Loose Adventure Seed: The Tower of Babel
Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 11:34 am
This toolkit adventure seed came to me in part inspired from the horrible Garuberk Tower (?) bio-construct thingie in the classic console RPG Phantasy Star IV. It's a creepy side-element that can be introduced as a mysterious but ultimately non-important background element, or can become the focus for a game that involves treachery and politiking within houses. It's *especially* suited to GM's and groups who want to use the Librarian's as potential antagonists as well as bio-construct supercomputers 
I've deliberately left out the actual adventure construct, as I just want to get the idea out before fleshing out the linked images in my head. Please use this material as you wish, I'll follow up wih the adventure later if people like the seed enough. Note that this is a beta for the final idea, and explains very little in terms of rules. It's born of a string of linked images in my head, in part inspired by the old "wonderous" but VERY creepy sci-fi art of the 60's to 80's.
The Tower Appears
Somewhere in the uncontrolled regions near a Great House (that just happens to contain the PC's), freak weather conditions have rendered an area nearly 80 square kilometres in diameter hazardous to travel. The weather is clearly not natural; Zephyr and Archangels flying near the region have reported a whirling wall of dust and debris, like a stationary hurricane, filling their vision from horizon to horizon when hours before there was only normal weather conditions. Sometimes, the clouds are shot through with golden or purple flashes of highly energetic discharges; patrols near the region have vanished without trace, their last contact reporting that the weather was getting worse. Bio-Comms and the Host Armour sense of magnetic north is totally disrupted within 10km of the perimiter of the "zone"; from on high, deep into the 'zone, airborne scouts report that the land looks "twisted", but cannot make out exactly why before their senses are disrupted by the freak conditions that pervade into the zone.
The Tower is Present
How the House reacts to the presence of the "anomaly" (the Tower) is up to the GM. If the story demands it be investigated immediately, have the PC's selected. If the House is investigating, it's possible to leave it as a mystery in the background across several adventures before the PC's get involved. To whit; anything, machine or living, that approaches the zone is lost. The freak weather, which includes dust storms, rain storms strong enough to strip flesh from bone, and fogbanks so thick and eerie that it appears that the horizon itself is occluded, as well as "uncategorizeable" freak occurances that defy normal accepted weather conditions (such as massive electrical storms, earthquakes, even strange "snow showers" that move and pulse like living spores) makes conditions near the affected territory unpleasant, to say the least.
The Tower is a Long Way Away
The Tower itself sits in the middle of a roughly circular zone of influence roughly 80 kilometres in diameter. The terrain changes as one gets closer to the construct, becoming more scoured and disrupted; in areas, even more dissolved/digested-looking. The trip to the Tower should be an adventure in and of itself, due to the fact that the weather conditions and ambient lack of anything resembling life make the experience a bit like the Bermuda Triangle meets the Day After Tomorrow. Some examples of weather conditions and encounters that may occur:
1. A rain storm (or "ruinstorm") so severe that the land around becomes a deathtrap for the exposed; flash-floods, driving rain, NO visibility, deafening and disorientating. The rain boils in without warning, black clouds occluding a clear sky in less than a minute before the downpour begins. Finding shelter is a very good idea. Exposed characters lose all combat bonuses, are -20% to Skills usages unless the GM deems otheriwse, and take 1D4 M.D. (yes, MEGA-DAMAGE) per minute/four Melee Rounds of exposure. The rain lasts for only a few minutes before it suddenly disperses, leaving devastation in its wake. After-event analysis will reveal the "rain" is actually an alien form of biological acid.
2. A natural, if heavy, snowstorm. This wouldn't be unusual, except that it can occur at any time in any weather conditions.
3. Spores. Under a darkened, strange purple/green-shot sky, clouds of what appear to be snow begin piling up and drifting across the landscape, illuminated by flickers of lightning-like energy from above. It's eerily beautiful, until the characters realize that the "snow" is eating them. Exposed characters take 3D4 Mega Damage per melee round starting about a minute after the spore shower begins, until they find shelter and wash off the horrible material. In the aftermath, the land is coated with powdery snow-like material that is already dead, having partially eaten into the land itself. The strange sky will disperse as silently and quickly as it occured.
4. A lightning storm of Biblical proportions, lancing arcs of energy booming across a flashing sky and arcs of lightning blowing large rocks and outcroppings to smithereens. Damage ranges from 2D8 Mega-Damage for a small bolt of energy striking nearby (as well as lose half attacks/actions per round, Initiative, and -10% on Skills Checks due to severe shock) to a whopping 2D6x10 M.D. across a large area for the truly epic bolts (penalties should be along the lines of "forget anything but twitching" in the aftermath of a direct hit).
