Somnium VIII

“...the dreams. The DREAMS! Fire and death and blood and screaming... the <garbled>... coming...coming tonight... coming here to kill us. I can hear their airships... their <garbled>... they’ve found us, the last of us... no escape... I won’t let them take me... <recording ends with the sound of a chain weapon and screaming>.”
–Transcript of a vox journal found in the crew quarters of mining outpost 14, Somnium VIII
Located in a distant corner of the Cauldron near the
God-Emperor’s Scourge is the Somnium system.
Centered around a bright, blue giant star, the Somnium
system consists of fourteen planets and hundreds of moons.
The planets closest to the star are small, arid balls of rock
baked hard by the intense heat and radiation of their massive
star. The rest are a mix of mostly unremarkable feral worlds
with little or no commercial value or worthless, lifeless rocks.
Aside from its planets, the Somnium system houses little else
of interest. There are no notable navigation hazards and the
few asteroids and other stellar bodies are easily avoided. The
one exception is Somnium VIII, a pleasant, medium-sized
world that houses both a great treasure and a terrible secret.
==A Brief History of War==
Somnium is a temperate world of lowlands and rolling hills
with small, incredibly deep oceans ringing the equator. Its
forests are dense with alien flora and fauna, and the seas of
sighing grasses on its plains stand taller than a man. Scattered
around the world are the remnants of huge, domed hive cities
and sprawling industrial complexes. In the dim past, this world
was home to two highly-advanced xenos races who lived
together in relative harmony. They built their towering cities
and graceful floating cathedrals dedicated to their alien gods,
and they were the masters of all they surveyed, including the
stars themselves. They ruled their vast star system together,
exploiting its riches and building their legacy. As it is with
most empires, however, its star eventually began to wane and
both societies began to erode from the inside. Their institutions
became decadent, their leaders corrupt, and eventually a
devastating war broke out between the two races. This war,
fought with machines of incredibly advanced technology, soon
completely engulfed Somnium VIII, and after years of war, the
two former allies annihilated each other completely. Whether
they managed this through targeted biological weapons or
some other heretical xenos technology is unclear, but every
sentient being on Somnium VIII died a horrible, screaming
death in a matter of minutes, the echoes of which can still be
heard these many millennia later.
Over the following centuries, their proud edifices fell into
ruin, swallowed up by the land as if the planet itself was
desperately trying to cover some deep shame. The floating
cathedrals crashed into the seas, and the vast hives decayed
and crumbled. However, even though the people were gone,
the effects of the great war remained. The shock of so many
sentients dying at once left an invisible stain on the soul of the
planet, a kind of psychic fallout that lingers in the cities and on
the sites of ancient battlefields, ghostly echoes of cannons and
the screams of the dying. Tortured spirits roam through the
ruins, forever weeping for the souls of the dead and unable to
find eternal rest. Ghost armies fight long-forgotten battles over
and over, and flickering lightning or the light of the moon often
reveals the shapes of ghostly airships bristling with weapons. It
seems that the spirits of both races are cursed to relive their sins
for eternity, with only the beasts to bear silent witness.
==A Lingering Madness==
Somnium VIII lay undiscovered and unmolested for centuries,
spinning in its ancient orbit with its vast domed cities turning
to dust and its forests reclaiming the land. It would have
stayed that way too, had a Rogue Trader on a survey mission
not stumbled across the system. During their survey, it was
discovered that Somnium VIII, along with an inordinate
wealth of precious stones and metals, held an extremely rich
adamantium deposit, a vein hundreds of kilometers wide
stretching halfway around the planet’s equator. News of
the discovery quickly spread, and while the Rogue Trader
who discovered it fought desperately to keep hold of the
planet, prospectors and mining concerns from all over the
Expanse descended on Somnium like a pack of ravening
hounds. Quick and violent brushfire wars were fought both
on the surface and in orbit as rival Rogue Trader houses and
numerous factors representing powerful Imperial interests
spared for control.
Eventually, a loose confederation of the strongest Rogue
Traders and mining concerns was able to break enough heads
and line enough pockets to gain control over the system and
its resources. Plans were quickly drawn up and survey teams
were sent down to the planet to chart the vein and divide
claims among the major players. Once the surveyors were on
the ground, however, trouble immediately began to hound
them. The members of the survey teams began to complain of
headaches and sleepless nights. Strange voices were reported
whispering through vox systems, and vague, shadowy shapes
were seen prowling the camps at dawn and dusk. Many
individuals reported the sound of distant gunfire, or a far-off
scream. A smell like burning flesh would occasionally waft
through one camp, and another reported a steady rain of fi ne
ash falling from the clear sky. Then, suddenly, one camp went
silent, and then another. A third made a frantic, garbled vox
broadcast begging for help and reporting “hostiles in the
sky,” before it too fell silent.
Investigators were sent to the surface, only to find scenes of
unbelievable carnage. People in each camp horribly mutilated;
burned or hacked apart or flayed or torn limb from limb with
their blood soaking into the alien soil and looks of abject terror
or poisonous rage on their twisted faces. Most died holding
a weapon, and it appeared as if they’d gone mad and turned
on one another. There were no survivors. Dataslates and vox
journals found at the grisly scenes described men and women
unable to sleep, gripped with paranoia and delusion. The records
told of constant mutterings and whisperings from behind every
tree and plaintive weeping from within every shadow. They
showed how each man and woman in the camps succumbed
one by one to some unspeakable madness. The remaining
survey teams were immediately recalled to their ships, some of
their number already slowly drifting into madness.
