are available as well as a variety of local food.
It’s nothing fancy taken the role of town champion, protector and advisor ever since
or exotic, but hearty, delicious food nonetheless.
When the characters arrive, they are all greeted warmly by Sir
Cross. Just before everyone can dig in and relax, however, a dis-
traught women is brought in by one of the local farmers. Jessup,
the eldest of the family, asks for Sir Cross.
Game Master, read from the script below
or ad-lib your own version.
Farmer Jessup speaks first. “Begging your pardon, Sir Cross,
but this here woman says her children have been taken by a mon-
ster and I thought you could help.”
Sir Cross immediately takes the women to a table, offering her
food and drink before sitting down beside her.
“My dear women, you’re safe here and among friends. Tell us
what has happened. I’m sure my young friends and I can help get
your children back.”
The woman takes a few sips of water and tries unsuccessfully
to keep from crying. “It ... it swooped out of the sky. It was on fire
and I thought it was going to raze all of us! Even our town militia
could not stop it. The monster grabbed me and my children in its
claws. I don’t know why. Then it growled and snarled at me before
it dropped me to the ground outside of this town, but it took my
children...” she begins to cry harder. The farmer and the Cyber-
Knight try to console her.
“Sir Cross,” says Jessup, she told me several of the town’s kids
have been taken by this beast. You know it can’t be good if it’s a
demon snaggin’ kids!”
Jessup’s statement only brings more tears to the distraught
women.
“My lady, we will do whatever we can to bring your children
back. I just need as much information as possible. What was the
creature and where is your town?”
The woman manages to regain some of her composure, allow-
ing her to answer. “Our town Mystic, Lady Cleo, is very wise, and
she has been trying to use her powers to scare the beast away. I’m
sure she knows what the creature is. Perhaps she can help you? I ...
I know nothing of monsters or fighting. Please, sir. Please rescue
my children.”
The player characters can also ask the woman some questions
if they wish. Sir Cross won’t object as long as they ask delicately.
Here is what the distraught mother, named Mary Stocks, knows
the following info about her town:
Her town is about a four hour walk through the foothills nearby.
The town is called River Side.
The town has a population of 300 people.
It is a small farming community.
They have a water filtration plant, a pig farm and several small
farms that grow vegetables and orchards that grow fruits; mostly
apples and cherries.
It’s most precious resource, the families and their children.
They trade goods with all the nearby towns.
There is no town militia. The townspeople can muster about
ten mean wearing piecemeal armor, equipped with a few Mega-
Damage weapons. Most people have normal hunting rifles (S.D.C.
weapons that can’t hurt Mega-Damage creatures).
Lady Cleo is not the town leader, but someone who is becom-
ing very important, especially with her powers of healing. Plus she
knows some magic and psionics. Cleo, a Mystic, has unofficially
the Ley Line Wizard Calaphran, died of a heart attack a year ago.
The creature she describes is a large serpent with fire for scales.
It has large teeth and breathes fire. It growled and made sounds,
perhaps words, that she could not understand.
Mary Stocks has two children, a boy and a girl. The boy is age
8 and named Marcus, the girl is age 7 and named Marla, both taken
by the beast. At least ten other children are missing that she knows
of. All taken in the last week. Most of the children seem to just
vanish, but this latest incident came as a shock and a surprise.
The children started to go missing a week ago. First, it was just
the orphans from the orphanage, but two days ago, children from
various families started to go missing as well.
Food stores also started to go missing. Mostly fruits and veg-
etables. It looks like some kind of wild beast broke in and stole
most of them.
Lady Cleo has brought in some of her adventuring friends to
the town and they are acting as the town militia. Her friends have
Mega-Damage weapons and armor.
Note: By the way, Kevin’s and my G.M. notes look very much
like those above. We list the key points so we don’t forget and
improv the rest. Keep it simple and fun.
Answering Other Questions: The Game Master can only an-
ticipate so much and inevitably, the players are likely to ask some-
thing you didn’t plan for. This is the beauty of role-playing. You
just have to do your best to ad-lib something. Put yourself in the
distraught mother’s place. What does she know? She is nothing
more than a simple farmer and mother who only cares about seeing
her children again. She is not likely to know much more, and it is
okay to be unable (or unwilling) to answer all their questions. She
may become hysterical at some point, too upset to answer anymore
questions, or pass out from the trauma of it all.
Use the NPC Cyber-Knight, Sir Cross, to provide an easy out
for you. He will not torment the woman with more questions, say-
ing they will find out more when they get to the village of River
Side. “We need to let this poor woman rest, now. She has gone
through enough.”
At this point, Sir Cross tells the player characters that their
planned celebration will have to wait until this matter is dealt with.
He would appreciate their help, and all of them should agree to
do so out of deference for their mentor and sense of duty. Those
of good alignment (Principled and Scrupulous) should feel com-
pelled to help. Those who are more selfish (Unprincipled and An-
archist) may want a reward at which Sir Cross will make a point
of saying that these people are poor and don’t have much. On the
other hand, if “the beast” is a dragon or a demon, it is likely to have
a small treasure hoard. That should inspire the rest of the group to
tag along and help. Others may simply want to unravel the mystery
of River Side and this monster.
Rolling some Dice
This is where the Game Master might want to have the players
roll percentile dice. This is another way to interact with the play-
ers. When information starts to come out, players can roll under
their character’s skills to see if they can obtain more information.
Be careful not to reveal too much, just enough to give them a bet-
ter picture. Some skills that would be applicable here include the
following:
Lore: Faeries and Creatures of Magic: This skill could pos-
sibly reveal what type of monster took the children, based on the