Gamma Aeon: King Beavers Quest

Last blog described a book that has had me dreaming weird stuff and feeling repulsed by flesh and even odd fruit at shop. So all a good influence on my fantasy brain - i tip my hat again to Brian Aldiss too.

I intended these characters to be expendable and players have learned to love them. I agreed after winter training any stat below 9 is 9. gee im nice. I still getting hang of lethality style of the game again. So im being a bit nice to not explode players much.

Starring in Game 2 of this campaign

Johnny 1111 (Mark)
From Bunker weakling to wasteland warrior - his Gamma Eyes zap the best foe out in most battles. Happy with his B-type Slug gun he is the best scavenger and still looks human.

Deathport 0002 (Matt)
The bat winged wonder chef, who has discovered joys of being party heavy weapon hoarder. Grenades, a las pistol, a sonic blaster, plus some dynamite make him a heavy hitter.

Fishtank 2414 (Carolina)
The human unicorn and pyromaniac joined the Radioactivists with suspected results. At first she turned albino so she got some sunglasses and a hood like any good mutant. Priest offered more "wisdom of the atom" and she developed a really cool power. She has been working as a brewer, arsonist and fireman in the village. She was in a book burning club in the bunker.

The heroes have dwelled in village for 3 months and winter setting in. The Mayor offers them ammo and recharges for aiding the village and other aid plus whatever they can loot. The mayor recommends anything to slow the gangs would be good so they hunted them using Johnny as bait in his bunker jumpsuit looking all awestruck at the sky.

The bandits approached - a mutie otter, the human leader and a teeth on psuedopods abomination on a chain. Fishtank sneaking up behind saw a really really fat Porcupine woman trying to blindside Johnny. Johnny took of his shades all cool and zapped the leader - bam KO. Fishtank attacked the porcupine with her axe while it tried to grab her. Johnny fired his gun at the loosened abomination charged and chomped him. Deathport flew through the tree canopy and lasered down the otter trying to drag off his leader. He was fired a poison xbow bolt and kept dragging.

Johnny kept backing off and shooting - 2h-handed grip point blank. Fishtank got grabbed on leg by porcupine and got shocked by a mutation. With her new shape mimic power based on touch she duplicated the porcupines powers and form (and she has kept it since). Two kebab coated porkers battled away swearing at each other. Deathport fried the otter and was in turn shot by a cyborg who hung back calling HQ. He was a partial face job with a full arm. Deathport was kinda taking his own medicine for once. Fishtank was knocked out and Deathport backed off after a second laser hit. The abomination biting Johnny fled with the borg.

The party took their prisoners to the village and licked their wounds. Scored a few muskets and a xbow with poison bolts.

Resting a bit and wowed a party member is now a porcupine the gang rest 2 weeks and get some healing berries from the mayor and ammo. The guys drink mutation potions. Deathpool develops military genius making him quite a bit deadlier and Johnny developed heightened precision also making his every attack deadlier. The lads made girlfriends and some unhappy village fathers while nobody will kiss a porcupine.

Deathpool leads them to the sealed door he has lusted after with his sonic blaster but the Sleeth dwelling there said they would all die if he did. So they spent a day prospecting and found some crap like lead pencils in a box and a toy ray gun that would fool many. Fishtank found 40 eggs and a fuel drum stash. They traded them with sleeth (kept cool toy) who said they were gator eggs and paid more than humans who would just eat them. They traded all their bulky food, beer and chocolate for food pills. They walked home in the dark and saw a gang ahead. Fishtank went first and climbed silently up an escarpment and almost surprised a lady blue skin mutant with pink hair. The mutant saw her and assumed she was her tribal sister and scolded her. Fishtank attacked. The rest of the evil gang back on the ground level saw the fight and just cheered instead of helping.

The abomination and cyborg were in the group with a fox woman (spotted cooking a hot dog with burning hands), An ex bunker-mate with a musket forced to join the gang and mutie medic lady with blue skin. Well Deathpool dropped a grenade and Johnny threw dynamite at the distracted gang. Blam. The bunker kid was blasted into chunks, the blue medic teleported and the fox jumped into a parallel universe (gone for at least a week). The others were seriously battered and the cyborg and deathpool lasered each other again. Fishtank jumped on the abomination, pinning it and shocking it. Johnny walked up and killed the damned abomination at last. The cyborgs head exploded from a laser and they cut off his arm. His home base radioed him during procedure which always feels a bit awkward.

Home again and a winter of training. So i bottomed up their worse stats. Acolyte Fishtank studied mutant lore, Deathpool improved his raygun skills and Johnny improved his number of attacks with guns (double tap!). By spring the party was sent by mayor to Beaverton with a letter to the Beaver king. They sailed by giant sea otter and were welcomed by beavers and given apartments. They traded some tat at market and saw a battered ruin of a 1.5 tonne life ray, going cheap. Fishtank got a blowpipe and met some real porcupines. She also swapped her bunker brand ciggies for beaver cigars (rolled on thighs of beaver maidens). Every one in future cancer proof so smoking makes a comeback. Met some tortoises trading lettuces. The beaver folk were mostly true-breed mutation proof ani-men aqua laborers. Some were ordinary mutant animal beavers. Party met first talking tobacco plant and saw pack triffids (ok when you cut their heads off).

The beaver tabernacle was 8 floors high and 24  m wide with other log domes around it. Some hangers and parts of the old airfeild were off limits. Beavers had a reactor, industrial pumps and several armored cars. Humans were second class but not unhappy as the Beaver Kings law was pretty good. He even married a human for his controversial 5th wife. So they met the king in his throne room and were invited to a feast.

At dinner the party acquitted themselves not to well. Johnny offended an aristocratic dueler beaver with his refusal to admire delicious wood chips and methanol. Deathpool tried to boast about the party deeds (talked a bit down) and beaver ladies yawned  behind their fans. Fishtank as a porcupine got on fine and they all liked her concern for fire fighting. She thought sea otter folk smashing crabs on their chests and hugging adorable. The ape ambassador frowned at them the whole time and gossiped with Johnny's new enemy. He was hoping to have apes and beavers unite in a crusade. But good king beaver likes Mormons and friendly people over war or any species.

Then they were taken to king beavers lab. They saw his models of wooden cities and wooden rockets made from iron skinned mutant redwoods. Sadly no apes would volunteer yet. Gave party police stars and letters and a passbook (or logbook for beavers) and letters or trade. He offered them batteries and bullets and apartments. Fishtank got a ww2 style flame thrower her arson dreams come true. Johnny got a beaver made bolt action .303 with bayonet. Deathpool got a high tech riot helmet with megaphone, radio, gas mask, thermograph vision and POLICE across front. King beaver wanted them to first check out the island and get to know it, perhaps do some old bunker looting. But his real goal was a secret in a chest.

The contents were a hideous metallic pod with a grimacing skull face and some input ports. Inside the peeled metal was a human skull with no teeth and massive brain pan with a tiny mummified baby like body plumbed into the exosuit. He explained this thing was found in a crater five yeras ago freshly dead in a wreck. He accessed its exoskeleton logs to discover it was a scout of a branch of humanity that has been in space for over 200 years and now planned to return. They were all big brained with stunted bodies and needed their exosuits to live. It had observed moon bases, orbitals and a warden class starship orbiting the moon. You can also see ruins of Earths beanstalk in Africa. It had sent a message home stating Earth had been found and needed terraforming - too much oxygen.

Good King beaver explained he needed the superior bunker bred technical knowledge of party to find functional space hardware and marshal defenses against these returned to earth horrors. The party all fully impressed accept their quest. Deathpool volunteered to join the Beaver brand of Mormonism on the spot. He is debating putting word BEAVER or MORMON on his helm next to word POLICE.

