Act 1 – The Walls Have Ears ( “…and arms and legs and hands…”)
Our story opens with the group crowded into the Dark Tunnels under New Orleans. The sewers through which the party has been traveling have long since ceased to be composed of brick and mortar. They are now made of a black and somewhat soft material which absorbs all forms of radiant energy (such as light and heat). As they walk, the surface of the floor yields more and more, until it feels like they are walking across the surface of a water bed. Eventually, they come to a right angle turn in the tunnel. Those in the party with foreboding are certain that death lies around the bend. Thann, who is leading the marching order takes this moment to organize the troops…
John: “Who’s behind me. It’s not Meeho, is it?”
Thann proceeds around the corner and is immediately grabbed in the face by a flailing hand. The palm of the hand covers Thann’s eyes and nose, blocking his vision. The fingers are gripping the sides of his skull with tremendous force. Reacting swiftly, he fires his handgun straight ahead, at what he hopes is his attacker’s position. The bullet apparently hits the tunnel wall. The resulting shock wave of undulations would have thrown Thann to the floor, if he wasn’t being held up by a helping hand doing a little face-hugger action.
Jay rounds the corner, and breaks the hand’s grip on Thann. It is now, that Thann gets his first glimpse of the true horror of the tunnels. Protruding from every inch of the tunnels ahead, are all manner of arms, lets, heads, torsos…a veritable body part buffet! To make matters worse, the limbs are all still moving, as if whatever they’re attached to, is still, somehow, alive!
John: “This is sick.”
Mike: “Really.”
GM: “It’s a Dark World out there.”
It is difficult to traverse the tunnels without being grabbed by the occasional hand, but the limbs are not the problem here. Indications of the real problem start cropping up around the next corner. Most of the limbs in this area are no longer moving. Most of the limbs in this area have been stripped down to muscle and bone by something with teeth. The party realizes that they are standing in the middle of some colossal feeding ground.
Kevin: “Yeah, but what’s doing the feeding?”
GM: “I believe, you’re about to find out…”
Although the material of the walls absorb heat and light, they don’t seem to damp sound waves. If anything, they amplify sounds, so the party manages to hear the creatures before seeing them. In a side chamber, there are three enormous grubs. They are happily sliding around the room, chomping away on all manner of body parts. They are not the only creatures in the room, however. In one corner is what appears to be a giant insect of some sort. The creature has eight chitonous legs, and approximately ten smaller tentacles around the front. It is orange-ish in color, and covered over it’s entire body with dark spots. The insect, apparently sensing the party, calls out a series of clicks and screeches. These sounds alert the three grubs to stop eating, and lunge at the party.
Ah, combat. It’s such a confusing thing. People getting in each other’s way, people trying to watch each other’s back. People trying to shoot each other’s back.
Paula: “I want to shoot the grub on the right in the head.”
GM: “Jay is in your way. I’d say you can get Grub, but you can’t get head.”
Eventually, the grubs are defeated, leaving only the giant insect. Even as the party approaches, it makes its escape, by burrowing into the floor. Jay, not to be denied, lunges chainsaw-first after the retreating bug. The revving chainsaw has no problem sinking into the soft floor matter, and Jay finds himself lying flat on the floor, buried up to his armpit in black slime.
Mike: “I can see it now. That thing’s going to rip his arm right off.”
John (who is running Jay’s character in his absence): “I know he would have done that, but I’m not sure how long to leave him lying like that.”
Neal: “Don’t get his arm ripped off. It’s his best feature.”
Jay crawls up on his knees, and extracts his arm from the floor. Since there is nothing left to kill in this room, the party moves on.
Of course, now paranoia comes into play. If these things can travel through the walls and floors, attacks can come from any direction. They encounter several rooms with grubs. It is at this point that Jay manages one of his most impressive kills. He rolls a 1 and manages to make it a head hit…double, double damage. The grub is killed with one blow.
In another room, they come upon three sleeping Insectoids.
MEEHO: “So, do we let sleeping bugs, lie?”
WIL: “Hell no.”
Thann and Wil sneak up on the bugs, and begin firing point blank into what they hope are the creature’s heads. Eventually, one of the bugs Wil is shooting starts convulsing with each shot.
John: “Way to go. You’ve killed it.”
Thann’s bug just stops moving.
John: “No way. I’ve seen these things die. I’ll bet it’s just playing possum. I keep shooting…”
Like I said…paranoia.
Players: “It’s a Dark World!”
Act 2 – Jay’s Brain ( “Aim, Shoot, Misfire! Aim, Shoot, Jam! …” )
In another chamber, they come upon three more Insectoids, only these are awake, and far more prepared. As combat ensues, everyone moves into position. Jay goes head to head with the single bug that is blocking the entry way. The other two bugs are hanging back. The guardian of the doorway reaches out with a tentacle and thwacks Jay soundly in the side of the head. Despite his built-in body armor, the blow knocks him out. To everyone’s surprise, the Insectoid behind Jay’s attacker slithers forward, grabs Jay’s body and drags it toward the back of the cave. Combat continues, but despite everyone’s best effort, nobody can get past the bug in the doorway to go to Jay’s aid.
