The adventure is set in modern-day
England, and is intended for a group of 4-6 1st-level characters.
The PCs are employees of Open Eye Investigations, a private detective
agency based in London. Open Eye is owned and run by Michael
Santiago, a businessman with several small businesses to his
name.
The Open Eye offices afford
access to a TV, net-enabled computer, telephone and fax machine.
The PCs have access to the Volvo Estate owned by Open Eye, and
can charge their petrol to a company account.
The adventure begins when
the PCs arrive at Timsdown West housing estate. Open Eye has
been contacted by Colin and Jenny Robinson, in connection with
their son, who went missing along with a number of other people
from the estate two weeks ago. The Robinsons are hiring the company
but are confident that a number of other families will chip in
to the final fee if their children can be found. The PCs know
no more than this.
Timsdown West Housing
Estate
Timsdown West is a run-down, crime-ridden estate. Most of the
nearby shops have long since closed, driven out of business by
vandalism. There is scarcely a wall without graffiti and there
are burned-out cars and heaps of litter scattered about. The
estate is mostly deserted.
The estate comprises half-a-dozen
blocks of flats. The investigation begins at West House, which
consists of about twenty 1960s flats. The interior is drab and
in need of refurbishment. There is a pervading smell of urine
and vomit.
Only five of the flats are occupied now since the disappearance
of the youths. One of them, No. 17, belongs to Colin and Jenny
Robinson, the couple who contacted Open Eye Investigations. Colin
is a heavily muscled labourer with smudgy blue tattoos (Middlesborough
football team - Spot DC15) and a shaven head. Jenny is short,
with fat ankles, dyed hair and bad skin. Their flat is unkempt,
containing a mix of hand-me-down furniture. It stinks of cigarettes.
The couple know the following:
-Two weeks ago, everyone between the ages of thirteen and twenty-one
disappeared from Timsdown West.
-They included their son, Lee Robinson, 17. Lee got in trouble
for playing truant and underage drinking but he's not such a
bad lad really. He was working in a fast food place.
-The police asked everyone a load of questions and then seem
to have forgotten about the case.
-Jenny has overhead conversations in the supermarket queues suggesting
everyone living nearby reckons the youths have all run away,
and are living with some group of travellers. Jenny herself doesn't
believe this - her Lee wouldn't just up and leave without telling
them.
-Almost everyone has left the estate now, unable to stomach the
atmosphere of gloom and grief. The council have been unable to
sell any of the flats. Colin and Jenny have stayed because they
can barely afford the advance for Open Eye, let alone move house.
-Timsdown has long been plagued by crime. Colin thinks it's these
immigrants - Jenny blames drugs. There are rumours that there
are kids living on the roofs and in the lift shafts, burgling
and mugging.
If the Investigators walk
around the estate after their conversation, they will spot someone
on the roof of House West. If they go onto the roof of House
West they will find Andrew Castlespite, who has been living there
for three days under a blanket. Castlespite is one of the missing
youths. He has tattoos covering his torso but is wearing old
clothes he's salvaged - Investigators might spot the design on
his wrist (DC17). He knows the following:
-He doesn't remember what happened two weeks ago. He had a dream
about a battle, with swords and things - the next thing he knew
he was locked in a pitch black room, hurting all over. He slipped
in and out of consciousness until he woke up in the boot of a
moving car. The car crashed and he found he was about two hours'
walk from the estate. He walked back to the estate and found
everyone missing - he decided to rough it on the roof until everyone
returned or he found out what was happening.
-As far as he knows the crashed car is still there. He didn't
see any other bodies. He found a knife in the car and is carrying
it, but he is reluctant to reveal this to the investigators.
-He doesn't know where he was held.
-He is covered in tattoos, but he is unwilling to reveal this
fact.
Castlespite suggests taking
him to a police station, or back to the investigators' office.
If they leave, he follows them. Whether they head back to the
car or to the police station, they head through an alley towards
the local high street (Map).
1: Car park. The cars are
derelict or burned out. One of them has five dead cats in the
boot, neatly arranged (San 0/1) - anyone within 10 feet can smell
them.
2: A tramp sits in the corner
of the alleyway, surrounded by bin bags and cans of Special Brew.
He calls out 'Spare some change for a cup of tea, guv?'. Whether
the PCs give him anything or not, he sticks his tongue out at
them.
His tongue is three feet long.
The tramp is a summoned attack creature. It has a long constricting
tongue and its limbs are jointed the wrong way, so it can scuttle
crablike along the floor and up the walls. It has been ordered
to kill Castlespite and will attack him first. It will fight
anyone who attacks it or tries to stop him getting to Castlespite,
but it will only use its tongue constriction on Castlespite.
Once Castlespite is dead or someone has the presence of mind
to cut off its tongue, the creature flees up the alley wall and
escapes.
3: Grass verge with two benches
and a phone box. The phone is vandalised and doesn't work but
anyone who lifts the receiver will hear a cacophony of sounds
for a couple of seconds - a Listen check (DC15) suggests they
are shouting voices and the clash of metal on metal, like a battle.
4: The police station. The
door is locked and there's a sign reading 'CLOSED - RELOCATED'.
The address below has been scratched off the sign.
5: Shop. This is a corner
shop. It's closed, but it's the only one that doesn't have the
front shuttered. The locks has been broken, presumably by burglars.
Inside are shelves of food which is mostly past its sell-by-date
and a rack of magazines. The magazines are mostly pornographic
and the newest is two months old. The till has a barcode reader
and once it's plugged in the PCs can use it to read Castlespite's
tattoos.
