Spes Magna Games

Well, I’ve gone against my better judgment. We ended our Savage Worlds campaign, and I’ve started a d20 Modern/d20 Future campaign that started in the near future of 2069 aboard Space Station Alpha. By the conclusion of the first session, a strange solar event transported the station and all its personnel approximately 250,000,000 years into the future.

During session two, the PCs stepped into leadership roles. The station’s position was stabilized. Plans for food rationing were made. Maintenance drones were repurposed for long-range scouting. One drone found what appeared to be a collection of stone structures on the so-called dark side of the Moon. Another identified two possible areas in a temperate zone on Earth that looked like promising landing sites.

The PCs decided to scout the Moon location first as it was closer to the station. Two NPC pilots took the four PCs on a trip around the Moon. They maneuvered in for a closer look, noting the ramps between buildings, the presence of black-sailed galleons, and, unfortunately for CPO Scharff (Alex’s character), a brief glimpse of one of the monstrous inhabitants (depicted just below).

The players got to add a Sanity score to their character sheets, and Scharff failed the first SAN check of the campaign. LT Mantis (Eric’s character) managed to calm the dangerously panicked Scharff down, and the pilots made a hasty retreat. Back on the station, those in charge decided to not inform station personnel about the moon monsters.

A couple of days later, the PCs loaded up the shuttle with personnel and supplies, and made a landing on the island identified as a possible site via probe. They found fresh water, strange piscean statues, and a collection of ponderous stone structures near the beach. They decided to set up camp near the crater lake above what they take to be an abandoned village. The security detail went off to scout.

In the “village”, the PCs found the strange bird-creature captured via tangle gun by the security detail. They also found three strange statues of smallish size and a sealed clay pot. Scharff found faint tracks of something bipedal but not human leading from the “village” to the surf. The group found a resinous material in the clay pot that chemical analysis showed to be highly psychoactive.

The Bird-Creature
Small Animal
HD: 2d8+2 (11 hp)
Init: +2
Spd: 15 ft., fly 80 ft., swim 30 ft.
Def: 14 (+2 Dex, +1 natural, +1 size), touch 13, flat-footed 12
BAB/Grp: +1/-3
Atk: Beak +3 melee (1d4)
Full Atk: Beak +3 melee (1d4) and 2 talons +0 melee (1d4)
FS/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.
SQ: Low-light vision
AL: None
SV: Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +2
AP: 0
Rep: +0
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 15, Con 12, Int 2, Wis 14, Cha 6
Skills: Spot +13, Swim +13
Feats: Weapon Finesse (beak, talons)
Environment: Temperate coasts
Organization: Solitary, pair, or flock (3-12)
Advancement: None

This avian creature resembles the albatross in size and coloration, but its feet are both webbed and sport sharp talons. Its beak has serrations and can inflict serious wounds with a sawing-motion bite. The bird-creature has been observed to dive into the sea and swim in pursuit of its prey. It appears to feed exclusively on fish.

Tags: d20 System, monsters, Tuesday Terror

It’s been months since I cracked open my AD&D Deities & Demigods. When I last did, I presented from the Finnish Mythos the Son of Pohjola, an evil hero and one of the few entries from the Deities & Demigods that I ever used as a villain while DMing. Today, I finish up the Finnish Mythos with Ukko’s warriors, the wise and fierce air maidens.

(Nota Bene: The link the previous paragraph is an affiliate link. You click and buy, I get a bit of money.)

These powerful warriors will be sent by Ukko only when his worshipers face certain death at the hands of demons, devils or very powerful evil characters. … An air maiden appears as a winged human with a sword, garbed in flowing robes, and glowing with a brilliant light. … When sent by Ukko, a maiden will first advise the worshiper as to the best course of action, using telepathy; if necessary, a maiden will enter combat thereafter. … Should an air maiden be slain before her mission is completed, another will immediately appear. If a maiden is slain, she and all her possessions (including [her] sword) will vanish. (Deities & Demigods, page 62).

