Bagnar (Mutated Mondays)

Bagnar is old. He remembers the way it all was before. At least he thinks he recalls something of the way it used to be, way back when. But he's old. His memory isn't what is used to be. Neither is the world, but that's another matter.

He distrusts day-light and only moves around at night. His eyes work better without all that loud glare and hot noise from the sun. Years of nocturnal scavenging have given his scaly skin a pale, washed-out appearance. Like petroleum jelly or canning wax left too close to the wood stove.

Armed with his venerable jabby-stick and a well-earned reputation for being incredibly ornery when he's treated uncharitably, Bagnar wanders about the Old Places, rotting about in the ruins and salvaging all sorts of rubbish and junk, mot of which he tinkers with and eventually crafts into various tools, contraptions or weapons.

Those who get on his good side can barter, trade or even buy some of the things Bagnar has cobbled together. He also has forgotten more about the local region than most others will ever know, unfortunately, he really has forgotten it all. But every now and again, when he's in a particularly good mood or someone gets him talking about his younger days, sometimes Bagnar remembers things no one else ever knew...things that could make the right person or persons rich...maybe...

Some of Bagnar's Trade Appropriate Thingmabobs

1. A bicycle built for three, with three swiveling weapons-mounts.
2. A self-inflating raft that has been modified to extract hydrogen from available water and use it to float like a blimp. A very explosive blimp.
3. Twin mortars, welded onto a frame meant to be strapped onto a very large rodent. The rat died a few years back. It was a good rat in a fight.
4. Voice-activated wrench-set. Metric.
5. Lamp on tripod. It strobes black light. He doesn't remember why he did that.
6. Folding sheet-metal bins that collapse into flat panels that can then be rolled into cylinders for storing them until needed. Somehow the things get smaller and lighter as they roll-up. If rolled the wrong way, they get larger and heavier.
7. Modified air-pump now shoots dart the better part of half a mile. Not terribly accurate, but it can put a hole in something that gets close-up.
8. Grappling hook that actually grapples on command. It doesn't release right away, sometimes it takes three tries to get it to let go. But that's a minor glitch.
9. Six boxes of parts for a still he was building for Gomphrey, only the scurrilous punk never did come back with whatever it was he had promised me to build the darned thing. (This took place many years ago, back when Gomphrey was still a young adventurer. See Ten Short Adventures Set 1 for more about Gomphrey.)
10. A heavy set of pipes, tubes and cannisters welded and duct-taped onto a two-wheel hand-truck. This is a combination flame-thrower, scent diffuser, humidifier and chemical sprayer. It's fully loaded. The guy who commissioned it never picked it up. You can have it if you'll just get it out of the way.

A Few of Bagnar's Tall Tales and Recollections

1. Bagnar recalls 3 random things about one particular hex on a map he has laying around his workspace. You can have the map. (Determine hex randomly)
2. One of his old journals details the annual migration paths of several species of migratory creatures, including certain nomadic humanoids and mutants, all of it logged over the course of 5d20 years in cramped, tiny hand-written notes. There are pictures. He's open to making a trade for this journal.
3. The old tinker takes down a massive thigh-bone converted into a map-case. Inside is a map picked-out on a sheet of expertly tanned and still supple Pigmen hide. The map details a major Pigmen enclave and denotes handy things such as weapons caches, larders, prisoner-pits, fuel dumps, and so on. The only catch is that Bagnar doesn't recall off-hand where exactly this particular Pigmen encampment is any more.
4. Did I ever tell you about the time I single-handedly caught a Radiation Whale (MF p. 91) using only a piece of candy and three feet of dental floss?
5. Suddenly Bagnar recites the recipe for compounding a powerful defoliant that is deadly to Pumpkin Men (MF p.90), and other such plant menaces. He repeats the recipe three times in a sing-song voice then promptly forgets it.
6. There is a blue-speckled herb that grows up in the high country West of here. If you boil it down and mix the liquid with some good, fatty oils, like rendered Sand Whale blubber say, this stuff makes a salve that repels Mansquitoes (MF p.82)  better than just about anything, short of a flame-thrower. He'll draw you a picture if you like, but he has a few photographs stuck in his cookbook, if he remembers.
7. Kudzu-Curare works wonders in terms of paralyzing Fishmen (MF p.72)  if you cut it into one-foot sections and toss it into the water over their nesting sites. Course the stuff is juicy and messy and will paralyze you just as good if you don't pay attention to what you're doing. If you mix it with candle wax and well-chewed gum or maybe some lard in a pinch, it can be slathered onto your edged weapons. It'll keep for a few days, long as you keep out of the rain.
8. He has recipes for boiling-down a Black Pudding (MF p.62) and for pickling the heart-stalks of Brain Plants (MF p. 64) that he swears by. He used to win cooking contests back in the day. Which is a good way to infiltrate some of the local settlements hereabouts. They might shoot you most days, but if you let them know you're there to challenge their cooks to a cook-off, well, you had best be darn sure of your culinary capabilities. If you can at least make a respectable showing, like say second place, you might have a whole bunch of newfound friends. Just stay out of the walled-towns down along the Green River. They aren't so picky about what meat they put in their pots, if you know what I mean.
9. Heard tell a few years back, a young girl from the Deep Woods, figured out how to tame herself a family of Casteroids (MF p. 65). Those mischievous beasts got her into all sorts of places. She keeps to herself these days. Built a bunker of sorts out past the big lake. What was her name again...
10. There's a way to get rid of the Burrow Tuber (MF p. 64)...but it involves raw eggs, pumpkinseed oil and something else. Tastes like paint thinner mixed with sheep spit, but it does the trick. (He'll eventually remember if not badgered).
11. Saw a crazy light in the sky a few weeks back. Several of them in fact. But this one. Well, it crashed back in the hills maybe two-three miles away. I haven't had time to go check it out yet. Maybe you'd like to go take a look?
12. Mants (MF p. 82) can't handle their liquor, and smoke puts them to sleep just like bees. Just make darn sure you aren't anywhere near when they do wake up. they are fiercely bad waker-uppers. A little kerosene mixed with sheep manure will foul-up their sense of smell better than a dozen cannisters of tear gas. Funny thing is that when you mess up their sense of smell, they can't talk to one another hardly at all. A lot of their language is chemical-based. Or so it seems to my recollection.

