Montes Sisyphi: Pulpy futuristic astronautical adventure for Call of Cthulhu

This is a short adventure I've created hoping to publish something for Call of Cthulhu. I've run a few test games the people I ran it for did not seem to eagre about it. There are some good ideas I'd like to share with people however, this is more of a story Idea which is why I do not publish any actual statistics for it. When I ran it I did not yet own a Pulp Cthulhu rule set, but upon having run it I realise that the "Dead Space" vibe I went with would really nicely complement the premise of more proactive and stronger heroes. The main idea for the game was to make the players build their own obsticle course through hub moduals through which they would be escaping from the Martian monster, a bit of a spin on the chase mechanic which I grew to very much enjoy. This way instead of me setting up various fences and bogs to run through or pick your way through, the players would run through various rooms of their own make, with different modifiers and skill rolls required. I hope you enjoy. MARS 2053 ACT 1-Bye bye heroes! Launch Day; "Mighty pioneers... festoons and "Good Luck" banners hanging, baloons. Your mission given to you by your noble South African benefactor is simple. Establish habitable residence for future exploitation of Mars. A short 260 day flight." Launch Day; Saying goodbye to your family, press taking pictures (Acting roll). And short interviews after (One question from the press for each player)

-Malcolm McAbrams BBC Scotland; How are you feeling about this whole venture? Nervous? Frightened? -Name's Casey Leng, South China News Australia, do you think you'll meet any aliens? -Alessandro Valletti Italia 1, what do you think you'll miss the most on earth? -Jon Bjergson NRK, do you trust U.S.C.I. and your CEO Mr. Eli? Do you think his interest in Mars is genuinely for the betterment of humanity? For every success on the rolls for a good PR you get a bonus to your research points.-Picking your additional equipment. -Leaving the atmosphere (Roll pilot space-craft; you suffer 1d6 damage to your ship's materials) Repairs are limited, as in the party chooses which thing do they get rid of. There's a previous or an upcoming mission in a few weeks. -Travel of 21 months or 700 sols A roll on SAN if you manage to do well. Failure means you roll on a table below: 1-2; Get me out of here!; Loose 1 sanity. 3-4; Waste; Over eating or eating through boredom brought you into loosing some food. 5-6; Carelessness; Through apathy in your daily chores you did not secure some of the equipment, so it ended up damaged or destroyed.  7-8; Fight over resources; A fight over who gets to drink the final flavoured drink had you loose much in a way of drink.

9-10; Negative press; The news of your bad tempers reached earth. You loose all the good PR from the launch day. -Setting up satellites and space station Mars Piloted Orbital Station (or Marspost) Russian mission, you use their station as a support station with their own mission. They use MEK Mars Interplanetary Expeditionary Complex. Built by RKK Energia. 4oo ton space station was brought here by an Angara rocket and set up with ion thrusters. A hybrid mission, with humans operating robots from space station. (They tell you there are some odd sightings... roll Russian: they say that the people from Lem station saw some odd Geological formations in the Noctis Labirynthus, but ceased communications)

