Dragonground 05

Cover Art

Sin City

Insert Department Name here DEMONGROUND Issue 4Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Cover Art ................................................................................................................................. 1Sin City by Neal Dickinson ................................................................................................................................ 1

Editorial ..................................................................................................................................3Finding a Theme by Mike Marchi ..................................................................................................................... 3

House Rules ............................................................................................................................4Making a Career of it by Geoff Skellams .......................................................................................................... 4

Children in the Shadows by Mike Marchi ......................................................................................................... 6

New Careers by Chris Carpenter, Ian Sullivan, Geoff Skellams and Lee Williams .......................................... 9

Getting Jiggy With It by Geoff Skellams ......................................................................................................... 11

Adventures ............................................................................................................................ 12Out, Back and Beyond by Mike Marchi .......................................................................................................... 12

Dark Races ............................................................................................................................ 21Draolings by Eyal Faingersh............................................................................................................................ 21

Milieu ................................................................................................................................... 24F.I.S.T. of Iron by Lee Williams ....................................................................................................................... 24

NPCs ...................................................................................................................................... 26Jean-Pierre Valjean by Lauri Gardner ............................................................................................................. 26

Proto-Dimensions ................................................................................................................ 30Kingdom of Zub by Lee Williams .................................................................................................................... 30

Fiction ................................................................................................................................... 31Missed Part 2 by Marcus Bone ........................................................................................................................ 31

Tabloids ................................................................................................................................ 35

The Loose Ends .................................................................................................................... 36

Insert Department Name HereDEMONGROUND Issue 4Page 3 Editorial/Opinion

Greetings, and welcome to Issue 5 ofDEMONGROUND: The ElectronicFanzine of Dark Conspiracy. This issue isspecial in a lot of ways. The first, you�veprobably already seen: the cover. This issuemarks the first time somebody actuallypicked up a paintbrush and created an oilpainting - specifically to be used as ourcover! Neal Dickinson hails from Seattle,Washington, and created this dark vision ofSin City for us. As the author of the firstbook in the new DC series (The ShadowFalls), I have to admit, he�s captured some-thing there. And, it looks like whatever it is,is about to capture him right back!

But seriously, we�re very excited thatso many people care enough about this gamethat they want to devote their own free timeto expanding the system. Why do you thinkyour trusty editorial staff is here each issue?Here�s hoping this is just the first piece ofart like this we see from our many contribu-tors! With each issue, we get better andbetter art pieces. Just compare this issue�sbanner piece (by our own Eyal Faingersh)and compare it to his earlier works. We thinkthis is his best one yet!

The second way that this issue is spe-cial lies in its theme. Oddly enough, we didn�thave one prior to the submission deadline.There we were, with a pile of submissions,and thinking the theme concept is completelyoverrated. Then we looked through the as-sembled articles and realized that half ofthem were written on the same subject: newcareers for Dark Conspiracy. Thus, theCareer Day Issue was born! Personally, Ilike the themed issues. And hope we havemore in the future.

Which brings me to our third specialitem. The next issue of DEMONGROUNDwill not come out until AFTER GenCon �99,so this is our last chance to remind you guysabout what�s going to be happening there.

This year�s GenCon is going to be the big-gest yet for Dark Conspiracy! We haveconfirmed at least seven different DC eventsrun by six different referees. Many of theseevents will be run in multiple timeslotsthroughout the convention. For a completeschedule of events, you can check the DARKTIMES news page at http://www.42north.org/~mjm/rpg/dc/DarkCon_News.html. Issue 6 ofDEMONGROUND will come out towardthe end of August and will be our SpecialGenCon Issue (see? another theme!), con-taining many of the adventure modules forthe games run at the convention. Whoknows, we might even swing some photos!I guess that�s all I have to say right now,except Thanks for your readership! If itwasn�t for people like you, people like uswouldn�t be doing the things we do for youfolks.

Mike Marchi June, 1999

�Some belief systems hold that reality is just a manifesta-tions of the thoughts and beliefs held by the human mind;everything is just a dream.

�If that�s the case, then there are some seriously sick peo-ple around.�

- Zena Marley(Early 21st-century mercenary philosopher)

Editorial

Finding a Theme

Mike Marchiwelcomes

you toIssue 5

http://www.42north.org/~mjm/rpg/dc/DarkCon_News.html

http://www.42north.org/~mjm/rpg/dc/DarkCon_News.html

Insert Department Name here DEMONGROUND Issue 4House Rules

The Dark Conspiracy Player�s Hand-book, especially the Master Edition, hasplethora of career choices for character crea-tion. They cover a wide range of differentoccupations and can give you plenty of op-tions when you are creating your character.

But sometimes you get an idea for acharacter that just won�t go away, but noneof the career options seems to mesh withwhat you want to do with the character�sbackground. What do you do about it?

There are basically two options: youcan forget about the character because noth-ing fits what you want to do with it, or youcan design some new careers to let you dowhat you want with the character.

Designing new careers for Dark Con-spiracy is extremely straightforward. All ofthe careers in the book have the same basicstructure and give the PC roughly the samedevelopment options.

The first thing to do when you are de-signing a new career is to write down a cou-ple of sentences describing what the char-acter does. Have a read of the careers in thePlayer�s Handbook to see the style and depthof the information that you will need to putin the descriptive text section. Be creativewith this. Try to capture what it is like to beemployed in that career. If a term spent inthis career would be exciting, then mentionthat in some way. If the term is a dead endand essentially a waste of four years of thecharacter�s life, then try to capture that aswell.

The next thing you need to determineis what the prerequisites for this career are;what does the character need before he orshe could even think about doing this job.For this section, perhaps the best thing youcan do is use your common sense. Look atthe careers that people have in the real worldand think about what that person needed toget into that position. Did they have to goto university to get the necessary knowl-edge? Do they have to possess some sort of

physical ability in a particular area? Is it acareer that anybody could pick up regard-less of his or her age or experience base.Use the existing careers as a guide; have alook at what they require of a character andsee if any of the prerequisites listed for simi-lar careers are applicable for the new careeryou are designing.

Once you�ve figured out what a char-acter would need to start in this career, thenext step is work out the skills a characterwould get in his or her first four years onthe job. For the most part, these skills shouldbe fixed; the player should not get to choosewhich skills they want from a list. Of course,there are always exceptions to this rule (forexample, the prisoner career in the MasterEdition).

For the most part, mundane humancareers get 6 skill points in the first term.Empathic careers get 7 points in the first

term. ET Careers or Rogue Darklings get 9points, but they also do not get any second-ary activities, which explains the additionaltwo points. ET careers are only ever allowedas a first term option. A character must starttheir character generation with these termsand then move onto the other career options.Some mundane careers give seven points inthe first term, but these are definitely in theminority. Only give seven skill points if itmakes sense for the career to gain that levelof experience. However, if you are in doubt,only give six points.

Subsequent terms are similar to firstterms, except that they give the player morechoice over the skills they can learn. Again,most careers only give six points worth ofskills in the secondary terms. When work-ing out the list of skills that a player maychoose from, use your common sense. Thinkcarefully about the sorts of skills a charac-ter in the career would pick up and list those.

A good rule of thumb is to list be-tween six and twelve different skills

for the players to choose from. Re-member, the skills listed should berelevant for that career. It would notmake sense for a baker to have SmallArms (Rifle) listed in the subsequentskills list. If you get stuck, just refer tothe Players Handbook and see what

Geoff Skellamslooks at howto design new

careers

House Rules

Making a Career of it

Insert Department Name HereDEMONGROUND Issue 4Page 5 House Rules

some of the other careers have done.Once the skills have been worked out,

the next thing to determine is the numberand type of contacts that a character in thatcareer would gain. Most careers only pro-vide a character with one contact per term.There are exceptions to this rule, but theyare the sorts of careers where the characterwould spend most of his or her time net-working and communicating with other peo-ple. Use your common sense when workingout how many contacts a career should pro-vide. If you are at all in doubt, simply pro-vide one.

Once you have figured out how manycontacts the career will provide a character,you then have to determine what type ofcontacts they are. In Dark Conspiracy, gen-eral contacts are divided into fourteen broadcategories. These are Academic, Business,Criminal, Empathic, Entertainment, Extra-terrestrial, Government, Intelligence Com-munity, Journalism, Law Enforcement,Medical, Military, Specialist or Wealthy. ASpecialist contact usually requires a skilllisted next to it to show what the contact isgood at. Provide contact groups that makesense for your career. For example, a bakerwould probably only list Business contacts,although Government or Criminal might alsomake some sense. An Extraterrestrial, how-ever, would not.

A contact has a chance of being desig-nated as �foreign�. In Dark Conspiracy, aforeign contact need not be from anothercountry. A foreign contact is one that worksin an unusual area of that category. Use thecareers in the Player�s Handbook as a guidefor determining the chance of a foreign con-tact. If you think that a character in that ca-reer would meet a lot of strange peopleworking in esoteric areas, then give a lowertarget number.

The last thing to work out is if thereare any special conditions for that career.Most careers will not have any special casesattached to them. However, a few thingsneed to be taken into consideration:

� If a career is based primarily on a sin-

gle skill, then you should use the levelof that skill for calculating income forthat term, instead of defaulting to thecharacters EDU stat. For example, acomputer programmer uses computeroperation skill, and a gambler uses gam-bling.

� If the career stops the character from

providing some sort of input into soci-ety, then they should not get any moneyfor that term at all. An example of thisis the Prole career, who relies on a cor-poration for all his or her basic needs.

� If the career puts the character in some

sort of danger on a regular basis, thenthe character should be given a +1 toinitiative for any terms served after thefirst.

� If there are any special things that need

to be taken into consideration for thiscareer, then they should be listed in thespecial section as well.By the time you get to this stage, your

new career should be complete.You�re now ready to create a charac-

ter using that career. However, if you are aplayer, you should always have your Ref-eree look over the new career to make surethat he or she feels that it is balanced, andthat they agree with the choices of skills andcontacts that you have provided for thatcareer.

Once you�ve created your new careerand generated your character using it, thenwhy not write it up and submit it toDEMONGROUND so that other playersand referees can get some inspiration fromwhat you have created.

Creating new career options for DarkConspiracy is a relatively straightforward ex-ercise that does not take very long. Withinhalf an hour, you should be able to followthese guidelines and create your own newcareers that will let your character do some-thing that no one has seen before.

�A wise man once said that �goals are just dreams with dead-lines�. The Dark Lords� goals are to destroy humanity and takecontrol of the Earth.

�We have to make sure they miss their deadline by makingthem wish they had never dreamed of coming here.�



Mike Marchipresents some

enhancedcharacter

backgrounds

IntroductionWhile proofreading the Basic edition

player�s handbook, I came across a nota-tion in the section on social class. It saidthat if you select the prole social class, thenyou had to spend your first term in anynumber of largely unsavory careers, amongwhich was the Street Urchin. It was whileviewing the rules in this context that anumber of ideas gelled in my mind. I willget to them all in a moment, but first let mesay, the Street Urchin is an excellent addi-tion to the original DC character generationrules. It covers a class of humanity that hadbeen sorely missing from not only DC, but anumber of other gaming systems as well.The rules for DC seem to assume that onlyresponsible adults will be wading throughthe sewers of this Dark World, in search ofevil infestations to annihilate.

From the experiences with my owngroup, it has become obvious that this is notalways the case. One of our players grewtired of being elected party spokesperson allthe time. His attempt to discourage thistypecast by electing to make his next char-acter a mute, did little to keep the party fromfollowing his silent lead. His more recentattempt has been far more successful, andcoincidentally, far more fun for him as well.He elected Street Urchin as his first term,

and selected it again for a second term. Bythe rules, this means his first term began atage 9, and his second at age 13. To en-hance his unworthiness-to-lead in the eyesof the other players, we opted to end hissecond term, halfway through. The result-ing character, Spike, is a 15-year-old streetkid (actually he�s 16 now, I forgot about hisrecent birthday � congrats on the driver�slicense, kid!). In order to make Spike a re-alistic character, some modifications andspecial interpretations of the rules had to bemade. They form the basis for the mechan-ics of this article.

Recall that when generating a newcharacter, the players need to roll their sta-tistics prior to electing any careers. Thecharacter is assumed to begin this charactergeneration process at the age of 17, and isassumed to have four skills available (eachat level 2). These skills are selected fromthe background activities table, and repre-sent skills the character earned in the proc-ess of growing up. It was this assumptionwhich set off the red flag for me while proof-reading the rulebook. The Street Urchin(added after the initial rules were created)violates this assumption by being a pre-gen-eration career. It seemed to me (and in ret-rospect, I recall imposing this restriction onSpike), that the career of Street Urchin

should replace that background skill set. Ifit were in addition to those backgroundskills, then every player would attempt tomax their character out by taking this es-sentially free career. And so, I instituted aruling in my game that if you wanted to takeSewer Urchin as a career, it had to be yourfirst, and last career choice. I was, in effect,overcompensating for a hole in the systembrought about by the addition of the urchinas a career. But now, I think I see a betterway�

Children in Dark ConspiracyKids. They�re everywhere. Whether

you have one of them, or you are one ofthem, chances are pretty good that a childinfluences your life in some way. Whyshould your Dark Conspiracy universe beany different? The following set of rules isdesigned to provide you with the ability togenerate characters who are still children,as well as providing an alternate, more in-volved way of generating those backgroundskills received prior to age 17.

AttributesRoll up Strength, Constitution, Agil-

ity, Intelligence and Empathy attributes forcharacters as per the normal rules. Educa-

Table 1

Generated Attribute 9 years 11 years 13 years 15 years 17 years

1 1 1 1 1 1

2 1 1 1 2 2

3 1 1 2 2 3

4 2 2 3 3 4

5 2 3 3 4 5

6 3 3 4 5 6

7 3 4 5 6 7

8 4 5 6 7 8

9 4 5 6 8 9

10 5 6 7 9 10

Children in the Shadows


tion is a special case as we will see below.The numbers you have just generated rep-resent the values that this character will havewhen they reach adulthood, and thus arehardly appropriate for a 9-year old. This isespecially true for the three physical stats,Strength, Constitution, and Agility. For sim-plicity, this system assumes that a 9-yearold�s physical attributes are 1/2 the finalvalue they will achieve when they reach theripe-old age of 17 (Intelligence and Empa-thy remain at full levels). And so, the val-ues of the attributes are pro-rated across theeight year span according to Table 1.

The other exception to the default gen-eration rule is Education. The Education ofall 9-year olds is assumed to be 1. Educa-tion advancement is dependent on the child-hood careers available to the character.There are now five childhood careers avail-able, including Street Urchin. The four newcareers are Silver Spoon, Suburban Brat,Underprivileged, and Hayseed. Each ofthese careers has an automatic Educationmodifier, which represents the educationalopportunities available to these generic so-cial classes.

Silver SpoonYou were born to privilege. Your par-

ents wanted for nothing, and saw to it thatyou had every opportunity possible. You re-ceived the best education and spent muchof your free time pursuing leisure activities.Due to your sheltered upbringing, you arenaïve about the ways of the real world.

Entry:Gnome social class, Age 9

First Term Skills:Education 2Act/Bluff 1Computer Operation 1Luck 2Persuasion 1Swimming 1

Subsequent Term Skills:Education 3

A total of four levels from any one or a com-bination of the following (no value mayexceed 2):

AcrobaticsAct/BluffArcheryBusinessComputer OperationHorsemanshipLanguage (foreign)LeadershipMelee CombatNavigationPersuasionSmall ArmsSwimmingVehicle UseVessel Use

Contacts: None

Special: Unlike other careers, charactersare silver spoons before the age of 17, notafter. According to the new expanded rules,characters must begin at age 9. Silver spoonmay not be chosen as a career after age 17,and therefore must be the character�s firstcareer. The die roll to end character gen-eration is never made following a term inthis career. One secondary activity per termis allowed for silver spoons.

Suburban BratYou grew up in the suburbs of a major

metropolitan area and spent much of yourlife in the relative shelter of your commu-nity. Although you haven�t seen much ofthe world, you�ve heard a great many thingsabout what goes on out there (mostly urbanmyths). This tends to make you a little over-confident about how much you really know.Your education was slightly above average.

