Heavenly Vistas Sanitarium

"Every cell in my body was telling me to run. Maybe I should have. The girl… Melissa…. just stood there,
quivering slightly, her blind eyes seeming to focus on something beyond the walls of the room. She
began to murmur to herself, and it was then I started to feel like something was pushing itself into my
mind, slowly… steadily. I could hear the nurses arguing at the bottom of the stairs, and I knew it was
now or never. I knew she couldn't hear me, so I touched Melissa's arm and that was when everything
went wrong."
 
Game Masters: Please read this entire segment before you run this game. This is meant to inspire you to
do a horrifying adventure using modified Hands of Destiny rules where the player characters are lunatics
trying desperately to escape an Insane Asylum at any cost. This is not meant to be a complete module,
and requires tailoring to your specific group. This is free to use by anyone, including the map I made.
Enjoy!
 
To build mood, I would recommend playing the song 'Heathens' during character creation, then
Heathens Pandora Radio until character creation is finished
 
1. Things needed to play:
o a deck of playing cards for each player and GM
o 1 GM
o 2-3 Players who create Characters (referred to as PC's)
o Map of Asylum printed out, with creepy stuff written on it (for the map I used I put "46
false angels can't hurt us" scrawled over a corner of the map, a red X labelled "Secrets" on
the shed just south of the Unstable Courtyard, "I WANT OUT" over and over again on the
back, I ripped the left fourth of the map off and crumpled the map intensively)
o Something to write down character info on (index cards, etc)
o Sanity tokens (candles)
 
2. Basic rules to tell the players
a. The main goal of each PC is to escape the Asylum
b. Each PC has a minor goal which will gain them back 1 (or more?) sanity if it is completed
c. Each PC has a severe phobia which must be avoided at all costs
d. If you get caught by the psychiatric staff, you are trapped in the Asylum
i. Nurses carry potent syringes with knockout drugs in them, be careful!
b. If you run out of sanity, you mentally cannot make the journey and are trapped in the
Asylum
c. If Jokers are drawn by PCs, the Joker is taken out of the deck, a random card is drawn. If
the card is red, the PC gets 1 extra sanity token/candle and draws another card. If the
random card was black then some very bad event happens for the PCs.
 
3. Character Creation
a. Players choose PC gender
b. Players draw to determine the type of insanity that afflicts their PC (remove Jokers first)
i.
Card Insanity
 A Periods of blackouts where you don't know what happens
2 Mania-believes you are invincible
3 Extreme OCD
4 Severe insomnia, resulting in hallucinations
5 Addicted to a specific drug
6 Personality disorder - craves attention at any cost
7 Disassociate Identity Disorder (multiple people inside your head)
8 Honestly believe that your hand is not your own and is controlled by
someone else
9 Paranoid of everyone conspiring against you
10 Antisocial-avoids all persons at all times
J Manipulative and sadistic
Q Homicidal urges
K Draw 2 more cards, take those effects (discard any further kings and draw
one to replace it)
b. Each Player draws a card, and the Player with highest (2 is lowest, Ace is highest) picks
from the following phobias. Each phobia can only be chosen for one PC.
i.
Hemophobia Fear of blood
Iatrophobia Fear of doctors and nurses
Scotophobia Fear of darkness
Necrophobia Fear of dead things
Enetophobia Fear of needles
Xenophobia Fear of strangers (not other PCs, only NPCs)
b. Player decides their Strong Suit based on the reason the PC was put in asylum (or can
draw randomly)
i. Spades --> acts of violence
ii. Hearts --> acts of obsession
iii. Clubs --> unable to function in society
iv. Diamonds --> lost sight of reality
b. Players come up with backstory of their PC and explains it to each other and GM
i. What specific incident was the final straw that got them put in the Asylum?
ii. Does the PC have any family?
iii. Does the PC believe in the supernatural?
iv. How does the PC view the Asylum staff?
v. Is the PC willing to kill in order to escape?
vi. What is the first thing that the PC will do when they escape?
vii. What is the worst thing that the PC has ever done?
viii. What does the PC think of themselves?
 b. Players draw 7 cards, then assign the corresponding values to each stat as they choose
(1-9 = that number, 10 = 5, Face = 4, Ace = 1)
i. Attributes:
1. Sanity (max 5)
2. Movement
3. Fight
4. Detect
5. Charisma
6. Quick thinking
7. Stealth
b. Players decide what their subgoal will be. This subgoal will be a one time method to get
more sanity once achieved
i. Potential subgoals include:
1. Get drugs
2. Murder a particular guard/nurse
3. Get alcohol
4. Start a fire
5. Help another inmate escape (sister, lover, etc)
6. Get cigarettes
7. Get back a personal item taken from them
8. Find out why they were incarcerated or was never released
9. Get some sort of sweet food (doughnuts, etc)
 
