Purpose
You are four agents of Pan-Galactic Corporation relaxing at the trivid Gaming Hall after a dangerous mission. Suddenly there is a blaring alarm from your wrist communicators followed by an emergency public broadcast.
"Alien creature has broken out of confinement at the Zoological Park! Last seen headed north! Creature is reported to have attacked handler earlier this morning and should be considered dangerous! Stay inside! Police have been notified but a major accident on the Spaceport Expressway is occupying most of the patrols!"
You look at each other and nod agreement. The creature can not be allowed to run loose until the police can arrive. You must try to stop it.
Teams
In this adventure one player must be chosen to be the reader of the adventure and to play the part of the alien creature. Information on the creature is listed in a special section for the reader.
The rest of the players are working for Pan-Galactic. The players can roll up new characters or use their characters from the last adventure.
All new characters are armed with laser pistols. The pistols are fully loaded, but characters do not have extra ammunition and must keep track of how many shots they fire. Once their gun is empty they must look for another weapon or run away.
How To Play
The player characters always move first, until they attack the creature. The hydra will not attack until after the characters attack it for the first time. After this first attack, the game proceeds normally with players rolling for initiative at the start of each turn.
Borrowing Weapons. Once the player characters discover that their lasers are useless, the reader should ask: What are you going to do? Your weapons don't seem to be hurting the hydra." When the players ask where they can get different weapons, tell them: "You can go to the Wilderness Outfitters, Weapons Shop, or the Security Building."
When a character enters one of these three buildings and asks for a weapon, the reader should determine if the shop owner will let them borrow one. Roll d100; if the number rolled is less than or equal to the character's Personality score, the shop owner will loan the character a gun. If it is greater than the character's Personality score, the shop owner will refuse and the character will have to try somewhere else.
Periodically the hydra goes through a reproductive cycle when it grows new branches with limbs and mouths which eventually mature and drop off to form new hydras. This hydra is undergoing that reproductive cycle and has grown several branches.
Earlier in the day, when the hydra started to bud, the creature's handler tried to move it to a larger pen. The sonic prod he used enraged the creature and it attacked the handler. The creature was finally penned and the handier taken to the medical complex. The zoo owners then brought a subsonic projector to soothe the creature with low-frequency sounds, but these only made the creature madder and it broke out. The creature now hunts for its handier, believing that if it can destroy him it will be freed of its torment.
The reader should run the creature so that it wanders through the town, giving the player characters a merry chase, leading eventually to the medical complex. Once at the medical complex it will slither in one of the doors and search for its handler. Each turn the creature is in the medical complex, the reader should roll 1d10; if a 1, 2, or 3 is rolled the creature has found and eaten its handler. If this happens Star Law will arrive and capture the creature.
Creature's Abilities. In order for the hydra to be an equal challenge to the players, its Stamina and Number of Attacks will vary with the number of player characters.
The hydra starts with 30 Stamina points per player character. Thus, if there are three characters, it will have a Stamina of 90.
The hydra also has as many heads as there are player characters. It gets one attack per head. It can attack a different target with each head. For example, if there are three characters, the hydra will have three heads and will get to attack three times every turn.
The creature attacks by firing nematocysts (muscle-fired darts) from its mouth at its prey. Each hit causes 1d10 points of damage. The hydra's IM and Dexterity, and the range of its darts, are listed below.
Immunity. Laser beams simply bounce off the creature's silvery hide without harming it. However, the heat of the beam excites the creature's cells and causes it to bud again, gaining 10 Stamina points and another attack. If, for example, a hydra with a Stamina of 90 and three attacks was hit by a laser beam it would gain 10 points of Stamina and one attack for a total of 100 Stamina points and four attacks.
Because the creature is so big, it is immune to the effects of a single doze grenade. At least three grenades must land in the hydra's square on the same turn to knock it out. The grenades will not effect the hydra if they are thrown on different turns.
If any single shot from a needler or gyrojet causes 15 or more points of damage to the hydra it will lose one of its heads and one of its attacks. This will happen only if the damage is caused by a single shot.
If the creature loses all its heads or if its Stamina is reduced to 0 the hydra is unconscious and can be captured.
Movement. The hydra can move up to 4 spaces per turn. It does not need to stop before it crosses a road. Instead, the reader rolls 1d10; on a roll of 1, 2, or 3 a skimmer on the road has swerved to avoid the creature and crashed. One of the player characters near the crash must stop and spend one turn calling the medical complex on his or her communicator. That character may not fire that turn. The players decide which character must make the call.
IM
5DEX
40Point Blank
1-2Short
3-5Medium
6-10Long
11-20Extreme
21-40
________________
# of atks.________________
Stamina
The Pan-Galactic team members win if they stop the creature. If the creature reaches the medical complex the reader should be sure to tell the players that the creature seems to be looking for something.
Set-Up
The player characters each choose a piece and place it in the Game Hall. The reader picks a piece with a picture of a giant creature on it and places it five spaces north of the Zoological Park exit.
Reward
At the end of the adventure the city will pay each character a reward for their brave actions. The following rewards will be given depending on the outcome of the adventure.
