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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pro-Paladin" data-source="post: 5209955" data-attributes="member: 90000">Good Clean FunA modern adventure for one PC.SummaryThe PC is hired to work a late-night janitorial shift at a rendering plant. Here he or she uncovers murder, mad science, black magic and an ancient evil hoping to make a modern comeback.New Jobs CreatedThe adventure begins with the PC receiving a job offer for a graveyard shift janitorial position at a Pleasant Valley Dog Food plant. The PC should have a background that insures acceptance. Some possibilities: a laid off machinist, a military veteran struggling to readjust to civilian life, a bright-eyed recent college graduate who is discovering the hard way that an English degree is not highly sought after or an ex-con (wrongly imprisoned?) recently released from prison. The PC is called with the offer by plant manager Warren Holdt. While discussing the job Holdt mentions in passing having difficulty keeping the position filled. The the past three hires all "left town" shortly after starting work. In reality, these past hires were sacrificed to a Dark God.Nature's GoodnessThe Pleasant Valley Dog Food plant is located on the outskirts of a Midwestern rust-belt town. At the plant animal tissues are rendered into something that resembles food, sort of, and this product is then canned and shipped. Animal blood, fur and hooves are also processed here. The GM should play up the foulness of this entire process as much as possible. The odors from the rendering process are evident over a mile away and up close are overwhelming. The PC should have to pass some CON rolls at appropriate points to keep from gagging or vomiting. More sensitive characters may also react to the sight of unidentifiable organic goo that ranges in color from bloody red to sickly green to brown and gray.The good news is the character will get used to it. Grand TourThe character will be shown the ropes by the senior janitor, a man named Glenn Starnes. Glenn is unfriendly, more so if the PC falls a CON check and throws up, is disrespectful, or flaunts his or her education. Starnes seems very distracted and impatient, as if he has better things to do. The character is shown the main floor, the cafeteria and bathrooms as well as an elevator room. "Don't worry about that." A little questioning will reveal that the elevator goes to a basement level where Starnes spends most of his time. After the brief tour, the character can begin the process of  scraping away at the seemingly endless sea of partially fluid animal remains that cling to the plant's machines and vats. The plant is poorly lit at night and the character will be left all alone.During the night's shift weird things occur. The PC will hear chanting and moaning, maybe some rumbling from below followed by a sudden burst of blinding red light. This moment is accompanied by a fresh attack of physical sickness, but ends as abruptly as it starts. Exploring the plant floor uncovers nothing and the elevator down is locked. It's impossible to be sure if anything really happened. Bizarre events will continue to plague the character. These could range from vivid nightmares, to hallucinating for a moment that the rendered animal product is alive and breathing, to seeing his/her own face suddenly turn to melting organic paste in a mirror and so on. The PC should be constantly reminded of the unpleasant setting and the undercurrent of palatable spiritual evil. What Do We Get For Ten Dollars? When the character's shift ends at 8 am, another "shift" is beginning for Grace Hoobler, a woman who makes a living providing special services for plant employees. Grace will approach any Male characters ("You new here handsome?) and offer "the best [oral sex] you've ever had" for a small fee. While perhaps once attractive she is now in the late stages of meth addiction (any character with medical/street drug experience will recognize this) and has given up on basic hygiene as well. Matted, greasy hair covers wide, crazy eyes, while her half-smile reveals sores and missing teeth.Grace has a lot to say, especially if the PC buys her services, is a male with high Cha or is a female (women employees are rare at the Pleasant Valley plant). In between banal talk about popular culture, she'll mention having "your new boss" Starnes as a regular customer, until a few months ago when he suddenly became cold and distant. "Something's wrong with him...he's got that look. I would know, since I see it on myself in the mirror all the time." She'll then repeat the offer to sell her "services," if she hasn't sold them already. The encounter should ideally end with Grace sharing her concerns and raising the player's suspicions further.Glenn StarnesThe following information should be slowly uncovered as the PC asks around and hears gossip. Grace and workers arriving or leaving are the best sources of information. Glenn may also spend a shift drunk, spilling information in the process. The Plant Manager is difficult to find and has better things to do, although he will express