Monday, March 5, 2012

Wet Spots (Wermspittle/Corruption Trade)

Wet Spots are the still-active and quite dangerous residues of Loathsome Masses that are sought-out and salvaged by those active in the Corruption Trade in Wermspittle. Any particular Wet Spot can contaminate the unwary, but because of the peculiar nature of their origin, each Wet Spot is slightly different from each other. Some are more active, others are more toxic. All types, forms and sorts of Wet Spots are valuable to the distillers, the pharmamongers, the powder-makers and others engaged in the Corruption Trade.
Wet Spots (D30)
  1. A man-sized splotch of glistening wetness slowly seeps down the wall. The gellid material is congealing into a thicker, more bubbly mass towards the floor. The upper edges have crystallized into a half-strength form of White Powder that has peculiar greenish inclusions in it.
  2. A foamy puddle of blood-tinged translucent fluid sits in the middle of the sagging floor. It will drain 1 STR from anyone coming into unprotected contact with it. If this puddle gains more than 6 STR points in a given encounter, it will acquire a more Jelly-like form and seek to drain STR from anyone it encounters. It cannot affect glass or wax, but it will dissolve flesh and most organic materials, including floorboards, at a rate of 1d4/minute.
  3. A rancid streak of curdled fluids and nasty-bits has accumulated along the base-board of this wall. There is a slightly leathery outer-crust to the stuff. The really fluid part of it has infiltrated the wall and is in the process of making its way down towards the cellar. The cast-off residue is still moist and pungent. Disturbing it will require a Save to avoid the unpleasantness of this stuff spewing vomit-like back out of the wall and causing 2d4 damage and exposing those hit to a clearish fluid that will drain all color from anything it touches. The fluid turns glass into a brittle, black ash-like material, but only drains color from everything else. The scent of this material seems to attract Unseen Beasts and Horla. It also might prove of interest to the Rattong...
  4. A thick, viscous bulge hangs pendulously from the ceiling, dripping a peculiar black liquid. The slowly cracking and splitting surface of the ceiling will give-way in 1d4 minutes, causing a vile deluge of horrid fluids and residues to come crashing into this space. 
  5. The violet fluids of this particular Wet Spot seem to have a strange affinity for all forms of leather, hide or skin. On contact, the fluid saturates the affected material, staining it a grisly-looking mottled purple reminiscent of a bruise. The materials affected gain a permanent +1 bonus on all Saves against other Wet Spots, Loathsome Masses and all Jellies. Should the fluid affect living flesh, it destroys 1 CHAR, bestows the +1 bonus to Saves, and will cause 1d4 damage until completely removed (which will require vinegar and salt). Most Apprentices are advised to carry extra sets of gloves or old boots along, just in case they run across such fluids.
  6. The floor appears to be covered in blood. Wet and rippling as if it were leaking from behind one or more of the walls. The red fluid is not entirely blood. It is a nascent Corpuscular Ooze that will drain 1d4 damage (blood loss) from anyone it can spatter itself upon within a 10' radius. If this particular ooze can reduce to zero hit-points or find a nice, unconscious (i.e. helpless) victim, it will drain CON from them until it is strong enough to go prowling for its next meal. 1 CON point drained in this manner will give the ooze 1d4 hit points. Every 12 hit points gained in this manner will get re-rolled as 1 Hit Die (d8).
  7. Sticky black goo covers the walls and part of the ceiling. It looks like massive back-spatter from someone striking a puddle with the flat-side of a shovel. Contact with the sticky stuff causes 2d4 damage and the victim must make a Save or begin to hallucinate terrible nightmares for the next 2d4 hours. Each hour spent screaming and writhing around in agony requires an additional Save or the victim loses 1 INT, which the black-stuff absorbs into itself. The black goo can only absorb 1d4 INT per day, after which it will attempt to seep through the walls/floorboards and go dormant for 1d4 days as it digests and assimilates the INT into itself. Should this nasty stuff succeed in integrating 3+ INT, it will achieve a feral, horrific intelligence.
  8. Iridescent blue moisture has condensed across the windows and walls of this space. It causes 1d6 damage on contact and will begin to flow together into a single, large blue glob if disturbed. The Glob is completely non-sentient, but extremely volatile, even explosive. Open flames within 20' will cause it to explode for 6d6 damage in a 30' radius.
