ACT ONE: BONDMAN'S IRONS

Scene One: The Alley

Start: The Circle is bonding or whatever, at their communal Haunt. A shot

breaks the silence of the City at 3:00am followed by the terrified scream

of a woman in some sort of distress. Multiples of footsteps are heard

running outside the Haunt.

Middle: A man has been the victim of a carjacking. His date fled the car

and was chased by the carjackers into a blocked alley. The leader is

actually a notoriuos Renegade skinriding a gang leader. The Hierarchy is

HOT on his trail.

End: The gang attacks the woman. Soon after, a Hierarchy patrol shows up.

They assume that the Players are in cahoots with the Renegade outlaw.

GOAL: The woman should be killed. The Hierarchy will show up soon after the

woman is killed. The Players should be captured by the patrol in order to

move to Scene Two.

IF THE WOMAN IS NOT KILLED...Not an option. (I love being the GM.)

IF THE PLAYERS ESCAPE THE HIERARCHY...then the Renegade does too. This guy

is wanted, badly. Marshal White orders a shake down of the whole Brady St.

community. Oh, and the Renegade decides to hide in the Players' Haunt. (I

LOVE being the GM.)

Scene Two: The Thrall Barge

Start: The hapless wraiths are bound in chains of Stygian steel. The black

metal is a heavy burden on the Psyche and cuts deeply into the Corpus. They

are marched on foot down to an abandoned warehouse which acts as the

Hierarchy Registry Building.

Middle: A minor Adjustor will catalog the wraiths and their crimes, and

refer them to the High Court of Dust in Stygia. Each wraith will have a

number moliated into their corpus for processing purposes. Note that the

Stygian chains will prevent the use of Arcanos by 5 dice (7 if targeted

specifically at the chains).

End: The players are loaded onto a ferry carrying bales of cardboard for

recycling. In the Shadowlands, this functions quite well as a slave barge.

It travels up river, making a few stops, the third of which is at the

Amtrak station. The trip should be a time to meet many others on their way

to thralldom. Various NPC allies could be met here. Also, the consequences

of escape should be illustrated upon a rather stupid and bullheaded enfant

NPC who thinks he can beat the system. As he tries to jump ship, a keeper

will release a brace of barghests upon his sorry ass. (See previous

comments about loving to be the GM)

GOAL: The Players should arrive at the Amtrak station still bound in chains

with possible new contacts (or enemies for that matter).

IF THE PLAYERS ESCAPE BEFORE BOARDING THE BARGE...The Hierarchy will search

them out, and offer rewards of status and wealth to cooperative citizens of

the Necropolis. When captured, they will be labeled as dangerous renegades,

which can carry a sentence of branding, or even discorporation.

IF THE PLAYERS TRY TO ESCAPE FROM THE BARGE...The centurions on the barge

will release two braces of bhargests with orders to "fetch"-dead or alive.

BREAKING THE CHAINS...will cause them (the chains) to moan in anguish,

alerting any wraith within five city blocks to their presence. They will

stop their moaning after awhile. The chains will bring a good price on the

Renegade black market. Of course, possession of Stygian chains is

punishable by discorporation.

Scene Three: The Midnight Express

Start: The Thrall Barge drops off the slaves about five miles from the

Amtrak station downtown. A lonely unused portion of railroad track cuts

through numerous back lots, abandoned factories, and old warehouses. Two

parallel lines of wraiths, linked by chains, plod arduosly towards the

station.

Middle: The wraiths arrive at the station. They are held at an old

switching station in what might be called a boxcar graveyard. At the stroke

of midnight, a distant train whistle echoes throughout the railyard. A

ghostly locomotive breaks through the fog in almost surreal slow-motion.

End: As the train grinds to a halt, wraiths detrain and take posts along

the length of the freight cars. No one boards or leaves the four passenger

cars. The centurions and barghests usher the thralls to the cattle cars. A

solemn robed figure stands at the head of the line, arbitrarily pointing

left or right towards one of two already crowded cattle cars.

GOAL: The Players should be separated into two cars. This Scene and the

next should be a really good time for Shadows to make their pressence felt.

IF THE PLAYERS ESCAPE...blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda. Just remember

that they have a gang of at least twenty other thralls shackled

ankle-to-ankle with them.

Scene Four: 12:05 Hellbound (and all Stops in between)

Start: Whatever car they are in, the scene is the same. The scent of death

and decay hangs in the air. Hopeless and desperate souls push and shove for

the standing spots along the perimeter. As the train lurches into movement,

legionaires on the outside mock and abuse the thralls within the cars.

