Project Pi -- Modern d20 Cthulhu adventure

[Nebulous]

PART 1 of 3

"Project Pi" was a short adventure in a German magazine, Worlds of Cthulhu Issue #1.

I ran it in three parts for a total of about 12 hours. Both BRP and d20 character stats were provided for pregen characters, and I took the liberty of creating character sheets for every player and had them pick and choose who they wanted at the beginning of the adventure. Most of the stats and character backgrounds are courtesy of the original authors.

One very interesting addition to the character lineup is that each PC had a secret flaw. Having this flaw come out in gameplay was one of the goals. Although it didn't always work so well in practice. From anyone who has read my other Story Hour, The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep, my players like to Shoot First and Roleplay Later.

Sample Sheet:

MAY 2001 - A strike team of roughly nine Navy Seal Aces has assembled
somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Traveling with the Third Fleet of
destroyers and other maritime vessels, they were gruffly briefed by Vice
Admiral Matthew Bucci, a hard-bitten war veteran and Navy commander.

Their TOP SECRET MISSION:

"Soldier!" barks the Admiral. "48 hours ago all contact was lost with the research vessel Roger Revelle. They were conducting experiments with Russian torpedoes,
called "squalls" which could reach speeds up to 310 mph. An
unexplainable "bell" of fog nearly 4 miles in diameter had formed over
the Roger Revelle's last known position. The fog is impervious to all
satellite imaging, radio transmission, and radar. YOUR MISSION: Find
the Roger Revelle and its crew. Reconnaissance and collect any
scientific equipment, records, etc. and return to me ASAP. The Third
Fleet and the Navy CANNOT know about this mission. That's why you have
been hand-picked. Don't let us down."

The Team (11th level Soldiers / 1 Doctor): Captain "Mojo" Whitaker, *Lt.
Hicks,* Lt. Amy "Deadeye" Vasquez, Lt. Mollie "DevNull" Caple, *Lt.
Edward "Bishop" Potter,* Lt. Charlier "Chopper" Hancock, Lt. Felipe
"Boom-Boom Pereira, Mike "Doc" Varney, *Lt. Wayne Jackson*. (*Bolded
*are current PC's)

WHAT WENT DOWN:

So, in the dead of night, The team assembled with full automatic weapons, night vision goggles, and body armor, taking a submersible, a surface boat, and a
one-man skimmer. They were given a handout of the Revelle's most
recent floor plans (dated 5 years). The fog was unnaturally thick, absorbing
even the sounds of the ocean, pressing in like a billowing wet cloak.
Radio transmission from the Third Fleet was lost almost immediately.

Floating roughly in the center of the fog bank, the SEAL team finds the
Roger Revelle completely dark and powered down.

No signs of damage or danger of sinking. They break down into two teams
and Alpha Squad sneaks onboard, while the others remain on the vessels. They quickly discover numerous splotches of green slime all over the ship, chunky and smelly,
as if someone had vomited in a wide wet puddle. Hick's motion scanner
soon picks up movement, and they follow deeper into the ship.
Investigation of crew's quarters reveals a room that must have housed
two Norwegians, and a diary of scrawled, terrified handwriting. DOC is
currently deciphering the journal, but seems to find that the Norwegians
were delusional, something about KURSK, and scrawled images of fanged
amphibious beings.

Following the blipping motion scanner leads them into an AMBUSH! Someone
opens fire on them from the end of a corridor with an automatic rifle.
The SEALS eliminate the threat, and find a Russian with a Russian SK40
and night vision goggles. No other evidence or clues. The squad
travels to the bridge and Science Quarter, but there is no power, they
can't access computers, so they eventually decide to find the Engine
Room. Green viscous slime is sprinkled everywhere, but there is no sign
of life, until they reach the engine room. While Hicks is turning the
power back on, the rest are attacked by a savage growling beast towering
over them!

Sporadic fireplay barely illuminates the creature, and no
sooner than it is killed than ANOTHER slams into Hicks from the shadows!
It too is killed before tearing Hicks to pieces. They are actually
massive gorillas, but their presence on the ship is unexplained.