  9. Red-tinged froth has been spattered across the wall in a loopy, spiraling pattern. The red-stuff causes 3d4 damage, but then dries instantly into a scabrous mess that flakes off of the wall. The scabby-stuff causes 1d4 damage if touched by bare flesh, and causes a painful red rash. It has a number of alchemical applications and is worth a lot to venefices or those engaged in toxomancy.
  10. White cream oozes down the wall like a smear of cake frosting. It reeks of rotting flesh and attracts rats like a magnet. Unfortunately, it also drives all rodents within 300' into a blood-thirsty frenzy. Those rodents that eat this stuff gain 1d20 hit points and begin to transform into Ratterlings.
  11. Green scum surrounds a pool of clear fluid that smells of stale sweat. Contact with this fluid will turn organic matter three conflicting shades of green and force a Save or else begin to dissolve for 1d4 minutes. The damage is minimal (1d4), but the material that sloughs off of the victim is quickly assimilated into the fluid and will incubate at the bottom of the pool like a peanut-shaped blob that will require 1d4 days in order to develop into a small 1 HD Skin-Crawler that will always have a slightly empathic connection to its 'parent/donor,' which often causes them some bad dreams and disgusting feed-back of sensations, especially when the things feed.
  12. (2d6) Refugees have already found this Wet Spot and have begun to tap it for use in some sort of cobbled-together mobile distillery-rig.
  13. Make Save or fall through floorboards--this Wet Spot has weakened things severely. Make this first Save, and the floor will collapse in front of the character(s). If they do fall, then upon hitting the floor below they must make another Save. Failure means the character(s) takes double damage as walls begin to collapse. The Wet Spot is pretty-much spent at this point, so there's not a lot worth salvaging from the mess. All this noise and ruckus will attract a lot of attention...wandering monsters, Vigilantes, Street Patrols, all sorts of possibilities might just present themselves.
  14. (1d4) Writhing Corpses are scattered around the remains of a mostly defunct Loathsome Mass. Each corpse has 1d6 hours before they erupt into full-blown Loathsome Mass-ness.
  15. Brown sludge seeps up from the floor boards whenever anyone walks across the floor. It has a peanut-buttery consistency and gives off a powerful almond-like aroma. It is a powerful contact poison, rich in arsenic-compounds. (Save or take 3d4 damage. Needs to be removed with alcohol.)
  16. Slightly crusted patch at center of floor. Disturbing it will bring an immature Ochre Jelly forcing itself up through the cracks in the floor. It will have 1d4 HD and only do 1/4 normal damage.
  17. Off-white and thick like porridge, this Wet Spot has seeped out of the walls to form a glistening mass of pseudo-stalactites hanging off of every surface. This material has absorbed some peculiar materials from the cache left here by some long-gone experimenter or bootlegger. It is now some sort of glue that causes 1 point of damage per minute of contact, and can only be dissolved in milk. If it is applied to leather, paper or fabric, it will either cause it to adhere with a waterproof seal or thicken-up into a material suitable for use as a type of flexible armor. If boiled in milk, it will create a decent soup-base that also has the bonus effect of paralyzing Gore Worms.
  18. A wretched yellowish trickle that smells like rotten lemons leaks out of a crack in the wall. Save or be incapacitated by intense nausea for 1d4 minutes. This liquid is a primary component for a restorative  elixir that can be used to help victims recover their emotions after Gloomswallow attacks. Often against their will.
  19. Orange oatmeal-like stuff is oozing out of the corner, down by the floor. It gives off a sweet-smell that is cloying and disgusting. The outer edges of this mass dry-out and form a brittle crust that breaks apart like the paper of a hornet's nest. The orange fluid seeping through all this debris causes 2d4 damage and is a powerful attractant for all manner of Jellies. (Roll for a Wandering Jelly every 10 minutes spent within close proximity to this stuff.)
  20. A Yelg-Froth is bubbling through the wall. It will be on this side of things within 2d4 minutes.
  21. The bones of an unlucky apprentice lie off to the side of a small, slowly dying and drying-out puddle of stuff the consistency of rendered lard. The entire floor is coated in the accumulated White Powder left behind by this former Loathsome Mass. The apprentice's bones are not quite right any more. They have been changed in a strange manner after having been marinated in the Loathsome Masses' juices for what looks to have been several months. 
