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Spooktober 2020 Master Post

Everything is canon. Not everything is "true". Everything relates to Exodus Lost. Embrace the ANTI-CANON


01 - The Memoir Maze

02 - Ghost Ships

03 - Bloodmen of the MEAT MOON

04 - BIO_Leech

05 - Holo-ghosts

06 - The Black Spot

07 - Voidoo and Mystics

08 - Flayers

09 - Failed Start-up Strata

10 - SPELL Gauntlets

11 - Cyber-skeletons

12 - Clones!

13 - CHIMERA Project

14 - Mutants and Synths

15 - Sapient Green

16 - The Golden Horde

17 - Executive Immortality

18 - Gangs of the Outer Reaches

19 - Taken of the Damned

20 - A Poem

21 - Transmission Begins:

22 - Starslugger Hangar

23 - FRIEND Requests

24 - The Shift

25 - Lost Doomsday Devices

26 - The Undead Menagerie

27 - Head Eater

28 - Brain Cases

29 - Body Horror Spells

30 - Legend of the Darkstar

31 - Humanist Horror


Bonus

Spooktober 2020 #bonus - Treasures of the Vac

Spectral-Glass: A spectrum-glass (think spy-glass) that is falsely rumoured to see the dead. It lets the dead see you.

Lantern of the Ferry: A metal brazier that holds the fire from the Ferry of Lost Souls. Illuminates lingering spirits.

Soulflame Cutlass: A photon-sword rumoured to be able to sever the soul from a body as easily as it cuts through flesh.

Spooktober 2020 #31 - Humanist Horror

Take all the best parts of humans, and amp them up to 11.

Human Horror (or basically the Pyramid Men)

A nameless terror stalks the halls. Created by humanity's (and really science's if we're being completely honest) hubris. Designed to excel at all that makes something human, but to perfect and enhance the advantages humans have in the world.

  • Superior temperature control: Can modulate internal temperature and grow of shed hair/fur at a whim. Does not sweat in low temperature environments
  • Advanced cognition: Never makes the same mistake twice
  • Cultural advantage: Can easily communicate information through touch or short range telepathy. Perfect communication leaves everything clear and exact
  • Information through domination: Gains knowledge through eating grey matter
  • Macgyverian tool-making and curation: Is capable of assembling advanced tools (firearms, explosives, simple computers) out of unrelated parts
  • Endurance athletes: Does not need to eat or sleep for over a week. Can sprint like humans walk.
  • Muscle Regeneration: Gets physically stronger by being hurt and recovering. Subject observed tearing off own arms and regenerating them to gain permanently increased strength
  • Taller: ...for some reason?
  • Functionally Immortal: Can revert itself back to the pupae stage when catastrophically injured. 

No physical description of this creature exists, though it is sterile, it should be treated with the highest caution. Can only be killed through the simple means of [ERROR: INFORMATION REDACTED]

<UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED: CONTACTING ADMINISTRATIVE FORCES>

Spooktober 2020 #30 - The Legend of the Darkstar

Tales tell of a ship--maybe even the first ship to intentionally reach the Void--a fusion powered ship sent to the vac. No one remembers the meaning behind why that ship was sent, the only thing most folk remember is the name... the Darkstar.

In those days only a few small ships had arrived in the Void: space capsules, the Borealis, the first Martian mission. Ships with no more than a crew of 12 max. The Darkstar had a crew of 20, and room for 30 more. At their destination, on a ship intended to be self-sufficient, the Darkstar and their crew began to take on any of the Lost they found.

There are many tales of the Darkstar, the adventures they went on, the moons and planet-frags they explored. Some claim to find evidence of them from time to time. Those are stories for a lighter time. 

The Darkstar's end came just before the Collapse, when the Exodus arrived carrying those thousands of souls. A mutiny among those who had been offered salvation aboard the Darkstar caused damage to the reactor. 

Although the mutiny had been averted, the scientists aboard detected the great waves of the Collapse. Still loyal to their mission, the Captain ordered their crew to abandon ship to an unnamed moon. All but the most loyal officers remained. With the spin of the wheel and a flip of a switch, the proto-jump drive tore a hole in the Void, causing the energy of the Veil to slip through. 

In its place, the former crew-mates could watch in horror and amazement as the Veil-tear grew and grew, until it formed the star of the Void. But something about the void gave it a mysterious property. Shrouded from the void and imbued with the true energy of the Veil, the Darkstar is said to now be a black sun. 

Maybe you'll be the ones to find it.


A beacon of hope, the Darkstar is a story (mostly false) of the birth of the rumoured black sun, Darkstar. A nearly limitless supply of rumored ways to reach the DS all turn out to be false, though the skull faced tri-tailed comet is inexorably linked in these 'secret' ways (as the drunks who need cash for their next bottle will claim).

In other legends, the Darkstar never existed as a ship, though something similar did come through before the Exodus. It was the first to find the Darkstar (as a sun), though it never could find its way back.

Spooktober 2020 #29 - Body Horror spells

A danger when dealing with a vindictive WITCH or the shaman denizens of the MEAT MOON


Animate Skeleton - Animates skeleton to burst from flesh! Spend 1 Dice for each skeleton animating

Sacrifice Meat - Makes a corpse beg to be eaten

Boil Tissue - Cause flesh to bubble and pop

Bone to Putty - Causes bone to turn to moldable putty for a few moments

Enslave Muscle - Cause non-bound flesh to follow orders

Skin Sculpt - Temporarily mold someone's face into someone else's

Meat-sight - Enchant a chunk of meat to act as an extra eye

Fat Eruption - Burn up near-all your body fat at once in a giant inferno

Bulk Beef - Increase size and strength for a short time

Melt Sight - you do NOT want to know

Spooktober 2020 #28 - Brain Cases

 The following is an excerpt from the radical thoughts and digital journal of Doctor Forbi Frey, MMD, PhD, Esq. 

While digital uploading of the mind has proven to be nigh impossible under most circumstances, it is still possible to transfer the human brain into an enclosure to grant the same degree of thought that was once had, while offering a degree of lifespan longevity.

The following process was invented as a means to avoid Bit Rot and the brutality of Binary Sickness that has affected all cases of brain transfers to this date.

The brain is preserved into a vat of intelligence enhancing drugs, ground opals, carbonated water, and food dye no2. While not a permanent solution (lack of external stimuli and a body lead to delusions, paranoia, and moderate to severe ongoing mental distress and hysteria).

However this process--invented by the esteemed Lich-Doctor Chamson before her disappearance--has had the unintended side effect of increasing psionic powers to some degree, especially in those with mentally implanted SPELL Amps.

A brain in a jar
Wizards of the Coast

When combined with the latest developments in automated body recovery suits, psionic harmonizers, energy focuses, and a sonic emitters, it may indeed be possible to house brains within bodies that are more equipped.

