Encounters in Zuldroom (That Which Hungers Pt 3)

The skies above Zuldroom are constantly full of the smog from the great chemical plants. Beneath these darkened skies, the city is wreathed in eternal night. Strange things roam the tight streets and back alleys of The City of the Worm.

By Tithi Luadthong (Used without permission)

Using DCC stats.

Encounters in Zuldroom (1d6)

1) 1d6 (Roll twice and take the higher) Surgical Bandits: +2 Blood Needle (1d6, SP: Blood Drain/see below) HP: 5 HD: 1d8 AC: 12 Saves: +1, SP: Blood Drain (Target must make a Fort Save: DC: 10 or take Temporary Stamina damage equal to the damage dealt)

Surgical Bandits roam the city in gangs. They have inscribed their gang signs in blood on their hazmat suits and wear menacing face-masks. They steal blood and body parts to sell to the highest bidder. They are fond of alliteration.

Gang Name (1d6):

1. The Blood Boys
2. The Marrow Marauders
3. The Hide Hoarders
4. The Scalp Skimmers
5. The Liver Lovers
6. The Gore Gangers

What are they doing? (1d4)

1. Stalking you.
2. Harvesting a recent kill.
3. Facing off with a rival gang.
4. Cornering a victim.

2) 1d4+1 Temple Enforcers: +3 Ritual Spiked Hammer (1d8) HP: 8 HD: 1d12 AC: 13 Saves: +2. Move: 30ft.

Each is riding an Armored Pseudobeast: +2 Goring Tusks (1d6) HP: 12 HD: 2d8 AC: 13 Saves: +1. Move: 50ft.

These guards essentially act as city police. Zuldroom is essentially a theocracy but these enforcers aren't much better than the surgical bandits, considering that the penalty for breaking the constantly changing, bizarre laws of the city is losing one of your organs. Typically wear black buttoned up, orderly-esque suits with ritual masks and bearing the squirming silver symbol of the Worm.

What are they doing? (1d4)

1. Patrolling, looking to enforce the will of whoever is currently in charge of the Worm Cult (Look for pt 4 for a table. Coming soon)
2. Cornering a victim.
3. Dragging away a person in irons.
4. Escorting a Worm Slave.

3) 1d4 Hunter Stitchers: +4 Scalpel Fingers (1d8+1) HP: 15 HD: 3d8  AC: 14 Ref: +4 Fort: +4 Will: -2. Stealth: +5 Move: 60ft SP: X-Ray Vision (Can see in the dark and people's organs. They are more likely to attack people with more organs.)

Deadly Stitch Slaves crafted and sold to meet the needs of the city elite: often called Organ Addicts. These elite swell themselves up with other people's organs, collecting all kinds of organs to surpass their peers at X-Ray Goggle Parties. To meet this demand, the Hunter Stitchers were created to stalk the night, locating desired organs, harvesting them, and bringing them back to their bloated masters.

X-Ray lenses have replaced their eyes and razor-sharp scalpel blades adorn their fingers. They lack mouths and any biological characteristic besides those needed for completing their grim task.

What are they doing? (1d4)

1. Searching the streets for a particular organ. Lowest Luck PC makes a DC: 10 Luck Check. On a failure, they have what the monsters are looking for.
2. Harvesting a recent kill.
3. Stalking the PCs.
4. Fighting with others over a recent kill.

4) 1d4 Feral Worm Slave: +5 Bite (2 Attacks) (1d8+1/Devour) HP: 18 HD: 3d8 AC: 14 Saves: +5 Move: 40ft Dig: 40ft Climb: 40ft Immune to Charm and Sleep. SP: Blessings of the Worm (Takes half damage from spells), Devour (Instead of dealing damage, this creature can engulf a target. On the next round, unless freed, the Slave may take an action to automatically deal 3d8 damage to the engulfed target.)

These Worm Slaves are caught in the grips of the insanity that comes with the slow transformation into a Child of the Worm, sending them out into the streets of Zuldroom in a fit of predatory fervor. This may not be so bad if it were not so incredibly illegal and religiously forbidden to kill a Worm Slave.

What are they doing? (1d4)

1. Stalking the PCs.
2. Eating a person.
3. Eating a Pseudobeast.
4. Speaking a hideous sermon covered in blood and viscera. Audience participation may take a deadly turn.

