Act 1 – Return to Io ( “Why are you looking at me like that?” )
Our story opens at Chichen Itza, on the Yucatan Peninsula of the continent of Central America on the planet Earth, circa August, 2010. The party of player characters is standing over the Sacred Cenote of Chichen Itza – a huge well which once served as a Mayan sacrificial altar of sorts. People were thrown into the well overnight. The sheer walls of the well were too steep to climb, so they would have to tread water all night long. If the victim drowned, the sacrifice had been accepted by the gods. If the victim survived, they were hauled out of the well and asked to reveal whatever secrets the gods had bestowed upon them in the night. Oddly enough, the few people who survived the ordeal would report hearing voices. In modern times, the Cenote is merely one more curiosity of the Mayan civilization. Unfortunately for our weary travelers, it is also the site for the latest incursion from the Dark. The Cenote is 20 meters across, and thirty meters deep. The surface of the water is currently ten meters beneath the rim. A half meter beneath the surface of the dark water, is the glowing blue-white cloud of the gate to Io. The source of light is so bright, that it acts like a searchlight beacon, shining toward the heavens.
Mike: “We’d better do something before all the shoppers show up.”
Paula: “Yeah…Welcome Kmart shoppers…our blue-light special…”
Jay dives into the well, and then swims into the gate.
Wil jumps in next.
Maggie follows
Then everyone else jumps in.
MEEHO: “Hey! What about Baby?”
Everyone else swims into the gate except Meeho. He decides to risk staying in the water when our little electrical friend has to dive into the water to get to the gate.
Baby shocks Meeho, and stunned, he begins to sink beneath the surface. He reaches out and manages to snag an edge of the undulating cloud that marks the gate. Then he pulls himself up and in.
Gate transit like in stargate. Comet bodies diminishing, then arrival.
Exit the gate in bottom of trash heap. It is dark except for light from gate. Baby shows up to provide indirect illumination around corners. Wil puts on Light Intensifier goggles.
Becky: “Don’t look at the light.”
Neal: “I looked at the light, Ray!”
Jay spots passage upward. Starts climbing up. He can hear rocks moving outside entrance and can see rocks flinging away seemingly on their own. He pops up and sees a dark figure standing next to the exit. He dives out of the hole and diving blows his quarry!
Wil comes up next. He sees Jay struggling with a short rock formation.
Maggie comes up next and points out the UFO hovering over their heads. It starts moving away from them so they can see the two Jes’Da aliens sitting on top. Maggie grabs her gun and charges them, firing wildly. Suddenly she grabs her head, screams and collapses. Claw-like arms appear to come out of the bottom of the floater as it starts descending toward her unconsious form. Jay pulls out his shotgun and sprints toward the floater.
Neal: “I aim Excalibur at the floater.”
Becky: “I aim the death-ray at the floater.”
GM: “Ben just ran into your lines of fire. Becky, the death-ray is still on wide beam.”
Becky: “Okay, I take this turn readjusting the beam to a mid-range.”
Neal: “Okay I wait until he’s out of it, and then I fire. (misses).
Suddenly, Jay stiffens slightly and then turns back toward the party. He is sprinting back toward Wil!
WIL: “What the Hell?”
Ben: “Yeah…what the hell?”
GM: “Ben, you suddenly feel an intense need to kill Neal.”
Ben: “Okay…I’ll diving blow him.”
GM: “No Jay. You feel the need to KILL him. You must role-play this as if you mean it.”
Ben: “Okay, I aim the shotgun at him.”
Neal: “What!?”
Ben: “I fire.”
The shotgun goes off, sending a deadly spray of buckshot at Wil. Wil’s body armor absorbs most of the damage, but the force of the impact throws his aim off. Jay closes the distance to point blank range.
The floater has descended and scooped up Maggie. Thann sprints forward and leaps upward, trying to grab hold of Maggie. He misses.
Wil pumps two HE bullets into Jay. One in the abdomen, and one to the head. This time, Jay’s body armor protects him admirably. The concussion from the blast does damage to nearly everyone in the group (except Thann).
Becky: “I fire the death-ray at the floater!”
GM: “You’d better aim high. On mid-range you’ll risk hitting Maggie.”
The shot just barely misses the floater, then glances off the force-dome and explodes on the far horizon.
Becky: “Damn! I’ve only got one shot left!”
The floater angles away toward the pyramid.
