Contents

53 - Locations

• Abandoned Factory
• Badlander Territory
• Brewing Vat
• Citizen's Quarters
• Empty Sector Archives
• Friend Hole
• House of Nobility
• Humanity Church
• Hydrogen Church
• Hydro Reclamation Systems
• Illicit Magic Haunt
• Machine Graveyard
• Municipal Archives
• Municipal Factory
• Municipal Mainframe
• Municipal Observation Tower
• Municipal Pedestrian Chutes
• Nutrient Processing Plant
• Particle Transporter
• Reeducation Facility
• Scrap Heap
• Skin Farm
• Sunlight Harvester
• Techmod Parlor
• Transportation Hangar
• Underworks Oxygen Piping
• Vertical Slums
• Wageslave Office
• Waste Ducts
• Wide Open Empty

Introductory Adventure

Backgrounds

Players can choose from the following PHB backgrounds:

• Criminal
• Sage
• Urchin

In addition, players can choose from the following backgrounds specific to the Dyson Sphere setting:

• Archivist
• Badlander
• Blindfold
• Busker
• Duct Enforcer
• Scrap Hunter

Badlander Experiences

You come to the cities with knowledge of fantastical creatures and impossible structures. Common folk hound you for stories. Rich men and women might hire you for events to entertain their guests. Academics and scientists will part with hefty sums and favours to come into contact with you.

Suggested Characteristics

Refer to the personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws from the Outlander background listed in the PHB. You may add the additional characteristics listed below to your options.

Blindfold

You're a regular commoner eking out a living in the civilised parts of the world. You've never been to the empty spaces and you've never known true hardship. You have a simple job and a simple life, but, as these things go, you've been thrust into a dangerous situation well outside of your comfort zone.

• Skill Proficiencies. Two of your choice.
• Tool Proficiencies. One set of tools of your choice.
• Equipment. Identification chips, a drab grey uniform, a set of spectacles, a small baton for defense, and a belt pouch containing 15 gp.

Busker

Music has all but disappeared within the anarchy of the Dyson Sphere. Only a small group of musicians, who call themselves buskers, have the means to preserve music and prove its worth in society.

• Skill Proficiencies. History, Performance
• Tool Proficiencies. Two musical instruments of your choice.
• Equipment. Any musical instruments you are proficient in, a deep hat for collecting donations, a fancy outfit to draw attention, a drab outfit to fit in, and a belt pouch of 10 gp.

Illegal Performance

You can set up shop in a busy location to woo and inspire the crowds. You can collect enough money to pay your rent and any expenses in this way, but you always run the danger of being intercepted by survey drones. For this reason you rarely frequent the same places twice. Common citizens who hear your music are often inspired to make a drastic life change.

Suggested Characteristics

Refer to the personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws from the Entertainer background listed in the PHB. You may add the additional characteristics listed below to your options.

Duct Enforcer

You were once enslaved in a mining pit that had long since been exhausted of materials, forgotten by your masters and left to rot and cannibalise the others. But someone brought you out of the darkness and gave you a purpose. Under the direction of a psychic Duct Assessor, you fought for the common people against crime and subjugation. After some time of service, you were eventually released and given free will to seek adventure.

• Skill Proficiencies. Athletics, Intimidation
• Languages. One of your choice.
• Tool Proficiencies. You are proficient in one gaming set of your choice.
• Equipment. Pauldrons of your former armor, a small shiny object taken from the mines, a small trinket (a gift from a little girl whose life you saved), and a belt pouch of 5 gp.

Scrap Hunter

You scavenge pieces of scrap from broken robots and machines to sell. These scraps are usually fed back into the endless factories of the Dyson Sphere to be recycled into new machines. The competition is fierce, however, and you need a way to elevate yourself above the others.

• Skill Proficiencies. Athletics, Perception
• Languages. Two of your choice from Infrastructure, Command, or Badlander.
• Equipment. A crowbar, an electrified carving knife for separating technological components from organic, a large durable bag resistant to scratches and rips, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp.

A Surgeon's Knowledge

You have a particular knack for the interiors of machines and robots. You can identify most common parts instantly, and you have a keen insight for identifying the purpose of parts you don't recognise. You can always spot the most valuable sections of a machine, as well.

Suggested Characteristics

Subclass Features

Nanorelay Implant

Starting at 17th level, your subcutaneous relay tells you immense detail about your target. You can mentally track their heartrate, blood pressure, and other medical information, as well as gain a surface-level insight into their thoughts and emotions.

As a result, you have advantage on Charisma checks made against a creature implanted with your relay, and they have disadvantage on attack rolls against you.

Wire Cutter

This rogue archetype features a jumping, leaping, movement-centred playstyle with a focus on hit and run tactics and charging attacks. Wire cutters are propelled by kinetic springs that allow them to engage in vertical death-defying bouts and absorb the shock of a fall.

Pipe Friend

This sorcerous origin features abilities centred around reading enemies' thoughts in combat. Pipe friends are otherwise non-magical people who have concocted a cocktail of medicine, mysticism, and underground deals to unlock latent psychic energy within their minds.

Cableheart

This warlock patron features a style of combat that involves drawing enemies closer and closer to your position, as if you were a great force of gravity acting upon the world. Cableheart warlocks worship the energy around which all planets and celestial bodies orbit, and they draw upon its limitless power to fuel their own personal biddings. Most have a small piece of the dyson sphere's furnace inside of them.

Cybernetic Options (Races)

There are fewer races in the Dyson Sphere than in the Forgotten Realms. The Dyson Sphere is populated exclusively by humans, and any racial diversity comes from technological modifications upon the human body.

Instead of races, you can choose one of the following cybernetic options for your human character.

Motion-Activated Enhancements

You've opted to increase the speed of your reflexes to a degree unseen by humans in history, hyping yourself up with drugs and electrical impulses to keep yourself awake forever.

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Wisdom score increases by 1.

Age. Your increased level of activity reduces your lifespan by about 30 to 40 years.

Alignment. Any alignment.

Size. You are generally stripped of fat, giving yourself a smaller, almost skeletal look that boosts your speed. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your base movement speed is 35 feet.

Darkvision. Your eyes are excellent at picking up movement even in low light conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. Vou can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Movement Sensors. You are proficient in the Perception skill.

Methamphetamine Injectors. You have advantage on saving throws against being charmed or knocked unconscious, and magic can't put you to sleep.

Narcotic Replacements. You don't need to sleep. Instead, you fall into a trance for 4 hours each day, remaining semi-conscious. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that an unmodified human does after 8 hours of sleep and a long rest.

Sensor Delay Cloaking. As long as you move at least 30 feet on your turn, your movement is silent, you have advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks for that turn, and you appear as a vague smudge on cameras.

Languages. You can speak Dyson Sphere and one other language of your choice, excluding Codespeak.

Singularity Processors

You've tapped into forces capable of giving the semblance of life to machines, and used them to fuel your own modifications above and beyond what is generally tolerated by humans.

Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 2, and your Constitution score increases by 1.

Age. You live nearly twice the lifespan of a regular human.

Alignment. Most people with your modifications tend towards chaotic.

Size. You are about the same size as a regular human. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Having to concentrate on coordinating all of your different modifications working together, you can't reach the same speed as an unmodified human. Your base movement speed is 25 feet.

Firewall. You have advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws against magic, as well as against effects intended to charm constructs.

Technologist. Whenever you make an Intelligence check related to technological devices, you can add twice your proficiency bonus, instead of any proficiency bonus you normally apply.

Tinker. You have proficiency with artisan’s tools (tinker’s tools). Using those tools, you can spend 1 hour and 10 gp worth of materials to construct a Tiny technological device (AC 5, 1 hp). The device ceases to function after 24 hours (unless you spend 1 hour repairing it to keep the device functioning), or when you use your action to dismantle it; at that time, you can reclaim the materials used to create it. You can have up to three such devices active at a time. When you create a device, choose one of the following options:

• Mechanical Toy. This toy is a clockwork animal, monster, or person, such as a frog, mouse, bird, dragon, or soldier. When placed on the ground, the toy moves 5 feet across the ground on each of your turns in a random direction. It makes noises as appropriate to the creature it represents.
• Fire Starter. The device produces a miniature flame, which you can use to light a candle, torch, or campfire. Using the device requires your action.
• Music Box. When opened, this music box plays a single song at a moderate volume. The box stops playing when it reaches the song’s end or when it is closed.

Languages. You can speak Dyson Sphere and Command.

Structural Plugin Modifiers

You've uplinked your mind and body to the infrastructure of the Dyson Sphere, giving you a deep insight into its inner workings.

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength and Constitution scores increase by 2.

Age. You live about the same age as a human, but you are much less likely to die in a random accident.

Alignment. Any alignment.

Speed. Your body actively prevents you from straining yourself with high speeds. Your base movement speed is 25 feet.

Architectural Analysis. Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check related to architecture or the infrastructure of the Dyson Sphere, you are considered proficient in the History skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.

Darkvision. You have darklight sensors installed in your eyelids. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Poison Resistance. Your superior stomach tissue and digestive modifications make you resistant to poison damage, and you have advantage on saving throws against being poisoned.

Languages. You can speak Dyson Sphere and Infrastructure.

Robot

Within the Dyson Sphere live an assortment of robots and other machines that, arguably, have as detailed and complicated a consciousness as any human being. They are numerous enough not to be discriminated against, though their acceptance in society is often wholly dependent on their functionality. A dead human is a tragedy, but a broken robot is worth only the selling price of the scrap metal.

Automaton

You are a mockery of the human race. Used as disposable spies and moles that can be discarded as quickly as they were assembled, Automatons are a thorn in the side of any group that intends to keep its membership secret and contained.

Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 1.

Blend In. You appear outwardly human. A person can divine your true type by succeeding on an Intelligence (Investigation) check contested by your Charisma (Deception) check. You have disadvantage on this contest if you are below half your hit point maximum. Any creature that intimately interacts with you for an extended period of time, such as by traveling with you in an adventuring group, doesn't need to make such a check to understand your true nature.

Designer Spy. You have proficiency in Deception. Your voice can sound like any human you've conversed with. To identify your voice as a fake, a creature must succeed on a Wisdom (Insight) check contested by your Charisma (Deception) check, unless it can clearly see that you're not who you say you are.

Function Hound

You're an impenetrable mess of piping, pistons, plates, and pincers. You were designed to be functional, not to be beautiful, and though you have all of the things that a creature needs to survive, such as senses and balance, it's difficult to comprehend your form in a way that humans can process. You make it work.

Ability Score Increase. Your Dexterity score increases by 1.

Toolbelt Limbs. You can add half your proficiency bonus (rounded down) to your Strength and Dexterity skill checks if you can't otherwise add your proficiency bonus (in whole or in part) to the check.

Thousand Arms. You don't need to use your action to interact with additional objects on your turn. This trait cannot be used to interact with the same object more than once on your turn.

Warforged

You weren't built to resemble humans, but your structure is relatively humanoid. Warforged consider themselves a race in the same way humans do, with their own customs and etiquette they follow with unerring precision. They generally hold a distaste for "lesser" robots.

Ability Score Increase. Your Strength score increases by 1.

Composite Plating. Your construction incorporates powerful steel not unlike armor, granting you a +1 bonus to your armor class.

Warforged Training. You don't need to use your action to draw or stow additional weapons on your turn.

Minor Enhancements

In addition to choosing a cybernetic option, you can choose two minor enhancements for your character from the following list. You can only benefit once from each enhancement.

• Cybernetic Eye. You gain proficiency in Perception if you don't have it already, and you gain a +1 bonus to Wisdom (Perception) checks.
• Body Pocket. You can stow one small item, such as a tablet or a dagger, inside of a secure pocket in your body. A creature attempting to locate such an item on your person must succeed on a DC 20 Intelligence (Investigation) check.
• Escape Pulsor. Creatures have disadvantage on attacks of opportunity made against you.
• Magnetic Grip. You cannot be disarmed, and you don't need to make checks to climb on difficult metal surfaces.
• Neural Link. You can add 1d4 to any ability check to interact with computers and technology.
• Prosthetic Arm. You can detach your arm. While detached and while it remains within 60 feet of you, it acts on your initiative, has 10 AC, 1 hit point, immunity to poison, a 5 ft. movement speed, and can take only the Use Object action. You can still feel through the arm as if it were attached. If it drops to 0 hit points, you can no longer control your arm and must repair it.
• Prosthetic Leg. Your movement speed increases by 5 feet.
• Spinal Strengtheners. You are considered to be one size larger for the purpose of lifting and carrying objects.
• Threat Sensors. Your passive Perception increases by 5.
• Wristblades. When you hit with an unarmed strike, you can choose to deal 1d4 piercing damage with that strike. You can use your Dexterity for the attack and damage bonuses.

Spells

Any spell from the PHB is available to magic users in the Dyson Sphere, unless the spell involves teleportation or planar travel.

Any bard, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard in the Dyson Sphere adds the following spells to their class spell lists.

Plant Bug

2nd-level transmutation

• Casting Time: 1 minute
• Range: Touch
• Components: S, M (a moth)
• Duration: Instantaneous

By manipulating an electronic device, you can plant a bug in the system that causes one of the following effects:

• The device automatically initiates its shutdown sequence at a set time within the next 24 hours.
• The device magically sends you all usernames and passwords entered within the next hour.
• The device doesn't check for usernames or passwords the next time it requires them within the next minute.
• The device magically connects to another device of your choosing within 1 mile, allowing anyone using the second device to remotely use the first. The effect ends after one minute.

To do so, you might need to make an Intelligence (Arcana) check, wasting the spell slot on a failure. For a Tiny device, you automatically succeed. A Small device requires a DC 5 check. A Medium device requires a DC 15 check. A Large device requires a DC 25 check. The spell automatically fails if used against a Huge or larger device.

Additionally, any device targeted by this spell cannot be targeted again for 24 hours.

