You are a private detective or mercenary who has been hired to infiltrate the closed Anarcho-Syndicalist city of Passwall and clandestinely discover the whereabouts of the city’s chairman.
When this adventure begins, you are traveling to the crypt-city of Thanofane where you can plan your movement to nearby Passwall while visiting shrines and temples.
This adventure is highly action-oriented, and is part of a larger campaign which I’ve been writing.
All you need to know about the world is that it is divided into city-states and the technology is early interwar.
See the end of this post for commentary if you like.
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| Sing, muse, of the passion of the pistol… |
Sequence of Play:
You will learn the four Skills.
You will learn how to roll Skill checks.
You will learn about Damage.
You will select, roll up, or build a Character.
You will begin the adventure.
—
Your Character has Skills.
You make Skill checks to avoid or overcome obstacles. When called to make a Skill check, roll a d12. If you roll at or below your Skill level, you succeed. If you roll above your Skill level, you fail.
There are four Skills.
Tradecraft: Your canniness, craftiness, and technical skill as a detective.
Influence: Your social acumen and ability to prevail in purely social challenges.
Gunplay: Your ability to quickly draw a firearm, prevail in short-range gunfights, and make long-range precision shots.
Prowess: Your level of athleticism, which you use to prevail in hand-to-hand combat, make challenging leaps, and resist shock and organ failure from physical damage. When you are damaged, you reduce your Prowess score until you can be hospitalized (ie after this adventure).
You may be called to make Hard or Very Hard checks. Hard checks are made at your skill level -1, and Very Hard checks are made with your skill level -2.
If you have a Gunplay of 7 and you make a Gunplay check, you succeed by rolling 7 or below.
If you are making a Hard Gunplay check, you can only succeed by rolling a 6 or below.
If you are making a Very Hard Gunplay check, you can only succeed by rolling a 5 or below.
If you fail a Skill check, you might Take Damage.
When you Take Damage, reduce your Prowess by 1 and roll a d4.
On a 4, reduce your Prowess by an additional 1.
Repeat until you roll 1-3 or are struck down (0 Prowess).
In other words, 4s explode.
Note that taking damage is not the only possible outcome for losing a combat check.
You may select a Character, build one, or point-buy one as laid out below.
The starting Characters are archetypes, and are not equal in ability.
Links are for flavor.
Characters
Tradecraft: 9
Influence: 9
Gunplay: 9
Prowess: 9
The Inspector is the character to play if you simply wish to explore the scenario with a good chance of taking it to conclusion on your first try.
Tradecraft: 3
Influence: 3
Gunplay: 9
Prowess: 9
Tradecraft: 7
Influence: 8
Gunplay: 3
Prowess: 6
Note that this character will be a real challenge to play due to his low Gunplay and mediocre Prowess, but I have included him for completeness. He is more suited for the overarching campaign.
Tradecraft: 6
Influence: 5
Gunplay: 8
Prowess: 7
Tradecraft: 8
Influence: 7
Gunplay: 6
Prowess: 5
Creating your own character
Random Character Creation: Roll 2d6 for each skill.
Point Buy: Start with 6 across the board. Reduce one skill to add to another
Note that a Bookmark is a point that you have selected in the story that you may revert to. Annotate your skills at that time, as they may change.
—
Beginning
Glossy wake spreads in searching waves from the river freighter, Woodwose Maiden.
You relax on the waterside afterdeck with a traveler by the name of Mar. You both sit beneath a blue and white parasol and a pitcher of rum iced tea bobs between you with lemons and cherries in the ice.
“So, the war between Ascension and Passwall-“
You wince again and cut him off.
“No. No. Archzenith and Palmgrove.”
“Ah, yes, yes,” he says, waving dismissively.
A woman screams in horror from the upper deck.
You both fall silent, listening to the echo of the scream in the chatter-clattering of the trees. The rock turtles do not raise their heads.
If you:
Stop, look, listen and smell: Make a Tradecraft check. If you succeed, go to B2. If you fail, go to B3.
Quietly run up the exterior stairs and check the upper deck: Go to B13.
Discuss what you just heard with Mar: Make an Influence check and go to B14.
B2
You hear gurgling from the deck. It’s not a ballast leveling, but a human body that’s been opened to the wind. You feel a slow, deliberate quivering in the planks. It originates behind a pair of glassy doors in the berthing corridor behind you.
You stand, pivot and draw your gun in one motion. There is a a man in the shadows of the berthing corridor. He is leaning out an inch to look at you, but then he pulls back as you see him.
If you:
Investigate the man in the shadows, carefully blading the door with your pistol, go to B10.5.
Shoot him before he can pull back, make a Gunplay check. If you succeed, go to B10A. If you fail, go to B10B.
B3
You sit back and listen. Suddenly, a steel cord is whipped past your eyes and fastens around your neck. Almost instantly, you feel like your head will explode from pressure as Mar leaps in and lays sideways across your legs, pinning you down. He starts reaching all through your coat and finds your pistol, which he takes hold of and attempts to extricate from your shoulder holster.
Make a Prowess check. If you succeed, go to B4. If you fail, go to B5.
B4
You leap straight up into the air like a frightened cat. Mar is thrown off of your legs and rolls into the water with a white splash. Your head rams into the pelvis of the man who’s strangling you, jarring him loose. There is a chilling pull of the wire across your neck. It cuts you and you feel hot blood on your collar. Mar is already swimming hard for the slow-moving freighter. Your vision is wan and pale.
Go to B6.
B5
You feel a vivid, spiky static consume all things. The spikes dig deeper as every nerve is in your head is crushed. In a moment, you cannot think and all turns to blissful light.
You have been murdered. Go to your last bookmark.
B6
If you:
Shoot these motherfuckers, check Gunplay. If you succeed, go to B7A. If you fail, go to B7B.
Incapacitate the garrote man and then capture Mar, make a Hard Prowess check. If you succeed, go to B8A. If you fail, go to B8B.
Kill the garrote man as quietly as you can and then dispatch Mar, make a Prowess check. If you succeed, go to B9A. If you fail, go to B9B.
B7A
You dive a hand into your coat, make a half turn and open fire through your garments into the strangler. A knife clatters to the deck and he screams. He rams himself hard into the divider between the stairwell and the crew’s quarters before falling shoulder-first through the window with a plaintive clatter. You whip out your pistol with tatters of your holster still clinging to it, lay the front sight between Mar’s eyes where he’s anchored himself on the freighter’s waterline afterdeck and blow his head in two with a .45 dumdum. His body slides away slowly from his anchorage and his brains float between his black locks and into the water like pink chum. You turn your head and the first man you shot is laying amongst broken glass in the doorway to the crew’s quarters. He is breathing quickly and raggedly, holding his chest. He emits a piercing, ragged scream, and then goes back to his ragged breathing, which gradually slows and stops.
Go to B15.
B7B
You dive your hand into your coat but can’t get a good grip on your pistol. A knife stabs through your shoulderblade; it feels like a sledgehammer blow. Take Damage and make a Gunplay check. If you succeed, go to B7A. If you fail, repeat this section.
B8A
You dart backwards and throw your elbow head-height at the man behind, catching him in the upper jaw with a stunning blow. He falls over like a forgotten golf club, audibly breaking his nose. You kick your heel into him and lift him up a few inches; you see that he’s fallen on a knife he’d just drawn, impaling himself bloodlessly.
You glance at Mar. He’s just beached himself on the deck with his forearms. You rush to him and grab him by the hair and throat, dragging him onto the deck. Still holding him by the throat, you search him and come up with a curved dagger, belting it, then grab one of his pinkies. You turn him so that his back is to the ship; he is prisoner and breastplate.
“Talk,” you hiss, “who are you?”
“I think you know,” he rasps, revealing a strange, lilting accent which was hitherto disguised, “My voice has lit the Crag.”
There it is, then. The Crag of Songs Killers. Some kind of reclusive clan whose members join ships, planes or caravans pretending to be passengers or crew and then murder everybody else, taking their spoils back to the hidden temple. They are great studies of the world’s cultures.
If you:
Kill him: Go to B8AA.
Knock him out and tie him up: Go to B8AB.
B8AA
You put a second hand around his throat and start strangling him until he falls to his knees, gawking and gaping. You step a foot forward past his side and squeeze, breaking his windpipe; his expression is a mask of silent agony. You strangle him until his head goes limp and white, and then you cast him into the water, creating a patina of froth around him. The other guy’ll be dead eventually with the knife in him; you roll him in too, then look around.
Go to B15.
B8AB
You push him back a little and then yank him into you, smashing his mouth with your forehead. You feel his teeth rake and break on your scalp; he goes limp in your grasp and you dump him on the deck before pulling his buddy on top of him. Then you cut strips from the other killer’s coat and tie Mar’s hands together behind his back and to the railing.
Go to B15.
B8B
You try and throw your elbow at the man behind you but he stabs you in the bicep as you twist. You pull it away and take Damage, your arm soaking and staticky with damage. Make another Prowess test. If you succeed, go to B8A. If you fail, repeat this section.
B9A
You spin around at the strangler and whip the butt of your pistol into his throat, clipping his jaw with your swing. He falls flat on his rear and makes a noise like he’s trying to violently clear his throat. You kick him in the jaw as hard as you can and he springs back like a pop rocket, the tip of his tongue going flying into the water to be eaten by small fish. You stomp his throat and your heel finishes what your pistol began, breaking his windpipe. You then rush to the rear of the boat as Mar gets his upper body onto it; you smash the butt of your .45 right where his hair is parted, splitting his scalp into a red smile. You hoist him sodden onto the deck, search him, come up with a curved knife, saw his throat open while the hot blood pours across your hands, push him into the water and wash your hands in the wake.
Go to B15.
B9B
The man behind you gets his knife into your shoulderblade and you nearly drop your weapon, with which you had intended to whip him. Take Damage.
Test Prowess again. If you succeed, go to B9A. If you fail, repeat this section.
B10A
You fire a single shot and spatter the interior wall with blood, leaving a tiny spiderweb hole in the glass. A body collapses into the shadows like a ghost that’s been turned to stone. Mar rushes you from the side and slams into you, knocking you into the warm green water; his ripples fight against yours as he dives in after you, drawing a knife that glints with the sunlight.
Make a Prowess check. If you succeed, go to B11A. If you fail, go to B11B.
B10B
You aim but hesitate, barely able to make out a thing in the shadows. After a moment you see the whites of the man’s eyes; he disappears. Mar rushes you from the side and slams into you, knocking you into the warm green water; his ripples fight against yours as he dives in after you, drawing a knife that glints with the sunlight.
Make a Prowess check. If you succeed, go to B11A. If you fail, go to B11B.
B10.5
You squint your eyes, raise your pistol and creep laterally by the door, intending to catch whoever is lurking in the berthing corridor before he can get a bead on you. Mar rushes you from the side and slams into you, knocking you into the warm green water; his ripples bump chests with yours as he dives in after you, drawing a knife that glints with the sunlight.
Make a Prowess check. If you succeed, go to B11A. If you fail, go to B11B.
B11A
You find his wrist before he can stick you and then grab his other sleeve so that he can’t pass off the knife. You thrash in as close to him as possible and feel his dark locks brush your face; suddenly you kick yourself into him so that he can’t lunge away from you. You catch his stubbly neck in your teeth while the water fills your mouth. You bite like you’re trying to indent wood and you cut his skin, tasting blood as he lets out an undulating underwater scream; you get your teeth around a jugular as both of you thrash before driving your jaws together like you’re trying to break them. You rip away from him and feel his flesh tear with you; you are engulfed in a hot fog of blood as he finishes his muted scream. He’s no longer trying to stab you and you realize that your brain is being pierced with inhaled water; you kick for the shining surface.
If you shot the man who who was lurking in the berthing corridor, you get a huge breath of air and begin to haul yourself towards the ship. You reach the afterdeck, drag yourself up, get into cover by the door, disassemble your pistol, blow it out and reassemble it in the space of a minute. Go to B15.
If you did not shoot the man who was lurking in the berthing corridor, you are hit with a brain-jarring force as he leaps in to aid Mar and lands on you with both knees. Make a Hard Prowess test. If you pass, go to B12A. If you fail, go to B12B.
