Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Pulp => Topic started by: Wraith on December 05, 2007, 02:01:24 PM
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I have been working for 2 years on my OPUS; A pulps campaign called "And Also After"
It is meant to have an Indiana Jones feel, and is along the biblical lines like "RAIDERS" was.
So far, my group has experienced the first 5 chapters of the campaign, the 6th chapter to be played out this Friday and Saturday in two 12 hour sessions.
Here is the background behind the campaign:
As the ancient texts say, the Angelic Watchers of YHWH sinned by manifesting themselves into male flesh and breeding with the daughters of man, thus spawning the giant Nephlim. The cruelty and barbarity of these Nephilim was offset by the wisdom and knowledge they inherited from their fathers. These giants ruled over mankind with an iron fist, and taught the hidden secrets of their fathers to a select few men. Eventually, they began to defile the earth and to destroy mankind. YHWH was not pleased and he bound the Watchers to the void as punishment for their transgressions.
The Nephlim were destroyed at the great Deluge by YHWH and their spirits left to wander the earth, as evil spirits, till new Nephilim bodies appeared which could serve as their hosts. (So says the ancient prophecies) The damage was done though, as the Angelic DNA was already mingled with that of mankind. Only Noah and his wife remained untainted. YHWH brought about the flood to wipe the impure seed from the earth, starting anew with the descendants of Seth, Noah’s firstborn. The wife of Ham had a recessive Nephilim strain though, and this gene lived on through the sons of Ham.
After the flood, The recessive gene resurfaced again and Nephilim are recorded in the holy land by Joshua and his spies and again in the days of King David. They were supposedly wiped out by King David himself. The last descendant of Anak,(a Nephilim patriarch) listed in the bible is Og, king of Bashan. His lineage does not die out though, but continues on though time, watered down with each successive generation to finally give birth to Ivan Draganov.
How Ivan discovers his genetic inheritance we do not know for sure, but soon after, he begins his search for artifacts of the predeluvian Nephilim. Not only is he trying to uncover the ancient knowledge and unknown powers, but he plans to rule the world with these very powers.
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Cool backstory.
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Led by an unknown presense, Ivan discovers the 6 ancient power bases of the Watchers and makes use of the secrets there in. (There are 6 Watcher bases in all. Origionally the Gilgal Refaim resided at the North Pole and the Void base at the South Pole, they were collectively acknowledged as the “ends of the earth” in early days. The 4 bases that are +-90 degrees from The Gilgal base were called the “4 corners”of the Earth in early days.) Due to an ancient polar shift
, the gilgal refaim (circle of the giants) is now in southern Syria, which was part of ancient Israel.
Ivan changes his name and identity to Liam Neph (NEPH LIAM / AKA NEPHILIM) due to questions that have arisen about him concerning his age and influences (he is 100 years old at the time) Armed with arcane knowledge, and led by the presense, who turns out to be a Watcher named Semihaz’Ael whom he communicates with through an “EYE”, he becomes a geneticist. After many failed experiments, he finally perfects the cloning process. He soon spawns 5 SERGEANTS from his own genome, and then 24 HellGuards from manipulated genetic matter of the Sergeants. (they all look like him, though the HellGuard are smaller and somewhat deformed of visage).
Now he is ready for the last step in the process, looking for intact genetic material from the ancient Nephilim. His goal; to clone genetic duplicates of the ancient 18’ tall Nephilim, thereby providing the Simulcra for the disembodied spirits of the Nephlim of Enoch’s day. 4 of the Sergeants have a base at one of the “4 corners of the Earth” These “corners”are plus or minus 90 degrees latitude and longitude with respect to the ruins of the circle of the giants at Gilgal Refaim, which holds one of the “eyes” of the 6 ancient bases. (the EYES are gates into the void, or astral world) The other base is at + 180 degrees longitude and latitude with respect to Gilgal Refaim.
Liam is supposedly working for Hitler and his ilk, but he is actually seeking his own power for world dominion. Mr. Neph has various archeological organizations searching in various places for various things, but his number one priority is the Nephil genes.
ENTER Jacov Ben’Dare: Jacov is world renowned in his expertise of the ancient Palestinian countryside. Though some of his past hypothesis have drawn scoffing from the scientific community, no one doubts his historical knowledge. On February 20th 1933, Jacov receives a letter from one Liam Neph of the Anak corporation, that speaks of four potential dig sites that should spark Jacov’s curiosity. It is after Jacov has already excavated the first three sites and is a some months into the fourth site that our story begins.
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lead in to Chapter 1 of "And Also After"
After Jacov Ben-Dare’s discovery of an intact Nephlim mummy at sight four, All the artifacts related to the dig site are rounded up by Liam’s agents, the site destroyed and Jacov spirited away to Liam’s private armored train train to continue his work at the ancient Watcher base now called ERDE… But not before his daughter, Virginia Dare comes to Palestine to seek him out due to a cryptic letter she received from him more than a month previously. She brings the PCs along who she feels may be of assistance if the situation turns out to be more than she can handle herself.
Here is a review of how the senario played out:
Note: Handouts that were discovered are in parenthesis and CAPS.
Aug. 5th,Day 1: Grayson Frost, Lars Hampton, Chang and Michael O’Leary are in Egypt for a much needed vacation after a recent operation. The Wraith is not along as he is off on one of his Asian “long pig” safaris. As per an appointment set up after said operation, They are having lunch with an aquaintence, Virginia Dare, at a small bistro in Cairo. After the obligatory small talk, the subject turns to her father Jacov Ben-Dare’, a noted Archeologist who specializes in ancient dialects and holy-land studies. Virginia is worried about him, (the real reason she is in Cairo) since the twice weekly letters from him stopped arriving at her home in the states 3 months prior… That is, until a cryptic letter arrived last week. She shows them (JACOB’S LAST LETTER) and tells of more letters in her rented flat in the city. After studying the letter, O’leary discovers a faded (MAP OF ATLANTIS) on the back of the letter. Since you are close friends, and in the area, Virginia asks if you could find the time in your vacation to go with her to check on her father in Palestine. After going to Virginia’s flat and finding the place tossed and the letters missing, it is decided that expedient action may be required. After a quick packing and trip to the airport The party boards the final plane bound for Palestine that day . While on the plane, a couple of shifty fellows are noticed by the party, (they are doing a poor job of trying to look like they arent watching you.) A memory surfaces and Grayson realizes that these two fellows were coming out of Virginia’s apartment building yesterday as you were entering it. One of the party overhears them speaking and determines them to be Germans with the names Hans and Frans.
Day 2: After an arduous flight, the party arrives in Palestine early the next morning and check into Virginia’s favorite hostel. A precursory sweep of the lobby turns up Hans and Frans trying to look indiscreet yet again. After checking in and sweeping the rooms, Virginia suggests going to Jacob’s flat to look for him. The place is of course tossed, but you do find (THE LETTER FROM LIAM NEPH with AR Inc. letterhead) in the cupboard. Next stop is the Heirusalem Archeological Institute, where you arrive just in time to see Hans and Frans entering the building. You wait a little while then enter and after bribing the front desk attendant and getting nothing useful, you go upstairs to Jacov’s office and find Hans and Frans tossing it. O’leary convinces the other adventurers to let Hans and Frans search the office and just releave them of their goods as they leave, that way, you will know exactly what they were looking for. After the two leave, you enter the tossed office for a quick look around, but find nothing. A janitor wanders up and begins scraping Jacov’s name off of the door. When questioned about it, he apologizes for not getting the name removed and put up on the door of the new office upstairs. O’leary and Frost look at each other and their eyes widen. Grayson and Lars decide to investigate the other office while O’leary and Chang head to the roof to see when Hans and Frans leave the building. Upon seeing the two germans exit the building, O’leary and Chang leap from the roof, sliding down some awnings to catch the two germans unawares and releave them of their pilferings, which turn out to be (SOME PICTURES). They release the two, but follow them. Hans and Frans hurry to a shabby bar and go into a back room. After a time, O’leary and Chang discover them slain, more than likely payment for their failures. In the new office, Grayson and Lars discover (BOX 616 with HORNED SKULL 616 and TUBE 616 with ROLLED PARCHMENT) Upon later examination of the pictures, a picture of a huge nazi is discovered. Chang notices a LN monagram on the Large nazi’s shirt. This is a picture of Liam Neph. You retire to the Hostel to review your clues. Grayson notices that Liam Neph is NephLiam, when the 2 names are switched, and he begins to form a hypothesis concerning the Giants of the Old testament called the Nephilim.
Day 3: The next day, Virginia thinks to visit Jacov’s protégé, Leonard Bernstein, to see if he knows the where-abouts of Jacov or the dig site. Leonard is nice fellow, but seems to be a bit senile. He hasn’t seen Jacov for months, but he mentions a parchment that he had finished translating for Jacov, and after much prodding, he hands (WATCHERS PARCHMENT P1) to you. After more prodding, he also produces (PARCHMENT TRANSLATION : P1T). Back at the Hostel, The maitredee remembers (THE NOTE WITH DIG SITE MAP ) for Virginia from her father that has been therefor many months. You hop in the car and head out for the site. You arrive at site 4 at nightfall. You find barbed wire, Nazis, the place packing up, and the excavation being rigged with explosives. There are loud voices coming from the main tent. Sneaking under the canvas and hiding behind a crate in the tent to investigate, you find Jacov there with 5 or 6 armed Nazis engaged in a heated argument. The nazis are all business and too many for you to handle at this time. The Commander grabs Jacov and reaches into the old mans coat, producing a small book. He slaps Jacov, shoots Jacov’s assiststant, rips the book apart and tosses the pieces into the fire. Part of the book bounces free and escapes the blaze. The nazis lead Jacov at gunpoint out of the tent. You retreive the portion of the (DIG JOURNAL) that has escaped the blaze and Lars checks the assistant, finding him still alive. The assistant graps Lars’s coller and pills him close to whisper with his dying breath “Ones who watch …Chosen …Quelpart… AARRGGHHHHHhhhhh”. Clutched in his hand, Lars discovers a paper (FRAGMENT F2) with a few greek words on it. Virginia translates it to read “And also after” and determines it to be ripped from an old testament. Checking outside, Jacov is seen being loaded onto the front truck of a small convoy, and crates being loaded onto the last 4 trucks, all of which are marked with a large AR. The very last truck doesn’t have any troops in it, so it is possible to stow away in it. Upon leaving , you see the tomb being dynamited. Virginia and O’Leary follow in the car, with Lars, Grayson and Chang hiding in the rear-most truck. Among the truck cargo, you discover crates with: (VARIOUS ARTIFACTS with the LOGO “AR”) printed thereon. The driver hears something in the back and pulling over to investigate, he sends the other trooper to the rear to have a look. A gunfight breaks out between the three in the truck and the trooper.. At the sound of gunfire, the driver looks through the rear window, spying Chang in the back. Pulling a pistol, the driver begins firing at Chang through the glass. The driver is dispatched, and O’leary pulls up in the car and finishes the other trooper.
Day 4: The trucks drive through the night, arriving at a train depot at Hebron, where they enter a warehouse and the nazis begin unloading. The contents are loaded onto 2 different trains.You notice Jacov being led under guard, out a side door and directly onto a private “armored” passenger car on the other train that has “China Express” emblazoned on the side of it. You stow aboard in one of the cargo cars in the rear of the train.
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Interim: 1-2 The train travels due east, with a final destination of Shanghai on the yellow sea. Along the way, you make repeated efforts to penetrate the armored passenger car, or get word to Jacov, but to no avail. The train makes stops at the major cities along the way, and you notice a german guard with a full face helmet at each stop that is riding in the armored car. The rest of the german soldiers seem to fear him and steer clear when possible. After Virginia translates the rolled parchment from the tube labeled 616 (P616T). After 26 days of travel, you arrive at a train-yard in Eastern China. At an earlier stop, one of the party had sent a telegram to Rapid Roy back in Egypt, and he met the train at one of the later stops. Virginia gets off the train and accompanies Roy to research the AR corp. and Liam Neph.
Chapter 2: “ERDE”
Note: Handouts that were discovered are in parenthesis and caps
Day 1: The train pulls up to a warehouse in Shanghai, and the dockworkers begin unloading the AR cargo. After noticing Jacov being loaded into a truck, Lars overhears an overseer say in german: “Schnell, get those crates loaded and taken to pier 4” Lars and O’Reiley proceed to “Shang-Hi” two guards and don their outfits. The trucks are about to leave, so given the time crunch, the two faux Germans hop aboard one of the trucks for a ride to the dock. Left out, Chang and Frost hail a rick-shaw and make their own way to pier 4. Arriving at the docks, Grayson and Chang see a freighter with the AR logo blazoned on the side and they conspire about how to get on board. While wandering around the docks, they are approached by a Chinese fellow offering to rent them his junk. They turn down the offer and continue snooping around, literally bumping into Lars and O’Reiley who saw Jacov being loaded aboard the freighter. For want of a plan, Chang sneaks aboard to sabotage the freighter, but this only causes a 1 day delay of departure. Our heros bivouac that night in an abandoned warehouse office.
Days 2: The next morn, Lars and O’Reiley mix with the guards and sailors boarding the freighter, Frost talks Chang into hiding in a crate to get loaded in secret, unfortunately, their crate doesn’t get loaded and they are left behind when the ship pulls out of port. Redfaced, Grayson remembers the Junk for rent and they hurry across the dock to see if it is still in port. It is, and they buy passage to follow the huge freighter. Once at sea, the crew of the junk turn out to be Pirates, and try to rob the 2 unfortunate travelers. Grayson and Chang get the best of them, killing a few and tossing the rest overboard. They then get the captain to make good on his hire. Meanwhile; The freighter travels through that day and night, across the Yellow Sea to the island of Quelpart in the Straight of Chosen. In the morning, the hold is off-loaded to more trucks. Lars and O’Reiley help with the unloading and follow along as a couple of good soldiers, finally boarding one of the outbound trucks. The convoy bumps along a few miles to the entrance of an underground complex, where there is much milling about.
