Anyaknor, remains of a elder ruined city

By a great glacier in a mountain the glacier once ground away a cliff exposing some of this ruined city. You can randomly roo. 24 rooms here  for chambers in elder ruins. Use as a dungeon or say the dimensional properties are in full effect and each ten minutes what is through the doorway changes to a new one rolled on d100 table. After ten minutes or one turn the door blinks, to having a different room on the other side of the portal. Being separated in such a dimensional maze is dangerous.

Hoping on doing a void creature bestiary
Noticed lots of basic dnd monsters were nightmare and darkness related and they had a school of illusions that could access nightmare world. X4 & X5 module monsters for example.

Im using the Crawling Chaos book  here lots.
-Great items and monsters. Id use this book for relics mentioned in chambers.

d100 Unpleasant things left in chambers of the old ones
1 Various types of toxic mould colonies cover many surfaces
2 Slimes crawl and drip in area, slime zombies might also be present
3 Crawling with worms as a non flying swarm often in a pit or cluster or hole 
4 Pudding resting in a stone bowl but hungry
5 Shrieking giant fungus that makes loud screams if disturbed
6 Toxic giant fungus that sprays toxic spores or rotting touch
7 Fungus forest covered chamber, strange and weird
8 Gelatinous creatures oozing about
9 Piercer colonies or trapper or lurker above
10 Mimic often as some relic, idol, egg or alien casket
11 Buzzing biting fly swarm living in carcasses and pools of rotten slime
12 Giant flies tending maggots in filth or giant alien wasps with a nest 
13 Nest of giant beetles various types plus often eggs or grubs in lair
14 Spiderwebs and a giant spider colony or just one really big one, some are wizards
15 Carrion crawlers 1in6 guarding a corpse full of adorable babies
16 Hear rats scuttling about, colony of giant rats with human like faces that mutter
17 Giant leeches in a pool or hibernating on a pod awaiting living breath to awaken
18 Giant fleas (as stirges but hop) or several giant ticks
19 Hideous frightened mutant clan have hidden lair here
20 Lone mutant frightened has hiding place
21 Eggs most hatched and broken
22 Skin or chrysalis shed by some god awful thing that should not be
23 Spiderwebs often remains of bodies wrapped in cocoons
24 Large scales from some creature
25 Disgusting piles of faeces left by some horrid creature
26 Human bones chewed and broken in pile
27 Mummified creature left in chamber for a aeon turns to dust if touched
28 Slime trails around room floors walls and ceiling
29 Human husk with horrific expression
30 Cluster of biological slime covered sacks on ceiling
31 Mummy cases with undead mummies of alien wizards
32 Umber hulks scuttling about for food
33 Roper in slime encrusted shamber
34 Gibbering mouther under a ornate stone lid in a well
35 Giant slugs or flail snails
36 Giant worm such as a purple worm or remorhaz
37 Krinoid awakened from slumber or time travel error
39 Shoggoth sealed in pit with stone lid calling for masters it can kill
40 Malfera nightmare demon summoned long ago as guard sleeping as a statue
41 Campsite of some explorers mostly abandoned 1in6 a d4 survivors starving
42 Corpse with a backpack of explorer equiptment and a magic item
43 Graffiti left by some one recent in modern language, probably bad news
44 Dead donkey with piles of rope and rations, all have been gnawed at
45 Several dead warriors horribly killed by some means with looks of horror
46 Human corpse with top of head neatly cut off and brain missing
47 A mad survivor from adventurers is a untrustworthy cannibal cultist
48 Cultists left provisions, robes and some books here for safekeeping
49 Humans crawled here to die leaving a trail of blood and slime
50 A growing slimy mass has a human face, sometimes its mouth moves as if talking
51 A eye like growth in ceiling watches all, will telekinetically fly away if attacked
52 A crack or hole in a wall has a eye in it like some huge mollusc
53 Invisible floating eye follows visitors, someone scrying with magic to watch
54 A stone bell or gong chimes as you enter heard in adjacent rooms, random encounter attracted
55 Room has a horrible stench like a permanent stinking cloud spell
56 Hexagonal niches in wall with stcontents inside in stasis and unmovable
57 A relic or idol in a niche with a force wall and a small gem set control panel used to open it
58 Niches filled with gelatinous matter and preserved organs inside including brains, eys, livers, kidneys
59 A bowl of huge semiprecious stones and crystals
60 A pyramid of humanlike skulls collected over ages with fresh human one on top
61 Phantoms of dead mad explorers look hungrily at your flesh
62 Poltergiest throws things around room and rattles things to be scary
63 Shadows are trapped here in bottles or jars and very hungry
64 Wraith kept in a sealed jar with arcane symbols
65 Spectral minion of explorer who couldn't get out wants to help you be free
66 Fungal undead dusanu spreading diseased spoors lay in mounds of mould and fungus
67 Mummy cases with abhuman mummy servants 1in6 are guarding the room68 Vampire drained last of  followers seeking eldrich magic, will awaken when living breathe in room
69 A undead colossus surrounded by scaffolding with magic ritual to awaken incomplete
70 A revenant stalks the halls killing ant mortals trying to outdo this former explorers deeds
71 A rock golem stands at ready mostly inactive, 1in6 are alive and on guard duty
72 Stone slab with tools and stone jars. The slab if inset crystals set will heat or cool food
73 Stone well with water that pours when you press a crystal or drains away with another
74 Ancient zombies in uniform awaiting orders some rotting away into skeletons
81 Control altar of stone set with gems, set temperature, light, and humidity in chamber to suit various beings
82 Control altar of stone set with gems, if manipulated can send you back or forward in time one turn or out you in a time loop. Sometimes playing with it yourself from the future appears till you disappear
83 Control altar of stone set with gems, if you manipulate yourselves appear from the future warning you to stop, they vanish and console explodes84 A scrying crystal (as a crystal ball) set into a altar with control crystals
85  A doorway with a control altar, manipulating crystals opens various gates to alien places and strange times
86  A slab fits a humanoid in a depression and a control altar, a skilled operator can heal or torture or turn the victim into an abhuman with a specimen to hybridise someone
87 Greenstone ornate sarcophagi with control panel to awaken a long dead alien wizard
88 Broken altar if meddle with control crystals puts room in stasis for a hundred years
89 Gem studded control altar as manipulated some floor panels become transperant showing prisoners in stasis or corpses in them. With further manipulation the invisible floor vanishes leaving inhabitants accessible from above but at 20 foot most cant escape. Can be resealed also some cells have broken stasis preservation
90  Control altar of stone set with gems, if manipulated a large creature from another world appears in a summoning circle and most are hostile
91 The floor is see through glass and some huge amniotic horror squirms under the floor looking at you
92 A pool in the floor has a bubbling organic matter of the god Abhoth, things spawn then are pulled back in and consumed. Two giant mechanical tentacles in the ceiling are operable by a user with tentacles in a special panel to pull creatures out
93 A tower goes up to a clear dome with a huge crystal telescope grown here long ago. Through the telescope you see a titanic mass full of eyes watching the surface of the world, after a while it looks back at viewer. Steps in a spiral are crystals growing from walls
94 Floor shows map of the world, with control panel you can get closer maps in places but all text is an elder forgotten language. Will show ancient city locations and shows changes in map over the last few million years
95 A crystal flying saucer is here but only 1in6 are functional with a luminous glow and seating for 3 hovering a foot off the ground. Most are broken and on the ground and purpose is unclear
96 A crystalline chariot, if controls manipulated summons a pair of flying beast to propel it and they follow the consoles controls. There is a gate way arch and a console nearby that controls the gates entry. Thee chariot glows when in flight to impress primitives
97 A solar powered ornithipter that starts to awake when the circular hole on the rook lets in sunlight is console used. A d4 other broken dead ornithopters are in a corner
98 Crystal pyramid if touched lights up and allows telepathy with alien wizard far away, a whole network of them
99 Black monolith if you get close and it activates it evolves those who pass INT checks and those that fail are devolved evolved +2 INT -2 STR or if devolved + STR
100 Great metal mirror can commune with outer gods once a month. If they are displeased they bombard the chamber with mutagens

