Quest Line · Original Adventure · TMNT & Other Strangeness
One-shot
A mysterious purple glow emanates from the kelp forests off Montauk Point, and the local seal colony has abandoned their feeding grounds. The player characters investigate and discover an alien incubation facility hidden beneath the waves, where brain-like extraterrestrials called the Kraang are hatching bioweapons in stolen seal pups. The team must infiltrate the underwater base, rescue the surviving hostages, and destroy the hatchery before the Kraang's creations mature.
Setting: The adventure takes place in the waters off Long Island's eastern coast, primarily underwater in a kelp forest and alien facility. Players should create mutant animal characters (or other appropriate character types) capable of functioning underwater or willing to acquire equipment to do so.
Tone: Action-adventure with body horror elements. The Kraang's experiments involve transforming living creatures into weapons.
Content Warnings: Animal experimentation, body horror, environmental contamination.
Preparation: Players should consider how their characters will breathe and operate underwater. The GM may provide rebreathers, underwater vehicles, or temporary mutation serums as needed.
Choose one or combine elements:
The Concerned Scientist: Dr. Marina Cortez, a marine biologist from the Coastal Research Institute, contacts the characters after her monitoring equipment detected unusual radiation signatures and witnessed the seal colony's mass exodus. She offers $5,000 and access to her research vessel to investigate. She's desperate—the phenomenon is spreading, and government agencies are ignoring her data.
The Distress Call: While monitoring emergency channels, the characters intercept a garbled transmission from a Coast Guard patrol boat: "...purple light...seals acting crazy...something grabbed Johnson..." followed by static. The boat was last seen near the kelp beds off Montauk.
Personal Stakes: One character receives a vision, psychic impression, or message from a mutant seal they previously befriended. The seal is terrified, showing images of chrome chambers and creatures in mechanical suits harvesting seal pups from the rookery.
The characters approach the affected kelp forest aboard a boat or swimming from shore. The water glows with an unnatural purple luminescence that intensifies toward the seafloor, sixty feet down. Long strands of bull kelp sway in the current, creating a maze of shadows and light.
What They Experience: The purple glow comes from bioluminescent algae that coat the kelp and rocks—analyzing it requires a Science: Biology check (target 12) to identify it as artificially modified, containing synthetic compounds. Schools of fish swim in erratic patterns, occasionally ramming into the kelp or each other.
The Contaminated Guardian: Twenty feet down, a massive harbor seal (actually a juvenile elephant seal, 800 lbs) confronts the party. Purple veins glow beneath its skin, and its eyes shine with the same eerie light. It's territorial and aggressive due to Kraang contamination.
Contaminated Seal Attributes: IQ 5 (animal), ME 10, MA 6, PS 18, PP 12, PE 16, PB 8, Spd 20 (swimming) Combat: Bite 2d6 damage, +4 to strike HP: 38 Special: Emits purple spores when wounded (PE check, target 14, or suffer -2 to all actions for 1d4 minutes due to disorientation)
Discovery: Past the seal, the characters find a trail of discarded equipment: a broken underwater camera, a diver's mask, and—most disturbing—three seal pups in a cargo net, unconscious but alive, with strange injection marks behind their flippers. Following the purple glow leads to a metallic dome structure nestled in a rocky outcrop, half-buried in the seafloor.
The dome is twenty feet in diameter, constructed from an iridescent alloy that resembles mother-of-pearl but feels like cold metal. A circular airlock door marked with angular alien symbols dominates one side. The airlock is unlocked—the Kraang are arrogant about security in this remote location.
Inside the Airlock: Water drains automatically when the outer door seals. The inner door opens into a curved corridor lit by purple bioluminescent panels. The air is breathable but smells of ozone and something organic.
The Choice: The corridor splits. Left leads to a control chamber (sounds of electronic beeping and bubbling water). Right leads to holding tanks (muffled cries and splashing). The characters must decide:
Left Path—Control Chamber: Two Kraang operators in their android bodies monitor screens showing the hatchery progress. The chamber contains the environmental controls and data logs. A Computer Operation check (target 13) reveals the Kraang are accelerating seal pup mutations to create amphibious shock troops for a surface invasion. Setting the system to overload requires a Computer Hacking check (target 15) and takes 3 rounds during which combat may occur.
