The Enemy of My Enemy

A 4-hour Torg convention adventure 
for 3 to 6 players

by Todd Furler

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Before the Action Starts

Running This Adventure: This game is designed to run very much like a movie. It opens with a scene that the player characters aren't in, and yet the players "experience" it, as if they were the audience in a movie theater, so that they understand the tone of the adventure. Scene 1 has a soundtrack. Time is kept deliberately vague in this game -- there's no firm indication of how much time passes between scenes, and if asked, the GM should try to enforce that vagueness with very general answers ("It's been a while"). Feel free to occasionally describe what the players see in terms of camera angles, rather than what their characters see with their own eyes. 

Choosing Characters: Very briefly describe the multi-genre nature of Torg, just so that the players have enough information to select characters. Then read the following oh-so-brief descriptions of the characters to the players and let them decide who they want to play:

After the players have chosen their characters and the rules have been explained, pass out the heroes' mission assignment and spell and miracle cards.

The Background: This adventure is based on things that happened in my Torg campaign. As a result, the situation with the Ayslish High Lord deviates from Torg canon. Here's the noncanonical background you'll need:

Prior to this adventure, while Angar Uthorion was desperately trying to reclaim his High Lordship in the body of Thorfinn Bjanni, he was attacked by a combined force of storm knights and rebel Vikings. The Vikings were led by Perth, a shrewd tactician and long-time rival/enemy of Bjanni. After a desparet battle, Bjanni was slain by Perth.

Over the succeeding months, Perth set about hunting down Bjanni's former lieutenants and allies. Those that didn't ally with Perth were mercilessly killed. At one point, in order to take down an entire stronghold of Bjanni's former cohorts, Perth had an allied spellcaster change him into a draconis teutonica -- a dragon. He then laid waste to the stronghold, sparing none of the inhabitants. 

Perth soon became fond of the dragon-form. He had the mage teach him the spell and then, when he was satisfied he had been taught the spell correctly, killed the mage. Eventually, Drakacanus -- the Darkness Device of Aysle -- took notice of this force for destruction who also led his army with tactical genius. It offered him the High Lordship. Perth accepted. With Drakacanus behind him, Perth can effectively shift between human and dragon forms at will.

If you'd prefer to avoid the customizations described above, simply give the dragon-form spell to Uthorion or the Warrior of the Dark, or whoever your High Lord of Aysle is. Remember then to change all references to Perth appropriately.

Continuing with our background: Perth was able to reunite the Vikings and keep their loyalty. But Perth hungered for still more strength. He sent an expedition back to Aysle to locate and recover the corpse of Zarrakis the Archmage, who had been defeated centuries ago by the Council of Ten. Perth also found and acquired Kælethin Moræg, the magical staff in which the Council of Ten had imprisoned Zarrakis' soul. Perth united Zarrakis' soul and corpse to bestow upon Zarrakis the status of lich-mage.

With the help of Zarrakis' powerful magic and his army of undead, Perth has been able to expand the Ayslish realm. His plan is to have Zarrakis take his army overland, east through Finland, with the intent of conquering European Russia.

More recently, Perth has alienated his Viking subjects by showing greater favor to Wotan and his Wild Hunt, and even more favor still to Zarrakis. Zarrakis in particular demands huge amounts of plunder in return for his loyalty. This has diminished the amount of spoils that Perth gives to the Vikings. They can't understand why treasure should be wasted on those not alive to enjoy it.

They're also not too keen on fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with the zombies that Zarrakis raises to constitute his army.

In disgust, the Vikings broke their allegiance to Perth about six months ago. They sailed south to Malta in the Mediterranean Sea, where they now prey upon ships and coastal towns.

The mission at rise is to defend Core Earth against Zarrakis and his army. The mission changes very early in the game, however.

Act 1: The Face of Death

Prologue: The Sod House

AT RISE: Exterior shot of a sod house in the Far North, in an arctic night. The heroes are not present, but our movie audience sees this scene, so you should narrate this to the players.

Nighttime. In the darkness, we can make out a sod house. A pen of reindeer is attached to the house. The camera moves through the wall of the house, into the interior. Inside, where it's even darker, we can barely make out the piles of furs and blankets that contain huddled sleepers.

The reindeer become agitated. A man wakes. He rises to investigate as the reindeer begin to vocalize. Hearing this, his movements become more purposeful. He announces something in a language we don't understand as he begins tossing on clothing. Other forms emerge from under their furs and blankets -- adult males, presumably the man's brothers and/or sons. A child's voice, its tone questioning, issues from one of the piles of blankets. This is followed by a woman's voice uttering reassurances and shushes from the same bed pile.

The other men hurriedly dress and the first lights an oil lamp just as he feels it. Trembling. Getting stronger. We hear a low rumble as the panicking reindeer break out of their pen and run. The women are awake now, too, trying to comfort their crying children.

The men snap out of their stupefaction and head for the door, when suddenly the wall in which the door is mounted buckles inward. The wall advances toward the men, then slants as it continues forward. The ceiling begins to roll downward toward the inhabitants. The effect is like being inside a tube of toothpaste as it's squeezed. The men, startled, retreat from the approaching wall, dropping the oil lamp in the process. Surprisingly, it doesn't go out or break. 

