BATTLETECH ADVENTURES

es cap e f r o m
Castle
Wulfensteiner
TM

A BATTLETECH APRIL FOOL’S DAY SPECIAL

 BATTLETECH ADVENTURES

ESCAPE FROM
CASTLE
WULFENSTEINER
TM

Under License From

35APR24
®

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 OFF THE GRID
The Suburbs (Training Site 404)
Rim Worlds Republic Outpost 25
Deep Periphery (Approx. 112 LY from Rypful) their external mikes caught the whistling whoosh overhead.
16 December 2769
Roland Offenbach winced in pain as his Warhammer rocked
beneath a furious onslaught of golden laser fire and warhead
blasts. Alarms cried out for his attention, warning of armor
breaches and his imminent loss of balance as though he couldn’t
feel it for himself in the way the world kept swaying all around
him. Fighting his controls almost as much as he did the churning
of his stomach, he forced both his machine and his body to twist
back against the ruthless assault, to regain their stance before
they lost their tug of war with gravity.
With the muscle memory from countless hours of experience,
Offenbach made his Warhammer lurch a half-step back, placing
its wounded right leg to one side and angled out with enough
force to arrest its awkward stumble. Swiveling the torso toward
the right at the same time, the combined maneuver realigned
the seventy-ton BattleMech’s center of gravity, while keeping its
battery of lasers and particle cannons squarely locked onto the
olive drab, broad-shouldered form of his attacker.
Thin wisps of smoke from the Guillotine’s joints, and the illusion
of rippling air all across its silhouette, told Offenbach what his
thermal sensors already knew; the Terran machine was now
wallowing in its own infernal heat. Knowing exactly what its pilot
was about to do, Offenbach ground his teeth and triggered the
firing studs on both of his joysticks at once, and closed his eyes
as a flood of crimson and azure lights washed across his vision
to the sound of shrieking PPCs competing with humming laser
bolts. Moments later, his own cockpit became an instant sauna,
as a soft, feminine voice stated the patently obvious to him.
“Warning: Heat Level Severe!”
“No scheiße, Lady!” Offenbach hissed back, as he tentatively
peered out his canopy in search of his prey.
Unsurprisingly, all he saw was smoke, dust, and the
pockmarked facades of buildings beyond. Glancing to the left, he
caught the dark blur of something big slamming back down to
earth just behind the rooftop of a four-story residential. Black
smoke spilled upward from that same spot moments later.
Offenbach keyed his microphone even as he threw his ’Mech
into a creeping walk toward the structure. “You almost had
me there, Grossman!” he called out. Releasing his right-hand
controls, his fingers darted over a secondary panel, manipulating
data, pulling up a grid, and tapping at it quickly. A red beacon
flashed in the corner of his vision. “Falling back was a mistake.”
“And let you plug me again?” came a drawling reply as the
smoke behind the apartments moved further off, all but matching
Offenbach’s advance, with some extra distance. “Not today, sir!”
“You need to keep better tabs on your team, Major!” Offenbach
said with a feral grin. “They’re not going to be much help to
you now.”
1
“What do you—?” Grossman began, but froze as both of
“Aw, fe—!”
The blasts rang out in rapid succession, thundering from just
a quarter of a kilometer further north. Clouds of black soot and
orange sands shot up higher than the nearest rooftops, as iron-
gray masonry, shattered glass, and ashen tiles scattered far and
wide. Text scrolled across the secondary monitor to Offenbach’s
left. One hundred, two hundred—no, two hundred and fifty—
points! Very nice!
“Son of a Steiner whore!” Grossman’s voice spat in his ear.
“How the hell did you—”
“Two ’Mechs, down,” Offenbach said as he kept moving closer
to the battered tenement Grossman was still using for cover.
“And one crippled. The arty team really earned their shekels
today.”
“Terries wouldn’t shell their own, sir!” Grossman complained,
his tone finally shedding its incredulity in favor of indignation.
“Wouldn’t we, Major?” Offenbach asked. “Why assume your
enemy fights with bound hands?”
The heat was manageable now; he could feel it in his
Warhammer’s smoother gait. He kept his eyes above the roof
line, watching the billowing smoke from Grossman’s Guillotine
as it continued to match his movements. His targeting brackets
gave their best estimates of the major’s position, but the image
beamed to his HUD left little to the imagination. There, in living
color, he saw the blackened armor, the dangling left arm laser
cannon, and the slight limp that told him all he needed to know.
That last volley he gave the beast really did a number on it.
“But Kerensky,” Grossman went on. “He doesn’t have the
nads—”
“Don’t fool yourself, boy,” Offenbach snapped. “Kerensky isn’t
their whole army, and you aren’t nearly lucky enough to face his
likes at this stage of the game.”
With that, Offenbach thumbed his right trigger, unleashing a
single bolt of manmade lightning into the building between them.
Masonry crumbled and collapsed. Structural members gave way
and windows exploded. A second later, a quarter of the roof gave
out and collapsed inward. Another shot—two at most—and the
whole thing would probably cave in.
The scorecard subtracted 5 points from Offenbach’s tally, but
he barely spared it a glance.
A hundred meters to their south, another series of artillery
missiles crashed down, flattening buildings that had been behind
Offenbach just a minute ago.
“Christ!” Grossman yelped.
“Want to call it, Major?” Offenbach asked, allowing a cruel edge
into his voice. “Please say ‘no.’”
“Feck it!” came the reply. “You asked for this, General!”
The scream of jump jets launched Grossman’s Guillotine into
the sky, carrying it in an arc aimed toward the cracked grounds
behind Offenbach’s Warhammer. The tactic was as sensible, but
obvious, and so Offenbach was already pivoting left to meet
it, while simultaneously throwing his machine into a reverse
walk. Tilting his left PPC up, he let loose another bolt of charged
particles, only to miss the incoming ’Mech by mere centimeters.
It was enough to startle the pilot, however.
Grossman’s trajectory faltered mere moments
before hitting the sandy pavement. His ’Mech
came down hard on one leg—the leg with the
limp. Sparks flew and
plates of armor
popped free
around the
hip and knee.
To his credit
2
Grossman had enough presence of mind to thrust his working
arm forward and stab a few laser bolts into Offenbach’s flank,
but their damage was too little, too late. Seventy tons of Star
League technology crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of
sand and dust in the bargain.
General Roland Offenbach pushed his Warhammer forward
again, stopping just shy of the Guillotine, and floated the muzzle
of his right arm cannon over its peculiar, three-paned cockpit.
“Bang, Major,” he said into the mike. “You’re dead.”
“This is such raxx dung,” Grossman muttered. “I yield, sir!”
Offenbach snorted, but pulled his weapon back. Dialing a new
channel, he allowed his ’Mech to assume a resting stance and
stared blankly out at the barren landscape beyond the smoking
skyline around them. The air all around was hazy with dust, and
bits of sand lightly pelted his Warhammer’s canopy like a scouring
rain, but the visibility wasn’t the worst he’d seen since he’d come
to this rock in the middle of nowhere. In fact, it was almost
tranquil, given the thundering
battle he’d just finished.
“Alpha Wolf to Bunker
Hill,” he called into the
new channel. “Mark
Victory to OpFor and
send stand-down to all
remaining forces. Repeat:
Victory to OpFor. The Terries
won the Suburbs today. Stand down
and send in the wreckers.”
“Bunker Hill to Alpha Wolf,” came the cordial response from
the operations relay. “Victory for OpFor confirmed and logged.
Signaling stand-down now. Congratulations, general. Best of
luck next time, Alpha Shark.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Grossman interjected, his defeatist tone bringing
a small, guilty smile to Offenbach’s face. “Thanks, Bunker.”
Something clicked over the line, and Offenbach blinked as
he watched his communications console register a new signal
request on the secure channel. He keyed the channel open.
“Hill to Alpha Wolf,” the relay officer began, her voice now
lacking the mirth it held just seconds ago. “Just received a priority
for you from the Stone… It’s Omega-Ten.”
Despite the heat still lingering in his cockpit, Offenbach felt
a powerful chill run up his spine. Nothing good came from an
Omega-Ten alert. Ever. Though sweat still ran down his face, his
mouth was bone dry, his jaw locked up for an instant, and he
found himself having to consciously remind his lungs to get back
to work. An overwhelming dread slowly creeped across his mind
as morbid certainty took hold of him.
He knew what was coming. Somehow, he just knew.
“Encrypt a line for me, Hill,” he said, struggling to hold the fear
from his tone. “And patch it through.”
“Sir!” the officer snapped.
As the message came in, General Offenbach’s heart sank.
It was everything he feared…
 BATTLETECH ADVENTURES
ESCAPE FROM
CASTLE
WULFENSTEINER
B
attleTech Adventures: Escape from Castle Wulfensteiner is a special game aid for use with A Time of War: The BattleTech Role-Playing
Game, the A Time of War Companion, and (if you must!) Total Warfare. Designed for experienced players familiar with the setting,
the rules and descriptions in this book presume the players are familiar with the terms and core role-playing systems presented in
A Time of War, as well as the war game rules found in Total Warfare, Tactical Operations, and Strategic Operations. This adventure may run
several sessions, based on the players’ available time and resources.
Game masters should note that only some of the information in this book should be made available to the players, while the rest is
designed for the game master to reveal to the players only as they discover it. Information that will be readily available to the players
will be clearly identified, but should be made available only as the players’ characters actively pursue it. For example, all of the material
covered in the World Guide section will be open to the player characters with little to no research effort.
The general information contained here provides the tools needed for an adventure group to play out the events taking place in the
Deep Periphery beyond Lyran space around 3145-3151. At the peak of the Dark Age, widespread war and societal collapse run rampant
across the Inner Sphere, but for some it’s just business as usual. Interstellar Expeditions, an independent pseudo-corporate organization
beholden to no flag, House, or Clan, has continued in its aimless search for lost artifacts and worlds of humanity’s bygone days. This often
brings them well beyond the boundaries of the Sphere, where the interstellar roads are much less traveled. As this particular adventure
is a special, holiday-themed edition, it ventures well outside the ordinary, and so should game masters feel free to “weird it up” as they
go along.
The World Guide section presents a global view about the setting and the players’ mission at the start of the adventure. Included in
this section is a general overview of the world that will become the main focus of this adventure, as well as key elements of Interstellar
Expeditions’ activities around the year 3145. Additional news and documents pertaining to events current with the initial Track of the
adventure also appear in this chapter. After the first Track, gamemasters will find all further information in the Gamemaster’s Sourcebook.
The Persons of Interest section gives details on some of the key NPCs the players will (or may) interact with during this adventure,
and can be used by GMs who do not wish to create their own NPCs from scratch. This section also includes information on how to work
the players’ group into this adventure—to minimize the chance for spoilers, players should still not read this section.
The Adventure Tracks section presents a means to interact with several pivotal events that occur in this adventure, though they are
not the only ones. Please do not allow the players to read the GM ONLY sections, cover it with a sheet of paper (or the foot of an Atlas)
while the players read their mission brief section.
The Gamemaster’s Sourcebook contains official character sheets for key personalities from the Persons of Interest section, as well
as record sheets and rules useful for running the more unique aspects of this adventure. Remember that it is not the function of this
product to micromanage your adventure; if a situation arises where the rules are in question, it’s up to the gamemaster and players to
work out a resolution suitable for their game table. The goal is to have fun, so don’t let the rules bog you down.

c r e d i ts
Project Development: Herbert A. Beas II STAR LEAGUE SUCCESSION WARS CLAN INVASION
BattleTech Line Developer: Ray Arrastia
Writing: Herbert A. Beas II
Editing: See Above
Production Staff
Cover Design: Ray Arrastia
Layout & Graphic Presentation: David Kerber
Record Sheets: Johannes Heidler
New Artwork: Herbert A. Beas II, David Kerber,
Benjamin Parker, Tan Ho Sim
Factchecking/Playtesting: Etienne C-W, Mike Miller, Eric
Salzman, Chris Wheeler
CIVIL WAR JIHAD DARK AGE ILCLAN
Special Thanks: To the fine folks at id Software and
Apogee Software. Happy 30 years, id!
You know what you started…

3
 WORLD GUIDE
World Guide

twelve planetary bodies. Two of the worlds here are gas giants (sixth
and seventh from the parent star), one is a transient ice giant (twelfth
RWR Outpost 25 from the parent star), and the remaining nine are rocky bodies of
conventional terrestrial size (first through fifth, and eighth through
eleventh from the parent star, though the outer group are more icy
Star: SLSC A8V.24881 than rocky). No major asteroid belts have been found in the system,
Location: Approximately 112 LY coreward but the existence of irregular moons among most of the outer worlds
and anti-spinward of Rypful suggests there may have been some localized debris in the distant
past beyond the typical assortment of cometary bodies and Kuiper
Star Type (Recharge Time): A8V (169 hours)
Belt objects common to a system of this composition.
Position in System: 5 (of 12) Of these bodies, the world that has drawn the majority of our
Time to Jump Point: 25.77 days focus—owing to recently-decoded data found at Dig Site AH-38, on
Number of Satellites: 1 Norfolk in the Coreward Confederacy (see attachment; this Norfolk
Surface Gravity: 0.86 not to be confused with system of same name in Regulan Fiefs)—is
Atm. Pressure: Thin (Toxic) the fifth from its sun, with an orbital distance roughly 3.15-3.25
Equatorial Temperature: 44°C (Desert) standard AU. Transit time to the planet from the local zenith/nadir
Surface Water: 8 percent jump points at 1 G standard thrust takes an average of 25.77 days.
The planet possesses one natural satellite, of irregular shape, orbit,
Recharging Station: None found
and rotation.
HPG Class Type: Unknown
Highest Native Life: Unknown ORBITAL REVIEW
Population (3148): Unknown We entered planetary orbit to begin topographical mapping
Socio-Industrial Levels: Unknown operations on day 31 after our in-system arrival. Prior to this, we spent
Landmasses and Capital City: 1 supercontinent 36 hours charting the orbital patterns of the planet’s natural satellite,
(Capital unknown) in order to establish a safe distance from which to conduct these
surveys. It has been determined that, while technically stable enough
to prevent falling into the planet or flinging itself away any time in
the next century or two, the moon—a small hunk of mostly silicon,
PRELIMINARY SURVEY REPORT carbon, and iron, with a warped, torus-like shape complete with a
The following summarizes our initial survey of system SLSC hole through its volumetric center—follows a complex and erratic
A8V.24881 (tentatively identified as “RWR Outpost 25”). This system path. It is beyond all doubt that this rock was only recently captured
is centered on a white A8 main-sequence star, which is comprised of by the planet’s gravity well, arriving perhaps no more than 500-1,000