Day 3: The junk finally makes make it to an island, where, Chang and Frost leave the captain tied up and sneak into the woods to approach the docks unseen. They find the freighter docked, and the trucks departing down an unpaved road. Jogging along through the jungle, they follow the road inland to a mountainside with a large cave opening. The entrance seems to have been enlarged as of late, as modern masonery supports and fortifies an impregnable iron gate. After watching the guards and workers, they spot O’Reiley and Lars unloading crates. Using the reflection from Frost’s watch, they catch the attention of their discuised compatriots. Alas, the guards and workers go inside and the gates slam shut. Frost and Chang snoop around the mountainside, looking for another mode of entry. Discovering a ventilation shaft, they pry off the grate and enter. They follow the shaft and it branches many times. Choosing a way at random, they follow the tunnel till it ends with a grate. Through the grate they see primitive cave dwellers, who spot them and throw rocks at the grate while babbling incoherently. After backtracking and finding themselves lost, the two bivouac for the night.
Meanwhile; While unloading boxes with O’Reiley, Lars notices a flash of light from the woods and is surprised to catch sight of Chang and Frost in hiding in the underbrush. Lars and O’reiley are ushered into the complex with the other soldiers, carrying crates down the passageway. At one juncture, a few of the officers are talking to a a 7- ½ foot tall fellow named SGT. Erde, who looks familiar. After a little memory searching, O’Reiley is certain that he resembles the picture of Liam Neph that he and Chang pilfered from Hans and Frans in Jerusalem. After a arduous walk carrying crates, they find themselves at a huge pit with an elevator disappearing into its depths. Riding down the elevator, and passing not a few stops, they find themselves at the lowest level which houses the barraks. The 2 select cubicles to bed down for the night and try to look the part of disgruntled guards. During the night, they sneak to a corner to discuss plans. They also discover that the original owners of their uniforms had been assigned guard duty the next day, which they decide to take on as their own.
Day 4: The next morning, Chang and Frost follow another passage to another grate. Peering through, they discover a lab with cross bred beasts of various kinds. They continue and find another grate that looks down to a recently enlarged passage. They open the grate and drop down. Following the passage, they come to an arch that has carven symbols on it. As they go under the arch, Frost gets chills , but Chang falls to his knees, holding his head in both hands. Inside his mind an evil voice booms: “Know me and cower, O creatures of the earth, for I am Azk-ael thy master” After Chang recovers, they continue on. They are almost discovered when a large German enters an unlocked room. They sneak up to peer into the room. They see the fellow bowing before a glowing circle on the floor filled with runes of some sort. A figure appears above it and communes with the man in an unknown tongue. The whole scene is disturbing in the least. Chang catches the name “Az-kael”. It is the same name he heard inside his head at the arch. The german gets up to leave so they slink down a side passage to hide. They come to a large room that has a pit with elevator supers tructures going up and down. A pounding noise draws their attention to iron doors set in masonery that block other passages from the main cavern. Through the grills on the doors, they see the primitives trying to get through. An elevator seems to be coming up at the moment, so they brace themselves for an encounter.
Meanwhile; That same morning, Lars is sent to the archive sector for guard duty, where after breaking into some displays, he finds the ( ERDE SECRETS TABLET, ARTIFACTS, JUBILEES CH:5 (P6)) JASHER FRAGMENT(F3 / F3T), CHAMBER DOC.(P10) O’Reiley is assigned duty in the prison sector, where he finds a cell that seemed to be the residence of a Jewish fellow that he determines to be Jacov. In the unoccupied cell, O’Reiley finds: (JACOV’S DISCARDED GIANT NOTES) in a trashcan. (JACOV’S OLD TESTAMENT) on the cot. (ANAK NOTES, GILGAL REFAIM OUTLINE, (TXT2) JOSEPHUS) on the desk. He takes the stuff and heads back to the elevator to find Lars coming up. Lars un-latches the iron gate and bolts for the elevator , barely ahead of the other elevator that is coming back up from below. Bedlam ensues as the persuing guards run afoul the primitives that burst forth from the unlatched door. As you wait above to see the results of Lars’ handiwork, you see the complex being evacuated of all non military personnel, which includes Jacov under heavy guard. He is spirited away to the docks in a single truck of which you cannot gain access, so they all decide to return to the junk for your escape from the island.
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Christ, man! Do you expect us to read all this?! :-)
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Hmmm, perhaps not.
I suppose its more interesting to the actual players.
Anyways, here is where I am coming from:
I have written up literally hundreds of senarios in the 30+ years I have been roleplaying. When I was working on this one I was thinking back about the boatloads of stuff that I worked on that has been consigned to the void, and I thought If I could garner some interest, I could maybe pass this senario on for others to enjoy instead of letting it rot with nary another even seeing it other than PCs I ran it for.
I am not into selling it, and all that goes along with that, so I am offering it to those interested free of charge. Now, it may be big headed thinking anyone would be interested in my stuff, bit i thought i would make the offer.
So, there it is...A GM begining to wonder about his legacy.
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Cheer up! I didn't mean to discourage you. I just don't think posting the full text on posts works to your advantage as much as linking to a page where you keep the full text. I think people read post expecting them to be, how should I put it, easier to digest. :-)
To iterate, I like what I read.
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Ok, I dont have a site that I can link to, so thats probally out.
I'll do this though: If anyones interested in GMing this senario or reading some of the play by play, I will E-mail it to you.
Anyways, I finished up the senario this last weekend in 2 twelve hour days of play...WHEW I'm beat!
My friends have told me that I have ruined the future of them GMing pulps due to the fact that I have used up all the cool ideas. I think thats bogus though, as I have 2 more ideas for pulps senarios in the future.I'll take it as a complement though.
Anyways, just because my campaign involved:
Tramp steamers, armored train, zeps, subs, volcano, atlantis, caverns/neanderthals, anti-grav city, auto-gyros, rocket men, deep sea suits and pre diluvian ruins doesnt mean I have used up all the good ideas :D
I still have the hollow earth for the next chapter!
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3 more chapters have been added to this Opus
Hopefully, I am done with it ;D
I will post more of the storylines when I get back from vacation.
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Intra scenario storyline: After escaping back to the Chinese mainland from Kelpart island on their pilfered junk, our heroes hole up for some months to regroup, heal up try to make sense of their recent experience and the clues they have uncovered. Among the parchments and documents they find what seems to be coordinates to someplace on the northern shores of Antartica. (COORDINATES OF THE NEXT SENARIO) Roy and Virginia contact them with the results of their research on Liam Neph and the AR corp. Liam is the president of the corporation after the previous owner, Sir Ivan Draganov, dissapeared under strange circumstances. After aquiring AR, Liam Neph grew it into a multi- national corporation with its fingers into things on every continent. Grayson Frost, Lars Hampton, Chang and Michael O’Reiley, decide to proceed on their own, buying passage on a tramp steamer to the southern Atlantic.
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Chapter 3 “LUFT”
Day 1: The Steamer takes our 4 heroes to the coordinates they specify: a place off the shores of Antartica. The air is cold and they learn that the fog bank and cloud cover in the area is perpetual. After questioning the Captain about the coordinates, the captain pulls out an atlas and shows that the coordinates are indeed correct, there is no land here, only open ocean. As they ponder their dilemma, Grayson catches a glimpse of a large freighter towing a barge off port, and thinks it strange that no fog horn has been sounded. Around 12:00AM, the freighter departs, leaving the barge behind. O’Malley has the captain approach the barge, and getting aboard a longboat, Our heroes row to the barge to investigate. The barge has been anchored and is loaded with crates emblazoned with the AR logo. The crates hold supplies of food , sundries and other less obvious mechanical items. After a thorough inspection of all the crate contents, Lars spys some small dirigibles descending from the fog bank above. Everyone hides in a large crate to see what transpires. Workers get off the dirigibles and begins netting them to be lifted aloft. Lars, Frost, Chang and O’Malley ride a dirigible upward where they are deposited in a cargo area somewhere above. Not knowing where they are, and it being noisy outside their crate, they wait for some hours until the sounds die down before emerging. Night has fallen and the four decide it is safe to have a look around They are in a large loading bay of some sort. Looking out the loading bays, they spy an incredible thing…They are on an air ship of some sort, the likes of which they have never seen before. A quick poking about reveals the following things: . The ship seems to be made entirely of metal , with some some sort of anti-gravity propulsion system keeping it aloft. The thing is huge, and can only be called a city in the clouds. An open shaft extends from the vaulted ceiling high above, and downward, out the bottom of the Sky-city. A rail-less ramp-way spirals downward and upward to other levels. Chang Waylays 2 late night workers, and the bodies go down the shaft. Two of our heroes don the jumpsuits, then the 4 stowaways head back to their cozy crate to rest and wait out the night.
Day 2: In the morning, the number of workers in the docking area seems to have diminished compared to the previous day; Perhaps the restocking has been completed. O’Malley opts to go below while the others explore the upper reaches; all hugging the wall as not to plummet down the shaft into the ocean far below. Descending downward, O’Malley finds a doorway that leads into the outer ring; seemingly, to an empty hall curving off to the left and right, obviously following the shape of the airship. He follows it around to find himself at his place of origin, with naught discovered but lights on the outside walls. After probing the walls, he finds a hatchway that opens to his experienced touch, revealing a crawlway inside the outer hull. He enters and scouts around to find reactors that may be the power source keeping the city aloft. O’Malley grins to himself, having deviously decided the fate of the sky city. He returns to the hold to await his compatriots. Minus O’Malley, the other 3 ascend the central shaft, up to the main level. On the far side in front of a large archway emblazoned with symbols: (Know me and heed for I am Barkay-ael , master of the powers of the air), another walkway extends out into the open center shaft, supporting a round platform with glyphs upon it. Our heroes recognize it as one of the “communication” pads. A large man who you take to be Liam, makes his way unto the platform and kneels before the circle there, speaking words they cannot make out, but the 3 do hear the name BARAK’AEL. The symbols light up and a cloaked form appears above the pad, speaking to “Liam”. Also noted are the guards patrolling the area, that wear jump pack that allows them to leap incredible distances.
Day 3: After passing another night in the crate, our 4 heroes make their way up the spiraling stairway to the upper dome of the complex, discovering a circular suite of rooms situated around the central well, and guarded by one of the Blood-Guard. Trusting in his disguise, Frost walks toward the guard and before the helmeted man discovers his danger, Frost charges him and grapples with him, throwing in a head butt for good measure. The others come up to help and the Bloodguard is dispatched before he can sound the alarm. Entering the suite of rooms, they find a strange stone tablet which Lars gets a photograph of before smashing it. Peering out the surrounding windows, they catch a glimpse of the upper deck of the city, on which are parked hundreds of gyro-copters in neat rows. Workers scamper too and fro, as a jet powered aircraft is landing in a cordoned off area.) A Liam Neph look-alike gets off of the aircraft and heads into the main doorway of the city. Searching the other rooms of the suite, the 4 also discover some ancient scrolls and documents. Further exploration has shown a large circular hallway on the main level services a ring of rooms on the inner and outer perimeters of the city. In a storage room, they find Whitecoat gear, and don it. Following the arc of the outer hallway, making sure not to speak to any of the passersby, they circle the complex and find the inner ring of rooms to be living quarters, while the outer ring holds work areas. Mingling, the 4 exit to the upper deck to have a look around. The city seems to be floating on the clouds, the upper deck is above the fog bank, in the sunlight, the lower levels hidden within the mist below. Lars casually strolls around the Gyro-copters and when no one is looking, pulls the fuel line on a few. As the day comes to a close, they head back inside, making their way to the crate to wait out another night and finalize a plan of some sort. As they pass the cafeteria, Chang happens to peer in and see Jacov Ben-Dare, surrounded by guards as he eats his supper. O’Malley and Frost enter the café and go about cleaning up, After a few minutes, Jacov catches Their eye and after giving them, “the look”, writes something on a scrap of paper, then wads the paper and tosses it onto his tray. He then rises and leaves the cafeteria, followed by his guards. O’Malley “Cleans” the table up and pockets the wadded paper for later reading, O’malley and Frost exit the cafeteria and reunite with their companions. The crumpled paper tells that Jacov has noticed them about and begs for their help.
Day 4: After yet another crated night, the 4 prowl about inconspicuously, looking for signs of Jacov and an opportunity to abscond with him. The day passes without a sighting of him, and as they continue to nose about, a troop of guards hustle past and enter a roomto escort Jacov out. There are too many guards, so our heroes decide to follow and wait a more opportune time to help Jacov escape. Frost investigates the room as the others follow Jacov. He finds some notes on a giant named OG. Suddenly, gunfire and explosions erupt outside, rocking the city. The city is under attack! Jet-packed French (snicker) sky troopers are rocketing aboard as zeppelins approach to disgorge more battalions of troopers. The gyros launch aloft , covered by the deck batteries, to attack the Zeppelins as the deck bound defenders shoot their mausers at the landing jet-packed troopers. Our heroes decide it is time to bugger out! After a hurried discussion they decide to snatch Jacov and commandeer the large aircraft to escape the city and any impending pursuit. Exiting the main doorway to the deck, they see Jacov being strapped into a large auto-gyro, and cannot reach him before the ‘copter takes to the air and swoops downward, to be lost among the clouds. O’Malley decides to do a few “modifications” to the anti grav generators below deck and races off as the others make for the jet. O’Malley hurries to the reactor rooms, and after planting his explosives and setting the fuse for 10 minutes, he races to where he hopes his companions have taken the aircraft. The other 3 have make a bee-line to the experimental aircraft, and overpowering the guards, get aboard, trying to figure out the controls, while Lars forces workers to continue refueling the craft. Emerging from the main doorway O’Malley quickly looks around and espies the other 3 at the experimental aircraft. Dodging defender and attacker alike, he sprints toward it and hops aboard at the last instant, pulling the door closed behind him. They take off , dodging rocketeers and Auto-gyros alike, trying to get a safe distance from the now doomed city. Looking back they see the city beginning to tilt as it falls from the sky due to O’Malley’s sabotage. Lars looks on in horror, as he wanted the city for himself….O’Malley smiles with satisfaction, knowing he has foiled another of Lars’ world domination schemes.
