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Introduction
Spirit of 77 is a freewheeling game so I wrote my adventures as a plot and some characters. Nothing is scripted because the players have so much input into the flow of the story. I've kept the NPCs as stereotypes so that everybody can get a quick handle on them and I've kept their motives simple. Everything can be expanded on as necessary. Only one of my players remembers the 1970s so, for the most part, I've chosen music from film and TV to enhance the action as it's recognisable and familiar to them. Occasionally I may stray into 80s music too. Where possible I've included real people and events into my plots. This allows for lots of deep background if needed as well as photos and newspaper clippings etc. I also produce collages of images to set the scene or add to the feel. I've included these as PDFs in case they're of use. I have strayed a little from the standard adventure layout that the official Spirit of 77 publications use but everything should be clear enough. Add and subtract stuff as you see fit. We didn't use miniatures when we played Spirit of 77 so there are no in-game photos, sorry. |
Spirit of 77
Spirit of 77 is a role-playing roller-coaster about kung-fu tough guys, fast fuel-burning street dragsters, red hot mommas, explosions and fighting The Man. It’s a world where Nixon made a deal with aliens to win the Vietnam War and remains in power behind the scenes for more than a decade. Based on D. Vincent Baker’s “Apocalypse World” framework! Spirit of 77 is published by Monkeyfun Studios. and can be purchased at DrivethruRPG. 
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Adventure 1: Harlem to Vegas
Plot Soviets are using Wheelchair Mike Duncan a legendary black gangster to flood American streets with drugs to undermine U.S. Society and cause widespread civil disobedience. MI5 have sent Roger Connery to investigate. KGB have sent Ivana Sukimov (probably a code name) to stop him. Unbeknownst to all, wheelchair Mike did die in the plane crash that put him in the wheelchair and made him a recluse and is a robot front for rogue extra terrestrials trying to get back at Nixon for stealing their tech and they're using Soviet money to do it. They are channelling the money into building a spaceship to escape Earth. They are being hunted by government MIB and by agents of their own people who don't want the applecart upset (yet). The players will wander into this milieu unawares and possibly become targets for everyone. 
Opening question
--What brought you to Harlem at this time of night? The players hear the sounds of a fight in an alley Roger Connery a British spy is being attacked by several black hoodlums. Hoodlums Big hats, big coats, pimp style black gangsters. Floyd, Delroy, Leroy, Washington, Chester, Wayne, jimi, Ellsworth, Bumpy, Mack. Agenda: follow orders, kill whitey. Moves: team up- form a small gang as a group. 2 harm, 1 armour. Gear: brass knuckles and switchblades 1 harm concealed and handguns if necessary 2 harm close loud. Music: Avenues and Alleyways- Tony Christie. Get down on it- Kool and the Gang Roger Connery Agenda: licence to kill Moves: anything he wants Gear: suit, Walther PPK 2 harm close silenced. Gadgets as needed. Music: James Bond theme- John Barry If they save him Roger will thank them in polite understated English and offer some financial reward. He will not talk to them and will try to lose them if followed. Maybe someone recognises the thugs as employees of Wheelchair Mike. Searching them turns up a few matchbooks from different seedy clubs. All owned by Wheelchair Mike if investigated. One of the clubs has an exit into the alley. All the clubs are drug distribution centres and all have Police and local officials paid off. Lots of heat for players if they investigate too openly. Wheelchair Mike Duncan
Wasn't always in a wheelchair. He miraculously survived a plane crash two years ago that left him unable to walk. Before this be was Mike the knife Duncan, a powerful and ruthless black crime lord. Mike's plane was shot down by a UFO (There were reports of sightings from the usual unreliable witnesses who were visited and scared by MIB) and he was killed and replaced by a robot agent. Faulty parts means the robot can't walk (oops) and its speech is deteriorating. Mike's lieutenants are loyal and keep him away from the public gaze. His business is too lucrative to have a change if leadership yet. A controlling alien Grey is always hidden nearby to feed the robot lines. The Russians are feeding in drugs to undermine American society and the aliens are using the profits to build a spaceship in Las Vegas. The aliens working with Nixon want to find and stop them. Ivana Sukimov (Probably a code name) Agenda: stop the capitalist lackeys Moves: anything she wants Gear: sexy clothes. Pistol 2 harm close concealed silenced. Gadgets as needed. Music: From Russia With Love- John Barry She can call on sleeper enforcers Sleeper Agents Agenda: now is the time to strike! Moves: disguise. They can attack unexpectedly from any quarter because they look like they fit their surroundings. They cannot be spotted until they strike. Strike with surprise. Players defend against initial attack with something less. Gear: improvised weapons depending on their role. Some may be cops or otherwise armed. Music: Peter Gunn theme- various, Blues Brithers is a good version. What can be discovered in Harlem and New York Wheelchair Mike's business is very successful. All his followers are very loyal because he is ruthless in wiping out snitches and rivals. He uses his profits to buy machine plants, electrical workshops and part manufacturers around the country. All these places are shipping stuff to Vegas. He's getting his drugs from Russia. Roger Connery's next stop will be to spy on a shipment coming in at the docks- he got the info he needed from the club safe before he was rumbled and taken outside to be killed. The info is still there for the players to pick up on. 
The Shipment
At the docks, late at night, a big transport ship and some trucks. The shipment delivery will be guarded by hoodlums but with big guns this time. The players can get here by following Roger (unlikely) or finding their own information by searching office safes in the clubs or questioning hoodlums. Lots of gunfire will attract cops but they're paid off so they'll bring heat down on the players. There will be KGB operatives too. KGB Agenda: deliver the drugs Moves: training. They can work in pairs for 3 harm and 2 armour. Gear: leather jackets 1 armour. AK47 3 harm, auto fire, loud, two handed. Grenades. 3 harm very loud area effect. Music: Sabre Dance- Aram Khachaturian. Roger Connery won't like being involved in such open warfare, it's too early for such stuff. He still won't want the players' help and will still try to shake them. Helping Roger or being at the shipment will set Ivana on their trail she may be glimpsed on or near the boat but won't interfere until later. 
Going to Vegas
If the characters fly their Pan Am plane will be attacked by a UFO in a storm. Roger Connery will be on board and may be able to help. The MIB will be on to them from this point. Music: Come Fly With Me- Frank Sinatra. Viva Las Vegas- Elvis Presley MIB Agenda: cover up the evidence of UFOs Moves: intimidate/persuade. They have an alien enhanced ability to get what they want. Players resisting roll with something less. Speed. Alien enhanced reflexes give them 3 armour as they slip damage. Knock out attack Their alien training gives them unarmed combat of 3 temporary harm. Very close ranged only. Gear: sleep gas. Memory erasing drugs. Breathing in the gas causes 24 hours of coma during which time victims will be treated with memory removing drugs and often relocated. They do not kill. Music: Theme from the Twilight Zone. If the players drive they will be hounded by Russian sleeper agents. 