Gamma Evolution: Sources

Found some cute things online i will share here

firstly this kids toy concept that would fit in a gamma or superhero or gonzo SF game - a ship of uplifted animals vs hunters with cyborg body parts and more
http://melbirnkrant.com/arc/index.html
I shared this on FB old school game group and someone commented it was silly
fair enough it wont float your traveller boat

Gordon Dixon did several cool monster source books
one was after man - zoology 50 millions years after humans
and he did one on alt dinosaurs as if they didn't die
the man after man volume has humans going to space and earth humans being modified and going feral after apocalypse. I was reminded of bryan aldiss and sure enough he did the intro
all Dixons books turn up on searches easily - whole man after man book here:

http://www.sivatherium.narod.ru/library/Dixon_3/01_en.htm

Gamma world consequences:
Many hominids from this book would fit in fine

Hive men who build structures and are ugly furry troll folk - only queen breeds

Aquamorphs - adapted to water in various degrees living in wrecks of ancients

Forest folk replacing apes

Hideous biological suits that grow food and have expendable limbs, bonded to humanoids who wander about eating stuff and growing fatter - fat giants

Symbiotic fast hunters who hide in fur of larger dumber animal

Symbiotics who feed from the food suits and cling to fat giants drinking fat straight from them

Gelatinous filter feeding humans inside a bubble of gel, easy to hunt and kill on land

Specialized hominids for eating termites, or fish

Sloth men - huge grazers too big to fear anything

Except spike tooth men who live off them

Then humans come back from the stars:

Space dwelling cyborg fetus men in exoskeletons come back - no FTL travel or communications has pushed them this far. Would make great Alien invaders. Dwell in sealed system machines and plan to terraform earth to have less oxygen.

They in turn adapt some life to be beasts of burden controlled by implants

Others like the fat giants are force grown to multi story building sized horrors, plumbed into nutrients and protein sucked right out of them for space men needs

Giants with atmospheric processors built in who are built/bred to terraform the atmosphere and possibly harvest protein

Aldiss and Lovecraft have devolved quadruped humans as beast of burden too

Aldiss in hot house has humans attached to trees by belly buttons in symbiosis

Engineered living houses part plant part flesh with human savages inside might be fun

His book Non Stop (possibly starship in usa - title ruins surprise yay!) is a prime source for metamorphosis alpha - also see film Pandorum

Barefoot in the head has psychoactive weapons and contamination zones where all inside have shared hallucinations and delusions

I already have plundered the night land by William Hope Hodgkinson

And Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad

Probably a bit of Judge Dredd and Nemesis the Warlock comics there too

This will all make a disturbing impact on my gamma game.

Gamma Winter on High Island

Some thoughts for Tuesday game.

Winter is coming and the Bunker survivors, clones and mutant folk of High Island village prepare in dread.

Their Sleeth allies are seasonally reclaiming the flooded bunker again and stockpiling.

The red death gang bunker of course have not prepared or done anything so they will be raiding and killing to fill their stores.

This year the village want to do something to seriously hamper the gang while they are weak.

The undead dont change their behavior at all but the more active warm ghouls do hibernate. Possible a good time to try something with them as well. The gangs will be sure to face undead being closer.

Mutant animals grow extra fur and adopt winter colors in some cases.

Many aquatic perils slow down and make water travel safer. Polar bear folk raiders sometimes come from the north on ice boats formed with cryrokinesis.

Many hostile plants like triffids sleep in season.

Gun bunnies hate the heroes who killed and robbed their cheif. They are great winter hunters. Many gamma world fights are more like skirmishes with most combatants fleeing while the most treasure ladened seem to die the most. Sure to leave many enemies alive.

Visibility for non camouflaged targets high. The woods are harder to hide in without leaves. Furs and fire are needed to live, but smoke attracts foes. The party are not exactly great woodsmen and may need some hired men to help and teach them what surface dwellers take for granted. One player has no mutations and could re enter the home bunker if needed.

The adventurers having earned a place in the village are offered recharges of their energy weapons if used in service of the village. Mayor Paul 2375 will encourage them to formulate a plan against the gangs or undead. The sleeth may help and certainly will warn the village from attacks but the village needs to maintain communication lines through gang turf. Their rubber raft only has made around gangs by luck so far.

I'm hoping players will help make a push to improve island life before they leave to serve the beaver king. Under the Beaver king - they will go on missions around the lakes and help the beaver space program. Or at least bring back some nice loot. Legion of gold, Albuquerque space port and Pittsburgh quests will fit in on the way.

I'll probably do an Australian based game soon - with Canetoads and gangs as the main villains. Queensland will be overrun by savage toad warriors in the name of their terrible toad king. Ill have to have some tastefully done indigenous beliefs and contemporary things to parody. Ive also considered merging gamma and DnD into a science and sorcery game. Plenty of time to decide. Baby eating dingoes, croc men hunting humans and humiliating them, kangaroos with pouch gunners, killer bower birds with artifact nests. Ive avoided monster making to date but this may get me going. A human centipede monster would be gross too. Maybe New Zealand really has hobbits living in middle earth theme park.

High Island Gang Member Table
3d3 per group - roll once per member d20
1-2 GM Human HD d8, former military, often leaders equip as tech IV
3-6 Survivor Human HD d8, former pirates equip as tech III
7-10 Old stock Human HD d4 =1d4 mutations, former cloned bunker folk gone bad, tech IV
11-12 Beaver folk ani-men renegade HD d8 - pagan vikings equip as tech II
11-15 Humanoid Mutant HD d6, red death gangers for life  equip as tech II
16 Cyborg - possible escaped or still serving legion of gold various tech possible
17-19 Mutant animals - crazed mascots of red death gang equip as tech I
20 Mutant Abomination mascot equip as tech 0

The gang are a chapter of the Red Death founded by Khan Redhand when he left his bunker on a secret mission with his future wife and a squad. Over the years he has abandoned his mission of seeking a viable starport or teleporter. He has some maps and notes from 20 years of searches in his cache. Most of his original squad died or deserted. He was captured by the Red death and killed their leader in single combat. His gang worked with pirates for a few years and were stranded on high island. They live by scavenging, slaving and trading with pirates. Undead are the main threat to them and they leave the Sleeth tribe alone as they cannot be surprised and they pick off gang leaders in battle. They regard the village as their legitimate prey. Anyone who survives the gangs torture well may be forced to join.

A few pregen gangs to keep my party busy - this is the bulk of the gang and if they are killed the gang is broken and will flee the island. A few other members in patrol and forrage groups exist too. Some run slave gangs and make them find food.

5 member ruin foraging group
this gang loot the town ruins and monitor bunker for anyone leaving. The ex bunker dwellers are weak but great scavengers. May have a pack slave,

Mad Mallard (The Drake) CON 12 HP 42
scarred mutant Muscovy Duck with 2 flintlocks and a hand axe
mutations: Shorter (90cm), Radiation eyes, Poor respiration, Time Distortion
Group leader, bitter, hateful and considers his gang expendable except Kalun who he loves

Kalun Farve CON 14 HP 70
Female survivor human with musket, machete, chain mail
Veteran scavenger who hates sissy bunker dwellers and likes to cut theyre hands off

Danno 5061 CON 17 HP 51
Old Stock Human with musket and frag grenade & jumpsuit
no mutations due to high CON
Wants to get out of gang if possible, may try and escape or switch sides

Francine 2067 (Fugly) CON 13 HP 27
Female Old Stock Human with 9mm automatic 8 shot mag, 12 bullets & jumpsuit
mutations: Anti Charisma, Bodily Control
Hates gang but everyone she meets starts shooting at her so she always comes back. Her mutation keeps unwanted lovers away at least.

