Metamorphosis Alpha: KDJ1 Dire Straits
Metamorphosis Alpha: KDJ1 Dire Straits
Metamorphosis Alpha: KDJ1 Dire Straits
INTRODUCTION
A great cold has come to your village, killing the crops
and bringing suffering to your people. No one has ever
experienced weather like this and the village elders are
worried. They have sent out many groups, including
yours, to explore your world, Warden: seeking food,
shelter, and the cause of this deadly cold. You must
hurry your people may not have much time.
This module is an introductory adventure for the 1st
edition Metamorphosis Alpha system. It is intended as a
challenge for 4-6 player characters. The estimated play
time is 4 hours.
* * * IMPORTANT * * *
Anyone intending to referee this module should read it in
its entirety before play; however, anyone wishing to play
a character in the adventure should read no further or
face the wrath of the
Game Gremlins*.
* As most players know, Game Gremlins are those vicious little
beasties that enjoy jinxing your dice to roll the lowest number
possible at the worst possible time, whispering devilish ideas to
torment your characters to your game referee in his sleep, and
generally taking whatever steps necessary to insure the partys
failure if not their deaths. And they do all that without even being
mad at you, so I would stop reading if I were you.
ADVENTURE FORMAT
Based on a game system developed in the late 1970s,
the format of this module harkens back to the earliest
Metamorphosis Alpha and its concepts are trademarks owned by James M. Ward.
All other content is copyright 2008 Kerry Jordan.
This document does not represent a challenge to any trademarks or copyrights held by James M. Ward. This document is not affiliated with James M.
Ward.
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BACKGROUND
For centuries, the inhabitants of Habitat Level 2 of the
Warden have enjoyed ample amounts of simulated
sunshine and good weather, with very mild seasonal
changes. This has all been due to the tireless efforts of a
single robot, Habitat Control Droid, serial number HCD31E5F3, or simply Hayseed (as he was known to his
human supervisors so long ago). Until recently, Hayseed
spent his days monitoring and repairing the hidden
environmental control center for the level.
Only one week ago, a wolfoid pack stumbled upon the
hidden entrance to the environmental control center.
Unfortunately, the force field that protected the entrance
had been weakened over the centuries as irreplaceable
parts failed and it proved no match for the brute force of
the large humanoids. The beasts eventually reached the
main control room of the center and encountered
Hayseed. Hayseed was not built for combat and could
not hope to match the ferocity of the wolfoids, but he did
manage to escape the pack and leave the control center
in the hopes of finding aid. With very little knowledge of
the current flora and fauna of the habitat level, Hayseed
wandered aimlessly searching for help until being
captured by a young grabber. The grabbers digestive
glands were not fully developed and it was unable to
digest Hayseeds metal body quickly but it refused to
release the poor robot since it detected the heat from
Hayseeds broadcast power converter.
SYNOPSIS
START
WELCOME TO HABITAT
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Scale:
2 miles
search the level for food, shelter, and the cause of this
unnatural cold. These volunteers are further broken up
into teams to more effectively search. The characters
team is assigned the task of following the Ranger River
to the Barren Hills in the hopes of finding shelter from
the cold or helpful artifacts left over from their ancestors
pilgrimage to Habitat so long ago (see THE OLD
TIMES above).
duralloy shield,
heavy mace (wielded with two hands),
heavy sword (wielded with two hands), or
bow with quiver of 20 arrows.
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A. The Warden is a colony ship which left the TransPlutonian Spaceyards in 2290.
B. Hayseed was designed specifically for use on the
Warden and was built in 2289 by Rossums
Universal Robots Corporation.
C. The current year is 2525.
D. The Warden is 50 miles in length, with a width of 25
miles, a height of 8.5 miles, and 17 levels.
E. The Warden left the Sol system with 1.5 million
colonists and 50,000 crew members. (This may be
the most shocking of all to the characters; they have
lived all their lives without seeing more than 200
people.)
F. The partys current level aboard the Warden is Level
11, Habitat Level 2. (Hayseed is not programmed
with a full diagram of the ship so he cannot provide
information concerning any other level.)
G. A disaster of unknown origin struck the Warden in
2319.
H. Although the ships basic data stores can be
accessed from the proper computer terminals,
communication with the ships artificial intelligence
has been severed on this level for some reason
unknown to Hayseed.
I. Hayseed was placed in emergency control of the
environmental control center by order of Level
Officer, Lt. Mike Donnigan, in 2319 before he and
other personnel left the complex to determine the
ship and crew status.
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1. OUTSIDE ENTRANCES.