What can be discovered in Vegas
Wheelchair Mike lives in the Landmark hotel/ casino which was owned by Howard Hughes. He is a recluse and impossible to visit. The spaceship is being built in a disguised casino, the Thunderbird nearby. It will launch from beneath the swimming pool. This casino is owned by Major Riddle (true fact). Gambling. The gambling in both casinos is honest. Aliens are watching the players and working on the spaceship and in the machine and electrical shops. Humans working with them are brainwashed puppets. Delivery trucks deliver a constant stream of parts under cover of hotel and catering supplies. Aliens (Greys) Agenda: get off this rock. Moves: run and hide- the aliens can conceal themselves from human perceptions. Trying to find them or target them is rolled with something less. Psychic attack- they can make an opponent flee in fear. Powerful alien commanders can affect multiple targets. If things get bad their work areas are fitted to release Carbon monoxide which they can breathe to allow them to flee. Gear: they appear naked and materialise tools as they need them. None stay around to be filched. Music: Telstar- the Tornados Puppet workers Agenda: what? Moves: slow and unwieldy but attack in sizeable groups with makeshift weapons and tools 2 harm 2 armour (killing a few doesn't diminish the group much) Gear: nothing special. Music: Close Encounters of the Third Kind theme- John Williams Other Aliens with help from the MIB are trying to get into the casinos too. Aliens as above. If the saucer is launched the casino pool will roll back to allow access to the workroom/hangar below. This is a good excuse to play the Thunderbirds theme. The UFO is faulty and won't fly far so it's perfectly reasonable to let the players steal it. The Mob isn't happy that they don't own the casinos and occasionally make trouble. Mob enforcers Agenda: follow orders and say nothing. Moves: basic moves only Gear: Tommy guns 2 harm, close auto fire, loud and pistols 2 harm, close, loud and fast cars. Music: The Godfather Waltz from the Godfather. There are a couple of real events that can be worked in to the story. The aliens breathe Carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide poisoning in the Landmark hotel can be used as a cover story if the players get in a fight inside and the aliens attempt to gas them. The landmark collapses. Just in case things really get serious. Adventure 2: Out of Vegas
Continuing plot lines The Russians want revenge for their drug shipment. Russian agents will attempt to get close as reporters wanting a story about the plane trip if the players flew to Vegas. This will allow a team of five to launch a surprise attack. If the players drove to Vegas they will be attacked in a suitable secluded location. KGB Agenda: deliver the drugs Moves: training. They can work in pairs for 3 harm and 2 armour. Gear: leather jackets 1 armour. AK47 3 harm, auto fire, loud, two handed. Grenades. 3 harm very loud area effect. Music: Sabre Dance- Aram Khachaturian. The rogue aliens will want their saucer back if the players stole it. They will attack secretly at night, they don't want any witnesses. Motels are a favourite spot. Aliens (Greys) Agenda: get off this rock. Moves: run and hide- the aliens can conceal themselves from human perceptions. Trying to find them or target them is rolled with something less. Psychic attack- they can make an opponent flee in fear. Powerful alien commanders can affect multiple targets. If things get bad their work areas are fitted to release Carbon monoxide which they can breathe to allow them to flee. Gear: they appear naked and materialise tools as they need them. None stay around to be filched. Music: Telstar- the Tornados The MIB want to make the players forget everything. MIB Agenda: cover up the evidence of UFOs Moves: intimidate/persuade. They have an alien enhanced ability to get what they want. Players resisting roll with something less. Speed. Alien enhanced reflexes give them 3 armour as they slip damage. Knock out attack Their alien training gives them unarmed combat of 3 temporary harm. Very close ranged only. Gear: sleep gas. Memory erasing drugs. Breathing in the gas causes 24 hours of coma during which time victims will be treated with memory removing drugs and often relocated. They do not kill. Music: Theme from the Twilight Zone. The Mob and Wheelchair Mike's goons will not pursue as they're caught up in a power struggle. If word that Mike really is dead has got out things will get pretty hairy. The players may become caught in the crossfire. Hoodlums Big hats, big coats, pimp style black gangsters. Floyd, Delroy, Leroy, Washington, Chester, Wayne, jimi, Ellsworth, Bumpy, Mack. Agenda: follow orders, kill whitey. Moves: team up- form a small gang as a group. 2 harm, 1 armour. Gear: brass knuckles and switchblades 1 harm concealed and handguns if necessary. 2 harm close loud Music: Avenues and Alleyways- Tony Christie. Get down on it- Kool and the Gang. The Mob isn't happy that they don't own the casinos and occasionally make trouble. Mob enforcers Agenda: follow orders and say nothing. Moves: basic moves only Gear: Tommy guns 2 harm, close auto fire, loud and pistols 2 harm, close, loud and fast cars. Music: The Godfather Waltz from the Godfather. 
The next step
The faulty UFO Will not fly high or far and requires a constant recharge of its batteries. It's clear that the batteries powering it are a temporary measure and a proper motor has yet to be installed. There is no indication of how it is intended to be powered. Adding an internal combustion engine with the help of a skilled mechanic improves things a bit but makes the UFO incredibly noisy. It has shitty gas consumption too but at least it's more reliable. Area 51 may be a source of what the players need to repair their saucer. Guarded by U.S. Soldiers and MIB. Home to a very small number of renegade aliens. Most of the defences are designed to keep other aliens out. Area 51 is a small collection of buildings; offices, hangers, labs, barracks etc making up a typical US military airbase. The perimeter fence is a long way from the buildings and is patrolled and dotted with sensors and cameras. There is also a huge underground area full of tunnels which houses the Moongate. U.S. Soldiers Agenda: follow orders kill dissenters. Moves: team up. Operate in squads 3 harm 2 armour. Gear: standard military. M16 3 harm, auto fire, loud, two handed. Grenades. 3 harm very loud area effect. They will be trigger happy because they fear the aliens and anyone inside the perimeter is fair game. Music: Stars and Stripes Forever by John Philip Sousa. Alien threat Using the UFO a lot will draw the aliens to the players very quickly. Not using it will give them some time. Using it near Area 51 will cause immediate alien intervention as they try to stop the renegade aliens having a working ship. The players can find a suitable power plant in Area 51 in a wrecked saucer similar to their own. But it doesn't work. Maybe they can repair it? The amount of heat that causing trouble at Area 51 can bring down is phenomenal. 
Biker trouble
Question for one of the characters, preferably a PI or ex cop --Why was your relationship with Wendy Sullivan the hugely successful protest folk singer so short? The character gets the following message from a distressed Wendy left on his answer phone. "The Police here won't help me, they won't even listen but he's after me I know he is. He killed poor Elaine and I know I'm next " Elaine Francis was Wendy's manager. They had been friends for years. Elaine was killed in Wendy's house whilst house sitting for her last week. Wendy Sullivan Agenda: say my message with music Moves: nothing special Gear: normal stuff. Money. Guitar. Music: Times they are a-changing by Bob Dylan Wendy thinks her ex husband John 'slice'n'dice' Sullivan was the killer. Police have investigated but he has an alibi, all the members of his bike club, the Boozeguzzlers vouch for his whereabouts. Not great, but without something else to link him to the crime, good enough. The crime scene report Elaine Francis was killed by multiple stab wounds with a broad bladed weapon to her chest and abdomen. Her heart was removed and is missing. The lights were on in the room whilst the murder took place. There is singed blood splashed on the main bulb. There were fresh motorcycle tracks outside and witnesses report hearing a motorcycle in the area around the time or shortly after the time of the murder. The real crime Wendy was killed by a member of the Aztecs to frame John and pay him back for killing 'Savage Biter' Benito bother of the Aztecs' president Karlos the Dog last time they fought. Getting directly to John through his club members proved problematical and Karlos the Dog ended up in intensive care. From here he got his VP, Enrique, to organise the frame. Enrique killed Elaine in a ritualistic manner (the gang hold blood rites for Quetzalcoatl as a membership ritual) and kept the heart as there was no new member to eat it. He left the body unhurt for the frame. Despite having the light on he killed the wrong woman because he didn't know who Wendy was, just the address. The Boozeguzzlers Names: Crazy Pete, Ugly Tom, Tiny, Dirty Mike, Mellow Roy, VD, Rancid Steve, White Mike, Ballsack, Cutter, Sonny, John Doe, MIA, Pullback, Fast Lane Eddy. Agenda: ride hard, live free Moves: large gang 25+ savage mobile feared. 3 harm 1 armour Gear: motorcycles and vans if needed. Hand guns, shot guns, knives and chains. Leather and denim. Access to heavier weapons if needed. M16 3 harm, auto fire, loud, two handed. Grenades. 3 harm very loud area effect. Patch: a deaths head with an M16 and a six pack of beer. Music: Born to be Wild by Steppenwolf The Boozeguzzlers' clubhouse is a compound just outside Escondido 30 miles north of San Diego (100 miles south of LA) in a section of vacant lots. They run a mechanics shop and a frozen meat storage locker as ways to launder their drug dealing and extortion money. It is always well guarded. They are at war with The Aztecs, a rival Gang of similar size and resources based 30 miles away in San Diego made up of Mexicans, whose club house is linked to a scrap yard and car crushing plant. The Aztecs Names: Pedro, Bad Carlos, Dead eye Fernando, Crazy Rodrigo, Enrique, Armando, Karlos the dog, Red Ricardo. Agenda: ride hard, live free Moves: large gang 25+ savage mobile feared. 3 harm 1 armour Gear: motorcycles and vans if needed. Hand guns, shot guns, knives and chains. Leather and denim. Access to heavier weapons if needed. M16 3 harm, auto fire, loud, two handed. Grenades. 