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There's certainly a lot of work there.
Some good ideas for gaming.
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Here is chapter 4:
Intra scenario storyline: After barely escaping the falling cloud city in their pilfered experimental aircraft, Grayson Frost, Lars Hampton, Chang and Michael O’ Malley run out of fuel and crash it somewhere on the southern coast of Africa. Camouflaging the plane for later retrieval, they make their way back to home base in the states. In the items they lifted from the sky-city, they find (COORDINATES OF THE NEXT SENARIO)
Chapter 4 “WASSER” note: Handouts that you discovered are in parenthesis and caps.
Day 1: Our 3 heroes; Grayson Frost, Lars Hampton, and Michael O’Grady have hired a tramp steamer and head out to sea east of the USA. They travel for most of the day, finally arriving to the specified coordinates at the 33rd parallel to find a large freighter already anchored there. When they get close, the other sailors seem to be expecting them. As the captains of the 2 ships argue back and forth, our heroes notice shadows moving below the freighter, and decide they are submersibles of some sort. After determining that the steamer is not the ship they were waiting for, the crew of the freighter level their guns at the crew of the steamer, and uncover a large deck gun.. The captain of the steamer decides it is time to leave…. Since the sun is setting, our heroes decide it is time for a swim. Stealing aboard the freighter via one of the 4 anchor chains, our heroes slink to the nearest hatch and go below. The freighter’s crew is minimal and seems to be topside for the most part, leaving the 4 easy access to all parts of the freighter below decks. As they search through the night, they find a mechanics room with drawings of Submersibles (SCHEMATICS OF THE SUBMARINES). And a sea well inside the belly of the freighter, with open access to the sea below. Around the opening, small lifts hold 1-man submarines. Other containers are also nearby to allow the subs to take equipment below. As the 4 watch, a sub surfaces and docks on the side. A man in a blue uniform exits the sub and heads out a nearby hatch. Lars hides in one of he freight tanks as the other 3 cram into the sub and prepare to go below. The sea is becoming lighter in the sea well, as the sun is rising outside.
Day 2: The sea becomes darker as they descend, following the anchor chains downward. then through the gloom, 100 fathoms…200 fathoms, they begin to see a few lights below, at 250 fathoms the domes come into view. The man piloting notices an opening in the bottom of the largest dome and steers the sub toward it. Once they surface in the dome, they notice that they are in a wet well some 100’ across, with more subs tied up and stacks of equipment everywhere. Lars stuffs some diving suits into the storage container attached to the side of the sub After avoiding a guard, they set out to explore. The largest room off of the main dome holds one of the large rune engraved rings on the floor. (The eye of Wasser) Arch with SIGIL OF WASSER, (MAKE SAVE) SIGIL: Know me and my wrath, O sea , for the name of thy master is AMAZAK’AEL. Knowing what may come from this ring, and the arch into the room, the 3 decide to move on without entering the room.The place is made up of hundreds of smaller domes, in addition to the main entry dome, connected by tubes that cross each other at right angles. Each small dome has 4 exits that are protected by pressure doors. The place is sparsely populated, and there seems to be a recovery effort under way. Freshly pumped domes are still covered with sludge and are still in need of cleaning. Here and there, generators are set up and portable lights are erected to illuminate the place. Most of the huge city seems to be abandoned, and our heroes find it easy to slip around unnoticed. Some of the corridors are flooded, with the doors sealed to keep the sea out. Only a few guards prowl about and it is easy to avoid them. As the 3 scout around, they find the archive and search it accordingly, finding: (SECRETS OF WASSER TABLET, OG CRYPT TABLET AND TRANSLATION (T1) Not being able to tell night from day, except by their watches, our heroes decide to rest up and catch some zzzs among storage crates piled in the rear of the archives.
Day 3: After some hours rest, they cautiously move on, creeping through what seems like endless domes and corridors, some still wet with pumps working. Most are filled with crates and equipment of dubious origin. After a close call with a wandering guard, they happen upon a suite of rooms labeled “Wasser”. They cautiously enter, after O’Grady picks the lock, not knowing if the place is occupied. It is not and. No one seems to have ever slept in the bed and the boxes are mostly unpacked. An office and library are accessible from the sleeping quarters. After an exhaustive search of the place, they find: (SOME OF JACOV’S NOTES) on the table in the library and a map (MUROR MAP) . It seems that Jacov Ben-Dare has been here at some time previously due to the notes and writing utensils. In the office, on the credenza, they find: (MAGEN DAVID DOCUMENT, 12 PATRIARCHS DOCUMENT (P9) On the desk , they find: ( a picture of OG’S MUMMY and note in german “delivered to wrong corner”) . Since the place was locked and it seemed unlikely that anyone, Wasser included would be entering the suite, the 3 decide to rest there for a time.
Day 4: Scouting out the southern part of the city the next day reveals laboratories with sea creature experiments going on. In the laboratory, they find crates filled with (GIANT SKULLS) and strange, mutated creatures of the deep in jars and large pools. In another dome, Frost notices a scientist talking to someone in a recessed area and when they approache, they see that it is a dolphin that the scientist is talking to. Scared out of his wits by the talking dolphin, Frost opens fire on the hapless creature and the scientist talking to it. The gunfire draws 3 guards to the area. O’Grady, and the guards exchange gunfire in the other dome. the guards are poorly trained and unfortunately, some stray rounds hit the dome and it starts to crack, water squirting through.
O’Grady cant make it to the other dome where Lars and Frost are, so he dives through a nearby hatch and slams it closed, seconds before the dome caves in. The surviving guards pound on the hatch, but the flooding dome soon drowns them.
Lars and Frost force the hatch to their dome closed struggling against the pressure…finally it locks closed. Looking through the porthole into the quickly filling room, they see O’Grady exit another door and close it behind. Unfortunately, other doors are open and the complex begins to fill. Not knowing the fate of O’Gradey, they hurry with their pilfered treasures to the main dome where the submarines wait. They hear the sound of implosions as domes begin to break apart. The surge of bubbles and violent noises draws the attention of a giant squid, tentacles begin sliding over the surface of the main dome as the huge monster of the deep crawls upon it. The Enraged squid grabs hold of the main dome to crush it in its monstrous grasp. Other guards and scientists begin entering the main dome in a panic to get into one of a submarines. A cracking sound fills the dome as the kraken begins to squeeze the dome. Lars and frost just make it into a sub when the dome collapses, tossing their sub around in fury. An explosion of air bubbles and debris escape and rush toward the surface, carrying the submarine in its wake. After the water settles, frost pilots the sub out of the water filled dome and sees…the Squid ripping apart another sub and devouring the unfortunate occupants. As the tentacled monstrosity grabs their sub, Frost and Lars wait for the inevitable.
Meanwhile, O’Grady finds that all the tunnels from his dome are filled with water. The power goes out and emergency lights come on as O’Grady furiously searches around for something…ANYTHING to save his skin. He eventually finds an (ARMORED DEEP SEA SUIT) and quickly dons it, sealing himself in. Grabbing a repeating harpoon gun, he braces himself and shoots out a porthole, patiently waiting till the dome fills enough before breaching the dome to escape to the outer sea. He gets sight of the Kraken with a submarine, bashing it playfully at the pillars of Atlantis, releasing ink into the water as it does. O’Grady discovers to his horror, that Frost is peering out of the cockpit of the sub. Finally figuring out the controls of the armored deep-sea suit, O’Grady rockets toward the ink cloud, closing the distance to the giant squid. Once he gets within range, he takes aim at the creatures eye and shoots it with the harpoon gun…another harpoon automatically loads, and he continues firing till the beasts death throes subside. Our three heroes make it to the surface and Frost tows O’Grady toward the eastern coast of the united states.
Intra scenario storyline: 4-5 After securing storage for their new sub and deep sea suit, the 3 head back to their base to study their newly acquired artifacts and try to make sense of this last adventure. At the last minute before their departure, Roy is hurt as a vehicle he is working on falls on him, crushing his legs. Though Virginia wants to join the next expedition , she stays behind to nurse Roy back to health as she has grown quite fond of him.
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Chapter 5 writeup:
Chapter 5 “FEUER” note: Handouts that you discovered are in parenthesis and caps
Day 1: Having already made their way to the beginning of the Aleutians islands off the coast of Alaska, Lars, Grayson and O’Darby secure passage on a steamer to the coordinates they have with them. A full day of uneventful travel is ahead of them.
Day 2: The next day, our heroes arrive at a volcanic island south of Alaska that doesn’t seem to be on any of the captain’s maps. (VOLCANIC ISLAND) After making a circuit of the isle and finding no sign of habitation, the Captain finds a spot to drop a launch. The Captain agrees to wait for a few days. Our heroes go ashore, and after poking around the island, they find a steam vent that is large enough to enter. Night is falling so they camp for the night.
Day 3: Following the vent, it opens up into a series of caves and they encounter a guard dressed in a heat resistant suit. They dispatch him with a few well placed shots. After many hours of exploration, they stumble upon a side storage chamber for heat resistant suits, which they don before moving on. They find a locked door that O’Darby picks. The doorway leads to a large chamber with walls of fused glass that house some sort of reactor harnessing the power of the volcano, extracting energy from the lava. The far side of the chamber opens up into the cone of the volcano and other chambers can be seen around the inside of the cone. A pathway spirals up the inside of the cone, providing access to the various levels of the complex.
Day 4: After resting in a well hidden side chamber, they make their way carefully up the pathway to the next higher level which is a large room that contains another of the glowing circles set in the floor. Red clad guards patrol, along with a few red clad workers. Our heroes watch for a while, then make their way into the room. As Frost is peeking down into the cinder cone, a Guard walks up to him and speaks something unintelligible in German. Grayson points to the lava below, and when the guard looks over the edge, Grayson bumps him off the side. The guard screams as he plummets, bringing a few onlookers. Grayson and O’Darby take this time of confusion to make their way down a side passage, Lars takes another due to more guards that have come up. It seems that no one saw Frost Bump the guard and it is deemed an accident, so everyone goes back to their business at hand.
The hall Frost and O’Darby have chosen goes on for 50 feet before barred doors appear on both sides. The hall is obviously a cell block. Frost enters a cell to have a look about, and is stunned by the sound of the door slamming behind him, followed by the hoarse laugh from a BloodGuard who peers through the bars of the cell. “I should have seen that coming!” Frost grumbles. The Bloodguard’s mirth is cut short by O’Darby leaping onto his back and ramming his knife to the hilt in his spine, twisting it to open the wound. The Guard twitches, groans and crumples to the floor. O’Darby grins through the bars at Frost. Unfortunately, the scuffle has drawn the attention of another BloodGuard in the cell across the hall. O’Darby hears a grunt and spins to see a BloodGuard opening the cell door behind him from within. Just then, an old man leaps up behind the guard and calls out to O’Darby, but the BloodGuard backhands the old man to the floor, and charges, slamming into O’Darby and propelling him into the Frost’s cell door. The Bloodguard is strong, but O’Darby’s superior training levels out the playing field. O’Darby manages to get the BloodGuard against the bars and Frost reaches through the bars to put a chokehold upon the guard until O’Darby finishes him with his knife. O’Darby quickly picks the lock and Frost’s cell door is opened. They enter the cell that holds the old man and turn him over…it is Jacov Ben’Dare! Jacov is injured and unconscious, but alive. They hide the dead guards in another cell under some blankets and lock the door, then try to formulate a plan to rescue Jacov before bringing the old man out of his cell; Jacov could be a hindrance in the shoot and run that is bound to ensue. Frost and O’Darby have made their way back to the main chamber where they peer out seemingly incognito to see a tall fellow that looks to be Liam Neph come forward and kneel before the floor mosaic, raising his arms to invoke the “EYE” A red robed figure appears above the EYE and speaks to “Liam”. Just then, a worker across the room spies the 2 crouching in the hallway and calls out to them. Grayson replies with lead, felling the man. Feuer barks an order and the guards open fire, Frost and O’Darby return fire.
Meanwhile: Lars has padded down the hall he has chosen and found a room holding ancient documents. (SEMIHAZA SCROLL (P3) AND TRANSLATION), (SECRETS OF ENOCH (P11). After stuffing the pilfered documents into his scrip, Lars exits the room and continues down the hall, away from the main chamber that seems to lead to the quarter area of the complex. 3 guards round the corner and almost bump into Lars. The lead guard speaks to Lars while holding an unlit cigarette. Lars fumbles over his German language as he reaches into his pocket, seemingly for a lighter as the guards chuckle at his grammar faux pauxes. Just then, the sound of gunfire comes down the hall from the main chamber behind and the guards look past Lars, confused. Knowing the jig is up, Lars whips out his pistol and shoots the cigarette holding guard in the chest before diving behind a crate, that turns out to be a cardboard box. The remaining 2 startled guards fumble for their pistols and seek cover back beyond the corner. Deciding the cardboard to be poor cover indeed., Lars leaps up and spins to sprint down the hall the way he had come, but two more guards had come from a side door due to the gunfire and call out, leveling their rifles at him. Lars dives to the floor, rolling and firing. One of the guards is grazed as is Lars. Then begins a strange danse as Lars dodges and shoots while the guards try to get a bead on him. Lars eventually gets the best of them, killing 2 and causing the other 2 to flee, wounded.
