Chapter 5: Subterrane of the Cyborgs

[Inferno]

Beneath the Dead Wizard's Skyscraper
Forbidden Island of Xygax the Wizard, Land of One Thousand Towers
Day Three. Sunset? March 27th, 912 CY







The ghastly composite creature of living, dead bodies struggles to push and pull its terrifying, writhing mass through the gleaming white door!

"...FrEsH PaRtS!..."

Panicked, the adventurers flee for their lives! Shouting, dragging their wounded, they plunge headlong into what they know is a dead end!



They squeeze into the crowded egg chamber, standing over the four cyborg cadavers they had slaughtered earlier. (C1-4) The southern door to the octagonal chamber does not open of its own volition! They are trapped in a cul de sac!

Outside, the amalgam atrocity absorbs the five other dead machine men (C5-9) into its frightful abominable body!!

The horrific fusion of dreadful new materials makes its heinous body grow larger as its many terrible, strange heads moan in agony and ecstasy!





Actions?! (and please let me know PC positions in this 10' x 10' room filled with giant eggs)



Map:

One square = 10 feet. X = Dead or unconscious. Lit areas are visible. All else is from memory.





PC Status:

• Chaka: Ape-Boy Thief 3: Move: 12"(6"), AC: 6, HP: -1/20
  Fiefo LeBratt: Rat-Man Fighter 2: Move: 9", AC: 1, HP: 3/20
  Garamond Antiqua: Cyborg 2: Move: 12", AC: 8, HP: 5/20
  Ko-Nan: Human Barbarian 2: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: -4/32
  L.L. Adrock: Half-Elf Cleric/Magic-User 2/1: Move: 9", AC: 2, HP: 3/8, Spells: 0/5 1st lvl
  Maskelyn: Gnome Illusionist 2: Move: 9", AC: 8, HP: -3/10, Spells: 0/2 1st lvl
  Tullia Galena: Half-Elf Ranger 2: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 16/24

PC Magic:

• None currently.

Player Resources:

• End of the World (game description)
  Strange New World (maps and realms)
  Memory Tapes (the story so far)
  Viewscreen (the story so far in images)

[SpinwardMarch]

Tullia

She deposits Ko-Nan's inert form behind one of the eggs, hoping it will provide some protection from the thing.Now what...? Maybe we can sling some of the green goo on this... abomination. At least it can't get between the eggs. I hope. She is not sure of how effective her arrows would be , if she tried to shoot the monster. Nothing in her previous training included dealing with a creature such as this.

[wolfpack]

everyone in between the eggs to the back corner light a torch

LL runs into a egg in the back, takes the iron box from his pouch drops the 8 ball into his pouch and gets the box ready.


he will hold it open by the lid letting the the hinges have the lower part of the box hang down. He will prepare to scoop out green slime into the lower part of the box and throw it on the creature when it comes close to the egg.

[Pulpatoon]

Garamond opens the doors of the egg-pods nearest the entrance from which the giant monster will come, hoping that it might get itself in trouble with the green liquid. "...Unless it is a product of the green slime. Those flying things were feeding off it, weren't they?"

Unsure what to do, it decides to leave the pods open, and then retreats back across the room and hides among the others. "I-if this is the end, it has been the fulfillment of a lifetime knowing each and everyone of you. The world will long remember and oft recall the tragedy of such sweet, comradely affection being snuffed out too soon. I only wish wish we had had more time to get to the end of Wanted by the Spanish Groom."

[ChubbyPixie]

Fiefo hisses, hackles up and spittle flying from his mouth and deposits himself in the doorway, fork held overhead. ”You can’t take the Spanish Groom from me you bastard!” he screeches.
Attack with Fauchard Fork (THAC0 19): To Hit: [1d20] = 20 Damage vs. s/M: [1d8] = 5, vs. L: [1d10] = 7 !!

Whoa. Easy, there, buddy...