Cthulhu Pulp Metropolis Decopunk Image Dump #2

So since I started this setting Decopunk the term has been increasingly used. I seem to often get an interest in things slightly ahead of the curve. Today a few links to lots of films. Also Kim Newman did a good Metropolis Superman mash up short story which might have been in Famous Monsters of Film Land but i'm not sure. It is better than the Superman-Metropolis Comic by DC anyhow. I've been digging and filing more stuff so here is some of my shiny streamlined booty.

Part of the point of the setting is a celebration of silent and early SF and Supernatural genre films.

Retro Films
Russian SF 1929 Some great city scenes and cars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3uyR4OWEOw

Russian SF 1924 Aelita Queen of Mars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSDv9HlzqL0

Things to Come (I use as 20th c history plus deco tanks)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atwfWEKz00U

Just Imagine - I use this a bit for america
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=just+imagine

Metropolis - I use this for central Europe 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0NzALRJifI

Woman on Der Moon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMk1mtirACU

Der Golem - good moody horror
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArHM_UArtPI

Dr Caligari - good asylum horror - modern remake 2005
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IlLvrkuPVw

Original Caligari 1920
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aimAeeDx2p4

Call of Cthulhu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHuY2wXTd0o

Algol - alien gives someone ultimate power
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLXS-pAfz9M

Nosferatu 1922
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC6jFoYm3xs

The Tunnel - boring but some good tech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hkUJ1qu9os

I did eventually get the Agent13 novel from TSR but they didn't survive one read
I liked it but wished that all books in one volume
Read like Juve books but had some pulpy torture I wouldn't endorse for the kids
TSR Top Secret/SI Agent13 Sourcebook is a great pulp rpg book - one of best

This is a good genre article mentioning some books
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/decopunk-deserves-bigger-steampunk/



Terminal for cable cars needed to reach higher city areas rapidly



I forgot what this film is called but I have been meaning to see it
The Shadow movie is pretty cool, one of the better pre modern hero movies and hundreds af shadow pulp images have great dilemma shots begging a story for inspiration. I quite like mens sweat mags and mars attacks for the pregnant with possibility story telling. Norman Saunders was a great.

Popular mechanics and lots of pulp mag covers are very inspirational.




Cars in metropolis not very futuristic but were some cars in later years with deco tear drop shapes that suit the setting. The above cars are nice especially the armoured one but both would make nice pulp hero cars.



Noir and deco go well together.
Lots of darkness and smoke and fog
Shiny reflective surfaces like cars, windows or water
Hardboiled citizens drink, smoke and imbibe drugs
Pre war fallout might have been like this
Actually a game set in pre fallout might be fun



Lots of great bits of building interiors even party shots or fim still can add to the deco universe. Something like this makes for a good important scene in a drama. Architecture and party images are good to use in game.



