My players recent suffered a TPKO (total party knock-out, that is) that resulted in them being captured and waking up in a mad scientist's secret moonbase lab. They managed to break out of their restraint cells before their captor had decided what horrible experiments he wanted to put them through, but fighting past the base security to steal a spaceship to get back to Earth proved to be a challenge. The automated defenses weren't too bad, but they were backed up by this tragic villain and her pack of specially-adapted artificial werewolves who put up much more of a fight. My players did escape in the end, but most of them got bitten and their rocket ship was damaged thanks to multiple overcome twists. I'm sure none of that will cause any problems at all next session.
Luna-C
Allison Lee was a NASA astronaut before the Phoenix-4 moon mission came to grief, crashing on the lunar surface after an unexplained thruster failure. She and two of her crew survived with severe injuries, and would certainly have died if they hadn't been rescued from the wreck. Their salvation came from a most unexpected source - a squad of war-wolves in the service of mad scientist Doctor Mordecai Mentallax, whose current moonbase was concealed in a crater near the crash site.
Mentallax was no good Samaritan though. His medical super-science stabilized the three survivors so that he could interrogate them to be sure his secret base was, indeed, still secret. After assuring himself that the Phoenix-4 crash had been a simple accident, he decided to put all through astronauts through a series of radical experiments combining cybernetic upgrades to replace the massive damage to their organic bodies with a deliberate infection with his own customized strain of synthetic lycanthropy. Lee's two crewmates failed to survive, which might have been a mercy. She technically lived through the process, emerging as a heavily-enhanced cyborg werewolf, but her former personality and memories are gone, buried beneath her new identity as Experiment Luna-C, brainwashed pack leader of Mentallax's war-wolf security force.
Both Luna-C and her pack can operate on the lunar surface just fine without any protective gear, as their lycanthropy is supercharged to the point where the low gravity, hard radiation, temperature extremes and hard vacuum mean nothing to them. Even off the moon they can endure the harsh conditions of outer space as long as Luna is visible, or if they've brought along chunks of moon rock as "life support" gear.
Description: A wolf-like humanoid with heavy cybernetic augmentations. She has a pronounced muzzle with powerful jaws and prominent metal teeth. Her legs are digitigrade prosthetics, and most of her torso, all of her left arm, and the left side of her head are obvious cyberware as well, with one eye replaced by an artificial sensor. She eschews clothing entirely, even in the vacuum of the lunar surface. Her voice is wholly mechanical and lacking in inflection, and sounds like a text-to-speech program.
Gender: Female Age: 28 Height: 6'0" Eyes: Reflective Yellow, Glowing Red Implant
Hair/Fur: Gray-White Skin: Pale, Silvery Cyber-Armor Build: Digitigrade Cyborg
Approach: Mastermind Archetype: Bruiser
Health: 40 + (5 x H)
Powers: Cybernetic Upgrades d12, Synthetic Lycanthropy d10, Awareness d8
Qualities: Close Combat d10, Alertness d8, Cyborg Werewolf Astronaut d8, Imposing d8, Leadership d8, Technology d8
Status: Green Zone Health - d6 / Yellow Zone Health - d8 / Red Zone Health - d10
Abilities:
Adrenaline Injectors (R) When Attacked, Boost yourself using your Attacker's Max die.
Lycanthropic Toughness (I) Reduce damage taken from physical or energy sources by 1/2/3 while your Health is in the Green/Yellow/Red zone.
Fury Emulation (A) Attack using Cybernetic Upgrades. If your current status is in the Green zone, use your Max die. If your current status is in the Yellow zone, use your Max + Min dice. If your current is in the Red zone, use your Max + Min dice against one target and your Mid die against a different target.
Threat Display (A) Attack one hero using Close Combat. Hinder all heroes using your Max die.
Upgrades & Masteries (optional):
Group Fighter (I) +20 Health. When you take an action that lets you make an Attack, also make an Attack using your Mid die.
Master of Conquest (I) As long as you are in command of your own forces, automatically succeed at an Overcome to seize an area or capture civilians.
Tactics
Luna-C functions much like a standard War-Wolf, but is even more dangerous. She generally opens with her intimidating Threat Display ability to hamper her foes, shifting to Fury Emulation once she's reached Yellow status for greater damage output. Lycanthropic Toughness reduces the damage she takes from most blows, and she'll use her Adrenaline Injectors to augment herself reactively.
With her upgrade she puts out even more damage and is much harder to take out. Her mastery represents a combination of cybernetic tactical augmentations and supernatural pack instinct.
