Winged Heart of Darkness

Winged Heart of Darkness

    Alright I'll admit it. I hate writing down an adventure. In the sense of writing a module. It seems to railroady. No matter how well you know your players. They will always throw you a curve ball. So I tend to write an outline. Then I don't feel bad/unprepared went things goes in a direction I don't expect. I also tend to be a by the seat of my pants GM. So I write an outline. So I can rearrange, or go with new ideas. Yet hopefully keep the basics of the idea intact. Without railroading.
    So with that all said. This is adventure I've had rolling around in my head for a while. So I'm going to put it down here and hopefully you folks out there can use, and/or pick out bits and pieces.

The initial list:

Sky Pirates

Aircraft

Rocket Pack

Scientist

Jungle

Secrets

Secret Society

Asian

South America

For system I'm going to use and stat everything for OneDice Pulp

The basic outline:
The characters own and operate a cargo business. Typically flying around in their amphibious plane. I like the Grumman G-21 Goose. I think it screams pulp. But their are lots of other good choices. Hall PH-3, or Ford Trimotor fitted with floats are good options. Not that it really matters as it wont come into play in this adventure. But it can set up a mobile base/transport for future adventures. But one customer a Professor Gewehr operates a research facility deep in the south american jungle. The only way to get to the compound is by boat. As there is not enough space to land a plane. He pays very well for the supplies and equipment delivered. Not to mention is a very nice fellow, having made friends with the characters on their semi regular jaunts. Making the trip very worthwhile.
The boat named (Insert name of your choice, I like the "Amazon Queen") is 16 foot long and 5 foot wide. Built of riveted sheet iron. Powered by a small two cylinder, two stroke diesel. A wooden framework supports a canvas top.
The river is a murky, slow moving snake. Winding through the jungle. The canopy forming over the river like a tunnel. Plunging the jungle into a half twilight. With occasional patches of sunlight piercing the dense foliage. The heat is incredible, along with the intense humidity draining the body. Helping to give rise to the compost like decaying smell of the slightly stagnant river.
The trip up river to the compound will be very uneventful. When they arrive at the compound is when things are found askew. The compound consisting of several Nissen Huts, (Nissen Huts are prefabricated steel structures, made from a half-cylindrical skin of corrugated steel.) has been razed. Burnt, machine gunned, and cratered. It looks like a scene out of the Great War.
They will find Prof Gewehr dying. In his dying breaths he will say. "You müssen keep die Rakete's safe. Don't let El Cuchillo get it. Take this," hes says handing you gold signet ring. "Give it to Herr Ché, my assistant from die village, up river. He vill know I sent you. I had him hide die Rakete's. He vill take you to...." With that he passes away.
The ride upstream to the village will be more eventful. During the passage crocodiles will attack the boat. The crocs are a lot scarier than they really look. They will attack the boat. But are ineffective against the steel hull. But the players don't need to know that. they will only be a real danger if the players lean out of the boat. Or if they allow the a croc to climb on board. If they just try to motor away. The crocs will keep pace for a bit, and seem to disappear. But then they will come back to haunt them later. If they fight them off that will be the end of it.

Crocodile

S6 C1 Q3 H10 D8

Mv30 SKBite (Strong) 2 (DMG 3)

SP Swim/Hold Breath X100
# Appearing 1d6

  Carved out of the jungle, along the river side. The village is composed of many huts. Walls built of twig bundles, with thatch roofs. Floating above the village is a great zeppelin.

From a loud speaker it addresses the village.
"Give us Prof Gewehr, or Ché and we will spare the village. If not we will raze this shit hole to the ground! Give us what we want and we will spare you! We will even reward you!"
This message repeats in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and some unknown dialect. The zeppelin then slowly fly's away.
The characters now have some choices. How to go about finding Ché in the village. Will they sneak about? Walk right in? Will villagers run off to tell the sky pirates? Will the villagers try to capture Ché? Lots of thing can happen here. I leave that to you the GM.
Eventually the characters should find Ché. After seeing the signet ring, he will either tell the players where the Rackete is hidden or take them to it.
It requires a further trip up river. the characters will come to an ancient set of stone steps in the riverbank. These steps will lead into a maze of ruined stone building, vines and trees. Damp and shaded, plants and vermin have taken over this once large city. Now venturing into or on the out of the ruins, the characters should be attacked by a jaguar.

S3 C2 Q4 H9 D7

Mv40 SK Bite/Claw 2 (Strong) (DMG 2)

SP Swim X75

At the center of it all rising up out of the jungle is a step pyramid. At the top of the pyramid is an open doorway. Leading into a dark dusty compartment. It is here that the Rackete's are hidden. Big question, how many Rocket Packs are there? I'll leave this to the GM. Maybe just the one prototype. Or perhaps theirs enough for each character to have one. The GM should pick whats right for their game.

Rocket Pack: A strap-on device, with basic controls, that somehow allows the wearer to fly through the air at superfast speeds. Strangely, despite the small size of the tank, fuel never seems to be a problem. Flight is at Move 60, and uses Pilot (Quick) instead of Pilot (Clever).

(This Text is directly from the OneDice Pulp Book, used without permission. All rights to text belong to Cakebread & Walton)

    The characters now can make their way back down the river. If things have been real easy for them. This might be a good time to introduce them to some air pirates. Have one of the parasite fighters from the zeppelin strafe them.

Avro 504 (Zeppelin Parasite Bi-Plane Fighter)

S2 Q4 H10 D7 Mv120

Ca0 Cr1 Psg0

Machinegun DMG 6x3 Rng 400

    Regardless if this encounter happens or not. Once the characters reach Ché's village. They will find all hell breaking loose. The air pirates will have returned and are making good on their threat to raze the village. The Zeppelin is dropping bombs, and the parasite fighters (One or two depending on if the characters already encountered one) will be strafing the village. The characters will have to decide if they will fight, flee, sneak away, or what have you.

Zeppelin R.33 "The Black Cloud"

S3 Q2 H25 D7 Mv90

Ca30 tons Cr8 Psg10

Bombs DMG 1d6x2 (2 meter diameter)

The Zeppelin is only armed with bombs. But the crew will use their personal weapons on flying targets. Speaking of the crew, they are "normal" mooks for game purposes. The exception being El Cuchillo.

El Cuchillo

S 2, C 3, Q 2, H 6, D 6, Mv 20, Sp 6 Sk Bruiser (Strong) 1, Intimidate (Strong) 1, Shooting (Clever) 2, Blades (Strong) 2 X 40 Mauser C96 (Broomhandle Mauser): DMG 4, Rng 15

Machete: DMG 3

Well that's it. Hopefully you can use this, or steal from it for you own games. So start rolling those dice and punching bad guys in the face.