Back in the main chamber, Feuer is hit and limps down a side passage. A shot glances from the wall by O’Darby, fired from behind him. More guards with machine guns have come up from the hall beyond the cells and are firing the 2, who seek refuge from the crossfire in the cell doorways. The outcome looks bleak, so Frost pops a grenade and tosses it down the hall, shouting “RUN” to O’Darby. The 2 charge toward the main cavern, firing as they do. Frost and O’Darby charge into the chamber as the grenade goes off, firing at the guards and Sergeant Feuer, who has returned with a machine gun. Frost and O’Darby cross the hall in a hail of gunfire, but miraculously, neither is hit as they dash behind the outcrop that shields the spiral path to the lower level. They continue the firefight from behind cover. O’Darby comments on the approaching lack of ammunition, and to compensate, tosses a grenade at Feuer where it explodes. Feuer, having lost an arm in the explosion, and bleeding from many horrible wounds, throws himself upon the “EYE” calling out in a loud voice “ARMER’AEL… AID ME!” The red robed figure reappears and they both wink out of existance. Lars appears and after our heroes mop up the remaining guards, they round up the scattered scientists and escort them to the cells for later interrogation. They then explore the site to find: a platform with a dirigible outside, Feuer’s office, which holds: (849 WEEKS FRAGMENT (F4). In Feuer’s library, they find (GENEAOLOGY DOCUMENT) and the (COORDINATES OVERLAY) They also find an archive, with (FEUER SECRETS TABLET) and a strange carving (ATOM CARVING) They find huge laboratories with weapons and experiments on atomic power, etc. Lars finds a carved hallway and upon entering falls to his knees as a booming voice fills his head… (Know me and fear, for I ARMER’AEL , master of fire and the hidden powers.) Returning to Jacov’s cell, they find him waking with a nasty headache and a bruised face from the buffeting of the BloodGuard. He thanks them for their assistance and asks about Virginia. In his cell is his satchell, which has in it: (MAPS OF PALESTINE), (GILGAL REFAIM NOTES)
Inter scenario storyline: 5-6 After radioing for help, The “Agency” shows up to sanatize the site and take care of the prizoners. Back at the command post, Jacov translates 2 parchments from the Feuer base: (649 WEEK FRAG), (AZAZ’AEL NOTES). Our heroes determine the first is speaking of the year 1939., the second names the last of the 6 fallen watchers. One contact, has discovered a business card. (LIAM’S OLD BUSINESS CARD). All of Jacov’s research notes are sifted through. (JACOV’S AMULET DRAWING). They discover that Jerusalem may be the center. Jacov later corrects them on their coordinates and shows that the center is MY GOD IN HEAVEN! Gilgal Refaim. Lars thinks to later make use of the island for his power base, but an unfortunate eruption of the volcano, brought on by Feuer’s experiments, seemingly wipes out any evidence of the base.
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I am reworking my notes to be more user friendly and the 9 chapters to be more module oriented.
I have had a little interest from the BBS, hopefully some of you can enjoy these senarios also.
I will post the writeups of chapters 6-9 when I get them done.
BTW "And Also After", refers to Genesis 6:4 "The Nephilim were in the earth in those days AND ALSO AFTER, when the sons of God came into the daughters of men and bore children by them, they were the giants of old"
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I'm one of those interested parties- and thank you ever so much. The pack I received from you is keeping me rather busy at the moment, and is providing good entertainment for my guys (we play infrequently, using Skype, as we're on three continents).
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Christ, man! Do you expect us to read all this?! :-)
I think it is more "abraham" man, do you expect us to read all this? ;)
very cool - no doubt this is meant to be roleplaying?
the nice thing is that you can use this story for any century up to the pulp setting, since it begins with the flood...
without wanting to hurt anyones' religious feelings - it looks like someone was bored with his talmud classes ;)
will Tom hanks come into play at some point? ;)
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I just had no problem reading through this, and let me say what a great read it was. I look forward to seeing how it all ends up.
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Olaf...Glad you are enjoying the stuff, as unorganized as it is...let me know when and I'll send you more chapters.Also, you mentioned posting some up on your page, feel free to post anything you wish.
Other guys: Yes, it is role playing, and my writeups are of the PC's adventures through the "modules" of the storyline.
My origional intent was to have "transportation" based adventuring between the chapters, as the PCs travel from 1 senario to the next using pulpy themes like Zepps, tramp steamers, submarines, Auto Gyros, earth borers, etc, but due to time constraints, I just drew their travel paths on the map in red ink while playing the Indiana Jones theme music :D
I am sure you readers have figured it out, but the PCs are:
Michael O'leary: Our wayward MI6 operative (aptly named O'(something) in each different senario.
Chang: Our Bruce Lee look-alike
Grayson Frost: Our P.I. type fellow, poor guy, might have to send him to Archam after the adventure wraps up.
Lars: Interesting fellow, an immortal, who doesnt know his background, as he "forgets" every 616 years (I worked a little of Lars into the storyline). Joe plays Lars no matter what genre we play!
Wraith
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Great stuff here - looking forward to the other chapters.
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Ok, so for those of you that have received chapter 1, either in part or complete, you still need the "Dig Journal"
It happens to be 83MB, (mostly "Drawings") so I cant e-mail it, as I am limited to 5MB attachments
I may have to find a place to upload it, so you all can download it from there.
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o_o
wonderful
You want to start an online RPG campaign?
If You invested so much time on this, maybe You should go professional with it?
my respect
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Ok, So I finished up reorganizing things, and I will be sending out updates next week for chapter 1, and sending to some of you interest parties for the first time. I noticed a few things missing also that I added.
I may have figured out a way to compress the dig journal so I can e-mail it (HTML and ZIP)
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OK, online would just take too much time, as I am still developing new stuff for my players ;D
I think in the future, I am going to organize my stuff in more modular form, so if I pass it on, I wont have to re-work it, like I am doing this Pulps opus.
BTW: Lordblackwing and diehard should have got e-mail packages.
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I have indeed received the packet and look forward to more. The layout is better than some "real" supplements I have purchased. ::) Hope you can solve the DIG problem.
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Package received here, thank you Wraith for not only putting so much time into this but also for taking the time to share it with us. Besides being a most enjoyable read (and very well laid out) it's jam packed full of great ideas some of which are bound to make it into an epic adventure I'd been planning for a long time. After seeing what you've done here I'm more motivated than I've been in a long time. Thanks again.
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Sure guys, glad you are enjoying it.
And remember, the package is only the first of 9 chapters.
When I get Chapter 2 organized, I will be sending it out also.
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Chapter 6 “GILGAL REFAIM” Note: Handouts are in parenthesis and caps.
Storyline 1: Back at their new command post, in Jerusalem, Jacov translates 2 parchments from the Feuer base: (649 WEEK FRAG), (AZAZ’AEL NOTES). Our heroes determine the first is speaking of the year 1939., the second details the last of the 6 fallen watchers, Azaz’Ael, also known as Azrael. One contact, has discovered (LIAM’S OLD BUSINESS CARD). All of the previous research notes are sifted through. (JACOV’S AMULET DRAWING). They discover that Jerusalem may be the epicenter of all that’s going on. Jacov later corrects them on their coordinates and shows that the center is Gilgal Refaim.
After spending not a little time going over the clues they have amassed, Our heroes; Grayson Frost, Lars Hampton, Chang and Michael O’Shucks determine that their path lies in search of the Gilgal Refaim ruin, but decide to visit the address on the business card in the old Jewish quarter. 616 Goyim street in Jerusalem first. They find an old residence of Liams and no one at home. Virginia asks a neighbor (in Yiddish) about Liam and is told that nobody has been at home for at least a year and that the house is the oldest in the Jewish Quarter. O’Parsley picks the lock and they enter the premises. ONCE INSIDE, they spread out to search the place. The place seems to be a standard middle eastern flat of 3 rooms, a main living area, complete with hearth, and 2 smaller side rooms. Lars heads for the far door, and finding it locked, calls O’Malley over to make short work of it. Behind the door is a small office, complete with an ancient carved desk and a large barrister bookcase against the rear wall. The large carpet on the floor immediately attracts Lars’s attention,…he likes old musty carpets and such… and he lifts the corner of it with his shoe. Underneath, he finds tessera inlaid in the floor. After moving the desk, our heroes roll up the entire carpet and find the (LARGE FLOOR MOSAIC). On the desk is a mobile that seems to be some sort of planetary model, though the number and location of the planets is all wrong. (ATOM MOBIL) In the drawers of the desk are some of Liam’s personal papers, letters and such, but nothing of import. The barrister bookcase holds various occult and holy land historical reference books. Virginia Finds some jewelry and trinkets in a box on the bookcase, and claims a (SUNBURST AMULET) for herself…the green cabochon stone matches the color of her eyes. Noticing that the bookcase is bolted to the wall with brackets, Frost decides to tear it loose to see if there is anything behind. There is, a (SKELETAL FRESCO OF DEATH) done in the medieval style. Lars determines that it is 500 years old. O’Malley searches the kitchen cabinets, but finds nothing but a few empty jars, some old plate and a mouse nest or 2. While looking up the chimney, he espies some charred paper in the hearth ashes. It is the remains of a document that refers to a change of legal name from Ivan Draganov to Liam Neph! (NAME CHANGE DOCUMENT). It seems they are one and the same person. O’Malley searches the other room. In it is a large bed 8 feet long. (He short sheets it LOL) he searches the dresser to find a strange spiral mobile (COLORED MOBIL OF COMPLEX). On the side table is a book written in Latin. (BOOK TITLED: DEATH WAITS FOR NO MAN) Further searching of cabinets and drawers turns up more research papers and occult literature. While looking at the kitchen table, Frost notices a piece of paper under the couch, retrieving it he finds (SOLSTICE PAGE WITH CROSS SECTION OF GILGAL REFAIM COMPLEX ON BACK). Heading to their flat for the night, our heroes lay out the clues from their day-trip for study. It is then that Frost notices that the amulet has opened and the green jewel is actually a green eye,(AMULET OPENED) looking about. He smashes the amulet in disgust, the eyes of the Watchers are everywhere it seems.
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How on earth did I miss this? It is quite excellent.
I'd love to see the whole thing sometime and perhaps paly it out with some friends.
Well done - and Idon't mind at all the text presentation.
Thanks for sharing
Alan
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Gilgal Refaim Continued:
Storyline 2: ( The German Fortress) Getting an early start, our heroes head to the (GILGAL REFAIM RUIN) atop Mount Harmon before sunrise. Having learned that Gilgal Refaim means Circle of the Giants, out heroes are dubious on what they may find there. The ruin seems to be of little interest though, other than matching the diagrams among the paperwork. A fortress style compound sits approx 600 feet (616 to be exact) to the West, abutting the base of the small plateau upon which sits the ruin. The compound consists of a 15’ tall walled rectangle with higher guard towers at each corner. The walls follow the contours of the land on the outside, remaining the same height at all elevations. The side of the compound farthest up the hill, has a guard house the entire length between the two flanking towers. They try to bluff their way in the front gates by posing as messengers of Liam, and get nowhere, till a disturbance interrupts their dialogue. Seeing this as their moment, our heroes burst past the guards in a hail of gunfire. The guards in the towers open fire and it becomes a free for all until the fortress is taken. Eventually, the commander is put to the question… He speaks about the huge gates opening today and supplies arriving to be taken inside. That is all he seems to know. Rifling the paperwork on the officers desk reveals (CALENDAR OF SOLSTICES) All the German soldiers in the compound have interesting patches on their coats. (GUARDS COAT PATCH). After binding the survivors, the compound is searched. Other than the normal personal effects in the barracks, the mechanics shed reveals 2 large battery operated spotlights, rope, haversacks and other implements that they decide to equip themselves with. Some magazines are noticed on the workbench. (AMAZING STORIES MAGAZINE)
The sun breaks the horizon as they are poking about the compound Just then, the set of huge doors set into the up hill side of the complex begins to open, and a bloody brown coated man is seen stumbling from farther within and falls in the chamber just inside the doors. Following close behind is a white-clad BloodGuard, Hell bent on dragging the fellow back in. Our heroes drop the Bloodguard in a hail of gunfire and rush to the fallen fellow. The man clenches Lars coat and burbles: (“Speak…’Ael…names”) , then he dies. A name tag reveals the corpse to be DR. GRUEBER. On his brown colored lab coat is a (SCIENTIST COAT PATCH) The body is searched to reveal: a gore covered, (BROWN CRYSTAL CHIT) found clenched in his hand and (EQUINOX AND SOLSTICE PAPER) in the Doctors pocket. A blood trail leads down the tunnel where DR. Grueber seems to have dragged himself along before succumbing to his wounds. O’Leary notices the gore on the fellow’s hand seems to have come from another source than his own wounds, and a strange idea springs to his mind. Rushing over to the fallen BloodGuard, O’Grady begins to run his hands over the corpse, then he exclaims “FOUND IT!”. Pulling out his knife, he slits open the BloodGuards chest and pries something loose that is embedded into the breastbone… a rainbow hued crystal chit. Virginia cries out at the violent gusto at which O’Leary had sliced away. Grinning strangely, O’Darby heads past a slot in the floor, exiting the chamber to follow a tunnel that leads into the hillside, under the Gilgal Refaim ruins. As he disappears into the gloom, switching on the lamp he is holding, a slab of steel starts to rise from the slot in the floor. Frost, Lars and Virginia look at each other, then leap over the rising steel slab and follow O’Leary into the tunnel.
