Place of Interest
Description:
Hidden Within Pools of Fog
If not for the huts of the socketeers that huddle in clumps on the rolling hills of this area, one might never know that this bleak landscape sits atop the ancient facility known as Traitors Gasp. Strange groundcover clings to the hills like a scab on a wound, alternating between slimy brown moss and sponge-like growths from which peek tall blades of neon-blue grass, with edges sharp as glass. In between the hills are hollows where dense fog settles in pools, and it is these shrouded pools that hold the way into Traitors Gasp.
“Designed” Does not Mean “Built for Humans”
Those who descend into the vapor find themselves in a twisted jumble of hexagonal corridors and chambers built like inverted step pyramids. Clearly not a space designed for humanoid occupation, the atmosphere of Traitors Gasp is not only dense, opaque as smoke, and mildly corrosive, but the “floors” of the corridors are more of a squat V-shape, while blunt hooks descend from the inverted ^ of the ceiling. But it’s what lies within the chambers of Traitors Gasp that makes this difficult environment not only possible to explore, but worth exploring in the first place: the sockets.
Ports Out of Penury
Few socketeers take to the trade for the thrill of it, but rather are forced there by desperation. The sockets that line the chambers of Traitors Grasp can be tapped for their contents. Careful trial and error—as well as knowledge paid for in blood and pain—has given socketeers a decent working knowledge of the meaning of the jagged hieroglyphs etched into the metal rings around the sockets. Shapes of this type relate to water, while those of that type refer to temperature, (or pressure, or gas, etc.)
A lesson socketeers learn quickly—or not at all—is that the symbols for “breathable air” and “highly acidic vapor” are remarkably similar...
On occasion, however, sockets turn out to be motherlodes , with socketeers discovering everything from energy-dense fuels to potent intoxicants, even panaceas for everything from bumps and bruises to senescence and death. It is these intermittent jackpots that bring the desperate and the destitute to the poison-shrouded corridors of Traitors Gasp.
Quirks:
What’s in a Name?
No one’s quite sure about the origin of the name “Traitors Gasp,” whether it’s possessive (and if so, whether it refers to the gasp of a specific traitor, or a group of them), or if the name is simply a statement about the breathing habits of traitors. No one knows for sure, but most socketeers believe the name holds the secret to the origin of gaspers, that the diaphanous monsters that stalk the corridors of this ancient facility are created when a betrayer breathes their last breath in the vile miasma that fills Traitors Gasp, which then metamorphoses into the horrors faced by future socketeers.
The near-pervasiveness of this belief is what gives the three laws of the Socketeer’s Code their strength.
The Socketeer’s Code
In order to prevent the creation of new gaspers, all socketeers agree to abide by a strict code of ethics or face the harsh judgment of their peers.
The first law of the Code is, “Leave no rothver behind.” This law refers to the implements socketeers use to tap the sockets of Traitors Gasp—devices created and named after their inventor, the famed socketeer altoKikoo Rothver. Unfortunately, since Rothver’s disappearance decades ago, none have been able to recreate their work, which means the loss of a single rothver is a permanent one. (And as such, they are highly prized by their wielders.)
The spirit of the first law encourages socketeers to aid each other while in Traitors Gasp, but the mercenarily inclined among them only follow the letter of the law—no socketeer is obligated to save another, they point out, merely their tools.
The second law of the Code is, “There is no justice underground.” Barring the occasional lucky discovery, the life of socketeers is often dangerous, claustrophobic, laborious, and short, and on its face, this law serves as a reminder of that fact. A stupid mistake or unforeseen accident can kill a veteran as easily as a novice. Every trip into Traitors Gasp could be your last. But this law also serves as a reminder, a lesson drilled into every socketeer that all disputes between them—no matter how dire—must be settled only when both parties are above ground. A fight in the corridors or chambers is liable to spawn another gasper, and there are more than enough of those already.
The third law of the Code is, “Corrupt a socket, corrupt the trust.” This law refers to the practice of subtly changing the etchings around a socket to suggest that it emits something other than it does. Some socketeers do so to protect their claim (as no socket yet discovered has contained an unlimited amount of its bounty), while others deliberately alter dangerous sockets to look harmless, or vice versa. Difficult to prove unless explicitly witnessed and recorded by another, altering sockets to serve as booby traps weakens the trust which underpins the first and second laws of the Code.
Ghosts of Miasma
From its poisonous environment to its maze-like structure, Traitors Gasp holds many dangers, but none pose a greater threat to socketeers than gaspers. When in their passive state, gaspers resemble headless jellyfish lit from within by a pale grey illumination, mere bundles of wispy tendrils that silently float throughout the facility. In this state, gaspers pose no danger to the average socketeer—so long as they remain calm and ensure the physical integrity of their suit, a socketeer could walk right through a gasper and be fine.
NOTE: This integrity check is necessary because of how gaspers react to non-miasma gases—an instant transition to their hunting state.
When gaspers enter a chamber, they either pause for a moment before passively continuing along, or enter a more active state. An active gasper can be spotted by a change in illumination (from a steady pale grey to slowly pulsing sickly green and bruised purple) as well as a low vocalization, as of someone’s labored breathing. Active gaspers will use their tendrils to investigate the sockets of a chamber, seemingly at random, until they either calm down and revert back to passivity, or elevate to their hunting state.
A hunting gasper can be identified through the increased volume of its “gasping,” as well as the intensity and frequency of its pulsing lights. In this state, gaspers move more quickly and seem to gain mass and density—the strike of a hunting gasper’s tendril is powerful enough to break bones and shatter suit seals. In this state, the only way to handle a gasper is to tap a socket of vacuum and hope for the best. (Unfortunately, this is the only time such strategy is possible—gaspers not in hunting state are not “solid” enough to be affected by a vacuum.) Under ideal circumstances, sucking the gasper through the rothver and into the port should give the socketeer enough time to safely leave the area. If not...death by gasper is not a pleasant way to go.
Adventure Hooks:
An Awfully Convenient Advantage...
Socketeers depend on their protective suits to survive in Traitors Gasp, not only so that they may breathe, but also to navigate the facility at all. So long as they visionplate of a suit is kept charged, the curved metal panels allow one to see under any condition, including the opaque miasma that fills the corridors beneath the hills. However, every visionplate in the area lost power after a recent meteor shower, and now none of them will hold a charge any longer than a few minutes.
The only socketeer still able to work is Ever-Up-and-Up, a sophont made of equal parts sapient fungus and cybernetic limbs. Ever-Up-and-Up isn’t overly bothered by the lack of a visionplate (as they primarily use radar to navigate anyway). However, this natural advantage has spawned suspicion that Ever-Up-and-Up is the reason behind the visionplate failure in the first place. As discontent grows and tensions rise, a veteran socketeer asks the PCs to help solve the issue before things get out of hand.
The Mystery of the Missing Socketeers
For the last few weeks, no gasper has been observed elevating to hunting state, which would normally be a cause for celebration—socketeers are not given to looking a gift tellep in the spout. But in the days after this change in behavior was spotted, socketeers have started to go missing during the night. When the PCs are asked to investigate by an old friend and socketeer, they discover that every person to have disappeared tapped into a specific socket for water while last in Traitors Gasp, and a quick poll among the other socketeers as to who else did so only turns up one name: the PCs’ friend.
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