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r

If

the

PCs

owe he Peace

orce

a

favor

(and

who doesn't?), hey might

get

"deputized"

to search

or Mr. Freeze

(see

below). f and when hey uncover

Oleg Karovski,he might be able o find

the realsource fthe chill.

r

Any PC involvedwith time travel

(either

scientificor mystical)would

feel a disturbance rom the Revertron.

Timeline

This is the courseeventswill follow if

unmodified

by the

PCs. f

your

characters

reconcentrating nly on

this

plotline,you

can

compresst so hat

thingsmove aster. f this s

ust

one

plot

out ofmany,

you

can spread t out.

Days l -5

The oppressive eat

of

midsummer s

brokenby an unseasonablereeze.

KRAK

meteorologist leg Karovski

declares

hat t's

"El

Pinto," an

unusually trongwind. Violence

decreases,

eople

mile openly,and even

Dr. Nusbaum s alleged o be

"taking

a

few

days off."

Nayla Splitter s worried,however.

Her

brotherJackwas very

excitedabout

a new

project,

but hasn'tcalledback.

"He

wouldn't tell

me anything

about t,"

she says.

"He

was

always

paranoid

about

his

phone

being appedor something...

but he said hat t was

big,

bigger han

superconductors hat was his

phrase...

that t

would

end

our slavish

energy

dependencyorever."'

If

queried,

he'll tell all she

knows.

Her only real clue s

that

he was

constantly

alking

abouthearingBuddy

Holly live in

concert.

Days6-8

The wind

picks

up, and he temperature

slowly drops

o 67 degrees

ahrenheit.

"El

Pinto"

jokes

become ommon,

and

Karovski starts o sound

a little nervous

on the air.

Day9

The temperaturedrops

o 60 degrees

Fahrenheit. eople tart o

get

nervous.

Weather s a constant opic

of

conversation.

ich folk begin

o take

vacations lsewhere.

The Mr.

Le Thuys dump a hugebatch

of Zoroaster

on the market.

Day10

A large

group

of Glorious

Lords

(many

on

Zoro) breaks nto a warehouse

n

JusticeBarrio after

hearing hat mitation

designer

oatswere stored

here.Otto's

Men show up,

but the Glorious

Lords

get

away with a

truck load of coats and

set

the warehouseon

fire. A

crowd

of Zeroes

show up to warm hemselves,

nd Otto's

Men beat hem up.

The

temperature

s down to 52

degrees

Fahrenheit.Wind chill

is

constant,

knocking another

en degrees ff.

Day

11

The Sommerites old a "Great Big Feel-

Good-In"

to

pray

or

the end of

the cold.

On a

more

practical evel,

Cheryl

D'Aubainnecalls

n

a

favor with a

certain

Bishop Montserrat; clothes

and

fuel

are

sent by barge because El

Pinto" is makingair travel dangerous.

The temperature

s

at

44 degrees

Fahrenheit.

n ICU fidd#

"lt's

hard o havebad weathern

the

Meditenanean..."

-Over

he Edge,

page

20.

Al Amarja may

be dangerous nd

disconcerting nd rustrating, ut the one

thing

you

couldcounton

wasnice

weather

until now. Now it's

starting

o

get

cold.

People

re seeing ce outsideof

their

deeped ea. People

are

getting

scared.

The Explanation

A lone

oppenheimer amed

ackSplitter

invented

machine hat urns heat

directly nto

electricity.

The

more heat t

can suck n,

the

more

power

t

generates.

The morepower t has, he more ts area

ofheat-drain

expands.Splitterhas rozen

to death n

his cutoffs,his handhalf way

to the

"off

'

switch. His

machine unson

andon.. .

Enter

he PGs

As

temperatures

ool, he situationheats

up. The

Big Freeze ecomes matter

of

national

mportance, nd

he

PCs have

someedge

hat enables hem o figure

out

that Splitterwas responsible.

ome

possible

onnections re;

o

The

PCsknew what

Splitterwas

working on; but that's oo easy.

o

Splitter'ssister s

getting

worried

about

him

he hasn't alled n

weeks A P .l.

PC

gets

hired o track him

down.

r

A PC with

a meteorology r math

analysis

kill could riangulate hat

he

center

of the chill was

somewhere n

Mt.

Ralsius.

Over he Edge s

a trademark f

JohnA. Nephew.

24

Adventures Unlimited

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Day

12

The

emperature rops

again;;37degrees

Fahrenheit.

The D'Aubainne

Hospital s

swamped

with

he ll, as s Ahmed's.

