The Thing from the Pit by Joseph Mohr is a role playing game supplement published by Old School Role Playing for use with Cepheus Engine. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.
The supplement is available as a 16 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. Two pages are the front and rear covers, three the front matter and three the Open Game License.
The opening paragraphs have some strip miners discovering a large alien creature.
Recent News has details on how this creature is rampaging across the Sonora sector – the adventure is set in the Frontiers of Space – and rumours as to where it was found.
Patron has details on the employer, a representative of the mining company responsible.
The Offer explains that the characters are being paid to stop the creature.
Complications are things that can go wrong or which aren’t known.
Juxess IV has details on the planet where the creature was found.
Urino Prime has details on the world it is currently rampaging on.
Random Determination of Where the Creature Goes Next has a 1d6 table of options.
Clues About the Creature on Juxess IV are things that might be uncovered.
The Alien Creature has its current stats and how it came to be imprisoned.
Experimental Torpedo is the weapon the characters have to use on the creature.
Neutron Warhead explains that actually using the weapon the characters have been given is a bad idea.
Combat with the Creature explains this is a bad idea.
Mission Completion explains that there’s no real way to destroy the creature and no real way of the characters to find out how it was originally defeated.
The final two pages of content have maps of both worlds.
The Thing from the Pit in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation is okay. The text maintains a single column format and some minor errors were noticed. Bar the maps and covers, there are no illustrations. Presentation is okay.
The first thing to note is that the creature, bar its ability to grow, bears a striking resemblance to Doomsday in its unstoppability and even its imprisonment; this may be the inspiration. The second thing is that the adventure is, as written, impossible. The weapon the characters have been given is only going to make things worse and they have no way, as written, of discovering how it was stopped in the first place. This basically gives the characters practically zero chance of success, and this will not go down well, especially as there will be a rampaging unstoppable creature on the loose. The GM is going to have to make changes so that this adventure works. The Thing from the Pit can be found by clicking here.
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