Entry: Mike social class, Age 9

First Term Skills:Education 2Computer Operation 1Luck 1Observation 1Stealth 2Swimming 1


A total of four levels from any one or a com-bination of the following (no value may ex-ceed 2):

AcrobaticsAct/BluffClimbingComputer OperationsHorsemanshipLanguage (foreign)LeadershipLuckMelee CombatSmall ArmsStealthSwimmingVehicle Use

Contacts: None

Special: Unlike other careers, charactersare suburban brats before the age of 17, notafter. According to the new expanded rules,characters must begin at age 9. Suburbanbrat may not be chosen as a career after age17, and therefore must be the character�sfirst career. The die roll to end charactergeneration is never made following a termin this career. One secondary activity perterm is allowed for suburban brats.


UnderprivilegedYou grew up in the housing projects

and your parents had nothing to call theirown. Your education ended when you werevery young; government funding dried uptoo soon for you to really benefit. Most ofyour life lessons were learned from othersin the projects, or people on the street. Youhave heard just about every hard-luck storyfrom anyone that has ever tried and lost.Somehow, you hope that you won�t sharethe fate of those around you.

Entry: Prole social class, Age 9

First Term Skills:Education 1Luck 1Observation 1Melee Combat 1Stealth 1Streetwise 2



Act/BluffArcheryBargainDisguiseLuckMelee CombatObservationPickpocketStalkingStreetwiseThrown Weapon

Contacts: None

Special: Unlike other careers, charactersare underprivileged before the age of 17, notafter. According to the new expanded rules,characters must begin at age 9. Underprivi-leged may not be chosen as a career afterage 17, and therefore must be the charac-ter�s first career. The die roll to end charac-ter generation is never made following a termin this career. One secondary activity perterm is allowed for underprivileged.

Street UrchinYou don�t remember your parents; your

earliest memories are of running with a�pack� of other homeless children. Few ofthem survived the hazards of street life, butsomehow you did. Maybe you were justsmarter, or quicker, or just luckier than theothers.

Entry:Age 9

First Term Skills:Education 0 (no education)Luck 1Observation 1Pickpocket 1Stealth 2Streetwise 2

Subsequent Term Skills:Education 0 (no education)


Act/BluffBargainDisguiseForeboding (if EMP 1+)ForgeryLeadershipLockpickLuckMelee CombatObservationPickpocketStalkingStealthStreetwiseTracking

Contacts: One per term, criminal.

Special: Unlike other careers, charactersare street urchins before the age of 17, notafter. According to the new expanded rules,characters must begin at age 9. Street ur-chin may not be chosen as a career after age17, and therefore must be the character�sfirst career. The die roll to end charactergeneration is never made following a termin this career. No secondary activities areallowed for street urchins.

HayseedThe countryside has been your home

for as long as you can remember. You�venever seen a city, but have always wonderedwhat they would be like. You grown up withanimals of all kinds, whether that was interms of caring for them, or hunting them.

Entry: Prole or Mike social class, Age 9

First Term Skills:Education 1Animal Empathy 1 (if EMP 1+)Observation 1Horsemanship 1Stealth 1Swimming 1Tracking 1



Animal Empathy (if EMP 1+)ArcheryBiologyForeboding (if EMP 1+)HorsemanshipLuckMechanicMelee CombatObservationSmall ArmsStalkingStealthSwimmingTrackingVehicle Use

Contacts: None

Special: Unlike other careers, charactersare hayseeds before the age of 17, not after.According to the new expanded rules, char-acters must begin at age 9. Hayseed maynot be chosen as a career after age 17, andtherefore must be the character�s first ca-reer. The die roll to end character genera-tion is never made following a term in thiscareer. One secondary activity per term isallowed for hayseed.


MonkMore and more people are feeling in-

creasingly frustrated and unable to cope withthe stresses of life in the modern world.Some urn within themselves for the answers.Monasteries and other similar establishmentsprovide the opportunity to spend time medi-tating and learning the answers to the ques-tion of life from deep within.

Entry: EMP 1+

First Term Skills:+2 EMPHuman Empathy 3Willpower 2Empathic Healing 1

Subsequent Term Skills:A total of seven levels from any one or acombination of the following:

+1 CHR+1 EMPAnimal EmpathyEmpathic HealingForebodingHuman EmpathyObservationProject ThoughtProject EmotionWillpower

Contacts: one empathic per term. Con-tact is foreign on a roll of 8+.

Special: No secondary activities are al-lowed. Only a quarter of the normal start-ing money is received for each term spentas a monk.

HealerSomewhere along the line, you realised

that you had a gift for healing people. Dis-ease is not something that you need to treatwith drugs or surgery; by changing a per-son�s mindset, you can create immediate andpermanent healing in their physical bodies.You have given your time and energy tohelping others, knowing that by healing oth-ers, you heal yourself.

Entry: EMP 2+, Empathic Healing 1+

First Term Skills:+1 EMPEmpathic Healing 2Human Empathy 1Psychology 1Willpower 1

Subsequent Term Skills:A total of seven levels from any one or acombination of the following:

+1 EMPAct/BluffEmpathic HealingHuman EmpathyMedicalProject EmotionProject ThoughtPsychologyWillpowerWillpower Drain

Contacts: one empathic or medical perterm. Contact is foreign on a roll of 8+.

Special: Use Empathic Healing instead ofEDU for calculating starting money.

FirefighterWith the increase in the populations of

the big metroplexes, people are being shovedcloser together. Silly things can happen andfires can start. Unless they are brought un-der control quickly, the death toll can beenormous. You�ve accepted the responsibil-ity to help people get out of danger and tominimize the damage caused by the fire.

Entry: STR 6+, AGL 6+, CON 7+

First Term Skills:+1 STR+1 CONMedical 1Engineer 2Luck 1

Subsequent Term Skills:A total of six levels from any one or a com-bination of the following:

+1 STR+1 AGL+1 CONAcrobaticsChemistryEngineerForeboding (if EMP 1+)LuckObservationPersausionPsychologyWillpower

Contacts: one government or law enforce-ment per term. Roll 1D10 for 10 for thecontact to be foreign.

Special: None.

Chris Carpenter, Geoff Skellams, Ian Sullivan and Lee Williams use the newcareer generation guidelines to extend the options for character creation

New Careers


FixerPeople want stuff that�s hard to get,

especially if it�s illegal. That�s when theycome to you. You know people who knowpeople who can get stuff. You don�t mindacting as a middleman, so long as you get acut of the price. In this business, it�s not whatyou know. It�s definitely who you know andhow well you get on with them.

Entry: CHR 7+, Bargain 3+

First Term Skills:Act/Bluff 1Bargain 3Business 1Luck 1

Subsequent Term Skills:A total of five levels from any one or a com-bination of the following:

Act/BluffBargainBusinessComputer OperationLanguageLuckObservationPersuasionScroungingStreetwise

Contacts: four government, criminal, mili-tary, business or intelligence community perterm. Roll 1D10 for 5+ for the contact to beforeign.

Special: Use Bargain instead of EDU whencalculating starting money. Also, roll onceper term versus Intelligence to avoid cap-ture. If unsuccessful, the next career choicemust be Criminal.

PirateIn the past, you would have plundered

the Spanish Main. Nowadays, speed andstealth are the prime tools of your trade. Youuse powerboats to hit your targets hard andflee to international waters before the coast-guards can intercept you. Your treasure inthese is high-tech goods, and even corpo-rate secrets. At least it�s never dull�

Entry Requirements: At least one Crimi-nal contact.

First Term Skills:Vessel Use (Boat) 2Navigation 1Swimming 1Observation 1Armed Melee 1

Subsequent Term Skills:Any combination of Six levels from the fol-lowing list:

ClimbingElectronicsHeavy WweaponsLockpickLuckMechanicMelee Combat (Unarmed)Melee Combat (Armed)NavigationObservationSmall ArmsStealthSwimmingThrown WeaponVessel Use (Boat or Ship)

Contacts: one per term, Criminal, Law En-forcement. On a D10 roll of 7 or more thecontact is foreign.

Special: For each term served roll 1D10,on a roll of 8+ the character is captured bythe authorities and must spend a term as aPrisoner. +1 to initiative if the characterspends more than one term in this career.Starting money for this career is calculatedby rolling 4D6 per term spent in this serviceand multiplying the total by $1000.

Meter ReaderThe economy may crash, but people

will always need gas, water, and electricity,and the meter reader stands as the utilities�front line in quality service. Fending off hu-man attacks has become as common as dogattacks, and the �unarmed� reader must beprepared for anything. Meter Reading is hardwork, and physical enhancement is an initialresult. There is a high turn-over in readers,and those willing to stay are rewarded withincreased pay and benefits.

Entry: Vehicle Use (Wheeled), INT 4+,CON 5+

First Term Skills:+1 CONComputer Operation 1Lockpick 1Melee Combat (Armed) 1Observation 1Stealth 1Vehicle Use (Wheeled) 1

Subsequent Term Skills:A total of 5 levels from any one or a combi-nation of the following:

+1 AGL (see below)+1 CON (see below)Animal Empathy (if EMP 1+)BusinessComputer OperationLockpickMelee Combat (Armed)ObservationStealthVehicle Use (Wheeled)

Contacts: One per term, business or crimi-nal. No chance for foreign.

Special: The +1 STR and +1 CON for sub-sequent terms cost 2 skill levels each, in-stead of just one.

Income for terms after the first is fig-ured by adding 1 to the controlling attribute(EDU) for every term after the first. (Ex-ample: a character with 3 total terms wouldadd 2 to EDU for figuring income.)


Extending DarkConspiracy�s

skills list withGeoff Skellams

Let�s face it: The skill list in the DarkConspiracy rulebook is pretty short. Thereare a lot of things that it just doesn�t cover.Sometimes, you can bend the definition anexisting skill to fit. But those situations tendto stop game play while you and your Ref-eree argue over which is the most effectiveskill to use and how it is going to work. Ifyou were in the middle of a really tensescene, the atmosphere is going to evaporatefaster than liquid oxygen on a hot barbecueplate.

Possibly the best way to alleviate thisproblem to some extent is to extend the skillslist. There are certainly new skills that couldbe added that would provide extra depth andcolor without ruining the game balance, orbeing overly specific to make them useless.

Here is a list of new skills for DarkConspiracy; some have been adapted fromTwilight: 2000. Fitting them into charactergeneration is left to the referee. Some maybe used to replace skills for certain careers;others may be taken as background skills.Some of these skills may only be learnt dur-ing game play.

Archaeology (EDU): Characters with thisskill have knowledge about the races of an-tiquity. It can be useful when the characteris examining ancient stone carvings or arti-facts. It can also be used to excavate objector corpses and preserve any clues that mayexist.Artistry (INT): Artistry is a cascade skillrepresenting the creation of pieces of art,including Painting, Drawing, Sculpture andComputer Graphics.Astronomy (EDU): Characters with As-tronomy have spent their time studying thestars. Although not a cascade skills, PCsshould choose a specialization, either opti-cal or radio astronomy.Fishing (INT): Fishing allows a characterto catch fish. This can be done either usinga hook and line, or by using nets or traps.

Catching fish is a Difficult task without ad-equate equipment, or an Average one withadequate equipment. Using the skill to con-struct the equipment is a Difficult task.Forensics (EDU): This skill allows a char-acter to examine a crime scene and to de-duce the turn of events from the clues leftthere. If this skill is used in conjunction withPsychology, it can be used to determine themotives of a suspect, based solely on evi-dence at the crime scene.Gunsmith (AGL): A character with thisskill has the ability to make and repair weap-ons. Tasks can include fitting a telescopicsight to a rifle (Average); Fitting a starlightscope (Easy); Constructing a crossbow orcrossbow bolts (Average).Machinist (AGL): This skill gives a char-acter the ability to use machine tools (suchas lathes) to make other machinery.Metallurgy (EDU): The knowledge ofsmelting ore into metal, forming alloys andbasic metalworking. Tasks can include us-ing a smelter to smelt ores (Easy); Forgingobjects given the correct equipment (Aver-age); constructing a forge or smelter withthe right equipment (Average).Meteorology (EDU): The skill gives thecharacter an understanding of weather pat-terns and the forces of nature that give riseto them. Predicting the weather later todayis an Easy task; tomorrow is Average andthe following day is Difficult.Philosophy (EDU): The character is famil-iar with thought and the different ways oflooking at human existence. It also coversthe philosophies of different religions, bothancient and modern. Although not a cascadeskill, a character should choose an area ofspecialty.Photography (EDU): An understanding ofhow to best use a camera to take a photo.This skill also covers the development andmanipulation of photographic images, pro-vided the character has access to darkroomfacilities.

Production (EDU): This is a cascade skillcovering the creation of performance piecesfor the entertainment or education of oth-ers. It includes Film, Television, Radio,Newspapers, Stage, Multimedia and SpecialEffects.Scrounging (INT): The ability to find man-made objects, such as spare parts, ammuni-tion or tools. When a character attempts tofind an object, he or she must specify a searchlocation. The referee will need to determinea difficulty level based on the environmentand the object being sought; the higher thecharacter�s skill in scrounging, the greaterthe chance they have of finding somethingin an unusual place.Scuba (CON): The ability to use underwa-ter breathing apparatus safely. Avoiding amishap while underwater (Easy); Navigationunderwater (Average). This skill may not betaken at a level higher than the charactersswimming skill.Snow Skiing (AGL): This skill gives thecharacter the ability to travel using snowskis.Survival (INT): A character with Survivalis familiar with the techniques required togather food and water and to create shelterwhile trapped in hostile or remote environ-ments. It is a cascade skill and includes Arc-tic, Desert, Tropical, Temperate and Ocean.

Getting Jiggy With It

Insert Department Name here DEMONGROUND Issue 4Adventures

�Forced down in the Australian out-back, our intrepid band must find a way toget their newly acquired gate componentsback to their patron at NASA. Little do theyrealize that they are not the only peoplesearching for these components� and per-haps more importantly, they are not the onlypeople to have found any!�

ForewordThis adventure is the third installment

in a series of adventures begun in Volume 3of DEMONGROUND, with �Pines andSunshine� by Dr. Michael C. LaBossiere,and continued in Volume 4 with �It�s Coldin Space� by Michael H. Wittek.

I can assure you, that this disturbingtendency to have people named Mike writethe chapters of this story will end with thisepisode. The remaining two chapters will notbe written by anyone with the name, Mike,Michael, or any sub-derivation there-of.

Non-Player CharactersRather than rehashing the same mate-

rial over and over as each episode in thisseries progresses, the following is a shortsummary of the major NPC�s that have beencarried over from previous episodes. Youcan refer to the adventure in DG Volume 4

AdventuresOut, Back and Beyond

The VorcekiSaga Part 3

by MikeMarchi

for the detailed information.

� Dr. Karl West (human): Primary/Ini-tial patron - discovered alien DNA inhumans

� Dr. Blake Lansing (Terceki hybrid):Obsessed with finding the gate compo-nents

� Major Janice Reed (Vorceki hybrid):Hot-tempered. She is also obsessedwith finding gate components. To aidher in this quest, she has started a cult.Membership is restricted to Vorcekihybrids.

� Jeff Cohen (human): NASA DeputyMissions Director. He gave the partytheir shot at space. Now that they prac-tically destroyed his precious shuttle,and landed it in the wrong place,�

� Robert �Wolf� Wolfgang Zimmerman(human): Fighter/bodyguard for �TheResistance�

� Dr. Eagon Spangler (human): A loner.Founder of �The Resistance� Contactwith �the dark� caused him to dedicatehis life to fighting it.

A Long Time Ago�Three and a half million years ago, an

ancient alien race known as the Vorceki (thepeople), achieved space flight and discov-ered an even more ancient, even more alien,teleportation network. Using this networkof gateways, the Vorceki combed the gal-axy in search of other intelligent races. Fail-ing that, they settled upon helping primitive,evolving races on the road to more advanceddevelopment.

Around this time, one of the Vorcekiexploration teams discovered the biggestgateway yet - a super gateway capable ofsending travelers not only to other parts ofthe galaxy, but to other dimensions as well.A team of highly qualified explorers was

selected.They entered the gateway, and returned

a short time later. But they were changed bythe experience. A dark influence grippedtheir souls, turning these explorers againsttheir own people. They became known asthe Terceki (ghosts) and set about trying tocontrol the teleportation network to use to-ward their own twisted purpose.