Numerous stopgap solutions were proposed. First, the
controlling parties attempted a series of rotations in which
personnel would spend limited amounts of time on the surface
before being rotated back to their ships. This turned out to be
a logistical nightmare—some could withstand the madness
for weeks, while others succumbed after a single night. They
brought in hired psykers to help shield their workers, which
worked until the psykers succumbed or were destroyed by
their powers due to the strain. One Rogue Trader sent down
a survey team escorted by an Untouchable, one of those
strangely gifted individuals with no warp presence, and he
reported being completely unaffected by the madness... until
the Untouchable was killed in an accident. It seemed that
no matter what was tried, luck or fickle fate would conspire
against them.
It became increasingly difficult to operate on the planet.
The surveying and construction of facilities staggered and
lurched along. Work constantly stopped and restarted as
people went mad and equipment was destroyed. Eventually,
with the entire operation hemorrhaging gelt and the
dates for starting production constantly pushed
back, the largest of the interests cut their losses
and left. This started a failure cascade that saw
the confederation dissolved as each investor
took what they could and ran. Eventually,
the half-built outposts, camps and mines collapsed into
ruin and Somnium VIII fell silent again, save for the
chattering of beasts and the mutterings of the spirits.
==The Lure of Riches==
Everyone who knows the history of Somnium VIII knows
that operating there spells almost certain doom. The draw
of its wealth outweighs the risks however, at least in
the minds of some, and over the years everyone
from powerful Rogue Traders and Imperial
organizations to small-time strip mining outfits
has attempted to exploit the riches of this
God-Emperor forsaken world. The
failures of the past are well known and well documented,
and every fool who makes the gamble is convinced that
they have the answer and the ability to keep an operation
running. So far, no one has managed it. Somnium VIII has
ruined more fortunes and killed more men than can be
easily counted.
==The Madness of Somnium VIII==
Prolonged exposure to the psychic fallout of Somnium VIII will drive even the strongest man mad in short order.
Within 1d10 days of arriving on the planet’s surface, a character will begin to experience horrific nightmares that make
sleep nearly impossible. The player must then make a Difficult (–10) Willpower Test to determine the effects of
the nightmares. Passing the Willpower test means that the character is able to process or shrug off the majority of the
negative effects, but still has strange and disturbing dreams. Failure means he suffers the effects of Horrific Nightmares
as described on page 298 of Rogue Trader and gains 1 Insanity Point.
If an individual remains on the planet for more than ten days after the nightmares start, he must make another
Difficult (–10) Willpower Test. If he succeeds, he must make a new Willpower Test at the next difficulty rank in
two days, and every two days thereafter at increasing difficulty ranks until he succumbs to the madness. Failing the test
means that the character has finally snapped due to lack of sleep, the lurid nightmares and the constant muttering and
whispering of the spirits. A character in the full grip of the madness will become extremely paranoid, withdrawn and
easily agitated. He begins to have hallucinations where he sees the xenos who lived and died on Somnium VIII as flesh
and blood. Once the hallucinations begin, the character quickly develops a delusion that he is one of the native xenos,
and everyone around him is a member of the other race and intent on killing him. At this point the crazed individual
flies into a rage and attack anyone and everyone near him with whatever weapons he has.
The effect of these nightmares can be counteracted with sleeping drugs, which reduce the difficulty of the Willpower
Test by one rank. Psyker abilities that shield the mind or calm fear reduce the effects or even make a character immune to the
nightmares, but this immunity is temporary and limited by the capabilities of the psyker. The presence of an Untouchable
seems to be the surest protection from the madness. Untouchables, or those with powerful psychic wards or psy-blockers, are
immune to the madness, and offer protection to those around them as well. Of course, Untouchables are incredibly rare.
An individual who has failed his Willpower tests will need to be sedated and restrained to prevent him from harming
himself and others. If he is removed from the planet and the susurrations of the dead xenos early in the process, he will
fall into a catatonic state which will last 1d5 days. Once he awakens, he is recovered but his experience has shaken him
and he gains 1d10 insanity points. If he actually succumbed fully to the madness and was then subdued and removed
from the planet, his catatonia will last 1d10 days and upon waking he will gain 2d10 points of insanity and will need
to make a Hard (–20) Willpower Test or lose 1d5 points of Willpower.
On Psykers
Psykers are affected differently by the madness of Somnium VIII than their more mundane colleagues. Thanks to their
gifts and rigourous mental conditioning it’s easier for them to resist the madness, When they are overcome, however,
the results tend to be more horrifying and dangerous than are typical among non-psykers. A psyker will not begin to
experience the nightmares brought on by the lingering psychic fallout for 2d10 days. Once the nightmares begin, the
psyker must make the same tests as non-psykers to determine the effects of the nightmares on their psyche. The results
of success or failure are identical to those for non-psykers, except once he reaches the level of madness, he does not fly in
a homicidal rage. Instead, a psyker maddened by exposure to Somnium VIII is driven to distraction and hears the voices
of the dead xenos every waking moment with shocking clarity. It becomes harder and harder to use his powers, and the
effort required means the psyker may only use his powers at the Push level (however, he does not gain the increased Psy
Rating for doing so, he simply suffers the ill effects). This effect lasts as long as the psyker is on the planet.
Psykers who are lucky enough to escape death on Somnium VIII suffer the same catatonia and accumulation of
Insanity Points as their mundane colleagues with one exception. Thanks to their association with the Warp, they gain
1d10 Corruption Points as well as Insanity.
Category:Planets
Category:Unclassified Worlds
Category:Koronus Expanse