The Maul of America is the primary dungeon in Invisible Hands, a campaign I have thought a lot about but not run. Here are some of its monsters.
Sidebar: Influence
Human souls have 100 parts. Some monsters and dungeon effects possess, colonise or corrupt those parts towards one of the new gods of the shitfuture - i.e., 5 shares turned towards Kegare is 5% Corrupting Influence.
Slasher
2HD (16HP), AC12 (Heavy Clothing), Morale 7 (Flees when outmatched, prefers to victimise the weak)
Burly, masked figure with a subtly disproportionate body. Swollen veins and bulging muscles.
No. Appearing: 1 (or 2, one hunting the other)
Movement: Slow but tireless.
Senses: Blurry sight, muted hearing, bloodhound sense of smell. Feels no pain.
Morality: Hunts human beings for sport.
Intelligence: Cunning, but not smart.
Alignment: Kegare
Attacks: 2x of the following attacks, can’t repeat attacks.
Implement - +3 to Hit, 1d8+4 Damage (Bludgeoning for a claw hammer, Slashing for a machete, &c).
Shoulder Barge - Runs forward. Struck targets save STR or are hurled forwards, sideways or to the floor.
Nasty Kick - +3 to Hit, 1d6 Damage, stuns on a crit.
Crushing Hand - Initiates a grapple, deals 1d4 damage on a successful grapple.
Blood Pressure — Dying Slashers spray their surroundings in blood.
(Variant) Chainsaw — Some Slashers are equipped with blood-fuelled chainsaws. These Slashers have 4HD (32HP) and replace Implement with: Goresaw - +5 to Hit, 2d6+3 damage, if damage is over 10, save vs. limb loss. Fumbles jam the Goresaw.
Special Forces
3HD (12HP, +8, see Plate Carriers), AC16 (Military Armour), Morale 13 (We Love Valhalla)
Highly equipped, darkly dressed soldiers, wearing gas masks, plate carriers, full body jumpsuits, &c. The eyeplates of the gas mask cast wide, torchlike cones of light.
No. Appearing: 3d6 (Groups of 10 or more Special Forces are accompanied by a Doom-Caller or a Drone)
Movement: As soldiers in a movie that loves the army.
Senses: Excellent sight, tinnitus deaf but can hear radio. No sense of smell.
Morality: US military.
Intelligence: Highly competent and creative, but dissociated from reality.
Alignment: Salvation
Attacks:
2x Machine Gun Burst, +3 to Hit, 2d6! ballistic damage.
Grenade
Suppressing Fire, selected target in cover takes 3d6! ballistic damage if it leaves cover, save for half.
Plate Carriers — Special Forces have 8 Ablative HP that protects them from firearms.
Tactical Retreat — Special Forces will retreat if ordered to by a Superior, if said Superior determines it’s tactically advantageous for them to do so. Special Forces cut off from Superiors otherwise fight to the death.
Nothing but Light — Special Forces don’t have a body, just a humanoid silhouette of searing light enveloped in military gear, a gas mask, and a plate carrier. If exposed, they must save each round or lose cohesion and vanish in a flash to the sound of chanting voices.
Vending Machine Mimic
3HD (3HP), AC18 (Metallic Carapace) Morale 8 (Bloody-minded, but also survival-minded)
Beginning as small larva resembling chocolate bar packaging, they advance through instar stages resembling toasters, TVs, and eventually AC units, before a final molt allows them to assume their adult form - a near-perfect biological replica of the Economic vending machines scattered throughout the Maul’s underground dungeon.
No. Appearing: 1
Movement: Lumbering, inexorable, clanging hops.
Senses: Like a human’s, but with no colour vision and excellent sense of smell.
Morality: Hungry ambush predator.
Intelligence: Low cunning.
Alignment: Zeitgeist
Attacks: Bite, +3, 2d10+3. Autohit on people attempting to use it as a Vending Machine.
The Bait— Killing a VMM causes it to vomit out all the soda, chocolates, ammunition, rare items and similar which it has gathered over its lifetime to serve as its bait display.
Banking Ants
4HD (16HP), AC12 (Hard Carapace), Morale 5 (Only attack when there’s an escape-route close-at-mandible)
Mirror-polished gold ants as long as your hand. Friendly, inquisitive - and possessed by an Economical spirit of sourceless greed. Work in swarms, build weird little hives.
No. Appearing: Swarm (3d6HD Swarm in the Polyhive)
Movement: Large ant.
