A Grimlockian Future

The transition from the frozen world of the ice ages will be a jolting contrast. As with the earlier jumps, the party will arrive unconscious, but this state will last a bare few seconds. When they scramble to their feet, they will find the interior of the mountain changed almost beyond recognition.

Huge silent machines shrouded in gloom pack the interior space of the mountain, and the area where once the boneyard was is now a level stone (concrete) floor. Above, the gash in the summit has been enlarged and in the gathering dusk outside the party will be able to pick out a few faint stars.

The function of the machinery is incomprehensible. Towering over the gem platform is some giant machine that vaguely recollects a striking T-Rex of the far past. Many of the machines have been crudely dismantled, parts littering the floor; the reason for the vandalism is unclear.

The original tunnels leading into the mountain are now blocked by a complex airlock system, and doors of thick armoured glass will prevent the party from exiting this way. On the north wall is a new passage, cut as straight as the eye can see.

The Metropolis

Outside the ruins of a vast city sprawl, chimneys belch plumes of smoke skywards. The dirty brown pall obscures the horizon; in the west the sun is a lowering ball of orange-red. The stifling air is thick, suffocating, rasping irritably at the lungs. Noises are weirdly distorted, sudden concussions of sound beat at the eardrums while other sounds are oddly muted.

The party will pass more looted machinery until they come at last to a grand promenade. Here the raw offal of man and machine trickles along open sewers into foul smelling stagnant ponds and canals. Alongside, stately buildings of another age stand begrimed by generations of soot, exuding an air of past greatness. Of better times long forgotten. The streets are quiet, and the door fronts of the buildings heavily barred.

Beyond lies an old industrial district. Here warehouses and workshops crowd together. All about is the clamour of industrial processes, the screech of saw, and the percussive staccato of hammering, yet the streets are strangely empty of life.

The streets will remain empty until sundown, when sirens will blare out for a long minute (give the players 2 minutes to find a hiding place or otherwise react), if the party is still on the streets then:

“Hundreds, thousands of hunched, horribly grotesque figures boil out of the buildings onto the road. Despite their physical abnormalities they move with an incredible shuffling speed, and before you can retreat you are surrounded.”

Grimlocks AC as per FF, Hp average; they are well armed.

The grimlocks will seek to capture the party, clubbing at them with bare fists, axe handles and the like. If they succeed in subduing the party, they will drag the hapless members to the Ziggurat where they will be imprisoned within the Hall of the Ancestors. If the party avoid the grimlocks they will be able to investigate the workshops where they will find tens of thousands of weapons and suits of armour being churned out.

Old Observatory

An ancient observatory now crowns the summit of Old Bald Crag; here the party will gain a view of the coastal plain despite the layer of foul, choking brown smog that smothers the metropolis by day and by night. In daylight hours, it will become apparent (despite the smog) that a large part of the city has been reduced to a lifeless, cinder plain. Every building and every monument razed to the ground. At night the lights of furnaces feeding the vast grimlock industrial machine can be seen burning as far as the eye can see.

The Thri-Kreen Invasion

The Thri-Kreen came from the clean wind whipped grasslands of the eastern steppes. Encountering the grimlocks a generation ago they have waged an unending war ever since in their efforts to cleanse the earth of the stain of man and his works. The situation the characters will encounter is a virtual deadlock. Decades of constant war has weakened both sides, but despite the seemingly vast chasm that divides the two races, the party will find that both societies have much in common, being harsh, repressive, militaristic and ultimately alien to the parties outlook.

The Temple of the Moon

Fearful of the sun, the grimlocks worship the moon at a vast ziggurat set amidst the smoky fires of their furnaces. Here they offer sacrifices every full moon, those of men, thri-kreen and of last resort, themselves. A blood-drenched altar occupies the summit of the ziggurat and on the night of every full moon, tens of thousands of grimlocks form a jostling sea around ziggurat chanting a primal paean of worship.

Should the party be captured they will be imprisoned in the chambers beneath the ziggurat.

1. Hall of the Ancestors. A single passage descends into the heart of the pyramid, and then opens into a large, high vaulted hall. All around are sculptures and works of art depicting ancient (pure strains) humans.

2. Beyond a tunnel leads into another wide hall, which is lined on all sides by cells, most of which are empty, but one contains half a dozen thri-kreen who regard the party with their inscrutable multi faceted insect eyes. If released they will immediately attack the party, seeking to kill them and take their weapons. In another two cells crouch groups of men and women – all pure strain humans of fair complexion and light coloured hair. They will regard the party fearfully at first and then hesitantly attempt to communicate in what seems to be a foreign dialect, but if the characters listen carefully, they will identify a few similarities with words (the language is a descendent of common, 8000 years into the future).

If communication is established, it will be found that the entire group was part of an expedition from some islands far out to sea (think of the Hawaiian islands or perhaps the Azores in the middle of the Atlantic). They will implore the party to help them escape and return to their home islands.

The grimlocks maintain system of canals as part of their defences against the Thri-Kreen. These narrow waterways are patrolled by primitive steam powered ironclad rams (equipped with ballista’s and catapults). If the party decides to assist the islanders, one of these ironclads can be stolen.

Ending the Level

The gem will reactivate about 48 hours after the parties arrival and will remain so for approximately the next 12 months, after which it will cease to function, trapping the party forever.

Extensions