Broodmother skyfortress pdf download

Those in the Skydrive chambers must save versus Paralysis 4 or find themselves blinded for 2d6 Rounds use the rules for darkness and invisibility on page 60 of the LotFP Rules and Magic book. Anyone touch- 5 ing the Obelisk takes 20d6 damage and is stunned for 1d6 Rounds, save versus Magic for half damage. The Spiders Strike: Roll 1d12 to fill a random chamber with cobwebs that must be hacked through or burnt away either taking 1d Turns.

If the Spiders web up a room occupied with a Giant, note that the Giant is presently asleep, snug in a silky cocoon and ready to scare the bejesus out of the party when it pops out. Small particles of cloudstuff crumble from the ceiling. Relocate a Giant as necessary. They 2 enter via areas A, D, or H equal chances for each.

The smell of cooking food will lead the party to either areas B 3 or C equal chances of each. If the number 4 rolled is less than the size of the party, they will throw spears then retreat.

Ignore if they have been befriended. A few spiders are crawling along the tunnel ahead. Not 5 enough are here to trigger a swarm or harm the party in any way. Drips of dirty water from ceiling. Harmless, but someone might be spooked by a few drips on the face particularly 6 into the mouth, this stuff tastes nasty or the sputtering sound as they land on a burning torch.

No monster in the pool. No treasure at the bottom. The water is not poi- soned, acidic or enchanted in any way unless you want otherwise.

Trophy Room The walls of this room are decorated with the pelts, antlers and heads of a dozen unknown species of gigantic beasts.

Prob- ably the most valuable piece in the collection is the whole skeleton of an apelike creature, only the skeleton is made of electrum-infused bone with three straight-razor style blades attached to each hand. In total, the electrum katana-ape is worth sp for its metal value and three or four times that much to the right collector. One of the objects on one of the tables is a skull that appears to be human but is three times larger than normal.

This is the skull of the Sky King, whose body sits on the throne in room 3. Inside the skull is the Angry Brain. To this day the shriveled, rotting black brain is thinking some very bitter subconscious thoughts about its own impending death. These thoughts are so powerful they manifest themselves as the Malevolences haunting the Skyfortress.

There are few clues to tell the party about the brain. The skull sits on a blackish stain, with a few fresh drops of thick, black blood directly under it. The Angry Brain will not object to its skull being handled. Un- doubtedly the fastest way to dispatch them is to finish the job on the skull and murder the brain inside.

One solid smashing or stabbing. Once the Angry Brain is dead all Malevolences will be dispelled. Wittingly or no, the party may opt to steal the skull with the Angry Brain still functional.

With all the Malevolences it conjures in its wake, planting the skull somewhere would be a helluva way to disrupt an enemy city. No save. Throne Room Sitting on a magnificent black granite throne on a raised dais is the skeletal corpse of the last king of the Skyfortress, looking badass even in death like that skeleton king near the beginning of the original Conan the Barbarian film. Laying across the lap of the skeleton is a shriveled, empty scabbard of giant size.

The Swordmaniac wields the sword that used to rest in that sheath. Although the Giants make use of this room and the filth in some parts of the chamber shows the Broodmother uses it regularly , the throne and corpse are considered taboo by the Giants.

Past the original sac- rilege of looting the sword they will not disturb this spooky guy. If the players search the body of the dead king it will collapse into a pile of bones and dust. They will find he is wearing a massive ruby on a gold chain worth 10,sp. So tempting is this jewel that all NPCs in the party will need to check morale or they will attempt to abscond with it at some strategic point. The titanic helmet is worth sp as a curiosity. Nothing else on the king holds any value.

The madness in his eyes will be obvious to all. The newly-resurrected Sky King will go on a rampage, slaying all intruders on his island. His initial priorities will be to retrieve his sword from the Swordmaniac and get back his ruby if necessary, but.

No statistics are given here for the Sky King, as no one else in the ad- venture is in his league, the combined might of the PCs included. He is an unstoppable juggernaut of destruction, able to physically crush anyone in his way and capable of a wide variety of magics. He can breathe fire, shoot lasers from his eyes and crap lightning. The only things that might stop the King are beheading him again with a Vorpal Blade versus Armor 20 or magics of the genie wish variety.

