickle
flow once again.
5. While passing a group of silent, robed Sandfish, one
bumps into a character with uncharacteristic lack of
deference. Later, they will find a crumpled wad of
sandy paper in their pocket, with a simple note in
uneducated scrawl: “RAHT TOOF — THAY SAE NO
SEEKRET. OLD MAN DI TO BRAAK EGG.”
6. Within sight of Arcadia one night, the characters
witness a violent commotion, and from the city the
weird, bulb-headed form of Tall Fellow emerges
into the open waste,s pursued by a party of the
Old Devontine’s soldiers, who it will slaughter with-
161
out pausing. If they continue to observe the thing,
it will float across the Memory of Waves until it ar-
rives at a hidden grotto, screened by fans of dead
coral. There it will slowly descend, legs retracting
into its head, then coming to rest. A figure will
emerge from the grotto, doing something complex
and obscure to Tall Fellow. If they can creep close
enough to see the person’s face, they’ll be struck
by the unchanging smile of delight it wears, and its
eyes, half-lidded as if in in pleasure.
CHARACTERS
1. Matron Eel Bone Bless, newly ascendant Red
Martian pontiff of the Sandfish cult (Mistress of
Mother Ocean’s Dead Children d12, Playing at
Politics d10, Initiate the Mother Ocean’s Inner
Mystery d10, Resolve d12; Trouble: Struggling to
Cement Control over Cult)
2. Water carrier Anemone, Red Martian Sandfish
spymaster (Spy and Master to Spies d10, Call
the Mother Ocean’s Dead Children Home d10,
Evasion and Escape d8, Resolve d10; Trouble:
Struggling With Crisis of Faith)
3. Margolite De La Experita Extravaganta, Red Mar-
tian magnate adventurer (Consummate Adventur-
er d12, Social Dynamo d10, Wealthy Beyond all
Reason d10, Resolve d8; Trouble: A string of jilted
lovers and spouses follows close behind)
4. Garl Reginto, Caravaneer, Red Martian occasion-
al smuggler (Sensible Caravan Master d10, Can
Handle Himself d8, Dicker like a Hazardi Pimp
d8, Resolve d8; Trouble: Gambling debts mean
he’s under the thumb of whoever holds his mark-
ers)
5. Professor Hershel Saenendoa, Red Martian schol-
ar (Geo-Astrologer d12, Peripatetic Scholar d10,
Scrappy Academic d8, Resolve d10; Trouble:
Predictions Rarely Believed )
6. Sister Shell, aspirant Sandfish acolyte, and secret
devotee of the Gutter Prince (Deep Cover Cult
Agent d10, Gutter Prince Mysteries d8, Vs.
Sandfish Mysteries d6, Resolve d6; Trouble: The
conflicting initiations are starting to tear her mind
in two)
HAZARDS
1. The Memory of Waves is a sharp and thirsty
place, full of natural hazards and unnatural haunt-
ings. One can fall into a crevasse, be slashed on
corals, succumb to thirst, or fall prey to bandit or
sea ghost.
2. Sandfish guard their secrets jealously, and will call
their dead swimming allies to slay those whose
who see too much.
 CHAPTER FOUR: A WORLD OF ADVENTURE
3. Mystics sometimes walk into the wastes seeking
wisdom in the cold dust, but what seeks them is
not always wise — the things that can enter an
open mind in the Memory of Waves are ancient
and inhuman, capricious and cruel. Beware the
hermits in this desert.
4. The silt crawlers of the wastes seem pathetic, and
unable to lift themselves and walk, but beware their
power. They were made to swim, not crawl, yet are
still deadly if not swift in this, the ocean’s grave.
Meridian
Meridian is one of the heartlands of Mars, the ca-
nal-rich region that supports Vance and Coronal.
Hazard
The traveler Sereanites described the tent city of
Hazard as “scattered about a crossroads between Chia-
ro, Zodiac, and Vance, like dice lying where they’ve
been thrown.” The comparison is simple but inevitable,
given that Hazard is the most notorious gambling town
in all of Mars. It perhaps began with merchants at a
caravanserai dealing with more money than sense, but
now it is a living temple to the 99 capricious gods of
luck.
Hazard is a town of countless superstitions. Resi-
dents bet on the smallest things, hoping to draw out any
bad luck on trivial affairs and save the good for import-
ant issues. It’s also a place where people wager far more
than just coin or goods. All the most interesting gambles
take place in Hazard, where they say you can lose even
your shadow if you sit down at the wrong table.
HOOKS
1. It’s the fifth year of the most ambitious race
known, one that starts in Hazard and runs through
the three points of Vance, Chiaro, and Zodiac be-
fore returning to Hazard. Eclectic and dangerous
racing teams are gathering, each one ready to
prove themselves the swiftest and hardiest to claim
the prize.
2. A rival of the characters’ makes a wager of a
month’s service — as bodyguard, lover, or even
menial servant. If one (or all) of the characters
is willing to match the bet, it would be a golden
opportunity to settle old scores. Of course, the
same’s true for the rival…
3. A young Chiaro scion bets the deed to the family
sword school — and then plays to lose. At first
162
5. When moonlight plays on the salt crystals that
encrust the black nodules littering the wastes,
ancient things hatch. Most die in this dried-up
world, but if one can find some measure of warm,
salty water in which to sink — like that carried in a
Martian’s veins — it will root in, and root deep.
6. Stare too long into the Memory of Waves, and
it will stare back. The mind is carried to strange
places on the winds that blow there.
it seems that it was a means to offload the ugly
debts the school owes. But the winner finds out
that there’s something even more sinister at play.
CHARACTERS
1. Innuku, Skarrut former champion of the plaza
(Brutal Fighter d10, Legbreaker d8, Fugitive d6;
Resolve d10; Trouble: Killed the Wrong Oppo-
nent)
2. Taldion, mysterious Red Martian grandmaster
(Master of All Chess d10, Military Strategist d8,
Innocuous d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Disgraced
and Hunted By Former Allies)
3. Gameez, Red Martian moneychanger (Rumors
From Every City d10, Eye For Coin d8, Wheedle
d6; Resolve d4; Trouble: Can’t Keep Mouth Shut)
4. Tychean, Red Martian luck-priest (Encyclopedia of
Superstitions d8, Lucky Breaks d8, Timely Advice
d6; Resolve d4; Trouble: Two-Sided Blessings
Always Come True)
5. Sabaton, wandering Red Martian wrestler (A
Thousand Holds d10, Work the Crowd d8, Please
the Ladies d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Believes Own
Reputation)
6. Doctor Amedio, prosthetics vendor (Craft Artificial
Limbs d10, Surgeon d8, Black Market Limb Trade
d6; Resolve d4; Trouble: Should Never Have
Gotten Into Gambling)
HAZARDS
1. Some freelancers pick deliberate fights with
strong-looking strangers while their friends bet on
the ensuing brawls — or duels, if sufficient money’s
at stake.
2. Criminals are typically condemned to Sting, Slash,
or Shield, wherein their fate is decided by the
erratic bladetail decapedes kept for that purpose.
(Lashing Tail d10, Poison Bite d8, Defensive Curl
d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Burrowers)
 meridi a n
A Red Martian couple visit the
Honeycomb on an ill-conceived holiday
3. Hazard is kept well out of the path of dust storms, but
sometimes freak accidents happen. A wall of dust
and ghosts brews up, and its path might or might not
take it through Hazard. What are the odds?
The Honeycomb
From a distance, this grand mountain seems oddly
polychromatic — its rust-colored surface glistens with
streaks of gold and emerald, and dark specks seem to
dance on it. As one draws nearer, it becomes appar-
ent the specks are living things, crawling in and out of
stained openings into the rock. The Honeycomb is a
hollow mountain, a colossal collection of hives.
Many huge arthropods and other vermin infest the
Honeycomb, preying on one another in a complex re-
lationship of feuding hive territories. The mountain’s
rock nourishes a variety of curious lichens that feed the
more herbivorous crawlers, which in turn feed the more
carnivorous hives. A handful of daring souls harvest the
Honeycomb, slipping into the mazelike tunnels armed
with smoke-guns or other such tricks, to bring out the
singular nectars within. It’s intensely dangerous work,
but the rewards are nourishing, ecstatic, or psychotro-
pic elixirs found nowhere else on Mars.
163
HOOKS
1. To make a dramatic point, a judge has condemned
a group of criminals to be fed into the hives of Hon-
eycomb. The characters, arrested for minor and
perhaps fictional charges, have been added to the
shipment just to keep the numbers impressive.
2. The insects of one of the apex hives have been rapidly
showing signs of increasing intelligence, most recently
carving symbols into their walls that appear to be some
form of pictogram. The colony of harvesters is very
nervous about this development, and needs a solution.
3. A recent harvesting expedition brought back pieces
of ancient artifact machines that were embedded
in the hive’s wax. Is there a ruin below Honeycomb
that only the arthropods have reached?
4. A noble’s bacchanal is spoiled by a batch of nectars
that contained an unpleasantly-psychoactive impuri-
ty. An initial investigation concludes that if the nectars
were poisoned, then it must have taken place back
at the Honeycomb camps. Who would dare?
5. The Honeycomb sees a few “holy men” here and
there, who partake of the nectars and pronounce
strange prophecies. The cult of a particularly
charismatic oracle is growing rapidly, drawing
dreamer-adherents from the cities, and threatening
to interfere with the nectar business.
 CHAPTER FOUR: A WORLD OF ADVENTURE
6. An enterprising merchant plans to start a honey farm
of his own. He has already begun to cultivate similar
fungi in tunnels under his manse — now all he needs
is a pupal queen, delivered intact so it can begin a
hive of its own upon emergence.
CHARACTERS
1. Gur, Skarrut tunnel guide (Navigate the Honeycomb
d10, Soporific Smoke Grenades d8, Vanish Into the
Shadows d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Powerful City Debt)
2. Dieco Ranvan, Red Martian Vancian toxicologist
(Exotic Poisons d10, Web of Intrigues d8, Self-De-
fense d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Marked for Death
by Own Teacher)
3. Zizz, Red Martian tribal speaker-to-the-shelled-
ones (Manipulate Hive Workers d10, Insect
Cultist d8, Chitin Blades d6; Resolve d8; Trouble:
Abandoned Past as Vancian Noble)
4. Sussur, Red Martian veteran nectar harvester
(Smoke Gun d8, Hive Knowledge d8, Keep Skin
Intact d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Rare Addiction)
5. Iaco Mannocor, Red Martian opportunistic entre-
preneur (Business Savvy d10, Wall of Guards d8,
Double-Dealing d6; Resolve d4; Trouble: Sank
Too Much Money Into This Enterprise)
6. Isidore Deimoran, Red Martian enthusiastic
naturalist (Innocent Charm d8, Amateur Student
of Zoology d6, Concealed Pistol d6; Resolve d4;
Trouble: Poor Threat Assessment)
HAZARDS
1. The finest nectar is produced by brewer wasps of
the apex hive.
2. The barrel-sized vespid predators called hon-
ey-hawks prey on targets who smell of a hive.
3. In a hive of docile glittershells, a small group of
nectar aficionados have set up a camp. Their
elixir of choice makes them increasingly paranoid
and territorial toward other Martians.
4. Several of the more intoxicating nectars are
brewed from large, purplish, psychotropic bracket
fungi. The tunnels become more dangerous when
the fungi are sporing.
5. A battle breaks out on the border between two
hives, and the pheromonal aggression spreads
quickly throughout each. Normally-docile workers
lash out at anything not of the hive.
6. The base camps of nectar harvesters are tense,
paranoid places. Gathering nectar is very dan-
gerous work, and harvesters are quick to defend
their take against anything they see as banditry —
especially when honey-drunk.
164
Muniqa
It seems like one of any number of market towns
near Vance. Perhaps the people seem a bit stiff. Perhaps
visitors are politely, but firmly, encouraged to conduct
their business and move on, and perhaps no one ever
actually sees meat come out of the slaughterhouse, but
still. It’s ordinary. Boring. The kind of place you become
an adventurer to get away from.
Except for the fact that not a single, solitary person
lives there. Every citizen of Muniqa, every animal in their
pens and every plant in their gardens, is a First Martian
automaton. They’re incredibly lifelike — other than the
aforementioned stiffness; unless one is injured it’s virtu-
ally impossible to see through the façade — but subtle
cues like the lack of an actual harvest, the fact that only a
very few children seem to live in the village, and the fact
that none of the private homes have any of the necessary
facilities for living people, hint that something is amiss.
The inhabitants mostly resemble Red Martians
from early adulthood to near-senescence. A few chil-
dren and representations of other peoples exist, but they
are very much in the minority. Although they appear
to be fully-functional living beings, the Muniqs cannot
reproduce sexually — when a family desires “children,”
they must wait for (or cause) another member of the
community to cease functioning, at which point the
parts can be repurposed. Typically, the “parents” donate
some of their redundant mechanisms, as this is the clos-
est they can come to passing on their genes. Due to the
inevitable breakdown of components, this isn’t a closed
system: The population is steadily declining.
HOOKS
1. A string of disappearances, young men and wom-
en from surrounding villages, leads back to Muni-
qa. All were last seen leaving a social event with a
man from the town — harvest balls, town festivals,
and the like. The perpetrator is trying to reverse the
automata’s population decline by replacing failed
mechanical components with biological ones. Sev-
eral of his “children” are hidden in a cellar beneath
his house — and some of them seem to be alive.
2. While passing through the town, characters are
approached by a wide-eyed Roundhead who qui-
etly begs them to help him escape. It seems he’s
one of the few who can repair the ancient autom-
ata, and he’s being held hostage for his services.
3. Word reaches Muniqa of an ancient vault full of
similar automata, long inactive. The village elders
will pay handsomely for any that are brought
 The Prism at ic Wa stes
back, but the site is infested with machine spiders
and First Martian war machines.
4. In a ruin miles from Muniqa, a machine rumbles
to life. A forgotten transmitter sends a signal, and
every automaton in Muniqa sets down their tools,
unfurls terrible weapons concealed within their
limbs, and begins to march on Vance.
5. A plague strikes the region around Vance, and,
despite the Muniqs’ best efforts, word begins to
spread about the one village untouched by the
disease. Suddenly the town is full of refugees
seeking to escape the plague, doctors trying to
figure out why no one is sick, and mystics pro-
claiming it an omen. Muniqa is filled to capacity
— and it’s running out of food.
6. Every night at midnight, every Muniq in the village
marches out to an empty field not far from the
village to sing. The song lasts for a few minutes,
then the automata wait expectantly for an hour
before returning to their homes. If asked, none of
them admit to being aware of this behavior. Three
nights ago, something began to sing back.
CHARACTERS
1. Oktar, village headwoman (Shrewd Negotiator
d10, Startlingly Strong d8, Words of Wisdom d6;
Resolve d8; Trouble: Can’t Keep This Secret Forever)
2. Milrun the Unknowing, ignorant automaton (Just
Naturally Tough I Guess d10, Investigative Mind
The Prismatic Wastes
A vast, empty quarter stretches from Vance to Hell’s
Basin. Once a swathe of sandy scrubland, it was long
ago the site of a terrible war amongst the First Martians.
Whatever weapons they deployed in that war are thank-
fully lost to the dust of history, but their effects linger still:
Across the landscape, the sand has been fused into sheets
of multicolored glass. Green and gold, red and blue, sil-
ver and deep violet — by airship, on a cloudy day, it’s a
hypnotically-beautiful sight. On the ground, in the harsh
light of the noon sun, it can blind you, if it doesn’t cook
you alive or starve you to death. And then, of course, you
have the Chromat to worry about.
Picture them: perhaps the size of a Red Martian, but
hunched and twisted, with deeply pitted eyes and near-lip-
less mouths. Skin a patchwork of different colors, all so
translucent you’d think they were made of the glass of
their homeland. They need to eat and drink like anyone
else (and watching their organs work through their skin is
165
d8, Friendly and Outgoing d6; Resolve d8; Trou-
ble: Starting to See Through the Cracks)
3. Akaleth the Butcher, town enforcer (Big, Sharp
Knives d10, Fists Like Boulders d6, Loyal to a
Fault d6; Resolve d10; Combat: 2 Strike/1 Parry;
Trouble: Can’t Stand the Sight of Blood)
4. Usa, Roundhead “doctor” (I Can Fix Anything
d10; Ancient Martian Lore d8; Surprisingly Intri-
cate Toolkit d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Prisoner)
HAZARDS
1. The Muniqs are generally peaceful and uninterest-
ed in causing strife, but they are deeply committed
to maintaining their secrecy. They fear (rightly)
that if their nature were discovered they would
be subject to vivisection and experimentation by
those who study ancient Martian technology.
Anyone unlucky enough to see one injured or put
together the clues will be attacked mercilessly.
2. Muniqs have a reputation for being tough and
hard workers, which makes them occasionally
subject to slave raids.
3. Whatever purpose the Muniqa automata were
originally built for, it’s long forgotten. But certain
behavioral protocols are still embedded deep in
their mechanical brains, and sometimes a seem-
ingly-innocuous word, gesture, or image provokes
one into a homicidal trance state.
a…singular experience), but they’re at least partially sus-
tained by the deadly radiation of their homeland. They’re
not feral, but theirs is a harsh life, and the choice between
attacking travelers and dying is no choice at all. Wise Mar-
tians don’t dare risk the deep Wastes, where the glass is 10
meters thick and hot as a griddle, but stick to the outskirts
where the Chromat keep trading camps. Rich Martians
the world over love Prismatic glass for sculpture, stained-
glass windows, and experiments both scientific and mysti-
cal, and there’s a killing to be made trading the trinkets of
the city-states to Chromat glass-collectors.
Rainbow
Rainbow is the largest and most continuously popu-
lated of the Chromat trading camps, situated at the end
of a road that once led from Vance to some forgotten city
in the Wastes. The glass ground cover is thin here, so thin
that a strong blow or a falling body can crack it. Officially,
 CHAPTER FOUR: A WORLD OF ADVENTURE
all shattered ground cover is collected by the camp admin-
istrators and thrown into the Glass Pit, but the poorest
citizens scavenge what they can. It’s a rough town, full of
all sorts of dangerous people and black-market goods, but
step wrong and you might end up with your throat slit and
your body cut to ribbons after a Glass Pit funeral.
HOOKS
1. Thanks to its frontier location and the laissez-faire
attitudes of the Chromat who control the town,
Rainbow is a popular place for black-market
deals and criminal auctions. In the back rooms
of taverns and glass-ceilinged basements, shady
characters from across Mars have paid exorbitant
prices to participate in Amok-Nar’s latest auction.
Treasures looted from ancient ruins and royal pal-
aces alike will be on display, as well as something
truly special, a treasure beyond price known only
as the Gallowglass.
2. Chromat tribes recognize no rights to the Wastes
but their own, but the governors of Rainbow
are easily bribed and so it’s a common staging
ground for illegal, wildcat glass-harvesting oper-
ations. These operations are always looking for
mercenary security forces and specialized labor,
and the hazard pay is generous. Then again, so
are the hazards.
3. The glass streets of Rainbow are shattered in the
wake of brawls with alarming regularity — in fact,
you’d think there would be no ground cover left
at all. But the glass seems to recover, growing like
a scab over a wound until it reclaims its previous
borders — and then a little more.
4. Sun Wheels are found throughout the Wastes,
along the migratory routes used by Chromat
glasscutters. Designed to offer temporary shelter
in the event of unexpected sun, they consist of
a shallow pit drilled down into the glass, with
several short tunnels spoking off the central shaft
to keep travelers out of direct sunlight. They are at
best a temporary protection: Prolonged sunlight
can still heat the glass to the point that a Sun
Wheel resembles the inside of an oven. Every
glass prospector out there has a story about find-
ing a cooked corpse in a Sun Wheel, variously
clutching a fabulous glass gem, a huge sack of
money, or a treasure map. Some of those stories
are even true.
5. The Glasscutter’s Union of Vance is sponsoring a
cross-Wastes sled race, starting in Rainbow and
skirting Hell’s Basin to finish in Illium. Contestants
will have to brave deadly heat, toxic radiation,
and the desolate landscape, but the prize is
wealth beyond imagining.
166
6. Exploitation of the Chromat and disregard for their
land rights is a common problem in the Wastes,
and it’s exacerbated in Rainbow, where colonialist
attitudes and the prospect of easy riches meet in
an ugly combination. A growing number of young
Chromat have come together to protect their rights,
and heroic adventurers from beyond the Wastes
are exactly the allies they need.
CHARACTERS
1. Nuqab, Chromat Overseer of Trade (Greased
Palms d10, Gatekeeper d8, Red Tape d6; Resolve
d8; Trouble: No Scruples Whatsoever)
2. Shumar, wildcat Red Martian glasscutter (Survival-
ist d10, Eye for Opportunity d8, Reckless Disre-
gard for Law and Order d6; Resolve d8; Trouble:
Riddled with Cancer)
3. Kavok of the Wild Eyes, Zaiu crime boss (The
Zartini Crime Family d10, Offers That Should
Really Be Given Due Consideration d8, Black
Market Connections d6; Resolve d10; Combat: 2
Strike/1 Parry; Trouble: The Costacci Consortium)
4. The Gallowglass, an Ancient Martian soldier-go-
lem made of Prismatic glass, whose features
match no known peoples of Mars (Great Glass
Axe d10, Impenetrable Glass Armor d8, Heart
Like an Atomic Furnace d6; Resolve d10; Combat:
3 Strike/1 Parry/1 Stunt; Trouble: Bound in Servi-
tude)
5. Ua, Roundhead glass-sled racer (Meticulous Plans
d10, Loyal Eora Pack d8; Flawless Orienteering
d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Deeply in Debt)
6. Qiban, Chromat Rights Activist (Firebrand d10,
Lots of Like-Minded Friends d8, Knowledge of the
Wastes d6; Resolve d8; Combat: 1 Parry/2 Stunt;
Trouble: Enemies. Lots of Enemies)
HAZARDS
1. For such a small outpost, Rainbow is carved up
between nearly a dozen criminal interests. Wan-
der down the wrong glass-fronted street or wear
the wrong color in the wrong bar, and you’re in
for trouble.
2. While it’s possible to hire reputable guides into
the interior of the Wastes — Chromat, or those
with good relations with the Chromat tribes who
can guarantee safe passage — at least a third of
them are scoundrels who lead travelers into the
Wastes and either kill them or wait for them to die
of exposure or radiation poisoning.
3. While Rainbow itself is on the outskirts of the Wastes
and thus relatively safe from radiation poisoning,
anyone venturing deeper into the Wastes needs to
 The Prism at ic Wa stes
take daily doses of “Illium salt,” which provides some
small protection against radiation poisoning.
4. The Glass Pit is a popular place to dispose of the
corpses that are an unavoidable waste product
of criminal enterprise. There’s enough blood and
bile down among the shards to raise up a whole
lot of angry ghosts, should someone want to.
5. Contrary to popular belief, putting powdered
glass into someone’s food won’t kill them. Unless
of course it’s Prismatic Glass, which is mildly
radioactive even long after it’s taken from the
Wastes, and is thus a popular poison.
6. On streets of glass, a weapon is always near at
hand. Even a friendly, honest bar brawl can turn
deadly when someone grabs a chunk of pave-
ment that can lay a throat open to the bone.
Cave of
the Hyaline Mother
The Cave of the Hyaline Mother is really more of a
gaping pit in the ground, but it’s the center of Chromat
religion. According to their legends, the Hyaline Mother
once dwelt among the moons and marveled at the innu-
merable hues of the stars. But when she gazed down at
the surface of Mars, she grieved, for all was the color of
rust and blood. So she sacrificed herself, plunging from the
heavens and piercing the stone deep within the Wastes.
Her coming turned the sands to glass and brought forth
the Chromat, but she was a goddess of the cold and lifeless
stars and knew naught of living things, and so the Chro-
mat revere her for giving them life and despise her for giv-
ing them such a desolate homeland. Chromat who seek to
understand the mysteries of the Wastes come here and are
invigorated, but the glass surrounding the Cave is littered
with the cancerous bones of other Martians who dared
blaspheme by coming here.
HOOKS
1. When the story of the Hyaline Mother reaches
the Pale Martians of Anger, they recognize it as
a millennia-distorted tale of a First Martian orbital
weapon strike. If the weapon, as Chromat religion
implies, is still intact down there, it could represent
one of the most significant finds in centuries.
2. Chromat priests journey to the Cave of the Mother
to receive her wisdom in the form of psychic visions.
Many times these visions are cryptic, filled with
strange symbols and omens of loss or failure, which
the priests interpret as omens or taboos for their
people to follow. Recently, though, the visions have
changed; a young Chromat girl has received a divine
167
message: The Vitreous Father has woken from sleep,
and must be reunited with his bride. The Mother has
located him: at the deepest point of Hell’s Basin.
3. Blasphemously echoing the fall of the Hyaline
Mother, a demon of the outer black falls from the
sky in a terrible plume of fire and crashes into
the Prismatic Wastes. The impact shatters glass
for kilometers around, flinging tiny shards into the
sky to fall as a deadly rain. The Mother screams
the error of this mockery into her priests’ dreams,
along with an image of those responsible: the sigil
of the City of Anger. Only there can the Mother
be appeased. What could she be asking for but
blood?
4. Fewer and fewer Chromats are seen at the trading
camps on the outskirts of the Prismatic Wastes. When
pressed for the reason, the few that still come say their
priests have received visions from the Mother that
something wondrous will happen in one week’s time.
The tribes have flocked to the Cave of the Hyaline
Mother, but what is she counting down to?
5. After centuries of quiescence, new life begins to
emerge from the Cave of the Hyaline Mother.
Shambling things of yellow fungus, amorphous
and yet somehow terribly akin to the form of Pale
Martians, they stalk and devour Chromats by
the dim, reflected light of the moons. Religious
fundamentalism takes hold as the tribes seek to un-
derstand how they have displeased their goddess,
setting the stage for a witch hunt — or a crusade.
CHARACTERS
1. Akulon, Chromat Vessel of the Mother’s Wisdom
(Holy Purpose d10, Psychic Visions d8, Loyal
Followers d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Obsessively
Zealous Followers)
2. Umlos Who Has Seen Her Face and Bears Her
Sword, Chromat (Righteous Warrior d10, Vitrification
Ray d8, A Leader to Her People d6; Resolve d10;
Combat: 2 Strike/1 Stunt; Trouble: Incessant Visions)
3. Kal-Lag, Pale Martian Archaeologist (Working
Theory of the Ancients d10, Friendly with the
Locals d8, An Explanation for Everything d6;
Resolve d6; Trouble: A Blasphemer and Doesn’t
Realize It)
HAZARDS
1. The Cave of the Hyaline Mother is the most
intensely-radioactive region in all the Prismatic
Wastes. Chromats are invigorated by it, but few
other Martians can survive more than a day or
two near the cave’s mouth, and without extremely
powerful (read: First Martian) radiation shielding,
entering the cave is a death sentence.
 CHAPTER FOUR: A WORLD OF ADVENTURE
2. The Mother’s Angels guard her slumber well:
Within the Cave of the Hyaline Mother, explorers
who survive the fatal radiation must contend with
ghostly figures of smokeless fire, whose swords of
light carve Deimos steel like soft cheese.
3. Even non-Chromat Adepts who approach the
Cave of the Hyaline Mother can receive messag-
es from her, but their minds are ill-prepared for
Worshippers at the Cave of the Hyaline Mother
168
contact with divinity. Brain damage, aneurisms,
and even spontaneous incineration are all known
side effects.
4. The Middle Children are a Chromat tribe who
dwell near the Mother’s cave. According to their
legends, the Eldest Children inherited the Deep
Wastes where the glass is thicker than a Chromat
is tall, and the Youngest Children were given leave
 The Prism at ic Wa stes

to explore the boundaries of the Wastes where the
glass crunches underfoot, but the Middle Children
were apportioned nowhere, and so they stayed
behind to guard the Mother. They are fiercely de-
voted and prohibit all but tribal priests to approach
the mouth of the cave — violently, if necessary.
5. The area around the Cave of the Mother is seis-
mically unstable. Minor quakes are common, and
often cause the glass surface to shear, creating
hard-to-see, yet razor-edged, crevasses.
6. Yellow Walkers (Amorphous Body d10, Damna-
bly Strong d8, Hypnotic Keening d6; Resolve d6;
Combat: 2 Strike; Trouble: Hunger Without End)
normally feed on the radioactive flesh of Chro-
mats, but any Martian who gets near the Cave of
the Hyaline Mother picks up enough radiation to
look like a meal to one of them.

