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ESCHATOLOGY CODE
BY BRUCE R. CORDELL
Table of Contents
Introduction
Eschatology Code
Pregenerated Characters
3
4
17
Credits
Writer/Designer
Bruce R. Cordell
Creative Director
Shanna Germain
Editor
Jeremy Land
Proofreader
Ray Vallese
Cover Artist
Matt Stawicki
Graphic Designer
Bear Weiter
Artists
Grzegorz Pedrycz, Matt Stawicki, Dreamstime.com
Cartographer
Hugo Solis
Monte Cook Games Editorial Team
Scott C. Bourgeois, David Wilson Brown, Eric Coates, Gareth Hodges, Ryan Klemm,
Jeremy Land, Laura Wilkinson, George Ziets
Special Thanks
Torah Cottrill
© 2014 Monte Cook Games, LLC
The Strange
and its logo are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC in the U.S.A. and other countries. All Monte Cook Games characters
and character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are trademarks of Monte Cook Games, LLC.
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ESCHATOLOGY CODE
Introduction
Eschatology (from the Merriam-Webster dictionary):
1. A branch of theology concerned with the final events in the
history of the world or of humankind.
Eschatology Code
is an adventure for
The Strange™
suitable for beginning players. It starts on Earth, and if
the player characters (PCs) don’t play their cards right, it ends on Earth … as in, the “End of Days.”
Eschatology Code
guides the game master (GM) through a string of possible encounters,
introducing the people, places, and creatures as the narrative unfolds. Of course, since the PCs
can do whatever they wish at any time after they get off the plane in the initial encounter, the order
of encounters presented here is just one way things could go.
BACKGROUND
Under the guise of improving soldier performance,
the
September Project
utilized next-generation
quantum computing hardware to create the War
Code program. At its heart, the project is an optical
delivery system that flashes code directly to anyone
wearing specially fabricated
war glasses.
This
War Code gives the recipients abilities normally
reserved for quickened individuals (like PCs). The
September Project began shopping the War Code
program around to various military contractors as
soon as the program was complete.
The September Project is more than a cutting-
edge military weapons supplier. And the War Code
is far more than just the product of advanced
computing. The September Project is actually
an Earth-based front for the
Betrayer,
once the
Incarnation of War in the recursion of Ardeyn. The
code being downloaded into recipients’ brains
is actually a portion of the Betrayer’s soul, which
resonates between Ardeyn and Earth thanks to a
program running on a quantum computer. While
a wearer of war glasses gains amazing abilities,
each wearer also widens a conduit between Earth
and Ardeyn. In time, this conduit could allow the
Betrayer to manifest on Earth with the abilities of
an entity from a recursion operating under the law
of Magic. That would be bad. Very bad.
Unable to locate buyers in the military-industrial
complex, the September Project changed tactics.
It delivered the quantum computer and war
glasses to Father Foss, a church leader in Sioux
Falls, South Dakota. When the All Souls Church of
Deliverance began publicly counting down to the
End of Days, the
Estate
and the
Office of Strategic
Recursion (OSR)
both sent operatives to find out
if the miracles reported on the local news had
anything to do with the Strange.
War glasses, page 9
September Project,
page 155
COREBOOK CALLOUTS
Betrayer, page 178
Estate, page 148
Office of Strategic
Recursion, page 157
Throughout this supplement, you’ll see page
references to various items accompanied by
this symbol. These are page references to
The Strange
corebook, where you can find
additional details about that item, place,
creature, or concept. It isn’t necessary to
look up the referenced items in the corebook;
it’s an optional way to learn more about The
Strange and provide additional information to
your players.
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Eschatology Code
As an adventure designed to be run at a convention,
Eschatology Code
throws characters right
into the action with a high-stakes initial encounter on a plane. The adventure also presumes that
the characters are operatives of the Estate. If you’re not running this adventure at a convention
and want to incorporate it into your ongoing campaign, optional ideas for involving your PCs are
provided under Alternative Hooks (see below).
SYNOPSIS
Things get off to a quick start with a fight inside a
jet plane against enhanced supersoldiers, followed
by the investigation of a church and its messianic
leader, Father Foss. In the church basement chapel,
the PCs have the opportunity to save the world, if
they can defeat the Incarnation of War and seal a
breach between Earth and the recursion of Ardeyn.
INTRODUCE THE CYPHER
SYSTEM
If you are running
Eschatology Code
at a
convention, begin by introducing the game system
to the players. At some point—but probably not
until you’ve described the differences between
paradoxes, spinners, and vectors—let the players
choose from the pregenerated characters that
come with this adventure. When allowing players
to choose, provide the following summary of
each character, beginning with the fact that the
characters have all translated to Ardeyn before as
part of an earlier mission.