Nocturne city is a feature of Strange Aeons comics which i cant seem to find.
This page has a feature on it with a dead link but has it's own interesting stuff
http://sljazzaftermidnight.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/strange-aeons-dieselpunk-webcomic.html



Lots of industrial imagery for factory level and inside mighty machines



This chic deco adventuress is a great image - lots of good examples of world exploring women and female aviators.



Lots of great urban city scapes available especially nocturnal ones



Im still finding gold like this - ocational retro future cities
Idea that huge bridges, elevators and cablecars would be needed and that underground space would all be ocupied is amazing. Lots of exiting scenes could use these modes of transport.

TopTen and Tom Strong comics had lots of fantastic architecture



Some styling streamlined trains to look at too for inter city travel. You could probably lie and say it had a atomic boiler.

Plenty of mad science images in hollywood and interesting pulp heroes to steal from old serials and pulp

This shows the paradise of open public space located for the rich on topmost towers. I suspect suicides might be daily occurrence often predicted by market changes.

I dont know if this would be real but would suit my ww1 games pretty well. Make a great riot control vehichle

Some great cosplay out there - probably inspired by sky captain and the world of tommorrow. A bit mor diesel than decor but has many great scenes - shame they cut bits out that explained the story


This luxury complex seems a bit more west coast to me butt would be a good location

Of course factories and worker housing even lower than this. Pollution didnt seem to fit in these dreams. I guessing more areas like gardens for the rich would be sheilded by glass

Airships are a great part of the genre and military battles in aerial dreadnauts and carrier actions might be quite thrilling. Moorcock has wonderous bulletproof fabrics in warlord of the air and real weather might be a problem because it killed such dreams in reality.



This monstrosity might be good to feature in a adventure. Colossal mobile sea cities for the rich could be entertaining adventures and were featured in some novels.



I like the advanced tech here has retained victorian housing



The transport shown here is a great example. I imagine some would never visit lower levels and some spectacular stunts, chases and accidents could occur

Decopunk Metropolis Encounters part 2

I will design some pregen characters for Cthulhu Metropolis I can do art based on old Hollywood actors. I need 12 for various genders. As a setting it feels very honky but I guess social progress and racial equality was low on priority in future dreams of the 1920s and 30s. Some Oswald Bastable scenarios might work well including the development of the atom bomb from Moorcock would be good. Compliment the space and robotic developments. The novels feature uprisings against colonials where rebel peoples get access to superior tech from a single inventor like the land leviathan or superior aircraft (jets!?).

Probably will feature acts starting from the top and working down as city explodes into rioting. I will probably do a post on Babylon Dreamlands of Metropolis. It would be a early cinema version of Babylon like the unfinished Intolerance and biblical films. I have added some other early cinematic references without too much overt supernaturalism. The keeper (perhaps Architect might be better title for this game) can ad lib more supernatural if needed but I will save for climax. I might try running this for a month or so later in the year and could do the whole explore the world and space thing, even go Flash Gordon (Ming from planet Leng?).

Im gonna make a groovy keeper screen too. My art style will suffice for pregen sheets.

Worker under levels are the barracks where workers shuffle from every day to the mammoth factories, power plants and smelters. To be as complex as the book version I include miles of water works, sewers, recycling plants, rail tunnels and other drab industrial hell.

