Spawn Of Devastation Drive-In — 'Birdemic: Shock and Terror' (2008)

Bombird

No. Enc.:  2d4 (4d6)

Alignment:  Chaotic

Movement:  9' (3')

         —Fly:  360' (120')

Armor Class:  8

Hit Dice:  1

Attacks:  3 or 1 (2 claws, 1 bite, or spittle, or "divebomb")

Damage:  1d4 / 1d4 / 1d6, or 2d8, or 5d6

Save:  L1

Morale:  12

Hoard Class:  None

XP:  19

Global warming, rampant pollution, and unchecked diseases drove the Ancient world's wildlife to the brink of extinction...

...BUT THE BIRDS FOUGHT BACK, BRINGING FEATHERY DEATH FROM ABOVE!!!

Bombirds are hyper-aggressive avians that resemble Ancient eagles and vultures.  They attack in flocks, and unrelentingly pursue their victims, going so far as to rip their way into buildings and vehicles.  Bombirds naturally utilize Dive attacks to maximum advantage.   

Twice per day, a flying bombird can disgorge gallons of acidic bile on 1 ground-based foe, doing a sustained 2d8 damage per round until rinsed clean.

And if angry enough, a bombird suicidally slams itself at full speed into a target (including robots, structures, and even the open ground itself) and explodes, doing 5d6 damage to everything within a 30' radius and igniting all combustibles—including other bombirds!—in the blast zone. Only living bombirds detonate in this fashion; those killed in flight crash uneventfully to the ground.  Particularly massive flocks can reduce a metropolis to rubble within hours.

Per documents credited to Ancient scientists, enmity between bird-kind and homo sapiens has existed since the dawn of time, as evidenced by the thousands of caveman fossils discovered with avian-induced injuries.

Mutations:  Toxic Weapon ("Acidic Spittle"), Unique Mutation ("Divebomb Detonation")

Spawn Of Devastation Drive-In — 'Rottweiler' (2004)

Slayhound

No. Enc.:  1 (1d4)
Alignment:  Neutral
Movement:  150' (50') 
Armor Class:  4
Hit Dice:  4
Attacks:  2 (2 bites)
Damage:  1d8 / 1d8
Save:  L3
Morale:  12
Hoard Class:  VII
XP:  190

As social institutions crumbled in the Ancient world, crime flowered and prisons overflowed, leading to bioengineered beasts designed to retrieve the lawless and the unlucky alike...

...but instead of simply recapturing their quarry...

...THEY ATE IT ALIVE!!!

Slayhounds are stocky canines with two striking features that intimidate even the most hardened individuals:  malevolent, glowing cyber-eyes, and glistening, metallic jaws.  They are usually encountered in the presence of law officers, jailers, or bounty hunters, and are devotedly loyal to their handlers.  Slayhounds loose in the wilderness are actively pursuing an escapee...and nothing will stop them from hunting—and devouring—their quarry.  (Most handlers are seemingly fine with their dogs' dining habits, as they are spared the hassles of paperwork.)

Slayhounds are almost impossible to kill, as each has 1d3+3 "lives".  After falling in combat, a slayhound rises again—looking none the worse for wear—in 4d4 rounds, and doggedly resumes the hunt. The next time it perishes, revivification takes 4d6 rounds, and slight injuries manifest.  Each subsequent "death" and "rebirth" escalates the duration up the polyhedral dice scale (3rd death = 4d8 rounds, 4th = 4d10 rounds, etc.), with correspondingly more gruesome wounds.  At the stage of its "final life", a slayhound is nothing more than an ambulatory metallic (AC 0) skeleton...albeit a deadly ambulatory metallic skeleton.

The Hoard Class represents the possessions of nearby victims.

Mutations:  Increased Sense (Smell, Vision) (Implants)

Spawn Of Devastation Drive-In — 'Street Trash' (1987)

Artifact:  Tenafly Viper

In times considered ancient to even The Ancients themselves, the underprivileged drowned their sorrows with alcoholic rotgut most foul...

...BUT ONE BRAND IN PARTICULAR NOT ONLY ROTTED ONE'S GUTS, BUT THE ENTIRE BODY IN A GLOWING TORRENT OF ABHORENT GORE!!!