B11B
You grab his coat but his knife finds you, and the panic of being grappled underwater is made infinite by the jarring pinprick that you know will become a tiny inferno if you live to calm down.
Take Damage and make a Prowess check. If you succeed, go to B11A. If you fail, repeat this section.
B12A
Furious, you grab his coat, turn upside down and yank him for the bottom. He tries to cut your throat with his knife but only manages to strike you in the ear with the hilt; you kick upwards and catch him in the jaw. He is stunned and you turn upside down, catching his knife hand and putting your other arm around his throat. You allow both of you to float to the surface as he begins to thrash, but you hold him down judiciously, allowing yourself little mouthfuls of breath through the churning green water. You look down at his brown hair waving brainlessly like a sea anemone, and hold his head there until he stops fighting and you can freely take his knife from him. You grab his hair, put the knife to his throat and rip it through for good measure, then you kick off of his body in a cloud of hot blood and begin a breaststroke for the river freighter. You reach the afterdeck, drag yourself up, get into cover by the door, disassemble your pistol, blow it out and reassemble it in the space of a minute.
Go to B15.
B12B
You are jarred downwards in the water and followed by a flashing blade. Your attacker pierces your ribcage with a skin-crawling rush of river water. Take Damage, test and test Prowess. If you succeed, go to B12A. If you fail, repeat this section.
B13
You scale the stairs to the upper deck like a cat, peering intently over the slats. Suddenly, a steel cord is whipped past your eyes and tightens around your neck, and you are pulled back and flat upon the afterdeck. You feel that your head will explode from pressure almost instantly when Mar leaps in and lays sideways over your legs, pinning you. He reaches all throughout your blazer and finds your pistol, which he takes hold of in your shoulder holster.
Make a Prowess check. If you succeed, go to B4. If you fail, go to B5.
B14A
“What do you think that was?” you say, eyeing Mar.
“I don’t know, what do you think?”
You notice that he is eyeing you very keenly; you are the object of his attention, not the scream. The hair stands up on the back of your neck and your senses sharpen like a stiff wind; there is someone behind you. You whirl around, knocking your deck chair sidelong as you draw your pistol. There is a man approaching you with a taut garrote wire; he freezes and gasps as you round on him.
Go to B6.
B14B
Mar begins singing a disturbing tune; a celebratory dirge in an unknown tongue.
Suddenly, a steel cord is whipped past your eyes and tightens around your neck. Instantly you feel that your head will explode from pressure as Mar leaps in and lays sideways over your legs, pinning you. He reaches all throughout your blazer and finds your pistol, which he lays a hold of inside your shoulder holster.
Make a Prowess check. If you succeed, go to B4. If you fail, go to B5.
B15
You look out across the water and realize that you could just swim to shore and abandon this deathtrap. Several factors occur to you in rapid succession:
-These people will murder every passenger and crewman aboard.
-If you go ashore, you will have to bushwhack through many miles of muggy forest before reaching Thanofane; this will compress your timescale and you’ll have to set out for Passwall very soon after you arrive in Thanofane. With the ship, you’d have time to visit multiple temples and shrines.
-The shipping company and possibly the City of Thanofane would reward you for getting the freighter and any survivors home in one piece.
You look up the burnished wooden staircase to the upper deck, exposed to the sun. That is where you heard the scream and gurgling. You suspect that will be the most direct route to the Killers.
You look into the berthing corridor. That is where the crew and passengers sleep, and it leads to a Cargo Deck and the below-deck Furnace Room.
The ship’s passengers have been instructed to gather in the Cargo Bay in the event of a hostile boarding. You wonder how many passengers are even aware of the situation, but if there are any, and if you wish to advise them and increase their safety, that’s the place to go.
You know that the Furnace Room will afford you cover of darkness as you approach the Bridge; if anyone’s waiting for you down there, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to elude them or get the drop on them.
You know that the Furnace Room, Cargo Bay and Upper Deck are interconnected. You know that they all lead to the Bridge, where the ship’s Captain and Master-and-Arms might be. The Killers are likely to be aiming a decapitation blow there.
If you swim to shore and walk to Thanofane, go to SBC.
If you go to the Upper Deck, go to B16. If you have already investigated that area, go to BUDT.
If you head for the Cargo Bay, go to B21. If you have already investigated that area, go to BCBT.
If you head for the Furnace, go to B21. If you have already investigated that area, go to BFRT.
B16
You place your feet on each the stair with a pickpocket’s grace. The chrome rail is hot beneath your hand while the shade passes over it. You brace your shin against a stair and peer across the topmost step, exposing just a sliver of your eye.
You look past the long, ovular smokestack and the stairwell to the cargo bay. There is a woman in a spiderweb-white gown sprawled amidship above the stairs to the bridge and near the gallery. She is laying on her belly and knee, with her head resting in the crook of her arm. She shifts her body slightly, then stops, and then shifts again.
If you:
Fall back, go to B15.
Move in to investigate, go to B17.
B17
You peer across the side of the ship but can’t see anything on the far side of the ship. It occurs to you to shimmy along the outside of the ship but your fingers would be visible, you’d be defenseless, and it’s a long way to go. You press against the smokestack and slide forward like a cat on a leg. The woman shifts slightly.
Make a Tradecraft check. If you succeed, go to B17A. If you fail, go to B17B.
B17A
You freeze. Attention to detail. You peer at the woman very hard, and you see it. Tiny fishing lines threaded through her sleeves and stockings. She’s shifting because someone is pulling her. Literally bait.
You trace the lines to the gallery and down the far stairs.
The woman has been murdered. You can make out faint lines on her neck; they strangled her and used her own makeup to hide it. Whoever was cut open here has been carried away. They left only what they needed for the trap.
If you advance and spring the trap, go to B18.
If you fall back to the afterdeck, go to B15.
B17B
You look at the woman. “Ma’am,” you whisper. She begins to stir more strongly, and reaches a hand out towards you, then stops. She cannot seem to raise her head. You peer out from behind the smokestack towards the gallery. It is dark and empty where it stands amidship. You move towards the woman with the grace of a panther when you notice the fishing lines attached to her sleeves and stockings.
Go to B18.
B18
If you have fired your weapon on the afterdeck or bridge, go to B18A.
If you did not fire your weapon on the afterdeck or bridge, go to B18B.
B18A
Men spring up from the sills of the galley and open fire on you with revolvers and shotguns. A sailor with an iron-stamped SMG comes into view on the bridge stairs. Your heart is beating into your brain with terror and consternation.
If you:
Quickdraw and shoot it out with them, make a Hard Gunplay check. If you succeed, go to B17ASA. If you fail, go to B17ASB.
Dive over the rail and swim away on the bottom of the river before making for Thanofane, make a Hard Prowess check. If you succeed go to B19A. If you fail go to B19B.
B17ASA
You fall flat and fire 1, 2, 3, shooting down the men at the galley windows like you’re at a carnival before jackknifing yourself towards the ‘sailor’; at the moment you do so, he opens fire with his SMG and you are blasted with woodchips and sawdust. You fire between your knees and shoot him in the chest and face. You see something white and shiny fly away from his head as he collapses on the stairs with a clatter, though you can’t tell if it was part of his skull or his eyeball. You roll yourself over and sprint to the galley, sliding on your knees the last 8’, then you slither to the furthest window and cut the pie with your pistol. Two clean kills and a man shot in the solar plexus, writhing around and screaming. You couldn’t hear it due to the ringing of your ears. He lays still to breathe with his mouth open limply for a moment and you shoot him in the head. You can see his body stretching flat with a sudden robotic calmness through the smoke and darkness.
As you calm down you feel twinges in your thigh and hip; you touch them and your fingers come away bloody. The Crag Killer who was posing as a sailor shot you twice when he fired on you, missing your hipbone and testicle by centimeters. Flesh wounds. Your skin hangs loose around the gunshots but you’ve lost minimal muscle to them. Twin miracles, but these things happen.
Go to B20.
B17ASB
You reach into your coat, glancing between the sailor and the three who are coming from the galley. You look down the barrel of the SMG and freeze. It lights you up and you are falling before you even feel anything. He’s shot you once but held the trigger and the rest of the rounds will land somewhere in the forest. Take d4 Damage, resolving each separately.
Make a Gunplay check. If you succeed, go to B17ASA. If you fail, he will walk his fire up your body and you will take d6 x d4 Damage. Repeat as necessary.
B17B
Suddenly men are coming over the galley windowsills and up the bridge’s stairs. Their faces are calm and determined; they wield knives and have parachute cord woven around their hands and wrists, and one of them has a .38 pistol tucked in his belt. A sailor on the stairs carries an SMG.
If you:
Quickdraw and El Presidente them, make a Gunplay check. If you succeed, go to B17BSA. If you failed, go to B17BSB.
If you dive over the rail and swim away on the bottom of the river before making for Thanofane, make a Prowess check. If you succeed go to B19A. If you fail go to B19B.
B17BSA
Your pistol is in your hand with blinding speed and you shoot one of the sailor’s eyes out. Your action is simply more decisive than his. He falls against the rail and tumbles down the stairs and you see fibers of his brain on the mist; that’s enough for you and you whirl on your assailants, who’ve stopped short. The man with the .38 has just gotten his hand on it. You pivot and fire 1, 2, 3 as if you were at a carnival stand. The men seize and collapse as your .45s enter and leave them.
Your gun is hot. You advance on them. The first man has a split-open nose bridge and crossed eyes. The second has a hole in his cheekbone and a bit of brain poking from his ear. You are chilled to see that the third man has no apparent wound. You step on his hand, which is still holding his knife, and lift him up by his collar to examine him. His left eye falls into the darkness of his skull as the back of his head falls off, quietly vomiting brains onto the deck. You lay his too-light head down in the waffly gore, straighten up and look around, pondering your next move.
Go to B20.
B17BSB
You reach into your coat, glancing between the sailor and the three who are coming from the galley. You look down the barrel of the SMG and freeze. It lights you up and you are falling before you even feel anything. He’s shot you once but held the trigger and the rest of the rounds will land somewhere in the forest. Take d4 Damage and resolve each hit separately.
Make a Gunplay check. If you succeed, go to B17BSA. If you fail, he will walk his fire up your body and you will take d6 x d4 Damage. Repeat as necessary.
B19A
You go make a 6’ sprint and go headfirst over the railing. You don’t remember the turtle rocks until you are already in the air; you look down over the rail and see them, but they are too close to shore for you to land on, thank the Burning Eye.
You hear the cracking of the buckshot and submachine gun fire around you as you dive so low over the railing that your clothes swish across it. You slide into the water like a javelin and continue straight down until you touch river rock, your ears pounding; you drag and kick yourself along the bottom until you find a big rock and hold on. You hear distant thumps. You close your eyes, patient. You wait until the panic of airlessness is overwhelming before tracing your way up the riverbed to the shore. You break the surface of the water with great discipline and expose only your nose and lips, breathing this way for perhaps fifteen minutes before exposing an eye. The freighter is gone. You slither out of the water like an otter and push inland to drain your shoes before the journey to Thanofane.
Go to SBC.
B19B
You go make a 6’ sprint and go headfirst over the railing. You don’t remember the turtle rocks until you are already in the air; you look down over the rail and see them, but they are too close to shore for you to land on, thank the Burning Eye.
You feel a speckling of red hot agony in your legs and hips which your supercharged adrenaline can barely suppress; you’ve been lit up with a buckshot blast and God knows what else. You hit the water with a crash and yank yourself towards the cold riverbed like an angel cast out of hell into deep space.
You take 2 Damage. If you survive,
You can only halfway kick and realize that you’re in as much danger underwater as you’d be shooting it out on the ship; you thrash for the surface and break it a hundred meters behind the river freighter. The Crag men fire on you from the rear deck and you drag yourself into the woods with bullets and buckshot cutting up the trees and grass around you. The bullets keep coming through the foliage and you roll yourself down a dry gulch for cover, wheezing as you go. You check yourself out as you come to rest filthy and bloody against the horns of an uprooted stump; you’ve taken buckshot in your thighs and calves and a 9mm through your buttcheeks. The agony sets in. It’ll be a long crawl to Thanofane.
Go to SBC.
B20
You now have a commanding entryway to the Bridge if you haven’t yet investigated it.
Go to BUDT.
