Juves Gone Wild - a short funnel set in Umbra City

He was, they thought, some buzzhead.  A drunk, or maybe a spice nut.  Whatever.  Some strange rando was called out on a ‘disorderly & disobey’ and pulled into the SecFor Compassion House for some ‘cool down time.’

The weird movements inside him started a few hours after he arrived on world, Maleth Noir, armpit of the old Imperial core.   IT didn’t seem so bad at first. But the sweating.  Some reaction to a local pollen perhaps, or maybe climate control – they used force field climate control here he read – sometimes seemed to trigger a reaction.

By that first evening his skin felt like it could and very well might dismount from his flesh and crawl about on his own.  He hit some Pharm and went to get a drink and that’s when the movements…inside began.

The E-district was already filling up at the SecFor briefing house that morning; a crystal convention brought a delegation of 100 filthy credited merchants from Dulcinea and their associated entourage. Some of the visiting crystal spiders were having problems with the stationary holograms and so the pods were filling up fast. So, they rotated the guy down to Umbra city, let it be their problem.  He looked sick on the capsule to the transporting officer but sleeping.  They liked it when the perps were sleeping. Quiet.

The dreams were terrible, constant nightmares about cannibalism and being consumed from within by dozens, hundreds of tiny creatures. And the burning, so hot, he felt as though were on fire.  Sweat beaded like molten silver across his brow, both in dream and awake.  A kind of distorted time warp of a fever dream came over him.  He was being eaten.  He was being consumed from the inside out by hundreds of tiny gnawing lifeforms, that he could already feel violently moving about within him.  NO ROOM  And they would be idle and then one would panic and then all would scramble about trying to find a way out.

Paralyzed by and full of fear, he did not even recognize when he came to wake, or why the officer was speaking so slowly but loudly. Or his response. He was just…angry. And strong.

He could now dimly recall a thought, an almost afterthought, from the moment he stepped off the shuttle in Sky city – a … doubt? No, regret? Was it something he had eaten?   Inhaled.   Fucked?

Whatever it was he couldn’t recall, memory obscured by the tearing sounds of meat and the wicker bending of uncared for and soft bone, and the constant movement now. IT did not stop. And there was more of it.

Whatever he did, it was obviously something he should not have done.

They beat him when he turned violent.  IT was obvious they took it too far immediately. He tapped out. For a moment the five officers exchanged glances and looked at the shine on their boots.  Finally, one of them took some initiative and they got the body…the suspect to a secure holding at the far end. Leave him there until the end of shift and let him sleep whatever off. All with a quiet prayer to the Status Quo.

Hours later, at close of shift, the hack looked in on him, but was almost immediately summoned away. Some upstairs stiff had ordered a round up of undesirable juves for some reason. Right now, tonight.  And he remained. Though she swore, later quite literally, swear in the deposition embossed with the seal of Leviathan, that she thought something large in his chest seemed to have been moving around, perhaps she said under his tunic.

As the juves were sorted and loaded no one came calling or to pay attention. No one heard the screams, the terrible screams, as the now nameless and horribly doomed off worlder felt their flesh tear apart, their skin split wide open, and their throat tear open from the inside as the first dozen or so space rats chewed and gnawed their way through his flesh.  His own fingers tearing at his chest, clawing now first tearing shirt, then skin, and then digging through flesh, meat under his fingernails until he hit bone.   His ribcage now exposed, contained a hundred screaming, squeaking, squealing off-world rats, somehow, impossibly, transported through customs inside his body.

The first of them screeched with chaotic delight as it wrecked it’s way up his throat, wiggling through is screams out of his mouth with a loud CRACK, unhinging his jaw.  Behind the first. A dozen more scurried out now the bore hole.

Squeaky Doom had come to Maleth Noir.

Juves gone wild / Squeaky Doom Comes to Noir  -a funnel for 12 juves caught in a SecFor round up.

Download the funnel pdf here

Download your zero levels here 

What is Maleth Noir? Find out here (drivethru link)

Cross town Monstrosity (Umbra City - Maleth Noir)

Sometimes you need that high level encounter for the whole group.  Sometimes you need a threat that can destabilize the whole place (however temporarily) and sometimes you need a Big Damn Monster for the PCs to slay, all nice and public like, to get the neighborhood/city/authorities/whomever on their side (Big Damn Heroes[1]). 

Like the city being invaded by a tribe of mutants or a few of the other wider ranging encounters in Sub-ether #1, this is one of those encounters.

