Act 1 – The Drifter ( “He was dragged underground by a testicle!” )
Our story opens with our intrepid group of adventurers leaving the University of Louisiana at New Orleans campus. They were quite disappointed by the lab results from the tests on Wil’s ooze. It was sap. Oh sure, it’s unusual sap, but not the kind of stuff that will jump up and drag you down the sewers or anything like that! Somewhat dejected by their failure to discover anything useful, they head back to Lou’s. The streets of New Orleans are very crowded today. The fact that the weather is slightly overcast means that most people are out running errands (when it is very sunny, most people tend to stay inside ). Nearly everyone they see appears to be going somewhere, or at least, they all appear to have a destination in mind. There are a few people outside who don’t seem quite as directed. Their clothes are more on the torn side. Their hands aren’t quite clean. Their dirty faces have a defeated look to them. They are the homeless population of New Orleans, and they are out in unusually large numbers. Even in Lou’s immediate neighborhood, the homeless can be seen sitting against the sides of buildings, or sitting on one of the few public benches, with little piles of belongings at their sides.
GM: There are a lot of homeless people out there.
Mike: So?
GM: Yup, there sure are a lot of them. I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t know something about the disappearances.
John: That was real subtle.
GM: I tried subtle…I got “So?”.
The party members decide that the homeless people in the neighborhood might know something about the disappearances.
The local homeless shelter is located a few blocks away from Lou’s. They arrive there, and essentially, stand around, waiting for someone to recognize them as the saviors of the planet.
Players: We’re here!
The representatives of the local indigent population fail to sense anything special about the group. In fact, most of them appear to be keeping completely to themselves. The shelter is essentially a very large one-story office building that was never finished out inside. Hence there are no interior walls…just row upon row of regularly spaced support pillars. At the north end of the shelter is a row of long tables. Next to that is the stainless steel counter that separates the “kitchen” from the dining area. At the south and west ends of the building, are rows of folding cots. Some of the residents can be seen in the beds. A few are sitting at the tables, despite the fact that the kitchen is currently closed. The rest are scattered around the room, sitting on the floor leaning against the walls or support pillars. It doesn’t take Enise very long to realize that many of these people are sick. The people in the beds can be heard wheezing as they try to breath. A few appear to have nasty rashes with open sores. The party members then decide to try talking to someone. Most people they talk to, know that disappearances among the homeless have been occurring for a few weeks now. Nobody even considered this a problem until some of the mikes (a term for the middle class) started to disappear. Everyone they talk to has a story to tell. One person mentions seeing something that looked like a huge sponge with tentacles come out of the sewers and grab someone. When asked why so many of the residents are sick, the common response is “it’s the water.” Enise confirms that these symptoms could be the result of a tainted water supply.
The woman sits alone against the wall. She and her friend, Byron had hitched a ride into New Orleans last Monday and selected this shelter as their camp for the week they intended to be here. Now Byron was gone…dragged into the sewers by long black tentacles. She sits, holding her knapsack in front of her like a shield. Suddenly the cross-country trek she and Byron had been sharing doesn’t seem like fun anymore. Suddenly the world seems like too evil a place to be traveling alone. She sits and listens to the strangers. Their accents seem strange…even to her, a foreigner in this land. They are asking some of the locals about people disappearing. She thinks of Byron’s face, illuminated by the glow of the orange sodium-vapor street lamp. She thinks of the fear in his eyes…of the tentacle wrapped around his face, blocking his mouth so he couldn’t even cry out. She remembers emptying her pistol, trying to shoot him free, and then fleeing when the probing tentacles came toward her. She looks down at the Polaroid snapshot of the two of them at Graceland. The tears begin again, falling onto Byron’s face, causing the surface of the photo to bubble up. She hears a throat clear and looks up into the face of one of the strangers. He is looking at her as if he can feel her sorrow. He offers her his hand.
Wil stands there, looking at the crying woman, and offers his hand to help her up.
Neal: “I project the emotion of love.”
Ecco calms down after a few moments and relates her story. At the moment, she seems to be driven by a need to learn what happened to her companion. She wants to know if he is dead, and if so, to make the responsible party pay. To that end, she agrees to join the group for the time being.
A short time later, the group is back at Lou’s with Ecco. They are beginning to plan an expedition into the sewers under Lou’s neighborhood. Based on the evidence of the ooze, they have determined that there is some sort of swamp creature in the sewers.
ECCO: “When should we go?”
SARALYNN: “I don’t want to go into the sewers at night.”
THANN: “It doesn’t matter when we go…plants don’t sleep.”
JAY: “We need some equipment.”
ECCO: “I know someone who owns a army surplus store in New Orleans…maybe we could call him.”
A quick check, and they find Reginald Mayfair listed in the phone book. They call the number and get an answering machine.
Hi, it’s Buck. I’m not here right now, but I may be at the store. Try me there, or leave a message at the beep.
