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TABLE of CONTENTS BACKGROUND 2 Tracking Down the Lost Hot Water Springs TABLE OF CONTENTS BACKGROUND 2 Tracking down the lost hot water springs......................... 10 Recent events ....................................................................... 2 ENDING THE SCENARIO ..................................................... 11 THE INVESTIGATORS ........................................................... 3 Blowing up the statue ......................................................... 11 Using the Romanian Contract as part of a campaign......... 3 Renegotiating the pact ........................................................ 11 DRAMATIS PERSONAE 3 Making a stand.................................................................... 11 Count Stefan Gabor ............................................................. 3 Escape ................................................................................. 12 Rozalia Gabor ....................................................................... 4 CONCLUSION ........................................................................ 12 LOCATION 4 Rewards ............................................................................... 12 EXPLORING THE VALLEY .................................................... 4 NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS AND MONSTERS 12 Vascre village ....................................................................... 5 Servants ............................................................................... 13 The Hotel site ....................................................................... 5 Villagers............................................................................... 13 The Cave ............................................................................... 5 The Strigoi .......................................................................... 13 EXPLORING THE CASTLE .................................................... 5 PREGENERATED INVESTIGATORS 13 Main building ....................................................................... 6 BOOKER / BRENDA CLARK ................................................ 14 The Tower ............................................................................ 7 EMERSON / EDITH WILLIAMS .......................................... 15 Courtyard ............................................................................. 7 DWIGHT / DOROTHY WEATHERFORD ............................ 16 Basement & ramparts .......................................................... 8 MILTON / MEREDITH ROBERTS ....................................... 17 RUNNING THE SCENARIO 8 BARNETT / BLANCHE ELLIS ..............................................18 STARTING THE SCENARIO .................................................. 8 HANDOUTS 19 Dead horses .......................................................................... 9 A tour of Castle Orlat ........................................................... 9 THE JOB .................................................................................. 9 Surveying and buying land .................................................. 9 Location scouting ................................................................. 9 Tunneling ........................................................................... 10 Sample file 1 THE ROMANIAN CONTRACT Building a hotel in the Carpathian Mountains turns up secrets both recent and ancient. This scenario takes place in a remote Romanian castle in the silver bullets (the silver is harmless to ghouls, but bullets are 1920s. Accommodating five players, it can be played in one or not). The Count fortified himself inside his castle, but the two sessions. The investigators are a British survey team ghouls, sensing danger, attacked the nearby village of Vascre location scouting for the construction of a grand hotel. While instead. Many were killed in what came to be known as the conducting their work, they will come upon old secrets and werewolf plague of 1844, the Count had to finally give in, his discover that there is some truth to ancient folklore. rebellion a failure. Investigators will be guests to an enigmatic Hungarian count, The Gabor line declined after that - the current count has no while staying in an old and empty castle in a remote mountain more living relatives, his wife died in childbirth, leaving him and valley in the Carpathians. The valley is plagued by the strigoi of the child, Rozalia Gabor, last of the family. The current count Romanian folklore. Players expecting to face a vampire are in for Stefan Gabor does not intend to honor the pact and let his only a surprise though, because the strigoi are actually Lovecraftian child be taken by monsters. Fighting the creatures seemed ghouls, who have struck a deal with the count's family. A deal hopeless, yet there might be other ways, Count Gabor learned the count is reneging on, bringing the wrath of the strigoi upon magic, seeking answers in the ancient occult arts, but to no avail. them all. As Rozalia's birthday approached he was ready for desperate In this scenario the investigators must work on their job measures. during the day, their tasks will inevitably lead to discovering more about the valley and the monstrous creatures. Each night Recent events ghouls will be stalking the investigators, first subtly observing Count Gabor hired two British engineers to build an elevator them, but growing more aggressive over the course of the into the main building of Castle Orlat. He claimed the reason scenario. Investigators will have to unravel the secrets of this was to make the castle more modern and habitable, but he strange land before they fall victim to them. actually had far more sinister intentions. He needed foreigners The Keeper will have plenty of opportunity to slowly ratchet from far away, so that nobody would come to investigate their up the tension as the monsters’ tactics evolve. The ghouls are disappearance. cunning foes, they know that humans can be dangerous to them, Count Gabor summoned a strigoi and offered it the two Brits they will want to scare off meddling investigators, but are wise in exchange for his daughter. The beast did not answer, but enough to avoid killing them outright, because they know that Count Gabor was convinced from the look in its eyes, that it had dead humans attract other humans. Over the course of the understood. Both Brits were housed in the first bedroom, where scenario the strigoi go from being occasionally spotted by a secret passage in the wall allows strigoi to enter the room. One investigators, to chasing and attacking them, to finally all out night the Brits were taken by the monsters, never to be seen fighting persistent investigators. The ghouls are dangerous, but again. But it was not enough to satisfy them, still they creeped they are not invincible - resourceful investigators might find a near the castle, an ever-present reminder of Rozalia's upcoming way to turn the tables. sixteenth birthday. Rozalia was shocked when she learned the truth about what happened to the two kind gentlemen. She became despaired BACKGROUND when the strigoi did not relent to their demands on her life. She would not permit anybody else to be sacrificed in vain, she would In 1677 a tribe of ghouls moved into a mountain valley near willingly accept her fate to save others. Count Gabor would have Castle Orlat in the Carpathians. This spelled doom for the local none of this and locked her up in the dungeon - better alive and population. imprisoned, than fed to the monsters. The local count was overwhelmed by the apparent scourge of The Count took it upon himself to secure the castle against the devils who had seemingly come straight from hell to punish his monsters. He had all entrances to the basement sealed, so that domain. In a last act of desperation, the count decided to make the strigoi could not reach the dungeon cell holding Rozalia. The a literal deal with the devil - he summoned the monsters and elevator remained the only way to access the basement. offered them a peace treaty. Surprisingly, the ghouls accepted, Unknown to the Count the strigoi have been digging tunnels promising to leave the humans alone, but demanded the counts that allow them to get inside the castle's outer walls and they first born as a ward. Broken heartedly the count agreed. From have recently broken through into the basement. It is only a this day forward each successive generation of the noble house matter of time until they find a way to breach Rozalia's prison. of Gabor has had to give up their first born to the ghouls on the The Count has heard them move inside the walls at night, unsure child's sixteenth birthday. A secret practice that keeps everyone if what he heard was real or his own nightmares. in the valley safe. Luck finally shined on the Count when a faraway company The creatures passed from recent memory and lived on in inquired about building a grand hotel on his lands. He folklore as strigoi, a name by which they are still known by immediately agreed and is now eagerly awaiting the survey today. Throughout the centuries they mostly kept the pact and team. Meanwhile the strigoi are getting more impatient, were onlySample rarely seen by humans other than the Gabor family. running around in the castle's secretfile tunnels, scratching inside In 1844 Count Andre Gabor refused to give up his beloved the walls and spying from the thick woods of the valley. The child and thought to fight the creatures instead. He personally investigators are the last chance for the house of Gabor. shot and killed one of the beasts using a revolver loaded with 2
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