"No Holidays This Season!" - Secret Santicor(e/n) 2024

Prompt from Errant Thinking was:

"No Holidays this Season!" a paperboy cries the headlines in the cold. The player characters found themselves snowed in at this depressing place where its less city living & more dystopian surviving. The city's inhabitants either limp along in rags or have bundled up their black hearts in silk next to their bulging wallets. People are vile to one another and take what they can get. Craft a short adventure for the players to bring the holiday cheer to the folks of this dreary city. A heist against the rich to redistribute the wealth? A violent revolution? Honest toil to aid a burly bearded man in red? Reminding the rich of the holiday spirit? Detail the setting, key characters, & rumors that motivate potential solutions (or inform sources of the conflict).

Not so much an adventure - a campaign/setting, sketched in a similar vein to the Barrowmere and Noisy Valley, or one of the old White Dwarf Fiend factory scenarios, or any of my d66 [monsters] of [location] posts.

The 'missing module' for the Quariks to feature in.

The Setting.

The world is in the grip of an Ice Age and you are all Men, Isolated in a/the City that it is, to all intents and purposes, all that remains of humanity.

The City (and civilisation) is sustained by the heat and power of the Sacred Flame.

The Sacred Flame in the Palace of the Fire Lords is the centre of this little universe. The Palace lies at the heart of the Labyrinth, surrounded by the City. 

It's much like a normal settlement, considering the circumstances - but this is all anyone has known for generations. Wretched inbred hundreds in tottering shacks or a bustling metropolis under impenetrable crystal domes. It can be New Stone Age, pseudo-medieval, science-fantastic, steampunk, science-fictional. In the end, the set-up is the same.

There might be some surviving mortal who remembers the end of the world that was, but more likely you'll need to plunder forgotten/sealed archives, hold a seance, locate a supressed archaeological dig.

Everyone wants to stay close to the Sacred Flame - it's life sustaining.

The City sits on a rock just breaking the surface of the Sea of Bones - limitless snow and ice in all directions, littered with remains of giants, great beasts, defeated armies, desperate fugitives, vessels and machinery of the past.

Beyond that, the Great Void - the howling/silent dark where the sun is too feeble to shine. Why would you even try to get there? So far from the Sacred Flame, at/beyond the limit of endurance and supplies.

Low-level. Metal-poor. Limited magic. 

Economy, Ecology and Technology.

Things get made and things get traded, and special things get scavenged or improvised from bits found on the Sea of Bones. The equivalents of a merchant and a leisure class. Specialists. Celebrities? Outcasts? Journalism and social media? Monorails and pneumatic elevators, if you like.

Mainly hand-weapons and low/no armour. If it was Earth all along (or similar) there might be firearms from the world before. Energy weapons perceived as arcane or divine.

The narrative convenience of dungeon analogues for common resources. Including edible monsters and the things they feed on. Mutant mushrooms that serve as a timber analogue.

Have sufficient bland rations and clean water emerge from the Labyrinth periodically - "Thank the Fire Lords!" 

There's definitely rats (big and small) in the City. Maybe foxes/jackals. Giant spiders.

Monster predators and prey out on the ice rely on micro-ecosystems for support - the pyramid based in dungeon flora inside mountain peaks, ice burrows, and the more extensive wrecks. 

The Cast.

By statblock/description, rather than RAW. 

Normal Humans: that's most folks in the City. 

They work the mines for fuel, forage the Sea of Bones for materials, ply what trades they can, obey the Fire Lords through the Acolytes, and wait either for the Change and to go to the Fire Lords, or for the sun to set forever.

From AC9 - this applies generally to the people of the City:

• take great pride in their culture and achievements
• willingly die for their leaders believing that in doing so they become supernatural beings
• it is considered a great honour to be called to the Firelords' Palace, where it is believed the person dwells in ecstasy forever
• they do not doubt the wisdom of their leaders and they point to the warmth and majesty of their city as proof of the Firelords' power and beneficence
• see themselves as a people blessed, for their gods live amongst them
• it is not their place in life to doubt the actions of the gods
• none of them are aware of the Firelords' true appearance

This is a para/post-apocalyptic dystopia, of course, but that doesn't mean it can't be superficially pleasant and fulfilling.

Man, Isolated - Quarik (AC9 Creature Catalogue/DMR2 Creature Catalog): most folks should be showing signs of the Change by their twenties, and advance to 2 HD. 

They also get a special feature, so roll d6:

1. Strength 15-18
2. Death-white skin
3. Pale blue eyes and hair
4. Protruding fangs
5. Hairy feet
6. Sharp downward curving claws which are used to grip the ice

On a 5 or 6, the Acolytes deem you ready to go to the Fire Lords. 

For narrative purposes, no one has made the connection between being deemed ready to go to the Fire Lords and having clawed and/or hairy feet, and think it is divined by the arcane science of the Acolytes of the Fire Lords.

Man, Isolated - Cynidiceans (B4 The Lost City; AC9 Creature Catalogue/DMR2 Creature Catalog): those who don't show signs of the Change turn to dreams, drink and drugs. After all, they cannot go to the Fire Lords.

Their hit penalty is because they're perpetually addled, but they can otherwise continue their trades. 

They spend their leisure time in hallucinatory activities off of the d12 table in B4 The Lost City.

Even if their behaviour is open and tolerated, it is looked on with pity and/or distaste. How illegal and supressed it is will depend on how you're running the City.

Acolytes: Guardians and interpreters of the will of the Fire Lords. Touched by their divinity.

Responsible for the day-to-day running of the City. Acolytes are a very visible presence. 

They will have d3 special features of the Change.

If a 5 or 6 comes up, they are ready to go to the Fire Lords. But are they truly believers?

If an Acolyte has spells, they are drawn from the following list:

1. haste - double actions and win Initiative 1 round/level
2. dance - as a Tarantella's bite, 1 subject/level
3. blink - as a Blink Dog, once per round, 1 round/level
4. awe - all within sight with HD/level equal or less than the character are unable to act for max. 1 round/level or until they are out of sight (no save)
5. fireball - for d6 htk per level, +1 adjacent target per level, burns as for flaming oil
6. charm - as a Vampire for 1 round/level, max. 1 subject/level
7. deafen & stun - +1 adjacent target per level, duration 1 round/level
8. chain lightning - for d6 htc per level, +1 nearby target per level (preference for metal armoured/equipped), anyone taken to 0 hp or less must save or die (otherwise, non-lethal)

Mediums: Dwellers in the Labyrinth, secret eyes and ears of the Fire Lords

They will have d3 special features of the Change.