5. Earthquake! Small or large, it's going to cause all SORTS of problems.
6. High winds whip a fierce dust storm to Tornado-level power. Blindness, disorientation, and 1D8 M.D. a minute of exposure should remind characters that shelter is a very good thing, and that buying Armoured Covers for any optical sensors their Host Armour/Living Armour may have is not a secondary consideration when the environment turns on them. If the winds are high enough, characters can even be ripped up and hurtled into the churning winds. GM's are encouraged to get creative and nasty.
7. ANY natural weather phenomenon can occur.
8. Get creative.
The team should occasionally find evidence of the remains of Machine and/or Resistance forces, long destroyed and scoured by the weather. I'm avoiding specifics because GM's should feel free to make the journey and atmosphere as eeries and alien as they like. Whatever has caused such devastation, the PC's should be made to feel as though they have earned their passage through.
The Tower Itself
Once within visual range (a few kilometres), the Tower appears as a finger-shaped construct nearly a kilometre high on the horizon, surrounded by flat and scoured land. As the players approach, the Tower is revealed to be a pulsing organism, with a flattened tip and no signs of habitation. It's also quite sizeable (half a kilometre around the base) and clearly biotech, though with an alien resonance the PC's should not be familiar with. If they watch, they will see amazing and horrifying weather phenomena centred on the tower itself, during which it looks like something out of Hell. Four large sealed entrances provide access.
The Tower is Alive
Inside, the Tower is alive, but even mroe so than usual "human-friendly" biotech. The walls are pulsing muscle, the floor sinew; access to different chambers is via vein-like tunnels. Light is provided by clear tubes of glowing phosphorescent liquid. Giant cancerous protusions, like giant sightly eyes, will seem to *watch* them. In short, the tower will seem akin to a creature, not a construct. It can contain whatever the GM needs for his story, it can be hostile or seemingly unaware of the PC's intrusion; if I write the actual adventure out, I'll flesh out this loose detail.
The Tower Guardian
In a chamber beneath the Tower itself, the curator and prisoner of the Tower's alien mind is revealed; a Librarian, trapped and biologically attached to the Tower in a hideous symbiosis. It is aware; it begs the PC's for help. "Defending" it, however, are 1D6+4 Scarecrows that are commited to ensuring that it never leaves...and to silence any witnesses. The Librarian even looks familiar...an old Librarian House Records report to be dead.
WHAT is the Tower?
WHY is a Librarian imprisoned there?
WHY are Resistance warriors working to ensure that the PC's never leave to report the presence of the Tower?
WHY did the House perhaps discourage exploration of the area?
This is a very loose collection of ideas, I know, but I'm very tired right now. ^^ I hope someone can make use of these ideas; I'll write up an actual statted, explained adventure if I get the chance and the feedback is positive. Any ideas that people want to add or flesh out, feel free to post 'em up and debate; I'll be using this idea for an adventure myself soon, so cultivating some adventure seeds will help me as well
I've deliberately left out the actual adventure construct, as I just want to get the idea out before fleshing out the linked images in my head. Please use this material as you wish, I'll follow up wih the adventure later if people like the seed enough. Note that this is a beta for the final idea, and explains very little in terms of rules. It's born of a string of linked images in my head, in part inspired by the old "wonderous" but VERY creepy sci-fi art of the 60's to 80's.
The Tower Appears
Somewhere in the uncontrolled regions near a Great House (that just happens to contain the PC's), freak weather conditions have rendered an area nearly 80 square kilometres in diameter hazardous to travel. The weather is clearly not natural; Zephyr and Archangels flying near the region have reported a whirling wall of dust and debris, like a stationary hurricane, filling their vision from horizon to horizon when hours before there was only normal weather conditions. Sometimes, the clouds are shot through with golden or purple flashes of highly energetic discharges; patrols near the region have vanished without trace, their last contact reporting that the weather was getting worse. Bio-Comms and the Host Armour sense of magnetic north is totally disrupted within 10km of the perimiter of the "zone"; from on high, deep into the 'zone, airborne scouts report that the land looks "twisted", but cannot make out exactly why before their senses are disrupted by the freak conditions that pervade into the zone.
The Tower is Present
How the House reacts to the presence of the "anomaly" (the Tower) is up to the GM. If the story demands it be investigated immediately, have the PC's selected. If the House is investigating, it's possible to leave it as a mystery in the background across several adventures before the PC's get involved. To whit; anything, machine or living, that approaches the zone is lost. The freak weather, which includes dust storms, rain storms strong enough to strip flesh from bone, and fogbanks so thick and eerie that it appears that the horizon itself is occluded, as well as "uncategorizeable" freak occurances that defy normal accepted weather conditions (such as massive electrical storms, earthquakes, even strange "snow showers" that move and pulse like living spores) makes conditions near the affected territory unpleasant, to say the least.
