So I've been having a rest from DMing for a while, but my friends want me to run an adventure and I have this idea to create a short DnD 3.5e adventure inspired by the movie Aliens, in Eberron. I thought I'd share it here & see if any of the inspired minds in the EN World community can help be develop it.
The plot so far:
I'm still working on a DnD version of the alien species. Forgetting the stats for a moment, the movie alien starts as an egg, turns into a face hugger, gestates inside a victim temporarily incapacitated by a face hugger, and erupts out of the victim into a strong, fast, agile mass of fangs, claws and acidic blood.
Now the movie version is great, but its hard to recover from an alien exploding out of your chest and I doubt my players enjoy facing a certain death sentence as soon as a face hugger gets a hold and chokes them out. But if you make it too easy to purge the incubating (?) alien implanted by the face hugger the alien loses a lot of its fear.
I'm thinking of a cross between a venom (ala Spiderman) or guyver-like parasitic creature (yes I know guyver suit wasn't a parasite, bear with me) with a number of stages of development: start out as large spores, if disturbed the spore ejects a small shape shifting, grapple-specialised blobs (face hugger), that latches onto a nearby victim. Latches on, the blob invades the victim's airways, generally choking them unconscious while it melds into the victim’s body internally. Over the next few hours/days, usually unknown to the victim, the alien adapts to the victim's body until it is able to take over, erupting through blood vessels closest to the skin to wrap the victim in a tough leathery shell with all the fangs and claws we know and love.
Because I'm still trying to run a heroic adventure and not a horror story, the alien can be defeated even after it has completely taken over a victim's body. It has a weakness that repels the alien organism and can even cause it to abandon a host body, leaving the host near death or dying, but able to be saved (giving infected PCs a glimmer of hope if they can figure out the weakness). At present I'm leaning toward daylight being the weakness.
Millennia before the PCs' time, when the aliens last appeared on Xen Drik, their weakness was discovered, they were hunted down and the last of their kind entombed deep in the earth with magical gems enchanted to continually radiate magical daylight. While the aliens themselves could survive long periods in a dormant state the bodies they took over required sustenance. In time the bodies died, and the then dormant aliens were forgotten.
When he miner's discovered the shaft leading to their tomb and the magical gems at the bottom of it, they removed them unaware of their significance. Gaining entry to the inner chambers, the miners found the long dead remains of the aliens last victims. They also awakened the dormant aliens...
So, that’s my idea. What do you think?
I think it has a lot of potential, but it could use a bit more padding out. I'd be grateful for any suggestions people might are to offer.
By the way - At present my players are 7th level, likely to be 8th or 9th level before I get them in my clutches!
[Edited grammar]
The plot so far:
The PCs are hired and briefed by a favoured member of House Cannith: Contact has been lost with an expedition despatched 6 months ago to mine a rich pocket of dragonshards in a mountainous region of Xen Drik. Every month a Cannith Airship would deliver supplies and return with some exceptional finds. Three weeks ago the airship didn't return and a second airship sent to investigate is now a week over due. Because of their exceptional reputations the PCs are enlisted to join a new, heavily armed group being assembled to investigate.
Early morning a few days later sees them arriving at the deserted stockade that formed the miners base camp. The two missing airships still hovering nearby, kept aloft by their bound elementals, held in place by stout anchor chains. Barricades, blood smears and discarded weapons inside he stockade and ships tell of fierce, desperate battles but there are no other signs of the miners or crewmen. A half packed shipment of dragonshards found inside the stockade raises questions.
Accompanying a squad of Cannith guardsmen to the nearby mine along jungle paths takes place in eerie silence, broken only by the sounds of the wind through the trees. No sign of any living thing nearby is seen or heard. The mine itself is equally silent, but one of the newest tunnels is found to have breached an ancient vertical shaft. A bright light shines down from high above and the shaft descends into deep shadows below. In the darkness at the base of a shaft is a large chamber, marked only by an empty stand in the middle of the floor.
A heavy stone door in the far end of the chamber leads to another chamber containing the dusty, mummified remains of humanoids obviously entombed in ancient times. Claw marks gouged into the inside of the stone door and adjacent walls indicate the humanoids may have been entombed alive, but the bodies show no signs of claws capable of leaving the gouges.
