I am proud to present a complete and exciting AD&D adventure for you to download and play, many thanks go to Richard Massey for allowing me to publish his game.
If you play the adventure we would love to hear from you about your experiences during the game.
Email jason@ufbs.co.uk and tell us all about it.
This building houses all aspects of defence and security required by the Tub.
Secrecy is the research centre's most powerful weapon. Enormous care is taken
to ensure that no one in the outside world stumbles across its existence,
therefore a task-force within the cavern serves only to keep in order the
other two hundred and fifty inhabitants. The fact that there are three
soldiers for every five personnel only reflects the governments paranoia and
the possibly disastrous consequences of one of the research scientists going
doolaly armed with his latest invention.
One way or another the party of adventurers are going to get caught and marched or carried into this building. Here they will be provided with probably the most comfortable beds they have ever laid on - but unfortunately these are to be found within the six locked cells where they come round.
Before going into the details of what happens next, here is a more detailed account of the Defence Centre - some thought must be given regarding the time of day (e.g. the offices are going to be empty at night).
Men's dormitory #1: This large room is the sleeping accommodation for sixty male soldiers. Twenty five pairs of bunk beds make up two rows against each wall, at the end of the rows, and hiding the far wall, is a grey curtain. A very observant person might also make out that this curtain may be moved up and down the room to divide it as required. Beside each bunk bed are two ordinary lockers containing general effects. Hanging from each bed is an unbuckled strap with some strange (electronically coded) locking mechanism.
Behind the curtain is a similar scene, except that the five pairs of bunk beds here are very much occupied. Clipped onto each is an assortment of weaponry (rifles, pistols, grenade launchers, you know the type of thing).
The ten troops are asleep at the moment, but it really wont take much to wake one and therefore all of them. Then treat as normal soldiers.
R & R room #1: This room will be empty of people but full of the weird artefacts of another world - OK a television, pool table, table tennis table, one or two video games and a pin-ball machine.
Offices: During the day each of these will be occupied by one or two soldiers, armed as always with tranquillizer rifles. They are fairly typical offices with all that that entails, and none of the papers in them will be of any interest to the adventurers unless they stumble across a file concerning one Jake Michigan, which will back up his story (see More about "The Cells", below).
Briefing rooms: These are very simple rooms, both of them are locked (with mechanical locks). Each contains a couple of dozen stackable chairs, two fold down tables and a black-board and chalk. If the course of events has resulted in the party being captured, all of their equipment will be found in the briefing room further from the cells.
Cells: These are basic open barred cells. Each contains a bed, sink and bucket. There are barred gates everywhere and a very bored guard sits at a desk at the entrance waiting for any sign of trouble. More later.
Men's dormitory #2: This is similar to the ground floor version except that thirty six of the forty beds are curtained off and occupied.
Women's dormitory: This room holds thirty beds, six of which are occupied. In all ways except one this room is the same as the other two dormitories.
R & R room #2: This room is very similar to the one on the ground floor except that it is being used by fourteen male and six female soldiers.
Officers' Quarters: These are four bedrooms/studies furnished with beds, desks, cupboards etc. Miscellaneous twentieth century trappings are to be found everywhere. The two rooms furthest from the stairs are occupied, each by one man, one of whom will have been an interrogator (see below). If combat ensues treat each as a fifth level fighter.
Stores: The doors to the stores areas are very securely locked, any tampering will set off a piercing siren and all that that entails. The security is in place to stop the wrong people getting hold of the arsenal within - all manner of grenades, pistols, high velocity rifles, various explosives, and so on. This is the real stuff, anyone hit by this lot aren't going to wake up a few hours later.
More about the cells: For most of the history of the Tub the prison section of the security block was a bit of a joke. No one did anything to warrant being detained, so when Jake Achegan was arrested it was several hours before anyone could remember where the keys had been left. The fun is over now as Jake waits in the cell furthest from the block entrance. Each party member will be locked in a different cell if possible (there are six cells), but it is possible to talk through the bars which separate them. They will have been stripped of all possessions except their non-armouring clothes (see the briefing rooms).
One at a time the adventurers will be taken away to the briefing room next to the cells to be interrogated. This is a chance for some really creative DM-ing: good cop, bad cop routines; shouting and harassment; blinding spotlights - the works. The interrogators aren't particularly good at this job as they won't have had much experience, but they are very keen to find out who the adventurers are, where they are from, what they are after and how they got in to the Tub; and the last thing they are going to believe is the truth. At all times during these interviews between four and seven soldiers will be immediately at hand if any of the prisoners try to make a break for it.