B21
You walk down the red carpet of the berthing corridor. It is flanked in tan paneling and dark lacquered wood. It is a secret treat for the staff; the place is warm, smells like a home, and there are fat, sumptuous beds and tapestries hiding in their quarters. The rooms are empty of life, unless perhaps the crew have taken to their chests. You pass the largest stateroom of them all, and inside you see a hammock of pure red silk embroidered with alhambric alembics crenellated and dressed in geometry. The ship’s captain lays swaddled in this luxury is with a straw hat over his face. It has been pinned in place by a long dagger slid through his eye and into his brain. His silver beard is marked by a tear of blood.
If you go on to the Cargo Bay, go to B34.
If you descend to the Engine Room, go to B22.
B22
You have descended into the darkness of the engine bay and the chthonic humming of mechanical lifeblood enwombs you. The dust of coal plays across your eyes and the rhythmic pneumatic heartbeat of the ship wavers beneath your feet. It is a maze of pipes and machines; dark so that you peel your eyes but see only the nearest crannies. You make your way past hot pipes and cold cisterns, and bear witness to the gaping jack-o-lantern maws of open coal furnaces and the twinkling red lights of their keeper machines.
“Sir, sir,” you hear the urgent whisper of a child. An apparition? A scullion? You freeze.
It comes from shoulder height amongst the pipes and shafts. He is hiding somewhere amidst the nearest machines, perhaps atop them, perhaps within them.
If you:
Ignore him and keep moving: Go to B24.
Call the boy forward: Go to B23A.
Tell him to stay put: Go to B23.
B23
“Keep quiet, kid. Stay put. There’s very dangerous people around here,” you whisper, “Just stay put until the ship stops running and then get out as quietly as you can.”
Go to B24.
B23A
“Kid? Are you there?” you hiss.
“Help me sir! I’m trapped!” he calls back.
“Ok. How are you trapped? Your leg? You clothes?”
“My arm is twisted in something, and it hurts bad!”
You stand and think.
A knife gashes through your shoulder blade and you lurch forward like an electrocuted robot. Someone fires a revolver behind you and a bullet careens off of a compressor and all throughout the nearby machines.
You hear the boy laughing with dark uproariousness.
Make a Prowess check or a Hard Gunplay check to extricate yourself from this surprise attack.
If you pass your Prowess check, go to B23B.
If you pass your Gunplay check, go to B23C.
If you fail your check, go to B23D.
B23D
The brutal attack continues. A knife sinks into your shoulder like it was made of nothing but blood, and then someone fires a pistol at you as you stagger away from the man with the blade. Take Damage, and then roll a die; if the result is odd, take another Damage.
Make a Prowess check or a Hard Gunplay test to extricate yourself from this surprise attack.
If you pass your Prowess check, go to B23B.
If you pass your Gunplay check, go to B23C.
If you fail your roll, repeat this section.
B23B
You lurch at your assailant, making a mighty swing with your fist. You connect with his temple and he’s knocked sidelong with a high-pitched grunt. There are two more men in the darkness; you can see the glints as their guns try to find you.
Make a Gunplay check. If you succeed, go to B23C.
If you fail, take Damage and repeat this section.
B23C
You get your gun up, blood streaming down your hand and across the diamond-etched grips. You shoot them all indiscriminately in the dark, blinding yourself with your pistol’s fire corona. The kick sends blood-mist back into your face. The gun is spent. The slide is back. Your eyes are imprinted with the flash-lit outline of the living and the dead.
One of them lays gargling and the others are still. You go to the noisy one and stand on his throat, listening to the pacified and mastered dark as he is forcibly expired. Your body aches with urgency.
“Sir! Sir!” you call to the boy with razor irony. There is no answer.
If you:
Try to find the boy, make a Tradecraft check. If successful, go to B26. Otherwise,
Move on. Go to BFRT.
B24
“Sir, sir, please help me, I’m trapped,” comes the urgent plea. You a mirthless rictus grin and creep forward, ears pricked for any irregularity in the pneumatic grind of the axles and pumps.
“Sir, help me, I’m scared,” he calls, louder. He is closer. Trapped, my ass, you think. I’m the one who’s supposed to be getting trapped. But I’m the punji stick in this foxhole. You draw your pistol and take a knee.
“Sir, sir,” the boy cries. He’s leading them to you. He knows where they are. You’re between him and them.
You draw your pistol and face away from the voice. The machines get louder and louder as your senses home in. There they are. Bloodless shadow demons advancing through the pulleys and wires. Forms, formless, flanked by furnacelight. Limned in it. Marked.
If you:
Grease em: Go to B25.
Disappear: Go to B26.5.
B25
You count them. Three. You count their protrusions. Two knives and a double-barreled shotgun. Ducks in a row. Premeditated murder. A man with a knife steps forward. He grins as he hisses a silent prayer and then stops dead and agape the barrel of your pistol appears from the darkness. You wink and blow his face off, collapsing a cavern between his eyes. He flops out and wriggles for a moment like a fish for sale.
The man with the shotgun jumps in shock and you nail him midair like skeet. He cannot stand when he lands and he falls to his knees, caught up in his overcoat; you shoot him in the armpit and shred his heart and lungs. He remains on his knees, and his arms slide across the deck in a position of death-worship.
The third man is already rushing you and bowls you over with his knees; the world is a soot-stained splash of emberlit darkness but you can sense where he is and you fire. You hear his strangled scream. Your advantage was too great to be overcome and the third of them lays panting and panicked with his torso unstrung by the .45. He shouts again; an existential release. You kick his knife away and stand on his throat, listening to the pacified and mastered dark as he is forcibly expired.
“Sir! Sir!” you call to the boy with razor irony. There is no answer.
If you:
Try to find the boy, make a Tradecraft check. If successful, go to B26. Otherwise,
Move on. Go to BFRT.
B26
Once you feel no pulse in the sole of your shoe, you make your way to the stairs by which you entered this place. You linger between a pair of ducts like the monster in the closet until you see a goblin form scamper by; you lunge out and catch it by the collar. It’s the boy; he lets out a strangled, accented scream when you seize him. He’s dressed like a little lord in a navy peacoat. Perhaps an actual aristocratic boy died to give him visage. You seize his wrist and squeeze until he drops his little penknife. It only takes a moment.
If you:
Kill him: Go to B26A.
Tie him up here: Go to B26B.
[Give him a talking-to and then throw him off the ship: Go to B26C.] <-currently being honed
B26A
He looks up at you, eyes and mouth agape. You put your pistol in his mouth and pull the trigger, blasting his little head apart. You drop his ragged form and wipe the back of your hand on your coat. One less Killer, you think with pitch-black malice.
Go to BFRT.
B26B
You lay the boy down and place a foot on his chest, picking up the penknife. He seizes at the sight of this. “You think I’m going to sacrifice you. Maybe they’ll put you in school after this and you’ll learn how a human being behaves. Maybe they’ll teach you self-sacrifice this time.” You cut off his plush peacoat, cut it into strips and thoroughly tie him up. Then you throw the penknife into an open furnace and make your way to the bridge.
Go to BFRT.
B26.5
You smile and creep for a corrugated iron stair to a gleaming porthole previously marred by hanging chains to the point of illegibility. You slide across the sooty deck and make your way up the frame of the stairs where it is silent, hoping beyond hope that the killers levy heavy discipline upon he who cries wolf.
Go to BFRT.
B27
A fatless man in smuggled gold is clad in skin unhealthy tight. A woven wrap of amber wool arising rampant is his crown. Two bricks of teal incense burn on coffee stoves upon the banks. There kneeling bows a burly man in chains before the Killer lord, a captive on a sky blue sheet spun lengthwise in a grid of stars.
Two hard-thewed fighting men stand fast concealed in two porter’s rags, and in their hands are firearms and at their waists are shipguards’ blades. Right torn away from soft pine racks damp in the modest armory, the Master-at-Arms’ arsenal now girt a fearsome panoply.
The “Master-at-Arms” prisoner is bravo kneeling ironclad, and clearly marked for sacrifice by patriarch and armsman lads.
Then you glance into the shadows. This place has been made into a kind of altar demarcated by dead men and women laid against the walls. Strangled, surprised, throats cut, eyes tight with resignation.
If you are entering from the Furnace, go to B27A. If you are entering from the Upper Deck or Cargo Bay, go to B27B.
B27A
Do you:
Assassinate the Chieftain: Make a Gunplay check. If you succeed, go to B27AAA. If you fail, go to B27AAB.
Rush them in an attempt to capture the Chieftain: Go to B27AC.
Fall back: Best not to try your luck. You make your way back into the rickety dungeon of the ship’s inner furnace. Go to B22, or to BFRT if you spoke with or fought anybody there.
B27AAA
You swear the Chieftain looks right at you with wide, almost lidless eyes. You almost freeze but you squeeze your whole hand and the barrel explodes. Only human; the two blinking armsmen have been misted with the old man’s blood.
Go to B27B.
B27AAB
You freeze. His eyes are on you. He ducks and springs behind a standup odometer. Your hand shakes. Go to B27B.
B27B:
One of the young men whips his shotgun towards you.
Do you
Outshoot him: Make a Hard Gunplay check. If you succeed, go to B28A. If you fail, go to B28B.
Leap dive back into the furnace room so you can ambush them in the darkness: Make a Prowess check. If you succeed, go to B30A. If you fail, go to B30B.
B28A
You fire from the hip, hitting the top of the weapon on pure instinct. An effervescent galaxy of sparks materializes and vanishes with a snakelike and ephemeral twirl of smoke as the bullet smashes its way off the weapon and into the man’s bicep. The shotgun falls from his hand and he grabs his arm, backing up and gasping with an expression of horror as the blood fountains down his arm. The other gets his .38 level and the pinprick barrel erupts in starfire; you were already falling to a knee and his first bullet shirks your hide. You don’t give him a second. You sight in and shoot him through the wrist without thinking. Without ceremony his hand hangs limp from a few tendons and his face is spattered with blood and gristle. The weight of the gun tears the hand even looser as he jerks it back spinning, and you shoot him again in the center of the chest, sending him falling over sideways like he’d been struck with an aneurysm. The other man is coiling his body away from his bicep wound, gazing at you with an expression of pain and horror as he grips above the wound with white knuckles. You terminate him with a forehead shot that pours his brains out of the back of his head like a puffy lather of dreadlocks and he falls halfway across one of the bridge’s open forward windows.
If you assassinated the chieftain, go to B29C. Otherwise, there is an almost colorless blur as the chieftain rushes under your gun and bowls you head over heels like a charging bull, knocking the air through your ribs most painfully; you hadn’t even seen him move.
Go to B29.
B28B
His shotgun explodes and you think, this is what getting hit by a nail bomb is like. Take d4 Damage and resolve dice explosions separately.
If you survive, you are knocked on your ass, pouring blood from all over. Make another Gunplay check. If you succeed, go to B28A. If you fail, he catches you dead-center with the second barrel and kills you.
B29
Do you:
Get to your gun and finish this: Make a Gunplay check. If you succeed, go to B29A. If you fail, go to B29B.
Checkmate the Kingpin: Make a Hard Prowess check. If you succeed, go to B29H. If you fail, go to B29B.
B29A
He crashes into you and you are bowled backwards through the door; before you can fall he clutches you by your biceps, and his grip is so strong and his nails so sharp that they cut through your sleeves and dig into your flesh while your hands begin to numb.
He has been whispering a song and gazing at you with wide, distant eyes, but he finishes in a final shouting note and lunges in to bite your throat. You wheel backwards and knee him in the balls with extreme prejudice; your knee is only stopped by bone and he takes a strangled gasp with eyes like a sick and guilty man.
His grip has not loosened a whit, which you counted on; you whirl around with him still attached to you and slam him into the porthole doorway. It is such a jolt that you lurch away from him, one of his hands coming free clutching fabric with blood under his nails, he is dragged a little by his other hand. This is all the opportunity you need and you whip out your pistol, emptying it with a BANG BANG BANG into his midsection.
He lurches backwards, ill with hollow points, and trips like a wandering geriatric across a small chain marking the boarding ramp. He plunges into the water with a silent splash which is marked with blood.
Go to B29C.
