From: "CHRISTINE M THOMPSON" To: Subject: Chaosium Digest v33.07 Date: Thursday, April 19, 2001 10:54 PM Chaosium Digest Thursday, April 19, 2001 Volume 33, Number 07 RISE OF THE OPHIDIAN EMPIRE: PART ONE (Continued) by Mervyn Boyd - jack@ktana.freeserve.co.uk Three men suddenly appear out of a doorway, and approach him. Words are exchanged. As he transfers his walking stick to his other hand for a handshake the players see on a SPOT HIDDEN roll that his stick is topped with a silver serpents head. The characters do not recognize him. The man is then led to one of two separate, four wheeled cabs. He gets in as do the others then it departs. During this time another SPOT HIDDEN check should be made to spot a scruffy-looking man skulking around pretending that he is reading a newspaper. Following his gaze it seems that he too is interested in the briefcase carrying man. Moments after the man and his escort depart, the scruffy man folds his paper, hails a cab, gets in and leaves in the opposite direction. This suspicious type character, for all intents and purposes, is nobody important; he's just being suspicious to invoke player curiosity, though he may be met later. Unless the players intervene, this action flows smoothly. Intervening can mean anything from accosting the briefcase carrying man for questioning, starting a firefight or staying in the background hoping to follow him to his final destination. Accosting the man The man becomes nervous when he sees the players coming for him. He'll quicken his pace to reach his waiting cab. His escorts likewise become more alert giving questioning looks to one another. The players are an unnecessary complication for all concerned. The keeper shouldn't allow the players to get close to the man. His bodyguards should see to that, though they won't escalate the tension. They begin to take note of the characters, for ease of later identification. The man has no time to spare and any questions the players ask will remain unanswered. Once he reaches his cab he gets bundled in, a bodyguard takes a good look at a character, before getting in himself then leaving. Aggravating the Situation This situation can get well out of order unless properly handled. If for whatever reason guns are drawn and the threat of a firefight is perceived, the crowd of people scatter and the briefcase man will make a run to safety. His bodyguards likewise take cover and pull revolvers, and if necessary, return fire. Armed police arrive in 1d6+4 minutes having been alerted by a law abiding citizen. In total there are seven bodyguards who will try to draw the players fire, giving the man much needed room to make a run to safety. Once in the cab, it clatters off over the cobblestones. For reasons of the plot, the man should live through this encounter, even if it means he dies more times than he's able to. This can be explained away by him having a spell cast on him. Sanity rolls should be had in this case. If the players manage to kill a bodyguard and search the body, they'll find nothing of import. Characters arrested by the police will need a damn good lawyer - especially if they kill innocent people with their missed shots. Briefcase man has enough influence to ensure they are prosecuted to the fullest, imprisoned and/or even made to disappear. Following the man There is a chance of discovery if the players hop in a cab and give chase, as based upon a LUCK roll of the one who's driving. Failing the roll results in a 50% chance of being spotted. Several opportunities of being spotted should be had, if the players are not too careful. If seen, a cab chase will likely ensue which may also end up in a firefight. The cab with the man will try to escape leaving the second cab to delay the players. Have some fun with this before having the players make a LUCK or DRIVE roll at a critical time. Failure results in them having a minor accident: perhaps a child dashes in front of their cab chasing a bright red ball, perhaps they are stopped by a policeman for reckless driving, perhaps a wheel breaks, or whatever. Perhaps in order to delay them, a carefully aimed shot rings out from a fleeing cab. They players won't get far if one of their horses is crippled. The keeper should, however, make sure that the players are not delayed too long so that the first cab escapes. That would mean that the scenario would effectively draw to a close. If they can't find the manor; they won't go through the gate and discover the plot... The end. Keep it on the verge of collapse - but not quite. Successfully following the cabs without detection, the players are lead North, out of the city, into the countryside, and along a dirt track to a large two story manor and stable. The cabbie will make mention that its not common procedure to leave the city, but he can be bought off, if the incentive is there. Once in the countryside the gunmen will have no compunction about setting an ambush and killing, or capturing the characters. If the players manage to commandeer the delaying cab and take at least one prisoner they'll likely ask: who's the man, what's he up to, where's he going, what else do you know? Hired hands brought in for a job are seldom told everything. Information is on a need to know basis. They're told where to go, who to