(1d6) Aquatic Terrors From the Flooded Decks (For Gus)

A Luminous Bristle-Maw

The HMS Apollyon is a massive, decaying Mega-Vessel adrift on the Seas of Fate like a vast floating Gormenghastic Megadungeon crawling with Merrow Men, Gun Wights and all sorts of other wild and demented monsters. The level of creativity and inventiveness lavished on this setting is nothing less than awe inspiring. If you've never visited the Dungeon of Signs blog before, you really ought to do so now.

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Here are (1d6) Aquatic Terrors from the Flooded Decks of the HMS Apollyon...

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1. The stagnant water in this area is oily and smells of rotten fish. By your third step through this shallow, stinking muck you notice dozens of tiny, glistening, fat yellow leeches squirming across your boots...
   

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   Tiny Yellow Leeches (5d10) [AL N, MV 20' (60'), AC 9[10], HD 1d4 each, #AT 1, DG 1 hit point per round, SV F1, ML 12 (fearless), Special: These things are tenacious and persistent. They will wriggle their way into every and any available nook and cranny in their insatiable pursuit of fresh blood. Covering them in salt causes them to burst, inflicting 1d2 damage per burst leech in a 10' radius. If captured and held inside a clear container, they can serve as a yellow-tinged light-source, but will shrivel and die within 1 day without receiving fresh blood.]

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2. There are slick, black spikes jutting out of the otherwise still waters of this chamber. There are several Archer Urchins clustered around a rusted and broken pipe spilling fresh water into the otherwise brackish stuff in here.
   

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   Archer Urchins (3d6) [AL N, MV 20' (40'), AC 46[13], HD 2, #AT 1d4, DG 1d4, SV F1, ML 8, Special: Each Archer Urchin shoots 1d4 spines out to a range of 30'. If a spine misses the intended target, there is a 60% chance that it will ricochet from a bulkhead or wall, allowing it to attack a secondary target with a penalty of -2 to hit. The spines are often poisoned, but it is more a nuisance-toxin causing dysentery, blindness, or incapacitating nausea than anything outright lethal or damaging.]

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3. Wet gray and black hoses and cables dangle from the ceiling. The shadows are a bit peculiar in here, due to all the dangling stuff. You might notice that some of those hoses have begun to sway sinuously, if you are exceptionally observant, otherwise...
   

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   Ceiling Lampreys (2d8) [AL N, MV 20' (120'), AC 7[12], HD 2, #AT 1, DG 1d4*, SV F2, ML 7, Special: These things get a +2 bonus on their first attack and inflict double damage any time they roll a natural 19 or 20 to hit. On a successful attack the Ceiling Lamprey can opt to forego the damage they would have inflicted in order to wrap around their target and commit a boring attack for 2d6 damage as a free attack next round. It requires a STR of 22 to remove one of these things, but doing so inflicts 1d6 extra damage to the victim. However, if they are exposed to open flame, they will recoil and seek to escape without causing any further harm.]

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4. The floor slopes down. It gets pretty steep right up to the point where it abruptly drops off into a deep chamber-lake of cold, black water. The floor is covered with loose rust, grit and small debris, making it mildly treacherous to navigate. If someone does slip, they have a good chance to slide into the water. Nothing will happen for the first few rounds...then you see all the pretty pink, yellow and green lights swirling around them...
   

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   Glowing Piranhas (6d4) [AL N, MV 0' (120'), AC 4[15], HD 1d4 each, #AT 1, DG 1d4*, SV F2, ML 9, Special: Only 4 of these things can attack a single victim in a given round. The rest swarm about and try to prevent their meal from escaping. Their bioluminescent glands are incredibly toxic (Save -1 or suffer 3d4 damage) and can't be extracted without a lot of time and patience, though Merrow Men are reputed to have specialized tools and techniques for just this sort of thing, and they also know how to use the teeth for arrow-heads and the like.]

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5. The water in here has a definite current moving through it deep below. It's also salty. Maybe there's a connection to the outer waters deep below...
   

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   Metallicized Barracuda (2d4) [AL N, MV 0' (140'), AC 3[16], HD 4, #AT 1, DG 3d4, SV F5, ML 12 (fearless), Special: If one of these things makes a successful bite attack, the rest gain a +1 bonus to hit the same victim. They inflict double damage on anyone wearing leather or similar, soft armor-types.]

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6. There is a milkiness to the stale water. It reeks of some sort of cheese. There's also a thick mat of some sort of dark weeds just below the surface...
   

