Let's Crawl! New Moon Barrens, Part 3: Region(s)

[This one's been sitting in the drafts a while and I've moved on to new campaigns but I figured this should be posted for posterity! Enoy :]

Now that we have a hexcrawl procedure, we can get to the fun part, actually filling in the world here. However, it has changed somewhat since last we saw it.

Glow Up. 

After rereading THIS (and not wanting to fill in over 100 hexes again) I decided to revamp the old hex map into something more interesting and digestible. Observe the Poison Swamp in Hex 5.00 and the UNASSAILABLE CLIFFS OF THE FOUL DARK MAGE MEZZIZAR in Hexes 9.02 and 9.03. The Barren itself is now ~100 ft. lower than the surrounding geography, fitting of the Krakatoa equivalent explosion that happened there a century ago. The dotted purple lines are ley lines a la Dolemwood and wherever they cross you can find wizards, points of power or dungeons. 

The Barrens Proper

(The Brown area in the center)

Ok so take Death Valley and put a moon above it in a geostationary orbit. Now fill it full of Mad Max style barbarians, Moon Beasts, ghosts, androids and a triumvirate of beholder, dragon and lich and you got yourself a great place to adventure! Or die! Probably die!

A century ago, a Conan-type named Dyn Cryf ventured into the New Moon, intent on getting to the bottom of its water theft. While he was never seen again, a few days later the New Moon pulsed, cracked and released a shockwave that tore asunder everything within almost 100 miles. 

Its now a desolate place, but certainly not an empty one. While I don't exactly know why the moon is here I have a few ideas brewing. It represents a warp in the Rainbow Veil, a great border between Reality and Un-Reality, a place here things That Aren't Quite Right come from, such as the beholder milling about. The Prismatic nature of the Veil is under strain and so its guardians are also being summoned here, great Reds Knights and Yellow Emissaries, trying to figure out what's going on. The Moon is almost certainly some great technological marvel from forwards, backwards or sideways in time, possibly with a broken AI. From it spills forth Moon Beasts, Moon Men and Moon Goblins. 

Techno-aberrant prismatic space-time ruptures are common here, usually in the form of holograms, glimpses into alternative timelines and the summoning of aberrations. This of course gets Arthur C. Clark-ed into tales of ghosts, portals and monsters that populate the tables below. 

2. A Dragon

 I already have two other dragons in other parts of the map and I decided they probably want no part of the nonsense going on over in the Barrens. So, I added a third. A weird one. 

What are dragons? In my games traditionally, they are symbols of avarice and mania, each one obsessing over a unique material in addition to gold, their draconic lust. They are products of enormous hoards, spontaneously appearing from them, wholly formed, or else they are kings or adventurers who obsess and hoard enough, long enough. I think this one was a combination, a Warrior-King, an Atilla type, who raided and raided and plumbed the depths of even older Elvish tombs for riches. Soon he became known as the Wyrm of the West or something fearsome like that, and it's only a matter of time before someone like that becomes indistinguishable from a dragon. 

Suppose that dragon was cutting up the region when a multidimensional bomb when off, scattering their mounted hoard to the winds. And so a ghost remains. Or is it two realities on top of one another, a blurry figure occasionally quantum tunneling? For a king and the land are one, and his land has been warped. And a dragon losing his hoard has more reason to haunt a region than any other creature. So he hangs around, haunting his old fields of probability, seeking his lost treasure. 

So, when a 2 comes up, players will hear the sounds of battle on horseback, smell blood and iron, see the shine of gold and feel power. Spoor will be the muted modulated sounds of a man's screams and a dragon's roar interplayed on top of one another. And should they run into the dragon itself, it will be invisible. Sometimes. Like a radio trying to tune into a fight with a dragon or boxing a dragon's shadow. So why does it scream like a man?

This also means I'll need to seed a lot of cool treasure in the area. I think each piece collected should a). give you cool warrior-dragon-king powers and b) get the shit haunted out of you as you increase the likelihood you collapse his probability field. Getting all the pieces should probably summon him. Perhaps he'll reward his faithful servants. 

3-5. Moon Beasts, Moon Men and Moon Goblins 

Warped in from gods-know-not-where, Moon Beasts are medium to huge creatures, one enormous jaw with multitudinous grasping tentacles, which they drag themselves around with. Possessing some strange semblance of intelligence, the roam about the Barrens looking for people to capture. They have a stupefying prismatic ray attack which lowers intelligence and a song they sing from their crystal hearts which infects the mind of the unintelligent with moon sickness. Once infected, victims can only stare blankly upward and sway. This makes them easy targets for the Beasts who then carry them away, back to the Moon for some nefarious purpose. If they aren't hungry, in which case they eat you. 

This is sort of their MO

This was also my first real experiment with writing monsters using Mindstorm's nested hit dice. We'll see how it pans out in game. 

Greater Moon Beast [HD 8, MV 12, M10]

Moonskin - While in sunlight, the Moon Beast is impervious to harm. This is common knowledge. However, this could be negated by shadow, a blanket, paint or anything else that prevents sunlight from reaching its skin. This is less common knowledge. 

Tentacles x 4 (1 HD per). Grab and slam for 1d8 damage. 

Cavernous Prismatic Maw (3 HD). Can bite for 3d8. The Moon Beast spends 1 round charging up a stupefying prismatic beam which it sweeps in a 90-degree arc in front of itself. Being struck by it reduces Intelligence by 1d6+1. Its heart can be seen during this time, though it is protected by Moonskin.