If the player characters borrowed any weapons during the adventure, they must return them afterward.
Playing The Adventure Again
It is possible to play this adventure again. You can make several changes so there will be surprises each time you play.
Team. You can vary the equipment the characters start the game with by using the method explained at the end of Adventure 1.
Creature. The creature player can design a whole new creature. To find its DEX/RS roll d100, find the result on the ABILITY SCORE TABLE, and add 5. The creature gets 30 Stamina points and one attack per player character. The person controlling the hydra then gets to select its movement speed attacks defenses up to three special abilities and its goal.
Players defeat Hydra before it devours handler
Hydra devours handler (but players still stop it)150 Cr each
50 Cr each
#Atks: IM: DEX: STA: MOVEMENT: [] 2 [] 3 [] 4 [] 5 [] 6 [] 7
[] Eat enough to lay eggs. The PGC players must pick 15 pieces to represent civilians in the downtown area. He places each piece in a different building on the map. When the alien creature moves into the same space as a civilian piece the player rolls 1d10: on a roll of 1-5 the creature eats the civilian. The PGC player can move civilian pieces only if they are being attacked by a creature or are next to a PGC character. Civilians may not move off the board. PGC characters may not be eaten. The creature wins if it eats eight civilians.
* A gas attack fills one square for one turn and any character in that space is affected; the gas obscure vision and any characters there must move out of the space to see to shoot.Attack Damage PB Short Medium Long Extreme [] Acid Spray 2d10 1 2-3 4-6 7-12 13-20 [] Darts 1d10 1-2 3-5 6-10 11-20 21-40 [] Sonic Beam 2d10 1 2-5 6-15 16-30 31-50 [] Gas Cloud 1d10 -- 1-2 3-5 6-8 9-10
SPECIAL ABILITIES: (Roll 1d10 three times; roll again if an ability repeats)
__Ability____________________________Effect________
[] 1 Smashes Through Walls --- Walls don t effect movement; moving through a wall creates rubble where characters must stop before crossing.
[] 2 Shakes Ground --- Characters can move no faster than half their running speed.
[] 3 Teleport --- Creature can teiepon up to eight spaces away once every three turns.
[] 4 Spins Web --- Creature can permanently block the square it is in byspending oneturn standing still and spinning a web. Alsocan throw a web and catch a character for two turns (treat as a grenade for range and hits).
[] 5 Doze Gas --- Same as doze grenade but always misses target square.
[] 6 Grows Stronger --- Gains 10 Stamina points if hit by a weapon it is immune to; if hydra has no immunity it gains 20 points by damaging a monorail station*.
[] 7 Grows New Attack --- Gains one attack when hit by a weapon it is immune to; if creature has no immunity it gains one attack when hit by a skimmer.
[] 8 Takes Extra Damage --- Takes 2 extra points of damage when hit by a weapon other than one the creature is immune to (choose which weapon at start); if hydra has no immunity it takes 10 points of damage from each skimmer accident.
[] 9 Loses 1 Attack --- Loses one attack if a single shot causes 15 or more points of damage.
[] 10 Changes 1 Ability --- On its next turn affer being hit by a weapon it is immune to, the creature can change its attack its defense or one special ability (by rolling dice); if it has no immunity this happens when it damages a monorail terminal.
* To damage a monorail terminal the creature must move into the terminal's space and stop. On the next turn the player controlling the creature rolls 1d10; on a roil of 1, 2, or 3 the creature has binen through the terminal's power cables and shut down the terminal. The creature can move and fight normally on the next turn. No monorail cars can travel across that terminal for the rest of the game. If players ride the monorail to that terminal, they must get off there.
Defense Effect [] Layer of Insulation Immune to Needlers [] Protective Shell Immune to Gyrojets [] Reflective Hide Immune to Lasers [] Regenerates Reduces damage from
each attack by 5 points
GOALS: (Select one of the following)
[] Find someone. The PGC player chooses five counters and secretly marks one. He then mixes up the pieces and without looking places each face down in a different building that covers 16 spaces or more. The creature must search the buildings for the marked piece. Once in the building the hydra player must roll 1 2 or 3 on 1d10 to find the face down counter and reveal its identity. if the creature finds a dummy counter it discards it.
[] Build a nest. The creature selects a building that covers 16 or more spaces and writes its name on a piece of paper. The creature must wreck three buildings from a different complex and carry the rubble back to build its nest. To destroy a building it must move next to the building and roll a 1 2 or 3 on 1dl0. The creature also must cause one accident and carry a destroyed skimmer back to its nest. Thecreature can carry only one load at a time. When carrying material back to its nest the hydra moves at half speed. The creature wins if it finishes its nest.
[] Destroy the town. The creature must destroy 40 or more points of buildings to win the game. The sizes of buildings. their point values and the numbers that must be rolled on 1d10 to destroy them are shown below:
No. of Spaces Point Value Die Roll 1-6 5 1-9 7-15 10 1-5 16 or more 15 1-3
[] Destroy all skimmers. The PGC player places five skimmers at different locations on the map. The creature can destroy a skimmer simply by moving into the same space with it. Player characters can drive skimmers but the skimmers can not be driven off the map.