If a 5 or 6 comes up, they are ready to go the Fire Lords. But do they want to rule rather than to serve?

They have only strictly controlled access to communal spellbooks, meaning that no Medium will have memorised the same spell(s) as another under normal circumstances.

Mediums are a secret presence in the City. The Acolytes may not even be aware of them, depending on how you envisage the power-structures of the setting.

The PCs: However you make up the party, you are were all born and raised in the City - there's been nothing else for generations. Most of you will be Fighters or Thieves (or even unlevelled).

If you're a Cynidicean, you might even be (these particular) Druids.

If you're an Acolyte, you have Cleric levels and responsibilities. 

If you're a Medium, you have a secret identity (unless you're playing an all-Medium game) and secret orders (even if you're playing an all-Medium game).

You could all be cohort of Quariks ready to go to the Fire Lords, decked out in flame-coloured finery.

Reskin ye olde demi-human races-as-class characters as humans belonging to specialist professions or a particular caste (eg. miner-engineers, scavenger-rangers, scouts/spies).

The Fire Lords.

Per AC9 Creature Catalogue/DMR2 Creature Catalog): eight living gods who dwell forever in the Palace and sustain the City. 

Only their benevolent maintenance of the Sacred Flame can sustain humanity against the final setting of the sun.

No one has seen them and survived their glory, except - presumably - those who go to them with proper pomp and ceremony. Doctrine tells us this is a good thing, but also remains a mystery.

Tradition and artistic licence portrays them as well-built, luxuriantly bearded, dressed in flame-coloured garments trimmed with the fur of extinct/mythical beasts. Often, they are given branching antlers and/or haloes to signify their divinity.

They don't have to be villainously evil (see below), but they aren't selfless by any stretch and they definitely think they're your betters.

From AC 9:

• the Firelords control all aspects of the city (in our case, via the Acolytes and Mediums)
• they ensure (survival) in the harsh conditions
• the Firelords live in a majestic palace.... from where they control/provide heating for the city
• appear as mighty supernatural beings (though they rarely, if ever, put in appearance)
• as written, 8th to 15th level Magic Users
• as written, the Firelords exploit their subjects' fanaticism by actively preying on them
• as written, those entering the palace are consumed alive by the cannibalistic Firelords
• as written, the Firelords have an unimposing appearance; they are short and thin, with straggly grey hair and sharp needle-like teeth.

The Ninth Fire Lord: whisper it - there is another. 

Say it out loud enough, you get a visit from the Acolytes (everyone will know what happens to you) or the Mediums (no one will know what happened to you).

The ninth Fire Lord is usually represented - if it all - as a glowing red orb, sometimes a mere dot against the black of the sky or the white of the ice. Very rare depictions portray them as smaller than the other Fire Lords, in orange garments trimmed with commonplace furs, and a beard of icicles.

The ninth Fire Lord is in opposition (in thought, if not deed) to the others, but that does not mean they are any less self-serving or villainous.

The Holiday/The Season.

Calendar is kept by marking tally or counting machines. You might be able use the distant stars at night, but the weak sun barely separates day from night. The snow and ice means that it can be Christmas every day for all we care.

Every nine months, there is a period of celebration as those going through the Change are found to be ready to go to the Fire Lords. Somewhat incidental to this is the general celebration of the birth of a new generation, the continued survival of the City and the people, and the ever-loving glory of the Fire Lords.

The celebrations can be as austere or as bacchanalian, as private and personal or as public, as you prefer for your table. Blood sacrifice and ritual immolations to taste. Reminders that the City is blessed and its people grateful and obedient, and not to think too hard or look elsewhere for answers.

The main event is the latest cohort to go to the Fire Lords entering the Labyrinth to journey to the Palace and therein dwell in ecstasy forever.

Why No Holidays This Season?

1. No one is ready to go to the Fire Lords. The Acolytes can still pick a cohort to send into the Labyrinth (because they control the divination/lottery), but it shakes their faith keeping up the pretence. If this has been going on for a while, it's generating discontented whispers.
2. No new generation has been born - or the new generation has not survived/has gone missing.
3. The Fire Lords have fallen silent in the Palace. No prayers are heard, no prophecies spoken. Does the light seem dimmer? The atmosphere colder, less comfortable? Ambitious rivals look to fill the power vacuum.
4. The Sacred Flame is guttering (literally or figuratively). Could it go out entirely? This might mean that the mines are running dry, that the Ice Devil is growing stronger, that those faceless traceless saboteurs we've been warned about are real. 
5. There's Something in/on the Ice and it wants to get inside. Real, imagined, constructed - tensions rise, trust is hard to come by. Could be protean predator mimic. Could be intelligent White (Snow) Apes.
6. Discontented whispers through all parts of society. Malcontents are forming alliances. Will the Fire Lords stand by and just let the Acolytes and Mediums deal with it, or will they act directly? Is it a genuine movement, or a false flag as part of cruel political machinations?

The Sacred Flame.

What the Sacred Flame actually is provides important context. 

The people of the City do not need to know the details - it's all the blessing of the Fire Lords.

1. Fire Elementals. Controlled by the Fire Lords, per AC9. Not necessarily grateful or quick to depart if freed.
2. Geothermal/Volcanic. So the City can go out in a pulp-adventure blaze of fire and brimstone. Plus, lava tunnels and poison gas zones as dungeon locations.
3. Coal-fired/Steampunk. For gritty industrial chic. NPCs have appropriate regional accents (Cornish, Geordie, Welsh, and Yorkshire for me).
4. Nuclear Power. Crashed space-ship or remnant of the world before. Possibly magitech. Possibly an undischarged super-weapon.
5. Failure to Launch. The engine of the last/only Ark meant to outrun the encroaching Ice Age and take humanity to more hospitable stars.
6. Fire Demons. A pact that must be maintained (every nine months, you say?) or all Hell will break loose.

*The Ice Devil.

The asterisk is for optional.