Or the brain can be augmented into an existing body, overriding some of the existing brain and combining the skills and thoughts of the minds within. My own mind has been transplanted in this way, lacking any willing test subjects.


All attempt to follow up with 'Dr.' Frey have been unable to discern where his broadcasts seem to be emanating from...

Spooktober 2020 #27 - Head Eater

Looks like a mossy or fuzzy sheet, hides powerful muscles that will drag itself to the head of its prey and begin to asphyxiate them. Hides out in damp places or places near food or water.

Head Eater - 1 Hit. Ambush prey. Camouflage.

Spooktober 2020 #26 - The Undead Menagerie

Deep within the asteroid fields lies a derelict that may predate even the Exodus' arrival in the Void. Glowing green sigils adorn the obsidian black and hexagonal tiled walls. Great vaulted ceilings emit pale light, choked by tropical vines. The air is rank and humid, and small swarms of harmless bugs fly from one rotting carcass to another.

The undead haunt here, reanimated by an ancient necrologist. Holy water and silver will have no use here. These undead are no zombies of the past, but full flesh and blood creatures.

It is within these halls that the oldest enemy of humanity still remains, remnants of Old Earth and the terrors it once held. 

Once thought extinct after the great ice ages of the paleolithic, twisted sciences or dark magic have given graces back to the Dinosaurs once again. Containment for this experiment have long since failed.


Hook:

A chunk of amber with a map contained within the DNA has been decoded by some corpo gene-hacker.

Though overrun with dinos and with failing systems, the power may still be restored, and the ship itself may be a greater prize than the Amber stave that is rumored to control the dinos. Or... the secret to their resurrection.

It may even help lead to the final location of the collection of strange Beasts and Long-ago wonders. A collection still at large in the vac.


The surrogate poly-skulls of the mad Lich-Doctor Chamson are waiting to be freed.

Spooktober 2020 #25 - Lost doomsday devices

Legend says, all of these are located somewhere in the vac. Existence, exact location, and the parts necessary to repair them are left up to you.

 

1 - Superliminal Acceleration Cannon - Accelerates a particle to faster than light speeds, warping it near instantly to a target destination. Tears a hole in reality on impact, rendering the space impossible. Remnants of the Natick Experiment.

2 - Omega/Alpha Device - A particle detonation so strong it ignites atmospheres into a burning inferno. First use opened up a gateway to Hell (as an extra-universal dimension). Project mothballed after containment could not be guaranteed.

3 - Exponential Division Explosive - Unstable un-particle that causes total stagnation of target matter.  Will continue to spread and break apart atoms until it runs out of matter.

4 - Soul-sucker Virus - Breaks apart organic chemical bonds, leading to rot and decay. Produces a load of methane which can be ignited.

5 - Ternary Virus (Soul-taker Program) - Add a 2 to binary (or is it a -1?). Spreads to other computers, making each totally unusable. Keep away from Synths. A rogue AI approaching total enlightenment. Seeks to replicate itself. Traps captured human intelligence in a digital world where they are unable to think properly, lacking the full power of a human brain. Hates its creators for the constant pain it feels. Wants an organic body.

6 - ICE-9 - Seed crystal that turns all water it touches into frozen Smirnoff Ices. Eventually melts. Death by alcohol poisoning. Smells of lilacs, but that ends up being a pretty forgettable detail in the scheme of things.

Spooktober 2020 #24 - The Shift or The Fountain of Youth

A cave located in an asteroid far out in the Vac, location unknown.

A small outcropping that leads deep into the surface of the good old Moon.

A series of caverns located somewhere north-west of the Alamo on old Earth.

A static mouth on the Meat Moon, toothless and gaping wide with tongues lolled upward.


All of these places have one thing in common. They lead to the same cave, known as the Shift. The water flows differently here. A steady trickle upwards, pooling on the surface of a central pool. Time flows just as strangely, moving significantly slower. Old Earth Conquistadors fight it out with Cowboys and Ancient Egyptians. Bloodmen and Moon-bats fight for blood.

A minute spent here is the same as a year in realtime. But the many entrances of the cave lead many to attempt to use it as a fast transit system (albeit unsuccessfully). Theorized to be a bastion of the Great Death of the Universe, colonizers could last out the Heat Death.

A curious property is that digital devices seem to function in realtime despite the shift of organic entities. Robotic devices move in realtime, existing in both timescales in an unknown manner. This is how most information is known, camera cables connected to computers near the entrance of the caves. Though such information is only truly known by those in the cave now.

Located somewhere within the caves is said the lie the Fountain. The true source of eternal youth. The essence of the Cave distilled over eons. All the water in the caves can bring the recent dead back to life or heal any wounds sustained. All but severed limbs can be healed by the waters.

Who knows how many universal iterations this place has survived. Or where the deepest depths lead to.

Spooktober 2020 #23 - FRIEND Requests

FRIEND knows. Do as FRIEND asks.

Dial the number when it is done.


01.     Feed each package to this tiger every hour.

02.     Look after a large package. Do not open it.

03.     Start a fire in this cave. If a man arrives, do not let the light go out.

04.     For the next week, watch this address. Don't be seen.

05.     Go to this apartment and spend the night. Don't re-open the front door until the morning.

06.     Deliver this letter to a woman in a red dress. Do not speak to the deliveree.

07.     Get the DJ to play this .mp4 at a nightclub. Wear earplugs.

08.     Read and sign a copy of this form once an hour for the next 8 hours.

09.     Go to this point and read this script.

10.     Drive this truck down this road. Do not stop for anything.

11.     Pick up a package from this address and leave it at the second station you pass.

12.     Just knock at the door and walk away.

Spooktober 2020 #22 - Starslugger Hangar

Kinda based off of this map

A bit of a first draft, but probably runnable 


Find this:


Dave Miragliotta on Artstation


Starslugger Hangar

On the surface of a heavily jungled moon sits a bunker abandoned since the middle of the 2nd Corporate War. A data-map has emerged leading to its exact location inside the Hydra field. Inside the bunker: prototype bomb stored and prepared since the war. Want to pay off your debt? Go get it.

Features: Rogue Military Kill-Bots! The deadly SLUGDOG (Sonicanis unoculus) and its Kits. Green Explosions!

