Copyright © 2015 Third Eye Games
All rights reserved under the Universal Copyright Convention. No part of this book may be reproduced in part or whole, in any form or by any means, without permission from the publisher, except for brief quotes for use in reviews or copies of the character sheet.
www.thirdeyegames.net
Published by Third Eye Games in Tampa, FL
ISBN: 978-0-9905318-6-9 (Softcover)
Written and Created by Eloy Lasanta, Chris
Kobbe, John D. Kennedy, and Bill Bodden
Additional Material: Jay Peters
Editing by Carol Darnell and Troy Latta
Layout and Typesetting by Eloy Lasanta
Art by Gennifer Bone, Tony Gregori,
Cassie Henry, Maxim Lardinois, Mauro
Peroni
Table of Contents
Five Days of Asphalt
A cross-coutry trip to deliver a young AMP to safety.
Team Player
Saving a soccer player from the grasp of the government.
Attack of the Buzz
Find out the truth about the cause of the bee attacks in Alice, texas
Evolution of Apex
Track down an AMP who has escaped a medical facility and could be contagious
The White Knight
Fight against zombies in this Mediumship-themed adventure
Scalpel’s Edge
On the hunt for a serial killer who removes organs without leaving a trace
Academic Conspiracy
Investigate a school where learning isn’t the only problem for an AMP student
4
21
31
43
61
75
91
Five Days of Asphalt
Adventure for AMP: Year One by Chris Kobbe
Summary
Fun and sun in the Caribbean! That’s what Dr. Mickey McGee and his wife Andrea thought when they took their son Toby on his first trip out of the country. Bikinis and booze for the adults and swimming and snorkeling for the kid. It was the coughing from the smoke that woke them up. The hotel was aflame, black plumes of smoke rolling up the sides from the fire below.
The fire, like a living thing, turned on the fam-ily before they could make it out of the building. Trapped with the fire closing in, it seemed like a miracle when Toby grew warm in his mother’s arms, then the flames leapt toward them only to disappear into their son. Toby passed out and they were in center of calm.
The US Consulate helped out by putting the family up in another hotel while their pass-ports were replaced and at first Toby seemed fine. However, during the first night at the new hotel Toby had night terrors and a lamp burst into flames. The next morning Toby was star-tled outside the hotel and a taxi cab’s tires melted to the ground. Every time Toby was stressed or startled, there was an incident. While waiting for their passports Dr. McGee reached out to his contacts to see if anyone knew someone who could help their son. Word came back; they were to call a number when they got back to the States and help would be waiting for them.
This adventure follows a group of AMPs sent to Miami to pick up the McGee family and move them cross-country to a safe house where Toby can get his abilities under control. Along the way they must rescue the family from the airport, defuse an encounter with a slightly deranged AMP, keep Toby from hitting the 5 o’clock news as a religious savior and sur-vive UHF ambushes. The adventure is suitable for three to five characters with optional NPCs available for use as player characters.
Introduction
To keep this adventure open to as many play-er groups as possible, sevplay-eral of the details of
the adventure are purposely left for the GM to determine. The adventure is structured as a road trip but no destination or route is specified. The characters’ affiliations/employers will determine the final destination, with Seekers of Enlighten-ment likely headed to their Oklahoma school and Changelings to Atlanta while other affilia-tions head where the GM wishes them to. While affiliation-based destinations are one possibility, if a GM needs the group to be in a particular lo-cation for their next adventure, the destination can be based near there to help bridge the gap between this adventure and the next.
Similarly, the Scenes of this adventure are like vignettes that happen along the stops in an Indiana Jones movie, not occurring on a set time table while the rest of the journey is just a line on a map. As written the adventure is designed to build with ever-increasing stakes as the char-acters race to get their charge to safety.
Dr. McGee has developed many contacts though his academic career, often in startling places, and it is through his connections that the characters have been notified they need to pick up the family at the Miami International Airport (MIA).
Whether the characters are an established group or just meeting for the first time, it should be relatively easy to bring them into the adventure. The rescue is essentially a job and characters can simply be drawn in because they are mercenaries looking for work that matches their loyalties or affiliations. Altruism, greed or fanaticism all make great role playing drives for the characters and change the es-sentials of the adventure very little.
V Unaffiliated: Characters with Love,
Com-munity, or Comrades may all end up at MIA either from a direct connection with the McGees or because one of these Loy-alties. A character primarily motivated by Self may be drawn in through a cash in-centive and essentially be a mercenary. It is always easy to motivate a Humanities character when it comes to a sick child, and a Justice character may simply want to do right for a family in need.
V Changelings: It’s not very common for
Saps to reach out to the Changelings for help with anything, let alone some-thing as important as saving their child. Too many Changelings have been cast out from their families and Conduit has asked the characters to bring all the Mc-Gees to Atlanta in the hopes that not only can they save the child, but win allies by keeping the family together.
V Seekers of Enlightenment: The characters have been asked by Dr. Luminous to pick up the McGee family from MIA as soon as they arrive and deliver their boy to the Oklahoma school where he can receive the training he needs for his out-of-control fire abilities. Safety and secrecy are imperative. V Typhoon: The characters have been given
the opportunity to bag an important AMP for the Matriarch. According to reports the young man they have been sent to collect has the potential to be a powerful weapon in the criminal underworld and it’s their job to make it happen. They are to pick up the McGee family at MIA and get them to a safe house across the country no matter what. If the parents become a problem, the charac-ters know what to do with witnesses. V United Human Front: The character’s
con-tact has told them an important and un-stable young AMP is coming in from out of the country and it is vital the UHF gets control of him. The characters have been tasked with picking up the McGee family and transporting them to a secure UHF base across the country where the AMP can either be studied for weaknesses or possibly subverted into acting against his fellow unhumans. It is unknown at this time where the parents’ loyalties lie and while the boy’s safe delivery is im-perative, the parents may be dealt with in any manner the team deems necessary. Note: The adult McGees do not fully real-ize they are AMPs yet, and this revelation could become an important factor during the adventure.
Playing the McGees
Both adult McGees are presented as NPCs, but are unknowingly AMPs themselves and de-signed as if they were beginning characters. As NPCs their primary focus throughout the ad-venture will be the safety of their child, leav-ing the job of transport and protection to the characters. If the group is short of characters, however, there is no reason the adult McGees could not be used as pregenerated characters and have a more active role in the adventure. Toby McGee, while also designed as a begin-ning character, serves as a key plot element at various points in the adventure and is not suit-able for player control.
Alternatively if the GM has a large group of players, running three additional NPCs throughout the adventure may be an added burden that can be lessened by removing one of the McGee parents. In this case, either Mc-Gee parent can easily have perished in the fire that triggered Toby’s abilities, his powers sav-ing himself and his remainsav-ing parent. Andrea McGee, as a SWAT officer, is a far more action oriented person than her professor husband Mickey and is the logical choice to sacrifice in a large group. The adventure focuses dialog on Dr. McGee to make Andrea’s removal from the adventure easier.
Scene One: Burned in
the Sunshine State
At the start of the adventure the characters find themselves patiently waiting in the Arriv-als parking lot for the McGees’ flight so they can pick them on and get them to safety. The characters have rented an RV for the trip and this is a good time for them to get to know each other and review what they know.
