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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Golden Bee" data-source="post: 9771100" data-attributes="member: 7041055">The Ellis Affair by Lisa SteeleYokohama is a charnel house: the streets, canals and waterfront are filled with the dead and the stench from decomposing bodies is unbearable. It is estimated that more than 200 foreigners lost their lives there. Most of the dead and injured among the Yokohama foreigners were those who were caught by the earthquake and fire while shopping in the downtown district. Thousands of the terror-stricken natives drowned in the canals when seeking safety from the raging inferno which followed the temblor. The earthquake left great gaps in the pavements and wrecked most of the buildings. Fire, which started in numerous places at once completed the destruction. — Meriden Morning Record[I’ve run this one a few times, kind of surprised I never wrote it up for the campaign! Fate: Worlds in Shadow came out in 2013, so it’s possible all the times I ran it were before 2023.]The adventure starts with one of the worst earthquakes in world history. Trying to escape the city we have a new “hero”, Sicilian mafia princess Viola Violeta.  She joins all-American hick Clara Tate, mafia-affiliated magician Gia CM, and Wuxia healer Siao Yun.The group gets lured into a gunfight outside one of the few remaining buildings, The Specie Bank, and from there are drawn into a web of intrigue.  Somehow, Chinese crime lord The Octopus, a wealthy German pacifist, and a Japanese secret agent are all collaborating on some kind of earthquake device.The group follows the trail to Shanghai on Viola’s yacht, where they play nice with the Green gang, then split up to follow two pairs of leads. The Americans head to a Japanese nightclub, Sakura, while the Mafiosa and the street fighter talk to weapons manufacturer William Sykes. He's eager to chat up the beautiful ladies, and he has something they're really gonna want to see…  photos of The Octopus's ship! He's so nervous his hand is shaking… Actually, the building is shaking!Sakura is filled with gorgeous men and women, and has a glass-bottom dance floor over a giant fish tank. Gia is used to playing footsie with gangsters,  and realizes The Octopus is actually one of the geishas.   The Octopus has so much fun, in fact, she tells the New Jerseyite that she's >not< going to drop out the floor and subject her and her companion to the deadly octopus below.She pulled the lever, retracting the dance floor. This caused the gang leader to flee and everyone else to swim for their lives!***Syke’s fishtank wobbled on his desk, moving entire feet at a time. Viola looked out the window, and found someone aiming a strange, futuristic machine at the building. Was that an earthquake gun?  Without hesitation, Xiao leapt from the balcony, ran down the collapsing fire escape, and landed on telephone wires.  She almost got up to the figure… When he leapt onto another pair of wires, running the opposite direction!***Clara and Gia were able to evade the cephalopod, barely. The illusionist evacuated the club, while Clara used a little bit of street smarts: most guns will fire at least once underwater, and octopi hate being shot! The creature thrashed,  destroying the wooden furniture that had fallen into its tank!***The earthquake began warping the walls of Sykes's building.  Violeta, always observant, told him to bring out some prototype guns, and begin shooting her way through the drywall. Nearby, Xiao had a choice to make, as the perpetrator through the device down a chimney.  Should she go after the suspect or the evidence?***Gia flung deck of cards into the creature’s eye. Clara, driven by a fierce survival instinct, swam through the debris and pulled the lever to close the tank and restore the floor!***It was sheer willpower that got Viola through the crumbling building. Choking back clouds of plaster, ignoring electrical burns, she got to the front door… And yelled at the assembled bystanders that if they knew it was good for them, they’d get out of her way! Some threats transcend language.Xiao pursued her perp, getting close enough to recognize him from her old dojo.  They traded information, and he warned her to avoid interfering with the destruction of the vile world’s navies.  She returned to where the device was pitched, but Viola had to pay off the man. Anything strangers would dump into his house and then come back for it was worth money!***The group put their heads together, and discovered the villains’ plan. Using a powerful earthquake device, the pacifist was going to create waves big enough to destroy everyone but Japan's Navy, using the Octopus pirates’ boat! The group pursued the pirates and the best vehicle they had available: Viola's smuggling yacht.Once they got there, things went weird. Clara and Viola headed below deck to rescue prisoners. Xiao brawled her way across the top deck,  battling dozens of roughnecks with the sheer power of her cultivation. Gia sidled up to the best-dressed person on the boat, presuming him to be the representative of Japanese intelligence. She utterly flummoxed him with lies.  By the time she was through prevaricating, she was able to get her hands on the earthquake machine… And make it disappear! Hey, it had worked on that weather control device in Chicago!His mission failed, the agent fled. (Interestingly, this is the canonical origin of Ito Takagi, a.k.a. the Sinister Skull!)The pacifist surrendered as his plans evaporated around him. Xiao came in for a supportive hug… Before hitting him with an ancient Chinese Vulcan nerve pinch.Gia got in the last word.The module has great art btw:[ATTACH=full]419001[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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