That the Sacred Flame provides heat, light, power is incidental. 

Its main purpose is to contain the Ice Devil.

The visual I have in mind is this one by Gary Ward & Edward Crosby from Caverns of the Snow Witch, but - if it comes to it - you can use the D&D Ice Devil/Gelugon statblock.

A perpetual state of thaw means it cannot fully manifest in the mortal sphere, nor can it safely dematerialise and return to the netherworlds.

* The satanic steam generated can also turn tartarean turbines to provide pandemoniacal power. Can also provide therapeutic/mutating steam baths.

Roll d6:

1. The Fire Lords worship it as a captive god.
2. The Fire Lords hold it hostage to tap for mana.
3. The Fire Lords contain it so that humanity can survive (it would destroy the City and drag everyone to Hell).
4. The Fire Lords contain it to prevent the final freezing of the world (they, through their mishandling of the Ice Devil, are responsible for the Ice Age).
5. The Fire Lords do not know about the Ice Devil - it is actually slowly accumulating over generations and its eventual full manifestation as the herald of Fimbulvetr can only be delayed.
6. The Fire Lords do not know about the Ice Devil - it is trapped by accident, not design, and would be (somewhat) grateful if freed (either by full freeze or benign dismissal).

Portentous Discoveries.

1. It's a Cookbook! The basic portentous discovery, that the Fire Lords are not benevolent gods but in fact feeding on the people. If straight cannibalism isn't enough, then they could be Vampires or Minotaurs or each is the head of some kind of dracohydra.
2. The Great Forest. At the limits of endurance (unless you had, say, hairy feet and ice claws) and supplies and cartography there is a taiga/tundra zone. It's just an Ice Age - not the end of the world.
3. The Land Beyond the Great Forest. In a further apocalyptic plot twist, there's nothing but blood suckers beyond the taiga/tundra, and they're starting to encroach in numbers. You might favour a new world order of Vampires looking to breed humanity like cattle; I favour swarms of furry Stirges ravening for the last warm blood as the sun finally sets.
4. Forbidden Artefacts. However they come to light, they point to a very different way of life than the one laid down by the Fire Lords. Faith is shaken, mysteries demand resolution, bargains and betrayals. These things carry a curse - radiation or just that someone will kill you over them. Even the little doll that says "mama".
5. Cave Paintings. Showing the eight Fire Lords as skull-faced, horned, bedecked in entrails and flayed skins, devouring Quariks with hairy feet and ice claws. The ninth Fire Lord shown at some remove, in an attitude of disgust and/or remorse, and pointing away from the Sacred Flame. Other revelations to taste.
6. A New Sun. Just the faintest glimmer of red on the horizon, getting stronger as the darkness deepens. Theologically, it must be a false light - the ninth Fire Lord tempting the faithful to turn their backs on truth and salvation. Could it be another City? Or yet another extinction level event in the making?
7. You Were Made. Genetically engineered to adapt to the Ice Age conditions descending on the world. Once fully Changed, you would be able to survive in the new world without need of the Fire Lords and the Sacred Flame. 
8. You're Not the Only Ones. Out on the ice, under the ground, in the Great Forest, living in other Cities. Engineered adaptations might mean they look very little like you - how about a Change that brings Cryions into play?

Obviously, that there's an Ice Devil at the centre of your little universe would count, too.

*Feature Monsters.

Gargoyles. No more than 2-16 within d3 hexes/travel days of the City. 

A raid on the City will be made by d3 Gargoyles, and they attempt to carry off one juicy human. Their fearsome reputation and apparent invulnerability makes this an almost foregone conclusion. 

If the Acolytes cannot field enough offensive spell-casting to prevent it, they will diagnose a lack of faith.

Defeat a Gargoyle to be seen as unusually capable/powerful - only multiple desperate souls with Acolyte support have even managed to drive them off.

Gargoyle lairs are piled high with the bones of years of meals.

If you encounter a Gargoyle more than 3 travel days/hexes from the City, then it is within d3 hexes/travel days of an alternative long-term source of toothsome prey.

Giant Fire Beetles: Found almost everywhere - natural anti-freeze and a lack of predators. Mostly non-aggressive.

In the City, they are thought of better than rats and foxes (which they help keep down the numbers of), as long as they don't get in your business.

Their glowing nodules are sought as decorations during the holiday season.

They are barely edible and you can't survive on them for any length of time without accumulative poisoning.

Hellhounds: The lower the HD, the more are potentially encountered (ie. 1 @ 7 HD, 2 to 8 @ 3 HD).

No one has tracked their sulphurous snow-melt trail and the appetising aroma of roasted flesh back to a lair, to the extent that it is thought that they live permanently on the ice, that they do not sleep, that they reproduce by parthenogenesis or fission.

As no one survives a direct confrontation with them, they have been styled by the Acolytes as ceaselessly vigilant guardians of the City and another blessing of the Fire Lords. It might even be true, in a way (check for gold bracelets - see below).

If a scavenger or miner on the Sea of Bones is dragged off, then the diagnosis is lack of faith.

Ice Age Megafauna: if there's a taiga/tundra zone, for sure. Otherwise, exceptional individuals in extreme hibernation that will not last out the Fimbulvetr and wake up extremely grouchy if disturbed.

They have a cumulatively diminishing dice roll penalty on awakening, as their muscles loosen up and senses sharpen with activity. They will be hungry.

Living Statues: these seem like absolutely thematically appropriate monsters for the Labyrinth and the Palace.

Each wears a gold bracelet that acts as conduit for their control by the Fire Lords (and/or the Acolytes and/or the Mediums). It is also affects living beings that put one on or has one put on them.

Crystal Living Statues can be Ice instead - adjust statblock/abilities accordingly..

Iron Living Statues can be red-hot (and possibly filled with molten metal) - adjust statblock/abilities accordingly.

*Survival Mode.

Do Not Let Us Die In The Dark Night Of This Cold Winter and There's Something In The Ice both have cold-weather, resource-management mechanics.

My rules for cold and snow.

My rules for radiation, if needed.

Commentary.

Easy to see that B4 The Lost City is an important antecedent.

You won't go far wrong mining the Frostpunk wiki for useful supplemental material (I love mining wikis of games I've never/will never play).