The sides are smooth and the tunnel seems to be a new excavation hewn into the living rock. The end of the 600 or so foot long tunnel (which runs along the 33.33 degree north parallel, obviously) opens into a huge 6 pointed star shaped room approximately 600 feet from star-point to star-point. The floors, walls and ceiling are of a highly polished black material. , and each point of the star has a large, colored mosaic triangle in the center of it. Upon close inspection of the central area , it is noticed that the floor there actually seems to be clear, perhaps glass or crystal, though all the heroes see through it is the darkness below. Lars shines a spot-light from the military compound downward, and they see the sides of a shaft below, with platforms spiraling downward that resemble the mosaics that make up the points of the star in the room they are now in. Each platform is colored the same as the mosaic directly above it. The ceiling extends some 100 feet overhead into the darkness, ending in a dome. When the spotlight is shown upward, (THE MURAL) is seen above, painted on the domed ceiling. Our heroes notice that when one of the triangle “mosaics” located upon the star points is stood upon by O’Leary, they illuminate, each one in its color, and a Nephilim Symbol appears in the center of the triangle, with 3 different, smaller ones on its corners. A little experimentation reveals that whoever is in possession of the rainbow hued crystal, will illuminate all the mosaics when standing on them. But the Brown crystal only illuminates the Brown triangle mosaic. Frost investigates the brown crystal chit, finally shining a light through it to see the (BROWN CRYSTAL CHIT HIDDEN MARKINGS) A little further investigations show that 4 of the central markings match up with the symbols representing the 4 watchers from the 4 previous sites , and the markings within the brown crystal match up with Azak’Ael, from the first site on Kelpart island. At this point, our heroes are tired beyond belief, and after determining that they cannot re-open the outer rising steel door, they decide to camp just within it, in case it re-opens on it’s own. “Hmmm, the size of this complex is suitable for giants exclaims Virginia”, after they are set for the night. When questioned about it, she tells the other 3 that Gilgal Refaim actually means “ Circle of the Giants”
Storyline 3: (Secret of the Star Chamber) In the morning, they make their way back to the star chamber, as the doors haven’t re-opened. Virginia determines from the papers that they pillaged from the Nazi commanders desk that the doors open only on the solstices, which could bode ill for our band of adventurers. After 6 hours of fruitlessly searching the chamber, our heroes sit down to eat and converse. After a while, they hear a loud pop and turn to investigate. Bullets erupt from the far end of the room and a Red clad Bloodguard is advancing on them, spraying bullets as he comes. Diving behind their gear, the heroes return fire, finally felling the evil thing. O’Grisly sets about his grotesque task of recovering yet another crystal chit from the fallen foes breastbone, this time, a red one. After bandaging a few minor wounds they received in the engagement, the 4 look about, trying to discover where the Bloodguard came from. They can find no hidden door in the rooms outer walls, and are scratching their heads in frustration when Lars, now in possession of the brown hued crystal, suddenly remembers what Dr. Grueber had said to him the day before. Ergo; “Speak…’Ael Names”. He blurts out “Aels are Watchers!” Pulling out some of his notes whereon he has written down the names of the 7 Watchers, he selects a mosaic at random, which just happens to be the red one. He stands upon it and begins speaking the names of the Watchers. Nothing seems to happen though, and he moves to the brown colored star point. Again he goes through his list of Watcher names with nothing happening. He moves from the center of the star point to one of the smaller symbols in the corner of the large mosaic. When he says the name Azk’Ael, the room flashes and a loud POP is heard. Virginia screams as Lars seems to have vaporized right before her eyes. Lars experiences something different. The room changes before his eyes, unfortunately his friends have disappeared. Lars quickly scans the room and decides that it isn’t vaporization, it is teleportation; he has been teleported to another room. The room is a 6 pointed star the same size as the previous , but it is situated inside a hexagon. In the center of the star, a dark shaft extending downwards. A smallish hexagon shaped (MONOLITH) floats in the center of the shaft, hanging unsupported in the air. Not wanting to go it alone, Lars goes after his 3 companions. A little experimentation with the symbols in the corners of the brown teleportation triangle, using the Nephilim name he previously used, returns him back to the chamber where his friends are greatly relieved to see him. After not a little explanation, followed by discussion, they all agree that their way forward is in Lars capable hands. Together with all their gear, they step on the red mosaics corner that Lars indicates, and speaking the name of the watcher Azk’Ael they await what happens, dubiously. Their ears pop and dizziness overcomes them. When their heads clear, they find that the room has changed dramatically, and they have all appeared in the chamber that Lars discovered earlier.
After the four heroes recover their composure and get their bearings, the place comes into focus. Lars seems to have been unaffected by the teleportation for some reason unknown to the other 3. A star similar to the 1 in the previous chamber covers the floor, the room is shaped a little differently, though and they set about exploring the room. The floating monolith has a 6 pointed star graven into it’s top and is too far to reach easily. After O’Henry shines his light upward, they discover that the dark shaft extends upwards, and a device that seems to be a large version of the amulet that Frost destroyed, is situated high above within the shaft. (EYE OF SEMIHAZ’AEL) Frost notices that one of the sigils on the 3 corners of each star point is different from the ones in the previous room. Lars postulates that from his experimentation, he thinks that the different symbols lead to different rooms, and the names of the watchers match up with each teleporter. Also The colored crystals only work the color matching teleporter. “What about this one?” Interjects O’Smiley. Holding up the rainbow colored crystal. “I don’t know.” Replies Lars, “But lets find out!”
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I am going to finish up the writeups before I get back to organizing the Modules. I hope you folks are patient!
I already have the 3 chapters following this one written up, so once I finish with Gilgal Refaim, the other ones will come in short order.
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(Brown Sector) HANDOUTS AND CLUES ARE IN CAPS AND BRACKETS:, AS USUAL
Holding the Brown Crystal, Lars leads the heroes to stand on a different symbol on the corner of the brown mosaic. He repeats the name Azk’Ael, and the earth shifts yet again to deposit the 4 on another platform. The place where they stand seems to be a twin of the brown star point, though there are no other star points, only the central shaft. Frost consults his trusty compass for bearings before pointing out that far down the shaft is the great “Eye”, and spiraling upward and downward are more platforms, representing the 6 different colors from the original star shaped room. There are 2 arched doorways leading to the north and west. O’Darby covers the westward arch while the other 3 move to the northward opening and peer through to see a room filled with electrical equipment of dubious origin. O’Darby signals the all clear from where he is looking through the Western arch. Frost, Virginia and Lars proceed through the northern arch and start looking about. “What the!” they are surprised by none other than Sergeant Erde, wearing the same brown duds that he had on at the Earth site back on Kelpart Island. Erde goes for his Broomhandle mauser, but it hangs up in the holster. Our heroes, already having their guns out, blaze away. Erde is hit, and dives behind a console. Lars dives beside the console and fires, then signals the other 2, for Erde was already dead, prior to Lar’s shot. O’Funky comes running, his pistol at the ready, calling for a SITREP. Searching through Erde’s lab coat pockets, they find a large, brown, metal triangle (BROWN TESSERA) with an eye emblazoned upon it. They continue through the room, finding more equipment of a biological nature, along with a large statue (EARTH STATUE) resembling a lion headed angel. In the room are huge vats, filed with simi-liquid matter that is being pumped through 6 large pipes into the floor. Moving in a counter-clockwise fashion they exit an arch to end at the brown teleporter platform where they started.
Lars directs his 3 compatriots back onto the same symbol on the teleporter before he speaks the name Azk’Ae. The teleporter energizes, taking them to yet another platform that resembles the 1 they just left. Determining the level to be laid out as the one they just explored, they advance guns at the ready, again counterclockwise, ready for anything. The find a (Hiding Scientist 2*). The scientist is a lunatic, but his ravings seem to contain something of use. It seems that if a man enters into the open eye, he will go insane. Frost postulates that the “EYE” obviously refers to the strange “Gates” that appear at each site wherein the ‘Aels can manifest to their minions… and if madness ensues upon entering…perhaps mortals cannot travel by them. Further exploration reveals a lab area with strange experiments and embryonic creatures in jars and a furnace wherein biological matter can be disposed of. (FLAMETHROWER for bio disposal) Having found nothing more of use, and deciding that the raving scientist would only give them away, the 4 dispose of the atrocities, leave the man behind and return to the teleporter to travel to their next destination. Another area similar to the last 1 greets them as they res back into existence. Moving more quickly through this level, which also seems to be a laboratory of sorts, they discover test tube and petri dish experiments, more basic than the experiments in the last area. On a desk, Lars discovers a (SCIENTIFIC TABLE) that shows the basic elements. Our heroes determine that experiments at the molecular level are taking place here. As they complete the circuit, they discover (Hiding Scientist 1*), underneath a lab table. The man is going into convulsions and frothing at the mouth. He tries to communicate, but dies before he can make himself understood. More searching reveals another corpse, as they return to the teleporter. As they stand on the teleporter, a cry sounds from up the shaft. “No, NO!...AAAHHHHhhhhhhhh!” Another scientist, clad in a brown coat, arches outward from overhead into the well, arms flailing, to fall downward, his screams echoing off the walls of the shaft. A wet crunch follows as he hits the floating platform , far below, then, slipping over the edge, he disappears into the darkness beyond.
Reloading their firearms and preparing to fire, the 4 heroes teleport to the next level, ready for anything. The teleporter room is empty, so Lars, Virginia and Frost head for the right archway, O’Leary heads for the left. Lars leaps back and puts a finger to his lips, silencing the other 2. A brown clad Bloodguard is pacing the area, which seems to be a security room.. Some desks and cabinets are arranged around the place, as is a large cabinet that is sheathed in steel. O’Leary sees a squatting Bloodguard gnawing on the arm that has been torn from a still living Lab assistant, who is trying to crawl away in a trail of his own blood. A signal from O’Leary informs the others that another guard is in the westward room that he is covering. The 4 decide to charge them simultaneously. Lars pairs up with Virginia, and O’Darby with Frost. Frost gives the signal and the 4 charge through the 2 archways, firing as they run. Surprised, both Bloodguard try to return fire, the feeding one throws the arm he is eating first, but they both go down before they can inflict any casualties. “These Brown Bloodguard seem to have run amok” States O’Sammy. “I don’t remember them being so barbaric before. “A quick circuit of the level reveals another brown clad (BLOODGUARD ON A LAB TABLE), with his chest cut open. He has been dead a day or two, and they surmise that Dr.Grueber had removed the brown Crystal chit from this guard before trying to escape the complex. The rooms where they killed the 2 BloodGuard hold 2 security lockers that O’Gradey picks. Inside 1 are some syringes labeled with symbols that nobody recognizes, the other holds 9mm ammunition. By this time, everyone has scavenged machineguns from the bloodguard, so they load up on the 9mm ammo. The next teleportation takes them back to the star chamber where they first entered the complex.
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(Grey Sector) HANDOUTS AND CLUES ARE IN CAPS AND BRACKETS:, AS USUAL
Our heroes take stock of their provisions before continuing onward. Having determined that some of the colors are matched to the colors of the 4 previous sites, Lars selects grey mosaic and they step aboard. No symbols light up though. Virginia has an idea, that they need a grey crystal to activate the grey teleporter. They don’t have a grey 1, but after some discussion, O’Leary pulls out the iridescent crystal. “Try this 1 .” He says. Lars takes the crystal and the glyphs light up. Lars than says the name of the Air Watcher, Barak’Ael, and they dematerialize, to be reconstituted on a lower grey level. The layout seems to be the same as the previous, though it is aligned differently to the compass points. They decide to make a quick run of the Grey Levels, of which there are probably 4, so they situate themselves appropriately, guns at the ready. Teleporting to sub level 1 in the Grey sector and finding nothing in the security areas to either side of the teleporter, our heroes continue counterclockwise into the large area they know to be there. There they find a Grey clad bloodguard among a room of slaughtered scientists in what looks to be living quarters. The heroes trade hot lead for a time with the Bloodguard until he succumbs to their superior firepower. After the gun battle, they find a scientist hiding under a bed. Frost speaks to him for some time and learn that mortals will go insane if they travel through one of the EYES, as they will be exposed to “Ether” which makes up the void. Before he can tell them more, another Bloodguard bursts into their midst, and begins sweeping the company with his machine gun. After dispatching the Bloodguard, they discover the scientist has died from a gunshot wound to the chest. They sweep the level for any more Bloodguard and finding none, they bind their wounds and search the place to find nothing of note but 2 security lockers in the security areas. O’Leary picks them and inside they find more vials of liquid and magazines for the Bloodguard’s machine guns.
Continuing to Grey sub level 2, they find it to be a lab area with work benches filled with ongoing experiments which seem to be of an anti-gravitational nature. There is no one on this level. Among the workbenches, Virginia discovers a (PAPYRUS FRAGMENT) in Greek that she translates. It says; (“unto the ends of the earth thereof”). As they discuss the possible meaning of this fragment, Lars notices something in the shaft area. They make their way to the teleporter mosaic and notice a strange shimmering in the shaft that they know to be present when an EYE is energized. Peering over the edge of the niche to the great eye below, they notice that the eye is opened, and the grey fog is issuing from it. Floating above the open “eye” a figure in white converses with someone standing out of sight levels below to their left in what appears to be the white sector, due to the color of the teleporter mosaic that can just be made out. Amidst the guttural syllables of the lost tongue of the Watchers, the name Semihaz’Ael can be heard spoken by the unseen supplicant. The heroes look at each other knowingly, for that name is the name of the leader of the Watchers of old, the architect of Man’s downfall. The audience comes to an end and the vaporous figure dissolves as the eye closes. O’Stacey had been trying to get a bead on the man who had been talking to the watcher, but the fellow never came into view to offer a clear shot. Determining their search of this level to be complete, they proceed to Grey sub levels 3 , weapons again held at the ready, with safeties off. No Bloodguard or living persons are found on this level, but they do find another (GREY TESSERAE) metal triangle with an eye in the middle of it, that matches the Brown one found earlier. They tuck it into a rucksack along with the brown one and continue their search. The only other thing they find is a strange (ARCHIVAL CARVING) before proceeding to the next level.
Grey sub level 4 has more interesting apparatus with 6 grey pipes running into the floor in the same manner as the brown pipes on the lower level of the Brown sector. Attached to the apparatus, control panels and graphing devices seem to display and record heart beats, breathing and similar life signs for 6 patients that have yet to be seen. Noticing that Sgt Luft is not present anywhere in the grey sector, Frost postulates that he didn’t survive the disastrous destruction of the floating city that he was named for….Or perhaps he is somewhere in the complex, adds Virginia. She also notes it is strange that all of the gunshots and ruckus haven’t brought intervention or even seemed to get attention from many of the Bloodguard in the complex. Obviously, since the Bloodguard have been busy slaughtering any scientists, the carnage of the heroes just blended in with the background chaos. Lars brings to their attention that the screams of victims being tossed into the well has subsided, and Now that the general slaughter has subsided, they need to watch the gunfire as it might draw unwanted attention. “The Bloodguard cant seem to leave their designated sector”, Frost speculates, “but can all go to the top most level…the star chamber as it were.” The heroes decide not to go to the top level unless completely necessary, as they are pretty beat up by now and determine that they may not be able to withstand the results of another gunfight.
