Devastation Drive-In 3-D — 'The Last Dinosaur' (1977)

(U.K. One-Sheet)

Artifact:  Laser-Borer

As The Ancients relentlessly consumed the planet's fossil fuels, they devised fantastic technologies to unearth new reserves of gas and oil...

...which lead them to the bottom of the seas, and the subterranean bowels of the earth...

...WHERE AWAITED MONSTROUS LIVING FOSSILS INTENT ON CONSUMING THE ANCIENTS IN TURN!!!

Laser-Borer

Subterranean Vehicle

Burrow Speed:  50 mph

Water Speed:  15 mph

Length:  50 ft

Width:  15 ft

Height:  15 ft

AC:  3 (Duralloy Armor)

Hit Points:  75

Sensors:  Class IV

Programming:  None

Accessories:  Basic life support systems, cartography equipment, medical supplies, rations

Engineered by Thrust Industries, the laser-borer is a 5-man vehicle designed to explore underground environs, and discover untapped petrochemical reserves.  It comes equipped with a full communications / sensor array.  Combining standard "mole-machine" technology with the power of lasers, the contraption shears through stone and ice with ease...and when launched, torpedo-style, from a ship or floating platform, the borer burrows even faster, tunneling through the Earth's mantle in minutes.

The laser-borer also has limited capabilities as a submarine, sporting a periscope and retractable guidance fins.

Those that pilot laser-borers have an uncanny ability to uncover "lost worlds" full of dinosaurs and primitive peoples, in defiance of geographic, environmental, and chronological probabilities....

Terratops

No. Enc.:  1 (1)
Alignment:  Neutral
Movement:  150' (50')
  —Burrow:  75' (25')
Armor Class:  2
Hit Dice:  21
Attacks:  1 (bite or gore)
Damage:  3d10 or 4d12
Save:  L9
Morale:  11
Hoard Class:  VI, XIV
XP:  11,000

Terratops (both singular and plural) are 20' tall, 60' long, quadrupedal carnivores that actually target apex predators. The beasts burrow into the carcass-littered dens of their prey, and then erupt from floors or walls, Surprising on a roll of 1-4 on 1d6.

Terratops bite and gore with abandon.  And when fully emerged from the earth, they take advantage of their increased maneuverability to Charge and Trample, doggedly attacking foes much larger than themselves.  Terratops gladly feed on carrion and bones.  

A terratops' Hoard Class represents refuse unearthed by its movements.

Mutations:  Increased Sense (Hearing)

—

Designer's Notes:  Despite playing in international markets, 'The Last Dinosaur' never had a proper theatrical release in the United States...and actually made its debut as a TV-movie-of-the-week!

U.S. TV Guide Ad!  (1977)

Devastation Drive-In 3-D — 'Saturday The 14th' (1981)

Tublantean

No. Enc.:  1 (1)
Alignment:  Chaotic
Movement:  90' (30')
     —Swim:  120' (40')
Armor Class:  5
Hit Dice:  9
Attacks:  3 (2 claws, 1 bite)
Damage:  1d10 / 1d10 / 1d6
Save:  L7
Morale:  11
Hoard Class:  None
XP:  3,100

A certain film traumatized an entire generation of Ancient children, instilling overwhelming terror of diving, swimming, and even bathing...

...and they had reason to fear, for it's never safe to go back into the water...

...ESPECIALLY IN YOUR OWN HOME!!!

Tublanteans are stocky, scaly, man-sized humanoids of the aquatic persuasion.  They possess freakish dimensional-shifting capabilities, in that they can instantly teleport into—and navigate within—bodies of liquid no deeper than 1'.  When warping into bathwater (which happens to be their preferred method of predation), tublanteans automatically Surprise their quarry.  They suffer no penalties for teleporting "blind", and their abilities have a 25 mile range.

Tubleanteans are nigh-impervious to conventional bladed weapons and firearms; only To Hit rolls of 19 or 20 inflict such damage against them.

For reasons unknown, tublanteans eat everything but their victims' heads.

Mutations:  Teleport (Modified)

Devastation Drive-In 3-D — 'The Beast Within' (1982)

Sickada

No. Enc.:  1 (1)

Alignment:  Chaotic

Movement:  120' (40')

Armor Class:  1

Hit Dice:  11

Attacks:  3 (2 claws, 1 bite)

Damage:  2d6 / 2d6 / 2d8

Save:  L10

Morale:  10

Hoard Class:  VII

XP:  7,600

Legends tell of victimized Ancients trapped in vaults deep underground, surviving more on anguish and hate than the infrequent prey that inadvertently crawls and slithers into their prisons...

...but the legends are true...

...AND THEY'VE ESCAPED TO SATIATE THEIR UNHOLY APPETITES!!! 

Sickadas are slimy, chitinous insectoids with bulging eyes, wicked claws, tufted manes, and jagged fangs.  They are driven equally by rage, hunger, and the urge to procreate.  Their wrath transcends generations, as sickadas pass the memories of wrongs done against them to their offspring; each specimen carries the fury of its entire ancestral line.

