Adapting North West of Earth By C.L. Moore - Orbital Decay (MicroRed version) From The Red Room & The New Flesh Rpg - Further and Deeper Details on the Campaign Setting, locations, and adventure details

 Adapting C.L. Moore’s seminal North West of Earth stories—featuring Northwest Smith, the cynical, gun-toting Earthman spacer navigating the dark, decadent underbelly of a dying Solar System—into the brutal, body-horror, and hyper-visceral framework of Orbital Decay / The New Flesh (and The Red Room) requires leaning heavily into atmospheric dread, flesh-altering cosmic horrors, and high-lethality grit. This blog post picks right up from 

Adapting North West of Earth By C.L. Moore - Orbital Decay (MicroRed version) From The Red Room & The New Flesh Rpg - a D100 Random Martian Encounter table with Space Wrecks and Abandoned Star Ships

Below is a complete campaign conversion guide to run C.L. Moore’s planetary romance through the lens of the MicroRed / Red Room / The New Flesh mechanics.

1. Setting Synthesis: The Meat-Mars & Corp-Imperial Solar System

In Moore’s fiction, Venus is a dripping, suffocating jungle of ancient horrors and Mars is a sun-bleached, decadent graveyard of dying gods. Under the New Flesh / Orbital Decay lens, this planetary romance turns into industrial flesh-pulp horror:

• Terran Trade Authority (TTA) & Corporate Hegemony: Replaced with oppressive, flesh-harvesting megacorporations and imperial syndicates that view colonists and spacers as disposable bio-mass.

• The Venusian Jungles: Dripping, living biomechanical swamps where the flora hungers for blood and integrates with human nervous systems.

• The Martian Canal-Cities: Jekkara and Shambleau-infested outposts are filthy, neon-and-dust dens of bio-addiction, black-market flesh-ware, and ancient parasites masquerading as gods.

2. Core Mechanics & System Adaptations (MicroRed Engine)

The MicroRed / Red Room mechanics emphasize extreme lethality, sanity loss, and physical degradation. Adapt standard mechanics as follows:

Stat Mapping

• Violence (VIO): Raygun combat, knife fights, raw physical power, surviving physical trauma.

• Nerve (NRV): Resisting horror, keeping your cool under alien hypnosis, resisting addiction (god-dust, Venusian lotus).

• Cunning (CUN): Streetwise navigation of Jekkara's slums, lock-picking, piloting rust-bucket skiffs, tech-salvage.

• Flesh (FLS): Biological stability, mutation resistance, bodily integrity against parasites and bio-toxins.

System Hacks

• The Stress/Degradation Track: Replaces traditional hit points. Taking physical or psychic harm inflicts Flesh Wounds or Psychic Scars. When the track fills, roll on the Gore & Mutation Table.

• Raygun Heat & Burn: Standard heat-rays don't just deal damage—they cauterize, melt, and leave hideous bio-scars. On a critical failure while firing a raygun, the power cell ruptures, inflicting 1d6 Flesh Damage on the wielder.

3. Archetypes / Character Classes

Players choose from three grim pulp archetypes suited for Orbital Decay:

1. The Spacer (The Northwest Smith)

• Description: Cold-eyed, cynical mercenaries, gun-runners, and drifters living on the fringes of TTA space.

• Starting Gear: Heavy Chrome Raygun, worn leather jacket, flask of Earth gin, 1d6 lock-picks.

• Special Ability (Cold Reflexes): Once per session, take an extra violent action during a ambush or surprise round before anyone else moves.

2. The Bio-Thief / Silt-Runner

• Description: Canal-city locals or Earth deserters who survive by harvesting ancient alien technology and black-market organs.

• Starting Gear: Sonic Cutter, bio-scanner, pouch of god-dust, high-frequency needle pistol.

• Special Ability (Street-Slick): Auto-succeed on CUN tests to navigate alien slums, find illegal markets, or evade local corporate marshals.

3. The Eldritch Scholar / Flesh-Cultist

• Description: Obsessive researchers or apostates of dead gods who have peered too deep into pre-human texts.

• Starting Gear: Translating monocle, ancient bronze dagger, jar of preserved alien fluid, 1 eldritch scroll.

