OPERATION

APOCALYPSE
‘See the world!’ they said...
From a London invaded by Axis forces to pre-Mayan
ruins in the Amazon jungle, millennia-old secrets of
the Dust universe await in all corners of the Earth.

Embark on a whirlwind campaign that pits an elite

Allied team against the Axis, SSU, remnant Nazis, and a
secretive cult in a race for the legendary Seven Seals.

This complete campaign includes:

• A globe-trotting story that will take you to such

places as South America, Turkey, Thailand,
and the Philippines.

• The introduction of a new alien species fighting

the Vrill, as well as the secret history of their
intergalactic war.

• All-new information on the three blocs.

• Epic action set-pieces, including a battle aboard

a top secret Axis aircraft carrier.

‡ Dust Tactics and Dust Warfare scenarios for the

large-scale battles of the campaign.

Expansive and deep, Operation: Apocalypse will

satisfy fans old and new alike.

For use with the Dust Adventures roleplaying game.

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 :ULWWHQ %\
Chris Lites

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CS Barnhart,
Benn Beaton

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Chris Lites

,QWHULRU $UWZRUN %\

Giorgio Baroni,
Dust Studio

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Scott Woodard

*UDSKLF 'HVLJQ %\

Rick Hershey
Michal E. Cross

&RYHU $UWZRUN %\

Giorgio Baroni

&DUWRJUDSK\ %\ Dust &UHDWHG %\

Giorgio Baroni Paolo Parente
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Nick Fallon

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Dust Studio Modiphius Entertainment Ltd. 35 Turneville Road, London, W14 9PS.
info@modiphius.com
Publisher
Chris Birch Modiphius Entertainment Product Number: MUH050045
ISBN: 978-1-910132-34-0
$UW 'LUHFWHG %\
Giorgio Baroni Find out more about Dust Adventures at
www.modiphius.com/dust-adventures
3URRIUHDGLQJ %\ www.facebook.com/groups/dustadventures
Benn Beaton,
Chris Lites,
Peter Holland,
Steve Hanson,
Morgan Swiers,
Michael Fulks,
Philip Campanaro,
Gilles Tremblay,
Matthew Dixon, The Dust Adventures system and Modiphius Logos are copyright Modiphius Entertainment Ltd 2015.
Benjamin Koch All system text is copyright Modiphius Entertainment Ltd. Any unauthorised use of copyrighted material
And thanks to the rest of is illegal. Any trademarked names are used in a fictional manner; no infringement is intended. This is a
our fans! work of fiction. Any similarity with actual people and events, past or present, is purely coincidental and
unintentional except for those people and events described in an historical context.
&RPPXQLW\ 0DQDJHUV
Zarina Kadylbek, Dust Adventures and related logos, characters, names, and distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks or
John Dodd, registered trademarks of DUST Studio. All rights reserved. Artwork and graphics © DUST Studio, except the
Steve Hanson Modiphius Logo which is © Modiphius Entertainment Ltd.

This is a work of fiction. Any similarity with actual people and events, past or present, is purely coincidental
and unintentional except for those people and events described in an historical context.

2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter  
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3
 CHAPTER 1:
WELCOME TO
THE APOCALYPSE

Welcome to the first campaign for Dust Adventures. civilization to be re-established in the future. Each tablet
Herein you will find thrilling chases, lost cities, epic battles was taken to a different corner of the Earth where they
you can play out with your Dust miniatures, artefacts rare would be safeguarded until the Anunnaki could return.
and priceless, and secrets the Dust universe has not, to The Seals were also keys to a great Anunnaki secret resting
date, given up. deep beneath the birthplace of human civilization in the
Fertile Crescent. This secret augurs the end of the world.
Players find themselves on a quest to retrieve the Seven When the Seven Seals are brought together once more,
Seals written of in the Bible. Along the way, they uncover the Apocalypse may be unleashed.
secrets even the Vrill feared, and organizations long
thought dead. Operation: Apocalypse follows a globetrotting quest to
recover these Seals. The PCs find themselves searching
All three blocs want to unlock the secrets of the Seven from France to Shanghai, and Tibet to Alaska, to recover
Seals and whoever does so may gain knowledge that the Seals and unlock the greatest secret mankind has
will win them the war. In the background, working ever known. Fighting against them are the Axis and SSU
against everyone involved, are the remnants of the Nazi who both want the secret for themselves. In the shadows
Ahnenerbe and a cult called the Sons of Belial. Only by lurk the last Nazis who have long been seeking the Seals.
their wits, prowess, and more than a little luck will the Standing against everyone are the Sons of Belial, a cult
PCs prevail and prevent Armageddon. which has passed down the culture of the original human
civilization destroyed in the Great Deluge, and who wor-
This campaign is a follow up to the adventure Operation: ship the Anunnaki as gods.
Apocalypse found in the core rulebook. It is not neces-
sary to have played that to enjoy this adventure, but it Whoever gathers all Seven Seals will unlock the secret
does provide some interesting backstory. This text is for beneath the ruins of Megiddo, the city also known as
the GM only. If you plan to play, stop reading now! There Armageddon...
are secrets inside this book best discovered by the players
during the course of play.
OUTLINE OF OPERATION:
A SECRET HISTORY APOCALYPSE
10,000 or more years ago, a war raged between two
alien races: the Anunnaki and the Vrill. They vied for (3,62'( 21( 
control over the Earth. Anunnaki bases were the first 7+( $5.
to be established. Following a protocol of total war, Following the events in Operation: Apocalypse (see
the Vrill launched an asteroid at the planet. The result core rulebook), ASOCOM is determined to find the
destroyed almost all remnants of the Anunnaki as well other Six Seals mentioned in the Book of Revelation.
as the human civilizations they had been guiding and The team is either fresh off that previous mission or
manipulating. This story has been all but lost to time, recruited specifically to pick up where the other unit left
surviving only as the great flood myths of civilizations off. Temporarily reassigned to Clio, the mythological
around the globe. and archaeological wing of ASOCOM, team members
To preserve their knowledge and culture, the Anunnaki follow a lead indicating the tablets, upon which the Ten
created seven tablets or “seals” which would allow their Commandments were inscribed, were actually one or

4
 Chapter 1: WELCOME TO THE APOCALYPSE

more of the Seals said to presage the end of the world. (3,62'( )285 
This inspires a search for the lost Ark of the Covenant, 7+( &+,17$0$1, 6721(
brining the characters face-to-face with an ancient cult
as they make their way from a medieval Cathar strong- Buddhist texts speak of a wish-fulfilling stone that fell
hold in France all the way to the United States in pursuit from the heavens. ASOCOM believes this stone is one
of this rare antiquity. of the lost Seals. The Rangers are sent to the hedonistic
“open” city of Vladivostok where gangsters and gamblers,
as well as a former Russian aristocrat, vie for a map leading
(3,62'( 7:2  to the next Seal, but the map only leads them to another
7+( 1(: :25/' mystery, dragging the team deep into the Gobi Desert
where they uncover the tomb of Genghis Khan. From
Following clues provided by a tantalizing image discov- there, they are off to the mythic city of Shambhala, better
ered while looking for the Ark, the team travels to the known as Shangri-La.
American Southwest for further information. With
enemies hot on their heels at every step, the bold Rangers
then travel north to Alaska and the front of the SSU inva- (3,62'( ),9( 
sion. If the Seal is in Alaska, only the native Tlingit know RONGORONGO
where. Seeking them out, the Rangers search for the next
Seal in an abandoned experimental facility once run by India, a land of mysteries both ancient and occult—here the
Majestic 12 and Howard Hughes. Rangers pursue a lead found in the previous episode, dis-
covering uncomfortable truths about the history of planet
Earth. From there, they plunge into the intrigue that weaves
(3,62'( 7+5((  through the Free French City of Saigon. Insurgents and an
REVOLUTION AWOL American soldier lead the team into the jungles of
Cambodia. With both the SSU and the Axis making gains,
The trail leads south, as the Rangers pursue a lead in Rio the Rangers soon find themselves back on the front lines of
de Janeiro, currently in the midst of an SSU-backed coup the war during the Battle of the Philippines. Finally, their
attempt. A mystic guides the team to her granddaugh- mission draws them to Easter Island and the truth behind
ter, while the Nazi Ahnenerbe is close behind. Pursued the catastrophe that befell that civilization.
by the SSU and the Ahnenerbe, the team discovers the
location of the legendary lost city of gold—El Dorado.
Can they beat their enemies to this ancient wonder and (3,62'( 6,; 
the next Seal? 7+( 720% 2) $/(;$1'(5
In the espionage war dominating Istanbul, the PCs search
for clues to the location of Alexander the Great’s tomb.

5
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THOSE WHO SEEK THE SEALS

veteran gaming group.
For two thousand years, treasure hunters have killed and
died trying to find Alexander’s treasure. From Egypt to
Libya, the Rangers seek the tomb only to find that the Five distinct groups are after the Seven Seals including
great conqueror wound up in the unlikeliest of places. the Allies. Each of them is briefly described below along
with their goals. In many of the individual episodes, you
will find sections outlining the function of each faction
(3,62'( 6(9(1 in that episode. Operation: Apocalypse has a lot of
$50$*(''21 moving parts, so quick notes like these are provided for
reference in each chapter.
From one corner of the world to the other, the team has
pursued the Seven Seals. They have fought Nazis and
Axis agents, as well as SSU Spetznaz and cultists, all of it 7+( $;,6
leading here to Armageddon. Also known as Megiddo,
this site is prophesized to be the location of the final The villainous former SS officer Colonel Orbst
battle bringing about the end of the world. That battle represents Blutkreuz and, for most of the campaign,
has begun, and the Rangers are in the middle of it, trying, the Axis. The SS know about the Seven Seals through
with everything in their power, to unlock the greatest documents taken from the Ahnenerbe before the fall of
secret mankind has ever known! Where civilization first the Nazi Reich.
climbed its way up from barbarism, that civilization may
The Axis also knows that there is a great storehouse of
now come to an end. Is this really Doomsday?!
energy left by the Anunnaki somewhere in the Middle

6
 Chapter 1: WELCOME TO THE APOCALYPSE

East. They believe the two things are connected and The Nazis have continued to pursue occult and alien arte-
will stop at nothing to find all Seven Seals and unlock facts all over the world. They dream of restoring the Third
their secrets. Reich and, possibly, even using VK to somehow resurrect
Hitler. In their mad schemes, the secret energy of the
Anunnaki and the Seven Seals figure prominently. While
7+( 668 the Nazis do not have the numbers necessary to directly
The SSU is divided in this campaign. One section is the combat the other blocs, they believe that alien technology
party-faithful SMERSH (intelligence agency), while the will position them to seize power once again.
other sections are those agents loyal to Rasputin. Rasputin
wants the Seals for himself. He has some idea what they
may lead to, while SMERSH only knows rumours.
7+( 6216 2) %(/,$/
The Sons of Belial trace their roots to Antediluvian
The SSU is also the closest thing the PCs are likely to find times. While the current organization only bears the
to an ally. While their respective blocs are enemies, neither name of that ancient group, the Sons of Belial are
side wants to see the Axis, or especially the Nazis, possess dedicated to preventing the powers of the world from
all Seven Seals. recovering Anunnaki technology. They believe they
alone are heirs to this technology and await the return of
the aliens they see as gods.
7+( AHNENERBE
Venerating this second alien race perverts their agenda.
The remnants of this Nazi ancestral and archaeological SS
They are less concerned with gaining the tablets than
organization still exist in the world. Currently headquar- preventing others from doing so. Ironically, their goal of
tered in Argentina, the Ahnenerbe possesses the original bringing the Anunnaki back may come true no matter
documents that speak of the Seven Seals and the energy in who emerges victorious. The father of a major NPC in
the Middle East. For more information on this, see Dust Operation: Apocalypse is currently a member of this cult.
Studio’s Operation: Babylon. The Sons of Belial believe the return of their masters her-
alds the end of this world and the beginning of a new age.