If Castlespite survives,
he goes with the PCs to the investigators' office where he will
ask for a change of clothes - while he is changing one of the
PCs spots his tattoos. If they ask him, he will lead them to
the car crash site.
Getting to the car crash
without Castlespite requires a Navigation check (DC14). The car
went off a side road and rolled into a ditch. The car is a Ford
Cortina, registration EVI5 ER8 (this is a very unusual registration,
which foxes anyone trying to find out which country or year it
was registered in). Anyone searching the area might find (DC5)
the body of one of the other passengers, thrown out of the car.
The body is horribly broken (San 0/D4). The body is wearing jeans
and a T-shirt, heavily sweat-stained (Search DC 12) and the hands
are calloused, as if by manual labour (Search DC15). Anyone taking
fingerprints and using them to find out the body's identity is
unable to do so, no matter how cleverly they go about it.
The boot of the car is stained with vomit - this is where Castlespite
was held while being driven.
In the glove compartment is a handgun. It is very ill-maintained
and jams on a natural 1 or 2 to hit. There are four bullets loaded
into it.
Andrew Castlespite's tattoos
form a single long band which runs around his torso and arms.
The band is made of short vertical lines of varying thickness,
with a stream of numbers running alongside it. It may occur to
the PCs that this looks a lot like a barcode. A barcode reader
(like the one in the corner shop) will reveal the text of what
is, in effect, a Mythos Tome. The numbers form a repeating sequence
of seven. Research into what these numbers mean may reveal they
are a map reference referring to up to three locations in the
UK depending on which map is used.
DC 6 Whealdon House.
DC17 Kestrel Falls Early Warning Installation.
DC20 St. Cymbeline's Isle.
The text of the barcode is
surreal and disturbing, and must be properly studied as a tome
to make any sense of it.
BARCODE TEXT Sanity D3+D3, Mythos 1, 2 spells - Divination &
Call Epic.
Study D4 days, DC18.
Whealdon House
It is misty and dank when the PCs arrive at Whealdon House. The
house is a large neo-classical building of dirty white stone.
It is three floors high and a balcony runs along the front of
the house at the top floor level. The house appears deserted
and there are no lights in the windows.
There are two ways in - the front doors and the large windows
of the ballroom to the rear.
Two large mastiffs are tethered outside the front door. They
look underfed and very hungry (Spot/Animal Empathy check, DC15).
They will attack anything within 10 feet, which is the length
of their leashes - this includes the area of the front doors
so anyone entering will have to deal with them. The dogs can
either be killed or pacified - PCs can pacify them with an Animal
Empathy check (DC15) or by feeding them something (which will
keep them docile until after the PCs emerge from the front doors
again). Killing the dogs causes a Sanity check (0/D3).
Anyone searching the gardens
will find a large tract of land, shaded with mist and overgrown
with dark green trees and shrubs. There is a round, roofed summer
house some distance from the back of the house. It is made of
white-painted wood. The floor is of wooden floorboards, some
of which have had the nails levered out (Spot check, DC 19).
Under the floorboards is a musical instrument case containing,
wrapped in a blanket, a double-barreled sporting shotgun and
a box of six cartridges.
GROUND FLOOR
1 Corridor running the length
of the building, leading to a cluster of offices to the north
and a couple of meeting rooms to the south, with sets of stairs
leading up at both ends. Large double doors opposite the entrance
lead into the ballroom. PCs heading for either end might notice
one of the two storerooms that flank the ballroom.
The corridor is wood-paneled and has a deep carpet ruined by
damp. There are pale marks on the walls where pictures once hung.
2 The ballroom. A huge room
with french windows leading out into the overhung area at the
rear of the house.
This room has had its paneling stripped out, leaving the walls
bare crumbling brick and plaster. The wooden floor is littered
with scraps of wood and flaked paint. The only furniture is a
piano standing forlornly in one corner. Anyone trying to play
it finds the keys are horribly out of tune. The room has an unpleasant
sickly smell - it won't take too much for the PCs to work out
this comes from the body.
There is a body in the centre of the room. The skin is taut and
blackened with decay. It is clothed in cargo pants and a T-shirt,
so stained by decomposition that the colours can only be guessed
at. Anyone getting close to the body sees the skin of the face
drawn back from the teeth in a horrid rictus and the dried pits
where the eyes once were (Sanity check 0/D4). Anyone who fails
the initial Sanity check loses 1 point of Sanity per round until
they get away from the body. Searching the body reveals it has
no hands. There is a sign written on a piece of cardboard hung
around its neck with string. The sign reads 'SLOVENLY'.
Anyone looking up notices the wiry remnants of a chandelier hanging
from the ceiling, and the two shrivelled hands tied to it with
electrical cable (Sanity 0/D2).
This body is that of one of the missing youths recruited into
Nathaniel Glass' army, punished for laziness.
3 Storeroom. There are a
couple of shelves but they have been cleared of supplies. The
room smells of urine.
4 Storeroom. There are several
mouldering cardboard boxes piled up at the end of this room.
A search (DC8) can find a chainsaw underneath everything. If
they find it they make a Reflex save (DC10) - if they fail they
cut their hand for 1 damage. The chainsaw is a dangerous weapon
both to opponent and owner. However, it is petrol powered and
won't work unless the PCs can fill it with petrol (such as by
siphoning it from their own car). Turning it on is a move-equivalent
action and everyone in the area is aware of it owing to the noise
it makes.
D8 damage, 17-20 critical, slashing damage, 5 lb. On a natural
1 or 2 to hit, the wielder damages himself.
5 Office. These four rooms
are fitted out as offices. This one is empty, containing a couple
of desks. There were once computers here but now there are just
severed power cables running from the walls. There is a deck
of cards on the desk.