• Special Ability (Glimpse Beyond): Test NRV to mentally query an ancient relic or alien structure. Success grants crucial lore; failure causes 1d4 Psychic Scars and temporary hallucination.

4. Monsters & Cosmic Parasites (New Flesh Stat Blocks)

The Shambleau (The Ultimate Flesh-Predator)

An impossibly gorgeous entity disguised as a helpless woman. Beneath her hair lies a writhing mass of crimson, snake-like tendrils that feed on life-force and sensory pleasure.

• Stats: VIO 2, NRV 5, CUN 4, FLS 6

• Special Attacks:

  • Ecstatic Embrace (NRV Test): Victims caught in the tendrils must pass a Nerve test every round or be paralyzed in euphoric bliss, taking 1d4 Flesh/Sanity Drain per round.

  • Flesh Infiltration: If a target reaches 0 Flesh while bound, their nervous system is permanently rewritten, turning them into a hollow, obedient husk.

The Lathi (Ivory Preserver)

Tall, multi-limbed, bone-white entities that preserve living specimens inside hardened amber-resin.

• Stats: VIO 4, NRV 4, CUN 3, FLS 5

• Special Attacks:

  • Resin Spray (VIO/FLS Test): Fires a jet of quick-hardening amber. Targets who fail are immobilized; failure by 3+ traps them completely, suffocating them into stasis.

Yirog (The Cold Gray God)

A subterranean, incorporeal entity that manifests as cold, shifting shadows and feeds on human warmth and memories.

• Stats: VIO 1, NRV 6, CUN 5, FLS 4 (Immune to physical attacks; vulnerable only to heat-rays and sonic weapons)

• Special Attacks:

  • Thermal Vacuum: Drains all heat in a 20ft radius. Characters take 1d6 Flesh damage per round unless protected by thermal suits.

5. D6 Encounter & Horror Seed Table

d6	The Horror / Incident	Biological & Mechanical Effect
1	A companion discovers their long hair has begun twitching and pulsing in their sleep.	Flesh Test required: Failure indicates a dormant Shambleau spore has taken root in their scalp.
2	A local water-vendor in Jekkara sells "Pure Earth-Water" laced with liquefied alien tissue.	Drinking it grants dark-vision for 12 hours, but causes skin to turn translucent and bleed under sunlight.
3	A TTA patrol boat crashes in the canal, its crew melted into a single pulsating mass of organs inside the hull.	The mass still breathes and attempts to speak in Earth languages through multiple fused throats.
4	An ancient basalt stele in a tomb emits a low, rhythmic thrumming sound that matches the characters' heartbeats.	Characters within 30ft must sync their breathing; failing a NRV test causes severe internal hemorrhaging.
5	A black-market surgeon offers "Martian Eye Upgrades" crafted from dried alien lenses.	Grants thermal vision, but the user occasionally sees invisible, extra-dimensional entities watching them from corners.
6	A sandstorm unearths a pre-human warship whose living interior walls are starving for fresh blood.	The ship’s doors lock behind intruders, slowly extruding needle-like tendrils from the bulkheads to drink.

6. Campaign Hook: "The Velvet Husk"

Premise: The players are hired by a desperate TTA executive in the slum city of Jekkara to retrieve his missing daughter, who vanished into the low-city opium dens.

The Twist: She hasn't been kidnapped by desert reavers—she has voluntarily surrendered herself to a ancient Shambleau hive beneath the red sandstone ruins. The hive is using her to incubate a bio-weapon capable of liquefying the entire Terran Trade Authority garrison from the inside out, turning the colonial port into a sprawling, living nest of red tendrils.