7
 this section (and the introduction) later, after having read
7+( $//,(6 through the adventure and seen the plot reveal itself much
The Allies are represented by the PCs, ASOCOM, and as the players might during the course of the campaign.
Clio—ASOCOM’s archaeological and mythological
branch. Following the discovery of a tablet on Mont Still there? Then here we go.
Saint-Michel in the first part of Operation: Apocalypse,
Clio examined it and determined it might be one of the This is a significant bit of backstory. If you are familiar with
Seven Seals spoken of in the Bible. Clio also came to the Operation: Babylon from Dust Studios, some of this ties
conclusion that the tablet was not Vrill, but the product of directly into that narrative. If not, don’t worry, as things are
another, unknown race. This has, of course, complicated the explained for those who have not read that product.
entire backstory of planet Earth as understood by the Allies.
What most Dust players generally know is that the
While many of the tablets are located inside enemy terri- Germans discovered an alien ship in Antarctica prior to
tory, the Allies have both the resources of ASOCOM and the war. The Germans also discovered an alien, who called
the financial backing of the United States, to throw at the himself Kvasir in honour of his rescuers. The alien was a
problem. While they cannot afford to divert whole bat- member of a species called the Vrill who came to Earth in
talions in pursuit of what may turn out to be mere legend, prehistory in search of VK.
the Allies can send their most elite operatives—the PCs.
Less commonly know is why the Vrill would travel so far
away from their home system for VK. The reason was to

THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF fuel an interstellar war between themselves and a race
called the Anunnaki. Both races fought for VK, but the
THE WORLD Anunnaki developed a secondary source of energy stored
in the Middle East and that is what the Axis seeks in
The following is an overview of the as yet unrevealed his- Operation: Babylon.
tory of the Dust Universe. Coupled with the introduction,
this serves to illuminate the entirety of the plot for the GM. Operation: Apocalypse concerns itself with the pursuit
However, the campaign is written so that the GM, too, of the history and artefacts of this second alien race.
might enjoy some of the revelations along the way. This Some 12,000 years before the start of World War II,
section is one of advanced spoilers. The GM is free to read the Anunnaki came to Earth and established colonies.

8
 Chapter 1: WELCOME TO THE APOCALYPSE

They used human beings, possibly even helped geneti- 10,000 B.C. The meteor was aimed at the Pacific Ocean
cally modify them, to mine gold. As time went on, these so it might wipe out the Anunnaki colonies along with
humans developed a complex and highly technological their human counterparts while leaving the rich deposits
society of their own. This civilization predates those we of energy intact. This ultimate weapon worked. The comet
know of as the first to appear in the Fertile Crescent. struck the Pacific and tsunamis of such scale as to be nigh
unimaginable swept over the land. These all live on as the
The gold held no aesthetic value to the Anunnaki, but Great Flood myths of various cultures. The Anunnaki
it did serve as shielding against the powerful radiation knew such a weapon was being developed and sought to
their new energy emitted. In time, the actual value of gold preserve their culture and those of the humans that fol-
was forgotten by man. All of our conquests for it can be lowed them.
tied to the original, technological purpose for which the
Anunnaki sought the element. The information they wished to preserve was hidden in
nine vaults under Tel Megiddo in what would become
For some time, the Anunnaki colonies flourished, as did Judea. The codes for unlocking the vaults were stored in
the human civilization under them. That continued until seven tablets which later became famous as the Seven
the war between the Vrill and the Anunnaki reached Seals. When humanity reached a point where it was
Earth. Their war is recorded as a war between Heaven and technologically able to understand this—long after the
Hell in the Bible, a war between gods in the Hindu tradi- Great Flood—the Anunnaki wished them to return to
tion, and the revolt of the gods against the titans in Greek the Middle East and activate The Tower of Babel. The
mythology. In every case, the real story has been obscured tower was a space elevator used by the Anunnaki to
by time and legend. move gold and energy off-world. The reactivation would
mean humanity had regained a certain level of techno-
Over the course of centuries, the two races sought domin- logical development and were thus again worthy of the
ion over the Earth and the energy found here in plentiful Anunnaki’s attention. Why they are so interested in man-
amounts. At this point in their war, both sides suffered kind is unclear and a secret for another book. Whatever
enormous casualties and all their resources were turned their interest, the Tower of Babel is the ultimate goal of
to feed the war machine (not unlike the current war man the operation, though this is not apparent until well into
wages across the globe). Long since had the civilian popu- the campaign.
lations of both species become mere tools in the unending
conflict. On Earth, the war resulted in the Vrill employing Whether the Anunnaki receive the signal and return, and
a devastating weapon. how the Vrill respond, is left to other books and other
operations. Surely, with two alien races invested in Earth,
Powered by giant deposits of VK, the Vrill created the the Second World War could drag on for decades—just as
means to use meteors as weapons against planet-bound the alien war has raged for millennia.
targets. The first test of such a weapon was on Earth, circa

9
 CHAPTER 2:
THE ARK

*(77,1* 83 72 63((' This adventure begins in one of two ways. In the first, These characters are assigned, or hired (depending on
Here is a brief recap for the PCs continue on from the adventure, Operation: the make-up of the team) by Clio to perform the same
those who did not play Apocalypse, in the core rulebook. In this case, you will mission listed above. They are briefed on the backstory of
through the adventure not need to generate new characters. The current PCs Operation: Apocalypse (see sidebar), and paired with Dr.
in the Dust Adventures return to England, which is currently under siege. At a Jessa Carter.
rulebook.
base in Scotland, they are put under the command of Clio,
ASOCOM’s historical and archaeological research divi-
THE MISSION
A team of Rangers (the
PCs) was dropped over sion. The stone recovered from the monastery on Mont
occupied France with the Saint-Michel was analyzed and found to be of extrater-
mission of snatching a restrial, but not Vrill, origin. In working with the stone, All PCs are briefed on the mission at ASOCOM headquar-
former Nazi scientist for researchers uncovered references to six other stones, or ters in Glasgow. The base itself is located in the Kelvingrove
the Allies. The Rangers tablets, related to the first. The PCs are partnered with an Art Gallery and Museum. The building is a fury of activity
were shot down and archaeologist working for Clio named Dr. Jessa Carter. with decoders and clerks running reports to and fro and
crash-landed in France. She assists the team in their retrieval of the remaining huge crates being loaded for shipping to the United States.
Without transport out, pieces and plays a major role in the campaign. England has gone to great lengths to ensure all her cultural
they made their way to artefacts that can survive, will survive. When the PCs arrive,
the ambush spot chosen The second way to begin the adventure involves fresh char- the scene looks chaotic at first, but patterns of rigid, military
to nab the scientist. acters that never went through Operation: Apocalypse. discipline soon reveal themselves.
They managed to reach
their target, but he refused

TELEGRAM
to help unless they rescued
his daughter from a castle
nearby. The team had little
choice, as the scientist had From: General Leslie Granger, Commander of ASOCOM Operations, England.
poisoned himself. He would
be of no use to anyone To: (The highest-ranking character’s name)
dead, and the antidote was
inside the castle.
You are hereby temporarily transferred to Clio under the command of
Reluctantly, the Rangers Lieutenant Colonel A. Wallace Stone. Your mission is to retrieve six
infiltrated the castle stone tablets secreted around the globe. This mission is of utmost
and found the girl, only
importance. Blutkreuz and SMERSH may already be ahead of us. Expect
to encounter a giant
Ubermensch and an their involvement. Lt Col. Stone will brief you on the specifics of
experimental Nazi rocket. the mission.
They put the scientist and
his daughter in the rocket Good luck, men.
and programmed it to fly
to Allied territory. The
Rangers were now stuck Signed,
in France.
General Leslie Granger, Commander, ASOCOM England

10
 Chapter 2: THE ARK

Their only way out was

to rely on the Resistance.
Travelling to meet an
important member of that
organization in Paris, they
dodged Nazi agents and
managed to get a route out
of France. Unfortunately,
it led to the island of
Mont Saint-Michel that
had been besieged since
France was recaptured
by the Axis. What’s
more, ASOCOM wanted
an object inside the
monastery atop the island
and the Rangers had to
retrieve it.

They reached Mont

Saint-Michel just as the
Axis prepared a final
assault to claim the
island. During the fight,
the Rangers discovered
the monks were not
what they seemed, but
part of an old cult called
the Sons of Belial. The
object they found inside
The PCs should be read or shown the telegram presented apparently unimpressed. Stone stands and introduces him- the monastery was the
on the opposite page. self and Dr. Carter. The doctor, an American, is a graduate first of the Seven Seals.
of Oxford and the University of Chicago. With the Seal in hand,
You are lead by a clerk through the clacking of typewriters the PCs escaped Mont
and telexes inside what was once the main lobby of the Her tone is professional, and she appears rather devoid of Saint-Michel, leaving
museum. Rectangular spots, free of dust, show where art emotion. She explains the mission to the team. many people behind to an
once hung along the walls. Down a long hall where pedes- uncertain fate.
tals sit empty of their busts you arrive at an elevator. The She personally examined the tablet that was recovered in
clerk closes the cage, and the elevator whines down to the France and explains that it is most likely an alien artefact, This campaign picks
basement level. Here, much looks like the offices of aca- though not Vrill. She does not elaborate. She explains she up where that initial
demics of one stripe or another, but everything has been has reason to believe there are six others like it. It is her adventure left off—with
commandeered by the military. Where the names of these belief that this is one of the Seven Seals spoken of in the the PCs looking for the
professors and experts were painted on the frosted glass of Bible. Incredulity from any PC gets an eyebrow raise and a other six tablets.
each office, masking tape, with military ranks and names comment such as, “Oh, really and where did you do receive
written in black felt pen, now list who works within. The your PhDs in archaeology and comparative theology?”
tape suggests the building is expected to be temporary. If
this is ASOCOM England’s current HQ, they must not She also does not appear to have a sense of humour. She
expect to hold out for long. reminds the PCs exactly what the Bible says about the
Seven Seals: that, when opened, they bring about the apoca-
The clerk stops them at the largest office, that of Lt. Col. lypse. Dr. Carter also points out that apocalypse, in Latin,
Stone. He knocks once. A voice says, “Come in.” Seated refers to an unveiling, not necessarily the end of the world:
behind the desk is a man younger than one would expect
to find heading up ASOCOM England. He looks a bit
“When the Lamb broke the seventh seal,
overwhelmed, though he is squared away like the soldier he
there was silence in heaven.”
is. He has replaced the previous commander, who Rangers
from the first adventure likely remember. That commander — Revelations 8:1
was killed in action during the current siege of London. He
stayed behind to help despite orders to pull out. The six remaining tablets are key to a vital piece of tech-
nology, or so she believes. Any further inquiry is met with,
Leaned against Stone’s desk, smoking a cigarette is the
“You do not, at this time, need to know that.”
breathtaking Dr. Jessa Carter. She looks the team over,

