Mutant Crawl Classics - #06 - The Apocalypse Ark [lv. 5].pdf

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A LEVEL 5 ADVENTURE
By Brendan J. LaSalle
Cover art & cartography: Stefan Poag
Editor: Rev. Dak J. Ultimak • Proofing: Tony Hogard
Proofreading: Tony Hogard
Interior artists: Tom Galambos, Jesse Mohn,
Russ Nicholson, Stefan Poag, Chad Sergesketter
Art direction & layout: Jim Wampler
This book is for Maria Melendez. I’m dedicating
ONE book to you . . . or perhaps TWO.
Playtesters: Jayson Badessa, Matt Denicourt, Tim Deschene,
Brian Donahue, Ben Grimes, John Jones, Jeffrey Laluc, Joe Macrino,
Bill Reinerth, Michael Webster, Julian Bernick, Tim Moore,
Patrick Baumgard, Ryan Hixson
MCC RPG and this adventure are copyright © 2017 Goodman Games. Mutant Crawl Classics
is a trademark of Goodman Games. MCC RPG is published under the Open Game License
Refer to the OGL in this work for additional information.
www.goodman-games.com
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INTRODUCTION
emember the good old days, when post-apocalyptic
adventures were full of super-science, robots that
were there to be mastered, and the finale of every
underground adventure was setting the fusion power plant
to overload? Those days are back. Mutant Crawl Classics
adventures take place in an ambiguous time period after
a great disaster has ravaged the world, and it’s up to your
neolithic mutant tribesmen to go out into the hot house
jungles and radioactive deserts of Terra A.D. (After Disas-
ter) and collect the artifacts of the Ancient Ones in order to
attain great personal power and savage glory.
Now in control of NC-787, rechristened The Apocalypse
Ark, Doctor Zeigarnik created a terrible pathogen, B-17,
and now roams the world, infecting intelligent creatures
with the terrible disease, an act of genocide that is just the
opening gambit in a pogrom designed to erase sentient life
from the world.
Only two things stand between Doctor Zeigarnik and
her dreams of genocide – the AI known as EVE, currently
trapped with access to only a fraction of its power, and the
brave seekers that dare invade the Apocalypse Ark.
BACKGROUND
The Ancients called it Beta Collection Unit NC-787. Its mis-
sion – to find, collect, and categorize animals, plants and,
in some instances, human beings, recording DNA and, in
some cases, stripping invasive mutant DNA from extant
creatures to create genetically pure stock.
Then the Great Disaster came. Beta Collection Unit NC-787
sat dead and inert for ages while the world evolved around
it for thousands of years.
A powerful mutant discovered the NC-787. Her name was
Bluma, and she was a simple child of one of the remote vil-
lages from the lands near the Monster Sea. She died of an
uncontrolled fever at an extremely young age, and doing
so discovered her mutation – she had the extremely rare
gift of Cognitive Immortality, and with her last conscious
thought in her original body she forced her personality into
the brain of an unconscious reptile and left her village, nev-
er to return. Since then she has lived the natural lifespans
of many dozens of creatures, learning more and more about
the blighted world and its inhabitants.
In her thirteenth life cycle Bluma had epiphany – the per-
fect world would be one where the natural world would
progress without advanced cognizant thought, except for
one being: herself. She longed to be the only intelligent
creature in a paradise world, a world that would constantly
strive for perfection as it sought to create intelligence, but
which would become a paradise because she herself would
stop intelligent life from evolving, forcing evolution to cre-
ate amazing plants and animals instead.
This dark notion would have remained a daydream if she
had never discovered NC-787. Bluma was awestruck by
its majesty, and decided to explore every inch of it. During
this exploration, she encountered the AI EVE and, through
guile, managed to trap it in a shunted computer. She cov-
ered the computer in duct tape and hid it away, planning to
eventually harness EVE’s power for her own ends.
It took the lives of a dozen bodies, but Bluma eventually ex-
plored the ancient husk and learned its secrets. She has for-
saken the name of her birth and adopted the name of one of
the engineers of the NC-787, the one who saw its potential
to create the perfect being. The mutant formally known as
Bluma shall evermore only answer to Doctor Zeigarnik.
NOTE ON USING THE
APOCAL
YPSE ARK
The adventure comes with a built-in hook – a swarm of op-
timized injectors attack the PCs’ village, who then likely go
and investigate the source of the attack. However, it might
better serve your campaign to simply have the player’s
come across the Ark in their travels, or to hear a story about
the horrifying “smart metal” from a lone seeker, or even
receive a transmission from a patron AI, telling them to go
and find/ explore/ destroy the thing. Use this adventure
however best serves your campaign, and don’t feel obli-
gated to use every bit as writ.
ENCOUNTER 1: THE SURVIVOR
In the dark hours before dawn, Klig, a member of a rival
tribe runs into the village, sick, exhausted, and bedraggled,
screaming for help. Klig is infected with the B-17 pathogen
(Stage 2, see below). Klig tells a tale of a mountain of “smart
metal” rolling into his village and releasing a swarm of ter-
rifying winged creatures, each shining a beam of intense
light. He ran, with the creatures in pursuit. Eventually he
managed to dive into a river and swim underwater for a
while to throw them off his scent; he thinks they lost him,
but the creatures found his trail and are not far behind.