Armonica Canyon
Armonica Canyon lies near the edge of Hell’s Ba-
sin, in the most thickly-glassed part of the Prismatic
Wastes. It’s the only source on Mars for Blackglass,
which is valued not only for its beauty, but for its ability
to dampen the psychic powers of Adepts and their ilk.
Extracting the glass without fracturing it (and thus ren-
dering it useless) requires sophisticated drilling equip-
ment beyond the means of the Chromat, and at present
a wildcat mining operation out of Illium is the sole con-
cern operating in the canyon. The radiation, scorching
heat, and Chromat attacks are dangerous enough, but
when the wind whistles through the canyon after a rain
(infrequent, but less so than elsewhere on Mars), it pro-
duces an eerie music that plunges listeners into a deep
melancholy, and eventually drives them mad.

SITES
1. The mining camp’s canteen is a makeshift tent of
highly-reflective fabric set up in the lee of a tall
glass spire. Here the wildcatters spend most of
their pay on alcohol and illicit gambling, but the
canteen also serves as company store, payroll
office, and center of gossip.
2. Wildcatters aren’t known for their subdued, re-
served behaviors, which is why the Hot Box exists.
(Actually, five of them are scattered around the
camp, but it’s always just “the Hot Box.”) These
cells, sized just big enough for one person, are
carved directly into the glass walls, positioned
so they sit in the sunlight for at least a few hours
every day. Most days they don’t get quite hot
enough to literally cook the prisoner.
3. Cutting Blackglass is hot, sweaty, arduous work,
and it starts at the Forge. Here, a team of grunts
ensures that a ready supply of red-hot iron rods is
always on hand. It’s a ramshackle thing — the only
permanent structure in the canyon, but shoddily
built and featuring a very large fire perilously
close to a whole lot of fuel.

169
 CHAPTER FOUR: A WORLD OF ADVENTURE
4. The Quiet Room is a tent of thick leather, its flaps
treated with sealant salvaged from an ancient
ruin. If you get inside and get some wax into your
ears before the canyon song reaches full volume,
it provides at least a modicum of protection. The
Quiet Room can squeeze about 250 Red Mar-
tian-sized souls inside. Presently, 200 wildcatters
work the canyon, with more arriving every day.
5. Whistler’s Tower, at the southern tip of the camp,
is the duty station for cutters who didn’t quite
screw up enough to warrant the Hot Box. It’s the
first place where the wind picks up after the rains,
and it’s the job of whatever poor soul is stationed
at its top to listen for the song and sound the
alarm when it comes. It also happens to be damn
near impossible to get down from the tower and
into the Quiet Room before the canyon’s song
reaches full volume.
6. The Docks are a cluster of tall, narrow spires of
glass-clad rock lashed together by rope bridges
and crude cargo lifts. It’s here that airships from
Zodiac dock to offload mail and supplies in ex-
change for the precious Blackglass.
HOOKS
1. At the peak of the cutting season (high summer,
when the rains are fewest and the wind quietest),
an unexpected storm hits the canyon, threatening
a song of unprecedented volume. Before the
camp can be evacuated, scouts report that a mas-
sive ghost storm has brewed up out of Hell’s Basin
and is also heading right for the canyon — almost
as if called there.
2. A labor organizer is put in the Hot Box after an al-
tercation with company security. It was supposed
to be just a day to stew, but when they open the
Box to pull her out, she’s dead. Now, rumors of
reprisals are flying around the camp, and all it’ll
take to touch off the powder keg is one wrong
word or a little too much booze.
3. An explosion at the Forge kills several wildcatters,
injures many more, and knocks out the Docks.
With the camp surgeon badly overworked, it’s a
race against time to find a way to evacuate the
camp before the canyon whistles up its next song.
4. The lookout on Whistler’s Tower didn’t make it
back to the Quiet Room before the last canyon
song. Normally anyone caught outside during the
song is found in short order, catatonic or dead,
170
but after three days of searching no one’s been
able to find her. Now more cutters are going
missing: two, sometimes three a night.
5. While cutting through a particularly-rich vein of
Blackglass, a crew finds a three-meter-diameter
circular tunnel bored through the glass, plunging
sharply down below the surface. It’s not smooth
like a lava tube (and in any case the area isn’t
volcanically active): it’s ridged, like a tunnel left
by a burrowing creature.
6. A wealthy Zodiac aristocrat is murdered by psy-
chic assault — which shouldn’t have been possible
given the amount of Blackglass he wore every
day. When it comes out that the “Blackglass” is
just regular, clear Prismatic glass melted down
and treated with ash, his heirs hire investigators to
travel to Armonica Canyon and figure out who’s
skimming off the top.
CHARACTERS
1. Thantras, Red Martian wildcat leader (My Crew
is the Best Crew d10, Handy With a Cutting Iron
d8, My Own Boss d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Deep
in the Red)
2. Muk, Zaiu head of camp security (No Nonsense
Law Ape d10, Backup d8, Power of Arrest d6;
Resolve d8; Combat: 1 Strike/2 Stunt; Trouble:
Authoritarian Streak)
3. Qandr, Pale Martian drunk (Troublemaker d10,
All the Gossip d8, 30-Year Veteran d6; Resolve
d6; Trouble: Nobody Listens to an Old Drunk)
HAZARDS
1. It takes about two minutes from the first skirling
whistle to full-blown canyon song. The wildcatters
drill frequently enough to get to safety within that
time, but outsiders who aren’t familiar with it can
easily get caught out.
2. Unlike elsewhere in the Wastes, the glass in
Armonica Canyon is meters thick and extremely
hard. It doesn’t chip easily, and the surface is slick
and smooth, making footing precarious.
3. The Ghoul of the Glass (Damn Near Invisible
d10, Strangling Fingers d8, Knows the Camp Like
the Back of Her Hand d6; Resolve d8; Combat: 1
Strike/1 Stunt; Trouble: Compelled by the Can-
yon’s Song) is probably just a story the old wild-
catters tell new recruits to scare them. Probably.
 S ka rr a s
Skarras
North of Cimmeria and its deadly fecundity lie the
plains of Skarras. When the Skarruts venture across this
landscape, they are always on their way somewhere…
for while the environs of Skarras are not scoured by
the permanent cyclones of the Nowhere Plains to the
north, those storms spawn gritty, ghost-filled clouds of
sand and rock that billow south. First Martians occupy
the city of Dread, but even their traders will not shelter
in the shadow of Dangling Raster.
Dangling Raster
North of Skarras and east of Dread it waits, set like
the sword of Damocles on the underside of a vast, nat-
ural archway. Its inverted spires hang from the stone,
some ending hundreds of meters above the ground
below, some nearly brushing the floor of the ancient,
lava-carved valley. Once it was a great city, that much
is plain — a tangled webwork of bridges, liftways, and
flying docks bristles and juts still from the structure —
but its doom was long ago, and its purpose a mystery to
those few explorers who have dared to map it. It was a
temple, some say, to gods long-vanished from the face of
Mars, who brought riches from beyond the stars. It was
a hub of trade, say others, built to command the Flow-
stone Road and extract tribute from the obsidian-hulled
triremes that sailed the molten rock, laden with shining
treasure. A thousand tales give the old ruin a thousand
different purposes, from the venal to the sublime.
Whatever version you might hear in the gin-soaked
taverns of Skarras, one thing is as constant as the pole-
star: treasure. Wealth beyond measure lies heaped and
unclaimed in the anti-towers of Raster, they say. It
must do — why else would the ancients build such a
strange and inhospitable place? And surely it’s never
been claimed, they press on. After all, it’s weeks out
from Skarras across barren plains and lava fields, with
precious little shelter from the howling Martian wind,
and no food or water to speak of. And that’s before you
take into account the Hanging Apes.
HOOKS
1. A hardened explorer of the wastes staggers into
Skarras, delirious from exposure and ranting
about the Inverse Portal and a place where the
stars flow backward. He dies a few days later,
without ever regaining lucidity, and when the un-
171
dertakers pry open his left fist, they find an ornate
silver key, stamped with a sigil that can only be an
image of Dangling Raster.
2. The Elysian Mount rumbles and smokes, and
suddenly the long-fabled treasures of Dangling
Raster risk being burned to cinder by the eruption.
The get-rich-quick schemers are out in force: One
band of mercenaries and treasure hunters propos-
es a lightning raid on the ruins to find and seize
what they can, and damn the Hanging Apes and
the perils of the lava fields. A rich water baron
proposes financing a lava break dug out by Skar-
rut masons. But when the water baron and the
mercenary financier turn up dead, it’s clear that
a third faction is in play — one that wants to see
Raster and all its secrets buried in molten stone.
3. A Zaiu biologist wants to study the Hanging Apes
and their remarkable adaptations to their isolated
habitat. She hires stout adventurers to escort her
to Raster and swears she’ll go no higher than the
Fourth Reach, but when the first night’s camp is
interrupted by drums and a whistling of the wind
that can only be described as musical, it becomes
clear that the Hanging Apes are not the mere
beasts they seem.
4. Strange airships, painted a pale blue to blend
with the sunset, appear out of the empty west ev-
ery night. They dock at the highest foundations of
Dangling Raster for the entire night, then sail on to
the east at dawn. No one ever sees a ship making
the return journey, and no explorer has found a
way past the 18th Reach, well below the ships’
docks. If the blue ships have a crew, they’ve never
made themselves known.
SITES
1. Groundscrape Tower: The “tallest” of Dangling
Raster’s towers, reaching nearly a hundred meters
straight down from the archway that is the ruin’s
foundation. It ends 10 meters above the valley
floor, and is the most common point of ingress for
explorers. Its lifts and staircases are only intermit-
tently functional: Climbing above the Fourth Reach
necessitates moving between towers and criss-
crossing the city to find clear places to climb.
2. The Upper Reaches: Above the 15th Reach (that
is, the 15th level as measured from the bottom of
Groundscrape Tower) is the domain of the Hang-
ing Apes. While they often descend to the lower
Reaches to hunt and forage, climbing above the
15th Reach brings a much-increased danger
 CHAPTER FOUR: A WORLD OF ADVENTURE
of attack. Some explorers report seeing totems
of bone and chipped obsidian that seem to be
placed as warnings or territorial markers.
3. The Woman in Green: On a narrow skybridge at
the 13th Reach, one that has never been mapped
to a known route through the ruin, is a Red Mar-
tian woman in a green tunic. She sits calmly, in a
pose of apparent meditation: legs folded beneath
her, head bowed, hands clasped. She is quite ob-
viously dead and partially mummified by the con-
stant, dry wind, but even the carnivorous Hanging
Apes have not disturbed her body. While no one
seems to know how to get to her, she’s easily vis-
ible from most of the Lower Reaches, and serves
as an orienteering reference for other explorers.
4. The Observatory: A huge stone dome on the
Ninth Reach, the Observatory is so named
because it resembles almost precisely the great
observatories of Zodiac. Never mind the fact that
this one is placed such that the only possible thing
its telescope could see would be the valley below.
5. The Golden Doors: On an otherwise-unremark-
able tower at the 23rd Reach, a pair of golden
doors, fully six meters high and three across, can
be seen shining in the sunlight at dawn and dusk
in the spring and winter. No explorer has found a
way past the 18th Reach and returned to tell of it,
but cartographers with telescopes have charted
a probable path from the Woman in Green to the
Golden Doors.
6. The Bridge: Crossing the actual rock bridge
Dangling Raster hangs from is a perilous feat: the
Amazonian highlands are sheer and smooth, with
no protection from winds that can reach hundreds
of kilometers per hour. The few who have attempt-
ed it report that the only way into the towers from
above would be to rappel down the wall of the
bridge itself, and that though the bridge seems
like a solid arch of unbroken rock, something
comes up from beneath at night to snatch the
unwary. Something bigger and faster than any
Hanging Ape.
CHARACTERS
1. Kalada, Red Martian ruins guide (Tougher Than
Old Leather d10, Dreams of Raster-That-Was d8,
Every Kind of Rope You Could Want d6; Resolve
d8; Trouble: Bored Rich Kids)
2. Shon-Kar, Zaiu zoologist (Walking Zoological
Encyclopedia d10, Specimen Catalog d8, “I’ve
Only Read About This!” d6; Resolve d6; Trouble:
“I’ve Only Read About This!”)
3. Raklow the Scrambler, Pale Martian free climber
(Four Arms Means Twice as Many Handholds
172
d10, “Ropes? Who Needs Ropes?” d8, Hanging
Ape Whisperer d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: “Now
How Do I Get Down?”)
HAZARDS
1. The Hanging Apes of Raster (Two Hearts, Four
Limbs, Lots of Teeth d10, Iron Grip d8, Unbeliev-
ably Flexible d6; Resolve d6; Combat: 2 Strike/2
Stunt; Trouble: You)
2. Unexpected crosswinds coupled with a lack of
guard rails make being swept off into the void a
constant risk.
3. Many routes through the ruin are only accessible
via unstable rope bridges, swinging vines, or
perilously-narrow ledges.
4. Not all the towers of Raster are securely anchored
— a quake or a volcanic eruption could send one
tumbling to the valley below.
Hirshel
Once, a city of glass and stone sparkled upon the
Radium Plateau. Time has buried it beneath dunes of
sand, but the sand remembers. The dreaming dead
wake the dunes to yearning, wanting to recreate the
city in their grains but not knowing how. All they can
do is shift into the shapes it dimly recalls — a stair-
case here, a tower there, and more often than not,
a muddle of half-understood forms rising and falling
at the fragments of whims. This is Hirshel as it has
become.
HOOKS
1. Music changes the sand’s mindless remembrance
into an inspired ballet, shifting it into shapes and
images that match the timbre and mood. If a song
resonates particularly with a memory buried in the
dunes, the shape it makes crystallizes into a glass
statue.
2. Blood spilled on the sands of Hirshel reminds the
former city of the violence that ended its days
in the sun. The sands attack with armed limbs
and deadly pits, tense up into harsh and jagged
abstract shapes and traps, and turn a deeper
crimson. Can the characters discover what might
calm the dunes again?
3. Whenever a ship from Illium passes over Hirshel,
the sands respond, reaching up into the sky as
though they might join in the ship’s journey. If
the city once knew the secret of flight, perhaps
deposits of the precious antigravity element still lie
buried somewhere here.
 S ka rr a s
CHARACTERS
1. The Dune-Lover, Red Martian wanderer (Medium
for the Wind d10, Desert Dweller d8, Haunting
Beauty d8; Resolve d8; Trouble: Dogged by the
Past)
2. Ashok, Zaiu troubadour and troupe leader (Joy-
ous Song d10, Generous Soul d8, Dune Favorite
d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Wrapped Up in Others)
3. Phion, Red Martian trapped in a sand prison
(Life Is Honor d12, Precision Swordsmanship d8,
Knack for Provocation d6; Resolve d8; Combat:
1 Strike/1 Parry; Trouble: Desperate Enough for
Anything)
HAZARDS
1. Living scorpions with carapaces of scintillant glass
roam the dunes, thirsty for the blood their dead
cousins spurn.
2. Shelters under the Radium Plateau’s sweltering
heat can vanish as easily as they form, leaving
those relying on their shade to the sun’s severe
glare.
Noachia
Noachia, the dystopian paradise. Noachia, the dusk
city of angels. Noachia, where death has no meaning
and life isn’t far behind. These are the rumors passed
from caravan to caravan on the Radium Plateau about
the gray city, worn like a grandfather’s abandoned coat
by its reckless squatters. The people here drink from the
well they call the Deep, which plunges headlong into
the depths beneath the Plateau to bring up cool water.
It sustains life the way water should, but also in ways
that it shouldn’t.
The few who call the dead old city home cannot
age or fall ill, cannot starve or wither. If they’re killed,
their bodies are committed to the Deep and, within a
fortnight, they rise reborn from mud and clay, just as
they were…at least, on the surface. Since they don’t
fear death and life is unchanging, they constantly seek
new ways to feel alive and think nothing of wanton
violence. After so many years of resurrection with the
radium-saturated miracle waters of the Deep in their
veins, the Noachim glow with an otherworldly light,
and they’re all linked by an eerie but subtle similari-
ty that makes outsiders shiver without knowing why.
They each can feel what the others feel to some extent,
173
though how varies from person to person. Even those
who leave Noachia can’t escape it — so, most say, why
bother?
HOOKS
1. A merchant sets up shop along the most direct
route into the city, spreading word of a genu-
ine fountain of youth from Ziggur to Illium, and
charging for admission. Nobody warns his cus-
tomers what awaits them in the gray city.
2. The characters are dragged before Noachia’s
kangaroo court on some nonsensical charge, and
the crowd eats up every minute. The penalty is
death, but fortunately, one of the city’s denizens
agrees to represent the characters’ case. But is the
offer sincere, or just another part of the show?
3. A reclusive cult of Noachim that lives in the aban-
doned sewers under the streets claims that one of
the characters is their god reincarnated in mortal
form, insisting that they take their rightful divine
place and deliver the righteous from their immor-
tal curse.
CHARACTERS
1. Imbrael, Red Martian pleasure seeker (Narcotic
Tolerance d10, Wild Abandon d8, Contagious
Laugh d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Addicted to Every-
thing)
2. Anixion, Red Martian self-imposed exile (Plateau
Wanderer d8, Pack Rat d8, Glows in the Dark d6;
Resolve d6; Trouble: Haunted by the Deep)
3. Jarizur, Red Martian gang leader (Rousing Battle
Cry d10, Steals from Everyone d8, Fiercely Terri-
torial d6; Resolve d8; Combat: 2 Strike/; Trouble:
Impatient)
HAZARDS
1. The gambling dens of Noachia rival Ziggur’s
Inverted Court for oddities, but beware playing
to win — outsiders aren’t told that prizes run the
gamut of extreme experiences.
2. A few sects among the Noachim believe them-
selves chosen by some higher power to decide
who lives and who dies. Their judgments are
seldom rooted in compassion or justice.
3. One menacing cutpurse is much the same as
another — literally. The characters are hounded
by an endless series of violent thieves no matter
where they go, all speaking eerily-similar words.
 CHAPTER FOUR: A WORLD OF ADVENTURE
Tharsis
Tharsis is a bleak land that stretches between Sur-
tur, Skarras, and the Labyrinth of Night.
The Lunar Mosaic
Stretching out on the southwestern outskirts of
Tharsis, a string of impact craters in an otherwise-barren
wasteland gives testament to a Martian sky once abundant
with moons. Lunar scholars believe the Red World had as
many as six moons long ago, but that some incredible force
broke them and scattered their remains, sending them
crashing in pieces to Mars. No one agrees on what might
have sundered the four dead moons — a cosmic enemy, a
passing comet, ruinous sorcery — but those who remem-
ber such things do know that the Lunar Mosaic is where
the riven satellites touched down. A miasmic energy field
that might once have protected the lunar inhabitants now
malfunctions dangerously, surrounding the whole area like
a curtain of floating oil. It shuts in myriad ruins from the
moons’ surfaces and shuts out any who can’t withstand its
debilitating touch long enough to pass through. For those
who can, the wrecks of lunar ports and evidence preserved
by thin air remain for the exploration.
HOOKS
1. A series of still-clear footprints leads from the
northernmost crater into Arcadia. Could someone
have survived the lunar crash and escaped to beg
help from the Pale Martian cities? Or perhaps
someone came ages ago from Arcadia to investi-
gate and returned home with long-lost secrets that
could be unearthed?
2. In the wreckage, the characters find a message
addressed to someone long forgotten, in a
language lost to time. It contains a map pointing
to an unknown device, marked with coil-shaped
sigils. It takes expert navigation to translate the
pre-crash map into something that makes sense at
the bottom of the modern crater.
3. Debris from strange ships with an alien look and
odd, brightly-colored sigils lie scattered about,
matching no known historical Martian character-
istics. Did these ships bring visitors from a different
star? If a method safer than the shipsling could be
gleaned for travel to Deimos, it could revolution-
ize war and trade both.
4. Skeletons and other evidence uncovered gradual-
ly in the ruins of a shattered port paint the picture
of an ancient guerrilla war fought over resources,
174
or the right to leave the moon, or for some other
purpose. Savvy archaeologists can follow the trail
of clues to discover what the moon people covet-
ed — and whether it’s still here.
5. Seen from above, the craters’ layout suggests not
only a premeditation to the moons’ destruction,
but a pattern. Was it part of some massive ritual
that called down the wrath of gods on the lunar
people? Were they a sacrifice to some larger
purpose?
6. One of the characters finds that while they are
inside the energy field, they experience some kind
of transformation that gives them amazing abil-
ities or features they never had before. Leaving
transforms them back to their usual state. Can they
figure out a way to take the change along? Will
they choose to stay? Or must they learn to accept
themselves the way they are?
CHARACTERS
1. Laleha, Pale Martian explorer and peddler
(Friendly Schemer d10, Miracle Medicine d8, I’ve
Been Around d8; Resolve d6; Trouble: Martian
Who Cried Wolf)
2. Kyba, wealthy Red Martian noble (Covets Lunar
Ruins d10; Allergic to Work d8, Auction Broker
d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Dismisses Hard Truths)
3. Sibish, crater dweller (Unknown Species d12,
Hunts Leshmai d8, Waiting for Deimos Lover d6;
Resolve d10; Trouble: Long Isolation)
HAZARDS
1. The energy field encircling the Mosaic saps the
strength and life from living creatures that pass
into it, and melts certain inorganic materials into a
viscous paste.
2. Showers of enormous meteors land in this area
with alarming frequency, and can’t be predicted.
3. The characters accidentally trip a still-functioning
security alarm. The loud keening sound attracts
natural predators, and the energy field solidifies,
trapping the characters inside.
4. A peculiar oily fungus grows in abundance at
the bottom of the craters, found nowhere else on
Mars. Eating it provides plenty of nutrients, but
also causes a violent rash that eventually grows
fungus of its own if not cured.
5. The Lunar Mosaic is far from any atmosphere
processor, and the air is fragile and thin. Spend-
 Th a rsis
ing too much time here can make one lightheaded
and dizzy.
6. The leshmai are predatory primates once native
to the dead moons. On Mars, they developed
fantastic strength to compensate for its stronger
gravity. When they run, the ground shakes.
The Sleeping Witches
Far to the southeast of Surtur, the Tharsis Moun-
tains and the bottomless fissure known as the Lacuna
stand as a barrier between Tharsis and the Labyrinth
of Night. The tallest among them are three broad and
(mostly) dormant volcanoes, the Sleeping Witches. Ar-
sia the Maiden is the southernmost volcano, restless in
her tormented slumber. Pavonis the Mother is the cen-
tral volcano, sleeping deeply while the precious glaciers
of which she was once so proud slowly melt. Ascraeus
the Matriarch is the northernmost volcano, shaking the
earth with her mighty snores. Their gentle slopes teem
with villages that worship them as goddesses and pro-
duce fantastical artistic works of alabaster representing
their various forms that would fetch a hefty price, if
anyone else on Mars knew about them. These people
hold sleep to be a sacred state and practice several dif-
ferent kinds of oneiromancy.
HOOKS
1. Every village has its own set of prophesies predict-
ing Arsia’s next waking and its own set of legends
about what happens then. Two different factions
believe she’ll wake soon, but their disagreements
about how and what they should do about it are
about to erupt into violence.
2. Pavonis’ prized glaciers lie just under the surface
of the rock face, protected from erosion and the
harsh sun. Village ice miners carefully chip away
bits of pumice and basalt to get at the water
beneath. But, every year, the ice melts faster and
faster. How can it be preserved?
3. The village of Escha on the slopes of Ascraeus
sits directly in the path of a massive landslide that
the dream oracles say will come any day now.
But the villagers refuse to leave, claiming that the
goddess has given them signs. Can signs alone
save 100 lives?
CHARACTERS
1. Annikki, Red Martian dream oracle (Mineral
Brewer d10, Ecstatic Dreams d8, Unshakeable
Faith d6; Resolve d8; Trouble: Addicted to the
Brew)
175
2. Iarle, Red Martian alabaster artisan (Inspired
Artwork d10, Talk of the Town d8, Attractive and
Shy d6; Resolve d6; Trouble: Easily Convinced)
3. Dioniz, Red Martian merchant from Coronal
(Elitist Connoisseur d12, Shrewd Opportunist d8,
Shameless Flirt d6; Resolve d10; Trouble: A Long
Way from Home)
HAZARDS
1. Once a year, the sky above Arsia erupts into a
massive dust cyclone, choking the air with slag
and soot for miles. To venture outside is to risk
one’s life.
2. Dream oracles concoct a potent type of mineral
brew that sends the imbiber into a wild sleep and
conjures vivid, prophetic dreams. If the dosage
isn’t exactly right, the sleeper may never wake.
3. An abandoned village sits atop a priceless trove
of mineable ore, but its broken roads, toxic fumes,
and collapsing sinkholes betray the subterranean
fire that’s been burning beneath it for centuries.
4. Cavaliers come from all over Tharsis to tame the
enormous and vicious caldera hawks as mounts,
and risk life and limb to collect the volcanic gems
they use in their nests.
5. Arsia’s infamous hot springs are part luxurious
pastime, part deadly threat. Predicting when
they’ll heat up to unbearable extremes is a friend-
ly competition between oracles.
6. Traversing Ascraeus’ slopes is hazardous not
only for her capricious rockslides, but also for her
sudden earthquakes and blade-sharp volcanic
grasses.
Zohar That Was Promised
Then come ye to Zohar and behold the promise of Ses-
inah fulfilled. In the valley of the tree shall ye be washed in
the blood of the faithful and be guarded by wrathful angels
set about thee to the ruin of thine oppressors.
— The Book of the Zoharim, Wanderings 7:13
It lies many months’ journey south of Arcadia, in
the forgotten valley of a long-dry river. It is Zohar, the
Place That Was Promised, and by a miracle of Sesinah
of the Ten-Faces it sustains the Zoharim in the wastes
— for in that desolate place where naught should bear
fruit, a great tree climbs toward the heavens, and the
tree is named Zohar. Pure, clean water drips from its
branches, and its fruits are healthful and sweet. The
Pale Martians who dwell around it call themselves
the Zoharim and say that, of old, their ancestors fled
 CHAPTER FOUR: A WORLD OF ADVENTURE

Arcadian persecution under the guidance of a proph-

et named Alhaz, who led them to their foreordained
home. They are few in number and devoutly religious,
though the faith of Sesinah is all but unknown outside
the valley of the tree.
The Zoharim religion is one of intricate mystery.
They believe that Zohar is a representation on Mars of
the mind of God, and believe that by climbing it they
attain oneness with Sesinah. This is not as easy as it
seems: Zohar stands over 100 meters tall, and its bark
is slick with sap that induces a state of euphoria when
it comes into contact with bare skin. The high priests
of the Zoharim recognize 10 Stations of the Tree, cor-
responding to the 10 Faces of God, and only the most
pious can climb the entire path.
Visitors are welcomed in Zohar, for God commands
that the stranger be cared for, but they are also feared:
according to the Zoharite faith, their valley is protected
by angels set at either end, who guard them from dis-
covery and subjugation by their old masters. Strangers
coming into the valley are a warning that the angels are
displeased, and must be offered sacrifice to regain their
blessing. The Zoharim do not sacrifice their guests, of
course: Rather, for every stranger who comes to Zohar,
the Zoharim choose a promising youth from their own
number and hang them from the lowest branches of the
tree.