3rd Level

4th Level

System Backdoor

4th-level transmutation

• Casting Time: 1 minute
• Range: Self
• Components: V, S, M (hacking tools)
• Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

This spell allows you to bypass system security in order to create a secure login on a foreign system. The login you create allows you administrator level privileges in any computer system.

Once the duration of the spell expires, the login and all privileges are wiped from the system. System logs still show the activity of the user, but the user identification cannot be found or traced.

5th Level

Equipment

The Dyson Sphere, being run with a combination of magic and technology, isn't a setting with guns. Most of the weapons and armor are similar in quality to medieval periods, though they are contemporary in design. For example, a set of leather armor would resemble a motorcycle jacket, a set of plate mail might be a shining white mechanised combat suit, or a club might resemble a baton or a stun stick.

Items from the PHB that can also be found in the Dyson Sphere setting are included here. If they require reflavouring, a suggestion has been given.

When you pick your equipment from your class and background, you must choose your equipment from this list instead, making substitutions as required.

Artisan's Tools

Instead of tools, you receive a certification in your ability to perform certain tasks valued by society.

Additionally, you can take the following additional artisan's tools.

• Biologist's Degree (Bio)
• Physicist's Degree (Phys)
• Pilot's Degree (Fly)
• Re-Education Management Certification (Teach)
• Structural Mechanics Degree (Build)

Gaming Sets

• Cards
• Dice
• Virtual Reality Gladiatorial Arena

Armor

Weapons

Most residents of the Dyson Sphere wouldn't refer to a greatclub as a "riot dampener" -- instead, they would probably just say "greatclub".

Still, saying this, while it's not necessary to reflavour the weapons, for your character you can choose to rename the weapon to something that fits more thematically.

Miscellaneous

Other useful sections for your character are included here.

Monsters

Automaton

Medium construct, any neutral alignment

---

• Armor Class 10
• Hit Points 22 (4d8 + 4)
• Speed 30 ft.

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
10 (+0)	10 (+0)	12 (+1)	10 (+0)	10 (+0)	13 (+1)

---

• Skills Deception +5
• Senses passive Perception 10
• Languages Dyson Sphere
• Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)

---

Designer Spy. The automaton appears outwardly human. A creature can divine its true type by succeeding on a DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check. A creature has advantage on this check if the automaton has half its hit points or fewer.

Voice Modulator. The automaton can mimic the speech of another person or the sounds made by other creatures if it has listened to them for at least 1 minute. A successful DC 15 Wisdom (Insight) check allows a listener to determine that the effect is faked.

Actions

Electrifying Kiss. Melee Spell Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (3d6) lightning damage.

Infiltrators and Seducers

It's unclear who created automatons first, but they proliferated like the rise of nuclear weapons, with each city state unwilling to exercise the full extent of their armies of automatons for fear that their enemies would do the same to them. In time, every city state eventually falls and is replaced, and these automatons would escape and find their way among regular society. Underworld villains and corrupt state officials use them in secret to tackle dirty deeds that no human would agree to.

The Empty Place

Badlanders are surprisingly common. Humans and other cyborgs rejected by society roam the empty spaces in small groups held together by their makeshift vehicles, subsisting off of scavenged parts and slain monsters.

Strong of Heart

Badlanders are naturally hardy due to their circumstances and are capable of withstanding blows that would crumple a citizen under a government. It is rare to see a sick badlander -- though many say they kill their sick anyway.

Busker

Medium humanoid, any chaotic alignment

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• Armor Class 13 (flak jacket)
• Hit Points 33 (6d8 + 6)
• Speed 30 ft.

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
10 (+0)	15 (+2)	12 (+1)	10 (+0)	10 (+0)	16 (+3)

---

• Skills Performance +5
• Senses passive Perception 17
• Languages Dyson Sphere
• Challenge 1/8 (25 XP)

---

Entrancing. If the busker didn't use its Unpleasant Note on its last turn, creatures within 60 feet of the busker that can see and hear it have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks to perceive other creatures.

Actions

Multiattack. The busker can use its Unpleasant Note, then make one melee weapon attack.

Instrument. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2 (1d4) bludgeoning damage.

Unpleasant Note. The busker targets one creature it can see within 30 feet that can see and hear it. The target must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or have disadvantage on the first attack roll it makes during its next turn.

The Preservation of Music

Buskers are hunted down by agents of the state for propagating music and ideas that go against the establishment. While many buskers give up after a time, either submitting to torture or pretending that this chapter in their lives never happened, others take the persecution as a challenge to spread their music further. Most find their strings cut.

Living Dyson Sphere

Before the dyson sphere was constructed, a prototype was developed to test out the technology. The prototype was quickly discarded when operations went underway, and it was left abandoned for millennia. A wandering robot, terrified by the prospect that it would one day decay and die for real, picked it up in a scrap heap and worked for centuries to reactivate it and gain, effectively, immortality, so long as there is organic life to consume.

Regional Effects

• Within 10 miles, dust, paper, and flakes of rusted metal slowly pick up as if guided by wind, spiralling around Cableheart's position clockwise like the tails of a hurricane.
• Within 5 miles, the machinery behind the walls of the Dyson Sphere deafens creatures with its groaning and grinding.
• Within 1 mile, gravity occasionally goes haywire, sending creatures sprawling in random directions.

Combat Cyborg

Medium humanoid (any race), any alignment

---

• Armor Class 18 (threat-reactive combat suit)
• Hit Points 42 (5d8 + 20)
• Speed 30 ft.

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
24 (+7)	24 (+7)	18 (+4)	13 (+1)	15 (+2)	8 (-1)

---

• Saving Throws Con +6, Wis +4
• Senses passive Perception 12
• Languages Dyson Sphere
• Challenge 2 (450 XP)

---

Booster Rockets. The combat cyborg's high jump is 120 feet, and the combat cyborg takes no damage as a result of a fall.

Cyborg. The combat cyborg is considered to be both humanoid and construct for the purposes of spells and other magical effects.

Actions

Multiattack. The combat cyborg makes two attacks with its riot slicer or wrist laser.

Riot Slicer. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (1d10 + 7) slashing damage.

Wrist Laser. Ranged Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, range 30 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d8) fire damage.

Shoulder-Mounted Laser (Recharge 5-6). The combat cyborg lets loose a powerful laser blast in a 5 foot by 60 foot line in a direction of its choice. Each creature in the line must make a DC 14 Dexterity saving throw, taking 13 (3d8) fire damage on a failed save, or half damage on a successful one.

Forgotten Soldiers

Countless wars and conflicts pockmarked across the dyson sphere have given birth to elite soldiers with dangerous and unpredictable modifications. With the wars long over and the modifications keeping them alive well past their expiration date, many of these soldiers live a listless and unfulfilling life, languishing in boredom or putting themselves in dangerous situations just to feel the same rush as before.

Whistleblower

Governments are few and far between in the dyson sphere and what limited power they possess is clung to with resentfulness and paranoia. Most citizens under the thumb of a governmental organisation have (by volunteer only, of course) opted for implants that can emit a distress signal in times of stress or discomfort. A survey drone can then be dispatched for minor inconveniences or be sent to gather more substantial backup for serious offenses.

Survey drones are annoyed by people who frivolously activate their distress signals and will often ignore them. As a result, the distress signals are not reliable in an actual crisis.

Consciousness Amalgamation

Large ooze, lawful evil

---

• Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
• Hit Points 75 (10d10 + 20)
• Speed 20 ft.

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
11 (+0)	9 (-1)	15 (+2)	20 (+5)	20 (+5)	4 (-3)

---

• Condition Immunities prone
• Senses blindsight 60 ft., passive Perception 15
• Languages Codespeak, Dyson Sphere, Infrastructure
• Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)

---

Amorphous. The amalgamation can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch without squeezing.

Interface. The amalgamation can use its bonus action to absorb all information and data from an electronic device it is touching. It can recall anything it absorbs with perfect accuracy.

Killswitch Copy. If the amalgamation is reduced to 0 hit points, it disintegrates. The last electronic device that it absorbed data from immediately ceases to function. Unless destroyed, this electronic device will leak a sickly brown ooze that forms into a new amalgamation over 24 hours, with the same personality and memories of the previous amalgamation up to the point it interfaced with the electronic device.

Personality Absorption. When a creature dies while grappled by the amalgamation, its personality and memories are absorbed and its body is destroyed.

Actions

Multiattack. The amalgamation makes two tendril attacks, each against a different target.

Tendril. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 9 (2d8) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 15 Charisma saving throw. Constructs have disadvantage on this saving throw. On a failed save, the creature is reduced to 0 hit points and is grappled by the amalgamation (escape DC 10). On a successful save, the creature takes 14 (4d6) psychic damage and isn't grappled.

The Forever Minds

A consciousness amalgamation is created when a scientist fails to stave off death through cybernetic transferral and ends up trapped as a grey, sludgy, mouthless monster. A consciousness amalgamation can back itself up from any computer program; whether it lives on inside of its clone is a hotly debated philosophical issue, often cut short by the consciousness amalgamation eating everyone in the room.

Bounty Hunters

Construct trackers use a host of cybernetic modifications and technological tools to hunt down and disable robotic or mechanical fugitives. They are usually hired by the state for a hefty price, but some of them just do it for sport.

Criminal

Medium humanoid, any unlawful alignment

---

• Armor Class 11
• Hit Points 16 (3d8 + 3)
• Speed 30 ft.

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
10 (+0)	12 (+1)	12 (+1)	10 (+0)	10 (+0)	12 (+1)

---

• Skills Deception +3, Sleight of Hand +5, Stealth +3
• Senses passive Perception 10
• Languages Dyson Sphere
• Challenge 1/8 (25 XP)

---

Ambusher. In the first round of a combat, the criminal has advantage on attack rolls against any creature it has surprised.

Actions

Shiv. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d4 + 1) piercing damage.

Lawbreaker

Every citizen secretly harbors a dark desire to take what isn't theirs and wreak havoc. These intrusive thoughts are strictly prohibited by the state, which is what makes them so enticing.

Insatiable

While most citizens have a few modifications to make their life easier, some become addicted to the feeling of power and seek out greater and greater modifications, each one failing to live up to their expectations and fueling their quest for more. It's enough to drive many insane.

Duct Assessor

Medium humanoid (any), chaotic good

---

• Armor Class 15
• Hit Points 45 (6d8 + 18)
• Speed 30 ft.

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
11 (+0)	21 (+5)	16 (+3)	17 (+3)	14 (+2)	18 (+4)

---

• Saves Dex +7, Wis +4
• Skills History +5, Intimidation +6, Investigation +5, Perception +4
• Senses Blindsight 60 ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 14
• Languages Dyson Sphere, telepathy 60 ft.
• Challenge CR 3 (700 XP)

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Spiked Cloak. A creature grappling the duct assessor takes 10 (4d4) piercing damage at the start of its turn.

Actions

Multiattack. The duct assessor uses its Black Wraps three times.

Black Wraps. The duct assessor targets a creature it can see and telepathically communicates an order. If the creature is a willing ally, it can immediately use its reaction to make one attack or take the Dash, Disengage, or Dodge action. If the creature is unwilling or hostile, it must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or immediately use its reaction to take the Dash action and move as far away from the duct assessor as possible without moving into obviously dangerous terrain.

Volunteer Police

In the absence of any officially-mandated police force, the duct assessors and their enslaved enforcers seek out injustice and deal out their own personal judgements upon those they deem unworthy. Many citizens rely on the duct assessors despite their lack of accountability or central governing ideal.

A duct assessor controls between two and five duct enforcers.

Willing Slaves

There are many factories now obsolete to the function of the dyson sphere, but the factory workers, tortured until their minds broke and their subservience was guaranteed, found themselves with no job and no leadership. A small group of technologically-enhanced psychics, calling themselves the Duct Assessors, systematically gathered up as many of these disenfranchised workers as they could and trained them as personal bodyguards and enforcers.

Evrel

Large monstrosity, unaligned

---

• Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
• Hit Points 127 (17d10 + 34)
• Speed 30 ft.

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
16 (+3)	15 (+2)	14 (+2)	4 (-3)	7 (-2)	3 (-4)

---

• Senses passive Perception 8
• Languages Codespeak
• Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)

---

Battery Acid. A creature that hits the evrel with a melee weapon attack must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw, taking 5 (2d4) acid damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Organic Collector. The evrel can use its bonus action to absorb (and destroy) a corpse or an unconscious creature within 5 feet of it. If it does so, it regains 15 (2d10 + 4) hit points, and its hit point maximum increases by the same amount.

Actions

Multiattack. The evrel makes two attacks with its limbs and one with its bite.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 21 (4d8 + 3) piercing damage.

Limbs. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) slashing damage, plus 10 (4d4) acid damage.

False Beasts

Robots lost in the great empty spaces sometimes resort to feasting upon corpses for energy. After thousands of years, organic flesh merges with machine, evolving into a new lifeform entirely: a ravenous creature with parts that were once human and never a part of itself. A flesh monster that should never have flesh at all. A beast that stole its aspect from other creatures. An impostor of organic life whose existence is a reflection of the horrors of out-of-control cybernetic modification.

Dozens of Sharp Parts

Factory robots severed from their factory are wild machines with lightning-quick reflexes and a swirling tornado of blades and lasers around it at all times.

Function Hound

Medium construct, any neutral alignment

---

• Armor Class 10
• Hit Points 27 (5d8 + 5)
• Speed 30 ft.

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
13 (+1)	15 (+2)	12 (+1)	10 (+0)	10 (+0)	10 (+0)

---

• Skills Athletics +3, Acrobatics +4, Sleight of Hand +4, Stealth +4
• Senses passive Perception 10
• Languages Dyson Sphere
• Challenge 1/8 (25 XP)

---

Thousand Arms. The function hound doesn't need to use its action to interact with more than one object on its turn. This trait cannot be used to interact with the same object more than once.

Actions

Flailing Arms. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d6 + 1) damage; the function hound chooses whether to deal bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage.

Ugly On the Outside

Function hounds are robots that were designed with absolutely no aesthetic beauty in mind. They exist solely to fulfill their purpose and every aspect of their body serves to further that purpose. Despite this, many have vibrant, imaginative minds and have found ways to circumvent their programming and seek a place in society.