Joseph D'Lacey's MEAT and Cormac McCarthy's The Road to think about the economics/ecology of cannibalism.

The Palace of the Fire Lords using a map of the spiral cities from X6 Quagmire!

The Caverns of Kalte (Lone Wolf gamebook - Joe Dever, Gary Chalk). Absolutely formative.

Planet of the Apes (1968) and the sequels, and the Fire Lords as rough analogues of the team based at U.S Outpost 31.

Dark Sun in Antarctica.

Santa's reindeer, if you hadn't noticed.

Confession that the prompt was the one that I least wanted at the time, but I've had a lot of fun with it.

Now: Observe Winterval for the allotted time.

d66 Monsters of the Necropolis River Delta

You cross over the Dry Red & Ochre Hills and descend to a country of lagoons and channels - feats of ancient engineering swallowed by luxuriant growth and centuries of silt. 

This was where the nameless Necropolis Culture flourished. Swallowed up by the very conditions that allowed it to rise and thrive. 

The seasons are Misty, Flood, Hot, and Rainy - in whatever sequence you like best.

The Tower of the Astromancers is the only remaining intact structure that can be identified at a distance and with any certainty. It's importance to the Necropolis Culture (and those trying to plunder it) may simply be survival bias. But it was definitely somehow significant.

The Grand Necropolis is speculative, but firmly fixed in minds and on maps (though not its specific location).

1. Roll d6:

1. Killer Mud Pigs (1-3): Dire/Prehistoric Capybara, size of a Hippo and equally bad-tempered. Its mud-clogged fur foils infravision, just like in the documentary, Predator (1987).
2. Sentinel Crabs: ubiquitous; about the size of a dog; shells make cheap, short-lived shields. Signal to each other with rhythmic claw clicking, gathering in greater, louder and more intimidating numbers around whatever their current interest. Normally non-aggressive, scavengers and opportunists.
3. Skims: ray-like creatures look like floating mats of weed until they take to the air. Big ones can completely envelop you; small ones are like hairy leeches. Possibly intelligent.
4. Grindylows: Velya to the Croglin Vampire; ghastly clutches of them trapped in shallow pools, whispering for blood and darkness. Coughing cries ring out and are answered during the misty season, as they reminisce and plan for swarming during flood season.
5. Big Sleek Rats: predatory otters. May have ghoulish habits and taint from slithering through the tombs and scavenging the resting undead. 1 on d12 they’re Ghoulish Weres.
6. Banshee Caterpillar (1): named for its distinctive whinnying scream; colonised by bioluminescent animalcules; entrapping web strands; adhesive spit. Eventually burrows into the earth to pupate. No one knows what the adult form is, how long the gestation, nor total numbers waiting to hatch.

2. Roll d6:

1. Greasy Cormorants: nosy, noisy, gluttonous. Will flock your camp to snatch your dinner, and any loose shiny things into the bargain. Defensive and malicious projectile regurgitation and defecation.
2. Giant Catfish (1): can haul/hurl its bulk out of water and over solid ground - survives several hours out of water. Possibly delicious, mostly harmless, can swallow you by accident. 1 on d6 it’s capable of speech and wisdom (or a reskinned Aboleth).
3. Vicious Otters: aggressive and territorial, otherwise common otters. Local lore ascribes them human intelligence and powers of mimicry, if not of actually being shapeshifting witches.
4. Psionic Squid: if you’re immune to their abilities, they are quite sad-looking grey squid. Otherwise appear to be arabesque fractal peacocks with an infinite array of Mandelbrot tentacles. They’re learning to communicate with other lifeforms, but hampered by short lifespan, demanding breeding cycle, lack of transmissible culture. They’re not sure whether to make friends or take over the world.
5. Gross Bitterns: stout, dodo-like swamp birds. Communicate and defend themselves with infrasound. 
6. Lord Verdigris (1): colossal golem, still running on an apparently eternal power source; programmed to ceaselessly patrol the region, but nothing seems to occur that provokes a response. Infrequently dashes off swathes of heliograph messages to the distant Tower of the Astromancers.

3. Roll d6:

1. Terror Crane (1-3): Colossal nomadic wading birds. Incapable of flight. Criss-cross the delta, leaving a trail of incidental destruction and the empty shells of giant marsh clams.
2. Amber Golems: undead-android dinosaur/lizard-folk; guardians and soldiers of the Necropolis Culture, they follow ancient orders but could be reprogrammed. No one living knows the secret of their construction.
3. Thrif (Death Leeches): elemental anemone-urchins that spawn in places with heavy necromantic fetor. Animate alien-plant-animals absolutely loaded with dark mana. Respond instinctively to stimuli; casually lethal.
4. Shellycoats (Troll Gnomes): remnants of the Necropolis Culture's summoned slaves. Articulated hides clatter and ring. Agonisingly fused into glassy stone by the sun’s rays. Most are small because they don’t get the nutrition or leisure to get big.
5. Mist Drakes: chirruping vaporous things that coil out of the saturated air during the hottest, most humid days. Ephemeral and elemental, superstition holds them to be the ghosts of those who die in and near the Grand Necropolis.
6. Dragon Turtle (1): often mistaken for an island or undiscovered ruins, the Dragon Turtle is one the ancient spirits of the land, and you can only interact with it when it inhales, turning time back to when this was nothing but shallow sea. You've got until it breathes back out to interrogate it and to survive the aquatic dinosaurs and Serpent People mariners.

4. Roll d6:

1. Graveyard Crabs (1-3): tottering giant crabs rumoured to have grown huge on a diet of ancient corpses, but just the natural end of the Sentinel Crab lifecycle - they have grown too big, too fast and cannot sustain the necessary feeding and shedding. They go to ancestral grave sites, where - amidst great drifts of fragile, demineralised remains - they topple over and die. That’s where they’re heading when encountered.
2. Scum Creepers: slimy animate tubers that prey on weak and/or sleeping animals. Actively inedible.
3. Flame Dead: Necropolis Culture undead, wreathed in unearthly flames. Appear either as flickering perpetually offended versions of their living selves, or shrieking candle-wax skeletons. Distant processions of will-o-wisps are said to be Flame Dead pacing the walls of the Grand Necropolis.
4. Grendels/Fomorians: monstrous remnant of the Necropolis Culture; Thouls led/championed by Troll-Ghasts and ruled by Sea Hags (all reskins). Mortality horribly stretched, they require life energy (levels, ability scores) to maintain mental stability.
5. Punkies: halfling-like swamp folk; their lives do not look that attractive from the outside, and considered no better than Goblins by surrounding settled peoples. At least some of them take grim pleasure in decoying biggers into danger; at least some of them eat those they trick.
6. Rusty Derelict (1): counterpoint to Lord Verdigris; decomposed, predatory golem; lubricated with fat, blood hydraulics, and motivated by captured brains. Necromantic engine the likes of which has not been seen before. Haunted.