To spice up the interrogation a bit a couple of incidents might have occurred since the adventurers' arrival. A rash of paranoid hysteria has spread through the defence centre - intruders such as the party should not be possible. There must have been inside help, so if any of the characters has picked up "treasure" which can be traced to one of the Tub's workforce then the cell block will become temporary home to another inmate, and this innocent victim will be subject to the same inquisition. Another innocent victim of the whole trans-dimensional episode is the poor labourer who was sent to repair the damaged plasterwork in squash court three. It was his last job of the day and so it was a little after six o'clock by the time he came to test the strength of his handiwork with a full bodied shoulder barge - straight through the reverse gate that Jedwell had just set up, and into Paadshaw. The magician eventually had to cast a sleep spell to stop the man's babbling and give time to set up the gate back into the "tech" world. Here the labourer will help security with their enquiries until he realizes that his best bet is to admit that he fabricated the whole story and shut up.
Back in the cells, Jake will take the first opportunity to talk with the new inmates. Jake Achegan is in his late twenties, dresses casually in blue breeches and a strangely crested ...(insert a relevant band name/logo here)... blouse and is of medium height and build. He has a mop of long dark curly hair which frames a thin pale face.
He has spent nearly all of his adult life as a research physicist, and, rather like someone else the party know, has spent most of this time investigating the properties of space and time and speculating about further dimensions and how, if they existed, they might be manipulated. A year ago he and his team made a breakthrough. They discovered a means of distorting space which resulted in a phenomena that could only be explained by taking into account a fifth dimension. The phenomenon manifested itself as an impenetrable barrier - more than that, any missile striking the barrier would rebound with greater energy than it had in the first place. Jake had visions of a perpetual energy machine but the powers that be saw an impenetrable barrier as just that - the perfect shield for use in warfare. Within days Jake was approached with regards to leading a research team in the Tub. At length his pacifist ideals were reconciled with the work following absolute assurances that his work could only produce non-offensive devices (after all, even a pacifist has to agree that we've got to protect Us from Them).
The "Buckler" team made rapid advancements in miniaturizing the apparatus needed to create the force field. With the massive resources at their disposal it was only six months before a model had been created which could be carried in a car (...er, a horseless carriage) and defend the vehicle from all assaults, though a local hurricane resulted whenever the car moved.
At about this time Jake started making private notes to do with creating a shield remotely. Secretly he developed a theoretical way to project a shield of any size to a point at almost any distance with extreme accuracy. Meanwhile his official work continued to miniaturize the shield generating apparatus until a fully portable version had been designed.
Then the realization struck him. His work in the Tub, ostensibly for used to protect people, could, even without any adaptation, be used as an appallingly destructive weapon. The car that he had helped to equip could be driven through anything, destroying it utterly; if a missile bounced of the shield and increased its velocity in the process, why not use this for ballistics; and worst of all the remote barrier he thought could be created might have devastating consequences - diplomats on the other side of the world could suddenly explode as the forcefield was created inside them or enemy army bases could be razed as a large shield was remotely used to stir the area into dust. The possibilities were terrible.
His worst fears were confirmed when he was summoned to the head administrators office to discuss his private notes! In a panic Jake agreed to start practical research into the field. And so it was that he managed to obtain two hours alone in the Buckler team laboratory. Time enough to destroy all but the very basics of his work before he was discovered.
After their conversation it should become clear to everyone that the adventurers' aims are the same as Jake's. The discs seen in the grounds of Paadshaw Hall were the transdimentional manifestation of the Buckler team's experiments and the dancing discs were the projection of two rackets that had been developed, more as a private joke than anything else, so that two of the team might play the ultimate game of Squash. The Laughing Magician was destroyed when court one was used instead of the usual court three.
Jake believes that he is being held here pending the brain drain treatment which he knows has been developed by another research team. This would clear his memory of the research centre, with the scalpel precision of a surgeon - wearing boxing gloves. Understandably he is a little bit peeved about this, but Jake has a plan. Unfortunately though, for his scheme to be put into practice all of the conspirators have to get into the main dome of the Tub. So, unless one of the adventurers can magically ...(insert a relevant spell description here)... it is over before it has started.