meet, and what to do. All they know is that they were to "go pick up Mr. Collins at Victoria Railway Station at 3.30, and take him out to the country manor. We were just given a description of him. That's all we know" Beyond that, there's nothing more that they know. Directions to the manor can be forced with physical violence. Anything else, such as, asking who's employ are they in. are left to the keeper - though that guy with the pasty face and scar would be a suitable candidate. Nobody knows his name though. Assorted PSYCHOLOGY checks reveal him to be telling the truth. Country Manor The cabs stop outside the front door and everyone get out and enter the house. Unless the players are careless there should be another chance of being spotted. Sneaking up to the manor is easily done. No guards are posted that the players can see. A successful LUCK roll is all that is required to get up to the manor in order to look in through a window or ease open a door. Failure results in somebody being spotted, which in turn alerts the guards into taking action. They converge, pulling weapons to see to the intruders. Successfully sneaking up to a window and peering in, a player may be (un)lucky enough to spot a serpent man in his natural form and human pass by an open doorway (1/1d6 sanity loss). Roll the sanity loss first. Should 5 sanity be lost and the character fail an IDEA roll, the experience is blocked from the mind and he/she had no memory of it. Those losing four sanity or less, or succeeding their idea check see: Walking past on two legs, a tall man-sized, serpentine entity clad in cherry-coloured flowing robes, with gold braiding. Lithe and sinuous. Clawed hand cupped together, forked tongue flicking from its gently swaying head. A tail maintaining balance. It seems to be conversing with its human counterpart. The front door is unlocked, same with the backdoor. Entering and stealthily moving around is hazardous. HIDE & SNEAK rolls should be had to keep the tension. The keeper should include such things like: approaching voices are heard just around the corner. The clack of a door handle behind them, etc.. Since the house is occupied by several people, the players can get away with making the odd unintentional noise. Coming face to face with one of its occupants is a different matter altogether. The guards are not stupid, they know everyone who should be here and cannot be bluffed. The alarm will be raised immediately. If the players are discovered, a raging gunfight will most likely ensue, unless they wish to be taken prisoner. There should be at least twice as many guards as there are players. They will be armed with serpentine lightening guns. The guards are smart and won't present themselves as targets by taking stupid risks in order to get the players. Use them smartly. Capturing the Investigators If the players are captured they are removed to the dank windowless cellar, which has been converted into an interrogation room, and chained to a wall. Then, each character, in turn, is taken, and questioned in plain view of everyone else. If the players seem to be resilient to their captors persuasive techniques, other ways of persuasion will be used, these being left to the sick perverted, and twisted minds of the individual keeper. It's payback time. Their captors delight in physical and mental torture. Perhaps the players are just abused without any questions being asked. This could go on for weeks on end. Sanity loss will be great as will damage and physical deformity. Finally, a truth serum will be used if no head way is made. Once their captors are happy that they have extracted all the information the players know they will be beaten unconscious, taken away and executed, unless the keeper wishes to bind them into off-world slavery, hand them over to the Mi-Go for their insidious experiments, or wipe their memories clean... It's a shame they don't know anything. If all the gunmen are killed or captured, the players can search the manor at their leisure. Captured gunmen who are left alone for any periods of time will try to escape and if possible secure a weapon for themselves - even if it's nothing more than a steak knife. Questioning them will be a long and hard process. These men have been conditioned to withstand pain. No one knows anything anyway, though they have seen the odd serpent-man from time to time.. They're just guards. Nothing more. A search of the house reveals the following: The Living Room A hidden wall safe in the study is found with a successful SPOT HIDDEN check. The combination to the safe is unknown to anyone and there are no obvious clues to its combination number. Cracking the safe requires the specialized SAFECRACKING skill, or FOUR CONSECUTIVE LISTEN AND DEXx2 rolls. The safe contains $2,000 in assorted donations, a half pound of a powdered form of Domination Serum, and a black leather suitcase. The case itself also has a three digit combination lock, and unless anyone can guess the combination (274) the locks will need to be forced. Inside are military secrets such as coastal defense diagrams, written information of British military positions and strengths (world-wide), naval charts, colour photographs of assorted people at rallies, and unsigned orders for specialized house-to-house