So I ran this as DM for my group of DnD people one time. I'm usually a player but it seemed to go down well with James, our usual DM.
It's a fairly goofy dungeon, a weird lovecraftian / alien-style sci-fi that I placed in a fairly standard medieval fantasy land setting. But such goofiness is acceptable in our group I think seeing as we just killed Nigel Farage and Donald Trump in our main campaign.
Trump has also merged slowly into the bad guy from Death Frost Doom
Without further ado, my dungeon! The ROCKET PYRAMID!!!!!!
Only the most daring and desperate will brave the Warping Wastes. Distance distorts, time shifts. Traversing the Wastes always takes twice as long as you'd expect, and food is scarce, save for the tiny berries of the poisonous Toothed Rose and the carcasses of the Stork Men - who themselves feed on human blood.
In the distance, looming, watching, is the Black Pyramid. No one knows its purpose, though many speculate - a cultic temple, an ancient tomb for a dead God, the vanity project of a mad architect. All are wrong, and none could even conceive that this is a spacecraft, grounded here millennia ago, before the world entered a darker age...
Timeline
Ages and Ages ago: Interstellar travellers land on planet to escape cosmic war. Enter cryosleep and wait for all this to blow over.
Ages ago: Hibernating Void Horror awakens from hidden onboard nest and turns every crew member to ooze from the inside out.
Last few millenia: Human(oid) civilisation develops, enters medieval period.
Last week: Cryosleep reaches its scheduled end, causing engines to firetriggering earthquakes.
Now: You enter.
A Map
Gravity
The map is initially oriented upwards and works as a cross-section, but enabling artificial gravity turns it into a top-down plan. To make this easier to work out in game, initially prop up the map so the bridge (8) is at the top; then, when the players enable artificial gravity, lay the map flat on the table.
Monsters & NPCS
Void Horror
Feeds on emptiness and destruction. Can grow to the size of planets and consume entire worlds. Luckily, this Horror, stuck aboard the confined space of the ship, has been unable to fulfil its potential for wanton, mindless destruction.
HD 5, AC 16, Att: bite +5 2d6, Ooze sting +3 see below
Any damage it deals heals it or increases its size if at max HP.
Seeing it results in an instant sanity check.
Its scorpion tail can birth oozes within players, dealing d4, d6, d8 etc over time, unless cut out via Caesarian.
Space Ooze
Terrestrial oozes, nurtured by the most, warm climate of Earth and its prevalence of prey, are docile grazers compared to the Space Ooze. The infinite distances of space, where no prey may exist for thousands of light years, have caused Space Oozes to develop terrifying telepathic abilities, warping the minds of those they seek to digest.
HD 4, AC 5, Att: digest d6 + d6 acid, Suggest see below
Crespexians
Horrible centipedes. Broods of eggs litter the ship.
Crespex HD 2 AC 10 newborn & underside 17 carapace Att: bite +2 (ignores armour), d6
Crespexipede HD 2 AC 10 underside, 17 carapace Att: bite +2 (ignores armour), d6
Dark Matter
Used as fuel by the Rocket Pyramid, this mysterious energy warps gravity. Invisible to the eye, with light appearing to “lens” around it.
Droids (Janitor, Surgeon)
HD 4 AC 15 Att scissorhands +3 d8. Constructs. Take double damage from lightning or water-based attacks.
Space Hamster
Sentient Hamster, travels space. Incredibly proud, views itself as the future conqueror of the galaxy, but also desperate to escape and will aid anyone who it thinks can help it return to its homeworld.
HD 2 AC 13 Att bite 1 dmg
Room descriptions
1 Airlock
Two doors in succession:
A circular door, 6ft thick and without a handle. Can be pulled shut from inside
A pair of double doors that will open automatically after the outer door is shut. Alternatively they can be opened manually but are very heavy and will spring back shut afterwards.
2. Airlock dressing room / Chasm
All doors in this room are open.