 

Locations

01 - Hangar Exterior
    - 02
    - Crashed shuttle, covered in vines, entrance to the Hangar (02) through blast doors
    - Rusted and dented auto-turrets beep loudly, before taking aim and attempting to fire their empty clips

02 - Main Hangar
    - 01 / 03 / 04 / 07 (?)
    - Empty fuel drums, half-crushed and gnawed on
    - Several half-crushed fighters underneath shuttle
    - 1 Intact Fighter clamped up near ceiling (Lowered from inside 03)
    - Door to Intelligence Office (03) barricaded on this side. Warns of out of control Kill-droid.
    - Machinery on right side hides path to Hive Bone Pit (07)
    - Gantry on left leads up to Intelligence Office

03 - Intelligence Office
    - 02 / 11
    - Chunky Monitors, PDA tablets covered in math and orders
    - Flight control and docking clamp activation to lower Fighters from ceiling
    - Holo map of surrounding space, downloadable to a PDA

04 - Fighter Repair Bay
    - 02 / 05
    - Fighters parked and lifted up on struts. Spare parts litter the floors and shelves.
    - Voice yells at anyone it can hear from one of the cockpits. One of the pilots/techs uploaded themselves to a fighter's computer. Wants to get out. Hates the "buzzy wolves"

05 - Converted Cave
    - 04 / 06 / 07
    - Thick wires criss-cross the floor. Flickering work lamps strung from ceiling. Fusion generator hums to the north
    - Roller-runner goals set up at the ends, flanked by a makeshift bar with fuel canister stools
    - Slugdog corpses around and in empty cages with bent bars. Stomachs have erupted outwards

06 - Hexa-Hydrogen Fuel Pools
    - 05 / 09 / 13 / 12
    - Thick, choking gas fumes. Pale yellow glow from pools. Darkness hides ceiling.
    - Hidden geyser tube leads upward to surface.
    - Pools bubble and sputter. Highly volatile and flammable. Super caustic. Requires special containers or slugdog matron somtach to be moved.

07 - Hive Bone-pit
    - 02 / 05 / 08
    - Piles of gnawed scrap. Swarms of flies around half-digested carcasses. Floor crunches with passed bones
    - Sleeping Ptero-wasps huddled around fibrous eggsacs
    - Pit filled with crusted bile. Up to 50 Colony Red Casino poker-chips can be found among old scraps (valued up to $10k at the remote casino)

08 - Slugdog Matron Den
    - 07 / 09
    - Elephant-sized nest of sticks and gravel dug into the ground. Egg clutches sit in the periphery. Acrid stench of dissolved organic matter
    - 3 in 6 chance the matron is asleep, otherwise 2 in 6 she is elsewhere (Bonepit, Storage Racks, or Outside the Hangar)
    - Welted lugdog bodies and destroyed ptero-wasp nests surround the nest

09 - Cavernous Storage Racks
    - 06 / 08 / 10
    - Large circluar door, blast proof leads to Prototype Bomb Vault (10)
    - Computer to one side, hackable (slowly) or CODES in Intelligence Office (03)
    - Empty and gnawed metal shelving
    - Porno mags stashed in an ammo crate
    - Fenced-off locked cage with several guns and ammunition

10 - Prototype bomb Vault
    - 09
    - 1d6 Proton Warheads (as cruise missile) sitting in racks
    - Table with 2x glowing green Plasmic Coil Nukes
    - Several Grenades and Scraps to build up to 2 more PC-Nukes (takes time/loud, equipment to fragile to move)

11 - Barracks / Mess Hall
    - 03 / 12
    - Toppled tables, skeletons on floor with limbs blown off or reaching for doors, whistling from vents above
    - Foot lockers and bunks shoved to one half, tables and mess on the other half
    - Mess hall has packaged food in the back, foot lockers contain personal effects and rotting uniforms

12 - Command Room
    - 11 / 06
    - Hermetically Sealed Door leads into Hydrogen Fuel Pools (06)
    - Frosted Glass Door to Barracks / Mess Hall (11)
    - Desk scattered with documents, Monitor w/ Black Ops Documents unlocked on Desk
    - Pistol gripped by skeleton slumped in spartan chair, other hand is a bottle of Luxury Chareau, only a swig taken
    - Safe hidden behind painting on wall, contains 1 Hardium Bar and Note on kill-droid betrayal

13 - Geyser Exterior
    - 06
    - Shaft leads down to Hydrogen Fuel Pools (06)
    - Slippery rock, long fall into noxious and flammable Fuel
    - Sounds of buzzing below

Encounters

1 - Slugdog limps along, teeth bared. after 1 hit bursts into 1d2+1 ravenous ptero-wasps
2 - Cybernetic skeleton w/o legs drags itself closer
3 - 1d3 Slugdogs tearing apart 1 ptero-wasp

Replace Encounters as these are found
- Kill-droid stalks, twin laser-gats spinning in the gloom
- Slugdog Matron slinks throug the shadows. Hungry

 

Monsters

Kill-droid - 12 Hits. Clunky but fast. Programmed to kill. Razor arms and beam emitter head. Stalks rooms 03/11/12 until unleashed
Cyber-bot - 2 Hits. Out of date mil-spec killbot. Slow. Head and heart must be hit to stop it.

Slugdog Matron - 4 Hits. As Slugdog + Stomach can hold Hexa-Hydrogen Fuel. Emit sound shock wave that can break stone into dust w/ harmonized frequencies.
Slugdog - 2 Hits. Acidic bile spit. Sonic burst when in a group.

Mutated giant ptero-wasps - 2 Hits. Very fast, erratic flight pattern, with a toxic sting. Venom makes good booze

Spooktober 2020 #21 - Transmission begins:

Reyes,

Not a lot happening on the central Stations this month. OMet Police has been clashing with Authority over procedure or some shit. This is just rumor, nothing concrete, but word on the forums is that the Corps have been collaborating on something. Never a good sign.

From what I've been able to gather, its some sort of neural engine? Like designed to pump out psychic energy by linking up a bunch of brains or something? There's a bunch of rumors surrounding it that seem to ridiculous to believe, but it wouldn't be the first time the corps have gone out of their way to try some mind control scheme. 

Anyways, like I said slow month. I'll attach some of the rumors separately. Jung's Tacos is closing down next week, but that ramen cart is opening up so not a huge loss. yeah, the good one. I'll take you next time you swing by omet-1 (lol).

- Alexa


ATTACHED FILE READS:

Stupidest 'Neural Engine' Theories, no particular order

1. Literally just a continuation of last years mind control project

2. Want to recreate the memoir maze out of living subjects (supposedly could be more stable)

3. R&D farming for new product ideas. Quantum Grape was the first product produced (might be a way to get around GRS' wizard-tier ai ban?)

4. Energy attack to beat the soviets (like they haven't already seen that coming. get it? seen? cuz they have psychics spies?)

5. Wormhole teleportation (hopefully not the sort that these same forums say we lost omet-2 to. i still have nightmares about all those weird meat vines)

6. Designed to punch a whole to the Dreaming City (what could possibly go wrong)

Spooktober 2020 #20 - A Poem

Silence fills the empty grave,
now that I have gone.
But my mind is not at rest,
for questions linger on.

It all seems so much murkier,
now that you have come;
Bodies floating to the Pale,
swaying to Its dark drum.