searches and seizure training, as well as urban and mountain warfare tactics for soldiers. There are also orders for the extensive construction of thousands of miles of rail track, as well as hundreds of specially built freight train box-cars. Another order is a requisition for 3 million brand new shackles. Player handout 3, a 100-page document, can also be found which outlines a diabolical six-phase plan. No times or dates are supplied though. An upstairs room A small lab of chemicals and laboratory paraphernalia is set up. Some equipment, to those who are familiar with such accoutrements seems odd (of a likes never seen before). Perhaps its new and experimental. Whoever designed and constructed it is quite the scientist. A successful CHEMISTRY check cannot identify the chemicals, by visual inspection, smell or touch. A couple of stoppered test tubes are held in racks. They contain a colourless liquid with the faintest taste and odour of raspberries (POW x1 to detect). Anyone familiar with Serpentine technology who makes a successful MYTHOS check can identify it as being Domination Serum. A drug which makes those imbibing it very suggestible (but only to Serpent people), short of endangering his own life or that of others. Two strange-looking triangular metal plates inscribed with a cursive script can also be found. These are serpent-man books. Anyone who can read serpent-man discover them to contain complex formulae for the creation of powerful elixirs, toxins, drugs, and assorted compounds. Each book weighs a hefty two pounds each. Another room The room contains dozens of cages, in which rats, mice and other rodents are kept. Several hundred of the small furry critters are here. Why? Food for the occasional Serpentine guest, of course. Yet another room A large ornate mirror is directly embedded into the far wall. Its glassy sheen sparkles oddly and ripples periodically as though made from a viscous liquid. In fact this is no mirror and anyone attempting to break it will find that items thrown against it vanish beyond (san loss 1/1d2 - more if a body part is used - such as kicking it). A successful MYTHOS check identifies it as a Gate. To view what lies beyond the character has to completely step through the looking glass. Those brave enough to do so lose 5 magic points and 1d4 sanity, and appear through a similar shimmering portal. See Stepping through the portal. The cellar / prison / dungeon This door to the cellar is locked, and bolted. A SPOT HIDDEN roll can find the key somewhere, otherwise the players need to overcome the door's strength of 12. A flight of wooden steps lead down into the darkness. Light sources are required. Manacled to a wall, the players come across a disheveled human. Dirty, black and blue and mindless. He stares blankly around, totally unaware he has visitors. He drools. Five red needle marks are seen at the base of his skull, when FIRST AID is administered. Players, then realize something. They know him. Frank Barberton - their friend. There is nothing the players can do to help him. First Aid will only stabilize his condition, Psychoanalysis does nothing. He's been subjected to total memory erasure, save for the most basic of instinctual responses, such as breathing, and eating. For all intents and purposes he has an INT value of 1. Just why this shell of a human is here is known only to his captors. Seven other sets of empty manacles hang loose from the wall. A small room adjoining the cellar has been converted into a torture room, and is segregated by a locked iron gate (STR 20 to bust open). It contains: a surgeon's operating table, a tray containing an array of surgical implements of pain; a wooden chair, complete with restraining leather straps, and a metal cap of some kind, which would appear to fit the head. Attached to this via a couple of cables, the players see, sitting on a table in the corner of the room , a foot tall metal machine of some kind. Constructed of bronze plates, and surmounted with a luminescent yellow diamond-shaped gem or crystal. A dial is inset on the contraption and a lever pokes out - ready to be pulled. If pulled, the gem begins to glow brighter. A whine is emitted from inside the metal casing. Anyone who touches the metal skullcap is shocked (with accompanying jolt) for 1d6 damage on a successful LUCK roll. Failing the roll, or if the dial was disturbed, the character instead takes 1d10 damage (with violent muscle spasms) after which the damage is matched against his/her CON in a resistance roll. Failing the roll results in death by heart failure, otherwise he simply falls unconscious for 1d6 hours. Sanity loss for seeing this death is 1/1d6. Sitting on a shelf, the players can also find a small, slim rectangular copper box covered with tiny indentations. From one side of the box, five one inch needles protrude. The Yithian constructed device is used to erase memories. Unless the players have read up on, or encountered Yithians and their technology before, there will be no way of identifying the box as a Tabula Rasa Device. The needles are inserted into the subject's head at the base of the brain. 