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Moving along;
I have the chapter 2 module reorganization complete, and as soon as I can figure out how to convert it to a PDF, I will send it out to the previously interested parties who received chapter 1, which I can resend after converting to PDF also, if desired.
Anyone else interested just chime in and I will get you on the distribution list.
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Sent it out, let me know if you asked to be on the list and didnt get it.
Johnny C
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I got it, thanks very much, I appreciate all the effort you go to with this :)
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I am finished with the chapter 3 module and most of the chapter 4 module.
I will get them to the folks on my list when I get back from vacation in a few weeks.
I have a group playtesting these for me in Indianapolis, and they are having a blast. The GM has dropped the ball a few times, but thats to be expected as he is also playtesting my ASAP rules for this campaign.
later all,
Wraith
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Hey all,
I am actually working on chapter 5 (FEUER) now, but I havent sent out chapter 4 (WASSER) since the file size exceeds what my e-mail will do.
Since each chapter is really divided into sub chapters of a sort, I may just break them up that way.
On a related topic, I am no professional mind you, but IMHO the quality of my handouts has been getting better, (or perhaps just more elaborate) and so that is the reason for the increase in file size.
More later, including perhaps more of the storyline ;D
Wraith
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Chapter 4 just went out to previously interested parties...in 4 e-mails, mind you, due to max file size I can send.
Tell me what you think.
Wraith
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Ok, back to the storyline...finally. This is a quick recap as I seem to have lost the real writeup of the rest of this chapter. full writeups of the following chapters are forthcoming.
They teleport to the lowest level, the 1 holding the floating monolith, since they think they can access all the different colored sectors from there and they may avoid being surprised by Bloodguard in the star-chamber as they had previously been. Choosing the red sector next, they jump aboard the red teleporter and pronouncing the name Armak’Ael , they rez out of existence.
(Red Sector) Re-materializing in the red sector, sub level 4, our heroes immediately fall into a defensive position before making the rounds of the level. The layout is the same as the previous sectors, with 4 sublevels of the standard floor plan. In addition to the usual slaughtered scientists and workers, Sub level 4 holds a generator of some sort, with its 6 pipes leading into the floor along with associated control equipment. The hum of electrical current can be heard passing through those pipes. Frost notices a (WARNING SIGN) on the generator that O’Malley determines to be some kind of reactor. Rounding the corner, they surprise and engage a BloodGuard who had been flaying a poor scientist. Superior firepower prevails, but the scientist is beyond help. Unfortunately, some stray rounds have damaged the reactor and larger equipment in the area and the power flickers for a few moments. Moving on to sub level 3, which holds offices and labs, O’Henry discovers a (POPULAR ELECTRICS MAGAZINE) but nothing else of note. They finish their search and teleport to sub-level 2. here are more abandoned labs where they discover an (ATOM DRAWING) and a (HANDHELD METER) The meter ticks and registers when held up to some rock samples near it. Moving on to Sub-level 1, they discover the corpse of Sgt. Feuer from the Volcano site in an office converted to a medical facility. He seems to have succumbed to gunshot wounds that had never properly healed. On his person, they find the (RED TESSERAE) After a fruitless search, they load up on ammunition from the security cabinets before teleporting to the monolith room and proceeding to the next color coded sector.
(Blue Sector) Materializing in sub level 4 of the Blue sector, they again take defensive positions. Finding nobody around, our heroes make their way around the rooms. Large machineries fill the place, along with the ubiquitous 6 pipes running into the floor, these are carrying strange fluids to who knows where. Finding nothing else of note, they teleport to sub level 3 where they find labs containing various chemical experiments. Fooling around with some chemicals and searching the alembics and beakers, Lars discovers a type of (MOLECULAR ACID) that seems to eat through anything, except the strange beaker that holds it. Finding a stopper of similar material, he plugs the beaker and places it in his pack, deciding it may be of use later. After teleporting to sub-level 2, Frost notices that the occasional scream of victims has diminished, boding ill for the remaining scientist population of the complex. A search of the labs reveals nothing of import other than a (MOLECULE MODEL), so they decide to move on. The labs of level 1 are empty except for the (BLUE TESSERA) that they find locked in the security locker after O’Malley deftly picks the lock.
(Black sector) Teleporting to and quickly moving through sub level 4 of the Black sector, our heroes discover it to be abandoned of the living, but peopled by 7 foot tall copies of the sergeants in glass capsules. Each capsule has 5 colored pipes running into them that match the pipes that the saw running into the floor in the previous levels. On the tables, they find A (SPIRAL MODEL) That Lars proclaims to be DNA. On the wall is a large (STONE CARVING) . Virginia, who has remained quiet for some time, begins unhooking the pipes and equipment from the artificial “wombs”. As she does, the others join in until all the clones are flopping in their glass capsules. Alarms sound from the electronic monitoring equipment and not being able to turn them off, O’Malley sprays the console with gunfire until the alarms cease. Moving to sub level 3, they discover pretty much the same setup, but in the capsules are smaller sized clones of Bloodguard visage. A quick reconnoiter turns up a (BLACK TESSERA). Another disconnecting of equipment begins and Virginia turns off the alarms with a smirk at O’Malley. a turning off of the alarms follows.. Further searching reveals nothing of note, though a foreboding begins to overtake the group of heroes.. Moving to Sub level 3, they discover a control room that overlooks a bay of cages. In the control room they find (CHROMOSOME NOTES) and a (BATCH LIST) that describes different “batches” of clones and their associated physical and mental features. Moving to the cage area they find all manner of twisted men, ranging in size from 4 feet to an amazing 20 foot behemoth. A closer look reveals that the monstrosities have similar features as the Bloodguards and the Sergeants. Frost postulates that these are failed experiments in genetic manipulation. The power flickers again and Lars suggests they continue on before the power goes out for good. As O’Malley teases one of the creatures, the power shuts down, a few emergency lights come on, followed by the ominous sound of the electric locks on the cages disengaging. Twisted forms leap upon the heroes as they try to get back to the control room. Firing left and right, the heroes form a defensive circle and empty their weapons. Frost’s Thompson SMG jams and he tosses it aside, drawing his Webbly revolver to continue the fight. O’Malley successfully makes it to the control room and climbs on top of the control panel to begin laying down a spray of covering fire. Virginia is down, with a Clone gnawing on her outstretched arm. Lars kicks the monster off and helps the woman to her feet as the 3 wade through clawing and flailing man flesh to where O’Malley is holed up. They make it to safety and jamb the door shut, piling equipment in front of it. Determining the makeshift barrier to be secure, the group checks for wounds and bandages up the bite and claw marks. Luckily, they have escaped pretty much unscathed. After a rest and quick meal, they move on the level 1 where they find row upon row of preserved, twisted bodies in formaldehyde. The power finally comes back on as the auxiliary generator kicks in.
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(White sector)) Moving on to the White sector, sub level 4, The heroes discover a chair with headgear that is attached to a large device with lights and a turntable. In a nearby cabinet is an organized file of vinyl records. Erected in front of the device is a large (MARBLE STATUE). After fiddling around with the equipment and trying out the chair, it is discovered that the device records the memories and thoughts of the wearer of the headgear. Frost deduces that it could also possibly be used to implant thoughts and memories. Virginia points out the colored pipes running into the floor and thinks that since the artificial wombs had pipes going into them, that they were supplied with “building blocks” from the different levels. In this case, the clones may have been programmed with the thoughts of whoever uses the chair. Afraid of the ramifications of implanting thoughts, they decide not to try it, as they don’t know what the person receiving the implant would do afterwards. Removing the needle from the turntable and destroying the rest of the needles in the parts cabinet, the group moves on to sub level 3. Various brains float in jars here, some of them hooked up to devices of dubious nature. One brain, has eyes still attached that look at the heroes as they pass by. A large (DNA MODEL) sits on the table among the brains. Obviously, experiments on the nature of brain matter and intelligence goes on in this lab. They teleport to sub level 2 which turns out to be artifact storage and archives. Strange items fill the place including the undecipherable (SECRETS OF LIFE TABLETS). Afterwards, they explore sub level 1, and discover it to be a well appointed office and library. On the wall next to the ornate desk is a (MAXIMUS THRAX PAINTING). In the desk, they discover a tome that is a (GENEOLOGICAL STUDY). In the tome is a (THRAX BOOKMARK), marking a section that traces the lineage from King Og of Bashan to Ivan Draganov X. Putting 2 and 2 together, Lars and Frost realize that the genealogical studies they have found, along with the name change in Neph’s flat in Jerusalem, along with the biblical records, trace Liam Neph’s ancestry right back to King Og of the Old testament…Liam Neph is descended from Nephilim!, and this is Neph’s office! Meanwhile Virginia has found a safe behind the painting and O’Malley has opened it to find a (WHITE TESSERA) Just then, they hear the buzz of the teleporter and are surprised by 2 Bloodguard and another Sergeant wearing white. A firefight ensues with everyone taking wounds before the first Bloodguard is taken down. Neph is hit in the shoulder, and retreats to a room that the heroes have yet to explore. It takes 15 minutes to down the last Bloodguard and Frost, who is the least injured and most mobile, advances on the room where Neph has disappeared into. A loud clanking machinery resounds through the place as a mechanical man rounds the corner. Frost fills the air with hot lead as he screams for backup. Pinned against the wall, he is swatted aside as a fly by the mechanical thing. He slides across the floor into the next room where Lars, Virginia and O’Leary gape. As the thing rounds the corner, they open fire, but their bullets ricochet off. As the robot looms closer, a face can be seen behind the glass faceplate. The mechanical man is actually an (ARMORED SUIT), and the occupant is Liam Neph! Shooting and dodging ensues until Lars is cut off with his back is to the central well. He cannot use the teleporter because Frost has the iridescent crystal chit at the moment. Thinking fast, he unstoppers the molecular acid and splashes it across the face of the approaching armored Neph. The metal hisses and the occupant screams, but still grabs Lars and raises him to toss him over the edge. Upside down with his arms pinned, all Lars can do is spill the remaining acid onto the leg of the metal monstrosity and try to hang on. Liam Neph tosses Lars over the edge where he falls screaming to land on the huge (EYE OF SEMIHAZ’Ael) that is floating a few levels below; The fall has knocked him unconscious. Meanwhile the others have begun poring round after round into the armored thing, targeting the leg that seems to be melting away. Eventually, the leg can no longer sustain the weight and gives way. Liam Neph falls over the edge and hits the eye, bouncing and sliding toward the edge. As the faceplate and remainder of the leg of Liam’s Armored suits hisses and pops, he totters on the brink, trying to right himself. Lars, having come around, gets to his feet and rushes forward, crashing into the suit with all the force he can muster. Liam topples over the edge, into the blackness of the central well. Lars listens for a crash, but hears nothing. With Liam Neph lost in the depths and the Bloodguard seemingly wiped out. They continue to explore the place at their leisure. Checking the main door down the long tunnel outside the star chamber, they find it closed with no means of egress; it looks like they are trapped until the next equinox…or solstice.
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This really is excellent stuff.
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Thanks.
Its hard for readers to grasp the full scope of the thing, as the readers dont see the (CLUES), just know that the players found them.
Of course, those that have asked for and received the modules... ;) .
I think as I rework this chapter though, I will try to streamline it, it is really monotonous ;D going through all the sub levels just to make a point that the players probally won't notice anyways
Wraith
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(Habitation) Further searching through the library turns up a (LARGE CRYSTAL KEY), and their continued explorations eventually takes them back to the level with the floating monolith. Frost notices that there seems to be lights on top of the monolith that they did not notice previously, so getting a running start, he leaps from the side of the central well onto the top of the monolith. The monolith has the ubiquitous 6 pointed star inlet into the top of it that is glowing. A light goes on in the head of Grayson Frost and he thinks this may be a way to open the main door or find a way of escape. He pulls out the colored triangle tessera that he has and lays it into one of the triangles that make up the star on the altar. It fits, but nothing happens. He moves it to another spot, and with a snap, it clicks into place. Gathering up the different colored triangle tessera from the other 3 heroes, he sets them into the spots facing their prospective compass points matching the colors of the rooms in the complex...until they all click into place. When he finally inserts the large crystal key into the center, the EYE floating the next level up energizes, shooting a beam of light up the length of the central well. “What is in that level, Lars?”, Asks Frost, pointing up to the level where floats the huge Eye device. “You were the only one of us that was there.” “Nothing but some steel tracks of the sort used for mining carts, and the large eye…or whatever it is called.” Answers Lars. “Well something is going on up there.” Interjects O’Malley, “We better check it out!”