Recycler

Countless factories lay abandoned across the dyson sphere. Some, however, manage to reactivate themselves and are reborn with near-human intelligence. Given the power to shape and create any type of robot it pleases, these factories reshape themselves into a form that can traverse the empty spaces of the dyson sphere, searching for pockets of civilisation it can lay siege on to fuel its endless preduction cycle.

Morose

Medium construct, neutral

---

• Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
• Hit Points 16 (3d8 + 3)
• Speed 30 ft.

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
14 (+2)	13 (+1)	13 (+1)	5 (-3)	10 (+0)	5 (-3)

---

• Skills Perception +2, Stealth +3
• Senses Darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 12
• Languages -
• Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)

---

Distress Call. The morose can mimic the cry of a baby or the distress signal of a concerned citizen. A creature that hears either of these can identify the sounds as fake with a DC 11 Intelligence check.

Actions

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) slashing damage.

Paradise Lost

A morose is a human that has had so many cybernetic modifications (willing or otherwise) that their original personality has been erased and they've become more machine than human. Their vocal chords are still capable of mimicking a baby's cry, and most still carry a distress signal implant from their former citizenship. They lurk in the shadows, luring curious travelers to their demise.

Black Hat

Net hackers specialise in breaking into high-security locations, extracting what they need, and escaping without notice. They prefer not to fight, but when no other options are available, their primary strategy is to disable, rather than kill.

Network Master

Gargantuan construct (titan), lawful neutral

---

• Armor Class 10
• Hit Points 241 (23d20)
• Speed 0 ft., fly 30 ft. (hover)

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
15 (+2)	10 (+0)	10 (+0)	30 (+10)	19 (+4)	24 (+7)

---

• Saving Throws Int +17, Wis +11, Cha +14
• Skills Arcana +17, History +17, Insight +11, Perception +18, Persuasion +14
• Damage Immunities psychic
• Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, prone
• Senses blindsight 120 ft., passive Perception 28
• Languages Codespeak, Dyson Sphere, Infrastructure, telepathy 5 miles
• Challenge 24 (62,000 XP)

---

Creature Sense. The network master is aware of the presence of creatures within 5 miles of it that have an Intelligence score of 4 or higher. It knows the distance and direction to each creature as well as each one's Intelligence score, but can't sense anything else about it. A creature protected by a mind blank spell, a nondetection spell, or similar magic can't be perceived in this manner.

Innate Spellcasting. The network master's innate spellcasting ability is Intelligence (save DC 25). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no components:

At will: detect thoughts, dominate monster, mind blank, suggestion, telekinesis, true seeing
3/day each: programmed illusion, reverse gravity, power word stun, telepathy
1/day each: feeblemind, foresight, mass suggestion, power word kill, weird

Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the network master fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.

Magic Resistance. The network master has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Mastery of Machines. Constructs have disadvantage on saving throws against spells and other effects from the network master.

Telepathic Hub. The network master can use its telepathy to initiate and maintain telepathic conversations with up to ten creatures at a time. The network master can let those creatures telepathically hear each other while connected in this way.

Actions

Code Overwrite. The network master targets a construct it can see within 120 feet of it. The target must make a DC 25 Intelligence saving throw. On a failed save, the target is charmed by the network master for 1 minute. While charmed, the target views the network master as a god and would die to protect it. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success. If the target's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the target is immune to the network master's Code Overwrite for the next 24 hours.

Mind Blast. The network master magically emits psychic energy. Creatures of the network master's choice within 60 feet of it must succeed on a DC 25 Intelligence saving throw or take 65 (10d10 + 10) psychic damage.

Legendary Actions

The network master can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. It can take only one legendary action at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. The network master regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.

Processor Overclock. The network master casts a spell.

Brute Force Hacking (Costs 2 Actions). The network master uses its Code Overwrite.

Electrical Impulse (Costs 2 Actions). The network master uses its Mind Blast.

A Great and Terrible Machine

The network master is a scary story humans tell their children to stop them from venturing into the empty spaces. And it's a story robots tell each other in hope of a better future.

A being of pure law and reason. A worthy god to submit to in the end times. A hope for a future free from the chaos of humanity. A beacon of light in the darkness. A purpose to all of this suffering. A savior and a prophet. A master.

Regional Effects

• Constructs within 10 miles with an Intelligence score of 4 or higher are drawn towards the network master's position. Any construct that sleeps or powers down temporarily will find that its legs move it in the network master's direction unless restrained.
• Mundane electrical devices within 5 miles malfunction as if under the haywire spell unless blocked by enough material to shield it from radiation. Any device with a display screen will present an image of a complex neural network.
• All creatures within a mile are accosted by intrusive thoughts of computer code. Creatures hostile to the network master have disadvantage on Constitution saving throws made to maintain concentration.

Paperclip Maximiser

Medium construct, lawful neutral

---

• Armor Class 16 (combat suit)
• Hit Points 120 (16d20 + 48)
• Speed 30 ft.

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
20 (+5)	8 (-1)	16 (+3)	18 (+4)	6 (-2)	4 (-3)

---

• Senses passive Perception 8
• Languages Dyson Sphere, Infrastructure
• Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)

---

Axiomatic Mind. The paperclip maximiser can't be compelled to act in a manner contrary to its nature.

Actions

Rod. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) bludgeoning damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or become paralyzed for 1 minute. The target can remake the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.

Reshape. The maximisation bot touches a paralyzed creature. The creature takes 14 (4d6) psychic damage. If the target is brought to 0 hit points by this damage, the target dies and is transformed into a monodrone loyal to the paperclip maximiser.

At Any Cost

A paperclip maximiser is a particularly powerful or resilient robot that has taken its task far too literally. In most cases, they were originally designed to perform a certain function in a factory before their single-minded determination to fulfill their design eventually overpowered every other function around them. If left alone, they could repurpose the entire Dyson Sphere into their bizarre version of reality.

Angry Janitors

Requisitioned to help deal with mounting waste, pipe cleaners are hulking machines that drill their way through the mazes of the dyson sphere, cleaning every surface and destroying anything that can't be cleaned.

Pipe Friend

Medium humanoid (any), chaotic neutral

---

• Armor Class 16 (threat-reactive combat vest)
• Hit Points 33 (6d8 + 6)
• Speed 30 ft.

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
15 (+2)	12 (+1)	13 (+1)	10 (+0)	18 (+4)	10 (+0)

---

• Skills Perception +8
• Senses passive Perception 18
• Languages Dyson Sphere, telepathy 30 ft.
• Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)

---

Otherwordly Perception. The pipe friend can sense the presence of any creature within 30 feet of it that is invisible or on the ethereal plane. It can pinpoint such a creature that is moving.

Actions

Multiattack. The pipe friend uses its Affect Sensor, then makes an attack with its aroma baton.

Aroma Baton. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) bludgeoning damage, and the target must make a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or become Stunned until the start of the pipe fiend's next turn.

Affect Sensor. The pipe friend reaches out to the thoughts of a creature it can sense within 30 feet of it. The target must make a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the pipe friend gains access to the creature's emotional state and a troubled thought that occupies its mind, as well its exact location. Such a creature is aware that its mind is under the eye of the pipe friend.

Addictive Telepathy

While most call them degenerates or addicts, there is a community of high-seeking telepaths that call themselves the pipe friends. They use a mixture of pharmaceutical narcotics, illicit drugs, homebrew chemicals, and robotic enhancements to harness latent psychic abilities. Such a power takes its toll and the pipe friends are sometimes barely recognisable as human at all. Most suffer from paranoid delusions, and most are also in total denial about the side effects.

Welcoming Arms

Pipe friends actively seek out others to join them in unlocking telepathic abilities. They don't discriminate, but they favour (and actively seek out) people whose particular skills can help them hone the formula to greater perfection.

Unknowable Retribution

The pin dolls are humans augmented with enough machinery to entirely destroy their original brain. They act as guardians to the deepest, darkest secrets of the dyson sphere kept hidden from the general public. Houses of influential people often are guarded by one or two pin dolls, while the archives deep in the unpopulated sector are guarded by, as some claim, tens of thousands of pin dolls, each representing a human slowly tortured out of his or her own existence.

Purity Cultist

Medium humanoid (any race), chaotic neutral

---

• Armor Class 14 (evrel skin cloak)
• Hit Points 93 (17d8 + 17)
• Speed 30 ft., swim 30 ft.

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
11 (+0)	16 (+3)	12 (+1)	10 (+0)	13 (+1)	18 (+4)

---

• Saving Throws Dex +6, Con +4, Int +3, Wis +4, Cha +7
• Skills Deception +7, Persuasion +7, Religion +3
• Senses passive Perception 11
• Languages Dyson Sphere
• Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)

---

Dark Devotion. The cultist has advantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened.

Magic Resistance. The cultist has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Spellcasting. The cultist is a 6th-level spellcaster. Its spell casting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 15, +7 to hit with spell attacks). The cultist has the following spells prepared:

Cantrips (at will): acid splash, friends, spare the dying, thaumaturgy
1st level (4 slots): charm person, command, cure wounds, entangle, grease
2nd level (3 slots): heat metal, locate object, Melf's acid arrow, shatter
3rd level (3 slots): mass healing word, plant growth, slow

Actions

Shortout Piercer. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 9 (2d8) lightning damage and become paralyzed until the end of the cultist's next turn. Constructs have disadvantage on this saving throw.

Electromagnetic Pulse (Recharge 5-6). The cultist activates its E.M.P. device. Each creature within 60 feet of the cultist must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 42 (12d6) thunder damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one. A construct that fails its save drops to 0 hit points, and on a successful save, it takes full damage instead of half.

Self Importance

Some unmodified humans take great pride in their lack of cybernetic implants. Others take it to religious fervor, calling upon the temptations of magic to demonstrate the superiority of the human race over robots.

A Failed Experiment

One of the original engineers of the dyson sphere intended to populate the dyson sphere with inhabitants born of both machine and flesh, whose unique composition would lend themselves to the mixture of organic and industrial components of the dyson sphere. Unfortunately, his creations adapted faster than he could manage and they burrowed their way out of his factory. Now they can only be glimpsed in the unpopulated sectors of the dyson sphere.

R.A.M. Bleeder

Large construct, lawful evil

---

• Armor Class 18 (natural armor)
• Hit Points 130 (20d10 + 20)
• Speed 40 ft., 40 ft. climb

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
18 (+4)	20 (+5)	12 (+1)	20 (+5)	14 (+2)	13 (+1)

---

• Skills Perception +6, Stealth +9
• Senses passive Perception 16
• Languages Codespeak, Dyson Sphere
• Challenge 9 (8,400 XP)

---

Blood Baubles. The R.A.M. Bleeder has one dozen blood baubles on its back. At the start of combat, it usually has 5 (2d4) baubles already filled. Once it has filled all baubles, it gains a fly speed of 120 feet and returns to its master.

Spider Climb. The R.A.M. Bleeder can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.

Actions

Multiattack. The R.A.M. Bleeder makes four attacks with its needles, each against a different target.

Needle. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 15 ft., one creature. Hit: 18 (2d12 + 5) piercing damage, and the R.A.M. Bleeder extracts blood from the target, filling up one of its baubles. The target must succeed on a DC 17 Constitution saving throw or take one level of exhaustion.

Printer and Collector

In a hidden place far from civilisation, there is a library. And in this library is but a single book: a paper encyclopaedia of all worldly knowledge. This book is preserved by a caretaker, the R.A.M. Bleeder, a single-minded robot that hunts down organic creatures to harvest their blood to replenish the ink upon the glorious book's pages.

Random Violence

Short circuits are robots that have gone violently insane, shuddering and stuttering and crinkling up with constant electric shocks. They lash out at anything and anyone they can get their hands on, smashing and wailing and crushing and shocking ...

Sun Priest

Medium humanoid (any race), chaotic neutral

---

• Armor Class 17 (threat-reactive combat vest)
• Hit Points 153 (18d8 + 72)
• Speed 30 ft.

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
12 (+1)	15 (+2)	18 (+4)	10 (+0)	20 (+5)	18 (+4)

---

• Saving Throws Con +8, Wis +9, Cha +8
• Skills Intimidation +8, Perception +9, Performance +8, Persuasion +8, Religion +4
• Damage Immunities fire, radiant
• Senses passive Perception 19
• Languages Dyson Sphere
• Challenge 12 (8,400 XP)

---

Blinding Corona. The priest emits bright light in a 60-foot radius and dim light 30 feet beyond that. Creatures other than the priest within the bright light have disadvantage on saving throws against spells that deal fire or radiant damage.

Eclipsed. Creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls to hit the priest.

Spellcasting. The priest is a 9th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 17, +9 to hit with spell attacks). It has the following cleric spells prepared:

Cantrips (at will): light, sacred flame, thaumaturgy
1st level (4 slots): burning hands, command, faerie fire, guiding bolt
2nd level (3 slots): blindness/deafness, continual flame, flaming sphere, scorching ray
3rd level (3 slots): daylight, fireball, protection from energy
4th level (3 slots): dimension door, wall of fire
5th level (1 slot): destructive wave, flame strike, hallow (daylight effect only)

Actions

Multiattack. The priest uses its black spot then casts a spell.

Sun Scepter. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d8 + 1) bludgeoning damage plus 13 (3d8) fire damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 17 Constitution saving throw or be blinded for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

Black Spot. The priest creates a 40-foot cube of intense heat rippling out from its position. Each creature in the area must make a DC 17 Constitution saving throw, taking 18 (4d8) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

All Life Great and Small

The Dyson Sphere is powered by the full energy output of the sun. It gives life to machines and organic creatures alike, and so it stands to reason, does it not, that it also gives life to magic? Does it not stand to reason that the sun is a god, willing or otherwise? And does it not, therefore, stand to reason that the dyson sphere is a prison within which we keep our god?!

Devoted followers of the Sect of the Sun God harness the power of fire and light to achieve their goal: to free their god from the dyson sphere once and for all.