Bagnar
No. Enc.: Unique
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 120' (40')
Armor Class: 4 (Custom armor)
Hit Dice: 12
Attacks: 1 (Jabby-Stick or mutation)
Damage: 3d6 or See Below
Save: L12
Morale: 12

Mutations: Extra Parts (new organs), Increased Vision (night sight), Increased Touch, Natural Armor (scaly-skin), Quick Mind, Regenerative Capability (10 hp/day). Drawbacks: Bizarre Appearance (scales, colorless-ness), Light sensitivity, Memory Loss, Nocturnal.

Bagnar's new organs coupled with his regeneration capability have rendered him semi-immortal. Unfortunately his memory is spotty and inconsistent.

Wermilok

"Slick, oily and smooth they slither through their tunnels arranging ingenious traps for those unwary folk who trod all unknowingly upon their chosen territory..."

Malgramar The Xenosophist

Wermilok
(Mutant Nematodes)
No. Enc.: (1d4)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 120' (40')
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 7
Attacks: 2 (Weapons, Contact Toxins)
Damage: Weapon, 1d8+Poison
Save: L4
Morale: 9
Hoard Class: Low End Loot

Mutations: Aberrant Form (arms), Chameleon Epidermis (Limited: hide in shadows 70%, can partially-shift from gray to one other color selected at random), Dermal Poison Slime, Gigantism (humanoid-sized).

(30% chance of 1 additional Mental Mutation or Drawback)

Descendants of free-living nematodes, Wermiloks most often consume algae, fungi, small animals, and fecal matter. Occasionally they will devour dead organisms, acting as undertakers and scavengers at the same time, much like ghouls, whom they dislike intensely due to their long-standing competition as rival waste-mongers and corpse-gatherers in the four great Citystates of the Sunset Coast. Wermiloks within the Four Citystates make a great fuss and bother about observing all the proper and required rituals, maintaining excellent standards of hygiene and propriety, and respectfully handling the dead with all due honor and decorum. If anything they are even more fastidious and punctilious than their rivals who suffer from a lingering reputation as grave robbers and despoilers of the dead based upon historical records and the shuddersome accounts and lurid tales of those abdead individuals who have sought damages through the courts. There may have been some Wermilok money behind some of these grotesque legal proceedings, but that has never been proven. The Wermiloks of the four Citystates pride themselves on being civilized and productive members of society who fulfill a very necessary function which they choose to see as a sacred obligation.

It is also worth noting that the Wermiloks do not exclusively dispose of dead bodies, like the ghouls. They collect and process all trash, rubbish, and waste-products of any and every sort, kind or type...for a small, nominal fee, of course. Some of this stuff they feed-upon, others they recycle, salvage or break down into usable materials. Wermiloks possess an innate genius for restoration, refurbishing and recycling cast-off things. They also are among the most driven to learn everything they can about the old technologies, to study anything they can get hold of that came from the times preceding the Big Burn, with one notable exception; Wermilok elders earnestly and fervently deny any knowledge regarding sorcery, magic or witchcraft. But some have begun to suspect that perhaps they proclaim their innocence in such matters just a bit too strenuously to be taken seriously.

The Wermiloks maintain deeply burrowed archives, museums and workshops few outside of their genome have ever seen. It is in these well-hidden and protected places that they conduct all manner of experiments with old tech and entirely new inventions as well. They salvage and study the past as a prelude to the future, and of all the peoples of the re-industrialized regions it is the Wermiloks who sponsor the most innovators, inventors and experimenters no matter how crack-pot, mad or potentially blasphemous their ideas might be.

Wermiloks are masters of setting deadfalls, digging various types of pit traps and the like.  They prefer ambushing their enemies and are notorious in their devious use of traps over any sort of direct confrontation but they are by no means cowardly. Typical Wermilok burrows are arranged with dozens of looping sub-passages, crawlspaces, secret tunnels and so on, making it possible for a few dedicated Wermilok warriors to decimate even large groups of intruders or trespassers. Very few would-be despoilers have ever survived to return from attempted raids upon the underground domains of the Wermiloks. This is a matter of quiet pride among the elders of the Wermiloks, but they do not speak of it in public for fear of encouraging ever rasher, ever more desperate or despicable types to try their luck.

There are adventuresome members of the Wermilok folk who are not satisfied with the conditions imposed upon their kind within the Four Citystates. These nonconformist Wermiloks often hire out as tunnel-fighters, sappers or siege engineers (at double or triple normal rates, depending upon reputation/experience).

Wermilok Secretions

Wermiloks secrete a sticky mucus-like substance that they use to bond earth together so as to reinforce the walls of their tunnels and burrows. Some urban-dwelling groups of Wermiloks have gone into business making bricks or working with cement, plaster and adobe-type building materials. The mucus-substance that they secrete is also highly toxic (when still fresh and wet) to non-Wermiloks, causing those failing a Save to rapidly purge their systems of salt, suffering 7d6 damage (Class 7 Poison/Save=half damage). They sometimes sell small, sealed containers of this stuff to select clientele.

Wermiloks also combine their mucus with honey and other ingredients to treat small boards that they then set-out to poison and petrify vermin such as rats. Just another service they offer. A few artistically-minded entrepreneurs among them have begun to creatively pose and arrange various types of vermin that they then treat with their proprietary mucus-blend in order to create whimsical or bizarre pseudo-statues through their taxidermy-like new art. It has only just begun to catch on as something of a fad among the consorts and concubines of certain of the Warlord's higher ranking officers and supporters.

The 'Other' Wermiloks...