Adapting North West of Earth By C.L. Moore - Orbital Decay (MicroRed version) From The Red Room & The New Flesh Rpg - a D100 Random Martian Encounter table with Space Wrecks and Abandoned Star Ships

 In the classic planetary romance tradition of Leigh Brackett and C.L. Moore, Mars and its surrounding orbital lanes are a cosmic graveyard. Millennia of spacefaring—from pre-human void-gods and ancient Martian sea-kings to modern Terran Trade Authority (TTA) gunships and desperate smugglers—have left the Red Planet littered with derelict starships, shattered hulks, and atmospheric wrecks. This blog post picks right up from 

Adapting North West of Earth By C.L. Moore - Orbital Decay (MicroRed version) From The Red Room & The New Flesh Rpg - a D100 Random Martian Encounter table with Ancient Alien and Exemplar NPC's

Below is a d100 Random Martian Encounter Table dedicated entirely to Space Wrecks & Abandoned Starships, divided into atmospheric surface crashes, low-orbit derelicts, and ancient alien void-hulks.

 D100 Space Wrecks & Abandoned Starships Table

01–35: Atmospheric Crashes & Sand-Buried Hulks

d100	Wreckage / Ship Name	Vessel Type & Origin	Hazard, Encounter, or Salvage
01–03	The Gilded Albatross	TTA Tramp Freighter	Half-sunk in red silt. Hazard: Corroded fuel tanks emitting toxic hydrazine gas. Salvage: Crates of sealed raygun energy cells.
04–06	Hull of the Ram-King	Ancient Martian War-Barge	Bronze-alloy hull exposed by a dust storm. Hazard: Animated stone gargoyle sentries. Salvage: A ceremonial dueling foil of meteoritic iron.
07–09	The Valkis Queen	Outlaw Smuggler Skiff	Crash-landed in a dry canal bed. Hazard: Trapped by a pack of hungry, six-legged desert reaver beasts. Salvage: Black-market cargo manifests and hidden canal-wine.
10–12	Consortium Scout #09	TTA Mining Recon Vessel	Shattered against a canyon wall. Hazard: Automated distress beacon attracting local reaver tribes. Salvage: High-density mineral scanner.
13–15	The Glass-Sail Runner	Pre-Human Ether-Skiff	Crafted from spun volcanic glass. Hazard: The hull amplifies laser fire, reflecting energy back at shooters. Salvage: A singing-glass navigation chime.
16–18	The Iron Imperial	TTA Heavy Troop Transport	Burned out during a penal uprising. Hazard: Feral, cybernetically augmented convict survivors. Salvage: Master electronic shackle-keys and armor plating.
19–21	The Serpent of Sinharat	Ancient Martian Battle-Cruiser	Embedded in a cliffside for 10,000 years. Hazard: Non-Euclidean interior corridors that loop infinitely. Salvage: Preserved brain-cylinder of an alien strategist.
22–24	The Red Siren	Independent Free-Trader	Intact hull, doors locked from the inside. Hazard: The crew was hypnotized into stasis by an alien singing-crystal. Salvage: Intact jump-engine core.
25–27	Mercury-Mars Mail Skiff	Speed Courier	Scorched by atmospheric re-entry. Hazard: Unexploded high-yield thermal charges in the hold. Salvage: Encrypted TTA diplomatic pouches.
28–30	The Obsidian Needle	Unknown Pre-Human Craft	Jet-black, seamless vessel buried upright like a monolith. Hazard: Touched without rubber gloves, it causes severe psychic nosebleeds. Salvage: A phase-shift ring.
31–33	Consortium Ore-Hauler Goliath	Heavy Commercial Barge	Split in two across a mountain ridge. Hazard: Leaking radiation that mutates local wildlife into hyper-aggressive horrors. Salvage: Tons of unrefined solar-diamonds.
34–35	The Lost Paradise	Pre-Terran Expedition Ship	Ancient Earth vessel from the early space age. Hazard: Ghostly psychic projections of the doomed crew. Salvage: Early prototype heat-ray rifles.