On first entry, this room is a chasm 80ft deep. The tunnel from the airlock and to the fuel tank enter 30ft from the bottom, with the ceiling 30ft above.
A suit of Astromail (as chainmail but sealed and with four arms) lies at the bottom. A Space Ooze will seep from it if tampered with.
6 Crespex eggs cluster on a wall.
3. Stabiliser
Both doors are closed.
When first entered this is a chasm 100ft deep.
50’ down is a Stabiliser which is a huge screen made up of thousands of little glyphs and an array of sophisticated machinery (astrolabes, spinning globes and pipes) on the back. It displays a map of the ship and in a corner a large red button. The entire screen reacts to touch.
o Touching any of the doors on this map opens and closes them.
o Touching the big red button in the corner engages or disengages artificial gravity throughout the ship. See Gravity.
4. Med bay / Torture chamber
The door is closed.
A haywire Surgeon droid lurks amongst piles of unused syringes and spoiled medical supplies, waiting to perform unwanted surgery on anything that moves.
Littered amongst the trash are d4 syringes that give d6 hp when injected
5. Living quarters / Tomb
All doors are closed.
A Void Horror lurks on the ceiling above the piping, waiting to strike.
Eight coffin-like cryopods on the walls contain Space Oozes. When activity starts happening in the room, once per turn, d3 pods will open. You can also sleep in the cryopods which counts as a good night's sleep. If party members sleep in the cryopods whilst the Void Horror lives, they are doomed to an oozy afterlife.
There is a bathroom here and a kitchenette with 20 iron rations in a cryofreezer.
6 Claw control
Putting your arm into the huge device in this room controls the exterior claw. Designed to mimic the actions of an arm, roll to attack, sleight of hand, grapple etc as you usually would.
Two Crespex eggs are stuck to a wall.
7 Harpoon / Ballista
8 Bridge
Three monitors around the edges, each with a comfortable looking seat.
A big golden chair sits importantly in the middle of the room. It is surrounded by microphones..
The seat holds the Communications Array and allows for radio communication around the ship and with other ships. Speaking whilst in the chair booms your voice across all speakers throughout the ship. If another ship is near, a button on the seat will toggle between green (allowing inter-ship communication) and red (internal-only communication).
Two complicated control panels at the front of the room, in front of the window. The left is covered with joysticks and levers, and the right holographic maps and globes.
If a party member fiddles with the pilot controls, the ship warps d100 x 1000 light years in a direction given by a scatter dice. If it’s a hit, the ship slowly begins to take off then does as they say. From then on, piloting is equivalent to a sailing check.
9 armoury
Both doors are closed.
A huge Crespexipede egg made of obsidian, hatched
The skeletons of two crew members, one buried with a platinum necklace
Two suits of Astromail (see 2).
10 air supply
Both doors are locked shut and will have to be opened in the Stabiliser.
A system of tanks and valves fills this room - the Air Supply. It has 3 HP remaining and is in remarkably good condition.
The janitor, a small droid, has been maintaining the Air Supply here for hundreds of years.
It is very nervous and thinks the humans are hallucinations.
It will break down in grief if it encounters the remains of crew members and will be inconsolable for d6 days.
It knows the ship's systems well and can be tasked to repair them.
11 engines
All doors are closed.
A huge engine here, with tonnes of valves.
There are three levels:
The top is walkways suspended above the engine. d8 Crespex eggs sit here.
The middle level is ladders and platforms. Requires a climbing roll to navigate quickly.
Hot steam vents through the bottom level. Roll a d6; the shape of the dice rolled is the layout of the vents that blow this turn. Each vent hit is a save vs breath for d8 damage.
One Crespexipede has nestled within the engine at the lower level and any attempt to use the engine will awaken it, damaging the engine.
12. Fuel tank / Abyss
All doors are closed, heavy portholes that can be opened by a winch.
This is a vast pit 120ft deep.
Gravity always pulls towards the engine in this room.
At the bottom is concentrated Dark Matter which appears to lens.