According to their contact, Dr. McGee - a noted Professor of Linguistic Anthropology - reached out for help after an incident with his son Toby. He, his wife Andrea and their son were trapped in a hotel fire while on vacation when the young boy suddenly manifested the ability to control fire. He saved their lives, but
Five Days of Asphalt
almost immediately afterward small fires be-gan showing up wherever Toby was. As the spontaneous fires increased, the McGees be-gan hoping the characters’ affiliation/employer can help their son get his newfound gifts un-der control. The group needs to transport the family cross-country to their final destination while keeping the parents calm and Toby from causing too much damage with his abilities.
Before they get a chance to begin any real planning or even speculation about the trip the GM should interrupt them with an announce-ment that the arrivals board has just popped up with an unusual notification: the McGees’ flight is coming in for an emergency landing.
If they tune the RV’s radio to the airport channel, the characters can find out the Mc-Gees’ flight has a fire on board and emergency vehicles are being dispatched to an isolated runway to meet the plane upon landing. They’ll quickly guess Toby wasn’t able to maintain control throughout the entire flight.
A Moderate (20) Travel + Knowledge check allows a character to predict where the plane is likely to land and they can move the RV or
themselves to a vantage point where they can watch the huge jet make a dramatic landing while smoke is pouring out of the aft section. If the characters fail the check they can arrive at the same vantage just after the plane lands by following the emergency vehicles racing to the site. It looks like a scene from a disaster movie; the characters see the plane doors pop open and huge inflatable slides deploy as cough-ing, soot-covered passengers franticly exit the plane. Bright orange flames begin to leap up from the rear of the plane just as the fire crews begin spraying it down with foam.
Over the next twenty minutes the charac-ters watch as the passengers are triaged, treat-ed and gathertreat-ed into shuttles. Soon the fire crews lose their battle against the fire and pull themselves back to a safe distance.
The Call
The characters are probably digesting the fact their charge just destroyed a multi-million dollar jet and deciding what to do next when the character with the strongest ties to their
affiliation/employer gets a call from a blocked number. Assuming they answer the call, they hear a man’s voice with a Floridian accent ask-ing if the character is the one sent to pick them up. The caller is Dr. McGee, and he can fill the characters in on their current situation and what is going on.
“Look, I haven’t got long, they don’t want us making calls until they get a handle on the situation and can orga-nize a presser. I can respect that, but I need to get my family out of here. We hit some bad turbulence on the way in that scared Toby. He set the back galley on fire. If we’re detained, Toby won’t be able to get the help he needs!”
The character is likely to have some ques-tions for Dr. McGee, but he shuts most of them down if they aren’t pertinent to extracting his family.
Was anyone hurt/killed?
“Thankfully no one is suffering from anything more than minor burns and smoke inhalation.”
How is your son now?
“He’s pretty traumatized, but each of these in-cidents seems to tire him out, so I don’t think we need to worry about any more fires at the mo-ment.”
Where are you being held?
“They have taken us all to a hangar they’ve set up as an emergency triage area. The more critical passengers are being taken out to a local hospi-tal. You can find us easy enough by following the ambulances.”
Dr. McGee gives the team his phone number and asks them to call him once they are at the hangar so he can get his family out. Any plan the characters come up with must address two ma-jor issues: bypassing airport security on the way in (and out) and extracting the McGees from the triage center without drawing attention.
At the moment, the easiest way to bypass
airport security is to be part of the emergency services response to the disaster. For exam-ple, a Mindbender with the Illusion (Imaginary Land) power could really shine by making the RV look like a fire truck and letting the entire group simply drive in and out of the airport. A Shifter with Invisibility (Where’s My Car?) can let the driver ghost in behind other vehicles before the gates close with a Moderate (20) Travel + Speed check, failure resulting in In-tegrity loss to the RV and confusion on the gate guard’s part. If the team decides not to take their RV, they could easily steal one of the incoming vehicles. Assume stealing an ambu-lance requires confronting and dealing with two Average People (AYO pg. 201) while they need to deal with six Firemen (use Police Of-ficer AYO pg. 201 with axes and no firearms) if they jack a fire truck. Mental powers can be used in various ways to bypass the guards. Bluffing past the guards without power use is difficult, requiring a Tough (30) check with appropriate skill combinations. Bypassing the security stations completely with flight, invisi-bility, jumping, teleportation, portals and other means is easy enough, but the numerous peo-ple about requires a Moderate (20) Stealth + Speed check to prevent alarms being triggered and confrontations with four Police Officers.
Once at the triage hangar, it is relatively easy for the characters to move about in the chaos without drawing attention to themselves, and following directions from Dr. McGee they find the family quickly. Andrea is a short, solidly built blonde woman in her 30s wearing a sundress. She gives the impression she has the entire area under surveillance. The characters have the distinct impression she noticed them long before they spotted her. Dr. McGee is a lean man in his 40s wearing comfortable looking khakis and neutral-toned clothing. Visible soot marks cover parts of his clothing and he has a ban-daged burn on his left arm. Between them is a small boy between the ages of nine and eleven wearing shorts and a colorful t-shirt. He clasps his knees to his chest and slowly rocks back and forth as his father tries to comfort him.
All noncritical passengers are being dealt with as a group to help manage the disaster’s
chaos, and the main obstacle in getting the McGees out of the hangar is splitting them from the crowd without drawing the wrong kind of attention. Stealth or mental powers can accomplish this as can a Moderate (20) Decep-tion + Medicine check to get them released into the group’s care for medical transport.
The GM should use the extraction from the airport as a dramatic and exciting introducto-ry sequence to the adventure. Avoid letting it get bogged down in a slug fest with security that derails the adventure. Players who insist on offering violence to airport security trigger warning bells in the McGees who then react with a heightened level of mistrust towards the characters.
Well He’s a Real Firecracker!
Once the characters have the family, they have a chance to learn a little about them and their basic biographies. The adult McGees have no idea they are themselves AMPs, using their abilities at an instinctual level, and do not men-tion they themselves have powers, nor do they trigger Law of Attraction checks for any other AMPs they encounter. Questions about Toby’s powers only reveal he can ignite spontaneous fires and he was able to absorb and extinguish part of the hotel fire in the Caribbean.
Toby has no real control over his abilities yet and must make Moderate (20) Discipline stress check when he encounters certain events or automatically use Burn on something or some-one nearby. Any time some-one of the characters is rendered unconscious or killed a stress check is triggered (he automatically fails this check if it involves his parents). Throughout the adven-ture additional stresses requiring checks are called out in each scene.
With Discipline 1, Toby is very likely to fail all stress checks unless the characters intervene. A Moderate (20) Medicine + Knowledge check lets a character determine certain drugs can provide a +5 bonus to Toby’s checks without knocking him out. If a character is a medical doctor, writ-ing a prescription and visitwrit-ing a pharmacy is a quick solution. A criminally oriented character can find a supplier with a Moderate (20) Intu-ition + Persuasion check and use Wealth (2) for the purchase. Toby is a skilled musician special-izing in the violin, and purchasing one so he can play calms him and provides a +3 bonus to his Discipline checks. A single Moderate (20) Empa-thy + Persuasion check can be made each day to provide a +2 bonus for that day (Boosts add an additional +1).
