Mutant Crawl Classics - #03 - Incursion of the Ultradimension [lv. 2].pdf

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A LEVEL 2 ADVENTURE
By Michael Curtis
Cover art & cartography: Doug Kovacs
Editor: Rev. Dak J. Ultimak
Proofreading: Doug Baumeister, Tony Hogard
Interior artists: Tom Galambos, Friedrich Haas,
Stefan Poag, Chad Sergesketter, Mike Wilson
Art direction & layout: Jim Wampler
Proofing: Doug Baumesister, Tony Hogard
Playtesters: Daniel Bishop, Mike Bishop, Ramona Ross,
Heather Bishop, Jace Schulz, and Jeff Bernstein
MCC RPG and this adventure are copyright © 2017 Goodman Games. Mutant Crawl Classics
is a trademark of Goodman Games. MCC RPG is published under the Open Game License
Refer to the OGL in this work for additional information.
www.goodman-games.com
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R
INTRODUCTION
emember the good old days, when post-apocalyptic
adventures were full of super-science, robots that
were there to be mastered, and the finale of every
underground adventure was setting the fusion power plant
to overload? Those days are back. Mutant Crawl Classics
adventures take place in an ambiguous time period after
a great disaster has ravaged the world, and it’s up to your
neolithic mutant tribesmen to go out into the hot house
jungles and radioactive deserts of Terra A.D. (After Disas-
ter) and collect the artifacts of the Ancient Ones in order to
attain great personal power and savage glory.
Incursion of the Ultradimension is a Mutant Crawl Clas-
sics RPG adventure designed for four to six 2nd-level
characters. It concerns a newly surfaced scientific research
complex of the Ancient Ones arising from the waters of
the Monster Sea. But it is no mere laboratory: it is a nexus
of super-science that has breached dimensional walls and
now hosts terrors from beyond known space! The PCs must
discern the laboratory’s weakness and send it back down
under the ocean waves for good.
warping the laws of science and ferrying unearthly entities
across cosmic walls. The Athena Project installation was
compromised and quarantine protocols implemented, tem-
porarily confining the outbreak of alien realities to the base.
Before the problem could be addressed and steps under-
taken to seal the breach, the Great Disaster plunged the
world into chaos. Fearsome destructive forces tore apart
the planet’s surface, forever altering geography, and the
Retreat was drowned beneath the expanding waters of the
Monster Sea. Since that time—and time passes differently
in the Retreat—the Ultradimensional invaders have be-
come acquainted with their new outpost and are planning
to extend their reach of their alien home across Terra A.D.
Shifting tectonic forces occasionally cause the sunken site to
rise from the waters, unleashing waves of both oceanic wa-
ters and alien marauders across the land. Now, the Retreat
of Delirium has resurfaced once more. The PCs find them-
selves tasked with visiting the Retreat and dealing with an
alien threat ensconced within the antediluvian installation.
ST
ARTING THE ADVENTURE
Incursion of the Ultradimension begins with the player
characters resting in the quiet jungle village of Glazhaus,
a collection of primitive huts arrayed around a gleaming
metal and glass ruin. The PCs may be residents of Glazhaus
or simply passing through on their way elsewhere.
As the party and the other villagers enjoy their morning
meal, a small tsunami strikes, forcing all the residents to
seek shelter or be swept away. Complicating the matter,
strange beings ride the wave, slaying without remorse.
Read the following:
The morning breaks hot and sultry in the village of Glazhaus.
Situated in a jungle clearing surrounded by the towering, frond-
laden goliath trees, the small village is comprised of twenty sim-
ple huts surrounding a ruin of gleaming metal and unbreakable
crystalline panes. A sacred fire ringed by totems burns in the
heart of the ruin, tended to by the Exalted Crone of the village.
Although the massive, two hundred foot tall goliath palms pre-
vent you from seeing the emerald expanse of the Monster Ocean,
the scent of its rich waters hangs heavy in the air. The sharp but
pleasant smell of curing fish dragged from the sea fills the vil-
lage, making your stomachs growl. A group of villagers is already
tending to the cook fires and passing out communal eating bowls.
Suddenly, as you prepare to enjoy your repast, three villagers
rush into the clearing, emerging from the trees facing the Mon-
ster Ocean. Fear and panic mar their faces. With screams that
carry out across the village, the fleeing trio yells, “DEATH
WAVE!!! RUN!!!” The rest of the villagers immediately drop
their meals and race away. Some head for their huts while others
rush towards the tall trees. What do you do?
If the PCs are natives to Glazhaus, they automatically
known a death wave is a rare, but catastrophic event—a
tsunami striking the lands surrounding the Monster Ocean.
