Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Friends in Need (Oef)
Friends in Need (Oef)
Shead
Edited by: Scott Vandervalk
Illustrators: Andy Walsh, Alexander Chelyshev, Maarten Hermans, Joshua Meehan
2
Friends in Need
An Infected Scenario for 1–4 players. nuclear weapons. He will do anything to make his
final act come off.
Estimated play time: 4–6 hours.
3
Glen Stewart, NORAD Scientist: Glen’s hair is falling out from his radiation poisoning,
though he will try to keep that hidden with a hat,
Physical 6 Physical 5 Health and occasional jokes about his baldness.
Social 6 Martial 6
3 3 4 To explain why he’s going to Hoover Dam, Glen
Mental 7 Knowledge 8
Base Init 13 will say that their lab was set up there, because it
Spiritual 6 Perception 5
was unlikely to be intruded upon, and it had nearly
Equipment
Social 5 Morality 3
unlimited power. If asked how he got exposed to
Glen has no weapons when discovered (apart from a small
utility knife), though he is quite adept at most weaponry.
radiation (if the PCs figure it out), he’ll say that at
one point in their lab work they drew power from a
A solidly built man in his forties, Glen is almost nuclear reactor, but it leaked.
completely bald, and is quite physically strong and
fit, despite a gut starting to expand. However, he has
an unhealthy pallor to him, has little energy, and
exertion sends him into prolonged coughing fits.
In fact, Glen is dying from chronic radiation
overdose over the past year, as he worked with
exposed nuclear weaponry for NORAD. This gives
him a penalty of –2 on all physical actions.
4
Part One: Hitchiker you see that it’s painted a drab, military green.
However, it looks almost empty. The canopy over its
Read the following description aloud: back half has been shredded, its windshield crazed,
and one tyre is clearly flat.
The air is brutally hot, the Nevada sun seemingly
offended by the presence of any water in the region. *
The road you are on is dusty, brown, and long. It’s
If the PCs intervene or fire on it, the truck will stop,
on the way to Las Vegas, the largest city in the
and Glen Stewart, who’s inside, will lurch out with
region, and the seat of power for the mighty Skulls.
his hands up. Otherwise, the truck will crash into a
Inspiring fear with their skull face paint, and their concrete median strip.
worship of death, the Skulls dominate
Glen Stewart is quite ill, and
the region for hundreds of kilometres.
exhausted. He crashes
There has been a lot of death in the
because he almost
world. And now, they think they
passed out at the
can overcome its embrace.
wheel.
Because of this, pilgrims
If the PCs
have flocked to Vegas,
investigate, they’ll
while crusades of Skulls
find the truck has
venture ever further
been shot up recently,
outwards — turning
with small arms fire. If
the City of Sin into a
Glen sees the PCs, he will
lucrative destination
beg them for help, telling
for merchants, bounty
them that they are his only
hunters, mercenaries,
hope to get a cure back to his
snake-oil salesmen and
research facility.
those just looking for a good
time. In the truck there is only a
backpack with a large mechanical
Vegas is also a vital strategic
device inside. Glen will be very touchy
area for NORAD, who claim to
about them handling it, though will
be the only legitimate
happily show it to them himself if they
government of the
ask, treating it with great care and
USA. This has led to
reverence.
increasing tensions
as both sides come PCs may make an
into conflict — and Intelligence/Construction
this makes you check –10 to understand
particularly alert to what the device is. If they
your surroundings, lest you pass by 1–3 successes,
are caught in the crossfire. they’ll realise that it’s definitely an explosive of
some kind. Passing by 4+ successes will mean they
Because of this alertness, and the stillness of the
know it’s a tactical nuclear bomb.
desert air, you hear the truck coming from quite a
distance. It kicks up a plume of dust in its wake as If called out on this, Glen will admit it, and apologise
it lurches across the sandy road. As it draws closer, for lying. Then he’ll tell them most of the truth,
5
saying that he intends to set up the bomb at Hoover baked skeletons watch them pass, picked clean by
Dam to give NORAD more bargaining power with the desert creatures.
the Skulls — as leverage.
