Engimatic Alien Psionic Devices - Help Needed

[Jürgen Hubert]

I could some help with an adventure I am currently planning.

Basically, the party in my Forgotten Realms campaign will enter an old habitat of an ancient race of serpent people (the ancestors of the yuan-ti), and I need some good enigmatic devices for the PCs to play around with. This old race was very advanced in the discipline of psionics, and the devices should reflect that, and the whole trip should feel similar as if modern-day people were wandering around a stranded alien spaceship - lots of weird gadgets without any description what they are for and how to use them.

Mind you, I'm not looking for "standard" magic items or some high-tech weaponry here (I don't want to introduce anything that could be recognizable as high-tech gadgetry - all "technology" should be psionic and alien in nature). Instead, I'm looking for things like a Scale Moisturizer (squeeze it and it will cover your entire body with a thin layer of ectoplasmic goo) - items that were useful to the serpent folk, and usually less so to humans. The PCs might be able to put some to use if they come up with a good plan and are able to think on their feet. Others should have inconvenient side effects (after all, they were not made for humans), and others will be downright dangerous to operate.

Does anyone have any good ideas?

 

[Charles Rampant]

Maybe survailance devices: A set of goggles (or a mirror?) that you put on and it shows the surroundings of the place. But have it look wierd, different. If snakes see differently it could show it in their vision range, or maybe it might focus on things that the adventurers would ignore.

Chairs/couches that slowly drift over the character, enclosing him, then it starts heating up. Used by the serpent folk to keep body heat.

Doors that demand passwords - psionically, in the snake language. They inflict mental pain (perhaps subdual damage, if your nice) upon characters when they fail to respond.

Perhaps pets, snakes naturally, that hiss psionically instead of out loud. Not very feasible though.

A favourite 'high tech' idea of mine that I always wanted to use, was the idea of a small screen, and when you looked at certain portions you suddenly got a highly magnified view of that appearing. Like a newspaper that auto-zoomed. You could have something similar - for example, a wall covered in small (very small) writing that, when the adventurers say they are looking at it, zooms in (using psionics). Perhaps this could cause some damage due to the characters not being of the right species for the device.

A rack of weapons. When the characters inevitably try to loot it, they suddenly find themselves walking in the opposite direction, as the rack uses a mind suggestion to repel anyone who isn't authorised for it.

Stairways, doors that only open when the character looks at it and concentrates on thinking, OPEN.

Lighting that bursts into flame when the characters draw near it, and extinguishes as they walk away.

Just a few ideas. Enjoy

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

A venom milker, for harvesting it from snakes and/or the yuan-ti guys.
I'm thinking snake-people would have lots of bags of tricks lying around.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

A venom milker, for harvesting it from snakes and/or the yuan-ti guys.

I just thought of something that will jump onto a character's face similar to a facehugger...

Imagine some weird liquid crystal entity jump up to cover your mouth and then start to push and suck around your teeth. What would you do?

 

[Charles Rampant]

Scream and Flail (full round action)

 

[HellHound]

I cannot recommend the <b>Legacy of the Slarecians</b> (or whatever it's called... I can never remember book titles these days) book from the Scarred Lands setting enough for this. This is exactly what that book was written for, for players to stumble into the leftovers of ancient and long-forgotten slarecian enclaves, and explore and discover the VERY strange psionic devices they left behind.

 

[VirgilCaine]

This is some cool stuff, people. Like finding Mi-Go devices, but in D&D.

There was a thread a long time ago about if just exploration could keep PCs occupied and happy or a session. I could see this doing that.

 

[Nifft]

1/ Limbs in those creepy sci-fi giant glass tubes. The limbs are psionic augmentations (grafts) and are alive. When someone smart/charismatic walks by, the limbs twitch. Just a little.

2/ Heads in jars. Everyone knows that a living head in a jar can be tapped for psionic energy. These particular heads are, of course, insane.

3/ Glowcrystals powered by the mind. The ambient light in each room is determined by the highest Int in that room (or Cha, whatever the ancient alien race was really good at). Pity the smart rogue who's trying to be stealthy...

3b/ Once the PCs figure out the light scheme, they see bright flashes moving down distant hallways (or reflected light where it shouldn't be, or something).

4/ The Far Realms. Ancient snake people, meet timeless tentacled thingies. Perhaps the art on the walls are really Scrying devices attuned to the Far Realms, or worse, dimensionally compressed slices of the Far Realms. Look like abstract art... until it looks at you.

5/ The aliens had some kind of head-socket where stuff plugged in, maybe in a 3rd eye type of place. Whenever a PCs sits on a command-chair, a sharp crystal (on a tentacle?) tries to insert itself into his or her forehead.

6/ Powered Slave Armor. Armor that gives you a really nice AC bonus, but lowers your Will save vs. Psionics.

7/ Clone / Mind Swap facilities. Bodies growing in thick liquid, two chairs, lots of crystals, ancient dried blood everywhere.

-- N

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I cannot recommend the <b>Legacy of the Slarecians</b> (or whatever it's called... I can never remember book titles these days) book from the Scarred Lands setting enough for this. This is exactly what that book was written for, for players to stumble into the leftovers of ancient and long-forgotten slarecian enclaves, and explore and discover the VERY strange psionic devices they left behind.

You know, I actually bought that book recently when I found out that a German online job had them at the same reduced price as White Wolf - but I didn't have the time yet to take a look at it. I guess I should take the time now...

 

[HellHound]

You know, I actually bought that book recently when I found out that a German online job had them at the same reduced price as White Wolf - but I didn't have the time yet to take a look at it. I guess I should take the time now...

Absolutely, from what you said in the first post, it should have a lot of what you are looking for. The slarecians are an ancient, now extinct species with lots of psionic doodads and gizmos... and of course 'strange geometry' and everything else you need to mix cthulhu with your psicrystals.