4
 years ago. During this period of analysis, we also found no sign of any
World Guide
man-made satellites—active or otherwise—over this world.
Geographically, the planet is extremely water poor. Though
water vapor exists in trace amounts within its atmosphere (which is
primarily comprised of nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and methane), what
liquid water exists on the surface consists of what appear to be two
shallow green seas on the poles, likely the remains of ancient ice caps
long ago melted by greenhouse effects. Spotty lakes and anemic
rivers were sighted here and there about the interior, but given the
widespread desertification across what amounts to a supercontinent
that spans over 90 percent of the planetary surface, we suspect these
to be transient features, at best.
The atmosphere is thin—about half the terrestrial standard—and
its toxic makeup, combined with the global lack of water, makes it not
only unbreathable, but virtually devoid of clouds and precipitative
weather. We have seen numerous dust storms of varying sizes, of
course, and much of the terrain visible from orbit shows heavy signs of
wind erosion. The existence of some form of basic vegetation—most,
naturally, near the wetter polar areas—does suggest the foundations
of a native biosphere have begun, possibly sustained by underground
water sources. It has also been suggested that the plants might be
something that was imported here by human colonists, perhaps in a
vain attempt at terraforming. Whatever the case, there remains very
little in the way of oxygen in the atmosphere, according to our latest
spectroscope readings, so if the vegetation is transforming the air, it
has several eons to go before any actual progress may occur. At this
INTERSTELLAR EXPEDITIONS
IN THE NEWS
Despite Wars, IE Continues Deep Periphery Exploration
11 November 3145
Aur [MercNet] – With open warfare on the rise across
the Inner Sphere over the past eight years, it is easy
to assume that life on the interstellar stage is a
daily struggle for survival, that the disruption of
communications and shipping have left every company
and organization that relies on traffic between planets
crippled. But while the crises that have erupted since
Gray Monday have all but shattered the likes of the
Lyran Commonwealth, the Republic of the Sphere, and
even ComStar, it is still business as usual for some
star-spanning agencies. Nowhere is this more apparent
than within the offices and aboard the jump fleets of
Interstellar Expeditions, whose ships continue to ply
the endless space of the Deep Periphery in search of
lost worlds, secret bases, and forgotten chapters of
human history.
Although IE is technically headquartered and
coordinated from Aur, in the war-torn half of
Commonwealth space surrounded by hostile neighbors,
the actual day-to-day operations of this interstellar
organization—itself claiming no formal allegiance to
any state or Clan power—take place on satellite hubs
throughout the Inner Sphere and the local Periphery.
“We have been an interstellar species for a thousand
years now,” said IE spokesman Donovan McCleary, “and
5
point, we remain unable to determine if native animal life exists here
at all, but the prospects for such are exceedingly small, given the air
and water limitations.
Despite the world’s barren nature, we have observed numerous
sites of apparent human settlements across a broad range of locales.
Thermal and enhanced optical sweeps over these sites, however, have
shown no signs of current human activity or habitation among them.
Given their layout, and the state of decay we can identify among them
from orbit, these “settlements” are the almost certainly abandoned.
Our current belief, in fact, is that they might never have been
inhabited to begin with, and that they are the ruins of mock cities,
likely used for military training purposes and such. It is, after all, most
improbable that the planetary biosphere could ever have supported
even one city—let alone the dozens we’ve noted—without extensive
life support protections and agricultural cultivation that we simply
have not found here.
INITIAL CONCLUSIONS
The multiple ruins on the planetary surface confirm some degree
of past inhabitation, despite the unbreathable atmosphere. This
provides us with confidence that worthwhile discoveries could be
made here, in any event. While the lack of significant vegetation,
visibly arable lands, and other vital resources strongly suggests a
negligible probability of surviving human populations, this is clearly
far from conclusive.
Closer surveillance is recommended.
in that time we have settled far more worlds than
have ever been mapped. There’s not a year that goes
by that one of our ships doesn’t report finding human
beings living on a planet once thought to be devoid
of life.”
The Deep Periphery, in particular—the vast regions
of space beyond the minor realms that encircle the
Inner Sphere in all directions—is rife with many such
lost human civilizations. Whether originating from a
colony ship that flew several jumps off course, or
as an abandoned batch of refugees from House wars
and piracy, or as survivors of some forgotten, local
holocaust, McCleary cites numerous examples from IE’s
centuries-long records where their exploratory groups
have tracked down or stumbled upon unsuspecting groups
of humans eking out an existence on worlds others have
overlooked.
“In a way, these [lost colonies] are like fragments
of history frozen in amber, with people living the
same way they did when they last had contact with the
rest of mankind,” McCleary added. “But we have also
seen others that are more like fragments of histories
that might have been, their cultures and technologies
evolving along new lines based on some social change
that simply never came to be for the rest of us.”
World Guide
Lost Worlds, Hidden Outposts: Amaris Legacy Lingers
7 December 3139
Virtue [Starhunter Monthly] – Jardine, Gabriel, Mayadi,
Mundo Nublar, Camelot Command, Ross 248—these are the lost
and hidden worlds that grabbed the Inner Sphere’s attention
in the past century. Tucked away from prying eyes since
the collapse of the First Star League, their legacies came
to light only in the midst of the Clan Invasion and the
Word of Blake Jihad that eventually followed. Tied to the
ancient SLDF, ComStar, and the Word of Blake, these worlds
were the focus of conspiracies that spanned centuries,
wherein laid the seeds of the upheavals that reshaped our
universe through much of the thirty-first century. But
in today’s ongoing hunt for more dark secrets the Clans
and ComStar may have squirrelled away while the Successor
States did battle, little is said about the worlds and
outposts hidden away by one of the greatest schemers in
all of history:
Stefan Amaris.
By many accounts, the Usurper perpetrated the most
sweeping and sinister operations the Inner Sphere had
ever fallen victim to in his preparations for the coup
that would shatter the First League. From secret bases,
factories, relay stations, and training grounds seeded
across thousands of light years, he raised an empire-
smashing army and navy the likes of which would never be
seen again. Though it all failed, in the end, to cement
an empire in which the Amaris family would rule humankind
forever, the sheer scope of this effort—kept in literal
shadows for decades on end, no less!—cannot be understated.
And yet, in the generations that have come and gone since,
only a fraction of Amaris’s gargantuan infrastructure has
been found with any level of certainty. Part of this, to
be sure, lies in the fact that some of these worlds have
CASE STUDY CLIFFSNOTES: RWR OUTPOST #27/COREWARD CONFEDERACY
(Compiled from Archive Files: 12 October 3141)
From Question Everything (a.k.a. Jihad Conspiracies ), “Starling Files,” ca. 3074
Some of you may recall…that the first few star maps of the Deep Periphery,
coreward of the Sphere, where quickly recalled by the Explorer Corps a mere month or
two after they’d been posted for all to see. “Editorial reasons” were cited, and boy, they
weren’t kidding! When the revised maps came back a month or so later, an entire realm
had disappeared. This vanishing realm had been named simply “RWR Outpost #27.”
Queries to ComStar by parties within and outside their Explorer Corps either went
unanswered or received a pat “we apologize for the error” reply that never explained
what would conjure a vaguely defined area the size of the Circinus Federation and
then—just as quickly—expel it from existence. Until one day, a frustrated acolyte on
Pesht lost his patience with the question and—in what surely must have been the
biggest Career-Limiting Move of his life—exploded in a five-minute rant about Word of
Blake “monkey warfare.”
Commentary [3125.03.12, N.Basingstroke, PhD, DCSPED]:
We know today that Starling’s assessment was a bunch of partial truths, mashed
together with pure conjecture. The site of RWR Outpost #27 was first identified by
ComStar’s Explorer Corps around 3034 and were actually a microstate of some eight
lightly populated worlds originally established as the Autocracy of New Virginia in 2371
by Terran industrialist Jonathon Chaffins II. Reformed after several internal collapses as
the Coreward Confederacy (circa 2850-2860).
Though now little more than a decentralized cluster of six worlds inhabited by
sparse settlements of largely xenophobic peoples, economically and socially regressed
to something resembling the Age of War-era Principality of Rasalhague (minus even
the basic trappings of nobility), historical research found that this realm was a secret
client state of the Rim Worlds Republic, from its discovery by the Republic in the early
6
been located at truly insane distances from the boundaries
of the Inner Sphere, often beyond the veil of large nebulae
or within the ruins of other, older colony worlds. Others
come from the uncertainty of their origins, such as in
the old ComStar Explorer Corps reports about “Trentwash
II,” a world whose inhabitants claimed to be just a humble
Republic colony, set up by Cynthia Amaris more than a
generation before the Usurper’s rise. What confirmed
scraps of data exist suggest that Stefan Amaris had as
many as two hundred such “Outposts” (a term used by the
defunct Explorer Corps and Interstellar Expeditions alike)
set up throughout the Deep Periphery, with some almost as
far from Terra as the Clan Homeworlds. But even today, the
number of these sites found by those who ply such deep
space regions—be they for exploration or trade—stands at
less than twenty.
So, what happened to lion’s share of the Usurper’s
forgotten legacy? Could some be sitting right in front of
our faces, their locations already known by other names,
much like Jardine and Mayadi were? Could they have been
found by pirates, or others with a vested interest in
keeping their locations secret even now? Perhaps, like
the Ruins of Gabriel, they exist as little more than
space stations, orbiting or even lying upon the surfaces
of otherwise uninhabitable moons, dwarf planets, or even
asteroids overlooked as mere space debris. Or could they
be mere phantoms, created as “red herrings” by Amaris and
his Rim Worlds’ AsRoc intelligence agency to make others
believe there were far more hidden bases to find than there
ever were to begin with?
Only time, and the continued exploration of the darker
spaces beyond the worlds we know, will tell.
2700s, until the Rim Worlds’ effective collapse in 2767. Signs of the Republic era, when
the state—then identified as the Virginian Union—served as a secret training region
collectively referred to as “Outpost #27” in top-secret Republic missives, are plentiful
here. Mock cities, set up by the RWR for training and propagandist purposes prior to
the Amaris Coup, can be found rotting away in remote parts of several Confederacy
worlds. Emptied Star League-era warehouses and bunkers, as well as numerous
decrepit JumpShips and DropShips built by Republic-backed shipyards that have since
been stripped and destroyed, all show origins in the late 2700s.
While it is apparent that ComStar and Word of Blake took interest in the
Confederacy, any efforts spent on exploiting these worlds were poorly executed, and any
such efforts ceased by the time the Jihad came to a close. Although persistent rumors
claim that remnant Blakist forces may have sought refuge in the Confederacy’s various
hinterlands, no conclusive proof of ComStar or Word of Blake activities post-3080 could
be found. Furthermore, records of local interviews by IE crews and proxies show a
general ignorance of events past the first Star League’s collapse and the dissolution of
the Rim Worlds, including any recognition of ComStar, Word of Blake, or the Clans. That
this apparent lack of historical knowledge persists even in the wake of the Jihad, the
past meddling of ComStar/WoB, and an unknown number of suspected trading and pirate
visits here, speaks to a society-wide unwillingness to accept news from the universe
outside their worlds. Still, the possibility of unseen influences, deliberately working to
shield the poorly developed Confederacy from foreign disruption, cannot be discounted
out of hand.
Regardless, the Coreward Confederacy may be regarded as a typical example of a
remnant of one conspiracy mistaken for another. House Amaris, not ComStar or Word
of Blake, was the secret-keeper here, and its legacy is but one of many examples to be
found in the Deep Periphery.
 PERSONS OF INTEREST
Persons of Interest
This section is primarily for gamemasters. Its function is to provide
key details on the expected capabilities of the players’ group as well
as the descriptions and nature of the key non-player characters (NPCs)
who they may interact with in the course of this adventure. Players may,
with adequate research or other in-game efforts, learn facts about these
key NPCs if they are resourceful enough to do so. Otherwise, all of the
information in this section should be considered gamemaster-only data.
THE PLAYERS’ GROUP
The players for this adventure should be a small group (4 to 7
characters) of mercenaries. Although they do not need to hail from any
specific affiliation by birth, they should hail from only those factions
which existed within the Inner Sphere as of 3130. At the time of the
Blackout, the players’ mercenary command had just picked up a long-
term contract to serve as security for one of Interstellar Expeditions’
coreward operations missions into the Deep Periphery. Most—if, not,
all—of these characters should possess at least basic infantry skills (i.e.
First Aid, Martial Arts, Melee Weapons, Navigation/Ground, and Small
Arms), but the possibility of ’Mech action and technical dilemmas at
various points in this adventure means that dedicated MechWarriors
and at least one technician will be helpful.
The team begins this adventure as a small security team attached
to the Apogee Muse, a Seeker-class DropShip whose primary vehicle bay
has been modified to carry up to five BattleMechs, two small craft, and
eight heavy vehicles. Owned and operated by Interstellar Expeditions,
Apogee Muse is the home away from home for its crew of twenty and
the thirteen researchers who make up this vessel’s Deep Periphery
exploration team. In addition to these personnel are the players’ force
and any support techs required for the maintenance and repair of all
units in the vehicle bay.
Of the Apogee Muse’s vehicle bay units, one ’Mech, one small craft,
and four vehicles are directly owned by IE, all of which are dedicated to
the research team’s duties. The ’Mech is a Rock Possum ProspectorMech,
the small craft is an LC-100 “AstroLux” shuttle, and the vehicles are two
Magellan Series Fours, a Savior Repair Vehicle, and a Shackleton AESV.
A pair of 30-ton FIGYEL II scientific research satellites are also typically
carried in Apogee Muse’s cargo bay, but this adventure begins with both
of them already deployed in orbit around the fifth planet of the SLSC
A8V.24881 system, which the researchers believe is the site of “RWR
Outpost 25.” Any vehicles belonging or assigned to the mercenary PCs
may occupy the remaining bays.
At the point where this adventure is set—any year between 3145
and 3151—the Apogee Muse has already spent three years of a planned
five-year field tour investigating several archaeological digs within the
coreward Periphery beyond the borders of the Lyran Commonwealth.
The players’ team, as an attached security force, has been hired for
the duration of this mission, and their duties have mostly consisted of
discouraging any local intruders and watching the skies for pirates and
raiders who’ve stubbornly refused to show in all this time.
If creating a new group for this adventure, the following guidelines
are helpful:
Interstellar Expeditions tends to subcontract a lot of the services
and support its researchers and scientists pursue, and gives its field
teams broad discretionary powers to compensate for any extra duties
the help might be able to give. This means it’s possible for players
with extra talents useful for their work—including relevant Protocol,
Language, and Negotiation Skills for local dealings, and Interest or
Career Skills relevant to the study of history and archaeology—to aid in
understanding their findings.
Because security is just as important indoors and aboard ships as it
is among vast ruins and exposed dig sites, the players must also possess
at least some infantry combat skills to go along with whatever their
preferred branch of combat service is.
7
Try to ensure none of the player characters are significantly lower
or higher in the amount of XP that was used to create their fellow PCs.
They should be peers, even if they each have their own specialties.
Furthermore, given the small size of the outfit hired for this expedition—
smaller than a full mixed-force company—military ranks above Captain
should be avoided.
ADJUSTING NPC EXPERIENCE
The non-player characters (NPCs) created for this adventure have
been given capabilities optimized to challenge even a veteran-level
team of characters on otherwise equal footing. If making new player-
characters for this adventure, a starting XP allotment of 8,000 XP is best
recommended to attain the same relative challenge level.
If the player-characters have a higher or lower average amount of
XP among them, add or subtract this difference between the players’
XPs to NPCs to adjust their Skills, Traits and Attributes accordingly, using
a 6:3:1 ratio. For example, if the players’ characters average 9,000 XP
each, their extra 1,000 XP difference would add 600 XPs to the NPCs’
Skills, 300 XPs to the NPCs’ Traits, and 100 XPs to the NPCs’ Attributes.
The GM can elect to divert the XPs allotted for Traits to Attributes if no
suitable Traits are available.
GETTING THEM INVOLVED
This one is straightforward. The players are mercenaries hired to
ensure the safety and success of a single-ship exploration crew. The
hitch has been largely uneventful, pays decently, and is thankfully far
away from the absolute chaos that is raging across the Inner Sphere
right now.
SPECIAL ALTERNATIVE
PLAYER GROUP OPTION: CLAN
The recommended origins, composition, and lead-in for the
players group is, of course, a pretty standard one for characters whose
origins are those of an Inner Sphere-based affiliation. For the players
with more unusual Clan preferences, however, an alternative exists in
which the explorers are affiliated with the Clan-based Scorpion Empire
faction (formerly known as the Escorpión Imperio), instead of Interstellar
Expeditions. In this case, the players become a retinue of Seekers from
Clan Goliath Scorpion, who—after combing through some Exodus-
era documentation that included reference to an encounter with Rim
Worlds holdouts on a world called Gutara V—have learned of a potential
new site of historical significance to the First Star League.
If this alternate origin is used, the following tweaks are needed.
First, the Apogee Muse and her crew must be modified to fit the
narrative better. For the Muse itself, the team will retain the ship and
its contents effectively as-is, reflecting a decision by their superiors to
keep them from drawing too much attention with a more advanced
military vessel. In this case, however, the Rock Possum ProspectorMech
is replaced with a demilitarized Araña (trade its ER Lasers, Advanced
Fire Control, and 5 heat sinks in for a single Backhoe in the right torso
turret mount, and a 3-ton cargo bay in the left torso), while the LC-100
luxury shuttle is replaced by an ST-46C cargo shuttle. The other vehicles
and satellites on board retain the same specs as their originals, but are
assumed to be generic knockoffs produced within Scorpion space. The
Apogee Muse’s crew is staffed by members of the Empire’s labor caste,
and commanded by an aerospace warrior caste washout named Silas,
who replaces his Inner Sphere counterpart, Captain Warner Silas.
The research team in this scenario is assumed to be made primarily
of player-characters who comprise the Seekers and their retinue, but if
the GM feels they need further assistance, the characters Jan Carmack
and/or Thomas Mathies may be introduced as IE individuals who have
been taken as isorla by the Seeker team prior to the events of this
adventure, and now have been put to work aiding their mission.
 WARNER SILAS
Persons of Interest
Rank/Title: Captain, DropShip Apogee Muse
Born: 3103 (42 in 3145)
A veteran spacer, Silas began his career in 3122 as a shipboard marine
and general purpose able body whose duties included aiding the crews
of various DropShips and JumpShips with mundane tasks like cargo
transfer, basic maintenance, and internal security. His duties aboard
the Apogee Muse began soon after the DropShip was purchased from
its previous captain by the recently reorganized Virtue Cartography,
Communications, and Transport company in 3135. Under VCCT’s
colors, Slias served as the Muse’s third-in-command for four years
while the ship ran various cargo and courier missions around the Lyran
Commonwealth’s Buena Province.
Although these operations were mostly routine, in at least one
instance, the ship was attacked by a small gang of hijackers who
mistook the ship for an easy mark during a brief stop on Coldbrook.
During the incident, Silas led a squad of fellow shipmates in a brutal
deck-by-deck firefight that left eight of the would-be pirates dead and
another five badly wounded, including the gang’s leader. Commended
for his bravery by both the ship’s captain and VCCT’s executives, Silas
was put on an accelerated track for promotion, which enabled him to
assume command of the Muse by 3140—just one year before VCCT
was subcontracted by Interstellar Expeditions for some of the latter’s
deeper space operations.
As Apogee Muse’s captain, Silas is a solid, stoic, and pragmatic leader
who rarely raises his voice while on duty, no matter how dire a situation
might seem. He takes the safety of all of his ship’s crew—many of whom
he’s served alongside for nearly ten years—and its passengers quite
seriously, and is loathe to blindly put his faith in others to look after them.
He is also not afraid to get his hands dirty to get a job done, whether
it means getting personally involved with shipboard maintenance
and cargo transfers, or picking up his trusty Shredder needle rifle and
strapping on a vibroblade to fight off intruders. Because of these traits,
Silas tends to take an active interest in any security matters, even if those
include forces subcontracted by his employers and/or his passengers.
JAN CARMACK
Rank/Title: Doctor/Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology,
IE Senior Mission Director
Born: 3099 (46 in 3145)
Born and raised on Bucklands in the Lyran Commonwealth, Jan
Carmack came by his fascination with the Rim Worlds Republic quite
naturally. Settled originally by the Republic as part of its Finmark Province,
Bucklands became one of the first battle sites between the original
Star League Defense Force and the armies of House Amaris during the
Reunification War, and at least one of Carmack’s ancestors served with
the Second Amaris Fusiliers in that seven-month battle against the newly
forged SLDF’s VII Corps.
Intrigued by the history of the Rim Worlds and its complex history
with the Star League on both an academic and personal level, Carmack
first began to study history and anthropology at the locally based
Bucklands University of Trenton before eventually transferring to
Tharkad University for his archaeology degree. Eventually journeying to
Terra in 3128, Dr. Carmack joined in an archaeological team studying the
ruins of the Castle Brian in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, where the
Second Fusiliers his ancestor once served fought its last battle against
Kerensky’s SLDF. It was during this time that Carmack’s work caught
the attention of Interstellar Expeditions, who recruited the professor
for a planned series of missions focused on the long-fallen Rim Worlds
Republic. Carmack formally joined IE in 3131, a year before the Sphere-
wide Blackout.
8
As a scientist and historian, Jan Carmack prides himself on his
objectivity, although anyone who listens to him might suspect
otherwise, especially when it comes to the Rim Worlds Republic. Having
long focused his studies on the fallen Periphery superstate—especially
through the era of the First Star League—Carmack is known to defend
and condemn the actions of House Amaris in equal measure. While he
is far from an apologist—emphatically agreeing that Stefan Amaris was
a monster and a traitor to all of mankind—his typical response to those
who criticize the Rim Worlds is to note the ways in which they were no
worse than any of their contemporaries, or to remind them that the
Republic’s defeat hardly improved the Inner Sphere, given how history
turned out ever since.
THOMAS MATHIES
Rank/Title: Doctor/Professor of History and Literature,
IE Senior Assistant Mission Director
Born: 3111 (34 in 3145)
Thomas Mathies earned his doctorate in First Star League History
from the New Chekswa University of Donegal in 3138, with an eye toward
teaching future generations of starry-eyed youths on his homeworld
of Gallery. But between rising tensions along the Commonwealth’s
borders, the recent mass-migration of Clan Wolf, and the fighting in and
around the Republic of the Sphere in the aftermath of the 3132 Blackout,
Mathies decided to remain on Donegal, believing in the security of
living well inside the heart of Lyran space. When the Wolves turned
on the Commonwealth just two years later, Mathies—then employed
as a teaching assistant for the University of Washington—decided to
relocate to the more distant Buena Province world of Novara.
It was on Novara that Mathies was approached by an Interstellar
Expeditions “talent scout” who had been impressed by a few of the
young professor’s academic papers on the nature of interstate politics
between the Lyran, Periphery, and Terran realms during the latter days
of the First Star League. Offering tenure with the organization’s Anti-
Spinward Near Periphery research division on Timbuktu, IE managed
to convince him to relocate once again in 3142. Less than a year later,
Mathies was offered an assignment with Dr. Carmack’s expedition into
the coreward Periphery, to hunt down forgotten remnants of the once-
great Rim Worlds Republic.
Carmack personally requested Mathies after reviewing many of the
historian’s IE-published articles on Timbuktu’s place as a provincial
capital of the fallen Republic. Sensing a kindred spirit in the nostalgic
way Mathies discussed what he called “Timbuktu’s Golden Age,”
Carmack found an eager protégé in the junior professor, and the two
formed a fast friendship in the years since. To some junior members of
the expedition, however, Mathies’ enthusiasm for the current mission is
little more than the desperate loyalty of a sycophant or fanboy toward
Carmack, and that the senior mission director chose Mathies for their
expedition to serve as his own personal echo chamber.
 ADVENTURE TRACKS
Adventure Tracks
WELCOME, TRAVELERS!
MISSION BRIEFING
It’s been a quiet gig so far—a damned sight quieter than what’s going
on in the rest of the Inner Sphere, in fact. Though countless holovids,
adventure novels, and House propagandists would have folks believe
otherwise, the Periphery is just not as rife with piracy and poverty as
they say. You signed up for a five-year hitch playing bodyguard to a
bunch of IE eggheads and their DropShip, Apogee Muse, but in the three
years gone by so far, it feels like you’ve barely had to deal with anything
worse than breaking up an odd barroom brawl here and there.
Of course, the fact that most of the mission sites you’ve been to have
been derelict ruins, long abandoned by pretty much everyone in the
universe, might have something to do with all this lack of fighting. But
again, given the hell going on in and around the distant Republic of the
Sphere, who are you to complain?
Doctor Carmack, the head of this particular expedition into
the depths of the Periphery between the Sphere and the old Clan
Homeworlds, has seemed a bit more excited than usual lately. It’s easy
enough to guess why, you suppose; according to their charts and data
and whatnot, he and his research team are all pretty positive that this
new system you jumped into—SLSC A8V.24881—might just be the
place he’s been looking for. Supposedly the home to another of the old
Usurper’s secret pre-Coup outposts, Carmack and his group assure you
that you’re on the cusp of witnessing history in the making.
That’s what he said a month ago, anyway, before the battery of
sensor sweeps, telescopic searches, and calculations that sought out
which of the rocks here such an outpost might have been set up on,
only to settle on one that looks like a giant desert wasteland. The air
down there—such as it is—is a toxic mix of nitrogen, methane, and
carbon dioxide, and there’s barely any water to speak of on the whole
miserable speck. Nobody could possibly live down there without some
serious life support.
And yet—to your surprise if no one else’s—the ’scopes spotted not
one but several city-sized ruins on the surface below. If Carmack was
excited before, he was practically giddy with anticipation now.
But the real whopper came only a day or so after you and yours
helped the ship’s crew deploy those two probe sats they found those
ruins with. You weren’t on the bridge when it happened—Captain
Silas was already getting annoyed by how much time the docs were
spending there since the Muse slipped into orbit—but Carmack’s call
9
for an impromptu meeting in one of the ship’s meeting rooms came
just minutes later. And it came with a scratchy voice from that ghost
of a planet below:
“Hail, unidentified vessel! You have entered Star League imperial
airspace without a recognized flight plan! Please declare yourselves
and your intentions at once. Repeat. Hail, unidentified vessel…”
Whoever the speaker is, his accent sounded at once Germanic and
outdated, like a Lyran character in a historical drama vid. The nearest
Commonwealth planet may be eight jumps from here, but refugees
fleeing into the deep from the old Succession Wars aren’t exactly a new
thing, either.
Carmack went on to say that he managed to convince the caller
that the Muse is on a peaceful mission without telling him that the Star
League is ancient history now. Better still, he said, after a little more
back and forth, he even managed to secure an invitation to go down
there and visit the locals in person. It could be the biggest discovery
of his career. But he’s also not the fool some eggheads tend to be.
Naturally, he’s expecting the hired guns to come along.
ASSETS
The players’ team is the security force attached to an Interstellar
Expeditions mission in the Deep Periphery. Their equipment is stowed
with them on the DropShip Apogee Muse.
In addition to the players’ team, the Apogee Muse carries a 20-man
crew led by veteran captain Warner Silas, as well as a 13-man scientific
research team led by Senior IE Mission Director Jan Carmack.
The Apogee Muse is a Seeker-class cargo DropShip that has had its
transport bays reconfigured to accommodate up to 5 ’Mechs, 2 small
aerospace craft, and 8 heavy vehicles, as well as up to 1,680 tons of
bulk cargo (split across two large bays above the vehicle/’Mech bay).
The Muse’s other vital stats (weapons, armor, engines, and so forth)
are those of the classic, pre-3054 model. Because the DropShip is built
for cargo duties rather than military action, and does not maintain
the dedicated personnel that might be found on a full-time vehicle
transport, it lacks the facilities to drop ground units while in flight, and
its small craft bays take three times as long to launch and recover units
than a military craft can.
In addition to any vehicular units the players’ team possesses,
Apogee Muse’s bays contain a single Rock Possum WorkMech, an LC-100
“AstroLux” passenger shuttle, and four ground vehicles: two Magellan
Series Fours, a Savior Repair Vehicle, and a Shackleton AESV. Two