Crates of the bottled beverage known as Tenafly Viper are only found in the bowels of ruined liquor stores, groceries, and breweries.  These crates are never grouped with conspicuous foodstuffs or artifacts; no,  they are always concealed in secret recesses, or buried.  Any given site only has 1 crate of the beverage, and each crate contains 4d6 bottles.

Tenafly Viper looks and smells like any other cheap, pungent alcohol.  But if even the slightest swig is consumed, the drinker immediately gasps, convulses, and spasms...

...and melts into a puddle of day-glo sludge.

Complete cellular breakdown takes an agonizing 1d4 minutes, and no Saving Throws are allowed.  The screams carry for miles.

Each bottle of Tenafly Viper contains enough liquid for 6 gulps.

Unless wearing protective gear, those coming into contact with a melting victim (rushing to aid, dripped on from above, etc.) suffer severe harm from the acidic goop, taking an automatic 2d6 damage per round for 1d4+2 rounds.

Interestingly, those with the Obese Physical Mutation Drawback don't melt when consuming Tenafly Viper...

  

...instead, they bloat and swell over the course of 2d4 rounds until exploding, unleashing a rain of acidic fluid that coats everything in a 75' radius.  Those caught in the sanguine slurry suffer 2d6 damage per round for 1d4+2 rounds.

Sealed bottles of Tenafly Viper can be thrown as grenades, and upon impact, do 1d6 damage for 1d4+1 rounds.

Assuming they survive, those exposed to Tenafly Viper in any of the non-ingested cases mentioned above permanently lose 1d6 points of CHA, due to sloughing, melted skin and the resultant scarring.

As mentioned previously, no Saving Throws are allowed to resist exposure to Tenafly Viper.  That said, Mutant Plants and Basic Androids are completely immune to any and all effects of the deadly hooch.

Intact bottles of Tenafly Viper are highly valued by those of a Chaotic bent, and assassins in particular.  Black market prices can exceed 500 GP per container.

Spawn Of Devastation Drive-In — 'Zontar, The Thing From Venus' (1966)

Setting Seeds:  Venusian Invasion

Upon the sudden forced landing of the world's most advanced "laser communications satellite", all of the power sources on earth failed as one:  "steam, water, electricity, combustion engines...everything."¹  Even faucets and watches stopped.  Madmen ranted that this heralded the arrival of a savior from the stars...

...but the being that hitched a ride aboard the satellite offered not salvation to the Human Race...

...BUT INSTEAD, FEAR...DESPAIR...CONQUEST...AND ANNIHILATION!!! 

An entire Mutant Future setting can be designed around an apocalyptic incursion by Zontar, the last of a race of parasitic Venusian beings that drove the weaker species of its homeworld to extinction.  Zontar possesses the awesome power to selectively "de-energize" the technologies of a planet and render all but the most primitive devices useless.

Zontar transmitted messages across space to select human beings, lulling them with promises of peace and harmony and a Bright New Future for the peoples of Earth.  These "prophets" facilitated Zontar's successful landing and seclusion, giving it time and opportunity to "de-energize" the world, sending Earth back to the Stone Age practically overnight.  Zontar then systematically enslaved the best and brightest while letting the panicked, rioting masses exhaust themselves...and when humanity was at its weakest, Zontar struck.  It activated select armaments and vehicles for its armies of brain-slaves and conscripts, and marched them across the globe.  Earth was Zontar's!

The PCs and their communities are the last vestiges of free humanity, pitting their sticks and stones against the crushing technological might of Zontar's hordes!

Zontar

No. Enc.:  Unique
Alignment:  Chaotic
Movement:  45' (15')
Armor Class:  0
Hit Dice:  21
Attacks:  2 (2 claws)
Damage:  1d12 / 1d12, + Special
Save:  L18
Morale:  12
Hoard Class:  XVIII, XXI, XXII
XP:  19,000

Hailing from Venus, Zontar is a hideous, 7' tall being with 3 drooping eyes, diseased skin, expansive wings, and grasping claws.  It favors deep, dark, humid cavern complexes in which to make its lair.  Zontar seemingly feeds upon the bio-electrical energies of its slaves [see below].

