September Short Adventure 4: Dangling Varmint

Preamble

A September of Short Adventuresis an OSR Challenge initiated by Matt over at the Asshat Paladinsblog. You can click on the Moustache Dragon over on the right-handside-bar (just above Features) to learn more about all of this stufffrom Matt directly. All of our 25 (possibly more...) entries areformatted along the lines of what Matt calls the Get Ready, GetSet, Go! format. In a nut-shell, this approach breaks eachadventure into a Title, Three escalating sections of adventuredetails (the Ready section is limited to an elevator pitch only 2sentences...), and a final catch-all section for any NPC notes/stats.The idea is to keep it short, simple, easy to read without any maps,drawings, diagrams or 8X10 glossies. Keep description to a minimum,avoid lengthy exposition, and no casts of thousands -- unless it's aninvading horde of three-eyed orcs or goblins riding purple wombats.

We're also going to aim to keep thingsgeneric, setting agnostic and thus portable or adaptable to anycampaign/setting using the particular rules-set we'll be using in anygiven September Short Adventure such as Mutant Future,Labyrinth Lord, Swords & Wizardry (White Box), etc.

FreeRules

Labyrinth Lord:http://www.goblinoidgames.com/labyrinthlord.html

Mutant Future:http://www.goblinoidgames.com/mutantfuture.html

Swords and Wizardry (White Box):http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/whitebox.htm

SeptemberShort Adventure Number 4

Title: Dangling Varmint

Rules: Mutant Future

Ready

The Player Characters are in thewilderness, or at least out in the forest, probably hunting andgathering since they do like to eat and winter is coming on fast. Itwas going great, they're loaded down with so much prime field-dressedmeat that they're having to drag it along on a travois or sled behindthem as they return to camp or the village.

Set

A shrill hissing noise erupts from thetrees along one side of the hunting group, followed by a lot ofgrowling and the sounds of something struggling.

There's a Giant Weasel hanging 12' offof the ground in a wire-snare.

Go!

The pelt on this giant weasel istempting in and of itself. If the creature can be subdued, it couldbe trained as a guard-beast, potentially. The meat is also verysucculent and would go over very well back at the camp/village.

Getting too close to the thrashingGiant Weasel will result in it clawing for double its normal damage(4d4 instead of 2d4).

There are other wire-snares scatteredin this area. GM can randomly assign odds of stepping into one.

Trapper Jack will be by in 1d20 hoursto check on his traps and to cut down anything caught in a snare,including the bodies of adventurers which certain villages pay goodmoney for...

Notes / NPCs

Trapper Jack [Mutant Human, ALC, MV 90' (30'), AC 4, HD 13, #ATK 1 (modified carbine), DG 1d8, SV L6, ML 11, Mutations: Natural Armor, Night Vision, ReflectiveEpidermis]

Weasel, Giant (1) [AL N, MV 150'(50'), AC 7, HD 4+4, #ATK 1 (bite), DG 2d4, SV L3, ML 8 (-2 oncereleased), Mutations: Gigantism, Thermal Vision, Increased Sense(smell)] (MF p. 102)

Trap: Wire-Snare (1d4) [Make DEXcheck or suffer 1d4 damage and be hoisted into the air. A typicalwire-snare can support up to 800 pounds of dead weight. Those caughtsuffer 1d4 damage per turn from the wire cutting into their flesh andthe effects of being suspended upside down for an extended period oftime.]