We're going to try to do this year's RPG-a-Day Challenge here at NUELOW Games; each day has a different theme and will get a different post. Be sure to stop by to join us in victory or defeat as the month progresses!
The following is more of an outline that a full-fledged adventure scenario. We hope you'll feel inspired enough to want to flesh it out and use it. (This is also completely raw, first draft text; it is flowing from the keyboard onto the blog and then posted for the world to see. No editing or revision is taking place, so we apologize for dropped words or incomprehensible sentences.)
THE DEADLINE FROM HELL
A modern-day horror scenario for any game system
Setting Up the Adventure
A party member gets a frantic phone call from a journalist friend. He says that his current story has put him on the trail of a Satanic cult and that they discovered him snooping around their secret lair. He knows they are hunting for him, and he begs the character to come to his home to before they get there, so they can help protect him and get him to safety.
Options
The following situations occur depending on what the character does.
If the character notifies other party members, asks them to meet him somewhere and then heads to the journalists home: Go to The Chase below.
If the character notifies other party members as asks him to meet at the journalists home: Go to Converging, below.
If the character rushes over there without notifying others: Go to The Trap below.
If the character ignores the plea, he hears that his friend's dead body was found on an isolated stretch of road, burned to the point where only dental records were useful in identifying him. Whoops.
The Chase
As the characters arrive at the journalist's home, they see him being hustled into a cargo van by three burly men.
If the party tries to fight them: One cultist per party member that leaps from behind bushes or other cover to stop them. They fight the party to subdue rather than kill them.
An extra cultist--a particularly large man in a hoodie--stands back and watches. As the party fights, the van takes off. Once all the cultists have been defeated, the man in the hoodie faces the party... and his hood falls back to reveal that he has devil horns. He is quite a challenge for the heroes. As they defeat him, he burns into flame and ash. As they finish the fight, the van leaves, but they can see what direction its heading in, and with some skillful (and fast) driving, they can catch up with it. During their pursuit, the following complications occur:
--Nuns and orphans in a crosswalk. Driving check to not run them them down.
--A police car gives chase, only to crash.
--The van seems to get away, but a party member catches sight of it just as it's almost too late (with an appropriate attribute or skill check), and then a Driving check lets the pursuit continue.
The van eventually goes to an isolated clearing in the woods, near a burned out cabin. See "The Climax: Defeat in Victory?" below.
If the party is defeated, go the The Trap below.
Converging
If the characters are arriving separately at the journalist's home, roll 1d4 once on the table below to see what encounters they have en-route.
1. No Complications.
2. A policeman stops the character near the journalist's home. The policeman is a cultist. He ambushes the character and attempts to render him or her unconscious. If the character is defeated, he is found by other characters in the panel van mentioned in "The Chase".
3. A group of nuns and orphans flag the character down. Their bus has broken down, the head nun's cellphone is dead, and they need help calling the rectory or a tow truck.
4. A traffic accident happens right in front of the character. Unless he or she makes a fancy Driving check, the character ends up becoming part of the accident, too, when it becomes a pile-up. The character is rendered unconscious in the crash, and he or she is found by the other characters in the panel van mentioned in "The Chase".
Characters who have "No Complications" arrive at the home to find everything appearing fine. If they wait for other player characters to arrive, they will see the panel van described in "The Chase" pull up. Other characters (if not in the van) arrive in an order determined randomly (roll 1d4). Each time another character arrives, the GM should roll 1d4. On a result of 4, three men get out of the van and head into the journalist's home. The events of "The Chase" unfold. If any character approaches the van, the attack described under The Chase takes place.
If characters with "No Complication" don't wait for others to arrive, or doesn't wait for anyone to leave the van but heads into the journalist's home, the events of "The Trap" take place.
The Trap
If the characters burst into the journalist's home, they find him kneeling at the center of a pentagram, surrounded by robed cultists. There is one cultist per player character. The journalist remains in the pentagram, watching the fight with an increasingly insanely gleeful look on his face.
The cultists fight to subdue the player characters. If it looks like the cultists are going to lose, three more join in (having emerged from the van). They continue their attempt to subdue the characters.
If the player characters lose the battle, go to "The Climax: Victory in Defeat?".
If the player characters look like they're going to win, the events of "The Climax: Victory in Defeat?" unfold in the house instead of at the remote ritual site. See "The Climax: Victory in Defeat?", below.
The Climax: Defeat in Victory?
If the characters chased the panel van, their pursuit ends in an isolated woodland clearing, near a burned-out building. They are confronted by cultists (one for each character) who fight them to the death while the journalist heads with three individuals from the van to a ritual site nearby that is by a burned out building. Here, there is a Satanic ritual site with a large pentagram on the ground. Once the journalist and others have reached the ritual site, the cultists battling the player characters will try to move the fight toward the pentagram. As the characters are led toward the pentagram, the journalist speaks, with a mad gleam in his eye: "Don't make this any harder than it needs to be--you will die and your "righteousness" will be consumed by Satan and your life energy will become mine! I promised him your lives, he promised me immortality! Surrender--don't let your last few moments on Earth be filled with pain!"
The battle lasts for six rounds, or until it seems clear the characters are going to win. Then the journa list chants and a burly man with devil horns appears and joins the fight. The battle continues for three more rounds, or until it appears certain the player characters are going to win.
Then, the pentagram flares with magical energy and smokey figure rises from it, "My charity extends only so far," a voice boomed. "You were given a deadline and you failed to meet it."
"No! There is still time!" the journalist screams. He rushes to attack the player character who is the most injured. If the player character survives 2 rounds of combat against the journalist, he and all the cultists burst into flame and die screaming as they disintegrate into fine ash.
"No! There is still time!" the journalist screams. He rushes to attack the player character who is the most injured. If the player character survives 2 rounds of combat against the journalist, he and all the cultists burst into flame and die screaming as they disintegrate into fine ash.
The Climax: Victory in Defeat?
If the characters were defeated by cultists previously, they wake up in the pentagram at a Satanic ritual site. The journalist is there with three cultists, plus one addition per player character. He speaks to them, with a mad gleam in his eye: "Don't make this any harder than it needs to be--you will die and your "righteousness" will be consumed by Satan and your life energy will become mine! I promised him your lives, he promised me immortality! Surrender--don't let your last few moments on Earth be filled with pain!"
The battle lasts for six rounds, or until it seems clear the characters are going to win. Then the journa list chants and a burly man with devil horns appears and joins the fight. The battle continues for three more rounds, or until it appears certain the player characters are going to win.
Then, the pentagram flares with magical energy and smokey figure rises from it, "My charity extends only so far," a voice boomed. "You were given a deadline and you failed to meet it."
"No! There is still time!" the journalist screams. He rushes to attack the player character who is the most injured. If the player character survives 2 rounds of combat against the journalist, he and all the cultists burst into flame and die screaming as they disintegrate into fine ash.
"No! There is still time!" the journalist screams. He rushes to attack the player character who is the most injured. If the player character survives 2 rounds of combat against the journalist, he and all the cultists burst into flame and die screaming as they disintegrate into fine ash.
The Wrap-Up
Further investigation will reveal to the player characters that the journalist joint the cult while investigating it.
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