The children are awake and screaming, as are their mothers. There is nowhere to go as the north wall and the ceiling advance -- the door was the only opening in the building. All the inhabitants are screaming as the encroaching wall and ceiling shatter the fallen lamp, engulfing everything in pitch blackness. We can't see anything on the movie screen, but the screaming continues -- for a few seconds, then it abruptly ends. The low rumbling, however, goes on.

Cut to Act 1 Scene 1, Povenets.

Scene 1: Povenets

AT RISE: The heroes are about to engage Zarrakis' army
SETTING: Outside the Fortress in Povenets, Russia. The arctic night is about to end. Unfortunately, Death is much closer.
TONE:    Standard
REALITY: Dominant Aysle
PROPS:

This area has already been converted to Ayslish reality by stele placement and the advance of Zarrakis' troops. 

The region of Karelia has changed ownership several times in the last 300 years, sometimes being a part of Finland, other times a part of Russia. The Fortress was built a few centuries ago, while the Russians were in control, in an attempt to stabilize the region and defend it from the Finns. Today, it will again be a bastion against invaders. Machine gun nests have been erected atop the towers, and civilians are being herded inside the curtain wall.

The heroes have been assigned to help the Russian troops defend against Zarrakis and, if possible, prevent his further advance into the heart of Russia from Finland. Set up the four soldier figures. Explain that there are many more soldiers all around the fortress, but we're not using figures for them. Have the players put their characters wherever they think they will be most helpful (outside the Fortress, on the wall, or in the courtyard).

Finally, start the soundtrack from the movie End of Days and describe these scenes that are unfolding around the heroes. Try to make your descriptions adhere to this timeline, in order to fit the narration to the musical cues:

Time Narration
0:00 Two men stand on the wall by the machine gun. One has binoculars held to his eyes.

From below: "See anything, Vladimir?"
"Not yet, Colonel." The camera follows Vladimir's gaze down to the courtyard.
There's activity everywhere:
  • Troops going through training maneuvers outside the huge, open gate
  • Soldiers and civilians scurrying around in the courtyard. The colonel is shouting orders: 
    • "Get those supplies inside the barracks!" 
    • "Shore up that wall!" 
    • "Are the floodlights ready yet? We need to be able to see them coming!" "A few more moments, sir!"
0:55
  • The camera pans past the open door of the chapel. A church service is going on. The congregation is almost entirely women, children, and very old men. Most of the people are crying.

The camera continues panning to the main gate, which is being closed. From the inside, we see that all on the outside are watching it with a sense of foreboding as it closes with a very final-sounding thud. 

Camera pans up the wall, back to Vladimir and Boris. We're looking over their shoulder as they continue to scan the darkness.
"Why are they closing the gate already? We have a little time before dawn."
"They’ll attack before dawn. They don’t need light to see... In fact, he’s watching us right now. I can feel it." Boris glances at Vladimir, looks out into the darkness, and shivers.

1:40
The camera passes between them and shoots across the featureless plain at unimaginable speed, in the direction that Vladimir was looking. After covering an unknown, but seemingly large, expanse of ground, it zooms into a tight close-up of a skull with a single, living eye. (This is the face on the poster for the adventure.) 

The skull turns to its right as the camera follows its gaze. The camera reveals corpses, in various states of decay. Standing at attention. Hundreds of them. No, as it pans around, we see there are thousands of them, as far as the eye can see!

The camera has panned through a 180-degree arc, over the army behind the skeletal figure, and now returns to the skull, coming in from the skull's left. 
2:42 The cadaverous figure raises a bony hand, then flicks a single finger forward. As one, every corpse takes a step and begins to advance.

[If any hero is with the troops outside the walls:]

Faith sees something in the distance: a speck of reddish light. A lit cigarette? Just as she’s about to say something to the person next to her, the speck streaks into one of the machine gun nests on the Fortress wall and explodes! Vladimir and Boris are thrown to the ground outside the Fortress. And in the flash is illuminated an army of corpses that has closed with the troops! How could they have gotten so close?

[If no heroes are outside the walls:]

You hear it before you can see it: a sound, of something coming directly at you from the plains ahead. You become aware of the troops outside the walls gasping and shouting in surprise as they fall over, in a wave approaching the Fortress, like dominoes. Suddenly, the section of the wall that you’re standing on is jerked three feet into the air as the very earth the Fortress rests upon swells upward like an ocean wave. Stone and mortar shatter from the assault. When this section of the wall comes back down, it doesn’t stop at its former elevation -- you fall as the stone beneath you crumbles into rubble. The wall has been breached!

The floodlights unexpectedly come on. They illuminate an army of corpses that has closed with the troops! How could they have gotten so close?

All Hell breaks loose as a huge number of zombie figures attacks the Fortress. What follows are the milestones that occur during the battle. You don't have to use all of them, but I suggest you keep them in this order. The battle should not last longer than four rounds. Only roll attack dice for the NPCs who are attacking heroes. For zombies and soldiers who are attacking each other, don't roll; just remove a few from each side every round. But when you remove zombie figures, visibly put them in the rear of the battle, to represent others of the limitless undead who are just now reaching the action.

By the way, it may occur to a player to have his character look for Kælethin Moræg rather than participate in the battle. That's quite OK. If his search is successful, you can cut out Act 2, Scene 2 because it's then entirely unnecessary, which will leave you more time for role-playing Act 2, Scenes 1 and 4.