d100 Worker Under City Levels
01 Old woman telling fortune to people in tea shop of many classes
02 Shambling workers off to shift
03 Drunken foreman with wrench staggering home abuses passers
04 Poor urchins stop and stare at outsiders
05 Robed cultist spotted, drops into drain hatch
06 Hair black claw spotted on edge of drain briefly
07 Cleaner sweeping floors, happy to talk to anyone about things he has seen
08 Battered woman refuses help, staggers home
09 Beautiful workers daughter with poor children on field trip
10 Police searching tunnels for something hidden
11 Police checking ID and looking for someone
12 Bomb blast from terrorists, panicked workers flee 
13 Strange slime trail leads to drain
14 Creepy grinning man with cane seems to be talking to rats
15 Sewerage overflowing into tunnels
16 Rich youth wandering about amazed by terrible conditions
17 Bank agent looking for bankers son who is too interested in plight of poor
18 Old drunk trying to avoid deportation from city
19 Bulging eyed plumber with tools menacing workers daughter
20 Mysterious wizard (Rotwang?) looking for catacomb entrances
21 Sickly man trying to reach water as skin starting to split open
22 Benevolent order of Dagon giving food and pamphlets to workers
23 Stray cat watches party and follows them for a while
24 Dead worker has fallen on way to work
25 Engineer inspecting tunnels found locked steel door not on his maps 
26 Catch worker eating another dead worker, flees when he realizes seen with weird gait
27 Foreign agent with camera pretending to be journalist
28 Police beating journalist smashing his camera and film
29 Angry workers attack outsiders for intruding 
30 Hungry beggars swarm party
31 Find a half chewed carcass of a worker
32 Find shredded skin of a worker by a drain entrance
33 Find a disemboweled prostitute and cult graffiti
34 Prostitutes call out to party offer quick knee trembler for pittance
35 Lost youth from surface here on dare, bewildered and terrorfied
36 Stray dog chased by hungry hobo
37 Gangster in coat offers drugs and home made zip guns and shanks
38 Man with limp begs for a job or he will be relocated outside city
39 Banker seen buying children, sends a goon to get party
40 Uptown men in cult robes on way to catacombs avoid faces being seen
41 Line of youths being inspected to enter household service in uptown
42 Man selling bad cigarettes and rotgut booze
43 Man trying to sell expensive stolen useless stuff to bewildered poor
44 Priest preaching how meek should turn cheek and will inherit the earth
45 Priests with impromptu soup kitchen
46 W.O.W. delegate on tour with locals gasping at terrible conditions
47 Choking black smog fills tunnel, people flee from area
48 Acrid foul air leaves eyes watering and throats sore
49 Crippled ex-workers being pursued by law for being unfit for work 
50 Foreman beating worker in front of sullen faced mob
51 Man disguised as worker from uptown to see worker lives
52 Agent of bank disguised as worker from uptown looking for revolutionaries
53 Police disguised as worker seeking trouble makers or unfit workers in hiding
54 Communist handing out propaganda and preaching worker takeover
55 Man with no legs on trolley begging for food and coins
56 Angry worker looking for outsiders to vent his fury on
57 Youth gang charging toll to pass this way, outsiders pay double
58 Abandoned baby in a box
59 Drug addicts slumped against wall, barely aware of surroundings
60 Police taking disabled boy from parents, claim to a home but really will be gassed
61 A gypsy selling good luck charms and potions, knives anyone causes him trouble
62 A man preaching foreigners to blame for everyone's troubles
63 A staggering man, dying or blind from bad bathtub gin
64 Gang with vicious dogs collecting loan repayments from workers
65 A foreman explaining how good everyone has it to mob
66 Food aid workers from midtown overwhelmed by hungry mob
67 Police arresting food aid workers for inciting crime
68 Uptown youths making poor workers brawl for cash
69 Large lumpy faced man watches party from distance creepily
70 Worker with old worn damaged boots limping to work and late
71 Ambulance carrying wounded children from work house
72 Tiny ancient church with candles and worshipers in somber silence
73 Preacher telling workers how everything better in next life
74 Zealot with dying worker inciting mob to rise up against upper classes
75 Wounded man shambling off to work late
76 Upset man claiming he saw something that should not be in a drain
77 Man preaching end of the world everyone must affirm Christianity or die
78 Workers tormenting woman they say is a witch
79 Strange man in black with dark eyes in trance carrying woman flees if seen
80 Asylum orderlies load men into van, strange gleeful doctor (Dr Caligari?)
81 Deranged hunch back with top hat and sharp teeth chasing woman with butchers knife
82 Workers driving out disabled man from district to keep away health inspectors
83 Workers having soccer match with home made ball, all welcome
84 Man selling rat on a stick, has no teeth and big grin
84 Census taker interrogates anyone not meant to be down below, demands papers 
85 Shambling walker in deathlike trance walking corridors with shredded clothes
86 Dog licking up spilled blood on ground
87 Crazy man talking to and eating bugs, talking to invisible master
88 Armed soldiers searching for something but wont say what
89 Worker mistakes party member for someone and slips them a catacomb map
90 Robed cultists stabbing man, flee when spotted
91 Banker on tour with guards, complaining conditions too good for scum workers
92 Journalist looking for drama, asks people about conditions below, workers shun him
93 Woman crying looking for her child
94 Wealthy youths come down to abuse and provoke workers for fun
95 Workers looking for help, injured man trapped in machine
96 Wounded child begging for help, everyone busy with own problems
97 Visions of the seven deadly sins and death from cathedral overwhelm party member
98 Party member has vision from past life in Babylon lasts a few hours
99 Man having visions he is worker in ancient Babylon from past life, confused and lost
100 Vision of factories and doorways becoming mouths of the machine god Moloch

Catacombs predate the city and upper galleries used for secret meetings of workers new Christian sect. If you follow a map or guide fairly safe. Exploring greater depths very bad however. Best to be kindly and scare with some sounds and minor encounters before unleashing true horrors of the pit.

