[HOE] The Big D

[Michael Cone <mkcone@yahoo.com>]

The Big D, eh?

I like the way you think!

Ok, we got the daddy of all vamps, a haunted
character, and a cult dedicated to getting the Big
Leech back on his feet. Let’s see what I can give you.
Spoiler space for the players-





Get outta here!






That should be good. Here’s an opener. The posse is
approached by a local Law Dog looking for some handy
do-gooders. He’s got a Librarian buddy who needs some
help.
Three days ago the Librarian was holed up in a local
flophouse on his way back to Sacramento with a load of
plunder- ahem, liberated dataslugs. While he was
getting some grub, somebody ransacked his room and
made off with his new prize. Both the Law Dog and the
Librarian have a decent amount of swag they can offer
the posse in return for some help. 
The Librarian had a look at some of the slugs before
they disappeared. One of them detailed the layout and
security protocols for an installation called the
Necro-Rex* Depository.
(*A big old radioactive cookie to the waster who knows
where I borrowed that name from)
Both NPC’s want to accompany the posse out to the
Depository to see what might be worth stealing. 
The slug reveals that under the ruins of (insert
nearby campaign locale) there is a subterranean
complex belonging to the (insert desired spookbusting
department).
As the posse makes their way to the X on the map,
dodging muties, bandits and or other walking fate chip
bounties, the weather starts acting up. Weird cloud
formations spiral and rumble overhead. The temperature
drops thirty degrees inside an hour. The wind almost
howls at them as it whips through the ruins. You know,
atmosphere! 
The Librarian’s recollection leads the posse to an old
blood bank in a wrecked shopping mall. As the
characters get closer, anyone making a decent
Cognition check will discover that there are an awful
lot of footprints in the dust and debris. Almost
twenty different tracks. With a really good roll, at
the Marshal’s whim, they might see that some of the
tracks are shuffling, like they were shackled or bound
in some way. 
Inside the old medical office, there is the remains of
some old office furniture but not much else. In the
Mall building hallways behind the office, there is a
ten foot section of ventilation grate pulled out
opening up to a large loading ramp heading down. 
I’d say the light in here is really bad. Penalties to
die rolls bad. Start making those wasters sweat,
Marshal.
The ramp’s decent grade is slow enough for a heavy
forklift to use. At the bottom there is a medium
storage area with a few old boxes still in the
corners. There are some office supplies, and whatever
small technical parts you might want the players to
come across. 
The doors on the far wall should give the posse their
first hint that this was a heavy-duty lockdown. The
first set of doors is tempered steel with a vacuum
lock system.
There still aren’t any lights on, but the doors are
drawing power from somewhere. Inside the posse can
discover empty weapons lockers, a few clerical offices
and other signs that point to the place being a small
gov’t operation. Big signs about classified material
never leaving the room, reminders about weapons
responsibility, and the ever-popular biohazard symbol
in BIG RED PRINT. And at some point they will come
across the cult out to find their boss. 
Sketch out the cultists to make a good challenge for
the posse. A majority of normal folks with guns, axes
and clubs. Sneak in a ringer is you want to escalate
things. Maybe there’s a junker with a few devices
hiding in their ranks. 
If you want to play up the cult angle and really make
the posse sweat, have them recognize some of the
cultists as town elders they know. Or one of them is
well known and respected Law Dog!
Have the fight be a difficult one; lots of shootin’
and fightin’ penalties, stumbling over trash in the
dark, all sorts of stuff. Play up the chaos. Oh yeah,
have the Librarian and or the Law Dog separated from
them. 
Once they have put the cultists down for the count,
the posse can see what they were defending. At the end
of a hallway with multiple airlock style doors, and an
old decontamination chamber complete with biohazard
suits is the motherload. A large laboratory with a ten
foot by four foot by three foot steel canister. And
it’s wide open!
Spread over the floors are better than ten forms that
used to look human. Now they look like prunes that
have been left in the sun a little too long. There is
not a drop of fluid left in the bodies. Welcome to the
world of guts checks.
One the posse has had a chance to get some clean
drawers on, let them poke around the lab and try to
get an idea of what was stored here. There are lots of
phlebotomy textbooks and reams of work on viral
bacteria. 
By the way, whichever NPC vanished during the fight is
outside on the loading ramp looking like the remnants
of an all-you-can-eat cannibal special.

What does the Head Bloodsucker want in the Wasted
West? The same thing as the proverbial nine hundred
pound gorilla.
Here’s a few thoughts on the other movers and shakers
from the Big D’s point of view.

Jo’s Templars- Them holy crusaders gotta go. No doubt
about it. As a plot point, it might spice things up a
bit if a Templars’ blood tastes nasty to a vampire.
Like a battery acid cocktail nasty. The Drac Pack
would probably either try to move a Templar on if at
all possible. Otherwise its time for the dirtnap.

The Combine- Even the King of all Neckbiters would
think twice before locking horns with the guy who’s
got the most guns in the West. But the Denver
resistance would be the perfect place for a few
cultists/servants to collect intelligence. How’s this
for a nightmare: A Vamp with his own set of power
armor. Daylight? What daylight?

The Cult of Doom- How does a mutie taste to somebody
on a liquid diet? That’s for the Marshal to decide.
Either way, a radiation priest could still open a big
can of whupass. Better use the muties as patsies if a
plan goes south.

As for the rest of the groups scattered across the
Wasted West, they’re either flunkies in waiting or
dinner on the hoof. 
For the Big D himself, I’d say he probably has a
larger than normal appetite. Like a full grown adult a
day. He may need to get set up in a settlement with a
lot of transients (like the Shattered Coast) or he’ll
need to go where the food is. That’s nothing a good
refurbished RV or tractor-trailer can’t fix. 

Go nuts! Have fun with it. And let us know how the
game goes.

Mike 


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