h. Add Jokers back into Player Deck
 
Once all PCs have been created, begin Midnight Syndicate Radio on Pandora, or
http://superhero.ambient-mixer.com/hydra-torture-room or some other creepy soundtrack that fits
theme
 
1. GM notes
a. Please note that this is not meant to be a complete module. This is meant to make a
scary-awesome one-shot adventure for the PCs, but you should make it unique for your
table. Feel free to disregard things you don't like and add anything you think would make
the game better when you GM it. Add mini-plotlines and come up with new important
places on the map. You will need to assign location of NPCs yourself, and maybe come up
with a couple of new ones. Also, make sure you warn your players what they are getting
into, and that things will get violent and graphic.
b. About halfway through, it could be reasonable to include a stash of anti-psychotic drugs
(1 for each PC). These would allow the PC to take the drugs (single use) to ignore 1 sanity
check
c. As you play, have your computer set to http://www.online-stopwatch.com/loop-
countdown/ and set it to 10 minutes (can be adjusted as needed) and make sure the volume
is up on your laptop. Whenever the timer beeps, draw a card to see if a staff member walks
by. If PCs are in Phase 1, a J means an orderly walked by and Q means a nurse walked by.
Phase 2, same except all staff are running and K means security showed up
d. Set up for plot: tell PCs beforehand some details about the Heavenly Vistas Sanitarium:
 i. general layout of the Asylum with Unstable Patient Zone (where the PCs all
currently reside) and to get to the Main Asylum area a specific Keycode must be
entered. All staff know the code to exit.
ii. drugs are kept in special locked rooms so no patients have access to them
iii. The PCs have come to know the neighboring cell-mates, speaking through the
food slot in the door
1. Martin, the arsonist, repentant for his crimes but locked away for life
2. Ignus (female), who has always believed that 'the fairies' gave her the
ability to see into time and space
3. Meg Nolan, cannibal and necrophiliac
4. Evith, Russian drug dealer who carved symbols into his entire body with
the sharp end of a broken rusty pipe. Speaks only Russian.
ii. To start the adenture after character creation, read this aloud (or paraphrase)
"It is a cold, windy night when your escape begins by accident; the computers running
the electronics in the whole building have been acting up, the staff has been
complaining about them all day. Ignus has been telling [insert a PC name here] about
how 'the fairies' told her that today was going to be a big day. You pay no mind,
because she says this almost every day, but she goes on and on about what 'the
fairies' said. You hear the sound of echoing footsteps, and two large men accompany a
male doctor with a goatee. He goes to Ignus' cell and says "please put your forehead
on the far wall, Ignus, with your hands on you head. You know the drill." Ignus pounds
on the door yelling obscenities, and the doctor sighs and signals to the large guards.
You all cannot see what happens beyond that point as they enter the cell, but it
sounds like a scuffle, Ignus' cry gets cut off as the PCs hear a 'Whumph" sound and
then they see Ignus being dragged away by the two burly guards, led by the
doctor."[pause and look at the players quitely] "About 15 minutes after sounds of the
footsteps of the three men fade away, the lights begin to flicker."
iii. Have PCs all draw cards, whomever is highest hears a scuffling outside the mail
slot of their door. They hear someone wispering "shhhhh…." as a crumpled up piece of
paper is pushed through. [Hand PC the map].
iv. The lights still flickering and buzzing, PCs hear Martin the arsonist cry out and
say something like "damn thing shocked me!" Then the electronic lock of the PC's cells
begins to sparking and making a faint whining noise. The PCs quickly discover that the
door slides right open.
b. Plot:
PHASE 1: Unstable Patients Zone
i. PCs must get out of Unstable Patients Zone into main part of asylum, they know they
must get a keycode to get out
1. Can get key by:
a. Convincing Mongo the janitor, found in Unstable Courtyard.
b. Bribing Nurse Anglestrom, found in Nurse
c. Room. She can be seen through the window in the door and motioned to
come outside to bargain.
ii. Other events:
1. PC wanders too close to the food slot of the cell of Kenzi the Butcher, must free
themselves
2. A listen check outside the Nurse Rec Room and PCs can hear discussion about
how creepy Melissa is, and how the nurse speaking hates going into that room,
 she always feels like Melissa is staring at her with those dead eyes. The nurse
says she always wears a crucifix on days that she has to be in the same room as
Melissa. Another nurse is heard, muffled, saying something about … being glad
for angels… , followed by a couple of muffled chuckles.
3. PCs must sneak past an operating room with a viewing window while a
horrifying operation is going on, but they hear a doctor coming around the
corner who if doc sees them will pull out a syringe full of knockout drug and try
to sedate one or all of them. If they get sedated the lose unless other PCs can
free them. PCs must choose between going back, going through the operating
room with the unsuspecting surgeons or facing the needle wielding doc. If PCs
choose not to save him, they lose one San for guilt and regret
a. NPCs:
i. Doc 1 (male)
1. Movement 4
2. Fight 2 (no weapon)
3. Detect 2
4. Quick thinking 7
5. Stealth 4
 