Kraang Operator (2) Attributes: IQ 16, ME 14, MA 8, PS 16 (robotic body), PP 14, PE N/A (robot), PB 4, Spd 15 Combat: Laser pistol 3d6 damage, +3 to strike, or mechanical punch 2d4 damage HP: 30 (destroy the android body to force the brain creature to flee) Special: Communicates in strange third-person speech pattern
Right Path—Holding Tanks: Six large cylindrical tanks contain seal pups in various stages of mutation. Some have developed armored hide, others have grown extra flippers or bioluminescent organs. A single Kraang Technician monitors vital signs. One tank holds a human Coast Guard officer, Jackson, from the distressed patrol boat—he's unconscious but not yet mutated.
Kraang Technician Attributes: As Kraang Operator but PS 14 Combat: Stun baton 2d4 damage + save vs. stun (PE check, target 13) or be paralyzed for 1d4 rounds HP: 25 Tactics: Will trigger alarm if not surprised (Prowl check, target 12, to approach undetected)
Freeing the Tanks: Each tank has emergency release switches, but opening them prematurely may harm the subjects. A Medical: Veterinary or Science: Biology check (target 14) determines the safe release sequence.
Once the alarm triggers (either from combat or sabotage), the facility enters lockdown. Purple emergency lights flash, and bulkhead doors begin sealing. The characters have approximately 5 rounds to escape before the damaged facility floods or explodes (if they sabotaged the reactor).
The Kraang Response: A Kraang Commander in a heavy assault android emerges from the hatchery chamber, escorting a floating tank containing a massive mutated seal-thing—a prototype bioweapon, twelve feet long with armored plating and cybernetic implants.
Kraang Commander Attributes: IQ 18, ME 16, MA 10, PS 20, PP 16, PE N/A, PB 4, Spd 18 Combat: Heavy laser rifle 4d6 damage, +4 to strike; armored plating (AR 14) HP: 45 Special: Can activate prototype bioweapon as action
Prototype Bioweapon Attributes: IQ 4, ME 8, MA 4, PS 24, PP 10, PE 20, PB 3, Spd 30 (swimming) Combat: Bite 3d6 damage, tail slam 2d8 damage, +3 to strike HP: 60 Special: Sonic screech attack (everyone within 20 feet makes PE check, target 15, or stunned for 1 round)
Possible Endings:
Victory Through Destruction: The characters defeat or bypass the Kraang, rescue the hostages, and escape before the facility explodes. The hatchery is destroyed, but fragments of Kraang technology sink into the ocean depths. The rescued seal pups and Coast Guard officer require specialized care to reverse their mutations.
Pyrrhic Escape: The characters must choose between destroying the facility completely or saving all the hostages. If they save everyone, some Kraang data and bioweapon samples survive. If they ensure total destruction, some of the mutated seals don't make it out. The Coast Guard officer remembers everything and becomes an ally.
Intelligence Gathered: The characters capture Kraang data cores containing invasion plans and research notes. They escape with evidence but the Kraang Commander survives, becoming a recurring antagonist. The seal colony begins returning as the contamination fades, but the characters know this was only one facility.
Dr. Marina Cortez: Marine biologist, 40s, passionate about ocean conservation. Wants to understand and stop the contamination. Will provide scientific analysis and boat support.
Coast Guard Officer Jackson: Young officer, mid-20s, traumatized by capture. Wants revenge on the Kraang. Can provide military contacts and equipment access if rescued.
Kraang Commander Thet-5: Brain creature in premium android body, calculating and cruel. Seeks promotion through successful bioweapon deployment. Will retreat if defeat is certain, swearing revenge.
Mama Seal (non-verbal NPC): Enormous elephant seal, 2,000 lbs, matriarch of the colony. Guides characters to the dome if they befriend her. Fiercely protective of the pups.
Director Voss (mentioned only): Kraang regional director who authorized this facility. Pulling strings from a larger base location. Potential future antagonist.
Experience Points: Award 300 XP for infiltrating the facility, 400 XP for defeating or bypassing the Kraang, 500 XP for rescuing all hostages, and 200 XP bonus for destroying the hatchery completely (total possible: 1,400 XP).
Equipment: Kraang laser pistol (3d6 damage, 20 shot energy cell), waterproof alien tablet containing research data, rebreathers with 8-hour capacity.
Story Rewards: Dr. Cortez becomes a permanent ally and information source. The Coast Guard owes the characters a favor. The seal colony remembers their saviors—future underwater adventures near Montauk gain animal assistance.
Mutation Samples: Characters may keep samples of the mutagenic compound for analysis—potential plot hooks for understanding or counteracting Kraang bioweapons.
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