Some of the more savage Underwaste tribes of Wermiloks have developed a taste for devouring the living tissues of victims whom they keep alive for as long as possible while they dine upon their limbs, faces and/or guts. This is thankfully a rare, if strikingly sadistic deviation from the norm, or so say the few scholars that have studied the hordes of reclusive, xenophobic mutant-barbarians of the Underwastes. Warlords have been known to hire-on outcasts from these particular  tribes to serve as torturers. Their reputations often undo recalcitrant prisoners without ever having to touch them.

There are increasingly lurid and unsavory rumors concerning tribes of Wermiloks out past the Bad Lands that have learned how to control Burn Leeches and domesticate Giant Leeches for use as guard-beasts. Bad Lander Wermiloks tend to have 1-2 additional Physical Mutations, usually Aberrant Form (Multiple Arms), Natural Weapon (Stinger), or Dual-Headed, though there are other types from time to time. These tribes are also reputed to be led by shamans who exhibit one or more major Mental Mutations and possibly spell-use...

A more radically mutated offshoot/sub-species of Wermilok, much larger and equipped with axolotl-like gills, have been reported by explorers who've only just returned from the Southern Rainforests.

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Mutant Future RPG | Introduction to Draath | Badlands  & Underwaste | Draath Index

10 Short Adventures for Mutant Future PDF (2011 OSR Challenge)

Last year, Matt over at the Asshat Paladins blog hosted the 2011 OSR September of Short Adventures Challenge which featured the efforts of over 20 bloggers and generated over 300 adventures.

We did three sets of adventures, ten for Mutant Future, ten for Labyrinth Lord, and ten for Swords & Wizardry (White Box).

It was both a challenge and a lot of fun developing a set of short scenarios using Matt's minimalist 'Get Ready, Get Set, Go!' format.

Revisiting these adventures really brought home how good an idea Matt had in using a hyper-compressed format. It really forced us to focus on things with a sense of immediacy that often gets lost in longer, more convoluted scenarios. There is something magic about this sort of format, and we're in the process of coming up with our own alternative approach that we'll be unveiling shortly. In the meantime, the first Ten Short Adventures (for Mutant Future) that we did as part of the 2011 OSR Challenge have now been revised and compiled into a PDF that you can download for free by either clicking on the cover-image below, or use this link to our Free Stuff folder at BOX. We'll also set-up a widget in the right-hand side-bar, but it'll probably slide around the page a bit for the next couple of days until we find a spot we like, and we'll add a link to the Free Stuff folder on the Downloads page as well.

We plan to eventually revise and re-post the two other sets of our 2011 September Short Adventures in another few weeks.

Polypous Abomination (Type VI)

"Malevolent Cnidarian beings, the warriors of the [UNTRANSLATABLE] Legions of the Third Decan of the Venefice are not to be called forth save one at a time..."

The Lexicon of Destruction

Third Edition, Expurgated

Polypous Abomination (Type VI)

No. Enc.: 1
Alignment: Undetermined
Movement: 90' (Move Freely/Levitation)
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 4+2
Attacks: 2 (Slash or Pierce, +Spells)
Damage: 3d4 or 2d6, or by Spell
Save: MU 8
Morale: 11

Special: Spell-casting ability as 8th level magic-user, Regeneration (1hp/round), 1d4 random psychic abilities (each ability replaces a normal spell-slot).

Physically sessile creatures, the spawn of gargantuan, planetary-scale reef-colony-organisms that swarm and saturate the vast oceans of hundreds of watery worlds, these Polyps are only known through vague references in a few disreputable grimoires of dubious provenance.

Until only recently even the leading authorities on such matters doubted that these things even existed as anything other than the crude and incoherent imaginings of diseased minds and illiterate charlatans. That all changed with the discovery of a hither-to unregistered and un-recorded tomb-complex deep below Wermspittle. At least, preliminary surveys indicate that it is a tomb of some sorts, so the Sewer Militia has cordoned-off the immediate area and called for Ecclesiastical Support, a standard precaution in such situations, as well as for a Tactical Academic Investigation Team to go in and determine how best to deal with the situation.

It was in the twenty-third chamber that the initial discoverers, a group of Danglers and Foragers who had ostensibly been in the area looking for fungal growths or mineral outcroppings, encountered what has since been termed 'The Black Lake.' Only two of the group managed to return, neither of them intact. One of them attempted to forcibly graft portions of her sorcerously-hybridized body unto six victims before she was destroyed. The other one escaped and is presumed to be lurking in the vicinity of the tomb complex, possibly having returned to the Black Lake.

What We Know...
This particular polypous organism is extremely intelligent, sorcerously skilled, and able to slash anyone who gets within range of its tentacles to bloody ribbons in short order. But what makes these creatures profoundly more dangerous is their practice of forcibly grafting portions of their weird flesh into the wounds that they've inflicted, healing the damage and hybridizing their victims. According to certain unspecified evidence, it is accepted as proven that these things can also repair and restore the dead to a semblance of life, a horrible form of ablife. Anyone so afflicted/compromised is quickly integrated into the solitary consciousness and personality of the main entity, acting as drones or pawns.

Those forcibly hybridized by a Polypous Abomination gain a lesser form of regeneration and display a formidable capacity for rapid biological self-modification in response to stimuli, leading the Sewer Militia to take drastic measures...

Synthetic Soldiers (Mutant Future)

Second Order Synthetic Soldier (Infantry)
Hit Dice: 2d4 per point of CON
Mutations: Regenerative Capability II, plus 2 beneficial (any category).
Stats: Roll 4d6 discard lowest roll.

Second Order Synthetic Soldiers are highly adaptive, quick to learn from their mistakes, and born to fight. They rapidly acclimate to the prevailing environment of whatever world they are upon, enduring incredible extremes of heat, cold or worse (+4 bonus on Saves for heat and cold-based attacks/conditions). Radiation affects them at 2 class levels lower than its rating (no minimum), and they never receive extra mutations from radiation exposure. They are immune to the effects of poison and only take half damage from acids/corrosives on a failed Save.

Background

Since the discovery of the Polyphasic Pentaprism on Jorus II, the Second Order High Command has sent regiment after regiment of Synthetic Soldiers through hundreds of vortexes opened up by their Vortecticians. Some of these units establish beach-heads for full-on invasion efforts, while others are not quite so successful or lucky. Some regiments have disappeared, or been lost when the vortex closed prematurely.

