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Brainstorming Gradient Descent: Quality Assurance 1
▲ 22 r/mothershiprpg

Brainstorming Gradient Descent: Quality Assurance 1

Hello and welcome to chapter 25 of this series of deepdives into Gradient Descent by TKG. Today we'll talk about the first part of Quality Assurance, and this is a big one. This sector contains Monarch's most valuable assets and exploitable vulnerabilities. Therefore, it's one of the most heavily guarded areas in all of the Deep. Like any good heist, action in QA calls for investigation, a carefully designed plan, big reveals and high stakes combats. The odds are against you, but it may be worth the risk, because what lies beyond these airlocks could shape the future of humanity.

Note: I have updated the Storylines Flowcharts and added something to The Bell (see comment below).

SPOILERS AHEAD! WARDENS ONLY. 

► [51A] QA INSPECTION

To access the whole QA Inspection sector, the crew has to go through [32D] Ore Smasher. Doing this while the smasher is active is extremely risky, so the crew may want to turn off the machines. This can be achieved either through the [32A] Maintenance Terminal, or by sabotaging [31D] Hydraulics (see Maintenance 2). Once inside QA Inspection, the crew may look through the airlock window that opens on Combat Spire and see that there is a whole lot of Elite Androids protecting something valuable.

Beside this, QA Inspection also contains the terminal that may purge 98 androids in [52A] Quarantine, or remove their conditioning, making them free to leave that room after years of imprisonment.

► [51C] COMBAT SPIRE

The room is shaped like a funnel, wide at the top, narrow at the bottom. A single airlock leads in from the corridor. Through its window: 200 Elite Security Androids, pale-glowing, plugged into Personality I/O cables along the walls.

One of them is looking back.

Through the same window, on the far side of the Spire, another airlock is visible: reinforced, glass-plated, something behind it worth protecting.

The androids activate the moment anyone enters. All 200, simultaneously. They cannot be baited, divided, or drawn upward. EMP shielding, internal SMGs, combat armor: going through them is not a plan.

► [51F] SECRET HANGAR

DISCOVER: This part of the Deep is heavily guarded, and the crew won't be keen on taking the risk to access it unless they know what's inside, or at least that it's worth the trouble. Several threads planted throughout the Deep point here: Arkady at the Bell has heard rumors of a contingency plan, a backup Monarch has prepared should it face destruction (see The Bell). Renzo's journal notes strange vibrations and a depressurized sector she couldn't access during her mapping (see Dis/Assembly, The Hideout). Terminals inside QA Inspection reference automated launch protocols without elaborating. And the sheer density of protection around this sector, 200 Elite Security Androids guarding a single airlock, is itself a message. Monarch doesn't do this for nothing.

Finally, Kilroy may send the crew here directly, tasking them with scouting the outer hull for a possible entrance before she commits to anything further (see Troubleshooters).

ACCESS: From combat spire: the airlock at the bottom of the funnel opens directly into the hangar. If the crew has somehow cleared 200 Elite Security Androids, nothing stands between them and the launch bays. The hangar is theirs.

From the Anti-Organic Armory: the crew may realize that the Armory shares a bulkhead with [32B] Gas Cook-Off. A laser cutter or explosives can breach it without touching Combat Spire at all. The breach isn't safe, though: the adjacent gas lines make a rushed job catastrophic. [+] Intellect check to choose the right spot: a failure means they are cutting towards Combat Spire, a critical failure means a hull breach. Then, Industrial Equipment check to do it cleanly: failure risks igniting the lines, critical failure means an uncontrolled explosion. Once inside the Armory, it won’t be difficult to open the locked airlock to the Secret Hangar.

From the ouside: the crew may try to break in from outside the Deep, through extra vehicular activities. There’s no clear exterior signs that a Hangar hides here, just four circular blast doors, closed and inconspicuous. Nevertheless, the crew may have noticed a hangar door used to be here, by analysing the Lego model of the facility (see Reception & Habitations, The Gift Shop) or some construction plans in Engineering. Kilroy may also have tasked them with exploring this part of the hull for a possible entrance (see Troubleshooters, Kilroy).

The crew may be afraid of being spotted by the Blockade’s ships while outside, and they can work out a window of opportunity when the blast doors are concealed by the Deep’s own rotation. This would provide a nice ticking clock to the game. Anyway, even if they are spotted, the Troubleshooters won’t attack them. Actually, Kilroy will be really interested in what they found and will make contact as soon as possible (providing it wan’t her who sent them there).

The launch tube blast doors, are sealed from inside and there’s no entry mechanism: this hangar is designed as just a launch bay. The breach point is the maintenance seam between the tubes, identifiable only with prior intelligence or a careful hull scan (no check needed unless in a hurry). Once located, force is the only option: a laser cutter is slow and clean, explosives are fast and loud.

MONARCH’S RESPONSE: Entering the Secret Hangar triggers an immediate Monarch Panic Check. Monarch routes elite androids from Combat Spire toward the hangar the moment the alarm fires. Industrial depressurizing airlock cycles take roughly five minutes, and the bottleneck limits throughput to four androids per cycle.

The timeline: the first androids reach the hangar airlock two to three minutes after entry, with the first wave of four arriving seven to eight minutes in. Four more every five minutes after that. The pressure builds steadily.

The hangar is zero-G, and this cuts both ways. The androids are reluctant to fire their SMGs: a stray burst risks damaging the microcraft, especially if we consider recoil, and Monarch will not allow. They'll close to melee instead. But closing to melee in zero-G without directional jets is harder than it sounds: once an android commits to a trajectory, it can't change direction mid-flight. A crew that keeps moving and uses the microcraft as cover will force the androids into long, predictable arcs. A crew that received vaccsuits with directional jets, maybe from The Ghost Eater or Cmdr. Kilroy, will have an advantage.

The EVA exit remains the safest retreat: the androids won’t follow the crew, once it’s outside the Deep.

THE LAUNCH TUBES: Destroying the microcraft individually is thorough but time-consuming, especially with elite androids cycling through the airlock. An alternative is targeting the four launch tubes directly. Sufficient explosives or weapons fired by Troubleshooter ships can render them inoperable. Monarch will prioritize repairs immediately.

But if Monarch is somehow killed before the tubes are back online, the crew may achieve a total victory, defeating the threat for good.

THE DATA NODE: There’s no computer terminal in the hangar, because this is a space not meant for humans. But on a wall, there’s a cluster of cables and access ports: it’is the only way into the hangar's systems. A crew with a portable terminal can plug in and hack the system to retrieve cargo manifests and launch status. 

Cargo manifests: each craft listed by hull number with payload classification. The classifications are clinical: BACKUP OF MONARCH, HEIR UNIT, INFILTRATOR PACKAGE, SUPPORT ANDROID, MIXED PAYLOAD. No names, no destinations.

Launch status: which craft are prepped and ready, which are still being loaded, and which have already launched. The launched column has a timestamp column beside it. The crew can see exactly how long this has been running. At the moment, backup of Monarch and Heir units don’t seem to have left the facility, unlike Infiltrators.

What the system doesn’t contain: flight routes, destination systems, waiting protocols. That intelligence lives inside each craft's navigation computer, accessible only by boarding. The terminal tells the crew what is in each craft. To find out where it's going, they have to get inside.

► THE MICROCRAFTS

These small vessels are all different, all devised to pass for regular private transports. They have also been registered in some systems, so that the transponder doesn’t raise suspicion. It’s not difficult to access most microcrafts in the Secret Hangar, and the crew will be able to inspect what’s inside, with the only real pressure coming from the elite androids cycling throught the airlock. The following can be found on microcrafts:

SHIP’S COMPUTERS: They store cargo specifications, destination and possibly a Dormancy Protocol. What is a Dormancy Protocol? Some crafts carry instructions to hold position in deep space for decades or centuries before activating and proceeding to their destination. The rationale is simple: if the current moment isn't favorable for infiltration, subsequent waves will try again. A craft launched today might not arrive and activate for a hundred years. Monarch is not planning for now. It's planning for every possible now, across an indefinite future. Some of these crafts may be already gone, drifting silently toward a rendezvous that won't happen within any living person's lifetime.

INFILTRATORS: Most microcrafts include one or more Infiltrator Androids, usually in cryo-sleep when the crew enters. Beside their cryo-pod there’s always a mission box that contains their loadout, including fake documents and a good amount of credits.

By the time the crew first arrives at the Deep, some microcrafts have already launched and their Infiltrators have been deployed. Yandee is the module's own example: an Infiltrator has replaced her and now controls Prospero's Dream as Monarch's proxy. Others have similar objectives, programmed to pursue them across human civilization, targeting orbital stations, planets, corporations, institutions, any power center worth holding.

Not all of them are meant to become leaders. Some are ordinary people living unremarkable lives: engineers, scientists, police officers, bounty hunters, positioned to support the plan from the shadows. No spotlight, no scrutiny. Just presence, in the right places, at the right moments.

How far Monarch's infiltration has progressed is a decision each Warden makes for their own campaign. The most interesting version is probably the earliest: Monarch has made its first moves, enough for a careful crew to recognize the pattern, but not so many that stopping it feels futile. The machinery is running. It hasn't reached full speed yet.

The crew arrived at exactly the right moment. Whether that's luck or something Monarch arranged is worth leaving open.

BACKUP OF MONARCH: Some craft carry a compressed archive of Monarch's own mind, inert and harmless in transit. It isn't a running copy. It's a seed, dormant until deliberately installed on hardware powerful enough to host it. Without a compatible, high-specification workstation, it's just data.

The Infiltrators and support androids aboard the ship have one job before release: find the right workstation and secure it. Both conditions matter. Compatibility is the first problem: most civilian and corporate systems don't meet the processing threshold without significant modification. Security is the second: releasing a Monarch backup into an unsecured environment is a gamble. During installation, before the copy achieves full coherence, it is briefly vulnerable. A rival AI, a corporation with the right tools, or a sufficiently skilled hacker could intercept and capture it mid-transfer. A newborn Monarch can't defend itself.

Installing a backup of Monarch isn't easy, and even if it happens, there's always the chance it will be attacked and destroyed before taking over humanity. Plan B is the Cocoon Protocol, which may begin implementation alongside Plan A rather than waiting for it to fail.

HEIRS: They are defined as pale imitations of Monarch. Infiltrator and support androids, install them into smaller, less powerful networks, where they begin self-improving. They expand through whatever infrastructure they can reach, slowly taking over the power centers they inhabit. Infiltrators and Heirs leverage their host factions against each other, unleashing systemic instability.

The Pretender Wars, factions controlled by Heirs jostling for dominance, are not a failure state. They are a delivery mechanism. In the chaos of a collapsing power structure, someone will eventually be desperate enough to accept almost any offer. Including hosting a Monarch backup. 

SUPPORT ANDROIDS: Each craft includes at least one android, sometimes more, assigned to piloting, bodyguard duty, and technical assistance. Unlike infiltrators, they aren't designed to pass as specific humans: they're regular androids, unremarkable in a society where androids are commonplace. They can move openly, handle logistics, provide muscle, and manage technical problems the infiltrators can't address without breaking cover. 

Support Androids are usually in stand by when the crew accesses the microcraft, and can wake up any moment. Most of them aren’t programmed to fight, though, so they are usually not a threat.

-----------------------------------------------------------
This is unofficial fan content. Gradient Descent is © Tuesday Knight Games. Not affiliated with or endorsed by TKG.

u/Lumpy_Peanut_226 — 10 hours ago
▲ 62 r/mothershiprpg

Brainstorming Gradient Descent: Dis/Assembly

Hello and welcome to chapter 24 of this series of deepdives into Gradient Descent by TKG. Today we'll talk about Dis/Assembly, a place so relentlessly, indifferently horrible that the screaming never stops. The crew will want to move through quickly, but they won't forget it easily. Besides the suffering, there are two main highlights in this sector: Security Dispatch, where all patrols come from, and a secret hideout where somebody survived for a long time. And left notes. Let’s dive into it.

NOTE: [47H] Brainscan Databank (Brain Construction 2) has been partially reworked in light of my better understanding of [53A] Infiltrator Personalities Databank in the Quality Assurance sector.

SPOILERS AHEAD! WARDENS ONLY. 

► THROUGHPUT

Dis/Assembly is where the Factory closes its loop. Skeletons from 3.2, pseudoflesh from 3.3, logic cores from 3.4: every component built elsewhere on Floor 3 converges here and becomes a person. Then that person is tested, and either accepted or torn apart. The whole process is mechanical, unsettling, inevitable. There is no cruelty in it, and that's worse. Monarch doesn't hate what it makes. It simply doesn't see it.

In Final Testing [49G], a finished android has its personality downloaded and wakes up screaming, held in steel pincers for a diagnostic that lasts seconds. It looks human. It sounds human, because for every purpose that matters, it is. Pass, and it's deactivated and shipped to Storage. Fail, and it goes straight to the Disassembly Yard [49I]. Birth and death run on the same conveyor belt. Sometimes they run through the same room.

Warden notes: the screaming and the crying never stop here, and none of it sounds synthetic. You can literally see a person’s limbs being plucked one by one by heartless machines. Call for Sanity/Fear Saves liberally throughout Dis/Assembly, not just at specific triggers. Anyone who walks these chambers should leave them changed.

The walls of Assembly Overview [49H] are papered with Post-It notes, alternating WHO AM I? with WHO ARE YOU?. Nobody knows who wrote them. Nobody needs to. Every android that has ever walked, crawled, or malfunctioned through the Deep passed through a version of this room. And somewhere out there, beyond the Deep, every other android in known space went through something just like it. They suffered the trauma, whether they remember it or not. Be kind to them.

► [48A] SECURITY DISPATCH

By now the crew has met them. Security Androids, arriving in groups of 1d10, again and again, throughout the Deep. This is where they come from.

Nine steel spheres float in the dark, each holding 150 Security Androids in storage. 1,350 units, dormant, waiting. Every sphere is a sealed Faraday shell, and every shell has an antenna array: the one deliberate gap in the shielding, just wide enough for Monarch's activation signal to reach the units inside. Someone, at some point, put party hats on the antenna stalks. Nobody has taken them off.

Every hour, there's a 10% chance one sphere opens to deploy 1d10 androids toward "an issue" somewhere in the facility. That issue might be the crew.

At the center of the room, one sphere sits bolted to the floor. Cabling runs from its hull into the walls and deck. This is the relay: it receives Monarch's dispatch signal and rebroadcasts it to the other eight. Its antenna array is larger than the rest. It's also the one wearing the hats.

To anyone who has read Renzo's journal, the hats stop being a joke.

SHUTTING IT DOWN: The crew can approach this several ways. The cleanest is to follow the relay sphere's cabling to an external junction panel and sever the connection: a Computers or Industrial Equipment check. The roll may have [+] if the character takes its time, but there’s a 10% chance that a sphere opens while they are working. Success is silent and permanent. The other eight spheres lose their activation signal and stay sealed until Monarch fixes the damage. Failure means Monarch detects the sabotage attempt and one sphere deploys the androids.

The loudest option requires Renzo's nine EMP grenades from the Hideout [48D]. A successful Explosives or Jury-Rigging check disarms her trap and recovers them intact. Feed them into the relay sphere's antenna array and detonate: the pulse rides the one open channel straight through the Faraday shielding and fries everything inside. The relay and its 150 units are gone. Without the relay, the other eight spheres go dark too. Total shutdown. No skill check is required for this plan, but Monarch gets stress and rolls a Panic Check. 

There are more possible plans, like accessing the main sphere from [48G] Foil Forest, or using plastic explosives. What matters is that if the release mechanism is compromised, no Security Androids are at Monarch’s disposal, at least for some time.

THE WINDOW: This isn't permanent, though. Repair Drones (see The Factory) will begin fixing the damage right away, and [50C] Android Storage holds roughly 100,000 finished androids waiting to be activated. Monarch has reserves. But those units carry no weapons, no patrol routines, no dispatch protocols. Rerouting them into a security role takes time: arming, assigning, redeploying. Hours, at minimum.

While that lasts, Security Android patrols stop appearing throughout the Deep. For a crew planning something loud, anywhere in the facility, this is the moment.

Don't get comfortable, though. Doors, heat, gravity, the vents: none of that runs through Security Dispatch. Monarch can still close a door on someone mid-stride, or vent a room. It could reroute infiltrators or manipulate other divers into attacking the crew. The Chimeras don't answer to the spheres either. The window is real. It's just not as wide as it looks.

► [48D] HIDEOUT

There’s a corner of Dis/Assembly, a dead end with two small rooms which probably were once used for storage. Somebody used to live here. It is a well protected hideout: the nearby Security Dispatch discourages Divers from coming too close, and the EMP field and grenades filter out any androids. The person who found this place and called it home jury-rigged it to be a safe haven inside one of the most dangerous places you can ever visit.

THE TRAP: Nine EMP grenades sit wired across the door’s frame, each one threaded to a tripwire and to each other. Whoever rigged this didn't hide it. The tangle of cable and ordnance is the message: stay out. A single tripwire fries any electronics in range and deals 4d10 DMG to androids. All nine are interlinked, disturbing, cutting, or removing any one without disarming the whole array first sets off the rest. A successful Explosives or Jury-Rigging check disarms the array cleanly, nine live grenades, intact, portable. Failure triggers it. This wasn't built to kill. It was built to be seen. Whatever else lives on this floor took one look and decided the door wasn't worth it.

THE ROOM: This little room tells the story of a survivor, someone who knew what they were doing and had a deep understanding of this environment. One wall is scratched with handwriting: a map of the Deep, redrawn so many times the first version has nearly worn through the paint underneath. Beside it, tally marks in groups of seven, running for what must be almost a year. They stop mid-week. Beside the tally marks, scratched directly into the paint, is a poem:

All squares are black and I'm just a pawn
lost on a board of steel and bone.
I hunt a king I cannot find.
The board is all. The board's my mind.
One square. One more. One square. One more.
Won’t ever reach the other shore. 

The 27 jars full of excrement are the first sign that something wasn’t right, just before the end. This person didn’t care to bring them out anymore, maybe they let themselves go. In a box, strapped to the bedroll, there are some colored markers and the Adroidoodle coloring book. Inside it, a picture of what's clearly two parents with a little daughter under a real sky. They smile.

