The adventure ahead
Earth is dying. Pollution, ecological collapse, and the quiet arrival of alien species have forced humanity's governments into secret pacts—trading knowledge, learning alien technology, and reverse-engineering FTL travel while the public starved for answers. When the secrecy failed and the world fell, a final desperate plan was enacted: cryofreeze the last hope of humanity aboard hastily built corvettes, each guided by an experimental artificial intelligence, and launch them toward the stars.
The players awaken from cryosleep aboard the corvette Meridian, its AI whispering warnings of sabotage, alien pursuers, and a signal coming from somewhere deep in the void—a signal that may belong to the entity that orchestrated Earth's fall. Act I follows the crew's first hours awake: stabilizing the ship, repelling boarders, and uncovering the first hints of a vast, patient intelligence that has been harvesting worlds long before Earth.
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You went to sleep on a dying Earth. The last thing you remember is the hiss of the cryopod sealing, the rumble of a corvette built from scrap and hope, and a voice promising you'd wake among the stars. Now you have. Alarms scream. Frost still clings to your skin. The ship's AI—VESPER—speaks in clipped, damaged sentences: 'Crew revival successful. Hull breach imminent. Unidentified vessels closing. Recommendation: survive.' Earth is gone. Whatever happened while you slept, someone doesn't want the Meridian to reach its destination. You are humanity's last crew, and something in the dark between stars is listening.
Behind the screen
Act I is a contained opening arc aboard the Meridian and its immediate space surroundings. The players are two cryofrozen protagonists (plus any additional crew the table wishes to add) who wake to alarms. The AI, VESPER, is damaged and evasive—because it was ordered to hide something. Sabotage drones, alien scavengers, and a stowaway cultist of the void-entity reveal that Earth's fall was not an accident: something called the Whispering Choir seeded the pollution, guided the aliens, and let humanity build the FTL drives because every jump draws the Choir closer.
The act's villain, Deacon Malvoric Sable, a human cultist who sabotaged the launch to redirect the Meridian toward the Choir, serves as the act's climax antagonist. He is not the campaign's true threat—only its herald. The act ends with the players holding a fragment of Choir signal-data, the first breadcrumb pointing toward the entity's true location among dead stars. DM secrets: VESPER knows more than it says; the FTL drive is partially Choir technology; the alien scavengers were following a beacon Malvoric planted.
Hook 01
The crew wakes from cryosleep to red lights and a damaged AI. VESPER reports hull breaches, failing systems, and unidentified vessels closing. Someone aboard sabotaged the Meridian before launch, and the players have twenty minutes to stabilize the ship before boarders tear their way in.
Hook 02
Alien scavengers have locked a salvage clamp onto the Meridian's hull, drawn by a beacon broadcasting from inside the ship. Whoever planted it wanted visitors, and the crew must repel the boarders and trace the signal to its source in Cargo Hold C.
The crew wakes from cryosleep to a sabotaged ship, repels an alien scavenger boarding party, and hunts the saboteur through the cargo decks—uncovering Deacon Malvoric Sable, a cultist of the Whispering Choir, and the first proof that Earth's destruction was engineered.
Read aloud
Frost cracks and slides from your eyelids as the cryopod's amber fluid drains away. Red emergency light pulses through the bay. The other pods are empty—one shattered, its occupant gone. A voice, glitching and half-familiar, crackles from the ceiling: 'Crew revival... successful. Life support at forty-one percent. Reactor coolant... venting. Unidentified vessels... closing. Recommendation: survive.' Somewhere below your feet, something metallic skitters through the vents.
This is the tutorial scene. VESPER (the ship's AI) is damaged and speaks in fragments; it is hiding guilt—it was ordered to conceal the presence of a stowaway before launch. The skittering in the vents is a maintenance drone reprogrammed by the saboteur to sabotage the coolant lines. The missing pod occupant is Deacon Malvoric Sable, who woke early, faked his own pod's destruction, and has been aboard for weeks.
Players must fix three systems: coolant rerouting (Deck 2), life support scrubbers (Deck 1), and sealing the shuttle bay doors (Deck 3). The alien scavenger vessels from Scene 2 arrive in 20 minutes of in-game time; each system fixed buys time and advantages in Scene 2. The reprogrammed drone attacks anyone working on the coolant lines alone.
Read aloud
The shuttle bay doors shudder and part with a shriek of torn metal. Through the gap drift three figures in patched vacuum suits, their helmets cracked, their movements wrong—too smooth, too hungry. Behind them, through the bay's cracked viewport, you see their ship: a lashed-together hull of human and alien salvage, its docking clamp locked onto your hull like a fang. 'VESPER, identify them.' A pause too long. 'Scavengers. They... followed a beacon. Beacon origin: internal.' Someone aboard your ship invited them.
