What happens when a ritual summoning goes wrong? A small town in Colonial Maryland is about to find out. Can your characters survive the coming doom? This short adventure is designed for characters to be dropped right into the action. There is little time to plan and lives hang in the balance, but a hasty attack could mean death. Or worse.
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On a cold and lonely night, a bright light is seen streaking across the sky over a small village.
What the villages saw as a shooting star is, in actuality, an alien spacecraft. A group of alien hunters have come looking for slaves. The aliens are reptilians with psionic abilities and advanced tech. They have come for human slaves and will march toward the closest village and begin rounding up peasants.
The PCs just happen to be in the village on this fateful night, either locals or just spending the night during their travels.
Hss’Tak, the Leader: Armor 17 (dex +1, scales & chitin), Move 110 slither, 140 swim, 3 HD, 13hp, claws 1d8+1, Radio Pulse Pistol 1d10, 300’, 100 charges, Morale 9. Can breathe underwater, six-armed, wall crawling, rubber-boned (1/2 damage from blunt weapons). Psionics: Mind Control 2/day, Enlarge, Darkness, Ray of Enfeeblement 1/day each. Pistol, Datapad (spellbook), battle armor (see below)
Pythonis, the Big One: Armor 16 (scales & chitin), Move 110 slither, 140 swim, 3 HD, 22hp, +6 to hit, claws 1d8+1, Laser Bazooka 3d8, 3000’ range, 25 charges, Morale 9. Can breathe underwater, six-armed, wall crawling, rubber-boned (1/2 damage from blunt weapons). Psionics: Mind Blast 2/day. Bazooka, battle armor (see below)
Sslure, the Sneaky One: Armor 16 (scales & chitin), Move 110 slither, 140 swim, 3 HD, 14hp, claws 1d8+1, Radium Ray Gun 1d10, 300’ range, 100 charges, Morale 9. Can breathe underwater, six-armed, wall crawling, rubber-boned (1/2 damage from blunt weapons). Psionics: Telekinesis 2/day. Skills: Languages 5, Sneak Attack 2, Stealth 3, Tinkering 3. Pistol, battle armor (see below), sonic screwdriver (specialist’s tools)
All of the Psi-Snakes are wearing Battle Armor. It is designed for their large snaky bodies and cannot be worn by anyone else.
Battle Armor: AC 19, anti-gravity 240’, +5 to hit/+11 to damage in melee, Force Field 30pts, can carry 900 lbs.
Mini-Missile 1d12, 1 mile 40’ radius. Web Launcher, 1 mile range, 40’ radius, save versus Paralyzation or be ensnared
Last Resort
If things start going badly for the Psi-Snakes, they will unleash their last resort, the Earwig. The Earwig is a giant mutated creature which the Psi-Snakes keep in an agitated state. It will be hungry, pissed, and out of control attacking anyone in the area, including its masters.
The Earwig: Armor 18 (scales & chitin), Move 130 slither, 130 swim, 5 HD, 23hp, bite 1d12, Morale 12. Huge, six-legged, wall crawler, ½ damage from cutting weapons.
I was finally able to get all of my RPG modules in print. For awhile lulu.com didn't do book less than 20 pages I think. These books were 15 and 16 pages. Well, now they do. Saddle-stitched and in A5 size.
They fit in nice and snug with my other LotFP books, as if they were always meant to.
My next step is to convert Colony of Death over to A5 size. So that will be coming soon.
It's an incredible feeling to see your work in print and be able to hold it in your hands.
Please check them out and enjoy!
When I first heard the title "Fantasy Fucking Vietnam" (See: Green Devil Face #1) this is what I imagined.
Fighters or Specialists only
Physik skill for medics (Flame Princess Cult #1)
Crossing Classes option
Just to keep things simple all guns do 1d8. Burst weapons are save versus Breath Weapon or take 3d8 damage.
The players for this were all about 21 years old so they have never seen Apocalypse Now, so I lifted the plot and placed them on the Qelong River. I used WWII: Operation White Box for character backgrounds and military ranks and basic equipment. I used the weather and some of the encounters from Qelong, and BOOM! you have LotFP Vietnam.
