Wednesday 16 September 2020

Iron Rib Beach, Eon Aged Factory Generator

(Written for Ordure Fantasy) 

Lumpy, grey sand dunes, slouching towards a dead shore lapping with brown foam. White dust floats thick in the air, a swirling ash miasma. The view of the green white ocean is broken by rusty slag heaps and huge crooked masses of iron leviathan bones. Slabs of thin rock rock hold the giant bones together, forming huge rectangular chambers. Inside rots metal devices from another aeon.


The beach and factory ruins are haunted by: 

Bone Tenders, 4 Health:  Humanoid spider crabs. Long, white and calcified. Crusty, white chitin covered in tiny spires of mineral dust. Too long armclaws, twice the length of spindley body, terminate in lethal blades. Gleefully hides in shadows and snips limbs of unknowing victims. If possible will immobilise a target by removing/incapacitating legs, then slowly snip away at flesh, gurgling foam happily from clatterchitin mouth.


The exterior of the leviathan bone ruin is: 
  1. Held in place by huge, sloppy slag heaps. Cooled molten metal drips are frozen from exhaust pipes jutting from the ruin. 
  2. Extruding a hiveabundance of metal pipes, some oozing rusty mercury. Colonies of metallic bugs have taken residence in the dryer pipes. 
  3. Blackened by flame and smoke. Large jagged holes riddle the ruin, damage from a long ago inferno.  
  4. Jutting with huge metal wings and propellers. This bulbous ruin is crashed and sunken in the sand. Tangles of rusting engines are nestled against the thin metal walls. 
  5. Glinting sunlight softly beneath its coatings of dust. The metal structural bones of the ruin have somehow maintained their lustre - metal becomes dazzling with just a modicum of care.
  6. Collapsed and imploded. Roof, rock and metal debris chokes the entrances which will be inaccessible without clearing. 

The leviathan bone ruin has d6 narrow corridors connecting d6 larger chambers. Corridors are narrow, only allowing two abreast, and are visually similar to the exterior of the building. Chambers not connected by corridors open up to the sand via large mawing archways (at least one chamber will have one of these to serve as an entrance). 

The interior of the leviathan bone ruin is: 
  1. Choked with metal middens of cogs, chains, screws, bolts and the like. These crawl with palm sized rustmites (Health 1), fat and vicious from the neverending feast of scrap. Rustmites will attack if their middens are disturbed, swarming and easily melting flesh with acid dripping mandibles. 
  2. Unnaturally gloomy, the miasmic atmosphere seemingly consuming any light that enters its chambers. Gloopy puddles of pure shadow (Health 2) congeal in corners - seething in disgust at the concept of light. Their touch causes a week long blindness (Test Body to avoid - a successful Body test is required to restore sight, tested daily after week has passed). The shadow puddles will slither across the flesh of light bearers to reach and consume any offending light source.
  3. Watched by enormous red lenses, swivelling on cranking frames of black metal. These regard all that enter. The lens will focus on magically active beings and emit a beam of fluorescent red energy. The magical being must test Body to avoid being held rigid in place for d6 hours. When the beam activates, d6 skeletons of blackiron (Health 3) appear from a hidden wall panel and attempt to rip the being caught in the stasis beam apart (with jagged rusty claws). 
  4. Infested with ambulatory fronds of dusty red metal, like great skeletal lungs (Health 2). The fronds are about the size of a man, and creep on spider-like metalvine legs. Shuffling around the ruin, a mirage like atmosphere surrounding them. If approached they exude a thick mustard smoke that quickly fills the chamber. If inhaled Test Body to avoid rust sickness for d6 days (-1 to Body and Maximum Health) and losing 1 Health. 
  5. Sagging beneath rotting, moist rock floors - stone made soggy by an infusion of caustic chemicals. The spongey floor is littered with drooping pits, with thick, shining quicksilver at their bottoms. Quicksilver swiftly melts flesh, any being who comes into contact with it must make a Hard Body Test to avoid losing d6 Health.
  6. Rumbling with obelisks of intricate metal tubing, vivified by some internal mechanism and exhausting a black smoke from several sootened pipes. Obelisks will begin to spark with a crackling white purple energy if approached by any living being. Getting too close will cause sparks to lash out angrily (Test Body to avoid losing 1 Health).
And filled with: 
  1. Eternally bubbling pools of coppery magma in huge cauldrons - occasionally spraying gouts of burning melted metal.  
  2. A thick iridescent dream fog - stalked by rainbow drenched silhouettes who shimmer out of existence when examined.
  3. Rumbling bears of pipes and gears, affixed to ceilings and walls - sometimes splutter into silence then erupt back into operation with explosions of smoke.
  4. Shining plates of reflective metal - hanging ponderously from the ceiling by chains or bolted to the interior walls.
  5. Huge protea flowers of crumbly quartz - exploding from tears in the rock walls and supported by veins and stalks of hard crystal.
  6. Mountains of skull sized metal boxes that emit a skin itching heat - each holds a single green, bright glowing, grain of sand that inflict waves of nausea. 
The chamber is:  
  1. A cavernous dome, housing a gigantic mound of copper tubing and gears. 
  2. Low ceilinged and divided into d6 smaller rooms by sheets of rusty iron. Each holds an old metal bed and locker (holding melted tools and dust).
  3. Huge and rectangular. Lined with pyramids and cubes of dull metal mounted to walls and ceilings by blackmetal gearing. 
  4. Composed of d6 circular and conjoined podrooms, filled with mounds of glass shards.
  5. Several storeys tall, housing an elaborate facility of round metal pools connected to wall hanging tanks. A tangle of thick pipes enmeshes the chamber.
  6. A low ceilinged dome, ringed by tight coils of metal. A central metal spike languorously sparks soft, harmless energy bolts.   
And contains: 
  1. Ash mounds, vaguely in the shape of a human body - d6 misshapen clumps of melted celestial ore hidden beneath them (worth 20 silver each.
  2. d6 Bone Tenders sitting in a circle or sawing at metal, clattering and drooling. Will lope awkwardly to the darkness when approached, poised to cut flesh if provoked. 
  3. d6 Bone Tenders hidden proficient in any available darkness. Eager to cut at the legs of any who pass them by. 
  4. A warped and dusty Bone Tender exoskeleton, collapsed in front of a Hallowed Device. 
  5. d6 well-preserved Bone Tender exoskeletons (worth d6 silver each).  
  6. A stench of ozone and a tiny crack in reality, floating in the middle of the chamber. It instantly causes 1 Health damage if touched and cannot be interacted with beyond this. It glows brightly, d6:  
    1. Red  
    2. Purple 
    3. Yellow 
    4. White 
    5. Orange 
    6. Green
And is surrounded by, d6:
    1. Mounds of white crab shells and claws. 
    2. Mounds of human skeletons. 
    3. Soggy human remains liquified in airtight suits of black leather. d6 of the suits are intact and give protection against foul atmospheres but the wearer quickly runs out of air (worth 50 silver each). 
    4. A once elaborate, but now largely toppled and shattered, arrangement of crystal shard mirrors propped on silver stands. d6 are salvageable (worth 50 silver each).
    5. d6 dead rusty wheeled contraptions, about  the size of a cart. Clumps of pipevine, cogs and lenses. 
    6. An infectious sense of irritation and irrational anger. 

2 comments:

  1. I kept forgetting to say thank you to you for writing this location.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Kyana, I appreciate it! Got a couple of things to get done, but I should be returning to writing the whole peninsula in a couple of weeks.

      Delete