IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE

Session 9A: Gold

Tee must have made some sort of noise, because the woman suddenly whipped around, “Who’s there?”

When, where, and why should you roll to resolve NPC actions?

This is one of those areas where most people seem to assume that the way they do it is the way everyone does it and that there’s really no other conceivable way that you could or should do it, which tends to result in a lot of gnashing of teeth and bloody tears when these preconceptions suddenly collide with a different gaming style/preference/methodology.

One thing that is universally true: You can’t always roll for the NPCs.

“Oh yes you can!”

No, seriously. You can’t.

About 75,000 people live in Ptolus. (And that doesn’t even count the monsters.) At any given time, the absolute maximum number of those people I’m actively tracking is maybe 75. Even if you were a hundred times better than me (and, thus, actively – and absurdly! – actively tracking 7,500 people simultaneously), you’re still only engaged with 1% of the population. At any given moment, therefore, there are vast swaths of the campaign world for which you are assuming activities and outcomes based on various degrees of common sense and creative instinct.

And here’s something that most GMs hold to be true: You roll for the NPCs at least some of the time.

“Whaddya mean most?! You have to at least roll for attacks, right?!”

You don’t, though. Some GMs fudge those outcomes. Others use aggressively player-faced mechanics in systems where the actions of NPCs are only mechanically resolved if they’re directly engaged with and opposed by a PC.

The vast majority of GMs are going to be somewhere between these two radically opposed poles, however. At the beginning of this session’s campaign log, you can get a decent glimpse at how I generally handle things (with some variation depending on both circumstance and the system I’m using).

First, using dramatist principles, I decided that having Linech’s mistress (Biesta) searching Linech’s office for shivvel during the PCs’ attempted infiltration would make for a good scene.

Second, using simulationist principles I set up an initial condition that looked like this:

• Guards (2) – in area 4
• Guards (2) – in area 8
• Guards (4) – at gate
• Linech – in area 7
• Oukina – in area 7
• Ruror – outside area 7
• Biesta – approaching Linech’s office, she arrives in 3d6+5 rounds (looking for shivvel; shivvel in area 3 is gone; she isn’t wearing her armor)

(This is a pretty basic example of an adversary roster.)

SETTING UP INITIAL CONDITIONS

In creating these initial conditions, the first thing you’ll note is that I haven’t tried to simulate the entire nightly schedule for Linech’s burrow. For example, I haven’t said, “Biesta will sneak into his office and steal shivvel between 12:00 and 12:15 AM.”

Why not? Primarily because, at least in this particular scenario, that’s a lot of wasted prep. The PCs are unlikely to see more than one specific slice of the burrow’s schedule. Secondarily, because missing the dramatic interest of Biesta’s presence in the office because the PCs didn’t happen to show up in a specific 15 minute window isn’t a desirable outcome for me (and is also wasted prep).

Those who prize simulationism above all other concerns may balk at this. But I refer you back to our previously established truism: You can’t always roll for the NPCs. And, in a similar vein, you can’t perfectly simulate the daily schedule of all 75,000 inhabitants of Ptolus. At some point you are making an arbitrary decision about the initial conditions of any locale that the PCs begin interacting with.

Because you can’t simulate all 75,000 inhabitants of Ptolus, there is always some degree of compromise, and that means that prepping eighteen different sets of initial conditions doesn’t make any sense: No matter how many you prep, the PCs will never encounter more than one set of initial conditions (by definition).

(There are exceptions to this: If a scenario is likely to feature the PCs putting a location under surveillance, then you will, of course, want to set up the typical daily schedule for that location. Maybe mix in a few random events to vary it from day to day without needing to hand prep every day if it’s likely to be a lengthy surveillance.)

AFTER FIRST CONTACT

With all that being said, the second thing to note here is that I’ve inherently built uncertainty into the initial conditions.

One thing to remember is that I actually have no idea how the PCs are going to approach this scenario: They might sneak in. They might fight their way in. They might come up with some completely different solution I couldn’t even imagine.

These initial circumstances are designed to create interesting complications for the PCs, which they’ll either need to avoid or interact with in order to accomplish their goal. How will they avoid them? How will they interact with them? I don’t know, so I’m not going to waste a lot of time thinking about it. Following the precepts of Don’t Prep Plots, these are all tools in my toolbox; and I’ll improvise with them during actual game play.

Which is what you see play out at the beginning of the campaign journal:

• As the PCs arrived onsite, I rolled 3d6+5 to see how many rounds it would be until Biesta arrived.
• Because Tee waited behind the chimney “for at least a minute” to make sure she hadn’t been spotted climbing up, it meant that Biesta arrived in the office before Tee did.
• We roll a Move Silently vs. Listen check to determine whether or not Tee is aware of Biesta. (She is.) But we also roll a Listen check for the nearby guards to see if they hear Biesta. (They don’t.)