And why do you suppose that is? Well, let me give you a hint:
An excerpt from combat:
Phase 6:
Neal: “I aim for the head.”
GM: “Okay…that’s your action.”
Phase 5:
Neal: “Okay, I fire.” (Rolls an 18)
GM: “You miss!”
Phase 4:
Neal: “I aim for the head.”
GM: “Okay…”
Phase 3:
Neal: “Okay, I fire.” (Rolls a 20)
GM: “Your gun misfires.”
Phase 2:
Neal: “I aim for the head.”
GM: “Are you sure this is such a good idea?”
Phase 1:
Neal: “I fire.” (Rolls a 19)
GM: “You miss again.”
Phase 6:
Neal: “I aim for the head.”
GM: “Please reconsider…”
Phase 5:
Neal: “I fire!” (Rolls 17) “Damn!”
Phase 4:
GM: “Wil. Your friends are getting their butts wiped. Maybe you should rethink your strategy.”
Phase 3:
Neal: “Damn!”
Phase 2:
Neal: “Aim!”
Phase 1:
Neal: “Shit!”
Phase 6:
Neal: “Aim!”
Phase 5:
GM: “That’s it. Your gun jams.”
Neal: “Then I club the stupid thing with it!”
GM: “Hey! You actually hit it!”
Players: “Yeah!!!!”
The already weakened Insectoid collapses on the black floor. Vaulting over the body, the party members rush forward to help Jay in any way they can. The second bug puts up a fight, but is dispatched much more quickly (they can attack this one from more directions). When this one goes into convulsions, they turn to the third Insectoid which has been holding on to Jay in the corner. The bug has disappeared, presumably, by moving through the back wall of the cave. Jay is lying, unmoving and half sunken into the dark gooey surface of the floor. There is a large opening in the side of his head.
Becky: “That’s it. I quit!”
GM: “No, you don’t understand. It’s an opening. Not a cut.”
Becky: “But he’s bleeding to death, right?”
GM: “No. As a matter of fact, it’s some sort of metallic socket.”
Indeed. The open section of Jay’s skull reveals a smoothly milled metallic hole, approximately 4 cm in diameter. At the bottom of the compartment is a complex connector socket.
THANN: “Hey! Look at this. It looks like that thing pulled something out of Jay’s head. Everyone spread out! We’ve got to find the missing part!”
A few minutes later, Ecco sings out in triumph. She is holding a metallic plate with a shank of Jay’s hair attached to it. The plate screws into place, covering the hole perfectly, but bringing them no closer to understanding what plugs into the socket. Enise stays with Jay while the rest of the party moves on.
In truth, there is little else to move on to. One of the two remaining chambers contains a large organic construct. If the tunnels could have been likened to the intestines or stomach of a large creature, this thing could have been one of it’s vital organs. Of course, nobody seriously believes that they’ve been walking through a giant creature, so they assume this is some sort of device. Naturally, they attack it. The giant organic blob does nothing to defend itself, and is oozing black iquor in no time at all.
John: “We killed it’s brain!”
Neal: “Maybe a heart?”
GM: “Maybe nothing of the kind.”
In the last chamber, a little further down the hall, the party hits the mother lode: A room full of living humans, all held to the floor by a gelatinous material. After a few minutes of cutting, the party manages to free some twenty survivors. Ecco’s friend Byron is among them! Gathering themselves together, the party leads the rag-tag survivors toward safety…
They encounter no more creatures on the trip back to the surface. Returning to the place where Wil caught his hernia, Baboon climbs the ladder and discovers the reason for Wil’s injury. There are two iron clips holding the manhole cover in place. All Baboon does is flip the clips off the retaining pegs, and the counterbalanced lid swings easily upward.
Neal: “Clips!”
GM: (grinning) “You didn’t check for traps.”
Neal: “This bites”
GM: “Wil, if you’re lucky, you won’t get a compulsion to lift every manhole cover you see.”
Neal: “Well, If I do, I’ll be sure to check for clips.”
GM: “Hey…need I say it?”
Players: “It’s a Dark World Out There!”
Act 3 – Help Wanted ( “Prometheus, revisited”)
Some party members are in pretty bad shape. Jay and Wil in particular. Jay has not yet awakened, and Wil is suffering from the pain of his hernia.
ENISE: “We need to get him into surgery.”
SARALYNN: “We’ll take him to a hospital.”
ENISE: “There’s no way I’m letting these primitive witch-doctors touch him.”
GM: “Well, it’s going to be pretty tough getting a hospital to let you into their operating room…As far as they’re concerned, you don’t exist.”
Ecco leads them to a local clinic. Here, while the conditions are a little more primitive, the chances of anyone questioning Enise’s credentials are pretty slim. They need all the help they can get.