An all-points bulletin hits the comms traffic; city districts are being placed into lockdown preventing travel between them and the largest scramble of hex spinners anyone has ever seen just dispatched overhead…heading for the Shades.

A cancer mage was cornered at the Reccie-works and called up some abomination to cover their escape.  So, there’s a monster raging out of control at the surface street level of the Reclamation works (section Gamma). And oh yeah, there’s a cancer mage running lose in the city.  

Just another day-cycle, right?

The monster at the Reccieworks will not be stopped, certainly not by the SecFor   Whether this was the sorcerer’s plan or not in the first place, they called up some kind of ... dreggu golem,

Dreggu Golem (1): Init +2; Atk flailing slam +8 melee (1d8+3 + see below); AC 17; HD 11d8; hp 40; MV 20’; Act 2d24; SP Skin that runs and flows like wax, Toxic touch; SV Fort +8, Ref +2, Will +2; AL C.

Skin that runs and flows like wax – the at once seemingly waxy, slippery, pudding-like surface covering the creature is in fact’s it’s skin and muscles, and it is hungry with necrosis, death, and incredibly regenerating, throbbing, pulsing LIFE.  Skin to bare surface contact results in 1d6 hp damage from chemical action and the loss of several layers of skin as the golem’s body attempts to absorb and eat the skin and muscles of those it comes into contact with.  This is in addition to and cumulative with Toxic touch below.  

The creature is slippery that attempts to hold fast or grab onto the creature do so a step down on the die chain.  

Toxic touch – the touch of the screaming creature carries with it a death sentence. A successful Fort save (DC 21) must be made to avoid this fate.  On a successful slam attack or any direct skin or body surface contact with the creature, the skin at once infects, mutates, and tries to consume that which it is in contact with.  Functionally this is combined chemical attack/alteration that inflicts 2d6 hp damage, and 2d3 points of ability damage.  On a failed save this also imparts a rapid acting regenerative cancer to the victim, metastasizing in 1d6 progressions and killing the character in 1d3 months.   ON a successful save, the afflicted still takes damage but can save to recover half of the ability damage (Fortitude DC 16) a day later. Further, while the character needs to be seen at a trauma facility, they are not imparted with immediate toxic death, though there is a 2% cumulative per passing sidereal that this will become so.

Mutants and Variants gain a +4 against this effect as their systems are hardened against even supernatural cancers.  Non-organics struck by this effect still incur the physical hp damage but suffer no ability damage and no chance of cancer.

Roleplaying Hints:   KILL ME I AM IN PAIN!!!  There is nothing left to be reasoned with. It just wants to die.   Kill it.   It is constantly making noises of raging pain, but all is too distorted to make out. 

The creation of a desperate cancer mage; this could only have happened at a Reclamation Works where someone (or more likely several someones) have been … recycled.  Soul fragments those “reclaimed” while living now dead summoned and infused into the semi-organic runoff from the Reanimators (dreggu) now shaped by poisonous will into a doughy roughly person shaped raging monstrosity.  

---

[1] especially if they are a bunch of DCC characters someone magicked up to deal with the problem.  While this won’t likely make them Noir’s version of the Avengers all by itself it will def. get them noticed and looked at favorably by many. 

Values of Electronic Warfare

Certain characters and devices are listed in Sub-ether #1 with an EWV; what is this cryptic number?  It is their Electronic Warfare Value.  

In an age of smart matter and relatively available Fabricator technology, especially in the core, everything is networked.  Across a variety of systems and relays and micro-transceivers.   When everything is networked, everything is at least a little smart, and so many of the coreworld population are mechanized, it is not surprising how common it is for that technology to be hacked.   From guns, to computers, to cyberoptics, all of it can be hacked if it can be remote accessed at all.   To simulate that, the following simple but highly invasive rule is presented.

Give all mechanicals an Electronic Warfare Value;  they can add their class and int bonus to this as well. Some classes also give an EWV bonus;  urban confiscator may just add their level.   Some cybernetics can give organics a base EWV as well. 

Note that Being and Class EWV bonuses are stackable.

All gear that is electronic and networkable gets an EWV as well; that’s the DC the hacker would need to affect that device.  This can be an enemies’ smartgun, or their onboard computer.