New Equipment
RV
Integrity: 40, Speed: Slow, Size: Big, Cost:
3-4
The characters are in possession of a fairly old, if reliable, RV of a legally indis-tinct make and model. The vehicle has sleeping space for six and any character with Wealth (1) can easily afford to park and hook up the vehicle to utilities at numerous spots across the US. Equipped with modern amenities, there is a TV (no cable connection), tables, chairs, show-er/toilet (tiny), and a small kitchenette with a fridge and small stove. There are driver, passenger, and side doors, as well as two roof hatches accessible from the living area. The driver of the vehicle suf-fers a -2 penalty to external Perception checks, which increases to a -5 penalty for all other characters. As a rental, the RV is well maintained but lacking in a lot of supplies the group may wish to purchase. Notable for this adventure, the RV does have a single medium fire extinguisher on board.
Fire Extinguishers
Cost: 1-3
Fire extinguishers can be purchased in small, medium, or large sizes and are capable of putting out fires of size 2, 4, and 6 before being exhausted. Most fire extinguishers are single use and do not retain any charge after use even if they are used to extinguish a fire smaller than their maximum size.
Scene Two:
Down the Rabbit Hole
Norman “Bugs” Applebaum is on the run hop from the law and is about to bound into the char-acters’ lives. It’s night and everything has been going fairly well. After a day of travel everyone has settled into a routine and so far there haven’t been any major flare ups from Toby. The group is getting close to where they are going to pull over for the night when something large and white flashes out in front of the RV.
The RV driver can make a Simple (10) Trav-el + Speed check to only sideswipe whatever just appeared in front them. Failure results in 2 damage to the vehicle while success reduces the damage to only 1. The collision triggers a stress check for Toby.
As the characters look out the window they see a cloud of paper money floating around and can see what looks like a giant white rabbit-man grabbing up big handfuls of the cash. Norman is one of those unfortunate AMPs who has been trapped in Chimera form, and is a disturbing mixture of rabbit and man. Covered in soft white fur, he has giant rabbit ears and the lower legs of a rabbit with gigantic white feet. As he leaps about, his muscles bulge in uncomfortable-look-ing ways, bustuncomfortable-look-ing the seams of his clothuncomfortable-look-ing and leaving him dressed in shredded rags.
If the characters exit the RV, they can hear the rabbit-man yelling, “No, No, No. You cannot ruin this for me! My money! I need it!” As soon as he sees the first AMP Norman loses to the Law of Attraction and attacks. Norman already activated Tougher just as he was hit by the RV, and starts battle with 4 Juice (+1 from being hit by a vehicle, +1 for entering battle and -1 for Tougher). He Sprint/Rushes the first AMP he sees, which takes the form of a flying kick from his giant rabbit feet to Knock Back his op-ponent. From there he uses Stomp to disrupt opponents and his maneuverability to avoid being ganged up on. Almost all of his attacks should be described as punishing kicks from his giant white feet. Throughout the combat Normal shouts things like, “Mine”,” I need it for the Cure!” and “Go Away!”
Hopefully the characters just subdue the crazed rabbit-man and try to get to the bottom of why he hopped in front their vehicle and what he’s doing with all the money.
Who are you?
“My name’s Norman, but people call me Bugs. But none of that matters now, I’m just a freak. This is the worst trick ever!”
What’s with all the money?
“Please, please don’t take it. I need it. They said I could buy a cure. Why did you have to hit me and ruin it! I don’t want to have to rob another bank!”
Who are they?
“I don’t know, just some people I found on the internet. They said I have “Mutant Potential” or something, but they knew how to shut it off. They’ve cured lots of others!”
How are you going to get the Cure?
“I have to drop the money off at a certain place and then they’ll leave the Cure for me at home. I don’t know who they are, I’ve never even meet them!”
At this point Toby’s parents want to know about this miraculous Cure, which characters with affiliations other than the Seekers of En-lightenment may not even be aware is possi-ble. Norman can give the family instructions on how to get in touch with his mysterious contacts. The current arrangement has the cure being delivered to him and he is adamant that if they want their own they need to make arrangements for themselves; he’s not going to tell them where his cure is being delivered.
The characters have been presented with an interesting question to be explored as this adventure continues, and in some ways comes to a head in Scene Five. Should some of them seek the cure? Are any of the characters like Norman with manifested abilities that sepa-rate them from society or like Toby and have out of control abilities that can harm others? It is certainly a question Toby’s parents will be wrestling with in the days to come.
Accidents Happen
As the characters are leaving the diner the GM can force any Psych with Visions to make a Simple (10) Visions + Intuition check. Success gives a sense of immediate danger, with each boost providing one of the following pieces of information:
V Chest pains and death
V A sense of speed and a sudden stop V A ball of fire and cloud of thick black
smoke
V An angel of fire
A successful use of Vision gives the char-acters two Rounds to act, while groups with-out have a single Round before the explosion. A Moderate (10) Perception check spots a car racing directly for the car-side gas pumps with any Boosts showing an elderly man dead or passed out at the wheel. There are 3 other vehicles between the characters and the ap-proaching car, two with people pumping gas and one with two children inside while their guardian is inside the convenience store. The GM should subtly encourage efforts towards rescuing the potential victims over stopping the oncoming vehicle. Many characters can-not reach the rushing vehicle or have powers unsuitable to stopping it, and for the sake of the adventure the explosion is fated to hap-pen. Characters with only a Round to act need to use multiple Actions with penalties on any checks to get in and out of the blast area.
Anyone in the blast area when the vehicle impacts the gas stand takes 10B Fire dam-age resisted with a Moderate (20) Fortitude + Speed check to get out of the way. The ci-vilians are ordinary people with Integrity 11, Fortitude 1, and Speed 2. The children in the vehicle have Integrity 8, Speed 2 and receive AR 3 from their vehicle.
The Birth of Nuriel
The Round after the explosion Toby instinc-tively activates his Fire Soul, bursting into a small fiery angel form with wings of fire. He soars into the blast and begins to absorb and
Scene Three: Praise
the Little Child, May
His Fire Light the Way
There are few things more mundane on a road trip than the ubiquitous stops for gas and supplies. At least they are ordinary until they become truly extraordinary. It’s Sunday and the RV is running low on gas. The characters are on the outskirts of a small town and spot a nice sized truck stop up ahead, right across the street from the huge Holy Light Church. The truck stop has all the typical features, separate areas for cars and big rigs to refuel, a diner, vid-eo game arcade, shower facilities and a con-venience store with snacks, auto supplies and more tacky knick-knacks than seems possible. It’s around noon and in addition to filling the gas tank it would be a convenient time to fill some bellies at the diner.
Having set the stage, characters should de-cide what actions they are going to take. The McGees want to grab a sit down meal as long as the characters don’t object. Characters can make a Simple (10) Medicine + Empathy check to confirm Toby seems pretty calm at the mo-ment if they are worried.
Characters who are concerned about who they might be eating with automatically notice normal families, truck drivers and church folk picking up a quick meal after leaving the mega-church across the street. Any character who wants to know about the church can make a Moderate (20) Knowledge + Community check to remem-ber the Holy Light Church is one of the dozens of broadcast churches with an overly made up pastor/wife team. The building across the street is not only their church but also their studio.
