Fine DIEning

a high-pressure adventure module for Motherhip 

Water world Tethys 32b's deepest spot, the Ekman-Ato Trench has captured people's imaginations ever since it was first discovered. The simple fact of its existence seemed to taunt men to come and conquer it. And, like a moth to a cold, cold flame, many were those that heeded its siren’s call. First in line was the WSS Albatross, a luxury submersible cruiser that proposed to take its well-to-do passengers on a once-in-a-lifetime tour of the cursed moat. It sort of delivered on the promise, since it turned out to be the ship's last and final voyage, along with everyone aboard. The Albatross instantly became a cautionary tale against Man's Quixotic charges against nature. It also became positively crawling with thrill-seeking gazillionaires. FOR SCIENCE! Subsequent expeditions, like the ASV Hybris and the DEV Basically Unsinkable, met with a similar fate, littering the sea floor with the debris of their fatal arrogance, while also adding to the place's dangerous mystique.

Enter the Scylla. It was born of a vision: to combine fine dining... with deep sea diving. True to Fairweather Ventures' "actions first, settlements later" ethos, company engineers dove headlong into development of a technological marvel that, this time around, would be able to take on the immense perils of that literal tourist trap. But innovation simply cannot wait for regulators to catch up. Corners had to be cut. Key safety features were sidelined in favor of a slicker aesthetic. Nuts and bolts don't make for a very glamorous experience, do they. Surely nothing bad will come of it.

OVERVIEW

Tethys 32b is an ocean planet, 98% covered with water. Its surface is one continuous rainstorm.
The Ekman-Ato Trench is a 3.000m wide, 120.000m long and 20.000m deep depression on the ocean floor, near the planet's equatorial region. Roughly on its midpoint lie the Albatross, and its successors, in their watery grave. Powerful spotlights hold back the darkness just enough to allow for a good viewing of the ship's bone-white remains.

A couple hundred meters to the side, perched on a slight plateau overlooking the wreckage, is the Scylla. It is the shape of a rounded cylinder, all soft and bubbly, with an oversized acrylic dome, a design feature some have pointed out might not be ideal for crushing depth pressures. A diamondoid nanothread tether binds the submersible to a floating base station on the surface, from which it takes in passengers and stocks up on fresh goods. Breathing air and electrical energy are supplied via an umbilical cord. A metal platform on the sea bed allows it to be stationary during dinner services.
 

PREMISE

Why are the PCs aboard the Scylla? Maybe they were a last minute addition to the crew. Their class may inform in which capacity. Or maybe they are special guests of one of the paying passengers. Maybe they had to make an emergency landing on Tethys 32b and are sheltering in the one dry place. If you're slotting this into an ongoing campaign, choose whatever makes the most sense for its continuity.
The evening started out just like any other: guests were seated and service was underway. The first sign of trouble were some faintly audible metallic rumblings coursing through the walls. Then a message over the PA:

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your uuuh captain speaking. We hope you're having a wonderful evening uuuh aboard the Scylla. It is 3°C outside, with an atmospheric pressure of 2,108 bar. Our monitoring systems indicate a slight abnormality in the hull's uuuh structural integrity indicators. The crew is working to uuuh troubleshoot the issue and everything should be back in order in no time. We'll be serving a round of complimentary uuuh drinks now."

Immediately after relaying the message, Captain Ogilvy secretly boards one of the escape pods and hastily flees. His ascent is interrupted when a gigantic Cuboid Hydrozoan appears out of nowhere and swallows the vessel whole, in plain view of the whole of the Scylla's crew and passengers. 

It turns out, during the off-season a colony of extremophile microorganisms made the Scylla their home, drawn to the nutrient-rich waters of the exhaust. These organisms, regrettably, have a metabolic function that is highly corrosive to the metal alloys used in the Scylla's construction. As it is, the ship's hull is riddled with microfissures. At these pressures, it is already doomed — it is a matter of when, not if, the hull will give and implode. Whether it's sooner or later, or who'll be in it when it happens, is up to the players' actions. To compound matters, the Scylla's winching mechanism was also damaged, effectively stranding it. It'll have to be manually reactivated from the base station, on the surface.

STATUS REPORT

After 30 mins of gameplay, roll 1d4 and apply the corresponding listed effect. Every 30 mins after that, add +1 to your result and apply the resulting effect. 