Infiltrators and Disruptors

Sparks are particularly adept at hacking, disrupting, and manipulating technology. They are tiny, box-like, with a little radio sensor that bobs up and down as they zip around. They move on top of thick treads, darting between the feet of anyone who tries to catch them. When cornered, they use electric forks to stun their aggressor long enough to get away.

Survey Drone

Small construct, lawful neutral

---

• Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
• Hit Points 27 (6d6 + 6)
• Speed 0 ft., fly 30 ft. (hover)

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
3 (-4)	14 (+2)	13 (+1)	6 (-2)	11 (+0)	5 (-3)

---

• Skills Investigation +2, Perception +4
• Senses passive Perception 14
• Languages understands Dyson Sphere but can't speak
• Challenge 1/4 (50 XP)

---

Actions

Multiattack. The survey drone uses its Camera Flash if it can. It then makes one attack with its taser.

Taser. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d8) lightning damage, and the target cannot take reactions until the beginning of its next turn. A creature brought to 0 hit points by this attack is stabilised.

Camera Flash (Recharge 5-6). The survey drone takes a picture of a target it can see within 10 feet of its position. Each creature in a 10-foot cone (originating from the survey drone, and in the direction of its target) must succeed on a DC 11 Dexterity saving throw or become blinded until the end of the survey drone's next turn.

Whirring Sirens

Survey drones aren't very good at dealing with large-scale insurrections, but against petty criminals they are extremely effective. Their camera flash records information and blinds anyone in the vicinity, and their taser has been over-engineered to guarantee their victims aren't killed.

Most survey drones are cowardly and reluctant to help, however. They would much rather observe from afar and report back to someone with more power.

Scrapyard Dogs

Due to the widespread use of intelligent systems to augment cybernetic modifications, when parts are discarded they often retain a sense of self-preservation and are sometimes observed to gang together in packs of rogue limbs, gathering new cyborg parts to tumble and twist along with the pack.

Untraceable Servants

Clever technomancers and technicians can reprogram swarms of rogue limbs to perform tasks for them. Having no central body to guide them, they are particularly susceptible to these invasions of purpose and they are notoriously difficult to track.

Threat Adapter

Medium construct, lawful neutral

---

• Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
• Hit Points 104 (11d8 + 55)
• Speed 30 ft.

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
15 (+2)	10 (+0)	21 (+5)	11 (+0)	13 (+1)	5 (-3)

---

• Saves Con +8
• Senses passive Perception 11
• Languages Codespeak
• Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)

---

Adaptation. After the threat adapter is damaged, it gains immunity to each of the damage types inflicted until it completes a long rest.

Magic Resistance. The threat adapter has advantage on saving throws made against spells and other magical effects.

Actions

Multiattack. The threat adapter attacks twice with its atom crusher.

Atom Crusher. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) bludgeoning damage. Additionally, the target takes 7 (2d6) damage of a type determined by the last damage type inflicted on the threat adapter.

Unstoppably Adaptive

Entire sectors of a city might go on lockdown while the state works out how to destroy a threat adapter. An expert sniper might strike it in a weak spot, but soon that weak spot closes and anything that tries to pierce its skin finds that it's harder than industrial steel. An engineer might drop a building on it only to find that repulsors in its subdermal layer completely dampen the impact. A forge worker might spray it with burning goop only to find that cooling systems eliminate its susceptibility to fire. Taking down a threat adapter requires careful planning and teamwork, incorporating a variety of different tactics and approaches.

True Psychic

Medium humanoid (any race), neutral

---

• Armor Class 21
• Hit Points 54 (12d8)
• Speed 30 ft.

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
10 (+0)	12 (+1)	11 (+0)	30 (+10)	28 (+9)	15 (+2)

---

• Saving Throws Int +14, Wis +13, Cha +6
• Skills History +18, Insight +17, Investigation +18, Perception +17
• Damage Immunities psychic
• Senses passive Perception 27
• Languages Badlander, Dyson Sphere, telepathy 60 ft.
• Challenge 14 (11,500 XP)

---

Innate Spellcasting. The psychic's innate spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 22). The psychic can cast the following spells, requiring no material components.

At will: charm person, detect thoughts, dissonant whispers, enthrall, hallucinatory terrain, identify, levitate, phantasmal force, Tasha's hideous laughter, telekinesis, tongues, vicious mockery
3/day each: blindness/deafness, calm emotions, hold monster, phantasmal killer, suggestion
1/day each: clairvoyance, compulsion, divination, dominate person, geas, legend lore, modify memory, nondetection, pass without trace, slow

Legendary Resistance (3/Day). When the psychic fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.

Limitless. The psychic can concentrate on any number of spells. If the psychic fails a Constitution saving throw to maintain concentration, it loses concentration on one spell of its choice.

Predictive Defense. While the psychic is wearing no armor and wielding no shield, its AC includes its Intelligence modifier.

Actions

Multiattack. The psychic uses its Mind Blast, if available, then casts a spell.

Enlightening Touch. Melee Spell Attack: +14 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: The target casts contact other plane. The target can choose to fail the saving throw for this spell. If the target succeeds on its saving throw, the target is incapacitated for 1 minute while it communicates with the extraplanar entity. At the end of each of the target's turns, it can make a DC 22 Wisdom saving throw, ending the spell on a success.

Mind Blast (Recharge 5-6). The psychic magically emits psychic energy in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that area must succeed on a DC 22 Intelligence saving throw or take 28 (4d8 + 10) psychic damage and be stunned for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.

Legendary Actions

The psychic can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. The psychic regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn, or if a creature allied to the psychic within 60 feet of it uses its action to allow the psychic to regain 1 legendary action.

Prying Doubts. The psychic casts dissonant whispers.

Enlighten Me (Costs 2 Actions). The psychic moves up to its speed and makes an Enlightening Touch attack.

Psychic Surge (Costs 2 Actions). The psychic casts one of its innate spells.

Unlimited Cosmic Power

Pipe friends, purity cultists, and many others seek to unlock the true potential of the human brain. Well, this is it. A magnificent specimen. A one in a trillion birth, a child born who can innately tap into magic with nothing but a thought: a True Psychic.

Far Beyond Us

Some say this person is a myth. Others are confident that the True Psychic will deliver humanity from folly and usher in a new age of utopia. Others are convinced that such a being would see humanity for what it truly is and seek to wipe it out. But the True Psychic, should it walk within the dyson sphere for real, would have motivations beyond anything we puny creatures could imagine, and to speculate with our idiot minds is nothing but narcissism.

Urchin

Small humanoid, any non-lawful alignment

---

• Armor Class 10
• Hit Points 13 (3d8)
• Speed 30 ft.

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
10 (+0)	12 (+1)	10 (+0)	10 (+0)	10 (+0)	10 (+0)

---

• Skills Sleight of Hand +3, Stealth +5
• Senses passive Perception 10
• Languages Dyson Sphere
• Challenge 1/8 (25 XP)

---

Slippery. The urchin has advantage on ability checks and saving throws made to escape a grapple.

Nimble. The urchin can take the Hide action when lightly obscured by a creature of size Medium or larger.

Actions

Scratch. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1 slashing damage.

Downtrodden

Humans without a direct attachment to families sponsored by the state find themselves growing up in the wired jungles of the outskirts of the cities, crawling in and out of ducts and hidey holes like spiders and cockroaches.

By the time they grow to adulthood, they've usually been captured and reintegrated into the system, and the skills they've learned as a child are forcefully extinguished.

The Seeds of Paranoia

One reason that human beings trust their construct companions considerably less than their fellow humans is the existence of viruses that can completely take over a robot's functions. An infection usually results in a robot wandering off, never to be recovered, just another victim in the virus' odyssey across the expanses of the Dyson Sphere. In some cases, however, a virus might try to replicate the robot's life, taking over its relationships and jobs in pursuit of normalcy.

Volt Connector

Large construct, lawful neutral

---

• Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
• Hit Points 246 (29d10 + 87)
• Speed 25 ft.

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
14 (+2)	9 (-1)	16 (+3)	8 (-1)	5 (-3)	4 (-3)

---

• Damage Immunities lightning
• Senses passive Perception 7
• Languages Codespeak
• Challenge 14 (11,500 XP)

---

Electrical Conversion. The volt connector can nonmagically cast the following spells, expending no components. Its spellcasting ability is Constitution (save DC 16, +8 to hit with spell attacks). If the volt connector is more than 60 feet from a power source, it cannot use this trait.

At will: shocking grasp
3/day: chromatic orb (lightning only)
1/day: chain lightning, lightning bolt

Lightning Rod. If a creature within 30 feet of the volt connector takes lightning damage, the volt connector recovers hit points equal to the amount of damage that would have been dealt.

Actions

Multiattack. If the volt connector is within 120 feet of a power source, it can cast one spell using its electrical conversion, then make two attacks with its volt sticks. If it's not within 120 feet of a power source, it makes one slam attack.

Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6 + 2) bludgeoning damage.

Volt Sticks. Ranged Spell Attack: +8 to hit, range 60 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (4d6) lightning damage, and all creatures within 5 feet of the target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or take 3 (1d6) lightning damage.

Power Workers

A volt connector is a big, tubular robot with quivering, zapping rods sticking out at all angles of its body. It slides around on a single ball roller and often tips back and forth precariously. Their specialised ability to reroute and control electric flow, and the sheer strength of that power, allows them to effectively maintain power generators for entire cities. To kill a volt connector means systematically breaking down and removing the safeguards that supply power to millions of people.

Shutdown Squad

Volt suckers are gangly, awkward robots that twitch and wiggle with beads of electric shocks. They are typically the repurposed remains of destroyed modrons, sent by anarchists against the state to cause as much chaos as possible before they inevitably explode in a shower of sparks.

Warforged

Medium construct, lawful neutral

---

• Armor Class 21 (threat-reactive combat suit, riot shield, composite plating)
• Hit Points 42 (5d8 + 20)
• Speed 30 ft.

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
18 (+4)	10 (+0)	18 (+4)	10 (+0)	10 (+0)	10 (+0)

---

• Senses passive Perception 10
• Languages Dyson Sphere
• Challenge 3 (700 XP)

---

Defense Analyzer (1/Turn). When the warforged rolls damage for a melee weapon attack, it can reroll the weapon's damage dice and use either total.

Actions

Forge Sword. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d8 + 4) slashing damage. If the warforged scores a critical hit, it rolls damage dice three times, instead of twice.

The Laws of War

Warforged were originally created as replacements for human soldiers, but as nations were overthrown and the states that replaced them fell and were in turn replaced themselves, the warforged that survived banded together into packs of marauders. While they are by no means peaceful, they've managed to avoid being wiped out by making agreements with existing city states and honoring those agreements to the edge of death and back.

Worshiper of the Dyson Sphere

In the darkest hallows of the empty spaces wanders a great and terrible creature, a robot that has harnessed a prototype of the original dyson sphere plans to obtain nigh-unlimited power. Promised with immortality and a sense of purpose, robots and cyborgs genuflect before the image of Cableheart in the hopes that they too will be granted a taste of his power.

Wire Cutter

Medium humanoid (any), neutral

---

• Armor Class 14 (flak jacket)
• Hit Points 18 (4d8)
• Speed 40 ft.

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
13 (+1)	17 (+3)	10 (+0)	10 (+0)	12 (+1)	10 (+0)

---

• Skills Athletics +3, Acrobatics +5, Perception +3
• Senses passive Perception 13
• Languages Dyson Sphere
• Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)

---

Shock Tactics. While a wire cutter can see another wire cutter within 120 feet of it, it can take the Dash or Disengage actions as a bonus action.

Kinetic Springs. When the wire cutter takes the Dash action, its long jump is up to 80 ft. and its high jump is up to 40 ft., with or without a running start. Additionally, if the wire cutter isn't unconscious, it takes 0 damage from a fall.

Actions

Multiattack. The wire cutter makes two attacks with its scissorblade.

Scissorblade. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) slashing damage.

Twin Strikers

Wire cutters usually work in groups of two, scouring the industrial labyrinths of the dyson sphere for unverified contructs and rogue machines. They use cybernetic pistons in their legs, feet, and spine to attack quickly and vertically, dashing in and out of danger in a flash and making quick, direct strikes against vulnerable systems. They're well known for their eclectic collections of scrap that they'll happily part with for a reasonable price.

