The Kowloon Ripper and the House of Books

By Dave P. Blewer

Thanks to Colin Chapman, Jason Langlois and David Eber for their invaluable (if unknowing) assistance. It's you and people like you that are going to keep this game alive.

Backstory

The Kowloon Ripper has been prowling the streets for two months now. He has claimed three victims, all women, all killed by a maniac with inhuman strength and the skill of a surgeon. The victims were all found in lonely alleyways with the word “MOTHER” written on the wall in the victim's blood. Police believe that the victim was killed at another unknown place and carried here. This means that the murderer had to carry the victim's blood in a receptacle of some kind, as the victim's blood wouldn't be suitable for painting purposes.

The word was written differently at each site. At the first the M was emphasised over the other the letters, at the second the “O” was emphasised and at the third the “T”. This has led the police (and the press) to believe that the Ripper hasn't finished yet…

Meanwhile, Shih Yet Kwai (translation: beautiful as a rose), is wandering the streets after witnessing her uncle being murdered by thugs from the Jade Imperial Society (a Triad organisation) as they took over his business, the Kowloon House of Books. She immediately went to the police, where a large man who never told her his name questioned her. He only seemed interested in her uncle's business, he only paid lip service to the fact that her uncle was murdered. Something about this man seriously scared Shih and she left there as soon as she could, only to be chased by two men. She lost them in the maze of alleyways that is Kowloon and was wandering the streets wondering what to do. It was then that the Kowloon Ripper struck for a fourth time, quickly stunning Shih with a blow to the head and then carrying her back to his lair. Is Shih Yet Kwai to be the Rippers fourth victim?

The House of Books is an unusual Feng Shui site (see below) that is of particular interest to the Eaters of the Lotus, for it is they who sent the triad punks. A site such as this would help their efforts in the Contemporary Juncture considerably. Unfortunately Shih Yet Kwai has also alerted the Ascended to her plight…

Why the heroes are hunting the Ripper

[This scenario is designed to be a beginning scenario for a group of heroes. What follows are the reasons I used to get them into the game. I suggest that you run each encounter until a main combat scene and then move on to the next character. That way you can run the combat as one huge combat, even though your combatants are in separate parts of the city. These are just examples and you can skip them completely or come up with your own.]

Ninja

[My Ninja character is a former member of the Fists of Corruption a Ninja Ryu that worships demons detailed later]

Sally Kwon, was a regular at the Jazz Club, where you play. Although, there was no romance between the two of you, there was a definite possibility of one. Any chance of this was destroyed when Sally became the Ripper's third victim. Since then, driven by revenge, you have used your skills to hunt this maniac down and end his reign of terror. Disturbingly, since you have been on the track of the Ripper your sleep has been haunted by a recurring dream. You see the Ripper, his face in shadow standing over Sally's body in the alleyway in which she was found. He is painting something on the wall, dipping his paintbrush into an exquisite Japanese bowl decorated with stylised cranes.

Suddenly, his face comes into the light. It is yours…

After several nights of hunting you have finally come up with a possible lead. It seems that a particular underworld information broker, Slick Mikey Shiu, has been trying to sell the location of the Kowloon Ripper for a couple of nights now. He hasn't approached the police yet, as “they don't pay enough.” Slick Mikey runs his “information brokerage service” out of a fortified apartment block near Kowloon airport. He is protected by his extended family of cousin's brothers and nephews. The Apartment is truly fortified but has one Achilles heel, the guards smoke cigarettes on the roof of the building. They feel no one can get to the roof of the building, as it is not overlooked by any other buildings…

An assualt on the apartment

On the roof are two of Mikey's goons they are armed with Norinco Type M1911 automatic pistols (10/3/7+1). If these two arent disposed of quickly, it is very possible that they may summon help. The Ninja will then have to sneak through the apartment building to find Slick Mikey and “coax” the information that he needs out of him. The Hero will encounter 2 seperate groups of 4 mooks each. These mooks will be armed with Norinco's unless an alert has been sounded, in which case one will be armed with a Winchester or a M3 SMG. One of these mooks must be taken prisoner to lead the Ninja to Slick Mikey. Obviously these mooks can be avoided by Intrusion roles and a description of how the player avoids them. Slick Mikey himself will be going over some information in his office guarded by 2 goons and his bodyguard Samo. Samo and the guards will leap to Mikey's defense in a fight that will stretch across Slick Mikey's oppulent office and out into the hall, throughout the fight Slick Mikey will watch the combat, stopping it when things start to get too serious. Slick Mikey will readily tell the PC the Kowloon Rippers location, a long closed school known as the Jeffrey Chow Elementary School. All he asks is that the PC return and tell him what happened.