NPCs
Special Forces Unit
Sgt. Drake, William (Bill): Armor 13, Move 120’, 1st Level Fighter, 8hp, M-16 1d8, 9mm 1d8, Morale 11. BDUs, M-16, 9mm
Cpl. Willis, Jeffery – Heavy Gunner: Armor 13, Move 120’, 1st Level Fighter, 8hp, .50 Cal 2d6, Morale 11. BDUs, .50 Cal
Sgt. Lebowitz, Herschil – Radio Operator: Armor 13, Move 120’, 1st Level Fighter, 8hp, M-16 1d8, 9mm 1d8, Morale 8. BDUs, M-16, 9mm, Radio
Pvt. Akers, John – Tunnel Rat: Armor 13, Move 120’, 2nd Level Specialist, 8hp, 9mm 1d8, Morale 10. Search 4, Tinkering 4. BDUs, 9mm, flashlight
Cpl. Edgar, Robert (Butch) – Point man: Armor 13, Move 120’, 2nd Level Specialist, 8hp, M-16 1d8, Morale 11. Bushcraft 4, Search 4. BDUs, M-16, flashlight
Pvt. Hicks, William (Bill) – Interpreter: Armor 13, Move 120’, 1st Level Specialist, 8hp, M-16 1d8, Morale 9. Languages 6. BDUs, M-16
Cpl. Andrews, Wesley (Wes): Armor 13, Move 120’, 1st Level Fighter, 8hp, M-16 1d8, 9mm 1d8, Morale 11. BDUs, M-16, 9mm
Pvt. Jensen, Thomas – Medic: Armor 13, Move 120’, 1st Level Specialist, 6hp, M-16 1d8, 9mm 1d8, Morale 10. Physik 5. BDUs, M-16, 9mm, med kit
Bad Guys
Viet Cong: Armor 13, Move 120’, 0-Level, 6hp, Kalashnikov 1d8, Morale 10.
Vietnamese natives: Armor 12, Move 20’, 1HD, 5hp, fists 1d2, spear 1d6, blow dart 1 +poison, Morale 8. Save versus Paralyzation or stunned for 1d4 rounds.
Col. Kurtz, Insane White God: Armor 14, Move 120’, 3rd Level Fighter, 23hp, M-16 1d8, 9mm 1d8, knife 1d4, Morale 12.
Highway of Blood is set in West Texas in 1975, it does a great job of capturing the feel of the 1970's. There are several suggestions for 70's metal and rock songs to be played at certain points throughout the adventure, which I thought was quite awesome.
I used Delta Green the Role Playing game to run it. In 1975 Delta Green is in its cowboy era, running illegally with no support, so it fit perfectly with this game. Highway for Blood does provide several interesting plot hooks for different groups of players, and 2 different sets of pre-gens. Also dozens of handouts and NPC portraits, which I printed out on cardstock to pass out to the players like photographs, which was a nice touch.
There is a cool chase scene on the highway, with chase mechanics and vehicle stats. There are Desert hazards such as heat stroke, venomous critters, new spells, creatures and more. There is a lot packed into this adventure, it's more a mini sandbox setting. There is plenty to do and explore, my group played four sessions and did not cover everything, so
I could easily run it for another group and have a completely different
experience.
The physical book is pretty great too. The paper quality, the art, layout, writing, all top notch stuff. You can pick it up on drivethru.
The Buffalo Head Shaman a creature encounter.
I made another product for LotFP/OSR over at drivethrurpg. This time with a little help from some friends.
Timeline of Weird Events in the 17th Century
1608. Blood Rain in Aix, France. Residents are horrified to find a rain of blood had fallen on their village and on neighboring villages for several miles around. It was thought to be the work of sorcerers, or the Devil himself.
1609. French explorer Pierre de Champlain records seeing a lake monster on Lake Champlain in the New World.
1611. Chinese records show, that as late as 1611, the Emperor is still appointing the post of a "Royal Dragon Feeder."
1613. In Southampton, England, in the middle of the night “lightning” strikes a house injuring the family within. The wife is burnt on the side of her body and her husband and child, both dead, are burning slowly with no flame. Despite her wounds the wife drags the husband out of the bed and into the street. The corpse continues to burn, smoking with no visible flame, for the space of three days until it is reduced to ash and bone.
1614. A pamphlet published in London reports a large serpent or dragon living in St. Leonard's Forest near Horsham (about 40 miles south of London). The animal is allegedly about nine feet long, with a long neck and tail; can move as fast as a running man; leaves a slimy trail that smells powerfully noxious; and can spit its poison up to 60’.