Not knowing what else to do, Ecco leaves a message asking for Reginald to get back to her and gives Lou’s phone number.
THANN: “Ecco, just how do you know this guy?”
ECCO: “I met him when I was in the navy.”
THANN: “You were in the navy?! Is there a starport around here? Can you help us get passage out of here?”
ECCO: “I’m not sure I understand you. We were only hitching a ride on the ship that brought us here.”
THANN: “What about Reginald? Can he get us passage off-world. High passage would be great, but we’ll take cold-sleep if we have to.”
A few hours later, the phone rings. Reginald “Buck” Mayfair is very happy to hear from his old friend again, and tells her to come by his store tomorrow morning.
Act 2 – Equipping we will go. ( “How much is that chainsaw in the window?”)
The store that “Buck” Mayfair owns is an army-navy surplus store located in a nearby neighborhood. He seems happy enough to see Ecco, and even appears to welcome the other party members. His joy at having visitors is increased when they start running around the store like kids in a candy shop. If there’s one thing Buck likes better than company, it’s customers.
THANN: “We’ll need eight cold light lanterns…”
WIL: “…And rope.”
ENISE: “…And some medical supplies.”
Paula: “Wait a second. Who’s paying for all this stuff.”
John: “You are.”
Paula: “I don’t think so.”
John: “Who’s paying for your dinner?”
Paula: “Jay’s got money too!”
Ben: “Hey, I need it.”
Paula: “This isn’t fair!”
John: “I’m paying for your dinner. You buy our stuff.” (And the date continues…)
Neal: “Who paid for the house you’re playing in?”
GM: “Neal, stay out of this.”
Jay is standing at the weapons case, looking at guns, when Buck steps quietly up to him.
BUCK: “Well, now. You’re a piece of work.”
JAY: “Huh?”
BUCK: “I’ve seen your kind before. It’s hard to miss the kevlar.”
JAY (shocked): “You know something about…me?”
BUCK: “Oh I know a lot of things. I’m a business man, after all. I deal in other things besides military surplus.”
Ben looks down at his hand, and partially removes it from its socket.
JAY: “What do you know about this?”
BUCK: “Hmmm…standard replacement model. No enhancements…right?”
Ben just nods dumbly. What is this guy trying to say? “Enhancements?”
Buck Mayfair puts his hand on Ben’s right arm. “I think I have something that would interest you.”
Ben follows Buck into the back room of the store. The shop owner slides a rusted grate aside, revealing a dimly lit elevator. They descend into the basement, and walk down a narrow and dusty corridor toward a large vault door. Buck deftly enters the combination and pulls the vault door aside. He gestures for Ben to enter the chamber, and after stepping inside himself, shuts and relocks the door.
BUCK: “Can’t take any chances…”
There is a row of boxes on one wall of the chamber. Buck opens one of the boxes and removes a long case. This, he presents to Ben and slowly lifts the lid. Inside, resting on a bed of black cloth, is a chrome chainsaw with a 30cm blade. Instead of the traditional hand grip and trigger however, this particular saw sports a socket, identical to the one on Ben’s wrist!
Ben: “Thank you, God!”
BUCK: “I got this from a friend of mine. The former owner stepped on an anti-personnel mine. This is pretty much all that’s left of him.”
JAY: “How much do you want for it?”
BUCK: “Well now…the problem is, these here hands are hard to come by. This makes them fairly valuable.”
JAY: “Oh come on!”
BUCK: “Seeing as you’re a friend of Ecco, I might be able to loan it to you for a while…but you’ll have to leave…a deposit.”
JAY: “What kind of deposit?”
BUCK: “That other hand of yours. I figure you can’t exactly walk the streets with a chainsaw hangin’ off your arm, so I’m pretty confident you’ll come back to pay for it.”
JAY: “How much?”
BUCK: “Well, like I said, it’s hard to put a price on this item. But we might be able to work out a deal…”
Act 3 – Tunnels of Terror ( “Hey body, can you spare a dime?” )
The party gathers at the sewer cap around the corner from Lou’s.
THANN: “This is as good a place as any to start.”
Wil and Meeho pry the sewer cap out of the street, and step back as a horrible stench belches up from the ground.
MEEHO: “Oh god…that stinks!”
THANN: “I think we need some breathing gear.”
SARALYNN: “I’m NOT paying for that too!”
MEEHO: “Lighten up! This is you’re friend we’re looking for.”
A few hours and a couple of gas-masks later, they return. Once in the sewer, the source of Wil’s ooze sample immediately becomes apparent. The walls, floor, and ceiling of the tunnels are completely lined with a thick vine-like growth. The dark vine strands are thick and strong and have somehow managed to snare several rats. Each vine has several openings that resemble pores. These pores ooze a clear, pus-like liquid that sticks to whatever it touches. The ooze is dripping from the vines overhead, and causes a faint burning sensation on the skin. It then gels into a sticky film which apart from being annoying, appears to cause no other ill effect.