HOOKS
1. Most visitors to Zohar are so appalled by the rite
of sacrifice that they never share its location after
leaving. A water prospector from Surtur, though,
discovered the valley and deduced that Zohar
must be fed by a bountiful underground reservoir.
She reasons that there’s no need to seize the land
or pay for it: Just head out with a caravan a few
hundred strong to “negotiate,” then watch the
zealots off themselves en masse.
2. A new drug is showing up on the streets of Surtur
and Siren, made from the sap of the Zoharim’s sa-
cred tree. Refined and processed, it’s a highly-ad-
dictive euphoric that inspires a kind of religious
mania that drives addicts to travel toward Zohar.
3. The sacrifice of the innocent occurs when strang-
ers prepare to leave the valley once more. The
only way to dissuade the high priest from enact-
ing it is to climb the tree and prove that a visitor
is no stranger, but a lost Zoharite returning home.
A Zoharite climbs the Shame the Speaker of the Angel of the North
doesn’t want to see any new converts.
Stations of the Tree
4. On the eve of their departure from the valley,

176
 Th a rsis
a young Zoharite approaches the characters
and begs them to help him get out. It seems he’s
marked for sacrifice and doesn’t want to die. Of
course, slipping away in the night just means the
High Priest will choose another sacrifice in the
morning.
CHARACTERS
1. Hazim, Pale Martian High Priest (Voice of the
Community d10, Rock of Faith d8, Initiate of the
Seventh Station d6; Resolve d10; Trouble: Ambi-
tious Under-Priests)
2. Kulak, Pale Martian Mother of Wisdom (Choos-
er of the Slain d10, Very Sharp Knife d8, Quiet
Devotion d6; Resolve d6; Combat: 1 Strike/1
Parry/1 Stunt; Trouble: Never Climbed the Tree)
177
HAZARDS
1. Trying to climb Zohar to prove one’s enlight-
enment to the Zoharim. The higher you go, the
thinner and slicker the branches become — and
the more potent the narcotic sap.
2. Travelers entering the Valley of the Tree seem to
attract fierce storms and rockslides, almost as if
an occult hand were guiding the disasters toward
them.
3. The sand beneath Zohar has been watered with
the blood of many of the faithful. When the wind
howls and the dust storms roll in, the ghosts of
ancient sacrifices frolic around the tree, seeking
whom they may become.
 “I don’t know how to say...what to say. What words do I need to use to ask?” She was
clawing softly at her skin, drawing pale streaks along her forearms with nails torn to the
quick. In a voice so soft I almost didn’t hear her, “It’s until death do us part, yeah? Well
he’s dead, but he won’t part. Please. Please help me. I feel him in my bones and on my
breath. Get him out.”
Two zaius were smoking in the alley outside. Their meandering duet on oud and aoide
had drawn an audience, and the dancers were trilling something high and sad, their voices
weaving around each other and the plaintive music. It echoed around us, in the oil-lamp
light, on the unclean side of town. Ghost eaters bundled up with the slaughterhouses and
crematoriums and plague doctors.
The scent of the sandstorm still lingered on her, spicy and rank. And when she leaned
into the light I could see the edge of him, pushing against her skin. Whether he was her
lover or not I couldn’t say, but certainly this ghost was hungry for contact with her. He
was faintly crawling within her eyes, looking possessively out at me.
I nodded, and gestured to the sparsely-furnished room. A bed, a lamp, a pile of carpets,
a lap desk, a few wax copy books. If she had known to find me, she knew what she was
asking. She knew the price. She awkwardly started to sit on the ground, slid into a kneel,
and finally fell to her side. Where she lay, curled around her heart, against the edge of my
bed. I took up a seat a respectful distance away, and held out my hand.
She eventually took it, and pressed it to her heart. I could feel his resistance before I
spoke a word, before I made an incision. Not many ghosts want to be eaten, but this one
pushed back jealously as soon as the thought of permission sparked in her mind. Almost
before she could speak he was trying to close her mouth. But even a syllable is enough, if
the meaning is clear and the sentiment is true. I made the incision as quickly as I could,
startling her to stillness before she could flinch from the pain.
The dancers outside picked up speed, the loose lines weaving into smaller, concentric
circles. The players slowly caught up, and a fife player slid in contra punctum.
I lit the salvia and sativa, and spoke. Softly at first, so that my words just touched her
skin. The incision flared like a hibiscus flower, and the first shape began to emerge—dusty
and cool and not yet like a man, but like the idea of one.
We whispered together in the oil light, as I told her her memories of him, and he
writhed in the heavy smoke in the air around us. One by one we drew them out and cast
them into the smoke. Outside the dancers called and the players wailed, and we were all of
us caught up in the music of mourning.
 We have endeavored to present the world of Mars in
as useful a fashion as we can, and to make as much of the
descriptions of its people, cities, and regions table-facing
as possible. This weird Mars only lives through you and
your games, your players, and your table.
Each locale in Chapter 3 offers numbered lists to
cue adventure and add complications. The tools found
in this section take this a step or two further, and in-
corporate the location-specific lists into their processes.
As always, trust your judgement, gut, sense of story,
and the agency of your players before you trust our con-
voluted narrative machinery. If one of these generators
outputs nonsensical results, which you have no interest
in reconciling with your table’s particular tastes and his-
tory, then tweak to suit, ignore it, or as the astrologers do,
note the presence of Vesta in Phobos’s Third House, and,
without loss of honor, abandon the results and reroll.
Characters:
The Personagenesis Machine
When you require a non-player character, and wish
to be surprised and delighted by the unexpected, actu-
ate the machine with eight rolls of two d6s of different
colors, and with the results on the tables, to complete
the sentence below. Dice used in the Personagenesis Ma-
chine are read with one color representing the first digit
in a two-digit number and the second color representing
the second digit. For example, a roll of 1 and 3 would be
180
That said, see what your imagination can do with
a nonsense result. A character with a known personal-
ity is fitted into an adventure seed in such a way as to
contradict established characterization? It might be a
result you can’t use, or that discontinuity itself might be
part of the adventure. Why is she acting this way? This
isn’t like her at all. Suddenly, the adventure has anoth-
er element, another avenue for your players to explore,
and you their GM have a challenge before you — take
these strange results, and weave a cohesive story from
the chaos as your players interact with them. There is
pleasure to be had in surrendering yourself to the orac-
ular power of rolled dice, taking whatever weird scraps
they offer, and making them into something wonderful.
This is part of the game you alone get to play, unless you
choose to share it.
Onwards, onwards to victory or madness.
read as 13. You may also roll 1 die twice to generate
the first and second digits of the lookup number.
You meet_______table 1+2_______ , a ______ta-
ble 3______ ______table 4_______ from _______ta-
ble 5_______ with _______table 6_________ who
wants ______table 7__________ but _______table
8____________ .
 Characters: The Personagenesis Mac hine

1. NAME, PART THE FIRST 2. NAME, PART THE SECOND 3. DESCRIPTOR

11. Red 11. Cogleostri 11. Morose

12. Gorgeous 12. DeVance 12. Famous
13. Aria 13. Valentine 13. Irascible
14. Early 14. Bussolano 14. Childish
15. Lucca 15. Lightfinger 15. Larcenous
16. Green 16. Castlagarda 16. Trustworthy
21. Alessi 21. Tarek 21. Lying
22. Black 22. Aguinaga 22. Doomed
23. Siena 23. Moon 23. Possessed
24. Umber 24. DeSerafin 24. Driven
25. Sane 25. Costa-Condradi 25. Smooth
26. Amilia 26. Tsa 26. Heartbroken
31. Callis 31. Ferriz 31. Oathbound
32. Violet 32. Gohar 32. Fool
33. Gemma 33. Sagessa 33. Crude
34. Nico 34. Elbatanawy 34. Educated
35. Trista 35. Knows Secrets 35. Drunk
36. Sanguine 36. Delirachio 36. Insightful
41. Arlo 41. Fan 41. Elderly
42. Lucky 42. Delfin 42. Star-mad
43. Santo 43. Sun 43. Addict
44. Bleak 44. Schiavokla 44. Talkative
45. Neph 45. Saadauri 45. Haunted
46. Osir 46. Ariza 46. Honorable
51. Nubin 51. Wei 51. Unhinged
52. Orange 52. Verabenova 52. Fastidious
53. Xao 53. Ahmin-Geb 53. Enormous
54. Chiniq 54. Volpe 54. Cursed
55. Forgotten 55. Hendhal 55. Filthy
56. Vaughn 56. Puglessi 56. Laconic
61. Mahaska 61. Yei 61. Cultured
62. Prince 62. Nerinavari 62. Creepy
63. Ochekka 63. Quillion 63. Dapper
64. Zandophen 64. DeZodiac 64. Boisterous
65. Aubergine 65. Redhand 65. Master
66. Lalawythika 66. Brevarusso 66. Dead

181
 CHAPTER FIVE: GAME MASTER RESOURCES

4. VOCATION OR AVOCATION 5. FROM... AT LEAST LATELY

(GRANTS A D6 TRAIT RELATED TO
11. Assassin KNOWLEDGE OF THE INDICATED LOCALE)
12. Pirate
11. North Pillar Region
13. Coachman
12. Vance
14. Sailor
13. Arcadia
15. Soldier
14. Arcadia — the shanties
16. Poet
15. Arcadia — the excavations
21. Adept
16. The Prismatic Wastes
22. Cultist
21. Coronal
23. Nomad
22. Surtur
24. Thug
23. Foresight
25. Astrologer
24. Battlehymn
26. Spy
25. Battlehymn - Southside Slums
31. Inquisitor
26. Illium
32. Composer
31. Skarras
33. Magus
32. Chiaro-that-is
34. Informant
33. Chiaro-that-was
35. Prophet
34. Chiaro — Tomb Valleys
36. Explorer
35. Chiaro — Cloister of the Blind Saint
41. Tinker
36. Hazard
42. Scribe
41. Noachiq
43. Dream Seller
42. The Sleeping Witches
44. Bandit
43. Cyncus
45. Guard
44. Ziggur
46. Balladeer
45. Zodiac
51. Engineer
46. Dangling Raster
52. Con Artist
51. The Honeycomb
53. Automaton
52. Muniqq
54. Cartographer
53. Anger
55. Merchant
54. Anger — the markets
56. Sculptor
55. Anger — the arena
61. Investigator
56. Siren
62. Zealot
61. Cimmeria
63. Thief
62. Cimmeria — Qinon Palace
64. Occultist
63. Cimmeria — Forest of Corpses
65. Painter
64. Wyeth
66. Antiquarian
65. Wyeth — Deephome
66. Southern Black Rubble

182
 Characters: The Personagenesis Mac hine

6. TROUBLE OR SECRET DEPTHS

(+ OR - IMPROVES OR REDUCES THE DIE TYPE AN INDICATED TRAIT, MINIMUM D4)
11. Only months to live (-Resolve)
12. A crowd of hangers-on and followers (+Resolve)
13. Uncanny insight into the immediate future (+Descriptor Trait)
14. Knowledge of your current troubles (+Resolve)
15. A death warrant in their home city (-From Trait)
16. A strange lingering odor (-Resolve)
21. A pigheaded attitude (+Resolve)
22. An unexpected familial relationship (+Resolve)
23. A tendency to be hypnotized by music (-Resolve)
24. Always another concealed weapon (+Vocation)
25. A bone-deep ache for revenge (+Resolve, -Descriptor Trait, +From Trait)
26. Dueling scars (+Resolve, gain “Flashing Blade” at d8)
31. A weird, universal beauty (+Resolve, gain “Gorgeous to Everybody” trait at d8)
32. Ink-stained fingers (Gain “Incredibly Well-Read” trait at d8)
33. More confidence than ability (+Resolve, -Vocation)
34. Modesty about impressive skill (-Resolve, +Vocation)
35. A surprisingly-high bounty (+Resolve, +Vocation trait, -From trait)
36. A highly-infectious disease (-Vocation Trait, -Resolve, +Descriptor Trait)
41. A nostalgic character (+From trait)
42. Astrological tattoos (+Resolve, +Descriptor Trait)
43. A hidden parasitic twin skilled in the dark arts (Gains “Parasitic Adept” trait at d8)
44. More passion than sense (+Resolve, +Descriptor Trait, -Vocation Trait)
45. A necklace of ears (+Resolve, -From Trait)
46. A salty vocabulary (+Resolve, -From Trait)
51. Haunted eyes (-Resolve, +Vocation Trait)
52. Vulnerability to iron and bone (-Resolve when wounded by iron or bone)
53. Well-worn boots (+Resolve, +Vocation Trait, +From Trait)
54. A cursed aura (+Resolve, -Home Trait, -Background Trait, +Vocation Trait)
55. Transplanted maichara glands (+Resolve, +Vocation Trait, -From Trait)
56. A string of jilted lovers, some of whom seek revenge (+Resolve Trait, -From Trait)
61. No memory of how they arrived (-Descriptor Trait)
62. Uncanny pheromones (+Resolve, Gain “Intensely Persuasive” at d8 when dealing with own species)
63. The appetite of 10 hungry Pale Martians (+Resolve)
64. A wicked sense of humor (+Resolve, +From trait)
65. An intelligent parasite (-Resolve, +Descriptor Trait, -Vocation Trait)
66. A ghost-bone flute (Gains “Play the dead to life” trait at d8)

183
 CHAPTER FIVE: GAME MASTER RESOURCES

7. MOTIVATING NEED OR DESIRE

(+ OR - IMPROVES OR REDUCES THE DIE TYPE OF AN INDICATED TRAIT, MINIMUM D4)
11. An exotic drug (+Resolve, until obtained, then -Resolve)
12. The respect of their distant mother (-Resolve, +Descriptor trait, +Vocation trait)
13. Transcend mortality (+Resolve)
14. Vengeance (+Resolve)
15. Their shattered confidence (-Resolve)
16. Found a dynasty (+From trait)
21. To become madly wealthy
22. A way to transform their body to match their spirit (+Resolve)
23. The memories sold to the Faceless Gondolier (+Resolve, -Descriptor Trait)
24. Enact secret revenge on the heroes
25. To be the best they can be (+Resolve, +Descriptor trait, -Vocation trait)
26. A good death, a proud death
31. To inherit their family’s estates (+From trait)
32. Defeat the fears that plague them (-Resolve)
33. To avoid anything resembling hard work (-Resolve)
34. An end to this suffering, but one that won’t damn their soul (-Resolve)
35. See again the face of their god (+Resolve, -From trait, -Descriptor trait)
36. To be respected, or at least feared (+Resolve)
41. To save their lover’s spirit from the cold hell between the stars (+Resolve, gain “Necroastrology” trait at d8)
42. To produce a masterwork (+Resolve, +Vocation trait)
43. Their stolen eye (+Resolve, -Descriptor trait)
44. A worthy protégé to teach (+Vocation trait)
45. Regain their lost honor (-Resolve)
46. A reason to go on living
51. Good drink, good friends, a quiet life (-Resolve)
52. To write the definitive guide to their particular interest (+Vocation trait)
53. Feast upon the meat of all the peoples of Mars (Gain “Secret Cannibal” trait at d8)
54. A new lover (+Resolve)
55. To find a worthy opponent (+Resolve, Gain “Artist With the Blade” trait at d8)
56. Find their lost family (+From trait)
61. A successor, worthy of the name (+From trait, +Vocation trait)
62. To kill…one more time…just one more time…only once, I promise Mother, only one more kill… (-Resolve, gain
“Secret Murderer” trait at d8)
63. Something new, something to ease this crushing curse of boredom (-Resolve, +Descriptor trait)
64. Become the greatest of their vocation to ever live (+Vocation trait)
65. To make their broken heart into unfeeling stone (+Resolve, -From trait)
66. Their freedom from indenture to a hateful master (+Resolve)

184
 Characters: The Personagenesis Mac hine

8. COMPLICATING FACTOR
(+ OR - IMPROVES OR REDUCES THE DIE TYPE AN INDICATED TRAIT, MINIMUM D4)
11. They won’t, not without help
12. The injuries they are hiding will kill them unless they get help
13. They rarely stay in the same place long enough
14. They will do anything to keep their secrets safe
15. They only continue out of inertia
16. They need guidance to achieve this
21. When the moons shine together above, their form warps and they become something monstrous and hungry
22. At night, the weird old machine creeps closer and closer
23. They are actually dead, existing in twilight and unable to move on until someone helps them get what they
need
24. They are bound by love
25. They are fleeing a politically-vital betrothal
26. They suffer from painful seizures
31. They escaped a quarantine, and might be carrying plague
32. They fall in love too easily
33. They overindulge in food and drink at every opportunity
34. Unknown to all, they are secretly a prince fleeing their responsibilities (secretly replace Vocation with “Prince”)
35. They are hunted by enemies from the same place as they are
36. They have never known love
41. They are haunted by agonizing visions of the First Martians
42. They are as easily distracted as a newborn kitten
43. Their enemies conspire to destroy them, and any close to them
44. The Beast of Phobos stalks them for the marrow in their bones
45. They need trustworthy accomplices
46. Their debts are insurmountable.
51. They are actually a fraud and imposter (secretly replace Descriptor with “Lying” and Vocation with “Trickster”
52. They are addicted to a drug controlled by their enemy’s family
53. Their arrogance makes them profoundly unlikeable
54. They are not who they seem to be (roll again for Descriptor and Vocation when their true identity is revealed)
55. They are crippled by their profound racism
56. They dream of greater things
61. Their gambling habit will ensure they fail
62. They are tormented by memories of things they can’t change
63. The stars were cast against them at birth
64. They don’t trust anyone
65. They have lost the jewel containing their soul
66. They are haunted by demon-ghosts

185
 CHAPTER FIVE: GAME MASTER RESOURCES
For example, suppose you need a quick character you
can use to make a sand schooner journey more eventful
for your players.
You roll 55, 56, 35, 16, 42, 31, 22, 63. Referencing
the tables, you generate this descriptive sentence:
“You meet Sanguine Puglessi, a drunk poet from The
Three Witches with a weird, universal beauty who wants
Adventures:
The Tribulation Engine
Life is complex and tiring, and sometimes the con-
cerns of real life consume the vital energies and fluids of
a Game Master’s creativity. If stumped for ideas on how
to complicate and invigorate the lives of a party of play-
er characters, a beleaguered GM may rely upon Doctor
Jester’s latest innovation in shared interactive social-
ly-mediated narrative adventure game technology. The
Tribulation Engine provides random, but personalized,
adventure seeds, sprouts, cuttings, and rootstock.
186
Sanguine Puglessi performs the
song of their joy and mourning.
a way to transform their body to match their spirit, but
the stars were cast against them at birth. ”
From this, we can also determine Sanguine’s traits.
Sanguine Puglessi, drunken star-crossed poet seek-
ing truth in beauty (Drunk d6, Poet d6, From The Three
Witches d6, Gorgeous to Everybody d8, Resolve d10)
Location
Skip this step if you know where you want the ad-
venture to take place (for example, in the current lo-
cale). You will use the tables for Characters, Threats,
and Hooks from this locale in later stages.
To find a locale, roll one d8 and one d10 to gener-
ate a two-digit number. Use the d8 to represent the first
digit and the d10 to represent the second digit, reading
a result of 10 as 0.
 A dventures: T he Tribulation E ngine

ANGER SIREN NORTH POLE

1. The Market 29. Nadamban 58. Plains of the Pillar
2. The Purple Light 30. Himk 59. The Bone Annals
3. The Arena 31. Voshi 60. Cycnus, the Drifting Ruin
4. The Machine 32. Ferma
SOUTH POLE
BATTLEHYMN SKARRAS 61. Black Rubble
5. Temple of the Voice 33. The Plaza 62. Gallow’s End
6. North Side Canal 34. The Shades 63. The Temple of the Poppy Brides
7. South Side Slums 35. The Revolution Underground
8. The Damsel’s Tomb 36. Sky Fields ARCADIA
64. The Shanties
CHIARO SURTUR 65. Excavations
9. Cloister of the Blind Saint 37. The First Forge 66. The Memory of Waves
10. Ruptured Atmosphere Processor 38. Volcanic Gardens
11. Ice Caravan Camp 39. Surtur Mines MERIDIAN
12. Tomb Valleys 40. The Plaza Obsidian 67. Hazard
68. The Honeycomb
CIMMERIA VANCE 69. Muniqua
13. Qinon Palace 41. The Plaza Arez
14. Atai Monastery 42. The Palace of the Dog THE PRISMATIC WASTES
15. Fibonacci Knot 43. Hangman’s Garden 70. Rainbow
16. Forest of Corpses 44. The Dredge 71. Cave of the Hyaline Mother
45. The Guildhall of the Mourners 72. Armonica Canyon
CORONAL
17. Xeta Geyser WYETH RADIUM PLATEAU/SKARRAS
18. Almeida 46. Wyela 73. Dangling Raster
19. Riberia Fogo 47. Krem Den 74. Hirshel
20. Vale 48. Seedling Grove 75. Noachia
49. Deephome
FORESIGHT THARSIS
21. Hooded Sisters Pilgrim Dormito- ZIGGUR 76. The Lunar Mosaic
ry 50. The Processor 77. The Sleeping Witches
22. Delphic Square 51. The Merchant Quarter 78. Zohar That Was Promised
23. Memory’s Last Rest (The Library 52. The Yellow Cloister
of Memory) TRAVEL
53. The Inverted Court
24. Service Entrance to the West 79-80. Travel between two loca-
Horn Gate Machine tions. Roll twice more on this
ZODIAC
table.
ILLIUM 54. The Panopticon
25. The Fortress Invincible 55. The Slanted Grove
26. Sky Navy Port 56. The Shipyards
27. University of Illium 57. The Shrouded District
28. Plateau Caves

187
 CHAPTER FIVE: GAME MASTER RESOURCES
Opening Conflict
Roll two d6s, and read the results as a two-digit
number, the first die indicating the first digit, the sec-
ond die indicating the second digit. Let us all remem-
ber and thank Georges Polti, who foresaw our eventual
need to generate dramatic conflict with a roll of two
six-sided dice, and constructed his The Thirty-Six Dra-
matic Situations accordingly.
Each Conflict defines the core struggle underpin-
ning the adventure, and defines some Roles, which will
be filled with player and non-player characters. These
roles imply relationships among the characters drawn
in, but are also fairly roomy containers, and are able to
accommodate many different characters. The combina-
tion of character — their particular place in the world,
motivations, personality, and position — and role jux-
taposed against other characters informs the drama.
Character roles in bold type indicate major or es-
sential roles for the conflict, while those in italics are
secondary or supporting roles.
11. A Plea for Relief: A Persecutor’s actions or deci-
sions oppresses the Supplicant, who seeks relief
by an appeal to the Authority, the results of
which are uncertain. Sometimes, an Advocate
speaks on the Supplicant’s behalf, and access
to the Authority is controlled by a Gatekeeper.
12. An Escape from Justice: The Unfortunate has
committed some trespass, and is justly pun-
ished by the Threatener, until a Rescuer helps
the Unfortunate escape. Sometimes a Guard
keeps the Unfortunate from escaping on their
own, a Hidden Ally helps the Unfortunate, or
a Guide leads a Rescuer to where the Unfortu-
nate is held, where a Torturer may be inflicting
the Threatener’s punishment. After a successful
rescue, the Hound may pursue.
13. Vengeance for an Unpunished Crime: The
Avenger suffered because of the Criminal’s
actions, and those actions were never justly
punished. Denied justice, the Avenger seeks
revenge. Sometimes, an Avenger has the help
of an Accomplice, and sometimes the Criminal
was assisted by Conspirators in their crime or
by a Dupe who helped the Criminal without
realizing it , and is served by a Henchman, who
does their dirty work.
14. Vengeance of Kin upon Kin: The Guilty Kin com-
mits a crime against a relation, the Victim who
may exist now only in memory or as a ghost.
The Avenger is kin to them both, and seeks ven-
geance on behalf of the Victim. These relation-
188
ships might be familial, or could be organiza-
tional — all parties belong to a business, a cult,
a religion, a gang, or a secret society. Prior to
the crime and vengeance, all had a reasonably
amicable relationship. Sometimes, other kinfolk
or retainers are involved, including the Broken
One, who is shattered by the crime and the
vengeance for it, the Disbeliever who refuses to
believe the Avenger’s claims, the Peacemaker
who seeks to settle matters, valuing peace over
justice, and the Quieter who cares only for the
reputation of the family, and covers up crime
and vengeance.
15. Escape and Pursuit: The Fugitive flees punish-
ment, hounded by the Pursuer because of a
misunderstood crime. Sometimes, a Judge has
declared the Fugitive guilty and may or may not
question that judgement, a Protector takes the
Fugitive in and offers them safety and succor at
some personal risk, and a True Criminal might
exist who is really guilty of the crime.  
16. Usurpation: The Power is defeated by the
victorious Enemy and thrown down from their
seat of rule, which is taken by the Enemy, while
the Power may escape with the help of the loyal
Lieutenant who is captured in their place or
escapes and leaves the Power in enemy hands.
Sometimes, a Betrayer helps the Enemy defeat
the Power, a Messenger carries news of the de-
feat to the Power’s friends and Distant Relations,
and an Enemy Agent pursues any remaining
loyalists.  
21. Cruel Misfortune: the Unfortunate suffers at the
hands of the Master, who is goaded to greater
cruelty by the Devil. Often, the Unfortunate
does not know why they are made to suffer or
who inflicts it. Sometimes, Bystanders are caught
up in the Master’s cruelty, and the Devil will not
be satisfied without a Sacrifice.
22. Revolt: The Tyrant is plotted against by a Revo-
lutionary and Conspirators who seek to over-
throw the Tyrant’s rule. Sometimes, an Assassin
is retained to eliminate Tyrant or Revolutionary,
and the Tyrant is served by the Loyal Retainer to
the very end.
23. A Daring Robbery: The Bold Leader, with the
help of their Lieutenant, commits an audacious
theft of something the Adversary treasures
enough to secure with a Guardian, and the
Bold Leader may or may not escape clean.
Sometimes the Bold Leader is assisted by Spe-
cialists, has the help of an Insider and, after the
robbery, is pursued by the Adversary’s Hunter.
24. Kidnapping: an Abductor takes the Kidnapped
from their Guardian for reasons which may not
 A dventures: T he Tribulation E ngine
be obvious. Sometimes, the Abductor is assist-
ed by an Accomplice, and the Kidnapped is
accompanied in their abduction by a trusted Re-
tainer, and if the kidnapping is not all it seems,
a Witness may be able to reveal the truth of the
situation.
25. Challenging Enigma: a Challenger imposes
a problem on the Seeker that demands they
improve their skill or ability to overcome, better
preparing them for their future struggles. A
Challenger may appear cruel, but their ultimate
motivation is to teach through adversity. Some-
times, a Challenger is served by Goads who
harass or bully a Seeker in service of the lesson
being taught, and Guides offer aid in overcom-
ing the problem and realizing the lesson being
taught.   have done, or an Enabler helps them justify it
26. Frustrated Desire: A Solicitor desires something
controlled by the Possessor, who denies the So-
licitor their desire. Sometimes, an Arbiter stands
between Solicitor and Possessor, and tries to
negotiate a settlement. The Solicitor employs an
Advocate to try and convince the Possessor to
relinquish the object, or they use a Thief to steal
the Object, which is sometimes a person.
31. Alliance with an Enemy: A Rival and their Op-
ponent ally against a Malevolent Third, forming
an unstable alliance in order to persecute their
mutually-hated foe. Sometimes, a Saboteur tries
to undermine the alliance between Rival and
Opponent. The Malevolent Third may control a
Dangerous Power so great, the alliance against
them is needed to counter it, and their Advocate
may convince one of the attacking parties to
change sides.
32. Rivalry for Affection: The Object of general
admiration chooses the Preferred over the
Rejected, though both vie for the Object’s
affections, resulting in the Rejected’s resentment
and possible reprisals. Sometimes, access to the
Object is strictly limited by a Guardian, and the
conflicting parties must employ a Go-Between
to carry messages.   Creditor. Sometimes, resentment at being sac-
33. Murderous Infidelity: The Betrayed trusts their
Partner, but the Partner conspires with their
Lover (or Conspirator, if the affair is not roman-
tic) to murder the Betrayed, taking their position
and power, as well as breaking faith with them.
Sometimes, the betraying couple employs an
Assassin to do the dirty work for them, espe-
cially if the Betrayed has a Defender and, if
successful, a Witness may know the truth of the
crime, and have to be dealt with.
34. Afflicted by Madness: The Afflicted suffers a
break from reality, perhaps due to trauma (gen-
189
erate a Threat), drugs, exposure to the unnatu-
ral, etc. In their altered state, they inflict harm on
the Victim, who is innocent but is perceived as a
Devil by the Afflicted. Sometimes, the Afflicted
is under the baleful influence of a Manipulator,
and the Afflicted’s Confidants might be able to
get them to a Healer who can cure their mad-
ness, if not in time to avoid harm to the victim, at
least in time that it might be addressed.
35. Harmful Imprudence: The Imprudent acts reck-
lessly or out of ignorance, harming the Victim
and/or causing the loss of someone Precious
to the victim, and also possibly the Imprudent.
Sometimes, a Victim or Precious becomes a Fury
seeking revenge for the wrong done, a Council
forces the Imprudent to recognize the harm they
and escape the consequences.
36. Involuntary Romantic Crime: a Lover and their
Beloved enjoy a relationship which inadver-
tently breaks a taboo, law, or restriction, and a
Revealer makes the relationship known if secret
or the broken taboo known if not. Sometimes,
a Jealous Love informs the Revealer of the
truth, Cursed Offspring of the union literally or
symbolically are branded with the crime of the
Lover and Beloved, and a Monster arises, twist-
ed by the crime and driven to destroy the Lover
and Beloved.  
41. Accidental Kin Killing: Through an accident of
circumstances, a Killer unknowingly slays the
Unrecognized Victim who is one of the Killer’s
kin, relations, friends, or allies. Sometimes, the
Unrecognized Victim becomes a Secret Aveng-
er, using their status as believed dead to enact
revenge. A Witness knows the truth of the crime,
and may inform a Revealer who will make it
known if an Investigator does not uncover the
truth.
42. Sacrifice for Idealism: A Hero sacrifices a thing
of value or a Beloved person in support of an
ideal, and the thing or Beloved is taken by a
rificed turns the Beloved into an Enemy, and/
or the Creditor turns out to have been a Devil
seeking to ruin the Hero with the pain of the
sacrifice.
43. Sacrifice for Love: A Hero sacrifices a thing of
value or a Beloved person to save a Love, and
the thing or Beloved is taken by a Creditor.
Sometimes, resentment at being rejected by the
Hero to save the Love turns the Beloved into a
Fury seeking revenge, and/or the Creditor turns
out to have been a Devil seeking to ruin the
Hero with the pain of the sacrifice.
 CHAPTER FIVE: GAME MASTER RESOURCES
44. Sacrifice Everything for Passion: A Lover feels
so strongly for the Object of their affection that
they sacrifice something or someone Precious,
and when called to task for this by Authority,
they destroy any who try and restrain their
passion. Sometimes, a Defender of the Object
is also destroyed, and the Authority sends their
Deputy to stop or destroy the Lover.
45. Necessity of Sacrifice: A Hero must wrong the
Beloved Victim because of a necessity imposed
by a threat (generate a threat) or the actions
of a Foe able to pose a powerful threat. Some-
times, the Hero is attacked by the Beloved
Victim’s Righteous Defender, who does not
understand or care about the necessity, and the
Foe might be moved to make their own sacrifice
of their Love to counter the Hero’s sacrifice.   an Adversary and competing against a Rival who
46. Asymmetrical Rivalry: The Superior Rival bests
the Inferior Rival to win the Object of the rivalry.
Sometimes, the Inferior Rival seeks the aid of a
Hidden Master to surpass the Superior Rival,
reversing the roles, or the Object may flee with
a Lover away from both the rivals.
51. Infidelity: The Unfaithful Partner betrays the
Deceived Partner, conspiring with their Lover
to keep the infidelity secret or to remove the
Deceived Partner from the scene entirely. Some-
times, the Unfaithful Partner and Lover seek a
ruling from a Judge, which will validate their
relationship and leave the Deceived Partner
without recourse, while a Deceived Partner may
become suspicious and acquire the help of an
Informer to investigate and reveal the truth.
52. Crime of Love: The Lover and their Beloved con-
spire to break a law or taboo together, which
threatens their relationship and risks the wrath
of the Authority against which they trespass.
Sometimes, Lover and Beloved are separated
by an Agent of the Authority seeking to bring
them to task, and a family friend of one or both
may try and break the relationship in order to
rescue one of them from the consequences.
53. Discovery of a Loved One’s Secret Crime: The
Discoverer finds evidence that the Guilty One,
whom they love, has committed an undeniable
wrongdoing, and the revulsion they feel for
the crime conflicts with their love for the Guilty
One. A Justice seeks to punish this crime, were it
known who committed it. Sometimes, a Confi-
dant of the Discoverer also knows of the crime,
and may reveal it while the Justice sends an
Inquisitor to use whatever means are needed to
extract confessions.
54. Adversity Faced by Love: A Lover and their
Beloved face an obstacle personified by an
190
Authority, which holds power over at least one
lover. Sometimes, a Confidant of the Lover or
Beloved will aid them, and their Relations might
try and separate them to prevent either the
wrath of the Authority, or their embarrassment.
55. Facing a Loved Enemy: The Lover is allied with
the Hater, who despises the Beloved Enemy
as much as the Lover cherishes them. While
Lover and Hater must fight together against the
Beloved Enemy, the Lover must try and minimize
the harm done their beloved. Sometimes, the
Beloved Enemy has a Rival who may betray
them to the Hater, and a loyal Retainer to either
Lover or Beloved Enemy can act as go-between.
56. Driven by Ambition: The Ambitious one seeks the
object or position they desire, but is opposed by
desires the same elevation. Sometimes, a Mentor
councils on strategy, or a Moderate councils on
tempering ambition with wisdom, while the Incon-
stant Friend might trade sides between Ambitious
and Rival, based on who is winning.
61. Conflict with the Divine: A Mortal challenges
the design of a god or other immortal, whose
will is knowingly or unknowingly done by a
Hand, bringing suffering to Bystander and
Beloved alike. Sometimes, an opposing divinity
uses a Pawn to interfere, a Faithful individual
strikes at the presumptive Mortal, and a Medi-
um perceives all the divine influences at play.
62. Violence from Mistaken Jealousy: The Jealous
one is harmed by the mistake or action of an
Instigator and becomes jealous of something
of the Possessor’s. They lash out at a Supposed
Accomplice of the Possessor’s. Sometimes, the
object of jealousy is a Desired person who may
suffer, and an Arbiter may be able to clear up
the misunderstanding before anyone suffers.  
63. Mistaken Judgement: The Judge falls victim to
the Deceiver, and then the Judge passes sen-
tence against the Innocent One and the Guilty
One escapes justice. Sometimes, a Confessor
learns of the deception but is bound not to
reveal it, and those who suffer for the false
judgement become Avengers who blame the
Judge.
64. Responsibility and Remorse: The Culprit has
harmed the Victim, and an Interrogator seeks to un-
derstand why. A Judge assesses punishment, based
on how the Culprit accepts and makes amends.
Sometimes, a Deceiver is responsible for the Culprit
believing they are righteous, and a Judge may
employ an Inquisitor to extract the truth.
65. Finding the Lost: The Seeker struggles to find the
Lost One, who has vanished. Sometimes a Beast
 A dventures: T he Tribulation E ngine

