Blood on the Blasted Sands Extended Review

 (At the time I write this review I notice that the torg eternity folks have dropped the price of this title.. I would argue it was worth the purchase price back when it cost the same as say the godbox, fires of ra or revenge of the corredon and now I would argue at the new price point it qualifies as a must-buy where you get a ton of value for your money... for GM's really looking to stretch their dollars you could wait until the Black Friday sales, typically occurring close to USA's Thanksgiving day, when the price drops by a few dollars more on certain torg titles but honestly rather than waiting that long I would just grab this now at the ten dollar dollar price it's selling at instead of waiting for the seven dollar price come Black Friday if history repeats itself).

Much like the other mega-length extended adventures for each cosm... like the fires of ra being the companion book and in a real sense "part two" to the nile empire sourcebook... blood on the blasted sands should be continued the companion piece and "other half" of the tharkold cosm sourcebook.  It does an excellent job, more so than the isolated scenarios found in the delphi council rising storm book, of really bringing tharkold to life and highlighting the feel and nature of the realm .. in this case a nightmarish, apocalyptic techno-horror realm.  Very close to the beginning of the adventure - after of course the PC's have to go through the trials and tribulations of simply getting into the warzone that is the Tharkold conquered realm on earth which is also well done and drives home the nature of war-torn Earth in Torg ... the scene after that alone (second scene of the many acts in the book) is wonderfully evocative and descriptive, something I go into more detail on below.

I particularly appreciated the sections at the end of the book which go into greater detail on the Tharkold invasion of Ukraine

(and yes I know, given the current real life situation in Ukraine in the year 2022 as I write this I feel awkward even just typing this ...the writers had no idea when they wrote this in the year 2020 what would happen in Ukraine two years later.. I talk about this more in my review of the Tharkold cosm sourcebook but my way of dealing with this is making the Ukraine resistance fighters the true heroes of the region and beacons of hope against the forces of evil ) 

and a detailed explanation of the area there as well a more detailed look at the former seat of government power in Russia, the Presnensky District now split in a three way power struggle between Volkov, Thratchen and Jezrael .   The write up of two higher ranking thralls who answer directly to Thratchen and Jezrael will no doubt be of use to the GM (though I found Jezrael's favored thrall's write up as far as stats to be surprisingly "wimpy" and I would personally increase her "8" attribute scores to "10" and give her more adds in reality and her combat related skills) and the Volkov faction section answers a question I had posed in my review of the tharkold sourcebook ... Volkov's soldiers do in fact use the higher tech tharkold weapons like alph  sprayer energy weapons and diffrax armor but rather than this being the case for the everday average soldier of Volkov's, such equipment is reserved for highly trained special forces operatives whose stats are also given in this section, something else that will prove useful to GM's. 

 The inclusion of a technodemon who has come to care for the thralls  kept in a "herd" village until Thratchen has use of them later on and who has become an aspirant (a technodemon who's turned his back on his inherently evil nature) is intriguing  but the reason why for this is made even less clear than in Chut's case, a technodemon aspirant who's allied herself with the delphi council and who's given a write up in the tharkold source book... see if you like my review of the tharkold sourcebook for my additional suggestions on how and why Chut turned her back on a lifetime of technodemon culture and outlook... I would argue the same principles could be used to explain this technodemon's change of heart.

Also very intriguing to me was, in his typical fiendishly brilliant way, Volkov's use of the Tharkold version of the cyberpapacy's godnet... basically tharkold's version of hell albeit one that serves as their infernal version of the "internet".. Kur as an asset, specifically to generate hack-proof Russian electronic currency/money that can be protected against even say cyberpapacy agents who might try to hack into Russian computers and undermine Russia's economy - Volkov even has technodemons specifically dedicated to monitoring and running the part of Kur dedicated to this purpose and stats are provided for said specialist technodemons.  

What's confusing here is given that the technodemons dedicated to this are not listed as having the computers skill is exactly how they assist in this process.. given their description of having "armor - coded protection +3" in the book I am guessing the technodemons materialize inside Kur and specifically handle financial transactions within Kur as a virtual presence but it would have been nice if the writers had been more clear on this.   Given that they're demons I found myself wondering at first if technodemons could simply naturally vanish and materialize inside of Kur but this is where the information from Act four comes in handy in it's description of a technodemon inside Kur who the PC's may end up having to fight - the technodemon is described as spending far too much time in Kur while his physical body withers away implying that he probably has a grid jack occultech implant (oddly enough not mentioned in  the list of occultech for him ... he could also be using the more painful non-implant method of the device that pokes needles into your eyes, ears and other soft tissue in your head to access Kur but you would think given how much time he spends in Kur he'd just get the occultech implant to let him do this instead).  

Much like the revenge of the carredon, I would recommend the GM actually skip to those final two chapters of the book and read them first in order to better understand the rest of the adventure as the GM is reading through it.    The Tharkold adventure generator chapter is a welcome addition to the Tharkold cosm sourcebook with a lot of great ideas for GM's who have the time and inclination to write their own adventures, but even better are the excellent and detailed adventure generators in say the Living Land or Orrosh cosm sourcebooks which go into even more detail  (both of which are in my opinion the best torg cosm sourcebooks and well worth the purchase price - either one should be your first purchase as far as the cosm sourcebooks, see also if you like my reviews of those two books)....though in all fairness the torg eternity writers raised the bar so high on those two books that other torg cosm books are going to have a hard time following in their footsteps to begin with.

One thing that stood out to me was Volkov's typical calculating, evil, manipulative approach, not only "justifying" the invasion of Ukraine as necessary to secure it as a bulkhead against the neighboring aysle and cyberpapacy invaded formerly core earth territories but also painting the rule he's imposed as preferable to Jezrael's "wrecking ball" approach where she seeks to destroy wherever she goes and spread anarchy and pointing to the structured by comparison rule he maintains in the area of Ukraine under his (not Jezrael's) control.   Obviously it goes without saying that if Volkov was really that concerned he would have simply sent Russian soldiers to assist the people of Ukraine instead of engaging in a blatant power grab.

I was pleased to see this is a beta level clearance adventure that takes place in the second half of the first year of the timeline established in torg, allowing the GM to run players through say the Godbox or the Fires of Ra and/or the various adventures in "delphi council rising storm" (see if you like my reviews of those first two titles and I'm working on a review of the last one) to "level up" to beta clearance. 

While the mega length adventures by torg eternity tend to, given their breath and scope, not cover the NPC's personalities and backgrounds as much as I would like I was very pleased to see the notable NPC's the PC's run into often have a more fleshed out background and personality than they did in other torg eternity mega length (godbox, fires of ra, revenge of the carredon) adventures.    I still have some ideas for areas I felt the adventure could have used some more detail in given in my blogger post below as well as suggestions for maps which, like the other mega length adventures, are sadly lacking though there are a few scenarios where the writers give a wonderfully evocative description of a combat encounter.. but then there's no map to go with it, that very same wonderful detail making it impossible for me to find a map that matches the written description so there will be a few situations where GM's and players who are fans of battle maps will have to just "wing it" and do without (the GM should warn the players about this in advance since players who are used to maps letting them clear plan out combat battle tactics might be annoyed at this).

I got a chuckle out of the inclusion of Tharkold's version of the terminator being sent after the PC's in Act Four... a technodemon occulttech regenerating robot that can never be truly destroyed unless it's attacked outside of tharkold reality.. and Albert (see below) is the NPC who is used to clue the PC's into what this thing is.. still, given the cult status of the terminator franchise the robot is clearly based on, simply randomly throwing it at the PC's like that doesn't really seem to do the franchise justice and will in my opinion make for an awkward, one might even say "gimmicky" or "forced" encounter with the PC's unless the players are made aware of it's existence (in a way) first.

Remember that Volkov is a master of propaganda and wants to portray himself as Earth's best and only hope against the dimensional invaders, and I'm sure he portrays his alliance with certain factions of Tharkold's technodemons as a "necessary measure" to stop the other invaders like the Cyberpapacy or Aysle that he takes pains to portray in a negative light given how close they are geographically to Russia (see the tharkold cosm sourcebook).   What if he funded and ran an internet-based television show?  The Tharkold sourcebook doesn't come right out and say this but given that the underground ethernet (optical) cable, routers, and other equipment that makes up the backbone of "real" core earth's internet is definitely supported by tharkold's tech level of 26, one could assume that in areas where there hasn't been enough widespread destruction to the point where even optical cable underground or router equipment or what not was destroyed, the internet (not the Kur hellscape just "normal" internet although as the tharkold sourcebook mentions tharkold's reality makes it possible even for people with a "normal" internet connection to connect to Kur) is still accessible in certain areas of Tharkold invaded earth.

