Mountain of the Dead

I found an article today, while checking out Reddit, about the Dyatlov Pass Accident that happened in the USSR back in 1959. This got me to thinking that it would make an interesting adventure for a Palladium game.

For some time I've been trying to come up with a story for a mystery genre adventure for AtB, and I think this might just be the one. Actually, it would work for just about any Palladium setting.

For setting this in AtB the group of ski hikers could be either Cardanian scouts looking for a pass, or a Philly Trade Caravan moving west, through the Appalachian Mountains. Reports come back a week later that the bodies of the scouts or caravan have been found dead in a remote portion of their route.

The player characters are then sent to investigate the scene and find out what happened.

Several skills would be required by members of the group (medical, tracking, survival, wilderness survival, chemistry, etc. ) to examine the scene and/or discover evidence. People skills would be required to interrogate/question locals of the last town visited.

Several red herrings would be tossed in to prevent the mystery from being too easy to solve. Of course the adventure could be designed so that there would be multiple endings for the GM to choose from like in the movie Clue.

I'll try to create something from this story and post it in a future article.

[IN THE NEWS] Scientists Create Transparent Fish

Roger Highfield, Science Editor for the Telegraph (UK) writes: [link]

Scientists have created ghostly transparent fish to make human biology clearer. The feat has been achieved with zebrafish are genetically similar to humans and are already in widespread use as models for human biology and disease.

[snip]

The classic method for studying human diseases in animals is to allow the animal to get the disease, kill and dissect the animal, then ask, "what happened?" But in cancer and other fast-changing processes that traverse the body, this method is bound to miss something. "It's like taking a photograph when you need a video," says White.

[snip]

White named the new breed "casper", after the ghost.

Wouldn't that gene be pretty freaky to find passed down in some mutants in AtB? Actually this gives me a great idea for a Mad Scientist villain. Someone like a Splicer from Rifts who's messing with mutants and then tossing them back in the wild to see how they react or how the environment reacts to them.

I'll have to work on that.

Rifter #41: The City of Philly

After the Bomb received some attention in The Rifter #41 thanks to Erin (OmegaGirl) Lindsey.

This 24 page article brings the city of Philly to life with descriptions of the city, it's wards, history, and the Rodent Cartel and it's Families. Also included are NPC's, new mutant animals, apprenticeships, and beasts. Including the fearsome Jersey Devil!!!

And if that weren't enough, the article contains great illustrations and a full page map of the area!

If you love AtB, you've got to get this issue!

[IN THE NEWS] UK Allows Human-Animal Embryos

AFP wrote:[link]

Britain's fertility regulator said Thursday it would allow scientists to create human-animal hybrid embryos for research.

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) approved applications from two universities to create "cytoplasmic" embryos, which merge human cells with eggs from animals such as cattle or rabbits.

Scientists argue the research could pave the way for therapies for diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's...

[snip]

Researchers want to produce hybrids that are 99.9 percent human and 0.1 percent animal.

[snip]

Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, head of stem cell biology at the Medical Research Council's national institute for medical research, said: "The HFEA's decision is excellent as it adds to the arsenal of techniques UK scientists can use to provide understanding and eventually develop therapies for a wide range of devastating genetic diseases."

Of course there are those who are crying fowl:

John Smeaton, national director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), said the decision was a "disastrous setback for human dignity", creating sub-human "slaves" used as raw materials.

"Of those embryos with a smaller proportion of human material, greater uncertainty arises... as to whether such an embryo is a human being with due rights," he said.

Only time will tell if we can use this knowledge responsibly and ethically.

Story Idea: Proteus

This is just an idea I had for an AtB story or game that I wrote down on a napkin two or three years ago while I was at a local pizza joint (behold the power of napkins!). Let me know if you think this is an idea worth expanding upon.

Proteus [Pro·te·us]

• (noun) Classical Mythology. a sea god, son of Oceanus and Tethys, noted for his ability to assume different forms and to prophesy.
• (adj.) a person or thing that readily changes appearance, character, principles, etc.