B29B
He crashes into you and you are bowled backwards through the door; before you can fall he clutches you by your biceps, and his grip is so strong and his nails so sharp that they cut through your sleeves and dig into your flesh while your hands begin to numb. He has been whispering a song and gazing at you with wide, distant eyes, but he finishes in a final shouting note and bites your throat, cutting and strangling you, panicking you with the antediluvian maneuver’s fatality.
If you:
Shoot out the Master-At-Arms’ chains: Make a Hard Gunplay check. If you succeed, go to B29G. If you fail, go to B29F.
Overpower him: Make a Very Hard Prowess check. If you succeed, go to B29J. If you fail, go to B29F.
B29F
His jaws lock. You cannot get air and you begin to drown in your own blood. It feels as if you are stabbing blood into your brain with every breath, gargling, fatiguing, failing.
He has bitten out your throat and killed you. Revert to Bookmark.
B29G
You close one eye, cock your hand up a little and fire. Plink. You knock a few centimeters out of a single link of the chain. It’s enough. The Master-at-Arms tears off his chains, rushes the chieftain and peels his face away from your bloody throat. The Master-at-Arms is mighty and he wraps the chieftain up in an impregnable bear hug. The chieftain gives a papery cry as he is lifted from his feet, and you cock back your fist till it almost touches the ground and launch a meteoric punch through the chieftain’s jaw. The hit echoes across the placid river, and Master-at-Arms dumps the chieftain limp across the floor. You mummify him in some fishing nets laid in a corner, and he becomes your captive.
Go to B29C.
B29J
You burst up your arms and windmill your elbows to get him away from you, and for a split second you free yourself. Go to B29H.
B29H
He crashes into you and you are bowled backwards through the door; before you can fall he clutches you by your biceps, and his grip is so strong and his nails so sharp that they cut through your sleeves and dig into your flesh while your hands begin to numb. He has been whispering a song and gazing at you with wide, distant eyes, but he finishes in a final shouting note and lunges in to bite your throat.
You wheel backwards and knee him in the balls with extreme commitment; your knee is only stopped by bone and he takes a strangled gasp with eyes like a man who’s sick and guilty. His grip has not loosened a whit, which you counted on; you whirl around with him still attached to you and slam him into the porthole doorway. It is such a jolt that you lurch away from him, one of his hands coming free clutching fabric with blood under his nails. He is dragged a little by his other hand, and you spin around, slip your other arm around his so that his forearm is pointing into your back and then whip as sharply into him as you can, dislocating his arm. He lets out a short yell before catching himself, but you’ve already unwound yourself from him. You have both hands on his dislocated arm and you lurch backwards with all your might.
He does scream now and falls to his knees; you almost fall over backwards but catch yourself. You step over his arm and fully break it with a fast twist of your thighs. He falls forward, holding his face in his free hand upon the deck. Keeping an eye on him, you shoot off a piece of a single link of the master-at-arms’ chains and spend ten minutes turning the chieftain into a self-impregnable iron cocoon.
Go to B29C.
B29C
“I owe you my life,” pants the Master-at-Arms plaintively, his gorilla-like, skinheaded aspect vulnerable and almost tender. “I will do anything to repay you.”
“Anything?” you ask.
“Anything,” he says zealously, shaking his head, then looks up at you.
“You work in shipping. I need to get into Passwall.”
“Too easy.”
You will speak more at Thanofane. The Master-at-Arms assumes the wheel, freeing you to move about the ship.
Go to BBT.
B30A
You hurl yourself into the darkness as the Killer discharges both barrels with a world-spinning swat of sound and pressure; at this range the choke is too narrow to catch you but you feel the cutting sting of ricochets from the steel bulkhead. You close your eyes in midair and anticipate the open space in the darkness, and sure enough the steel stairway is roughly where you thought it was. You hit it with pain but immediately begin to roll and you suffer nothing worse than a banging of the calf at the railing’s terminus.
Go to B30C.
B30B
You hurl yourself into the darkness as the Killer discharges both barrels with a world-spinning swat of sound and pressure; at this range the choke is too narrow to catch you and you merely feel the cutting sting of ricochets from the steel bulkhead. However, the chaos overwhelms your senses and once you clear the porthole’s transom you must reckon with your trajectory into a world of steel and darkness. Your bootheels catch on the landing’s steeltooth grating and you fall as if cast upon the unyielding stairway. You land full on your shoulder it’s as if the arm has grasped a live wire; the entire thing is smashed, seized and numb at once. You bash your way down the stairs head over heels and sprawl out roughly upon the stern and gritty furnace room floor. Your arm is ringing, weak and disjointed.
Take Damage without rolling and go to B30C.
B30C
You can hear the Killers rush for the porthole; behind them the old man begins to hear a hymn of triumph and you hear the hideous rush of gurgling, drowning respirations as he cuts the Master-at-Arms’ throat. Sacrificed to aid his sons, his squires, his catamites, you don’t know what they are but they are coming to kill you. They are already coming down the stairs; there was no time to shoot their silhouettes in the heaven-glowing porthole.
You leap silently onto an alternator and as one of them passes you below, knife raised, you raise your pistol high above you and then fall to your knees, bringing the butt of the weapon down onto his head with a monumental crack. The impact nearly jars the pistol from your hand and the sound is clear in the murmuring furnace room; he falls like a sack of potatoes and blood immediately streams from his head onto the deck. His companion is rushing you before you can blink and he leaps full into the air and comes crashing into you, bowling you backwards off the alternator and into empty space.
He was not coordinated enough to stab you as part of the maneuver, but he is still a damned gymnast.
You fall onto a jagged but mercifully disjointed heap of coal in front of the extremis mouth of a roaring furnace.
You breathe coal dust across your teeth as your adversary kneels hard on your untensed thighs. He has lost his knife in the fall but he roots malevolently at your pistol.
Do you:
Throw him into the furnace: Make a Prowess check. If you succeed, go to B31D. If you fail, go to B31F.
Find a way to get your gun out and shoot him: Make a Tradecraft check. If you succeed, go to B31E. If you fail, go to B31F.
B31D
You dart up and bite his chin as hard as you can. You knock your teeth and fill your mouth with blood but you rip halfway through his chin and it has the desired effect. He rears back and you get a knee up beneath him, put a hand on his chest and roll both of you over, hurling him tumbling down to the deck at the base of the furnace. He leaps up instantly, his eyes panicked at your design as you swing your feet around towards him. You lunge forward and slide off the coal pile, pushing into him with your momentum and wrapping your arms around the base of his thighs. He pounds his fists into your ears but you’ve already picked him up and are turning him in midair. You dump him headfirst over the lower rim of the furnace’s mouth, and then you stagger back and lean on the coal pile, hair sweaty, ears ringing.
Every part of him ignites from his hair to his bootlaces. Instead of rolling around burning to a crisp he silently climbs back out of the furnace and goes running down an aisle of machinery, bouncing blindly off of everything he passes. You’re drawing your pistol, thinking about shooting him, when you hear someone alight behind you.
Go to B31.
B31F
You try and situate yourself but he brings his elbow down on your head over and over, beating the sense out of reality. Blood begins to pour in trickles down your face and into your mouth. You sputter it as you try to breathe. Take damage but do not roll a d4.
You can make a Prowess or Tradecraft check.
If you fail either, repeat this section.
If you succeed at Prowess, go to B31D.
If you succeed at Tradecraft, go to B31E.
B31E
You put one hand on your gun, holding it to your body as he gets his fingers around it, and slip your other hand over your adversary’s belt buckle and into his pants. His eyes go wide and he pulls away from you but it’s too late. You grab ahold of his penis near the base and begin to twist and twist. “Aaaaaaah! AAAAAH! AAAAAH!” he screams, and releases his grip on your pistol to try and correct the twist. Instantly you release his dick, whip your pistol free across your chest and shoot him three times in his armpit. That whole side of his body goes limp and blood pours across your chest; he cannot seem to breathe and you roll him off of you, standing up on the pile and looking down upon your expiring opponent in the darkness below.
You hear someone alight behind you.
Go to B31.
B31
You whip around and see a blur as the Killer chieftain kicks your pistol from your hand with unbelievable force. You slide a foot back and get your dukes at the low ready; he has his hands tensed like claws. He is whispering some kind of incantation. His eyes are wide and distant.
Do you:
Take him down mano a mano: Make a Very Hard Prowess check. If you succeed, go to B31A. If you fail, go to B31B.
Dive for your gun: Go to B31C.
B31A
He rushes you and knocks into you like a refrigerator from a catapult and you spin in the air for a second, but you manage to land like a cat at the lip of the coal hill, and rocks of the stuff go pouring down towards the furnace. He is there and you step in and swing and hit him across the temple, but he spins and backhands you with a stunning wallop. He bodyslams you again and you are lifted from your feet, landing on your back; he leaps on top of you but you greet him with a rising knee into the crotch and he falls over your shoulder. He rises up with a wheezing grimace and you smash a lump of coal into his head like the tip of a Paleolithic hammer. He falls sideways with a line of blood down his cheek and, taking no chances, you grab him by the throat and bash him again where he lays. His head lolls and his lips stop their incessant prayer; you check his pulse and luckily you haven’t killed him. You strip away his woolen crown and bind his arms to his body in a cigar roll with it, before hoisting him over your shoulders like a prize lamb and carrying him up to the bridge.
Go to BBT.
B31B
He leaps between your very fists and bowls you over with a two-pronged kick. You tumble down the asteroid frittata of coal, armored scrub pulling new holes in your flesh and clothes until you reach the bottom, actually sliding a foot or two across the deck.
Take Damage but do not roll.
In your agony and desperation you look about for an advantage- there! Your gun is glinting by furnacelight and you scrabble to it. The Killer chieftain finishes his slide down the coal face and you stagger to your feet.
Go to B32.
B31C
You suddenly leap back and slide roughly down the coal pile, searching for a glint in the furnacelight. There! You scrabble forward and get your hands on your pistol as the Killer chieftain finishes his slide down the coal face. You leap to your feet.
Go to B32.
B32
He is already upon you.
Do you:
Shoot him: Make a Gunplay test. If you succeed, go to B32A. If you fail, go to B32B.
Take him a prize, taking into account that you are near an open furnace: Make a Hard Prowess check. If you succeed, go to B34A. If you fail, go to B34B.
B32A
You turn and he slams into you. You are bashed into the blazing hot furnace but it’s too late: you’ve got your pistol level and you fire. He takes a step back, his face sickening as he sees generations of ancestors jeering him for the massacre of his family. You fire again and literally break his heart in two. His knees unstring and he falls on his back clutching his chest with his legs folded beneath him. You spin your pistol and then holster it.
Go to BFRT.
B32B
You turn and he slams into you. He gets one iron claw on your face and one on your gun hand, pressing both into the blazing furnace wall, ripping your world in half with fiery metal. You fear for your eye as your cheek and brow are burned deep by the furnace, and your gun slips from your hand involuntarily as the ligaments begin to roast.
Take 1 Prowess damage and 1 permanent Influence damage.
Make a Prowess check. If you succeed, go to B32D. If you fail, take another 1 Prowess damage and 1 permanent Influence damage and repeat. If you take 3 or more damage in this fashion your eye is boiled and you take 2 permanent Gunplay damage.
B32D
With your newly-freed hand, you grab the chieftain by the manifold gold necklace he wears and then fall flat onto your back, yanking his head into the furnace with a resounding ring as you go. Even he cannot weather this with grace. He falls to a knee and then launches himself backwards to get space to regain his senses.
If you:
Shoot him: Go to B33.
Get up, dust yourself up, and bring the cocksucker down: Make a Hard Prowess check. If you succeed, go to B34A. If you fail, go to B34B.
B33
You seize your gun with your unburnt hand and fire into his gut where he sits. He gasps and blood pools like a blooming rose around his bellybutton, his face sickening as he sees generations of ancestors jeering him for the massacre of his family. You fire again and literally break his heart in two. He slumps over backwards like a cut rope. You spin your pistol and holster it.
Go to BFRT.
