The Doomsday Book, Horrors and elves and Dark, oh my! Options

[DrJest]

Okay, just for Req, here's the adventure outline for that old run. I tided it up a bit, but it's still kinda rough around the edges, so forgive any of the more egregious cockups. Suggestions for making this better gratefully received.

Note
I haven't provided stats for many of the creatures or characters in this adventure, since player teams vary so much in power. Instead I have used the Threat Rating system to indicate how dangerous an encounter should be to the characters. Any unique powers or common spells used by the NPC are also listed.

Background
In the Fourth Age of the world, terrible monsters arose from the planes to prey upon the material world. Only by retreating into warded and fortified hiding places could the sentient races of the world survive, and only the Books of Harrow taught the powerful wards that would keep the Horrors at bay. Many great deeds, both noble and terrible, came out of that time. And some realised that the cycle must by definition repeat itself, and tried to find ways to prepare the next, unknowing world for what was to come.
One of those long-sighted individuals was a powerful nethermancer called Jerediah. He bound his own soul to a book containing much information from the Books of Harrow, intending to be there in person to assist. But the down-cycle was far longer than he expected, and his powers inside the book far weaker. Unable to reach any of the various people who picked up the book, only able to perceive through the eyes of those who carried it (with those perceptions filtered by the attitudes of the bearer), Jerediah started to lose his fragile grip on sanity.
And then the book was picked up by a young street ganger who, for the first time, Jerediah could reach – sort of. Things have only gone down hill since then...

Scene 1: Denton’s Lore
The PC’s are contacted through their usual fixer with a fairly straight-forward looking job. A talismonger called Denton Jacobs (see 1st Edition Seattle Sourcebook p. 101) needs a team including at least one mage or shaman to track down a book he recently sold. Denton will pay the team in magical supplies rather than cash for preference, which should suit the PC’s well enough since he will value them at cost and the resale value of magical gear is quite high.
What has happened is this: Denton got in a very old book, but it didn’t seem anything special; a few spells, nothing of great value apart from its age, and age isn’t something that the patrons of Denton’s Lore Store care about. Denton eventually sold the book to a young street mage called Harrier and, to be honest, didn’t give it another thought. Until, that is, he had a visit from a couple of elves (Mr. Black and Mr. White, see below) who asked a lot of questions in a very serious tone, then informed him that they would be back, and if he wanted to continue in good health he had better have the book back. Not an unfair man, he is quite prepared to pay Harrier for the return of the book; but if Harrier won't sell, well, Denton needs the book back anyway.

Scene 2: Streetwalking
So obviously, the PC’s need to find this Harrier. The PC's need to do some legwork to get their first lead:

Appropriate Contacts: Street, Magical, TN 5
(if the contact is a wizganger, tn is 4)

Successes Information
0 “Harrier... what, like the old jet?”
1 “Didn't he used to be a Screaming Demon? I heard he tried to hit the big time as a shadowrunner...”
2 “...but frankly he sucked drek at it. Last I heard he was back on the streets with his old chummers.”
3 “Tell you what, though, that stint as a runner must have done him some good. He's got more mojo than he used to...”
4 “...enough to challenge the Demons' old boss and take over from him just recently, or so I heard.”

Investigating the Screaming Demons themselves is also a good move:

Appropriate Contacts: Street, Magical, Law Enforcement, TN 5
(if the contact is a wizganger or magical detective, tn is 4)

Successes Information
0 “Some wizgang, ain't they?”
1 “Just your basic wizgangers, but pretty stable as these gangs go; been around for a couple of years. Not bad, considering most of them manage to blow themselves up inside the first six months.”
2 “The Demons are Puyallup-based, live out of an abandoned tenement down there.”
2 “There's been some kind of power struggle in the gang's leadership, or so I hear. They found Fireball Sam, the old leader, half-melted into a chain-link fence outside the gang's hideout.”

