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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iron Sky" data-source="post: 5203348" data-attributes="member: 60965">The Tannhauser Effect The Tannhauser Effect is a modern adventure for D20 Modern, Scion, Shadowrun, or other modern or near-future systems that might feature groups of players caught up in the feuds of ancient, supernatural beings.  It assumes that the party are aware that the supernatural is real and laces the edges of what mortals call reality and that the group is capable of surviving and interested in such supernatural events.  Background  The ancient beings that primitive cultures referred to as gods still walk the periphery of the Earth, still squabbling over ancient feuds alluded to myth and legend.  The feud involved in this adventure is  between the entities Venus, her father Zeus, and her husband Vulcan.  Venus is a powerful seductress, so beautiful that she can capture the hearts and souls of mortal men with a glance.  Fearing that her growing power would disrupt his plans and machinations in the mortal world, Zeus, the so called “King of Gods” married her off to his son Vulcan, a hideous being of fire and steel, has since sought – unsuccessfully – to have Venus all to himself.  Venus has never forgiven her father and has fought Vulcan's attempts to control her for millennium. Though her husband and father are too powerful for Venus to confront directly, she uses agents that she has charmed or seduced, both mortal and supernatural, to disrupt the plans and playthings of Zeus and Vulcan.  One such agent is Tannhauser.  Tannhauser  Somewhere near the date 1200 AD in Neumarkt, Germany, the being Tannhauser was “born” of Proteous, an ancient entity of chaos and change.  As the offspring of such a mutable being, Tannhauser was capable of assuming nearly any form he chose, though in his natural state appeared as a man of nearly supernatural physical beauty.  Proteous cared not for his offspring – perhaps never even noticed that they existed – and so Tannhauser was left alone in the world to find his own way.  He discovered he had a love of poetry and music, and used his not-insignificant personal powers to become a Minnesanger, a German noble poet-entertainer similar to a troubadour.  While in the court of Leopold VI of Austria, he came to the attention of agents of Venus and Venus herself became infatuated with him, not only for his stunning physical beauty, but also for the potential she saw in him as a tool to use against her father and husband.  Via her agents, Venus lured Tannhauser to her hidden home in the mountains and there ensnared him in a web of seduction, lust, and the subtle weavings of eldritch magics.  He remained there for years as her plaything, all-but broken to her will.  Vulcan eventually came looking for Venus and she was forced to leave Tannhauser behind as she placated her enraged husband.  While she was gone, Tannhauser managed to break free from the mountain and set out to find some way to purge himself of the chains of power she had bound to his soul.  Hearing of the power of the mysterious being known as the Christian God – supposedly powerful beyond the ken of even mighty Zeus – Tannhauser joined one of the Crusades to the Holy Land, believing that the Pope's proclamation that any who slayed an 'Islamic infidel' would be granted 'remission of all their sins'.  He assumed that this must include the dispelling of the carnal sorceries of Venus.  It was not so. Venus found him again, now a Knight Templar, up to his waist in the blood of 'infidels', and in an instant he was ensnared again, enslaved to Venus' will.  It was decades before he escaped again.  This time he decided to go straight to the highest priest of the Christian God, known as Pope Urban IV.  Tannhauser and the Pope  Tannhauser achieved an audience with the Pope, through the innate power and charisma of his bloodline and the truthful claims his deeds as a Templar; of all the wealth he had brought back to Rome from the Crusades, and the dozens of infidels he had dispatched.  There he told the Pope everything, from his birth, to his ensnarement by Venus, to his first escape and battles in the Crusades, to his present willingness to serve the Pope's God in exchange for protection from Venus.  Pope Urban IV, perhaps fearing Tannhauser's power, jealous of his unnatural beauty, or for some other reason unknown, turned Tannhauser away, saying that only when the maple staff that Urban held bloomed again would the Christian God 'absolve Tannhauser's sins'.  Shocked, broken, and distraught, Tannhauser departed.  Not hours after he left, Urban's staff sprouted branch and stem, again abloom.  Urban IV immediately dispatched riders to all ends of Europe to find Tannhauser, but the changeling was gone, slaved again to Venus' will and secreted away from mortal perceptions.  The Staff of Urban, too, was spirited away away, hidden the secret Helix Tomb of Urban II deep beneath the city of Rome, amidst the myriad plunder of the Crusades.  The Staff never stopped blooming. An Agent to Her Will With Tannhauser back in her control, Venus used him as an assassin to murder the mortal favorites of Zeus or Vulcan or of other powerful beings with whom she bickered and feuded.  