d100 Catacomb Levels
01 Workers heading to underground new christian sect in candle lit shrine
02 Scientist Wizard (Rotwang?) exploring catacombs for his various schemes
03 Uptown youth or youths with flashlight exploring the depths
04 Lost child came down looking for ball or on dare
05 Hear distant chanting in strange language
06 Abandoned shack with strange crumbling old book and skeleton
07 Pale creepy naked children flee from light
08 Strange green skinned children found speak no known language, slowly dying
09 Strange palid worms crawl about and drop from ceiling 
10 Feel strange urge to discard weapons and follow train into the depths
11 Find a strange black well with strange carved symbols
12 A strange monolith with almost worn away symbols, causes strange dreams after seeing 
13 A shambling work with rotting flesh attacks
14 A doctor with a glowing green syringe is injecting a corpse in the brain
15 Wild feral albino men attack
16 Ghouls chitter while eating a corpse, if realize they are seen will attack
17 Cultists on way to dread shrine, attack any strangers who see them
18 Witness a cult engaged in ritual torture or sacrifice led by a recognizable banker
19 An archaeological team with workers and a few guards
20 Ancient room stacked with coffins
21 Ancient stone sarcophagi hundreds of years old
22 Corridor blocked with neat piles of human bones
23 Walls decorated with human skulls
24 Cultist seeking relics will pretend to be scholar and seem friendly
25 Armed police will arrest or shoot at anyone who flees
26 Gang dividing up loot from graves
27 Ghoul cult eating bound victim alive (actually a zombie)
28 Shambling zombies 
29 Piles of rotting mangled corpses dumped here by someone
30 Agent of bank dragging corpse of trouble maker to hide in depths
31 Students on initiation test lost 
32 Strange monk tending remains of dead
33 Bundles of mummified corpses stacked around walls or in niches
34 Flooded bunker from war with mouldy rotten gas masks and survival rations and bunks
35 Remains of old mine with tracks, carts, piles of rubble and skeleton with miners hat
36 Crippled workers in hiding from health inspectors fearing deportation
37 Urchins being instructed in crime by fat gangster 
38 Strange statue with partly erased Hebrew text on forehead
39 Strange creepy howl heard
40 Ghoul eating a cat, pounces on better food like party
41 Scaly google eyed naked man jumps into well when sees lights coming
42 Cult of strange froglike hopping people dancing around a well
43 Cultists in ritual sex, turns to cannibalism later (just for those who want to join in) 
44 Hunchbacked, rat faced bald man stalks party, is a nosferatu
45 Onyx dodecahedron on plinth, thieves dream of crawling darkness and hunted by cult
46 Witches dancing in ritual cackling madly, curse any who see with magic
47 Hideous deformed witch with horrible familiar sets awful familiar on party
48 Graffiti from many previous eras 
49 Graffiti from occultists with astrological and kabalistic diagrams
50 Strange sign drawn in odd yellow pigment, viewers have bad dreams and visitations
51 Cult signs with alien or forgotten hyperborean languages scr
52 A fungal nightmare garden with human bones amidst slimy growths
53 A crystal coffin with sleeping monk inside, actually a friendly but deceitful serpent man
54 Albino degenerate snake people attack intruders but flee if harmed
55 An ancient Egyptian sarcophagi with cult paraphernalia, beast headed mummy arises
56 Dead man from uptown with dagger in back
57 Drunk with lantern and zipgun looking for people who took his friend
58 Man with strange alien box looking for something, possessed by prehuman race
59 Strange gurgling cries of "Tekeli-li" from darkness, if investigated shoggoth attacks
60 Well sealed by basalt stone lid, can hear moving air and alien whispers within
61 Mummified remains of inhuman creature
62 Stone vault door with strange star shaped seal
63 A huge pit of writhing white grubs awaiting the end times to come to surface
64 A robed man avoids party, if confronted is a wizard made from a mass of worms
65 Swarms of bats flood chambers biting and scratching any in area
66 Strange globe like eggs made from minerals, cultists will retrieve if stolen 
67 Flapping of batwings from distance and unearthly screeching sound
68 Strange archway with alien runes, actually a gateway to somewhere horrible
69 A strange pool gives visions of the past, if look too long entities notice you back
70 Strange apparatus with generator and huge tuning forks, headless corpse nearby 
71 Laboratory with corpses, restrained zombie and green glowing vials
72 Pyramid of severed human heads still warm to touch
73 Workers with clubs looking to beat child kidnappers they are searching for
74 Frightened woman being chased by cultists
75 Lone child begs for help is actually a witch hundreds of years old
76 Squealing pigs are heard coming, naked insane pig men swarm at party
77 Swarm of rats attack
78 Swarm of rats flee past party from something horrible coming
79 Strange bell tolls but source cannot be found
80 Sarcophagi with mummified reptilian creatures
81 Old cult wizard looking to recruit new cultists
82 Find bewildered person in strange clothes from some other time
83 Albino huge reptilian slithers after party
84 Strange chamber with hyperborean runes and bronze mirror, a gate to Saturn
85 Cage with crying caged naked captives in chains begging for help
86 Strange altar with blood stains, inside is a book, dagger and some potions
87 Skeleton in crypt with flesh in process of regrowing, heart starts to beat
88 Sickly man staggers an vomits up worms, then bursts open into horrible mess
89 Fish men on the hunt, chase any humans for food, sex or experiments
90 Crying girl victim of assault and carrying a future deep one
91 A beautiful siren sings to intruders inviting them to have sex, deep one with illusion
92 Attractive woman clings to party member, is a life sucking succubus seeks a mate
93 Room with metal brain canisters and apparatus to speak to them 
94 Foreign scholar with robot guard seeking evil books and relics
95 Room with bed, candles, covered in photos of missing persons
96 Strange creepy doll, if taken will animates and kill when it gets a chance
97 Weird idol of tentacled frog being with strange alien instrument nearby 
98 Bubbling pool of strange white organic fluid dripping from ceiling
99 Vision of future where sun blotted out and last humans dwell in huge silver pyramid
100 Visions of the city crumbling into darkness strike a party member

NEXT - Babylonian Dreamlands

Decopunk Metropolis Encounters part 1

These are for my Cthulhu Metropolis setting but just as usable in many planet Psychon games for citadels. Most of these just waste time but could be plot hooks or major distractions. When I run this will be a time clock based on Metropolis film of events. City grows increasingly unruly and civil unrest grows. Wealthy, servant and worker classes most significant.

It is illegal to be unemployed with rule breakers being shipped outside if refuse to join worker caste in under city. You can always hide in the catacombs.

Upper city levels are for the richest citizens and are where the children of the elites squander time in and increasingly desperate attempt to spend time.