3 harm very loud area effect. Patch: Quetzalcoatl. Music: Iron Horse/ Born to Lose by Motörhead John Slice'n'Dice Sullivan A gifted musician hooked on drugs and adrenaline, John Sullivan gave up his successful music career and family to run with the Boozeguzzlers. He got his nickname from His expert use of knives Agenda: fuck you Moves: He does +1 harm when using a knife. He is a good rider and keeping up with his bike in a car requires rolling with something less. Gear: Harley, pistol 2 harm concealed loud. Bowie knife 3(2+1) harm concealed. Leather jacket 1 armour. Music: Lido Shuffle by Boz Skaggs Even though John is not the killer he hates Wendy. He cannot stand how her career continued when he broke from the system to 'ride free' (and take lots if drugs). Elaine was on his list of people he blames for his own shortcomings too, along with other band members so he isn't too upset about her dying . Other members of Wendy's band Jo Franklin (drummer/ backing vocals) Lauren Monteil (tambourine/backing vocals) Caroline Turner (keyboard/ backing vocals) Detective Lou Telano and his partner John Sepe These real life detectives were the inspiration for Starsky and Hutch and specialise in going undercover. They are in charge of the investigation. They will wear outlandish disguises at every opportunity. Agenda: crime doesn't pay Moves: team up for +1 damage and +1 armour. Disguise. Breaking from disguise gives them a surprise attack, defend with something less. Gear: pistol 2 harm, close, loud, concealed. Red sports car, fast, famous, 2-power, 1-looks, 1-armor, loud. Police contacts and many informants. Disguises. Music: Theme from Starsky and Hutch. The break in the case Once the players have had time to meet a few people Elaine's heart will turn up in John's freezer after the Police investigate reports of a break in at his house phoned in by a neighbour and take the opportunity for a bit of a snoop. This should seem as suspicious as it is but a closed murder is a closed murder and the police will run with it. Maybe the players will spot a rat. Maybe someone will tip them off. Who? Maybe John Sullivan will ask for their help. He can afford to pay PI fees if nothing else. The Aztecs commit their ritual killings in Mexico and there are numerous reports of women's' bodies being found in a similar condition there with the exception that the bodies are all burned. Some partial hearts have been recovered, all with signs that the missing parts were eaten. Bringing the Aztecs to justice The players will need some evidence before the police will act. Taking down the Aztecs will be a tough assignment and may cause a lot of collateral damage so they'll need to be sure. The next prospect signing in happens quite soon but finding out about it could be difficult. Affiliated clubs, The Mixtec Warriors and The ZapotecPriests, will meet with The Aztecs in a secluded part of the desert outside San Diego and perform the gruesome ceremonies accompanied by loud music, lots of drugs and loose women. This will be a very dangerous place for interlopers to be. The police will accept photos, movies or actual physical evidence of a body or a heart. The more the better. Contacting the police whilst the ceremonies are going on will get a SWAT, helicopter and FBI response which could be spectacular. Adventure 3: Highway 152
This one's a bit linear although the events are jumbled in the time stream so it hopefully feels less linear for the players. The players can't deviate too much from the plan either so the adventure does railroad them a bit. My group were too busy playing Cowboys to care but there is a danger that things could fall a little flat. Highway 152 Pacheco Pass, California highway 152 Pacheco Pass, elevation 1,368 ft (417 m), is a mountain pass located in the Diablo Range in southeastern Santa Clara County, California. It is the main route through the hills separating the Santa Clara Valley and the Central Valley. As with most passes in the California Coast Ranges, it is not very high when compared to those in other mountain areas within the state. The road that traverses Pacheco Pass is State Route 152, which runs for 106 miles (171 km) between SR 1 in Watsonville and SR 99. Pacheco Pass Road, the western section between Gilroy and the pass itself (a distance of approximately 14 miles), is single-lane state highway in each direction and is the site of many accidents. The pass was named for Francisco Perez Pacheco of the Rancho Ausaymas y San Felipe. In the 1850s, an informal variant name for the pass was Robber's Pass attributed to the frequent hold-ups experienced by travellers using the route. A trail nearby, through what is now Pacheco State Park, was used by the Yokuts people* to cross the mountains and trade with other native people on the coast. Spanish army officer Gabriel Moraga first recorded the pass in 1805. Since then, it has been a major route between the Santa Clara Valley and the Central Valley. It was the site of one of the stage stations on the route of the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach route which connected the Saint Louis, Missouri with San Francisco from 1858 until 1861. Other stage lines used the route thereafter until completion of the railroads within the state. On the eastern slope of the pass lies the San Luis Reservoir. *The Yokuts (previously known as Mariposans) are an ethnic group of Native Americans native to central California. Prior to European contact, the Yokuts consisted of up to 60 separate tribes speaking the same language. Question for whichever character is driving the (lead) vehicle --What's your first thought as the old west stagecoach appears in the middle of Highway 152 charging towards you at speed? 
1859
Dazzled momentarily by the Sunlight on your windscreen you can see the scene around you has changed... The paved highway the players were driving along has become a dirt track although the surrounding scenery is pretty much the same. Coming towards them at full gallop is a Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach being pursued by about a dozen bandits on horse back. The bandits, stagecoach crew and passengers, some on the roof, are shooting wildly at each other, the noise is incredible. The players are not in their vehicles. Chronatrons: time particles There is a peculiar quality to the light, it is too bright. Bright spots and other mysterious lights swim and spark around the players at the edges of their vision. It is disorienting and any fine tuned actions like shooting are rolled with something less until acclimatised. Players may become acclimatised by succeeding in a Soul roll each time they attempt an action that the lighting could affect. 12 Bandits Agenda: Rob the stage Moves: Shoot from horseback at no penalty. Trick riding. Gear: Cowboy stuff including horses. Pistols, 2 harm close, innacurate. Rifles, 2 harm long, lassos etc. Music: Hang 'em High main theme 2 Man stagecoach crew Jeb and Frank. Mighty obliged to you. Agenda: the mail must get through Moves: Drive horses. Gear: pistols, 2 harm, close, innacurate and shotgun, 3 harm, auto, close. Music: theme from Stagecoach Seven stagecoach passengers Two women, five men. Women and three men inside, two men on the roof. They are screaming, shouting and shooting wildly at anything that comes near. Avoiding their attacks allows rolling with something extra. Padre the Reverend Josiah Simmonds. Carpetbagger Fred Whitmore. Gambler Sheldon Whittaker (roof). Cowboy Patrick O'Reilly (roof). Miss Susan Merriweather (soiled dove) and Margaret Durrant wife of Justice William Durrant. Agenda: Stay alive Moves: Shoot wildly and panic Gear: small pistols and travelling clothes. Music: Theme from the High Chaparral Maybe one of the stage crew or passengers will mention that Pacheco Pass lives up to its name of Robbers' Pass. The stagecoach is heading for Whiskey Flats, a nearby settlement. It is 1859. Whiskey Flats The players can follow the stage to the nearby town of Whiskey Flats. The town lies at the bottom of the pass on the shores of a lake. It resembles a typical western frontier town with a Main Street and surrounding businesses and houses. There is a sizeable Adobe quarter. Amongst the Adobe buildings where the Yokuts people* live are several 60 to 70 feet tall wooden tree trunks smoothed and erected upright in small groups. Some are carved in a way that resembles the totem poles of the indigenous peoples of the North West. These have presumably been erected by the Yokuts people who say they are"for the bird men to perch on". They have been here as long as anyone can remember and are in a state of disrepair, wind and rain having taken their toll. (The town is thriving although there is no indication it ever existed in modern times. Alert players may realise the modern reservoir covers this spot on later visits.) The players appearance will elicit curiosity and a little fear from the locals. But they will still be minor celebrities if they saved the stagecoach. The priest, Father Bertand, aware of past legends, will be very curious and question the players closely about their origins. He will ask if the players have been here before but reveal little himself. The saloon, the Lucky Nugget, is doing very well and the saloon owner, Nathan Rogers, effectively runs the town. He is backed up by a band of 7 gun fighters and has the Sheriff, Morgan Dell, in his pocket. He is working with the local bandits, supplying them with food, drink and women. The lucky nugget that the saloon is named after is a small piece of Chronatron rock that reacts to time distortions by increasing its activity. Usually it just sits in Nathan Rogers' office on his desk as a paperweight. The players can't be in the saloon long before it sends them away through time. 1977
Eventually the lights will increase in intensity and the players will find themselves back in their present sitting in their now stationary vehicles. Nothing has changed except the 18 wheeler that is lying on its side across the road spilling water everywhere. Its cargo of Marlboro cigarettes is completely waterlogged. The driver is alive but shaken and rambles about Birdmen and lights. This is the truck that will later crash into the reservoir. A highway patrol motorcycle pair stop to help the situation and will relay some of the background info to the players: Pacheco Pass, California highway 152 This road is notorious for numerous accidents, along with its ghosts! Many a sleepy driver has met an untimely end on the road, but many of its ghost stories aren’t even related to the accidents. A “time warp” of sorts is said to occur on the road, accounting for many reports of “lost time” strange lights illuminate the sky, and men in Old West garb and a stagecoach make the occasional appearance. And, if that wasn’t enough, the San Luis Reservoir is said to host a mysterious light beneath the water. Side effects of driving on the road may include: Overwhelming feelings of dread/impending doom, inexplicable sadness and extreme apprehension. There are stories of supposed Indian massacres by the Spanish settlers in the 1700's. And from 1860 to 1880 the pass was known as Robbers' Pass due to two highwaymen that robbed, raped and murdered travellers along the route. And now in modern times it's known as Blood Alley due to the numerous traffic accidents that occur along it's route. Not all these accidents are fatal, but some are. And apparently some of the victims haven't moved on. And because ghosts aren't enough apparently for Blood Alley, there have been sightings of a half human half birdlike creature standing in the middle of the road. Strange lights have also been reported along the pass that have no known explanation. CHiPs Officers Larry Estrada and Rick Wilcox Agenda: Serve and protect. Moves: crack shots, defend with something less. Trick riding, they can take their heavy Moto Guzzi motorcycles across the roughest terrain at speed. Gear: pistols 2 harm, close. Nightsticks, 2 harm closer. Police stuff. Motorcycles. Music: CHiPs main theme. On the eastern slope of the pass lies the San Luis Reservoir but it is a long way, at least a mile, from where the truck is if the water came from there. 
