Khonshu Alpha

8. Bug Agaric's Raceway: Slime mold racing. Molds, genetically engineered for speed are raced down twisty tracks before raucous crowds. Favorite sport in Substrate for gambling. Purebred slime molds and wild slimes with potential talent can be bought and sold here.

9. Scavenger Post: A big metal cylinder where locals post notices. Help Wanted, Services Offered, Lost Beetles.

10. Self-Awareness Facility: Acolytes of the Humongous Fungus, the Society for Greater Self-Awareness run this recruitment center. They play entrancing music, provide free medical care, and free meals to all who enter. They will attempt to evangelize to all who will listen. They send a weekly expedition with new converts to the Humungous Fungus, deep within the Fungarium.

11. The Vault: The most heavily secured and guarded building in Substrate. This serves as a storage facility for the Imperative, and any merchant willing to pay to store their most valuable goods here. It's essentially a series of bank vaults. It's defended by militiamen, attack beetles, and elaborate mycological-themed traps.

12. Architects of Perception: A playhouse, where an avant-garde theater troupe puts on elaborate performances . Most performances are “enhanced” by releasing psychoactive spores into the air, causing vivid hallucinations and emotional reactions in the audience. The Architects will sometimes pay for new exotic hallucinogens from the Fungarium.

13. King Bolete's Palace: A tavern frequented by Red Caps, scouts, & other travelers in the deep Fungarium. Newcomers will be mocked until they've made a name for themselves in the Garden. Owned by the wealthy merchant, and retired mushroom hunter “King” Bolete

14. Council of Mycology: The headquarters of the The Mycological Imperative. This building serves as city hall, courts of justice, and laboratories.

by Norton Glover – [email protected] E-Mail: [email protected] RPG Blog: Polyhedral Nonsense #Dungeon23

Most of the buildings in Substrate are grown from fungal material, or assembled with construction beetles.

1. Maglev Station: Unlike most maglev stations aboard the Khonshu, this station is bustling with activity. All trains are greeted by porters, garden guides, and religious proselytizers all seeking to offer their services to passengers.

2. Gates to Spore City: There are three militiamen of the Mycological Imperative here. They will demand a tribute for anyone to enter the city. 3-7 TU for entry

3. Guardhouse: This building is a solid. hardened fungal grown structure. The Mycological Imperative has 10 militiamen stationed here at all times. The town armory is here as well.

4. Public House: A bustling hotel and meeting hall. Traders from across the ship usually stay here. A good place to hire and be hired. 2 TU per night.

5. Garden Gate: Three enormous airlock doors provide access to the Osiris Fungarium. They are generally kept open, unless a creature attacks from the gardens. 3 militia are always here.

6. Marketplace: Dozens of stands & tents in a maze of commerce. Wares from across the ship are traded here for fungal goods and services. Good place to buy supplies or sell fungal goods.

7. Beetle Pens: Small herds of pack beetles are kept here for sale or rental. Beetle wranglers herd the creatures, and Beetle-Wrights construct elaborate beetle-carts.

by Norton Glover – [email protected] E-Mail: [email protected] RPG Blog: Polyhedral Nonsense #Dungeon23

The city of Substrate, or more popularly, Spore City, has a number of factions.

The Mycological Imperative

The largest faction on the level. The descendants of the original pre-Malfunction mycologists that built and maintained the Fungarium.

Their goal is to keep the ecology of the Fungarium stable, and to keep the supply of fungal foods and drugs flowing. They guard the gate to the Fungarium, and run the town of Substrate. They are ruled by the Council of Mycology, the eldest and most wise of the Mycologists.

They have a laboratory/fortress deep within the Dim Forest called Primordia.

What do they want: Maintain the gardens. Keep the peace. Advance fungal technology.

Red-Cap Rangers

A band of men & women who have dedicated themselves to protecting the ecosystem of the fungarium. They are experts at navigating the Dim Forest, and are familiar with all of its creatures. They are also masters of camouflage, and can easily blend into the fungal landscape.

Often hired out as guides on expeditions deep into the Fungarium. They put out patrols to battle bandits.