concern for his former friend if questioned. Glenn's deeper secrets will have to be  discovered by following him and/or exploring the basement.The janitor is a deeply alienated man who keeps to himself. Recently he has taken to working 16 hours shifts, sometimes longer, disappearing in the basement of the plant. He is at best an unreliable worker and only keeps the job because of an old friendship with the Manager, Holdt. Glenn's promising football career and dream of escaping his dreary surroundings died with a knee injury and since then he fell into a pit of alcoholism and bitterness. He was once close friends with Holdt, but the two have grown apart. In truth, Glenn has grown to hate his old friend and humanity in general. He is especially bitter and jealous towards anyone who is happy or successful. His horrible job combined with isolation, meaningless encounters with prostitutes and endless hours in front of the television that acted as his sole source of guidance slowly took his humanity. This, combined with working knee-deep in filth both physical and spiritual created the perfect storm of events for a long-forgotten God to seize control. When Glenn murdered a prostitute and then dissolved her body in a rendering vat this served as the offering that awoke a forgotten evil.Glenn is now partially possessed by an ancient God of decomposition and corruption. The Native Americans once worshiped this God as "The Devourer of Flesh" and made offerings to appease the monstrous deity's hunger for living tissue. When the offerings ceased and the tribes left the area, the Devourer lay dormant beneath the earth, but it has now found a willing slave.The past janitors were taken as sacrifices and now the ritual is nearly complete to allow the Devourer to return and once again satiate himself on humanity.Another ProblemTo aid in the final rituals an Otyugh, a vile carrion-eating servant of the God of Corruption, has been summoned by Glenn. This creature must be present for the final ritual and has proven very useful in disposing of Glenn's sacrificial victims as well as gaining fresh victims. This horrible creature lives in the sewer beneath the plant and can reach the basement through a metal grating Starnes has loosened. The monster spends the majority of the time eating (between the bodies of sacrifice victims and rendered animal product stolen from the plant it is well fed). When active, it will emerge from the sewers at night to seek victims in the nearby town. So far it has only killed a few homeless men, deaths that were largely unnoticed. The PC would have to spend days in the transient community of the town to learn about the disappearances. Better Living Through AlchemyThe ritual to restore the God of Corruption requires an extraction from decomposing tissues that must be refined through a combination of science and magic ritual. PCs that trail and/or try to keep an eye on Glenn may spot him smuggling an alembic in or out of the plant in the middle of the night. He acquired this item in the back on an antique store, under direction from the God of Corruption. Characters with Occult or Chemistry skills will recognize it as an alchemical device. This encounter can be used to cast more suspicion on Glenn, or confirm the current suspicions if the character has been slow to investigate.The device is used to boil select parts of humans and animals and then distill them into "essential fluids" required for the ceremonies. These fluids are then combined with dead tissues stored in old mop buckets, creating a half-alive abomination that adds its foul energy to the spells being cast.When the character's explore the basement three such horrors are confined in the mop buckets which provide protection to these otherwise vulnerable sins against nature. These buckets slowly wheel back and forth across the splatter-covered concrete floor, pulling themselves along with sinewy tentacles, emitting soft groaning noises as they pulse and squirm and leaving slimy trails to mark their passage. The character will first hear the squeak of rusted wheels, then a horrible squishing, followed by the sight of buckets apparently moving by themselves in the darkness.These horrors can not attack and killing them can halt the final ritual. A Little PushIf Grace has been talking about Glenn to the PC she will be murdered by the Otyugh shortly after. Word of the disappearance will reach the character through gossip and overheard conversations and of course by the fact that she simply isn't there the next day. If the PC waits too long he or she becomes the next target for the Otyugh.Elevator ActionIt should become clear to the PC that whatever Glenn is doing is taking place in the basement. To get there, the elevator must be activated. Glenn carries one key and an additional key is in the foreman's office. A little breaking and entering will be required to get it, but alone on the graveyard shift this is less of a problem than it might be otherwise.Alternately, characters with electrical skill (perhaps a former electrician?) can hot-wire the elevator. The more rogue-ish might try to lift Glenn's key with a