The power lights up the ship, and illuminates laboratories where there is
evidence of mischief, although the party does not stop to investigate.
They return to the Science Quarter and the room of a particular Dr.
Spencer, Chief Research Scientist on board. Doc meanwhile seems to
become very sick very suddenly, but is still able to hack into Spencer's
computer. There is a colorful poster of a "Phoenix" on the wall, as
well as many books about viral contamination, genetics, and other
advanced subjects.

There are two folders, one called Project Pi, the other designated
Phoenix. Within are numerous files, charts, spreadsheets, word documents
and scanned images which they take the time to burn to CD. Several of
the .pdfs in particular seem to be scanned images of books possibly
thousands of years old...

...such as one called "The Necronomicon."

Doc then finds an emptied email folder, but the SENT folder reveals
several emails with startling implications:

#1) Dr. Honor Clark Spencer has been in constant contact with Vice
Admiral Bucci and someone named NJONES@NAVY.MIL about
the status of the Roger Revelle and their experiments. It has NOTHING to do with secret
torpedoes. The Roger Revelle has taken DNA from a "humanoid piscid" and
injected it into a latent flu virus for military expectations. Doc
thinks that KURSK (as written in the Norwegians journal) might have been
a Russian research vessel)

#2) The rhesus monkey injected with the virus died horribly within 6
seconds from bodily alterations. Some of the virus might have escaped.

#3) Spencer and NJONES have a secret agenda apart from Bucci: Project
Phoenix. Spencer has poisoned the entire ship with the flu virus on
purpose, but reported it as an accident. They have a hidden goal few
others know about.

#4) The crew is infected and dying quickly, vomiting up internal organs
and green sputum as they metamorphosed.

Spencer wants to use the virus
as a military bio-weapon, sell it to the highest bidder for billions to
further finance "Phoenix" . He and his other brothers will "clean up"
on the Roger Revelle and rendezvous with NJONES at the predetermined
time, with the "new blood."

#5) Spencer tells Bucci that the virus has gone rampant, killing nearly
everyone, with a 70-100% mortality rate. Bucci is warned to not send a
team unless they have full biohazard suits, and immediate quarantine
upon return. Washington should be informed.

The SEALS deduce that Bucci has sent them on a suicide mission to be
contaminated, possibly, by the virus. They don't know where the crew is,
or how many there were, although the records are probably somewhere.
Several sublevels of the ship are still unexplored, and they have the pervading
feeling that something is very, very wrong.

Next...Part 2

 

[Nebulous]

PROJECT PI - d20 Cthulhu Adventure

Part 2 of 3


The Navy SEALS aboard the Roger Revelle have determined that Vice
Admiral Bucci has it in for them. They're probably on board the ship to
contract the lethal virus, and then be quarantined before they die for
"research purposes." They contemplate several courses of action:
sending the other SEALS back, sinking the ship by detonating the fuel
drums, broadcasting an email to someone, but ultimately they make their
way to the bridge where Doc downloads the crew list. There are supposed
to be 59 people on board, including 2 Norwegians. Dr. Honor Clark
Spenser is in charge of the entire expedition.

They make their way down to the ruined labs, unsure of what to do next.
It looks like a ferocious firefight took place here. Bullet holes riddle
shiny aluminum walls and pristine white operating tables. Tables and
chairs and cabinets are strewn everywhere. The airlock is ruptured. The
SEALS are immediately under duress as to whether they are infected or
not. There are some biohazard suits that a few of them slip into just in
case. Captain "Mojo" has lost all sense of command. He's muttering and
cursing and sweating profusely, useless to anyone. Doc coughs a wad of
green phlegm inside his face mask. He's obviously contaminated.

Doc, Hicks, and Jackson enter what looks like an Animal Lab. Two huge
cages are empty, but plaques read "Kong" and "Moses". Smaller cages for
rhesus monkeys have been pulped into bloody, crumpled wrecks.

A third ape cage - for "Samson" - holds something still alive. A
quivering black mass inside the cage doesn't react to the SEALS, but
when they spot vestigial gills on the gorilla's neck, they shoot first
and ask questions later. The four other SEALS waiting on board the
dropship can hear everything through the team's headsets.