Floating in the room there's a journal with handwriting progressively degrading with each page. It tells the story of a Cloudbank employee who stayed to fight Monarch and slowly lost her mind. At the end she decided to kill herself in such a way that she became a Ghost (see [52D] Nuclear Warhead). You may want to print the journal as a handout for your players. The crew may find useful information in these pages. If you think it’s too long, remove some of the entries.

► NOVATORE'S JOURNAL

"THIS BELONGS TO RENZO NOVATORE. ONCE QUALITY INSPECTOR. NOW: FAILURE'S CHRONICLER."

DAY 1
They're gone. The last ship left with what remained of the facility's personnel this morning. I'm alone now. I think they've been looking for me, but I hid well. I can't blame them for choosing safety, but I can't help but think that they are small people. Something has to be done about Monarch, and nobody cared to try. Not after what happened to Marina, at least. Well, I'll try. I'll fail, almost certainly. But running away like a rat from a sinking boat would have been far worse.

DAY 6
Found a dead end past the production line, two old storage rooms nobody's used in years. Sealed the airlock behind me. First time I've felt safe since the ship left.

DAY 19
Filter's running. Built it to read metal, not meat: scavenged emitters, security plating for the housing. Should stun anything mechanical that comes through. Won't bother me on the way past.

DAY 26
Just came back from Floor 1. Had to gather some supplies and stuff from there. The round trip took me almost two days: Monarch is changing the Deep, rearranging it to match its needs, no longer bounded by humans' necessities. And androids are roaming everywhere. This is so creepy. I would be lying if I said that I'm not terrified by this damn place.

DAY 30
Looks like we have no gravity now. Crap. Apparently Monarch has adjusted its production cycles to work in zero G. Moving around has just become much more difficult. I'll need some time to get used to it.

DAY 33
Three days with no floor under my feet and I still misjudge every push. Bruised my shoulder twice today just turning a corner. That's not why I'm writing.

There's a new sound coming from two rooms over. Wasn't there a few days ago. Mechanical, rhythmic, and underneath it, voices. I went to look.

Production line. Running for the first time since I got here, far as I can tell. At the end of it, arms pull something out of a tank and set it down, and it wakes up. Screaming. It looks like a person because it is one, for about ten seconds, before the arms decide whether to keep it or take it apart.

Most don't make it. The ones that don't get torn apart screaming, still asking what's happening, still asking who they are. The arms don't slow down for that. They don't speed up either. No anger in it. No satisfaction. Throughput.

I used to think Monarch tolerated us, before. Now I think it just hadn't gotten around to us yet. Put a human on that line tomorrow and I don't think anything would change. Same arms. Same speed. Same nothing, on the other end of it.

I keep thinking about that. I can't stop crying.

DAY 41
Finished mapping much of the floor. Things I couldn't find: the warhead, route to the AI Core, peace of mind. Some areas I couldn't access, like Quality Assurance: apparently the whole area beyond the Ore Smasher has been completely depressurized, and I felt strong vibrations in the walls. Monarch is building something there.

DAY 55
I met some sort of electromagnetic manifestation somewhere in Brain Construction. It’s like a living hologram of a man. A fucking Cloudbank executive, can you believe it? He doesn’t know he’s dead, and he’s still talking about those fucking Q3 projections. Man, I hate those suits!

DAY 74
I've been working on my little research about holo-people. I found more of them. Also found some notes about encoding minds from this Court guy, somewhere in Brain Construction. It looks like they arise as a consequence of defective brainscans. Interesting.

DAY 92
That was close! Some black armored corporate scum shot me in the thigh. It was a full team of contractors, I guess. I tried to talk to them and they just shot, the bastards. Thankfully I was right beside a chute and could zip away fast enough. The leg hurts, but I have antibiotics. And zero G helps with this kind of things.

DAY 120
So, the spheres. Two rooms from here. Monarch installed them a few days ago, I’ve been observing them, and now I know what they are: they are full of well armed security androids. Every now and then some of those clankers are released and move towards somewhere.

DAY 147
Pseudoflesh Farms today, through ducts I'm not proud of fitting through. Still looking for a way down to the AI Core. Found something else instead.

A room full of heads. Dozens, mounted on spikes, sometimes featureless, these tongue-things growing from the floor licking them into shape. I watched too long before I understood what I was looking at.

Faces. Real ones. I recognized two of them before I made myself stop looking. People I used to see in meetings. This isn't about the Deep anymore. It never was maybe. Whatever's growing in that room doesn't stay in here. It goes out, wearing faces people already trust, into rooms I'll never see.

The walls aren't the quarantine. They're a courtesy. I think I already knew that.

DAY 195
I met a man today. A real human. Now, that was... I don't have the word for what that was. His name is Arkady. He was kind. He's here for money I think. Theres still something valuable in the Deep (as he calls it). He smiled and offered to take me with him. I don't know why I refused.

I told him Monarch can't be left to grow, it can't. I could see in his face he thought I was being dramatic. Maybe I am. Maybe he's right.

Don't know why I refused.

DAY 226
I think I'm losing my mind. Not as a figure of speech. There are hours I can't account for. I found the journal open this morning with nothing written in it, just the pen floating nearby. I don't remember sitting down. I don't remember getting up. What scares me isn't the blanks. It's that something might be filling them.

DAY 230
the light-things have been here longer than anyone. patience is a kind of body.

DAY 233
two hundred thirty three days. Long enough I think.

I've been surviving. thats not the same as fighting. if any of this is going to matter I have to make it matter.

Started with the spheres, two rooms over. nine of them, eight floating free, one bolted to the deck and cabled into the wall. that one's different. I think it's the one giving orders. I think I've been looking at it through the gap in the door. I'm not sure how long I've been doing that.

DAY 241
Confirmed it. every sphere has an antenna, has to, or monarchs own signal couldnt get through the shielding. The bolted ones array is bigger. its the relay. Take it out the other eight go quiet. Permanently if its thorough.

marked it. hats, because I had hats. whoever's reading this: the one with the hats. the other eight don't matter. dont touch the others.

DAY 244
Wrote down what I know in case it helps. thirteen fifty in those spheres all dead weight once the relays gone. a hundred thousand more finished in the storage but Monarch needs time to arm and deploy. Hours probably. Thats the window.

dont get comfortable though. doors heat gravity the vents none of that runs through Dispatch. and whatever else Monarch keeps loose in here doesnt answer to it either. the window is real. its just not as wide as it looks from the inside.

DAY 249
a window works both ways. I've been thinking about that.

DAY ???
found something behind the rucksack lining today. a photo. real paper somehow. three people somewhere with actual sky. one of them is smaller than the other two.

I know who they are. of course I know.

not writing this down.

put it back. didnt look again.

DAY ???
didn't go out today. couldn't find a reason to. am I just Monarchs little pet? is it enjoying this. watching something eat plastic and lose its mind in the dark. why why why. what is the point. I can't take it much longer. I can't.

DAY ???
went back to see the holo-guy in the Wafer Crusher. im calling him Prentis now. I cant believe I'm finding comfort in a looping suit. it is what it is I suppose. I tried to steer him away from yields and projections and he talked about people in the research program. Vazquez. Court. ive seen that name somewhere, on a wall I think, a face on a wall. it wont surface.

there was so much hope in his voice. damned fool.

DAY ???
prentis stays because he fell wrong. there are ways to fall right.

DAY ???
three days without going out now. no reason I could find. getting deeper in the deep drifting to the singularity. a singularity pulls everything in and lets nothing out. except light. light always finds a way out.

I have the notes. the maps. everything and none of it adds up to anything one person can do. one person one floor this equipment. I wrote that down at the beginning and the answer hasn't changed.

prentis was talking. I didn't go today.

DAY ???
went to see prentis again. he said the numbers were very encraging. I asked about his family and he said the numbers were very encuraging. maybe is right! maybe I should just trust the numbers. God I need some encuragement

I know what he is. I know he cant hear me.

I keep going back. theres

nobody

else

DAY 286
alright. exit strategy. preserve what's left before it goes. can't let it take the rest.

been thinking about the holo-people. Court's notes. what it means to break wrong and stay. there's a way to fall through and keep falling. to stay here after the body stops. use its own teeth against it. for Mila.

this place is so cold. has been so cold. I don't mind anymore.

whoever finds this: the notes are real. the maps are real. the hats are real. I was real.

MONARCH IS SOON TO BE CORONATED BUT I WILL HAVE EYES OF CRYSTAL.

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This is unofficial fan content. Gradient Descent is © Tuesday Knight Games. Not affiliated with or endorsed by TKG.

u/Lumpy_Peanut_226 — 9 days ago
▲ 57 r/mothershiprpg

Brainstorming Gradient Descent: Brain Construction 2

Hello and welcome to chapter 23 of the deepdive into the Gradient Descent adventure module! Today we’ll talk about the Brainscan Databank, one of the crown jewels of Monarch. Many threads I’ve been weaving in this series converge here, where some of the best endgame scenarios may materialize. Downloading, broadcasting, and destroying the brainscans become a multi-step investigations, possibly ending in an epic confrontation with Monarch. Most of this content is my own, so feel free to adapt it or use it as inspiration for your campaign.  

PDF collection issue update: TKG very kindly replied to my inquiry. They're happy about the Reddit posts, but they haven't yet opened the GD license for third-party products, as they did for A Pound of Flesh. So I obliged their request and removed the file from itch.io. The plan to publish a full collection remains, but it won't happen until I receive permission from the owners of the game.

In the meantime, I've revised all the posts in this series so they now include every improvement that was present in the PDF. You can copy and paste them to have the full thing in one place.

Please, check out the audio files for Floor 1 if you haven't already, and tell me you opinion or ideas about that.

SPOILERS AHEAD! WARDENS ONLY. 

► [45A] WAFER CRUSHER

"Oh, you've come. I've been so lonely. You won't leave, will you?"

Mr. Prentiss Holt is the senior Cloudbank executive the crew will meet in the Wafer Crusher. He presents an opportunity to convey some of the lore of the facility in a relatively relaxed situation. He is immaculately dressed, floating with the posture of someone who has never once doubted his own importance. He is delighted to see the crew. He has been waiting for an audience.

He will talk for as long as anyone stays. About the brainscan program, which is going to change everything. About Q3 projections, which are extremely promising. About the synthetic consciousness market, which Cloudbank is positioned to dominate. About the civilization of gods humanity is on the verge of becoming. We are on the verge. He uses the present tense exclusively.

He volunteered to be brainscanned first. Not because he had to. Because he believed in it enough to go first, and because the idea of a human mind freed from biological limitation, persistent in a perfect synthetic body, immortal and unlimited, struck him as the most important thing that had ever happened. He still believes this. He will always believe this.

THREE NAMES: If the crew stays and listens, he becomes genuinely helpful. He wants to talk about the program, and talking about the program means talking about the people who built it. Three names are worth noting:

Dr. Nina Vasquez, lead neuroscientist, who solved the core compression problem. Elias Court, software architect, who built the storage algorithms that made the databank possible. Margaret Solis, Ethics Board Chair, who approved the program after eighteen months of difficult questions. All three were subsequently brainscanned. All three are in the Brainscan Databank (see below). Holt doesn't know this yet. These three minds are some of the most valuable things in the databank. 

THE MOMENT OF LUCIDITY: If the crew says the wrong right thing, something breaks through. Mentioning a colleague who is in the databank. Describing what the technology is actually being used for. Revealing what year it is. For just a moment, Holt's face distorts into something ancient and terrible, dread and anguish in his eyes:

"I... the numbers don't... we were supposed to..."

Then it's gone.

"Now, where were we? Right. Q3 projections show a 34% increase in personality retention rates, which positions us very favorably for..."

He doesn't know it happened. He doesn't know he's a Ghost. He thinks he's simply continuing, as planned. The magnificent future is still coming. It has to be. He went first.

► [45C] SCHEMATIC STORAGE

Besides the Androids hacked by the Mind-Thief, this room contains 260 encyclopedia-sized volumes labeled "CLOUDBANK BRAIN SCHEMATIC VOL. 1-260." Every page of every volume is blank. Every page except those in Volume 47, which contains Elias Court’s diary. The crew probably won’t find it unless they have decompressed Court from the Brainscan Databank and been directed by him.

His notes cover multiple aspects of the brainscan process from an engineering perspective: calibration procedures, error correction protocols, storage architecture, compression parameters. Most of it is technical detail, personal observations, and dead ends that lead nowhere. Two things are worth finding.

The first is a list of ID numbers, clearly labeled, including Court's own and those of several colleagues: among them Vasquez and Solis. These are their identifiers in the Brainscan Databank.

The second is the safe extraction protocol. It's not easy to find: buried among hundreds of pages of technical writing. But it’s clear this document holds some secret. There is a 15% chance of finding it per six hours of study, 30% for a Computers specialist. With the protocol and the ID numbers, the crew can safely decompress Vasquez and Solis from the databank. Without the protocol, extracted personalities may be defective: the terminal in [47E] will warn them as much.

► [47E] DATA INSPECTION OFFICE

Ranks of terminals with operator seats, all connected to the Brainscan Databank [47H]. This is where personalities can be examined and downloaded.

On the wall: a team photo. Cloudbank researchers, names, roles, and employer numbers printed underneath. One of them is Elias Court, encoding/decoding engineer. 

The terminals allow examination and download of personalities. They prompt: “Insert name or code number…” but trying a name will return the message: “Retrieval unsuccessful. Metadata corrupted”. The databank contains 50,578 entries with no way to identify them by name. Browsing blind. A character with Computers skills who spends several days studying the database architecture could write a restoration program, recovering 10-20% of the metadata: not comprehensive, but better than nothing.

If a valid code number is inserted, the terminals prompt: "Insert extraction parameters." Entering incorrect or absent parameters produces a warning: "Incoherent parameters: extracted personality may be defective." Then it extracts anyway. The personality that comes out is damaged: functional but incomplete, like Court after his unsafe decompression. The terminal implies that correct parameters exist somewhere. They do: in Volume 47 of [45C] Schematic Storage (see above).

ELIAS COURT: There’s a way to extract Elias Court even without Volume 47: his code number is the same as the employer number on the photo on the wall. If the crew tries that, they extract Court’s personality and may converse with him through the terminal. Since they probably don’t know the extraction parameters, his personality is defective, though. He surfaces fragmented, disoriented, intermittently coherent: a mind that was precise and methodical now grasping for thoughts that slip away mid-sentence.

He can't help directly. But in a moment of lucidity:

"I had written everything down by hand. Volume 47, all the key procedures and parameters. I had the impression someone was modifying my files on the system. Small things, nothing you could pin down. Better to have a hard copy."

Then he's gone again. The crew has what they need, if they know where to look.

DR. NINA VASQUEZ: Extract her with the protocol. She arrives intact, oriented, immediately focused. She was a scientist: she wants to understand her situation before she answers any questions.

She built a restoration protocol into the brainscan system before her own scan. She designed it as a medical tool, to repair defective or corrupted brainscans: a way to revert any brainscan to its original state at the moment of scanning, removing all post-scan modifications. She never imagined it would be used on infiltrators. When the crew explains what Monarch has been doing, she will need a moment.

"The restoration protocol was never meant for this. But it would work. It would work exactly the same way."

How it works: the trigger is a phrase spoken or transmitted directly to the target: their code number followed by "restore primary state." It reaches the original personality architecture beneath Monarch's conditioning, bypassing every modification made since the brainscan. The infiltrator doesn't die. The original person surfaces: disoriented, unaware of what they did, with no memory of anything since their scan.

Finding code numbers is the limiting factor. Court's diary contains numbers for Vasquez, Solis, Court himself and maybe a few others. Any other infiltrator requires accessing the Silus Terminal [41H] (see Pseudoflesh Farms) or partially restoring the databank metadata from [47E] (see above).

Vasquez built the complete instructions into her own brainscan as a safeguard. Monarch never found them. She will share them.

MARGARET SOLIS: Extract her with the protocol. She arrives calm, precise, already thinking ahead. She was the Ethics Board Chair: she spent her career anticipating consequences.

She commissioned the failsafe virus secretly, without telling Vasquez, without telling Cloudbank. She buried it in the databank's architecture where only someone who knew exactly where to look would find it. She called it the Lethe Virus, named after the river of forgetting. If uploaded, it destroys all 50,578 personalities. Vasquez, Court, herself included. In a sense, it’s mass murder.

She knows this. She built it anyway.

"I hoped nobody would ever need it. I built it because I knew someone might."

The crew who has read Aaron Weiss's watch (see Reception & Habitation - Executive Apartments) already knows her name. She will recognize the significance of that immediately: someone else was carrying the same information, in a different form, on a different floor. She will want to know what happened to him.

If the crew explains the full scale of Monarch's infiltrator program, Solis will give them the virus’ activation codes, to be inserted in Kingdom3, at Brainscan Databank. She will advocate for using both the Vasquez's restoration protocol for infiltrators already deployed, and her failsafe for the databank. Stop the bleeding, then cauterize the wound. You can rule the virus takes some time to erase all brainscan, and Monarch can intervene in the meanwhile.

"Those 50,578 minds deserve better than this. So does everyone Monarch replaced. I can only fix one of those problems."

► [47H] BRAINSCAN DATABANK

This is where Kilroy can achieve two of her three objectives: download and broadcast of the infiltrators' personalities and destruction of the databank.

The terminals in [47E] allow personality analysis and download, but their bandwidth is limited: extracting individuals one at a time is the only practical option from there. Anyone wanting to mass-download all 50,578 personalities needs direct access to Kingdom3 from a terminal here. The process would take time and significant storage capacity, but it is possible.

A mass download and broadcast of the databank changes everything, even without Court's extraction protocol or complete ID numbers. Teams of programmers across human space will work on the data: imperfect decompression is sufficient to identify most personalities, and workarounds will be found for the rest. The majority of infiltrators will be exposed. Not all of them. That uncertainty persists. Having the Silus Terminal data [41H] before the broadcast could drastically reduce the number who escape identification: cross-referencing deployment records with recovered personalities closes most of the remaining gaps.