The PC's may also try to get information on the mysterious elves that threatened Denton. Not much is to be had:

Appropriate Contacts: Street, Law Enforcement, TN 8

Successes Information
0 “I don't mess with weird elves, and neither should you.”
1 “You talking about those two dandelion-eaters that trashed Jack's Bar and Grill yesterday? Man, that was a riot. All these big tough orks, and those two pointy-eared pansies just beat the crap out of them.”
2 “I hear they sounded foreign... English or Irish or something.” (This amount of asking around triggers Monochrome and Monowire, below.)

Scene 3: Something Wicked This Way Comes
By now the runners should have found out where the Screaming Demons hideout is. What they don't know, because it happened too recently to have made the circuit of street gossip, is that the Harriers aren't there any more. Harrier has been receiving broadcast images of the Time of Horrors from Jerediah, and has gone quite mad with paranoia; he had the Harriers move their base for “security reasons”, and – drawing on the mystical knowledge of the Book - left a bound Horror behind him as a surprise for any intruders.
The tenement has no power, and the windows were boarded up long ago, so even in daylight there is little illumination beyond occasional stray beams of light squeezing through chinks in the boards. Worse, Harrier experimented with the wards from the Book on the building; as well as acting like “ordinary” wards, the walls and boarded windows have a Barrier Rating equivalent to hardened armour (32)! The Horror is on the top floor, sticking to the ceiling like some grim spider waiting for a fly...

Dweller in Darkness
Threat Rating 3. Critter Powers: Concealment (Self only, limited to shadows), Confusion, Enhanced Reactions, Mana Detection, Paralyzing Touch, Silence.

Staging tips: With the array of powers listed, the Dweller will toy with the runners like a cat with a mouse. Think the original Alien rather than the more action-oriented sequel. The Confusion power should keep the runners wandering around the inside of the building trying to find the only unwarded door out.

The only real prize here apart from the runners' lives is a hand-drawn map on one wall (literally on the wall, scrawled on with a marker pen) of the apartment that Harrier was using. He sketched out a plan of the new hideout's location and continually reworked how he wanted to fortify it. The runners may get entirely the wrong idea about how protected the place is from the notes, but keeping them on their toes is never a bad thing ;)

Scene 4 – Duci novo, similis duci seneci
With the information from Harrier's map, the runners should have no problem tracking down the Screaming Demons' new hideout, an abandoned cinema in another district. Choice of entry is up to the runners, but they're probably feeling cautious after seeing Harrier's plans back at the tenement. Good roleplaying and social skills can get them in to speak to Harrier without a fight.
Harrier – now calling himself The Magister – is completely insane. He rambles on about 'tides of monsters, flooding from beyond’, and how ‘the chasm – the chasm is nearly crossed…’ He may make some reference to ‘the Songbird. Only the Songbird can stop them, and even she not forever. But for time, time enough…’
If the PC’s try and persuade Harrier to give up the book, he will refuse; if they try more than twice, he will fly into a berserk rage and attack (this will bring in the other Demons). Likewise, the same result will accompany any attempt to remove the book from Harrier’s possession.
It's pretty much a given that the fur's going to fly here. Of course, things are only going to go from bad to worse...

Harrier: Threat 3. Preferred spells are ones taught him by the Book, and include Spirit Grip (treat as Manabolt with creepy special effects), Death's Head (Transformation Manipulation changes the caster's head into a gore-splattered skull, opposed by Willpower or target must flee) and Bone Shatter (area of effect damaging Health spell).
Screaming Demons (as many as will make the fight interesting): Just use the Wizganger contact template.