-You are the specialist team, the first guys to reach Mars were common generalists. They've established a settlement called "Lem" you'll also be allowed to pick the name for the settlement as long as you brief the managers and public relations guys about your choice. ACT 2- Mars settlement -Landing; There were a couple of locations scouted for safe landing and colonisation. (Depending on the location of which you get three, you get close to different places. Roll piloting risking another 1d6 damage to your salvageable equipment. Fittingly for a planet named after an ancient god of strife, the planet sported the climate right for war, with a pleasant but slightly radioactive 20' weather. Having landed on the equator of Mars you get to enjoy such pleasantries. You better not get too used to it, at night it gets to -1oo degrees. Your mission; investigate and colonize Mars. -Finding all the modules to bash apart for goods. (Tracking) 5 points a module. -Settling the grounds. -Building; You build the place where you'll be chased around by monsters. In a 6 months new group of colonists comes to land on Mars, and your job will be helping them out. -Research -Something hit (landed) their satellite; comes a message from the Russians, they can't reach earth, they want you to do a bidding for them and reach their station. -Waiting 3 months before you can leave for optimal reach. -You roll for occult every time you go to bed, you suffer odd dreams which get progressively more insightful the more insane you are, and they themselves may cause IP. Everyone rolls on an Occult skill and we see who got the nasty dream this month. "You dream you're naked upon the Martian mountain. You realize you're pushing a boulder unto the peak, but you turn away and see a huge storm coming to the camp. And at that moment you drop the boulder and it slides down." "You had a dream of Cyclopean giants chiselling the Noctis Labirinthus with huge chisels and hammers" "You're closed in a well with a peculiar fleshy pillar. The dream ends the moment a huge glowing eye opens before you." "You dream you're talking with your fellow Martian pioneer, and turn to the horizon where a great dust storm rages towards you. In the midst of the storm you see a peculiar shape, you're suddenly flung into the air towards the storm at great speed." "You dream you're walking around a Cyclopean ruined basalt temple in the midst of Mars' crust. You wake up the moment you hear an odd monotone tune." (Note: I did not run much CoC prior to this, but my players absolutely hated this premise, I guess it must be pretty cliché in these types of scenarios)

-Fish in the tank begin to mutate in first mundane reasons, lower gravity, they get a little more squishy and fatter, loose eyes. Then they grow teeth and attack the scientists. -In case anyone has trouble the old colony guys ride in on their buggies, bringing either water, food or building materials depending on their need. ACT 3- Supply mission -The mission sends you an unmanned mission carrying supplies. The amount of supplies depends on the reaserch points accrued by your mission. 1 points - Per point of food and water. 2 points - Per 5 points of building material 5 points - Additional two drones

10 points - New Buggy. -If the party fails to open the vault in time, the other group of colonists has an inkling to do it. ACT 4- The Unspeakable -Visit to the unspeakable place (to research the possibility of building cave towns); Crack open the gates or winch open them with a buggy. -Terrible Martian storms begin to rage about the valley once you break the seal. With all that nasty dust you need to establish perimeter flashing ropes or you need them tunnels already dug up, you know, The Thing style. -Temple of Martians, a fully sculpted red rock temple with entities in it. -You think it's a tomb, temple and finally if you find all the clues you realize its a library. -Things to research in the tomb; statues, wall slots, odd sounding air, rumbling, how was it dug up? No marking of mundane chisels or tools, its as if it was pressed into existence from Martian dust and rock.

-One of the colonies goes silent, you go to investigate. Humans go mad. Someone goes postal in the cafeteria. Takes off his suit and murders a bunch of people with a pneumatic hammer and paints an odd symbol on the wall. -Fighting with Mars colonization tools as you have no weapons. -Well like sealed tomb or a well; inside is a flying polyp. You first presume it to be a tomb. -This is a momentous occasion; first human example of xenoarcheology. A ruin of an ancient race of Mars. -The unspeakable news could be that you find out that Montes Sisyphi holds hundreds of such "tombs" with polyps in them.

SETTLERS The team ought to have more than just the playable characters, or rather the playable character pool ought to be bigger and not all of the characters taken, meaning the team should have some spare scientists and labourers to kill off ahead of time. Every character is allowed to pick one peace of equipment from their additional cargo list.

