This is the second in my series of sample hexes for The Shabby Land, my upcoming post-apocalyptic hexcrawl zine for Cepheus Atom. Here’s the first one I did. Here are all of my Shabby Land posts.
Hex 0308 – The Carcinogen Isles
Parrotoid Pirates raid ships in Poison Bay with a rocket powered catamaran.
Just off the mainland is a cluster of jagged rocks and desolate islands. Local mariners call them the Carcinogen Isles. Navigating through the maze of rocks by ship will require a Survival roll of 10+ (6+ if a map is available). Failure will cause the ship to take 2d6 damage.
Some of the islands are contaminated. Roll 1 on a 1d6 to randomly determine if a particular island is contaminated.
A band of 20 Parrotoids, led by the notorious pirate Captain Caw have a secret base within the islands. The base is nearly impossible to find without a map or a guide.
Parrotoids: 7/15, Move 10m Armor 0 Cutlass 3D Damage Combat-1 Physical-1 Survival-1 Humanoid parrot mutants. Despite their profession, they cannot swim. They often cruelly mimic their victim’s cries for mercy.
Captain Caw: 9/18, Move 10m Armor 3 Cutlass 3D or Lasgun 5D Damage Combat-3 Physical-1 Survival-3
An old and crafty sea bird. He’s willing to parley if necessary, but his word cannot be trusted.
The Pirate Base
A small lagoon surrounded by a few crude huts on stilts. There is one watchtower that is always manned by a single parrotoid. There is a 50% chance (1-3 on a d6) that the catamaran is anchored in the lagoon.
If the catamaran is here, there will be 20 parrotoid pirates plus Captain Caw. If the ship is away, there will be 8 pirates.
Searching the huts will find the following:
- About 350 TU
- A treasure map leading to a spot in Hex 0406
- 4 Jet skis
- 2 power cells
- A tank of fuel for the jet skis and the catamaran.
- A list of future ships sailing from Barter-Mart in the handwriting of a prominent Barter-Mart merchant.
Pirate Catamaran
A large catamaran that the pirates have attached a rocket engine to. The pirates cruise the Poison Bay until they sight a likely target. The parrotoids will let out an angry squawk, hoist their pirate flag, and then fire the rocket to close the distance and board the vessel. It normally has a crew of 12 pirates, in addition to the captain.
Rocket Engine: Has enough fuel for 3 rounds, raises the ship’s Agility to +3. It would cost 300 TU to refuel the rocket.
Agility: -1 when sailing, +3 when rocket is engaged.
Armor: 9/12
Weapons
2 Gatling Guns – Range 30/90 Damage: 3D AV, Automatic
Harpoon Gun with 60m cable- Range 30/60 Damage 2D AV. Can only be fired once. If a harpoon with a cable successfully hits a ship, it adds +2 to all advantage rolls when attacking or chasing that ship as long as the cable holds. The cable can take 25 points of damage.
Polyhedral Nonsense 