Secret Santicorn was here again and this time I was around to slip my name into it as well.
For those not familiar, Secret Santicorn is a secret santa type event in the OSR-sphere where people gather around to toss blogpost prompts into a pool which then gets randomised around with the hopes that everyone gets a prompt they did not enter in themselves.
For me, I was given the following prompt:
"Encounter(s), monsters, or NPCs for a (potentially horror-themed) game set in a giant 80s/90s nostalgia-inspired shopping mall (maybe like https://sameissharkinjapanese.blogspot.com/2021/03/mall-rats-monsters-of-megamall.html or https://sameissharkinjapanese.blogspot.com/2021/03/mall-rats-more-monsters.html or just do your own thing)"
I've taken a look through the provided blogposts and tried flipping through the Mall Rats rules to get a grasp on the tone and how monster statblocks and checks work and while I have to admit the setup may not be my usual cup of tea I shall try to make something up.
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Later Note(s): I ended up writing these things with B/X style stats in the end as I am more familiar with that and can more easily feel out things in that framework.
This is me pushing this post out after remembering it three months into 2023 since I don't want to keep the post hanging for another god-only-knows-how-many-months if I were to again delay posting this until it is completely finished.
Hope this is to your liking!
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Encounters
- Mannequin Pile
- Mannequins. Mannequins atop mannequins atop mannequins.
They're piled high all the way up to the third floor of the mall in this open space.
Most of them broken, shattered from a fall from somewhere in the upper floors, this pile looks like somebody has been hauling every single mannequin in the entire mall to here and thrown them into a pile. - Looking at the pile more closely, all of the mannequins have their limbs broken in a deliberate manner.
- Dragging sounds from the third floor, somebody chucks another mannequin down onto the pile.
- This results in moans and groans from the pile, the mannequins are in pain.
- Distorted Music
- Suddenly the lights explode on, amplified by spotlights that someone has hung off of the railings of upper floors of the mall all over. A distorted and worn out track starts to blast all over the mall out of speakers that were thought long dead.
- (Linking Park ran through a some sort of distortion filter would fit perfectly here, the more "emo" you can go with it the better. I recently ran into this which fits the bill perfectly: Rouri404 - Open Water)
- Thinking about it logically, there are only so many places in the mall where all of this could be controlled from.
- Dark Hallway (of roaches)
- A cramped side alley cutting past collapsed bits of the mall appears completely impervious to any attempts to light it. Flashlight reveal nothing but slight movement and weirdly shining darkness.
- In reality the entire way is covered in thousands of small black cockroaches.
- Tossing something into the darkness will make the entire path explode into action as the cockroaches scramble out of the way, potentially deciding that the shortest path out of there is by rushing past/over the PCs
- Morse-Code Elevator
- Explosion of Glass Windows
- Sudden near-harmonic crackle of shattering and falling glass.
- With barely time to react, the PCs find themselves caught in a rain of sharp pieces of glass as something causes the remaining glass ceiling windows of the mall above them to shatter violently.
- Lost Child Announcement
Monsters
- Giant Rat
- Large as a cat, on top of being a cowardly pack animal, giant rats have adapted to the mall life perfectly.
They make nests inside walls and pop out to dig for trash and the occasional unfortunate urban explorer that they'll then drag into their cramped tunnels. Hungrily eating their catch while waiting for the other members of their colony to come back with more food. - HD 1 / HP 4 / AC 14 / ML 5
- +1 to hit Bite @ 1d4 damage
- Regroup: A rat will run away and come back from unexpected angle with an additional rat in 1d4 turns.
- This can quickly turn into exponentially more and more rats appearing until the swarm decides that it's strong enough to take on their prey.
- Furbies
- Somehow it all began with the furbies. Maybe it was something to do with the experimental life-like AI, a wish of a child upon a falling star, or some secret government operation, but the end result is what we are living in right now.
These little gremlins get absolutely everywhere, know no bounds of personal space and have a knack for causing accidents all around them. - HD 1 / HP 3 / AC 14 / ML 12
- Noncombative: Furbies themselves have no way to defend themselves or to directly cause harm to anyone.
- Freak Accidents: For whatever reason, reality seems to bend itself towards accidents and catastrophes around furbies in a true Final Destination manner, the little gremlins needs but be near humans and the effect kicks in.
The more furbies there are nearby the stronger the effect, thus when they hit the shelves of stores in droves the results were devastating. - Roaming Salesman
- Nobody knows where they are still crawling out of, but sometimes you can run into them in the abandoned malls. A perfectly cut suit, accentuated with a tie and a salesman's smile with a box of samples to show for the potential customers as they step into view from behind a corner and start their pitch.
- HD 1 / HP 5 / AC 12 / ML 6
- +1 to hit Suitcase with product samples @ 1d6 damage
- Dear Customer: The salesmen never start out as hostile when encountered and will try to defuse any potentially violent situations. Their only goal being to sell whatever product they are representing to anyone they come across.