6 Office. There is a desk
and two chairs. There is a computer on the desk, which once plugged
in can be switched on. It contains the accounts for a registered
charity, AidCom. A Computer Use check (DC12) reveals that the
house is owned by AidCom and that there has been no activity
in AidCom's accounts for eighteen months. DC 15 - AidCom's assets
include a Ford Cortina registration EV15 ER8, and a small boat
currently stored at the marina in the Scottish town of Dunmuir.
7 Office. There are several dead rats on the floor.
8 Office. There is no furniture
and the floor is stained with blood. Searching reveals scratch
marks all over the walls - DC 12 these are marks from a knife
or sword.
9 Stairs up to 1st Floor.
10 Stairs up to 1st Floor.
11 This room has been converted
into some sort of first aid station. Two large trestle tables
stand in the centre of the room, heavily stained. There are to
cupboards mounted on the walls. One contains rolls of bandages
and dressings. The other is locked but it can be forced (Str.
DC6) or picked (DC10). It contains painkillers - they can negate
D6 points of subdual damage but a Knowledge (Medicine) or Heal
check (DC6) is required or the subject suffers D3 Con and Wis
damage from an overdose.
12 A meeting room. There
is a whiteboard on one wall and a telephone on the floor - it
can be plugged in to a nearby phone socket but the listener hears
strange sounds for a second or so and then the line goes dead
(as in the Timsdown phone box above).
There are three sleeping bags piled up in one corner. They stink
of sweat. Searching them reveals two pornographic magazines and
a flicknife.
13 The third floor extends
over this area, so it is permanently overhung and in shadow.
The grass is dark blue-green and the ground muddy.
FIRST FLOOR
This floor is in darkness. The windows are boarded up. Investigators
suffer -4 to shooting, search and spot checks, and +4 to hide.
These circumstances are removed if they have the sense to turn
the lights on.
14 Stairs down to Ground Floor and up to 2nd Floor. The corridor
leads to the south past two doors into the auditorium, towards
another stairs. To the east is a cluster of rooms.
Once the investigators reach this area they might hear something
moving above them (Listen, DC 12). Those who pass the check are
not surprised when three zombies drop down from the 2nd floor
landing. They absolutely reek of dead flesh and attack the PCs
with bare hands.
These are not zombies. They have the same stats as zombies because
they are malnourished and sick - but they are actually missing
youths. A character with Sixth Sense will know there is something
wrong here, that these are not what they seem - a Spot check
(DC14, -4 if there is a combat going on) will show that the zombies'
skin flickers between healthy and pallid dead flesh.
If the PCs stop fighting for a couple of rounds or the Sixth
Sense character convinces them to stop, the spell will be broken
and the three kids will be revealed (two boys and a girl). They
are dishevelled and thin, eyes sunken with sickness. They can
be subdued and tied up pretty easily, maybe sent to hospital
or to the police. The PCs will be unable to find out their identity
for now.
After five rounds of fighting the zombies/kids will become exhausted
and will only attack those who come near them. In another three
rounds they become catatonic and can be easily subdued or restrained.
Any zombie killed will be immediately revealed as a dead kid.
The PC who killed them will suffer D6/D10 sanity loss. That's
what you get for going in guns blazing.
These kids are members of Glass' army judged too ill or weak
for the journey to St. Cymbeline's Isle.
15 Stairs up to the 2nd Floor
and down to the Ground Floor. To the east is a narrow corridor
with doors leading off from one side.
16 Auditorium. This is a
large room, almost as big as the ballroom downstairs. At the
north end is a large projector screen, with rows of seats facing
it. There is a salvaged cinema projector at the back. It needs
Electronics (DC 12) to get it working. It projects a film onto
the screen - the credit sequence rolls and it is shown that the
film is 'A Bridge Too Far'. There are two other canisters of
film under the projector - one is 'Spartacus', the other is 'Saving
Private Ryan'. Players who know their films will be aware these
are all war movies.
A search of the auditorium reveals litter of chocolate bar wrappers
and soft drink cans.
17 Men's toilets. This is
an evil-smelling place that hasn't been cleaned in a long time.
Anyone brave enough to search the toilets themselves might find
(DC14) 3 doses of amphetamines in a plastic bag in the cistern.
Anyone under the influence of these gains the Improved Initiative
feat for D6 turns, but takes D3 Wis and Int damage when the dose
wears off. They require a Knowledge (Law, Medicine or Streetwise),
DC12, to identify - otherwise they're just small white pills
(which might be mistaken for aspirin).
18 Ladies' toilets. This
room isn't quite as horrible as the men's, but it's still not
pleasant. A tampon dispenser has been ripped off the wall and
smashed open on the floor. It is now empty.
19 Guest room. This room
is a tip. Stacks of paper cover the floor. There is a bed with
a bare mattress and a ragged blanket, a chair, and a desk covered
in papers. There are two shelves on the walls packed with books.
The walls are covered in scrawlings - those who saw Castlespite's
tattoos will notice the scrawls are similar to the tattoo designs.
Searching the papers reveals scribbled numbers and swirling shapes.
There is no chance of making sense of them. Amongst them is a
diary (Search DC10). There is a scribbled note on the inside
cover - 'Page 64'. There is nothing on page 64 of the diary but
writing too dense to be read. The diary contains a couple of
passages that are just legible -
'…for every story needs an end.'
'When the story is complete, the Epic will send his servants
to do His will upon our world…'
Searching the table reveals two empty vodka bottles and a business
card holder. There are about twenty cards inside, all reading
'Nathaniel Glass, CEO, Aidcom'. There is an email address listed
as contact, along with a telephone number. The number is that
of Whealdon House. The email address does not exist.