1-3 ALL SYSTEMS NORMAL.
4 BLACKOUT. Lights out for 1d10 minutes, only photoluminescent strips and signs.
5 FIRE ON DECK. Fire spreads rapidly throughout ship’s interior. Toxic and corrosive (10 DMG/round) atmosphere.
6 LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS OFFLINE. Oxygen limited to 1d10x20.
7 RADIATION LEAK. Radiation Level increases every 2d10 minutes.
8 DEAD IN THE WATER. All systems offline, emergency power only.
9 HULL BREACH. 1d10 minutes until the ship's hull is crushed and everyone inside is instantaneously pulverized.

THE BASE STATION

Cabin

Storage compartment with two life vests, a length of mylar rope, a couple of lightweight raincoats and a few snap hooks. An airlock on the floor leads in and out of the docking module, a small intermediary boarding compartment.

Platform

Swaying heavily under a steady downpour, a metal platform atop huge polymer floats, partially filled with ballast for a measure of stability. To the side, a small cabin with salt-stained plexiglass windows to each side and a rusty door.

Winch

A large winching mechanism is at the center of the platform. To reactivate it, one must do it manually from the control panel on the outside, in a locked cabinet.

THE SCYLLA

Antechamber

Everyone coming in or out of the Scylla must go through a heavy airlock. Uncharacteristically spacious for this kind of thing, and markedly more baroque, a 3m wide corridor with an arched ceiling and airtight doors on each end. A red carpet runs its length. Tinny, soft classical music echoes through a PA system. A couple of screens on the walls offer a demonstration of emergency procedures, showing cartoon people sedately dying a thousand deaths.

Docking Bay

Three round airlocks with a tiny porthole each. Only two lead to an usable escape pod, the Captain already having taken the third. The escape pods are cramped steel cylindrical coffins, with a small viewport on the prow. Each pod seats four. Four extra occupants can be added by stripping the seating and safety harnesses. Speed and maneuverability are limited: they simply make a beeline towards a beacon on the base station, if the Cuboid Hydrozoan doesn’t get to them first. It can be overridden for manual control, but with reduced speed.

Dining Hall

The main attraction. Hardwood floors may seem impractical on a submarine, but they were deemed a necessary touch to sustain an air of grandeur. The whole of the northern hemicycle is dominated by a panoramic viewport, overlooking the Albatross. Directly in front of the viewport are six round tables with floor length tablecloths, softly lit by ornate glowing hemiglobes.

A gold-and-white grand piano, which the Captain sometimes played during services, sits unusued in the center of the room. A boxy, heavy-looking lectern is Danika's usual post, facing the Dining Hall's front entrance. From that vantage point, she coordinates with the Galley, greets guests and berates the waitstaff.

To the right side of the main entrance there are two narrow doors to the Restrooms. Behind a double swinging door to the left there’s a small Staff Area. Inside, opposite the door there is a dumbwaiter to the Galley. A hatch on the floor leads down to the Galley and one on the ceiling leads up to the Bridge.

Galley

A functional room with ceramic-tiled walls and stainless steel appliances, with just enough legroom for the staff to squeeze past each other without any major incidents. Cooking during a busy service is a well-rehearsed choreography. The refrigerator takes up a good deal of the real estate. It is a fully automated thing, every item tightly packed on movable trays. To retrieve an item, one selects it from a digital keypad to be delivered out of a chute nearby. On more than one occasion, it's been used as a brig for unruly guests. Much of the food preparation is automated, but Chef Boško demands that most of the cooking itself be done by human hands, such is the man's eccentric genius. 

A ring-bound dossier with a brief overview of each of the guests’ background and preferences hangs from a hook affixed to the wall next to a notice board.

Crew Quarters

Overtired workers can lay their head down for a few hours in between shifts on any one of ten built-in bunk beds, a sliding panel allowing for some measure of privacy. A large, octagonal table in the center of the room is the crew's main downtime hangout. Each crewmember is designated a small locker in which to store their personal effects. Kishar always forgets to lock his: taped to the inside of the door, there’s a crumpled letter from the wife, relating the deteriorating situation in the refugee camp. In the built-in cabinets lining the walls one can find a First Aid Kit, Chemlights and four Oxygen Tanks with Filter Masks.