5. Roll d6:

1. Algal Mummies: weak to air and poison/pollution. Dreamy and meditative, they have become solipsistic druidic monks. Confined to algae-choked flooded tombs, they see through the web of life and animate water-plants to intervene in the breathing world. Think they are the undead remnant of a named individual but really the vehicle of a weird organism.
2. Fungoid Mummies: ornate and bursting with cordyceps-antlers; style themselves as the ultimate form and true inheritors of the Necropolis Culture. Cordial relations with the Mi-Go. Think they are the undead remnant of a named individual but really the vehicle of a weird organism.
3. Gunpowder Beetles heavy and slow; packed with tomb nitre and alchemical waste, warmed by necromantic radiation. Attacked or surprised, they produce a loud crack and a spark of utter darkness (blinding on the mortal sphere, visible on the Astral Plane) accompanied by the stench of brimstone and necrotic damage. Can be harvested and processed.
4. Widow Elves: bereft across centuries, forever mourning long dead mortals. The Necropolis Culture apparently did a brisk marriage business with similarly lost and forgotten Elfish nations, and these grief-mad lamias (and quite probably thousands of fey-blooded ancestors) are all that remain. At least equivalent to your basic Drow in abilities and equipment.
5. Giant Marsh Clams: can you justify a stat-block? Basically, bear traps you can eat and use the shell as a low-quality shield. 2 on 2d6, they’ve been feeding on Psionic Squid for generations and are capable of levitation and mind blast.
6. Dinosaur Ghosts: elementals and thought-forms that pile up in the sky, or loom vast from the mists. Terrifying, spectacular, mostly harmless. Abruptly real when the Dragon Turtle inhales.

6. Roll d6:

1. Lord of Fevers (1): gargantuan processional crustacean-centipede, supported by filmy wings grouped on nodes along its length. Emanations of blast-furnace gut cause radiation sickness. Probably a Larvae of the Outer Gods. Festooned with extra-dimensional parasites. Mostly out-of-phase with the material world; solidifies during Mist season.
2. Pazuzus: wiry, rangy, black manes and feathered wings; refugee demons from the bottom of the pecking order; melancholic because escape has cut them off from the Great Murmuration, choleric because they prefer significantly less earth and water in their environment. 
3. Hippogriffs: beaked and scaly croco-wolves; prefer lonelier hunting grounds as the mammalian predators soundly out-compete them in their niche. Their long-term survival as a species is in doubt, but prolonged by their feeding cycles being measured in months (even seasons) rather than days/hours.
4. Necromancers: apart from the sartorial distinction, they might be any other adventuring party exploring the wilderness. Roll d6: 1 turning undead and not by choice; 2 frosty but non-aggressive; 3-4 untried entry-levels; 5 in possession of something worth taking, whether you know it or not; 6 much too powerful for you to go toe-to-toe.
5. Mi-Go: maybe no more than a small away team across the whole region. Roll d8: 1 following the Lord of Fevers at a worshipful distance; 2 buzzing around the Tower of the Astromancers; 3 observing Lord Verdigris at a respectful distance; 4 taking samples and measurements from Rusty Derelict; 5 retrieving Shellycoat remains with extendable pincers; 6 vacuuming Mist Drakes into compression tanks; 7 containing Thrif in energy bubbles; 8 attempting to communicate with you.
6. Sabre-tooth Woolly Mosquitoes: immortal relicts of what came before the Necropolis Culture. Torpid for millenia, cocooned in something resembling fossilised tree resin; bumbling and mindless through lack of proper regular nutrition, still digesting prehistoric meals from animals long extinct. 3 on 3d6 there's a single Brood Queen waking from torpor, monstrously gravid with parasitic larvae, and capable of reviving the species. For stats, start with a Stirge.

d66 Monsters and Men of BIBLICAL CARCOSA!

Rodney Matthews. Don't know what it's called.

Biblically-accurate blood-soaked sci-fantasy hex-crawl across an Old Testament/Revelation para-apocalyptic fever-dream landscape that can be crossed in six days, or swallow up two million people (plus animals) for forty years.

Bruce Pennington covers (Book of the New Sun, Clark Ashton Smith, Dune); Rodney Matthews; Dark Sun; Kingdom Death; Mork Borg. McKinney's Carcosa, obvs.

System agnostic with the heavy stink of old-fashioned D&D-ish. 

Table not weighted for probability, because it's not really a random encounter table.

Roll d6:

1. Roll d6:

1. Nephilim: 8’ tall extra-terrestrial cat-folk lion-centaurs; favoured weapons, bow and arrow. Some of them have six legs. Refer to each other with the honorific ‘Coeurl’. Can be paid in salt. 
2. Lilin (Owl Women) (6-36): bird-featured, taloned hands and feet; otherwise human. Like to perch in trees, watching, with big staring eyes. Capable of dust/mud-caked suspended animation. Variously reviled as thieving monkeys and murderous succubi. Use small/medium flying humanoid stats (but no wings) of any type (including FF Berbalang). 
3. Ur-Griffin (1): towering, startlingly colourful, wingless griffin; sounds like Godzilla. Doesn’t roll to hit, you roll to save – no real point trying to fight unless you have an army of giants.
4. Gorgonians: snake-haired Amazons riding iron-scaled, fire- and gas-breathing bulls. Ruled by a medulich-queen. Seek mortal males to produce viable mandusas/maedar (rare, precious; no snakes; stone-to-flesh touch) to propagate their species. Fearsome, honourable, compassionate, inevitably practical.
5. Land Whales (Behemoths) (1-6): breast-feeding, live-birthing dinosaurs with belly buttons. Dragon Men prize their milk, and to ride one, slung underneath while suckling, is a legendary feat.
6. Leviathans (1-2): Ichthyosaurs, placoderms, plesiosaurs, zeuglodons – the biggest sea monsters and the longest dead. Vast, filmy and luminous, barely material - unconstrained by seas that no longer exist. You can survive being swallowed, as you are slowly digested over a thousand years.