Character Summary to Help
Players Choose Characters:
ALTERNATIVE HOOKS
The adventure presumes that the PCs are
operatives of the Estate who have been sent to
investigate the All Souls Church of Deliverance. If
you’re not running this adventure at a convention,
you can adjust it to fit your own campaign in any
way you desire, including using player characters
who are not part of the Estate.
A COUPLE OF DAYS EARLIER
If you run an ongoing campaign in the Strange,
you might prefer to introduce the investigation of
the church to the PCs in a manner similar to other
jobs they have taken. If they’re working for the
Estate or a similar organization, this could begin
with a briefing at organizational headquarters. The
briefing includes the basic information the PCs
know about their assignment (which is provided
in the Adventure Start). But since the PCs’ actual
briefing occurs a couple of days beforehand in this
alternate scenario, the players have the opportunity
to research the church online, prepare additional
resources if desired, and take care of other
business before they begin
Eschatology Code.
NOT AN ESTATE PC?
• Arlo Coulton:
Arlo is good with guns and
knows his enemies’ weaknesses.
• Vanessa Torgue:
Vanessa fights competently
with her two nightsticks.
• L. G. Babcock:
L. G. is best at helping others
but isn’t necessarily great at fighting. On the
other hand, L. G. is great at persuading NPCs
of almost anything.
• Torah “the Windmill” Bishop:
Torah is brash and
better at fighting than talking, unless she’s lying.
• Dr. Sybil Holloway:
Sybil is a scientist who knows
her high-energy physics and who can cause
objects to shatter at a distance if she can see them.
• Jonny “Flip” McDaniel:
Jonny can see what’s
hidden and can stun creatures from alternate
recursions who find their way into worlds
where they don’t belong.
Ardeyn Focus Sheets:
At this time, don’t give
players the Ardeyn focus sheets associated with
each character (pages 29-34). When the time
comes for the PCs to access their Ardeyn foci (at
the Breach in the Church Basement), hand out the
additional character sheets.
Experience Points:
As part of the introduction,
tell the players that you’re giving them 1 XP
and that one of the things they can do with an
experience point is reroll a bad die roll.
Introducing the system should take less than 20
minutes (and no more than 30). Once the players
understand the basics, start the adventure.
Instead of Estate operatives, the PCs might be
reporters for a magazine called
Exposing the Strange.
Their editor is Svetlana Tankov. The PCs are cognizant
of recursions, the dark energy network, and their own
abilities, although such things may still be relatively
new to them. When the miracles in Sioux Falls are
televised, Svetlana suspects that a paradox (the
character type) is actually responsible. She sends
her reporters (the PCs) to investigate. During their
flight to South Dakota, the PCs are caught up in a
fight with some All Souls acolytes (and a gremlin!), as
described in the Adventure Start.
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ESCHATOLOGY CODE
Difficulty and Effort
If you’re running this adventure at a convention or
for players new to the cypher system, explain to the
players the difficulty of tasks, attacks, and defense
rolls (and the number that must be rolled associated
with that difficulty) they’re attempting. This allows
players to more quickly come to understand how
the game works and whether applying Effort is
something that is reasonable to do.
ADVENTURE START:
TURBULENCE AT 30,000
FEET
The PCs begin play already aboard a commercial
airliner, en route to a mission destination. Read
or paraphrase the following to the players if they
haven’t already been briefed.
read aloud
You’re an Estate operative, and you’ve got a badge
to prove it. The Estate is a secret organization that
monitors activity on Earth that originates in alternate
recursions and, generally speaking, puts a stop to it
for Earth’s safety. You’ve been touched by the Strange
yourself and have abilities regular people wouldn’t
understand. Those abilities are what make you a
perfect operative for the Estate.
You and your team were assigned a new mission,
which started today. You’ve been in the air for a
couple of hours with a coach-class ticket from Seattle,
Washington, to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. You’re on
your way to investigate a man called Father Foss of the
All Souls Church of Deliverance (located in Sioux Falls).
Father Foss began counting down to the “End of
Days” a few weeks ago. Of course, crackpot evangelists
do that all the time, but in this case, local televised
news reports showed Father Foss pulling off several
tricks that bamboozled the local media. A few reporters
went so far as to call the tricks actual miracles.
But you know a lot more than local reporters,
thanks to your briefing.
The player characters are sitting together on a
Boeing 737 in two consecutive rows on the left side
of the plane (call them rows 17 and 18; row 17 has
an emergency exit). Each of these rows is three
seats wide. If you have fewer than six players, those
seats are empty of other passengers. The plane has
a single central aisle. (The rows on the right side of
the plane are also three seats wide.)
Ask the players to introduce their characters
to the other players, including the connection
information described in each character’s
Background (in the second paragraph), if that
information isn’t a secret. The players may
also decide to reveal their characters’ personal
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