The Icarus Project

Details

Pages: 32

Author(s): Christof Maser, Matthias Oden, Calum McDonald (translator)

Artist(s): Artists listed with credits for magazine issue.

Setting: Far Future

Appears in: Worlds of Cthulhu, Issue 02.

Campaign:

Summary

In this scenario, the Investigators play crew on a secretive rescue mission to the freezing blackness of deep space, billions of miles from Earth. They wake from cryostasis, but something seems to have gone terribly wrong. What is this ship they find themselves on? Where are the rest of the crew?

Spoilers - Keepers Eyes Only

Players should not read any further.

Synopsis

In the year 2638 humanity invents a propulsion system capable of warping space and allowing a space ship to travel to any point in the universe. One of the first destinations for long-distance tests of this technology was the point at the center of our universe. Unfortunately the ship sent on this mission suffered damage during the voyage. Five years later a second space ship, The Icarus, was sent to rescue the original ship and find out what happened to it. Finding the original vessel silent and dark, the crew of the Icarus send shuttles to explore ... and ultimately succumb to the same madness that destroyed the original crew. For the center of our universe is also the seat of Azathoth and his demon pipers.

The characters in this scenario are the last members of the backup crew, who were only ever supposed to be unfrozen in case something happened to the original Icarus crew. Five pre-generated characters are presented, with detailed backgrounds and loyalties. A sixth character is played by the Keeper (since he subsequently goes insane and flees through the ship). All of the original crew are missing, as are the rest of the backup crew. These poor souls were converted into raw material to fix the ship's organic hull, an unexpected response by the ship's maintenance nanotechnology.

All alone, the characters must wander through the large, empty space ship in order to try to piece together what happened. The scenario is inherently linear since, due to various sections being closed because of damage, there is only one path through the ship. This leads past numerous Fragments of Azathoth which pervade the ship, as well as numerous partially converted crew members embedded in the ship's walls. At the end of the road is the command module and the ship's esper (a human bred with a genetic mutation allowing for control of large biological constructs, such as the Icarus). The ship is on a count down to making a jump directly into the maw of Azathoth, something which the characters will want to prevent.

References

Player Handouts:

• Hand-written letter
• Book extract describing Azathoth
• Speech about Jump Drive technology
• Progress Report: Esper C-125
• Esper Lecture
• Classified mission orders
• Communications log
• Scribblings by The Voice in the Wall

Locations: Center of the Universe

Creatures: Azathoth, Fragments of Azathoth

Tomes and Artifacts:

Campaigns / Scenarios:

Comments

This adventure is inspired by films such as "Event Horizon", "Solaris" and the "Alien" quadrilogy. It is designed to be run in one longish session (or two shorter sessions).

Keeper Comments

Comments to Keepers about this scenario; Possibly how to run it successfully. Keep general DISCUSSION on the talk page.