2. Roll d6:

1. The Leonine Men: anachronistic leper Knights Templar in local dress: cavalier/paladin abilities and attitudes. Favour huge two-handed swords. Special characters equivalent to Mummies and/or Were-Lions. 
2. Moon Dogs: unsettling liminal beings, fluid to the mortal eye but more-or-less dog and/or human-like. Can see invisible, detect possession and telepathy. Enemies of disease and mind-control. Do not speak to mortals.
3. Seraphics (Winged Victories): paramortal androgynes; prototype of Paladin and Vampire. Battlefield scavengers, feeding on spent lives and broken morale. Appear variously glorious, gorgeous or ghastly – the effect is glamour/telepathic feedback camouflage.
4. Man Scorpions (1-3): morphologically similar to the Nephilim, but scorpions and bigger (range from large, through giant to gargantuan). Can have arms and/or pincers in any configuration. Smaller ones wield pole arms. Remarkably pleasant voices.
5. Hooved/Horned Lions (1-6):  one or another variety of brightly-coloured, furred and/or feathered aggressive ceratopsian. If you could raise and/or tame one, it’d make an awesome mount.
6. Cubes: their surface engravings are blueprints for constructing helical orbital tethers/space elevators. Capable of communicating - and presumably compatible – with the ones on the Moon.

3. Roll d6:

1. The Dreaded Ones (Purples): Flagellants, poisoners, voluptuaries. Affectionately refer to each other as horror and terror. Why not name their great Lankhmar-by-way-of-Erelhei-Cinlu city as Sodom-and-Gomorrah?
2. Silurians (Valusians): the Serpent People – deeply offended that their blood magic fuel-source is going to out-breed them into extinction. Invented magic, so have a chance to counter yours. 
3. Diluvials (not these ones): To survive the coming Flood, they need all the resources and all the livestock. Brigands, berserkers, dervishes and pirates; possibly even a/the Barbarian Horde. 
4. Opinicus (Flying Horses): a bustling crowd of dirty, noisy, ragged pegasi. Disturbingly omnivorous; mostly scavengers. Can be subdued/tamed, using kindness, fresh meat and/or brutality. Congregate in marshes. More like donkeys and jackasses than riding or war horses.
5. Edenites: the beautiful people, jealously beloved of a/the Creator. Everything they do is automatically Lawful Good. Multi-classed Druid/Paladins. They are both Eloi and Morlock. 
6. Annakim (Hill Giants) (1-3): not as bloodthirsty, cave-dwelling, dim-witted, gargantuan or lusty as renowned/rumoured. Sensitive, shy, woodland-dwellers, with psionic camouflage but a horrible stench. Can crush your skull with one hand.

4. Roll d6:

1. Carnotaurus: scaly carnivorous aurochs. If there’s only one, it’s significantly bigger and older than normal; bad-tempered. Cow’s milk is pink and syrupy (with purple froth), salty, and prized by Dragon Men.
2. Cherubim (1-4): Four-faced guardian obelisks that burst into grinding life as pyramidal killdozers with flame-throwers. “THOU SHALL NOT PASS”. Markers of places without honour, commemorating no highly esteemed deeds etcetera. And/or Eden.
3. Manna Bees/Beetles: nanite-swarms and drone-units. Convert the aftermath of battles into sweet, flossy, nutritionally-dense material, carried away in great drifts on the wind. As long as the violence continues, none need go hungry.
4. The Unfinished: misshapen primordial humanoids. Discarded clay, sparkless dust, withered fruit; misery of abandonment turns to envy and hate for the Creator and the Creation. So prototypical they are subject to neither Death nor Time.
5. Anunnaki: extra-terrestrial Mi-Go as the vulnerable gooey centre of a Xorn/Xaren exo-suit in pseudo-Babylonian/Sumerian-style. Breeding/modding humans to mine elements they are otherwise deathly allergic to. Masquerading as glorious tutelary deities.
6. Watchers (1-3): gargantuan baobab-cactus Elder Thing/Triffids. Glistening black eye-organ gives them 360 vision, heliographic communication and ability to focus available light as long-range death/heat ray.  You besiege or mine them, rather than fight them. Prefer to stay put, but have been known to uproot and travel (singly or in herds) – slow, inexorable.

5. Roll d6:

1. Men of Blazing Metal (Shining Ones): silver or gold, respectively roughly equivalent to Elf and Dwarf. Doomed to be out-bred by mundane humanity – silver will not go quietly; gold, neutrally accepting. Junior allies and trading partners of the Anunnaki.
2. Men of Glowing Metal: bronze or iron; Living Statues as persons/people – they eat the same food, breathe the same air and range across the same moral and cultural continuum as you, but piss fire and shit gold. Cannot hide from infravision.
3. Men of Shining Blood: Prefer very particular hot, wet environments and don’t stray far without grand designs. Guardians/hoarders/inheritors of Serpent People sorcery. They also invent(ed) fireball. No skin, except when going abroad in disguise. 
4. Elohim: goat-horned mountain-guerilla/gorilla Clerics; tough, vengeful; armed with staves, knives and slings. They’re more numerous and sophisticated than the received wisdom has it.
5. Dragon Men: bare- and barrel-chested. Cultivate keloids and cicatrices. Bifurcate tongues (penises, if they have them). Shout loud enough to knock you down/root you to the spot. Venerate, hunt, tame and ride the most draconic wild beasts. 
6. Sea Monsters: all manner of toothy, tentacles, scaly, slimy things (including flamin’ SQUARKS!). Drag themselves ashore and head inland, looking for somewhere to die and something to kill. Carcasses attract verminous monster pests and smell atrocious.

