MacTime Trouble

By Thunk

This is a classic adventure featuring a partial shift, a trip to San Francisco 1850 and the attack of a Feng Shui site. You'll surely need adaptations to your campaign, so some elements are left asidel Fill them in as you please. The 69 AD sourcebook wasn't released at the time, so you'll find the Lotus politics for 1850 a bit different.

I used Jiang Biao and Cho Kui from “Pai Lai” in the “Marked for Death” book because my players held a grudge against them and I just love recurrent bad guys. Feel free to change this as it best suits you. You'll need a supernatural creature with the Corruption schtick, though, if you want to use the melodrama between two GMCs.

Backstory

1850 is one of the priority targets of Gao Zhang, especially the West Coast of the United States. Numerous Chinese immigrants reside there, and Hand members are reluctant to live in such a wild and chaotic country. In the past few months Lotus operatives have gained a great part of the areas Feng Shui. Acting without caution, Jiang Biao, the Lotus sorcerer in charge of the operation, hasn't been attentive to the possibility of a temporal shift that could reveal his presence to future junctures. The last site he took was a gold mine belonging to Colm McDonald, who had emigrated from Ireland with his two sons Liam and Sean after the Potato Famine. The McDonalds have been killed in the attack, and the problem is that Liam's great grandson: Ron McDonald would have founded the well-known fast-food chain. Normally, history would have patched this up, resulting in McGeralds or McSomething. However, because of all that Lotus-oriented Chi, we instead end up with an international chain of Chinese restaurants called Ming, with the same “M” logo, red-and-gold pagodas and a mandarin replacing the clown. They serve good Shantung food — spicy, with noodles, a few rice dishes, duck and chicken (the specialty: beggar's chicken cooked in clay).

The Ascended haven't noticed anything before the shift, busy as they were taking the Indian sites of the area. When the McDonalds disappear they are likely to send an investigation team, but this could take a few days asking for authorizations and stuff, so the PCs should have solved the problem by then, as usual.

The Jammers have learned about a Lotus operation (thanks to Netherworld contacts) and have begun a Blow Things Up campaign in the area. They have struck blindly, hitting mostly Hand interests through the Jade Fists organization (see below).

Hooks for Characters

The fun with shifts is that you can use PCs' acquaintances and warp them into something completely different. Here are some ideas I used:

• My players were living near the Eating Counter at the time, so they met a plump and bitter Carina Chen running the Ming restaurant alone in Temple Street. (Her father died of a heart attack couple of years ago).
• Some friend could work in the all-night Ming on Peking Road. Or the cop character could stop there for an early breakfast after a long stakeout.
• TV commercials about new toys in this week's Happy Mings.
• Try to put a lateral reincarnation of some lost/abducted character tied into one of the PCs' melodramatic hooks. Of course, he doesn't remember the PC. (That's how Egon, our Ex-Special Forces met his long lost buddy Charlie working as a cook in the former Counter.)

Note about the Shift

Normal people won't remember anything about McDonald. The Mings have always been here, and worse, people in Hong Kong have never seen a hamburger! All this should be strange enough to convince the heroes to do some library research.

Ming Corporation

The Ming Corporation can be traced back to the Mings of San Francisco who migrated in 1849 and opened their first restaurant in 1850. It worked out pretty well and his brothers and cousins opened other restaurants in the 1890s. It became a multinational company in 1954. If someone looks for the history of McDonald, he might find that the rest of a large Irish clan was obliterated in 1850 in San Francisco in some obscure fight over the possession of a mine.

Scene One: Trip to 1850

There's a gate to 1850's San Francisco in the vicinity of the Fire Pagoda. The PCs should find this by talking to the Prof or to some other Netherworld dweller. It is located in the entrance of a wine shop, in the town that surrounds the pagoda. The town is comprised of sandy streets, white and copper houses with flat roofs, and furtive people wearing jelabas and kefiehs to protect themselves from the artificial burning sky. Of course, the shop has had to close since customers who went to buy wine always ended up in a different juncture.

The portal leads to the basement of the Grey Raven Saloon. It's dark, damp, and it smells of alcohol. Piano music seems to come from upstairs. Just as someone manages to come up with some light, the door at the end of the stairs should open and a saloon girl holding a lantern will spot the heroes and begin to scream.

Scene Two: A Warm Welcome

This is just a small fight to reward your players for travelling to a distant time to help people they don't even know. Seeing Chinese people coming out of his cellar won't please Barney White and his customers. Don't forget the extreme racism of those days. A few remarks about yellow faces should spur your characters into action and lead to the good saloon brawl everyone enjoys.