d100 Upper City Levels
01 Arrogant bankers with servants push you aside
02 Celebrating youths, rowdy children of the chosen out for good times
03 Youth challenges you to sport or games in the sport fields of the city
04 An autogyro makes a near miss when outside
05 An autogyro accident creates a disturbance
06 Strange old man drops some papers with plans, occult book or science papers
07 A drunk follows you noisily thinks you are his friends
08 Agent of city authorities follows party reporting actions to masters
09 Terrorist bomb or arson, firemen and police everywhere
10 Bewildered pale man actually worker from under city in stolen clothes
11 Dirty child from undercity somehow found way up here
12 A brilliant man wonders if party could be volunteers for a secret expedition
13 A lost looking wretch from last century, thawed out and abandoned by scientists
14 Bustling crowd push party back to side corridors, passage blocked for a while
15 Pretty dancers off to pleasure gardens
16 Frantic woman looking for husband who is in decadent mens club
17 Police searching people at random looking for serial killer
18 Banker asks if party can deliver a package to low level foreman
19 Revelers in street carrying famous starlet drinking merrily
20 Youths in sport clothes off to compete in city games
21 Teacher with children on excursion looking at sights of upper city
22 Automobile comes off ramp and falls many stories below
23 Spy being pursued sneaks wanted object into pocket of party member
24 Man with sandwich board advertising some decadent food or entertainment
25 Nosy woman calls authorities on any suspicious person of wrong sort
26 Cameras watch party as somebody monitors them
27 Preacher berates passers for sin, taken away in ambulance
28 Person doesn't make it in elevator door in time and is torn in half
29 Seedy organ grinder with pickpocket monkey
30 Newspaper boy selling latest paper and shouting headlines
31 Shoeshine boy begs for work, offers other illicit services such as spying
32 Gobsmacked workers being led by foreman on project, abused for staring
33 Foreign tourists being shown city sights
34 Anti progress activists silenced by plainclothes police
35 Charity collectors for church rebuilding fund dejected and ignored
36 Wings over the World charity collector seeking to spread civilization to world
37 Ambulance carrying away man crying about social injustice
38 Sleepwalker dreaming of ancient Babylon in trance will have accident if not saved
39 End is nigh sign carrier, warns all New Babylon will fall
40 See body dragged into steam tunnels
41 Attractive rich youths approach party on a dare to flirt and waste time
42 Banker jumps to death after being bankrupted
43 Dancers advertise latest performance with impromptu street performance
44 Middle city youth looking for his real wealth father with note and photo
45 Worker putting up posters
46 Workers on cleaning detail avoid eye contact
47 Some rich youths bullying a workers daughter
48 Anarchist throws a bomb in a lift, trolley car or cable car
49 Millionaire and flunkies drinking champagne, throwing money everywhere
50 Charismatic speaker tells everyone progress is bad, a mob is forming angrily
51 A man in a rich suit runs through streets proclaiming "my money is all gone"
52 Two rich men duel with pistols or swords over a dancing girl
53 Colourful natives of far off lands here with missionaries look amazed
54 Pack of shoppers out for bargains stampede and run down passers by
55 Messenger boy possibly on bicycle with message for party member
56 High class courtesan invites you to dance or dinner, your shout
57 Gangsters assassinate a wealthy debtor or politician
58 Lost child cant find parents, creepy old banker or crook taking an interest
59 Invited to bizarre secret sex club by dandy of indeterminate gender
60 Banker being carried by peers, drinking champagne, being cheered by bankers
61 Drunk business men rolling on ground fighting
62 Woman aviatrix being photographed by press
63 Drunk business man passes out against you, pockets stuffed with cash
64 Man preaching space or robots are the future, ignored by public
65 Confectionery seller surrounded by children and young women
66 Athletic youths celebrating win, carry champion through streets
67 Wealthy person sends party member letter inviting to sexual rendezvous by messenger
68 Clowns inviting public to circus follow party
69 Man staggers to party, has been stabbed by cultist and passes out
70 Man offers cheap jewelry or bullion no questions asked
71 Person showing of hi tech to to delight of crowd
72 Rich youths making workers fight for money in alley
73 Man in coat offers drugs or sexual devices from abroad
74 Anti vice crusaders invite public to make pledge, laughed at by crowd
75 Woman with exotic animal pet like a lion or giant newt on leash
76 Gangs of rich youths brawling over nothing
77 Rich youths tease strangers in area for being backwards
78 Man warning workers are ready to explode in revolution, need more police
79 Woman preaching brotherhood with working classes, watched by bank agents
80 Woman high on drugs falls onto party, from important family
81 Young man asks for directions to notorious sinful gents club
82 See men make secret society handshake
83 Find dead body with secret cult dagger in back
84 Glimpse man strangling woman through window
85 See men enter secret club by making secret signs by concealed door
86 Man desperately trying to sell share certificates nobody wants
87 Rich mans hat found, will reward if found
88 Youth lighting cigars with Metropolis bank notes
89 Distinguished gentleman strikes up conversation about matters abroad
90 Crowded passage slows to halt, people start panicking
91 People passing from out lack of good air
92 People whispering about person ahead involved in great scandal
93 See strange costumed people and lights through a doorway for a moment
94 Rich people dressed in fancy dress for carnival, drinking with servants
95 Crying maid laying in side passage
96 Man shoots himself in head after stepping out of office
97 People dressed in manner of British with cape and shoulder pads
98 Vision of city as demon god Moloch eating citizens
99 Vision of grim reaper makes dreamer pass out in terror
100 For a moment see visions of ancient Babylon imposed over city







The middle levels are where the servant, bureaucrats clerks, shopkeepers and those who serve the rich live and work.Some areas even have crime and remains of pre Metropolis architecture from the past.