Assuming the characters all participate in lunch, they are served by a pleasant middle aged woman named Alice and have a serviceable meal. The characters can pick up supplies, take advan-tage of the shower facilities, and challenge each other to video games with opposed Technology + Intuition checks. The scene should be played as a pleasant slice of life interlude until they are all ready to hit the road again.
extinguish the fire. Each Round after the first the ongoing damage from the flames is re-duced by 2B until the fifth round when the fire is completely out and Toby settles to the ground. An AMP with powers similar to Toby’s, i.e. Fire (Extinguish) or Battery - Fire, can re-duce the fire by an addition 1B per Round.
Characters who are not participating in res-cue or healing efforts notice in Round 2 by-standers are recording the events with their camera phones and making phone calls. In Round 3 some of the onlookers can be seen falling to their knees, yelling out praise for the angel Nuriel. Simple (10) Perception checks allow the characters to overhear some of the calls are for 911 and at least one person is talking about getting a camera crew from the church across the street to the truck stop to film a miracle.
The characters have till Round 10 before a church crew makes it across the street with camera equipment and begins filming Toby and the aftermath of the explosion. Complicating
efforts to get out of the area is the fact that Toby has no idea how to change back and it’s at least five more minutes before he naturally shifts. Once Toby settles to the ground he can be talked to. Any AMP can talk Toby through the process of releasing his power with 4 success/ boosts on a Tough (30) Persuasion + Empathy check with each check taking 1 Round. Any char-acter who can change form with their powers or has an Elemental power adds a +5 bonus to the check and any character with Air Soul or Fire Soul adds a +10 bonus to the check. Bonuses are cumulative. Success turns Toby back into a very tired, very naked boy who is immediately scooped up into his parent’s arms.
Characters are being filmed by multiple camera phones throughout all of this and those not working with Toby or helping the wounded may wish to use their own abilities to confis-cate or destroy any video evidence. Once Toby is just a little boy again his newfound worship-pers become an impediment to getting back to the RV and out of the parking lot. It takes two
Rounds to make it to the RV though those who want to touch the “angel” unless the characters take some sort of deliberate action to clear the way, cutting it down to one Round.
If the church film crew makes it on site before the characters make their escape they want to film and interview Toby and while they do not stop the characters from leaving the longer the characters stay the more of a circus the encounter becomes. If the characters are still on site after 10 minutes, fire trucks and news crews begin to show up and the AMPs have the opportunity to take the adventure in a completely different direction.
Scene Four:
Treacherous Curves Ahead
The characters find themselves passing through a range of picturesque mountains. Beautiful but treacherous, the last few hours of constant switchbacks have worn on everyone’s nerves as the RV has frequently been forced to a crawl of only 15-20 MPH for most of the climb up the mountain (no driving checks necessary… so far). Everyone is looking forward to a stop at the mountaintop lookout before beginning the equally treacherous route down the other side.
However, the characters are in for a surprise. The UHF has found out about the truck stop incident and tracked the group down so as to end Toby’s threat to the human race. They definitely aren’t buying into the belief he is an angel of the lord.
As the RV reaches the turn for the lookout, the driver and anyone in the front seat notice three pickup trucks (use Truck AYO pg. 171) with armed men waiting for them. The driver can make a Tough (30) Travel + Speed check to swerve away from the lookout entrance and remain on the main road, denying a free Round of combat to six UHF gunmen as the RV drives by them to the lookout exit.
Each of the three UHF trucks has a driver who makes their Travel + Speed checks with a +5 bonus and two UHF gunmen in the back (use Criminal (Small Time) AYO pg. 201). The sides
of the truck provide 25% cover to the gunmen. The UHF teams attempt to either force the RV off the side of the mountain or disable it so they can kill the passengers. While the trucks are moving, the gunmen suffer a -3 penalty on their Marksmanship checks against any charac-ter they can see through windows in the RV, but the RV is so large even road movement doesn’t penalize attacks made directly against it.
See Collisions and Chases in AYO, pg. 170. Because of the constraints of the mountainous terrain, chase checks are used to determine the relative positions of the vehicles. The moun-tain roads limit the UHF trucks to the same slow speed as the RV unless the driver makes a Moderate (20) Travel + Speed check. A failed check results in a collision with the side of the mountain for 13B to the vehicle and gunmen and 6B to the driver. Ultimately the characters must eliminate the three UHF trucks. If they reach the valley below, the trucks’ faster speed almost guarantees they will be able to keep up with the RV until they have destroyed it.
There are a couple of unique maneuvers the UHF can attempt due to having three vehicles in the chase. If a driver scores two successes/ boosts more than the characters, they can pull in front of the RV and attack the characters in the cab without penalty. If the driver seeks cov-er during these attacks they suffcov-er a -3 penalty to their Travel + Speed checks. A truck in front of the RV can also attempt a Simple (10) Travel + Speed check to force a collision that damag-es and slows the RV, imposing a -5 penalty to its next Travel + Speed check.
Any time vehicles are next to each other a Moderate (20) Athletics + Might check can be made to leap from one vehicle to another. If a UHF gunman attempts this and succeeds, they spend a Round climbing to the top of the vehi-cle and then fire their SMG through one of the roof-hatches. Vehicles next to each other can also attempt a Moderate (20) Travel + Speed check for 2B damage to both vehicles and to force the struck vehicle to make a Moderate (20) Travel + Speed check to avoid a mountain side collision. A Tough (30) check can force a check to avoid going off a cliff.
Toby should experience stress checks the first time the RV is hit with weapons fire and the first time it is in any type of collision, as well as his normal stressors.
“Hey we’re part of the UHF –
Stop Shooting!”
It’s entirely possible at some point UHF characters realize they are being attacked by another UHF cell. They may even believe they can just get the other group to quit attacking and even sail through Scene Six with no trou-bles. Wrong. The UHF is a terrorist organiza-tion with a cell structure and no centralized command hierarchy. Even if the characters can communicate with the attackers, after the events at the truck stop in Scene Two their only goal is to terminate poor Toby. If the charac-ters let this happen they have failed the arm of the UHF that directs them. While they may not be marked for termination for letting Toby be killed by another cell, they will definitely suffer the consequences of failure.
Scene Five:
A Terrible Choice
The McGee’s have been plunged head first into the craziness an AMP’s life can be, and no sane parent would wish the last few days on their child. Depending on the characters’ actions and their employers’/affiliates’ moti-vations for bringing the family to them, it is entirely possible they make the choice to leave the group and go it alone. This scene is the group’s chance to sell the adult McGees on staying the course.
If the characters have done a particularly poor job of protecting Toby or have displayed behavior that would be repellant to most peo-ple, the McGees attempt to slip away from the group without them immediately noticing. Per-haps taking a vehicle while everyone is at a roadside pit stop or flagging down alternate transport in the middle of the night while the characters sleep. In this case, the players need to make Perception + Discipline checks vs the
Rest in Peace, Winny;
You Served Us Well
At some point it is probable the char-acters will need to replace the RV. At the end of Scene four it is almost a given that if the RV survives the trip down the mountain it will be a wreck from bullet holes and smashed-in windows. When this time comes, there are two likely scenarios, picking up a used vehicle or stealing one.