[Pulpatoon]

Inspired by Fiefo's devotion to fine literature, Garamond looks for an opportunity to attack from behind the pods.
Drill Attack (THAC0 18): [1d20] = 11 Dmg: [1d6+1] = 4+1 = 5

[Inferno]

Beneath the Dead Wizard's Skyscraper
Forbidden Island of Xygax the Wizard, Land of One Thousand Towers
Day Three. Sunset? March 27th, 912 CY





The cyborgs that the adventurers had slaughtered while in their hibernation mode have become integrated into the calamitous mass of writhing limbs and heads!



"...FrEsH PaRtS!..." they moan as their immense communal body drags itself after the fleeing adventurers!

Adrock, Garamond and Tullia retreat to the southern end of the egg chamber, and frantically make preparations for when the ghastly atrocity reaches them behind the field of giant eggs.



It doesn't get the chance.

Emboldened by his newfound passion for fine literature, Fiefo makes his stand in the doorway as he screeches, ”You can’t take the Spanish Groom from me, you bastard!” The ratman's ancestral fork impales one grasping limb, severing it from the undulating mass of the disgusting abomination!

Then the loathsome thing's many other limbs grab Fiefo, strangle and bludgeon him to death and incorporate his broken, mangled corpse into the hideous collective that is its abhorrent, repulsive body!

Again, it groans in pain and pleasure!



In horror, the adventurers see Fiefo's head loll and jerk to life! Its dead rodent eyes behold them and Fiefo groans:

"...FrEsH PaRtS!..."




Actions?!


Map:

One square = 10 feet. X = Dead or unconscious. Lit areas are visible. All else is from memory.


Non-required Reading (rolls and rulings):

Abomination attacks Fiefo, 1 of 3: [1d20] = 14, damage: [1d6] = 3
Abomination attacks Fiefo 2 of 3: [1d20] = 8, damage: [1d6] = 1
Abomination attacks Fiefo: 3 of 3: [1d20] = 19, damage: [1d6] = 4
Hits Fiefo twice for 7hp damage.

PC Status:

• Chaka: Ape-Boy Thief 3: Move: 12"(6"), AC: 6, HP: -1/20
  Garamond Antiqua: Cyborg 2: Move: 12", AC: 8, HP: 5/20
  Ko-Nan: Human Barbarian 2: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: -4/32
  L.L. Adrock: Half-Elf Cleric/Magic-User 2/1: Move: 9", AC: 2, HP: 3/8, Spells: 0/5 1st lvl
  Maskelyn: Gnome Illusionist 2: Move: 9", AC: 8, HP: -3/10, Spells: 0/2 1st lvl
  Tullia Galena: Half-Elf Ranger 2: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 16/24

PC Magic:

• None currently.

Player Resources:

• End of the World (game description)
  Strange New World (maps and realms)
  Memory Tapes (the story so far)
  Viewscreen (the story so far in images)

[wolfpack]

from behind the egg LL tries to splash the iron box of green slime on the thing

[1d20] = 8

[SpinwardMarch]

Tullia

She will dip the head of one of her arrows in the green goo, and attempt to shoot out one of the monster's eyes. She is very tired of watching her friends die.

long bow/arrow-to hit [1d20] = 13

long bow/arrow damage [1d6] = 2 Does not include any damage from green goo)

Hey, she tried.

[Inferno]

Beneath the Dead Wizard's Skyscraper
Forbidden Island of Xygax the Wizard, Land of One Thousand Towers
Day Three. Sunset? March 27th, 912 CY







"...FrEsH PaRtS!..."

Fiefo the ratman has been absorbed into the ghastly collective of the cyborg abomination! Its many lolling heads turn their terrible attention to the adventurers cornered at the back wall of the egg chamber!

Garamond frantically looks for a way out of this dead end! He examines the southern door for a weak spot but it is one of the very doors that held him captive in the octagonal chamber for time without reckoning!