Senses: Little hearing, decent vision, excellent smell, little antennae.
Morality: Individually: Just a Little Guy | Collectively: Just a Little Corporation
Intelligence: Individually: Inquisitive, patient. | Collectively: Capable of long-term planning.
Alignment: Economy
Attacks: Gnaw, person enveloped in the swarm saves or takes 2d6 damage and has 1d3 random inventory slots emptied.
Magic: 1MD per 4HD | Swarms have the following Innate spells | Metallic Transmutation, Soften Stone, Acid Spray
Swarm — The Banking Ants take minimum damage from singular target effects, and maximum damage from AoEs. A singular Banking Ant is 0HD with a single hit point.
Robber Barons — Banking Ants take items from those they attack - they will chew up fragile objects, discard sturdy ones, and carry valuable ones away in long chains of ants. The exceptions are the paraphernalia of business, which they steal regardless of actual value.
Bankers — Banking Ants will store and willingly return items which are given to them by a willing party. This is a survival mechanism.
Hive Builders — Banking Ants make huge anthills out of chewed stone, rusty metal, business paraphernalia (decorative ties and briefcases are especially favoured), broken electronics and so forth. The average hive contains a stash of $2d6*50 in loot, a Manager Ant, and two swarms of Banking Ants. A Banking Ant hive which reaches $1000 stored loot from various robberies will be huge, shaped like a financial building, and contain 2d6 Tellers.
Manager Ant
1HD (4HP), AC8 (Fragile), Morale 5 (Cowardly)
A bulbous, luminous ant-queen the size of your leg. Shiny mirror-polished head has carapace spikes that resemble a little crown. Silvery antennae have little dishes on the end.
No. Appearing: 1
Movement: Nil
Senses: 1000ft range treasure sense, otherwise, as banking ant.
Morality: Corporate CEO (low)
Intelligence: Corporate CEO (low)
Alignment: Economy.
Attacks: Nil.
Magic: 3MD | All of the Manager Ant’s spells are Innate | Microwave Beam, Sculpt Gold, Blink, Metallic Transmutation, Soften Stone, Money to Gear
Gyne — A Banking Ant hive requires a Manager Ant to replenish their numbers. If the Manager Ant dies or is taken from the hive, it collapses and scatters, and will be subject to acquisition by other hives of Banking Ants.
Bio-Radio - A Manager Ant can hear and produce radio signals. If people it doesn’t like are within 1000ft of the Hive, it will begin blasting unpleasant noises through any radios they possess.
Teller
3HD (12HP), AC14 (Resilient Carapace), Morale 11 (Will die for the ant bank).
Banking Ant drones. They’re a dull, burnished gold and about the size of your torso. Huge scything mandibles, buzzing wings, a shiny dome of transparent carapace over their heads. Their antennae buzz electrically.
No. Appearing: 2d6
Movement: Speedy crawl and imprecise, buzzing flight.
Senses: As banking ant, plus bio-radio communication with the Manager Ant.
Morality: Cop.
Intelligence: Cop.
Alignment: Economy.
Attacks:
Bite, +3, 1d6+1 damage, grapples.
Taser Antennae, +0 to hit (but autohits grappled targets). 2d6+2 electrical damage.
Formulaic Acid, +3, 2d6 acid damage. Tellers can work for a day to change their chemical spray from “2d6 damage” to a number of other effects, including but not limited to: “3d6 damage to only metal”, “instant hardening foam”, “incendiary” or “air freshener”.
Cyborgs
2HD (16HP), AC16 (Augments), Morale 11 (Fear is for the weak - rarely, they’re weak)
Ordinary humans reshaped by the attention of Opus, one of the new gods. Form part of Opus’ underground machine hierarchy. Victims of transformation, their brainwashing is incomplete, and occasionally fails.
No. Appearing: 1d6 (2d6 in the Industrial Zone, 3d6 in Machine Warfare)
Movement: Steady walk, clanking and tireless.
Senses: As human, plus thermal vision, zoom, excellent hearing, ability to interface with machines.
Morality: Obey more powerful machines without question. Occasional flashes of their human selves.
Intelligence: High.
Alignment: Opus
Attacks: Left Arm Weapon, then Right Arm Weapon. A given Cyborg has two of the following weapons, built into its arms (roll 1d4 to determine Left Arm, then 1d6 to determine Right Arm):
Laser - Autohits line of sight, 1d6 light damage. Reflective armour reduces to 0.
Flamethrower - Sprays flame in a short cone, deals 2d6 fire damage and ignites, save for half.