But basically if the Sky King is activated the adven- ture becomes all about who escapes and who dies. Primary Nest The original function of this chamber has been completely obscured. The Broodmother spends a lot of time here. Her stench and foul ex- cretions have turned this chamber into a den of pollution. On any given expedition to the Skyfortress 2d6 eggs will be found here. These eggs resemble roundish boulders maybe five feet in diameter. Disturbing an egg results in a 1 in 6 chance of it hatching one Round later, releasing a ravenous Hatchling upon the party.

Each egg that hatches effectively disturbs all the others, so reroll that 1 in 6 chance for all remaining eggs each time a new one hatches. The Broodmother keeps one or two throwing boulders here at all times, which she will hurl at any Giant that annoys her just as readily as at intruders.

These rocks are noticeably smaller than the eggs, but players may jump to the conclusion that the Broodmother throws her own offspring at foes.

Upper Skydrive This circular chamber features an elaborately vaulted ceiling. The top third of the pyramid is marked with a grid of fine black lines, on which are twenty-five gems laid out apparently at random. Each face of the pyramid holds be- tween sp and sp of gems. At any given time about half of the gems 3d6, say are lit up with an internal glow. This is the Skydrive, the combined engine and controls for the fortress. Each gem is either a control or gauge for the drive.

Many of them can be rotated in place or slid along the gridlines. Doing so without any training is the equivalent of walking into the cabin of a jetliner. The Chainmonster knows just enough about the Skydrive to steer it ineptly. The Runt has watched him on several occasions but would probably screw up the first time he tried the controls. The Mad Maiden is probably the best pilot in the tribe when she is possessed, but no one trusts her at the con- trols.

Confronted with this mysterious device, many players will either want to experiment with the controls or try to steal the gems. The unlit gems are relatively safe 1 in 6 chance of a mishap if moved or removed , while the glowing ones are almost certainly dangerous 5 in 6 chance of a mishap. If a mishap occurs roll on the table below.

Random Skydrive Mishaps 1d6 1 Skydrive shocks the operator for 2d6 electrical damage. No obvious effect but Golden Obelisk area 15 is deacti- 2 vated. Reversing control turns it back on. An explosion of bright blue light. Those in the Skydrive cham- bers must save versus Paralysis or find themselves blinded for 3 2d6 Turns use the rules for darkness and invisibility on page 60 of the LotFP Rules and Magic book. The whole cloud pitches to the side like an episode of origi- nal series Star Trek.

Everyone must save versus Paralysis or be 4 thrown to the floor for 1d damage. Potion bottles and the like have a 2 in 6 chance of shattering. Reversing the control rights the cloud, otherwise it stays off-kilter.

If the controls are not reversed 5 in 6 Rounds a burst of energy explodes for 4d6 electrical damage to everyone in the room. Antigravity deactivated. If the control is not reversed in time, which I think would be a bit tricky to pull off, 6 everyone must save versus Poison or die in the ensuing crash.

Anyone who saves still takes 2d6 damage and is knocked unconscious for 1d6 turns. All treasure and equipment is completely ruined in the crash. The Runt and the Flopping Grotesquerie version of the Terrible Twins are the only giants who can squeeze into the chamber. If the random placement dice puts any other Giant here they are trying to get in from an adjacent area 7 or 9.

Perhaps something rolled in here; maybe an egg they were taking to the Cloudmarsh area 17 got away from them or they are chasing a stray Wretch. Playing around with the gems here 25 total, sp to sp value, 3d6 glow is even more dangerous than in the Upper Skydrive cham- ber, more like opening up a jet engine in flight and tossing in a mon- key wrench.

If a gem is manipulated or removed use the Random Skydrive Mishaps table but roll two dice. If double ones come up then nothing happens. If double twos, threes, fours or fives are rolled then treat it as a single roll of that number. If double sixes come up the whole place explodes, everyone dies and everything is destroyed.