11
 Right about then, Lt. Col. Stone coughs politely and loot the chapel and were just now chased off. They take
explains that the team is technically under the com- no responsibility for the pillar.
HAUPTMANN mand of Clio now. As such, they take their orders
from Dr. Carter. No one is likely to be happy with that This devolves quickly into a firefight. While the characters
./$86 25%67
arrangement, and it is designed to cause running tension are under the jurisdiction of Clio, they have not sworn an
Orbst was handpicked
throughout the adventure. A note to GMs, in the practi- oath to uphold the primacy of cultural artefacts—in other
from the surviving ranks of
cal “real world” of combat and play, Dr. Carter has only words, they are free to shoot the place up if they wish.
the SS by Sigrid von Thaler.
He is uncompromising, so much authority. Her butting heads with the team, in
particular its leader, should be fun to roleplay. Orbst is already convinced someone got to whatever was
amoral, and a skilled inside the pillar before him. His tactics are to fall back in a
commando. Sigrid herself two-by-two formation to escape. The Germans have a fast
Their first stop is Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland. She believes
has personally assigned car waiting in the back. If a chase ensues, Orbst radios for
members of Blutkreuz are already on the trail of the next
Orbst the mission of assistance. A Messerschmitt arrives and strafes the PCs.
tablet. She offers nothing further right now.
recovering the Seven Orbst escapes, for now.
Seals. He takes this as a
badge of honour. Orbst, :+$7·6 5($//< *2,1* 21 Of course, the plane wasn’t there only to assist Orbst.
while a former Nazi, was After all, this part of Scotland is still mostly in British
always more interested Dr. Carter believes one or two of the Seals described in hands. The plane’s job is to destroy Rosslyn Chapel. The
in personal power than the Old Testament are the tablets received by Moses on PCs see the plane bank for the chapel and must get to the
the Nazi ideology. Joining Mount Horeb. They are the Ten Commandments and, AA gun in time to shoot it down.
the SS was merely a way therefore, were placed inside the Ark of the Covenant
to rise more quickly to when Moses smashed them. Dr. Carter doesn’t believe The Messerschmitt’s initial run is a strafe. On the second,
prominence. With the the Ark still exists, but she does believe that the Knights the pilot drops a bomb on the chapel. The PCs must use
death of Adolph Hitler, Templar (see Dust Adventures) found evidence of the tab- the AA gun to take out the German plane. If they miss,
Orbst was one of the first lets. Dr. Carter is a sceptic in many ways. Only because she the GM may decide the first bomb also missed. The
to disavow the Nazi’s goals has personally seen recovered Vrill technology does she pilot tries again. The plane is modified to carry two such
and beliefs. believe that aliens and such exist. Her father, who comes bombs. The AA gun is a Quad .50 Cal Victory. See Dust
into play later, is much more the believer. Adventures for the weapon’s stats.
Orbst is out more for
himself than for the Rosslyn Chapel is not far away.
Fatherland. It is likely von
$)7(50$7+
Thaler knows this, as little
escapes her watchful eye, 5266/<1 &+$3(/ With Orbst and any German survivors having fled and,
but she chose him anyway. hopefully, the chapel saved, the PCs are free to explore
Built in the 15th century by William Sinclair, the chapel Rosslyn Chapel. Inside, Dr. Carter takes out a notebook
Perhaps she believes he is
is a splendid example of Gothic architecture. Dr. Carter and directs one of the lower-ranking characters to use her
the right man for the job or
is happy to rattle this off along with other historical camera to take pictures of whatever she indicates. Most
perhaps she believes he
titbits. She knows the original chapel was designed as a of these subjects are meaningless to anyone other than an
will eventually betray her,
cruciform, which is typical of such places, but was not academic type. Dr. Carter directs the PC, rather conde-
but she plays along for her
completed as such. Rumour holds that the Temple of scendingly, to take photos of the destroyed pillar, a couple
own, convoluted reasons.
Solomon stood as a model for Rosslyn. She scoffs at of stained glass windows, the carved head of a wild man,
Orbst has a scar running
this, as no one really has any idea what the Temple of and various other carvings along the walls. Some of these
like a gorge down the
Solomon looked like. objects look a lot like corn, or maize and the GM should
left half of his face. He tell the players this.
Outside the chapel is a sandbag emplacement and an anti-
earned it in Stalingrad. He
aircraft gun. Curiously, it is unmanned. This should seem If the chapel was built circa 1450 A.D., how does corn
dislikes Americans, but
strange to any military characters. Orbst’s men killed the appear on the walls? There is also another plant native
hates Russians.
three-man crew and dragged their bodies inside. only to the Americas on some columns. Dr. Carter makes
Orbst’s stats are found on notes of all this, but says they would need a botanist to be
While the team is outside the chapel, they hear an certain. To the PCs, it really does look like corn.
pages 123-124 of this book.
unmistakable explosion. Blutkreuz agents have just used
a charge to blow open what is known as “The Apprentice A wardrobe closet contains three dead soldiers who were
Pillar,” a twisting column that is unlike any of those that assigned to the AA gun.
surround it. If the PCs rush in, they see the Blutkreuz
agents digging though the ruins of the pillar. One says, Should the PCs (on their own or following the orders of
in German, “It is gone!” He appears enraged. This man is Dr. Carter) reassemble the broken pillar, they find that
Hauptmann Klaus Orbst and he is a recurring villain in it clearly once featured a hollow recess. Whatever was in
this campaign. See the appendix for Orbst’s stats. there is now gone. However it could not have been one of
the tablets, as the space is too small.
Whether the team arrives in time to hear Orbst or not,
the rest of his men, five in all, immediately open fire if Once she is done taking notes, Dr. Carter demands they
any of the characters are in uniform. If not, they pretend return to Glasgow. If pressed to answer questions, she
to be part of the Cultural Recovery Project, an offshoot reluctantly reveals that “crusaders” may have hidden a
of Clio trying to save as much of England’s treasures as it treasure at Rosslyn, but someone beat both the team and
can. Of course, they claim some miscreants attempted to the Germans to it.

12
 Chapter 2: THE ARK

%$&. ,1 */$6*2: While at HQ, the PCs can get questions answered about
Orbst and his men. They learn it is a Blutkreuz team, and
The team returns to the museum/HQ where Dr. Carter that Orbst often works directly for Sigrid von Thaler.
has a private meeting in Lt. Col. Stone’s office. The PCs '5. -(66$ &$57(5
wait outside. At first, the two seem to be having a normal $1' 7+( 7($0

LONDON FALLING
conversation, but it quickly becomes heated and voices are While Dr. Carter is
raised. The PCs overhear Dr. Carter demanding that the designed as an antagonist,
colonel arrange passage to Jerusalem. He protests that they she is not a villain. The GM
The city of London is besieged. Trafalgar Square is occu-
do not have available resources, until she loudly invokes can misdirect the team
pied, and the Axis Knight’s Cross hangs over the statue of
her position in this matter. “What did ASOCOM tell you with all the secrets she
Admiral Horatio Nelson. Curiously, Dr. Carter specifi-
to do when I asked for something, Colonel? What?!” keeps, but she does not
cally mentions this. If the PCs ask why, she reveals that
betray Clio or ASOCOM.
Napoleon’s men found the artefact they’re seeking during
Stone sighs and relents. She keeps secrets because
his campaign in Egypt. He and Nelson first squared-off
very simply she thinks the
there, and Nelson won. One of Napoleon’s men came
Carter exits the office with a smug look on her face. The team is stupid.
back with a copper scroll that purports to be a copy of
colonel looks angry, but he has too much on his plate for
a Babylonian account of a lost treasure found after the Carter also exists as a
it to be of concern for long. She explains to the team that
fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. Sadly, the scroll is encoded. potential romantic interest.
they are going to Jerusalem. Right now, that’s as danger-
She meant to get a look at it prior to now, but had other Pick a PC, preferably one
ous, if not more so, as being in England. Well, at least they
priorities until the tablet was discovered in France. This is who argues with her the
aren’t in London.
what she is after. Of course, Blutkreuz, likely led by Orbst, most, and let the tension
Of course, Dr. Carter says, they have to stop at the British is after it as well. build. There is something
Museum in London first. Not all the artefacts made it crackling between their
While the city is falling, there are still roads that the Allies conflicts. The PC probably
out. She needs one in particular before they journey to
control. Getting in is not a problem, but no one can guar- doesn’t fully trust her,
the Holy Land. With that, the characters have to go into
antee how long those roads will remain open. It has come which adds to this
a very volatile situation. London is in the midst of being
down to an hour-by-hour shift in the lines surrounding the dramatic tension.
captured by the Axis.
city. Further, the British Museum is in occupied territory.

13
 Getting in and out is going to require a delicate touch or a occupied by enemy forces in hundreds of years. The results
big can of firefight. are devastating. In London, one sees a real possibility
that the Allies could lose this war. Great monuments
If the PCs suggested it in Glasgow, ASOCOM can outfit blaze against the darkening twilight sky. Whole neigh-
the team with Axis uniforms. It helps if one of them speaks bourhoods are reduced to the powdery ruin of cities like
German. If none does, Dr. Carter does, but she is not Zverograd. A child’s bicycle, warped by fire, lays aban-
accustomed to fast-talking soldiers. This is an area where doned in the street. People’s suitcases lay cracked open
the PCs need to step up and deliver better plans. Dr. Carter next to their corpses on the ground, victims of pounding
gives orders and illustrates on a map how they ought to get artillery or dropped bombs. Even in the relative quiet
in, but her plan has little practical value. She isn’t purely an of a dead street, one hears the popping of artillery and
academic, but she certainly isn’t a tactician. Should one of small arms in the background. Such noises have become a
the PCs question her plan, it escalates into an argument. permanent feature of your world.
Below is a map of London as it sits when the PCs arrive. Things are dire. London will not hold for more than
Sections are divided into Axis Occupied and Allied another day or two. The roads north are thick with refugees.
Occupied. Inside the city, resistance holds out in small pockets, but the
Allies’ main task is getting as many civilians out as they can.
However they choose to proceed, the team is moving They have abandoned all hope of keeping the city.
through enemy territory. The GM should decide how
much trouble he wants to throw their way. Remember, the The team witnesses various violent acts. Anything from
city is in the midst of a siege, so characters not in Allied house-to-house fighting to executions on the street (both
uniforms have a decent chance of being ignored. One or sides) against suspected traitors or armed partisans.
two “close calls” with a patrol or advancing unit, should Blutkreuz squads are prevalent and the GM must decide if
suffice. You may read or paraphrase the following to the the team encounters one.
players to set the mood. Stealth rolls at Difficulty 2 may
also be employed.
%/87.5(8= 648$'  75223(56
The city is falling. Since it was called Londinium when
originally founded by the Romans, the city has had a series Use stats for Axis Grenadiers on p. 144 of Dust Adventures.
of disasters—plagues, fires, revolution, but it has not been

14
 Chapter 2: THE ARK

7+( &23< 2) 7+(

&233(5 6&52//
This rubbing is made
from the original copper
scroll. It is similar, but not
identical, to one of the
Dead Sea Scrolls that were
discovered between 1946
and 1956. One of those
scrolls lists all the treasure
the Babylonians looted
from Jerusalem in 586 B.C.
The Ark of the Covenant
is not listed on the scroll,
though it certainly would
have been the most
significant item.

