Monday, May 7, 2012

Sector C6 Takes Shape ...

Source
These previews are my own (and about damn time I wrote them) ...

DOME OF THE PRESERVERS: Dwarfed by the soaring jungle canopy, one might discover a great Dome of the Preservers in this hex. The dome is constructed of a greenish metal of wholly alien origin, and, unlike many of the ruins to be found in the galaxy, this one is intact!

The dome is approximately one mile in diameter and about 300 feet high without an apparent means of entry. In fact, there are several access points on the exterior, all of them leading into the outer ring of the dome. One can open one of these access points by playing five musical notes (you know the five, and your players should be able to figure them out). Upon playing these notes, a door simply appears, the metal appearing to pull back almost like a curtain - at this point, scientists will note that the dome (exterior and interior) is composed of billions of tiny "granules" of green metal that react primarily to musical notes.

The outer ring of the dome is a passageway lit by a dim radiance that seems to just radiate from the walls, floor and ceiling. The same musical notes that gained one entry can be used to open passages into the inner ring, from which one can enter various chambers (offices, storage, etc.) of the alien Preservers, or call up from a subterranean storage tube thousands of alien animals from the past of Kepler 22B and many other planets. All of them are stored in force cages in temporal stasis, though various tunes can awaken and even release them (one must take care). The Referee should assign effects to the eight basic musical notes, both singly and in combination, allowing explorers to cause all sorts of havoc as they puzzle their way through them. The force cages literally rise from gaps that form in the green floor of the central hall of the dome. One can bring up 100 different cages at a time, creating a little zoo.

You can use the handy dandy alien animal generator in Space Princess to whip up the inhabitants of the force cages, as well as throw in a few famous beasts drawn from sci-fi literature. The Preservers also maintained a few sentient beings in temporal stasis, so a rare musical combination could bring one of these aliens up from the depths.

TRANSHUMANISTAS: The Transhumanistas are a motorcycle gang that roams the galaxy in search of rare components to help them leave their human shells behind, that they might ... oh hell, they're a bunch of nutty cyborgs who like to steal things and cause trouble. Fifty of them have set up camp here. They're scouting out the alien ruins and contemplating making a run on Galaxy Ranger post in the hills. The gang is led by The Black Daedalia, a woman who is now only 13.5% organic.

SLIME POTS: In this area, the thick jungle gives way to rocky plains dotted by tufts of tough, orange-green grass and something the explorers have termed "slime pots". The slime pots look something like the famous Indian paint pots of Yellowstone (a national park located on Earth in the United States of America), but they are filled with a shimmering, shivering ooze that is capable of spitting globules at creatures that approach too close (15 feet is usually a safe distance, but the pots have been known to spit up to 22 feet away). The slime globules burn the skin and cause their victims to hallucinate and lose their balance. They are gradually eaten away, hosting a new colony of slime, which begins constructing a new slime pot where its victim has fallen.

The entire area is crisscrossed by underground thermal vents, making the rocky ground warm and allowing various gasses to escape through cracks. These gasses have a tendency to inebriate humans and human-like aliens, making them easy targets for the slime pots.

An artificially intelligent communication satellite of the Jark Collective has recently fall into the area of the  slime pots, and is waiting impatiently to be recovered and repaired.

BROWN BELLIES: The brown bellies are massive fungal domes that grow in the shade of the jungle. Each dome is a hemisphere measuring 1d4 + 6 feet in diameter. These domes play host to hives of alien wasps who operate on a higher mental plane than the average insect, using telepathic signals to link their miniscule minds into a single mind that is the equivalent of a 6 year old child with severe anger management issues.

VAMPIROIDS: A cruiser of the vampiroids was brought down on Keppler 22B some 500 years ago in a freak mishap. The ship's titanium superstructure has survived somewhat intact, though mostly buried, in the jungles here. The descendants of the vampiroids have survived as devolved, bat-like creatures with jutting fangs and a hankering for blood. They now dwell in the tree-tops in small cabals led by large, overbearing males. The females are capable of projecting illusions into people's minds, making themselves look like the seductive vampiroids of yore. Getting into the superstructure would present one with a treasure trove of vampiroid artifacts, and perhaps two or three members of the original crew in suspended animation.


4 comments:

  1. I remember that vampire figure! Didn't it come with an order of fries at Mcdonalds? Pre Happy Meal days!

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  2. Loved those sci-fi erasers. They smelled like fries for about 3 years after you got them. The plastic watches you could hide things in (M&M's, microfilm, etc.) were pretty snazzy as well.

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  3. Gotta love the Transhumanistas. Fun stuff. We'll have snippets from T3 coming soon.

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