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   Sargassoan Kill-Kelp [AL N, MV 10' (60'), AC 9[10], HD 4, #AT 4, DG 1d4 each, SV F4, ML 12 (fearless), Special: Immune to mind-influencing effects, this plant-terror waits patiently for one likely victim to get close enough to it for the thing to lash out with all of its attacks at once. Once it makes a single successfully attack, it wraps around the target and begins to drag them under the water, hopefully to drown. It requires a STR of 16+ to break one strand and there are up to 4 strands to deal with before getting free. If properly harvested and dried, this stuff can make really good rope.]

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HMS Apollyon Introduction   |  HMS Apollyon 20 Questions
Dungeon of Signs blog

Gunpowder, Treason and Plots! (November Blog Carnival)

This month's RPG Blog Carnival is being hosted by Nearly Enough Dice, The theme is 'Gunpowder, Treason and Plots!' How could we resist? Here are three short and bittersweet tables loaded with scenario-seeds, rumors and background details fresh from Wermspittle, just in time for the Carnival...

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Gunpowder

1. Less than a dozen years ago simple possession of Green Powder was a capital offense in most civilized countries. Then someone figured out how to pack the stuff into artillery shells and all hell broke loose. Now ordnance officers are expected to set aside a portion of their green-brass shells in order to let the gunpowder inside 'age properly' into Green Powder from prolonged exposure to the Plattnerized brass. That used to be a court martial offense itself. Now it's standard operating procedure. Even in Pruztia and especially in what remains of Nagrothea.
2. Achromic Powder used to be bad enough, especially in Salted Shot. Now there's a new thing showing up on the battlefields. They call it Wermshot. The damned musket balls have been hollowed-out and packed with vermin-eggs. Sometimes they mix-in a little White Powder, just to make it that much worse.
3. Blackened Powder is a very nasty mixture of gunpowder and Black Smoke residue; corned, caked and then re-ground into a coarse-grained, almost gritty powder. The stuff is best used in grenades or petards. It'll ruin your rifle or musket worse than dropping it into an acid-bath. The Franzikaners use this stuff in their landmines. It isn't any good in the rain though. Small favor.
4. Dead Lead Shot was issued to all the regiments serving on both sides of the Trenches at Valdrume. Not that it did much good. The mindless hordes overran everything. You just couldn't shoot, let alone burn them fast enough. In the end it took a coordinated effort from both sides to finally salvage things. But it was too little, too late for the Coastal States. All those cities on fire. The screaming. That was the worst. Who knew the dead could make such a fuss? Pour me another shot of Black Liquor. There's things best forgotten; that's one.
5. Gunpowder Grubs can make a fellow rich, if they don't catch the blight or get set-off prematurely by a spark from a faulty lamp or anything like that. Quite a few enterprising souls set up grub-farms in the attics of their squalid tenements and refurbished old houses back during the days right before the Midwive's Rebellion. That's how there got to be so many blackened and blasted ruined places all over the place. some says that's how we ended up with the Burned Over Districts. That and the airship bombings...
6. Those foreigners, those masked ones with the thick accents and thicker robes; Fantomists, yeah, those guys--they've been making noises about some new sort of gunpowder that they're trying to fob off on the Wall Guards and Street Patrol. So far the Officers-in-charge aren't having any. But a few of the boys have accepted samples. No harm in a few freebies...

