Mothership Monsters

Some more Mothership monsters. Some of these will be appearing in upcoming supplements I'm writing.

Bilge Rats

C:20 bite 1 DMG  I:15 W:1(1) 10% chance carries bloater parasite. Bites confer infection on a failed Body save.

Appear in swarms of 2d10

A mammal-like alien vermin that is quickly overtaking Terran rats as the most invasive species carried ship to ship. Bilge rats have long, lithe bodies like a weasel, but 12 limbs, 3 ventral sets and 3 dorsal sets, allowing them to grip, climb and move just about anywhere. They can squeeze their bodies through surprisingly tiny spaces.

Though an annoyance on their own, prone to getting into food stocks and chewing wires, the primary threat from bilge rats is the prevalence of parasites they carry, most notably that which form bloaters.

Bloaters

C:- I:- W:1(1) Stinging tentacles: Body save or become paralyzed by toxin. 1d5 DMG / turn while entangled as the tentacles slowly digest the victim. Explosive death: If the bloater body is destroyed it explosively expels a cloud of parasites. Anyone Adjacent and unprotected with safety gear is infected. Body save against infection if in Close range.

Bloaters are formed from a parasitic infection most commonly conferred from bilge rat bites (bilge rats being asymptomatic carriers of the parasite). However there are other vectors of infection, including the explosive decompression of a bloater body.

Bloaters are a colony organism similar to jellyfish. An infected individual begins experiencing fever, nausea, and internal bleeding among other symptoms. If untreated, infection is fatal in around 12 hours. The infected body then begins to hollow and bloat up with gasses that cause it to float like a balloon to the ceiling. Long, nearly invisible tendrils emerge from this floating skin sac, stinging tentacles that paralyze and digest prey snagged in them.

There is a 20% chance a bloater body will spontaneously explode from normal decay if disturbed.

Marionette Virus

This digital malware infects cybernetic implants, enslaving them to an unknown entity. Most commonly it seeks out highly augmented individuals so it can control them entirely. Due to the deep level of infiltration the virus requires, it can only be spread via direct contact, which overrides various security measures using physical hacks and workarounds. This is typically done by a puppeted individual attacking a new victim.

Though confirmed instances of infection are rare, fear of this virus carries outsized prevalence in communities of those with augmentation. It is suspected that the minds of infected individuals are not influenced, meaning infected are imprisoned in their own unresponsive body as it carries out the will of its new master. The paranoia around this virus has lead to several unfortunate incidents of violence against cybernetically augmented individuals when their implants were simply undergoing a normal malfunction.

All infected gain the following combat action:
Hijack Cyberware: 1d5 DMG, Int save or all cybernetic and slickware components are under control of foreign entity (controlled by Warden). If the target has computing or hacking skills, they gain [+] on the save.

The Enduring

C: 30 as weapon I:60 W:4(5) 1d10+2 Master skills. A large stash of wealth.

 
The Enduring have always walked among us. They look like us, they act like us (in public view anyway), they laugh at water-cooler jokes, have families, mow their synth-lawns on Sundays. But they are not like us, for they never die, not naturally in any case. Enduring do not succumb to aging or disease (though are still subject to violent trauma). They have had an eternity to hone their skills, their patience, and their escape plans (for at the very least an Enduring must conspire to leave their life behind when it becomes undeniable they remain young even as their families and friends age around them).

Enduring are likely the origin of vampires and similar myths, though they don’t have any of the needs or vulnerabilities of such creatures. If an Enduring finds themselves in trouble they simply disappear to outwait their opponents. Enduring have their own take on the tortoise and the hare parable: if you set the finish line far enough away, you will simply outlive your opponents. Most seem to be benign, hopping from life to life, though the obvious implications of the wealth and power capable of being accrued by such an entity must be taken into consideration.

Enduring also have inordinate durability. What would be a fatal injury to a typical human an Enduring can shake off and recover from. This only aids their typical MO of escape when discovered, and many have been thought killed that actually slip away to obscurity. If one discovers an Enduring and feels the need to kill them, they had best be sure it takes.

Rogue Emotion

C: 35 I:10 W:- (Can be dispersed with a particular resonating frequency). On a hit, Sanity save or the emotion enters its target.

 
Separated from its originating human by metaphysical hyperspace storms, the emotion now wanders the universe seeking a new mind to roost in. Its long and lonely wandering has intensified the strength of the emotion 100 fold. Roll to determine emotion:

1 Bliss 2 Terror 3 Rapture 4 Anguish 5 Rage

If someone contracts a rogue emotion the feeling overwhelms them and they can think of little else. They act accordingly. Can be treated with specialized mental and pharmaceutical therapies.

Hollow

C:70 claw 2d10 DMG (bleeding/gore[+]) I:25 W:2(30)

A body stripped of the mind yearning for what is missing. They take what is inside of you out with deadly precision and lay it out in orderly rows to watch it glisten in the light. They study their bounty to try and find what is missing but never fathom that it isn’t something held in blood or gristle.

Mummers

C:40 strangle 1d10 DMG or attack as weapon I:50 W:3(20) When observed can only make one attack. If not, can make five.

Superposition hyperspace organism. They are forced into static form by human observation and they loathe it. They appear as twisted amalgamations of body parts, faces, or objects. Maintaining observation slows them, losing it is usually a fatal mistake. They often wield twisted versions of weapons that do not seem to obey the normal rules of physics.

