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

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SCENE 4B – UNIVERSITY INVESTIGATION

When you arrive at the university, it seems to take a moment for the receptionist at Administration to understand your request, and then it takes a good few moments more (approximately a half an hour, to be exact) before she recommends someone. When she does and you ask to see them, the receptionist looks affronted.

“That,” she says, “will require an appointment.”

Arrangements for the appointment takes more moments – another three quarters of an hour and by now, the receptionist has noticed you becoming slightly fidgety. “The professor can fit you in Tuesday next month,” she says, “or, if you really must, she says she will see you now – but she can only spare you a quarter hour; she has an appointment.”

Give the PCs a chance to respond and then read, or paraphrase, the following:

You get lost on the way, but stopping students or other professors and asking you directions soon sees you standing in front of a door bearing the name plate: Kate Wyman. There’s a bunch of letters after the name but what is most intriguing is the fact that the door is firmly closed and, upon closer inspection, locked.

Before you can turn away, however, a trim-figured, petite, dark-haired woman in what could be her mid-forties arrives with a cup of coffee and a large paper bag from the canteen in one hand, and a bundle of keys in the other: “You’re later than I’d like,” she says, looking you up and down. Her gaze sweeps over you like a searchlight and you almost begin to sympathize with her students. “Never mind,” she says before any of you can speak. “Come in and explain what you need. Reception was vague.”

Her office consists of a large desk and chair curving out of one corner and every available piece of wall space except for three five-drawer filing cabinets is lined by bookshelves. There are even shelves behind the desk and under the large window that looks into a hidden quadrangle several floors down. When Kate Wyman has seated herself behind the desk, coffee and lunch bag placed to one side, she gestures for you to take a seat in one of the four seats in front of the desk: “How can I help you?” she asks.

Allow the PCs to explain what they want, then read, or paraphrase, the following once they show the professor the disc.

The professor is fascinated by the disc and turns it over several times in her hand. “I think I’ve seen this somewhere before.” Reaching behind her, she half turns and runs her fingers along the spines of the books. Stopping at a particularly ancient-looking tome, her hand curls around the spine and she carefully lifts it down to the desk. Placing the disc on the table in front of her, she begins leafing through the pages. “Set,” she mutters. “L, M, R… Ah, now here we go.” She turns the book around so that the chosen page is the right way up for you to read. There, on the page before you is the same symbol engraved on the disc but, as you lean forward to read the curling script beneath it, there is a sudden flare of light.

For an instant, the light is too bright to see through and, then a thunderous roar shakes the office and Kate lets out a gasp of surprise before disappearing beneath her desk.

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

You’re not sure that under the desk is the safest place to be but right now it seems a better place than where you’re standing. The creature that has appeared on its surface before you seems to be some horrendous cross between a hippopotamus, crocodile and lion – and its attention is squarely focused on you. There is no sound at all from where the professor has disappeared.

A successful Earth (Senses) test (TH6) allows the PCs to see the professor’s hands reach up and slide the book off the desk from behind the creature’s forepaws. (It’s standing on her lunch bag and has crushed her coffee cup beneath one of its powerful hind claws.)

Any PC may make a Mental (Knowledge: Ancient Cultures or Mythology: Egypt) test (TH4) to recognize the creature as a ‘beby’, 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 lead the beby to a more open space (such as the quadrangle outside) so that PCs can battle it in their draconic forms (University students and professors alike will scatter out of its path 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 the professor, who will be most grateful if PCs save her life. If successful, the PCs will earn the reward Friend of Professor Kate Wyman.

When the battle is over, read or paraphrase the following:

In the silence that follows the battle, the body of the creature slowly begins to steam. With each curling wisp that rises above it, the body slowly evaporates until nothing is left. The same happens to all the blood and gore that came from it.

IF PCS ARE IN THE QUADRANGLE: When you look around, you see no-one and nothing, until your gaze reaches the fifth floor, where Professor Wyman’s can be seen gazing down at you from the window, her book clutched tightly in her hands.

IF PCS ARE IN THE OFFICE: In the midst of the piles of books scattered about the floor, the desk stands unscathed – and behind it Professor Wyman is standing as well, looking slightly shaken and clutching her book tightly to her chest. For a long moment there is silence.

TALKING TO PROFESSOR WYMAN AFTER THE BATTLE: “That,” Professor Wyman says, when she notices you all looking at her across the desk. “That was a beby.” She pauses. “That was, I suppose, guarding the meaning of the symbol. I suppose, that only appeared because of the disc. And, I suppose you’d like to know exactly who it is that owns the disc.” She sits down and absent-mindedly gathers the shards of her coffee mug into a neat pile: “My grandmother gave me that.”

To cut a long story short, finding the professor, and 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 university, read or paraphrase the following:

You have just left Kate Wyman’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, Museum Investigation.