Gear EWV DCs should range from relatively low (10 to hack house appliances, 20 to hack an enemies’ weapon in combat, and up)

Some items will lack an EWV completely, having n/a or (*) where *denotes a particular value; this indicates that the item cannot normally be hacked but if somehow the computing elements on board could be hacked this would be the DC to hijack them.

Yes in theory you can hack another mechanical but it’s BAAAD form and also their defenses are higher than most tech. Esp. if leveled.

Gear can come in hardened varieties, which is ‘hack resistant’ increasing the DC by 2 for effectively doubling (at least) the equipment price

Assume that whatever the Imperial government uses is basically super hardened which is +3 DC

Just remember, Cybernetics can be hacked.

This WILL change the feel of the game CONSIDERABLY but if everyone is on board it balances out some of the super tech that the authorities will use on you whether you have done anything or not.....and could also be dangerous if you have any Mad Thinker types in your group.  :)   It''s your game, do with it as you please. 

Much more about he EWV and specifics as to it's use will appear in the new rules section of Galaxy Black.  Until such a time as you have a lengthy list of equipment with EWV targets, use the above and wing it. :) 
Any unusual or notable uses of this in your game?  Drop a line to dreaminggynoid@gmail.com and tell us all about it.

Listen to the Voice and Follow Me......

 “Let it in
Let it out
Empty head feeds you an Exit Bomb
Empty head wants you to sing along”

-          Chemlab, Atomic Automatic

Deep below, in Underworld 14x something stirs

An ancient power conduit momentarily springs into life, a circuit dying casts a final spark before the end before terminated by the building sector’s master control program.

It is enough.

The telescreen is lit.

It has power. Power for one.

IT starts with one.

In the vast nothing of perceptionless between space where it was imprisoned, Lord Televisor tenses for He knows his time is nigh. Soon, one will find him, that will bring the others, and the unity tyranny can begin again.  So Soooooooon

Lord Televisor Wants In

On Underworld level 14x….he is going to get what he wants.

Can you hear the static?  Can you feel the magick?

Calling to the workers

Calling to the children

Calling to the juves

Calling to all the disaffected masses

Listen to the Signal

Follow Me

Listen to the Voice and Be Free

Listen to the Voice and Follow Me

The hypno-lord has found an aperture, through which it has begun, at low level and lower power, the Call.

Check each progression until one.  All it needs is one.  Then every 28 days add more believers:

First D3

Then D6

Third month add D12

Fourth month add 2d12

Once they reach 50.  Things get really rolling.  

Each week at that point they are now actively recruiting and drawing out those who hear the Call.  After one progression add 1d3, after two add 1d6 more, and so on, as above.   Eventually they will be bringing in 5d12 more each progression.

You. 

You’re not supposed to be here.

Televisor is one of the entropic Lords of Ignorance, fallen gods of the Second Empire and enemies of civilization.  Hypnosis, surveillance, and data control are his domain.  Misdirection, falsehood, and lies follow in his wake…and then mindless violence.

Honoring Lord Televisor is a Category One InfoCrime. 

Lord Televisor, the Hypno-Lord  god of crowd control, mass hypnosis, surveillance, and control of the individual; favors doctrine ‘’total data control’ -  all other data is falsehood and must be destroyed, the longest lasting first. In past eras the cult of Televisor was that of entropy wrapped in a thin sheen of intellectualism; it developed a taste for mass worship at the height of the Second Empire’s most tyrannical and corrupt periods, drunk of it, Televisor will now not give up the feeling of uncounted millions giving over control of their lives in his name.

Among the most potent of all the Lords of Ignorance, even today.

Some say the signal from an active telescreen can be and often was subverted by Televisor to create “Agents of the View-State” via hypnosis, behavioral induction, and triggered specific hallucination, eventually creating a kind of biological degeneracy wherein these hallucinations became flesh.

Cultists of Lord Televisor (): Init +0; Atk fists +3 melee (1d3); or improvised club +4 (1d4+1); AC 14; HD 2d6+1; hp 8 or hp 11, 10, 8, 8, 8, 7, 6, 6, 5, 3, 3; MV 30; Act 1d20; SP Act as one; SV Fort +1, Ref +0, Will -1; AL C.

Act as one – the hypno-lord’s Most Compelling Signal saps the individual will even as it strengthens the mass mind, the mob, the mind of the crowd.  For each member of a group of cultists encountered those cultists have a free floating pool of bonuses that may be applied to any action die roll. Once spent they are gone, even after individual members have died due to violence or accident the mob continues and may spend their ‘point’ as usual.  Note that even if the same individual is later encountered in a different mob of cultists the “pools” do not carry over or in any way interact; they exist in the abstract strictly on a per encounter basis.