has taken the Lost One, a Trickster confounds
the Seeker, or the Lost One has actually fled
with an Accomplice rather than become lost.
66. Slain Love: The Beloved is slain by the Execu-
tioner, and this is witnessed by the Friend who
relays the news to the Beloved’s Lover, who acts
accordingly. Sometimes, the Accomplice of the
Executioner intercepts the Friend and blames
them for the slaying.
them personally, and their actions during the adventure
carry particular weight.
Player characters who are not singled out as Protag-
onists are Meddlers. They participate in the adventure
normally, but do so with less personal investment and
potential for change.
Make a list of the involved characters in the order
you determine them.

Roles Assign the characters in order to the major roles

Roll a number of d8s equal to the number of play-
er characters plus the number of major roles in the
opening conflict. Compare results of 1 through 6 to
the list of Characters for the locale you are using to
determine who they are. A result of 7 or 8 indicates a
player character is personally involved. You may ran-
domly select which player character is indicated, de-
termine it randomly through a die roll or the drawing
of straws, on a volunteer basis, by selecting the next
player in line, or base it on the characters’ longstand-
ing grudges and passive-aggressive resentment.
Matching values indicate a Secret associated with
that character.
If established non-player characters are in play, use
d12s rather than d8s. A result of 7, 8, or 9 indicates an
established NPC is involved. A result of 10, 11, or 12
indicates a player character is involved.
Personally-involved player characters are Protago-
nists — the stakes and conflicts of the adventure affect
listed in the opening conflict you selected previously
unless, of course, the role majorly interferes with their
preferred play style, or otherwise is a role they do not
wish to play. When out of major roles, assign remain-
ing characters to Secondary roles, following the above
guidelines. If you have more characters than roles, any
extra after the last role is filled are dropped. Player
characters become Meddlers, like those unselected in
the previous step.
Consider for a moment the location of the conflict,
this particular arrangement of characters, and what this
implies about their relationships in the opening action
of the adventure.
Tilts
Roll twice on the following table using the two-d6
method for generating two-digit numbers. This gives you
two Tilts, which will throw off the equilibrium of the open-
ing conflict, and break its symmetry (if your players have
not already done so with their own devilish ingenuity).

11. Role Reversal: Swap Roles between two randomly-determined characters, and reframe the conflict accordingly.
12. Anger Among Allies: Animosity threatens to break the relationship between allied characters in conflict.
13. A Wild Character Appears: Generate a new character, and drop them into the conflict strongly allied with one
party.
14. Change of Venue: Move the conflict to another locale, which demands travel. Pick or roll for a new location.  
15. Betrayal: A friendly character is revealed to have been an antagonist all along.
16. Mastermind Revealed: Generate a new character, who is revealed to be the mastermind behind the opening
conflict.
21. Disaster!: Generate a Threat, which disrupts action or a major dramatic moment.
22. Sideline: Generate a Hook, and tie it into the adventure conflict loosely.
23. Flashback: Take the character back to the time before the opening conflict and play out a brief flashback scene
that offers insight into the current state of affairs.
24. Heel Turn: An ambiguous character is revealed to be an antagonist.
25. Usurpation: A Meddler assumes a major role, displacing the previous character.
26. Love blooms in strange soil: The unlikeliest characters find unexpected feelings for one another.

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 CHAPTER FIVE: GAME MASTER RESOURCES

31. Flight: A major character is driven to flee and hide, and must be found.
32. Unseen Agency Revealed: An unknown supernatural influence shapes the conflict for its own purposes.
33. Unexpected Message: A character receives a communication that changes everything.
34. Murdered Innocent: A bystander, associate, friend, or uninvolved ally of a character is killed by mistake.
35. The Gauntlet is Thrown: A challenge to a duel interrupts matters.
36. Arrogance Rules: A character rejects the advice and wisdom of another, and pursues their own, foolish course
of action instead.
41. Long Knives: One party tries to clear the field in a grand sweep, eliminating all the opposition in one spasm of
decisive violence.
42. Broken Alliance: Allied characters have a falling out.
43. Enter the Authorities: Those responsible for law, order, or resolving conflicts become involved.
44. Unfortunate Witness: A character witnesses something they should not have seen, and is endangered because
of it.
45. Unwise Affair: Passion overwhelms judgement, and people who should not dally do so.
46. A Secret Bargain is Struck: Two characters reach their own agreement, which may change their loyalties or
create a new alliance.
51. Stolen Power: The source or symbol of a character’s power is stolen, weakening them.
52. Too Good to Pass Up: A character is offered something so valuable to them that they betray their loyalties.
53. Elevation of the Humble: A minor or supporting character is elevated in importance, becoming key to the con-
flict.
54. Affliction: A character falls ill, and is weakened and may be dying.
55. History Reframes the Present: Information about what has gone before casts the current conflict into a new light.
56. Stone Heart: A character denies their former feelings for another character, rejecting them without explanation.
61. Destruction of Property: Whether accidentally or deliberately, the conflict destroys the property of a character
or ally.
62. Restless Spirits: Ghosts intrude into the conflict with their own agenda.
63. The Dead Return: A character thought dead is revealed not to be, either through trickery or accident.
64. Apocalyptic Events: Awful disaster begins, threatening everyone and everything. Use Threats for ideas, and
amplify them to an apocalyptic scale.
65. Peace by the Sword: A new party enters the conflict, intent on settling it with force if need be.
66. It was all just a dream.

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 A dventures: T he Tribulation E ngine

Secrets
Some characters come with a Secret that will shake things up when revealed. Some of these will be known to
the character, and so should be shared with the player, to be revealed when it seems to make sense. Others are for
you to reveal when they make sense in the unfolding adventure.

11. Secret sibling 41. Secret princess

12. Undeclared love 42. Unrevealed skills
13. Thief 43. Living a lie
14. Imposter 44. Agent of outside influence
15. Addiction 45. Nursing a grudge
16. Family connection 46. Subject to unnatural transformation
21. Traitor 51. Cursed to enjoy no happiness
22. Sinister motives 52. Hunted by old enemies
23. Hidden agenda 53. Stole from an ally
24. Parent 54. Helped an enemy for mysterious reasons
25. Child 55. Doomed to die in the end
26. In Debt 56. Secretly under the control of another
31. Heresy 61. Really in it for the money
32. Not left handed 62. Masquerading as somebody else
33. Blackmailer 63. Wants to see the world burn
34. Blackmailed 64. In service to an alien god
35. Murderer 65. Reincarnated lover to a reincarnated enemy
36. Incriminating documents to be sent to authorities 66. Disconnected from reality
if they die

Accusations fly within

an unlikely family.

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 CHAPTER FIVE: GAME MASTER RESOURCES

Example of Usage 8 and 7 are player characters. I roll 22 and 44 for the
two Secrets.
Valentine, slim and wicked, is accompanied by So- 2 Volca (aka Qaysa), Red Martian Zodiac spy and
teria, brazen and tall. These occasional lovers and reg- navy infiltrator
ular antagonists make a foursome with the much more
Secret - Sinister Motives
laconic Numbers, who is similarly entangled with the
Apprentice, whose given name is a secret power. Their 8 Valentine
fifth wheel is Etienne, the unluckiest man on Mars. Secret - Agent of an Outside Power
Given how close his companions are sitting to their
3 Vestai of a Thousand Lights, Red Martian naval
partners around the fire, he feels little guilt sharing his
astrologer
tendency towards accidental exploration, when he sug-
gests a trip to... 7 Numbers
My players are anxious to begin, but I have no idea 5 Kaesii, Red Martian naval shipwright
where this episode will even begin. 1 Novian, Red Martian illegitimate child of nobility
The players’ characters are… I take these characters, and slide them in order into
Valentine the roles from the opening conflict.
Soteria Major Roles
Numbers Discoverer - Volca
The Apprentice Guilty One - Valentine
Etienne The Justice - Vestai
I roll 26 to determine the location of the adventure, Secondary Roles
which gives me the Sky Navy Port in Illium Confidant - Numbers
I roll 53 to decide the opening conflict, resulting Inquisitor - Kaesii
in Discovery of a loved one’s secret crime. Given this
Meddlers
party’s romantic pairings, that result speaks to me im-
mediately. This also gives me the roles I need to fill with Novian
characters. The Apprentice
Major Roles Soteria
Discoverer Etienne
Guilty One Now, things are getting very interesting. On the sly,
The Justice I ask Valentine’s player whom the swordsman might
serve covertly, and which power he might act as an
Secondary Roles
agent of in the Sky Navy Port of Illium. She considers,
Confidant and suggests “I might owe a great deal of money to an
Inquisitor underworld figure who asks me to do something on the
downlow.”
Now, to populate that conflict with characters.
There are three major roles and five players, so I roll It all comes together now.
8d8 getting 2, 8, 3, 8, 7, 5, 2, 1. When I remove the The actions begins with Valentine’s return to the
duplicates, that is 2, 8, 3, 7, 5, and 1, with Secrets for group’s shared lodgings near the Sky Navy Port in Il-
2 and 8. I check the character table for the Sky Navy lium. Soteria smells satisfaction, guilt, and somebody
Port and use it, and going around the table clockwise else’s cologne on Valentine. The promise of a well-pay-
to pick player characters, I make my character list for ing job hasn’t yet materialized for them, though Valen-
the core conflict. The 2, 3, 5, and 1 are NPC’s and the tine seems to have mostly been busy catching up with

194
 A dventures: T he Tribulation E ngine
an old “friend” who works in the yard under the name
Volca, and Valentine smiles at that name.
Only Numbers (and their player) knows what Val-
entine has been up to (beyond his dalliance) — he’s
used the rekindled affection Volca feels for him to
access restricted areas, and steal a copy of the Navy’s
sealed strategic orders for the next month, a theft ac-
cidentally observed by Volca. Valentine confessed this
to Numbers while deep in his cups the previous night,
something Valentine does not remember doing.
Vestai is watching for an event like this, having
seen the potential for a damaging leak in the month’s
strategic bonecasting and counterespionage star chart.
To prevent anyone in the chain of command — which
may be compromised — from becoming aware, she’s
tasked shipwright Kaesii with investigating, and given
him her seal to make the assignment official. Kaesii has
grabbed the biggest keel smiths and iron workers in the
yard for backup in case things go south.
195
Volca is, right now, on the way to the party’s lodg-
ings, intent on having it out with Valentine for the
betrayal of trust and the threat to his own espionage
operation.
Kaesii is tossing the suspects’ chambers, growing
closer to Volca’s, where he might discover evidence of
Volca’s Zodiac affiliation.
Vestai is smoking dreamer’s leaf and throwing
bones, trying to squeeze more accuracy from the coun-
terespionage forecast. The signs are confusing, because
two spies aligned with different groups are at work with-
in her organization.
And after some time, I have two Tilts to unleash,
which will shake things up. For these, I roll 24 and 44
which gives me Flashback and Unfortunate Witness.
So, at some point we’ll revisit the past to inform the
present, and a witness to something will suffer for what
they see…
 The world is an ordered thing. A single text chain-
ing one creature to the other as inexorably as veeta fol-
lows alpha. If you can understand the words the world
is made of, you might read the spirit out of it as easily
as you could the line of feathers along an eora’s tail.
Read closely and well, and add your own notes as you
encounter the other peoples of Mars. The ones who,
by accident or choice, refused the call of civilization.
Your book of beasts must record both the shape and the
secret names of each thing that creeps — under sun or
moons or blue stars. Where a beast resembles a Mar-
tian, perhaps it also knows the diseases that afflict us.
Beasts of Burden
Aepys
Darla kicked at the harness half-heartedly, sulking more
than really trying to escape. But then, she was a thorough-
bred. Strong, hot-blooded, and smart enough to get bored.
A mount for derring-do and racing, stuck hauling the same
three trunks and a dusty old man to and fro across Coronal
all day. I was bored too, and at least I was allowed to men-
ace anyone who got close enough to see a sword point. But
you bite even one princeling and suddenly you have to wear
a muzzle. I’m jealous, I would have liked to bite him too.
— Excerpts from The Apprentice’s Diary
in the month of the Wind’s Saddle
The aepys is a proud and clever problem-solv-
er, with a beak sharp enough to remind you of your
manners if you’re lax with them. They’re three to four
196
Where the stars resemble a beast, perhaps they inhabit
our lives as openly.
The map of the stars is a map of the Martian body,
and a map of its beasts is a map of its soul.
Creatures in Cavaliers of Mars have Traits and Re-
solve. They also specify difficulty dice for the GM to add
to his pool whenever a character tries to interact with
them in three particular ways. To Fight is used in com-
bat; To Escape From is used when a character wants to
flee the beast; and To Charm is used when a character
wants to tame, befriend, or train it. A creature’s entry
may omit one or more of these difficulties.
meters tall from spurred dewclaw to crest, and a few
hundred pounds of feathery, death-defying spirit. They
can’t fly far with their vestigial wings, but wild aepys
have been observed using them to slow their descent
along steep crags, and trained aepys can maneuver and
brake better than any mount of comparable size. Male
aepys are somewhat more docile, but are bulkier and
less maneuverable, preferring to simply trample quarry
rather than attempt to catch it. Groups of aepys can
work together under sufficiently-adverse circumstanc-
es, but most choose not to, preferring to be the center
of attention.
Traits: Wind-Catching Wings d10, Puffed Up and Preen-
ing d8, Thinks Outside the Box d6
Resolve: d8
Difficulties: To Escape From d10, To Fight d8, To Charm d8
 Beasts of Burden

ABILITY: THRILL-SEEKER one. The GM can spend an Action Point, or the rider’s play-
Like her Red Martian companions, an aepys is adventur- er can spend a Drama Point, to automatically avoid the next
ous, and inclined toward the path with the most glory and attack or hazard that would threaten the horus or its rider.

praise. She’s about as lucky as your average cavalier. The
GM gains a Windfall die whenever the aepys succeeds on
an action that bucks expectations or invites danger. He can
use this Windfall on behalf of the aepys or its rider.
ABILITY: BONE-BREAKER
A bird as big as an aepys can’t be too picky about what
kind of meat it eats, so their beaks are sturdy enough to
crack open the joints of anything with flesh. If the aepys
inflicts Strain with a successful Strike on a living, breathing
opponent, that opponent decreases their Speed by 1 on
their next combat action.
Oleph
Meeting an Oleph is always a curious experience; to get
anywhere at all a formal introduction is necessary, and a gift
is preferred. One must offer the heads an opportunity to dis-
cuss your request in their sibilant, riddling tongue, and one
must also respect their decision once made (an angry oleph
can’t be made to do anything but trample your cargo).
— Excerpts from The Apprentice’s Diary,
in the month of the Witch’s Cradle

Horus Leathery and hump-backed, the oleph is a prickly,

but potentially loyal, beast of burden. They range from
“Tha simpleton, tha dim leakyface puella. Wilst tha one to three meters at the shoulder, with twin heads on
cry all contrariwise ‘cause tha great furry lizard sees blood long-stalked necks. These heads speak to one another,
on the stone? Tha chose this. Now get ye up and move after a fashion, in cryptic riddles, and seem to appreci-
along quickwise. Preparing, us. Girding, or whatever tha ate humor about the end of all things. Olephs can be
soldiers do. At least tha has a sword, all myself has is a found in the southern Martian deserts, but they claim
book and a lackawit farmgirl.” to be from elsewhere: a home to which they cannot re-
turn, and to which a lonely oleph may sing when the
—Gemma Hosepha Jones,
moon is blue. Native to some warmer climate, they pre-
with a peculiar way of encouraging
fer to avoid the cold wastes north of Chiaro, but they
The horus knows, in a small way, what will be.
With a rider clever enough to ask, it can tell you about
the certainty of water, or hospitality, or violence in the
future of itself and its rider. But not the possibility of
them. Where there is doubt, or chance, it cannot see
clearly enough to understand what lies ahead. A presti-
gious beast perhaps, and beautiful too — with a lovely
sleek cloak of downy fur, and large slitted eyes. But not
always one well-favored by fortune.

Traits: Responsive Mount d10, Hard to Spook d8, En-

chanting Looks d6
Resolve: d6
Difficulties: To Escape From d12, To Charm d6, To Fight
d6

ABILITY: PRECOGNITION
A perceptive rider can tell when the creature senses water
or danger. A player can roll a basic action With Cunning
to see whether the horus senses a particular event in the
immediate future. The Cavalier Career is always relevant.

ABILITY: SLIP
With sure knowledge of a specific future, a horus can ma- An oleph conversing.
neuver through the choices that lead from now to then safely,
slipping around and past dangers that are not the foreseen
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 APPENDIX A: BESTIARY
can sometimes be persuaded with promises of unusual
herbs or bright dyes with which to paint their skin.
Traits: Put My Back Into It d10, Bigger Than You d8,
Never Alone d6
Resolve: d8
Difficulties: To Charm d10, To Fight d8, To Escape
From d6
ABILITY: TREMBLE
The footfall of an oleph is not a gentle sound. A precise
strike can shake a cavalier’s bones and knock him from
his feet, un-ideally placed for subsequent strikes. The GM
can spend an Action Point to make everyone in spaces
adjacent to the oleph fall prone.
ABILITY: SING A SONG OF SIXPENCE
An oleph’s voice is a precise tool, soft and beguiling
or vast and terrible. Where a sweet song calms and
distracts, a twin roar can deafen and stun.
Razok
Even a trained razok is wily and mean, and inclined
to test its rider at every opportunity. Affect disinterest or
boredom with their tricks and they’ll just escalate until you
react. Trick it back if you think you can, but be careful not
to underestimate it. They’ll lose respect for you and act out
even more if your pranks are too easy.
— Excerpted from the infamous Razok training manual,
Wicked Lizards and the Stupid Children Who Ride Them
A belligerent, winged reptile native to Skarras,
which, if caught and trained from birth, can be per-
suaded to allow a rider. They aren’t domestic, exactly.
Trained razoks are largely shunned by their wild sib-
lings, and the eggs they lay, if bred with one another,
produce lizards more fearful than friendly. Their plump
bodies are somewhat deceptive, though. Razoks are
dense with muscle, and that coating of fat keeps them
warm and fast—even in the frigid upper atmosphere of
the Sky Fields, where they can linger for hours waiting
198
for the right bird to swoop down on and swallow whole.
Their wings aren’t sturdy enough for the higher gravity
of other regions of Mars, though, where they do not fly
so much as awkwardly glide between close objects and
complain loudly about it.
Traits: Razor-Sharp Beak d10, Doesn’t Like You d8,
Staying Aloft d6
Resolve: d10
Difficulties: To Charm d12, To Fight d8, To Escape
From d8
Yummoc
A leathery old yummoc leaned against the fence
and huffed at me. It was bony and creaking, long past
the plump spryness of its calfhood, and yet I would have
sworn it rolled its rheumy eyes at me. Even an ancient
bull yummoc thought I was being melodramatic, hiding
out here in the pastures. But if you’re planning to accept a
prince’s bargain, I suppose a little flight into the country-
side is expected. Being married never seems like it’s worth
the trouble in mother’s stories.
— Selina, née Tran,
in the month of the Crown of Heather
Yummocs are herd animals, better suited for a Mars
that was a little wetter than it is today. Their meat and
hide are still terribly valuable, but their needs seem less
tenable day by day. Enterprising ranchers have been
trying to breed a more drought-resistant dame, in the
hopes of continuing their livelihood in the face of a
drying Mars. But it’s been tough and thankless work,
skill relentlessly applied for only the slightest return.
Traits: Leathery Hide d8, Follow the Herd d6, Patience
Is a Virtue d6
Resolve: d6
Difficulties: To Escape From d6, To Fight d6, To Charm
d6
 F riends
Friends
Eora
“When the world was young, and the world was new
The eora travelled two by two
With fairy mites and sharp-eyed kites and bells of
sweet sea blue
Kiss a lizard, kiss a lizard, kiss a lizard — you!”
Noisy children and their beasties swarmed past me while
I tried to drown my sorrows at a wildhoney tea counter. All
night spying on a dusty Illium diplomat, only to discover that
she was doing nothing more sinister than enjoying the many
embraces of Vance. No one was going to spare coin for the
names of last night’s lovers. I looked down over my tall glass
cup at the feathered, scaly face of the eora I’d been feeding
sparrow scraps to. Well, at least I’d made a friend.
— Excerpts from The Apprentice’s Diary,
in the month of the Crucible and the Maiden
There’s no more loyal friend than a tamed eora.
Most feathered lizards are bipedal, and no more than
A Colony of Eoras
199
knee-high to a Red Martian (though it’s said the Pale
Martians breed eoras big enough to ride). But they’ve
got jaws like a jackal, and a mind clever enough to use
them. Eoras are sneaky and willful as pups, but pack
animals at heart, and deeply-devoted guardians.
Traits: Loyal to a Fault d10, Relentless Jaws d8, Mischief
Maker d6
Resolve: d6
Difficulties: To Fight d8, To Escape From d6, To Charm
d6
ABILITY: TRAP
Once upon a time, eoras were tamed to herd the vast
flocks of the first Martians. And they remember in their
hearts how to protect their sheep. The GM can spend an
Action Point to gain +1 to all Stunt dice for the eora this
action, activated after dice are rolled but before Clash
of Steel begins, as long as the eora is defending another
character.
If the beast is loyal to a player’s character, that player
may spend a Drama Point to have the GM activate this
ability on her behalf.
ABILITY: SNATCH
The eora has a terribly strong bite, one that can rend
flesh and shatter bone. And if he can’t get between an
attacker and his mistress, he’ll simply have to take the
arm that would strike her. When a character the eora is
defending would suffer Strain from a successful Strike
against her, the GM can spend an Action Point to roll a
single Strike die. If the result is equal to or higher than the
Strike die that succeeded against the character, transfer
the Strain from that character to the attacker instead.
If the beast is loyal to a player’s character, that player
may spend a Drama Point to have the GM activate this
ability on her behalf.
Meles
She wheezed faintly when I scratched behind her dirty
ears, and sped up to a guttural purr as I dusted the sand
and pebbles out of her striped fur. Then she shook out her
little legs and panted a bit, showing me the wet sheen on
her fangs. She must have run across some suspicious look-
ing serpents while underground. They were nearly dripping
with oily venom.
— Blaise, canal technician,
in the month of the River
 APPENDIX A: BESTIARY
A meles is an amiable, if somewhat dim, friend to
farmers and archeologists alike. Slow, patient diggers
the size of a young aepys, who can hollow out broad
irrigation tunnels and gently uncover dangerous, po-
tentially-unstable digging sites. While less clever than
an eora or an aepys, the meles is sturdier and less prone
to skittishness in the face of danger. Perhaps because,
protected by dense fur and a strong venomous bite, they
can largely fend for themselves in the face of any but
the most persistent predator.
Traits: Slow and Steady d10, Venomous Bite d8, No
Sand Too Thick d6
Resolve: d12
Difficulties: To Fight d8, To Escape From d6, To Charm
d6
Beasts of the Desert
Caute (or Ghost Cat)
Cover your mouth in a sandstorm, my love-
I hear a caute on the wind,
A caute carrying its kin;
Come creeping from the valleys with the sand at her back,
A sigh in her throat, and a hungry host.
Cover your mouth in a sandstorm, my love-
Leave her sage and hyssop,
Leave her honey and wine,
She’ll creep down to the valleys with the sand at her feet,
A smile in her throat and a quiet ghost.
— A Children’s Book of Robber Verses
Cautes, they say, are haunted; every tiny alley whelp
and roaming desert beast is a messenger to the hungry ghosts
of the desert storm. Superstition, clearly. And yet, uniquely
of Mars’s many peoples and beasts (and more besides), the
caute can travel safely through the whipping sandstorms. In
the midst of those biting winds, it steps neatly through the
gusts, triple-lidded blue eyes sensing every creeping thing
that shivers and waits for the storm to end. In daylight, only
the blue of those eyes can distinguish the red and silver pelt
of a caute from the sand on which it lies.
200
Singing Spider
She reached out to caress a sparkling leg with her
finger. “It’s true, then? You actually found one.” Parmys
twitched the cage away again. “Careful! You’ll corrode it if
you keep trying to touch it like that.”
— A jeweler and her thief lover
Singing spiders are tiny, delicate animals (multi-legged,
but not true insects) that pair-bond, and spin glass filament
webs. They’re native to the Labyrinth of Night, where they
leech silicates from the stone walls, and absorb “rain” from
the Labyrinth’s storms. Highly prized by specialized jewel-
ers, who can coax them into spinning both beautiful jewel-
ry and complex musical structures. A mated pair is a lavish,
expensive gift, typically given between lovers.
Traits: Virtuoso Weaver d10, Mated for Life d8, Dweller
in the Dark d6
Resolve: d6
Difficulties: To Charm d8
Traits: Haunting Gaze d10, Desert Camouflage d8,
Worldly and Wise d6
Resolve: d8
Difficulties: To Charm d10, To Escape From d8, To Fight d6
ABILITY: SECRET
The caute has heard your name on the wind, and it knows
a paralyzing fear to whisper in your ear.
ABILITY: GHOST MISTRESS
A caute doesn’t summon ghosts (perhaps out of profes-
sional courtesy), but knows the ways of their eyes and
their voices. Cautes are immune to haunting and can’t be
possessed against their will.
Ghosts
I looked into the yawning gulf of Hell’s Basin and
wept. Even if I stood here with my mouth open for 100
nights, I might never find Anatolia. I might never even
know if she made it here. Maybe her spirit was at rest.
— Dysis Horae, Sister of Anatolia,
in the month of the Stranger
A ghost knows your name like you know how to
breathe, in a secret way that burns and chokes if you try
to stop. And the more it knows, the longer it can stay in
 b easts of the desert

THE DESERT’S GRASPING

HANDS
You may find your ghosts have other ways.
A way is something a ghost knows because
of who they are (invoking how they died,
or something they’re lacking, or some driv-
ing desire), expressed through some qual-
ity of the desert. Ghosts, by a forgotten
pact, cannot touch a living Martian with-
out permission. So a ghost who died by vi-
olence might have a way that invokes the
pain of that violence (either emotional or
physical), but cannot inflict stress or injury
by their own hand. They might inflict the
heat of the sun, or the smoothness of the
sand, or the endless horizon, but cannot
themselves burn or abrade or create new
madness where there was none before.

