Adventure – Tales of Red Veil

(WORk IN PROGRESS! NOT COMPLETE!)

Introduction

This is an introductory adventure to teach players and the Game Master the basics of 99 Towers. It in intended to be a gradual walk through of the mechanics of the game. It should only be read by the Game Master.

The adventure begins as the player characters are asked to track down a missing wagon that left the city of Hickory but never arrived in Red Veil, a journey of about 30 miles over some rough roads that don’t see a lot of traffic. The adventurers will head south along the road from Hickory to Red Veil and run into trouble with a strange bandit ambush.

This adventure assumes the players are a band of adventuring spirits relatively new to the Far West. They get by doing odd jobs such as escorting wagons, some guard duty, and the like.

From there, if they survive, they’ll head to Red Veil where more mysteries await.

The Story Hook

The Game Master should read this aloud to the players:

 

 

In the Far West city of Hickory, a merchant by the name of Barthrus Stern has hired you to bring a wagonload of provisions to a small town called Red Veil, about 30ish miles away over some pretty rough roads. Barthrus is a gregarious man, late 50s, balding, with a massive black and gray beard that he’s quite proud of. He and his two younger brothers (Darius and Ibrim) have their fingers into a little bit of everything around this area of the Far West, but they mostly focus on shipping goods overland via a small fleet of wagons.

You’ve worked with Barthrus before, mostly doing some escort work. After the Breach took place in late 868 A.E., things got a lot more dangerous in the Far West. There’s a lot more banditry going on, more wild animal attacks, and rumors of a lot worse. You know that the militaries of the Six have sent forces out beyond where the Wall once stood, and you’ve heard that many of those men and women don’t return. People are getting scared and starting to leave the Far West.

(As a side-note, this game takes place early in the year 870, just before Major Rogers Pembrose leads his doomed expedition to the first tower). 

When Barthrus contacted you to hire you for another escort job, he was even more excited than usual. He and his brothers had “found something big”, but he wouldn’t give you any details. Whatever it was, Stern wanted to take two wagons of supplies down to Red Veil and he was in a hurry. He’s taking a smaller wagon pulled by an old draft horse. You’re being hired to drive and escort a second, larger wagon pulled by a pair of mules. You’ll take the goods to the Blackstone General Supply store, meet him there, and get paid.

As soon as the first wagon was fully loaded, he left ahead of you with a single bodyguard, an experienced ex-military soldier named Vivian Chase.

You had to wait a few hours before your wagon was fully loaded with provisions and mining supplies and then you set out after him.

The distance is around 30 miles, but because they are on a wagon, the pace will be “Slow”, which is 18 miles a day. The plan is to get about 12 miles down the road today and finish the journey by tomorrow night. Because of the head start and slightly faster speed, Barthrus will get there tomorrow afternoon.

 

 

If the PCs have any questions or any other business they need to take care of in town, they have a window of a few hours while the second wagon is loaded.

Horses aren’t common in the West. The PCs will be in a wagon pulled by a mule. Someone can drive the cart, another person can ride shotgun, but the rest of the party is going to have to walk. There will be a need for camping one night along the road.

Now let the players do introductions if they haven’t.

Figure out who is driving the wagon (probably the best Animal Handling, although it’s not necessary) and how the rest of the players will be traveling. Two mules pull the wagon. If no one is holding the reins, the mules stop where they are.

The wagon is packed full of an assortment of mining supplies and food. This includes a dozen sacks of flour, several casks of salted pork, two kegs of strong beer, shovels, picks, and crowbars (about a dozen each), and five lanterns with a small barrel of oil (about fifty flasks in volume). The total value of the cargo is around $100.

The Ambush

The PCs will get ambushed along the way because of course the PCs will get ambushed.

Read the following:

 

 

You start your journey and it’s uneventful. Just a boring walk down a rough dirt road. The mules aren’t fast and there’s nothing you’re going to be able to do to speed them up. 

It gets to be early evening and you find a good place to camp. Are you going to build a campfire? Set a watch?

