Below is a reusable complex environmental hazard for dangerous jump routes. It’s written at Hazard 9 as a baseline; scale level, DCs, and damage using the Starfinder 2e hazard guidelines to match your party.

You can drop this storm into any Rift corridor as a full encounter, or run it abstractly during an extended jump montage.

Complex, Environment, Rift
Stealth +23 to notice long-range interference, churning sensor ghosts, and anomalous Metronome returns; DC 30 on long-range scans or Navigator “weather” checks.

Description
A raging convergence of Rift currents saturated with conflicting Intentions and Devotions, forming a storm-front of warped energy, psychic backlash, and temporal instability. It appears as a towering, neon-lit wall of turbulence in the Maelstrom, with ghost images of battles, cities, and screaming faces flickering within.

Disable

Piloting DC 29 to plot a safe but longer route around the storm, increasing travel time but avoiding the hazard entirely.

Occultism or Religion DC 27 to conduct protective rites and calibrations that grant the ship a +2 circumstance bonus to all checks and saves against this hazard for the duration of the crossing.

A critical failure on any attempt to “cut through” the storm (e.g., rushing disable as part of a short-cut) immediately triggers the hazard’s effects and inflicts a –1 circumstance penalty to the first round of checks.

AC —; Fort —; Ref —
Hardness —; HP —; Immunities object immunities, mental; Resistances all damage 20 (the storm is a vast environmental effect, not a discrete target).

Trigger
A ship, vehicle convoy, or exposed group of creatures enters the outlined storm region in the Rift or is forced into it by drift, pursuit, or failed navigation.

Initiative Stealth +23

Routine (3 actions)

On its turn, the Maelstrom Rift Storm lashes at hull, mind, and timeline.

◈ Hull Lash (bludgeoning/electricity)
The storm slams the vessel with dense, energized current.

The pilot attempts a Piloting check against DC 29.

On a success, the storm’s physical damage is halved this round.

On a critical success, the ship avoids damage entirely from Hull Lash this round.

On a failure, the vessel and all exposed vehicles take 2d10 bludgeoning and 3d10 electricity damage.

On a critical failure, increase the damage to 3d10 bludgeoning and 4d10 electricity and apply a –1 circumstance penalty to the ship’s AC and Piloting checks for 1 minute from structural stress.

Creatures outside hardened compartments (in hangars, on catwalks, in suits, small craft, etc.) must attempt a Reflex save vs DC 28 or take the same damage (half on success, none on crit success). On a critical failure, they are also knocked prone or hurled into a more dangerous position.

◈ Psychic Howl (mental)
The storm screams with the aggregated fears, regrets, and fanatical cries of countless minds.

All living or otherwise mind-bearing creatures aboard must attempt a Will save vs DC 28.

Critical Success: You lock your thoughts down; you are immune to further Psychic Howls from this storm for 1 minute.

Success: You grit your teeth through the onslaught; you take a –1 status penalty to Will saves and Perception checks until the start of your next turn.

Failure: You take 4d8 mental damage and become stupefied 1 for 1 minute as unwanted memories and alien impressions overload your focus.

Critical Failure: As Failure, but stupefied 2 and you gain a short-term intrusive compulsion themed to the storm (guilt, zeal, despair, bloodlust) that the GM can leverage for roleplay or flat checks to act against it this encounter.

◈ Reality Warp (short-range distortions)
The storm twists local geometry and sensor truth.

Each round, choose one:

Spatial Flicker: Corridor lengths, door positions, or internal LOS change. Until the storm’s next turn, all Stride/movement actions aboard cost an extra 5 feet, and ranged attacks past 30 feet suffer a –2 circumstance penalty from warped trajectories.

Sensor Ghosts: Navigation and targeting sensors show ghost images and false positives. Until the storm’s next turn, checks that rely on ship sensors (e.g., starboard guns, targeting-linked spells) take a –2 circumstance penalty; any failure on such a check becomes a critical failure if it would significantly worsen the situation (misfire into friendly hull, wrong vector).

These effects end when the storm’s turn comes up again.

Time Drift 

For each full minute the vessel spends within the storm, the Navigator (or designated officer) attempts a Navigation Lore, Occultism, or Chronology Lore check vs DC 29.

• Critical Success: No drift; you hold to the intended arrival window.

• Success: Minor drift; your arrival is off by 1d6 hours .

• Failure: Major drift; your arrival is off by 1d6 Yoms.

• Critical Failure: Severe drift; your arrival is off by 1d6×weeks or more, at the GM’s discretion.

This is in addition to any positional scatter or narrative consequences from the storm’s routine.

Reset
The Maelstrom Rift Storm is a persistent macro-scale phenomenon. Locally, its most intense effects surge and subside; if the PCs leave the area and return later, treat it as “reset” and roll fresh checks.