When a sickada forcibly mates with a Pure Human female, the resultant offspring appears essentially normal for the first 16 years of its life, but for one interesting quirk:  it has a great affinity with animals, and can seemingly commune with them.  But as the child nears its 17th birthday, it comes down with a debilitating, mysterious ailment with boggling symptoms.  The metabolism increases so the youth is perpetually starving, and the skin thickens abnormally.  Hallucinations and night terrors—always about Ancient people, places, and grim events impossible for the child to know first-hand—drive it to exhaustion, causing amnesiac blackouts.

It is during these blackouts that the sickada-spawn feeds...on carrion, and living flesh!  The somnambulant youth is drawn to the descendants of those that wronged its lineage, and consumes them.  The overpowering drone of frenzied insects surrounds predator and prey alike during such hunts.

And upon turning 17, the panicked, angry, and infirm youth undergoes a hideous transformation:  its skin bubbles and bursts for an agonizing 1d4 minutes, then sloughs off entirely, revealing a ravenous, lusty bug-beast!

Sickadas can tear through solid concrete.  They are also extremely stealthy in wooded environs, generally Surprising on 1-5 on 1d6; however, sometimes (30%) their bloodlust is so all-consuming that they buzz incessantly, and spoil all attempts at Surprise.  And sickadas lose their bond with animalkind in general, as almost all normal creatures flee or attack on sight; only insects (normal and mutant alike) remain their allies.  

There is no truth to the rumor that the original sickada originated from a mishap involving an Ancient teleportation machine and an extraneous arthropod passenger.

Mutations:  Increased Balance, Increased Physical Attribute (STR), Know Direction, Natural Armor (Extreme), Regenerative Capacity, Unique Mutation ("Ancestral Recall")

Devastation Drive-In 3-D — 'The Brain From Planet Arous' (1957)

Cerebrihm  ("Lobe Lord")

No. Enc.:  1 (1d4)

Alignment:  Any

Movement:  See Below

Armor Class:  See Below

Hit Dice:  8

Attacks:  See Below

Damage:  See Below

Save:  L10

Morale:  9

Hoard Class:  See Below

XP:  4,560

As The Ancients' best and brightest began unlocking the secrets of the atom, their endeavors drew scrutiny not only from the world at large...

...but also from brilliant minds from the farthest reaches of outer space...

...BRILLIANT MINDS—IN THE MOST LITERAL SENSE!—BENT ON ENSLAVING THE ENTIRETY OF THE HUMAN RACE!!!

Hailing from the planet Arous, the Cerebrihm (both singular and plural) are disembodied brains averaging 5' long and 3-4' high, with glowing eyes and dangling 4'-5' long nerve-cluster "tails".  They levitate at a rate of 60' (20').

Cerebrihm have the ability to become wholly non-corporeal, rendering them immune to all physical attacks and injuries.  In this state, they can phase into the bodies of other living organisms—animals (standard and Mutant), sentient beings (Pure Humans, Mutant Humans, aliens), and Mutant Plants—and assume total physical control, thereby gaining all of the hosts' memories, skills, abilities, Mutations, Movement, Attacks, Damage, etc.  Such host bodies are also completely immune to physical harm.  Possessing another creature happens with a successful Mental Attack as if from a WIL score of 21;  a Cerebrihm can try again and again on subsequent rounds.

As if their possession powers weren't terrifying enough, Cerebrihm can manipulate atomic energy at a range of up to 5 miles away and encompassing a 5 mile radius.  They primarily use this ability to create a localized glowing corona of pure radioactivity that scorches all victims in the vicinity to death upon a failed Saving Throw Versus Radiation.  They can also target inanimate matter, and instantly destroy vehicles, or large swaths of terrain...or even entire cities.  A Cerebrihm's atomic powers are usable every round.

The Cerebrihm are so adept at mimicking the behaviors and patterns of their hosts that they are virtually undetectable, even to other Cerebrihm.  The only indicators of possession are subtle changes in behavior (unless, of course, the creature chooses to act contrarily) and a silvery luminescence to the host's eyes when manipulating radiation.

Though unable to influence its "captor", a possessed individual is fully, agonizingly, impotentely aware of the Cerebrihm's presence within its psyche.

Once every 24 hours, a Cerebrihm must leave its host and solidify for 1 full turn in order to oxygenate its "body" and replenish its energies, and it usually spends this time communing with its host telepathically.  In this state, the being has an AC of 7, and can ram a target for 1d10 blunt damage.  This period of solidity is the only time a Cerebrihm is vulnerable to physical harm, and a Called Shot with a melee weapon (made at a -6 To Hit) to its "fissure of Rolando" crevice—the lateral groove that separates its frontal and posterior lobes—will kill it instantly.

Every Cerebrihm has a different agenda.  Chaotic specimens (considered criminals on their home planet) are cruel, power-hungry, greedy, and relish possessing "lesser savages" to savor their primal appetites and lusts.  Lawful individuals are usually peacekeepers and police, and use their abilities to track down and capture renegades of their kind.  Those of a Neutral bent are scientists and researchers.  Lawful and Neutral Cerebrihm always ask permission before possessing sentient beings, or the pets thereof.

A Cerebrihm's Hoard Class represents the material goods, wealth, and holdings of its host.

Mutations:  Mental Barrier (x2), Metaconcert, Neural Telepathy, Psionic Flight, Possession (Modified), Unique Mutation (Desolidification), Unique Mutation ("Radioactive Death-Ray")