36–70: Low-Orbit Derelicts & Graveyard Drift

d100	Wreckage / Ship Name	Vessel Type & Origin	Hazard, Encounter, or Salvage
36–38	TTA Patrol Gunship Vanguard	Imperial Military Frigate	Drifting dead in low Martian orbit. Hazard: Automated internal defense turrets still active on emergency power. Salvage: Heavy Enforcer rayguns and official badges.
39–41	The Black Thirst	Venusian Pirate Clipper	Covered in strange, glowing jungle-spores. Hazard: Spores penetrate vacuum suits, causing euphoric asphyxiation. Salvage: Rare Venusian black pearls.
42–44	The Phobos Ghost-Barge	Martian Ancestral Transport	Drifting near Mars's inner moon. Hazard: Inhabited by an incorporeal shade that feeds on suit oxygen. Salvage: Telepathic stasis crown.
45–47	The Star-Crossed	Luxury Passenger Liner	Hull breached by an asteroid impact. Hazard: Zero-G floating debris field of frozen corpses and sharp glass. Salvage: Safe containing 50,000 TTA credits.
48–50	The Chitin Ark	Insectoid Alien Pod-Ship	Organic hull that slowly twitches when touched. Hazard: Parasitic void-spiders hunting for thermal heat sources. Salvage: Neural translator headband.
51–53	Sark Pirate Raider Vulture	Outlaw Attack Craft	Clamped onto an asteroid in orbit. Hazard: Booby-trapped airlocks armed with explosive decompression charges. Salvage: Encrypted pirate code-ciphers.
54–56	The Scorpion's Tail	Mercenary Gun-Runner	Engines cold, drifting into a decaying orbit. Hazard: A rival scavenger team is already onboard, weapons drawn. Salvage: Crates of dry-sea needle pistols.
57–59	The Silver Crucible	Ancient Mercurian Solar-Sailing Ship	Mirror-like sails completely frozen in ice. Hazard: Drains suit power cells within minutes via a localized thermal vacuum. Salvage: A Glacier-Ice Prism.
60–62	TTA Medical Frigate Caduceus	Imperial Hospital Ship	Quarantined and abandoned 50 years ago. Hazard: Outbreak of Martian red-rot preserved in zero-gravity. Salvage: Universal antitoxin kits and cybernetic eyes.
63–65	The Void-Monk Cenotaph	Flying Stone Monastery	Asteroid carved into a cathedral-ship. Hazard: Sanity-draining non-Euclidean geometry inside the chapel. Salvage: Eldritch stargaze lenses.
66–68	The Rust Bucket	Salvager Tramp Ship	Engines blown, docked to an alien hulk. Hazard: The crew was consumed by an entity they accidentally unsealed. Salvage: Plasma torch welders and hull cutters.
69–70	The Phobos Marauder	Desert Reaver Void-Skiff	Improvised rocket-craft built from scrap metal. Hazard: Volatile fuel lines prone to exploding if bumped. Salvage: Customized pneumatic reaver gauntlets.

71–100: Deep-Space Anomaly Ships & Pre-Human Hulks

d100	Wreckage / Ship Name	Vessel Type & Origin	Hazard, Encounter, or Salvage
71–73	The Shambleau Vessel	Unknown Extra-Solar Craft	Interior smells of heavy, intoxicating perfume. Hazard: A surviving parasite disguised as a helpless survivor (Shambleau). Salvage: Alien memory-injectors.
74–76	The Singularity Dreadnought	Pre-Human Warship	Powered by a trapped micro-black hole. Hazard: Extreme gravitational distortion that crushes gear and slows time. Salvage: Singularity containment core.
77–79	The Scarlet Dream	Inter-Dimensional Trader	Appears translucent; flickers in and out of reality. Hazard: Stepping aboard teleports the party to a surreal scarlet-cloud dimension. Salvage: Phase-shift ring.
80–82	The Bone-Cruiser of Phorag	Eldritch Cult Ship	Constructed from the fused skeletons of leviathans. Hazard: Altar bleeds black oil that attempts to possess intruders. Salvage: Obsidian Eye of Phorag.
83–85	The Null-Point	TTA Experimental Vessel	Testing an exotic gravity engine before vanishing. Hazard: Null-field generator active—all electrical and raygun tech fails instantly. Salvage: Anti-gravity lifting harness.
86–88	The Crystalline Leviathan	Sentient Crystal Vessel	Dormant alien entity drifting like an asteroid. Hazard: Emits a telepathic siren-call that induces suicidal trances. Salvage: Raw solar-diamond power nodes.
89–91	The Cold Gray God	Meteoric Colony Ship	Encased in a chunk of black, frozen meteor rock. Hazard: Houses a cold, shadowy entity that drains life force on contact. Salvage: Pre-human star-chart globe.
92–94	The Omega Engine Transport	Extragalactic Probe	Planetoid-sized vessel floating in distant orbit. Hazard: Automated defense drones firing concentrated heat beams. Salvage: Part of the Star-Shatterer schematics.
95–97	The Lost Fleet Flagship	Pre-Martian Empire Capital Ship	Massive derelict holding 1,000 stasis pods. Hazard: The stasis controls are failing, awakening ancient, insane warlords. Salvage: Mind-transfer collars.
98–99	The Void-Spire	Eldritch Space Needle	Anchored to a comet passing Mars. Hazard: Inhabited by invisible star-vampires that stalk by sound. Salvage: Null-field generator module.
100	The Star-Shatterer Wreck	Mythical Pre-Human Dreadnought	The legendary ship that destroyed Mars's oceans. Hazard: Reality unweaves around the hull; local gravity fluctuates wildly. Salvage: The complete Star-Shatterer weapon schematics.