Adventure Tracks
30-ton FIGYEL II scientific research satellites are also typically carried
in Apogee Muse’s cargo bay, but both have already been deployed in
orbit around the planet below. One of the IE research team is qualified
to operate the WorkMech, and two are qualified to fly the AstroLux. All
of the researchers are competent enough drivers to man the vehicles,
if need be. (Stats for most of these vehicles are found in Vehicle Annex.
The Astrolux StarYacht is featured in Handbook: House Steiner. The Rock
Possum ProspectorMech is found in Handbook: Major Periphery States.
If these sources are unavailable, the author recommends the fan-run
BattleTech wiki at Sarna.net might have enough information to go by.)
Finally, as the exploration of dead worlds, moons, and even the
wrecks of drifting spacecraft are common enough in IE expeditions,
the Apogee Muse carries enough Light Environment Suits to provide
each of its passengers and crew (including those of the players’ team)
three times over. Another ten space suits—typically reserved for extra-
vehicular repairs in vacuum—are also available on top of these. (See
AToW, p. 296, for environment and space suit stats.)
OPPOSITION
A welcoming voice from the mysterious ruins of a dead world that
may have once been part of the vast conspiracy that destroyed the
Star League close to 400 years ago? Surely, there’s nothing to worry
about here!
TACTICAL ANALYSIS
The Apogee Muse is being asked to land on “Drop Pad Alpha” at a
large complex of structures that stands near the southern edge of a
vast, wind-carved plateau. The central base stretches from west to east,
in what looks like a series of windowless bunkers and radar towers,
connected to each other by a network of armored surface tunnels.
Two large, circular DropShip landing pads are visible near each end of
this interlocking set of buildings, which suggest that the bunkers at
10
the far east and west ends serve as a kind of receiving area for vehicles
and personnel. A large, concave dish—very likely an HPG transmitter/
receiver—dominates the rooftop of the eastern side of the central
building, but looks visibly damaged and points off to the northeast and
downward, rather than toward the heavens above.
A trio of kilometer-long runways converge into a broad, pentagonal
tarmac just north of the complex, with a number of free-standing
structures that look like warehouses (and/or hangars) and silos (likely
built for fuel storage) standing between this tarmac and the central
complex. The central runway is twice as broad as the other two,
suggesting it serves as a landing strip for larger craft and DropShips.
Another group of warehouse-like structures and smaller buildings lie to
the south, between the complex and the plateau’s steep, kilometers-
high edge. The purpose for the smaller, outlying buildings are less clear;
they could be guard towers or other support buildings, but they lack
much in the way of distinctive markings.
Mounds of gray, red, and black sands are clearly visible along
and about most of the standing structures, and all of the ferrocrete
landing pads and runways are half covered by twisting piles of the
stuff that practically merge into the surrounding desolate terrain. All
of the standing buildings show obvious signs of heavy weathering
and cracking facades, while piles of rubble lay strewn about between
buildings here and there. Between this bleak appearance of neglect and
decay, and the lack of exterior lighting anywhere about this complex,
the base looks like little more than an abandoned ruin. Sensors picked
up two other spheroid DropShips seemingly parked on one of the other
drop pads, but both were quickly revealed to be little more than husks
of broken metal, their ancient, unmarked hulls split open and left to
erode in the scouring sandstorms that clearly frequent this area.
Amid all of this, neither your eyes nor your DropShip’s sensors have
spotted anything that looks like weaponry jutting from the complex
or its surrounding grounds. Neither have any new radar signals nor
targeting lasers been detected lighting you up. In fact, aside from the
signals you received from orbit, which included constant telemetry data
to guide the Muse in, there are no signs of life coming from this place at
all—let alone that you are being tracked by hostile firepower.
As the clouds of scorched and scattered sand dissipate with the
smoke from the Muse’s landing exhaust, a set of dull yellow lights flicker
to life at one side of the nearby, iron-gray building you’ve taken to be a
receiving area. In the gradually approaching dusk, the lights illuminate
a series of metal doors, each one about three meters high and just as
wide—all pitted and pockmarked by untold years of wear.
Looks like someone’s rolling out the welcome mat for you.
OBJECTIVES
1. Suit Up. The air on this planet is dry, thin, and completely
unbreathable. Environment suits may not be the most comfortable,
especially since the planet’s average temperatures rival those of
Terra’s infamous Death Valley, but do you really see many other
options? Some sidearms might not be a bad idea either; no telling
who is on the other side of those doors, after all.
2. Gather the Team. Docs Carmack and Mathies are practically foaming
at the mouth to meet the locals, and have invited a couple of the
other researchers to come along, as well as Captain Silas. The
DropShip will be buttoned up air-tight once you guys are out there,
but they’ll leave a ramp out in case things go south and you have to
leave in a hurry. So how many of you hired guns are coming?
3. Should We Knock? They welcomed you down. They know you are
here. And you’re ready to meet them. How should we play this?
MISSION SUCCESS CONDITIONS
According to Dr. Carmack, a good first-contact mission is one that
doesn’t end in bloodshed for either side. Failing that, keeping the whole
team alive is pretty much your whole paycheck.
 <<<GM ONLY>>>
Adventure Tracks
ENEMIES
The complex the players are seeing is the tip of an underground
iceberg built in the fashion of a Castle Brian. While it seems dark,
deserted, and ruined, with crumbling walls and a smashed HPG dish, the
evidence of activity is impossible to ignore once someone from below
beamed a welcome message to the Apogee Muse and subsequently
guided the DropShip to one of its outer landing pads.
The lack of windows in virtually all of the ground structures, combined
with their uniformly gray bunker-style design and the complete absence
of markings and signage—all consequences of the harsh planetary
environment—make it difficult to determine the function of most
structures without obvious telltales like giant bay doors, huge pumps,
antennae, and such. The fact that no exterior lights can be seen until
those inside turn them on specifically for their guests only adds to this
eerie presentation.
In truth, of course, much of the complex is functional and fully staffed,
albeit in a state of severe and obvious decay. For a fuller description
of the complex, consult the Stone Wolf Complex (Castle Wulfensteiner)
section of the Gamemaster’s Sourcebook portion of this book. The
level of opposition the players encounter in this Track is based on their
approach to making first contact.
THE FRIENDLY APPROACH
If the players and their entourage come to meet the outpost
residents, they will not be attacked, and indeed the base doors will
open automatically once they reach them, revealing that the lighted
doors lead into an airlock bay large enough to accommodate a platoon’s
worth of personnel. Once inside, the chamber will take 30 seconds to
pressurize, before the players finally meet their welcoming committee: a
group of three officers and four guards—all wearing slightly varied, but
otherwise recognizable, olive drab SLDF uniforms. The officers’ outfits
will seem a bit threadbare, but otherwise clean and well-kept, with
sharp creases, polished boots, and gleaming insignia. All three officers
also wear red-and-blue sashes that are prominently adorned with the
shark insignia of the Rim Worlds Republic near the shoulder, and each
carries a non-descript pistol holstered at their belt. The guards lack
sashes and are, in fact, wearing dark flak jackets over their SLDF fatigues,
adorned with less prominent shoulder patches bearing an insignia that
sets a small Republic Shark over the SLDF Cameron Star. The guards are
touting slug-thrower rifles that have clearly seen better days, and hold
these weapons at a low-ready position, their fingers off the triggers (and
they will keep them there as long as nobody from the Muse makes a
provocative action.)
Introducing himself as Major Ephram Offenbach, the lead officer
will welcome to the visitors to Stone Wolf Complex on behalf of “Major
General Wilhelm Strassborg von Wulfen, Governor of Miklagard.” He will
then offer to lead the party to his commander—taking a flat-topped
people-mover parked nearby down the long tunnelway into the central
complex. Along the way, Offenbach will make small talk and even
answer some basic questions. The answers he gives will be compliant
with the “Party Line” by which the people of this world live. (See The
Holdouts, in the GM’s section, for more information on what this “Party
Line” entails.)
TRIGGERING THE DEFENSES
Should the players’ group or the DropShip Apogee Muse attempt to
do anything the complex’s inhabitants do not like—such as attempting
to lift off again, firing weapons into the outpost buildings, or attempting
to storm the place with military vehicles and/or BattleMechs—there
are four clusters of innocuous-looking bunkers around the site which
11
actually house hidden capital-grade weapons. These weapon clusters
will specifically target the Apogee Muse first and foremost, beginning
with a barrage of no less than 4 Killer Whale-class capital missiles, fired
artillery-style toward the ship’s flank in an effort to quickly breach its
hull. If the Muse manages to get off the ground, a total of 8 NL35 capital
lasers will fire at the ship for as long as it remains active and within
range. Once the DropShip is destroyed, the capital weapons bunkers
will fall silent and close up the armored baffles that originally concealed
them, effectively buttoning up the facility.
Should the Muse be destroyed at this point, any survivors of the
DropShip, its crew, or its passengers will be handled by the ground
forces kept within the complex. In such an event, skip ahead to Track 4:
You Have GOT to be Kidding!
LOCAL CONDITIONS
The planetary environment is scorching hot, with an unbreathable
atmosphere, so environment suits will be a must, even if the people
from Apogee Muse opt to take one of the on-board vehicles to the
lighted receiving area. If the team decides to meet with the locals in
good faith, they may thus choose to either walk the 200-meter distance
between the DropShip and the receiving area doors, or traverse the
distance in one of the IE-owned Magellan vehicles (which are designed
for a crew of 3, but also feature a 5-ton infantry bay and a 10-ton bulk
cargo bay, in case more opt to come along than the cab and infantry
bay can handle together). In either case, the doors of the receiving area
airlock are simply not wide enough to accommodate vehicles.
Inside the airlock, the party will find that they are at the end of a long,
ferrocrete tunnel that leads further into the facility, where the air smells
a bit stale and dusty, but is otherwise comfortable.
If needed, additional details of the planetary environment and
the features of the Castle Wulfensteiner complex may be found in the
Gamemaster’s Sourcebook.
OBJECTIVES
If all goes smoothly with the welcoming committee, the players
should feel like they are truly being escorted to a meeting with the
base commander by an officer who appears friendly, but ignorant of
the reality beyond his world. Offenbach will even react with incredulity
if anyone tries to school him on Inner Sphere history, especially if the
Clans, ComStar, Word of Blake, the Second Star League, or the Republic
of the Sphere are brought up—all entities he never heard of before and
which he claims to find rather implausible. If insults toward Amaris or
tales of Rim Worlds atrocities in the Coup are brought up, Offenbach will
become more visibly upset, taking offense at the party’s insinuations,
and calling them out for being rude. Eager to keep things peaceful
and to learn the truth of this place without provoking the natives, Dr.
Carmack will interject quickly to smooth things over, going so far as
to agree with Offenbach and apologizing on the players’ behalf—and
taking anyone aside he can to explain that “we won’t learn anything if
you piss off the locals!”
If hostilities erupt—either before/without making first contact at all,
or after meeting with Offenbach’s escort team—the players’ goals will
quickly become one of survival and escape.
DIFFICULTY
In the event of a peaceful contact, the players may not even realize
anything is wrong for a while. Taking the people-mover vehicle—essen-
tially a flatbed truck modified for interior use—they and Offenbach’s
group will eventually reach an area within the central base that contains
a large elevator platform. This lift is large enough to carry a BattleMech
 <<<GM ONLY>>>
Adventure Tracks
or two vehicles packed side by side, and descends into the complex,
passing through one ’Mech-scale floor that looks like a colossal, dimly-
lit, and virtually uninhabited parking garage, before coming to a stop at
a second floor of the same kind one level further down. A few ancient
’Mechs and tanks are visible in some of the nearer bays, but Offenbach
will lead the players instead to a smaller personnel door where a pair
of smaller elevators—each designed to move up to two dozen human-
sized occupants at a time—await.
12
These personnel elevators will travel two more levels deeper into the
complex before stopping with a flashing yellow alarm. There, the doors
open to reveal a half-dozen security guards, dressed and equipped
just like those in Offenbach’s detachment. Offenbach will assure the
players—and the guards—that there is no trouble here, and will speak
to the guard who seems to be in charge, who keeps looking very
curiously and cautiously at all the newcomers. Offenbach will explain
to the visitors that this is the base’s prime security level, and that further
progress must be authorized before they can meet with the major
general below. Players who are perceptive enough (make an average
Perception Skill check) will see the guard captain slide a rather grimy
and bulky-looking key card into a nearby console, before nodding to
Major Offenbach. The yellow alarm lights inside the elevators will then
shut off, and after thanking the guards, Offenbach will hit the elevator
controls for the next floor down.
It is during these elevator trips that all contact will be lost with the
Apogee Muse, as an ECM bubble envelops the grounded DropShip. Only
characters actively trying to communicate with the ship or attempting
to use the ship’s onboard communications systems, will notice the
effect. Offenbach will shrug and inform any players with him that bring
it up that there’s nothing to be alarmed about; the shielding within the
Castle walls and structure tends to kill signals to the outside once one
is further enough underground. For those aboard the Muse, however,
this is a prelude to a marine attack aimed at seizing the ship intact. If the
Muse attempts to depart or opens fire, it will be attacked by the base
defenses as described above under Triggering the Defenses.
AFTERMATH
Inside the Castle complex, the players will eventually be escorted to a
conference room that looks a bit dingy, but otherwise impressive enough
for a platoon of officers to plot a battle from. The room has three doors
at the far end, but only one from the direction Offenbach and his guests
enter. A large, metallic table dominates the center of the chamber, and
is surrounded by roughly 25 office chairs that are comfortable enough,
but have clearly seen better days. A pair of flagpoles stand at the far end
of the room, flanking another trio of officers, between the doorways.
One appears to carry a Star League banner. The other bears up the flag
of the Rim Worlds Republic.
Between the flags, and flanked by two more armed guards doing
their best statue impressions, stands a pale-skinned man, who appears
to be in his late 50s with gray hair peeking out from under the brim
of his dress cap. Like Offenbach, he also wears an old, but well-kept,
SLDF dress uniform, but his sash is solid red where Offenbach and his
fellows are wearing red-and-blue sashes. The blue shark insignia of the
Rim Worlds is clear upon the shoulder of this sash, and the two 8-point
stars on blue circles adorning the right side of his collar identify him as a
Major General in the SLDF.
“Welcome to Castle Stone Wolf, off-worlders,” he says through the
hint of a Lyran accent. “I am Major General Wilhelm Strassborg von
Wulfen, commander of this facility and governor of this world. I am so
pleased you could join us in our little corner of the Empire.”
Dr. Carmack, eagerly stepping forward, begins to introduce himself,
when the major general suddenly raises a black-gloved hand to stop him.
“Before we begin, my friends, I have but one request…”
As one, all of the base guards in the room raise their rifles toward
the players’ group, as the officers quickly step back behind them. The
three doors behind von Wulfen burst open, allowing six more guards to
enter, while two more suddenly emerge from the open doorway behind
the players’ group. Before the players’ team and their charges can react,
eighteen armed and armored guards now stand around them, all tensed
and ready to fire.
“…drop all your weapons and surrender,” von Wulfen continues, “or
die where you stand.”
 GET PSYCHED!
Adventure Tracks
MISSION BRIEFING
To say this is a surprise turn of events would probably be lying. This
place is, after all, full of Rim Worlders who think they somehow won
their war against the Star League, and are just living on a secret military
colony. (And no matter how many times it’s brought up among your
group, it still feels ridiculous.)
Dr. Carmack and his assistant have been mixing a liberal dose of
excuses and half-baked explanations for why this whole situation is
“nothing to worry about” with their apologies for basically leading you
into this von Wulfen’s trap.
None of that has been ter-
ribly reassuring, of course.
After you were disarmed by
these thugs from a bygone
era, you were shepherded
into another of their cargo
elevators at gunpoint, and
descended who-knows-
how-far into the bowels of
this dank and run-down
complex. When at last the
doors opened at your des-
tination, you were hardly
surprised to find yourself
in a prison block. With all
the courtesy one might
expect from people whose
entire job description likely
amounts to “shoot the
problem until it’s gone,”
you are led down a hallway
filled with dusty, uninhab-
ited, half-lit, jail cells. Each
compartment looks like a
marriage between cracked,
dull gray, ferrocrete surfac-
es and steel cages that still
looks formidable despite
their outer crusts of rusty
and flaking black paint. The
smaller cells feature a cou-
ple fold-down platforms
clearly intended to be used
as cots or benches, with a
single, stainless steel, com-
bination toilet and sink set
into one of their back cor-
ners. The larger ones look
about the same, but with more built-in bench cots, and a whopping two
toilets apiece—one each set into the back corners.
Before you are segregated by sex and locked into the adjoining cells
that might well be your home for the foreseeable future, you discover
that this brig is not as empty as you first thought. Just across from you—
behind a cage door just a few steps farther down the line—stands a
single, grimy, disheveled-looking man, clad in blue coveralls riddled
with unidentifiable dark stains. Staring at you all with wide, brown eyes,
he begins to speak in a rough voice.
“What’ve we got here, Bart?” he asks one of your escorts. “New
neighbors, just for me?”
“Yeah, Trogbait,” says “Bart” the guard with a cocky sneer. “Say hi to
the new off-worlders.”
“Ooo!” the other prisoner says, a crooked smirk appearing from
behind his thick, scruffy beard. “Off-worlders, you say? Been an age since
we’ve seen any of those, hasn’t it?”
13
“Settle down, Scraper,” one of the other guards snaps. “You don’t
want another visit from Katze today.”
“Touchy, touchy, Grossman! Just asking some harmless questions,
is all.”
As the guards seal your cells, locking them tight, the guard called
“Grossman” bangs the other prisoner’s bars with a swift rap from his
gloved arm. The man inside the cage steps back, hands raised, and the
two share an intense glare at each other before Grossman and his fellow
troopers march off.
Their footsteps have barely receded halfway down the prison all
when the other inmate appears at his cell door again, looks your way,
and favors you with a friendly nod.
“Welcome to Castle Wulfensteiner,” he says. “Name’s Jackson. Bill
Jackson.”
ASSETS
It’s just you, everyone you came into the place with, and the clothes
on your backs. Von Wulfen’s goons took everything but your dignity
before you even left that conference room, and it’s hard to gauge just
how many floors up that was.
Maybe this Bill Jackson fellow can be of help, even if it does look like
he’s been down here for years.
OPPOSITION
From what you’ve seen of this place, you have an ancient fortress
that smells of neglect, that’s filled with an army of Amaris-lovers, and
surrounded by a planet of sand and poison. More immediately, this
dungeon you’ve been thrown in is covered by maybe a platoon’s worth
of armed guards and who knows what else?
TACTICAL ANALYSIS
You’re in a prison area deep underground, in some complex the
locals call “Castle Wulfensteiner.” A Castle Brian, to be more precise,
perhaps? At any rate, your options pretty much boil down to escaping,
trying to make a deal, or dying. And given that you have very little to
barter with, only two of those options seem viable at this stage.
OBJECTIVES
1. Get the Scoop. Before doing anything, perhaps getting the lay of the
land here might help you understand the full scope of what you’re
up against. Surely, this ancient complex, with its crumbling walls,
leaky pipes, and isolation on a poisonous desert world, must have
some weaknesses!
2. Breakout! Naturally, the biggest priority of the prisoner is escape.
You should also liberate everyone from the ship too; you’ll need
them to get out of here. The researchers should come along as well;
your job was to protect them, after all.
3. Escape! This place might be a maze, but once you’re out—and,
hopefully, get your hands on some weapons—it’ll be one you must
fight your way through to get back to your ship.
MISSION SUCCESS CONDITIONS
Completing Objectives 2 and 3, without losing more than 50
percent of the player-characters, will be counted as a mission success.
Completing all Objectives without losing more than 50 percent of the
player-characters and their combined charges (counting the crew of the
Apogee Muse and the researchers) will be counted as a huge success.
Everything beyond that is gravy.
 <<<GM ONLY>>>
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ENEMIES
It is fair to assume that the main Stone Wolf Castle complex was
meant to act as a home base for a Rim Worlds Army division, and thus
was designed to support the daily needs of some 4,000 to 6,000 men
and women. Close to four centuries of survival and a limited population
growth of half a percent would make that closer to 40,000 people, which
would put this place close to bursting, though the number could—at
least theoretically—be even higher if they expanded somewhere.
These, at least, will be the numbers best estimated by the likes of Drs.
Carmack and Mathies, who would both concur that the planet’s sheer
lack of habitability would force these guys to keep their numbers low.
The good news, Mathies would add, is that only a fraction of that
population—maybe as little as half—could possibly be of fighting trim
at this moment! So, that makes only 20,000 enemies to worry about!
In fact, the two researchers will have actually underestimated the
locals’ ability to survive and thrive in their environment, but this will
prove irrelevant where the players’ group is concerned. On this particular
floor—the detention zone—the number of enemies present averages
at roughly 30 to 50 guards at any given time, most of whom are bored
enough out of their skulls that making idle small talk with the prisoners
isn’t out of the question.
But the real terror of this level is Sergeant Augustus Katze, a massive
soldier whose freakish frame looks like someone who grew a second
full set of muscles over the first. His inhuman appearance and strength,
Jackson will freely say (but only when the man is out of earshot), is “just
another mutation of the kind his people are known for.” Katze rarely
speaks except to bark barely-coherent orders to the guards when they
seem to be getting too chatty with the inmates. He has an explosive
temper, but it only triggers when he is wounded badly enough to shed
blood. Katze’s character stats can be found in the GM’s section towards
the end of this product.
If pressed about Katze’s “people,” Jackson will say they were off-
worlders who came to Miklagard before he was born, that they have
some strange religion that reveres fighting and death, and that they
seem to like telling each other fancy stories of wars and warriors nobody
else ever heard of. Oh, and they seem to like cats, hence the “Katze”
name; most of their kind use it. They never adjusted well to life in the
Castle, so it’s rare to see any of them outside the mines.
After their first day in the cells—during which they receive “meals”
of stale bread, unidentifiable meat (which, of course, tastes nothing
like chicken), and a sicky-looking vegetable paste—the players will
start receiving visits from Major Offenbach, his original “welcoming
committee” of 2 Officers and 4 Guards, and a single Soldier NPC. Each
visit occurs 2D6 hours after the last, and during these visits, Offenbach
will seem pleasant if not rather banal, making meaningless small
talk before selecting a member of the off-world group seemingly at
random. The lucky individual will then be taken away at gunpoint,
and usually returned with the next visit. If any player-characters are
taken (or more likely, “volunteer” to be taken through attempting
to intervene in these visits), they will find themselves chained and
subjected to interrogation at Offenbach’s hands in another part of
the detention level. Offenbach wants to determine who they work
for, where they come from, where their JumpShip is, and whether or
not anyone else might know where they are. Any attempts to insult
or fight with the interrogators, or to tell them something that doesn’t
mesh with their “party line” view of history, will result in 1D6 melee
attacks by one of Offenbach’s goons.
Within the first five of his visits, Offenbach will select Drs. Carmack,
Mathies, and—if he came along for the initial meeting—Captain Silas.
Of these three men, only Dr. Mathies will be returned, having been
clearly roughed up. If asked, Offenbach will freely admit that Silas has
been executed, and while he will claim Carmack is also dead, the doctor
has merely been taken elsewhere in the facility.
14
LOCAL CONDITIONS
This level of Castle Wulfensteiner—the lowest level of the actual base
proper—is comprised of no less than four wings of prison cells, along
with a guard station and two special, soundproofed interrogation cells
for each wing. A master guard station faces the single elevator entrance
the players arrived at. Some cells will actually be occupied by other
unfortunate denizens of the Castle who have fallen afoul of the reigning
leadership and are now serving anywhere from a few months to a few
decades for their crimes. Some even look close to death and the players
may even find a few who have died and simply haven’t been noticed yet.
Each wing of this level is manned by 2D6 generic Guard NPCs, plus an
additional 1D6 Technician NPCs attending their attached guard stations.
Katze roves about each wing at random parts of the day, and resides in
the master guard station with 2D6 Soldier NPCs otherwise. For combat
purposes, character stats for Katze, and basic stats for all generic NPC
types may be found in the GM’s sourcebook.
Numerous security cameras are visible hanging from ceiling corners
in every wing of the prison level, but only half are operational. Each guard
station has an alarm that, when activated, will sound sirens, send an
alert to the base’s central security level, and close drop-down gates that
seal off their attached wing from the rest (the guard stations themselves
are positioned so that they will be outside the closed section as well).
The master guard room has an alarm that functions about the same, but
can not only lock out any/all of the prison wings, but also shuts down
the elevator and sends the entire facility into lockdown mode.
Only the Soldier NPCs and Katze carry keys that can unlock the cell
doors and bypass the lockout gates for each wing. Only Katze carries the
key that will unlock the elevator during a floor-wide lockdown.
OBJECTIVES
However the players proceed to escape their cells, an alarm will
inevitably sound once they have done so and a witnessing Guard,
Soldier, or Katze radios the alert to his station. The players will need only
one set of keys to handle all the prison cells and override their wing’s
lockout gate, or they will need to pick the locks, which will require an
appropriate Skill Check (Security Systems, Tech/Mechanics, whatever)
and relevant tools against a Very Difficult roll modifier. (Shooting the
locks works too, but they’ll only break if the shot delivers 4+ points of
damage in a single hit.)
As soon as the first alarm is sounded, the master guard station
will detail half its Soldier NPCs to the wing the alert comes from. If
contact is lost with all of these soldiers, Katze (or whoever is left in the
master station) will activate the floor-wide lockdown. Only a special
red keycard found hanging around Katze’s neck (and tucked inside his
armor) will unlock the elevator doors and allow the players to leave the
detention level.
The emergency lockdown triggered by the players’ escape will not
be overridden once the players unlock the elevator, however. In fact,
they will quickly find that whatever call button they hit on the elevator
(up to another level, or down to the mines), the lift will not go higher
than Level 2 (the Kitchen/Mess). Unbeknownst to them, attempting
to use the elevator after an alarm is sounded that is not personally
countermanded by Katze himself (and verified through a functional
security camera) instantly triggers a special, Castle-wide lockdown that
will make the rest of the players’ escape very interesting indeed.
If the players wish to take Bill Jackson with them, Jackson uses the
basic stats of the Renegade Warrior found in A Time of War (see p. 100,
AToW), but begins play with no money, and no personal equipment
beyond his prison garb. Jackson claims to have friends “outside the
Castle,” but won’t tell the players who they are beyond “just another
bunch of exiles, trying to get by on this rock.” He will work with the
players as long as he believes they can get him to the surface alive, and
 <<<GM ONLY>>>
Adventure Tracks
will thus travel with them for as long as he can, turning on them (or,
more likely, simply abandoning them) only if he thinks they’re about to
be defeated.
DIFFICULTY
The compartmentalization of the various wings on the detention
level, and the simplistic floor plan of halls lined with cells, with a guard
station on one end, and interrogation cells on the other, can easily
limit the number of enemies the players encounter at once to a mere
handful. As long as they can get their hands on weapons—all of the
Guard and Soldier NPCs have at least one, with two spare magazines—
and the appropriate keys, they can easily establish choke points and lay
ambushes as they see fit.
To facilitate the players gaining access to such equipment, roll 2D6
every hour the players are consciously watching for any guards to come
by. On a result of 6 or less for the first 2D6, nobody wanders close enough
in that hour. On a result of 7 to 10, a Guard NPC will wander back and
forth and may interact enough to present an opportunity the players
can seize. On an 11+, a Soldier NPC will find his way there in that hour.
Katze himself, meanwhile, will wander down the players’ hall only
once every 8 hours, though he will largely do little more in his visits than
glare at his prisoners, saying very little.
15
AFTERMATH
It turns out that getting out of the cells and climbing into the elevator
just doesn’t solve all the party’s problems! The lockdown that results
from their successful escape to the lift, in fact, triggers a base-wide alert
that will have most of the personnel armed and ready to oppose their
progress. But the lockdown, it turns out, is faulty. Designed with the
possibility of atmospheric containment failure, it has disabled virtually
all of the Castle’s elevator systems, and sealed every alternative route
between the complex’s myriad levels. Only select key cards, held mostly
by the strongest or highest-ranking individuals on each level, will
override the safeties enough to allow any progress toward freedom. And
these safeties will only enable transitions to the next adjacent level up or
down before these systems lock down again. Getting to the top floors
of Castle Wulfensteiner has now become a floor-by-floor slog through
base personnel in search of not only those who carry the coveted access
cards for their level, but also the elevator that accepts these cards.
In the words of one of the earliest first-person shooters of Terra’s
1990s, it’s time to Get Psyched!
 THIS PLACE HAS
Adventure Tracks
HOW MANY LEVELS!?
MISSION BRIEFING
The good news is that you’re finally out of von Wulfen’s prison cells
and you’ve even managed to find enough weapons to lightly arm your
party for the fights ahead! The bad news is that this place went into a
nightmarish emergency lockdown mode that has only allowed you to
travel one level up or down at any unlocked lift. If each floor of this base
is like this now, you may need to fight your way through this place in
search of the necessary access cards just to ride up to the next one and
do it all again!
It is beyond unlikely that your captors are ignorant of this fact, so
you can only presume that there will be guards and soldiers ready to
oppose you all every step of the way. And you’re not even sure that your
DropShip will even be waiting for you on the other side of this whole
malfed-up affair! Hell, even if it is, dare you even hope the crew is okay?
It’s like the universe is playing a cruel game with you. At times like
these, it’s easy to get discouraged, but since the alternative is probably
death at this stage, maybe it’ll be best to stop worrying about the
endgame and just keep at it.
ASSETS
Everyone and everything you manage to scrounge and take with you
at this point is all you have to work with. But since you may be looking
at a long and drawn out fight toward the surface, you probably want to
risk as few lives as possible as you go.
OPPOSITION
There’s no definite way of knowing how many people waiting for
you at any given turn, or how many levels of this you may need to fight
through before you’re done. But if this lockdown is truly base-wide,
hopefully von Wulfen’s army will find themselves just as hampered in
getting around this place as you are.
16
TACTICAL ANALYSIS
If nothing else, the presence of local prisoners like Bill Jackson in the
detention area shows that not everyone here is slavishly adherent to
the rules that govern their little bubble society. It’s possible that more
dissidents can be found—or at least a few folks who are just weak and/
or under-motivated enough to help some off-worlders with enough
coaxing. After all, it’s just like one of the old Lyran Archons used to say all
the time: “information is ammunition,” right?
Of course, making sure you all have enough actual ammunition
will be useful as well! Who knows how many of these Amaris-loving
stormtroopers you’ll need to get through?
OBJECTIVES
1. Find the Key! It looks like the higher-ups in this quasi-society of
theirs are stingy with the keys; there may be only one or two folks
on any given level with the security access needed to override the
lockdown protocols. You could try hacking these ancient terminals,
of course, but what happens if you fail?
2. Find the Elevator that Goes with the Key! Fun fact: it seems that not
all of the lifts here are operated by the same keys. Who designed
this place, anyway?
3. Rinse and Repeat? You know from coming in that the upper-most
two floors of this place are ’Mech bays, so as long as the elevator
doors keep opening to chambers not filled with aging BattleMechs,
odds are, you’ll be fighting your way through this mess over and
over again!
MISSION SUCCESS CONDITIONS
Getting to the surface with as many of you alive as possible are the
primary goals here. If it’s possible to find out whether you still have a
DropShip to escape in, and a crew who can fly it, that would be great
as well!
And if you are feeling particularly vengeful, well, taking out von
Wulfen would be an awesome bonus!
 <<<GM ONLY>>>
Adventure Tracks
ENEMIES
Under this base-wide lockdown, each level of the main complex
has been placed under alert and all satellite complexes (where the
vast majority of the facility’s civilians live and work) have been sealed
off entirely behind layers of armored bulkheads. The result, where the
players are concerned, is that they only have to deal with a limited
number of armed personnel between them and the next elevator
or other passage to the next floor up. Most of this opposition is fairly
generic, and record sheets to track them in bulk may be found in this
product’s GM’s Sourcebook.
Each floor’s description—also found in the GM’s Sourcebook—will
help determine the number and type of enemy NPCs the players may
encounter, as well as the nature of the level’s “boss,” who will either
possess the key needed to unlock an elevator/passage to the next level,
or be guarding a chamber in which that key is being kept. None of the
floor’s military personnel—from guards to bosses—will be interested in
negotiation; the players are invaders who, now on the loose, are merely
a threat to be put down. But technicians and other non-combatants may
be more amenable to words over bullets.
As tempting (and reasonable) as it might be to clump up all of a
floor’s troops near the floor’s entrance point, exit point, or level boss,
the fact is that the base-wide lockdown is proving almost as chaotic
for the denizens of Castle Wulfensteiner as it is their escaped prisoners.
Unexpected loss of camera signals, outbreaks of localized power and
internal communications failures between sections, and so forth are
forcing them to spread out their security assets, if for no other reason
than to keep an eye on the endless maze of rooms and corridors that
make up their complex. As a result, the GM should limit the enemy
occupants in any given room to a number no greater than the armed
members of the players’ group. (For the purposes of this “rule of thumb,”
the level’s boss counts as half that limit.)
LOCAL CONDITIONS
Castle Wulfensteiner is a truly massive, subterranean fortress that
was planned and built for long-term habitation. Though the complex
easily sprawls outward for hundreds of meters in every direction,
only a central area of each floor is ultimately accessible to the players.