Searching the books reveals that they are all novels - romance,
thrillers, mystery, children's picture books. All except one
entitled 'British Cold War Nuclear Installations'. Anyone specifically
looking at page 64 will find the entry for Kestrel Falls, containing
the information listed for researching the place below.
This is where Nathaniel Glass lived until he left for St. Cymbeline's
Isle.
20 Guest room. There are
sleeping bags and blankets spread out across the whole floor.
Searching it suggests that six to eight people slept here until
recently.
21 Guest Room. The door is
locked (Strength DC15, Pick Lock DC13). This room is immaculate
and clearly hasn't been entered for some time. The bed is made
and the furniture - bed, desk, wardrobe - are neatly arranged.
There is a Gideon's Bible on the desk and a couple of coathangers
in the wardrobe. There is nothing else here apart from a faint
musty smell.
22 Bedroom. This is where
Castlespite was held until the fateful car trip. The furniture
has all been removed, even the fitted toilet, shower and sink.
The carpets have been pulled up. There are two holes drilled
into the wall through which have been looped a length of rope.
This is where Castlespite was tied. The floorboards around the
rope are warped and stained, and there are brown stains on the
walls (bloodstains - Knowledge Streetwise or Medicine DC5). The
only objects in the room are some medical-looking implements,
like large chunky syringes with dark stains. They are very difficult
to identify (Knowledge Art or Medicine DC18) as tattooist's implements.
If Castlespite has somehow survived this long and is accompanying
the PCs, he recognises this as where he was held.
23-27 Bedrooms, each with
a single bed, bedside cabinet, and small bathroom with a toilet,
sink and shower. There are sleeping bags and blankets scattered
about. PCs searching the place can guess that there were about
25 people sleeping in these rooms. Searching reveals a policeman's
helmet in Room 24, a kettle in 25 (the element is burned out
and it doesn't work) and a flak vest in room 27. The vest adds
+1 to AC, but it really stinks until it's had a good wash.
SECOND FLOOR
28 Stairs down to 2nd floor. This floor is cold and breezy, for
the roof above is ill-maintained and the wind is blowing through.
There are damp stains on the floor where the rain has got in.
29 Stairs down to 2nd floor.
30 Balcony. Several dying
pot plants languish here. No matter what time of day the PCs
arrive here, the view from the balcony is always of sunset. This
is strange, not only because it happens regardless of the time,
but because the balcony faces east. If anyone notices this is
wrong (San 0/D3), the next time they look it shows the east-facing
sky as it actually is outside.
31 Kitchens. The workbenches
are scattered with implements and unwashed chopping boards. The
sinks are full of washing-up, some of which is growing mould.
There is a meat locker in the corner containing two sides of
beef - the refrigeration has broken down and meat is rancid and
maggot-ridden. Anyone opening the door must take a Fort save
or throw up at the stench, suffering 2 Con damage for the rest
of the day. A Listen check (DC18) causes the PCs to realise that
the locker isn't emitting the usual refrigerator buzz.
The cupboards above the work surfaces around the edge of the
room are packed with food. About half of them contain catering
packs of Chicken and Mushroom flavour Pot Noodle. The other half
contain a mixture of cheap supermarket Cola, tinned beans and
spaghetti, and packets of Angel Delight.
32 Loft. The loft is huge,
supported by six wooden columns. In the centre of the room is
a huge scorch mark surrounding the remains of a fire. Searching
the remains indicate that a huge pile of books was burned here.
Next to the bonfire is a
stone block. Anyone examining it closely sees there are obscure,
squiggly carvings half-erased by time. If the look closely enough
(Search, DC17) they see the carvings shift and squirm before
their eyes, until they shake the sensation out of their head
(Sanity 0/1).
Anyone who researched St.
Cymbeline's isle and knows about the carvings might recognise
(Spot, DC10) that the block closely resembles those of the pre-Viking
cairns on the island. Anyone taking a rubbing of the carvings
can confirm this fact by comparing it to this research.
Should a character decide
to pile up a load of books here and set light to them, they will
enact a spell to contact the Epic. The group suffers 15 Wis damage
spread between them as with group spellcasting, and whoever set
light to the pile loses D10 sanity. Anybody who touches the altar
after the spell is enacted will see a vision of the Epic's world,
a place of emotions and concept made real, a blasted and evil
realm so utterly alien that their minds are seared with its hideousness
and they go immediately and permanently insane. That'll teach
'em.
Kestrel Falls Early Warning
Installation
Kestrel Falls is in the middle
of a tract of countryside, half an hour's walk from the nearest
road. It is a desolate place of concrete and wasteland - there
is a storage hangar and a main building with a huge rusting antenna
dish on top.
1 Guardhouse. A small concrete
building. It is abandoned and has been used as a urinal. There
is a mass of litter inside - searching it causes a Dex test Dc12
- failing it causes 1 point of damage from discarded hypodermic
needles.
2 Storage hangar. There is
a truck in here, long since derelict and useless. Anyone searching
it might notice (Spot 18, Knowledge (Medicine) 12) that there
are racks inside for transporting gas bottles, like oxygen bottles
in ambulances. There is nothing in the truck now, however.
3 Antenna dish. This is streaked
with rust. However, anyone climbing on top of the building and
specifically checking the moving mechanism can find (Spot 18,
Knowledge (Engineering) 12) that the mechanism is in working
order and the dish could still be moved if there was a control
system.
4 Entrance to Basement 1.
A large pair of steel double doors. They were once chained shut
but the chain has been cut.