Then Doc finds the blood stains. A lot of blood.

The Cold Room is code locked, but they eventually figure out the code
is the numerical value of Pi: 31415. Inside are dozens of bodies. The entire crew.
Cooling off quickly now that the power is back on. Sanity checks are rolled for
everyone as the sight is horrific, then they try to open some of the
closed steel storage bays. Inside #4 is a ghastly thing: a dissected
fish man of some kind, larger than a human, sliced open to reveal its
internal organs. The party isn't sure if it's a mutated human or the
Real Deal.

Just then a resounding BOOM! shakes the ship! Those closest run topside
first. The dropship is turned over, bubbles raging from where the
submersible was formerly anchored. DevNull is treading water and
screaming for help. Boom-Boom is clinging desperately to a plank of
wood, having salvaged only his LAW rocket launcher. The other two are
gone, probably dragged to the bottom by the weight of their gear.
DevNull says the radar picked up a torpedo blip mere seconds before
impact, then something toppled the surface vessel.

Everyone is dragged on board the Roger Revelle, and the group descends
ever deeper into the hold, until they find the Dive Pool.

An empty crane hangs over the pool. They're about to continue their sweep of the ship
when a foreign voice interrupts over their Navy frequency, introducing
himself in a thick Russian accent as Admiral Dochormov of the Russian
nuclear submarine The Potemkin.

Here's what Dochormov tells them:

The Russians had discovered the presence of real Fishmen in the Barents
Sea. R&D wanted to capture them and try to create some sort of
amphibious supersolider from their DNA. Admiral Vladimir Dochmorov and
a small cadre of soldiers feared the implications of what their country
was doing. So, they stole the submarine Potemkin (a la Red October) sunk
the research vessel Kursk, and headed for the high seas.

Enter the US military.

They find out about the Fishmen and the experiments. They hire
two of the surviving Norwegians rescue divers from the Kursk. The Roger
Revelle was given permission to find new Fishmen and conduct similar
experiments, in hopes to find a formula for superhuman aquatic
soldiers. The renegade Russians caught wind of this and set off to
destroy the Roger Revelle before any more harm was done. But when they
arrived, the ship was strangely quiet and deserted. They snuck aboard to
investigate, which is EXACTLY when the party arrived...

BEGINNING OF THE END:

Admiral Dochmorov is relentless. He has a nuclear missile primed and
aimed at the Roger Revelle and he's ready to use it. He demands for the
PC's to trade any information they have discovered, and to come with him
or die. There is no escape. After conferring among themselves, and
comparing the crew list to the bodies in the Cold Room, and finding
several crewman with suspicious Phoenix tattoos, the party tells the
Admiral they have reason to believe that Dr. Honor Clark Spencer is not
on board. This troubles the Admiral, as Spencer is the mastermind behind
all this madness, and is up to a good deal more than just fishman DNA.

Furthermore, DevNull uses her computer skills to determine that a
submersible has already launched from the pool room many hours ago and
is currently 2000 FEET STRAIGHT DOWN.

The Admiral offers the group one chance and one chance ONLY to defect to
his ship. They can't return home, they can't return to the waiting Third
Fleet, and if they stay they'll be blown to smithereens.

But before they leave, Lt. Reynolds (Leo) slits Doc's throat and makes
up a story about how he went crazy. [GM Note: this was part of his secret malady; serial killer]. No one suspects otherwise.

Everyone crowds aboard the Potemkin, a sweaty, stinky, cramped sub of
garish red lights and hairy Russian soldiers, all pointing SK40's at the
SEALS. They descend straight down, and it's not long before the
exterior lights reveal something hauntingly impossible...

There is a city beneath the waves. Coral encrusted spires.
Non-euclidean arches and undecipherable glyphs. A towering black
mountain. The sub enters a cave and emerges in a cavern with a
breathable atmosphere. The group dispatches, heavily armed, along with
a few Russian soldiers, inside a huge cavern supported by incredibly
huge pillars.

