Bip

If you make a prop of him, give a yellow antenna.

Bip is a Mottekian miner who met with the Pliks and learned their language. He struck a deal with them to set up and maintain hidden taps of Bubbubbub that go downward instead into the mine.

He lives in the Vault, but may be encountered whenever you feel it's time to start wrapping up.

He does not care at all about the general welfare of the Mottekians and is motivated by material gain. (Potentially, he could be bought out of his arrangement with the Pliks.)

When confronted, he may try to bribe the PC, offering a steady stream of wealth. If that fails, he will run, rather than be forced to admit his deeds to other Mottekians.

He has a red cardkey.

Bubble Monster

This is living Bubbubbub.

hp 54

AC 10 HD 10 +10 to attack -4 to initiative

Absorb: 1d6 damage, reflex save DC 10 or get absorbed inside of the monster. Opposed STR (it has +8) to get out. Run out of breath in 5 rounds.

Electricity stuns it for 1d4 rounds.

It will fill up most of the room it's in, but it's actually fairly slow-moving. PCs can shimmy past it along the edges of the room by making a DEX check DC 12. Failure means they stop moving through the room for the round, and if the Bubble Monster hasn't taken an action in the round, they may attack.

Glox

Glox was a Mottekian Bubbubbub trader who now just scavenges.

His antenna is red.

Items for sale:

• A blue cardkey - 10 Wire
• Water bottle - 1 wire
• Medkit - 2 wire (drains 8 rad, heals 1d8)
• Hand missile - 7 wire
• Bomb - 12 wire
• Taypo (Boborpian tape) - 1 wire
• Slorks (food) - 1 wire
• Force cylinder - 9 wire
• Universal translator - 13 wire

Gives out items for free when saved. Has heard the rumor the electricity stuns the Bubble Monster. May know anything else that will move the game along.

Oomoo

Oomoo is a Bubbubbub miner turned space traveler who has been living in Pom Pom Town for the last few months.

She is a Mottekian with a white antenna.

Random character table

Every location has a 1 in 4 chance of a character being there.

1-2. Glox 3. Oomoo 4-6. Space Pirates 7-8. Plik

Space Pirates

They've gathered at this abandoned mine to hideout. They have captured Bip without understanding his deal with the Pliks. They're merely happy to have taken 39 Wire from him. They don't know about his Vault.

Space Pirate table:

1: Space Cyclops 2: Ninja 3-5: Thri-Kreen 6-8: Wirons

Space Cyclops

Like Pom Pom Monster without Pom Poms.

The Space Cyclopses and Ninja are rivals for informal leadership of the Space Pirates.

Treasure table x 2d4+2 3d6 Wire. Red cardkey.

Ninja

This guy again.

Now he has a Repulsor pack and 5 Stones and a Hand missile as well as 1d3 things from Treasure table. 2d6 Wire. Red cardkey

Thri-Kreen

https://www.dndwiki.io/monsters/thri-kreen

Names: Zorak, Raymond, Dvorak

hp 23, 26, 29

Treasure table A x 1d6 2d6 Wire.

Wirons

Attack: +5 HD: 4 AC: 17 STR: 17 (+5)

Grab: Opposed STR to break out Chill wave: 1d8 in a 5' radius. Fortitude save for half.

hp 20, 12, 16, 19, 13

Treasure table A x 1d4 2d6 Wire.

The Wirons are alien to Mottek. They hail from an icy planet and communicate only in writing to non-Wirons. They look sort of like metal curtain hooks. They conduct electricity and are stunned by it.

Spop

Spop is a Mottekian who has run the Orm Outpost both before the mines shut down (between 3-6 months ago). He has a black antenna.

What he thinks he knows:

• The mine started running out of Bubbubbub and miners started leaving.
• Bip was a miner captured by the Pliks.
• There's a Vault in the mines, where Orm kept the best treasure from the mines.
• There's a big monster in there that can be stunned by electricity.
• The Gold Box requires a red cardkey

He gives away free stuff from the Orm Outpost if he feels the PC is doing good things for Mottek.

Mottekians

Mottekians are the surface residents of Mottek.

They look like this.

They all have a Wire at the tops of their heads that they can use to receive and send Power. Receiving power heals them, and they can provide 1 Power per round, up to 5 Power.

You can make figurines of them with Play-doh or clay, using peppercorns (on any round thing) for eyes and pipe cleaner for the antenna.

