Concept INVESTIGATION RESULTS

The hunters get involved in the investigation of the

disappearance of a former acting CIA Director.
THE CREATURE FROM THE An investigation of the case will reveal the following:

Hook RADIOACTIVE LAGOON V 1.0 D

Retired former acting CIA Director Lauren Coldbury has
disappeared while bird watching in the San Marcos Lagoon
Wildlife Refuge located adjacent to the decommissioned
San Marcos Lagoon nuclear power plant. The hunters have
been asked by intelligence sources to investigate. An
official report has whitewashed the disappearance as a
probable accidental drowning.
Overview
Lauren Coldbury was captured and eaten by a Fluke-man
that hunts in the refuge but lairs in the access tunnels of
the decommissioned nuclear power plant. Her remains
and identification can be found in the monsters
radioactive lair.
A Mystery Starter by Mark Tygart
For Michael Sands’ RPG
Monster-of-the-Week
Goals
• Put horror in everyday situations
• Address the hunters, not the players
• Use the Keeper moves, without names
• Be a fan of the hunters
• Build a coherent mythology in play
• Nothing is safe
• Name everyone they meet, make them seem like normal
folks
• Ask questions and build on the answers
• Sometimes give them exactly what they earned, rather
than all they wanted
• What's happening off-screen?
• Don't always decide what happens
• Everything is a threat
• Lauren Coldbury was a career CIA intelligence officer
who was only briefly a “caretaker” acting CIA director but
was generally unpopular with “the company” rank and file
both for sexism and widespread Congressional scandals in
her brief tenure. “A cold bitch that wouldn’t look the other
way” about “necessary extra-legal actions” many
intelligence sources will state.
•Coldbury was secretly gay but extremely discreet.
•Coldbury was an active birdwatcher and devoted herself
to environmental activism in retirement.
• The San Marcos nuclear power plant was recently shut
down after numerous safety violations and concerns a
large tsunami or earthquake could produce a devastating
nuclear accident.
•Illegal high levels of radioactivity have been vented from
the plant into the Wildlife Refuge and covered up by the
operating utility by bribery and blackmail. They will be
eager to close the Coldbury investigation to prevent
exposure.
The Monster

Keeper Moves Fluke-man

• Separate them Description: A terrible sewer mutant
• Reveal future badness Type: Parasite
• Reveal off-screen badness Power: Infecting Bite, Regeneration, and Aquatic
• Inflict harm, as established Weakness: Monster will regenerate slowly unless killed by
• Make them investigate fire, magic or acid
• Make them acquire stuff Attack: Infecting Bite (1-harm, Intimate, Ignore Armor)
• Tell the possible consequences and ask if they want to go Harm Capacity: 7
ahead
• Turn their move back on them The Fluke-man – a form of quasi-vertebrate human – was
• Offer an opportunity, & maybe a cost an example of reproductive and physiological cross-traiting
• Take away some of the hunters' stuff due to radiation, abnormal cell fusion and/or the
• Put someone in trouble suppression of natural genetic processes; essentially, the
• Make a threat move, from one of your mystery or arc creature was a result of human science rather than nature.
threats Its vestigial features seemed parasitic but it also had
• After every move, ask what they do next primate physiology.
The Fluke-man transmitted its larvae, a form of flatworm,
through its bite. The being searched for hosts, in order to
multiply and also sometimes attacked because its victims'
bodies provided generative nourishment.
Typically, a survivor of a bite by the Fluke-man would be
infected with a flatworm which the victim would fatally
cough up, at a later point. The wound pattern from the
Fluke-man’s bite looks similar to scolex attachment but is
much larger.
There is evidence to suggest a bite by the Fluke-man might
result in a survivor subsequently experiencing a peculiar,
unfavorable taste in their mouth that would be difficult to
remove, although not be accompanied by a difficulty with
swallowing.
Like other fluke or flatworms, the Fluke-man had no sex
organs and was genderless but was, even though
technically human, capable of spontaneous regeneration.
When a character who has been bitten at the start of each
scene; roll +Tough.
• On a 10+, you resist the infestation. No further rolls are
necessary.
You are cured!
• On a 7-9, you continue to resist but remain infected and
you move one level down the Infestation Countdown.
• On a miss, you move two levels down the Infestation
Countdown.
Infestation Countdown:
Day: The hunter is infected.
Shadows: The hunter develops a foul taste in his or her
mouth.
Dusk: The Keeper gets to suggest a soft move. If the
hunter takes it they can mark an experience.
Sunset: The Keeper gets to suggest a hard move. If the
hunter takes it they can mark an experience.
Nightfall: The hunter is immobilized by pain.
Midnight: The character is killed by coughing up a Fluke- Note: The Fluke-man’s Lair is dangerously radioactive and the
plant is guarded by a mercenary security detail instructed to
man flatworm larva.
shoot on site. The Fluke-man makes its home in the marine
tunnels underneath the plant.
Keeper Notes: The best method to save the character is to
cure by any magical means, which will kill the Keeper’s Notes
infestation.
The fictional Lauren Coldbury was inspired by real life
Bystanders:
director CIA director William Coldby’s career and
Archetype Function disappearance.
FBI Agents Good Advice The San Marcos nuclear power plant was inspired by the
San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station closure and
Police Officer Skeptic
scandals.
The two consulting middle-aged investigating FBI Agents
know a great deal about the paranormal. They act like a This Mystery Starter and the Fluke-man are homage to the
long married couple… classic television series The X-Files.
The investigating Police Officer believes a serial killer has
been operating locally.
Countdown: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International License.
Day: Coldbury captured and eaten.
Shadows: Fluke-man consumes local Hobo. Visit the Cats of Tindalos
(http://catsoftindalos.blogspot.com/)
Dusk: Police Officer explores Wildlife Refuge and retreats For more free Monster of the Week material
in panic after seeing monster.
Sunset: Police Officer has complete mental breakdown
and is confined to local mental hospital.
Nightfall: Consulting FBI Agents are recalled to Quantico.
Midnight: The Utility “Fixer” decides to eliminate hunters
as a liability by any means necessary.
Locations:
Name Type
San Marcos, CA Hub
Fluke-man’s Lair Deathtrap