They will help travelers in need, and battle anyone threatening the fragile ecosystem.

What do they want: Help lost people. Protect the Gardens. Fight bandits.

Hymenium Liberation Front

A rogue band of mycologists that believe the Fungarium has become its own ecosystem, and should not be “kept in balance” by the Mycological Imperative, and should be allowed to run riot and grow on its own. They often sabotage equipment or attack Mycological Imperative missions.

What do they want: Free the Fungarium. Overthrow the fascist Imperative.

The Plasmodium Oracle

A titanic slime mold that has evolved near-godlike intelligence. It is attended to and guarded by the Myx-Men, volunteers who have merged their brains with pieces of their slimy master, giving them unusual skills and abilities.

What do they want: In exchange for nutrients, the Oracle will answer one question.

Spore Collective

An informal guild of traders and spore collectors. Their principal interest is keeping the fungal trade going. They often resist the strict ecological rules of the Mycological Imperative.

What do they want: Make money. Sell things, buy things.

Society for Greater Self-Awareness

A cult dedicated to worshipping the Humongous Fungus, a vast fungal intelligence that dwells deep within the Fungarium. The Humongous Fungus has one goal, to expand and absorb all organic matter on the ship. It has grown too large to move on its own, and needs help in its quest.

It has formed a religion, the Society for Greater Self-Awareness. The acolytes of this faith roam the ship, seeking converts. They provide small services and perform good deeds to others. Once they gain their trust, they will encourage people to undertake a pilgrimage to the Fungus, where they will be psychically and physically absorbed.

What do they want: Publicly – Spread the good word about the Humungous Fungus. Privately – Brains...they want your brains.

by Norton Glover – [email protected] E-Mail: [email protected] RPG Blog: Polyhedral Nonsense #Dungeon23

There is no currency aboard the Khonshu Alpha. The original ship's system had a credit system, but it is long defunct.

All trade is currently performed through barter, goods and services being traded directly. We represent this in-game with Trade Units (TU).

The TU value of any good or service can vary depending on where the trade takes place. i.e. Fungal goods are common and cheap in the Dim Forest and rare elsewhere.

Example Prices for Goods Daily Ration 2 TU Knife 10 TU Map of Level 100-500 TU Yellow Bracelet 700 TU Red Bracelet 2000 TU Medical care 100-1000 TU

by Norton Glover – [email protected] E-Mail: [email protected] RPG Blog: Polyhedral Nonsense #Dungeon23

The Khonshu Alpha had several sources of food for its voyage. One of them was the Osiris Fungarium, a large dome (700 sq km) designed for the growing of fungi. It provided vast amounts of protein. It also served as a repository of various fungal species that would help colonize the worlds Khonshu Alpha was headed to.

After the Malfunction, the mycologists kept the fungarium growing as well as they could, but over the centuries the fungi have run riot, forming a strange ecosystem sometimes called The Dim Forest.

The science of Mycology has advanced tremendously over years, and they've been able to develop fungal tech to create weapons, medicines, and the ability to implant skills directly into the human brain.

The dome itself is lit from infrared lights on the dome ceiling. It is in perpetual twilight.

There is one functional maglev station making this level accessible. A small town called Substrate, or Spore City has formed within the station. Traders from across the ship come here to obtain fungal-derived food and medicines. Collectors and explorers use Substrate as a base to mount expeditions into the Dim Forest.

Things to do

• Make a pilgrimage to ask the Plasmodium Oracle a question.
• Brave the Puffball Plantation to collect valuable spores.
• Hunt bandits in the Hyphal Forest
• Collect wild slime molds to race in Substrate.
• Visit the House of Mind to implant new skills or sell skills you already possess.

#Dungeon23 #KhonshuAlpha

by Norton Glover – [email protected] E-Mail: [email protected] RPG Blog: Polyhedral Nonsense #Dungeon23

I've been continuing my #Dungeon23 Khonshu Alpha project in my notebook, but haven't had the opportunity to write any of it up in digital form. I'm starting to remedy that now.

Here's a quick preview of the next level, which is entirely based on fungi and mushrooms.

The whole level will be a fungal-based garden, that the pre-Malfunction crew used as a food source.

