Sunday, January 18, 2015

Quick And Quiet Alchemy Along The Western Front An AD&D 1st and Call of Cthulhu Adventure Encounter During WWI

During the heaviest of the fighting of WWI along the Western Front in France, your party of investigators is part of a group that finds a random former occupied German trench. Within the trench are 1d30 dead German soldiers seemingly mummified and drained of all life. All equipment, stores, food, etc. is a mess scattered around the trench and the small alcove office of the officer in charge. 



Within the center of the make shift barracks is a four foot across hole in the ground, there are bits of pottery and odd bits of a glass like material scattered around the hole. There is slimy oily reside coating the material found and the corpses of the German soldiers.
Personal effects are untouched and photos of family and friends are clenched in some of the corpse's hands as if they were in the midst of a meal and suddenly taken by surprise.



Suddenly a strange slime like beast erupts from the ground, the horror will attack the investigators with fury born out of some ancient nameless hell trying to absorb any chemicals from their bodies and person. The thing will with draw after 1d6 rounds and flow back into the hole in the ground.
A careful examination of the German officer's table and effects will reveal an odd and very old metal box. Inside the box is a glass sealed tube in decaying fabric lining. The package is accompanied with an oil soaked note in old Latin.
It outlines the efforts of the French alchemist Leroy Bernard  whose former lands and alchemy workshop the Germans uncovered. And the horror he accidentally created experimenting with an ancient Greek scroll he brought back with him in the 1400's from the Middle East.
Bernard could not destroy it at the time and only contain the horror after it killed his neighbors and their cow. The nameless horror he writes consumed all of his chemicals, compounds, and reagents. And only by baiting the thing was he able to finally trap it within a specially constructed glass and pottery holding chamber. This 'chamber' was etched with special symbols divined from ancient writings old when Atlantis was young.
It wasn't until ten years after trapping and burying the horror that he was able to create a means to destroy the thing. The very potion you now hold in your hands was created at great expense and with knowledge wrought from alchemist brother from the far East. But he had lost the nerve and bravery to destroy the thing. He writes that he prayers to God above that the thing never escapes it glass prison for it's vengeance will be an unholy thing to witness. Its appetites are are dangerous in the extreme.
The potion must coat the horrid monstrous slime for it to be effective. The potion will instantly react to the thing when it hits causing it to have a violent chemical reaction as the molecular bonds of the thing explode and break down. It causes an unholy sound to echo through the chamber and beyond. 



Bernard's Quick Silver Ooze
Frequency : Unique 
Number Appearing: one 
Armor Class: 8
Hit Dice: 15 
% in Lair: 90%
Treasure Type: Nil
Number of Attacks : 1 
Damage 2-16 
Special Attacks: As Gray Ooze but absorbs chemicals with a round
Special Defense: As Gray Ooze 
Magic Resistance : 40% with a 10% chance of the spell being reflected back on the caster  
Intelligence: Low but cunning 
Alignment: Chaotic Evil 
Size: L 
Psionic Abilities: Nil 
Attack/Defense Mode: Nil
Inspired by William Thresher's Quick Silver Ooze HERE
Note Bernard's Quick Silver Ooze  is weak and does not have the random abilities of  producing mist, quickly splitting, or the other random table effects of its Path finder name sake. It has only recently escaped and its molecular/chemical abilities are not stable.. yet.




Bernard's Quick Silver Ooze
For Call of Cthulhu


Str 30 
Con 42
Siz: 30 
Int : 5
Pow: 10 
Dex: 4 
Move :10 
HP 30
Weapons : Bite 55% 2d6 +2, Crush 
Av Dam Bonus: +4d6
Armor: None immune to fire & cold, physical weapons do one point of damage 
Regenerates two hit points per round 
Spells none 
Sanity Loss 0/1d6 sanity points 

File:FrenchTrenchInMudWWI--nsillustratedwar04londuoft.jpg
Notes:
The germ for this adventure encounter was a conversation between myself and Michael O Varhola concerning La Baionnette No. 34: Le Systeme D (The Bayonet No. 34: System D) available right over HERE and the horrors of WWI. If you haven't checked out  La Baionnette No. 34: Le Systeme D (The Bayonet No. 34: System D) you can grab it HERE. I've got more of this material coming up soon.
 Special thanks to William Thresher for the Quick Silver Ooze and Skirmisher publishing for the great ideas. 


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