Tess Varek
Thirty years on Level 14 of Korath Station.
Mid-fifties, sitting on a hab-unit threshold on Level 14, neither working nor playing nor connected. You can tell she is not connected because her eyes do not track the way a Kadiss user's eyes track, and she has been watching you since you came off the ladder.
Thirty years in the same hab-block, eight units high, ladders and walkways installed when the Hive was built and never replaced. Warm air that tastes of recycled metal, flat industrial white light, children at the water Station.
Her neighbour Oren Voss disappeared eleven days ago on the same night as the other sixteen. A quiet man, tech-pit maintenance, no debts and no enemies. In the weeks before he went, Oren had become different: attending meetings on the lower levels, talking about the machine and what it owes us. Tess thought he had found a new faith and did not ask which one, and that is the part she cannot put down.
She reported him. Security told her to file a form. She filed the form. Nothing happened. She is now a woman whose entire remaining option is telling strangers, which is exactly what she does.
What she knows: the meetings were in a disused maintenance room on Level 16 near tech-pit junction 16-9; others from the block have been going; some of those are among the seventeen; and the block's Kadiss coverage has been strange for months. Security calls it infrastructure decay. Tess does not.
She will not go to Level 16. She is afraid, she says so, and she does not dress it up.
Rules Reference
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Abilities / Cha | 12 |
| Abilities / Con | 10 |
| Abilities / Dex | 10 |
| Abilities / Int | 11 |
| Abilities / Str | 9 |
| Abilities / Wis | 14 |
| Armor Class | 10 |
| Base Attack Bonus | 0 |
| Creature Type | Humanoid |
| Flat Ac | 10 |
| Hd Count | 1 |
| Hd Sides | 8 |
| Hit Dice | 1d8 |
| Hit Points | 4 |
| Hp Bonus | 0 |
| Initiative | 0 |
| Languages | Core Standard; Korath hive argot |
| Senses | Normal human vision; thirty years of knowing which walkway sounds wrong; passive Perception 13 |
| Size | M |
| Skills / Notice | 5 |
| Skills / Sense Motive | 4 |
| Skills / Streetwise | 4 |
| Speed | 30 |
| Threat Rating | 0 |
| Touch Ac | 10 |
| Xp | 0 |
| Dialogue Path | game/dialogue/npc-tess-varek.yaml |
Attacks
Water-station spanner
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
bonus | 0 |
category | melee |
damage | 1d4 |
name | Water-station spanner |
notes | Kept by the door for a stiff valve. She has never swung it at anything and would not be good at it. |
Special Abilities
Knows Every Walkway On Fourteen
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
actionCost | passive |
name | Knows Every Walkway On Fourteen |
description: Thirty years in one hab-block. If the party bring her along as a guide (a party of three, per the module's scaling note) she can route them through Levels 14 to 16 without touching a monitored junction. Player-visible: she names the turnings before the party reach them.
She Filed The Form
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
actionCost | passive |
name | She Filed The Form |
description: Tess did the correct, sanctioned, useless thing and it produced nothing. She will answer every question the party ask and will not go below Level 15 for any inducement, because being afraid is a position she has arrived at honestly. Player-visible: no Persuasion or Intimidation check moves her down a level.