The first SEAL sets foot on the landing dock and TAATA! TAT! RAATTAA!
TAT! Automatic gunfire whistles around him, tearing out chunks of
ancient stone. The assailant is soon eliminated, a scientist from the
Revelle, and on his person is a Walkie-Talkie, a rough translation of
some of the hieroglyphics, and a bizarre, pointless poem.

Eager to finish this mission once and for all, the group haphazardly begins to
wander around.

A glowing red eye seems to be watching from an above a massive archway,
and Lt. Hicks fires on it, but the bullet is reflected. In the next chamber
is another room of jagged stalagmites and three staircases, a whistling
deep pit, and a placid pool. But the pool isn't placid for long!
Gibbering fishmen erupt from it once the group is closer, and they open
fire.

Bullets easily tear through the advancing monsters, splattering
brains and viscera in a wide berth on the cavern floor. The battle
favors them until something HUGE and writhing and slimy surges out of
the pool, an octopus-like beast with one red eye. It seizes a Russian
and throws him to his death down the pit. Captain Mojo can't take the
horror and runs screaming from the chamber, but the slimy thing can't
stand the combined onslaught of machine guns, shot guns, grenades, and
finally a humming Gatling gun that mows it down under a hail of lead.
The thing's corpse sinks back into the pool, coloring it a shade of
endless black...

And that's where we stopped. Dr. Spencer is somewhere in this strange
place (Is it Atlantis? Who knows???) and he holds the key to future
experimentation with lethal genetics. He holds a virus in his possession
that could potentially contaminate the entire world. And he clings to
the secret goal of Project Phoenix, that not even Vice Admiral Bucci was
aware...

Whispers beckon in the darkness as they grimly reload their guns...

 

[talien]

Woot, looking forward to the conclusion! I want to run this scenario, but the ending (and the situation required to get to the ending) seems so lethal that I'm still trying to wrap my head around how I can incorporate it into my d20 Modern game.

This story hour is very helpful. Great job, thank you!

 

[Nebulous]

Project P- Cthluhu adventure Part 3 of 3

Part 3 of 3



AND SO IT ENDS...

The surviving Navy SEALS have fended off a swarm of ravenous fish men
and a multi-armed one-eyed horror, isolated and alone in a sunken city
named R'yleh somewhere in the uncharted depths of the Pacific Ocean.

Their mission, as imposed by the defecting Russian Admiral Ochmorov:
find and subdue (i.e. splatter) the American scientist Spencer who
caused all this mess in the first place. Alienated from the Third
Fleet, used like expendable guinea pigs by their own superiors, and
exposed to a lethal virus (especially Hicks (Jeff) who is quickly
dying from an infected bite), the SEALS and two Russian meat shields
forge on with single-minded determination.

The walkie talkie obtained from the sneak attack when they first
arrived suddenly warbles. A voice demands "Powers! I heard gunfire!
What's happening?" Reynolds tries to bluff the other man, but his
bluff is finally called, and the mysterious voice says they have no
chance of stopping him (whatever that means). It's assumed to be their
target Spencer.

They delve deeper into the complex, down echoing hallways and plopping
pools of frigid water. At one point they notice that the woman
DevNull has vanished from their ranks, and backtracking they find her
being strangled by something passing straight through solid stone! It
bears a single ominous glowing red eye, but releases her when the
others arrive.

They pass branching tunnels, and begin a steep climb up spiraling
slimy slick steps, only to finally encounter massive black scaled fish
men bearing awful clubs!

Machine guns tear through them, then a swarm
of smaller fishmen flank the soldiers from below. Potter dashes up the
steps, only to be frozen in his tracks by a baleful red eye glowing in
the dark. He's immobilized. An extremely well placed grenade by Hicks
(Jeff) destroys the fishmen in a blast of goo and bone, and Leo plants
a bullet in the red eye, sending the thing dissolving into smoke.

GM Note: (One player is ballsy enough at this point to say the adventure is too easy.
I just smile)

At the top of an exhaustingly high spiral of steps, they find a
smashed guitar, tape recorder and several labeled vials of chemicals.
The tape recorder has a recording of a partial stanza from someone not
quite in a healthy state of mind.

