Episode 3: Death in Masu huk'ucha
Through the Desert
Drake has a vehicle and a vague map back to the shrine he once found. With Drake at the wheel, it takes a week of hard driving to reach the area of the shrine. Unfortunately, there are local wildlife, Nazis and Rednecks with Uzis that don’t want the group to make it.
Heat Kills
Reaching temperatures of 140 degrees in the afternoon, the Chaco is an unforgiving place to men, animals and vehicles. Unprotected in the desert and without water, characters must make a Vigor check every four hours with the appropriate penalties for temperature, water, and other factors. Calculate the temperature at any given time (1d6x10)+75 degrees. At night, the temperature falls to between 40 and 60 degrees.
Driving in Hell
There is enough fuel for the rover and food and water for the whole group for one and a half weeks. The rover can filter water at a rate of one day’s worth of water for one person for every hour spent filtering, however, that takes finding a ready source of water. Additionally, the rover can swamp its own fuel but this requires a source of biomass. It takes 4 square acres of Chaco biomass to equal one day’s worth of fuel. The rover is not a green machine.
Drake’s Vehicle
Chassis: Medium; ACC/Top Speed: 6/24; Toughness: 14 (3) ; Crew: 1+6
Weapons:
• M2 Browning (swivel mount) 50/100/200; 2d10; ROF 3; 200 shots; AP 4, HW
• Flamethrower (front mounted): Cone Template; 2d10; ROF 1; Ignores Armor
Drake’s vehicle is in good repair, however, for every four hours spent driving during the day, roll 2d6 and consult the table below for a possible malfunction. For night driving, roll every 8 hours. After 10 failures, all Repair checks suffer an additional -2 due to lack of materials, tools, and the like. After 15 failures, no repairs can be conducted until supplies are found.
Roll....Result
2.......Power Train (Movement ½, Repair roll and 2 hours negates)
3.......Tires/Wheels (Movement ½, Repair roll and 1 hour negates)
4.......Engine (Movement ½ Repair roll -1 and 2 hours negates)
5.......Weapons system (non-functional until Repaired)
6-8.....No problems
9.......Air Filter/Conditioning (Heat effects as per outside temperature)
10......Engine (Movement ¼ Repair roll -2 and 4 hours negates)
11......Power Train (Movement ¼ Repair roll -2 and 4 hours negates)
12......Catastrophic (No movement, Repair roll -4 and 8 hours negates)
In addition, Drake has only a vague idea where he’s going. He must make a Survival check every day or become lost, which adds a day to the trip and a cumulative -1 to the subsequent Survival check (until passed). Characters can assist with this roll, at a -2, but they cannot be the primary unless they’ve somehow been to the shrine before…
Flora and Fauna
Chaco is hot, dry and inhospitable, which makes for very evolved and tough inhabitants. For every day spent in the Chaco, roll 2d6 and consult the table below. As with all random encounters, use as liberally as your players’ interest dictates.
Roll....Result..............Notes:
2.......Sand Croc...........Survival +1 to find water
3.......Sonic Spinner
4.......Grazing Animals.....Various herd food
5-8.....No encounter
9.......Crystal Frogs.......Occurs when stopping to rest
10......Brown Scorpion......May track the vehicle
11......Stinging Gorger.....Survival to harvest poison glands
12......Special.............Nazis, Rednecks with Uzis, other
Sand Crocs (1d6) This encounter occurs any time the heroes stop. Sand crocs breed in reservoirs deep below the desert surface, and never stray too far from these areas when hunting. Thus, if heroes are searching for water, there’s typically some nearby or near the surface.
Sonic Spinner (1d4) Spinners only hunt near the surface at night, typically tracking and preying on herd/grazing mammals. The sound of the animals walking and running, especially in large groups, draws spinners. This is also true of ground vehicles. Spinners typically get on the trail of a vehicle at some point and wait for the sound to stop before attacking.
Grazing Animals (2d12) Relatively large herds of springgore (a small antelope-like creature), gaedel (a larger deer), and voroms (a man-sized fowl) roam the Chaco, especially the thick brushy undergrowth. These herds are always encountered near watering holes and may precede an encounter with another predator on the list. One or two may be shot before the herd runs away providing a day’s worth of food for up to eight people for each animal downed.
Crystal Frogs (1 swarm) Crystal frogs are always encountered near a water source, even if it’s just a damp place on the sand. Survival checks are at +2 in these areas to locate potable water.
Brown Scorpion (2d6) Brown scorpions are long range hunters preying on herd animals and even sand crocs. They may track the heroes’ vehicle for a full day before attacking when the vehicle stops.
Stinging Gorger (2d4) Gorgers are ambush hunters and an encounter while driving will not draw them out. If encountered when stopped, the gorgers rush out, each attacking a different victim. Their poison glands can be extracted with a successful Survival roll. Each creature nets enough poison for three antidotes. The poison glands from one creature are worth about $50 on Chaco and much more elsewhere. The poison breaks down unless frozen about an hour after harvesting.
Special This is an encounter with something else of your own devising or from other NPC’s in this adventure. Be creative.