They teleport to the next level and everyone except Lars hears these cryptic words inside their heads: ( “Tremble all creation , for I am Semihaz-Ael, thy lord and master.”) After they recover, they see that the eye is opened and the beam of light is somehow… foggy. Examining the tracks reveals that there are 6 tracks leading from the central well toward the six cardinal points of the room, abruptly ending at the walls. A close look shows there to be doors of a sort that the tracks go under, but they can not find a way to open the doors. The humming increases to a fevered pitch and Virginia screams. As the 3 men turn to see what Virginia is pointing at, they see the 6 robed watchers manifest in the beam of fog/light that emanates upward from the Eye of Semihaz’Ael. As the Watchers begin chanting a eerie hymn the walls of the room begin to move, pivoting upward to reveal the tracks disappearing into the darkness beyond. As the heroes look on, movement can be seen in the depths of the dark rooms as something begins moving along each track toward the central well. Leaving Lars and Virginia to watch the Watchers, Frost and O’Leary sprint into the darkness to investigate the railcars. Using the battery operated lamp that he had stashed in his pack, Frost illuminates the railcar. In horror, he sees that the railcar is a artificial womb of gigantic proportions, and inside is a perfectly formed, 25 foot long body! “We have to stop these!” Frost yells to O’Leary, “If they get to the eye beam, the Watchers will possess these bodies!” They begin in earnest to try and jam the car or destroy its motor mechanisms but cannot bring it to a halt. Sprinting back into the main chamber, they see that wombs are entering the main room along all 6 tracks. A quick idea from Lars has the 4 heroes unslinging their rifles, they aim under the eye to the floating monolith below it, unloading their firearms into the crystals Frost had inserted into the star shaped depressions. The crystal tesserae shatter in an explosion of colorful light and the progress of the wombs grind to a halt. The watchers curse and rail at the 4 adventurers, vowing revenge, but they can not reach beyond the beam of light coming from the eye. The next hour is tense, as Virginia, Frost, Lars wait for something to happen, O’Leary explores the darkness beyond the tracks to find seemingly endless caverns filled with thousands upon thousands of the artificial wombs and bodies, though they are of the 12 foot variety only. Meanwhile, Virginia has worked out the mathematics of the prophecies and discovers that 1937 is the year that the <new habitations> for the spirits of the Nephilim and the Watchers will be found. Having returned and told the others about what he has found, O’Leary shivers, remembering that there were thousands upon thousands of Nephilim before the flood. “These bodies are the habitations mentioned in the ancient documents!” He Stutters. Fortunately, the destruction of the machineries in the fourth sub levels of the different sectors has disrupted the flow of mental, biological and electrical forces to the artificial wombs. Due to that fact, the remaining Nephilim bodies were already curling and stiffening in the rictor of death.
After the destruction of the Nephilim bodies and the machineries that birthed them, our heroes do a full out cleansing of the place, slaying any monstrosity that survives, as they gather up supplies and foodstuffs for what seems to be a protracted stay. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a scientist remaining alive to reveal the mysteries of this place. 3 months pass before the steel door that leads out of the complex opens. The rag-tag four that exit the complex are haggard and emotionally exhausted form their stay, and what they have learned from it. They each decide to retire to private life and meditate on their lives and future.
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This was origionally the end of the campaign, but the players were having lots of fun, and I knew there was still another site that was cryptically alluded to, even though the players didnt catch the hints.
So I decided to continue the storyline with what turned out to be the following 3 chapters.
Wraith
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Chapter 7: “TOTENKOPF” Note: Handouts are in parenthesis and caps.
A year has passed since the PCs escaped entombment in The Gilgal Refaim. WWII has begun, Azaz’Ael’s revenge for the desecration of the Gilgal Refaim site perhaps. Due to his drastic paradigm shift, Grayson Frost, has retired from public life to meditate on his life and the true the nature of things. Lars has spent his time trying to bring down the AR corporation, the devious, multi-national power behind Liam Neph and the Nephilim cloning experiments. Our heroes find themselves unexpectedly invited by Virginia to the Dare’ country house at Brisbane, Australia. They each come in response to a .(LETTER FROM VIRGINIA), That states they are the father of her child, conceived while imprisoned in the Gilgal Refaim complex. They have actually received the same letter, a desperate bid by Virginia to get them both to her fathers manse. Our PCs arrive separately at the country house, and are greeted by Virginia. Frost notices Virginia giving a baby to a nanny, and assumes it is his child, this is of course part of Virginia’s ruse, as the baby is actually the nanny’s, and she did fool around with every male in the party while in Gilgal Refaim. Grayson and Lars notice (ARTWORK) around the house and its macabre aspects as they move from room to room. The phone rings and a sickly Jacov answers, then mentions that they are going to have an unexpected dinner guest. As the afternoon progresses to evening, Jacov excuses himself to rest and freshen up for dinner, retiring upstairs. As our PCs hob knob with Virginia, a guest arrives and introduces himself as (EDWARD ALEXANDER). Virginia asks him in and goes upstairs for her father. Meanwhile, the PC’s can talk to him. Lars notices (EDWARD’S TATTOO) , which is an all seeing eye, on his right hand.
When Jacov comes down, Edward turns to greet him. Jacov loses his composure and almost swoons. When he recovers, he excuses himself and Edward to his office where they get into a heated discussion. This is the first time Jacov has actually come face to face with his patron’s agent, and now recognizes him for who he really is. Grayson excuses himself and listens in at the office doors, where he overhears (JACOV AND EDWARD’S ARGUMENT) Grayson tries to enter the office, but it is locked. The heated discussion continues as the 2 leave the office with Jacov denouncing Edward and the Patron. Edward demands Jacov’s notes, and being rejected, is ushered to the front door by Jacov, Virginia, Frost and Lars. Before leaving Edward sets down his satchel and moves close to Jacov, handing him something (PATRON PICTURE) Edward says the patron can be persuasive. Jacov looks at the picture and his eyes widen, then he wads it up and tosses it into the waste basket. As Edward stuffs his papers back into his satchel.. The (THULE CARD) . and (TOTENKOPF OFFICER PHOTO) falls unnoticed under a piece of furniture. Edward finally storms out vowing revenge. Edward Alexander Crowley, his true name, is none other than the infamous Aleister Crowley, occultist and self proclaimed mage. Aleister has risen to power following the disappearance of Liam Neph and formed an alliance with Hitler through Heinrich Himmler, the real patron, who is the commander of the Furer’s Occult Corps (Geheimnisvolle Korps) which is part of the 3rd SS (Schutzstaffel) Division called Totenkopf. The Motto of the Nazi SS is: Meine Ehre Heiss Treue. (.My Honor is True or My Honor Is My Loyalty) and is equated with the skull symbol. (totenkopf) sometimes represented with the letters: MEHT
Before long, Jacov has settled down and Virginia lights lanterns, because the electricity goes off at 8:00 every night, due to the possibility of bombings from the Luftwaffe. The PCs question Jacov, and tells them a little about Crowley, How Crowley studied under him when he was a professor at Cambridge University, and that Crowley later worked for Liam Neph, searching for occult artifacts and writings. The heroes question Jacov about the research that he was doing for Crowley and Jacov tells that the research was about a determining the location of a certain ancient book of a religious nature. Jacov can’t seem to find his satchel, which has some of his notes and diagrams. Occasionally, Jacov is alert and reviews some of his research with the PCs, including the presence of the 6th Nexus and its location. The location is where the elusive book may lay, though clues of its existence are sprinkled throughout history. He grows tired quickly though, and his mind wanders, he mumbles to himself cryptically as they discuss things. (JACOV’S MUMBLINGS).
As if suddenly remembering something, Jacov heads to the library. As he gets there, he asks “Why did you not light the lanterns here Virginia?”, to which she answers “They must have gone out.” This seems an ill omen to Lars and Frost, as they stand in the hall, and they hurry fore ward. Jacov shouts, “Who is there?” into the darkened library, just as shots ring out. Lars grabs Jacov and pulls him from the doorway, shifting him to the side. Jacov stumbles to the ground, dropping his cane. Virginia opens the gun case in the front hall and tosses a double rifle to Lars before grabbing a Winchester for herself. Lars opens fire at the shadow as Frost enters the library himself with a lantern, setting it down. 2 of Himmler’s henchmen (they were tailing Crowley) had been in the library, ram sacking the place for Jacov’s work. A firefight ensues, with Lars taking a hit in the chest. 1 of the henchmen goes down, gut shot, and frost runs forward , grappling the other and slamming his head into the desk. Lars finishes the deal with a butt stroke to the culprit’s head. Meanwhile, Virginia has put not a few rounds into the gut shot fellow, finishing him. Unfortunately, the lantern that Frost brought into the library has been knocked over in the bedlam and fire has begun spreading up the bookcases. More noise is heard in Jacov’s office, and Lars moves to investigate as Frost tries to put out the fire. The flash of gunfire is seen in the office, and the glass starts to shatter as an intruder opens fire with a hail of machine gun bullets. Lars crashes through the glass, trying to surprise the assailant. Just as he regains his balance after bursting through, an explosion rocks the place and Lars just misses being smashed by the safe door that has been blown off by the explosion of a shaped charge. Lars makes for cover behind Jacov’s English oak desk.
Meanwhile, the fire is having its way with the library, in light of Grayson and Virginia’s best efforts to put it out. Lars peeks out from behind his cover as the smoke clears to see; A bloodguard taking a metal (ARTIFACT) from the safe. The bloodguard hoses the room with his machine gun and hops out the window. Lars’ pursuit is foiled by another German soldier peering through the window and raising his gun. Lars decides that now is the time to bug out, and dashes from the office. Since the fire seems to be out of control. Lars, Frost and Virginia decide to quit the library . Lars and Frost drag the unconscious German soldier out of the room and bind his arms. Just then, Virginia screams, her father has been shot and lies in a pool of blood. Our heroes notice that Jacov has scribbled something in his blood before expiring (JACOVS LAST MESSAGE). With Virginia’s help, they determine it to be Greek: Vekpos (Nekros)-Vouos (Nomos)- Eikov (Eikon), which translates to: (An image of the law of the dead). After bringing Jacov’s body and the unconscious soldier out of the burning house, and making sure the maid and the baby (presumable Virginia’s) are safe, they go back inside to quickly salvage what they may. This includes another painting (PAINTING OF AEL’RAS), and Jacov’s satchel that Lars spots at the last moment.
After questioning the soldier, and finding out about the submarine that brought the Germans to Australia, they strip him and set him free, with a little cash to make his was as he can. Then, after studying the contents of Jacov’s satchel, : (POLAR SHIFT APEX NOTES, PICTURES, MAP OF POLENESIA, OLD FARSI TRANSLATION, HOLLOW EARTH FLYER, NEWSPAPER FRONT PAGE, ATLAS, DOODLE WITH BIBLE VERSES, SHEOL RESEARCH NOTES,TABLETS OF DESTINY RESEARCH NOTES, TAROT DEATH CARD, TURKISH SCRIPT) They decide to get to the docks, rent a sea-plane and get to Polynesia as quickly as they can, hopefully ahead of the Submarine.
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Chapter 8 “ NICHTIG” (A throne for Azaz’Ael) Note: Handouts are in parenthesis and caps.
After combing the docks, our heroes find a seaplane and Lars produces the cash, then, produces his letter and hands it to Frost, who reads it. Grayson’s eyes widen in disbelief as the truth of Virginia’s “undercover” prowess becomes known to him. For the rest of the adventure, Frost gives Virginia the cold shoulder, acting the spurned lover. He feels that his affections have been slighted and his delusions of Virginia’s innocence have been shattered. After flying to Polynesia, our heroes are referred to a steamer, (DUNDEE’S PRIDE) that is taking on passengers. Captain Dundee insists they sign the ledger and Lars spots Crowley’s name in it. When questioned about Crowley, Dundee states that he has already given a cabin to Crowley, and that Crowley will arrive in the morning before they ship out. More $ from Lars and promises of future bonuses for captain and crew convince Dundee to leave immediately. Once Virginia is ensconced in her cabin, Lars and Frost force entry into Crowley’s cabin and rummage its contents, finding: (SOCRATES PARCHMENT, PAGE FROM THE BOOK OF THE GREAT KHAN, SKIN PARCHMENT, CHINESE PAINTING, RESEARCH NOTES AND MAP, PAINTING OF “THE GATES OF HELL”)
They sail southward, stopping at another island supply station to refuel. They are warned not to wander into the forest due to there being headhunters around. Virginia has completed the(SOCRATES TRANSLATION), the (GREAT KHAN TRANSLATION) and the (TURKISH SCRIPT TRANSLATION). and brings them to Lars and Frost. After resupplying, they continue on, stopping at another island to dine at the local restaurant. The bartender is a native, and seems to be watching them they dine…his interest seems to be focused on Virginia. Lars invites Virginia for a moonlit stroll along the beach, before returning to the steamer for the night. While studying the map of the Polynesian environs from Jacov’s satchel, Frost notices an Island on the bottom of the map, that seems to match the longitude and latitude that they have calculated the 6th site to be located. He shows this to Lars who also notices the island they are currently on is named Rapa, with a pronunciation note declaring that in old Polynesian, the “p” is pronounced “Ph”, making the island’s name actually “Rapha”. The two smile at each other knowingly. Night falls and our 3 heroes along with the crew of Dundee’s pride, bunk down for the night and take turns keeping watch. Sometime during the night, Frost happens to be by the radio room and hears a transmission between 2 other ships. (Transmission from Crowley to Sgt. Nichtig). He returns to the guest cabins, passing Virginia on her way up the stairs going to the powder room. Frost knocks on Lars’s door and tells him that he is finished his watch and what he overheard on the radio. Lars goes topside for a stroll. The night is cool, and Lars ascends the deckhouse to speak to the man on watch, finding his throat slit! Running aft, where Virginia has gone, he sees natives creeping around the aft deckhouse. When they spot him, they charge. Lars fires off a shot, bringing the crew and Frost onto the deck where a melee breaks out. Frost spots Virginia, trussed up in a canoe being paddled around the headland, but the fight is too intense for him to do anything about it at that time.
Once the natives are defeated, Lars, Frost, Dundee and 2well armed crewmen board the launch to pursue. After an hour, they find a beached canoe up a side stream and follow 2 sets of footprints into the jungle. The trail takes them inland where they find more muddy footprints and one of Virginia’s shoes. They continue on, finding a village. The only inhabitant seems to be the chief, who is too old to walk. When questioned, in French, he speaks (THE WISDOM OF ASA-EL). “He who enters the arms of Asa-el without a proper sacrifice shall not return from his embrace” After a futile search, our heroes decide their only course of action is to get to the Cursed Isle of Asa-el. They return to the steamer and head south. Arriving later the same day, they see (NICTHIG RISING) through the fog. The isle seems to be a lagoon formed of volcanic rock. In the lagoon is a huge whirlpool, whose pull is too great to navigate. Dundee sends the PRIDE to hide behind the isle while Lars, Frost, Dundee and the 2 crewmen, using dinghies, make their way along one of the island’s arms to a place they can land. Climbing up the crags and finding no way inland, they return to their dinghies and move to the other arm, finally finding a way inland. They discover a cave with remains of people stranded there in times past. They spot a submarine approaching. (THE U-BOAT). which does a circuit around the isle. They hear the sound of deck guns firing, then a huge explosion, which bodes ill for either sub or Pride. Night falls, and they camp in the cave of human remains. That night they hear screeches outside the cave and wonder at the makers of the noise.
