I am proud to present a complete and exciting AD&D adventure for you to download and play, many thanks go to Richard Massey for allowing me to publish his game.
If you play the adventure we would love to hear from you about your experiences during the game.
Email jason@ufbs.co.uk and tell us all about it.
What the Powerage team have been trying to develop is a machine which can generate a field within which any animal will become consumed with anger, and behave accordingly - usually attacking the nearest other animal.
Their efforts have come up with the "Rage Amplifier". This is a black box, 12x4x3 inches, covered with switches, lights, vents, and with a port for a power unit. The box has a three feet long black rod sticking out from it with a cone attached to the end. Each R.A. can create an invisible beam three feet wide and indefinitely long. Any self willed animal caught within the beam must save against spell each round of exposure or become enraged (modify the throw by +1 for each foot over fifteen feet beam range). An enraged person takes tetchiness to new heights, they will see any action as the gravest personal insult to them and unless they are exceptional (e.g. a paladin) this is sure to lead to fighting. The rage stops immediately when the beam is cut off.
Mounted around the banister rail of the balcony are fourteen R.A.s, each hooked up to a power supply and operating constantly so as to create a web of "anger fields" on the lower floor. The upshot of this is that any character attempting to cross the space between the room's umbilical units will be affected by at least one R.A. ... take it from there.
Each Rage Amplifier has a weight of 30lbs. When used each consumes power at the rate of 3 bpu's per round.
If the party continue from this room towards the umbilical unit under Lab' 4, they will notice that the trunk line access area opens out and down, becoming quite large. On close investigation they may notice that it its space is water tight (see Lab' 4 for more details)
Hanging from the wall to the south of this test area are two suits of plate mail. On closer inspection these will turn out to be similar to the plastic ones encountered in squash court 3, but both have been coated in a fine metal plate. A twenty feet long wire cord attaches each to a socket in the wall. The purpose of this is to earth the suits as they are worn by the targets when testing the heat seekers. If used they work as A.C.2 for any man sized character, but have the same encumbrance as leather armour.
Carefully placed on stands in the centre of the laboratory are two of the developed weapons. These are like any decent chunky sci-fi pistols. Slotted into the base of the handle of each are the familiar battery packs, and slotted into the top is a magazine of ammunition. Each weapon is loaded with twenty rounds and operated by pulling an obvious trigger (Jake will be familiar with the concept even if the characters aren't).
When fired a missile will shoot forth and hit the first living thing it comes across, avoiding all inanimate obstacles in its course. Each round can detect objects emitting heat between 30 deg. C and 45 deg.C, consequently any of the party using one will get a +2 to hit modifier . The missiles are highly charged so that their target will take 1D10 electrical damage. The catch is that the missiles are persistent little devils and wont give up until they have found some animal to discharge against. In battle this means that if the operator misses then the missile will go for any of the combatants, and in the laboratory this means that any missile fired will get one of the party.
Each missile launcher weighs 15lbs. Four clips of ammunition can be found and firing each round costs 5 bpu's. The missiles are re-useable.
Unfortunately for the party, the pool used to test out the machine is the whole of the lower room. This means that if any of the umbilical units which seal this area is opened, water will gush out with an unstoppable pressure. Before long either trunk line access area will become completely flooded and the new home of "Metal Neptune".
Metal Neptune is a thoroughly bad tempered creation. Although it only carries a dummy bomb, it has been programmed to recognize a particular shaped piece of metal as the underside of a ship and therefore considers anything else it shares the water with to be a threat - and that means the party are in trouble.
The machine takes the form of a seven feet long Zeppelin shaped metal tank. At various points along its surface are hatches which open to reveal assorted weapons. These include mini-torpedo launchers, drills and plain ordinary knives and spears. Its metal shell provides a formidable armour and "it can't be reasoned with, it doesn't feel pity - or remorse..." and so on. In battle it operates as follows:
Metal Neptune: A.C: -4; THAC0: 12; hit dice: 12 (current hits: 54); attacks: each round it will randomly use three of its weapons to do the following damages 0, 0, 1D6, 1D6, 1D12, 1D12, 2D8, 2D8 (attacks use unarmed torpedoes, spears, knives and drills respectively).
Clearly this is a pretty vicious enemy, but the adventurers will soon realize that it can't attack them if they just get out of the water - although maybe they won't.
As for the rest of the room, laboratory 4 is just as disordered and untidy as any other laboratory, and to the outsiders appears to contain the same equipment. One addition is a mock-up of part of the underside of a ship, suspended from a crane above the pool area.