They finally reach a steep chasm where howling wind blows a rickety
wooden rope bridge back and forth. The bridge reaches to a small
island, then a stone bridge crosses to another tunnel. Lt. Potter
(Dave) crosses first, and is perplexed to hear a human infant wailing
on the other side, which no one else can hear. Everyone crosses one at
a time, but the bridge is disintegrating, and DevNull drops her
valuable SHOTGUN into the ravine. At that point they consider her
pretty useless.

They search the island, Potter looking for the weird crying, and only
one Russian sees the stalagmite thrusting up from the central island suddenly
grow a glistening wet eye! He shrieks and runs, just as a ropy
tentacle shoots out and randomly snares the second Russian, pulling
him into a maw of stony teeth.

Chaos ensues as the SEALS try to get a
bead on the monster without hitting the Russian, who is being messily
eaten alive. More tendrils shoot out and ensnare three of the
Seals, one nearly tossing DevNull to her death, the other weakening
Hicks so much he can barely resist. Potter alone escapes the attack,
and cycling up his Gatling gun, he mows into the thing, irregardless
of hitting anyone (and he does spatter Hicks with gunfire). The
barrage of bullets tears the monster up and everyone escapes, except
the Russian who was sucked down and eaten.

(GM Note: it was a Roper pulled right out of the MM 3.5)

The next room is large, ominously silent, flanked by impossibly high
pillars and bizarre architecture, and wide stone steps leading up and
others down. They climb up, feeling like ants on an ancient monument,
only to enter and even LARGER room, with three flights of steps, the
central isle the largest they've seen yet with steps nearly forty feet
across. The ceiling is lost in shrouded darkness, but Reynolds keeps his
wits about notices a something lurking behind them.

Thundering FOOTSTEPS soon reveals the hulking shadow he spotted, and a malicious
roar blasts from the depths as something lumbers forward, knocking
over pillars in its rage, easily twenty feet tall with an octopoid
head and writhing tentacles and vestigial wings. The Russian loses his
and runs, DevNull follows, while Potter (Dave) and Reynolds (Leo)
rattle off shots. But bullets are harmlessly absorbed, until Dave
engages the Gatling gun again and his swiftly dwindling ammo, gunning
the thing point blank as it surges forward and STEPS ON HIM. Jeff
runs down a side passage to escape, as everyone else runs to the top
of massive staircase and takes potshots at the Star Spawn.

But Potter is alive, and the horrible thing refrains from killing him
outright, opting instead to play with his sanity. Eldritch magic
invades Potter's mind, and he suddenly forgets everyone since getting
off the sub. But he has a bigass gun in his hand and doesn't let off
the trigger, riddling 200 bullets per round into the thing's blubbery
hide. More dark magic overrides his neural pathways, and Potter
forgets his name, his career, where he was born and his mother.

He does remember, however, to keep shooting.

The Star Spawn retreats, chuckling, and a final blast of dark magic fills Potter's lungs with
SEA WATER, nearly killing him instantly, but he resists.

Jeff (Lt. Hicks) is separated and alone, exploring a shadowy tunnel of
phosphorescent moss similar to what they had seen before. He's in a
new tunnel system of passages and steep stairwells, although he finds
a crevice where he thinks he sees his comrades, but he continues to
explore a short ways...

Reynolds (Leo) tries to console the bewildered Potter and explain to
him that he is a soldier on a mission, and they stumble up the
stairwell to a massive, truly truly massive mushroom cavern dwarfing
anything they have encountered yet. They see artificial light hundreds
of feet away and move toward it cautiously, around huge columns
supporting the ceiling, past leering statues of multi-armed demons
arching over them. It's only DevNull, Reynolds, and a very confused
Potter (Dave) who can't recall who these people are. The last Russian
is a blubbering, useless mess as he contemplates putting the barrel of
his gun in his mouth. Things lurk in the stark shadows everywhere,
slithering and slurping and waving, but nothing comes within range of
their flashlights. Yet.

Hicks (Jeff) meanwhile finds a glowing room with a single, pulsing
crystal within surrounded by horrible pillars, beating as if it were
alive. So, he naturally shoots it. The crystal explodes into a million
fragments like a small ruptured star. Hicks if lucky enough to hear a
skittering sound, then sees a gargantuan single-eyed orange spider
crawling down from above. He runs back to the crevice where he saw his
friends and tries to shimmy through, just as something terrible
happens from the other side...