d100 Middle City Levels
01 Crowd sweeps you in opposite direction
02 See man reading newspaper getting pockets picked
03 Servant passes out from over work in street
04 Man abuses foreman and work crew for being seen in daylight
05 Priest speaking about decadence and Gods wrath
06 Salvation army band collecting money for poor
07 Students speaking out about conditions of workers
08 Man excitedly talking about robots will replace workers soon to peers
09 Low class prostitutes accost passers by for favours
10 Soldiers back from foreign war celebrating
11 Man asks for directions to suicide booth
12 Woman with homeless worker children asks for donations
13 Child urchin pickpocket has gang and trainer nearby as back up
14 Man selling false share certificates
15 Man offering bets on athletic games with good odds
16 Woman luring children into alley with candy
17 Man offers to sell firearms or knuckle dusters
18 Come across servant class drinking club
19 Man handing out vouchers for discount coffee
20 Food cart offering sausages and beer
21 Old servant ranting about abusive masters
22 Crippled war vet begging for coins
23 Card shark or cup and ball stall ripping off workers
24 Man selling stolen goods from masters house
25 Ticket scalper selling game and concert tickets
26 Youths playing soccer till policeman takes ball
27 Butler offering servant jobs for household
28 Man beating servant
29 Drunk chasing young house maids
30 Car runs someone over
31 Street cleaners found dead servant
32 Police taking down servants details
33 Distraught chauffeur lost car
34 Bag snatcher steals woman's purse
35 Followed by large man in coat, eventually gives you strange sign on vellum
36 Plumber with bulging eyes looks at you for long time
37 Shop selling weird smut in paper bags on sly
38 Old man stooped over with bags behind master
39 Dancing girl with maid she abuses, looking for fancy man to get her out of jam
40 Grifter selling weird antique books he found in abandoned house
41 Scientist, broke homeless and dejected, formerly with space program or some project
42 Woman lab tech sneezes new strain of plague causing feverish hallucinations
43 Soldier back from front looking for somewhere to drink and company
44 Angry policeman driving people who slow traffic on road or corridors
45 Policeman beating worker from below
46 Strange person in dark glasses gives party member odd looks, feel weak and woozy
47 Draft blows litter in dancing eddies, almost like they are alive somehow
48 Angry chef wants party out of his way, pulls butchers knife if party don't
49 Artist admires party member invites to his studio for a study
50 Deranged poet trying to sell his self published edition of maddening verse
51 Hear a gunshot, crowd panics and man falls bleeding and surprised
52 Hear about gallery with depraved art collection
53 Down and out tired old (26) dancer promises to do anything for food
54 Police evicting jobless family, shipping them to eastern Europe
55 Leaking plumbing or hydrant leaking water with inches deep water
56 Servants of secret fraternal order snatch panicked man and drag off streets
57 Plainclothes policeman shooting at worker from below without authority
58 Foreman trying to force workers back into drainage tunnel with huge spanner
59 Tall thin person with rat like features watches you from alley, disappears if caught
60 Woman chasing rats out of building screaming, with bite marks on her hands and face
61 Wealthy man with huge hulking manservant offers to take you to his home for a meal
62 Body carried out to funeral wagon to cremation recycling centre
63 Family wave to disabled kin being taken to special home in van, actually mobile gas chamber
64 Crying pregnant teenage girl, family want her sent to an asylum for wayward girls
65 Mugger or several youths try to hold up party with knife for cash
66 Tired old man on way home from work after being fired, goes crazy and arrested
67 Census taker stops party for papers and and other personal information
68 Two servants fighting over package in the street
69 Butler flogging a maid in the street for being idle
70 Wealthy humiliating a servant with petty cruelty and unnecessary work
71 Priest giving out bible versus
72 School children of servant class chasing worker children back down drains
73 Several scholars discussing strange wax tablet with unknown language
74 Children skipping with disturbing rhyme nobody remembers but is haunting
75 Child catcher chasing school truant servant kids or worker kids not in their own levels
76 Asylum orderlies taking screaming butler to hospital, claims master is a monster
77 Escaped mental patient seeks help, promises is not mad
78 Carnival Hypnotist with somnambulist medium performing show in the street
79 Police investigating yet another break in and kidnapping of a girl
80 Old rabbi with assistant hauling bags of special clay to synagogue in ghetto
81 Attractive agent needs dupes, invites character to a society ball in upper city
82 See a filthy old man stealing from medical waste bins
83 Serial killer fleeing police with chalk "M" mark on his back made by urchins
84 Recognize former concert pianist, turned mad since hands transplanted with killers
85 Creepy old Chinese man with evil cat and chess set with line of players with gifts for him
86 Friendly monumental artist at work, happy to talk about strange private commisions
87 Street magician with creepy puppets jokes about stealing your soul
88 Pale attractive girl with red hair flirts, has many insane jealous ex lovers after her
89 Traffic congestion on road spreads to footpaths and tunnels, everyone stalled for an hour
90 Former wealthy person collecting for poor, has found religion and given away wealth
91 See old lover walking dressed as servant, blank faced with no memory of you
92 Old house of so called wizard scientist formerly of great renown
93 Creepy old house, known as the witch house, long abandoned and haunted
94 Statues on display in park gallery, one looks like an acquaintance not seen lately
95 Crying mother at feet of fat pleased banker with his stony faced servants,
96 Old medieval cathedral with sincere worshipers singing and chanting and haunting artworks
97 Vision of workers being eaten by Moloch the hungry machine god
98 One of you hears voices in your head, telling you to kill and other evil acts
99 Horrible feeling of oppression overwhelms party member who blacks out
100 Vision of the fall of Babel in past life as one party member falls into trance




will do worker undercity and catacombs levels next

World of Cthulhu Metropolis

Previously I described the city of Metropolis here but here is some more detail on the world of my deco super city. I coined deco punk as i find diesel punk too crude and wanted to feature deco-modernist futuristic design.

I hope to run this as a con game soon and will do some encounter tables. Promising to be a good pulp SF setting or alternate universe. Robots and space travel are just a step away and characters could be involved in some of these wonders first uses.

2026 and the city of metropolis dominated the world economy and houses 52 million persons. Spanning central Europe including Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and France those old nations have come to be dominated by the great city.