Monster Truck Cage Fight Rally
At some point, the story must progress. Jundt figures out that the heroes and Drake headed into the desert, and suspecting that they’ve found additional clues, sends Goni and his mercenaries after the group. This encounter is designed as a running fight with obstacles complicating the scene appropriately. Typical obstacles are rock fields, mud flats, close canyons, chasms, and watering holes.
Determine the encounter distance by rolling 3d6x100 in feet. Unless the heroes are specifically scanning for enemies, the mercenaries close the distance fairly quickly. A Notice roll detects the trailing vehicles (the dust, actually), if the heroes are vigilant.
The Chase/Combat progresses as per the core rules until the heroes or Goni and his crew are disabled.
Tactics
Jundt does not want the heroes killed, since he suspects they have clues to the location of the shrine, thus Goni has been instructed to disable Drake’s vehicle and take the heroes prisoner. If necessary, the mercenaries’ rovers pull alongside Drake’s vehicle and the mercenaries attempt to board. Once done, Goni is to take the heroes to his jungle camp and await Jundt personally.
Rovers (2)
Hardened Mercenaries (10)
Goni Colque
Shrine of Alderbraan
The Shrine of Alderbraan is nestled in a dead-end valley in a hill range. The shrine itself is built into an overhanging cliff face and not viewable from the air. Drake’s faulty memory and a little luck should eventually lead the heroes to the general area, however, it takes a Notice check by one of the heroes to find the entry into the proper canyon. The trip there and subsequent attempts to find the canyon can be spiced with encounters from the Flora and Fauna section and other encounters of your own devising.
The façade of the shrine is carved into a cliff face and depicts demonic and fiery creatures carved into pillars, lintel and door. The stone door can be pried open with a Strength check and a crowbar or other similar tool.
Inside is a natural cave lit by bore holes through the rock (these holes are not navigable). In the center of the cave floor is a steel cube about the size of an automobile with runes and pictograms carved into is surface in a confusing miasma.
The steel cube is a seal on a prison below the surface of the shrine. The markings on the cube are an ancient human language that Professor Turnbull can decipher, though the puzzle it produces is meaningless to him. If none of the heroes have Knowledge skills related to Guarani culture, perhaps they have a bearer or guard that can help with the answers.
The solution produces the phonetic sound of the runes in the order that they must be pressed by the non-functional marker retrieved in the first episode. The runes to be pressed are slightly raised (Notice) and have an indentation that accepts the spike end of the marker (Notice -2)
The steel cube then drops into a stairway that leads to the prison below.
Turnbull’s work produces the following set of text:
- A little piece of the moon = Jasy Jeteri, a Guarani god
- Mulch of the dusk holly = Yerbe Mate
- The sun is up; the eyes are closed = Siesta (Jasy Jeteri is the god of siesta)
- Flesh for the moon brother = Ao Ao, brother to Jasy Jeteri, and a cannibal
Prison of the Bat God
Beneath the steel cube lurks a guardian of shadow and its prize, a working marker to the Gate of Alderbraan.
Masu huk'ucha
Once they defeat the guardian, the heroes see a marker, similar to the one they hold, mounted to a small pedestal in the center of the room. The marker glows a dull green. If the marker the heroes hold gets within a hand’s breadth from the working marker, both glow bright green. See Aftermath below for effects.
Axis and Allies
About the time the heroes appear to be overwhelmed by the creature, Jundt and his entourage arrives. They could assist the heroes in defeating Masu huk’ucha, or show up as the heroes finish it off.
Jundt, a feral grin on his face, draws his fencing blade in one hand, his pistol in the other and delivers a few words about the heroes’ precarious position. His soldiers fan out, their weapons trained on the heroes. Traute stands at Jundt’s side, her long hair draped over a shoulder, while Baileff and Porfenko stand to one side, a small group of Guarani at their sides.
Strangely, Jundt seems to also be restrained about his “victory.” With a Smarts check, the heroes realize that he has no idea what to do next and assumes the heroes do. With a Persuasion raise, the heroes convince Jundt that he can’t achieve his goals without them. Without a raise, Jundt has them taken into custody, disarmed and searched.
Traute gasps when she sees the marker the heroes carry, snatches it, and examines it. All can see that she wears a look of unabashed lust on her face. She converses quickly with Jundt in German and begins examining the chamber and finally the working marker. When she gets close enough, all hell breaks loose. On to Aftermath.
The heroes can choose to fight, if they wish. Jundt troops fight to disable.
Aftermath
When the two markers come within a hand’s breadth of each other both glow bright green for a few seconds before shattering in a white light explosion.
Everyone blacks out and awakens in a plain white room dimly lit by overhead lights. The room seems to be part of a modern facility. The far wall is a sheet of clear glass showing the cracked and crevassed planetary surface with a dull brown planet hanging in a starfield above. With an appropriate Knowledge check, the heroes realize that the planet is Chaco, meaning they are on the moon Jasy Jeteri.
Traute and Porfenko lie nearby, just rousing from their sleep, as well as a few Nazis and Guarani.
As the heroes get themselves together, an unseen door slides open with a hiss. Standing in the doorway is a slight figure in a tight-fitting space suit. The man’s face and exposed hands are incredibly white. Lined up behind him are hunched and savage looking creatures, their long dirty hair hanging over their eyeless faces.
“Welcome to Jasy Jeteri,” the man says. “You are now my prisoners.”
Navigator
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.