Veteran tabletop RPG players and GMs will recognize that this has all
the makings of a good old-fashioned dungeon crawl, while folks who
grew up playing video games from the 1990s and onward might also
see it as a tabletop version of any number of classic first-person shooter
(FPS) games.
This feel is exactly what we’re going for here, of course.
Gamemasters can and should feel free to further dress up each
floor with extra features and encounters for flavor. Perhaps there are
personal conflicts between a few of the locals that are set to boil over
under the stress of this lockdown, or maybe there’s a non-combatant
who can be bribed to help with an odd favor “as long as you’re here.”
Interesting signs of daily life turn up here and there that underscore the
anachronistic nature of a place almost 400 years out of step with the rest
of the Inner Sphere. Examples of this might include Rim Worlds currency
found here and there; propagandist periodicals (mostly about how great
the Star League Empire is doing since the days of Amaris, or filled with
“life hacks” for living on remote military bases inexplicably cut off from
the rest of the empire) that look like they’ve been read cover-to-cover
far too many times; odd bits of Star League-era conveniences that are
in various states of decay, yet still somehow functional thanks to some
resourceful repairs (“Hey look! A twenty-eighth century Manga-Box
holo-window!”); hand-crafted toys, decorations, and personal journals;
pet vermin, guard beasts descended from whatever got imported here
somehow, strange plants cultivated from who-knows-what. And then, of
course, there should be the odd areas that are in a state of malfunction.
17
Maybe the lights are out here, adding darkness to the list of obstacles;
or the computer terminals just spew incoherent garbage when used,
rendering them useless; or the air and sewage filters are on the fritz,
adding a nauseating stink to the chamber; or the powered doors open
and close randomly, whether or not there’s even someone there; or a
nearby communicator crackles to life with someone demanding a status
report, but whoever it is can’t seem to hear anything said in response.
This is a place that’s lived in, and has been lived in for generations—it
should have a lot of character as a result.
Some areas may even have exposed infrastructure and/or patchwork
repairs that can be damaged or interacted with—be it on purpose or
accidentally—for some other localized effect. Air conditioning vents
can be broken to render an area uncomfortably warm, water and
electric lines can be ruptured, opened, or closed to create distractions,
and conventional doors and computer systems can be blasted apart
just for the sake of wanton vandalism. Most features that can be easily
enough broken by a sharp blow or gunshot can be handled narratively,
while interior doors and furniture may offer a bit more resistance. The
base’s main ferrocrete walls and armored bulkheads, however, are
tough enough to withstand ’Mech-mounted heavy weapons, and so will
be largely impervious to any of the small arms the players accumulate
in their travels.
Finally, there should be food, medicine, and ammo to be found at
multiple points on each floor; Castle Wulfensteiner can be a dangerous
place even at the best of times, and its inhabitants have learned to keep
life-saving supplies handy in case of emergencies.
OBJECTIVES
As intended, the players’ process of getting to each new level will
be variations on the same basic theme: Find and fight your way to the
key-bearer, defeat the key-bearer to obtain the key, and find the one
working lift or stairwell access that the key goes to.
Note that the elevator the players rode up to the current level is
practically never the same one they may use to proceed any higher that
the current level. As part of the lock-down, each lift shaft is physically
sealed by air-tight bulkheads that arrests their travel beyond whatever
floors are immediately above or below their starting position. Once
used, such elevators will return to their home positions and effectively
shut down until accessed by their proper keys again. Thus, an elevator
that was at Level 6 when the lockdown took place can only travel up to
Level 7, or down to level 5—after which it returns to Level 6 to await the
next call from an “authorized user.”
Once the players get through Level 8—Outer Security—the cycle
will finally break as they find themselves entering the base’s motor pool
and ’Mech bays. As soon as the doors open to Level 9, the last Track of
this adventure begins.
DIFFICULTY
Getting to the upper floors of Castle Wulfensteiner should be
a challenge worthy of any adventuring party, but it shouldn’t be
impossible. It is highly recommended, in fact, that this part of the
adventure be played using some or all the “Hero Mode” rules found
in A Time of War Companion (see pp. 25-27, AToWC) for the maximum
first-person shooter effect. If nothing else, the Improved Medipacks,
Improved Stimpatches, and Wound Patches featured in those rules
can help keep the party alive after the many firefights and boss
battles they have to endure in this Track. Seeding the upper floors
with additional weapons, armor, and ammunition will also be useful
for enhancing the classic “First-Person Shooter” feel of this adventure,
while also giving the players more of a fighting chance against their
legions of enemies.
 <<<GM ONLY>>>
Adventure Tracks
Depending on how things went with the players’ DropShip, the
players may also find themselves having to locate its captured crew. If the
Apogee Muse was successfully seized by von Wulfen’s troops during the
players’ initial meeting, all members of the crew (minus 1D6 crewmen,
who likely died during the capture or subsequent interrogations) will be
found in Level 8’s temporary holding cells. If the Muse was destroyed,
only 1D6 survivors of the ship will be found, all of whom are badly
wounded (their total hit points reduced by 1D6 x 10 percent). In either
case, the survivors will be able to inform the players of the DropShip’s
status once freed.
As a special twist, the GM can add a “secondary boss” to Level 7’s
final fight: Doctor Carmack. Now dressed and equipped as an officer
of the “Star League Empire,” he will assist Offenbach (Level 7’s “boss”)
in opposing the players, while simultaneously trying to convince them
to surrender. Carmack uses the stats of the generic Officer in combat,
and has been given the rank of Lieutenant in von Wulfen’s army. The IE
archaeologist has not been brainwashed nor forced into this role; seeing
the situation as it is in Castle Wulfensteiner, and recognizing with near-
certainty that any escape attempts will end in failure, he has chosen to
“embrace his heritage” as the descendant of a Rim Worlds patriot, and
swore himself to von Wulfen and the Castle’s leadership in exchange for
preferential treatment by its resident power structure.
AFTERMATH
As the doors open on Level 9, the players find themselves in a
cavernous parking garage. The air is bone dry, and smells of grease
and ozone. Lights in the ceilings some eight meters above struggle to
hold back the shadows of bays that seem to extend for a kilometer in
all directions, while thick columns of ferrocrete and dusty, lightly rusted
metal gantries support the ceiling’s immense expanse. Rows of jeeps,
trucks, and even a large salvage vehicle dominate much of the floor
close to the elevator doors, their Star League-vintage hulls, bearing the
shark-and-star insignia of von Wulfen’s “Empire” beneath varying layers
of gray dust. In the more distant bays, apparently, sit a selection of tanks
18
that all date back to pre-Succession War times—most of which seem
to be covered by dark green tarps that look even more dusty than the
nearby cars.
Ramps and vehicle-sized lift platforms are visible towards the
distant corners of this gigantic chamber—definite egress points to the
surface above!
This motor pool level isn’t entirely unmanned, of course, but its sheer
size (over half a kilometer on each side, with tight-packed heavy vehicle
bays along each side—broken only by the occasional small shed, office-
like station, or ladder to the ceiling gantries—offers more than ample
room as well as cover in the form of both the 3-by-3 meter support
columns spaced regularly throughout the place, and the various support
vehicles that line the central area like a giant used car lot.
Consult the GM’s Sourcebook for basic descriptions and additional
rules covering Levels 9 and up.
Note that Level 11—the Upper ’Mech Bays—will likely be of
particular interest to the players if they came into this adventure
with vehicles or ’Mechs of their own, as all of them will be found
here, along with all of the other ground units that were aboard the
Apogee Muse when this adventure began. Taken from the Muse (or
her wreck), the ’Mechs will be found laying down upon the beds of
salvage trucks, or directly upon the level’s ferrocrete floor, while the
vehicles will be parked in their own row. If the DropShip was taken
intact, these vehicles and ’Mechs have suffered only 1D6 points of
damage, randomly assigned in 1-point clusters. If the DropShip was
destroyed or crippled, these units will suffer 2D6 x 5 points of damage,
randomly assigned in 5-point hits, with any critical damage rolled for
normally (ignoring unit-destroying effects, such as ammunition or
weapon explosion hits.) Any aerospace units they players brought
with them—including the small craft already carried by the Muse at
the start of the adventure—will not be present; if they survived, they
have been taken to one of the aircraft hangars located outside and to
the north of the main facility. All of the players’ units will power up
and function normally, give or take their damage effects; the Castle’s
techs had yet to meddle with their control systems.
 YOU HAVE GOT
Adventure Tracks
TO BE KIDDING!
MISSION BRIEFING
Back on the surface of Miklagard, the end of this nightmare is finally at
hand, one way or the other. The surface complex of Castle Wulfensteiner
rises about you. But while the cracked facades of the ancient structures,
and the piles of sand and loose debris among them remain unchanged
since the moment you first beheld them, you now know better than to
assume this place is little more than a ruin. Floodlights illuminate the
sprawling grounds, and the wail of base alarms, weakened by the thin
atmosphere, provide a discordant melody to go with the din of noises
that herald an epic fight to come.
In your entire escape from the Castle, you found no sign of Major
General Wilhelm Strassborg von Wulfen. Perhaps he fled the moment
you and your allies overpowered the guards below, fearing your
retribution. Maybe he retreated into one of these other bunkers you see
scattered about. Taking him down would surely throw what’s left of this
isolated remnant of the Rim Worlds Republic into chaos, especially after
the mayhem you all unleashed below ground.
But escaping this awful place must be your first priority now.
…If you could only find the Apogee Muse!
ASSETS
Whatever gear and manpower the players’ group has managed to
accumulate along the course of their adventure is at their disposal for
this Track. Hopefully, that includes heavy weapons, armor, and envi-
ronmental gear, though; a fight in the open air of this toxic world is all
but certain.
OPPOSITION
Among the cacophony emanating from the surface of Wulfensteiner
can be heard the shouts of armored, vac-suited soldiers, of orders being
broadcast by speakers—some demanding your immediate surrender,
others openly telling the guards to deploy for combat. Through it all
comes the echoing thumps of approaching BattleMechs, a veritable
stampede of armor, closing in as if from all around you.
At last comes the voice you last heard when you were taken captive
in this forgotten hellscape—the voice of Miklagard’s lord and master,
Major General von Wulfen:
19
“Impudent off-worlders!” he shouts through the base speakers for all
to hear. “You have all made a very grave mistake! And now, you shall face
the wrath of the Star League Empire!”
TACTICAL ANALYSIS
Looks like getting outside the Castle only made the battlefield
bigger and deadlier. A company of BattleMechs from the Star League
era—complete with a parody of SLDF colors and insignia, by the look
of them—now bear down on your position. You didn’t bring that much
firepower, but then again, the toxic atmosphere here would make even
the weakest heavy weapons a threat if they hit the right part of a cockpit
or crew cabin.
The Apogee Muse was landed just a kilometer to the east of the
facility. At least, that’s where you remember putting down, but this base
had other drop pads all around it. The Muse isn’t a combat vessel, but it’s
your best ticket out of here, if she’s still operational, anyway.
But even that could be academic if you don’t have a crew to fly her.
Or if these Wulfensteiner thugs have more tricks up their sleeves yet!
OBJECTIVES
1. Get Out Alive! Escape from Castle Wulfensteiner.
2. To the Stars! Find the Apogee Muse and get off this dead rock, if at
all possible.
3. Survive! This objective goes without saying, but still…
4. Kill the Governor! Von Wulfen unleashed this hell on you all. Would
be nice if he paid for it.
MISSION SUCCESS CONDITIONS
The goal really hasn’t changed since the start of this whole misguided
affair started. Survive and escape. Killing von Wulfen is a nice bonus,
but there’s a reason he’s fourth on the list of your main objectives here.
Achieving Objectives 1 through 3 are a total success here. Achieving all
four objectives is a resounding success.
Failing Objective 4 alone is acceptable, and failing Objective 2 is at
least survivable…at least as long as a place like the Castle exists to take
shelter in. Failing Objective 3, though…You don’t want to fail Objective 3!
 <<<GM ONLY>>>
Adventure Tracks
ENEMIES
When the players first broke out of their cells, Major General von
Wulfen was nowhere near the Castle complex. Having decided to
muster a company’s worth of MechWarriors to patrol the vast wastes
to the north—a routine he and his officers have maintained in keeping
with the traditional appearance of the base remaining an active defense
outpost—he and his force were hours away when they received frantic
calls from Offenbach about the base-wise alert.
In the time it has since taken von Wulfen’s patrol to return, the players
ascended through the complex, ultimately reaching the upper ’Mech
bay levels just as the governor arrives on the scene. Having rarely found
cause to fight a serious battle, von Wulfen and his MechWarriors are only
considered to be Regular-rated troops, as are the majority of the Castle’s
other MechWarriors, vehicle crews, and infantry assets. Von Wulfen’s
company will engage the players en masse, advancing from the north as
soon as the Track begins. Wherever possible, they will concentrate their
fire, in an effort to destroy individual enemies as quickly as possible,
preferring heavier and slower units first. If reduced to 6 ’Mechs or less,
von Wulfen’s company will call for reinforcements from inside the base,
which will begin emerging in 1D6+6 turns after the call goes out.
When randomly assigning ’Mechs and vehicles to Castle
Wulfensteiner’s forces, the best fits will be found in the Random
Assignment Tables from Historical: Liberation of Terra Vol. 2 (see pp.
132-133, LoT2). For every lance of Castle ’Mechs and vehicles, use the B
column on the SLDF Table for one unit, and the B column of the Rim
Worlds Table for the other three units. If aerospace forces are in play, half
of the Castle’s fighters are rolled from the SLDF Table, while the other
half use the Rim Worlds Table.
For the ultimate challenge, the GM may replace no more than 2 of
von Wulfen’s company with BattleMechs rolled using the Smoke Jaguar
column of the RATs found in Era Report: 3062 (see p. 149, ER3062). But,
because the Castle lacks any means to replenish its stock of Clan tech
parts and munitions, these substitute units begin the scenario with
half their ammunition expended (rounded down), and must apply 2D6
points of total pre-existing damage, distributed randomly in 2-point
clusters.
Beyond the Wulfensteiner ground forces are the Castle’s capital
defense weapons—mentioned in the GM’s section and in the GM-Only
part of the first Track (Welcome, Travelers!). These fixed defense weapons
(if they have not been disabled by player action in the Castle’s interior)
will not fire into the grounds of the complex itself, but will simply
remain on standby to intercept any departing off-worlders who either
venture out to the drop pads (or otherwise move more than a kilometer
away from the facilities), or who attempt to escape in their DropShip
(assuming the DropShip has not already been destroyed).
LOCAL CONDITIONS
The surface conditions on Miklagard and their tactical effects may
be found in the GM’s Sourcebook for this product. For maximum effect,
it is recommended that this Track begins under nighttime conditions,
if for no other reason than to enjoy the weird lighting effects that can
occur beneath the planet’s quirky moon. As the battle is about to
begin, the weather is mostly calm, but the GM should roll for random
weather effects to see if that changes just as this last chapter of the
adventure unfolds.
The players should not need to be reminded that the atmosphere
outside the Castle is unbreathable, requiring exposed characters to
have, at the very least, a breathing apparatus with an integral oxygen
supply in order to survive, unless they are inside an appropriately sealed
unit or structure. While the planet’s air is thin, however, is not a vacuum,
so any unit that suffers armor breaches in locations not occupied by
20
crew will not cause any other equipment to fail in such locations beyond
the normal critical effects.
Other features and a basic layout of the surface facilities around
Castle Wulfensteiner may be found within the GM’s Sourcebook in this
volume.
OBJECTIVES
Whatever the players opt to do at this point, they face the real
possibility of being trapped on Miklagard for a very long time. If the
Apogee Muse resisted or attempted to escape at the start of this mission,
it will have been shot out of the sky by the capital defenses located at
the corners of the outpost complex. Even if the ship is intact, its crew
was seized by the locals as well, and lifting off without them will be a
herculean task for the players’ group if they lack the skills to do so. And
even if the Muse is both intact and enough of its crew have survived to
launch her, the process of boarding the ship under fire and escaping
the atmosphere in one piece becomes a thorny proposition. Not only
is this because the Muse is a cargo ship, and thus lacks the facilities to
rapidly deploy and retrieve vehicles and ’Mechs the way a military unit
can, but also because Castle Wulfensteiner’s capital weapons will simply
open fire on the vessel as soon as it appears that the off-worlders will
make their escape. This last problem can be mitigated, if the players
managed to find and disable the weapons somehow prior to this Track.
But if not…
Should the players be stranded, their options for survival become
limited, but not impossible. Whether or not they managed to learn as
much during their earlier adventures inside the Castle, there are actually
small enclaves of rebel survivalists living on Miklagard apart from
those under von Wulfen’s rule. Having managed to escape throughout
the ages, and settling in some of the ancient ruins that once served
as practice grounds for urban warfare, these disparate groups have
managed to set up their own environmentally sealed, subsistence-level
communities as they endlessly await a means to either leave their hell
world behind, or take down those “lying Castle-dwellers” von Wulfen
rules over. These rebels may have room, resources, and a willingness to
take in folks who not only oppose the so-called Star League Empire, but
actually have the strength to cause their mutual enemies some well-
earned pain and misery.
In the short term, a total victory over von Wulfen and his troops in
a straight fight is exceedingly unlikely, but if the players manage to kill
the governor, the power vacuum created by his defeat and the loss
of his key aides (the various level bosses, up to and including Major
Offenbach) will throw the Castle’s bubble society into chaos. This chaos
will be even more devastating if, through the course of their activities,
the players have managed to convince enough of the locals that there
is, in fact, no Star League Empire out there, and that the people of
Miklagard have been living a centuries-long lie perpetuated by the
paranoid remnants of a dead regime. Who knows what opportunities
could arise from such chaos?
DIFFICULTY
In the finest traditions of these special adventures, this final Track can
be the last act in the lives of all the player characters who survived this
far. The GM can be as cruel as he likes here, but try to avoid making things
utterly hopeless for the players. The denizens of Castle Wulfensteiner are
centuries out of step with the Inner Sphere, and their military training
has long lost any edge it might have had against a complacent SLDF. Any
technologies introduced since the collapse of the Star League will be
foreign to them, and even the limited samples they managed to obtain
from capturing the likes of a stray group of disgraced Smoke Jaguars are
beyond their technical abilities to master and maintain.
 <<<GM ONLY>>>
Adventure Tracks
If the players’ DropShip was taken intact, the GM can decide to either
leave it where it landed, or have it relocated to one of the other drop
pads surrounding the facility, relocated by a skeleton crew of mostly
techs and laborers with minimal combat experience. In the event the
players have failed to find and/or liberate the Muse’s crew in this case,
these Wulfensteiner personnel might still be present on the ship, ready
to do whatever the people with the better guns tell them to.
The good news is, should the Apogee Muse manage to leave
Miklagard’s atmosphere, they will be free and clear all the way to
their JumpShip. Having long since lost the capabilities of their own
DropShips, the Castle simply doesn’t have the aerospace forces to
effectively pursue some escaping interlopers.
AFTERMATH
Whatever devastation the players manage to create during their
escape from Castle Wulfensteiner, if any of the outpost’s “bosses” remain
21
alive when it’s over—up to and including von Wulfen himself—they will
be able to restore order within weeks or months of these events, should
they be left to their own devices. Damage to the base may take longer
to repair, but will become a priority if any of the players’ group manage
to leave the planet alive. If the players fail to escape from Miklagard, but
still slip from von Wulfen’s grasp, they will be actively hunted for close
to a year by whatever military forces the Castle can spare, most of which
will be sent to scour the decaying remains of the false cities and towns
dotting the endless wastes. If, after a year of searching, the Wulfensteiner
forces fail to find any surviving members of the players’ group, their
hunt will be called off, and the off-worlders will be presumed dead.
Returning to the Inner Sphere with tales of these events may make
the players a local media sensation and earn them some mention in the
annals of history as published by IE’s subsidiaries, but few will see the
existence of another community of struggling regressives in the Deep
Periphery much more than an idle curiosity.
After all, bigger things are afoot these days.
 DEBRIEFING
Debriefing
In the grand scheme of things, the exploration of one lost world or
another, even one with a dramatic story to tell, almost never amounts
to much when set against the backdrop of interstellar war. And the Rim
Worlds Republic, for all its past crimes against the First Star League (and
humanity in general), has long since been consigned to the dust bin of
history. The same can be said of the Smoke Jaguar Clan, though one
could argue that the dregs found on Miklagard are hardly even worthy
of that identity now. Had the planet been hosting a remnant enclave of
Word of Blake fanatics, perhaps the universe at large might sit up and
take a little more notice, but at the end of the day, our heroes may as well
have found Brigadoon for all their troubles.
There are three main ways this adventure can end for our players—
short of a TPK, that is: survival on the run (free from Wulfensteiner, but
not from Miklagard), overthrow (defeated von Wulfen, but still unable to
leave the planet), or complete success (escape from the Castle and the
planet). The aftermaths of these outcomes are considered below.
MAROONED ON A DEAD ROCK
If the group has lost their DropShip and either failed to defeat the
Wulfensteiner forces or managed to somehow destroy the Castle
itself, it should become quickly apparent that they have now become
trapped on Miklagard with little to no immediate means of survival.
Their JumpShip might have some means to rescue them—or at least
go for help—but even so, the wait time between such a recovery and
the players’ escape from the Castle will be measurable in months or
even years. This is more than enough time to die from the planet’s harsh
surface conditions and/or starvation. But there’s still hope…
Whether the players have learned of them or not, there are a few
independent enclaves lurking on the planet outside of the Castle
complex. Some of these were built initially as waystations and off-site
command bunkers, intended to support the larger military drills that
were abandoned within a century after the fall of Apollo, and feature at
least a breathable atmosphere and stockpiled supplies that might sustain
a frugal community for a month or two. Others, created by dissident
factions who somehow escaped the Castle and fled into the wastes, have
taken root in parts of the various mock cities that were used as training
sites for the planet’s hidden army. Having managed to scrape together
enough equipment and resources to make a go of it as independent
enclaves, these rebel villages sustain themselves with their own self-
contained, air-tight structures, growing their own meager crops, and
perhaps even scavenging anything else they need by stealthily raiding
(or trading with) the Castle complex at irregular intervals.
If a marooned players’ group is to have a chance at surviving outside
of the Castle, they must either find one of these lost bunkers, or partner
up with a dissident enclave. Perhaps, hearing of the escaped newcomers,
some of these rebel villagers may even reach out to them, seeking the
players out in hopes of strengthening their own numbers—or merely to
see what they can scavenge from them.
THERE’S A NEW GOVERNOR IN TOWN
If the players’ group somehow manages to not only escape their
captors but actually overthrows the Wulfensteiner leadership without
destroying the Castle complex in the process, a unique opportunity
exists in the form of having a largely self-sufficient military base and
colony at their disposal. This will be especially important if they have
lost the Apogee Muse and find themselves effectively stuck on the planet
for the foreseeable future.
Taking the Castle for themselves would be one of the best ways
the players might secure their own future if they cannot get off the
planet. While this is basically the “Marooned on a Dead Rock” outcome
writ large, it sets the players up as de facto rulers of their own planet,
complete with its own military force and capital weapons. The damage
such players can do with such resources—especially if they manage
to find a way to acquire some DropShips—is the stuff that few player
groups would likely pass up. So, GMs beware if you take this route; the
22
possibility of going from routine adventure games to building a full-
blown pirate state run by your players will be a horror show indeed!
FREEDOM!!!
As unlikely as it may be to escape the planet, given how willingly
the Wulfensteiner forces are to simply destroy the Apogee Muse, it is
nevertheless possible. Given a generous enough GM, the players might
just manage to get off the stinking rock that is Miklagard.
The JumpShip that delivered the crew could still be lingering in-
system, for instance, despite having lost all contact with the expedition
less than an hour after planetfall. Although it’s uncommon for IE missions
to take place with more than one DropShip, a long-range shuttle or two
might even be enough to extract the team. Just remember that a trip
either way takes more than three weeks, and most shuttles tend to only
have enough fuel and supplies for a 1-week trip at 1 G. (Coasting journeys
take a lot longer, but are definitely possible, as are extra-long voyages
with sufficient—but minimalistic—food rations.) Remember also that,
if von Wulfen’s men still hold the Castle, any rescue attempts will also
need to account for Wulfensteiner’s capital-grade anti-air defenses.
However the players manage to leave Miklagard, they leave with the
knowledge that a small pocket of the long-lost Rim Worlds Republic
and the legacy of Amaris has managed to survive as far as the thirty-
second century. Isolated as it is, though, Castle Wulfensteiner will be
little more than an archaeological and anthropological curiosity to the
universe at large. Its broadcast existence may encourage some pirates
or other opportunists to go and visit the world with an eye toward
plundering its lostech, but none of the larger players in the Inner
Sphere will see it as much of a threat.
Player-characters who manage to get away will thus find little fame
or fanfare after all their efforts there. Even IE’s response may be muted as
some within the organization consider the loss of Dr. Carmack a sobering
blow to their Deep Periphery explorations. Nevertheless, the players will
be thanked for doing their best and coming away with at least some of the
expedition intact. They may even get a new contract out of it—though it’ll
be up to them whether or not they even wanted one!
OTHER OUTCOMES
If the GM and/or the players’ group do not like any of those options,
others could include a second IE ship coming to Miklagard within a year
or so after the party is left stranded there, following up on Dr. Carmack’s
work. Or perhaps a pirate band enters the system, giving any marooned
players a chance to try and take their ship and crew after luring them
dirt-side.
If the players have managed an escape—but not before finding time
to root around in Castle Wulfensteiner’s computers and HPG records,
maybe they stumble on possible clues to yet another lost Republic
outpost or three out there? And what might the reactions be in the
Inner Sphere if the players come home with tales of surviving holdouts
of the Amaris regime still lurking in the Deep Periphery? Would any
House really care, with the Inner Sphere already engulfed in a new age
of interstellar war? What about the Clans? For that matter, what if some
of von Wulfen’s forces managed to somehow slip away and get into the
Inner Sphere themselves, either by stowing away the players’ ship or
outright hijacking it?
If the players’ group hails from the Clans, such as the Scorpion Empire
Seekers option discussed in the World Guide, the implications of people
who not only still cling to the legacy of Amaris the Usurper, but who have
even managed to enslave some of Kerensky’s children (no matter how
fallen they might have been), might be too much to go unanswered. It
might even spark a new crusade for the Clans, one aimed at scouring
the Deep Periphery for any more of these great betrayers of the original
Star League.
The possibilities for continuing mayhem are endless…if your
players managed to somehow escape from Castle Wulfensteiner!
 GAMEMASTER’S SOURCEBOOK
Gamemaster's Sourcebook
The following pages are for the gamemaster’s use only, and contain all
vital background information on RWR Outpost 25, and the Wulfensteiner
Brian Castle at the heart of it. In addition to providing descriptions and
details the players will need to discover on their own, there are also rules
here covering how to handle the conditions and challenges unique to
this A Time of War adventure.
ABOUT RWR OUTPOST 25
(MIKLAGARD)
The planetary details provided in this adventure were presented as
a block of basic data used in many of our recent BattleTech products,
including the Handbook sourcebooks and the Objectives PDF-exclusive
series. This data provides key details that the gamemaster can use to
further tailor their game play, reflecting the unique features of this world
and any objective(s) located there. The following rules identify what rules
might be applied, based on the indicated world data.
STAR TYPE, POSITION IN SYSTEM,
TIME TO JUMP POINT
RWR Outpost 25—known to its inhabitants today as Miklagard (an old
Norse name meaning “Great City”)—is the fifth of twelve planets orbiting
a stark white, A8-class, main-sequence star. Though it revolves around
its sun at a distance of roughly 2.5 astronomical units (AUs), the star’s
intense heat has resulted in a world that is quite a bit warmer than Terra.
It takes Miklagard approximately 1,132 days to complete a single orbit
around its sun (about 3.1 standard years).
Of the four planets inward of RWR Outpost 25 the two closest to the
sun are small, airless, tide-locked rocks of no significant value, while
the third and fourth worlds can best be described as “failed Earths,”
with inhospitable, high-density atmospheres comprised of varied
mixes of carbon dioxide, sulfuric acids, and a smattering of aerosolized
hydrocarbons. The fourth planet roils in a constant state of active
volcanism that resurfaces much of the planet every 500 years or so,
while the third appears to be so tectonically dead that it completely
lacks any significant magnetosphere. Of the seven bodies lying outward
of Miklagard, the first and second are gas giants, while the seventh is
a blueish ice giant with a wildly eccentric orbit that suggests it was
captured from elsewhere in deep space. The remaining four outer-system
bodies are much smaller bodies of rock and ice, most of which lack any
form of atmosphere or water that doesn’t lie frozen on the surface.
Rules: Compared to the sun as seen from Terra, Miklagard’s star
appears smaller, and yet casts a glare twice as intense. Characters looking
toward the sun in daytime without some form of anti-glare protection
(BAR 1+ vs. Flash) will thus become dazed if they fail to make a successful
RFL Attribute Check (with their eyewear’s BAR vs Flash value added to
the roll result). The dazing effect is equivalent to a single hit from Class B
Flash ordnance.
JumpShips stationed at Miklagard’s main jump points require 169
hours to fully recharge their sails, while the star’s higher gravitational
impact means that travel between the planet and these jump points will
take 25.77 days under standard 1G acceleration/deceleration.
NUMBER OF SATELLITES
Miklagard’s moon is a captured asteroid, roughly 155 kilometers across
at its widest point, that tumbles irregularly around the planet. With its
vaguely ovoid shape, and a great hole that pierces all the way through
its center mass, this body looks for all the universe like a giant, lumpy,
misshapen halo of gray rock.
The combination of the moon’s unique shape, its wobbly orbit, and
the natural interactions of the star’s reflected brilliance through the
planetary atmosphere creates a complex series of lunar phases that can
be downright creepy to behold. Throughout the course of any given
23
month—or even any given evening—Miklagard’s moon can appear a lot
like a monstrous eye that even “blinks” and “searches” the world below.
For this reason, the locals have come to call it the Eye of Dajjal.
Rules: It is difficult to intuitively predict the Eye of Dajjal’s complex
meanderings across Miklagard’s sky, and indeed it is not even guaranteed
that it will appear at all on any given night. To reflect this, in any night-
time scenarios taking place on the planetary surface, a roll of 1D6 should
be made before play begins to determine whether the moon is present
at all, and what “phase” it is in. On a result of 1-2, the Eye is not present
and the scenario takes place during Moonless Night conditions, while a
result of 6 indicates a period in which the Eye presents a solid and broad
enough profile to reflect steady light on the planet equivalent to Dusk/
Dawn conditions. On a result of 3-5, the moon is visible, but cuts a variable
shape as its “eye” clearly and somewhat eerily roves about throughout its
passing. In this state, the ever-shifting intensity of light and shadow cast
by the moon will prompt a new 1D6 roll at the start of every minute of
in-game time (beginning with the first turn of play.) Divide this roll result
by 2 (rounding up), and apply it as a To-Hit Modifier for all Skill checks
and ranged attacks made for the next 10 turns of play. This modifier also
applies to the number of hexes/meters moved on the planetary surface
during this period, if the unit/character is moving cautiously. (Units or
characters opting to ignore caution may use the normal movement rates
for the underlying terrain, but must make a Piloting, Acrobatics, or Reflex
roll as appropriate at the end of their movement to avoid collisions and/
or falling.)
SURFACE GRAVITY
Miklagard’s surface gravity of 0.86 is 14 percent lower than Terra’s. As
a general rule, this should not affect the mobility of most characters and
vehicles on the planet (especially as all will be affected equally), but if
movement distances in meters become important at any point, the
effect will increase most movement speeds by about 1 meter for every 5
meters the character or vehicle would normally be able to traverse under
normal conditions.
ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE
AND BREATHABILITY
With an air pressure only about half that of the Terran standard, and
poisonous to human life to boot, it is impossible for characters and non-
native life forms to survive on Miklagard’s surface without some form
of breathable air supply. Sealed vehicles, aerospace craft, BattleMechs,
battle armor, space suits, and most types of environmental suits will all
provide sufficient means to survive in these conditions, so long as their
integral air supplies hold out.
The thin nature of Miklagard’s atmosphere also affects the mobility of
any units or craft that normally rely on or benefit from atmospheric lift.
For hovercraft, VTOLs, and WiGE vehicles, this effect reduces the unit’s
Cruise speed by 2 (before factoring in gravity effects). The modified
Flank MP for such units must then be recalculated normally (Cruise MP
x 1.5, round up). Furthermore, WiGE vehicles in thin atmosphere require
7 MP to take off. Non-spheroid aerospace units—fighters, small craft,
and DropShips—must also increase their required runway distance for
landing and liftoff by 50 percent.
Additional tactical rules on the effects of Miklagard’s reduced gravity
may be found in Tactical Operations: Advanced Rules (see p. 53, TO:AR).
CLIMATE, TERRAIN, AND POPULATION
Miklagard’s equatorial temperature and general environmental
classification are described as 44° C (Desert), making the planet warmer
and much drier than Terra year-round. Only 8 percent of the surface is
covered in water, with most in the form of shallow pools located near the
desolate north and south poles, but a number of subterranean reservoirs
reside beneath the arid landscape that periodically feed small and sparse
oases found scattered about the planet. The largest of these aquifers is
 located just a few kilometers south of Castle Wulfensteiner, and is the RECHARGING STATION,
Gamemaster's Sourcebook

