The Hollow Protocol
🎭MQ1 – "Intake"
PCs awaken in containment cells, separated or semi-separated. Initial medical scans and psionic probes begin.
Subquests:
“Echoes in the Glass” – PCs can attempt to communicate between cells through tapping, eye contact, or subtle methods.
“Evaluation” – Each PC is subjected to a brutal mental/emotional test, tailored to their background (e.g., reliving a trauma, illusions, suppressed fears).
Lore Hooks:
Learn about the facility’s “Protocol Hollow” – a rumored containment unit deep beneath the complex.
🎭MQ2 – "Orientation by Force"
PCs are marched through parts of the facility and forced into a military-sterile “education program,” with anti-Karthaheim propaganda and “behavioral compliance” reprogramming.
Subquests:
“Eyes of the Watcher” – PCs spot an odd android or cyborg monitor who seems too interested in them.
“They Call It The Echo Room” – One PC is selected for a deeper psionic scan inside a cold, whispering room. The scanner malfunctions, revealing a ghost-like voice from a prior test subject.
Lore Hooks:
PCs learn about “Operation Broken Seal,” a classified campaign where Therax were once weaponized—and it backfired.
While inside the facility, PCs hear on the news broadcast that 3rd negotiation failed, and tension are rising in the Elven Kingdom of Azalesia.
🎭MQ3 – "The Gauntlet"
PCs are forced into a live combat testing arena, monitored by scientists and military officers. They’re given limited weapons and pitted against Therax spawn or other prisoners.
Subquests:
“Stacked Odds” – Midway through, a larger mutated Therax is dropped into the arena without warning.
“Saboteur?” – One scientist appears distraught as the tests escalate and might later reach out.
Lore Hooks:
Surveillance logs reference a prior “Dämmerlicht Candidate” that went rogue—this could be tied to a lost PC sibling, mentor, or future antagonist.
🎭MQ4 – "Re-Calibration"
PCs undergo forced sleep cycles and hallucinogenic injections. Dreams blend with distorted memories, and a shared vision begins to haunt all of them.
Subquests:
“The Azure Corridor” – All PCs dream of walking the same blue-lit corridor, hearing a voice calling their name.
“Biofeedback Anomaly” – One PC displays strange reactions to the injection. They gain minor psychic feedback (e.g., sudden emotion-reading, deja vu) for a session.
Lore Hooks:
A dream shows a fragment of the outside world—a ruined city no longer marked on any map, implying a cover-up.
🎭MQ5 – "Broken Wings"
One NPC prisoner from earlier missions (maybe a PC liked them) is brought back nearly dead. The facility clearly experimented on them.
Subquests:
“Final Words” – The NPC delivers a garbled message, a code or phrase like “The Hollow eats you alive… don't let it take you too.”
“Dismantled Dreams” – PCs see the empty armor of a former Dämmerlicht unit displayed like a trophy in the lab.
Lore Hooks:
The NPC once saw “Project Aegis Null” records—designed to create synthetic psionic weapons via human hosts.
🎭MQ6 – "Routine and Rebellion"
PCs are given limited roaming time in guarded common areas: mess halls, observation chambers, psionic suppression training rooms.
Subquests:
“Echo Net” – PCs discover they can leave faint, hidden messages in the network for each other (like saving text to medical logs, or rerouting sensor pings).
“Hearts and Wires” – A lab tech shows sympathy. They could become an ally—or bait.
Lore Hooks:
Rumors of Subject 09—the last known psionic burst victim—who disappeared from records 6 months ago. Some say she was sent to “The Vault.”
🎭MQ7 – "Splinters of the Self"
Another round of “tests” reveal that one PC has latent psionic activity (random levitation, vision distortion, rage spike, etc.).
Subquests:
“Restraint Shock” – The PC is fitted with a dampener collar or neural needle—unless others intervene.
“Glitch in the Light” – PC sees a mysterious shimmer (possible rogue AI, ghost code, or hallucination) offering knowledge about escape paths.
Lore Hooks:
The shimmer warns of a psionic singularity under the facility—some sort of sealed, forbidden core project.
🎭MQ8 – "The Hollow Protocol"
The final test is being prepared. PCs overhear whispers or intercept classified intel: one or more of them are showing “unstable waveform patterns” and are being considered for liquidation via Hollow Core Protocol—a process reserved for Dämmerlicht operatives deemed defective or no longer viable.
The Hollow Core is not a containment unit—it is a recycling chamber, where former super-soldiers are broken down at the molecular level. Their genetic material is harvested to synthesize mutation serums and psionic amplifiers for the next generation of weapons. Death here is slow, sterile, and clinical.
Subquests:
“Open the Vault”
The upcoming “test” is a cover for transport to the Hollow Core. PCs must decide: risk exposure now, or delay and risk being taken one by one.“Code Black: Evac Plan Alpha”
The escape clock starts now. PCs can:Gain trust of a sympathetic lab tech (Rykka or another)
Steal or sabotage their suppressor implants
Coordinate their breakout with a facility-wide event (e.g., mutation containment breach, power cycle, or false fire alert)
Lore Hooks:
Project Hollow Protocol was originally meant to euthanize unstable psionics... but evolved into an industrialized resource extraction system.
Rumors persist that "Echo Subjects"—those who resisted the process—sometimes whisper through the pipes of the chamber, minds half-preserved in the machine sludge.
The first psionic pulse did not come from Therax... it came from a Dämmerlicht operative who was liquefied—but never died. Her agony is still active in the vault.