pickpocket attempt, or simply take it by force. If Glenn is physically dealt with before going to the basement the Otyugh will be waiting, however.In any case, gaining access to the elevator should be a good opportunity for the character to show some ingenuity. Stopping the HorrorOnce the basement is reached the PC can confront the bucket horrors. If the character keeps his/her sanity they can be dealt with fairly easily. A further search of the lower level uncovers Glenn's alchemy lab. Time for a little heroic vandalism! A diary/experimental record found here will fill the character in to the full scope of the danger. He may also have some occult/magic tomes that might prove useful now or in the future. The alchemy lab is also a good source of creepy encounters with "lively awfulness": cow eyes with human fingers growing from them, mashed organic paste with a dozen moaning maws, bones leaking marrow that congeals into other shapes, etc.Starnes should confront the character at some point. Depending on how sneaky the PC was he/she might completely get the drop on Glenn or find him lying in wait or arriving after. This scene should be milked for all it's worth and a speech about hating humanity and "you'll all pay soon" would not be inappropriate. Alternately, he could simply jump out of the shadows and attack. In either case, the PC should win after a hard fight. Heading out of the dreadful basement to the world above, the final battle begins.Refined OtyughAs the dazed and drained character exits the elevator the Otyugh will burst through a particularly rotten portion of the floor and attempt to kill the character. The PC can win, but only with skill and/or luck. One solution is to lure the horror into the rendering vat and turn it into dog food. It's also possible to use some industrial cleaning chemicals (acids?) to burn the monster. Perhaps that fire ax on the wall will be useful? Maybe just set the old plant on fire and hope for best? Failing that, it's a fight to the finish, possibly even a running battle. Paranoid ex-military/criminal types might have brought the firepower to survive. Others are in deep trouble.Destroying the basement lab and then killing Glenn and the Otyugh will probably delay the Devourer's return by years, until another suitable subject can be found. Actually destroying the plant is an even more permanent solution. Defeating this horror may earn the character the attention of a Delta Green type group of government sp00ks or simply get the character jailed or forced into hiding for the massive destruction caused. Either way, the life of survivor is going to get interesting.Other OptionsIf the GM wishes to include a red herring villain the role of Holdt and Pleasant Valley Dog Food itself as "evil capitalists" can be played up. In this case Holdt should be more condescending and less helpful and employees should openly grumble about safety issues, cost cutting, out-sourcing, management and how bad it is, etc. This sidetrack could lead to some interesting role-playing opportunities.It's also possible to run this adventure for more than one character with minimal modification. Additional PCs could be day shift employees (overtime?), local law enforcement (investigating missing persons), government health inspectors, or even Grace and Holdt. In the case of multiple PCs a body count should be expected to keep the tension high.It the character fails to stop the evil plan a new PC could take over (likely a police investigator or even another new hire). If the Devourer is actually released or the Otyugh escapes to run amok the player might take on the role of a National Guard member or ordinary citizen from the nearby town. Ingredient ReviewCheap Trollop: The character of Grace Hoobler offers inexpensive services as a prostitute as well as fitting the other definition with her battered and dirty appearance.Jealousy: Glenn's jealousy towards humanity following the death of his own dreams and his descent into misery drives him into murder and then becoming the slave of an Evil God. Otyugh: This foul monster fits in perfectly with the rendering plant/sewer setting and theme of corruption. It is a servitor of the Devourer summoned to aid in gathering and disposing of organic tissue.Elevator room: Couldn't be more literal. Gaining access to the plant's elevator will be one of the tasks the PC must complete to reach the basement and stop the horrors lurking below.Alembic: This alchemical device is used by Glenn as part of the vile experiments and rituals, specifically to distill essential fluids from harvested tissue. It serves as a possible clue to put suspicion on Glenn. It also draws a nice parallel between the modern rendering techniques for the supposed good of humanity in the plant above and the medieval alchemy for humanity's detriment taking place beneath. Nonstop buckets: The horrific occupants of the mop buckets in the basement keep them in constant, horrible motion. The buckets house and protect these abominations, which are needed for the final ritual and might otherwise be easily damaged.</blockquote>

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