Suddenly Jay feels more like himself. He is standing with his shotgun aimed at Wil’s face. Wil has Excalibur pointed at Jay’s.
GM: “Ben, you come to your senses just as you are about to blow Neal’s head off with the shotgun. The only problem is…how are you going to inform him that you no longer need to kill him?”
Ben: “Well, I could just try to knock him out…but if I miss…”
Neal: “Then I’ll shoot you.”
Ben: “Or, I could shoot him anyway, out of self-defense.”
Neal: “But if you miss, I’ll shoot you.”
Ben: “Okay…I just go limp and collapse.”
Neal: “Oh. He collapsed? Good. I shoot him.”
John: “Like hell you do.”
Thann pulls his own gun out and points it at Wil.
THANN: “He’s down, Wil. Let him be.”
Enise comes forward to examine Jay. Jay…fully aware, lies on the ground with his eyes closed. Murmuring little things like:
JAY: “Protected by Viper. Please step away from the cyborg. Alien possession aborted! Alien remote-control now out of range. Control of systems regained!”
The players decide to jury-rig the inertial locator to act as a generalized frequency jammer. The hope is that this will protect Jay from the alien remote-control device.
Act 2 – The Hunter ( “Love me! Love me!” )
Walk toward pyramid. They pass several habitation domes that appear to contain more Jes’Da. They ellect to ignore these, and move on toward the pyramid. As they approach, they see a dark shadowy figure standing at the base of the pyramid. Even from this distance, they can make out the gleam of his gold ring.
SARALYNN: “Crowley?”
Indeed, the shadow man has returned. Leaning casually against the lower tier of the pyramid is Crowley…looking exactly as the party first saw him in the Donner proto-dimension.
CROWLEY: “It’s about time you got here. I’ve been expecting you.”
SARALYNN: “How did you get here.”
CROWLEY: “Dimension Walk.”
SARALYNN: “Oh…”
THANN: “What are you doing here?”
CROWLEY: “I’m here to help. We haven’t got much time…”
SARALYNN: “If you are the real Crowley, how come you look like your shadow form?”
CROWLEY: “I always look like this when I dimension walk.”
Crowley reaches against the side of the pyramid and presses a hidden switch. A dark tunnel opens into the interior of the pyramid.
CROWLEY: “I know the way to go. Just follow me.”
Wil looks down at his Crowley’s feet. Although all the other player character’s shadows extend across the Io surface, Crowley throws no shadow! Wil walks slowly toward Crowley and reaches out to touch the shadow man.
WIL: “How come you don’t have a shadow?”
Crowley’s shadowy form turns toward Wil and reaches out resting his hand lightly on Wil’s shoulder.
CROWLEY: “You shouldn’t doubt me, Wil. Now I’m just going to have to show you…”
Crowley’s grip tightens on Wil’s shoulder to the point that Wil cries out in pain. The black shadow form stretches and morphs, bursting into the multi-hued tones of the Crowley-thing’s true form. As the dimensional hunter stands, it carries Wil into the air. The true form of the dimensional hunter is terrifying to behold. It stands ten meters tall. It has Wil gripped in enourmous claws, and gives a hearty, raspy laugh as it dangles him over its gaping, drooling jaws.
Neal: “I project emotion! Love me! Love me!”
The creature, feels absolutely no love for Wil.
The fight ensues.
Jay point blank, shotguns its legs.
Wil dimension walks to Prometheus.
Thann shoots the creature.
Ecco and Meeho run into the opened tunnel.
Jay shoots again.
The remnants of Wil’s portal still cling to the hunter’s hand, which it shakes violently.
Baby enters the fray, flitting around the creature’s head. The players notice that not only is Baby dive-bombing, but also seems to be flying up underneath the carapace of the the creature’s skull plate…flipping in and out of the creature’s skull!
Enise takes aim at the creatures head.
The Death-Ray’s final blast causes its head to erupt in flame. It shrieks and begins to fall backward. Baby drops out from under the relative protection of the skull-plate, sparking erratically. The behemoth’s cry is suddenly cut off as it seems to fall right through the surface of the pyramid, and into another dimension.
SaraLynn takes Enise and Baby to Prometheus. They wait to heal and then return. So does Wil. Wil reappears in mid-air, right where he was when the creature held him aloft. He falls, taking minor damage.
They enter the secret entrance and follow it to dead-end.