These are some of the NPC stand-ups I use in my games. Parts of some of these images are taken from Steve Jackson Games Cardboard Heroes.
Zombie A Death Zarrakis

The milestones:

  1. Zarrakis' army attacks. At rise, there are only zombies.
  2. Zarrakis is not yet visible, but he casts a spell (fireball, rocket, or the like) at one of the good guys.
  3. Vladimir was killed by his fall from the Fortress wall. A Death approaches his body and raises its scythe over him. It swings. The scythe passes directly and ethereally through Vladimir's body. Clustered on the blade and trailing back to Vladimir is a thick, white vapor. The Death twists the scythe and the vapor turns black. It then reverses its swing, and the scythe once again passes through Vladimir's corpse. This time, the scythe comes out clean. Vladimir stands up. (Replace his figure with that of the undead soldier.)
  4. A hero on the wall hears the flutter of wings, and suddenly a vampire (Ayslish, not Orrorshan) appears beside him or her. It attempts to mesmerize the hero (use persuasion) into letting it bite him or her.
  5. If the heroes haven't sought and spotted Zarrakis already, he appears, mounted on his dragonet. He casts spells at the most formidable-seeming adversaries.
  6. If you need to make things look even darker, toss in the undead dragon figure.
  7. Heroes on the Fortress wall feel a rumbling.
  8. Slowly, dawn is beginning to break. The vampire flees if it hasn't been dispatched already.
  9. There's a commotion inside the Fortress. People are streaming into the courtyard. They're trying to open the gate (or heading for a breach in the wall, if there is one)! This wasn't part of the plan! The colonel tries to order them back, but he's overwhelmed.
  10. The rumbling sound increases in volume. Then the sound of cracking stonework comes from the rear of the castle (the north side, farthest from the gate and the army of Zarrakis).

The rear wall and towers of the Fortress begin to collapse. The civilians get the gate open and begin to pour out of the Fortress. The battle stops as even the undead pause to see what's happening.

The Fortress continues to disintegrate. We now see that it's slowly being pushed by a huge, white wall. A wall of ice. A glacier that's moving about as fast as a man can walk. The Fortress is crumbling before it. Zarrakis watches for a few seconds. The look on his mummified face is one of surprise. Suddenly, as one, all of his undead troops do an about-face and begin to walk away from the battle. The glacier doesn't slow.

After a few more seconds, Zarrakis' dragonet begins to back away from the Fortress. Zarrakis slaps it with the reins to bring it under control, looks back at the castle one last time, and then urges his mount into the air. He races toward the south, and -- just before he vanishes over the horizon, turns west toward Oslo.

The glacier doesn't slow down, but it doesn't speed up, either. It's about 15 meters high. In terms of width, it spans the entire northern horizon. A hero who can get above it sees that it stretches north as far as the eye can see. It has largely homogenized the landscape, covering or leveling any small hills. Only large geological features have presented enough resistance to the glacier's passage to have forced it to go around them.

The glacier effortlessly demolishes the Fortress as it pushes relentlessly forward. Its current pace is the speed of a leisurely walk, and the PCs and NPCs have little trouble keeping ahead of the thing, even if they're on foot. The heroes can wipe out a few more of Zarrakis' troops as they retreat (don't bother rolling dice for this), but eventually, the priority should become getting the townspeople away from the glacier's slow but implacable advance and investigating its nature (not necessarily in that order). When they decide that's what they want to do -- or you decide the Edeinos has spent enough time making snow angels -- award each player 1 Possibility as an Act award and cut to Act 2 Scene 1: The Investigation.

Act 2: Fire and Ice

Scene 1: The Investigation

AT RISE: The heroes are trying to determine the source of the glacier
SETTING: Wherever they want, but preferably, back at their "base" with Albertus
TONE:    Standard
REALITY: Dominant Aysle or Dominant Core Earth
PROPS:

It's best to conduct this scene back at the heroes' "base of operations," with the assistance of Albertus the mage. However, that's not strictly necessary.

The heroes do some research to figure out what's behind this glacier. These are the things that they can find out:

The players should deduce that the Vikings may be behind this. Their motive is revenge. Now that they live in the Mediterranean Sea, they have nothing to lose by destroying Scandinavia. Perth, on the other hand, will lose everything. So will everyone else in Scandinavia, of course. But the Vikings don't care about that.

When the players are fairly certain that the Vikings must be responsible, Albertus warns them that dealing with the Vikings will require skill. The players will fail if they attempt to use force or intimidation to make the Vikings stop the glacier. On the other hand, the Vikings respect strength, and they will refuse to negotiate with anyone they perceive to be weak. So the characters will have to come across as strong enough to be reckoned with, but not so strong as to be perceived as attempting to threaten or intimidate the Vikings.

As soon as the heroes understand this, Albertus sends them off to Malta to negotiate with the Vikings.

Cutaway

This scene contains information that it's important the for the player characters to know. If the PCs have attempted to scry on Zarrakis, this is what they see. Otherwise, simply describe this as a cutaway, just as you'd see in a movie, to show the audience what's going on elsewhere.

Outside the former Parliament building, now Perth's stronghold, in Oslo, Norway, Zarrakis' dragonet touches down. Even before it has come to a full stop, Zarrakis leaps off and strides purposefully into the building. Ahead, a young woman is scrubbing the floor. She glances up at the sound of someone approaching, sees the skeletal figure of Zarrakis, and immediately looks back down at the floor in an attempt to avoid eye contact. She shudders as she tries to look as small as possible, in the hope of not being noticed. As Zarrakis passes her, in a move so oft-practiced and rapid that the lich doesn't even break his stride, he reaches out, grabs the young woman's head, and twists it off. As he continues down the hallway, he runs one bony finger along the exposed flesh of the severed neck. With this same finger, he paints the fresh blood onto his desiccated lips and then onto the scrub woman's lips.