The first car lot the characters find is Mustang Sally’s Used Car Lot, where they are “Guaranteed a Rootin’ Tootin’ Deal!” When they arrive a large black woman in cowgirl apparel saunters out, takes one look at their busted up RV and starts laughing so hard the characters can barely make out her saying, ‘Well I ain’t taking that in trade! HA!” Character can lay out their needs to Mustang Sally, who leads them over to Lot 6 and shows them several options. Sally is a tough negotia-tor and it takes Wealth (3) to get cramped transport or Wealth (4) to get decent ve-hicles off the lot unless a Tough (30) Per-suasion + Travel check is used to lower her prices by one Wealth level.
Stealing a vehicle is relatively easy with a Moderate (20) Technology + Trav-el check needed to break in and hotwire a vehicle. Depending on where they choose to steal the vehicle from the characters may need to make Stealth checks or want to take countermeasures like changing out the license plates. Being involved in stealing vehicles re-quires a stress check for Toby.
Regardless of where and why they leave the RV, conscientious characters may remember the RV is a rental and can have a humorous call with the rent-al agency letting them know where they can pick up their wreck of a vehicle.
McGees’ Stealth + Deception. Complicating matters for the family is that slipping away triggers a stress check for Toby that likely re-veals their actions to otherwise oblivious char-acters. If the family does manage to slip away, the characters would need to track them down. For the sake of the adventure this should be run as a narrative interlude, and with the Mc-Gees found in short order.
If the characters have acted positively and honorably or once the McGees have been tracked down after fleeing they want to be sold on why they should trust that finishing the journey is the right thing for Toby.
“We’ve had buildings and vehicles destroyed, people shooting at us and try-ing to drop us off a mountain. Religious nutjobs think Toby is some sort of angel and you were attacked by a rabbit bank robber. Why would we ever want to sub-ject our child to this? We have a number to contact for a cure from the rabbit-man. Why shouldn’t we leave and find a
way to buy this cure. Do you really think teaching Toby to control his abilities will keep him safe from all this craziness?”
The character’s need to make a Tough (30) Persuasion + Empathy check to convince the McGees to continue on willingly. The player whose character is making the check should make their argument, with particularly good points adding a +1 bonus to the check (lim-it +5). Any character who wants to aid in the check can provide a teamwork bonus, with an additional +2 bonus for good roleplaying from the player. For each civilian harmed in scenes one and three the check suffers a -2 penalty and if Bugs was killed there is a -5 penalty. If scenes one and three were handled skillfully they add a +5 bonus each. If Norman was dealt with compassionately this also provides a +5 bonus to the check. Alternately, the decision the family comes to can be determined purely through the players’ roleplaying efforts.
If the characters fail to convince the Mc-Gees to continue, they attempt to leave, and the
characters need to make a choice on whether to let them leave or to confront them. A con-frontation automatically leads to a stress check for Toby and he uses his abilities to protect his parents. Once the adult MgGees are reduced to 25% Integrity or if Toby is seriously threatened, they surrender and agree to continue.
Certain employers/affiliates may not have any use for the adult MgGees and those charac-ters may decide eliminating them is easier than convincing them to continue. If Toby’s parents are slain any future failed stress checks always result in Toby targeting one of the characters, most likely the one who killed his parents.
Scene Six:
Final Conflagration
It is the final leg of the journey and the characters are just a few short hours away from their final destination, but this road trip has one last speed bump to be navigated. UHF thugs are easy to come by and can be pulled together at a moment’s notice; UHF AMPs, however, are far thinner on the ground and it’s taken time for a small team of them to gather and catch up to the characters.
Mongrel and 6l1+ch have combined their computer and real world tracking talents to find the characters and have picked a lonely stretch of road on which to ambush the group. In addition to Mongrel, 6l1+ch and Teflon, there is also one UHF thug per character.
6l1+ch begins the encounter by disabling each of the character’s vehicles with Overload. After which, she attempts to stay out of close combat range, using Overload first to disable any firearms the characters are using and then firing her pistol.
Mongrel maintains distance and attempts to kill any AMPs with his rifle, focusing first on ranged combatants or anyone who appears to be able to easily shrug off damage.
Teflon closes and engages any close com-bat opponents trusting to his Invulnerability and high Integrity to get him through almost anything.
While 6l1+tch and Mongrel want to kill the characters, Teflon does not, and attacks only to disable. Teflon visibly stops himself if con-fronted by Toby and finds he cannot attack him. Characters who witness this may think to at-tempt a Change Emotional State Action (AYO p.175) with a Persuasion + Empathy check to convince Teflon to leave the fight (he will not join them). The UHF thugs, Mongrel and 6l1+ch all fight to the bitter end.
Toby suffers a stress check as soon as com-bat begins and, as long as he and his parents are cooperating, focuses on and attacks UHF foes. If the McGees attempted to flee the char-acters in Scene Five but were violently pre-vented from leaving, any who survive attempt to flee in the confusion of combat.
Once the UHF ambush is dealt with, the characters can nurse their wounds for the next few hours as they travel the final few peaceful hours to their destination.
Conclusion
Successfully delivering Toby earns the char-acters well-deserved praise and immediate medical attention for any wounds they are suf-fering from. Toby and the McGees’ final fate is largely dependent on who they are delivered to. The Changelings teach Toby to control his abilities, although the McGees do not stay with them and eventually make it back to Florida. Dr. McGee becomes a valuable resource for the Changelings though, and uses his contacts to help them out in any way possible
The Seekers of Enlightenment eventually teach Toby to get his abilities under control and Toby soon convinces the school to sponsor a baseball team for all the kids with powers. Some truly spectacular free-for-all games are played with full power use on special nights. The McGees decide to stay in Oklahoma and rebuild their lives there.
Typhoon has no use for the adult McGees and they are quietly disposed of if they are not already dead. Toby is drugged and controlled until he’s eventually brainwashed into loyalty
to Typhoon. He then becomes a loyal young foot soldier in their criminal empire.
The UHF also has no need for the adult Mc-Gees and subjects the entire family to medical experimentation, attempting to better under-stand where AMP powers come from and how to better combat them. Ultimately their fate is uncertain. Perhaps they are rescued by a brave group of AMPs looking for an adventure.
Assuming the characters let Norman go with his bag of stolen cash, he delivers the money to the drop site but never receives a cure. Is there a mysterious group out there preying on vul-nerable AMPs, selling them snake oil dreams, or something even more sinister? The group has the means to contact these shysters and can easily be drawn into an adventure chasing down whomever is taking advantage of AMPs. As for Norman, maybe he’s still out there and could leap back into the characters’ lives at a moment’s notice.
If the characters failed to keep the evidence in check at the truck stop, videos of “Nuriel” go viral. Regardless, testimonials of churchgoers present at the event hit the web within days of the incident. The Holy Light Church official-ly changes its name to the Hoofficial-ly Fire Church and begins to preach that the angel Nuriel is walking the Earth, protecting the righteous and purging sinners with his divine fires. Be-fore long, dedicated cultists begin to actively search for young Toby and one of the first new religions of the AMP-era is born.