There is nothing of particular use to the party in this room - Metal Neptune weighs about two thousand pounds and gets through between 50 and 250 bpu's in an hour (depending on its activity).
The intended use of the Bubble Men is that of a decoy. They can be formed on mass and give a pretence of a dummy regiment. As far as battle is concerned they have negligible armour and one hit point each. The only danger that they present is that they can make a clumsy clubbing attack and that the chemical of which they are formed is extremely irritating to the skin.
The problem that the party face is that the device that makes them has been left on overnight to test its productivity, and, by now, the testing area of lab' 5 (an area taking up the north half of the room and partitioned off from the rest by a glass wall) is full of them. Worse still is that the machine will carry on making them when room allows, so with the umbilical unit open the Bubble Men will spill over into the trunk line access area.
Bubble Men: A.C: 14; THAC0: 20; hit dice: 1 (current hits: 1); attacks: armour offers no protection against them, and if one hits an adventurer it does 1 point of damage as it bursts and is destroyed.
The testing area is filled with about two hundred Bubble Men and the machine is capable of creating one thousand of them, at a maximum rate of twenty per round, as space is made available. As they are only made up of bubbles any attack will have unusual effects; e.g. a sword stroke will probably go through several of them and an arrow should burst a dozen or so before it hits the opposite wall.
If/when/as the party overcome the Bubble Men they will find the machine making them to be a arrangement of a jar of ugly green fluid with pipes leading to fifteen differing sized hoops in front of a fan. Some complicated looking machinery regulates the flow of liquid to the hoops. The apparatus is not easily portable.
On the other side of the glass wall the laboratory contains racks of chemistry equipment: Bunsen burners, glassware, fume cupboards, etc. and of course chemicals. Amongst the trappings of a properly disordered laboratory are two large (5 gallon) jars of the Bubble Men making chemical which oozes and splutters in a Blob-esque way.
If the party continue from this room towards the umbilical unit on the east side of the lower part of Lab' 4, they will notice that the trunk line access area opens out and down, becoming quite large. On close investigation they may notice that it its space is water tight (see Lab' 4 for more details)
The sealing of the room is to protect the scientists from the product which is being tested there - a hallucinogenic gas. A bad experience resulting from this project's leader taking a certain mind altering drug suggested to him, some hours later, that an adaptation of the hallucinogen might be used as a weapon, incapacitating an enemy with fear.
Any person breathing an atmosphere of the nightmare gas must save versus poison on each round of exposure. A save will negate the effects of the gas for one round, a fail means that the character believes that some terrible monster is attacking. The monster will preferably be a creature that has been encountered before and there should be a likely chance of the player defeating it, however, should the character die during this imaginary battle a "System Shock" roll must be made to prevent the character from actually dying.
The air lock is easy to use and once out of the test area the gas will wear off in one round. Any injuries sustained will be imaginary and so disappear with the effects of the gas.
The working area of the laboratory is, as usual, full of complex looking equipment set upon numerous desks and benches, along with the mother of all chemistry sets, and, fortunately for the party, five gas masks.
Covering the floor of the testing area is a mass of multicoloured, glowing, five feet squared tiles, like a giant psychedelic chess board. The ceiling is similarly decorated. Each pair of opposite floor and ceiling tiles generates a gravitational field. The field can be reversed (causing objects to fall up instead of down) and of varying strength (20 times that of earth down to weightlessness). In extreme cases the gravitational field becomes so great that the area effected becomes a black impenetrable box which cannot be entered - this phenomenon is a bit of a mystery which the scientists here are looking into.
The north, east and south walls are covered with climbing bars, like the ones that might be found in a gymnasium, but the west wall has none.
There are 66 pairs of tiles in the testing area. To determine the gravitational properties of each field roll percentage dice and consult the table below:
| Roll: | Effect: |
|---|---|
| 01 - 15 | Weightless |
| 16 - 30 | 1-100% of normal gravity |
| 31 - 45 | 1-100% of normal gravity reversed |
| 46 - 60 | Normal gravity |
| 61 - 75 | Normal gravity reversed |
| 76 - 85 | 1D4 times normal gravity |
| 86 - 95 | 1D4 times normal gravity reversed |
| 96 - 97 | 1D20 times normal gravity |
| 98 - 99 | 1D20 times normal gravity reversed |
| 00 - 00 | The field is impenetrable and the area cannot be entered |
The effect of gravity is on an object's weight, conditions of 50% gravity means it weighs half as much, conditions of 4 times normal gravity means the weight is quadrupled. Gravity also effects the rate at which an object falls, and the damage it sustains on impact with the floor (or ceiling as might be the case). Therefore falling in 50% gravity halves the normal damage taken, and falling in 4 times normal gravity quadruples it. Anyone experiencing more than 3 times normal gravity is going to have a really unpleasant time.