DevNull, Potter and Reynolds find the source of the light. A small
battery-powered halogen illuminates a massive stone portal, while a
man in an orange smock works fervently, back to them. DevNull spots
wired dynamite charges circumventing the entire stone portal. The mad
scientist Honor Clark Spencer hears their approach and spins around,
revealing a hand detonator with a shiny red button.

He tells them that it's too late! He has come here to take tissue
samples from the great Being behind the door, to clone it, and with
its power rule the world as a new god! He offers the soldiers a chance
to help him, he offers them antidotes to the virus they may have
contracted, and promises that they will live like kings among
men. To the amnesic Potter, that deal sounds pretty damn good.

Hicks doesn't buy it, bluffs, then unloads on the madman in a hail of
bullets, aiming specifically for the detonator hand. Spencer is
mauled, then DevNull opens fire, dropping the man to the ground. He
drops the detonator, blood ballooning around him and splattering on
the door. Potter (Dave) hesitates, then runs forward to help this
poor guy that just got shot to pieces after offering them quite a
lucrative deal! He gets to the man and the detonator, where with
feeble, bloodied fingers, Spencer drops his hand on the button.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOOOOOM!

Charges around the door detonate and Potter is blown off his feet. The
scientist is killed by a shard of stone through the temple, and a
gaping hole is blown through the antediluvian portal of unknown stone,
smoke billowing out in thick waves.

Then they hear hear it.

Movement.

A throaty moan by something with lungs the size of houses, and a massive RED EYE and slippery tentacles thick as cable cars presses into the open portal.

In that instant Potter, who isn't all that far away, loses all Sanity (60-some points
at once if you're interested) by the unbearable alien radiation of
something man was not meant to see. He falls to his knees,
shellshocked, while DevNull and Hicks flee for their lives, gathering
Hicks who was fortunate enough not to see it, as the entire cavern
quakes around them.

Something has been woken up. Something BAD. And Potter is
swiftly scooped up and annihilated.

The surviving three soldiers run hell bent back from the submarine,
jumping widening cracks as the complex crumbles around them.
Something huge moves in the vaults, and splintering corridors rain
stone and debris on their heads. Fishmen try to intervene, but are
either dodged or shot down, with most seeking refuge themselves.

They finally, fortunately make it back to the entrance chamber where
the stolen Russian submarine the Potemkim dutifully waits. Admiral
Ochmorov and his remaining crew have the engines primed and ready, and
once all are aboard, the sub sinks and departs the mountain as pillars
collapse around them.

But all is not well. A huge blip on the radar indicates pursuit.
Something dwarfing the sub. Something faster than the sub. Reynolds
saw it, DevNull saw it, and Hicks can guess how awful it was, and
Ochmorov has a sneaking suspicion and enough knowledge of the horrors
of the Mythos to guess what might have happened. Hicks demands that
they shoot it down, with the single primed tactical nuclear torpedo
the Potemkin had reserved to destroy the Roger Revelle and the Project
Pi virus.

The captain warns that they are too close, that the backlash could be
devastating, but the blip is gaining fast, so with dark hopes and
heavy hearts, Ochmorov orders the missile fired.

WHOOSH!

Given only a 50/50 chance of survival, the Potemkin fails to outrun
the nuclear blast that boils over them, and the crew, the ship, the
city and the inhabitants are destroyed in a thunderous mushroom of
destruction. Giving their own lives though, they sink the horror back
to the depths of haunted sleep, and save the world from doom
until such a time as the Stars are Right for darkness to return.

/END ADVENTURE
[play Pipes of Cthulhu end credits]

 

[talien]

Annnnd THAT'S why I haven't adapted it to my game yet.

 

[Nebulous]

Annnnd THAT'S why I haven't adapted it to my game yet.

Well, i gave them a straight up 50-50 chance of survival. If the dice had rolled a little different, they would have made it back, but then probably been dissected by the Admiral anyway. Lose-Lose situation!