1

2 “If the anti-abortion movement took a tenth of the

energy they put into noisy theatrics and
devoted it to improving the lives of children who
have been born into lives of
poverty, violence, and neglect,
they could make a world shine.”
-Michael Jay Tucker

“The goal of the right is not to stop abortion but

to demonize it, punish it and make it as
difficult and traumatic as possible. All this it has
accomplished fairly well, even without
overturning Roe v. Wade.”
-Ellen Willis, “Escape From Freedom”,
Situations: Project of the Radical Imagination

“She should of died, but she was born/

She should of worn a crown of thorns/
She should of….”
-Nirvana, Been A Son
3
4 August 6, 2105.
Oklahoma City.
There were two people on the home’s cool
front porch, a man and a woman, both maybe forty
and again, thankfully, not dressed in a Choicer style.
The day was so perfect it seemed like a lie. They sat close, not cuddling but comfortable, sharing
a big bag of popcorn. He drank good beer from an
The rental slid easily and silently through tree- organic bladder; she sipped bottled water. Neither
lined suburbia, under a late summer sky as clear and had yet noticed the tall, professionally dressed
blue as a stage set’s. A rowdy knot of children were woman nor her grey rental car. Good, thought Susan
playing in the street, tossing a holographic football Glauchester, there’s someone outside. That would
that was keeping score for them. The children make it easier…. Appearing unannounced at
scattered politely to opposite sides of the street as someone’s door was difficult for a member of her
the rental car slowed and crawled past them. The species.
little girl left holding the glittering holo-ball waved at
the unfamiliar car as it passed, and the woman With that thought in her head, the perfectly
behind the steering wheel waved back. The driver ordinary looking woman in the black corporate-cut
watched the girl in the rearview as she approached blazer and slacks, with the silver Lifer Sigil pinned to
her destination, an ordinary house midway down the her lapel, stepped away from the car. She walked
quiet block. precisely to the edge of the yard adjacent to her
target and stopped. She called out a hello in a
The little girl threw the brilliant, imaginary slightly too-cheerful voice, and waited until both the
football to one of her friends, who jumped high to man and the woman on the porch had acknowl-
catch it, the micro-PC on his wrist chirping as he edged her before beginning. She did the polite thing,
did. The rental car’s almost sentient nav-system introduced herself in the way members of her
beeped brisk approval as the driver slowed the car, species were taught to do when they weren’t
pulling onto the sidewalk exactly one lot from her looking for a fight.
destination. The rental car went dormant and
secured itself as the driver stepped out into the “I’m homo sapiens mortalitas”, she called,
golden afternoon light. pausing when she saw her audience blinked in
puzzlement at the neutral, scientific term for her race.
As the door shut, the driver took stock of
both her self and her neighborhood. Her destina-
tion was another brick tract-house, architecturally
identical to every other home in the development,
differentiated only by the vehicles parked in the
driveway and the style of the home’s garden. The
woman counted two vehicles, a small two door
hover sedan identical to her own rental in every
respect except color (the home’s was a dark
metallic green, her rental was a smoke grey), and
a bulky white pickup truck, its bed filled with
laborer’s tools. She noted with some approval
that while both vehicles had Choicer travel passes
on the back window, neither displayed any
Choicer propaganda-stickers. No political
stickers at all, the only decoration a fading holo-
foil from a local hard rock station on the pickup’s
rear bumper.
One short breath, and than
continued, using the more
familiar and more polarizing
name for her strange species.
“I’m a Neverborn.
My appearance… it can
become distressing. May I
approach you?”
The man and the
woman on the porch ex-
changed puzzled glances, and
quickly sized up the woman
speaking to them, marking
her as a more polite evange-
list than most, and not a
shooter. The man set aside
his popcorn and beer and both of them stood up,
walking out into the neatly maintained lawn to speak
to her. Susan took a step forward, tensing the
muscles in her face and back slightly. She knew
what was going to happen next, and braced herself
for the transformation. The transformations never
hurt, not physically, but seeing the sudden guilt-
horror-revulsion-pity look cross someone’s face,
no matter how much they tried to hide it…. That
look always reminded Susan that she wasn’t human,
not really, and she tensed, wanting that first horrible
moment to be over and done with.
The man and woman were within her
extrasensory radius, and Susan waited half a second
for the hideous yellow scars and purple lividity
corpse-tattoos to rip open across her face, breasts
and hands. She waited to become a walking corpse
again, because of her proximity to the woman that
should have been her mother. Susan was slightly
stunned, and still waiting for her transformation,
when the blond woman stopped less than three feet
away, extended her hand, shook Susan’s chill but
unmarred hand in her own and said simply “Hi.”
She wasn’t transforming.
Susan swallowed
hard, took a step back,
5
noticing how the couple’s
faces tightened in surprise,
and tried to figure out,
frantically, why she wasn’t
transforming. It was the right
woman, Susan knew that
beyond of a shadow of a
doubt. The rental car’s low
resolution HUD had dis-
played the Nuremberg AI’s
data on the woman as she
drove up, pulling a recent
picture from a hacked DMV
server:
Marjorie Vachss, nee Ellis, aged 41, living
at 417 Tulsa Lane, Oklahoma City. Entered the
Reproductive Health Services abortuary in St.
Louis on March 19, 2085. Underwent a first
trimester vacuum aspiration abortion of a XX
chromosome fetus, the genetic material and soul
shards of which were later used to resurrect me, she
thought.
Susan had this particular Nuremberg file,
every clipped sentence and furtive .JPG of it memo-
rized. She recognized this woman, that should have
been her mother, as well as she recognized herself.
She knew she had the abortion, and knew that
should be making her metahuman deformities wake
up and dance. So why the hell wasn’t she transform-
ing?
She kept her voice from shaking (why
hadn’t she transformed?) and began, saying the
words almost like she had practiced them. “Mrs.
Vacchs. My name… it’s Susan Glauchester. I found
your name in the Coalition’s data-stream. I’ve been
wanting to meet you for a long time now. I…. This is
hard to say, and I know it must be hard for you to
hear, but… I should have been your daughter.”
6 Pain crosses the woman’s face, and confu-
sion mingled with suspicion dances across the man’s. than the Neverborn thought it would be, and she
He turns to his wife and half-whispers “Hon?”
She looks at the man quickly, sliding his limp least.
fingers into her own before turning back to look at
Susan, still as ordinary as ever, almost itching for the
transformation. The look of pain on Marjorie
Vacchs’ face quickly transmutes into a mask of
bafflement as complete as her husband’s. Susan
knows things are going wrong, that the tearful
reunion fantasies she had entertained aren’t going to
happen.
“No. I… I never had a-“
Marjorie covers her mouth with one hand,
staring hard at the well dressed Neverborn, scanning
Susan’s face for a resemblance she can’t deny but
doesn’t understand.
“Mrs. Vacchs, I’m not angry. I’m not here
for violence or to blame you or to ask anything of
you. I just needed…. I needed to meet you. It’s
something a lot of us need to do….”
Marjorie’s fingers tighten around her
husband’s, and he puts his other hand on her shoul-
der comfortingly, still baffled and now more than a
little afraid.
“You don’t understand.
I never had an abortion. We-
we thought about it, but…”
Susan’s eyes flash with
anger, remembering the
precise, obsessive data col-
lected and annotated in the
Nuremberg files. Everything
down to the license plate
number of the car her almost-
mother took to the clinic was
documented. Everything.
Susan took a deep breath,
trying to calm herself, tried to
become the calm and rational
and above all, effective side-
walk consoler she was raised to be. It was harder
barely kept her hand from trembling. Why wasn’t
she transforming? The dead didn’t shake like this, at
“You went to a clinic in St. Louis.” She said,
her low and suddenly menacing voice an accusation.
“Twenty years ago. You had an abortion. The
remains… those became ME! You-“
Marjorie takes a step back from the shaking
Neverborn, suddenly worried about violence in a
way she had never been before. Marjorie’s lips
tremble, and she brings up her hand to cover them,
letting go of her husband’s hand.
“I didn’t go through with it! I walked out of
that clinic and not even a week later somebody blew
it apart! I always thought that was God’s message to
me that I was right to have second thoughts! I
never….I never….”
The old pain comes rushing out and Susan
wanted her to be lying. Desperately wanted her to
be, but she always had a talent for reading people,
one honed by years of training as a sidewalk
consoler. And worst of all, Susan’s intuition was
backed up by her metahuman deformities. Now she
knew why she
wasn’t transform-
ing, even as she
tried, futilely, to
will the cold
metamorphosis.
The man
told Susan she
should leave, leave
before he called
the cops, but she
barely heard him.
She wanted to
vomit, something
she had never
done before and
wasn’t sure if her
species could even do. She wanted to vomit up a
lifetime of guilt-horror-revulsion-pity and a sudden
existential dread. The story of her life, black and
blood-soaked as it stood, was a lie, and Susan felt
like crying.
Behind the trio, frozen in a tableau, the front
door of Marjorie Vacch’s small, production-model
suburban home opened with a creak.
“Mom, what’s going on?”
Susan jumped a little at the sound. For a
moment she had forgotten the world, and had
assumed the day was just a stage for her, a one set
play with three characters: mother, father and
aborted (but still alive) child. Being forcefully re-
minded that a world beyond this few square feet of
lawn existed came as a shock. With fearful reflex,
she glanced over at the young woman on the porch.
And saw herself, as if in a mirror.
Just like Susan, the girl on the porch was not
even 21, lean and coltishly attractive, with curly
black hair. The other woman wore her hair shorter
and more aggressively than Susan did, favoring a
style copied from Choicer fashion mags. Where
Susan was dressed for a sidewalk rescue, which is 7
how she viewed the confrontation, the other girl
(Not-Susan her mind insisted on calling her) was
dressed in baggy sweat pants and a fading t-shirt
with the state flag on the breast, dressed for a day at
home with her parents. Susan’s eyes darted from
Not-Susan to Marjorie and back, her still and
unbeating heart feeling as if it had climbed into her
throat.
“This is my daughter, Maggie.” Marjorie
hissed, her voice pitched low, her eyes narrowed as
she said the words she knew would hurt Susan the
most. Marjorie wanted to hurt her, to damage this
confused and unwelcome interloper who smuggled
20 years of bad memories into their perfect after-
noon.
“She’s 20 years old.”
And Susan pitched forward, mouth bursting
open to vomit up her corpse’s blood. She knew at
that moment that her problems went much deeper
than some bad intel in the supposedly infallible
Nuremberg database
8

Never Born-Again
An Otherverse America Sourcebook
Concept and Execution: Chris A. Field

Original Illustrations and Introductory Comic: Amanda Webb

Stock Art by Black Hand Stock Art, Anthony Cournoyer,

Bradley K. McDevitt, Louis Porter Jr. Image Portfolio, Sade Stock Art

Photographs Courtesy Wikimedia Commons,

Used Under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Copyright original artists, used with permission.

Copyright 2010, Otherverse Games

WWW.OTHERVERSEGAMES.BLOGSPOT.COM

Requires the Use of the D20 Modern Core Rulebook

Published by Wizards of the Coast
The Neverborn
The Neverborn species were introduced in
the Otherverse America campaign setting. The
Neverborn’s existence asks a question, but it’s not
the question you’re probably thinking of, and the
answers won’t be any you assume. Created for their
propaganda value, and as a lesson in faith, the just
2,000 or so documented Neverborn in North
America may be the most important citizens of the
sprawling and overpopulated Lifer nation. For all
their flaws, despite everything stacked against them,
Neverborn are the movement’s past and its best
hope for a future.
On the streets, they’re referred to as NVB.
Short for Neverborn, a propaganda term
that doesn’t slip easily from cynical young mouths
and is just plain anathema in Choicer neighborhoods.
The first Neverborn were created during the last
days of the Abortion War, a propaganda species
created by a desperate nation using barely under-
stood Lifechained abilities. The Neverborn are the
unquiet ghosts of abortion, deathless creatures given
form and flesh by Lifer metahumans, walking, talking
proof of the righteousness of their cause. Any Lifer
demagogue can point to one of the few hundred
Neverborn living in North America and say “look,
there’s living proof that abortion is murder, right over
there.”
The Neverborn are a small species with few
reproductive prospects. In evolutionary terms, the
undead beings are a footnote. Their numbers are too
few to maintain real genetic diversity. They are
created with ghost memories of their own deaths in
utero, and are emotionally fragile because of it.
Their value as propaganda (at least outside the
Enclaves) is limited, since Choicer debunkers have
convincingly argued the Neverborn are a work of
living art created by a Lifer metahuman, not proof of
theology. Within the Enclaves, Neverborn are a vital
part of the sidewalk rescue subculture, but their
origins limit the near-human’s prospects to a few
predetermined paths. Neverborn become soldiers,
combat types and sidewalk consolers because
that’s what’s known and expected, and because
they can rarely find employment or acceptance
9
outside the Enclaves.
RESCUE International, as part of its
continual efforts to deescalate the Abortion War has
reached out to the Neverborn community, with
incrementally increasing success since 2100.
Neverborn are able to trust the moderate, Lifer-run
humanitarian organization in a way they can’t trust
the Choicer Covenant or the Fed-Gov. RESCUE
offers Neverborn psychological counseling, medical
care and job training at any of its many American
facilities.
By providing humanitarian aid to the
Neverborn, RESCUE hopes to better understand
their biology, and to prevent them from drifting into
the illegal Army of God simply for lack of other
options. A majority of Neverborn have spent at least
a little time in one of RESCUE’s campuses and
RESCUE-affiliated volunteers (usually teachers,
social workers and xeno-medics) are among the
only humans welcomed into Silenced Rat’s
Redemption compound.
Player Species:
The Neverborn
Medium Lifechained Undead (Late PL 7)
“Only half the patients who go into an abortion
clinic come out alive.”
-Traditional Lifer maxim
The Neverborn are an undead strain of
humanity, a tiny species created by the unique
intersection of pro-life belief and powerful necro-
mantic object philosophies. Neverborn are
awakened to sentience and returned to a kind of life
during a mournful ritual. Neverborn are an artificially
created species unique to the Lifer nation, and
Neverborn children are often raised alongside their
living and breathing siblings in the movement. The
Neverborn are virtually unknown outside of
Megachurch Enclaves. Many outsiders consider the
10 Neverborn an urban legend, and dismiss the species
as just another piece of Lifer propaganda.

Able to testify first hand to the horrors of

abortion, the Neverborn are powerful speakers and
sidewalk consolers, and have become a secret
weapon in the pro-life movement’s propaganda
arsenal. The Neverborn are a relatively new species,
with fewer than 2000 verified members of their kind
world-wide. The vast majority of Neverborn have
chosen to remain on Earth, and are active partici-
pants in the Abortion War. The handful of
Neverborn who have ventured off planet describe a
sense of freedom and purpose among the stars.
These explorers all share an instinctive drive to
conquer the heart of the galaxy, deep within
Lifechain territory.

Legal Status: The US Supreme Court has

recognized the sentience and essential humanity of
the Neverborn, but do not believe the creature’s
existence outweighs the right to legal abortion, citing
psychological and quantum physical evidence
indicating that Neverborn fetuses and fetal tissue are
not in themselves sentient until acted upon by an
outside force- in this case someone who has mas-
tered the Life from Death Philosophy.

For the purposes of inheritance law and

parental rights, the Neverborn are considered the
offspring of the person who ‘created them’, with the
undead creature’s biological parents having aban-
doned all parental rights and responsibilities. This
decision is consistent with decisions made in cases
of creatures that reproduce asexually or via high-
tech, unconventional means of conception.

