Deep Dive

Deep in Wildspace, the dwarves of Stonehaven have established various off-world colonies devoted to finding new resources and materials to further enhance and ply their legendary craft. In their endeavors, the dwarves have found what has come to be known as the Deep Star, a dark world adrift in the phlogiston without a system to call its own. It's loaded with rich and valuable resources... but likewise, overrun with dangerous creatures often considered rare in other realms. Stonehaven Mission Control has made an effort of hiring brave adventures to plumb the Deep Star's depths for what it's worth, and the payment for doing so is quite generous.

Note from the Voices: These tales are designed to feature several moving parts to create a high action, high pressure atmosphere, even if only for a single encounter. Only run a Deep Dive if you're comfortable managing more than a few things at once.
For best results, try to figure out how to use a battlemap with your tale, either through regular screenshots or a third-party tool. Donjon 5E has a really good generator that works well for these if you set the motif to underdark and the dungeon layout to cavernous.

Deep Dive Zones

Select a Deep Dive Zone from the list of environments offered in Deep Star. Use this environment to frame the contents of your mission.

The M.U.L.E. (Molly)

All teams are offered a M.U.L.E. (affectionately nicknamed a "Molly") to support their mission. Molly is an Industrial Rig outfit with a shield generator, a gearworks, liquid storage, a refresherator, a refinery, and a demihold. Raw materials stored in Molly's demihold are automatically processed using the onboard equipment.
Molly additionally has the spider climb trait, permitting it to climb vertical surfaces and ceilings without making a check. Creatures aboard Molly benefit from a minor gravity plane, permitting them to stay secure within the vehicle even when it moves at abnormal angles.
Molly will always attempt to stay within 60 ft. of the party throughout the mission, but a player can use their action to direct Molly to travel to a specific location they can see at any time.
If the party has their own Mekka (either the vehicle or vehicle type), they are welcome to use them in place of or in addition to Molly, but are responsible for controlling and keeping track of it during the mission.

Primary Mission

Choose a Primary mission from the below table. Your encounters should be designed around this mission (for example, if you choose a Mining Expedition and plan for six encounters, each of your six encounters should revolve around mining an ore deposit while fending off local hazards). Assume a minimum budget of Deadly for each encounter you add to a Deep Dive.

Bonus Missions

Choose a Bonus mission from the below table. You can choose as many three bonus missions for a given Deep Dive, with the completion of each increasing the final gold payout for the mission by an additional 10%.

Anomalies

The SMC has identified one or more Anomolies in the area!
These are optional modifiers to increase the difficulty of a mission. Creatures added to your mission via an Anomoly don't count against your experience budget and don't award experience when slain, but instead offer the opportunity to increase the number of Chromatite pieces awarded when the mission ends.
Assume text that states "the creature drops Chromatite" means it drops enough for each member of the party to gain one additional Chromatite of that type.
Remember: each additional anomaly dramatically increases the difficulty of the mission (and how much you personally need to manage throughout the mission). Only add anomalies if you (and your party) are comfortable dealing with those consequences.

Mission Completion

Once the Primary mission has been completed, a Drop Pod is sent to an area near the party to extract them. Until the party escapes, assume additional creatures join combat each round in an effort to stop them.
At any time, the party may trigger a call to retreat. If a majority votes in favor of retreating, an emergency signal is sent to the SMC and the Drop Pod is immediately sent, even if the tale is not completed. A party that fails to complete the mission still gets experience, but does not get any treasure other than any Chromatite earned from Anomalies.

Special Rewards

Provided your Deep Dive included three or more encounters, generate an ancient dragon hoard instead of a normal treasure hoard (https://5e.tools/lootgen.html -> switch tab to Dragon Hoard -> Set Age).
After rolling your hoard, take the combined GP value of the set and add 10% to the total GP payout for each Bonus mission completed (up to 30%). Ignore mundane items, and convert all magic items to their equivalent value in Chromatite (see GM Guidelines).
Don't forget to add any Chromatite earned from Anomalies to your rewards.