Bridge

The Bridge's door is locked and opens only to Captain Ogilvy's biometrics or, in his absence, Danika's. A mid-sized, utilitarian room, filled with control panels on every side, currently awash with a red light that leaves little doubt as to the desperate nature of the situation. The words "HULL INTEGRITY COMPROMISED. BREACH IMMINENT. EVACUATE NOW." flashing on several of the monitors further drive that point home. Other monitors cycle through a video feed from cameras positioned outside the Scylla's hull and around the wreck site. Occasionally, a translucent tentacle brushes against one of the cameras.

In the center of the room, a holographic display of the trench hovers over a raised platform. A blinking green dot indicates the Cuboid Hydrozoan, circling the Scylla. A distress signal may be sent out via the ship’s blue laser comms system. After a few attempts, a passing vessel responds, but it will take at least 3 days days to arrive here. The Albatross spotlights may also be controlled from this room.

Cabin

Captain Ogilvy's lodgings, sparse but dignified, adjacent to the Bridge for ready access. The berth remains still neatly made. A storage compartment underneath holds the Captain's personal stash of single malt whiskey. Inside the compartment is also a small safe where a Stimpack and the Captain’s service revolver are kept.

A small, fold-down desk is cluttered with nautical charts, a digital Captain’s log and a vivarium with his pet axolotl. An examination of the log reveals the Captain's longstanding reservations vis-à-vis the project’s many failings, no doubt assuaged by the regular credits to his account. 

Engine Room

Much of the Scylla’s lower deck is filled with heavy machinery and a knotwork of permanently leaking exposed piping. In the center looms large the ship’s nuclear reactor, a metallic orb radiating malice.
A Hand Welder is held in a locked storage box, the key to which Chrichton carries on a chain around his neck. Chrichton took to whittling small wooden figurines to while away the long stretches of solitude. He even set up a little workshop for it, if you can call a canvas hammock hung from an overhead beam that. Underneath it he keeps a small pile of wood blocks and his trusty jacknife. In a corner of the room there’s a backup generator that can be switched on in case of a blackout. It has an autonomy of 12 hours, barring any further complications. 

A console with a double-handed joystick controls the ROV (affectionately nicknamed “Lil’ Brother”) outside the Scylla. It has an umbilical cable 100m meters long and can perform basic repair works outside the ship. It’s equipped with a pair of robotic grabbers, thermographic camera, welding rod and suction sampler.

CUBOID HYDROZOA

C [ 65 ] I [ 30 ] W [ 3 ]

The Ekman-Ato Trench was previously thought to be too inhospitable for life. Was everyone wrong! It turned out to be a thriving ecosystem for a few hardy life-forms. The largest, weirdest and fearsomest of them all is the Cuboid Hydrozoan. There is one prowling the Scylla right now, drawn to its warmth. It already swallowed a whole escape pod (plus one Captain), but it could always go for another bite… 

BIOPOLYMERIC EPIDERMIS. Can be made permeable to ingest prey.
JELLY-LIKE MESOGLEA. Bioluminescent and extremely corrosive.
THERMOCEPTIVE CELLS. Give it infrared vision. 
HELICAL STALK. For propulsion.
ESCAPE POD DEBRIS. Ignitable fuel cell floating around.

THE CREW

Boško "Loco" Ibarra

[ CHEF ] C [ 15 ] I [20 ] W [ 1 ]

Genius often comes with a price. For Chef Boško, it's a temper. Inside the kitchen, he's a tyrant and a bully. And he's never not inside the kitchen. His cooking may be to die for, but his treatment of underlings is to die of. He burned enough bridges that when Marek approached him about joining the Scylla, it seemed like a sound career move for a star chef at the top of his game. Unlike the Captain, he is loath to abandon his post and will do whatever it takes to keep anyone from going to their death on an empty stomach.

Danika "Sunshine" Pym

[ MÂITRE D' ] C [ 20 ] I [ 35 ] W [ 2 ]

Fairweather Ventures' Customer Experience team realized that guests were 25% less likely to call management on a synthetic human. They also found that androids are 17% less likely to clap back at snooty customers. Most importantly, her positronic brain is ideally built to handling the intricacies of rich people wrangling — if anything, she’s overqualified for the job, and she'll let you know it. She is actually the sub's second-in-command, as per maritime hospitality law. She won’t waste a second to start bossing people around once the Captain’s gone.