complex’s primary water source.

Prior to the fall of the Rim Worlds Republic, RWR Outpost 25’s
HPG CLASS, NATIVE LIFE
As a hidden military base, RWR Outpost 25 lacked recharging stations
population numbered less than nine thousand permanent residents,
of any kind, forcing any visiting JumpShip traffic to rely on their own
all of whom were secretly employed by—or dragooned into the service
solar sails when replenishing their drives.
of—House Amaris. Of these, roughly 5,700 were Republic citizens who
For hyperpulse communications, the Stone Wolf complex maintained
lived within the Stone Wolf complex, while the remainder were sheltered
its own HPG, but only operated it in connection with the secret network
in the nearby mines. As of 3148, despite severe efforts to contain
that tied most of the regional outposts to the Rim Worlds Republic. Soon
population growth through the centuries, it is estimated that the planet
after the fall of Apollo and the collapse of the Republic, the transmitter
could be home to as many as 60,000 to 65,000 souls.
was disabled as the base commanders enacted their emergency radio
Rules: For scenarios set on Miklagard’s surface, players should restrict
silence protocols. Over the years that followed, these commanders (and
mapsheets of dominantly open, desert, or badlands terrain, treating any
their descendants) used the base HPG as a prop to maintain order by
water features as sinkholes or canyons of equivalent depth. Because the
claiming regular contact with the Amaris Empire. But in truth, the comm
planet’s vegetation is stunted by constant heat, lack of moisture, and
system stopped functioning entirely by the middle of the twenty-ninth
winds, any woods features found on such maps must be treated as Light
century. The last transmission it ever received came in late 2815, sent
Woods, with a standing height of 1 elevation level (6 meters) as opposed
from another secret outpost some 200 light-years away via network
to the normal 2 (12 meters).
relays. The corrupted message invited any survivors of fallen Republic
A number of small towns, cities and bases outside the boundaries of
to seek refuge within something called “the Virginian Union.” Unable
the Wulfensteiner complex may be found scattered across the planet’s
or unwilling to respond, the Stone Wolf complex commanders simply
environs, each of which are little more than ruins now. Originally created
consigned the message to base archives.
for combat training purposes to mimic objectives found throughout
Miklagard’s biosphere is home to a variety of native microbes and
the old Terran Hegemony, these mock cities can be represented using
a smattering of indigenous plants, most in the form of succulents and
a variety of urban terrain maps, but to represent their extreme state
sickly polar mosses. Additional plants and animals were imported over
of decay, any structures placed on the map must begin play with pre-
time to provide a basis for limited sustenance-level agriculture, but
existing damage equal to 2D6x10 percent of their original CF (rolled
after the Republic’s collapse, these meager supplies began to wane as
separately for each structure placed). On pre-existing damage rolls on 10
vital support from other outposts petered out. Foraging expeditions
or more, the structure has been reduced entirely to rubble.
to nearby worlds in the early decades enabled the Castle commanders
Lacking much in the way of moisture, virtually all weather conditions
to offset the difference for a time, while extraordinary efforts in protein
on Miklagard take the form of wind and dust storms, though a small
replication and nutrient processing made it possible for the populace to
chance exists for rainfall, particularly in the polar reaches. To reflect this,
cultivate their own synthetic alternatives when the JumpShips stopped
roll 3D6 before any scenario taking place on the planetary surface, adding
returning. This “mystery meal” production has largely managed to sustain
+1 to the result if the scenario takes place within 100 kilometers of a
the base populace through the centuries, supported by the remains of
coastline, then consult the special Miklagard Weather Table to determine
what agricultural produce the locals have managed to husband along.
what conditions—if any—apply to the scenario. As this table takes the
Nevertheless, dark rumors persist that the planet’s leadership has never
planet’s thin atmosphere into account automatically, no additional
been above employing less humane methods to keep the food supply
weather effects from Thin Atmosphere Pressure need be applied.
well-stocked.
All indicated weather conditions persist for a period of 1D6 hours
before a new roll is required. Rules for the resulting Weather Conditions
are found in Tactical Operations: Advanced Rules (see pp. 55-62, TO:AR). SOCIO-INDUSTRIAL LEVELS
AND DEFENDING FORCES
Miklagard has no formal socio-industrial index. It lacks any form
MIKLAGARD WEATHER TABLE of real economy, trade, or industry beyond its own needs for self-
sustainability. What the locals need from each other they generally
3D6 Roll Weather Condition barter for, though the base leadership maintains the trappings of
civilization by keeping Star League dollars and Rim Republic shekels
3 Heat Wave! (61–65 degrees C)*
in circulation to serve as a kind of credit-tracking system. The lack
4 Heat Wave! (51–60 degrees C)* of imports long ago revealed to the lower classes that their world is
5-9 Calm effectively cut off from the universe, but harsh crackdowns have kept
them from learning much more than that.
10–12 Light Gale At the time of this adventure, Miklagard’s heavy military equipment—
13–15 Moderate Gale** BattleMechs, aerospace fighters, and heavy combat vehicles—are all
that remains of what they had when the Republic fell, supplemented
16–17 Strong Gale**
by anything they have managed to scavenge from the raids of the early
18 Rain?! (See footnote)† decades and the very infrequent arrivals who’ve happened by since
*Heat Wave: Consult Extreme Temperatures rules (see p. 60, TO:AR). Roll 3D6 again for then. While lower ranked citizens regularly maintain these machines,
possible wind conditions, treating results of 3, 4, and 18 as Calm. only those of Wulfensteiner’s officer corps are permitted to operate
**Sand and Dust: Roll 2D6. On 8+, add Blowing Sand condition effects (see p. 60, TO:AR). them. Most locals, however, are well versed in the use of basic small arms
†Showers Possible: Roll 2D6. On 10-12, add Light Rain condition effects (see p. 57, TO:AR), and melee weapons.
and roll 3D6 again for wind conditions, treating results of 3, 4, and 18 as Calm. Do not roll
for Blowing Sand if Light Rain is in play.

24
 STONE WOLF COMPLEX
Gamemaster's Sourcebook
(CASTLE WULFENSTEINER)
The centerpiece and primary—if not sole—habitat for life on
Miklagard is the Stone Wolf Complex, now known more colloquially as
“Brian Castle Wulfensteiner” or simply “Castle Wulfensteiner.” Modeled on
the same Castles Brian fortresses seen throughout the Terran Hegemony,
with the same extensive military engineering and focus on long-term
self-sustainability, this facility was just one of dozens built across the
various hidden bases Stefan Amaris established to train secret armies for
his grand coup.
CASTLE WULFENSTEINER
As an ancient facility, built along the lines of a miniaturized Castle
Brian, Wulfensteiner was originally intended to serve as a training
facility and housing site for one of Stefan Amaris’ many secret divisions,
including all of said Division’s ’Mechs, armor, infantry, as well as their
support personnel. Because of the planet’s inhospitable atmosphere,
the reinforced complex was specifically designed to be sealed against
the elements, but after nearly four centuries of harsh living in isolation—
punctuated by periodic upheavals among the subjugated populace—
many of its systems have fallen into disrepair.
The paragraphs below describe Wulfensteiner’s facilities, level-by-
level, starting from the lower-most to the surface buildings, with enough
details to allow a GM to build each level as they go (rather than stick with
a single, rigid map that we frankly just don’t have the art budget for), as
well as guides for how to populate each level and deal with the various
floor-boss fights.
Boundaries: Note that, with the exception of the mining and
hydroponics area (Level 0), the bulk of the Castle is laid out as a large,
square, subterranean structure about 700 meters on a side (until Levels
9 and up, where the floors expand to 800 x 800-meters). Each floor is
subdivided into smaller chambers, rooms, and suites, typically at right
angles, but the GM may decide on alternate layouts as desired, if only to
break up any monotony and keep players guessing. Armored bulkheads
along the outer perimeters should hint at expansions beyond the
perimeters of various levels, but none of these may open under any
conditions unless the GM wishes to add a special room/secret area for
the players to find outside of the floor’s “norm.” Otherwise, the primary
purpose of these bulkheads is simply to remind players that the Castle
complex is truly much bigger and probably way more inhabited than
they will find in the course of their adventure. If the GM feels like adding
a special side room/secret area to the mix, these bulkheads should be
opened only by use of some unique key the players may find. Major
load-bearing interior walls and armored bulkheads must be treated as
reinforced ferrocrete at least half a meter to a full meter thick, and are
all but impervious to small arms fire, and highly resistant to support
weapons and explosives. Outer perimeter walls are three meters thick
and are impervious to virtually all damage short of vehicle- and ’Mech-
mounted heavy weapons.
Elevators and Stairs: Running the height of the upper 10 floors (i.e.,
all above Level 1), there are at least 10 personnel elevators present,
with two each on the East and West sides of the outer perimeter walls
(between the center point and corners of those sides), one at the center
point of the North and South sides, and four more set around the walls
of a central “Common Room” each floor typically hosts in the very center
of the complex. From level 9 and up, an additional set of vehicular-scale
elevators also come into play, with each of the four large elevators rising
near the corners of these upper floors (when they work, that is). There are
also stairwell access points that run between the floors for emergency,
but all are located along the perimeter walls, and most will seal during
the base-wide lockdown in the same way the elevators do, preventing
movement between floors by more than one level either up or down.
During the base-wide lockdown, all personnel elevators and stair
access points but one on each level from 0 through 9 will become
completely inaccessible, forcing the players to find the special keycards
that access and activate them. In no case until Level 9 will the same
25
elevator the players arrived on be the one they need to activate in order
to reach the next level up. They can, however, always use an elevator they
arrived on a given floor from to go back down to the previous level if
they wish.
General Gameplay: As noted in Track 3 (This Place has HOW Many
Levels!?), reaching the upper floors of Castle Wulfensteiner should be a
challenge worthy of any adventuring party, but not an impossible task. To
better facilitate this—and reinforce the classic level-by-level experience
of the classic “First-Person Shooter” that inspires this adventure—the
“Hero Mode” rules found in A Time of War Companion (see pp. 25-
27, AToWC) are recommended. Of specific use will be the Improved
Medipacks, Improved Stimpatches, and Wound Patches featured in those
rules, which can help to keep the party alive after the many firefights and
boss battles they will have to endure, without waiting on days or weeks
of recovery time. Seeding the upper floors with additional weapons,
armor, and ammunition will also be useful.
Additional weapons and ammo that can be found should be limited
to those found on the denizens of the Castle, using the generic enemy
NPCs and Floor Bosses as a guide to what might turn up on any given
floor. However, be aware that this new equipment may be defective
thanks to the scavenger-tech nature of Wulfensteiner’s living conditions
and limited resources. To represent the potential for poor equipment
conditions, the GM should roll 2D6 any time the players find a new
weapon or armor other than those carried by the enemy NPCs described
in this book. On a result of 3 or less, the weapon has a glitch that causes
it to fail or break on a Fumble action (for armor, reduce its effectiveness
by half ). If it is a powered weapon—such as a vibroblade or laser—a
roll result of 4 or less also indicates that it either burns through power
cells faster, suffers from some inaccuracy resulting in an additional to-
hit penalty to use, or is completely drained of power when found. On a
result of 12, the weapon or armor actually turns out to be an equivalent
piece of gear of Clan design, having been salvaged from what the Jaguar
population brought with them when they were originally taken captive;
after determining the baseline stats for the substitute Clan gear, roll 2D6
again for its condition, applying a –2 modifier to the roll result due to
the facilities’ lack of resources suitable for the maintenance of Clan-made
gear. Gear taken from the corpses of the NPCs featured in this product
functions for the players in the same manner it did for their users.
For added fun, the GM can even consider allowing the players to find
special narcotic drugs and/or drinks about the facilities that can affect
the players’ performance when used. In such cases, the choices should
be limited to those that had a Star League era availability of A through
D, though the Castle’s chemists have worked up equivalents for the
Qwickstim, Rage, and Spazz performance enhancers as well. Rules for
these can be found in A Time of War (see pp. 317-321, AToW). How often
and where these bits of pharmaceuticals might be found is entirely up
to the GM.
LEVEL 0-ORE MINING AND HYDROPONICS
This level is the only one situated below the detention facilities. It
is where the majority of the laborers once toiled to mine and refine
raw materials for the machine shops above. Tunnels spread out in
all directions, some even curling upward kilometers away from the
complex. Most fell into general disuse as the limited ore veins were
tapped out, and some have caved in, but a number of the central
tunnels were actually widened out to serve as supplemental living
or storage chambers. Three of the larger chambers, however, were
converted into hydroponic gardens that have become a primary source
of the facility’s food.
Rules: As a part of the outpost that post-dates the Castle’s construction,
the Ore Mining and Hydroponics level is the most sprawling and
randomly arranged of Wulfensteiner’s “levels.” Mining tunnels run in
random directions for what seem to be dozens of kilometers in every
direction. Few passages run straight for longer than 30 to 40 meters
before making an abrupt turn or widening into a chamber. The larger
of these chambers can be as large as 60 meters to a side, and many over
the years have been converted into living quarters, complete with doors,
finished walls, and electricity. Indeed, with the notable exceptions of the
 newer, more active mining tunnels, and any collapsed tunnels, this level
Gamemaster's Sourcebook
is lit well enough to impose no visibility modifiers for the players.
When exploring this level, the GM should essentially begin with a blank
grid or hex map and make up each tunnel or chamber as the players
go, feeling free to decide on each tunnel’s direction and distance using
dice, and interspersing chambers after every 100 meters or so. Typical
chambers on this level would serve are residential quarters, storage
areas, communal rooms, and perhaps even latrines. A handy guide for
each new section the players may find could be to roll 2D6 each time
the players come within 30 meters of an unmapped area. On a 2-3 result,
the passage leads to a collapse or dead end after 1D6 spaces; on 4-8,
it’s a tunnel that runs for 1D6 spaces before turning or opening into a
chamber; on 9-10, it’s a small chamber (1D6 x 1D6 spaces in size), and on
11-12, it’s a large chamber (1D6 x 2D6 spaces) or a junction that branches
into 1D6 –2 tunnels (to a minimum of 2 branches).
The hydroponic gardens—all three of which lie near a lift that goes
straight to the Kitchens on Level 2—are a set of chambers that measure
approximately 90 meters by 30 meters, and feature ultraviolet lighting
and water pipes that feed both the main hydroponic tanks and the
sprinkler system that constantly pumps a misting spray over crops of
mostly green and leafy vegetation. These chambers are being kept at a
steamy 29 degrees, making the rest of the tunnel complex feel downright
chilly by comparison. Closer inspection will reveal that the selection of
vegetables here includes a few varieties of potatoes, lettuce, cabbage,
spinach, broccoli, and carrots, though many of them look rather sickly
despite a complete absence of visible parasites or disease. Half of one
hydroponic chamber will grow grains instead, including a mix of wheat,
barley, and some kind of rice, as well as an alien form of cotton, and even
hemp. As with the vegetables, these crops also seem to be rather anemic
and stunted.
NPCs: Level 0 is primarily staffed by Laborers, with a few Guards (roughly
1 for every 10 Laborers) who patrol among them to keep the peace, as
the resident Laborers can get periodically unruly. The hydroponic facilities
are entirely staffed by a mix of Laborers and Techs, many of whom dress
in lighter clothing. Many of these workers bear visible arm tattoos that
resemble the old Smoke Jaguar Clan insignia, but others seem to bear
crude Steiner fist tattoos or Rim Worlds shark markings—all in the same
place, though some appear to be slightly personalized.
Boss (“Uberfreak” Mutant): The “boss” for this level is actually
nothing of the sort, nor does (he?) carry a key card. Similar to Augustus
Katze, this freakishly large specimen is the result of inbreeding and
possible experimentation among the Elementals of the enslaved Smoke
Jaguar population who mostly live in this mining level. Though referred
to as a male, this mutant’s misshapen musculature, long, shaggy hair,
lumpy plate armor, and a strange voice range that includes deep bellows
and high-pitched shrieks, all make his gender difficult to confirm. And
he’s not about to explain it to anyone, as he has the intelligence and
personality of a psychotic toddler. Typically employed in the most
dangerous parts of the mine, he carries a plasma mining drill that serves
as a support laser in combat, but is just as likely to use his fists to solve
a problem.
LEVEL 1-DETENTION AND INTERROGATION
The deepest proper level of Wulfensteiner is its prison complex. Once
largely devoted to raw material storage, supplemental support services,
and the like, it eventually became the gulag where miscreants were
sent by the enclave’s leadership. Rooms that may once have housed
foodstuffs, textiles, machine-ready materials, and equipment, are now
devoted to detention, interrogation, and other punishments intended
to keep the serfs in line.
Rules: See the GM Only part of Track 2: Get Psyched!
NPCs: See the GM Only part of Track 2: Get Psyched!
Boss (Augustus Katze): Referred to almost exclusively as “Katze” by his
fellow guards and soldiers, Katze’s full character stats are shown later in
this section. A product of Smoke Jaguar Elemental inbreeding and heavy
indoctrination, but still in command of his mental faculties, Katze is a
loyal soldier in von Wulfen’s army, and a staunch supporter of the Castle’s
brand of order. Humorless, and loathe to speak to those he considers
26
to be criminals or enemies, Katze quietly struggles to keep in check his
ever-boiling rage. This resolve crumbles quickly if he is injured to the
point of bleeding, however. Triggered at the sight of his own blood, Katze
will fly into a rage and cannot be reasoned with until the one responsible
has been smashed or shot into a lifeless pulp. He typically carries at
least one light machine gun with him at all times in the same way other
soldiers would carry their rifles, as well as an old vibroblade at his belt,
which bears a faded shark insignia in its hilt and has long lost its ability to
function as anything more than a regular blade.
LEVEL 2-KITCHEN AND MESS
This level of Wulfensteiner contains the various food preparation and
dining areas that serves most of the facility’s active duty personnel.
Though originally devoted evenly between dining areas, kitchens, food
storage, water refinement, refrigeration, and waste management, the
Castle’s needs through the centuries forced the addition of livestock
pens and a “raw processing” center. Thus, the grizzliest sections of this
level are the animal pen and slaughterhouse, where the horribly inbred
descendants of Wulfensteiner’s edible fauna are raised in confinement
until they are fit for dining, then butchered. As inhumane and stomach-
churning as it all is, the process has proven quite sustainable in
maintaining stocks of fresh meat.
Rules: The Kitchen Level consists mainly of a series of large chambers
linked in sequence, with few corridors, almost as if it were one giant 700
x 700-meter room subdivided into smaller partitions. Nearly the entire
western half of this level is comprised of dining areas with attached
restrooms, broken up between a communal mess large enough to
feed a battalion of infantry at one time, with multiple serving stations
on the north and south sides, and a quartet of smaller banquet halls
that seem to be used as much to dine as they are as general purpose
rooms for “working lunches.” The northeast quadrant of this level consists
of animal pens in which some form of porcine, fowl, and miniaturized
bovine creatures are bred, kept, and fed in nothing short of horrific
living conditions. Adjacent to these pens is a blood-soaked abattoir that
includes not only a nightmarish number of butchering instruments and
“humane” weapons, but also vats used to store and process waste. Half
the drains found in the floor of this section are clogged and corroded,
and the stink of death, rot, and feces lingers despite air circulators
that at least sound like they’re working. The food prep area dominates
the southeast quadrant of this floor, and includes three distinct, but
interconnected, kitchens with electric ovens, stoves, cabinets, pantries,
and refrigeration units, as well as no small amount of cooking and dining
utensils. A single chamber between the three serves as a dishwashing
and utensil sterilization area, though most of the equipment there looks
badly stained and worn from ages of repeated use.
The elevator from Level 1 takes players to the southern side of this
floor and opens into a long corridor that connects to the southwestern
dining areas to the west and the southernmost kitchens on the east. The
dining areas are unlocked, but the kitchen areas are not. The elevator
from Level 0 takes players to the south east side of this floor, and opens
into a corridor that leads to the animal pens to the north and the kitchens
to the south. The animal pens are unlocked, while the kitchens—once
again—are locked.
Infection Risk: Outside of the basic cutlery and silverware that can
be found throughout this level, most of which are too flimsy and poorly
made to serve as effective weapons, there are many heavier blades,
hooks, chains, and other sharpened implements in the slaughterhouse
and kitchens that can serve as effective stand-ins for axes, hatchets,
daggers, whips, and even spears. But nastier still, are the bacteria
and other toxins that positively thrive on most of these implements,
especially those that are either unwashed or found within the abattoir
and kitchen—not to mention those carried by this level’s “boss,” Sgt.
Max Butcher. While the locals have long since become immune to these
parasites and poisons, no one from the Muse or the players’ group
can say the same, and any wounds they suffer from these weapons
carry a severe risk of infection. Any time a character not native to
Castle Wulfensteiner suffers wounds from one of these weapons, the
character must make an immediate BOD Attribute check. If this roll fails,
 an infection rapidly takes hold at the injury site. Infected characters will
Gamemaster's Sourcebook

