Formerly the Chief Power Systems Engineer on the Serendipity and a Martian native. He survived a de-facto leadership position on the hab a month after the Fall, and is haunted by the choices he made along the way. His Watts-MacLeod strain of the exsurgent virus manifests in a bizarre form of alien behavior disorder/species dysmorphia, possibly further tainted by the xenomorph strain which was released on the Serendipity station during the Fall (degrading Earth-Luna L1 orbit).
More recently a scavenger and containment specialist initially recruited by PlathCo. because his resume includes a workaholic level of Zone Stalking and a lack of untimely demise. He has posed as the Neo-Octopus Uplift Roland Sharpe for 5 years prior to game start, owing to a twist of fate out on the TQZ. He has fully invested in the Roland Sharpe persona as part of the newly-founded United Division, a group of Sentinels for Firewall under Nathan's direction. He continues to discretely look into his family's ultimate demise back on Mars.
| Group Aspect | The United Division: We Fight Fire with Firewall |
|---|---|
| High concept | Psychic Relic Hunter |
| Trouble | Haunted By My Past. Literally. |
| Psi-Chi Traits | Sensory Boost, Ambience Sense, Space-Time Sense |
| Ego Aspects | Roguishly Refined |
| One Arm of Many, But *not* the Brain | |
| Morph Aspects | (Async-Friendly) Biocore Takko |
| Overclocked Chemoreceptors |
Quirks: +Terraforming, -Slavery/Indenture, +Mercurial Rights, +Technoprogressivism, -Forking, +TQZ Exploration/Reclamation, -X-Risk, +Threat Containment, +Drug Culture, (+Vacc Polo, -Personal Leadership, +Martian Independence).
| (+24) T.I.T.A.N.I.C. | -- |
|---|---|
| (+23) O.L.Y.M.P.I.C. | -- |
| (+22) Hubristic | – ((Freeze Frame Photo)) |
| (+21) Intoxicating | -- |
| (+20) Plot Device | -- |
| (+19) Extralegal | -- |
| (+18) Legal | -- |
| (+17) Paralegal | -- |
| (+16) Exploitative | -- |
| (+15) Unreasonable | -- |
| (+14) Gratuitous | -- |
| (+13) Divine | --- |
| (+12) Exalted | --- |
| (+11) Ascendant | --- |
| (+10) Inconceivable | --- |
| (+9) Mythic | --- |
| (+8) Legendary | --- |
| (+7) Epic | --- |
| (+6) Fantastic | Hardware(*Grok) |
| (+5) Superb | Will |
| (+4) Great | Infosec, Infiltrate(*Stealth), Xeno-Contact(*TITAN Intel) |
| (+3) Good | Cover, Survival*(Combat Awareness), Deceive |
| (+2) Fair | Fight, Notice, Athletics, CivRep*([email protected]), Pilot |
| (+1) Average | Credits, Eco-Rep, Rapport, Somatics, Investigate, X-Risk, Program |
| (+0) Mediocre | ((Other Rep, Kinesics, Medicine, Provoke, Shoot)) |
| (-1) Poor | --- |
| (-2) Terrible | --- |
| (-3) Awful | --- |
Cover story (Roland) - Static Block 4 + (1 Free Tag) Secret Agent Tutoring
| Jezabelle | |
|---|---|
| (+2) Fair | Kinesics |
| (+1) Average | Investigate |
| Stress Boxes | [ ] [ ] |
Can concede (you choose how you leave), be “taken out” (they choose, could be forced aspect), or take a consequence to stay in.