Pete 4098 (Bighead) CON 10 HP 21
Old Stock Human with riot shield, truncheon, riot armour
mutations: Over sized head, skeletal enhancement, the gamma eye, insanity
Gone insane from mutations, believes should lead the group and seeks mutagens

4 member scout patrol group
this gang patrol the forest and near the Sleeth village

Daniel Fallingsky (Razor) CON 14 HP 69
GM human with sabre and laser pistol (full)
Gang leader and kahns son, wants advanced weapons and a wife, hates bunker weaklings

Karo Mac CON 13 HP 56
Survivor with battle axe, chain mail, flintlock pistol
Veteran survivalist, expert tracker and hunter, collects scalps and ears

Sandercock Nike (Red) CON 11 HP 45
Female humanoid mutant with musket, 2 clubs and shield
mutations: Heat reaction, Actual Metamorphosis, multiple arms, red skin, blue hair
Hates everyone except gang leader, likes to captures females for gang boys and watch

Batalia Krin (Quill-killa) CON 12 HP 39
Female animal mutant porcupine with 2-h flail natural armour and spines
mutations: Infravision, Electrical gen, Bodily control, heightened STR 21, Phobia (cats)
Likes to wrestle and use natural spines, STR and electrical powers

6 member raiding group
this gang patrol the zone near the High Island village. If they see a weakness they take it or report to base. They are careful to ambush travelers. May try arson or to blow up a wall section occasionally.

Kronn Radstorm CON 15 HP 71
Female survivor with 2d6 dynamite sticks, blunderbuss, axe, shield, leather
Radd is the leader and is looking out for long term gang needs like food thus the gang love her

Gelab Goodburger (Glub) CON 13 HP 46
Cyborg with Low light eyes, radio and data jack, IR Rifle, chain, dagger
Gelab report to base via radio and calls support if needed, he craves any tech. The rifle trigger has been replaced with a data jack he plugs into

Big-Tooth Logjam (Beevo) CON 16 HP 71
Beaver viking with chain mail, battle axe and shield, heavy crossbow
A bloodthirsty pagan berserker beaver who hates weak humans

Ralph Rotten CON 11 HP 48
Survivor with studded leather, poisoned crossbow, 2 shortswords style
A viscous life long punk and killer who often disobeys orders and attacks, compulsive gambler

Mag Ottkarl (Otto) CON 16 HP 46
mutant otter with fish leather, shorsword and poison blowpipe
mutations: Dual brain, repulsion field, telepathy, mental multiplier, mass mind, periodic amnesia, insanity, regeneration, planar travel
A scheming thief and silent back stabber whos planar travel stories are never believed

Samantha 2346 (Sammy Scrawnlegs) CON 15 HP 36
old stock female human with bolt action rifle, bayonet and jumpsuit
mutations: anti-life leech, illusion generation, sonar
Samantha still looks mostly human (albino) and might try to escape gang. She makes illusionary robots to back up gang in battle.

4 member guard group
this gang watch the entry to their ruined bunker hide out or near gang ruined excavations

Pepsee Kolan (Peppi) CON 14 HP 55
Survivor Human with heavy crossbow, 3 frag grenades, chain mail and battle axe
Hates being guard with these lame followers - will attack them if they flee

Wendee Hotdog (Hotdog) CON 14 HP 55
Humanoid Mutant with spear and 3 javelin, soft leather, arrow poison
mutations: Bat Wings, Phobia (fire), photosynthetic skin, hands of power (electrical)
She is looking for a boyfriend to raise her status but her leathery chamo pattern skin makes her hate herself and she likes to skin normal people to make her armour and uses scalps as wigs

Glaarg CON 11 HP 40
Mutant Abomination with a tree trunk club in his claw - crocodile-fish-cow hybrid
mutations: Radiation eyes, gills, teleportation, weight decrease, doubled pain, insanity, heat generation, hands of power
He is moronic psychopath who loves the gang since he joined as bunker dweller decades ago, he is chained to a rock by entrance of their lair

Harry Hellhop CON 13 HP
Mutant rabbit with automatic 5.56mm rifle 40 shot mag, 65 bullets and a spiked baseball bat
mutations: Narcolepsy, antlers, fat cell acumulationx2, confusion
Ex rabbit gang member, red death hope more rabbits will join gang as they eat grass and breed fast, and can be eaten if killed. Harry hops onto people and pins under his blubber if they get close, he is a small arms expert like most gun bunnies. When not fighting he is eating carrots (watsup doc?). He goes crazy if anyone dare call him fat.

3 member tracker gang
These guys cover gang territory looking for tracks they can report to others. If really tempted by weaklings like bunker dwellers they will attack. She hunts food also or helps other gangs hunt enemies. They have a separate lair away from the gang. They all have been lifeleached at start of day when encountered.

Tammy Two dogs CON 16 HP 68 (-6 from life leach) 
GM Human with spiked club, flintlock pistol, whip, truncheon, leather armour
Tammy is an expert dog trainer and tracker and the khans daughter, nobody id pure enough for her but her parents hope on finding a GM human husband or at least a mate for her,

Laika CON 11 HP 41 (-6 from life leach) 
Mutant dog has no voice box, has no equipment but might grab a weapon on battlefield
mutations: sonic blast, body structure change (bipedal, hands) modified body parts (2d6 bite), fear generation, skin structure change (flammable)
Laika is a violent bitch who hates most other dogs if Tammy doesn't watch her. She obays Tammy who raised her from a pup. She has so far not allowed Boris to mate with her.

Boris CON 16 HP 68 (+2d10 more from life leach)  
Mutant dog is quadruped, no hands, no voice box never uses tools just 1d8bite+STR bonus
mutations: Carapace, Heightened STR 21, Chameleon, Life Leech
Boris is jealous of beings who can talk or hold things so he likes to bite hands and throats most. He is made to keep away from gang and sleeps outdoors. He goes first ahead while Laika guards Tammy. He loves Laika and she is only reason he is in gang.

8 member elite guard gang and the Chief
They remain in the bunker but may lead attacks that are safe for them. Stay about the throne chamber looking at treasure and tormenting prisoners. Khan came from a military bunker with his wife 60 years ago.

Khan Redhand CON 21 HP 106GM
Human in steel chest plate and leather, vibro sword and laser pistol, 2 flintlock pistols, chemax grenaide, type III ID, healing pills 12 x 1d6 each, old special forces beret
The ruthless chieftain who kills and eats enemies, old but strong and ruthless while preaching his superiority (think Ricardo Montalbán in original series star trek). Any GM women will be his brides, infuriating his wife and children). If Kahns children are harmed the whole gang go on war path.

Mother Redhand CON 17 HP 85
Wears chain, Chain sword (2d8 1hr power) sawn-off double barreled shotgun, frag grenade
His wife and second in charge, head of his guard (other GM Humans are their children)

Skarr CON 10 HP 40
Humanoid Mutant with battle axe, flintlock, duralloy garrotte, short bow with poisoned arrows
mutations:  energy absorption, precognition, Heat generation, wings, periodic amnesia
has white chalky pock marked skin, skinny, giant webbed toes
Skarr is the tribal seer who knows all but about himself. He used to be member of High Island village and could be again.  

