Friday, June 14, 2019

Robomeck RPG Sample Adventure: Geezer’s Revenge The Raid

Robomeck RPG Index

Scene 4: The Lab
(Award 2 XP for taking out the Lab.  Getting the Delta is the main objective, but . . . it’s complicated.)


The Mesa
The Lab is built on a small mesa shelf.  Behind the Lab is a ravine and surrounded by harder to scale mountains.  The mesa is easy to climb with a couple of rds of effort and can even be driven up on a bike or truck.  The group will have completely unopposed and unobserved movement at the bottom of the hill.  At the bottom of the mesa though are a pile of bodies and body parts.  Ooh, nasty.  Talk about a “Keep Out” sign.  Even an untrained observation can tell they were experimented on. 

Just over the lip of the hill is the grounds’ main defense.  1 Buried Hive Drone is keeping an eye on anything coming over the lip.  It’s not well-hidden (DC 12 to Detect from up close, DC 18 to Detect from a distance with binoculars).  If someone sneaks a peek over the lip (not in Typhoon armor or with a powered-on Proto-fuel device, which will cause the check to fail immediately), they can try a Detection roll without risking being seen.  (Why do I write things like this?  Players would never do something like that.)  

Trying to sneak up onto the mesa is a DC 12 Stealth check (again, not in Typhoon armor or using a Proto-fuel device).  However, if detected, the Drone doesn’t attack, but rather it alerts the 2 Urban Regulators in the Well House to come investigate.  I don’t want to try to figure out every contingency, but any invasion or attack inside the compound with Proto-fueled weapons will cause the Drone to attack. 
  

Well House
2 Urban Regulators reside in the Well House.  (What a crummy job.)  Occasionally, they patrol the grounds, but if there are any Hive not controlled by Menus in the area, they duck back inside.  Since a patrol did go by recently (the one the Characters ran into), they’re hiding.  There is a window on the Well House that Characters could look into to see the guards. 

They’ll want to try and take captives if just one or two trespassers come on to the mesa.  However, if Proto-fueled weapons are used or the Drone is triggered, they will use lethal force and attempt to flank the attackers.  Aren’t you Players glad that Geezer is watching your back now?  He’ll give the group a heads-up on where anything on the mesa is moving. 

It’s possible that Characters could sneak up to the building and blow it up before the Regulators come out.  If the Characters try this successfully, it will collapse the building on them and destroy them.  (Give them a round of applause and 1 XP, too.  Always feel free to hand out XP for good play.)  Setting a mine on the other buildings in the compound will just blow a hole in the wall, perhaps killing or damaging those inside (depending on how long the game session is going).  It will require 3 Stealth checks: one to get there, one to plant the mine, another to get away.    


Greenhouse
There are windows all the way around this building.  You can peek inside to see what’s there.  In this case, the greenhouse is filled with Proto-flowers.  There is 1 Regulator overseer and 4 human slaves tending to the flowers.  One of the slaves is a little girl, Jade.   

Entering the greenhouse without a helmet on will require a DC 12 Fort save.  The building is filled with dangerously psychotropic Proto-flower spores.  Those failing to make the save are stunned for 1 rd and will be last in initiative in any fight inside.  The effects go away as soon as the person steps back outside.  The Regulator here will engage any intruder inside the greenhouse, but won’t abandon his post to go outside until the Drone and the 2 Urban Regulators are incapacitated or if otherwise summoned. 

All of the slaves are zonked out of their minds.  This is why the Hive have to keep bringing in new slaves for their plantations.  There’s a terrible attrition of workers.  Inside this building, it’s even worse.  They’re going to require some medical treatment in town, but will be okay.  The problem is that they’re going to have to be led outside and away from the Lab as they won’t respond to orders.  On any firefights inside, there’s a possibility of the slaves getting in the way (unintentionally), requiring shooting into a crowd.    


Lab House
This isn’t a formal lab.  It is a farmhouse converted into one.  From the outside, it looks very pedestrian.  There’s only 1 entry and 1 window.  The view through the window shows the lab inside and a Regulator moving around working on an experiment.  Either the front door or the window can be forced open with basically any damage, but that will alert everyone inside.  Either can be quietly opened with a DC 12 Lockpicking check.  Any Character smart enough to try will be able to get in and have 1 rd to attack or hide before being noticed.  (DC 12 Stealth check each rd inside.)

There are 3 Regulators inside.  1 is in the isolation bay, 1 is by the trough/specimen jars, and 1 is by the computer bank.  The entry is deserted.  Once any shooting starts inside the Lab, 2 Regulators inside will attack.  The third Regulator will start trying to wreck the Specimen Room jars, blow up the computers, and then destroy the Isolation Bay.  This will take 5 rds (2 rds to destroy the specimen jars, 1 rd to destroy the computers, 1 rd to go through the airlock, and 1 rd to destroy the Iso Bay).  Obviously, the Characters will not be able to recover anything from these rooms if they are destroyed.  Not to mention, any of the other Regulators left in the other buildings will come in 2 rds.  The Hive Drone will wait outside, but the Attack Drone will not leave the barn, unless all the other troops are killed.        