A traveler at the eye

ABILITY: POSSESSION AND HAUNTING
of a ghost storm
A ghost needs to succeed at a basic action to possess
someone unwilling to receive it. It can use basic actions
to haunt people with whatever ways it knows, their effects
the shadows of living, carried by dust and storm. If you perceptible or invisible to anyone present as it desires,
breathe a ghost in, it can live again, a little — curling into and a successful haunting is a lasting effect that gives the
your body and whispering into your ears and your heart. GM Misfortune.
Some Martians, out of loneliness or longing or love of the
WAY OF THE STINGING EYES
divine, welcome ghosts into themselves. To hold on to a
remembered lover, to walk more closely the steps of the The desert is dust and sand and the salt of your own
first Martians, to not be alone. Most possessions are less sweat, grinding relentlessly against you — eyes painted
black against the glare, grit crawling under your skin.
willing, though, and not all ghosts feel compelled to be
truthful about who they once were. A ghosteater might WAY OF THE BURNING VOICE
draw one back out of your heart, but it’ll leave a mark. A
The desert is endless heat and the dizzy rage of exhaus-
long blue streak where the incision was made, and scars tion, driving harsh words (and more besides) from the
where the memories it touched used to be. mouth of your sister.
Ghosts as a community have ways, but not every
ghost knows every way. A way might evoke how a ghost’s WAY OF THE COOL BREATH
first body died, the missing thing that’s still tying them to The desert is cold down to your bones, the dry air draw-
Mars, or a desire too strong to sate. A young ghost might ing water from your breath with every exhalation.
know two; an experienced or especially resilient ghost
WAY OF THE OPEN HAND
might know four or more. When a ghost calls up a way,
they can choose to terrorize a single traveler or split their The desert is need, running low on, and then out of, the
attention and haunt a traveler’s companions as well. things that keep a caravan moving —water and wine,
hope and mercy.

Traits: Passenger on the Air d12, Memory Stirs and WAY OF THE CLOSED HEART
Hearts Listen d8, Bottomless Well of Secrets d6 The desert is loneliness and the fading echoes of how it
Resolve: d10 must have been, when you could remember the stars in
Difficulties: To Escape From d10, To Fight d8, To Charm d8 the heavens and name them with a lover.

201
 APPENDIX A: BESTIARY
WAY OF THE DESERT SONG
The desert is a sand dune humming like a bowstring, then
calling out in booms and whispers when the wind rushes
hard over you.
WAY OF THE SILENT STEP
The desert is hard pebbles and striped glass shards that
are sand-in-waiting, ready to collapse underfoot in a
spray of powder and crumbling rock.
Machaira
“A slab of muscle no softer than a canyon wall slid
past us, feet and jaws stained red and brown. We pressed
desperately away from it, not even daring to breathe out
the thick scent of blood the machaira carried with it. For
all its fearsome jaws, it was as blind in this sandstorm as
we were. And perhaps too full of our friends to bother
chasing two more priestesses into the dunes.”
— Sun and Xueming, in the month of the Lost Child
The machaira is an asocial apex predator, with a
dense coat of fur and textured paws for running across
dunes faster than all but the best-bred racing aepys.
They will mind their single cub for a few months —
until it can run fast enough to nip at a Martian’s heels,
and keep its mother in sight. But they otherwise prefer
to ignore one another. Because the machaira is always
hunting, and always hungry, and other lions can only be
competition. Machairas are not especially bright, but
they make up for it in sheer strength and stamina.
After catching its prey with the
heavy row of fangs that
line its jaws, the mach-
aira can simply drag
an unlucky beast
back toward
its nest until it
bleeds out.
202
Traits: Hunter Among Hunters d12, No Terrain Too
Rough d8, Solitude Is My Shield d6
Resolve: d10
Difficulties: To Escape From d10, To Fight d8, To Charm
d8
ABILITY: FACE ALL RED
Once the machaira locks its jaws shut, its grip can haul a
beast of any size over miles of terrain. Dragging it, slowly
but surely, back to its nest. It automatically wins contests
to hold onto its prey unless its opponent has a d10 or d12
in her pool.
ABILITY: RACE THE WIND
It kills slowly, but never underestimate how swift and
soundless the machaira might be while racing to the spot
where it will first strike. It automatically wins contests of
speed unless its opponent has a d10 or d12 in her pool.
Weasels
“What do you mean, you lost it? What happened to
the leash?”
— A very concerned caravan driver
Tame weasels, usually, are kept small and safe in
traveling boxes. They cocoon, wrapping themselves in
their long whip tail and six furry legs, and nap until wo-
ken — to serve as pet rat catchers and exterminators of
the many noxious insects that can bedevil a caravan. A
wild weasel, on the other hand, is limited only by the
size of the burrow it digs itself. Specimens upwards of
four and a half meters have been seen, though never
caught.
Traits: Cruel and Terrible d10, As Big as I Need
to Be d8, Sharp and Beady Eyes d6
Resolve: d8
Difficulties: To Escape
From d8, To Fight d6, To
Charm d6
Maichara close on their prey
 Beasts of the Wood
Beasts of the Wood
Cerana
The air hummed, soft and low as a sigh, louder than
thunder. Moving slowly, like a dance through the high
grasses, she lifted the thatch and wood roof and pulled out
a frame — exposing wax, larvae, and honey alike. Gently,
she tapped the larvae into a sealed jar, and slid an empty
comb in to replace the one she’d removed. Larvae for the
white’s poison-tipped arrows, wax for the reds, and honey
for home.
— Mellifera, beekeeper
While you can harvest a kind of spicy syrup from the
nests of locusts, the cerana is the only true bee of Mars.
It’s native to the cool grassy fields along the cliffs of the
Wyeth Valley, but invasive among any grasses where the
occasional rain might fall. Unfortunately, it relies on
certain flowers to produce edible honey, so while small
colonies occasionally appear in the Labyrinth of Night,
they produce only a toxic blue fluid — phosphorescent
like the plants that line the walls of those caverns, but
no more edible. The Wyeth have cultivated them safely
for generations upon generations, though. They harvest
the wax that makes their skin supple and their wooden
goods shine, the honey they feed their children, and the
paralyzing poison they use to hunt those that might dis-
turb the tranquility of the valley.
Traits (as a swarm): Hive Mind d10, Poisonous Sting
d8, Attracted to Bright Colors d6
Resolve: d6
Difficulties: To Escape From d8, To Fight d8, To Charm
d6
Fagun Bug
“We’re a respectable establishment, Menia. And we
must be seen to keep the fagun off their soft skins. But,
well, the urgency varies. Use the soft bristle brush for the
newcomers, they’ll wake more easily when pinched, and
spot the bites on their skin more quickly. An old hand, on
his third day, won’t wake enough to smell the insecticide. If
his skin is oily, he can be persuaded not to notice.”
— Petra to Menia, a daughter and a new apprentice
Tiny red spiders are drawn to the smell of krem
and hot flesh, and will sting those who sleep away their
nights — drinking tiny drops of their spiced blood. A
203
respectable den will make an effort to keep their guest
free of pests and insects. But the deeper the addiction,
the less likely a customer is to notice in the first place.
Traits: Ravenous Blood-Drinker d10, Too Small to Hunt
d8, Breeds Uncontrollably d6
Resolve: d8
Difficulties: To Escape From d12
Ikkun Parasite (Deephome)
“Everything is so much clearer, now. All the twinges
in my heart when I looked into the crowds of Vance. All
the little fears that plagued me and whispered in the night.
They were for a reason. They brought me here, and a
Naruk spoke to me through certain signs. It taught me how
to spot the monsters wearing Martian faces, and what to
do when I found them. I’ve been running all my life, but
now I know what I’m running towards.”
— Weis, rubbing the sleep from his eyes
The mind is delicate, balancing the complex hu-
mours that form reason and understanding and emo-
tion. But the body is sturdy, and will steadfastly work
to reclaim lost abilities, compensating for any lack with
whatever it has to hand. Some lucky folk (and beasts)
may find a disease that lays their brother low does not
affect them. Some are ill for a day, or a week, but shake
it off. Some never stand again. Their minds break in
subtle ways, and their bodies move and work and speak
with a different sort of guidance. The Wyeth do not suf-
fer from ikkun parasites. Their skin is thick, and even
soft-barked babies throw off a parasite like a passing
cold. Other Martians are not so lucky. Their skin is easy
to pierce, and their bodies unprepared to shake off the
damage an ikkun can wreak on their minds. The luck-
iest suffer from hallucinations, ever more violent over
time, but tolerable with skilled treatment. For some,
the worm hooks deep into them, and their mind breaks
apart to accommodate it. They may look, and some-
times behave, as if they remained their old selves, but a
crawling madness has been triggered within.
The more aggressive the beast (or Martian), the
harder it is to shake off. Some hounds, now known by
their systemic infection with ikkun parasites, carry it in
their saliva, which can easily infect skin broken by their
triple rows of jagged teeth.
 APPENDIX A: BESTIARY
Traits: Driven to Spread d12, Thrives on Aggression d8,
Agenda of Its Own d6
Resolve: d10
Difficulties: To Escape From d8
Miyuk
“I brought you a gift.”
“Did you? Where is it?”
“Just here, the miyuk. To keep you safe when you go
out among the reds.”
“You got me an ill-tempered snake dog to keep me safe
while traveling. And what am I to do when it hares off into
the desert, as it will do because I’m not a beast trainer?”
— Helania, third of six,
in the month of the Broken Spire
Even the Wyeth have cause to catch and tame
hounds. In this case, a six-legged serpent of a hound,
cold-blooded, long-legged and crammed with sinewy
energy. A miyuk might only reach a sister’s thigh, but
it can be brave and true, for a time. The wildness can’t
be trained out of them though, and from time to time
they escape back into the forest, or out into the deserts
beyond.
A Miyuk on the prowl.
204
Traits: Follows Its Nose d10, Fair-Weather Friend d8,
Runs with Gusto d6
Resolve: d8
Difficulties: To Charm d10, To Fight d8, To Escape From
d8
ABILITY: WANDERLUST
Even a trained, somewhat-loyal miyuk hears the song of
the woods in its reptilian heart. One day, and maybe
soon, it will throw off the society of Martian folk and run
towards it again. A miyuk always knows the direction and
rough distance to the nearest wooded area.
Naruk
“Once, when the forest was young, and the husbands
picked up root and traveled among us, the naruk spoke and
walked as Wyeth do. With clever hands they crafted, and with
clever minds they spun, until one found the first krem pod.
They smelled deeply of its spice, and turned all their crafts
toward it, until one by one they forgot their cleverness in love
of its scent. We learn from them, this way, not to breathe it too
deeply, or too often, lest we forget our own way.”
— Thamyra, to a pod of young girls
The naruk, these days, are small and fierce, with
brilliant blue fur easily spotted among the leaves of the
trees they guard. Their teeth are too sharp for speech,
but sharp enough to crack a pod, and bite the hand that
might take it from them.
Traits: Greedy Bastard d10, Dexterous Climber d8,
Needle-Sharp Teeth d6
Resolve: d6
Difficulties: To Charm d10, To Fight d6, To Escape From
d6
Wyeth Deer
I crouched near the edge of the vulture’s nest, still as
a cat. Its mistress was long gone, but my scrambling along
the cliff face had startled the prize I wished to extract.
Long past the time my calves had seized, I was rewarded
by the chirping song of a family of wyeth deer, creeping out
between the interlocked branches of the nest.
— Excerpts from the autobiography of Bathsheba
Prince, noted Archaeologist and Grave Robber
The Wyeth Deer is not precisely from Wyeth, but
its deep green, mossy body suggests the lush forests the
Wyeth protect. A family of deer is voracious and will
breed prodigiously if their chosen burrow is dense with
 Beast of the Wastes
insects and parasites. Small packs tend to form symbi-
otic relationships with larger predators; by using their
articulated hoof-like digits to climb delicately through
the dense underbrush of a nest, they can easily avoid
disturbing its occupants. And, since deer flesh is highly
toxic (though hallucinogenic to Pale Martians), they
are well protected from those predators whose nests
they inhabit.
Traits: Friends Meaner than Me d10, Quick and Light-
footed d8, At Home Anywhere d6
Resolve: d6
Difficulties: To Escape From d8, To Charm d6
Beasts of the Wastes
Jackal
They fell to a sleeping sickness, one after another. A
great dry beast with black eyes and dusky skin slithered
back to their camp night after night to drink the moisture
out of them. Not that I would have mourned them, they
were going to leave me in this cage clear back to Chiaro. A
slave maybe, if they couldn’t get a worthwhile ransom. But
as each one broke apart into dust and mummified bone, I
couldn’t help but fear the bite that would catch me trapped,
without even a knife to defend myself.
— Tilly Eugene,
expecting to not remain a prisoner much longer
Jackals can be found amid the mountains and
steppes, and some small packs prefer the stony comforts
of Chiaro’s ruins. Long and slender and so flexible as to
be almost boneless, they can squeeze through a crack
the size of a Red Martian’s hand and pop an improperly
sealed door off its hinges. It retains water in small blad-
ders throughout its body, and reabsorbs it only sparingly,
allowing it to sleep under the dry dust of a courtyard for
months at a time. The toxin it secretes leaves a hunter
so tired as to forget their surroundings. This allows the
jackal to return to an unconscious meal some hours lat-
er, when their heart has slowed almost to stopping and
they’ve lost the will to wake.
Traits: Pliable as Putty d10, The Color of Dust d8, Clings
to Life d6
Resolve: d10
Difficulties: To Escape From d12, To Charm d8, To Fight
d6
205
ABILITY: SPORE
The breath of a Wyeth deer contains a tiny filament of its
poison; a gas that dizzies and blinds even strong men.
The deer can perform a Breathe maneuver with a Strike
die. If the attack hits, its target loses his vision for the
scene, and whenever he moves in combat, he does so in
a random direction.
ABILITY: DISAPPEAR
It is very hard to find a Wyeth deer that does not wish to
be seen. As long as it blends in with its surroundings or
has plenty of cover in which to hide, a player requires a
d12 in her pool to attempt to find it.
ABILITY: SOMA
The bite is not so sharp as to wound badly. A sting and
a gash that even a child could bandage, shrugged off
when the jackal runs. But the weariness, you can feel it
in your bones. When the jackal successfully bites some-
one, the GM gains a Misfortune die to use against that
character. Until that Misfortune comes to pass or vanish-
es, the character’s Speed is reduced by one and she must
succeed at a basic action, opposed by the jackal’s Traits,
once per scene or fall into a deep sleep.
ABILITY: DRINK
At its leisure, the jackal can return to a victim and drink its
body dry, leaving nothing but dust and powdered bone
behind. If it has several uninterrupted minutes to feed on
someone, one of that character’s Traits becomes exhaust-
ed, even if it’s currently a d6. If the last of a character’s
Traits becomes exhausted this way, he’s drained and will
die if the jackal feeds on him again.
Scorpion King
“It would be pitiful if it wasn’t trying to kill all our livestock.”
— Afua, a trader and rancher
Scorpions nest in that which has been allowed to dry
and desiccate in the wastes of Mars. Left too long, their
limbs will begin to fuse together. Starving and half mad, a
mass of claws and stinging tails will burst out of the mummy
and stagger through wastes and half-broken temples, look-
ing for enough food to sustain their many, many mouths.
Traits: Many-Limbed Horror d10, Insatiable Hunger d8,
Wasteland Rover d6
Resolve: d8
Difficulties: To Fight d6, To Escape From d6
 APPENDIX A: BESTIARY

Steppes Locust
“As per our arrangement, a tally of our engagements
this season:
Losses: 3 yummocs, 8 Squires to various soldiers, 2
Cavaliers of the Thorn Arch
Gains: 30 whole locust chitin plates, assorted decora-
tive fragments, 200 kilos of dried locust flesh
Coronal officially requests aid, in the form of 1 family
of cavalry officers, in return for 30% of the chitin returns
and all of the processed locust meat.”
— Letter from Maristela Zarko, Duce of the West
Gate, Knight of the Order of the Golden Maiden to
Börte of Qongirat, Ambassador of the Ozak Nations
The locust is a huge, destructive insect native to the
steppes, but invasive throughout the wastes. Every part of
the locust is valuable, from chitinous shell to gamey meat,
but you’ll have a devil of a time getting it. Even one is a
challenge, and a swarm is deadly to all but the most skilled
fighters. The Ozak and Qan nations will even pause their Ursavas form a rare alliance to
endless war against one another to eradicate a swarm. set upon a caravan
Smaller fragments of their shells are often used as knife
handles, but one rarely kills a locust without shattering the
chest-plates too badly to use them whole as armor plating. As big as a machaira, but smarter, meaner, and able to use
tools and tricks to lure a meal away from its bodyguards. A
Traits: Deadly Swarm d10, Flesh-Eating Mandibles d8, bear so vicious that it can’t stand the sight of its own cubs,
Iridescent Chitinous Armor d6 and abandons them at birth, perhaps later to kill them in
Resolve: d8 the territory disputes travelers can hear from miles away.
Difficulties: To Escape From d10, To Fight d8, To Charm A creature as happy to eat its own as it is to eat a Martian.
d8
Traits: Master of Deception d10, Vicious Cannibal d8,
ABILITY: SWARM Claws the Size of Your Head d6
One locust knows where to find its hive, and how to call Resolve: d10
its hatchmates to itself. Difficulties: To Fight d10, To Escape From d8, To Charm
d8
Ursavas
ABILITY: LONELY CRY
Never answer a wail from deep in the wastes. If you’re An ursavas has a flexible voice, and while it can’t quite
lucky, the worst thing you’ll find is a nest of locusts. More match the words of Martians, it can mimic the sobs and
likely it’s an ursavas trying to lure you away from the firelight frightened cries they make.
to catch an easy meal. Be as wary of food untouched along a
trade route. A scorpion king might only kill one yummoc, but ABILITY: JAWS OF HUNGER
the bear that set the trap is hoping to catch all of us. A particularly old or clever ursavas might engage in a
— Excerpts from The Apprentice’s Diary, prolonged stalking attempt — first destroying the supply
wagons of a caravan, then luring clusters of travelers
in the month of the Stranger off-road with food stolen from their own pockets. If an ur-
Ursavas are a campfire story to frighten young cava- savas has the time and resources to play the long game,
step its To Escape From die up to a d10.
liers into doing their duty and carefully tending a caravan.

206
 Beasts of the City

Beasts of the City

Pale Martian Cities NoABILITY: NET
one knows the lay of a web better than its weaver;
and no seeker could move so quickly through it. Add one
Automatons to a machine spider’s Speed as long as it’s in its web.

(or Machine Spiders) ABILITY: DECONSTRUCT

What lands in the web of the weaver is a gift to the weav-
“Who resembles the steppes locust, which satisfies er and the web, and quickly, with their gentlest teeth,
its every desire? They are the Martians who, after being they will cease its motion before grinding it fully at their
struck down by our enemy’s arrows, take those arrows up leisure. A machine spider gains an extra Strike die against
and pierce our heart again with them. anyone in its web.
Who resembles the machine spider, which satisfies the
needs of The People? They are the Martians who, when
Lapin
showered with our enemy’s arrows, remain untouched Oh how they cried in the dead of night, ghostly
because they are dressed in holy bone. and haunting as they grieved their dead sister. None
Children, burn away your fickleness, and turn your would speak to us after that, even the lapins from
passion always towards The People. Be the Martians who, families too far away to have possibly known. They
under a torrent of arrows, shatter them and force them into just fall silent at our approach, staring angrily, and
the hearts of our enemies.” would not take up their tending or their song until we
— Sister Dorotheus of Metanoia, left again.
Letters for the Third Egg Year — Jessamyn Jacobs, assistant to Bathsheba Prince
and writer of Seven Chronicles of Valerian and Castilleja
The machine spiders are hand-sized creatures that infest
the ruins of First Martian cities, collectively weaving enor-
mous webs out of stinging silken cords. Whatever their orig-
inal purpose, they are now cultivated by the Pale Martians
to weave the watertight fabrics from which they build their
homes and make their clothes. With some careful training
and a talented herder, they can even be used to weave the
seamless containers Chiaro relies on to ship chunks of glacier
water south. While they meticulously demolish any material
(biological or not) that gets caught in their webs, it isn’t clear
that they eat what they catch, so much as break it down into
usable parts. When one ”dies,” its nestmates immediately
descend on it to dismantle its corpse, and build a new spi-
der to replace it. Only the very lucky have ever managed to
preserve an automaton body from this fate, and none have
quite discovered the mechanism by which they spin.
Special Note: Automatons are not naturally com-
bative, and seem only dimly aware of anything outside
their meditative weaving, but if provoked or pursued,
they will retreat deeper into their nest.

Traits: Master Crafter d10, Single-Minded with Purpose

d8, Mechanical Beast d6
Resolve: d10 Lapin mourning one of their own.
Difficulties: To Fight d6, To Escape From d6, To Charm d6

207
 APPENDIX A: BESTIARY
Tiny hares, made of horn and glass, congregate
along the glacier wall in families of 20-30. They sing,
and know, and farm in a small way. Harvesting those
seeds and grasses as can be found so far north, and
planting the salvage in fields they till with their siblings.
They make decisions as a group, operating as a hive
with queens and daughters, and communicate through
them (somehow) to other families hundreds of miles
away. A lapin removed from her family will wither —
losing speech, then song, then heart. At the moment
she dies, her family will take up a wail, changing their
family song forever. Their mournful singing has been
the focus of study for a few Pale Martian academics, but
lapins seem contemptuous of Martian research on their
words, and rarely make an effort to explain themselves
to those outside their species. But when the moon is
blue, families across the glacial fields come together and
sing sweet and high. And the ice trembles with their
small voices.
Traits: For Family d10, We Are All Connected d8,
Moves Glaciers to Weep d8
Resolve: d8
Difficulties: To Escape From d6, To Charm d6
Vulture
“Not every beast of Mars has the spark of understand-
ing, but of the ones that do, many choose to remain as they
are. What does civilization offer the vulture or the lapin?
What jokes can they tell, free from the burden of legitimacy?”
— Sister Nimas Regula, of Patience,
Letters for the Tenth Movement
No more wicked than any other beast that eats flesh
for its supper, but perhaps more reviled for it. Vultures
are smart and sensible, and speak to one another in a soft
clicking language rich in sardonic humor. Their small
hands can wield rough tools, but they are largely unin-
clined to turn those tools on other Martians. They prefer
instead to build themselves complex nests in high, safe
hills, unreachable by ursavas or machaira. There they
engage in circular debates about what Mars is made of,
which are considered disproven (and therefore uninter-
esting) by the higher orders of Martian thinkers.
Traits: Architect of the Skies d10, Philosophical Thinker
d8, Clever Scavenger d6
Resolve: d6
Difficulties: To Escape From d8, To Fight d6, To Charm d6
208
Vance
Salamander
“Rats and salamanders in the grain, cautes chasing
them about, and dizzy arrayed all around in mine store-
houses. What does us have weasels and peacocks for, if not
to catch verminy bits? Mother-of-pearl, tha keeps the house
not at all.”
— Pepper (Susanna) Vipert,
Quartermaster to the House of Nacre, Castor, and Silk
Salamanders may have originally been from Arca-
dia, but like rats and the poor, they will always be among
us. In the wild, the tough-skinned lizards eat most any-
thing small enough to get their jaws around. But ones
that stay too long in the city develop a taste for sweets
and grains — sneaking through cracks in storehouses
and bakeries, and stuffing themselves silly. More skin
and cartilage than meat, and bitter enough (though not
poisonous, per se) that they’re not worth much to eat.
So no one much bothers to catch them for a pot. A
handful of skin could patch your boots though, if you
were in a bad way.
Traits: Adaptable Little Bugger d8, Wall Walker d8,
Doesn’t Give Up d6
Resolve: d6
Difficulties: To Charm d6
Sand Spider
I saw a gray scurry far down the dune, long legs
scratching up through the grass by the brackish irrigation
ditches. I whistled and dug into my pack for a rifle and a
bag of rocks. If there was one sand spider there were 20,
and someone needed to get eyes on the flanking group while
I blundered into the obvious trap.
I got a whistle back, and another from the ranch
porch. Someone’s been keeping the home fires burning,
I see. Well, the more the merrier, and the more likely the
yummocs will make it to morning.
—Ayo Nkechi Poole, hired hand and sometimes
sharpshooter in the month of the Stranger
Individually, a sand spider isn’t much. A ball of gris-
tle and meanness half the size of an underfed eora. But
a pack of them can be clever, engaging in group tac-
tics and minor trickery — laying traps, forming teams
 Beasts of the City
to herd targets together or pick off a straggler. Their
ingenuity is limited, though, and they’re both too stupid
to be worth training and too numerous to effectively
exterminate. They range through the southern edge of
Chiaro clear down to Anger, though they give the Pris-
matic Wastes a wide berth.
Traits (minion group): 1 per player + 1; Parry Level: 2
Difficulties: To Charm d10, To Fight d6, To Escape From d6
Sparrow
“When sparrow spoke and wren fought, the sparrow
woke again one morning, and was bathed in morning
light. The golden glow it gave her feathers pleased her,
so much richer and brighter than her common brown
speckles. But morning became day became night, and the
gold evaporated off her wings like alchemy. Now sparrow
was vain, but also clever. To keep her feathers gold, she’d
need to ask dawn for a filament of heaven, to keep nestled
in her breast. So she woke again, savoring the gold that
would soon be hers, and flew toward the sun, rehearsing
her request. But the day grew hotter and the sun beat
against poor sparrow, until she faltered, and fell. She slept
all day and all night, pinned by the sun’s heat. And when
she woke, her feathers were bronzed all over, but her face
felt hot and sore. She was golden down to the shaft of her
feathers, but her face had been burnt black. Now tell me,
children. Did sparrow get the better of that bargain?”
— Clodia, to her elementary school class
Golden sparrows are a terrible pest, and a danger
to crops of grains and fruit alike, but the sweet tones of
their songs keep them alive as both pampered pets…
and a plentiful source of food for Vance’s poor.
Traits: Dulcet Song d10, Selfish Moocher d8, Quick
Flight d6
Resolve: d6
Difficulties: To Escape From d6, To Charm d6
Chiaro
Delve Beetle
The air should have stank, with so many bodies on
the ground. But it was strangely sterile. The way an empty
house smells, when no one has ever lived there. Yet here
was a pile of thieves a span deep, arranged as if for a pyre.
209
Who put them there? Surely not the slick-shelled beetle
sculptures that dotted the hallway. I heard a creak and
startled, dropping my light. It cracked and flickered, and in
the darkness, I heard 100 heavy feet.
— ’Just’ Pietro,
a self-proclaimed Prince Among Thieves
Delve beetles are smart enough to be patient and
loyal, but their thoughts move at a slow crawl compared
to even other steadfast guardians of Cydonian treasure.
At least partly a construct, their wants are few, and both
their claws and their senses are unnaturally sharp. They
dwell in entrances and antechambers, warding off those
graverobbers as can be dissuaded by the neatly snipped
bones gathering on the stone floors before them.
Traits: Pincers Sharper than Surtur Blades d12, Sees in
the Dark d10, Jealous Hoarder d6
Resolve: d8
Difficulties: To Fight d10, To Escape From d8, To Charm
d8
Ice Hornets
“I’ve never felt so cold in my bones as when we
stumbled on a hornet’s nest buried in the glacier. The two
miners closest to them were struck in the chest. They barely
had a moment to scream before their lungs started freezing
shut. That’s why I call myself lucky. I only lost an arm.”
— Tycho Nara, a cavalier lucky enough to get old.
Near the very northern pole, an awful insect makes
its way in the world. An ice hornet’s sting paralyzes with
cold, and flesh touched by it will always need to be cut
away before the chill leaks into your heart. The heat
from a living body both attracts and distresses them,
drawing them close to attack, but confusing their sens-
es. Fire provokes them, and in their rage they’ll sting
themselves dry — ripping the stingers out of their body
to freeze into stillness everything nearby.
Traits: Dive Bomb d10, Roused to Fury by Heat d8,
Magnetoreception d6
Resolve: d6
Difficulties: To Escape From d10, To Charm d8, To Fight d6
ABILITY: BONECHILLER
A hornet will strike the closest mass of heat it can detect, and
pierce deep. If their stinger strikes bone, the cold will creep
through your marrow, freezing your bones until they crack. A
character steps a Trait down by one die for each Strain be-
 APPENDIX A: BESTIARY

yond the first she suffers from an ice hornet in a single scene, to
a minimum of d4. These Traits recover at a rate of one die per
scene until the end of the session, when they recover fully.