As they travel through the tunnels, Wil takes the lead. He walks around a corner and comes face-to tentacle with a blue glowing thing on the ceiling. Before Wil can even react, it whips out a tentacle and attaches it to his face.
WIL: “Waah!”
Combat is brief. It only takes a moment to slice the tentacles off the thing and pull it free from Wil. In any case, the thing is way too small to be responsible for the disappearances. Plus-which, the thing was completely immobile, being rooted in place.
The group continues on, now aware of the clinging suckers and avoiding them easily. Eventually they come to a spot of collapsed brick and mortar. The wall has been knocked down in this area, revealing a large drainage chamber. When the party looks down through the grate, they see several dead bodies hanging in the wash of another tunnel which passes beneath them.
SARALYNN: “Gross!”
The party cannot move the grate, so decide to continue on. As the party continues through the sewers, they see their environment undergo subtle changes. First, the vine coverage appears to thin out, and the vines themselves begin to get thinner and thinner as well. The vine’s ooze isn’t as prevalent and eventually disappears altogether. The temperature also, begins to drop steadily.
At one point, they discover a pile of personal affects of perhaps a hundred homeless people. None of the articles are useful.
Nearby, they discover a two-meter high pile of corpses. The bodies were all (apparently) homeless people. Their skin is covered with blotches and large (5cm diameter) boils. The markings are similar (though more advanced) to those seen on the sick people at the homeless shelter. Some of the bodies have been chewed on by rats, and there are a number of dead rats in the immediate vicinity. Enise uses her new medical equipment to attempt to find a cause of death. She determines that most appear to have died of poisoning by large amounts of pesticide.
The three strongest empaths in the party, Wil, Ecco and SaraLynn are all experiencing strong feelings of panic. There is something evil in these tunnels. The further they go, the worse the sensation gets, and it is all they can do to keep from freaking out. Wil decides to try to find an exit. At the end of a side tunnel, he climbs a ladder and tries with all his might to push the manhole cover up.
WIL: “UHNGH!”
GM: “Make a difficult strength-roll.”
Neal: “19”
GM: “Oooh…not good. Make a saving throw.”
Neal: “20”
GM: “Wil-man the hernia-miester!”
Paula: “That would not have happened.”
GM: “Hey! I don’t roll the dice…I just interpret, em.”
Becky (alla Hans unt Frans): “What a girlie-man. Can’t even lift a manhole cover.”
The party continues on. As they do so, the temperature drops even more. It is now quite chilly in the sewers.
MEEHO: “You call this cold? I can’t even see my breath!”
THANN: “This is nothing. We’ve been a lot colder than this!”
Since Wil is now herniated as well as sporting a few sucker marks on his forehead, Ben has been leading the way. He walks around a corner and barely has time to spot the long black snakes when his vision begins to fade out.
JAY: “Hey! I can’t see!”
His targeting computer however, seems to have no trouble picking the moving snakes out of the blackness. Crosshairs are dancing wildly, all across his field of vision. Ben does what comes naturally to him, and charges blindly forward.
Meeho steps up next, only to discover that as he moves into range of the snakes, he too begins to lose his vision.
MEEHO: “What’s going on?”
Ben sees the crosshairs all jump wildly to the left. He turns his head to track them and runs smack into the wall.
JAY: “God, I wish I could see these walls!”
Suddenly the computer in his brain kicks into action and he sees a computer-generated outline of the hallway superimpose itself across the blackness. Jay discovers “Tactical Mode”. Now encouraged, Ben charges down the next corridor after the snakes.
As soon as the snakes retreat out of range, Meeho’s vision is suddenly restored. He and Thann turn the corner to follow Ben and stop short at the sight of the hallway he has run down. The walls of the sewer have changed abruptly. They are no longer composed of brick and mortar, but of a smooth, black material, that absorbs all radiant energy (thus accounting for the drop in temperature). They step tentatively onto the surface, and realize that they can feel it shift and throb slightly, as if it is a living thing.
THANN: “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
Ben isn’t concerned about the material make-up of the walls. He is only concerned about laying waste to the last remaining snake that flees before him. He fires his gun at the crosshair and is suddenly thrown to the floor as the wild shot strikes one of the walls.
JAY: “What the…?”
SaraLynn and Ecco walk around the corner and stare at the black tunnel. Now the oppressive feeling of fear that they have been individually battling ever since entering these damn sewers comes at them full force. The tunnel before them radiates evil. Without a second thought, the two of them turn tail and run back the way they came. Enise charges after them. SaraLynn seems to recover quickly on her own, but Ecco runs nearly all the way back to the body pile before Enise can stop her.
Eventually, they all manage to regroup. Despite the revulsion and horror they seem to pick up from the walls, they decide to press on into the black depths…
To be continued…
This adventure originally took place on February 20, 1994.