4. MOTIONLESS FEMALE FORM:
Note that this hallway starts in darkness. Observers must have darkvision or a light source rendering the location of the android effectively dim before it will be seen.
Perception roll at more than 60'
10-12 A long, narrow object lies on the floor
13-14 A humanoid body lies unmoving on the floor
15+ A human body lies unmoving on the floor; its form suggests that it is female. A long slender object is in one hand, a small, stout object in the other.
Investigation attempt at less than 60' and in effectively bright light
10-12 A human body lies unmoving on the floor; its form suggests that it is female. A long slender object is in one hand, a small, stout object in the other.
13+ A female human body lies on the floor; recently dead or unconscious, for it cannot be seen to breathe or react. It wears an unadorned form-fitting uniform with hose of stained and dingy white but tunic, gloves, and boots of dark red. In one hand it grasps a long metal rod, in the other, some sort of handled glass retort.
This seemingly unconscious beautiful human female in reality it is a berserk, malfunctioning android which was formerly tasked as a bodyguard. It is armed with a 2’ long metal bar and a paralysis pistol (power disc at 6). When any creature comes within 20’ it will spring up and attack once with the pistol; if any opponents remain in sight but unparalyzed it will move (if necessary) and attack with the pistol again. On subsequent rounds it will use the bar if any opponents are within melee range, or the pistol otherwise.
Remember that attacks on paralyzed foes have advantage to hit and are automatic criticals with the bar.
It will not respond to central computer commands to switch off or on, or in any other way be distracted or detoured from combat.
1E Stats for Female Android
Armor Class: 3
Move: 15”
Hit Dice: 7 (35 hit points standard)
No. of Attacks: 2
Damage/Attack: 1-8/1-8
Special Attacks: See below
Special Defenses: impervious to cold; take only half damage from acid or fire; paralysis, gas, poison, and gaze weapons are useless against them; but if hit with electrical attacks there is a 1% chance per hit point of damage they sustain that the attack will short their circuits. Immersion in water for 3 full rounds will always short circuit an android unless it is a specially built
underwater model.
Magic Resistance: As they are machines, spells do not have any
effect unless the magic affects their components; thus, any
charm or hold is useless, but a heat metal spell would do
damage as noted with respect to hit points to the android.
Strength: Maximum on guard models
Dexterity: 18
Intelligence: Average
Alignment: Neutral
Size: M
5e conversion of Female Bodyguard Android
Medium Construct, Malfunctioning
AC 17 (natural armor - (Natural armor, synthflesh over cave metal frame)
HP 94 (11d8+44)
Speed: 50’
Str 18 (+4) Dex 18 (+4) Con 18 (+4) Int 15 (+2) Wis 13 (+1) Cha 18 (+4)
Skills: Perception +4, Athletics +3, Proficiency in all shipboard weapons
Damage Vulnerabilities: Electricity, Water
Damage Resistances: Acid, Fire, Heat
Damage Immunities: Vacuum, Pressure, Cold, Poison, Necrotic, Psychic
Condition Immunities: Charmed, Exhaustion, Frightened, Poisoned, Stunned, Unconscious
Senses: Darkvision to 60’
Actions: Multiattack, Colored Key (may activate Yellow and Violet doors and locks by touch)
Metal Bar: Melee Weapon Attack +5, reach 5’. Hit 11 (d6+7) bludgeoning damage.
Retort: Ranged attack as Paralysis Pistol. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Last edited by Kirt on Wed Nov 13, 2019 5:28 pm; edited 2 times in total
5. DISPLACER BEASTS:
There are a total of five beasts lairing here. At any given point two or three will be be out hunting, while if any of the wandering ones have been slain, or are currently camped outside rooms, they should be subtracted from the total as well; otherwise the remainder will be present. The beasts are always hungry, but they are smart enough to know when they are outmatched. They will not attack the PCs unless they outnumber them by at least two to one. This being their lair, they will display and threaten, but break if actually attacked. Amidst the litter of their nest area is a brown color card and several vegepygmy clubs and darts.