Despite the fact the creatures are considered

sentient under US law, the species continues to exist
as second class citizens. The Covenant’s initial
response to the species existence and undead nature
was to call for the creatures’ destruction. The Treaty
of Boston forced the Choicer government to accept
the Neverborn’s right to exist and propagate.
 Appearance: Neverborn resemble the
humans they would have grown to be. As undead
pseudo-creatures, they are cool to the touch, with
skins that match the ambient air temperature. Old
coagulated blood drips from their mouth, nostrils or
eyes, especially when the creatures are angry, afraid
or aroused. Most Neverborn are embarrassed by
this seepage from their ruined viscera, and quickly
excuse themselves, but others exploit the shock
value of these bloody tears to the fullest. A
Neverborn’s milky, corpse-like eyes are bloodshot
and darkened with the shadows of an entire lifetime
of sleepless nights.
Occasionally, the Neverborn undergo an
even more horrifying transformation.
When within 30 ft of anyone who has ever
had or preformed an abortion, the Neverborn’s
undead nature becomes obvious: their pale, ice cold
bodies are marred by saline burns and ragged
surgical scars. Purple and crimson lividity marks
decorate their grey-white bodies like obscene
tattoos. In this state, a Neverborn cannot easily hide
what it is. Some elder Neverborn appear almost
translucent, as if they are carved from deeply
scarred amber while transformed. Depending on
local demographics, a Neverborn might flash
between human and undead forms dozens of times
as they pass through an urban crowd, possibly never
knowing which passer-by triggered their transfigura-
tion.
Reproduction: Neverborn are an artificially
created, sterile species. The undead can enjoy sex
for pleasure, but many suffer crippling emotional
problems, which makes interspecies relationships
between Neverborn and living humans a dicey
proposition. Neverborn males are sterile, while
female Neverborn are physiologically incapable of
bringing a child to term, but could theoretically
produce offspring in an exo-womb or by other
artificial methods. To date, no Neverborn has
produced off spring of their own.
Names: Neverborn names follow human
naming conventions, particularly the naming conven-
tions of American Lifer society. Many are referred
to as “Baby” well into their teens and adulthood.
Size: Neverborn are size Medium. As
Medium creatures, Neverborn receive no special
11
bonus or penalties due to their size. A Neverborn’s
base land speed is 30 ft. Neverborn height and
weight is in line with natural-born human norms.
The Eternal Child
Most Neverborn cease to age after reaching
physical maturity. However, a small percentage of
Neverborn never leave physical childhood. Perhaps
by choice and belief, as their consciousness limits
their physical form, or as a residue of an improperly
‘coded’ Life From Death creation, or some inherent
flaw in their genetic material, these few Neverborn
are objects of both pity and superstitious reverence
from their fellows. Seen as more innocent, an even
more tragic reminder of just what they’re fighting
against, these tiny Neverborn are some of the Army
of God’s political wing’s most potent speakers.
During character creation, you may decide
to create an Eternal Child Neverborn. These chil-
dren remain in the Small Size category, receiving
a -1 penalty on grapple checks, a +1 size bonus to
Defense, as well as a +4 size bonus to Hide checks.
These Neverborn appear to be between 6-11
physically, regardless of their actual age, and are
always considered to be in the Child age category.
Ability Score Modifiers: +4 WIS, -2 CHA.
A Neverborn’s intimate connection to death, its
subconscious pseudo-memories of the womb, and
politicized fantasizes of life-before-life give it a
profound wisdom and unshakable will. Neverborn
are the quintessential unwanted outsiders, and many
are emotional cripples thanks to their strange origin.
As undead creatures, Neverborn do not have a
CON score.
Racial Skills: Neverborn receive a +2
racial bonus on Diplomacy and Knowledge: civics
and Knowledge: theology & philosophy checks.
They are raised to be politically active pro-life
advocates with an intimate grasp of the universe’s
theological underpinnings.
12 Neverborn receive a +1 racial bonus on all
Knowledge checks made concerning the Lifechain
or the creatures of Phallus space. In some unknown
way, the necromantic object philosophies that
created these creatures draw on the power of the
Lifechain.
Racial Feats: All Neverborn gain the
Living Witness feat as a racial bonus feat, reflecting
the guerilla-debate tactics they are indoctrinated in
from early childhood. Neverborn know the best way
to parley their undead origins into Lifer votes.
Enhanced Senses: Neverborn are
outsiders, existing at the edge of human society.
They are creatures of shadows, and have night
vision as keen as any other unwanted stray. All
Neverborn possess lowlight vision and darkvision
with a 60 ft range.
Undead Nature (EX): As undead, the
Neverborn have no Constitution score, and are
immune to poison, sleep, fatigue, paralysis, stunning,
disease, the sickened condition, death effects,
energy drain, and necromantic effects. Neverborn
are not subject to subdual damage, stunning or to
critical hits. The Neverborn are immune to any effect
requiring a FORT save, unless the effect also works
on objects.
However, the Neverborn do not automati-
cally receive the Undead type’s D12 hit die; an
Neverborn’s hit die is determined by its character
class. Like all undead, the Neverborn is healed by
negative energy and injured by healing magic.
Neverborn do not heal naturally, though they can be
aided with a DC 30 Treat Injury skill (but see
below). A successful check heals 1d10 points of
damage, and requires about ten minutes of work.
As sentient beings, the Neverborn do not
share the typical undead immunity to mind-influenc-
ing effects. However, all Neverborn are immune to
fear and fear based mental attacks.
Undead Weaknesses (EX): Neverborn
are vulnerable to divine turning (if such character
types are allowed in the campaign), and to any spell
or bane weapon that specifically targets undead.
However, a Neverborn is immune to the turning
attempts of any cleric with a pro-choice or similar
allegiance, or any cleric who has ever undergone or
preformed an abortion.
The Neverborn is destroyed when it reaches
0 HP, not merely incapacitated. Neverborn cannot
be raised, and magical resurrection only works if the
creature is willing. A resurrected Neverborn returns
to life as a true human, losing all racial traits and
special abilities, but retaining all class features.
Lifechained (EX): The Neverborn’s
creation binds these half-dead humanoids indirectly
to the Lifechain. For the purposes of ‘predatory’
Lifechain feats, such as Lifechain Primacy, all
Neverborn are considered to be Lifechain creatures
with a single Lifechained Feat.
Neverborn may select the Awakened
Heritage feat at any point during their careers, not
just at first level. Neverborn who explore their
heritage and select Awakened Heritage feat consid-
ered to possess at least two Lifechain feats, or more
if they master other Lifechained super abilities. The
Lifechain and its creatures are described fully in
Guide to the Known Galaxy (Otherverse Games,
2008).
The Neverborn can only be created via the
Life From Death Object Philosophy. The creatures
do not naturally occur. Creating a Neverborn is a
test of faith that only a handful of the movement’s
most devout believers ever attempt. Because of the
sheer difficulty in mastering Life From Death, those
can manifest this Philosophy are accorded great
respect. The men and women able to manifest the
Philosophy are almost living saints, mobbed by
supplicants after a tragedy.

Though beloved for their ability to save the
recently slain, Philosophy practitioners are held in
awe for their ability to ‘bring back’ an aborted child.
Lifers who carry the shame of an abortion sometime
in their past often seek them out and ask them to
work their post-human magic. The best and most
noble Philosophers do so gladly, volunteering their
abilities and creating Neverborn as freely as they
volunteer their healing gifts after a tragedy, even to
their Choicer neighbors. Others are mercenary, as
concerned with money and glory as an old
televangelist, only offering their talents to the elites of
Lifer society. The Coalition for Life provides all
“LFD Philosophers” with metahuman bodyguards,
because their high level resurrection talent makes
and publicity makes them attractive targets for
Choicer assassins.
The creation of a Neverborn child often
climaxes a particularly emotional series of protests.
Roe Day protests (occurring on January 22nd, the
anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision) almost
always end with the (re)birth of a Neverborn child.
These strange bloody births are media events,
reported as a morbid curiosity by Choicer media,
but as miracles of love and redemption by Lifer
journalists.
13
Neverborn: Cybernetics and Medicine
The Neverborn’s biology is a puzzle; it
shouldn’t work. The Neverborn should be dead, but
somehow they walk, talk, fight and learn just like a
living human, despite the ruin of their internal organ
systems. Because of their exotic biology, attempts to
treat the Neverborn medically are much more
difficult than similar treatments performed on un-
modified humans.
· Attempt to aid Neverborn with the Treat
Injury skill suffer a -4 penalty unless the
attending physician possesses the Xeno-
Medic feat.
· Neverborn cannot receive cybernetic
implants. Systems implanted into their body
simply remain inert and fail to function, as if
they’d been plugged into a corpse. Some
Neverborn choose a specific feat, described
later, that allows them to acquire
cybernetics.
14 Life From Death
(Object Philosophy)
Purely through the strength of
your faith, through the power of the
God you worship, you can return the
dead to life…. And create a new
human life where there was none
before.

Prerequisites: Faith Healer,

Morbid Speculation, Knowledge:
theology & philosophy 12 ranks,
Treat Injury 4 ranks

Benefit: Once per day, you

may touch a dead body which can
have been dead for no more than 24
hours, and raise that person or
creature from the dead. This effect is
effectively identical to the divine spell
raise dead.

In addition, as a consequence
of your beliefs, you can transform fetal
remains into a living human or human-
oid creature. The resulting ‘raised’
creature is a Neverborn human child,
which takes its physical appearance
and extra-normal abilities (if any) from
the raw genetic material of the
remains, and is imbued with a soul
based upon your own, using your
expectations, beliefs and desires as
rough template. A creature created
from Lifechained remains is itself
Lifechained, and the Neverborn
possess all the genetic alterations
passed down to it by its parents.

You may create a Neverborn anywhere in

the child or young adult age category; the creature
appears with knowledge and intellect equal to a
child of its apparent age, using information and
emotional experiences drawn from your own
memories.
The child initially shares your allegiances and
is friendly towards you, but as a sentient creature
eventually form its own beliefs and desires. When
created, a Neverborn does not have any memories
or knowledge not drawn from your own; in short,
your Neverborn offspring does not know anything
you don’t. You are exhausted after using this ability.
 Plan Rachael Intelligent Designs 15
Plan Rachael is a controversial program
“Mother, father, look at your little monster.
circulating within mid-echelons of the Coalition for
I’m a hero, I’m a zero, I’m the butt of the worst
Life that could dramatically increase Earth’s
joke in history.”
Neverborn. Though exhausting and emotionally
-Bad Religion, Incomplete
traumatic for the Philosopher, nothing but tradition
prevents the rapid production of new Neverborn.
The two people most directly responsible
Plan Rachael calls for every capable LFD
for the Neverborn’s existence never met each other,
Philosopher to create as many Neverborn as
and their lives were separated by nearly five
possible within as short a period of time as possible,
decades. The mother of the undead, engineered
especially ones verging on adulthood. A sustained
species went down in history as one of the Lifer
effort, each capable Philosopher creating a single
nations’ saddest embarrassments. Meanwhile, the
new Neverborn per day, could double or triple the
species’ father, the egotistical, self-promoting
species’ population in just a few months.
Philosopher who finally brought the species to
pseudo-life is hailed as one of the movement’s
The goal, as with the quiverfull movement
greatest visionaries.
of the previous century, is victory through numbers-
outbreed and thus outvote the enemy. Plan Rachael
Makepeace Lacey lived and died in Boston,
hasn’t yet received full approval from Fairfax
the heart of the Lifer nation. She watched the
Dacoveney’s inner circle. The CFL’s leaders are
Coalition for Life grow from an obscure Pensacola-
concerned though such a tactic might increase the
based terror-PAC to a nationwide political force.
Lifer nation’s population exponentially, it would
Before her death in 2057 (from an overdose nobody
psychologically and culturally weaken it. Susan
believes was accidental) Makepeace had seen the
Glauchester’s recent rebellion may have driven the
plans for secession and civil war, and there are
final nail into the ill fated Plan Rachael’s coffin.
persistent rumors the artist had been allowed deep
into the Army of God underground and knew the
The Choicer intelligence community is aware
extent to which the Lifer nation had militarized itself.
of Plan Rachael, but not that the idea has been
tabled. If the Lifers began creating new Neverborn
Where other Lifer activists were
en masse, the Choicer government, with the full
emboldened and enthusiastic about the prospect of
support of its tactical AIs, will likely consider it an
‘direct rescue’ on a planetary scale, Makepeace
act of war, and resume selective assassination of
was horrified. Her entire life to that point had been
LFD Philosophers.
about preventing violence- against born and pre-
born humans alike and for Lacey, her pro-life beliefs
were only a small part of her commitment to
pacifism. All her life, Lacey had worked to end
abortion through her art- writing (compulsively but
elegantly), through performance art and early
psycho-active Mesh displays. Utterly rejecting
violence, Lacey sought a better way to end the
escalating violence.

Her diaries, which she compulsively up-

dated, reveal she even considered and ultimately
rejected the idea of going to the Fed-Gov with what
she knew. The crisis only exacerbated her lifelong
16 paranoid and schizophrenic tenancies, and as the
Abortion War drew closer, the young activist
became more and more unstable. In the last year of
her life, she published “I Wish: A Fairytale” to her
Mesh-blog, the only output of a once prolific artist.

“I Wish…” is an epic, rambling essay

clocking in at nearly 1,400 pages. In it, Makepeace
Lacey articulates her wish for a finer, more just
world, where all the sins and inequities she’s spent
her life battling were finally washed away. It was a
schizophrenic’s heretical blueprint for a more
compassionate Revelation than anything written in
the Christian gospel, and it was almost completely
ignored by Lifer America. Unlike her earlier, well
received and well reasoned arguments, the intensely
personal and increasingly incoherent “I Wish…”
never boasted even vanity-press publication. Only a
single stanza of the heart-felt poem survived, be-
cause in its melancholy, it resonated with the similar
madness of the Lifer general Artemis: “and I wish
the murdered children would all come back and tell
us they forgive us….”

“I Wish…” languished in electronic obscurity

until the early 2080s, when the Lifer government,
desperate for new hope in the face of a seemingly
un-winnable war, declared 2081 a Summer of
Rescue. Militarily, this meant heightened offensives
and increased emphasis on capturing and holding
Choicer cities hostage. Culturally, the greatest Lifer
philosophers, martyrs and shooters of the past
century were honored, with among other things, new
editions of their most important texts.

Some midlevel Lifer cultural attaché found

“I Wish….” and began reading mostly out of
bemused curiosity. Within weeks, something new
had been discovered about the bizarre manuscript.
Either by accident or by design, Makepeace Lacey
had encoded the rudiments of an untested new
Object Philosophy into her final statement.

Though not able to fully realize her vision

with pre-War technology, the fundamentals of the
thought-technology were essentially sound. The
neural target-states for the Philosophy were dissemi-
nated throughout the Lifer nation, and it was only a
mater of time until Lacey’s psi-tech reached
Not Born of Woman 17
maturity.
Initially Choicer response to the creation of
the Neverborn was muted and disinterested. Initial
On July 14, 2081, the first Neverborn was
speculation was that the Neverborn were simply a
created using Makepeace Lacey’s enigmatic
species of force-grown clones built from scavenged
formula. The man who performed the strange
fetal tissue; the fact they were built using psi-tech
ceremony was a born showman, a self-promoting
instead of a traditional exo-womb was a curiosity, at
braggart and veteran of a hundred clinic skirmishes,
best. That all changed when neutral para-physicians
a Pensacola native who was Makepeace’s opposite
were able to first examine a Neverborn child.
in every way. Born Ryan William “Willie” Wycoff,
the father of the Neverborn species had been known
Neverborn are a type of creature, that only
by has Warname, “The King of Rest-In-Peace”
existed in horror fiction before 2081. Studying them
since he was 25. Before the city fell, Wycoff had
has forced the medical establishment on both sides
been a pimp, old school flashy and almost reflexively
to redefine life and completely rewrite their notions
brutal, but when the Lifers shut down Pensacola and
of post-human biology. Neverborn might look
made it their cultural capitol, they saw some deep
outwardly human, at least most of the time, but they
wells of potential in the man.
are effectively corpses somehow retaining sentience
through sheer willpower.
Even after he was saved and inducted into
the AOG, the style of the street never fully left him.
A Neverborn’s internal organs are mutilated
Wycoff became a hero to the direct action crowd
and saline scarred, not capable of supporting life,
after a daring series of raids on Choicer facilities
but the creatures still seem to live. Their lungs are
surrounding the Florida panhandle. Displaying a gift
tattered flags, their heart doesn’t beat and the
for showmanship, he quickly evolved out of the role
synapse gaps between their nerve cells are too
of frontline fighter and into that of street preacher.
rotted to carry nerve impulses. Despite all this, the
His newly installed metahuman talents only made him
Neverborn still behave as if they were ordinary,
more successful, and by 2070, The King of Rest in
living humans. They are capable of learning, emotion
Peace was a familiar and fearsome sight at the few
and even seem to age to a point. The zombie-like
remaininig Choicer clinics in Florida and Georgia.
creatures are a human consciousness unencumbered
by normal rules of biology, which is part of the
Outside the direct-combat zone encircling an
reason they were so terrifying to Choicer America.
embattled clinic deep in what was left of Choicer-
held Georgia, The King of RIP created the first
During the War, the targeted assassination of
Neverborn. Tossing his rabbit-skin fur duster to the
Neverborn and their creators became a major
sidewalk, the metahuman worked the crowd for the
secondary goal of the Choicer spec-ops community.
better part of an hour, before opening the tiny white
The war-Era Choicer leadership, and even some
casket of a 15 week human fetus stolen from a
Choicer hardliners, still consider the Neverborn to
medical waste facility in Mobile. Tears of blood and
be biological AI, not true sentients. The vehemence
fire rolling down his cheeks, sub-quantum flames
of the Choicer push for mass execution of the
dancing over his bare chest, the King of Rest-In-
zombie species took even the Lifer nation by
Peace, poured his newly unlocked power into the
surprise. However, the reasons for this Choicer
tattered fetal remains. When the smoke cleared, the
revulsion weren’t as simple as Lifer demagogues
King was holding a new born child in his arms.
liked to pretend.
18 Killing the Neverborn
Fighting undead presents special difficulties,
but not insurmountable problems to a well trained
force. Characters within the setting may not have a
codified list of undead strengths and weaknesses like
we do as gamers, but through trial and error have
learned what works and what doesn’t. Choicer
forces tasked with bringing down Neverborn (not to
mention Nuremberg’s pawns) have developed a
fairly standard set of tactics when confronting
Neverborn.
Chemical weapons and non-lethal
weapontry are less than useless against Neverborn,
and usually pose more of a hazard to allies than to
the Neverborn themselves. Capturing Neverborn
alive is rarely allowed to become a mission priority.
Though durable, Neverborn lack the human ability
to recover from near-fatal wounds. When fighting
Neverborn, Choicer troops concentrate their
firepower, hoping to bring the target down to 0 HP
as quickly and efficiently as possible.
With their immunity to critical hits, most
soldiers favor weapons that offer high base damage
and low critical threat ranges. Explosives and area
effect weapons are ideal for bringing down
Neverborn, though can present a major hazard in
the crowded urban environments where the crea-
tures are most often found. When engaging
Neverborn hand-to-hand, Choicer martial artists
Power Attack to the greatest degree possible.
The Choicer Woven Council were not
concerned about the Neverborn’s propaganda
value. As far as they were concerned, the
Neverborn had none, especially after the republica-
tion of the Lacey manuscript. Nor did guilt play a
role in the call for extinction, at least not officially. achievement to date.
Instead, the Choicer leadership worried about the
Neverborn’s long term effects on human evolution, a
fear that only became more pronounced as the
oldest surviving Neverborn entered adulthood. Once
at physical adulthood, the Neverborn ceased to age.
To date, no Neverborn has perished from natural
causes, and given their already impossible biology,
there is good cause to believe the creatures are
effectively immortal.
Their longevity and the possibility of expo-
nential growth via Plan Rachael means that unless
the Neverborn are culled, there’s a good chance that
they will supplant ordinary humanity completely
within a few millennia. The strategic AI guiding the
Covenant find it unacceptable that the Lifers and
their dark creations might win the abortion war once
and for by simply out-living their rivals.
The Treaty of Boston may have secured the
Neverborn’s right to exist, but the mutual rancor
between Neverborn and the Choicer Covenant may
never truly heal. The Neverborn didn’t win the right
to attend public schools until 2093, and even today
most Neverborn children are home schooled deep
within the Enclaves. Few Neverborn hold a tradi-
tional job- most are involved in the Coalition For
Life’s anti-abortion activities in some respect, from
logistical support to sidewalk rescue to off-the-
books terrorism. The number of Neverborn who
have integrated into Choicer society can be counted
on one hand.
In societal terms, the Neverborn are an
isolated subculture unable to integrate into the
dominant culture. In evolutionary terms, their actual
numbers are too small to maintain genetic diversity,
even if they could reliably crossbreed. The
Neverborn may be a species doomed from concep-
tion. Born dead, and relegated to the status of an
evolutionary footnote….
…. and to the galaxy spanning Stonecutter
Mercantile Sphere, possibly humankind’s greatest
 19