Air Maiden
Medium celestial, lawful good

Armor Class 19 (natural armor, shield)
Hit Points 136 (16d8+64)
Speed 60 ft., fly 120 ft. (hover)

Ability Scores STR 20 (+5), DEX 18 (+4), CON 19 (+4), INT 18 (+4), WIS 19 (+4), CHA 19 (+4)

Saving Throws STR +9, CON +8, INT +8, WIS +8, CHA +8
Damage Resistances fire
Damage Immunities cold
Skills Intimidation +8, Insight +8, Medicine +8, Perception +8, Persuasion +8, Religion +8
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 18
Languages Auran, Celestial, telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge 11 (7,200 XP)

Air Maiden Sword. The air maiden’s sword attacks are magical. They inflict an extra 4d8 cold damage (included in the attack).

Extinguish Flame (Recharges after a Short or Long Rest). As a bonus action, the air maiden can extinguish all nonmagical flames within 30 feet.

Innate Spellcasting. The air maiden’s spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 16). She can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:

2/day each: fog cloud, thunderwave
1/day each: call lightning, gust of wind, shatter, sleet storm

Magic Resistance. The air maiden has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Spellcasting. The air maiden is a 7th-level spellcaster as both a cleric and a wizard. She can prepare both 11 cleric spells and 11 wizard spells in slots up to 7th level. Her spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 16, +8 to hit with spell attacks). The air maiden has the following spells prepared:

Cantrips (at will): dancing lights, friends, guidance, mending, message, ray of frost, sacred flame, thaumaturgy
1st Level (4 slots): alarm, bless, detect evil and good, detect magic
2nd Level (3 slots): aid, find traps, misty step, prayer of healing, see invisibility
3rd level (3 slots): dispel magic, fear, lightning bolt, slow, speak with dead
4th level (3 slots): death ward, freedom of movement, greater invisibility
5th level (2 slots): cure wounds*, confusion*
6th level (1 slot): conjure minor earth elementals*
7th level (1 slot): ice storm*

*The air maiden prepares these spells and typically casts them using the higher level spell slots.

Actions

Multiattack. The air maiden makes three sword attacks. The air maiden’s sword scores a critical hit on a roll of 18-20.

Sword.. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d8+5) slashing damage plus 18 (4d8) cold damage.

Turn Undead (Recharges after a Short or Long Rest). The air maiden can channel divine energy to turn undead. Each undead that can see or hear the air maiden within 30 feet must make a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw. If the creature fails its saving throw, it is turned for 1 minute or until it takes any damage. Undead of CR 1/2 or lower are destroyed rather than turned.

Tags: 5E D&D, Deities & Demigods, monsters, Tuesday Terror

Way back in 1980, TSR Hobbies Inc. published one of the better AD&D modules ever written, namely Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. I’ve both participated in this classic as a player and a DM. Most recently, I modified the module for use with the excellent Stars Without Number.

The module is full of great encounters. The hordes of vegepygmies. The deranged physical fitness android yelling motivational phrases. “You’ll never make the team THAT way!” The pack of doppelgangers. The intellect devourer. The mind flayer! The mutant horrors of the botanical gardens. Without an overarching script or plot, the consequences of the expedition are wide open. I remember one group decimated by radiation sickness and forced to retreat. Another group looted technological treasures and departed, intending but failing to return. For a time, the boxing/wrestling android joined a party as an NPC. One group I knew of took the time to create a new magic-user spell by means of which the party’s wizard merged his mind with the computer system, in effect gaining control over the entire “dungeon” complex.

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks reflects very well the gonzo, kitchen-sink style of Greyhawk. So-called purists snarking about “No guns in my campaign!” are welcome to run their game however they want, but AD&D always included at least the possibility of incongruent technologies and cultures. It’s built into the Dungeon Master’s Guide, which hints the possibility of AD&D, Gamma World, and Boot Hill all being part of a shared multiverse. Knights and cowboys versus mutants and desperadoes in The Valley of Gwangi? Yes, please!

(Nota Bene: The links to games in the previous paragraphs are affiliate links. You click and buy, I get a bit of money.)

