STARGATE MISSIONS - EPISODE TITLE: REBIRTH

     An advanced team is trapped off-world, pinned down by a team of jaffa. They are cornered, surrounded by high rock walls and they need help.

Advanced Team Members
Airman Tony Walker, Scout
Airman Letitia Vasquez, Scout
Specialist Joya Rasmussen, Scientist (part of Russian program)
1st Lieutenant Nick Anderson, Soldier

     The jaffa pinning them down can be in the service of any goa’uld of consequence to the player characters. There are more jaffa than meet the eye, however; in the middle of the ensuing battle reinforcing jaffa arrive. As both SGC teams are about to be badly outnumbered, monstrous warriors come hissing to the fore and fight visciously against the jaffa. These warriors are the Om’aa.

The Om’aa – Species & Culture

     The Om’aa are Large sized, generally humanoid creatures that develop multiple limbs as they age. They are born with two arms and two legs but can grow more. The very oldest of their people also have multiple faces, increasing their senses of sight, taste, and scent. They are most often slender with ropy muscles. Their eyes are solid in color with no discernable distinctions; common colors are black and blue. Their flesh comes in a variety of colors: white, black, blue, red, and green.

     These creatures are able to call upon fantastic powers during the battle, and when they activate such powers an aura of color glows around them. These auras do not always match with the colors of their flesh. The reason for this involves the source of the Om’aa’s seemingly magical powers: the kundalini, a principle that is not coincidentally represented on Earth. The kundalini is a spiritual reservoir of potential and power; most beings are unable to tap this reservoir, so it is said that the kundalini sleeps inside of them.

     The Om’aa, however, have made the kundalini the cornerstone of their lives for thousands of years, and the energies they channel affect their bodies. They dedicate themselves to a purpose and a dominant energy; the color of their flesh matches that energy. Individual powers activate visible fields of energy in roughly a foot radius around the Om’aa. The colors represent the following:

White = Healing
Black = Destruction
Blue = Luck
Red = Passion/Fertility
Green = Meditation/Concentration/Will

     The Om’aa possess the ability to be reincarnated into the body of a newly born member of their race. It is believed that as long as their race exists somewhere in the universe, they can continue their cycle of reincarnation. Those that have reached their maximum potential, however, can use the kundalini to ascend.

     The Om’aa breed as often as possible in the hopes of seeing old loved ones returned in the bodies of their children. The old often marry the young, and incest is not taboo as long as it does not produce children. Since healthy children are so valuable, any threat to a newborn’s health is forbidden.

The Om’aa – History

     The Om’a used to visit Earth thousands of years ago and they remember the Sanskrit tongue of their human worshippers. They saw great potential in the human race and wanted to teach people to live better (and hopefully to learn to access their own kundalini). The Om'aa did not wish to be worshipped but they could not convince the early humans to believe they were not gods. What the Om'aa wanted most was for the humans to grow strong enough to combat the goa’uld.

     The goa’uld once experimented upon the Om’aa, thinking that they would make an ideal host race. After all, the Om’aa were naturally long-lived and wielded extraordinary powers. The goa’uld encountered a great deal of trouble trying to usurp those powers, as well as the host mind. The kundalini constantly warred with the goa’uld parasite, and if the parasite could not keep the kundalini in balance it would react violently. Such side-effects were normal – a kundalini out of balance reacts against the wielder.

     The goa’uld have a history of destroying what they cannot control, and they began to hunt the Om’aa wherever they could be found. When the Om’aa were discovered on Earth they were exterminated at once.

     The goa’uld who has taken the name of Kali once held a body of Kali, an Om’aa warrior, but the goa’uld left that body long ago in order to take a human host. The Om’aa do not know this; the last they knew, Kali was holding a member of their race hostage. There has been no report of Kali being reincarnated.

     The Om’aa hate the goa’uld with a passion and make war on them wherever they can. The Om’aa are vulnerable because they don’t generally have spaceship travel and because they are attacked by the goa’uld on sight. They are badly in need of allies. They tried to defend the Tauri but were unable to gain control of Earth's stargate before they were shut out by the goa’uld. After initial efforts failed, they stopped trying to return.

     The Om’aa have given up living together in large numbers because of their conflict with the goa’uld; they do not wish their race to be exterminated. Instead, the Om’aa form small nomadic groups. They stay on a planet only for a time and then depart. They seem to have some system of passing news between groups, but they will not reveal this system for any reason.

The Om’aa – After the Battle

     The team of Om’aa that took the jaffa by surprise is not too large, but their flesh shows a number of different colors. Feel free to use an Om’aa who is, for all intents and purposes, a Hindu god of old (Kali is obviously not available). This special Om’aa will have a fondness for humanity left over after all the years, and will act as the leader of the Om’aa team.

     The Om’aa will not act aggressively toward the SGC personnel unless they are provoked. They saw the advanced team and player characters fighting the jaffa and took that as a good sign. The Om’aa will be able to heal the player characters and advanced team (and the leader can even bring them back to life if any are dead). As long as they are not approached aggressively, the Om’aa will provide healing even without being asked, especially if anyone is dead.