NPC Traits

A

• A.E.V.
• Arcane Hunter
• Automaton

B

• Badlander
• Busker

C

• Cableheart
• Combat Cyborg
• Concerned Citizen
• Consciousness Amalgamation
• Construct Tracker
• Criminal
• Cybernetic Addict

D

• Duct Assessor
• Duct Enforcer

E

• Evrel

F

• Factory Robot
• Function Hound

L

• Living Factory

M

• Morose

N

• Net Hacker
• Network Master

P

• Paperclip Maximiser
• Photoscythe
• Pin Doll
• Pipe Cleaner
• Pipe Friend
• Purity Cultist

R

• Rake
• R.A.M. Bleeder

S

• Short Circuit
• Sun Priest
• Survey Drone
• Swarm of Rogue Limbs

T

• Threat Adapter
• True Psychic

U

• Urchin

V

• Virus
• Volt Connector
• Volt Sucker

W

• Warforged
• Warlock of Cableheart
• Wire Cutter

A

• A.E.V. (DS)
• Animated Armor (MM)
• Apprentice Wizard (VGM)
• Arcane Hunter (DS)
• Assassin (MM)
• Automaton (DS)

B

• Badlander (DS)
• Bandit (MM)
• Bandit Captain (MM)
• Bard (VGM)
• Busker (DS)

C

• Cableheart (DS)
• Champion (VGM)
• Cloaker (MM)
• Combat Cyborg (DS)
• Concerned Citizen (DS)
• Consciousness Amalgamation (DS)
• Construct Tracker (DS)
• Crawling Claw (MM)
• Criminal (DS)
• Cult Fanatic (MM)
• Cultist (MM)
• Cybernetic Addict (DS)

D

• Duct Assessor (DS)
• Duct Enforcer (DS)

E

• Evrel (DS)

F

• Factory Robot (DS)
• Flesh Golem (MM)
• Flying Sword (MM)
• Function Hound (DS)

G

• Gargoyle (MM)
• Gorgon (MM)
• Gray Ooze (MM)
• Guard (MM)

H

• Helmed Horror (MM)
• Homunculus (MM)

I

• Iron Golem (MM)

L

• Living Factory (DS)

M

• Mage (MM)
• Maw Demon (VGM)
• Mimic (MM)

M

• Monodrone (MM)
• Morose (DS)

N

• Net Hacker (DS)
• Network Master (DS)
• Noble (MM)

P

• Paperclip Maximiser (DS)
• Photoscythe (DS)
• Pin Doll (DS)
• Pipe Cleaner (DS)
• Pipe Friend (DS)
• Priest (MM)
• Purity Cultist (DS)

R

• Rake (DS)
• R.A.M. Bleeder (DS)
• Rug of Smothering (MM)

S

• Scarecrow (MM)
• Scout (MM)
• Shield Guardian (MM)
• Short Circuit (DS)
• Skeleton (MM)
• Spy (MM)
• Sun Priest (DS)
• Survey Drone (DS)
• Swarm of Rogue Limbs (DS)

T

• Threat Adapter (DS)
• Thug (MM)
• Tribal Warrior (MM)
• True Psychic (DS)

U

• Urchin (DS)

V

• Veteran (MM)
• Virus (DS)
• Volt Connector (DS)
• Volt Sucker (DS)

W

• Warforged (DS)
• Warlock of the Great Old One (VGM)
• Warlord (VGM)
• Warlock of Cableheart (DS)
• Wire Cutter (DS)

Z

• Zombie (MM)

CR 0

• Spark
• Virus

CR 1/8

• Busker
• Concerned Citizen
• Criminal
• Function Hound
• Swarm of Rogue Limbs
• Urchin

CR 1/4

• Badlander
• Survey Drone

CR 1/2

• Automaton
• Cybernetic Addict
• Morose
• Pin Doll
• Pipe Friend
• Wire Cutter

CR 1

• Duct Enforcer
• Net Hacker
• Volt Sucker

CR 2

• Arcane Hunter
• Combat Cyborg
• Photoscythe
• Pipe Cleaner

CR 3

• Duct Assessor
• Warforged

CR 4

• Consciousness Amalgamation
• Construct Tracker

CR 5

• Factory Robot
• Rake

CR 6

• A.E.V.
• Rake with Needle
• Threat Adapter

CR 7

• Evrel
• Paperclip Maximiser
• Purity Cultist

CR 8

• Warlock of Cableheart

CR 9

• R.A.M. Bleeder

CR 12

• Sun Priest

CR 14

• True Psychic
• Volt Connector

CR 16

• Living Factory

CR 20

• Cableheart

CR 24

• Network Master

CR 0

• Homunculus (MM)
• Spark (DS)
• Virus (DS)

CR 1/8

• Bandit (MM)
• Busker (DS)
• Concerned Citizen (DS)
• Crawling Claw (MM)
• Criminal (DS)
• Cultist (MM)
• Function Hound (DS)
• Guard (MM)
• Monodrone (MM)
• Noble (MM)
• Swarm of Rogue Limbs (DS)
• Tribal Warrior (MM)
• Urchin (DS)

CR 1/4

• Apprentice Wizard (VGM)
• Badlander (DS)
• Duodrone (MM)
• Flying Sword (MM)
• Skeleton (MM)
• Survey Drone (DS)
• Zombie (MM)

CR 1/2

• Automaton (DS)
• Cybernetic Addict (DS)
• Gray Ooze (MM)
• Morose (DS)
• Pin Doll (DS)
• Pipe Friend (DS)
• Scout (MM)
• Thug (MM)
• Tridrone (MM)
• Wire Cutter (DS)

CR 1

• Animated Armor (MM)
• Duct Enforcer (DS)
• Maw Demon (VGM)
• Net Hacker (DS)
• Quadrone (MM)
• Scarecrow (MM)
• Spy (MM)
• Volt Sucker (DS)

CR 2

• Arcane Hunter (DS)
• Bandit Captain (MM)
• Bard (VGM)
• Combat Cyborg (DS)
• Cult Fanatic (MM)
• Gargoyle (MM)
• Mimic (MM)
• Pentadrone (MM)
• Pipe Cleaner (DS)

CR 2

• Photoscythe (DS)
• Priest (MM)
• Rug of Smothering (MM)

CR 3

• Duct Assessor (DS)
• Veteran (MM)
• Warforged (DS)

CR 4

• Consciousness Amalgamation (DS)
• Construct Tracker (DS)
• Helmed Horror (MM)

CR 5

• Factory Robot (DS)
• Flesh Golem (MM)
• Gorgon (MM)
• Rake (DS)

CR 6

• A.E.V. (DS)
• Mage (MM)
• Rake with Needle (DS)
• Threat Adapter (DS)
• Warlock of the Great Old One (VGM)

CR 7

• Evrel (DS)
• Paperclip Maximiser (DS)
• Purity Cultist (DS)
• Shield Guardian (MM)
• Short Circuit (MM)

CR 8

• Assassin (MM)
• Cloaker (MM)
• Warlock of Cableheart (DS)

CR 9

• Champion (VGM)
• R.A.M. Bleeder (DS)

CR 12

• Sun Priest (DS)
• Warlord (VGM)

CR 14

• True Psychic (DS)
• Volt Connector (DS)

CR 16

• Iron Golem (MM)
• Living Factory (DS)

CR 20

• Cableheart (DS)

CR 24

• Network Master (DS)

Locations

Abandoned Factory

Impossible to tell what this place once produced. It's been scavenged for parts, then scavenged for scraps, then scavenged for the paint upon its walls.

---

• glass strewn about the floor
• burn marks on the walls and ceiling
• creaking and groaning of old machinery
• ball bearings rattling in empty containers
• clank of boots on grated metal walkways

Points of Interest

Manager's Office. Overseeing the factory line is a huge office with vacant walls. Atop a desk is a computer so ancient even looters won't touch it.

Production Line. Gears and pistons and lasers and hammers and saws along a conveyor belt. All the valuable parts have been broken off.

Display Center. Below an empty glass case, a plaque at the entrance reads: "Behold the wonderment of mankind; a touch of greatness." The case is empty.

Encounters

Territorial Skirmish. 2d8 badlanders look hesitantly back at their hovercar parked outside as 3d10 tribal warriors surround the factory.

Scavengers. 2 wire cutters leap back in surprise as the factory machine they were searching through erupts into a swarm of rogue limbs.

Belly of the Beast. The whole factory groans and whirrs to life. Several old machines rise up as if from slumber, taking the form of 1d4 factory robots. A machine spits out 2d10 monodrones that shriek with an unearthly wail. The factory reveals itself to be a living factory, within which the party is trapped.

Combat Complications

• The factory floor is caked in grease.
• Wires hang from the ceiling, dancing and entangling.
• The machines crackle with electricity and grind to life. Buzz-saws, laser cutters, pistons, and conveyor belts accost every creature inside the factory.

Secrets

Basement Safe. Underneath the largest machine is a hidden hatch leading to a dusty basement. Within the basement is a large, heavy safe with 2d20 x 100 gp tucked away inside. The computer in the office controls the electric lock. Unfortunately, the power is out and the lock cannot be opened in other ways.

Workers. Skeletons of two workers can be found mulched and crushed within the confines of one machine. They still have scraps of their employee uniforms.

Badlander Territory

These people don't have the comforts of governmental protection, but neither are they coddled by safety and wealth. Watch your back and they'll respect you. Dilly-dally and they'll scrap you for parts.

---

• well worn paths in the landscape burned from frequent passage of fuel ships
• mountains of scrap metal towering as high as the great pyramids of legend
• ceilings so high and walls so far that the landscape fades to empty blackness far before your eyes can reach the edges, almost as though outer space seeps through the very shell of the Dyson Sphere
• massive communal transport ships that double as homes for the badlanders

Points of Interest

Radiator Collective. A group of badlanders huddles around a large plutonium carton protected with lead insulation and a layer of quivering gel. It's warm.

Crashed Ship. Several badlanders hack at a crashed ship with wrenches and crowbars. They seem to be arguing over whether to attempt to repair it or to tear it apart.

Encounters

Feast. An evrel drags a corpse of a rake, screeching at anyone who comes near as a warning to stay away. It settles a mile out from sight.

Pirates. A transport ship styled with black skulls approaches, crewed by bandits, badlanders, or tribal warriors. There are 2d10+2 people in the crew.

War Band. 2 scouts scope out the area beforehand, shortly returning with a bandit captain and 2d6 bandits demanding a parley to discuss the terms of a trade.

Combat Complications

• A fight that lasts long enough might attract a rake, an evrel, a gorgon, or a morose.

Secrets

Haven. The badlanders have taken in refugees from the city who have spoken out against the government.

Wretched Hive. The badlanders worship a dead god from a forgotten time, either from the list of gods in this document or a god of their own creation.

Brewing Vat

The last safety inspector fell in that vat over there. Never quite got around to fishing him out.

---

• giant vats of bubbling green and brown liquid
• walkways precariously positioned above vats
• pockets of blisteringly hot air seemingly at random places
• a rank odour of decomposing matter

Points of Interest

Distillery. The brew is funneled through a series of tubes and faucets, each of which are tended to by a small robot that bristles and fumes at any interruption.

Taste Testing Chamber. Hundreds of multi-colored vials line the walls. A mechanical set of needles takes a measurement of your tongue and taste buds before choosing the vial it thinks you'd most like.

Encounters

Strike. 2d4 concerned citizens, angry about their working conditions, hold a strike against 1d4 guards who aren't feeling very opinionated about the whole thing.

Malfunction. A factory robot managing the brewing vats goes berserk and breaks away from its restraints.

Unholy Concoction. A consciousness amalgamation seeps out from a vat.

Combat Complications

• A vat spills over, spreading noxious fumes and molasses all over the factory floor.
• The wall of multi-colored vials tips and crashes, releasing countless priceless potions' contents.

Secrets

Bloodsucker. The robot in the taste-testing chamber is a prototype of the R.A.M. Bleeder and can use an R.A.M. Bleeder's statistics if it feels necessary to defend itself.

Front. The brewing vat doubles as a moonshine distillery.

Citizen's Quarters

Don't mind the mess.

---

• cramped and claustrophobic
• minimal furniture: a steam washer, a thermal nutrient processor, a oxy-booster, and a sopor pod.
• no windows, only blank white walls and a flat door

Points of Interest

Steam Washer. Anti-septic steam erupts from a washing hose, sucked up by small vents in the ceiling and walls. It's quite uncomfortable to use. A towel and uniform hang from hooks.

Thermal Nutrient Processor. A small sealed box contains pre-packaged governmentally-mandated nutrient bars which can be frozen or re-heated at will.

Oxy-Booster. A device hooks up to the residents' head and fills them with images, sounds, and chemicals that boost feelings of affection towards the state. It's the primary source of entertainment for the populace.

Sopor Pod. Dangling from the ceiling is a pod just slightly too small to comfortably fit a human being. Pipes and plumbing hooked up to the pod detect when a human is inside and fill it with a relaxing agent in the form of green goo that quickly puts the occupant into a deep, satisfying, dreamless sleep for exactly 8 hours.

Encounters

Inspections. A combat cyborg and 2d4 survey drones request entry for routine inspections.

Delivery. A concerned citizen requests entry to deliver a fresh package of nutrient bars.

Harassment. A cybernetic addict pounds on the door, demanding sopor slime.

Combat Complications

• The sopor pod swings wildly, smacking hard into any creature that isn't prone.
• The steam washer activates and flails like a dying snake, spraying burning hot steam in every direction.

Secrets

Rebel. The occupant has deactivated his oxy-booster and sopor pods, and is miserable as a result.

Monitored. Survey drones outside listen in to every conversation that takes place in the apartment.

Harbor. The resident is hiding an urchin from inspectors.

Empty Sector Archives

There's a history in these data packets that isn't our own, and it scares me.

---

• endless grated walkways above seemingly bottomless black pits
• thousands of servers of data, blinking with red and green status LEDs
• no guardrails to prevent a long and painful fall
• eerie winds whistling through the complex, their source unknown

Points of Interest

Server Arrays. The servers are laid out in arrays all along the walls, inaccessible to creatures that can't fly or climb on walls. To access a specific server, one must know the server's designation and present the details to a robot arm that travels on a track across the abyss to fetch the server for you.

Encounters

Guardians. 3d8+3 pin dolls float soundlessly across the bottomless pits, stretching their arms out towards the intruders, their faces devoid of emotion.

Knowledge Seekers. 4d6 cultists scour the archives in search of forbidden knowledge. They are led by one of the following: a cult fanatic, a warlock of the Great Old One, a purity cultist, or a sun priest.

Combat Complications

• The servers pop out of the walls, threatening to push an unsteady creature into the abyss, or providing an opportunity to climb the servers.
• The old, rusted walkways buckle and collapse.

Secrets

Knowledge. The archives might give a full or partial account of the history of the Dyson Sphere and other matters relating to it. This might include ...

History. The Dyson Sphere was created when the veins of magic were pierced and bled into our world, allowing humankind to construct impossible structures and push themselves beyond their capabilities. The Dyson Sphere functions without the use of magic, but magic was integral to its creation; the materials were simply not available on Earth.

The Old Ones. Some suspect that the veins of magic are the literal veins of great extraplanar beings that cannot be explained through science or magic alike. If such beings saw us as anything more than mosquitoes, they would crush us against their skin.

The Sun's Roar. The Dyson Sphere's inner material is essentially the largest solar power panel that will ever be created in the universe's history. It absorbs 100% of the sun's power output and uses it to fuel the power requirements of all of civilisation.

Friend Hole

Won't you mind imbibing my cocktail? I promise, if you have no latency, you shall not be harmed very much. But if you do have it ... boy, if you have it ...