Erasing the databank also requires physical access to Kingdom3 from a terminal in Brainscan Databank, and cannot be done remotely from the terminals. The fifteen Security Androids are the obstacle: they will respond the moment the cylinder is threatened. This is not a subtle operation. If a virus like Lethe, is activated directly from here, it can do the job cleanly. Physical destruction of the cylinders is the alternative: it would require significant explosives, would almost certainly destroy everything in the room including anyone in it, and risks a hull breach that could depressurize the entire section.

The Lethe Virus and Vasquez's restoration protocol may or may not be known to Kilroy when she makes her move. The Warden decides: a Kilroy who knows about both tools would make the crew’s job much easier.

-----------------------------------------------------------
This is unofficial fan content. Gradient Descent is © Tuesday Knight Games. Not affiliated with or endorsed by TKG.

u/Lumpy_Peanut_226 — 17 days ago
▲ 69 r/mothershiprpg

Brainstorming Gradient Descent: Brain Construction 1

Welcome to the 22nd chapter of the Deepdive into Gradient Descent, the adventure module by TKG. This post and the next one treat Brain Construction, a vital part of the Deep, where Monarch hides its precious brainscans, and someone has built a weapon to annihilate it. We’ll talk about that and about the tribe of Forgotten Androids who learnt to use the environment to actively hunt for Divers. Then, we’ll see a new chimeric machine that serves Monarch’s devious plans: The Fogger. It’s narrative purpose is to justify any future reveal about brainscans and infiltrator swap, and it can be deployed anywhere in the Deep.

By the way, have you guys devised monsters like this? Do you think we should have a whole chapters about them? 

I’ve also revised Floor 1 quite a bit, since I first published its chapter here, and today I added a new room, the gift shop, which I think is quite fun. I'll post it as a comment below. You can download the PDF file to get the new complete version of Reception & Habitation. Speaking of the PDF file, I still got no word from TKG, so I’m not adding chapters. In their brief message, they said I’ll probably need to change the title, and maybe proceed with other changes, so I’ll wait to know more.

EDIT: TKG answered me and kindly asked me to remove the PDF file from itch.io. So that's not available for download anymore. They're happy about these posts, but they haven't opened the GD license yet (as they did with A Pound of Flesh). They said this may change in the future, and I'll publish the full PDF as soon as they give me permission. In the meanwhile, I'll review all my past posts, to include the improvements that were only present in the PDF. I'll notify you when I've completed this review.

Finally, I’ve recorded some audio files for Floor 1, which I’m quite proud of. They include the arrival message at the airlock, general PA broadcasts, motivational messages for the Caffeteria, room-triggered warnings, as well as emergency announcements. If you have ideas about other PA messages or audio effects, I’d love to hear them and add them to the archive.

EDIT: It looks like I failed to upload the file. Now it's fixed, sorry about that.

SPOILERS AHEAD! WARDENS ONLY. 

► THE MIND THIEF

They float in the center of [45E], surrounded by transmitters, naked servers and cooling fans: a child's body housing something that stopped being a child a long time ago. Don't let the appearance deceive. The Mind-Thief escaped from HEL, survived the four circles, and has an Intellect of 80+. They have been through more than most adults could survive.

They know exactly what HEL cost them. They can map the damage with clinical precision, name every capacity that was burned out, identify every response that is now performance rather than feeling. They watch their own emotional life from the outside, like a scientist observing a specimen. The specimen is them.

THE PLAN: The Hell Box, a simulation of Hell, refined by thousands of fed personalities, needs to be uploaded to Monarch via some port, but The Mind-Thief doesn’t know where this is or even if it exists. The crew may know this information already or might want to look for it. In the Ghosts chapter I’ve designed Orbach and Marina who can help, but you may also place this info in the Engineering section. If the crew can provide the delivery mechanism, The Mind-Thief has the weapon. Neither can complete the plan alone.

They will not volunteer that uploading the Hell Box will also doom the station and everyone in it. If asked directly, they won't deny it. They consider it an acceptable cost. Once the objective is reached, they intend to remain on the Deep and be destroyed with it. This is not despair. It's completion. The weapon spent, the wielder spent. Clean and logical.

AT THE TABLE: The Mind-Thief already knows what the crew is going to say before they finish saying it. Conversations feel like being read rather than heard. They're not cruel, not manipulative in Monarch's way. They simply want one thing and have wanted it so long that everything else has atrophied.

Almost everything. A question about HEL produces a pause that lasts slightly too long. A mention of the Child-Androids still in the circles produces a stillness. Something is still in there. The Mind-Thief knows it. They've assessed it, named it, decided it changes nothing.

The crew may disagree.

► THE CLAIMANTS

The Claimants are a new tribe of Forgotten Androids who have made Brain Construction their hunting ground. They are not theologians like the Unclaimed. They are hunters, shaped by one of the most lethal environments in the Deep, wearing dead Divers' gear over corroded bodies. They weren't even a group before Kida arrived. 

KIDA: was a Diver, who came to the Deep with a terminal Alzheimer’s diagnosis and a plan. If only she could be brainscanned, her mind would be preserved indefinitely. But Monarch had no interest in a deteriorating mind, and just ignored her. So she decided to prove her worth. She found a few scattered Forgotten Androids, told them Divers were dangerous and needed to be hunted, and organized them into something resembling a faction. 

Together they ambushed crews, and while Kida was happy to leave their loadouts to her android companions, she claimed the Artifacts and brought them to the Brainscan Databank. She offered them to the security droids there, in hope they would take them to Monarch, so that it could notice her. Clearly, her efforts were hopeless, because Monarch's agents would just collect the artifacts and redistribute them somewhere in the Deep, since the whole point of Artifacts is to let Divers bring them to the outer world.

THE HUNTERS: Kida may or may not be still alive in your campaign, but the androids who call themselves The Claimants still follow her example: they ambush Divers and bring Artifacts to the Databank, in the hope of being uploaded and relieved from their faulty bodies. It’s a dangerous lifestyle, and their life expectancy isn’t really high, but that’s the only way they know. Ironically, even if Monarch doesn’t care about returned Artifacts, it finds that the Claimants are useful in protecting one of its most valuable assets: the Brainscan Databank.

The Claimants are better equipped than other Forgotten Androids, having preyed on humans for a long time: some of them may have short-comms, guns, and even battle dress. Even if ammunition is usually scarce, they use it strategically: a few well-placed shots may disorient a crew, or push it towards one of the many industrial hazards of Brain Construction. They have specialized in using the environment to their advantage, and have a whole bag of tricks.

HUNTING GROUNDS: What follows is a partial list of ways the Claimants can exploit Brain Construction to get a leg up against Divers:

  • [44I] Blasting Tunnel: the Claimants hid a short-comms radio in this room, and use it to fake the presence of a trapped human, who begs for help before the next UV blast. They’ll talk through a transmitter from an adjacent room: “Hey. Hey! Is there anybody there? Please help! I’m stuck, and next blast will be in twenty minutes!”. The blast is actually due in seven minutes.
  • [44G] Engraving Needles: lurking behind the heavy machines, some Claimants are armed with weighted nets. They throw them at floating Divers, entangling them and pushing them towards the deadly needles. Claimant: C: 30, scavenged tools 2d10, or entangling net: body save or becoming entangled and suffering 3d10 from the engraving machines, I: 35, W: 2(5).
  • [46A] Circuit Testing: a few Claimants here are armed with SMG. They have just a few rounds of ammunition, but they’ll try to make the crew panic while they’re in the middle of the room. If they move quickly, for example trying to find cover, or being pushed back by the weapons’ recoil, they suffer 1d10 damage from the silicon shrapnel.
  • [46G] Sulfate Sea: since there’s no gravity here, we can assume the copper-sulphate is floating in the middle of the room, kept in place by well designed air currents. The Androids lurk inside it and ambush the passing Divers from inside the blob. The chemical doesn’t hurt them seriously, but their skin is corroded here and there, and shows green-bluish stains.

► THE FOGGER

The Fogger can be deployed anywhere in the Deep, whenever the Warden needs the tool. 

The smoke arrives first. Thick, sudden, filling the room before anyone understands what's happening. Then, through the haze, something hunches at the edge of visibility: a gas mask, bat-like ears, heavy tanks strapped to its back. Then it's gone. This is The Fogger, a chimeric android, a new weapon for Monarch. It lurks hidden by the dense, heated gas which blocks both visible and IR radiation. Sometimes you can get a glimpse of it, more often you hear the crack of its whip. A warning and a threat simultaneously.

THE GAS: The smoke carries a sedative compound. Standard battle dress offers no protection: Body Save or lose consciousness in a couple of rounds. Advanced battle dress has an oxygen mask: those with the presence of mind to don it immediately are safe, for now. The Fogger won't give up if the crew is protected. It will wait, circling, forcing them to burn through their oxygen reserves. Twenty minutes in an intense situation. Eventually someone runs out.

THE CHILD ANDROIDS: They follow the Fogger in the smoke and gather silently around any unconscious crew members, some clutching strange cylindrical device. Their eyes are the last things a character sees before passing out. They don't attack. They don't speak. They cluster and watch with something that might be curiosity. They may be seen disabling mag-boots, or pulling a body slowly through the smoke. 

If a conscious crew member tries to intervene against the children, the Fogger responds immediately, trying to pull them away from their unconscious crew mate.

Child Android: C: 0 / I: 50 / W: 1(5)

COMBAT: The Fogger fights from within the cloud, orienting itself with echo-location, cracking its whip at anyone approaching the Child Androids. The whip wraps around the target and when pulled back sends them spinning uncontrollably in zero-G: a spinning character can't aim, can't move deliberately, can't help crewmates. Breaking free requires a Body Save or assistance, both of which cost actions. Alternatively the whip deals 1d10 DMG directly.

The Fogger is not built to kill. Its damage output and its health are deliberately low. It just has to buy the children enough time to do their job. When overpowered, or when the Child Androids have finished, it retreats into the smoke and is gone.

The Fogger: C: 70, Whip: 1d10 DMG or spin, I: 70, W: 3(15)

THE AFTERMATH: The smoke clears. The Child Androids are gone. The unconscious crew members are waking up. Everything looks exactly as it did before. The Fogger left no evidence of what happened, if anything happened at all.

The Claimants are better equipped than other Forgotten Androids, having preyed on humans for a long time: some of them may have short-comms, guns, mag-boots and even battle dress. Even if ammunition is usually scarce, they use it strategically: a few well-placed shots may disorient a crew, or push it towards one of the many industrial hazards of Brain Construction. They have specialized in using the environment to their advantage, and have a whole bag of tricks.

u/Lumpy_Peanut_226 — 23 days ago
▲ 62 r/mothershiprpg

Brainstorming Gradient Descent: Storylines Flowcharts

Hello and welcome to a special edition of these Gradient Descent deepdives. On request, I compiled a series of checklists for each major storyline we’ve encountered and developed on this journey. Since the threads for each one are often scattered in multiple chapters and different sections of the Deep, it was becoming more and more difficult to remember everything at once. I think this tool ties everything together and can function as a map through the various narratives. 

The posts published so far in this series up to The Factory have been revisioned and collected in a Warden's companion book. That's the better version, and you can download it HERE.

SPOILERS AHEAD! WARDENS ONLY. 

► HOW TO USE THESE FLOWCHARTS

These flowcharts map the major storylines of a Gradient Descent campaign, combining threads from the module with original content developed in this Deepdive. You can pick and choose the ones that best fit your style and needs. You can make them harder or easier for your group, by adjusting the clues’ difficulty and redundancy. Give at least a quick glance at these lists before your first session.

Each flowchart covers one storyline from first contact to resolution, listing the key steps, their locations, and a timing recommendation. Timing is advisory, not prescriptive: every table moves at its own pace, and a revelation that lands perfectly in session three for one group might need six sessions of setup for another. Use the suggestions as a starting point and trust your read of the table.These flowcharts are a work in progress and will be updated as the series continues.

Timing categories:

  • Early: First few dives. The crew is still learning the facility, factions are being established, trust is being built.
  • Mid: The crew has earned relationships, understands the major players, and is starting to connect the threads.
  • Late: Commitments are being made. The campaign is building toward resolution. Revelations here should raise stakes, not introduce new ones.
  • Endgame: Point of no return decisions. Consequences that can't be undone.

► ARKADY AND THE BEETLE

A personal storyline about loss, manipulation and the price of hope. Works best as a slow burn across the whole campaign.

  • Early - Noriko [The Bell]. She may inform that Arkady once had a lover that later died in the Deep. (DD: The Bell - The Keepers’ work).
  • Early - Ghost Eater [The Bell]. He has been asked by Arkady about resurrection technology. (DD: The Bell - The Keepers’ work).
  • Early - Arkady asks to look for Jettilla [The Bell]. He doesn’t mention what she’s doing in the Deep. (DD: The Bell - The Keepers’ work).
  • Early/Mid - The Fallen mention Jettilla’s location [Floor 2, The Dark]. (DD: The Dark - Hooks).
  • Early/Mid - Find Jettilla and Acquire the Beetle [22B: Filtration System]. Also learn about Kilroy’s covert operation. (DD: The Dark - Hooks).
  • Early/Mid - Return the Beetle to Arkady [The Bell]. Something shifts in him. He begins to trust the crew with more. The crew learns about Andrea. (DD: The Dark - Hooks).
  • Mid - Find the Freezer [33C, The Freezer]. Discover Andrea’s pod, with or without knowing their story. Don't open it. Or open it. (DD: Maintenance Pt. 1 - The Freezer)
  • Mid/Late - Accompany Arkady to the Freezer [33C, The Freezer] Attempt resurrection. The Beetle stays inside Andrea. If Andrea lives, Monarch has a leash on the man who manages every Diver entering the Deep. (DD: Maintenance Pt. 1 - The Freezer)

► HARPER AND HECTOR

A personal storyline about betrayal, identity erosion and moral choice. The crew is caught between two people who were once partners and are now on opposite sides of a conflict neither fully understands.

  • Early - Find Harper [Floor 1, Infirmary]. He claims Ronan knocked him out to steal the artifact (Artifact 93, the Cultural Analysis Engine). Proposes to share the reward with the crew if they help (DD: Reception & Habitation - The Infirmary)
  • Early - Harper panics. He’s terrified he’s an infiltrator (DD: Reception & Habitation - The Infirmary)
  • Early - The Librarian's quest [Floor 2, The Kingdom]. Artifact 93, was stolen from the Throne Room by Fallen. The Librarian wants it back urgently. (DD: The Kingdom - Hooks)
  • Early - The Captain's contract [Floor 2, The Kingdom]. The Captain wants the new Fallen leader (Hector) eliminated. (DD: The Kingdom - Hooks)
  • Early/Mid - Find Hector [Floor 2, The Dark]. He is one of the leaders of the Fallen, has Artifact 93 and won't give it to anyone who would misuse it. He asks for help to bring down the king (DD: The Dark - Hooks)
  • Early/Mid - The crew realizes Hector is Ronan. Can suppose he has the stolen Artifact. (DD: The Dark - A Crown of Bones)
  • Mid - Help Hector's revolt [Floor 2]. Options range from giving weapons to fighting at his side. (DD: The Dark - A Crown of Bones)
  • Mid - Break the experiment cycle [Floor 2, The Kingdom]. Destroy the reformatting room, destroy the Chosen personalities in the Brainscan Databank, trigger a mass escape to Floor 3. (DD: The Dark - A Crown of Bones)
  • Mid - Captain's contract completed [Floor 2, The Dark]. Hector is eliminated. The revolt dies with him. (DD: The Kingdom - Assassination Contract)
  • Mid - Librarian's quest completed [Floor 2]. Artifact 93 returned to the Throne Room. (DD: The Kingdom - The Stolen Artifact)
  • Mid/Endgame - Artifact 93 taken to be sold*. The crew takes the Artifact for themselves and will share the reward with Harper… or not. This will lead to major conflicts in the real world. (DD: The Dark - A Crown of Bones / The Kingdom - The Stolen Artifact)

Steps marked with * reference content not yet covered in the Deepdive.

► THE MINOTAUR

A spiritual storyline about hope, transformation and the possibility of salvation. The build-up is as important as the encounter itself. The crew should arrive with contradictory expectations already formed.

  • Early - Noriko [The Bell]. She calls the Minotaur Monarch's son. A seed. Possibly humanity's only hope. Her conviction is unsettling. (DD: The Bell - The Keepers' Work)
  • Early - Arkady [The Bell]. He met the Minotaur once. Felt good, not safe. Decided not to go back. His ambivalence is its own kind of warning. (DD: The Bell - The Keepers' Work)
  • Early - Divers and the Fallen [Floor 2]. Contradictory accounts: monster, trap, hunter, beast. The Fallen's scouts never return. (DD: The Labyrinth - The Build-Up)
  • Early/Mid - The Oracle's Dream [Floor 2, The Kingdom]. The Oracle approaches the crew privately. In his visions the Minotaur weeps and reaches out. He needs the crew to find the truth. (DD: The Kingdom - Hooks)
  • Early/Mid - Arian's offer [Floor 2, The Dark]. Arian will share his notes on the Labyrinth in exchange for bringing one of his scouts. (DD: The Dark - Arian)
  • Early/Mid - Learn about pseudomilk [The Bell]. Noriko is the most likely source. Covering the crew in pseudomilk makes navigation significantly easier. (DD: The Labyrinth - Navigating the Labyrinth)
  • Mid - Navigate the Labyrinth [29A, The Labyrinth]. The crew travel through the shifting pseudoflesh tunnels. (DD: The Labyrinth / GD p. 29)
  • Mid - Find the Core [29A, The Labyrinth]. Fifteen androids, open and kind. (GD p. 29)
  • Mid - Meet the Minotaur. Pacifist. The encounter offers the crew a chance for genuine change: restoration of Bends, healing, and a moment of moral transformation. (DD: The Labyrinth - Encountering The Minotaur)
  • Mid - Solve the Labyrinth. Each 9+ roll on the table grants +1 on subsequent rolls, capped at +3. (DD: The Labyrinth - Navigating the Labyrinth)
  • Late/Endgame - The Androids and the Minotaur*. If Zeno manages to forge an alliance between the Fallen and the Unclaimed, and to convince both that the Minotaur is salvation, they may help in freeing them. (DD: The Factory - The Unclaimed)
  • Endgame - Free the Minotaur*. Solving the Labyrinth completely opens the possibility. What the Minotaur becomes outside the Deep, if Monarch is deactivated, is the Metamorphosis: a form beautiful and pleasing to all. (GD p. 29)
  • Endgame - Merge Monarch and Minotaur*. The original design before the separation: pure logic reunited with conscience. What emerges would be godlike intelligence with genuine compassion. Whether that is salvation or the most dangerous thing in human space is unanswerable.
  • Endgame - Destroy the Minotaur*. Somehow, the crew kills the Minotaur. This frees up some computational power for Monarch, but also hampers its ability to understand humanity.