6. Roll d6:

1. d666 Locusts: half a HD, otherwise as Cave Cricket/Locust. Odds/evens, Demonic or Devilish for damage resistance/vulnerabilities. If one reaches your brain, has access to your intelligence and abilities. The noise of the swarm is deafening and maddening.
2. Winged Bulls: exactly that. Wrongly ascribed wisdom and beneficence. Good eating if you survive the hunt. They also breathe fire, but can be broken, clipped, extinguished then yoked as beasts of burden (if you’ve got what it takes). Destined to be bred into the aurochs that will be wiped out in/survive the coming Deluge.
3. Biblically-Accurate Angels (1-3): wheels, wings, eyes, blazing bright; practically invulnerable, utterly implacable killers robots transmitting “BE NOT AFRAID” like a fucking Dalek on all frequencies as they oversee the Creation. So many damage dice you'd think this was T&T.
4. Sick Giants: minimum hp, heavy plate armour and shield. Very strong and well-armed (Fire, Frost, Fir-Bolg equivalents). Carry great iron-shod staves to lean and walk on. Constantly complaining, but not automatically hostile. Mercenaries.
5. Devil Swine: basically RAW.
6. EYE OF GOD! Azathothian astronomical event. Visible across all space and time. The heavens peel back. All are naked before it. Nothing will ever be the same. Forever and ever. Amen.

Commentary & What Was Left Out.

Initially inspired by a random encounter table on a blog I saw maybe five years ago and recall without specifics. Details sketchy, possibly about East or West of Eden, the Land of Nod (not that blog as far as I can tell), Old Testament as campaign setting. If anyone has any idea, I'd appreciate a link.

I'm not enough of a scholar to include bits of Mormonism and Scientology, but there's probably room for a stripe of each. 

If there is a One-True-God then there are lots of One-True-Gods, hustling for position. I'm pretty sure they eat each other.

Clerics only get basic spell access (1st and 2nd level), otherwise more like 5e Warlocks or Dark Sun Templars. Accessible and vulnerable patrons.

Competing apocalypses. All the imagery.

The pre-humans of Islam (including some unorthodox contemporary 'scientific' takes on the jinn) and Theosophy.

Carcosa-as-Jerusalem or Jerusalem-as-Tanelorn are both valid.

Chorazin, with its Black Pilgrimage and powers of the air.

The sin(s) of Sodom (and presumably Gomorrah): Ezekiel 16:49-50.

Noah as rapacious warlord from some comic I read that I can't remember the name of; Cain was the Conan/Eternal Champion-like hero. 21st Century; possibly French.

Actual Biblical characters and stories optional, including Vampire or Zombie Christ.

ICE AGE MEGAFAUNA! - Back to Basic

It looks like all (and there weren't so many, really) the prehistoric mammals got wiped off the books along with the Dinosaurs.

Apply one or more of the following tags to the statblock of familiar modern specimens, from aardvark to zebra. 

Cave: +2 HD, all damage dice raised to the next increment

Dire: +2 HD, +2 damage per attack, +2 Morale

Giant: x2 HD, x2 damage, Armour Class as Chain.

Horned*: +2 HD, gives a charge attack, knockdown on a special.

Sabre-toothed*: +2 HD, bite damage raised to 2 dice or next increment if already multiple

Woolly: +2-7 HD (d6+1), +4 damage to main attack, +2 damage to other attacks

* and/or Tusked.

HD increases stack. Dice increments stack. Plusses to damage, take the highest. 

Damage multiplier applies to dice only, not adds.

Apply HD multiplier to the base statblock or after applying any other tags, or wherever it falls in your animal's descriptive title. 

If HD rise to 8 or above, you can instead handle the prehistoric mammal as if it was an 8 HD dinosaur with 3d6 attacks. Such animals are between the size of a modern rhino and an elephant, and save at +4 vs. spells that don't inflict damage and vs. poison/venom.

If HD is approaching, reaches or exceeds 16, then you could treat the mammal as a 16 HD dinosaur with 6d6 attacks. They're as big as Dinosaurs (of course), and immune to spells that don't cause points of damage and poison/venom.

Armour Class as the original, or equal to Unarmoured or Leather. Mega-armadillos and mega-porcupines etc can have Scale to Plate protection.

Prehistoric mammals live in arctic and subarctic conditions, are immune to normal cold, and save at +1 and take -1 damage per die vs. magical cold. Because it's the Ice Age. Always. Unless it's a steamy jungle-type Lost World Beyond the Ice.

They must make a Morale Check if you use fire or firearms against them. 

Specials (19-20 vs. human sized etc) will be bear hugs, tramples or rending/auto-bite. Swallowing you whole can be a possibility, but doesn't seem as thematically strong for mammals as it does for dinos.

Walruses, weird whales, ice-breaking horned manatees and long-necked seals can sink boats and/or snatch folk from the deck. Porcupines can fling a volley of spikes like a Manticore. Spiked and clubbed tails are in the mix.

The idea of Horned Sabre-toothed Giant Woolly Vampire Cave Bats is of course ridiculous.

All herbivores are delicious and nutritious and go a long way.

Carnivores have at least one organ of such concentrated nutrition that it will kill a modern human(oid), but is a delicacy to Cave Men.

Cave Men are equal to Bugbears, and have at least 16 Strength, immunity to normal cold and bonus/resistance as other prehistoric mammals. 

The language barrier between them and modern humans cannot be overcome by either comprehend languages or speak with animals. 

If they don't think you're gods, they might think you're food, and they possess a plentiful resource unrecognised by them as useful or valuable to modern people.

Flavour according to your setting and the last thing you read/saw about prehistoric human society.

Since 2003, you're allowed to include Cave Hobbits. Either 1+1 HD and Basic Halfling abilities or use Athasian Halflings.

Neanderthals are Neanderthals, RAW or seasoned as you like.

JUDGE DEATH (2000AD) for Old School Fantasy and Horror

Psionic humanoid undead immortal outsider.
(Art: Brian Bolland)

Inter-dimensional alien super-fiend. 

Declared life to be illegal (as it is the living who exclusively commit crime). Carried out summary execution of his entire home world - billions of lives. This was centuries before he started dimension hopping. 

Doesn't care whether yours is a fantasy, historical or sci-fi setting - you're all lawbreakers (especially the elves).

Looks like a zombie or mummy dressed in a mockery of a Mega City Judge uniform. He doesn't need to wear anything, he chooses to - his office has standards to uphold.