I would tell the players this when they encounter, randomly .. let's say in the psychic they've been sent to find (former) church building, where the soldiers guarding here are watching it.. and even before that at the (body part) chop shop the PC's go to... in Act One, again in Act Two in the "city" the PC's need to get into for the next part of their mission (it should be noted most NPC's watching it tend to chuckle or sneer at the image volkov is trying to portray in the show but they still watch it) , and even in Act Three where the scientist they encounter Adrik is sneering at the TV show when they encounter him stating it's "scientifically impossible" and "drivel for the mindless masses, why don't they just air a science based documentary instead on things that can REALLY happen" (Adrik is wrong of course but he's self involved and arrogant enough to think he knows everything) ... all these NPC's should be spotted watching a show where a relentless robot created by the technodemons hunts down the  " brave, reformed technodemons who want to be humanity's friend" (let's assume real life technodemons who are greatly amused at this concept and at the deceit behind it , and even more amused there are desperate people among the Russians Volkov rules who would actually believe the idea of "noble and heroic technodemons" are actors in the show  ) , the brave soldiers making up Volkov's army (portrayed by actors) , and those evil self absorbed thralls who work for the technodemons who are an enemy of mother Russia that report to the hated Thratchen and Jezrael (all also portrayed on said TV show of course by actors not the real Thratchen and Jezrael or their thralls) ... the robot is the enemy of everything it encounters seeking to destroy anything it comes into contact with, created by Thratchen and then turning against it's creator (a blatant lie Albert tells the PC's later on, it's an ancient thing that existed long before Thratchen according to the free members of the Race Albert's been talking to) ... to the PC's it definitely looks like a rip off of the Terminator franchise appropriate PCs (transformed former core earth or still core earth PC's for example) are very familiar  with... but surprisingly well acted (as it turns out there were many talented desperate script writers and actors/actresses prior to Tharkold's invasion who were happy for this level of public exposure in the desparate hope Volkov really can rescue Russia and they'll all become Russia's version of hollywood stars and writers when Volkov wins against Thratchen and Jezrael) ... such a TV show would not only introduce the players to the political and social situation in Volkov, it would also prepare the players for the real life version of the robot popping up to attack the PC's later on in Act Four (flat out tell the player it's the exact same robot from the TV show they've been catching bits and pieces of throughout the adventure).    

The second scene of the first Act.. which is where the adventure really starts after the PC's deal with the difficulties of simply getting into the Tharkold conquered ... is as I mentioned above wonderfully evocative and descriptive and truly immerses the players in the horrific nature of the Tharkold realm right from the start ... as with the other Torg pre-published adventures though it suffers from a lack of battle maps.. one for the event where the PC's are attacked by a synthecycler and it's thrall operator looking for more organic material to be recycled into "bricks" for use by automated autocad macherinery that can use it along with the metal and plastic the synthecycler is harvesting from the ruins and wreckage of shattered buildings ... would have been helpful although what I just described right there should drive home the dark nature of Tharkold.   A google search turns this up as a potential map

https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmaps/comments/v9cxn5/post_apocalyptic_city_encounter_map/

The PC's need to seek out something described to them only as a "crystal" (actually an energy source distilled from human suffering as described in the tharkold sourcebook) in order to gain the help of the armed soldier camp protecting the psionic seer they've been told to seek out.    The problem is this leads the PC's to a "chop shop" where a psychotic merchant sells body parts.. which the PC's would presumably hope are harvested from victims who are alerady dead but the adventure goes on to state this psycho has moved on to harvesting body parts from living victims as well... given the PC's are expected to be the good guys in any torg campaign, how do the PC's react to this?  I suppose you could have psycho shop owner take note of the PC's discomfort and assure them that he only goes after "bad guys"... minions of Thatchren, Jezrael and/or Volkov .. as far as live victims but the GM has to be prepared for the possibility of combat erupting here if the more moral minded PC's simply cannot stomach the nature of this chop shop... fortunately if it comes down to a fight the PC's can simply take the crystal from the shop after ransacking it...  this map might be useful if a fight does break out in the chop shop

https://www.deviantart.com/altegore/art/Devil-s-Gun-N-Pawn-shop-day-837419370

....this also begs the question as to exactly what the dead body parts are needed for to begin with... does occultech... a combination of magic and tharkold's very high 26 level tech axiom... allow for a "zombie" body part fused with occultech to be attached to someone willing to pay for the procedure?   Are the body parts sold as food (a grisly thing but not something entirely unexpected in the realm of Tharkold)... do technodemon scientists and/or renegade former thrall scientists need the body parts to conduct their own experiments in the goal of engineering better occultech arms, legs, organs and so forth?   These are all ideas I can come up with off the top of my head but it would be nice if the writers had expanded on this further.

Moral quandry number two happens when the PC's return to the psionic seer they haven't been allowed to lay eyes on so far... only to discover her undead head is the only part of her still functioning (there is by the way a wonderful piece of artwork of her which can easily be displayed to the players via the use of say infranview... a free software download I've been using for over a decade with no problems, no spyware or viruses come with it .... and it's crop function after using the print screen function in windows such that the text of the adventure for the GM's eyes only is cropped out... alternately the paint program that comes built into Windows will perform this function as well.

But getting back to the moral quandry... the head is technically still "active" and able to use it's psionic abilities to give the prophecies the psionic gave when she was alive but PC's of a particularly noble spirit ... which Torg encourages it's PC's to be as I've mentioned above... are probably not going to be comfortable with this situation... how do you resolve this?

Stats are given for a "soldier" at the end of the adventure the GM can use if necessary if the situation turns into a combat although the writers of the adventure seem to assume the PC's will simply go along with the psionic now existing as a "zombie head" ... which also raises the question of how she became a zombie head to begin with... if it was me as a GM when the PC's raise their protests about the situation (and hopefully they will at least try to speak with the soldiers guarding the psionic before attacking) I would read a narrative text something like this

" The leader of the soldiers bows his head, the neutral poker face most residents of Tharkold-conquered Earth seem to adopt melting away into open, clearly visible grief.

' Da, it is true, what has happened to her is horrible'  says the soldier quietly.   ' I remember when we first met her ' .. the soldier even smiles briefly, a rare thing to see in Tharkold conquered Earth.  ' She came looking for us and started giving orders, telling us what to do ... we laughed at this woman, old enough to be our grandmother.. until we realized everything she was telling us was correct.   She could see the future!'  there's wonder in the soldier's voice that fades into sadness.  ' And then the day came when she told us that she would soon no longer be with us .. at least not in the way that we knew her.. and she told us of a machine she wanted to use so she could still be of service to the Motherland fighting that Svoloch Thratchen'  The soldier spits at the ground after he says ' Tratchen ' ... 

....the soldier is quiet for a long moment then continues... ' And then the day came when those dogs, those marauders came... so many of them.. we fought hard, lost many men... and our beloved grandmother Ulyana caught a bullet to the chest.. we fought the marauders off... grandmother Ulyana told us not to grieve, that she had seen this coming ... we did as we were told we..."  the soldier closes his eyes and gulps, voice breaking ' We put her in that god-cursed machine... and it did the rest... cables came out of it, snaking through her ears... it separated her head from her body... we.. we buried her body.. and the head.. well you see for yourself what is going on with the head.'  

The soldier gestures weakly towards Ulyana's undead head eyes gazing sightlessly out of it's glass box.   "The head speaks to us from time to time, still giving us information we need to stay alive.. it's.. it's what she wanted.  God help us, we probably shouldn't have listened to her, we should have buried ALL of her.. to see her like this.. I am not ashamed to tell you, many men broke down and wept after seeing what that machine did to her... myself included... but she still helps us .. helps us fight Tratchen's marauders... and god willing, one day with her help we shall drive them from our beloved Russia."

(if a PC asks what slovoch is the soldier says " It is what you would call ' bastard ' in English")

The soldiers don't protest if the PC's move towards the head to put it to rest.. if asked to see the machine the PC's are shown towards a room where, behind curtains, is a metal capsule covered with slime that literally pulses as they view it made of dark metal and engraved with what appear to be occult runes, apparently some Tharkold combination of technology and magic.   The soldiers don't protest if the PC's try to destroy it but assume it's hardness 30 due to it's combination of magic and technology.    

On the trail of the missing storm knights whose information will lead them to the next stage of the adventure, the PC's end up fighting chain wolves who have taken up shelter inside the wrecked bus the missing storm knights were using for transportation... there's no battle map provided for this and an online search doesn't turn up a map for "ruined bus" since that's a bit too specific but this map is one possibility, just alter the adventure's description to state there are other ruined vehicles around too (not uncommon in Tharkold) and pick the largest looking vehicle on here, changing the description from "bus" to ... well whatever it is (it looks like a front trailer with the back part being an oversized motor car with big wheels)

https://www.deviantart.com/wastelandbattlemaps/art/Vehicle-Depot-766546519

or use this map and just change the description from bus to van

https://www.deviantart.com/wastelandbattlemaps/art/Random-Encounter-Road-664744876

sadly with both these maps .. with all the maps I've been able to find.. there's no snow covering everything which would have been nice given the adventure's description of it being winter and lots of snow being around.. perhaps you could say the radioactivity had some adverse affect on the snow melting it away in some parts but it's still cold?