Milak
“I don’t know that we drove it off, per se. I think it just
got full.”
— Tamiko Rodriguez, caravan driver
Mars did not dry out all at once. At first it was only
the odd dry summer. Then all summers out of memo-
ry were arid. Then all seasons. The water slowly disap-
peared from air and soil beneath Martian feet. Some
Martian beasts had time to adapt. The fish that breathed
air could also wallow in mud. The wallower could also
walk on land. Generations later, and the milak can crawl
out of canals in search of richer prey than the silt of a riv-
erbed can provide. Eoras, hounds, aepys, people. Milak
are what passes for an amphibian on Mars — snakelike,
with heavy coils and a pacifying bite, and legs just long A shopkeeper finds their wares
enough to speed a retreat back underwater with its prize. unexpectedly infested with
glasscutter wasps
Traits: Canal Dweller d10, Swift and Sinuous d8, Indis-
criminate Palate d6
Resolve: d8
ous they are, though. It’s true they breed prodigious-
Difficulties: To Escape From d10, To Fight d8, To Charm d6
ly, but something must kill enough of them that their

Illium numbers don’t overwhelm Illium’s streets.

Traits: Glasscutting Stinger d10, Blinding in the Light d8,

Glasscutter Hardy Survivor d6
(Prismatic) Wasp Resolve: d10
Difficulties: To Escape From d10, To Fight d8, To Charm d8

Every terrible thing you’ve heard about them is true.
They eat carrion of any kind. They’re immune to the
radiation of the wastes. They steal bodies that (if ever seen
again) they leave bursting with wasp larvae. Kill them if
you must; run if you can.
— Excerpts from The Apprentice’s Diary,
in the month of the Scalpel
The prismatic wasps, iridescent as the glass they
shear to build their towering nests, are native to the
Prismatic Wastes. And somehow, they survive happily
in the shadow left by a weapon that melted the stone
and sand to heavy sheets of radioactive glass. Fist-sized
and easy to provoke (though why would you want to?),
a swarm can easily overpower any lone Martian des-
perate enough to make the trip, and maim a party of
well-armored soldiers. No one knows quite how numer-
Radium Rat
“But doesn’t natural philosophy teach us that the
strongest animal prevails?”
“No, Cinna. Sometimes it’s enough merely to survive.
Survive long enough to pass on your legacy to more chil-
dren than the beast that is different from you.”
“But then, weak humours can prevail alongside the strong. How
do we guard against weakness when it might be all around us?”
“Search deeply in the eyes of everyone you see. Watch their
movements. Inform the authorities if you suspect they might har-
bor a secret weakness. We will know the ways of finding it, and
the animals among us will thank us for our careful husbandry.”
— Lucien Ooms,
instructor of Natural Philosophy and Adaptive Arts

210
 Beasts of the City
Radium rats came, in time, to tolerate the rigors
of life in Illium. Skin and eyes bleached by generations
of irradiation, they’re pale in daylight, with squinting
red eyes. Their bite carries a little of the poison in their
veins, giving the victim a slow-moving radiation sick-
ness. They don’t live long, eventually falling to the sick-
ness in their bones, but they live long enough.
Traits (minion group): 1 per player + 1; Parry Level: 2
Difficulties: To Escape From d10, To Fight d6
ABILITY: RADIATION SICKNESS
Whenever radium rats inflict a Condition, the GM gains a
Misfortune die to represent radium exposure.
Silicon Crab
Always check your blades. Hold them to the light
and check for glinting webs scattered along the length of
the blade. A disreputable dealer will try to prevent you, or
keep the lights in his storefront dim and diffuse to trick you.
Insist on holding it up to sun- or starlight.
— Nancie Sade-Waker, author of A Thousand Blades
of Mercy: Compendium of the Many Blades of Mars
Silicon crabs are ore eaters. They burrow into improp-
erly-mined or inadequately-smelted minerals, creating tiny
weaknesses and imperfections. A blade made by a tired
hand, from metal she did not smith herself, might crack
along the crystal webbing left in crab-infested metal.
Traits: Insidious Burrower d8, Smells Ore from a Mile
Away d8, Too Small for the Naked Eye d6
Resolve: d6
Difficulties: To Charm d10
Surtur
Bharal
“Be as agile as the bharal, turning your face toward
what you must do this moment. The past is trajectory, the
future will not arrive until you succeed at the present jump.
Be swift, children. Discover what is needed today.”
— Tucki Badwater, to her pack of cutpurse orphans
Prancing up and down the mountains, easy as you
please, you can find little herds of bharal, mountain ungu-
lates with long twisting horns and soft black fur, so sure-foot-
ed that they hardly seem to notice that the rocks even could
211
be precarious. They mostly scrape lichens and mosses clean
off the rocks, but when that’s particularly scarce, they’ll steal
glome feed, or graze in the dry plains to the west.
Traits: Natural Rock Climber d8, Evasive Prey d8,
Screeching Call d6
Resolve: d6
Difficulties: To Escape From d10, To Fight d6, To Charm d6
Glome Bug
“They’re not very pretty, and you need to shell them
in a thresher before you can start fermenting the ammonia
out. But once you’ve pureed that paste, and smoked it for
another few months, it’s delicious — I swear.”
— Atticus Juniper, rancher and Glome Paste Booster
Glome bug is an acquired taste outside of Surtur, but
quite popular there (despite how thoroughly it needs to be
processed). It’s not hard to see why. They’re hardy, indiffer-
ent to the freshness of their feed, practically immune to the
punishing heat, and astonishingly idle. Even their downy
hair, if you can gather enough of it, makes a thread that’s
an adequate substitute for flax or silk. In fact, being a glome
rancher is preposterously easy — provided you can tolerate
handling an acre of meter-long millipedes on a daily basis.
Traits: No Heat Too Scorching d8, Effortless Survivor
d6, Soft but Gross d6
Resolve: d6
Difficulties: To Charm d6
Ormerian Lizard
“And why were you baiting lizards in the hills?”
“Are you going to give me stitches or what? I’m filleted
ass to elbow here.”
“I’m just making conversation. If you’d rather I didn’t
give you a chance for the opium to kick in I suppose I could
get started now.”
“....would you believe my Gemma wanted a pet?”
— Pavel Schiaparelli, to an aggrieved surgeon
Ormerian lizards demand a wide territory, and
guard it with a single-minded fury. Beaked and barbed,
with thorny crests to flag their anger, they constantly
patrols the borders of the rocky wasteland they claim.
Mated pairs will patrol in shifts, one parent guarding
the clutch while the other menaces intruders. They do
not make particularly tractable pets.
 APPENDIX A: BESTIARY

Traits: Heavy Barbed Tail d12, Keen Eyes d8, Sharp striking one with a stone. That’s all the welcome I’ll know
Toothy Beak d6 what to do with. Kill a laradill for me.”
Resolve: d10 — Aradella Castile, picking a caravan to follow,
Difficulties: To Fight d10, To Charm d10, To Escape and already homesick
From d8
Perhaps eons ago some laradill ancestor harassed the

Skarras sailors of ancient Mars. Today, its grandchildren squawk

and chase and menace Martians on land. Their calls are
deafening and cacophonous, and in the early morning
Gallum hours many Skarras children hunt them for both pen-
nies and sport. They are somehow even more aggressive
“Beauteous choice sire, a pearl of great price. See tha how during mating season, when they have been known to
it glitter-dances in the crystal light? Beveled from the loveliest chase one another miles away from their nests, biting and
veins of whalestone tha has ever seen. A fine gem, tha.” pulling at each other’s feathers all the while. They’re edi-
“Whalestone? A poetic name to be sure. What sort of ble, if you can tolerate the noise to get at them.
rock is that when it’s at home?”
“Oh, uh, carcibum callcinatea laxidasia...the, uh, gray Traits: Loud and Raucous d8, Cranky Aggressor d6,
Flagrant Food Thief d6
kind what comes from mill-mining in the south fields.”
Resolve: d8
“How charmingly evasive. I’ll take the lot anyway, but Difficulties: To Charm d10, To Escape From d8, To Fight d6
10 centimes a gram and not a bit more of your highway
robbery. …Oh, and one merchant to another, think of a
better fake name next time.’”
Sandskin
— Priyana Jubilee, respec’able merchant to The stony teeth ground painfully against my skin, but
The Quality of Mars and Peregrine Janit, who is only dug against the surface. Too dull to pierce my leg, only
already calculating a very substantial markup
Fat herds of gallum float in the Sky Fields south of Skar-
ras, grazing on the long strands of kelpy weeds and tillandsia
brush, held aloft by the low gravity. They aren’t especially
aggressive, except insofar as a nearsighted beast too big to
see its sides might bash an inattentive Martian against the
rocks. To manage that bulk on a diet of weeds and nettles,
gallum must wring every last fiber out of their cud, which
they digest at length in stomachs like pressure cookers. The
odd pebble or rock that gets sucked up alongside is subject-
ed to the same acids and pressures, creating gems of unusu-
al color and luster. (They’re very popular in Coronal and
Zodiac, though one suspects Skarras merchants neglect to
mention their origin as glorified gallstones.)

Traits: Takes Up Space d8, Powerful Suction d6,

Low-Gravity Dweller d6
Resolve: d6
Difficulties: To Charm d6

Laradill
“That’s how I’ll know I’m home, once my feet draw An unfortunate traveler
me back. I’ll hear the screeching of those menaces from a inhales a sandskin.
day away, and I’ll know that in that moment a little child is

212
 Beasts of the Water

worry at it and hope to pull it loose. It would have been trag-

ic if it wasn’t trying to maul me to death and steal my skin.
— Karel, philosophically regretting the spirit he
would soon bind
Sandskins are barely living. A swirling cluster of
rock and dust (and some say, fragments of ghosts too
weak to have a soul to call their own). They crave flesh,
any will do, to pour themselves into. Their desperate
longing remains unfilled though. Even if they pour their
dust into the mouth of a captive, whatever spirit pos-
sesses them simply reforms, hours or days later. There
is no peace for a sandskin, not even the peace of death.
Traits: Unflagging Desperation d10, Miniature Sand-
storm d6, Shifting Form d6
Resolve: d10
Difficulties: To Escape From d10, To Charm d8, To Fight d6
Skulker
Two skulkers padded softly down the alley, casual-
ly knocking over trash cans to critically examine their
contents. One was already carrying a long bone, and the
cracking noise it made as the beast turned it over and over
in its jaws echoed up to the attic we were hiding in. Hope-
fully they weren’t hungry enough to hunt.
— Sasha, recounting her childhood in
A Debt Eternal: The Secret History of Skarras
Some distant cousin of the caute, perhaps. A skulk-
er is heir to none of the caute’s mysteries, but endowed
with stamina and fangs that outclass most city beasts.
They have an unfortunate taste for the flesh of Mar-
tians, though. They are dangerous creatures to leave
alive, but also dangerous creatures to seek out and kill.

ABILITY: WHIRLWIND Traits: Hardy Endurer d10, Fangs to Tear Flesh d8, Non-
chalant Intimidation d8
If given the chance, a sandskin will pour itself into the still
living flesh of any Martian that walks and speaks. Desper- Resolve: d8
ate to have form and voice again, unable to sustain either. Difficulties: To Fight d10, To Escape From d8, To Charm
d8

Beasts of the Water

Fishwife
A cloud of fishwives moved past us, bumping against the
bottom and sides of the canal ship, scorching it slightly with
errant tendrils. And damned if that Roundhead didn’t reach
out for one, ignoring the razorfish pulled to the surface by their
light. He had lungs enough to scream at length as they swarmed
his arm and started pulling him in, and we started pulling him
back. He might live, he was lucky there was a sawbones on the
ship in the first place. But the damage done to his face was quite
extensive, and there was nothing left of the eyes to speak of.
— Excerpts from The Apprentice’s Diary,
in the month of the River
The fishwives light your way in the deepest canals,
luminescent under the waves. And that brightly-col-
ored light can reveal things hiding in the silt below you
that you might prefer not to see, or be seen by. Their
long jelly tendrils leave black burns on the skin, and a
tightness around the heart when you stray too far from
water. But a fishwife is also filled with the silkiest pow-
dery smoke, which, when breathed deeply from one not
quite dead, can speed the mind of an adept past reason, Sailors give a fishwife a wide berth
to let them see things no one else has known.

213
 APPENDIX A: BESTIARY
Traits: Searing Tendrils d10, Adept Tempter d8, Biolumi-
nescence d8
Resolve: d6
Difficulties: To Escape From d8, To Fight d6, To Charm
d6
Lamia
The song of the canals is too deep to hear, except in
your bones and in the pattern of the ripples on the water.
I don’t know to whom they are singing — themselves, or
other lonely serpents, perhaps. But I’m sure it is not I. I’ve
lost more than one sailor to that thrum. One day they up
and swim away, fish and eels parting before them. Perhaps
they’ve finally been lured, only waiting for the serpent’s
jaws to close around them.
— Roya Turhan, Captain, and child of Captains
Few Martians have seen a lamia. Not because they’re
so mindlessly violent as to destroy anyone who might
spot one, or necessarily because they’re rare. Lamia are
just regularly too smart to be caught. Certainly a sleek
scale as long as a Pale Martian’s hand might float by on
the water, or the deep scratches made by some slithering
beast might be heard echoing along the canal. But they
appear to not wish to be found, and take some pains to
avoid those stout-hearted or foolish enough to look for
a sea serpent on purpose. Those that have succeeded
report a creature so long its coils could not be counted,
with a broad face that called to mind a Pale Martian.
Often they are caught while defending a clutch (never
more than two eggs), and the words they whisper while
driving an adventurer away shake one’s teeth with deep
vibrations below hearing. Some sailors believe they are
coming to understand the songs the lamia sing, the low
tones that echo through the caverns, shaking the water
and disrupting navigation. And certainly it is language
of a sort, but not one we’ve learned to speak.
Traits: Elusive Recluse d12, Voice of the Deep d8, Con-
stricting Coils d8
Resolve: d10
Difficulties: To Charm d10, To Fight d8, To Escape From
214
d6
ABILITY: CANAL SONG
The lamia sing, perhaps constantly, in tones too deep for
Martian ears. But the water hears them, and it ripples and
churns to deliver what favors a lamia might ask of it.
ABILITY: STONE SONG
The canals are mapped, as well as they can be, but
maps are unreliable. Roads might snap shut behind a
cargo ship — its sailors drifting in the dark for hours
before reemerging suddenly in another place, the stone
groaning and quavering around them. Sailors are super-
stitious, and blame the lamia.
Lungfish
Practicality is fashionable this year. Little princesses
and lordlings taking knife lessons and learning to fillet a
yummoc. Filling their private water supplies with import-
ed lungfish, as though they weren’t already buying up the
sweetest water. It takes being very rich indeed to make
poverty and risk look so sleek and well-groomed.
— Excerpts from The Apprentice’s Diary,
in the month of the Lost Child
Barely alive, but precious beyond measure, a lung-
fish is a living water filter. Left to their own devic-
es, they can even turn the brackish water that pools
around a glacial melt into sweet, palatable water. Placed
in a cistern, they will slowly eat the soluble minerals
and ancient or exotic bacteria one might find in water
shipped from 1,000 miles away. A lifetime of heavy met-
al consumption makes them appallingly toxic, and too
valuable to risk eating besides.
Traits: Water Cleanser d12, In Demand d8, Mud Hiber-
nator d6
Resolve: d6
Difficulties: To Charm d8
 Beasts of Legend

Beasts of Legend
Blind Snake sky. If it lived at all, its slick fins would slide through
the icy clouds of the north — hunting the ghostly sky
It creaked, shifting dust and rubble off its segmented fish that live there, and haunting the broken First Mar-
body, and roared experimentally, as if trying to remember tian cities that dwell along the edge of the glaciers. The
how it was done. The temple shook around us, and I had shadow cast by a roc foretells ill omens, disease, and
maybe as much as a minute to figure out how to keep us all secret wars. One born under his wing will be a monster
from dying alongside this architecture. or a prophet. A person who could break the world.
— Numbers, in a bit of a pickle
Traits: Silent Flyer d12, Blots Out the Sun d8, Questing Eye d8
A few still live, insofar as their kind does, curled in the
Resolve: d10
bones of the eldest cities. The head of a blind snake could
Difficulties: To Escape From d12, To Fight d8, To Charm d8
comfortably house a Pale Martian, curled up to sleep in a
skull with no eye sockets. And yet they seem to see — track-
ing grave robbers throughout the city complex in which
Tomb Stalker
they have nested, sleepily guarding the gates to treasures
“The call is unmistakable. A high whine will cut the air,
not seen in a millennium. In the meantime, they chase
metal shrieking as it pounds toward our trap. With any luck,
young Martians out of the palaces of their betters. However
we’ll have bought ourselves a few minutes to run past the
massive the rest of a snake’s body might be, they’ve gone
entryway it’s been idling in front of. With less, our distraction
stiff with disuse, and a snake generally chooses not to follow
will fail as soon as it gets within firing range. And no way to
a robber too far outside of their tombs and tabernacles.
tell for sure which it would be until we’re already running.”
Some adventurers believe they don’t truly live. — Zuzuka Yeshvan, a native guide giving a thrill to
That they’re either constructs like the tomb stalkers, some Vancian nobles playing at grave-robbing
or the machine spiders cultivated by the Pale Martians.
Either way, they dream in the stone, eternally listening
for some signal that hasn’t come.

Traits: Seismic Communication d10, Massive Coils d8,

Ancient Guardian d8
Resolve: d8
Difficulties: To Fight d10, To Charm d8, To Escape From d6

Roc
When the world was young, when the world was new
A clouded sky might come when the moon was blue
His strong back carries the Stranger between empty places
His silent wings cover over our faces
Their trackless search leaves no traces
The shadow they cast holds danger, it’s true
May the secret they’re seeking not be about you
— A Children’s Book of Robber Verses
It’s said that the roc carries The Stranger on his
back, even today. And together they watch for the se- A tomb stalker pursues a looter
crets the land offers up when it forgets to fear the open

215
 APPENDIX A: BESTIARY
Tomb stalkers are strange machines that haunt the
Cydonian monuments. Most who encounter a tomb
stalker see it at a distance, or hear its low, keening voice
on the wind.
Tomb stalkers stand at a variety of heights, though
rarely less than three stories tall, on three flexible, metal
limbs. These limbs descend from a ridged, metal head,
from which also dangle a variety of manipulators and
tentacles.
The characteristic rust coloring of the tomb stalk-
er gives credence to the theory these machine-beasts
spend long periods of time lurking beneath the sand.
Their most-feared ability is the death ray, a beam
of light emitted from the stalker’s single, ovoid “eye.”
216
Creatures struck by the death ray are alleged to expe-
rience swift deadening of the nervous system, before
being raised and drained of vital fluids by the stalker’s
tentacles.
Tomb stalkers are the bane of those who raid the
Cydonian temples and graveyards, but whether they are
active guardians, opportunistic predators, or something
else entirely remains a subject for campfire speculation.
Traits: Cyclopean Death Ray d12, Gargantuan Tripod
Legs d8, Subterranean Sand Prowler d8
Resolve: d10
Difficulties: To Fight d12, To Escape From d10
 What you wear tells a story about who you are
now. Your clothes mark you as a mendicant or a run-
away prince or a holy sister at arms, and the people
you pass on the streets of Vance know you by the
things they’ve seen another sister do. It shapes their
expectations of you in subtle ways, and not always
how you’d prefer. Do you dress to create those per-
ceptions, or subvert them? To calm the heart, or fire
it? To pass invisibly, or provoke scrutiny? What you
carry tells another story about who you have been.
Your hands hold the signs of who you’ve chosen to
be. Rough or soft, agile or strong, they offer a truth
about what you value and what you had to do to keep
yourself in bread and water. Do you carry a spear? An
astrolabe? A satchel of herbs and as much of a medi-
cal kit as you can afford?
Together, you begin to have a picture of who you are,
and what happened to bring you to this moment. Pick
an item (or two) that evokes where you’ve been or who
you’ll become, or what you learned while hiding from
a tomb stalker in Chiaro-that-was. Then, decide how
you came by it, and what befell its former owner. After
all, you lived to tell the tale, no matter how unlikely it
seemed at the time. Now both halves of that story are
yours to describe — the victory and the consequences.
To invoke the positive aspect of an item, spend a Drama
Point to gain its Benefit. To invoke the negative aspect,
suffer its Drawback and gain a Drama Point.
Most gear is just what it appears to be. A sword is
often only a sword, a flintlaser only a pistol. But some
items are special, and figure meaningfully into your story.
For gear that is simply itself, consult the following table.

ITEM CLOSE 1+ DISTANCE PARRY/STUNT

Bow 0 3 Parry as Unarmed
Blunt Object 1 (2 if heavy) 0 (thrown) Parry as Unarmed
Dagger 1 1 (thrown) Can be used corps-a-corps
Flintlaser Pistol 1 2 Parry as Unarmed
Polearm/Spear 1 1 (thrown) +1 damage on a Lunge
Staff 1 1 (up to 2 spaces) Move foe 2 spaces instead of one with Shove
Sword 1 0 (thrown) Gain Windfall on successful Riposte
Unarmed 1 n/a 1 Strain per successful Parry against armed foe in Close
Quarters; can be used corps-a-corps
Whip 0 1 (up to 2 spaces) As Unarmed; if used to Disarm, automatically gain foe’s
weapon