Perception check on atrium wrote:
In the corner of the shaft chamber is a pile of refuse; large parts of broken machinery and smaller bits as well.
Perception or investigation check 10+ on refuse wrote:
The arrangement and selection of the refuse is indicative of it being some sort of nest. There are the remains of dead plant men as well as clumps of some sort of dark black hair present.
Note that displacer beasts have official stats in the 5E Monster Manual. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
Note that on the map of Level I of the ship, there are two indications of numbered encounter 6. One is at a corridor intersection near the training room, the other in the northwest just beyond a room with gray ooze. Given the encounter description (a parent spider with young around a pool), I believe the NW location is correct and the second location is a misprint on the map.
6. PHASE SPIDERS
There are 3 spiders here, 1 adult and 2 newly hatched. If there is any noise in the room outside (including combat with the oozes) they will hide but remain on the prime (Stealth roll 19+6 = 25). If outnumbered, they will remain hidden, with the exception being the adult, who will attack the last person out the door from behind when the party leaves, and then go ethereal as a bonus action.
If not outnumbered, they will all attack from hiding and then go ethereal. The young will remain so, while the adult will ready an action to return to the prime and attack if appropriate after the last PC has gone.
If they are not successfully hidden when characters enter, or they are seen before they attack, they will go ethereal at the first opportunity and remain so. Note that the non-Baryonic radiation shielding between floors and around the hull means that they can go ethereal within a level, but can neither leave the ship nor move between levels while ethereal.
This room appears to have been an apartment or lounge for the studio outside, but is in disarray. Refuse is everywhere, and the stained divan within has had most of its sponge-stuffing removed and strewn about. Here and there amongst the refuse are humanoid bones. Against the curving exterior wall of the ship on the floor is a large pool of water, some five feet across and several inches deep. A steady dripping, the likely source of the pool, comes from a leaking pipe in the ceiling above. The ceiling itself is mostly obscured by webs.
Perception check 10+ wrote:
Reflected in the light are several small, shimmering objects in the pool.
Perception check 15+ wrote:
In the webs overhead are several cocoon-like husks, about the size of one of the smaller plant men. There are other gatherings of webs that could be small objects, or might just be knots of reinforced web.
Perception check 25+ wrote:
In the darkest recesses of the room are three spider-like creatures, one large and two small, that are nearly transparent.
Investigation check 15+ on webs wrote:
When you clear and burn away all of the webs, the remains of several plant men drop to the floor, along with a black key card.
In the pool of water the spiders use as a lure to attract prey, are 7 small gem bearings, beryls worth 10 g.p. each.
Note that Phase Spiders have official stats in the 5E MM. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
This room appears to be a living area, but it is clearly both larger and more luxurious than any apartment you have yet found. There are couches, armchairs, small tables, and other furniture, none of which fit the duplicate forms you have seen over and over. There are paintings on the walls, although their colors are faded and they are too covered in dust to recognize their content. Some of the smaller items in the room are in disarray and there are a few open horn valises with rotting clothes inside, but there are no signs of looting. Near the door is a collection of bones, obviously from multiple skeletons. Four separate doors, three with gray-coded locks, exit the room, while the door from the main hall and one other has an uncoded pressure panel by it.
This five room suite served as the apartment for the commander and his family. Everything therein is disordered from the frantic plague days, but nothing has been looted. The main room is the living room and reception area. There is nothing worth looting here.
An Investigation of 10+ (may replace with Nature if desired) reveals that there are three separate adult skeletons in the room; on 15+ that they were close together and then collapsed on or near one another in death, but none of the bones show any signs of force or violence.
7a. Personal chamber of the commander.