Travelers passing through the village lack such knowledge,
BACKGROUND
Prior to the Great Disaster, numerous research installations
around the world pushed the borders of knowledge to their
limits, sometimes going beyond what was once believed to
be impervious universal laws. One of the organizations be-
hind this bleeding edge research was the Athena Project.
The Athena Project staff was comprised of scientists work-
ing on the fringes of their fields, each dedicated to pushing
humankind’s knowledge to new heights. Rigorous testing
of unproven theories, were the order of the day at Athena
Project sites.
The Athena Project funded several installations around
the world, each dedicated to specific pursuits. One such
research site, the place now known as the Retreat of De-
lirium, focused its research on biology, botany, and physics,
specifically research in Loop Quantum Gravity, Entropic
Gravity, and quantifiable experimentation with strangelets.
Little did they suspect that their research would spell the
downfall of the installation and herald the birth of some-
thing terrible into the world of Terra A.D.
In the months just prior to the Great Disaster, a break-
through occurred at the Retreat. It happened during the
early morning hours as Athena Project researchers ran a
series of supposedly insignificant experiments intended
to collect control data for more aggressive research in the
weeks ahead. The experiment’s results were anything
but insignificant or controlled. Somehow, the physicists
scratched the universe, tearing a nearly infinitesimal hole
in the cosmic fabric. Shockwaves from the tear rippled
across the building, even extending to other Athena Proj-
ect installations. These reverberations opened more, albeit
smaller breaches between worlds. And what lay beyond
the breach was the realm of the Ultradimension. This hole
allowed catastrophic realities to infect those of Terra A.D.,
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but can assume from the villagers’ responses, something
bad is coming. A few moments after the yelling villagers
arrive, the party hears a roaring noise coming from the di-
rection of the sea, a sound which grows in volume at an
alarming rate.
One minute after the warning, the following occurs:
The thunderous roar reaches deafening levels and a rising wind
buffets your face. Unbelievably, you glimpse the crest of a mas-
sive emerald wave rising above the goliath tree, imparting the
true scale of this imminent doom.
Suddenly, the sound of shattering trees and crashing waters
erupts as the death wave strikes land. You watch as shattered
boles are hurled into the sky and clouds of spray obscure the pallid
red sun. Floodwaters burst from the trees to overwhelm the vil-
lage, obliterating the huts and drowning the sacred fire burning
in the ruin. The flood waters quickly rise, inundating the tree
trunks you cling to. You watch the waters creep closer and hope
you’ve climbed high enough.
Your gaze is drawn away from the encroaching waters by an
unearthly howling. Glancing up, you see four bizarre creatures
burst from the hanging clouds of spray. Each of the creatures re-
sembles a man-sized cluster of nauseating orbs flying through
the air by no viable means of propulsion. The air in their wake
shimmers, ripples, and darkens momentarily. A sickly brown ray
streaks out from one of the creatures, striking an elderly villager
clinging to a tree. You watch in horror was his flesh seems to in-
vert upon itself before dripping away like wax. The man screams,
his grip broken, and falls into the churning waters below.
The creatures are Ultradimensional entities often employed
as scouts and marauders by the Ultroids. These bulbous
extradimensional entities revel in violence and destruc-
tion, using alien forces to inflict damage on all other living
things. Their otherworldly bodies temporarily warp the at-
mosphere as they fly through it, causing it to shimmer and
grow dark in their wake. The BEMs fly around the goliath
trees, firing their warp beams at the helpless villagers. Ag-
gressive behavior towards them draws their wrath and the
BEMs then concentrate on those threats.
SURVIVING THE DEA
TH W VE
A
If the PCs observe the villagers’ actions, they see many of
them are climbing the surrounding goliath trees as swiftly
as possible. Some carry personal belongings gathered from
their huts, but the majority are intent on clambering up the
scaly palms with alacrity. The characters have 1 minute (10
rounds) before the death wave strikes.
Climbing the goliath trees is fairly easy. Although mea-
suring more than 20’ in diameter, the trees possess a scaly
purple bark that makes for good climbing. A DC 5 Strength
check allows an unencumbered climber to scale 50’ up the
tree; each additional 50’ in height requires another DC 5
Strength check. If the climber is burdened with a lot of
weight (personal belongings, another character, etc.) the
check is made at DC 10. Some manimals or appropriate
mutations may negate the need for the climbing check. A
normal PC can climb half his speed each round; some man-
imals or mutations may allow the character to scale the tree
at full speed.
Characters foolishly seeking shelter in the huts or the ruin
at the village center are at risk of death. If the PCs do so, the
villagers in the trees yell at them to climb! Failure to seek
higher ground results in the character(s) being crushed and
drowned when the death wave strikes land. A successful
DC 20 Luck check indicates the character somehow sur-
vives the tsunami, but suffers broken limbs and a loss of all
but 1d4 hit points.