5 A burned-our car. There
are five charred dead cats in the boot, neatly arranged (San
0/1).
6 This area is scattered
with litter - plastic bags, discarded food, old clothes. Searching
it reveals ruts in the ground where caravans and cars were parked.
This site has been used by travellers who have since left.
BASEMENT 1
1Dormitory. An enormous room.
The walls are painted cream and the floor is bare concrete. There
are lights which still work. There are beds here for about 50
people. The ones nearest the door have been used, presumably
by the homeless. The west side of the room is equipped as a kitchen
with a tiled floor, large enough to cater for a lot of people.
There's no food in it now but there are plenty of knives and
other implements for PCs to help themselves to.
2 Men's washrooms. There
is a sign on the door reading 'Gentlemen'. Showers (cold water
only now), sinks, toilets. This place was used by the homeless
and reeks of stale urine. There is graffiti all over the walls
in black marker pen but no matter how hard they try the PCs cannot
decipher them.
3 Women's washrooms. There
is a sign on the door reading 'Ladies'. Rather cleaner than the
men's. A search reveals two used condoms floating in one of the
toilets.
4 A short, wide corridor.
The word 'MONITORING' is stencilled on the floor in front of
the south door.
5 Rec room. The light here
is burned out. There are a couple of armchairs, musty with age,
a pool table, a table football set, and a dartboard. The darts
are on the pool table and can be used as thrown weapons, but
they only do D2 damage. Searching the room reveals a copy of
The Times from 1974.
6 Laundry room. There are
six toploading washing machines and three large tumble dryers.
These all still work, although there isn't any detergent. Searching
the room reveals a wad of three hundred £1 notes stuffed
into a sock and hidden in the drum of one of the tumble dryers.
£1 notes are, of course, no longer legal currency.
7 Monitor room. This room
is massive and shadowy, with most of the lights burned out. Two
banks of monitor stations run down the sides of the room. These
are consoles with a screen like a radar screen and a keyboard,
each with a swivel chair. If they are switched on the screens
will glow green but they can't be made to do anything else.
Three large tables stand in the room. The northernmost has a
map of Southern England modelled in papier mache and covered
with green cloth. There are several map pins stuck into the map,
all with little red flags. There is a meat skewer from the kitchen
stuck into the location of Whealdon House.
The middle table is covered
with papers. Searching them reveals they are mostly mundane requisitioning
forms requesting food, fuel and other supplies for Kestrel Falls
Early Warning Installation. A couple of them are hazardous material
requisition forms, requesting varying amounts of LSD. The authorisation
signature is a stamp that reads 'BEOWULF'.
The southernmost table has
a papier mache modelled map of Northern England and Scotland.
There are lots of map pins with blue flags stuck into it. There
is a knife from the kitchen stuck into St Cymbeline's Isle.
8 Furnace Room. A large generator
takes up most of the room. It has 'Emergency Generator' stencilled
on the side of it in red paint. It cannot be turned on. There
is also a furnace. It is cold and unfired, but opening the furnace
door reveals a set of stairs down to Basement 2.
9 Cells. This narrow corridor
has four cells. A door at the East end is large and shut fast.
It has a combination lock. All the dials have had their numbers
filed off. The lock can be picked (Pick Lock DC12 - it's old
and badly maintained) or the door can be forced. It feels very
stubborn at first but will always give on the second try, suddenly
flying open as if it hit by a great force.
The door is booby-trapped with a tripwire. It takes a Search
check DC 17 to spot it, and a Disable Device check of 17 to unhook
the wire without setting off the trap. The trap is sprung once
the door is opened.
10 Lab. This is a white-painted
laboratory with a tile floor. Benches run around the edge of
the room with test tube holders and glass flasks. There are three
gas bottles at the back of the room, painted dark green. The
trap on the door, if activated, causes the valves of the gas
bottles to crack open three rounds after the wire is broken.
This will also happens if anyone meddles with the bottles.
The bottles contain a form of nerve gas which causes madness.
Anyone in the room when they go off must pass a Fort save or
go short-term temporarily insane. The gas disperses after 10
rounds, during which time mad PCs have ample opportunity to harm
themselves and each other. The gas also fills the cell corridor
if the door is not closed. The gas is a sinister dark blue and
it can easily be seen, so it is simple to tell when it had dispersed.
Anyone going bonkers because
of the gas will lose D3 Sanity once they come round.
Searching the room reveals a report sheet on the floor under
one of the benches.
'In conclusion, Project Beowulf
has achieved little of use to the Ministry of Defence and it
is recommended that funding is moved elsewhere. The nerve gas
created by the Kestrel Falls lab was of moderate success in producing
confusion and hallucination in subjects, but there are few uses
for such a weapon when there are more potent agents of similar
type already available, as well as those which are directly fatal
or injurious.
Another weakness is the comparative simplicity with which a high-oxygen
atmosphere, while having dangers of its own, counteracts the
effects of the Project Beowulf agent.
The project had potential for creating an interrogation tool
rather than a weapon, but the mind-altering properties of the
gas were too difficult to control and the result was invariably
short-term delusion without use or structure. Project Beowulf
was a welcome step in the direction of psychological warfare
rather than directly physical, but in itself it has not been
a success.'
The gas developed by Project
Beowulf here in the early 1970s was used by Nathaniel Glass in
brainwashing the youths he kidnapped.
There is a small chance the
PCs will be able to act on the information, perhaps by gathering
some bottled oxygen (which will be expensive) and using it to
counteract the effects of the gas.
BASEMENT 2
1 Control centre. This is
a large room with banks of computers looking towards a large
screen mounted on the south wall. The screen is divided up into
semicircles - there are nine of them. Knowledge (astronomy) DC5
or simple common sense might help a PC work out this is a representation
of the solar system.