It is not listed because the

Babylonians returned it as
accounted for in the copy
of this copper scroll. Much
like the Philistines before
them, after the Babylonians
captured the Ark, tragedies
befell them. People died
of a strange disease,
crops failed, and like the
Philistines, the Babylonians
brought the Ark back to
the Temple of Solomon.
It was then hidden away
7+( %5,7,6+ 086(80 Inside the museum, the team finds a scene much like the by priests who wanted it
one at Glasgow HQ—many of the displays are empty, and to never fall into enemy
Once the largest building site in Europe, the British Blutkreuz personnel are collecting and packing up what is hands again. They hid it
Museum has always been one of the jewels in the now col- left. The trouble comes when the team gets to the copper among the water tunnels
lapsing British Empire. It is in rough shape when the team scroll display. There, they run into Orbst who definitely beneath the Temple Mount.
arrives. Bombs have hit the venerable neoclassical design. recognizes them. One of his men is prying open the
The steps are carpeted in ash that floats down from the sky display case now. The item is listed as being of “Egyptian The scroll describes the
like snow. origin” but written in an unknown cipher. tablets. Writing in the
form of glyphs covered
Getting in is difficult, as Blutkreuz seized control over this The team needs to get their hands on the scroll, but it is a one side. The stones were
sector specifically to guard the museum. Characters will difficult task. A shootout starts as soon as Orbst identifies made of an unfamiliar
be challenged. If they speak fluent German, and appear to the team. Shooting inside the museum definitely alerts rock or crystal. There
know German military behaviour, they are sent away. One other soldiers. The team could soon be overwhelmed. In is no translation on the
must have papers to get inside the museum. the midst of the firefight, at a dramatically appropriate rubbing, but it does prove
time, Dr. Carter says, in a eureka moment, “A rubbing!” the Ark was extant after
If the team tries to bluff their way through with the 586 B.C. This inspires
requisite knowledge, they are going to get into a gunfight. She means that whoever studied the scroll would have Dr. Carter to follow up
There are only three guards at ancillary access points, but six made a rubbing or clay impression. These items would on a map offered to her
on the stairs in front of the main entrance. There is a 20% not be on display but stored in the basement, assuming from an untrustworthy
chance another guard unit responds to the shooting (roll they survived at all. They certainly were not catalogued antiquities dealer some
one die, on a Target, the unit responds). This is a war, after with other items rescued during the evacuation. The team time ago. She telegrams
all. The guards do not yet have radios. needs to fight their way out of this situation on the first
him, but he insists they
meet in person. Dr. Carter
Once some of the guards are killed, their absences, or floor, and then head to the basement. Again, Dr. Carter
requests that the team
bodies, are noticed. The PCs do not have a great deal of has a good idea where the copy is located. handle it personally. She
time to dawdle in the museum. Dr. Carter knows where Of course, this all happens while they are being pursued
has reason to suspect
the copper scroll was on display and takes the team there. Majestic 12 is keeping
by the Axis. The only saving grace is, in a city under
tabs on the military as it
siege, resources are not yet properly allocated. Blutkreuz pertains to this mission.
%/87.5(8= 62/',(56  does not have infinite troops in the museum to track the
PCs down.
Use stats for Axis Grenadiers on p. 144 of Dust Adventures.

15
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gangsters are in the midst of a firefight when the PCs
leave, regardless of which exit they take.

Make it tense for them, keep them guessing, and throw One of the gangsters recognizes one of the PCs, perhaps
a few soldiers at them now and again. Once in the an English member of the team. Sort this out as you wish.
basement, they are led to a room with shelf after shelf They can be old friends, friendly rivals, or even enemies
of tagged objects—those deemed expendable. The copy who now find themselves on the same side. This is an
of the copper scroll is among these. It takes a few tense Expendable Resource as outlined in Dust Adventures.
minutes for Dr. Carter to find it. When she does, the
team needs to bug out. If the GM wishes, a small three- The man who recognizes the PCs is Robbie “Mad Dog”
man unit stumbles upon the PCs while Carter searches Corrigan.
for the scroll. Corrigan and his gang allow the PCs to get safely out of
On the way out of the museum, the team finds good the museum. After a few under-fire pleasantries, Corrigan
fortune for the first time. A group of insurgents is fighting tells the team to follow him. They do not have any better

16
 Chapter 2: THE ARK

options offering themselves. Dr. Carter vehemently The area around Jerusalem is still under Allied control.
disagrees with trusting “an obvious thug,” but quickly Operation: Babylon has shifted control of parts of the
relents when a bullet takes a chip out of the old Victorian Middle East and North Africa, but it has not hit here
brickwork next to her head. yet. PCs have a chance to breathe, acquire fresh gear, and 52%%,( ´0$' '2*µ
recuperate. Dr. Carter is very impatient, and rushes them CORRIGAN
Corrigan pulls them through an alley while his men in any way she can. Robbie inherited both his
unleash their Tommy Guns. The whole group retreats to a position as a top East End
tube stop in the Underground, Holborn Station. Getting Her goal is the investigation of the Templars (see p. 104 of gangster and his moniker
there takes them down several streets, and Blutkreuz is in DUST Adventures). According to legend, the Templars from his father. Robert
pursuit. British troops are stationed at Holborn Station, found a great treasure on the Temple Mount, the founda- Corrigan Sr. fought for
holding it for refugees. Corrigan guides them down and tion that remained from the Temple of Solomon. While the Royal Army in India.
they talk on the way. Corrigan is interested why the PCs the Dome of the Rock is now there, no one is exactly There is a saying that
are in London now of all times. sure where the Templars may have dug or what they comes from those days,
found. In 1307, the Templars were arrested, tortured for “Only mad dogs and
When the PCs explain that they need to get out of the heresy, and ultimately disbanded, though many Templars Englishman go out in the
city, Corrigan, who has his ears to the ground, tells them escaped the fate of their brethren. afternoon sun.” Mad Dog
that the road they came in on is now closed and the Axis got his name by being
has the city all but encircled. The team needs a new way This is why Jessa Carter wanted to come to Jerusalem. She madder than a dog in that
out and Corrigan can help. believes the antiquities dealer has information she requires same afternoon sun. When
to find the tablets that supposedly made it into the Ark of he got back to London,
He has connections all over the city, and can offer to get the Covenant. The dealer has also been involved in scandal he started his criminal
the team out if he believes it’s for a good cause. Originally, and possibly fraud. She does not trust him, but she has no career. His son now runs
Corrigan and his mates were going to try to loot the other option available to her. He would not talk by phone the firm. Corrigan is wild,
museum or, as he puts it, “protect our cultural heritage.” or telegram but insisted on meeting her in person. When flamboyant, and a tough
There happened to be a dodgy Irishman who was going to the PCs hear this, they may become suspicious. sod to break. He speaks
take the items off his hands for better “protection.” Since with a heavy East End
Corrigan did not get any items, he is willing to introduce Jessa Carter knows something about the Templars because accent and takes no guff.
the team to the Irishman. her father investigated them years ago. He had been an
outstanding academic, but his work on alternative theories
They meet up with him in the East End and while he can outside mainstream peer review eventually caused him to
help, he does demand a fee for his services. He has some be ostracized. In July 1944, he took his own life. Or so Jessa
Axis soldiers greased on a road out. They won’t ask ques- thinks. In reality, he is very much alive.
tions, but the Irishman—and that’s how they keep referring
to him—expected valuable antiquities. In other words, he The antiquities dealer, Simcha Golan, lives and works in
needs “proper compensation, like,” he says. a narrow shop off the Mahane Yehuda market (aka “The
Shuk.”)
The PCs may or may not have spare cash. If they asked for
it, ASOCOM provided up to three thousand pounds. If A brass bell tingles as you enter. The shop is
not, they have what they have. It is up to the team to make cramped. Narrow walls clogged with the detritus of
arrangements with the Irishman. Once they do, they make millennia. Small oil lamps, carved idols, fragments
it out of the city. Along the way, the lorry the Irishman of pottery, and more are arranged according to no
loaded them into is stopped. Have the Axis soldiers walk known system. The air is stale. Simcha, comes out
around the truck. Make the PCs feel the tension: boots in from a back room, mopping his brow with a rag. He
the mud, a barking German Shepherd, and a suspiciously is a heavyset man, his waistcoat straining against an
long wait while papers are examined. None of it amounts ample belly. He holds a hand out to you as another
to anything. It is there for window dressing. The team bead of sweat rivers down the right side of his face
gets past the checkpoint and smuggled back north to an before finding his thin moustache.
airfield in Scotland.

If the GM wishes to throw something more substantive in Simcha Golan is not just sweating because of the heat. He
their way, the team can always encounter a group of Axis is in serious trouble. In the back room are four assassins
soldiers who have not been paid off. who have come to get a map from him. He claimed not to
have it, but they began to threaten cutting off fingers and
then limbs. Simcha is not a brave man. These assassins are
JERUSALEM from the Sons of Belial. They pushed him out here to get
rid of the visitors.
How the PCs get to Jerusalem is up to the GM.
Submarine is probably the easiest method. A convoy with Simcha is nervous, but he is trying to hide this. He tells
destroyer escorts may be headed for Operation: Babylon. Jessa that he did have possession of the item in question
You only need to “Indiana Jones” this part. Imagine a but sold it. He is fairly convincing here. The PCs have a
red dot. A line extends from it and leads toward the chance to sense the danger in the shop. At some point,
Atlantic Ocean, turns around Spain and makes for the whether Simcha slips up or the PCs look in the back,
Mediterranean and Jerusalem… the assassins attack. Each is armed with a pistol and a
curved dagger. They dress like the locals. While talking