Fergus is the owner of Boulder City’s most popular Stace — Level 6, Specialisation Social, Martial
ĥotel. He’s a big, affable black man, ready to smile 7, HP 10. Uses a sub-machinegun, knives and
and pour a drink — and also big on information. He concealed armour +5/+5 Absorb, HR 3.
has cheap rooms for a night, or an hour, and lots of
Stace is easily noticeable by her shock of tangled
good music played by live musicians.
red hair, and her lively personality. She’s particularly
His bar is well lit with plenty of electric lights, which
will also give the PCs a real hit of nostalgia, and a
feeling like maybe, just maybe, civilisation hasn’t
entirely vanished.
Nervous
7
skilled at manipulating men, and getting If asked who they are, the NORAD team will say
information out of them, or making herself appear they’re a local group looking to take care of a
like an ally. Often she can go where the rest of the wanted criminal.
team cannot.
If the PCs make a successful Dexterity/Stealth check,
Rake — Level 6, Specialisation Knowledge 7, HP they could hide behind a car, or bit of rubble, and
12. Uses a shotgun, knives and concealed armour the mercs won’t see them.
+5/+5 Absorb, HR 3. Also skilled with explosives
Should they avoid the team in this instance, then
and science.
they’ll encounter them in the town when they head
Rake is a Skull, tried and true, with a livid X carved back – or on the way to the dam, if they don’t stop
into his forehead. But he also owes loyalty to in the town that night.
NORAD — in fact, he became a Skull
to gather information. Despite In the town...
this, he has actually become a
If the PCs stay in the town, then
convert, and vividly believes
the team will arrive a couple of
in the cult of defying death.
hours after them, and then will
Rake is also a chemist, and a
start asking after the owners
skilled bomb maker. He’s the
of the truck, and looking
brains of the operation.
for Glen.
There are a few different ways
they may encounter the PCs.
8
PCs drinks, hopefully just talking to one of them, get to stop by shooting out the radiator of the truck.
friendly, and find out who they are — as far as the Then they’ll attemp to capture the PCs. If a gunfight
mercs knew, Glen was by himself, so who are these starts, the NORAD team will be very careful with
new guys? their attacks, so they don’t hit the nuke (if anyone
does shoot it, then they should make a Luck check
In particular, Stace will use her charms to find out
or spend a point — if they fail, then it sets off the
from the PCs what they’re doing and where they’re
timer or explodes... and that’s all folks!).
going. If she can get one of the PCs alone with her,
Brady and Rake will bust in just as the PC is getting If the PCs evade the mercs (shoot out a tyre, etc.),
comfortable (with weapons not to hand), and then then they’ll come back later at the dam, and attack
they’ll quietly force the information out of him, just as Glen is getting things set up.
using their knives. They’ll kill the PC afterwards —
strangling them with a rope, so as not to leave any Part Three: Hoover Dam
blood. Of course, if the PC is a really good talker,
they may be able to wheedle their way out of it, and Read the following description aloud:
just get tied up, but that would require some great
Twisting and turning through switchback roads
role playing and some good social rolls!
tracing over gaping chasms, you find yourselves
Depending on the situation, the mercenaries have dwarved by soaring, ragged peaks and buffeted by
a number of ways they may attempt to take out the fierce, desert winds.
target and recover “the asset”. They may attempt
At one point you pass the blackened, twisted
to distract the PCs and draw them away from Glen,
remnant of some long-dead convoy, the road itself
with a fight, an argument, or some alarming news.
torn up by the force of that forgotten blast. Some
Stace may also start up a conversation with Glen to
of the vehicles have been shoved out of the way,
gain his interest, then Brady starts a brawl, allowing
off the edge of that high road, but what remains is
Rake and Stace to capture Glen in the confusion.
nearly enough to block your passage.
Rake may steal something from the PCs and runs off
You rumble past acres of power coils, still converting
with it, drawing a pursuit. He’ll then throw the item
immense amounts of power from the dam and
away and attempt to lose the PCs. If they’ve left
sending them on to Vegas. Ahead of you plunges the
Glen unguarded, Stace and Brady will capture him.
dam itself, as monolithic as the Grand Canyon and
If Glen is captured, they’ll drag him into some dark, the mighty Colorado River. To one side, Lake Mead
secluded area (or maybe even upstairs, sticking a stretches in placid blue, while to the other, a convex
knife into his ribs to make him come along). Then grey wall drops a thousand feet or more.
they’ll force the information out of him on the
There are gates in front of the road now, and Skulls
bomb — where is it, and whether it’s been set and
too, sitting watch in sun-baked watch towers. There
armed. Once they have all their information, they’ll
might once have been an official military force
strangle him and attempt to flee with the bomb.
stationed here, with old tanks watching you down
This will give the PCs about ten minutes to find him long, deadly muzzles. But whether those tanks are
before it’s too late. still operational seems dubious.
