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Hook, Line, & Sinker: The Ghosts of Gettysburg |
By: Dustin M. Ramsey (DustinM@rifts-rpg.com)
Based on Concepts and Game Design by: Kevin Siembieda and
Palladium Books (http://www.palladiumbooks.com)
Back in August 2000 I took a vacation trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania with my wife and several friends. One of the things we did there was a Ghost Walk were the townspeople tell stories about the many ghosts reputed to inhabit the area's battlefields, mountains, and town buildings. Naturally this started giving me ideas about an adventure to put my playing group through. Here is my idea, presented as a Hook, Line, & Sinker ...
Hook:
Starting in July 102 P.A., thousands of poltergeist, syphon entities, haunting entities, tectonic entities, and possessing entities (see Conversion Book (One), pp. 175 - 180) have been spreading outward in all directions from the wilderness of western Pennsylvania. These spirits have been extremely aggressive in nature and cause a great deal of destruction and havoc.
Line:
The PC group is hired by a local city-state to track down the cause of the of these entities, and to put a stop to it before the city-state is overrun.
Sinker:
By following the path of death and destruction back to its source, the PC's arrive at the pre-rifts ruins of a small town in south-western Pennsylvania. (The entities have been radiating out from a central source and are pretty much moving in a straight line outward from that area, so it is not terribly difficult to track them back to their point of origination.) Wilderness Scouts, Psi-Stalkers, Simvan, and other characters in tune with nature quickly notice that the forest around the ruins is eerily quiet. Careful examination by these characters will show that a fifty mile wide area is completely devoid of animal life. Likewise, for every hour spent in this area there is a 20% chance that any psychics in the group will, for a split second, hear the far-off roar of cannons, gunshots, and bugles in the distance. If the characters continue to explore this area, at its exact center they will discover a small mountain (GM's info: this mountain is Little Round Top) with a ley line nexus at its summit. Should the PC's camp on or around the mountain, they will be surprised when at midnight the entire mountain is transformed into a deafening battlefield between ghostly human combatants using muskets, cannons, and sabers. (Combatants and PC's cannot see or interact with each other, so even having a cannonball blast through a PC has no physical effect on the character.)
At precisely 13 minutes after midnight, the battle disappears just as abruptly as it began and a massive rift rips from the nexus point at the top of the mountain. Characters sensitive to temporal disturbances (Temporal Raider, Temporal Wizard, Temporal Warrior, Shifter, dragon, characters with a Temporal Link parasite, etc.) will immediately sense that the rift is actually a rip in the fabric of time. While the rift only stays open for 2D6 melees, it spews forth the following extremely hostile entities: 2D4 x 10 poltergeists, 2D6 x 10 syphon entities, 6D6 x 10 haunting entities, 3D4 x 10 tectonic entities, and 2D6 possessing entities. Naturally things look pretty bad for the PC's ... however 1D4 melees after the rift closes, a massive ley line storm (see Atlantis, pp. 12 - 13) starts and the now enraged entities rapidly flee the area at maximum speed.
The characters may try any number of clever but futile ideas, however no matter what they do, every night the ghostly battle starts promptly at midnight, the rift opens at 12:13am disgorging hundreds of angry entities, and immediately after the rift closes a ley line storm erupts and drives off all of the entities. Eventually the characters will realize that their only option is to stop the problem at its source by entering the rift the next time it appears. Upon entering the rift, the characters are engulfed by a blinding flash of light, and then reappear on the same mountain top, sans ley lines and nexus point. Characters who are neither magic users nor psychics will be disinclined to believe that they have traveled anywhere at all. In actuality, the PC's have traveled backwards in time 525 years to the year 1863, and have arrive just a few days before the clash of the North and South at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Additionally, the characters will discover that everything mega-damage in their party has been transformed to S.D.C. (see Dragons and Gods, pp 18 - 19).
Shortly after arriving, all of the psychic characters in the group will begin to sense a great supernatural evil pervading the area, though they will not be able to pin it down to anywhere more specific than the surrounding mile or two. Now the PC's will have to search the area, all the while dodging the ever increasing patrols of hostile Northern and Southern soldiers.
After two days of exhaustive searching, the PC's will eventually find a hidden cave approximately two miles from the mountain top where they rifted in. Exploring the depths of the cave, the PC's will discover something similar to an astral form of the Conqueror Alien Intelligence (see Mercenaries, pp. 158 - 160). Using its powerful psychic abilities, the creature has lured both the armies of the North and the South to Gettysburg, and intends feed on the P.P.E. and souls of the thousands who will be killed in the course of the battle.
The creature has 1500 S.D.C. and regenerates 1D4 x 10 S.D.C. per minute, but only takes damage from magic and psionics. The intelligence has 1000 I.S.P., six psionic attacks per melee, and has all of the Healing, Physical, Sensitive, Super, and Mind Bleeder psychic powers. Additionally, once per minute the creature can send forth 1D4 fragments of its essence in an attempt to possess one of the PC's (standard saving throw vs. psionics). If the targeted PC fails their saving throw, the character will fight to the death (or until restrained) trying to kill the remaining PC's. If the PC succeeds their saving throw, the essence fragment disappears. (Gamemasters should adjust the power level of the creature up or down as necessary depending on the strength of the PC group.)
When the PC's defeat the intelligence, they are instantly engulfed in a flash of light that knocks them unconscious. Once the PC's awaken, they discover that they are in the same cave, but back in their own time (102 P.A.). With the creature defeated, the entity-gushing rift never appears again, and the adventurers can return to the city-state as heroes and collect a suitable reward.
As a note to game-masters, should any of the characters start complaining about 'time-loops' and the such, one of the characters should discover a message tattooed on their arse or the back of their head that says "BUZZ OFF!" For reasons unclear to everyone, all of the PC's will know that the message is from the Time Lords (see Transdimensional Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), and that to press further would be to risk the ire of one of the most powerful groups in the Megaverse.