Zarrakis has entered a throne room. He approaches the dark figure on the throne. After only the slightest hint of a bow, abbreviated not out of disrespect but urgency, Zarrakis raises the severed head. The lich's skeletal jaw moves, and as it does so, the movement is mimicked by the scrubwoman's own mouth. It is from her lips that we hear the raspy words, "Master, we have a problem. A very large problem."

Cut back to the action, at whatever point you left.

Scene 2: Among the Vikings

AT RISE: A drinking contest
SETTING: Inside a plundered monastery on Malta in the Mediterranean
TONE:    Standard
REALITY: Dominant Core Earth
PROPS:

Read the following to the players:

Your head is pounding. Whether it's because of the smoke in the room, the incessant noise from the scores of Vikings who are watching you, or the fact that the current scene has been playing out for several hours now, you're not sure. But it's probably the latter. [To one of the players:] A twelve year old boy approaches you with an ale skin and an empty drinking horn. Once again, he hands you the ale skin and holds out the horn for you to fill. One of you sways during the filling process, and the other does his best to compensate, but it's not really clear who's leading and who's following in that little dance. Finally, the horn is filled and the boy takes it from you.

You glance down the long hall at the crew of the craft that got you here. They're being held firmly, but not roughly, by your "hosts." Even with your vision blurred as it is, you can tell by their facial expressions that they know their lives depend entirely on the performance of you and your companions. As you watch, one of the Vikings, with no trace of scorn or contempt,  offers the [pilot or captain] of your vehicle a half-eaten chicken leg.

When you look back, the boy has approached the Vikings who are lined up opposite you. He hands the horn to one of them -- a very hairy, very drunken man whose name was, if you recall correctly, Hjalmar. As the man chugs the brew within, a crowd chants "Drink! Drink! Drink!" He stops drinking and turns the horn upside down to show that it is empty. The crowd cheers!

Hjalmar approaches a table between him and the heroes. A basket of firewood is on the table. He chooses a brand, turns, aims, and tosses it toward the huge fireplace that dominates the wall at the end of the room. The brand flies cleanly into the fire and the crowd goes wild! The man speaks: "Hjalmar is robust like the bear! An eye like an eagle have I! All fear my deadly aim!" He turns and staggers back to his comrades as they cheer him and clap him on the back. He puts his back to the wall and leans against it as the young boy brings an ale skin and the drinking horn to the Viking next to Hjalmar. As this man fills the drinking horn, Hjalmar begins to slowly slide downward. Soon he's in a crouched sitting position, but only for a moment before he falls over on his side.

Silence falls over the hall. Everyone stares at Hjalmar's motionless figure or a second. Then the crowd bursts into raucous laughter and shouting, some offering encouragement to the other Vikings, others praising your group for not being the first to fall. The other Viking resumes filling the drinking horn.

You know what this means. If on your respective turns, each of you can empty the drinking horn and can manage to throw your brand into the fireplace, when Hjalmar's turn comes up again, his side must forfeit and you win! You will have proven your strength and the Vikings will hear you out!

The young boy is now carrying the horn over to you. (The GM hands a plastic cup filled with water to the next PC to take part in the contest.) Now it's your side's turn...

The format of the contest is simple. Each contestant empties his water cup in one guzzle [player makes a Toughness or resist poison total], approaches the table, selects a brand, and throws it into the fireplace [player makes a missile weapons total], and if successful (which he'd better darned well be), makes a two- or three-sentence speech to his opponents extolling his own fortitude, keen aim, skill, what have you. Then he rejoins his companions.

Surviving the drink requires a Toughness (or resist poison, in the case of Lars Hammerheim) total, DN 8. A character who fails by 6 or more takes a knockdown, effectively forfeiting the competition unless he cancels the damage by spending a Possibility. A character who fails by 7 or more takes a KO, also losing the contest (but again, the KO can be cancelled with a Possibility). Then comes the brand toss, which is missile weapons DN 11. This DN already includes an impairment penalty of -6, which the heroes will suffer to their detriment if they find themselves in the (unlikely) situation of dealing with NPCs who aren't also inebriated. All cards are playable, since we're not in round-to-round.

So much for the mechanics. The important thing is that you are hereby ordered to have fun role-playing this scene. Be as raucous and lively as the convention space will tolerate. When it's the player's turn, make him or her down the entire contents of the plastic cup (sloshing some onto the face or floor is allowed) while all the other participants chant "Drink! Drink! Drink!" (When I run this game, I also drink empty my cup for each of the NPCs. For that reason, I try to include a brief bathroom break in the game.) 

Often, the player running Rianna Gerrik will consider using her purify water spell to render her drink nonintoxicating. Remind her that she has a reputation for honor and that this would be cheating. If she does this, she will lose a point of honor and any skill adds derived from that point. Furthermore, because House Gerrik is known throughout Aysle for its honor, she risks besmirching her family name if her cheat is detected. Then proceed as the player deems appropriate.

