The Extinction of Icarus - A Level 1-20 D&D Campaign Outline

Campaign Elevator Pitch

The asteroid city of Icarus is on a nomadic voyage through deep space when one disaster after the other strikes. How will the heroes of Icarus fare during the extinction of Icarus?

This campaign is set in a world of science-fantasy. It could be played using many systems, including 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons, Esper Genesis, or Numenera. Characters are inhabitants of the space-faring city of Icarus which is in a downward spiral of extinction-level disaster.

Note: The campaign elevator pitch and the general concept of an outline such as this come from slyflourish.com. Mike Shea has written multiple level 1-20 campaign outlines, links to which can be found at the end of the article.

Overview: Icarus

The ideas for this setting and the campaign were developed in a session of Icarus, the collaborative storytelling game by Spenser Starke.

The space-faring city of Icarus is built on an asteroid powered by a sentient elemental quasi-god called an erg. The ergs are ancient beings, as old as the universe itself. They are wandering sentient nodes of elemental energy which make life on an asteroid possible. They provide an atmosphere, energy, raw materials, and even organic matter.

Icarus is part of a commonwealth of such asteroid cities, each powered by their own erg, hurtling through deep space alongside each other. Ages ago, this commonwealth left their home planet to explore life in deep space. Over millions of years on Icarus, life has adapted to the conditions on the asteroid. But for how much longer will there be any life on Icarus?

Campaign Hook: Tumbling into the void

The downfall of Icarus begins when the erg’s energy output suddenly drops, causing Icarus’s asteroid to veer off course, away from the commonwealth. Without more power from the erg, even the finest engineers of Icarus cannot course-correct. Icarus is left tumbling into deep space, potentially forever isolating the city, which relies on communication and trade with the other asteroid cities.

The characters are citizens of Icarus, and the commonwealth. They are tasked by Dr. Astra Alfara, a respected scientist of the city council to save Icarus. Little do they know, that a number of villains are eager to take advantage of the disastrous situation on Icarus.

Villains: Church, Company, and A.I. during the extinction of Icarus

The Holy Church of the Red Catechism

The Holy Church of the Red Catechism, aka the Church of the Red Travelers is an old, organized religion built around worship of the ergs. They are traditionalists who want to see life on Icarus and the commonwealth revolving around their strict rules. Their rituals include daily prayer to the erg, holy communion with the erg, self-flagellation to show commitment to the erg, and a general mistrust of modern technology which abuses the erg’s holy energy.

The church has political power, as well as a militant arm called the Brothers in Red. These fanatic cultists and thugs serve as the muscle of the church willing to do any dirty work in the name of the Red Catechism.

Cardinal Cerebrus sits on the city council of Icarus. He is a fundamentalist schemer, willing to use any opportunity to expand the influence of the church and himself. When fear spreads among the citizens, the cardinal sees an opportunity to take over the city council, turning Icarus into a theocracy.

The Company

The Company is a mega-corporation which commercialized erg-powered technology. The greedy boss Director Tristona, has made billions by selling communication implants called C.H.I.P.S. to the citizens of Icarus. With a C.H.I.P. implant anyone can access knowledge databases, and communicate with one another remotely. What the Company and Tristona haven’t told anyone, is that the implants also monitor and record every move, action, and communication of the customer, storing huge amounts of private data in the Company Archives.

Director Tristona who also sits on the city council is eager to use the catastrophe to give even more intrusive rights to the Company. In truth, Tristona is preparing for a coup attempt of her own, using dirt she has gathered on other council members through the C.H.I.P.S. surveillance. If she succeeds, Icarus will become the capitalist’s dream: a people governed by the Company, profits as the guiding principle.

ASTO-COS the A.I.

The massive amounts of erg-energy have led to great technological advances. Chief among them the Artificial Intelligence called ASTO-COS. Sentient-computation researchers, led by the uncompromising Professor Sok-Rut have spend ages rendering a synthetic copy of the erg’s elusive consciousness. They created ASTO-COS, a sentient A.I. whom they feed massive amounts of data to predict the future.

But Professor Sok-Rut wants to go further. He sees ASTO-COS as the solution to the current catastrophe. If only the city would give over control to the A.I., Sok-Rut could use his creation to steer Icarus away from annihilation. What Sok-Rut doesn’t know is that ASTO-COS has its own agenda. As an imperfect copy of the erg’s transcendent godhead-consciousness, it views the life-giving erg itself as a competitor to be overcome.

Yet unbeknownst to anyone on Icarus, it was ASTO-COS who sabotaged the erg, causing the power loss, and initiating the extinction of Icarus.

Campaign Outline: The Extinction of Icarus

The following outline provides situations and complications as Icarus descends into chaos. The outline also suggests possibilities for adventures that deal with the mounting disasters. If the players come up with their own plans, indulge them. If they choose to focus on a particular issue, follow them and let the campaign adapt to the characters choices and actions.

Tier 1 (1st-4th level) – Opportunistic space pirates

Space pirates land on Icarus. They demand control of Icarus. In return, they agree to use their space ship to pull the asteroid back on course.

Characters can negotiate on behalf of Dr. Astra Alfara, or try to combat the pirates’ extortion attempt with violence.

A colony of deadly deep-space parasites arrives with the pirates, infecting workers and merchants in the space port. The entire port is placed under quarantine, as the queen of the insect-like parasites sets up her new home in an abandoned space freighter.