Male Engineer; Builds permanent structures on Mars. -His mission; Distribute the building materials, only the captain can requisition your materials. -Builds permanent structures and mind food and provisions. -Maintains the equipment and keeps it in a large hermetic container for tools at the base. 5 units of ship repair supplies, 2o units of building supplies. -He can also dismantle structures for materials. Additional cargo; De-contaminator (Handflamer; very short reach), additional 2 repair supplies, additional moxie box. BUILDINGS LIST; You start with a nuclear reactor (5 energy), moxxie box (Enough for three buildings) Hubmodual (2); A sleeping station for you, and in the future, for the Martian miners. You have to build at least two before the 6 months go by. It’s quite funny how on Mars our best protection from radiation is still such a primordial thing as soil. Upgrading radiation shielding (1); Who would have thought that using such banal thing as compacted earth would still yield so much protection from radiation. (You don't suffer radiation poisoning over a month's time; using a building without radiation shielding makes you suffer a 1d4 a month) Greenhouse (3); Establishing a stable food production is the base of successful colonisation efforts.   -Soil alcaliner vat of boiling algae; Thanks to this you're not forced to limit yourself to pre alcalined earth brought from... well... earth. You can turn Martian soil into growing soil after washing it in an algae bath with a little nitrogen. (+1 food a month)   -Growlights; These ensure that you needn't rely on the radioactive solar radiation, as Martian lack of UV filtration might zap your plants before you realize. (Requires energy; +1 food a month)   -Radiation shielding; Some soil about the greenhouse might bring good fortune. And less radiation. (Those working in the greenhouse do not suffer radiation damage; +1 food a month)   -Compost grinder; Using your own waste will provide ample growing agent. In order to turn waste into a fertilizer you throw it into a huge industrial shredder. (+1 food a month) Fishtank (3); Requires a water well. A big round closed metal ball filled with Martian water, you use tilapia for the fish in the tank which were transported in a special container, they are fed with plant matter indigestible to humans. (+2 food a month) Solar Panels (2); They provide you with energy. (+1 energy) Mountain top communication array (5); Requires energy, but allows you for a better connection with the space station and the mission control. (Allows for communication even during heavy storms) Buggy hideout (3); Makes it so the buggy doesn't get damaged by silt over time when not used. Water well (2); You procure water. (+1 water)   -Additional Condensator (1) (+1 water)   -Accelerated Heater (1) (+1 water) Connectors (1); These tunnels allow for safe passage between buildings even druing heavy storm. Small nuclear reactor boxes (5); Provides you with your basic energy needs. (+5 energy) Moxxie box (1); These air filtering plasma reactors allow you to use more rooms. Medical bay (3); Using medicine skill in this room gets you a bonus. Research Lab (3); You can make it either Biology, Geology, Astronomy or other. Rolling for one of those skills in the room gives you an advantage. Rec room (3); This place allows you to gain a bonus on your SAN rolls. Drone station (3); Allows you to operate one of the drones. These can scout for you, or even undergo missions where humans would normally be required. Underground tunnels connecting the buildings (2); These are harder to dig up but they provide you complete protection from both radiation and from Martian storms. Camera poles (1); Requires energy. These allow you to spy outside of your compound, each provides you with 5 cameras you can place wherever you wish even outside of the camp. Advanced 3D printer (1); Allows for printing the tools you've lost. It takes a month to print anything. Dismantle ship; Grants you 5 building supplies for a month of work 2o total Assemble a buggy;  You put the vehicle together.

Russian speaker Female Researcher biochemist and doctor; Gathers samples, researches them and sends them to earth. -Procures additional funds for every new find as this is a private investment. Rock, rear earth, water and other such. The more reaserch she succeeds at the more will be sent to Mars in modules with the next mission in 6 months. -She's the only fluent Russian speaker in the team. This comes into use when communicating with the Russian orbital unit, their English is not too good, or at least they pretend so. -As a specialist in medicine you are required to do monthly check ups and keeps a medical log on everyone. -You also secretly do performance rating. -You're the one with the clipboard. Additional cargo; Lab rats, three doses of powerful sedatives, pet cat, book on concious dreaming +10 Occult. REASSERCH; Medical Check-up; Do a medical check up on the crew after at least a month of Martian exploration. (+1 research point) Expedition to Mount Sisyphus; Geology roll, it seems the mountain has a huge peculiar basalt core at its base. Which strikes you as rather peculiar as Mars has no plate tectonics nor a molten core. The way this granite pillar got here is rather questionable (+1 research point) Expedition to the Plane of Sisyphus; Meteorology roll, helps you realize that the plane is a breeding ground for dust-devils. Which in fact leave behind peculiar trails on the ground. The worst news is, great perchlorate salt filled radioactive electrostatic dust storms will come from this direction in a couple of months. Expedition to the Module Craters; Astronomy roll, helps you gather the data on the cause of the failed module landing, making it move efficient in the future (Hopefully) Expedition to the Canyon; Meteorology, the motion of the winds through the valleys leading to the mouth of Labyrinthus Noctis indicate a peculiar motion unlike any terrestrial winds. (+1 research point) Expedition to the Labyrinthus Noctis;    -Mount a cave expedition; Needs to build a research camp. 2 building materials. (+2 research point)    -Odd angular stones of the valley cavern; Astronomy roll, seems as if someone cut them up, other theories be damned. (+2 research point)    -Natural water spring; Geology roll, Peculiar angular stone as if laser precise cut mining was done. (+2 research point)    -Valley silt; Peculiar metal additives can be found in the valley silt. (+2 research point)    -Nasty winds; (Metereology) These winds behave nothing like the earthly winds. (+2 research point) Autopsy a tator; Botany roll, see what does the Martian radiation does to the soil. (+1 research point) Autopsy a tilapia; Zoology roll, lets you find out how fish react to lower G force. (+1 research point) Autopsy your cat; Zoology roll, your poor friend can come in handy yet. (+1 research point) Autopsy a lab rat; Zoology roll, these little fellows can come in handy indeed. (+1 research point) Autopsy a crew mate; Forensics roll, lets you realize the way Mars takes effect on man (+5 research point) The Stone Gates; Stone slabs which seem pushed together; peculiar form of erosion? Wind seems to blow through. (You progress to the Red Temple)