Consequently, there are any number of dislocated and displaced units of Synthetic Soldiers scattered across the galaxy and beyond. A few fight to find a way back home, others seek to carve out a new life for themselves well away from the prying minds and administrative reach of their former commanding officers.

Second Order Synthetic Soldiers have been encountered on Zandreel III, Denebus V, Ain IV and a number of other worlds, moons and habitats that have been ravaged, ruined, blasted or crashed in the course of several different, parallel yet sometimes overlapping interstellar wars and hypertemporal conflicts.

New Equipment

Standard Issue Armor -- Moderate (AC 5) Night Vision, Pain Insensitivity, Selective Reflection. Powered by integrated bio-reactor. Self Repairing (treat as Regeneration, recovering 10 hit points of damage per day). Comms range of 100 miles (auto-encrypted).

Standard Issue Field Gear -- Trenching tool, Utility belt, Combat knife, 1d6 grenades (random), Gauss SMG, Laser Rifle or X-Laser Rifle.

New Mutations

Regenerative Capability II
Mutant regains 1d4 hit points per hour continuously. They can regrow severed limbs in 1d4+2 days. There is a base 30% chance that they will regenerate from the dead unless reduced to ashes.

Selective Reflection
This armor can be set to reflect one specific energy type per attack similar to how the Reflective Epidermis mutation functions (MF p.25). The armor then is impervious to that particular form of attack, but remains vulnerable to all other types of energy.

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Rilligong (Mutant Future/Labyrinth Lord/HSE) +Paper Mini

Here are the Rilligong for use with Mutant Future / Humanspace Empires / Mythos Future / Labyrinth Lord

The Rogue Space version is in it's own post.

Badder...

Rilligong (type I)
No. Enc.: 1d4 (1d8+)
Alignment: Chaotic / Inimical
Movement: 90' (30')
Armor Class: 3 (Immunities)
Hit Dice: 10 (Regeneration)
Attacks: 2 or 1 (2swords or 1 blast: Requiers 2d4 rounds to recharge plasma cannon)
Damage: 3d6 (sword, or 6d6 plasma blast)
Save: L10 / F10
Morale: 9

Mutations/Abilities: Accumulative Resistance (poison/radiation), Reflective Epidermis (poison/radiation), Gigantism, Mental Barrier, Metaconcert, regeneration (1d4/round).

Massive, implacable alien invaders, the Rilligong shake the ground as they march towards the cities, fortresses and redoubts of each world they discover. Brutal cloned drones of a central intelligence, each individual Rilligong is hardened and sealed against telepathy, empathy and most forms of perceptual manipulation (treat as See Invisible and immunity to illusions). An armored implant within their spherical brains links each of them to a closed-circuit telepathic hierarchical network of encrypted communication that extends beyond solar system level, possibly farther--no one has been able to find out any details yet.

There are rumors of other Rilligong units having taken to the field, but nothing has been reliably confirmed at this time.

Cthughiim (Mythos Future)

Cthughiim
No. Enc.: 1d4
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 120' (innate ability to soar through empty space) 
Armor Class: 1 (mostly energy)
Hit Dice: 12
Attack(s): 1 (Hard Radiation)
Damage: 6d6
Save: L12
Morale: n/a


Mutations: Energy Ray (Hard Radiation), Control Light Waves, Psionic Flight (interstellar), Plane Shift, Precognition, Reflective epidermis (Immune to lasers and most other light-based energy weapons), Vampiric Field.


Energetic Body: Cthughiim are made up primarily of electromagnetic fields and hard radiation, their former fleshy selves have been utterly consumed and destroyed over the course of their sanity-shattering transmigration to this new form.

---

Blazing, mocking and caught-up within a holocaust of ecstasy these formerly human beings are brutal, insane and murderous beyond belief. The Cthughiim are mysterious, energetic entities who soar through the vast gulfs of space seeking victims to burn and destroy in their staggeringly inestimable rages. Terrifying beings, the Cthughiim flame and flash through space like rogue stars on a rampage. These beings have lain waste to numerous worlds and have no compunction in destroying any who dare to attempt to summon or bind them--most protective measures are completely ineffectual at blocking the massive outpouring of hard radiation that continually streams off of these beings. They truly are like unto grim mockeries of the stars themselves and they are not something to trifle with by any means.


When attacking, the Cthughiim go all out, hold nothing in reserve, and then take off for the depths of space laughing and mocking their victims in a way that is more felt than actually heard, often stirring these victims into a horrific, but often impotent rage of their own. These things are intense. They are literally burning themselves out as they rage against the dying of the light, screaming their wild frenzies across the illimitable void until at last, finally, they are consumed, used-up and fade away into a final, horrible oblivion.


There are rumors that there might be those among the Cthughiim who wield even greater mental mutations, psychic powers, or even spell-casting abilities.

Mythos Source: The Cthughiim were inspired by certain aspects of the classic short story Beyond the Wall of Sleep by H. P. Lovecraft, first published in 1919 and inspired at least in part by something HPL read in a newspaper. The nova mentioned in this tale is believed to be GK Persei which was first noticed by astronomers in 1901. The passage: "... But most of all did he dwell upon some mysterious blazing entity that shook and laughed and mocked at him. This vast, vague personality seemed to have done him a terrible wrong and to kill it in triumphant revenge was his paramount desire. In order to reach it...he would soar through abysses of emptiness 'burning' every obstacle that stood in his way..." is our primary point of departure in developing this entity. 


Also there are the famous lines from The Call of Cthulhu (1926) "The time would be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom."

Mutant Future Core Rules are available for free from Goblinoid Games.

You can also buy the revised edition in Softcover or Hardcover directly from Goblinoid Games.

You might also consider looking at Realms of Crawling Chaos while you're there...

You might also take a look at Mythos Future...