217
 APPENDIX B: GEAR
Basic Gear
Clothing
Bone Angel Clasp
A small buckle of bone and iron, carved into the shape
of a six-armed angel.
Benefit: Pin her at your heart, and take even a
dram of solace, wherever it may be found. Reroll a Mis-
fortune die when it comes up a match, and put off doom
for another day.
Drawback: A blessing is only as strong as the faith
of the blessed. If you suffer from a Condition, change a
Misfortune die’s result so that it matches another die.
Ghostly Scarf
the Color of Rain
Soothingly cool, but sturdy against the sand. When
wrapped around a neck, it flutters even where there is no
wind.
Benefit: Shades your eyes from the sun and your
mouth from the ghosts lurking in Mars’s terrible winds.
Discard a Misfortune die associated with a ghost’s ac-
tions.
Drawback: Rain is so rare, and moisture so prized,
that a reminder of Mars’s soft and easy days is often met
with an unkind word. Someone takes offense and picks
a fight.
Jade and Black
Glass Bracelet
Creamy green and smoky scales lazily circling your
arm, each etched with one of Hy’s 77 names.
Benefit: Remember what you have already done in
the sky’s name, something forgotten and strange, and
repeat it. Step an exerted or exhausted Career one die
up (no farther than your maximum die size).
Drawback: It’s a conspicuous choice, to remind those
around you of the secrets you have at your command. You
draw the suspicious scrutiny of a major power here.
218
Leather Sawbones Satchel
A worn, thin case filled with wyeth gum and sphag-
num moss, butterfly tape and laudanum.
Benefit: Most of what an itinerant surgeon might
need to keep body and soul together. Remove up to 2
additional points of Strain when treating a wound as
with the Expert Treatment Talent.
Drawback: But not exactly of the highest quality.
This scalpel was scrubbed dry with sand, that thread
stored soaking in milk of poppy. When you roll a 1 on
your Career die to treat a patient, also inflict the In-
jured condition.
Serpentsilk Shawl
Endless yards of shed salamander skin, woven into a
body-enveloping shawl.
Benefit: Papery and soft to the touch, but sturdy
enough to resist the bone-drying desert wind. Add an
extra d8 to your pools for resisting environmental haz-
ards for the session.
Drawback: A figure shrouded in discarded skin
may look otherworldly in the dusk between cities. In-
human. Exert your Cunning or Grace die.
Food
Heart of Palm Wine
The syrup of life. See how it sweetens, then cheers,
then sours — all in one night.
Benefit: Tap a palm tree and collect its sap. In an
hour, it will have become sweet and syrupy; in two, it
becomes a potent brandy. You drink it while it’s still po-
tent — step any exerted or exhausted Trait one die up
(no farther than your maximum die size).
Drawback: By morning it will have fermented into
a pot of sap so sour even an oleph won’t touch it. You
drink it after it’s gone rotten, subtracting one from your
Speed for the rest of the scene.
 Basic Gear
Sweet Crescent Bread
“Red for the blood our ancestors shed on Mars’s sand,
sweet for love’s embrace, shaped like the moons that soar
in our skies.”
Benefit: Remember that you are a laughing child
of Mars. The product of those who would not lay down
and die just because the world was ending. Step any
exhausted Method back to your maximum die size, and
gain the Melancholy Condition.
Drawback: Remember that life is quick and death
is long, and once upon a time your ancestors also be-
lieved themselves ageless conquerors and everlasting
lovers. Gain the Melancholy Condition and encounter
a ghost before the end of the session.
Wildhoney Tea
Honey gathered from locust nests, steeped with
charcoal to leech out the poisons and insecticides. Brewed
softly with such herbs as a careful witch might harvest
from her own rooftop.
Benefit: See Mars brighter, with crisper lines and
heroics as yet undone. Another sip, another burst of
potential leaping from your fingertips. Step any ex-
hausted die back to your maximum die size, and gain
the Melancholy Condition and 1 point of Strain.
Drawback: Stop, and find yourself crashing against
a wall whose height you can’t imagine. The next time
you would exert a die, exhaust it instead.
Instruments
Aoide
Coffee and honey, baglama and aoide and mando-
lin—voices low and syncopated, whispering in your ear
hours after the cafe doors closed behind you.
Benefit: No love song sounds as pure, no anthem
as patriotic as played across an aiode’s trichord strings.
Feel, and it feels with you, filling the hearts of anyone
who will listen. Remove an Exhausted Condition, or 1
point of Strain.
Drawback: The aoide mourns with you, too. No
heartbreak is more shattering, or failure so clearly fore-
ordained. Take on a Condition that someone in your
audience currently suffers, while that person loses it.
219
Lark’s Tongue
Sing a morning song, a message of daybreak whistling
through a metal pendant
Benefit: If you play it when the moon is high, for
as long as your breath fills the flute, the pale, cool dawn
will hold back the sun. Reduce the Strain caused by an
environmental hazard by 1 for any number of people no
more than one space apart.
Drawback: As soon as you stop, the sky will re-
member, and its heat and light will leap forward to re-
turn to their business. You also take any Strain that an
environmental hazard inflicts on one character adja-
cent to you, for the scene.
Sea Bells
The whispering echo of an ocean storm, trapped in a
red, hollowed-out stone.
Benefit: A sea bell can sense its mother, no matter
how deep underground, and will point you to her. Exert
any career die of d6 or higher to find the direction and
general distance of the nearest water source, as with
Dowsing.
Drawback: A sea bell draws you just as close to all
the other deep desert creatures who crave sweet wa-
ter. All creatures within a few miles can sense you as
though they used Dowsing to find you.
Objects and Tools
Book of Gondola Tickets
Does it matter how I got them? The dockers’ guild
stamp along the spine—just there. Can’t forge that.
Benefit: Close enough to legal tender, and there’s
still half a book left. Gain passage (poor quarters) on a
gondola or canal barge.
Drawback: Don’t let anyone look too close at that
guild stamp…too late. Discard the item.
Ceramic Meles-hair Brush
Fired clay flecked with silica, stuffed with bristles from
a meles too old to till and too homely to stud.
Benefit: A hundred strokes a day to leave your hair
shining and bright, to focus your mind into the arrow
 APPENDIX B: GEAR
that will pierce theirs. An adept can take a basic action
to learn one secret about a non-player character with-
out exerting their career die.
Drawback: Yet years later and people still smell
the dirt of the fields on you. The doors of society re-
main just as closed as they were when you left your
family behind you. Someone learns a secret about your
past that you’d rather hide.
Intarsia Jewelry Box
Intricately carved with designs of small flowers and
deep deserts, wrought in bone and metal.
Benefit: A puzzlebox for small treasures, protected
by a complex interlocking mechanism. As with Hidden
Pockets, store any small item in the box surreptitiously.
Only the owner of the box can open it or detect its
presence.
Drawback: When warmed by your hands, the pat-
terns grow hypnotic and distracting. Long after you put
it down, you long to touch it again, not to open but to
caress. You become obsessed with the box and paranoid
someone will take it from you.
Maiden’s Finger
A delicate multitool, handle engraved with the story
of the Maiden’s crucible. Second sister is shown looking
sharply toward the point of its blade.
Benefit: Sharp and strong, with tools as flexible
as a spider’s leg. Temporarily gain an extra white d10,
which automatically rolls a 10. Once you use it, the
materials or tools it represents are no longer available
for the rest of the scene.
Drawback: Skill is a fine and clever thing, and op-
portunities to use that skill will quickly become their
own reward. Regardless of whether those opportunities
need taking. Temporarily gain an extra white d10. You
can use it as many times as you want in the scene, but
each time you do, the GM gains a Misfortune die.
Missal of
the Witch’s Cradle
When her city began to smoke and burn, the Witch
hid her child in a cradle of glass and sweet reeds, burying
them in the hollow of a wyeth tree.
220
Benefit: Know the days of the Witch’s masses, and
know the way to spin a hiding place from glass and
shadow. To wrap the world around the secret that is
yourself. Exert a career die of d8 or higher to be com-
pletely unnoticed for a scene.
Drawback: The Witch’s child was never found.
The character finds herself unnoticed for a scene when
she doesn’t want to be.
Photinus Lamp
Painted inside with lucem ferre, carved into the shape
of a beetle on a string.
Benefit: Adjust the wings to light your way. The
barest tick to read by, two wings to flood a room. Gain
a bonus d8 to your pools for the rest of the scene when
observing or navigating a darkened environment. This
light cannot be extinguished by an adept.
Drawback: Lots of things are drawn to a light in
the darkness. You encounter a threat that wouldn’t
have found you otherwise.
Weapons
Cold and Glittering Knife
Three finger-lengths of icy bone, edged with glass
harvested from the Prismatic Wastes.
Benefit: Nothing cuts more silently than a glass knife,
and the poised cat carved into its blade catches the blood
that might mark a killer’s hands. Inflict 1 extra Strain on
the target of your choice at the Break of a combat. This
Strain cannot be removed until the next session.
Drawback: The marks left by a glass blade glisten
unhealthily in the sunlight. A strike that doesn’t kill
will never heal, slowly poisoning the blood. You gain a
rival dead-set on vengeance.
Hide and Horn Bow
A long, thin antler — bent to fit a Pale Martian arm
and strung with a dark red hide, supple with use.
Benefit: To train an archer, begin while her grand-
mother is an egg. Bend a bow that her daughter will
wield. No arrow flies so far as legacy. Whenever you
aim for the rest of this combat, add an extra Strike die
to your pool.
 Basic Gear
Drawback: You carry a bow for everyone but your-
self, and have nonetheless devoted your life to it. Gain
the Vengeful Condition, focused on someone you love.
Lathed Whip
Two meters of tanned yummoc hide, barbed with Sur-
tur-forged steel, grown heavy and lithe with use.
Benefit: The whip that drove the Lost Child’s fa-
ther across the wastes as he stained Martian sand red.
After a successful Strike, draw your target into close
range and inflict an additional 1 strain for every turn
you are entangled together. You cannot use parry dice
while entangled.
Drawback: Every strike of the lathed whip must
draw blood. And the longer it lays in your hands, the
easier that will seem. Next time you want to inflict a
Condition other than Injured, it becomes Injured in-
stead.
Sister’s Flintlaser Pistol
Before she left home, she pressed her old gun into your
hands. “For luck.”
Benefit: Even the nicks where bone met blade have
been worn smooth, and her careful hands kept it in per-
fect order. Spend an action observing a fight through
the pistol’s sight, then narrate a fact about the scene or
a non-player character in it. For the rest of the scene,
add a Stunt die to your pool on any actions that refer-
ence that fact.
Drawback: Wherever she went, a pistol was not
enough to protect her. You can’t take up any Parry dice
as long as you wield this weapon for the rest of the
scene.
221
Two Feet Standing
A beaten-ore hand and a half sword, gray and pale
and stark as the glaciers. Circling the pommel, an enamel
painting of a Zaiu feast day.
Benefit: Carry yourselves first on the backs of your
family’s dreams for you, then on your teacher’s, then on
your own. Your success is their safety. Their love is your
shield. Reroll one Parry die, and take the better result.
Drawback: How can your achievements really be
your own, when every stroke of your blade is for them?
Reroll one Parry die, and take the worse result.
Nephrite Dagger
Heavy and sharper than a cruel word, with a handle
carved in the shape of a roaring machaira.
Benefit: An ostentatious blade, to remind its target
of who its owner is, and what they might get away with
doing. Redirect the consequences of a matched Misfor-
tune die to someone else.
Drawback: A blade to be recognized, and remem-
bered. A signature for any actions its owner might take.
Someone spots you with the weapon and realizes she
owes you vengeance for a past deed.
Wolf Spider Rifle
A bolt-action rifle with a kick that’ll give you cause for
second thoughts. Rounds that’ll knock straight through the
carapace of a desert spider, and annoy a locust away from
a soft target.
Benefit: Not many guns that will put a spider pack
off their prey, or rap firmly enough on the chitin of a
locust for it to even notice. When you aim and success-
fully hit, move your target one space as with the Shove
maneuver.
Drawback: Getting a locust to notice something
else means, of course, that it’s noticed you. Every ene-
my that can do so attacks you next round.
 APPENDIX B: GEAR
Rarities
Clothing
Brooch of
the Damsel Messiah
A radium-flecked triptych showing the Damsel Messi-
ah rejecting, then binding an elder serpent, before stepping
onto her throne in Hy-Brasil.
Benefit: The damsel withstood temptation, look-
ing down upon the kingdoms of Mars, and turned her
tempter into her servant. Stand firm against any who
might influence you, and put them under your heel. For
the rest of the scene, ignore any attempt to influence
your perception or beliefs, either verbally or supernatu-
rally. Your mind cannot be read by an adept.
Drawback: A demon underfoot may serve, but
they do not stop being a demon. You become overcon-
fident and allow someone to automatically succeed at
one action to influence your perception or beliefs.
Caute Fur Cloak
Dappled red and gold and gray as the desert sand,
warm at night and cool during the day. A cloak that gives
your eyes the faintest cast of blue.
Benefit: Snug in your cloak, shielded from the dust
around you, know that you are protected even as the
storm rages. Ignore any environmental hazard.
Drawback: Cautes may quarrel amongst them-
selves, but do not take kindly to the loss of a single hair
on the head of even one kitten. Nor is a ghost (when
looking for an acquaintance who went missing) in-
clined to be forgiving. You encounter an angry caute or
ghost — or both — who has a bone to pick with you.
Anchorite’s Veil
Turn your eyes ever inward. See only the path stretch-
ing out in your mind, and with every step your grasp will
strengthen, your reach extend.
Benefit: Adepts see a different world, and move it
in secret ways. Close your eyes and study that which
you find within. Then, without those distractions, you’ll
find yourself unfettered by distance, unflagging in pow-
222
er. Fully refresh an exerted or exhausted Career die.
The first time you use any non-adept Career Talent af-
terward, pay its cost twice — exert a die twice instead of
once, use two Stunt dice instead of one, etc.
Drawback: Wall yourself into your mind, and you
may never find your way out. Your body might burn,
but your mind would ever remain. You can’t use any
non-adept Career Talent for the rest of the session.
Food
Winnowgrass
You could eat it. When the grass grows only in dry
patches along the edge of a hollowed-out glacier. When the
aepys is terrified and the oleph exhausted. When you can’t
remember the last time food passed your lips.
Benefit: At that moment, winnowgrass will keep
you alive. Filling and nutritious, and so close to the
edge of the world you don’t have many choices. The
dreams are passing strange, though. Replace the Ex-
hausted or Injured condition with Melancholy, and gain
a d8 against environmental hazards for the rest of the
scene. Gain 1 Strain, which cannot be healed until the
end of the next session.
Drawback: But perhaps you would have been bet-
ter to eat the pack animals instead. Gain 1 Strain, which
cannot be healed until the end of the next session, and
suffer distracting hallucinations until it’s healed.
Instruments
Wyeth Harp
A singing bowl shaped from the bow of a wyeth hus-
band, strung across with crystalline wire, inlaid with black
and shining shell.
Benefit: Hear a song of plenty, of companionship,
and never feel alone. Hear the song of your ancestors
rustling in the trees. Remove any Condition.
Drawback: Hear a song of eternal industry, of sis-
ters upon sisters, and never a moment of solitude. Hear
the song of not even a soul to call your own. Temporar-
ily replace one of your Traits among Origin, Careers,
 R arities
or Relationships with a Trait that belongs to another
character (player or non-player) with a die size equal to
or lower than yours, for the session.
Seven Cresting Waves
A bone flute forever cold to the touch, smelling of
seawater, carved with crashing waves.
Benefit: When the oceans were young, the ca-
nals sang this song in their hollow throats and waves
crashed on their shores. Raise the levels of the canal
you are traveling, and change the direction of its wa-
ters, for the scene.
Drawback: Call the river and call the flood. A ris-
ing tide carries upward all the creatures that slept in
the silt below your barge and your feet. You encounter
multiple subaqueous threats that you otherwise would
have avoided.
Wooden Drum, Inlaid with
Silver Stars
Feel the heart of the forest beating under your palm,
feel your mind opening to the sky, feel the stars falling in.
Benefit: Lose yourself in a rhythm the tombak
draws out of you, and see the stars clearly in your mind.
Know, while you’re playing, the fates those stars predict.
Divine the future, treating your Astrology Career die as
a d12 for the duration of the scene.
Drawback: To open your mind to the stars draws
their attention to you as well. You might find yourself
with more of a destiny than is strictly healthy. Gain two
destiny dice as though you had failed a ritual divination.
Objects and Tools
A Spoke From
The Wind’s Saddle
“Of course, of course, the chariot shattered to pieces
in the ancient mariner’s ride. There couldn’t be fragments
around today. Yet watch it hover in your hand, see it point
toward the Labyrinth of Night.”
Benefit: A fragment of petrified wood that seems
to catch in the air, floating, dragging you slightly with
every step. And pointing unerringly toward the valley
where it was once buried. Orient yourself unerringly
toward the Labyrinth of Night. Reduce the time spent
223
traveling towards the Labyrinth by half, and double the
time spent traveling away.
Drawback: Whatever is drawing the spoke back
toward the labyrinth is unlikely to be friendly to the one
who bears the spoke when it arrives. As above, but as
soon as you arrive, a threat makes itself known, and you
can’t leave until you’ve dealt with it.
Clockwork Heart
See it hiss with steam as a doctor with stained black
fingers maneuvers it into place. See the blood thicken and
turn oily as it passes through. See it beat. See your lover
breathe again.
Benefit: A purring heart to take the place of a flesh
one. Carefully wound and cunningly made, so close and
yet so unlike the heart that it replaced. Move from a
Presumed Dead Condition to Injured, or Injured to Ex-
hausted. If you would be Taken Out of a combat scene
during the session when you activate this Benefit, you
cannot choose to stay down. After you gain your first
Condition, get back up and rejoin the battle until you
gain a second one or the scene ends.
Drawback: Driven by breath, it will beat in their
chest, though for how long who can say. A year, perhaps,
or 20? A lifetime, perhaps, or too many? If you would be
Taken Out of a combat scene during the session when
you activate this Drawback, you cannot choose to stay
down, no matter how many times they beat you. Each
time you gain a Condition, get back up and rejoin the
battle until the scene ends.
Map of the Heavens
(Stationary)
Golden and glass and glimmering in the heat of Eos,
locked behind a hundred crystal doors, is a star chart that
can change the course of the heavens.
Benefit: With a careful hand, you can change the
shape of someone’s fate — change the face of their des-
tiny.
Drawback: The future isn’t fixed, exactly, but
prophecy won’t be dissuaded by the mere passage of
time. After all, a hard eye and a quick temper might
mellow, but how many Martians do you know who have
ever truly changed the ways of their heart?
Both effects are narrative, and should be discussed
among players. A player or non-player character cannot
 APPENDIX B: GEAR
be directly killed or brought back to life with the Map,
but a future fate can be accelerated, postponed, or mod-
ified (with player permission).
Weapons
Echidna’s Tooth
A backsword made from the eye tooth of a canal
lamia, carved in the shape of a rearing serpent.
Benefit: Echidna’s teeth are sharp enough to cut
the tether between a soul and its body, between a shad-
ow and the floor. Strike a blow that never heals, dealing
1 permanent Strain to the target.
Drawback: That which Echidna puts asunder can
never be joined again. Strike a blow that puts your foe
closer to the threshold of death — when you inflict any
Strain and activate this Drawback, your enemy learns
the secret of how you will die if events proceed along
the path they’re on.
Opening of the Way
Cut away the flesh, and you are left with a body. Cut
away the falsehood, and you are left with the truth. That is
the way of the swordsman, to kill even words.
Benefit: Open the path for a new truth by cleansing
the world of an old one. Empty the stage of players, and
sweep it clean. Automatically succeed at killing a per-
son or destroying something of value with this sword.
Then, roll a basic action For Honor against yourself, For
Self. Add a difficulty die to the second roll based on the
total Strain you have inflicted on player and non-player
characters this session: 0-1, d6; 2-3, d8; 4-5, d10; 6+,
d12. If the first roll fails, immediately inflict the Injured
Condition on any player or non-player character in
your vicinity.
224
Drawback: Murderer will be the nicest thing they
call you, when your exploits come to light. For the rest
of the session, exert your highest current Motivation by
one die at the end of every scene in which you don’t kill
or destroy something with this blade. Traits exerted this
way don’t refresh until the end of the next session.
Staff of Life
Cut from young, still-green wood and cured under the
desert sun. It’s been known to bloom when touched by rain
and live water.
Benefit: The staff has broken many bones, but nev-
er taken a life. And it falters, bending away from any le-
thal strike you might make. When coercion or a super-
natural ability would force you to hurt or kill someone,
you automatically resist the effect.
Drawback: It can’t be held peacefully by someone
who tries to kill. After every blow, it turns a little in your
hands. For the rest of the session, you suffer one Strain
for each Strain you inflict.
Ten Devils Caught
A hollow bone blade hot as breath, humming faintly in
its sheath like voices shouting from far away.
Benefit: To be struck is to smolder from the inside,
the wound packed full of embers and the feeling of 100
hands reaching into your flesh. On a successful attack,
you inflict 3 extra Strain to a target. That Strain cannot
be healed by rest.
Drawback: The blade that holds them is cracking,
oh so slightly, along the fuller. When unsheathed, cin-
ders flick out, scorching the length of the fracture. Dev-
ils, once caught, do not stay caught forever. When you
suffer any Strain from an attack, you take 3 additional
Strain, which cannot be healed by rest.
 Buildin g Your Own
Building Your Own
We can’t, of course, encompass the breadth of Mar-
tian life. So here are some guidelines for coming up with
your own items. When creating a new piece of gear,
start by describing the object. How does it look, smell,
or feel in the hand?
For example:
• Rough-hewn stone blade
• Cold silver torq, showing a roc in flight
• Clean, freshly-transcribed hymnal
Then, describe in story terms how the object can be
used to help you.
For example:
• Stability and persistence of purpose can over-
come more obstacles than clever blades.
• The roc carries the Stranger on his back across
the empty places of the world, learning the secret
things that settled folk forget to see.
• The 900 names of gods and angels, in crisp new
calligraphy, waiting to be sung to the faithful and
faithless alike.
And how the object could be used against you.
For example:
• Persistence can easily become unwieldy force,
and stability — a blunt tool that goes unsharp-
ened.
• No one is glad to learn that a stranger knows
them, particularly the homeless wanderer who is
born under the Stranger’s sign.
• Mars is stuffed full of gods, and everyone’s got a
favorite. To sing anyone’s name is to invite spirit-
ed debate on whose is superior.
Finally, devise unique mechanics that embody the
Benefit and Drawback you’ve described. Draw a practi-
cal power from the narrative effects by considering how
the Benefit might specifically help the player in a scene
225
or session, and create a downside by considering how
the item can make your character’s life more compli-
cated in an interesting way. If the Benefit is powerful or
provides a climactic turnaround, the Drawback should
be equally powerful or climactic. Particularly devastat-
ing or complex Benefits may come with downsides of
their own to fully express the story of the item — in
cases like this, you can make the Drawback the other
side of that coin by borrowing that downside and then
building upon it.
Remember that Benefits and Drawbacks are a ma-
jor part of the Drama Point economy, so their effects
should reflect the kinds of dramatic situations you want
your character to get into.
For example:
• Benefit: Turn one Parry die into a Strike die af-
ter dice are rolled. Drawback: Turn one Parry die
into a d8 before dice are rolled.
• Benefit: Exert any Career die to learn a secret
about a player or non-player character, as with
Telepathy. Gain a d6 to use this secret against
them for the duration of this scene. Drawback:
Someone knows you possess the roc’s eye, and
vows to pry what you know from your mind.
• Benefit: In a scene with an audience, reroll a
Motivation die and take the better result. Draw-
back: In a scene with an audience, reroll a Moti-
vation die and take the worse result.
Fixers can further modify gear with temporary up-
grades, special abilities, and the like. If your character
is a fixer, you can use the fixing system (p. 33) to alter
items after you’ve built them using these guidelines.
By default, the Benefit and Drawback of a piece of
gear that a character picks up along his travels aren’t
readily apparent. Fixers and psychometers can use their
abilities to glean these easily. Others must spend time
and effort to draw the knowledge forth with trial and
error, research the item in a forgotten tome, or seek out
someone who knows more about it.
 Cavaliers of Mars takes its inspiration from pulp
fantasy and historical fiction. Some sources are more
romantic, others more exotic, and all thrilling.
Fantasy
The Adventures of Eric John Stark, by Leigh Brackett
Brackett depicts an ancient Mars of crumbling tow-
ers and forgotten horrors beneath the ice. Her hero,
Eric John Stark, is a hardboiled barbarian, a mercenary
who’d make a great Cavaliers protagonist. Brackett’s
Mars often seems haunted, with its strange talismans
and sinister ruins...a feeling appropriate to exploring
the world of Cavaliers of Mars.
All of Stark’s adventures are good inspiration, but
the most influential on this book are “Black Amazon of
Mars” and “The Secret of Sinharat.” Recent editions of
most of the Stark stories are available from Paizo Pub-
lishing.
The Adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser,
by Fritz Leiber
Leiber’s stories of wandering swordsmen and exotic
metropoles are perfect models for Cavaliers adventures.
Particularly consider some of the lesser-known stories
like “Claws from the Night,” which feature exotic crea-
tures and customs, as well as bizarre cults. “Claws from
the Night” also dwells on the city of Lankhmar’s skyline
of shattered temples, an image very appropriate to Mars.
Also have a look at Adept’s Gambit, an early novella about
strange curses and a journey into the eerie unknown.
The two heroes’ adventures also rely on wry hu-
mor and perverse circumstance, particularly as the se-
ries goes on. In playing roleplaying games, the former
226
element tends to happen on its own, and the latter is
a good technique to consider when planning your ses-
sions, whether as player or GM.
Lankhmar, as a setting, has been adapted for role-
playing games many times. TSR’s Lankhmar: City of
Adventure, by Bruce Nesmith, Douglas Niles, and Ken
Rolston, is one of the best sandbox-style city books ever
produced for gaming. Mongoose’s Lankhmar and Nehwon
supplements, by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, hew close to
the bleaker tone of the early stories. Finally, Pinnacle’s
Lankhmar line includes a very adaptable book of adven-
tures called Savage Tales of the Thieves’ Guild.
Dictionary of Mu, by Judd Karlman
A supplement for the Sorcerer roleplaying game by
Ron Edwards, Karlman’s epic presents a sweeping vision of
Marr’d, a parched and desolate planet. Dictionary is equal
parts the Hebrew Bible and Robert E. Howard’s Conan,
yet wholly remade by Karlman’s unrestrained imagination.
Here you’ll find witch kings with legions of scheming brides
and grooms, gray aliens plotting their escape from slavery,
and the Damsel Messiah herself, savior of mythic Hy-Brasil.
Dictionary of Mu was another early influence on
Cavaliers of Mars, and by twists and turns of desti-
ny (and Judd’s gracious permission), you’ll find a few
echoes of Marr’d upon our Mars.
The Dying Earth, by Jack Vance
Vance’s first Dying Earth anthology is, with the ex-
ception of the overt sorcery, about exactly the kind of
characters and locations we’d expect from Cavaliers of
Mars, though some of the protagonists aren’t appropri-
ate player characters. His description of the city of Kai-
in in “Turjan of Miir” could readily be Vance or Zodiac.
 fantasy | Historical Fiction
It was night in white-walled Kaiin, and festival
time. Orange lanterns floated in the air, moving as
the breeze took them. From the balconies dangled
flower chains and cages of blue fireflies. The streets
surged with the wine-flushed populace, costumed in
a multitude of bizarre modes. Here was a Melantine
bargeman, here a warrior of Valdaran’s Green Le-
gion, here another of ancient times wearing one of
the old helmets. In a little cleared space, a garlanded
courtesan of the Kauchique littoral danced the Dance
of the Fourteen Silken Movements to the music of
flutes. In the shadow of a balcony a girl barbarian
of East Almery embraced a man blackened and in
leather harness as a Deodand of the forest. They were
gay, these people of waning Earth, feverishly merry,
for infinite night was close at hand, when the red sun
should finally flicker and go black.
The sequel, The Eyes of the Overworld, follows trav-
eling ne’er-do-well Cugel the Clever, who might make
a diverting antagonist for a Cavaliers game.
The roleplaying game of the same name, from Pel-
grane Press, is also excellent and has a number of sup-
plements that can be raided for your own game.
The Manuscript Found in Saragossa, by Jan Potocki
Retell The Eyes of the Overworld by way of The Turn of
the Screw and you’ll get this picaresque adventure novel,
except that it vastly predates either one. Potocki’s novel
is an exercise in just how tangled together a lot of seem-
ingly-separate adventures can get, the kind of crazy quilt
a Mars full of scoundrels and heroes might actually be.
Perhaps the thing it does best is tell a story about
deeply superstitious characters suffering strange events
without the author making a clear statement on whether
their beliefs have a basis in fact. That’s a strong compo-
nent of Cavaliers of Mars, where you’ll tell the stories of
a superstitious people who may or may not be right.
The Martian Romances of Edgar Rice Burroughs
Burroughs invented planetary romance. A Princess
of Mars and its sequels are an unending parade of thrill-
ing action and encounters with strange beasts. Bur-
roughs’ fantastical creatures are his greatest (though
not only) influence on the present work, conjuring as
they do thoughts of entire unearthly ecosystems.
Zothique, by Clark Ashton Smith
Smith set his most memorable adventures on
Zothique, the last continent in the world’s last age. He
was a poet as well as a fiction writer, and it shows in his
227
ornate and exotic language. He’s a great influence for
atmosphere, and originated the idea of the end of the
world as something long, melancholy, and a bit roman-
tic, rather than apocalyptic.
My personal favorite Zothique tale is “Morthylla,”
a love story that blurs the line between hungry ghosts
and living outsiders.
Historical Fiction
Captain Alatriste, by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
Pérez-Reverte’s Madrid is a city of intrigue and gos-
sip, power and violence. It’s a city in a Golden Age...
but, as the narrator notes in Purity of Blood, the com-
mon people see very little of that gold.
The titular Diego Alatriste, hardboiled swashbuck-
ler, is an ideal Cavaliers of Mars protagonist. So is his
enemy, the cruel Italian swordsman Gualterio Malates-
ta. The translated novel and its sequels are full of won-
derful passages like this:
Truces from his adversaries, like periods of pros-
perity, were brief for this singular man, the hobgoblin
of his enemies and the delight of his friends, who one
moment might be mingling with nobles and scholars
and the next scrabbling in his purse for the last mara-
vedi. Changes of fortune... which so loves to change,
and almost never for the better.
As with most of this list, the whole series is worth
reading. After the eponymous first book, have a look at
Purity of Blood and The Cavalier in the Yellow Doublet.
We’ve heard good things about the Spanish role-
playing game based on the series, but haven’t been able
to read it ourselves.
The D’Artagnan Romances, by Alexandre Dumas
The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron
Mask are the best-known in this series, but all are
worth reading. Dumas’ characters, while often easy to
cheer for, are rough-edged and often as put upon by
their loyalties as they are uplifted by them. But more
than that, Dumas is on this list because he defined the
villains of the swashbuckler. It’s hard to envision the
genre without its Cardinal Richelieus and Milady de
Winters.
Another Dumas novel featuring Cardinal Riche-
lieu, The Red Sphinx, was recently retranslated into En-
glish by Lawrence Ellsworth.
 APPENDIX C: INSPIRATION

A NOTE ON CONTENT
Much of the media suggested here is older and has politics that are disturbing by modern standards, par-
ticularly with regard to gender and race. We recommend approaching these sources with a critical eye.

The Dictionary of the Khazars, by Milorad Pavic
This might actually belong in the fantasy section.
Like Gentleman of the Road, below, it concerns the
mysterious kingdom of the Khazars, about whom we
know very little. Pavic’s book, however, is substantially
stranger and more exotic than Chabon’s. Take this pas-
sage, describing a princess:
At night, she wore a single letter on each eyelid,
inscribed as are those put on the eyelids of horses
before a race. The letters came from the proscribed
Khazar alphabet, in which each letter kills as soon
as it is read. Blind men wrote them, and the la-
dies-in-waiting shut their eyes when they attended to
the princess in the morning, before her bath. Thus,
she was protected from her enemies while she slept.
Such customs would fit the aristocracy of the Red
Martians well, and who’s to say there aren’t First Mar-
tian or Cydonian glyphs that could kill even as they’re
mirrored in the mind’s eye?
Gentlemen of the Road, by Michael Chabon
This novel follows two adventurers in an Eastern
European kingdom where “a Jew’s worth was measured
by his steel.” Chabon creates a distinct historical place...
while at the same time making it a place outside our
understanding of history. The result is simultaneously
grounded and fantastic.
Gentlemen of the Road is also good gaming inspi-
ration for many of the same reasons as Leiber’s sword
tales, which strongly influenced it.
Goddess, by Kelly Gardiner
A fictional biography of real-life swashbuckler and
opera star Julie d’Aubigny, Goddess styles itself as the
confessions of a dying woman…but one who’s hardly
repentant. The result is an alternately dashing and mel-
ancholy whirlwind of a novel, spanning love affairs, re-
bellion, and fame. The way Gardiner writes d’Aubigny’s
look back has very much the same feeling as our look at
the last days of Mars.
D’Aubigny herself was a major influence on Cava-
liers of Mars, and it’s worth looking up more flamboy-
ant accounts of her life online.
Royal Flash, by George MacDonald Fraser
The Prisoner of Zenda as retold by cowardly and un-
lucky Victorian scoundrel Harry Flashman...who can’t
seem to help coming out as the hero. Flashman is a bit
of a swashbuckler, but has more than a little in common
with Cugel the Clever. Flashman could be a Cavaliers
of Mars protagonist, but also consider Rudi von Stern-
berg, the murderous sellsword, whom we’ve adapted as
a Martian villain multiple times.