Possessing a genius-level grasp of scientific and technological principles, Zontar lives for conquest, but bills itself as a savior intent on ending war and strife.  Communicating through "hyperspace hypnotism" that traverses tens of thousands of miles, it persuades the gullible and weak-willed to join its cause, while concurrently brain-enslaving political, military, and scientific elites via its injectopods [see below].  This army of thralls does Zontar's bidding without question, and shields it from harm...

...although Zontar rarely requires such protections, as it's completely immune to damage from all conventional melee weapons, firearms, and explosives.  Only a beam from a ruby rifle [see below]—which is somehow immune to the invader's energy-depleting powers—can kill Zontar outright!

Because of its proxies, Zontar rarely engages in direct combat...but when forced, it attacks with claws and swarming injectopods.  If Zontar successfully strikes with both claws in the same round, the target must immediately make a Saving Throw Versus Death, with failure resulting in its immediate demise from a crushed skull.

Zontar has never been observed flying, despite its wings.  Perhaps this is due to the lack of maneuverability in its subterranean domain, or a consequence of Earth's increased gravity. [Mutant Lords should determine their own Flight movement rate, if desired.]

As no technology or weaponry has ever been discovered in Zontar's former lairs, how the being managed to—and continues to—"de-energize" the entire planet is a mystery.  Zontar can negate all power sources within a 50 mile radius of its person, but also selectively activate weapons, timepieces, vehicles, plumbing, etc. of its choosing.

Mutations:  Increased Sense (Vision), Intellectual Affinity (Tinkerer), Metaconcert, Neural Telepathy (Modified), Unique Mutation ("Injectopod Generation")

Injectopod

No. Enc.:  1d4 (1d8)
Alignment:  Neutral
Movement:  15' (5')
  —Move 2:  240' (80')
Armor Class:  2
Hit Dice:  1
Attacks:  1 (bite)
Damage:  1d4
Save:  L1
Morale:  12
Hoard Class:  None
XP:  13

Injectopods are 2' long, agile, winged crustaceans spawned from the body of Zontar itself. They grow on Zontar's frame in groups of 8, and separate from its mass on command.  It takes Zontar 12 hours to grow a cluster of 8 injectopods.

Upon a successful bite attack, an injectopod implants a wiry nodule that transfers part of Zontar's "electro-biological essence" into the victim.  Anyone thus bitten must defend against a Mental Attack as if from a WIL 20, with failure meaning they "become a living extension of Zontar"² under the being's total mental domination.  All of the subject's knowledge, experience, and memories are accessible to Zontar.  After injection, the corresponding injectopod withers and dies (much like a bee losing its stinger).  Zontar can telepathically direct its injectopods and its thralls at seemingly boundless range.

Determining if a subject is a Zontar-thrall, and/or noticing an implanted injectopod nodule, requires a successful Ability Check Versus Intelligence with a +2 penalty.

Only a skilled surgeon can remove an implanted node...and even then, the host must make an Ability Check Versus WIL or perish from the psychic trauma.

Mutations:  Unique Mutation ("Mind-Bite")

Artifact:  Ruby Rifle

The 2-handed weapons known as ruby rifles are "beam guns...powered by plutonium ruby crystals"³.  With their 2' long, cylindrical, wire-wrapped shapes and needle-like tips, they resemble spears more than firearms.  Each weighs 2 lbs.

When found, a ruby rifle has 2d6 shots remaining, each doing 9d8 damage at a normal range of 150 ft and maximum range of 300 ft.  A Venusian dies instantly from a single hit.  The discharge from a ruby rifle bathes the battlefield and combatants in a kaleidoscopic swirl of red and green luminescence.

As rare as ruby rifles are, their "plutonium ruby crystals" are amongst the most priceless relics in the entire Mutant Future.  Reloading a ruby rifle with fresh crystals supplies it with a full 50 shots.

—

1-3:  Zontar, The Thing From Venus dialogue

Designer's Notes:  As this film was an authorized made-for-TV remake of It Conquered The World (1956), no official poster exists (necessitating use of the DVD cover).