Each gravity creating tile weighs 1,000lbs and a pair of them will get through batteries at the rate of 20 bpu's a minute, so it isn't exactly portable booty.
The development area itself is littered with the usual physics miscellany, but includes a preponderance of what Jake will recognize as small robotic mechanisms - tiny artificial legs, claws, pincers and the like. A seemingly out of place rack holds approximately 100 ten centilitre vials, half labelled "TOXZMS237" and half "ANTZMS237". Next to the rack is hypodermic administering equipment (needles, syringes, cotton wool and surgical spirits).
The test area is easily accessed through an unlocked door and will be found to be the office displayed on the closed circuit TV screens. On further investigation the office will be found to be strangely empty of genuine articles: the filing cabinet contains files and paper, but the paper is blank; the PC on the desk is actually an empty box under a pretend screen; in the drawers of the desk is a selection of unused stationary to compliment a few pens on the top of the desk and, worst of all, the coffee machine doesn't work. Clearly this is a dummy office.
While the players are searching the room, its proper inhabitants will be automatically activated and will set to work. Ziggies' Mechanical Spiders are stealth robots, designed to be hidden in a room and sneak up on and inject with poison anyone who enters and does not use the recognized vocal deactivate command. They appear as a small metallic rectangle, 3 x 1.5 x 1.5 cms in size, from which sprout eight articulated legs, each 2 cms long with suction cups as feet. Their "front" end supports sensory equipment and a retractable syringe needle, the rear end admits a vial of the poison used. There are seven ZMS's in the office, and within thirty seconds of the party entering they will attack.
ZMS: A.C: 1; THAC0: 17; hit dice: 3 (current hits: 9); attacks: Their simple anteriorly mounted sensory devices will detect any movement, and the ZMS's logic says: "if it moves, hit it until it doesn't". They have one attack per round which does no damage but injects a poison which induces sleep for 12 hours unless saved against. The toxin used is TOXZMS237, which can be immediately countered by injecting the antidote ANTZMS237. Their favoured attack mode involves a surprise leap onto the victim followed by the sting, and they will surprise 5 times in 6. When they hit a victim they will cling to them and continue the poisonous injections, with a guaranteed to hit probability, until they are destroyed or run out of serum (after six shots). Otherwise treat them as large spiders.
With the aid of his torch, Jake will be able to find the room's lightswitch, as usual just by the door. The higher level to the west is where the genetic engineering is performed. Amid tables bearing the father of all chemistry sets, are a number of Venus fly-trap plants of various sizes, and a fridge containing some fresh, succulent steaks. The largest plant is unable to support the weight of its six feet diameter snare, so that it lies flat of the floor.
The east part of the room deepens to become two storeys high, and this area is given over to the cultivation of a small jungle. The 40` by 40` area, accessed from the higher level by a ladder, is completely overrun by tropical plants of all sizes including some stunted trees. Appropriate fauna - frogs, snakes, spiders (none of them poisonous) and even a couple of parrots - can be glimpsed occasionally. The floor is damp and boggy, and covered in giant Venus fly-traps (GVFT's) with up to 12 feet diameter "jaws". These are all hidden from view by untamed fronds and leafy vines.
GVFT: A.C: 3; THAC0: 10; hit dice: 8; attacks: each 10 feet squared area of jungle will 70% of the time support a GVFT, and each trap will try to swallow, at most, one human sized creature as it walks across. Damage is 4 plus the armour class of the victim per round of crushing. The victim is unable to move during the ordeal, but will be able to breathe, and the plant will not relinquish its hold until it is destroyed. In general terms a GVFT is a flowery Trapper.
Carefully packed with polystyrene cushioning, each chest contains a bizarre and rather impractical suit of armour. They are made from a sets of black, hooded overalls which have been all but covered by electronic gizmos, what's more, each is being modelled by a rather heavy, metal mannequin. The dummies weigh 300lbs, and, if stripped of their armour, can be seen to have black glassy eyes but no other features.