Otherwise read the dice as two separate mishaps that occur simulta- neously. Larder The Chainmonster or some like-minded ancestor has equipped this room with sufficient dangling hooks and securing chains for the stor- age of meat both living and dead. Most of the food stored here will be in the form of carcasses or cattle, swine, sheep, etc. Additional live prisoners may be found here as well. The healthier snacks outran the Giants. The three large barrels in one corner of the room will immediately draw the attention of the sort of player who really digs it when their PCs get soused.

Unfortunately, the ale they contain has been con- taminated with blood both bovine and human along with some chopped onion. These Giants have weird tastes in beverages.

This chamber would be a good place for the Referee to insert some sort of clue for further development in the campaign. Like a severed arm with a treasure map tattooed on it, for example. Any Giants here will avail themselves of the opportunity to hurl boulders at intruders.

They even keep four reasonable throwing rocks here for just such purposes. Crypt Entrance This chamber probably once served as a shrine of sorts or perhaps a place of ancestor veneration, as the shattered remains of numerous small stone statues litter the floor along with the fragments of a pair of altars or tables. Laying near the entrance to chamber 10 are a pair of battered doors. These are the only doors in the complex, as the titans of yore used doorway tech- nology for ceremonial purposes only.

The Crypt The walls of this room contain twelve niches large enough to hold a recumbent skeleton of titanic proportions. Ten of the niches are occupied with piles of bone on the same scale as the dead king in the Throne Room. The eleventh holds a pile of white dust. The twelfth niche was intended for the king, but he was too grumpy to crawl in there and lie down before dying.

This may come as a surprise to you, but the eleven skeletons here are not undead waiting to jump up and murder the PCs. Instead of being undead, they are one step beyond death. No form of resurrection or reincarnation spell will work on these skeletons; neither will Speak with Dead.

These skeletons have been lying here so long their ghosts have died of old age. Rather than nicely assembled skeletons laid out respectfully, these corpses have endured centuries of desecration and grave robbing at the hands of previous generations of Giants. Thus their bones are now strewn hodgepodge about their respec- tive niches, with a couple of giant femurs and whatnot lying on the ground.

If a character carefully touches one of the bones lying on the ground or in a niche, it will crumble to powder.

If however they start indis-. All within the area of effect must save versus Poison. Success indicates they emerge from the cloud covered with bone dust, coughing and chok- ing for one or two Rounds. Failure indicates they inhale enough small, sharp bits of bone to really tear up their mouth, esophagus, lungs, etc.

The victim takes 2d6 damage and is incapacitated for 2d6 days, dur- ing which time they move at half rate and always lose initiative rolls in combat. And they spit up a lot of blood. Most of the treasure here is long gone, looted and lost long before the PCs were born. The map depicts familiar continents of the planet in an unusual arrangement for games set on Earth, it shows the world just after the break-up of Pangaea. Several out-of-scale pyramids appear on the map one in Egypt?

The map is made of semi-precious stones which if pried out would fill a small sack for about 2,sp in loose stones. The ceiling of the lower niche is at just the right height for a halfling to spot easily, no roll required.

The Red Columns The reddish-brown columns along this chamber give the eyes a little respite from the continuous whiteness assaulting them in most of the rest of the Skyfortress. A few hundred spiders crawl across the ceiling, but not in sufficient density or hostility to constitute a Spider Swarm. If a swarm is placed here it will initially appear as if one of the columns is black instead or red, at least until that blanket of blackness starts creeping towards the party.

Damaged Room A crumbled spot in the wall here provided access in and out of the fortress via an opening too small for most of the Giants. The Runt can squeeze through, taking an extra Round or two to get through, or if the Swordmaniac is sufficiently roused he can charge the hole and bust through, enlarging the exit to giant-sized.

Outdoors Locations The statue was posed with one arm extended in a friendly greeting, which has broken off and lies nearby. If the vegetation is cleared off, the sheer beauty and craftsman- ship of the statue is breathtaking. The statue is probably worth tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands to the right buyer, but moving the statue would be a massive undertaking.

A more practical form of pillaging would be to take the arm and find a buyer for that. Even by itself the arm requires at least two bearers to carry it. In a suf- ficiently cosmopolitan city the arm alone would fetch 2,sp. The garden contains additional statuary such as broken pillars, a winged horse, three graces i. These statues have no appreciable value due to their incomplete state and inferior quality stone. A fountain featuring cherubs pouring water-jugs into a basin has dried up completely.