Male Technician; Ship repairs, electrician and buggy repairman. -He operates robots, buggies and drones. Driving the researcher and the engineer about. -His mission is repairing broken vessels on the ship and the colony. He can double as a builder. -He also has three charges of explosives used to clear roads for your buggy. -He can build a fertilizer and fuel bombs. 5 electrical repair kits, 5 vehicle repair kits. Each for a point of building materials. -He's armed with a powerful E.E.D.D. device. Additional cargo; Additional two ground drones, E.E.D.D. battery (You get to carry double the charges), Four Wireless Cameras. Repair the ship (3)- If a fumble was had on the pilot ship, you better repair it before it breaks. Repair the buggy - Storms and accidents damage the buggy, you're the one responsible for fixing it. Clear a road block - Whenever there's a trouble on the road, you are the one to clear it up.

Male Captain the computer scientist; -Communicate and report to earth -Main pilot, you land and ascend the ship. -Ask for supplies on the next mission -Establish sanity check (You set up either a zoom call with the family on earth, a psychologist meeting or a cozy film for someone struggling mentally) Enter and leave the atmosphere. Advantage being low Martian gravity helping you get off the planet.

-You're the shots caller, you pick what the expedition is to do, resolve fights between pioneers and establish contact with other settlements. Additional cargo; Space Force Pistol (Built especially for units of Space Force capable of being shot in vacuum and on station without the risk of rupturing the place), Secret stash of rum (Being drunk makes your SAN rolls easier).

Eight other crew mates; Each of the other crew mates have one speciality skill which lets them take on special tasks, they all have the same statistics otherwise and 75% in a given skill. As the party are senior officers they get to order them around. The crew mates are as follows; Botanist, Geologist, Meteorologist, Chemist, Second Medic, Second Builder, Second Pilot, Zoologist. Starting Equipmnet; Rocket, disassembled buggy, moxxy box, portable nuclear generator, two drone rovers.

MARS MAPS It's all happening on the equator of mars, right below the orbit of the Russian space station which is in orbit every two weeks. Space Station Marspost (Every other month) Settlement Location A Other Settlement in a Valley; Lem, is an already well developed spot. It has three hubmoduals they termed the "Tumuli". They have a canteen, buggy cove, a well and a set of solar panels. Settlement Location B Sisyphi Montes  A mount surrounded with dust devil trails. One must be weary of briny mudslides in those terrible mountains. (Geology, Climb) Settlement Location C Noctis Labirinthus filled with icy fog (The Red Temple) A landscape of faulting graben filled chasmata. You can expect minerals in the landslide and pit formations clays, sulfates, and hydrated silicas meaning possibility of future opal mining. A peculiar part of Mars, as its deep angular canyons which some speculate were created by tectonic activity, in turn reputed by those following the magma flow theory, which itself is quickly disproven by the first as having no substantial basis, with some centrists muttering something about phreatomagmatic activity, volcanic eruptions under ice and such. And thus with two camps poorly positioning their theories but wholesale attacking the other theory, have left you with neither. No one knows how these came to existence bar that their angularity like many earthen forms of creation, bring to mind images of great chiselling giants, working at the stone. Much like in Devil's Postpile, Giant's Steps and other terrestrial granite formations. At times you can hear peculiar whistling sound coming from the crags, you presume it's the wind playing tricks. Module Craters; The modules of your space craft landed south of your ship's landing site. They could be scavenged for materials, each module crate successfuly scavanged grants 5 building points.