RP notes: Any group of cultists randomly encountered, in lair or in the corridors of underworld will react thus if confronted with violence.  Any group of cultists that spend any amount of time together will find their sense of self eroding in the face of their companions constant presence; in time they will dress the same, act the same, and come to recall the same things even if they are the memories of their companions.   At this point recovery will need psychiatric and possibly psychic assistance.

Hallucinating Champion of Lord Televisor (1)  Init +1; Atk  concealable blade +5 melee (1d4), or concealable slug thrower +4 (2d6+1, 70’); AC 15; HD 2d8; hp 13; MV 30’; Act 1d20; SP concealed weapons, contaminated flesh ; SV Fort+2, Ref +1, Will +1; AL C.

Concealed Weapons – the Televisory Mutant has been changed so that their flesh is now their instrument.  Weapons, small items of equipment, and other non-perishables may be indefinitely stored inside their own body.   These items are not detectible save through psionic or magical/divine means. 

To certain of Televisor’s cleverer, less dim-witted champions, they may at times find weapons and equipment have been placed INSIDE THEM through chaos miracle for their use and often their use only. In this way a Champion of Televisor may have firearms, energy weapons, or other advanced technology not commonly available on (or in) Noir.

Such rarified individuals may also possess other powers, gifts, or abilities, derived from their lives before or through entropic insight, imparted by their lord through endless sleep-teaching. The Judge should work out these details in advance but should have capabilities roughly comparable to one or two player characters.

Contaminated Flesh 0 the Televisory mutant can in a limited fashion contaminate others with their bubbling changing flesh. Those who come into skin to skin contact with the champion must succeed at a DC 16 Fort save or suffer 1d4 ability loss to their ail and pers as their face and hands become apparently contaminated with some rotting disease.   IN the meantime, the mutant may treat the target as their own body for purposes of Concealed weapon above.   If something is implanted within the target the target has no ability to remove it themselves short of cutting it out.

RP notes: This poor individual has eroded enough of their will with exposure to Televisor’s Conditioning Hum that the signal has changed their flesh just as the signal has changed their mind.   They exist in a constant hypnogogic state of deep brain hallucination and communion with the All Signal of the View-State.

Often such beings quickly burn out and die, sometimes in violent orgies of mass violence in which they attempt to make their Lord’s intentions known.  Likely they are among the first, if not the very first, of those “found” by Lord Televisor and so often these are merely the ends of already tragic, wasted lives.

Who is the Man in White?

Today is 006/11,020 Third Empire                                                                         1061r/I/6

General action notice all agents - junior Agent & SigInt Liaison Hoilden Juric

Agent Juric was abducted two progressions ago believed 345/11,019

Held and interrogated for at least 10 days.  Perpetrator known to SecFor; no listed biometrics.

General Dispatch Issued – Warrant for Identification, Observation, and Capture

Description-

Unidentified apparent unclassed biped/organic Humanoid, 2m

c. 73 kg

pale skin, short trimmed flaxen head hair, no other visible facial or bodily hair

Two eyes, external ears, visible manipulators (four fingers, thumb)

Affectation – Unmarred white suit of unusual cut and unknown origin, gloves, running shoes.   Subject is barefaced but retains use of brimmed hat and glasses. 

statistical projections

          male

          Humanoid (mongrel)

          Training in the Parasciences and Advanced Unarmed Combat techniques

          No biometrics or identifying data of any kind.  

Possibilities (grouped by greater statistical likelihood)

          Subject is Ghost, Spectral Entity, or other Sub-etheric form

          Subject is custom grown life form designed to leave no traces

          Subject is rogue hologram, likely Pratamathic.   Inquires in progress

Notes: Sky City and Umbra City Security Forces found to have record of multiple contacts with believed same individual in the last 36 days.  (Records enclosed)

Clearance only – Agent Juric was interrogated by an unequipped professional.  Partial debrief suggests a foreign element, perhaps from a far Splinter, other Temporal reference point, or Extra-Imperial polity.

Location and observation of possible rogue element priority, apprehension of possible rogue element priority.   

Mysterious Man in White (1): Init +1; Atk weapon +1 fist (1d3) and/or weapon;

AC 13; HD 1d10; hp 11  MV 30; Act 1d20?; SP Electronic Warfare Value; SV Fort +1, Ref +1, Will +3; AL C.

