Blood In The Swamplands - An OSR Post Apocalyptic Encounter For Any Old School Science Fantasy Campaign

"The vacuum created by the teleportation effect created a small sonic displacement as the air rushed out of the local space time. Three individuals stood ankle deep in the muck & grim of the West Virginia swamp lands. To call them human wasn't quite true but they were what was left of it. Nancy Hale heard the splash first off to her left before any of the others & the sound of her powers charging up set the hairs on the back of her compatriots necks on edge. She took on the pale blue green eldritch glow that her mutation created & the sound was intense like an engine revving up.
Sonny her team's teleporter was to be protected at all costs or no one was going home. His warty green black skin was akin to a serpents but his other powers made up for his looks or lack there of. There was only a moment to register the horror on his face but it silhouetted his companion Green. Green's face was changing as the monster made its presence know. 
Green looked like an Italian Renaissance statue come to life, his face was framed with green hair that contrasted with the eerily with his Caucasian skin. But it was his inhuman eyes or lack there of that gave the true indication of his genetic make up & he began to change. Skin stretched & limbs changed as the elemental elements of the swamp ran across his body ruining his favorite clothes.
The Babbler came rushed them without fear or care in the world only the mind numbing aggression of its kind mattered. This was going to be as bad as Connecticut but a bit worse. "
The Mutant Underground was here for one of their own & it wasn't going to be dissuaded by one of the swamp's inhabitants.





A cell of the 'Mutant Underground Railroad' is picking up one of its own from one of the dangerous West Virginia swamp lands where its teleportation  pick up points & cell head quarter are. This cell went silent one week ago & adventurers are needed to track down the cell & its precious cargo a mutant named Willis. Willis is a precog mutant whose vital to the Mutant Unground Railroad's cause.

'The Mutant Underground Railroad' is an organization of over three hundred mutants, personnel, facilities, etc deep within the trackless wastelands of what used to be West Virginia.  West Virginia is thousands of miles of trackless swampland created by the fall of entropic weapons, and the run off from three nuclear winters.


The 'Mutant Underground Railroad' is an organization that ferries mutants to so called paradises & glades, places where they are free from persecution & full out genocide by the Green Circle. West Virginia's swampland  is an unnatural defense point infested with swaths of mutant monsters & menaces. Everything from renegade Morlock tribesmen to teeming glades of mansqueto colonies. The place is the perfect zone for 'Mutant Underground Railroad' to operate but its a dangerous gamble at best. Carl a Greenie mutant operative of the rail road will approach the party for help to find his organization's cell that went missing a week ago . He's offering  five hundred gold pieces & some sundry trade goods. He's a cagey bastard & has been working for the underground for a long time. Carl will if pressed offer six hundred gold pieces but no trade goods. He's more then happy to have the party stay in the cell's cabins along the 'safe route'.


1d10 West Virginia Swampland Encounters 

1. A clutch of 1d6 robber flies that want to take out & feed on the party of adventurers. 
2. A scouting part of 1d4 Morlocks on the hunt for food or trespassers in their swamp lands. Armed with short bows, shields, & spears these bastards are dangerous. 
3. A time lost party of 2nd level adventurers & fighters who will try to rob or kill the party for their stuff. 
4. 1d6 'Glow' cultists in boats on their way to a deep meeting in the swamp lands. They have 1d3 mutants with energy mutations & power hands. Approached peacefully and they may trade 1d6 minor relics. 
5. Giant swamp bug attack! 1d8 swamp bugs attack! 
6. Gal The Sal is a giant weather observation robot that wanders the waste lands looking  for something he can't quite remember. He's regarded by locals as an artifact prophet. He may give a strange & cryptic warning to the PC's. 
7. Swamp zombies looking for victims. There are 1d6 dangerous zombies looking for fuud. 
8.  Doc Shirlock the traveling swamp man ~ a psychic healer and doctor ~ A gentle soul with the skills of a vet and a surgeon. He makes his rounds and not one soul would attack him. Sells Doc Shirlock's tonic able to heal as a cure light wound spell but don't ask what's in it.
9. 1d8 Giant dragon leeches each coated with a fast acting paralytic poison & able to climb trees & go on dry land. 
10. A giant robot collecting samples for the Clock Watchers & armed with 1d6 laser pistol appendages & a heavy stunner. It has a net caster with a stainless steel net & can hold eight large mutants. 
    

The Green Circle is made up from six  different factional warlords & wizards whose primary mission is the eradication of all mutant kind by any means necessary. The Green Circle uses a council of super scientists for most of its relic technologies. Known as the Clock Watchers these super scientists were awoken from stasis during the Don't Go Back In The Swamps encounter.

The Clockwatchers are a group of sleeper pre holocaust super scientists who have twenty three pre & post cog mutants able to stare into a time window with six alternative worlds at their disposal. They are absolutely ruthless when it comes to preventing a possible future for this their world. But they've begun to pollute the time stream by establishing bases in these alternative universes. They often collect genetic samples from these places through a series of weird super science constructs. The Clockwatchers are genetic scientists of the highest order & for the past decade they've been providing the Green Circle with Eloi slaves to sell on the black market & Hyper Eloi soldiers. 

A wizard however has arose in the nearby Kentucky whose from another world named Glazer The Mighty. He's taken offense to the efforts  of the Green circle & has been mounting a series of raids on their operation. Recently his hobgoblin raiders have captured the cell of the Mutant Underground Railroad & he's not sure what to do with them. The players will stumble onto the Hobgoblin camp & Glazer's operations deep in the swamp lands. Glazer is a tenth level wizard with operations in Kentucky but is looking to smite the circle's efforts in his own home turf. Parley might be the best option here. Willis will be reunited with his family & the PC's have a solid ally in the fight against both the Clock Watchers & The Green circle.  
So what the hell is happening here how come I've dug out a blog post on one of my old Mutated States of Meric campaign?!  A friend of mine reached out & asked for this blog post.
Well this encounter was designed using three sources. The  Expert Set edited by Dave Cook and Stephen R. Marsh & the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons  Fiend Folio along with the rules for Mutant Future by Goblinoid Games 
I turned to the Expert Rules book again because of its orientation towards wilderness adventures! There are several key bits in the book that make this an invaluable resource when designing outdoor adventures.



Tim Snider of  the Savage AfterWorld blog has number of his titles on sale & the monsters as well as encounters can expand this whole affair three fold for players.