1632. On a winter night around twelve o'clock, a miller, working near the small town of Chester-in-the-Street, England is confronted by the apparition of a young woman with five gruesome wounds on her head.
1639. Residents of the Massachusetts colony tell of a sea-serpent or snake, that lay coiled upon a rock at Cape Ann.
1643. John Evelyn witnesses a “shining cloud in the air in the shape of a sword, the point reaching to the north. It was as bright as the moon. It began about 11 at night and vanished not till about one, being seen by all the south of England."
1644. Doctors in Lyons, France, while examining a woman's body to determine cause of death, are startled by a large plume of flame bursting from the dead woman's stomach.
1645. Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins hangs 18 witches at Bury St. Edmund in Suffolk, England.
1653. Two noblemen of Curland drink strong liquors, and die from a flame coming from their stomachs, scorching and suffocating them!
1660. Swedish clergyman claims in a sworn statement that a fairy or troll requested his wife to deliver a fairy baby. Rahm’s claims she did just that and returned to find a payment of silver strands in their house.
1661. In May a Rain of Wheat occurs at Tuchbrooke, England.
1663. The Robozero Marvel of 1663 occurs. A cleric is sent to investigate the incident, and learned that people heard a rumbling noise at midmorning. In the clear blue sky, a glowing red spherical object with blue smoke emerging from its sides and rays of light extending from the front crossed over the lake and disappeared. Less than an hour later, the people came out of church again to see the same or a similar object going in another direction. About noon, the object returned a third time, this time to hover over the lake for 45 minutes. The diameter of the sphere was enormous, equivalent to the height of a 15-storey building; the light rays illuminated the lake all the way to the bottom; and men in a boat could not approach near the object because the heat was so strong. The fish in the lake fled toward the shore and the red light from the object covered parts of the lake with a rusty color.
1666. Rain of Fish seen over a pasture at Cranstead England.
1670. A Dutchman, captured and enslaved by Armenian bandits, met a hermit on Mount Ararat. The Dutchman was believed by his captors to possess magical healing powers, and he treated the old man, who in gratitude handed him a piece of hard wood of a dark color and a sparkling stone, both of which the old man said he had taken from under the Ark.
1676. A doctor in Bologna, Italy witnesses a giant globe, appearing twice the size of the moon, pass by overhead.
1678. The earliest known crop circle, known as the "Mowing Devil," is shown on a woodcut from Hertfordshire, England. The inscription reads, "Being a True Relation of a Farmer, who Bargaining with a Poor Mower, about the Cutting down Three Half Acres of Oats: upon the Mower's asking too much, the Farmer swore That the Devil should Mow it rather than He. And so, that very Night, the Crop of Oat shew'd as if it had been all of a flame: but next Morning appear'd so neatly mow'd by the Devil or some Infernal Spirit, that no Mortal Man was able to do the like. Also, How the said Oats ly now in the Field, and the Owner has not Power to fetch them away."
1682. In Fahrenholz, Germany a number of people are put on trial, accused of lycanthropy.
1683. In a basement in Strasbourg, France six rats are found with their tails tied together, dubbed roi des rats, the Rat King.
1683. Shower of Toads invades Acle, England a few miles from Norwich.
1688. Salem Witch Trials. In Salem, Massachusetts 20 people are executed for witchcraft, nineteen are hanged and one is crushed under heavy stones.
1692. A giant skeleton, measuring just over seventeen feet, is found in a tomb near Angers, France.
Robert Kirk, a Presbyterian clergyman who served in the Scottish Highlands, had a keen interest in the supernatural lore of the region, and was convinced that fairies existed. He believed his studies could accurately describe the nature of fairy life down to its smallest details. According to Kirk, fairies were of a "middle nature between man and angel" with bodies "somewhat of the nature of a condensed cloud." They dressed and spoke "like the people and country under which they live." Sometimes passing fairies could be heard but not seen. They traveled often, frequently through the air, could steal anything they liked (from food to human babies), and had no particular religion. Mortals with "second sight" (clairvoyance) were most likely to see them, since they were usually invisible to the human eye.
1693. Spanish sailors capture a 12-foot tall two-headed giant. It kills four of its captors before having a pike driven through its heart.
Calcutta is plagued by a man-eating tiger. Edmond Hoyle discovers it is a shapechanger and kills it.
1697. Two glowing wheels are sighted in the sky over Hamburg, Germany.
For mundane world events see the 17th Century Timeline.