Any PC

or

GMC who has

no experience

ith cold

weather, r who lacks he properclothes

andheat,

olls

on the following

chart.

(They

get

appropriate

onusor

penalty

dice or relevant

raits,

ofcourse.)

Roll

Result

1-2

Bad flu. Penalty

die on

all mental

or

physical

actions.

3-4 Bad

cold. Penalty

die on

al l

physical

actions.

5

Sniffles,

but

no

serious

enalty.

6 No effect.

Day13

The emperaturealls to 29 degrees

Fahrenheit.

With wind

chill factored n,

it's 3 degrees

bovezero.

A buzzing,

electronic-sounding

oice

breaksnto

the weather epoft

at KRAK

anddelivers

he following message:

"This

unseasonable

hil l

is

no t

natural.

created t. I

am Mr. Freeze ,

nd

if my

demands

renot met he

chil l wil l

continue ntil

everyone n this island

s

dead.

want

$10

mill ion deposited

n the

Cayman

Bank of International

inance

account

73423-0100

n

oneweek's

time,and

he release

f Lars

Popodopulous.he choice syours."

The

Peace orce

mmediately

ffers a

$100,000

eward

or

any nformation

about

Mr.

Freeze."

Day14

At

a temperature

f l6 degrees,

Dunkelburg's

Securityhas ts

hands ull

asZeroes

warm

owards he Plaza

of

Broken

Wings n

a desperate

ttempt o

try

to seize uel

or warm

clothes rom

the

wealthy.Eventually

he Peace orce

s

called n.

The Zeroes

arebrutally

suppressed

y armored

cars and a

helicopter unship iring teargasand

rubber

ullets.

hirteen omeless

ie .

forty-two

are wounded.

Day 5

At

a small

cafe n the Plaza

of

Gold, a

fight

breaksout

between wo

seemingly

normal roups

of businessmen.

ne man

in blue

points

his

cellular

hone

(apparently)

t a man n

a tan suit,

screaming

Die

then,

Vassily " The

man

n tan

goes

nto conlulsions.One

of

Vassily'scompanionsunges nto his

pocket

or

a

peculiarly

carvedwand

and

beginscroakingout

a strange hant.The

man n

blue bursts nto flamesasalmost

everyonen

the cafe

pulls

tasers, atanas

and strange evices ut oftheir

briefcases r coat

pockets.

(lf

the PCs

arebeingmanipulated

y

either he Hermeticor

GladsteinMover

cells, hey might

be called n asbackup

on one sideor

the other.This

confrontation

was

brought o

you

by Cell

Z,

or maybe

he Vornites.)

The

temperatureoutside s

-

I 5

degrees

Fahrenheit,

ith wind chill.

Snow starts

to fall,

and he

streets re coveredwith

glare

ce.

The ice

subtracts full die

from

the skill roll

of any driver who

hasn't

driven on it before. t

addsa

penalty

die to all others.

Her Exaltedness

onique

D'Aubainne

announceshat shewill

address

he

public

rom

the

D'Aubainne

Hospital

he next

day.

Day16

The Peace

orce

announceshat t will

release

ars Popodopulous

FTER

the

chi l lends.

Everyone

makes

another

ick

roll,

ust

l ike Day

12. f

someone's lready ick

and oll that

hey

get

sick again, he

illness

worsens,

iving

two

penalty

dice.

Traffic slows to a crawl everywhere

on the sland,

and hereare

STILL many

accidents. here

are ines

ofsick and

injured

waiting

o

get nto

any

place

of

treatment.

he Intemational

Red

Cross s

conspicuously

bsent.

There

arehuge ines

n the Terminal;

every

plane

s

leaving. one

arecoming

in,

and ickets

are selling or

astronomical rices

evenaftera cargo

plane

crashes ith

thirty

people

on

board.

Seventeen

ie.

A huge,

mixed

crowd

gathers

or

Madame

D'Aubainne's

speech. s snow

falls,various owdies n thecrowd begin

chanting, ighting,

or encouraging

heir

fellows

o riot. Thingsget

uglier

as a

Peace

orcehelicopter

ppears

nd

announces

hat fthe

people

don't return

to their homes,

t will

spray he crowd

with live

ammunition.

Her

Exaltedness

ndignantly

orders he

chopperaway.

Shedeclares er faith

in

the Al Amarjanpeople,

and

gives

an

inspiring

45 minute

speech

n the

Oleg

Karovski

Weatherman

Turned Con Man

Karovski has

the dead end

ob

of being the

weatheman

on an

island

with very boing

weather. He likes

the climate, and is a

moderately popular radio personality. On his

own,

he was

faidy content until he met Foote.