1810
As the players look at the reservoir the lights will appear and the scene will change to a view of a lake with a much lower water level than the reservoir. Next to the lake is a town made of Adobe and wooden buildings. This is Ciudad de Hueso (city of bones). Later to be renamed Whiskey Flats. The town is inhabited by Spanish settlers and soldiers and local Yokuts people. The town is named because there is a plethora of dinosaur bones in the surrounding rocks. There are legends about the creatures that they belonged to but no one has heard if dinosaurs. It is 1810. Another interesting thing in the town are several 60 to 70 feet tall wooden tree trunks smoothed and erected upright in small groups. Some are carved in a way that resembles the totem poles of the indigenous peoples of the North West. These have presumably been erected by the Yokuts people "for the bird men to perch on". They have been here as long as anyone can remember. The current Indian inhabitants keep them well maintained much to the annoyance of local Spanish priests who have a small church in the town and a mission along the pass up in the hills. The priests have not made any converts and things are reaching crisis point. Some Spanish soldiers will be ordered to cut or pull down a group of perches. The Indians resist and the troops and priests react with extreme violence, massacring the locals if they're allowed to. Yokuts People Agenda: Keep the perches in place and maintained. Moves: vicious hand to hand gpfighters with farm implements. 2 harm, concealed. Gear: not much really. Music: Apache, the Shadows Spanish Soldiers Agenda: Avoid the heat. Follow orders. Moves: may form up and volley fire for 4 harm. Gear: muskets, 3 harm, reload, short range only. Bayonets 2 harm, close. Officers have swords 2 harm, close. Music: La Cucaracha Priests Agenda: Spread the word of God and make some money. Moves: holy men, attacking them is rolled with something less because, well, priests. Gear: rosaries, crosses. Happy to fight with improvised weapons. Music: plainchant. The Spanish settlers will stay inside and not get involved. Some Yokut people will head up the road to attack the mission in retaliation but many will be cut down by soldiers. As the Indians begin to waver and a few run away a nine foot tall Birdman will sweep down from the sky and attack the soldiers. The soldiers will rout almost immediately. And the celebrating Indians will gather round the bird man cheering. As the crowd grows the calm is split by a deep sonorous note. The noise is a truck horn, an 18 wheeler appears on the old road travelling at about 50mph almost on top of the group of Indians and the bird man. As the 18 wheeler Marlboro lorry swerves to avoid them the driver loses control and the truck slides and rolls off the road down the hill and splashes into the lake, sinking immediately. It is swarmed by lights from under water that rise like bubbles around it until, with a final flash, they and the truck disappear. More lights and the players are engulfed as the Indians and bird man continue their climb to the mission. Prehistory The players are standing in mud surrounded by thick vegetation primarily formed by giant broad bladed ferns. Roaring and crashing nearby signals the approach of a T-Rex attacking a Triceratops. Smaller but no less deadly raptors begin to take an interest in the players. Raptors Agenda: Food Moves: sudden leap, surprising so defend with something less. Pack attack for 5 harm and 2 armour. Fast voracious, fearles Gear: Great big claws and teeth. 2 harm, 1 armour. Music: theme from Jurassic Park. Some nearby caves in a hillside look to offer a defensible position. The caves are interconnected with tunnels. After a short time if exploring the lights appear and the players emerge from the caves to look down on Whiskey Flats again. It is 1863. 1863 The town is essentially unchanged from when they last saw it. The saloon is now called the Fightin' Strangers and there is a pretty good painting of the players over the bar mirror. The painting shows them gunning down hordes of desperadoes and gun fighters in the Main Street. It's very dramatic. The priest is no longer there, his place taken by an Anglican priest, Reverend Samuel Fullerton. He can tell the players that Father Bertrand went missing in 1859 whilst exploring the remains of an old Spanish mission in the hills. Locals believe he was killed and robbed by bandits, the area was notorious for them at the time. After Father Bertrand went missing the bandit attacks stopped. He has Father Bertrand's journal which is written in Spanish which he can't read. There will be locals of Spanish stock who can translate it. Father Bertrand's Journal Tells of: -Sightings of the players in the past by Spanish and Indians. They are referred to as the Fightin' Strangers and their exploits have been exaggerated in repeat tellings. Apparently they came into town in 1859 and killed the corrupt Sherrif, Nathan Rogers and over 100 hired guns. -Sightings of Dinosaurs which are older Indian tales of raptors in the caves up in the hills by the mission. -The massacre at the mission in 1810 and the 'angel' who saved the Indians and destroyed the house of the false god helped by the strangers, ancestors of the Fightin' Strangers, with a thunderbolt from the sky. The Mission Heading up to the mission the players will find the ruins of it, overgrown and left to the elements. It has definitely been blown up from inside. Looking harder will find muskets and other accoutrements partly buried by the passage of time. 1859 After a short while the lights will come and the scene will change to the ruins of the mission with the figure of Father Bertrand approaching them. The players are further up on a hill, by a cave, and they can see people, bandits? Camped in the ruins. There camp looks quite permanent and there are women present. There are a dozen or so bandits and they hold up Father Bertrand. If they aren't stopped they will rob and kill him, burying his body in a shallow grave nearby. Bandits Agenda: Rob people, be ornery. Moves: Shoot from horseback at no penalty. Trick riding. Gear: Cowboy stuff including horses. Pistols, 2 harm close, innacurate. Rifles, 2 harm long, lassos etc Music: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly Ennio Morricone. There is a lot of loot from previous robberies in their camp. Plenty of booze, food and women show that they travel to town regularly. Some of the inhabitants of Whiskey Flats must be in cahoots with them. The women will implicate the saloon keeper, Nathan Rogers, and the Sheriff. If he is rescued Father Bertrand will be grateful and pleased to see the players again. He will tell them he thinks the local caves are the key to the strange local phenomena. He has seen strange lights entering and leaving the caves at night. The lights leave one cave and enter another, they are steady lights, not flickering like torches. Maybe they're lanterns. He will offer to show them. At the caves the lights appear and the players find themselves... Prehistory The players are standing at the entrance to a cave, different to the one they were looking at with Father Bertrand. There are signs of recent usage, raptor tracks overlaid with large bird footprints are visible around the entrance. There is light coming from somewhere inside the cave system which throws shadows of something moving on the walls near the players. There is a wounded Birdman in the tunnels. He has fought and killed a raptor pack but needs help. Birdman The Birdman is 9 feet tall with human torso and arms but a bird's head, lower body and legs and wings that grow out from along its arms. It has a harness containing devices or weapons of an unknown type. He does not speak any language humans can understand, issuing birdsong mainly. Agenda: stay alive and get home Moves: fly. Shriek which cause s disorientation and harm to the ears. 1 damage. Gear: chronatron locator, ray gun 4 harm, silent, strange, bright. Other scientific gadgets and tools. Music: Blade Runner theme, Vangelis. Recognising the players are also out of time he will give them his chronatron locator before fading away as the locator screeches to a crescendo. The chronatron locator will beep and squawk and lead the players to the lake shore where the lights will rise from the water and engulf them as the locator goes mad again. The far future The players are floating in the reservoir. It's night time and they may experience a feeling of unease as they realise they can't see the bank. There is no way to tell which way to swim. The locator is beeping fairly rapidly. A large Plesiosaur also dragged through time attacks them. Plesiosaur Agenda: eat. Moves: swim fast, breath underwater. Gear: teeth, 3 harm. Thick hide 2 armour. Music: Jaws theme The players will eventually be plucked from the water by Birdmen who will carry them to land. Communication is still not possible. The Birdmen will drop them on the ground and perch on tall poles for comfort and to keep away from the rather large insects that swarm on the ground, disgusting but not dangerous. Players may choose to try and take advantage of some of the unoccupied perches around. The Birdmen will show the players a glowing rock in a transparent case. The rock is giving off Chronatrons but whatever it is held in is preventing them from affecting anything. The players will be shown how to attach small anti-chronatron mines to the rock and watch the mine's beeping rise in tempo and pitch until it explodes destroying the rock entirely. The demonstrating Birdman will hurl the rock away in time so the powerful explosion doesn't harm anyone. The Birdmen will give a bag of mines to the players and then activate a device that sends them back in time to 1810. 