In the pulpy planetary romance tradition, a discovery isn't just about the ship itself—it's about what was left behind in the hold when the air ran out or the engines died.

Below is a d100 Random Lost Wreckage & Cargo Table, detailing the vessel, its condition, and the valuable, illegal, or dangerous freight locked inside its cargo bay.

 D100 Lost Wreckage & Cargo Table

01–25: Merchant Tramps & Industrial Cargo Barges

d100	Wreckage & Location	Cargo Bay Contents	Market Value / Campaign Hook
01–03	The Salt-Runner (Sunk in a dry canal bed)	50 barrels of refined Mercurian salt-wine	High value in Valkis; heavy and prone to leaking.
04–06	TTA Ore-Hauler Vulcan (Grounded on an asteroid)	20 tons of raw, unrefined solar-iron ore	Requires an industrial melt-furnace to process.
07–09	The Silk Dragon (Ditch-landed in Venusian marsh)	100 bolts of shimmer-moth silk	Highly prized by Martian aristocrats; damp-damaged.
10–12	Consortium Barge #404 (Crater impact site)	500 crates of TTA standard-issue combat rations	Indestructible, tasteless food; useful for long journeys.
13–15	The Red Camel (Sand-drifted in the Great Waste)	A dozen domesticated burden-beasts in suspended animation	Stasis pods are failing; beasts will suffocate in 24 hours.
16–18	Free-Trader Lucky Streak (Drifting in low orbit)	2,000 cases of synthetic Earth gin	Highly illegal contraband under Consortium dry-laws.
19–21	The Iron Ox (Buried under landslide debris)	Pneumatic mining drills and heavy rock-breaching gear	Ideal equipment for tomb-raiding or industrial sabotage.
22–24	Phobos Supply-Skiff (Tangled in orbital cables)	10 sealed tanks of pressurized pure drinking water	Worth a fortune in the arid Martian interior.
25	The Silt Queen (Abandoned in a dry dock)	1,000 copper ingots stamped with ancient Martian glyphs	Salvage value as metal, or historical value to scholars.

26–50: Smugglers, Outlaws & Black-Market Freighters

d100	Wreckage & Location	Cargo Bay Contents	Market Value / Campaign Hook
26–28	The Shadow-Sails (Scuttled in a canyon slit)	30 crate-bound TTA Heavy Enforcer rayguns	Hot property; marked with TTA serial numbers.
29–31	Valkis Runner Night-Mist (Burned hull)	100 jars of gray "god-dust" (hallucinogenic resin)	Highly addictive; grants brief telepathic glimpses.
32–34	The Rogue’s Pawn (Drifting near Deimos)	A crate of forged TTA trade permits and blank identity disks	Unlocks restricted colonial ports if used carefully.
35–37	The Sark Blade (Wrecked on a salt flat)	50 curved dueling foils forged from meteoritic iron	Exceptionally light and razor-sharp; highly sought by duelists.
38–40	The Gallows Bird (Asteroid belt hideout wreck)	10 stolen cybernetic optic implants	High value; some are programmed with tracking spyware.
41–43	Unmarked Stealth-Skiff (Crater bottom)	An encrypted cipher-ledger listing pirate fuel-depots	Reveals hidden refuel stations across the Asteroid Belt.
44–46	The Black Narcissus (Floating upside-down)	5 barrels of bioluminescent Venusian swamp-oil	Burns under water; highly explosive if exposed to open flame.
47–49	The Vulture’s Roost (Impacted into a dune)	A locked safe containing 15,000 corporate credits	Safe is rigged with a high-yield thermite self-destruct charge.
50	The Crimson Vixen (Stranded in a salt bed)	20 cases of custom high-frequency needle-pistol darts	Coated in paralytic desert-scorpion venom.