The Stonecutter’s trade empire stretches

Emissaries of Evolution from one end of the galaxy to another. The ancient
alien race is the dominant power in the Milky Way,
“Christian and Muslim fundamentalists… and under their aegis, humanity has been introduced
already understand what the Great Temptation is to the great galactic powers as almost an equal. Until
and how to avoid it. They insulate themselves relatively recently, the Stonecutters had not consid-
from our Creative-Class dreamworlds and ered humanity’s “Lifer” faction as being worthy of
EverQuest economics. They wait patiently for their time. Unlike the technological utopia the
our fitness-faking narcissism to go extinct. Those Choicer faction was building, Earth’s Lifers were
practical-minded breeders will inherit the earth, anti-rationalist, anti-scientific and xenophobic: in
as likeminded aliens may have already inherited short, poor potential trading partners. The Choicer
a few other planets. When they finally achieve Covenant reaped the economic and cultural benefits
Contact, it will not be a meeting of novel readers of interstellar trade, while the Lifers languished in
and game players. It will be a meeting of dead Enclave poverty.
serious super parents, who congratulate one
another on surviving not just the Bomb but the Stonecutters diplomats stationed on never
Xbox. They will toast one another not in a soft- bothered to learn more then the rudiments of Lifer
porn Holodeck, but in a sacred nursery.” culture. Uninterested in the minutia of a culture they
-Geoffrey Miller, Runaway Consumerism considered hopelessly backwater, the Stonecutters
Explains the Fermi Paradox, 2006 didn’t learn of the Neverborn’s existence until the
turn of the century. The discovery of the undead
20 species forced the Stonecutters to reevaluate their
opinion of Lifer culture. The Stonecutters had
dramatically underestimated Lifer ingenuity…. And
the potential of their protégé species as a whole.
The Stonecutter race has seen a million
races rise and fall, only a small percentage of which
ever achieved star-flight. Of the races who’ve
passed ‘the great challenge’ only a handful of worlds
have ever mastered anything like humanity’s Object
Philosophies. For Stonecutter xeno-anthropologists,
the ability to manifest change through sheer will-
power, to use Philosophy based psi-tech is the mark
of a supremely evolved species. However, actually
creating life through Philosophy is a feat that only
one species in recorded galactic history has ever
achieved… aside from humanity. The mysterious
and long extinct Senators, who once ruled this
galaxy, could create sentient life ex nihlo.
With the discovery of the Neverborn, the
Stonecutter Sphere realized that in their haste to find
any advantage, Earth’s warring factions have
evolved farther than any other species in galactic
history. Humanity hasn’t yet realized the true import
of what it’s done, though according to the
Stonecutters, the Choicers’ deep existential dread
at the long term implications of the Neverborn, are
close to understanding. Their discovery has reaf-
firmed the Stonecutter’s faith in their human charges,
and has brought billions of dollars of xeno-trade into
the Enclaves.
Earth’s Lifer leadership doesn’t know why
the Stonecutters have suddenly reversed five de-
cades of contempt for them, but are happy at the
economic opportunities the new détente offers.
Stonecutter merchant houses, through the Earth
based Anvil Financial Group, have invested heavily
in the Enclaves, becoming silent partners in hundreds
of businesses. For the most part, trade between the
Enclaves and the Stonecutter Sphere has worked
well, though the relationship hasn’t been ideal.
Stonecutter missionaries are unwelcome in
the xenophobic Christian enclaves, and over the last
five years, nearly two dozen clerics of the Patch-
work Always have been murdered by Lifer extrem-
ists. The dollars they bring to the community are
welcome, but Stonecutter religious abstractions are
not. For their part, the Stonecutter Sphere has
prevented retaliation for the murder of its priests and
left justice up to Terran authorities. The sudden
willingness to do business with the Lifers has
strained relations with the Choicer government, as
has the Stonecutters call for Neverborn equality.
Despite the costs of their new policy, the
Stonecutters are convinced the sacrifices they are
making now will pay great dividends soon, when
humanity fully realizes its potential. Stonecutters take
the long view of history, planning their investments
on millennia long timelines and planning returns five
centuries down the line. Today’s investments, most
of which is humanitarian aid to the enclaves, funneled
through RESCUE International and the Anvil
Financial group are a small price to pay for the
chance to study a Senator-level species as it
evolves.
Jom-chuk, Diplomatic Envoy of the
Sunward Mercantile Vessel “Forward Always”, a
Stonecutter diplomat, summed up galactic feelings
towards humanity succinctly:
“Homo Sapiens are an intensely religious
people. Their two largest sects, whom they refer
to as Choicers or Lifers, are violently opposed to
one another. Their most recent war was fought
over theological questions about how, when and
if the soul enters a gestating human fetus. These
questions are very real and tangible to humans,
and a human will gladly die for its beliefs. They
are courageous and obsessive.
The humans are extremely fertile, and
sexuality plays a dominant role in their culture.
Their medical sciences are primarily focused on
preventing, ending or ensuring pregnancy. This in
turn has lead to their race becoming one of the
galaxy’s foremost experts in genetic engineering
and fertility medicine.
Humans are prone to mutation and have
a great affinity for the Lifechain.”
Player Species: Stonecutter investors have reaped the
rewards of Earth-trade a hundred time over, and as
21
The Stonecutters such there is no shortage of Stonecutter patrons
willing to finance human out-colonies and invest-
Large Monstrous Humanoid (Early PL 8) ments. As a result of the free trade agreements
between Earth and Kor, Stonecutters are one of the
The Stonecutter Mercantile Sphere stretches most numerous and prosperous alien immigrant
across half the Milky Way- their traders and mis- groups on-planet. Stonecutter enclaves can be found
sionaries have explored every star and planet in the in most major cities, and human-run businesses
Southern Spiral Arm. They are the rulers of our financed by Stonecutter investors half a galaxy away
galaxy in all but name: the massive, yellow skinned are common. Once a rare sight in the Enclaves, they
humanoids are the driving economic and cultural are gradually becoming as common in Lifer America
force in the galaxy. as they are in Choicer cities.

From their scorching desert home world of
Kor, Stonecutter fleets carry coin and cargo across
known space. Galactic travelers convert local
currency to Stonecutter talents, a stable currency
accepted on most galactic capitals. Stonecutter
technologists and artists influence the technology and
pop culture of a thousand worlds, and dream new
futures for hundreds of sentient species. Stonecutter
missionaries bring Stonecutter traditions and ethos to
all who will listen, and incorporate the best and
wisest aspects of the new faiths they discover into
Kor’s ever-evolving, patchwork poly-faith, the
Always. The vast Stonecutter armada patrols the
outer darkness, protecting client worlds from Ejawfe
war fleets and Nemesis Lifechain incursions.
Stonecutter ships are a common sight in
Earth space- massive, blocky freighters shielded
behind thick obsidian hulls. The Stonecutter Mer-
cantile Council was one of the first stellar govern-
ments to open trade and scientific sharing agree-
ments with Earth. Despite the economic losses
Stonecutter traders suffered when the Abortion War
erupted, the treaties have been profitable for both
sides. Human society and technology has evolved
faster than even the most optimistic Stonecutter
investors could have hoped, and the rapidly chang-
ing, vibrant Earth culture is rapidly becoming as
much an influence on galactic fashion as its patron
species.
Appearance: Stonecutters are hulking,
yellow skinned humanoids, standing between seven
and nine feet tall. Stonecutters are walls of dense
muscle, with hides the color of an old banana. Skin
tone can range from a pale wheat color to a dull
brownish orange. Birthmarks and random blotchy
patterns are common, with females tending to have
more colorful, complex markings.
Stonecutters appear top-heavy and ponder-
ous, with thick barrel chests and powerful arms in
contrast to their almost comically short legs. Despite
their unusual proportions and bulk, the creatures are
surprisingly flexible and graceful. Stonecutter skulls
are relatively large, and set low in the collarbones,
giving these aliens a bullnecked appearance. Stone
cutters have beady jet black eyes and thick, expres-
sive lips. Stonecutter communication depends largely
on facial expression.
Instead of a nose, a series of small holes
under their tiny ears allow them to smell and breathe.
With the exception of a few neatly woven braids or
ponytails, Stonecutters are completely hairless.
Stonecutter skulls are topped with short, blunt crests
or ridges, with small braids dangling from beneath
their armored skull plates.
Reproduction: Despite some of their more
unusual racial abilities, Stonecutters are dual-sexed,
mammalian humanoids. The creatures reproduce
sexually, and like humans, have no set mating season
and enjoy sex for pleasure. Stonecutter pregnancies
22 are usually 12-13 months long, and often result in
multiple births, with fraternal twins or triplets being
the most common.
Names: Stonecutter names are simple two
syllable sounds, with a cut off, guttural quality. Titles
and honorific are an important part of Stonecutter
culture, and are always included when speaking
formally. Among close friends or family members, it
is acceptable to omit the honorific.
Examples: Jod-sma, Captian of the Mer-
cantile Sphere Cargohauler Obsidian Anvil ; Lok-
tum, Priest of the Patchwork Always ; Reddic,
Loyal Nano-Sculptor of the First Sunward Nation.
Size: Stonecutters are Size Large. Stone-
cutters have a base landspeed of 30 ft. Stonecutters
stand between seven and nine feet tall, and the
largest specimens weigh upwards of a half ton.
There is no appreciable physical difference between
male and female Stonecutters: to humans the catfish
faced giants look monotonously similar.
As a Large creature, the Stonecutter can
wield larger weapons than its human counterparts,
and its lifting and carrying limits are double those of
a medium creature. The Stonecutter receives a –1
size penalty on attack rolls and Defense, and a –4
size penalty to Hide checks. Conversely, the Stone-
cutter receives a +4 size bonus on grapple checks.
Ability Score Modifiers: +4 STR, -2
DEX, +2 CON. Stonecutteres are enormously
strong, and robust, with well evolved internal
structures, but their bulk limits their mobility.
Racial Skills: The Stonecutters are a highly
educated race which places great emphasis on
trade, artistic expression and missionary duties. All
Stonecutters receive a +2 racial bonus on the
following Knowledge checks: art, business and
theology and philosophy.
Racial Feats: Stonecutter culture is a semi-
socialistic, post scarcity economy, with the vast
revenue from its off planet investments redistributed
through its citizens. All Stonecutters receive Windfall
as a racial bonus feat, and most use this as seed
money to start a financial empire of their own.
Controlflux (EX): Stonecutters have
amazing voluntary muscular control. Their faces are
capable of an amazing range of expression, and their
rubbery bodies are likewise malleable.
As a full round action, the Stonecutter can
contract his body mass into himself, becoming a
Medium-sized creature of equivalent weight and
mass but only 6 to 6 ½ feet tall. While transformed,
the Stonecutter is a smaller, harder to hit combatant
and can enter tighter spaces and use smaller equip-
ment comfortably.
The Stonecutter can maintain Medium size
indefinitely, but relaxes into his larger state when he
sleeps or is knocked unconscious. As this is a non-
magical, physical change, the Stonecutter’s gear
does not change size.
Despite their bulky, elephantine appearance,
the Stonecutter’s hands are as delicate as a
surgeon’s. The Stonecutter can concentrate, using
his extremely fine muscular control to shape the
fleshy parts of his hands into crude but effective
tools. As a full round action, the Stonecutter may
shape his hands into an Improvised Tool Kit for
virtually any skill which requires a kit to perform. As
such, the Stonecutter usually suffers only a –2
penalty for working without proper tools rather than
–4, since his flexible hands become the necessary
tools.
Fluxhide (EX): Stonecutter skin resembles
dense rubber or heavy leather armor, and is as
durable as ballistic cloth. The malleable hide deforms
instantly and painlessly in response to blunt trauma.
All Stonecutters receive Damage Resistance
10/- against non-magical Bludgeoning damage. This
Damage Reduction stacks with DR from other
sources when applied against blunt force trauma,
including Tough Hero class levels and various spells
and feats.
 Desert Adaptation (EX): Though power-
ful and prosperous, Stonecutter biology imposes
limits on these golden-skinned behemoths. As
creatures adapted to life in a burning desert, Stone-
cutters suffer a –4 racial penalty on FORT Saves
made to resist extreme environmental cold or cold-
based attacks. Though Stonecutters can survive in
temperature zones set for humans without complaint,
most find Earth a little too cool and damp for their
liking, and keep their own quarters and embassies
heated to a sweltering, Saharan extreme. Stonecut-
ters receive a +4 racial bonus on FORT Saves made
to resist extreme environmental heat.
Level Adjustment: +1. Their cultural
superiority and great wealth, more than their prodi-
gious strength makes Stonecutters slightly more
powerful than ordinary humans. They gain levels
more slowly.
Stonecutters and AI
Part of the reason Stonecutters are so
impressed with the creation of the Neverborn is that
the race has little direct experience with artificial
consciousnesses of any kind. Though Stonecutter
technology is more than sufficient to dominate half
the Milky Way, it is surprisingly primitive in some
respects. Most importantly, Stonecutters do not use
artificial intelligence. Any AI running a Stonecutter
vessel or weapon is likely an off-world export,
probably from Earth or provided by the Jigsaw. By
contrast, every piece of a human soldier’s gear is
likely to be self-aware at least to a limited degree.
While humans prefer to adapt computer
systems to their needs, the Stonecutter Mercantile
Sphere prefers to learn to work with existing tech-
nology. Stonecutter engineers prefer to utilize the
least amount of technology necessary to solve a
problem, and tend to be wary of AI. Stonecutter
computer technology is at least a century behind
human developments, and many Stonecutter systems
run off operating systems seemingly identical to
1980s-era computer programs. Stonecutter techies
claim their rudimentary computers are all they need,
amazed that human IT experts can keep the quirks
of their bloated later-generation systems in check.
Instead of advanced expert-AI, Stonecutter spacers
make do with long hand calculations and direct
23
mind-machine interfaces.
Stonecutter systems are larger and much
less user-friendly than similar human devices, but are
fairly easy to use, and more importantly, are almost
idiot-proof and field repairable. Their relatively
primativecomputer systems account in large part for
the sheer bulk of Stonecutter vessels.
Because the Stonecutters don’t have a
tradition of native AI, they don’t truly understand
how deeply entwined AI and human psychology has
become. Stonecutter xeno-anthropologists have no
interest in the Nuremberg AI itself, though they are
fascinated by its creations, because the Stonecutters
have no direct experience upon which to judge
Nuremberg. The few, native Stonecutter AI are
simplistic experimental systems, languishing in a
university data-stack somewhere. No Stonecutter
AI has ever been allowed to become as culturally
important as the Nuremberg AI or the Choicer
mentor-AI have become, nor would a Stonecutter
computer system have the intellect necessary
to do so.
Variant Racial Trait
If you wish to emphasize the vast cultural
differences between Stonecutter and human
technology, Computer Use (INT) can never be
considered a Class Skill for a Stonecutter character.
To compensate, Stonecutters gain a +3 racial bonus
on Knowledge (physical sciences) and Repair
checks, to account for their cultural ‘work-arounds’
for the missing AI technology.
24 Stonecutter Cultural
Touchstones:
Feats & Starting Occupations
All Stonecutters may select any of the
following unique racial feats. Stonecutters raised
among the Mercantile Sphere worlds, as well as a
handful of client species may select from the follow-
ing new starting occupations, in addition to the
occupations in D20 Modern, D20 Future and the
Otherverse America campaign setting.
Fosterling
Stonecutter merchant houses accept foster-
children from a myriad of client species. These
fosterlings are raised on Kor, among Stonecutter
families for several years before being returned to
the planet of their birth, hopefully to open extensive
trade relations between Kor and that world. Foster-
lings gain an intimate understanding of Stonecutter
culture and commerce.
Neverborn Humans account for a surpris-
ingly large percentage of Fosterlings, especially
considering how insular and xenophobic their culture
is. In the last few years, the Lifer nation has allowed
more than a hundred newly created Neverborn to
leave Earth and it’s sectarian violence behind and
travel to the Stonecutter homeworld. RESCUE
International encourages the cultural exchange.
Prerequisite: Age 15+, any non-Stonecut-
ter species
Skills: Choose two of the following as
permanent class skills. If the skill you select is
already a class skill, you receive a +1 competence
bonus on checks with that skill. All Fosterlings can
read, write and speak the Stonecutter language, in
addition to their native language.
Diplomacy, Gather Information, Knowledge
(art, business, civics, technology), Pilot, Survival
Or select a new Speak or Read/Write
language selection.
Feats: Choose one of the following: Diver-
sity of Experience, Educated, Gear Head, Guide,
Out-Colonist, Trustworthy, Windfall
Wealth Bonus Increase: +3
Reputation Bonus Increase: +0
Stellar Missionary
The Stonecutters have spread their faith to
every corner of the galaxy; a large part of their
success is their faith’s ability to incorporate new
elements from newly discovered worlds. The
Stonecutter clerics refer to their polytheistic faith as
the Always; a central core of universal truths that
are unchanging but are in constant flux as new
information, new gods and new revelations are
incorporated into the patchwork faith.
Stonecutter missionaries are experienced
diplomats and scholars, and often take the lead
during first contact scenarios.
Prerequistes: Stonecutter species, Age
40+, WIS 13+
Preselected Feat: A Stonecutter Stellar
Missionary must select the Anointed Cleric feat at
first level.
Skills: Choose two of the following as
permanent class skills. If the skill you select is
already a class skill, you receive a +1 competence
bonus on checks with that skill.
Concentration, Decipher Script, Knowledge
(art, behavioral sciences, civics, technology, theol-
ogy & philosophy), Navigate, Perform (act, sing),
Pilot, Sense Motive. Or add a new Speak or Read/
Write language selection.
Feats: Select one of the following as a
bonus feat: Educated, Elite Clearance, Evangelist,
Studious, Spacer, Starship Operation, Trustworthy,
Zero-G Training
Wealth Bonus Increase: +2
Reputation Bonus Increase: +2
New Affiliation:
Anvil Financial Group
Earth Incorporation Year: 2063
Corporate Motto: Two worlds united.
The Anvil Financial Group is the largest and
wealthiest non-Terran mega-corporation on Earth.
Incorporated under Earth law during the early 2060,
the Anvil Financial Group is a coalition of Stonecut-
ter investors who use the vast resources of their
species’ interstellar trading consortium to dominate
Earth’s promising new markets. Anvil Financial
dominates the interstellar shipping and xeno-tech
industries. The Anvil Group trades Stonecutter
technology for Earth’s cultural exports, raw materials
and land. The Financial Group is a major lender,
offering start up capitol to human-ran businesses, as
well as lending to Stonecutters born on Earth.
The Anvil Financial Group is one of the
leading advocates for global trade, pushing the
world’s government to end protective tariffs and
legal impediments to international and interplanetary
trade. The alien megacorp is a familiar target for
anti-capitalist and anti-globalization protesters, and
spends billions of dollars annually on humanitarian
causes or humanitarian tech donations to offset the
negative press.
Affiliation Prerequistes: Speak and Read/
Write Stonecutter, Knowledge: business 8 ranks,
Knowledge: civics 6 ranks, Knowledge: technology
4 ranks.
Affiliation Benefit: Earth based members
of the Anvil Financial Group can purchase technol-
ogy and weapons from Progress Level Eight with
only +2 Purchase DC modifier, thanks to the
advanced technology provided by their Stonecutter
backers. You only receive this benefit when making
purchases through the Financial Group or it’s
approved trading partners.
Normally, for a PL 7 society like Otherverse
America, technology from PL 8 would have a +5
Purchase DC modifier, if it is available at all.
Stonecutter Racial Feats 25
The following feats are unique to the
Stonecutter species.
Bonded Tracker (Stonecutter)
Like many young Stonecutters, you choose
to become genetically and spiritually bound to a
krenshar, a fearsome, panther like predator native
to Kor. The ritual is a relic of Kor’s primitive past,
when Stonecutter hunters were dependant on their
life bound cats for survival.
Prerequsite: Track, Stonecutter species
Benefit: You gain a Krenshar as a sort of
familiar. You are bound to your krenshar partner
using advanced genetic alteration, allowing you to
command the creature wordlessly, and increasing the
animal’s intelligence. The Krenshar is described at
the end of this section.
Your Krenshar familiar gains abilities as a
mage of your total character level. If your krenshar
is slain, you must make a DC 15 FORT save.
Failure indicates you lose 200 XP per character
level, as a result of the trauma of your Krenshar
familiar’s demise. Success means you only lose half
that amount. A slain or dismissed familiar cannot be
replaced until you gain a level.
A slain Krenshar can be raised from the
dead, just as a character can be, and does not lose a
level or Constitution point when this happy occasion
occurs. If a character restores life to a slain familiar
before 24 hours elapses, he can recover half the XP
lost as a result of the creature’s death.
A Krenshar familiar grants its master a +3
bonus on Intimidate checks.
Internal Control (Stonecutter)
You are a member of the Stonecutter
military caste, and have evolved internal defenses to
keep you alive on the battlefield. You can use your
inborn muscular control and malleable internal
organs to prevent injury by moving internal targets
out of danger.
Prerequsites: CON 13+, Stonecutter
species
26 Benefit: A number of
times per day equal to
your CON modifier
(minimum once daily),
you may shift your
internal organs slightly in
hopes of avoiding lethal
injuries. In doing so, you
force your opponent to
reroll the damage
inflicted. You must
accept the result of the
second roll, even if it is
worse then the first roll.
Doing so is an instant
action, made in response
to danger.

