Environment, Rift, Simple, Temporal

Stealth +19 (expert) to notice subtle anomalies in Metronome signals, sensor logs, and temporal telemetry; DC 29 on long-range scans or Chronology analysis.

Description
A localized region of the Rift where Time has become entangled and uneven. Metronome pulses arrive early or late in different parts of the pocket; ships that cross it can arrive far off their intended schedule, and different sections of a vessel may experience time at slightly different rates.

Disable
You can’t remove a shear pocket, but you can mitigate or avoid it:

Piloting, or Chronology Lore DC 29 (expert) to chart a route that skirts the highest-shear regions, reducing potential drift by one step (see Effect) but increasing travel time.

Occultism or Religion DC 27 to perform temporal shielding rites and calibrations around Metronome pulses and onboard chronometers, granting a +2 circumstance bonus to checks made to resist the pocket’s effects for the next jump.

On a critical failure while attempting to route through the pocket quickly, the ship is dragged into its highest-shear core and immediately suffers a worse drift result (GM’s choice or roll at +1 step).

AC —; Fort —; Ref —
Hardness —; HP —; Immunities object immunities, mental; Resistances all damage 20 (the pocket is a large-scale temporal anomaly, not a discrete object).

Trigger
A ship, convoy, or exposed group of creatures enters the defined area of the shear pocket in the Rift during a jump or skimming maneuver.

Effect
When the vessel crosses the pocket’s boundary, the Navigator (or acting pilot) must attempt a , Piloting, or Chronology Lore check vs DC 29 to manage transit along the least-destructive temporal gradient.

In addition, if you want internal weirdness, each PC (or section of the ship) can attempt a Will or Fortitude save vs DC 27 to resist localized time strain.

Ship-level outcome (Piloting check):

Critical Success: You skim the shear’s edge. The ship experiences only minor distortion; arrival time is off by 1d6×10 minutes.

Success: You hold to safer currents. Light drift; arrival time is off by 1d6 hours.

Failure: You get tangled in the shear. Major drift; arrival time is off by 1d6 Yoms (days).

Critical Failure: You pass through a core knot of the pocket. Severe drift; arrival time is off by 1d6×weeks, months, or more, at the GM’s discretion.

The GM chooses whether the drift is early or late, guided by story needs. Early arrivals can create paradox flavor (arriving before distress calls or major events), while late arrivals are classic “everyone you knew is older or gone” hooks.

Internal outcome (optional, per-creature save):

Critical Success: You ride out the strain; no personal effect.

Success: You feel “slow” or “fast” for a short while; you take a –1 status penalty to initiative checks and the first action you take in the next combat.

Failure: You are briefly out of sync. For the next 24 hours, once per encounter, the GM can force you to lose or gain an extra action as time “stutters” around you (declare after initiative is rolled, but before your first turn).

Critical Failure: Your personal timeline slips badly. You gain a short-term condition—GM’s choice from clumsy 1, stupefied 1, or enfeebled 1 for 24 hours—as your body plays catch-up, and you suffer one lasting cosmetic temporal mark (white streak in hair, flickering after-image, etc.).

Reset
Time Shear Pockets are semi-stable Rift phenomena. Once a vessel has crossed, that particular interaction is done; if the PCs leave the area and later cross again by a different route or at a different point in the campaign, treat it as a fresh hazard with new drift rolls.

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