Chimera Prototype Mk-XXIII

A Resource Poor World

2774, 11^th Dec, 10:43 a.m.

Project Beta-Ozone has succeeded. An artificial ozone layer has been deployed in place of the broken ozone layer natural to Earth.

2776, 28^th March, 9:00 a.m.

A new international organisation, The World Organisation of Resources, has formed. Its key role will be the monitoring of Earth's resource stocks and management of resource depletion.

3003, 20^th May, 2:15 p.m.

The World Organisation of Resources has announced that Earth's resource stock has reached a critical level. At the current rate of resource depletion, the functioning of Beta-Ozone will no longer be supported within 50 years and complete resource exhaustion will not be long to follow.

3003, 5^th July, 4:23 p.m.

The World Organisation of Resources has formally notified local authorities that it is exercising its right of management under emergency. Policies that will be introduced include strict enforcement that all core farming activities to be done with animals and conscripted human labour.

3003, 6^th July, 9:05 a.m.

Protesters are gathering on the streets of Athens over the The World Organisation of Resources's new policy.

3003, 7^th July, 1:09 p.m.

Unrest is spreading. Multiple parades are being run across different countries. The wealthy are being blamed for their taste for luxury products that are major sources of resource drain.

3003, 23^rd July, 12:32 a.m.

Mob attacks on the residences of wealthy individuals are occurring in Spain.

3003, 23^rd July, 12:40 a.m.

Mob attacks similar to that started in Spain are spreading worldwide. There are signs that there might been coordination behind such attacks.

3003, 9^th August, 2:47 a.m.

Shock! Bodyguards have been infiltrated by the radical movement. The house of American billionaire Martin Rothison has been sacked and burned down to the ground. Martin Rothison himself has been held hostage.

~ Selected Express News on earthnews.com

The Monster

Safe, warm, cocooned. The creature developed slowly, week by week, shifting into different shapes as its mutating DNA sought a stable form. At first just one amongst several tanks, occupied by Prototypes XVIII through XXIX, number XXIII would eventually outshine them all. Most would never survive long enough to finish developing into a coherent animal; only two others would live to be 'born,' and those only long enough to be deemed failures and killed for further study.

Prototype XXIII would not only survive, but also thrive. The darling of her creator, the last hope the few remaining rich had of holding onto all they held dear, she had a purpose set out for her: the mother of a species which could both be yoked to the plow and set as guard against the teeming masses of the hungry, the dying, the poor. Yet she contained a single flaw in her DNA, one that would go unnoticed until it was far too late.

The world is dying and machines are breaking down. The rich have retreated into defensible compounds. The poor are a nuisance best kept at a distance. Yet the rich need guards and beasts of burden. Turning to genetics, one scientist sought to create the perfect animal.

She is the first of her kind, Chimera Prototype Mk-XXIII. Melded from the DNA of Grizzly bears, giant squid, Tasmanian Devils, and a few species of poisonous snakes, she is both tough and strong. Thirty feet from nose to tail, she has the body, thick hair and skin of a bear, the legs, coloring, and head of a Tasmanian Devil, deadly sharp teeth with an extra set of poisonous fangs, and a set of long tentacles arranged around her muzzle. She was developed to be ferociously loyal and would normally fight to the death to protect her master.

Rather than laboriously grow more in his lab, the scientist engineered Prototype XXIII to continuously give birth to more of her kind. Her young grow, crawl into her pouch until mature enough to survive, and then are ready to be raised and trained as needed.

This physiology is where the scientist made his critical mistake. Prototype XXIII's young go through a number of stages as their DNA seeks its final form. Within the pouch they grow into giant, poisonous snakes. These snakes continually pump toxins into their mother's body, driving her to madness. She went on a rampage, destroying the compound in which she was brought up. Continually giving birth and raising young culminated in an unquenchable hunger, causing her to maul and devour any living thing nearby.

The serpents drop from her pouch at an alarming rate, going on their own rampages as they develop into beasts just as terrifying as their mother. Without training or direction from humankind, they know only hunger and destruction. And with the mutable DNA given to them by the scientist, they will begin to breed with other species, creating new monstrosities and causing further destruction to a dying world.

Plot Hooks

• The PCs have found employment guarding a compound when it is overrun by a horde of giant, poisonous snakes and 30 foot monsters.
• On the flip side, The PCs are trying to survive amongst the poor. In addition to food scarcity, avoiding slave labor, and the environmental dangers of a dying world, they are now overwhelmed by an onslaught of Prototype Mk-XXIII's progeny. How do they survive with few resources at their disposal?
• An enterprising party could attempt to domesticate Mk-XXIII's male offspring, as they are not driven mad by the poisons of their young. This could give the poor an effective weapon with which to strike back at the havens of the rich.
• The mutable DNA that was developed in the creation of Mk-XXIII is capable of mixing with additional species. With so many of them on the loose, it is only a matter of time before additional characteristics of other species begin to show up. The PCs may have learned how to deal with one breed but they never know when other strange mix will show up.