Too late, the Vorceki realized what theTerceki were up to. The only course of ac-tion available was to destroy the gate net-work, in order to prevent the spread of theTerceki�s evil influence. For the most part,they were successful, but their actions leftmany members of both races scattered andstranded forever on distant worlds.

In the process of its destruction, thegateway on earth blew apart into six seg-ments, which were scattered across the faceof the planet. On earth, a few of the Vorcekiand Terceki survived the destruction of thegate.

Realizing that they would not be ableto survive on the earth as the food suppliesran out and their equipment fell apart, bothsides sought desperately for a way to sur-vive and defeat the other. The Terceki tam-pered with the genes of some of the proto-humans and embedded their DNA into thegenetic code of these creatures.

When these beings eventually evolvedinto intelligent life forms, the genetic codeswould become active, triggering genetic�memories� and �programming�. The sur-viving Vorceki learned of this plan when theyfinally defeated the last of the Terceki onearth. The Vorceki, weak and dying, couldnot find and destroy all the infected proto-humans, so they decided to counter by cre-ating hybrids of their own. These proto-hu-mans would bear in their genes the �memo-ries� they would need to continue the fight.

The Recent Past �Millions of years after the tampering

Insert Department Name HereDEMONGROUND Issue 4Page 13 Adventures

of the Terceki and Vorceki, their horrificlabors have finally borne fruit. Some humans,infected with now active Terceki and VorcekiDNA, have set out to find the parts of theancient gate and reactivate it. This yearningis part of their subconscious, but is growingstronger.

The players were first contacted sev-eral months earlier by Dr. Karl West, a phy-sician from the Northeast United States whohad noticed a disturbing increase in the re-cent incidence of birth defects. His researchhad led to the disturbing conclusion that thedefects were not the result of a random mu-tation, but some sort of genetic marker builtinto the DNA of the child�s parents, andpassed on to the child.

They met Dr. Blake Lansing, a col-league of Dr. West�s who had the same ge-netic marker as the deformed children, andclaimed to be plagued by strange dreams.Through Doctor West, the players and Dr.Lansing met briefly with David Beck, a manwho bore the active version of the geneticmarker. His body showed disturbing physi-cal deformities - oddly discolored skin, thicktentacles radiating out from his torso, andin the center of his abdomen, a gaping ra-zor-toothed mouth. David Beck exhibited arather pointed dislike for Dr. Lansing - andwas killed while trying to figure out which

of his two mouths would do a better job ofgutting the good doctor like a fish.

With information found in Beck�shouse, and the help of Dr. Lansing�s dreams,the party found their way to Florida, wherethey discovered a tracking device of alienorigin.

Here, they met Major Janice Reed, amilitary agent for the U.S. Government whoalso appeared to have the alien DNA marker,and also claimed to be plagued by dreams.She arranged for the tracking device to fallinto the party�s hands, on the condition thatthey would inform her if they found any-thing.

Following the signals emitted by thisdetector, they made their way back to Maine,and discovered an enormous gate compo-nent buried in the forest near Beck�s remotecabin.

Yesterday�The party, acting as a specialist team

aboard the STS Shuttle Orbiter arrived quitesuddenly and unexpectedly in Woomera,Australia. The orbiter had been sent to in-tercept an alien spacecraft found drifting pastearth. Upon boarding, the party was shockedto discover not one, but two more compo-nents for the alien gate.

After defeating the guardian robotsprotecting the cargo, they secured the twocomponents aboard the STS and left. Theorbiter was severely damaged by an energybeam from the derelict starship as they madeoff with their prize.

The orbiter plummeted to earth as ahurtling ball of flame. Only the tremendousskill of the pilot allowed them enough con-trol over the crippled STS to make an emer-gency landing at the Australian SpaceCenter.

Today�As soon as the players have finished

with their post-flight decontamination pro-cedures, a specially fitted Boeing 747, bear-ing the NASA logo on its flank, will arriveat the Australian Space Center. The twomost unusual features of the jet are the ex-tra set of stabilizers attached to the tail sec-tion, and the mounting bracket frameworkattached to the upper spine. The special shut-tle-transport 747 taxis up to the featurelessbuilding where the STS Orbiter is currentlyhangared.

The first man off the plane when theportable gangway is rolled up, is Jeff Cohen,the NASA Deputy Missions Director. Adozen men in white clean-room suits followhim, each carrying a case of equipment.Cohen�s steady trek toward the hangar isinterrupted for only a moment to conversewith the armed sentry outside the hangar.His team disappears into the hangar, to be-gin their inspection of the spacecraft.

Jeff Cohen�s primary reason for com-ing to Woomera is to supervise the returnof the STS Orbiter to the States. A team oftechnicians has arrived with him, and theyimmediately begin swarming over the shut-tle with instrumentation and sensors.

It doesn�t take long for the crew to re-port their preliminary findings on the extentof the damage to the spacecraft. Cohen isfurious. The flight crew is separated fromthe party, leaving only the party membersand Dr. Lansing alone to face the wrath ofthe Deputy Missions Director.

For his part, Dr. Lansing is content tosit in the corner of the briefing room staringdown at the gate component locator device


sitting in his lap. Every so often, he acti-vates the device, and listens to the rhythmictone caused by the proximity of the two gatecomponents in the hold of the STS orbiter.Whenever he does this, a faint smile crosseshis lips, and his gaze grows unfocused, as ifhe is deep in thought.

Cohen�s tirade winds up accomplish-ing very little. He paces excitedly around theroom and shouts at the characters, and thenat the walls. Nothing anyone can do willchange the simple fact that the shuttle isgoing to be out of commission for quite sometime.

Eventually, the door to the briefingroom swings open, and three more familiarfigures file in: Dr. Karl West, Dr. EagonSpangler, and Wolf Zimmerman. Spanglerwill speak first, advising Cohen to calmdown, then turn to the characters. He asksthem to relate everything that transpiredaboard the alien ship, paying particular at-tention to the details about the alien bodythey found onboard.

Dr. West is extremely interested in thedescription as well. He starts speculating thatthe creature they found, might be the trueform that the alien DNA that infects Dr.Lansing, Major Reed and the others is striv-ing to achieve. The four large tentacles atthe midline of the disk-shaped body, withfour smaller, more agile tentacles in be-tween� the large mouth structure at thecenter of the abdomen � all sound like thebirth defects and deformities that Dr. Westhad observed. Dr. Lansing seems very un-comfortable with this discussion, and beginspacing around the room, self-consciouslyscratching his stomach through his shirt. (Ifanyone thinks to check, Dr. Lansing has fourred welts forming around his midriff. Rightnow, they resemble a bad case of hives.)

Call from the WastesAt last, the debriefing ends. For the mo-

ment, the group has been returned to thecare of Drs. West and Spangler. Arrange-ments are made for the group to stay for thenight, and a small bus arrives to pick themup and transport them to their hotel.

As the bus turns out along the accessroad from the space center, Lansing flips the

switch on the tracking device again. Thethought of leaving the gate components be-hind, even for a short time, was clearly agi-tating him. For some reason, listening to thefamiliar tones of the tracking device as itconfirms the continued existence of the twocomponents calms him. Even if the playersexpress annoyance over the monotonousdouble-pinging sound, Lansing will refuseto shut off the device. But as the bus rollsthrough the space center gate, and out ontothe open road, the sound begins to change.P-PING � P-PING � P-PING � p-P-PING � p-P-PING � p-P-PING � p-P-PING �

Lansing jumps to his feet, screamingfor the driver to stop the bus. The driver istaken completely by surprise and pulls to theside of the road. Lansing pushes the exit doorroughly open, and begins running out acrossthe barren countryside, holding the trackingdevice out before him. He stops around 100meters away from the bus starts screamingfor the others to join him.

Dr. Blake Lansing is beside himself withexcitement. �Look at this!� he says insist-ently while pointing the device back towardthe base. The characters watch, and listento the familiar double ping that indicates thepresence of the two gate components in thehangar. Then he turns around, pointing thedevice toward the northwest. The double-ping grows softer, and is quickly overshad-owed by a third, stronger signal. �There�sanother one!� Blake cries with glee,�There�s another gate component out there!And it�s not too far away.�

Dangerous VentureThere can be no denying the evidence.

There is something in the outback, to thenorthwest of Woomera that is causing a sig-nal on the gate component locator. Lansingis insistent that the group mounts an expe-dition into the wastes as soon as possible. Ifthere is another component out there, hewants to find it.

When maps of the area are consulted,and compared to the signal strength, theyconclude that the device is located approxi-mately 200 km away, near Mount Eba. Theintervening terrain gets quite rocky, and the

group quickly votes down Lansing�s sug-gestion that they simply drive cross-coun-try to investigate. It is Dr. Spangler whocomes across as the voice of reason in thediscussion.

First of all, the area indicated by thelocator is in what is called the �ProhibitedArea� of the Woomera Test Range. The fa-cility at Woomera is not only a rocket launchfacility, but also a weapons test range. Thesensitive nature of these operations forbidstravel in these regions whenever a test isactive or pending. As it turns out, there is asatellite launch slated two days hence.

The Referee is encouraged to have theplayers work through attempting to gainaccess to the Prohibited Area. The only waythey will get access is if they can get clear-ance from the Australian space center ad-ministrators. They are extremely reluctantto grant passage to the players. Dr. Spanglerwill attempt to pressure the administratorfrom his end, while Dr. West will try to en-list the aid of Cohen.

In the end, the group will be grantedlimited access. The administrators refuse todelay the launch of the satellite, and will in-sist that if the group should fly into the Pro-hibited Area, that they be out of there within24 hours.

The helicopter that is assigned to thegroup is a Mil Mi-17 Hip H, (a large trans-port craft of Russian design). Their pilot isGeoff Dundee, a grim man who is an ex-tremely competent pilot and a long-stand-ing officer in the Australian Air Force. Dun-dee understands the situation. He agrees tofly the group into the Prohibited Area, butthey must dust off from the landing site by18:30 hours the following day in order tobeat the no-fly-zone deadline. He will insistupon following that guideline, and will notfly the chopper after that time.

Referee�s Note: The preparations forthe expedition need to be made relativelyquickly. Make sure the group is realistic intheir timing. They have 24-hours. They mustequip themselves, fly to the site, locate thecomponent, load it into harness and fly itback to Woomera. Dr. Lansing will abso-lutely force the issue. They must leavesooner, rather than later. Waiting for the


three-day launch blackout to pass is not ac-ceptable to him.

DepartureDr. Spangler will assign Wolf

Zimmerman to accompany the group on the

mission. Wolf is good in a fight, and willmake sure that the players and Dr. Lansingoperate in the best interests of the overallmission. Provide Zimmerman with at leastas much firepower as your best-equippedplayer.

Geoff suggests that Morgan Scrimshawwould be a good addition to the team. He isa heavy-load specialist with whom he hasworked in the past. Based on the size of theprevious components, Lansing reluctantlyagrees that a heavy payload specialist mightbe a benefit.

At the appointed time, the group willassemble. The Players, Dr. Lansing, WolfZimmerman, Geoff Dundee and MorganScrimshaw will board the Mil. The massivehelicopter will come to life and rise like aleviathan into the sky, steadying itself foronly a moment before tipping forward andclimbing into the northwest sky.

Interlude: Major Reed�sArrival

A half-hour after the helicopter departsthe Woomera space center, a Boeing C-17Globemaster III cargo plane will land atthe Woomera facility. Major Janice Reed,U.S. government agent, (and Voceki/humanhybrid with whom the party has had deal-ings in the past), will arrive on the scenewith a team of a dozen mercenaries.

She had hoped to intercept and debriefthe party, and is quite upset to learn thatthey have already left. When Dr. West in-forms her that the group has tracked downanother gate component, she grows intro-spective, and seems lost in thought. Sheturns around and strides purposefully outof the meeting�

Near MissThe majority of the flight out to Mt.

Eba is uneventful. Dundee flies the Mi-17expertly over the test range, passing overincreasingly rocky terrain. The outback ofthe prohibited area is far from lifeless. Sev-eral rivers cut deep into the surroundinglandscape, wildlife of every description fleesbeneath them as the helicopter flies by at analtitude of only a few hundred feet.

At one point, Dundee points down atan aborigine hunting party, whose cover isblown by the passing �copter. Dundee chuck-les to himself as the unsuspecting prey scat-ters beneath them.

Mt. Eba, is an ambitious name for the

Mil Mi-17 Hip HPowerplant: two 1,270 kW (1,703 shp) Isotov TV2-117A turboshaftsDimensions: length 25.24 m ( 82ft 9.5in); height 5.65m (18ft 6.5 in); main

rotor diameter 29.29m (69 ft 10.5 in)Weights: take-off (�clean�) 11,100 kg (24,470 lb); MTOW 12,000 kg

(26,455 lb)Performance: max level speed at 1,000 m (3,280 ft) 260 km/h (161 mph);

service ceiling 4,500 m (14, 760 ft)Armament: this is carried on two outriggers extending from the fuselage

sides, and comprises four launchers each carrying 32.55mm(2.17 in) rockets.

Boeing C-17A Globemaster IIIPower Plant Four Pratt & Whitney F117-PW-100 turbofan

enginesThrust 44,400 pounds per engineCruise Speed 540 (Mach 0.77) normal, 575 mph (Mach 0.87)

maxTake Off/Land Distances 7,740 feet at max gross weight 3,000 feet with

160,000 pound loadRange Unlimited with in-flight refuelingFuel Capacity 181,054 pounds (28,000 gallons)Operating Weight 276,000 poundsMax. Takeoff Weight 585,000 poundsWingspan 170 feet, 9 inches (to winglet tips)Length 173 feet, 11 inchesHeight At Tail 55 feetTailspan 65 feetCargo Compartment Size Height: 12 feet, 4 inches forward of the wing;

Height: 13 feet, 6 inches aft of the wing;Width: 18 feet;length: 85 feet (inc. aft ramp)

Number of 463L Pallets 18Number of Seats 54 (27 sidewall seats on each side)Maximum Payload 70,400 poundsBasic Crew Three (pilot, copilot, loadmaster)


rocky outcropping that rises only a littlemore sharply and slightly higher than the sur-rounding terrain. Dundee throttles back asthey approach within 15 minutes of theirtarget. Dr. Lansing has the tracking deviceturned on again, and is busy trying to trian-gulate the exact location of the component.The party has little choice, but to sit withWolf Zimmerman and scan the surroundingcountryside through the small porthole win-dows set in the flank of the aircraft.

Suddenly, the helicopter pitches dras-tically to port, the whine of the twinturboshafts rising to a keening cry as Dun-dee frantically maxes out the throttle. Anycharacter who isn�t strapped into a seatshould make a Difficult: Acrobatics roll toavoid being thrown around the cabin. (If thecharacter doesn�t have Acrobatics, it is aFormidable: Agility check. If the characteris strapped in, the task changes to Easy, witha mishap causing the player to rap their headagainst the bulkhead next to their seat).

Anyone who looks out the window willsee an ultralight airplane pass beneath them.The starboard wingtip of the ultralight ap-pears to be damaged, torn fabric flaps in thewind as the pilot frantically tries to retaincontrol from the downwash of the helicop-ter.

Swearing an oath, Dundee turns thehelio around and begins pursuing the reck-less pilot who popped suddenly up in frontof him. The tattered flap of fabric on theouter wing continues to tear as the ultralightpilot boosts the throttle and attempts tomake a run for home. The helicopter pur-sues the pilot into a nearby valley.

There, the pilot touches down on awell-used dirt runway, and taxis toward afenced compound, which appears to be ajunkyard of some kind. Before Dundee candecide the best way to teach the pilot a les-son, Lansing enters the cockpit and insiststhat he discontinue this pointless game ofcat and mouse. The helicopter pilot looksinto the driven stare of Dr. Blake Lansing,and turns the Mi-17 back toward the sourceof the signal.

The �People�The arrival at the base of Mt. Eba is

anticlimactic. There is a small settlement ofaborigine bark huts nearby. Dundee lands thehelicopter, and the PCs get out. Lansing re-activates the gate locator, and indicates thata worn path leading into the lowland regionat the base of the mountain appears to betheir target.