Experience
+1 Keep Toby from destroying the RV +1 Keep Toby from being filmed by the
Holy Light Church
+1 Subdue both Bugs and Teflon without killing them
+1 Escape the mountain ambush
+1 Convince the McGees to finish the trip
New Drawback
Instinctual (2-4): Some AMPs develop
powers they are not aware of or can only access on an instinctual level. They are not uncontrolled, but can only access re-flexively as a Reaction. For 4 BP it affects a Primary Power, for 3 BP a Secondary Pow-er and for 2 BP a TPow-ertiary PowPow-er. The core power and all augments are affected by the instinctual drawback. This drawback can be taken up to three times, each time applying to a different level of power.
New Battery Enhancement
V Drink Deep (E2): The AMP is far more efficient at absorbing their Energy Type and can create instant Juice up to (Battery) or 1 Juice for every 5 minutes of exposure to a strong source of their Energy Type.
New Mnemonic Augments
V Touch Linguistics (E1): By
touch-ing a target who possess a language the AMP does not, they can permanently absorb the language and cultural clues that go along with the language. In ad-dition to the language, the AMP adds (Mnemonics/2) to Deception checks to impersonate natives of the language’s associate culture.
Language Bomb (T2)
Check: Mnemonics + Discipline Range: Touch
Duration: (Mnemonics) Rounds Resistance: Mental Trauma
Effect: Must have Touch Linguistics. The AMP instantly and traumatically im-plants a language into a target inflicting a (Mnemonics/2) Pain penalty. Implanted languages remain for (Mnemonic) days before fading from the target’s memory.
Nuriel
Toby McGee is a relatively ordinary ten-year old with a passion for baseball and his violin studies. He doesn’t really understand why fires are suddenly starting around him and finds all of this really terrifying. Is he going to burn up? Is he going to hurt other people? His nightmares now are full of black smoke and orange flame. His parents think he is sick and are worried all the time now. He just wants to be normal.
Sap Name: Toby McGee Affiliation: Unaffiliated Strain: Elemental Integrity: 8, Juice: 2
Loyalties: Comrades 2, Love 2, Humanity
2, Self 4
Skills: Athletics 3, Beast Handling 3,
Crafts 1, Deception 2, Discipline 1, Em-pathy 3, Intuition 3, Perception 3, Perfor-mance 4 (Violin), Persuasion 3, Speed 4, Stealth 3, Technology 2
Primary Power: Fire 5
Augments: Extinguish (E0), Burn (T1),
Cau-terize (T1), Fire Soul (T1), Sense Fire (T1)
Secondary Power: Battery (Fire) 4 Augments: Drink Deep (E0), Beam (T1) Drawbacks: No Control (Fire–4), Kid (5) Other: Initiative +7, Movement 11,
Strength +3, Carry/Lift 20/40
Dr. McGee
Mickey McGee grew up fascinated by PBS specials about far-away places and exotic lands. While other kids read comics, he read National Geographic Magazine, a magazine that as an adult he would come to have an al-most complete collection of. In college he ea-gerly studied anthropology and became drawn to the linguistic sub-discipline when he found he had a rare knack for learning languages. He has traveled the world in his studies, con-sulted with the CIA on deciphering obscure middle-eastern dialects and coached CEOs on the cultural and linguistic intricacies of for-eign markets they wish to enter, developing a surprising network of contacts that few would
credit him with. All of which pales next to his concern for his son Toby and what he will do to keep him safe.
Sap Name: Dr. Mickey McGee Affiliation: Unaffiliated Strain: Elemental Integrity: 12, Juice: 3
Loyalties: Humanity 3, Love 2, Perfection
3, Truth 2
Skills: Athletics 2, Beast Handling 3,
Crafts 2, Empathy 3, Fortitude 3, Knowl-edge 6 (Anthropology), Marksmanship 1, Might 2, Medicine 1, Perception 5, Perfor-mance 2, Persuasion 3, Speed 2, Survival 4, Travel 3
Primary Power: Air 4
Augments: Rush of Wind (T1), Wind
De-fense (T1)
Secondary Power: Mnemonics 2
Augments: Touch Linguistics (E0),
Lan-guage Bomb (T2)
Gifts: Direction Sense (1), Library (2),
Wealth (2), Connections (4)
Drawbacks: Instinctual (Air – 4)
Other: Initiative +2, Movement 9, Strength
+4, Carry/Lift 100/200
Point
Andrea, Andy to her friends, grew up a tom-boy, always wrestling with her brother and going on the weekend hunting trips with her father and high school friends. She was good with her trusty rifle and won enough shooting competitions to pay for community college and eventually join the Miami Police Department. When the chance to join the Special Weapons and Tactical Team as one of its few female of-ficers came up five years ago, she immediately joined. Sure she was concerned about how it would impact her husband and child, but how often would a chance like this come up? Over the last few years she has proven to have un-canny abilities and when her sniper rifle skills are not needed, she is often designated point person whenever a structure is breached.
Sap Name: Officer Andrea McGee Affiliation: Unaffiliated
Strain: Blaster (Force) Integrity: 13, Juice: 3
Loyalties: Community 3, Comrades 2,
Jus-tice 3, Love 2
Skills: Athletics 4, Empathy 1, Fighting 3,
Fortitude 3, Intimidation 2, Intuition 2, Marksmanship 5 (Rifles), Might 3, Percep-tion 4, Speed 3, Survival 3, Travel 2
Primary Power: Battery 4
Augments: Barrier Defense (T1), Boost
Strength (T1)
Secondary Power: Awareness 3 Augments: Danger Sense (E0)
Gifts: Wealth (2), Accurate Eye (3), Law
Enforcement (3)
Drawbacks: Instinctual (Battery – 4) Other: Initiative +5, Movement 12,
Strength +7, Carry/Lift 125/250
Bugs
Ever since he was a kid all Norman ever wanted to do was be an entertainer. Sure a lot of other kids thought his obsession with magic tricks was lame, but who doesn’t love classics like pulling a rabbit out of a hat? He never thought he would be the trick though. He doesn’t know why it happened; all he knows is he woke up one morning like this, a giant hu-man rabbit! He doesn’t walk anymore; he hops everywhere. His clothes are constantly shred-ded because they cannot handle how he moves. Kids shriek in terror, not delight. He’s got to find an escape from this cruel magic trick.
Sap Name: Norman Applebaum Affiliation: Unaffiliated
Strain: Bulk
Integrity: 17, Juice: 3
Loyalties: Community 2, Justice 3,
Perfec-tion 2, Self 3
Skills: Athletics 5, Empathy 3, Fighting 3,
Fortitude 3, Might 4, Perception 4, Perfor-mance 5, Speed 5, Survival 3, Travel 2
Primary Power: Behemoth 5
Augments: Boost Jump (T1-2), Stomp (T1-2)
Secondary Power: Invulnerability 4 Augments: Punch-Proof (E0), Tougher (T1) Tertiary Power: Chimera 4
Augments: Fur (E0), Leaps and Bounds (E0) Drawbacks: Continuous Power (3), Side
Effect (4)
Other: Initiative +5, Movement 15,
Strength +19, Carry/Lift 400/800
Mongrel
Dad always talked about the end times and how they would survive while the wicked fell. Brad wishes his dad had been right, but he died along with the rest of his family in the govern-ment raid. The bastards have driven him from his land and are after him now. He’s managed to hook up with another group preparing for the coming storm, but according to them it’s not the government we need to worry about, but freaks with powers. It doesn’t matter, gov-ernment thugs or mutants, he’ll put a bullet in all of them to avenge his family.