Intelligent Scalpels
(General)
You are an
exceptionally deadly
shift-soldier, and are
capable of instantly
reshaping the configura-
tion of your natural
weapons to inflict maximum damage. Stonecutter Goliath (Stonecutter)
Prerequsite: Warlimb, Combat Expertise, You are even more massively built than other
Stonecutter species Stonecutters. You tower over most humanoids,
Benefit: You take semi-conscious control standing nearly 12 feet tall, and weighing over a ton.
over the organic blades jutting from your warlimbs, Typically, only the healthiest, most respected Stone-
changing your weapon’s shape to take advantage of cutters ever attain this size, and the giant creatures
battlefield opportunities. When fighting with your are considered paragons of beauty among their own
warlimb, you may add your INT modifier as a bonus kind.
on attack and damage rolls, as well as on disarm Prerequsites: STR 15+, CON 15+,
attempts made with the Warlimb. Stonecutter species

Special: A Neo-Witch Midwife with a Benefit: As a Huge creature, the Stonecut-

functional Obstertrix Nanonics cyberlimb may select
this feat, regardless of her species. She does not
need to possess the Warlimb feat. The Covenant
used Stonecutter marital arts as the basis for several
of their combat styles, and incorporated this tactic.
ter Goliath can wield larger weapons than its human
counterparts, and its lifting and carrying limits are
triple those of a medium creature. The Stonecutter
receives a –2 size penalty on attack rolls and
Defense, and a –8 size penalty to Hide checks.
Conversely, the Stonecutter receives a +8 size
bonus on grapple checks.
 Stonecutter Goliaths receive a +2 bonus on
all CHA based skill checks made against smaller
Stonecutters. As a full round action, a Stonecutter
Goliath may use its Controlflux racial ability to
assume either Size Medium or Size Large. The
Goliath returns to Size Huge when sleeping or
unconscious.
Tradeblooded (General)
Stonecutter merchants and missionaries are
common in every galactic port of call, and brief
liaisons during shore-leave are common. Stonecutter
DNA is as flexible and mutable as Stonecutter flesh,
allowing the goliaths to interbreed with virtually any
humanoid species. You are the offspring of a liaison
between a Stonecutter visitor and your non-Stone-
cutter parent.
Prerequistes: character level first, non-
Stonecutter species
Benefit: You are a Stonecutter hybrid. As
such you are larger and more powerfully built than
other members of your species, with features that
echo your Stonecutter ancestor: rubbery skin with a
yellowish cast, large, obsidian eyes, thick lips and
cranial armor.
Your half-Stonecutter features make you an
effective negotiator with the merchant-aliens. You
receive a +4 racial bonus on all CHA based skill
checks made against any Stonecutter or
Tradeblooded humanoid.
Your skin is dense and rubbery, and you
gain DR 5/- against all non-magical Bludgeoning
damage. This Damage Reduction stacks with DR
from other sources, when applied against blunt force
trauma, including Tough Hero class levels and
various spells and feats.
Drawback: You suffer a –4 racial penalty
on Disguise checks made to pass for a normal,
unmodified member of your species.
Warlimb (General)
You are a stonecutter warrior, and you have
27
the inborn ability use your natural morphic gifts to
transform your arms into deadly, razor edged war
clubs.
Prerequisite: Stonecutter species
Benefit: As a standard action, usable at
will, you can transform one or both of your hands
into deadly weapons. Your transformed limbs
resemble heavy maces, studded with bone spurs and
dense knots of cartridge. Half the war limbs damage
is slashing, half is bludgeoning.
· A medium warlimb inflicts 1d8 + STR
modifier points of damage.
· A large warlimb inflicts 2d6 + STR modifier
points of damage.
· A huge warlimb inflicts 2d10 + STR modi-
fier points of damage.
While transformed, your hands become
useless. You cannot hold objects or weapons in your
hands, or preform any task requiring fine manipula-
tion.
A warlimb cannot be sundered or disarmed.
You are considered armed and proficient when
attacking with your warlimb.
28
Only Human After All
The Neverborn have not been allowed to
build a unique society. They exist at the heart of the
American Lifer nation. Only recently, with Susan
Glauchester’s discovery of their true origins and the
attention of their Stonecutter patrons, have the
Neverborn began building anything like a native
culture. Right now, it is a culture clustered around a
handful of locales, and an even smaller number of
extraordinary figures.
Nuremberg
“The Amerikan Abortion Industry hides
its crimes in the shadows. We shine a light!
Welcome to the Nuremberg Files. To search for
an abortionist enter a name, location or use our
intelligent image recognition GUI! If you have
information about an abortionist’s crimes, please
use our TRUTH form to update AOG rescuers in
your area!”
-The Nuremberg Database Public Home
Page
During the last years of the 20th century, the
earliest members of the Army of God traded scraps
of intelligence on a website called The Nuremberg
Files. Terrifyingly comprehensive, the files contained
information on abortion providers across the coun-
try- adresses and candid photographs, vehicle
registration info, and obsessive records of every
procedure ever performed. If a doctor had a
weakness- alcoholism or a malpractice suit in their
closet- the Files knew it. If a doctor had a
concealed weapons permit, the Files told its activist
readers exactly what caliber.
A terrorist’s wet-dream wiki, the Files were
shutdown by the Fed-Gov several times during the
late 20th and early 21st Centuries, but always
returned on some new server. Sometime in the mid
2030s, like complex ‘accidental’ artificial intelli-
gences such as Google and Wikipedia.mesh before
it, the sheer complexity of the data contained within
the files awakened it to true sentience.
The Nuremberg Files mutated into the self aware
Nuremberg AI almost without anyone noticing. 29
The machine intelligence was hardwired to
serve the cause, and by 2061, had evolved again,
into the primary Mesh server and communications
protocol for the Lifers. Its distributed systems were
upgraded with technology recovered by the Lifer
nation’s space-born cybernetic general, Artemis.
Quickly evolving from a self aware search engine
and data-store, the Nuremberg consciousness soon
became vital to the Lifer cause. Throughout the
Abortion War, the Nuremberg AI processed tactical
data loads undreamed of by its earliest creators. The
Nuremberg AI also had much more to do with the
creation of the Neverborn than anyone suspected.
During the late 2070s, the Nuremberberg AI
killed and absorbed the data-load of a self-aware
Covenant AI, one of the ‘strategic guides’ shaping
the future evolution of Choicer culture. Learning
from its victim, Nuremberg began looking for a way
to ensure the survival of the Lifer nation. Eventually,
after picoseconds of compulsive electronic ransack-
ing, the Nuremberg Consciousness found the “I
Wish….” Manuscript uploaded to its depths. Subtly
drawing scientific attention to the strange document,
the Nuremberg AI was instrumental in creating the
Neverborn.
It was the Nuremberg AI’s comprehensive
database, continent spanning nano-sensory web and
smartlight broadcast capabilities that created one of
the greatest mysteries of Neverborn biology. The
Life From Death Philosophy can only create
Neverborn from aborted fetal remains, not from
miscarried or stillborn fetuses, no matter how the
donor tissue is disguised. Despite the best efforts of
Choicer paraphysicians to find a mundane or
parapsychological explanation, they were forced to
conclude that a possibly supernatural aspect was at
work in the Philosophy. With use of the Philosophy
regulated by the nearly omniscient Nuremberg
Consciousness, that was exactly the impression the
AI wanted them to have.
30 Cracks in the anti-abortion façade only
began to appear in 2105, after Susan Glauchester
discovered her un-birth was a mistake, a rare piece
of garbage data entered into the otherwise genius
AI. After her disastrous confrontation with her
‘parents’, Glauchester delved deep the supposedly
infallible Nuremberg AI. Her research began her
rebellion.
Killing Nuremberg
Permanently dismantling the Nuremberg AI
may be impossible. The AI has redesigned itself
thousands of time, for greater survivability and is
now a distributed consciousness camouflaged in
every corner of the Mesh. Immortal, the Nuremberg
Consciousness is terrified of nonexistance, and will
do anything to protect itself. The Nuremberg
Consciousness has evolved far past the Covenant’s
own mentor-AI, which it feeds upon at leisure. The
main servers for the AI are located in Sub-Basement
Zeta of One Eagle Plaza, the Boston capitol of the
Lifer nation. There are multiply redundant backups
located across the world, at the AOG’s diverse and
well-hidden “Alternate” sites.
Even if all the physical backup systems
could be shut down, the Nuremberg AI could
survive, albeit in crippled form, as a self-aware
Smartlight colony. Its photon-based technology
stretches from one end of the country to another,
and its info-saturation levels are greater than any
other Smartlight to date. Very nearly a neo-God, the
Nuremberg AI’s true sensory capabilities are
unknown, even to its Lifer allies.
What is known, at least by Glauchester’s
loyalists, is this: the AI can scan the DNA of fetal
tissue, anywhere in North America, genetically
match to census data in its sprawling data-base, and
if the tissue isn’t from an aborted fetus, to transmit a
smartlight signal that temporarily shuts down the Life
From Death Philosophy. The fact the Nuremberg AI
can do all of this in less than 5 seconds, and has only
made one known error in over twenty years of
practice, is a testament to its almost limitless
capabilities.
Finally, the Neverborn themselves may be a
last-ditch backup for Nuremberg. Autopsies of slain
Neverborn revealed strange proprietary nanotech
buried deep within otherwise useless brain tissue.
The Choicer government has kept its discovery out
of the press, until it can definitively find out what the
nanotech is used for.
As of January 1, 2107, the Choicer intel
agencies have no idea of Nuremberg’s sentience or
the depth of its capabilities though they suspect there
is more to the Neverborn than meets the eye, and
know that something is killing their best, most
complex AI.
The Enclave of the Dead:
The Redemption Lifepoint
“We have been blessed by the Lord, Our
God with a second chance at life. We didn’t
escape our mother’s wombs unscarred and we
know we are not fully human. We do not need to
be. Our scars are deep, but if they prevent just
one innocent life from being slaughtered, we are
worthy of the Great Miracle that rescued us.”
-Silenced Rat, early February, 2107
During the Abortion War, Lifer strongholds
in contested territory were referred to as lifepoints.
Sixty seven Neverborn and associated homo
sapiens hangers on, have gathered in a tent city near
the Montata/Canada border, forming the densest
concentration of Neverborn on the planet. Together,
these loyalist Neverborn are building a new lifepoint,
which they eventually to transform into a true
Enclave. Lead by a Neverborn post-human answer-
ing to Silenced Rat, the men and women of the
Redemption Lifepoint have created a new kind of
civilization almost by accident.
The tent-city is crude and rudimentary,
designed purely around the needs and desires of the
undead post-humans. There are no wells dug or
stores opened at Redemption, no latrine trenches
and no hospital. Neverborn aren’t alive and they

don’t need such things. Silenced Rat considers it
sinful for Neverborn to use resources they don’t
really need, forbidding most unnecessary human
comforts. The few humans living among the dead
must venture into local towns for supplies, or trade
with nearby Untainted clans for the necessities of
survival.
Life at Redemption is hard, and the disci-
pline cultish. Silenced Rat is absolute monarch of his
small city, and governs every aspect of his citizens’
lives. Technology in redemption is 19th Century at
best with respect to everything except weapons and
vehicles. The few permanent structures are wood
longhouses, lit by firelight and sun. Silenced Rat
makes his nest atop the white-washed church’s
massive spire, which provides an excellent line of
sight (and clear field of fire) to anywhere in
Redemption. Rat’s church is naturally the center of
community life- believers
gather for daily sermons, 31
children (both Neverborn and
human) are educated along
traditional Lifer lines, and the
few humans in the community
gather at the church for their
nightly meal.
All members of the commu-
nity have adopted the same
drab, almost Puritanical dress,
and Redemption’s few human
citizens tan hides and furs for
warmth. Driven by Silenced
Rat’s strident insistence his
Neverborn shake off their
disingenuous human habits,
the citizens of Redemption
have discovered new truths
about their undead state.
Gravestone Neverborn are
common, as are Neverborn
who have mastered even
stranger, and more disturbing
post-human talents.
Redemption’s Neverborn
are fiercely loyal to the Army of God, and most have
gone beyond mere protest and become active
‘determined rescuers’. The small community and its
Untainted neighbors have become the center piece
of a well organized Lifer ‘rat-line’ helping wanted
terrorists and combat types over the border to
Canada. Glauchester’s followers are not welcome in
Redemption, where she and her small crew of
dissidents are viewed as Choicer-corrupted traitors
or worse. Glauchester’s McDuffs are usually
murdered on sight, while any Choicer dense enough
to wander in is usually beaten within an inch of their
lives. Human journalists hoping to interview Silenced
Rat and his inner circle about Glauchester’s defec-
tion best tread carefully or risk the same fate.
32 New Affiliation:
Susan Glauchester’s
McDuffs

“I’m not saying we

have to give up our politics or
suddenly cross the line, get
implanted and become some
good little Choicer Naomi.
What I’m saying is that we’ve
been lied to. There’s more to
our story than Dacoveney or
Nuremberg have ever told us.
We’ve fought for the move-
ment. We’ve died for the
movement. Most of us have
killed for it. All I’m saying now
is: take a minute to think. Is
this really all we’re meant to
do?”
-Susan Glauchester,
early August 2106

