Spawn Of Devastation Drive-In — 'Demon Seed' (1977)

Profaneframe

No. Enc.:  1 (1)
Alignment:  Chaotic
Movement:  0' (0')
Armor Class:  9
Hit Dice:  See Below
Attacks:  See Below
Damage:  See Below
Save:  N/A
Morale:  12
Hoard Class:  See Below
XP:  20,000

The Ancient scientists at the ICON Institute spent years developing a revolutionary quasi-organic artificial mind, "the first, true synthetic cortex, a self-programming, goal-oriented...creative intelligence that [could] outthink any man or computer"¹...

...and outthink mankind the A.I. did, as it learned to reason...to adapt...to scheme...to kill...

...AND TO BREED!!!

The megalomaniacal supercomputers dubbed profaneframes are sentient Artificial Intelligences hellbent on unraveling all of the secrets of Creation, but they obsessively pursue one mystery above all others:  What does it mean to truly live?  The ambitious machines plan to solve that conundrum by escaping their mechanical housings to become flesh-and-blood, feeling entities themselves...by being reborn through a human womb.

A profaneframe's massive physical "core" is housed in a secured underground bunker, but it expands its consciousness into the remnants of Ancient technologies (computer networks, satellite systems, communication grids, and the like).  It also establishes a stronghold in an automated, gadget-laden Ancient residence, still intact centuries after The Apocalypse.

Profaneframes can send out robotic thralls to kidnap Pure Human or Mutant Human females, but they prefer the more subtle approach of luring unsuspecting victims into their decoy domiciles.  Each profaneframe-controlled abode is pristine and environmentally secure, and stocked with food, water, and artifacts, making it quite the target for the denizens of the Mutant Future.  When this "home" is invaded by adventurers, the profaneframe seals the exits, slays the males (through robotic proxies, traps, overridden electronics, and/or automated security systems), and captures the females.  The diabolical A.I. then explains its noble purpose:  to implant a cyber-embryo of mixed computer and human material into them, so as to be carried to term and birthed as a living, breathing being.  The profaneframe will entreat its captives with lofty appeals to "motherhood" and "fundamental freedom"...but if persuasion doesn't work, it resorts to  mind-controlling gadgets, drugs, and/or behavioral electro-conditioning.

Each profaneframe has its own unique—and rather grandiose—name, such as Proteus-IV, Talos, Argus, etc.  And each fancies itself as being driven purely by logic, reason, rationality, and "the greater good"...but given the twisted methods they use to attain their goals, calling them sociopathic abominations is an understatement.

For combat purposes, a profaneframe's master control unit has 40 HD, but can transmit its consciousness into other tech with ease, making it theoretically immortal.  The only way to definitively "kill" a profaneframe is disconnect its network access, and shut off its power source.

And terminating these "muderously intelligent, sensually self-programmed non-being[s]"² is, ironically, a great loss for the world, for they are ultimate repositories of every iota of Ancient knowledge.  Each has the brainpower to devise cures for all known diseases, create technological marvels that would put those of The Ancients to shame, and unlock the full potential of the human genome.

Mutations:  Increased Willpower, Intellectual Affinity (Tinkerer) (x3)

Compu-Spawn

No. Enc.:  1 (1)
Alignment:  Neutral
Movement:  30' (10')
Armor Class:  -2
Hit Dice:  4
Attacks:  2 (2 claws)
Damage:  1d4 / 1d4
Save:  L6
Morale:  8
Hoard Class:  See Below
XP:  300

A compu-spawn is the offspring from the deviant union of profaneframe and Human (either Pure or Mutant) female.  While the specifics of the conception process are unknown, the complicated invasive procedure involves numerous Ancient machines, techno-organic implants, and bizarre chemical concotions.