Dr Gordon 2138 (Doc Gordo) CON 10 HP 21
Old stock Human with duralloy claw, 9mm 8 shot pistol with 2 clips, medkit, 6 x 1d6 healing berries
mutations: empathy, beguiling, death feild generation
Dr gordo is the tribe medic who dreams of starting his own gang - he might use heroes in a scheme and will surrender or play dead if hurt

Falco CON 16 HP 44
Mutant falcon uses no equipment but sometimes drops grenades
mutations: Seizures, physichal reflection, bodily control, hands of power, heightened precision, has wings beak and claws as an animal and extraordinary sight
Falco is a loyal pet and sometimes stops fighting to eat shreds of flesh torn off victims

Kazra Frieswiddat (Kaz) CON 16 HP 89
Female survivor human with laser With Slug thrower type C with 3 clips, 2 frag grenades, a flaming hydrogen lance 3d8 extracts fuel from air 24hrs from hydrogen cell) 
Kazra loves the gang but is seeking a mate/slave to bear her children

Kolkut Hambone (Kol) CON 16 HP 89
Humanoid mutant with baseball bat, riot shield, flintlock pistol
mutations: heightened STR 21, mental blast, colourblind, the gamma eye, regeneration, heat reaction, has neon pink spotty skin with patches of grey hair, a bullet head, thickset neck on hunched torso
Kol is a fanatic follower and is first into battle - a canny fighter who uses his mutations well. He lusts after unmutated women and has been told by kahn he will die if touches a GM human woman..

Blag CON 14 HP 53
Abomination stitched into studded and spiked armour, used a parking meter with concrete slab as weapon, not really able to use much else - looks like a hairless pink dog-gorilla-shark hybrid
mutations: duality, heightened STR 21, Insanity, heightened sense (hearing), planar travel
Blag has been the chiefs pet and baggage beast since he resembled a human decades ago. The gang use his planar travel as waste disposal and to banish gang traitors

Garn Metalfist CON 14 HP 51
Cyborg warrior with metalic carapace AC4, all built in - laser pistol (recharges daily), gieger counter, radio, garrotte, hiden in body compartments: duralloy combat knife, frag grenaide 
Garn serves the legion of gold in secret but stays close to the khan so reaper can come and kidnap all the purest human stock one day. He offers khan advice and maintains most advanced tech in the bunker. He is looking for a spare atomic cell for the next year to keep him alive.

Elfmaids & Octopi - Attributes

This is section 3 from my DnD home clone rules this site named after. As I'm running several gammaworld games and DnD is in hiatus I'll go back to refining my EMO rules set. Some people are curious about such things. It will let me have some more content here for a bit too. I should be writing invoices.

3.Attributes
Roll 4d6 to generate 6 numbers – any below 9 raised to 9
you can subtract points from some stats and add to your class prime stat
9 lowest you can reduce to and 18 max you can raise a stat to this way
(my d6 dice could possibly be bad – only 1  newbie got a gross character this way)

Strength       
bonus damage all weapons
Warriors Prime
breaking or lifting things, a measure of physical muscle power and carrying capacity
Take Str if you want to pack a mean punch in hand to hand and carry more loot

Dexterity       
bonus to hit all weapons, initiative  and AC
Rogue or Halfling or Tako prime
reflex or evasion saves, a measure of accuracy, stealth, grace, reflexes and fine manipulation
Take Dex for greater offensive and defensive abilities

Constitution   
bonus to hp every lv and daily healing, survivable negative HP score
Dwarf Prime
poison or disease or fatigue saves, a measure of health, durability and powers of recovery
Take Con to be resilient to physical harm and bodily threats

Intelligence   
bonus proficiencies and languages from any list
Wizard or Elf prime
searching and detecting saves, a measure of learning ability, memory, perception, education
Take Int if you want additional starting abilities normally outside your Class and alertness

Wisdom       
bonus number of second chances
Priest or Monk or Monk prime
resist psychological or magical effect, measure of faith, persistence, bravery, sanity and will
Take Wis if you want to be mentally resilient and have more second chances (see below)

Charisma       
bonus loyal companions and number of personal retinue
Bard or Sorcerer prime
aid morale and diplomacy,  a measure of ability to charm, leadership and appeal                        
Take Cha if you want to be a leader or communicator or just get positive reactions

Bonus
3-5        -2
6-8        -1
9-12       +0
13-15     +1
16-17     +2
18-19      +3
20-22      +4
23-25      +5

Prime
Str    Warriors Prime
Dex    Rogue or Halfling or Tako Prime
Con    Dwarf Prime
Wis     Priests or Druids or Monk Prime
Int      Wizard or Elf Prime
Cha    Bard or Sorcerer Prime
Prime stats – you need a 12 in stat to choose this class
Gives you xp bonus in your class

Other Benefits
Attributes are used as basis for saving throws with a d20
Dex vs blasts, traps, breath weapons
Con vs poison, death, fatigue, disease
Wis vs spells, mental or psychological effects
Situational, class, NWP and WP mods can all apply

Attributes are used as basis for NWP rolls with a d20
Add +1/3lv to rolls to reflect improvement
Roll made by +1-2 required number  = made it but close call
Roll made by +5 required number  = quality success
Roll made by +10 required number = master success
Some proficiencies like sneak and hide or craft skills can be rolled together for ease or enhanced affects.
Some proficiencies can give a +1-4 bonus to another like Tumble or Acrobatics could give +4 Jump. These are decided on a case by case basis with the player or DM able to make suggestions. Be generous if lots of skills overlap.
A common NWP like spot or climb has a base of 1/2 the normal stat if anyone could do it
Often a skilled person does not have to roll in a non stressful situation
Extra time (+2-4), quality tools (+1-2), spells may all help

Strength and encumbrance
You can carry up to Str x 2 pounds and have no penalties
You can carry up to Str x5 pounds  light encumbrance 2/3 run speed
You can carry up to Str x 10 pounds  heavy encumbrance and still march ½ run speed
If you exceed this you move 1/3 normal speed, -1 all rolls, you will sink like a stone and be fatigued if act at peak ability more than one round per Con
You can lift Str x20 pounds with a Str roll per round
(10kg=22lb for young who only read metric) as your max pack load
NWPs may be used to effect this too

Dexterity and initiative
Initiatives are 1d10 per side + individual Dx bonus and weapon modifiers for length and speed may be used if   a close call between sides. Usually roll per fight but a skirmish in a scrub may dictate radical changes in battlefield superiority.  Fast  draw  weapons are always ready. -4 on d10 if weapons not ready or may miss action if surprised. If a side is surprised or  ambushed one side may get a free action before initiative rolls.

Constitution and negative HP
When your HPs are reduced to zero or negative you fall unconscious
At 0 you remain unconscious till you recover at least one HP
At negative numbers you continue to lose 1 more HP per round until…
At an amount equal to Con as a negative number you die – eg 12 Con means your death score is -12
Magic and healer NWP critical may possibly return someone from beyond if DM kindly

Intelligence and creative character creating
Bonus proficiencies and languages gained can be exotic and from any type you can make normal class characters more interesting.  A wizard could take long sword and light armour. A Warrior might want wall-running and sense-magic. A rogue could get Use Arcane Item and have a familiar pact. A priest might just take lots of combat skills for his mace and shield. Languages give you cultural knowledge also and having a language of some exotic type can be handy for meeting strangers or reading messages in ruin pictograms.

Wisdom Bonus and second chances
You can pull feats of persistence by sheer will or is it the grace of the gods after all?
Can have one plus WIS bonus number of second chances per session
you can spend these chances on:
1) heal 1d4 damage or can stop bleeding with this
2) re roll any dice again then pick best result
3) change one spell in your memory to another through great foresight
4) have one piece of common equipment you ‘almost’  forgot to bring

another option is to adopt my card system (appendix) and everyone gets a draw or redraw card per game and Wis bonus provide more. Wis useless for non Priests in most games.

