Påminner mig....
...min gamla Buffy-kampanj "Arkham High - Things Girls Were Not Meant To Know", som enbart blev en one-shot-med-drippel under ett privatkonvent. Ur ett utkast till en första säsong (ursäkta engelskan; från mina poster till Buffy-listan, och jag ids inte översätta):
Things Girls Were Not Meant To Know (pilot episode): The girls in Special Class 1FS (1st year Female Students) get a new special teacher, mr Ward. Their former teacher has had a 'nervous breakdown' (she went insane and killed her whole family). Mr Ward announces that he has gained permission to perform a Special Project with them; by finishing this, they can regain their lost scores in several subjects at once, due to a special agreement. They are to make an investigation
around the Witch House, Arkham's oldest standing building.
Meanwhile, Laura Mason, the guidance councillor of Arkham High and practicing black sorceress, has a plot a-brewing. She wants to gain the power over time and space her infamous ancestor Keziah Mason had. To do that, she needs to open a gate to the alien world of F'Zoth - and there begins the trouble. Opening the gate requires sorcerous talent she doesn't have and the Book of Azathoth which is lost, and entering F'Zoth drives anyone of human blood violently insane. So Laura has done a LXG deal - Anamaria and Clara aren't human, Kingsport
has the sorcery, and Liz has the main key to the Armitage mansion where the Book of Azathoth is stashed. Anyone entering the Witch House will trigger Keziah's wrath - but Laura has a copy of Keziah's personal witch-sign, which can ward her off. In return for the sign (the only way for the girls to get Keziah's rat-servants off their asses) Laura requires their help.
Laura has allied herself with Raul Esperanza to gain some useful henchmen. Hence the vampire presence.
Ward knows that there are things going on with the girls, and is one ESC agent among several in Arkham's schools and public facilities. He can help, but will not risk his life.
The episode presents the PCs and their histories for each other (and, if this was really a TV series, presumably the audience).
(ESC = Eugenic Security Council, tänk Initiativet i Buffy)
Meat is Murder
"The time of the obligatory checkup at school is drawing near - but why is it that the most fit and healthy students all have disappeared soon after the checkup? For twenty-three years straight? Maybe the healthiest thing is to be found unhealthy..."
A feast of Mordiggian draws near, and the ghoul families of Arkham are as usually inspecting their herd. At least one of the PCs are chosen.
While rescuing the victims, the PCs learn about the ghoul-vampireagreement - and how it is breaking up.
During the story, the ESC will nick the vast archives of the ghouls - cataloguing non-humans in Arkham for several years. Uma Pickman can play a role here, given her resentment of her family.
(Uma Pickman - som blev en RP - är en ghoul, och en militant vegan, så hon vägrar äta människokött.)
The Slumber Party of Unknown Kadath
"While Dreaming, Kingsport encounter a challenge that can only be overcome with a little help from her friends - or she will lose her father! Events take a swordnsorcerish turn as our heroines travel to the Dreamlands."
Kingsport's father is caught in a trap after a foolish bet with a
sorcerer - none other than our favorite Ethan Rayne (who has lost his own dreamself). To free him, the PCs must travel the Dreamlands and obtain a new one for Ethan at the shrine of Hypnos in the forest of Outer Nod. Basic introduction to the strangeness of the Dreamlands and the Carter legacy, that ought to start off as a little solo for Kingsport's player. Buffy guest villain (and my favorite, too!) Also, they learn of ghouls and their presence in the Dreamlands - and that they can travel there physically.
(Diane "Kingsport" Carter - ättling till Randolph och John Carter, och i princip Osaka från Azumanga Daioh, fast hon kan färdas till Dreamlands.)
The Brats in the Walls
"Geography teacher Samuel De La Poer was never the most stable of the staff - but now he has gone over the edge, and is holding a class hostage. Can the PCs walk out without bloodshed? And who lurks within the walls?"
De La Poer is paranoid - he sees and hear things that aren't there. Thus, he over-interprets the hostility some pupils have towards him and thinks that he is the victim of a conspiracy. He can, indeed, be talked down, but the trouble is twofold: first, just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you. Within the walls of the school lurks invisible Things that are after De La Poer (spawn of a paranoia demon like in that hotel episode of Angel). Second, the special agent that - unbidden - turns up to help the police wants De La Poer dead. Samuel knows his local history and has helped the ESC
with their work, and he Knows Too Much - one reason he is not entirely sane.
Chris Epps, Re-Animator
"Someone has purloined the Herbert West notes from the Armitage mansion - notes on resurrection of the dead! Meanwhile, medical student Chris Epps, lately of Sunnydale, California, has been making attempts in the same direction. Is he guilty of the theft, as well as the recent bodysnatchings from local morgues? And if that's the case, can they find him before the Ghouls do?"
No, Chris Epps isn't guilty - he has returned to experiment on
animals, among others a dog. And he isn't trying to combine several dead people this time. But his old colleague Eric is here too, and working with the ESC to find a way to stop reanimated tissue - he is trying to find an anti-vampire weapon.
Buffy guest star villains, and the first clue what ESC are up to. And that they are unscupulous bastards.
The Little House in the Big Woods With a Thousand Young
"Clara goes to Dunwhich to find out the history of her biological
relatives, the Whateleys and who her real mother is. Familiarity
breeds contempt as usual, but there are other things breeding in the family here. And is Clara really an only child?"