Having said that there's an absolutely beautiful map of the marauder camp the PC's have to rescue the missing storm knights  ... it does lead to a chase scene where the PC's have to pursue in their own vehicle a technodemon jawbone who has the leader of the group of storm knights they are trying to rescue strapped to the front of the bus in a nod to the "mad max movie" feel of tharkold.. while a GM could in theory look up a map of a ruined street (see below for a listing of various apocalypse type maps a GM can choose from that I found online) honestly I feel given the nature of chases.. that you'd have to move the vehicle tokens all over the map... this is one of those few situations where the GM might honestly be better off making do without a map.   See below for links to vehicle tokens a GM can use if you're using some sort of virtual tabletop game (I know you can do this in Fantasy Grounds for example, no idea if you could do it in say roll20 but I'm guessing so?) on computers where the map the players can see on their computer screens can handle tokens being moved around on a map.

act two scene one involves a marauder ambush which, again, has no battlemap.. this is one possibility which serves the same purpose the encounter creates, trying to create an area that's difficult for the PC's to simply drive through with wreckage the marauders can try a sneak attack from behind although the GM will of course have to change the written description to match what's on the map .. the barriers set up on the road on the map could represent pieces of wreckage that are more or less wall shaped the marauders have scavenged and set up on the road

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/hyf08g/24_x_24_desert_wasteland_post_apocalyptic_style/

Act two also involves a makeshift tharkold version of a "city" the PC's have to gain entry to one way or another... one stealthier option is to sneak in through the subway system which of course results in a battle in said subway system... as with all the other torg mega-length adventures (godbox, fires of ra, the carredon) sadly there are a number of situations where there's no battle map provided and this is one of them as far as a frontal assault to get past the gate into said city or an "accidental combat" that results if stealth or disguise attempts to peacefully get past the gate fail and/or PC's with the ability to fly over the gate (in which case there's a flying menace they have to fight) ... however here's one possibility for a map for the subway battle I found online

subway battle map for sneaking into "city" act two 

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/xzhsvd/subway_battlemap_the_abandoned_train_car_for/

I was honestly surprised I couldn't find an apocalypse city/fortress entrance on the internet , I'm sure some mapmaker thought of it and made a map for it at some point but my search turned up nothing.. I'm guessing I'm just not searching properly and hopefully you'll have better luck than me if you try your hand at said search.   This is one alternate possibility in that at least it's a gate type thing in a "wasteland desert" sort of scenario although it doesn't match up 100 percent with the written description in the adventure.. maybe the GM might describe it as an "alternate entry point" they spot that is less heavily guarded?   

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/x5rmse/barricade_wasteland_desert_battle_map_38x38_in/

There are other situations where combat could take place ... there isn't much of a description of the physical area which actually works to one's advantage as far as finding a suitable map .. you could just grab a map from any one of the following galleries online 

https://www.deviantart.com/altegore 

https://rpgmapshare.com/piwigo/gallery/index.php?/tags/1333-apocalypse

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/v4ovm1/the_oasis_street_postapocalyptic_battlemap_28x27/ 

https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmaps/comments/v9cxn5/post_apocalyptic_city_encounter_map/

https://www.deviantart.com/magsouto/art/Parking-Map-436226878

https://rpgmapshare.com/piwigo/gallery/picture.php?/616/categories (colony warehouse)

https://rpgmapshare.com/piwigo/gallery/index.php?/tags/1333-apocalypse

https://www.deviantart.com/sharkal59/art/Huge-Post-Apocalyptic-Map-445587815

https://www.deviantart.com/sharkal59/art/1-PostApoMap2-post-apocalypse-zombie-horror-survi-511676421

https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmaps/comments/v9cxn5/post_apocalyptic_city_encounter_map/

https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmaps/comments/xawor8/ruined_city_map_for_modern_rpg/

https://www.deviantart.com/readyquest/art/Fallout-Supa-Dupa-Mart-map-820784417

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/xawzl3/modern_rpg_post_apocalyptic_city_maps/

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/8iqw2b/oc_postapocalyptic_themed_maps_i_made_for_my/

(link above in turn links to)

https://imgur.com/a/KQHWPov

and not so much a map for adventures within this "city" but moreso for random encounters in the snowy bleak area that is tharkold in general

https://www.reddit.com/r/Odinsongames/comments/nm79u2/30x30_snowy_ruins/

https://www.patreon.com/posts/snowy-trap-open-60926660  (scroll down until you see zip file for free download)

The act leads up to a literal death race the PC's need to engage in to rescue the NPC with the information necessary to lead them to the next part of their quest which results in three of several potential encounters to aid the "pit crew" working on the car the PC's have to race... again the galleries above can provide potential battle maps as needed but one particular encounter features a "chop shop" of a rival driving team the PC's may end up sabotaging .. here are a few potential maps for that

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/441141725978383397/

as usual with pininterest images clicking on the three little dots gives you a download option or you could go with 

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/jca82t/the_chop_shop_25_x_22_1280_x_1126_more_details_in/

As far as a map for the race track itself I like this one .. as far as the rubble on the left hand side of the map the GM could simply declare the vehicles are powerful enough to drive right over said rubble or turn it into an additional obstacle the drivers need to get past

https://www.enworld.org/attachments/mad-max-moto-cross-final-jpg.155413/

if this map seems too "busy" with obstacles for you however there are, in my opinion not nearly as interesting, maps you can dig up on the internet with the search term " arena rpg map" since the racetrack used to be a stadium ... this is one other possibility albeit one that has more of a medieval dungeons and dragons feel to it than a tharkold apocalyptic map

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/fxhw6g/free_arena_of_glory_30x20_battlemap_oc/

https://i.redd.it/5ul6t04xnor41.jpg

A combat map may very well become necessary since the unpopular ruler of this city has bribed the other drivers into ganging up on and killing the PC's during the race ... the NPC they have to rescue has really gotten on the bad side of said ruler so of course the PC's become enemies of the ruler too by default.. the ruler, Bazz Pila, like many other noteworthy NPC's in this book, has his very own artwork you can crop and display to the players using the infranview option I described ... the great thing about infranview is that there's a "paint" toolbar under the "edit" command if I recall correctly where you can simply use the "clone" stamp to clone empty no text space in the screenshot picture you took and then "paste" that clone over the text.. end result looks a bit messy but gives you a picture without any text that betrays information the players would not know about.

While as I mentioned this book does seem to go into more detail as far as NPC motivations it doesn't exactly state what the hapless NPC did the PC's have to rescue (said NPC's name is Atom) that ticked off Bazz so much but given the hostile highly confrontational nature of Tharkold there could be any number of reasons.. perhaps Bazz, as a favor to someone who bets on the races that take place, offered to bribe Atom and his pit crew to "throw" a race and deliberately let another driver win.. Atom stubbornly refused and paid the price when Bazz ordered him captured ... I don't think the adventure states exactly why Atom is led in chains out to the death race arena for the PC's to rescue but again not difficult at all to come up with a reason why... Bazz could simply intend to order the winning driver (Bazz of course assumes the rival drivers he bribed will successfully kill the PC's) to execute the "traitor" (as Bazz no doubt intends to publicly declare Atom to be)  Atom afterwads in a gruesome public fashion , no doubt part of the deal Bazz already made with the rival drivers

Of course when the PC's win the death race (simply killing all the other drivers qualifies and they're fair game since they are trying to kill the PC's ) this results in a battle to the death with Bazz which erupts onto the very same race track so the same map above can be used again.

act three scene one involves the PC's going into a lab and fighting or intimidating or trying to reason with a morally bankrupt transformed tharkold scientist (human) .. it's very easy to find a lab battlemap online but for ease of reference here's one possibility as far as a potential fight inside the lab

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/ymx8qs/15x23120dpi_small_science_lab/

The PC's do have to fight past or sneak past a digan drone , here's one map possibility for the outside of the lab (actually found a map featuring the snow that's supposed to be all over where the PC's are in Tharkold)... you can use infranview or windows paint program to crop out and use the top map

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/idiybj/the_cloning_lab_a_three_level_laboratory_in_the/

This in turn leads the PC's to a factory with several fight scenes and, sadly, again no map ... here's a  general factory map though it lacks the electric fence described in the adventure 

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/t1chzi/oc_54x45_cyberpunkscifi_urban_manufacturing/

to represent the outside of the factory the PC's have to get past in order to get inside said factory, and some various maps to represent encounters inside of the facotry 

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/k75r0x/dystopian_city_warehouse_free_cyberpunk_battle_map/

https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkred/comments/km0pu4/warehouse_lab_30x30ocbattle_map/

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/jsjggc/the_forgotten_factory_30x30/

Although these will only be useful for the encounters which aren't quite so detailed inside the factory as far as description of the physical surroundings.. the factory also features a battle with vats of the vile chemical the "big bad" of the adventure is creating and pumping into his minions .. sadly this links to a wepb image but perhaps it will be of use since, once again, sadly no map is provided for this battle

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/tv3pp8/trouble_at_the_cola_factory_industrial_8x12/

though again this doesn't really capture the spirit of the scenario described and the GM will have to alter the written description to match that shown in the map... there is a wonderful picture/artwork of the psionic "lead thrall" fiercely devoted to her technodemon master the PC's have to fight the GM can use infranview to extract a picture of from the pdf of this adventure to show the players.  

