First Day Jitters
We all get ‘em.
Onboarding Package
This is the first op for all PCs. They were briefed that the process involved codenames, opera tickets, James Bond stuff. It’s… not going that way. Grabbed off the streets and hustled into a box truck, woken up by masked people pounding on the door yelling ‘Opera! OPERA! OPEN UP!’ before breaking in through a window, its loud, sloppy and obvious. Either this org is not as slick as presented, or something’s going very sideways.
PCs can do introductions in the truck - NPC teammates (? Abductors?) are not interested in talking. Eventually, the truck stops, the door rolls up and a flashlight and gun are shoved in everyone’s faces.
- HUMINT (15%) Everyone’s exhausted, tense, frustrated, and millimeters from each other’s throats. Whatever everyone was expecting, the PCs are falling well short of expectations.
If You Got Time To Lean, You Got Time To Clean
You’re at the delivery entrance to a derelict amusement park. At the door of the central administration building are personnel in blood soaked combat gear and/or Tyvek, smoking. Thousand yard stares or incredulous disappointment on their faces. In the basement cafeteria/assembly hall, is tonight’s Handler, callsign: CENTRAL.
Also, a bloodbath. CON check to not vomit. Failure earns the PCs a disparaging callsign. BELLAGIO, for instance.
Time’s tight, so, explanations: a cult led by a man known only as Spiders Georg was observed by deep cover agents. They were blown, and butchered. Backup wasn’t long in coming, but the cult was ready. Cult’s wiped out, and lots of friendlies too. Sun’s up in a few hours and all this has to not be here when it does.
No time for investigation, the primary directive is now secrecy. Dozens of bodies are being disarticulated and fed into the boiler in the maintenance hall.
- Military Science 15%: Casualties ratio 3-1 in favor of DG. Thats… terrible. Cultists with daggers vs SWAT teams?!
- Forensics 20%: Corpse of a dead cover agent has been disemboweled, but it was done from inside out.
- Psychology/HUMINT 20%: The surviving fireteam members are in shock from grief and terror, the cleanup crew are traumatized by hours of this work, people are getting sloppy.
- Psychology/HUMINT 10%: They were hoping for backup/relief and got… you all. Disappointment, resentment, rage. SAN 1/1d4 realizing you’re the very bottom of the barrel.
Banners with strange sigils are being ripped down and used to bundle body parts into the ovens.
- Anthropology 25%: These don’t really look like any known human writing system. Rather than up/down or left/right, the orientation is an outward spiral, linked radially.
A folding chair decorated as a throne. A mummy with a red gem set in its forehead sitting on it. More mummies in the furnace room.
- Anthropology 15%: This method of preservation doesn’t match any culture that practices mummification, the wrappings aren’t even cloth strips, it's one continuous sheath…
- Geology 15%: That’s not any gem you’re familiar with, in fact, it doesn’t even look like a mineral at all…
A small riot breaks out as the workers realize this wholly insufficient force of green recruits, instead of helping, is dicking around playing Encyclopedia Brown. If a mummy is inspected, this is the trigger - the inspection should be interrupted before anything concrete is learned.
Accidental Death & Dismemberment Insurance
CENTRAL assigns the PCs perimeter security to get them out of there. Bad feelings increase among those who stay down sawing friend and foe alike into burnable chunks.
There was LOTS of noise during the fight, and ‘lights’ in the sky before the fireteam broke in. Assets in state and federal law enforcement are smoothing things over but we don’t have people in the local sheriff’s office, to say nothing of local looky-loos.
Your orders are:
- No Witnesses
- Do Not Attract Attention
- NO! MORE! BODIES!
A sniper from the fireteam, callsign: HIMALAYA, is perched on overwatch, and can assist. There are spare Tyveks, combat gear, cult robes, park employee and security outfits available as you think necessary.
Community Outreach
Any or all of the following will happen:
- Local Sheriff & Deputy respond to multiple calls about noise. Aren’t smart, but they know the park should be abandoned, with a skeleton crew of security. Approach from the main entrance.