Act 3 – Hellsgate ( “Look whos coming to dinner.” )
They enter the top of the pyramid.
Room with Cube.
They go down spiral ramp.
Room with Cold-Sleep Berths
They look through side door
Room with explosion Plume frozen by stasis.
They go down stairs to core-tap room.
Circle stair down to horizontal shaft.
Fusion drill
Hellsgate is seething greenish hue.
Maggie-thing makes appearance.
Shut down the drill
Hellsgate turns deep purple hue.
Glowing eyes at approach of Great Dark One
Maggie-thing is killed
The whole empath debate.
Jay runs upstairs to see if the black cube does anything.
SaraLynn, Wil and Ecco combine powers to close the portal.
Maggie-thing is dragged back through portal.
Hellsgate closes.
Forgive the brevity of this section, but this is verbatim, what is supposed to happen in Hellsgate, and I don’t really feel like typing it all out…
Act 4 – Endgame ( “You what!?” )
Jay is examining the black cube, when he suddenly hears a familiar voice from behind him, which causes him to whirl around in shock.
GAILBREATH: “What the hell is going on here?”
JAY: “I thought you’d show up eventually.”
GAILBREATH: “Where is Maggie? Why haven’t you people been answering our calls?”
JAY: “We’ve been busy. How did you get here?”
GAILBREATH: “When Maggie stopped responding, we flew down here. As soon as we regained control over the satellite we moved in and found the gate in the well. We came through and followed the trail.”
JAY: “We?”
Doctor Gailbreath motions for Jay to look outside the pyramid. There are a number of military personel standing guard outside. A few others appear to be searching the Jes’Da encampment. Occasionally, a burst of gunfire can be heard from outside.
GAILBREATH: “Which brings me to my next question: Where the hell are we!?”
JAY: “Allow me to show you…”
Jay’s mechanical hand lashes out, catching Doctor Gailbreath by the throat. Suddenly the doctor is gasping for breath as Jay begins to squeeze his windpipe.
GAILBREATH: *Gasp* “Wh-at are you…” *Gasp* “…do-ing ?!”
Jay carries Doctor Gailbreath down the ramp, then down the stairs, and finally down the circular staircase to the gate room. Everyone else is still standing there, looking at the wall where the gate had been.
JAY: “Look what I found.”
Raymond steps out of the shadows and sniffs at Gailbreath.
RAYMOND: “This not Him. This the other one.”
ENISE: “Raymond! Where have you been hiding?”
RAYMOND: (pointing to Jay) “When he start attacking party again, I just go hide under rock. He too unstable.”
All this time, nobody is paying much attention to Baby, who is flitting idly around the room. Suddenly, Baby dive-bombs Doctor Gailbreath, clinging first to his chest, and then circling around his neck. Baby circles around and around, higher and higher until he reaches the doctor’s left ear. Suddenly, the little ball of static disappears into Doctor Gailbreath’s ear canal. The doctor’s response is instantaneous – he screams.
Suddenly light bursts out through every opening in the doctor’s head. Beams of light shine from his eyes, ears, nose and gaping mouth. Next, little spark trails begin to play around the doctor’s head, making what little hair he still has, stand on end. Sparks fly from his fingertips, and engulf his entire body. At this point, Jay starts taking electrocution damage as well.
The screams continue, but begin to change pitch, sounding more like feedback from a concert speaker. Then Doctor Sebastian Gailbreath’s entire body is consumed by the electricity, leaving a man-shaped body of electrical energy.
Jay finally gets tired of taking damage by holding onto Baby/Gailbreath, and throws the body over by the wall where Hellsgate once stood. Wil grabs the big gun, and points it at the writhing form on the floor.
JAY: “Wil! Shoot it!”
SEBASTIAN: “I think that would be an extraordinarily bad idea.”
To everyone’s surprise, Sebastian…the real Sebastian Gailbreath, who has tormented them so mercilessly, has made his appearance. Wil is shocked enough to hold off firing the gun…for the moment.
SEBASTIAN: “You’ve all done exceptionally well. You have lived up to all my expectations.”
ENISE: “Why shouldn’t we kill him? Who is he?”
SEBASTIAN: “Well. He is…me. You have just witnessed…my birth.”
Sebastian closes his eyes and a shadowy black cube appears in the room.
SEBASTIAN: “This portal is your way home. If you kill my younger self, then I won’t be here now…in his future to open this gate for you. You would have…a paradox on your hands. And you would be trapped in this dismal time period.”
