Friday, November 22, 2013

Things Found on a Morlock Tool-Belt (Random Table)

A
 sudden thought came into my head as I stooped towards the portal. For once, at least, I grasped the mental operations of the Morlocks. Suppressing a strong inclination to laugh, I stepped through the bronze frame and up to the Time Machine. I was surprised to find it had been carefully oiled and cleaned. I have suspected since that the Morlocks had even partially taken it to pieces while trying in their dim way to grasp its purpose....
The Time Machine, by H.G. Wells

A Morlock Tool-Belt usually comes in one of three varieties, though sometimes they are empty. The tools and things found on an Apprentice's belt will be significantly lower quality than those on a Journeyman's, and a Master's belt will typically yield the best-quality tools.
  1. Empty. It is a nice belt, though...
  2. Apprentice (Roll 1d4 times. Each item has a 30% chance of still being useful.)
  3. Journey-man (Roll 2d4 times, or roll 1d4 times and double the quantities of each item. These items have a 60% chance to be useful or intact.)
  4. Master (Roll 1d6 times. Each of these items all have a 80% chance to be in perfect working order.)

Things Found on a Morlock's Tool-Belt...
  1. Yellow-metal pry-bar. Makes a decent mace in a pinch.
  2. Ear-Plugs. Protect against loud noises, vocal effects (+2 on Saves).
  3. Rusty bone-saw, with three replacement blades.
  4. Three varieties of pliers. One in particular matted with hair and blood.
  5. Scalping-shears. Recently cleaned.
  6. Titanium-alloy ice-pick. Equal to a +1 to hit, normal damage stabby-knife.
  7. Self-adjusting spanner.
  8. Pack of adjustable grommets.
  9. Forty-seven human teeth.
  10. 2d4 tubes of binary epoxy. Half blue, half red. When mixed, they form a purple glob that quickly hardens into a hard, waterproof seal.
  11. Bronze-alloy hammer (non-sparking).
  12. (6d6) Black foil ties. Once twisted they won't come free, unless you know to tap the tip three times.
  13. One-foot wide roll of thin green metal film. Unrolls out to 100', goes rigid when tapped on edge. Re-rolls to whichever end gets triple-tapped first. Can hold up to 4,000 pounds without buckling.
  14. Pack of 3d6 ultra-absorbent rags.
  15. Air-tight can of hand-cleanser.
  16. Tongs. Handle locks if you know how to twist the grips. Especially if you don't.
  17. Inert dull red cylinder. Completely harmless unless broken open or exposed to open flames, then there is a  40% chance they'll explode, inflicting 3d6 damage on everyone in a 20' radius.
  18. Water-purification filter-tube. Use like a straw.
  19. Utility knife. 3d6 replacement blades in handle. Does 1d4+2 damage.
  20. Telescoping yellow-metal blow-gun, with a packet of 3d6 poisoned darts.
  21. Red Lamp. Emits warm red light that does not interfere with infra/dark vision. Has a 30' radius, unless you squeeze it twice, then it sines in one direction to a distance of 300'.
  22. Nose-plugs.
  23. Cardboard box of borax.
  24. Waxed-paper pouch of dried jerky.
  25. (3d4) delicately-carved small-animal vertebrae. Make nice dice.
  26. Squeegee.
  27. Emergency spray-bulb. Squirts water over a 10' radius in case of exposure to Black Smoke, etc.
  28. One-handed pick-axe.
  29. Small pack of very fine tools. Could be adapted to serve as Thieve's picks.
  30. 5d100 washers in a variety of sizes.
  31. Blunt mercury-filled hollow hammer and 1d4 cold chisels. (Hammer does +1 damage, but has a -1 penalty unless wielder is used to the shifting weight.)
  32. Pouch of 5d20 rivets.
  33. Filet knife. (+1 on damage.)
  34. Stylus that separates or seals most metals depending on direction it is drawn. Completely harmless to living tissues.
  35. (4d6) random crystals.
  36. Black disk with a luminous needle suspended in center. The needle glows faintly in a different color to indicate direction of nearest Ley-lines, magnetic fields, poison gas pockets, Weak-Points, and other phenomena. Used to hang on a lanyard, but that's gone now.
  37. Climbing axe. The haft unfolds into a tripod with a pulley system attached at the center.
  38. Palm-sized black mirror. Reflection is emitted in the infrared.
  39. Sack of random fish-bones.
  40. Sewing Kit.
  41. Malfunctioning Mucoid blood-transfusion mechanism.
  42. Pack of 3d4 blades for a hack-saw.
  43. Small tin of snuff.
  44. Horn-working kit. Comes with folded brochure that displays steps in shaping a lanthorn from animal horns. Last one-third of back page is missing, but at least you can still see the diagrams through the bloodstains.
  45. Empty metal cylinder.
  46. Duct tape. Of course.
  47. Three mis-matched wrenches, each one from an entirely different set.
  48. Galvanic torch. Has very limited range, but could inflict 3d4 damage if used in a fight.
  49. Blue rod wrapped in grayish foil. Emits Darkness in a 30' radius if uncovered.
  50. Climbing Winch, self-rewinding, excretes up to 500' of translucent hair-fine silk-line with a tensile strength able to hold 6,000 pounds dead weight.
