Aftermath of the Barrier Peaks

> Several months have passed since adventurers from Oerth plundered the crashed space ship from another material plane.

I am planning on running a few sessions that take place after the barriee peaks adventure and am looking for some ideas. Any help is appreciated.

Some thoughts:

The vegepygmies are basically a zombie apocalypse waiting to happen

If one of the robots is repaired, perhaps through magic, it could teach advanced science

If the laser weaponry could be reverse engineered, the faction with access could quickly become one of the strongest

There was a mind flayer on the ship. Abberations and abberation hunters alike may want to know how it got there and what it knows about the universe it came from. Id imagine many of the gith in the astral plane would be very concerned if they found out.

Spelljammers from oerth and other worlds may wonder how a ship can fly wothout magic. For races like the Gith whoch cannot use spelljammers due to a lack if magical aptitude, this couls be the end of reliance on the spelljammers of other nations.

Sorry OP, but this was already documented in the Dragon Magazine, the Party went back to the king and told them what they'd found and the king dismissed them, and the recovered equipment was picked at and analyzed by sages, AKA idiots who don't know fuck all about dick because Magic holds back progress and whatnot, and the items were sort of redistributed.

At best, Murlynd Picks up and confiscates a few items in private, Illithid had a world spanning empire, and many of them are cut off from one another in most cases, and then there's things like how the bloody fuck it makes it to an Illithid community does it know about The first Illithid deities death at the hands of Tennebrous, what Age the Illithid is, and somesuch.

4e showed us Illithid traded with fucking Greys of all things when they found a cloning facility and decided the most brilliant use of their manpower would be to pull off an invasion of the body snatchers scenario instead of work on reverse engineering the items therein.

Spelljammers are few if any anymore, because reasons.

>llithid deities death at the hands of Tennebrous
>deeeep lore

I think I read the same dragon magazine article. I was trying to do a different take on the events, and im totally fine if it contradicts that article. I thino the article does a good job of explaining how the king would react to news about the ship, but not as well about how third parties would react.

For example, how the russet mold was prevented from spreading has never really been addressed.


Also, one thing I think a lot of d&d official plots ignore is divination. For example, the gith are actively searching for mindflayers, and are led by a powerful caster. A mindflayer from a previously unknown parallel universe woth advanced technology showing up is probably worth investigating, and could be found through spells like contact other plane.

Well it's kind of like how there's a literal Shadow Lichdom and it was only ever present in a Ravenloft Netbook, and then 3.5 showed us Shadow magic, and this nondescript Shadow Lich, and Neverwinter Nights 1 Shadows of Unrentide also had a Shadow Lich.

Or how Demiliches have the power to commandeer a headless corpses, shown in BG and the official Forgotten realms comics, and the stuff Van Richten Mentioned still being canon shown in the FR Campaign guide for 3.5 with salient abilities and other such stuff, but it wasn't given it's dues.

Wasn't Divination expensive? Well, mostly anyway, I can assume there would be things to foul attempts, but this is the same series which had the Elves open a Portal to the Far realm once, letting Father Lymic in and fucking up the Plane of Nightmares and Dreams with it tainting and making them reality through those bizzaro fonts or whatever they were called then teleporting into it becoming Kaorti, then somehow in Tome of magic having active portals to the place with a seer and her Pseudonatural servants.

Truth be told, there's a lot of stuff in D&D that brings up the issue of "Why hasn't this all fucking collapsed yet?" Like Orcus still having the last Word and everything under his arsenal post Tennebrous and the "purge" of his plane "Which wasn't really thorough seeing as there are a large number of Bloodstone pass individuals present in his 3.5 entries, and other stuff.

If I had to guess why though, it's because The Lich Queen a Bitch that eats her servants when they hit a certain level, and literally caps herself because what in the actual fuck.

Also, because I think the other Giz/gith race don't hear much because they're in that plane that does nothing but scream all the fuckign time, there's probably some Plane rules that fuck with divinations there.

>there's a literal Shadow Lichdom and it was only ever present in a Ravenloft Netbook,

Ravenloft is it's own demiplane with its own rules

Luckily barrier Peaks isn't in the FR, because that setting is literally fucking Drowning in Liches, like you cannot

It's literally just taking the Potion for the Shade Template + having the Shadow Virus, which forges a connection with that part of the dmeiplane of Shadow where the Negative Energy is the highest, resulting in a Shadow Lich that drains as if a Shadow, and dims light in the same radius as a Shade and it's fear Aura, with a highyl obscure method to kill what's bothersome about it is that Shar knows NOTHING of it. Also, as far as I recall, the unique parts of the Plane were the Dark powers, unique elementals, Unseelie court, and it's own table representive of the evil present in the plane, similar to that of Taint, Corruption, Vile darkness etc, evil being a cosmic Force of influence in D&D and whatnot. Only update it got was that the World Serpent Inn is now a way out of the plane that the Dark powers try to ward against, and Lord Soth Getting replaced, mentioned in a DM issue.