Adjustable straps on the armour mean that it can be worn by any human sized animal. If one of the players puts on this armour he/she will notice that there are two screens which can be flipped down over his/her eyes, one behind the other. When the first is looked through the view is unchanged except for two buttons, one green, one red, which inexplicably appear suspended in space before him/her. If the adventurer presses the green button the puppeteer suit will be activated, and the puppet mannequin will come to life.
The scientists working on project Hartmann have developed a remotely controlled humanoid robot, capable of mimicking the actions of anyone wearing the appropriate controlling suit. The response to commands is as near to instant as makes no difference and to help the controller the robot's fingers can send the controller's gloves tactile information, and the robot's visual and aural experiences are transmitted to the suit's visor and earphones. The first screen on the suit is translucent so that the vision of the robot is overlaid on the vision of the controller, the second "screen" is simply an opaque black plate so that only the robot's vision is seen.
The inventions were originally intended for use in situations when it was to dangerous for a human to operate - bomb disposal, cleaning out nuclear reactors, extra-vehicular activity in space and so on - but, of course, the warmongers who actually paid for the development saw robotic combatants who's destruction would not be mourned. With this in mind the puppet robots have been built with an effective strength of 19, A.C: 1 and 100 hits each. Their run time in between charges is 100 hours (they have built in, non-standard, battery units), and their remote control range is 1 mile. To turn them off the operator presses the red button.
As soon as the party enter, Jake will set about destroying all the work that the Buckler team have done. This basically involves him sitting at each computer in turn and typing in a few commands.
In the meantime the adventurers will no doubt be more interested in the latest of the development team's successes. Standing against the western wall is a suit of plastic platemail, similar to that worn by the squash players who started everything. This suit is coated with a smooth grey-black paint on top of which is a fine metal mesh held in place by an array of silvered triangles. A small box, similarly painted and covered, is attached to the back of the suit like a backpack. The Buckler team have managed to create an impenetrable suit of armour. When activated the yellow glow of the dancing discs appears all over the armour's mesh, and, as with the discs, anything touching this field will shoot away from it at lightning speed.
The suit is operated by a switch in its left gauntlet. Anyone wearing the equipment will feel no recoil as objects bounce off it, anything he/she touches with any body part (except the soles of the feet) will be pulverized into dust. The fields of shield will not interact with each other, so the wearer can touch one part of the armour against another without any explosions. The armour can be worn by any man-sized humanoid creature and uses three battery power units which can power it for one hour. Clearly this could be an awesome weapon, in battle the user could liberally dish out what are effectively disintegration spells, but the bad news is that the armour's circuitry will be completely burnt out and irreparable after half an hour of use.
Jake will eventually finish his work, but will still look troubled. He will explain that the only way to be sure of stopping further experiments in this field will be to destroy everything in the room - but how? Burning the lot wouldn't work as the sprinkler system would start; taking an axe to what's left would still leave some clues as would shredding all of the notes. Hopefully the players will realize that their best option is to leave someone in the room wearing the glowing suit who will pound it all to sawdust, but there may be other ways...
To cut a long story short, there is no way that our heroes can get to the sports centre without some fairly cunning plan. Certain spells will completely bewilder the troops - e.g. they will be able to walk right out without being detected if they can turn invisible. Another option would be to use some of the items found in the research centre - e.g. use the reduction mines from Lab' 1 to hold all but one of the players, then the remaining adventurer could don the impenetrable armour from Lab' 11 and, with the reduction mine tucked inside his/her breast plate, simply walk to the squash court blasting everything in the way. Alternatively, if the players have really been following what's going on then they should realize that any force field created in the laboratories in the Tub will be seen at the same "place" in Paadshaw, so it might be possible for them to send a signal for the magician in their own dimension to set up the gate at a more suitable location (e.g. inside the research dome). Finally, if all else fails, Jake might suddenly remember the armoured car that was used to demonstrate his team's work. If this is introduced into the campaign it will be found in a store room next to the demonstration suite, underneath the library, and has the same properties as the armour from Lab' 11 but will seat eight people and last for six hours before its circuitry is useless.
Remember that the special squash racquets being used in court 3 must also be destroyed for the mission to be a complete success, as well as the armoured car - if it is still in existence.
The gate back to the party's dimension will form in the same place as before i.e. a centimetre into the wall on the left, and by the opposite wall. As it is sunk into the plaster (which should have been repaired by now) this part of the wall will have to be broken through before the gate can be seen.
Of course, if they don't succeed...