A Survivor is a humanoid who has been altered by years of exposure to the phlogiston in the Spelljammer campaign setting.[1]
"That guy in the hammock doesn't look so good. What's wrong with him?"
- Rescue party member, referring to Roderigo the survivor.
Only later did they realise the captain never did answer their question.[2]
Overview[]
Survivors are powerful, intelligent humanoids who have been trapped in a state of suspended animation for many years – often centuries, sometimes even longer - while drifting in the phlogiston. The extreme sensory deprivation and exposure to the ether of the phlogiston alters the minds of these survivors, making them both more, and less, human.[1]
Description[]
When found floating in the Flow, a survivor will be calcified in the unusual state of suspended animation induced by prolonged exposure to the phlogiston itself. Typically its skin will be gray and stoney, and depending on how long the survivor has been drifting in the phlogiston, its clothes may be several decades, if not centuries, out of fashion.
Aside from this, the survivor looks like any other person of its particular race would after drifting in the phlogiston for any period of time. The only unusual thing is that a survivor will not awaken from its phlogiston-induced coma for more than a few minutes or hours at a time. Its flesh will return to normal within hours after exposure to air, and when conscious, the survivor will accept food and drink (soup, water, ale, etc.), but is extremely weak and unable to stand or speak above a whisper.[1]
Behavior[]
A survivor's only desire is to gain the sensory stimuli which it has been starved of for so long, and it will do anything to get it. It gradually takes over the minds of crew members of any humanoid race that are onboard the spelljamming vessel that had the misfortune of rescuing it. It takes over one crew member every day (24 hours), starting with the weakest or least intelligent and working its way up to more powerful and more useful slaves. Because the process is so gradual (stretching over a full 24-hour period), those crew members who shrug off the survivors' mental attack become vaguely aware that something is amiss, though they will often blame the resulting headache on the effects of foul air or bad food.
Once the survivor takes control of a crew member, it has full access to that person's senses - it can see, hear, taste, smell, and feel anything that the crew member can. As it acquires more slaves, it can make use of any or all of their sensory input.
At first, controlled crew members do not act any differently than before. However, over a period of a week they gradually become sullen and withdrawn, going about their work without humor or enthusiasm. The more slaves the survivor has, the more sullen and withdrawn they all become.
Eventually the survivor will try to seize control of the ship, which is fairly straightforward if it controls everyone aboard. However, if it becomes aware that someone onboard is getting suspicious and it feels that its chances are good, or if it senses that it may be attacked, it stages a mutiny, using whatever slaves are available to take the ship by force. A survivor's slaves are still high functioning and a survivor will use them and their abilities as intelligently as possible during a mutiny. (If, for example, a survivor controls the ship's captain and most of the crew, but it believes a group of passengers are getting suspicious, it may simply have the captain try to calm their fears and explain that this sort of sullen behavior is common toward the end of a long voyage, thereby buying it more time in which to try enslaving everyone onboard.)
The effect of a survivor's enslavement can be removed using a dispel evil, a wish or limited wish spell. Once freed from a survivor's control, a former slave will realise they feel better without quite knowing why.[1]
Society[]
Only solitary survivors will be encountered in the phlogiston, except in really unusual circumstances. For example, a pair of survivors may have been criminals who were lashed together and thrown overboard, explaining how they managed to stay together throughout the years.
Once a survivor takes control of a ship, its only goal is to acquire more slaves. The number of slaves a survivor can control is dependant upon their intelligence, meaning that a typical survivor may enslave 150 to 160 individuals. If it reaches a port, a survivor may instruct its slaves to move it to a safe house somewhere onshore, where it could conceivably enslave an entire small town. Or, it may continue operating the spelljammer, taking on unsuspecting passengers at every port.[1]
Notable Survivors[]
- The survivor Roderigo was rescued by the merchant galleon Starbright, after which he took control of most of the crew and staged a mutiny.[3]
Appendix[]
External Links[]
- Survivor article at the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition Wiki, a wiki for official Dungeons & Dragons content from 2nd edition AD&D.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Steve Winter, MC7 Monstrous Compendium Spelljammer Appendix, 1990, (TSR Inc.), Survivor entry
- ↑ Nicky Rea and Wes Nicholson, SJR8 Space Lairs, 1993, (TSR Inc.), sidebar, page 31
- ↑ Nicky Rea and Wes Nicholson, SJR8 Space Lairs, 1993, (TSR Inc.), Join Us chapter, pages 29-32