1810 The Spanish mission is the scene of fighting. Indians and a Birdman are trying to gain entrance and the soldiers protecting the priests are cutting them down with musket fire from loopholes in the walls, windows, doorways and the roof. The players appear amidst a group of Indians near the main door to the building, partially protected by a porch but faced with bayonets and a screaming priest trying to kill them. The Birdman is furiously fighting alone on the roof above where the players are. His squawks are loud and raucous. Inside the mission is a small piece of chronatron rock built into a statue of Mary it has been responsible for many visions and miracles and the Spanish will die to protect it. The Birdman will do his best to destroy it. If it is destroyed the mission will be destroyed in the explosion andthe Players will be sent back in time again to prehistory. . Yokuts People Agenda: Keep the perches in place and maintained. Moves: vicious hand to hand gpfighters with farm implements. 2 harm, concealed. Gear: not much really. Music: Apache, the Shadows Spanish Soldiers Agenda: Avoid the heat. Follow orders. Moves: may form up and volley fire for 4 harm. Gear: muskets, 3 harm, reload, short range only. Bayonets 2 harm, close. Officers have swords 2 harm, close. Music: La Cucaracha Priests Agenda: Spread the word of God and make some money. Moves: holy men, attacking them is rolled with something less because, well, priests. Gear: rosaries, crosses. Happy to fight with improvised weapons. Music: Plainchant. Prehistory The players are standing high on the pass looking down on the swampy lowlands beyond. Suddenly the air is split with a raging howl and roar as a meteorite hurtles to the Earth. Even though the impact is lessened by the wet swampy ground the shockwave knocks the players off their feet and a wave of increasing sound and heat engulfs them. 3 harm if the don't avoid it by immediately seeking shelter. Looking for shelter lets them roll with something extra to avoid the damage. The meteorite is still glowing after the fires surrounding it have died down. It is a Chronatron emitter. It looks like it will take a lot of mines to destroy it. If the players destroy it and get far enough away from the explosion to survive, they will fade back into time but see some tiny fragments of the meteorite thrown off in the blast. 1859 Whiskey Flats The last meteorite particle is in the saloon, the Lucky Nugget, and the saloon owner, Nathan Rogers, effectively runs the town. He is backed up by a band of gun fighters and has the Sheriff, Morgan Dell, in his pocket. He is working with the local bandits, supplying them with food, drink and women. The lucky nugget that the saloon is named after is a small piece of Chronatron rock that reacts to time distortions by increasing its activity. Usually it just sits in Nathan Rogers' office on his desk as a paperweight. 7 Hired Guns Slim, cold looking men dressed in black with low slung gun belts and a slow, deliberate way of moving and talking. They make threats in a roundabout manner and emit an air of menace. Their Spurs always jingle. Agenda: kill people for money. Moves: fast draw, they will shoot first, and deal their damage to any attack roll against them of 7-9. accurate, they can shoot at medium range with their pistols. Accurate, +1 harm when shooting pistols. Gear: Pistols, 3 harm, medium, loud. Black gun fighting gear. Spurs. Music: theme from the Magnificent Seven. Getting to the last piece of the Chronatron meteorite will send the players and the meteorite piece back to 1977. This will expend the last of the Chronatrons and they will have a harmless souvenir. Timeline Present day driving, stagecoach 1859 Whiskey Flats, stagecoach and bandits, Father Bertrand Present day, waterlogged truck and CHiPs 1810 Ciudad de Hueso Indian massacre Birdman, truck Prehistory, raptors, caves 1863 Whiskey Flats, Reverend Samuel Fullerton, Father Bertrand's Journal 1859 Spanish mission, Father Bertrand, bandits, caves Prehistory, bird man and hint of causes for time distortion Future, plesiosaur brought forward and Birdmen rescue Chronatrons explained Present day 1810 Spanish mission massacre, Birdman, more details of time distortion Prehistory destroy the large meteorite. 1859 showdown in town and finally sort out the time distortion Present day, driving off into the sunset. Adventure 4: The Haunted Mascot
Voodoo rites, a long-dead slaver captain and a possessed maniacal baseball mascot make this a roller coaster detective story. The Voodoo Mascot The Yankee Dandy. From the Bronx. The cursed mascot of the New York Yankees baseball team. Catcher Thurmond Munson died in a plane crash 2/8/79 the mascot had his moustache. Eddie Layton, organist and composer of the mascot's song died in a traffic accident. No record of the song remains and it was never performed. Rick Ford, original mascot performer killed by drunken bankers at a fundraiser staged by Citibank. Jack Hodgeson the replacement performer fell to his death from the upper deck of the stadium on his first outing playing the mascot after he was struck by a baseball hit by one of the players at a season opener fund raiser. . Dandy ended up in a dumpster From where, animated by the magics of a vengeful voodoo priestess, he continues to seek revenge on his creators. Each death fuelling and increasing its power. The Yankee Dandy 7 feet tall with a pot belly and a swagger. Has a big red moustache resembling Pitcher Thurmond Munson and big staring eyes. Agenda: revenge! Moves: immune to bullets and blades. Fire causes him to burn continuously and inflict +1 harm with each of his attacks. Can appear from the most unlikely places with supernatural ability. Relentless. Dandy can only attack for a short time before he must replenish his energy. He will disappear after a few rounds of combat, making sure no one sees him go. He will go into another room or round a corner or similar before he disappears. Gear: Oversized foam rubber baseball bat- 3 harm. Music: Theme from Halloween. Psycho stab music. 
The story
Eddie Layton found some old jazz recordings on wax cylinders when visiting New Orleans. He incorporated some of the tunes into his new music for the mascot not realising they were part of an ancient voodoo ritual to give life to the never living. The music imbued the mascot with life, small at first but growing over time as more people associated with it died and it harvested their energy. Now it is hunting down Wayde and Bonnie and the players if they interfere. The secret to stopping the monster lies deep in the bayou, hidden in the mists of time and wrapped up in a legend of black magic and pirates. Question for the PC chosen to hit the season opener charity ball at Yankee Stadium: --"How do you feel now you're about to go out to bat in front of 62,000 people?" A player, preferably a sportsman, has been asked to hit the opening ball of the season for the New York Yankees as a publicity stunt. As he swings at the first (easy) pitch the ball sails into the upper deck of the stadium and, as if in answer, the Yankees mascot Dandy sails out of the crowd to fall dead on the field. The press will run with the story of Scott killing the 'ill fated' mascot which will reveal some of the history, notably: Catcher Thurmond Munson died in a plane crash 2/8/79 the mascot had his moustache. Eddie Layton, organist and composer of the mascot's song died in a traffic accident. No record of the song remains and it was never performed.* Rick Ford, the original mascot performer killed by drunken bankers at a fundraiser staged by Citibank. Rick was a college graduate and being Dandy was his first job. He earned $40 per home game. No charges will be preferred but the character won't be asked back. Next: Dandy attacks Wayde Harrison and Bonnie Erickson who made the mascot. Bonnie Erickson made muppets and invented Miss Piggy. Their mascot making company, Acme Mascots, based in their Brooklyn apartment block burns down mysteriously. The couple just survive by climbing out of a fire escape. All their belongings are lost. They tell the players and the police (who don't listen) that they saw Dandy walking about in the flames. There is no sign of Dandy, the dumpster was emptied days ago. A garbage worker operating a rubbish barge on the river was found suffocated by a landslide of trash (which sometimes happens). He was clutching a scrap of cloth coloured the distinctive 'Yankee blue' and white when the body was recovered. Rick Ford's death: Police found the drinks at the bankers' function had all been spiked with a hallucinogenic extract from the bark if the Sumac bush, native to Louisiana. They are still investigating. Eddie Layton's death: The Police say there was melted wax blocking the brake hydraulics. The wax had small traces of gold in it. They are mystified. The wax with gold is all that remains of one of the voodoo music recordings which were all master cylinders, all copies having been destroyed years ago. Over the years the type of wax used in cylinders was improved and hardened so that cylinders could be played with good quality over 100 times. In 1902 Edison Records launched a line of improved hard wax cylinders marketed as "Edison Gold Molded Records". 