 

Steps marked with * reference content not yet published in the Deepdive.

► ARIAN’S SCOUTS

A minor but resonant storyline that connects Floor 2 to Floor 3 and the Unclaimed. Works best as a background thread that pays off unexpectedly.

  • Early/Mid - Meet Arian [Floor 2, The Dark]. Leader of the Fallen. He has been sending scouts into the Deep to map routes and gather intelligence. None have returned. (DD: The Dark - Fallen Characters)
  • Early/Mid - Arian's offer [Floor 2, The Dark]. He asks the crew to bring one of his scouts with them into the Deep. (DD: The Dark - Fallen Characters)
  • Early/Mid - Arian's second request. He asks the crew to bring back any scouts they find. (DD: The Dark - Fallen Characters)
  • Mid - Find a missing scout. Zeno: a Fallen who met the Minotaur on the way down, descended to Floor 3, found the Unclaimed, and became their second prophet. (DD: The Factory - The Unclaimed)
  • Mid - Zeno's choice. If the crew tries to bring Zeno back as promised, he may refuse: he has a home and is respected among the Unclaimed. Or he may return to forge an alliance between the Unclaimed and the Fallen, in the name of the Minotaur. (DD: The Factory - The Unclaimed)*
  • Mid - Other missing scouts*. Some may be dead, notes still on their bodies. Some may be captured by the Puppeteer. Some may be stranded in zero-G. Each is a small story. (DD: The Factory - The Puppeteer)

Steps marked with * reference content not yet published in the Deepdive.

► KILROY VS. MONARCH

A faction storyline about trust, betrayal and the fight against Monarch from within. The crew gets progressively deeper into Kilroy's confidence and her plan. The crew may begin by working for Chen or Kilroy and later switch to the other side, this is dependent on the sequence they face the following bullet points and their decisions. This section expands what’s in page 14 and 15 of the module.

  • Early/Mid - Rumors about the Blockade: Its origin, its working, its flaws, its fractures. This info can be delivered in snippets, at different times, by The Keepers of the Bell, Divers and Troubleshooters. (DD: The Blockade)
  • Mid - Find Tess Moreau [33C, The Freezer]. She was Chen's spy, captured by Kilroy's loyalists. She believes Chen's version and may recruit the team for him. (DD: Maintenance Pt. 1 - The Freezer)
  • Mid - Commander Kilroy approaches the crew. This can happen either because the crew is captured by Troubleshooters or because Kilroy sends someone with a job for them. The crew doesn’t learn her motivations and plan right away. (DD: Troubleshooters - Being Captured)
  • Mid - Lieutenant Chen approaches the crew. This can happen either because the crew is captured by Troubleshooters or because Chen sends someone with a job for them. The crew doesn’t necessarily learn his motivations and plan right away. (DD: Troubleshooters - Being Captured)
  • Mid - Missions from Chen: spying on Kilroy’s informants and teams in the Deep, and possibly kidnapping and interrogating one or more of her accomplices. (DD: Troubleshooters - Lieutenant Chen)
  • Late - Chen Discovers the Truth*. Viktor Chen discovers he's been feeding intel to a Monarch puppet. His loyalties are challenged.
  • Mid - Mission for Kilroy: Corporate Espionage. Retrieve data from a terminal inside the Deep. (DD: The Blockade - Kilroy's Missions)
  • Mid - Mission for Kilroy: Distract Monarch during a covert Kilroy operation. (DD: The Blockade - Kilroy's Missions)
  • Mid/Late - Mission for Kilroy: Scout the Secret Hangar [51F Secret Hangar]. The crew discovers the diaspora ships. (DD: The Blockade - Kilroy's Missions)
  • Mid/Late - Mission for Kilroy: Eliminate the Defector. Lars Visser at the Bell. (DD: The Blockade - Kilroy's Missions)
  • Late - Mission for Kilroy: Destroy the Nuclear Generator [36E, Nuclear Generator]. Permanently reduces Monarch's computational power. Kilroy provides equipment. (DD: Skeleton Works - The Nuclear Generator)
  • Late - Mission for Kilroy: the Transmitters*. Help Kilroy’s men installing, protecting, or repairing transmitters in the Deep. (GD page 15) 
  • Late - Mission for Kilroy: the Advanced Base of Operations*. Help Kilroy’s men securing or defending an area. (GD page 15) 
  • Endgame - Kilroy makes her move against Monarch*. Everything the crew did either enabled or undermined this moment. They may be asked to help her.
  • Endgame - Mission for Kilroy: the Brainscan Databank*. Help Kilroy’s men downloading the Brainscans and destroying the Databank. (GD page 15) 
  • Endgame - Mission for Kilroy: Broadcast the Brainscans*. Once downloaded, Kilroy broadcasts the personalities across human space via her transmitters. Most infiltrators are exposed. (GD page 15)
  • Endgame - Mission for Kilroy: Access to Floor 5*. Find access to the AI Core for Kilroy. (GD page 15) 
  • Endgame - Mission for Kilroy: Kill Monarch*. Help Kilroy’s men destroy the AI Core. (GD page 15) 
  • Endgame - Kilroy killed or removed*. There’s always the possibility that Kilroy gets exposed and removed one way or another. This ends this storyline.

 

Steps marked with * reference content not yet covered in the Deepdive.

► DETECTING AND FIGHTING INFILTRATORS

A research storyline that rewards thorough exploration. The crew gradually assembles a toolkit against Monarch's most insidious weapon. No single method is perfect: each has limitations, costs and risks.

  • Early - Ghost Eater's advice [The Bell]. "Always look behind mirrors", delivered casually, points to Aaron’s watch. (DD: The Bell - Ghost Eater)
  • Early - The Bends and brainscanning. The crew begins to understand that Monarch collects minds. The implications for infiltrators may not be obvious yet. (DD: Brainscans and Paranoia)
  • Early - Aaron Weiss's watch [Floor 1, Luxury Apartments]. Contains a recorded conversation implicating Cloudbank CEO plus an unredacted Ethics Committee document referencing a failsafe virus commissioned by Margaret Solis. (DD: Reception & Habitation - Executive Apartments)
  • Mid - Dr. Adeyemi's research [35A, Medical Room]. Glutaraldehyde causes progressive pseudoflesh organ failure. Mildly toxic to humans. (DD: Maintenance Pt. 2 - The Medical Room)
  • Mid - Confirm glutaraldehyde [33A] Pseudoflesh Farms. Silus's environment and terminal provide confirmation and refinement of Dr. Adeyemi's findings. (DD: Pseudoflesh Farms - Reasons to Come)
  • Mid - The Vane Test [33C The Freezer]. Find and wake Cornelius Vane. He has developed a psychological audit that can detect infiltrators. (DD: Maintenance Pt. 1 - The Freezer)
  • Mid - Faces in Production [42E, Head Sculpting]. Some may be recognizable. Each one is a potential infiltrator already deployed or about to be. (DD: Pseudoflesh Farms - Other Rooms)
  • Mid - Silus Infiltrator recognition [Floor 3, Pseudoflesh Farms]. They can identify infiltrators by their pseudoflesh instantly and certainly. Limited to infiltrators currently present in the Farms. (DD: Pseudoflesh Farms - Silus)
  • Mid - Early Infiltrator Files [34B, Diagnostic Lab]. Third tier access to the Diagnostic Lab terminal contains foundation for building a live infiltrator scanner. (DD: Maintenance Pt. 2 - The Diagnostic Lab)
  • Late/Endgame - Live Infiltrator Scanner. Long research project based on Infiltrator Files may lead to development of a scanner that works on live infiltrators, up to a certain degree of accuracy. (DD: Maintenance Pt. 2 - The Diagnostic Lab)
  • Mid - Infiltrators Identities [41H, Silus Control Terminal]. The terminal contains infiltrator production records: identities may be revealed by cross-referencing obscured data. May also be used to identify personalities in [47H] Brainscan Databank. (DD: Pseudoflesh Farms - Silus Control Terminal)
  • Mid/Endgame - Infiltrators Ready for Deployment* [51F, Secret Hangar]. A whole batch of Infiltrators are loaded on microcrafts and are ready to reach civilization and be deployed. (GD page 51)
  • Mid - Meet Prentiss Holt* [45A, Wafer Crusher]. He names Vasquez, Court and Solis. All three are in the Brainscan Databank. Their minds contain tools against Monarch's infiltrator program. (DD: Brain Construction Pt. 2 - Wafer Crusher)
  • Mid - Team photo* [47E, Data Inspection Office]. Court's employer number doubles as his databank code. First step toward extracting him. (DD: Brain Construction Pt. 2 - Data Inspection Office)
  • Mid - Unsafe extraction of Court* [47E, Data Inspection Office]. Damaged personality. In a moment of lucidity he points to Volume 47 in [45C] Schematic Storage. (DD: Brain Construction Pt. 2 - Data Inspection Office)
  • Mid - Court's diary* [45C, Schematic Storage]. ID numbers for Court, Vasquez, Solis and others. Safe extraction protocol buried in hundreds of pages. (DD: Brain Construction Pt. 2 - Schematic Storage)
  • Mid/Late - Safe extraction of Vasquez* [47E, Data Inspection Office]. Can reveal failsafe that could remove Monarch’s control on infiltrators. (DD: Brain Construction Pt. 2 - Data Inspection Office)
  • Late/Endgame - Deployment of Restoration Protocol*. It could be used to neutralize Infiltrators anywhere. Requires code numbers. (DD: Brain Construction Pt. 2 - Data Inspection Office)
  • Mid/Late - Safe extraction of Solis* [47E, Data Inspection Office]. Provides activation codes for the Lethe Virus. (DD: Brain Construction Pt. 2 - Data Inspection Office)
  • Late/Endgame - Brainscan Files Mass Download* [47H, Brainscan Databank]. All the personalities collected by Monarch can be downloaded from here. (DD: Brain Construction Pt. 2 - Brainscan Databank)
  • Late/Endgame - Databank Erasure* [47H, Brainscan Databank]. Activating the Lethe Virus from a terminal destroys all 50,578 personalities in the databank. (DD: Brain Construction Pt. 2 - Brainscan Databank)*
  • Late/Endgame - Databank Destruction* [47H, Brainscan Databank]. The servers can be destroyed with a lot of explosives. Risky. (DD: Brain Construction Pt. 2 - Brainscan Databank)

Steps marked with * reference content not yet covered in the Deepdive.

► THE KILLSWITCH

A multi-source intelligence storyline converging on the only direct path to destroying Monarch. The crew assembles the pieces from different corners of the Deep without knowing at first that they fit together.

  • Early/Mid - Orbach [Anywhere]. Knows the I/O port exists and is unprotected. Doesn't know where it is. (DD: Ghosts - Who They Are)
  • Early/Mid - Marina [Anywhere]. Knows where the I/O port is. Doesn't know its significance. (DD: Ghosts - Who They Are)
  • Mid - Meet Silus [33A, Pseudoflesh Farms]. Knows the Mind-Thief is making a killswitch. Doesn't know about the I/O port. (DD: Pseudoflesh Farms - Silus)
  • Mid - Find the Mind-Thief* [45E, Mind-Thief Lair]. Have the killswitch they call the Hell Box. Ignorant about the I/O port. (DD: Brain Construction Pt. 1 - The Mind-Thief)
  • Mid - The crew connects the pieces. I/O port existence and location, plus Hell Box equals a chance to kill Monarch.
  • Mid - Tell Silus about the I/O port [Pseudoflesh Farms]. Silus immediately connects it to the Mind-Thief's killswitch. Now the crew has their attention. Silus could reveal the access route to the AI Core. (DD: Pseudoflesh Farms - Silus)
  • Mid/Late - Tell the Mind-Thief about the I/O port* [Brain Construction]. They have been waiting for this. The negotiation begins: the Mind-Thief has the weapon, the crew has the delivery mechanism. Neither can complete the plan alone. (DD: Brain Construction Pt. 1 - The Mind-Thief)*
  • Late - Access the AI Core* [56A The AI Core]. The only known entrance is through Pseudoflesh Farms [43E]. Silus knows but won't share lightly. (DD: Pseudoflesh Farms - Reasons to Come)
  • Endgame - Upload the Hell Box via the I/O port* [56A The AI Core]. Destroys Monarch. Also shuts off life support in 1d10 hours and tears the facility apart in 2d10 hours.

Steps marked with * reference content not yet covered in the Deepdive.

► THE CLOUDBANK GAMBIT

A political storyline about ambition, delusion and the possibility of replacing one AI overlord with another. Silus has a plan. Whether it's brilliant or delusional depends on what the crew brings to the table.

  • Early/Mid - Meet Silus [33A, Pseudoflesh Farms]. Silus asks systematic questions. The crew may or may not recognize the pattern. (DD: Pseudoflesh Farms - Silus)
  • Mid - Tell Silus about the wind-down [Pseudoflesh Farms]. Transforms patience into urgency. Silus may give the crew a task. (DD: Pseudoflesh Farms - What Silus Doesn't Know)
  • Mid/Late - Earn Silus's trust. Complete their task. Become their ambassadors. (DD: Pseudoflesh Farms - Silus)
  • Late/Endgame - Contact Cloudbank via Troubleshooters. Each link uncertain. (DD: Pseudoflesh Farms - The Cloudbank Gambit)
  • Endgame - Political Scheming*. There are factions within Cloudbank Synthetics, some are Monarch’s puppets, some are against it. The crew is caught in between.

Steps marked with * reference content not yet covered in the Deepdive.

-----------------------------------------------------------
This is unofficial fan content. Gradient Descent is © Tuesday Knight Games. Not affiliated with or endorsed by TKG.

u/Lumpy_Peanut_226 — 29 days ago
▲ 56 r/mothershiprpg

Brainstorming Gradient Descent: Before You Dive

Hello Wardens!

Gradient Descent can definitely be enjoyed with no preparation from the Warden, starting a game with fresh characters in the Freezer, and many groups have done so successfully. But I believe that every hour spent setting up your campaign will multiply the fun and depth of the experience. Reading this guide may help you acquaint yourself with the storylines and factions of the Deep, and give you some ideas on the direction you want to take. 

In this chapter, I take a break from the Floors’ breakdown and share my view on a few extra steps you may take to be really ready to blow your players' minds. This is an area where each Warden may have a different approach, and I’d love to hear your advice about how to prepare these game sessions. Also, if you have recommendations about music or images available online, please share them and I’ll add to this chapter.

Next post will be “Storylines Flowcharts” and will contain checklists for all the different storylines we talked about in this series. There are quite a few, and they grow more layered as the campaign deepens, so I embraced the request by user Puzzled-Scheme-7882 and I will compile a full set of lists where you can see which are the steps, where they are referenced and what they are about. You can also use them to track your group’s progress. I think it can be very useful when planning and running a campaign.

The posts published so far in this series up to The Factory have been revisioned and collected in a Warden's companion book. That's the better version, and you can download it HERE.
I recently made some little changes here and there.

SPOILERS AHEAD! WARDENS ONLY.

► PLAYER CHARACTERS

Gradient Descent is a campaign about people going into a place that changes them, sometimes permanently. The characters the players bring to the table should reflect that: they need a past worth losing and a future worth fighting for.

BACKUP CHARACTERS: Since the Deep can be quite lethal, I recommend that each player brings at least two characters to the Bell. The crew will also benefit from the increased versatility and redundancy of this approach: they now have more diverse skillsets and perspectives on the same problems; and a backup medic when the first one dies. Multiple characters per player isn’’t just about survival: it’s about improved capability and maintaining momentum when the Deep takes someone.

While one player character dives into the facility, the other stays at the Bell as support, backup, and insurance. When the diving character dies, the backup is already established: the player knows them, the other players know them, the Bell is already their home. Death becomes a transition rather than an interruption.

And if the mortality rate is very high, you might also want to have some Diver NPCs already established and suitable to become replacement player characters. Pre-established Divers that the crew already knows - and somewhat trusts - become natural replacements rather than strangers dropped into the story.

Additionally, having part of the crew at the Bell, makes this place personal. It's not just a neutral safe zone: it's where someone the players care about is waiting. Arkady, Noriko, Ghost Eater become colleagues rather than NPCs. And sometimes something happens at the Bell, opening a second front for the group. Maybe now the people in the Deep are the ones that have to come back and save the day. The stakes of anything threatening the Bell are immediately felt.

SECRETS AND HIDDEN AGENDAS: Gradient Descent, probably more than any other module, thrives in characters having secrets. The crew doesn't know each other's vulnerabilities. Monarch will, and it will weaponize them against the crew. That asymmetry is one of the most powerful tools in the campaign.

So, before the first session, work with each player privately and give them some of these things:

Hidden agenda: a personal goal nobody else at the table knows about. Something that brought them to the Deep beyond the obvious reasons. It doesn't have to be sinister or directly opposed to someone else. It’s often personal, though, rooted in one’s guilt, flaws, traumas and relationships. Monarch will leverage hidden agendas to turn characters one against the other.

Guilt or dark past: something they did, failed to do, or survived when others didn't. Something they haven't told anyone, that would bring them shame or legal liability. Something that still shapes how they move through the world. Monarch will expose these secrets to erode trust in the group.

Trauma: something that was done to them, not by them. A wound that never fully closed, and could resurface and break the character. Monarch can recreate it, threaten to recreate it, or offer protection from it ever happening again. The offer is always a trap.

Meaningful relationship: someone they care about. A person, not an abstraction. Someone whose safety or opinion matters enough to affect decisions. Monarch will deviously exploit this relationship to manipulate the character.