Great Winches Here at the edge of the cloud some ancestor of the Giants has con- structed a giant mechanism similar in scale to a siege engine. This de- vice allows the deployment of three huge ship anchors with several hundred feet of heavy chain, allowing the Skyfortress to be secured after it has been brought to a stop by use of the Skydrive chambers 5 and 6.

Of the current generation of Giants only the Chainmon- ster and the Runt know how to operate this machine. Golden Obelisk As long as this tall needle of gold-plated cloudstuff remains in place the entire island is magically protected from most of the effects of bad weather, apart from light rain and gusty winds. Any lightning- type magic cast within sight of the Obelisk is drawn to it rather than the target, but anyone in physical contact with the Obelisk takes full damage from the lightning effects.

Scraping the gold off the Obelisk is possible if foolish. Each man-Turn of scraping yields 1d sp worth of gold, with 1,sp total within easy reach and another 5,sp above that. After such plundering roll a d6 and consult the chart below:. Amount Scraped Roll Result sp 1 Obelisk disenchanted, no effect. If the Obelisk is disenchanted the next big storm the Skyfortress flies through will really wreck the place.

Ruins The scope of the rubble field here suggests that the Skyfortress once featured many additional buildings. A careful survey by a character with adequate skill in Architecture or dwarven stonelore will reveal that some of the ruined buildings here are incomplete due to the cloudy foundations below them crumbling away.

However, successful Climb and Search rolls along the cloudcliff where the buildings are crumbled will reveal a treasure perched precariously in a nook of the cliff- side: a giant-sized gold ring that looks more like a smallish bracelet to human-sized folk.

Demihumans and lithe humans could wear the ring around their wrist. However, if the initial sav- ing throw against the Charm suc- ceeds all further encounters with monsters of that kind will be irrevocably hostile. Cloudmarsh This section of the cloud is less stable than the rest of the island. In the latter case only proper pre- cautions or a Search roll will allow the lead members of the party to avoid falling to their doom.

Any Giants found in this section of the Cloud will be transporting eggs one or two at a time the Runt will be rolling his. When the Broodmother decides that a clutch is ready for distribution they are dropped through the cloud here during a close ap- proach to the ground.

Disturbing any of the eggs after they have. Stank Hole This four foot wide hole straight through the cloud serves as a pretty convenient place for most of the Giants to vacate their bowels and bladders. The overpowering odor of the combined stains near the edge of the hole and along the walls of the shaft should make the situation obvious. King of All Apple Trees A vast, nearly dead tree grows here in the remarkable fluffy cloudstuff soil.

Their flavor will be of unparalleled sweetness and delight. The owner of an orchard of such apples would no doubt be able to retire in wealth. Overgrown Garden The neat rows and simple organization of the original design of this garden have been obscured by centuries of neglect.

A successful Bushcraft rolls here allows the party to gather 1d6 days worth of food in the form of various knobby, bitter vegetables and sour berries. The tablet contains a copy of the. Either use causes the tablet to crumble to dust. Erosion has partially effaced the characters carved on the tablet, leading to a flaw in the spell.

Each time the Growth spell is used there is a 1 in 6 chance the enchanted plants will ani- mate as a 4 Hit Dice monster and attack the caster. Tunnel Locations All the tunnels are festooned with just enough phosphorescent fungus to give the player characters the impression that it is safe to go down there without torches or lanterns. They will be able to negotiate the tunnels without proper lighting, but the Wretches see much better under these conditions, granting them a great advantage against intruders.

The Mousehole This crack in an interior wall of the Skyfortress is the only obvious way into the tunnels below. A slim halfling or typical elf can slip through easily. Cave of the Old Woman Most of the Wretches eat and sleep in chamber C below, but a lone wise-woman figure lives here.