Cool Things that can Happen

• Throughout the entire fight Slick Mikey will sit behind his mahogany desk only dodging direct attacks, but never making attacks himself.
• In the corner of the room stands a large bronze urn that contains the ashes of one of Slick Mikeys ancestors, a Mook can be knocked against this causing a deep bonging noise or it can be lifted and thrown (Str 10 needed to do this) for 15 damage.
• Large windows look down on the city, these are armoured and it is impossible to throw a character through them, although the Ninja will not know this.
• Ancestral swords are mounted on the walls, ready for someone to grab and use.

Magic Cop

Your superiors have assigned you to the Kowloon Ripper case, as there is believed to be a ritual element to the murders.Your investigation has led you to the alley where the first body was found. Your intention, is to attempt to raise the spirit of the third murder victim and question her. You have attempted this at the other sites, but you sensed something powerful on the Other Side blocking you. The alleyway itself is a dead end deep in the warehouse district of Kowloon. Chalk outlines show where the corpse had been dumped, and the word MOTHER is still visible on the wall protected from the falling rain by plastic sheeting.

Once the summoning is attempted (automatic success) the air in front of the end wall appears to ripple once, as if a pebble had been dropped into a pool. The character will nearly be deafened by the sound of a woman screaming. The form of a woman will appear. She is pale and bears the horrible wounds that were inflicted upon her earthly form. Conduct the conversation however you wish, but she must say the following; “Help Me!!” “It's Comming For Me!” “Kill it!” “It is at the Jeffrey Chow School!” “Kill it and Save my Soul.” “Remember my Name — Sally Kwon.”

Suddenly two shadowy talons grasp the shade from behind and literally tear her to pieces. Each part of her torn body blasts a hole in reality leaving a throbbing bleeding void. Through each of these holes steps six strange shadowy Demons, their twisted limbs ending in wicked talons. Strangely each demon is wearing modern day clothes. The Demons attack…

Cool Things That Could Happen

• Remember the plastic on the wall? One of the demons can use this to wrap around the characters head, attempting to asyphixiate him (drowning rules).
• When the demons are killed, or exorcised, they transform back into normal businessmen and housewifes.

Gambler and the Transformed Rat

The Gambler is on the run from his debtors. Sammy Chung of the Jade Imperial Society Triad has waited long enough for the Gambler to deliver his left thumb and has sent some of his soldiers to collect. The chase has led him to outside an old abandoned school where he hopes to find a place to hide. The Gambler will stumble across the slumbering body of the Rat, and the resulting clatter will alert the mooks outside where the heroes are. Give the characters a couple of minutes too introduce themselves, and then the mooks attack. Both characters will have to fight for their lives…

Cool Things That Could Happen

• There is an awful lot of debris around here that can be used as weapons or cover.
• One of the walls that seperates the classrooms is so rotten that bullets can pass straight through it.
• At some point in the fight a shadowy figure will descend from the rafters and dispatch a mook.

The rest of the heroes will arrive once this fight is over. They will then need to track the Kowloon Ripper down.

Tracking the Ripper

The Ripper will use the school location fully. He knows it very well and uses many of the impromptu weapons that are scattered around the building. He will also make full use of his Prodigous Leap and Fox's Retreats Schticks. Make this combat very fluid by moving it from room to room.