The major development of this line of cylinders is that Edison had developed a process that allowed a mold to be made from a master cylinder which then permitted the production of several hundred cylinders to be made from the mold. The impressive mention of gold referred only to the extremely thin gold coating deposited onto the master wax cylinder to make it electrically conductive, the first step in creating the metal mold.
Eddie Layton loved sailing and owned his own yacht. He also owned a huge collection of Model Trains he maintained at his Forrest Hills, New York home. His home is locked awaiting the arrival of out of state relatives. Searching the house will find: Another master cylinder containing the voodoo jazz. Playing this will cause Dandy to attack the players. Evidence of Eddie's collection of, and love of, early jazz, another of his large collections. Once the connection is made between jazz and Dandy a further search will reveal: A letter from a friend, Jimmy Spokane, asking where he would be staying during his (last year) trip to New Orleans. Another letter from Jimmy saying how excited he was to hear the wax recordings Eddie had written to him about and making him promise to play them for him when he got back. Jimmy Spokane is dead. He too was a lover of early jazz. His wife will show the players around his collection which contains another of the cylinders, a gift from Eddie, set up in a player. Jimmy died amongst his record collection when a heavy shelf of old gramophones fell on him a month ago. He has the letters from Eddie giving the New Orleans hotel address, the Place d'Armes Hotel in the French Quarter, and the one saying how excited Eddie was to have discovered the wax recordings in Madame Tambour's shop. Eddie Layton's yacht Is moored in a small harbour On the river. Eddie took this boat far and wide. The log shows his trip to New Orleans last year. And where he moored it there. South Shore Harbour Marina. Records here also give his hotel address during his stay. New Orleans
The Place d'Armes Hotel is decent and modestly priced. Madame Tambour's shop can be found nearby in the back alleys. Madame Tambour sells antiques of all kinds. In the back she makes potions and casts voodoo spells for her discerning customers. Madame Tambour Madam Tambour is a voodoo priestess. She does remember the wax recordings and Eddie, "he was so happy to find them but I told him to be careful", they came from an old woman, allegedly Nanny Scratch, who lived in the nearby town of Cut Off. Nanny Scratch used to sell herbs to Madame Tambour many years ago for her medicines and potions. "She was a powerful soul, but quite bad at times. She wasn't the real Nanny Scratch of course." Madame Tambour knows the legend of Nanny Scratch and is happy to pass it on if the players buy some of her stuff, maybe a voodoo protection charm or two? Agenda: sell junk to tourists and keep the old religion alive. Moves: hexes if necessary Gear: a shop full of junk and a back room of voodoo stuff. The charms she sells are good for 2 armour against voodoo stuff surprisingly. Music: Black Magic Woman by Santana. The legend of Nanny Scratch Nanny Scratch was an old, old woman, she lived for hundreds of years, kept alive, young and beautiful by her dark magics. She had many lovers during her life but the man she loved the most was Captain Kane a vicious and feared slaver captain who she met in 1698. They were together for 17 years before Kane was slaughtered by a cargo of his slaves that escaped their confinement and rose up to kill (and eat) him and his crew. It is said that Nanny Scratch hunted down the escaped slaves and exacted a horrible revenge, turning them all into her undead servants. She collected the bones and accoutrements of Captain Kane, set them in a secret resting place and left the undead salves to guard him for all time. She took Kane's spirit and bound it in a speaking drum so that he could be always near her and add his magical essence to her ceremonies. Playing the drum in certain voodoo ceremonies allowed the spirit of Captain Kane to take over one or more of the revellers at the ceremony and Nanny Scratch could then lie with her sweetheart again. The truth behind the legend It's all true. The spirit of Kane is animating Dandy and only destroying the drum will stop him for good. Dandy can only be harmed by the cutlass that killed Kane which is with his bones, lodged in his rib cage. The cutlass will allow the user to inflict normal damage (2 harm for the cutlass) until Dandy has taken 6 harm when the mascot will collapse. It cannot be destroyed permanently until the drum is also destroyed and Kane's spirit is dissipated. Nanny Scratch has been dead, destroyed by the Yellow Sock (it's a long story), for about 50 years. Cut Off The Lafourche Parish community was the site of a canal that connected Bayou Lafourche with New Orleans by way of Lake Salvador. It was a short-cut or cutoff canal, so the site became known as Cut Off. The current inhabitants of Cut Off live in a relatively new settlement down the hill from where the 'old town' used to be. All that remains of the old town (never more than a village really) is the church, the graveyard and Nanny Scratch's house. Cut Off residents (whites) Ethan, Joshua, Jacob, Landon, Caleb, Noah, Elijah. Mostly they will warn the players off but if this doesn't work they can turn nasty. Agenda: leave us alone. Moves: local knowledge, hillbillies can always attack from ambush, targets defend by rolling with something less. Gear: old guns, 2 harm, close, unreliable. Rusty farm tools, sickles and scythes, 2 harm, close, possible infections. Music: Duelling Banjos. Cut Off residents (Voodoo cultists) Washington, Barbary, Coffey, Grafton, Homer. Asking around amount Nanny Scratch or investigating her house or the church will cause the cultists to attack. Agenda: destroy the interlopers Moves: fanatical charge, attack in a group for 3 harm, 2 armour because they are protected by magic Gear: knives, machetes, charms. Music: Don't Fear the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult Nanny Scratch's house This is an old, derelict sprawling building that looks like a haunted house. It's perched up on a hill behind a graveyard belonging to the equally derelict church of the 'old town'. The grounds are overgrown and the locals will happily attest to it actually being haunted. Part of the house extends on rickety stilts out over the waters of the clogged bayou. The house is rickety and in real danger of sliding down the hillside and collapsing into the swamp. There is a basement with a concealed tunnel that goes under the graveyard into the caver beneath the church. The tunnel is lined with coffins holding some of the fairly well preserved zombie slaves. Zombie slaves (60) Agenda: prooooteeeeect.... Moves: They need to be decapitated to stop them, dismembered parts keep on coming. Can form a mob for 3 harm and 3 armour. Slow. Relentless. Gear: claws and teeth 1 harm very close, 3 armour. Music: Dance With the Devil by Cosy Powell. The Church Also derelict. There is a concealed trap door in the vestry leading to steps that wind down into the hill to an expansive, damp, dank cavern. The graveyard All the graves are old. Captain Kane's remains are in a crumbling mausoleum with several zombies slumped or propped in alcoves around the small central plinth which holds Kane's mortal remains and the cutlass. The cavern The cavern is still the sight of voodoo ceremonies. The drum is here. There are more wax recordings and a means of playing them here too. Voodoo cultists, zombies and even Dandy can attack the players here. Adventure 5: Cropsey
This is a dark one. The killer and the victims are real as is the history of the child mental health facility. The Kuru is an added bonus from me. This might not be suitable for some groups. My group wanted something darker at this point and enjoyed hunting Cropsey down (and killing him). The light hearted beginning makes the change of gear into the dark horror of the serial killer even more striking. We had a good session with this one. Cropsey Cropsey was the ghoul to end all ghouls. An escaped mental patient living in the empty Willowbrook Mental Institution, he was said to creep out at night and quietly ‘disappear’ children – hauling them away into the inky blankness of the institution, never to be seen again. In some variations, he had a hook for a hand. In others he carried an axe. But what’s truly terrifying about Cropsey is that he was real. In 1972, children began vanishing from Staten Island. In total, five disappeared. The kidnappings were ultimately linked to local criminal Andre Rand, who is currently serving a 50-to-life sentence. Although he was never convicted of murder, Rand remains a prime suspect in the deaths of all five children. Chillingly for the residents of Staten Island, this urban legend managed to step out of their nightmares and into reality. 
