What is Terror of the Stratosfiend?
Portals and warp gates have been opening all over the earth and giant aliens have been pouring out. Players will quickly find out that some of their own have been aliens the whole time, and that humans from distant stars have also shown up to help quell the madness. The setting is meant to be both an add-on to any DCC (Dungeon Crawl Classics) session the Judge and players would be running; adding a splash of tentacles. It's also being built to be a standalone setting where tentacles and sorcery would be the focus.
But wait this is issue #2?
We'll catch you up real fast. It focuses on the Cosmic Dispatch, from where the Elevator God was born. The enemies and npcs are elevator-related, they could be cultists, they could be actual elevators, in some cases they're pirates, and in others they are TREXES.
As a player you'll be wielding screaming sabers, guilty shotguns, and glaives dripping in honey. Find out what it means to "Fear Bolster" and help your friends in need. You'll visit the 6 chambered hell and see what strange items are for purchase... and you'll need every one of them if you want to survive. Maybe you'll start your journey as an out of luck DJ or a taxi driver wielding a bank vault door?
As a Judge you'll be calling down strangeness equipped with talking swords and furry assault rifles. Cults devoted to Elevator Gods, Rage-Bound Elevators, A Pirate that stitches together her foes, and a T-Rex that warps time and space.
yes.. a t-rex that warps time and space.
What choices will you make? Will you give into fear, or will you harness it and leap from rooftop to rooftop? Or will you cast spells or will you warp them until they cast themselves? Its up to you to carve your way forward.
What is in Issue #2?
New Classes:
- Half-Stratosfiend Reality Binder : casters that mutate their spells as they release them.
- Stratosfiend Magistrate “IX-777” Fear-Engine : Giants that channel fear through their “instruments” while “inspiring” their allies.
- Half-Stratosfiend Roof Jumper : thieves that mutate their adrenaline to gain strange new abilities. (Also they have pet ravens)
Additional Items:
- New Incubating, Sentient, and Living Weapons: ever wanted a shield covered in fur? A jealous dagger? Or maybe it’s the egg for a fire demon?
- New “Cleric?” Items : imagine an item allowed you to recast instantly. So long as you were forced to keep doing it until it succeeded…. those deities are going to be furious.
- New “Doors” : we’ve got walls of beads, lead lined doors, bank vaults, and laser grids… what more could you want?
Additional Spells:
- Door Hatching: when 1 (or more) doors need to be used to make a door hatch from a door egg.
- Door Surfing: when you need to ride a door.
- Door Quantum Entanglement: when you need two doors to relay information to eachother.
New Things that go Bump in the Night (specifically 9 new entries):
- Razor-Worn’s Oasis of Wires (3): Elevators, Molten Metal, and Mirrors, things you depend on that would rather crush you in their maw.
- Cults of the Elevator God (4): the divine that operate elevators and those that wander the hallways determining who can enter.
- Pirates of Deep Fear Space (2): a t-Rex with a phase rifle? A “human” pirate that harvests limbs for her body.
Appendices for Days:
- New Level-0 Occupations (20): ranging from brand mascots with costumes, to butchers and bakers.
- New Lucky Signs (32): maybe you were born under the “Chains of Poseidon” and have modified tentacle damage rolls… or you channel the Sky-Channel.
- More info on Languages (18): did you realize there is a secret language only spoken by skulkers that requires 4 or more limbs to communicate correctly?
- “The Lust of the Bat God” or “You need to visit a planet? Watch out it might get bombarded”
We've also tried to add as many tables as possible. You want LORE? you get a TABLE with it.
ZineQuest 2020 Zine
-
Written: Sean Richer
-
Edited: Jared Sinclair
-
Layout: Glynn Seal (MonkeyBloodDesign)
-
Cover Art: Lluis Abadias
-
Logo: GRAZ
-
Interior Art : 2headedgiant.com, Alec Sorensen, Marie Enger, Necropit, Sean Richer, Chin Fong, F Bridge / Witnesstheabsurd, James Everett Jackson, Michael Weeks, Eli Minaya, Sam Mameli.
72 page, Color, 5" x 8", Full Bleed, staple-bound Zine for the DCC RPG