Early the next day (solstice day), as the sun begins to peek over the horizon, canoes with natives approach from the direction of Rapa isle. Two of the canoes, with Virginia trussed in the foremost canoe, approach the arms of the isle and seem caught in the pull, but natives jump off to land on rocks just below the surface where they make fast the canoes. After flamboyant gestures and supplications from the witchdoctor, Virginia’s canoe is released and begins speeding toward the whirlpool. Frost climbs down the outcrop where they are perched and tying a rope around his waist, dives into the water, catching hold of the canoe as it passes between the arms of the isle. Frost and Virginia are pulled to safety, where they view the proceedings. As the sun fully clears the horizon, the force of the great whirlpool abates. The natives seem overjoyed that the great god Asa-El has looked approvingly upon their sacrifice and the days will grow longer, pushing away the night for another year. They paddle off celebrating. Later that day, a (AR - ADS SHIP) crewed by what appears to be German marines approaches followed by a (JAPANESE BATTLESHIP) . Watching through binoculars, Our heroes see the Japanese captain talking to a tall fellow who looks to be another of Liam Neph’s Clones. The Battleship moves away and the AR ship remains unmolested. The sub and AR ship enter the “Arms of Asa-el.” As the ship passes below the heroes ensconced high above, they see: (VEHICLES ON BOARD THE ADS). The ship backs to a ledge and drops its sea door, and the vehicles disembark. Once on shore, a camp is made and exploration begins. As the day wanes and the sun starts to dip below the horizon, Virginia brings it to their attention that the maelstrom has begun moving again The Crews of the AR ship and the Submarine have noticed it also. The sub makes a dash for the open sea, but is caught in the pull of the vortex and drawn down into it. The AR ship relies on it’s sea anchors, but they prove to be no match for the maelstrom once it reaches full force and it is also lost to the depths. That night, pterodactyls fly down from high caves to snatch German soldiers for a late night snack.
Our heroes awake to see the German expedition starting downward through a cavern they have discovered. Leaving the safety of their hidden perch, they start down the crags to find a few vehicles unattended, and appropriate one, following the caverns downward spiral. Once at the bottom, they see the expedition exiting through another cave at the far end of the huge cavern and follow. After a few close calls, they are finally captured as they blunder right into the middle of the German encampment. Fortunately, Dundee and one of his crewmen avert capture. Soon it is discovered that the way forward is across a bottomless pit. A zip line is fired across and the expedition makes it’s way to the far side. After the last of the Germans and their equipment passes out of sight, Our heroes escape and truss their guards, with Frost and Lars crossing the chasm to reconnoiter, leaving the 2 crewman and Virginia behind to watch over the escape route. The German horde is gathered In the center of a shelf that juts out into a huge volcanic chamber. They are standing before a table of books and a huge throne upon which Azaz’Ael is seated. At the far end of the chamber, a closed, carven gate is set into the wall. (GATES OF SHEOL). Lars levels his B.A.R. and fires a single shot, which strikes Sgt, Nichtig directly in the head. The clone falls dead to the floor. Azaz’Ael laughs and with a wave of his hand, the entire group of German soldiers fall to the floor, seemingly lifeless. Only Crowley and the Bloodguard remain standing on the throne platform. “Think ye to play games in my domain!” he bellows. “Behold!” Azaa’Ael’s false form falls away to reveal (AZAZ’AELS TRUE FORM) , the grim reaper. Lars determines that parley is the answer, and walks out to the throne, with Frost close behind. Azaz’Ael speaks cryptically to Crowley, The Bloodguard, Frost and Lars. Pausing, he looks at Sgt. Nichtig’s crumpled form, then, opens a large tome and crosses something out with quill made of a finger bone. He then speaks directly to Lars and calls him a name that seems oddly familiar. Azaz’Ael allows Crowley to take one of the books. (THE NECRONOMICON). Lars notices that the cover of the book matches the rubbing on the back of the Turkish script from Jacov’s satchel, then he snatches the metal artifact from Crowley, who relinquishes it without a thought, his full attention on the book. “It will find its way back to me, it always does” says Azaz’Ael. Our heroes bolt for the exit, thinking to strand Crowley and the Bloodguard.
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Chapter 9 “UNTERWELT” or My Sheol for a sword. Note: Handouts that you discovered are in parenthesis and caps.
Having decided that now is a good time to bug out, our heroes sprint back to the entrance to Azaz’Ael’s chamber and the bottomless pit. They cross, removing the zip line behind them and head back upward. Before they reach the surface though, they decide that the Necronomicon in the hands of Aleister Crowley and the Nazis is a bad thing. When they make it back to Azaz’Ael’s chamber, they see the German soldiers, miraculously alive, marching through the opened Gates of Sheol. The Germans have taken the body of Nichtig along, who seems to still be deceased, and the large phenolic containers from the transports. Leaving the 2 crewmen behind to guard the exit; Dundee, Lars, Frost and Virginia make their way around the right hand ledge toward the open gates, Frost notices a swirling in a side tunnel and investigating, they discover the (EYE OF AZAZ’AEL) protruding out into the center of a swirling maelstrom of water, which they determine to be the whirlpool from far above. Moving on, they hurry to the gate and through it, before it decides to close on them. Once through, they see (THE ENTRANCE TUNNEL TO SHEOL), which marks the transition from Oceanus, the surface region, to Phlegathon, the volcanic region of the earth’s crust. Far in the distance, they can see the fading light of the villains. Trying to keep their own lights hooded, the 4 heroes move quickly to try and catch up, hoping to do so before their adversaries take a side tunnel and are lost from sight. Volcanic glow from side tunnels provide some cover for their lights, but also make it harder to follow the Nazis lights. After hours of touch and go, they come upon Crowley and the Nazi bivouac. They too decide to rest for the time being, hiding in a nearby crevasse. As they rest they overhear Crowley talking to someone on a transmitter, but they can’t make out the answering words. After some time, the Germans move on and our heroes follow, passing to the next ring, Cocytus, the realm of lamentation, so named for the howling winds that resemble loud lamenting. Mosses and huge glowing mushrooms hang from the ceiling and grow up from the floor, forming forests in the HUGE caverns. Gunfire can be heard ahead as the Germans shoot at something that the Heroes can’t make out in the distance. A croaking is heard among the mushrooms, which turns out to be (REPTILLIAN INHABITANTS), who attack the heroes. A fist and knife fight ensues and the heroes finally overcome their bufanoid adversaries. Crowley yells at one of the Germans who has left something behind, and the fellow heads back into the moss forest to retrieve it, a satchel that Nichtig had. He is quietly dispatched by Lars, who dons the guards clothes, removes the (CONTENTS OF NICHTIG’S SATCHELL) and returns to impersonate the guard amongst the Germans.
All downward passages lead to caverns filled with lakes and it seems to be the (END OF THE ROAD) for our heroes and the Nazis seem to have disappeared. All ferrous metals are attracted to the floor, having grown heavier as they moved closer to these caverns. All matter of iron and steel items and artifacts are seen lying around here , seemingly discarded through history. Some moldering corpses also lay about. The phenolic containers that the Germans brought along are here, opened. Frost begins rifling through the loose packing to find a bronze pistol and 6 lead bullets. MISPLACED CONTAINER CONTENTS. The batteries in their lights are also going out, and have iron oxide in them, so they must be left behind. Searching through the piles of discarded things reveals the DEAD WARRIORS BELONGINGS. and a CARBIDE LAMP. Lars dons the bronze armor and weapons of the warrior, seemingly Greek and they light the lamp. After further searching around, they find a large egg shaped device with a skeleton sitting upright in it. CHARON’S BOAT As they look it over, another “egg” surfaces nearby and settles into a depression near their egg, followed by a second, and a third egg. They determine it to be a boat of sorts to cross the water and they pile into it. Nothing happens, until Frost notices a device inside the egg that resembles a bowl with 2 slots in it. He produces 2 of the gold coins from the dead warrior’s belongings and inserts them into the slots, thereby activating the egg. A clear membrane slides over the opening and the egg moves out into the water and downward. The egg produces a bright glow that illuminates the water around them. They descend for a time, until through the window, they see hulks of steel ships bunched together in a line that arches off through the water. They determine the band of ships to be the gravitational center of the inner and outer worlds. The egg flips as they pass through the ships, and they are now ascending as they continue onward, across the Styx.
The egg surfaces and comes to rest in another depression and the membrane slides up. They exit and Lars thinks to jam a sword in the opening so that the membrane cannot shut and the egg leave them behind. His idea seems to work and the egg remains stationery, its membrane simi-closed. thick fog hangs in these caverns and they cannot find which way the Germans have gotten off to. They look about till Frost’s sensitive nose picks up the faint smell of a cigarette. They look about and find the butt in a side passage and decide to follow it. After not a few episodes of hallucinations (caused by the fog) , they come up into a huge cavern with passages leading out of it upward and Dundee spots 3 sets of eyes glaring out of a side cavern. Thinking it to be Cerebus, the heroes rush onward, not wishing to chance an encounter with the beast. They may notice the (GERMAN BRONZE WEAPONS.) Our heroes pass into the fifth ring, Lethe. Mortal NPCs/PCs will begin to wander around, listlessly and forget things They will find scattered ANCIENT ARTIFACTS. Passing to Archeron (sixth ring). They hear water dripping that resembles weeping. The air becomes cloudier with ÆTHER as they progress, intensifying the visions and paranoia. Finding a camp, they may search through the ashes of the fire to find (THE BRONZE TABLET.) Any dead will begin to become re-animated by wandering wræths and start to kill Germans (to supply more bodies) till Nichtig or Crowley controls them with the Necronomicon. They will also start to notice: (NOT SO ANCIENT ARTIFACTS) (Cærebii are three-fold packs of dire wolves, Ergo: 3-headed wolf).
Virginia has completed the (TRANSLATION OF THE BRONZE TABLET). As they leave Archeron, the vast caverns spill out into the hollow center of the earth. (SHEOL LANDSCAPE) The Shæ’æl Næxus floats in the center of the earth’s hollow. When viewed by mortals, it resembles a white light down a long tunnel. Any mortal viewing the Næxus will desire to “go into the light” The Æther is so concentrated here, it causes madness in mortals. This is the same reason that mortals traveling via the EYES will go insane.SHEOL SURFACE. Skeletons in the area will become animated by wræths and attack any mortal. They will eventually run into an acid scarred Liam Neph, who is now totally insane from the time he has spent in the Æther…He will refuel his suit using the (FUEL CAN). Crowley seems to be ordering folks about so Liam Neph pulls a from a soldier pistol and shoots Crowley right between the eyes, as he will not allow a rival to his power. The Bloodguard then turns and opens fire upon the surviving humans. Liam will then escape by calling out “Semihaz’Ael”, thereby activating the eye of the Gilgal Refaim, and rocketing into it’s beam, which will originate in the glowing orb of Æther floating in the sky. Our heroes must find a way to Escape. If they do, they will be picked up by the waiting (AR RESCUE SHIP). Lars jammed the door open so the Egg wouldn’t leave. Everyone seems to have forgotten that Lars was in possession of a portion of the Necronomicon! Lars grins an evil grin…perhaps now he can take over the multinational AR corp., delve its dark secrets and begin his rise to power…perhaps now …MWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!
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Ok I admit, it got a little wierd at the end ;D
My plan was to transition into a Wierd WWII type of senario with Nazi zombies, strange tech and wierdness, but that has yet to come to fruition.
A vague 10th chapter exists in my mind but hasnt been worked on yet, it will take place on Easter island, that strangely enough is called "Rapa Nui" in the native tongue FOR REAL!
Rapa...Rapha...you get the picture. Plus its got giant Moi and such ;)
This also spills over into my space opera I have been running for my group, as Liam Neph shows up in 2556AD, the AR corp has become the LAR corp. Liam's goal using the LAR corp is to realign the earth to its ancient alignment, thereby increasing the power at the nexi to create a rift in the Space-Shael continuum, filling the earth's atmosphere with Aether so the Watchers can manifest anywhere on earth.
Anyhoo, hope you folks have enjoyed this storyline, and if there is anyone else interested in viewing the modules for this campaign. drop me a line and I'll send them to you.
Play-testers and critics are always welcome
Wraith
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Bugger me! I have your rules sitting in my inbox and I haven't looked at them. On my to do list, right now!
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Ok folks...
It looks like I am going to have to cut you off on the modules.
I am working a deal with a new company to rework this campaign and publish it using the Savage Worlds rules.
It will probally take a while, but I'll keep you posted.
Wraith
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Good news :)
I look forward to the supplement when it's published.
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The savage worlds thing has fallen through, as the fellow that was starting the business seems to have failed to get a license for Savage Worlds. On a side note, he is writing up a set of rules on his own and is still interested in my campaign.
I have been reworking the chapters to keep ahead of my friend who has been running this for his group, but his group has bailed on him and wants to do something else. I think it is because he allowed too much deviation from the storyline so they ran into so many dead ends they got frustrated and bored. They were into their 15th, 4 hour session and were just at chapter 5!. Plus, they were just square pegs in round holes and not really the right type of gamers for the style of pulps gaming that my senario is built for.
Anyways, I am at chapter 6 rework right now and with the demise of the playtest group and the Savage Worlds carrot I am going to give this campaign it a well deserved rest for now.
SIGH
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Sigh, it seems that there will be no official release of "And Also After" after all.
On a side note, I am coming along on chapter 10!
Wraith