Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Golden Bee" data-source="post: 9881824" data-attributes="member: 7041055">Quality is Job OneTwo lost cities. One dead body.In Brazil in 1935, the best way to win a fight is fear. Captain Ivanova leads an expedition through the sweltering Amazon, and when she sees a 30-foot anaconda, she considers having her cousin Clara Tate shoot it... But there are better methods. She has Australian reporter Trudy Truman look around and find a damaged tree. Then, trusting the advice of Ivan "Ivo" Kochev, she lights a torch and guides the creature into and out of the tree until it ties itself into a knot... Then pours a liter of vodka down its throat.There's no one on Earth better prepared for outdoor exploration. Despite 90° temperatures and a capsized boat, she leads the group to their destination: The Lost City of Z. Unfortunately, they're not the first ones there. One of the tombs has been raided by someone with shoes and a group of jackbooted thugs. Still, it's an archaeological marvel. Steel Eagle, the Tibetian monk turned 'Spirit of Brooklyn', is eager to start a barbecue while the rest explore the city. (There's only one city he cares about, and fella, it ain't Chicago.)The next morning,  warriors arrive from the Xingu River. They have blow darts and are ready to kill the intruders... until Captain Ivanova greets them in their dialect.Due to psionic Soviet experimentation, the Captain requires mere minutes to become conversant in local languages. Instead of a gunfight, there's a gift exchange. Kabenti, the Tribal Elder, allows the group to document the ruins, as long as they return what the previous intruders have stolen. The expedition agrees.The only navigable path is downriver, so Clara and the tribe craft a new boat. A few hours into the journey, the group comes across a dead body, that of Zeca Santos da Costa. How can they tell? Zeca has a bullet in the back and an identification passport. He's dressed in American agricultural clothes in the middle of the jungle... curious. And his shoes match the footprints. No treasures though.After a few hours of canoeing, the group discovers an even stranger sight: A water tower! Trudy grabs the binoculars and identifies their new port of call: Fordlandia!***Turns out old Henry made a rubber plantation in the middle of the rainforest. The group puts up a thin veneer of politeness, but the Russian is no fan of Ford. She teams up with Truman for a rapid investigation (while Ivo keeps their semi-willing tour guide distracted). Zeca's house has a hidden artifact from the city of Z. But who helped him get it...and who shot him?Trudy takes a beat to ask Ivanova where their relationship stands.Elsewhere, Clara and Eagle let their id loose. The Tibetan tells the mess hall cooks they've created inferior, gluey rice; Clara, driven by years of starvation, raids the pantry. (Trudy sneaks away to take unauthorized photographs of the American jungle town with red fire hydrants.)***By sunset, the clues led to the executive dining room. The group was greeted by Sam Nash, who invited them to the "Service Group" building for an interview. The captain noted a group of jackbooted bruisers following them, so she got very close to Sam, peppering him with polite questions about rubber tree plants, and one rude one.Nash's face twisted with rage, and he launched a punch directly at Semya...who stepped back to let Eagle kick him in the face. Nash had attacked in fear and immediately paid the price.[Semya's top skill is Provoke, and she gets an increasing bonus against someone based on how much money they make. She gave Nash the consequence "Pissed"... and immediately picked Steel Eagle to go next. Eagle, as an All-American American, is a cheap-shot artist, hitting people harder when he tags their consequences. The boot sent Sam on the lightless walk.]Trudy noticed the rest of the thugs going for their whistles. Ivo aimed his flashlight into their eyes, and Clara charged at them full bore, taking them out like a human torpedo. [This was the second fight of the session, where the players won before the enemy side got to activate.]The Russkie interrogated the group, who easily outed the killer. She cuffed Nash and the shootist, then demanded the others bring in the head of the colony: Harry Bennett. Ford's right-hand man had been put in charge of rooting out sedition and unionization.He was, at first, a match for Captain Ivanova. But the numbers game applies even in social combat; Ivanova defeated one of his lieutenants by repeating everything he said in a squeaky voice. Steel Eagle got the lookie-loo workers on the group's side. Ivo lied that the artifacts Bennett stole would curse the colony. Trudy, formerly a society reporter, laid out the ethical case.The Captain explained to the assembled that their Constitutional rights had been violated, and they lived only as long as they proved not to be an inconvenience to Nash and Bennett. Bennett was a snake, but the group had already defeated a bigger snake. She intended to cause a Captain Blood verbal explosion from the executive. Instead, he fearfully took a swing. She stepped back, allowing Steel Eagle to boot him in the kidneys.***The group knew someone who could handle extrajudicial jurisdictions: The League of Nations police force! (Ivo made himself scarce.) After that, the group returned as many artifacts as possible to the Xingu tribe. Trudy insisted that one artifact be protected by the ZSS themselves: a mystically powerful, bird-shaped stone whistle. After all, the Lost City of Z had been found. But was her decision driven by fear?Steel Eagle:[ATTACH]432650[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

Verification