Expedition to CR was not canon, just to note, that one's a remake of the 1st Ravenloft adventure.

I think the robots could be a cool. Maybe some security droids will leave the ship and start enforcing anachronistic rules on nearby villages

>Exposition to the Barrier Peaks
My god that module was hands down the worst I've ever played

> there was a flash of light in the sky last week, a falling star. My friend barney was up close and says it looked like an octopus or some sorta sea critter. Personally I think hes been drinking too much. Anyway, a few days later a hooded stranger came to the bar. He had a long and flowing beard, almost looked like tentacles. Barney was there, says he really had tentacles but you know how he can be. Man that stranger had a presence. I poured him 2 drinks and didn't even charge. Come to think about it you kinda remind of him. Anyway he asked a lotta questions about the barrier peak mountains, probably due to all the craziness thats been happening there the last few months. He also asked if we noticed any fellas who had their brains removed, kinda an odd question but he was an odd fellow. Said he was from out of town, looking for a long lost cousin or something.

We took it over. Cleaned out most of the icky stuff, repaired and modified it by using magic, and technical help from alien human survivors of the crash. It makes a nice fortress. We take in refugees (basically people who we've rescued from various modules, who had nowhere else to go).

It's pretty cool.

Where is this stuff about Illithids and greys using cloning from? I've never heard of that.

You could always do something with the second module which crashed. (Dragon 280, Invaders of the Barrier Peaks)

Somewhere hidden nearby is a valley "terraformed" into a radiation filled swamp, filled with alien life that evolved on a world without light, such as: the Bonetree, the Razortail, the Ragewing, and the Treeleg Strangler.

And deep in the centre of this deadly mire lies the intact module, partially buried by rock, and with the robots still slumbering from their last awakening.

Oh man I hadn't seen that article. That was great. I really like the terraforming idea.

It was a 4e thing in the Dragon magazine, has Images for it with a Ulitharid overseeing a tank and an Ilithid in a trenhcoat looking all inquisitor-like.

> the next day another stranger comes into the bar. This one also had a hooded cloak.

> What was that? No he wasn't like the stranger from the night before.

> Anyhow I couldn't see much of him, but I noticed that his skin was yellow and I mean yellow. He asked me a lot of the same questions as the stranger from the first night, you know, missing brains and stuff. When I mentioned that somevody had asked about that the night before, he was very interested. Said something about killing two birds with one stone. And let me tell you, the way he said that, I think he was being literal about the whole killing thing. I asked him his name and he called himself Gith. Said he was something like a bounty hunter searching for a dangerous criminal.

Oh man, thanks for the info, if you know the issue let me now. I'm having a bit of trouble finding it

Are these greys like grey elves, or sci fi big eyed humanoid greys.

To be honest, I'm not sure they'd ever reverse engineer the technology. In world, I don't think they'd think it was anything but magic. Just sufficiently advanced magic they don't understand.

This could still lead to a magical revolution, "barrel golems" could become in vogue, based on the robots.
Some items could be replicated with magic, such as girdles of levitation, others probably won't (The mirrors of destruction are probably just too alien)

Your mention of the vegepygmies does make me wonder: was russet mould the plague that wiped out the crew? Are the vegepygmies on board the module the remains of the crew?

If the technology was to ever be learned from, it would probably be with the help of the robots. I don't think a medieval society could ever reverse engineer advanced tech. Maybe some of the mindflayers could.

Perhaps it would be possible to just magically duplicate the objects using magic though. Like using a creation spell to form a laser gun out of raw elements, using an existing one as a template.

I never really thought about if the russet mold was the plague, but I think that makes the most sense. Who else's bodies were the vegepygmies formed from?

If left unchecked vegepygmies should eventually take over all the life in an area.

I was actually running a game where the bad guy was using monsters like Slaads and Vegepygmies as weapons by unleashing them in an area and waiting for them to spread, turning more people into monsters.

Ah, according to the scenario, it's not the actual plague, but is related: "These creatures sprang up from radiation-twisted hydroponic cultures that affected exposed humans, but they are now able to bud and propagate."

Interestingly, the Mind Flayer is suggested to have gotten on board via Probability Travel, and then stuck (by the Ship's hyper-dimensional forcefields)

While he's had decades on board, the technology's probably as alien to him as it is to the PCs.