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Treason

1. Six dead Puritans lie dead in the alley. All were shot from behind. their bodies were then mutilated in a manner clearly calculated to send a message to anyone who knows the initiatory secrets of the higher-ranks. Their commanding officer suspects it was one of their own that led her men into that ambush. But how can she find the culprit, let alone prove their guilt? Perhaps she will seek the help of a discrete investigator. But it will be difficult to get anywhere without her being able to reveal the inner secrets of her group to an outsider.
2. A group of Refugees from Yattrim were led into the Baffles and left for dead by unscrupulous brigands. They've been camping-out in the dead gray mud for weeks now, completely oblivious to the treachery of the false guides who took all their money. Only one of the Yattrimese knows the truth of the matter. They refuse to speak-up. this seems like a suitable penance for his people's treachery against the Sanctified King in abandoning their homeland to come to this place. Better they had all succumbed to the plague. Little does he know; they were infected by agents of the King before they were allowed to leave. Those yellow scarves each one was given were not just tokens of goodwill. They were a death sentence.
3. A pair of former freedom-fighters from Yudrabek make their way across the rooftops. Then the bomb converted from an old Yorish landmine planted at the rendezvous site detonates prematurely. Their old friend isn't much of a friend any more. Won't get any too much older either, if they have their way.
4. Five soldiers from the Wall Guards have abandoned their posts at the Western Ramparts. They are all under the influence of a Hasnamuss operating from behind a small steel mirror that the sergeant carries with him. The connection is tenuous and will be disrupted if the mirror is exposed to bright light. The Hasnamuss is working for an undisclosed foreign power. This is not the first group of Wall Guards that they've led astray as part of their behind-the-lines efforts. The Hasnamuss takes special relish in leading otherwise dutiful troops into the snares and pitfalls of misconduct and treason.
5. The Pruztian Ambassador Karlush Bezwenger has been having second thoughts about our young mister Dalazig (Takers, No. 8). Something he said recently just wasn't quite right. The Ambassador has tended to overlook a few things, here and there, military courtesy and all that, as Dalazig distinguished himself in battle. Or so everyone was led to believe. The young officer's story has shifted about in the re-telling a bit too much, however. The Ambassador is in poor health and dreads making a terrible mistake in naming Dalazig as his successor if he is i fact an impostor. Whom can the Ambasador call upon to look into the matter, quickly, quietly, carefully and set his mind to ease once and for all?
6. A young boy is trying to sell the secrets of his step-father's Low-Land Farm Enclave to anyone who'll help him find his way out of this place. The kid is getting nervous. He has no wish to spend another winter in this place. He says he knows the way past the lime-pits, deadfalls, and other taps and barriers. He's even offering to draw a map, if offered enough money. There are those who are keeping an eye on the child. Some may even consider paying him something for his troubles.

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Plots!

1. Three Nagrothean Whisperers have been seen entering the bombed-out and gutted remains of the old Franzikaner Military Governor's Palace. What could they want in that place?
2. A Somnambulist has been asking peculiar questions of anyone they suspect of having anything to do with the last caravan out of Dukirzia. They were expecting a shipment of teak-and-ebony cabinets. A special order. The caravan-master he'd contracted with was killed on the Spring trip into Wermspittle. Their successor is proving uncooperative and unsympathetic, possibly because he's already sold-off the cabinets to one of the Comprachico Families who paid him a far better price.
3. A small, but select group of scholars from the Academy have imprisoned several Cacozombies in the attic of a deserted shop overlooking Plover Lane. They've been attempting to distill the psychic filth of these things into something usable as a weapon. Their leader, Professor-Doktor Kauzey is rumored to be in the pay of the Gruzikan Army, or perhaps one of the other City-states. One of the good Doktor's co-conspirators is working for Pruztian Military Intelligence. Another is in the employ of the Sewer Militia. The whole operation is under observation by a very old, very crafty Ungezheifer that is biding their time. A small shipment of Achromic Powder has just arrived...
4. The projected consciousness of a Philosophic Mold has been captured in a glass cage by an experimental investigator seeking to build a reliable defense against Predatory Projections. It isn't working, despite his best efforts. The Philosophic Mold sees what he's getting wrong, but hasn't decided whether to politely point out their error(s) or to just keep quiet and keep watching. Then an inquisitive Interstitial Insectoid discerned the peculiar emanations given off by the glass cage mechanism and decided to investigate...
5. Four Morlocks and a Grood are running away from some Abandoned Property. Nobody cares. Until the place blows up. They were looking for an old entrance to the Sewers, probably to do a little light salvage. someone had warned them about a Lesser Nosferatus that used to lurk down there. So they brought alone a galvanic torch. There was an old ammunition dump in the cellar. From back before the Five Winter's War. Someone slipped on a slick patch. They dropped the Torch. Dozens of crates and boxes of unstable old ammunition got set on fire. Boom. They still don't suspect that it was a friend of the Nosferatus that sold them the faulty Galvanic Torch in the first place.
6. Glindeng has been raising Stranglemasses in her spare room for years now. Ever since the nurses in the old sanitarium taught her how to take care of a garden...

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Secret Spells of the Wizard-Frog

The nice people at Last Gasp have posted a wonderfully wicked six-armed Frog-Wizard as a gesture of appreciation and thanks to various other gameratin' and bloggeratin' folks that have been encouraging and supportive of their efforts, including us. It could be a relative of Tsthahoggua. We didn't ask. Wizard-Frogs can be sensitive about such things. In any case, you should click over and take a look. It's very cool.

Below are a few spells you might be able to acquire from a Hexapedal Wizard-Frog, should your characters ever get the opportunity to make the acquaintance of one.

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1d8 Secret Wizard-Frog Spells

Arcane Adumbration
Level: 2
Duration: 6 Turns
Range: 0
The shapes of things to come are revealed in a flurry of sketchy outlines and faint images produced by this spell. The general default configuration is usually attuned to depict the classical symbol associated with any of the 4,200 Common Spells all Wizard-Frogs claim to know. Any competent caster can adjust the spell to instead give themselves some foreshadowing of relatively immediately impending events, but such rejiggering of things is left to the student as an exercise.