  51. Rebreather mask. Allows wearer to breathe underwater for up to two continuous hours at a time. Requires ten minutes to recharge/clear after every 30 minutes of use.
  52. Screwdriver; the tip automatically adjusts to fit.
  53. Cold Cutter; narrow blade of white metal that maintains a very low temperature while cutting through dense materials.
  54. Very nice bone-carving and skrimshaw kit.
  55. (3d4) Slug-Repellent Salt-spikes. Inflict 3d4 to slugs, snails, etc.
  56. Heavily-creased cheat-sheet showing detailed sketches of various highly poisonous fungi.
  57. Gloves made from what appears to be cat-hides, with the fur turned inside.
  58. Slick black poncho-with-hood. Stinks like filthy penguin-hide.
  59. Leather-working kit. With three additional tools you don't immediately recognize.
  60. Twist the handle it's a hammer, twist again and it's a hatchet. Some versions have more options.
  61. (1d4) Eloi Memory-Rings. Wiped, ready to be reformatted and reloaded. 
  62. Socket-set in it's own, water-proof case.
  63. White card covered with flowing script and small image, possibly of the former owner of the belt.
  64. Black cylinder, precisely 3" tall, 2" diameter. Extends out to a highly rigid ten-foot pole when properly triggered.
  65. Rat skull fetish adorned with cracked bearings and burnt wire.
  66. Goggles. Lens-housings twist, clockwise enlarges things, counter-clockwise shrinks them down. Not sure what the squiggly green hieroglyphs are all about.
  67. Scraping tools. No good as weapons; too flexible.
  68. Machete. Twist the dial on the handle and it becomes a shovel, rake or grappling hook.
  69. Plumb bob with 600' of thin cord that glows faintly in the dark.
  70. Spool of metal wire.
  71. Small can of reddish lubricating oil. Leaks a little.
  72. Empty leather sheath.
  73. Small black wallet, unfastens into a complete clockwork tool-kit.
  74. Flensing knife. Could make a good potato-peeler.
  75. Medium-sized hand-drill with 3d6 bits.
  76. Hacksaw. No blades.
  77. Fine-mesh gloves, resist extreme heat or cold, acid and alkali.
  78. Grooming kit. Never used.
  79. (2d4) Replacement lenses for something that uses 3" diameter convex lenses made from some clear blue material that isn't glass.
  80. Shop Steward Pouch. Contains 3d10 complaints, grievances and time-off requests, all written out in sloppy swirly black curlique-script. Might contain a hidden pocket for bribes.
  81. Folding spade.
  82. 23 assorted gaskets and a hand-drill with no bits.
  83. Random repair manual. Saturated in oil or some other, indeterminate nastiness, and thus unreadable.
  84. (2d4) Brass tokens from some carnival.
  85. Trowel. When activated, it molds concrete like thick butter for 1d4 turns before going inert.
  86. Assorted files and rasps.
  87. Metal polish and rags. (Poison: Save or suffer intense vomiting for 1d4 minutes.)
  88. Chitin-working tool-set, including an expensive-looking burnisher.
  89. Three disparate clamps, one without the bottom pad.
  90. Pruner and trimmers used for tending fungi-gardens.
  91. (2d6) Cracked ceramic magnets. Half of them burned or scorched. None of them very magnetic anymore.
  92. Some kind of gauge mounted on a stubby stick. Maybe it isn't working any more.
  93. (2d4) Random machine-parts. Most are still greasy, having been recently removed from some apparatus.
  94. White cylinder. When activated, it provides clean breathable air for up to 4 hours, slowly turning black as it releases the gasses bound within it. Will not work underwater.
  95. Wire-cutters.
  96. Folding steel yard-stick. Last two sections rusted shut.
  97. Level. Middle section cracked and oozing green fluid.
  98. An assortment of small springs of various lengths and strengths packed into a paper bag and stuffed into one of the pockets of the belt's main pouch. Underneath is a dull pencil.
  99. (6d4) Sheets of varying grades of sandpaper, (1d4) wads of steel wool, and a hand-carved block of dried fungus slotted and pinned to serve as a make-shift sanding-block.
  100. Three drill-chucks, a dozen drill-bits, two spare handles, but no drill.

4 comments:

  1. Cool, I needed this. Morlocks are a menace the PCs in my campaign are currently dealing with.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Excellent--glad to have been of some help to you then. We have some Morlock items coming up next week, I think, need to check the queue. I know we had something on Morlock Effigies and another on their peculiarly unique Grimoires, so those will show up eventually. Go Morlocks!

      Delete
  2. Always very flavorful. You have a way with a random chart.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you; we're having fun seeing what we can get away with using a table...so far it is a wonderfully flexible means of delivering a lot of information about a setting without getting bogged down in exposition. though, some things require a bit more wordage...we'll find a way to tack-on a table to most of those longer-winded posts, eventually...

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