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Project Nemesis

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Drawbridge Closed scenario PDF Print E-mail
Written by Peter K.   
Monday, 19 May 2008

I originally posted this on the Unknown Armies list months ago, but don't remember mentioning it here. A bit on the soft-science side since I didn't really do any serious research before writing it, but seems mildly germane to the discussion anyway. Originally inspired by the lyrics of "Drawbridge" (by the All Girl Summer Fun Band) and "Sad Sad Song" (by Tilly and the wall). 

Scenario:

PCs start out as mutual friends of each other and are uninitiated in the occult aspects of the setting. They are also mutual friends of (maybe from college or work) of an NPC named Melissa. Melissa is very personable young woman still in college (a senior or masters student) studying quazi-fringe psychology (Jungian archetype stuff, hypnotism, transcendental meditation, and other similar phenomena/practices), but othing directly tied to the occult.

Due to academic interest and to make a little extra money Melissa recently signed up to participate in some sort of "mind reading" study. She apparently qualified for it on account of her well developed skill with lucid dreaming.

In the brief conversations with the PCs she's mentioned that there is supposedly some vaguely conventional scientific validity to the study. It has something to do taking a rapid series of MRIs (or some other undisclosed form of scan) of one brain and using those as the basis for stimulating another person's brain to similar effect (ie. technobabble). But there's no reason the technology shouldn't be safe, even if it turns out not to function as intended.

The project is on a shoestring budget and thus can't afford a lot of amenities. It's being run out of a clean, but normal house located out in the country. Although probably not been stated to the PCs, the house is in a radio dead zone. You might be able to get a couple AM tations there, but cell phones won't get any reception. This was intentional since the brain-scanning equipment has a couple powerful electromagnets and capacitors which if suddenly discharged could cause a strong enough EMP to pose an insurance liability for surrounding homes and businesses. Since the project couldn't afford the necessary materials for a sufficiently large and effective Faraday cage (the brain scanning equipment, and unusual modifications to it had cost them most of the money) an isolated location was deemed adequate by the project's overseers.

Melissa is planning to participate in this study Thursday and Friday. After that there are arrangements for the PCs to drive out into the country and pick her up and go camping (possibly hunting) over the weekend at a state park somewhere not too far from where the study is taking place.

After making some driving checks to avoid getting lost (this place is in the middle of nowhere and not clearly marked) the PCs finally see the light of a house across the valley at about dusk. This should be the place. As they get within about 3/4 mile of the place the light goes out and the car they're driving in dies. Attempts to re-start the car don't work, it won't even turn over. There has been a massive EMP and anything with an electronic chip or closed semi-conductor circuit will be inoperable.

As the PCs walk up to the house they find things are awry. There is a man with keys in hand laying on the ground with some entrails torn out, apparently he was trying to get to his car in a hurry when this occurred. The door to the place has been left open in his haste, but there are three sizable gouges all the way through it as if sliced by a massive claw. Inside are other gouges and the bodies of technicians lie in various states of cooling. Some have tools and implements in hand as if they were trying to defend themselves, others appear to have been struck from behind.

In an otherwise empty room (except for a couple minor pieces of medical equipment) the PCs find Melissa sitting in a comfortable conference chair. She has a sweet, almost wistful smile, but her eyes look a million miles away as if daydreaming or watching the clouds on a warm summer day. If spoken to she turns her head vaguely toward the speaker and will follow simple instructions but will not speak and will generally not make any actions on her own. Her pleasant facade never fades.

Other investigation turns up the following:

Some sort of brain-scanner that looks like nothing the PCs have ever seen. It has alot of electromagnetic coils in complicated arrays. A doctor or med student will probably recognize it has being very vaguely like an MRI machine, but no one present will be able to figure out exactly how if functions even with a decent skill in electronics.

The machines themselves are not shielded, however all the computers attached to them seem to be wrapped in copper mesh or foil of some kind. The generator is similarly shielded. As it turns out the EMP pulse happened because everyone died and the generator ran out of fuel allowing a set of capacitors to discharge because the machines weren't turned off properly.

Refilling the generator and turning it on will start all the equipment in the house without a problem including the brain-scanner.

Lab notes indicate that, against all odds, the scanner worked. However, it went a bit beyond the expectations of the researchers. The machine did scan the observed subject (originally Melissa) and stimulate corresponding regions of the observing target's brain, but the flaws in the equipment's shielding seems to have resulted in the effects not being confined to the thought-transmitting subject and thought-receiving subject. It turns out that the machine sets up some sort of resonance between all brains in the general vicinity causing unconscious elements to bleed into the waking mind and effectively knocking down a few of the barriers between the minds of separate people.

