GREEN POD 5 (15)

Worlds Numberless and Strange

Green pod clumps are sometimes found in closets, on basement ceilings, inside elevators, in the back seats of abandoned cars, and in other places where sunlight doesn't directly reach. A clump of green pods typically masses not much larger than a typical human, and each individual pod varies in size from a few inches to almost a foot (3 to 30 cm) in diameter. Each pod is sticky and soft to the touch, and they usually adhere to form a contiguous whole.

Exactly what the pods represent is difficult for a human mind to grasp. Whether they are eggs, waste matter, fungus, or a manifestation of an intelligence from the Strange extruded into a recursion is up for debate. What isn't up for debate is how incredibly toxic a mass of green pods is to living creatures.

Motive: Reproduction

Environment (Standard Physics or Exotic): Anywhere out of the way, out of direct sunlight

Health: 25

Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (5 points)

Movement: None

Combat: Since a clump of green pods doesn't move, the wisest choice someone who finds one can make is to simply flee. Those who stumble into a clump of pods by accident, or who decide to investigate the mass of glistening emerald spheres, discover that the clump can selectively detonate its pods once per turn. When a pod detonates, green fluid sprays everywhere. The fluid can have one of the following effects, depending on the pod, but never the same effect wice in two rounds.

• Flesh Reacting: Anyone within immediate range who fails a Speed defense roll takes 5 points of damage from the clinging fluid. If this kills the target, its flesh is explosively converted in a gruesome chain reaction, and the target explodes one round later.
• Paralyzing: Anyone within immediate range who fails a Might defense roll is paralyzed by the clinging fluid. Each round, the paralyzed victim can attempt another Might defense roll to shrug off the effect.
• Toxic: Anyone within immediate range automatically takes 1 point of damage from the caustic, clinging substance. Each round thereafter, the victim must succeed on a Might defense roll or continue to take damage as the green fluid eats away at its flesh.

Interaction: No real interaction with green pods is possible.

Use: Green orbs are found clinging to the exterior of a robotic deep sea submersible that has just returned from checking out a new fissure in the ocean floor.

GM Intrusion: Striking the green pod clump causes one of the pods to detonate immediately, even though it's out of turn.