The plot:
Children are disappearing. Could this be the work of the Staten Island Clown? There is a $5000 reward for his capture. Mole People are suspected of the kidnappings and victimised by vigilantes. "They can't have their own kids so they take ours!" The Mole People live in their own communities underground in the sewers. There are Alligators in the sewers too. The Mole People have lost many of their children to Cropsey and some to alligators. Actually the victims are taken by Andre Rand, called Cropsey by his vagrant followers and are being kept and tortured in his derelict Sea View Hospital hideout. Sea View is where the tramps live and Cropsey's base of operations. The VW van is kept here and victims are fed to the tramps here on 'Feast Days'. Willowbrook State School is Cropsey's bolt hole. He tortures his victims in the tunnels beneath it. Arthur Kill Correctional Facility is the target of his revenge plot. He is slowly tunnelling towards the cell. of Timothy Renbach the boy who cut off his hand in 1969. Renbach knows he's coming because Rand has passed messages via his followers imprisoned for other minor crimes and is slowly going mad as no one believes him. Staten Island: Background 1970 - Population: 295,443. 1971 - St. John's University Staten Island campus opens. 1973 - Staten Island Mall in business. 1975 - "Borough of Richmond" becomes "Borough of Staten Island." 1976 - Arthur Kill Correctional Facility and College of Staten Island established. Staten Island Children's Museum jopens. 1977 - Preservation League of Staten Island and Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art founded. Anthony Gaeta becomes Borough President. Staten Island is one of the five boroughs of New York City, in the U.S. state of New York. In the southwest of the city, Staten Island is the southernmost part of both the city and state of New York, with Conference House Park at the southern tip of the island and the state. The borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay. Staten Island is the least populated of the boroughs but is the third-largest in area at 58 sq miles. The borough is coextensive with Richmond County, and until 1975 was officially the Borough of Richmond. Staten Island has been sometimes called "the forgotten borough" by inhabitants who feel neglected by the city government. The North Shore — especially the neighborhoods of St. George, Tompkinsville, Clifton, and Stapleton — is the most urban part of the island and features large Victorian houses. The East Shore is home to the 2.5-mile F.D.R. Boardwalk, the fourth-longest in the world. The South Shore, site of the 17th-century Dutch and French Huguenot settlement of South Beach, developed rapidly beginning in the 1960s and 1970s; it is mostly suburban in character. The West Shore is the least populated and most industrial part of the island. Motor traffic can reach the borough from Brooklyn via the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and from New Jersey via the Outerbridge Crossing, Goethals Bridge, and Bayonne Bridge. Staten Island has Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) bus lines and the Staten Island Railway which runs from the ferry terminal at St. George to Tottenville. Staten Island is the only borough that is not connected to the New York City Subway system. The free Staten Island Ferry connects the borough to Manhattan and is a popular tourist attraction, providing views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Lower Manhattan. Staten Island had the Fresh Kills Landfill, which is the world's largest landfill and is home to the Arthur Kill Correctional Facility. Arthur Kill Correctional Facility Arthur Kill Correctional Facility was a medium security correctional facility opened in 1976 and operated by what was then the New York State Department of Correctional Services. Arthur Kill was located in New York City in the Borough of Staten Island, along Arthur Kill Road in the Charleston area. The prison had a capacity of 931 male inmates. The prison property bordered Arthur Kill, a waterway that separates Staten Island from New Jersey. The 260-acre Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve is also located across from the prison site. Part of its site contains buried truck trailers and is potentially contaminated; the decision was made to "deal" with the abandoned trailers' contents in this way. The site formerly served as a 650-bed drug rehabilitation center, with an indoor swimming pool (closed when it became a prison)[2] Sixteen housing (dormitory) units, the medical building and the SHU or Special Housing Unit were built just before or while it was a prison. Staten Island: the Staten Island Clown The players are visiting Staten Island to apprehend the Staten Island Clown who is terrorising residents. Under cover of darkness the clown jumps out and scares residents and visitors. He may also be linked to the recent disappearances of children in the area. Anthony Gaeta, the newly elected Borough President, is offering $5000 for the apprehension of the clown. Opening question to the characters: "Was it just the $5000 reward that made you decide to catch the Staten Island Clown?" The clown steals food from people he scares, throws pies and squirts water from a flower amongst other hilarious japes. He is not kidnapping children however. Sightings have been at picnic areas; parks, woods etc and also around ice cream vans and hot dog vendors.. The clown has eluded capture so far by using his film crew's nondescript van to make his getaways once out of sight of pursuers. The Staten Island Clown Agenda: scare people, be a cunt. Moves: run fast in big shoes. Produce anything needed from big clown pockets. Gear: pockets of holding, can produce pies, streamers, fish etc from pockets as needed. Music: Can't Smile Without You, Barry Manilow. The clown is Michael Leavy who is trying to drum up publicity for his soon-to-be released independent film Disco Clowns of Staten Island vs the Dancinator of Doom. A small film crew is capturing the hilarity with concealed cameras in their van. Tramps Red herrings can be provided by the giggling tramp followers of Cropsey who may be spotted from time to time in the woods or parks. Vagrants Agenda: serve the master Moves: attack en masse for 3 harm 1 armour. Gear: smelly clothes and makeshift knives, 2 harm, close, concealed. Some tramps have hooks where their hands have been amputated to feed to Cropsey's children captives These laughing tramps and vagabonds are all in the first stages of Kuru. Music: Aqualung, Jethro Tull Questioning the tramps may glean some small clues to Cropsey and his activities but they will be obscure as the tramps are mad. A medical examination or an autosy will reveal the cause of their behaviour, Kuru. Kuru Kuru is an incurable degenerative neurological disorder endemic to tribal regions of Papua New Guinea. It is a type of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, caused by a prion found in humans. The term "kuru" derives from the Fore word "kuria/guria" ("to shake"), a reference to the body tremors that are a classic symptom of the disease; it is also known among the Fore as the "laughing sickness" due to the pathologic bursts of laughter people would display when afflicted with the disease. It is now widely accepted that kuru was transmitted among members of the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea via funerary cannibalism It is characterized by truncal ataxia (the loss of full control of bodily movements), preceded by headaches, joint pains, and shaking of the limbs. Trembling is present in almost all patients with this transmissible spongiform encephalopathy; kuru is also known as "shiver" The symptoms of kuru are divided into three specific stages. The first, ambulant stage, exhibits unsteady stance and gait, decreased muscle control, tremors, deterioration of speech, and dysarthria (slurred speech). In the second, sedentary stage, the patient is incapable of walking without support and suffers ataxia (loss of muscle coordination) and severe tremors. Furthermore, the victim is emotionally unstable and depressed, yet has uncontrolled sporadic laughter. Interestingly, the tendon reflexes are still normal at this point. In the final, terminal stage, the patient is incapable of sitting without support, suffers severe ataxia (no muscle coordination), is unable to speak, is incontinent (unable to restrain natural discharges/evacuations of urine or faeces), has dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), is unresponsive to his or her surroundings, and acquires ulcerations (sores with pus and necrosis). An infected person usually dies within three months to two years after the first symptoms, often because of pneumonia or pressure sore infection. There is a year or so incubation period during which the victims can work for Cropsey. Once they start to shamble and laugh they are left to wander the campsites and streets. When they collapse they are collected, killed and eaten, thus continuing the spread of the disease amongst Cropsey's followers. At some point: The Mole People Shots ring out in the back streets of a Staten Island neighbourhood. Maybe a clown sighting. A posse of local vigilantes is chasing a scruffy figure, a Mole People runner, clutching a bundle (of stolen food). A woman is shrieking "Stop him! He tried to steal my baby!" The figure is trying to lift a sewer lid when he is shot. He's dead and his bundle of stolen food is revealed. Local vigilantes Local people, doing what the police won't or can't. Agenda: defend our neighbourhood Moves: local knowledge- can move quickly through the back streets to ambush or flee, haste with something less. Violent mob: gang up for 3 harm, 1 armour. Persuade/intimidate them by rolling with something less. Gear: makeshift weapons, 2 harm, close. A couple of handguns, 2 harm, close. Music: In the City, Joe Walsh The locals can explain that children have gone missing in the area and the police are powerless. They live in a semi rural small community and feeling are running high. Disappearances 2 days ago 9-year-old Alice Pereira vanished after her brother had left her alone for a moment. They were playing in the lobby of a building. 8 days ago 7-year-old Holly Ann Hughes did not return home after going to the store to get candy with her friend. A scruffy, disheveled man approached Holly and her friend and pulled Holly into an old and rusty Volkswagen van before driving off with her. Holly has diabetes. 17 days ago 11-year-old Tiahease Jackson was reported missing after her mother had sent her to purchase food and she did not return. 35 days ago Hank Gafforio was reported missing after he did not return home one night. Gafforio was described as being “slow” and had an I.Q. in the 70s. At the time of his disappearance he was 22. Eyewitnesses reported last seeing Gafforio in a local diner with a scruffy man in the early morning hours. 