MAIN LEVEL
The main level of the environmental control center
provides the main entrances to the center as well as
containing the main control center, the garage and
maintenance bay, and the veterinary clinic. The invading
wolfoids have spent much of their time attempting to
learn the controls of the environmental control center
and have explored every little believing they have
plenty of time to learn the complexs secrets.
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4. SECURITY OFFICE.
The door to this office has been cut open by the wolfoid
alpha males vibro blade. There are letters written in
black on the door and by examining the pieces, the party
can determine that it once read SECURITY. This small
office contains a desk holding a computer console and
terminal, an office chair, and a case with a one foot inset
on the top containing several weapons (most
unrecognizable to the party members). If a party
member reaches for a weapon, it will become
immediately apparent that they are protected by a force
field (which explains why the wolfoids were unable to
take them). The field will only be disengaged if a person
is wearing a command or security access control band.
The weapons include the following:
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6. CONFERENCE ROOM.
7. WOMENS RESTROOM.
The computer console may only be accessed with a
command or security control band. Hidden speakers and
a microphone within the computer may be used to
communicate with a visitor at one of the entrances [see
OUTSIDE ENTRANCES (1)].
The desk has two drawers, neither of which is locked.
One drawer contains a Perma-Pen and a brittle notepad
with several pages ripped from the top. Although so
brittle with age that it is unusable, the notepad does
have some interesting writing on the top-most page. The
page has doodles of a man in a suit holding flowers, a
cube, and a scratched-out drawing as well as a note
reading 19:00 dinner with Kathy and a series of
numbers in the lower-left corner, 735282. A Perma-Pen
is the future version of our modern pen; however,
instead of using ink, the pen is actually a small laser that
can burn writing onto paper, plastic, wood, or fabric. It
has safety features that prevent the pen from writing on
any other material or heating the material enough to
cause a fire. The other desk drawer contains an
unopened bag of Wonder Cheesits. The bag proclaims
Wonder Cheesits to have a bang of cheese flavor with
every bite. The treats in the bag are long past their shelf
live. They are now green, hard blobs. If eaten, they taste
horrible without any bang of cheese flavor at all and act
as strength 8 poison.
5. ELEVATOR.
This elevator is very similar to a modern elevator. The
number pad lists the 4 different levels of the complex.
Next to the elevator number/door control is an access
control band reader pad (3 by 8 inch white rectangle).
Level 3 contains the horticulture labs and requires a
command, security, engineering, or horticulture control
band to access. Level 4 provides access to this levels
transport sub-system. Unfortunately, it has been locked
down and requires a command control band to access.
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2
3
4
5
6
Wolfoid Action
Enter a berserk state where he foams at
the mouth, temporarily receives a +2 bonus
to attack rolls and a -2 penalty to AC, and
attacks the closest person
Stare in a daze at the ceiling lights
Run away while yelping
Become fascinated with the feel of objects
and people
Act normally
Chase tail
15. GARAGE.
This large room is the maintenance garage for the
complex. There were several different vehicles stored
here at one point, but they have all been taken for
various reasons and never returned. Two large cabinets
have been broken open and their contents are currently
being examined by 2 wolfoids.
The wolfoids are armed with axes and wear plant fiber
armor. They are not expecting trouble and focusing on
their new toys so they are automatically surprised by the
party.
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D. BARRACKS.
I.
E. LAUNDRY ROOM.
This is the laundry room. Futuristic washers and dryers
as well as a few chairs can be found in this room.
Although the characters have never seen a laundry
facility, it should not be too difficult for them to determine
the basic functionality of the washers and dryers since
many of the machine labels include words such as wash
cycle, dry cycle, light wash, heavy wash, drying time,
etc.
F. GYM.
This is the complexs gym. It contains various weightlifting equipment as well as tread-mills and exercise
bikes.
KITCHEN/DINING HALL.
J. WOMENS RESTROOM.
This room is the womens restroom. It has the same
basic functionality of a modern restroom/lavatory. The
door to the restroom has the universal depiction of a
womans silhouette (which may not be recognized by the
party). The purpose of this room may be quite a puzzle
for the party since none of the characters have ever
seen or heard of a restroom. They could potentially
mistake the restroom stalls as refreshment areas (for
drink or washing) or even strange cooking areas (using
the toilets as pots).
K. MENS RESTROOM.
G. LOCKER ROOM/SHOWERS.
L. STAIRWELL.
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CONCLUSION
After the party has defeated all of the wolfoids in the
complex, Hayseed will once again control the
environment on this level and within a few hours, the
level will be experiencing normal weather. Although
Hayseed cannot allow the characters to stay at the
complex, he and this facility can be a valuable resource
for the party in later adventures. He may allow them
access to the medical facilities in times of emergency
and he will also be willing to recharge power cells for the
party using the tools in the garage. Additionally,
Hayseed has access to the horticulture labs on level 3
and is willing to provide the characters village with
enough fruits and vegetables to replace what was lost to
the cold.