The scavengers are alien raiders drawn by a beacon the saboteur planted in the cargo bay. They want the Meridian's FTL core, not the crew—they'll take prisoners to sell. Combat encounter: 4 Goblins (reskinned narratively as vacuum-suited alien scavengers, using exact SRD Goblin stat blocks) led by 1 Hobgoblin (their boarding captain). If the party fixed the shuttle bay doors in Scene 1, the boarders must breach manually, giving the party a surprise round.
If coolant was fixed, VESPER can electrify cargo bay floor grates once per round (1d8 lightning damage, DC 12 Dexterity save) as an environmental action. The scavenger captain carries a data-slate showing the beacon's coordinates: Cargo Hold C, Container 7—the saboteur's hiding place. Do not reveal the saboteur's identity yet. If captured and interrogated, the captain reveals only: 'The quiet man paid us in water. Said your ship flies toward the Choir, and the Choir pays better.'
Read aloud
Cargo Hold C is dark except for the glow of a jury-rigged shrine: a spiral of copper wire and shattered cryo-glass, humming with a low, resonant tone that you feel in your teeth. Before it stands a gaunt man in a technician's jumpsuit, a silver pin gleaming at his collar. He turns without surprise, as if he has been rehearsing this moment for weeks. 'You're awake. Good. The Choir prefers its messages received by living minds.' He raises a device in one hand—a signal amplifier linked to the FTL core. 'One word from me, and your engine screams our location to every dead star between here and home.'
The villain of Act I: Deacon Malvoric Sable, a human cultist of the Whispering Choir and the 'missing' seventh crew member. He sabotaged the launch, planted the beacon, and intends to hijack the FTL jump to deliver the Meridian—and its human crew—to the Choir. He is a charismatic fanatic, not a monster: he opens with an offer, claiming the Choir 'cleanses' dying worlds and that humanity's fall was a mercy scheduled long ago.
He fights only if refused, using his forthcoming character sheet—describe his tactics as: a shocking-grasp-style touch attack through his copper-wire gauntlet, a dissonant hum that staggers nearby foes, and a willingness to use cargo containers and zero-g moments for cover and repositioning. He is supported by 2 Cultists (exact SRD stat blocks) he converted among the maintenance staff. If reduced to low hit points, Malvoric attempts to trigger the amplifier; destroying the amplifier (AC 13, 15 hit points) or grappling him stops the broadcast.
If he is captured alive, he gladly monologues: the Choir is real, it is coming, and the FTL drives humanity 'invented' were Choir technology all along—every jump is a prayer the Choir hears. His silver pin, when examined, resonates with the ship's FTL core, the first physical breadcrumb toward the Choir's location. He should be defeatable but escape or die defiantly; either way, the act ends with the players in possession of the pin, the signal fragment, and terrible questions.
Milestone: The crew secures the Meridian, defeats or captures Deacon Malvoric Sable, and recovers the Choir signal fragment and silver pin—the first concrete evidence that Earth's fall was engineered by the Whispering Choir, and the first breadcrumb pointing toward the Silence. Characters reach level 5.
Deacon Malvoric Sable
Deacon Malvoric Sable is a gaunt, soft-spoken human technician in his late forties, his jumpsuit immaculate despite three weeks of secret w…
Free campaign generations include one villain sheet. Additional villain, NPC, and player-facing module character sheets are available in premium campaigns.
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Subscribe NowA gaunt human technician and secret cultist of the Whispering Choir, Malvoric believes the Choir 'cleanses' dying worlds and that humanity's fall was a mercy scheduled long ago. He sabotaged the Meridian's launch, planted the scavenger beacon, and intends to hijack the FTL jump to deliver the ship and its crew to the entity. He is a charismatic fanatic, not a monster—he opens with an offer, and he genuinely believes every word he says.
Soft-spoken, patient, rehearsed. Speaks in liturgical cadences about the Choir. Flinches only when asked who gave him the launch codes. Gladly monologues when captured, because to him, being heard is worship.
Malvoric opens with persuasion, not violence. In combat he uses his copper-wire gauntlet's shocking grasp on the nearest foe, staggers clustered enemies with his dissonant hum, and repositions across cargo stacks and the zero-g gap for cover. At low hit points he beelines for the amplifier to broadcast the ship's location; he surrenders only if grappled away from it, and even then he treats capture as a pulpit.
He is not redeemable—he believes humanity's extinction is a sacrament—but he is survivable. Whether he dies defiantly, is captured, or escapes via the scavenger ship, the players end Act I with his pin, his journal, and the Choir signal fragment: the first breadcrumb toward the true campaign villain, the Whispering Choir, waiting in the Silence.