Cool Things That Could Happen

• The mandatory mirror behind the bar. When it breaks, Barney moans with pain. There's a label on it: $175.
• There's a small stage with a mariachi band. They keep playing until someone crashes between them.
• When this happens, cancan dancers swarm from behind the curtains. Martial Arts AR of 10 to avoid being trampled and lose 5 shots.
• There are candles on the stage. “Hey Kwan! Your clothes are on fire!”
• Someone should get thrown through the window into the water trough.
• The player piano starts when you slam someone's face on it.
• Don't forget to swing on the wheel-shaped chandelier from the first floor's mezzanine.
• Two cowboys exit from the upstairs rooms, one hand grabbing their belts, the other holding a buffalo rifle. If they get shot, they fall through the balcony and onto the poker table, spilling silver dollars everywhere.
• Whiskey bottles break easily, and it's highly flammable, they say.
• The old Chinese man who cleans the floor could discreetly give a hand to the PCs by throwing soapy water under bad guys' feet.

First Contact

Once everyone has cooled down, the Chinese man introduces himself. His name is Weng Li-Kang , nicknamed Wayne by his boss. He doesn't put up with all these insults for no reason. His sifu has commanded him to watch the portal and this is the best way he's come up with. He asks the reason for the PCs presence and then offers to lead them to his master.

Scene Three: A Meeting with the Fists

The Jade Fists are a secret society founded by Ram Kuei-Ling to help his compatriots and preserve Chinese culture. There are chapters in others towns as well and it is still active in the contemporary juncture. The sect is loosley affiliated with the Golden Candle Society. Ram respects Confucian principles, but the fate of his people is foremost. He won't sacrifice his Fists against evil sorcerers, but he understands the power of Feng Shui. That's why he defends the sites he has acquired: for the future of his people.

Jade Fist Headquarters

I won't try to describe San Francisco 1850 since I'm not an historian and I've never been there. I imagine it like a mix between a Zorro movie and a post-modern western, with white haciendas covered with flowers, muddy streets, loud sailors and gold-prospectors from '49. And of course, no bridge. (It seems that we have lost the bridge, Mr. Mallory.)

The Jade Fists headquarters are in the newly founded Chinatown, in a partially burnt down hacienda converted to a dyeing workshop. The court is full of red and yellow cloth hanging on wire, with containers of precious dye and red handed workers. The PCs will be offered green tea in the hacienda's kitchen (big enough to be used as a living room by the family), and the old Ram will ask for explanations. He is very polite and listens with a smile. He doesn't understand the intricacies of time shifts (and why people enjoy eating meat in bread along with fried vegetables) but readily believes that the trouble in his juncture has produced consequences in the future. He doubts that the restaurant of his friend Ming has anything to do with it.

Once he is sure that the strangers are not enemies, he will explain the situation: The evil sorcerers have led several attacks on his people's power centers, and many have lost their lives defending them. Some have even been destroyed rather than taken, which proves the will of the Lotus to take over the area (That's Jammer work; since no one survived the bombings, no one knows they're involved). He didn't know that McDonald's mine was a Feng Shui site. He can show where it is located and, if the heroes make a good impression on him, lend them 10 of his warriors.

Lau, who has listened to the whole conversation, grows restless when the name of McDonald appears. He knows that the whole family lives near the mine and thinks about Chen. He will ask to lead the Fists, and his father will reluctantly agree (he's lost his only other son in a Lotus attack three weeks ago). If the PCs go by themselves, he'll follow them for a time and then ask to fight side-by-side with them.

Scene Four: Old MacDonald Had a Mine…

This is a one-day horseback journey into the hills. Lau will ask the PCs for tales of heroic fights and who the toughest villain they ever defeated was and similar stuff. He might even tell his sad story to someone he likes. On the way, the party could meet the mandatory mad prospector, willing to share his knowledge of the area and stories of strange things happening: graves robbed, screams in the wind, etc. “Tell ya, this canyon's haunted! Believe ol' Digger McGrady, he know these thangs! Nah come on Alice, dam' mule!”

The mine itself is at the bottom of a canyon. A sign says “McDonald mine. Trespassers will be dynamited. Pray for your soul before entering.” The name of McDonald is written over the name of the former owner: Dos Santos. There are two guards hiding in the entrance: skeletons of the Dos Santos brothers. They're a mess, because they died in a mining accident involving 15 pounds of dynamite. Lots of stuff to try on the skeletons here: picks, old crates, rope, rails (Big Bruiser special!).

There's a narrow corridor with rail tracks and a enough wagons to take everybody. OK, there are no real reasons to hop in and wheel down into a place filled with undead and sorcerers, but if your players are on the right mood, they won't think twice. (Mine didn't, anyway.) Feel free to spice up the descent with some obstacles and other skeletons (a lá Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom), but don't overdo it. The real fun is coming.