Sap Name: Brad Hartley Affiliation: United Human Front Strain: Psych
Integrity: 13, Juice: 3
Loyalties: Community 2, Comrades 2,
Jus-tice 3, Truth 3
Skills: Athletics 3, Fighting 2, Fortitude 3,
Intuition 3, Marksmanship 4, Might 3, Per-ception 5, Speed 3, Stealth 4, Survival 5
Primary Power: Awareness 4
Augments: Perfect Scent (E0), Strong Ears (E0) Secondary Power: Killer Instinct 4 Augments: First Blood (E0), Hunter (E0) Gifts: Light Sleeper (2), Accurate Eye (3) Drawbacks: Enemy (FBI - 3)
Other: Initiative +14, Movement 12,
Strength +6, Carry/Lift 125/250
Equipment: Blade, Rifle, Flak Jacket
6l1+ch
So many secrets hidden in the deep web wait-ing to be found. Sammy knew from a young age the machines that talked to her didn’t speak to everyone, but it was only recently that she found documents buried deep in the web which give her an idea there were others out there like her. The carnage and destruction in them scared her. She’s pretty sure if she wanted to she could convince a nuclear bomb to explode without any codes, so what horrors could others like her release? There really is only one answer; each and every AMP needs to be stopped. Well, except her of course.
Sap Name: Samantha Stevens Affiliation: United Human Front Strain: Shaper
Integrity: 13, Juice: 3
Loyalties: Community 2, Perfection 2, Self
3, Truth 3
Skills: Athletics 2, Deception 6,
Empa-thy 2, Fighting 2, Fortitude 3, Intuition 3, Marksmanship 2, Might 1, Perception 5, Persuasion 3, Speed 2, Technology 6
Primary Power: Technopathy 6
Augments: Tech Speak (E0), Overload
(E0), Wireless (T1)
Gifts: False Identity (2), Untraceable (3),
Wealth (3)
Drawbacks: Curious (2)
Other: Initiative +5, Movement 9, Strength
+3, Carry/Lift 75/150
Equipment: Pistol (Light), Kevlar, Laptop,
smartphone
Teflon
He knew it was illegal to bet on himself, but Jose was the best up and coming boxer in years. In the ring he was Teflon, nothing stuck. He can-not prove it, but he knows when he refused to take a dive on the big fight they did something to him. Maybe they roofied his drinks or spiked him some other way, because there was no way he went down from the other guy’s punches. Now this group, the UHF, they own his debt. Help out, save the human race, pay down his debt they say. If he doesn’t, they say they will visit his abuela, rough her up. Kill a kid to protect his grandmother, what kind of choice is that to make?
Sap Name: Jose Degollado Affiliation: United Human Front Strain: Bulk
Integrity: 21, Juice: 3
Loyalties: Community 2, Comrades 2,
Jus-tice 3, Perfection 3
Skills: Athletics 5, Fighting 6, Fortitude 5,
Intimidation 4, Intuition 3, Might 4, Per-ception 4, Speed 3, Survival 2, Travel 2
Primary Power: Invulnerability 6
Augments: Blade-Proof (E0), Bulletproof
(E0), Energy Proof (E0), Punch Proof (E0), Soak (T1)
Gifts: Linguistics (Spanish – 1), Natural
Warrior (4)
Drawbacks: Debt (1)
Other: Initiative +6, Movement 13,
Strength +9, Carry/Lift 150/300
Equipment: Brass Knuckles
Team Player
Adventure for AMP: Year One by Eloy Lasanta
Summary
Early in 2015, few truly knew about the AMP phenomenon; even those with powers seldom knew what was going on with them before their abilities exploded within them. There are many ways for powers to manifest, but the first AMPs usually had hard-to-notice powers, keep-ing them under the radar for the most part and allowing a certain level of normalcy to their otherwise strange lives.
The government has always had an idea of powered individuals showing up, and have tak-en steps to track them down for years. There is one person in particular who they have been tracking for months now, a young woman from New Delhi. Her abilities have regularly proven beyond those of her teammates or anyone they have faced during their ascension to the cham-pionship. Now, she just so happens to be in the US for an exhibition game.
The characters get caught in the middle of an attempting kidnapping of this player by the hands of those with unknown motives, and it’s her fate is ultimately up to them. It takes place during the Spring/Summer soccer season, after the Seekers of Enlightenment has been estab-lished and the government is taking steps out-side of the fledgling group to acquire AMPs. It is suitable for two to four players with specifically beginning characters. While there is certainly danger in Team Player, it is early enough in the AMP: Year One timeline that characters will not have had time to train their powers much.
Introduction
It is a beautiful spring afternoon without a cloud in the sky, and the perfect day to attend a sporting event. Specifically, today is the day of the IFX International Futbol Ladies exhibition game between the US and India. Seats are pretty inexpensive; not only is this essentially a practice game with no real stakes, but the IFX is a minor league and not necessarily on sports media’s top list of things to cover. In short… cheap seats for a fun afternoon watching some sports.
If all the characters are friends already, then
getting together to enjoy a day of fun is an easy reason to introduce the adventure to them. This excuse can just be the default reason for anyone who can’t think of a story-centric reason to be at the game. Not everyone needs to know each other, but each character should have a reason to be at the game. Below are just a few reasons. It should be noted that reasons for Affiliations that technically don’t exist yet in the timeline are included, since the GM has the option to bend the rules to fit every character concept.
V Unaffiliated: Loyalties are an easy way to bring characters in. Love for one’s Com-munity may make the character show up in support of local businesses who stand to make a pretty penny from this event. It could be a Comrade or Love of theirs play-ing, or maybe (if female) they have a Per-fection in Athletics and are playing in the game themselves instead.
V Seekers of Enlightenment: Though they are only recently official, they have already begun reaching out to other AMPs to bring them into their fold. Using algorithms, they are able to track bloodlines back to Proj-ect Black and tell who is likely to be an AMP. Savi Dhawan is one such person and the characters could have been sent out to attempt to approach her, most likely after the game.
V Other Affiliations: With a low attendance factor and lots of seats to separate their group, many times the Changelings vis-it events like soccer matches to pass the time or to bring their young to teach them there is still fun to be had. They are, of course, always on the lookout for others like themselves, often going to places no one would think in hopes of encountering one. The official UHF is but a glimmer at this time, but there are definitely those who accuse Savi of doping up and want her kicked out for her superiority. The neighborhood in which the small stadium is located is surrounded by major city terri-tory, meaning Typhoon members could be in the area as well.
Scene One: The Game
The characters arrive for a grand day of fun. The small stadium doesn’t have a roof, so all the sun’s glory shines in on the spectators un-less they sit in the back seats shaded by the walls. Of course, at this height, it’s harder to see the game itself. The stadium holds about five thousand spectators at full capacity, but there are barely a tenth that many today, as this is a fairly low-stakes game. Concession sellers are still making their way through the rows, so buying a hotdog, burger, soda or beer is pret-ty easy. Tips go a long way on a slow day like today.