- Utility worker responding to calls about “bright lights and bangs”. The gas lines in that place haven’t been looked at for years. He doesn’t want to be out here at 4AM either but it's important. A gas leak could be dangerous. OSHA regs, EPA regs. NFPA. Approaches from the delivery entrance.
- Old Man MacGillicuddy. Owns the land the park sits on. Doesn’t know the security guards by name, but the faces he expects to see aren’t yours. Has the keys, could approach from anywhere.
This is an amusement park; it stretches over acres, and the entrances can be hundreds of yards apart. HIMALAYA will spot approaching headlights and warn the team, but unless they split up, someone is getting through the perimeter.
At-Risk Youth Mentoring Program
After, or as, the team is dealing with the above, HIMALAYA reports a four teens with two dogs hopping the fence - away from any PC’s location.
- That the guys with the soft job just let six Tangoes breach the perimeter inspires a lot of heated radio chatter.
- See the NPC sheets for details.
- Teens will remain in a group until confronted.
- Bureaucracy or Law 50% - If approached as LEO/Security, Wilma will speak for the group. Martin V. Acme Ice House, Attractive Nuisance, Squatters Rights, quid pro se and furthermore habeas corpus. A failure confuses the team long enough for the other teens to slip off.
- Disguise 20% or Occult 15% - If the team approaches in ‘scary outfits’, see above, the teens panic and scatter. They can be herded out permanently this way.
It is at this point that any remaining teens will begin stuttering and pointing over the shoulders of the PC(s). Behind them is a Mummy, doing the arms-over-the-head thing.
Reportable Injuries
- Any remaining teens scatter.
- The mummy approaches and grapple the nearest PC.
- The mummy focuses on biting the PC once it has grappled them.
- HIMALAYA is scanning the perimeter for new incoming. Unless the PCs discharge a gun or radio for help he is unaware.
- Firing his weapon will make an unacceptable amount of noise. Bureaucracy 25%: Convince HIMALYAYA of the serious emergency.
- If the Mummy succeeds in biting a PC, HIMALAYA intervenes. If his shot doesn’t kill the Mummy, it is still thrown clear.
After Action:
- The forehead gem is hollow, made of chitin, and collapses into red goop under pressure
- If the Mummy is unwrapped, it is revealed to have been CENTRAL
- Surgery 15%, Medicine 20%, First Aid 30% inside CENTRAL’s skull was a giant spider, taking up the entire volume of brain. The faceted ‘gem’ was its compound eye. If the skull is broken by brute force, a mass of baby spiders exit the corpse and swarm the nearest PC. They deliver the equivalent of a Mummy’s bite, and if aid is not rendered, infest the PC.
- HIMALAYA suddenly stops responding to radio hails. He can be found dangling from his snipers nest, cocooned, with his gun wrapped around his neck.
Teambuilding Exercise
The party should have at least an inkling of what is happening - the mummies are cocooned victims of parasitic spiders. Either infested in the combat, or ambushed by the seemingly harmless mummies due to confusion and exhaustion. Every asset for miles around had been called in, no one was doing roll call, no one has accounted for KIA/MIA, no one knows anyone else, nor would they notice if they went missing.
It's up to the DM whether the cleanup workers dismiss the team’s warnings out of bitterness, bunker down to flush out mummies in the basement or are dead already; either way, no help is coming topside. You should probably go do something about those kids and any other loose civilians, otherwise that’s just more mummies to deal with. Plus that smaller dog looked MEAN.
…And that’s it. Have fun running your players up and down funhouses, halls of mirrors etc after the Scooby Gang, and try to keep the mummies off them.
Ensure that DG NPCs besides CENTRAL are dismissive or contemptuous of the PCs at all times. Everyone’s having the worst night of their life and no one wants to train up the new guys. Look for opportunities to give out disparaging callsigns - crit fails should always be humiliating rather than harmful.