Entry: This room is empty, but has an unlocked door to the Specimen Room and a picture window to the Isolation Bay.  The Regulator in the Iso Bay is unlikely to notice intruders unless they’ve forced their way in.    

Specimen Room: The Hive in their mecka suits have no sense of smell, which would be essential to working in this house.  There is a foul miasma of Proto-fuel and dissected body parts.  No need to roll anything, it’s not that strong, just a fragrant ambiance. 

There is a trough of Proto-fuel filled with body parts.  There are specimen jars of embryos with odd Human/Hive hybrid creatures, not alive.  In the corner, there’s a sniper rifle with a scope.  Next to it is a box of 12 anesthetic trank darts (DC 18 Fort Sv or knocked out for 1 hr).  The rifle is of human-make.  A Hive Regulator couldn’t even use it.

Computer Room: There’s a bank of Hive and human computers slapped together here.  There are power and data cables snaking out from this room to various points in the other rooms.  In the top left corner is a four-pack of Proto-fuel cells powering the computers.  (This is either the nearly drained cells of the nearby Delta fighter or a brand new set of cells depending on how you want to play this.)  It can be easily disconnected. 

Right next to the cells is a data drive hooked up to a jar of Proto-fuel containing a small sliver of white organic matter.  These two items are easy to identify and disconnect.  You’re running this adventure wrong if you allow the Characters to attempt to hack the computer while they’re here.  This needs to be a smash-and-grab and figure it out later caper.  Sam the barkeep could hack the security on the drive pretty quick (with the right motivation and a Social Interaction roll).  For anybody else it’s going to be a DC 18 Hack.  The cryptic, very technical data on the drive has detailed biological information on humans, Hive, cloning, and psychic powers.*  Unless you’re a scientist, it’s just going to give the reader a vague idea that this facility is here to experiment on human/Hive hybrids.  There is one concrete piece of data here: the name Dr. Dmitri.  His name is all over this, though not Menus’. 

The white piece of organic matter is a sliver of a Mound Proto-Brain.  This could provide all sorts of information and even intelligence on the Hive.  However, it can only be accessed by someone with psychic abilities or has physical links to the Hive (a hybrid or some other artificial means of faking being Hive).  This thing can also potentially give away their position if it is connected to a power source or dipped in Proto-fuel.  For now though, the Characters probably aren’t going to know what it is or at least not know what to do with it, other than the Ref mentioned it, so it must be important somehow.     
  
‘*’ Menus doesn’t just want human/Hive hybrid; he wants an ubermensch, who can use psychic powers.  Psionic powers plus Proto-fuel might equal an Akira-level organic weapon of mass destruction.  This is beyond these rules and this current adventure.  You can check here for some of my ideas on psychic abilities rules.

Isolation Bay: This room is oddly clean and sterile room compared to the rest of the lab.  There is a full medical supplies cabinet at the north end of the room.  The contents are labeled with warnings.  It contains a box of Ability Stims (2 each of Str, Con, Dex, Int, gives +4 to the stat for 1 turn, can only take 1 per day or will go into toxic shock), a box of Anti-toxins (4, heals any poisoning like toxic shock, can only take 1 per day or die), and a box of 8 Heal Sprays (heals all hp damage immediately, can only take 1 per day or will go into toxic shock).  There’s a pack of little blue pills too.  (Not sure what those are for.)  There’s babbling (but written in English) technical manuals on the shelves and other scientific items present on the other bookcases, but they won’t be useful to the Characters.   

There is an airlock with easy to use controls.  Next to it is an observation room with a window on the Iso Bay.  Inside is a set of four large tubes filled with clear fluid.  There is an adult human body in each, 2 male and 2 female.  They’re all wearing something like a skimpy wet suits (because we’re being modest here) with air hoses and various cables hooked into them.   

The Characters aren’t going to be able to figure out how to delicately disengage these people from the tubes (between technical human labels and some Hive labeling, it will be unintelligible), but they can be easily broken open.  Whether the Players want to do so or not is entirely up to them.  (Do not force anything here.)  Three of the bodies come out of the tubes already dead (they’re stone cold).  They are also bleeding red (they’ll get nicked by the glass).  One of the bodies comes out warm and breathing and also bleeding red.  (Choose the gender yourself to your tastes.)  This person will be unconscious and have to be carried out of the Lab.      

Who is this person?  That’s up to you.  This person could be a human.  It could also be a hybrid.  Hybrids bleed clear (from the Proto-flower fluid in their veins), but there’s going to be a lot of blood sloshing around from the other bodies, who were human.  Some of that blood could have gotten on the recovered person. 

Here’s a really wild idea: the recovered person is actually Menus.  You’ll have to definitely choose a gender for the Character.  Perhaps he/she needs regular high-level treatment or was running an experiment to enhance his/her abilities.  In any case, Menus will have amnesia for a while from the improper disengagement from the machinery.  Maybe a certain trigger or just time will allow Menus to recover his/her memory.  Who knows what happens then?   