Clara finally learns that she is a child of Shub-Niggurath. She
probably also learns that she has a sister - and in the classic
Dunwhich Horror way, one that resembles the mother more than Clara.
Part of the story should be run in a flashback, to tell the story of
the Whateleys - which allows that nice deal with people playing
different yet similar characters.
(Clara Whateley är barn till den galne trollkarlen Zebedaiah Whateley och gudinnan Shub-Niggurath. Hon ser ut att vara bra över sjutton, och folk brukar tro hon är utvecklingsstörd, men hon är hyperintelligent, superstark - och bara tolv år gammal.)
Nard, Myrrh and a Fuzzy Face
"When the plans of a gang of Egyptian cultists go awry, the mummy of Ut-ha-basti, an Egyptian temple cat, is reanimated. As out gang tries to solve the case of whomever is stealing the organs and lifeforce of Arkhams many cats, the Pharaonic feline have plans of his own - it seems one of the girls is the reincarnation of his old owner! Can the others save her from spending the rest of her days wielding the sacred canopener?"
A comic episode (despite the deaths of several keetoms) with the chance for mummy gags as well as some genuine frights (Ut-ha-basti has the standard magic powers of a movie mummy). Whoever is the reicarnated priestess can be decided later. (If anyone uses this idea for their group, this is a good opportunity for annoying little sisters to start talking in ancient Egyptian and run with sacrificial daggers.)
An interesting idea is that since the Sorority of Nitocris gets their rituals from someone who wants to keep graves inviolate, they have protections against ghouls, something that can be useful.
Turf War
"Anamaria's past catches up with her, as her old gang the Crazy Eights call for help - someone is taking over gangs and street crime in Arkham, and they aren't human anymore than the Crazy Eights."
Esperanza's vampires are rooting out the competition - killing more than the ghoul lords allow them, and turning the surplus, preparing for the revolution. They also are targeting the gangs because its members are already tough people who will make better warriors once sired. The main plot advances and we learn of Anamaria's background.
(Anamaria Orne-Marsh är en Deep-one-hybrid från Innsmouth. Att ghoulerna i Arkham styr staden och utnyttjar vampyrer som underhuggare var tänkt att vara en del av the pig plot första säsongen.)
Diane Carter, Warlord (crossed out) Warlady (crossed out) Warlordess (crossed out twice) Warmistress of Mars!
"Trouble is literally brewing in the Dreamlands, as our heroines
travel to the planet of War in search of conspiracy."
An experiment in "psychotronics" leaves a scientist in a coma. Dexter Ward reveals his contacts with the ESC for the first time and engages the girls to dream travel into the dream world to wake the scientist up - a dreamworld which resembles Barsoom enough that I could be sued if this was really a TV series.
See, he has conducted research into biological warfare. The old
scientist is a military man, and he feels that this is not the right
way to make war. Hence, he is lost in dreams of warring - but with honor. (The whole point of the experiment, otherwise, is to stimulate the imagination of the subjects, making invention easier.)
From him, they can learn some more about his experiments, although they probably won't understand that the ESC is planning to unleash a plague on their own country. Mainly, though, this is an excuse for fantasy adventure in the Dreamlands.
Under the Sea
"It is barbecue at the beach in Innsmouth, as our gang gets an offer of midterm holidays they cannot refuse from the Marsh-Orne family."
The Shadow over Innsmouth mixes with Mafia stereotypes, as the gang travels to Anamaria's hometown. There is conflict afoot. Grampa Marsh (Obed Marsh of Lovecraft fame - so he is more like greatgreatgreat grampa) gives his followers orders they don't like, and that includes keeping their paws off Anamaria. Grampas dreams have told him to pull
out of Arkham, while his offspring want to move in and use the tumult to take over. The characters can affect how things will turn out by their actions and interactions.
Interesting revelations: Grampa tells the PCs that something horrible is coming. "No, the stars aren't right yet. We who live under the water will certainly make it. But our relatives on land won't and you humans should look out!" He also reveals why Anamaria is important: she carries the genes of the Hydra, the Mother-Goddess of the Deep Ones, and he cares more about keeping her intact that anything else. One day, she cannot help but returning to the sea - so he worries not.
Even Death May Die, Part I
"When a ship was doomed in the old days of sailing, the rats would leave. Now the rats are leaving Arkham - in a painful way. And doom is indeed coming..."
Masses of vermin from Arkham's vast catacombs signals that something is wrong indeed. What is happening is that the Esperanza crowd is fighting their ghoul lords openly - as open as this kind of fighting gets - and is simply scaring rats and other... things that live down there. Two groups of monsters destroying each other doesn't sound that bad, but it is revealed someone has given the vampires a biological weapon - a "necrovirus" - that targets half-humans (and half-humans
only). The idea is to release this if things get too ugly. Problem is, there are LOTS of humans in Arkham who carries enough non-human genes that they would be sick and die.
Hopefully, the PCs can interfer. They can also learn, by now, that the vampires got their necrovirus from the ESC. And that the ghouls actually sit on a similar doomsday weapon that targets reanimated bodies... courtesy of the same group!
Even Death May Die, Part II
So, now the PCs know the deal - that the ESC have provided two hostile groups with biological weapons, and even encouraged them to use them despite knowing civilians would be harmed. It is also obvious that the ESC has a very strict definition of "human" that doesn't rhyme with that of the PCs.
It should be obvious by now that they can't go public, either. So they must take other measures to shut down the ESC. The question is just how.
Erik