Adventure Edition: Babes in London, Act 3 - Little Girls Found, Scene 4A

You can find the links to each of the preceding episodes of the Babes in London adventure sequence HERE.

To play or run this game you will need the following:

PLAYERS: Fireborn Player's Handbook;
GAME MASTERS: Fireborn Gamemaster's Handbook;

This is a piece of fan fiction. It is NOT endorsed or acknowledged by Fantasy Flight Games; it is IN NO WAY official; it DOES NOT indicate any form of relationship between myself and Fantasy Flight Games; and I DO NOT CLAIM any of the setting specific material or setting specific concepts as my own.

Warning: Due to a lack of playtesters, this section has yet to be tested. GMs may need to adjust opponents to suit the level of your PCs.

PLAYERS SHOULD NOT READ BEYOND THIS POINT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SCENE4A – LIBRARY INVESTIGATION

Your path has led you to the National Library in London, and then your inquiries led to you this man – Sir Thomas Jamieson, an expert in Egyptian mythology and artifacts. He appears to be 50, and is of a slender, wiry build. You can see interest and intelligence in his bright blue eyes and there is a strength to his grip as he greets you: 

“Glad to meet you,” he says, reaching out to shake your hand. “The front desk said you had something rather interesting to show me.” The front desk has said nothing of the kind to you, greeting you with poker-faced formality and retiring to an office to contact the professor.

Sir Thomas wants to see the disc and is so excited when he does that his fingers tremble slightly.

Sir Thomas handles the piece carefully, turning it over twice before fitting a magnifying monocle to his eye to inspect the inscription. “Ah, yes,” he says. “Egyptian, by the looks. Now I seem to remember….” He breaks off, taking the monocle out of his eye and looking thoughtful, then rises from his seat. “If you follow me, I think we can find it somewhere in Stack Four.”

He leads you from his office and down a set of stairs. “Now, we don’t usually allow this,” he says, “but as I don’t quite know the reference and guess you would be reluctant to let the disc out of your sight… and seeing as Stack Four is under my jurisdiction anyway…”

After descending another two flights of stairs, Sir Thomas stops as a non-descript reddish-brown door. “Here we are,” he says. “Now, follow me quietly if you please. No talking.”

He opens the door to reveal rows and rows of book shelves. He navigates these as though he has sought out this book thousands of times before, finally stopping before one particular shelf. He hands you back the disc and runs his fingers along the spines of the books, he selects one titled “Ye Symbolls of the Anciente Worlde” and draws it out. “This should be the one,” he murmurs, flicking pages. “Ah, yes,” he says, opening it to a page where a diagram of the symbol on the disc has been drawn. “ We’ll take a closer look at it back in my office, shall we?”

Before you can reply, the disc in your hand grows warm, emitting a reddish glow. For an instant, there is a searing pain against your flesh and a light too bright to see through, then a thunderous roar shakes the book shelves and Sir Thomas takes an involuntary step back towards you.

“Oh dear,” he says.

Give the PCs time to react and roll initiative, then read, or paraphrase the following:

Oh dear, indeed. The creature before you seems to be some horrendous cross between a hippopotamus, crocodile and lion. Behind you, you hear Sir Thomas whisper: “Oh my, a beby…” 

Any PC with Knowledge (Ancient Cultures – Egypt) may roll (TH2) to see if they know that a beby is the creature that eats the hearts of those whose hearts fail when judged for entry into the Egyptian afterlife. What they won’t realize is that the devouring god had animal counterparts in earlier mythic ages.

At this point, the beby that has been summoned to protect the disc and prevent anyone from discovering the identity of the group behind it, attacks.

NOTE: It is possible to battle the beby in this space as the library stacks are ten feet tall and the PCs will be able to battle it in their draconic forms (Librarians will scatter out of the path of the battle and hide for a good while, although someone will call the police who will call LN7. By the time LN7 arrive, the battle will be over and the creature will have disappeared.)

Beby

Era: Mythic

Race: Supernatural Animal

APL: 4

Aspects: Fire 6 (4), Water 5 (4), Air 2, Earth 2

Initiative: 8

Health: km; <5 / 10+ / 15+ / 20+ / 25+ / 30+ / 35+

Size/Reach: 1 / 5 ft

Armor: 6

Taint: 10

Stride: 30 ft

Weapons:

—Bite: 18H

—Foreclaw (2): 8M

—Hindclaw (2): 12M (Grab ready requirement)

—Tail: 8M

Sequences: Ravager

Agg—F9/W6/A0/E2—Power + Power + L Foreclaw Strike + Power +R Foreclaw Strike

Skills: Athletics 9, Interaction 2, Melee 7, Stamina 7, Quickness 6, Senses 8, Stealth 4, Will 4

Edges: Action Junkie, Aggressive, Brutal, Daunting

Powers: Undeterred

Traits: Tainted

Tactics: The beby has only one mission: to destroy all those present when the description of the symbol on the disc was found. This includes Sir Thomas, who will be most grateful if PCs save his life. If successful, the PCs will earn the reward Friend of Sir Thomas Jamieson.

When the battle is over, read, or (if Sir Thomas is dead) paraphrase the following:

The creature’s body lies on the library floor. “Well, I never,” Sir Thomas mutters. “Well, I never… Well, I …” He seems a little overwhelmed. Even more so when the creature’s body vanishes, leaving unexplained bits of gore to slowly dissipate from the bookshelves. It’s a bit like watching the steam rising from an abandoned cup of coffee.

“Well, then,” Sir Thomas says, his voice a little shaky. “Well, then, I’ll just get someone to clean this up and we’ll go back to the office and look at what we’ve found, shall we?”

If Sir Thomas has died during the encounter, PCs will have to explain his death. The injuries dealt by the beby will direct suspicions away from the PCs. In this case, they are able to attempt to smuggle the book out (Air – Trickery TH2; people are very distracted by Sir Thomas’s death). If Sir Thomas does not die during the encounter, PCs can still try to smuggle the book out but the test will be TH4. (Sir Thomas may be a little distracted by the appearance and disappearance of the beby; but he is very protective of his books.)

To cut a long story short, finding the book reveals the following information: The Cult of Set was a group of people dedicated to serving the god Set and to bringing about his return to the world at large once he had seemed to have left it. In the mythology related to the symbol, the god Set was a renegade god because of his attempt to overthrow Osiris and claim Isis as his queen; he disappeared beneath the desert sands in an attempt to hide after his defeat at the hands of Horus. It proved to be a very effective tactic; Set was never seen again, although his followers do not believe he is dead and will return one day.

As PCs make their way out of the library, read or paraphrase the following:

You have just left Sir Thomas’s office, and are walking down the corridor, when the world ‘shimmers’. The overhead lights dim to nothing and you find yourselves making your way through a darkness lit only by lamps set in wall sconces. You are wearing cloaks and, for some reason, have pulled the cowl as far forward as you can so that your face is hidden by shadow. In your hand, you hold a small metal disk in case you are challenged.

GO TO ACT III SCENE 4D: FINAL BATTLE.

Next Week: Babes in London, Act 3 - Little Girls Found, Scene 4B, University Investigation.