Middle: The train never stops accelerating. Impossibly strong winds scream

through the unprotected cattle cars. Licks of Barrow-flame dance over the

car, injuring the wraiths bold enough to push their way to the sides. The

terrible scream of ripping air announces the passage into the Tempest. A

cacophany of color and sound replace the stable scenery of the Shadowlands.

Faces of horrible spectres loom in the distance, looking ravenously upon

the wraiths in the car. One or two foolhardy shades may even attempt to

lunge at one of the cars, sensing the Angst-ridden wraiths within, and

wanting to consume every last bit of their Psyche.

End: Suddenly the train enters what appears to be a tunnel of some

sort...the light disappears completely, leaving everyone blind to the fate

which looms beyond. And just as the sweet hope of light appears in the

distance, a flash and the terrible sound of rending metal fills the air.

The wheels of the train lock and the last two cars in tow tremble as the

lose speed. Sparks fly from the track, barely illuminating the tunnel

enough to gauge the size of it. Without warning the last car hits a bump

and careens off the track, scraping against the wall of the tunnel. The

other car speeds out towards the light at the end of the tunnel, while the

other fades into the inky blackness. Just before the first car reaches the

exit, the tunnel closes like a jaws upon prey and the car slams into the

wall, shattering on impact. Thralls are thrown left and right. And then, a

the soft glow of a beautiful angelic face approaches the Players urging

them to collect their resolve and follow her out of the tunnel.

GOAL: The players should all be well enough to suffer the wilds of the

Tempest, and attacks from hungry Spectres. They should all leave with

Cerise, the Ferryman.

ACT TWO: EMANCIPATION

Scene One: Byways

Start: Cerise leads the recently emancipated Players through the tunnel.

She carries a lantern which barely reaches out to the walls of the tunnel

and reveals a quite unusual structural feature: Ribs. Bones and sinew form

rigid arches which support the tunnel. The tracks are also made from bone.

The floor is actually soft and coated with a layer of mucus. As the circle

leaves the tunnel, they look back, and with horror realize that the tunnel

is actually a gargantuan Malfean which Cersie calls by the name Ro'ahtt.

Middle: Ro'ahlt opens a lazy eye which dialates into a wide orb of pure red

hate. He utters a gutteral word and the tempest shakes. Cersie holds out

her lantern which immediately creates an orb of pure light that extends

about 10 meters in diameter. The characters see a cloud of shades and

nephwracks belch forth from the gut of the collosal malfean. The weakest

lead the charge, sacrificing themsleves in order to weaken the shield that

Cerise has erected. Some twenty spectres will actually penetrate the

barrier before Cerise calls for them to focus their strength using Stamina

+ Meditation (6). Any dice in Eidolon may be added to this test. Three of

those spectres are powerful Nephwracks.

End: During the ensuing melee, the lantern is knocked over, spilling

barrow-flame about the battlefield in the Tempest. The fires crackles and

sparks as it interacts with and consumes the stuff of Oblivion. The

resulting conflagration rends a hole in the fabric of the Tempest. Through

the hole, the Players can see nothingbut a black void. However, more shades

and Nephwracks are on their way.

GOAL: The Characters must find their way out of the Tempest.

Scene Two: Back streets

Start: The Player's may have found a nihil leading upward through a

manhole. It exits directly under the overpass on Water St. just in front of

a sheltered bus stop. Carnations are placed along the side of the stop in

rememberance of a recent accident. A city bus is on layover here. The bus

driver is enjoying some hot coffee and reading the final edition of the

Journal Sentinel. There is not a living soul around, and one passenger in

the back of the bus. The flowers belong to him.

Middle: There is a garage just at the corner of Water and Brady. The lights

are on, the door into the shop is partially open, and Foreigner tunes are

echoing out into the parking lot. Suspiciously, no one is in the garage. A

hubcap hangs above the office door. It belonged to a '67 corvette. Engraved

in the chrome is the single name, 'Bette.'

End: Cerise awaits the players at their communal Haunt. She has come to

collect payment for her services in the Tempest. Her fee is for the Circle

to remain on the fourth floor of an apartment building on Cass St. from

sunrise tomorrow to sunrise the day after. She mentions something aboout

taking resposibility for one's actions.