Another, deeper chamber, reveals the first sign of the miners and airship crewmen. Several are found dead or unconscious, imprisoned in a disturbing mass of some sort of solidified secretions the holds them immobilised. Shattered sections of the secretions indicate some prisoners were able to break free but hardness of the fragments and solid sections remaining suggest immense strength was required.
A scream and cries of combat from the Cannith guardsmen announces sudden combat and a rush of movement from the shadows introduces the PCs to the creatures responsible for the disappearance of the miners and airship crews...
Early morning a few days later sees them arriving at the deserted stockade that formed the miners base camp. The two missing airships still hovering nearby, kept aloft by their bound elementals, held in place by stout anchor chains. Barricades, blood smears and discarded weapons inside he stockade and ships tell of fierce, desperate battles but there are no other signs of the miners or crewmen. A half packed shipment of dragonshards found inside the stockade raises questions.
Accompanying a squad of Cannith guardsmen to the nearby mine along jungle paths takes place in eerie silence, broken only by the sounds of the wind through the trees. No sign of any living thing nearby is seen or heard. The mine itself is equally silent, but one of the newest tunnels is found to have breached an ancient vertical shaft. A bright light shines down from high above and the shaft descends into deep shadows below. In the darkness at the base of a shaft is a large chamber, marked only by an empty stand in the middle of the floor.
A heavy stone door in the far end of the chamber leads to another chamber containing the dusty, mummified remains of humanoids obviously entombed in ancient times. Claw marks gouged into the inside of the stone door and adjacent walls indicate the humanoids may have been entombed alive, but the bodies show no signs of claws capable of leaving the gouges.
Another, deeper chamber, reveals the first sign of the miners and airship crewmen. Several are found dead or unconscious, imprisoned in a disturbing mass of some sort of solidified secretions the holds them immobilised. Shattered sections of the secretions indicate some prisoners were able to break free but hardness of the fragments and solid sections remaining suggest immense strength was required.
A scream and cries of combat from the Cannith guardsmen announces sudden combat and a rush of movement from the shadows introduces the PCs to the creatures responsible for the disappearance of the miners and airship crews...
I'm still working on a DnD version of the alien species. Forgetting the stats for a moment, the movie alien starts as an egg, turns into a face hugger, gestates inside a victim temporarily incapacitated by a face hugger, and erupts out of the victim into a strong, fast, agile mass of fangs, claws and acidic blood.
Now the movie version is great, but its hard to recover from an alien exploding out of your chest and I doubt my players enjoy facing a certain death sentence as soon as a face hugger gets a hold and chokes them out. But if you make it too easy to purge the incubating (?) alien implanted by the face hugger the alien loses a lot of its fear.
I'm thinking of a cross between a venom (ala Spiderman) or guyver-like parasitic creature (yes I know guyver suit wasn't a parasite, bear with me) with a number of stages of development: start out as large spores, if disturbed the spore ejects a small shape shifting, grapple-specialised blobs (face hugger), that latches onto a nearby victim. Latches on, the blob invades the victim's airways, generally choking them unconscious while it melds into the victim’s body internally. Over the next few hours/days, usually unknown to the victim, the alien adapts to the victim's body until it is able to take over, erupting through blood vessels closest to the skin to wrap the victim in a tough leathery shell with all the fangs and claws we know and love.
Because I'm still trying to run a heroic adventure and not a horror story, the alien can be defeated even after it has completely taken over a victim's body. It has a weakness that repels the alien organism and can even cause it to abandon a host body, leaving the host near death or dying, but able to be saved (giving infected PCs a glimmer of hope if they can figure out the weakness). At present I'm leaning toward daylight being the weakness.
Millennia before the PCs' time, when the aliens last appeared on Xen Drik, their weakness was discovered, they were hunted down and the last of their kind entombed deep in the earth with magical gems enchanted to continually radiate magical daylight. While the aliens themselves could survive long periods in a dormant state the bodies they took over required sustenance. In time the bodies died, and the then dormant aliens were forgotten.
When he miner's discovered the shaft leading to their tomb and the magical gems at the bottom of it, they removed them unaware of their significance. Gaining entry to the inner chambers, the miners found the long dead remains of the aliens last victims. They also awakened the dormant aliens...
So, that’s my idea. What do you think?
I think it has a lot of potential, but it could use a bit more padding out. I'd be grateful for any suggestions people might are to offer.
By the way - At present my players are 7th level, likely to be 8th or 9th level before I get them in my clutches!
[Edited grammar]
