Engineering Room
RoomDCC 72 · p.27
Open source p.27Area 4 – Engineering Room
The walls of this kidney-shaped room are covered with steel panels, buttons, switches, and flashing red lights. Small green stick-men look at a window on the floor, smiling and nodding their rubbery heads as if celebrating. Each wears an amulet with a glowing red gem. One extends its sole elastic appendage to a panel, and pulls down a lever. A faint hum begins as a yellow glow radiates through the floor’s window. Upon noticing you, the five gibber with high pitched voices and frantically point their single arms back the way you came.
These creatures are Ybmugs, intelligent synthetic constructs created by the Tahlmohls. They’re celebrating because they’ve just created a containment field around the engine’s nuclear fuel cell (see below). The Ybmugs prefer that the PCs flee, so they give the PCs one round to exit the chamber, or attempt to parlay – otherwise they attack. They understand common but cannot speak it (a comprehend languages spell check of 20 allows the caster to speak the Ybmug language). They try to convince the party that the ship will self-destruct. Role-playing judges are reminded that each Ybmug (initially) has only one arm.
The constructs can be a significant combat challenge due to their amulets. Each amulet begins with one charge, but when an Ybmug dies, its amulet’s charge transfers to the closest amulet worn by a living Ybmug. As an amulet gains more charge, its bearer grows larger and gains additional arms (and attacks). Parties that follow the gang-up-on-single-enemy strategy will find the battle becoming more and more difficult as remaining opponents grow in power. The easiest way to defeat them is to remove/destroy their amulets before killing them; this is accomplished with a suc-
cessful mighty deed against the creature, or by striking the amulet directly (AC 17 with 1 hp). If an amulet is removed with a killing blow (such as a deed) then the charge transfer does not occur. Without an amulet, an Ybmug reverts to 1-charge form. Note below that 1-charge or amuletless Ybmugs have a action die. For larger parties, have one Ybmug for each PC.
Ybmug Technicians (5 or more): Init ; Atk special; AC special; HD special; hp special; MV 30’; Act special; SP charged stats (stats depend on amulet’s charges, see table below), death throe (amulet’s charge transfers to closest amulet worn by living Ybmug, completely healing it, making it larger, and giving it one more arm); SV special; AL N.
Charges Stat Changes
1 4’ tall; Atk rubber arm melee (); AC 11; HD ; hp 5 each; Act ; SV Fort , Ref , Will .
2 6’ tall; Atk rubber arm melee (); AC 12; HD ; hp 10 each; Act ; SV Fort , Ref , Will .
3 8’ tall; Atk rubber arm melee (); AC 13; HD ; hp 15 each; Act ; SV Fort , Ref , Will .
4 10’ tall; Atk rubber arm melee (, range 10’); AC 14; HD ; hp 20 each; Act ; SP crits on 20 and 24; SV Fort , Ref , Will .
5 12’ tall; Atk rubber arm melee (, range 15’); AC 15; HD ; hp 25 each; Act ; SP crits on 20, 24, and 30; SV Fort , Ref , Will .
PCs looking through floor’s window see a pulsing black sphere (the nuclear fuel cell) surrounded by a glowing yellow shell of energy (the containment field). Moving the lever to the up position removes the containment field and stops the audible hum. Moving the lever back down restores the field and hum. The panels’ controls (besides the lever) have been disabled, so using them has no effect. If the field is disabled when the ship implodes, the nuclear fuel detonates and destroys the region (see conclusion). Otherwise, the field teleports the cell safely away (the judge may decide where) when the ship self-destructs.
Intact amulets are worth 50 gp each, though wizards versed in gem-magic will pay 10 times as much for them.