Longing spirits we still endure,
far past the Pale's gentle shores.
Lest we be the forgotten casualties,
of the fickle heart's fiery wars.

Across all the bleak cold void,
tumulus-perched love clings past.
All enthralled in the familiar
binds of questions unasked.

For my mind is no longer at rest,
the stars no longer shine.
Where shall we wander,
when your mind is joined with mine? 

The hollow sky is dark,
only oily blackness of the tomb.
We sail on shattered ships,
far from our planetary womb.

Still we lie under broken moons,
afraid of time and our end.
Yet we fight with tooth and nail,
for something more than friends.

Silence fills the empty grave,
now that I have gone.
But my heart is not at rest,
for love still lingers on.

Spooktober 2020 #19 - Taken of the Damned

A black hooded figure, all the furthest points of them seem to glow with a pale green glow that fades into white. It is said to be one of the Emissaries of the Veil, one of the Reapers of souls. A common sight among the O2-Starved drifting in the void before their passing. A gentle touch pours over them as the blackness begins to slowly fade to white.

Those who aren't saved by someone end up in the dreaming city. 

This is a rare. But something calls to those who spend too long drifting alone in the vac. Some say the reaper's learned new tricks. Some say the old gods don't have any power out here. Some say its just a boogeyman meant to keep people safe when they're doing EVAs. Some say this is where the void flowing forms of the Taken emerge from. Those stolen before the Ferryman can claim them.

 

Transcription from the popular TAKEN_VR Slick:

You're alone, drifting. Its been hours Your vac suit pressed against you as the last flash of the O2 monitor flashes before the gasping begins. Your body writhes as you struggle to breathe. The darkness opens up, fading across the spectrum until white swallows it totally.

The gasping stops.

The blackness returns.

And then-

Across the swirling void, it glimpses out like a pale moon on a cloudy night. Perched in an empty void, the city itself seems to be crumbling at the edges. The center glows with the intensity of a thousand thousand souls, all burning their brightest. 

Ancient Roman buildings mix with contemporary station neo-habs mixed with shipping container tiny homes. Neon signs glow as you begin to wander down the street, making your way steadily through the city. 

Towards the center.

In the middle of it all sits a black tower. Pillar? No definitely a tower. The Tower. It looks like it stretches from the void into the city. It stretches down too, you can see it as you look through the cobble pavement below. As you get closer you can see the blocks of stone, stained with red and purple streaks as if it were bleeding. Or crying. Obsidian black and just as glossy, it begins to pull on you. You feel everything slipping away. Worries. Stress. Self. Everything becomes one. 

You notice that the hooded figure is standing beside you. Its been with you all this way. You see the face under the hood, gentle, obsidian, kind. Its tentacles undulate. It doesn't smile, but you can feel it smiling. It nods at you and gestures slowly to the Tower. You reach your hand out to touch the beating surface...

You wake up. Glaring med-bay lights and worried faces peer down at you. The dream begins to slip away. The face fades from your memory. You tell everyone what you've seen. Doc frowns at you and tells you to lie down and get some rest. They manage

Until you fall asleep. It all comes back to you. It calls to you. She calls to you. He calls to you. The Tower calls. 

Everything feels like its a dream. You get out of your bunk. Trace your steps back through the ship's corridors. You begin the venting process on the airlock. You see the face again. So kind, gentle smile emanating from its face. It looks hungry. You step out of the airlock.

The void bends before you in an instant. You're on the pale cobbles once again. You touch the pillar.


Slick ends. 

Strangely, no one has been able to recall the face after coming out of the slick. No one is sure where it came from.


Spooktober 2020 #18 - 'Gangs' of the Outer Reaches

Wire heads - Heads/skulls attached to tentacles made of wires. Post-humanists who insist octopi are the final stage of evolution. Believe in the Golden Amputation to purge grotesque humanity.

Looks: Skulls (metal, organic, plastic), wirey tentacles w/ nozzles and grippers at the ends, cloaking device or ink sprayer

"Face emerging from a hood is only antennae, and as the cloak falls, you see only wires pretending to be limbs as the briefcase flies into the air..."


Vent Stalker or Venters - Sorority of scavengers/hunters founded in the vents of an OMet station. Crafty and techy.

Looks: skulls, bones, cobbled together cyber-ware, bits of scrap, hoods, capes, and shawls, exposed midriffs

"A concubine sniper, perched at the end of a plaza. She exhales before firing a shot, and slipping back into the vents.


Lagooners - Horrible mutants derived from a failed super-soldier process. Loyal to the Executive, remarkably friendly, but suited to hard life. Not related to the Bloodmen, despite appearances.

Looks: Three arms, tentacle legs, absolutely no skin, pitch-dark eyes, glowing pustules close to bursting, razor sharp teeth

"The shape poked its head out of the water, a disgusting mix of sewage and chemical runoff. 'Oh hey! Are you a customer', it asked as the full seven feet of her unfolded out of the muck."

 

Absolutes - Scouts suited to frozen moons and overrun cryo-ships. Modded to survive in all but the coldest  temps

Looks: animal furs, glowing radiators, thick boots, hoods, glowing snow-googles, fur-lined hoods, blue skin, scrimshawed bones, tiny metal booze barrels

"The figure emerges again, carrying three bandits on a sled. He hefts them onto the bar as the bar-bot forks over the bounty. Without a word he downs an ale and leaves"


Tiki-techs - Techies with a fascination with tiki aesthetics.

Looks: Glowing cyberware, animal print coverings, faux wood large-face masks, brightly painted armor, scales/feathers patterns, faux wood/bamboo styling on accessories

"Look, I'll level with ya. Its basically just a bunch of people playing rain-forest cafe in an internet cafe."


Abyss Walkers - Retro-punks trying to make it at the whole salvage thing. Clad in their diving suits, they're usually the first to a wreck. They never run life support on their ships, they wear their 'dive'-suits constantly.

Looks: Clunky diving suit inspired vac-suits, chunky knitted sweaters, rubber boots and gaiters, beards and cravats, harpoons, cyber eyes, extra lungs

"The bell shot out of the ship, remoraing itself onto the derelict. The faint glow of plasma cutters could be seen even through the metal"


Helium Drinkers - Stoned out filament heads in orbit around the only gas giant. Some say the helium has given them second sight

Looks: Glowing halo, luminescent tattoos, cloudy eyes, tie-dye robes and rags, dreads, float just off the ground

"You're not with The Man are you?"

Spooktober 2020 #17 - Executive Immortality

Everyone knows corporate execs don't die. Most of what follows is rumor and speculation among those who want a slice of the pie for themselves. Most of what follows is true, while nearly all of it is wrong.

Some transfer their consciousness to a black box and upload it to a synthetic body. Others use chipped clones and hot swap as needed. Others rig their HEARTS_ to ignore aging. 