Let’s stop there for a second, because this is our primary topic today: I rolled for the guards because I did not know what the outcome of Biesta’s snooping in the office would be. And that was true even if the PCs didn’t interfere at all.

For example, a completely different possibility is that the PCs try to break into the compound from a different direction; while they’re performing their infiltration, however, Biesta gets caught snooping and there’s a whole bunch of new activity flowing to and away from the office that they now need to deal with. Or maybe Biesta sneaking back out of the office creates a timely distraction that allows the PCs to escape. Or maybe Biesta walks in on the PCs while they’re trying to leverage Lord Abbercombe out the window.

The point is that Biesta is a dynamic element which, once set in motion, even I don’t know the consequences of.

Other GMs might want to get a little more specific in planning out Biesta’s predetermined course: They might know, for example, that (barring PC interference) Biesta will reach the office, find the shivvel, and leave without alerting a guard. In other circumstances, I might do the same thing. A lot depends on the specific needs of the particular scenario.

Think of your scenario like a billiards table: You set up the table and you let the players take their shot. Unlike a normal billiards table, though, a bunch of the balls (NPCs, etc.) are in motion when the PCs show up, and will remain in motion (probably cyclically so for the sake of easy prep) until the PCs take their shot.

(Some GMs will take this even further and ignore the interference of the PCs. I’m going to refer those GMs to the Railroading Manifesto.)

• We roll a Listen vs. Move Silently check to determine whether or not Biesta notices Tee. (I probably also rolled for the guard, but given distance and walls his success was really unlikely.) She does!
• We now roll a Hide vs. Spot check to determine whether or not Biesta spots Tee when she comes over to the window. She doesn’t, but in coming over to window and saying, “Who’s there?” she’s made enough noise that…
• We roll a Move Silently vs. Listen check for the guard to once again notice Biesta. And this time, he does!

As a result, we’ve discovered that Tee’s presence — despite being quite subtle — has resulted in Biesta being discovered by the guard. This has long-term implications, because the guard then takes Biesta to Linech: Which means that the guard closest to the office is no longer present, making the additional Move Silently checks for actually extricating the statue substantially easier for the group to succeed at. But also creates a ticking time bomb at the end of which Linech is going to come to his office to find out what Biesta was up to. (In fact, if it hadn’t been for Ranthir’s clever use of feather fall to speed up the extraction, it’s likely that Linech would have gotten back in time to catch them in the act. Careful planning is important in D&D, folks!)

This is, as I said, a rather minor interaction. But I think it offers a rather nice window into my general methodology as a GM, and also highlights the fascinating and rewarding outcomes that can result.

IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE

SESSION 9A: GOLD

October 21st, 2007
The 26th Day of Amseyl in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

The group headed up-city into the Rivergate District. After leaving the Ghostly Minstrel they broke up into smaller, less noticeable groups. Dominic and Elestra arranged for a carriage to wait for them near the burrow adjacent to Linech’s.

The narrow alley beside the Yebures’ house was crowded that night: All six of them were needed for the plan to work.

Tee secured her grappling hook and rope to the lip of the chimney and rapidly ascended to the roof. She hid behind the chimney for at least a minute to make sure that her ascent had not been detected, and then climbed down towards the window.

As she approached it, her sharp elven ears clearly picked up the sounds of someone moving about inside the room… despite the fact that the light hadn’t been turned on.

Tee carefully approached the window and peered inside: There was a thin, emaciated woman searching the office. She was, in fact, poking around the bookshelves where Tee had hidden Zavere’s scrying cube.

Tee must have made some sort of noise, because the woman suddenly whipped around, “Who’s there?”

Tee jerked back, but the woman was coming towards the window to investigate what she had seen. But just as she was nearing the window, Tee heard the door of the office thrown open and a rough, burly voice growled, “What are you doing up here?”

The woman’s voice was filled with tightly-controlled fright: “Linech asked me to get something for him. I was just looking for it…”

“With the light out? Get over here, we’ll just go and see Linech about this.”

“Oh please, no… no…”

Tee could hear a brief struggle, and then the woman was pulled from the room and the door slammed shut behind her.

Tee waited a few moments and then peeked around the corner of the window to confirm that the office was truly empty. It was. She reached for her tools and quickly unlocked the window, sliding it open silently and slipping inside.

She quickly crossed to the door and locked it, listening to ensure that no one else was waiting outside the room. Then she secured a second rope to the golden statue for Agnarr and Tor to climb up.

