Monday 24 February 2014

Decopunk Metropolis Encounters part 2



I will design some pregen characters for Cthulhu Metropolis I can do art based on old Hollywood actors. I need 12 for various genders. As a setting it feels very honky but I guess social progress and racial equality was low on priority in future dreams of the 1920s and 30s. Some Oswald Bastable scenarios might work well including the development of the atom bomb from Moorcock would be good. Compliment the space and robotic developments. The novels feature uprisings against colonials where rebel peoples get access to superior tech from a single inventor like the land leviathan or superior aircraft (jets!?).

Probably will feature acts starting from the top and working down as city explodes into rioting. I will probably do a post on Babylon Dreamlands of Metropolis. It would be a early cinema version of Babylon like the unfinished Intolerance and biblical films. I have added some other early cinematic references without too much overt supernaturalism. The keeper (perhaps Architect might be better title for this game) can ad lib more supernatural if needed but I will save for climax. I might try running this for a month or so later in the year and could do the whole explore the world and space thing, even go Flash Gordon (Ming from planet Leng?).

Im gonna make a groovy keeper screen too. My art style will suffice for pregen sheets.




Worker under levels are the barracks where workers shuffle from every day to the mammoth factories, power plants and smelters. To be as complex as the book version I include miles of water works, sewers, recycling plants, rail tunnels and other drab industrial hell.

d100 Worker Under City Levels
01 Old woman telling fortune to people in tea shop of many classes
02 Shambling workers off to shift
03 Drunken foreman with wrench staggering home abuses passers
04 Poor urchins stop and stare at outsiders
05 Robed cultist spotted, drops into drain hatch
06 Hair black claw spotted on edge of drain briefly
07 Cleaner sweeping floors, happy to talk to anyone about things he has seen
08 Battered woman refuses help, staggers home
09 Beautiful workers daughter with poor children on field trip
10 Police searching tunnels for something hidden
11 Police checking ID and looking for someone
12 Bomb blast from terrorists, panicked workers flee 
13 Strange slime trail leads to drain
14 Creepy grinning man with cane seems to be talking to rats
15 Sewerage overflowing into tunnels
16 Rich youth wandering about amazed by terrible conditions
17 Bank agent looking for bankers son who is too interested in plight of poor
18 Old drunk trying to avoid deportation from city
19 Bulging eyed plumber with tools menacing workers daughter
20 Mysterious wizard (Rotwang?) looking for catacomb entrances
21 Sickly man trying to reach water as skin starting to split open
22 Benevolent order of Dagon giving food and pamphlets to workers
23 Stray cat watches party and follows them for a while
24 Dead worker has fallen on way to work
25 Engineer inspecting tunnels found locked steel door not on his maps 
26 Catch worker eating another dead worker, flees when he realizes seen with weird gait
27 Foreign agent with camera pretending to be journalist
28 Police beating journalist smashing his camera and film
29 Angry workers attack outsiders for intruding 
30 Hungry beggars swarm party
31 Find a half chewed carcass of a worker
32 Find shredded skin of a worker by a drain entrance
33 Find a disemboweled prostitute and cult graffiti
34 Prostitutes call out to party offer quick knee trembler for pittance
35 Lost youth from surface here on dare, bewildered and terrorfied
36 Stray dog chased by hungry hobo
37 Gangster in coat offers drugs and home made zip guns and shanks
38 Man with limp begs for a job or he will be relocated outside city
39 Banker seen buying children, sends a goon to get party
40 Uptown men in cult robes on way to catacombs avoid faces being seen