Though most of those Tannhauser killed simply faded into the pages of history, some notables – Elizabeth I of England and Abraham Lincoln to name two – were prominent.  But it was when Venus heard of the Norse 'god' Bragi's attempts to learn and use the powers bound to music that she found the her most terrible use for Tannhauser. Bragi's Cello  Bragi's gift was with words, his kenning poems capable of swaying the minds of the most strong-minded mortal.  However, seeking more independence from his own father, Odin, Bragi sought the currents of power tied to music.  He first tried to build a harp that could capture them, but then heard of a new, superior mortal instrument developed in Italy, the cello.  Excited, he traveled to the remote village of Tune in southern Denmark.  There he carved a cello of maple, spruce, and steel, imbued with all the arcane potential he could bind into an instrument of the mortal realm.    He discovered that his new cello did, in fact, have tremendous power.  When tuned and played correctly and its spike planted in the earth, its music created a powerful binding to the roots of the materials from which it was made – trees of maple and spruce, forged steel and raw ore.  Through them the Cello's energies radiated, bringing new life in things long dead, calling rain and storm with a chord and dispelling it as easily, and calling machinations and wonders of wood and metal into being from the rawest of materials.  Bragi, however, got little opportunity to utilize his new-made artifact. Venus, using all her faculty for glamor and charm, seduced Bragi, Tannhauser stealing the instrument away in the tumult as the furious Vulcan arrived on the scene to find Venus involved in yet-another illicit affair.    While the capricious and vengeful Venus cared little for the Cello's creative capabilities, she quickly discovered that, when the cello was played out of tune, the energy that stirred in the branches of the trees and the heart of the rock brought destruction in place of creation; the rot of wood and the sundering of stone, wood splintering and rock breaking.  This suited Venus well and many were the cities, beloved of her father or husband, that she sent Tannhauser to destroy with a cacophonous tune.    Over the centuries of Venus' dominion over him, Tannhauser has managed to escape from her again and again, but each time he finds himself lost, with no allies and no place to hide.  And each time she recaptures him, Venus forces him to commit some greater atrocity or act of destruction out of spite.   Once a strong, vital being, he is now a little more than a listless husk, drifting on the vicious tides of Venus' whim, lost and alone.    And now Venus has her eyes set on Rome...   Hooks 1) The party are agents of, or hired by the Ordo Veneficus of Rome, the Order aware from vague and unpredictable auguries of the future that a threat to the Vatican looms but unaware of the source.  The party are ordered/hired to find the threat and somehow neutralize it.  2) Zeus, Vulcan, or another powerful being at odds with Venus has caught wind that Venus is up to something and have dispatched the party – directly or indirectly – to stop it.  3) Whatever organization the group are a part of has been hired or ordered to put a stop to Venus' rampant destruction after the destruction in Haiti is linked to her.   Bullet Point Adventure Summary 0) Hooks  1) Tannhauser's Past  2) The Staff of Urban  3) Tracking Tannhauser  4) The Maple Grove   1. Tannhauser's Past Regardless of who sent them, the party will be told that Venus is behind the threat.  This first part of the adventure is open ended and may be several sessions in itself as the party investigates Venus' and her machinations.  A) First, they must figure out which of Venus' agents is likely to be able to take out a city (a small list).  This will involve being sent all over the country (or world) tracking down Venus' agents (to capture and interrogate them) or finding other people (or beings) that are 'in-the-know' to procure information.    Examples:    * The group is sent to find a “pawn broker” in Peru that is a known information dealer.  The group must somehow get information about Venus from him; either by buying it, talking it out of him, trading for it, or doing something(s) else for him (torturing “pawn broker” might is always an option if its that type of group).  * The group infiltrates a Venus-worshiping cult, working their way to the top to get at the high priests (which may or may not be human) and interrogate them.  * The group tracks down leads one at a time that eventually lead them information – an Irish cobbler that knows this Egyptian art dealer in London who knows this antiquities dealer in Palestine that heard of a woman who... getting scraps and fragments at a time.    These examples could also be mixed-and-matched and interspersed with attacks from mercenaries, secret Venus cult members, 'bewitched' bystanders, other powerful agents of Venus, and/or bribed, controlled, or influenced 'mundane' authorities such as police, banks, corporations, 3rd world governments, etc.    Eventually, the group will end up with the name “Tannhauser” as the only agent of Venus capable of destroying a city.    B) Once the party has Tannhauser's name, they can then research his past.  