While Tor and Agnarr were climbing, Tee quickly checked on the scrying cube to make sure that the woman hadn’t discovered it or disturbed it. She hadn’t. But Tee decided to move it anyway: If people were going to be searching the office, she wanted the scrying cube to be more secure.

She focused her attention on the desk, thinking to find a drawer behind which she could hide it. What she found, instead, was a secret compartment at the back of one of the drawers. Sliding it open she found two things: First, an iron money coffer that was completely empty (obviously Linech’s funds were almost completely depleted at this point). Second, a letter written on elegant paper that had once been sealed with wax that was now broken.

The letter read:

(more…)

This material was originally developed in 1999 or 2000 as a proposal for a supplement to Gold Rush Games’ San Angelo.

Some quick background: Immediately before pitching this book, I had written Days of Terror, a campaign supplement for Dream Pod 9’s Heavy Gear RPG that followed the same format as The Paxton Gambit. Basically, it was a micro-setting supplement focused on one very specific topic and paired with the detailed overview of a related campaign. At the time, I was really enamored of the format and thought it would catch on with other game lines. Young Heroes was an initial pitch for a similar line of supplements for GRG.

Don’t bother looking for Days of Terror. I wrote the whole book, but the project was canned due to the poor sales of The Paxton Gambit and A New Breed for DP9. Young Heroes didn’t even get off the ground. As I mentioned when archiving my review of A New Breed, these days I’m considerably less enamored of the format, primarily because the “milestone” approach they use fails to provide the type of specific prep work (like stat blocks) that I think are actually the most essential elements of value in a published scenario. Ideas are cheap; execution is everything.

On the other hand, sometimes one man’s ideas can still inspire others to do great things. I certainly experienced that when Martin Tegelj took my idea of the Temporal Masters and transformed it into a fully developed Doctor Who campaign. In the case of Young Heroes, I had actually developed a complete campaign outline as part of the original pitch. That’s what I’m going to be sharing below, but since it’s almost two decades old I’m also going to be peppering in a few thoughts on how my older and wiser self would change things up to make for a better campaign.

A BRIEF SEGUE

Young Heroes was designed to be a supplement for college-age superheroes in San Angelo. My points of inspiration were the first fifty issues of Amazing Spider-Man, the early New Mutants comics, the second Avengers team (the one with Captain America trying to forge Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver into a cohesive whole), the late-’80s JLA (Batman trying to make a roster of second-stringers work), an incredibly obscure (but also wonderful) comic called The Fly from the Impact Comics line, and, oddly, Kurt Busiek’s Thunderbolts (which doesn’t really feature young heroes, but does feature new heroes trying to prove themselves). These days I would add stuff like Bendis’ definitive run on Ultimate Spider-Man, Kirkman’s Invincible (although the latter ends up being a bit more cosmic in scale than what I was aiming for here), and Spider-Man: Homecoming.

What about the micro-supplement part of the book? Well, I certainly hope it would have value if the full book had ever been written. But in outline form it doesn’t really offer anything of note unless you need to be told that a book about college-age heroes would feature information on the colleges of San Angelo, the neighborhoods around those colleges, stock faculty members, local musical groups (The Atlas, Jungle Beat, and the Mississippi Sirens, along with Sarah and the Peacekeepers; at least one of these would have secretly been superheroes), coffee houses and other hangouts, and the like.

This would have all been gazetteer-type stuff. These days, I’d have tried to figure out a more sandbox-style approach with material being presented through much more utilitarian chunks of content. And I’d probably also be looking at some kind of mini-game mechanical box that would strongly model the balance between classes, jobs, and superhero adventures. (Really try to capture that “Peter Parker madly juggling to keep all the parts of his life in the air at once” vibe and push it into hard, mechanical choices that would help drive the narrative.)

ACT ONE: ALL OUR DREAMS AS ONE

First off, and probably most obviously, I’d start by revamping the whole thing into a properly node-based scenario design. Perhaps not a node structure that was heavily bifurcated, but definitely one with a bit more flexibility and dynamic potential. In 1999, I was still trapped within the limited model of linear campaign structure, even though I was beginning some limited experimentation with non-linear scenarios. (Formally stating the Three Clue Rule to myself was, if I recall correctly, still a year or two in my future, too.)

Scenario One – The Birth of Legends. The first scenario is designed to bring the PCs together. A string of daring robberies has been plaguing businesses in the college area for about a week now, with the pace slowly increasing. The cops have caught a couple of the perps – all classmates of the PCs – but all of them claim to not remember the crimes. Plus, none of the stolen money or merchandise has been recovered. The PCs become involved when one of the robberies is carried out right under their nose (either while they are all “conveniently” in the same place or separately, but at roughly the same time). They, of course, capture the perps – who are just ordinary college kids who seem to be acting in some sort of trance. Eventually it’s all traced back to the Psychotropper. He’s been lacing the pizzas being delivered from the university Masked Bandit Pizza with his special drugs. The PCs face him and his “Zombie Horde” down and deliver him to the police. The important thing is that the PCs end up working together to solve the problem.