1d3 damage is done in the process. Once the device is inserted and activated, the subject is paralyzed unless a POWx1 roll is made. Each round the machine is connected, it erases up to a year's worth of memories, or permanently removes 1 point of INT, at the operators discretion. These memories can be stored in small removable data cubes and can be restored at a later date in a reversal of the process, or inserted into another living being. The mind wipe is not totally effective however, every year there is an INTx1 chance that some vague memory returns in a dream. If compared with the needle marks on Frank, the players see that the marks and needles are equidistant. A Possible match. Stepping through the Portal As the characters travel through the gate they feel themselves being pulled, crushed, twisted and stretched to no end, although no damage is taken. It takes practically no time at all to arrive on the other side. They emerge disorientated and nauseated into a room (1) that is quite unusual to say the least. The air is humid and smells of rotting cabbage. As the investigators move from place to place they see the walls, floor and ceiling all seem to be made of some kind of organic fungal substance. Ferns, brackens, moulds and spore-pods grow all over the place. Ulcer-like perforations spit a viscous mucus into the air which lands with a heavy splat. Other wall-sores have a continual disgorging gloopy stream of slime which form pools of mucus on the floor. Although similar to earthly plant-life, these alien growths are entirely different and cannot be identified. The plants range in colour from dark earthy browns up to bile-greens and sickly yellows. Some of them also have the ability of natural bioluminescence (to that of several candle power). Sanity loss for this strange vista is 1/1d4. Occasionally, the characters hear strange twitters and buzzing sounds from things unseen. The occasional (human!?) scream or outcry of insufferable pain and anguish is also heard. Fortunately for the players they are limited to a small part of this alien world. Wandering off beyond their ken will only serve in getting them lost. If they lose it here they'll be in a world that really hurts. Occasionally weird alien glyphs (Mi-go writing) are inscribed upon the walls. These are nothing more than sign posts alerting the Mi-go to where they are. There are plenty of nooks and crannies and outgrowths available to hide behind when attempting to evade detection, however sooner or later they may be discovered. Unless otherwise noted the players will be mistaken for escaped prisoners and the Mi-go will attempt to recapture them and place them back in the holding pens (10, 11). If the players are proving to be too troublesome to capture, the Mi-go will simply kill them - plenty more from where they came from. If they are captured, those of superior quality (one or more statistics equal to, or greater than 16) will either be sent to the mines as slaves or sent for immediate dissection. Anyone else will languish in the cells until needed. Those who are deemed worthy may even be sacrificed to Shub-Niggurath. Random Encounters Although not necessary, the keeper should check for a random encounter, or event once or twice. These should be used sparingly - just enough to keep the players on edge for the safety of their characters. Examples of which could be: * A mass of maggots erupt from the ceiling which covers an unlucky character in a crawling horror, which causes 1/1d6 sanity loss. * Up ahead, the players discern the shapes of things moving about and echoing noises. What are they? Serpent-men, Mi-Go, something even worse? Have the players likewise been detected? Is whatever it is hungry? * As the players view the way ahead, their light source picks out an upside down human head with six or eight spider-like legs emerging from its crown and two eye stalks sprouting from its neck. Its mouth opens and closes as though trying to speak; a rasping gurgle coming from inside. The thing scurries past them causing 1/1d6 sanity loss. Six damage will kill it. This is an escaped Mi-Go experiment. * The players come across a bloated decaying body of a female which has been partially devoured. The undead human corpse is slowly dragging itself across the fungal floor, moaning in pain. It comprises only the head, neck, torso, left arm and half its right arm. This is another escaped Mi-Go experiment, which causes 1d3/1d6 sanity loss. 1. The Gate Illuminating this room is a single, man's head-sized pearl-like orb. It is just sitting in the middle of the floor. If anyone wishes to take it they may do so. It weighs six pounds. These orbs are scattered everywhere and afford ample light to see by. Other than that there are three exits. 2. Empty Fungal re-growth is beginning to sprout in this lesser used chamber. 3. Recuperating Room The recuperating room is used for those serpent-men who have undergone the brain swap operation. Whenever the players first enter the room there will be 2d4 human-looking men here apparently sleeping in cots or gazing blankly around their surroundings. These Serpent-men are recovering from their ordeal and are adjusting to their new bodies and so are not all that aware of who they are, or for that matter where they are. Characters can pass through this room without fear of being caught, however, if the players regularly pass through the room a snake man may, in time, recover his senses and raise the alarm. 