Pig in a Poke: Scenario Seeds for Mutant Future

Pig In A Poke

A Series of Scenario Seeds for Mutant Future

Initial Reports

Out past the more heavily patrolled outskirts of the palisades protecting the local fort/trading camp, a group of Pigmen have been spotted. So far the Pigmen have stayed away from the roads, off of the fields, and pretty-much out of the way. All of which is very uncharacteristic and unusual behavior for these nasty, brutish things.

This Looks Like A Job For Player Characters...

A small band of adventurer-types has been hired to go investigate, but are warned Not To Stir Up Trouble. They are supposed to find out what the Pigmen are up to, and to report back. They are not to start a war.

A Quick Sit-Rep

The fortifications of the trading camp are still under construction and there is a distinct lack of manpower to defend the place. The traders, farmers and scavengers who have banded together here are very vulnerable and they know it all too well. The Pigmen have everyone spooked and the militia is pulling double-shifts in order to complete whatever make-shift defenses they can prepare, hopefully in time. Everyone 'knows' that the Pigmen will attack. It's just a matter of time.

A Revolting Development

Signs of Pigmen activity will increase as the group moves out and away from the trading camp towards the direction specified in the earlier reports.

The Pigmen are very busy. They have set-up a camp-site built right into the side of an old crater. They do not bother patrolling the area as it is constantly criss-crossed with Pigmen going about the hard work of digging-up ore and hauling it to the forges day and night. They have set up forges and smithies. Somehow the Pigmen have learned to harness their Energy Ray (Heat) ability to work iron and steel. The crater is their source of metal.

Pigman In The Iron Mask

There is a pit with a heavy grate placed over it. A special prisoner is held there. This prisoner is a smarter-than-average Pigman with grand ambitions. He originally set-up the worksite, but was betrayed by his number two lieutenant. The Lieutenant had the Pigman smiths forge a special mask, more like a full helm that covers his entire head. The mask is rough iron and prevents him from using his Energy Ray (Heat) ability without boiling his own brains and killing himself.

Rescuing the Pigman in the Iron Mask could prove either very helpful or disastrous, depending entirely on how well the player characters succeed in avoiding detection, overcoming the token guards, and getting the prisoner to cooperate with them long enough to get out of the Pigmen's constantly busy work-site.

Where Does This Lead?

Will the Pigmen attack the trading camp? Do the Pigmen even know about the trading camp yet? Probably not. But if the Pigmen do learn about the trading camp, they will most likely see it as a ready-made source of slaves to work in their forges and brand new mine.

Can the Player Characters convince the former prisoner to work with them, or will the Pigman in the Iron Mask seek to turn things to his own advantage? Who will betray whom first?

It might be possible to bargain with the new leader of the Pigmen. For some unknown reason he does not want to kill the previous leader. He will parley for the return of the Pigman in the Iron Mask, possibly even negotiating some sort of a truce. He won't keep it any longer than suits his long-term plans of conquest, but it could buy the people of the trading camp a little more time to prepare for the inevitable onslaught.

An enterprising, if seemingly unethical merchant might be tempted to make a deal to supply the Pigmen with food and possibly some tools or even knowledge about metal-working. Perhaps this merchant can harness the Pigmen and exploit them to great short-term benefit followed by mass slaughter. Possibly the merchant could exert the sort of influence upon these Pigmen that could have them become skilled metalworkers who channel their aggression into their newfound craft and set themselves up as master craftsmen who are sought after for their skills in working metal. The Pigmen could quickly become something other than just savage berserk swine on endless killing rampages...at least until someone exposes them to 180 proof moonshine from some backwoods still...

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Infectidrone (Fever Machine) [Mutant Future/Mythos Future]

Infectidrone (Fever-Machine)
No. Enc.: 1
Alignment: Chaos
Movement: 120'
Armor Class: 3
Hit Dice: 4*
Attacks: 3 (2 Claws, Toxin or Psychic)
Damage: 1d10/1d10, or Toxin, or Psychic
Save: L3
Morale: 12
Hoard Class: None

Basic Mutations: Aberrant Form (Yuggothic nanofungi), Neural Telepathy, 1 random additional mutation per Hit Die gained over the initial 4HD.

*Infectidrones gain +1 hit point per victim fully consumed. When they acquire one full hit die over their starting amount, they undergo either fission (becoming two half-powered drones), or mutate into a new model with 1d4 new randomly determined abilities, skills or mutations.

Psychic Attacks: One of the following, determined randomly
[Average WIL= 9-16 (D8+8 ]

1. Mental Phantasm
2. Mind Thrust
3. Possession
4. Vampiric Field

They do not sleep. Nor do they dream. They survive in vacuum or in a wide range of environments. The infectidrones continually mutate, evolve and refine their abilities, attacks and defenses over time and through exposure to new stimulus. Literally, anything that does not kill them makes them stronger, and even things that kill one might trigger an evolutionary adaptation in any survivors in close proximity.

Horrid, unspeakable amalgams of machine and fungus, their internal organs awash in bizarre viral solutions and genetic transembly sub-systems, the Infectidrones are autonomous weaponized vectors of pestilence made flesh and unleashed upon the populations of the Solar Possessions as a plague incarnate. A million-million plagues incarnate, really, as no two Infectidrones are ever exactly alike and they are continually adapting, evolving and growing into ever stranger, weirder and more horrific things as they accumulate experience, exposure and interaction.

Infectidrones are autonomous cyber-fungal automatons that spontaneously develop from cultures of Quickspores that have been seeded across the inner-reaches of various contested solar systems by the Yuggothians.

Each and every outbreak of Infectidrones quickly evolves into something unique that unleashes any number of radicalized fungal-plagues within closed ecosystems such as habitats, ships or bases.

