The Rocket Pyramid

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

• Suggest: Save v magic or throw yourself into the Ooze, seeking glorious communion with the void

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

• Ravenous for flesh.
• Shuns bright light.
• Metal carapace takes 2 rounds to form when newly hatched.

From “lovecraftian monsters in the city” in Santicore (anon) http://metalvsskin.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/secret-santicore-2013-volume-3-pdf.html

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.

• Jumping into a concentrated field of Dark Matter such as that in the fuel tank will cause d4 mutations and 2d8 damage per turn as the victim is pulled and warped by extradimensional forces.

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

• Eating it will cause the consumer to enter a catatonic state for 3 days.

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.
• It unquestioningly obeys the Space Hamster.
• 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

• A complicated seat with two joysticks and a bunch of scopes controls the exterior harpoon gun; roll as attacking with a ranged weapon except with a -d4 to the roll. The gun only fires in a frontal arc.

8 Bridge

• Three monitors around the edges, each with a comfortable looking seat.
• These allow remote control of the Stabiliser (3), Engine (12), and Air Supply (11).
• 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.
• The left panel pilots the ship.
• The right panel controls warp navigation.

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.
• Power can be shifted to or from the engines through a three way valve. If power is shifted to the engine, it can boost the ship twice as fast but suffers enormous strain.
• 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.