51–75: Military Transports & Imperial Research Ships

d100	Wreckage & Location	Cargo Bay Contents	Market Value / Campaign Hook
51–53	TTA Gunship Ironclad (Shattered cliffside)	A battery of mobile swiveling heat-ray turrets	Heavy firepower; requires a generator to power up.
54–56	Consortium Survey-Vessel Argus (Atmospheric burn)	High-resolution topological maps of ancient Martian waterways	Shows untouched tomb sites hidden beneath the sand.
57–59	TTA Medical Skiff Hygeia (Drifting in graveyard orbit)	200 units of broad-spectrum antitoxins and trauma-spray	Invaluable field medical supplies for desert travel.
60–62	The Penal Corvette (Riddled with blast-holes)	30 sets of magnetic restraint shackles and shock-collars	Master key included; sought by slave-masters and bounty hunters.
63–65	Imperial Prototype-Ship Apex (Crater core)	A prototype micro-fusion jetpack rig	Grants short-burst flight, but overheats after 3 rounds.
66–68	The Fortress-Barge (Half-sunk in quick-silt)	An armored track-crawler vehicle with a drained battery	Vehicle is fully functional once re-charged.
69–71	Research Ship Prometheus (Frozen in deep space)	Cryo-stasis container holding a live, dormant void-spider	Extremely dangerous if thawed; highly valuable to bio-tech firms.
72–74	TTA Supply Hauler Jupiter (Sunk in a crater)	500 pressurized oxygen canisters and EVA suits	Standard colonial gear; easy to liquidate in any outpost.
75	The War-Galleon (Ancient Martian wreckage)	A bronze-plated ram-blade and 20 ceremonial battle-horns	Pure historical artifact; worshipped by local desert tribes.

76–100: Ancient Relic-Ships & Pre-Human Void-Hulks

d100	Wreckage & Location	Cargo Bay Contents	Market Value / Campaign Hook
76–78	The Spun-Glass Skiff (Earthy rift chamber)	A collection of singing-crystal navigation chimes	Calms wild beasts when struck; delicate and brittle.
79–81	The Obsidian Spireship (Buried upright)	A phase-shift ring suspended in a magnetic field	Allows wearer to walk through walls for 5 seconds.
82–84	The Ark of Phorag (Floating in the dark drift)	A sealed basalt sarcophagus holding an ancient alien monarch	The occupant is in stasis and projects telepathic pleas.
85–87	The Crystal Leviathan (Asteroid core wreck)	A chest of raw, glowing solar-diamonds	Emits faint radiation; can power an entire ship's grid for a year.
88–90	The Monolith Barge (Floating near Phobos)	A holographic star-chart projecting the Solar System 10M years ago	Reveals the location of dead alien worlds and forgotten moons.
91–93	The Void-Cenotaph (Drifting stone monastery)	An Eldritch Stargaze Lens mounted on an iron tripod	Viewing stars through it reveals extra-dimensional entities.
94–96	The Singularity Pod (Half-phased into a rock face)	A unstable Singularity Containment Core	If dropped or shot, creates a brief micro-black hole.
97–98	The Shambleau Nursery Ship (Perfumed interior)	3 glowing stasis pods containing hibernating parasite entities	Highly dangerous; buyers on Earth will pay millions for them.
99	The Star-Shatterer Transport (Decaying orbit hulk)	Fragmented blueprints engraved on thin titanium plates	Half of the schematics for an ancient stellar superweapon.
100	The Omega Engine Core Vessel (Deep space rift)	A planetoid-sized alien drive core that hums on an unknown frequency	Slowly alters gravity within a 1,000-mile radius around it.