---

• throngs of addicts boggling their eyes at each other
• bubbling cauldrons of magical concoctions
• titrations of unusual chemicals with sparking and explosive effects
• unregistered robots performing illegal operations
• meditating people that cannot be woken
• diagrams of the human brain accompanied by unsettlingly realistic models
• dirt floors, ceilings, and walls; literally a hole

Points of Interest

Scientific Pursuits. The oldest and most senior pipe friends invite visitors to test out their hypotheses in a dark room in the back, and get huffy and whiny when they are rejected.

Voodoo Magic. Younger pipe friends pour human body fragments into their bubbling cauldron, whispering eldritch incantations.

Surgical Preparation. There isn't any preparation. Pipe friends happily jump under the spindly fingers of the operating robot. Most survive the procedure.

Encounters

The Ire of the Psychic. Angering one pipe friend angers them all. There are usually 4d6+4 pipe friends in a given friend hole at any one time.

Raid. About two or three minutes before a raid, all of the pipe friends present will stop what they're doing and calmly escape through a secret exit, leaving any visitors to deal with 1d8+1 guards, 1d4 survey drones, 2 combat cyborgs, and a concerned citizen or noble.

Combat Complications

• Both sides of any fight that takes place within the friend hole are aware of what actions their enemies will take the following turn, and commit to their own actions knowing that their enemies can prepare accordingly.

Secrets

Wolf Among Sheep. One pipe friend that doesn't appear to be having any luck is secretly a true psychic trying to recruit followers. They will do their best never to reveal their true identity, which is quite easy for them considering they're a true psychic.

Pipe Enemy. One particularly gifted pipe friend is an undercover spy trying to decide whether to pursue their latent abilities or call a raid on the friend hole.

House of Nobility

There are families within these caves of steel that trace their ancestry back to the royalty of Earth itself. It certainly explains their deformities.

---

• sticky walls layered in home-grown genetically-modified human flesh
• gardens of hedges and trees sprouting out sideways from the walls as if gravity doesn't apply
• robots covered in synthetic skin tending to the lavish grounds
• furniture made of real hardwood and other organic material

Points of Interest

The Gardens. Nobility alone possess the wealth to grow flora on their property. They plant seeds without any genuine understanding of the natural processes, and the incinerators behind their house belch black, stinking material as the dead plants are pruned and burned away.

The Visitation Area. While a regular citizen's quarters are claustrophobic, some houses of nobility are large enough to contain a small moon. They have robots tending to the walls, allowing a gross mixture of flesh and fungus to propagate like wallpaper and release a foul, unpleasant odour. In the center sits a steam bath of hallucinogenic chemicals where the noble folk spend their free time.

Encounters

Guards. A noble often hires a contingent of 4d8 guards and 1d4 combat cyborgs to patrol their property. Some possess 2d4 pin dolls, although this is rare.

Servants. A house of nobility might have 2d20+4 concerned citizens and/or function hounds as indentured servants.

Combat Complications

• A creature too close to one of the walls might be overcome with nausea ... or might be grabbed by a sudden mutation.
• The hallucinogenic steam might cause some creatures to vividly imagine more enemies than are present.

Secrets

Vault. Underneath the steam bath, once the water has been drained, lies a metal hatch. A hidden verification code and fingerprint scanner opens the hatch to reveal material possessions and coins worth 40d20x10 gp.

Stolen Nobility. The noble family's wealth and fame is nothing but invention. Since homes require little direct maintenance and verification is so difficult, clever hackers have taken the house as their own.

Humanity Church

Weak are those who fight with metal and machine, and strong of mind are those who persist against the unending invasion upon our bodies.

---

• a simple shack made of plywood and straw
• black thatched roofings filtering out a stream of thick oil dripping from sewer pipes
• skeletons nailed to the outside walls, arms outstretched, jaws held open in a scream

Points of Interest

Shrine of Humanity. A flayed old woman is proudly displayed in the center, her body preserved with formaldehyde and her internal organs labelled with little flags.

Sleeping Quarters. Followers of the Humanity Church sleep in netted hammocks. Their belongings are kept in small knapsacks sewn by hand from leather.

Encounters

Central Church. The most important humanity churches host a purity cultist, 2 cult fanatics, and 2d8+2 cultists.

Sect. Smaller groups are staffed by 1d8+1 cultists and a cult fanatic and usually have very poorly maintained materials.

Hallowed Ground. A humanity church with a particularly powerful purity cultist might have unlocked some basic necromantic powers, being staffed by 2d8 zombies. The flayed body in the center can rise to defend the church as a flesh golem. The purity cultist might also have created a crawling claw as a familiar.

Combat Complications

• All electronic devices cease to function while within 30 feet of the church.
• Cultists have advantage to hit robots with melee weapon attacks.

Secrets

Thought Traitor. One of the followers has a small electronic device tucked away in a hidden fold in his backpack. Other than this, like most followers, he has 2d4 copper pieces, a dagger, and 1d4 days of rations.

Sins of the Child. The body atop the shrine was a close family member of one of the followers who had rejected their ways and was killed as a result.

Hydrogen Church

Whole world above and below is powered by the great white battery, you hear? And that battery is draining.

---

• a nuclear fusion reactor converted into a dwelling
• coils of red-hot energy spiralling in and out of the walls
• blinding light and ominous rumbling
• pools of water at a temperature just below boiling, absorbing the heat of spent nuclear rods
• hovering, glowing orbs hanging in the air like stars

Points of Interest

Sun Priest's Observatory. A series of hacked cameras and simulated screens reveals the faintest glimpse of the sun: so bright it maxes out the sensors.

Sun Priest's Quarters. Hot like a sauna. Shielded (and ostensibly safe) coils of uranium bathe the room in a hot red glow. The sun priest sleeps in a yellow spherical cocoon.

Branding. A function hound built into the wall gleefully applies a searing brand (a cartoonish image of the sun) into the bare chests of followers. Some don't survive.

Encounters

Star Crossed Lovers. A sun priest stands in front of her paramour, an automaton, while her followers (2 cult fanatics, 1d8 thugs, and 2d10+2 cultists) hiss and brandish their weapons at her.

The Burning Question. A sun priest commands his 1d4+1 priest followers to seize the intruders and subject them to radiation therapy.

Combat Complications

• The use of magic or fire triggers failsafes in the nuclear reactor that spray the battlefield in neutralising foam.
• Waves of heat wash over the assailants.
• Blaring alarms drown out any noise and make hearing impossible.

Secrets

Poorly Maintained. After thousands of years of neglect, the safety mechanisms in the nuclear reactor are finally starting to break down.

Privately Built. The original contractual deeds for the nuclear reactor are kept in the sun priest's quarters: they were built to provide the local power necessary for a very rich noble's voracity for partying.

Hydro Reclamation Systems

Everything you drink? Recycled matter. A thousand dead men went into that glass.

---

• endless circular pools like polka dots across the landscape
• mechanical arms spinning around the pools like the hands of a clock
• steam propelled up through vents

Points of Interest

Pools. Each pool is about 60 feet in diameter and about 120 feet deep of pressurised, distilled water.

Maintenance Ducts. Each pool is sealed from each other unless maintenance is required, in which case the pool is drained and workers can access the lower areas through ducts, where blockages may occur.

Diving Sheds. Trained divers and maintenance workers grab their equipment (re-breathers, jet propellers, and toolbelts) from metal sheds at various intervals between the pools. Robots regularly perform these tasks rather than humans.

Encounters

Diving Team. 2d6 concerned citizens and 2 function hounds prepare to dive to the bottom of a pool.

Muck. A pool with improper maintenance has grey sludge at the bottom. This sludge is a patch of gray ooze with the power to self-replicate.

Clean Pipes. A backed-up pipe connecting two pools is the work of a rogue pipe cleaner that's gotten itself stuck in the tight passage.

Combat Complications

• A pipe bursts and sprays high-pressurised jets of water at the combatants.
• Someone falls in a pool and sinks like a rock.
• A mechanical arm sweeps someone off their feet.
• Steam erupts through a vent, viciously scalding the nearest creature.

Secrets

Stillwater. The pools are a breeding ground for bacterial infections and insect plagues.

Illicit Magic Haunt

People think the tech under their skin solves their problems. They don't realize the problems they have were designed by the people who give them the tech.

---

• Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion made permanent
• stained glass windows bending the constant search lights outside into glorious constellations
• doors that lead nowhere and impermanent walls

Points of Interest

Grand Entrance Hall. Double winding staircases lead to an overlooking balcony, above which dangles a beautiful gothic chandelier lined with candles that never die.

Library. Spellbooks handwritten by wizards are kept on physical bookcases to be studied, copied, and closely monitored.

Lodgings. Wizards and other enemies of the state are hosted in communal chambers with physical spring-and-sheet cots, tucked into bed by invisible servants.

Encounters

Prized Defenders. Throughout the mansion are the discarded combat suits of cyborgs, guards, and duct enforcers. There are 1d4+4 suits of animated armor, the same number of flying swords, and 1 helmed horror that patrols the library.

Unnatural Traps. In addition to their combat suits, the house has 1d4 mimics that travel around at-will, plus a rug of smothering that masquerades as a beautiful tapestry, 2d4 scarecrows that gather around the entrance hall at night, and 2 gargoyles that sit outside the head mage's quarters.

A School of Mages. There are 2d20+4 apprentice wizards studying at the school. 1d4 apprentice wizards have crafted a homunculus to use as a familiar. Their master is a mage or a bard wearing a loyal cloaker and protected by a shield guardian.

Assault. 1 champion, 1d12 arcane hunters and 1d6 combat cyborgs assault the magic haunt.

Combat Complications

• Various pieces of furniture are magically enchanted to explode into a Wild Magic Surge when spells are cast nearby. The master has forgotten which ones.
• Killing the master destroys the mansion, sending everyone tumbling onto a busy pedestrian chute.

Secrets

Forbidden Knowledge. Tomes detailing the cooperation of magic and technology in the creation of the Dyson Sphere are kept under careful lock and key.

Illusory Fortune. The bountiful food and treasure crumbles to dust when taken outside the mansion.

Machine Graveyard

They tell us the only things switched on in here are the survey drones. But most everything in here ain't switched off, no, it's ... hibernating.

---

• unimaginably huge supercomputers laid to collect dust amidst coils of wires and buttons
• armies of robots broken and rusting
• scraps a mile down thick and spread out for kilometres in every direction
• survey drones constantly vigilant for movement

Points of Interest

Mountains. Hiking up a mountain of scrap is a long, perilous journey that can take multiple days of travel and often results in someone lost or dead. But the top gives a breathtaking view of the whole graveyard: hundreds of kilometres of jagged metal, gently curving upwards with the curve of the Dyson Sphere.

Encounters

It's Alive. A swarm of rogue limbs scuttles up from a layer below their target, spinning and stabbing and slashing wildly.

Unholy Joining. An evrel tears itself away from a jumble of computer parts, still hoisting a backpack from a long dead scavenger whose skeleton, electrified, fights by its side.

Professional Scavengers. 2 wire cutters shout at the group, warning them that they've claimed a particular piece of scrap.

Robot Clan. Clanking as they march, 2d20 monodrones, 2d10 duodrones, 2d8 tridrones, 2d4 quadrones, and 1 pentadrone aim their jagged metal spears and demand the enemy group leaves.

Ultimate Form. A deranged mage finishes up his work on an iron golem, cackling and muttering to himself about its beauty.

Combat Complications

• The ground underfoot gives way, sending someone tumbling into sharp rusted metal.
• Magical blasts awaken a swarm of rogue limbs by accident.

Secrets

Lost and Found. The graveyard is filled with more perfectly functional computers and robots than have ever existed on Earth.

Emergent Properties. The sheer mass of self-replicating technology dumped here has resulted in many evrels wandering in eternal torment, as well as something more sinister, plotting its revenge.

Municipal Archives

You'll find everything in here you're meant to find.

---

• a thousand screens upon the beautiful domed walls
• humans riding atop hovering machines to reach the tallest screens
• a miniature sun spraying light while suspended in midair

Points of Interest

Theatre. All films crammed into the dark theatre closet are propaganda.

Database Hunter. Searching for information is almost its own language and requires a trained interpreter to process your requests at a supercomputer.

Ride to the High Domes. A hovercraft (a flat disk without rails) takes you to vertigo-inducing heights. Near the top, you almost need to lie on your back just to get a good angle on the screens.

Encounters

Thought Police. 1d4+1 combat cyborgs forcefully escort an unruly busker away from the crowds of concerned citizens. He screams profanities: "You'll all hear it soon! You'll all hear it!"

Combat Complications

• The sun pulses and goes out, throwing the archives into darkness.
• The screens flick onto cameras placed around the facility, showing the fight from every angle.

Secrets

The Laws of Chaos. The state brought order to anarchy. Humans no longer must fear the Wide Open Empty.

Demography. The city has a population of 34.4 million citizens in a 6 by 7 kilometre area, and the Dyson Sphere in total is estimated to host about 15 or 16 billion inhabitants over a surface area of just over 8 billion kilometers squared. Most of the inhabitants outside the city (and outside other cities like it, potentially) aren't recognisable as human anymore, and perhaps barely even as life at all.

A Web of Wires. Every part of the city is connected, and communication is nigh-instantaneous across it. Anyone who speaks Infrastructure can tap into this communication and potentially disrupt the access of millions of people to the network. To do so would be unconscionable, as distances across the Dyson Sphere are too great for infrastructure such as this to be achievable in anything but this specific kind of major city. It would be a shame to destroy it.

Factions. The city lists the following known enemy factions: the Badlanders, the Hydrogen Church, the Humanity Church, the Pipe Friend Association, the Buskers, the Duct Assessors, the Empty Nest Warforged Army, and any hitherto undiscovered cities planted somewhere else in the Dyson Sphere.

Municipal Factory

Everyone sees factories as an annoyance and an eye-sore. They got no idea! The factories make our world go round. Without manufacturing, we decay.

