What’s this?

Obsolete Sewer Radiopasteurization is a 30 Minute Dungeon. It was written with LotFP in mind; if you want to run it using another system, remember two things:

Base AC is 12, Leather is 14, Mail is 16, Plate is 18, shields are +1 (see a full conversion table here.) LotFP uses silver where others use gold. Change metal, keep numbers.

Here’s the PDF (it has a better format than this blog entry)

Backstory

A recently abandoned sewer. It was used to experiment with technologies not from this world. A ghostly apparition scared off the workers.

Adventure Hooks

The workers abandoned the treasure they had accumulated during their years of work. A mad scientist will pay 150 sp for each weird science gadget you can get your hands on. A wanted bandit is hidden inside. There’s a 800 sp reward if taken alive.

Dungeon Map

The map is a pointcrawl. Each node is a room, the lines are corridors that connect one room to the next. All have normal, stuck doors except where noted.

Room size and relation to other rooms, as well as connection distances are unimportant, keep them abstract.

You can download the map as a separate file.

Dungeon Key

Room 1: Portcullis. Partially open, you need to crawl to enter from outside the dungeon. The room is covered in mud, from the walls hang wires. When you step on the mud, an electric current rises through your bone system. Save vs paralysis or all your rolls will have a -1 penalty for 30 minutes.

Room 2: Rat Shrine. Here lives a rat, accompanied by 1d4+1 mice. Rat: AC 14, HD 6, Bite d6 or Claws d12 or Mace d8. Mouse: AC 12, HD 1, Knife d4.

Room 3: Storage. Abandoned campsite items. A complete circulatory system walks through this room, disappearing behind the door (can’t be harmed nor seen outside this room). It’s only witnessed once.

Room 4: Screen room. A soundless screen constantly reproduces the same scene: A man in a locked laboratory (room 5) cries desperately for help; the lab’s white light increases in intensity until it’s impossible to see anything but the man’s silhouette, then only an absolute whiteness; when the light goes out, the room is empty.

Room 5: Ionizer. Upon entering this empty room, the doors lock with a ‘click’ and the ionizer activates, filling the room with a blinding white light, emitted by the white walls. Save vs death; survivors suffer a random mutation; the dead dissolve like slime. The doors open with a ‘clack’. The Aluminum Man (room 10) is immune, but if a henchman is liquefied, he will inject the slime. See what happens.

Room 6: Control Panel. Controls to deactivate the ionizer. Also a treasure: 563 silver, 126 copper; ion gun (d12 damage; save vs death halves); a disc that emits pale green light when a button is pushed, enough to light a room; a valuable book (100 sp); a box containing instruments for experimentation on gases (800 x d100% sp to a Magic-User’s laboratory; it takes 4 Encumbrance slots to transport).

Room 7: Muddy Library. Empty bookshelves. Among the mud, a paper sheet. It says: “If the aluminum man is present, the chances of surviving ion exposure are greater.”

Room 8: Cesspool. Mud and crap cover the ground. Warm, fouls breeze. A bandit is hidden here with 3 henchmen. One henchman is willing to change sides if the PCs grant him safety against the bandit. Bandit: AC 16, HD 1, Club d6, 45 silver. Henchman: AC 12, HD 1, Knife d4, 2d6 copper.

Room 9: Dump. This room is full of junk (make a Search roll for a 300 sp diamond). A man and a woman are here. Roll d4 to know what they are doing: 1: Taking a nap. 2: They argue aggressively. 3: They are prepared to ambush the PCs (they win Surprise automatically). 4: They are scavenging the dump (PCs win Surprise automatically). Treasure Hunter A: AC 14, HD 3, Crossbow d6, Dagger d4, 17 silver. Treasure Hunter B: AC 16, HD 3, Sword d8, Dagger d4, 8 silver, 15 copper.

Room 10: Cell. 2 ceiling lamps illuminate the room (100 sp each). The Aluminium Man. Doesn’t remember who he is, he remembers he wants to leave and don’t come back, he thinks he’s a machine. It grants all PCs a +1 bonus to their save vs death on room 5, if he’s present. Aluminium Man: AC 16, HD 2, Punch d8, Immunities: radiation and spells (including beneficial ones).

Random Mutations

Roll 1d6

Your skin becomes aluminium and you become immune to radiation and spells (even beneficial spells), your base AC is 16, you can’t wear any armor. Those close to you get a +1 bonus on their saves vs Death by radiation and Magic. 1d10 of your mites increase their size considerably, causing you 1 hp of damage each. The next round, they fall off and disintegrate, leaving only a dark spot. Your head is reduced to 30% of its original size; facial hair doesn’t shrink, however. You speak with a funny chipmunk voice and your Int is reduced in 2. Your heart rate speeds up. You recover 1 hp extra when you rest, even if you have less than half your total hp. However, you die on zero hp, not on -3. Roll 1d4; you develop cancer in 1: your brain (-2 Int). 2: a femur (-2 Dex). 3: your blood (leukemia; -2 Con). 4: your throat (can’t talk, can’t cast spells). You need a barber surgeon to take care of it or you die in 1d4+2 weeks. Your blood becomes a glowing green. If an animal or person (but not you) drink, they get intoxicated as though they had eaten berserker ‘shrooms: 3 attacks per 2 rounds.

People always complain Old-School games like this don’t have enough variety and options for the players and/or characters. Well they’re wrong. What these games don’t have is a specific, narrow list of options available, which means options are endless. Mutations are a way to give a character something new and funny to further differentiate it from other characters, but anything goes.

People & Monsters

Aluminium Man

Armor Class: 16

Hit Dice: 2 (8 hp)

Movement: 120’ (40’)

Attacks: Punch (d8)

Attack Bonus: +2

Morale: 10

Aluminium skin, immune to radiation and spells (including beneficial spells). Those close gain +1 to saves vs Death by radiation and Magic.

Bandit

Armor Class: 16

Hit Dice: 1 (4 hp)

Movement: 120’ (40’)

Attacks: Club (d6)

Attack Bonus: +1

Morale: 7

Wanted by the authorities, desperate, will do anything to escape. 45 silver pieces.

Henchman

Armor Class: 12

Hit Dice: 1 (3 hp)

Movement: 120’ (40’)

Attacks: Knife (d4)

Attack Bonus: +1

Morale: 8

The bandit forced them to join, “Join me or I kill your daughter/wife/mother”. 2d6 copper.

Mouse

Armor Class: 12

Hit Dice: 1 (4 hp)

Movement: 120’ (40’)

Attacks: Knife (d4)

Attack Bonus: +1

Morale: 10

Humanoid mice the size of a child, and cartoonish appearance. Loyal but not stupid.

Rat

Armor Class: 14

Hit Dice: 6 (27 hp)

Movement: 180’ (60’)

Attacks: Bite or Claws or Mace (d6 or d12 or d8)

Attack Bonus: +6

Morale: 12

Humanoid rat, horrific appearance. Never surrenders. She’s loyal to her henchmice.

Treasure Hunter A

Armor Class: 14

Hit Dice: 3 (12 hp)

Movement: 120’ (40’)

Attacks: Crossbow or Dagger (d6 or d4)

Attack Bonus: +2

Morale: 9

Skillful but coward. 17 silver. Silver dagger (50 sp).

Treasure Hunter B

Armor Class: 16

Hit Dice: 3 (13 hp)

Movement: 120’ (40’)

Attacks: Sword or Dagger (d8 or d4)

Attack Bonus: +3

Morale: 10

Strong and brave. 8 silver, 15 copper. Silver dagger (50 sp).