Her collection of dried fungus and herbs barely fulfils the humble medical needs of her own community. The Great Shroom Cavern This large space serves as the primary living space for the tribe. The walls are lined with a variant phosphorescent fungi that is vaguely nutritious and rather fast growing. A small fire is usually burning here and 1d4 spears with cloudstuff spearheads can be found lying around the joint. A Bush- craft roll here will allow the party to identify a small number of psy- chedelic shrooms 1d12 doses.

Finding such fare when randomly gobbling on mushrooms is unlikely 1 in 6 chance. Whatever vision the tripper has will continue to haunt them in their dreams on and off for years. The Boulder Pile The Giants maintain a large stockpile of throwing boulders here, covering a smallish anyone bigger than a halfling must crouch or crawl entrance to the tunnels. The Wretches have partially dug out the back of the pile, clearing enough space to form a small duck-blind kind of room.

This small hollow could hold two people in cramped quarters and offers several peepholes into the chamber of Red Columns location From the chamber a simple Search roll will reveal the hidden space, but several large boulders will need to.

Moving boulders hap- hazardly will certainly bring the top of the pile crashing down on the party for 2d6 damage apiece. Such a mishap can be avoided by a competent supervisor directing the work with use of the Architecture skill or dwarf stonelore, for those not playing with LotFP rules. Chamber of the Ancestors This chamber contains a neatly stacked pyramidal pile of several dozen human skulls. In flickering torchlight or the ambient phosphores- cence of the tunnels the character with the lowest Wisdom score will be absolutely convinced that one or more of the skulls are watching the party.

Should the pile of skulls be searched thoroughly, near the bottom of the stack the party will find a skull made of crystal. It has no magical properties unless you want it to but is worth 1, sp. It is one of the greatest honors a Wretch may receive from its people to have their skull enshrined here after death. If any party members befriend the Wretches prior to being slain, their skulls will be added to the stack if possible. Casting any form of Animate Dead here will turn the pile into a single chittering undead horror.

The Crossroads From this point the party should be able to hear the activities of at least one group of Wretches. However, the weird acoustics of this place ensure a 1 in 6 chance they will misread which direction the sounds are coming from. The Pool In this chamber dirty water drips from the ceiling into a shallow pool, about 18 inches at its deepest. This is the primary water supply for the Wretches. If it is poisoned they will have to rely on surreptitious trips to chamber 1 and the few hollow spaces in the Ruins that can effec- tively catch rainwater.

The bottom of the pool is only semi-solid, so anyone wading into the deepest part will fall through and out of the cloud completely. The resulting hole will seal itself in 1d Rounds. Below the Ruins Underneath area 16 is a maze of partially filled and mostly cramped tunnels connected to the main complex under the Skyfortress. One passage here leads directly out the side of the cloud.

Weapons do no damage to Armor: 15 swarms. Fire and cold based at- Hit Points: 2d8 tacks are effective. Heavy smoke Unencumbered Movement Rate: will drive them off. They can only be struck Save As: 0 level Fighter by magical attacks. In nearly any Morale: 6 situation they surprise foes on a on a 1d6. Yep, those sure are some stats. Some fantasy role-playing games might allow a high-level character to wrestle an angry Tyrannosaurus, but LotFP assumes that the player characters will be a bit more like the poor white-water rafters stuck in Land of the Lost.

These big scary monsters are nigh-unstoppable killing machines; that is their whole deal. Like the protagonists in Land of the Lost, the only hope the PCs have is to avoid a direct confrontation. Armor: None! Why would they? Hit Points: Bad news here. Which is fine, because one Giant loose in your hometown should seem like a visit from an angry Jehovah.

Damage Reduction: -5 points. This is going to be the thing that really cheeses off some of the players. You should be totally obvious about this. Describe a 6 point blow as the merest scratch, barely drawing blood through deep lay- ers of tough hide and thick fat.

Obviously you could attempt to simulate the Damage Reduction by assigning a really high Armor to the Giants. Call it Mechanical Alienation if you want a term for it. See the monster stats in the Call of Cthulhu role- playing game for some good examples of this concept in action.

The players just need to come up with some nonconventional means of doing so. The damage can be increased by weapon use, as noted in the individual monster descrip- tions. If any damage die comes up a 6 or more, the target is knocked back 1d6 x 5 feet and falls prone. Anyone in armor heavier than leather will take a whole Round to get back up.