Investigation wrote:
This appears to be a combination of a bedroom and work area, for in addition to the large bed there is a small desk with drawers, as well as a vanity with a dusty mirror and washbasin. Two doors lead out of the room with press panels, to the living area and exterior hallway. There is an interior door with neither a card lock nor a pressure panel, just one of the flat pearl panels. The basin has a strange metal tube projecting above it, a lever, and a dial. There is a small cabinet set into the wall projection that holds the mirror, and several rivets are on the side of the mirror.
The commander had the luxury of heated running water, but this is no longer working. The special mirror lights are still functioning, however, as well as a local camera system that will allow the mirror to display the head from any angle, including from behind. Inside the cabinet are a number of small vials with colognes and tonics as well as two small capsules - these are cyanide, and if ingested will result in instant death with no saving throw for any animals of up to size M. A DC20 Con save is allowed for creatures of Size L (success = poisoned for 2 hours), DC15 at Huge and DC10 at Gargantuan).
Investigation wrote:
The desk has two sliding drawers on one side, while the other side has a large, cubic metal section which appears to be some sort of strong box like the one in the security control room. There is not a card lock, however, just a smaller version of the pearl-colored door panels.
Inside the top drawer is the empty molded receptacle for a blaster pistol as well as slots to hold seven key cards. One of each of the colors (jet, brown, violet, yellow, orange, red, carefully placed in order) is present except for gray.
Inside the bottom drawer is a stack of faded and degraded papers with still-visible alien script on them. Shuffling through the papers will reveal the presence of a gray card. Translating the papers will reveal that they are once-formal certificates and commissions of rank: Ensign, Lieutenant Junior Grade, Lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander, and Commander, all with the same name but progressive dates. A seventh paper of a different but equally formal design gives a current posting as “Section Commander of the Starship Herminia” and an eighth, which is text only without fancy scrollwork, records the field promotion to Acting Captain of the independent section “until such time as the current medical crisis is resolved and the ship sections are reunited.”
The safe is plasteel which might (Arcana DC15) be recognized as the same substance that the door of the small arms locker was made from. It can be opened only by means of lasering the lock mechanism for six charges from a laser weapon (or one charge from a laser drill), for the lock was keyed to the thumbprint of the commander. Inside are a small black pouch with 100 diamonds encased in plastic cubes worth 10 g.p. each (these are emergency funds), and a small packet with a pearl square on it (for the commander’s thumbprint). If the latter packet is opened without deactivating it, it will explode for 50 h.p. damage in a 10’ radius (opener gets no save, others in the blast radius DC15 Dex save for half). The packet will detect weakly as an explosive to an atmospheric analyzer, as will the entirety of the interior of the safe. Also inside the safe is a heavy-stock paper with orders regarding the ship’s destination and activities; Starting from its home planet of “Terra”, the “exploration-colonization” ship was to visit a number of “stellar-system outposts” to take on crew and materials, and then visit a number of systems known to contain life, collect representative samples of flora and fauna, and finally end at an uninhabited planet, Xi Ursae Majoris, explore it, and begin the process of “colonizing and terraforming” it using “Terran flora and fauna, exo-species collected en route, and whichever genetic modificants of the previous have been deemed most appropriate by mission scientists.” If the packet explodes while the paper or diamonds are in hand, the papers will be destroyed and the gems scattered throughout the room. Finding the first five diamonds will take no time and require an Investigation score of 5; each successive lot of five looked for will require an additional one minute and a further +1 to the Investigation score. If multiple people search, the PC with the highest Investigation mod rolls, and adds one for each person helping, but the time required does not decrease.
The panel on the storage closet is set for the commander’s hand print; forcing it open by some means reveals clothing in fair shape, a needler pistol with four clips of ammunition, and much worthless junk.
7b. Private lounge and dining area
The door to the reception area is gray-locked on this side, pressure paneled on the other.
The door to the outside hallway is pressure-plated from this side, red-locked from the other.
Investigation wrote:
This room, a small but luxurious dining area, is nicely furnished and appointed. All is intact. The furniture (table and chairs) are similar to those seen before, but seemingly of a different mold - heavier and more ornate. On a sideboard are six crystal flasks with bright, exotic colors, possibly liquors or even potions.