4. Brain Transplant This large cavernous chamber contains eight wide tables, of which 1d8 of them are in use. On those tables there lays a Serpent-man with a human laying beside. For each operation in progress there are two pinkish crab or lobster-like, and bat-winged entities about five feet in length, each possessing a multitude of articulate limbs, and oval-shaped brain-like head of changing hues, sometimes accompanied with a strange buzzing sound present . (Mi-go), performing the complex medical procedure required in removing the Serpent-man's brain and placing it within the head of the human. (If all the tables are filled there will be 16 Mi-go in here.) Sanity rolls should be had with a loss of 1d4/1d10. The vast array of alien technology, bubbling gurgling tanks, tubes and utensils found here to bizarre in nature to describe, and too complex for the layman to use without proper study. Once the brain swap is complete the Snake-man bodies are taken into a nearby room for storage. The snake-men themselves are taken to a recuperating room where they wait and adjust to their new bodies. 5. Body Vault This room is filled with approximately 170 Serpent-men bodies. Transparent tubes and other strange objects are inserted into various parts of their bodies and the characters see that a bluish-green liquid is either being sucked out or pumped in. These Serpent-men have already undergone the brain transplant procedure. Their bodies are being kept alive until their world domination plans have been accomplished then they can have their brains replaced into their old bodies. The tubes seem to disappear into a huge pulsating throbbing pustule growing from the ceiling forty feet above. From the space left in the room the players can assess (IDEA roll) that the room could easily hold 700 to 1000 bodies. In order to 'kill' the Serpent-men, all that is required is for the players to destroy the pustule. The pustule has 2 armour points and requires 20 damage to destroy it. Once destroyed the pustule explodes into a cloud-burst of vile-smelling goo which spatters every one in the cavern. 6. Gigantic Cavern And Maze Of Tunnels This cavern is by far the most populated area with regards to fungal growth. The jungle-like fauna is a strange and eerie fog-laden purgatory. In some areas the bulbous fungi grow up to as much as 10 feet in diameter, or as towering stalks 20 feet in height. Here the characters need to filter their breathing through cloth otherwise they start to choke and suffocate upon the many millions of ultra fine spores that are carried upon the slightest breeze. Gruesome calls and unnatural twitters permeate the supernatural biosphere. Weird alien life are seen flittering in the murky undergrowth. Branching from the main area are smaller tunnels that interweave to form a vast complex maze. No one knows where the tunnels lead - not even the Mi-go who live here. Several explorer parties have went in. None ever returned. As the players tentatively move through the entanglement of plant life, a ropy tendril uncoils itself above the players and attempts to grab an unfortunate character and hoist him aloft into the waiting slavering maw of a Venus flytrap-like plant where he will be slowly digested over a period of days equal to his SIZ. Check for surprise (POWx3) when the attack occurs, those able to act do so at 1/2DEX, those failing are stunned one round. Sanity loss for seeing the plant is 1/1d4. If the character is successfully grabbed, he has 3 rounds in which to free himself. His best bet is to cut or saw away at the tendril that has him or try to use brute strength to break free. Each round the character has been lifted into the air results in 1d6 damage for the possible drop he has to make - should he finally escape. Fortunately the ground beneath is not entirely solid and will absorb most of the impact. Should the character succeed a jump roll he may reduce the damage by 2d6 when landing, otherwise it will only be 1d6. The Plant STR 12 CON 9 SIZ 45 INT 1 POW 3 DEX 10 MOVE -- HITS 27 WEAPON ATTK % DAMAGE Armour: 3 point tough and fibrous Grapple 75% 1d6 + grapple Mouth 99% 1 hp per hour Note: Only 8 points of damage and an additional is required to sever the tendril 1 siz point each holding the character. 27 damage day due to kills the plant outright. digestive acids. If the players are determined to go exploring themselves it will be up to the keeper to determine their outcome. Will they wander forever, eventually succumbing to whatever lives in there or will they emerge in some other part of the alien city. One thing is for sure however; the maze is extremely dark. Pitch black in fact. The deeper the players go the more complex the maze seemingly becomes. Cold winds occasionally gust through chilling investigators to the bone. Fine spider-like webs break across their faces. Mites irritatingly crawl on their skin, sometimes burrowing beneath it. At times they are forced to wade chest deep through slime. Maybe the lamp they carry flickers and dies - plunging everyone into darkness. Maybe they come across the remains of a lost Mi-go expedition with some salvageable equipment. Either way, fear and paranoia soon takes its toll causing 1d3/1d10 sanity loss. Each day spent wandering causes