The aborigines in this tribe are paintedwith many decorative tattoos and othermarkings. The center of their stomach ispainted with an elaborate circle with crossedlines meeting at the center, like bicyclespokes. Around their midriff, wavy linesstretch both upward along the chest anddownward along the legs. Their chests arepainted with several sets of paired circularmarkings, like additional sets of eyes.

The players will have no way of know-ing from just looking at the natives that al-low themselves to be seen, but this entiretribe consists of Vorceki/Human hybrids -like Major Reed. Only the genes that wereimplanted in these people have been activefor several generations. The odd tattoos andmarkings emulate the physical manifestationsof the true Vorceki form. Rest assured, thereare members of this tribe, who have not re-vealed themselves, who do not need the paintto show these markings. All anyone can tellis that this tribe appears to have a uniquecostume.

Dr. Lansing, of course can sense some-thing more. He is after all, Terceki, and theclosest thing these people have to a naturalenemy. The tribe, of course recognizes himas a threat to them. And deep down inside,they know it has something to do with whatlies in the clearing beyond the worn path.

ComponentThe group will have to find some way

to get down that path. The aborigines in thevillage are the most �human� of the tribemembers. They are ill-equipped to assaultan armed squad of adventurers. A simpledemonstration of strength will be enough tosend them scattering into the surroundinghills.

At the center of the clearing, a hugesmooth stone object rests, buried in theground. The silver-black rock forms asmooth �altar� upon which this tribe of

Vorceki hybrids performs their own brandof religious ritual. It is also the gate compo-nent which they seek.

The gate component is the huge cen-tral piece of the gate structure. Normally, asolid object the size of this component wouldbe impossible to be lifted by a helicopter, oreven carried by truck. But the material fromwhich these components are constructed hassome special properties which either pro-duce extremely low density, or somehowcounteract the force of gravity in such a waythat the object appears considerably lighterthan it should be.

Scrimshaw immediately begins check-ing out the object to see how best to hook itup to the helicopter. It is decided that a har-ness wrapped around the long axis of thepiece, just outboard of the rounded areawould be most effective. The only problemis getting the lifting straps under and aroundthe artifact. There is no choice but for theplayers to dig. This action will take time.No matter how much time they have, whenthey start digging, they will be within 1/2hour of their deadline when Scrimshaw an-nounces that he can start hooking up the gatecomponent.

Interlude: The UnexpectedGift

Major Janice Reed paced back andforth with increased agitation. Dr. Spanglerwatched her with interest as she grabbedher cell phone and dialed out for yet an-other status report. �Where the hell arethey?� she snapped, yet again. �They�realmost out of time.�

Spangler does his best to console her,but fails. Ever since she had tried to getclearance to fly into the Prohibited Area inpursuit of Black Lansing and his party, shehas been on the warpath. The deadline forthe airspace lockdown was less than a half-hour away � too soon to reach Mt. Ebaand return. So her request had been cat-egorically denied.

Suddenly the door of the briefing roombanged open, and Dr. West entered the roomfollowed by Jeffrey Cohen. �What is themeaning of this, Major?� demanded the


Deputy Mission Director. �Why are yourpeople taking the alien artifacts from theshuttle?�

Major Reed turns back. �Mr. Cohen.I�m sure you can appreciate the concept ofNational Security. We are taking possessionof the artifacts. We�ll put them in the C-17and transport them back to the UnitedStates.�

The argument which ensues, lasts forseveral minutes, until the Major�s cell-phonerings. She listens for a few moments and thenshouts an exclamation of anger. �WHAT!?�She resumes pacing. �We can�t allow that.This is getting out of hand.� She listens fora full minute this time, occasionally sighingor shaking her head ever so slightly. �Allright, this is what I want you to do. Thatstone must not be allowed to leave the val-ley. You know what to do. Don�t worryabout it. There is nothing they can do to harmthe artifact.�

Dr. West looks expectantly at the Ma-jor. When no explanation appears to beforthcoming, he prods her slightly. �What isit, Major?�

�It is nothing. It has been taken careof.�

A moment later, a series of warningklaxons start buzzing out on the test range,followed by a short report, and a high-pitched whooshing sound that quickly fades,doppler-shifted into the distance.

Cohen�s face goes white. �My god.What have you done?�

LockdownThe downwash from the Mi-17 is tre-

mendous. Geoff Dundee maneuvers the craftinto position over the altar stone even asMorgan Scrimshaw attaches the last of thelifting straps to the cable harness. The play-ers have been digging in the dirt around thesilver-black stone for well over two hours.They finally managed to clear enough of theobject to allow the heavy-load specialist tothread the lifting straps around the massivecomponent. The players continue to standguard on the perimeter, keeping a watchfuleye for the aborigine tribe.

At last, Scrimshaw steps back andshouts a command into his walkie talkie.

Wolf Zimmerman, working the winch insidethe Helicopter, swears under his breath asthe cable slips momentarily through the cleat,before catching and allowing the liftingstraps to grow taut.

The whine of the turbofans above risesanother octave, and the dust storm causedby the downwash flares up yet again, threat-ening to blind everyone on the ground. Thestraps begin to stretch ever so slightly. Fora moment, it seems as if the straps will snapbefore the earth gives up its prize.

The players all stand back, saying a si-lent prayer for success. Suddenly, there is adistinct sucking sound, and the massive sil-ver-black altar stone begins to rise out ofthe ground. The block continues to climbupward. Fiery orange sunlight stabs over thehorizon, catching on the whirring rotors ofthe aircraft. Morgan is doing a happy-danceand shouting excitedly into his portable ra-dio.

Without warning it came. Nobody iscertain if Geoff Dundee even heard a warn-ing signal of any kind. Nor are the certainwhether or not Wolf Zimmerman received

any sort of heads-up from his commandingofficer.

All they know, is one second, the Mi-17 Helicopter was flying overhead, bearingtheir prize and doing so with a full ten min-utes to spare in their project timeline�.andthe next, a streak of white flashed out of thesoutheast, and struck the craft amidships. Itis a miracle that the PCs survive the result-ing ball of fire erupting over their heads. Itis another miracle that the cloud of flamingwreckage and debris manages to miss themall. And it is an even greater miracle thatnobody is crushed by the fall of the massivealtar stone.

Everyone stares dumbfounded for sev-eral minutes at the flaming wreckage thathad been their only transportation. The al-tar stone seems to have crashed to theground, no worse for the experience. It hascreated a very minor impact crater in thedusty ground below�a major improvementover the half buried state it had been in ascant five minutes sooner.

The clock ticks onward, past 18:30 andcontinues on. The group has missed their


deadline. They are now under a three-dayair traffic lockdown. Their long-range com-munications equipment went down with thehelicopter, and they lost a perfectly goodpilot and a trained mercenary to boot.

The JunkmanA whoop of triumph echoes from the

surrounding cliffs. The aborigine tribe is cel-ebrating their good fortune. Somehow, thespirits have answered their prayers andstopped the intruders from stealing their pre-cious altar.

Scrimshaw goes pale when he hears thecries of the aborigines. �I hate to point thisout, but that was our ride home.� He ges-tures toward the cliffs. �It will get dark soon.The natives will not allow us to just stayhere on their holy ground. They will kill usif we don�t leave.�

Blake Lansing stumbles forward andputs both his hands against the smooth, stonesurface. �We have to get this out of here.�

There will likely be much debate as towhat the group should do next. Unless theycan come up with some way to move thestone, they will have to abandon it here, andbegin a three-day trek across the outback.If the players don�t think of it, have Lansingmake the suggestion. �The man in theultralight plane we passed on the wayhere�surely he would have some way forus to make contact with our people inWoomera.�

The party is going to have to split upto get to Fred Stafford, the junkman whothey practically knocked out of the sky.Fred�s compound is located at least an hour�swalk from the aborigine village. As long asDr. Lansing stays by the gate component, itis unlikely that the party members travellingcross-country will be attacked (by the tribe,anyway).

Fred�s compound is fenced off and pa-trolled by a half-dozen ragged-looking col-lection of semi-wild dogs. The dogs will barkat the approach of any living creature, rais-ing a very effective alarm.

The badly corroded chain-link fence is8 feet high, and topped with a loop of barbedwire. It completely encircles the 1/2 acre plotof land that Fred Stafford calls home. There

is a medium-sized house trailer located inthe center of the compound, next to atwenty-foot water tower and a corrugatedtin lean-to beneath which he parks his vehi-cles.

The outer rim of the yard is a collec-tion of junk piles. Rusty, broken parts litterthe ground in piles ranging from singlepieces, up to six or more feet in height. Thereis a very large gate at the end of a long,straight driveway, which probably doublesas runway for the ultralight. The motorizedgate swings wide enough open to allow thefull wingspan of the small plane to passthrough the gap.

Fred Stafford is in a really foul mood.The PCs did after all practically kill him. Hehas a number of vehicles in his �collection�that actually function. The largest vehiclethat Fred has in his collection is an oldCzech-built Tatra T815 8x8.

Fred doesn�t even realize it, but he has

been drawn to this region because of theproximity to the aboriginal �altar� stone. TheVorceki-hybrid tribe of aborigines had aninstinctive reaction of hatred toward Staf-ford. Over the years, they have made sev-eral attempts to get into his compound, andrid themselves of the perceived threat thathis heritage presented to them.

Remember that the players will haveno way of verifying if Stafford is a full hu-man, or an alien hybrid. He shows no physi-cal manifestations of the genetic tampering.Therefore, Stafford will make a big show ofasking what kind of payment the players canprovide. When it gets right down to it, some-thing deep down inside him really wants tohelp get that altar stone onto the back of histruck, and get it away from here. It�s almostas if it was the whole reason for acquiringthe vehicle in the first place.

With this in mind, it is pretty much aforegone conclusion that not only will he

Fred StaffordLevel: EliteInitiative: 4Skills: As per Elite NPC, plus Mechanic 3, Small Arms (Rifle) 4, Ac-

robatics 1, Stealth 1, Vehicle Use (Wheeled) 4, Vehicle Use(Heavy) 2, Pilot (Fixed-Wing) 3, Navigation 2, Engineer 2,Bargain 4, Persuasion 2.

Fred is a Terceki/Human hybrid. His genetic material is stable and giveshim excellent physical and mental capabilities; he shows absolutely no physi-cal sign of the alien influence. Only a complete blood workup (which is notcurrently possible) would reveal a positive test for the DNA fragments.

Fred has suffered vivid nightmares his entire life. He cannot explain whyhe has chosen to become a hermit living in the Australian outback. Nor can hetell you why he chose this place, or why he receives these overpowering urgesto collect vehicles.

Apart from his now-damaged ultralight airplane, Stafford has a Hummer,equipped with a crane and winch. He also has a large Caterpillar Bulldozer.But his pride and joy is a Czechoslovakian Tatra T815 8-wheel drive truck.The Tatra is the fourth iteration of his personal vehicular obsession with size.He started with a Chrysler Conestoga 5/4 Ton Pickup Truck. Within a fewmonths, he decided the pickup wasn�t large enough and traded it in on a sec-ond Hummer. Several months later, the Hummer was replaced by an Orca 2½Ton Truck, and still he felt incomplete. It wasn�t until he saw the Tatra; amassive all-wheel-drive vehicle with a 7½ Ton cargo capacity, that he felt hecould be satisfied.


allow the party to use the Tatra, but willvolunteer to drive it for them too. Of course,any payment they manage to �bribe� himwith, will be a welcome side-effect of thebargaining process.

The High RoadGetting the Gate Component up on the

truck is easier than anyone imagines. Some-times, the device just seems to want to floatunder its own power. A simple ramp up theback of the truck, and a hookup to the winchgives more than enough lift to slide the com-ponent up onto the Tatra. Within a few min-utes, the canvas tarp is secured overthe bed of the truck, and the partyis ready to begin the long trek backto Woomera.

According to Stafford, thereare two possible routes that mightget the group back to Woomera.Both should be passable by theTatra, but he is concerned that theriver bed which they must traverseon the lowland route might be aflood-stage in some areas. He rec-ommends the party takes the high-passage over the mountains. It willbe a little slower, but the truck ismore than capable.

The rocky pass is a very nar-row road. During the entire trip, thesteady drone of the V12 engine istheir constant companion. The PCswill be constantly assaulted by thefeeling that they are being watched.

They will start scanning the rocky cliffs oneither side of them for any sign of pursuit.

After about an hour of travel, they willcome to a ravine. The bridge that spannedthe ravine is out�and based on the cloudof residual dust still hanging in the air aroundthe site, it collapsed within the last few min-utes!Referee�s Note: If you would prefer, havethe aborigines merely sabotage the bridgeso that the moment the truck begis to cross,the bridge starts to collapse. You can usethis to great cinematic effect by playing upthe PCs� attempts to reverse direction be-fore plummeting into the gorge.

The first aborigine attack will take placeat this point. The first attacks will take placewith spears and throwing sticks. As long asthe players stay within the confines of thetruck, they should stay relatively safe.

The main danger is that a spear mightpenetrate one of the massive wheels of thetruck. The vehicle is capable of operatingwith any one wheel on either side, flat. Itcan even operate with two wheels from thesame side, as long as the missing wheels arenot the front two, or the back two wheels.The truck is equipped with only two sparetires!

Due to the narrow nature of the road,it will be very difficult to turn the truckaround. They will have to back it up at leasta half-mile before coming to a wide-enoughplace. The group has little choice than toturn back and try the lowland route.

Haven�t We Been HereBefore?

Upon returning to the crossroads be-tween the High Road and the Low Road,the truck is attacked again. This time, theattack is more vicious. In order to begin giv-ing the players the feeling that they are be-ing hunted, now is a good place forScrimshaw to be killed. How you off the

Tatra T815 8x8Description: crew cab + sleeper truck with drop-side tray, 6 seats, 4

doorsDimensions: 10.36m (34�), width 2.5m (8� 3�)Ground clearance: 0.4m (16")Weight: 15,000kg (34,000lbs) (unladen), max load 15,000kg

(34,000lbs)Engine: multi-fuel V12 air-cooled engineTransmission: 5 speed gearbox with 2-speed transfer caseSuspension: independent by swinging-arms & leaf springs.Max speed: 80kph (52mph)


poor bastard is left to the imagination of theReferee.

The Low RoadA river valley, or a shore along water.

The travel here is much slower going. Thereis no actual road to speak of. Quite often,they truck will have to ride along the river-bed itself, slogging along through water thatreaches anywhere from the bottom of theirrims, to the underside of the cab windows.

The Vorceki are amphibious. TheVorceki/Human hybrids have gill slits andare able to breathe underwater. There are atleast a dozen aborigine/Vorceki warriorstracking the progress of the party. They cansense that Stafford and Lansing are on thetruck. They will stop at nothing to try topick those two off.

Dark HuntThe players shouldn�t realize what is

attacking them. At points where the truck isforced into the water, many things seem tohappen. Several times, the undercarriage ofthe truck gets hung up on unseen obstacles.This causes the truck to grind to a halt. Thetruck can be freed on an Average task vs.Heavy Vehicle by rocking it in forward andreverse.

The Referee is encouraged to play upthe paranoia of the hunt at this point. Theiramphibious quarry can pull of gas caps, caus-ing water to get into the gas tank. They cantry to slice the tires of the Tatra. They caneven use open windows or the fact that it�sonly a canvas tarp over the back of the truckto effectively attack. The full Vorceki hy-brids are formidable opponents. They cangrapple their target with the tentacles aroundtheir midriff, while performing two simulta-neous bite attacks. The bite from the lowermouth is quite nasty, inflicting 3D6 of dam-age if the victim is held securely in the ten-tacle grip. The upper mouth does only 1D6.

The Vorceki should ultimately succeedin getting Fred Stafford. Again, this is leftto the imagination of the Referee. One sug-gestion would be to have the truck hit adropoff in the riverbed, and list suddenly toone side. A Vorceki warrior in the water can

smash the window next to Stafford, and pullhim out - killing him in short order.

Final StandThe harassing attacks of the Vorceki

will continue. The players will eventually re-alize that it is the aborigines who are hunt-ing them, and they are after Dr. Lansing. Thisshould be a major dilemma for the party;they can�t just toss Dr. Lansing overboard.