There is a short flight of
steps leading to the lower-level south half of the room. There
is a long bank of computers here. One of them can be switched
on (Knowledge (Electronics) 12, Disable Device 18). This console
controls the dish antenna at ground level. There is a co-ordinate
in the console's memory banks - playing around with the controls
for long enough or Computer Use (12) reveals it. Pointing the
dish to these co-ordinates causes a satellite image to appear
on the screen on the south wall. It is a shot, from orbit, of
St. Cymbeline's Isle, which might be recognised by someone who
had a good Research test on the place. A photograph or good sketch
of the island can let someone find out that this is St Cymbeline's
Isle. The image has a set of map co-ordinates in the bottom corner.
These are the coordinates of the island.
2 Computer room. This room
is bright and clean. The lights are already on when the PCs enter.
There are several eight-feet-high memory banks with spools of
wire. These will be spinning round the and whole room will be
humming if the console in room 10 was turned on. The rear of
the screen can be seen on the north wall. There is a main console
in the middle of the room. There is a single book on it - it
appears to be a children's book that has been hand-made, with
illustrations and lettering done by hand. The cover shows a knight
in shining armour battling an evil wizard. There is no title.
THE FAIRYTALE
Sanity D4 + D6. DC22, D6 days.
1 spell - Red Sign of Shudde M'ell (Last Line).
Cthulu Mythos + 1 (But the reader adds an additional +2 on matters
relating to the Epic).
The tome tells a simply childlike fairytale A wicked wizard leads
a mighty horde of darkness against an outnumbered foe. But a
band of heroes slay the wizard at the height of the battle, and
his leaderless army is crushed. The Mythos hints and spells are
hidden in the dense border illustrations, which suggest a god
who draws his power from the stories enacted by his followers.
3 Store room. There are several
piles of folded laundry, musty from age and apparently never
used.
4 This corridor is lined
with doors leading into small two-man dorm rooms. Each one has
a double bunk and a table. Most of them have no nameplate on
the door but one has 'Prime Minister', another 'Secretary of
State for Health', and one at the end of the corridor 'Home Secretary'.
5 Women's washrooms.
6 Men's washrooms.
7 Stairs up to Basement 1
furnace room.
8 Decontamination chamber
entrance. This is a small room. On the wall hang three environmental
hazard suits. There is a pool next to one wall - it is full of
sterile fluid. It is possible to swim down a short tunnel and
emerge on the other side of the wall. Doing this without a suit
on causes D6 Con damage as the chemical fluid gets into your
eyes and mouth.
9 Decontamination chamber
exit. A high-pressure shower automatically hoses down anyone
coming out of the pool.
St. Cymbeline's Isle
To get to St Cymbeline's Isle, the PCs have to find someone in
Dunmuir who will hire them a boat. This proves to be rather difficult
(Gather Information, DC16). Alternatively, they can find AidCom's
boat in the largely empty Dunmuir marina. It's been left unlocked.
Hiring someone to sail it isn't too difficult, and the locals
seem strangely eager to have the boat leave, even if one of them
has to pilot it.
St. Cymbeline's isle is mostly
windswept rocky grass, with two stubborn wooded areas. The air
tastes of sea spray and the weather is grim and drizzly. As the
PCs arrive the wind gets up (-4 to ranged attacks and Listen
checks). As the PCs head towards the battle site streaks of purple
lightning flash in the huge grey storm clouds overhead.
St Cymbeline's isle is the
site of the ritual that Nathaniel Glass hopes to enact so the
Epic's servants can be summoned to earth. To do this he needs
to re-enact the story that he wrote, for concluding the story
will create the power the Epic needs to manifest his servants.
The story had valiant heroes killing an evil wizard during a
battle. The heroes are the PCs and Glass is the wizard. The battle
is being fought out on the island by the youths Glass captured
and brainwashed using what he learned from Project Beowulf in
Kestrel Falls. If the PCs kill Glass, they will complete the
ritual and the Epic's servants will arrive. The chances of anyone
surviving this eventuality are very slim indeed.
To stop the ritual they can
subdue Glass or stop the battle. Stopping the battle is much
more difficult. The effects of the Project Beowulf gas can be
counteracted with an oxygen-rich atmosphere. Hurling a leaking
bottle of oxygen gas into the middle of the battle will cause
youths to come to their senses to stop fighting. Chaos will break
out - if there were enough oxygen bottles the battle will break
up and lots of the kids will survive. If there were only one
or two, a few will escape and most will die in the all-in slaughter
that erupts in place of the battle, but the ritual will be disrupted.
Any PC just wading into the battle will be attacked by the maximum
eight combatants with knives every turn until they are dead or
they fight their way out (every youth killed or subdued allows
10 feet of movement through the melee).
If the battle is broken up, Nathaniel Glass will try to attack
the PCs. The PCs can kill him at this point without completing
the ritual.
Subduing Glass is more likely.
Nathaniel Glass is a dangerous man and a powerful magician, so
this will take some doing. All his spells have somatic components
so pinning him down while someone punches him out will do the
trick.
If Glass is subdued, there
will be a terrible keening from the battlefield. Youths will
break off from the battle and begin running into the sea, where
they will drown unless the PCs manage to rescue some of them.
This is a horrible thing to witness and costs D4/D10 sanity.
If Glass is killed, a huge
purple-black portal will open in the sky above him and two Servants
of the Epic will drop through it onto the ground. They will immediately
attack the nearest living things, usually Glass himself followed
by the youths or PCs. PCs who flee and make it to the boat might
survive. Fighting the Servants will almost certainly result in
death.