B34A
You leap into the air and drop kick him into the rocks. While the hit is satisfying, you know he’s landed on his hands; that’s fine with you because in a heartbeat you’ve got your legs around his leg, his foot and your arms and you’re twisting. He screams as the ligaments come taught and then his voice dies out as you they come undone, wrenched free of their moorings in your iron embrace. But then you push yourself up and fall on his other leg. He begins to kick now, moaning an “aahhh, aahhh, ahhh,” as he trying to move away. You mercilessly wrap him up and give his other ankle the treatment, wrenching it around yank-by-yank until everything has snapped and it points in a useless direction. He is breathing a ragged subvocalized scream with his hands stretched out gripping a pair of coal lumps for comfort; you get up, place a foot on his forearm and grab his wrist. He tries to pull it free but you hold it fast. He looks up at you with spit falling from his lips, sweat standing on his brow, eyes wide and utterly alert.
“No no, you devious old fucker. You’re not cutting any more throats,” you growl.
You wrench his wrist up and break his forearm in two. He puts his nose to the deck and releases a wild, defeated scream, putting his heart into it this time. He keeps his nose there as you bend his other forearm in two, and it cracks like a fresh 2x4 beneath your foot.
You take him by the collar and drag him like an upside-down table to the bridge and lay him facing the Master-at-Arms, whom he murdered when you went into the Furnace Room.
Go to BBT.
B34B
You juke left and right to set up your attack, but he simply lunges in and seizes your collar and belt. You grab his arms but he begins to spin you around with his impossibly strong frame. You stagger, trying to keep your feet as he whirls you, and then suddenly he releases you and you careen into an impossible heat. Your hair curls around your ears as your calves hit the rim of the furnace and you topple in with every atom of your existence shredding to cosmic sunshine. Your last, uncomprehended sight is a little patch of darkness disappearing as he slams shut the furnace door. Your eyes then burn to marbles.
You have burned to death. Go to Bookmark.
B34
You enter a cargo bay lined with dank shipping crates. You freeze for a moment; there are figures in an open plain of grating at the very heart of the ship and room. The chamber rumbles and the grating rattles with the furnace room below. Electric lamps hang and bob, flickering the shadows in rhythm with the engine.
There is a short stairway to the bridge, a ladder to the upper deck and an umbilical steel-grate stairwell into the cellar darkness of the furnace room below.
A big, portly old man stands in the center. He wears a black suit, red vest brocaded in blue, and has an enormous white beard. He gesticulates towards the bridge with an ivory cane like a marble column complete with gold filigree at the pedestal.
Facing him contrapposto with her hands folded in her lap is a woman in a flowing lemon-colored gown and a matching hat with a black veil. You can just make out her red nails and lips.
On one side of them are a doughy man in tweed who is wiping his face incessantly with a pool table-colored cravat and holding his glasses in a shaking hand, rattling them to the point of having lost his lenses; a grave priest of the lunar matron is comforting him, a gentle old man with a wavering wattle in a gown of ghostly blue. Across from them, alone, is a thin teenage boy with shaggy black locks; he wears a rumpled, loose collared shirt and corduroys, and locks a hardback book to his chest like a breastplate.
“They’ll be going for the bridge! And then what will we do? It won’t help a whit, we, corralled in the hold!” blusters the sumptuously-dressed old man.
“I know you’re worried about who might be steering the ship but I don’t think we should make that our job right now. We ought to rely on the crew because they asked us to gather here and the master-at-arms is a big, brave man who is capable of handling any problems that might emerge with the help of the captain,” says the woman in yellow. She is slight and has thin hands, a pointy little nose and a high soft voice, but she is totally calm and composed. You recognize her accent and diction as indicating an Archzenite noblewoman. They are a fierce, proud, dangerous people.
“Per-per-per-perhaps, per-per-“ sputters the doughy man in tweed and then begins to breathe very deeply to the bottom of his lungs, his bay window quivering in and out with his breath. He reaches for his cravat but misses it several times, eventually putting his hand back in his pocket.
The priest goes “Shhh… take comfort now that we’re all together,” patting him across the back.
“It would have been better to gather on the deck. We could have jumped off if there was trouble. Now we’re in the very middle of the ship and anyone who catches a member of the crew will know how to surround us,” observes the teenager flatly.
“Does he look like he can swim, boy?” asks the rich old man, stabbing his cane at the doughy man but clearly thinking about himself.
You step forward beneath one of the overhead lights. The old man and the doughy man are facing you and they jump. The teenager freezes concrete-solid at the sight of their leap. Then they recognize you, and all turn to face you.
“What’s the story?” asks the rich old man.
“Infiltrators. They’re not taking prisoners, and they’re professionals. But they bleed, just like us. I’ve dealt with a few of them already.”
The woman in yellow looks at you, lowering her head slightly.
“Are you okay?”
“More than okay. But we need a plan.”
She nods, holding eye contact with you briefly before looking away and running a hand through her hair.
Suddenly, there are heavy footsteps on the stairwell in the shadows, and everybody whirls to glare into the darkness. It is a round old woman in a dress of pastel blue. She is carrying a little girl at her shoulder; the girl is in a gown of pastel pink, and together they look like a cupcake.
“But the little boy is scared,” the little girl says, emphasizing and drawing out the last word.
“He can hide perfectly well down there,” says the old woman, who is spooked, “But even I can hear men creeping around down there and whispering to each other! We’re going to stay with the other passengers where we belong!”
“There are men- down- down there in the shadows?” rasps the old man, “Why, we’ll- we’ll never root them out! It won’t help a whit how, big and strong that thug, the master-at-arms is! They’ll get the knife in him before he can lift those ham hocks!”
“And then we’re next,” whispers the teenager.
You cock an eyebrow.
Go to B34A.
B34A
This is a conversation. You may try each of the options below once.
You get a +1 to Influence during the conversation for everyone in whom you’ve successfully instilled courage, and a -2 to Influence during this conversation for everyone whom you’ve tried and failed to instill courage in. This counts both for the purposes of instilling courage and beginning a romance. These values stack.
Try to instill courage in the old man. Roll Influence. If you succeed, go to B34B. If you fail, go to B34C.
Try to instill courage the teenager. Roll Influence. If you succeed, go to B34D. If you fail, go B34E.
Lay the groundwork for a romance with the noblewoman. Roll Influence. If you succeed, go to B34F. If you fail, go to B34G.
Once you are done with this conversation, go to B35.
B34B
“Wake up! Look at you! Aren’t you a warrior?”
He looks at you, blinks and scowls.
“What man of your generation hasn’t been to war? What man of your generation hasn’t had to fight for what he owns?”
“By the Fates you’re right about that! Why, I was with the Periapt Dragoons at Belestre! And in my day I guarded my own factory! If someone came for our copper stockpile, they had to deal with me! And not one of them ever made it out with my property! Nobody!”
If he means Belestre of the Estuary Campaign, that was 40 years ago.
“All right then! So I do have a warrior by my side if I have to protect these people.”
He raises his cane and draws a shaft of cold steel connected to the handle from it, then turns the shaft around in his hand like a cudgel or a scepter.
“Huh! If any damned varlet comes in here, boy, they’ll know they’ve been in a fight, I can tell you that!”
“Right!”
Go to B34A.
B34C
“Don’t be a coward, old man.”
“A what?” he gasps, then stalks towards you, face ruddying. He raises his cane and yanks out a shaft of cold steel connected to the handle. “By the Fates, I’ll show you who’s a coward.”
You stand your ground.
He stares at you, head lowered, and then sharply turns and goes around you. He exits the cargo hold, stalking away up the berthing corridor.
Well, he didn’t stick you, but he probably won’t be sticking anyone else out there on his lonesome.
Go to B34A.
B34D
“We’re next? You ought to be ashamed of yourself.” You point at his chest indignantly. “What book are you reading?”
His face goes scarlet and his brow furrows, but his voice remains low and controlled, like he doesn’t want confrontation.
“Skinkbreaker.”
“I know Skinkbreaker. Do you think it’s not real, what happens in that book?”
“I don’t follow,” he says flatly, attempting to tool you slightly.
“Do you think the characters aren’t just like us? The birds and lizards have got them whipped. They’re on the run, it’s all over. Some of the highlanders come down and get all the soft city folk together. And what do they find out? The ‘invaders’ were just a bunch of thieves! They can’t handle it when they come up against real danger because they aren’t fighting for their lives! Who ends up sending them packing? Shopkeers! Peddlers! Schoolteachers! It’s all there in the story!”
He glances down at the book, purses his lips and nods slightly.
“Take it from me: that’s how it works. You think you’re not a fighter because you haven’t had training, but you are a fighter, it’s in your blood. You’ll learn that, if you have to. But you don’t have to take em all on yourself. Just back me up. Watch me, do what I say and push em off if they get behind me. Like a soldier in a phalanx. Doo that, and you’ll save these people’s lives. You’ll always remember that you did. For your whole life.”
He nods, shifts the book under his arm, and stands up a little straighter.
“Okay.”
Go to B34A.
B34E
“Whatsamatter, pusspusspuss? You got MPH syndrome? My-Pussy-Hurts? Awww, little weenie thinks some big meanie’s gonna come hurt him! Well, I guess anybody could hurt you! Why don’t you just run away? Ooh, there are squirrels on the shore! And goldfish in the river! And turtles on the rocks! Monsters everywhere!”
He looks at you incredulously, then turns and walks into a shipping container and closes it behind him.
The group is silent for a moment.
“You can’t talk to his generation that way,” comments the moon priest, “They don’t take it as a challenge. They just retreat. It’s been that way since phonograph cylinders came around; they just lay there listening to music and it makes them shyer than snow hares.”
Go to B34A.
B34F
“Archzenith,” you say with a hint of challenge. Their nobility have a dark reputation and everybody knows it.
She nods quickly; there is a moment of tense silence.
“Yes,” she says quietly. “I am not here to be a threat to anyone. But I am a lady of Archzenith.” While she says this without menace or arrogance, everyone understands the subtext. Don’t tread on me. That anyone who comes for her will pay.
“Then I’m glad you’re here,” you say.
The tension is released and she nods. Her cheeks are red behind her veil.
Annotate that the romance is now active.
Go to B34A.
B34G
“So…” you say, looking at her, your mind suddenly going blank. She is beautiful.
“Yes?” she asks. A second ago she seemed shy and interested; now she is upright and professional.
“Well… what do you think we should do?”
“I just said that I think that we should stay here, because that’s what the crew has asked us to do.”
“Oh, right, sorry, I forgot, heh,” you say, smiling. She does not smile but looks at you quizzically.
“Well I think it would be wise to seek shelter in these containers,” interjects the moon priest.
“Yes, we could do that,” says the noblewoman, “Why don’t we divide up three to a shelter?”
You stand flat-footed, unable to think straight as she trios people off by container. She determines that she will be with the old woman and little girl; you will be with the teenager and old man.
Annotate that the romance is now inactive.
Go to B34A.
B35
Suddenly you hear dark, shouted, celebratory singing from the bridge, upper deck, furnace and berthing corridor at the same time. It is chilling, murderous, exuberant. The voices reverberate, growing nearer and nearer.
“They’re closing us in,” says the moon priest.
“Herding the flock,” you hiss, drawing your pistol.
A portly woman comes hurrying down the steps from a small corridor between the bridge and gallery in a wild panic; she wears a short, tight yellow floral dress, a brown fabric coat, shiny black heels and glasses. She has wet herself and cries out, “They’re killing us! They’re killing us back there!”
She rolls her ankle on a step and her heft rattles the staircase where she strikes it before she flops out at the base of the stairs, moaning and holding her knee. Her calf is broad and triangular and her little foot in her shiny shoe dangles uselessly.
Do you:
Tell everyone to hide and get ready: Go to B38.
Tell everybody to run; it’s every man for himself now: Go to B37.
B37
“Run!” you shout. They look at each other in disbelief and panic, then begin to scatter to wherever each thinks the singing is quietest. This is your chance to escape.
Go to BCBT.
B38
Do you attempt to rescue the plump woman by the stairs?
No, she’s already dead and I’m not going with her. Time to get a hiding spot. Go to B38A.
Yes. Go to B38B.
B38A
There’s no time. You turn and search for a hiding place.
If the romance is active, go to B38AA. If the romance is inactive, go to B38AB.
B38AB
You see the woman in yellow beckoning you into her shipping container. Annotate that you get -1 to Influence checks with her because you clearly left the plump woman out in the open.
Go to B40.