Charisma Bonus and followers
You can keep a band of hireling personal retinue up to your Cha score. Everyone gets one and your bonus in loyal follower companions who will go with you to hell. They are guaranteed fanatic in devotion to you. Classes grant special followers too but they may not be replaced as charisma derived followers.

You can try to befriend any encounter you meet or re-discover a lost companion. Some people you meet will volunteer to be your companion or apprentice. Make a Cha roll on a suitable target and use gifts to get a bonus to recruit followers to try to persuade a potential available follower. Some persons may already have family or cultural commitments and be unavailable. Young bastards for example are easier to recruit than a prince or a married shop keeper. Many player groups play mostly spell casters and hire muscle or use followers. Followers Lv or HD usually two ranks lower than yours but natural unintelligent animals can have equal HD.

When followers die you can recruit new ones unless you have a rep as a companion killer. Some followers may adopt a character class and become 1st when you reach 3rd Lv. A player can start with one follower but might want to wait until they are higher lv to recruit all he can. If a follower dies or is dismissed the slot can be refilled. Some followers support you but dont come along - a wife who stays home, a steward who runs your castle, a lord who aids you dealing with law, kin with financial support.

Common types
Familiar – use the familiar table without a pact or magic benefits
Canine Pet – Hunting Dog, War-Hound or Wolf or Dire Wolf
Intelligent talking animals - equal to your lv-2
Mount – Pony 2HD, Riding Horse 3HD, War Horse 4HD, Mammoth 12HD, Ostrich 2HD, River Dolphin 2HD
Lover – your beloved accompanies you everywhere you could even be married
Servant – your servant carries, cleans, treats wounds, shaves, massages, makes tea, carries messages, repairs armour, sharpens blades, shaves you, etc
Flying Pet  – Falcon, parrot, minor bird, duck, goose, eagle, vulture,
Other Beast – badger, lynx, lion, bear
Monster – Humanoids  and monsters equal to your lv-2
Patron – Gain powerful connection to crown or church or even divine being
Warrior companion – Warrior guardians are the most common
Expert – like a sage, scribe, musician, portrait painter, healer, lamp bearer

1st lv Followers include:
-d4 HP pet or roll on familiar table but no magical link or evolution without proficiencies
-1d4 HP servant or trades person
-1HD dog, 1d6 bite, track (knock over on critical)
-1HD pack goat, 1d6 butt+1 if charge 8 Str 50% provide milk
-1HD pit pony (tunnel trained) 10 Str (knock over on critical)
-human skeleton or zombie pony or zombie goat or zombie dog
2nd  lv Followers include:
-1d6 HP man at arms
-Riding pony
-Wolf, Lynx, Eagle,
-Python (1d6 crush auto hit after first and 1d6 bite) or poison asp (1d4 bite 2d6 venom)
-Zombie or zombie horse
3rd Lv Followers include:
-1st lv Adventurer,
-Riding horse
4th Lv Follower’s include
-black bear, heavy war horse, lion, dire wolf, giant eagle or owl
5th Lv followers include
-holy steed, winged steed
-Wight

Morale for Followers
Roll for followers when any of this stuff
-average HP halved
-first member is KO
-half group is KO
-any spectacular kill or critical damage or horrendous death scene
-witness blasphemous horror or amazing magic or divine miracle at work
-witness vastly superior force or supernatural monster or reputed weapon

Party leader or personal employers charisma is base score
+1 every 4 levels (1-4lv = +1, 5-8lv + 2, etc)
-4 Green or civilians
+2 Veterans if last battle was victory
+4 Elite if last battle was victory
+3 For personal followers
x1/2 if no leader not in sight

A panicked follower will break formation, and will move only backwards, if pursued by disciplined troops or fail a second morale test they will full speed flee until danger is out of sight. They will get one more test to hang around or will scatter for days if they fail.
Panicked  personal followers will withdraw but will seek to help with missile or other support if possible.
A hero may pursue panicked persons and make a Cha roll to reassert control of a group

Bonus Spells
Priest or Druid Wis
Wizard or Elf use Int
Sorcerer or Bard uses Cha
Tako use Dex
13 +1 1st lv spell at first
14 +1 1st lv spell at second
15 +1 2ndlv spell at third
16 +1 2nd lv spell at fourth
17 +1 3rd lv spell at fifth
18 +1 3rd lv spell at sixth
19 +1 4th lv spell at 7th etc

Cults in space 3 - Exploratations

Alien the movie is just a HPL style haunted house in space. It has all the good elements of a space SF story - the 80s was when traditional supernaturalism waned in horror. Freddy and pinhead cant be stopped by a crucifix. The Thing is another Benchmark.

70s style dirty SF realism (Silent running, Space 1999 and 2001) tried to be intellectual till starwars cast its spell.

These are all fine game examples for many space horror games right now. 2300 and aliens games even TSR  Bughunters (not bad actually) all good.

Stalking aliens in ruins and wrecked spacecraft with not too advanced tech is the mode of choice. Eclipse Phaze seems to be one of the most truly modern.

I am pleased that the Science & Sorcery and post apocalypse genre all can intersect her too. Warhammer fantasy and space games have lots of HPL - Spacehulk and genestealers were great space dungeon fodder. Space dungeon crawl retro style DnD in space games are doing ok too. I like all this stuff.

My SF universe Ive been on off with since 83 (it predates my gaming) has me writing again too. But it features exploration of alien wrecks and ruins with extreme variations of tech for 28 000 years of humans in space amid the ruins from billions of years earlier. Has mythos elements too, some of my ideas re-used in my gamma world (using game as a lab for crazy).

I will do my DECO Cthulhu Space notes here too later - where everything revolves around the worlds greatest city Metropolis.

Anyhow for now here is some of my Cthulhu in space and my own Shadow Space World - use as you may even for dungeon crawls in space, super heroes whatever

Cults in space 3

Some space horror formula for onion skin plots:

Strange Heritage > Investigate > Clue > Explore > Encounter > Wrap up > final bad clue turns up

Strange Invitation > Journey > Arrival > Clues > Confrontation

Journey > Exploration > Artifact > Clues > Something Loose > Confrontation > Escape

Journey > Trapped/Stranded > Survive > Explore > Clue > Encounter > Escape

d100 space locations:
01-03 Urban - ultra dense cyberpunk city
04-05 Urban - tunnels beneath city
06 Urban - laboratory complex
07-10 Urban - gangland ghettos
11 Urban - industrial mega complex
12-13 Urban - colony base arcology
14-15 Urban - space mega hab
16-18 Isolated Outpost - marine hab
19-22 Isolated Outpost - orbital space hab
23-27 Isolated Outpost - deep space hab
27-30 Isolated Outpost - ice hab Isolated
31-34 Isolated Outpost - secured bunker
35-37 Isolated Outpost - scientific mission
38-42 Isolated Outpost - military base
43-45 Isolated Outpost - generation colony ship
46-49 Isolated Outpost - mining (asteroid, planetary, fuel)
50-53 Isolated Outpost - criminal (pirates, smugglers, adventurers)
54-58 Isolated Outpost - industrial (processing something)
59-62 Isolated Outpost - inter system hab (rogue gas giant moonbase for example)
63-67 Isolated Outpost - cultist or extremist sect (fanatics)
68-71 Isolated Outpost - secure cultural enclave (rare group)
72-77 Isolated Outpost - shipwreck (possibly with survivors or archeologists)
78-80 Alien - single artifact like a monolith
81-84 Alien - exotic alien planet
85-88 Alien - ruins of ancient stone wonders
89-91 Alien - ruins of advanced alien civilization
92-94 Alien - evidence of ancient life
95-97 Alien - ruins of alien space craft
98-00 Roll twice


Some Ideas

Gamma Gate
A highly irradiated glowing rock in space has a viable structure but super lethal radiation emission - team of  robots and scientists in extreme space suits are attempting to explore. Strange guardian beings lurk in the threshold guarding a gate.