This part of the scenario is where magic users can really come into their own. Some pretty weird stuff goes on in the Tub, but it is all in some way scientific. As far as everyone here is concerned spells are for fairy tales and magic doesn't exist - except, of course, it does. Any number of fairly simple spells can help the party's escape: charm, hypnotism, phantasmal force, sleep, spook, taunt, ventriloquism are just some first level spells which might be useful. Higher level spells will be even more effective.
Jake will suggest that a night time escape would be a lot easier to arrange as during the day the security centre is crawling with troops. The prison guard consists of a young daytime guard who is so officious and career minded that none of the other troops like to work with him, and a night time guard who is ideally suited to the job in that he is unsuited to any other job, being slightly overweight and too clumsy to operate anything expensive. He will do his best (treat him as a normal soldier, but with a dexterity of 5) but the adventurers should have little trouble dealing with him. It will not be too hard to persuade the night time guard to fetch any apparently innocuous spell components from their equipment - they might claim that they are for medical purposes, for example.
Once free and at large in the security centre, encounters with wandering/sleep-walking soldiers should be rare, but not out of the question (say 1 chance in 10 per turn). Jake, however, will want to leave the building as soon as possible and get to the research and development block. As soon as they all get to the basement of the R & D dome he will explain the rest of his plan.
Jake is not particularly fit or strong so he will never fight, if he can avoid it. If he must engage in combat, treat him as a zeroth level fighter, usually wearing A.C.10 with THAC0: 20 and 5 hits. His characteristics are - STR:8; INT:18; WIS:16; DEX:14; CON:9; CHA:13.
Breaking into the dome would be simplicity itself were it not for the fact that it is surrounded by a twenty feet high metal fence. The fence is constantly patrolled by four pairs of guards so that any part of the perimeter is out of their sight for at most thirty seconds.
The fence has three gates, all next to each other, and one soldier guards each of these day and night. The gates are similar to metal revolving doors and are mechanically locked at night (the key for each gate is kept by its guard).
The Research dome is nearly always completely empty at night so the sentries will be most suspicious of anyone trying to get in, whatever reason they give. They know that Jake has been arrested and will challenge him if he tries to pass. All guards are relieved every three hours.
Once past the gate Jake will quickly lead the party through the entrance area to the central control room.
Within the shelter of the metal dome the R & D complex comprises two parts. The base, which has an administrative and routine maintenance purpose, is a permanent single story structure built from non-descript concrete slabs. However, on top of this sits the laboratory block - a massive jumble of metal blocks, each one five feet cubed, apparently thrown together with no planning in mind (no doubt by using the enormous cranes, robot arms, gantries and miscellaneous construction equipment which can be seen suspended from the inside of the dome).
The projects undertaken within the Tub are as varied as they are weird. Each laboratory has unique requirements and to cater for this, and the complication that each one is needed for a varying amount of time, the centre's architect came up with the solution of building everything from interchangeable units. The idea being that when one project finished the relevant lab' would be dismantled and a new one built to fit into the vacant space.
And so it is that all of the labs are built from five feet squared sections of walls, some of which have special functions, for example methane gas, liquid nitrogen and electricity outlets (commonly known as umbilical units); ten feet by five feet portal units (commonly known as doors); lighting units; glass partition units: series of ten feet by ten feet corridor units and a load of other sundry pieces. The whole assembly is kept together by filling all of the empty space (except where maintenance access is required) and packing round the outside with hollow metal cubes, each five feet on a side, which can be seen by anyone standing on the administration and maintenance building roof. Three short ladders can also be seen leading to three particularly hi-tech looking sections of the outside walls (umbilical units - see later).
Entrance hall: this is a fairly straightforward and open
area. The stairs marked on the map lead to the laboratories above. During the
day it will be bustling with scientists and engineers under the wary eye of
two security guards who sit behind a reception desk. If it isn't night time
when the adventurers get here they are going to get into serious trouble, but
if it is then the whole place will be deserted.
Administrative offices: these are standard, boring, clerical (no, not that type of cleric) offices. Nothing as delicate as any research details will be kept in here, but if our heroes spend any time reading the files they might glean some information about, say, the number of scientists in each team or what equipment they keep disintegrating ... make something up.
Demonstration theatre: This large room can be accessed from the ground floor but takes up a large area of the basement. Large exhibits can be brought in though the "Wall Stores" room. Inside the room there is a large tiered seating area and an operations area, the two are separated by a large and very thick glass wall.