The

two of them have a

passionate

and

(to

Karovski)

baffling love affair. He's in love,

but

not

completelyhead over heels;he

goes

along with her

because he's so confused

by

her

that

he

doesn't know what else

to do.

Al Amarjan

man, age 32, 165 cm, 65 kg.

Dark hair, bald

spot, bad

wig, handlebar

mustache, ull voice.

Traits

Weatherman,3 dice

Karovski understandsweather, what

causes

rain,

temperature drops

(usuaily)

and other

meteorological

phenomena.

(Always

has

an

umbrella)

Radio

Personality,

3 dice

He's

moderately

entedaining, and knows a lot

of

comy

jokes.

(Full,

pleasant

voice)

Lola Foote

Scheming Technician

Foofe

is very intense. Anything

she does,

anything she wants, becomesa consuming

drive

to

her.

Sheb a

pertectionist

in her work,

demands

passion

and

romance from

her

love

life, and is never

satisfied with anything

she

owns when she knows

there's a better one

somewhere. Like

anyone

who with

high

expectations, Foote

is often disappointed.

The

constant

ailure

of real ity to meet her

expectations

has ef t her

bitter,

mpatient

and

callous.

Al Amarjan woman,

age 28, 150 cm, 45

kg,

French-braided light

brown hair, big brown

eyes,

pouu

mouth.

Traits

Radio Technician,

3 dice

This

sk//

is

self explanatory.

(Canies

a tool kit with her)

Stunning, 3 dice

Lola Foote has

an

intense

presence,

which

most men feel

sexually. She's

good

looking,

but i t's more

than that; she

projects

an almost

intoxicating

sense

of desire

(Hot,

intense

gaze)

Over

the Edse

25

8/9/2019 The Ice Edge

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necessityor

sacrifice, ooperation,

nd

dedication o

community.

The

crowd

responds

with wild cheering,

lapping

and ears.

(Actually,

everyaspect

fthe event

was

carefully orchestrated. he

"troublemakers"

wereactors.A phony

show rial is

planned

or

the

"rebellious"

chopper ommander. er

Exaltedness

nows hat

hingsare

n

bad,

bad shape, nd

planned

his to

give

herselfa

ew days o

brace

or

revolution.)

Many Zeroes

discover

hat he

Garbage

Men havehuge

rovesof

flammable

rash.The

GarbageMen

get

a

lot

of

new

members.

Day

16

By now

the account n

the Caymans as

over$17mill ion dollars n it, donated y

various

Mover

cells, he Kergillians,

he

Earthlings,

he Pharaohs,

nd

international

ntell igence

gencies.

Oleg Karovski

and Lola Foote

see

below) eave

he island

on

a

boat, he

"Mary

Agatha."

With

them s a hired

strongmanwho

stole he

boat

or

them.

The temperature

ontinues

o fall.

Day18

The Peace

orce

and Loyal Defenders

are

otally mobilized

n

attempt o

prevent

iots and ooting.

Nonetheless,

anythingwooden s beingbumed or

warmth,

he Terminal

s

completely

empty of

planes,

nd

here'sa screaming,

panicking

maniac

on

ust

aboutevery

other

street orner.

Flamethrowers

re

used n a futile

aftempt

clclear he

streets f ice.

So many have

died hat

rucksand

bulldozers

re

used o

push

he corpses

off the Brink.

Garbage

Men

begin

burning

bodies or fuel.

At

this ime,

Splitter'smachine

reaches

ts maximum

adius;

a

zone

of

absolute

ero surrounds

t, and sinceheat

cannotpenetratet, it reaches

equilibrium.

When t

ceaseso expand,t

can onger

draw n

new heat,

and he

Revertron

uns

out ofpower.

The

"Mary

Agatha"

sinks.Allhands

are ost.

Day 19

The

temperature

ises

by 5 degrees, ut

no one notices

because

gang

ofrebels

called

"RSR3" attempts

coup.Led by

their charismatic

eaderRicardo

Santo.a

gang

oftumcoat Peace

Force officers

robs

the arrnory o arm

other

members

of

the

gang.

Open

gunfire

rocks he

streets

as he Peace

Force and Loyal Defenders

retreat

before RSR3.

(lt

stands

or

"Ricardo Santo'sRadicalRebel

Rabble.") The forces

of Madame

D'Aubainne

defend he

barriosof

Arms.

Gold

and BrokenWings. RSR3 ides

through he restofthe Edge,

shooting,

looting

and recruiting.