You dart into the nearest shipping container.
Go to B50.
B38B
You grit your teeth and dart across the steel grating to where the woman in glasses is rolling around, holding her leg. You reach down and grab her by her belt.
Make a Prowess check. If you succeed go to B38C. If you fail, go to B38D.
B38C
Prowess success: You start dragging her across the grating. “Thank you,” she chokes. There is a waist-high toolbox near the stairs. It was once painted orange but now faded and flaked with rust. You open it up, and just as you’d hoped, there are only a few wrenches and screwdrivers inside. You hoist her up on one knee, help her roll into the toolbox and then close it.
If the romance is active, go to B38CA. If the romance is inactive, go to B38CB.
B38CA
You see the woman in yellow beckoning you into her shipping container. Annotate that you get +1 to Influence checks with her because of the rescue.
Go to B40.
B38CB
You dart into the nearest shipping container.
Go to B50.
B38D
You tug and tug, but you can only move her an inch at a time! You drag her for minutes but only manage to move her about five feet. You hear metallic footsteps from above- with panic, you gape up through the electric light and see figures appear in the porthole to the bridge. One of them swings a bolt-action rifle across the transom.
Make a Gunplay test. If you succeed, go to B39A. If you fail, go to B39B.
B39A
You shoot the man with the bolt-action rifle and he steps on a man who was lowering an SMG in the darkness; the gun erupts in a hedge of fire running up the perforated barrel. He was aiming at you but the woman catches instead and screams; the bullets go skipping around your leg and you are halfway across the bay before another shot can be fired, diving into a shipping container for cover. You peer out, hand shaking on your gun, and see them come creeping down the stairs like hunters, weapons raised. There are four of them, all with guns and knives. Two of them wear the white tunics of stewards (though one is bloodstained where you shot him under the arm), one is dressed like some kind of mountain man, and the last is an engine stoker. They advance into the hold, and you wait until all four are in view and no more have emerged.
Go to B50C.
B39B
The porthole erupts into instant suns of flashing fire and a barrage of bullets rain across you and the woman in glasses. You take 2 Prowess damage, and if you get a 3 or 4 on your d4 roll, this explodes into an additional 2 damage.
Make a Gunplay check. If you succeed, go to B39A. If you fail, repeat this section.
B40
You enter. There she is. She is near you and doesn’t move away.
“What will happen?” she asks.
“I’m gonna protect you, that’s what’s gonna happen.”
She reaches out and takes your hands. Her hands are so light and gentle on yours (which are like cannonballs of leather by comparison).
“Good luck,” she whispers.
Do you:
Raise the stakes on this attraction: Make an Influence check. If you succeed, go to B40B. If you fail, go to B40C.
Keep it professional; this is not the time or place for romance. Go to B40A.
B40A
“Yes, ma’am,” you say with professional courtesy, and pull your hands away. You give her a curt nod and turn to observe the porthole to the bridge.
Annotate that the romance is inactive.
Go to B50D.
B40B
The fighting has instilled animal desire and heedlessness in you.
You smile. “So how do you give your blessing to a warrior of Archzenith?”
Her cheeks go red from chin to eyeball. She hesitates, but then she slowly lifts up her veil and pulls back her hat. Her eyes are wide but she closes them and leans in to plant a kiss on the side of your chin. Then she pulls back and looks at you questioningly.
“What are you going to do to them?” she asks like a sudden rush of wind.
“I’m gonna keep em away from you. You’ve only just begun to indulge my curiosity. Now stay here. I’ll check on you once this is through.”
Annotate that the romance has escalated.
If you rescued the woman at the bottom of the stairs, go to B50B. If you did not, go to B50A.
B40C
The fighting has instilled animal desire and heedlessness in you.
You smile. “So how do you give your blessing to a warrior of Archzenith?”
“What do you mean?” she asks, her face darkening at the untoward playfulness in your tone.
“N-nothing,” you say, turning quickly to observe the bridge porthole.
Annotate that the romance is inactive.
Go to B50D.
B50
If you didn’t rescue the woman by the stairs, go to B50A.
If you rescued the woman by the stairs, go to B50B.
B50A
Dark figures appear in the doorway; the singing is coming from behind them. One of them swings a bolt-action rifle across the transom and shoots the woman at the bottom of the stairs; her glasses are shattered to bits and scatter across the grating while her scalp visibly lifts at the force of the shot and then falls back into place with her hair askew, her face twisted, still and unrecognizable with the flesh of her face loosed from its proper place.
They come creeping down the stairs. There are four of them, all with guns and knives. Two of them wear the white tunics of stewards, one is dressed like some kind of mountain man, and the last is an engine stoker. They advance into the hold, and you wait until all four are in view and no more have emerged.
Go to B50C.
B50B
Dark figures appear in the doorway, creeping down the stairs. There are four of them, all with guns and knives. Two of them wear the white tunics of stewards, one is dressed like some kind of mountain man, and the last is an engine stoker. They advance into the hold, and you wait until all four are in view and no more have emerged.
Go to B50C.
B50C
Make a Gunplay test. If you succeed, go to B50CA. If you fail, go to B50CB.
B50CA
You fire a shot straight through the heart of the rearmost man, and he simply takes a step back and sits down on the stairs, holding the rail with one hand. The others scatter instantly but one of them darts this way and then turns that way. You shoot him through both thighs mid-turn; he falls over on his belly, then raises his upper body as if to greet the sun; you shoot him through the neck and he falls forward onto the grating tongue-first.
Annotate that two out of four Killers are dead.
Go to B51.
B50CB
You raise your gun barrel but hesitate an instant too long. One of them spots the light on your weapon and hisses. They scatter.
Annotate that four out of four Killers are still alive.
Go to B51.
B50D
Dark figures appear in the doorway, creeping down the stairs. There are four of them, all with guns and knives. Two of them wear the white tunics of stewards, one is dressed like some kind of mountain man, and the last is an engine stoker. They advance into the hold, and you wait until all four are in view and no more have emerged. If you did not rescue the woman in glasses, they shoot her in passing.
You raise your pistol.
Make a Tradecraft check. If you succeed, go to B50DA. If you fail, go to B50DB.
B50DA
A hunch. You look over your shoulder. There she is with a stiletto in hand, raised to strike. Not in self-defense. She freezes, frowns, and darts in her blade. You leap back from the point.
“Stay still, little man! No one needs you!”
Go to B50DC.
B50DB
You gasp and your body seizes as a blade enters you just above the kidney. You manage to whirl, both stiff and unsteady, and there she is, bloody stiletto in hand,
“Got you!” she says with a Killer’s accent.
Take Damage and go to B50DC.
B50DC
A knife to a gunfight. You shoot her in the breast and she falls into a seated position against the shipping container’s wall. Defiant to the last, she looks up at you, and you see the caverns of her home pass through her eyes. Then they are glassy. You turn to the bay. The Killers are scattering at the sound of the shot.
Annotate that four out of four of the Killers are alive.
Go to B51.
B51
If you inspired the teenager: One of the Killers makes for the teenager’s shipping crate, but as he grasps the latch a 600-page hardback edition of Skinkbreaker wallops him in the nose and he collapses like a card tower. The teenager leans out, slams it into his head once more, almost losing his grip on the book in the process, then slides it back into the container and drags the Killer in with both hands.
If you inspired the old man: As a Killer passes the rich old man’s shipping container, the old soldier darts out and sticks his cane sword all the way through the Killer’s midsection. The Killer gives a grief-stricken, sickened grimace and bends over at the knees. The old man raises his cane sword dramatically, the blade shaking in the lamplight, and then brings it down across the Killer’s neck, halfway cutting his head off. The Killer falls over forward onto the grating, his sword and pistol clattering beneath him, and tries and fails to lift his hands to his neck. He relaxes and is still as his dark blood pours through the grating unceasingly.
If there are any Killers left, go to B51A. Otherwise, go to B52.
B51A:
You dart out and around the shipping container; a blurred form just passed it by. You follow and the man turns, whipping a pistol up towards you as he does so.
Make a Gunplay check. If you succeed, go to B51AA. If you fail, go to B51AB.
B51AA
He fires at you and catches you with his .38. You stagger, seared like you’ve got a hot iron in you. Take Damage and make a Gunplay check. If you fail, repeat B51AA. If you succeed, go to B51AB.
B51AB
You’ve already raised your weapon and fire through him; his body seizes into itself like a wadded-up undershirt and then he falls down and splays out on the ground like a unstrung bouquet.
If there are any Killers left, go to B51B. Otherwise, go to B52.
B51B
You turn around the corner of the crate and bump straight into another one. Your heads knock together and you stagger backwards, barely able to see out of your right eye. Then he lunges in at you with a dagger in an icepick grip.
Make a Gunplay or Prowess Check.
If you succeed at Gunplay, go to B51BA.
If you succeed at Prowess, go to B51BB.
If you fail at either, go to B51BC
B51BA
You dive backwards, firing, and he falls over at the waist, his hair almost brushing the floor before his legs go too and he collapses sidelong.
If there are any Killers left, go to B51C. Otherwise, go to B52.
B51BB
You catch his wrist, grab his coat collar and hip-throw him over you, catching a glimpse of his grimacing face as he goes. You slam him into the grating; he gives a coughing shout and his blade is jarred loose from his hand. You grab it, and he curls up on himself, guarding his heart and turning his head away from you. You level the blade with his torso and slip it through his trapezius, severing his subclavian artery, and as he throws his arms up to defend himself you put the dagger under his armpit and through his heart. You step back and he rolls over, growing pale and woozy, his eyes cottoning over as he glares at you, and then he passes out and falls facefirst into the deck.
If there are any Killers left, go to B51C. Otherwise, go to B52.
B51BC
He plants the blade in your chest and withdraws it without resistance. You barely feel it but you know this is a serious wound. Take Damage.
Make a Gunplay or Prowess Check.
If you succeed at Gunplay, go to B51BA.
If you succeed at Prowess, go to B51BB.
If you fail, repeat this section.
B51C
You hear someone coming.
Make a Tradecraft check to creatively prepare an ambush or a Gunplay check to prepare to outshoot whoever’s coming.
If you succeed at your Tradecraft check, go to B51CA.
If you fail your Tradecraft check, go to B51CB.
If you succeed at your Gunplay check, go to B51CC.
If you fail your Gunplay check, go to B51CD.
B51CA
You grab the dead man by his belt and hair and lift him up to a roughly standing position in front of you. A Killer comes around the corner and freezes.
“Barzitane? What’s happened to you?” he breathes.
You let the head loll and lunge around him, sticking your dagger through the living Killer’s eye. You’re not sure you caught him square as he falls backwards with a clatter, but as you cast the corpse aside and loom over him you see his bisected eyeball gaping neatly like a split carrot.
If there are any Killers left, go to B51D. Otherwise, go to B52.
B51CB
“Barzitane? What’s happened to you?” he breathes.
You let the head loll and lunge around him, sticking your dagger at the living Killer. He leans back and jukes it, opening fire through his comrades body. A bullet makes it through.
Take Damage and make a Gunplay check. If you succeed, go to B51CC. If you fail, take Damage and try Gunplay again, and so on.
B51CC
You step back and raise your weapon; the Killer comes around it, cutting the pie with his submachine gun. You are quite lucky (and skilled) and despite coming across each other’s weapons at the same moment, you shoot first. His head and eyes bulge freakishly for a split second as the .45 hollow point passes among them, and then he falls over with blood splattered across the shipping crate behind him.
If there are any Killers left, go to B51D. Otherwise, go to B52.
B51CD
You step back and raise your weapon; the Killer comes around it, cutting the pie with his submachine gun. He is faster and fires the submachine gun; you feel as if you’ve been struck with a sledgehammer and fall on your back.
Take Damage, and when you roll your d4, it explodes on a 3 or 4. Make a Gunplay check. If you succeed, go to B51CC. If you fail, he magdumps the SMG into you and you are unzipped like a fat duffel bag (and die!).
B51D
Breathing heavily, you round the rear of several shipping containers and arrive by the stairs. One of the men has posted up there in a form of overwatch; he is crouching on the other side of the stairs, beneath them, using them as cover. You don’t have much of a shot.
If you sneak up on him, roll Tradecraft, and if you try and pick him off, roll a Hard Gunplay check.
