So, I wrote an issue module for the sentinels RPG, doing my best to reverse engineer how such things work from the Starter Kit. I have no idea what soever how good it is, but in theory it is ready to play with the heroes in the starter kit so if it looks interesting to you go ahead and give it a try. Feedback is incredibly welcome.
Synopsis: This issue takes place inside the small New England hamlet of Pinebrook around Christmas time. The houses are light from within by a cheery glow and snow has blanketed every surface to look like frosting on gingerbread. The Hallmark Channel could not have constructed a more perfect Christmas loving town on a sound stage in San Alonso.
The heroes have been called here for one reason or another. Cooperate sponsorship deal in the idealistic space, visiting relatives for the holidays, or a permeation by a mystic ally that something is going to happen here are a couple of examples.
Not everything is as it seems, however. As the heroes make their way through town they find the odd individual who just seems depressed, a sour note in the holiday cheer of the town. Some of them have every right to be sad and are facing major problems. Family members fighting illnesses, trouble finding work. Others are faced with just a general malaise, were every tiny inconvenience is perceived as a terrible calamity.
Whether the heroes take time out from there day to help these people or not, they are eventually drawn that night to the graveyard where a villainous horde of zombies is rising from underneath the snow! Eldritch relics that clearly bare the likeness of Gloomweaver are animating them and drawing some kind of eldritch power from the souls of those put to rest here, and it’s up to the heroes to put a stop to it. Nothing good ever happens if you let a ritual in a graveyard go unfinished.
The final scene happens right after, in the church beyond the graveyard. Some of the townsfolk are in black robes and have obviously been swayed to the worship of Gloomweaver, and now that the ritual has been resolved one way or another they are ready to do battle with the heroes themselves. They are, however, completely outmatched and easily defeated.
Once they have been dealt with, the heroes can investigate and find that they got the items and knowledge to perform the rituals from a now defunct website. It becomes clear that someone, somewhere is spreading the knowledge and items to preform gloom magic to the desperate, and they will continue to do so unless the heroes can track them down.
Scene 1: Welcome to Pinebrook.
This is a montage scene where the heroes are not in any danger and free to just explore around the town of Pinebrook. There are a lot of Christmas celebrations going on and the townspeople are more than happy to include the heroes in there activates. They might be invited to a high school production of The Christmas Carol, watch a holiday parade down main street, go Christmas shopping in an open air market, enter a baking competition, or anything else that you or they can think of.
As they go about enjoying the cheer, they should encounter individuals who are in a sad, or dare we say, gloomy state. Someone who can’t just get there Christmas pie to turn out right, a child who has lost their mother in the crowd, one of Santa’s elves who just had their boyfriend break up with them, or so forth.
Some of these individuals are feeling their own natural emotions, others are having minor problems flair up as a result of the gloom magic being done in town. Either way, the heroes may want to try to cheer them up. For the naturally sad individuals, this only requires that they make the effort. For those under the effect of gloom magic, am overcome action needs to be performed. Keep track of how many individuals the heroes have brought joy to during this scene, as it will be important later.
Eventually the sun starts to go down and the temperature drops and everyone starts to hustle back inside where it is nice and warm to enjoy a cozy night’s sleep.
Except the heroes
Scene 2: Twas the night of the living dead before Christmas
A townsfolk comes running up to the heroes just as they are ready to go back to the warmth and safety of their beds. He had just been by the old church just outside of town, and the dead have started clawing their way out of the Earth!
Several relics have been placed in and around the graveyard, and are draining the spiritual energy of this place. The grief felt by mourns at two centuries worth of funerals, the lingering essence of the departed, and perhaps even the souls of the few harmless ghosts that haven’t found the way to cross over yet and channeling it to Gloomweaver in the Realm of Discord.
They are doing a poor job of it though, a lot of the eldritch energy is leaking out and this is responsible for the mass animation taking place. These are not the most well-crafted zombies in the world, the energy animating them is chaotic and fleeting and they start to rot and fall to pieces before the heroes eyes. They wouldn’t last long past sunrise in any case, but that is more than enough time for them to do a lot of damage to the town.
Disrupting the ritual cuts off the energy going to the zombies and causes them to fall to pieces
Scene Tracker: G G Y Y Y Y R R
Zombie Horde
Starting Health Heroes times 20
Powers Qualities
Undead Strength d10 Hatred of the Living d8
Undead Fortitude d10 Creatures of Gloom d6
Rotting Regeneration d8 numerous d12
Festering Sickness d6
Status
The zombie horde starts with a d10 for status. Each time one of the relics have been disabled, the die drops by one to a minimum of a d4.