Day20

Every rifle and

pistol

carried by members

of RSR3 self-destructs.he Loyal

Defenders

and

Peace

Force storm out of

their

barriosand roll over anyone n

their

path.

RSR3 s

utterly destroyed.

The

temperature ises another20

degrees, nd he wind slackens

considerably.

Aftermath

The

emperature ontinueso rise

steadily

and the stateof emergency

gradually

essens. he Peace orce

becomesmore uthless

nd

repressive

asdo the GoldenKnights,Dunkelburg's,

and every

other security organizationon

the sland.Madame

D'Aubainne

gives

many

nspiringspeeches,nd Dr.

Nusbaum

publicly

demonstrates

with

the help

of

Ricardo

Santoand Lars

Popodopulous)hat,with a tank full of

the right

chemicals,t's

possible

o flay

someone nd urn

them almost

completely nside

out before hey die.

As the equipment n

Splitter's ab

heatsup, he

stress fbeing frozenand

thawed

shatters

t

all. His work will

never

be

recreated

all his noteswere on

a

computer,

which was

destroyedby

the

thaw.

No

one ever ries o collect he

Caymansaccount,which is fortunate;

he

bank was

bought out by Constance

D'Aubainne.who

watches hat account

with a greatdeal of interest.

Oleg Karovski's eplacement

s much

more

qualified

but much ess

entertaining. o

pick

up the slack,

KRAK

gives

a local

businessman

amed

Clyde Throckmorton daily l5 minute

spot o vent his views.

If

the

PCs

don't f igure out what

happened,

o oneeverwill.

Splitter'sWork

Splitter was working on a time travel

machine.Because

he energy

requirementswere

so

huge, he worked

on

a tiny scale and accidentally

achieved

his

greatest

breakthrough,

he

Revertron.

By reversing he flow of time on a

subatomic

evel,

he could reverse he

flow

of

entropy.

With

normal

entropic

flow. current encounters esistance n

a

wire and

generates

waste heat.

Under the

influence

f Splitter's

Revertron,

he

heat

around he wire turned tself

nto

electricity.

When he recognized he

potential

of a

reverseentropy

generator,

he

set up a

lab

on the slopes f Mt. Ralsiusand

attempted o

hamess

he

geothermal

power

of the dormant volcano.

He succeededar too well. By

powering he Revertronoffthe entropic

generator,

he createdan endlessspiral.

The more

power

the Revertron

got,

the

wider its rangeextended. he wider he

range, he more heat

he

generator

sucked

in. The more heat he

generatorgot,

the

more

power

the Revertron

got

-

and so

on.

Anyonewho researches plitterwill

find

that

he was

secretiveand

defensive

about

his work. He has

wo articles

published:

Tachyonic

Reversion n

High

EnergyG-Space".and

"Priming

the Pump

of

History."

The first is impenetrableo anyone

without

a scientificbackground.

o

a

scientist he theories re

plausible

ut

very odd. The

gist

of it is that f time

were flowing backwardson a

quantum

level, t

could still

flow forwards

on

the

macroscopic evel

-

that energyor even

information

could

flow

backwards

without

disturbingcausal

ty.

The second rticleoutlinesa

plan

whereby

urent scientific

nformation s

sent back in time to

great

hinkers of the

past.

With

this information n hand,

they'd

be

able to

progress

much farther

than hey did in what Splittercalled

"current

history." When heir

accelerated nowledge ed to new

ideas

or inventions.his information

would

be

sent back too

-

eachcycle increasing he

knowledge

ofthe broadcasters

y

amplifying it through a

few

great

historicalminds.

26

AdventuresUnlimited Maeazine

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Moremundane

leuthingwill reveal

bought

lot of newequipmenl

andwrote

a fair sized check o

RealEstate.

Real

Estate

aggit an a shadybusiness.

the

past

ense

because e split the

week

before

El

Pinto"

began.

wind that he Peace orce

was

et o

squeeze im for renting

o Slo-Mo manufacturers.

now

sippingmargaritasn

Vallarta.

He trashed is

files

e went,

but due o the small ime

he

had

one hour o coverhis

split)he

did

a

sloppy

ob .

The

nature

f his i les,and heir

f disarray,s

up to the GM. If

early n the

scenario,he files

are

wastedl he PCsare

o have o check

each

property

This

could ead

hem o

lo-Mo actories,white

slavery

ube

communes, acrifi

e

f cattlemutilation

cults, Mover/

afehouseswhatever.)

f

the scenario,

he

flles

can be

n the computer

if

the

nclude

someonewith

the

required

kill) or sortedout by tedious

reading

if

they don't). This

will lead

them

o Splitter's ab.