THE MARTIAN

The Martian. The Keeper of the Red Temple. Howling red wind elemental. Freeing it from the sealed sarcophagus makes it attack anyone inside of the temple. The party has the chance to escape to their craft or attempt to hide deeper down in the temple itself. Their suits should prove some protection against the winds and tentacle attacks of the Flying Polyp. Once freed and fed upon humans, it leaves to fly about the surface of mars, and once the Marspost gets into orbit it attacks it instead, great sand storms rise in the valley where the colonists settle. You can attempt to appease it by worshipping it. Remember tis no Cthulhu, you can thump it kamikaze style with your rocket and all that'll be left is radioactive cosmic pulp. A floating angulating mass of prolapsed buboes which seemed to throb in and out of existence. As if the very reality tried to shake it off of its fabric. A malevolent neoplasm covered in a scabrous hide winding and twisting in the space before you. One of its wretched three irised eyes was looking straight at you. It took you a moment to realize that the "iris" within the entity's eye was in fact a sucking tentacle, moving inside of a blob of turbid liquid you presumed to be its sense organ. The five "toed" mark is in fact a strong current of the air they use to propel themselves upwards with. You realized that the entity left behind a five tipped mark, you presumed to be some peculiar limb, in fact you did not see the thing touch the ground once. It must have used the same peculiar force of wind to propel itself upwards with in a five pronged pillar of force. You realize it's probably for the best not to try run underneath the creature.  Wounds left by the monster look like;"Windburn or desiccation of tissue" MARTIAN EQUIPMENT

Space-Force Pistol; Since the terrible satellite wars debacle of the 2031 every astronaut was armed with his own pistol working in the vacuum. It fires self propelled mini-rockets (1d10+1d6+3; Pistols; 10/10 uses 1 (3) a round) Pneumatic Hammer; Helps with small things like putting poles into the Martian soil. (1d8+1; Axes) Pneumatic Maul; Allows you to crash boulders and get rid of large obstacles, to clear landing pads and other things. Unjam doors. (1d10+3; Axes) Plasma Welder; With a precise laser aiming reticle this welder uses super heated plasma to precisely weld things together. (10/10 arm's reach/2d6 fire damage; chainsaw) Decontaminator; A hand flamer used to dispose of dangerous bio-hazards. A handheld civilian flame thrower once peddled by your company's CEO, simply re-branded and re-used for the purpose of the Martian mission. (5/5 uses short range/2d6+1d10 fire damage; flamethrower) E.E.D.D. or "Eddy"; The electrolitic electrostasis disruptor device or E.E.D.D for short was created to help Marsian pioneers clean their vehicles homes and devices off of Marsian dust. It being electrostatic the device uses electricity to discharge the electric particles from the dust, depriving it from electroastasis. When it turns on two electrically charged magnets turn about a lens as the machine makes a sound like a microwave. If you use it upon a failed mechanics check you get a no-penalty re-roll (3/3 uses short range/2d10 electricity damage; flamethrower) Auto-Riveter; Powerful rivet gun, capable of using rivets and nails. (2d6+1; Machine guns; 40/40 shot) Breaching material; Used for clearing large chunks of rocks and roadblocks (4d10; Demolition) Fuel bomb; 3 material points. You use fuel from the ship to build a flaming explosive. (1d6+1d10) Fertilizer bomb; 1 material points An improvised explosive material. (1d10) Space Suit; They provide you armour against mundane damage, radiation and temperature.(4 points)