1. Is a deadly poison (DC18 Con save: failure is death in one minute, success is poisoned for two hours)
2-4. Excellent and highly intoxicating liquors. If a more than a shot glass is drunk, the drinker is restrained for one hour.
5. Sense of euphoria; +1 to Dexterity for 10 minutes after consumption of 1 ounce; maximum benefit of +2 but at three or more tachycardia and 5 points of necrotic damage for each ounce drunk; flask has 20 ounces initially.
6. Tastes excellent but causes double vision (-2 on attacks, -2 to AC) and slurred speech from ten minutes to thirty minutes after drinking.
7c. Master Bedroom
Investigation wrote:
This was obviously a bedroom. Other than the distinctiveness of furniture compared to all of the previous black- and violet-keyed apartments, there is nothing remarkable. There are many drawers of clothing and the like. On one table is strangely-shaped artwork in metal.
What appears to be a tin spaceship on a table is actually a 100 g.p. platinum commendation.
7d. Retreat
Investigation wrote:
This appears to be a lady’s drawing room or boudoir. In it are a divan, dressing table, small desk, and several stuffed chairs. A skeleton lies on the divan. Behind the dressing table is a glass-doored jewelry case.
This is the personal retreat of the commander’s wife. Inside the jewelry case are 4 rings (value 200, 75, 30, and 5 g.p. respectively), 6 bracelets (2 are worth 100 and 60 g.p. respectively, three are merely ornamental leatherwork, and the last is actually a communication device that no longer functions), and 3 necklaces (one set with 7 aquamarines worth 50 g.p. each, jewelry value 400 g.p., the other two ornamental wirework without gems).
A shoe near the skeleton hides her grey color card - this can be found by an investigation of 15+ on the skeleton, or 12+ if specifically looking for a card or examining her clothes. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
This room appears to be a living area, but it is larger than any apartment you have yet found. There are four couches, an armchair, a long, low table, and other furniture, none of which fit the duplicate forms you have seen over and over. Much of the smaller furniture - small tables and display stands, cabinets and such, has been knocked over or smashed. Nothing is obviously taken, and it looks more like a fit of rage or violence than looting. Near the door is a single skeleton. There are no exits apparent.
This place is basically intact. The main room is a living/reception room. There is nothing of value.
8a
Perception or Investigation wrote:
This room is a small but well-appointed dining area. All is intact. The furniture (table and chairs) are similar to those seen before, but seemingly of a different mold - heavier and more ornate. On a sideboard is a single six crystal flasks with a liquid inside of a deep amber color. Inside the hall door is a press panel to leave, but the two interior doors have red card locks.
This is the personal lounging and dining area. A bottle of liquor on the buffet is treated with a drug (telol) to cause persons imbibing it to tell the absolute truth for three minutes - treat it as being under the effects of a Zone of Truth, with no save. Not speaking is not a possibility, but if one under the influence can win a contested Deception vs. Persuasion check, they may speak truthfully about a subject only tangential to what they are being asked for one minute at a time. One dose is equal to one ounce, and there are 7 ounces left.
8b
Perception or Investigation wrote:
This appears to be a solar or private work area. In addition to a divan and stuffed chair, there is a long desk and a hard chair. There is a case with a few books - surely an oddity, and the first you have seen on the ship. The door to the dining room has a press panel on this side.
The covers of the books are fine leather, but greatly mouldered, and the pages appear very brittle. It will be hard to keep these intact inside a backpack. They are all in the alien script.
If translated, the book titles are:
The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence
On Combat: The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace
The Art of Systemic Intrusion
Mental Dominance
The Gentle Art of Persuasion
Sharpening the Warrior’s Edge: The Psychology & Science of Training
Civil Disobedience
The desk has two sliding drawers which contain dark glass slates like those in the medical room. There is also a press plate on the side of the desk.