If you succeed on your Tradecraft check, go to B51DA. If you fail, go to B51DB.
If you succeed on your Gunplay check, go to B51DC. If you
B51DA
You take your shoes off and creep on hands and tiptoes up to the wall dividing the bay from the bridge, then slip along the wall beneath the stairs. You come within 6’ of him, watching him lick his lips and look around with sweat standing on his brow, perfectly alert. You raise your pistol, align the three prongs across his temple and fire. You blow a significant amount of matter out of the side of his head in a thin spout of misty gore, and he is down so fast it as he never fell; as if he was always laying on his side. You go get your shoes.
Go to B52.
B51DB
You start sneaking out to get behind him and he spots you instantly. He levels his pistol across a step and opens fire on you. Roll a d6; on an odd number you are hit and take Damage.
Make a Hard Gunplay check. If you succeed, go to B51DC. If you fail, go to B51DD.
B51DC
You lay the three prongs across his temple and fire. You blow a significant amount of matter out of his head in a thin spout of misty gore and he goes down so fast it as he never fell; as if he was always laying on his side. The pink mist swirls rosé translucent in the lamplight.
Go to B52.
B51DD
A bullet tears through you and you fall back, weak and disoriented. Thank the Burning Eye you are not spurting blood, but if you get out of here this will mean a seriously unpleasant hospital stay.
Take Damage and make a Gunplay check. If you succeed, go to B51DC. If you fail, repeat this section.
B52
If the romance is active, go to B52A. If not, go to B52B.
B52A
You step back into the yellow noblewoman’s shipping container.
“I think that’s the last of em,” you say, peering out of the shipping container, “What’s your name?” She doesn’t answer.
You look back at her. She’s holding a grenade. She has a slim finger with a luminous painted nail looped through the pin. You look at the grenade and then you look at her. You wait a beat.
“What’s the matter?” you ask.
“I’m not sure,” she whispers. She speaks with a Killer’s accent now.
“Is that your duty? Is that the only way out?” you ask softly. “Or can you see something better?”
“Why did you have to be a hero?” she asks, her voice breaking and her eyes welling up with tears.
“It was the right thing to do,” you say. You lean in and kiss her. She returns it, and when it ends, tears fall down her cheeks.
“Run,” she mouths, and pulls the pin.
You slip out of the shipping container and close your eyes until the dull metallic clang comes and passes, jolting the deck beneath your feet for an instant.
Go to B52B.
B52B.
You move out to the center of the room and look around.
“That’s all of them! Everyone stay here unless you feel the ship go around; then get together, get off and get to Thanofane!”
Go to BCBT
SBC
Roll a die.
If the result is even, go to GEW.
If the result is odd, go to B53.
B53
You pass beneath mossfurred boughs and across swampflower fens with the river just a guiding memory. It lies somewhere about 200 meters to your left.
You have been walking for some time and your shoes are aching your feet because they are built for city streets and not the ups and downs of the forest.
You come to a flat little grove of pine needles amid trees cracked by old fire. This would be a welcome place to rest and you sit down in a spotlight of sun. Something skitters away from you in a little limecolored flash. You shift a little bit and something else darts the other way. You gaze after the second green streak with a furrowed brow when something slices into your ankle. You lurch away with a heliumlike charge before a thought can even reach you, and beneath where you sat is a little green preying mantis with its razors raised bloodily like the archpriest of a sacrificial cult. You stomp on it with your heel down so as not to meet the razors. It rises slowly like bread as your foot lifts, crumpled and killed. Your pant leg is slit and bloody.
You look around the sunny pine grove, which now has a slightly menacing valence. What is this fucking place?
Make a Tradecraft check. If you succeed, go to B53A. If you fail, go to B54
B53A
Success: You stop, look around, listen, and smell. You catch something like baking soda on the wind. That is not a common smell in nature, and ahead you know that there is a dense draw where no one is likely to live, unless there are renegades concocting narcotics. They are as dangerous to a lone wanderer as any mugger crocodile when stumbled upon in the marsh.
Something is unnatural, in any case.
Do you:
Get in a tree: Make a Prowess check. If you are successful, go to B53AB. If you fail, go to B53AI.
Get in the river and swim to the other side: Go to B53AA.
Lock and load: Go to B54
B53AA
Get in the river and swim to the other side: You know that there are things in the wilderness that have never been catalogued and categorized. Entities more dangerous than anything that has ever been secured in a zoo.
You turn and creep-rush as silently as possible to the riverbank, your heart hammering in your throat. You swallow, kick off your shoes and slide smoothly into the water, moving into the chill warble with cautious sidestrokes, watching over your shoulder for impending predation.
You see the boughs bob slightly a hundred meters inland. Deep between the trees there is the briefest impression of a songbird’s coat of many colors, but large and supple. Then you have reached the shore and pull yourself sodden on the bank, sliding filthily into the woodline without bothering to dry.
You lay steaming in the shattered light. On to Thanofane and a new pair of shoes.
Go to GEW.
B53AB
You sight in on the burl of a nearby tree and leap to grab it. The ashy bark comes off in your hands; a brushfire came through here in the last months and the tree leaves soot on your hands like a half-used firelog. You jump again and grab the naked wood of the burl, and lift your legs up and around the branch. From here you get your hands on the same side of the branch and hang, pulling yourself up on top of it. You repeat this maneuver on the next highest branch, then brace yourself inside a complex of branches with your pistol drawn.
The thing slides forward silently. It is black with streaks of blue, specks of white and dots of yellow. Like a broad soft serpent but millipedal with long, stiff, bent legs like dull amber. There is a yellow beak in the middle of its tubular, featureless head. It has a long and broad but narrowing ovipositor as a tail, which it has laid across its back like a bored phalangite.
Do you:
Shoot it: Go to B53AC.
Wait it out: Make a Tradecraft check. If you succeed, go to B53AH. If you fail, go to B53AE.
B53AC
You take aim just above its beak and shoot it with a noise that almost makes you jump in the Arcadian silence. It rears back, glancing at you, and then races up the tree. It isn’t slowed a whit by the verticality.
Make a Gunplay check. If you succeed, go to B53AD. If you fail, go to B53AE.
B53AD
You lean into the tree with one hand and sight in on the creature’s beak for a split second before firing rhythmically and methodically, discharging each blast the instant your pistol falls level with the tree once more. The thing freezes at the fourth shot, chipped beak agape, and then peels off the tree like a carved piece of meat before falling back fully, dropping to the ground with a plop and curling up around itself in a centerless ring like a slaughtered caterpillar.
Suddenly it begins to give wet gurgling coughs, and sloughs out the contents of its wounded guts; unidentifiable blended meat and little wads of leaf. In the center of it all is a budding plume of gold like a gilded artichoke. Looking at this closely, your see that it is the crushed and reshaped treasure of those devoured by this creature, jewels interspersed with teeth, all woven together by locks of gentle hair. You pick it up and the leafs of gold waver gently, like this was a flower plucked in a windy meadow. You look into the trees, where windows of sky and river glow. You can think of no better market for this than Thanofane.
Go to GEW.
B53AE
You cannot get to your gun fast enough as the creature sticks its ovipositor straight through the base of the branch you’re standing on, and the remaining wood breaks with a crack. Your hands scrape over the nearest branches but you fall with a terrifying weight, right past the soft, segmented caterpillar thing which has a smell like burnt cat fur.
Make a Prowess check.
If you succeed, go to B53AF. If you fail, go to B53AG.
B53AF
You hit the ground with a splash of agony through your feet but you immediately execute a parachutist’s roll, keeping your feet and knees together as you roll onto the side of your leg, your hip, and then onto your lateral muscle. Your momentum is such that your feet are carrie over and above you, and you are thrown a few feet by the power of your rollover. You are able to push yourself up immediately from the dusty pine needles and raise your weapon to assail the creature which even now is turning and raising its ovipositor, pointing it at you like a cocked javelin. The thing springs at you from the tree, darting its ovipositor like a boxing puppet’s jab, but you are far enough away that you can safely spin to juke it. You can feel the pine needles move around your feet as it slides past you. You whirl and square off with the creature as it slinkies in a semicircle, spinning its ovipositor in the air like a gunslinger.
Go to B54.
B53AG
You hit the ground with a splash of agony through your feet and then your jaw connects with your knee as you fall straight on your ass. Your deeply busted rear is the least of your concerns; you’ve stunned yourself with the blow to your chin and your world is spinning white light until you open your eyes to the body of the creature surrounding you, its legs a pincering prison latched upon the tree behind you.
Go to B54E.
B53AH
You are utterly still and silent. It moves silently to the pine grove, legs aflow, then sees the little preying mantis you squished and freezes. “No, no,” it says quietly. It is still as a statue, all senses. Then it picks up something from the river and moves towards it, ovipositor raised and dripping. You wait for a long, long time before you feel safe enough to drop to the ground and dart away through the whirling foliage of the nearest draw.
Go to GEW.
B53AI
You jump but cannot reach the burl of the lowest branch. It is futile and you turn around.
Go to B54.
B54
The thing slides forward silently. It is black with streaks of blue, specks of white and dots of yellow. Like a broad soft serpent but millipedal with long, stiff, bent legs like dull amber. It has a yellow beak in the middle of its tubular, otherwise-featureless head. It has a long, broad, triangular ovipositor as a tail, which it has laid across its back like a bored phalangite.
It sees you, stops, and begins stabbing its ovipositor into the nearest tree. In, out, in, out.
If you:
Speak to it: Go to B54A.
Open fire: Make a Gunplay check. If you succeed, go to B54B. If you fail, go to B54C.
B54A
“Hey buddy,” you say hoarsely.
“No, no,” it says quietly.
Then it bolts at you.
Make a Gunplay check. If you succeed, go to B54B. If you fail, go to B54C.
B54B
It slides at you, mincing the pine needles into a dusty hedge around its amber legs. You fire, fire, fire, staggering backwards with shaking hands and knees. It is on you and bowls you over with the hollowfeeling heft of its centipedal body. Your legs are trapped beneath it and its tubular face is in yours. Its triangular, chitinous ovipositor daggers for your face and you catch it in your hands, holding it back. It inches towards you and your arms shake with joint-wrenching, unsteady effort; you see with horror that its ovipositor has a glob of quivering fluid hanging from the tip, inside of which dozens of little preying mantis fetuses are floating.
“Please stop,” it whispers to you.
The glob drops from the ovipositor onto your chest and the fetuses stir, and another glob appears at the tip. There must be hundreds inside the prong.
Suddenly the ovipositor is ripped from your hands and beats against the ground as the whispering caterpillar rears up almost vertically, waving its pincer-legs as if to lament the sun and moon, and then the thing falls on its side with its legs waving and clenching as if to find a twig-path away from death. It stops, then starts again furiously, then stops again. Suddenly it begins to give wet gurgling coughs, and sloughs out the contents of its wounded guts; unidentifiable blended meat and little wads of leaf. In the center of it is a budding plume of gold like a gilded artichoke. Looking at this closely, your see that it is the crushed and reshaped treasure of those devoured by this creature, jewels interspersed with teeth, all woven together by locks of gentle hair. You pick it up and the leafs of gold waver gently, like this was a flower plucked in a windy meadow. You look into the trees, where windows of sky and river glow. You can think of no better market for this than Thanofane.
Go to GEW.
B54C
It slides at you, mincing the pine needles into a dusty hedge around its amber legs. It crashes into you with trampoline-like buoyancy and you fall head over heels over the soft soil and hard roots of the forest floor. It is above you, blotting out the shards of light and imprisoning you in an amber cage with its legs. Suddenly the legs spring inwards and down, carving the soil in furrows that are spined with pine needles. It has wrapped you up and imprisoned you. You push out with your arms and knees, trying to get to your gun; it rears back and lays its tubular head next to yours, whispering, “No, no,” through its yellow beak.
Its thrusts its ovipositor at your undercarriage and you just deflect it with your bootheel; as the thing retracts its tail, you see with horror that its ovipositor has a glob of quivering fluid hanging from the tip, inside of which float dozens of little preying mantis fetuses.
“Please stop,” it whispers to you.
Make a Prowess check. If you succeed, go to B54D.