THANN: “You told us we were destined to fight you in the final battle.”
SEBASTIAN: “Yes. A bit of a mis-direction on my part, I’m afraid. I must confess that I am guilty of manipulating you.”
THANN: “Manipulating us!?”
SEBASTIAN: “I’ve always known you were present when I finally came to awareness. I simply did what was necessary to ensure that outcome.”
WIL: “Assuming that’s true. Where does the portal go?”
SEBASTIAN: “It returns you to the Volaris base. There, you will find the gate mechanism which first snatched you from your own world.”
Thann eyes the portal with a wary eye. Wil, Meeho, Baboon and Enise all look at the gate with a sense of hope. Even Jay seems to see some sort of closure possible from that shadowy cube. SaraLynn and Ecco on the other hand, do not.
SARALYNN: “I can’t go with you.”
ECCO: “Yeah. Me either. I have no place in your world.”
Thann looks nervously between SaraLynn, Sebastian and the others.
THANN: “I’m not going back.”
ENISE: “What!?”
THANN: “Sebastian…this isn’t our past…is it? This is some alternate universe thing…”
SEBASTIAN: (frowning) “I believe this is an alternate reality from the one which spawned your own future.”
THANN: “So whatever happens here, has no bearing on the world we came from.”
SEBASTIAN: “That is difficult to say. You never know what effect it will have on your own world’s future.”
THANN: “I’ve found a purpose here. I thought that purpose was to stop you. But there are other challenges. Other evils.”
WIL: “Thann, you’ve been the one driving us to get home. This is our chance!”
THANN: “You can still go. I don’t think I ever really believed I’d be returning.”
Sebastian nods his head and turns to Jay.
SEBASTIAN: “And what of you, Jay? Will you go, or will you stay?”
Ben: “I can’t believe you guys are just standing here talking to him! I don’t care how much damage I take…”
Jay, who is still standing over the inert form of Baby Sebastian leans over and lifts the energy body into his arms. The pulsating static-form of Baby Sebastian sends jolts of static energy through Jay’s mesh armor. He takes one hesitant step forward, and then leaps through the portal with Baby Sebastian in his arms.
In the moments following Jay’s sudden departure, you could have cut the tension in the room with a knife. Everyone apparently expected some sort of negative response. Oddly enough, Sebastian’s face and voice betray only mild amusement.
SEBASTIAN: “Your gateway home…awaits. I should think you would be anxious to go…before your chances slip away.”
Wil stares for a long time at Thann.
WIL: “I am definitely not staying here! Consider the possibilities for me now. With the powers I possess!”
He steps into the gate and vanishes.
ENISE: “I’ve got to go back. I need to get back to medical technology I can actually use!”
She follows Wil.
MEEHO: “Frankly, I can’t stand it around here.”
Meeho darts into the portal as if afraid it will disappear at any second.
BABOON: “And I’m sworn to protect the crew of the TJ. Even though that ship no longer exists, I should go just to keep an eye on them.”
Baboon is the last player through the gate, and it disappears almost immediately following his transit.
Sebastian smiles happily, and turns toward Thann, SaraLynn and Ecco. He is greeted by the open barrel of Ecco’s Desert Eagle.
Kristen: “I’m not leaving here without doing some good!”
Ecco tightens her grip and then rapid-fires the pistol at the grinning figure of Sebastian Gailbreath.
GM: “Okay, roll to hit.”
Kristen: “3, 7, 2…they all hit.”
GM: “Hit location?”
Kristen: “Head, Chest, Left Arm.”
GM: “Damage?”
Kristen: “42 points.”
GM: “Good!”
Faster than Ecco can see, Raymond dives in the path of her bullets. Every one of her shots hits the little gargoyle, who, without a sound, slumps to the ground at his master’s feet. Sebastian looks down and shakes his head…a look of genuine sadness appearing on his face.
SEBASTIAN: “They always were loyal.”
One-by-one the traveler players arrive in a large stone chamber. The walls are lined with gargoyle guards, standing next to a low railing. The railing provides a small level of protection from the river which rushes beneath the floor of the throne room. The roar of the rushing water fills the chamber, reverberating off the walls and the high arched ceiling overhead. One end of the room has a large double door. A large obsidian throne rests at the other end. The gargoyles appear to make no move toward the party when they arrive. Jay, having already surveyed the situation walks toward the throne, bearing young Sebastian’s body with him. He places the still-inert form upon the throne and turns back toward the others.