act four alleyway ambush scene three 

also possible alley map a GM can finesse on their own for alley ambush

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/ybjrkz/dystopian_city_inner_alley_cyberpunk_battle_map/

or

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/wccajw/scummy_back_alley/

links to car objects the GM can insert into the map

https://rpgmapshare.com/piwigo/gallery/picture.php?/7644/tags/1511-post_apocalyptic

https://rpgmapshare.com/piwigo/gallery/picture.php?/7643/category/30

https://rpgmapshare.com/piwigo/gallery/picture.php?/7642/category/30

https://rpgmapshare.com/piwigo/gallery/picture.php?/7641/category/30

and link to youtube video showing how to add pictures into a picture using infranview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjXfzEjofEg

here's a link to a wide variety of vehicle tokens for that matter (trucks for example) 

https://rpgmapshare.com/piwigo/gallery/index.php?/category/30

and for that matter a link to other vehicles say military or aircraft the GM could use (maybe they represent a ruined version of said vehicle) as objects on a map

https://rpgmapshare.com/piwigo/gallery/index.php?/category/24

rpgmapshare is a searchable website so if you do a search for say "bus" for example (given the final scene in Act One where the NPC storm knight the PC's have to rescue is strapped to a bus) it comes up with this for bus tokens... but generally speaking worth noting you can search the website for whatever you feel is necessary

https://rpgmapshare.com/piwigo/gallery/index.php?/search/23006

a wonderful physical description and personality write up is given for the delphi council contact Albert but no reason as to how he's come by all those useful skills... it's not too difficult to come up with a background for him with some thought however... given his age we could say he's an ex KGB agent who wisely chose to abandon the KGB right around the time in real life the collapse of the Soviet Union also ended the KGB, the year 1991.. he worked as a mercenary for some time after that until he earned enough money to retire, said retirement taking the form of being a financially poor "bum" (in reality he has more than one very comfortable safehouses squirreled away throughout various areas he travels back and forth between) complete with his new identity, "Albert".. he just pretends to be a homeless alcoholic though in truth he does drink not so much as to become addicted (he just pretends he is) but enough so to dull the emotional pain,  haunted by the acts of violence he's committed over the years... he transcended as a storm knight at the same time Tharkold's axioms washed over Russia, saving a "fellow" homeless family (remember he's not really homeless) he'd been quietly supplying with food, clothing and medicine from attacks by technodemon thralls.. putting his skill set to use he quickly discovered the existence of the delphi council and sought them out volunteering to join the organization in an effort to rid his beloved mother Russia ...he still loves his country even if he hates the power mad dictator Volkov, and gladly goes into detail about how his people lived in fear of Volkov even before Tharkold's invasion and how much worse it's gotten for Russia since then in a "drunken rant" more act than reality - he knows enough not to get so drunk that he can't function properly.   If he takes a liking to the PC's he may even tell them his backstory as well as Raven's (see below) given that Raven doesn't seem to be the type to spill her backstory to the PC's (though you never know, if the PC's play an appropriate card from the drama deck to use on Raven or the GM simply decides Raven is attracted to a PC and/or the PC makes romantic overtures and the GM decides Raven is receptive she may voluntarily disclose her own background story).   

As a GM who's run through many RPG's in the past both as a player and a GM I can testify to the fact that players can and will forget things that the GM would consider obvious and self evident.. like the fact that if the PC's stay put in Albert's safehouse the robot will come for them and no doubt kill Albert as well.   I would vividly describe how the robot starts to visibly reform right in front of the PC's just after they "killed" it.. this could lead to PC's staying there all day and night and wasting effort trying to "permanently" kill it, describe how even after they waste all that effort the robot just starts reforming again and flat out tell the players it seems to be a futile effort and they need to go find out from someone else how to permanently dispose of this thing, information they currently do not have.    Albert also mentions the only way to permanently destroy it when the PC's meet up with him and at that point I would flat out tell the players of the danger to Albert should they stay in his safehouse without leading the robot away from it (I wouldn't even bother with a Mind roll just tell the players this .. GM's who feel that's making it too easy on the players could simply let the chips fall where they may if the players forget in real life or make the players make a Mind roll to remember).   

raven the gridrunner and delphi contact PC's use to get into Kur .. picture given of her to show PC's but no stats ... granted she's supposed to be PC ally but what if a PC tries to say psionically or magically read her mind ?    More explanation is also needed as to why the gridrunner, who presumably has entered Kur before, refuses to enter this paticular part of Kur although she could simply say she knows that part to be so heavily guarded that even she isn't willing to risk entering that area virtually.. but she'll help the PC's do it .. Raven also needs more of a background and personality write up as to what her motivations are... perhaps she was a skilled hacker with a conscience.. while in real life Russian hackers are notorious for victimizing people and tricking them  online to take their money or simply holding say a hospital's computer network ransom for money , Raven made a point of targeting who she considered to be the real villains.. large rich American corporations ... and stealing money virtually from them or simply hacking them and having goods purchased from them and redirected to others who bought them at a steep discount since she was basically getting the items for free... a true virtual robin hood, she made sure a significant portion of her income went towards donations she tried her best to make anonymously to the many poor within her part of Russia but word got out making her a hero in the local area she lived in much to her dismay given that she didn't want attention drawn to her.. then when Tharkold invaded she transformed over to Tharkold's reality.    

At that point her reputation proceeded her to the point where the delphi council agent who knows her, Albert, whom the PC's meet earlier on, was able to seek her out after he too transformed to Tharkold's reality to confirm she too had transformed.. let's say Albert as a canny former KGB agent found out about her hacking prior to Tharkold's invasion and clued her in on the existence of various wealthy businesses attempting to operate quietly and discretely ... Raven was able to use this knowledge to hack them and steal money from them as well then found herself impressed when Albert waved off her offer of a cut of the money she'd pillaged, asking her to simply donate his share towards the homeless like he already knew she was doing.    The earring Albert gives the PC's to show Raven to prove the PC's know Albert is just one of many costume jewelry pieces Albert has come up with as a means of letting Raven know that various delphi council agents he sends to her are "safe".    

The problem with the device that the PC's will use to let them enter Kur is it pushes needles through the eyes and ears as well as the temple and neck which will leave the players wondering how their PC's are supposed to heal from being blinded and deafened?  Consider amending to needles plunging through temples and neck and still causing one wound of damage.   Kur is described as a place that shows the PC's all the worst sights the technodemons, beings made of pure evil, can imagine but doesn't go into detail as far as examples of this... prior to running this scene the GM can ask the players to tell the GM what their PC considers to be a frightening, disturbing and/or upsetting thing preferably two or more examples per PC ... and the GM definitely needs to ask what would tempt the PC the most into wanting to stay permanently in Kur since this actually happens in Kur in terms of a temptation (albeit virtual) that the PC's each have to face although I would describe it as magical supernatural trying to force the PC to change her mind involuntarily type thing in nature  (remind the players they're jacked into not only a virtual reality with magical as well as technological and probably spiritual components but also what the technodemons consider to be their version of hell) explaining why the PC needs to make a willpower or spirit test instead of simply choosing to ignoring the temptation

Act five leads the PC's into an alliance with Volkov ... they don't meet directly with Volkov (as the tharkold cosm sourcebook states volkov is far too cautious for that sort of thing) but rather as the tharkold cosm sourcebook mentions use the fragile alliance volkov has with the delphi council (so they use their contacts in the delphi council basically, the GM will have to flat out tell the players this is an option ... Albert if he's still alive or Raven can no doubt arrange such communication) ... basically under the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" strategy Volkov is willing to give the PC's the name of one of his agents in Ukraine... the problem is the agent has been kidnapped by Ukraine resistance fighters...

This creates a rather sticky situation for the GM especially given the real life situation with Ukraine at the time that I write this adventure and it's possible that, despite the Urkaine resistance fighters attacking first and attempting to kill the PC's, the players might feel very uncomfortable role playing out a situation where they have to kill Ukraine patriots even in self defense... of course given the patriots have found out the PC's are there to meet with Volkov's agent and given the patriots are, understandably, avowed enemies of volkov given what his tharkold-aided military has done to their country, the patriots would understandably not want to negotiate with or even talk to the PC's (if the patriots have taken volkov's agent hostage it's because they've found out she works for volkov)... still if the players are inclined to do so I would have diplomacy attempts succeed... in a fashion.. if the PC's shout about the nightmarish vision they experienced in Kur where a horde of marauders pumped up with chemicals under the orders of Thratchen (whom I would assume the patriots know of and have no love for) , Thratchen threatens everyone including Ukraine, and so forth I would have the patriots simply vanish , sneaking away and no longer attacking... this assumes of course that the players figure out their attackers are Ukraine patriots .. clever players might figure it out but unless the GM has the patriots shouting (in ukraine's language at that which the PC's might not even understand though for the sake of simplicity the GM should assume that like all the other NPC's encountered they speak enough English to make communication possible) Ukraine forever and down with Volkov, the patriots don't exactly make their identity as Ukraine patriots known - the players may very well have their PC's open fire without even realizing who they are attacking and realistically speaking the GM can't blurt out "you're attacking Ukraine patriots" if the PC's have no way of knowing that.

The fight scene with the patriots has a wonderful description of the landmark statues (Ukraine and Russian workers shaking hands) created by Russian oppression in Ukraine even prior to volkov taking power and the so called "Friendship arch" between ukraine and russia that was created .. but once again no battlemap.. the problem with this wonderful physical description is that it makes it impossible to find a battlemap that matches said description since it's so specific.. the best I can suggest is any one of these possibilities and telling the players the tharkold axiom wash has made the statue vanish and the arch has fallen into ruins thanks to the same axiom wash if the GM uses say the battlemap below

https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmaps/comments/vrv7hr/desert_oasis_snow_variant/

although the trees could be a bit difficult to explain.. maybe just some strangeness due to the axiom wash?