The adventurers watch in horror as the abomination eerily reorganizes its unnatural body to squeeze through the open door and enter the egg chamber! Then it sprouts gigantic tentacles comprised entirely of writhing corpses! The grasping hands of the cadaver tendrils choke and hammer the surviving party members! (-6hp and -1hp damage to Garamond and Tullia respectively)

Garamond succumbs to the onslaught and Adrock and Tullia are forced to witness once more, another of their companions absorbed into the terror of the nauseating nameless thing! Garamond's ruined cyborg frame is assimilated into the chilling integration of dead bodies that is the abomination, and his brain-case speaker groans:

"...FrEsH PaRtS!..."



From behind one egg, Adrock uses a small iron box to collect some of the green slime from a sacramental font. Before it can eat through the container, he flings it at the writhing horror, but his aim is off! It splashes onto an adjacent egg!

Tullia dips an arrow into one of the strange baptismal fonts and before the emerald protoplasm can dissolve her arrowhead, she nocks and fires! The arrow strikes the writhing atrocity! The rivulets of green slime begin to eat through an iron part of one of the amalgamated dead cyborgs!


Actions?!


Map:

One square = 10 feet. X = Dead or unconscious. Lit areas are visible. All else is from memory.


Non-required Reading (rolls and rulings):

Initiative: Party: [1d6] = 1, Monsters: [1d6] = 2 Monsters win.
Abomination attacks Adrock, Garamond and Tullia: [1d20] = 3, [1d20] = 20, [1d20] = 20 Yow.
Damage to Garamond and Tullia: [1d6] = 6, [1d6] = 1
It takes a green slime 3 rounds to eat through metal. The cyborg abomination is over 1/3 metal in its composition, so I'll rule it will take the green slime 1 round (next round) to eat through before reaching the organics. It's going to be close!

PC Status:

• Chaka: Ape-Boy Thief 3: Move: 12"(6"), AC: 6, HP: -1/20
  Ko-Nan: Human Barbarian 2: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: -4/32
  L.L. Adrock: Half-Elf Cleric/Magic-User 2/1: Move: 9", AC: 2, HP: 3/8, Spells: 0/5 1st lvl
  Maskelyn: Gnome Illusionist 2: Move: 9", AC: 8, HP: -3/10, Spells: 0/2 1st lvl
  Tullia Galena: Half-Elf Ranger 2: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 15/24

PC Magic:

• None currently.

Player Resources:

• End of the World (game description)
  Strange New World (maps and realms)
  Memory Tapes (the story so far)
  Viewscreen (the story so far in images)

[SpinwardMarch]

Tullia

Now you've done it, you bastard monster. Eat more slime. Seeing that the slime affects the monster, she will dip another arrow in the goo and fire it into the abomination.

long bow/arrow-to hit [1d20] = 18
long bow/arrow damage [1d6] = 1

Oh, well. At least it is point blank range, with goo.

[wolfpack]

LL will dip points of his darts into the font and throw them at the thing.


[1d20+1] = 1+1 = 2
[1d20+1] = 4+1 = 5
[1d20+1] = 12+1 = 13

[Inferno]

Beneath the Dead Wizard's Skyscraper
Forbidden Island of Xygax the Wizard, Land of One Thousand Towers
Day Three. Sunset? March 27th, 912 CY







Adrock and Tullia evade the unsettling corpse tentacles of the multi-headed horror!

Adrock dips two darts in baptismal slime and looses them but the virulent ooze ruins their flight!

Tullia coats another arrow in the emerald mucus and fires it into the loathsome patchwork behemoth of cadavers and machinery!

"...FrEsH PaRtS!..." it groans with many mouths.


Actions?!


Map:

One square = 10 feet. X = Dead or unconscious. Lit areas are visible. All else is from memory.


Non-required Reading (rolls and rulings):

Initiative: Party: [1d6] = 5, Monsters: [1d6] = 6 Monsters win.
Abomination attacks Adrock once and Tullia twice: [1d20] = 6, [1d20] = 4, [1d20] = 3 All three attacks miss!