Abilities
Army of the Dead (action) The zombie horde makes an attack action against the heroes. If there are three heroes present, they attack one hero with the Max die and one with the Min die. If there are four or more heroes present, they attack one hero with the Max die, another with the Mid die, and another with the Min die
They have us surrounded, the fools! (Innate) The zombie horde takes up the entire space of the graveyard and counts as being adjacent to any ground base hero. However, they may be targeted by abilities and attacks that normally must target different targets.
Grasping Hands and Biting Maws (action) Roll an attack, damaging one hero with the Max die and Hindering a second hero with the Mid die
Principle of the Horde (reaction) The zombie horde may suffer d6 damage to remove a Hindering effect
Defeating the horde does not end the scene, but it does allow the players to more or less stop the ritual at their leisure.
Edit: I have grown worried that heros might be too easily able to focus fire down then horde, or ignore it completely and blits down the challenge, so I am adding some minions to the fight. These portal fiends are discordian beasts drawn across the void to feed on the leaking energy and are unhappy the heroes are trying to cut off their meal
Minion d6 Lesser portal fiend
blink: the lesser potal fiend may do a sort range teleport, allowing it to easily move around the zombie infested graveyard
One spawns every other round, starting on the second round
Environment: Graveyard
Shallow Graves: D10
Chaotic Energy: D8
The Chill of Death: D6
Green Twist Minor
The more the scarier: The zombie horde is joined by more members. Roll the Environment dice and the horde recovers by the Mid die.
They’re everywhere!: Your distraction has left you vulnerable to the Horde, they make a basic attack action now out of turn.
Green Twist Major
Energy backlash: The gathering chaotic energy discharges, roll the environment dice and do the mid result to each hero
Yellow Twist Minor
The Hour Grows Late: The rigors of battle have aggregated the chaotic magic, causing them to flow faster. The scene tracker advances by one
An unseasonal chill in the air: which for December on the eastern seaboard is saying something! Roll the dice and hinder each hero by the Mid die using a cold effect.
Yellow Twist Major
Cursed Relics: The chaos of battle has awoken new powers within the relics, bringing misfortune to those who would disrupt them. Each attempt to overcome a relic is now hindered at minus two. This curse maybe lifted by an appropriate Overcome action.
Red Twist Minor
Everyone is coming home for Christmas: The largest group of zombies has dug themselves out yet. Roll the environment dice, the zombie horde recovers by the Max plus Min die
So close I can taste it: A malign presence from across the veil reaches forth to try to speed things along. Advance the tracker by one unless the heroes agreed to be Hinder by the environments mid die.
Red Twist Major
Decoy Relic: One of the relics disrupted so far was a fake! A new relic flares to life, instantly noticeable but requiring to be disable to disrupt the ritual.
The Ritual
Description
Various Gloomweaver relics have been scattered throughout the graveyard and are responsible for the conflux of eldritch energy. The first relic is easily spotted, a wooden Voodoo mask put over the statue of an angel in the center of the Cemetery. Its eyes glow with a baleful fire and cracks in the stone run from it. The others are less obvious and hidden. There is one relic per hero and can take the form of a doll of one of the townsfolk with a pin though the heart, a mummified hand, a rattle filled with babies’ teeth, and other such unsettling items.
Resolution
Disable the first relic: Overcome once
Find the remaining relics: Overcome for each relic An overwhelming success might find multiple relics in one check.
Disable the remaining relics: Overcome for each relic An overwhelming success might allow the hero to do damage to the zombie horde
Outcome
If the heroes successful cease the ritual, the flow of energy to Gloomweaver is cut off and the leaking chaotic power animating the zombies is dispelled.
If the scene ends before the heroes can manage to do so, Gloomweaver has harvested all of the energy in the cemetery and will be able to use it to nefarious purpose at a later time. The zombie horde quickly starts to collapse, taking d10 damage each turn.
Scene 3: Stand Back! Or we will unleash our full powers against you!
The inside of the church has been cleared of all of its normal furniture and a ritual circle in chalk has been inscribed on the floor. A number of figures in impressive, rune inscribed robes wielding sinister arcane tools stand chanting and making dramatic motions in the air, filled with thick ominous smoke.
The effect is slightly ruined by the scent of pine and gingerbread, as at this time of year they could only find festive candles.
The cultists have been watching the battle outside unfold and are prepared for when the heroes enter the room, and thus get to take the first turn unless the players do something to surprise them. They each spend their turn brandishing an impressive looking relic such as the Ankh of Agony, the Wand of Woe, or the Sword of Suffering at the heroes, but each item fails to perform any function.
Any offensive action what so ever proves enough to disable to cultists, who have no magic left to call upon their defense.