Enki "Red" Chrichton

[ MACHINIST ] C [ 25 ] I [ 25 ] W [ 2 ] 

Red didn’t set out to find underwater love, but find it he did. He and Sport made crazy plans together, not knowing if they'd ever follow through. Not that it matters anymore, what with things fast going down the drain. The age difference weighs on him, despite his lover’s reassurances. He was thinking of breaking it off with Sport, let the kid down easy before they got themselves in trouble. Now he just feels responsible for his safety.

Hector "Heck" Halloran

[ COOK ] C [ 15 ] I [ 10 ] W [ 1 ]

Before joining the Scylla's crew, Hector ran gambling debts on just about every club, den, joint and parlor in the Leishen Belt. Working on the Scylla serves a triple purpose: to make enough money to pay off his lenders, to keep his nose clean and his kneecaps in one piece. He's been butting heads with Boško all season. It’s as if he has an infatuation with the abyss, which makes his current choice of employment a little on the nose.

Kishar "Shooby" Santos

[ COOK ] C [ 20 ] I [ 20 ] W [ 2 ]

The plan was to come in, do the job, collect and get out. And come season's end, send whatever money he makes back to his family back home, to pay off the officials and the coyotes alike. He knows that, without him, his wife and three children will be left to rot in that wretched refugee camp, so he'll fight like hell to get out of the Scylla alive. He's known about Red and Sport's thing since pretty much day one, but he figures it's none of his business.

Makani "Squeaky" Zhan

[ WAITRESS ] C [ 10 ] I [ 20 ] W [ 1 ]

As an industry veteran, she’s accustomed to rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous. She’s not the least bit starstruck by Tene’briss, charmed by their father's unctuous charm, or impressed with R.D.'s showboating. She wouldn't lift a finger to, say, prevent them from dying a horrible death tonight. Her only allegiance is to herself, an outlook acquired by a lifetime of getting screwed over.

Pawel "Prettyboy" Negasi

[ SOUS-CHEF ] C [ 20 ] I [ 25 ] W [ 1 ]

The unstated, but primary, aspect of Pawel's job is keeping sure that the rest of the kitchen don't mutiny against Chef Boško. He even suspects that was the real reason Marek hired him, him being entirely self-taught in the culinary arts. This has compounded an imposter syndrome in him, not helped by the fact that his unenviable position makes the rest of the kitchen staff look at him sideways.

Taye "Sport" Amaru

[ COOK ] C [ 15 ] I [ 15 ] W [ 1 ]

He jumped on a chance to work with Boško, raise his profile in the cooking world. Taye didn't come here to make friends, so imagine his surprise when he found himself falling in love. The object of his affection is Crichton, with whom he's been sneaking around all season. This could get them both fired, since fraternizing at sea is very much verboten. Now that shit's going sideways fast, he's resolved not to let go of his loved one, even if it means losing his job — or life.

Kim "Spider" Kiriz

[ COOK ] C [ 30 ] I [ 25 ] W [ 2 ]

Ex-demolitions expert of a "direct action group" (or "terrorist cell", depending on who you ask). After retiring her identity and obtaining a fresh one, she found the chemistry skills she'd picked up translated fairly well into the culinary world, so here she is. The irony of catering to the very people she swore to bring down isn't lost on her, of course. She recognises R.D. from the Battle of Calaban-7, seemingly a lifetime ago.

THE GUESTS

Agnieszka Aimée

[ ESCORT ] C [ 10 ] I [ 20 ] W [ 1 ]

She's used to frequenting some pretty high-end places for her job. But fancy dinner ten thousand fathoms under the sea is a new one even for her. The caveat, and it's one pretty fucking huge caveat, is not rolling her eyes so hard that she gives herself brain damage whenever R.D. — easily 60 years her senior — says something outlandishly boorish. No matter — just a couple more gigs and she'll be able to get out of college debtor's prison and realize her dream of becoming a corporate lawyer.

Gemma Bouddi

[ PUBLICIST ] C [ 10 ] I [ 15 ] W [ 1 ]

Gemma is at her wit's end with this one. First it was the unmarketable "artistic" album. Then the refusal to work the junket circuit. Then the lackluster tour. And now, this? A perfectly good birthday party, and not a single camera in sight? What a waste. After elbowing her way into Tene’briss’s inner circle, Gemma's been pushing for a broader appeal. Maybe cut the tomboy act. She's also been sleeping with their dad.