This is a very weak hook. “Bunch of heroes all respond to the same crime and team-up” is a staple of the genre, of course, but leveraging 4-6 PCs into the proper location, expecting them all to respond appropriately to the villains, and then fall into line for a campaign-long team-up as a result is awkward. It can work, but you’re relying heavily on the metagame expectations of “you’re all PCs, so you’re going to team-up” rather than having that emerge organically from the immediate circumstances.

What I’d probably do today is break up the initial beats of the campaign into a number of micro-interactions that would all end up pointing the PCs towards the Psychotropper’s antics from different directions. Because the different angles of approach allow the players to quickly see many different facets of the problem, this immediately creates magnitude. It also, in my experience, creates really interesting and unexpected initial interactions between the PCs as their vectors all converge on each other. One such micro-interaction might, in fact, be a couple of the PCs being at the same place at the same time and teaming up to follow their leads (but only a couple). For the others, I would try to tie the situation more intimately to the PCs and use the scenes to simultaneously begin putting pieces from their social lives and backgrounds into play. Using Tales from the Loop–style elements to character creation in order to generate a detailed network of connections and then implicating their friends will immediately make the problem meaningful. (These connection networks could also feature in that “balance your lives” mechanics I mentioned earlier.)

Scenario Two – A Common Thread. While busting some petty crooks the PCs are suddenly confronted with mystic firepower. Each of the crooks is carrying a business card on their person imprinted with an apparently random set of five numbers and letters. As they mop things up despite their surprise, the Bard shows up on the scene: A cache of mystic artifacts was recently broken into and he’s been trying to track them down. The PCs are drawn into his investigation, but as they draw near the source of the weapons the crooks they have just caught are consumed by mystic flame. At the end of this scenario the PCs meet Sylvia Inverse. Sylvia was the superhero Lightning during the early ‘80s. She was crippled in a fight with the Reaper in ’85. Sylvia then became an industrialist and is now a billionaire. She has been searching for a group of young heroes who she can sponsor as a team. The PCs came to her attention through their recent actions.

Something that may not be entirely clear from this text is that this was meant to be what I think of as a “Shiki-style” campaign. Shiki was a campaign for Sengoku (another Gold Rush Games RPG, actually) which featured four scenarios which were notably separated from each other by large spans of time. The idea was that Shiki would provide the epic backbone for a long-term campaign, with the GM weaving other scenarios into the spaces between the campaign scenarios. Same principle here. Particularly during Act One, the idea was that the GM would include a number of other “generic” superhero scenarios as the PCs established themselves as local heroes.

Scenario Three – Traitor Unknown. The PCs are taken to see their new headquarters, located in a secret sub-basement of the skyscraper which houses the local branch of Sylvia’s company. They are also introduced to the other two members of the team – Circuit and Starsong. Their tour is interrupted when the monitoring equipment picks up a news report of a bank robbery involving high tech weaponry. Breaking up the robbery the PCs will find cards identical to those found on the mystically armed crooks in the last scenario. This time they succeed in tracking the shipments back to a central source, but as they move in for the final figurative kill they find the base abandoned and evidence that one of their own sent a warning.

NPC members of the team. Always risky because many people have had poor experiences with them. And I, as a GM, hate the hassle of running them and frequently feel like I’m screwing it up because I forget to pay enough attention to the NPC party member to make them truly feel like a member of the party. If I was running this campaign today I would probably (a) try to conspire with one of my players to take on the role of Circuit (the true traitor) and (b) see if I could find a co-GM or another faux-player willing to take on the role of Starsong (the false traitor) while also disappearing for several sessions (as described below).

Scenario Four – Our Foe, Ourselves. This scenario starts with the official announcement of the team’s formation – a major media event. Later, while Starsong is on duty, the monitoring equipment intercepts a police call to a warehouse where strange energy weapons are being used. The team dispatches at once, but when they arrive they find the warehouse empty and undisturbed. This pattern of “phantom messages” repeats itself a few times… each time while Starsong is on duty. Finally a similar call comes in while Circuit or one of the PCs is on duty, but this time the call is real. The PCs encounter a group of red-hooded crooks calling themselves “Servants of the Scarlet Sect”. The PCs fight them to a standstill, but then they disappear just as cop cars arrive. The “Servants” don’t appear on the security tapes – only the PCs wreaking havoc; all sorts of technological equipment is missing from the warehouse; and a security guard is found murdered in a backroom.