Quarterly Performance Review
- Surviving PCs, by dint of walking out of the worst shitshow in decades, are now minor legends
- The loss of CENTRAL requires promotion - any bureaucratically or logistically talented PCs can get Handler-level access to The Conspiracy.
- Surviving teens find themselves just where the PCs were - forcibly inducted awaiting their first Night at the Opera.
NPCs
CENTRAL
The Administrator
Making the best of a bad situation is his stock in trade. Understands this is a lot on your first day, but when he got the call he was walking his daughter down the aisle. He will not tolerate whining, slacking, or shirking. We’re putting these bodies in that furnace and anyone who isn’t onboard can follow them in.
Age 62
STR 9 (45)
CON 11 (55)
DEX 11 (55)
INT 17 (85)
POW 16 (80)
CHA 17 (85)
HP 10 WP 16 SAN 80, Adapted to Violence
SKILLS: HUMINT (75%), Psychology (65%), Bureaucracy (60%), Law (60%), Forensics (55%)
ATTACKS:
Unarmed, (50%) damage 1D4-1 Pistol, (60%) damage 1d4+2
HIMALAYA
The Professional.
Lost half his friends two hours ago; now he babysits clowns who can’t even watch a fence. Perfect way to spend the night. Is under strict orders from people who highly outrank you not to discharge his weapon unless absolutely necessary.
Age 28
STR 15 (75)
CON 14 (70)
DEX 14 (70)
INT 13 (65)
POW 10 (50)
CHA 12 (60)
HP 15 WP 10 SAN 50
SKILLS: Alertness (60%), Military Science (40%)
ATTACKS: Unarmed (60%) damage 1D4+1 Gerber Knife (60%) 1d6+1 Armor Piercing 2 Anti-Materiel Rifle (75%) Lethality 20%
The Uninvited
Just Doing Their Jobs.
If the players themselves are new, use as a one-at-a-time demonstration of opposed rolls/roleplaying in DG.
If the players are experienced, have them all arrive at once. Anyone not intercepted at the fence is now inside the park. If rolls aren’t successful or explanations aren’t convincing, have them pretend to leave and circle back around. They can be allies or mummy food.
STR 11 (55)
CON 11 (55)
DEX 11 (55)
INT 11 (55)
POW 11 (55)
CHA 11 (55)
HP 11 WP 11 SAN 55
SKILLS:
Police:
Alertness (40%), HUMINT (45%)
Repairman:
Heavy Machinery (50%), Craft:Electrician (50%), Craft:Mechanics (50)%
Old Man McGillicudy:
Accounting (20%) (park went bankrupt)
ATTACKS:
Police:
Service Revolver (45%) 1d6, 6 rounds.
Nightstick (35%) 1d4
Repairman:
Pipe wrench (40%) 1d6
Utility Knife (40%) 1d4 Armor piercing 2
All:
Unarmed (30%) 1d4
NOTES:
Old Man McGillicuddy knows the park and has a ring with keys to every door - Useful for locking something in or out.
The Repairman can get any of the rides going and help set traps for either the mummies or teens.
Frank
The Cipher
Age 17
The male version of Smurfette - a fully decharacterized blank who seemingly exists to hit a studio’s gender quota. Instead of a personality, he wears a dumb tie. Still, he can throw a punch which is more than you can say about his friends. Leader of a gang of teens playing at being urban explorer/paranormal investigators
STR 15 (75)
CON 15 (75)
DEX 13 (65)
INT 8 (40)
POW 8 (40)
CHA 11 (55)
HP 15 WP 8 SAN 40
SKILLS: Melee (50%) - no weapon carried
ATTACKS: Unarmed (45%), damage 1D4+1
Wilma Hinkley
The Smart One
Age 16
The brains of the operation. Most likely to reach out for help once they realize how over their heads they are. Can intuit and explain the mechanics of the Mummies if the players are not picking it up.