17
 with Simcha, the PCs may make an Interaction test at submarine extraction in the Mediterranean all but
Difficulty 3 to determine he is lying. After years of work- impossible. The team has one other option, but it is
ing in the Shuk, he is a veteran liar. potentially as dangerous as being sunk by a U-Boat—
enter the Forbidden Zone and cross into Spain. There,
The cramped space makes melee combat difficult. There they can link up with ASOCOM agents who can get
isn’t much room to fire a weapon, and the assassins are them back to Allied territory.
very close. As the action scene plays out, Simcha tries to
sneak off to the back room, collect his map and money he Easier said than done.
has stashed there, and exit through the rear. PCs who spot
him have a good chance of catching the rotund man. The first task is to get to France. As it has been reoccu-
pied by the Axis, there is no legal way to get inside. From
He squirms and complains but eventually hands over the Jerusalem, the PCs can get a lift via cargo plane to Egypt.
map. It is written in Latin and appears to date from the From there, they can get an ASOCOM stealth plane to
Middle Ages. drop them off the coast. They then raft in and climb the
cliffs of the southern coast. It is rough going, but it beats
Montségur is the next likely stop. It is possible they being killed or captured by the Axis.
translate “Avalon Across the Sea” as “America,” and they
would be correct. However, they have no location to start Appropriate Athletic checks should be made as required,
with, though player knowledge about Oak Island may well but this part of the episode should move very quickly. Any
trump character knowledge. Hopefully, they do not make tests should be made at Difficulty 2.
the connection now. If they do, you may allow them to
skip to Oak Island.
&+Ç7($8 '( 02176e*85
From where the PCs come ashore, they must make a
MONTSÉGUR 140km journey to Montségur. That is two days journey
by foot or a couple hours by car. Of course, there are
The team finds themselves back in France and in enemy
checkpoints along the roads. The PCs must decide which
territory. They must reach Montségur and get back
option they feel is best. Because they may very well come
out of France. Unfortunately, U-Boat patrols make

18
 Chapter 2: THE ARK

up with something different, the GM must exercise and How the PCs approach the situation is entirely up to
reward their imagination here. What the PCs encounter them. They have the element of surprise. If they take out
along the way is up to you. the men, three in all, they see that the group was using
pickaxes to get through what appears to be a natural rock
Once they reach the castle, the PCs need to get inside. wall. It is not natural, but was made by expert masons to
Blutkreuz guards have secured it. Even now, Orbst is hide the chamber beyond.
inside looking for the cave where the Ark was allegedly
taken. The castle lies atop a 1200m rock formation at the The Blutkreuz men did not get through the wall. The PCs
end of the Pyrenees. Scaling the rocks at night is the best have to finish the job. Fortunately, this far below ground,
method of access, though the team might find an alternate there is no one else to bother them. Once the team makes
route. Getting past the guards on the ground is not too a hole through which they can see, they find an empty
hard, given that they believe the great height will stop room. On the back wall are rune-like glyphs. Inside the
most intruders. Most of the men stationed here think of it room itself, they see a raised stone dais in the center of
as a babysitting job. the room where the Ark once rested. It is there no more,
and has not been for 700 years. The glyphs were left as a
Once atop the rock formation, the PCs encounter spot- message to other Templars, who would seek the Ark. It
lights and guards. The guards stand alongside the lights in is coded, and appears to be a map of the coast of Europe
the tower. The castle itself is largely in ruin, but was rebuilt and the east coast of America. Of course, America was
in the 1800s. That later construction has also been brutal- not visited by Europeans until 1492 and this carving dates
ized by the war. from at least 1307.
Two guards man each tower. Another ten wander the Dr. Carter orders the characters to shine their flashlights
inside perimeter of the castle. The PCs may enter wherever on the map and code, while she takes pictures. She then
they choose. Once inside, they need to move quickly. The makes several notes. Flipping through her notebook, she
entrance to the caverns lies in the castle’s former dun- frantically searches for entries. Then she laughs in a self-
geons. Once they reach the cavern system, they should be congratulatory manner. “Oak Island! Of course!”
able to follow the echoing voices of Orbst’s men. They are
currently breaking through a wall that seals off the resting She declines to explain anything until they are out of the
place of the Ark. Orbst himself is in the castle-proper castle. “If we were captured,” she says, “it’s better you do
trying to work out what was inside the secret chamber in not know.”
the Apprentice Pillar.

19
 Now, the team has to get out of the castle. As they do, (1&2817(56 ,1 7+(
Orbst goes to check on his men’s progress. He finds the )25%,''(1 =21(
team took them out. Approximately three rounds later, an
alarm sounds inside the castle. The Germans now actively The following are a handful of encounters found in the
hunt the team using two experimental helicopters based on Zone. The list is just a sample of what might happen
captured SSU designs. inside. An entire campaign could be set in and around the
Zone, as PCs attempt to unlock its secrets.
The helicopter is the team’s best method of escape. They
may decide to blow up the other one, so it cannot pursue
them. This is feasible if they are armed with explosives or %/87.5(8= 62/',(56
come up with another way to detonate the craft. A Pilot The PCs encounter 1-10 Blutkreuz troops. They have been
skill is required to fly the helicopter. No rolls are needed for in here since earlier in the war. They look ragged, hungry,
normal operation. and barely holding it together. Even if the PCs are dressed
in Allied uniforms, they do not necessarily shoot at the
The GM needs to adjudicate just how many Blutkreuz team. They have been here for far too long, and desper-
soldiers make it into the courtyard as the PCs attempt ately want to find a way out.
escape. If the second helicopter is not destroyed, the team is
pursued by air. Use stats for Axis Grenadiers on p. 144 of Dust Adventures.
Spain is the closest border. The Luftwaffe can scramble
fighters to intercept the chopper over the Mediterranean TOWN
Sea. Problem is, once the PCs cross over the threshold of
the Forbidden Zone, the helicopter’s engines immediately The team comes across a mid-size town that appears aban-
fail, and they are in for a very bumpy landing. Make some doned. As noted above, unspoiled remains of food and
falling rolls for damage (see Falling pp. 35-36 of Dust drink sit on tables. There are canned goods in cupboards
Adventures), but do not knock them around too badly. and beds appear to have just been made. A bicycle leans
The Forbidden Zone will be difficult enough. against a cafe on a cobblestone road. The team can find
any normal item here that reasonably could be expected in
a French or Spanish town circa 1940 A.D.
THE FORBIDDEN ZONE
Little to nothing reliable is known about the Forbidden 0(',(9$/ 9,//$*(
Zone. Few have come out, and those who have are loath This village disappeared without a trace in 1199 A.D.
to discuss the experience. For more information on the and scant records remain. Like the modern town above,
Forbidden Zone, see p. 102 of Dust Adventures. As far it appears as if all the citizens simply stepped away. A
as the heroes are aware, they are the first Allied agents to blacksmith’s shop is lit with a still-burning forge. Smoke
enter the Zone. In truth, another Allied agent working for rises out of the hearths in the public house. The players
ASOCOM entered in 1945 and he is still inside. The PCs can find any normal object from that era here.
encounter him as they traverse this strange terrain along
the border of France and Spain.
&200$1'(5 '2129$1 %211(9,//(
75$9(//,1* ,1 7+( Commander Bonneville was a member of the SOE before
the Allies officially became a bloc. He has been inside the
)25%,''(1 =21( Zone for two years. In that time, he has seen no one. No
The Forbidden Zone is full of anomalies that prevent fauna, no people, nothing. Bonneville is on the edge of
compasses and traditional navigation methods from work- sanity. Whether it is an effect of the Zone, isolation, or a
ing. The sun may appear in one part of the sky when you combination of both is unclear. He does have theories on
look to track it, but then suddenly appears in another the the Zone.
next time you look up. Shadows don’t behave correctly
in the Forbidden Zone, at least not in conjunction with When he was briefed before his mission—explore the
the angle of the sun. It is maddening to look at, shadows Zone and report back—the Zone had just appeared. That
creep out in the wrong directions. A man walking finds was July 16, 1945. He has been in the Zone ever since.
his shadow remains behind him for several seconds before His briefing consisted of a decoded Axis communiqué
it catches up. Days or weeks can be spent lost inside and that tipped the Allies off to the appearance of the Zone.
there is no proven way out. The players may spend a good Reconnaissance flights either disappeared, or saw nothing
deal of time here, subjectively, but only twelve hours will but cloud cover. When they tried to dive under these
have passed when they emerge. clouds, they found they did not end.

Things are not right in the Zone. Further, several academics from various English universi-
ties approached MI5 citing references to the Zone in old
texts dating back the Roman Empire. According to the
academics, none of these entities were there previously.

20
 Chapter 2: THE ARK

Bonneville believes the Zone is an intelligence.

Somehow, it is alive and toys with those who enter.
Whether this is true or not matters little to him. Talking 3K\VLFV ,QVLGH WKH 
to him, one can see the obsession behind his eyes. He )RUELGGHQ =RQH
tells the team that he cannot leave. The Zone has become 1DWXUDO ODZV DUH RQO\ VXJJHVWLRQV LQ WKH
used to him. It wants him. If the PCs stay too long, the =RQH. <RX FDQQRW FRXQW RQ DQ\WKLQJ WR
same happens to them. DFW WKH ZD\ LW VKRXOG. 6RPH DUHDV H[KLELW
LUUHJXODU JUDYLW\. &HUWDLQ REMHFWV VXFK
Bonneville can show them a way out. He has done
DV WUHHV DQG ZDOOV KDYH YDULDEOH GHQVLW\
calculations based on the oddness of shadows and stars.
DQG FDQ EH SDVVHG WKURXJK. 1R ZLOGOLIH
He has a theory that the Zone operates in a discernible
DSSHDUV DQ\ZKHUH. $W QLJKW WKH VWDUV
cyclic pattern. Based on this, he believes there are spe-
FRPH RXW EXW WKH\ DUH QRW WKH VWDUV WKH\
cific times the Zone “allows” people to leave. He shows
VKRXOG EH. 'U. &DUWHU REVHUYHV WKDW DW
the PCs one of these exits in two days. In the meantime,
OHDVW RQ RQH RFFDVLRQ WKH VWDUV DSSHDU
they can stay in an abandoned school that Bonneville
WR EH LQ D FRQILJXUDWLRQ WKDW ZRXOG SODFH
calls home.
WKHP LQ URXJKO\  %.&.
In the classrooms of the school, scrawled on chalkboards,
7KH WRZQV DQG YLOODJHV WKDW H[LVWHG
are complex equations. When asked about them by Dr.
DORQJ WKH ERUGHU UHPDLQ EXW QRQH RI
Carter, Bonneville insists he did all his work on paper. The
WKH SHRSOH GR. 9LQHV DQG IORUD FUDZO RYHU
equations were there when he arrived.
DEDQGRQHG EXLOGLQJV SHUVRQDO REMHFWV
DUH OHIW ZKHUH WKH\ VDW ODVW FXSV RI FRIIHH
/($9,1* 7+( )25%,''(1 DQG WHD DUH VHW RXW RQ WDEOHV EXW WKHUH LV
QR RQH WKHUH WR GULQN WKHP. )XUWKHU WKH\
=21( PD\ EH FROG RU ZDUP GHSHQGLQJ RQ WKH
At some point, the GM should have the PCs encounter *0·V ZKLP.
Bonneville. He is their most likely way out. Otherwise,
roll four Dust dice each day. If all four come up the same, 1RWKLQJ WKH WHDP FDQ H[SHFW WR KDSSHQ
the team finds their way out that day. This could obviously ZLOO QHFHVVDULO\ KDSSHQ. *XQV PLJKW
take a good deal of time. ILUH QRUPDOO\ RU WKH EXOOHWV PD\ H[LW WKH
EDUUHO DQG IORDW VWUDLJKW XS. 7KLV PDNHV
Depending on how wild the GM wishes to get, the team D ILUHILJKW H[WUHPHO\ XQQHUYLQJ. (YHU\
could also encounter Germanic tribes, Celts, or a lost bat- WLPH WKH 3&V RU 13&V DWWHPSW WR XVH
talion who fought in World War I. The Zone is an enigma. D PHFKDQLFDO GHYLFH LQFOXGLQJ D JXQ 
Perhaps the entire area is nothing more than a shared hal- UROO  Dust GLFH
lucination. Its secrets will not be revealed here.
‡  IDFWLRQ V\PEROV  ³7KH LWHP
When the team leaves, they find themselves in Spain. IXQFWLRQV QRUPDOO\.
Only 12 hours have passed regardless of how much time
they spent inside the Zone. ‡  IDFWLRQ V\PEROV  ³ 7KH LWHP
GRHV QRW RSHUDWH.