Library: The library is immense. An attempt has been made to accumulate all human knowledge in this place, mostly kept on some incomprehensible futuristic medium (e.g. CD ROM). A large part of the room is devoted to the latest scientific publications - ones too recent to have been processed. The "Special Library" is electronically locked and contains a number of confidential theses which require special security clearance to gain access to.
Computer Room: This room will seem a complete mystery to our heroes. Row upon row of white metal boxes, some with small lights on them, all of them humming quietly...
Wall Stores: This room occupies the ground floor and the basement (i.e. it is two stories high) with a balcony running round the upper level. A twenty feet square section of the roof will slide back to admit the roof bound lifting machinery, giving it access to the laboratory building blocks, of all descriptions, which fill the room.
Central Control: Here Jake will endeavour to explain to the party what a computer terminal is, because this room is full of them, and apart from what goes on inside each laboratory, from here he can control the whole of the research complex.
Once the party get to this room Jake will spent several minutes tapping away at one of the terminals. He has an urgent air about him and will brook no interruptions. Eventually he sits back with a relieved smile and tells everyone his plan.
"What I've just done is broken into the main SANCTUARY job and completely sealed the dome." Jake will look round proudly at after this declaration, probably at completely uncomprehending faces. He will add, by way of further explanation, "that means we're safe, for now."
Sure enough, Jake will have secured all entrances to the R & D complex using blockades originally designed to prevent any deviant experiment getting out. Cutting equipment will take sixteen hours to breach the defence.
"Now comes the difficult part. When I was working here it would take me
at most one and a half minutes to get from here to my laboratory, that was
when I could use the centre's corridors. Unfortunately these same corridors
are rigged up with all manner of sensory equipment so basically if you aren't
supposed to be there and can be seen, heard, smelt, if you emit any heat,
weigh anything or even if you just cause a disturbance in the air flow a trap
is sprung, the passage is locked so it becomes your cell, and then fills up
with sleeping gas. We can't use the corridors, but what we can do is walk
through walls.
The whole centre is made up of interchangeable building blocks. At least two
of the blocks which make up each room have to be umbilical units, feeding it
with water, oxygen, electricity (never mind what that is), methane etc. Each
umbilical unit taps into one of three trunk lines, a clump of pipes and
cables through which the different fluids are pumped and communications are
made passed. At any time one of these lines may be turned off for maintenance
work. When this is done the units may be removed, so it should be possible to
get to my laboratory through the trunk line maintenance access tunnels and
umbilical units."
Jake will then go back to his terminal and type in a few commands. Nearby a printer will start to beep and produce a map of the laboratory section of the research complex.
"With the help of this map we have to decide which route to take to the Buckler lab' and so which trunk line to turn off. I know nothing of the contents of the rooms except some rooms are on more than one floor and that ours was probably the only purely defensive research going on and I know the code name of each project. In theory the code names should give nothing away about the work, but if you think about it, my research code name 'Buckler' actually means shield so most of the others should provide some sort of clue. Anyway, they are:- Alice, Apple, Hartmann, Hotshots, Leviathan, Lucy, Michelin, Plantrap, Powerage and Ziggy. Make of them what you will." Clearly many of these names will mean nothing to the adventurers' characters (or the players for that matter), but they might be able to help Jake with a lucky guess - the names aren't that important anyway.
On examining the map the party should work out that three routes are available. Note that the starting point for routes following trunk lines #1 and #2 must be laboratory one, codename Alice, and the start of trunk line #3 is laboratory 2, codename Powerage, (as these are the only umbilical units accessible from the outside). For example, from Lab' 1 they can take line #1 through to Lab' 2, through the ceiling to Lab' 6 then on to Lab' 8 and Lab' 7, lower down on the wall they enter this room through is access to Lab' 5 and so Lab' 4, then finally up through the ceiling of this room to Lab' 11 - belonging to the Buckler team. The shortest route using line #2 takes them through laboratories 1, 2, 4 and 5 before they reach a ladder leading to 11, and if trunk line #3 is turned off they can reach laboratory 11 through 2, 3, 5, 8, 9 and 7. Remember to think of the structure in three-dimensions, and that several of the laboratories rise more than one floor. Which route they choose is up to them and depends on how they interpret the code names and how adventurous they are feeling. Note that all laboratories are serviced by at least one umbilical unit from each trunk line, so all rooms can be accessed regardless of which line is deactivated.