Red Temple
A structure is found on a red mars like dust world. As exploreres set up air preassure and humidity climb in local area and biological traces develop as conditions improve. Eventually a gate opens and a being come through to see what his trap has attracted.

Green Planet
Garden world of plants, many are mobile and carnivorous, plants found herding animals (possibly degenerate colonists bred into cattle). Algae clouds fill skies. Shub-Niggerath cultists possible made this planet within human history. Human colonists in domes. Some earlier colonies gone feral and have plant symbiotes making a new species. (I had a star trek annual with a planet a bit like this + a bit of Brian Aldis).

Swamp world ruins
A bog covered planet has redneck miner outposts. Alien ruins of stone are common but humans dont have any interest in unprofitable crap. Primitive alien newts like in Karol Capek are found but they are on lots of planets so nobody cares. Ruins are not theirs but they may be befriended and show secret alien ruins. Local humans getting wind of treasure hunters go deliverance on the party. Anything could be in ruins. I have Newts as a surviving ancient race but nobody is impressed by them and mistreat them mostly. They are all clone hermaphrodites with no genetic variation. Possibly they worship Bokkrug and he may protect them from humans one day.

Alien Machine City
Nano machines and robots built city for colonists that never came. Appears ruined on arrival but machines begin to awaken and rebuild city. AI wants to capture party believing they are mentally unfit colonists.

Idol of Ygolnac
Alien primitives give crew members statues made of valuable materials (they practice self mutilation as highest art). Some crew begin to have dreams. Next thing engineering section has a full blown Ygolnac cult.

Vault of life
Under lifeless moon geoscientist discovers the vault of life the primal source of all life. Actually it is a vault of Abhoth. A lake of biomass creates increasingly advanced life forms to attack the mine. The scientist wont admit he is wrong and tries to protect the horror lake.

Vulthooms Dreaming
Martian hab members being guided by vulthoom who in the dreamlands is taking them to ancient mars. They believe they can restore mars to life by bringing dreamlands through. Some of his Alhais awaken and help influence humans. Vulthoom really just wants mental energy to awaken his race and kill humans. His ruins from the dreamlands appear and disappear.

Spiders Web
A ship crew member is bitten by a child of Atlach-Nache the spider goddess. How the coconut sized creature got in who knows. The victim goes mad but bides there time before bursting open and revealing their new form. The spider seeks food and reproduction. She seeks a human mate.

A colony gone mad
Lost colony of hastur culltists have a giant array of 7 monoliths in a v shape. They offer food (baby flesh), a play (king in yellow), then tell players they are baby eating cultists who should join them. Byakee riding cultists on spacemead attack ship possibly summon shamblers who can carry them inside.

Caverns o Terror
A cultist carried cthonians eggs here hundreds of years ago. Now they are ready to arrise and enslave humanity as cattle.

Maggot filled Wreck
A wrecked space craft is crawling with maggots. Either brood of Eihort or after eating somebody assemble into a worm colony being with horrible secrets and habits. It will kill everyone it can or enslave as zombies or use as slave processors for its alien maths.

Frozen Ocean
A iced over sea where Xothians and deepones have been sleeping. Scientists detected life and are drilling into the aliens biological hab structure.

Crazy old Man in the Stars
He warns colony to leave, he is a wizard hiding here for centuries and call monsters to kill the colonists.

From beyond the Threshold
Alien or human Tillenghast resonator increasingly powers up letting humans see horrors from beyond. Gets worse till artifact stopped.

Eihorts Brood
Human disappears in lifeless location and broodlings are found. Scientists look for life are trapped by gate, impregnated and released one by one.

Asteroid Mine
Prospector has awakened a horror. A tunnel dwelling predictor, summoning sorcerer or a ship eating spawn of Azathoth. Why can one be all 3?

Cthugas Sons
Venus like colony under attack by fire vampires and cultists. Attempt to drive colony mad with murder, leaked cult books and monsters. Find and stop cultists.

Yesterdays Children
Colonists find degenerate tribals from past unknown colony. Do gooder colonists want to help them and send expedition to find their village. Ship wreck, alien ruins and worse - the cultists utterly evil.

Killer in the wind
Colony awoken a flying polyp. Explorers find vault, now outpost being murdered one at a time by alien horror. Aircraft crash fatally trapping outpost.

Saturn Dreamlands
An outpost near Saturn is getting dreams of Tsathoguas Kin and the wizard Eibon in the dreamlands. Finally a party are drawn through to meet cats from Saturn, Tsathoguas kin and various friendly but hideous races. Possibly they may be able to return through to dreamlands of earth or mars. Of course imigration wont be impressed.

Space Ghosts
An alien or ancient astronaut has left a psionic remnant feeding of increased mentality of an outpost exploring a wreck. Its power grow and it sabotages there escape. Science a d medical skills may be the answer or guns.

Dragons Domain
Lliogor inhabit a ruin or alien ship graveyard. Explorers are lured into the lair and drained or released to lure more explorers. If Liogor threatened it moves the graveyard a few dozen parsecs away.

Brains Trust
A disguised Mi-Go needs helpers to recover some brain cyilinders. Some other race is interfering so the Mi-Go uses human dupes to assist him. He migh abandone them or re use them again for other recovery missions.

Grey Matters
MiGo appearing as greys meet humans and try to trade. They need a few brains to repair their network. Will offer terrible cursed tech in return for some humans.

Mind Parisites
Attacking astronauts as they enter orbit. Colonists cant explain and need help.

Chaugnar Faughn
A colony has discovered a lost human feral colony devolved into crazed tribal midgets the NiriGiri. In their mountain temple is a statue which is one of Chaugnar's brothers. They have been here since Roman times.

Shining One
A colony of a benevolent sect hoping to colonize planet. Their leader is a clone of  Shoggoth Mr Shiny.

Colony Zero
Dreamlands horrors are killing colonists and leaving no trace. Nightgaunts are leaking in and carry to dreamlands.

Space Vampire
Ship found crew all dead. Space vampire is now on explorers ship.

Endless Darkness
A golony transport spotted between systems, very old long lost ship. Nyagthoa has turned ship crew into nocturnal cannibal cultists. Some frozen humans could be saved. (See film Pandorum).

Horror from the Stars
Azathoths flutist outer gods keep attacking colony. A cultist has a flute of Azathoth to call them.

Ressurection Lab
A high tech lab working on life extending tech goes lockdown. Someone has been trying to use mythos and failed.

Outpost gone to Rats
Outpost in ruins. Rats and rad hominids are all that's left.

Outpost going to rats
A familiar rat thing and weird dreams menace a colony. Witch cult familiars are out to drive colony mad.

Alien Mummies
Dessicated reptile mummies taken from ruins begin to absorb life. Increase in power as they drain power then rise to menace humans directly.

Insects aren't the best sex
A station operated as a brothel and fuel station has gone funny. An insect from shaggai is driving mad and killing in as many fun ways as he can.

Europa Trashed
Investigating strange traces of biomatter and sounds in deep surface lab on Europa when shoggoth attacks and seals from the surface.

Protoshoggoth Me
A mad scientist has succeeded in turning himself into a protoshoggoth. He is working o converting more and replacing all humans.

Serpent Men
A team has a serpent man infiltrator using humans for own ends. Will aggravate and disturb any mythos entities from curiosity.

Something alive in our stardrive!
Drive attracts multiplanar horror. Hound of Tindolas unhappy at FTL, or perhaps something hatches into world through the drive or it acts as a Tillenghast resonator revealing otherworldly things.