They probably won't be more than two of them appearing at one time, so you can just make two, then swap out their antennae. (The color of their antennae is the only thing that distinguishes them from one another.)

Plik

Pliks are flying slime polyps. They sound like they're saying plikplikplik when they talk.

They enjoy living in tight spaces. 1' diameter underground crevices are their natural habitat.

They colonize caverns by making pipes out of Bubbubbub.

AC 15 HD 3 +3 to hit

Rad beam: 1d4 damage, 1d2 Rads Acid spray: Reflex save 12 or higher. 1d6 damage, 1d3 damage per round unless washed off.

Fly at 12'/round rate.

Some Plik names:

• Percival
• Odelius
• Winchwancher

They have a deal with Bip. They trade Wire with him in order to keep their Bubbubbub taps going.

Power

Power is a unit of power (energy transfer). (Maybe in the neighborhood of a kilowatt?) Machines have a certain number of power units they need to operate.

Wire

Wire is a currency as well as a conductor. It can be connected to machines to make them run.

If you want to represent it physically, you can use pipe cleaner or twist ties, and cut it as needed with a wirecutter. (Younger players may find this satisfying.)

Bomb

3d6 damage, blows up 10 cubic feet of rock, goes off in two rounds

Bubbubbub

Bubbubbub is a liquid that, when exposed to air, becomes a solid, durable film. Blunt solid objects can be pushed through it without bursting it.

Force cylinder

+10 AC. Uses 1 Power per round.

Hand missile

2d6 damage, blows up 4 cubic feet of rock.

Medkit

Heals 1d8 hp.

Mottekian spossip

They're made of:

• A Bubbubbub bubble
• A repulsor controller
• Repulsor, powered by Wire
• Stones or a Mottekian

Repulsor pack

It uses up 1 Power per round. During that time, it can make someone fly at a rate of 24.

Stones

Stones, it turns out, can power machines via Wire.

Stones each store 5 Power.

Treasure table

1. Container of Bubbubbub
2. Repulsor pack 3-4. 1d3 Stones 5-6. 1d6 units of Wire
3. Universal translator
4. Rad suit, absorbs a total of 50 rad 9-10. Green cardkey
5. Blue cardkey 12-13. Water bottle 14-15. Scissors 16-17. Medkit - 2 wire (drains 8 rad, heals 1d8)
6. Hand missile
7. Bomb
8. Taypo

Universal translator

Requires a Power unit per round.

Cardkeys

• Red cardkeys can open all doors
• Blue cardkeys can open blue stripe and green stripe doors
• Green cardkeys can open green stripe doors

Bub Pool

This used to be a pool filled with Bubbubbub. Now it's empty. There may be Space Pirates.

There's a secret door at the bottom that leads to the Undertaps.

Bubble Monster room

Here is a Bubble Monster with 2d4 Treasure table items. The Bubble Monster is transparent, so the PC will be able to see the treasures under it.

Chasm

The chasm between the two halves of the mine has a bridge over it.

Bridge

Several Space Pirates hang out on it (and under it) and demand 10 wire to cross.

Web

50 feet below, there's a web that bridges the Chasm for level B2. For every round of movement through it a DC 10 STR check must be made to avoid getting stuck.

It's guarded by a Phase Spider

The bottom is 50' below that.

Dungeon map

At every location, if there isn't already a character there, there is a 1d4 chance (or if there's a lull in the game) of a Random character table encounter.

G indicates a locked door that requires a green cardkey. B indicates a locked door that requires a blue cardkey. R indicates a locked door that requires a red cardkey. S indicates a secret door.

Gold Box

This room contains a gold box containing a Force cylinder and 1d3 Treasure table things.

It's guarded by 1d4 Space Pirates.

Hex Puff Field

• Green hexes will teleport you to a random hex. (Roll d30 or d20+d10, then count that many spaces, going left to right and wrapping to the next row when the end of a row is reached.)
• Blue hexes will teleport you to a random location within the mine.
• Red hexes will teleport you outside.

Orm Outpost

It sits just outside of the mines (Dungeon map).

It has:

• A landing field
• 3 Sleeping Pods (heal 1d12 hp per sleep)
• A bubblemaker (out of Bubbubbub but when it has it, can make Mottekian spossips)
• A shop
  • A green cardkey - 7 wire
  • Repulsor pack - 15 wire
  • Water bottle - 1 wire
  • Scissors - 1 wire

It's run by Spop.

