CthulhuPunk Write-ups
2040s Cthulhu Now Campaign
Scenario Name: Garden Of Eden,
round 2
Scenario Written By: Allan Goodall
Run Date: 20
June 1995
Keeper: Allan Goodall
Write-up Written By: Lorna Toolis
Characters: Karl Bolivar (Karl
Schroeder), J. C. Doyle (Leann Goodall), Findley (Lorna
Toolis), Franklin from The Bank (Chris Smith), Johnny
Jihad (Michael Skeet), Esther Starr (Liza Ordubegian),
Jerry Wylde (Dave Nickle)
Karl Bolivar decides to ask the village elders for information and heads down to the village, taking Findley with him as a translator. They learn that the village elder got his degree at Oxford and translation is uncalled for, but Findley also has questions to ask the elder. They ask for information regarding any legends involving:
- a city once populated by serpent people deep in the jungle.
- lost cities found by lost people
- unusual artifacts
- buildings/cities springing up from nowhere near thoroughfares and disappearing just as abruptly
- lost Portuguese expeditions.
One such
expedition did disappear; some members re-emerged three
years later, mad as Hatters, in the 17th century.
The elder also mentions that they have to cut back the
jungle almost daily to keep the paths open and that there
have been fewer snakes and large bugs recently, over the
last 12 - 14 months. He also mentions that four or five
people have disappeared over the last two months. Locals,
familiar with the trails. He suggests that the trails
around the town are overgrown at such a rate that the men
got lost and just couldn't find their way back.
"There is a rumour that jungles are too damp to
burn," says Johnny Jihad to the camera. "We
will test that here and now, with this mixture of Tide
and gasoline!" Wylde and the Mimis are busy running
the camera and audio equipment and don't say much.
"Woof!" says the jungle.
Wylde interviews the "jungle guy" with the
stated intent of getting him to complain about how fast
the jungle grows and how it is OK to set fire to it.
Meanwhile, back on the ship he is brewing home-made
napalm, styrofoam soaked in gasoline.
Franklin gets back to the hovercraft. "I hunt down
the last known location of the psychic," he says,
"I believe I owe you a severe thanks," he tells
her. "Pity about Marvin," he adds as an
afterthought.
"People named Marvin just have to die," says
Esther, ever practical. "The assassin was waiting
for you," she says, showing Franklin to the door.
As Franklin walks down the corridor, a door opens behind
him, "Frank! Duck!" says Johnny Jihad, before
collapsing in drunken giggles. Franklin demonstrates
absolutely no sense of humour.
Karl Bolivar and Findley return. Karl starts searching
on-line for relevant legends. The keyword turns out to be
"SANITY". An expedition lead by an Italian went
up the Amazon. The leader didn't come back, but a lone
survivor of the expedition made it back to civilization,
saying, "The jungle got them!"
Mr. Wylde is alienating the natives, approaching female
villagers and asking them to get naked for the camera.
They are not impressed. He gets belted a couple of times,
although the village grandmothers just say something
cutting in Portuguese and laugh at him.
Johnny Jihad, drunk as several skunks, is lying on the
roof of the hovercraft, firing up at Mr. Wylde's
satellite, when Findley brings him a lime for his
tequila. The lime was loaded with a heavy dosage of
morphazine.
While Jihad is still unconscious, Findley strips Mr.
Jihad, showers him, drys him, puts him to bed and
launders his clothing. Leaving a hangover remedy beside
the bed, Findley lets himself out.
Wylde takes his tape back to the boat and edits it
carefully, describing the native fertility rituals he has
just participated in.
Franklin tries to access a database and check the face of
the assassin. His queries are blocked, so eventually he
forwards the picture to his manager, "Identify
person -- attempted to kill me -- recommend
follow-up." He identifies Johnny Jihad as "an
alcoholic with terrorist tendencies." Jihad is
indignant -- "I am not an alcoholic!" he says.
"Of course not," Wylde agrees, "alcoholics
are in treatment."
Esther Starr asks Franklin if she got a reference, but
apparently he doesn't do good references.
Later that night, Esther Starr knocks on Franklin's door.
"A boat is coming. I have a bad feeling. Please get
your gun." Franklin obliges.
Next she knocks on Karl Bolivar's door. "Mimi?"
he asks, ever hopeful. Disappointed but brave, he brings
his gun too. She tells him something sotto voce
which causes him to start yelling, "Everybody
off!" very loudly.
Findley brings Johnny Jihad and his luggage, as well as
that of J.C. Doyle. We stream down the gangplank and away
from the boat. Wylde films the exodus. We see a flipper
break the water near the boat, but can't get a good shot
in.
While we crouch behind the concrete bulwarks of the docks
Esther tells us about her dream.
It seems that she was riding on a flying carpet above
some fantasy Baghdad when the city turned into Maraba and
the carpet landed. Black frogs appeared and dropped
flower buds - one on each corner of the carpet and one in
the middle of it. Yellow and red flowers grew from the
buds, at which point the carpet unravelled and sank into
the water.
We wait for the explosion. Doyle wakes up Johnny Jihad.
Esther projects her astral body into the water below the
ship and sees funny metal objects sitting over each of
the fan engines and one on the fusion bottle.
She travels a bit further and find the three-man team who
set the bombs. Two Japanese and one caucasian, they are
setting up camp about 750 meters up-river in the jungle.
They have set up some sort of projector, pointing at the
river, about where our boat will have to pass.
The haze over the jungle hides movement as we head toward
them. Franklin and Wylde scuba, while the others canoe
across the river and then work their way down through the
jungle.
"Ow!" yelps Karl, incautiously, when he trips
over a root. So much for the element of surprise...
Wylde is hurt as the grenade goes off, but not fatally.
Johnny Jihad is blinded by the intense light the white
phosphorus grenade gives off when it explodes and cannot
join in the pursuit.
Esther checks the camp - the people we are pursuing have
retreated further, leaving their camp. She tries to trail
them, but the jungle seems to hide them.
The others continue to pursue the bad guys, stealthily.
"Ow! Fuck!" says Karl Bolivar.
We come to a waterfall, but manage not to fall in. We
realize that we have lost the trail, so Franklin offers
to use his GPU to take them back to the camp. We hear the
noise a helicopter makes, muffled, taking off no doubt.
Wylde scans the military radio bands. He gets some weird
Japanese/Russian mixture. They are successfully away
before we can get to the pick-up site. The helicopter
looked to be a Russian military helicopter with some sort
of weird black paint job. We return to the camp.
"Nobody ever lets me have any fun," whines
Johnny Jihad.
"That must explain why you are still alive,"
says Findley. The projector Jihad was checking turned out
to be booby-trapped by a live grenade. Jihad removes it
and tosses it into the river, where it explodes.
We continue down river. Findley suggests to his employer
that an on-line search for rumours about current
activities of the Russki-Yak criminal organizations is
advisable. Given the ethnic make-up of the strike team
and the undoubted predominance of the Russki-Yakuza in
global crime, it seems like a logical question.