ii. Doc 2 (female)
1. Movement 4
2. Fight 4 (wields scalpel as weapon)
3. Detect 6
4. Quick thinking 1
5. Stealth 2
 
b. Plot twist: it is Ignus being operated on, encourage PCs to save her
i. Describe her operation, with her lying on her front with her skin
splayed open as the doctors were aparently operating on her spinal
chord or lower brainstem at the base of her neck. It requires a
difficult Quick Thinking check to sew her back up and save her.
ii. If they succeed, Ignus looks dazed and almost unaware of her
surroundings and scrawls something down on a piece of paper
which says "she is dead but she doesn't know it yet". She simply lays
on the floor and refuses to move at all. She is lying in a small pool in
her own blood on the linoleum, quaking. [note to GMs: this can be a
forshadowing event for Melissa's death, if that's how you want to
take this]
 
PHASE 2: Main Asylum Area
i. According to the map:
 If PCs go down hallway 'c' they notice that all of the cells are dark, most cells are
empty, but some have patients in them.
 In 2, a woman in a straight jacket is banging her head into the padded
wall, making a thud thud sound.
 In 7, a skinny bearded man with a dark intelligence in his eyes calls to the
PCs, saying he might have something that helps.
  If PCs can offer something he needs or make a charisma check high
enough, then he gives them one screwdriver (+1).
 He says that he was planning on using it it escape, but looks like the
PCs need it more than him
 The person in cell 9 may be dead, it smells terrilble
 Around the corner of hallway 'e', the PCs notice a guard with a walkie talkie on
his belt who is leaning against the wall, reading something. He looks up as the
door is opened. Very difficult stealth check, 3 card draw +8. If fail, guard pulls
out a batton and runs at them yelling "HEY! STOP!". Easy fight, defeat quickly.
Before he passes out, he thumbs his radio and mumbles "guard down… initiate
full lockdown…" and alarms begin to go off
 
ii. At some natural point (probably seen coming in from hallway 'f' into 'e'), PCs hear a
door open and running footsteps and see Nurse Jones running down the hallway to
them (tell players that PCs remember that Nurse Jones has always been kind to
patients). He stops a good 20 feet away and says "I am not gonna … [breathes heavily
because he was running] … hurt you… and if you do something for me, I won't call for
guards."
1. When PCs ask him what he wants, he asks them if they trust him
2. Then explains about Melissa's condition, the experiments done to her, how
Jones is the only one who actually tries to help her
a. If PCs are wanting more details, tell about her inabliltiy to sleep
2. Gives PCs the key to Melissa's doors, describe how creepy the hallway and stairs
up look
 