Inside the panel are three orange cards and a blaster pistol whose power disc has shorted and ruined it so as to make it permanently unworkable.
8c
[quote="Perception or Investigation"]This small closet or access room has pressure panels by both doors, two intact crates, and a standing wardrobe. The crates and the wardrobe are of cave horn.
The crates are empty but intact. The wardrobe contains two dress uniforms. Except for the absence of medals, they are identical to the one found in the security chief’s office, and this will be recognized by a History check (DC12+) if asked for.
8d
Perception or Investigation wrote:
This is obviously a bedroom, although the bed is of a form not seen before on the ship, then night stands heavier and more ornate. The door to the hallway opens with a press panel, the interior door requires a red card. There is a skeleton on the floor, sprawled near the bed.
A Nature or Investigation check (10+) on the skeleton will find the left arm broken and the front of the skull smashed in.
Under some rags near the skeleton (Perception 10+) is a small metal box with two buttons, orange and red, a dial, and a grille. It is a command control for police robots, but the voice command is keyed to the chief, so it is useless. If the orange and red buttons are pressed simultaneously, all police robots within 30’ are shut off until the control box is beyond the 30’ range. If either button is pressed separately, it will call police robots (1 (orange) or 2 (red)) - or release those shut down. It can be used only 7 times before it malfunctions and is ruined. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
9. WILL O’ WISPS Note: 5E Will o' Wisps do have official stats, but they are undead, not fey
There is a 2 in 6 chance that 1 or 2 will be away roaming the corridors to the east but will return in 3-30 rounds (roll for each separately). If multiple wisps are present, only one will be visible.
Investigation or Perception wrote:
Apart from the violet-locked door and slightly more spacious interior, this room initially appears the same as any number of other looted apartments you have already seen. There is an exterior entertaining area with two divans, a low table, and some cabinets, as well as a large collection of refuse in the corners. An open doorway leads to a small interior bedroom.
However, as you enter the room, you notice an intact skeleton sprawled on the floor beyond the furniture, near the doorway to the bedroom.
Assuming the characters are turning on lights as they enter rooms, the single visible wisp will not be immediately obvious. On a perception roll of 10+, the character will perceive a slight glow or trick of the light around the body, but will know that it is hard to discern in such a bright light. If the characters do not immediately turn off the room lights, an invisible wisp (if present) will move into the wall panel, shorting the circuitry and causing the lights to flicker and then go out.
If the room is dark wrote:
You can see clearly a thin small light hovering in the air. It appears to be floating several feet above the chest of the skeleton.
Once the wisp has the attention of the party, it will drift over to the cabinet and then slowly bob in front of a drawer. If the characters open it, they will find a bent tubular section of cave horn, about eight inches long and three in diameter. There is a metal dish on one end. Across the back are 2 colored plates - red and blue. Above these is a fine metal net, set in the handle. In the butt is a fine crack going all around the handle. A pull on the base opens the power disc compartment, which currently has three charges.
If the party seems to be taking the time to use the translator, the wisp will wait, and then whisper once communication is established that it is the spirit of a crewman technician who was killed in the plague. He is gifting the translator to the party in the hopes that they will take his body to a nearby room, a room that held great significance to him in life, and they will perform whatever funeral services they can over it. He says that he believes doing so will release his soul’s attachment to the ship and free him to travel to the afterlife. If the party agrees to this, it will lead them to the nearest room 13, just north of the spiders, and in the course of the funeral service hopefully expose them all to lethal levels of radiation. It will then whisper its thanks and “pass on” (go invisible). From that point on all wisps present will follow the characters invisibly, feeding on their pain and suffering from the radiation sickness or combat or both.
If the party take the translator without using it, or ignore it, the wisp will drift to the door and attempt to lead them to room 13, hovering over card locks and such.
If the wisp is attacked, or if the party starts searching the room and recovering their treasures, all wisps present will go invisible on one round and then attack on the next. They will all attack the same character, a random one at first and then in subsequent rounds whichever character has hit them for the most damage. If any character drops to 0 hp they will all use their Consume Life bonus action at the next opportunity. Any of the wisps brought to 5hp or fewer will flee.