Throughout the trip down the river, hehas been going on about having seen all thisin a dream. His nightmares have foretold ofthis conflict, and he must live to see the gatecomponents fully assembled. If all else fails,have him point out that at this point, he isthe only Terceki that they know. They maynot even have the same motivations as he.Play on their fear of the unknown.

After 160km of travel, the river bedwidens, to allow the truck to climb out ontohigher ground. The attacks will end at thispoint (The Vorceki would also stop attack-ing if Lansing and Stafford are both killedand the players push the stone off the truck,or in some other way abandon the gate com-ponent).

As the truck attempts to pull out forthe last time, it gets hung up on somethingin the water. The wheels spin uselessly onthe steep bank. If the truck were to leavethe water, the Vorceki will have lost theiradvantage. One last all-out assault will bevisited upon the players at this point.

During the course of that battle, Dr.Lansing will suddenly cry out in agony. Hestarts screaming. �It�s me they want!� Hestarts shouting out the windows at the at-tacking hybrids. �You�ve won this battle.You�ve taken them all away from me! Butit won�t matter. You�ll never win the war!�Anyone watching will see that the skin be-neath his shirt appears to be writhing mov-ing with a life of its own. A giant spot ofblood will appear in the center of his stom-ach, and he will rip the shirt from his chest,revealing his mutating flesh. �Don�t let themget this piece too! I beg you all. Guard itwith your lives!�

Doctor Blake Lansing is no longer en-tirely human. An uncontrolled rage will over-take him and he will make every attempt to

get out of the truck and attack the pursuingVorceki. If anyone tries to stop him, he willturn on the party member and attack withthe same ferocity of any of the aboriginewarriors. Dr. Lansing is set upon by the re-maining warriors, and they all disappear intothe murky depths of the water. A momentlater, the truck finds purchase, and powersits way out of the river bed onto dry land.

As mentioned earlier, once they clearthe riverbed, and are able to travel freelyoverland, the threat of the Vorceki hybridsis essentially ended. The players will haveeffectively survived the gauntlet, and will befree to complete their journey.

Return to WoomeraArrival back at the Woomera Space

Center should be a triumphant return. Un-fortunately, their celebration is short-lived.

Upon their return, the party learns thatMajor Janice Reed has come and gone. Shearrived with a large transport aircraft, con-fiscated the two gate components, and tookoff again. One of the workers who helpedload the components thought it was odd thatthere was already another piece in the trans-port that seemed to be made of the samematerial. It appears that Reed has the archedtop component that the group first discov-ered with her as well.

The party also learns that it was MajorReed who ordered the missile strike whichdestroyed their helicopter. West andSpangler alone, remain to pass this infor-mation on. Cohen and his team have securedthe shuttle to the top of the 747 transport,and are preparing to return to the States.

DepartureWhen all the fervor dies down, Dr.

Spangler will receive an anonymous phonecall. He will speak for several moments, andthen thank the person and hang up. �We�vegot a trace on Reed�s C-17. They went toAukland, New Zealand.�

To be continued�

Insert Department Name HereDEMONGROUND Issue 4Page 21 Dark Races

EyalFaingersh

takes a lookat the Dark

Elves

The Draoling sat down on the cold,barren ground and wiped the blood from hislips. The taste of the stranger was awful,but that was better then starving to death.Droughts were a frequent phenomenon inthe plains and cannibalism was essential tosurvive.

Most of the time, his clan preyed uponlone strangers that seemed to pass by orweaker groups of Draolings. He still remem-bered how he negotiated once with a largerclan, giving them the old and useless mem-bers of his own, those who could not fightor breed anymore� his parents amongstthem. He remembered how he had smashedthe skull of the female that gave birth to him,without regret borne out of the need for self-preservation.

Now he was sitting alone, away fromhis primitive, animalistic brethren who werefighting over the remains of the stranger.Sitting and thinking about the Humans, theones who were responsible for this miser-able savage existence. And hatred burnt likethe fires of hell inside him.

If he could only reach them, lookinginto their eyes, as he slow killed each one ofthem, absorb the horror that reflected theirsurprised expression and feel the warm bloodflowing from their wounds. But he couldn�t,no matter how he tried, there was alwaysthat barrier that prevented him from reach-

ing them, instead he could only watch.At times, when the winds grew

stronger, he could see into the human realmeasily, viewing their world as if he himselfwas right there. Sometimes, he could pusha little further through the barrier, and whis-per into the human world� to a lone per-son in the quiet darkness. He would speakwords of the hatred that burnt inside himand tell of the slow painful death that per-son would receive. In the end he wouldslowly by surely drive his victim into panicand madness.

The hunger for humanity rose againinside of him and he felt the need to try andagain peek into the human realm, watch andlearn, and if he was lucky enough, whisperonce again to one of them. He closed hiseyes, thinking of earth, allowing the hatredto fuel his efforts to glance into the cursedrealm�

And there it was. Clear and withinreach, as if someone removed� the Bar-rier! The Draoling jumped back in shock.The barrier was no more! Somehow it wasgone, as if removed � nothing now stand-ing between him and� the Prey! Concen-trating harder he opened a portal into hisfavorite spot - An alleyway in the city wherehe had once only watched.

Opening this gate was almost as easyas opening one onto the other Draolingrealms. This was an opportunity he mustseize immediately. One last glance at thesavage animals that were his brethren wasenough, deciding never to return to this placeagain. With that one thought, he enteredthe portal.

Somewhere in a one of earth�s vastmetroplexes, in a dark dirty alley full of lurk-ing shadows, a place where drug addicts liein the mud watching the night skies andmurderers disposed of their corpses, a por-tal from another dimension was opens anda Dark Elf entered our world.

ArcadiaHistory

The mythical Elves of the medieval eraare no more. Truly there once existed a raceof gentle humanoids. Their hair bright andlong as the rays of spring�s sun, their almondshaped eyes as green as the grass of the vastplains. Childlike in appearance they broughtcheer and delight to a lucky witness of theirjoyful celebrations in the clears of the an-cient endless forests of medieval Europe.These Elves were fragile and peaceful be-ings, good natured and shy, but also naiveand trustful. It was this last virtue, trust, thatwas be become the Elves downfall.

Hundreds of years passed while theElves kept out of the reach of humans, us-ing their powerful Empathic talents theyeluded the Knights who hunted them andtricked the Sorcerers who tried to capturethem.

But the friendly race yearned for con-tact, even if the humans were still primitive,savage and untrustworthy, The Elven natureof sociability and adventure eventually re-pressed these warning signs and soon theElves contacted humans with the childishcheer and delight.

Kings and Sorcerers were contactedfirst, but many were not as eager to intro-duce their new friends to the rest of theworld. Instead many began to take advan-tage of their elven friends, preying on theirtrustful nature to learn as much as possiblefrom their magicks and even tricking theminto allowing humans into Arcadia, the homedimension of the delicate race.

As with everything mankind touches,Arcadia was soon no more.

There are no records of the events be-fore or after the contact with the Elves inHuman history, other than some mytholo-gies of northern Europe mentioning a par-ticular Sorcerer or Knight who launched acampaign to invade Arcadia.

Dark Races

Draolings

Insert Department Name here DEMONGROUND Issue 4Dark Races

What really occurred is known only tothe descendants of those that survived thedemise of Arcadia. However the one andonly fact that has any significance in thepresent era is the blame rests solely on thehuman race for the terrible disaster that hap-pened a thousand years ago.

The PresentThe dimension of Arcadia has been

fragmented a millenium ago as a result ofintrusions of the humans. What was once afertile world has now been ripped apart tobecome numerous protodimensions, allsplinterlands. These protodimensions differfrom each other in both terrain and theirgoverning environmental and physical lawsand yet still share three characteristics thatmake them similar to each other.

The First is their inhabitants, the DarkElves (the normal dark elves, and their ani-malistic brethren). The Second is the Hos-tile environment (survival is possible, butfood is scarce and life is hard), and the thirdare the remains of the once magnificentArcadia. These monuments remain as re-minders of mankind�s betrayal and the Elvesfuture redemption.

Dark ElvesTwo types of dark elves exist. Both are

descendents of the original race that lived inarcadia during the time of the human invad-ers.

Most common are the crossbreeds withthe humans creating an animalistic savagesrace that roams the remains of Arcadia.These creatures are similar to the dark elvesfrom the rulebooks, except for a fairly lowINT and EDU while retaining their high Em-pathy. They are violent and irrational andare usually led by more intelligent clan mem-bers. These clan members are the Dark Elvesthat are presented in the Dark ConspiracyReferee�s Guide.

These individuals seem to be no morethan a hand full of the total population.Unlike their barbaric brethren, who share anancient hatred they cannot understand to-wards humanity, the Intelligent Dark Elvesknow parts if not all the story behind the

demise of Arcadia.These Dark Elves try, whenever it is

possible, to peek into earth�s dimension,watching and learning about their most hatedenemy. In fact many spend so much time andeffort to learning as much as possible abouthumans and earth, that if they are ever ableto travel here, they already have expansiveknowledge of us and find it simple to min-gle with human society.

Since they are fairly intelligent, theDark Elves do not just go on a killing ram-page upon reaching Earth but rather try touse their high charisma and empathic talentsto acquire power and doing what dark elvesdo better than anyone else� Trouble.

The Dark Elven language, surprisingly,is English. There is of course the languageof the primitive Elves, which consists mostlyof grunts and gestures, but the intelligentElves learned learned most of their knowl-edge from observing North America andhave adopted the English language� proofthat English is not only an international lan-guage, but also interdimentional.

DimensionsName: Barren RockType: Splinterland,sphereDiscontinuity: 1Assimilation EffectValue: 0

Barren Rockis possibly thelargest fragmentof Arcadia. Thewhole dimensionis an endlessdesert of grayrocky soil,which is blownaround by strongcold winds.

There are alsooasis� in this desertenviron, small islandsof wet soil near muddyswamps that are scat-tered here and thereacross the dimension.These swamps are pro-

tected by various clans who claim desperateownership over these life giving properties,fighting to the death against any who wouldtry and take them.

The inhabitants are mostly the barbaric,primitive Elves, the more intelligent Elvespreferring to migrate to another more hab-itable dimensions, or to earth. There is how-ever one advantage in living on �BarrenRock�: its low discontinuity allowing easyaccess to Earth. Therefore it has become abridge between Earth and the other dimen-sions populated by Dark Elves. (Clairvoy-ance into Earth is easier too).

The intelligent Dark Elves seem to haveno interest in their primitive brethren thatdwell in Barren Rock, nor do they seem tokeep an eye on whatever happens there. Butseeing as Barren Rock may be as big as Asia,if not larger, this is understandable.

The barbaric Elves do share the ancientenmity toward humans, and will recognizeone by sight. They will probably attack in-stantly but will keep away when situation

Insert Department Name HereDEMONGROUND Issue 4Page 23 Dark Races

proves that they are outnumbers oroutgunned in combat (killing the leaderwould do the trick). Saying that howeverthey will, as far as their limited intelligenceallows, take any possible advantage to harmthe PC�s. For example, an intelligent DarkElf, pretending to be an idiot might lead hisclan to attack while the overconfident hu-mans ease their guard.

Living in Barren Rock, as the barbaricElves have been doing for a thousand years.Is a simple tribal life under the blue windyskies: Eating, Sleeping and Breeding. Foodis scarce and obtained from simple agricul-ture (the soil islands) and cannibalism. Sleep-ing and Breeding is not different from anyother mammal on earth.

Encounters: Barren Rock seems to bedeserted. The few clans and individuals thatlive there are easily seen from distance. Atraveler can spend months without encoun-tering anyone (and unless stuck there, no-body would want to).

That is why there is no need for en-counters table and the issue is up to the Ref-eree.

Special SitesHole in the Ground

In the middle of nowhere there is around canyon, 1000 meters wide and 100meters deep, seemingly created by an earth-quake. In the bottom, the rocks from therocky, gray walls mixes with bones andcorpses (some of which are fresh) of the di-mension�s natives. Their source is unknownbut probably results from suicide or someform of sacrifice. The walls do not seemscalable without climbing equipment (whichthe barbarian Elves lack, a fact that mightexplain why do they all end up dead at thebottom).

The Truth: The place is actually a por-tal very close to earth and can be openedusing the DarkTek devices buried under therubble in the center of the canyon.

This portal is used by the �UnseelieCourt�, a Dark Elf cell (see below) as a way

of transporting equipment, prisoners andDark Elves who cannot dimension walkthemselves. The site is left unwatched.

However, there is a beacon installed onthe DarkTek devices that sends a signal tothe �Unseelie� whenever the portal has beenactivated.

The actual DarkTek machinery thatopens the portal to earth is hidden 2 metersunder the rocks and can be activated by aremote control that some Dark Elves fromUnseelie carry. This remote control is a smallbiotechnology device, usually masqueradedin a car alarm�s plastic box.

The hole is a crossroad, a place thatcorresponds with easily accessable sites inNorth America (weak inter-dimensional fab-ric) and other dimension �close� to BarrenRock.

The Elven corpses in the hole belongto some of the more empathic barbarianswho were drawn to the gate and have diedin a desperate attempt to reach the bottomof the canyon.

The Unseelie CourtGoals: Advance the aims of Dark ElvesMethods: AnyEmpathic Philosophy: DarklingOrganization: Dictatorial UnitAssets: Superior resources (over$10,000,000 plus DarkTek)Size: 40 membersLevel of activity: HighRelations with ETs: Distrustful (ETs thatserve the dark)Relations with other cells: Conflict with all.

Description:The �Unseelie Court�, named after the

mythical Evil Fairies, is a highly dedicatedgroup of dark elves from Barren Rock, whohave been to earth and managed to survivethe secret war between man and darkness.�Unseelie Court� has two goals - the first isto oppose any Minion Hunters (a smallgroup is working to discover the Delta7 di-

mension) and the second is to acquire as-sets on earth (members of powerfulMegacorporations stockholders have beensubverted and several Unseelie membershave actually become corporate leadersthemselves) and to collect DarkTek (arma-ments and any useful equipment can provebeneficial for the UnSeelie�s goals). The rea-son for these actions? Only the leader ofUnseelie knows.

Unseelie Court usually ignore otherdarkling cells that they know of, and sel-dom do they use another Dark Elf or Hu-man Igors to advance their aims, although itis not unknown for them to do so.

However, staying unknown and out ofreach of Minion Hunters is at top prioritysince Unseelie feel they cannot oppose theirfoes at the present. The Unseelie also fearany contact with other powerful darklings(ET�s) and the Dark Lords that might domi-nate them.

The leader of the Unseelie is a mysteri-ous individual that might not even be a DarkElf (Dark Lord?) who is known only to his3 lieutenants, who keep an eye for him andfulfil his commands without hesitation.

DarkTek: Unseelie have collected animpressive, but terrifying stock of weaponsand DarkTek.

They have established a base of opera-tions at an unknown dimension, probably ac-cessible only through Barren Rock. It is asmall underground cavern world of high dis-continuity (that is why a portal is a goodtransportation solution)

The source of this DarkTek is anotherdimension, the ruins of an extinct civiliza-tion that the leader knows of. While not hav-ing any scientists or labs to fix and build anyDarkTek , the leader seems to know muchabout the technology found in the ruins andwith his guidance heavy equipment has beenrecovered, along with several weapons yetto be seen on earth (yet!). However, theUnseelie have a vast arsenal of the latestEarth technology and the its members arewell trained in the use of such.

Insert Department Name here DEMONGROUND Issue 4Milieu

�Swift and Bold�- motto of the Royal Regiment of

Green Jackets.

The average squaddie in the BritishArmy is actually one of the best trained andequipped soldiers in the world of Dark Con-spiracy. As mentioned in the original DarkBritain article in DEMONGROUND 3, thecorporations who backed the Recovery par-liament financially and materially demandedcertain privileges in return.

Foremost amongst these was the re-starting of the Future Infantry Soldier Tech-nology (FIST) programme, which had beencancelled by the SPP during the troubles of2008. The advances made over the decadefollowing the Recovery have given Repub-lic forces the edge as regards ground com-bat.