 

 

Nothing happens overnight, but it’s a good chance to learn how skill checks work. Choose someone who is on watch around midnight and have them make an Average difficulty Notice [SP] unopposed skill flip.

The Difficulty Target Number (DTN) for an Average check is 12. The Notice skill is based on Substantial Perception. It is night, so there is a (flip-1) penalty based on circumstances. If the character has a skill specialization in Patrol/Guard, they get an extra card in the flip.

The player character making the check will flip a number of cards equal to their rank in the Notice [SP] skill. They will use the high card and add the value of their Substantial Perception aspect to it. If the total value is 12 or more, they succeed. They hear rustling in the woods but determine it is caused by small animals, etc. If the total is less than 12, the result can depend on the magnitude of the failure. They may misidentify the source as a larger animal creeping up on them and be alarmed, or if they fail by a large amount they may be so alarmed they feel like they’re being ambushed. and need to wake the party.

The next day, whoever is in the lead of the party needs to make a Notice [SP] check. It’s mid-day and there’s plenty of light, so there’s no conditional penalties to the check. The DTN is again Average (12+).

Regardless of the outcome, read the following:

 

 

You’ve been on the trail for about half of the day on day two. It’s a little after noon when you come around a bend in the road and see a broken wagon and a dead horse. It’s Barthrus’s wagon, but he’s no where to be seen. Neither is the bodyguard, Vivian Chase.

 

 

The player (or other players, if he calls for assistance) can make an Investigation flip at a distance. Investigation is associated with Acquired Intellect [AI]. Either the Forensic or Deduction specialization is applicable here. There will be a (flip-1) penalty due to the distance from the broken wagon. The DTN is Hard (15+).

Note: In the future, skill checks and the relevant specialization will be shown as Difficulty (DTN) Skill (sp: Specialization). For example: Hard (15+) Investigation (sp: Forensic, Deduction).

If a player succeeds at the check, they can determine the horse was shot and injured, panicked, ran off the road and then fell, breaking it’s neck. The wagon’s axle snapped at some point, spilling the goods all over the ground.

At this point, the players will be ambushed by bandits hiding in the woods. They have a chance to notice their attackers. Everyone can make an Average (12+) Notice [SP] check. If the person who was leading the party made their Notice [SP] before spotting the wagon, the players can gain a (shift+1) bonus from being alert.

The bandits are minions and will fight to the death. They will not surrender or speak to the party.

Tracking Through the Woods

In the unlikely event that the PCs are defeated, they’ll be left unconscious and the bandits will leave for NO GOOD REASON. The characters can continue on as normal.

Otherwise, there is a very obvious trail leading west into the forest. Behind some thickets along the west side of the road, there’s a path that’s seen recent activity. An Easy (9+) Survival (sp: Tracking) check will allow a player to estimate that about a half a dozen men went north. It seems like they were dragging at least one body.

The party can easily steer their wagon away from the road and tie off the mules while the group pursues the bandits. The trail leads two miles west and ends at an abandoned farmstead that’s been taken over by the bandits. Ask the players the marching order.

There are two traps:

SNARE TRAP

About 15 minutes after heading down the trail, there’s a hidden snare. If the players declare they are taking it slow and being careful, an Easy (9+) passive Notice [SP] check will spot the trap. See Chapter 8: Skills – Taking a 7 / Passive Checks for details on how passive checks work.

Otherwise, at the last second, the lead character can attempt to succeed at an Average (12+) Notice [SP] check to notice the trap before tripping it. 

If the trap is triggered, the player can avoid the damage by succeeding at an Average (12+) Soft Strength aspect check. On a failure, the trap is triggered and the player is suspended 10 feet above the ground, hanging from a rope wrapped around a foot. The character will take trap damage equal to 5 STUN plus Damage Flip 3. See Chapter 16: Adventuring – Traps and Hazards for details.

He’ll stay restrained until he’s cut down. If he’s not carefully lowered down, he’ll take another 5 STUN plus Damage Flip 3 damage.

PIT TRAP

Another hour down the trail, there’s a small camouflaged pit trap. The pit is 6 feet wide, two feet deep, and filled with sharpened spikes that can pierce a shoe or boot. This time, to passively spot the trap the lead character will need an Average (12+) passive Notice [SP] check to see the trap before someone steps in it. 