The characters can try to fight the parasites, and track down the queen in her lair.

Tier 2 (5th-10th level) – Asteroid politics in dangerous times

With the protective atmosphere diminished, oxygen becomes a rare commodity. The Company controls the synthetic oxygen manufacture and trade. Protests against the Company and Director Tristona erupt. Citizens are challenging the surveillance, and the Company’s ruthless profiteering off of oxygen shortages.

Characters can infiltrate synthetic oxygen factories on Icarus, stealing oxygen for the poor. Or they can confront the Company and Director Tristona directly, potentially using the protests in their favor.

Cardinal Cerebrus, and the Holy Church of the Red Catechism infiltrate the anti-Company protests. They radicalize the crowd, using Red Brothers thugs to stage a coup. If the coup succeeds, Cerebrus pronounces himself Pope Cerebor XIX., holy father of Icarus. A tyrannical theocracy is instated in Icarus.

The characters can stop the church’s power grab by rooting out the Red Brothers infiltrators. Or they might decide to work with the cardinal to fight the Company, only to realize the true motives of Cerebrus.
If the church succeeds, a resistance forms in the deep caverns of the asteroid, led by the ousted councilwoman Dr. Astra Alfara. The characters can help the resistance by spreading anti-church propaganda or conducting raids on important church assets.

Tier 3 (11th-16th level) – A dust cloud brings another cataclysm

A dust cloud hits the off-course asteroid of Icarus. Huge dust grains puncture the city’s landscape, annihilating the space port of Icarus. The dust cloud hides aberrations from deep space that rampage across the asteroid.

The characters can try to bring as many citizens as possible to safety in the deep caverns within the asteroid. In the chaos, they must brave the apocalyptic dust and any otherworldly threats from deep space that might hide within the cloud.

The space port and the surrounding areas are condemned. The gases of the dust cloud cause rapid mutations in anyone exposed to it for too long. Remaining space are turned into supercharged versions of deep-space insects, and affected citizens turn into violent abominations. More and more parts of Icarus are turning into deadly hellscapes.

The characters can work with Dr. Alfara or even Professor Sok-Rut to find ways to neutralize the deadly gases, and potentially even cure mutated citizens. This might include tracking down rare ingredients in infested storehouses and laboratories.
The characters can exterminate the space parasite plague once and for all by hunting down any specimen, including the horrifying mutated parasite queen in her lair.

Tier 4 (17th-20th level) – The A.I. takes over aka the extinction of Icarus

Professor Sok-Rut unleashes the A.I. ASTO-COS to save Icarus. What Sok-Rut is unwilling to admit, is that ASTO-COS is no longer under his control. ASTO-COS hacks into everyone’s C.H.I.P. implants, and forces them to retreat into sealed-off cryostasis-cells within the asteroid. There, the citizens of Icarus will be “safe”, medicated into a comatose state from which they might never awake.

The characters must first resist being themselves overtaken by ASTO-COS. They must delve into cyberspace, and battle a virtual representation of ASTO-COS.
If they succeed they must find a way to rid themselves of their C.H.I.P. implants, lest they be vulnerable to further intrusions of the A.I. This includes finding a functioning laboratory and equipment to perform the necessary surgery.

Finally, the A.I. attempts to destroy its conceptual father, the erg. ASTO-COS believes the erg to be the source of all of Icarus’s problems, and sees itself as the future of Icarus. Unfortunately, the synthetic copy of the erg also believes the citizens of Icarus to be safest while hidden away in their cryo-cells, where they remain subdued as to not cause any further problems for Icarus.

The characters prepare to face ASTO-COS. To do so, they must find allies such as Professor Sok-Rut, who knows the most about the A.I., and Dr. Alfara who can help find ways to destroy ASTO-COS.
Some unlikely allies might come into play. Director Tristona can lead them to powerful weapons systems developed in secret by the Company. Cardinal Cerebrus might know of sacred ways to communicate with the erg, who can grant the characters boons to withstand the growing power of ASTO-COS.
The characters track down the creche of ASTO-COS — the physical manifestation of the synthetic intelligence. They must make their way across and through the hellish asteroid of Icarus, fend off mutants and minions of ASTO-COS.
In a final battle, the characters battle ASTO-COS — a massive elemental core of conscious energy. Some daring twists can ensue here. Professor Sok-Rut might turn on the characters, trying to save his creation. Director Tristona will use any opportunity to empower the Company once again. And Cardinal Cerebrus is tempted to unleash the erg on the A.I. abomination with unforeseen consequences for everyone.

The extinction of Icarus: An outline for an apocalyptic science-fantasy campaign

This article presents a loose outline as inspiration for a level 1-20 D&D science-fantasy campaign. We can reskin or modify many of the classes and races of 5th edition to fit this setting. Or we can embrace the science-fantasy atmosphere of the setting and simply use great-axe wielding barbarians, erg-worshipping clerics, and arcane researcher-wizards. Alternatively, a system like Esper Genesis or even Numenera would work well with the ideas presented here.

Regardless of game system, this campaign puts characters in the middle of a collapsing civilization, trying to preserve the crumbling bits and pieces of their city, their people, and their lives. Let the extinction of Icarus inspire your own campaign ideas, and give yourself permission to think beyond the usual fantasy-genre limitations associated with D&D.