ACT TWO: IN THE SHADOW OF OUR GREATNESS

Scenario One – The Shattered Dream. The team suddenly finds itself a fugitive from justice. Sylvia Inverse believes their version of events, but since her connection to the team is known she is under strict surveillance and can do little to help them. Most of this scenario will be played out in the PCs’ secret IDs as they live out their lives on campus, talking with friends – some of whom support the new team, some of whom despise it. In the end the PCs are forced to take action when the Mad Bomber tries to blow up the school. Just as they finish putting the kibosh on the Bomber, they are suddenly confronted with a new problem: The Justice Foundation has shown up to take the fugitives into custody. Cliffhanger ending.

For maximum impact, this scenario requires proper setup: The campus relationships need to be established and they need to have some real stakes to them. In the near future I’ll be talking about the “exposition drip” technique you can use to make sure these elements are properly introduced before you need them to fire on all cylinders. The other thing to look at here is properly establishing the tension between the safety of remaining safely hidden in their civilian identities and the responsibility they feel to right wrongs. The scenario would probably play best with a sequence of temptations, each forcing the players to make hard choices about their priorities. (And also inviting them to find creative, clever, and/or stealthy solutions to problems in order to avoid exposing themselves.)

Scenario Two – Fugitives of Justice. This scenario opens with the conclusion of the battle with the Justice Foundation from the first scenario. The PCs should manage to extricate themselves from the situation. Later, the PCs are tracked down and attacked by the Foundation once again, but this time with the twist that it was the Scarlet Sect who lead them to the PCs. Evidence after the battle seems to reveal that Starsong betrayed their location. While they are in the middle of dealing with that situation, members of the Scarlet Sect suddenly appear as if out of thin air in the midst of the PCs. They kidnap Circuit and disappear.

Planning superhero campaigns is tricky because traditional superhero plots tend to turn on the specific outcomes of big, show-piece fights. Assuming/predetermining the specific outcomes of fights is a really easy way to double stamp your passport to Railroad-land. But if you try to AVOID doing that, you can end up with narrative structures which AREN’T driven by big, show-piece fights, and then your traditional superhero campaign doesn’t feel like a traditional superhero narrative.

Regardless, I would definitely try to avoid doing, however, is having the exact same fight twice in the same scenario and assuming a specific outcome for each fight, despite the fact that there seems to be little utility in HAVING two separate fights. I’d take a look at Principles of RPG Villainy and have the PCs hunted by more than just the Justice Foundation.

Scenario Three – Hostage! With Circuit gone and Starsong fleeing under suspicion, things are going badly for the PCs. The only good news is that Sylvia has been keeping a covert eye on their monitoring devices, and during their last encounter picked up an odd electronic signature from the Scarlet Sect – she thinks it may be what allowed them to cloak their presence in the surveillance cameras… but she’s going to need to get more readings. At this point they are contacted by a shadowy figure calling himself Mastermind, the figurative head of the Scarlet Sect. He offers the PCs the chance to join the sect.

This is not actually a scenario. It’s literally two phone conversations. I probably would have figured that out when it came time to actually develop this campaign.

Scenario Four – Our Hopes Fulfilled. At worst its a trap; at best its an offer designed to damn them all. But the PCs are encouraged by Sylvia to take the bait. It pays off: During a climactic battle with the Justice Foundation (again lured into the situation by Mastermind’s manipulations), Sylvia Inverse gathers enough data on the signals to decode the original tapes – revealing that the Sect members were on them all along. Mastermind manages to escape, but the PCs have the evidence they need to clear their names.

ACT THREE: UPON THE PATH OF FATE

Scenario One – The Siren’s Song. The PCs are approached by Sylvia, who claims to have traced the signals to a specific warehouse. But it turns out to be a trap. They manage to save Circuit anyway when Starsong reappears to save them, and he suggests that they test Sylvia to see if she’s really a clone. It turns out that she is. Although she professes her innocence, the PCs probably aren’t buying it – and she’s forced to flee.

Scenario Two – The Island Realm. Meanwhile the PCs have figured out where Mastermind’s real base is – on a small island in the Pacific. This is the lead up to the big wrap-up: Fists fly and powers boom. It turns out that Mastermind is the original Lightning, who was driven insane by her injury. The Sylvia who the PCs have known is a clone, but she’s been living Sylvia’s life.

Reviewing my notes from 1999/2000, this is one of the major core ideas of what I wanted the campaign to accomplish: Create an atmosphere of suspicion, paranoia, and false identity. Implicate their boss as being a cloned impostor. Have them run a test and discover that she IS a clone – oh my god! And then have the big reveal where it turns out that the clone is actually the good guy and is, in fact, a more faithful preservation of the original’s personality before their mind was broken.