41 Line of youths being inspected to enter household service in uptown
42 Man selling bad cigarettes and rotgut booze
43 Man trying to sell expensive stolen useless stuff to bewildered poor
44 Priest preaching how meek should turn cheek and will inherit the earth
45 Priests with impromptu soup kitchen
46 W.O.W. delegate on tour with locals gasping at terrible conditions
47 Choking black smog fills tunnel, people flee from area
48 Acrid foul air leaves eyes watering and throats sore
49 Crippled ex-workers being pursued by law for being unfit for work 
50 Foreman beating worker in front of sullen faced mob
51 Man disguised as worker from uptown to see worker lives
52 Agent of bank disguised as worker from uptown looking for revolutionaries
53 Police disguised as worker seeking trouble makers or unfit workers in hiding
54 Communist handing out propaganda and preaching worker takeover
55 Man with no legs on trolley begging for food and coins
56 Angry worker looking for outsiders to vent his fury on
57 Youth gang charging toll to pass this way, outsiders pay double
58 Abandoned baby in a box
59 Drug addicts slumped against wall, barely aware of surroundings
60 Police taking disabled boy from parents, claim to a home but really will be gassed
61 A gypsy selling good luck charms and potions, knives anyone causes him trouble
62 A man preaching foreigners to blame for everyone's troubles
63 A staggering man, dying or blind from bad bathtub gin
64 Gang with vicious dogs collecting loan repayments from workers
65 A foreman explaining how good everyone has it to mob
66 Food aid workers from midtown overwhelmed by hungry mob
67 Police arresting food aid workers for inciting crime
68 Uptown youths making poor workers brawl for cash
69 Large lumpy faced man watches party from distance creepily
70 Worker with old worn damaged boots limping to work and late
71 Ambulance carrying wounded children from work house
72 Tiny ancient church with candles and worshipers in somber silence
73 Preacher telling workers how everything better in next life
74 Zealot with dying worker inciting mob to rise up against upper classes
75 Wounded man shambling off to work late
76 Upset man claiming he saw something that should not be in a drain
77 Man preaching end of the world everyone must affirm Christianity or die
78 Workers tormenting woman they say is a witch
79 Strange man in black with dark eyes in trance carrying woman flees if seen
80 Asylum orderlies load men into van, strange gleeful doctor (Dr Caligari?)
81 Deranged hunch back with top hat and sharp teeth chasing woman with butchers knife
82 Workers driving out disabled man from district to keep away health inspectors
83 Workers having soccer match with home made ball, all welcome
84 Man selling rat on a stick, has no teeth and big grin
84 Census taker interrogates anyone not meant to be down below, demands papers 
85 Shambling walker in deathlike trance walking corridors with shredded clothes
86 Dog licking up spilled blood on ground
87 Crazy man talking to and eating bugs, talking to invisible master
88 Armed soldiers searching for something but wont say what
89 Worker mistakes party member for someone and slips them a catacomb map
90 Robed cultists stabbing man, flee when spotted
91 Banker on tour with guards, complaining conditions too good for scum workers
92 Journalist looking for drama, asks people about conditions below, workers shun him
93 Woman crying looking for her child
94 Wealthy youths come down to abuse and provoke workers for fun
95 Workers looking for help, injured man trapped in machine
96 Wounded child begging for help, everyone busy with own problems
97 Visions of the seven deadly sins and death from cathedral overwhelm party member
98 Party member has vision from past life in Babylon lasts a few hours
99 Man having visions he is worker in ancient Babylon from past life, confused and lost
100 Vision of factories and doorways becoming mouths of the machine god Moloch