There are some things that the characters may notice as the contest goes on. Don't force any of this information on the players, but if they say they're looking around, they might notice:

During the drinking contest, don't bother rolling dice for the Vikings. The next two Vikings will definitely succeed. The third Viking (or, if you've got more time because the heroes already have the shard of Kælethin Moræg, the fourth or fifth Viking) will seem to pass the drinking task, but as he raises his arm to throw the brand into the fire, he falls straight backward onto the table holding the brands, which shatters under his weight. He's out cold, and since he didn't complete the brand-throwing task, the PCs have won. The only invariant is that the Viking named Gunter is not one of the two who passed out or otherwise lost the contest for the Vikings.

There is a loud hail and cheer from the assembled Vikings. The player characters are clapped on the back and congratulated as their unconscious opponents are dragged off. One of the still-conscious opposing contestants, named Gunter, approaches the PCs and says, "Well done, stout warriors and hale maids! You have earned the right to speak to the Vikings as equals. Come, let us retreat to a quieter hearth." He then leads them off to a private discussion.

Here's where the role-playing begins. Gunter is extremely canny, so you should run him as if he were your own character. He's no more besotted than the PCs, so they have no advantage over him in that regard. If necessary, make it clear to the players that interactions will be resolved solely through role-playing, and not through dice-rolling.  As you run him, play by the following rules:

  1. The most important thing to the Vikings is their revenge against Perth for having given his favor to Zarrakis. Nothing will cause Gunter to forfeit the opportunity to cripple the High Lord of Aysle. The Vikings will not settle for having Perth merely inconvenienced. Perth must suffer unrecoverable losses of a huge magnitude for the Vikings to be revenged. 
  2. The Vikings consider Perth to be absolutely unkillable, but they know his power is somehow tied to the land he has conquered. The glacier is therefore an ideal mechanism for exacting revenge against Perth.
  3. Every time Gunter hears or speaks the name of Zarrakis, he'll spit on the floor to show his contempt.
  4. Gunter will never directly admit that the Vikings are responsible for the glacier. If the PCs indicate that they're certain the glacier is the Vikings' doing, Gunter will smirk slightly and say, "Let us suppose, for our discussion, that my people do have some influence over this glacier. What of it?"
  5. When it becomes clear that the PCs want the Vikings to stop the glacier, Gunter will immediately realize that he's in a position of power. He has what the PCs want, and he knows it. For that reason, he cannot be intimidated into stopping the glacier. Nor can he be taunted with a line like, "Your people are not powerful enough to stop the glacier," because stopping the glacier would violate Rule 1. He would most likely reply to such a provocation by asking, in a red-faced and quietly menacing manner, "Are you more powerful than us in this regard?" Any answer that the PCs provide will hurt their negotiating position. If they say no, it reinforces the Vikings' position of strength. If they say yes, Gunter challenges them to prove it by stopping the glacier on their own and then rises to leave, knowing they will have to back down or beg him to reconsider.
  6. The effect that the glacier has on "innocent bystanders" is of no concern to the Vikings. Similarly, they don't care about the collateral damage that the glacier is causing, since they don't plan on returning to Scandinavia, and they know that the glacier will stop before it reaches their current location.
  7. Gunter has the power to make decisions for the Viking clans, but he will not admit that. This way, if he perceives that he's being trapped, he can claim that the PCs will have to speak with the Viking chieftains in order to get what they want, and he will take them to the chieftains immediately. The PCs will instantly realize that this would put them at a severe disadvantage, since the chieftains are undoubtedly intelligent and strong-willed men and are not likely to be as inebriated as the PCs currently are.

The ultimate intent of this scene is to have the PCs suggest destroying Zarrakis. If the heroes offer to destroy Zarrakis as a substitute means for the Vikings to revenge themselves against Perth, Gunter will accept those terms by saying, "You have the word of the Vikings that the destruction of Zarrakis would cause the glacier's advance to stop."

Alternately, if the heroes suggest destroying Zarrakis as a show of solidarity with the Vikings (in essence, in order to get on the Vikings' good side), Gunter will enthusiastically embrace that idea. But then the heroes will have to offer some additional prize in order to induce the Vikings to stop the glacier. In this case, Gunter will ask for the right to continue the Viking lifestyle, preying upon ships and coastal towns, without interference by the governments of Core Earth. It might occur to the heroes that that would be acceptable, if the predations are limited to ships and towns of the Cyberpapacy and Nile Empire. Gunter would agree to those terms. Consider it to be within the PCs' power to arrange for the Vikings to receive letters of mark that would seal such an agreement.

But how to put down the lich-mage? Gunter will point out that Zarrakis' magical abilities are so great that he is almost unapproachable, and that magic is likely to work against him only if it is very powerful. Oh, if only the heroes possessed some part of Zarrakis' body! Certain spells can be cast on such things and, by taking advantage of the connection between the part and the whole, have a powerful and unpreventable effect on the former owner.

It's not likely that the heroes ended up with a piece of Zarrakis from the encounter in Scene 1, but if they did, that's great. Assuming they don't have a chunk of Zarrakis, it might occur to them that Kælethin Moræg, having served as the prison for Zarrakis' soul for 800 years, has a strong enough connection to the lich-mage that it might serve just as well as a part of his physical body. Gunter will surmise that such reasoning seems sound.

