All of the characters are Soldiers of God, from the list provided by Tim (who is in charge today). The characters include:
Character |
Player |
Description |
|---|---|---|
| Billy Simm | Nick | California "Good Ol' Boy" Televangelist |
| Jimmy Sullivan | Bruce | Thug of God |
| Maurice Salizar | Chris K | Aging Latino Gangster |
| Gunter | Chris C. | Old Veteran of the War |
| Det. Jason Malone | Russel | Corrupted Cop Desperate for Redemption |
| Laura Limmerman | Angel | Daughter of a Soldier |
The characters, in addition to the equipment listed on their character sheets, may all (at their option) be equipped with assault rifles, kevlar vests, and whatever melee weapons they desire (baseball bats, swords, etc.) For his part, Jimmy is happy to accept a kevlar vest, but considers firearms as good only for wimps. He also makes a point to carry a pair of brass knuckles and steel-toed boots.
Weapon |
Power |
Acc |
Range |
Shots |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assault Rifle | +4 (+8) | - | 80 | 30 (5) | Range Weapons |
| Punch | -3 | 0 | - | - | Fighting/4, Strength/9 or wpn each add +1 power |
| Kick | -2 | -1 | - | - | Fighting/4, Strength/9 or wpn each add +1 power |
| Club | +1 | -1 | - | - | Small Weapon skill |
| Short Sword | +2 | 0 | - | - | Small Weapon skill |
| Long Sword | +4 | 0 | - | - | Large Weapon skill |
The characters are all bound to California City, a small city on the edge of the Mojave Desert. They have been sent there by their respective Superiors to investigate a recent disturbance in the Symphony that appears to have originated in California City.
The characters' convoy consists of three cars. Maurice, Detective Malone and Jimmy drive in the first sedan; Laura and Gunther drive in Laura's sport-utility vehicle; and Billy drives alone in his pickup truck.
During the journey, Gunther tries to use his powers to hear the Symphony to learn more about the nature of the disturbance. He knows that a number of Demon Princes and their minions are often unsubtle about operating within the Symphony, but none of them typically create such large disturbances.
A small town with two or three roads leading into it. It doesn't seem to be able to decide if it wants to be in the mountains or in the desert. It is most known for being near the route from LA to Las Vegas.
The road into town is distinguished by two circles of palm trees, one on either side of the road. Strange metal ornaments and medallions are attached to the trees.
Jimmy stops in a Kwik-E-Mart along the highway to learn if anything strange has been happening. He finds that the talk of the town is the events at the Mugulan Ranch, out of the north side of town. Several days ago, a large plume of smoke rose from the ranch. The police were called, and within hours the place was sealed off, with police lines and everything. The clerk comments that the folks at the Mugulan Ranch were really good mechanics: after the Feds bought out half their land, they really couldn't make much of a go at ranching, so they turned the place into a strange junkyard and started repairing cars.
Detective Malone asks the local police what happened out at the Mugulan Ranch. The cop says that it looks like a group of religious fanatics were living at the ranch, and had decided to all go and meet their Maker. They set the place on fire, then all committed suicide. The cop explains that the police are keeping people away to avoid creating a panic.
There are two survivors, both of them horribly burned and apparently poisoned. One of them died in the intensive care ward, while the other is still in critical condition. Jimmy tries to used the Corporeal Song of Healing to help the live one, but managed only to burn two Essence. He tries a third time, with extensive preparation, and heals 12 hits.
After the survivor regains consciousness, Maurice interrogates him. Upon realizing that he is not dead, the cultist lets out a mournful wail: "I'm not dead... Now I've missed my chance to reach the next level!" Under questioning, he explains that he was a member of the Church of the Seventh Age, and that the priests told them that now was the time to travel on to their next life. About five hundred cultists died. Gunther points out that if a supernatural force was involved, five hundred deaths would create a very large disturbance in the Symphony.
As the characters leave the hospital room, Maurice warns the duty nurse that her patient looks much improved, and is trying to pull his life-support gear off. The characters notice a large disturbance taking place in the room as they walk away.