But what of the rest of the world?

The novel 1984 I use for Britain during a phase in the 20th century during the great war from 1940-1970. Plague collapsed that regime and turned the former great island nation into a wasteland of warlords and despots bareley able to support aircraft and desperate for fuel and parts to battle each other. Plague victims were shot on sight. This ended 1970 when engineers and mechanics from the Wings over the World organization came to restore civilization to the blighted places on earth from Basra.

While society by 2026 is fairly free and open occasional demagogues take advantage of the mass media used and occasional form dangerous hysterical mobs that the cabal responds poorly too. A faction deny progress and reason and want time to stand still instead of adapting to change. This situation has kept Metropolis the superior power. The Cabal is a kind of anarchist state where oligarchs are selected from best and brightest by aid of computers. These leaders may come short against popular rabble and mobs that sometimes arise and end with destruction of some state project. The state lack the power and will to control the mob and possible foreign agitators take advantage of this. English fashion is very different with capes, new materials and shoulder pads. Black clad military wear suits offering some protection versus bullets.



This is based on HG Wells film Things to come. Has some awesome deco tanks and other tech.



America was less affected by the war and plagues but retreated into itself. WOW had a influence over rebuilding and America was well recovered by 1980. Vast cities of 250 story buildings connected by suspension bridges, with air transport extremely common for personal use. Eugenics and social engineering have taken control during the great war, now all are ruled by the Tribunal in the name of impersonal science. Names are replaced by numbers. The population take pills for food and recreation and are governed by petty red tape and regulation and at times heartless engineers. Babies are produced by state incubators from machines for married couples. The Tribunal dictate who marries who giving preference to high achievers.



Despite this control and supposed objective social strata, the super rich thrive and compete with the Metropolis bank and prey on the underdeveloped world. Outside the great sprawls of the east and west coast and a few other mega cities is largely wilderness with automated factory farms and those who reject modern life living like hill billies still subject to the great plagues left from the great war.

As a hat tip to the King in Yellow suicide booths are in public parks.

The film Just Imagine I am using for America. Has awesome Hugh Ferris inspired design.



W.O.W. in Russia worked with the remains of the Soviet Union to produce a great worker paradise, free from rich elites. While great cities do exist they are crowded, with often collapsing infrastructure, shortages and highly polluted. Areas are still plague ridden and underdeveloped with huge refugee camps and resettlement programs and backward technology. Still trying to influence the underdeveloped world and at odds with America and European agents of Metropolis. Get on better with England, a major trading partner. Vie for control with Metropolis over crumbling eastern Europe which never recovered from the war fully. They still speak of world revolution and have a strong patriotic streak despite their poorer living standards compared to the powers of the English Cabal, European Metropolis and the American Tribunal.

The great powers are at peace but small conflicts supported by them using old weapons still happen. Plague still keeps some areas uninhabited mostly or free from organized states. Warlords thrive but occasionally W.O.W. remnants of volunteer armies invade to deliver civilization.



The space race is also on with Briton developing a space gun, Metropolis a moon mission, Russia and America aiming at Mars. The moon is a barren place occupied by insectoid selenites who dwell in great underground fungus forests and crystal cities. Mars has advanced decaying cities ruled by decaying science priests and royalty who watch earth with great fear and suspicion through telescopes. Aelita the Queen of mars watches with fascination but the science priests fear contamination from earth and its more egalitarian ways. Outside more primitive peoples live in strange jungles including a race born twins who dwell in separate tribes from birth that wage war against each other pointlessly. Primitive orangutang like ape men are employed as slaves and entertainers by these savage twin people. Radio from mars is occasionally picked up spurring men to visit.

Mars and Russia in part based on film Aelita and Just Imagine.

Old popular mechanics are good tech inspiration for "new" technology. Cars have not advance too much nor planes but autogyros capable of short landings on rooftops are common. Airships are the most successful long distance travel but airliners and bombers can fly world wide. Guns are rare in the developed world and have also not developed much. The American have a .22 automatic pistol with a large magazine capacity of 30 shots with a box like appearance.

Androids and Robots are just starting to appear. Russom's Universal Robotics have made progress with metal men but men derived purely from chemicals, more lifelike with synthetic flesh have been developed and are helping to re-develop Czechoslovakia. The downside is the androids are increasingly human and elites are replacing workers and have come to prefer them as lovers. In the rest of the world robots and androids are still exotic but after the events in Metropolis will become more common.


Africa, Asia, Latin America and Australia are messes with some modern cities heavily supported by the great powers or W.O.W.

Warlord controlled regions and backward wastelands are still dominant. In Africa a species of semi intelligent giant newts 4-5 foot high have been trained to perform menial tasks and are edible and have been used in some areas in Africa. A few have claimed these creatures might have souls and feelings. Some have even been trained in underwater welding and construction.

Some Japanese city states have adopted Robots also in a push to join the great Powers, even invading China and competing with the great powers. Finland is a pocket of advanced technology that struggles against the Soviet Union.

Sydney is a great Deco city of the south and famous for its huge 3 way bridge with huge tower built on a harbour island.

Some explorers in depopulated plague zones have discovered isolated communities, underground bunkers, mutants and other strange things. Many mysteries await.

Karol Capek wrote RUR and War with the Newts two very awesome works I recommend. He invented the word robot.
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Film Aelita on utube famous for constructivist sets of Mars
Just imagine on utube a musical comedey with amazing Hugh Ferris cityscape
Things to come on utube HG Wells hated Metropolis so he made this

City on Mars and its people