Outpost Hotel

The old Aeon Society for Gentlemen outpost on Aresia was abandoned over two centuries ago but still intact, built to last through the worst environmental conditions near-indefinitely. Powered by a geothermal tap into the dying world, with multiple high-depth wells and water recyclers to reduce its environmental impact, it was inexplicably abandoned by the Aeon Society around the mid-1930s and left there indefinitely, powering and fueling the city of Hilven, once a beacon of culture and art. Later, several wars and raids by Grey Aresian pirates combined to defeat Hilven's defenses, leaving the city as a Grey Aresian pirate outpost ever since. But the outpost itself, undiscovered, stayed intact. This is what you have inherited from their work.

The real reason for the abandonment was the split between Michael Daemon Dhonigal and Maxwell Anderson Mercer, in terms of whether intervention or non-intervention was the right idea, as both of them were intelligent enough and had enough resources to predict World War II and the potential horrors to fall out from another Great War. Mercer was for allowing humanity to grow on its own and only shape society when necessary to keep it from catastrophic collapse, while Dhonigal believed that they had not just a right, but a god-given duty, to shape society however they wanted, with the powers they had been gifted. The two former friends presumably had more than just a falling-out, considering all history past that, and hints in the Aeon Society archives of some sort of shadow war fought by Aeon loyalists against its former members, which killed more than a few famous adventurers.

The historical books and journals give no idea of whether Mercer knew of the Holocaust, or if Dhonigal knew of the beneficial role to world peace that the end of World War II and the use of the atom bomb would have brought.

Layout

The desert sands and erosion destroyed the aboveground parts of the embassy and exploratory outpost decades ago, but the underground areas, shielded by thick metal doors treated with chemicals to prevent rust or fatigue, have endured intact for more than two hundred years. The sprawling underground base is set up as three floors, cooled by a powerful air conditioning system that is still running even today.

Even though the dry desert sands and overwhelming heat are in full force outside, the inside of the underground facility is quite comfortable.

Floor 1

The first floor was primarily where Aresian guests and their entourages were allowed to stay, as well as where many of the Aeon outreach and educational programs were held in. On the floor there was a large cafeteria, multiple guest rooms of varying levels of opulence, from the spartan to the palatial, a classroom where Aresian students could be educated in the sciences and academics of the strange alien world that the adventurers had come from, and a library full of imported Earth books. The cafeteria served various forms of native food most of the time, with Sunday brunches serving exotic imports from Earth. Some less-dangerous trinkets were also placed on the first floor, to impress and gift Aresians with.

The first floor is decorated in a faux-Aresian style, with murals and engravings on almost every inch of wall, and the classic rounded ceilings and high arches of Aresian architecture, no doubt to ensure a feeling of familiarity and acceptance. Although most of the murals and engravings have faded with age, the architecture has not.

It is clear that Aeon hoped, at one point, to integrate the two worlds, but this effort ended up being stymied.

Floor 2

The second floor was used by the adventurers of Aeon to store what they worked for, and as such is smaller than either the first or third floor, sealed off by heavy armored doors that could stop a charging Aresian War-Lizard or almost any creation of the diabolical villains of Earth, guarded with various gun turrets and traps. Inside were opulent bedrooms, a study where partially typed copies of an atlas of Aresia, among other informative works, were stored, and a storage full of potentially useful Aeon artifacts, whether native or found on Aresia.

Finally, set off a few dozen meters and similarly sealable is a laboratory, a then-cutting edge facility with the latest in microscopes, X-Rays, and other equipment. Although advanced for its time, the years have not been kind to it and its equipment is quaint at best, absolutely worthless at worst.

Floor 3

The third floor was where servants, workers, terrestrial guests, and other functionaries who needed for the day-to-day functioning of the facility or were just there to be impressed by the strange alien world, with comfortable if slighty cramped berthing for over 100 men and women. The third floor is where the outpost's medical clinic is, a small facility with a dozen beds and an iron lung machine, as well as cabinets of long-since expired medicines, some of which were actually beneficial to the health of the patient. The medical clinic was mostly stocked with Aresian tools and medicines, their medical technology having been more advanced than all but the most paradigm-shifting (read: super-science) medical techniques available at that time.

The third floor also has a now-inactive travel gate, which seems to lead to a room in Maxwell Mercer's mansion in Chicago, long since preserved as a historical site and museum. Much larger than the one in the party's current possession, this one would allow significantly heavier materiel such as medium armor to be moved through into Aresia, if properly relocated.