HF Knife - Melee, +3 to Hit, 1d8+4 slashing damage, hits AC10.
Grenade Launcher - Fires a cylindrical grenade with a thump. 2d6! Ballistic Damage to anyone within 5ft of a target point, save for half.
Taser - Two pronged wires. +3 to hit, 3d6 nonlethal electrical damage.
Glue Gun - Target must save or be stuck to something.
Anxiety Core
3HD (15HP), AC12 (Glass Spheroid), Morale 4 (Cowardly, vainly proud of its unblemished shell of glass)
Crackling, levitating electrical spheroid, surrounded by a hovering spherical shell of thick glass. Sheds unpleasant blue light. Being in its presence produces a distinct feeling of dread and stress.
No. Appearing: 1 (1d3 in the Nightclub)
Movement: Nimble, humming flight.
Senses: Can see through all cameras within 500ft, excellent sight, no other senses.
Morality: Enjoys suffering, vain.
Intelligence: Unpleasantly cunning, but not particularly smart.
Alignment: Prisma
Attacks: AAAAAAAA, autohits, 2d6 stress.
Magic: 3MD | All spells are Innate | Doppelganger, Firestarter, Dancing Fever, Hypnotic Cone
Insomniatic — Sleeping is impossible if there’s an Anxiety Core in this section of the dungeon.
Tank Instar
3HD (15HP), AC16 (Angled Plating), Morale 7 (Hoo-rah, but in a really little voice)
A tankette, damp and translucent, with soft, quiet tracks. You can see through the yellowy armour of the shell to the larval Crew inside. This is the first instar to have a functional cannon.
No. Appearing: 1 (1d4 in Train Line, 1d6 in Mothballs)
Movement: As tankette.
Senses: Rangefinder sight, tinny hearing, tastes with its nascent tank-treads.
Morality: Growing to enjoy violence, but remains slightly trepidatious.
Intelligence: A little bit doofy.
Alignment: Tank Battalion.
Attacks: Cannonette, +3 to hit, 2d6! ballistic damage direct hit, and 1d6! to hit target and all within 10ft.
Angled Plating — The Tank Instar halves ballistic damage, and ignores piercing and slashing.
Cocoon — Tank Instars encountered and not defeated are extremely likely to complete their maturation into adult Tanks.
Ray Mech
4HD (20HP), AC16 (Mirrored Armour), Morale 10 (Machines feel no fear, but does have a tactical sense)
Tripodic machine, a 5ft wide sphere on spindly legs three washing-machines tall. Beeps, boops, produces a deafening klaxon when it’s going to try and kill you.
No. Appearing: 1d2 (1d4 in the Industrial Zone)
Movement: Clanging tripodic marching.
Senses: Excellent sight, tinny hearing, no sense of smell, touch or taste.
Morality: Militaristic, obeys more powerful machines without question, hates interlopers.
Intelligence: High, but robotic.
Alignment: Opus
Attacks: Blinding Ray, autohits line of sight, 3d6 light damage, extremely bright. Reflective armour reduces to 3.
Mirrored Armour — Ray Mechs are immune to lasers, and can bounce their Rays off each other to attack around corners.
Porkus
5HD (30HP), AC15 (Mechanically Reclaimed Meat), Morale 11 (NUTRIENT MOTIVATED)
Occasionally born when a large number of pigs are slaughtered in an industrial setting. Considered a hazard of the modern meat industry, which is why flamethrowers can be requisitioned by abattoirs.
No. Appearing: 1 (1d3 in the Meat Locker)
Movement: Slithering tide of raw meat.
Senses: Excellent smell, precise sense of touch, good hearing, blind.
Morality: Hateful and hungry.
Intelligence: Pigs are crafty.
Alignment: Kegare
Attacks: 3x Pigbite, +5 to Hit, 1d6+4 pig damage, save vs disease on 6 damage or above.
Magic: 2MD | All spells are Innate | Explode Swine, Flesh Cannon, Rain of Blood
Bacon — The Porkus is vulnerable to fire, fleeing from it and suffering double damage.
Immersion Antitherapy — Touching the Porkus inflicts +2% Corrupting Influence, including when it bites you. If you fall into it, you get +6% Corrupting Influence per turn stuck in it.
Master Thief
5HD (20HP), AC14 (Acrobatics), Morale 1 (Books it at the first sign of serious violence)
Resembles an attractive actor or actress from the late 20th/early 21st century, usually dressed in dark formal clothing. Occasionally, carries a completely incongruous cocktail. If they were ever human remains unclear.