SPAIN ‡  IDFWLRQ V\PEROV  ³7KH LWHP

SHUIRUPV WKH UHYHUVH RI WKH LQWHQGHG
The GM can hand wave a lot of Spain. Spain is a Neutral DFWLRQ. )LULQJD JXQ FDXVHV LW WR XQORDG
Nation but sympathetic to the Axis cause. Americans DQG NLFN RXW LWV DPPR IRU H[DPSOH .
tend to stand out. Word could get back to Blutkreuz very
quickly and therefore Orbst. Blutkreuz agents have been ‡  IDFWLRQ V\PEROV  ³7KH LWHP
planted in Spain and can be called up quickly to intercept RSHUDWHV DV LI JUDYLW\ ZHUH UHYHUVHG.
the team. That is left to the GM. There is no reason they
need to encounter them. In fact, it may be wiser to merely ‡  IDFWLRQ V\PEROV  ³7KH LWHP GLV-
follow them for now. DSSHDUV DQG LV UHSODFHG E\ VRPHWKLQJ
UDQGRP IURP WKURXJKRXW WKH DJHV.
The Sons of Belial, formerly a branch of the Knights
Templar, also have members in Spain. They, too, are 2EYLRXVO\ WKLV LV JRLQJ WR PDNH WKLQJV
tracking the PCs. Most of this is via a network of infor- GLIILFXOW. 7KH *0 LV HQFRXUDJHG WR
mants, but either group may follow the PCs directly. LPSURYLVH. 7KHUH LVQ·W DQ\ UK\PH RU
That is up to the GM. Remember, large intelligence UHDVRQ LQ WKH =RQH. 7KH SOD\HUV VKRXOG
apparatuses exist in World War II. Many have moles QRW H[SHFW WR KDYH VRPHWKLQJ RFFXU WKH
inside them, and intel is often leaked in one way or VDPH ZD\ WZLFH.
another. Perhaps there is even someone plotting against
the PCs inside ASOCOM?

21
 OAK ISLAND an excavation of the money pit. Orbst is there with 10
Blutkreuz agents, half of whom speak perfect English.
Leaving Spain is not difficult, but getting from Spain They are armed with StG 47s and Mauser pistols. There is
to Scotland is. Even in the short while the PCs have a U-Boat waiting for them in deeper water off the island in
been gone, London has fallen, and the Axis is nearing Mahone Bay.
Hadrian’s Wall. The Axis Navy has closed the English
Channel and patrols the waters along the Spanish coast. A firefight ensues, and the team drives Orbst and his crew
ASOCOM has no way to get the PCs to their next from the island with little resistance. The Germans escape
destination—Oak Island. by boat, which takes them out to the sub. The team is now
free to finish the excavation, but the pit is empty. Two
Sometime while in Spain or the Zone, the PCs may have days worth of digging, with the help of the Army Corps of
pushed Dr. Carter to reveal more about Oak Island. See Engineers, reveals a tunnel system below the island along
the sidebar for details. with another empty chamber. This one, unlike the last,
offers no clues as to where the treasure went. Like the last
chamber in Montségur, a raised stone is carved into the
*(77,1* 72 2$. ,6/$1' floor upon which the Ark once rested.
Players have to arrange transport to Oak Island.
ASOCOM wires them any funds they need, but it is up to
them to book passage on a merchant vessel. The trip takes :+$7 '2 :( '2 12:"
a few days and leaves the team in New York. From there, The team finds themselves at an impasse. All their clues
they can drive or take a train north to Nova Scotia. Allied have lead to another empty chamber. The Germans left
authorities control all territory they pass through, so they the island, and the Sons of Belial, who they likely do not
have no worry of being swarmed by Axis soldiers. That know by name yet, remain elusive. Dr. Carter orders them
does not mean Orbst and the Sons of Belial aren’t keeping to go to Kansas where ASOCOM headquarters is located
their eyes on them, though. in a building known as the Octagon.
The team does not encounter either until they reach Oak The PCs probably haven’t been here before.
Island. There, the PCs see Orbst and his men have set up

22
 Chapter 2: THE ARK

7KH 2DN ,VODQG /HJHQG ,Q WKH Dust Universe WKH $UN RI WKH
:+2 6(17 7+(
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2DN ,VODQG LW D WUHDVXUH KXQWHU·V SDUDGLVH. IRU D ORQJ WLPH LQ 6FRWODQG. $W RQH SRLQW Dr. William Carter sent
)RU DERXW D FHQWXU\ DQG KDOI SHRSOH KDYH WKH $UN ZDV NHSW DW WKH FXUUHQW ORFDWLRQ RI the communiqué as an
WULHG WR XQFRYHU LWV VHFUHWV. 7KH OHJHQG DURVH 5RVVO\Q &KDSHO. 7KDW LV ZK\ WKH FKXUFK LV encoded cable knowing
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LQ . 'LJJLQJ IXUWKHU WKH ER\V IRXQG D 7HPSOH RI 6RORPRQ FRQWDLQHG WKH $UN LQ WKH intercepted and decoded
VHULHV RI ORJ SODWIRUPV HYHU\ WHQ IHHW. $ SUR- +RO\ RI +ROLHV. :KHQ :LOOLDP 6LQFODLU EXLOW by ASOCOM. He sent it to
IHVVLRQDO WHDP FDPH LQ HLJKW \HDUV ODWHU DQG 5RVVO\Q WR KRXVH WKH $UN DQG LWV VHFUHWV KH alert his daughter to the
GXJ WR D GHSWK RI P LQ ZKDW ZRXOG EHFRPH KDG DOUHDG\ WUDYHOOHG WR $PHULFD IROORZ- location of the Ark. Carter
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WKH VHFUHW WUHDVXUH WKH\ EHOLHYH OLHV EXULHG EH FRQVLGHUHG KLVWRULFDO LQ DQ\ ZD\. ,W LV the secret spoken of in
ZLWKLQ. 5XPRXUV VXJJHVW HYHU\WKLQJ IURP EDVHG RQ VXSSRVLWLRQ DQG LPDJLQDWLRQ EXW Revelation, William Carter
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PDQXVFULSWV RI :LOOLDP 6KDNHVSHDUH DUH does. There still remains
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EXULHG RQ 2DN ,VODQG. 6R IDU QR RQH KDV WXUH QRW KLVWRU\.
IRXQG DQ\WKLQJ. archaeologist inside him.
Also, he thinks he’s fighting
for a larger goal.

At Clio headquarters, the team is again debriefed—get-

The Octagon is the largest manmade structure on
ting to be routine for them. Grove shows up during the
Earth. The sheer size is overwhelming. Inside, the
debriefing. Schliemann is already there. Two men in suits,
octagonal design revolves around an open central
not uniforms, do the debriefing. If asked, they decline to
hub where well-tended gardens grow. Every inch of
say who they are.
polished marble corridor in the entranceway shines
with a gleam. American flags hang next to Allied Elect one player to tell the story. As Grove and
flags, making no mistake who really funded the Schliemann listen, a knock comes at the door. A non-com
building of this stone behemoth. clerk enters the room. He holds a recently decoded telex,
which he hands to General Grove and then whispers in
The building itself is quiet, with sound baffling having his ear. Grove’s eyes shift to Jessa Carter.
been built into the walls. When the team does come upon
“Apparently,” he says, “it is addressed to you.”
a busy area, the noise is likewise reduced to a dull hum.
IDs are checked thoroughly as the team is screened upon It is, prompting some suspicion from Grove. Schliemann
entrance. They are then screened again as they enter one vouches for Carter, and Carter, through gritted teeth,
of any of the eight areas the Octagon is divided into. One vouches for the team. She has begun to give them grudg-
such section is partially occupied by Clio and that is their ing respect, but only just. Even still, Majestic 12 is known
destination. to have infiltrated ASOCOM, so paranoia is a carefully
cultivated asset these days.
Following his work on the Manhattan Project, General
Leslie Grove was put in overall command of ASOCOM. The secret communiqué names Dr. Jessa Carter followed
He is expert at managing the conflicting goals, egos, by what looks like a series of coordinates. There is no
and techniques of this huge intelligence machine. Dr. other clue offered, though a listening station in Ireland
Thackery Schliemann is in overall command of Clio. He intercepted the cable.
holds the rank of Colonel, but rarely wears a uniform. His
appearance is that of a man less concerned with how he Schliemann reads the coordinates and clicks his tongue as
looks than what he does. He and Grove often fail to see if he’s discovered something. Grove rises, straightens his
eye-to-eye. uniform, and says, “Well, doctors, you apparently have this
well in hand. I have other business to attend to. Good luck

23
 with the recovery of the second tablet.” On his way out, he
gives Jessa a microsecond of suspicion.
THE GRAND CANYON
The PCs notice this. At this point in the campaign,
TREASURE
they should be unsure whether or not they can trust Dr. Getting to the Grand Canyon is relatively easy. In the
Carter too. United States, the team has access to a good deal more of
ASOCOM’s resources. A military transport takes them to
Schliemann’s recollection of an article that appeared an airbase in Colorado and they journey overland to the
in a local Colorado newspaper back in 1909 caused canyon from there (about 400km). The plan is to rappel
his epiphany in the debriefing room. The article, down 300m to a cliff ledge. There, they find a small open-
and another following the next month, alleged The ing—large enough for one person at a time—leading into
Smithsonian sent an archaeological team to the Grand the tunnels.
Canyon where they found a network of tunnels and cav-
erns collectively known as Isis Temple. Inside, the team They have to crouch to get inside. Once past the main
found statues in Egyptian style, something akin to hiero- tunnel, the corridor opens, and the team can stand. A
glyphs on the walls, and mummies. They also claimed the military escort remains at the top of the canyon awaiting
room was filled with other treasure including a golden their return. Spider webs are thick in the tunnel, like gauze
chest. Schliemann saw the coordinates and realized they
stretched across an open wound.
mark a point in the Grand Canyon.
Once inside, the tunnel leads sharply downward and the
Quickly, Dr. Carter snatches a map from someone’s desk—
the person using begins to protest until silenced with a PCs find, of all things, steps. The stairs are carved into
harsh look. She spreads the map on a large table in the huge the bare rock. As the team proceeds, they note the walls
Clio comm room. She takes the coordinates, a compass, and are covered with petroglyphs and Dr. Carter frequently
a T-Square. With them, she pinpoints the location. pauses to take photographs.