Anyonewho

gets

within a mile

of

the

lab will feel a definitedrop n

temperature

nd

ncreasen wind

speed.

Within a hundred ards, he wind is too

strong or any human o withstand. f

this

phenomenon

s called o the attention

f

the Peace orce,

hey'll bomb he ab and

thingswill return o

"normal."

"Mr

Freeze"

Mr. Freeze s

a hoax cookedup by

a

KRAK

technician amedLola Foote.

When shesees ow

desperate

eople

are,

she

igures

hey'll coughup big

bucks.

Sheenlists er over

Karovski o help

her.

Lars Popodopulouss

a recently

captured fascist." Actually a member

of RSR3

and

oneso minor

hat

he

hadn't

eamedwhat

he

nitials

stand

for),

Popodopulouss

being

presented

s

a criminal mastermind

nd hreat o the

island's

peace.

Footedecided

o ask

or

his release

o throw

any

nvestigators

ff

the

track.

The

Peace orce nvestisation

f Mr.

Freeze

ails to triangulate

lnan outside

signal,and ails

to consider

n inside

ob.

This

is

perhaps

ue o the distractions f

riots,

panic

and

glare

ce.

Conclusion

If

the

PCs

succeed

n

trackingdown the

lab any ime beforeDay 13, heyget he

thanks ofthe PeaceForce

-

a

not

inconsiderable

sset.

Plus,

hey save

countlessives and

prevent

a blood

soakedcoup attempt

-

but there's no way

for them

to

know it.

If they determine hat

Oleg

Karovski

is Mr. Freeze

fter

Day

13, hey

get

he

$100,000

eward.The chill

continues

though;Karovskisayshe

doesn't

know

where

he chill came rom even hough

tortured,

and he

Peace orce eaves

im

in

no condition o figure t out.

If

they ind Oleg Karovskiand

convincehim to figure out where he

chill is REALLY

coming

rom,

they can

call in the Peace orce,

get

he

ab

destroyed,

et

he moneyAND

get

gratitude

rom the

govemment

ven f

they don't turn Oleg n. The same hing

happensf

they

find

the ab

without

Oleg'shelp.

AduenlureDesignContesl

Adventures

nlimited Magazine s

$100

US

cash

prize

o the

best

y a

non-professional

hewinning

submission

il l

published

n

a lssue 7

(July

1996)

f

nlimited Magazine.

This

contest s

designedo

assist

as-yet-unpublishedame

n

getting

an

adventure

ublished.

submissionmust

be an adventure

scenario,

ompatible

with one

or

more

published

oleplayinggames.

Please

o not

submit sourcematerial

or rule

variants.

We can accept

adventuresor

any

gaming

system

excepthose

published

by TSR,

Inc.

Adventures

ust

be

no longer

han

6,000words.

ill

be

udged

on the

basis f entertainment

alue

and

5 .

playability,

mastery

f

game

ules

and background,

nd

artistic

merit.

Submissions ust

be n the ollowing

format:

typewritten

or computer

printed

on standard -l/2' X

I

l

"

paper;

doublespaced, umbered

pages

with the

adventureitle at the

top

of every

page.

Drawings

and

mapsmaybe

ncluded on

standard

paper.

To insure airness

n the

judging

process,

he writer's name,

address,

hone

number,

and

e-mail

address hould

appear nly on a

separate

itle

page.

For he

durationofthe contest.

ll

entries

become he

property

of

Bootstrap

Press nc. If

the manuscript

is

not chosen

s a

winner,

all rights

revert o

the authorasof July 3

,

1996.

Manuscripts i l l

only be

retumed

after

July

1996

f the writer

has

ncluded

a SASE with sufficient

retum postage.

Submissionsmust reach

us by

April

30, 1996. l low

time or themail.

Electronic ubmissions reacceptable,

and may be

sent o us

via

e-mail at:

AdvsUnltd@aol.com.

Shareholdersn Bootstrap

Press nc.

are neligible

or this contest.

The winner will

be expectedo

resubmit

he adventuren electronic

format

eitherDOS or Macintosh

format,

n May 1996 .

Adventures

Unlimited Magazine

AdventureDesignContest

3436 Amberly Place

VancouverBC

CanadaV5S 4P9

The winner

will receive

100

US

(o r

Canadian o llar equivalent),

ublication

oftheir adventuren Issue#7

of

Adventures

Unlimited Magazine

July

1996),

plus

wo

author'scopiesofthat

magazine. ayment

will be madewithin

30 daysofpublication.

4 .

Over

he

Edge