Although the army is quite a lot smallerthan it was in the 1990s, the provision ofthe latest technology has improved the op-erational ability of each individual soldier bya large margin. The latest kit includes fullbody armour with full NBC protection, hel-met with built-in tactical radio and night vi-sion visor, lightweight survival kit and allunits are now being equipped with the lat-est small arm, designated L 201. There is

Lee Williamslooks at theArmy of theRepublic of

Britain

also a squad automatic weapon version witha heavy barrel and optional 120 round maga-zine, the L 202. Squaddies have already nick-named these weapons Paw and Saw, fromPersonal Assualt Weapon and Section Au-tomatic Weapon. These weapons use am-munition based on the 5.7mm caseless FNround, first used in the FN P90 PDW. Theadvantage of using this round is that allstandard small arms in British service nowuse the same ammunition, including the FNpistol which is now the standard Britishforces sidearm.

The top elite forces are given the op-tion of using the new cybernetic implant tocontrol their weapons. These so-calledsmartsights offer instanttarget acquisition andimproved hit capability.They are very expensivehowever, so all volun-teers are carefully testedfirst.

Armoured battle-field transport is pro-vided by the latest ver-sion of the Warrior 2APC, usually armed witha 25mm automatic can-non and two lightmachineguns. Standardlight vehicle is still thetrusty Land Rover 4x4,going strong sixty yearsafter the original wasbuilt.

Moving up in size,the latest main battletank to be issued is theVickers-Rover Cheva-lier. This is the Britishbuilt version of the newEurotank 21, a projectintended to standardiseheavy vehicles through-out the European Com-

munity defence forces. This makes it easierto resupply on the battlefield. The Cheva-lier is highly advanced, though it is only aconventional MBT and has no next-genera-tion weaponry.

Combat Infantryman�s SuitThe CIS offers full body protection

except the head. The material gives an AVof 1 to arms and legs and AV 2 to the chestand abdomen. It has a small hump on theback which contains the NBC respirator andfilters, which give up to 8 hours protectioneach.. The advanced construction means thatthe garment weighs only 5kg and there is a

MilieuF.I.S.T. of Iron

Insert Department Name HereDEMONGROUND Issue 4Page 25 Milieu

minus 1 penalty to Initiative and Agility. Thesuit collar has a built-in folding hood to en-able NBC protection for those who are notwearing the combat helmet. The collar alsohas a sealing ring which mates to the hel-met.

Combat HelmetThis has a built in light amplification

visor for night actions, a tactical radio and ahead-up display offering GPS and tacticaldata. The actual hardware for the latter de-vice is carried externally on the equipmentharness. The helmet weighs 1.5kg and givesan AV of 2 to the top back and sides of thehead, and AV 1 to the face.

L-201 PAWThe Personal Assualt Weapon has been

developed to replace the L85 family of smallarms (also called the SA 80 by troops). Us-ing a new caseless round based on the 5.7mmFN ammunition, the L-201 is made fromlightweight modern materials, and has verylow recoil compared to the SA 80. It is fit-ted with an optical sight. Reliability is alsoimproved, as the caseless ammo means theweapon needs no ejector mechanism. Thereis a single shot grenade launcher in devel-opment which can be attached to theforegrip.Length: 84cm.Loaded Weight: 3.4 kilos.

L-202 SAWThis is a squad automatic weapon

based around the same mechanism as thePAW. It has a higher cyclic rate than the L-201 and therefore has a heavy barrel to aidlongevity. It can use the magazine from thePAW as well as its own specially developed120 round magazine. It is fitted with a lightbipod and uses the same sight as the L-201.It can also be fitted as a vehicle weapon,using a NATO light mounting.Length: 99cm.Loaded Weight: 5 kilos

(with 100 round mag)

FN Five-SevenA semi-auto pistol first produced in the

late 1990s, using the latest materials. It islighter than most 9mm pistols, yet has a 20round capacity. The use of FN�s own 5.7mmammo ensures good reliability and stoppingpower, especially against body armour.Loaded Weight: 0.9kg.

SmartsightThis device is a sighting system for

weapons that can be plugged into a neuralinterface. The smartsight increases the ShortRange band of a weapon by 20 metres whencarrying out Aimed shots. It also reducesTask Difficulty to hit by one level with Aimedshots.

In addition, the system allows firing atnight using its built-in light amplification andimage enhancement capabilities, though theRange bonus is not applied to unaimed firein this case. Smartsights are as yet too bigto be fitted to weapons with a Bulk of 3 orless. The current model weighs about 500grammes. Maximum visibility range is 500metres at night. Note that the army only is-sue it to certain members of the elite forcessuch as the SAS.

EMC Land Rover MD 60The latest Military Duty version of the

world famous Land Rover, now manufac-tured by English Motor Company. MD 60embodies all of the rugged and reliable fea-tures of its predecessors plus the latest eco-nomical engine technology. The engine isalso able to run for some time with no cool-ant, a safety feature first seen on Americancars of the 1990s. Many variants of the MD60 are in service, including field ambulancesand mobile workshops.Standard 4x4 configuration

Price: N/A (-/-)Fuel Type: G,D,ALoad: 1 tonneWeight: 1.6 tonnesCrew: 1 (plus 7 if no cargo)Night Vision: Headlights

Cruise Speed: 100/45Com Mov: 65/25Fuel Cap: 180Fuel Cons: 9

I have provided no specifications forthe Warrior 2 or Chevalier tank as I have nowish to turn Dark Conspiracy into Twilight2000 version 3. Remember though that noneof the weapons in the standard rulebookswill do much damage to an MBT.

- Recoil -Weapon ROF Dam Pen Blk Mag SS Brst RngL201 3 3 1-nil 4 40 2 3 40

- Recoil -Weapon ROF Dam Pen Blk Mag SS Brst RngL202 10 3 1-nil 5 40/120 2 6 55bipod 10 3 1-nil 5 40/120 1 3 70

- Recoil -Weapon ROF Dam Pen Blk Mag SS Brst RngFN 57 SA 2 1-1-nil 1 20 2 - 16

New Weapon Charts

Insert Department Name here DEMONGROUND Issue 4NPCs

LauriGardner

presents adetailed NPC

This is a character I am currently play-ing in my DC campaign; you may use it asan NPC if you wish. Referees should makethe numerical statistics fit the part he is play-ing.

�One night I dreamt that I had made apact with the devil; he was my servant, andanticipated every wish...I found myselfhanding him my violin to see if he mightmanage some pretty tunes; but imagine myastonishment when I heard a sonata so unu-sual and so beautiful, performed with suchmastery and intelligence, on a level I hadnever before conceived was possible! I wasso overcome that I stopped breathing andawoke gasping. Immediately I seized myviolin, hoping to recall some shred of whatI had just heard�but in vain. The piece Ithen composed is without doubt my best, andI still recall The Devil�s Sonata, but it fallsso far short of the one that stunned me thatI would have smashed my violin and givenup music forever if I could possess it.�

- Tartini to J.J. de Lalande, Voyage d�unFrançois en italie (1765-66)

�But we shall play a game of Chess,Pressing lidless eyes and Waiting for a knockupon the door.�

- T. S. Eliot

Short historyHe came to this world in the year of

our Lord 1497, Near Florence, Italy; on topof a mountain, which had a small village atits base. He saw his first person that day. Hestill remembers him with fondness centurieslater, at the time he did not know it but, thatperson was a hunch-back, disfigured,smelled so bad that you could feel its stenchleagues away. Even though that creature wasa leper and weak from hunger, he was ableto don that lepers mantle and go forth intothe world of humans, slowly approaching

their beings and learning their alien ways.Later when he had come back to that placeat the mountain where he had been trans-ported from. He found that the Gate wasdestroyed, apparently by a secret society thathad sensed the Gates use, and then latersealed it.

Over the centuries he has journeyedacross the world, he has been a stable handin the stables of the de Medici, a pilgrim inIsrael, a Barons advisor in Germany, aFrench court violinist, an English noblesmanservant, a reporter in the MexicanAmerican war, an analyst in Mossad, etc.�If you don�t feel it, you will never get it.� -Faust, Johann Wolfgang Göethe

An important event in hishistory

While he was a violinist in Louis XIIof France�s Court, he met a sweet maidencalled Ettienne De Amberville. The rest ofthe story can be squeezed into the classicalbeauty and the beast story:

� Beauty and Beast meet

� Beauty and Beast fall in love

� Beast eats Beauty

� Beast seeks absolution for the rest ofhis life.

�So I have travelled throughout theland and was a pilgrim all my life, aloneand a stranger feeling alien. Then Thou hasmade grow in me Thine art under the breathof the terrible storm in me.�

- Paracelsus

Skills and statisticsHe is very good in some skills, some

just good. The very good skill levels are de-scribed just to give an understanding of the

level. It is suggested that you consider whatand how high skills and statistics he mighthave in the role he is currently portraying.

� Musical instrument (Violin) (Plays likea virtuoso with 200 hundred years timeto polish his technique)

� Games (Chess) (Grand-Master level)

� Sword (Fencing) (Could give Zorrotips)

� Mathematics (20 years ahead of histime, if some-one could understand hisnotes though)

� Library Search (Over the past fivethousand years, up to the eighteen cen-tury, he can 100% percent of the timename the title, 75% of them he has readand can quote from (including very rarebooks)

� Human Perception (the ability to readpeople, and understand their currentmental processes)

Some skills that he doesn�t know:

� Computer related skills (programming,hacking etc.). Can use a computerenough to turn it on and load writingprogram.

� Any other skills that have progressed

NPCs

Jean-Pierre Valjean

Insert Department Name HereDEMONGROUND Issue 4Page 27 NPCs

greatly over the past 50 years (like elec-tronics), he does not understand. Buthe is learning.

�A room without books is like a bodywithout a soul.�

- Cicero

AccommodationsHe lives on top of an old antique shop.

The whole building has been changed intohis lair. He has lived there for the past 150years. His main living area in the house ison the second floor. It is a big room that hasa skylight for a ceiling.

The antique shop is occasionallyopen, selling curiosities, old books andcommon items from the 1800 centuryonwards (works as his front, and getsrid of most of the junk he has collectedover the years).

He owns a castle in Germany,which he has not been to for severalyears (since the beginning of the Sec-ond World War to be exact).

Noteworthy appliances in his lair:

� Old stereo, which has a CD player

connected to them.

� A computer (286/ps2), has an unu-

sual keyboard (every key is sepa-rate and taped in an unusual con-figuration on to the desk).

� In the middle of the room there is

a large pot that contains a massive rosebush, which is lighted with differenttypes of lights (IR, UV, and normal).

� In one corner is a harpsichord, which

has a violin case on top, and some sheetmusic next to it.

� The walls are covered with bookshelves

filled with books.

� He has a massive wardrobe, where he

has clothes from near all ages, types andplaces. Some have started to fall apart.

� One of the walls has a picture of

Ettienne, instead of books.

�I am what I am�What he might look like:

A very muscular (not like abodybuilder, more compact). He has a verymuscular face (sort of like Arnold), whichsomehow looks refined. He has dirty whitehair drawn back into a ponytail. Oxygonalglasses cover his eyes; he doesn�t lookaround like a normal person, as if he wereblind. He smells faintly of roses and wet dog.He wears white gloves that cover his hands.

He is dressed in a white trench coat,black trousers and brown, well-worn, leathershoes. He also has with him a walking stick(black, except for a finely engraved silver

knob), and a black fedora.When he speaks he seems to have a

faint European accent, which cannot beplaced.

�Chess is Life�- Bobby Fischer

�Life is a kind of Chess�- Benjamin Franklin

PersonalityHe will always act like a Victorian gen-

tleman, and will never act brashly or out ofanger. He holds two concepts very closely:a chivalric type of honour and duty. He willalways act upon these concepts very closely.

He will never use wanton violence. Killingis an option for him, not a means.

It should be noted that he is a very com-plex character and should be played as such.

�Well, think a little. Men have alwaysfought each other, always created chaos.That�s familiar and safe, they know wherethey are in those circumstances. But to haz-ard a step into the unknown and love oneand other is far too risky for them. So if thedemons do invade the world bringing ter-ror and misery with them don�t you thinkthat men might welcome them as bearers ofwhat they desire?�

- Demon City Shinjuku, Mephisto

�It is always best to sacrificeyou opponent�s men�

- Savielly Tartakover (Polish GM)

MotivationsHis true motivations are

highly complex to say the least. He isstruggling between different duties, hisduty to the Black Guard (see below),his duty to Ettienne whom he believesis trapped somewhere within him, andto get himself off the chess board, onwhich he believes himself to be a pawn.

�Ahh...The little things in life. Suchquaint pleasures.�

Other quirksWhenever he is not prowling the

streets, searching for damsels to be defendedfrom meals in the form of ruffians, he is usu-ally at home. He is either catching up on hisreading or the world situation, passing histime taking care of his rose bush, Manfred,with Mozart�s 9th symphony playing loudenough to wake the dead, practising his vio-lin skills or writing up another report on hu-manity for the awaiting army.

�Characters tend to be either for oragainst the quest. If they assist it, they areidealized as simply gallant or pure; if theyobstruct it they characterized as simply vil-lainous or cowardly.

Insert Department Name here DEMONGROUND Issue 4NPCs

Hence the typical character...tends tohave his moral opposite confronting him,like black and white pieces in a chessgame.�

- Anatomy of Criticism, Northop Frye

How players might meethim

He might either arrange to meet thecharacters, using a vast information networkhe has built up over the centuries. He mayrun into them on the street, if they are in abattle that they are losing, coming in like awhite knight to save them.

His purpose will be to either use min-ion hunters to his advantage (gaining infor-mation about a cell or a key person that thecharacters know about, or even to attemptto remove obstructing dark minions thathinder his goals) or gain their trust and helpthem out with information.

Remember, he will work in confusingand even contradictory fashion occasionally.This might be because of a situation thatmight affect him. For example, drawing awaya reporter that is showing interest in him byhaving the minion hunters become interestedabout an article that the reporter has writ-ten, or to muddle the trail that leads to himto confuse other information gatherers andopposing agents.

He will usually refer to himself, whenquestioned about his motives, on being partof an organisation with vested interestsagainst the Dark ones, and that he is just anunderling working for that organisation.

Before he confronts anyone he will dothorough background check. This will en-able him to glean information about differ-ent organisations that the characters havebeen affiliated with, and then either masquer-ading as a person they have met belongingto that organisation, or as someone who hasa mutual friendship with a person the char-acters trust.

�Some people have called me De-monic. Unjustly.�

- Demon City Shinjuku, Mephisto

Abilities and featuresHis body is basically made up of mus-

cle tissue, except for the mouths that havespike-like teeth. These mouths he can growby will anywhere on his body. His head isactually a giant mouth, and its teeth are hid-den under the wig.

He is able to consciously control hisgrowth. This ability enables him to grow intoalmost any shape he wants, within reason ofcourse. His most common form, and the onehe feels the most natural with, is a human-oid form that has snake-like appendagesgrowing all over him, and which are con-stantly moving and twisting.

Because he has full control over hisbody, he can do thing that a normal personcould not do, like jump off the seventh floorwithout looking like a bloody pancake, orrun along a wire.

Also, because he can control his owngrowth he also has the ability to regeneratehimself.

He has plant empathy (first level), eventhough he doesn�t consciously know it.

He has eidetic memory and can readvery fast

�King Arthur dreamed a wonderfuldream, and that was this: that him seemedhe sat upon a chaflet in a chair, and thechair was fast to a wheel, and thereuponsat King Arthur in the richest cloth of Gold. . . and suddenly the thought the wheelturned up-so-down, and he fell among the

serpents, and every beast took him by alimb; and then the king cried as he lay inhis bed and slept, �Help.��

- Le Morte d�Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory

The negative aspects of hisbody

He has to eat half his body weight inlive meat a day (considering he weighs 300kg; 150 kg, half a cow). He has to feed morefrequently if hurt or used any special abili-ties recently.

Whenever he becomes badly wounded,his consciousness takes a break. He becomesa killing machine which only thoughts aregeared towards self-preservation. Friend andfoe mean the same thing to him: food!

When he has assimilated enough to gainhis hitpoints back and is not in a dangeroussituation, he slowly regains control of hisbody. He, of course, remembers everythinghe has done while in this preservation mode.If he dies, his body starts to quickly decom-pose (under ten minutes), after which onlycharred remains are left.