Catacombs predate the city and upper galleries used for secret meetings of workers new Christian sect. If you follow a map or guide fairly safe. Exploring greater depths very bad however. Best to be kindly and scare with some sounds and minor encounters before unleashing true horrors of the pit.

d100 Catacomb Levels

01 Workers heading to underground new christian sect in candle lit shrine
02 Scientist Wizard (Rotwang?) exploring catacombs for his various schemes
03 Uptown youth or youths with flashlight exploring the depths
04 Lost child came down looking for ball or on dare
05 Hear distant chanting in strange language
06 Abandoned shack with strange crumbling old book and skeleton
07 Pale creepy naked children flee from light
08 Strange green skinned children found speak no known language, slowly dying
09 Strange palid worms crawl about and drop from ceiling 
10 Feel strange urge to discard weapons and follow train into the depths
11 Find a strange black well with strange carved symbols
12 A strange monolith with almost worn away symbols, causes strange dreams after seeing 
13 A shambling work with rotting flesh attacks
14 A doctor with a glowing green syringe is injecting a corpse in the brain
15 Wild feral albino men attack
16 Ghouls chitter while eating a corpse, if realize they are seen will attack
17 Cultists on way to dread shrine, attack any strangers who see them
18 Witness a cult engaged in ritual torture or sacrifice led by a recognizable banker
19 An archaeological team with workers and a few guards
20 Ancient room stacked with coffins
21 Ancient stone sarcophagi hundreds of years old
22 Corridor blocked with neat piles of human bones
23 Walls decorated with human skulls
24 Cultist seeking relics will pretend to be scholar and seem friendly
25 Armed police will arrest or shoot at anyone who flees
26 Gang dividing up loot from graves
27 Ghoul cult eating bound victim alive (actually a zombie)
28 Shambling zombies 
29 Piles of rotting mangled corpses dumped here by someone
30 Agent of bank dragging corpse of trouble maker to hide in depths
31 Students on initiation test lost 
32 Strange monk tending remains of dead
33 Bundles of mummified corpses stacked around walls or in niches
34 Flooded bunker from war with mouldy rotten gas masks and survival rations and bunks
35 Remains of old mine with tracks, carts, piles of rubble and skeleton with miners hat
36 Crippled workers in hiding from health inspectors fearing deportation
37 Urchins being instructed in crime by fat gangster 
38 Strange statue with partly erased Hebrew text on forehead
39 Strange creepy howl heard
40 Ghoul eating a cat, pounces on better food like party
41 Scaly google eyed naked man jumps into well when sees lights coming
42 Cult of strange froglike hopping people dancing around a well
43 Cultists in ritual sex, turns to cannibalism later (just for those who want to join in) 
44 Hunchbacked, rat faced bald man stalks party, is a nosferatu
45 Onyx dodecahedron on plinth, thieves dream of crawling darkness and hunted by cult
46 Witches dancing in ritual cackling madly, curse any who see with magic
47 Hideous deformed witch with horrible familiar sets awful familiar on party
48 Graffiti from many previous eras 
49 Graffiti from occultists with astrological and kabalistic diagrams
50 Strange sign drawn in odd yellow pigment, viewers have bad dreams and visitations
51 Cult signs with alien or forgotten hyperborean languages scr
52 A fungal nightmare garden with human bones amidst slimy growths
53 A crystal coffin with sleeping monk inside, actually a friendly but deceitful serpent man
54 Albino degenerate snake people attack intruders but flee if harmed
55 An ancient Egyptian sarcophagi with cult paraphernalia, beast headed mummy arises
56 Dead man from uptown with dagger in back
57 Drunk with lantern and zipgun looking for people who took his friend
58 Man with strange alien box looking for something, possessed by prehuman race
59 Strange gurgling cries of "Tekeli-li" from darkness, if investigated shoggoth attacks
60 Well sealed by basalt stone lid, can hear moving air and alien whispers within
61 Mummified remains of inhuman creature
62 Stone vault door with strange star shaped seal
63 A huge pit of writhing white grubs awaiting the end times to come to surface
64 A robed man avoids party, if confronted is a wizard made from a mass of worms
65 Swarms of bats flood chambers biting and scratching any in area
66 Strange globe like eggs made from minerals, cultists will retrieve if stolen 
67 Flapping of batwings from distance and unearthly screeching sound
68 Strange archway with alien runes, actually a gateway to somewhere horrible
69 A strange pool gives visions of the past, if look too long entities notice you back
70 Strange apparatus with generator and huge tuning forks, headless corpse nearby 
71 Laboratory with corpses, restrained zombie and green glowing vials
72 Pyramid of severed human heads still warm to touch
73 Workers with clubs looking to beat child kidnappers they are searching for
74 Frightened woman being chased by cultists
75 Lone child begs for help is actually a witch hundreds of years old
76 Squealing pigs are heard coming, naked insane pig men swarm at party
77 Swarm of rats attack
78 Swarm of rats flee past party from something horrible coming
79 Strange bell tolls but source cannot be found
80 Sarcophagi with mummified reptilian creatures
81 Old cult wizard looking to recruit new cultists
82 Find bewildered person in strange clothes from some other time
83 Albino huge reptilian slithers after party
84 Strange chamber with hyperborean runes and bronze mirror, a gate to Saturn
85 Cage with crying caged naked captives in chains begging for help
86 Strange altar with blood stains, inside is a book, dagger and some potions
87 Skeleton in crypt with flesh in process of regrowing, heart starts to beat
88 Sickly man staggers an vomits up worms, then bursts open into horrible mess
89 Fish men on the hunt, chase any humans for food, sex or experiments
90 Crying girl victim of assault and carrying a future deep one
91 A beautiful siren sings to intruders inviting them to have sex, deep one with illusion
92 Attractive woman clings to party member, is a life sucking succubus seeks a mate
93 Room with metal brain canisters and apparatus to speak to them 
94 Foreign scholar with robot guard seeking evil books and relics
95 Room with bed, candles, covered in photos of missing persons
96 Strange creepy doll, if taken will animates and kill when it gets a chance
97 Weird idol of tentacled frog being with strange alien instrument nearby 
98 Bubbling pool of strange white organic fluid dripping from ceiling
99 Vision of future where sun blotted out and last humans dwell in huge silver pyramid
100 Visions of the city crumbling into darkness strike a party member

NEXT - Babylonian Dreamlands


1 comment:

  1. "Vision of future where sun blotted out and last humans dwell in huge silver pyramid"

    Sweet, I'm reading Hodgson right now

    http://castletriskelion.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete

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