Less than 5 minutes later the swarm flies into the village
and attacks. Unless he is stopped, Klig runs away, never to
be seen again. Each creature attacks exactly three times and
then flies back to the Ark. Each one attempts to sting one
individual, then moves on to a different target, making no
distinction between the PCs and other tribesmen. After three
rounds, they retreat, flying back to the Apocalypse Ark.
Optimized Injectors (13):
Init +2; Atk sting +4 melee (1+dis-
ease); AC 14; HD 1d8+1; hp 9 each; MV fly 40’; Act 1d20;
SP biological combat light, injector, imperfect life form; SV
Fort +1, Ref +4, Will+3.
At a glance, Optimized Injectors appear to be small flying
mutant birds – one huge eye that shines a bright light, over-
sized wings, tiny underslung tail with a needle-like stinger.
They are actually mammals, created from recombined hu-
man DNA and vat-grown tissue, perfectly optimized to
do one thing – track and inject enemies. They have keen
eyesight and hearing, and are master jungle trackers. Op-
timized Injectors also sense radio signals, and are directed
via radio by Doctor Zeigarnik.
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P
athogen
B-17
The disease has five stages. Every day, infected crea-
tures must make a DC 13 Fortitude save – failure
means they progress to the next stage of the disease.
If creatures infected with B-17 make three daily sav-
ing throws in a row, then their immune systems have
conquered the synthetic virus. Their disease shifts
backwards a stage (i.e. from 3rd stage to second
stage), and with every daily saving throw they make
after that the disease moves back another stage until
the infected are completely cured. It is still possible
that the symptoms overwhelm creatures, causing
their death before they become completely well.
Stage 1:
Victims feel ill, experience a slight lack of ap-
petite.
Stage 2:
Victims feels sick, and take a -1 on Strength,
Stamina, and Agility checks.
Stage 3:
Victims begin to develop a terrible rash on
their body, and take 1 point of Strength, Stamina, or
Agility damage per day (determine randomly). Any
physical skill checks are made at -1d lower on the
dice chain.
Stage 4:
The rash covers the victim’s body entirely.
Victim is bedridden, unable to effectively perform
even the simplest physical tasks. Any mutation
checks are done -1d lower on the dice chain. They
continue to take daily ability damage.
Stage 5:
Victims die .
Strength, Stamina, and Agility damage from the dis-
ease cannot be healed until the disease is cured. It is
possible to die of the symptoms before the 5th stage
of the disease.
The custom pathogen is genetically stable and can-
not be biologically transmitted, so it can’t be passed
through contact with an infected victim. This limi-
tation is intentional – Doctor Zeigarnik wanted to
make sure it could neither mutate or pass on to in-
deliberate targets – she is terrified of infecting an in-
nocent animal.
opponent within 10’ per round a -2 on hit rolls if they are
fighting in darkness.
Optimized Injectors are genetically created to fly and fight
at night, but aren’t good for much else. Their average life
span is six months, they can’t reproduce on their own, can’t
feed themselves, possess low intelligence, and are extreme-
ly susceptible to radiation, rolling -1d lower on the chain
versus radiation attacks.
After the attack, it is likely that the PCs and many of the
villagers will be infected. They will likely want to seek out
the “smart metal” their rival tribesman spoke of, seeking a
cure, revenge, or just answers.
PCs can simply travel south until they find the unmistak-
able path the Ark leaves through the jungle, or they might
decide to first investigate the infected rival village.
ENCOUNTER 2: VILLAGE OF
SORROW
The PCs are all aware of the nearby village, a shunned
place infamous for the inhospitality of its people. The in-
habitants, a loose band of savage survivor types, refuse the
ethics of the Clan of the Cog, and embrace all that is worst
about the survivor mindset: social advancement by vio-
lence, supply raids against neighbors, and cannibalism. It
is a full day’s travel from the PCs village to the home of the
tribe some call the Bat People for their night raids.
The village is composed of fifteen tree houses, with one
large communal platform open to the sky and several
camouflaged watch platforms. The stench of death is thick
about the village. When the PCs arrive, they find a score of
dead, all victims of the disease. The only survivors are ex-
tremely sick, showing the tell-tale rash that indicates stage
3 or 4 of B-17 infection. None of them are strong enough
to put up much of a fight – the healthy have already left,
abandoning their former tribe mates to their fate.
t
he
t
racks
The PCs cannot miss the tracks if they head back the
way Klig came for two or three days of travel. Some-
thing unbelievably massive clearly rolled through
the jungle, knocking down trees, burning foliage,
and leaving massive tread marks in the earth. The
trail is ludicrously easy to follow, being a 60’ wide
trench of crushed trees, dug-under foliage, and
roadkill. The PCs can successfully determine which
direction is the way the thing went and which one
goes back the way it came with a DC 13 Intelligence
check. If PCs follow it the wrong way give them an
Intelligence check every day (starting with DC 13,
decreasing by one for every day) to note that plants
are beginning to regrow, so they must be heading
the wrong way.
Each Optimized Injector has a tiny biologically fabricated
syringe-like injector in its underslung tail, nearly indistin-
guishable from a cybernetic graft. The injector can be filled
with whatever toxin or poison their handler wants; in this
case, they carry a lethal custom pathogen, B-17 – victims
stung must make a DC 13 Fortitude save or become Stage 1
infected (see sidebar). Plantients are immune to this attack.
The creatures have a continuously glowing beam from
their single oversized eye, their Biological Combat Light –
it flashes in the face of the creature they face, giving one
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