MARTIAN CHASE

TO THE BUGGY! Cylindrical Tomb; Once the seal is broken the beast below awaits, rises up from the tomb and begins for to chase. Here most of the madness takes place if it does. Peculiar Ascent; One needs to roll for Climb or be stuck upon this steep sheer ascent. Failing a pushed roll or a fumble mean you increase the difficulty of the climb by breaking the rope posts in your frantic going up the ascent. You can make it even extreme if it happens twice. Odd Idols; One can bolt through this large hall unhindered. One can also attempt to hide behind one of the statues. For every roll of stealth you make the difficulty is rising from extreme, going up every turn you had to hide for, up to mundane roll or even advantage, to when the monster enters the Odd Idols room. Basalt Cavern; The basalt caverns are full of uneven broken rocks. It requires a successful DEX roll to make it through  the cavern. Failing it means spending a turn in the basalt cavern having tripped or some such. Labyrinthus Noctis; Briny mud and large Martian rocks make it very difficult to negotiate a buggy through the valley in haste. Unless one used explosives or labour to clean a rout out of the Labyrinth. A hard Drive Auto roll. QUCIKLY, INTO THE DEEP! Cylindrical Tomb; Once the seal is broken the beast below awaits, rises up from the tomb and begins for to chase. Granite Slabs; If you use your STR to move one of the slabs open it can prevent the malign wind from attacking you. I- Archeology roll; Elder things create earthly life from shoggoths from which emerge Yithians II- Biology; You see peculiar things coming to a planet III- Biology; You see the peculiar things devouring something that looks like a Permian animalia IV- Biology; You see the cone shaped beings turn against the peculiar alien thing with lasers V- Archelogy; You see cone things trapping the polyp in a peculiar tube.Mars used to be a lush planet, but once the polyps took over it it was rid of all life. The reason it has no magnetic field was a great electric laser ray fired from the earth by the Great Race in a last attempt to rid the solar system of the polyps. Deep; One can use stealth to attempt and hide in the deep of the Red Temple. It is a good hiding place between the draughty red halls. Your roll of Stealth starts at hard and moves up for every succesful roll you get up to advantage.

Martian Colonisation; Establishing it not as the main point of interest but a background to our quest and missions and stories. Some ideas and fundamentals of Martian colonisation. 260 days of flying to the planet. Thin atmosphere, high radiation, low pressure. Nice 20’ of warmth during the day and -100’ at night. Nuclear reactors for heating. Solar panels that barely work since we’re further from the sun and the electrostatic dust filled with toxic perchlorate salts can wipe a farm out right quick Mars is very energy poor. Little igloo looking shelter hidden under a layer of Marsian soil. Using Moxie ( Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) Box plasma reactor to create oxygen. Drilling Marsian water wells. Fishtank aquaponics with Marsian water for growing. Greenhouse for plants. 3 times as low a gravity. Fertilizing the greenhouse with all your litter and excresions, hidden underground with grow lights. Underground tunnels and drones flying on the radioactive surface of the planet. Using satelite dishes to communicate with earth with 20 minute breaks. People living in Hubmoduals powered by iny nuclear fission reactors. Water, due to atmospheric pressure turns from solid to gas if heated. Radioactive electrostatic dust storms. To add to that it is much finer and could easily get into poorly designed robots. Solar winds blew the atmosphere of mars into space, due to a low magnetosphere of Mars. No plate tectonics nor a molten core. Future hopes of ice mining, mineral extraction bases for U.S.C.I. (Your corporation: United Space Corporate Interests). Martian soil has to be boiled in vats of microbes and algae before it can be used to grow things on it. It itself is alkaline and lacks any sort of nitrogen.

STORY RECAP You go to Mars to find that the secret preliminary and not loud about mission which was to secure your landing is acting strange, and ominous and sad. They've lost one of their own due to an "accident" there are also some missing. His body hidden under a tarpolin outside of the camp. They are hiding the fact they've discovered the alien tomb and they don't want you to claim it. The wind in the Noctis Labirinthus drove them mad.