Powered armor looks like a suit of unusual plate armor. The joints appear to be finely, if somewhat strangely, articulated and an oily, black, leather-like material may be seen at major joints. The armor appears to have been worked to create the illusion of a heavily muscled man. The great helm is unusual in that it has no openings, only a broad glass plate in the front with a piece of glass above this. There are strange plates and tubing at various points and large metal bosses seem to be placed randomly on the suit. On the back of the left hand is a rectangular metal box. From this comes a short projecting rod tipped with a cone-shaped red crystal or jewel. It would seem there must be a man inside, for the armor stands erect although unmoving (Expedition to the Barrier Peak, page 25).

Powered Armor
Armor Class: 20
Stealth: Disadvantage
Weight: 130 lbs.

“The powered armor is opened by pressing two separate buttons concealed in the rear of the helmet beneath its lip. Pressing both buttons at the same time will pop open a seal down the middle of the back of the armor. A person may then climb into the armor, feet first, double over and slip his or her head and arms into the suit. Then, by arching his or her back, the armor will reseal itself. The release catches may be reached while wearing the armor, but it will take” an action “to operate.”

While wearing the armor, the person inside has a speed of 20 feet. The wearer’s jump distance is tripled, and the wearer is treated as if he or she has a 19 Strength for purposes of jumping, grappling, and lifting and carrying. The armor has a “laser pistol built into the right arm” above the hand. The laser pistol fires when the “chin lever” is depressed. The laser pistol is a ranged weapon that has a range of 30/120 feet. It inflicts 2d8 points of fire damage. The laser pistol will not fire more than 2 times in a round.

The suit provides protection from the environment. “The powered armor is completely sealed and will withstand vacuum or pressure equal to 1,000 feet of water. Air system provides oxygen for 8 hours of continuous use, recharging at 1 hour per hour of non-use. No gases or viral contaminants can enter the suit.”

The powered armor has a force field that absorbs “50 hit points damage before shutting down, restored at 1 hit point per round”. Without the force field, “damage sustained is taken by the armor itself.” The armor has 50 hit points. “When the armor reaches 0” hit points, “it is non-functional in all systems. Damage accruing beyond this point goes to the person inside.”

“The anti-grav system in the armor allows the wearer to become weightless and float upwards or downwards” with a speed of 20 feet. “The wearer can carry carry up to 500 additional pounds of weight when so doing. Anti-grav will function for” 1 hour, or 30 minutes “if carrying additional weight, of continuous operation. For each round of operation, it must recharge” for 10 minutes. “When power is down to” 10 minutes of operation, “the suit will issue a low pinging sound, and a small orange panel will light up; pinging will recur every round thereafter, and the panel light will flash during the last round of operation before the power fails.”

“The armor will immediately fall, but a small reserve charge will prevent injury to the wearer, although the powered armor itself will sustain damage equal” to the damage inflicted by the fall.

“Powered armor has built-in atmosphere with a readout panel above the vision area; it also has built-in language translators.” Treat this as tongues. “Hearing in the armor” is augmented. The wearer has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks related to hearing. The armor also has “infrared visual sensors” that grant darkvision out to 120 feet.

“The wearer of the suit does not become fatigued as normal. Continuous operation for periods as long as 8 hours is possible. Powered armor does not use power discs. It is only rechargeable at specialized terminals.”

Tags: 5E D&D, magic items, Tuesday Terror

Okay, let’s be upfront. Today’s Tuesday Terror is not a terror, unless you’re evil or, worse yet, an evil cat. Mighty Mouse was created by Paul Terry to parody Superman. Mighty Mouse’s original name was Super Mouse, and he first appeared in an animated story titled The Mouse of Tomorrow. Super Mouse became Mighty Mouse in 1944, about two years after his creation, and he became an opera-singing hero in 1945, in part due to the widespread popularity of Mario Lanza.

Mr. Trouble never hangs around, when he hears this Mighty sound, “Here I come to save the day!” That means that Mighty Mouse is on the way! Yes, sir, when there is a wrong to right, Mighty Mouse will join the fight! On the sea or on the land, he’s got the situation well in hand! We know that when there’s danger, we’ll never despair; because, we know that when there’s danger he is there, on the land on the sea in the air. We’re not worrying at all. We just listen for his call, “Here I come to save the day!” That means that Mighty Mouse is on the way. When there is a wrong to right, Mighty Mouse will joint the fight. “Here I come to save the day!” That means that Mighty Mouse is on the way!

