Roleplayer
Roleplayer #10, May 1988

Isle of Night Characters

Here are characters and items from the Isle of Night adventure in Roleplayer #10. In the issue, these appeared in gray-tone boxes, separated out from the rest of the text.

(Back to The Isle of Night)

Richard Youngsten

Age 27; brown eyes, brown hair 5'9", 165 lbs.

ST 14, DX 12, IQ 12, HT 11

Basic Speed 5.75; Move 5

Advantages: Wealth (Wealthy); Appearance (Attractive)

Disadvantages: Addiction (cigarettes); Dependent (Alicia Fitzhugh – loved one, appears on 12 or less).

Skills: Guns/TL5 (Rifles)-16, (Pistols)-15; Brawling-12; Knife-12; Fencing-12; Swimming-12; Leadership-11; Strategy-10; Survival (Jungle)-11.

Equipment: .30 rifle; fine quality sabre; dagger.

(Back to The Story)


Alicia Fitzhugh

Age 25; long black hair, brown eyes, 5 7 , 130 lbs.

ST 8, DX 10, IQ 10, HT 11.

Basic Speed 5.25; Move 5.

Advantages: Appearance (Beautiful); Wealth (Wealthy); Status 2.

Skills: Swimming-9; Sex Appeal-10; First Aid-11.

(Back to The Story)


Colonel Avery Fitzhugh

Age 49; silver hair, brown eyes; 5' 11", 175 lbs.

ST 13, DX 14, IQ 16, HT 11.

Basic Speed 6.25; Move 6.

Advantages: Magical Aptitude 3; Night Vision; Status 3.

Disadvantages: Fanatic (T'Soquat worship).

Skills: Knife-14; Brawling-12; Guns/TL5 (Rifles)-14, (Pistols)-13; Survival (Jungle)-15, (Savannah)-13; Leadership-13; Fast-Talk-15; Bard-17; Acting-16

Spells: Armor-19; Pain 17; Sleep-17; Force Dome-16; Divination (Haruspication)-19; Summon T'Soquat-30.

The Colonel has been possessed by the Wizard-Chief of the Isle of Night for several months. If discovered, the spirit of the Chief may be exorcised by the same method used to exorcise a demon (see p. H39). If the Chief leaves the Colonel's body of its own free will, though, it will cause the Colonel to die. As with the dead servants found with the murdered veterans of the Blackston-Smythe expedition, the Colonel's body will show no evidence of the cause of death. If the Colonel dies while the Chief is in possession of his body, however, the Chief's spirit will die as well.

(Back to The Colonel)


The Villagers

ST 11, DX 10, IQ 9, HT 10.

Basic Speed 5; Move 5.

Advantage: Night Vision.

Disadvantage: Fanaticism (Wizard-Chief).

Skills: Brawling-10.

One villager in three is wearing a small amulet of carved bone, hanging on a leather thong. When the time-stop spell is lifted, those villagers without these amulets will immediately fall to the ground as rotting corpses (they haven't eaten in two years!). Those that are wearing amulets, however, are sustained by the magic of the amulet and the T'Soquat. Once time is no longer frozen, these villagers will begin a hideous transformation into minions of the T'Soquat.

By the third turn after the transformation begins, they will have developed functional lobster-like claws. They may strike with these claws in melee or close combat, snapping for 1 die of cutting damage. When the T'Soquat dies, these partially transformed natives will perish, just as their normal fellows did.

(Back to Restless Natives)


The T'Soquat

ST 300, DX 10, IQ 7, HT 15/80.

Speed 12 in water, 6 on land; Dodge 6; Size 24.

PD 2, DR 3 (Base value).

Attacks: Claws: 2+2 cutting; Tail Slap: 3 dice crushing; Acid: 2-1 damage.

The T'Soquat is a relatively minor Thing Man Was Not Meant To Know (see p. H49). Its sticky, corrosive skin allows it to climb near-vertical surfaces at half ground speed, like a snail.

The T'Soquat starts with DR 3, but with every human it consumes, its DR increases by 1. Once the T'Soquat has eaten a human (which requires one turn of "concentration," during which it may not attack), give any character who hits it an IQ-5 roll, modified by Alertness, to notice its escalating resistance.

The T'Soquat's large, glowing red eyes – which may be targeted at a -5 – are not protected by its DR.

The T'Soquat constantly secretes a corrosive slime, which will burn anyone who touches the beast's hide for 2-1 damage. It can also spit this acidic secretion for the same amount of damage; its ranges are P-B 2, Inc. 3, Max 15.

(Back to Research)


The Dagger

For the past two years, the spirit of the Wizard-Chief had been searching for the magical ceremonial dagger which was removed from the Isle of Night by Sir Lionel's party. After torturing every member of that expedition, he learned from Alfred Youngsten that he had sent it as a gift to his younger brother, Richard. To lure Richard into bringing the dagger to him on the island, the spirit – as Col. Fitzhugh's body – brought Alicia to the island to be the first victim of the T'Soquat.

Within the handle of the dagger is a special one-use Powerstone, which may be used only to cast the Summon T'Soquat spell. The Powerstone holds ST 40 – not quite enough to power the spell. After casting his Armor and Force Dome spells, the Chief will have to burn all his Fatigue and some of his HT to cast the spell, even with the dagger. Without the dagger, the Chief can't hope to cast the spell (there are too few villagers on the isle to generate the energy through ceremonial magic).

(Back to the Isle of Night)


Strange Happenings

A spell has stopped time on the island. Because of this, wounds act strangely. First of all, they cause no stunning or shock penalty to DX – the wounds don't hurt! Second, no one will go unconscious – at 0 or lower HT, they just keep fighting (make HT rolls for dying as usual, however). And third, the wounds don't bleed at all. When a PC discovers that the natives aren't bleeding or being stunned, he should make a Fright Check at -2; when one discovers that the PCs aren't bleeding, he makes a Fright Check at -4! (Don't forget to add +5 for the fact that everyone's in combat.)

Also because of the spell, fires won't light, and gunpowder won't fire! The PCs' guns simply will not work (Fright Check at -2 when this becomes apparent).

(Back to The Isle of Night)

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