(Interestingly, both it and the Shedu trapped on board fear to use their psionic abilities in general. That's gotta have some possibilities)

As the Russet Mold grows into an avatar of Juiblex, a Recoverer Juggernaut from Blackmoor arrives to sanitize the reality incursion.

Is it ever explained what the probability drive is? I saw that in the adventure but was not sure what it was. Is that a reference to something?

Also I did find it interesting that its reluctant to use its psionics. why could that be? Maybe it has to conserve energy since it hasnt been able to eat brains on the ship.

Its possible the mind flayer is familiar with technology. In 3rd ed mindflayers came from the future. Maybe the source of the ship is that same future world.

Probability Travel is a psionic version of Planeshift effectively. When you use it, you can shift to other planes or alternate worlds.

I'm not sure as to the reason, since the Intellect Devourer isn't mentioned as sharing that fear.


Given the aberrations on board, the psionic monsters, and the fact that the module got to Greyhawk through a black hole, you could consider the possibility that the ship passed through the Far Realm as well. Possibly even to collect samples.

The crash being a result of an expedition to the far realm is a cool twist. If I rememver correctly they origin of the plague is never explained right? A far realm origin would make a lot of sense, especially given advanced robots couldn't treat the illness. The fact that radiation mutated the illness into plant monsters also hints at a pseudo-natural origin.

>Recoverer Juggernaut
what is that? Blackmoor is a region of mystara which has ancient hi tech ruins right?

>Now based on the look on your face it seems you are not that surprised by these two visitors. But here is where it gets ridiculous. The very next day, after the yellow Gith fella, came a third visitor to this fine establishment. And this man was a walking Hippo.
> No I am not joking
> Yes all of this is real. Are space octopi really that much more unbelievable? He was a walking talking Hippo dressed in human clothes. He also was asking about space vessels and such. I told him about the falling star (or space octopus as Barney calls it) from earlier in the week, he seemed somewhat interested but said that is not what he came here for. Naturally conversation shifted to the barrier peaks, and the guy got all excited. Let out a huge bellow, said it was how his kind laughed. I just smiled and served the drinks, didn't wana get on his bad side. After a few rounds, I got to asking what he was looking for. Said a way to fly through the stars. Said his kind couldn't use magic, and desired a way to fly without it. Now what that has to do with the barrier peaks is beyond me. Anyway this one didn't ask about brain eating boogeymen.

The Beagle (the interdimensional vessel that crashed in the Barrier Peaks) was part of the Metamorphosis Fleet of the Kingdom of Blackmoor. After the extradimensional threat known as the Egg of Coot was defeated, the Kingdom of Blackmoor used the Egg's intelligence enhancing superscience to raise their medieval tech, creating a sci-fi Utopia. Unfortunately, their radiance engines (akin to nuclear power) drained magic from the world of Mystara to such an extent that the planet's existence was endangered. The Science Council of Blackmoor then embarked on the Metamorphosis Project, to salvage their superscience civilization by launching a self-sustaining space ark designed to seek a solution to the radiance problem. It was believed that an alien magic called metamorphosis, known to be used by the Egg of Coot, could make the radiance safe to use. The ark was called the Warden, and the Beagle was one of its interdimensional scout vessels. Something went wrong and the Beagle ended up crashing on Oerth.

It is believed by most of Mystara's immortals, many of which were alive during the Blackmoor era, that the first attempt to alter the multiversal physics that governed the radiance, (called Metamorphosis Alpha) was interfered with by extradimensional entities related to the Egg of Coot, sending the Warden on an unknown trajectory through the multiverse, wrecking much of the world of Mystara, and sending the Beagle crashing into the Barrier Peaks.

Is this from a module or is this stuff you came up with?

Pretty cool either way.

tying the ancient hi-tech blackmoor civilization from mystara to the barrier peaks space ship in greyhawk is a great twist. It gives a unified feel to the events and the setting

A little of both.

What was considered one of the greatest secrets of the Metamorphosis Project was that all known fragments of the Egg of Coot were used to contain the Probability Drive of the Warden. It is thought by some of the eldest Immortals that other members of the Egg's race or civilization may have tried to ressurrect the Egg, possibly by possessing the bodies of the Warden's crew.