Alternately the GM could use one of the maps below again explaining the changes due to the tharkold axiom wash including the statue being changed to some demonic looking version of it's formerly human looking self and the arch vanishing completely

https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmaps/comments/yt05ta/the_step_of_the_minotaur_25x35/

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/r57xfz/25x30_frozen_hall_winter_edition_oc/

or there's this map though the GM would be hard put to explain why the statue now looks like a knight... maybe it's meant to represent the heroic spirit of Ukraine, Ukraine's reality fighting back against tharkold?

https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmaps/comments/uaxg3l/an_audience_with_the_kneeling_knight_40x40/

The adventure assumes in any event that at least half of the Ukraine patriots get away when the no doubt inevitable battle breaks out ... which could need some GM finessing as a result and the GM will have to be prepared to compensate should the players come up with a sufficiently clever plan or otherwise simply have the capability to stop all the patriots from fleeing, modifying the adventure accordingly and leaving out the subsequent scenes where the PC's have to chase the patriots down an abandoned subway system.   Again I would make diplomacy a definite option here given the real life situation in Ukraine and also because ideally the PC's really should be allying with the Ukraine patriots against Volkov anyways.

If the PC's do need to chase the ukraine patriots into the subway though as they probably will here are some battlemaps for the various tharkold horrors they will encounter in said subway system

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/l1rnlh/city_subway/

(this map link assumes the PC's have to travel through a set of connected abandoned subway cars and encounter a horror in the process)

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/gjcrhy/just_an_abandoned_subway_3300x2550px_an_older_map/

or

https://angelamaps.com/2021/07/21/metro-station/

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/npq6pa/subway_station_34_x_23/

The horrors are wonderfully written and truly capture the horrific nature of tharkold particularly the pain sculpture.. I do have a problem however with the spider that weaves monofilament, near impossible to see (difficulty number 20 Find or difficulty number 18 Dexterity test) incredibly deadly webs that inflict 10 plus one bonus die damage ... granted players who stop to investigate the telltale bones sliced with razor sharp precision get a plus 4 bonus to the roll should they succeed on an evidence analysis test against the bones but this seems like an unfairly deadly trap and I personally would lower the difficulty number of that find test or increase the bonus to +8 if the PC's make the evidence analysis test and grant a +4 bonus even if they fail the test.. hopefully the player have possibilities saved up they can use to alleivate the damage... 

There's a great picture of the Volkov agent, Svitlana, the GM can extract from the pdf to show to the players using infranview as I mentioned above when the PC's finally get to her and the ukraine patriots but once again no battlemap and a wonderful description of the pipes criss crossing the room that can cause severe problems for the PC's and NPC's alike if hit and their contents erupting as a result ... but this also makes it impossible to find a map online to match that scenario.. still here's one such map

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/laup1q/ww2_metro_battlemap/

where the GM can simply pick any one of the tunnels or rooms to put Svitlana and the Ukraine patriots in and just use say infranview's paint tool to crudely draw black lines representing the pipes... or if the GM wants to put in the work using the pipe objects below from rpgmapshare

https://rpgmapshare.com/piwigo/gallery/index.php?/search/23009

and the youtube video I linked above to layer these objects onto the appropriate part of the map above the GM picked out.. again if you're using Fantasy Grounds or perhaps roll20 (which again I'm not familiar with but apparently importing maps and objects for said maps is indeed as I suspected a thing you can do see this guide I found online

https://2minutetabletop.com/beginners-guide-to-roll20/  )

this becomes a lot easier with the GM simply plopping pipe objects onto the map.

Also interesting is the volkov double agent within the Ukraine patriot's members who shoots the Ukraine Patriot leader at a suitable point in the combat where the PC's presumably will get the upper hand given the Ukraine patriots are rather weak in comparison to the beta clearance PC's the adventure calls for... this creates a convenient way to deal with the PC's conscience as far as fighting Ukraine patriots and highlights not only volkov's cold cruel strategic nature but also highlights the dark nature of tharkold itself.. but again personally speaking it makes me very uncomfortable painting the ukraine patriots as the bad guys, even taking into account their leader has transformed over to the tharkold reality and dominates his underling through sheer strength not to mention his occulttech implants (the adventure doesn't specifically state this but I would assume the leader gained them as a result of the axiom wash spreading over Ukraine with the Tharkold invasion) ... the GM could rationalize this as the leader being driven mad by his implants (something very much in keeping with the nature of occulttech implants as described in the torg eternity core rulebook and tharkold cosm sourcebook ) and successful persuasion rolls causing his already uneasy men to turn on him, aiming their weapons at him and begging him to stand down - of course the insane leader refuses and has to be killed.    Obviously the remaining  patriots should still be hostile to Svitlana and the volkov allied traitor within their ranks but hopefully at this point the PC's can , again, reiterate the problem posed by Thratchen's minion, the insane Strah, and his plan to turn anyone and everyone he can get his hands on against their wills into insane chemically induced attack-minions under Strah's and thus Thratchen's command... something neither the Ukraine patriots nor the Volkov allied agents in the room want to see happen... if the PC's can arrange for a temporary cease fire long enough for them to get the information they need from Svitlana it should make the players (and the GM for that matter) feel better about allying with scum like Volkov ..

Hopefully the PC's are acting like the good guys they're supposed to be and will not try to torture Svitlana into giving up the information they need but she's described as having taken 3 wounds and enough shock to put her practically at death's door meaning furture torture would kill her.    I would point out to the players what the adventure itself says... even if the PC's don't tust Svitlana or are flat out inclined not to ally with her given her allegiance to Volkov, the fact that Svitlana knows where an eternity shard is should be of great interest to the PC's given they can 1) potentially tap the possibilities in the shard under the right circumstances for their own use in combat situations or skill rolls or what not and 2) getting the eternity shard means it's denied to a high lord who pillages the possibilities within the shard to fuel his own invasion plans (see the torg eternity core rules for more information on this) - assume the delphi council has appraised the PC's of this and warned them of how vitally important it is to grab an eternity shard whenever the PC's come across one.   Suggest to the players they could pretend to go along with Svitlana's plan then just grab the eternity shard for themselves (which hopefully will keep the adventure going because if the PC's flat out refuse the adventure stalls to a halt.. maybe give the PC's a difficulty number 2 Mind roll to figure out they can just tell Svitlana what she wants to hear, get the information from her after a pretense of giving her the eternity shard then take it back from her after getting the required information).

The PC's next have to overcome various threats and obstacles including combat in a "treasure hunt" of sorts to find an eternity shard which Svitlana insists can be transformed into a more potent version of itself in order to better resist and fight the dimensional invaders with (Svitlana leaves out of course the fact that this will turn a formerly core earth eternity shard, admittedly with limited capability in that it only works within Ukraine, to a tharkold reality eternity shard that can be used outside of Urkaine but decidedly darker in nature).   There's a fight scene either with more Ukraine patriots or Svitlana's Volkov-obeying soldiers depending on if the PC's fought the traitor in the Ukraine patriot's ranks and/or killed Svitlana .. although the problem is if they killed Svitlana and/or killed the traitor this ensures that Svitlana never turned over the interactive techno-map that directs the PC's towards first the "treasure hunt" locations needed to get the eternity shard and then the places they need to go to next to transform the eternity shard into a more potent version of itself.

(this also begs the question as to how volkov figured out that the eternity shard could be transformed into a tharkold version of an eternity shard.. I would assume that tharkold's darkness device probably just fed that information to volkov though it's best the PC's not figure this out until after they have the eternity shard and have , unwittingly, transformed it into a tharkold version of itself lest the adventure go completely off the rails and grind to a halt).

So one would assume the PC's are fighting more ukraine patriots which again could leave a very bad taste in the PC's mouths and the GM's for that matter... hopefully the PC's opted to use diplomacy to get the Ukraine patriots to turn on their leader as I suggested above.. .if that happened I would just have the Ukraine patriots the PC's reasoned with run out into the battlefield, talk to their compatriots who have arrived to fight the PC's and arrange a cease fire without a blow being stuck by either side.. otherwise see the list of suggested maps I gave in the "city" the PC's entered above for any one of various potential combat maps.

The quest for the eternity shard ends with the interactive map leading them to an apparently empty apartment with the eternity shard just sitting there on the floor.. of course this is too good to be true and a cygon.. tharkold's version of a dragon, think cyber-dragon.. shows up ... it's given a brief explanation as a sad version of it's former self forced into servitude by tharkold technodemons back in the day centuries ago when Tharkold had a much higher magical axiom .. persons who have read the tharkold sourcebook will recall that the ancestors of the Race (Tharkold's version of humanity) summoned the demons as weapons in their war between various human factions , demons who would become the technodemons later on and the conquerers of the Race within Tharkold.  I would give PC's familiar with Tharkold's history (or even if they're not) a Mind roll to remind them of this and to point out that if the Race's ancestors knew enough about magic to summon demons and use them as magical instruments of war then presumably the magic in Tharkold's reality back then was strong enough to support the existence of dragons as well ... after all technodemons are still demons, magical beings in and by themselves ...make it a low Mind roll difficulty number say 4 in case you have confused players on your hands stating this is Tharkold reality not Asyle and what the heck is a dragon doing here? 