This can involve direct and/or indirect research and will slowly reveal most of the information give in the backstory(above) and other information given below – though in bits and fragments and not necessarily in any kind of order.       Some of the information might be gleaned from arcane libraries, databases, and contacts, some might need to be verified “on location” to find traces of Tannhauser's/the Bragi Cello's magic, or any combination of the examples given above.  They will also likely face opposition, harassment, and/or attack during this part of the investigation(such as catching an agent in the act of murdering the person they were just about to meet with, finding explosives rigged in their hotel room, finding the library burned down, etc...)    Tannhauser's assassinations:  * Queen Elizabeth I – Supposedly saw herself lying on her bed not long before she died of “sickness” in London, 1603.  * Percy Bysshe Shelly(Poet) – Supposedly saw himself pointing out to sea.  A short while later “drowned” in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Italy, 1822. * Abraham Lincoln – Supposedly saw two versions of himself when he glanced in a mirror in 1860 and his “wife” predicted his death, was shot by “John Wilkes Booth” in 1865.  * Vice-Admiral Georgy Tryon – Supposedly walked through a room in his house in London not long before his ship, the HMS Victoria, “accidentally” collided with the HMS Camperdown and sank off the coast of Syria in 1893.    Tannhauser's uses of Bragi's Cello, “earthquakes”:  * Lisbon 1755: 60,000 dead  * San Fransico 1906: 3,000 dead  * Alaska 1964: 115 dead  * China 1976: 655,000 dead  * Japan 1995: 5,500 dead  * Iran 2003: 30,000 dead  * Haiti 2010: 255,000 dead    The information also ties the assassinations and “earthquakes” to persons or cities favored at the time by Zeus, Vulcan, or other enemies of Venus(discarded lovers, jealous female 'gods', etc).    At some point the group also learns the four most vital bits of information:  * Zeus' current favored city is Rome.  * The Staff of Urban is still said to exist somewhere in Rome and, if presented to Tannhauser, would free him from Venus' bondage.  * Tannhauser is hundreds of years old, is the son of one 'god', has the patronage of second 'god' and an artifact of a third, and has assassinated Queens and Presidents.  It's unlikely that the group could take him on directly.  * The Bragi Cello is most powerful if used near the element that most of it is composed of – maple wood.   2) The Staff of Urban At this point the group will likely head to Rome (with external prompting if necessary).  They now face a difficult task:  A) Discover the existence and location of the secret Helix Tomb beneath Rome.  This is difficult not only because it is almost entirely unknown to any outside the top echelons of the Vatican, but because even mentioning its name in Italy brings the attention of the Swiss Guard.  As they learn more and more of the Tombs, the group will again be chasing rumors, “people who know people who know...”, avoiding Venusian interference and not-so-polite run-ins with Swiss Guard suggesting they stop asking questions and/or leave Rome.  B) Find some way to access the Helix Tomb and, once there, find the Staff of Urban.  This could be through making a deal with the Vatican to let them use it (difficult even if they were sent by the Ordo Veneficus), breaking into the Tombs, infiltrating the Helix Guard that protect them to gain access, fighting their way in, or some combination of the above.    While they are in the Tombs, they also discover that it is mostly original, unreinforced construction from nearly a thousand years ago, built at the start of the crusades and expanded until it spirals down under most of the city.  With a little deduction, the group can figure out that an even moderate earthquake epicentered on Rome would probably cause the Helix Tombs to collapse in on themselves and take most of the city with them. 3) Tracking Tannhauser When the party has the Staff of Urban and has extricated themselves from the Helix Tombs beneath Rome, they then have to track down Tannhauser.    They discover that he is in Rome through one or more of the following:  * The supernatural senses or powers of one or more of the players detects Tannhauser's power or that of Bragi's Cello  * The party 'hears' the faint 'sound' of a cello being tuned emanating from somewhere in the city  * The branch growing from the Staff of Urban sways in an unseen wind, the leaves and seed on the limb waving in Tannhauser's direction.  * As a last resort, a member of a friendly faction can tell them point blank that Tannhauser is somewhere in the city and give them rough directions.  They must then find him, via the above means, through contacts in the city, and/or investigating to find where in the city the most maple trees are located to predict where he's headed, all the while facing more interfering/hostile servants of Venus and possibly hostile Swiss/Helix Guard.    When they do find Tannhauser, he is walking amidst the throngs on the streets of Rome.  They group finds themselves pursuing him as he changes from one individual to another at will, the only feature in-common the cello case the figure carries.  