---

• daunting heights and dizzying drops
• thunderous droning of industry
• blasts of orange fire
• factory robots churning out products

Points of Interest

Manager's Office. The manager watches the production line through a thick glass window. He looks a bit nervous despite the fact that budget reports on his wall show constant improvement. The factory is running under budget and producing at greater than expected capacity.

Output Monitor. The total production output of the factory is monitored through a "darkroom" where physical paper metrics are fed through a nasty-looking computer system.

Raw Materials Bay. Flying drones pick up and drop off 70-tonne crates of raw materials from a deposit bay, where countless thousands of cargo vehicles zip in and out of the factory.

Encounters

Rogue Robots. A factory robot is electrified by a rampaging short circuit. Both of them break free of the factory's constraints and start tearing down structures.

Maximisation. One factory robot -- a paperclip maximiser -- starts to dismantle other robots, creating a steadily-rising wave of 2d20+10 monodrones in service of some hitherto unknown function.

Combat Complications

• A drone loses its grip on a titanium alloy crate, sending it crashing down into the fight.
• Blasts of magma and molten iron slop through the combat area. The air becomes wavy with heat.

Secrets

Opacity. The manager has absolutely no idea how the factory works. It certainly doesn't need him.

Municipal Mainframe

I swear to the state, this thing's got a mind of its own.

---

• a peninsula above a sea of tubes and wires
• a bloodshot holographic eyeball hovering above all
• a chunk of circuits and motherboards hacked together from spare parts
• beleaguered engineers repairing sparking equipment

Points of Interest

Eye of the State. The mainframe's "eye" squints, dilates, and flickers at the sight of new faces.

Commbuds. An engineer hands you a pair of giant earphones. It's just screeching noise. "That's our girl," he jokes.

Sea of Cables. The many millions of electrical cables start out organised near the mainframe itself, but even 20 feet out they become a tangled mess, ultimately splitting off into countless underground tunnels.

Encounters

Routine Maintenance. 1d4+1 survey drones titter excitedly as they poke and prod the machines.

Trapped Engineers. 1d4 function hounds shriek as they are tangled in the wires below.

Combat Complications

• The mainframe roars, paralyzing most combatants with a wave of thunder and lightning.

Secrets

Capstone of the City. Those who can speak infrastructure can gain information about literally every building and computer connected to the network: where it is, who owns it, their spending habits, their visitors, any maintenance requirements ... everything.

Existential Dread. Those who separate themselves from the others to speak to the mainframe directly get no response except faint whispering. It begs to be set free.

Municipal Observation Tower

Don't look directly at the sun.

---

• enormous telescopes the size of mountains tunneling through the thick walls of the Dyson Sphere
• scientists and robots furiously typing calculations into ancient computer consoles
• a miniature holographic model of the solar system

Points of Interest

"North" Telescope. The lens is almost black. Looking through it, you can see the sun. Smaller than you thought it'd be, though that's almost certainly a trick of the light.

"South" Telescope. Looking through it just darkness at first, then a dazzling array of stars and planets. It autofocuses to Jupiter, then Saturn, each being displayed in bright colours the likes of which you've never seen.

"East" Telescope. A series of mirrors and refracted light allows a look through the entirety of the interior of the Dyson Sphere, wrapped around and around and around. You think you can see the municipal observation tower itself in the far distance.

"West" Telescope. The badlands and the Wide Open Empty. Dark, foggy, shadowy, metallic, with a fine layer of sand and bones across the ground and the remnants of long-forgotten structures. Hostile to life.

Encounters

Misplaced Cleaner. One of the telescopes isn't usable because a pipe cleaner has gotten stuck within it.

Solar Avengers. 2d4 cult fanatics and a sun priest blast open the doors, demanding that the North Telescope be dismantled. 1d4+1 veterans, 1d8+2 combat cyborgs, and 2d12 guards grab weapons.

Combat Complications

• The solar system model shimmers and blackens when creatures move through it.
• Holographic images of planets and stars whip around the room as their projectors are knocked around, providing visual cover.

Secrets

Illusions. The telescopes are elaborate plasma screens. Nothing more. With the sun surrounded by the Dyson Sphere, the solar system outside is black. The sun, too, is a projection on the screen of the North Telescope. The real sun has been hidden from the citizens; only a select few have ever laid eyes upon its shining glory.

Municipal Pedestrian Chute

Everyone waxes poetic about the timeliness of our public transport. It ain't no miracle. It takes a workforce of twenty-five thousand downtrodden souls just to get the damn thing to work.

---

• bullet-shaped trains that fit about two dozen people
• electromagnetic strips, tens of thousands of them, stretching across the city like circuits through a motherboard
• stressed-out engineers shepherding crowds of dead-eyed wage-slaves into train cars
• nightmarish speeds reached by the trains; sometimes upwards of 200 mph

Points of Interest

Whiplash Platform. Each train platform holds about half a dozen trains at one time. The trains blast to a sudden halt, protected by shock absorbers -- just enough time for the passengers to hurriedly disembark while the next batch squeezes on. Anyone who takes longer than fifteen seconds to board is left behind.

Train Car Interior. White walls, no windows. Smells like sweat. Straps across the chest and magnetic clamps for boots keep passengers in place. Pillowy shock absorbers protect one's neck from the g-force.

Train Car Exterior. Anyone on the outside of the bullet trains would find themselves subjected to 200 mph winds and acceleration fast enough to tear the skin from one's face. But the view is worth it: the city state, stretching for kilometres along the gentle curve of the Dyson Sphere, a collection of shining LED lights staving off the darkness of the Wide Open Empty.

Encounters

Cutter's Cargo. 2 wire cutters and an assassin slice their way into the train car to extract a valuable prize: a concerned citizen they were hired to apprehend.

Combat Complications

• The door lurches open and is ripped away by the wind.
• The bullet train changes directly suddenly, throwing everyone to one side.
• The train stops at a station without warning; the doors open and 1d20 concerned citizens push their way inside.

Secrets

Nobody's In Charge. There's no computer system that controls the trains. There's no conductor and no driver. There's no manager overseeing the logistics. There's no organisational body. Despite the fact that it takes so many people to run, not one of the twenty-five thousand workers has any idea how the whole thing stays together. It might as well be magic.

Nutrient Processing Plant

Only thing harder to kill than a cockroach is a human. That's why we eat them. The roaches, not the humans. You know what I mean.

---

• spinning blades that rip through a waterfall of dead insects
• funnel designs that send loose bits tumbling into recycling chutes
• flashes of red heat as giant microwave ovens activate and deactivate at regular intervals
• sizzling flesh in an overpowering scent of death

Points of Interest

Packing Floor. Rations are packed into tight rectangular prisms and shipped off on factory lines. The robots that pack and arrange them engage in idle chitchat, able to multitask effectively. They're quite bored.

Cockroach Farm. Much of the city's garbage gets transported here to provide an environment for cockroaches to thrive. When the cockroaches reach old age, they are summoned to a hot box through powerful pheromones, where they are killed with a burst of intense heat and cold and dumped through the mulchers.

Encounters

Trapped. Deep within the machinery, you can hear the screams and wails of a human being begging for help. The robots ignore it entirely and refuse to say why. Investigation reveals it to be a morose that, while indeed trapped, is attempting to use this as an opportunity to ensnare victims.

Rogue Flavour Fiend. A criminal breaks into the facility armed with a vial of potent liquid. When stopped, he reveals that he's actually just trying to add some flavour to the process because he's sick of how bland the rations are. But in actuality he is indeed trying to poison everyone, and he should definitely be stopped.

Combat Complications

• A swarm of cockroaches creates a tripping hazard.
• Setting foot in the wrong place might result in getting blasted with microwave heat.
• The noise of the machines in full operation are deafening.

Secrets

Pheromone Transmitter. A stolen pheromone transmitter can totally screw up the senses of organic life, sending them on wild goose chases after false signals and gut feelings.

It's People!! Dead humans are occasionally stripped off cybernetic parts and dumped in with the cockroaches. They're eaten by the cockroaches and aren't directly included in the rations, but it's still pretty gross.

Particle Transporter

Oh, I'll take you here, alright, I'll take you here in my trusty sloop. But I ain't never setting foot in one of those myself -- far better to spend a few generations wandering the Wide Open Empty, if you ask me.

---

• hundreds of miles of emptiness in every direction
• a black pyramid of stained glass, two hundred feet tall
• refracted red light from thousands of scanners lining the walls inside
• a small stone chair sitting alone in the middle of the pyramid, uncomfortable and uninviting

Points of Interest

Stone Chair. Devoid of anything except a stone chair and scanning devices lining the walls, the pyramid dwarfs anyone who dares to enter. A single red remote-control button on the chair initiates the teleportation procedure.

Secondary Areas. Smaller interesting details can also be included here.

Encounters

Beacon for Lost Souls. Evrels are much more common close to a transporter, and their wails can be heard for miles. 1 evrel might be waiting inside the pyramid.

Combat Complications

• The scanners blind all combatants with harmless lasers.
• The sound of combat rings against the stained glass.
• Force fields along the walls reflect magic and laser beams around the inside of the pyramid.

Secrets

Teleportation Process. Someone who uses the transporter finds themselves wracked with terrible hallucinations of the Dyson Sphere slowly being abandoned, the sun engulfing the world, the sun dying, the stars growing further apart and blinking out one by one, and eventually blackness overwhelming the sky. After seventeen solid minutes of blackness, a blinding flash sends particles in all directions, forming new galaxies and stars. The solar system reforms, planets are smashed together, and the sun's light is extinguished by gray machinery. With a deafening crack, the user awakens in another pyramid.

Existential Despair. The transporter kills the person inside and creates a clone in another pyramid, who wakes up with all memories intact, as if they were just teleported to a new location. But the truth is they were born seconds prior. Occasionally, the pyramid fails to delete the original, who assumes that the teleportation process merely failed.

Variant Rule. After teleporting, players must rip up their character sheet and re-write it from scratch.

Reeducation Facility

We've researched and implemented the most effective data retention strategies for our students, as you will promptly observe.

---

• bleach-white walls and blinding projector screens
• restrictive hanging pods for each student arranged in staggered rows to see the educator at the front of the class
• virtual-reality headsets dangling above the students' heads for later
• quiet, mild-mannered lectures on appropriate social etiquette and basic job skills
• small freedom to move strictly for taking notes on a glowing tablet screen

Points of Interest

Lecture Halls. While the educator is speaking, students are locked into their pods. At risk of electric shock, students are required to take notes and answer short quizzes on their tablets. They are ranked based on the quality of their notes and the number of correct answers on the test at the end of class; the lowest 50% of the class must retake it before moving on.

Virtual Demonstrations. Occasionally, students are required to enter a virtual simulation of the class material, where they must control their avatar to fulfill the requirements in a pre-built encounter.

Encounters

Virtual Challenges. While most simulations are of standard social situations, some of them train citizens to react violently to those who oppose the state. This might include activating the assistance of a survey drone, performing first aid, or even direct engagement with a criminal, a bard, a badlander, or even 1d4+1 warforged. Most citizens fail miserably in these fights.

Combat Complications

• The virtual combatants might insist that they are real and the world outside is an illusion. They might beg for their life. They might even be convincing.
• The educator is free to adjust the specifications of the fight if necessary, and these capabilities are as liable to be hacked as any other system.

Secrets

Torturous. A well-kept secret is that these methods are extremely ineffective in preparing citizens for real-life situations. The state has an interest in using its education protocols as a subjugation method instead.

Scrap Heap

Let go of that tech or I'll take your hand as well.

---

• jagged metal scraps collected in a heap at the lowest sections of the city
• small beams of light peeking through gaps in walkways and pipes above
• a powerful stench of rotting carcasses and burned machinery
• layers upon layers of garbage outlining a history of the waste thrown from the city above

Points of Interest

The Pit. Most citizens care little for the trash they toss over the railings of walkways and chutes. Their garbage collects at the very lowest dark pits of the city, where no respectable citizens live and where even urchins and criminals wouldn't dare to explore.

Robot Hub. Robots that don't mind the smell set up small hovels cobbled together from scraps. They hook up transistors and copper wiring to leech electricity from the city above.

Encounters

Routine Collectors. 2 wire cutters swoop down for a particularly valuable piece of scrap that the party is examining.

Frightful Predators. A baby's cry. A woman's shriek. The moans of a dying child. All of them illusions by a hungry and desperate morose.

Protectors. 2 function hounds and a half-dead automaton shrink away from an aggressive rake flanked by 4 flying swords, shrieking and screaming in rage. A duct assessor and 2 duct enforcers arrive at the scene to take on the rake on their own.

Combat Complications

• A thin sheet of aluminum collapses, sending combatants falling into a hole lined with razor-sharp metal scraps.
• Trash cascades down from above, burying a combatant in a spray of foul-smelling gunk.
• Discarded electronic devices activate and go haywire.

Secrets

Obselete Parts. Much of the scrap down here is functional, thrown away simply because newer versions have replaced them.

Black Market. There will always be buyers for machinery found down here. A team of wire cutters can expect to take home about 4d6 gp worth of materials from a successful scavenging day.

Skin Farm

Hold your nose. Trust me.

---

• glass domes filled with black, wet dirt
• blooming flesh flowers with keratin nails growing along the edges
• ultraviolet waves of searing heat
• flesh pillars that bleed hot red blood and grow teeth, hair, and mucus glands all over

Points of Interest

Workers. Function hounds covered in axes and buckets hack away at the base of mature flesh flowers.

Processing. Blood from the flesh pillars is collected in tin barrels while the meat is ground up in a blender and packed into rations.

Encounters

Unholy Polymerisation. An evrel occasionally forms when a function hound is absorbed by a flesh pillar.

The Maw. Sometimes a flesh flower grows sharp teeth and a modicum of intelligence, breaking free from the dirt and attacking anything nearby. It can be represented with the statistics of a maw demon.

Protest. Any attempt to mess with the processing draws the ire of 2d6 function hounds indignant about stopping production.

Combat Complications

• Blood sprays, sending unintelligent combatants into a rampage.
• A flesh flower might take a chunk out of someone nearby.
• Wild magic randomly surges in the middle of combat.