Epilogue:
Once they have been overcome, the cultists turn out to be ordinary townsfolk. They could be individuals the heroes had meet earlier in the day, or they could in some way be tied to some of the gloomy townsfolk the heroes might have cheered up. The Marching band director who made one student sit out of the parade, for example.
Either way, they are oddly empty seeming once the battle is over, going from bombastically over the top to sullen and distant. This is where the joy created by the heroes comes into play. For each person that a hero helped bring joy to, the heroes can return a sense of self to a defeated cultist. If at least one is returned this way they can answer questions about what they did and why, telling a story of how they received emails talking about how to improve their lives after each having a bad day, directing them to a website to learn more.
Any cultist left in the state of gloom magic backlash will continue to act as a battery of power for Gloomweaver, sending their emotions bleeding into the Realm of Discord while remaining in a near cationic state.
Going through the things that they would be cultist had, it’s clear that they have almost no magic talent what so ever. The relics they wield were just junk, and the other items they were given to perform the ritual were mostly ready to go out of the box, and just needed someone to pull the trigger. Someone capable of making these kinds of objects is dangerous. Someone giving them out for free to people who don’t know what they are doing is much more so. It’s back to home base for the heroes to see if they can’t pick up the trail.
So, this is my first attempt at writing a sentinels RPG issue, and was hindered somewhat but not having the as of yet out of print main rulebook. I hope that this scene would be playable with the heroes from the starter kit and encourage anyone who wants to try it out. Hopefully it’s not too bad!
I can only speak for the thematic elements, but I think it sounds like quite the fun issue. And perfect for Christmas time.
I can help but shake the feeling that this was written out of a real life experience... ;P
Thank you for the comment, thought it really wasn't. I don't have any particularly troubling chirstmas memories.
It can of course easily be made to not have anything to do with Chirstmas, but I thought it might jazz it up a bit.
That was really cool Cult of Gloom!
This actually brought a rules question to mind too. The one environment twist says to Hinder the heroes with a cold effect. Could someone playing Absolute Zero just say "Yeah, that doesn't affect me." and ignore it? Thematically it makes sense, but is it allowed mechanically?
I more meant it being a possible past plot, what with you being THE Cult of Gloom and all…
Being a non-GM, I don't quite undestand the how the mechanics would work, but I know I'm going to get at least one of my GMs to do this (even if it has to be next year's Christmas), because it sounds like it would be loads of fun to play
That was my intent, though of course if not played with the starter kit characters later on it might make the effect stronger against, say, a new Ra.
I admit I interpreted it as more of a chill of the soul... though coincidentally AZ is pretty familiar at coping with that as well.
Was about to ask you to write it up and here it is. Boy, it is hard catching up sometimes. I will have to read it and give my thoughts.
I love the open bit where you just have the characters do whatever. it is my favourite part of this system. I hope anyone who runs this adds a lot foreshadowing.
Scene 1, interesting choose making the zombie horde Villians. I would make the Relics minions/lieutenant/Overcomethings and give them an action each turn instead of adding illusionary demons. Make sure at least one give off some big noticeable effect, so the players see what you are trying to do (be Descriptive!). This is a fun battle because a single hit is like taking out a couple zombies. I can see players having fun with descriptions. How would you treat AOE damage? I would add to the horde (as an attack action, hit everyone they can with min dice).
Scene 2 is just clean up? Should at least put a lieutenant there. he can be weak but not lethal. Maybe has relic left over from scene 1.
Edit: Just read the last bit, Scene 2 is great, I would still make one a lieutenant (d6 or d4), so they have to be so tall to take them down. I find a d4 lieutenants funny because it goes down unless the heroes roll a 1, 2, 3. which can lead to some funny scenes. My pet peeve of the system is they have RP stuff at the end of the book. I would add a blur in the opening about some of the townsfolk are cultist. (I would totally make mall Santa a cultist).
I personally like the cultist at the end not even being minions. At the end they have been betrayed and discarded, left with no magic and no way to pose a threat what so ever. However, if you wanted to edit them to be d4 lieutenants its a valid choice.A last sputtering of power, as it were.
Replacing the spawning lesser portal fiends with giving the relics a turn is interesting and worth considering, the reason I shy away from it is that I was already worried that the correct stratgey would be to ignore the horde and rush overcome actions to disable the relics. So I wanted dealing with the hordes backup to be something you had to choice to do instead of moving towards the end goal of the scene, which was disabling the relics.
The "Army of the Dead" action the horde can take could be replaced with do a normal attack against everyone, and then a second ability to do damage rolling min plus max die to one person could be added to give them the option to focus fire a little bit. This is a very rough draft without any playtesting as of yet, so i encourage people to twist or change as this wish.
Of course i would encourage people to do that with any pre-made adventure, even offical ones, in any system or setting.