Before leaving Jake will pick up a torch which has been left on one of the desks.
Each Umbilical Unit will take one minute to open. The process is quite simple and Jake will be able to teach party members to do it. The units open, like doors, on side mounted hinges. Within each room umbilical units from the same trunk line will be connected by wires and pipes which run along the walls, outside the rooms they are connected by loose wires and pipes which are fed through wide trunk line access tunnels, big enough for a man to clamber through.
The consequences of forcing open a 'live' umbilical unit are dire! It will spew out a concoction of oxygen and methane (which will burn violently), water and liquid nitrogen, not to mention a shower of electric sparks. Jake is aware of this and will warn the party if they are about to do anything rash.
In every laboratory battery power supplies are in general use. These four inch cubed boxes are unusually heavy and have a socket on one side. A fully charged battery stores one hundred battery power units (bpu's). Each has an encumbrance value of 5lbs.
The electric lights in every laboratory (except number 9) will come on automatically upon the parties' entrance, but the trunk line access ways are not illuminated, hence the torch. Each floor has a height of ten feet, and between a ceiling and the floor above it is a five feet space, usually filled by the construction cubes. If a double height room has been built therefore, its height is twenty five feet.
The west room is a more typical physics laboratory. On desks which run the perimeter of the room are piles of incomprehensible notes and scribblings, cups of cold coffee, assorted computer hardware and books containing the very latest discoveries and Gary Larson cartoons. The walls are choked with charts, diagrams, blackboards and whiteboards, and in the centre of the room are a number of benches covered with electronic detritus and an example of what the project team in this laboratory have been working on - a "Reduction Mine". Only two working mines have been made, and one is being tested.
A Reduction Mine is approximately the size and shape of a round biscuit tin. Featured all over its plastic surface is an array of switches, ports, labels, diagrams, lights and displays. The most noticeable features, however, are the six wedges which have been slotted into triangular holes in its top. There is also an obvious power lead coming out of its base. What a Reduction Mine does is simple: when any living thing larger than a flea passes within ten feet of it, it is sucked into the machine becoming two inches tall and imprisoned. A side effect of this size reduction is that for any human trapped within time runs ten times faster than normal (this must be adjusted for different sized humanoids e.g.: for a halfling time runs five times faster). One living thing can be caught in this way for each of the wedges. To be released from the trap the relevant wedge must be removed from the top of the mine. More drastic measures, like smashing the thing up with an axe, may cause damage to any detainees. Unplugging the machine will cause 3D6 damage to anyone unlucky enough to be inside as they grow to their normal height and rip the device apart.
Each mine has an encumbrance value of 50lbs and uses 12 bpu's per hour.
In the middle of the corridor connecting the two rooms of this laboratory a live reduction mine is being tested. At present it is occupied by a dog, a cat, a mouse and, unbeknownst to the testing scientists, a fly. Therefore if any of the party members come within ten feet of it up to two of them will be sucked in. Within the prison of the mine an uneasy truce has come about after hours of a furious four way battle between the animals. Any new arrivals are sure to destroy this delicate pact so the melee will start up again. All of the animals seem as tall as the characters - so it may take a while to realize exactly what the fly is.
Note that these statistics take into account all size and time alterations.
The Mouse: A.C: 7; THAC0: 15; hit dice: 6 (current hits: 24); attacks: 1D2, 1D2, 1D10. Otherwise treat as a giant rat without the disease bit (this is a laboratory mouse after all).
The Cat: A.C: 5; THAC0: 15; hit dice: 5 (current hits: 20); attacks: 1D4, 1D4, 1D10 and rear claws 1D4, 1D4. Otherwise treat as a mountain lion.
The Dog: A.C: 6; THAC0: 15; hit dice: 5 (current hits 19); attacks: 1D12. Otherwise treat as a war dog.
The Fly: A.C: 3; THAC0: 15; hit dice: 5 (current hits: 24); attacks: 3D4 (each hit has a 5% chance of causing a serious disease, a saving throw is allowed). Otherwise treat as a giant wasp.
The four animals in the mine are just as likely to attack each other as they are to attack one of the characters. Remember that time runs ten times quicker in the mine, and when anything in the mine dies it will stay put and another living thing will be sucked in. From inside the Reduction Mine appears to be just a large (40 feet diameter) round white room.