Cool Things That Could Happen

• There should be a lot of sneaking around, with the Kowloon Ripper attacking out of the darkness and then disapearing again.
• One of the heroes should find Shih Yet Kwai trussed up and hanging in the girls shower block, her sobbing will attract his attention.
• The floor on one of the upper levels could give way, dropping the character through (15 Dam). If the hero catches himself he is, of course, very vulnerable to attack.
• A character should be knocked through a rotten wall.
• A character could fling desktops like giant frisbees.
• The Ripper could pick up a a weightlifting bar and use it like a quarter staff from the gym (Dam Str +5). Don't forget javelins and shotputs.

If the Kowloon Ripper escapes he can become a real thorn in the heroes' side as he plys his trade in the streets of Kowloon. Whatever the outcome, the heroes should rescue Shih Yet Kwai, who is in a state of great shock. She will explain her predicament, and if the heroes are worth their salt they will rush straight over to the House of Books to forcibly evict the Triad thugs.

Fight in the House of Books

The House of Books will be occupied by Sammy Chung and 10 mooks. Sammy Chung will not Transform, and should escape. The mooks will be taking notes on the contents of the shelves, while Sammy is busy ransacking the the living quarters on the third floor. The body of Shih's uncle has been dumped unceremoniously in a corner.

Cool Things to do in The House of Books (in all the fights)

[Thanks to David Eber, for his Library Fight Location entry which I have heavily stolen from, and only slightly modified.]

• The House of Books is full of shelves, which in turn are full of books. Shelves range from the 48" high reference stacks to the larger units which range over 6 feet tall. Naturally, shelves make good cover, as well as scenery that the characters can jump over, dive behind, leap onto, and so on. What make bookshelves even more interesting is the way in which they are arranged. Shelves are ranged in parallel rows, and you'll often find two units in a row with a gap between them. This can make for a cat-and-mouse chase between characters as they try to outmaneuver each other without really being able to see each other. Of course, characters could also knock each other into the shelves, or try to knock them on top of each other. Mind you, this isn't easy, as a shelf filled on both sides with books is very heavy and hard to move. You can also have characters fighting each other from opposite sides of a shelf. This can be John-Woo style, with characters on either side of the shelf shooting through the gaps as they move down their length, or this can be done with martial arts as well, as players throw kicks and punches through the shelves or even swordfight in this manner.
• Of course, the books themselves make excellent props, as they can be thrown and knocked around. Since there are so many of them in one place, you can have some spectacular crashes as someone gets thrown into a shelf and the books come crashing down. Books are extremely flammable, so anything from a grenade to a blast spell can quickly turn the bookshop into a raging inferno, and the only thing better than books being thrown around are flaming books being thrown around. Also, when books get shot it tends to scatter debris everywhere, especially if it's a shotgun blast. Since the books are on the shelves, characters may be fooled into treating them like cover. A heavy caliber load will go right through them and hit whoever's behind them. And finally, heavy reference books can be used as improvised weapons in their own right.
• The various counters and reading desks be used as cover, including the classic move in which a mook is dragged or slid headfirst down the length of a counter top.
• You'll also find a lot of book trucks (i.e. carts). A character can jump on one and then cap mooks as he speeds along the floor. If it's loaded with books, it can be slammed into an onrushing gang of attackers, scattering them like marbles. Even better, it can be set ablaze or rigged with explosives, turning it into a deadly weapon.

Soon after the heroes have retaken the House of Books the Ascended will make their move. They are aware that The Triad members have been evicted and will send an undercover team disguised as University students led by Nicola “Doc” Westermaine, a Transformed Rabbit, to discern the affiliations and power of the heroes. Her orders are too just scout the site out and only enter into combat if it is totally unavoidable.

The House of Books is a site of relatively weak (if intriguing) power, and the Ascended were content to let it remain in independent hands for the time being. They could of course still make use of its powers through its mail order service.

Cool Things that can Happen (see standard list, for other ideas)

• The weapons that the enforcers are packing should be spotted by a character
• Doc and a martial arts character could have a battle on top of the bookcases, leaping from one to the other.

The Finale

The Lotus do not take defeat lightly and will make a concerted effort to get the site back. Sammy Chung will lead his troops in a direct assualt on the front of the building while Mak Siu-Chang will fly his White Disciples through the second floor window and summon summon a Paper Elemental (from the remains of books of course).