Sleeping pods:

Pipe Room

There's 8 pipes here and 9 Wire units.

Pirate Stash

There's 2d4 Space Pirates and 1d6 items from Treasure table A, 5 Stones, and 12 units of Wire.

If you feel it's time to start wrapping things up, Bip might be a captive here.

Prison Coil

This is a room that contains just this prison coil.

If they are in it, the PC can make a STR check DC 15 to burst out completely. Or they can make a STR check DC 10 to open it just enough to slip out with a DEX check DC 12. Failure gets them stuck with 1d3 damage.

If the Space Pirates are the ones who put the PC in the coil, they will occasionally come into the room to check on the coil. However, it easy to hear them coming.

The ceiling contains a hidden chamber. One way to reach it is to stand the coil on its end, then stand on the coil.

Shaft

It used to have an elevator to carry out the Bubbubbub. It's stuck at the top and can be unlodged but may crush those below it.

With a DC 15 DEX check and a normal Climbing check, the PC can climb around the car and reach the top of the shaft.

The elevator car has a hole in the floor and contains a random Treasure table item.

Tiny tunnel

It's 1' in diameter and Pliks are moving back and forth through it.

Turnstile

The turnstile has a port that a wire could be connected to. Feeding 1 Power into it will turn it clockwise once each round, starting one round after it's connected. There's warning beeps.

1 in 3 chance of 1d4 Space Pirates.

Undertaps

Here are 7 Pliks monitoring taps that go into pipes that take the Bubbubbub that flows here down instead of up.

Vault

There are 80 units of Wire and 58 containers of Bubbubbub and 3 Bombs.

What is Orm Mines for

This was designed as a solo adventure for a player, age 7, with a 4th level character. It's part of the campaign started with Pom Pom Dungeon. It was written in a few hours and playtested exactly once.

The player requested an adventure that took place on another planet, so the adventure is set on a planet called Mottek, and has sci-fi tropes like Repulsor packs and devices powered by energy sources.

We play 5E D&D, but this is fairly stat-light, so I imagine you could fit it to a lot of systems or just pick out anything you like and put it in your own adventure.

Start

Oomoo, the Mayor's friend from Mottek got a message from her planet about Dungeon map It is no longer producing Bubbubbub, which the Mottekians need to make their Mottekian spossips.

She needs a hero to go to Mottek to find out why. She offers 10 units of Wire to get them started.

She will drop the PC off at Orm Outpost.

Running the game

The main quest is helping the Mottekians find out what happened to the Bubbubbub. Along the way there are Space Pirates to avoid, trick, or fight.

The reason the Bubbubbub is gone lies with Bip, and the cause may not be what a younger player expects. There are many ways they could resolve this, and you, the DM, should be flexible about it. (Any time you want to push things toward a conclusion, you can have Bip show up.)

Map

The map is at Dungeon map.

Props

This is a very prop-heavy adventure. Many locations and characters will have a picture of a prop to represent it.

You can either:

• Find something like it lying around and use that
• Just don't use the prop and do traditional D&D Theater of the Mind if they player is cool with that.

Grabbing things from opponents

The PC can grab an item out of someone's hands by making a successful opposed DEX check, then (unless the target is not expecting it) making a successful opposed STR check. Sometimes, this makes up the bulk of combat.

Random tables

There's a few random tables in this adventure, but as in any adventure, you don't have to roll. If you see a choice that's more interesting than the others in the moment, you can just pick that.

Even if the PC is being pursued by or is pursuing a chararcter, it may still be worth rolling to see if they run into yet another thing. Chases ending in multi-party encounters are maybe the funnest part of this adventure.

Death

There is a strong possibility of the PC facing many opponents close to them in level. In these situations, the player can trick their way around it (be generous when they try something unconventional) or run or hide. If they don't, however, they are likely to hit 0 hp.

When the character reaches 0 hp, they are knocked out, and wake up in either the Prison Coil or, if the player has been having a particularly hard time, at Orm Outpost. They will be stripped of all of their equipment, except maybe something small, like a green cardkey.

They're free to get knocked out as many times as they want and try again as many times as they want.

If the player can handle character death without it being upsetting, you can just have them die, then roll up a new character.