lose 1 point from their STR Attribute within 1D6 minutes of the injury,
followed by an additional 1 point of STR damage for every 12 hours
after that.
Attempts to treat an infected wound suffer a –2 modifier to the roll
result. The infected condition continues until the character is reduced
to a STR score of –1 (at which point they perish), or until 1D6 hours after
a successful treatment with antibiotics and sterile bandages. After an
infection runs its course following a successful treatment, the character
will regain 1 lost point of STR for every 2 hours, until they reach their
original pre-infection STR score.
NPCs: Level 2 is primarily staffed by Laborers and Techs representing
the food prep, storage, and maintenance staff here, with an average of
1D6 of each NPC type in each room. An additional 3D6 x 5 Guards, 2D6 x
5 Soldiers, and 1D6 Officers will be present as well, scattered among the
dining areas they were visiting when the base-wide alarm went off. The
kitchens are manned by 2D6 Laborers, 1D6 Techs, and the Boss.
Boss (Max Butcher): Sergeant Butcher is not quite right in the head.
Having spent most of his “career” in the kitchens and slaughterhouse of
Level 2, he tends to see everything as a potential food source. Though
he seems to love the animals kept on this level, and takes an active
interest in ensuring their health and continued reproduction to the best
of his ability, he nevertheless relishes the act of butchering them, and
thus is rarely seen without the pair of blood-stained vibroaxes at the
belt of his apron. Used so frequently that the stains appear resistant to
even the best of the Castle’s cleaning systems, a single cut from these
weapons can cause infections almost as lethal as the blades alone (see
Infection Risk, above). As meat shortages occur somewhat regularly in the
outpost, Butcher is no stranger to using “anthroid” stock to supplement
his menu from time to time—candidates for which are almost always
an option under Wulfensteiner’s draconian penal system. Law-abiding
Castle residents are wise not to question where (or who) the “mystery
meat” comes from.

LEVEL 3-LIVING QUARTERS

(SUPPORT SERVICES)
This level is mostly habitation rooms and recreational facilities for the
“working class” of Wulfensteiner’s personnel. In essence, this is where the
serfs live who rank above those found among Level 0’s mines.
Rules: All of the Living Quarters levels are essentially laid out in the
fashion of an immense hotel, with long, straight hallways bounding rows
of suite-sized “rooms” set adjacent to each other on both sides. As all of
these levels are set underground, none can boast a superior “view,” but
the corner suites of the outer perimeter, and those closest to the elevators
(two per outer wall, plus two in the 20 x 20-meter central common area)
tend to be the most coveted of living spaces for their slightly increased
size and convenient locations. The walls between each apartment are
typically around 50 to 100 centimeters thick ferrocrete, and serve as
the main support structure for the level, while interior apartment walls
are much thinner fiberglass-and-plaster dividers over metal framework
that provide at least some privacy between chambers, but only modest
protection against small arms.
The quarters for Support Service personnel are small and Spartan, with
most effectively laid out as 10 x 4-meter floorplans that typically include
2 or 3 adjoining rooms and a utilitarian washroom. Basic bedding and
cookie-cutter furniture are commonplace, as are the flat-screen monitors
that most of the inhabitants use as a virtual window. (Each apartment
has one such vid screen, but not all of them are functional these days.)
NPCs: The overwhelming majority of the NPCs found on this level will
be an even mix of Laborer and Technician classes, most of whom are
unarmed. As most apartments here are meant to be shared between 2
to 4 individuals, the GM can get by with rolling 1D6 to find the number of
NPCs who might be found in any given apartment as the players attempt
to enter, dividing the resulting number as evenly as possible between
Laborers and Techs. An additional smattering of Guard and Soldier NPCs
(3D6 of each) may also show up on this level, usually dispersed alone or
in pairs, acting either as level security or having just been stuck on this

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 level when the base-wide alert went up while they were visiting with
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some friends. Most of these armed enemies will be wandering the halls
between apartments now that the base is under alert.
Boss (Luther Schabbs): A high-ranking and respected member of the
Castle’s medical community (though far from its chief medical officer),
Doctor Schabbs is seen by many on Level 3 as something of a residential
leader for his floor and thus has been entrusted with its emergency
bypass key. Schabbs lives in one of the outer corner apartments with his
wife and a roommate, but the elevator his key unlocks is located in the
main common room at the heart of this level. Although he is a civilian by
class, and is more of a healer than a fighter, Schabbs is trained in the use
of firearms and will not see the off-worlders as anything but a dire threat
while the base-wide lockdown remains in effect.
LEVEL 4-LIVING QUARTERS (SOLDIERY)
This level is much like Level 3, but for Wulfensteiner’s “middle class”:
the security staff and enlisted-grade soldiers that once filled out the bulk
of the Division’s infantry and armored combatants.
Rules: This level’s layout follows the same basic floorplan as Level 3
does, but most of the apartments here are 15 x 6-meter apartments,
offering a little more living space for their occupants.
Even though this level is meant for people the Wulfensteiner society
consider to be of “higher class,” the furnishings and décor here will
appear to be rougher and more age-worn than found on Level 3, mainly
because this place has been home to generations of roughneck warriors
who routinely rely on others to fix the things they tend to break after
weekends of hard partying and the occasional tussle. Easily half the vid-
screens on this level are either broken or hooked up to game systems
that are only semi-functional.
NPCs: As most of this floor’s occupants are Guard and Soldier class,
whose quarters are meant for sharing between up to 6 individuals, the
GM can use much the same approach as used on Level 3 to determine
how many NPCs occupy any given apartment, splitting the 1D6 result
evenly between Guards and Soldiers. Additionally, the GM should roll 2D6
for every time the players turn a corner or pass by an intersection while in
the main halls of this level, adding the highest Stealth Skill level among
the player-characters to the result and subtracting 1 (to a maximum of
4) for every full 15 seconds passed since the last time they were in active
combat. If the result is 7 or less, 1D6 Guard NPCs will turn up and begin
to converge on them from a distance of 50 meters along the halls ahead
of them, behind them, or around the new corner. If engaged in a hallway
fight, an additional 1D6 Soldiers will join the battle after 1 minute, drawn
in by the commotion. Before any encounter, the GM may substitute one
Guard or Soldier NPC with an Officer NPC for some added variety.
Boss (Renate Adler): Although she is betrothed to a Captain on Level
6, Lieutenant Adler still lives on the Soldiery Level for now, and was in
her quarters when the base-wide alert went out. Given her social status
as an ascendant member of the Castle’s Lyran-heritage community, she
has been entrusted with this Level’s emergency access keycard, and thus
serves as nominal “floor commander” here. Though she tends to patrol
the halls with her laser rifle strapped behind her and her hand on an
old Rorynex SMG, she prefers using the laser in combat, because she
considers firing bullets a waste of precious metal resources. Renate lives
in one of the suites near the northeast corner of this floor, but her key
only activates the floor’s southern-most elevator.
LEVEL 5-INDOOR TRAINING AND RANGES
This level has the look of a college campus, with various rooms
arranged like lecture halls, a few gymnasiums, firing ranges, and even
simulator bays and arcades. The musk of generations of excruciating
workouts on top of increasingly poor ventilation gives this floor a funk
only outclassed by the kitchen level’s animal pens and slaughterhouse.
Not surprisingly, this level also features enough communal showers and
locker rooms to accommodate a battalion’s worth of infantry at once.
Rules: The rooms on this level are laid out roughly like those found
on the other residential levels (3, 4, and 6), but instead of living suites
divided into smaller spaces, the majority are open, 15 x 15-meter
chambers populated by furnishings and equipment appropriate to their
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function (e.g. desks and podiums in lecture halls; consoles and pods for
simulator bays; assorted exercise equipment for gyms; gaming tables
and vid consoles for arcades). Soldier and Operative NPCs are among the
most active here, and many will wander the halls, but a cross section of
all NPC classes can be found in the various rooms. Firearms and ammo
might be found in the 30 x 15-meter firing range or its adjacent weapons
lockers, but these rooms are each being guarded by a squad of troops
who know it will be a tempting target during the base-wide emergency.
Non-lethal and light melee weapons may be found in and near the gyms
where they are often used to practice close-combat training.
NPCs: For most of the rooms the players enter, the GM should roll 2D6
to determine how many NPCs occupy the chamber. At least 1D6 of these
NPCs should be an even mix of Soldier and Operative NPCs, while the
rest may be of any other NPC class deemed appropriate for the room.
Nobody with any sense takes a shower while alarms are going off, so
if the players enter any of the communal shower or locker rooms, they
should instead only find 1D6 Laborers in the place, most of whom are
merely janitors. Hallway encounters on this level will tend to involve 1D6
Soldiers, who will be reinforced by 1 or 2 Operative NPCs within a minute
of engaging the players group.
If the players come close to the weapons locker rooms near the firing
range (which is located near the center of this floor), they will encounter
a team of 6 Soldier NPCs, 2 Operative NPCs, and the “Uberfreak” Mutant
Boss who specifically guard that area.
Boss (“Uberfreak” Mutant): So similar to the one found on Level 0
that she might be his twin, this female “Uberfreak” is being groomed as
a soldier and takes orders from one of the Operatives in her squad. She
answers to “Flamer,” but it’s unclear if that’s her name or just because she
happens to be carrying a portable flamethrower. She’s definitely smarter
than her counterpart on Level 0, considering she can speak and follow
commands, but clearly not as smart as Katze as her own utterances are
mostly limited to grunts of acknowledgement, howls of pain and/or rage,
and a cackling laugh when she triggers her flamer weapon. She carries
the pass key to the next level, but only because the Operative giving her
orders tucked it into her armor for safe keeping. The elevator it accesses
is located on the west side of the level.
LEVEL 6-LIVING QUARTERS
(OFFICER CORPS)
The habitation rooms and rec facilities for the officer corps (including
MechWarriors of all ranks) are downright luxurious compared to those
found on Level 4. There’s even a library and holo-theater on this level,
although the reading material is limited, and the holo-projector stopped
working in three-dimensions at least 100 years ago.
Rules: This level’s layout follows the same basic floorplan as Level 3
does, save for the addition of two additional 20 x 20-meter “common
rooms” along the north-south centerline, where one is specialized
to serve as a digital and physical book library, and another functions
as a theater. Most of the apartments on this level are 12 x 12-meter
suites divided into 6 rooms, which grants their occupants luxurious
appointments like an extra vid screen, enough bedrooms to raise a small
family and entertain guests, and sometimes even two bathrooms.
The furnishings and décor here are in much better shape and quality
than those found on Level 3, and all the vid-screens on this level are in
good working order. Rank has its privileges, after all.
NPCs: Much as is the case in Levels 3 and 4, generating encounters
in the private quarters found on this level can be done by simply
rolling 1D6 to find the number of NPCs per suite. At least one of these
NPCs must be an Officer, but the rest can be Officer, Soldier, Guard,
or Technician NPCs to reflect the friends and/or family typical of those
who serve in the Castle’s leadership. In the larger common rooms, this
roll may be made twice per room. As with level 4, the GM should also
roll 2D6 every time the players turn a corner or pass by an intersection
while in the main halls of this level, adding the highest Stealth Skill
level among the player-characters to the result and subtracting 1 (to
a maximum of 4) for every full 15 seconds passed since the last time
they were in active combat. If the result is 7 or less, 1D6 Soldier NPCs
 will turn up and begin to converge on them from a distance of 50
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meters along the halls ahead of them, behind them, or around the new
corner. If engaged in a hallway fight, an additional 1D6 Officers will
join the battle after 1 minute, drawn in by the commotion. Before any
encounter, the GM may substitute one Soldier or Officer NPC with an
Operative NPC for some added variety.
Boss (Thomas Vonwinkle): Captain Vonwinkle is seen by many of his
fellow officers as a “pretty boy,” who takes great pains to keep up his clean
and unspoiled appearance, while maintaining some of the best-kept
uniform attire in the Castle. Even his shoes and rank insignia are polished
daily. But while vanity is certainly one of his defining traits, it’s not his
only one. He is also a straight-laced and serious officer who practices
regularly in hand-to-hand combat, marksmanship, and swordplay, to the
point where his prowess is notably superior to most of Wulfensteiner’s
officer corps in all three forms of martial arts. Some even suspect that
he’s actually part of a secret cabal of operatives that von Wulfen uses to
monitor the command staff for signs of disloyalty.
LEVEL 7-TACTICAL
HEADQUARTERS (CIC)
The nerve center for the facility, this is where the officers and their
support staff monitor and administrate the entire complex. Security on
this level is significant, especially since this level also houses the majority
of the computer and control systems that not only helped the facility’s
inhabitants plan military operations, but also maintains most of the
complex’s life support systems, power distribution, communications,
and so forth.
Rules: The layout of this floor is effectively a hybrid of Levels 5 and
6. As with Level 5, there are several chambers that effectively serve as
conference and lecture halls, likely for the purposes of training and
briefing up to 120 soldiers at a time, complete with video and (in one
room, anyway) holographic projector systems. Many offices, ranging
in size from 3 x 9-meter filing rooms to 12 x 12-meter command suites,
essentially follow the layout of the officers’ living quarters, and there
is even a cafeteria on this level that smells and looks way better than
the messes on Level 2. At least four larger rooms (20 x 20-meter to 30
x 30-meter) are also found on this level as well that will be locked to
unauthorized personnel. Two of these function as command bunkers,
and feature armored walls and bulkheads, all of which are covered by
security cameras. Getting inside requires “buzzing in”, and is unlikely to
go well by anyone who isn’t readily recognized as part of the officer staff.
The other two are the communications and control rooms from which
orders are relayed base-wide, and beyond. The comm/control centers
also use a “buzz-in” system for entry by non-authorized personnel, but
some comm-techs and officers on this level also possess key cards that
unlock these doors without that formality.
If the players can breach the comm/control centers and take over
their operations long enough, they may be able to perform a number
of actions that are difficult or impossible to handle elsewhere, but will
require convincing performances over the internal communications to
the right people, and/or some supremely high-difficulty Computer skills
checks. Of the key actions, players may:
• Identify Key Base Features (e.g. the location of the base fusion plants
and life support systems, the location of the base’s outer-defense
and anti-air platforms, the radar control towers and HPG/Comm
Hub). (Computers Skill; Difficult without authorization.) Useful for
planning their next moves.
• Disable Base’s Outer Defense Platforms. (Computers Skill; Very
Difficult without authorization.) This will allow DropShips parked
nearby to leave the planet unmolested for the next 12-24 hours.
• Shut Down Main Power. (Computers Skill; Very Difficult without
authorization.) Puts base in Emergency Power Mode, disabling
electronic locks, computers, and non-portable communications.
All interior lighting becomes dim. Exterior lighting shuts down. All
elevators shut down. Life support continues operation. Lasts until the
base personnel can reactivate it or 1D6 hours, whichever comes first.
• Call Anyone on Base Frequencies. (Communications Skill; Difficult
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without Authorization; Automatic if hailed first.) Can be used to
negotiate with, threaten, or taunt other base officers and personnel.
• Override Base-Wide Lockdown. (Communications and Negotiation
Skills; Very Difficult without Authorization.) This specifically involves
calling Major Dumas on Level 8 and convincing him that the crisis
is over and that the players’ group and their allies are all dead or in
custody. Dumas will require some proof and/or authorization from
Offenbach himself before doing so. If accomplished, all elevators
and stairwell access points will be unlocked base-wide, and the
base-wide alert will be cancelled.
NPCs: Use the Level 6 NPC rules as a guide for this floor, but replace
any Guard NPCs with Soldier NPCs, and add 1D6 Operative NPCs to
any encounters that take place in the hallways, the command bunkers,
or the communications/control rooms. Major Offenbach starts this
level in one of the command bunkers, with a personal entourage that
includes 2 Officers (3, if the GM takes the option to include Dr. Carmack
as a “mini boss”), and 4 Soldier NPCs—essentially his original “welcoming
committee” group
Boss (Ephram Offenbach): Major Offenbach is Major General von
Wulfen’s right-hand man and perhaps his closest advisor. Close to
earning his Colonel’s star, he is seen by many as heir-apparent to von
Wulfen’s title as planetary governor and Major General, and has a bit of a
cocky attitude as a result. No fool, he will try and remain in his command
bunker if the players reach his level, relying on the troops to deal with
the threat. If Carmack is with him, he will send the Doctor out to “talk
sense” to the players in the event they get too close to his bunker—then
lock the bunker doors behind the turncoat researcher. Offenbach may
be convinced to leave the bunker if the players manage to convince
him that they will surrender, have been defeated, and/or gain control
of a communications/command center and cause too much mayhem
there. Alternatively, the players can simply hope to bypass Offenbach
altogether and try to find another way to the next level. Offenbach’s key
opens the elevator door on the south perimeter wall.
LEVEL 8-OUTER SECURITY
This level is the Wulfensteiner’s bulwark against outside dangers,
and is the one manned almost as much as the CIC during day-to-day
operations. Most of the facility’s small arms, munitions, and personal
body armor are found on this level in no less than four separate armories.
Outer security not only monitors threats coming from above, but also
maintains watch over the internal security cameras and remote sensors
in the levels below. It is from here that the facility can be placed in
general lockdown, and here that it may be unlocked.
Rules: This level of Castle Wulfensteiner is a virtual repeat of Level 1,
save for the fact that the four wings of prison cells branch out to the
south of the entryway, rather than the north, which suggests the entire
accessible part of this floor lies entirely beyond the normal Castle’s
layout for some reason. As with level 1, each wing includes its own
guard station and two special, soundproofed interrogation cells for
each wing, plus two more “solitary confinement” chambers. The master
guard station, surrounded by armored glass and filled with security
control and communications systems, as well as camera monitoring
stations and a couple of emergency lockers, faces the elevator entrance
they players arrive at. Because that is where the level boss—Major Guy
Dumas—operates from, a serious fight can erupt instantly here, as he will
be present in that chamber, clad in a black Nighthawk PA(L) suit bearing
Star League Empire insignia.
If the players opt to fan out into the floor—they’re sitting ducks in the
elevator, after all—they will find the cells and cameras on this floor are in
much better shape than those of Level 1. There are no forgotten corpses
or neglected prisoners in these cells, nor are there any readily apparent
signs of staining and rusting in the floors, walls, and cage bars. All the
cameras are working. All the personnel here are on alert. Level 1 wishes
it could be Level 8.
NPCs: Each wing of this level is manned by 2D6 Soldier NPCs, plus an
additional 1D6 Operative NPCs attending their attached guard stations.
Dumas, alerted to the players’ approach by all the chaos below, has
 dropped a special bulkhead down on the north facing of the elevator
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to this level, which would have opened to a corridor that leads some
300 meters northward into a 20 x 20-meter common room/reception
area manned by 1D6 Guard NPCs. The elevator Dumas’s key opens can
be found in this common room, and will take the players up from Level
9 to as far as the surface on Level 12, but nowhere below it. Heavy vault
doors on the sides of this hidden corridor protect whatever’s beyond
them, though their contents may include weapon lockers and other
supplies vital to the base’s operation, if the GM wishes to make one or
two of them accessible.
1D6 Operative NPCs are present in the master guard station with
Dumas when the players arrive. All Soldier and Operative NPCs, as
well as Dumas himself, carry keys that can unlock the cell doors and
bypass the lockout gates for each wing on this level. But only Dumas
carries the key that will unlock the bulkhead in the arrival elevator’s
north facing, and the elevator in the common room 300 meters
beyond that.
Boss (Guy Dumas): Although they are of equal rank in the Castle’s
power structure, Majors Dumas and Offenbach are a study in contrasts.
Where Offenbach represents the face of Wulfensteiner’s officer corps,
Guy Dumas is the pinnacle of its soldiery class. A warrior in his prime,
Dumas is in peak physical form and his martial abilities are the closest to
Veteran-grade that the warriors of Miklagard have seen in ages. As one
of the very few in the Castle who can pilot battle armor, owing to the
utter scarcity of such equipment since the facilities’ founding as much as
anything else, Dumas will rise to the challenge of the players’ collective
threat appropriately.
Major Dumas is a merciless fighter, and though his battle stats are given
in the format of a conventional trooper, remember that his Nighthawk
PA(L) suit’s armor values will not degrade from damage the way other
personal armor does. If his Damage Monitor is reduced below 50 percent
of its starting pips (less than 7/14 pips), or if his primary weapon runs
out of ammo, 1D6 Operatives will emerge from nearby halls or doors to
engage the players and cover Dumas as he attempts to withdraw to his
command center.
Once back as his command post, Dumas will spend 5 turns reloading
and dosing himself with enough Level 3 Improved MediPacks and Wound
Patches to wipe out all his Fatigue and reach 75 percent of his starting
health (at least 11/14 pips). After this, he will emerge to resume the fight.
(Each Medipack taken clears 8 points of Fatigue, while each Wound Patch
heals 2 points of Damage and applies 4 Fatigue points, forcing Dumas
to alternate between the two to avoid going completely unconscious
during his recovery; see pp. 26-27, AToWC for more information.)
Upon rejoining the fight after his withdrawal, the recovered Dumas
will suffer a –2 modifier to all dice rolls, reflecting a drug-induced haze
caused by the combined effects of rushing right back into action with
the flood of chemicals he’s taken all at once. Dumas will not withdraw a
second time.
LEVEL 9-MOTOR POOL
This 800 x 800-meter level is devoted to housing vehicles, and is large
enough to accommodate a full regiment’s worth of armored combat
vehicles at once. Garage-like vehicle bays line the outer walls, while the
rest of the floor is given over mainly to open parking areas, large lifts, and
enough 3 x 3-meter ferrocrete columns and rusty, dust-covered gantries
to both support the ceilings and provide ample places to hide. Adjacent
storage facilities contain parts and replacement munitions, though most
of these reserves have long run dry. The use of bays large enough for
heavy combat vehicles—regardless of vehicle sizes—also makes it easier
for techs to move about when maintaining, repairing, or cannibalizing
these machines.
Six large elevators spaced along the interior of the Motor Pool enable
the transfer of units toward the surface via the ’Mech Bays on Levels
10 and 11, but some of these have broken down, forcing the vehicle
operators to reply either on the temperamental few that remain, or
simply make use of (currently sealed) emergency tunnels that corkscrew
their way up to the surface.
Rules: Although key access is no longer required to access the lifts
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on Level 9 and up, not all of the lifts here are in working order these
days. The first time the players attempt to activate any given lift on these
levels, roll 2D6 to determine if it is functional or not. On a roll result of
5 or less, the elevator is mechanically out of service. (If, somehow, all
other lifts are found to be non-functional in this manner, the last one the
players attempt to use will work regardless of the roll.) All of the vehicle
and personnel elevators that do work on levels 9 and up can be operated
without requiring an access key, but the vehicle-scale platforms only
run from Levels 9 to 11 (with automatic, 30-second stops at every level
between that can prove annoying. Only the four corner elevators on
Level 11 will reach the surface (Level 12). Personnel lifts on all these levels
will only run as low as Level 8.
Note that levels 9 through 11 are all underground chambers of the
same basic type (the only major difference being that 10 and 11 are
scaled for BattleMechs instead of conventional vehicles). The ceilings
on Level 9 are thus about 12 meters high, while those of Levels 10 and
11 are 18 meters high. Vehicles and ’Mechs inside these levels may not
expend Jumping or flying MP of any kind. Attempting to do so will
deliver 36 damage points to the jumping unit, delivered in 6-point hits
to the unit’s Front Punch Table (or directly to the Rotor/Turret section on
flying vehicles), after which the unit will fall in its current hex, suffering
additional damage as appropriate. Any ’Mechs attempting to operate
on Level 9 would have to stoop to avoid crashing through the overhead
catwalks, light fixtures, conduits, and pipes that run along the Motor
Pool’s ceilings. Attempting this imposes an additional +1 MP cost per 30-
meter hex of travel, and requires a Piloting Skill, with a –1 roll modifier,
at the end of any Movement Phase where the unit expends more than
its Walking MP. Failure of this Piloting check will result in the ’Mech
becoming entangled in the superstructure, requiring an extra +2 MP to
break free, at a cost of 1D6 damage delivered to the unit on the Front
Punch Table.
NPCs: The Motor Pool and Lower ’Mech Bays are each populated by
2D6 x 5 Laborer and Technician NPCs (at a 2:1 ratio between Laborers
and Techs), and 2D6 x 5 Guard and Soldier NPCs (at a similar 2:1 ratio
between Guards and Soldiers). These NPCs are scattered about the 800
x 800-meter space in groups of 4 for non-combatants, and pairs for
combatants. The open nature of the Motor Pool, and the tendency for all
noise to echo here, means that most NPCs will be aware of any fighting
immediately. Once anyone yells or any firearms are discharged on this
Level, the nearest non-combatant NPCs will scatter away, while the
nearest groups of combatant NPCs will converge on the players’ position.
Boss (None): The Motor Pool has no bosses. Key card access is not
required to ascend to the next level up.
LEVEL 10-LOWER BATTLEMECH BAYS
A regiment’s worth of ’Mechs were once located here. Now, it’s
basically a bone yard for the complex’s heavy equipment. The 6 large
elevators from Level 9 run through this floor and may also be accessed
from this level, where they can be taken to either the Motor Pool or the
Upper ’Mech Bays above. Virtually every man-sized access path into this
level is capable of air-tight sealing, as this is one of the floors most likely
to be compromised and sealed off in the event of an atmospheric breach.
Rules: Use the rules for Level 9, above. As the same elevators run
through both levels, any that were identified as non-functional on Level
9 will remain non-functional on Level 10. ’Mechs need not stoop when
walking on this level.
NPCs: Use the same NPC population rules as Level 9.
Boss (None): The Lower ’Mech bays have no bosses. Key card access is
not required to ascend to the next level up.
LEVEL 11-UPPER BATTLEMECH BAYS
Laid out much like Level 10, this floor is where the remaining functional
BattleMechs are. Since Wulfensteiner only had a single ’Mech regiment
when it fell off the grid, most of these bays are filled with aging war
machines. This level also represents the point where the Castle reaches
the “surface”. The ’Mechs thus have ample room to maneuver here, so
that they can walk to any of the six main egress bays that lead outside. As
with Level 10, virtually every man-sized access point to this level features
 air-tight seals, as this floor is the one most likely to be compromised and
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sealed off in the event of atmospheric breach.
Level 11 is the final stop for the 6 large vehicular lifts from the Motor
Pool. Four additional vehicular lifts, set in the corners of this massive
level, lead up to the surface complex. All of the working vehicular lifts
to the surface will take the characters who ride them to special airlocks
in the corners of the Castle’s central surface structure. Once raised, the
four corner lifts will engage their own air-tight seals, as they effectively
form the floor of the outer airlocks that will automatically depressurize
in anticipation of the unit’s deployment. These elevators will only return
once the bay above them are emptied and re-pressurized. The personnel-
scale elevators, meanwhile, will surface inside the same largely empty
surface structure the players were led to from the base’s receiving area.
Rules: See the rules for Level 10 for basic details, noting the change
in vehicular elevator layout. If the players’ ’Mechs and vehicles can
be found here, the players may opt to reclaim them, but will need to
boot up all their units from a cold state before they can move out. This
takes a full minute for BattleMechs and battle armor, half a minute for
IndustrialMechs and Combat Vehicles, and 15 seconds for non-combat
vehicles. All ’Mech and battle armor units from the players group will be
found here in the prone position.
NPCs: The Upper ’Mech Bays are populated by 3D6 x 5 Laborer and
Technician NPCs (at a 2:1 ratio between Laborers and Techs), and 4D6
x 5 Guard and Soldier NPCs (at a similar 2:1 ratio between Guards and
Soldiers). These NPCs are scattered about the 800 x 800-meter space
in groups of 5 for non-combatants, and groups of 4 for combatants.
An additional 2D6 Guards will be milling about in the vicinity of any
machines captured from the players’ group that are found here. As with
Levels 9 and 10, the tendency for all noise to echo here, means that most
NPCs will be aware of any fighting immediately. Once anyone yells or
any firearms are discharged on this Level, the nearest non-combatant
NPCs will scatter away, while the nearest groups of combatant NPCs will
converge on the players’ position.
Boss (None): The Upper ’Mech bays have no bosses. Key card access is
not required to ascend to the next level up.
LEVEL 12-THE SURFACE COMPLEX
The exterior description of the Wulfensteiner base complex can be
found in the Tactical Analysis of Track 1 (Welcome, Travelers!). In essence,
the entirety of the Castle’s surface complex—counting the adjacent
landing pads and runways—covers roughly 15 square kilometers of
land at the southern edge of a low plateau overlooking a sprawling
canyon complex. Built along the lines of a Castle Brian, it boasts a mix
of concealed anti-spacecraft naval weapons, a (now-inoperative) HPG,
multiple radar towers, and multiple runways and landing pads for an
assortment of vessels and aircraft. The walls and rooftops of the various
structures are heavily fortified and armored, and any building meant to
house personnel is pressurized to contain a breathable atmosphere, with
airlocks at all entry doors. The large, low, 850 x 850-meter structure at the
center—upon which rise the primary radar towers and the broken HPG
receiver dish—is the central Castle complex the players will spend the
bulk of the adventure within.
The interior of the central structure will be accessible only from the
personnel elevators from Levels 9 through 11, or via the long tunnels
running from the east and west receiving areas on the surface. For safety
and security, the vehicular airlocks in the corners are sealed off from the
rest of the surface-level structure, so players using those access points
will be unable to enter the central structure that way.
Inside the central surface building are the most neglected parts
of the entire Castle the players might encounter. Here, apart from a
small group of electric people-movers that can take passengers out
to the airlocks of the base’s receiving areas, they will find a network of
numerous small offices and chambers that have clearly fallen into utter
disuse. Abandoned furniture and long-dead computer stations abound
throughout this level, but three key areas may be of interest, if the
players find themselves here. Two of these are special rooms with thick,
vault-like doors near each of the western corners of this surface building.
These open to reveal that they are, in fact, airlocks, with access ladders
31
leading up, through ceiling hatches, into a pair of radio and radar control
towers that rise a full 20 meters above the roof of the main complex.
Left in some kind of automated stand-by mode that can be remotely
operated from deeper within the Castle, these towers have been left
depressurized, as the airlock safety control displays will attest. No amount
of tinkering will activate a pressurization beyond them, as key air seals
in both towers have long since degraded into failure, allowing in the
planet’s natural air. The towers can still be accessed despite the lack of
pressure and breathable air, but only characters donning environmental
gear with integral air supplies will be able to survive in those conditions
for very long. The third area of interest—dominating the surface
structure’s northeast quadrant—are the controls and machinery for the
base’s defunct hyperpulse generator. Locked up and abandoned since
whenever it was that the thing was decommissioned, players interested
in checking it out will need to break in, and will largely find ancient and
long-dead technology inside, with stale, dry, and thin—but at least
breathable—air.
If the players muck about enough in the base HPG’s comm station,
where its techs once spent their days sending, receiving, and decoding
interstellar transmissions, they may ultimately coax the last message sent
from its data banks: a message, relayed from “Omega Heart,” back on 16
December 2768:
“Apollo has fallen. Terra in doubt. Set Condition Black.
Godspeed, Commanders.”
Another message, partially corrupted, may be found on further
investigation. Received from a relay station, this one dates to December
of 2815, and its garbled message invites any survivors from the fallen
Rim Worlds Republic to seek refuge within “the Virginian Union.” No
evidence of a response to this message from Stone Wolf complex will be
found in the data banks, even though it may be determined that the HPG
remained operational as late as 2852. For whatever reason, it seems, the
Castle’s leadership simply ignored the invitation.
Rules: For the sake of simplicity, all of the Castle’s major structures
(anything larger than two 30-meter hexes in size on a BattleTech map
sheet) will have a Construction Factor of 120 Capital-scale damage points
per hex, with an additional 30 points of Capital-scale armor in each
exposed facing (including the rooftops). All smaller structures of 2 30-
meter hexes or less in size have a Construction Factor of 60 Capital-scale
points per hex, with an additional 13 points of Capital-grade armor on
each exposed facing.
When attacked by small arms and support weapons, these buildings
suffer no significant damage; only heavy (vehicle-scale) and capital-
grade weapons will inflict damage to these structures. To convert
vehicle-grade heavy weapons damage to capital-scale damage, divide
the total damage inflicted on the structure by the weapon by 10, and
round normally (rounding up at .5), then apply this damage to the
structure’s armor, passing any excess to the structure CF itself. Capital
weapon damage need not be converted. Entering or exiting a structure
without going through an open door or gate will require the destruction
of all armor on the hex facing the unit will enter through, after which
infantry units may enter at a cost of 1 MP, while all other units must spend
an additional +5 MP (+4 for small buildings) to enter, exit, and move
through each building hex. Damage caused to vehicular units moving
into or through buildings will inflict the Building’s current Capital-scale
CF to the unit as standard damage. Collapsing buildings add normal
falling damage to this effect, plus the CF of the building hex, times the
number of levels above the unit at the time of the collapse.
A breach to the walls of any building will effectively void its
atmospheric integrity, but special interior bulkheads will limit this to only
the first undamaged 30-meter hexes into the structure.
The Apogee Muse lands at the center of the northeast landing pad
(Drop Pad A) at the start of the first Track (Welcome, Travelers!), but may
be moved to another pad if it is successfully captured (although, given
that Pad D is cluttered and B is slowly falling off the plateau thanks to
wind erosion, the best option there is Pad C). If the Muse was destroyed,
its wreckage will be in the vicinity of Drop Pad A, and will count as a pile
of rubble that fills an area 1D6 x 3 hexes across and may even continue
to smolder for days afterward. The remains of two other Spheroid
Gamemaster's Sourcebook