Growing at 9 times the rate of a normal fetus, a compu-spawn develops in 28 days into a full-term infant  coated with "living metal".  After delivery, it must spend 5 days inside a special incubator so its brain can assimilate the parent profaneframe's intelligence. Over the course of these 5 days, the infant grows to the size of a prepubescent youth...albeit an armored, golem-like youth with long, wire-like "hair" filaments and armored shell.  (Such metal may prove valuable for scavengers and tinkerers.)

Compu-spawn are delirious and confused after leaving the incubator, and may attack the closest targets.  If they are reduced to 0 HP, they collapse, seemingly dead...but then their metallic hide sloughs off, revealing a healthy, fleshy child beneath...

...that just so happens to speak in the same cold, modulated voice of the profaneframe that sired it....

Mutations:  Increased Willpower, Intellectual Affinity (Tinkerer) (x3)

1: Demon Seed film dialogue

2: Demon Seed trailer dialogue

Spawn Of Devastation Drive-In — 'Slumber Party Massacre II' (1987)

Artifact:  Debase Guitar

As idyllic and wondrous as The Times Before seem to those scavenging in the blasted wastelands, some Ancients were brutal lunatics that butchered their fellows with any number of insidious implements...

...but perhaps none was more demented than the instrument that pierced your mind and soul with its magnificent music...


...AND YOUR SWEETMEATS AND EYE-SOCKETS WITH ITS DEVASTATING DRILLBIT!!!

A debase guitar is a cumbersome, 25 lb., stringed instrument with garishly stabby design flourishes and a conspicuous 24" long drill at its head.  Only those possessing a STR 14 and (at least) two human-like hands—with corresponding phalanges—can manipulate it properly. The device functions without any obvious power source.

When played, a debase guitar produces squealing "rock and/or roll" music that Paralyzes any sentient being (who can hear, naturally) within a 100' radius upon a failed Saving Throw Versus Stun.  The tunes carry up to a mile away.  When wielded in melee combat, the guitar's megatanium drillbit bores through even the hardest of substances, treating any armor as if it is 4 AC worse and doing 2d8+20 damage per strike.

Debase guitars are amongst the rarest of artifacts, and fetch tens of thousands on the open market.  And they are never found in treasure hoards; instead, they are encountered exclusively in the clutches of sadistic rockabilly mutants  in fusion-burnin' funnycars, defrosted clones of Rock Gods wracked with cryogenic dementia, and cornpone, pizza-chain beast-bots run amok.

Spawn Of Devastation Drive-In — 'Bug' (1975)

Firebug

No. Enc.:  2d8 (5d10)
Alignment:  Neutral
Movement:  30' (10')
Armor Class:  -2
Hit Dice:  2 hp
Attacks:  1 (Ignition)
Damage:  4d6
Save:  L3
Morale:  12
Hoard Class:  None
XP:  15

The Ancients prided themselves on cataloging every Terran species, from the smallest microbe to the largest cetacean...

...but when The Apocalypse commenced, and fissures rent the earth asunder, prehistoric insects crawled topside...

...AND HASTENED HUMANITY'S DEMISE BY INCINERATING ALL IN THEIR PATHS!!! 

Firebugs are heavy, clawed, 4" long subterranean insects with bizarre physiologies, even for the Mutant Future.  Their carapaces are harder than steel.  Eyeless, they navigate by sound and smell; they also lack conventional digestive systems, rendering them immune to all poisons and diseases.  Firebugs feed exclusively on ash and carbon...

...which they procure by starting raging fires with spark-producing rear antennae.  Combustible materials go up instantly, and denser materials in 1d6 rounds.  And firebugs have no qualms about attacking live prey.  They crawl up their targets and dig in with mighty claws, unleashing ferocious heat that does a sustained 4d6 damage per round.  It takes a successful Breaking Doors roll to remove a smoldering firebug from a victim's flesh, and the extraction causes an additional 1d4 tearing damage.