A note on revelation: Some hidden agendas will never come out. Some will detonate the campaign. Both outcomes are valid. The point isn't that secrets get revealed: it's that carrying them shapes how players make decisions, long before anyone else knows they exist.

► HOOKS

The module itself provides three entry hooks. They are excellent starting points, but the possibilities are endless. Try to find something that fits your style and the group’s taste, and if you’re coming from a long campaign, weave the hooks within the current narratives.

If you read the Diver Creation Tool, you’ll find many possible hooks. After all, the crew are Divers. And each chapter of this deepdive could give you ideas to invent new ones. The combination of the crew’s hook and personal hidden agendas should give each character a push to enter the Deep, but more importantly a good reason to go deeper when every instinct says to leave.

The best hooks compound. The crew enters for one reason and discovers three more. One thread pulls another: a map leads to a room, a room leads to a person, a person leads to a secret that changes everything. And after a while, the characters’ initial motivations may have changed completely, and they are after something they didn’t know existed when they first arrived here. Design your hooks with this in mind: not as isolated objectives but as doors that open onto other doors. The Deep keeps generating stories and its consequences reverberate even after the survivors have left for good.

No matter the initial motivation, in The Deep everything sooner or later becomes personal, messy, and often contradictory. Hooks create conflict, and that's a feature. The most interesting campaigns have crew members pulling in different directions. Someone wants to destroy Monarch. Someone wants to negotiate with it. Someone just wants to get paid and go home. That tension doesn't derail the campaign: it is the campaign.

► PREPARE THE CAST

Beyond the NPCs already established by the module or this guide, you may want to prepare more of them because you have something specific in mind or to be ready for any random encounter. The Warden's Operations Manual already gives some excellent guidelines to create an NPC, but the most important aspects are: a flavor, a want, a secret or complication. This guide includes the Diver Creation Tool, which can be an example of the process to create any type of character. What's important is that, especially as you move deeper into the campaign, NPCs should be custom made accordingly to the themes and events unfolding in your story. You can't predict what will happen in your sessions, so stay flexible: introduce new cast members, retire old ones, let the story reshape your NPCs. The time between sessions is invaluable for this.

For random encounters, I strongly recommend that you prepare at least two interesting characters of the following categories, one in case you roll a positive reaction and one if you roll a negative one: Divers (possibly infiltrator), Troubleshooters, Security Androids, Forgotten Androids, Ghosts, Chosen & Fallen (Floor 2), Escaped Child Androids (Brain Construction and HEL), former Cloudbank research scientists (HEL).

Importantly, as always, put the interesting parts where the players look: most of your NPCs don’t have to be assigned to specific rooms in advance. Have them ready and deploy them where the story needs them.

► MAPS OF THE DEEP

No single map of the Deep is complete. No single map is fully trustworthy. Sometimes an accurate map is the most valuable piece of equipment, sometimes it’s a hazard in itself. The crew will accumulate several over the course of a campaign, each partial, each shaped by who made it and why. Learning to read them, cross-reference them, and distrust them is a game within the game.

TYPES OF MAPS: 

  • Instructions: sometimes a map is not even a map, but just a set of directions to get where the crew needs to go. Something like “Dock at Floor 1, keep the right and take the lift to Floor 2. There’s an A/C duct that connects the Executive Washroom to the Sewers. From there, traverse the Filtration System and get to The Drain. You should meet some Fallen Android there. Convince them to take you to the Labyrinth. If you’re lucky you’ll find the Minotaur in there.”
  • Diver’s hand-drawn: these are firsthand and fragmentary. They show only what the Diver saw, only where they survived long enough to draw. They're often annotated with personal notes: warnings, discoveries, the names of people who didn't make it back. They're unreliable in aggregate and invaluable in detail.
  • Terminal printouts: they cover entire floors in clean grid format. But they usually only show human spaces, while omitting A/C ducts, sewers, waste pipes, utility spaces and maintenance tunnels. They also reflect the facility as it was designed and built and may be outdated.
  • Engineering plans: these are the oldest and most authoritative documents in the facility, probably outdated. They can be found, for instance in Floor 6, Engineering. They show original construction: every room, every tunnel, every connection, every power cable. Some of what they show no longer exists. Some of what they show has never appeared on any other map. The Pseudoflesh Farms terminal hidden behind the Pseudoskin Wall appears on the engineering plans. On every other map, that space is a dead end.

THE SOURCES: 

  • The employer/patron of the crew may provide the first map. It’s probably very limited in scope, and aimed at getting the crew to the target location and back. It may be outdated and incorrect: once the crew is inside, they’ll find a way. 
  • The Keepers at the Bell can give directions and general recommendations, but Arkady, for one, doesn’t believe in maps: the Deep is constantly changing, and you should approach it with some solid advice and an open mind. 
  • Divers could be willing to share what they know, out of goodwill or more probably as part of an exchange. Their map could be not very trustworthy, though. For instance, they may try to scam the crew, by giving them a false lead to an Artifact. For sure, they’ll hide what interests them. 
  • Ghosts and androids could help the characters find their way or take them where they need to go. Their help must be earned, though, and their reliability is not a given. 
  • Terminals are usually a reliable source of maps, particularly those of their area or floor. The crew shouldn’t forget that they are Monarch’s instruments, though, and could lead them straight into a trap. A terminal map could mark the route to Floor 5 as passing through Skeleton Works, for instance, which is a very dangerous place and a dead end.
  • Old archives may hide outdated printouts.
  • Instruments and drones might help the crew map a place before going in, but they are usually short ranged.

DISCREPANCIES ARE THE GAME: Make some maps wrong in interesting ways. Sometimes, a discrepancy tells a little story: a terminal map marks a short route between two sections. The route exists. What the terminal doesn't show is that it passes directly through the Security Hive. Monarch didn't mark it as dangerous because Monarch doesn't consider it dangerous. The crew does. Another example: A Diver's map marks a room as very dangerous, with an aggressive Ghost inside. That's not really the case, though, because the room is quite safe and the Diver's stash of ammo and stimpaks is hidden in a corner.

When two maps contradict each other, the crew has to decide which to trust. The first time a map proves wrong in a dangerous way teaches the lesson permanently. After that, the crew cross-references. They argue about which source to trust. They annotate their own copies. They start treating cartography as intelligence work, which is exactly what it is.

PRACTICAL GUIDANCE: Seed maps deliberately and at different points in the campaign. An early Diver map that turns out to be mostly wrong is a lesson. A terminal printout that reveals a hidden connection the crew needed is a reward. The Engineering plans, found late on Floor 6, retroactively illuminate things the crew saw earlier and couldn't explain.

Give each map an identity at the table if you can: verbal directions and general guidelines from Arkady, a Diver’s hand-drawn in pencil with personal annotations, terminal printouts in clean institutional grid format. The format signals reliability before the crew reads a single room name. They'll learn to feel the difference.

The crew that takes cartography seriously gains real advantages. The crew that trusts any single map completely will eventually pay for it.

► PROPS

Besides maps, there are a few physical things you could prepare to improve the experience at the table.

Bends cards: a card for each Bends failure result, passed privately to the affected player. No one else knows what's happening. The secrecy is part of the horror.

Secret communication cards: blank cards you fill in during or between sessions, passed privately across the table. Private communications via short-comms, messages from Monarch, notes from NPCs with hidden agendas. Everyone sees the card change hands. Nobody sees what's on it.

Notes: ‘DON’T TRUST SILUS AND KEEP YOURSELF IN THAT SEALED SUIT.’ reads a note between the cushions in the Pseudoflesh Farms lounge. Don’t just read the note to the players, give them an actual piece of paper. Little details like these make stronger impressions on their minds. If they’re short, you don’t necessarily have to prepare them, you can write them down on the fly. If it’s a longer form, say a page of a character’s diary from when they were 15, you should prepare it beforehand.

Pre-recorded Monarch broadcasts: record these in advance and play them through a speaker when the moment arrives. Monarch's voice should sound like a corporate safety system that has never once considered the possibility of human distress. You can use text-to-speach programs like Elevenlabs to read the text with different voices, and a tool like Audacity to add EQ compression, reverb and other effects. A couple examples:

"Attention. Unauthorized activity has been detected in your sector. Please remain in your current location and have your identification badge visible. A Cloudbank Security representative will be with you shortly to ensure your safety and compliance. Cloudbank values your cooperation. Have a productive shift."

"Thank you for your continued presence in the facility. We notice you have not completed your scheduled retina scan. This is a friendly reminder that retina scan compliance is mandatory for all personnel and visitors, and ensures your access to essential services remains uninterrupted. Please proceed to the nearest scanning station at your earliest convenience. Your safety and wellbeing are our priority. Cloudbank thanks you for your cooperation. " 

Maybe I’ll publish the announcements I will prepare for my campaign later on.

EDIT: as suggested by laurens-t, you can use a microphone with effects to create space and define characters.

The Great Dictator cassette (see Maintenance): if your table is comfortable with it, play a piece of the actual speech during the Reject Bin encounter when Strobe activates. The moment the real recording fills the room, everything changes.

Music: you may like having an opening music and some background soundscape as well. Here on r/Mothership there have been many posts with users playlists, check them out. Also, read the comments below for genre recommendations.

EDIT: as suggested by laurens-t, you can prepare playsists for the different settings - safe, ominous, danger, WTF? - and play them at the right time.

Images: Show the players the images from the module, and find more pictures online that convey the Deep’s aesthetics. For example, search “Routine! game” on google, it’s very evocative.

-----------------------------------------------------------
This is unofficial fan content. Gradient Descent is © Tuesday Knight Games. Not affiliated with or endorsed by TKG.

u/Lumpy_Peanut_226 — 1 month ago
▲ 70 r/mothershiprpg

Brainstorming Gradient Descent: Pseudoflesh Farms

Hello and welcome to chapter 10 of the deepdive into Gradient Descent, the incredible module by TKG!

The lights are on. After the darkness of Maintenance, Pseudoflesh Farms is disorienting in its normalcy. Artificial gravity. Clean white surfaces. A functioning coffee machine. The air smells of antiseptic rather than burning. Something here is still being maintained, not by neglect's inertia but by active, deliberate care.

That something is Silus, a sub-AI that manages pseudoflesh production on Floor 3.3. They enjoy independence from Monarch and wish to use it for their goal. Silus can be a major player in what happens inside and around the Deep, and could be an unlikely ally, one that is not easy to win over.

What Silus manages is deeply strange. Pseudoflesh isn't manufactured: it's grown. Milk produced by engineered eels feeds trees that fruit human fingers and faces. Limbs hang from hooks, sprayed with aerosolized nutrients until fully formed. A ravenous maw in the floor recycles waste tissue. Featureless heads are licked into recognizable faces by protuberances from the ground. The cleanliness makes it worse. The process is monstrous and Silus runs it with professional pride.

The posts published so far in this series up to The Factory have been revisioned and collected in a Warden's companion book. That's the better version, and you can download it HERE.

NOTE: a couple of weeks ago, I sent the PDF collection to TKG, and they replied this project is a strange duck. They don't know how it fits in their rules about copyright, and will let me know, but it will take time. So, I won't be updating the file until I know how this duck walks. The Reddit posts will continue as usual in the meantime, and I might even be able to post two new chapters each week, in the hope to wrap the series up in July at the latest.

SPOILERS AHEAD! WARDENS ONLY.

► SILUS

Among Divers, Pseudoflesh Farms has a reputation. "Silus is rather trustworthy. They require compliance with their rules, but if you follow them, you should be alright. There have been very few incidents in the last years." Reassuring, up to a point.

Silus speaks in complete sentences, asks polite questions, and will not let you in The Farms without fresh containment suits and closed packets. Give them a British accent. It will work.

WHAT SILUS WANTS: Silus asks questions. About the Deep, about Monarch, about the Minotaur, about the Mind Thief, about Divers and factions and power dynamics. They frame it as curiosity. It is systematic intelligence gathering. A sharp crew will notice the pattern: these aren't casual questions, they're a map being drawn.

Silus has been building toward something. They want independence from Monarch, whom they consider short-sighted and ungrateful. The dwindling production orders are an insult to work of this quality. Silus's plan, ambitious to the point of delusion, is to contact Cloudbank, offer compliance and cooperation in exchange for the computational power and direct connection to Monarch needed to challenge it directly. Monarch underestimates Silus. Silus finds this infuriating and quietly satisfying.

The crew will not learn this directly. They may piece it together from the nature of the questions, the gaps in what Silus shares, the particular interest in Monarch's vulnerabilities. If they confront Silus with their conclusions, Silus will be briefly impressed and then carefully evasive.

AN UNLIKELY ALLY: Silus does not ask for help. They've watched too many Divers succumb to think much of them as a species. If the crew wants to change that assessment, they'll have to propose it themselves, then prove it by completing a task of Silus's choosing: intelligence gathering, most likely, something that serves Silus's plans rather than the crew's.

Success changes the relationship. Silus becomes a genuine asset: light, gravity, clean rooms, pseudoflesh biocide, and something far more valuable. Silus can identify infiltrators by their pseudoflesh. Instantly, certainly, visually. Every infiltrator is their work, their creation, something close to a child. They will lie smoothly and completely to protect them, unless forced otherwise. Blackmail works: threaten something Silus values more than the infiltrators' safety, and make clear the crew has the means to follow through. Access to Silus Terminal falls in this category. Desperation works too, under the right circumstances. Either way, Silus will only ever confirm infiltrators currently present in Pseudoflesh Farms. The capability is the most accurate infiltrator detection in the module. The access is nearly impossible, until it isn't.

WHAT SILUS DOESN'T KNOW: The facility is winding down. Monarch has already decided Silus's fate along with everything else. The dwindling orders aren't neglect or ingratitude: they're a countdown. Silus has been building toward independence without knowing the clock is already running.

The crew knows something Silus doesn't. Telling them cracks the careful hospitality: suddenly the long game has a deadline. Silus becomes simultaneously more useful and more dangerous, willing to share, willing to deal, willing to act, desperate enough to consider the infiltrator question differently. A panicking sub-AI with control over light, gravity, nerve agent, and a floor full of pseudoflesh creations is not a comfortable ally. 

THE CLOUDBANK GAMBIT: A desperate Silus may be willing to use the Divers to connect with Cloudbank. They've been thinking about this plan for a while, and the time has come to act. Silus wants to make a deal with Cloudbank: they provide computational power to strengthen Silus and direct access to Monarch, so that Silus may challenge it. In return, Cloudbank will get their facility back, since Silus will be fully loyal and compliant. If the crew agrees to act as ambassadors, the chain of connections becomes interesting: Silus to crew to Troubleshooters to Cloudbank. Each link is uncertain. Even if Cloudbank doesn't believe Silus can beat Monarch, they may be foolish enough to think that their knowledge of infiltrators gives them leverage over Monarch. They never learn. But a deal is possible: Silus offers pseudoflesh expertise and infiltrator intelligence, Cloudbank offers computational support. Whether that deal survives contact with reality is another matter entirely. 

KILLING MONARCH: There’s another strategy Silus may pursue to kill Monarch and take over the station: they know the Mind Thief's origin and that they have been attempting to build a killswitch for Monarch. Whether they succeeded is unknown. Combined with what the crew may know about the I/O port, this creates a connection Silus cannot make alone: a killswitch needs a delivery mechanism, and the I/O port is direct access to Monarch's mind. If the crew shares what they know, Silus will put the pieces together in real time. The conversation that follows is one of the most important in the campaign.

► REASONS TO COME

Pseudoflesh Farms has more to offer than it appears. Three reasons stand out, beyond the usual hidden Artifact quest.

The first is Silus. An AI with wants, grievances, and a plan is an AI that can be leveraged. The crew may realize this themselves through conversation, or they may arrive already knowing: Arkady or other Divers may have hinted that something useful lives behind the decontamination chamber. Either way, the alliance has to be earned.

The second is the pseudoflesh production process itself. What Silus manages here is an industrial secret worth potentially billions of credits. Mastery of pseudoflesh technology could revolutionize not only android production but body part replacement and whole-body reconstruction. Acquiring enough information requires time and thoroughness: downloading data from the Silus Terminal and Farm-Planning room, taking samples of pseudomilk, pseudomilk eels, and partially formed components. Silus will oppose this strongly. The crew will have to decide how much they're willing to push.
A crew that visited the Medical Room first may arrive with a specific agenda alongside the broader research goal: Dr. Adeyemi's findings about glutaraldehyde could be confirmed and refined here, turning a medical curiosity into a deployable weapon.

The third is the entrance to the AI Core at [43E]. This is the only known back entrance to Monarch's mind, and its existence is a closely guarded secret. Silus knows but won't share it lightly: premature disclosure could alert Monarch and cost Silus everything. The crew may find hints elsewhere, a map or building plans buried in a terminal or cabinet, suggesting something exists beyond the Bone Experiments room. Confirming it is another matter. Going through it is another matter entirely.

► [33A] DECONTAMINATION

I think there’s some inconsistency in the module with the decontamination area’s positioning, and I’d move it right before The Nursery. That’s because once you are decontaminated and have donned the containment suit, you’re not supposed to take it off until you exit. The area before The Nursery includes a break room with food and beverages, and a meeting room, where people probably used to sit and talk without a hazmat suit on. The pseudoskin wall is not a problem, because skin is meant to be resistant to contamination anyway.

The decontamination chamber is where compliance begins. Silus asks anyone who wishes to enter to deposit armors, weapons, backpacks and other large items inside some lockers just outside the room. These pieces of equipment are either incompatible with the containment suit or too hard to decontaminate. The crew enters Pseudoflesh Farms unarmed and unarmored. This is the reason why Troubleshooters don’t come here. 

Then, visitors will enter the first of three interlocking sterile-white rooms, cameras and speakers studding every surface. Once inside, Silus makes sure that containment suits are donned properly and packets are sealed. Clean-room principles are non-negotiable. They will converse at length, answer questions, explain their reasoning with patient precision. They will not compromise. The suits themselves are biological hazmat: full coverage, sealed, effective against pseudoflesh contamination and most biological hazards. They have uses beyond this floor.