Note that the wisps are invisible (advantage to attack, disadvantage to be attacked) but not hidden (they may be targeted but not seen). They will attack while invisible if possible, even if this means attacking only every other round. When they are visible after attacking but have movement left, they will use their incorporeal movement to evade attacks, for example passing through walls into adjoining rooms.
These monsters have a collection of shiny materials (stainless steel tableware, reflectors, chrome fittings, etc.). Amongst this collection are 2x10 gp gems and 6x5 gp gems. Note that all treasure is mixed up in a jumble of junk, furnishings, and the like spread throughout the two rooms, and one item of actual value will be found at Investigation 15, with one more for each point above it to a maximum of 22. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
10. SHRIEKERS AND FUNGI:
The entire length of the passageway for the northern vegepygmies is spread with a layer of rotting vegetation (mostly their own waste and bodies of dead companions). In that thick humus layer grow edible mushrooms which they harvest. At the very ends are d4+4 shriekers each. These they do not feed on, treating them rather as guards. They are adept at stepping around them without setting off their alarm. The vegepygmies in the rooms nearest the ends of their hallway can be ready for combat on the round after the shriekers sound. Since the fungi are from offworld, no Nature or Survival roll will recognize them as edible, but a failed roll (7 or less) will result in an incorrect belief that they are poisonous. A pound of mushrooms may be harvested with ten minute’s work per character, to a maximum of 20 pounds per ten foot square or 300lb for the length of the hall. Twenty pounds of mushrooms are equivalent to a day’s ration. These twenty pounds may easily be reduced to ten through drying over a fire, or even to two pounds if the PC’s think to use the ovens in the kitchens.
Shriekers have official 5E stats. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
11. Northern Vegepygmies
These creatures are the result of russet mold infecting humanoid life forms (the original crew members). The mold itself was created when experiments in fast-growing, semi-sentient algae were accidentally irradiated. The vegepygmies get their energy from the overhead lighting of the ship, but are able to add new body mass (and thus grow and propagate) only with the supply of nutrients from the mess halls and occasional hunting.
The mottled gray-brown coloration of the northern tribe enables them to blend with ship walls in many areas, so as to receive the bonus to stealth checks listed for "matching coloration".
There are 4 vegepygmies per 10’ of room space, 1 of each size from 1 HD to 4 HD, and 1 jet black color card. They act in concert, and if fighting occurs, a call will always go out for their fellows to join the battle if the combatants survive the initial round. The minor vegepygmies have nothing of value.
The northern vegepygmies are aggressive but use their defensive coloration to full effect. If any attack on their colony is repulsed, most of the wounded and at least one full room of unwounded 'pygmies will pursue the party at a distance, waiting to strike them from ambush. They will harry them with surprise missile assaults and then withdraw in the face of opposition, so long as the intruders remain in their territory, which they consider the entire northern half of Level I apart from the central block. If intruders are found in one of their mess halls, however, they will not harass the foes, but will rather attack at once and without thought for their own survival, although they will send one or two of their number back to the colony for reinforcements.
If a pursuit group tracks the party to a room, they will set up outside it, moving debris around to conceal themselves and gaining advantage on their Stealth rolls. In this case, any group of wandering encountered vegepygmies rolled will stay in the area and join the ambush. They will not force doors.
The northern group of vegepygmies make no provision for their wounded, but slain individuals are carried back to the colony and their bodies used to grow the humus layer in the hallway. Should there be a large number of dead after a major assault, they will be entwined into barricades on one or both ends of the hall to provide cover for defenders. _________________ My campaigns are multilayered tapestries upon which I texture themes and subject matter which, quite frankly, would simply be too strong for your hobbyist gamer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mp7Ikko8SI
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Canonfire! is a production of the Thursday Group in assocation with GREYtalk and Canonfire! Enterprises