228
 Index

A Hazards 76
Hooks 75-76
Career 43
Invisible Blade 53
Action 8, 20 Locations 75-79 Slip the Knife Deeper 53
Basic 20-21, 26 Market 75 Taste of Poison 53
Exceptional 22 Machine 79-80 Astrologer 14, 31, 32, 41, 43, 69,
Failed 21 Origins 34-35 98, 180
Misfortune 21 Purple Light 76-77 Arbiter. See Arbiter
Non-Player Character Points 26 Aoide Foreordained, 53
Successful 20-21 Benefit 219 Master 53
Windfall 20-21 Drawback 219 Portents 54
Adept 31, 105, 169, 213, 220, 222 Arbiter 43, 46, 69, 70, 135 Quick Read 54
Career 42-43 Arcadia 108, 111, 142, 143, 154, Astrology 32-33
Dowsing 53 175, 176, 208 Arbiter. See Arbiter
Psychometric Master 53 Devontine Clan 155, 158 Zodiac 69-70
Telekinetic Control 53 Excavations 158-160 Atai Monastery 89
Windspeaking 53 Generous Hagatha 155, 156 Characters 90
Adept Arts Memory of Waves 155, 156, 160- Hazards 90
Psychometry 31, 53 162 Hooks 89-90
Telekinesis 31-32, 53 Sandfish Cult 155 Atmosphere Processor, The 130-131,
Telepathy 32 Shanties 155-157 142
Alhaz 176 Arena Characters 132
Almeida 93 Characters 78 Hazards 132
Characters 95 Hazards 78 Hooks 131

B
Hazards 95-96 Hooks 77-78
Hooks 94-95 Armonica Canyon 169-170
Anchorite’s Veil Characters 170 Battlehymn 71, 80
Benefit 222 Hazards 170 Church of the Damsel Messiah. See
Drawback 222 Hooks 170 Church of the Damsel Messiah
Ancient Mariner 46-47 Sites 169-170 Damsel’s Tomb 82-83
Anger 65, 75, 106, 108, 209 Arsia the Maiden 175 Locations 80-83
Arena 77-78 Ascraeus the Matriarch 175 Matriarch 71, 80
Characters 76 Assassin 43, 50, 125, 149 North Side Canal 81-82
Bleeding Cut 53 Origins 35
229
 CAVALIERS OF MARS

South Side Slums 82 Blue Oculus 153 Cavalier 8, 16, 27, 43, 44, 60, 121,
Temple of the Voice 80-81 Blue Pyramid 152 206
Beasts of Burden Bone Angel Clasp Fast Footwork 54
Aepys 60, 86, 196-197, 200, 202, Benefit 218 Flashing Blades 54
210 Drawback 218 Mounted Combatant 54
Flying Terro 16, 43 Bone Annals 145, 148 Cave of the Hyaline Mother
Horus 43, 60 197 Characters 145, 148 Characters 167
Oleph 60, 145, 197-198 Hazards 148 Hazards 167-169
Ostoro 16 Hooks 145 Hooks 167
Razok 198 Book of Gondola Tickets Ceramic Meles-hair Brush
Yummoc 66, 88, 198, 221 Benefit 219 Benefit 219-220
Beasts of Cities and Regions. See Drawback, 219 Drawback 220
Chiaro Beasts; Illium Beasts; Skarras Challenges 29-30
Brooch of the Damsel Messiah
Beasts; Pale Martian Beasts; Surtur
Benefit 222 Damage 30
Beasts; Vance Beasts
Drawback 222 Parry Level 30
Beasts of the Desert
Rating 30
Caute (Ghost Cat) 200, 208, 213,
222 C Strike Level 30
Ghosts 37, 38, 74, 93, 98, 107, 152, Career 24 Change 23
178, 200-201 Improvement 23 Character Creation 24-25
Machaira 60, 202, 206 Talents 21, 53-57 Example 25
Weasels 202 Careers 20, 42-50 Personagenesis Machine 180-186
Beasts of Legend Adept 42-43 Characters 20
Blind Snake 215 Assassin 43 Chiaro 13, 16-17, 35, 207, 209
Roc 215, 225 Astrologer 43 Cloister of the Blind Saint 84-85
Tomb Stalker 17, 84, 87, 130, 160, Cavalier 43, 44 Elders Council 83
215-216, 217 Ice Caravan Camp 86-87
Courtesan 43, 44
Beasts of the Wastes Locations 16-17, 83-88
Entertainer 44
Jackal 199, 205 Ruptured Atmosphere Processor 85-
Fixer 33-34, 45
Scorpion King 205, 206 86
Laborer 45-46
Steppes Locust 203, 206, 219, 221 Tomb Valleys 8, 87-88
Merchant 45, 46
Ursavas 17, 206, 209 Chiaro-that-is 16-17, 35, 84, 86
Noble 46, 47
Beasts of the Water Chiaro-that-was 16-17, 33, 35, 83-
Physician 46, 47
Fishwife 213-214 84, 87, 130, 217
Pilot 46-47
Lamia 214 Chits 13
Priest 47, 48
Lungfish 214 Chromat 165, 166, 169
Scavenger 48
Beasts of the Wood Church of the Damsel Messiah 35,
Scholar 48-49 62, 70-71, 80
Cerana 203
Servant 49 Cimmeria 36, 63, 88, 114, 171
Fagun Bug 203
Soldier 49, 50 Atai Monastery 89-90
Ikkun Parasite (Deephome) 203
Thief 49, 50 Fibonacci Knot 90-91
Miyuk 204
Carven Skyward Faces 87 Forest of Corpses 91-92
Naruk 204
Caute Fur Cloak Locations 88-92
Wyeth Deer 145, 204-205
Benefit 222 Qinon Palace 88-89
Blackglass 169
Drawback 222 Cities. See specific cities.
230
 Index

Clockwork Bees 18 Break 27 Hazards 149

D
Clockwork Heart Clash of Steel 26
Benefit 223 Taking Up Dice 26
Drawback 223 Combat Talents Damsel, 70-71
Cloister of the Blind Saint Non-Player Character. See Non-Play- Damsel’s Tomb, 82
Characters 85 er Character: Combat Talents Characters 83
Hazards 85 Combo Talents 29 Hazards 83
Hooks 84-85 Conditions 23 Hooks 83
Clothing and Jewelry Exhausted 23 Dangling Raster
Anchorite’s Veil 222 In Love 23 Characters 172
Bone Angel Clasp 218 Injured 23, 26 Hazards 172
Brooch of the Damsel Messiah 222 Melancholy 23 Hooks 171
Caute Fur Cloak 222 Presumed Dead 23, 26 Sites 171-172
Ghostly Scarf the Color of Rain 218 Trapped 23 Deephome 129
Jade and Black Glass Bracelet 218 Vengeful 23 Characters 130
Leather Sawbones Satchel 218 Conflict 8, 26 Hazards 130
Cold and Glittering Knife Consequences, Lasting. See Lasting Hooks 129-130
Consequences
Benefit 220 Ikkun Parasite 203-204
Coronal 36-37, 92-93
Drawback 220 Deimos 152
Almeida 94-95
Combat 26-27 Forges 16
Locations 92-98
Actions 20-21. See also Actions Lance 104
Riberia Fogo 96-97
Dice Pools 26 DEIMOS System, 20
Vale 97-98
Example 27-28 Delphic Square
Xeta Geyser, 93-94
Non-Player Character 25-26, Characters 99
58 Courtesan 8, 43-44, 142, 227
Hazards 99-100
Rally 22 Accepted Everywhere 54
Hooks, 99
Round, 26 Importance of Ceremony 54
Desert 12-13
Second Wind 22 Seduction 54
Brigands 12
Strain. See Strain Whispered Secrets 54
Towns, 12
Unarmed 29 Crystal Palace 106, 107, 108
Devontine Clan 155, 158
Weapons. See Weapons Cults, Mystery. See Mystery Cults
Devotion 154, 155, 160
Combat Maneuvers, 28-29 Cunning Talents 51
Dice 8, 20-21
Disarm 28 Always a Way Out 51
Bonus 26
Draw corps-a-corps 28 Bribery 51
Misfortune 21
Feint 28 Cheat 51
Parry 27-27
Lunge 29 Disguise 51
Resolve Roll 22
Mastery 23 Hidden pockets 51
Scenery 30
Parry 28 Improvised tools 51
Strike, 26-27
Riposte 29 Lawyer 51
Stunt 26
Shove 29 Vouchsafe 51
Windfall 20-21
Strike 28 Cycnus
Disaster 22
Sweep Attack 29 Characters 149
Dolos (Zodiac’s brother) 70
Combat Round 26 Hooks 148-149

231
 CAVALIERS OF MARS

Drama Points 8, 22
Gaining 23
F Location 98-102
West Horn Gate Machine Service En-
Spending 22 Fellowship of Futility 150 trance 101-102
Dread 171 Ferma Forest of Corpses
13th feed. See Gallow’s End Characters 111 Characters 92
Dredge 123-124 Hazards 111 Hazards 92
Characters 124 Hooks 110 Hooks 91-92
Hazards 124 Fibonacci Knot Fortress Invincible
Hooks 124 Characters 91 Characters 103
Drifting Ruin. See Cycnus Hazards 91 Hazards 103-104
Dusk Cities 17 Hooks 90-91 Hooks 102-103
Dust Storms 12, 13 Field of Farewell 149 Fourier Spire 68, 74
Dust Towns 41 Fire Priests 46, 65, 71, 116 Free Trait Improvement 23
First Forge 71 Friends
E Characters 116-117 Eora 196, 199, 200, 210
Earth 13 Hooks 116 Meles 199-200, 219
Echidna’s Tooth, 224 Hazards 117 Singing Spider, 200

G
Benefit 224 First Martians 8, 14, 62, 71
Drawback 224 Automatons 164
Entertainer 44 Chiaro 17 Gallow’s End 151
Distraction 54 Foresight 98 Characters 152
Impressive Physique 54 Canals 13 Hazards 152-153
Inspiration 54 Fixer 33-34, 45 Hooks 152
Keeping Up with the News 54 Cobble Together 55 Game Master (GM) 8
Eos Towers 18 Director 55 Actions 20
Equipment I Made It, I Know How It Works 55 Adventures: The Tribulation Engine
Mastercrafter 55 186-187
Benefit Effect 22
Food Break 34
Drawback Side 22
Heart of Palm Wine 218 Calculated Risk 34
Eu of the Seven Yellow Silks 46, 50,
73-74, 130-131, 133 Sweet Crescent Bread 219 Customizing Elements, 225
Servants 46 Wildhoney Tea 219 Opening Conflict 188-191
Exalted Missionary Sisters 71 Winnowgrass 222 Personagenesis Machine 180-186
Excavations, 158 Forceful Talents 51-52 Resources Example 194-195
Characters 159 Dangerous Reputation 51 Roles 191
Hazards 159-160 Demolish 51 Secrets 193
Hooks 158-159 Dress to Impress 52 Taking Up Dice 34
Mysterious Pearl 158 In Demand 52 Tilts 191-192
Three Greater Domes 158 Offer They Can’t Refuse 52 Gameplaying 8
Three Lesser Domes 158 Foresight 37, 65, 98, 150 Garment-Renders 124
Unbreached Dome 158 Delphic Square 99-100 Gear
Experience 23 Hooded Sisters Pilgrim Dormitories Table 217
Extasia Caerulea 154, 156 98-99 See also Clothing; Food; Instruments;
Library of Memory 100-101 Objects and Tools; Weapons

232
 Index

Generous Hagatha 155, 156 Characters 108 Silicon Crab 211

Merry Band 156 Hazards 108-109 Improvement 23
Ghost Cat. See Beasts of the Desert: Hooks 108 Initiates of the Labyrinthine Mysteries
Caute Hirshel 172 71-72
Ghost Eaters 74 Characters 173 Instruments
Ghostly Scarf the Color of Rain Hazards 173 Aoide 219
Benefit 218 Hooks 172 Lark’s Tongue 219
Drawback 218 Honeycomb 163 Sea Bells 219
Ghosts 178. See also Beasts of the Characters 164 Seven Cresting Waves 223
Desert: Ghosts Wooden Drum with Silver Stars 223
Hazards 164
Glass Pit 166 Wyeth Harp, 222-223
Hooks 163-164
Graceful Talents 52 Intarsia Jewelry Box
Hooded Sisters’ Pilgrim Dormitories
Acrobat 52 98 Benefit 220
Climber 52 Characters 99 Drawback 220
Free Running 52 Hazards 99 Inverted Court
Showoff 52 Hooks 98 Characters 134-135
Vanish in a Crowd 52 Horizon’s Terror 102 Hazards 135
Guildhall of the Mourners 124 House of the Black Pillar 144 Hooks 134
Characters 125
J
Hy 18
Hazards 125 Hyaline Mother 167
Hooks 125
I
Jade and Black Glass Bracelet

H Ice Caravan Camp

Benefit 218
Drawback 218
Hanging Apes 171 Characters 86-87 Jewelry. See Clothing and Jewelry
Hangman’s Garden 123
K
Hazards 87
Characters 123 Hooks 86
Hazards 123 Illium 13, 37-38, 169 Keeners 124
Hooks 123 Council of Judgment 102 Krem Den
Hazard Tent City 162 Entertainer 44 Characters 128
Characters 162 Flying Ships 16 Hazards 128
Fortune Tellers 32 Fortress Invincible 102-104 Hooks 127-128
Hazards 162-163 Locations 102-106
Hooks 162 Noble 46 L
Heart of Palm Wine Pilot 46 Laborer 45-46
Benefit 218 Plateau Caves 106 Basic Artisan 55
Drawback 218 Priest 47 Jack of All Trades 55
Heartbreak 154, 155, 160 Sky of Navy Port 104 Scrapper 55
Hell’s Basin 13, 37, 165, 169 Soldier 50 Labyrinth of Night 63, 174
Hide and Horn Bow University 105 Initiates of the Labyrinthine Mysteries
Benefit 220 Illium Beasts 71-72
Drawback 221 Glasscutter (Prismatic) Wasps 210 Lacuna fissure 175
Himk 106 Radium Rat 210-211 Lamentations 149

233
 CAVALIERS OF MARS

Lance of Deimos 104 Memoria 124 Characters 165

Lark’s Tongue Memory of Waves 160 Hazards 165
Benefit 219 Characters 161 Hooks 164-165
Drawback, 219 Hazards 161-162 Mysterious Pearl 158
Lasting Consequences 20-21 Hooks, 161 Mystery Cults 74-75

N
Lathed Whip Memory’s Last Rest. See Library of
Benefit 221 Memory
Drawback 221 Merchant Nadamban 106
Leather Sawbones Satchel Appraisal 55 Characters 107
Benefit 218 Career 45, 46 Hazards 108
Drawback 218 Good Deal 55 Hooks 107
Library of Memory Well Traveled 55 Nephrite Dagger
Archivist 100 Merchant Quarter Benefit 221
Characters 101 Characters 132-133 Drawback 221
Hazards 101 Hazards 133 Noachia 173
Hooks 100 Hooks 132 Characters 173
Life Speakers 72, 73 Meridian 120, 162-165 Hazards 173
Living Storm 104 Hazard 162-163 Hooks 173
Lore 22 Honeycomb 163-164 Noble
Lost Places 16-17 Muniqa 164-165 Career 46, 47
Lunar Mosaic Method 20 Command Respect 55
Characters 174 Cunning 24 Friends in High Places 55
Hazards 174-175 Force 24 Put It on My Tab 55
Hooks 174 Grace 24 Non-Player Character, 25-34
Improvement 23
M
Action Points 26
Minion 29 Character Creation 25-26
Machine Mob Violence 58 Combat Dice Pools 26
Characters 79 Stand Together 58 Combat Talents 58
Hazards 79 Missal of the Witch’s Cradle Conditions 23
Hooks 79 Benefit 220 Daring Reversal 58
Maiden 18 Drawback 220 Evasive Footwork 58
Maiden’s Finger Mobs 29 Mob Violence (Minion Only) 58
Benefit 220 Money. See Chits Reckless Assault 58
Drawback 220 Moonrise Fleet 104 Stand Together (Minion Only) 58
Map of the Heavens Motivation 20 Stat Block 26
Benefit 223 Changing 23 North Pillar Plains 144
Drawback 223 Honor 24 Characters 144
Maps 30 Love 24 Hooks 144
Master 10 Second Wind 22 Threats 145
Matriarch of Battlehymn 71, 80 Self 24 North Pole 143-149
Medicine 16 Ms. Turhan 140 Bone Annals 145, 148
Memorable Roleplaying 22 Muniqa Cycnus 148-149

234
 Index

Map 146-147 Vance, 39-40 Path of Open Arms 59

North Pillar Plains 142-144 Wyeth Valley 39 Path of Promises Kept 59
North Side Canal, 81 Zaiu Caravans, 40 Path of the Vendetta 59
Characters 81-82 Ziggur 40-41 Paths 23, 58-59
Hazards, 82 Zodiac 41 Pavonis the Mother 175
Hooks, 81 Osseous Bibliognost, 145 People 14-15
Nowhere Plains 74, 171 Outcome 8 Personagenesis Machine 180

O
Ozaks 36, 43, 63-64, 88, 89 Avocation 182

P
Complicating Factor 185
Objects and Tools From . . . 182
Book of Gondola Tickets 219 Palace of the Dog Motivating Need or Desire 184
Ceramic Meles-hair Brush 219-220 Characters 122 Name, Descriptor 181
Clockwork Heart 223 Hazards 122 Secret Depths 183
Intarsia Jewelry Box 220 Hooks 122 Trouble 183
Maiden’s Finger 220 Pale Martian Beasts Vocation 182
Map of the Heavens 223 Lapin 207-208 Photinus Lamp
Missal of the Witch’s Cradle 220 Machine Spider (Automaton) 207, Benefit 220
Photinus Lamp 220 215 Drawback 220
Spoke from the Wind’s Saddle 223 Vulture 208 Physician
Obsidian Block 118 Pale Martians 8, 14, 64-65 Career 46, 47
Old Devontine 155, 158 Anger 34-35, 65 Expert Treatment 56
Oleph Bones 145 Crisis 65 Quick Treatment 56
100 Temples of the Red Bone Bloom Foresight 65, 98 Soothe 56
143 Priest 47 Pillars 142
Opening of the Way Scavenger 48 Pilot
Benefit 224 Surtur 39, 62 Career 46-47
Drawback 224 Panopticon 135 In Command 56
Origins 20, 34-41 Characters 136 Navigational Expertise 56
Anger 34-35 Hazards 136-137 They All Work the Same 56
Battlehymn 35 Hooks 135-136 Plateau Caves 106
Bazaar 24 Path of the Barbarian 23, 58 Characters 106
Caravans 24 Path of Bloody Knives 58 Hazards 106
Chiaro 35 Path of the Conqueror 58 Hooks 106
Cimmeria 36 Path of the Coward 58 Plaza 111
Coronal 36-37 Path of the Deceiver 58 Characters 113
Court 24 Path of the Devoted 59 Hazards 113
Dust Towns 24, 41 Path of the Entranced 59 Hooks 111-112
Foresight 37 Path of the First Footstep 59 Plaza Arez 121
Improvement 23 Path of Giving Hands 59 Characters 121
Siren 38 Path of Jeweled Thrones 59 Hazards 121
Skarras 38-39 Path of Lamentation 59 Hooks 121
Street 24 Path of the Legendary 59 Plaza Obsidian 118
Surtur 39 Path of the Night-Thief 23, 59 Characters 119

235
 CAVALIERS OF MARS

Hazards 120 Roundheads 64 Scythe of Phobos 104

Hooks 118-119 Scavenger 48 Sea Bells
Plot Twist 22 Surtur 39, 62 Benefit 219
Poles 142. See also North Pole; South Vance 39-40, 62 Drawback 219
Pole Zodiac 62 Seedling Grove 128
Pride of Illium 104 Red Bone Bloom 143 Characters 129
Priest Regions. See specific regions Hazards 129
Calming Presence 56 Relationships 20 Hooks 128-129
Career 47, 48 Improvement 23 Self-Sacrifice 22
Raise Morale 56 Religions 69-74. See also specific re- Serpentsilk Shawl
Ritual Fervor 56 ligions Benefit 218
Princess Invincible 50, 102 Resources 13 Drawback 218
Prismatic Wastes 165-170 Revolution Underground 113 Servant
Armonica Canyon 169-170 Characters 114 Back Door 57
Cave of the Hyaline Mother 167-169 Hazards 114 Blade Carrier 57
Rainbow 165-167 Hooks 113-114 Career 49
Purple Light 76 Riberia Fogo 96 Unobtrusive 57
Characters 77 Characters 96 Service Entrance to the West Horn
Hazards 77 Hazards 96-97 Gate Machine. See West Horn Gate
Hooks 76-77 Hooks 96 Machine Service Entrance
Roundhead 42, 62, 64 Sesinah of the Ten-Faces 175, 176
Q Most Holy 143 Seven Cresting Waves
Qan 36, 43, 63-64, 88 North Pillar 143 Benefit 223
Qinon Palace 88 Yellow Silks 73 Drawback 223
Characters 89 Ziggur 64, 130 Shades 112
Hazards 89 Ruptured Atmosphere Processor 85 Characters 113
Hooks 89 Characters 85-86 Hazards 113
Hazards 86 Hooks 112-113
R Hooks 85 Shanties 155-156
Characters 157
Radium Plateau 37, 102, 172, 173
Rainbow 165
S Hazards 157
Characters 166 Sandfish Cult 155, 160 Hooks 156-157
Hazards 166-167 Scarlet Stair 131 Shipyards 138
Hooks 166 Scavenger Characters 138
Rally 22 Career 48 Hazards 138
Range, 30 Friends in Low Places 56 Hooks 138
Red Cities 13-14 This Will Do 56 Shrouded District 139
Red Martians 8, 14, 62 Tomb Raider 56 Characters 139
Battlehymn 35 Scholar Hazards 139
Chiaro 35, 62 Career 48-49 Hooks 139
Church of the Damsel Messiah 70-71 Forge Documents 57 Siren 38
Cimmeria 36 Ready to Research 57 Ferma 110-111
Illium 37-38, 62 Well-Read 57 Himk 108-109

236
 Index

King 106 Pistoleer 57 Volcanic Gardens 117

Locations 106-111 Tactician 57 Surtur Beasts
Maral 107 South Pillar 142 Bharal 211
Nadamban 107-108 Ring 142-143 Glome Bug 211
Queen 106 Shattered 149 Ormerian Lizard 117, 211-212
Voshii 109-110 South Pole 149-154 Surtur Mines 117-118
Sister’s Flintlaser Pistol Black Rubble 149-151 Characters 118
Benefit 221 Gallow’s End 151-152 Hazards 118
Drawback 221 Temple of the Poppy Brides 153-154 Hooks 118
Skarras 38-39, 66, 111-115, 171- South Side Slums 82 Sweet Crescent Bread
173, 174 Characters 82 Benefit 219
Dangling Raster 171-172 Hazards 82 Drawback 219
Hirshel 172-173
T
Hooks 82
Locations 111-115 Southern Black Rubble 142, 149-151
Noachia 173 Characters 151 Talents 8, 21
Plaza 111-112 Fellowship of Futility 150 Cunning. See Cunning Talents
Revolution Underground 113-114 Field of Farewell 149 Forceful. See Forceful Talents
Shades 112-113 Hooks 150-151 Career. See Career Talents
Sky Fields 114-115 Lamentations 149 Combo 29
Skarras Beasts Threats 151 Graceful. See Graceful Talents
Gallum 212 Uncoupled Ring 149 Selection 24
Sandskin 212-213 Weepers 150 Temple of the Poppy Brides 38, 106,
Skulker 213 Speed 20, 24 107, 108
Skarruts 14, 65, 66 Spiders 92 Characters 154
Sky Fields 114 Spoke from the Wind’s Saddle Hazards 154
Characters 115 Benefit 223 Hooks 153
Hazards 115 Drawback 223 Sites 153-154
Hooks 114 Strain 22-23 Temple of the Voice 80
Sky Navy Port 104 Just a Scratch 22 Characters 81
Characters 104 Stranger 70 Hazards 81
Hazards 104 Stunts 27 Hooks 80
Hooks 104 Disarm 28 Ten Devils Caught
Slanted Grove 137 Draw Corps-a-corps 28 Benefit 224
Characters 137 Feint 28 Drawback 224
Hazards 137 Surtur 16, 39, 174 Tharsis 116, 174-177
Hooks 137 Entertainer 44 Lunar Mosaic 174-175
Sleeping Witches 175 Fire Priests 71 Sleeping Witches 175
Characters 175 First Forge 116-117 Zohar That Was Promised 175-177
Hazards 175 Locations 116-120 Tharsis Mountains 175
Hooks 175 Merchants 46 Thief
Soldier Noble 46 Career 49, 50
Career 49, 50 Plaza Obsidian 118-120 Charlatan 57
Deadly Force 57 Soldier 50 Pick Pocket 57

237
 CAVALIERS OF MARS

Sneak 57 Dredge 123-124 Sister’s Flintlaser Pistol 221

Tholak 153 Entertainer 44 Staff of Life 224
Tomb Stalkers 17 Guildhall of the Mourners 124-125 Ten Devils Caught 224
Tomb Valleys 87 Hangman’s Garden 123-124 Two Feet Standing Sword 221
Characters 88 Hounds of the Prince 120-121 Wolf Spider Rifle 221
Hazards 88 Locations 120-125 Weepers 150
Hooks 87 Mercenaries 16 West Horn Gate Machine Service En-
Tools. See Objects and Tools Noble 46 trance 101
Traits Palace of the Dog 122 Characters 101
Careers 20 Plaza Ares, 121 Hazards 101-102
Exerting, Exhausting 21 Priest 47 Hooks 101
Methods 20 Prince 120 Whirling Threnodists 124
Motivations 20 Soldier 50 Wildhoney Tea
Origins 20 Vance Beasts Benefit 219
Relationships 20 Salamander 208 Drawback 219
Speed 20 Sand Spider 208-209 Winnowgrass
Traveling 13 Sparrow 209 Benefit 222
Triggers 23 Venus 71-72 Drawback 222
Trouble 22 Voice 70 Winnowgrass
Changing 23 Volcanic Gardens 117 Benefit 222
Turham, Roya 101 Characters 117 Drawback 222
Two Feet Standing Sword Hazards 117 Witch-queen 71-72
Benefit 221 Hooks 117 Wolf Spider Rifle
Drawback 221 Voshi 106 Benefit 221
Drawback 221
U
Characters 110
Hazards 110 Wooden Drum with Silver Stars
Uncanny 31 Hooks 108-109 Benefit 223
Drawback 223
W
Uncoupled Ring 149
University of Illium 105 Wounds 16
Characters 105 Warfare 16. See also Combat; Wur Tribe 143
Hazards 105 Weapons Wyela 126
Hooks 105 Wastes. See Prismatic Wastes Characters 126
Ur Tribe 143 Water 13 Hazards 127
Weapons Hooks 126
V Flintlaser 16 Wyeth Gum 16
Vale 19 Spearpoints, Daggers 16 Wyeth Harp
Characters 97-98 Cold and Glittering Knife 220 Benefit 222
Hazards 97 Echidna’s Tooth 224 Drawback 222-224
Hooks 97 Hide and Horn Bow 220-221 Wyeth Reincarnation Cycle 72-73
Vance 13, 14, 39-40, 162, 163, 165 Lathed Whip 221 Wyeth Valley 34, 39, 63, 65, 66-67
Assassins 43 Nephrite Dagger 221 Characters 126
Astrologers 43 Opening of the Way 224 Deephome 129-130
Dog 120 Ranged 29 Hazards 126

238
 Index

Hooks 126
Krem Den 127-128
Z Arbiter 135
Astrologers 43
Locations 126-130 Zaius 14, 43, 65, 67-68 Astrology 69-70
Seedling Grove 128-129 Ancestor Worship 73-74 Entertainer 44
Witch Queen 126 Caravans 40 Fixers 70
Wyela, 126-127 Foresight 98 Flying ships 16
Zigger, 13, 40-41
X
Locations 135-139
Assassins 43 Noble 46
Xeta Geyser 93 Atmospheric Processor 130-132 Panopticon 32, 135-137
Characters 94 Entertainer 44 Pilot 46
Hazards 94 Eu of the Seven Yellow Silks 130, 131, Shipyards 138
133
Hooks 93-94 Shrouded District 138-139
Gallow’s End 151-153
Slanted Grove 137
Y Hangman 152
Zodiac (star) 70
Inverted Court 134-135
Yellow Cloister 133 Zohar That Was Promised 175
Locations 130-135
Characters 133-134 Characters 177
Merchant Quarter 132-133
Hazards 134 Hazards 177
Noble 46
Hooks 133 Hooks 176-177
Soldier 50
Yellow Silks 40, 73, 131, 132 Zoharim 175-176
Yellow Cloister 133-134
Yellow Veil 153 10 Faces of God 176
Yellow Silks 47, 73
10 Stations of the Tree 176
Zodiac 13, 41
Zomek Windships 43

239
 NAME: STRAIN:

PLAYER: SPEED:

EXPERIENCE: DRAMA POINTS:

MOTIVATIONS METHODS CONDITIONS

For Honor... ... With Cunning EXHAUSED
For Love... ... With Force INJURED
For Self... .. With Grace
IN LOVE
TALENTS MELANCHOLY

PRESUMED DEAD

TRAPPED

VENGEFUL

TRAITS
Trait Rating Description

NOTES