5) The Man Angler: +6 Neural Tendril (2 Attacks) Grab DC: 15 Str Check to Escape, SP: Neural Drain) HP: 34 HD: 5d8 AC: 11 Ref: -1 Fort: +5 Will: +5 Move: 30ft Climb: 30ft SP: Neural Drain (A grabbed creature must make a DC: 15 Will Save or take 2d4 Int damage. Creatures killed by this damage become Puppets)

1d6+3 Puppets: +1 Improvised Weapons (1d4) HP: 3 HD: 1d4 AC: 10 Saves: -1 Move: 20ft SP: Brain Puppet (Will die if The Man Angler dies)

A call from a dark alley "Hello?" A child's voice. "Hello? I'm lost. Can you help me?" A man's voice from the darkness. "Hello? I've been hurt. Can you help me?" Beware voices from the dark. Beware those that repeat: "Hello? Can you help me?"

Of all the experiments to escape a Volcrom School laboratory, this is one of the most chilling. Most think it is a myth. Whispers about it get mixed up with street muggers. A pale white slug with a great sagging brain protruding from its skull. Tendrils spread from it to puppet those creatures whose minds it has devoured. It has access to their minds and memories but it only has a kind of animal consciousness, needing to feed on more neural energy to sustain itself.

What is it doing? (1d4)

1. A voice cries out from around a corner. Investigation reveals a seemingly fine man with a strangely forced smile on his face. "Sorry. I slipped. I am fine." The creature waits above, hiding in shadow, it will not attack unless its ruse is unveiled.
2. A child's voice calls out from the dark. A lure. The creature prepares to attack.
3. An adult voice. As before.
4. Several voices call out in monotone chorus. "Ahh. It's killing us!" A clumsy metaploy. All voices turn out to be Puppets.

6) The Thing From the Fleshy Beyond: +7 Flesh Rend (2 Attacks) (2d6+2) HP: 86 HD: 12d8 AC: 17 Ref: +2 Fort: +10 Will: -2 Move: 30ft Immune to physical toxins. SP: Aura of the Fleshly Beyond (All warp sung materials within 60ft turn into living flesh.
Creatures within range must make a Ref Save DC: 15or take 1d4 damage from the surrounding gibbering flesh and can only move at half speed.
Creatures within 30ft of the Thing, must make a DC: 15 Fort Save or be unable to act as their flesh writhes around beneath their skin, taking 1d6 Stam damage. Creatures killed by this damage find their still living flesh united with the warp sung surroundings and freeze into a hellish tableau of pain as the Thing passes.)

This is the most terrifying thing in Zuldroom. People tend to not believe in this creature. It is a heaving mass of limbs and eyes, slowly lurching onward with a thousand limbs, screaming with a thousand mouths. It is pain. It is everything wrong with the world. All that is tormented beyond recognition. Humanity undone. There are some that look for the Thing, thinking it is an avatar of the Worm. These pilgrims have strange and likely wrong theories about how the creature might be summoned.

Many of those frozen into warp sung metal have looks of religious ecstasy on their faces.

What is it doing? (1d4)

1. The nearest warp sung wall turns into hideous roiling flesh as the Thing emerges. Temporarily blind, there is time to hide before it surveys its surroundings.
2. It is walking past the party, moving away from the group.
3. It is coming towards the group.
4. It has just passed by, you can see tormented frozen people in the warp sung metal around.

Occupations: 1d10

1. Blood Boy: Blood Needle (1d6), a liter of blood (5cp)
2. Marrow Marauder: Blood Needle (1d6), Skull Mask.
3. Hide Hoarder: Grim Cleaver (1d6), 5lbs of human hides.
4. Scalp Skimmer: Scalping Knife (1d4), 5lbs of human scalps.
5. Liver Lovers: Scalpel Gauntlet (1d6), a refrigeration box, containing a human liver.
6. Gore Ganger: Stained Spiked Hammer (1d8), jar of eyeballs.
7. Stitch Slave Waiter: Club (1d4), silver platter (3sp)
8. Pseudobeast Stablehand: Taming Shock Stick (1d6), a Pseudobeast Grooming Kit.
9. Thing Pilgrim: Self-mutilating dagger (1d4), madly scribbled theories.
10. Volcrom School Escaped Experiment: Scalpel (1d4), roll twice on the Freak table in pt 2)