STR 8 (40)
CON 10 (50)
DEX 12 (60)
INT 18 (90)
POW 16 (80)
CHA 12 (60)
HP 9 WP 16 SAN 80
SKILLS: Alertness (30%), Forensics (55%), Bureaucracy (55%), SIGINT (50%), Occult (35%), Archaeology (40%), Anthropology (35%), Unarmed (25%)
ATTACKS: Unarmed (25%), damage 1D4-1
Ariadne
The Greek One
Age 17
Not exactly a huge asset in a life or death mummy battle. Still, about the most normal of all of them.
STR 8 (40)
CON 12 (60)
DEX 12 (60)
INT 15 (75)
POW 13 (65)
CHA 17 (85)
HP 10 WP 8 SAN 40
SKILLS: Alertness (40%), Forensics (30%), Persuade (45%)
ATTACKS: Unarmed (30%), damage 1D4-1
Shakey
The Beastmaster
Age 16
Mostly useless in a fight, and also just generally. However, both dogs are totally loyal to him. He’s about the only one who could get the big one to fight, or the little one to not fight.
STR 11 (55)
CON 12 (60)
DEX 12 (60)
INT 9 (45)
POW 8 (40)
CHA 16 (80)
HP 12 WP 8 SAN 40
SKILLS: Pharmacology (30%), Animal Handling (60%), Melee (25%) - no weapon carried
ATTACKS: Unarmed (20%), damage 1D4
Doobie Poo
The Dog One
Age 5
A six foot, 100lb mastiff that is nevertheless quite cowardly. Will fight if cornered, if Shakey is in danger, or if motivated. Highly food motivated.
STR 17 (125)
CON 15 (125)
DEX 16 (100)
INT 12 (60)
POW 8 (40)
HP 16 WP 10 SAN n/a
SKILLS: Alertness 70%
ATTACKS: Bite And Hold (55%) 1d4, Shake and Tear (55%) 2d4 - Requires a successful Bite and Hold
And Pitty Poo, Too!
The Nephew
Age 2
Pitty Poo is constitutionally incapable of not starting a fight, regardless of the odds or any strategic considerations. It's technically a plot hole that he doesn’t murder the entire party on first contact.
STR 18 (90)
CON 16 (80)
DEX 17 (85)
INT 9 (45)
POW 10 (50)
HP 17 WP 10 SAN n/a
SKILLS: Alertness 80%
ATTACKS: Bite And Hold (75%) 1d6, Shake and Tear (75%) 2d6 - Requires a successful Bite and Hold
Mummies
The Bad Ones
STR 14 (70)
CON 8 (40)
DEX 12 (60)
INT? (?)
POW? (?)
HP 10 WP 10 SAN n/a
Armor: 5, see below
SKILLS:
Seek Life 80%
Victims of a parasitic spider-like creature of possibly Unnatural or extraterrestrial origin that dwells in the victim's brain, and looks out through a hole burrowed in the forehead. A new victim is paralyzed by envenomed fangs which extend through the hard palate. 10,000 baby spiders are then fed into the mouth of the paralyzed victim. As they compete, cannibalistically, to be the first to dig into the victims brain, the mother mummy cocoons the body - preventing the loss of valuable nutrition for its young as the new parasite liquefies unnecessary organs and skin for food.
ATTACKS:
Pin (60%)
Bite (65%) damage 1d2 - on success target is paralyzed for 5 turns or 5 minutes outside combat
Infest, 100% on paralyzed target, Dex Check if target is mobile, 0% if target is mobile and has assistance from a friendly. Disgorges thousands of baby spiders which will seek a warm host. Kills target. If an infested body is not destroyed in 30 minutes, it will arise as a new mummy.
Notes
The body of the mummy is functionally a camel’s hump - a store of nutrition for the parasite. Damage not done to the head is treated as though the mummy is wearing 5 points of armor to calculate damage done.
There are at least 4 other mummies loose above ground - don’t worry about one escaping, all will attempt to infest a PC or die trying - but they will try to attack characters in isolation or small groups.
Credits
First Day Jitters was written by P B for the 2024 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MrvBB6ugekPyU_zuwOFuiTj7I11TVU_5BG--XfsqULg/edit