The green slime on Tullia's first arrow will take 1-4 melee rounds to turn the abomination into a gigantic green slime! Green slime transformation timing: [1d4] = 3 3 rounds.

Missile into a melee misfire? (10%): [1d100] = 28 No.
The green slime on Tullia's second arrow takes this round to eat through metal and reach organics.

PC Status:

• Chaka: Ape-Boy Thief 3: Move: 12"(6"), AC: 6, HP: -1/20
  Ko-Nan: Human Barbarian 2: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: -4/32
  L.L. Adrock: Half-Elf Cleric/Magic-User 2/1: Move: 9", AC: 2, HP: 3/8, Spells: 0/5 1st lvl
  Maskelyn: Gnome Illusionist 2: Move: 9", AC: 8, HP: -3/10, Spells: 0/2 1st lvl
  Tullia Galena: Half-Elf Ranger 2: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 15/24

PC Magic:

• None currently.

Player Resources:

• End of the World (game description)
  Strange New World (maps and realms)
  Memory Tapes (the story so far)
  Viewscreen (the story so far in images)

[SpinwardMarch]

Tullia

Seeing the slime-coated arrows have hit their target both times, she wonders if she needs to shoot it again. Arrg, I guess one more arrow might help. She dips one more arrow in goo and fires.

long bow/arrow-to hit [1d20] = 13

long bow/arrow damage [1d6] = 6

Take that!

[wolfpack]

having nothing else to do LL throws 3 darts at the creature

[1d20] = 6
[1d20] = 9
[1d20] = 7

[Inferno]

Beneath the Dead Wizard's Skyscraper
Forbidden Island of Xygax the Wizard, Land of One Thousand Towers
Day Three. Sunset? March 27th, 912 CY







"...FrEsH PaRtS!..." hisses one of the many strange faces on the immense, writhing tentacles of the horrific composite creature!

Adrock the scholar of ancient 'Earth That Was,' distracted by his erudite recognition of more ghastly faces than any of his companions, casts more darts wide.

Cornered beside him, Tullia the ranger coolly draws back her bowstring again at pointblank range and impales a mechanical iris with another poisoned arrow, thrice now injecting the cyborg abomination with the toxic infection of the green slime! But would it take effect before she and Adrock were assimilated into a deathless living nightmare?!

Unimpeded by arrows, the monstrous collective thrashes and batters Tullia with its gigantic corpse tendrils! (-5hp)

(Next round...)

Groaning, the colossal abhorrence strikes again with devastating results! (5hp and 8hp damage to Adrock and Tullia.)

Gruesomely, Adrock is defeated and subsumed into the hideous entity comprised of its murdered victims!



Tullia stands alone as Adrock, Garamond and Fiefo join the bloodcurdling chorus: "...FrEsH PaRtS!..."


Actions?! (...for this round and next round please. Thanks.)


Map:

One square = 10 feet. X = Dead or unconscious. Lit areas are visible. All else is from memory.


Non-required Reading (rolls and rulings):

Initiative: Party: [1d6] = 6, Monsters: [1d6] = 1
Adrock, Tullia: Missile into a melee misfire? (10% each): [1d100] = 15, [1d100] = 33 No.
Abomination attacks Adrock once and Tullia twice: [1d20] = 3, [1d20] = 20, [1d20] = 20 Hits Tullia twice.
Damage to Tullia: [1d6] = 2, [1d6] = 3 Damage: 5hp.

The green slime on Tullia's first arrow will turn the abomination into a gigantic green slime in 2 rounds.

The green slime on Tullia's second arrow will turn the abomination into a gigantic green slime in 1-4 rounds:
2nd arrow: Green slime transformation timing: [1d4] = 3 3 rounds.

The green slime on Tullia's third arrow takes this round to eat through metal and reach organics.