The lush green field is still filled with eager players, all of them ready to give their all. Team USA is in the obvious red and white tops with blue shorts, making them easy to spot against the gold and green Team India competitors. A Simple (10) Perception + Knowledge check means the characters overhear chatter among the crowd or perhaps pick up a flyer talking about a feud between the teams. Team USA has Amelia August who once held the record for most scores in a single game, and there is an intense rivalry with Savi Dhawan of Team India who more than doubled Amelia’s record in the last game played against Team Belgium. Any Psych with the Visions power automatical-ly senses Team India will be the winner today as well, with the young Savi beating her own record again.
The game begins simply enough, the first quarter going by with Savi scoring two goals almost single-handedly. Then, as the heat gets turned up, Savi and her team begin to dom-inate the field scoring another five goals in the second quarter. If the group succeeds at a Tough (30) Perception + Intuition check, they’ll notice a few people in black suits watching the game from one of the entranceways. Two of them are eyeing every move Team India - specifically Savi Dhawan - makes while a third seems to be talking to be talking to someone on the phone. An AMP with enhanced hearing (Chimera, Awareness or other powers) can hear the man relaying the following:
“I’m sure she’s an enhanced, sir. Affir-mative, we will wait until the end of the game to bring her in for questioning.”
The strange-looking people don’t seem to move during the game, but anyone who made the original Perception check starts to notice them popping up all over the stadium, each team of three relaying similar information and coordinating ways to escape with the girl.
Those simply watching the game are in for a treat as Savi makes another ten goals in the third quarter, breaking her own record already. In the fourth quarter her speed and acumen becomes too much for the rival team to com-pete with, and she scores another seven points for a final score of 24-2, beating her previous record of 21. Team India is overjoyed and cele-brate like crazy, but show good sportsmanship by bringing Team USA into the party as well. It is just an exhibition match after all.
Team Player
Playing in the Game
If it was determined that some of the players were playing for Team USA, then they have a chance to attempt to hold off Savi, but she’ll ultimately win. For each quarter of the game, have the player make a Moderate (20) Athletics + Speed check, reflecting their ability to keep up with Team India’s star player. Each successful check means the char-acter was responsible for taking away one of her scores and for adding +2 to Team USA’s. This means succeeding at all four checks stops her from breaking a record and it’ll be the player’s character the papers are talking about tomorrow. If the character also has Acceleration or Evasion, they may make two additional checks (or four additional checks if they have both).
After the Game
It all goes down after the game ends. Both teams have done their celebrating and sulk-ing out on the field, but then retreat to their assigned locker rooms. Team USA’s is in the east wing, whereas Team India’s is in the west wing. Once the players are all off the field, the characters notice about half the men in black have vanished, presumably going after Savi. This is a great place for the group to split up, as each will likely have different ideas of how to proceed. Although the most straightforward approach is to go to the locker rooms, there are other ways.
V Find the missing ones: Going after the miss-ing MiBs is tricky, as they are great at not leaving a trace. The character can make a Perception + Survival check to pick up cer-tain clues that may point them toward sever-al government-issue vans parked out in the parking lot. Following this trail brings them to three vans, each waiting with engine run-ning and driver ready to take off. Any AMPs
will immediately notice their powers drain-ing in the presence of the van, sufferdrain-ing a -2 penalty to all checks while within 20 ft. Who knows what happens if one’s inside the van? At this point, the characters can ambush the driver or stake out the location and wait for Savi be dragged out to stop her abduction. Most AMPs have heard the rumors of their kind disappearing off the streets, so if the bad guys leave with Savi, she’ll likely never see the light of day again.
V Direct Engagement: It isn’t a bad plan to simply attack the men in black who are still visible in order to possibly draw out the others as they come back for reinforce-ments. Use the Men in Black stats (AYO, pg. 202) and there should be roughly one MiB per player taking this route. If the charac-ters are having too easy of a time, add more, but also remove some (as they retreat to report in) if they are having a hard time against them. Once the fight is done, how-ever, they’ll see Savi being dragged out an
alternate exit near the group, where they can get the drop of them and save the girl. V Locker Rooms: Heading straight to the
locker rooms is easier said than done for most characters. Travelers can teleport or phase through walls, sure, but the long ce-ment hallways lined with MiBs can prove too much for others. Here, there are likely two Men in Black (AYO, pg. 202) per player, making it a much tougher proposition to go straight to the locker room. The charac-ters arrive on the scene as they are blocked by two MiBs from proceeding any further down the hall. Behind them, they can see two others dragging Savi Dhawan from the locker room and heading to an alternate exit behind them. Fighting through them is the only way to get her in this scenario. After winning, they can escape with Savi.
Scene Two:
Want Some Pizza?
After escaping, Savi thanks the characters and urges them to take her to her family’s home. The hotel she’s staying at is likely not safe for her to return to and her family is good at staying off the grid, so it’s the perfect place to hide out, at least for a short while. It’s not far from the stadium, but is in a part of town not frequently traversed by the law.
They follow Savi up to the third floor of her five-story family apartment building and she knocks on the door, saying “Hello, mother, it’s Savi” in Hindi. Characters who have taken the Linguist Gift (AYO, pg. 53) and have selected Indian languages can understand her. The door opens to reveal an older woman, obviously Sa-vi’s mother, who hurries the group inside. She introduces herself as Lakshmi, and it is no-ticeable that she is mostly covered up. After a few moments of hellos and pleasantries, she asks what Savi is doing there, as she was not supposed to visit for a few days after the com-petition. Savi goes on to explain the situation, again in Hindi.
Looking around the house, a Simple (10) Perception + Empathy check reveals the house definitely has at least five people living there. There are kiddy plates at the table and there is a walker in the corner. They can hear coughing coming from a back room and children’s laugh-ter from another.
After calming down her mother, Savi returns to the group and to her well-spoken English. “We should be fine here. No one knows about this place. Thank you so much again for saving me.”
If Savi has seen the characters use powers, she immediately sees them as comrades. She’ll motion to her mother, who removes her face mask to reveal strange scarring on her neck and jawline. Sari’s daadaa (grandfather), Divit, comes out from the back room, an older gentle-man who speaks only Hindi. He is much worse off than Lakshmi, however, with large tumors and uneven legs that make it hard for him to walk. If they peek in to see Savi’s little brothers, neither of them have any physical deformities. She offers the group pizza and they can take some time to talk if they want.
Who were those people?
“I’m not too sure. I started developing… abili-ties… greater than any other athlete on my team. I can move faster without stressing my body, which allows me to make more goals. At this point, I’ve been underplaying what I can really do. I could technically run circles around most opponents, but I have heard the rumors of peo-ple with enhanced abilities disappearing. Similar things happen even in New Delhi, but I hear they are even worse here in America.”
This is your family’s home?
“Yes, my mother and father moved all of us here to America years ago. Sadly, my father’s income wasn’t enough to support himself, my mother, my grandfather and three kids. I moved back to India when I was able to and have been making money as a football player to help with their bills. I get to travel to the US about twice a year, but I don’t like seeing my family under these conditions.”