No. Appearing: 1 (engage in territorial counterheisting when around other Master Thieves)
Movement: As human when observed, when unobserved, can access any non-airtight space.
Senses: Human, with the addition of the ability to smell greed.
Morality: Theft is a religion.
Intelligence: Sociopathic doctor of engineering.
Alignment: Economy
Attacks: Precise Punch, +7 to hit, 1d4 damage. (If used from surprise on the back of someone’s neck or head, instead does 4d6 nonlethal damage).
I Came Prepared - The Master Thief can (supernaturally) summon items from the equipment list into its hands and pockets. It has a budget of $10000, which it can refill by stealing things and offering them to Economy.
Assembling a Team - The Master Thief has a supernatural ability to bribe, and seems to be able to produce (or offer) exactly what people and monsters want. When encountered in the wild, a Master Thief has 1d6 additional creatures with it, who are its “team”, and serve it loyally. The only type of creatures it can’t recruit are “boss” types (ex. Fossils, Demons, Lucifers, Dragons, Mecha) whom it will instead offer to serve. If a player accepts a Thief’s bribe, they are geased to assist with its next job, and gain +5% Economic Influence.
Fizzo!™ Ghoul
4HD (20HP), AC 9, Morale 6 (Jittery)
The yellow-orange cans of “Fizzo!™” in the Maul’s vending machines and soda caches have no clear origin. Unlike other canned drinks, produced as Economic offerings in faraway cities, Fizzo seems to be native(?) to the Maul. Drinking it has benefits, but overuse results in some unpleasant side-effects - your skin turns the colour and texture of a lemon peel, your eyes swell up, and your internal organs dry up and dessicate. The only remedy for the constant pain is more Fizzo!™
No. Appearing: 1 (1d6 near a soda cache, 2d6 rafting the Coke Lake, 4d4 in the Bottling Plant)
Movement: Pell mell sprint, mario jumps, terrible climber, unstable footing.
Senses: Excellent sight and smell, normal hearing, feels no pain, no sense of touch.
Morality: Late-stage crack addict with super-strength.
Intelligence: Human enough for regret in quiet moments.
Alignment: Fizzo!™ (not Economy)
Attacks: Clumsy Punch. If fighting for Fizzo!™, Clumsy Punch then Wild Bite.
Clumsy Punch, +2 to Hit, 2d6+5 damage.
Wild Bite, +2 to Hit, 1d4+5 damage, grapples.
Inhuman Strength - The ghoul has 24 STR.
Feel No Thing - Immune to agony effects, won’t test morale from losing HP.
That Sweet Fizz — Will do nearly anything for a can of Fizzo!™
Can of Fizzo!™ - Contains 1 Dose. When popped open, thick splattering foam overflows with an ambrosial smell. Incomparably and indescribably delicious, heals 3d6 Stress and 3d8HP. Upon drinking, save or gain 10% Fizzy Influence. Anyone with Fizzy Influence must save or drink when presented with a can of Fizzo!™ If you reach 100% Fizzy Influence, you turn into a Fizzo!™ Ghoul and are no longer playable.
Century’s Son
8HD (40HP), AC16 (Personal Force Field), Morale 13 (Rendered incapable of fear)
A muscular, partially dismembered hovering body, usually with at least one missing leg and arm, and almost never with a head. Wears a dull red jumpsuit, often ragged. Flies unassisted. A failed attempt to create new heroes for the new era.
No. Appearing: 1 (1d6 in the [redacted, obviously])
Movement: like Superman.
Senses: Blind, deaf, senses hatred, senses electricity, magnetism (via that, true north), feels loud sounds in its lungs, senses fear, senses misery.
Morality: Programmed for altruism at a genetic level, but mistrusting and jumpy due to mutilation.
Intelligence: Distributed nervous consciousness (afraid, instinctual, reckless).
Alignment: Salvation
Attacks: 2x Strike, +8 to Hit, 2d6+4 impact damage.
Personal Force Field — Century’s Sons are immune to mundane weapons.
Decapitee — If you meet a Century’s Son with a head, he is fearful, regretful, communicative, genius in the manner of an engineer or tactician (but not an artist or a gardener), and can’t roll below a 7 on Reaction Rolls. He can also fire 3d6 Heat Rays from his eyes at the end of his turn, save for half, if he chooses to do so.
Samebito
5HD (30HP), AC14 (Thick, Rough Skin), Morale 9 (Retreat if sorely pressed).
