Voidwake Syndrome | Fantasy Hazard Generated by CharGen

The hazard

Voidwake Syndrome is a supernatural disease carried by Void radiation in the Black Fog. Those exposed first lose restorative sleep, then wander as if following a distant signal. Their feelings fade, their skin mottles, and their movements become eerily purposeful. The hazard is the contaminated environment; afflicted creatures may carry the disease's symptoms but do not transmit it by ordinary contact.

Environmental
Disease
Occult

Stealth: No Stealth check; the anomaly is environmental and usually concealed by darkness, vacuum exposure, or ordinary shipboard hazards.
Trigger: A living creature without sealed environmental protection spends 10 minutes in the Black Fog or an affected compartment and fails the exposure Fortitude save.
Disable: The anomaly has no physical mechanism to disable. A creature can suppress it for 1 hour with three successful Occultism checks to disrupt its occult resonance or Engineering Lore checks to isolate and vent the contaminated compartment. Each check takes 10 minutes; a critical success counts as two successes, and a critical failure causes the attempting creature to attempt the hazard's exposure save. Sealed environmental protection prevents exposure while intact.
Initiative: The hazard has no initiative and does not take actions. It is encountered when a creature enters and remains in an affected area.
Routine: No routine. The fog continuously exposes unprotected creatures that remain in the area; use the exposure effect after each 10 minutes of exposure, with a successful save granting that creature 24 hours of protection from further exposure to this hazard.
Reset: The Black Fog persists until its source moves or the affected compartment is isolated. Suppression through countermeasures lasts 1 hour; the hazard then resumes if the anomaly remains.

Damage

Immunities

Precision damage
Critical hits
Most effects that target objects

Effects

1

Voidwake Syndrome
DC 25
A creature that spends at least 10 minutes in the Black Fog or an affected compartment must attempt a Fortitude save. On a success, it is unaffected for 24 hours. On a failure, it contracts Voidwake Syndrome at stage 1. On a critical failure, it contracts the disease at stage 2. This is a supernatural disease effect.

Special rules

Disease Stages.A creature with Voidwake Syndrome attempts a Fortitude save at the end of each day. On a success, its stage decreases by 1; on a critical success, it decreases by 2. On a failure, its stage increases by 1; on a critical failure, it increases by 2. Stage 1 begins with restless, unrefreshing sleep and faint skin mottling. Stage 2 adds sleepwalking and emotional flatlining; the creature is stupefied 1 while awake. Stage 3 makes sleepwalking compulsive: after waking, the creature must spend its first action each turn moving toward the nearest source of Black Fog if able, and is stupefied 2. Stage 4 leaves the creature unresponsive and wandering when asleep, and stupefied 3 while awake. At stage 5, the creature falls unconscious and cannot recover without treatment. The disease ends if cured; otherwise, stages cannot decrease below 1.

Spotting it

Discovery

The fog's radiation is difficult to recognize as a threat until exposed creatures show symptoms.

Perception

Perception with a suitable detector or occult sensing method to identify the anomaly's telltale lagging shadows and sensor echoes; Medicine to recognize the syndrome in an afflicted creature.

Stop it

Signs of dangerShipboard clocks lose several seconds whenever the fog crosses a room. · Crew logs describe waking in unfamiliar compartments with no memory of walking there. · A sleeping creature's shadow moves a heartbeat before the creature does. · Affected crew show gray-violet mottling around the eyes and fingertips, but report no pain.

Countermeasures

A creature wearing a sealed environmental suit or similar protection is unaffected while the seal holds.
Leaving the fog zone prevents further exposure, but does not remove the affliction already contracted.
DC 25A successful Occultism check to disrupt the anomaly or Engineering Lore check to vent and isolate the affected compartment suppresses the hazard for 1 hour. Three total successes are required, and each attempt takes 10 minutes.
DC 25A psionic detox ritual using a 4th-rank or higher occult ritual, with a primary check against , suspends the disease's stage effects for 24 hours on success. This is not a cure by itself.
DC 25Deep med-scrubbing requires 1 hour in suitable medical facilities and a successful Medicine check. Together with the detox ritual, it cures Voidwake Syndrome on success; on failure, it reduces the disease by one stage. A critical failure advances it by one stage.

In short

Avoid exposure with sealed environmental protection, leave the affected zone, or suppress the anomaly.

Its story

What it looks like

A starship corridor filmed with drifting black vapor.

Why it is here

The anomaly is an environmental hazard rather than a constructed defense.

Who made it

Unknown.

Lore

Voidwake Syndrome is not a conventional infection.

Where it is found

Starship derelicts, sealed research stations, and regions touched by Black Fog anomalies.

Variants

Dreaming Wake: The fog produces shared dreams; afflicted creatures can exchange brief images but gain no reliable information.

Cold Wake: Mottling becomes frostlike and the affected compartment loses heat. Increase exposure frequency to once per minute, but lower the exposure save DC to 22.

The Quiet Navigator: One afflicted crew member can guide others safely through the fog, but only while sleepwalking and only toward the anomaly's source.

Plot hooks

A derelict's crew walks in silent formation toward a sealed observation blister, where a survivor claims the fog is calling from outside the ship.

A settlement's salvagers are returning from a wreck with mottled skin and no memories of their journeys, while their employer insists the cargo is safe.

A psionic healer asks the party to retrieve a shipboard memory core containing the only known pattern for completing the detox ritual.

Media

0 images

No images yet.

Visual sheet

Turn Voidwake Syndrome into a sheet

A high-res, share-ready sheet you can post or print.