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Wednesday, November 5

An Outbreak of Alchemy: Introduction

This scenario, “An Outbreak of Alchemy,” is a Mystic China adventure by the late Erick Wujcik. You can read more about Delta Green at http://www.delta-green.com. Please note: This story hour contains spoilers!

Our cast of characters includes:

• Game Master: Michael Tresca (http://michael.tresca.net)
• Jim “Jim-Bean” Baxter (Charismatic Hero/Telepath) played by Jeremy Ortiz (http://www.ninjarobotstudios.com)
• Kurtis “Hammer” Grange (Fast/Dedicated Hero/Gunslinger) played by George Webster
• Joseph “Archive” Fontaine (Dedicated Hero/Acolyte) played by Joe Lalumia

When I needed an Asian mad scientist who was refining Blink into something more dangerous, I had to look no further than Mystic China. The scenario is a little incoherent (much of the description of the Equitech building is in William Davis Ko’s stat block), but the ingredients were all there: ghosts, mutated dead bodies, and a doddering old scientist who just happens to know the secrets of life and death.

Because this scenario is light on details, Critical Locations was very useful for filling in the blanks. I used the Black Lotus Trading Company from the Cold War scenario (which is also the bulk of the next chapter) to provide a starting point for the agents, but I needn’t have bothered as they didn’t stick around for long.

The real action was in the Equitech building, and as my players were fond of telling me, it was just like the Nakatomi building in Die Hard. Comparing the scenario to Die Hard made the agents bolder. There are only so many ways off a 40-storey building…

By far the biggest surprise was Ko’s pet. I used a monster from Oriental Adventures which is suitably bizarre, and true to form, it caught the agents by surprise. They were so confused as to what it was (and what it was capable of) that they alternated between trying to kill it and trying to run from it.

At heart, this is an assassination attempt and the agents did an excellent job of getting past security. They just weren't entirely sure what to do once they got to the target.

Defining Moment: Archive wakes up from his drug-induced stupor just in time to give Ko a parting shot…and discover he’s missing something very important. [MORE]

Labels: d20 modern

posted by Mike Tresca at 6:53 AM

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