Bawd-Breath of Tsthathogguri-Malamala
Level: 6
Duration: 4 rounds + 1d4 rounds
Range: 30'
The caster exhales a pungent pink fog that quickly fills a thirty-foot radius. The vapors distort the senses of everyone caught up within their swirly sphere of effect, causing them to see everyone--and everything--within the pink haze as supremely beautiful, desirable and attractive. Victims can opt to Save against the effects of the pink vapors, but doing so either costs them 1 point of CHAR (permanent) or renders them sterile for 1d6 years, player's choice. This particular spell costs double.

Cloud of Tasty Flies
Level: 2
Duration: 6 Turns
Range: 120'
Flies, flies and more flies of every type, sort and hue swarm madly about the caster, providing a delicious repast for a famished Wizard-Frog. Lesser beings suffer 1d4 points of damage per turn  spent within the area of effect of the spell. Save for half damage.

Gestural Globs
Level: 2
Duration: 6 Turns
Range: 90'
The caster forms a small mass of dermal mucous in their middle-left hand. The mucous forms a thin, but pliable film that holds it together like a water balloon. With a single gesture, but a flick of the wrist, the globular mass is sent streaking out towards any target specified by the caster. Any creature under 4 HD must Save or suffocate as the gooey mucous infiltrates their mouth, nostrils and air passages. Those who make their Save do not suffocate, but instead have their movement reduced to half normal for the next 3d4 rounds. This mucous is alcohol-soluble. Some sources say it can be used in preparing a sort of absinthe-like concoction.

Jiggly Scribbles
Level: 3
Duration: 6 Turns
Range: 120'
With a few quick movements, the caster sketches out a series of swoopy, curvy lines and spirals that quickly takes on a sort of life all its own and rushes forth to swarm all over the designated target who must make a Save or become disoriented (60%) or immobilized from intense nausea and vomiting (40%). While under the effects of this spell, the victim must roll randomly to determine their target, should they attempt an attack.

Humble Murmurings
Level: 1
Duration: 6 Turns
Range: 10'
During the duration of this spell, the target cannot say anything negative about the caster, including cast any sort of damage-dealing spell. The victim is required to make a Save, failure means that they gain a -1 penalty on all Saves versus the caster's spells for the next 6 turns. A successful Save reduces the duration by half.

Pruscoorm's Palpitation
Level: 4
Duration: 12 Turns
Range: 120'
The victim sprouts a host of wriggling pink growths from randomly determined parts of their body. The writhing, fleshy growths are harmless, but distort the victim's bodily shape so much that armor, clothes, rings and the like no longer fit and must be removed or discarded. The victim will suffer 1 hit point of damage per item retained over the course of the spell, their movement is reduced to half, and all their attacks suffer a -2 penalty. Once the spell subsides, the victim must make a CHAR check or else retain some lingering sign of the pink pulpy bits that once deformed their frame. Again, they are harmless, and only have a mildly cosmetic effect, and require a slight adjustment in one's clothing.

Transmute Liquor
Level: 2
Duration: Instantaneous
Range: Touch
Caster transmutes a quantity (up to one gallon/every 3 levels) of one type of liquor into the same quantity of another form of liquor, as specified at the moment the spell is cast.

Those Aren't Worms...A Table for Wermspittle at Dungeon of Signs

The one-and-only Gus L. over at Dungeon of Signs has created a very special table for Wermspittle:

Those Aren't Worms!

It's a Frikkin' Great Table, packed with some really nightmarish things that fit all too well in Wermspittle, or perhaps in some other broken-down, disreputable town, city or enclave your local band of adventuring ne'er-do-wells frequent in-between bouts of burglarizing vacant temples and the obligatory grave-robbing so prevalent in most old school derived/influenced FRPGs.

His Geist Hosts are an absolutely perfect fit for Wermspittle, and some of those Angler Crabs might show up in our upcoming Cellar Inspector scenario at Con of the North this February...those are some seriously sneaky crustaceans! (But they're probably good eatin'...)

Thanks Gus! We love the table and will return the favor shortly.

Mucoids Spotted at Swords & Stitchery...

Needles has expanded on the Mucoids quite a bit as part of his current Stars Without Numbers campaign. There's a Mucoid Confederacy out there in the Talon Sector and you can read all about it HERE. We're wondering just how close Talon Sector is to Lithus Sector now...this Mucoid Confederacy would be right at home on Lithus Prime...