Hostile: Alien - Part 3

 

The derelict ship

Introduction

In our playthrough of Alien in Hostile RPG, Dallas, Kane and Lambert have found the crashed alien ship on the planetoid LV426.

The Adventure

"Let's get out of here." Lambert says as Dallas leads the team towards the huge ring shape looming out of the fog. "We've got this far, we must go on." Kane replies, "We have to go on!".

Back on the nostromo Ash watches their video feeds on screens which are becoming more and more distorted. "Will you say that again?" He asks Dallas after receiving some garbled speech from him. Let's see if Ash can do anything about the poor signal. This will be a Comms roll for which Ash isn't trained.

I realised the Hostile rulebook treats every check as needing an 8 to succeed, applying positive or negative DMs to adjust the difficulty, rather than the way Cepheus Engine does it which is to change the target number from 8 to higher or lower. I'll switch to doing it Hostile's way from now on.

Ash makes a check.

7 -3 Comms -2 Difficult = 2. Failure.

At the comms station Ash tries to boost the signal by tapping into one of the ship's long range sensors normally used in deep space, but he finds it incompatible with the comms system. "I'm heading back to the console.", he tells Dallas, and gives up on trying to communicate further.

The away team find a row of extremely large holes in the side of the ship, possibly some kind of exhausts or cargo bay doorways. They head inside and walk down a long corridor with walls built in some kind of strange architecture that looks like huge black bones. Kane goes off ahead of the others.

"Look down here, there's something here.", he says. "I'm not sure what it is but if we can climb that wall we could find out." The others follow him as he scrambles up a wall a bit over two metres high. Looking up, they can see a huge cavernous space above them.

Kane makes a check.

9 -1 Dexterity +2 Routine = 10. Success!

Dallas makes a check.

6 +2 Routine = 8. Success!

Lambert makes a check.

7 +2 Routine = 9. Success!

All three of them pull themselves up onto a high circular platform. In the centre of it is a large structure that looks like some kind of high tech telescope pointing towards the ceiling. In a huge  chair attached to it sits a giant skeleton. Some kind of alien humanoid that looks like it's fused with the chair somehow. A long pipe of some kind is attached to its face and runs down its chest. Perhaps some kind of breathing apparatus or part of its body... Its ribs have a large hole blown out of them, the bones sticking upwards like something exploded from within it.

"What happened to the rest of the crew?" Lambert ponders. There is a hole in the floor nearby. Let's do a perception check to see if anyone notices it.

Kane makes a check.

10 +2 Routine = 12. Success!

Dallas makes a check.

4 +1 Intelligence +2 Routine = 7. Failure.

Lambert makes a check.

3 +0 Investigate +2 Routine = 5. Failure.

"Hey Dallas, Lambert! Come on over here." Kane says, peering over the edge of a large deep hole.

Back on the ship Ripley tells Ash Mother's deciphered part of the message, and it seems more like a warning than a distress call.

The away team has set up their climbing gear over the hole so they can investigate it. Kane volunteers to lower himself down on a rope, but will Dallas agree to it? Let's say on a roll of 1-2 Dallas will overrule him.

It's a 1!

"Cool it, Kane", the Captain says. Who will he decide should go down? 1-4 will be himself and 5-6 will be Lambert. He's more likely to do it himself as he has the personality trait "Brave".

4: It's him.

"I can't send you down there in good conscience. I'll go." He says.

"What? You're both crazy!" Lambert exclaims, looking in disbelief at both men. Without saying another word Dallas hooks himself up to the rope and begins to lower himself down into an absolutely gigantic space. This will be a routine difficulty check as he's performing quite a simple task.

Dallas makes a check.

8 +0 Dexterity +2 Routine = 10. Success!

He slowly descends about ten metres into what could be a very large cargo bay. Extremely warm, he can see a glowing blue layer of fog at the bottom. His feet touch the surface of a raised platform surrounded by a deep pit. The fog seems to be sitting on top of the pit. Dallas catches glimpses of strange leathery egg-shaped objects a couple of feet tall, sitting at the bottom of the pit. Kneeling down, he breaks the surface of the fog with his gloved hand and hears a strange humming sound a bit like a theremin.

Dallas makes a check.

9 +0 Dexterity = 9. Success!

Suddenly his knee slips on the smooth, bone-like surface of the walkway and he almost falls down among the eggs but manages to pull himself up again just in time. "Are you alright down there?" he hears Kane call from high above.