The dragon is described as bursting into a wall of the apartment complex ruining it in the process of course... surprisingly I couldn't find a map for "ruined apartment building" online but maps for a normal non ruined apartment could be found... the GM can use infranview's paint dialogue tool to draw lines or X's over the part of the map that are now ruined , a clumsy but useable approach for a map ... the first map suggestion 

is big enough for the GM to put a presumably large dragon token/object in there 

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/lw0h9m/cyberpunk_apartments/

while the second map on the one hand features only just the one apartment that is described in the adventure, but on the other hand would be kind of cramped for a fight between a dragon and PC's.. which on the other hand might suit the GM just fine as more realistic (the GM might even use the first map link above if the PC's run out of the apartment with the cyberdragon crashing through walls and following them into that map) 

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/u0dguh/arcology_apartment_cyberpunk_battle_map/

Afterwards there's an interesting section in the adventure after that which brings the PC's into contact with a transformed Chernobyl, which makes sense given how heavily this tragedy has influenced the history of Russia (the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown that is)...  there is still a psychic residue of the pain, anguish and terror of those who lost their lives in the Chernobyl disaster that has soaked into the area and is now fueled by the tharkold reality (which if you read the social axiom description in Tharkold strongly supports psionics) which results in the PC's reliving the Chernobyl disaster from the point of view of those who suffered and died in the blast, the PC's now having to succeed at various skill checks to "rewrite history" at least psionically to ease the spirits as it were of those who died in said disaster ... one problem is that the adventure assumes a PC has the computers skiil ... however the description of the computers skill in the torg core rulebook states " Basic computer use can be attempted unskilled.  Programming, hacking, or engineering cannot." which means a PC could technically default to a Mind roll to accomplish the first task presented to them or at least I would assume this is what the writers meant.    

After resolving the necessary skill rolls to put these psionic spirits to rest the PC's have to fight various wildlife which , as the tharkold cosm rulebook mentions in the world laws and axioms section, is much more hostile than it normally would be especially given that this particular wildlife has been transformed both by tharkold's reality and radiation into monstrous versions of themselves... I came across two beautiful maps, the first of which features a ferris wheel like the adventure mentions, the second does not but is also a great map, both of which feature a ruined amusement park which this combat is supposed to take place in ... the map doesn't feature the overgrown vegetation that the adventure mentions so the GM will have to alter the written description in the adventure accordingly but in my opinion the maps wonderfully capture the spirit of tharkold

https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkred/comments/makj0a/wasteland_ferris_outpost_cyberpunk_static_battle/

https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkred/comments/mytvwb/wasteland_carnival_cyberpunk_horror_static_battle/

The next part of the adventure is where things get a bit acid-trippy ... the PC's have to "fight" radiation beings at.. well I'm going to assume that the fight takes place at the outskirts of the chernobyl nuclear reactor, the adventure is a bit vague as to whether the radiation beings are fought there or inside the nuclear reactor and even more vague about exactly where the following scene (the fight with the chemical-filled ravagers) takes place which I will assume happens inside the nuclear reactor.    Here's a battlemap you could use if you go with the assumption that the radiation beings are being fought on the outskirts of the nuclear reactor... strangely enough I couldn't find a map online for "outskirts of nuclear reactor" or "outside of nuclear reactor" but the GM could always declare there's a power plant on the outskirts of and fueled by the nuclear reactor as shown in the map below where the radiation beings fight takes place

https://angelamaps.com/2020/12/23/power-plant/

(at this point I would remind panicked players that the delphi council already outfitted them with radiation pills to counter the effects of the radiation that tends to permeate Tharkold.... unless the GM wants to make life more interesting for the PC's by declaring they've run out of radiation pills.. possible setback on the drama deck maybe?.. and are now taking radiation damage though the GM should make sure they later on stumble across some hapless dead individual.. a no doubt common enough occurrence in Tharkold.. killed by some monstrosity who happens to have enough radiation pills for the entire group of PC's lest the entire adventure grind to a halt as the PC's die of radiation sickness)

as far as the fight inside the nuclear reactor against the ravagers here's the battlemap I like the most for this encounter

https://www.reddit.com/r/Star_Wars_Maps/comments/wj7qai/nuclear_reactor/

though you could also use

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/vhdepc/nuclear_power_plant_control_room_21_x_21/

While the adventure does give the PC's a chance at a Mind check to figure out they can use Tharkold's law of domination to dominate the alpha leader of the radiation beings into submission thereby ending the threat as opposed to say dying of radiation sickness if they attempt to defeat all the radiation beings through combat (I got a chuckle out of the typo saying refer to the savage worlds book ... I'm sure they meant the radiation rules on page 137 of the torg rulebook which are not fun at all, you take a wound of damage per 10 minutes of radiation meaning the PC's take a wound of damage for every turn of combat they are in range of a radiation being ... deadly for sure ) which will almost certainly result in PC death.. it does feel a bit "forced" that the PC's can figure this out on their own with a Mind roll however particularly if the PC's are new to Tharkold and it's world laws... if it was me personally as the GM I would have the reality shard the PC's are wielding send a message into a PC's mind telling them this (maybe give the PC wielding the  eternity shard an easy, difficulty number 4, reality test and upon passing that test the reality shard broadcasts that information to all the PC's) .. alternately if the PC's are lucky enough to have someone with psionic powers in the group it makes a lot more sense for that PC to be able to figure out the key to defeating the radiation beings given the psionic nature of the threats in and around the reactor previously encountered (not to mention the radiation beings themselves are psionic beings in nature) and just flat out tell the player of the PC this valuable information.

Of course the PC's, after visibly seeing their core earth eternity shard transform right in front of them into an obviously different version of itself, after accomplishing the quests Svitlana put before them, will now have to meet with Svitlana and her small army (five per storm knight) of soldiers where she demands the eternity shard in exchange for the information the PC's need ... although to comfort the players their actions have resulted in the eternity shard literally pulling tharkold's reality into itself, transforming this particular part of Russia (chernobyl and it's surroundings) into a core earth hardpoint and no longer the nightmare reality of tharkold , something that is blatantly obvious to the PC's just by looking at it .. that and the writers assume that the PC's can feel the change in reality and can sense when they're in a core earth reality area and flat out tell the players that their PC's sense the change.

It's possible the PC's may simply go along with Svitlana's request and give her the eternity shard, knowing full well they're handing it over to volkov, possibly swayed by Svitalana's reasoning .. Svitlana is aware of the danger Strah and his chemically enhanced swarm of marauders poses and no doubt paints Strah as being the far greater menace than "the wartime hero Volkov".. if I was the GM here I would have Svitlana point out that Strah has LOTS of chemically enhanced followers who could easily overwhelm any part of Russia they choose to and the PC's need volkov's help whether they like it or not... even if the PC's go along with  Svitlana's reasoning, if the PC's make a point of coldly assuring Svitlana that the PC's will make a point of defeating volkov at some point I would award the PC's possibilities and have Svitlana respond with the equally cold statement that she and her allies (volkov's soldiers and other subordinates) will give their lives to defend Volkov if the PC's come for Volkov later on... so even if there's no combat right now it will still hopefully make the players.. and the GM for that matter.. feel better about the situation.  

Of course it's also possible, probably even likely, that the PC's refuse to hand over the eternity shard and the writers account for this situation too , with Svitlana and the soldiers attacking the PC's and Svitlana attempting to destroy the interactive map she holds with the exact location of where Strah and his swarm of marauders are ... as it turns out the map is still surprisingly intact enough to give the PC's just enough information if not the complete story to proceed to the next part of the adventure but personally speaking as a GM I don't like the fact the PC's don't get the chance to get the full role playing world immersion impact and complete story of what happened simply because they made the right moral choice of not supporting volkov.. instead if I was the GM here I would say the following happens.. Svitlana drops the map on the ground and tries to crush it under a boot heel... the PC holding the eternity shard feels it jerk and move ever so slightly towards Svitlana who abruptly screams in pain as her heel descends towards the map and falls to the ground, the map surviving unscathed.. of course remind the players that someone needs to run for the map right now and grab it lest it get trampled underfoot ...maybe wait a round and have the map survive unscathed .. perhaps an obviously pained Svitlana huddles herself over the map screaming at the PC's to back off lest she destroy the map but obviously being in too much pain to make good on her threat.. this gives the PC's an opportunity to spare Svitlana's life (bear in mind they saw her tortured near to death earlier on as a helpless captive which might give the more moral minded PC's in the group pause) while still getting the map and the complete story from her.. as far as why the eternity shard can do this, remind the player holding it that the law of pain is one of tharkold's' world laws ... but of course future attempts by players to trigger this ability should result in nothing happening given that's it's basically a plot device.

Of course this would call for a battlemap .. see the links above for the alternate battlemap suggestions where the first Ukraine patriot attack took place , given that this encounter with Svitlana is described as occurring close to a statue any one of those maps could be used as a battlemap.

This of course raises the question as to how to deal with the PC's now being in possibly permanent possession of this powerful eternity shard.. one way to deal with this that I've suggested in other RPG campaigns (namely D&D) is to highlight the obviously dark, downright evil nature of the eternity shard.. let the PC's use it through the rest of this adventure given how hard they fought to get the eternity shard... but, assuming that the players don't simply surrender any eternity shards they find to the delphi council to go into their pool of "at loan" eternity shards given out to other storm knights (NPC's) ... which I have a hard time believing a group of players will be willing to do despite the torg writers asserting this is what PC's are expected to do  given how hard they have to fight for any eternity shard (the players could simply have their PC's conveniently "forget" to mention they acquired an eternity shard) ... 

....starting from the next adventure where the PC's are in possession of the eternity shard I would have the PC who uses it the most often start out being tempted towards dark and evil deeds, a suggestion at first, followed by an actual Spirit difficulty roll.. say "10" as a "warning roll" (though with enough bad luck the PC could fail even a straightforward roll like that) resulting in the PC using the eternity shard in it's weapon-form as a club to inflict not only damage but searing , make the NPC scream out loud, pain on some hapless innocent.. old man or lady, child.. who has no chance of defending themselves against a normal full grown man let alone someone powerful like the PC.. the PC goes on having to make a difficulty 10 roll each and every round after that not to beat the hapless innocent to death.. of course the hapless innocent is screaming to the other PC's for help ... 

