Spes Magna Games

Well, I’ve spent the first few days of Spring Break on a combination of being lazy and resting from being sick while not being able to take any time off from work. I’m finally starting to feel better, so it’s time to start doing things I’ve been putting off. First up, this post featuring two new mutant plants for Mutant Future.

Bloodcap

Bloodcap, a mutant fungus, resembles a pale blob that produces thick, crimson jelly from cavities in its irregularly shaped cap. A single bloodcap grows to about two yards across almost always on the ground near some larger plant. While the bloodcap itself is immobile, its jelly oozes slowly. A bloodcap feeds on the carbon found in adipose tissue, the connective tissue in which fat is stored in animals. A bloodcap’s body acts much like an auditory organ. By rapidly expanding and contracting its blobs of jelly, a bloodcap produces sucking noises which it uses as a form of echolocation.

When a bloodcap detects a potential source of food, it spews a glob of acidic jelly out to a range of 45 feet as a ranged attack with a +2 bonus to hit. If the jelly misses or falls short, it oozes toward the nearest. A blob of jelly inflicts 3d6 points of damage from its highly caustic acid that rapidly breaks down the bonds of molecules containing carbon, attacks as a 4-HD monster, and has a 9 AC and 4 hit points. A successful bare-hand or similar attack against a blob of jelly exposes the attacker to the blob’s acid. The blob absorbs adipose tissue from its victim and then oozes back to the bloodcap to deliver the nutrients.

No. Enc.: 1d8
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: None, or 30′ (10′) for jelly
Armor Class: 9
Hit Dice: 4
Attacks: 1
Damage: 3d6 (acidic jelly)
Save: L2
Morale: None
Hoard Class: None
XP: 245

Mutations: Dermal Acid Sap; Full Senses (Echolocation, Hearing); Unique (Acidic Jelly)

Flying Drosera

The flying drosera is an intelligent, carnivorous plant. It resembles a fleshy vine covered with stems that excrete a viscous, clear fluid from their tips. This fluid is a paralytic poison used by the flying drosera to disable its prey. The monster follows up a successful poison sap attack by constricting its prey like a python (regardless of whether the prey is paralyzed by the initial attack). Most of the time, this monster moves by slithering, but via mental power it can fly at a speed equal to its Will times 10 feet per round.

Flying droseras live in small packs, usually high up in the boughs of the larger trees in their forested hunting grounds. These monsters communicate with each other via clicking and body posture. While they have no need for treasure, they understand the bargaining power of coins and technological artifacts. Communication with flying droseras is difficult, but it is not unknown for these monsters to offer treasure to appease powerful, intelligent creatures.

No. Enc.: 1d4 (2d4)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 120′ (40′), or fly (3d6 x 10′)
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 6
Attacks: 2 (poison sap, constrict)
Damage: Class 11 poison/2d8
Save: L6
Morale: 8
Hoard Class: VI
XP: 1,320

Mutations: Dermal Poison Sap (Class 11); Free Movement; Full Senses (Hearing, Sight); Psionic Flight

Tags: monsters, Mutant Future

Spooky Alert: I usually have music playing via Pandora when I do these writing exercises. As I prepared to write on the prompt “We’re Wolves/Werewolves”, I had a basic idea in mind. I clicked Pandora on my toolbar. The first song? “The Killing Moon” by Echo and the Bunnymen. Cue theremin music. Anyhoo, today’s exercise comes in at 288 words in the usual eight minutes. After the exercise, some game content.

Hunting Lesson

Father growled low in his throat. A warning sound. I slowed my approach. The man we stalked heard the rumble. He whirled left, then right, eyes wide, the scent of fear thick around him. The silver tip of Father’s spear glinted in the moonlight as the farmer clenched its haft in trembling hands. Father always armed our prey for these hunting lessons.

“Never underestimate humans,” he had told us with his human throat. “Their weakness is deceptive.”

Mother twitched her tail and flicked her ears. Sister and Younger Brother dashed to the left, deliberately making noise, shuffling leaves, snapping twigs. The man turned in the direction of their sound. His eyes squinted, trying to pierce the darkness that provided us cover but could not veil our eyes. Father snuffed gently, almost like a small sneeze. I hunkered down, creeping forward, my haunches higher than my shoulders, tensing, building energy for the charge.

Father had taken the man from the nearby village, ambushing him in the barley field. The man had snuck away from his home with a bottle of wine. He put up little fight. Father had taken dozens of humans over the years, both for us and for his earlier litters. I had once met some of my older siblings, but we seldom saw them. They had their own packs now.

Father’s howl ripped the night. Sister and Younger Brother rushed forward, but it was a feint. The man screamed, jabbing as he retreated. My siblings came nowhere near the deadly silver, but instead bounded to a halt and then split up, racing back into the darkness in two directions. Then Mother rushed the man. She was so silent. Only her deliberate growl warned him of her approach.

Lycanthroid for Mutant Future

No. Enc.: 1d6 (2d6)
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement: 180′ (60′) (wolf form); 120′ (40′) (human form)
Armor Class: 7 (wolf form); armor type (human form)
Hit Dice: 4
Attacks: 1 (bite) (wolf form); 1 (weapon) (human form)
Damage: 2d4 (wolf form); weapon type (human form)
Save: L8
Morale: 9
Hoard Class: XIX
XP: 300

Lycanthroids are mutant wolves with near human intelligence and exceptional cunning. They are pack hunters regardless of which form they currently have, those forms being either a large wolf or a seemingly normal human. Lycanthroids roam in packs, moving between human settlements and the wilderness as circumstances require. These mutants prefer to fight in wolf form.

Mutations: Combat Empathy, Epidermal Susceptibility (silver), Increased Smell, Metamorph (Pure Human), Regenerative Capability

Tags: #8MWH, monsters, Mutant Future

telomeric: (adj.) relating to the natural end of a eukaryotic chromosome composed of a usually repetitive DNA sequence and serving to stabilize the chromosome

Highbeam Multistellar’s most skilled engineers on Bellatrix have created some impressive weapons over the years, including the Bellatrixian plague fungus and the causality virus. In this grand tradition comes Highbeam’s horrific telomeric gas.

This heavier-than-air gas (approximately as dense as carbon dioxide) acts quickly after being inhaled or otherwise absorbed through a mucuous membrane (or even via the eyes). At this time, the active chemicals in the gas attack the victim’s DNA, overwhelming the telomeres of the target population the gas has been designed to effect. As a result, the victims’ DNA replicates out of control, wreaking massive havoc on the victims’ bodies. Death comes quickly, accompanied by a host of ghastly symptoms. Rarely, telomeric gas produces stable, beneficial mutations. Highbeam’s think-tanks are trying to correct this flaw.

Telomeric Gas: Save Penalty -4, Toxicity 12, Interval every 4d6 hours, Virulence 5, Damage A failed save reduces Strength, Constitution, and Dexterity by 2 with a 50% chance that the reductions remain even if the victim is cured.

If you need a good ruleset for mutations, and you don’t have access to TSR’s 1st edition Gamma World, check out this free, zipped PDF of Mutant Future by Goblinoid Games. It’s a great game, and the price is excellent.

Tags: A to Z 2014, Mutant Future, Stars Without Number