One thrown boulder may attack two adjacent targets. Each time a boulder hits a foe some item of theirs will be crushed and broken. The player then selects an alternate item. You each then roll a d20, high number determining which item is wrecked. The pos- sibility of losing their precious magic sword will scare more players than simple hit point damage. You ever been near an angry or panicked animal of any size? They will flail around, not giving a crap about who they hurt. And most people, unless they have direct experience working with animals, have no idea how strong a cow or a mule is compared to them.

Morale: 12 Special: These misty creeps are Not Undead: Since these crea- barely substantial and nearly tures are born of the living, hating invisible. They can only be struck Angry Brain, they are not undead by magical attacks. In nearly any and thus cannot be Turned situation they surprise foes on a or otherwise affected by anti- on 1d6.

Note that this decision is clearly a Dick Move on The statistics listed above are my part. Year: Hard Cover. Product Code: LFP ISBN View Corrections Link Image. No items found. No images found. No videos found.

No threads found. No posts found. Title Hot Recent. Sort: Pg. Relationship: Periodical Articles Podcast Episodes. No lists found. RPG Item Rank:. Personal Comments:. This time, I used a pre-made module by the excellent game master Jeff Rients.

It's called Broodmother Skyfortress, because there's a Broodmother and a Skyfortress in the module. It's quite fun. Part of the module and an excellent part, at that is a sort of thematic modularity that allows you to build the game to suit your campaign.

The "Giants" of the Brood can be from 4 different origins, or more if you make one up yourself. Same for the Skyfortress itself. So naturally, this being Chaos Quest, I left all of these decisions up to the players.

It did not go as expected. This story is part 4 of a series. The campaign is complete. Just as their patron, Mr. Lizard, returned to their graveyard hideout, a massive thunderstorm rolled in.

Declaring that this was their ticket out of here, Mr. Lizard led the group up the massive chains tethering the cloud to the ground, while huge, centaurian monsters rampaged through the darkened city below. They arrived on the surface of a cloud, where the storm was gone, and the moonlight shone above them. In the distance, they saw several structures, the largest of which was a domed building with a huge golden obelisk sticking up out of it.

Lizard then asked the group who they though built the domed building, and what they though those monsters looked like. The party agreed: those monsters were certainly fiends of some kind, and the building looked like it was made by some creatures so technologically advanced that they had fled Ahneria long ago.

Lizard then told them their goals: capture the Skyfortress so they could use it as a base of operations, and travel the world in it. Also, set it on a path towards Garton and figure out how to use its laser cannons or whatever weaponry it had. Drawing closer, they realized these were similar in construction to the larger dome: but the blinking lights and sci-fi glow had long faded. Magic Man realized that these structures had fallen through the cloud supports below, meaning this cloud structure was slowly destabilizing.

They then realized Mr. Lizard had disappeared, leaving only a note in Agne's pocket stating "BRB". It wasn't the first time their patron had vanished on them, and they shrugged it off. The group decided to venture into the basements of these buildings and see what they could find.

They eventually made their way all the way down, and could see the distant city on fire below them. Also, the chains they had climbed up on were now being used by the monsters to return to the cloud. The group was finally able to get a good look at the creatures who had been destroying Auraglow.

They were centaur-like, but massive - their lower halves were elephant-like, and as large as elephants as well. Their upper halves were humanoid, except their heads, which looked like hammerhead shark heads. Their skin was dark reddish-grey, and they sported long curled horns and sharp black claws on their hands. One of them had a monstrous glowing blue sword strapped to his back. This third of Broodmother Skyfortress lit my brain on fire on re-reading this book; it was something I may have glossed over a few years back but which I immediately valued and appreciated now.

Broodmother Skyfortress is a fantastic book on its own, and an excellent contribution to the Lamentations of the Flame Princess corpus. Alex, Craig, Ian, Jeff, and Jez did a fantastic job here. Buy this book for yourself.

Buy it for someone you know who wants to dip their toe into the OSR. Following that, the original review text is unaltered. A detailed post on this subject is forthcoming.

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