A few thoughts on follow-ups to this scenario:
- Enkara-ulla contaminated the reservoir at the water tower with Rukian biology. That reservoir is connected to the water supply for thousands of San Francisco residents. What effect may it have had on them?
The crisis at the Transamerica Pyramid may result in a huge up-tick in quickened individuals throughout the San Francisco region. (Particularly if the fractal worm showed up.) The Estate may be working overtime tagging new threats and recruiting new assets.- Speaking of the fractal worm, the PCs may need to work fast to plant a cover story capable of explaining its presence. (LSD in the water supply?)
- What made the Transamerica Pyramid so special? Did Jack R. Beckett (CEO of Transamerica when the Pyramid was built), William Pereira (the architect), and/or someone at the Dinwiddie Construction Company include Strange technology in its construction? (Perhaps recursion keys or inapposite gates?)
- The most obvious step is tracking Enkara-Ulla’s operation back to Ruk. As long as he, his notes, and/or his prototypes survive there’s a significant danger to Earth. (Such an investigation might start with tracking down the inapposite gate he was using to bring Rukian equipment and personnel to Earth.) Things could get even more interesting if the entity behind the Qinod Singularity takes an inexplicable interest in his technology.
- The mailing list of Eschaton Electronic’s customers represents a database of people with potentially strong or unusual interest in cyphers. If the Estate became aware of it, they might attempt to secure a copy (if the PCs have not already done so). And once they’ve done that, they’ll start sending teams to investigate it.
TRANSAMERICA GATEHOUSE
Alternatively, the recursion rupture powers up the Transamerica Pyramid as a giant, multifaceted inapposite gate.
Because of the building’s unusual shape, all of the windows in the building are designed to rotate 180-degrees – flipping around so that they can be cleaned from the inside. After the Incident, however, when you flip one of the windows around you’ll find yourself looking into another recursion (or out into the Strange).
The Estate (or some other organization) moves in to secure the building and begin exploring the 3,600+ gates that the building now plays host to.
(Alternatively: Perhaps the windows act as gates without showing you what’s on the other side. That turns the building in to the recursion-equivalent of Frederick Pohl’s Gateway.)
PDF DOWNLOAD
If you’d like to download a PDF version of The Violet Spiral Gambit, click the link below. There’s also a link for downloading all of the props for use with this scenario.
(PDF)
(Zip File)
Cool node-based adventure! Thank you.
I’ve been thinking about doing a one-shot of The Strange starting with a group of characters (and players) that aren’t aware of the Strange. Do you know of any intro adventures that might fit that role?
Cheers!
Kinak
It doesn’t quite fit the bill, but check out the new Mastodon adventure MCG has released: The concept is that the PCs were engaged in Strange-related experiments as part of a top secret military program 10 years ago. So they’re not complete neophytes, but they’re not really indoctrinated either and the adventure is designed to introduce them to the wackiness of the setting.
(And thanks to the gap between their participation in the program and now, the players can really create any type of character they want. Particularly since the program participants weren’t necessarily military personnel.)
Now that it’s been released, I’ll be posting a prop packet and a few notes for it (which increase the “first timers” aspect by introducing an amnesia component) within the next week or so.
Awesome, thanks!