The storyline can now go either of two ways:

If the heroes acquired a piece of Zarrakis' body or a shard of Kælethin Moræg in Act 1 Scene 1, the heroes' cell phone will ring at this point. It's Albertus calling to tell them that Perth is moving his army on Stockholm, obviously intending to wipe out the citizens as they flee the glacier. The heroes must hurry to Stockholm as soon as possible. Gunter will make it clear that the Vikings will help in the destruction of Zarrakis by providing magical assistance, but it must be a single PC who executes the plan. The PC need not be a spellcaster. Gunter insists that "the one of you who will defeat Zarrakis" must remain here on Malta with the relic or shard. As soon as the PCs decide who that will be, the rest of them should take off for Stockholm. Take the lucky character who'll be facing Zarrakis aside, and cut to Scene 4, To Cast a Deadly Spell. 

If the heroes have neither a piece of Zarrakis' body nor a shard of Kælethin Moræg, the heroes will have to travel back to Povenets to recover a shard of the magical staff. Gunter will take the heroes to a room where hangs a large tapestry, bearing the life-size image of a cruel-looking nobleman. The Vikings gained the tapestry as plunder decades ago. What's most important is that the nobleman in the tapestry is holding a staff. Gunter explains that the staff was Kælethin Moræg before it was broken, and the subject of the portrait was one of its former owners. The image of the staff is detailed enough for the heroes to recognize it if they find it. If Lars Hammerheim is in play, the image is even detailed enough for him to use his dwarven compass to locate it. Gunter will also give the heroes a stone with a rune on it, saying, "This is my runestone. When you find the shard, one of you must hold this and speak my name, so that we may then communicate." Then he sends them off. Cut to Scene 3, Recovering Kælethin Moræg.

Scene 3: Recovering Kælethin Moræg

AT RISE: The heroes are trekking across a glacier
SETTING: Atop the fast-moving glacier from Act 1 Scene 1
TONE:    Standard
REALITY: Dominant Core Earth
PROPS:

This scene doesn't have to be detailed or long. If you're running short on time, you can resolve it purely through narration (especially if Lars Hammerheim is one the characters in play) or, at worst, with one or two die rolls. If you've got lots of time, you can play it out in a little more detail. Be aware that you'll need about half an hour for Scene 5, At the Gates of Doom, so plan appropriately. The description below is based on the assumption that you've got about 30 minutes to spend on this scene.

The entire region is covered with an unbroken expanse of featureless, white ice. Fortunately, the area has reverted back to Core Earth reality because all intelligent life fled ahead of the glacier. This means that the heroes could easily use modern transportation to get here and global positioning systems to locate the position of Povenets beneath the ice. Therefore, they arrive here quickly and without incident. Also assume they had no difficulty gathering the means to dig through the ice, whether by using thermite, heavy equipment, Lars Hammerheim's Rubblemaker, or whatever else they came up with.

Finding the location of Kælethin Moræg will be relatively easy. If Lars Hammerheim is in play, he can use the dowse spell that's impressed into his dwarven compass to locate a fragment of the staff. If he's not in play, the other characters can be told that they discovered from Albertus or some other source that the shards of the staff were kept in the basement of the Fortress, the very building they were fighting from in Act 1, Scene 1. Since the staff was underground when the glacier came through, it hasn't been swept away by the river of ice.

The tricky part is getting to the staff. The glacier is moving at about 3 miles per hour. Therefore, the heroes have to figure out where to start digging through the ice, such that by the time they reach the bottom of the glacier, they're directly on top of Kælethin Moræg. If you're going to run this scene with only a single die roll, this is the roll to ask for. Let the PCs use any skill they can justify, allow coordination with a DN of 10, and don't tell them the DN they'll need to find the staff. Just tell them that they'll know if they made the DN when they reach the bottom of the glacier -- if their skill total was too low, the shard won't be there; they'll either have overshot it or undershot it. That should encourage them to put some resources like cards and Possibilities into the die roll. As long as they do that, they'll be successful no matter what their final total is.

As the PCs are digging, have them get a radio message from Albertus. He's calling to tell them that Perth is moving his army on Stockholm, obviously intending to wipe out the citizens as they flee the advancing glacier. The heroes must hurry to Stockholm as soon as possible.

Once the heroes recover the shard, they should produce Gunter's runestone and speak his name. They will all be able to hear his voice and conduct a two-way conversation. Gunter will make it clear that the Vikings will help in the destruction of Zarrakis by providing magical assistance, but it must be a single PC who executes the plan. The PC need not be a spellcaster. Gunter will insist that "the one of you who will defeat Zarrakis" must hold both the shard of Kælethin Moræg and his runestone. When the PCs decide among them who will fill that role and tell Gunter that that PC has both the runestone and the shard, the PC holding the runestone immediately vanishes in a flash of light. The shard is gone too, as is the runestone, which means the conversation with Gunter has been terminated. (However, if it was Lars Hammerheim who was teleported away, Rubblemaker stays behind.) After you take in their stunned silence for a moment, ask them, "So what do you do?" The correct answer would be to go to Stockholm immediately.

Take aside the player of the lucky character who was holding the runestone and the shard, and cut to Scene 4, To Cast a Deadly Spell.