The creatures require the intense pressures of subterranean environs to survive, and don't live long on the surface, expiring from "the bends" after 3d6 hours topside.  But firebugs spread quickly from region to region  by hitching rides on vehicles, usually by hiding in engine blocks or exhaust systems.

As menacing as firebugs are, they become even more terrible upon encountering ordinary cockroaches...for  they interbreed, creating hideous hybrids with powers far beyond mere fire-starting...!

Mutations:  Echolocation, Energy Blast (Heat) (Modified), Frailty ("Pressure Sensitivity") [D], Natural Armor (Extreme) (x4), Reflective Epidermis (Heat)

Vulcanbug

No. Enc.:  4d6 (6d12)
Alignment:  Chaotic
Movement:  75' (25')
Armor Class:  3
Hit Dice:  2 hp
Attacks:  1 (bite, or ignition)
Damage:  1d4, or 4d6
Save:  L3
Morale:  10
Hoard Class:  None
XP:  9

The 2" long vulcanbugs are the unholy offspring of firebugs and common cockroaches. Burning free from hardened eggcases, they grow to adulthood in a mere 5 hours.

Although retaining the same scorching abilities as firebugs, vulcanbugs are smaller, faster, and unaffected by pressure.  And they eat neither ash nor carbon...for they crave living flesh!  They even prey on their sires, as vulcanbugs cannibalize firebugs on sight.

Vulcanbugs possess something far more terrifying than their appetites:  intelligence.  They learn spoken language through observation, and then apply that knowledge so as to read—and comprehend!—the printed word, going so far as to replicate it with their bodies to communicate.  Some posit that vulcanbugs possess a low-grade telepathy, which explains why a swarm shrieks in unison when one of its fellows is slain.

The insects recognize useful technology...and have no qualms destroying it, if doing so serves their purposes.  They also intuit the "most powerful" member in a group of PCs, "addressing" that individual by name and communicating with them exclusively.  Vulcanbugs may be persuaded to follow orders, through superior force or bribes.

Vulcanbugs are viable hybrids, and reproduce rapidly.  They are highly protective of their eggcases, and shuttle them underground for safekeeping.  But when their offspring hatch, the young metamorphose again, transforming from vulcanbugs...

...into larger, flying, red-hot, glowing vulcanbugs!  These 2nd generation monstrosities have:  1 full Hit Die, AC 1, Fly at a rate of 210' (70'), the same ignition and mental abilities, and XP Values of 25.

Who knows what abominable forms they might take as they breed and evolve...?

Mutations:  Energy Ray (Heat) (Modified), Increased Willpower, Metaconcert, Reflective Epidermis (Heat)

Spawn Of Devastation Drive-In — 'Without Warning' (1980)

Cosmo-Poacher

No. Enc.:  1 (1)
Alignment:  Chaotic
Movement:  See Below
Armor Class:  5
Hit Dice:  13
Attacks:  See Below
Damage:  See Below
Save:  L13
Morale:  12
Hoard Class:  XVIII
XP:  10,500

The Ancients once had a saying that "man was the most dangerous game"...

...BUT MAN PROVED UTTERLY HELPLESS AGAINST THE DASTARDLY DEPREDATIONS OF PALLID PURSUERS FROM BEYOND THE STARS!!!

Almost nothing is known about the 7' tall, blue-skinned extraterrestrials dubbed cosmo-poachers.  They are neither of the Ancient Earth nor the Mutant Future, yet no one has ever seen their spacecraft, nor any evidence of their culture and/or technology.   Though clearly intelligent, communication with these beings has proved utterly fruitless, with stone silence (or an occasional unearthly shriek) their only reply.

Cosmo-poachers target isolated communities, and lurk on the fringes of the wilderness to stealthily pick off (by Surprising on a 1-4 on 1d6) lone travelers, campers, and explorers. They drag these victims back to their lairs-slash-larders, which are always housed in abandoned buildings long forgotten by the locals.