Scene Three: Locks & Keys

Start: The apartment building that Cerise indicated is a run-down heap of a

structure. The inhabitants are mostly junkies, drifters, crazies, and art

students. The fourth floor is known by the tenants as Dahmerville, in

reference to the number of slayings that occur here. The wraiths of the

area call it Doom-Womb, and the reapers call it easy-pickins. The dead and

living alike are very territorial. The king of the heap on the flip side is

a wraith named Zoo. He is tempermental and dislikes anyone muscling in on

his turf.

Middle: The day goes by rather quietly. Except for Zoo, nothing troubles

the Circle much. Some kids are passing a bong in 415. The old man in 401 is

sitting in his favorite chair furiously writing down the questions on

Jeopardy! The blonde in 420 is waiting for the pizza guy to make his

regular delivery (she always orders extra sausage). The lesbian poet in 412

is trying to commit suicide (pills) for the 63rd time. The retired

librarian is scolding one of her 16 cats for eating the Afrcian Violets on

the fire escape outside 406. The loser in 413 is downloading bondage pics

off the 'net. But perhaps most importantly, the little girl who lives in

421 is sitting outside her door crying because she lost her key at school.

She knows she's in real big trouble.

End: About two o'clock, the little girl's father comes home. His eyes are

bloodshot and his breath smells like pickled chicken wings. He can hardly

navigate the hallway, and drops his keys five times before he manages to

get the right one in the lock. He starts pounding on the door to 421

furiously. It seems little Lisa has put the chain on the door and daddy

can't get in. His manner and words are getting incredibly violent.

Scene Four: Harvest

Start: Little Lisa knows she's in for a beating. Maybe dad'll just pass out

in the hallway tonight like usual. She misses mom and her old bed. She had

her own room and no one yelled at her unless she forgot to close the

refridgerator door. Troy was a lot nicer than dad and took her out for ice

cream when he came home early on Wednesdays. Mom always tucked her in bed.

She never had to come home to an empty apartment. Maybe under the bed is a

good place to hide. He'll never look under the bed.

Middle: Dad's only getting louder. No one hears him screaming because

they're all screaming too. The kids in 415 have their music up loud like

always. The old door frame is splintering and the guard chain breaks off

the door. Dad's not happy and starts breaking things left and right. Zoo

gets ready for the easy pickings.

End: Its hard not to start crying when you think your gonna die. And Dad

can hear you. Just quiet down and hold onto Teddy and maybe he'll go away.

But he finds you and grabs you by the hair and pulls you out from under the

bed and you try to reach for Teddy but Dad kicks him so that he lands right

next to the radiator and you scream for Mom but she's dead and Dad tells

you she's dead and hits you for being so stupid and then he kicks you and

you land next to the radiator and burn your arm but you get up quick and

dad comes after you...

From here on out it's free form.

END.

Reap What You Sow Results

This adventure was played out on Halloween. It was written primarily for inexperienced players and a few unfamiliar with the World of Darkness setting. So if the first half seems a bit forced (as was pointed out to me by an astute friend) that's why.

Initially there was some trouble getting the players to care about a screaming woman being hounded by some mortal thugs (go figure). Afterwards, I thought maybe a hierarchy patrol might make haunt to haunt searches for the renegade wraith. Even it doesn't prompt them to help the woman, at least it gets them out of the damn cellar. But finally they went to investigate one by one. When they got to the alley, something interesting happened. Our Shadowguide (one guy played everyone's Shadow. It worked well.) convinced a player to abandon his defense of the woman, and she was slain by the renegade wraith (using embody and moliate). Then the renegade turned on the characters for awhile and the whole lot of them were captured by a hierarchy patrol.

A pitfall that I encountered was that these newer players didn't seem to interact with the world unless it interacted first. Now, only two of the players were newbies, so I kind of blamed the two experienced guys. Of course it wasn't MY fault. So I guess I might have presented some more mundane moments of interaction, just to warm to players up to the fact that the more you work the part, the greater the rewards. As anyone knows, good gaming is tiring, so make it worth the energy you spend on it!

Honestly, I spent many hours on this story. I had an idea of where it would go and how fast it would move. WAS I ON DRUGS?? I usually GM on the fly, so I guess my expectations were a little high and a little narrow. But for those of you who like to run pre-written adventures, try this one, and let us know how it goes. This has potential hidden in it. If someone else can find it, then I know I had some part in it. Oh, by the way, use your own NPCs. I'll include some write-ups of the ones I used, but since you gotta play 'em, you should choose 'em.