Tannhauser gets in and out of cabs, on and off buses, steals cars and motorcycles, goes in and out of buildings – with the occasional Red Herring (Tannhauser walking through a busy music shop or symphony hall, past an orchestra loading up onto buses or a street musician setting up to play, etc).    All, of course, while harried by the usual hostiles plus maybe municipal police if the group starts breaking laws in pursuit of Tannhauser.  He always manages to stay far enough away that the group is always just catching a glimpse of him – his cello case at least.  Regardless, Tannhauser gets to a maple grove in Villa Ada, Rome's largest park, not long before they do.  If they lose sight of him entirely, they can follow the sound of his cello being tuned. 4) The Maple Grove    When they find the park that Tannhauser is in, read the following: The most beautiful man you have ever seen sits on a park bench, the stately maple trees all around him swaying gently in the breeze that stirs the man's short black hair.  He glances up in your direction across the flowers and tall green grass of the park as he makes the final adjustments to the pegs of a cello that visibly resonates with power.  There is something terribly sad about the man's eyes – they are the eyes of one without hope or home, drifting at the whim of others, ever more enmeshed in a cycle of destruction that he knows not how to escape.  He closes his eyes and smiles as he begins to play, a haunting, sorrowful tune that brings tears to the most jaded eye.  Then he pauses for a moment, the smile slowly fading.  When he plays again, he adjusts the pegs with one hand, the ancient melody rapidly dissolving into an echoing dissonance that pierces your ears, sends shivers up your back, and grates on your teeth.  The air seems to darken and the maple trees react to the sound immediately, first visibly leaning away with cracks and groans, then drawn in, pressing close around him. He begins to pluck the strings and, with each pluck, a single seed spirals down from the nearest maple tree.  When the seed strikes the ground, it flies apart and in an instant the earth shakes and the wind howls, the magnitude of both growing with each successive seed that meets earth.    Depending on the group and the type of game, this final scene could be a battle through heavily armed/arcane Venusian agents and/or Swiss/Helix Guards to get to Tannhauser – all the while trying to catch falling maple seeds to prevent further destruction, i.e. the collapse of the Helix Tombs beneath the city.    It could instead be a struggle to get to Tannhauser as the ground shakes and heaves, trees fall or explode apart, the wind blasts, and/or dangerous arcane currents swirl and bizarre storms rage through the park.    It could be some combination of the above.    Or the party could simply jump to the conclusion:   When you reach Tannhauser, Urban's staff blooms anew.  Tannhauser's cacophony fades and he looks up, his eyes settling on the staff with recognition, then anguish, then surprise, then hope, shifting so quickly that you barely have time to process each emotion before it is replaced by the next.  He kneels before you as a single seed falls from the end of the staff, lazily spinning through the air until it lands in Tannhauser's cupped hands.  He remains there for several long seconds, huddled over the seed, head bowed as if praying.  Then the sky seems to lighten, the wind dies down, and the tremors fade.  He stands, erect and proud, a beatific smile on his face.  His flawless features make the joy radiating from them even more intense.  Without a word, he bows to each of you in turn, turns, lifts Bragi's Cello almost reverently, holds it above his head for a moment as though making an offering to the sky, then hurls it to a nearby cobbled walk where it explodes into a thousand pieces. You avert your eyes to avoid the flying splinters and, when you look up, Tannhauser is gone.  A few words whisper on the wind in his wake.  “I am free... home... forever...”  Ingredients Urban Sinkhole – The Helix Tombs, created by Pope Urban that will turn the city of Rome into an Urban Sinkhole when Tannhauser plays Bragi's Cello Pulchritudinous Waif – Tannhauser, his physical beauty having caught the attention of Venus, she has broken his will and he now roams lost and alone Helicopter Seeds – The seeds of the maple trees that fall when Tannhauser plays the Bragi's Cello, enough of them striking the ground potentially causing the city of Rome to collapse into the Helix Tombs.  Also the maple seed that falls from the Staff of Urban that breaks Venus' enslavement of Tannhauser Historical Doppleganger – Tannhauser, the centuries-old changeling reported throughout history as being seen before people die and causing many historical urban disasters Self-Destructive Spiral – The Helix Tombs, which will collapse in on themselves if Tannhauser plays Bragi's Cello.  Also Tannhauser's cycle of enslavement-destruction-escape-enslavement-etc.  Also the spiraling fall of the maple seeds during the final confrontation, when they explode and release the destructive energies of Bragi's Cello. Out-of-tune Cello – Bragi's Cello, which, when played by Tannhauser, could cause the Helix Tombs to collapse and take Rome with them.  It was also made in Tune, Denmark, and so is “out of Tune” - in the meanings of being no longer there and having been made there</blockquote>

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