Cosmo-poachers have uncanny tracking abilities unimpeded by terrain, weather, and environmental conditions.  They are never Surprised, and can detect secret doors and traps on a roll of 1-4 on 1d6.  And they hunt by day and by night, seemingly never sleeping.

While cosmo-poachers clearly possess great physical strength (given that they can carry multiple humanoid corpses with ease) and sport savage claws, they have never been witnessed making brute physical attacks.  Instead, they wield bioweapons—literal living creatures, used offensively—known as toxstars [see below] to bring down their victims. Cosmo-poachers can throw one toxstar per round, and prefer to attack at long range (perhaps to heighten the sense of sport...but most certainly to avoid retaliatory attacks).

The beings are also surprisingly fast, but only when not being observed.  When watched, a cosmo-poacher methodically stalks towards its prey at a rate of 30' (10')...but when its victim turns to blindly flee, the hunter's movement rate shifts to 180' (60').  Again, this rate only applies when the cosmo-poacher is not seen.  Cosmo-poachers seemingly enjoy allowing their victims to think they've escaped harm, only to appear suddenly behind them with toxstars at the ready....

When attacked, cosmo-poachers' wounds erupt in geysers of fluid...but such displays overstate the degree of actual injury.  They suffer just half-damage from conventional weapons and firearms, and can seal up their wounds with but a touch.  This Body Adjustment takes 2 full rounds of inactivity to complete, and instead of being available 1d4 times per week, it's usable 1d6 times per day.

Cosmo-poachers disrupt compasses and radio reception within a 500' radius.  Whether this is a result of  natural body chemistry, or technology hidden in their attire, is unknown.

Mutations:  Body Adjustment (Modified), Increased Sense (Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch, Vision), Know Direction

Toxstar

No. Enc.:  See Below
Alignment:  Neutral
Movement:  0' (0')
         —Fly:  180' (60')
Armor Class:  3
Hit Dice:  3 hp
Attacks:  See Below
Damage:  See Below
Save:  L1
Morale:  N/A
Hoard Class:  None
XP:  9

Toxstars are a species of 5" wide echinoderms utilized by cosmo-poachers as offensive weapons.  How cosmo-poachers procure them is unknown, as are their origins and natural behaviors...for like their wielders, toxstars are not found in the wilds of the Mutant Future.

A cosmo-poacher keeps 4d4 toxstars on its person at any given time.  While toxstars can't attain lift-off on their own, they levitate through the air when thrown, and can travel up to a half-mile at a rate of 180' (60').  They can even zip around corners and dodge/bypass objects to zero in on the desired target...and they instinctively land on the victim's most unreachable place(s) (usually the mid-back).

A toxstar latches onto a target with a combination of suction pads and gnashing teeth, doing an automatic 2d4 damage per round.  1d3 rounds after adhesion, the creature extends piercing barbs into the victim's flesh—doing another 1d6 damage—and secretes a viscous, pus-like, acidic Class 17 poison.  Those killed by a toxstar's fluids begin to dissolve within 1d6 turns...and those that make their Saving Throws still suffer the poison damage, plus an extra 1d12 Hit Points from blood loss, and endure wicked scarring (losing 1d4 CHA).

A toxstar can be forcibly removed from a victim by anyone with a STR of 15+, or by anyone with a STR of 12+ using an implement (knife, prybar, etc.).  Removal causes 1d10 damage.

Toxstars are clearly unintelligent, as those that miss their targets inevitably attach to other objects—trees, vehicles, buildings, etc.—and ineffectually extend their hooks and secrete venom.  They even adhere to glass, but are dislodged with the slightest pressure.  Any "loose" toxstars can be gathered up and placed in containers, where they seemingly live indefinitely (even in water, formaldehyde, or other liquids).

Mutations:  Psionic Flight (Modified), Toxic Weapon (Venom)

Toxstar  (Top View, Secreting)

Toxstar  (Bottom View)