Next round:
Next round: Initiative: Party: [1d6] = 5, Monsters: [1d6] = 6 Monsters win.
Next round: Abomination attacks Adrock once and Tullia twice: [1d20] = 20, [1d20] = 17, [1d20] = 16 All three attacks hit.
Damage to Adrock, Tullia: [1d6] = 5, [2d6] = 8

We are in the middle of "next round." Tullia has yet to take her action.

PC Status:

• Chaka: Ape-Boy Thief 3: Move: 12"(6"), AC: 6, HP: -1/20
  Ko-Nan: Human Barbarian 2: Move: 12", AC: 4, HP: -4/32
  Maskelyn: Gnome Illusionist 2: Move: 9", AC: 8, HP: -3/10, Spells: 0/2 1st lvl
  Tullia Galena: Half-Elf Ranger 2: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 2/24

PC Magic:

• None currently.

Player Resources:

• End of the World (game description)
  Strange New World (maps and realms)
  Memory Tapes (the story so far)
  Viewscreen (the story so far in images)

[SpinwardMarch]

Tullia

She stares in horror as Adrock is consumed by the monster. It is time to change weapons, and use something for close range, her sword. All she can do now is try to stay alive by hacking at the tendrils, to keep them away from her.

To hit [1d20] = 2

She misses the tendril. She will fight on, until she is consumed by the construct.

[SpinwardMarch]

Tullia

To hit [1d20] = 7

She thinks,
Damned eggs, too close to get a good swing.

[Inferno]

Beneath the Dead Wizard's Skyscraper
Forbidden Island of Xygax the Wizard, Land of One Thousand Towers
Day Three. Sunset? March 27th, 912 CY










After watching her companions be assimilated into the multi-headed horror of flesh and steel, Tullia Galena calmly lowers her bow, unsheathes her longsword and prepares to die fighting, desperately trying to buy time for her poisoned arrows to take effect!

The valiant ranger's blade does not land a blow! But it does stave off three deadly attacks of writhing tentacles made of corpses!

Then the ghastly collective shrieks as one and its agonizing cry dies in its many throats. Wrenching and convulsing, it undergoes a violent transformation that subsumes the vast looming body and all that comprise it!

Tullia's gambit has worked! She's defeated the nightmare atrocity!

Suddenly, the massive thing becomes a gigantic viridian amoeboid that collapses in an emerald deluge that floods the egg chamber, drenching Tullia in its thick viscous ooze and filling the room to her knees, drowning her fallen friends beneath its rippling green fathoms!



With a sickening wave of realization, Tullia feels her body changing! Transforming!


Actions?!


Map:

One square = 10 feet. X = Dead or unconscious. Lit areas are visible. All else is from memory.


Non-required Reading (rolls and rulings):

Completing the second half of a combat round, Tullia attacks and misses with a roll of a 2.

Next round: (at the end of this round, the abomination will transform into green slime)
Initiative: Party: [1d6] = 6, Monsters: [1d6] = 1 Party wins.
Tullia attacks and misses with a roll of a 7.
Abomination attacks Tullia three times: [1d20] = 4, [1d20] = 1, [1d20] = 1 Abomination misses!
End of round: Gigantic abomination turns into a green slime and floods the 10' x 10' chamber. By this point, the abomination was made of 13 human-sized bodies! The green slime has that equivalent size and mass. Tullia is covered in slime.
Tullia transforms in 1-4 rounds: [1d4] = 1 1 round!

PC Status:

• Tullia Galena: Half-Elf Ranger 2: Move: 9", AC: 5, HP: 2/24

PC Magic:

• None currently.

Player Resources:

• End of the World (game description)
  Strange New World (maps and realms)
  Memory Tapes (the story so far)
  Viewscreen (the story so far in images)

[SpinwardMarch]

Tullia

With tears in her eyes, she sadly raises her sword in a salute. Farewell, my friends. May you rest in peace. Would that I could join you.

fade to black... player wipes eyes...