Floor 4

The fourth and largest floor of the outpost is where the machinery that maintains it chugs along. A powerful electrical turbine system, running off of a combination of geothermal energy and atomic power, fuels the outpost's power needs, and additionally provides power to the neighboring city. Although certainy primitive-seeming, the design is sound and the metallurgy used for its systems and spare parts are top-notch, and the powerplant stil easily has a century of life behind it without significant maintenance. A large desalinization and water purification plant is nestled right next to it, drawing water from the Aresian sewers and the plumbing of the base, purifying it to drinkability. Finally, taking up the remaining space is a factory facility. Built by the Geary-Wexlers, their Automatronic Factory is an extremely primitive automated factory, capable of constructing most mechanical devices with minimal retooling, from firearms to spare parts to automatons.

It has been mostly inactive for the past 200 years, ony building spare parts when systems in the outpost failed, loyally awaiting the return of the Aeon Society for Gentlemen. However, it could easily be reactivated and reprogrammed (to some extent, none of you are familiar with mechanical computers) to produce more equipment, maintenance automatons, and the like. Unfortunately, its completely incompatible technologies and mad science bent make it virtually impossible to update.

Defenses

With the existence of the Yellow and Gray Aresians, defenses were necessary for the outpost. Not only were there guards and thick metal doors, but clever and fiendish traps such as Cutting-Light Fences (laser traps), Automated Pillboxes (machine gun turrets) and gas blowers were installed on the second and third floors of the facility to prevent access to the artifacts that Aeon had collected and stored in this area. These defenses are enhanced by the presense of various automata created by the automated factory, mainly maintenance robots, although their brute strength and size is sufficient to make them a reasonable defense against most attacking foes.

Although many of the defenses have been deactivated by age or your overenthusiastic assault, they are easily repaired, or even better, replaced by modern equivalents with superior accuracy, intellect, and firepower.

Robots

Small Automata:

Strength 8/Dexterity 1/Stamina 8

Perception 2/Intelligence 1/Wits 1

Might 5, Brawl 2, Engineering (Repairs) 5, Awareness 2 (Mechanical Problems + 3)

Drill: Damage 12L AP:3, Smash: Damage 14B

HLs -0 x 10/Destroyed, Soak 10B/10L/0A

Automata: Initiative is (Dex + Wits + 1)

Gear

Martian Equipment

These weapons are supposedly taken from a long-lost and then dying martian civilization. Given that several members of the Unity crew have been to Mars and found zero signs of a hyper-advanced civilization-and certainly, the Mars colonies have found no such ruins, this is probably somewhat unlikely.

Martian Disintegrator Ray

Accuracy +0, Damage 10A, Range 50, RoF 1, Magazine 10, Mass 2, Min. Str 0

This retro-futuristic raygun has poor sights and cannot be effectively aimed, but disintegrates targets, dealing aggravated damage. The weapon seems to recharge its own magazine at the rate of 1 shot/minute, and has no provisions for replacing the battery. It emits a noticeable but extremely low teratogen count, akin to an extremely weak Nova gadget.

Martian Psi-Gems

+2d to use of psychic powers (Telepathy)

The City of Hilven

Once a glittering metropolis and one of the richest city-states, Hilven is now an abandoned ghost city, empty save the large number of Grey Aresian pirates who have taken it and turned it into their home base.

The Spires

Nearly a hundred meters tall, these spires are a combination of mooring for airships and temple, decorated beautifully in precious metals and gemstones, with every inch of their surface carefully embossed and engraved. The spires were the most beautiful part of Hilven, and now most of them have fallen, save the largest one in the center, which is still intact despite the worst nature has thrown at it.

The Sewers

The sewers of Hilven were later linked to Outpost Hotel to take advantage of the latter's recycling facilities, and an Aresian one was half-completed when the city was abandoned. In theory, if the second facility was brought fully online and drought-resistant agriculture brought along (or more exotic closed-cycle systems such as greenhouses), despite the arid conditions of the lands nearby, Hilven could be rendered fully inhabitable.

Sofia Valley

A dozen or so kilometers away from Hilven is Sofia Valley, an enclave of perhaps a few hundred Greens. Before the city's abandonment, pilgrims and scholars sought the Greens out for advice and knowledge, sometimes coming back with an epiphany, sometimes empty-handed, sometimes not coming back at all. The valley is still active today, almost inexplicably, avoided by the pirates and keeping to themselves. Like all other Green enclaves, they have a Mindstone which allows communication over planetary distances between telepaths, and plenty of Abassi-gem psionic amplifiers.