Crystal Moon Heart (1 HD, Lethal) When the Moon Beast screeches, save vs terror or become moon sick, unable to do anything but sway and stare upwards at the moon. Creatures with 3 Int. or less automatically fail. Its crystal here vibrates sickeningly in its gullet during this time. 

I wish I had a snazzy way of formatting it but there it is. I think it's a good monster for a few reasons. The sunlight puzzle has no predetermined solutions but you can't brute force your way through it. With equipment as simple as a blanket you could defeat it, but so too could you cover it in flour, lure it underground, or quite simply, come back at night. It rewards planning. I'm really hoping the first time the players encounter one, they realize its mouth is big enough to hold them while it closes and they smash its heart, instantly killing it. 

Moon Men

Moon Men however, are entirely different operators. Basically, I think they're the insane minions of the New Moon, whatever that means. I love using androids and all the tropes associated with them, so I think the moon men will be some mix up of Men in Black, androids and doppelgangers. I imagine their skin ripples and can mold itself so they can pass as ordinary folk, probably to aid the Moon in its now failing infiltration. They're probably also twitchy as all hell, broken down, gone rogue or truly believe they are who they're impersonating. Or perhaps they're reinventing themselves, since their "god" went spastic. The party stumbling onto a group of malfunctioning androids, armed with primitive spears, worshipping a defunct AI as a god? Rad.

The players will encounter two types, the first groups of ragged, half-human insane types and more well to-do, pre-transformed Infiltrators. 

Moon Men [HD 1 and up, MV 10, M12)

1d6+2. Each group will have one Android Captain (HD 4), 1 Android Soothsayer (2 HD, has a semi-working connection to the New Moon) and a Great Pod (4HD) with them. Their great pod is a piece of tech, hidden within a ceramic vase or other that they can charge up at, attempt communication with the New Moon via and use for other such android-y things. While it functions or they're radioed into it, they are deadly and organized. A Captain can use it to power an artefact.

Radio Pack and Antennae - The Soothsayer will have a backpack which holds a transceiver. While it works, they are extremely coordinated and have perfect communication. Destroy it and all other Moon Men will spasm for a round and then act as if stunned on subsequent rounds. The soothsayer will spend a turn fixing it. Each Moon Man also has an antennae connecting it to the soothsayer.

Synth Skin - Given time, the android can assume the form of a humanoid, its skin supple, transient. The new skin can be original, bespoke or a simulacrum of another humanoid. Save vs Terror the first time you see this occur or gain 1d6 Terror. It has damage reduction of 2.

Insane Circuitry - The android has no glands to give it fear and to stay it from its mission. It does not make morale checks. It may consider retreat, diplomacy and fighting to the death in equal measure but always logically. It's also fucked somehow:

1. Fried CPU - Breaks down if it has to fight more than three enemies at once
2. Frayed Wires - Lightning arcs off of it when struck, striking a random nearby source of metal, usually an allied moon man
3. Faulty Actuators - If it is knocked down, it is unable to get up
4. Defunct Sorting Algorithm - During a fight, cannot tell friend from foe easily or from far away

Moon Goblins [HD 1-1, MV 11, M6]

Moon Goblins round out the regional trio of weirdoes brough by the New Moon. I think they're more like stowaways on the New Moon, though on some days, goblins come from the moon, speaking to their mercurial nature. 

<Aside. Goblins come from everywhere and can be found everywhere. They are dark fairies, and psychic leftovers and also magic. Where refuse piles up and mixes with negative energy, goblins arise fully formed. Where ley lines cross they claw their way from the earth like tubers. The Mother of All Monsters births them from her back like a great Surinam Toad. They are magic's answer to convergent evolution, the same form being reached many different ways. Goblinization instead of carcinization.>

They are like ordinary goblins, but albino with rheumy red eyes, wrinkly little bodies and longer ears. They have more skin than they ought to have and sharp little claws. When their teeth fall out, they replace them with shards of metal from the Moon. They are generally less malicious than their cousins and speak of "going home" and "hating the oscillations". They struggle to pay attention because they are out of sync with time here, drifting forwards and backwards relative to local time. They may perceive questions from several minutes into the future and answer them before you ask them or answer one again from several minutes ago. This gives them awful headaches and they'd rather avoid you. They're extremely perceptive to the moon and its changes, even more than the Moon Men because they understand it on a fundamental level, not reliant on its insane AI. 

They're a bit fuzzy about time and space here, making fighting them difficult. They may wink out of existence, only for the moon to drag them back here 12 feet to the left and 15 seconds ago. They can blink around and the more of them there are, the easier this is to control making fighting a horde near impossible. They may all jump to a minute into the future, all on top of you or coordinate arrow fire through time and space. 

However, they are generally docile and wish to go "home" rather than be here and they hate moon beasts with a passion, for they happily gobble the goblins up rather than kidnap them. My guess is that Moon Beasts capture human, the Moon men replace them, and the poor capture human after being drained of excess water, is turned into a moon goblin and used for labor. These are the lucky ones that escaped. 

8-9 Global Threats 

The Eelmen used to thrive here, before the moon took all the water away but they've adapted quite well. Ever seen the video of a moray eel come out of the water or crawl around on land? With most thirsty, they've taken to "puddle jumping" ambushing from the murky ever shifting lakes to hold their territory and building simple stone forts around lakes that last the longest. During thunderstorms they march, happily. 

Their goal is comically evil. The Moon has sucked up enough water over the years to flood the Barrens twice over. They plan on boarding the Moon, maneuvering it over the lawful lands to the east, and dumping it all at once. They could probably do it if they could take care of the Eye Tyrant Zargon, who lairs directly under the moon.