Scene 5 - Come In From The Darke
Just as the fighting reaches its peak, the runners become aware of a new entry into the game. Mr. Darke (who the players may or may not recognise if they have done Harlqeuin's Back) will show up with a few of his Horrors in tow (numbers suitable for the party – see the Threats book for details). Jerediah will, even through Harrier’s warped perceptions, recognise Darke for what he is, and call upon long-forgotten magicks to manifest an astral presence fully in the physical world to battle him. Once outside the Book his mind is more stable; pausing only to say “The master is beyond you; slay his minions that I may have freedom to deal with him!” he launches a major magical attack on Darke.
Without Jerediah, Harrier has no access to his increased magickal abilities. This breaks his mind, and he sits on the floor sobbing. The PC’s should probably take their cue from the surviving Demons and concentrate their fire on the Horrors, leaving Jerediah to combat Darke, as it will likely take their combined firepower to take the creatures down. Besides, as Jerediah pointed out, shooting Darke is an exercise in futility...
As the last Horror dies, Jerediah makes a powerful strike against Darke that blasts his body to the floor. Darke hisses something incoherent., then dies. For a long moment, nothing happens; then Harrier’s sobbing is gradually heard to change to laughter. Suddenly he looks up, and his eyes have become black orbs in his head. Before anyone can react, he leaps out of a window and flees into the night.
Jerediah has used up almost all his magic in the fight against Darke. A translucent figure, he picks up the book and hands it to the PC who has shown the most honour. ‘Guard it well,’ he says, ‘for in the future it will return the favour’.

Scene 6 – Monochrome and Monowire
This scene takes place if the runners have been asking around a lot about Mr. Black and Mr. White; else it takes place after the Book has been retrieved.
The elves are agents of Lady Brane Deigh, who has been tracking the Book for a very long time. When it surfaced in Seattle, of all places, she sent two of her personal agents to retrieve it – however it became necessary. On the other hand she would prefer not to draw too much attention to what is going on, so her agents have been instructed not to kill too many people. She's not going to be happy when she hears about Jack's Bar and Grill...
As their names hint, Mr. Black and Mr. White are studies in monochromatic opposites. Mr. Black wears entirely black, has black hair and eyes; Mr. White wears entirely white and is an albino. Both are highly-initiated Followers; Mr. Black follows the Path of the Bard, Mr. White the Path of the Warrior.
The elves will be coldly civil, but they make it clear that they consider the book to be the property of their (unnamed) liege. They are prepared to offer significant payment to the runners in return for giving them the book once located, and are also prepared to offer significant violence if it is not.
No stats or threat ratings are given for these two, as fighting them would be among the worse decisions the average runner team could make (if your runners are capable of dealing with threats on this level then you will have a better idea than I of what they can handle!). At the first sign of violence Mr. White slices the offending runner's weapon apart with a strand of monowire which he unbelievably simply holds in his hands (echoes of Walter from Hellsing, if you've seen it). Mr. Black then drops a veil of illusion over the pair of them to make it seem as though they have disappeared.

Wrapping it Up
So what do the players do? And what are the consquences?

If they turn the book over to Deigh's agents, it vanishes. True to their word, the runners will be rewarded well. On the other hand, they just turned one of the most important items in the world over to Lady Brane Deigh. Yeesh. You just know that's going to come back to bite them in the butt.

If they keep the book, they may wander around in fear for their lives for a while. What is likely to surprise them is that the expected attacks never come. The Book has more secrets than they know, and is capable of protecting itself. As far as White and Black are concerned, the Book was destroyed by Darke in the final battle.

Similarly, if the players abuse their possession of the Book (by trying to sell it to the highest bidder or using it selfishly), the Book will disappear from their possession.

The Book
The book is written in a previously unknown language (Barsaive Dwarven) and is a translation of one of the Books of Harrow. Jerediah enchanted it in a number of ways, most of which are beyond the average PC mage's ability to comprehend. Without Jerediah’s spirit inside it it does not grant spell knowledge to the wielder, although it remains a strong Power Focus rating. Nevertheless, it still has certain potent powers. Sections within the book, if translated (say, by the use of a supercomputer) will give insights into long-lost magical techniques. These may include esoteric spells or adept powers (converted from Earthdawn), powerful wards such as those Harrier used to protect the warehouse, metamagic techniques specialising in astral entities, or anything the GM feels would be interesting to add to the game.

[DrJest]

What... no comments at all? Come on, guys, the late great Nigel Findley I am not! You surely can't tell me nothing in that run sucks, even IYHO?

[Backgammon]

Good. Well structured. Vague enough to leave the GM plenty of work, but more then enough to build an adventure on. Nice hook, too.

Way too munchkiny magical power for my games, but in league with Harlequin's Back and the likes.