     As stated before, the Om’aa know Sanskrit. They do have knowledge of the goa’uld language for purposes of information but they will not speak it. If there is a language barrier, the special Om’aa mentioned above will concentrate, emit a green glow, and then be able to understand the human’s language and to communicate telepathically.

     The Om’aa will move the SGC personnel to the gate and dial their current planet (since the current position is not safe). They will desire to take the humans to their temple (a building they have renovated for their stay) in order to learn more about them. No weapons are allowed inside the temple – not because the Om’aa particularly fear them, but because they feel weapons to be rather inferior to natural power. The Om’aa do not tend to develop much in the way of technology, favoring the personal power that the kundalini affords them. The special Om’aa will act as guide and will be eager to hear everything about the state of Earth. The Om’aa will be glad to hear that the people on Earth are no longer slaves to the goa’uld. More importantly, the Om’aa will seek to be allies.

     The Om’aa will also be willing to try to guide the characters toward awakening their own kundalini. Humans have never proven as adept at using their kundalini as the Om’aa, but the Om’aa realize how much more practice they’ve had. The NPC advanced team members will also be offered the chance to learn, which could allow for more in-depth NPC contact. This is an opportunity to offer the player characters something different. Even if the DM does not wish characters to have extra powers, they can go through the meditation/visionquest anyway. DMs can also decide not to allow player characters to reach higher levels of power. Only those willing to pay for the privilege will get it, at any rate.

The Kundalini Skill

     The manipulation of the serpent energy is something of a skill, something of a talent, and something of a miracle. This manipulation is only strengthened and made more reliable with practice – thus, the Kundalini skill. Unless otherwise specified, the Kundalini skill is a cross-class skill.

     The powers that can be accessed by the Kundalini skill are divided up by level, according to the number of ranks the character has invested. To channel the kundalini at all, a character must have a minimum of 3 ranks. This allows the character to choose from the powers on the Muladhara list (see below). The character may choose one power for each full skill rank they possess, but they must have enough ranks to access the ability. At 3 ranks, for example, a character could not choose a power from the Svadistthana list (which requires 4 ½ ranks).

     Upon attaining a new level, a character may keep their chosen powers or trade them out for others, provided they have the ability to channel them. In order to learn new Kundalini powers, one must spend time with a guru or in deep meditation, during which guiding visions are said to occur. It is said that the solitary path is the most difficult and dangerous.

     To activate a kundalini power, the character must make a skill check DC 10 + the ranks needed to possess the power. A success indicates that the power activates normally. A critical success grants the power extra strength, duration, and the like (DM discretion). A critical failure means that the kundalini has gone out of control and the sacred fire burns the character from within, causing things like madness, stigmata-like wounds, being overwhelmed by color, sound, or visions of the dead. The duration is 1d4 days. The DM may spend an additional action die to add 1d4 more days.

     Activating a kundalini power is a full-round action and may be interrupted by a successful attack. A Concentration check must be made (DC 10+damage taken, after DR) in order to channel the energy properly in this case.

     The Kundalini skill may be used as many times per day as the character’s ranks in the skill. In extreme situations, a character may try to use the kundalini more times a day, but they must make a Kundalini check (DC 15 + ranks needed to possess the power + 1 for each previous forced use) each time they try to force an extra use. With success, the character may call forth the power but they lose 1 vitality point per rank of the power (subdual damage). With a critical success, this penalty does not take place and the power activates as normal. With failure, the power does not activate and the damage penalty is applied anyway. With critical failure, the kundalini flashes back on the user (as above).

Sample Kundalini Effects List:

Muladhara – 3rd level – 3 ranks
Cure minor wounds: cure 3 vitality or 1 wound point instantly upon touch
Guidance: +1 on one roll, save, or check within 1 minute
Light: an aura of light surrounds the character in a 20 ft. radius, up to 10 min./rank
Mage Hand: range 25+ 5 ft./rank, unattended object weighing up to 5 lbs., half action to move the object up to 15 ft. in any direction, requires concentration
Mending: one object up to 1 lb.
No Light: an aura of darkness surrounds the character in a 20 ft. radius, up to 10 min./level.
Resistance: +1 on saves for 1 minute
Purify food & drink: 1 cubic foot/level of food or water

Svadistthana – 6th level – 4.5 ranks
Manipura – 9th level - 6 ranks
Anahata – 12th level – 7.5 ranks
Vishuddhi – 15th level – 9 ranks
Ajna – 18th level – 10.5 ranks
Sahasrara – 21st level – 12 ranks

Note: DMs are encouraged to tailor their own effects list to suit their game and group. The intent of the kundalini skill is to insert a hint of magic and mysticism into the Stargate universe that player characters might be able to use – but only a hint.

Layout and text created by Patricia Willenborg 2005-2008 unless otherwise noted.  See full disclaimer information here.