The Friend with a Winning Smile

Sanity save to resist the Friend’s charms
 
The Friend with a Winning Smile is helpful, jovial. The Friend grins from ear to ear–well, you can’t quite make out the Friend’s features but you're pretty sure they have ears. The Friend with a Winning Smile is comforting and familiar. They couldn’t be something strange, something abhorrent, something wet-slick and smelling of salt and iron that sets all your hairs on end. The Friend with a Winning Smile will help you find your way in this place with grace and charm, and you will all laugh and laugh and laugh. The Friend with a Winning Smile is of great comfort to you when you are missing your comrades—you came with so many and now you are alone. But what other companions do you need besides the Friend, really? It’s right there in the name.

Extremoplasmosis

When you come in contact Body save or contract infection. Automatically contract if taken in capsule form.

Extremoplasmosis infections result in lowered inhibitions toward risky behavior, and a feeling of increased confidence in one’s capabilities. While this change is strictly psychosomatic, the performance increase from the behavioral change shouldn’t be dismissed.

It is unclear whether extremoplasmosis started as naturally occurring or was lab formed, but it’s clear now that many pharmaceutical companies seek to leverage its effects as a marketable drug. The more reputable pharma corps produce pills using compounds from extremoplasmid byproducts, which have temporary effects and do not result in infection. The less reputable simply produce capsules of live organisms practically guaranteeing infection.

While infected by extremoplasmosis a person has the following effects:

• Will always take the riskiest course of action in a dangerous situation. Sanity save with [-] to resist this effect.
• When called to make a Fear save, automatically succeed.

Extremoplasmosis is typically spread by consuming contaminated food. While surface spread is rarely a risk, coming in contact with significant quantities of infected blood can also result in infection.

The Rumor Mill

I've been noodling something in the back of my mind, inspired by reading my daughter Rumpelstiltskin, specifically the beginning where the miller boasts to the baker's son his daughter is too good for the likes of him, why she can even spin thread into gold! This rumor gets passed along various villager until it reaches a servant of the king, who tells the king himself, who of course has to see this for himself much to the consternation of the poor miller's daughter.

I was thinking this could be a fun quest hook to throw at players, where they do some deed and a local VIP catches wind of it and sets them up for another job. Even better, what if the original boast or deed was pretty mundane, and it got twisted by word of mouth to be something blown way out of proportion?

Well over at Mindstorm Press was just posted a blog describing pretty much how to do just that, in a way that is better than anything I was working up (go read that first so the rest of this post makes sense). I'm definitely going to use this. Here is a summary of the method straight from their page:

Add an Exploit

When the group performs a great deed and it is known to the world, record the deed on your reputation charter. Make sure to number it.

Checking your Reputation

When the group encounters a situation where your past deeds might be known, the GM and players pick up the dice.

The players pick up a total number of dice equal to how many exploits they have. It doesn’t matter who rolls the dice, either a single player or spreading them across the entire group.

The GM picks up a single die.

Roll the dice. If the GM’s die was less than or equal to the number of exploits on the reputation charter, the group is known. The exploit that matches the GM’s die is the one they are most known by.

If the GM’s die matches any of the player’s exploit dice, one of their exploits is twisted out of true. If multiple exploit dice match the GM’s die, the exploit is permanently twisted out of true. Erase and record the new version of it.

Here is my contribution to add to this method: a spark table to determine who changed the rumor and why, a tweak to the GM roll, and rules for players to try and modify a rumor themselves--either to set the record straight or exaggerate for their own benefit.

The Gossiper Table

Roll on this table to describe who altered the story about the exploit and why.

d12	Who Twisted the Exploit?	Why?
1	Villagers or civilians	Misinformed or Misremembered
2	A local gossip	For monetary gain
3	A bard or entertainer	To seem more impressive or spice up the story
4	A local authority figure	To harm the party's reputation
5	An NPC involved in the exploit	To harm or improve a rival party's reputation
6	A rival group of adventurers	To create chaos, drama, or doubt
7	The quest giver for the exploit (re-roll if there wasn't one)	Opinion of events altered by political views
8	A town crier, journalist, or new service	Opinion of events altered by religious views
9	A guild faction	Opinion of events altered by views of people involved (party or NPCs)
10	A religious faction	Opinion altered by views on local authorities
11	A government faction	Asked to change story by someone else (roll again to see who)
12	An enemy of the player party	Memory magically, technologically, or supernaturally altered

Modify the GM Dice

The GM rolls one die against the party's pool of dice. If the GM's dice rolls over the player total, the party isn't recognized for their deeds. If you want to add distance or other mitigating factors into this roll I propose the following:

For every mitigating factor in a story spreading such as distance (one kingdom, country, planet over from where the party typically operates), language or cultural barriers, or someone trying to suppress the story, the GM adds an additional die to their roll. This makes it both more likely the party hasn't been heard of and more likely it gets twisted. Use the highest result to determine what rumor they are known for if it is the case the party is recognized. (if the party lists their deeds in chronological order, that also means their most recent are more likely to be known, which makes sense).

If using the capped exploit variant where there are only a limited amount of listed deeds allowed, treat all the GM dice as a dice pool and use the largest.

Controlling the Narrative

The players can get a chance to control their story, at least for a little while. If all the player exploit die match, they can choose how to twist the narrative of one exploit (including resetting it to the truth). This overrides any match with the GM dice. This requires having at least two exploits listed. The more accomplishments the party has, the harder it is to control their legend (or infamy).