Otherwise, he can make an avoidance check just before stepping into it. An Average (12+) Notice [SP] check will prevent damage from the trap.

The Hideout

Summary

The Hideout is located in an abandoned farmstead. It starts to rain just as the player characters arrive. The bandits are members of the Hollow Men, a large bandit organization that stays mostly to the shadows. Two bandits and three devil dogs are on the porch when the PCs arrive. Another two bandits are in the barn and will join the fight if they are alerted with gunfire or dogs barking.

There’s another two bandits and a bandit captain in the basement, along with Vivian Chase, who’s being interrogated. Barthrus has already been taken someplace else.

The captain of the bandits is Barron Klarksson, a vicious bully. He’s downstairs interrogating Vivian Chase to find out what she knows (and the answer is very little – she seems like she’s just a hired gun). A few days ago, Barron received some orders from the leader of the Hollow Men to be on the lookout for Barthrus Stern or his brothers and capture them alive.

Details

Read the following:

 

The trail twists and turns until it meets up with an old road. That road proceeds through a patch of woods and into a clearing where someone has built a farmstead. It’s an unusual location, but it’s close enough to both Red Veil and Hickory to be both somewhat isolated but still within range of civilization.

 

 

The party can stand a bit away in the woods and make Notice [SP] checks with a (flip-1) penalty due to the rain.

On a success, read:

 

 

 

The farmhouse looks like it’s not been taken care of. Shutters bang open and shut in the wind. The front door is ajar. The barn and house both are missing sections of the roofs. The fields look like they haven’t been tended this season and are mostly weeds.

On the porch, there’s two more of the bandits you saw back at the ambush site, along with three very strange looking dogs. Maybe it’s just a visual trick because of the rain, but the three dogs appear identical, with pitch black fur that looks thick and oily. They’re big dogs too. The bandits aren’t paying a lot of attention, but the dogs are.

 

 

Once the bandits are defeated, the players find out that Barthrus isn’t here. Additional information the players can find out is based on the how the combats ended. If the PCs rescue Vivian Chase, she will remain with the party but wants to get to Red Veil as soon as possible. Her weapons and armor have been taken from her, but she can pick up something.

What Vivian Knows

If the party manages to save Vivian and heal her back to consciousness, she is able to provide useful information:

  • The three Stern brothers (Barthrus, Darius, and Ibrim) recently located an entrance to some hidden cave complex. Apparently they thought they struck it rich.
  • Barron admitted he had orders to specifically attack the Stern brothers. He wasn’t the overall leader of this gang. Just a lieutenant of some importance.
  • Barthrus had a map showing the location of the cave, but the bandits took it when they captured him.
  • Vivian doesn’t know where Barthrus was taken. Someone in Red Veil might know, if this gang has been causing problems locally.
  • Vivian has a friend in Red Veil, Ian Stone, an agent of the Port Trask military intelligence bureau (the so-called Silent Saints). Vivian talked to him briefly when he passed through Hickory three months ago. He was going to discreetly look into something strange going on, but didn’t give Vivian any details. Vivian hasn’t heard anything more from him.

What the Bandits Know

It’s possible one or more of the bandits gets captured. They will lie as much as they possibly can, out of fear of the leader of the Hollow Men.

  • The main hideout is someplace in the Hallow Woods.
  • Barron Klarksson (the bandit captain) was the leader of this group of bandits. He’s a bully and a thug and treats his men like crap.
  • The gang is called the Hollow Men (not Hallow, like the woods they live in).
  • Barron has been operating around this area for a while, mostly looking for victims on the road from either Hickory to Final Step or Hickory to Selda, but recently there’s been a lot more military traffic on the road to Final Step, so that area has been avoided lately.
  • The bandits did ambush Barthrus. Barron sent Barthrus along with a few men back to the main hideout, per his orders.
  • Barron doesn’t know what the leader of the Hollow Men wants with Barthrus, and he’s mad about it. That’s why he was interrogating Vivian so roughly.