....to drive the point home given that players are normally very reluctant to attack other players characters (hopefully, if you have the right group of players every GM hopes to have .. unless the players are all such good friends in real life they can overlook one PC injuring or killing another one) I would have the attacking PC's eyes glow alternating purple then black much like the blue and purple (formerly blue and red) swirls on the eternity shard - which are now glowing a vivid blue and purple as well.. see pages 70 and 72 of the adventure where it mentions that this happens as the eternity shard continues to absorb tharkold's reality.    Also remind the players of the non lethal combat rules on page 125 of the torg core rulebook which allow shock but no wound damage essentially knocking their possessed fellow PC unconscious and page 123 grappling rules from the torg core rulebook allowing them to restrain the possessed PC without doing strength damage (I would assume a PC can combine the two tactics if they choose to, grappling and squeezing enough to knock the wind out of a PC via shock damage without say breaking bones in the process and thus causing wound damage).

Dragging the possessed PC away from the hapless innocent can also end the PC's compulsion to attack but even if the delphi council doesn't find out about what happened (which as a GM I would try to avoid .. if the PC's make an enemy of the delphi council that destroys any torg written adventure right there as they always start with the delphi council giving the PC's a mission) , I would have this situation repeat itself every time the formerly possessed PC sees another helpless innocent increasing the difficulty number by 4 each time.. so DC 14 spirit roll to resist next time followed by DC 18 , DC 22 and so on ... I would remind the possessed PC and the other PC's of the sections in the torg eternity core rules page 182... "protect the innocents" being one of the PC's stated goals in the core rulebook.. not to mention page 181 core rulebook where it's flat out stated the PC made a moral choice for good during the PC's moment of crisis causing them to  become a reality rated storm knight who fights for the cause of good... if all of this doesn't convince the player to give up the offending eternity shard I would advise the players the campaign could potentially come to an end as the delphi council will find out about this sooner or later and start sending NPC storm knights after the PC's to put them down given the possessed PC is literally doing their best to kill helpless victims.

If indignant players want to know why the eternity shard is causing such behavior review the world laws of tharkold.. domination, pain ... and the lesser world laws that basically state being a cruel, insensitive person who dominates and oppresses the weak is rewarded by tharkold's reality.. remind the players that the eternity shard absorbed tharkold's reality and is now acting accordingly.. on top of that as page 77 of the adventure states, the Void... the force of destruction that all darkness devices owe their allegiance to as stated in the torg core rulebook.. has reached out and made the transformed eternity shard a tool of the Void... see page 77 of the adventure where it mentions 

"The World Laws of Tharkold are tied to the Darkness Device Malghest and just as the emptiness of the Void eats at the existence of Eternity. The Void touched the eternity shard and made it a tool of its own".. 

which to me looks like a little bit of a typo which I would rewrite to say "The World Laws of Tharkold are tied to the Darkness Device Malghest and just as the emptiness of the Void eats at the existence of Eternity, so too did the Void touched the eternity shard and made it a tool of its own."   I would give PC's with the scholar skill a very easy (difficulty number 4) roll to figure this out or even let PC's puzzle it out with say a Mind 10 roll given that delphi council representatives thanks to Quinn Sebastian's knowledge of such things have almost certainly briefed the PC's on the Void, Darkness Devices, and the basics of the knowledge of both things.   

Act seven is where things really start to get problematic as far as getting players to not derail the plot completely... and indeed it would be more than understandable if the player flat out refused the choice that's forced upon them.. ally either with Jezrael or Volkov's forces ...the adventure states that the PC's figure out, between the information on the map they got from Svitlana one way or another, and information from other sources see below , that Strah isn't bothering to attack Thratchen's forces meaning Strah either answers to Thratchen or at the very least has forged an alliance with Tratchen.. at this point the GM should also point out how Strah and his rampaging horde of Marauders whom, as the map from Svitlana describes, are overwhelming each area they encounter given how easy it is for Strah to gain more Marauders.. as the vision the PC's came across in Kur indicated (something you should probably remind the players of again), all the Marauders have to do is grab a hapless victim (and any of the vast majority of able bodied adult men or women making up Russia will do), plant a chemical backpack infuser on their back, let it inject the chemical steroids and the victim becomes a Marauder under the influence of Strah.. basically Strah and his Marauders are a plague, sort of like a horde of zombies who infect the living by biting them and turning them into more zombies , and left to themselves they will overwhelm all of Russia... 

The GM should go on to point out that while Jezrael and Volkov are both the enemy, neither faction wants to see their forces overwhelmed and turned into marauders who answer to Strah and possibly in turn Thratchen so the PC's interests align with the bad guys for the time being... besides which, I would mention as the GM, it could be seen as using the bad guys.. whether Jezrael or Volkov.. as a tool against the greater threat, the Marauders, with the end goal still being the same.. to take down both Jezrael and Volkov just at a later date.

Of course if the players adamantly refuse to go along with this it's more than understandable.. but advise the players that this could very well spell the end of the torg campaign as they know it.    The Marauders aren't going to stop at just conquering all of Russia... Thratchen and Strah will undoubtedly use the Marauders to plant stelae in unconquered areas of Earth adjacent to Russia and will easily be able to do so given that the Marauders are able to spread their influence like a plague ...if the players start wondering how the heck the Marauders are able to mass produce so much chemical and chemical injecting backpacks point out the autocad machinery in the gear part of the tharkold cosm sourcebook and tell the players that Thratchen apparently has scavenged large supplies of such devices from the Blasted Lands he controls ... if nothing else once the Marauders conquer Russia and take control of the autocad machinery Jezrael controls not to mention Volkov's factories it would be easy enough for them  to mass produce vast quantities of the chemical and backpacks.    From there the Marauders will find it very easy to overwhelm and conquer the Cyberpapacy given that it's axioms will easily support Tharkold reality and from there a triumphant Thratchen and Strah can seize control of the frighteningly large quantity of cyberpapacy tanks, air vehicles and other combat vehicles and weapondry to launch attacks on Aysle next, attacking it's borders, subduing the forces there and planting Tharkold stelae ... the same tactic could be used against the Nile Empire (remind the players that both areas are in close geographic proximity to Russia if Thratchen and Strah extend their areas of conquest far enough).. eventually the Marauders will become an unstoppable force.  

I would however alter the written description of Saber and his people (some of whom hopefully survived so they can make the argument in the first place) as follows.. there's no way I could see any storm knight blindly supporting Volkov the way Saber and his group of storm knights do given that storm knights as previously mentioned are uncategorically supposed to be the good guys.. instead I would tell the players something like this  (given he wears a Texas style hat I just assume Saber is in fact from core Earth's USA Southern regions)

" Saber scratches the back of his head uncomfortably, going so far as to take his trademark stetson cowboy hat in his hands, clenching it.. not to mention his teeth.. with a look on his face like he's being forced to swallow something vile... putting the hat back on his face he regards you all and speaks in his usual Southern drawl.

' Listen y'all, I ain't no fan of Volkov.'  (if the PC's actually let Svitlana live and gave her the eternity shard he glares at Svitlana who is present for this scene).  ' The man was a power hungry dictator who lived for oppressin' the helpless and that was before Tharkold came along and invaded poor ol' Russia.. and now he's ALLIED with them gosh-darn technodemons?   Same ones who are suckin' the literal gosh-darned possibilities out of Earth... and probably Volkov himself for that matter too?'  Strah spits on the ground in disgust.  (If Svitlana is present she starts to protest loudly but is drowned out by a disgusted looking Strah who looks her in the eye and shouts over her voice).  

' But ' continues Saber softly  ' Technically speakin' he's allied with the Delphi Council .. with us.'  Saber looks at you, ' us ' clearly meaning the same Delphi Council you belong to as well.  ' Make no mistake about it I know Volkov is usin' us 'cause he wants to put down Thratchen and Jezrael, and the moment we ain't of any more use to him Volkov will come for us next.. but right now there IS a use for that miserable bastard.. we use him, his military, his forces, to take down Thratchen and Jezrael and then , then when those two other SOB's are off the board, THEN we go for Volkov and give him what-for, take him off the board next.   Believe you me, if it was up to me I'd be fightin' all three of them at the same time, it leaves a sour taste like you wouldn't believe in my mouth havin' to look that bastard's people in the eye and make deals with them... but if we don't...'

Saber looks down his voice dropping still lower to the point where it's barely audible.. ' If we don't go 'long with the bastard for now a lot more innocents are going to die.. Jezrael don't care nothin' about them, neither does Thratchen... Volkov now, he has to at least pretend he cares.. even if he don't.. to hang onto his political power.

' And so that's why  I say we support Volkov.. not 'cause I like it but 'cause I don't think we got no gosh darn choice in the matter.'  Saber still looks at the ground unhappily.   "

At this point I would have either Albert or Raven (Raven no doubt survived even if Albert didn't ) speak.