What’s missing here, however, are some key exposition drips: Sylvia’s accident needs to be narratively incorporated before the big reveal. The possibility of a clone (or multiple clones) being involved needs to be set up so that the accusation against Sylvia is a payoff instead of a random curve ball. It would also help to clearly set up how the PCs can test for a clone before they need to do it here.

Scenario Three – The Final Hour. And here’s the big wrap-up: Fleeing the island, Mastermind returns to San Angelo – planning to seal the city away from the outside world using her technology. The PCs have to get inside the city, and then defeat Mastermind once there.

Go to Part 1

MYSTERIOUS ARTIFACTS

Excalibur and the Lost Blade: The Society has run into the mythic Excalibur blade twice before. Although it is connected to Arthur, Merlin, and Camelot it is not of Atlantean or Lemurian origin, but something else. The Society originally uncovered the blade in 1932, but it was stolen by the Nazi archaeologist Grimoire (see below). It was liberated by British superhero Captain Valor and was encountered by the Society again in 1935, along with its sister sword – the Lost Blade.

The Holy Grail: Although the legend of the search for the Holy Grail is connected with those of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, that connection was made years after the actual events. The Holy Grail itself actually has a fairly active history, before landing in the 20^th century.

Shroud of Turin: The Shroud of Turin is a real artifact related to the death of Christ… but the one found in the Cathedral of Turin is not it. The true shroud has been traced by members of the Society to a Hong Kong branch of the Mystic Triad.

Jewel of Gwahlur: The Jewel of Gwahlur is a large ruby about the size of a clenched fist. It is a Lemurian artifact of great mystical power which has appeared at various times throughout history. It is currently in the possession of the Priests of Na’toth.

Philosopher’s Stone: The alchemical “sciences” were a degenerate Lemurian science which had been warped into impracticality over the millenia. One item of truth, however, was the legendary Philosopher’s Stone – a mystical regent capable of changing one element into another.

The Jade Buddha: The Jade Buddha is a completely ordinary statue of the Buddha made out of jade. Its significance lies in its importance as a symbol of power and prestige among those versed in the mystic arts. The Society has found itself in several situations involving possession of the Jade Buddha.

STRANGE CREATURES

The Leviathan: The Keepers (described below) used their ancient technology to create a legion of aquatic allies in their quest to keep Atlantis safe through the millenia-long sleep they had to endure. Among the aquatic lifeforms they altered were the majestic whales, making them hyper-intelligent watchers of the ocean waves. One of their subjects, however, was effected in an unexpected way – growing to gargantuan proportions and liberating himself from their control. He survives to the modern day. Known by many different names, he is widely known in the mystic community as the Leviathan.

The Hydra: The origins of this draconic creature are unknown, but he has apparently been alive since the earliest days of modern civilization. He acts in large part through his human servants, wielding a massive amount of influence from his dark web.

The Cyclops: After encountering the Hydra for the first time the Society also became aware of the Cyclops – a mortal magician possessed of a single eye, apparently every bit as ancient as the Hydra, and locked in eternal conflict with the dragon. His longevity seems to indicate some ties to Atlantis or Lemuria, but no one is truly sure.

The Celestial Order: The Celestial Order is composed of two massive robotic races created in the days of Atlantis and Lemuria as supermen. Possessed of superhuman intelligence they have long since passed beyond the consciousness of the average mortal man, returning from their plane of higher understanding only occasionally to involve themselves in the affairs of those they consider their lessers. Because they are no longer acting upon the stimuli of this world their motivations and their actions are often completely mysterious. At other times they are completely lucid.

The Molemen: Beneath the surface of the world are the Chasms, an immense network of underground passages created by the Molemen. This deviant off-shoot of the human race, from whom many primeval legends of monsters stem, live their entire lives beneath the surface of the earth.

The Fey Folk: When Simon Morrow discovered these thin-boned creatures in the forests of Germany who seemed to flit between this world and another he was convinced they were the fey folk of legend. Alex Fellows, the genius scientist brought to the Society by Howard Shaw, agrees that they may be the fey folk of legend – but insists that they are nothing more than an extradimensional race. They have since made appearances in the American Midwest.

SECRET SOCIETIES

The Knights of Arthur: The Knights of Arthur date back to the age of Camelot. They guard the secret resting place of Arthur and his knights – prophesied to return when Britain meets with her greatest danger. They act in the interests of protecting that secret and Britain herself.