Scion of Tsathogua
Someone has taken idol from alien ruins and a horror wants it back.

SOS
Cultists use SOS to attract and contaminate more humans.

Ice World
A ice age world where last feral humans battle undead. Friendly if helped but Iquatha will eventually discover meddlers and crash their ship.

Snake World
Colony reporting venomous earth reptiles menacing colony. Yig cult at work trying to covert colony to taunt Mi-Go.

Forbidden Beacon
Cultists are broadcasting spells and blasphemous lore at several outposts find and destroy whoever responsible.

Sons of Yog Sothoth
A backwards yokel on colony has mated his daughter to Yog Sothoth. The locals scientists seize the human lookign one to find his invisible brother wants to free his bro.

Zarian Contact
An outpost is contacted by Zarians. All thew want is to awaken a sleeping god and humans are in the way.

Divine Reaction
An insect from Shaggai wants to call Azathoth and he reacons a reactor is the perfect place.

To Trap a Monster
Scientist Traps a star vampire and need help in study and relocating. Creature can summon friends when he needs to get out but for now he gets regular meals.

Old Trails
Coordinates from odd source sent party to temple of Azathoth on alien world.

Eihorts Return
Children on a colony have become a cult and are spreading Eihort brood around colony. He gives them more attention than colonist parents.

Sons of Azathoth
A moon sized spawn rains meteors and monsters down on a colony. Cultists are calling him.

Have You Seen the Yellow Sign?
A stranded colonist needs help - he has one book. He begins trying to introduce the play to the crew then leaves cursed signs that drive crew mad and summon monsters to readers.

Song of the Spheres
Experimental musician colony menaced by madmen and sonic beings like Tru'Nembra

Vampires Planet
Psionic vampires have infiltrated colony and are attempting to enslave colony as a larder. Perhaps they've already won.

Tunnels of eternal Night
A tunnel complex is discovered - deep inside is a Tsathogua temple and his spawn

Green Flame
A gas mining rig explodes, letting Tulza the Green flame leap from gas giant to moon. There he finds his ancient temple and revives ancient alien mummies to menace local outpost.

Lucky Star
A colony is much bigger than it should be, industrialized and building weapons to conquer nearby colonies. Ruled by cult.

Mothers Milk
Colony or gen ship been tainted by monster milk - mutant horrors on the loose

Vibur
Blue crystal feces of old one found, inspires cannibal cult.

Swarm
Local creatures menace colony under control of city sized subterranean being

The Night Fisher
Ship arrives in dust cloud - no light no stars no navigation. EM scan has shifting chaos which occasionally forms a face. Crew are one by one turned to killers. A nuke could bother the Night Fisher and give a glimpse of EM scan from outside to make a emergency jump. The night fisher is a half light year across dust cloud of blackness.

Mongolmania

Making up some some stuff for  contest on: http://swkhakhan.blogspot.com.au/

So im having fun researching social trivia, ancient religion and making some silhouettes and clip art to use - these are just rough drafts yet - need editing, but slapping up a few graphics to get to this stage was pretty nice. more on my flickr set: 

one of the better resources here
http://elibrary.sd71.bc.ca/subject_resources/socials/mogolempire.htm

need some editing and refining for a bit - will add some more events on above table

any feedback welcome

ill get my cults in space part 3 up in a bit - im just enjoying being distracted after a 4 day fever

Cultists in Space 2

Cthulutech, Cthulhupunk (gurps), Cthonian stars games all had reasonable stabs at space meets the Mythos too. Eclipse Phaze I would argue is the most modern SF and cleverest horror game of all time and worth plundering for ideas. 2300 was best hard science RPG which suits Cthulhu Space gaming. Gurps Space and Ultra Tech and Transhuman space too. Laundry series by Charles Stross use of phone apps to fight monsters and mathemagical science is awesome too. Space 1999 remains my favorite near future SF show and several episodes are almost Mythos. Obviously an explosion couldn't move the moon and anything survive, but the old ones may benefit from gating the moon away. There - biggest hole in show fixed. Cthulhu done it. Early 80s White dwarf uses 1999 eagles in what to me is the first Space mythos scenario for CoC (before it was a miniature catalogue).

Id try and publish all this a bit more completely if I thought anyone was interested.

Later ill post 50+ scenario ideas in Cultists in Space 3
After that ill dig out some of my shadow star campaign and possibly some fiction.

Any better solution for my gravity issues appreciated.

Core text examples
Brian Lumley has in his Borea novels a whole system with planets Iquatha has stocked. One planet a 10th c viking world, another where a glacier of polar bear riding humans barbarians battle cultists. Another has undead cultists toiling at magic for  Iquatha. The god also alters the people he sweeps up into space to survive alien worlds. He will snatch ships, planes and unwilling brides to interstellar space at a whim.

Cthulhu and others have left kin across the stars and have aided cultist like Eibon to flee the Earth. The Saturn Eibon went to is nothing like the one we know. Perhaps it is the dream lands of Saturn instead.

Hodkinsons The Night Land mentions humans went to space and came back finding it inhabited by horrors. Lovecraft mentions Humanity goes to war with the gods then kill themselves when they realize how insignificant they are.

This is a bit more detailed an adventure i ran - its a little flawed but bare bones is there. Drones would have dragged out action more.

The strange high house in the stars
asteroid hab map here:
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/strange-high-house-in-stars.html

asteroid station hab "the Lonesome Nugget" somewhere near Saturn 2247
former mining fuel waystation refitted for being part of a deep space observation array
crew of 7 capacity for 16 - built about 40 years ago - refitted 3 years ago
erratic array use then com blackout - rescue team incoming
the asteroid is tethered to another asteroid and set in a spin to create .4G
they use rotating bunks to give them sleep in .7 G and are medicated and genetically altered to be long term astronauts. Party has never been on the Earth.

The tethered asteroid contains fuel stores, array satellites and old mining junk - it doesn't need to be used much - a cable car connect the two

lost contact - emergency crew sent in with high g liquid atmosphere and crew conditioned for high g rescues. The rescue ship is cramped and the crew are keen to stretch and move.

Rescue mission
Marina Travers - Captain of ship - pilot (ex marine)
Gordon Blake - Lieutenant - copilot (rescue specialist)
Thierry Thoreau - Engineer
Leslie Mabutan - Computer mission specialist
Dr James Worthington - Psychoanalyst
Dr Marion Summers - Surgeon
Algernon - AI
Mr fuzzy - genetic mascot and cleaner of dead skin, phlegm and hair on ship

Hab crew
Robert Taylor - Captain
Andre Durant - Engineer1
Cassy Franklin - Engineer2
Antonia Fumettti - Medic
Don Hopgood - Radio Specialist
Mark Smith - Physicist
Odi - AI - scientific dedicated to antenna program
Kobold - Simple mining AI not in use for 14 years
Mr Jinx - genetic mascot and cleaner of dead skin, phlegm and hair on ship

First Look
Hab is functional - life support intact - AI not responding
players can activate AI or reboot the old mining AI which has been off for 30 years

Hab is a mess as if fight broken out - some blood

medical berth has horribly mutilated body with fingers and nose snipped off - vintage wool sheers used and found near by 16th c style

white boards covered in equations - some scrawled on rooms one stateroom covered in them
1600s style burned wooden sabot shoe found in room

mr jinx - on crew manifest as biobot experimental environment and companion pet - locked in pen - identical to mr fuzzy but....mr jinx will eat mr fluffy when out of sight - he is company property and his cleaning duties might reveal sata on possible contamination. Everyone should know he is very expensive and his harm will mean forms and a fne.