EWV 3

What is the Man in White?   And why doesn’t this stat block represent what Imperial Security has encountered?

Is he a sorcerer?  Scientist? What threat does he represent to the people of Noir?

SECFOR RECORDS

Sky City SecFor Blotter logged 0330 hours/326/11,019

Intense winds and electrical storm overcome environmental controls

-SecFor deployed haphazardly and threadbare across Sky City

Logged 0723 hours/326/11,019

Individual Lurker in Sky City Entertainment District.

-SecFor squad deployed, all down with injury within 30 seconds of contact.

-SecFor general scramble; 5/6 units in vicinity responded & engaged

-ITEM all units disabled with injury within 72 seconds of contact, responding units interrogated and searched

0800 hours/326/11,019 General Alert; All Deployments Notice

ADN perpetrator sought in connection with disturbance of the peace, failure to provide biometrics, resisting arrest, and 10 counts unarmed assault on Security Forces. 

Perpetrator designated Dangerous, Potentially Hostile. No biometrics on file.

Perpetrator untyped Humanoid, archaic white suit, partially barefaced.

0900 Logged 0847 disruption at Chodak Municipal Sphere, perp sighted, multiple witnesses, perp believed attempted to access public computer

Logged 0913 hours/326/11,019

Electronic Security and Access break in, municipal tube station nexus Alpha

Umbra city SecFor Blotter Logged 0946 hours/326/11,019 

individual SecFor patrol officer found in sabotaged Tubestation capsule, stripped of gear and clothing.

Logged 1011 hours/326/11,019

Unauthorized computer access Chodak Central Communication Cone – a pay for use public terminal was physically hacked and information security was compromised.

Believed related to

Logged 1312 hours/326/11,019

SecFor assault; three SecFor officers found and treated for multiple trauma, all had been individually assaulted by perpetrator while attempting computer access. 

Believed related to

 Logged 1339 hours/326/11,019

Five computer terminals Chodak Central Communications Core found sabotaged.

Mood board – Maleth Noir : To Live and Die in Sky City

It looks like I may be starting another game on Noir.   Thus a mood board. I may add to this later.

(EDITED: Looks like that is not happening but leaving post up anyway) 

Art by Mshindo9 (More here https://www.deviantart.com/mshindo9 )

 

That’s by Darren Myners.  You can find their work here https://darrenmyners.artstation.com/

also by Darren Myners.

Art by Death Burger https://www.artstation.com/josan

Updates from the Giant Electric Head

Updates....

My great big Full Edit of the Whole Text has reached it’s final chapter, though that is the biggest of the bunch, and contains the psychic disciplines and all their rules.  Fun!  So happy to be able to see the end of this thing (not done but I can see it from here.) .    

Let me vague that up for you……

Need to put the final touches and finish an article for but should be loading something free and OSR shaped onto drive thru soon.  Just Need. To. Finish. Doing. That.

Which right now is harder than it sounds.  Time doing anything is time not spent doing something else.  And this is low low low priority.  Mostly it’s old stuff that doesn’t exist anymore but brought up to code lol.   More when I’m dropping it; nothing serious but just for fun.

Think about the future……

A lot of my spare thinky thoughts time has been lining up a few smaller books to support Galaxy Black and then what to do next after that.   (I’ve been speaking to several of you about a fair bit of these ideas.)   Plotting and brainstorming mostly but once I’m no longer critiquing my own systems design I can put some real work into getting those ready too.  Would love to be able to drop the first one of these simultaneous or soon after getting Galaxy Black itself released.    But obv, just getting the White Whale / Black Galaxy out the door is the main concern.

Scum and Villainy……

You may recall ( LINK ) I mentioned a second game I’m running set in the overcrowded urban slums of Maleth Noir.  This is my Underworld game as it’s come to be known.

ANYWAY, I made a thing for the players, esp as none of them are DCC players, and of course I’m not clubbing anyone over the head with a 700+ book *just* yet.   A really super basic chargen guide and idea what to expect more than anything else.

Anyway, it was pointed out I ought to share this with ya’ll so I am. 😊 

Players Guide to the Underworld of Maleth Noir 

Since I’m dropping all my players resource links I might as well add my two playlists; they are pretty useless for those of you without a google play music subscription (which is most of you) but here they are regardless.

In the Imperial Shadow Maleth Noir

Sounds of the Underworld Crawl