The characters head out the Mugulan Ranch, planning on using Detective Malone to help them masquerade as Federal agents. They find four charred buildings guarded by two local California City cops watching a baseball game on a portable TV. Detective Malone makes some small talk, flashes a badge, and effortlessly gets the group (in two cars) through.
The remains of Mugulan Ranch consist of three or four burned wooden buildings, each two to three stories tall. One of the buildings was clearly some kind of auto shop. The surrounding pasture area is filled with the carcasses of old cars. However, the most notable feature of the area is the stack of nearly 500 bodies on the grounds, neatly piled against one wall. The characters suspect that the police probably were not the ones who stacked the bodies.
One of the ranch buildings was a warehouse. Jimmy finds that it is full of burnt furtniture and crates of miscellaneous junk. He also finds several crates of ruined weaponry (the fire was very hard upon the assault rifles and the grenades). There is also evidence that people lived in the warehouse.
The main house appears to have once been a very standard ranch house that has gradually been added to as more and more people moved in.
The auto shop contains two damaged vehicles, apparently work that had been in process, and several more bodies. Maurice locates a refrigerator that contains some spoiled food and several tubes of glue labeled "refrigerate".
The largest building was once a shed that has been converted into a rooming house. From the looks it is, people were living four to a small room on both the ground floor and in the basement. Phrases like "To Eden We Go!", "The Lord Beckons!" and "The Promised Land Awaits" are painted on the walls in human blood. Several more bodies are scattered through the building, several of them shot in the head. Some of the bodies look like they have been partially eaten. Detective Malone and Maurice spend some time trying to figure out what kind of creature might have made the bites, but are able to conclude that it was only something roughly human-sized.
The characters are all in the basement when someone hears noises ("shuffle, shuffle, THUMP!") The characters decide that Jimmy should lead the way. He finds many corpses in the room, and a half-decayed undead chewing on a human leg. The creature rushes Jimmy. Additional zombis appear from the rest of the basement, and a firefight ensues.
By the end of the fight, the characters have gunned down four zombis, all without suffering substatial losses or alerting the two cops watching the place.
Laura and Maurice investigate one of the other buildings, and find the chapel. They find a sermon suggesting that the cultists were following a distorted version of Catholicism. The altar features a large inverted cross and the decapitated remains of eight babies. There are also several bodies arrayed before the altar, all shot in the back of the head. They do not find any additional zombis.
Detective Malone finds an office containing a burned computer and a map with three sets of roads highlighted: San Bernadino to Riverside, LA to Las Vegas, and California City to Barstow.
The last building includes a kitchen, some hydroponic gardens used to grow hallucinogenic mushrooms, and more bodies. Laura hears a scraping, "click, click, chunk!" sound upstairs, possibly the sound of someone loading a magazine into a rifle. Investigating the second floor, Laura suddenly sees a door open and a woman's head (her forehead bloodied) poke out. The woman looks around, then she withdraws and shuts the door.
As Detective Malone, Laura and Jimmy debate how to get into the room, Maurice and Gunther see the woman first toss a suitcase out the window, then emerge and scale down the wall. She has two sawed-off shotguns in holsters on her hips, and has been shot in the leg. Gunther lets the other characters know that it is safe to enter the room. Detective Malone finds more bodies (these killed by shotgun).
Maurice intercepts her and starts interrogating her. She tells the characters that her name is Donna Goldman. She agrees to be disarmed, and admits that she had been shooting people. She had been working for the cult, suppressing the truth about the place (by derailing reporters and bamboozling policement). Unfortunately, she fell out with the cultists when they wanted her to commit suicide with the rest of them. The priest, Neverus, decided that on the night of the full moon a gate would open to a higher plane. Those cultists who killed themselves on that night would be able to reach this plane. Neverus and his priests passed out poison, and shot those who did not drink the poison. After everyone was dead, Neverus and the priests stacked the bodies and burned the place.