10
guards. This would best be done at night, or just Glen cannot be persuaded to disarm it. If the PCs
before dawn, and preferably silently. However, if demand he does so, then he’ll pretend to disarm it,
this is done, then there’s a chance that they may run and instead set it off manually.
into other Skulls or civilians in the tunnels below. It’s
Any PCs getting to the bomb may attempt to disarm
also possible that the bodies will be discovered and
it with an Intelligence/Construction check –6.
the alarm raised that way.
However, they won’t be able to work it out unless
they have a Construction of 7, with a background in
The NORAD Team
explosives or nuclear engineering. It’s fairly complex
The NORAD mercenary team may attack them while stuff. They can still attempt it, but only half their
they’re infiltrating the facility. If so, they’ll attack successes will count.
from behind, and the sound of the fighting will bring
A Bungle will set the bomb off.
Skulls running, pinning the PCs between two forces,
unless they work out some cunning strategem. Should the bomb be set, there will be a fuse of
ten minutes. Glen will hide it, and then attempt
This could result in a fierce and confusing battle
to escape again, to reach a good vantage point to
in the tunnels, and on the surface. Glen will use
watch his handiwork.
the confusion to slip into the facility, locate the
generators and set up the nuke. If the bomb goes off, it will be a truly titanic
blast. A vast amount of concrete will
The Plot Unravels burst off the face of the dam, and a
colossal fireball will rip through
Should Glen escape from
the facility, killing everyone
the PCs and none of them
inside and belching out
realise how important
through the top in a blaze
this is, one of the NORAD
of white and red. Anyone
mercs could let slip
standing on the bridge
something that gives the
will be tossed around, or
game away. If captured, or
even off it, like a rag doll. All
wounded, they’ll gasp something
electronic devices will be ruined
about “the bomb”. If asked to
by the EMP, rendering the entire
elaborate, they’ll say that Glen
facility inert.
has a nuke, “Did you really not
know?!” Shortly afterwards, water will start pouring
through the ruptured face of the dam, in
Setting Up the Bomb a torrent. However, the dam will remain
standing — crippled, and bleeding, but still
If Glen is not stopped from reaching
largely intact. However, there will be no way to
the generators, he’ll be able to set
restore it, and Glen’s mission will have been a
up the bomb. This will only take about
success.
five minutes. If he’s trapped, and unable
to get to the generators, he will set it If he can, Glen will watch this occur, then either
up anyway, to do as much damage escape for another day (he’s dying, but he’s still
as possible. One way or another, got time enough to return as another blighted
he wants to make this villain), or, if faced with capture
bomb go off!
11
he’ll kill himself, by leaping off the cliff face into The Skulls will likely consider the PCs to be
the canyon. responsible for the attack, and if they can be
identified, there will be warrants put out for their
Glen will remain coolly logical to the end. He’ll be
capture (or their heads). NORAD will likely also
disappointed that the dam didn’t rupture altogether,
consider them enemies to be disposed of, and if any
and explain that he must have had his calculations
of the mercenaries make it back to base, the PCs
off a little bit. Perhaps the blast was dampened by
will be IDed as yet another irritation to be removed,
the extra layers of concrete down that far?
but no further action will be taken against them.
If PCs at any point attempt to persuade him not to After all, NORAD has more enemies than they can
set the nuke off, he’ll listen and understand their count anyway.
reasoning, but explain that in a war, losses are
unavoidable. With every form of creation, there
is some destruction. Besides, he doesn’t care
anymore — he just wants to see it blow up. No one
cared about him when he was exposed to all that
radiation. He was a casualty of war. So why should
he care about anyone else?
Epilogue
If the PCs stop Glen, then they’ll have saved Vegas
from slowly dying of thirst. It’s also possible that
they’ll now have possession of a tactical nuclear
weapon, which is something of massive strategical
and physical value, and could certainly set them up
for some other interesting scenarios. Others will
want the device, will want them to use the device,
or will ask them to help bargain, and so on.
12
Fangs For Reading
To purchase a copy of the full book, as well as for tutorials and upcoming releases, please go to:
www.infected.immersion-rpg.com
13
14