It'll have factions, trade, and weird fungal-based technologies.

Some of the level will most likely be a hexcrawl. Here's the first map, the entrance to Spore City.

by Norton Glover – [email protected] E-Mail: [email protected] RPG Blog: Polyhedral Nonsense #Dungeon23

This part of the complex is a small tourist shuttlecraft station. Passengers would take a small automated shuttle to tour the exterior of the Khonshu Alpha.

The purpose of this section is (hopefully) to reveal to the players that they've been living their whole lives aboard a vast starship. If the referee has kept this a secret, it should come as a big surprise to the players.

Emergency Pressure Doors

As this section has access to the void, there are several concealed emergency airlock doors. If there's a sudden drop in air pressure (room #28 perhaps), a klaxon will sound, and concealed air lock doors will emerge from the walls and block a corridor. Characters can make a DEX 6+ roll to jump through the closing doors to the pressurized side. If the players roll natural two (two ones), they are caught between the closing doors and will take 2D crushing damage per round until freed with a STR 10+ roll.

The doors can be temporarily opened (D6 rounds), with a blue bracelet. (see Bracelets)

If a pressure door is blocked by an object, the next closest pressure door will automatically activate.

Trapped in a Vacuum

When a character is in an area, (i.e. the wrong side of a Emergency Pressure Door) where the atmosphere is gone, they will take 1D damage per round. Starting on the third round, they need to make a END 10+ roll each round to stay conscious.

22. Voyager Plaza: The floors are inlaid with tiles inscribed with colorful images of various stars and planets. There's a circular dais in the center of the room that is a holographic projector. When the players enter the room, the projector will activate, displaying a 3D map of the galaxy. There's a bright green line across the image representing the flight path of the Khonshu Alpha. The first half of the line is straight, but then starts turning and twisting almost randomly.

The doors to the Maglev Station (#24) are visible, the glow of nebula in #23 can be seen, and the glass doors to #24 provide a view of the Shuttle Bay (#24)

23. Viewing Lounge: This is a lounge where passengers could look at the stars and watch the shuttles take off. A transparent geodesic dome has a dramatic view of the nebula the Khonshu Alpha is passing through. You can also see a number of the nearby sections of the ship, and the bright white exhaust of the ship's engines.

There are several couches of advanced memory foam. They are incredibly comfortable. One is deeply stained with what appears to be long-dried human blood.

The geodesic dome can take 70 points of damage before breaking.

24. Shuttle Bay: The doors to this room are transparent. This large room contains two tourist shuttles. They were designed for short sightseeing jaunts around the ship. Each ship is fully operational. The doors to each ship are open. Once a ship is entered, a chime will sound very minute until five minutes have passed. The ship will then seal itself up and automatically launch.

The shuttles are facing the inner airlock doors, which are normally closed.

There's a glass window that provides a clear view of room #25.

The Tourist Shuttle

A 20-ton launch, with a 3G manuever. There is no cockpit or pilot control. It is fully computer controlled. There are seats for twenty.

The Launch Procedure

After the five minutes of chimes, the inner airlock doors will open, and the ship will move forward to the airlock. The inner airlock doors will close, and then the outer airlock doors will open. The ship will be immediately launched. The ship will only launch if it detects passengers aboard it.

The Cruise

The pre-programmed cruise is 30 minutes. It travels up and down along the length of the ship, providing excellent views of the ship. The passengers will see the following:

The giant spheres that make up most of the ship. Several of which are clearly damaged. The kilometer-long plasma exhaust. Clouds of debris around the ship.

Five minutes into the voyage, a concession bot will pop out of its alcove in the ceiling and offer the passengers various bagged snacks. All of the snacks are long since expired, and anyone who eats them will need to make a END 8+ roll to avoid taking 2D damage from poisoning.

Names of snacks: Cheezo-Chips, Mango Zips, Frosted Mini-Zowies, Gunk Crisps,

The ship will return to the shuttle bay in exactly an half hour.