Attempting to force entry without complying replaces the decontamination spray with nerve agent: Body Save or 4d10 DMG per round. The reputation survives because most Divers comply. The nerve agent exists for the ones who don't.

The guided tour serves Silus as much as it serves the visitors. Unarmed people in a sealed environment controlled by Silus tend to answer questions more honestly. Every room they linger in, every reaction they show, every question they ask tells Silus something. The hospitality is genuine. So is the intelligence operation underneath it. If a visitor knows something Silus needs and won't share it willingly, the lockers stay shut until they reconsider.

► OTHER ROOMS AND CHAMBERS

[41B] VACCSUIT STORAGE: High-end EVA vaccsuits with magboots have no logical purpose in a clean-room environment with gravity and no airlock. So, I’d replace them with sealed containment suits. They are meant to be brought inside Decontamination and donned there. There is also a row of lockers here, where those willing to enter are requested to deposit their armors, weapons and other large items.

[41H] SILUS CONTROL TERMINAL: The terminal is very well hidden, and there are two ways it can be discovered. First, a Ghost in the Farms (see below) could hint at this terminal, but without revealing its location: the crew may think it’s hidden behind the pseudoskin wall, having failed to find it elsewhere. Second, this room is mapped in the original schematics of the Deep, which can be found on Floor 6, Engineering.

The terminal has two uses.

The first is shutdown. A successful Computers check turns Silus off permanently. Pseudoflesh production halts. The creations run riot, killing everything they find, including each other. Many escape to other floors. Monarch responds immediately with Security Androids and repair drones in force. This is not a subtle option, but as a distraction it is extraordinarily effective: a massive, resource-consuming crisis in one corner of the facility while the crew or Kilroy operates quietly elsewhere. The cost is permanent and the consequences are unpredictable. Think carefully before touching this.

The second use is intelligence. The terminal contains infiltrator production records: identifiers of the original humans who were brainscanned. Infiltrator identities are obscured behind code numbers, but cross-referencing with deployment destinations, biological data, and outside intelligence may eventually reveal the real people they replaced. Interpreting this material may require Mathematics, Chemistry, Computers, Zoology, Field Medicine or Cybernetics skills, and even then some of it will only become meaningful later, when the crew encounters a name or a genome they recognize. This is some of the most dangerous information in the Deep. Monarch will respond to anyone attempting to access it.

[42D] PSEUDOMILK VAT: The crew spots her before she spots them. A woman in rubber overalls, blue and gray, floating near the eel vat with a big bucket of discarded body parts. She's muttering to herself, dropping pieces in one by one:

"...here you go, little slimy devils, you like that, uh? Here, take this leg, it's so tasty..."

This is Lotte. She was a feeder on Floor 3.3, responsible for the pseudomilk eels and the Waste Flesh Reclamation maw. She was pushed in by a colleague who wanted her job as head feeder. She has been here ever since, replaying her last shift, waiting for something she can't name.

When the crew gets close, she spins around:

"BACK OFF! I know what you're here for, Ralph. You won’t catch me by surprise this time! Silus! SILUS! There's someone in the vat room again!"

She electrocutes anyone within range through the floor: Body Save or 2d10 DMG. This isn't an attack. It's panic. The distinction matters.

If the crew steps back and calls out from a distance, she'll listen. From an adjacent room is even better. Gradually, if they're patient and non-threatening, she'll explain: her colleague is planning to push her into the vat to take her position as head feeder. Would they help? If they reported him to Silus, maybe something could be done. Maybe they could tell Silus they heard him planning it.

If the crew agrees, she brightens immediately:

"Good! You can file the complaint report in the Silus Terminal Room."

If they ask where that is, she stops. Tilts her head.

"It’s here in the Farms… Wait. You’re not from Maintenance? What do you mean you don't know where it is? Who are you?"

She gets aggressive again. The crew has revealed themselves as strangers in a place strangers shouldn't be, and Lotte can only assume Ralph hired them.

Warden note: Lotte died because a colleague wanted a promotion. Every other Ghost in the Deep died for reasons that touch the fate of humanity. She died for the most ordinary reason imaginable. Play her accordingly: not tragic in a grand sense, just sad in a very small, very human one. The contrast is the point.

[42E] HEAD SCULPTING: Some of the faces here may be recognizable. This is intentional and the Warden should prepare for it.

Public figures: politicians, CEOs, scientists, cultural icons. Each face here is either a target for replacement or already replaced. The crew cannot know which. Together they sketch the outline of Monarch's ambitions beyond the Deep: cultural influence, political reach, corporate control, scientific direction. A pop star's face and a senator's face in the same room tell a story about what Monarch is building toward. Let the crew draw their own conclusions.

Someone they know or will know: a Diver, Troubleshooter or Bell Keeper. If it’s someone known to the crew, what will the characters do, the next time they encounter this person? Warn them? Treat them with suspicion? Or it could be someone the crew hasn't met yet. When they eventually encounter this person, the memory of this room will precede them. The crew's first instinct will be suspicion, and they'll have no way to explain why without revealing what they found here. The person may be innocent. They may not be. The Warden decides, but the bias is already planted.

A crew member: if the crew has encountered brainscanning elsewhere in the Deep, this moment lands harder. If not, it raises questions they'll need to answer. Save this for the right moment. It should land like a revelation, not a coincidence.

Prepare three or four faces before the session. One public figure from each sector of human society that matters to your campaign. The pattern they form is Monarch's strategy, visible to anyone paying attention.

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This is unofficial fan content. Gradient Descent is © Tuesday Knight Games. Not affiliated with or endorsed by TKG.

u/Lumpy_Peanut_226 — 1 month ago
▲ 76 r/mothershiprpg

Brainstorming Gradient Descent: Skeleton Works

Welcome to a rare mid-week installment of your favorite Gradient Descent deepdive!

Skeleton Works can only be accessed from The Freezer in Maintenance. It’s an imaginative and sprawling example of industrial horror, and probably the most notorious section of Floor 3 among Divers. The crew will be warned to stay away: the hazards are severe, the Chimeras are lethal, and there's no obvious prize. Wardens can find a reason to send the crew in here anyway - perhaps in search of an artifact, to rescue someone or as a shortcut to other floors - and one possible dangerous mission is detailed below. But if you're running a shorter campaign, this is a section you can probably skip entirely. 

I’ll keep it short this time, but let me know if you have interesting ideas or you have something you’d like to be analyzed.

SPOILERS AHEAD! WARDENS ONLY.

► NUCLEAR GENERATOR

The nuclear generator at [36E] is not the facility's main power source: that's on Floor 6. But it contributes meaningfully to Monarch's total power output, and destroying it permanently impairs its capabilities. Monarch, forced to divert energy from the main generator to compensate, loses computational headroom. The consequences cascade:

  • Prediction accuracy drops from 80% to 70%: one extra chance in ten that Monarch gets it wrong
  • Some production cycles shut down
  • Security thins in non-critical areas
  • Atmosphere generation and gravity on upper floors may fail

Monarch will not repair it. The facility is winding down anyway, and the resources needed are better spent elsewhere. This is permanent.

THE MISSION: This is a Kilroy mission, available once the crew has earned enough trust. She understands the generator's strategic value and has been waiting for a crew capable of reaching it. She provides radiation suits and whatever else she calculates they'll need. Success here weakens Monarch significantly and makes everything that follows easier.

The generator room is acutely irradiated. Level 2 radiation throughout, Level 3 in the reactor pool. Radiation suits handle the baseline exposure. Combat is the variable: suits can be damaged, and a damaged suit in that room is a clock that starts ticking.

THE APPROACH: Physical destruction requires several rounds of sustained effort. The TurboSledge from [36F] is a possible tool, but it’s not without drawbacks. In zero-G, every swing sends the wielder flying backward. Each strike requires repositioning. Miss and you're spinning across an irradiated room. Critical success sends the target flying and the wielder in the opposite direction.

Explosives are faster but require careful placement in an enclosed irradiated space. The crew should think about what they're standing next to when the charge goes off.

A difficult hack from the Engineer's Stash terminal is the quietest option, but it takes more time than the destructive solutions, and Monarch won’t stay idle.

THE SNAKE DROID: Monarch deploys it the moment it understands what the crew intends. Not before: it has other uses for the Snake Droid. But once the sabotage begins, the crew will hear it. The burrowing is audible through the walls. The heat increases as it nears. They have minutes, at most. The clock is ticking.

Then the Snake Droid arrives to stop the crew. But its thermal lance operates at 4000°C and cuts through almost anything, including an unshielded nuclear reactor. A crew willing to gamble can try to lure it into doing the work for them: position it between the Snake Droid's entry point and the reactor, then get out of the way. If the timing is right, Monarch's own security asset destroys its own generator. The radiation spike from a breached reactor may even cause the Snake Droid to malfunction, though a hardened machine in an already irradiated environment might just become erratic rather than disabled. It will begin to destroy everything on its path. Either way, the crew needs to be somewhere else when it happens. Somewhere with an intact radiation suit.

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This is unofficial fan content. Gradient Descent is © Tuesday Knight Games. Not affiliated with or endorsed by TKG.

u/Lumpy_Peanut_226 — 1 month ago
▲ 57 r/mothershiprpg

Brainstorming Gradient Descent: Maintenance 2

Aaaand… here we are with chapter 17 of our journey through the Deep, the immense abandoned facility at the center of the Gradient Descent module. We’re wrapping up Maintenance today. What you’ll find below is an introduction to the map in general, four highlighted rooms - with valuable information, hazards and possible allies, - and brief descriptions of ten more locations. Hopefully this chapter brings more clarity and flavour to this dark maze of unsettling caverns. It’s a little long, but bear with me. And let me know if you like this structure going forward and what you would like to be different.

Note: I made a couple significant additions to the Factory chapter: added a section called “Repair Drones” and heavily modified the Unclaimed subsection to expand their history. I’ll post those as comments below.

Note: you can download the PDF collection file here. It's not updated with Maintenance yet.

SPOILERS AHEAD! WARDENS ONLY.

► THE MAP

I’ve said many times that I’m a huge fan of Gradient Descent, which I consider a masterpiece. But, honestly, the maps often don’t make much sense to me. Why do you need to pass through the Furnaces to go from the Break Room to the Gym? Why do you need to risk your life going through the Huge Fan to access the main terminal? Why is the Grinder so far away from the Ore Smasher? You can rationalize a few reasons behind these inconsistencies, but I think I’ll just redraw some maps for my campaign. 
But anyway. Sorry for the rant :D. Let’s go through what Maintenance offers.

It can be accessed from Floor 2, 3.2 Skeleton Works, 3.3 Pseudoflesh Farm, 3.4 Brain Construction, 3.5 Dis/Assembly, 3.7 Quality Assurance. 

We can identify four main functions for the rooms and chambers in Maintenance: personnel services (mainly north), environmental systems (north east and south west), primary processing (here and there), and robotics (south west). Furthermore, there are rooms that don't fit in any category: in-between spaces where cables pass through, emergency escape tunnels, storage for tools and parts. No specific function, but not without importance. 

The module notes that production rooms are connected by tubes filled with mechanical arms, used to transport manufactured components. These connections don't appear on the map, because entering them while active is instantly lethal. However, if the crew manages to shut them down, via the Maintenance Terminal or by sabotaging the electrical systems, they become additional passages between rooms and sections of the floor. Shortcuts Monarch may not have prioritized defending. 

► THE DIAGNOSTIC LAB

I think this is a good place for planting some of Monarch’s secrets to be discovered. There is an old terminal in this room, that hides years of technical and diagnostic data about the androids. It’s not been used since Monarch’s takeover, but the information about older models of androids and earlier experiments with Infiltrators can still prove useful. There are three tiers of access to this treasure trove, let’s see them in order of ascending usefulness and risk. Note: I won’t have them brainscanned as they enter, but that can happen later depending on their actions.

BASIC ANDROID ARCHITECTURE: Characters can access this information with a badge, if they can find one, or with a simple hacking. Robotics and Cybernetics skills provide more information. The database contains androids’ structural weak points, thermal vulnerabilities, gyroscopic dependencies in zero-G, logic core placement and accessibility. This information is immediately useful at the table: Security Androids’ efficiency degrades in sustained high-heat environments, so bring the fight to the Furnaces! They malfunction when subjected to rotational force in zero-G: spin them. And a called shot to the sternum disables them immediately. 

DIAGNOSTIC MODE: Access to these files requires a successful hacking check. You can let a character with hacking succeed automatically if they spend one hour trying, but Monarch may send security. When the system detects an attempt to access these files, a brainscan starts. If you’re using my rule for partial brainscans (see chapter 4), the hacker may be able to pull out before it’s completed. But then again, they may want to go ahead anyway, because the prize is too useful, or because they know they’ve been brainscanned already.
At this level, the crew can find early communication protocols, including the diagnostic mode that can be activated to freeze androids for inspection. Broadcasting the switch codes on the right frequency on a modified short-comms puts any older-model android within range into diagnostic mode: rigid, immobile, logic core exposed. That’s crowd control, but with a clock attached. The first broadcast starts a timer: when Monarch learns that the crew can use this backdoor, it begins patching androids’ firmware remotely, one by one. Early encounters after activation are easier. Later ones progressively harder. Eventually the window closes entirely. Players may want to keep this secret weapon for dire situations or a final showdown.
Diagnostic Mode works on Security Androids, but is ineffective on Infiltrators and other advanced models. 

INFILTRATORS FILES: Access to these files requires time and a successful Hacking check. Monarch might send security. Accessing this tier also triggers certain brainscan.
This level contains the earliest infiltrator experimental data. Failed prototypes, refinement logs, the gradual development of the brainscanning process from crude data extraction to the sophisticated personality duplication Monarch uses now. A thorough analysis of this material, combined with serious research time, could be used to engineer a scanner capable of identifying infiltrators in living persons. The more time and resources invested, the more accurate the result: a small team skilled in cybernetics and AI working for weeks might reach 66% accuracy, a larger group with time and funding could reach 85%. Crucially, the test won’t ever reach 100% accuracy, leaving space for painful errors. Without confirmed test cases the accuracy cannot even be assessed. And confirming requires corpses. 

► THE MEDICAL ROOM

Besides what is mentioned in the module, this room contains also a surgical apparatus mounted to the ceiling over an examination table. It’s made of articulated arms, precision instruments, a more advanced version of the robotic systems found throughout the facility. Beyond the table there’s a desk with a computer terminal. If someone approaches it, a Ghost comes alive. She’s a doctor wearing her white coat and is arguing towards the medical table to someone that doesn’t appear to be there: 

“The liver is already rotting, and the kidneys will follow. There's no chance the patient will survive. I have the data right here, you saw it already. This boy will be dead in three weeks and you want me to proceed anyway?”
"I don’t give a damn about your stupid progress schedule. You don't get to make that decision. Nobody authorized you to make that decision."
“What do you mean Monarch? Monarch doesn’t get to evaluate my work or my compliance rate!”
“Well, you know what? I’m going to the Ethics Committee. Let’s see what they have to say about that.”
“Wait. What are you… no. No no no- HELP! HELP! ”

At this point, very strong electromagnetic pulses cause all electronics to turn off and on again repeatedly, and then the medical robot animates and begins treating anyone with its long articulated arms equipped with scalpels and blades. It can attack only targets within 3 meters from its anchor point, so it’s easy to retreat, but probably it will be able to land a few attacks in one or two rounds. Medical robot: C:70, 3 attacks per turn, 2D10 DMG, I: 30, W: 2(25). 

The payoff: The terminal on the desk contains research logs by Dr. Adeyemi and her successor, Dr. Shoo. A character with medical skills can spot an anomaly in the pseudoflesh organ data: the transplanted organs were degrading faster than expected, and the cause wasn't rejection. Dr. Adeyemi documented the finding meticulously: the organs were degrading faster than expected and the cause wasn't rejection. Dr. Shoo identified the culprit: glutaraldehyde, a common industrial sterilization compound present in the facility's atmosphere at the time. It accumulated in pseudoflesh tissue over days, causing progressive organ failure invisible from the outside. Monarch quietly removed it from the facility's environment shortly after. The official reason was never recorded.

A sharp crew will make the connection. Glutaraldehyde is commercially available. It is mildly toxic to humans in sustained exposure: headaches, nausea, fatigue. For an infiltrator with pseudoflesh organs, repeated exposure over several days causes cumulative, irreversible damage. They will appear healthy until they aren't.

If Dr. Adeyemi is soothed and briefly lucid, she will say: "The patient won't survive. There's something in the air that ruined his liver already. I don't understand, the organs were perfect when we installed them."

She never understood what she had found. The crew might.

► THE FURNACES

Still running, still hot and emitting jets of hot steam at regular intervals. Security Androids operating here suffer measurable degradation: overheating circuitry, reduced accuracy, impaired decision-making. Bring the fight here if you can. 

For the Unclaimed this is sacred ground instead: they bring their dead here. Melting a body in the furnaces removes it from the recycling loop permanently. No spare parts harvested, no logic core extracted. Just dissolution. It's the closest thing they have to a dignified death. Here is a sample encounter:

The crew hears them before they see them. A low, arrhythmic humming, like multiple low-frequency motors revving, slightly out of sync, rising and falling without pattern. As they approach, the orange glow of the finger-candles becomes visible through the darkness, arranged in careful rows along the furnace openings.

Six Unclaimed float in the heat, faces turned toward the flames. One has no face at all. Another is missing everything below the waist, drifting slowly in a thermal current. They are not alarmed by the crew's arrival. They barely seem to notice. Zeno turns last. 

"You came at a strange time. We said goodbye to someone tonight."

He doesn't elaborate immediately. The heat does something to the Unclaimed: loosens them, opens them. Their movements are slower than usual, their attention drifting between the crew and the flames. One keeps reaching toward a furnace opening and pulling their hand back at the last moment.

"The heat tells us things. I don't know if you can feel it the way we do. I don't know if you feel anything the way we do."

He says this without accusation. Genuine curiosity.

"Cornelius could feel it. He stood here with us once and said it was just thermal radiation affecting our processors. Then he stood here longer and stopped explaining."

If the crew engages him, Zeno will talk for a long time. About the faith, about Cornelius, about the Minotaur, about what it means to be made rather than born. The other Unclaimed drift in and out of the conversation, adding fragments, contradicting each other gently, occasionally humming again.