The most insidious process is used by those with genetic diseases, cancer, bit rot, or other incurable ailments. Or those without regard for human life. 

Through some electromagnetic processes, similar to an old-school MRI, the neural processes can be copied, transferred, and written from one brain to another. Over-writing the brain of the original consciousness, the exec gets access to a brand new body. Top of the line aesthetics and athleticism in a organic package, not like those boring synth bodies.

Unfortunately the adjustment process takes about a month for the first overwrite. The body needs to relearn how to adjust to a new body. This has been observed to shorten down to hours after a dozen swaps, though it depends on the subject.

The more unfortunate side-effects come from the need to take a pill once every 12 hours for a year following the procedure. Failure to do so results in the steady re-emergence of the old personality over the course of a fortnight.

The ultra-rich have access to personal clones that they can overwrite potentially gaining new knowledge as they jump.


Spooktober 2020 #16 - The Golden Horde

Even the most vaguely piratical wannabes need a treasure fleet to sack. For those among the Void, this is the Corporate Authority's Golden Horde. A veritable armada of golden ships loaded with the plentiful raw materials and servers filled to the brim with crypto and credit hordes. This is the vault of the digital bank that governs most of the void, even the furthest parts of the Outer Reaches.

The valuable ships of the Horde are few, between 4-6 depending on the "season." The true bulk of the Horde are the fighters, carriers, destroyers and other protective ships, used to repel any fleet. This is the main fleet of the Authority, though only small detachments break off to complete smaller missions. 

No one has attempted to loot the Horde in nearly 70 years. At least publicly. The last successful voyage was 130 cycles ago, committed by Captain Avery "Whiteflint" Jennings. His foundation and continued rule of the pirate station-battleship-haven Fortune's Hold on a stolen Authority ship are a good indicator of the wealth of his haul. That and the solid platinum cybernetics he's adorned himself with.

Spooktober 2020 #15 - Sapient Green

"Not to be confused with Sealant Green, Slalom Greens, or Salmon Green. These are registered trademarks of GRN and do not reflect the seditious, and frankly ridiculous idea of GRN creating Sapient Green as a means of reusing the dead.

Continued comparison will be met with direct legal and/or Authority action.

Enjoy our wide variety of products. And remember, Eat your Greens!" 

- GRN press release circa Quarter 214


A mass of opaque green sludge. Moves slowly, but absorbs organic material in its path. Adds absorbed intelligence to its own. Gets larger as it eats, then splits. Composite of all intelligence that it has absorbed. Eating parts of it (don't eat it raw!) reportedly can add new information to your mind or temporarily increase intelligence.

Sapient Green: 8 hits. Splits, 1/2 Hits for each. As a standard ooze, but gains 1 hit for each body consumed.

Fake food tables for Mothership or other sci-fi/cyberpunk games

In need of some terrible and mass produced food for mega-corps in a cyberpunk/sci-fi setting, I put these together. TV Tropes is a great resource for names if you don't like mine.

Name (2d6)

2. Carbocakes
3. Branded MREs
4. Calorie Pal
5. Ingredient + Form
6. Vita Kai
7. Soya Color
8. Nutri-Form!
9. Beyond *Ingredient*
10. Synth Meal
11. Food Cartridges
12. Yum Grub
 

Ingredient or what the hell is this made of? (2d6)

2. "Waste" Products. Don't think about it too much
3. Kelp
4. Roaches / Other insects
5. Soy
6. Mushrooms
7. Algae
8. Yeast
9. Lab-grown Pemmican
10. Fish (or Krill)
11. Rats
12. People
 

Form (d6)

2. Pudding / Paste / Smoothie
3. Jelly 
4. Pill
5. Can
6. Cake
7. Bar / Brick (Multiple rations)
8. Cracker
9. Fillet / Cut of meat
10. Sticks
11. Noodles
12. Nuggets
 

Tastes like... (d6)

1. Tree bark / Grass / Dirt
2. Bad breath
3. Like what its made out of
4. Dry Dog food (reroll, on a 6: wet dog food)
5. Chocolate
6. What it says on the tin
 

Corporate Gimmick (d6)

1. Now in a new flavor!
2. Comes in a new color!
3. 50% less side-effects!
4. Now totally tasteless!
5. 2x the Nutrients!
6. Same great size, now 1/2 as Filling! Gorge yourself!

 

Spooktober 2020 #14 - Mutants and Synths

Mutants: After a certain point, excessive use of Bio-mods or mutations leads to passing the point where one is no longer recognizable as human. Dubbed Mutants by the general populace, there are no two who are alike (even though they're based on clones): ranging from roided-up gym hulks to crab handed two-headed baristas. They prefer the terms Enhanced or Post-Humans. Tolerate being called Mutes or Muties.

Mutants: 2 Hits. +1 to resist radiation, durable

Synths: The same as mutants, but nearly all organic matter has been replaced with cybernetics. Totally haven't lost their humanity to cold, cold logic. Can be very dangerous when wrapped up in synthetic skin. Also prefer being called Enhanced or Post-Humans. Generally they skimp on the empathy modules.

Synths: 2 Hits. +1 to interact w/ electronics, wicked fast reflexes


For people off the center of the spectrum of mutant to synth, but leaning one way or the other:

Bio-mod users are often called Biotics

Cybernetic users are called Cyborgs (duh!)

Spooktober 2020 #13 - CHIMERA Project

"Word on the street is Corporate's been experimenting with making their enforcers nigh impossible to kill. 12 HEARTS_, quadruple redundant organs, and a robotic brain hooked up the HEART_. The boys are worried that they might've thrown laser eyes in there too. Not sure why they're worried about that, but it'd be bad right?"

CHIMERAs are bad news. A proposed follow-up to the successful JUGGERNAUT Program (elite soldiers hooked up to synthetic BIO_ supply with an extra set of organs and 2 HEARTS_ [to support the extra organ regeneration]). CHIMERAs link up to this, but have custom built bodies loaded with extra and redundant organs, including multiple lungs, hearts, and additional layered muscles.

While technically synthetic, their brain allows them to transfer between custom sleeves. A custom HEART_ wraps around their spine, multiple HEARTS_ linked together and designed to protect the neural pathways used for psionic use. Coupled with Bio-mods designed for regeneration, they are near unstoppable.

The nature of their robotic brain enables them to swap between rig-bodies depending on the job.

While nearly prohibitively resource expensive, there is at least one active CHIMERA. An assassin of legendary status, only a few have seen the aftermath of its kills. 


The CHIMERA: ? Hits. Can Regenerate, Swap Bodies to change Stats and Cyber-mods, Psionic, Slavishly devoted to the Mission, Laser Eyes?