The party will return to the village as heroes with a
remarkable new story to tell and a valuable new friend.
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APPENDICES
A. WOLFOIDS
As an option to your game and in order to differentiate
wolfoids from any other mutated beasts found on board
Warden, you may want to emphasize the pack instincts
of their wolf ancestors. For example, when two or more
wolfoids attack a single opponent in melee, describe
how well each wolfoid synchronizes his attack with his
pack mate and jumps to an endangered mates defense,
granting the wolfoids a +1 bonus to attack rolls as well
as to their AC for each wolfoid past the first to a
maximum bonus of +3.. Additionally, when attacking or
fleeing combat, wolfoids should do so as a group,
following their alpha male. (Essentially, if a party can
force an alpha male to flee, the rest of the pack will likely
follow.)
Although intelligent and loyal to their pack mates,
wolfoids tend to be very savage. They think very little of
punching, clawing, or even biting at times to show
ARTIFACT
CRITICAL
SUCCESS
CRITICAL
FAILURE
Gas Ejector
18
Laser Pistol
Paralysis
Dart Projector
B. CRITICALS
Another optional component for a game is to add critical
successes and failures in combat for the artifacts on
board Warden. After all, these items are incredibly old
and it seems reasonable for them to occasionally
malfunction. It is also reasonable to assume that these
items are so well-designed that they may occasionally
out-perform themselves.
When using one of the weapons listed in the following
table, a critical success occurs when the highest
possible value is obtained on the attack roll. A critical
failure occurs when the result is the lowest possible
value. Each item lists its own success/failure effect.
20
20
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CRITICAL
SUCCESS
CRITICAL
FAILURE
Paralysis Rod
20
Protein
Disruptor
ARTIFACT
18
Slug
Projector
20
Sonic Metal
Disruptor
18
Vibro Blade
20
Vibro Saw
20
C. MUTANT-COMPUTER INTERACTION
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Mutation/Defect
Chameleon Powers
Dual Brain
Multiple Body Parts
Multi-Armed (D)
New Body Parts
Out-Sized Body Parts
Partial Carapace
Poison Claws or Fangs
Poor Dual Brain (D)
Quills
Shorter
Skin Structure Change (D)
Taller
Total Carapace
Wings
Modifier
+2 when active
+4 if two heads;
+2 otherwise
+4 per extra
appendage;
+2 per extra part other
than appendage
+4 per extra arm
range of +0-4
(referees option)
+2
+2
+1
+4 if two heads;
+2 otherwise
+2
+1 per foot in height
below 4 ft.
+1
+1 per foot in height
above 7 ft.
+3
+4
E. NEW ITEMS
Berserk:
This concoction, made from the enzyme secreted by the
passion weed, increases an imbibers aggression and
strength to an extraordinary level. Berserk is a light
brown in color, has the viscosity of cough syrup, and
burns slightly when swallowed. A standard dosage is 8
ounces. It only affects true humans. Thirty seconds (3
combat rounds) after ingesting a standard dose, a true
human will enter a berserk state. Although he retains the
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Light Stick:
This device is a plastic cylinder 10 inches in length and
1.5 inches in diameter. One end of the cylinder has an
insulated grip with a single switch. At the end of the grip
is a plastic loop which can be pulled out to attach the
light stick to the users wrist, an available hook, etc. The
switch has 3 unmarked positions: beam, torch, and
off. The beam setting causes the light stick to act as a
modern day flashlight, shining a beam out of the cylinder
opposite the grip. The torch setting causes the entire
length of the light stick outside of the grip to light up,
increasing visibility in darkness up to 30 feet away in a
radius. The light stick may operate up to 10 hours on
one chemical power cell. The complexity of a light stick
is 9 and the danger category is 4.
Speed:
Speed is an elixir created from the fragrance glands of
the dream bush. It can temporarily increase a true
humans dexterity by 2 points. It has no effect on
mutated beings. The dexterity bonus takes effect 5
minutes after drinking 16 ounces of Speed and lasts for
30 minutes. Once it expires, the humans dexterity will
be decreased by 2 points for an hour.
F. AUTHORS NOTES
This adventure was designed for convention play. As
such, I made certain design decisions which may be
helpful to referees or other module writers to explain.
DOOR
CABINET
LOCKED DOOR
CHAIR
BROKEN DOOR
LOCKERS
DOUBLE DOORS
SHOWER
GARAGE DOORS
SINK
STAIRS
TOILET STALL
BODY
URINAL STALL
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