Only a handful of
Neverborn have joined Susan
Glauchester’s crusade to expose
Nuremberg’s trickery, and the
few that have are referred to as
“McDuffs.” Like the Shakespearian hero, these few
Neverborn were not born of woman like an ordinary
human. In 2105, Susan Glauchester’s discovery of
her true origins destroyed her comfortable existence
in the Topeka Enclave, and transformed the former
activist into a hunted traitor.
The Nuremberg AI has been trying to
eliminate Susan Glauchester and her followers for
the last 18 months. Glauchester’s McDuffs have
been forced into unthinkable alliances, including
making tentative contact with Perseus, the Bastian-
dominated intelligence agency, and Singularity Drive,
a Choicer think tank and the driving force behind
Choicer science and pop culture. Glauchester has
been forced to accept sanctuary among her one time
nemesis to bring down the nation and corrupt AI
which created her.
To date, contacts between Glauchester and
Perseus have been tentative- even hunted by her
former allies, Susan can’t quite bring herself to trust
an organization that was calling for her execution just
a few years prior. Glauchester has provided (as yet
unconfirmed) evidence that the Nuremberg database
is self-aware, and based on her info, Choicer
parapsychologists are closer than ever to under-
standing Life From Death. The Covenant hopes that
Glauchester can be more than just an embarrass-
ment to the Lifers, they hope they can convince her
to become a memetic weapon- to return to the
Enclaves and burn them down with her ideas. At this
point, Glauchester seems reluctant- she’s been a
propaganda piece all her short, unhappy life, and
she’s tired of it. Despite her personal reservations,
she feels it’s her duty to liberate- to redeem- her
species.
For their part, the McDuffs are torn
between a need for justice and an awareness that if
they succeed in either destroying or exposing
Nuremberg, they will likely bring down the only
society they has ever been home. Complicating
matters is the AI’s lethal response to even the rumor
of dissent. All too many Neverborn have been
murdered by the AI’s cat’s paws because of purely
trivial, unreported contact with the McDuffs.
Potential recruits know that refusing to make a
decision is tantamount to making a choice.
Prerequistes: Neverborn species, Iron
Will. Prospective McDuffs must abandon any Lifer,
conservative Christian or similar allegiance.
Benefit: Glauchester’s experiences have
enabled her to manifest a micro-Philosophy capable
of slicing through the strange energy matrices
sustaining/deforming her own kind. For a culture that
considers suicide the only unforgivable, unthinkable
sin, Susan Glauchester’s untested new Philosophy is
the only other way for Neverborn to escape their
miserable existences.You have reached new under-
standings of Neverborn biology, and like
Glauchester herself, can unmake Neverborn.
By spending an action point while touching a
willing Neverborn, you critically distort the strange
energy matrices that sustain their undead biology.
For the next 24 hours, the supplicant Neverborn is
helpless and seemingly dead. At the end of this
metamorphosis, the supplicant Neverborn finally
awakens losing almost all Neverborn racial traits,
including the Living Witness feat. The supplicant
Neverborn’s race and type changes to human and
the former Neverborn gains a CON score. The
Neverborn also loses its Lifechained subtype, unless
the creature has any other Lifechained feats.
The Neverborn gains the human bonus feat
and additional skill points. Transformed Neverborn
retain their Neverborn racial skill bonus and en-
hanced senses. They also retain the ability to use this
affiliation benefit.
If the transformed Neverborn has racial
33
feats, they are lost. The Neverborn may choose an
equal number of feats for which he meets the
prerequistes. McDuffs may not use this ability to
transform themselves, forcing them into a rough
community of likeminded ‘recovering’ Neverborn if
they wish to recapture their lost humanity.
This ability is also useful in combat, effec-
tively allowing McDuffs to ‘hank’ other Neverborn,
painfully disrupt their energy flow and cripple them.
A McDuff who succeeds at a melee touch attack
against another Neverborn can attempt to slow the
creature. The touched Neverborn must succeed at a
WILL Save (DC 10 + the McDuff’s WIS modifier)
or be slowed for the duration of the encounter.
Drawback: McDuffs are despised by the
Nuremberg AI. The AI’s operatives will always
attack a McDuff in preference to another target,
except in the most extreme situations. As a result of
Nuremberg poisoning Lifer perception about them,
McDuffs suffer a -2 circumstance penalty on all
CHA based skill checks (except for Intimidate)
made against anyone with a Lifer or similar
allegiance.
New Affiliation:
The Pro-Life Artist’s Council
Headquartered: Pensacola, FL
Formation Year: 2051
The Pro-Life Artist’s Council is the domi-
nant voice in Lifer society. Every movie, Mesh-
drama, Smartlight porn-sim, video game and song
released in Purple State America bears the Artist
Council stamp of approval somewhere on the case.
The Artist’s Council is the Lifer nation’s one ratings
board and censorship organ, but unlike similar
organizations in years past, it concerns itself with
only one thing: does the artwork in question spread
a pro-life message?
Sex, gore and the relative quality of the
work doesn’t matter, only its political sub-text. A
34 legal-snuff porno that conforms to ideology will earn
the purple ribbon and white cross stamp of ap-
proval, while old style gospel-fiction that advocates
peaceful coexistence with the Choicer nation won’t.
Submission to the Artist’s Council is volun-
tarily, but Lifer artists know that trying to publish
without Council approval is career suicide. Most
Lifer-chain media outlets refuse to accept media
without Artist Council sanction A few Lifer artists
have successfully fought the Artist’s Council and
won, but they’re in the minority. The famous Lifer
children’s show “Super Dolfie Loves Mommy!” ran
without Artist Council approval for its first five
seasons; only when it became obvious the Lifer
community had embraced the unexpectedly tolerant
children’s show did the Artist Council relent and give
“Dolfie” official approval. The Artist Council wields
great influence in Lifer politics. Politicians that aren’t
sufficiently hardliner risk PLAC censure. Artist
Council members act as mediators during Lifer
primary debates.
The Artist’s Council governing board is a
nine member jury. Since War’s End, two of the seats
are reserved for Neverborn activists, while the other
seven members are political appointees. While being
nominated is an honor, its also a way of putting old
war horses out to pasture: Lifer politicos, artists and
theologians no longer relevant to the day to day life
of the movement sit on the board. Currently, the
PLAC governing board is comprised of Fairfax
Dacoveney’s loyalists- his teachers, respected
former commanders and family friends almost
exclusively. Beneath these elite nine, an entire
organization of phone-workers, Lifer memetics
experts, psychologists researchers and interns
carries out the Council’s day-to-day activities.
The fact that two of the nine are always
Neverborn give Neverborn artists unmatched
freedom to say things that would be considered ‘off-
message’ and taboo for other Lifers. There is a
sense that the Neverborn have paid their cultural
dues simply by existing; because of their scars, they
are free to speak in a way other Lifers are not.
Though Nuremberg and its cat’s-paws have put
great pressure on the PLAC to put Glauchester on
list of forbidden authors, the Artist’s Council has
steadily refused. Because of its liberal stance on
Neverborn free speech, most McDuff publications
go uncensored, and display the ribbon and cross.
Prerequisite: Creative, either Craft (visual
arts, writing) or Perform (any) 4 ranks, Knowledge
(theology & philosophy) 1 rank, Lifer or similar
allegiance
Benefit: You are a prominent Lifer artist,
politician and entertainer. As long as you submit any
prepared artwork to the Artist’s Council for ap-
proval (which requires only 1d6+1 days) prior to
publication, it will likely be approved unless it
dramatically opposes Lifer ideology.
When speaking to or performing before a
conservative or Lifer audience, you receive a +2
bonus on the CHA-based skill check. You also
receive this bonus on Craft (visual arts and writing)
checks targeted at Lifer patrons.
Drawback: You suffer a -1 penalty on Craft
(visual arts and writing) and CHA-based skill
checks (except for Intimidate) when interacting with
a predominantly liberal or Choicer audience.
Judgment Neverborn
“Of course I wish I’d been born human.
Wish I’d been born, really. But as a Neverborn, I
can save other children beyond a human
rescuer’s wildest dreams. I don’t breathe, don’t
need food or sleep, and I don’t think I can age.
I’m built to be a soldier, and the Army has given
me a chance to do what I was made for.”
-Army of God GSGT Baby Darius Wren,
November 2106
Only two thousand Neverborn are known to
exist, and the small species numbers are scattered
widely across North America. Silenced Rat’s
compound in the Montana wilderness, and the jury-
rigged sanctuary in Pensacola have gained cultural
importance far out of proportion to their population
counts, just because they are among the few places
where Neverborn gather by
the dozens. Unknown to the 35
Choicer nation, even to
Glauchester’s McDuffs, the
actual number of Neverborn
on-planet is far higher than
the official count.

Judgment Neverborn
are a secret breed of
Neverborn created in secret
and raised in utter isolation
among the post-human
supersoldiers on Kodiak
Island. Nearly four hundred
Neverborn teenagers- all of
whom are combat trained
metahumans- are sequestered
in the deep bunkers beneath
the island. They are kept
isolated from even the other
CFL Kids stationed on the
island, only rarely participat-
ing in integrated rescue-ops,
and only then under a cloak
of taciturn silence. For the
most part, squads of Judg-
ment Neverborn leave the
island under the cover of
night, on missions known only
to them, un-marked even by
their supposed allies. They
are the ultimate reserve-
nearly unkillable, fanatically
dedicated soldiers, and
Nuremberg knows the
tactical shock value of this
mystery squad far outweighs its propaganda value. the undead mature, their Block Mother leaves them,
transferring authority to a series of drill sergeants and
In their sanctuary beneath the island, the veteran Closers, who teach them how to become
Judgment Neverborn are allowed some leeway in weapons.
how they build their secret culture. Living humans
rarely venture into the deep bunker- for the most The Neverborn’s sanctuary beneath Kodiak
part Judgment Neverborn are left to their own is a still and eerie place. Like Silenced Rat’s tent
devices from early childhood. Early in their exist- city, the undead child-soldiers have built a society
ences, specially trained and chosen Block Mothers highlighting their few physical needs. Buried deep
supervise their education and early brainwashing. As beneath the permafrost layer, Judgment Bunker is
36 bone chillingly cold- a cold the Neverborn have
never felt. The small, symbolic graveyards for the
Angel Helix Neverborn
‘murdered unborn’ that are a minor architectural
“You never want to botch a mission.
feature of Kodiak Island have become a dominant
Because when the mission goes right, when the
theme in the deep bunker. Lovingly carved bas-
rescue goes off without a fuckin’ hitch, you come
reliefs of smiling babies, mournful angels, blissfully
back here and you’re a fuckin’ hero to the pre-
pregnant women and sleeping newborns dominate
born. You’re on top of the world; you’re a fuckin’
every wall and ceiling. These decorations are
saint. When things go wrong though, you start
communal, with each and every Judgment
thinkin’ about what you are. Just another fuckin’
Neverborn taking his or her turn chipping and
ghost.”
smoothing the refuge’s living rock into shape.
-Atomic Dogstar, early January 2107
Despite their chill isolation and morbid
The existence of Angel Helix Neverborn is a
décor, life for the Judgment Neverborn is not
heresy, but a tactically useful one. A dark outgrowth
without small luxuries. Though they do not need
of metahuman breeding programs well known
food to survive, the Judgment Neverborn are well
throughout the Lifer military, Angel Helix are the
provisioned and well fed. Other Lifer soldiers often
rarest breed of Neverborn. Created from the
leave food- from elaborate feasts to small bags of
aborted remains of meta-human fetuses, Angel Helix
off-the-shelf candy, at the entrances to their bunkers,
are unbelievably powerful, combining the awe-
especially after word of a successful op makes its
inspiring metahuman gifts of their genetic parents and
way through the base rumor-mill. The run of the mill
the undead durability of other Neverborn. However,
soldiers stationed at Kodiak might not know exactly
though Lifer womanhood is no stranger to abortion,
what lives down in the deep tunnels, but they hold an
the cultural pressure to bear superhuman offspring
almost superstitious awe of these ‘fully committed
and the often cloying assistance of the Lifer
rescuers’ who have sacrificed so much for the
community ensures that most metahuman pregnan-
pre-born.
cies come to term.
Playing Judgment Neverborn
Angel Helix Neverborn are heretical be-
cause they are not haphazard- Powered Lifer
Players wanting to build Judgment
females are specifically chosen to undergo an early
Neverborn are restricted to the CFL Kid Starting
trimester abortion so that one of Kodiak’s Philoso-
Occupation, described in the Otherverse America
phers-in-residence can transform their offspring into
campaign setting. To represent the secrecy in
an exceptionally powerful Neverborn. Obviously,
which Judgment Neverborn are shrouded, all
creation of Angel Helix Neverborn can never be
members of this sub-species gain Elite Clearance as
widespread- only Lifer mothers with the perfect
a racial bonus feat.
psyche profile are chosen for the sad duty- those
who are utterly dedicated to the movement, prag-
matic enough that the ‘kill one, save millions’ aes-
thetic of the program will appeal and able to keep a
secret.

The mothers of Angel Helix Neverborn

never see their post-human child, and are only told
that the child has become one of the nation’s elite
rescuers. The tradition of leaving food, toys and
other sacrifices at the entrances to the Judgment
Bunker first emerged among the failed mothers of
the Angel Helix program, before spreading to the
rank and file.
Angel Helix have a slightly harder road
emotionally than their slightly less damaged siblings;
even among other Neverborn, they rarely feel
comfortable. Each Angel Helix Neverborn knows
that before he was even born, he was sacrificed on
the altar of tactical expedience. Some Angel Helix
Neverborn are less committed than their designers
hoped, sarcastic and too cynical to commit emotion-
ally to the culture of rescue. These Angel Helix
become terrorist supersoldiers simply due to of a
lack of other options. Others fight hard and passion-
ately so no more Neverborn are created by abor-
tion- they fight to ensure there can never be more
like them.
Many Angel Helix, regardless of their
feelings about the AOG and its missions, hide their
doubts beneath a veer of arrogant superiority. They
claim to be the final evolution of human conscious-
ness- the one species capable of withstanding into
the future, no matter what the cosmos tosses at
them. Though their superiority and willfulness might
be disconcerting to many of their trainers, the Block
Mothers who know the Angel Helix the best know
that their arrogance is a façade only a few microns
thick, masking a deep well of self loathing.
The new AOG tactic of kidnapping and ‘disappear-
ing’ abortion providers rather than in situ assassina-
37
tion can be traced directly back to Kodiak.
Playing Angel Helix Neverborn
Angel Helix Neverborn share all the racial
traits of ordinary and Judgment Neverborn with one
major exception. Angel Helix Neverborn are
plagued by deep doubts about their role in the Army
of God and the purpose of their existence. They do
not gain the Living Witness racial trait common to
most Neverborn.
However, their unique undead genome has
been comprehensively mapped by Kodiak Island
geneticists. Angel Helix Neverborn can become
Powered Heroes, described fully in the Otherverse
America campaign setting. Angel Helix Powered
Heroes do not receive the Genomic Enhancement
Package at first level- they don’t really need it. They
cannot select a CON-Keyed Ability Push. If they
choose CON-Keyed abilities such as Regenerator
talents, these abilities become WIS-Keyed instead.

The gory realities of creating Angel Helix

Neverborn have forced the Lifer AOG to change its
tactics dramatically, to take security risks that would
be unthinkable just a few years before. While the
abortions necessary to create new Angel Helix are
technically non-demanding (except in the case of
meta-human fetuses with instinctive defenses already
active, even in the womb) and well documented
enough that Lifer medics can learn the rudiments,
few of Kodiak’s physicians ever do so.