" 'Comerade Saber you are correct.. Volkov is an SOB, a bastard... but you don't know how right you are when you say those words.    I have lived through what Volkov has done to my beloved Russia, even before Tharkold's invasion.. and now?   We all know he's planting stelae and transforming parts of Earth into Tharkold's reality.    As you say he is sucking the possibility energy, the very life force away from Earth da?   He conquered Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia.... of course those traitors in Belarus didn't even put up a fight.   He is the more dangerous threat precisely because of what you say... because he is using us, the Delphi Council, for his own ends... you say wait for him to wipe Thratchen and Jezrael off the map and then put an end to him?  I tell you this... he is too sneaky, too manipulative, too dangerous to be used like that, if we let him keep gaining in power he will wipe US off the map ... your intentions are noble comrade Saber but you don't know him like I do (like we do if both Albert and Raven are present, if they're both there assume Albert is doing the talking since he's more vocal than the antisocial Raven is anyways)... Jezrael is actually less dangerous because she's less organized, more like a rabid dog spreading destruction wherever she goes, anarchy... but a rapid dog can be more easily put down than a trained, intelligent attack-dog yes?   And she has a greater number of armed forces than Volkov does.. horde against horde, her large horde against the Marauders.    I hate Jezrael and Thratchen but I hate Volkov even more... we must side with Jezrael, however unpleasant, and make the enemy of Volkov we should have a long time ago'

" Still looking down at the ground Saber says quietly ' I hear you I do .. .and it don't feel right comin' into your backyard.. Russia that is.. and tellin' you how to run your barbeque... but I stand by what I said and, respectfully, I disagree with you and feel like goin' with Jezrael would be a huge mistake.' "

If Svitlana is present when Saber is done speaking she erupts in outrage.  " May I SPEAK now without being shouted over?  Yes?"   Svitlana glares at Saber who glares right back at her.  " You are , how do you say, maligning the name of a great man !   Look at other areas dimensional invaders have come to!   France, Spain brainwashed by the cyberpope, his people nothing more than willing sheep!  Egypt of the Nile Empire, willing victims of their power hungry madman.. you call President Volkov power mad? Look to Dr. Mobius, THAT is very definition of insanity!    Your USA and Canada are now nothing more than jungles overrun by Barak Kaah and the Living Land -- " 

" ' Now you listen here little missy ' shouts Saber, his southern accent deepening in his anger as Svitlana's words strike home but now Svitlana is shouting over Saber 

" ' India lost to the horrors of Orrosh, it's people living in fear every day wondering what literal monsters will come to their doorstep... and Aysle is deceiving itself da? This Pella Ardinay won't save them from Utherion ... and even if she does win what do you expect? That Ardinay will just leave all the areas of Earth she has conquered alone?  That she won't claim them for her own? She is medieval princess from medieval land and we know from our own history that medieval minds don't think like that, they take land and conquer.

' And then there's President Volkov.. this great man who's name you slander.. who forced the technodemon invaders to acknowledge him as one of their own?  Did any of earth from your USA convince Barak Kaah to do that?'

' Why you dirty good for nothin'' snarls Saber but Svitlana is still shouting over him.  

' Did anyone of Earth from Nile Empire convince Dr. Mobius to accept them as one of his own?  Did this happen with the Gaunt Man in Orrosh?   Are any of the brainwashed cyberpope's masses thinking for themselves as a real Earther right now? No!  President Volkov is the only one with the strength to take the invader's reality and use it to save us, to save Earth... yes it is Tharkold's reality but President Volkov makes it answer to us, to Mother Russia!  We are still us, Russians who think like ourselves, act like ourselves.. President Volkov has technodemons who call him ' master ' and bow to him.. has any ruler of any other Earth country ever accomplished that?  No, they have not!

' And THAT is why you must ally yourself with Volkov, no matter what these fools tell you.'  Svitlana concludes her speech, Saber's jaw visibly clenched in anger.. Albert/Raven's fists are clenched, Albert/Raven breathing heavily with visible emotion and anger as they stare at Svitlana.. Svitlana merely regards everyone she's angered with an icy glare, arms crossed defiantly.

' Well ' sighs Saber, abruptly calming down as he faces you ' seems like we got us a good old fashioned stalemate.. What do y'all think we should do?'   " 

If Saber is dead but a fellow storm knight NPC under his command is still alive.. except the edeinos Elekka given strategy and long overreaching goal thinking really isn't suited to the living land reality ... pretty much the same speech can be given but altered accordingly, Ms. Quincy sighing and saying as a native of Orrosh she's used to having to tolerate the presence of evil monstrosities .. such as Volkov (earning her Svitlana's outrage if Svitlana is present) .. in day to day life lest one go insane but he's the lesser of the two evils compared to Jezrael... Katsuko speaks with cold practicality and none of Saber's sympathetic nature but says much the same thing otherwise.   

Note that the adventure states that Svitlana can be convinced to side against Volkov oddly enough.. given that she's been described as pro volkov the entire adventure this is unexpected and no good reason is given for it so I would personally ignore that part .. she's for volkov, period, that's it.

Scene three of this final act, act seven, gives some potential combat encounters.. see the list of maps I gave for the "city" encounter above for potential battlemaps you could use here.. except for the Marauder in the armored battlesuit who is described as coming towards the PCs over a ruined bridge.. this map is a possibility although unfortunately it features green vegetation instead of the snow one would expect given you're in russia ... alternately you can forget the bridge part entirely and just use one of the random battlemaps I linked in the "city" part above but if not here's this map 

https://www.reddit.com/r/mutantyearzero/comments/ukyk24/bridge_outpost_vtt_battle_map_free_and_short/

The description of the menace coming towards them makes it sound like there's a lot of humans strapped to the marauder's suit.. reading further makes it clear there's "only' two screaming victims, an important thing to tell the players that was left out of the description in case the PC's decide to put these poor souls out of their misery and just kill them , handicapping the suit the marauder is in as a result... of course that's not a very heroic thing to do and the GM can and should allow PC's to make called shots to say shoot off the metal pins or clamps or what not one would assume is shoved through parts of these victims' anatomy to free them from the suit instead.. of course this creates a situation where the PC's may want to stop and care for the injured victims ... rather than the simple but frustrating to the players route of having them die anyways from their injuries I would have someone.. even if it's an impatient not known for their mercy member of Jezrael's horde.. show up and shout " I'll take care of them if that's what it takes to get you moving.. now go FIGHT already you cowards!" .. of course if they backed volkov then Russian soldiers show up and presumably can be trusted to take care of their fellow Russian citizens given Volkov has to at least give the impression of caring for his people.   

And then there's the climax to the entire adventure, fighting Strah ... which does in fact come with it's own battlemap the GM can extract easily from a pdf using windows paint or infranview from a screenshot and then just cropping out the text.  

There's a great picture of Strah the GM can extract from the pdf using the infranview method I described above to show the players... I particularly enjoyed the game mechanic rules that captured the fact there's a raging battle .. flat out war between the faction (Jezrael or Volkov) the PC's ended up backing and Strah's Marauders ... going on which results in complications and difficulties for either the bad guys or the PC's on any given turn depending on how the dice rolls go which I thought perfectly captured the chaos of fighting in the middle of a battlefield and which seemed particularly appropriate to the brutal nature of Tharkold's reality.    

Also neat was the possibility of discovering Strah's weakness if the PC's were lucky in previous acts... a piece of occulttech fused into Strah's body that when electrically charged creates a magnetic field around Strah resulting in the hapless Strah being pulled towards and pinned against say the wreckage of a car or tank on the battlefield.  

Also great was the impact of the previous scene .. the PC's needing to make a variety of skill rolls that determine how effective they are at waging war on a strategic level as opposed to flat out actual physical combat (logistics and so forth) ... having an impact on this final climatic battle that ends the entire adventure in terms of said impact being a bonus to dice rolls, gaining a possibility per PC and/or reducing the number of super ravagers fighting by Strah's side.  This is where those tokens I linked earlier on for cars or if you search rpgmapshare by the keyword "tank" or "airplane" , appropriate tokens you can plop down on the map (again this assumes you are using say Fantasy Grounds or roll20 or the like) to represent some wrecked... or possibly still functioning !  (imagine Strah being pinned to a tank as it churns along it's way)  .. .vehicle... of course the magnetic pull only lasts until the end of the next round when the magnetic charge fades away but it's still a great complication to the battle the players will no doubt have fun exploiting if they know about said weakness particularly given that they're gifted with an electro-net launcher they can use for this very purpose prior to the final encounter with Strah (though as a GM I would simply state they're gifted with this one way or another even if they don't find out about Strah's weakness and make it a happy coincidence/discovery if the PC's still have ammo in the net launcher by the time they get to the Strah encounter and use it on him, then give the PC's a science roll difficulty number 10 to figure out exactly why Strah has such a magnetic "pull" about him).

The adventure ends by stating that Thratchen is able to take advantage of the faction (Volkov or Jezrael) the PC's did not back, weakened by the Marauder assault, becoming vulnerable to an assault by Thratchen's forces as he pushes into their territory ... it's up to the GM as to whether this results in a re-drawing of the map given in the tharkold cosm sourcebook showing thratchen's territory expanding and that of the weakened faction shrinking which would make sense but would definitely increase the workload for the GM .. the adventure also correctly notes that given the major impact the PC's have had all three leaders struggling for power in the Tharkold conquered areas of earth.. Volkov, Jezrael and Thratchen ... have taken note of the PC's one way or another and the PC's are now very much on their "radar" so to speak (perhaps literally given the technological nature of Tharkold).