One of the Gargoyles steps forward and hands Enise a scroll and a handful of small colored stones.
The scroll contains a pentagram figure in Red, Blue, Green, Black and White.
GARGOYLE: “Thihs iss thuh pattern for thuh ghate.”
The gargoyle gestures toward the double door and the party moves toward the throne room exit. At this point Jay picks Sebastian back up and moves to follow. Suddenly, all the gargoyles move to block Jay’s path. Wil notices the column of gargoyles close up behind him and turns to see Jay, holding Sebastian, and staring down the gargoyle commander.
WIL: “Jay?”
JAY: “Go on with the others. I don’t think I’m coming.”
An extreme feeling of foreboding washes over Wil. His first instinct is to draw Excalibur and help, but the look of determination on Jay’s face stops him. Wil takes one last look at the cyborg, and then turns to follow his companions.
The travelers walk through the darkened caverns of Volaris. Their entire path is lined on both sides by large gargoyles, all armed with polearms. The gargoyles are silent as the party passes. Eventually, they turn a vaguely familiar corner and enter a large chamber. In the center of the chamber, inlaid in black obsidian on the floor is the Volaris Gate. Each of the five obsidian spheres sit at five of the six points of the hexagonal gate. The sixth position, of course, is the control panel…a raised dais with five round indentations, arranged in a pentagram.
Jay stands, clutching Baby Sebastian to his chest. The gargoyles, still blocking his path, are beginning to murmur dangerously. Jay’s tracking system is working overtime, cataloging the locations of all the gargoyles in the room. He slowly begins to back up…only instead of moving directly toward the throne, he angles toward the side railing in the room.
One by one, Meeho places the stones onto the obsidian control panel, according to the pattern indicated on the scroll. Red, Blue, Green, White…
MEEHO: “Hey! There are only four stones here. We’re missing the black stone.”
ENISE: “Wait a minute…”
She reaches into her pocket and digs out a small black pebble, inlaid with gold circuitry patterns. She shrugs and approaches the panel.
ENISE: “It’s his mother.”
She places the small pebble in the last remaining slot, and a fifth, dark ball of light rises out of the gate. The balls begin to rotate around the track on the floor.
MEEHO: “Everybody get in the center!”
Enise, Baboon and Wil join Meeho in the center of the ring. Each member of the original party has a look of quiet exhaustion hanging over them. A look of resignation…but with just the slightest hint of hope for the future. The balls of light are spinning faster, becoming a blur of motion.
ENISE: “Where is Jay? He said he was coming with!”
Wil puts his hand on the doctor’s shoulder.
WIL: “He told me not to wait…I don’t think he’s coming.”
The sound of the swirling orbs rises to a keening wail and the floor of the circle becomes a sheet of static, swirling inward toward the center. A moment later, the four travelers drop into ground, and are gone…
Jay shuts down the heads-up display as the last of his companions disappear through the threshold to the throne-room. He takes Sebastian’s limp form and holds him over the retaining fence, letting Sebastian’s feet drag in the river below. Arcs of energy seem to dance off the surface of the water. Several of the honor-guard gargoyles move closer to him.
JAY: “One step closer and I drop him!”
The gargoyles shift their feet nervously, fingering their weapons.
In Jay’s head he calls up a display he has never before, attempted to access:
Payload Access: Begin
Johsua System: Activation Sequence ...
Warhead System: Enabled
Trigger Mechanism: Set to automatic Ben: “I lift Baby Sebastian back over the rail and hug him to my chest.”
GM: “OK…”
Joshua: "Greetings Jay. Are we ready to begin?"
Jay: "Yes, Joshua."
Joshua: "Trigger system enabled. Awaiting final command..."Sebastian reaches out with ethereal hands and places them around the cyborg’s throat. Arc after arc of electrical energy pulses through Jay Novachek’s on-board computers. His mechanical hand twitches spasmodically, but his human hand grips even tighter. He looks into the glowing eyes of Sebastian Gailbreath and smiles – the gray armor mesh darkening his features.
Ben: “I detonate.”
GM: “I know.”
Becky: “Detonate!…You what?”
Sebastian beats his fist against Jay’s armored chest-plate. The gargoyles rush forward, weapons raised.
JAY: “Let there be light . . .”
The End
This adventure originally took place on January 7, 1995.