 
PHASE 3: Melissa
i. GMs, this part is up to you. Melissa should be supernatural, but you decide to what
extent. She could be Carrie-style and ripping apart hospital staff with her mind, she
could be attracting other-dimensional horrors and that is what gives her nightmares.
You can have Melissa be the way the PCs get out, or simply an objective, a villian or an
NPC in need of help.
 
c. NPCs:
i. Martin, the arsonist, repentant for his crimes but locked away for life
ii. Ignus, who has always believed that 'the faries' gave her the ability to see into time and
space
iii. Kenzi the Butcher
 Dangerous serial dismemberer, constantly threatening guards
iv. Mongo the Janitor
 Sadistic ex-inmate
 Will tell PCs the code to get out of Unstable Patients Zone if one of the PCs let
him bite off one of their fingers
v. Nurse Anglestrom (female)
 Addicted to a specific narcotic
 Doesn't care if patients live or die
 Is rumored to have overdosed a particularly difficult patient, Rodger Olsar,
leaving the body for the nursing staff to find in the cell the next day
  Will tell PCs the code to get out of Unstable Patients area if they bring her all of
the Asylum's supply of a particular narcotic: LV-462, found in room N. Room N
also has antipsychotic drugs
vi. Nurse Jones (male)
 One of the only remaining staff members who care about the patients
 Knows fluent sign language
 Is the only nurse who bothers to try to help Melissa
 He explains to PCs the status of Melissa
 He doesn't even know her last name, it was redacted from her file.
vii. Melissa [LAST NAME REDATCTED]
 Appearance: a woman whose flesh apears to have wasted away. He skin is so
pale it is almost grey, and you see bleached white hair in a mess falling over her
face. On her head she has a Y shaped scar where hair doesn’t grow, and she has
a quarter sized birthmark to the left of her mouth. She is so thin it is hard to
believe she is standing upright at all. She doesn't react as you enter, you hear
her muttering something under her breath. She is staring at the wall but her
eyes… her eyes are bloodshot, jittering around as if searching for some person
in the distance. Her eyes seem to show a person under more torment than
anyone you have ever met. Her head turns in your direction, and her eyes pass
over you, unnoticing, but you can't help but get the feeling that truly she is
watching something, you just aren't sure what. You attempt not to grind your
teeth, because something about this woman sets you on edge, and makes you
want to flee as fast as you can.
 She (Forcibly) underwent experimental procedure attempting to cure patients
who were overwhelmed by cutting sensory nerves, with the intention of
attaching them again after the patient had some exposure time. The doctors cut
her optical and auditory nerves, the nerves that transmit taste and smell. They
even gave her a powerful drug that temporarily preventing nerves from
signaling pain, leaving with only one sense remaining: tactile feeling, touch. The
only problem was that when they tried to undo the surgery, her nerves never
healed and she was left in this state permanently.
 She can still speak, but can only receive messages through sign language. She
can also sign back but seldom does.
 Her fractured mind has been unable to sleep since the operation and she can be
heard muttering or screaming at any hour of the day, though most of the time
she is silent and simply shudders.
Map info:
1. Secrets … shhhh written on map (south of the Unstable Courtyard)
a. If PCs approach in Phase 1, a guard sits at the door of the shed, looking bored sitting on
a stool. Says 'can't get in here without permission, got garden tools and things in here 'd be
used as weapons. Sorry.' If approach in Phase 2, guard has vacated post.
b. Under the floor boards the PCs will find the corpse of a body, that hasn't decomposed
very much. Upon inspection, the corpse looks almost exactly like… Melissa. If PCs haven't
yet met Melissa, then describe: the woman's body is sunken and incredibly thin, her white
har falling all over, caked with dirt. You see a Y shaped scar across the top of her skull, and a
birthmark about an inch in diameter to the left of her dead lips.