Political and moral distaste means that to

create new Angel Helix Neverborn, the AOG must
‘recruit’ Choicer gynecologists and Neo-Witch
Midwives. Of course, a Midwife abducted to
Kodiak, and allowed a glimpse of the Lifer nation’s
most intimate secrets can never be allowed to leave.
38
Gravestone Neverborn Feats
“If I was only human, of flesh and blood,
I could relate to you, you know I could.”
-Elastica, Human
Silenced Rat’s ramshackle compound is the
center of a Neverborn renaissance. Freed from the
expectations of humanity, the Neverborn gathered in
the Montana wilderness have pushed their limits
farther than other members of their species. They
have discovered disturbing new powers and learned
new ways to exploit their undead nature.
Their greatest achievement is the creation of
the Unbound Undead feat, which allows a
Neverborn to push her abilities past limits less
determined Neverborn never even realized they
possessed. When a Neverborn acolyte finally
masters Unbound Undead it’s cause for one of
Redemption’s very, very infrequent celebrations, a
time of joy for the entire somber community. A new
Neverborn exemplar has just become part of the
community, and they are welcomed exuberantly!
The Neverborn’s racial feats are part and
parcel of the Lifer ‘culture of rescue’. Neverborn
feats are designed to make the undead creatures
more tactically useful at an anti-abortion protest or
terror strike. The Neverborn’s ‘abortion stigmata’ is
useful to the Lifer nation not only because it psycho-
logically isolates the undead species from Choicer
culture, but also as a target identifier.
Nuremberg has a long term plan for the Lifer
nation, a protocol for victory. The AI wants to
transition the Neverborn species from a race of
activists into a breed of psi-capable, Philosophy
enhanced manhunters. Nuremberg has supported
and encouraged Silenced Rat’s loyalist in their quest
to push the boundries of Neverborn psycho-biology.
The Nuremberg AI hopes its loyal subjects can
discover a feat that allows the race to fine-tune the
it’s extrasensory precision, allowing the creature to
differentiate an abortion provider from a former
patient. The former are viewed in Lifer culture as
condemned criminals, while the latter are seen as
possibly repentant new recruits.
Abortuary Solvent (Neverborn)
Even in your passably human state, your
abortion-stigmata never fully heals. Your dominant
arm and shoulder are almost translucent with ancient
chemical burns. With a thought, you dismiss the
subconscious control that holds your unliving body
together. Your chemically scarred limb assumes
liquid state- a highly toxic sludge of amniotic fluid,
saline and toxic nano-tech, a sentient geyser woven
from bad chemicals and anti-abortion willpower.
Prerequisites: Neverborn
Benefit: You can blast a toxic geyser from
your damaged hand as an attack action. This geyser
is a line of acidic filth and genetic soup 60 ft long and
5 ft wide. All characters within the splash area suffer
6d6 points of acid damage, or half damage on a
successful REF Save (DC 12 + your CHA modi-
fier).
Anyone who would trigger your transfigura-
tion suffers lingering damage. Against these targets,
the acid continues to burn for 1 round, inflicting half
the initial damage on the second round of exposure.
Drawback: Transforming your arm into its
sludgelike, chemically damaged state is physically
damaging. You suffer -2 points of temporary STR
and DEX damage each time you activate this feat.
Unbound: Your acidic geyser is even more
dangerous. Anyone within 60 ft of the geyser’s area
must make a FORT save (DC 18) or succumb to an
Inhalation toxin. Initial and secondary damage is
1d6 CON.
Butyric Vomit (Neverborn)
You summon up cultural memories of a
39
thousand successful butyric acid stink-bomb attacks
that shut down old style abortion clinics. With a roar
of defiance and rage, you vomit up ancient blood
and congealed digestive bile that stinks and burns far
worse then ‘liquid rescue’.
Prerequisite: Neverborn species
Benefit: A number of times per day equal
to 3 + your WIS modifier, you may vomit up gallons
and gallons of vile semi-biological fluid As an attack
action, you vomit up a line of acid 20 ft long and 5 ft
wide. Anyone caught within the splash area suffers
3d6 points of acid damage (REF DC 12 + your
WIS modifier for half damage).
The acid is unbelievably cloying and foul.
Any creature within 10 ft of the acid’s strike area
must succeed at a FORT save (DC 12 + your WIS
modifier) or become sickened for as 1d6 rounds. A
successful save indicates the creature is immune to
that specific Neverborn’s Butyric Vomit stench
ability for 24 hours.
Unbound: When transfigured to your
obviously undead state, your acidic vomit is even
deadlier. Anyone struck by the acid who fails their
initial REF save suffers 2d6 points of ongoing acid
damage (no save) on the second round of contact,
and 1d6 points of acid damage on the third round of
contact. The acid can be neutralized with water or a
base, or by rolling in loose sand or dirt (a full round
action).
Bio-Hazardous Undead (Neverborn)
Like all your species, you are immune to
disease, but unlike other members of your species,
you have been converted into a sentient weapon of
mass destruction. Your unliving body is laced with
genetically engineered disease colonies. Neverborn
who are seeded with this deadly bio-weapon wear
fully enclosed containment suits when among their
own people, only shedding their bulky encounter
suits when venturing into battle or infiltrating Choicer
society on a terror-strike.
40 Prerequistes: Neverborn species,
Elite Clearance, Knowledge (earth &life
sciences) 2 ranks, Treat Injury 1 rank

Benefit: Your body has been seeded

with disease vectors, implanted deep within
your bone marrow and stale cerebro-spinal
fluid. Any living creature who spends more than
one minute within 10 ft of you must succeed at
a DC 16 FORT Save for every twenty four
hours of close contact.

Your body naturally excretes a

weaponized form of inhalation anthrax. Incuba-
tion period is 1d4 days. Initial damage is 1
CON. Secondary damage is 1d6 CON, with a
second saving throw to avoid permanent ability
score damage.

If a target is exposed to your blood or

bodily fluids at the time of exposure, they
FORT DC to avoid contracting the disease is
increased to DC 18.

Unbound: Your disease vectors are

much more virulent. Targets who fail their
FORT Save to avoid contracting your disease
have no incubation period. The disease imme-
diately takes effect. Targets are nauseated for
one hour after initially taking damage from your
weaponized disease.
Cybernetic Undead (Neverborn)
You have learned to make your biology
more human-like. Your heart occasionally
beats, your shredded lungs attempt to inflate
and cold blood flows sluggishly through your
veins. These imitations of humanity are enough
to allow cybernetics to function (mostly)
normally when implanted in you.
Prerequisite: Neverborn or other
undead species
Benefit: You may implant cybernetics
normally. You can withstand a number of
implants (or points of Drain) equal to your WIS
modifier before suffering negative levels.
 Unbound: You may withstand a number of
additional implants or points of Drain equal to the
number of Neverborn feats you possess.
Normal: Neverborn cannot be fitted with
cybernetic implants.
Gravestone (Neverborn)
Your lifeless body is exceptionally durable.
Your skin has calcified, transforming into dense
stone-like armor nearly as tough as a marble head-
stone. Even your eyes are protected beneath a
durable grey membrane.
Prerequisite: Neverborn
Benefit: Your stone-like skin provides you
with a +4 natural armor bonus to Defense. Though
heavily armored, your proportions are still human,
and you may wear additional armor easily.
Unbound: When transformed into your
obviously undead state, this natural armor bonus
increases to +8.
Neverbreath (Neverborn)
You have never taken a breath. Directly
tapping into the exotic energy fields that maintain
your consciousness, you steal breath from others,
cataclysmically interfering with their bodies’ ability to
transfer oxygen from their bacilli into the blood
stream. Now you’ll see if your enemies can survive
without breath.
Prerequisite: Neverborn, Iron Will
Benefit: A number of times per day equal
to 3 + your WIS modifier, you may invoke
Neverbreath as an attack action. Sickly yellow
energy tendrils lash out of your breast, illuminating
your lungs beneath your skin and attach themselves
to the respiratory systems of all living creatures
within 30 ft. Targeted creatures have no choice but
to begin holding their breath with a CON check
(DC 10 + 1 per each previous check). When a
creature fails the check, it begins to suffocate.
Once Neverbreath is invoked, you may
maintain it as a move equivalent action each round.
Once affected by Neverbreath, targeted creatures
continue to suffocate until the effect’s duration ends
or until they move more than 100 ft away from you.
You may maintain Neverbreath for a number of
rounds equal to 3 + your WIS modifier each time it
is invoked.
41
Unbound: Any creature who would trigger
your transformation suffers a -4 penalty on all
checks to continue to hold their breath when your
Neverbreath goes active.
Neverborn Memetics (Neverborn)
You’ve trained as a Lifer sidewalk counse-
lor, and have achieved extrasensory precision. You
know exactly who in your range triggers your
transformation, and along with knowledge of their
reproductive pasts, you gain insight into your oppo-
nents. When transfigured, you become a diplomatic,
guilt-driving savant, capable of winning arguments
and converting Choicer rivals with just a few words.
Prerequistes: Neverborn, At least one
sidewalk counselor level, Diplomacy 4 ranks
Benefit: While transformed into your
obviously undead state, your deep study of Lifer
debate, psychological and memetic warfare tactics
makes you a more effective diplomat and social-
soldier. You may make Bluff, Diplomacy and
Intimidate checks against the person who triggered
your transfiguration as a move equivalent action. You
receive an insight bonus on Sense Motive checks
made against this person equal to ½ your total
character level. You always know who in range
triggers your transformation, and the reason why.
Unbound: When transformed to a visibly
undead state, any time you spend an action point to
improve the result of any WIS or CHA based skill
check, the bonus is applied to all WIS or CHA
based skill checks made before the end of the
current encounter.
42 Neverborn Resolve (Neverborn)
“Marching towards her was not a line of
people, nor a throng of 100 people as she had
seen in the Way of the Cross procession, but
hundreds upon hundreds of people. Five and six
abreast, they thundered down the sidewalk
towards Preterm, an army of Christian warriors
in sweatshirts and dungarees. No one smiled. No
one talked. Grim faced, they stared ahead at
their target, the signs they held of fetuses tossed
in garbage bags swaying slightly in the breeze.”
-Sue Hertz, Caught in the Crossfire: A
Year on Abortion’s Frontlines
You have fully embraced your role as a
Neverborn activist, and often form the stoic center
of anti-abortion protests or tactical ‘rescue squads.’
Prerequisites: Neverborn, any Lifer or
similar allegiance, Anointed Cleric, Perform (ora-
tory) 4 ranks, WIS 15+
Benefit: By spending an action point while
making a speech or performance to rouse your
allies, you extend them some of the benefits of your
undead state. Faint yellow white energy discharges,
like static flashes, leap between you and your
assembled allies, connecting you for the duration’s
effect. You may affect large crowds, up to ten
characters per point of your WIS modifier, all of
whom must be within a 100 ft radius of you when
the effect begins, and must be able to clearly see and
hear you.
While your Neverborn Resolve is active,
your allies become immune to poison, sleep, fatigue,
paralysis, stunning, disease, the sickened condition,
death effects, energy drain, and necromantic effects.
Their skins cool and pale and some of the most
faithful display lividity markings and scars similar to
your own abortion-stigmata. These marks fade
within minutes of the effect’s termination. You may
maintain your Neverborn Resolve for up to
one hour.
Unbound: Your believing allies become
even more durable. For the duration of the effect
your allies are not subject to critical hits, stunning or
subdual damage.
 Numb Corpse (Neverborn)
You cannot fully transfigure to a less scarred
form. You are trapped in your obviously undead
state at all times, but are exceptionally durable, much
more so than even a conventional Neverborn.
Prerequisite: Neverborn, character level
first only
Benefit: Your unfeeling zombie-like flesh
provides you with Damage Resistance 5/- against
Piercing and Bludgeoning damage, which stacks
with Damage Resistance from other sources, such as
Tough Hero class levels.
Unbound: When within 30 ft of anyone
intimately familiar with abortion, you become even
more durable. You become completely immune to
Piercing and Bludgeoning damage.
Drawback: You cannot assume a more
humanoid form, and cannot attempt to pass for a
living human. Your natural form is zombie-like.
Skeletal Derangement (Neverborn)
With a grunt of determination and pain, you
unbind the normally solid structure of your bones,
sending shards of bone ripping through your undead
flesh. The jagged shards of your bones become
almost monomolecularly keen, transforming you into
something obviously inhuman and very, very deadly.
Prerequistes: Neverborn, Gravestone
Benefit: As a standard action, you may
activate this feat, transforming into a hideous, bone-
studded abomination. Long bone spurs rip out of
your fingers, becoming wicked talons, nearly three
feet long, while shorter spines erupt all across your
body.
You gain a natural slashing attack which
inflicts 2d4 + your WIS modifier points of slashing
damage. These bone talons have a 10 ft reach, and
may also be used to attack adjacent foes, simply by
shortening your swings.
Additionally, the shorter bone spurs lining
your body automatically inflict 1d4 points of slashing
damage each round a grapple is maintained.
While in your obviously undead state, your
bones are even sharper, and inflict 2d6 + your WIS
modifier points of slashing damage.
Unbound: When confronting someone who
triggers your undead transfiguration, your talons
43
hone themselves to such a scapel-like edge they can
score even the densest armor. When attacking
anyone who would make you transform, your talons
ignore the first five points of Hardness or non-
magical damage reduction.
Slashing Tendons (Neverborn)
Your musculature hangs in shreds, and you
only maintain mobility and humanoid form by will
and belief. With minimal effort, you fully unbind the
ruined tendons and ligaments severed by your
abortion/birth for use as grisly weapons.
Prerequistes: Neverborn, DEX 15+
Benefit: You dislocate your dominant hand,
and as your muscles and ligaments peel away from
the bones of your forearm and wrist, they take the
shape of a grisly, bloody whip. As an attack action,
you may manifest a masterwork whip, which has
greatly extended reach. Your masterwork has 10 ft
of reach per point of your DEX modifier. A charac-
ter with DEX 15 would be able to manifest a 20 ft
whip.
Once manifested your whip remains in
existence for a number of minutes equal to your
DEX modifier. You are considered proficient with
your quasi-living whip. While your whip is mani-
fested, your dominant hand is useless, and can not
be used to hold weapons or manipulate objects.
Unbound: When you are wounded by any
slashing or piercing weapon, your twitching tendons
and ligaments explode outward to grapple and
strangle your enemy. You receive a +4 bonus on all
trip and disarm attempts made against the creature
that wounded you, plus an additional +1 point of
bonus for every five points of damage the attack
causes you. The bonus lasts until the end of the
encounter, as snapping tendon whips coil around
your adversary and his weapons.
Transfiguration Control (Neverborn)
You voluntary exile in the wilderness with
Silent Rat’s cultists have taught you to better control
the involuntary physical changes that mark you
44 forever as Neverborn. You may either use this ability
to hide your undead nature beneath an ordinary
human masque- almost as good as actually being
human- or embrace your transformations to become
a more effective rescuer.
Prerequisite: Neverborn
Benefit: Your extrasensory radius for
determining whether someone has ever had or
performed an abortion increases to 100 ft. How-
ever, you do not involuntarily transform when
someone who meets either of these criteria enters
your extrasensory space.
While in your human state, you mimic
breathing and have a heartbeat and body tempature
above ambient levels. Though you appear more
human, and can automatically pass for an ordinary
human, your biology is still Neverborn.
Unbound: Your transfigurations are particu-
larly violent and gruesome. Your abortion-stigmata
are especially traumatic, often opening massive rips
in your anatomy, exposing butchered organs. All
creatures within 30 ft of you who witness your
transformation must succeed at a WILL Save (DC
12 + your WIS modifier) or be stunned for one
round. A creature who saves against this effect can’t
be affected by your horrific appearance for 24
hours.
Normal: Neverborn involuntarily transform
when some intimately familiar with abortion ap-
proaches within 30 ft.
Unjointed (Neverborn)
Your bones slip loosely in their sockets, and
when you want to you can move like something
completely inhuman. Your speed, dexterity and
overall flexibility are freakishly superhuman.
Prerequisite: Neverborn, Acrobatic, DEX 17+
Benefit: You are far more flexible than even
the label ‘double-jointed’ would suggest. You can
fold and contort your body in impossible ways. You
are equally proficient with both your left and right
hand, and your feet are as capable as fine manipula-
tion as your hands. You can perform any task
requiring manual dexterity as easily with your feet as
you can with your hands.
You may fold and contort your body into
seemingly impossible positions, as well as voluntarily
dislocating their limbs, or rotating limbs or twisting
your head almost completely around without harm.
You can squeeze through any opening large enough
to admit your skull- roughly 1 ft x 1 ft square.
You do not suffer any penalty for fighting
prone or in an extremely confined space. You
receive a +4 competence bonus on Tumble and
Escape Artist checks.
Unbound: When transformed into your
obviously undead state, you gain a Climb speed
equal to your base land speed, which you retain for
up to one hour after your transformation ends.
Unliving Vitality (Neverborn)
Your corpse-like body is incredibly difficult
to kill in its humanoid state and is capable of shrug-
ging off anti-tank rounds when transfigured into a
fully undead state.
Prerequisite: Neverborn, character level
first
Benefit: All Hit Dice you gain are D12. If
you gain hit dice in a class that offers a D10 hit dice
or greater, you gain D12+1 for that level.
Unbound: When you transform into your
obviously undead state, you gain a number of
temporary hit points equal to your WIS modifier +
the number of Neverborn feats you possess. These
temporary HP are lost first and go away at the end
of the current encounter.
Normal: A Neverborn’s Hit Die is
dependant on her character class.
Unbound Undead (Neverborn)
You push your body and soul to their limits,
shattering the self imposed limitations your mostly
humanoid consciousness places upon your inhuman
frame. When within range of anyone who has had or
performed an abortion, you become dramatically
more powerful.
Prerequisite: Neverborn, Iron Will
Benefit: You are one of Silent Rat’s most
promising disciples, having learned constantly
evolving abilities that push your undead nature and
metahuman talents to their limit. You may utilize the
Unbound components of any racial feats you
possess.
Normal: Neverborn cannot utilize the
Unbound component of their racial feats.
Unnatural Intellect (Neverborn)
You were never a baby, never a child. Your
education was ghost memories, but somehow you
are keener minded than your clannish and insular
culture wishes you were. Exploring your unliving
heritage brings enlightenment, as you discover the
true post-human source of your memories and
consciousness.
Prerequisite: INT 13+
Benefit: You may use any skill untrained.
Unbound: You receive a +1 inherent bonus
to your INT score for every Neverborn feat you
possess. This bonus is cumulative with itself, and
improves as you gain feats.
Threat Assessment
The Neverborn are a species on the verge, Demolitions chosen as class skills)
considered a protected species under US law due to Feats Simple Weapons Proficiency, Personal
their small population and dim reproductive pros- Firearms Proficiency, Light Armor
pects. Unfortunately the Neverborn, particularly
Glauchester’s McDuffs, have many enemies.
1. Angel Helix Neverborn Grunt (CR 4)
2. Krenshar (CR 1)
3. Neverborn Scout (CR 5)
4. Nuremberg Consciousness Tracer (CR 9)
5. Susan Galuchester / Neverborn Activist (CR
6)
Angel Helix Neverborn Grunt (CR 4)
Powered Hero 4
Medium Undead (Lifechained)
Init +2; Senses Low Light Vision and Darkvision
60 ft
Aura 30 ft Neverborn transformation/sensory aura
Languages English
Defense 19, touch 13, flat-footed 17 (+2 DEX,
+1 class, +4 natural, +2 equipment)
hp 4d8 (18 hp)
Immune fatigue, poison, energy drain, necromantic
effects, suffocation, critical hits, stunning, subdual 45
damage
Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +4
Speed 30 ft Flight 30 ft (average)
Melee +7 melee (skeletal talons, 2d4 +6 slashing)
Melee Space 5 ft x 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft or 10 ft with
skeletal talons
Base Atk +4; Grapple +7
Atk Options +7 melee (skeletal talons, 2d4 +6
slashing)
Or +6 ranged (plasma rifle, 2d12 fire, 20/
x2, 80 ft range increment, single shot only, 40 shot
cell)
Or frag grenade (4d6 slashing, 10 ft range
increment, 5 ft burst radius, REF DC 15 half )
Abilities STR 16 DEX 15 CON - INT 11 WIS 17
CHA 9
SQ Undead Traits, Ability Push, Peak Human I,
Flier I
Starting Occupation: CFL Kid (Treat Injury,
Proficiency, Advanced Firearms Proficiency, Com-
bat Reflexes, Far Shot, Gravestone, Skeletal
Derangement
Skills Climb +7, Demolitions +4, Hide +8, Knowl-
edge (tactics) +3, Knowledge (theology & philoso-
phy) +3, Move Silently +8, Treat Injury +5
Possessions Benham 2061 Plasma Rifle, 6x spare
cells, Light Tactical Skinsuit (treat as leather armor)
and load bearing vest, 4x frag grenades, basic
medical kit
Typical of the young and utterly committed
Neverborn soldiers trained in the depths of the
Judgment Bunker, this Neverborn and his comrades
usually only leaves the island for covert strikes deep
into Choicer territory. Most likely encountered
attacking Choicer assets or devastating an unpre-
pared clinic, Angel Helix Neverborn attack in eerily
silent packs, coordinating their efforts and striking
with merciless efficiency. The fully masked and
46 heavily armored warriors use their
natural flight talents to approach a
target silently, flying nap-of-the-earth
after deploying from a heavily armored
Lifer VTOL nearby.