A PC who ends up in the sea
has 10 rounds before the cold sets in. They must pass a Fort
save every round thereafter, suffering -1 for every such round
that has gone by, or slip under the waves as the cold claims
them.
PCs escaping by boat once
the Servants have arrived will have to get the boat more than
60 feet from the shore or a Servant will leap from the shore
onto the boat. The boat is unlikely to survive this, let alone
the PCs. They will have to hope, rather callously, that the Servants
are too busy eating the battling youths to notice them.
1 A small pontoon juts from
the stony beach. This is where the PCs will land unless they
specifically ask otherwise.
2 Burial mounds. These are
jumbled piles of huge stones. There are three of them. Examining
them shows carvings, which the PCs may recognise from research
into St Cymbeline's or the altar stone on the 2nd floor of Whealdon
House.
3 The battle site. The youths,
about 2000 of them, are battling with knives, sticks, anything
they can find. There are two 'armies' of 1000 each, one army
with blue armbands, the others red. There are far more youths
than just those who disappeared from Timsdown West, for Glass
has been 'collecting' them from elsewhere, too, it's just that
most of them haven't been missed.
4 A low hill overlooking
the battle site. This is where Glass is standing, hands raised
high, chanting at the top of his voice (PCs getting close will
hear him, but not recognise the words).
AFTERMATH
If the PCs find out what happened to the youths, they can go
to the police or back to Timsdown West. By this time the estate
is totally deserted and the inhabitants can only be contacted
indirectly. If the PCs save any of the youths, one of them will
be Lee Robinson, who can be reunited with his parents 'off-screen'.
If the Timsdown West residents learn of their children's fate
they will pay Open Eye's fee. If any survive they might donate
other things in gratitude, or even form a support group/investigative
organisation to find out what other families have lost members
to cultists like Glass.
There will probably be a
horrible scene left of St Cymbeline's Island, which could be
investigated by the police or the Government (especially if several
members of Open Eye Investigations never made it off the island).
The MoD might want to know how Glass managed to get hold of Kestrel
Falls, and there is now a rogue spy satellite over the UK available
to anyone with the courage and knowledge to control it from Kestrel
Falls - like the investigators, for instance.
If the PCs succeed in subduing
Nathaniel Glass, then what they do with him is up to them.
STORY GOALS
Survive.
Stop the ritual from taking place.
Kill/subdue/capture Nathaniel Glass.
Save some of the youths.
Save lots of the youths.
Discover Kestrel Falls
Discover Whealdon House
Discover St Cymbeline's Isle
Make the connection that Nathaniel Glass is a cultist using the
AidCom charity as a front for his activities.
Read the Fairytale.
Sanity Rewards
Saving some of the kids. D4
Saving lots of the kids. D6
Solving the Timsdown West case. D6
Research
WHEALDON HOUSE
DC6 - Stately Home, 18thC, in Staffordshire. Previously open
to the public, closed for eighteen months for refurbishment.
There are plans to convert it into a conference centre.
DC12 - Bought 18 months ago by AidCom at a knockdown price from
the National Trust. Currently unoccupied.
DC18 - The house's staff were all laid of when it was bought.
The ballroom has been stripped of its furniture and decoration,
and the decorators hired were paid in cash. The decorators and
staff cannot be found.
ST. CYMBLELINE'S ISLE
DC4 - An island off the Northeast coast of Scotland. The nearest
coastal town is Dunmuir.
DC8 - The townspeople tried
to use the island as a tourist attraction on account of its pre-Viking
burial cairns. However, a ferry service proved uneconomic and
the idea was scrapped.
DC15 - There was a settlement
on the island but it never received electricity or telephone
connections. The last family left in 1979.
DC20 - a paper written on
the island's cairns mentioned hieroglyphic inscriptions depicting
an unnamed battle.
KESTREL FALLS
DC15 - Kestrel falls Early Warning Installation is a radar installation
and nuclear bunker on land now belonging to the charity AidCom.
Ownership of the facility itself was disputed by the MoD until
1994, but the matter appears to have been forgotten. The station
itself was closed down in 1974.
DC17 - Kestrel falls' now-primitive
computer dates from the 1960s, when it was one of the most impressive
of its kind. The station was intended as a possible site where
elements of the Government might shelter and operate in the event
of a nuclear alert.
DISAPPEARANCES FROM TIMSDOWN
ESTATE
DC10 - Local newspapers reported
two men bundling a youth into a car (this was Andrew Castlespite,
although the PCs might not realise it). Police suspected abduction
and the incident was later linked to the later disappearances.
The abduction theory soon disappeared from the newspapers, as
did the whole story, which is odd considering its potential importance.
Newspapers with reports about the incident have a tendency to
go missing from library files.
REGISTRATION OF WRECKED
CAR
DC12 (Characters who use police connections do not need to test).
The car is registered as a company vehicle of a registered charity,
AidCom. The purchase was signed by Nathaniel Glass.
NATHANIEL GLASS
DC11 DoB 24-09-69. CEO of AidCom, a registered charity. There
are no records of him for the past 18 months.
DC14 Sent down from University College London at age 19. Details
unavailable.
DC21 Arrested for theft of books from the UCL rare collection.
Charges dropped.
ANDREW CASTLESPITE
DC6 - No criminal record. Date of birth 04-05-82. Bright but
academically idle with no post-16 education, he works on the
checkout of the local supermarket.
THE EPIC (Cthulu Mythos check)
DC19 - The Epic is a god only recently worshipped. His epithets
include the Story God.