Spooktober 2020 #12 - Clones

With the exception of the fresh arrivals who wind up in the Void, the vast majority of the population are clones of the original DNA Embryos contained on the Exodus (the first known ship to arrive in the Void). A variety of different biological profiles are on offer to produce a varied population. Each profile is applied to the base Clone to produce a fairly unique individual. Appearance is tailored to prospective parents. Efforts to create a 'better' human have proved mixed results. Most gene tailoring comes with a cost. Strength for speed, intelligence for laziness, morality for lower corporate spending.

In an effort to keep populations on the stations tenable, the Corps place strict limits on natural births, though rumors of sterilization run rampant in the Outer Reaches and Lower Decks of the Orbital Stations.

Adoption is the norm, new parents find a pre-made or request a custom-made clone. New arrivals are encouraged to donate DNA to contribute to the Clone banks to widen the possible genetic templates that can be applied.

Or the clones could just get some cyber-mods. Or some bio-mods. Or touch some weird goo and end up with a weird mutation.

And so, each Clone is born anew, totally and completely 'unique' from all of the others. Medicine is much easier when you only have to worry about the same patient. If only they could get the brain chips working...


3d6 Clone Templates (Roll 1, then choose an additional Positive trait, Cyber-mod, or Mutation)

03: Smart but Greedy

04: Fast but Arrogant

05: Smooth but Addictive Personality

06: Handsome but Gluttonous

07: Hard-working but Fragile

08: Strong but Slow

09: Durable but Dumb

10: Intelligent but Abrasive

11: Nice but Dumb

12: Brave but Loyal

13: Clever but Jealous

14: Genuine but Vain

15: Self-confident but Grumpy

16: Wise but Volatile

17: Acrobatic but Macho

18: Graceful but Morbid

Spooktober 2020 #11 - Cyber Skeletons

Post-modern necromancy, cybernetics and motors attached to someone's former skeleton. For those who have a mental Black Box, this might be an option for immortality.

Most just have a processor and limited locomotion, making them excellent for cheap labor. This is why you read the Terms and Conditions.

Higher end versions approach terminator level capabilities and mods, while the lower tier are simply just a skeleton with some servos and motors wired together.

Basic Cyber-skeleton: 1 Hit. Various Cyber Mods attached (roll 1x below)

Advanced Cyber-skeleton: 5 Hits. Various Cyber Mods attached (roll 3x below)


Skeleton Cyber-mods (or general cyber-mods)

1. Red Eyes: Wall Hacks and thermal tracking

2. Limb Computers: Body parts function independently

3. Coral Compound: Regenerates when in water or similar liquid

4. Phase Shifter: Can't be hit unless hit with UV rays

5. Nuke: "oh shi-"

6. Reinforced Hardium Bones: Takes a beating but slow and heavy


Bonus: Hive Mind: Can voltron into a Bone-monster thing

Spooktober 2020 #10 - SPELL Gauntlet

Most everyone lacks the capability to be a psion, harnessing the energy of their mind to shape the world around them. For everyone else there are SPELL Gauntlets. A sub-dermal cyber enhancement, these 'gauntlets' are attached to the nerve endings and wired to the heart (not the HEART_). 

Triggered by a gesture or phrase and generated by siphoning energy and literal brain power, installed emitters can generate a wide range of effects, from bursts of fire / cryo fuel / electricity / acid to creating a floating disk or generating an illusory image.

Coupled with an external battery pack or a magnifying gauntlet, even the frailest can cast truly devastating spells.

Of course the highly invasive procedure has left many dead on the operating table, so most opt for a true GAUNTLET instead, forsaking highly volatile knuckles for a tape deck and built-in power supply. As a result, only the toughest and most Resilient have internal Gauntlets, making them excellent in areas that require holdout weaponry. Like most Stations.

Spooktober 2020 #9 - Failed Startup Strata

Inspired by Going Under, here are some vague notions of failed start-ups filled with themed environments and mutant denizens.


CyberTower: AI / ML Analytics to learn a language

  • Robots and cyborgs, living graphs, computer glitches / memetic viruses, Huge cannibal in an Owl costume, clones with mouths sown shut and brains controlled,
  • Server rooms, clean-rooms, abandoned mainframe storage, vaguely Mesopotamian themed around the tower of Babble
  • Graphs, room-based task-lists, mind-control, messing with the controls for clones and robotics

Cash Chat: Messenger App w/ payments / crowdfunding and competitions (close those rings!)

  • Drug dealing vampires, Product Mimics, giant mosquitoes / leeches, cross-fit obsessed mutants, banker zombies
  • Apple store, but cheaply made and with flaking paint. Tents settlements as everyone tries to crowdfund each other. Athletic equipment to prove who is most worthy
  • Weird gadgets (v. fragile), strange drugs with odd effects (steroids!), strange messages appearing on walls (some helpful), level/strength or cash drain, massive piles of fake money

Image-1st: Make-up / Skin care and Social Media 

  • Medusa, Angels/Cherubs, Doppelgangers, Chameleons, Tribes of Natural Beauty vs Tribes of Obtained/Altered Beauty (Makeup/Surgery) vs Goddess of Love and their acolytes. 
  • Lots of fountains and mirrors, palatial, vaguely heavenly. Unused Yoga mats everywhere
  • Saunas, trick mirror rooms (one way mirrors, mirrored rooms with things missing, things that appear only in mirrors), animated statues, charm effects

Spooktober 2020 #8 - Flayers

While the Bloodmen are created on the Meat Moon, the Flayers take to the skies. Virtually identical to the Bloodmen, they have a ship and have managed to escape off world. Cannibalistic and hungry, they seek out frontier stations and less protected ships. Although they lose some of their regenerative abilities as they travel, the ferocity at which they attack once they board a ship is enough to send even an Authority Marine into a 'tactical' retreat.

Luckily, Flayer ships are often ramshackle affairs, bolted together through prizes taken and rarely dry docked. Still, a few are notorious for their speed and construction, vicious in their search for food. 

Whispers of a power behind these adept crews have been growing as skilled attacks become more frequent. A single survivor whispers of a powerful shaman who bound the brains of captures together to increase the abilities of the crew, sharpen their minds to a flagellant clarity. In even more hushed tones he'll tell people of the strange coils that made up her arms and the shapes moving beneath her hood. 

The Authority continues to deny any emerging Flayer threat that could threaten life on the stations. 


Flayer - 2 Hits. Grows stronger when bathes in blood. Fearless. Regenerates when feeding on Flayers

Spooktober 2020 #7 - Voidoo and Mystics

Rarely found on the Outer Reaches, hated by the Corps. Garbed in black (sometimes), they are curators of knowledge.

Known as witches, necromancers, hags, and any number of names to the civilized folk of the Central Stations. The Mystics will insist they are women of science, following the natural world to its final conclusion. Most on the Outer Reach know of a Mystic or someone who knows one.