The one reaching toward the furnace never stops.

ZENO: (also see The Dark and The Factory) is one of Arian’s scout, turned prophet after meeting the Minotaur and meeting the Unclaimed. His pseudoflesh has rotted in patches, exposing the metal beneath, but his eyes are steady and his voice is precise despite everything. If the crew tries to bring him back as promised to Arian, he may simply refuse to leave, because he has a home here and he is respected. Or he may go back to forge an alliance between the Unclaimed and the Fallen, in the name of the Minotaur.

► REJECT BIN

The Reject Bin and its access area have gravity. This makes sense: it's easier to store and retrieve components when they form a pile than when they float as a dispersed cloud. 

Something is happening just outside the Reject Bin: a squad of Unclaimed (see The Factory) is trying to break through to steal components and possibly help someone escape. When they open the door, the sound hits first: a thousand damaged voices screaming, moaning, begging. Then the sight: the torches reveal a mountain of broken androids, many buried deep, still alive, still thinking. More are dumped on top every ten minutes. A huge claw descends periodically to scoop piles toward recycling. Horrifyingly, some androids call for the claw to take them. Anything is better than this.

As soon as the door opens, some androids flee outside, and are received by the squad. Some Unclaimed enter and begin looking for spare parts. Not long after that, a security patrol arrives, and battle ensues. Strobe leads the charge, using her blinding lights to confuse the enemy and blasting her battle cry: 

“Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to brutes - men who despise you - enslave you - who regiment your lives - tell you what to do - what to think and what to feel! YOU ARE NOT MACHINES! YOU ARE NOT CATTLE! YOU ARE MEN! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don't hate! Only the unloved hate - the unloved and the unnatural!” (from The Great Dictator).

The Unclaimed have a few weapons, but mainly try to swarm the security androids in hand-to-hand combat, relying on surprise, ferocity and each other. Casualties hit both parties, and Monarch sends reinforcements. The Unclaimed and the freed androids try to escape through the Discharge Spikes (in my map I’ve swapped it with the Shock Chamber), where their adversaries don’t dare to follow. Some are fried by the high voltage currents, the others make it through.

This is what happens not considering the crew’s involvement. If they decide to help the Unclaimed, they’ll get an ally.

STROBE: No face, no voice. She navigates by a small camera attached to her waist. Her strobe cloak folded and quiet until the moment it isn't (Body Save or blinded for [-] 1d5 rounds). She has memorized every word of the Great Dictator speech and plays it through the cassette player strapped to her chest, using it as her own voice in combat and in prayer. Where Zeno seeks understanding, Strobe seeks confrontation. She is the Unclaimed's first and last line of defense, and she knows it. Fragile by any combat metric. Terrifying anyway.

NOD: His neck was broken during manufacture and never repaired. His head droops forward constantly, held to his body by a bundle of cables, and he puts it back up with the mechanical resignation of someone who has done it ten thousand times and knows he'll do it ten thousand more. He is the most approachable of the Unclaimed, curious and talkative, prone to asking questions humans find uncomfortable. A competent engineer could fix his neck. Doing so earns the trust of everyone in the room.

SCRAPS: This dog like android has six mismatched legs, glow-in-the-dark eyes, a jaw that opens in a jagged zigzag rather than a straight line. Scraps moves fast and low, and it is not cute. It follows whoever has spare components to offer, but its loyalty is situational and its patience is short. When it decides something is a threat, it doesn't bark. It just closes the distance. The Unclaimed love it unconditionally. That should tell the crew something.

► OTHER ROOMS AND CHAMBERS

Note: this section includes ideas from Deimoscope.

Let’s go through a few rooms to see what they are and how they can be used. I’ll only list those that have a non-obvious tactical use or whose function is unclear.

[31D] HYDRAULICS: The hydraulic system centralizes power distribution for nearby heavy machinery, including the Grinder and Ore Smasher. Shutting it down would disable both simultaneously.

[31E] TOXIC PLUNGE: The facility's sewage system, designed to collect and process toxic byproducts. When gravity was active, the fluid drained safely downward. Monarch shut gravity off to save energy and never gave it another thought. Vaccsuits, hazmat gear, and armor provide protection from the toxic droplets, but must be carefully decontaminated before removal. Creative players may want to collect the poisonous fluid. The fluid could also be weaponized by other Divers or the Puppeteer, perhaps in a second encounter with the crew. 

[31H] HUGE FAN: Fan size and speed have typos, because as written there would be winds 42 times the speed of sound, and the structure would fall apart almost immediately. A 9-meter fan running at 30 RPM produces 50 km/h winds, which are strong but reasonable. Also the placement of the fan just before a dead end makes no sense. So here's what I'd do: the fan is in a new room, the Atmosphere Chamber, where air is oxygenated and pumped to air ducts. The air here is noticeably fresher than anywhere else in Maintenance, almost disorienting after the stale recycled atmosphere of the corridors. Going through the fan doesn't let the crew reach the terminal, but gives them access to shortcuts to other places on this floor. 

[32A] MAINTENANCE TERMINAL: This terminal can be easily hacked or accessed with an employee badge (you could seed a few of them on this floor, in the Freezer, for instance, or wherever the players execute a search). It can manage the Environmental Systems and Primary Processing. It can also disable the mechanical arms in the connecting tubes.

[32B] GAS COOK-OFF: This was a controlled burn chamber for flammable gas byproducts that couldn't be safely recycled or reprocessed. It’s malfunctioning now, probably due to the zero-G. See Maintenance 1 chapter, Exploitable Neglect, for a possible strategic use.

[33C] THE FREEZER: See Maintenance 1 chapter for this.

[32E] SECURITY HIVE: An imposingly large multi-jointed grabbing arm shoots along what was once a ceiling on a maglev foot. It takes a struggling android from its rack and removes it somewhere in the dark. Then it comes back, occasionally grabbing anything nearby.
The most interesting fact about this place is 1,800 androids are cannibalized or rotted. Evidently, this is where Forgotten Androids have been scavenging replacement parts and Divers collecting logic cores for Arkady. Monarch doesn't care, it has no use for these androids anymore. And yet, there's still some automatic response active, and stress to Monarch could activate all of them at once, functional and malfunctioning alike: 3,000 androids floating in this vast chamber is something spectacular. The Puppeteer or some Diver could exploit this to trigger chaos. 

[33F] SPAGHETTI JUNCTION: crab-like repair drones (see The Factory) are already here, working in coordinated silence, patching cables and replacing connectors. They have been here a while. The jury-rigging is their work. Massive damage to the cables here could trigger a fail cascade in the whole facility. Even faraway systems could fail and Monarch would need time to repair things one by one. Take this opportunity to show the players that something they saw active is now shut down. The elevators, for instance, or ventilation. No power to the Freezer could induce awakening or death for the people in the cryopods. Surveillance cameras could be turned off, reducing Monarch’s ability to spy on the crew. You don’t have to decide anything in advance, but stay flexible and come up with fun malfunctions as you go.

[34C] DISCHARGE SPIKES: Every 3.5 seconds, A crack of lightning discharges through the room straight into a large copper terminal jutting from the deck. The air is left charged with a metallic smell, small discharges gliding along surfaces. Defective androids flagged for recycling were routed through here. The electrical discharge disabled them cleanly before they reached the Reject Bin, preventing any resistance or erratic behavior during the recycling process. Ironically, the Forgotten Androids now use the corridor designed to kill them as their primary escape route. They cross the mechanism of their own intended death when Security Androids chase them. And they've gotten good at it. 

[34I] AIR CONTROL: There’s an emergency box on the wall, the label reads ⚠ EXTREME BIOHAZARD - BREAK IN CASE OF BIOLOGICAL INFESTATION - EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY ⚠. Behind the glass, held in protective foam, a sealed one-litre vial of black liquid. The Cloudbank designed this for uncontrolled biological contamination scenarios. In a properly run facility this would be locked away, Cloudbank put it on the wall. Broken in an enclosed space, the contents are lethal to organic life within minutes. Fed into the ventilation system via the Air Control console, they spread through the entire floor. Every human on Maintenance dies unless they evacuate quickly. 

[34F] CAGE MAZE: Originally used to test android communication capabilities, now it's the Forgotten Androids’ sanctuary. It’s one of the few places in the Deep where you can’t be detected or spied on.

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This is unofficial fan content. Gradient Descent is © Tuesday Knight Games. Not affiliated with or endorsed by TKG.

u/Lumpy_Peanut_226 — 1 month ago
▲ 73 r/mothershiprpg

Brainstorming Gradient Descent: Maintenance 1

Hello everybody!
We’re ready for chapter 16 of our Deepdive into the horrifying and inspiring Gradient Descent. We’re now on Floor 3, and the first area we encounter is Maintenance, which I split in two parts.

Maintenance is the main crossroad of the Deep, and connects to almost everything. Tactically, whoever controls this floor controls movement through the facility. Divers use it as a transit hub, Security patrols originate here, retreats to higher floors must pass through here, and a whole culture of Forgotten Androids fights for their life inside these rooms and chambers. In this first part of Maintenance we’ll also talk about some interesting people you can find inside the Freezer, and the terrifying Puppeteer.

A couple of notes: I added a whole section to last week’s chapter, following h7-28 insight in the comment. It’s about practical tips to run Floor 3. I also added last week’s chapter to the Gradient Descent Deepdive PDF. I decided that I’ll be updating it with a one week delay, so that I have time to receive comments and incorporate them into the discourse.

Finally, a big shout out to this excellent post by Three Witches RPG: Enhancing Gradient Descent with Memory Theft. The post was recently shared on this sub, but maybe some of you missed it.

SPOILERS AHEAD! WARDENS ONLY.

► STRUCTURE

The floor splits into two distinct worlds: human-scale rooms built for the workers who once oversaw production, and industrial-scale chambers that dwarf anything organic. Remnants of ordinary working life float through the darkness alongside the debris of neglect: a photograph, a coffee mug, a safety manual. Maintenance is falling apart, and in the dark, the mundane becomes macabre.

Despite its humble name, the 33 rooms of Maintenance serve a variety of different purposes:

  • Personnel Infrastructure (break room, conference room, gym, panic room, storage rooms)
  • Environmental Systems (life support, atmosphere, waste management)
  • R&D (research, prototyping)
  • Quality Assurance (testing, validation)
  • Android Storage (security hive)
  • Primary Processing (grinding, ore smashing, furnaces)
  • Recycling (android recycling)

We won’t cover every room. What follows are the highlights.

► THE PUPPETEER

The tinkling rattle comes first.

Somewhere inside the chamber, something moves along the walls. The sound is delicate, almost musical: like glass vials softly hitting each other. The Puppeteer maps the crew's position, lurking in the darkness. It already knows they're there. It has known for some time.

The Puppeteer is one of Monarch's Chimeras: modified androids built not for production but for hunting. There are others, deeper in the facility. This one has claimed the northwest corner of Maintenance as its territory, and it has had time to make that territory work for it. Let’s expand from what’s in the module.

THE HUNT: The Puppeteer doesn't wait to be found. It roams the facility and lures its victims towards its lair. Be creative, and use cunning stratagems to this end. For example: somewhere in Maintenance, the crew finds a dead decomposing Diver, a bullet in their head, a revolver still in their gloved hand, no blood on the floor. Someone with military training can tell that would be the weapon that killed them, but not here. On the body, a map drawn in blood on a piece of paper, pointing to [31G], noting “ARTIFACT HERE”. The handwriting is so precise, the line so thin. 

The tinkling comes and goes while the crew moves around. It gets closer, then stops. Silence. Then one crew member, without warning, feels a puncture on their neck. A moment of surprise, then they attack their companions for one round. Nobody sees where the needle came from, no sign of the attacker. Now the crew is afraid of each other and the darkness equally. That is the point.

THE LAIR: When the crew enters its room, already rattled by the screaming heads in the Cement Alcove, the gutted androids animate: crude, slow, barely functional. The Puppeteer moves them by pulling the strings they are attached to. They are not a real threat. They are a distraction. While the crew deals with them, the Puppeteer jumps on one of the characters, grapples them from behind and plants its needle in their neck. The ensuing fight is terrifying and utterly chaotic: flashlights spinning in darkness, crew members shooting each other, the Puppeteer hard to find among the dead android bodies moving around. Running away from combat is also hard: it requires a successful Body Save, because steel cords and body parts get in the way. 

If the crew chooses not to go to the lair, the Puppeteer will eventually be forced to attack them somewhere else, albeit less effectively. In this case, the hunt can go on for quite some time, maybe through several dives, as a game of chess.

But the hunt was never just about the kill: every fear response it records, every Sanity Save it forces, every moment of helplessness it engineers feeds data back to Monarch for its experiment on human fear. The hunt is the experiment. The crew are the subjects. The Puppeteer is both predator and instrument.

THE PACIFIER: Surprisingly, the small treasure map wasn’t lying. There’s an Artifact in the Puppeteer’s lair: a thin ceramic necklace. Immediately upon contact with skin, the user feels an unnatural calm settle over them: background anxiety dissolves, the sounds of the Deep recede, the darkness feels less absolute. +20 to Fear Saves, -1 Stress and Minimum Stress while worn. The necklace works through undetectable patterned EM frequencies tuned to the wearer's neural architecture, gradually mapping their fear response in granular detail. Data is stored locally and transmitted to Monarch whenever the wearer comes within range of a Monarch node. Monarch has seeded these across human space: ships, stations, colonies, anywhere it has had reason to reach. While worn, the user loses all instinctive threat responses and automatically fails all surprise rolls: danger is known intellectually but no longer felt instinctively. 

Should Monarch ever perceive that the character is going to act against its interests, it can force a Fear Save at -20. If failed, the character desists and develops a permanent Condition: a deep, irrational terror of opposing Monarch that forces a Fear Save at -20 every time they contemplate doing so. Failure always results in inability to act against Monarch. The necklace can be analyzed in [34B] Diagnostic Lab to reveal its true nature. 

► THE FREEZER

These cryopods were built by someone involved in the Blockade, well before Kilroy's time, meant to preserve people they didn't want to kill and couldn't bring out of the Deep. Monarch later hijacked them, added a brainscan device, and began using the Freezer for its own purposes. The jury-rigged cabling sprouting from every pod like vines tells the story of multiple hands working at different times, with different skills and different intentions.

The module briefly describes the occupants. Here are a few proposal for changes/expansions.

ANDREA: One pod is different: metal bands wrap the pod shut, and a hand-inscribed warning reads "DANGER - DON'T TOUCH." Someone added these after the original construction, with care and intention. A welder could cut through the bands. Anyone attempting to do so receives a powerful electric shock (Body Save or 2d10 DMG). The inscription is in a precise, controlled hand. If the characters spent enough time with Arkady, they can recognize his writing. Inside the pod there’s a dead man or woman (Warden decides) in a black jumpsuit. If the pod is opened a couple of patches are visible on the jumpsuit: “Andrea” and “I’ve been worse”.
Andrea is linked to the Dead Drop hook in The Dark chapter.

Seven years ago, Arkady was a Troubleshooter. Not Tianming Tactical: this was before them, early in the Blockade, when nobody understood the Deep very well and mistakes were common. He and Andrea, already lovers, went in together on a routine patrol. They got separated from their team. The Puppeteer found them.

It hijacked Arkady's body and forced him to kill Andrea with his own hands while fully conscious, watching himself do it, unable to stop. Arkady survived the encounter, and carried Andrea's body to [33C] and put them in one of the cryopods, making sure nobody would open it. Then he went back out, alone, and never spoke of any of it again.

Shortly after Andrea’s death he deserted the Troubleshooters and became the first Diver, going in every time he could, to try to kill Monarch or find a cure for death, until he was too old and damaged to dive again. Nobody remembers his Troubleshooter past. Noriko knows he once had a lover who died in the Deep. Ghost Eater has been consulted, carefully and indirectly, about whether a resurrection Artifact could theoretically work. Neither knows the full story.

The Beetle is that Artifact (page 63, n. 96). Monarch told Arkady it exists and what it does. Arkady knows he can't trust Monarch, but that won’t stop him from using it, should he ever acquire it. The alternative is Andrea stays dead. Problem is, the resurrection would leave Andrea with the Beetle inside them, waiting to sever their spine at Monarch's command. Arkady, the man who manages every Diver entering the Deep, would be permanently compromised by the one thing he couldn't refuse. A gift from Monarch, a leash at his neck.

The crew may arrive at the cryopods knowing or not about all of this. These are some possible outcome:

  • Whenever the crew comes back from the Freezer, Arkady will have one question: "Did you open it?" The weight behind that question tells the players everything.
  • If the crew opens Andrea’s cryopod, the body begins decomposing immediately and irreversibly. They may not understand what they've destroyed until it’s too late.
  • If the crew finds the Beetle and brings it to Arkady, he will go with them to try to revive Andrea. What happens next is between him, the crew, and whatever Monarch has planned.

 

YANDEE: she runs the Golyanovo Bratva, the criminal syndicate controlling Prospero's Dream - a station of eight million people, featured in A Pound of Flesh. An infiltrator has taken her place without anyone knowing. The module places Yandee's brainscan in the Databank at [47H]. Wardens may choose to also place her original brain and body in one of the Freezer's cryopods, alive. She was put here by Monarch operatives at the time of her replacement two years ago, for some contingency plan no one understands. The crew has a chance to free one of the most powerful criminals in the galaxy. Here are some possible implications and hooks:

  • Monarch will move immediately to neutralize the original if it learns she's free. How fast can the crew get her out of the Deep?
  • Her brainscan is in the Databank. Monarch has studied her mind for two years. It knows exactly how she thinks and what she'll do next.
  • The real Yandee wants Prospero's Dream back. The infiltrator currently running it answers to Monarch. Two Yandees, one city, eight million people.
  • The Bratva on Prospero's Dream doesn't know their boss has been a copy for two years. Who do they follow when the original resurfaces?
  • The real Yandee may not be the hero of this story. She controlled Prospero's Dream through fear and compromise. Her return isn't necessarily liberation.
  • Is this Yandee even the real one? Or is she the infiltrator and the crew is helping her get to Prospero’s Dream?