The Tower is a Long Way Away
The Tower itself sits in the middle of a roughly circular zone of influence roughly 80 kilometres in diameter. The terrain changes as one gets closer to the construct, becoming more scoured and disrupted; in areas, even more dissolved/digested-looking. The trip to the Tower should be an adventure in and of itself, due to the fact that the weather conditions and ambient lack of anything resembling life make the experience a bit like the Bermuda Triangle meets the Day After Tomorrow. Some examples of weather conditions and encounters that may occur:
1. A rain storm (or "ruinstorm") so severe that the land around becomes a deathtrap for the exposed; flash-floods, driving rain, NO visibility, deafening and disorientating. The rain boils in without warning, black clouds occluding a clear sky in less than a minute before the downpour begins. Finding shelter is a very good idea. Exposed characters lose all combat bonuses, are -20% to Skills usages unless the GM deems otheriwse, and take 1D4 M.D. (yes, MEGA-DAMAGE) per minute/four Melee Rounds of exposure. The rain lasts for only a few minutes before it suddenly disperses, leaving devastation in its wake. After-event analysis will reveal the "rain" is actually an alien form of biological acid.
2. A natural, if heavy, snowstorm. This wouldn't be unusual, except that it can occur at any time in any weather conditions.
3. Spores. Under a darkened, strange purple/green-shot sky, clouds of what appear to be snow begin piling up and drifting across the landscape, illuminated by flickers of lightning-like energy from above. It's eerily beautiful, until the characters realize that the "snow" is eating them. Exposed characters take 3D4 Mega Damage per melee round starting about a minute after the spore shower begins, until they find shelter and wash off the horrible material. In the aftermath, the land is coated with powdery snow-like material that is already dead, having partially eaten into the land itself. The strange sky will disperse as silently and quickly as it occured.
4. A lightning storm of Biblical proportions, lancing arcs of energy booming across a flashing sky and arcs of lightning blowing large rocks and outcroppings to smithereens. Damage ranges from 2D8 Mega-Damage for a small bolt of energy striking nearby (as well as lose half attacks/actions per round, Initiative, and -10% on Skills Checks due to severe shock) to a whopping 2D6x10 M.D. across a large area for the truly epic bolts (penalties should be along the lines of "forget anything but twitching" in the aftermath of a direct hit).
5. Earthquake! Small or large, it's going to cause all SORTS of problems.
6. High winds whip a fierce dust storm to Tornado-level power. Blindness, disorientation, and 1D8 M.D. a minute of exposure should remind characters that shelter is a very good thing, and that buying Armoured Covers for any optical sensors their Host Armour/Living Armour may have is not a secondary consideration when the environment turns on them. If the winds are high enough, characters can even be ripped up and hurtled into the churning winds. GM's are encouraged to get creative and nasty.
7. ANY natural weather phenomenon can occur.
8. Get creative.
The team should occasionally find evidence of the remains of Machine and/or Resistance forces, long destroyed and scoured by the weather. I'm avoiding specifics because GM's should feel free to make the journey and atmosphere as eeries and alien as they like. Whatever has caused such devastation, the PC's should be made to feel as though they have earned their passage through.
The Tower Itself
Once within visual range (a few kilometres), the Tower appears as a finger-shaped construct nearly a kilometre high on the horizon, surrounded by flat and scoured land. As the players approach, the Tower is revealed to be a pulsing organism, with a flattened tip and no signs of habitation. It's also quite sizeable (half a kilometre around the base) and clearly biotech, though with an alien resonance the PC's should not be familiar with. If they watch, they will see amazing and horrifying weather phenomena centred on the tower itself, during which it looks like something out of Hell. Four large sealed entrances provide access.
The Tower is Alive
Inside, the Tower is alive, but even mroe so than usual "human-friendly" biotech. The walls are pulsing muscle, the floor sinew; access to different chambers is via vein-like tunnels. Light is provided by clear tubes of glowing phosphorescent liquid. Giant cancerous protusions, like giant sightly eyes, will seem to *watch* them. In short, the tower will seem akin to a creature, not a construct. It can contain whatever the GM needs for his story, it can be hostile or seemingly unaware of the PC's intrusion; if I write the actual adventure out, I'll flesh out this loose detail.
The Tower Guardian
In a chamber beneath the Tower itself, the curator and prisoner of the Tower's alien mind is revealed; a Librarian, trapped and biologically attached to the Tower in a hideous symbiosis. It is aware; it begs the PC's for help. "Defending" it, however, are 1D6+4 Scarecrows that are commited to ensuring that it never leaves...and to silence any witnesses. The Librarian even looks familiar...an old Librarian House Records report to be dead.
WHAT is the Tower?
WHY is a Librarian imprisoned there?
WHY are Resistance warriors working to ensure that the PC's never leave to report the presence of the Tower?
WHY did the House perhaps discourage exploration of the area?
This is a very loose collection of ideas, I know, but I'm very tired right now. ^^ I hope someone can make use of these ideas; I'll write up an actual statted, explained adventure if I get the chance and the feedback is positive. Any ideas that people want to add or flesh out, feel free to post 'em up and debate; I'll be using this idea for an adventure myself soon, so cultivating some adventure seeds will help me as well
