I've been tinkering around with my own version of the D6 system for use with Unknown Armies. I've come up with a hybrid system that uses primarily D6 mechanics but also incorporates many elements from the first edition of Unknown Armies (1998). From this I was able to come up with four player characters which I'm using with the one-shot adventure Strange Days, published in 1999.Spoiler alert: if you are planning to play in this scenario, I refer to it throughout this and subsequent posts. It is 23 years old now, however, and I guess there comes a point...
I'm including details on the plot. While we did not manage to finish in a single setting, these may prove a useful reference point for players if we go back to it. My primary objective - other than to have fun of course - was to see if these mechanics worked.
The adventure started with the PCs being assembled by Alex Abel, founder and prime mover of the New Inquisition. Abel, a Silicon Valley billionaire, is now running a secret occult investigation agency on the side which is looking into events and personalities associated with the occult underground. Money is no object when it comes down to tracking down powerful artefacts.
The Native American reservation of Bahadea, on the Pacific coast, not far from the Canadian border, has been witness to some odd happenings recently. This includes a rain of salmon - barbecued salmon in Cajun spices, the vandalism of some 14th century artefacts in the local museum - painted red in a 10 minutes time span with no sign of the vandals, and finally a seeming mass hallucination of a giant snake with a wolf's head, which is a totem of the local tribe.
Covered in the local press, these have been sufficient to attract the attention of the New Inquisition, which has sent the following team of 'dukes' to Washington state to investigate. Abel's analysts reckon the odd and seemingly random happenings are evidence of a powerful magical artefact in the vicinity.
- Michael Rosen (Kelvin) - de facto team leader and a plutomancer (magical adept)
- Big Steve (Ash) - Rosen's financier and bodyguard, he's a bruiser who also looks after the money
- Dave Banks (Manoj) - a freelance investigator with close links to the New Inquisition
- Eric Goodborough (Stef) - a psychic sensitive who is pretty good at detecting the presence of magic (described by the others as the Human Radar)
The team spent quite a long time doing some desk research on the history of the local reservation and the tribe and its legends. They learned that most of the artefacts contained in the reservation's culture centre had been discovered by archaeologists in a big find on tribal land in 1970. The reservation still relies heavily on tourism, although tourists can only visit specific areas - most of the beaches are off limits, for example.
The team was coming into Bahadea ostensibly as tourists for the local Culture Days, a celebration of tribal culture held in late August. The New Inquisition moved quickly, as they were concerned that there may be other protagonists also looking for the artefact. The group drove from Seattle in a rented SUV and booked into the local motel close to the seaside village of Bahadea.
The first port of call was the museum/culture centre where they spoke at some length to the curator Mary Cloud. The primary discovery here was the fact that the vandalised items had already been transported to Washington University for analysis. Cloud seemed to think that event, and the manifestation of the Wolf Serpent, were a sign from the tribe's ancestors that they were displeased with the people embracing modern ways. She was keen to close up, as it was early evening, so booted the team out. She agreed to let them accompany her to the local talent show in the main square.
Rosen and Big Dave headed off to the sheriff's office. On the way they spotted a young white woman patrolling along the edge of the marina with some form of strange electronic device and head phones. She was being trailed by some curious children. They approached her, and she turned out to be Teresa MacColl, a self-professed monster hunter and scholar of all things to do with North American cryptids. She was looking for evidence of the Wolf Serpent. She said she was staying at the same motel. The duo left her to it (having exchanged contact details) and moved on to the sheriff's office.
Rosen went inside and struck up a conversation with the lone deputy on duty, a young Native American man called Ray. Rosen decided to use a spell here - I Know Your Price (Plutomancy) - and found that he would respond well if Rosen pretended to be some kind of government agent. This allowed Rosen, posing as an undercover FBI agent now, to draw out of him the fact that the tribal police were on high alert, as they had received a DEA tip off that some opium from Canada could be landed on the tribe's beaches in the near future.
Note: Rosen slightly botched his casting roll (1 on the Wild Die), resulting in spill over from his casting - this caused the lights in the sheriff's office to go on and off on their own for about a minute, which freaked Ray out somewhat, although no harm done. My rule is that if an adept gets a 1 on the WD on the casting roll, spontaneous unnatural activity occurs in the immediate vicinity.
Back at the main festival site, Goodborough and Banks spotted two men in black suits and mirror shades who looked out of place, and definitely not tourists. Goodborough (IIRC) reckoned they were more likely to be criminals, possibly from a local organised crime syndicate (awesome Streetwise check here).
Goodborough decided to make a play for the wallet of one of the men, using his Sleight of Hand skill and pretending to spill mustard on him. This sadly did not go according to plan, and startled tourists saw the stranger taking a couple of swings at Goodborough, with the latter desperately trying to talk him down - unsuccessfully. Eventually Goodborough had to flee through the crowd with the incensed man pursuing him, but managed to give him the slip with all the tourists wandering around.
Next time: the hunt for the artefact continues and Daphne Lee turns up on the scene
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