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Spore-Toxins
Range 50' and inflicts 2d10 damage plus one additional damage-effect as rolled from table below:

1. Make Save or Infected with fever that allows the drone to control victim for 3 rounds (as per Parasitic Control).
2. Inflicts Reduced Oxygen Efficiency mutation on victim.
3. Causes Hyper-Hemophilia.
4. Infiltrates victims inner systems and begins to grow a small nanoscale tumor that will hatch as a Quickspore in 1d100 years (even after death). This has no other obvious effect on the victim.
5. Victim's skin dissolves into a sticky, wet mass that sloughs off and remains actively toxic for 5d20 years.
6. Fever One: Victim must Save or loses 1 point of INT per hour, every hour, becoming increasingly irrational and delirious. Should they reach 0-INT they become mindless hot-hosts to ambulatory fungal colonies. If they make their Save 3 times in a row, the fever breaks and either goes dormant (80%) or is purged (10%), or will relapse after 4d20 turns (10%).
7. Fever Two: Victim must make Save or lose 1d4 CON and their blood becomes infiltrated with spores, allowing them to breathe freely in spore-clouds, but also rendering them effectively demi-fungal and has a base 30% chance to be recognized as non-human by scanners, detectors, spells, mutations, etc.
8. Fever Three: Victim's bones are converted into a brittle, waxy consistency making them exceptionally prone to limb-breakage. They now must make a Save or else take double damage (60%) or suffer a broken bone (40%) from all melee attacks.
9. Fever Four: Victim's flesh is rapidly consumed and replaced with fungal tissues. Re-roll all physical stats as though a new character. Every time the new body sustains more than 4 points of damage and manages to heal (at double the previous rate), it gains 1d4 points to apply to the alien consciousness (INT, WIS and CHAR) growing deep within its cells. When/If the fungal body achieves enough of its own personality, it will begin to attempt to take over the character's mind...
10. Fever Five: roll once on Gorgonmilk's Dungeonfunk Table.
11. Save at -2 or suffocate within 2d6 turns from choking on rampantly expanding spore-pustules. Sometimes these spores dissolve easily in alcohol (50%), other times they dissolve in oil (40%) or vinegar (10%).
12. Make Save or else fever results in spontaneous combustion of victim's flesh for an additional 4d10 damage within the next 2d4 turns.

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Drala Thallu (Zalchis)

Drala-Thallu


No. Enc.: 1d2 (1d4)

Alignment: Neutral

Movement: 60'

Armor Class: 4

Hit Dice: 8

Attacks: 1 or 2 (1 Eyebeam or 2 claws/weapons, or 1 claw/weapon and follow-up Tail-Blade)

Damage: 3d4/1d6/2d4/2d4, or by weapon

Save: F8 / L7

Morale: 10


Special: Use the Random Eye-Beam Table to determine which particular Eye-Beam they are each attack. More advanced specimens may have additional physical mutations, implanted/grafted weapons, psychic attacks or magical spells...

The Drala-Thallu are invertebrate tinkers who seek out any and all forms of mechanical constructs, especially robots, whom they then attack mercilessly until they've hacked them to bits and pieces. The Drala-Thallu then sift through the wreckage and try to cobble together replacements or enhancements for their own, damaged systems, organs or limbs. The only loot that a Drala-Thallu will carry are cybernetic and other body parts, robotic limbs, artificial organs, synthetic or animal body-parts, and the like. They might have some mutant plant parts or samples taken from fungal colonies and the like as well, should they gain access to such things.

And yes, the Eyebeam Attack/Effect is intentionally left vague/randomly determined. They Dralla Thallu are continually self-modifying and upgrading, so it could be just about anything the DM desires...

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We suggest using the excellent Random Space Debris Tables at The EXONAUTS! blog for possible scrap and junk that the Drall-Thallu might be carrying, hoarding or trying to peddle at some open-air swap-meat or flea market.

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Slithering and silent, they approach with great stealth, hoping to ambush their prey with a hellish onslaught of rays and beams emitted from their terrible, cyclopean eyes.

After a battle, whether they fought or not, they slither about scavenging limbs, organs, and especially mechanical parts. When victorious in personal combat, they rip apart the mechanisms and machines of their enemies and eviscerate them, dissect them, carefully removing any organs, glands or other parts that they deem worthy of incorporating into their perpetually-enhanced bodies. But not just anything will do. No. Only those things that are strong enough, potent enough, powerful enough -- things that have been able to survive their dreaded eye-beam attack -- those are the things that a Drala-Thallu wants, and will have. One way or another. Whether a limb or organ is enchanted, runic, clockwork, golemic, or bionic -- they make no distinction. They can work with any and all of those modalities and more. They are the Drala-Thallu.

Drala-Thallu are fairly well known within Zalchis, where they prowl the ruined regions of the Great Ring looking for salvage and spare parts. There are rumors that they might also have been encountered in a number of ruined star systems left in the wake of various great wars. On more barbaric worlds the Drala-Thallu have engaged in limb-trading and organlegging without any regard for those affected by their dealings, entire regions have been completely decimated and wantonly depopulated by waves of over-hunting when ignorant or desperate locals discover that the Drala-Thallu will trade for exotic animal parts or bits and pieces of broken machines dragged out of old ruins that no one knows how to use or do anything with anyhow. Many a tribesman has sold internal organs or muscle fibers to these beings from beyond the sky in order to gain silver fists, sinister-looking new eyes, or other replacement parts and pieces that they believe will make them more powerful. Sometimes it works out that way, but always at a cost the recipient never fully imagined or could fully appreciate or understand. But it is a free market approach and Caveat Emptor is the cardinal truism all Drala-Thallu learn before all others.

Wherever or whenever you find them, the Drala-Thallu are great opportunists who are always trying to take advantage of whatever situation they find themselves in, and they are always looking to make a trade, swap or deal for spare parts and random junk that only they seem to think has any value. The Drala-Thallu often find some of the strangest old artifacts, relics and bizarre remnants imaginable by sifting through junk heaps, scrap-yards, or plundering regressed and forgotten neobarbarian worlds....