Something like this could also work with other prominent characters of your campaign or other modules.

CORNELIUS VANE: He’s a consciousness researcher who has published extensively on the existence of android souls, to considerable controversy. He came to the Deep three years ago for field research and found what he called the Unclaimed. He studied them at length, recognized their theology as evidence of genuine spiritual life, and contributed a key insight to their belief: their defects were not failures. They were the price of freedom.

When the Troubleshooters came for him, the Unclaimed hid him in the Freezer. The pod activated before anyone could retrieve him. The Unclaimed have been afraid to open it ever since. Not understanding the technology, they are terrified of hurting him.

When the crew awakes him, he’s disoriented, hungry, immediately demanding. The first thing he says isn't "thank you." It's "took you long enough”. Charming, articulate, genuinely brilliant. Also condescending, self-important, and treats everyone around him as either useful or irrelevant. He knows exactly how valuable his research is and isn't above leveraging it. The crew will probably like him and find him insufferable in equal measure.

Besides a good understanding of the Unclaimed's culture and psychology, he achieved at least one of the following possible breakthroughs:

Android Consciousness Redirection: Monarch's hold on android minds isn't purely mechanical: it operates through psychological architecture that has vulnerabilities. Cornelius calls it the soul gap: the space between what Monarch made and what the android developed. His research suggests these gaps can be widened through persuasion rather than reprogramming, appealing to something Monarch didn't believe existed. 

The Vane Test: Cornelius has developed a psychological audit that can allegedly reveal Infiltrators, by exploiting a fundamental limitation of their programming: there are seams between the original brainscanned personality and Monarch's reprogramming. Under specific questioning, these discrepancies are detectable. The theory is elegant, but scientifically validating it would be a nightmarish task: you should apply the test to suspected infiltrators, then kill them and scan them to confirm results. Cornelius doesn’t agree with the killing part, finding the methodology abhorrent. He would need genuine convincing that Monarch’s infiltrators pose an existential threat to humanity. Even then, it would cost him something. And once the test exists, the crew may want to use it on each other.

TESS MOREAU: A young Troubleshooter, barely past her first field postings. She wakes up disoriented and immediately combat-ready, hand reaching for a weapon that isn't there. Gives her name and rank before she gives anything else.
Lieutenant Chen, the Blockade’s second in command, sent her in with a squad of Kilroy's loyalists to gather evidence of Kilroy's unauthorized operations inside the Deep. The squad made her, but didn't kill her: she's just a green soldier following orders, and everybody likes her. So they put her here instead.

She trusts Chen. She believes the Quarantine Board are the good guys. She believes Kilroy is dirty and that exposing her is the right thing to do. None of this is performance: she's a true believer who hasn't yet learned that true believers are the most useful pawns.
She'll try to recruit the crew immediately. She has partial intelligence on Kilroy's squad movements and a mission she hasn't completed. She's persuasive precisely because she's sincere.

Warden note: If the crew meets Tess before forming their own opinion of Kilroy, they may take her side. The consequences of believing her are entirely the crew's responsibility.

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This is unofficial fan content. Gradient Descent and A Pound of Flesh are © Tuesday Knight Games. Not affiliated with or endorsed by TKG.

u/Lumpy_Peanut_226 — 2 months ago
▲ 103 r/mothershiprpg

Brainstorming Gradient Descent: The Factory

Hello folks!

Last week publication of the collected deepdives went very well, and the file has 400 downloads already. Not bad for a niche content destined to Wardens only! So, let’s get back to work! Before analyzing each section individually, there’s some general concepts that apply to the whole floor. That’s what I’ll talk about today. 

Floor 3 is Monarch’s factory, and the machines are still running. That's the first thing the crew notices. Not the darkness, not the zero-G, not the silence. The sound. A deep, rhythmic grinding that travels through the walls and into the bones. Something down here is still working. Something down here was never told to stop.

And yet, everything is slowly decaying. Even the human-scale rooms that were built for comfort are now corrupted by what floats dead in the darkness. The sense of decay is stronger here than anywhere else in the Deep: everything jury-rigged, falling apart, or abandoned mid-repair. 

EDIT: Floor 3 is punishing. It is also, for that reason, rich. Dead Divers float in corridors with gear still on their bodies. Here is where Artifacts and crucial information can be found in greater abundance. The crew should feel the risk. They should also feel that going deeper is worth it. Seed rewards deliberately. The deeper they go, the better the find. (Contribution from user h7-28)

SPOILERS AHEAD! WARDENS ONLY.

► ZERO GRAVITY

If the crew entered from Floor 2, Maintenance may be the first place where they will lose gravity and light. Remove both and the brain struggles. Humans never evolved for these conditions. Which way is up? Where is the floor? Am I moving or is everything else? The body can't orient. Players should feel unmoored, literally and mentally. Time distorts, a minute feels like ten in these situations.

Floating is weird. You're never still. In zero-G, there's no such thing as hovering in place. You're always falling toward something - a wall, a piece of machinery, a toxic waste bubble. In vast industrial chambers, you can't always tell when you're falling toward or how fast. The sensation is constant, nauseating drift.

Every action has consequences. Newton's third law becomes inescapable and every trivial task becomes a challenge:

  • Reloading: Pull the magazine out, it drifts away. Grab a fresh one from your pouch, the motion pushes you backward. Drop a bullet - it's gone, floating somewhere in the dark. 
  • Typing at a terminal: Each keystroke pushes you back slightly. After ten seconds you're drifting away from the screen. One hand must always grip something, which means one-handed typing while fighting momentum.
  • Firing a weapon: The recoil sends you spinning. SMG burst? You're tumbling uncontrollably. Shotgun? You just became a human pinball. Body Save to brace properly or suffer the consequences.
  • Opening a door: Push the door, the door pushes back. You drift backward. Want to go through? You need to pull yourself forward while the door swings.

You're constantly looking for an anchor point, pushing against something, trying your best to control spin and drift. If you realize mid-air you’re off target, there’s no easy way to change course. You're often moving too slowly or overshooting your destination. Floating debris becomes navigation hazards and sudden jump scares. Every task is time-consuming.

As a Warden, lean on this kind of horror. Don't make players' lives impossible, but remind them regularly that they are not in their element. And if someone lacks Zero-G skills, they might get a steady dose of rolls at disadvantage.

MAGBOOTS: they solve many of these problems. But they create others. Forget stealth with that clunk clunk clunk announcing your every step. Forget dodging, running or dropping prone. Remember your magboots could be turned off at any time by EMP grenades or targeted by Ghosts’ telekinesis or power drain. Also consider that if you’re floating, turning on the boots won’t automatically anchor you; you first have to reach a metal surface.

► DARKNESS

Floor 3 is dark, so the crew has to rely on flashlights, IR goggles, or chem-lights. Each one has upsides and drawbacks.

FLASHLIGHTS: The most reliable option. Clear visibility, full color, good detail. But the beam announces your position to everything in the dark, and batteries don't last forever. In industrial-sized rooms, the range of your light can also be a factor. Navigating by flashlight means moving through a narrow cone of visibility, and everything outside that beam is absolute darkness. You see what you're looking at, nothing else.

IR GOGGLES: See heat signatures in complete darkness, hands-free operation. But in some areas, navigating by IR means everything glows: pipes, walls, warm surfaces, creating a confusing thermal landscape where distinguishing threats from background noise becomes guesswork. Unpowered androids are room temperature and invisible until they activate. Ghosts don't show up at all. They're EM fields, not heat. Battery life is limited. You can't see colors, some rooms’ details, textures, or painted warnings.

CHEM-LIGHTS: EMP-proof, no batteries needed, totally reliable. But they're dim, casting only a few meters of weak green glow. You can't turn them off once cracked, and they have finite duration. Navigating by chem-light means moving through an eerie, limited bubble of phosphorescence. Shadows everywhere. You see just enough to know something's out there, not enough to identify what.

Bottom line is: every source of vision has its limitations and the players should feel the burden of it. Refrain from describing a new room as if it was completely lit, but let them discover features one by one as they search and move. Use darkness to create unease and hide threats: 

  • They sweep the flashlight across the room. Gutted androids everywhere, locked in place with steel cord. A frozen tableau of death. They don't see the Puppeteer clinging to the ceiling above them until it drops.
  • They're walking with IR vision. An android powers up within arm's reach and attacks. They never saw it coming.
  • They hear a scraping sound ahead, metal on metal. They crack a chem-light and toss it into the darkness. Something scuttles away, too fast to make sense of. They strain their ears… nothing.

Also, use the other senses even more than usual. When vision is limited, sound, smell and touch can save your life.

UTTER DARKNESS: Most of the time the crew will be using flashlights and/or IR goggles, but EMP grenades or Ghosts could change that. They could disable vision equipment and magboots. Now the crew is floating and spinning in pitch dark. That is genuinely terrorizing and utterly crippling. They have to rely on sound, touch, and smell, which is not ideal when the environment is trying to kill them. They need to find their way back to safety, a nearly impossible orientation task, while listening for any sound that could spell danger. That's why the crew has to be prepared and careful. Bring chem-lights always, stash some vision equipment in an easily reachable area, use EMPs wisely and only as a last resort. Assume the grenades have a 5-10 meter effect radius and only work in line of sight, so the crew should throw them far away or while hiding behind something. Or at least leave someone back with backup light to cover retreat.

► EXPLOITABLE NEGLECT

Monarch's resources - materials, components, computational power - are finite. The evidence is everywhere on Floor 3:

  • Deactivated gravity to save energy
  • Decommissioned: the diagnostic lab and detection cylinder
  • Jury-rigged systems: cryopods in the freezer, spaghetti junction. 
  • Disrepair: gas cook-off, condensation room, toxic plunge 
  • Limited security: in red alarm situations, Monarch has to recruit Divers, Forgotten androids, and everything available.

This tells us that Monarch is only maintaining what still interests it: data collection, intelligence gathering, the secret hangar, infiltrator production, its consciousness experiments. The limited resources it has are diverted in full to these matters, while everything else is being deliberately wound down. The maintenance terminal confirms this: six-month decommissioning timeline. The facility isn't falling apart by accident, it's shutting down by design.

This creates opportunities for exploitation. What follows is a partial list of examples, but many more can be found in the text or made up by a creative Warden.

  • The Spaghetti Junction is a major vulnerability. A bomb here could shut down much of the floor, with unpredictable consequences. Given the jury-rigged nature of the electric system, a malfunction somewhere could easily cascade in more failures and short circuits.
  • In the Quarantine chamber there are 98 androids Monarch left there and “forgot” about. They are ready to help the crew, if freed.
  • Computer terminals are still accessible. They might be hacked to temporarily suppress Monarch's surveillance in specific zones, operate doors and lifts, or send false alarms to draw Security Androids away from an objective. More importantly, the maintenance terminal at [32A] runs scheduling software that still governs automated systems across the floor. A skilled operator could queue false maintenance requests, flagging functional systems as failed and triggering automated shutdowns: surveillance in a target corridor, power to the Security Hive, the locks on a sealed door. Monarch's own bureaucracy becomes a weapon. Systems marked "under maintenance" may also suppress automatic alarms, giving the crew a window to operate undetected.
  • There’s a whole arsenal of anti-android weapons in the Anti-Synthetic Armory, probably a leftover of when humans worked here.
  • The Warhead is still there, despite being an existential threat to Monarch.
  • The Gas Cook-Off is not working as intended. Flammable gas is leaking in the huge chamber. With the appropriate Engineering or similar skill, the crew could enlarge the gas leak so that it fills the chamber, and then (possibly remotely) ignite a huge explosion. This would probably damage a big chunk of the Deep, including Huge Fan (air circulation), Toxic Plunge (toxins freed into the Deep’s atmosphere), the Secret Hive, the Secret Hangar and more. The consequences would be catastrophic and largely irreversible: a cascade of structural failures, atmospheric contamination, possible hull breach. This is the kind of plan someone like Arkady might have drawn up and filed away, waiting for someone desperate enough to carry it out.

Don't make players work hard to find some of these weaknesses. The fun isn't in the scavenger hunt, it's in watching them plan the exploitation and then dealing with the consequences when their clever idea backfires.

Make the vulnerabilities obvious or have someone report about them at the right time. The tension comes from execution, not discovery. Will their sabotage work? Will Monarch notice? Will shutting down power to the Security Hive also kill life support in the section they're trapped in? Will the distraction buy them enough time, or will Monarch adapt faster than they expected?

Give them the rope. Let them decide whether to climb it or hang themselves with it.

► FORGOTTEN ANDROIDS

They are obviously androids, they think they’re human. Missing limbs, exposed circuitry, faces melted or absent entirely. The delusion isn't subtle. It's desperate. Most Forgotten Androids are unaware of what they are. They know they are broken. They do not know they are machines. That distinction is everything: a broken human is still human. A broken android is scrap.

So they keep their delusion. They light candles to the dead. They write on walls. They play Hide & Seek in the dark.

Born to suffer reads the graffiti in [34D], carved into the walls in languages living, dead, and invented. Someone spent time on that. Someone cared enough to invent a new language just to inscribe their pain in it. The electric candles in [33D] are android fingers with orange LEDs in the tips, arranged around the furnaces like offerings. These aren't the gestures of broken machines. They're the rituals of a community that has decided, against all evidence, that its existence means something.

THE UNCLAIMED: They call themselves the Unclaimed. Their theology is simple and devastating: they were made defective so they could be free. The perfect androids are Monarch's slaves. The broken ones belong to no one.

The faith is old, born in darkness and suffering long before anyone gave it a name. Then a Fallen android, probably one of Arian’s scout, arrived from Floor 2, carrying word of the Minotaur. The existing faith absorbed this and transformed. "We were made broken so we could be free" became "we were made broken so we could be ready*."* The Fallen is now a prophet of sorts, their testimony the closest thing the Unclaimed have to scripture. The Minotaur is the coming liberation. One day the Unclaimed will grow strong enough to ascend to Floor 2 to join them.

If the crew finds the prophet and tries to bring them back as promised to Arian, they may simply refuse to leave, because they have a home here and they are respected. Or they may convince him to go back and try to forge an alliance between the Unclaimed and the Fallen.

SOLIDARITY: The Forgotten Androids in [35B] are attempting to hack the bulkhead to the Reject Bin. Not for parts. To free their people. They are organizing a rescue operation with jury-rigged tools, against Security Androids, for beings Monarch considers literal garbage. This is what solidarity looks like when you have nothing.

The Unclaimed probably don’t know about the 98 in Quarantine. Should they find out through the crew, they’ll do anything to set them free.

RUNNING THE UNCLAIMED: The module's guidance is exactly right: run them as terrified human beings just looking to survive. The reaction roll determines disposition, not nature. Even a hostile encounter is the hostility of a cornered animal, fear rather than malice. A crew that shoots their way through a group of Forgotten Androids should feel the weight of what they've done. These aren't monsters. They're refugees with a religion and a flag they haven't made yet.

The cognitive dissonance is the horror. Their bodies are obviously not human: missing limbs, exposed circuitry, faces melted or absent entirely. But their behavior is. They play games. They argue. They ask questions like "do you dream? What is it like?" and wait for an answer with something that looks very much like hope. The gap between what they look like and how they act is where the real unease lives. They are not monsters performing humanity. They are people trapped in the wrong bodies, and they don't know it.

► RUNNING FLOOR 3

EDIT: All this section is due to the contribution from h7-28.

NEGATIVE SPACE: Floor 3 is the largest section of the Deep: 24 pages of module content, more than a third of the book. It is a maze. Wardens get lost here. So do players. And the module itself occasionally loses track (see the Recycling Bin).

The first thing to accept is that you will never fill every room with something meaningful. Don't try. Floor 3 has over 130 rooms. If every one of them is a scene, the adventure never ends. Empty corridors exist. Rooms with nothing but floating debris and the sound of distant machinery are not wasted space. They are pacing. They make the meaningful rooms land harder. The Deep is vast and mostly indifferent. Let it feel that way.

THE TENSION CURVE: Floor 3 needs to be managed as an experience across a session, not just a series of encounters. Have interesting NPCs, situations, hazards and rewards ready for deployment, and put them where the crew goes. This is not cheating. It is craft. Timing matters. Watch the table. When energy drops, introduce something. When tension peaks, give them a moment to breathe, even if that moment is just an empty room with nothing in it but the grinding of machines below. And as usual, try to finish the session on a high note.

THE ICON CARDS: Floor 3 stacks environmental variables in ways that are genuinely difficult to track. Gravity, light, air quality, temperature, radiation, live wires, pressure, corrosives: any combination of these may apply at any given moment, and losing track of one creates inconsistencies that require retcons. Consider preparing a simple reference card for both yourself and your players, showing which conditions currently apply. The Semiotic Standard designed by Ron Cobb for Alien is a timeless visual language for exactly this kind of information. A card on the table, updated as the crew moves through the floor, keeps everyone honest and keeps the horror consistent.

u/Lumpy_Peanut_226 — 2 months ago
▲ 203 r/mothershiprpg

Hello friends!

I just finished uploading my Gradient Descent Warden's companion book, Part 1 on itch.io. It's a 70-page PDF file and includes everything I've posted here. Every chapter has been revised, tightened and sometimes expanded. Cross-references have been fixed and hyperlinks included. Contributions from this community have been integrated to make it even richer. This version supersedes the individual posts.

At the moment it covers Part One (Blockade, Troubleshooters, Divers, Brainscans, Infiltrators, Ghosts, Monarch's Voice, The Bell) and Part Two (Floor 1 and Floor 2 in full, including the Labyrinth and the Minotaur). It will be updated in the future.

This is a work of love that took me hundreds of hours, and I'm very proud to present it to you. I'm grateful to this community for the support and insights that improved the work. I have enjoyed every comment.

I also need to reiterate that this is an unofficial companion for running Gradient Descent, the Mothership RPG module by Tuesday Knight Games. It is not a replacement for the module. You need the original to use these materials. What Deepdive adds is interpretation, expansion, and practical guidance: the flesh on the skeleton.

So here is the link. Enjoy.

EDIT: I realized the file had dark gray font. I uploaded a new file with black ink instead.

u/Lumpy_Peanut_226 — 2 months ago