Scene 4: To Cast a Deadly Spell

AT RISE: A single player character is in the company of Gunter, among the Vikings
SETTING: The Viking village on Malta, in the Mediterranean
TONE:    Standard
REALITY: Dominant Core Earth
PROPS:

The hero is with Gunter, either because he teleported here from Scene 3, Recovering Kælethin Moræg, or because he followed Gunter here from Scene 2, Among the Vikings. In either case, Gunter takes the shard (or piece of Zarrakis, if that's the relic they're using) from the hero, asks for a hair from the hero's head, and then bids the hero follow him. As Gunter walks among the Viking throng, he signals specific men to follow along. Each man who is chosen picks up his weapons and joins the throng. By the time the party reaches the mouth of a distant cave, there are about 30 armed Viking warriors in tow. 

The group lights torches and descends into the cave. There are many side tunnels. From all of these side tunnels comes the flickering of distant torchlight and the eerie chanting of many female voices. Waiting along the corridor through which the player character is led is a 10-year-old boy. He hands Gunter a braided cord of some kind. Runestones hang from the braid. The warriors continue past this boy. He does not follow, and they encounter no one else. Throughout this time, the muffled chanting from the side corridors never stops.

The tunnel ends in a large cavern. In the center of the cavern is a stone column, a conjoined stalagmite and stalactite. Attached to the column, at ankle and shoulder height, are shackles. As Gunter leads the player character to the column, the warriors do not follow. Rather, they fan out along the perimeter of the room, so that each has a clear view of the column. Gunter turns toward the hero. He has suspended the shard of Zarrakis from the braided cord. Tied around the shard, barely visible in the gloom, is the hero's hair. Gunter slips this pendant over the character's head. As he does this, the warriors ready their spears, bows, and hand axes. It almost appears as if they're preparing to fire upon the hero.

"You will have to act quickly," says Gunter, as he backs the hero up against the column and reaches for the shackles. "Zarrakis is extremely powerful," he explains as he fastens the shackles around the hero's wrists. "Even shackled and blindfolded, he will be able to cast powerful spells. We will keep him distracted for as long as possible. We'll try not to kill your body in the process. But if our casualties become too great, I will break the spell and send Zarrakis' spirit back to his own body. I suspect that I will be forced to do this very quickly, in a matter of just a few heartbeats. In the meantime, do what damage you can, while you are in his body."

So that's the plan! The hero is going to switch bodies with the lich-mage.

If asked, Gunter will explain that the death of either body will immediately end the spell and return the spirits to their starting points -- which is bad news for the native owner of whoever's body got killed. 

Gunter will answer what questions he can, but he knows little about the details of the spell beyond the information here. If asked for more than this, he says, "What do I know of magic?! That's women's work!"

When the hero is firmly chained, Gunter says, "If you return, you must signal this by calling out my name. Otherwise, we will continue to distract Zarrakis." As Gunter says this, he looks at his men, who raise their weapons and take aim at the hero. Gunter looks back at the PC. "With each passing second, brave will men die for the sake of revenge. Be quick." And with that, Gunter slips a burlap sack over the hero's head and ties the mouth of the sack loosely around the hero's throat. The PC can see nothing. His nose is assaulted by the smell of some kind of grain, and all sounds are muffled by the cloth. He can just make out Gunter shouting, "It begins!" The hero feels each runestone pressed slightly against his chest as Gunter speaks its name. Then instantly, everything goes black and silent.

The hero sees nothing, hears nothing, feels nothing -- not even his own body -- yet experiences the sensation of remarkably rapid movement. He's unaware of exactly how long this goes on, when suddenly, something bumps into him. The only sensations the hero receives from his moment of contact with this intangible thing are unbridled fury and Corruption beyond imagining. Then the thing hurtles past him in the direction from which he just came.

Let the player know that in the next scene, you're going to run Zarrakis for the first round of combat. At the beginning of the second round, this player will take control of Zarrakis. In the first round, he should still play a card into his pool, even though his character won't be present. And he should write a note to the GM to explain what Zarrakis will do on the second round.

Scene 5: The Final Conflict

AT RISE: The heroes have just reached Stockholm
SETTING: Outside the citadel of Stockholm
TONE:    Dramatic
REALITY: Dominant Aysle
PROPS:

As Stockholm comes into view of the heroes' helicopter, things are looking dire. The glacier has nearly reached the northeast corner of the Royal Palace of Stockholm. The low, dull rumble of the approaching glacier is clearly audible. The entire undead army of Perth is arrayed along the south side of the Royal Palace, waiting to mow down those who will try to flee the glacier's destruction. Zarrakis is among the unholy army, as is Perth himself!

Inside the Royal Palace are a large number of people and even heavy weapons, but there was no way to lift the weapons onto the walls -- they can only blast something directly in front of the south gate. They'd be devastatingly effective against a single large target, but against a huge infantry, they're almost worthless.

Royal Palace of StockholmA brief flash of light catches a hero's eye and, before any physical action can be taken, the heroes' helicopter is struck by Zarrakis' fireball. The vehicle explodes as its flaming husk tumbles to the ground. Things are looking very grim when, before the helicopter strikes earth, there's a scene cut.

Be honest with the players here. We're going to cut ahead to the kind of scene that we see all the time in movies. Since the scene is dramatically appropriate and, in all truthfulness, a cinematic necessity, explain to the players that they're unharmed by the helicopter crash (although their clothes are appropriately singed and blood-stained), so they don't have to spend Possibilities to reduce damage. And since our fast-forwarding deprives them of the opportunity to react, reward them each one Possibility, exactly as they had each played through a subplot.