PRELUDE (208x - Pre-Crash)

- A female scientist and her assistant (a mutant chimpanzee) are hard at work trying to find a way to stop the mystery plague that is killing off the human race. The scientist's child, a young boy or girl dieing of the mystery plague, is placed in cryogenic pod until she can find the cure.

CURRENT DAY (After the Bomb)

- A battle between a group of mutant animals and a detachment of Human Empire soldiers rages outside the ruins of an Pre-Death building.

- After the human soldiers retreat, the mutant animals move into the building. It turns out to be a cryogenic hospice, a place where human from before the Crash would inter the terminally ill.

- Amazingly enough, power is still being supplied to a few of the cryogenic pods. The mutant animals find all but one of the occupants are dead - the victims of rotted seals. The remaining pod is that of the child from the prelude. However, the child is now a teenager, it's aging only slowed while in the cryogenic pod.

- The pod, the human child still inside, is delivered to a Cardanian medical facility in Cambridge where they attempt to reawaken the human inside.

- Soon after he/she is awakened, the child is frightened by mutant animal doctors and runs away.

- The human child hides in the old city ruins on the outskirts of Cambridge for a couple days until being attacked by a pack of street urchins (a mix mutant animals). The child is saved when another human (actually a pleasure bunny) comes to the rescue.

- The bunny takes the child to her home, an old but luxurious cabin hidden in the nearby woods. There she tells the child what has happened to change the world and admits that she is in fact also a mutant animal. After a while, she convinces the child to return with her to the medical facility.

- Back at the medical facility, the doctors run tests on the child and discover that the child does not carry the strain of the disease that killed humans, but a variation of the disease called Proteus - the strain that gave birth to the anthropomorphic animals. However, this variation would not affect animals, instead this strain would cause a "Proteus Transformation" in humans.

- Fearful of what he/she may turn into, how the transformation may affect him/her, and whether or not he/she will survive the transformation, the child accepts his/her fate. Monitored by the medical staff during the transformation, and watched over by the bunny, the child slowly begins his/her transformation into a .

- When the child is revived, he/she discovers that the transformation has also awoken new psionic powers, including the ability to telepathically listen to other peoples thoughts.

- Soon after, the child telepathically overhears a doctor plotting to use the new Proteus strain on other surviving humans and tells the bunny. The doctor discovers that the two know about the plot and the two must escape before they are captured by security.

- Back at the cabin the two start packing to escape Cambridge, but a group of canine mercenaries hired by the doctor tracks down the two at the cabin before they can leave and a battle ensues. The two escape down a bolt hole just as the cabin is destroyed in a fiery explosion.

- Content that nothing could have survived such a blast and musing that the only cure of the Protean strain would have been contained in the child's DNA (a fact that is overheard by the bunny), the doctor returns to the medical facility to work on his scheme.

- Safely outside Cambridge, the bunny reveals that she was once a member of a group of adventurers and suggests that they might go to them for some help.

SIDE NOTES

- As the story would have progressed, it would have been found that the child's mutation was unstable and would revert (like a lycanthrope) between mutant animal and human form. He/she would also discover new psionic abilities as well, including precognition.

- The mutant doctor's ultimate goal would be to use the Protean virus against the Empire of Humanity, rationalizing that once they had all been mutated into animals they would stop warring with the rest of the animal nations.

- At some point it would be revealed that the mutant chimpanzee that assisted the child's mother is still alive and possibly a member of the bunnies adventuring group. The chimpanzee would then reveal that the child's mother had almost finished the cure when she was taken away by soldiers to work at some survivors colony. The chimp was not allowed to accompany her and never heard of her again, assuming that she died along with the rest.

- Who else may be involved in the plot to infect the humans with the Proteus virus? What will the Empire do if/when they find out about the Proteus? Could the child's mother have survived? Could she have created the cure? What did she do with the cure?