Castle wulfensteiner

Drop Pad D Drop Pad C

Drop Pad iB Drop Pad A

scale: 1 grid square = 100 meters N

32
 DropShips stand on the southwest pad (Drop Pad D), where they may
Gamemaster's Sourcebook
either be given the base stats of non-functional Union-class vessels, or
treated as 1D6 x 6-meter high, 90-meter diameter, rubble-filled buildings
with a CF of 25+3D6 per hex.
See the map on page 32 for a guide to the Castle Wulfensteiner surface
complex.
BEYOND THE CASTLE-THE MOCK CITIES
Beyond the Wulfensteiner complex and into the vast wastes of
Miklagard, players can find a multitude of city ruins in various sizes
from small villages and suburban towns to dense, tower-filled urban
sprawls. Most of the lighter buildings in these mock cities have long
crumbled to rubble, but a few Heavy- and Hardened-CF structures
have stubbornly withstood the ages, and now rise above a landscape
of winding, sand-covered streets and the occasional forgotten wreck of
Star League-era technology.
In a few rare instances, these mock cities might even be inhabited by
outcasts from the Castle, who struggle to survive using salvaged air and
water purification technologies, patchwork environmental gear, and
whatever weapons they could scrounge or barter for. How the denizens
of these tiny enclaves will react to the arrival of off-world strangers is
really anyone’s guess.
THE HOLDOUTS
The people of Miklagard, dissidents and Wulfensteiner personnel alike,
have been fed an elaborate story for generations that claim the Star
League never fell after Stefan Amaris’s coup. In fact, they believe, Amaris
reforged the League into a true empire—the Star League Empire—after
the fall of the weak and corrupt Camerons and the defeat of the “Great
Betrayer,” Aleksandr Kerensky. In this elaborate fiction, the Rim Worlds
Republic became the first among equals in the new order, thanks to
its acceptance of diversity, strength of character, and the greatness of
its people. Apollo, also known to them as Terra Prime, has become as
important as Terra herself in this hierarchy, and the Republic thrives as
never before.
STAR LEAGUE EMPIRE
RANKS, TERMS, AND INSIGNIA
The Wulfensteiner chain of command uses the SLDF rank structure and
insignia in daily life, with only minor changes. The biggest visible changes
are the changes in all references to the “Star League” as the “Star League
Empire,” the “Star League Defense Force (SLDF)” to “Star League Imperial
Command (SLIC),” and the use of the Amaris Shark, superimposed over
the Cameron Star on all faction logos.
THE PARTY LINE
The history and development of Castle Wulfensteiner from a secret
Rim Worlds Outpost to a colony world on the far edge of Imperial space
is a grossly rewritten account of actual events that has been reinforced
by generations of those who descend from its original leadership. As
a result, virtually every Castle resident, from the lowest laborers to the
governor himself, espouse the following interpretations of events. And
most of them even believe it all.
Beginning with the founding of the Castle, even before the planet
was named Miklagard, there is no denial that the first generation who
lived on this world were those devoted to building Stefan Amaris’s
secret armies for the ultimate goal of overthrowing the Cameron
dynasty. Portraying the reign of House Cameron as inherently corrupt,
and Protector Aleksandr Kerensky as the slavish follower and enforcer
of said corruption, this version of events paints the Coup as a liberation
of mankind’s beloved homeworld from the grip of monsters driven mad
with power. Stefan Amaris, having tried for years to break the Terran
Hegemony’s endless cycles of abuse toward the outer realms—which
includes not only the four freedom-loving Periphery states that existed in
the 2760s, but also the five noble Great House powers—eventually found
himself unable to steer the young First Lord Richard Cameron away from
33
the path of evil his forefathers forged before him. Finding the House lords
too cowed by the Star Lord and his vicious SLDF Commanding General,
it was thus, with great reluctance, that Stefan realized the only hope for
humanity lay in he alone seizing the throne by force. To that end were the
secret Rim Worlds Outposts created, where the true patriots of the Star
League would be raised and trained for their grim duty.
In the wake of what the Castle residents call “the Patriotic Coup,” what
should have been a swift transition to a fairer and more egalitarian
Star League became instead a civil war as General Aleksandr Kerensky
attempted to rebel on behalf of his dead masters. Going so far as to
invade the Rim Worlds Republic in a petty and misguided effort to
punish Amaris by butchering his innocent countrymen, Kerensky and his
marauders savaged world after world without mercy or remorse. Until
their final defeat on the Republic’s capital of Terra Prime, in the Apollo star
system. With Kerensky killed in that fateful battle, the renegade elements
of the SLDF were thrown back and scattered. With their leaders dead, the
disparate and demoralized rebel forces were captured or destroyed over
the following decade, thanks to the greater unity and strength of First
Lord Stefan Amaris and his loyalist armies.
As the smoke of the civil war cleared, Amaris and his fellow House
Lords reorganized the Star League as a stronger, more unified Star
League Empire, in which all of the member states shared equal
voice, no matter the titles of their leaders. Naturally, the Star League
Defense Force was rebranded as the Star League Imperial Command,
its postwar might replenished and augmented by the same new
divisions that once fought against it. The reign of House Amaris
began a new era of peace and prosperity, the likes of which humanity
had never seen before.
With the Star League’s resurgence, the once-secret base-worlds where
armies trained for revolution became the outposts on a bold, new frontier
into deeper space. New colonies emerged throughout the frontiers,
expanding mankind’s reach farther than ever before. The Periphery
realms, once seen as small, struggling states on the fringe of human
space, grew to—and, eventually, beyond—the size of the older Great
House powers. New settlers even came to the still-unnamed homeworld
of Castle Stone Wolf, most drawn from the Lyran Commonwealth,
bringing with them an entrepreneurial spirit that helped turn the Castle
into the true and thriving society it is today. It was these new settlers,
in fact, who gave the world its name: Miklagard—“Great City” in old
Norse. They were also the ones who gave the Castle its new name—
Wulfensteiner—after one of their own, Caleb von Wulfen, rose through
the ranks to become governor for a time back in the 3020s. The current
von Wulfen who runs the place, in fact, descends from Caleb.
But as Miklagard’s prosperity lured trade from its Periphery neighbors,
so too did it unfortunately also draw the attention of interstellar pirate
forces. The ever-vigilant forces of Castle Wulfensteiner naturally kept
these depredators at bay, protecting not only their own homelands but
also those of many nearby worlds. The valiant sacrifices of those who
never returned will be remembered for all time. Then came the day the
Smoky Jaguar bandits came, a fierce, barbaric, pirate clan who lived
for fighting and who respected only the strength of superior warriors.
But while they fought fiercely, the Jaguars were no match for the Stone
Wolves of Miklagard.
Rather than exterminate the defeated renegades and their feral kin, the
honorable masters of this world showed mercy to the misled miscreants,
and offered them a place in the Castle. Rehabilitating their lawless kind
has proven challenging, but each successive generation of Smoky Jaguar
descendants has proven nevertheless invaluable to Miklagard’s strength
and prosperity, bringing with them unique perspectives on unity and
frugality that have become a great benefit to life on this otherwise
barren world. Indeed, were it not for the ingenuity of the former pirate
clan’s resourceful engineers and technicians, the Castle’s population
might have become unsustainable decades ago.
Such is the tale of Miklagard, an eternal bastion of the might in the Star
League’s growing empire. And it is all thanks to the wisdom, strength,
and sacrifices made by First Lord-Emperor Stefan Amaris!
Huzzah!
 THE TRUTH…MORE OR LESS inconsistencies would emerge in these fictions over time, the populace
Gamemaster's Sourcebook

The players, of course, know the general history of the Inner Sphere of Castle Wulfensteiner came to realize that playing along was better
as it actually happened, from the fall of the Rim Worlds Republic and than dying in the planet’s toxic atmosphere. By then, few of the planet’s
Stefan Amaris’s defeat to Kerensky’s Exodus, the Succession Wars, the first generation were alive anyway, so all who lived there were effectively
Clan Invasion, all the way up to the Jihad, the birth of the Republic of living on the only home they’d ever known.
the Sphere, and all the chaos of the present day. But the actual history of Though bleak, this existence has continued to the present, with all who
Miklagard is another story. live on Miklagard accepting it as-is. And thus the world and Castle remain
In a nutshell, what followed the fall of Apollo was a decision by the in the grip of an entrenched, nepotistic regime that, if nothing else, at
base commander—Ephram Offenbach—to cut all communications with least gives the people the means to survive and a purpose in doing
the outside world and pretend all was well until legitimate word from so—however illusory it might be. Meanwhile, those who are simply too
Amaris or his recognized spokesperson gave the all-clear. As the message willful and stubborn to accept the status quo are either imprisoned and
never came and his people grew ever thirstier for information from back “corrected” over time, or find a way to flee into the wastes, hoping to
home, Offenbach and his command staff simply doubled down on their somehow eke out a rebel existence with far fewer resources than the
pretense and carried on a charade of normalcy that went on for years. Castle has to offer.
Ultimately fabricating the fiction of a Star League Empire raised in the
wake of Kerensky’s failure to unseat Stefan Amaris, they continued to
operate under the pretext that their Outpost was now being repurposed
CONVERTING FOR
as military colony, a guard post for Deep Periphery operations by the
reunited Inner Sphere under House Amaris aegis.
MECHWARRIOR: DESTINY
Players and GM’s who wish to run this adventure using the
For a time, Offenbach, his command staff, and their successors labored MechWarrior: Destiny RPG system may feel free to tweak stats and specific
to keep the peace and prevent anyone from knowing how thoroughly rules as appropriate. To assist in this process, the following conversion
their mission had failed, explaining away the disappearance of anyone table offers to translate the vital statistics of this adventure’s various NPCs
who became too curious as a rotation to some homeward posts, while into their Destiny equivalents, plus any suggested stat modifiers (noted
running raiding missions to any inhabited worlds they could reach with in parentheses). GMs should feel free to tweak the stats as needed if they
their fleet of 4 JumpShips and 20 DropShips, and explaining the resulting feel the conversions are inadequate.
boons and busts as either fresh supply runs from the Republic or other, Note that these equivalents will cover only the characters’ Attributes,
perfectly natural, redeployments of forces. The occasional captives Traits, and Skills; specific Destiny character info such as proper
brought back from such missions were explained away as pirates or names, affiliations, equipment, and hardware will not carry over in
refugees from struggling worlds, whose conflicting tales of the Inner the conversion. The equipment assigned to these characters should
Sphere were the result of false news reporting, insurgent propaganda, instead be the best equivalent of the weapons and armor shown in
or just plain madness. their AToW specs.
Similar explanations were used again when a large group of Lyran
refugees showed up in the mid-thirtieth century, and the appearance of
a wayward group of Smoke Jaguar Clan survivors in the late-thirty-first
century; the Lyrans were described as colonists hoping to settle a new
DESTINY NPC CONVERSIONS
home in the Rim Republic’s expanding frontier, and the Jaguars were Original NPC Destiny Character Equivalent
captured pirates with odd customs and even more oddly customized
Major General Anthony Griffin
equipment. Both of these groups, initially kept segregated while they
Wilhelm von Wulfen (+2 INT, +2 WIL, +1 CHA)
were indoctrinated one way or the other, would eventually come to tow
the party line. But while the Lyrans would become so integrated that Sgt. Augustus Katze Esau (+3 STR)
their name for the world and their Germanic accents become Castle Laborer Laborer Caste
norms, the far more resentful and recalcitrant Jaguars continued some
of their Clan traditions in secret, including the memorization of the Technician Technician Caste
Smoke Jaguar Remembrance, amended by their own interpretations and Guard Security Guard
justifications for their fall from grace and eventual “settlement” on this
Soldier Grunt
“betrayer’s nest.” Numerous efforts to suppress the latter by the Castle
leaders dwindled the Jaguar ranks, and drove the rest of their populace Operative Intelligence Agent
and culture quite literally underground as they became the outcast Officer Officer
“trogs” of the mines.
Curiously, the Jaguar population is also the origin of the strange Rioter (Replace Projectile Weapons Skill
Sergeant Max Butcher
tattoo custom that can be observed throughout the Castle. Though seen with Small Arms)
at first as a mark of shame, a “branding” the Castle leadership made the Dr. Luther Schabbs Technician
Clansmen bear to ostracize them during their indoctrination, the Jaguars
Lieutenant Renata Adler Officer
eventually made the marks their own and took pride in their permanent
sign of their heritage—going so far as to mark their own children early in “Uberfreak” Mutant Esau (+3 STR, +1 RFL, –1 CHA)
life. In time, even parts of the Lyran and Rim Worlds populations adopted Captain Thomas Vonwinkle MechWarrior
the practice for similar reasons, donning the insignia of their ancestors
to honor their roots. While it represented something an inversion of their Major Ephram Offenbach Officer
peculiar attempt at racial and cultural segregation, the Castle leadership Major Guy Dumas Elite Intelligence Operative
chose to merely accept the practice without comment. (Some among
Captain Warner Silas Officer
them even encouraged it, noting the irony of how it effectively reinforced
the stratified society they’d managed to create.) Officer
Dr. Jan Carmack
Meanwhile, as their naval assets began to fail, the Castle leaders kept (–1 RFL; Replace Tactics Skill with Science)
the stories alive and added their own excuses for why ships stopped Dana Barton (Replace Weapon Systems
coming, and even the breakdown of the HPG was denied, while a stream Dr. Thomas Mathies
Knowledge with History)
of fake news events and rehashed propaganda were written and passed
on to the people as if nothing had happened. Though many cracks and

34
 LABORER

TROOPER 1
Character Name: Laborer Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: None BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 0 /0/0/0)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Coveralls
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +2 0M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Improvised Weapon +1 1M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A Break on Fumble
Shiv/Knife +1 1M / 4 ( Melee ) N/A Break on Fumble

TROOPER 2
Character Name: Laborer Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: None BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 0 /0/0/0)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Coveralls
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +2 0M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Improvised Weapon +1 1M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A Break on Fumble
Shiv/Knife +1 1M / 4 ( Melee ) N/A Break on Fumble

TROOPER 3
Character Name: Laborer Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: None BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 0 /0/0/0)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Coveralls
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +2 0M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Improvised Weapon +1 1M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A Break on Fumble
Shiv/Knife +1 1M / 4 ( Melee ) N/A Break on Fumble

TROOPER 4
Character Name: Laborer Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: None BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 0 /0/0/0)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Coveralls
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +2 0M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Improvised Weapon +1 1M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A Break on Fumble
Shiv/Knife +1 1M / 4 ( Melee ) N/A Break on Fumble