Her Synthetic Lycanthropy power grants her dangerous natural weapons, super-strength, enhanced speed, senses and endurance, while her top-notch Cybernetic Upgrades enhance them even further and add integral energy weapons and jump jets for low-gee maneuvering. Unlike "normal" War-Wolves she's incapable of even limited shapeshifting and is permanently locked in her bestial "wolf-woman" form by her cyborg parts. Forcing her to revert to her human form would result in a grisly demise, but that would be nearly impossible as long as she's actually on the Moon itself, or in possession of a piece of moon rock (most likely concealed within her cybernetics).
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The lesser war-wolves that Luna-C leads also have some minor cybernetic enhancements, mostly integrated communications devices and metal claws that don't restrict their limited shapeshifting abilities. Reduce their die size to d10 when not operating on or near Luna itself.
Lunar War-Wolves d12 lieutenants
Description: They're wolf-men and wolf-women, all with minor cybernetic implants. Unlike Luna-C they wear black singlets with a full moon symbol on them and carry holstered blaster pistols.
Cull the Weak: When you make an Attack action, also Hinder that target with the same die roll. You receive a +1 bonus to the roll if the target has a d8 status die, or a +2 bonus if the target has a d6 status die.
Supernatural Allergies: If you are Hindered by silver, wolfsbane, or magical effects specifically tailored to lycanthropes, increase the resulting penalty by 1. If Attacked by any of these, you are also Hindered using the same die roll with the same increased penalty effect.
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Moonbase M-Prime
This environment could be used for any high-security lunar base, perhaps one that's performing such potentially dangerous experiments that self-destruction as an ultimate containment procedure is an acceptable option. With a bit of reskinning it could also be an extraterrestrial super-prison or the base of a covert alien invasion force.
Automated Security d8, Dangerous Mechanisms d10, Fragile Life Support d10
Green Zone
(Minor Twists)
HALT! RETURN TO YOUR CELLS!: Roll the environment dice. Hinder all hero targets in one location using the Min die. Add one Security Robot minion to that location. It cannot act until next turn.
Shifting Walls and Floors: Roll the environment dice. Move Mid die heroes to any new locations of your choice.
(Major Twist)
Lockdown Protocol: Until the scene ends, moving between locations requires a successful Overcome to gain access. Once access is achieved that path remains passable thereafter.
Yellow Zone
(Minor Twists)
Bio-support System Failures: Roll the environment dice. Hinder all hero targets within the moonbase using the Min die. The penalty is persistent and exclusive.
Mobilize Security: Roll the environment dice. Add Mid die Security Robot minions to the scene. They cannot act until next round.
Overloading Gadgetry: Start a timed challenge in one location. Emergency Shutdown 0 Timer 0 If the timer runs out, Attack all targets in the location using the Max die and Hinder all targets in the scene using the Min die.
YELLOW ALERT!: Roll the environment dice. Boost all environment minions using the Mid die.
(Major Twist)
RED ALERT!: Advance the scene tracker by one.
Red Zone
(Minor Twist)
Catastrophic Overloads: Roll the environment dice. Attack all targets in the moonbase using the Max die.
Self-Destruct Countdown: Start multi-step challenge with two Overcome paths.
Remote Approach (Overcomes can be performed from anywhere in the moonbase) Bypass Security Lockouts 00 Deactivate Self-Destruct 00
Hands-On Approach (Overcomes can only be performed in the Power Core location) Locate Mechanism 0 Just Break The Thing Already 0
Successes on one path don't affect the other, but only one must be completed to resolve the challenge. If the scene ends while this challenge is unresolved, the moonbase will self-destruct. Heroes or villains might still survive by evacuating on a spaceship, employing emergency escape pods, using their own powers or through some story twist.
(Major Twist)
Outside Intervention: Someone or something new will intervene in ongoing events if the scene tracker runs out. It might be a NASA search & rescue mission investigating the Phoenix-4 crash. It might be another spacefaring superbeing or team, heroic or villainous. It might be aliens.
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Security Robot d8 minions
Description: These come in a variety of shapes and sizes, although most are roughly human-sized and bipedal with four or more upper limbs ending in various manipulators and integrated energy weapons. Their blasters and shock weapons can be adjusted for lethal or non-lethal output as desired.
Coordinated Restraint Programming: When two or more Security Robots Hinder the same target, roll all their dice at once and use the highest single result rolled for each of them.
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