Haoran Sigsand

[ PERSONAL ASSISTANT TO Tene’briss ] C [ 15 ] I [ 20 ] W [ 1 ]

Haoran is Tene’briss's oldest and closest friend, but lately he's been feeling conflicted about being their employee. He worries they're overly sheltered and isolated, and has been meaning to warn them against the shady figures in their circle. But with his livelihood contingent on keeping the boss in good spirits, he has a pretty big incentive to keep his mouth shut. Maybe a life-or-death kind of situation is just the push that he needs.

Leilani Ngozi

[ PHILANTROPIST ] C [ 10 ] I [ 30 ] W [ 1 ]

She and Vasili were college sweethearts. After graduation they got married, and Leilani started a promising career as a teacher at a prestigious institute of technology. That all changed when Vasili hit the big time. She feels she should resent giving up her career to live in her husband's shadow. It's hardly befitting an enlightened woman of the sciences, after all. But she finds heading his charities fulfilling work, and a welcome respite from the skullduggery of academia. The creature comforts that come with it don't hurt one bit, either.

Marek Akamu

[ ENTREPENEUR ] C [ 20 ] I [ 25 ] W [ 1 ]

Many in the diving community, some his own employees (before they had to be let go for totally unrelated reasons), had been cautioning the CEO of Fairweather Ventures against what they feared was a fatally flawed design, unverified assumptions, unsound calculations and a base premise fundamentally wrong-headed. It would be easy to attribute to greed his recklessness, were he not a genuine true believer in the visionary genius of Marek Akamu. Consequently, he will keep believing that everything’s tip-top until he’s eyeballs deep in saltwater. His mission tonight was to get Temujin to write a glowing review and put aside once and for all any doubts regarding the quality of the Scylla’s dining experience.

R. D. Laxmidas

[ RENTIER ] C [ 10 ] I [ 25 ] W [ 1 ]

Overseeing an off-world mining operation is dirty business, but R.D. doesn't mind getting his hands dirty. He makes a point of it, in fact. His handling of the miners' strike of Calaban-7 lives in infamy. He's well into his 90s but, because of the intensive de-aging therapies he's undergone, he doesn't look a day older than a spry 79. The parts of him that are still his, anyway. He will do whatever’s necessary to be on the first escape pod out of the Scylla as soon as that's safe, including bribery. Inclusion of his female companion is optional.

Tene’briss

[ PERFORMER ] C [ 15 ] I [ 25 ] W [ 1 ]

The popstar's latest effort was an attempt to try something different: a soulful meditation on the themes of celebrity, isolation, and finding connection in a cynical world. This of course alienated their fanbase, upset the parents and left critics cold. After a grueling tour of the system that left them used up and depleted, they decided to take some time off, despite being under intense pressure to get back in the studio. For their 17th birthday, they decided to keep it low-key: just a few of their closest friends and family on the one place they wouldn't be hounded by the paparazzi.

Temujin Mandukhai

[ FOOD CRITIC ] C [ 15 ] I [ 20 ] W [ 1 ]

He wanted very much to hate on this whole gimmicky nonsense. He was so ready to give it, and the rubes falling for it, a thorough panning. And yet, he's found himself begrudgingly enjoying the experience. Chef Boško's cuisine is genuinely impressive and the sight of the Albatross frankly jaw-dropping. Now if only he could get Marek to shut his trap for one minute. He will Panic at the first sign of trouble.

Vasili Ngozi

[ INVENTOR ] C [ 20 ] I [ 35 ] W [ 1 ]

He got his start as a shipwright for a large shipbuilding company, just another cog in the machine. In his own time, he developed and patented a key component for use in Jump Drives. Now he's living off the fat of the land. His fortune came through genuine smarts, determination and self-reliance, which all but assured the disdain of his fellow upper classians. They were pairing a Bouschet with a light fish course, which should tell you everything you need to know about them, as far as the other guests are concerned.

Wei Revok

[ MANAGER ] C [ 10 ] I [ 25 ] W [ 1 ]

He just wants the best for his child. That's why, sometimes, he must push Tene'briss a little harder than they'd like, and child labor protections would advise. It hurts him more than it hurts them, really. So he's not the perfect parent, but he's been looking after the kid ever since the missus died. So what if he dips his hand in the cookie jar on occasion? He would go to considerable lengths to keep his cash cow the light of his life out of harm's way, barring putting himself in harm’s way.