similar sanity loss. 7. Human Vivisection Lab Stretched out on benches are 1d6+1 bodies of men, women and children. Black, White and Oriental people. They are in various states of vivisection; their skins pealed back, ribs cracked open and their internal organs scooped out and placed in a messy pile beside them, plucked eyes hang from sockets, and one or two have the tops of their heads removed exposing the brain. Pinned on the walls are various anatomical charts of the human body, showing skeletal structure and muscle configuration. Lining the walls are a vast array of glass-like cylinders which are filled with a yellowish-brown liquid. Floating within the cylinders and magnified by the distorting effects of the glass are body parts: heads, brains, eyes, limbs and parts there of... This is all very disturbing indeed and the smell of decomposition and preservative lends itself to the repugnance causing 1/1d6 sanity loss. Three Serpent-men assist a Mi-go in its deranged examination. These beings are scientists and are not armed although they can pick up scalpels or throw flasks of acrid, burning preservative fluid or acids at the investigators. The Serpent-men will try to corner the investigators (unless they are outnumbered) as the Mi-go flits off to raise the alarm and bring reinforcements. 8. Poly-embryonic Chamber Suspended, in clusters, from the ceiling are strange translucent pods. Contained within the cocoons in varying states of gestation, liquefaction, or digestion are humans. Hundreds of them. Sanity rolls are required with the loss of 1d3/1d6. Anyone taking a close look at one of the corpses receives a shock as its eyes suddenly snap open causing a further loss of 1/1d3 sanity. All corpses are covered in a white mucus-slime. While looking around the players might realize that the bodies are being grown - not dissolved. Then, if a LISTEN roll is succeeded, the players are alerted to a hissing, slithering, sound as two serpent-men come in wheeling a trolley. They bicker to each other. They slit open one or two of the pods, haul out the bodies and dump them on the table and wheel it away. 9. Pool The main feature of this room is a pool of what appears to be water that measures roughly 30 feet in diameter. The pool is kept full by a continual seepage from the ceiling that constantly rains down. The pool over-spills the room and forms a small waterfall at another cave opening which overlooks the largest cavern the players will see. Fungus grows in large quantities here affording plenty of hiding spaces from the dozens of Mi-go which frequent the pool to drink its contents. The keeper may wish to include several Mi-go here for effect, or leave the cavern empty. Players who taste the water find it to be pleasantly sugary tasting and warm, which does nothing for their thirst, but will replenish those sapped energy reserves. 10. Empty 11, 12. Prison cells Imprisoned behind iron-like bars are some 30-odd poor wretches who have been abducted by the Mi-go and have been brought here to suffer one of two fates: work in the mines, or end up on a slab as an experiment. Some of these dirty underfed human beings cry out to their captors for mercy, but their pleas fall on deaf ears. When the characters appear (unless they are keeping to the shadows), the prisoners begin to plead with them for freedom. It will be up to the players themselves to make that choice, however leaving them to their fate will involve substantial sanity loss - as determined by the individual keeper. Guarding the captives is one elderly wingless Mi-go who carries a weapon of some kind. He, it, currently has its back to the characters and is not all that alert and can be easily overcome by swift and aggressive action. It carries a key which unlocks the cells. Unlocking the door to the cells causes those prisoners who are able to do so to madly rush out and make their escape into the unknown. Unless the players can somehow marshal them they will all be killed or recaptured, possibly with the investigators amongst them. Under careful direction, and all the time fighting and fleeing from pursuing Mi-go, 1d100 percent (keeper depending) of them will make it back to the gate to be transported back home. A successful rescue attempt incurs sanity gain - also left to the individual keeper. Mi-go Guard STR 7 CON 9 SIZ 11 INT 10 POW 12 DEX 9 MOVE 7/9 HITS 10 WEAPON ATTK % DAMAGE Armour: All impaling weapons do Nipper 50 1d6 + grapple minimum damage. Freeze Gun 70 1d20 special Sanity: 0/1d6 The Freeze Gun fires a blast of icy mist out to a range of 20 feet. Its damage is matched against the target's current CON on the resistance table. If the victim is overcome he loses 1d20 CON. Providing he survives the experience he will be frozen stiff and unable to act until properly warmed up. Succeeding the roll, he simply loses 1 point of con. The contraption has a base chance of 20% for anyone using it. It has enough coolant for another 25 uses. -- To unsubscribe from the chaos-digest ML, send an "unsubscribe" command to chaos-digest-request@chaosium.com. Chaosium Inc., Call of Cthulhu, and Nephilim are Registered Trademarks of Chaosium Inc. Elric! and Pendragon are Trademarks of Chaosium Inc. All articles remain copyright their original authors unless otherwise noted.