Tin Barn
The barn has a pair of double doors with no locking mechanism.  There are no windows on this structure.  It’s an obvious trap.  There is a Hive Attack Drone inside.  (And you thought the Well House guys had a poor job.)  His job is to destroy the complex if it is discovered by the Queen.  This isn’t to say he won’t try to capture anybody who opens the doors or kill those wielding Proto-fueled weapons.  (Drones can make a non-lethal slap for capture purposes.)  If the Drone is activated, the Well House guards will come to investigate as well, perhaps even the buried Drone.  The takeoff of a nearby Delta fighter will also activate the Drones.     


If all of the Hive at this facility are incapacitated, the Attack Drone’s main function will be to start strafing the buildings.  It will start with the Lab and then the Greenhouse.  Assume two runs on the Lab will blow it up.  Anyone inside on the first run will be okay, but if they’re inside for that second run, they blow up with the building.  Same for the Greenhouse.  If it completes this function, it will fly away.


The Delta
Carefully landed in hover mode in a small wooded ravine behind the Lab Complex, sits a violet-colored Delta fighter.  (It takes 2 rds running from the complex to get there.  You can’t miss it with that color scheme.)  It is not in good shape, to the tune of only having 10 MHP.  The pilot must have been pretty good to have landed this damaged craft so carefully here.  A quick inspection shows the pilot also just about expended the whole magazine, as the Delta only has 4 missiles and 2 bursts left in the gun pod (no extra clip).  The inboard Typhoon is also gone, along with any supplies.
     
How’s the adventure going at this point?  I can’t predict Player decisions or the likely outcome of dice rolls in combat.  I’ll give you a couple of scenarios.  It’ll be up to you to make them dramatic. 

If the Characters are having trouble, they should lose contact with Geezer.  Suddenly, the Delta rears up.  “Thanks, boys!  You made a great distraction for me to get the fighter!”  He’ll fight it out with the Drones, take damage (5 MHP), but take them out (depletes all the weapons).  Geezer then crashlands nearby.  The old man has taken mortal damage.  He lasts long enough to give the group a clue to find the Rebel base up in the mountains before dying.  (That’s close to the original adventure’s ending.)

Otherwise, let’s make this interesting.  The Characters find the Delta and are doing okay, but the Delta’s Proto-fuel cells are missing.  If they’ve searched the Lab, they’ve found them, but they’re pretty depleted.  (I’d give them about 3 flights before they’re drained.)  Add to this, a flight of 3 Attack Drones (these are the reinforcements mentioned from earlier) comes to the Lab because of the fighting with the intention of wiping everybody out.  The group will either hear them coming or Geezer will alert them (2 rd warning).  He will try to distract them by firing rockets at them (roll damage on each Drone), but he’ll be strafed and taken out.  (Again, he’ll last long enough for a death speech.)  If a single Drone is left, it will attempt to escape (and bring more reinforcements, a good cue to make an escape). 


Afterward
Unlike a normal Hive facility, the destruction of this one does not bring immediate wraith upon the surrounding towns.  If nothing else, that should be a clue that this wasn’t a normal Hive outpost.  So, the group can go back to town and perhaps make some friends, like that mechanic Keileigh, by returning her child, so she can fix up their Delta.  You’ll have to take her to it and hide it somewhere safe.  Charlotte might be able to help with a hiding place.  (She’ll somehow know about the raid.) 

Caster the Doctor will be needed to treat the abductees and the person recovered from the tube (if that happened).  He’ll have some respect for the group if they can bring them back, but won’t want to join them.  Sam the Barkeep will be worried about the group and what they’ve done.  He could crack any information the group brings back from the Lab, but here’s where you’ll need to make a Social Interaction roll to get him to do it.  (Keep in mind, if the NPC has a reason to work with Characters, there’s no real need to roll for it.) 

When Sheriff Andy eventually finds out about the raid, he will be more forceful about the group leaving and never coming back, perhaps even betraying them.  However, the installation the group blew up wasn’t a Hive lab that their leadership knew of.  The Hive Mound near Mountain Town is led by a Hive Scientist, Quam, who delights in biological research.  He might want more information about that, rather than having the Characters’ heads.  Perhaps someone joins the group as a mole? 

Menus will obviously want to find out who did it, but doesn’t have the Queen’s resources.  A disguised Doctor Dmitri may be used in town as a spy.  Intelligence gathered could result in a raid on the town by Menus.  It won’t be overwhelming though.  If the Delta can be rearmed, maybe everyone together could fend them off (once, then the real Hive shows up).  Some NPC motivations may change, for better or worse, as the NPC’s listed in town could maybe be more recruitable as Support Characters for the group. 


There is a rebel base in the mountains (here’s a possible layout.  Is it active?  Is it destroyed or evacuated?  Its condition is up to you, but the Characters should at least be able to rearm there.  Geezer’s cave home has more weapons, and he had more than one weapons stash.  Charlotte or Keileigh might be able to guide the group to them.  Who’s the person from the tube (if that’s an issue)?  Where’s that Delta pilot?  The group should have some time to explore possibilities before things come to a head in town.  Their bigger objectives may be taking out that nearby Hive mound and finding out about Menus and tracking him/her/it down.  This should be enough to get your own campaign started. 

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