Egyptian Priests of Na’toth: The Priests of Na’Toth are descendants of the disciples of Na’toth, an Atlantean refugee who settled in ancient Egypt and established a secret cult which supposedly controlled the throne of all the great Egyptian dynasties (although some of their members are said to actually be the disciples of Na’Toth). Or at least, so they claim. The Society, despite the credulity born of seeing many things thought impossible, has several facts in their possession that suggest the priests to be nothing but frauds. Whatever the case they remain extremely powerful – both mystically and politically. To the present day they continue to act behind the scenes of power, manipulating affairs for their own nefarious purposes.

The Knights Templar: The Knights Templar were not, as is typically believed, completely wiped out by the forces of Rome. Many of them escaped and their descendants continue to operate unto the present day – convinced that the Catholic Church is blinding itself from the true worship of God by ignoring the mystic arts. The Templars rigorously hunt down anyone who practices the “craft” without worshipping God, however, believing them to be sacrilegious. They are also obsessed with finding the hidden location of the Holy Grail. In many ways, they are a dark mirror of the Argonaut Society.

The Mystic Triad: One of the family heads of the Triad discovered the mystic world. His followers have become known as the Mystic Triad – combining the double-threat of organized crime and mysticism. Their leader is apparently interested in obtaining as many artifacts of mystic origin as possible in his quest to understand the deeper meanings of the universe. Such a goal has often put the Mystic Triad at odds with the Argonauts.

Keepers & Guardians: The Keepers are a cult society, recruited from the more primitive ranks of humanity, who watch over the sleeping Atlanteans; keeping them safe from outside harm. The Lemurian Guardians do the same for their faction. The two covert organizations have waged a centuries-long war, each seeking to weaken the other before the time of the Awakening.

Thule Society: Key members of Hitler’s inner circle are learned in the mystic arts. As far as the Society has been able to determine, none of them are truly adepts, but as part of their budding war machine they are attempting to gather artifacts of great power. Recently a supervillain archaeologist codenamed Grimoire has joined the Thule Society, becoming the arch-nemesis of the Argonauts.

This material was originally developed in 1999-2000 as a supplement for Gold Rush Games’ San Angelo. This book was supposed to be part of a line of GRG projects that were going to support the eminent release of Pulp Hero. Unfortunately, Pulp Hero got massively delayed and wasn’t actually published until 2005, so the project got killed. I’ve done some minor reworking of the original pitch document here to present a setting that could be easily used with Pulp Hero, the Trinity Continuum’s Adventure, or any number of other pulp adventure RPGs.

One thing I would recommend: The original material was written to be compatible with the extant background elements of the Argonaut Society described in the history of San Angelo. If you were actually going to run this material, I’d recommend ditching the existing roster of Argonaut members and their exploits, rewind the timeline, and set up the PCs as the core of the Society, with their globe-trotting expeditions slowly uncovering the secret history of Atlantis and Lemuria.

The flux radiation caused by the creation of singularities did not result solely in the creation of superhumans. Their ability to wildly effect the laws of nature and make the improbable probable, stretching through time itself, has lead not only to the creation of supers, but the realization of some of the wildest fantasies. In the world of San Angelo not only can men fly and women learn the ways of sorcery, but the pyramids truly possess mystic powers; Atlantis sank beneath the ocean waves millenia ago; dinosaurs and woolly mammoths still roam in forgotten valleys; and enclaves of ancient civilizations exist unto the present day, preserved in isolation. To explore these strange and wondrous places, the improbabilites of flux radiation have also created a group of elite explorers – the Argonaut Society.

The men and women of the Argonaut Society captured the hearts and minds of a generation. They were the best of the best when it came to exploration in the modern era. Their membership boasts an amazing number of World Records and major achievements. They were the first to scale some of the tallest mountains in the world, the first to make contact with ancient tribal societies, the first to uncover the most spectacular archaeological sites ever discovered. These exploits, particularly by their founder Tyler North, imprinted them in the memory of millions.

But there is another side to the Argonaut Society, a side which the wider public remains ignorant of even to the modern day: The exploration of the fantastic; things which dwell only within the pulp literature of the real world. To understand how such things could exist it must be understood that there was an age of prehistory, driven by the pre-effects of flux radiation, in which mankind achieved heights of technology and mysticism which was both superior to our own science and also alien to our way of thought. This Age of Advanced Prehistory (as members of the Society came to refer to it) lasted a millennia and ended with the sinking of Atlantis beneath the waves.  The great civilizations of Egypt and Babylonia, thought by most to be the dawn of western civilization, were actually nothing but the dim remnants of the proud Atlantean and Lemurian civilizations.

The Age of Advanced Prehistory continues to affect mankind down to the present day. The mythic Camelot truly existed, made possible through the wizardry of Merlin – one of the few Atlanteans to survive to the modern day. The Bermuda Triangle is nothing more than an effect of the sunken continent of Atlantis. Magicians trace their heritage back to the Egyptian Priests of Na’toth.