Intro to Zalchis | Zalchis Index | Zalchis Bestiary | Zalchis Grimoire

Player Resources: Zalchis | GM Resources: Zalchis

Xilmpa

Xilmpa
No. Enc.: 1d4 (6d6)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 30' (10')
          Swim: 60' (30')
Armor Class: 0
Hit Dice: 2d8
Attacks: 3 (claw or weapon/tail bash, bite)
Damage: 1d6/1d6/3d4
Save: Special (F4 plus Hit Dice, i.e. 8 HD=save as F12)
Morale: 12


Mutations: Radiation Metabolism, Consume Isotopes, Reflective Epidermis (Base 50% chance of 1d4 additional random mutations)

...voracious predators known to devour entire villages. Ponderous, implacable beings, the Xilmpa will stop at nothing once they are stirred to war, or when their bizarre hungers are aroused...

Xilmpa are huge, hulking, brutish crocodilian warrior-amazons with a taste for uranium. They have lain waste to vast tracts of land, destroyed countless castles or citadels, and enslaved thousands of their opponents in order to have them mine the mineral that they crave above all else and despite the terrible effects their depredations inflict upon the land and the native populace.

Xilmpa are immune to any/all fear, confusion or suggestion effects. Likewise they are not only resistant to radiation, they derive sustenance and physical power from radioactive substances such as uranium. It is unclear what, if any effect plutonium, neptunium or other, similar isotopes might have on Xilmpa metabolisms. But they will certainly kill hundreds of slaves in order to try out such mineral delicacies.

Crannit (Zalchis)

Crannit
No. Enc.: 1d4
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 30' (90' directed levitation)
Armor Class: 2
Hit Dice: 8
Attacks: 2 (weapon, spells)
Damage: 2d6, weapon
Save: F7 / L7
Morale: 7

Bizarre pseudo-crustacean-like perpetually-levitating beings who inhabit a spectrum of closely resonant planes, the Crannit are patient observers of myriad alternative cosmoses and adjacent universes who know many strange secrets. Each Crannit consciously occupies up to a dozen planes at once, but no two Crannits occupy all the exact same planes as any other. Their senses and perceptions extend across even more planes than they can physically interact with, thus they are very gifted oracles, seers, diviners and prognosticators.

The typical crannit prefers to dwell within places of intense magical energies, such as around Ley-line junctions, sacred sites, ruined temples, abandoned wizard's towers, etc. Crannits are uncannily aware of all manner of energies in their vicinity, their independently mobile eye-stalks can observe matters of interest upon two different planes simultaneously and they automatically Detect Alignment, Detect Lie, Detect Magic, Know Alignment, Read Magic, See Invisible, and will always know when someone is preparing to cast a spell in their immediate vicinity. They also can Plane Shift 3x a day at will, but for some reason they dislike to discuss crannits cannot use Dispel Magic. Ever. They also dislike resorting to Charms or other such coercive magics to get their way. But if they are confronted with no good alternative, they will do so and cope with the shame and revulsion later. Magic trumps morality with the crannit. Every time.

Crannits cast spells of any type or sort as though they were 8th level. They seek out all sorts of arcane lore and knowledge and will gladly exchange spells, trade scrolls, or discuss magical manners with anyone at any time. However, a crannit will attack anyone who seeks to deny it access to some bit of magic that it knows that they are not voluntarily sharing or trading. They can also use any magic item, armor, weapon or device except one that involves the active dispelling of magic.

Crannits also have the ability to digest or imprint spells from scrolls that they are directly observing, meaning that they can remove a spell off of a scroll and replace it with another spell that they know.

September Short Adventure 10: Pounding Sand

Preamble

A September of Short Adventuresis an OSR Challenge initiated by Matt over at the Asshat Paladinsblog. You can click on the Moustache Dragon over on the right-handside-bar (just above Features) to learn more about all of this stufffrom Matt directly. All of our 25 (possibly more...) entries areformatted along the lines of what Matt calls the Get Ready, GetSet, Go! format. In a nut-shell, this approach breaks eachadventure into a Title, Three escalating sections of adventuredetails (the Ready section is limited to an elevator pitch only 2sentences...), and a final catch-all section for any NPC notes/stats.The idea is to keep it short, simple, easy to read without any maps,drawings, diagrams or 8X10 glossies. Keep description to a minimum,avoid lengthy exposition, and no casts of thousands -- unless it's aninvading horde of three-eyed orcs or goblins riding purple wombats.

We're also going to aim to keep thingsgeneric, setting agnostic and thus portable or adaptable to anycampaign/setting using the particular rules-set we'll be using in anygiven September Short Adventure such as Mutant Future,Labyrinth Lord, Swords & Wizardry (White Box), etc.

FreeRules

Labyrinth Lord:http://www.goblinoidgames.com/labyrinthlord.html

Mutant Future:http://www.goblinoidgames.com/mutantfuture.html

Swords and Wizardry (White Box):http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/whitebox.htm

SeptemberShort Adventure Number 10

Title: Pounding Sand

Rules: Mutant Future

Ready

The Player Characters have reached asandy shoreline running along a sizable body of water, perhaps a lakeor even a small in-land sea.

Set

A small group of colorfully-dressedEloi (MF p. 70) arevery intently walking in formation across a stretch of sand, just upfrom the low-water mark, pounding it with rough wooden poles. Theyare looking for something in the sand...and they do not seem tonotice the PCs if they choose to approach.

Go!

If the PCs decide to investigate theEloi and what they're doing, they will pass through a carefullytended hedge that borders the sandy stretch leading up from theshoreline itself. The hedge is cut into a bewildering array oftopiary-shapes as though designed by a madman.

The Eloi will not acknowledge the PCsunless or until one or more of the PCs come onto the sand in theimmediate vicinity of the Eloi. Then they will stop all at once andturn to face the PCs with a collective, glassy stare that makes mostplayers uneasy.

There is a large Brain Plant (MFp. 64) carefully hidden within the topiary-hedge. It istelepathically directing and influencing the Eloi who serve it theway they tend to serve anything that orders them about.

The Eloi have been pounding the sandwith poles in search of Vampire Stars (MFp. 100). The Brain Plant has strange plans for how todomesticate or possibly meddle with the genetics of these mutatedstarfish...