“But who would have brought it so far? If it was there in Finally, after a kilometre or two, the team emerges into a
‘09, surely it was moved prior to that? The Templars died giant cavern.
out centuries ago. Just who are we dealing with here?”

24
 Chapter 2: THE ARK

It is wreckage from an Anunnaki fighter craft that crashed

Vast, like a sports stadium built into the rock walls of somewhere in this area near the end of the last Ice Age.
the Grand Canyon. Multiple tiers rise on all sides like The Ark itself is much as described in the Bible, down to
a ziggurat. Along each tier are golden idols, trinkets, the cubit. When the PCs have all filed into the cave, 10
Kachina dolls, and the ever-present petroglyphs. At Sons of Belial attack.
the end of the cave, the walls taper, leading toward
a central, narrow stairway that culminates in a raised A firefight echoes through the auditorium-like chamber,
pedestal. There lies the Ark, a plain gold box affixed one the PCs hopefully win. With their enemy vanquished,
with two golden angels facing each other, wings they claim their prize—the one, true Ark!
flung forward in genuflection. Above that, serving as
a kind of apse to hold the Ark, is a pristine piece of Inside the Ark is a single tablet, not unlike the one found
curved metal. Only the ends are jagged and black, as previously on Mont Saint-Michel. However, when the team
if pulled from a wreck. Part of the metal glows, puls- opens the Ark, a sickly blue light emits from the broken
ing faintly, illuminating the chamber. Six sarcophagi tablet causing nausea and pain. When the Ark is closed, the
surround the Ark on the tier immediately below the irritation subsides. Gold, it seems, functions in relation to
divine treasure. All around them, a strange repeating this form of energy much as lead does to radiation. Could it
petroglyph appears—that of what looks like a stick be that the adoration of gold in history has its origins here?
figure doing a dumbbell squat. Is that why golden chalices lay before the Ark as offerings?

Dr. Carter is momentarily dumbstruck. No one has ever

The team has found the legendary Ark of the Covenant. encountered anything like this before. She walks in a
Unfortunately, they have also stumbled into a two-fold stupor, marvelling at the walls, the petroglyphs, and the
trap. The Sons of Belial lay in wait for them. The temple Ark itself. She then begins snapping pictures and taking
complex is heaped in gold and precious stones. Ornate notes, mumbling aloud: “Must have been an underground
cups, like offerings, are laid before the Ark. The cool glacial river or lake that carved most of this out. Then the
light from the curved metal illuminates the entire cavern. natives dressed the stone, but why would they have the
The metal is actually a section of a UFO that crashed in Ark?” Impassioned, she strides up to the sarcophagi and
remote antiquity. In point of fact, it was shot down. demands the PCs help her get inside.

25
 In five of the six, they find desiccated, but remarkably well The army hauls the team out of the Grand Canyon—
preserved knights, all dressed in chainmail, and buried now lake—on to what is now…shore. They return to the
with their swords. Each wears the red Templar cross on a Octagon for debriefing and medical treatment.
white background. The sixth sarcophagus holds an alien
being that the team mistakes for a Vrill. It is mummified, Several days pass as specialists examine the team. The
but even in its bandages, it is clear this is not human. Dr. tablet is taken away to be studied by specialists referred to
Carter takes pictures of the petroglyphs, particularly the as “top men.” Eventually, Dr. Schliemann briefs the group.
strange repeating one. Some show the figures that must be
knights, entrusting the natives with a golden box. The tablet is indeed identical in size to the first. Glyphs
upon it appear to be carved in ancient Aramaic, but they
All is quiet. The team claims the Ark, but as they do, they do not propose commandments. Instead, they tell a story
set off a very, very old trap. similar to that of the Biblical flood. The glyphs are crude,
and clearly were carved by hands other than those who
As the Ark is lifted, the raised platform sinks into the dressed the stone.
rock. The team hears a great thundering rumble, and the
cavern reveals holes inside some of the rounder petro- And they shall be washed clean in water
glyphs. These holes begin spewing tremendous amounts of
water. The cavern is flooding! And all the animals of the Earth will be
theirs to preserve.
Worse, the water thrums soundly against the back wall,
and pieces of the cave begin to break away. There is a great, As the sky rages and burns, the great tides of the
ancient glacial lake trapped behind that wall. Outside, Earth sweep all men have done away.
on top of the canyon, the Allies radio that the same thing Skies turn dark and ash covers the land.
appears to be happening around the Grand Canyon at
approximately the same height. “Get out of there!” one of But light, a first light, pierces that gloom and those
the men shouts. who have made the Ark float toward it.

The team now has to decide what to do. The Ark is heavy. And we are they, and they are us.
Their only real option is to grab the tablet and hope From this moment until the ending of the world.
it does not kill them. Do not give them much time to
decide. Once they have, describe the following: One final time.

To end at last.
The spouts of water erode pieces of rock as
they push violently through from whatever vast
source they tap. The back wall continues to Dr. Carter and Schliemann immediately go on about Noah,
shudder and then breaks apart. A massive tor- Utnapishtim, and the Great Deluge. Dr. Carter asks about
rent three times the size of Niagara Falls erupts. the Ark. Divers are looking for it, and the curved piece of
Water consumes you, plunging you into its depths. metal in the lake. Her pictures, miraculously, made it. As
Up is down.You have no sense of direction.You have developed, she sorts through them. “I have seen that glyph
no say in being swept away by the great flood. It before. I know I have.” She refers to the “squatting man”
carries you rapids-fast through a tunnel, perhaps petroglyph.
the one you came through. Then, with the force of a
canon, you are shot from the aperture and plunged Schliemann pulls out a series of thick books. He opens
into an enormous lake below. several to black and white photos. Each depicts something
very similar to the glyph of the squatting man.
The entire canyon is becoming one giant lake. As the PCs “New Mexico, Australia, Namibia, the coast of France,” he
manage to surface in the churning water, they see other, says, “they have been found all over the world. Some date
similar apertures loosing this ancient water. Everything that back to the end of the last Ice Age.”
was inside the temple is either smashed or sunk. The PCs
manage to hold onto the tablet, but probably little else. The What does it mean? Schliemann and Carter do not yet
sight is magnificent, a wonder of unknown technology and know. If an archaeologist is among the team, they likely
the raw power of nature. The team can only marvel at it. realize that they, too, have seen the glyph before. It appears
in hundreds of vanished cultures from all over the world.
Their meaning is not revealed in this episode.
WRAPPING UP Carter and Schliemann want to look to New Mexico next.
The team has accomplished their mission. They have There, the Zuni people still live. Their oral tradition holds
recovered the second tablet. Like its cousin, it is very light. that they were given civilization by space beings. The team
In fact, it floats on water. The glow it emits sickens people is headed there.
over time, and the PCs carrying the tablet become ill, as
do those around them. Dive teams are still seeking all of the bodies, including that
of the alien.

26
 Chapter 2: THE ARK

The team is left with many questions, and each of those the Axis bloc. Unlike the Allied nations, the Protector of
begs many more. Based on the picture Dr. Carter took of the Reich, or his appointed officials, eventually oversees all
the alien mummy, Schliemann says with great confidence, of these aspects.
“That is no Vrill.”
Each city, state, province, or nation within the Axis bloc is
So what is it then? What have the characters uncovered? responsible for raising, arming, and training a fighting force.
While they may do this in any way they desire (as long as
they do it), the preferred method is similar to the American
237,21$/ 0,66,21 draft. Young men are pressed into service at a local level
As mentioned in her report, Dr. Carter was expecting where officers train them. The best are sent to the next level
two tablets inside the Ark, as any Sunday school graduate of military service, where they receive better training, better
would. Instead, there was only one. Dr. Carter thinks the leadership, and better equipment. This process of being
second tablet might still be found. She arranges to have sent up to the next level continues until they are members
the team sent to Italy to find that artefact. For this mis- of the famed Axis Grenadier units. The number of steps it
sion, see Chapter 9. takes to get from local garrison trooper to elite member of
the Grenadiers largely depends on where they are initially
recruited. A young man from Berlin can find himself a
A NOTE ON AXIS NATIONS Grenadier in one selection, while a farm boy from Bavaria
may take six or more steps.
Whereas the Allied Bloc has done its best to retain its
individuality and the relative independence of each nation The Axis is not against conscripting troops from occupied
outside of the war effort, the Axis bloc has done the nations and often raises units of French, Dutch, Polish,
exact opposite. It has expanded into a massive single entity Romanian, and other nationalities. One of the more unique
breathing loyalty only to the Axis cause. The Axis is ruled side effects of the war is the influence it has had on the
overall by a military council, which elects its direct leader- French Foreign Legion. The Legion has essentially been
ship from within and from a body of favoured candidates. split in two, with one portion of the Legion still loyal to
the Vichy government under Axis control in France, and
Since the outcome of Operation Valkyrie, the Protector of another portion serving the Free French Forces in North
the Reich, a seat currently filled by Admiral Karl Dönitz, Africa, Asia, and even England.
has led the Axis. He oversees the military council, which is
made up of many powerful generals and political appoin- The only major hold out to the “Axis way” of leadership
tees. Chief among these is the Axis Commander-in-Chief, is Japan. The Empire of the Sun follows much of Berlin’s
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. advice and lead, but still manages to remain largely inde-
pendent. They have their own national identity, goals, and
However, much of the power of the Axis bloc is actually functionality. However, some within Japan still believe they
controlled (or heavily influenced behind the scenes) by the have given too much of their identity to Germany and
Blutkreuz Korps. they are not pleased with the result. If it ever came to it,
Japan would no doubt fight Germany for the preservation
Each individual Axis nation clings to its name, borders, and of its own autonomy.
heritage merely as a formal obligation. The true power of all
Axis territory is ruled from Berlin. Military units are often Much of the work of Blutkreuz to control and lead
kept strictly segregated by nationality as well, with German the Axis bloc occurs clandestinely, hidden in ancient
advisors sent to the head offices of every member nation to fortresses across the globe. The central headquarters out
ensure proper Axis policy is obeyed and carried out. of Schloss Reicher (Reicher Castle) located in the Alps
between Germany and Austria and Schloss Hohenfels
Aspects of daily life like trade, entertainment, journalism, (Hohenfels Castle) located in Bavaria, Germany are two
commerce, freedom of movement, and law enforcement are such locations.
fiercely controlled by their appointed ministers from within

27
 30 Nov 1947

ASOCOM Report/Clio

Operation: Apocalypse

To: Dr. Schliemann and General Granger

Pursuant to your request, I am compiling field reports on Operation:

Apocalypse. Frankly, I thought my father was wrong about his theories,
but evidence suggests otherwise. As scientists, we must change our
opinions whenever the evidence informing them changes. Over the past
two weeks, I have seen things I never thought possible. My summary of
events follows.