B54D
Prowess success: You grasp its nearest legs and place your feet against its belly, then blast your legs up with maximum force while yanking down on its legs. You snap the legs and they curl in uselessly and the creature shivers up and away from you for a moment; this is all the time you need to get your pistol up and fire 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 up its belly, riding the recoil to each new point of discharge. You seem to unzip the creature and its guts bloom in a lime green membrane, consuming your vision you before ripping under gunshot cuts and disgorging a burial of slurried meat and wads of leaf across you. You sputter and kick, rolling to free your face from the gore as the think shudders and shakes around and across you; you kick, kick, kick away from it, freeing your back from the soil and drenching that too. You turn over, dig your fingers in the ground and scramble away furiously, feeling flecks of dirty gore being thrown across your back by your bootheels. You turn, steaming, wiping a blended butcher’s shop from your face and see the thing curled up like a disinflated bending balloon; nestled in the ragged folds of its brilliant black and speckled body is a budding plume of gold like a gilded artichoke. Looking at this closely, your see that it is the crushed and reshaped treasure of those devoured by this creature, jewels interspersed with teeth, all woven together by locks of gentle hair. You pick it up and the leafs of gold waver gently, like this was a flower plucked in a windy meadow. You look into the trees, where windows of sky and river glow. You can think of no better market for this than Thanofane.
Go to GEW.
B54E
You grasp its nearest legs and place your feet against its belly, trying to push up and break the legs to free yourself, but your effort is futile; its body is not hard enough to brace off of until it snaps taut and rams its ovipositor into your rear end, the great chitinous arrowhead ripping its way up until there is no meaningful distinction between reproduction and defecatory systems inside you. You gasp with horror as your guts are pushed around inside your torso; you have a sense of cosmic wrongness but the true agony has not yet come. Then the creature spasms and hundreds of little preying mantis fetuses flow into your body like tapioca beads. But suddenly you find yourself relaxing, calming, your horse race heartbeat slowing and smoothing. The pain had threatened for a moment, but now recedes with the great chitinous tail-dagger. It lifts up its tailblade, gleaming with gore and speckled with excess mantis fetuses, which the caterpillar shakes off lazily.
It rolls off of you, basking in a warm sea of pine needles. You close your eyes and try to breathe, wiping the sweat from your face. Your lower body is spasming and you feel constipated, but the pain is gone. You are relieved. You feel a sense of spiritual warmth at the knowledge that you now carry hundreds of little souls inside of you, and break out into a smile in spite of yourself. You look down at your chest and belly; you feel little percolations inside of them, even up into your armpits and down into your bloody thighs. You glance at the thing laying next to you; you’re grateful for the opportunity to host these little life forms which might as well be your children, but you know the caterpillar-thing’s work is done now; it’s passed you the torch, and the story is yours now, not its. Yours and the hundreds of children growing peacefully inside you.
You look towards the river, a prosaic blend of sunlight and deep blue. Suddenly, it looks like the most comfortable place on earth; you feel as though you are one of these little creatures inside you, casting about in hopes of a womb. You want to slide inside and be nurtured by the shelter of rolling and caressing darkness. You begin a kind of backstroke across the distressed bower of pine needles, pulling yourself towards the water. Forget everything else. This is what you want.
You reach the shore and slip in. Its better than you could have ever imagined. You “ahh” in ecstasy as you are carried into a sea of bliss, and the babies inside you begin to stir. You look down at yourself in the bloody water with a mother’s eager anticipation, waiting with bated breath to see the beautiful life you have nourished. There! You can feel a tickling within, all over from your armpits to your chest to your thighs. Here they come! Suddenly, a little, weak, confused mantis head emerges from your breast. “Ooohh…” you say, your heart breaking with the sweetness of its innocence and confusion. Here and there they come, popping up from you like a flowerbed blooming in long exposure. They slip themselves up out of the holes and stagger around a little bit on you like toddlers; a little inch-high forest of natal insects. They reach down and begin to slice away your clothes with their razor sharp tibia, clearing the fibers away with adorable clumsiness and making sashimi of your flesh, which they nibble at with a tenderness that you know you might be imagining, but that’s okay. The burbling continues to advance upwards through your neck and into your jaws; suddenly you realize with a stab of utter panic that the babies are entering your brain! You didn’t think they would go that far!
You have been devoured. Revert to Bookmark.
BCBT
You stand in the steel blue cargo bay. The lights sway and the shadows spread and shy like inkwells smashed in time.
If you have not investigated the area, go to the entry before the slash. If you have investigated it, go to the entry after the slash. The Afterdeck is always B15.
Do you:
Go to the Upper Deck: B16 / BUDT
Go to the Furnace: B22 / BFRT
Go to the Bridge: B27 / BBT
Go to the Afterdeck: B15
BUDT
You stand on the light brown boards of the ship’s upper deck. There is a light breeze. The birds are silent.
If you have not investigated the area, go to the entry before the slash. If you have investigated it, go to the entry after the slash. The Afterdeck is always B15.
Do you:
Go to the Cargo Bay: B34 / BCBT
Go to the Bridge: B27 / BBT
Go to the Afterdeck: B15
Jump into the water, swim to shore and walk to Thanofane: SBC
BFRT
You stand in the firelit inky darkness.
If you have not investigated the area, go to the entry before the slash. If you have investigated it, go to the entry after the slash. The Afterdeck is always B15.
Do you:
Go to the Cargo Bay: B34 / BCBT
Go to the Bridge: B27 / BBT
Go to the Afterdeck: B15
BBT
If you rescued the Master-at-Arms, he mans the controls. Otherwise, you adjust the wheel so that the ship will stay on course with the river for another mile or so.
If you have not investigated the area, go to the entry before the slash. If you have investigated it, go to the entry after the slash. The Afterdeck is always B15.
Do you:
Go to the Upper Deck: B16 / BUDT
Go to the Furnace: B22 / BFRT
Go to the Bridge: B27 / BBT
Barricade yourself in here until you reach Thanofane: Go to GES.
GEW
You arrive at the crypt-city of Thanofane after hours and are forced to spend a freezing night huddling by a gate with your pistol at the ready. Periodically you hear guards making the rounds high above, or adjusting the sit of squeaking anti-aircraft guns. In the morning the gate opens and you are searched most thoroughly, an apparent vagrant, woodwose or highwayman.
You are kept waiting until mid-afternoon when a fence you know comes to vouch for you. He heads back to his shop without another word. The guards let you in with curling lips.
The Woodwose Maiden is never seen again, nor are any of her complement.
If you have the golden bezoar, you can sell it to the Temple of the Poisoned Serpent for 30oz of .999 gold.
If you brought down the the Chieftain, then you took his mantle and you can sell it to a Starling & Shrike Anthropology Institute buyer for 25oz of .999 gold.
This concludes the adventure.
GES
You arrive at Thanofane’s bone-white docks along a bank of looming bogforest like oil tanks in a slow-motion burst. The city looms naked of foliage but is clad in the scale of graveyards, a tomb city and a shrine city ringing with laugher and wails.
If you left more than 2 sections of the ship uninvestigated, go to GESA.
Otherwise, go to GESD.
GESA
As soon as you bump the rubber lining of the jetties a number of Killers leap from the Upper Deck and sprint for the cover of the city. A harbormaster in a green leather cloak and bat skin cap comes out to greet them, and is shot in the head for his trouble. People who have gathered on the pier for a leisurely evening scream and run.
If you fire after them, roll Gunplay. If you succeed, go to GESB. If you fail, go to GESC.
GESB
You lower your gun, eyes wide, and fire. You catch one square in the shoulder blades and he falls, a tiny hole visible in the back of his white shirt. The others dive into the crowd, shooting and swinging cutlasses, causing as much chaos and bloodshed as they can on their way into the city’s strange and unmapped alleys.
Go to GESD.
GESC
You open fire on those running away. You don’t hit any but you swear to the Burning Eye that one or two civilians have fallen in the wake of your gunfire and are now laying helplessly on their backs.
You sink down against the helm and look at your gun.
The city never learns it was you who shot them, and not the Killers.
Go to GESD.
GESD
A group of nuns and the mayor come to meet you by the dock. The nuns wear parchment gowns as a sign of their faith and poverty, and they enter an unmoving bow in a V formation as you approach.
The mayor walks between the apex of the V and removes his hat. What seemed like a jaunty furred sun hat was actually a petrified or taxidermied black and white ringed tarantula with membranes between its legs like a flying squirrel. He is wears a cloak made from a ten-jointed bat wing, and he extends a hand from its reaches to shake.
“There’s people want to meet you, captain,” he says quietly.
— Victory —
The Empire of the Twin Canals will pay you 75oz of .999 gold for bringing their ship home safe, as its home port is the Twin Canal city of Vipersgard.
The city of Thanofane will pay you 125oz of .999 gold for saving the passengers in the cargo bay, but they will reduce this to 50oz if the Killers went on a shooting spree when you docked (you will know if this happened).
The shipping magnate Rhys Gwin will pay you 100oz of .999 gold if you saved his daughter, the heiress Siôned after she fell down the stairs and broke her ankle in the Cargo Bay.
If you brought down the the Chieftain, then you can sell his golden mantle to a University of Troutbridge Anthropology Institute buyer for 25oz of .999 gold.
If you captured any Killers during your journey, you may deliver them a Starling & Shrike liaison office for a bounty of 75oz of .999 gold each. If you captured the chieftain, this is increased to 750oz of .999 gold.
— This concludes the adventure —
Commentary
Did you:
Sweep the Shipping Heiress off her feet?
Trade words with the Whispering Caterpillar?
Have a fireside showdown with the Crag of Songs Chieftain?
Romance the Yellow Maiden and reach the explosive conclusion?
I decided to do this after I talked to David McGrogan and he said how formative Fighting Fantasy books were for him; I looked into them and thought hey, that sounds like a fun project.
I’ve written most of the basics of the first half of the campaign, where you’re choosing how to prepare for your entry to Passwall. I wrote The Taking of the Woodwose Maiden after noticing that the only action sequence in the first part of the campaign so far is if you get blackout drunk on a fixer’s pear rakia after failing a Prowess check. You piss on his chaise longue when he’s not looking, get kicked out of his teahouse and end up throwing dog turds through the window until one of his henchmen comes and knocks you out.
For this adventure, imagine if Die Hard was just a part of a larger story that was mostly not about fighting, and you have the idea.
However, this is mostly about fighting.
In the meta-campaign, you don’t even need to go to Thanofane; there are other cities that you can step off from, each with their own attractions.
A gamebook is necessarily laid out like a computer program’s source code document; constructs are defined and passed initialization parameters if need be and global rules are set or invoked at the top, then there are an array of functions that can display information and modify existing structures before pointing to the next relevant function(s). There are termination conditions, like dying or finishing the adventure, in which case an output (of $$$) is returned
I’d like to have the “noblewoman” (read: hinterland murder cult seduction ace) be more fully romanceable in a campaign; maybe you can roll prowess to sweep the grenade from her hands and out of the shipping container, and if you fail you fucking die. But it’s tricky because she’s from where she’s from and it’s not a simple thing to leave all your friends and family and your way of life behind and be alone among a people who you once murdered with impunity. She could easily get depressed.
Of course, there would be a number of romances in the full campaign, some of them instrumental (Make a Prowess check), but some of them would at least diegetically be based on passion, so the murder cult girl would not be your only source of feminine energy here.
If you completed the adventure once, you have unlocked the following character:
Wyrmling Cosmic Brain Parasite (Human Chassis - Troutbridge Grenadiers)
Tradecraft: 9
Influence: 9
Gunplay: 9
Prowess: 9
If you defeat somebody in close combat, you can take over their body instead of whatever is written happening. Roll 2d6 to determine each of their Skills
You may employ the following alembus gland secretions:
-Entheocatalytic Acid: Look through a “Go to xx” pathway without actually traversing it. 1 use.
-Sodium Channel Liaisoning Acid: Roll Prowess twice and take the higher result. 1 use.
-Scent-to-Scent Gene Tailoring: Increase Influence by 2 prior to roll. 1 use.
-Dopamania Cocktail: Increase Tradecraft and Gunplay by 2 until you leave the current ship section. 1 use.
-Local Anesthetic: Regain d4 lost Prowess. 1 use.
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