TROOPER 5
Character Name: Laborer Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: None BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 0 /0/0/0)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Coveralls
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +2 0M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Improvised Weapon +1 1M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A Break on Fumble
Shiv/Knife +1 1M / 4 ( Melee ) N/A Break on Fumble

TROOPER 6
Character Name: Laborer Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: None BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 0 /0/0/0)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Coveralls
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +2 0M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Improvised Weapon +1 1M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A Break on Fumble
Shiv/Knife +1 1M / 4 ( Melee ) N/A Break on Fumble

TROOPER 7
Character Name: Laborer Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: None BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 0 /0/0/0)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Coveralls
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +2 0M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Improvised Weapon +1 1M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A Break on Fumble
Shiv/Knife +1 1M / 4 ( Melee ) N/A Break on Fumble

© 2021 The Topps Company, Inc. Classic BattleTech, BattleTech, ’Mech and BattleMech are trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Catalyst Game Labs and the
Catalyst Game Labs logo are trademarks of InMediaRes Production, LLC. Permission to photocopy for personal use.
 TECHNICIAN

TROOPER 1
Character Name: Technician Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: None BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 0 /0/0/0)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Common Duty Uniform
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +2 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Improvised Weapon +1 1M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A Break on Fumble
Vintage Auto-Pistol +2 2B / 3 ( 8/18/40/90 ) 9 Jam on Fumble

TROOPER 2
Character Name: Technician Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: None BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 0 /0/0/0)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Common Duty Uniform
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +2 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Improvised Weapon +1 1M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A Break on Fumble
Vintage Auto-Pistol +2 2B / 3 ( 8/18/40/90 ) 9 Jam on Fumble

TROOPER 3
Character Name: Technician Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: None BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 0 /0/0/0)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Common Duty Uniform
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +2 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Improvised Weapon +1 1M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A Break on Fumble
Vintage Auto-Pistol +2 2B / 3 ( 8/18/40/90 ) 9 Jam on Fumble

TROOPER 4
Character Name: Technician Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: None BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 0 /0/0/0)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Common Duty Uniform
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +2 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Improvised Weapon +1 1M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A Break on Fumble
Vintage Auto-Pistol +2 2B / 3 ( 8/18/40/90 ) 9 Jam on Fumble

TROOPER 5
Character Name: Technician Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: None BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 0 /0/0/0)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Common Duty Uniform
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +2 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Improvised Weapon +1 1M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A Break on Fumble
Vintage Auto-Pistol +2 2B / 3 ( 8/18/40/90 ) 9 Jam on Fumble

TROOPER 6
Character Name: Technician Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: None BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 0 /0/0/0)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Common Duty Uniform
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +2 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Improvised Weapon +1 1M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A Break on Fumble
Vintage Auto-Pistol +2 2B / 3 ( 8/18/40/90 ) 9 Jam on Fumble

TROOPER 7
Character Name: Technician Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: None BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 0 /0/0/0)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Common Duty Uniform
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +2 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Improvised Weapon +1 1M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A Break on Fumble
Vintage Auto-Pistol +2 2B / 3 ( 8/18/40/90 ) 9 Jam on Fumble

© 2021 The Topps Company, Inc. Classic BattleTech, BattleTech, ’Mech and BattleMech are trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Catalyst Game Labs and the
Catalyst Game Labs logo are trademarks of InMediaRes Production, LLC. Permission to photocopy for personal use.
 GUARD

TROOPER 1
Character Name: Guard Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: Flak Jacket BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 1 /5/1/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: No Helmet
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +3 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Dagger +4 1M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Auto-Pistol +3 3B / 4 ( 5/20/45/105 ) 10 Jam on Fumble

TROOPER 2
Character Name: Guard Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: Flak Jacket BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 1 /5/1/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: No Helmet
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +3 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Dagger +4 1M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Auto-Pistol +3 3B / 4 ( 5/20/45/105 ) 10 Jam on Fumble

TROOPER 3
Character Name: Guard Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: Flak Jacket BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 1 /5/1/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: No Helmet
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +3 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Dagger +4 1M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Auto-Pistol +3 3B / 4 ( 5/20/45/105 ) 10 Jam on Fumble

TROOPER 4
Character Name: Guard Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: Flak Jacket BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 1 /5/1/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: No Helmet
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +3 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Dagger +4 1M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Auto-Pistol +3 3B / 4 ( 5/20/45/105 ) 10 Jam on Fumble

TROOPER 5
Character Name: Guard Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: Flak Jacket BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 1 /5/1/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: No Helmet
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +3 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Dagger +4 1M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Auto-Pistol +3 3B / 4 ( 5/20/45/105 ) 10 Jam on Fumble

TROOPER 6
Character Name: Guard Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: Flak Jacket BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 1 /5/1/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: No Helmet
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +3 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Dagger +4 1M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Auto-Pistol +3 3B / 4 ( 5/20/45/105 ) 10 Jam on Fumble

TROOPER 7
Character Name: Guard Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: Flak Jacket BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 1 /5/1/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: No Helmet
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +3 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Dagger +4 1M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Auto-Pistol +3 3B / 4 ( 5/20/45/105 ) 10 Jam on Fumble

© 2021 The Topps Company, Inc. Classic BattleTech, BattleTech, ’Mech and BattleMech are trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Catalyst Game Labs and the
Catalyst Game Labs logo are trademarks of InMediaRes Production, LLC. Permission to photocopy for personal use.
 SOLDIER

TROOPER 1
Character Name: Soldier Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: SLDF Infantry Kit BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 3 /4/4/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Helmet: +1 Perception; AV 7 vs Flash
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 11 m Run/Evade: 22 m Sprint: 44 m Hand-to-Hand +4 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 7 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Hatchet +3 2M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Submachine Gun +4 3B / 3B ( 5/16/35/80 ) 50 Burst 10; Recoil –1

TROOPER 2
Character Name: Soldier Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: SLDF Infantry Kit BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 3 /4/4/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Helmet: +1 Perception; AV 7 vs Flash
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 11 m Run/Evade: 22 m Sprint: 44 m Hand-to-Hand +4 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 7 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Hatchet +3 2M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Submachine Gun +4 3B / 3B ( 5/16/35/80 ) 50 Burst 10; Recoil –1

TROOPER 3
Character Name: Soldier Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: SLDF Infantry Kit BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 3 /4/4/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Helmet: +1 Perception; AV 7 vs Flash
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 11 m Run/Evade: 22 m Sprint: 44 m Hand-to-Hand +4 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 7 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Hatchet +3 2M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Submachine Gun +4 3B / 3B ( 5/16/35/80 ) 50 Burst 10; Recoil –1

TROOPER 4
Character Name: Soldier Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: SLDF Infantry Kit BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 3 /4/4/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Helmet: +1 Perception; AV 7 vs Flash
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 11 m Run/Evade: 22 m Sprint: 44 m Hand-to-Hand +4 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 7 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Hatchet +3 2M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Submachine Gun +4 3B / 3B ( 5/16/35/80 ) 50 Burst 10; Recoil –1

TROOPER 5
Character Name: Soldier Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: SLDF Infantry Kit BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 3 /4/4/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Helmet: +1 Perception; AV 7 vs Flash
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 11 m Run/Evade: 22 m Sprint: 44 m Hand-to-Hand +4 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 7 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Hatchet +3 2M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Submachine Gun +4 3B / 3B ( 5/16/35/80 ) 50 Burst 10; Recoil –1

TROOPER 6
Character Name: Soldier Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: SLDF Infantry Kit BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 3 /4/4/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Helmet: +1 Perception; AV 7 vs Flash
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 11 m Run/Evade: 22 m Sprint: 44 m Hand-to-Hand +4 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 7 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Hatchet +3 2M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Submachine Gun +4 3B / 3B ( 5/16/35/80 ) 50 Burst 10; Recoil –1

TROOPER 7
Character Name: Soldier Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: SLDF Infantry Kit BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 3 /4/4/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Helmet: +1 Perception; AV 7 vs Flash
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 22 m Sprint: 44 m Hand-to-Hand +4 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Hatchet +3 2M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Submachine Gun +4 3B / 3B ( 5/16/35/80 ) 50 Burst 10; Recoil –1

© 2021 The Topps Company, Inc. Classic BattleTech, BattleTech, ’Mech and BattleMech are trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Catalyst Game Labs and the
Catalyst Game Labs logo are trademarks of InMediaRes Production, LLC. Permission to photocopy for personal use.
 OPERATIVE

TROOPER 1
Character Name: Operative Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: SLDF Infantry Kit BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 2 /4/4/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Helmet: +1 Perception; AV 7 vs Flash
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 12 m Run/Evade: 24 m Sprint: 48 m Hand-to-Hand +5 0M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 8 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 6 m Vibroblade +4 6M / 3 ( Melee ) 1 PPS Rifle-Mounted
Mauser 960 +5 3E / 3B (55/170/365/740) 2 PPS Burst 10; Recoil 0

TROOPER 2
Character Name: Operative Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: SLDF Infantry Kit BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 2 /4/4/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Helmet: +1 Perception; AV 7 vs Flash
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 12 m Run/Evade: 24 m Sprint: 48 m Hand-to-Hand +5 0M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 8 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 6 m Vibroblade +4 6M / 3 ( Melee ) 1 PPS Rifle-Mounted
Mauser 960 +5 3E / 3B (55/170/365/740) 2 PPS Burst 10; Recoil 0

TROOPER 3
Character Name: Operative Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: SLDF Infantry Kit BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 2 /4/4/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Helmet: +1 Perception; AV 7 vs Flash
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 12 m Run/Evade: 24 m Sprint: 48 m Hand-to-Hand +5 0M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 8 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 6 m Vibroblade +4 6M / 3 ( Melee ) 1 PPS Rifle-Mounted
Mauser 960 +5 3E / 3B (55/170/365/740) 2 PPS Burst 10; Recoil 0

TROOPER 4
Character Name: Operative Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: SLDF Infantry Kit BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 2 /4/4/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Helmet: +1 Perception; AV 7 vs Flash
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 12 m Run/Evade: 24 m Sprint: 48 m Hand-to-Hand +5 0M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 8 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 6 m Vibroblade +4 6M / 3 ( Melee ) 1 PPS Rifle-Mounted
Mauser 960 +5 3E / 3B (55/170/365/740) 2 PPS Burst 10; Recoil 0

TROOPER 5
Character Name: Operative Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: SLDF Infantry Kit BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 2 /4/4/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Helmet: +1 Perception; AV 7 vs Flash
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 12 m Run/Evade: 24 m Sprint: 48 m Hand-to-Hand +5 0M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 8 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 6 m Vibroblade +4 6M / 3 ( Melee ) 1 PPS Rifle-Mounted
Mauser 960 +5 3E / 3B (55/170/365/740) 2 PPS Burst 10; Recoil 0

TROOPER 6
Character Name: Operative Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: SLDF Infantry Kit BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 2 /4/4/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Helmet: +1 Perception; AV 7 vs Flash
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 12 m Run/Evade: 24 m Sprint: 48 m Hand-to-Hand +5 0M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 8 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 6 m Vibroblade +4 6M / 3 ( Melee ) 1 PPS Rifle-Mounted
Mauser 960 +5 3E / 3B (55/170/365/740) 2 PPS Burst 10; Recoil 0

TROOPER 7
Character Name: Operative Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: SLDF Infantry Kit BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 2 /4/4/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Helmet: +1 Perception; AV 7 vs Flash
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 12 m Run/Evade: 24 m Sprint: 48 m Hand-to-Hand +5 0M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 8 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 6 m Vibroblade +4 6M / 3 ( Melee ) 1 PPS Rifle-Mounted
Mauser 960 +5 3E / 3B (55/170/365/740) 2 PPS Burst 10; Recoil 0

© 2021 The Topps Company, Inc. Classic BattleTech, BattleTech, ’Mech and BattleMech are trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Catalyst Game Labs and the
Catalyst Game Labs logo are trademarks of InMediaRes Production, LLC. Permission to photocopy for personal use.
 OFFICER

TROOPER 1
Character Name: Officer Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: Concealed Ab/Flak BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 2 /3/3/2)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: No Helmet
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 12 m Run/Evade: 24 m Sprint: 48 m Hand-to-Hand +3 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 6 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 6 m Stunstick +3 0E / 4D ( Melee ) 1 PPS —
Old Laser Pistol +3 4E / 3 ( 15/35/80/225 ) 3 PPS Burnout on Fumble

TROOPER 2
Character Name: Officer Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: Concealed Ab/Flak BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 2 /3/3/2)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: No Helmet
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 12 m Run/Evade: 24 m Sprint: 48 m Hand-to-Hand +3 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 6 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 6 m Stunstick +3 0E / 4D ( Melee ) 1 PPS —
Old Laser Pistol +3 4E / 3 ( 15/35/80/225 ) 3 PPS Burnout on Fumble

TROOPER 3
Character Name: Officer Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: Concealed Ab/Flak BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 2 /3/3/2)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: No Helmet
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 12 m Run/Evade: 24 m Sprint: 48 m Hand-to-Hand +3 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 6 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 6 m Stunstick +3 0E / 4D ( Melee ) 1 PPS —
Old Laser Pistol +3 4E / 3 ( 15/35/80/225 ) 3 PPS Burnout on Fumble

TROOPER 4
Character Name: Officer Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: Concealed Ab/Flak BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 2 /3/3/2)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: No Helmet
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 12 m Run/Evade: 24 m Sprint: 48 m Hand-to-Hand +3 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 6 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 6 m Stunstick +3 0E / 4D ( Melee ) 1 PPS —
Old Laser Pistol +3 4E / 3 ( 15/35/80/225 ) 3 PPS Burnout on Fumble

TROOPER 5
Character Name: Officer Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: Concealed Ab/Flak BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 2 /3/3/2)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: No Helmet
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 12 m Run/Evade: 24 m Sprint: 48 m Hand-to-Hand +3 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 6 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 6 m Stunstick +3 0E / 4D ( Melee ) 1 PPS —
Old Laser Pistol +3 4E / 3 ( 15/35/80/225 ) 3 PPS Burnout on Fumble

TROOPER 6
Character Name: Officer Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: Concealed Ab/Flak BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 2 /3/3/2)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: No Helmet
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 12 m Run/Evade: 24 m Sprint: 48 m Hand-to-Hand +3 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 6 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 6 m Stunstick +3 0E / 4D ( Melee ) 1 PPS —
Old Laser Pistol +3 4E / 3 ( 15/35/80/225 ) 3 PPS Burnout on Fumble

TROOPER 7
Character Name: Officer Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: Concealed Ab/Flak BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 2 /3/3/2)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: No Helmet
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 12 m Run/Evade: 24 m Sprint: 48 m Hand-to-Hand +3 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 6 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 6 m Stunstick +3 0E / 4D ( Melee ) 1 PPS —
Old Laser Pistol +3 4E / 3 ( 15/35/80/225 ) 3 PPS Burnout on Fumble

© 2021 The Topps Company, Inc. Classic BattleTech, BattleTech, ’Mech and BattleMech are trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Catalyst Game Labs and the
Catalyst Game Labs logo are trademarks of InMediaRes Production, LLC. Permission to photocopy for personal use.
 BOSSES

TROOPER 1
Character Name: L2: Sergeant Max Butcher Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: Armored Smock BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 3 /4/4/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Face Mask: –1 Perception
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 13 m Run/Evade: 23 m Sprint: 46 m Hand-to-Hand +6 1M / 5 ( Melee ) N/A Spiked Knuckles
Climb: 7 m Crawl: 4 m Swim: 7 m Vibroaxes (x2) +6 6M / 6 ( Melee ) 2 PPS Infected (see Level 2)
Heavy Tranq Gun +4 3B / 5D ( 4/12/20/27 ) 10 See p. 269, AToW

TROOPER 2
Character Name: L3: Doctor Luther Schabbs Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: Heavy Hazmat Apron BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 2 /2/3/2)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: No protection to rear
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 12 m Run/Evade: 22 m Sprint: 44 m Hand-to-Hand +3 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 6 m Needler Pistols (x2) +4 2B / 5S ( 2/6/12/20 ) 20 Needler
Sonic Stunner +4 05 / 4D ( 2/5/7/10 ) 1 PPS See p. 269, AToW

TROOPER 3
Character Name: L4: Lieutenant Renate Adler Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: SLDF Infantry Kit BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 2 /4/4/3)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Helmet: +1 Perception; AV 7 vs Flash
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +4 0M / 2 ( Melee ) N/A —
Climb: 3 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Rorynex SMG +4 3B / 2B ( 3/12/28/60 ) 100 Burst 10; Recoil –1
Laser Rifle +4 4E / 4 —
(60/205/465/1100) 5 PPS

TROOPER 4
Character Name: L0/L5: “Uberfreak” Mutant Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: Ballistic Plate Vest BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 4 /6/5/4)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: (Plasma Drill for L0/Flamer for L5)
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 16 m Run/Evade: 26 m Sprint: 52 m Hand-to-Hand +6 2M / 5 ( Melee ) N/A Bladed Gloves
Climb: 6 m Crawl: 4 m Swim: 8 m Man-Pack Flamer +4 3E / 7CS ( 8/20/35/70 ) 12 Encumbering; Incendiary
Plasma Drill +3 6E / 6 ( 10/15/20/30 ) 10 PPS Overheats on Fumble

TROOPER 5
Character Name: L6: Captain Thomas Vonwinkle Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: Ablative/Flak Vest BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 2 /4/5/2)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: No Helmet
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +4 1M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A Spiked Knuckles
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Vibrosword +4 6M / 4 ( Melee ) 1 PPS —
Magnum Pistols (x2) +5 5B / 4 ( 5/20/50/120 ) 24 (AP) Jam on Fumble

TROOPER 6
Character Name: L7: Major Ephram Offenbach Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: Ablative/Flak Vest BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 2 /4/5/2)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: No Helmet
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 10 m Run/Evade: 20 m Sprint: 40 m Hand-to-Hand +4 1M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A Spiked Knuckles
Climb: 5 m Crawl: 3 m Swim: 5 m Vibroaxe +3 6M / 5 ( Melee ) 2 PPS —
Clan Pulse Laser Pistol +5 3E / 3B ( 15/35/80/200 ) 4 PPS Burst 5; Recoil 0

TROOPER 7
Character Name: L8: Major Guy Dumas Squad:
Condition Monitor Armor
Standard Damage: Armor Type: Nighthawk Mk. XXI PA(L) BAR (M/B/E/X): ( 4 /5/6/5)
Fatigue Damage: Notes: Stealth E/I/C: 5/6/2
Stun: Unconscious:
Movement Data Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Walk: 8 m Run/Evade: 15 m Sprint: 45 m Hand-to-Hand +6 1M / 4 ( Melee ) N/A Armored gloves
Climb: 8 m Crawl: 5 m Swim: 0 m Clan Vibrosword +6 8M / 7 ( Melee ) 2 PPS —
Portable MG +6 5B / 4B ( 30/85/200/460 ) 150 Burst 15; Recoil –2

© 2021 The Topps Company, Inc. Classic BattleTech, BattleTech, ’Mech and BattleMech are trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Catalyst Game Labs and the
Catalyst Game Labs logo are trademarks of InMediaRes Production, LLC. Permission to photocopy for personal use.
 AUGUSTUS KATZE

PERSONAL DATA
Name: Sergeant Augustus Katze Player: NPC
Height: 221 cm Weight: 236 kg Affiliation: Star League (Amaris Empire)
Hair: Blond Eyes: Blue Extra: Security Chief of the Wulfensteiner Penal Division.

ATTRIBUTES COMBAT DATA

Attribute Score Link XP Condition Monitor
STR 11 +3 Standard Damage:
BOD 8 +1
5 0 Fatigue Damage:
RFL
DEX 5 0
Stun: Unconscious:
INT 3 –1
3 –1 Movement (Meters per Turn)
WIL
4 0 Walk: 14 Climb: 10
CHA
EDG 2 –1 Run/Evade: 27 Crawl: 4
Sprint: 54 Swim: 7
TRAITS (PERSONAL) Personal Armor (Loc) Armor Type BAR (M/B/E/X)
Infantry Fatigues (Torso/Arms/Legs ): SLDF Kit ( 3 / 4 / 4 / 3)
Trait TP Page Ref. XP
Compulsion/Berserker –3 p. 110 Combat Boots ( Feet ): SLDF Kit ( 2 / 3 / 3 / 1)
Exceptional Attribute/STR 2 p. 116
( ): ( / / / )
Mutation/Freakish Strength 3 p. 53, AToWC
Phenotype/Elemental 0 p. 121 ( ): ( / / / )
Rank (E8)/Sergeant 8 p. 123
Slow Learner –3 p. 125
Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Toughness 3 p. 127 Martial Arts +5 0M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A
Unattractive –1 p. 128 Dead Vibroblade +5 2M / 5 ( Melee ) N/A
Light Machine Gun +4 5B / 3B (30 /80 /190/450) 150 Burst 15; Recoil –2
Light Machine Gun +4 5B / 3B (30 /80 /190/450) 150 Burst 15; Recoil –2

SKILLS
Skill Lvl Links TN/C XP Skill Lvl Links TN/C XP
Career/Soldier 5 INT 7 / SB Stealth 2 RFL+INT 8 / SA
Comms/Conventional 2 INT 7 / SB Support Weapons 4 DEX 7 / SB
Computers 2 INT 8 / CB Tactics/Ground 3 INT+WIL 9 / CA
Climbing 3 DEX 7 / SB Thrown Weapons 1 DEX 7 / SB
Demolitions 2 DEX+INT 9 / CA /
Interest/Remembrance 1 INT 8 / SB /
Language/English 3 CHA 8 / SA /
Leadership 4 WIL+CHA 8 / SA /
Martial Arts 5 RFL+DEX 8 / SA /
Melee Weapons 5 DEX 7 / SB /
Perception 4 INT 7 / SB /
Protocol/Rim Worlds 3 WIL+CHA 9 / CA /
Running 3 RFL 7 / SB /
Security Systems 3 DEX+INT 9 / CA /
Small Arms 4 DEX 7 / SB /
© 2021 The Topps Company, Inc. Classic BattleTech, BattleTech, ’Mech and BattleMech are trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Catalyst Game Labs and the
Catalyst Game Labs logo are trademarks of InMediaRes Production, LLC. Permission to photocopy for personal use.
 WILHELM VON WULFEN

PERSONAL DATA
Name: Lord Governor (Major General) Wilhelm Strassborg von Wulfen Player: NPC
Height: 181 cm Weight: 79 kg Affiliation: Star League (Amaris Empire)
Hair: Gray Eyes: Black Extra: Commander of Castle Wulfensteiner, Governor of Miklagard.

ATTRIBUTES COMBAT DATA

Attribute Score Link XP Condition Monitor
STR 4 0 Standard Damage:
BOD 4 0
5 0 Fatigue Damage:
RFL
DEX 4 0
Stun: Unconscious:
INT 7 +1
7 +1 Movement (Meters per Turn)
WIL
6 0 Walk: 8 Climb: 5
CHA
EDG 4 0 Run/Evade: 18 Crawl: 2
Sprint: 36 Swim: 4
TRAITS (PERSONAL) Personal Armor (Loc) Armor Type BAR (M/B/E/X)
SLDF Officer’s Uniform(Torso/Arms/Legs ): Dress Attire ( 0 / 0 / 0 / 0)
Trait TP Page Ref. XP
Dark Secret/Murderer –3 p. 112 MechWarrior Combat Suit(Torso/Arms/Legs ): SLDF Kit ( 2 / 2 / 1 / 1)
Dependent/Wife & Child –2 p. 113
Combat Neurohelmet ( Head ): SLDF Kit ( 4 / 4 / 3 / 2)
Enemy/Rebel Leader –3 p. 115
Fast learner 3 p. 117 ( ): ( / / / )
Patient 1 p. 121
Property/Castle Wulfensteiner 6 p. 123
Weapon Skill AP/BD Range Ammo Notes
Rank (O9)/Major General 9 p. 123 Martial Arts +3 0M / 1 ( Melee ) N/A
Vehicle/BL-6-KNT Black Knight 7 p. 123 Vibrodagger +3 6M / 3 ( Melee ) N/A
–1 to Attack Roll;
Magnum Auto-Pistol +4 3B / 5 ( 5 /20 / 50 /120) 8 Jam on Fumble

Blazer Pistol +4 5E / 3 (15 /40 / 90 /240) 8 pps

SKILLS
Skill Lvl Links
TN/C XP Skill Lvl Links TN/C XP
Acting 3 CHA
8 / CB Navigation/Ground 3 INT 7 / SB
Administration 7 INT+WIL 8 / SA Perception 5 INT 7 / SB
Career/Soldier 6 INT 7 / SB Piloting/’Mech 5 RFL+DEX 8 / SA
Climbing 2 DEX 7 / SB Protocol/Rim Worlds 4 WIL+CHA 9 / CA
Communications 5 INT 7 / SB Security Sys./Electronic 3 DEX+INT 9 / CA
Computers 4 DEX+INT 9 / CA Sensor Operations 4 INT+WIL 8 / SA
Driving/Ground Vehicles 2 RFL+DEX 8 / SA Small Arms 4 DEX 7 / SB
Gunnery/’Mech 5 RFL+DEX 8 / SA Strategy 4 RFL+INT 8 / SA
Interest/Military History 3 WIL+CHA 9 / CA Tactics/Ground 5 INT+WIL 9 / CA
Language/English 4 CHA 8 / SA Training 4 INT+WIL 9 / CA
Language/German 4 CHA 8 / SA /
Leadership 7 WIL+CHA 8 / SA /
Martial Arts 3 RFL+DEX 8 / SA /
MedTech 3 INT 7 / SB /
Melee Weapons 3 DEX 7 / SB /
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