Jimmy and Laura ask her what she thought about Neverus and his various proclivities (killing babies, organizing mass suicides, operating apocalypse cults). She responds that they paid well. She thinks that Neverus is probably in Barstow now; he has another complex there. Apparently, he wasn't around the complex at the Mugulan Ranch that much, but his six priests were. He originally founded the complex about fifteen years ago, but has been working on other projects since then. She also claims that there is money in San Bernadino.
Donna finally admits that she is a Soldier of Hell, and that Neverus is a Deceiver of Death (an actual demon). She claims that she didn't know what Neverus was doing when she joined him, but became disillusioned when he started killing babies. Neverus promised that his followers would go to Paradise, but all he really wanted was to kill them all and use the released Essence to create some kind of reliquary. His six priests passed around poison in bowls made from the skulls of infants. The priests themselves were also Soldiers of Hell, and Neverus had promised that he would make them into mummies.
The characters ask her about the four zombis in the basement, and suggest that some of them might have been the zombis in the basement. Donna says that making zombis was easy for Neverus, and that he kept several around all the time. She tells the characters that he had exhibited a number of powers:
She also says that he hadn't taught any Songs to her or his priests.
The characters first duct-tape Donna up and put her in the trunk of one of the sedans. They then drive back to California City, to make a phone call to Darius, the Angel in charge of the operation (Darius is a Cherubim of War, and the Angel of Gritty Realism). Maurice gets in touch with Darius and tells him what the characters know about the situation, then explains that they are all going to go to Barstow, look for the demon, and try to kill him. Darius commends the characters' plan, and tells the characters that he will be there to destroy the demon's Celestial form.
The characters head towards Barstow in a convoy of three cars. Along the road, the characters (all three cars' worth of them) are pulled over by a police car with four cops inside. Maurice (driving the lead car) swiftly concludes that the "cops" are probably Soldiers of Hell and opens fire on them. One of them falls as the characters' vehicles accelerate away. The "cops" get back into their car and head after the characters.
Billy concludes that the cops are going to outrun his truck, so he turns it around and drives straight towards the police car. After a brief exchange of gunfire, Billy drives his truck straight into the police car. Both Billy and Gunther are able to make Strength rolls (though Gunther expends five Essence to ensure that he survives), and stagger from the wreck with single-digit Body hits remaining. Noting that the "cops" are still moving, Billy unleashes the Song of Thunder upon them, stunning them all, then rakes the police car with machine-gun fire until the occupants have been eliminated.
Maurice gets back in touch with Darius to ask for help, as Billy and Gunther are on the verge of death. Darius tells them to meet him at the Motel 6 in Barstow. Along the way, Jimmy uses his last point of Essence to help heal Gunther.
At the Motel 6, the characters meet Darius, who appears as a short, hairy person. He spends some Essence and heals both Gunther and Billy back to full strength. Meanwhile, Jimmy drags Donna into the motel so Maurice can introduce her to Darius. Darius has the characters leave her in the bathtub.
Darius proceeds to interrogate Donna with his Songs, persuading her to provide the address of Neverus' complex in Barstow. Meanwhile, Gunther uses his Tactics skills to plan out the assault (attempting to ensure that the characters have surprise), and Maurice makes a dozen molotov cocktails (from gasoline, soap, and empty winebottles) for Laura.
Neverus' complex in Barstow is an incomplete, mall-sized five-story building in a disused industrial park on the outskirts of the city. As the characters sneak up towards the building, they hear rhythmic low chanting from inside. The complex appears designed to house large numbers of cultists in the near future, though currently it is only occupied by kangaroo rats and homeless derelicts. The characters follow the chanting sounds to a locked door in the basement.
The characters retreat back outside the building and set the place on fire. They then sit in hiding and gun down the cultists (most of them wearing ornate robes) as they stagger from the smoke and flames. Several cultists emerge, and do not last long against the characters' gunfire.
Some time after the cultists emerge, Neverus appears. He is a tremendously massive creature, resembling something out of Atzec mythology, wearing a belt made from infant skulls. Billy and Laura pepper him with gunfire and molotov cocktails, slaying him rapidly. Everyone goes home to celebrate.