Animals are neutral towards him (theyjust think he smells different)

Because he does not have any bones,he has to flex himself whenever he is in oneform after 18 hours (move the muscles thatproxy as bones) for about one and half hours,normally changing back into his most com-fortable form. If he doesn�t do this, his mus-cles have tendency of cramping up.

�The Game we play could be consid-ered at best as a chess game on a boardapproaching infinity, with rules no-one willtell, and which side you are playing against,or how many opponents there are. Thisgame takes place in the past, present, andfuture; each one intertwined to form a non-linear kaleidoscope of non-possibilities. Theplace for my kind is with the knights, theinfantry on their thrones. Always attackingunexpectedly and moving in mysteriousways.

Tell me what is your position? Is it withthe queens whose potential has alreadypeaked, so sure of your power, yet withoutthe knowledge to use the power correctly;

Insert Department Name HereDEMONGROUND Issue 4Page 29 NPCs

or are you a pawn, whose potential is stillacross the aboard, inaccessible; or perhapsyou are like the king, you have passed overyour potential, writhing in the knowledgethat your death may hold the fate ofmultiverses or that of a dust mote.�

- Jean-Pierre Valjean, ruminating overphilosophy with a past meal

Black GuardVery little is known about the Black

Guard, even among those that serve underthat name. Some people say that they areservants of the Dark Lords.

However, what is known makes it gainhighly sinister. The Black Guard can be con-sidered an Intelligence organization that isorganised into cells. This force on some lev-els regulates the actions of Dark Lords, ei-ther covertly or plainly.

Most Dark Lords loathe and fear theBlack Guard. Its members are recruited ac-cording to certain criteria, and sometimeswhole species are recruited according totheir usefulness, whether in knowledge,skills, abilities, potential, or sheer wicked-ness. Some Dark Minions, ETs and humansare members of the Black Guard withouteven knowing it.

It is unknown whether there is a group,a single entity, or maybe even no one that isin control over the Black Guards actions.

Most Black Guards consider someraces, humans included, as ants.

Referee NotePlay the Black Guard as being a sinis-

ter force that is always three steps ahead ofeveryone else. Remember that anything that

will be seen to conflict with their goals willbe remorselessly squashed, even Dark Lords.

The best way on bringing these into acampaign might be by having the MinionHunters come across evidence of some forcethat has been hunting Dark Minions. Per-haps even such a direct confrontation ashaving found the lair of some Dark Minionand during the confrontation with it, sometype creature comes out of the shadows andshreds it up (think Alien).

It is good to introduce the Black Guardwhen they are deep in a campaign, or whenthe players seem to be unfazed by Dark Min-ions in general.

�When I was a child my speech, feel-ing and thinking were those of a child. Nowthat I am a man I have no longer use forchildish ways. And now I can say thesethings without help and in my own voice.Because I am now neither the woman whowas known as the Major, nor the programcalled the Puppetmaster�

- Ghost in the Shell, Major MotokoKusanagi.

Empathic abilities among theBlack Guard

These general empathic abilities areinfused into members of the Black Guards.More specialised abilities are bestowed ac-cording to their mission and specialisation.

� The ability to walk through shadows,

in other words the ability to move him-self or a part of oneself in a 50 meterradius (clothes and other accessoriescannot do this). Moving through shad-ows with a living being accompanying

may have fatal and unpredictable con-sequences.

� The ability to detect and break psychic

barriers (psychic barriers could be con-sidered a type of holy ground, whichcan be found in some churches, theirpurpose is to prevent otherworldly be-ings entering the area). He cannot pre-vent any alarms that are connected or apart of the psychic barrier (for instance,in some Shinto and Buddhist templesthere are bells that supposedly will ringby themselves whenever an evil spiritenters the grounds of the temple).

� Empathic protection. This protects

from members of the Black Guardsfrom empathic attacks or scanning. Astrong attack can cause the empathicprotection to break though. However,it will also cause a backwash of energycausing the Black Guard to self-destructby destroying neural pathways, andthereby physically destroying whateverit uses as a brain.

Inspiration & bibliographyThe Seventh Guest�s first track. A

hauntingly demonic solo violin piece, withinstrumental accompaniment.

The Devil�s Sonata and other works,Giuseppe Tartini. Possibly the best baroquesolo violin work by Adrew Manze.

Demon City Shinjuku (Monster City).I highly recommend it, if nothing else thanfor the character Mephisto and the portrayalof a Demonground.

The idea for the Black Guard was takenfrom the movie, Wicked City.

�Help can come from the strangest places. Be thankful and accept it. It�snot everyday you get a lucky break.�


Insert Department Name here DEMONGROUND Issue 4Proto-Dimensions

Zub is a splinterland with a Disconti-nuity of 1 and an Assimilation Effect Valueof 0. It may or may not be a hardened proto-dimension depending on the circumstances(see below).

Zub is suitable for use in campaignsusing the limited access method of dimen-sional travel, as it can only be accessed froma point in the Libyan Sahara about 200 mileswest of Umm El Raha. This physical loca-tion is the site of the Imperial Palace of theancient kings of Zub, a race who arrived innorthern Africa at an as yet undeterminedtime period.

Ancient Arabic and Hebrew folklorestates that the ruins stand on the site of theoriginal Garden of Eden, and that all man-kind grew in the image of the people of Zub.This of course remains an unproven hypoth-esis.

The proto-dimension of Zub is unusualfor several other reasons. In appearance, itis a desert oasis with palms and fruit trees,rivers and mountains and animals frolickingin the brush. It is a toroid in shape, about500 metres wide, and a 5 kilometre walkwill take you back to where you started. Aperson entering Zub immediately feels morerelaxed and confident, willing to take a fewmoments to chill out and calm their minds.

There is also no sensation of urgencyhere, although timepieces do still work itfeels unnecessary to check them. This ef-fect is not deleterious in any way and theperson can leave at any time they choose.

This is the true nature of Zub, as it wasfound to be conducive to meditation andcreativity by the priestly mages of the an-cient kingdom. Indeed, the Persian emper-ors were so jealous of what they thoughtwas the King of Zub�s secret garden thatthey stormed the kingdom. When they foundno sign of the garden the Persians killed theking and razed the buildings to the ground,slaughtering all of the people of Zub. Thiswas relatively easy as the Zub believed in

peace and harmony, and were ill-preparedto combat the mighty Persian armies.

The other major feature of Zub is thatit is inhabited by several human beings whohave a very odd history. As part of an ex-periment into connections between empa-thy and heredity, the British Home Officeand Ministry of Defence created four hu-man clones, using the genetic material of twocivil servants who had proven themselvesto have fully eidetic memories.

Due to the impending population cri-sis the experiment was kept as secret as pos-sible, and the four clones were duly deliv-ered. They were fostered out to families whoknew nothing of their extraordinary origins,so as to develop as normally as possible. Ontheir 16th birthday Alvin, Bruce, Colin andDesmond arrived separately at the office ofProfessor Miriam Poynter, the doctor incharge of the entire project.

After the initial shock of discoveringthemselves to be not one but four wore offthe four clones began demonstrating theirextremely powerful abilities. It transpiredthat the psychic energy produced by each ofthe clones could be amplified by the others.Empathic teachers and researchers havespeculated that rather than each clones psiabilities being added to that of the otherthree, their Empathic abilities are in fact fourto the power of four. This would lead veryrapidly to an extreme level of power whichwould be difficult to control.

When the government realized that theywould soon not be able to control the fourboys they ordered them to be separated per-manently and undergo brain surgery to re-move their memories. In a chase that ledfrom London to North Africa via Scotlandand the Netherlands, the clones (with someassistance) eventually managed to accessZub. After leaving a message with the Eu-ropean governments assuring that theywould not use their powers to threatenplanet Earth nor in fact ever return to this

dimension, they sealed themselves and theirfriends in Zub.

The clone entities have complete con-trol of the proto-dimension but are not un-friendly to travellers, who they occasionallylet in so as to keep up with news from Earth.It is possible that when merged into one en-tity the clones are as powerful as a DarkLord, though they are almost the direct op-posite. If humanity is ever in very grave dan-ger then the clones just might take a standagainst the Darkness. For now, they are con-tent to explore the limits of their power andto meditate about who knows what. The newrulers of Zub could possibly be the first�Light Lords�, although they would prob-ably be embarassed to be called such.

The Kingdom of Zub is great to use asa rest stop for exhausted and combat-wearyplayer characters, if the clones will let themin of course. Bear in mind that no PC willbe able to bring about any harm here, evenby accident. Zub is a place for relaxation andfun, where the struggle against the Dark canbe left behind for a while. If combat-orientedcharacters get bored with it, they can leavewhenever they choose.

Inspiration for Zub taken from �Clone�by Richard Cowper and is used here with-out permission.

Lee Williamsshows us thatnot all proto-dimensions are

dangerous

Proto-Dimensions

Kingdom of Zub

Insert Department Name HereDEMONGROUND Issue 4Page 31 Fiction

The phone rang beside him. Leaningacross his desk he picked it up, raising it tohis ear.�Hello, This is Professor William Fraser��There was no response, not even the soundof breathing� nothing.For a second he just listened not knowingwhat to think. Then in the back of his mindsomething clicked.

�Martha�� the Professor spoke intothe receiver, �Martha if that�s you� Youknow there�s a court injunction out againstyou bothering me like this.� Still there was no response from the otherend of the phone�

�God damn you girl! Can�t you leaveme alone!� Fraser slammed the phone downwith a crash, shaking the side table it restedon.

Fraser was angry now. That girl hadcost him his place on the school board, hiswife and hundreds of dollars in court costs.He had thought she�d given up at last, not acall in weeks � now this. For Christ sakehe had only slept with her once!

He looked at the phone and thoughtfor a second. Reaching across he picked itup, this time with the intention of calling thepolice. The detective had told him to ring ifthe calls began again.

Bringing the receiver to his ear, he be-

gan to push the number he�d been given�and then he stopped. The phone had no dialtone. Tapping the receiver hook a few timeshad no effect. The phone was dead.

What�s that girl done? he thought. Thesilly tart never knew when to give up.

Getting up from the desk where he wasworking, he looked out the large plate glasswindows that surrounded his study. It wasdark outside. He checked his watch, notedthe time and stretched.

Picking up the piece of paper that hehad written the Detectives number on, hestarted towards the hall phone.

It was then he heard the crash of a win-dow. From somewhere in the house! Fraserjumped � in his house! After the incidentwith the phone he was a little on edge. Re-covering quickly from the fright however,he moved to the umbrella stand beside thefireplace and retrieved what had been hisgrandfather�s walking stick. If some kids hadsmashed his windows, by jolly, they wouldpay.

Making his way through the darkenedhalls of his house he slowly examined eachroom. Flicking on the lights revealed noth-ing, each room the same as he�d left it. Fi-nally however he reached the kitchen down-stairs, finding the source of the broken win-dow. The top pane of the backdoor windowhad been broken; the glass scattered nowacross the kitchen floor.

The first thought to enter his mind wasthat of the girl, Martha. But she had neverdone anything like this before. In fact she�dattempted nothing more that a few late nightphone calls.

Unsure what to make of such strangehappenings, the professor shook his head andmoved purposefully to the backdoor. Per-haps he could still catch the perpetrators.As he got closer a feeling came over him,like that of when someone is close but yetcannot be seen. Behind him? Fraser twirledaround to survey the kitchen � it was empty.

Turning back he heard a noise outsidethe backdoor. A funny noise almost likechanting�

Fraser peered through the broken win-dow, outside there was a man, and yes hewas chanting. Words that seemed unrecog-nisable to Fraser�

�Seesk Nak Char�

It had been a week since Colin had gonemissing from the hospital � yes, while un-conscious he had some how �disappeared�.Neither the staff nor the police knew whathad happened, or so they said and yet BeckyHarris didn�t believe them.

And would you? She had told the of-ficer that came and saw her every day. Healways just smiled, in the way a parent smiledwhen humoring their child. Becky knew ittoo; she herself was a master at it when itcame to her two girls.

But the officer was a nice guy, just do-ing his job. Everyday he would pop in for acoffee, to up date Becky on the latest news.Not that there was much to tell. And some-how he would always turn the conversationaround, trying in a subtle way to grill herfor more information from Colin�s past.

But she had told them all that she knewand was as stumped as any of them as to thereason behind Colins vanishing act.This day had been like all the others so far,no clues, no leads and a bunch of confusedpolicemen. The only new news was that thecase was about to be downgraded, with thenumber of men reduced to just one from it�spresent dozen.

�Some cases just are getting more im-portant ma�am� cases with leads�. Theyoung officer got up and put his notebookback in his pocket. �I�ll come and visit youagain in a day or two� okay?�

Becky just nodded. She was shocked,only a week and they had already given up.What was going wrong with this world?

MarcusBone bringsus part 2

of his story

Missed Part 2

Fiction

Insert Department Name here DEMONGROUND Issue 4Fiction

After the policeman had left Becky wasat a loose end. The girls were still withColin�s mother and wouldn�t be cominghome for another few days yet. There wasn�tmuch she could do. If the police forcecouldn�t figure out what had happened whatchance did she have?

Thinking she could really use a strongstiff drink she made her way to kitchen.However before she could get there sheheard a knock at the door. Thinking it wasthe young officer back again she rushed overto the door and flung it open.

But no, it wasn�t the officer at all.Rather it was a short man in a trench coatand a hat. He seemed as surprised at thespeed in which the door had been opened,as Becky was to the fact that he wasn�t thepoliceman.

For a second there was an embarrassedsilence, as both regathered their wits. Theman smiled at Becky and removed his hat.�Mrs Harris?� he asked.

�Yes� yes I am.� She replied takingin the mans appearance. He was middle-aged, balding she could see now that he hadremoved his hat. He was obviously alsoSouth American, or of that descent at least.But perhaps the most striking thing abouthim was his face, which while not unattrac-tive, seemed to be hiding something.

�Mrs Harris, I am Hector Tanscon, aprivate investigator.� Hector put out hishand. Becky reluctantly took it and shook.�What can I do for you, Mr Tanscon?�Becky asked, almost sarcastically. Of courseshe knew what a man like this was doinghere.

�Mrs Harris I have heard that your hus-band disappeared from the Central Munici-pal Hospital last week, and I�m here to of-fer my services to you in finding him��

Becky screwed up her face. �MrTanscon, we are not a rich family, I�m notsure I could afford your services?�

Becky knew this man�s type exactly.She would put money on the fact that hepicked cases like hers to make a quick buck.Probably listened to a police scanner andchoose to follow up the people who seemeddesperate enough to give away their moneyto a lost cause. Well Becky sure was des-

perate, but she wasn�t stupid. In fact shethought routines like this one appeared onlyon television.

�Oh the money is not so important�Rebecca, may I call you Rebecca?� he said.Becky didn�t respond.

�I am more worried about the wherea-bouts of your husband� can I please comeinside and explain?�

Becky paused for a second, althoughshe didn�t trust this man, he seemed sincereenough.

The seconds ticked past and then sherelented, swinging the door open.

Hector Tanscon was a much nicer manthan Becky had first thought. He revealedthat he had heard about her situation whiledown at the local precinct contacting theDesk Sergeant about another case he wasworking on. The rumours and stories hadbeen flying about an unconscious man whohad somehow disappeared from Central lateone night. Making it even weirder, the mansDoctor, a Mr Shavor, had also vanished onthe same night. In fact the only evidence thatcould be found was that, the missing patientslock on his door had been jimmied and inthe corridor outside that door a small pileof carbon had been found. Unfortunately,because the corridor was so well used, nomore information could be found. Even theminute blood samples found belonged tothree different blood types.

Hector had been so intrigued by thesestories that he had to find out what had hap-pened that night. As he explained to Becky,chances like this don�t come every often.

Tanscon had investigated further beingable to get a glance at the lab results on theCarbon that had been found. The most sur-prising fact to come from this study was thefact that the residue links in the moleculechain resembled those present in a humanbody, and yet the Lab could not say any-thing further about them.

What this all meant Hector couldn�tsay, but it had intrigued him further. Beckyfor her part had been quite shocked at thisinformation; it was certainly more that thepolice had been willing to reveal to her any-

way.By the end of the conversation, Hec-

tor had promised to find out more for herand would stay in contact. In return, Beckywould find some sort of payment for hisservices� but only after he had found outwhat had happened to Colin.