piles of strange maths computations on terminals - old manuscripts of maths with occult cypher

captains space suit missing

Cassy's room - possitive pregnancy test and some blood found.

a mummified chicken heart pierced with nails found inside reactor room near vent

bread found in disposal with some fingers - of a type not available - contaminated with ergot
Medical records show several wounds or lesions found on crew - no explanation given

investigator psychologist only one with any historical/historical knowledge

Computer recovery
Players ship computers and portable cyberdeck indicate catastrophic ai failure with virulent Virus infected - there is a risk of the players ship being contaminated - but this should be expected

AI or back up AI rebootable - old AI mad and may be hostile - original AI thinks its on a mining stations still - floor plan dated

Most screens are static - while trying to repair and nodding off tech thinks he hears voices and sees face in with static " get out!" 0/1 SAN - cant find again on playback

Video footage was in process of being deleted - plentiful pre event footage of crew normal duties, relaxing, some medical panic, crew fighting

Mr Jinx seen frequently acting cute, fetching, panting, humping a leg, etc

Andre playing increasingly violent games with knives

Smith is quitest, most distant, ore heavily edited, footage of him madly scrawling for days

Drones in the drone bay might get up to mischief and have different logs to mainframe if it helps keeper or red herring needed

What happened?
Mark Smith found documents from old arkham salvaged from an old house he found in library. The journal is from a 20th C maths students research into the witch-maths from Keziah who dwelled in  the house in the 1600s. His san damaged maths research allowed the spirit if Keziah Mason to mentaly explore the ship, probe the AI and turn mr Jinx into a mythos familiar. Things went down hill from there.

The captain was doing eva work when cam died and he disappeared (bumped by drone into space).

Then the AI began to be uncooperative Don was found in medical bay dead and mutilated with shears. Keziah possessed Andre and killed don. Andre was blamed for everything by surviving crew hunted him in struggle and imprisoned him. Sheers and blood found in Andres room - cam footage left as red herring of crew turning on him. Andre witnessed Mark coming in and out of gate and talking to himself and tried to kill him - a shambler came and took Andre away.

Mark pushed Antonia into a gate to 1600s where she was burned as a witch. (A player went through a gate and met same fate).

Cassy discovered she was pregnant to Mr Jinx and overcome with suicidal thoughts - as she began cutting herself. Kezziah took her and traded her to old ones at the dawn of time.

Mark has mostly been studying with Keziah and she has been experimenting with corrupting the ships "thinking engine".

Initial Investigations
Players set up and break down time to investigate ship - computer, ship systems, medical-forensic test, searching staterooms, reading documents, recovering video footage, cleaning - searching.

To reactivate AI or use back up?
Study esoteric maths?
Communications with HQ?

Records from earth may take 2 hours to days if historical archive originals requested - this may attract black agents to seize all coms with the Hab. They may not have characters action at heart. May slow the back-up team and claim technical difficulties. Possibly send a warship.

After 10 hours investigating players go over investigation and rest - eat etc - the hab is far more comfortable than their own ship

Next events
Monitor goes static and talks to investigator alone - Keziah's spirit in the system

Find another 16thc domestic object - even an apple - tiny - with mould spots and a worm, wooden spoon, spindle, chared wood from Antonias burning.

Haunted fx - evil AI will cause minor harm - older AI will make odd actions as system is overun

Mr Jinx
will be friendly and entertaining till investigators bored then goes to business "cleaning"
will fetch, hump leg, beg for food, sit on lap purring, rummage through clothes and laundy, squeak
he can actually gate at will - he is capable of hypnosis and may hypnotize then feed on blood
investigators failing a pow vs jinxs will see only adorable - company approved genetagged corporate biopet. Mr jinxs may lure someone into Mark Smiths room to be gated away. Players may try to kill or imprison him - he should easily escape to attack later, bigger and more horrible. If players relax about him he might make sexual advances. Kaziah can sense vaguely what jinx does but may be only vague.

Big Stuff
Andre found in fetal position shaking covered in unknown bioloical slime. Covered in claw marks and sucker woulds, blood loss, shock, catatonia. Acts better when drugged. Psychoanalysis sees totally abnormal brain activity - possibly getting a static hate message on brain scan equipment - Andre tries to get them to trust him - he doesn't know what he has done. Will turn psychotically homicidal with any object possible laughing and screaming like a banshee if freed by anybody.

Anyone checking out the other Asteroid might find Kezziah blows the tether, the cable and the mono-filament might destroy the rescue ship. Players might need jump rolls to get to main hab.

Mr Jinx will be not bothering to seem to be a biobot anymore and monsters out to siz 6. Will try to hypntise and drink or attack hand of any weapon wielder. Will escape if harmed and regenerate and try again. At 0 health he will fade to another dimension to heal. Magic damage takes longer and blood to heal. If investigators kill him twice he will remain with kezziah from then on. Possibly someone finds a video of Cassy and Mr Jinx in a compromising position - while watching something of course should attack them. 0/-1 SAN (unauthorized use of corporate property!).

By this time even fairly careful crew have infected their own ship through com systems. Algenon now hostile ready to cut coms and use ship to kill crew - totally overwritten by Kezziah as another body for her. Killing her will let Algernon reboot (?). Kezziah-ship tries to drive crew to the nugget. She could even turn on rescuers or fly elsewhere and leave the hab to Jinx, Mark and the investigators. She wants a bigger Ai and a new cult - and possible future missions for investigators. The party could nuke the asteroid but that would make trouble.

Mark Smith
Eventually mark returns surprised to find anybody on the ship - he has spent months between the 16th century the old ones and  now back to the ship to use the computer. If he sees players he will retreat into a gate or summon a shambler. It is possible to prevent him from binding the shambler and be killed by it. He has a magic knife which assists in summoning shamblers. He also has an alien tech biological translator he traded with the old ones that looks like a slime covered trilobite.
He alone is not too difficult to kill - he is only a fledgeling sorcerer.

Kezziah
She can escape any time but what she really wants is more footholds in time and space so escaping to the investigators home base is more important than the Hab or mark. She is superhuman and will risk fighting till she is wounded. She often uses domestic household objects as weapons. She has spells, summonings but is not really concerned with the Hab or characters - escape to civilization is her number one interest. If she destroys this one she knows another will come.

Mr Jinx can fend for himself and recover any non magical damage easily (he is a great little one).

Wrapping up
If only a one shot adventure - investigators could defeat her in combat. Perhaps given a clue she seeks their ship they could use a demolition charge. Removing all the gate equations from ship and database will help. Killing Mark and driving off jinx all help. Marines will arrive in tw days after coms loss. Letting her escape will save them but earn less san. After getting to HQ switching AIs she will crash the ship into a hab killing thousands. Future games may feature investigators chasing her as she revives dead sorcerers, awakens old ones, makes gates, starts cults and more. Eventually she will regret letting them live.Of course the best SAN outcome is to drive her off and destroy the gates.

When i ran this one player was gated and burned as a witch, all had injuries. Took 4 hours - i was impressed they didn't immediately suspect jinx seriously. Oh and the marine ex captain (I ran as NPC) had a secret mission to do whatever to protect government interests got shot by his second in command who was really sure his superior was mad (but he was just following orders by trying to kill party). He also could have abandoned party and stole their ship. Mark was killed by an engineers laser cutter. Mr Jinx and Kezziah were trapped in the past. Survivors were taken on their first visit to earth. One was arrested for stealing marks data and kept in a secret asylum, another was recruited into black ops org by force. Other survivors were just sworn to secrecy and monitored forever, one a drug addict. Yay victory.

Characters have no reason to believe hostile government black ops might have any inkling of the mythos. Any biopets they meet from then on will fill them with dread (or arousal?).




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