DC25 - His rituals involve acting out a story. Reaching the end
of a story is like completing a circuit, and it is from this
that the Epic gains his power.
AIDCOM
DC8 - AidCom is a registered charity, lending logistical assistance
to aid agencies in the Third World. It is run by Nathaniel Glass.
DC13 - There have been no movements in AidCom's accounts for
eighteen months. The charity owns the stately home, Whealdon
House.
DC17 - The charity owns the ex-MoD land around the Kestrel Falls
nuclear early warning installation. Attempts by aid agencies
to use AidCom always fail.
GO TO THE POLICE
If the PCs go to the police their statements are taken and they
are politely ignored.
If they act suspiciously or come to the attention of the police
through a potentially criminal act, Detective Inspector Lynch
- a portly but dedicated copper - will keep an eye on them. He
can follow them between locations if they do something he can
track, like using a cashpoint or researching something. If he
follows them and sees them committing a crime, he will intervene.
He is officially off-duty on doctor's orders (high blood pressure),
so he is alone. If he sees anything utterly outrageous he will
summon a rapid response unit to help/arrest the investigators.
If the PCs are arrested and detained, they are handcuffed in
a police van and driven to a deserted riverbank. The two police
driving (who will not include Lynch) silently stop the engine,
get out, and push the van into the river. The PCs must kick out
the back window (Strength check, DC12) within 6 rounds or start
to drown as the van sinks. Only 1 PC can get out at a time. Once
out they must swim to the shore (swim check, DC12). The police
are gone. Contacting Lynch after this requires a Gather Information
check (DC15), and he will assist them if they are convincing
enough, but he will always be alone since he's now on long-term
sick leave against his will.
NPCS
HITBEAST
Use Ghoul stats, but does not count as undead and 'Worry' is
replaced with 'Constrict'.
ANDREW CASTLESPITE
Lv1 sucker.
9Hp.
Initiative +0
Speed 30ft.
Armour Class 10
Attacks +2 (butcher's knife)
Damage D6 +3 (butcher's knife)
Face/Reach 5x5/5
Special - Tome of the Epic (tattooed on torso), magic weapon
(butcher's knife).
Saves - Fort +0, Will +2, Ref +2
Abilities - Str8, Dex10,Con11,Int15,Wis12,Cha14
Skills - Mythos +1, Hide +3, Sense Motive +2.
Sanity 39 (1/5 8)
Butcher's Knife - this is
a dangerous, malevolent +3/+3 weapon. It appears to be a large
rusted knife with a stained, pitted blade. The weapon has 25
Sanity and will lose 1 point for every point of damage it does.
When its sanity reaches 0, the wielder must take a Will test
every turn he holds the knife or go short-term temporarily insane.
This insanity usually takes the form of frenziedly attacking
anyone nearby until subdued.
NATHANIEL GLASS
Lv 3 cult sorcerer (Defensive Option)
HP 13
Speed 30
AC 12
Attacks +2 (Revolver)/+1 (fire axe).
Damage D10 (Revolver)/D8 (Fire Axe)
Special Qualities - Adept Spellcaster (casts Epic's spells at
Lv5)
Saves Fort +3, Ref +1, Will +5
Abilities Str11, Dex12, Con11, Int15, Wis14, Char16
Skills Cthulu Mythos 7 (11 when dealing with the Epic), Concentration
5, Knowledge (Occult) 5, Swim 3, Wilderness Lore 4
Feats - Iron Will, Combat Casting, Weapon Proficiency (handgun),
Weapon Proficiency (Melee)
CR 4
Sanity - Permanently Insane.
Spells: Frozen Tracks, Evil
Eye, Contact Epic, Magic Weapon, Levitate.
Nathaniel Glass wears a neat
suit and tie, but his head is clean-shaven and every inch of
his skin is covered in self-inflicted scrawling tattoos, wild
loops and scribbles with no discernible meaning. His eyes are
pale blue, cold and piercing, and his build is tall and slim.
In combat he levitates and
attacks with spells and his handgun. He has a fire axe lying
nearby and will run and grab it if PCs get too close.
SERVANT OF THE EPIC
Huge Outsider
HP 190
Speed 30ft
AC 17
Attacks 3 Claw +16, Bite +21
Special Attacks - Impale. A natural 19 or 20 to hit with a claw
attack automatically causes a Massive Damage check in addition
to any damage caused as the Servant skewers its victim. This
can cause 2 such checks from one attack.
Damage D10 + 10 (Claw)/2D10 + 15(Bite)
Special Abilities - Damage Reduction 10/+1, Fast Healing 3.
Special Qualities - Intuit Direction, Appalling Stench - anyone
within 30 feet of the Servant must take a Fort test or suffer
a -2 Morale penalty to all attacks and saves due to the nauseating
reek.
Saves
Abilities Str25, Dex 14, Con22, Int 4, Wis7, Cha 18
Skills Spot +51, Wilderness Lore +40, Climb +30
Feats Track, Great Cleave.
CR High.
Sanity Loss D10/2D10
A Servant of the Epic is
a huge monster with a central body supported by nine legs each
ending in a single massive talon. In combat it stabs down with
these talons, hoping to spit its enemies on them. Its head is
a massive flat disk that opens like a clam to reveal rows upon
rows of sharp teeth, disappearing down its throat. Its legs,
knot-like body and head are clad in a dirty white carapace like
a crab's, pitted and stained.
The Servants are surrounded
by a hideous stench, rotting shellfish and excrement. They are
largely mindless but utterly implacable hunter-killers, running
down the enemies of the Epic ruthlessly. They could be said to
have a form of near-sense because it is all but impossible to
hide from the Servants of the Epic.