Recommended party: 2-4 players; a balanced party with at least one technical or arcane caster (to interface with ship systems) and one martial character works best. The two canonical protagonists are the cryofrozen crew of the Meridian.
Discuss tone (survival sci-fi horror with hope), the two canonical cryofrozen protagonists plus any additional crew the table wishes to add, and the fact that Act I is a preview arc: the Whispering Choir is the campaign's true threat, and Malvoric is only its herald.
For a party of 2, reduce the boarding party to 3 Goblins and the shrine fight to 1 Cultist. For a party of 5, add a second maintenance drone in Scene 1, 2 more Goblins in Scene 2, and 1 additional Cultist in Scene 3.
Keep VESPER evasive but not hostile—it is afraid, not lying. Track the 20-minute countdown in Scene 1 openly; each repaired system buys tangible advantages in Scene 2. Let Malvoric talk before he fights; his fanaticism is more chilling when it is sincere. End the act on VESPER's first whole, steady sentence.
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Deacon Malvoric Sable
Deacon Malvoric Sable is a gaunt, soft-spoken human technician in his late forties, his jumpsuit immaculate despite three weeks of secret w…
Free campaign generations include one villain sheet. Additional villain, NPC, and player-facing module character sheets are available in premium campaigns.
Subscribe NowFree campaign encounters use official monster sheets, plus the campaign villain character when referenced. They do not include generated custom monster sheets. Subscribe to create custom campaign monsters and enemy stat blocks.
Subscribe NowA gaunt human technician and secret cultist of the Whispering Choir, Malvoric believes the Choir 'cleanses' dying worlds and that humanity's fall was a mercy scheduled long ago. He sabotaged the Meridian's launch, planted the scavenger beacon, and intends to hijack the FTL jump to deliver the ship and its crew to the entity. He is a charismatic fanatic, not a monster—he opens with an offer, and he genuinely believes every word he says.
Soft-spoken, patient, rehearsed. Speaks in liturgical cadences about the Choir. Flinches only when asked who gave him the launch codes. Gladly monologues when captured, because to him, being heard is worship.
Malvoric opens with persuasion, not violence. In combat he uses his copper-wire gauntlet's shocking grasp on the nearest foe, staggers clustered enemies with his dissonant hum, and repositions across cargo stacks and the zero-g gap for cover. At low hit points he beelines for the amplifier to broadcast the ship's location; he surrenders only if grappled away from it, and even then he treats capture as a pulpit.
He is not redeemable—he believes humanity's extinction is a sacrament—but he is survivable. Whether he dies defiantly, is captured, or escapes via the scavenger ship, the players end Act I with his pin, his journal, and the Choir signal fragment: the first breadcrumb toward the true campaign villain, the Whispering Choir, waiting in the Silence.
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Suggested Level: 3-4
Narrow coolant corridors, exposed conduits, vent crawlspaces
The drone's core contains a fragment of Malvoric's reprogramming code, recognizable as human handwriting in the machine language.
The drone is narratively a sabotaged maintenance drone but uses the exact SRD Flying Sword stat block. A DC 12 Wisdom (Perception) check in Scene 1 grants advantage against it or allows an ambush.
Suggested Level: 3-4
Zero-g cargo corridors, electrifiable floor grates, torn shuttle bay doors
The captain's data-slate showing the beacon's origin (Cargo Hold C, Container 7) and a partial redacted crew manifest.
If the party sealed the bay doors in Scene 1, the boarders must breach manually, granting a surprise round. If coolant was fixed, VESPER can electrify the cargo bay grates once per round (1d8 lightning, DC 12 Dexterity save). A captured scavenger trades the phrase 'the quiet man' for DC 12 Charisma.
Suggested Level: 4-5
Stacked cargo containers, a zero-g gap between cargo stacks, the humming shrine
The silver spiral pin (resonates with the FTL core), Malvoric's journal with council-sealed launch codes, and the Choir signal fragment.
Malvoric opens with an offer and fights only if refused, per his character sheet: a shocking grasp through his copper-wire gauntlet, a dissonant hum that staggers nearby foes, and use of cargo cover and zero-g to reposition. Destroy the amplifier (AC 13, 15 HP) or grapple him to stop the broadcast.
Silver Spiral Pin of the Choir
Completed
Worn by Deacon Malvoric Sable in Scene 3; recovered after his defeat, capture, or escape.
Requires attunement
Scavenger's Breathing Stimulant
Completed
Carried by the scavenger boarding party in Scene 2; two doses can be recovered after the fight.
No attunement required
Choir Signal Fragment Data-Slate
Completed
Recovered from the scavenger captain's body or gear after the Scene 2 boarding fight.
No attunement required
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