| Physical | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mental | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] | [ ] |
Mild (1 Mental) [2 stress]:
Mild (1) [2 stress]:
Moderate (1) [4 stress]:
Severe (1) [6 stress]:
13 Refresh = 11 Cost + 2 Token
| Purchase | Refresh Cost | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Taako (Morph) | -2 |
Durability: Good (+3) Stress Boxes: 4 (Max) Cred/CivRep Cost: Great (+4) Traits: Essential Bio/Pod Traits (Access Jacks, Cortical Stack, Mesh Inserts, Biobrain*, Puppet sock), Manipulators (8 Arms), Mobility (Limber), Mobility (Vector Thrust), Mobility (Swim), Natural Attack (Beak), Stigma (Uplift, Synth); 360-Degree Vision; Enhanced Vision Purchasable: Grip Pads, Enhanced Vision, Natural Attack (Venom), Stealth |
| Stealth (Morph) | -1 | +2 to Infiltrate when moving at a slow pace or staying still; +2 to changing color tests (?) |
| Psi-Chi (Ego) | -1 |
1 Free Invocation/Session: Sensory Boost: Concentrate on a sense to filter everything else out and enhance it. Ambience Sense : Hard to surprise, good at scrounging and searching for clues. Space-Time Sense: As long as they’re conscious, they always know roughly how far and in what direction they’ve traveled, including any changes in speed and direction during the trip. |
| Psi-Gamma: Grok (Ego) | -1 | +2 Hardware to understand how to use an unfamiliar object, device, vehicle, or identify uses of synthmorph, by just looking at and handling it. |
| Psi-Gamma: Psychic Stab (Ego) | -1 |
With a touch, the async can cause physical damage in the form of internal hemorrhaging, massive cell death, or other disruption of metabolic processes. The async may use Will instead of Fight to attack or create an advantage in physical conflict, dealing stress as if they were mounting a normal attack. Psychic Stab can’t be employed to use Will to defend. It doesn’t work on non-biological targets, although it is effective against pods because it doesn’t exclusively target the brain. May risk Will strain to increase damage (Risk 2 per +1 bonus, then defend). |
| System Overload (Ego) | -1 | You know how to cause electronics to go haywire, fusing wires and blowing out chips. When you make a scorching attack, you can choose to deal shifts of physical stress instead of mental stress. |
| TITAN Intel (Ego) | -1 | You’re an expert on the TITANs—which is scary, because being a TITAN expert mostly means having a full grasp of how little we know about them. Gain a +2 on Xeno-Contact rolls when knowledge of the TITANs or the exsurgent virus is a decisive factor. |
| Rep Focus: @-Rep (CivRep) | -1 | You have a special presence in a particular reputation network. When using CivRep in a way that aligns with that network, you gain a +2 on that roll. |
| Combat Awareness (Ego) | -1 | Your natural survivalist training gives you an edge when a fight's about to ensue. You can use Survival in place of Notice for all combat-related uses, including initiative. |
| “Wrist”-Mounted Tools | -1 | The morph has a 6 centimeter-wide metal band containing nanobot generators implanted around each wrist. These nanobots link together to duplicate the function of a utilitool, creating narrow, highly flexible arms that each ends in a specialized tool. These nanobots can also produce tiny fiber optics to allow the character to see through small openings, as well as being able to create small weapons equal to bioware claws. The fact that these tools are mentally controlled gives the character justification to access skills involving repairing or modifying devices with mechanical parts, opening locks or disarming alarm systems, or performing first aid. |
Hardened Equipment (has a data jack, resistant to EM interference), Ecto, Mesh inserts set to airplane mode by default, Scavenger's Toolbag, Scanning Tool, Zone Stalker Gear, High Tech Machete from the TQZ, Petals for downtime fun, Ecto with somewhat degraded (face disturbingly similar to Nat) weird AR ghost, Faraday Scrunchies.
Blueprint Library: Most basic DRM-free blueprints and colonization/survival gear blueprints, nanowire (with solar power), nano-multitool, specialized XM5 self-contained drilling platform, Raspberry-flavored hand-tooled TQZ machete blueprint, raspberry dessert flatware, Quantum Computer Specs. Firefly mini-scout bot, Mosquito variant of Firefly (vacuum only, syringe payload), Umbrella Surfer Rocket.
Firefly Scout:
This hand-sized flying craft is perfect for close-range scouting. Designed to collapse into a palm-size lozenge, it opens up when activated to reveal a pair of counter-rotating propellers. Its modest runtime of 1 hour is fine for poking around corners or into suspicious rooms, and its on-board laser comms and antenna mean it can be used in radio blackouts. Low cost (+0) Aspect: Eye in the Sky 360-degree vision Enhanced Senses (Vision) Enhanced Senses (Hearing) Enhanced Senses (Radar) Access Jacks Mobility (rotors) Stress Boxes: 1
Contacts - Ahmad Sattar al-Mansoori (and the al-Mansoori Sufi Tribe); Penelope Larue (Zone Stalker)
Biocore Takko Morph from “The Birthday Murder”
| (Async-Friendly) Biocore Takko |
| Overclocked Chemoreceptors |
Durability: Good (+3)
Stress Boxes: 4 (Max)
Cred/CivRep Cost: Great (+4)
Traits: Essential Bio/Pod Traits (Access Jacks, Cortical Stack, Mesh Inserts, Biobrain*, Puppet sock), Manipulators (8 Arms), Mobility (Limber), Mobility (Vector Thrust), Mobility (Swim), Natural Attack (Beak), Stigma (Uplift, Synth); 360-Degree Vision; Enhanced Vision
Purchasable: Grip Pads, Enhanced Vision, Natural Attack (Venom), Stealth
| Octomorph (Morph) | -2 |
Durability: Average (+1) Stress Boxes: 3 (Max) Cred/CivRep Cost: Great (+4) Traits: Essential Biomorph Traits, Environmental Adaptation (Gills), Manipulators (8 Arms), Mobility (Limber), Mobility (Swim), Natural Attack (Beak), Stigma (Uplift). Purchasable Stunts: Natural Attack (Ink), Natural Attack (Venom), Stealth |
Game Start:::
Chief Power Systems Engineer on a Major Habitat (Serendipity - Earth-Luna Lagrange 1; Population ~350K) orbiting Earth Before the Fall. We watched Earth fall and then go dark. Then we slowly went dark.