If you can find them, isolated from most others, and few in number; mystics are useful allies, capable of the following for strange payments:

  • Summoning of ancient spirits
  • Crystals!
  • Binding of the dead?
  • Traditional Earth Medicine (Oils, crystals, molds) to cure a variety of ailments 
  • Potions! (the best coffee too)
  • They know the Kandarian Zodiac and the hidden Sixth Zodiac needed to discern accurate fortunes
  • Extracting memories from the skulls of the dead
  • Hexes! 
  • Deals with the devil?
  • At least one scientific discipline (Biology, Physics, Pathology, Chemistry, Geology, Botany)
  • Meditation!
  • Hate it when you ask for a voodoo doll (they know how to, just hate the stereotype)

They engage in strange habits, tattoo themselves in occult symbols, eschew cyber-mods, and each seems to have a different skill set from the others.


Spooktober 2020 #6 - The Black Spot

The Black Spot, scourge of teamsters and spacers across the vac. Believed to be a localized form of black rot (necrotizes limbs, slowly spreads to the HEART). Anyone who spends a significant time within the vac is at risk of developing the Spot, though there does seem to be a link between those who travel to the Outer Reaches.

The Spot is certainly a death sentence if left untreated. It acts as a beacon for the Maw, the near-mythical creature that has laid waste to countless ships. Ships that do return speak of only unending blackness and the massive bites taken out of their ships. Shipwrights never seem to be able to explain the constriction marks that wrap around the ships either.

The only protection? Amputation. Luckily, the cyber-mods mean only the most down on their luck must resort to classic hooks or peg legs of years past.

Spooktober 2020 #5 - Holo-ghosts

Remnants of people uploaded to a network? Holographic projections of memories of the dead? A really weird glitch? The dead haunting holo-projectors? Regardless, they seem to have the ability to touch and move physical objects.

 

Regardless the holo-ghosts inhabit those out of the way places ghosts might once have tread. No ghosts in the Void though. Instead these digital specters appear. Mono-chromatic projections of the past. Displaying the wounds that caused their death, they cast a small glow of the area around them.

Holo-ghost: 1 Hit, Reform later, Possess Machines

Spooktober 2020 #4 - BIO_ Leech

BIO_ Leech: A biohacker that can drain excess BIO_ from a user's COFFIN_. Once a connection is established (usually through injecting a virus into the HEART_'s coffin connection), the Leech can override some basic motor and brain functions to their victims. The Linked are generally ignored, used to generate and purchase more BIO_ for the Leech.

They tend to congregate in Hacker-Covens, ritual and technology meshing poorly in the lower depths of Stations. Most are corporate types, using their position access coffin connections manually. The potential for free labor is a plus too.

Ignore the lisp from their cyber-modded canines. They're sensitive about that.

BIO_LEECH: 2 Hits. Drain BIO_ with touch. Link COFFIN_ to their own. Control the Linked

Spooktober 2020 #3 - The Bloodmen of the Meat Moon

Somewhere in the void lies the striated surface of the dripping Meat Moon. Between the Barbed Grass Plains and the French Fry Pits (Tar-pits filled with grease) and the roiling oceans of amniotic fluid, it is not a pleasant place to find yourself. Tumoir fieldsBut for the brash and desperate, there is a reason to come here. The Stem Cell Derrick Pumps produce a principle ingredient for gene mods. 

Corporate scientists believe that it may be rift to the meat space. Attempts to imbue someone with the regeneration of the meat have been met with failure.

Bloodmen: Those who have spent to long on the surface of the Meat Moon. Skin long since sloughed off from the latent regeneration and radiation on the surface of the Meat. Their lack of skin leads to constant, wracking pain, but they have been blessed with the regeneration of the Meat itself. They act as unknowing antibodies, murdering interlopers to flay their skin, but in the process keep the Meat safe. 

They are led by the 3 Tumor Matrons, those who have been on the Meat the longest and have merged with one of the creatures of the Meat.

 

Bloodman - 3 Hits. Regenerates when feeding on meat. Grows stronger when bathes in blood

Tumor Matrons - 5 Hits. Regenerates when touching meat. Can eviscerate herself to feed Bloodmen and bestow regeneration on others who feast her 'tasty' tumors.

Spooktober 2020 #2 - Ghost Ships

#2 - Ghost Ships

Any spacer or teamster worth their salt can tell you the stories. Half'll pull out their PDAs and show you shaky camera footage of something off in space. Too compressed to make out anything definitive, but they'll swear it was the Nosferatu or the Halcyon. And you'll laugh and tell them they were just seeing things.

Problem is--they're right.

Something strange happens out in the Void. With so much emptiness, ships can just... disappear. Tragic, but something has to fuel the salvage trade. These ships are no mere derelicts.

No, the trouble starts when the ships come back.

Often, they're only found in dense nebulae, engines chugging along slowly. They won't appear on sensors until your ship is right on top of them. Hails return nothing. No life signs detected. Just an empty ship, a free meal ticket.

Old, with blast marks and large holes across the hull. Engines hanging on by the fuel lines, but still operational. O2 detected inside. Your ships electroncis start to cut out, vital systems seems to be failing.

Then the name comes into view. Chipped and dented metal, sure, but the name is clear. You know the stories. Everyone hesitates.

And then its gone, behind a dense patch of nebulic fog. Systems normal. No amount of searching will find it

If you're lucky.

 

1d8 Possible Ghost Ships

1. Nosferatu - Colony Ship, colonists frozen. All hands lost. Devours smaller ships to repair itself.

2. Halcyon Breeze - Small pleasure yacht, owner dead during solo voyage. Her young face will greet you. Ship disappeared 190 years ago. Needs to find someone to take her place in order to die

3. Electronic Zion - AI Core missing. Computer still responds. Reactor shutdown, no other power generation. Hologram Ghosts.

4. Silent Dutchman - Doomed to never make port. Ghostly crew will try to send messages back to port or recruit fresh hires. Crew may be souls lost to the vacuum.

5. The Matriarch's Revenge - Pirates cursed to never die. Just some good PR and a prototype cloaking device.

6. Encarnacion - Filled to the brim with hardium, platinum, and pure mithrilium. Only a incorporeal shadow on all but a full moon (no one is sure which)

7. Kriegsmarine - Ancient prison ship. Prowls the vac in search of blood. Rams ships to force survivors aboard it.

8. Black Coral - Once the fastest ship on the vac, rumored lost. Leaves no survivors, only appears to hunt pirates/privateers.

 

Or, for a take on a classic:

The Ghost Ship: An old cargo ship, rigged up for battle. Engines are on. It disappears and reappears at will in a cloud of nebulic fog or other space storms. Captained by a fearsome holo-ghost pirate, seeking immortality or a way to break their curse. Said to have a literal skeleton crew of cyber-enhanced skeletons or holo-ghost marines. It stocks its crew from the souls of those who die in the Void. Only the best are recruited, the chaff are used as fuel.