6 months ago Jennifer Schweiger, born with Downs syndrome, was reported missing. Witnesses spotted Jennifer walking with a 'hobo'. Her body was found underground after a 35-day search. While combing the area around a local School, the Willowbrook State School, actually a mental hospital for children, a particular spot caught the eye of retired New York City firefighter George Kramer. He returned with the police and the entire body was unearthed from the shallow grave. and the remains were positively identified as those of Schweiger. Police searched the grounds for evidence, and found a makeshift campsites in proximity of Schweiger’s grave. The Mole People These are underground dwellers who have their own community below the streets. They build towns of makeshift shelters and tap into water and electricity supplies meant for the surface dwellers. They have designated 'runners' who are tasked with going to the surface to get food and other supplies. Locals attribute all sorts of crimes and accidents to the actions of the Mole People, especially missing people and pets and other thefts and disappearances. "They steal children because they can't have their own". "Most of the have huge bug eyes because they live in perpetual darkness". "They have albino skin from living away from the Sun for generations". "Sunlight hurts them". "Vampires". Mole People Agenda: stay away from people, mind our own business Moves: navigate in darkness, chasing or tracking Mole People underground is rolled with something less. Gang up for 3 harm and 2 armour Gear: makeshift weapons Music: Down in the Sewer, the Stranglers The Mole People have not taken any of the missing people. They will run into the darkness, extinguishing lights, rather than mix with surface dwellers. They will fight if cornered but only to escape. Getting to talk to them could be a problem. The sewers are also the home of a few albino alligators. Albino Alligators Agenda: hunt, feed. Moves: attack from under water, defend with something less against the initial strike. 2 armour hide. 3 damage- bite and roll, damage includes drowning damage which is temporary unless lethal (1 harm per attack) but ignores armour. Gear: valuable skin. Music: See you later Aligator, Dr Feelgood If the Mole People are questioned they can reveal: Mole people have tales of Cropsey, the "Hooked Killer" who steals children. The mole people know of the Sea View tunnels and the asylum tunnels but avoid them because of Cropsey. They know there is digging and tunnelling beneath the prison but the tramps are vicious so they keep away. They have not made a connection between the tramps and Cropsey. Andre Rand Andre Rand (born Frank Rushan; March 11, 1944) is a kidnapper of at least two children and suspected serial killer from Staten Island, New York. Willowbrook State School In the mid 1960s, Rand worked as a custodian at Willowbrook State School. The hospital was surrounded by a forest called the Greenbelt. In 1972, documentary filmmaker Geraldo Rivera brought the conditions of Willowbrook to the public eye in an exposé entitled "Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace." The film made a number of allegations against the institution. Tunnel systems exist beneath the hospital. While Rand worked at the Willowbrook School he mistreated the inmates with petty cruelties. He used the tunnels beneathe the school to come and go unseen. He infiltrated the starta used by the Mole People and began to abduct their children which went unreported to the authorities. He returned to the school with his victims and incacerated them in cells as inmates. many are still there now as young adults. Some continue to rotest their innocence to the unhearing authorities, some have gone mad like nmany of the other inmates. Some have died and been partially consumed by Rand. Early crime record Rand picked up a group of 11 children from the YMCA located in Staten Island in a school bus, purchased a meal for them without the consent from any of their parents, During the meal break one of the bigger boys, Timothy Renbach, used a fire axe from the picnic spot safety area to cut off Rand's hand. Rand fled with the axe and severed hand but was captured after a search. The hand and axe were not recovered. None of the children were harmed in this encounter, but Rand served 10 months for unlawful imprisonment in the Arthur Kill Correctional Facility. Rand learned of the underground trailers whilst in prison. Once released he set up home in the ruins of the Sea View Hospital. He recovered his stashed hand and axe. He abducted more children, again mostly Mole People children as they were untraceable. Some above ground children too. Rand started recruiting tramps. The harsh winter of 74 made them eager for shelter and food. He began feeding them the remains of his kidnapped victims. Eating brain matter has made some of them mad with Kuru. Now Rand has found out that his tormentor, Timothy Renbach, who, disturbed by his abduction as a child, turned to petty crime, has been incarcerated in the Arthur Kill prison and Rand is tunnelling to get him. Buried truck trailers under the prison grounds allow underground access to the prison, the tunnel is not large, just a cramped crawl way. Access is from the Fresh Kills Landfill excavated by tramps who everybody assumes are picking through the trash. Rand's need for more tramp workers to tunnel for him is the reason the rate of his kidnapping has increased and become so noticable. He will continue to kidnap new victims whilst the players are investigating either the clown or the disappearances. He is dirty and disheveled with a hook for his left hand. he carries the fire axe that maimed him and drives a rusty Volkswagen van. He feeds his tramp followers with the bodies of his young children on 'feast days'. Feast days are used to recruit new followers. There are always at least 20 vagrants in the immediate area of Sea View that will respond to a call to action. Questioning the tramps may glean some small clues to Cropsey and his activities but they will be obscure as the tramps are mad. A medical examination or an autosy will reveal the cause of their behaviour, Kuru. Some of the vagrants may be found on the outskirts of the Mole People community picking over their leavings. Cropsey The vagrants refer to Rand as Cropsey and do not know his real name. They attribute all kinds of supernatural powers to Cropsey as do normal locals who regard Cropsey as a bogeyman legend. The legendary Cropsey preys on children, usually at camp, to get revenge for a campfire accident that left him disfigured. Cropsey was the ghoul to end all ghouls. An escaped mental patient living in the empty Willowbrook Mental Institution, he was said to creep out at night and quietly ‘disappear’ children – hauling them away into the inky blankness of the institution, never to be seen again. In some variations, he had a hook for a hand. In others he carried an axe. But what’s truly terrifying about Cropsey is that he was real. Willowbrook State School Willowbrook State School is a state-supported institution for children with intellectual disability located in the Willowbrook neighborhood on Staten Island in New York City built in 1947. The school was designed for 4,000, but by 1965 it had a population of 6,000. At the time, it was the biggest state-run institution for people with mental disabilities in the United States. Conditions and questionable medical practices and experiments prompted Sen. Robert Kennedy to call it a "snake pit.". Senator Robert Kennedy toured the institution in 1965 and proclaimed that individuals in the overcrowded facility were "living in filth and dirt, their clothing in rags, in rooms less comfortable and cheerful than the cages in which we put animals in a zoo" and offered a series of recommendations for improving conditions. Throughout the first decade of its operation, outbreaks of hepatitis, primarily hepatitis A, were common at the school. This led to controversial medical studies being carried out there between the late 1950s and the '70s by medical researchers Saul Krugman (New York University) and Robert W. McCollum (Yale University), who monitored subjects to gauge the effects of gamma globulin in combating it. A public outcry forced the research project and medical studies to be discontinued. Accusations were leveled that the researchers had used mentally disabled children as "human guinea pigs". According to the celebrated vaccinologist Maurice Hilleman, "They [the Willowbrook studies] were the most unethical medical experiments ever performed in children in the United States." Bioethicist Art Caplan has stated that, "The Willowbrook studies were a turning point in how we thought about medical experiments in retarded children... Children inoculated with hepatitis virus had no chance to benefit from the procedure — only the chance to be harmed." Although the hepatitis study had been discontinued, the residential school's reputation was that of a warehouse for New York City's mentally disabled people, many of whom were presumably abandoned there by their families, foster care agencies, or other systems designed to care for them. Donna J. Stone, an advocate for mentally disabled children as well as victims of child abuse, gained access to the school by posing as a recent social work graduate. She then shared her observations with members of the press. A series of articles in local newspapers, including the Staten Island Advance and the Staten Island Register, described the crowded, filthy living conditions at Willowbrook, and the negligent treatment of some of its residents. Jane Kurtin was the first reporter to write a story about Willowbrook State School because she visited Willowbrook in order to cover a demonstration that social workers and parents of the residents had organized. Kurtin wanted to get inside the buildings, and social workers Elizabeth Lee and Ira Fisher brought her inside. Shortly thereafter, in early 1972, Geraldo Rivera, then an investigative reporter for WABC-TV in New York, conducted a series of investigations at Willowbrook uncovering a host of deplorable conditions, including overcrowding, inadequate sanitary facilities, and physical and sexual abuse of residents by members of the school's staff. The exposé, entitled Willowbrook: The Last Great Disgrace, garnered national attention and won a Peabody Award for Rivera. Rivera later appeared on the nationally televised Dick Cavett Show with film of patients at the school. As a result of the overcrowding and inhumane conditions, a class-action lawsuit was filed against the State of New York by the parents of 5,000 residents of Willowbrook in federal court on March 17, 1972. This was known as New York ARC v. Rockefeller. In 1975, a consent judgement was signed, and it committed New York state to improve community placement for the, now designated, "Willowbrook Class." However, right now in 1977, Willowbrook is continuing with business as usual. The tunnel system beneath the school is known to only a few people. The tunnels, with a little help from vagrant digging, now connect to the Sea View Hospital. Other abductees Anna Christian Waters: Waters disappeared from her backyard. Steven Stayner: Kidnapped on his way home from school. Jane (aged 9), Arnna (aged 7) and Grant Beaumont(6): Abducted from a playground next to their home. Johnny Gosch was doing his usual paper-round on Sunday when he disappeared. His newspaper wagon was found abandoned in a side street. |
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Staten Island Arthur Kill Correctional Facility
Sea View Hospital
Cropsey
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