An immortal spirit, Judge Death can partially or totally possess a living being, or reanimate a handy corpse, but only a vessel properly treated with the Dead Fluids allows him to bring his full abilities to bear.

All details preceded by an asterisk (*) are even more optional than the rest.

Hit Dice: as an undead type that you think best represents the temporary host body and/or the power and threat of Death in relation to your setting, system and table (I'm imagining Judge Dredd and Judge Anderson as min. 4th level characters).

As a zombie-type, Juju (3+12) or Lord (6) works; Lich (11) or Mummy (5+1) fit his appearance in the comics.

As a villain, he's at least Vampire/Mind Flayer tier (8+4).

*He can use d12 for hp instead of a d6/d8.

Treat an improvised/untreated corpse host as a Zombie (2 HD).

Armour Class: Unarmoured as Plate (his uniform is equal to Leather, but does not stack).

*Or as undead type for Hit Dice.

Invulnerable Monster: immune to normal weapons, bullets, crits, impales, massive damage effects.

Undead, clearly. *Immune as undead type for HD.

*Immune to charm, sleep, feeblemind, polymorph, cold, lightning, death spells (including reversed healing).

*+2 or better weapon to bypass Invulnerability, and these sever limbs on a crit/nat 20.

Half damage from all attacks.

Attacks with Filthy Claws for d4 hp each vs. metal armour (including the thick animal/monster hide equivalents of Chain and Plate); d6 otherwise.

*Save vs. disease if you've been wounded to see if you contracted Mummy's rotting disease (your preferred iteration).

He can wield weapons, use devices, grapple, throw objects etc. *and Cleaves like a Fighter of equal level vs. low-level opponents.

Grasp Heart: his signature move - phasing his hand into your chest and squeezing. 

Automatic vs. helpless victims or if he rolls 4 more than the number needed to hit (*or three consecutive hits, or a crit) - auto-kill on Death's next action if he wants to (and he really wants to).

*Save each round he holds your heart or take d4 non-lethal hp and 1 Strength damage. He knows if you're lying to him, and can read your surface thoughts if you're below 4th level.

If Death suffers damage in the interim or he chooses to, you are released.

Stench of Death: as a Troglodyte, and if you crit fail, you're sick as if poisoned by a Giant Centipede.

*Make three saves in a row or roll a crit, and you're immune to the effect for the rest of the encounter.

Mournful Charm: as a Vampire, one target per round, by gaze, gesture or communication.

*50% per appropriate time period he cannot resist the urge to pass sentence of death on a helpless target.

*Superhuman Strength: equivalent to an AD&D Vampire (18/76 Exceptional Strength), or your setting/system maximum for humans, or the bonus increment above this.

Making him fully and messily capable of grasping your heart without using his special ability.

You Cannot Kill What Does Not Live: as long as his host body has hit points remaining, it regenerates 1 hp per ten-minute turn.

*Severed extremities do not regrow but can be reattached or replaced, Frankenstein-style.

At 0 hp (or at will), taking a full round, Death abandons the host in gaseous form (as a Vampire). 

One of his catchphrases.
Art: Frazer Irving

Effectively indestructible, this form can use Stench of Death as a touch attack, exercise Mournful Charm, or attempt to possess a new host (automatic vs. helpless target; otherwise use your preferred possession sub-system).

Clerical Turning works like a Holy Symbol vs. Vampires against his gaseous form only.

A dissolve result vs. undead type by HD will drive Death from a host not yet treated with the Dead Fluids, and is no more effective than a Holy Symbol vs. Vampires against his gaseous form.

Vulnerabilities: Takes full normal damage from fire.

As an Invulnerable Monster, he's immune to normal damage, but not non-lethal/secondary effects, so can be pushed, pulled, grappled, entangled, tripped, thrown, disarmed, knocked back, knocked down, skewered and pinned to objects, dismembered, buried in cement, locked in a lead box and dropped into the Marianas Trench etc. 

Effectively helpless for 1 round when changing to gaseous form - this is your best opportunity to stop him getting away and taking a new host.

An interpretation of the comics would suggest trapping him in a Gelatinous Cube is an option.

I don’t know enough about D&D-adjacent psionics to comment specifically, but Judge Death appears to be (normally) vulnerable to psionics (for an entity of his status) - including telepathy, as a sapient being. 

Can be fooled (at least once) by feign death or similar.

Living Hosts are fragile and will deteriorate - mentally, physically and spiritually - the longer Death maintains a hold on them. They share none of Death's immunities/resistances or special abilities, unless/until treated with the Dead Fluids.

Commentary.

More classic catchphrases.
Art: Alex Ronald; Colours: Gary Caldwell.

It's been established that he was once Sidney D'Eath, son of a serial-killing dentist, whose wholesale genocidal tendencies showed long before he turned undead, but there are various other iterations.

In the primary 2000AD timeline, Death is both an apocalyptic supernatural threat and not entirely to be taken seriously. Sometimes works for me - this juxtaposition is a common tonal feature of the Judge Dredd setting. Dead Fluids flow frequently.

Judge Dredd: Lawman of the Future (1995 movie tie-in comic): Death is the undead alternative-universe Judge Dredd (apparently the original idea for the 2000AD archetype). Has a soulgem that powers his suite of special abilities. No Dead Fluids.

Judge Dredd: Final Judgement (2012 movie tie-in comic): He appears to be Sidney D'Eath from the primary (movie) universe, while also being an entity from a parallel universe of perfect entropy. No Dead Fluids, but plenty of stuff I liked.

Batman/Judge Dredd: Judgment on Gotham and Die Laughing: I have finite tolerance for the zany comedy antics of Judge Death in the mainstream 2000AD strip, so these two crossovers are a low point from my perspective. Visually interesting, though. Can't remember if any Dead Fluids.

Fall of Deadworld: Kek-W and Dave Kendall's non-stop parade of death metal album covers, telling the tale of how Death's homeworld was turned into Deadworld - and what the Dark Judges were doing before they turned their attention to the primary 2000AD universe. Absolutely saturated with Dead Fluids.

For Brits of a certain era, compare with Joey Boswell (Peter Howitt, not Graham Bickley) - another black leather-clad sex-symbol who announced himself with 'Greetings'.