Essentially the researchers all started to share the same waking dream, difficult to distinguish from reality. To make matters worse certain destructive tendencies within their separate minds combined to form "the Ravening Beast". The Ravening Beast is a gestalt psychic construct generally looking like a humanoid werewolf with sabel fur, but lacking distinguishable eyes and ears, and instead it's entire face being taken up by a single, disproportionately large, irregularly toothed maw.

While the scanner was on the beast seemed to take the form of a shared delusion with real world effects. When the scanner is turned off it retreats to the head of one or another individual, however, the effects it left behind are still real. Normally the individual it etreats to is controlled by the ravening beast and shortly there after goes on a killing spree.

Currently the beast is in Melissa's head, however she's partitioned it off with elements of her dream world. This is why she is catatonic. If the PCs don't turn on the machine she will remain catatonic for the rest of her life, but the beast will never trouble anyone again.

If the PCs turn on the machine two things happen:
  1. The ravening beast is loosed. If manifests outside the building (where it was last) and wants to get in. This may take it a little time as it tries to find a way to get in, but it will eventually manage to break through a window somehow.
  2. Melissa disappears and the back wall of the room she's in falls away. In place of the wall is the entrance to an extra-dimensional space from her own innter dreamland. Just beyond where the room ends is 7'x12' shelf of land overlooking a vast abyss. The shelf is made of roughly cut but carefully mortared cobblestone. The abyss is like blue sky with a few clouds on all sides (above and below). About 15 ft. straight out from the shelf is a small castle built on a sphere of land which floats over the abyss. The drawbridge of the castle is up, but would normally come down to contact the shelf of land attached to the room where Melissa was.

If the PCs can figure out a way to get across the gap (ie. throwing a rope or something) that's fine. If it becomes urgent that they cross the gap and no one can figure out a way then a guard will come to the tower atop the gate house, hail them, and throw them a rope. He will not lower the bridge for them (queen's orders).

If they get into the castle they'll find it deserted except for one guard and the queen. The queen looks a lot like Melissa but is only a piece of Melissa, as is this whole realm.

She can explain a few things about the situation: Melissa built the castle as a defense against the beast. If the drawbridge were lowered, the very act of doing so would open up Melissa's mind and body to the beast's physical attacks (if the machine is on) and/or influence (if the machine is shut off). She sent out several guards earlier but the beast picked them off quite effectively and she no longer has the strength to commission (create) more.

She realizes that the beast abides in her lands beyond her keep (ie. resided in part of her mind while the machine was switched off), and cautions the other PCs that it could now take up residence in any of the kingdoms from which they hail as well.

The queen suspects that the beast could be overcome by the combined efforts of several kingdoms (ie. the minds of several people working together). To this end she will outfit the PCs with weapons from the castle's armory to help out with the task. Due to the limits of the renaissance/medieval motif that Melissa used to construct the castle, the armory is limited to weapons of those periods. In theory the PCs might get a cannon or some other sort of fire-arm but reloading the thing will be a pain, and they can't get anything very large across the abyss with the drawbridge up, nor could they maneuver it through the house very easily in any case.

After they get into the castle the beast will be more sneaky and will try to pick them off one-by-one. However, if the PCs can think of a plan to draw it into an open space where they can attack it all together without it escaping then they should be able to overcome it.

This accomplished the queen will lower the drawbridge and Melissa will no longer be catatonic. Everything returns to normal, except for the PCs being stranded in the middle of nowhere surrounded by dead technicians.

...though over time they might find odd after-effects from exposure to the scanner (their minds might be a little more porous now), fodder for a different scenario.

One thing I wasn't sure of is how to get the PCs to turn on the scanner and initiate the whole series of events. It could activate when the generator starts up, but they might either not even attempt to start the generator, or might shut off the scanner shortly after the generator starts, just leaving Melissa catatonic for ever. 

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JoeViturbo - Solution   | Registered | 2008-06-25 12:46:40
avatar One simple solution is to add an additional NPC. Perhaps a boyfriend or fiancee of Melissa's who would be devastated enough by her now catatonic state to ignore the signs and hastily turn on the generator and machine as a method to restore her to her normal state. Were he to be another senior/grad student in psychology it could explain where he came-up with. Or you could use an NPC who was involved in the experiment to turn the device on. Of course, there is also always the Stuart Gordon solution from "From Beyond". That being to have the machine come on on its own as a result of "the Ravening Beast" sensing new minds to feast upon.
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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.
 
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