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Bulbous Extradimensional Menaces (4):
Init +2; Atk alien
warp beam +2 ranged (1d6+1; 30’ range); AC 13; HD 2d10; hp
11 each; MV 40’ flying; Act 1d20; SV Fort -1, Ref +3, Will +4.
PCs fighting from the trees can only fight with one-handed
weapons and any creature reduced to zero hit points auto-
matically falls into the waters below. Unconscious charac-
ters can make a Luck check and if successful, land on float-
ing debris, allowing their bodies to be recovered after the
battle. Otherwise, they are lost beneath the waters for good.
The flood waters rise a total of 40’. Any creature lower than
that can make one final Strength check to climb above the
waters to safety. If failed, they are carried away and must
make a DC 10 Strength check (DC 15 if heavily burdened)
to grab another tree or other perch. Each round they fail
this check, they incur 1d6 damage from being battered by
debris and swallowing water.
The BEMs fight until destroyed, their alien minds incapable
of even considering retreat.
A
ncient
L
ore
The PCs may wish to know more about the “strange
island” and the “eerie hut.” The Exalted Crone
knows only the legends of her ancestors. She can
provide the following information:
• The island is said to rise just offshore, visible from
the beach and reachable by canoe or raft.
• A single, large hut made from grey material, “like
stone, but not stone,” in the words of her grandsire.
The hunters who ventured out to the island saw a
single doorway of glowing light leading inside.
• The one hunter who ventured inside and returned
claimed to see “feathered guardians with horrible
round eyes” at every turn and witnessed a “terrible
arm, tipped with claws” drag one of his fellows to
his doom.
• In the days of her grandsire, creatures that “crawled,
slinked, scuttled, slithered, flew, and stalked, each
never before see by even our wisest hunters” came
from out of the hut and took the lives of many of the
Glazhaus’ people. These things that came with the
Death Wave must be from the hut.
AFTER THE FLOOD
The death wave-spawned waters linger for two hours be-
fore receding back to the Monster Ocean. The Glazhaus
villagers descend from the trees to find utter destruction.
Even the glass and steel ruin is bent and broken. Drowned
bodies lie broken in the lower branches of trees and en-
tangled in underbrush. Carrion scavengers fly overhead on
leathery wings.
As the villagers begin to deal with their post-deluge lives,
the party is approached by the Exalted Crone, an ancient
female mutant with pebbly blue skin, vine-like dreadlocks
of living green, and dressed in a sarong of woven palm fi-
ber. She is assisted by two prepubescent girls who trail in
her wake as mute assistants. The Exalted Crone stares at
the PCs with baleful yellow eyes as if weighing their worth,
then addresses them:
You have survived unscathed, I see. That is good, for I need
mighty and lucky warriors for the task I now propose to you.
We, as a village, are broken, but honor demands we revenge those
responsible for our plight. Our surviving hunters are young and
untested, while you have the bearing of those who are bedmates
with peril.
This is not the first time our village has endured the death waves,
although the last time was during the years of my grandsire. He
spoke of a strange island that arose from the waters, unleashing
destruction and beasts never before seen by even the farthest trav-
eled villager. Those sent out to the island either returned with
tales of an eerie hut found there or failed to return at all.
It is time once again to see if the island has arose from the waters
and if those in the strange hut are responsible for this attack. Will
you be the spear of vengeance for us and seek retribution on the
island and those who dwell there?
The Exalted Crone is willing to pay the party with food
and water, enough for four days travel for each PC, plus “a
powerful Artifact of the Ancient Ones that will serve you
well on your travels.” This artifact is a medipac with 6 uses
remaining in its C-cell. The Exalted Crone will instruct the
PCs in its proper use if they gain this reward upon complet-
ing their quest. If the PCs attempt to drive a harder bar-
gain, the Exalted Crone gestures to the destroyed village
and asks sharply, “Do we seem to be able to provide more
than I offer?”
Assuming the PCs agree to assist the villagers, two young
villagers are tasked with escorting them down to the shore,
situated a mile away from the village. The journey is
through masses of twisted trees and underbrush disturbed
by the floodwaters and the ground is marshy and sodden.
The carcasses of weird beasts hang in the branches, flotsam
left behind by the receding waters.
Ultimately, the party and their escorts arrive at the beach.
Read the following:
You emerge from the flood-ravaged forest to find a ruined strand
before you. The stony shore is littered with fallen trees, deadfalls,
and even a few ruined huts dragged here by the receding waters
of the Death Wave.
Beyond the beach stretches the waters of the Monster Ocean, a
vast sea that reaches to the horizon. The waters are eerily calm
in the wake of the wave, as if the ocean has exhausted its fury
…momentarily.
Out in the distance, visible through the mist that still hangs
above the still waters, is a humped, dark shape, a mote in the eye
of the sea. This grey patch of land lies motionless and ominous,
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