Mighty Mouse
Tiny humanoid (mouse), neutral good

Armor Class 19 (natural armor)
Hit Points 170 (20d4+120)
Speed 40 ft., fly 90 ft. (hover)

STR 20 (+5), DEX 20 (+5), CON 23 (+6), INT 11 (+0), WIS 16 (+3), CHA 18 (+4)

Saving Throws STR +10, DEX +10, CON +11, WIS +8
Skills Athletics +10, Insight +8, Intimidation +9, Investigation +5, Perception +8
Damage Resistances acid, force, necrotic, psychic, radiant; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from magical attacks
Damage Immunities cold, fire, lightning, poison, thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 18
Languages Common
Challenge 15 (13,000 XP)

Flyby. Mighty Mouse doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks when he flies out of an enemy’s reach.

Flying Charge. If Mighty Mouse flies at least 20 feet straight toward a creature and then hits with a slam attack on the same turn, that target takes an extra 7 (2d6) bludgeoning damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 18 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.

Super-Senses. Mighty Mouse has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks related to sight and hearing. As a bonus action, his sense of sight works like a ring of x-ray vision with no danger of exhaustion.

Super-Strength. Mighty Mouse is treated as Gargantuan for purposes of using the Attack action to grapple or shove a creature. Mighty Mouse’s lifting and carrying capacities are equal to his Strength score multiplied by 120. Mighty Mouse deals double damage to objects and structures.

Actions

Multiattack. Mighty Mouse makes four attacks using his Slam, Cape Contrail, and/or Whirlwind attacks.

Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d6+5) bludgeoning damage.

Cape Contrail. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: The target is grappled (escape DC 18). Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained. It remains grappled for 1 minute or until it escapes the grapple. Mighty Mouse does not need to maintain the grapple.

Whirlwind. Mighty Mouse flies at least 40 feet in a circle to create a 5-foot-radius, 30-foot-tall cylinder of swirling air magically forms on the point around which he flies. The whirlwind lasts until the end of Mighty Mouse’s next turn. Any creature but Mighty Mouse that enters the whirlwind must succeed on a DC 18 Strength saving throw or be restrained by it. A creature can use its action to free a creature restrained by the whirlwind, including itself, by succeeding on a DC 18 Strength check. If the check succeeds, the creature is no longer restrained and moves to the nearest space outside the whirlwind.

Tags: 5E D&D, NPCs, Tuesday Terror

Back when I was in high school, TSR published Star Frontiers. It wasn’t the first sci-fi game we played. That would be Gamma World. It wasn’t even the second, which would be Traveller. (N.B. That’s an affiliate link.)

But, man, did we play the heck out of Star Frontiers, and, as usual, our characters were a possee of shady mercenaries out to get rich and probably die young in the process. If memory serves, our characters’ last adventure involved trying to steal a prototype military robot in order to sell it on the black market. The mission did not succeed, and I’m pretty sure we moved on to another game.

Anyhoo, here’s a new monster adapted from the creature of the same name found in Crash on Volturnus:

Rasties are vicious mammals of medium size that prey upon hapless shovelmouths and other gentle prey living in the caverns of Volturnus. [They] look like a cross between a rat and a small monkey. They have four legs, but can sit upright and use their forelimbs to grasp meat or small prey. Rasties are usually hungry, and will attack anything that looks edible to them.

Rasties
Small monstrosity, neutral evil

Armor Class 14 (natural armor)
Hit Points 27 (6d6+6)
Speed 30 ft.

STR 8 (-1), DEX 16 (+3), CON 13 (+1), INT 6 (-2), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 7 (-2)

Skills Perception +3, Stealth +5
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages Rasties
Challenge 1 (200 XP)

Blood Rampage. As a bonus action, the rasties can move up to half its speed toward a hostile creature that doesn’t have all its hit points and then make a bite attack against that creature. The rasties must be able to see the creature.

Keen Smell. The rasties has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.

Pack Tactics. The rasties has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the rasties’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.

Actions

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4+2) piercing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 13). Until the grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the rasties cannot bite another target.

Tags: 5E D&D, monsters, Tuesday Terror