As she saw him to the door Becky hada tear in her eye.

�Thank you so much Hector, I hadhonestly thought that people like you didn�texist anymore.�

Hector smiled at her. �It�s okay Becky,it may be a Dark World but some of us stillcare.�

They shook hands once again and theHector left. After he had gone Becky bro-ken down in tears. So much had happenedin the last week and no one had offered anyexplanations. At last some one had come toher at least attempting to straighten out themess in her mind. The release of tension wasmassive and for a while she could do noth-ing but cry. She owed herself that much.

Hector was smiling as he got into hiscar. In the passengers seat his partner sat.

�Well Jerry we got her.� Hector wassmiling even brighter now. �The silly womanactually believes that her husband is stillalive.�

Jerry Coldrum, a young man in histwenties, had a worried look on his face.

�Are you sure she fell for it?� he asked.�Of course I�m sure,� Hector scowled

at the younger man. �Listen sonny, howmany times do I have to tell you. I�ve beendoing this gig for� well Christ knows howlong� and it�s a win�win situation. Mansome people are just so stupid, don�t theyread the papers� hundreds of people gomissing every day in this city, and yet forsome reason all their families think that theywill be the ones coming home. Listen upbuddy, they don�t come back� never.�

Jerry just stared back, obviously a lit-tle overawed by Hectors spiel. �As long asyou�re sure Hector, just as long as you�resure�.

Hector just glared back and then�laughed, shaking his head at his partner.

Insert Department Name HereDEMONGROUND Issue 4Page 33 Fiction

Colin�s head spun, as if he was stuck ina carnival ride. It was a nauseous feeling,and for a time he couldn�t decide if it wasthe room or his head that was the real sourceof the constant spinning.

Suddenly a man came into his vision,or what he thought was a man anyway. AllColin could see was a big dark shape ap-pear in front of him, a shape that had teethand eyes.

�You okay man? You look as if you�reabout to hurl.� The voice of from the shapewas defiantly male and spoke with a verythick accent.

It took Colin a few seconds tocompose himself enough to answer.�Yeah I�ll be� be alright in a sec-ond.� As if that was a sign, Colinwas suddenly ill. His stomachstraining to release it�s contents. Heclosed his eyes, using all his con-centration to prevent himself fromvomiting.

�Man, you could have fooledme man.� He heard his visitorchuckle deep and loud. �Here manthis one we cleaned out already.�

Colin felt something pushedinto his hands, a container of somesort. A bucket if he figured cor-rectly. Placing his head deep insidehe relaxed and allowed his body topurge itself.

After he had recovered, helooked up and founds that his vi-sion had got much better. Indeed there wasa man standing beside him, and he himselfwas lying on a bunk, much like he had seenin Navy movies. The man in front of himwas a large and black, with muscular shoul-ders and abdomen. Colin could see that hewas a not a typical American, perhaps anAfrican?

The big man smiled at Colin, brightwhite teeth a contrast to his very dark face.�You look better now man, let all of the badstuff out�.

Colin was barely listening to the man,but rather exploring his surroundings withhis recently returned sight. It seemed as if,yes, he was in some sort of boat, the doorwas one of reinforced steel and the far wall

has a porthole in it. Apart from that and thebed the room had little else in it. A locker athis feet and a small basin and that was it.

��you think you can get up nowman?� The stranger was talking to him still.

�Yeah � yeah I think so.� Colin an-swered. He struggled to his feet the manholding his arm to help steady him. As hegot up onto both feet however, his kneesseemed to buckle, but before he could fallthe stranger had taken his weight and hadswung Colin�s arm over his shoulder. Colinjust grimaced at him, and he just smiled back.

�Man you okay.� As the strangerhelped Colin out of the room he introducedhimself. �I�m Suva man, been looking afteryou for this last week.�

�Week� week!?!� Colin was shockedwhat the hell had happened to him?

�Yeah man a week, not that you werea bad patient�.

As they walked the corridors, Colinnoticed his surroundings. They were defi-nitely on a ship of some sort, because thecorridors looked just like the ones he�d seenin those old World Two movies. Narrow andcramped it was almost impossible for themwalk two abreast.

�So Suva, where are we going?� Colinasked his helper.

�You�ll see man� you got to speak toMiles before we know what we got to do.�was his answer.

�Oh okay,� replied Colin. What elsecould he say, here he was lost and at themercy of some large black one who smelt ofTropical Sun block. In fact that Coconutsmell really got his stomach going again.

�Um� I don�t feel so well�.�Man you don�t look so well either�.

Hector sat in his car, reading a news-paper, nothing but more deaths and disap-

pearances� just the way he like it.Occupied though he was, he heardJerry before he got to the car.Putting down the paper he watchedas the young man ran towards him.

Before Jerry could speakHector started. �What�s the rushlittle guy?�

It took Jerry a few breaths torecover. �You were right. This isthe same thing.�

Hector had heard from hiscontact down at West precinct thatanother pile of �Carbon� had beenfound, this time at the house of amissing Professor. Curious ratherthan anything else they had gonedown for a look, just to find theplace swarming with cops. He�dsent Jerry to find out what was go-ing on.

�So spill the beans boy,what�s happening here?�

�Hell Hector, I don�t even think thecoppers know. Someone up on high has or-dered the street beaters to find out what�shappened to the Teach. It seems he hadfriends in high places.�

�Typical� well we ain�t going to getanything out of this one. We might as wellsaddle up and mossy on down to the localwatering hole. What you say?�

Jerry grinned. Nodding his head as hegot in the car he said, �You�re the boss.�

At least Colin could walk by himselfby the time they got to their destination. Alarge room with a double bed and a desk.All the works compared to the small �dun-

Insert Department Name here DEMONGROUND Issue 4Fiction

geon� he had come from.In the room there was three men, of

various ages and looks. The oldest was atleast over 50, dressed in a fine suit wearinga vest that would have been fashionable be-fore Colin�s own birth, stood in the corner.

The youngest not older than his teens,wearing T and jeans slouched in a seat atthe desk. Twiddling his thumbs he seemedbored. However the most intriguing man wasaged obviously between these two. In factsomewhere in the back of Colin�s mind, thisman seemed familiar.

�Ah Colin,� said the man, �it is goodto see you could join us. In fact since you�vealready met our Fijian warrior Suva, it wouldbe rude of me not to introduce the rest ofour merry band.�

Colin just nodded in agreement, notsure there was anything else he could say ordo.

�This is Doctor Curtis, late of the Phys-ics Department of Cambridge.� The Doctornodded at Colin. �Our young apprentice hereis Kerry Graham, computer genius.� Theteenager shot the speaker an evil look. �Asfor me, I was hoping you�d recognise me.�

Colin shook his head, but somehow avague memory tingled in the back of hismind.

�Oh that disappoints me, you can�teven remember the man who saved yourlife.� The speaker smiled at Colin �My nameis Miles Lynne, a � um� traveller I sup-pose.�

There was a pause as the rest of theroom�s occupants looked over Colin. Feel-ing a need to get at least one question offhis chest, Colin broke the silence.

�So can I ask why am I here, and whatdo you want from me?�

Miles laughed. �Colin, it�s not what youcan do for us. Rather, it�s what you can dofor the world!�

Hector got home late that night afterdropping Jerry home; it was at least 3 in themorning. He was dog-tired, and was half-asleep by the time he hit the bed, shoes andall.

Sleep beckoned and Hector was goingto oblige. But then the phone rang� once�twice � three times. By the time it reachedthe eighth ring, Hector guessed the callerwasn�t about to give up. Reaching acrosshe picked up the receiver and almost drop-ping it a couple of times eventually got it hisear.

�Tanscon speak�n.�The first thing he heard back was a

scream, a man�s scream as if some part ofhim being cut off or worse.

�What the ��Before Hector could finish his words,

a voice came on the line. Calm and collected,it seemed to emit a sense of evil, even overthe phone line.

�Mr Tanscon this is a warning� dropthe Harris case or worse will happen to you.�

�Who is this � why the �� Hectorwas frantic. What sort of lunatic did this sortof thing?

�You friend is no more. So let me re-mind you - drop the case before you joinhim.�

In the background another voice couldbe clearly heard�

�Seesk Nak Char�And then the phone went dead.

By the time Hector got to Jerry�s place,it was obvious that he was too late and insome ways he was thankful .

The door to Jerry�s inner-city apart-ment was ajar. The lock visibly broken.

But where were the cops? Sure it wasthe rough part of town, but surely the sound

of that man screaming would have madesomeone ring the police.

Approaching the door, Hector pushedit with the barrel of his Colt Python. Withthe slightest pressure, it swung open. Insidewas a mess. Some sort of scuffle had takenplace. Hector just hoped Jerry�s girl Suziehadn�t stayed over.

Apart from the mess, there was little inthe main room. Making his way to the bed-room, he entered slowly scanning for anysigns of intruders. There were none, but thefirst thing he did notice was the hand.

A hand lay on the side table next tothe phone. A phone which had been violentlyyanked from the wall.

Getting closer to the hand Hector no-ticed a small pile of grit on the ground. Bend-ing closer it looked as if someone had de-posited a pile of black chalk on the ground.

Staring at it for a second longer herecongised the significance in connection tothe Fraser and Harris cases, but did not un-derstanding its meaning.

The hand was still there however, andthe dread of what it might mean still hungaround in the pit of his stomach. Althoughhe knew what he was going to find, it didlittle to calm him as he got nearer. Withouttouching it he knew it belonged to Jerry, thering that he always talked about was still onthe severed hand, the one he had receivedthe day his college soccer team had won theirregional championships.

Staring at it for a second longer Hec-tor could no longer contain himself, gaggingas he raced towards the apartments bath-room.

And still the Police did not come.

To Be Continued

Insert Department Name HereDEMONGROUND Issue 4Page 35 Tabloids

Chimney Noises�un�soot�able� saysResident

John Bambrick decided to call in hislocal vicar to exorcise his house after a se-ries of wailings and scratching noises beganto emanate from the solid brick walls.

The house, at Old Hill near Birming-ham in England, was at first thought to bebuilt over old mine workings. This wouldcause air gusts in the mineshafts to echothrough the foundations.

However, a check of the surveys madewhen the house was built revealed this wasnot the case. As the noises continued, Mr.Bambrick decided to call upon the servicesof his local clergyman.

Reverend Peter Worrall turned up withfull kit for exorcisms, and set to work. Asthe ceremony progressed the noises began

again, this time from the chimney. The in-trepid vicar put his head in the unlit fireplaceand looked up but was unable to see any-thing, but a result was obtained when hestuck his arm up the flue - a trapped catmauled his arm.

�He put his hand up and got itscratched to bits� said Mr. Bambrick. �Ithink he was relieved that he wasn�t suckedup the chimney by a ghoul�. The cat, nick-named Sooty, is being cared for by theRSPCA.

Coastguard ChaseAn emergency call to police in Dorset

SW England sparked off a remarkable chainof events last week.

A member of the public phoned theWeymouth police at around 23.30 and re-

Chimney NoisesJohn Bambrick�s house is in fact built

over old mine works, the surveyors map iswrong.

Some 600 metres below, there is a smallchamber which is a Humanoid ET labora-tory. They are working on genetic manipu-lation of animals, as they know humans keeppets. If they could turn domestic pets againsthumans it might make conquest easier forthem and their masters.

The cat stuck in the chimney is one oftheir first experimental animals, which man-aged to escape and climb through the net-work of tunnels until eventually emerging

ported what he thought was a large orange-coloured hot air balloon coming down in thesea. He also reported that the balloon wasbehaving erratically.

The police alerted the lifeboat atSwanage to the east and the Portland coast-guard station to the south. The lifeboat man-aged to get within a couple of miles of theobject, which they then observed throughnight vision scopes. They were unable toascertain what the object actually was, andas they got closer the object zoomed off atgreat speed.

The crew of the lifeboat stated that theobject was hovering at a height of less than30 metres for about twenty-five minutes, avery dangerous maneuvre for a balloon pi-lot. Their statements are now believed to bein government hands.

in Bambrick�s back yard. It slipped into thehouse and became wedged firmly in thechimney flue.

The cat has been infected with an ETvirus which destroys the bodies ability to me-tabolise sugar, thus causing extreme diabe-tes. If anyone who has been scratched orbitten by the cat does not seek medical helpwithin 12 hours they will go into a dibeticcoma. This may be fatal if they are alone orfar from a hospital.

Coastguard ChaseThis was a kind of mating ritual, being

conducted by a group of Energy ETs. Theytransfer parts of their knowledge and per-sonality to each other, eventually causing oneof them to split into two. Each of the tworetains the entire knowledge of it�s parent,whilst retaining the capacity to learn at leastas much again.

This group has made its home in theabandoned naval base at Portland, once oneof the Royal Navy�s largest installations andthe main staging point for the D-day land-ings of WWII. This base can be used byGM�s to cause all sorts of bother.

Tabloids

Lee Williams brings us two short adventure seeds

Insert Department Name here DEMONGROUND Issue 4The Loose Ends

Demonground Editor-In-ChiefMarcus Bone([email protected])

Demonground Associate Editor/ChiefMinster for PropagandaMichael Marchi([email protected])

Demonground Associate Editor/ChiefMinister for LayoutGeoff Skellams([email protected])

Article AuthorsMarcus BoneChris CarpenterEyal FaingershLauri GardnerMichael MarchiGeoff SkellamsIan SullivanLee Williams

Cover ArtNeal Dickinson

Interior ArtJames CollinsEyal FaingershMike MarchiGeoff SkellamsAndy Simmons

New Zena Marley quotes written by MarcusBone and Geoff Skellams.

Like all fanzines, we need articles byyou, the fans of Dark Conspiracy, to keepthis magazine alive.

We�re looking for articles solely relatedto the Dark Conspiracy universe. Any ma-terial that would help a new referee or playerwould be ideal.

Use the departments from this issue asa rough guide to the areas of material weare looking for. In particular, we need more:

Dark RacesDark Conspiracy Related FictionTabloid ArticlesHouse RulesNPCsMilieu

If you think you can help, then pleasesend your submission to Marcus Bone([email protected]).

We would prefer all submissions to bein a format readable by Microsoft Word 97.Our main preference is a Word 97 file.

If you are sending in tables, please sendthem as a word processor table or a tab-delimited text file. Do not send HTML files.

Please keep the formatting in your sub-missions simple. We will be responsible forformatting your submission when the maga-zine is being laid out. Fancy formattingmakes our job that much harder.

We reserve the right to edit your sub-mission and to correct spelling and gram-mar if necessary. If you have a problem withus doing this, please contact us and we willsee if we can come to some sort of arrange-ment.

We look forward to seeing your sub-missions. Your involvement is important, notonly to the success of this fanzine, but alsoto the continued survival of Dark Con-spiracy.

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All other trademarks or registeredtrademarks are trademarks or registeredtrademarks of their respective owners.

All trademarks are used without per-mission for the purposes of illustration only.The use of these trademarks should not beseen as a challenge to the respective own-ers.

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The Loose Ends

mailto:[email protected]




DPI-1110 Of Gates And Gods - Sin City Volume 2, 108 pages, US$16.00

Copyright © 1999 Dark Conspiracy Enterprises. Dark Conspiracy is a trademark of Dark Conspiracy Enterprises. All Rights Reserved.

P.O. Box 221Lake Geneva, WI USA 53147

Phone: (414) 245-3710Fax: (414) 249-9456

http://www.dynastypresentations.com/

Something strange just crashed into aheavily populated region of New CentennialCity and someone is trying to keep it a secret.

As the players investigate, they will beintroduced to the subculture of the Citadel.The Citadel can be best described as the per-sonal playground to the elite of New Centen-nial City. Big parties, big business and bigmoney flow through this area at neck-break-ing speeds.

The Citadel is dangerously out of control.Greed and corruption can be found on everycorner. Certain elements attempt to changethe world as we know it. What is happeningbehind the scenes and can your party stop itbefore it�s too late?

And no matter what happens in Sin City,just remember

IT�S JUST BUSINESS.

This high-drama adventure is the secondinstallment of the �Sin City� series.

http://www.dynastypresentations.com/

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