  22. The floor is covered by a 1d4-inch-deep Drab Jelly.
  23. A sizzling pink blob will lurch out of the corner, right where it wasn't only a moment ago, to attack the shadow of whomever comes within 10' of any particular corner in this space. The attack will cause the loss of 1 CON on a failed Save, otherwise the target suffers 2d4 damage and the sizzling pink blob slips back across the transplanar threshold, not to be seen again for 1d4 days. Anyone suffering damage from this sneak attack gets a free attack on the thing in return. Weapons will come away coated with a sticky, half-melted cotton-candy-like substance that does 1d4 damage on contact for the next 1d4 days, then dries-out into a pretty pink powder that might have some use to an alchemist.
  24. Milky-gray fluids congeal at the edges of this room. The distinctive Wet Spot left in the wake of a deliquescing Loathsome Mass is obvious, but there are complications, namely a colony of some unidentified mold or fungi that is bulging-out the walls and ceiling, fit to erupt outwards if someone just jostles the surface or even makes too much noise all at once. The burgeoning mold colony might only be some form of Yellow Mold, but it could be something more exotic and nasty...
  25. This room's walls all appear to be half-molten as the plaster has sloughed off with the yellow-green mass of phlegm-like matter slowly dribbling out from behind it all. 
  26. Gruesome slop coats the floor like spilled wax jostled from a tin lantern. Small tendrils slowly wave and flutter as they extend upwards towards any and every light source. Each tendril anchors a trapped spirit struggling to be free of the weird mass. A disturbing amount of free-floating ectoplasm surrounds this Wet Spot like a spectral back-wash of half-visible filth. This mess requires the attention of a karcist, exorcist or someone else similarly skilled in the ways of ectoplasmic ecologies and spiritual enslavement. Touching the weird mass results in 1d8 damage, and requires a Save or the victim will find a small portion of their spirit adhering to the thing, and it just gets more messy and unpleasant from there.
  27. A smoky-looking pool of black-tinged clear fluid sloshes slowly across the floor like a shapeless dog all to happy to see you. It will attempt to engulf one victim. (Save +2 or suffer 2d4 damage. Roll a second Save at -2 penalty; failure means that the stuff has engulfed the victim and they will drown in 2d4 minutes, unless they receive assistance.) This smoky-fluid will cause a permanent loss of 1 WIS after engulfing a victim for longer than 5 minutes. If it manages to kill its victim, it will completely saturate their body, causing it to bloat horribly, and incubate within the corpse for 1d4 weeks, after which time it will tear itself free of the unnatural, necromantic womb and begin a career as an unliving Profane-Putto that has stolen the memories of their victim...and rendered the body unrecoverable.
  28. Glistening green wetness fizzes and swirls in the dimness. If exposed to bright light, it will evaporate into a Toxic Miasma (in this case something much like a Stinking Cloud, only with volition and the ability to inflict disease upon victims).
  29. The rotting carcass of a Blatherer lies across the still rippling Wet Spot. Finally, something got that thing to shut up. The fluids in this Wet Spot have curdled into a translucent purple gel that reeks of plums and turpentine. The material is extremely toxic to Blatherers and will cause others to lose their voice (Save +1 or the effect is permanent).
  30. A Vilg has been nailed to the floor with wickedly barbed copper spikes. Its belly is grossly distended like a bubble about to burst. It has been deliberately exposed to a Wet Spot that was still active enough to have slowly converted it over into a Loathsome Mass, and you're just in time for the half-sized Loathsome Mass to burst forth. All in the name of science, of course. Someone is watching this from a distance. This is an experiment, after all. It was rather a stroke of luck that you wandered along when you did...

2 comments:

  1. Gloriously icky. Great stuff!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wrapping-up the Corruption Trade series, an index/summary post will be coming, after the Sallow Stains and another couple of loose ends...then it's back to the last couple of Gore Worm posts...

    ReplyDelete

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