The Lotus Side

They know there's a Jammer team in the vicinity, and they are ready to rumble.

The Jammer Side

You bet they show up during the fight. They wouldn't miss the fun for all the nukes in the Pentagon! They use the Gatemaker to pop into some nearby cave then they rush into the melee with guns blazing and bombs ticking. (Yes, they are already triggered.) They just need some time to plant their satchels on the main pillars and then split.

The Demonic Cave

This is a very big place, with several entry tunnels of different sizes, most of them with railtracks which, by the way, go everywhere in the cave. They cross, go up and down even in the central pit — which is hundreds of feet deep. In the first half of the cave, there's mining equipment laid on the ground (some dynamite crates, oil lamps, picks, rope, wagons), and a wooden cage with 2 people in it.

These are Sean and Chen McDonald. They survived the attack and Cho Kui began the transformation. The process isn't complete yet, so there is hope. The fight around them should be enough to push them into blood lust. You can make the actual check (using their Will of 4 and a target number of 8), but it's probably best to assume they miss it and have Ram Lau try to free them. They attack him, but he can't fight back and has to be rescued without injuring Chen. Both she and her husband have Bod 5, Mnd 4, Ref 5 and Martial Arts 7.

Now for the bad guys: they're waiting in the second half of the cave, where there is an underground pool and a platform some 30ft above. A stream flows in the cave then down into the pit. Jiang has erected a tent on the platform — why forget about comforts? And 15 skeletons are defending it, along with Grey Skull. The eunuch is inside, waiting for the attackers to get into spell range. Cho Kui is hiding between the ceiling's stalactites with his friends. They will swoop on anyone in a perilous position — the pit is large and leaves little room to go to the second part of the cave. There are groups of skeletons hidden everywhere: in tunnels, in wagons, in the pool, between crates…

Ideally, the fight should happen this way:

• On sequence one, the PCs, should fight the mooks: attacks of demons, wagonloads of skeletons etc.
• Sequence two: Some heroes engage Jiang and his cohorts while the others go on with the mooks and Cho Kui. One of them should spot Lau in trouble. There's a flash of white light in one of the tunnels.
• Sequence three: “Blow things up!” Entrance of the Jammers. Confusion. Chaos. What the heck's goin' on in here?
• Sequence Four and five: Everyone can choose his opponent. The Jammers aren't too picky with their targets.
• Sequence six: Boom! They have seen the detonators ticking (with the remaining time), so if they're still in there, I guess they won't have to dig a grave. If someone stayed for a veeery good reason — such as saving Chen or Lau, — give them a chance.

Cool Things That Could Happen

• The Roller Coaster of Death: get chased by some skeletons in a wagon. Shoot a lever to send them into the pit, avoid a collision when the tracks cross (that would be martial arts AR of 10 or being ejected for 18 damage), both wagons side-by-side on different tracks: you can jump into the other, avoid obstacles between the wagons while trading blows.
• The wagon goes down the pit, spiraling along the steep walls, and the tracks go straight under the waterfall: Martial Arts AR of 8 or falling for 40 damage. Plus you have to find a way to go back up.
• Someone could be thrown into a wagon and sent to his doom into a tunnel… and come back through another tunnel on the next sequence.
• If one PC can fly there's a dogfight waiting for him between the stalactites. Cho Kui's favorite sport. Crashing is a 20 damage for you, Superman.
• A falling stalactite is a 15 damage.
• The Jammers can adjust their detonators to explode on impact: martial arts 10 to avoid being caught in the explosion (damage 25) and another check to dodge the falling rocks (damage 12)

Counting the Score

The players win if Sean is still alive (Ram Kuei-Ling knows a way to heal the corruption). Ronald McDonald is back (don't ask him for a reward, though). If Sean died, there will be another fast-food chain with a different name. If the mine is destroyed, the Jammers won't take offense — as long as Buck wasn't killed. If it's still there, it depends on who owns it. If your PCs managed to push back/kill both the Jammers and the Lotus, congratulations (defusing 20 bombs is tough).The Jade Fists will take the site to protect it from the others (They always say that), but if Jiang has held his ground, you'll have to come back another day. And the place will be crawling with horrors. Good luck, pals. The Fists will be very grateful for the help, but their trouble isn't over. The war for their sites will continue, and they might send for help in the future.

When I ran this adventure, my players had a very hard time. That was the idea, of course, but some of them saw death very close that day. That's why I removed Black Anaconda, a powerful martial artist from the Lotus gang. You know your PCs and should balance the opposition to make them break a sweat.

The End?

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

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