The Warden eventually stabilized in orbit around the moon of an alternate Earth in the 1960's. This Earth's United States sent Astronauts to explore the Warden. Reverse engineering the Warden, US scientists were able to activate Metamorphosis Beta, allowing all manner of superscience to be developed. By the late 1980's the radiance problem had begun to affect the globe just in time for a thermonuclear war to break out between that world's NATO and Warsaw Pact. In an attempt to make atomic detonation impossible, the Metamorphosis scientists of that Earth attempted Metamorphosis Gamma. This did not have the desired result, but instead created what became known as the first Gamma World. Later scholars credit Metamorphosis Gamma as the interdimensional flashpoint that melded a seemingly infinite number of parallel timelines together. As each dimension melded with the Gamma World, the nature of reality became strange and stranger. Other probability drives were pulled into Gamma World and lately, Egg-shaped entities have been reported by the Gamma Knights, who patrol the reality altered landscapes of Gamma World.

The Gamma Knights and a loose confederation of Cryptic Alliances, launched a space mission to the Warden in an attempt to shut down the probability drive and end the first Gamma World. In most realities this mission was a success. However, in one of the alternate realities, an alien scientist posing as human (possibly an Egg-entity) sabotaged the Large Hadron Collider in that Earth's 2012, restarting Metamorphosis Gamma and creating the six or seventh Gamma World, which continues to this day.

Meanwhile, mind controlled dominated servants of the Egg of Coot traveled backwards in time in huge space/time ships resembling giant black obelisks. They took with them seedpods that sprouted and budded off the Egg. These pods developed into the Aboleth and Illithid races and spread through the Multiverse.

As soon as they became aware of it, the Aboleth and Illithid would thus be compelled by racial memories and alien psionic impressions to seek out the Beagle, repair it, fly it to the Warden, and attempt to resurrect the Egg of Coot.

Of the Egg of Coot were to be Resurrected, it would, using the Warden and the intrinsic nature of Gamma World, spread it's horrifying influence throughout infinite dimensions. This would be Metamorphosis Omega, the end of the multiverse and everything in it.

Are your adventuring party bad enough dudes to rescue the multiverse from the Egg of Coot?

But how does this tie into Greyhawk's Blackmoor?

Reminder that 'Dead Gods' is DnD's equivalent of the 'Samuel Haight takes over Wraith' adventure that White Wolf wasn't stupid enough to actually write, and climax can only be won when the PCs remember that the Lady of Pain is the mostest strongest being evarrr.

Huh, I've seen it mentioned a few times and have heard nothing but praise.

Are you thinking of Die, Vecna, Die!, which is near-universally reviled?

>sci fi big eyed humanoid greys

Blackmoor exists simultaneously in several places and times. This has nothing whatsoever to do with the Egg of Coot, Blackmoor superscience or the many Gamma Worlds. It is suspected that Time-Travelling adventurers are somehow responsible.

Just tracked down the article, and the tiny grey bodied, larged eyed humanoids the Mind Flayers are working with are...

Derro.


There was a later article in the same issue with stats for Greys, but it was a series of ideas about space/the Far Realm, involving making various aberrations aliens from the stars.

Do you habe the issue number?

Yeah it confused me that Blackmoor exists in both Greyhawk and Mystara, but I believe that he is referencing the Mystara Blackmoor. I believe there are a few other D&D locations like this that exist on multiple worlds, like the city of evernight in the plane of shadow, which exists as the shadowy counterpart to one major city on every campaign D&D world in the plane of shadow.

Dungeon 201

So, combining various ideas together...

The ship was originally designed by a far off human world/plane for exploration of the Far Plane (which they called space.)

The ship used technologies alien to many worlds, having more in common with psionic devices. This included the Probability Drive and Hyper-Dimensional Force Field (Which works like a forcecage or wall of force around the entire module -- and originally the entire ship. This not only shields it from damage, but prevents extra-dimensional invasion)

During its journey, the ship explored the stars of the Far Realm. Around the red cinder-like star Hadar they found a sunset world where they picked up some specimens such as the Intellect Devourer (probably as a larva), and various oozes and fungi. Maybe a Mind Flayer was captured at this point.

During their journey, one of the molds mutates due to radiation and a virus, combining with them to create Russet Mold. This infects the crew, along with the virus, sending them into madness and eventual death and replacement by vegepygmies.

In an attempt to save parts of the ship, the modules are sealed, and separate into the void.

One becomes trapped in the pull of a corpse star, known by the crew as a Black Hole (imaginative people.) As they're about to be devoured by the star, the module's Probability Drive is activated, combining with the gravity to shift the module to Oerth or Your-Campaign-World.

The Mind Flayer may also have arrived during this time, as the hyper-dimensional forcefield malfunctioned, allowing it entrance, but not escape.

The module crashes into the Barrier Peaks, gets buried in a landslide, and occasionally reactivates during earthquakes, where the malfunctioning barrel-like golems (or robots to the crew) start jettisoning live samples.

These horrific monsters attract attention, and the party gets sent to investigate the strange dungeon, which seems to be made of adamant and cannot be scratched.