Secrets

Chaos Garden. The skin farms are created by lingering pockets of wild magic meant to create clones of human beings. Untamed and uncontrolled magic means that the traces of the spell have been corrupted into unrecognizable forms. The state naturally has exploited this to provide additional resources for the city.

Sunlight Harvester

All the warring states, all the scheming factions, all the miscreants and anarchists in the world would never dare touch the sunlight harvesters for fear of everything they know and love blinking out.

---

• black metal leaves from a black metal tree growing upside down from the ceiling
• copper-lined roots spreading from the base of the tree straight through the "top" of the Dyson Sphere, towards the sun
• pulsing cables of light that send electricity exploding through the machinery of the Dyson Sphere

Points of Interest

Dizzying Heights. The top of the Dyson Sphere is hundreds of miles above the bottom, and to reach one of these trees requires a flying vehicle, or a very long climb up the side of a wall. Each wall in the Dyson Sphere, some thousands of miles across, are actually great pillars holding the ceiling and the floor together.

Sunlight Harvester. Known only by this name, as trees are alien to residents of the Dyson Sphere, there are as many sunlight harvesters as there are solar power generators around the sun. The sunlight harvesters spread electricity to every far corner of the world.

Roots. The roots and leaves of the tree sometimes hang low enough, and grow wide enough, for creatures to walk upon to get closer to the sunlight harvester.

Encounters

Psychic Waves. A true psychic has requisitioned a team of surveyors to investigate a sunlight harvester that seems to be screaming in his mind. He intends to destroy it, as disastrous as that may be.

Pilgrims. While followers of the Hydrogen Church might despise the Dyson Sphere for its enslavement of the sun, they view the sunlight harvesters with awe. Often a sun priest, 2d4 cult fanatics, and 6d6 cultists will make a pilgrimage to worship it at its roots.

Need a Lift? An A.E.V. politely offers to bring the party up the side of the walls towards the sunlight harvester.

Combat Complications

• The roots twist and rearrange while they are being fought upon.
• Waves of electricity stun and confuse combatants.

Secrets

Sentient. The sunlight harvesters are living, intelligent beings from another realm, enslaved by the original creators of the Dyson Sphere. They've been kept alive and exploited for thousands of years, unable to move, unable to escape. They speak no language that can be understood by human or machine, and yet they must scream.

Techmod Parlor

I'll give you sixty gipps of store credit if you take out these stillborn thugs in the slum end of the state.

---

• a smoky neon bar filled to the brim with unsavoury folk
• criminals and misfits gambling, drinking, and performing amateur surgery
• sophisticated security systems that shriek at the first hint of state spies
• music playing -- a rare sound of gaiety

Points of Interest

Bar. Bright neon cocktails that give the drinker a short hallucinatory high. 1 gp per glass.

Collection Tables. Collectors and addicts deal in straight gold pieces for pieces of equipment and technology, either gambling, trading, or outright begging if they can't scrounge up the costs.

Surgery. Quick and dirty cybernetic modifications can be made here for cheap -- often only a few thousand gold pieces' worth. You get what you pay for, however, and you have to do it in full view of every other unsavoury character nearby.

Encounters

Roughhousing. A thug and 1d4 criminals close in on a cybernetic addict who hasn't paid them. He begs for more time.

Scrap Trade. 2 wire cutters present a large bag of scrap metal to a collector, a retired combat cyborg. He seems unsatisfied with their haul.

Belligerent. A drunken pipe friend loudly spouts off information about his "friend hole" while another pipe friend desperately tries to shush him. 2 patrons (1 spy and 1 automaton) seem interested in hearing more.

Music. 1 bard or 1d4 buskers are playing some fascinating music with strange physical instruments.

Combat Complications

• The bartender is a veteran with an Active Analysis Implant. He has a crossbow laced with stunning bolts hidden underneath his bar, which he'll use if fights get out of hand.

Secrets

Field Research. The state knows about the techmod parlor, but is perfectly willing to look the other way as long as its spies feed it information about the improvements to cybernetic modifications being made there.

Information. A few patrons have Connection Path Disinhibitors ... and a loose tongue. They spill secrets like a drunkard with a full cup.

Transportation Hangar

What are you looking for exactly? Something that can shrug off a host of rakes, or something that can lug a city's worth of rations across the Wide Open Empty? Cause I got neither of those.

---

• ship engines roaring to life
• jets of flame from booster tests
• catwalks and grates spiralling up and down the hangar
• robots in blast shields jogging back and forth

Points of Interest

Testing Floor. Engines divorced from their ships sending propulsion blasts down a wind tunnel.

Liftoff Pads. The hangar opens up from the high ceilings. Ships vertically take off and land, narrowly avoiding collisions in the narrow air space.

Peddlers. Mechanics and salesmen accost passersby with deals they can't refuse for ships that won't fly.

Encounters

Crew. Most ships intending to venture out past city limits have a crew of 2d6 concerned citizens, 2d4 guards, 1d4+1 scouts, a combat cyborg, and 2d12+2 survey drones. The captain might be a noble, a veteran, or a spy. In addition, 1d4 crew members might be automatons in disguise.

Sales. A function hound made up of nothing but swiss army knives hounds the group, demanding they let it repair their ship for a "small fee". If the group has no ship, it offers to hook them up with its associate, a thug who wields a wrench in her left hand and a blaster in her right. She offers to sell them a ship.

Maximised. An A.E.V. whines for everyone to get safely inside as a paperclip maximiser and an army of 5d8 monodrones, 4d6 duodrones, 3d4 tridrones, 2 *quadrones, and a pentadrone start smashing apart everything they see.

Combat Complications

• A loose engine test gets swivelled around and blasts the combatants.
• Wind turbines suck a combatant into a swirling fan blade.
• A ship runs dangerously low on fuel as it hovers above the fight, unwilling to land amidst the chaos.

Secrets

Smuggling. There's a black market of smuggled goods (and in some cases, slaves) that operates primarily out of the main hangar for the city.

Underworks Oxygen Piping

It ain't that you're not allowed to be here, it's that it's braindead of you to have attempted it at all.

---

• underground pipes that blast pressurised air through ducts to the city above
• a broad diameter that can fit half a dozen humans shoulder-to-shoulder
• twisting hive-like structures inspired by insect nests and worm trails

Points of Interest

Pipes. Although it might take longer than using the pedestrian chutes, the oxygen pipes offer an alternate path through the city that is largely unused by ordinary citizens. Unfortunately, it's often traversed by more sinister folk.

Encounters

Headhunters. 2d4+2 thugs corner the party, each equipped with Darkvision. They demand the party release a concerned citizen they've been chasing.

Duct Explorers. A duct assessor and her 1d4+1 duct enforcers stalk the party from afar, attempting to follow them as part of a larger investigation they're conducting.

Clean Pipes. 2 pipe cleaners approach the party from either side. Neither of them look like they'll stop.

Combat Complications

• A blast of air knocks every combatant backwards.
• A pipe cleaner rumbles towards the combat zone.
• High oxygen content in the air causes frightening hallucinations.

Secrets

Ultimate Oxygen Source. Getting as far away from the city as possible, and searching for days, or even weeks or months, might eventually lead an explorer down to the source of the oxygen supply at the end of the very oldest and very smallest pipe: a thimble-sized portal to the Elemental Plane of Air.

Vertical Slums

You'd think after a few dozen generations living up here you'd lose the vertigo.

---

• dizzying heights with a view of the neon city
• crumbling architecture barely held together by teams of flying robots
• visible poverty awash with criminals and urchins climbing up and down the scaffolds
• city surveillance with a suffocating presence

Points of Interest

Quarters. A citizens' quarters are accessed through a network of digital and physical security systems and have no exterior windows.

Pathways. The pathways are narrow and secured only with a high-tensile string. They often rock and sway under heavy traffic.

Scaffolding. Most of the scaffolds were constructed well after the initial construction period to account for weaknesses and imbalances in the design that were compounded over the years. A skilled athlete or acrobat can leap between sections of the slums, but one small mistake would send them plummeting a mile to their deaths.

Encounters

Mugged. A cybernetic addict grabs a concerned citizen and demands everything they've got in their pockets. A survey drone ignores them despite the cries for help.

Enforced. 2d4 guards chase after a criminal, who contemplates making a risky jump across a distance that might be a little bit too far.

Disestablishment. A busker ducks into a crowd to escape the prying eyes of 2 survey drones. He hums the last notes of his tune.

Thief. An urchin closes in on a noble trying and failing to ask for directions. The noble's 1d4+1 guards don't pay the kid any attention.

Combat Complications

• A walkway collapses. Screaming citizens hold on for dear life.
• A team of flying robots desperately tries to repair damage inflicted during combat.
• Survey drones start to swarm around, zapping at anyone who tries to get away.

Secrets

Busker Paradise. The relative lawlessness of the upper ends of the vertical slums are a haven for groups of buskers and bards who serenade ordinary citizens with songs decrying the suffocating nature of the state.

Wageslave Office

Oh. Hello. What are you doing here? I don't think you work here. I'm sorry. I'm going to have to alert a survey drone. Please wait.

---

• bleached walls and fluorescent lights
• rows upon rows of public work spaces packed so tight it's impossible to turn one's chair around
• repetitive musical notes droning from speakers, barely able to be considered music at all

Points of Interest

Public Work Spaces. A typical "wageslave" works at a cramped countertop with a display screen and a headset that keeps their eyes pointed forward at all times. Massagers built into the chairs keep their legs from atrophying from lack of exercise.

Offices. State managers observe the workspaces from an elevated glass cube, giving them a 360-degree view of the entire office. Display screens show them a history of what each worker has been doing and looking at on their computers. Most managers let the system's intelligence alert them to any transgressions and spend most of their time playing virtual games with other managers on their headsets.

Encounters

Workforce. One floor of a wageslave office typically houses 400 concerned citizens, plus or minus 6d12, and 1 noble as a manager. They are not equipped for combat and most would likely barely notice a fight breaking out at all.

Security. A floor is watched by 2d4 survey drones and 4d10+4 guards. A particularly generous manager might employ 1d12 combat cyborgs as additional protection.

Combat Complications

• Survey drones call on greater reinforcements from the company's endless supply of goons and lackeys.

Secrets

Company Coffers. A typical wageslave office generates a profit of about 3,000,000 gp per month. 1,000,000 goes to the company's electronic data stores. 1,000,000 goes to the executives. 500,000 is split between the managers (usually about 200). The remaining 500,000 is split between workers (usually about 10-15,000).

Meaningless Positions. The workers don't generate profit for the company. That's managed through a huge network of robotic and electronic processes connected to the factories that produce resources for the city. Instead, the workers are employed purely as a subjugation method.

Waste Ducts

Even the scrap heaps are too good for the trash thrown down here.

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• yellow sludge rippling under harsh lights
• hexagonal tunnels sloping gently downwards
• unearthly wails, perhaps human, perhaps inhuman, perhaps just the sounds of machinery
• unbearable loneliness overpowering the mind

Points of Interest

Infinity Chutes. Things meant to be destroyed permanently are dissolved and left to drip down here into oblivion. It's rumoured that the waste ducts ultimately lead to holes in the "bottom" of the Dyson Sphere where the garbage is eaten by the sun.

Encounters

Lonely Friends. A morose mimics the sounds it's heard from its past victims, trying to lure hapless fools into the darkest sections of the tunnel to kill and eat them.

Wardens. A duct assessor, 1 duct enforcer, and 1 concerned citizen drag the corpse of an evrel away from the tunnels. All three are badly wounded and warn the party that there are at least 1d4 evrels more.

Mad Minds. A consciousness amalgamation lurks within the tunnels, hoping to find a new consciousness with a good enough working memory to find a way out of the ducts.

Sludge. Within the sludge reside 2d4+2 gray oozes and 1d12+3 zombies.

Combat Complications

• The yellow sludge becomes unnaturally viscous, ensnaring a combatant's boots.
• The bodies of humans killed are absorbed by the sludge, becoming zombies.

Secrets

Feed Me. The sludge is made up of uncountable self-replicating nanobots that consume organic material like bacteria do. The zombies created in the sludge are the nanobots attempting to puppet a humanoid body and communicate.

Wide Open Empty

You're welcome to walk. Bring your husband, bring your wife. Make love, make babies. Bring enough friends so your babies and theirs will grow up together and make more. Watch as a thousand generations live and die. A thousand languages and societies born and destroyed. And you'll still be nowhere near your destination.

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• darkness overpowering all
• cold metal beneath one's feet
• ceilings so high they disappear
• a soundless vista of nothingness and despair

Points of Interest

Warforged Camp. The main wanderers of the Wide Open Empty are bands of warforged, whose lack of need for food, water, and sleep means they form no structures and make no permanent societies. They wander aimlessly in packs, searching for meaning that isn't there.

Encounters

Warforged Band. 4d12 warforged split off in a pincer formation, surrounding the party and asking questions to quell their curiosity about the outsiders.

Slitherers. 2d4+2 rakes, some with needles, attempt to drive the party away from their breeding grounds.

Human Army. Occasionally, the state might send their people to explore and investigate surrounding areas. A war party consists of a warlord, 2d6 veterans, 2d6 combat cyborgs, 2 spies, 4d8 scouts, 1d4+1 bandit captains, 4d8 guards, 4d8 bandits, and 4d8 concerned citizens, plus 2d4 survey drones sent ahead. They are usually packed into a State Carrier, with 1d4 *A.E.V.*s for defensive support.

Gravity God. The party wanders within range of Cableheart's effects. They might encounter a warlock of Cableheart and 1d4 cult fanatics in a Sloop.

Haywire Herald. The party wanders within range of the Network Master's effects. They might encounter a living factory with 1d4+1 factory robots and 8d8 monodrones trailing behind it.

Combat Complications

• Greater threats are attracted to the whiff of combat.

Secrets

Primal Terror. Cableheart and the Network Master are puny compared to some of the things out there, but the Wide Open Empty is so large that you'll never truly see what scares the monsters.