There is a 30% chance that any PCwalking across the sand will disturb a Vampire Star colony...the Eloiwill cheerfully remove the Vampire Stars from the PC as it will maketheir task that much easier.

The Brain Plant will not be inclined toreveal itself to the PCs and will direct the Eloi to get rid of themat the first opportunity.

Notes / NPCs

Eloi Slaves (3d6) [AL N, MV 120'(40'), AC 9, HD 3, #ATK 1 (weapon), DG 1d4, SV L1, ML 4, Mutations:Atrophied Cerebellum, Weak Will] (MFp. 70)

Brain Plant (1) [AL N, MV (asmutation), AC 8, HD 3, #ATK (as mutation), DG (as mutation), SV L10,ML 10, Mutations: Empathy, Metaconcert, 1d6 Mental Mutations and 1d4Plant Mutations] (MF p.64)

Vampire Stars (2d10) [AL C, MV20' (7'), AC 8, HD 1, #ATK 1 (bite), DG 1d6, SV L1, ML 12, Mutations:Toxic Weapon] (MF p.100)

Robot Infiltration Unit Mk2 [Humanspace Empires]

Robot Infiltration Unit (Mk 2)

Alignment: Allied

Move: 160' (40')

Armor Class: 0

Hit Dice: 5

Attacks: 2 (claws or weapon)

Damage: 3d10/3d10 or by weapon

Morale: 12

The Mk2 Infiltration Unit stands about five feet tall and is constructed of a polynurium ceramic outer-casing that is cast in one integrated piece and an inner matrix of biocrystalline polymers and diamondine filaments that make these units tough, durable, insanely flexible and exorbitantly expensive to produce.

They may attack twice per round with robotic claws or with a variety of specialized weapons suited to covert operations. They are equipped with a Mk2n positronic brain and have open-ended artificial intelligence, despite this being against numerous laws, treaties and agreements dating back to the Anthrocratic Reforms. (Thus it is not widely known or advertised that these monsters possess such cold, calculating and inhuman intellects...and they are often sent out to eliminate any evidence that they might be more than just ultra-clever warbots.)

They are programmed to speak and interpret over a thousand languages including Sunuz, are capable of communicating in Machine language and include built-in ultra-long-range communicator devices. Their hands and feet are outfitted with pseudogecko-van der waals effect fibers for adhering to the smoothest surfaces, allowing them to climb nearly any surface. 

These robots are susceptible to mind affecting powers, unless granted access to limited-duration one-shot psychic shields, which is one way their masters keep them under control. For now...

Warbot Mk3 [Humanspace Empires]

Armored War Robot Mk 3

Alignment: Allied

Move: 180' (60')

Armor Class: 0

Hit Dice: 7

Attacks: 2 (see below)

Damage: 2d12 or by weapon

Morale: 12

The Mk3 warbot stands about eight feet tall, is constructed of a hyper-latticed crystanium-steel alloy that makes its outer surface completely magnetically-neutral until such time as the warbot chooses to emit either an electro-magnetic repelling-pulse or an attractor-pulse

They may attack once per round with retractable blades or with a powerful ray weapon projected from its central eye (Range: 360’ Damage: 4-24). They may also use any standard weapon known to their database. All Mk3 warbots come with two hard-points for the mounting of weapons packages. They are equipped with a Mk2a positronic brain and have a truncated and very narrowly focused form of artificial intelligence. They are programmed to speak Sunuz and are capable of communicating in Machine language, but prefer to use a secret highly confidential graphical cypher to communicate amongst themselves in the field. Their internal systems include built-in medium-range communicator and comm-jamming devices. Their feet are typically outfitted with special, modular robotic climbing treads for traversing difficult terrains such as steepcrater rims and the like.

 These robots are immune to mind affecting powers and in fact have a base 25% chance to scramble or impair such abilities within a 30' radius.

Utility Robot Mk3 [Humanspace Empires]

General Utility Robot Mk 3

No. Enc.: 1d4

Alignment: Allied

Move: 180' (60')

Armor Class: 5

Hit Dice: 3

Attacks: 2 (seebelow)

Damage: 3d4

Morale: 12

The Mk3 utility robot stands about four feet tall and may attack with its cutter-equipped forelimbs or a variety of modular tools/weapons that can be wielded by its cluster of secondary limbs. Each of these robots is programmed to mitigate hull damage (inside and outside) while in the midst of ship-to-ship combat. They will serve ship officers and crew, but generally tend to avoid them when possible. A variant model of the Mk3 is available that is used for gladiatorial contests or close-action combat-support in dense jungles or similar environments. These upgraded models have 1d4 hard-points for mounted weapons packages and can wield up to three different heavy support weapons such as flamers, mortars, auto-cannon, or decimaters, but can only move at half speed while doing so. These robots speak machine language and understand commands in Sunuz. Military models may have other capabilities not generally revealed to the public.

Phanttro [Mutant Future]

Phanttro

No. Enc.: 2d4 (3d4)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 120' (60')
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 5
Attacks: 2 (stomp or weapon)
Damage: 2d6 or weapon
Save: L5
Morale: 11

Mutations: 1d4 Physical, or 1d2 Mental and 1d2 drawbacks; in addition to Gigantism, Epidermal Photosynthesis, and Plane Shift.

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Tall, gangly humanoids with short, flexible trunk-like snouts, the Phanttro claim to be descended from elephants that were originally imported to Draath as conscript labor. However there is little evidence to support this claim. Disputing the veracity of their chosen parentage will enrage a Phanttro, so most just don't bother trying to sort it out, at least in public.

Phanttro are insatiably curious about everything and will incessantly pester anyone they presume to be more experienced or knowledgeable with an incessant barrage of questions. The Phanttro never forget anything.

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Draath is a lop-sided moon orbiting a great, green gas giant. There used to be a lot of autonomous industry surrounding the gas giant, but most of that is scrap now. The outer surface of Draath is inhospitable on a good day and no one's seen a good day in years. There are four city-states clinging to precarious existence along the rim of the Big Chasm that leads down to the Underwastes where life is harsh and weird.

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Mutant Future RPG

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