- Turn to walk away from one, and they'll simply jog along you while still keeping on with their pitch.
- Shut a door on one, and they'll raise their voice just enough to be heard through it.
- Threaten one with violence and they'll back away courteously while still sneaking in remarks about how owning their product would avoid this whole situation.
- You Need One of These: The salesman is trying to get you to purchase a...
- New electric vacuum - Near-complete silence, no more annoying hoovering sounds that scare your pets and wake up your spouse!
- Portable mini fridge - Take your perishables with you on that picnic without a worry of them going bad on the way!
- Flat LCD television - None of those bulky boxes, a picture frame for your moving picture needs to hang on a wall!
- Small emergency radio - Doesn't even need batteries, just crank it up like this!
- Anti-eavesdropping walkie-talkies - Each comes with their own earbuds!
- <Something useful the PCs have been looking for, commercialised to hell and back>
- Pizza Dough "Slime"
- A terror risen from dumpster of a local pizza place! The dough never stopped rising, it now bubbles and flows onward looking for more flour and water to add to it's expanding mass, and boy it can hear all that red water circulating inside you!
- HD 2 / HP 9 / AC 12 / ML 9
- +2 to hit Lunge @ 1d6 damage, then grapple as it pulls you inside to add to it's mass.
- Ever Expanding: Whenever the dough kills something be it a rat, living furby or a mall explorer it absorbs it and gains another Hit Die and additional +1 to hit.
- Kneaded Body: The dough is immune to most conventional weaponry. Both blunt and sharp implements will simply strike into it and get stuck.
- It's make does however make it weak to fire and heat, baking it's doughy body into pleasant smelling crisp which not only make it able to be harmed but also makes it very difficult for the dough to move around.
- Mannequin
- Other Mall Explorers
NPCs
- Mall Santa
- Dirty man clad in even dirtier santa outfit, complete with the fake beard that is now stained gray rather than the jolly white.
The rats are his friends, much to the puzzlement of everyone who has caught a glimpse of him skulking between the staff rooms and the liquor store. - Unaccustomed to human contact, the drunkard acts like a caveman around others.
- Running on booze, the fastest way to this man's heart is through a bottle of liquor raised on his lips.
That is all that it takes to convince him for almost anything, that is how deep his addiction runs. - He knows about the rats and he knows how to trick them. Nobody else knows how he does it, but he has often been spotted talking to rats or treating them like one would a loyal pet dog.
- Shaken Janitor
- He's barricaded himself inside the camera room, watched it go down all the way from when the furbies first drew blood to the mall getting abandoned and the rats settling in.
- Trapped in the camera room, the only exit is a ventilation shaft he crawls into to sneak to nearby shops when he finds himself starving.
- Too cowardly to try to make a run out of here, he probably couldn't function in normal society anymore after surviving off of tap water, skittles and whatever has been left in the nearby chinese restaurant's kitchen.
- If befriended, he still has access to any functioning security cameras around the mall and can provide information on several locations and what roughly to expect over there.
- Way Too Accurate Magic 8-Ball
- It sits on a small "altar" made of trash inside a toy shop
- Shake it and ask a question, the 8-Ball will answer elaborately although it only knows of this mall as it's entire world.
It feels almost like having a conversation with someone, or maybe you too have been cramped inside a mall for too long. - Squatter Jim
- He comes and goes as he pleases, having constructed his own quarters and entrances to the mall. Sometimes he brings treasures to the outside with him to trade, a couple of times he's crawled out of there all bloody and beaten, needing to rely on the good will of the people to get himself fixed up, but this is where he lives.
- Knows a couple of secret and relatively safe exits and entrances around the mall.
- Protective of his home, doesn't like mall crawlers creeping around too close to where he has his hidden dwelling.
- Will trade information, treasures and anything else he might need for items useful in everyday life.
Toothpaste, bandages, books, batteries, maybe even a new flashlight. - Urban Explorer
- Trapped, injured, and probably rat food if not something worse unless somebody finds him soon.
- He will cry out if he hears you, as he fears for his life and can't dig himself free from the rubble that fell on him.
- This will naturally alert anything else close by, but he's been getting panicked and desperate.
- He was carrying a pack of tools and gear on him that may still be of use even after his passing.
- If rescued, he will inevitably slow you down.
Should you manage to rescue him and get him outside, he will be indebted and do his utmost to reward you. - Stray Cat
- Roughed dirty fur and attitude for days, pick her up and get your face clawed.
- Can be found in and around shortcuts and hiding spots inside the mall, this stray cat has it's own safe highways that cut through the mall and allow her to go where she pleases and when she pleases.
- She'll bring over small "gifts" that she finds in the abandoned mall, making sure to drop them so as to not get caught or petted without her explicit consent.
Musical Inspiration:
KEYGEN CHURCH - ░█░█░░█░█░█░
SILENT POETS - Asylums For The Feeling