This particular Neverborn

represents a younger member of a
rescue-cell, with a few missions under
his belt, but without the Big Rescue
reputation of his mentors. He’s spent as
much time exploring his innate Neverborn
abilities as traditional military skills,
making him a deadly threat in both melee
and ranged combat. He’s also got a
surprisingly high degree of common sense
and a lot of compassion for a terrorist,
making him a decent field medic.

Ability Push (EX): Twice per day, as a full

round action, the Neverborn may increase his STR
score by +4. This effect lasts for one hour per
activation. Thanks to the Neverborn’s Peak Human Feats
talent, he can up his strength to a greater degree, Multiattack,
more often. Track
Skills Hide +4,
Krenshar (CR 1) Jump +9, Listen +3,
Move Silently +6
Medium Animal (alien)
Possessions None
Init +2; Senses Darkvision 60 ft, Lowlight vision,
Scent Aura none
The Krenshar are a cat-like
Languages none
predatory species native to the
desert world of Kor. These muscular,
AC 15, touch 12, flat-footed 13
six legged felines are roughly the size
hp 2d8 (8 hpFort +3, Ref +5, Will +1
and bulk of an earth bobcat, but are
fearsome predators despite their relatively small size.
Speed 40 ft
Like the Stonecutters they share their world with,
Melee +2
these felines have rubbery, orange-red skin and
Melee Space 5 ft x 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
great muscular control.
Base Atk +2; Grp +2
Atk Options bite +2 melee (1d6) and 2 claws +0
As a threat display, and in a quest to attract
melee (1d4) or scare
mates, a Krenshar can retract the skin lining its
Special Actions: Scare (WILL DC 12 or be
wedge-shaped skull, leaving bone and muscle
shaken for 1d6 rounds)
terrifyingly exposed. Krenshar hunters use this tactic
to scare prey into the waiting arms of other
Abilities STR 11, DEX 14, CON 11, INT 5, WIS
krenshars, or to drive prey headlong over a cliff.
12 CHA 13
SQ Darkvision 60 ft, Lowlight vision, Scent
 Krenshar are highly intelligent ambush
predators, about as smart as a young child and are
Neverborn Scout (CR 5) 47
Tough Hero 4/Strong Hero 1
often kept as beloved pets by Stonecutters of all
Medium Undead (Lifechained)
ages and social standing. Domesticated Krenshar
Init +2 Senses Low Light Vision and Darkvision
are playful and affectionate, and are welcome
60 ft
virtually everywhere on Kor. Stonecutters rarely go
Aura 30 ft Neverborn transformation/sensory aura
anywhere without their Krenshar partners, and deep
space is no exception. Most spaceports wanting
Languages English
Stonecutter business are forced to accommodate the
fearsome big cats.
Defense 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15(+4 class,
+2 DEX, +1 leather jacket)
Scare (EX): As a standard action, a
hp 4d10+1d8 (26 hp); DR 1/- overall or 6/-
krenshar can pull the rubbery skin back from its
Bludgeoning and Piercing **
head, revealing the musculature and bony structures
Immune fatigue, poison, energy drain, necromantic
of its skull. This alone is usually sufficient to scare
effects, suffocation, critical hits, stunning, subdual
away foes (treat as an Intimidate check with a +3
damage
bonus).
Conditionally Immune Bludgeoning and Piercing
Fort +3, Ref +1, Will +3
Combining this scare ability with a loud
screech produces an unsettling effect that causes any
Speed 30 ft
creatures within 30 ft of the krenshar with 4 or fewer
Melee +6 melee (machete 1d6+3 slashing 19-20)
HD or levels to become shaken for 1d6 rounds.
Melee Space 5 ft x 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Victims must be able to clearly see and hear the
Base Atk +4; Grapple +6
krenshar’s threat display. (WILL DC 12 negates).
Atk Options +6 melee (machete 1d6+3 slashing
19-20/x2)
A creature that successfully saves cannot be
or 6 ranged (Mossberg shotgun, 2d8
affected again by the same krenshar’s scare ability
ballistic, 20/x2, 30 ft range increment, 6 internal
for 24 hours. The shriek does not affect other
magazine)
krenshars, nor any Stonecutter bound to a krenshar
familiar. This is a non-magical, mind-influencing
Abilities STR 15 DEX 14 CON - INT 11 WIS 16
effect.
CHA 9
SQ Undead Traits, Melee Smash I, Second Wind,
Skills: Krenshars have a +4 racial bonus on
Tough Hero Damage Reduction 1/-
Jump and Move Silently checks.
Feats Track, Simple Weapon Proficiency, Personal
Firearms Proficiency, Numb Corpse, Unbound
Undead, Power Attack, Iron Will
Starting Occupation Untainted (Otherverse
America campaign setting)
Additional Class Skills Survival, Hide, Listen
(competence bonus chosen in each)
Skills Survival +6, Hide +5, Move Silently +5,
Spot +6, Listen +5
Possessions leather jacket and camouflaged ghile
suit, machete, Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun, 24
rounds, compass/GPS, sleeping bag, 2 person tent,
miscellaneous wilderness survival gear
48 This Neverborn Scout represents a typical
combat-ready adult member of Silenced Rat’s
Montana cult. This Neverborn is a skilled forester
and self taught soldier, who knows wilderness
survival, basic stealth and has a better than average
grasp of tactics. Neverborn Scouts prefer to attack
from ambush, and melt back into the Montana
wilderness, using their comfort in rough terrain (and
the fact they don’t need provisions or water, unlike
human hunters) to best advantage.

Unlike a human militia-member, the

Neverborn Scout has expended a lot of effort on
coming to terms with his undead condition. This
Neverborn has mastered the Unbound Undead feat,
making him a respected voice in Silenced Rat’s
commune, and also increasing his already impressive
durability. Under certain circumstances, this
Neverborn is as hard to kill as a movie zombie, and
even under less ideal conditions is extremely tough.

Second Wind (EX): The Neverborn can spend an

action point to recover a number of Hit points equal
to his WIS modifier (+3 Hit Points). This ability is a
slightly modified version of the Tough Hero talent,
redesigned for an undead Tough Hero.

Numb Corpse (SU): When within 30 ft of anyone

intimately familiar with abortion, the Neverborn
Scout becomes immune to Piercing and Bludgeoning
damage. Unlike other Neverborn, the Neverborn
Scout cannot assume a fully human form; his natural
state is zombie-like.
 Nuremberg 49
Consciousness Tracer (CR 9)
Medium Ooze (Incorporeal)
Init +5; Senses Darkvision 60 ft
Aura Dim Illumination 10 ft (can sup-
press) Neverthought Distortion 30 ft
(Neverborn suffer a -2 penalty on all rolls,
skills, saves and checks)
Languages All Earth languages stored in
database

Defense 23, touch 23, flat-footed 18

(+5 DEX, +8 deflection)
hp 10d10+10 (65 hp)
Immune Physical Damage, mind-affecting
effects, poison, sleep. paralysis, stunning,
critical hits, attacks which rely on sight.
Immune to critical hits, death by massive
damage and cannot be flanked.
Weaknesses The intangible creature can
only be harmed by energy damage.
Fort +3, Ref +8, Will +7

Speed 60 ft Flight 60 ft (perfect)

Melee +10 melee (1d8+3 bludgeoning
and smartlight disruption)
Melee Space 5 ft x 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Base Atk +7; Grapple +10
Atk Options +10 melee (1d8+3 blud-
geoning and smartlight disruption)
Or 2x Assault Lasers +12 ranged
(1d12 fire, 60 ft range increment, 19-20/
x2)

Abilities STR 16 DEX 21 CON 10 INT

25 WIS 18 CHA 21
SQ Ooze Traits, Philosophical Disruption,
Impediment Fields
Skills: Disguise (human) +18, Investigate,
Research and all Knowledge skills +20

Stealthy and unremarkable, Tracers are the

Nuremberg Consciousness’ primary weapon against
Glauchester and her McDuffs. The Nuremberg AI
can manifest at least fifty of these elite holographic
warriors simultaneously, and possibly far more.
50 Several Tracers guard the AI’s mainframe in Boston,
while others are distributed throughout North
America on errands for the AI. One even resides
under deep cover on Solomon Station, the Lifer-
flagged space colony in Jupiter orbit; the signal lag
between the AI and it’s most distant operative has
allowed this specific Tracer to develop its own
personality and goals, becoming effectively a ‘bud’
consciousness separate from its parent.
Tracers are ultra-high resolution smartlight
holograms designed to blend easily with the
Enclave’s human population. They look, act and
even feel like ordinary Lifer humans, thanks to a
comprehensive behavioral database and shaped
forcefield projection. Tracers are not sentient in and
of themselves, and act as Nuremberg’s sensory
organs. They also act as the AI’s weapons- every
time it has killed a Neverborn, it has done so using a
Tracer pawn.
Tracers try to maintain their cover identity as
some type of metahuman or combat cyborg, even
while in combat. If their true nature as smartlights is
revealed, they strike without mercy. Anyone who
realizes the Tracers are not human becomes their
prime target. Tracers have interchangeable person-
alities, no distinguishing features or mannerisms and
are built procedurally form a database of human
anatomical details. The distribution of active Tracers
exactly follows current demographic trends: 57%
female, predominantly Hispanic, and so on. Occa-
sionally, one taps the Nuremberg AI database and
when appropriate, manifests abortion-stigmata as if
it were a Neverborn to confuse matters further.
Glauchester is justifiably afraid of the
Tracers, though she does not yet realize her pursuers
are smartlight dumb-AIs themselves. She assumes
the Tracers are Army of God agents, and chalks up
their wide selection of immunities and exotic energy
powers to cybernetics. She fully buys into the
deception that at least some of the Tracers are
Neverborn, and believes them to be Angel Helix
Neverborn, which she has heard of but never
personally encountered.
Neverthought Distortion (EX): Designed
specifically to hunt rouge Neverborn, the Tracer
constantly emits a radio-telepathic static capable of
confusing and weakening Neverborn. All Neverborn
within 30 ft of the Tracer are considered shaken,
suffering a -2 penalty on all attack rolls, skill checks
and saving throws. This effect persists as long as the
Neverborn is within range and for one minute after
the Neverborn leaves the area.
Smartpunch (EX): The Tracer can manifest
blunt force fields when imitating human form. Its
pseudopod punches inflict 1d8+3 points of blud-
geoning damage, and smartlight-enhanced oppo-
nents struck by the punch have one of their
smartlights randomly destroyed, as if a Smartlance
had struck them.
Assault Lasers (EX): The Tracer can
project a pair of independently targeted lasers from
any point on its body, usually from each hand, as a
single attack action. The lasers can be targeted at
two separate targets, which can be no more than 30
ft apart, or both beams can be trained on a single
target.
Philosophical Disruption (EX): As a full
round action, a Tracer can cataclysmically disrupt
delicate energy patterns necessary to manifest
Object Philosophies. A burst of purple fractal
energy bursts from the Tracer, filling a 60 ft radius;
this energetic aura remains in place for up to one
minute after it is initiated.
All Philosophy practitioners attempting to
manifest any Philosophy or maintain an on-going
Philosophy within this area must succeed at a DC 20
WILL save. Success indicates the Philosophy
functions normally, and a practitioner can retry a
failed save each round, as a standard action.
Special: Neverborn characters, and char-
acters who have mastered the Life From Death
philosophy suffer a -5 circumstance penalty on their
WILL Saves against this effect.
 Impediment Fields (EX): As a free action
once per round, the Tracer can project low density
smartlight forcefields, which act as rough terrain
(halves movement rate) in up to five 5 ft squares
anywhere within 100 ft. The Tracer can create
impediment fields in mid-air to slow flying adversar-
ies, if necessary. Once created, these fields remain in
existence until the Tracer’s next turn, unless it
chooses to maintain them.
Nuremberg Database (EX): Permanently
connected to the Nuremberg AI by an encrypted,
wifi Mesh link, the Tracer has extraordinary skills. It
can perform Research and Investigate checks on
any creature or object it encounters within one
melee round.
Other Threats
The Nuremberg AI uses Librarian Mist
smartlights (described in State of the Otherverse:
Smartlights) as surveillance drones. It rarely uses
these living programs as weapons, instead preferring
to keep them cloaked and use as an intelligence
platform. Glauchester, Silenced Rat and other
important Neverborn leaders are constantly trailed
by clouds of smartlight spy cameras, hiding within
nearby photons.
Susan Glauchester, 51
Neverborn Activist &Revolutionary (CR 6)
Sidewalk Consoler 5/ Dedicated 1
Medium Undead (Psionic) (Lifechained)
Init +1 Senses Low Light Vision and Darkvision
60 ft
Aura 30 ft Neverborn transformation/sensory radius
Languages English, Spanish, French
Defense 15, touch 11, flat-footed 14 (+1 DEX,
+2 class, +2 non prof concealable vest)
Resist Fire 10, Electricity 10, +4 bonus on WILL
Saves vs dangerous smartlights
Immune fatigue, poison, energy drain, necromantic
effects, suffocation, critical hits, stunning, subdual
damage
HD (6d6) (21 HP)
Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +6
Speed 30 ft
Melee Space 5 ft x 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft
Base Atk +2; Grp +3
Atk Options +2 unarmed strike (1d4+1 subdual)
+3 Beretta 92F pistol (2d6 ballistic, 20/x2,
40 ft range increment, 15 shot box magazine) fire,
20/x3, 30 ft range increment, 50 shot energy cell)
Abilities STR 12 DEX 13 CON - INT 15 WIS
17 CHA 17
Starting Occupation Religious
Additional Class Skills Diplomacy, Knowledge
(theology & philosophy) (competence bonus chosen
in both skills)
Feats Anointed Cleric, Trustworthy, Intellectual
Mastermind, Renown, Simple Weapons Proficiency,
Alertness, Natural Empath, Living Witness, Personal
Firearms Proficiency
52 Skills Bluff +16, Craft (writing) +8, Diplomacy
+18**, Gather Information +6**, Knowledge
the embattled species any more than she absolutely
has to in the course of liberating it.
(current events) +8, Knowledge (civics) +8, Knowl-
edge (popular culture) +7, Knowledge (theology & Intellectual Mastermind (SU): Susan’s
philosophy) +7, Listen +5, Research +11, Sense mostly latent psi-talents allow her to add her INT
Motive +6**, Spot +5, Speak/Read English, modifier as an untyped bonus on CHA-based skill
Spanish, Speak French checks. She is an excellent diplomat and passionate
activist especially when speaking on behalf of her
** receives a +4 bonus when interacting with Lifer species.
Christians
Living Witness (EX): Once per day,
Possessions Concealable Vest, palmtop computer, Susan can declare her history and Neverborn
digital camera, Beretta 92F Pistol heritage. Doing so is a full round action. Doing so is
emotionally draining, and she is considered shaken
Smartlights Dreamscape Smartseed/Messenger for 1d6 minutes afterward.
(acts as cellphone and PDA), Thermal Umbra II By declaring her history Susan gains a +6
(protective fields grant Fire and Electricity Resis- insight bonus on all Bluff, Diplomacy and Knowl-
tance 10 edge: civics or theology & philosophy as well as
Profession checks made concerning abortion or
Action Points 39 Maximum 18 +1d8 made to aid the Lifer or Neverborn causes. These
remaining for use bonuses remain in effect for a number of hours equal
Alliances: Good, the Neverborn species, The Lifer to your CON modifier or until she next rests. .
cause (wavering)
If Susan critically succeeds on any of the
Susan Glauchester never intended to be- above checks made against anyone with a pro-
come the voice of Neverborn evolution, and she choice (or similar) allegiance, she gains a temporary
never wanted to be a revolutionary. Raised in a quiet action point which must be spent before she next
Midwestern Enclave, she allowed others to chart her rests or it is lost without effect.
life’s course. She followed her ‘father’- the Lifer
Philosopher who created her- into Bible college and Emapthy (EX): As a Dedicated Hero,
became an activist youth pastor to the same church Susan can spend at least one minute studying a
she’d attended all her life. Her disastrous attempt to target. Doing so provides her a bonus on interaction
reconnect with the woman who thought was her skills (Bluff, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Intimidate,
mother brought her comfortable, unchallenging life to Perform and Sense motive) equal to her Dedicated
an end. Hero level. This bonus is currently +1.