Cool Things that can Happen (see standard list, for other ideas)

• The mooks will arrive in the back of a container truck that backs into the alley and unleashes the goons
• Each squad will consist of 3 pistol packers a shotgun and an Uzi.
• The front windows should get shattered by a hail of shotgun blasts.
• The characters can use the maze of bookshelves to confuse the attackers.
• Sammy Chung should transform at a suitably dramatic moment.
• Once he transforms again, his tentacle should smash through a bookcase and attack a character at a distance.
• Mak Siu-Chang will use the distraction of the battle to fly up too the second floor and start summoning a Paper Elemental. (Per 11 too hear him doing it).
• Mak Siu-Chang will hurl flaming books at his enemies (blast Schtick).
• If things get a bit grim for Mak Siu-Chang he will use his Fire blast to cause an inferno and destroy the site.

Aftermath

Of course it is possible that the Ascended will decide to take the site after all, especially if Doc was attacked. The battles here will attract the attention of Kar Fai who will explain a few things to them… but all this is something for future episodes.

Slick Mikey Shuis' Information Brokerage

The Murder Site

The Lair of the Beast

The Ascended

Eaters of the Lotus

Kowloon's House of Books, Feng Shui Site

This site is a second hand book shop that can be found in a dark and dirty side street in Kowloon. The House of Books prides itself on keeping almost every copy of any book that it's customers need, and it does a roaring trade in the mail order market. The building itself is three stories high, with cramped living quarters on the third floor. The first and second floor are filled with rows and stacks of books in a chaotic mess that is somehow very pleasing to a bibliophiles' eye.

Benefits

Apart from the usual benefits of a Feng Shui site, Kowloon's House of Books also seems to have a book on any subject the reader may wish. In Game Terms, if a character wants to know something that may be contained in a book, then he may make a Chi roll (Diff : 10) to find that info. Spending a Fortune point forgoes the need to roll the dice. Of course, if the GM doesn't want you to know something, there is no way you're gonna find it in a book. You'll just have to beat the info out of someone.

The Fists of Corruption

This group is a Ninja Ryu that worships a Demonic entity, The Mother of Corruption (a Shadowfist card that I've heard about but never seen. seriously cool name though) (It looks like a big blue-skinned blob with tow horns, three eyes, wild orange hair, huge teeth, and a long, slimy black tongue — Dave). Although the Mother can manifest herself in her followers (Creature Schticks), She can not appear on the Earth until the items that led to Her downfall in the ancient past are sacrificed in a special ceremony in their hidden temple. These items were:

• The Sword that slew Her Earthly body — Heavens Barb.
• The Shield that protected Her slayer from Her withering attacks — Heavens Breath.
• The blood of her slayer, Cheng De-shi (a man of virtue)

The Fists have an unholy scripture known as the Prophecies of the Worm that predict “The Mother of Corruption will be summoned in the final days before The Auspicious Year of the Dragon, and cities will fall and Blood will flow like a River”. The Scholars of the Brotherhood (scholarly, slavering, zeolous, demon tainted minions of darkness) have read this to mean in the last few years before the New Millenium.

The Brotherhood already have recovered Heavens Breath from the tomb of one of Saladin's Knights.

The location of of Heavens Barb: Does one of your characters have a signature sword? Yes? There you go then. If not, wait, be patient, wave a way cool sword in your martial artist/old master/ninja's face. It'll happen.

Cheng De-shi slew The Mother of Corruption in 64 AD and finally died in in 81 AD, fortunatley for him, the Fists of corruption have not discovered the Netherworld yet, but in the pursuit of your heroes and Heavens Barb, they won't stay ignorant for long

A Final Note

The Prophecy states that they need Cheng's blood, but not how much. Will the blood on the blade of a weapon be sufficient? Imagine the slapstick battle as the Dragons attempt to stop Cheng from even taking a scratch by interposing themselves between Cheng and the Fist's weapons.

All content copyright ©1997-2004 by David Eber, unless stated otherwise. (Read the legal fine print.)

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