'Martian Bug Hunt' One Shot Actual Play Event - Hulks & Horrors

It is the future the year 1979, the crew of the USS Endeavor has been sent to routine mission to the red planet. Its been twenty years since the limited nuclear exchange & war has engulfed Mars; recently trade has been reestablished with certain mining out posts. That was six months ago & another expedition has been mounted as the USS Galileo hurtles it way to Mars to find out the fate of the Endeavor.
They're not going to be alone on this mission.
A group of travelers from an alternative world is on its way to make sure a series of events does not happen on the red planet lest an ancient evil is let loose upon the universe from the red planet. A recent dust storm has uncovered some ancient ruins and within them was trapped a hostile Martian life form of incredible evil. It killed the crew of the
USS Endeavor & even now awaits the coming of the Galileo

Unknown to the creature a group of alternate world adventurers & mercenaries have been dispatched to deal with it and make sure it never leaves Mars whatever the cost.  Dressed and equipped like normal Martian 'thin runners' and adventurers the party blends in with the local population.


The PC's were a mix of fighters, psychics, a thief, & a wizard. The party tracked the monster to its Red valley lair and had several hours before the USS Galileo. They came across the creatures other victim's remains and had to side step the remains of a Martian carrier that had crashed into the wasteland.  The PC's quickly set about exploring the ruins & came across several clues about the monster. They saw it was a humanoid & had awakened after a long nap in weird bio stasis pod. They burned the pod and most of the monster's lair.

The creature was able to grab one of the party members and carted him off into the darkness. The players weren't amused at all at this. But we had to end early. So continued next week!




Set up & expansion

 Early this past week I dusted off Hulks & Horrors for a quick one shot game after reading through Voyage of the Space Beagle.
Voyage of the Space Beagle is a space opera about; "A huge globular spaceship, manned by a chemically castrated all-male crew of nearly a thousand, who are on an extended scientific mission to explore intergalactic space, encounters several, mostly hostile, aliens and alien civilizations. On board the spaceship during its journey, both political and scientific revolutions take place." Many of the aliens and situations that the crew of the Beagles stumble upon point to the fact that this is a Lovecraftian universe where alien civilazations have risen & fallen, their remains are out in the void waiting for man to stumble upon them. A. E. van Vogt really does a nice job of setting up the tension and certain conceits about the nature of his take on the universe. 
Many folks see Voyage of the Space Beagle as the precursor to the movie Alien. But in actuality 'It The Terror From Beyond Space'.  

In fact there's a whole school of thought that thinks that Alien 1979 is a complete remake & retread of 'It The Terror From Beyond Space' . 'It! The Terror from Beyond Space' Stars the Alien Before 'Alien' 
& “Alien” vs. “It! The Terror …”: Feud Revisited 
So using a combination of OD&D and Hulks and Horrors I was able to roll up a ship, get the contents together and get the whole adventure put together in about an hour or so. Hulks & Horrors is a free retroclone & has some fantastic resources that can easily fit just this type of adventure one shot.
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