Tag: The Day After Ragnarok

Shattered Rock [The Day After Ragnarok].

This was an interesting one. Oddly enough, sometimes there’s more information readily available about places and people who weren’t important statewide than there is about places and people who were. I pretty much had to plug in a bunch of Ye Standarde Conan Citie tropes here.  Which, hey, actually works in this context.

 

Shattered Rock

[The Day After Ragnarok]

 

City: Little Rock, Arkansas

Population: 27,000/240,000

Controls: Central Arkansas

Government: Despotism

Problem: Unrest

Heroic Opportunity: Mercenary Work

City Aspect: Tense and Corrupt

 

Technically, Governor Benjamin Travis Laney is still the Governor of Arkansas, and is nominally loyal to the US government: in reality, he’s the despot of central Arkansas. Unfortunately for his regime, Arkansas is also a potential buffer state. Laney is sympathetic to the Konfederacy, but it is far away; and as long as Texas refuses to pull the trigger on secession, it serves as an uncomfortable, and quite close, neighbor. Like many an indecisive king before him, the governor hopes to survive by trying to play both sides against each other, while distracting his own populace with ginned-up enemies.

Continue reading Shattered Rock [The Day After Ragnarok].

The Stone Temple Pirates of Tulum [The Day After Ragnarok].

Blame this.

Stone Temple Pirates of Tulum – Google Docs

 

The Stone Temple Pirates of Tulum

[The Day After Ragnarok]

 

Population: 25,000

 

The ancient Mayan city of Tulum (located in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo) was long abandoned by the time of the Serpentfall.  Southern Mexico was protected from the tsunami that wrecked North America, thanks to all the Caribbean islands that took the brunt; but something crawled out of the seas there, afterward. And it attracted cultists, pirates, and other dangerous men.

Continue reading The Stone Temple Pirates of Tulum [The Day After Ragnarok].

Bright-Lit Tupelo [The Day After Ragnarok]

Bright-Lit Tupelo – Google Docs

Bright-Lit Tupelo

[The Day After Ragnarok]

 

City: Tupelo, Mississippi

Population: 4,000/27,000

Controls: Itawamba, Lee, Pontotoc Counties, Mississippi

Government: Strongman

Problem: Hostile City

Heroic Opportunity: Technology (Electricity)

City Aspect: Covert and Militaristic

Continue reading Bright-Lit Tupelo [The Day After Ragnarok]

Squidslippers [The Day After Ragnarok]

Squidslippers – Google Docs

Squidslippers

[The Day After Ragnarok]

 

This piece of Ophi-Tech consists of muscle tissue from the Serpent that has been carefully inhibited at key spots by Bakelite inserts, thus keeping the items from running off on their own.  Squidslippers look unpleasantly like two constantly writhing boots made up of miscellaneous squid parts. Anyone who is familiar with minor horror pulp writers of the 20th Century will immediately think of ‘shoggoths,’ instead — but that’s still a pretty obscure reference in 1947.

Continue reading Squidslippers [The Day After Ragnarok]

Rock Island River-Keep [The Day After Ragnarok].

Rock Island River-Keep – Google Docs

Rock Island River-Keep

[The Day After Ragnarok]

 

City: Rock Island, Illinois

Population: 12,000/100,000

Controls: Rock Island County, Rock Island

Government: Strongman

Problem: Serpent Cult

Heroic Opportunity: Trade Goods

City Aspect: Militaristic.

 

Prior to the Serpentfall, the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois made significant amounts of ordinance, howitzers, and small arms.  When news of the collapse hit, base commander Colonel Carl Waldmann immediately ordered the island itself sealed off. As chaos reigned up and down the Mississippi, the arsenal was hastily, then thoroughly fortified.  Three years later, the entire island is a formidable nut to crack.

Continue reading Rock Island River-Keep [The Day After Ragnarok].

Concombre de la Mort. [The Day After Ragnarok]

Concombre de la mort – Google Docs

Concombre de la mort

[The Day After Ragnarok]

The Concombre de la mort (‘Death cucumber’) is a mutated version of Ecballium elaterium, which is also known as the ‘squirting cucumber’ for its ability to briefly take flight under the right circumstances.  This particular North African variant has been heavily tainted by the Serpent: it now shoots itself with enough velocity to break bones, and is even more poisonous than the original. Its toxin acts as a powerful purgative, emetic, and diuretic; this generally incapacitates the victim for about an hour, unless it kills him outright. Continue reading Concombre de la Mort. [The Day After Ragnarok]

Ectoplalm [The Day After Ragnarok]

Ectoplalm – Google Docs

Ectoplalm

[The Day After Ragnarok]

 

This stuff replaces regular napalm for the flamethrower (use the stats for the weapon found on page 37 of The Day After Ragnarok). It does considerably less damage (2d6) to normal targets, but it is pure death on Serpent-Tainted objects and monsters (3d10).  Bizarrely, Ectoplalm acts as an extinguishing agent on ophiline (refined Serpent oil).  If used on the countryside, a full tank of Ectoplalm can reduce the Serpent Taint of a quarter acre of land by 1.  This is of course done by burning everything down to the grassroots, but it works.

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Savage Sell-Blades of Dayton [The Day After Ragnarok]

City_ Dayton, Ohio – Google Docs

 

Savage Sell-Blades of Dayton

[The Day After Ragnarok]

 

City: Dayton, Ohio

Population: 30,000/180,000

Controls: Montgomery County

Government: Democratic, for the moment

Problem: Hostile City

Heroic Opportunity: Mercenary Work

City Aspect: Militaristic and Mercantile  

Continue reading Savage Sell-Blades of Dayton [The Day After Ragnarok]

Silk-Haunted Paterson [The Day After Ragnarok]

Silk-Haunted Paterson – Google Docs

Silk-Haunted Paterson

[The Day After Ragnarok]

 

City: Paterson, NJ

Population: 6,000

Controls: Paterson itself, on a good day

Government: Squatters

Problem: Monsters

Heroic Opportunity: Trade Goods

City Aspect: Mercantile

Note: the Serpent Taint level of Paterson itself is 3, but the area around it is ST 4.

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Whipraffes. [The Day After Ragnarok]

Whipraffes – Google Docs

 

Whipraffes

[The Day After Ragnarok]

 

The southern coil of the Serpent slammed down right in the middle of giraffe territories in Africa.  The miasmic poisons still rising off of the Serpent’s dead hide reliably mutates giraffes into vicious carnivores with snake-like necks; they use their heads as living clubs, stunning prey before the whipraffe eats it alive with razor-sharp teeth. Fortunately, Whipraffes are not poisonous; unfortunately, they hunt in packs (1d4+1).

Continue reading Whipraffes. [The Day After Ragnarok]