REALMS OF THE FANTASTIC

Atlantis and Lemuria: Atlantis and Lemuria were the hegemonic powers of the Age of Advanced Prehistory (also known as the Atlantean or Lemurian Age). The continent of Atlantis was found in the modern day Atlantic; the continent of Lemuria in the Pacific. They were the greatest civilizations mankind has ever known and the vistas of the world were spread out beneath them. But they were also the greatest of enemies, and their conflict would end their millennia-long hegemonic rise and return the world to primitive darkness. Atlantis and Lemuria both slipped beneath the waves of the sea, reduced to ruin. The majority of their citizenry were placed in some form of suspended animation, although some used their science to adapt to life under water and served as caretakers to the rest. The citizens of Atlantis would be briefly awakened (historically speaking) by the Argonaut Society, allowing for some Atlantean heroes to make an appearance during the Golden Age. Both Atlantis and Lemuria, however, are on the verge of awaking entirely from their 5000 year sleep; prophecies gleaned from their crystalline time-viewers have posted the date of their rise to 2012.

The Lost Valley: On the continent of Antarctica there exists a lost valley of creatures whose time upon this world was supposed to have ended millions of years ago. It is certainly possible that members of the Argonaut Society successfully reached this place before Tyler North’s fateful (and final) mission.  As for North’s true fate following his disappearance, the Society has never been able to determine it. The icy entrance they originally used to gain access to the Valley collapsed, and no other entrance has been found.

Forgotten Civilizations: The Argonaut Society has discovered enclaves of several ancient societies, often found among inhospitable mountain valleys or the depths of primeval jungles, but also sometimes within stable time pockets established by Lemurian dimensional scientists for as-yet-undetermined purposes. These prominently include Mayan, Incan, and Tibetan socities (including the one destroyed by a volcano in 1928).

The Ruins of Camelot: The legends are true. Arthur, son of Uther, did arise to the throne of Camelot with the help of the mysterious wizard Merlin. Merlin was a son of Atlantis who survived its destruction and Camelot was his attempt to bring that wonder back to the world. Morgan Le Fey, on the other hand, was a daughter of Lemuria and attempted to seize that dream from Merlin and Arthur – resulting in the destruction of it all. As a result of their final mystic battle the ruins of Camelot slipped partially out of this reality. Now it reappears, from time to time and in various locations.

The Bermuda Triangle: The Triangle is the result of forgotten Atlantean technology. The Argonaut Society attempted to understand the phenomenon better after they lost one of their own to it. Although they regained their missing member, they were unsuccessful in powering down the machinery behind the Triangle.

Egyptian Pyramids: Pyramids were one of the architectural trademarks of the Atlanteans and Lemurians, and their influence can still be seen in some of the great stoneworks around the world. Egypt, in particular, was a place many of the Atlanteans fled to (just as the Mayan and Incan civilizations were born from the refugee movements of the Lemurians). The Egyptian Pyramids are centers of power and the Great Pyramid (which wasn’t built by Cheops at all, but was a remnant of Atlantis itself) contains many hidden passages in which ancient secrets are kept.

Stone Circles: The stone circles of England – the most famous one, of course, being Stonehenge – were actually built by the Druidic traditions and have some important connection to stellar motion. The Druidic traditions were a confused ideological mix of primitive superstition and Atlantean technology and mysticism. Although the Society has had several interesting run-ins with the circles they’ve never been successful at completely understanding their secrets.

Center of the Earth: While exploring the Tibetan steppes explorer Tyler North came across local legends of a forgotten tribe which lived beneath the surface of the mountains. Although North knew that many such legends are nothing more than rural superstition, he also knew (from personal experience, no less) that they often had a grain of truth. He returned later that year with a group of dedicated society members. Passing through a maze of caveworks which seemed to descend ever deeper into the subterranean world, North and his band of explorers eventually emerged into what appeared to be the hollowed out center of the globe in the middle of which floated a small sun – a world at the Center of the Earth.

Amazed by this seeming contradiction of modern science North spent over a month exploring the strange and amazing cultures found there. Eventually he discovered that he was not truly within the Center of the Earth, but the center of some other planetoid which was somehow linked to our Earth through various subterranean passages. All of this was powered by the great tree Ygg, which served as some form of mystical conduit between our worlds. North was planning a future exploration to this place to learn more, but after his disappearance the plans were postponed. World War II permanently set them to one side.

Far Side of the Moon and Mars. Although the details remain unclear, the Atlanteans and Lemurians did seem to possess some form of travel between the stars. They formed habitable zones on both the far side of the moon and the Martian surface.

TOMORROW: Mysterious Artifacts, Strange Creatures, and Secret Societies!