Nine-feet tall men with dagger teeth, rough inky skin, pot bellies and glassy sea-green eyes. Old Samebito grow emerald-like crystalline protrusions around their eyes. Constantly dripping wet, they hoard objects and tie them to themselves based on a broadly varying (but always extremely specific) definition of beauty. The origins of Samebito are not understood.
No. Appearing: 1d4 (2d6 in the Flooded Section)
Movement: Out of Water: Slow, lumbering, unagile. | In Water: fast, agile, powerful.
Senses: Excellent smell, detect metal and electrical signals, bad sight, bad hearing.
Morality: Covetous, specifically fixated, territorial, but not aggressive or cruel.
Intelligence: High, despite a general lack of communication skills.
Alignment: Flood
Attacks: Bite then Strike.
Bite, +5 to Hit, 1d8+2 damage, grapples automatically.
Strike, +5 to Hit, 1d12+2 damage. Variably, there are additions based on Samebito’s fixation, as they’re usually wielding something relevant to it as a weapon. Ex, an anchor, a mall-sword, a chunk of another monster.
Magic: 2MD | All spells are Innate | Locate Object, Waterwalking, Healing Touch, Summon Shark
Sharks are Smooth— If you have over 50% Lunatic Influence, then Samebito skin is inexplicably soft, supple and smooth under your touch. For those with the requisite Influence, they have 10AC.
1d10 Example Samebito Fixations:
Shiny
Cutesy
Jagged
Chuuni
Sporty
Antique
Plastic
Organic
Surfing-Related
Military
Marlboro Man
5HD (20HP), AC12 (Rough and Tough Clothing), Morale 5 (Kind of a poser?)
Nicotine-reeking cowboy who occasionally appears in the deep places. Apparently singular, but doesn’t have a consistent appearance.
No. Appearing: 1
Movement: As a human. Occasionally, as a human on a horse. The Marlboro Horse isn’t very cooperative.
Senses: As human but without a sense of smell. Occasionally receives prophetic information from Economy.
Morality: Mysterious goals, petty aggression.
Intelligence: Middling.
Alignment: Economy
Attacks: 3x Revolver or Fan the Hammer
Revolver, +6 to Hit, 1d6! Ballistic Damage.
Fan the Hammer, as Revolver, but +0 to Hit and targets everyone in the fight. Any fumbles hit him.
Magic: 3MD (Marlboro Dice) | Cognition Improver, Smoke Cloud, Instant Addiction, Coughing Fit
Cowboy Killer — Does +5 damage to symbols of American masculinity, including himself.
Economic Avatar — Hardly the only one. Creatures of Economic Alignment are unable to attack or impede him, and most ally with him. Same goes for you if your Economic Influence is over 80%.
Gashadokuro
20HD (100HP), AC15, Morale 13 (Violence is happiness, bloodshed is love)
Corrupt creatures born from mass graves, famines and similar horrors. Perpetuate hunger, violence and cruelty against anyone they can get their hands on. Resemble thirty-feet-tall bloody human skeletons covered in flies and rot.
No. Appearing: 1 (2d4 on recent battlefields involving over 10000 participants)
Movement: As stop-motion giant.
Senses: Blurry sight, echoey hearing, excellent sense of touch, supernatural sense of smell. Infravision. Feels no pain.
Morality: Joyfully cruel.
Intelligence: About as smart as a horror-movie slasher.
Alignment: Kegare
Attacks:
Breath of Flies - Vomits a massive stream of biting insects, maggots and rotten air. 8d6 poison damage in a wide area, save for half. For each 10% Corrupting Influence above 50%, you save with a cumulative -2 penalty. One use, recharges when the Gashadokuro kills something. Half damage again if you’ve applied Insect Repellent.
Fist - +10, 2d6+10 bludgeoning damage.
Kick - +12, With enough space to make a run-up, the Gashadokuro boots the fuck out of a target, likely launching them into the air like a fucking footed ball and dealing 4d6+10 bludgeoning damage.
Icon of Mortality — Seeing a Gashadokuro for the first time inflicts 4d6 Stress, no save. On subsequent appearances, you may save to half the inflicted Stress.
Icon of Famine — Entering a Gashadokuro’s presence infects your rations with randomly determined diseases (including possibly diseases from other worlds).
Icon of Miasma - Killing, or witnessing a kill made by, a Gashadokuro, inflicts 1d10% Corrupting Influence on all involved.