"Yeah, but there's a lot of strange objects down here. I think you should both come on down, it might be best to bring one with us so we don't go back to the company empty handed." he replies.

"What the hell do you mean, strange objects? Objects like what?" Lambert shouts down, her head poking over the edge of the hole.

"I don't know, they look like plants or something. Just come down."

"Oh alright!" comes the frustrated reply.

Kane makes a check.

11 -1 Dexterity +2 Routine = 12. Success!

Lambert makes a check.

9 +0 Dexterity +2 Routine = 11. Success!

Kane and Lambert follow Dallas down on their ropes, joining him on the raised walkway above the pit. Kane looks around and sees other walkways dividing other pits going off into the darkness. "Maybe this place goes all the way around the ring..." he thinks aloud.

"Alright, here's what we'll do." Dallas says. "We'll go down there and hoist up one of those things, put it in a net and use the winch to lift it up to the next floor so we can take it back to the ship. Then we'll get the hell off this rock and collect a nice bonus when we turn it in back on Earth,"

Both of them look unsure, but they've been given an order and will have to carry it out. "Come on, follow me." the Captain says, and climbs down into the pit followed by the others. When they break the surface of the fog they hear a strange sound coming from all around them like crickets.

Kane makes a stress check.

3 +1 Stress = 4. Failure!

-1 Intelligence (now 7).

Dallas makes a stress check.

4 +0 Stress = 4. Failure!

-1 Intelligence (now 9).

Lambert makes a stress check.

6 -2 Stress = 4. Failure!

-1 Intelligence (now 4).

The three of them freeze where they stand for a moment, their nervous systems signalling danger at the strange noise, some primal fear activated in dormant parts of their brains. "I don't like this one bit!" says Lambert, looking around. They cluster around one of the objects which clearly looks like some kind of organic egg. Strangely, some kind of black goo is running upwards over the surface of it, seemingly defying gravity.

"Alright come on, let's lift this one together and get it up onto the walkway." Dallas says, trying to sound matter of fact about it. They all bend their knees, put their hands on the bottom of the egg and heave.

Dallas makes a check.

6 +0 Strength +1 From Kane +1 From Lambert +0 Average = 8. Success!

They pull up on the egg which detaches itself from the floor with a cracking sound as if it was stuck there by some long dried organic substance, then they lift it above their heads onto the walkway and it falls on its side there, rolling a bit. Next they all clamber back up onto the walkway which takes them a minute or so. Kane is the first one to reach the egg.

"Er... Dallas?" He says, "I think you should look at this." Dallas walks around the fallen egg to the top, which is now lying open, strange organic matter visible inside.

"What the hell?" Dallas says, peering into the opening. He shines his torch in and sees an empty fleshy interior. "Was there something inside there?" No one has a chance to answer his question as at that moment a shape springs out of the darkness at them.

This is the facehugger, or as Hostile's Alien Breeds book calls it, impregnator. Here are its stats:

Str: 3 (-1)

Dex: 6

End: 4 (-1)

Int: 0 (-2)

Armour: 4

Weapons: Claw +2 (Successful attack means it's latched onto the host's face and they're knocked unconscious).

It seems quite weak but maybe that's to give PCs a chance to survive an encounter with it. I'm going to let it use its Dex modifier in its attack rather than Strength, to make it more deadly. Who is going for?

1-2: Dallas

3-4: Kane

5-6: Lambert

4: Kane.

Facehugger attacks Kane

8 +2 Claw = 10. Hit!

A pale shape whips past Dallas and Lambert and lands on Kane's helmet. He falls to the ground in shock and smoke starts coming from his helmet accompanied by a hissing sound.

Dallas makes a stress check.

10 +0 Stress = 10. Success.

Lambert makes a stress check.

8 -2 Stress = 6. Failure!

-1 Intelligence (now 3).

Lambert freezes in place, unable even to scream in fright, but Dallas immediately draws the laser pistol from his thigh holster and points it at the thing on Kane's helmet. As he does so the creature sinks down through the plastic and disappears into darkness. Dallas rushes over to Kane's prone form and looks down to see the facehugger wrapped tightly around Kane's face, its long tail around his neck.

"Ash!" Dallas shouts into his comm, "Goddamnit Ash can you hear me?" Radio static is the only reply.