25. Control Room: This control room was mostly for show. The tourist shuttles pretty much piloted themselves. However, it made passengers feel better to see a NASA-style control center staffed by a human. There are a row of control panels with video feeds from inside each shuttle, and several views outside the ship. There's a microphone to communicate with the shuttles, usually used to narrate the shuttle's trip.

A clear window has a view of the Shuttle Bay (#24).

With a Computer 10+ roll, a character can gain control of either one of the shuttles. They can be controlled with a Pilot 8+ roll. On a critical fail (two ones), both the inner and outer airlock doors in #24 will open, exposing the shuttle bay and the control room to the void. The emergency pressure doors in #22 will automatically activate.

Seated at one of the control panels is a desiccated corpse in a tattered yellow jumpsuit. It has both a blue and yellow bracelet around its wrist.

26. Vacc Suit Storage: For maintenance purposes, 8 vacc suits are stored here. They all have Khonsu Alpha logos on them. One of the vacc suits has a critical fault, and will immediately fail if exposed to vacuum. Roll randomly to see which one.

27. Maglev Station #4: This maglev station is fully functional. There's a control pylon that can be activated with a yellow bracelet to summon a train. It will arrive in 2d6 minutes. A Computer 10+ roll can also be used to call a train.

28. Depressurized Restroom: The door has been sealed, and is covered with worn, illegible warning stickers. The door can only be opened with brute force – STR 10+ with bare hands, or STR 8+ with tools.

The restroom beyond suffered a micrometeorite strike, and is a complete vacuum. If the bathroom door is breached, the nearest emergency pressure door will activate. See Emergency Pressure Door section above.

by Norton Glover – [email protected] E-Mail: [email protected] RPG Blog: Polyhedral Nonsense #Dungeon23

A band of MET agents have taken over this section and are using it as a processing center for the people they capture and behead. They've made occasional raids on the Children of Thoth, and have a few prisoners. They use the Maglev shuttles to send the heads to the City of Skulls.

Response: If the players make any loud noises (explosions or gunplay) in these areas,it will attract attention from the MET agents in #19, #5, and #18.

15. Plaza: A circular room with a stagnant pool of water in the center that was once a fountain. Once-ornamental trees around the pool have grown wild and stretch to the ceiling, wrapping around each other in a complex web.

Flickering UV lights in the ceiling provide energy for the plants.

There are two MET agents in collection bodies lurking the upper branches. They are guarding the doors to 5, waiting for people to snatch up.

16. Maglev Station #2: This maglev station is a fully functional version of the station in #6. There's a control pylon that can be activated with a yellow bracelet to summon a train. It will arrive in 2d6 minutes. A Computer 10+ roll can also be used to call a train.

17. Junction: two corridors meet here. There are blood trails leading from the plastic curtains leading to the Chop Shop (#19), down to the Property Storage room (#20). Sounds of loud machinery are behind the curtains.

18. Maglev Station #1: This maglev station is fully functional. There's a control pylon that can be activated with a yellow bracelet to summon a train. It will arrive in 2d6 minutes. A Computer 10+ roll can also be used to call a train.

The MET agents have using this train to send heads to the City of Skulls, so a Computer 10+ can find the exact coordinates of the MET base.

There's a stack of about 8 MET head cylinders here. There's a 2 in 6 chance a MET agent is here loading the heads onto a train.

19. Chop Shop: The floor and walls of this room are covered in splashes of blood. There are eight operating tables, each with restraints. The tables are each equipped with a vial of cryo-chemicals and complex machines. The machines are beeping and whirring, making it difficult to hear anything.

There are 3 Medical MET agents here, working on 5 captured Children of Thoth, each strapped to a table. The victims are all heavily sedated.

If not stopped, the MET agents will behead their victims, and place their heads in cryo-chambers.

20. Property Storage: Several rows metal shelving, each containing plastic-wrapped packages of personal possessions. When the MET agents behead someone, they temporarily store their possessions here. Everything is neatly wrapped and labeled with the ID number MET has assigned each head. MET has every intention of restoring the possessions whenever the “patients” are revived.

Blood Trails lead though this room to #21

21. Body Dump: The MET agents have modified this room to dispose of the bodies. There is a slick metal chute leading down into darkness. The floors and walls are slick with blood.