Within an Hour - Something is wrong on Earth 2 Hours - This isn't a War 3 Hours - What is this? Oh God, let's cut off contact for now.
We stayed minimally functional as a hab for about a month because most people died, many based on my decisions or orders. A few dozen survived. A rescue ship signaled us using visual light semaphore.
I wound up in the TQZ because my family was there, and I can't let these Martian habs entrust their safety to me. I'm looking for my family who were in the TQZ and I've hit some kind of wall or dead end that I can't get past.
I don't have an up-to-date backup but I keep a semi-regularly updated one when I get cash flow.
I need some cash and hope to find some reverse-engineered Titan tech to get through something that is blocking my way to get to my family's home.
---
Connection to Heidi: I sold her an unusual Ruster morph (aka Noodle Fingers) as one of my many hauls from scrapping and Zone Stalking on Mars. Now we keep in touch and I occasionally sell her weird morphs I find in the TQZ.
Connection to Agent Alpha: He knows of me as Roland Sharpe, the Uplift. Probably knows I'm an async but doesn't initially know I'm not an Uplift.
Connection to Miss Abigail: I know her through both the Uplift community and from her purchases of some of my salvage. A talented researcher native AGI, active in Uplift rights community. She has gone poking around with me for less than okay reasons relating to TITAN stuff. (Effectively a Titan cultist looking into unrestricted/True AI). She bought stuff from me before and was somewhat suspicious about it. She cut away her old life and was previously known as a psychosurgeon, has not done any psychosurgery since then.
After Game Start:::
I am Roland Sharpe, always have been. When I was property I recycled water. Now that I'm my own property, I recycle relics. Scope a zone, grab a haul, quadruple check everything before you make a sale, use funds to replace kit, repeat. It's a nice loop with fewer rules, and fewer people to disappoint. My boss is a real hard-ass though.
Regularly backing up now that I have the income and rep. Working as a Sentinel for Firewall through Nathan. In my free time, exploring the TQZ, coordinating Opsec for other Zone Stalkers, and putting assets towards finding my way to my original Martian home. When I get nostalgic, I do petals to re-live a part of my life that's buried deep. Natalie is gone but her shadow remains, and maybe that means there are fragments left of my family. To enshrine or eradicate, I'm not sure yet.
I own a Takko now. Shiny and new, still needs some breaking in, but a decent alternative when atmo isn't an option. Still getting used to the chemoreceptors, but its late purchaser spared no expense on the neural network. It's high quality stuff.
Found a new lead with Penelope LaRue's help. She's good people. Solid head on her shoulders, sticks to containment protocol. The lead might have been buried in my ego or out in the wastes - unclear. Coordinates off the coast - or under - Lake Superior. One of the Chicago refugee ships blown from the sky, locked in a relatively stable low Earth orbit. Going to need time to prep, resources, and contacts to slip past the killsats. In the meantime, I've put a small dent in the local maskmen, and got to take my passenger for a walk at the same time. Greedy bastard it is, not the kind of crew I would personally pick for a jaunt in the wastes, more like a curious toddler with a knife. Maybe with a bit more effort I can get back to staking my claim Northeast of Qurain. Borrowed the tac-nuke from Ahmad Sattar. Glad it was just insurance and not a post-mortem purchase. The al-Mansoori are an insular stripe of The Movement, but they've never done me a bad turn.
Got chewed out by Heidi after the Savitr situation. Makes sense in hindsight: old ghosts don't make modern leaders and mine's definitely long in the tooth. Savitr station is mostly intact, and I managed to salvage some normalcy from a bad situation. The markers were all there, but I was the one out of calibration. And it's getting harder to paint over a crumbling facade. The people who know where to look already know, and the people who don't know haven't bothered to look. There's a crossroad coming, and I'm not sure I'll be ready to make the choice. A faked death wouldn't do any good with Nathan watching. And try as I might, it seems I've accrued some real friends. That's why it hurts to hurt them. Not a problem I had… back then. When everything was chaos and the only order of the day was survival. I don't want to be that person anymore, but I'm not ready to let go of the people who made me who I am. For now, it's a pretty lie I've built for myself, and I'll just keep living in it until the torches and pitchforks arrive. Even monsters need a place to call home. And mine's calling for me.
Well. Crisis management 305 sucked. That was the singular worst petal I've ever had. And in every scenario, Nat was there. Sometimes she tried to help but couldn't. Sometimes she was a casualty and I couldn't save her. But in the end, I guess we'll see if it was worth anything to pour salt on an old wound. Nathan gave some pointers on my background as compensation. It's not exactly a win, but I won't call it a loss either. On the plus side, Jill and Heidi seem to be a little more open to the petal lifestyle. Raindrop Qualia was a good place to start. Though I'll need to be careful around Heidi. She's a little too dialed in, but praise the Maker her curiosity spans wide rather than deep. If nothing else, she's keeping me sharp for my ventures with Luvenia and her cadre. There's a fine line between dedication and fanaticism, and that lady is riding it. Though I suppose you could say the same about me.