What is your most fearsome space-monster?

[stealth]

Anyway, one of my players is a xeno-biologist/star-marine, and he is starting the game with a Secret: the DNA (or whatever) of a deadly alien life form. And this is what I came up with:

I need a death-world organism.

A death-world is a planet where the cycle of birth and death is radically accelerated. For instance, a wasp-like creature that bites you, and injects thousands of eggs which hatch in your bloodstream in minutes and explode out of your screaming corpse as new adults.

Image such a creature being unleashed on a garden world like Earth.

So I'm asking anyone on the forum: what is your most fearsome space-monster. I mean, what is the meanest thing you have ever come up with? Does anybody have an idea that can compete with death-world stuff? The closest I ever came was "The cryogenic superfluid munchkin" in another thread).

 

[Enoki]

Parasites are always loads of fun....

How about one that can enter the human body through the skin basically anywhere.... Walking barefoot for example you could pick one up. Handling soil could get one through a hand.... Or, shaking hands with someone who is already infected and now has reached the reproduction stage....

The parasite starts off very small, maybe the size of a large grain of salt or the size of a grain of rice. It might look similar and could be ingested accidently.

In the host's body it rapidly grows in size over a period of a few weeks to several pounds as it gets ready to reproduce. To camoflauge its growth it exudes a combination anestetic and drug that makes the host feel really good. It is mildly intoxicating and addicting.

When it is ready to reproduce it basically exudes thousands of new parasites like itself into the host's body. These will attempt to spread to new hosts and will consume the current host inside out in the process. Once reproduction takes place in a host there is no means to cure the person infected because of the addicting chemical they release and the rapid damage they cause to the host.

If detected prior to reproducing it is possible to remove or kill the parasite but the after effects are very debilitating requiring weeks of extremely painful recovery and likey leaving the host slightly crippled.

 

[sabredog]

So far this is:

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=22813

 

[stealth]

Thanks, sabredog. I'll use your Cheshire Cat in a hunting expedition soon

 

[sabredog]

I have an entire planet I'm detailing the ecosystem of where every plant and animal is venomous to some degree or another. Some produce their own and others rely on using the venom of others - or at least need the venom of others to metabolize their own. Here's a couple of example of the animals that live there:

One my daughter and I worked up together>
http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=22695

One that's cute, but unexpectedly dangerous:
http://freelancetraveller.com/features/animals/devilsquirrel.html

And one this eats the cute ones and could be amusing to harass the players with though it isn't usually harmful to humans unless they spook one or threaten it (like have it grad somebody's hat or shiny hand comp...they try to snatch it back and the harpooner jabs the player in defense...:
http://freelancetraveller.com/features/animals/harpooner.html

Now this one lives on a 90+% waterworld famous for its sport fishing:
http://freelancetraveller.com/features/animals/damnthing.html

All these are my creations but feel free to use them to torment your players on your "deathworld".

 

[kafka47]

Man. Well, it is good as a one-shot take a highly trained Marine who was wrongly accused and set him on the Wild Hunt...and see who wins or a party stripped naked and dumped in a jungle.

Other deadly critters have included a fungi creature that when dead releases deadily spores that allow it to infest another creature taking on many of their attributes and then gradually zombifying them.

cybermats & cybermen can be fun just not in the silver suits but make them appear almost human-like like the Axos.

Triffids - nobody suspects the plants until it is too late.

Snakes with razor sharp teeth that are amphibious might also work well.

 

[sabredog]

Man. Well, it is good as a one-shot take a highly trained Marine who was wrongly accused and set him on the Wild Hunt...and see who wins or a party stripped naked and dumped in a jungle.

They don't even have to be naked - just set up some world that is a hunting preserve of some rich noble, make it a rule that only slugthrowers are allowed of the hunting type - no machineguns, and then have the air/raft get eaten or damaged by some dragon-sized flyer they are stalking. Ta-da, you have them trudging back 100 miles to base with only a handful of ammo and their wits to survive.

Triffids - nobody suspects the plants until it is too late.

The main advantage of the Triffids was the blindness from the meteors - so you could have a similar killer plant hunting animals (players) on a world that is dark all the time. Maybe it gets as light as a dim twilight for a few hours each day, but the rest of the time its more like midnight. I read a book about a world like that a long long time ago - if anyone can recall the title?

 

[Chaos]

I have an entire planet I'm detailing the ecosystem of where every plant and animal is venomous to some degree or another. Some produce their own and others rely on using the venom of others - or at least need the venom of others to metabolize their own. Here's a couple of example of the animals that live there:

One my daughter and I worked up together>
http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=22695

One that's cute, but unexpectedly dangerous:
http://freelancetraveller.com/features/animals/devilsquirrel.html

And one this eats the cute ones and could be amusing to harass the players with though it isn't usually harmful to humans unless they spook one or threaten it (like have it grad somebody's hat or shiny hand comp...they try to snatch it back and the harpooner jabs the player in defense...:
http://freelancetraveller.com/features/animals/harpooner.html

Now this one lives on a 90+% waterworld famous for its sport fishing:
http://freelancetraveller.com/features/animals/damnthing.html

All these are my creations but feel free to use them to torment your players on your "deathworld".

The two of you have a very... interesting imagination.

 

[sabredog]

Well, only the Spiny Runner was part hers - she drew the picture for it, I reworked the pic to make it more accurate, and then after she told me how it would look, act, and where it lived I fleshed out the details and made sure it was consistent. Sarah vetted the final concept and suggested a less irritable version that could kept as a pet - so the Black-Quill Runner was born.

The Damnthing was developed a long time ago when the players were stuck on Nikolas for a while waiting for parts after barely surviving an emergency splash-down/ crash. After paying the fines from all the toxic chemicals that leaked out of their cargo bay and ship they were so broke to afford the widget they needed to fix the drives.

So in the time-honored way of RPG's they hired themselves out as fishermen to hunt Damnthings. Unbeknownst to them the way to fish for these beasties is to make yourself up to look like some giant fishing lure and get the thing to chase you out of its hole. Then blast it with an over-sized bangstick before it guts you with it's tail spur or engulfs you in its dislocating jaw with the massive pelican-like pouch while the bony-rasp covered tongue tears you apart.

Lots of fun.

 

[stealth]

Solution found.

sabredog, I talked it over with my player and he would rather have a trainable Cheshire Cat than a planet-killing death-world life form or other weird parasitic critter.

So thanks for the suggestion. I'm gaming on Sunday, so I'll tell you how it comes out.

 

[sabredog]

Well, that would be something to see. They are obviously pretty smart so I'd figure it could be done - like cheetah or cougar can be. But larger. and more amusing to see your guests' reactions when it comes bounding out of the room wanting to then play with it's squeaky toy!

Have fun and let me know what happens!

 

[stealth]

The funny part is, our xeno-biologist only has animal handling-I, so I predict it will be used less as a pet and more as a guard dog. But yeah, it's going to be funny

Only one other time running Traveller did I have a player with a pet, and it was a dog-like creature six muscular legs, an oversize head, eyes like a spider, big killing jaws, and a dozen small mouthes with tongues that constantly tasted the air for scents.

It was loyal beast, though, and loved to be petted. And to lick you.

 

[sabredog]

LOL...in real life I just love it when I get some giant man-eating dog jumping on me and slobbering all over while the owner says, "Oh, he's just a lover...he's just being friendly." Then I have to wipe off all the slobber while the owner doesn't even notice. Your previous critter sounds like my worst nightmare.