OK, that done, we cut back to the action. The wreck of the heroes' helicopter is blazing in the distance. Each of the heroes is restrained by three zombies and has been forced into a kneeling position before the High Lord. (Make sure the heroes are lined up in order of Toughness / armor values.) This is only scant seconds after the fireball struck, so the characters have not been disarmed and, if they were wearing armor before, are still armored as well. They are, however, in the middle of the army of undead, before Perth and Zarrakis, outside the south gate of the Royal Palace. From the walls of the Royal Palace, resistance troops look on helplessly.

Perth turns to Zarrakis and says, "We have no time for these distractions. The glacier will force them from the Palace within moments. Help me kill them." We're now in round-to-round action. Because the heroes are restrained by the zombies, they can perform no physical action until they first break free, which requires STR DN 13. (A STR total of 10 will break the grip of one zombie, 12 will shake two of them loose.) Nonphysical actions are available to them without restriction, however.

Perth strikes at one PC with his sword, while Zarrakis casts a fireball at a few others. While the targeting may seem random, be sure that physically weak characters aren't included in these attacks. Fudge the die rolls, if necessary, to ensure that the maximum damage delivered to any single character is 5 Wounds KO 5, because it's essential that they all survive this round, while things still look really bleak. At the end of the round, they can all play a card into their pools as usual.

In the second round, Zarrakis is now under control of a player. He becomes aware of several things, not necessarily all at once:

Have Zarrakis do whatever the player told you to in his note. The player doesn't know this, but he has only this round and two more in Zarrakis' body before the Vikings have to break the spell due to casualties on their side. In such a short time frame and with such a limited way of expressing himself, the player's wisest course of action is to try to provoke Perth into killing Zarrakis' body. The player determines whether Zarrakis spends Possibilities to reduce damage. Also, even though the player may not be able to cast Zarrakis' spells, he can cancel any that are already in effect, such as the magical Armor of Darkness that Zarrakis wears. 

But time is of the essence! If the player running Zarrakis doesn't realize this, give him one hint -- for the briefest instant, he suddenly can't see anything, but he can feel iron restraining his wrists, and over the powerful smell of oats, he catches a whiff of brimstone and hears the muffled screaming of men and the crackling of flames. Then he's back here again.

In the next two rounds, on Zarrakis' initiative, simply ask the player what Zarrakis does. Don't make him write a note. Always let Zarrakis go before Perth does.

The player running Zarrakis usually orders the undead army to release the PCs and attack Perth. That antagonizes Perth nicely, since he knows that Zarrakis is in absolute control of all of his undead horde. Perth will assume dragon form and lash out at Zarrakis. If this happens, assess your damage normally, and be sure to ask the player if he wants Zarrakis to cancel any of it with Possibilities. He should say no. When Zarrakis dies, in a wave starting from Zarrakis and emanating out like ripples on a pond, all of the undead troops begin to topple. Each one was created by Zarrakis, and when he dies, they all die as well. The dragonet simply cowers and backs away from Perth, leaving him alone among the corpses of his former army.

Alone, that is, except for the player characters. Feel free to give them each an action at this point.

That's when the glacier hits the Royal Palace. As the walls begin to groan, Perth turns to look at the source of the sound. Suddenly he sees that the south gate has opened. And he's looking directly into the barrel of a battery of those heavy weapons I described at the opening of this scene -- the ones that would be devastatingly effective against a single large target, but almost worthless against a huge infantry. The battery can only let loose with a single volley before the people inside have to evacuate the Royal Palace, but that one volley is most impressive as it thunders forth. Perth isn't killed by the blast, but he decides now would be an ideal time to be elsewhere and flees.

Read the following to the player who was running Zarrakis:

Suddenly, you're choking on oat dust and sulfurous fumes. Your right hand is free and clutching at the cloth on your face, but your left is still bound. All of your limbs are in agony, as if pierced by dozens of arrows. You hear the voices of dozens of men, shouting and screaming, as you tear at the cloth around your head. You pull it off just in time to see a hand axe heading straight for your face. Fortunately, the throw was slightly off, and the handle hits first, but it inflicts a knockdown on you nonetheless. You catch a glimpse of a massive Viking coming at you in a full charge, spear pointed directly at your chest. As you raise your hand to ward him off, you see that your arm is pierced by many arrows.... [Don't pause. Keep reading this until the player interrupts you by shouting "GUNTER!!" If he doesn't interrupt, the big Viking plunges his spear into the character's gut for 4 wounds KO 5, and the player character continues to be attacked by the Vikings, as they assume he's still Zarrakis.]

When the player finally yells "Gunter!," the attack is called off (if necessary, Gunter tackles the Viking who's charging with the spear in order to stop his charge) and Gunter immediately asks, "What of Zarrakis?" If the PC says that he's dead, there is a bellow of triumph from the men, and Gunter shouts, "Tell the women we have had our revenge!" Within seconds, the chanting that has echoed incessantly through these caverns ceases.

Back in Stockholm, as the refugees are pouring out of the south gate, the first stones of the north wing of the Royal Palace are crashing to the ground. Suddenly, the rumbling of the glacier stops. More stones fall, tumbling down the face of the white mountain that has come to rest against the northern corner of the building, but then that ceases as well.

An eerie silence settles over Stockholm's Old Town. The glacier is no longer moving.

Roll credits as the airborne camera retreats from the scene of the Royal Palace and the glacier that now abuts it.