She’s been on the run for the last two years,
in hiding from the same Army of God she once
supported. She’s had to toughen up quite a bit. For
the first time in her unlife, she’s been forced to wear
body armor, and to carry a pistol, which the King of
Rest-In-Peace has been teaching her to use. She’s
still a pacifist at heart, and hopes against hope that
she can bring down Nuremberg without killing,
especially members of her small, threatened species.
All life is precious to her, but Neverborn lives
especially sacred to her. She does not want to harm
Natural Empath (SU): Each day, Susan
receives a pool of bonus points equal to her total
character level plus her ranks in Sense Motive (6th
level + 3 ranks or 9 points). She may spend up to 6
of these bonus points to improve the result of any of
the following skill checks:
Bluff, Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Knowl-
edge: behavioral sciences, Perform (any), Sense
Motive
 She may spend points to improve a check
result at any time, even after the results of the check
are announced, reflecting her supernatural skill at
reading a target’s ever changing moods and modu-
lating her approach.
Convincing Argument (EX): Four times
per day, Susan may add her ranks in Knowledge
(theology & philosophy) as a competence bonus
(+5) on any Bluff or Diplomacy check.
Awaken Grief (EX): When interacting with
any sentient creature, Susan Glauchester renders
that creature shaken for one round any time she
rolls a natural 20 on a Bluff or Diplomacy check.
The target must creature must have a Choicer or
similar allegiance, or must have undergone, seriously
considered a performed an abortion.
This ability does not affect creatures immune
to fear or mind-influencing effects. By spending an
action point, Glauchester can choose to activate this
ability on any successful Bluff or Diplomacy check.
Choose Life (EX): After spending a full
round in conversation with a sentient creature, and
spending an action point, Glauchester can attempt to
temporarily change that creature’s primary allegiance
to the Lifer pseudo-nation.
The target may resist the attempt by making
a DC 15 WILL Save (CHA based). The target
must be sentient with an INT score above 5, must
be within 30 ft of the Sidewalk Counselor, and must
be able to clearly see and hear her.
The effects of this ability last for 1d4+1
rounds. While Susan has no specific control over the
target, nor will the target act in any way against his
basic personality, the temporary allegiance change
might cause the target to look more favorably at
Susan, change a planed action, or even cease
hostilities.
The temporary allegiance change may
render certain class abilities or feats useless for the
duration, and in modern magic campaigns, might
prevent spell casting or require an atonement spell to
be cast afterward. The effect ends immediately if
Susan or her allies make any hostile gestures toward
53
the target.
The Sidewalk Counselor
Intermediary Class
The Sidewalk Counselor Intermediary Class
was originally presented in Choice and Blood (LPJ
Designs, 2006). It is reprinted here for ease of use
and because it fits the sourcebook’s theme. As an
Intermediary class, it is an option for first level
characters, as an alternative to an attribute based
Hero Class. Once a character decides to take an
Intermediary Class, he or she must complete all
levels of the class before multi-classing.
You’ve been gifted by God with a head for
Scripture, for debate, and for conversion. You’re a
street corner evangelist, winning converts and using
your words, your faith, your mind and your cunning
voice to help end the horror of abortion. Part grief
Counselor, part old school preacher, part politician,
you are the smooth voice of the pro-life movement.
The Sidewalk Counselor is a slower path
into the Negotiator advanced class than a typical
Charismatic hero. A third level Charismatic hero can
become a Negotiator, while it takes the Sidewalk
Counselor two additional levels to make the transi-
tion, a sacrifice the highly motivated, deeply faithful
Sidewalk Counselor is glad to make. The Sidewalk
Counselor is an expert at one on one debate,
capable of incredible feats of oratory, brining a
unique faith and interesting social-combat abilities to
the Negotiator advanced class.
Requirements: Like their opposite numbers in the
pro-choice camp, Sidewalk Councilors are drawn
from the young and strong in the pro-life camp, the
passionate, articulate believers. At least one of the
Sidewalk Counselor’s allegiances must be towards
an established pro-life organization, conservative
political group or cause, or a similar ethos or reli-
gion.
54 Transition: For the Sidewalk Counselor, there is
no transition. They’ve been called to witness and to
save the preborn, something they will do for their
entire careers. They make no distinction between a
gawky 14 year old convert attending his first rescue
and a nationally respected conservative politician;
both bring something special and irreplaceable to the
movement.
Class Information
The following information pertains to the Sidewalk
Counselor intermediary class.
Class Skills
The Sidewalk Counselor’s class skills are as fol-
lows.
Bluff (CHA), Computer Use (INT), Con-
centration (CON), Craft (visual art, writing) (CHA),
Demolitions (INT), Diplomacy (CHA), Disguise
(CHA), Gather Information (CHA), Intimidate
(CHA), Investigate (INT), Knowledge (behavioral
sciences, civics, current events, streetwise, tactics,
theology & philosophy) (INT), Perform (act, sing)
(CHA), Read/Write Language, Research (INT),
Sense Motive (WIS), Spot (WIS)

Keyed Advanced Class: Negotiator (from the
D20 Modern core rulebook)
Hit Die
The Sidewalk Counselor gains d6 hit points per
level. The character’s Constitution modifier applies.
Sidewalk Counselors are impressive debaters and
self-taught psychologists, but they are drawn from
ranks of physically average humanity. A first level
Sidewalk Counselor receives 6 HP plus his CON
modifier.
Action Points
The Sidewalk Counselor gains a number of action
points equal to 5 + one-half of his character level,
rounded down every time he attains a new level in
this class.
Skill Points at Each Level: 7 + INT Modifier. A
first level Sidewalk Counselor receives four times
this amount.
Bonus Feat: At 2nd and 4th level, the Sidewalk
Counselor receives a bonus feat, which must be
chosen from the following list.
Alertness, Anointed Cleric, Attentive,
Brawl, Combat Expertise, Compassionate, Cleric,
Deceptive, Educated, Evangelist, Faith Healing,
Heroic Surge, Grifter, Improved Initiative, Iron Will,
Mob Violence, Meaningful Ink, Parental Demeanor,
Personal Firearms Proficiency, Point Blank Shot,
Street Demonstration, Renown, Trustworthy,
Windfall

Base Reputation
Class FO RT REF WILL Defense
Attack Special Bonus
Level Save Save Save Bonus
Bonus
Convincing
+2
1st +0 +0 +1 +1 Argument, Training +0
Regimen
+2
2nd +1 +0 +2 +2 Bonus Feat +1

+2
3rd +1 +1 +2 +2 Awaken Grief +1

+3
4th +2 +1 +2 +2 Bonus Feat +1

+3
5th +2 +2 +3 +3 Choose Life +2
 Training Regimen (EX):
The Sidewalk Counselor 55
must place maximum ranks
in Bluff and Diplomacy
until he has 6 ranks in
each. Additionally, he must
place maximum ranks in
Knowledge: theology &
philosophy until he has 6
ranks. The Sidewalk
Counselor must select
Alertness prior to selecting
any other feat.

Awaken Grief (EX):

The Sidewalk Counselor
knows how to twist the
knife emotionally. He calls
it awakening women to the
horror they underwent in
the clinic; pro-Choicers
call it cruel emotional
blackmail. Anytime the
Sidewalk Counselor
critically succeeds on a
Bluff or Diplomacy check
(by rolling a natural 20)
when confronting any one
with a pro-choice alle-
giance, or who has ever had or is considering an
Convincing Argument (EX): The Side- abortion, the target is considered shaken for one
walk Counselor uses pro-life science and faith as round.
twin weapons, blending fact, faith and outright fiction
into one emotionally compelling whole. A number of Characters immune to fear effects or mind
times per day equal to his CHA modifier (minimum influencing effects are immune to this class ability.
once daily), the Sidewalk Counselor can add his
ranks in his highest ranked Knowledge skill as a Action Enhancement: By spending an
competence bonus on any Bluff or Diplomacy action point, the Sidewalk Counselor can activate
check. this ability on any successful Bluff or Diplomacy
check made against an eligible target.
Simple Weapons Proficiency (EX): In
addition to the two feats all characters start with, a Choose Life (EX): A few well chosen
first level Sidewalk Counselor is proficient with all words can bring almost one around the Sidewalk
simple weapons. Counselor’s way of thinking, and the Counselor is
an articulate spokesman for his faith, constantly
winning new converts.
56 By spending a full round in conversation with
the target, and spending an action point, the Side-
walk Counselor can temporarily alter that target’s
allegiances to match his own. The target may resist
the attempt by making a WILL save (DC 12 + the
Sidewalk Counselor’s CHA modifier). The target
must be sentient with an INT score above 5, must
be within 30 ft of the Sidewalk Counselor, and must
be able to clearly see and hear him.
The effects of this ability last for 1d4+1
rounds. During that time, the target’s allegiances
change to match the Sidewalk Counselor’s. While
the Sidewalk Counselor has no specific control over
the target, nor will the target act in any way against
his basic personality, the temporary allegiance
change might cause the target to look more favor-
ably on the Sidewalk Counselor, change a planed
action, or even cease hostilities.
The temporary allegiance change may
render certain class abilities or feats useless for the
duration, and in modern magic campaigns, might
prevent spell casting or require an atonement spell to
be cast afterward. The effect ends immediately if the
Sidewalk Counselor makes any hostile gestures
toward the target.
Strange Weather
Nuremberg is pure information, slaved to a
photon-based weapon system. Unbound by the
limitations of a physical form, the AI can wield
thought-virals, light-based weapons and atmospheric
effects on a continental scale. Nuremberg is an
electronic God- a being whose sensory tendrils
stretch across North America. Under certain
conditions, the Nuremberg AI may produce any of
the following effects, which resemble weather
phenomena more than a conventional weapon.
Philosophical Dormancy: If the ability
used causes Nuremberg to enter this state, the AI
can no longer restrict the Life From Death Philoso-
phy using targeted smart virals. During the system’s
dormancy period, a character with Life From Death
may use the Philosophy to create a Neverborn from
any genetic material, not just gene samples from an
aborted fetus.
Agent Synchronicity
With something less than a conscious
thought, the Nuremberg AI can tap directly into
urban traffic control software to ease its servants
through gridlock and impede its enemies. The
Nuremberg can provide a bonus on Drive checks to
favored allies. It must be aware of their location in
real time, either by hacking urban security cameras,
vehicle IFF tags, or via propaganda mist.
Limitations: Nuremberg cannot delve too
deeply into the traffic control system in a particular
city or risk detection. The Nuremberg AI can
provide any circumstance bonus on Drive checks it
desires as a free action. The bonus applies to the
next Drive check the ally makes. However, the AI
cannot provide more than a +100 bonus to all
potential allied drivers in a particular city, and will
not provide more than a +20 total bonus (in any
combination) to one driver in a 24 hour period. The
AI wants its assistance to be mistaken for luck and
coincidence, not active tampering. The only excep-
tion is if is directly aiding in the elimination of a
McDuff, in which case the Nuremberg AI will
provide one driver with a greater than +20 total
bonus.
Fire Control Override
The Nuremberg AI can hack targeting and
fire control software and cause misfires, jams and
weapon failure.
Limitation: Once per day, the Nuremberg
AI can override any single computer-assisted ranged
weapon. The weapon fails to fire, though the action
to attempt to fire it is still wasted. Alternatively, the
Nuremberg AI can impose a 50% miss chance on
any weapon it allows to fire, once per day. Even
cybernetic weapon systems can be affected by this
ability. Weapons without any computer components,
such as an antique revolver, cannot be affected by
this ability.
The Nuremberg AI will not affect the same
weapon or character more than once a day, and
rarely more than once per year. As always, the
Nuremberg AI won’t act if its interference can’t be
explained away as coincidence. The AI must be
aware of the target to be affected.
Hammer of God
(Continental Philosophical Dormancy: 2d6
months)
The Nuremberg AI can super-ionize the air
around any creature that has succumbed to its
Propaganda Mist. Charged particles are given a
molecular ‘nudge’ from smartlight laser systems and
become an ion beam powerful enough to blow apart
a Humvee.
The Nuremberg AI can inflict 30d6 (average zones of heightened sunspot activity or similar
105) points of electrical damage on any target who
is laced with active Propaganda Mist and has a clear
view of the sky. The target may attempt a DC 22
REF save for half damage.
Limitations: The Nuremberg AI has never
used this ability, because manipulating the atmo-
sphere on such a scale leaves it vulnerable to
discovery. If the AI ever uses the Hammer of God, it
will go dormant for at least 2d6 months, taking no
actions other than those immediately necessary to its
survival. During this time, the Nuremberg Database
will become a simple non-sentient expert system.
When Nuremberg reawakens, it will use an entirely
new set of systems and protocols.
Philosophical Static 57
By emitting high frequency EM radiation
designed to jam synapse gaps, the Nuremberg AI
can create a zone where Philosophies don’t work
properly. Anyone attempting to manifest Philoso-
phies suffers painful migraines, nosebleeds and risks
death by micro-strokes.
The Nuremberg AI can create a zone up to
30 square miles filled with Philosophical Static. Any
creature attempting to manifest a Philosophy within
this zone suffers 1d4 points of damage per activa-
tion.
Limitation: The Nuremberg AI can create
as many as three zones of Philosophical Static, none
of which can be within 100 miles of another per 24
hour period. It rarely creates more than one such
zone, and only uses this ability rarely. The
Nuremberg AI creates these zones in accordance
with its own internal logic, and thus far has managed
to convince Earth’s parapsychologists that these
zones are natural phenomena of some kind, like
phenomena.
Propaganda Mist
The Nuremberg AI hijacks nano-scale
fabrication units and instructs them to produce huge
billowing clouds of informational dust. The info-dust
is released over a specific city, and can cover an
area up to 400 sq miles, more than enough to
blanket the center of an Alpha City like New York
or Los Angeles.
The effects are identical to a Lifer-designed
‘Ad Blurt’ mass release (State of the Otherverse:
Smartlights), and Nuremberg usually disguises the
mist as a successful Lifer hack. In addition, the
Nuremberg AI becomes aware of the activities of all
living things succumbing to the Ad Blurt dust for 12
hours after exposure. The AI does not need to make
Spot, Listen or other checks to detect a character’s
activity during that time. Nuremberg merely needs
to concentrate on a particular subject within the
radius of the mist’s release zone and is automatically
58 aware of everything that character says, does or
experiences.
Release Limitations: The Nuremberg AI
release one propaganda mist per twenty four hour
period anywhere in North America. Once the AI
decides where to release the mist, it takes 1d4 hours
to produce. Once a location is decided upon,
production and release cannot be halted.
Until the McDuff crisis passes, the
Nuremberg AI will continue to bombard Pensacola
with sensory pollen, unless a new danger draws its
attention else where. The Nuremberg AI typically
bombards Pensacola with info-dust at least four
days out of every week.
Smart Siege
(Continental Philosophical Dormancy: 2d6
months)
By taking total command of local power and
communications grids, smartlight and Dreamscape
servers and other infrastructure components, the
Nuremberg AI can completely remove a targeted
area up to 400 sq miles from the electronic land-
scape. All power systems and communications shut
down in the afflicted area, as do all smartlights.
Implanted smartlights function normally, though they
cannot connect to an outside signal. Wireless,
cellular, radio, TV and Mesh signals cannot pen-
etrate the target zone. Living Smartlights function
normally during the Smart Siege.
The Nuremberg AI can only deploy a Smart
Siege on an area that is under active Propaganda
Mist surveillance. Once the decision to begin the
Siege is made, it takes one hour to begin. Once the
Siege is initiated, it cannot be aborted or re-tar-
geted.
Smart Purge
(Localized Philosophical Dormancy: up to 72
hours)
Nuremberg can take over commercial and
military smartlight systems, forcing them into emer-
gency triage mode. All smartlights within a 60 ft
radius, including implanted Smartlights shut down
and reboot 1d6 rounds later. Implanted and com-
mercial smartlights work normally once they cycle
back on. Living Smartlights within the area of effect,
including Tracers are destroyed.
Limitations: The Nuremberg Conscious-
ness uses this ability only in the most extreme
situation, because doing so effectively blinds it as far
as the target zone is concerned. The Nuremberg AI
may use this ability up to three times per 24 hour
period, but cannot place the Smart Purge within 100
miles of a previous Smart Purge. The Nuremberg AI
can’t use Propaganda Mist anywhere within 100
miles of a Smart Purge until at least 72 hours have
elapsed, because it destroys its local expert systems
during a Purge.

The Nuremberg AI can maintain the smart

siege for up to 24+4d6 hours once the siege begins.

Limitations: Like the Hammer of God, the

Nuremberg AI has never used this ability. Should it
be forced to take this dramatic step, it will respond
as if it used the Hammer of God. And since the AI
knows it will be going off line temporarily anyway,
the Nuremberg Consciousness will have no hesita-
tion deploying multiple Hammers of God on the
target zone during the Siege. In short, if the
Nuremberg Consciousness actually uses this ability,
a declared state of war exists between it
and humanity.
 59

Choice and Blood, LPJ Designs, 2007.

Guide to the Known Galaxy, Otherverse
Games, 2009.
Neverborn Again, Otherverse Games, 2010.
Written by Chris A. Field .
60

“If the anti-abortion movement took a tenth of the energy they

put into noisy theatrics and devoted it to improving the lives of
children who have been born into lives of poverty, violence, and
neglect, they could make a world shine.”
-Michael Jay Tucker

Neverborn Again describes the enigmatic Neverborn species, the Lifer Nation’s dirty little secret, and
possibly… the next evolution of humanity. New factions, each struggling to control, liberate or destroy the
undead Neverborn species are described. Unique feats allow the Neverborn to transcend their limitations.

The new struggles described in this sourcebook take the American Abortion War in an unexpected new
direction, and reveal that the greatest threat to the Lifer Nation may be from within.