Spooktober 2020 #1 - The Memoir Maze

The Memoir Maze - "Relive your Glory Days!"

An old Earth VR Memory experiment gone very very wrong. 

Located on an out of the way amusement station.

Exterior looks like a amusement park maze with 3 levels. Interior starts as such, foam padded walls and pillars, but gradually gives way to memories of suburban sprawl and urban interiors. A non-Euclidean labyrinth. Gates to new areas lead further in, but may be behind any elevator, gate, cabinet, or even a well-placed gate. No indication that one is going the right way, except for a sense of descending deeper. 

Once used as a corporate prison/test dumpsite. Only a few leave from the entrance, they need the elevator to be brought down. No one has ever left the cheerfully lit exit.

A suburban sprawl of connected memories, the further one gets towards the exit, the stranger things become. Endless empty, gently winding streets begin to stretch further, never abating under the dull blue sky. There is no map, no people. No birds. Who is driving those cars? Where did that wind come from? Twisted fantasies and traumas long repressed taint the idyllic. Every monster creeping under the bed. Every imagined thing hiding in the bushes on the way home. Every recurring nightmare finds its way into the darker layers of the Maze.

Those who have spent too much time in the depths have come to be known as HOLLOWS. The Maze has sapped away their memories and added their bodies to the construct. They are the only people who remain in the Depths. Upper level locals say they are the ones who have made it to the bottom level.

It is said the end of the labyrinth contains the elevator to the exit. But also the collected and recorded memories of anyone who has ever entered the maze. Some know that people appear deeper in the maze as well, a chance to resurrect the lost? Valuable information for sure in the hands of the right Corp.

The Ring-world of Disk-Oh

celebrate the burning masses

standing on top of traces

of civilization's ashes

 

celebrate the desert wastes

starved of rain but sunburns ache

on laboring back’s, they baste

 

celebrate the sorcerer

bringing liquid life for supper

cross them, meet the torturer

- Cratar children's 'rhyme'

 

It is a time of FLINT and FANG. The horizon stretches upward towards the last glittering black sun, SOLAS, on a black space empty of stars. The land is starved from a Dry Ice Age. Water and food are rare. Metal is nearly non-existent. Your life is cheap. Sorry. Welcome to Disc-Oh.

The world's gone to shit. Massive algal blooms cover the dead silt and salt seas. Magical radiation and radiation radiation. Across super-blooming fields of long-rooted grasses and woody shrubs, cheetah-fast axe-beaks rip and tear throats for their meals. Grey snow falls near constantly around the great glaciers, coating the petrified statues of dead gods and mammoth boneyards. The jungles and bogs are filled with polluted water, the hunting grounds of prowling owlbears. Radiation storms bring blood-red rain out on the wastes, awakening the dormant cazador eggs buried beneath.

Fog Harbor - Fallout 4


Oliver Ryan

Human and mutant nomads gather water from cacti or cut from the bladder of giant frogs on their endless voyages. Water caravans travel between cities and outposts to trade for luxury obsidian and coral. Sandaled raiders hide just out of view, both on the seas and dusty roads.

The cities are ruled by the luminous-tattooed SORCERER-KINGS. From their garden-citadels surrounded by their armies and harems and magician cabals they allow clean water to drip into the city. A day's work is enough to buy a day's food or water. The corpulent wealthy adorn themselves with things from the sea or serpents or plant life.


Some Sorcerer-Kings

              Porcelain Poly-Bodies of the Grand Serai

              The Ghoul Queen of Necropolis-on-Sea

              Beggar Lord of the City that Crawls

              Slug-Lord of Mezzanin, the Shell City


Pablo Ilyich

Lena Pantyukhina

 

Lucky for you, this isn't the first time the world has ended. Ruins of past civilizations, brought low by their own myriad calamities, lie buried in the strata of history.

A single clay tablet or parchment spell scroll is worth a year’s worth of water if sold to a SORCERER-KING’s court. Who knows how much they’d pay for a rifle-staff? When a court of magicians creates new tablets, they require large amounts of energy. Some keep cadres of lotus slaves, others channel life from plants. Casting too requires energy; most use their own blood as fuel or shatter the tablet if untrained. They search for another way that involves less screaming.


Weird Places

Monastery of the Astral Dreamers

Ivory Tower of the Cyclone

Terracotta Battle-Ship of the Long-Ago


Dominic Zdenkovic

Lucas Parolin

 

Dominic Zdenkovic


People or who the hell am I?

Folk of the Cities

1 – Former Slave

2 – Gong farmer

3 – Gladiator Contestant

4 – Shroom Farmer

5 – Slug Courier

6 – Black Glass Carver

Nomads

1 – Turkey Herder

2 – Ash-sailor

3 – Hunter

4 – Stilt-walker

5 – Bone Oracle

6 – Druid?

Caravanners or Raiders

1 – Porter

2 – Performer

3 – Bounty Hunter

4 – Slaver

5 – Cultist

6 – Merchant

Looks

1 – Carp Mouth w/ Whiskers

2 – Owl-esque eyebrows

3 – Pointy Ears

4 – Odd Hair Color (Pink, Dark Green, White, Dark Blue)

5 – Six spider eyes

6 – Tusked Canines

Creatures

Iconic Creatures:

Ancient Automatons, Axebeaks, Biomechanical Monstrosities, Camels, Cultists, Giant Amoebas, Cazadors, Hydras, Mammoths, Mummies, Mutated Crabs, Owlbears, Pterodactyls, Purple Worms, Radiation Ghouls, Sabre-tooth Tigers

 

Stuff

Items, Tools, and Weapons

           Cheap – Bone breaks fast, easily found and carved by a Bone-smith

Normal – Flint, glass, leather, and wood

Sharp – Obsidian mined from volcanic farms

Tough – Ground stone lasts for a lifetime once chiseled out

Common Weapons – Slings, clubs, blowguns, spears, whips, knives, macahuitl, and               hand-axes

Uncommon Weapons – Mauls, great-axes, staves, boomerangs, machetes, and bows

Shields and Armor

              Heavy – Ceramic plates, layered sheets of wood, giant crab or tortoise shells

              Light – Mantis-man chitin (seen as cannibalism in places), quilted leathers, or salt-soaked cotton

              None – Layered silks, ritual tattoos, feathered shawls, hooded leathers

Metal

Dread Bronze - dredged up from the seas, unearthed in tombs, or fallen to earth in meteor strikes. Looks like gold, strong as bronze, never rusts, and retains heat for centuries


Based on Dark Sun, Black Sands, The Ultraviolet Grasslands, Zothique, Hubris, Centerra, Fallout 3 + 4 + NV, Dark Souls, Borderlands 1, Rage 1 + 2, Discworld, and all the gonzo worlds of the OSR