The chute leads to the Fertilizer Processor room on the Agricultural Level.

#Dungeon23

by Norton Glover – [email protected] E-Mail: [email protected] RPG Blog: Polyhedral Nonsense #Dungeon23

Many locations and facilities aboard the Khonshu Alpha are secured with electronic locks. They were usually opened with combinations of retinal, brainwave, and DNA scans of the original crew. As the crew are all long dead, access is only available with security bracelets.

The bracelets are small ribbons, that wrap around the user's wrist and are secured magnetically. They come in various colors, each indicating what level of access they provide.

Most AIs can determine the location of anyone wearing a bracelet, and receive basic biological information about the wearer (heart rate, blood pressure, etc.) Most people are unaware of this feature.

Bracelets by Color

Yellow: Basic tourist access. Used to access maglevs, cornucopia machines, and recreational facilities.

Yellow Plus: Looks like a yellow bracelet, except with a light blue stripe. They were originally issued to passengers who had small children. Provides the ame access as yellow bracelets, but adds access to certain nurseries and playgrounds.

Orange: Assigned to lower level maintenance personnel. Can be used to command cleaning and repair robots, and enter most service areas.

Red: Generally assigned to security staff and emergency personnel. Allows the wearer to command all robots (except military), and enter weapons lockers, detention centers, and other high security areas.

Blue: Allows access to anything involving air locks or spacecraft. Usually assigned with another bracelet.

Indigo: Assigned to Engineering personnel. Allows access to ship's drives, life support, and virtually all systems.

Violet: Quite rare, only available to ship's command staff. Can be used to command any robot, enter any area, control any system. Supposedly the only way to enter Khonshu Alpha's bridge.

#Dungeon23

by Norton Glover – [email protected] E-Mail: [email protected] RPG Blog: Polyhedral Nonsense #Dungeon23

Maximum Efficiency Transit

After the Malfunction, when the network of AI systems began to fall apart, an obscure emergency plan in the ship's archives was activated. The plan, and the AI that administered it, was the Maximum Efficiency Transit (MET) program

In the event of a massive life support failure, the idea was to cryogenically store all passengers. Resources were limited, so it was more efficient to just store the human heads. The plan was to sever the head of each of the ship's passengers and place the heads in cryogenic chambers. When the Khonshu Alpha was out of danger, and arrived at a suitable destination, new bodies could be grown, and the passengers revived.

Once the MET AI was activated, it started its project of beheading and storing all humans. Most people were obviously reluctant to have their heads removed and frozen, so MET used security bots to capture what MET saw as “reluctant patients”.

Eventually, MET recruited humans into its cause. The agents of MET believe that they're the only hope at saving the people of Khonshu Alpha. In a show of faith, they have their own heads removed, and use advanced robotic bodies to move about. They can switch between bodies for different purposes.

Bands of MET agents wander the ship, founding bases and outposts. They capture and “process” as many people as they can, until local resistance grows too high, or they run out of passengers to “save”.

The City of Skulls

Supposedly all of the frozen heads are sent to a central depot. No one outside of the MET knows exactly where it is. Outsiders commonly call it the City of Skulls.

If someone is taken by the MET, it's possible one could find the City of Skulls, retrieve the victim's head and (with appropriate technology), get them a new body.

MET Robot Bodies

MET agents have several bodies they can choose from.

Collection Body

A humanoid torso attached to a scorpion-like base. These units are used to capture passengers. There is a cage on the scorpion body's back used to store prisoners. Net Gun (4) Entangle, Stun Baton 2D Stun Endurance 10, Lifeblood 30, Armor 4

Defense Body

A squat, humanoid body. Heavily armored. These are used to defend larger MET bases Blaster (10) 5D Endurance 15, Lifeblood 40, Armor 10

Medical Body

A crab-like body, bristling with medical tools and arms, most notably a sharp pincer used to remove heads. Scalpels 1D, Pincers 4D Endurance 10, Lifeblood 25, Armor 2

by Norton Glover – [email protected] E-Mail: [email protected] RPG Blog: Polyhedral Nonsense #Dungeon23