Wil, for his part is in pain. The hernia hurts like hell, and it is almost all he can think about. Enise is standing over him, trying to prep him for surgery. He reaches out and grasps her hand tightly. Their eyes lock. She can sense his pain from the creases in his forehead and the strained look behind his stare. Suddenly his eyes seem to glaze over. She can feel a tingling sensation from his hand, almost like a static charge. She gasps in surprise when she suddenly finds herself standing on a rocky plain with Wil and Jay at her side. She looks wildly around her. This place looks familiar. The silence of the early morning twilight is shattered by the call of metallic vultures winging their way to torment a Titan…
SaraLynn and Thann enter the treatment room to find Enise, Jay and Wil missing. They are just about ready to organize a search for their missing companions when they suddenly appear to walk right out of a shadow in the wall. Wil, looking remarkably better is supporting Jay. Enise explains that Wil had somehow managed to transport the three of them to that strange healing place that Crowley originally took Thann when he’d had that little mishap with the cordless drill. All wounds on the three of them appear to be healed, but Jay is still not awake. Thann is getting very worried that something vital may be missing from Jay’s head.
It is another day before Jay awakens. He opens his eyes to find everyone standing around his hospital bed.
THANN: “Jay! You’re awake!”
JAY: (groggily) “Huh?…”
THANN: “Jay. Are you okay?”
JAY: “Yeah…I guess so.”
THANN: “Do you remember the sewers? The big bugs?”
JAY: (a confused look.) “Yeah…?”
THANN: “One of them managed to open up an access panel in your head. It looks like something should be plugged in there, and now it’s gone.”
JAY: (mentally evaluating his condition) “I feel okay…”
THANN: “Do you have any sort of diagnostic system?”
JAY: “I don’t know…”
THANN: “Try asking yourself if you’re okay, or something.”
JAY: (concentrates for a moment and then gets a shocked expression on his face) “Whoa! Oh….hmm”
THANN: (suddenly excited) “What! Did you find anything?”
JAY: “Yeah. Yeah…I’m fine.”
THANN: “What did you find?”
JAY: “A diagnostic. It says everything is fine.”
THANN: “Does it say anything about a missing part?”
JAY: “No…Nope. Nothing appears to be missing.”
The discussion turns inevitably to money. Enise thinks it would be a good idea to become affiliated with some medical facility in the area. With Ecco’s help, the two of them set about trying to get Enise an identity. Ecco knows a number of shady characters, and manages to get Enise a falsified set of papers. Armed with these, and dressed in new clothes, the two of them go off to get a work Visa.
Jay goes to Buck Mayfair to return the chainsaw hand. When Jay fails to return within a few hours, Thann, Meeho, Baboon and Wil go to the Army-Navy store to find out what’s going on.
BUCK: “I’ve sent him out to do a little job for me.”
THANN: “Alone!?”
BUCK: “Look. I’ve seen what these cyborgs are capable of. He can handle himself. Besides…if you want to defeat Dark-Tek, you send Dark-Tek. And your friend is Dark-Tek personified.”
THANN: “What the Hell are you talking about? What is Dark-Tek?”
BUCK: “Dark-Tek is essentially alien technology. Stuff that goes beyond 21st century human engineering.”
THANN: “I realize that cybernetics is fairly primitive here, but…”
BUCK: “Cybernetics is NOT primitive here. Cybernetics is NON-EXISTENT here.”
THANN: “So how do you explain Jay?”
BUCK: “Dark-Tek. Allow me to show you something…”
Buck rummages around behind his counter and comes up with a mayonnaise jar. Inside the jar is a shiny black insect. As Buck hold the jar, it repeatedly bumps against the glass where his fingers are…as if trying to get through to him.
THANN: “So you’ve got a pet cockroach. Big deal.”
BUCK: “This is no cockroach. It isn’t even alive. It’s a device. It crawls to and burrows through the victim’s ear and wraps itself around the cerebral cortex. This has the effect of leaving the victim extremely vulnerable to…suggestion.”
Thann, whose interest in robotics has just been tweaked, stares in fascination at the tiny bug.
THANN: “THAT’S a robot?”
BUCK: “No, as a matter of fact, it isn’t.”
THANN: “But you said it isn’t alive.”
BUCK: “Right…”
THANN: “And it’s not a robot.”
BUCK: “…Correct. It’s Dark-Tek. It’s something not quite explainable by our science…or our medicine.”
THANN: “Now I REALLY want to get off this rock.”
WIL: “We’re trying…”
THANN: “We should try harder. Say, Buck…just how developed is your 21st century space program?”
BUCK: “We’ve sent manned expeditions to the outer planets in the system…why?”
THANN: “Are you telling me, you don’t even have interstellar travel!?”
BUCK: “Of course not. Why…do you?”
THANN: “YES!”
BUCK: “You mean you guys are ET’s?!”
To be continued…
This adventure originally took place on April 10, 1994.