The crew you assigned to me are capable soldiers, but poor excuses
for Clio operatives. Only one has a background in academic theology.
The others are as useful as I expect a G.I. to be. They tend toward
crudeness and often ostracize me as both their intellectual and
official superior. I am not fool enough to overrule their opinions in
combat situations, however, they are in over their heads when it comes
to the history and the science. I regard them as I would any tool in
my archaeological kit. I know, General Granger, you do not approve
of such an attitude toward these men, but we have no time to spare
feelings, if we are to beat the Axis and SSU to the recovery of the
remaining Seals.

The mission went thusly:

In London, we encountered Axis resistance as expected. The city was,

as you both know, weeks if not days from falling. I sought the copper
scroll listing relics taken from Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586
A.D. At the British Museum, I obtained a rubbing of the scroll. The
scroll itself is missing. I suspect the Axis or even the Ahnenerbe
obtained it before we got there. In retrieving the scroll, we came
upon an uncouth gangster who one of the Rangers seemed to know. I do
not like the idea that I am travelling with someone friendly with such
people.

The rubbing lists several items not on the other copper scroll
found in Qumran. Among these are the treasures of the Temple of
Solomon, chiefly, the Ark of the Covenant. That it exists, or did,
is astounding. This must thoroughly be studied. The question became
clear: why did one scroll list the Ark while the other did not?
Recalling old texts, it was my theory that the Babylonians returned
the Ark to the Hebrews out of fear, much as the Philistines did before
them. The Ark is an artefact of unspeakable power, at least in legend.
I deduced that upon its return, the Hebrews would have placed it back
in the Temple.

From this premise, it seemed logical that the Knights Templar could
have secured the Ark from the ruins of the Temple some 1800 years
later. This brought us to Jerusalem and an antiquities dealer with

28
 Chapter 2: THE ARK

whom my father was familiar. My father’s theory posited that the

tablets inside the Ark were not the Ten Commandments, but pieces
of Vrill technology. This explains the sickness afflicting those
who approached the Ark without protection. As with the Seal from
Mont Saint-Michel, I assume the rest to also be radioactive. I can
only guess the lower radioactivity of the Mont St Michel tablet are
intentional. Perhaps it was meant to be read first? Assassins from
an unknown cult tried to kill the antiquities dealer, but the Rangers
fended them off. At least they prove useful in their single area of
competence.

The antiquities dealer turned a map over to me. I did some small
amount of research and translation before determining the Templars
moved the Ark from Jerusalem to the Cathar outpost of Montsegur. This
led us back to France.

The insertion into France was difficult, but we went undetected

until we reached Montsegur. There, a Colonel Orbst also sought the
Ark. Please arrange a dossier of this man to reach me. He is a foul
opponent. Again, at Montsegur, we found the Templars had moved the Ark
hundreds of years before our arrival. A coded map found in the chamber
once holding the Ark pointed to a North American island off the coast
of Nova Scotia called Oak Island.

Dr. Schliemann, those fanciful stories you once told me of buried

treasure on Oak Island turned out to be real. Yet, even as we made it
back into Allied territory (see my previous report on The Forbidden
Zone for details on our escape from France), we found again the
Templars — seven hundred years after their dissolution — were still
ahead of us. Impossibly, they seemed to have moved the Ark to the Grand
Canyon. I cannot begin to tell you, General, how such pre-Columbian
contact between Europeans and the New World rewrites history. This
must be thoroughly studied.

As your men have no doubt reported, we found the next Seal within a
cavernous temple inside the Grand Canyon. A trap sprung by one of your
so-called “elite” rangers caused the entire canyon to flood. The Seal
floated. The Ark did not. You must recover the Ark. There was only one
tablet inside it though. I thought there would be two and I have an
idea where we might seek the second.

I cannot fathom what we have begun to unravel here, but I am confident

these artefacts, the Seals, were known to other cultures besides those
in the Fertile Crescent. The strange petroglyph seen all over the
world is what I shall pursue next. That is the next lead I will follow.

I am confident in my abilities to find these Seals, but we are dealing

with secrets and forces I cannot yet comprehend. I will submit another
report once we have secured the next seal.

-- Dr. Jessa Carter, Captain, ASOCOM, Clio

29
 CHAPTER 3:
THE NEW WORLD

7+( 520$1&( 2) This entire episode takes place in America, though not all
-(66$ &$57(5
$66$66,16 2) %(/,$/ 12. 9$5,(6
of it in the continental United States. The final sequence is
This subplot is optional. set in the cold, harsh wilds of the Alaska Territory during Use stats for Assassin on p. 146 of Dust Adventures.
A perfectly enjoyable the SSU’s continuing advance there.
campaign can unfold Shouting for help quickly alerts the rest of the team, but
without any romantic Following a lead from the previous episode, the team sets they have their hands full with their own killers. If one of
entanglements getting in out for New Mexico where they must seek a Zuni elder. the PCs can be abducted, the assassins try, but not at the
the way. However, it is in Their purpose is to discover the meaning of the “squatting cost of the others getting away. Their orders are to take out
the spirit of both pulp and man” petroglyph. the entire team if none can be captured for interrogation.
war genres that a romance
serves as an emotional The episode opens with the characters on a train travelling If the PCs manage to take one of the assassins alive, that
parallel to the action. from Kansas to Santa Fe... assassin tries to swallow a cyanide capsule. If this attempt
is thwarted, the team is free to interrogate the individual.
Jessa Carter serves that What he or she says is little. They work for an organiza-
role for one of the PCs. ATTEMPTED MURDER tion dedicated to “forces you could not possibly under-

ON THE SOUTHWESTERN
A candlelit dinner in the stand.” They are fanatics. Having been split off from the
dining car, drinks, and her Templars long ago, members of this group are prepared
hair literally down from the
severe bun she normally
EXPRESS for torture. The team sees evidence of such torture on
each of the bodies. They give up nothing.
keeps it in—all these serve The Sons of Belial do not give up easily. They may have
to gradually chip away lost the tablet inside the Ark, but they are determined Once the team has dispatched the assassins, the remainder
at her icy demeanour. that the team not live long enough to enjoy that victory. of the trip occurs without incident.
Whomever she likes is Aboard the express train they take to New Mexico, Belial
Assassins attempt to kill them.
CLOVIS, NEW MEXICO
free to rebuff her, but it is
more fun if the two keep
sparring verbally and Each of the PCs is berthed in a Pullman Car. These were
among the finest rail coaches of their day. The rail line The team has come to speak with an elder named Sanchez
the inevitable gravity of who works as an archaeologist specializing in the rise of
their feelings pulls them continues to operate for passengers, but there are fewer
aboard than there would be outside of wartime. In fact, humanity in the Americas. They expect an older man,
together. but what they find is a young, vibrant woman. Her first
the train itself also hauls military cargo. Very little in
America has not been repurposed for the war effort. name is Meli, and she is a doctor of archaeology just like
Decide if you want to
Carter. The two immediately take a disliking to each other.
include this in your
The train’s dining service is commendable, a far cry from Meli resents Carter because she works for the govern-
campaign.
the C-Rations on which the team usually subsists. They ment. The federal authorities have made her expeditions
are not used to being served and may fall into a dangerous and fieldwork very difficult, of late. Further, as a Native
quietude. When they are split apart, most likely in each of American raised by a traditional father, Meli has suspi-
their bunks, assassins come after them. cion for any government authority. Her people were not
treated well. Remember, this is 1947; there are still living
Two assassins confront each player or NPC. The murder- Native Americans who remember the United States’ war
ers slip quietly into their cabins to take each person out. against them.
Allow the PCs MIND rolls at Difficulty 3 to hear the
doors opening. Meli is about thirty years of age with deep brown eyes and
black hair. She is in charge of an expedition digging up
what she believes are the first humans in the Americas.

30
 Chapter 3: THE NEW WORLD

Meli knows the petroglyph called the “squatting man.”

Her people have a long tradition stretching back to their
beginnings. Star beings came from the heavens and took
the Zuni out of the underworld. These beings were at war
for many hundreds of years. The night sky raged with
their fury until, one night, everything changed. A great
lightning bolt ripped through the heavens and scarred the
sky. An image of a man, trying to hold up the vast weight
of the heavens appeared to the Zuni. That image is the
squatting man.

Meli considers it an oral tradition. She does not dismiss

it as fantasy however. As she speaks with Dr. Carter, Meli
begins to notice similarities to someone else. She brings
this up. Describing a man in his late fifties who, by the
sound of it, looks vaguely like Carter’s deceased father. He
came here about a month ago, asking after the same petro-
glyphs. His name was James Caldwell, or so he said.

This is the second hint that Dr. Carter receives regarding

the possibility that her father is still alive. She is shaken
by this news but eventually brushes it off. The PC who is
romantically interested in her can give solace.

That night, the team is invited to the Zuni reservation

where Meli’s father lives. Her family is poor, very, very
poor, and the standard of living is a stark contrast to those
in the United States supposedly “going without” for the
war. These people were given a raw deal; there are no two
ways about it.

That night, the PCs interact with Meli’s grandfather (her

father died early in the war, part of a team of Rangers
much like the PCs). Her grandfather refuses to learn
English and speaks only in the Zuni tongue. They call
themselves the A’shiwi, or “the flesh.” Her grandfather
listens to the PCs and relates the history of his people as
described previously. He believes in these star beings and a
Zuni prophecy that holds that their return augurs the end
of this age. Things are easier for them there as the Mexican govern-
ment, while under the banner of the Allies, is not as
$%'8&7,21 watchful for spies as the Americans.

The team is invited to stay the night. While they sleep, However, for this day, they rest at the Lubbock Oasis, a
Meli steps outside to have a cigarette, and Orbst’s agents motel along a dusty strip of highway.
grab her. When the team wakes the next day, she is gone.
However, the Germans have left a trail behind them, and Of course, the trail left behind only reveals that the
many of the people on the reservation are expert track- Germans grabbed Meli, forced her into a car, and then
ers. What they do not have is the firepower to take on drove east. The PCs have to reason out where they took
Blutkreuz soldiers. her. They may call on ASOCOM for assistance. On their
own, they may deduce that El Paso is the closest and best
The PCs, of course, do. spot to cross over into Mexico with a prisoner.

It is up to them whether they attempt a rescue. Dr. Carter El Paso is not very large in 1947, a border town with a
is against it at first as she needs to return to Kansas and dodgy reputation that lies just opposite the notorious city
continue her research. Something must have happened of Juarez, in Mexico. Asking around town, and using the
in the skies so long ago. Eventually, she admits the right description of white men with a Native American girl,
thing to do is save Meli. Should the PCs agree, proceed eventually leads the team to the motel where four men are
with the rest of this scene. holding Meli.

The Germans took Meli to the town of El Paso, Texas.

They drove all through the night to get there. The next %/87.5(8= $*(176 
day, they plan to take her across the border into Mexico. Use stats for Spy on pp. 145-146 of Dust Adventures.

31
 To: Dr. Jessa Carter
7+( &/29,6 &8/785(
The Clovis people
From: Dr. Schliemann, Director, Clio
are thought to be the
ancestors of Native
Squatting man appears to relate to plasma phenomenon. Find Dr. Lance
Americans. After the
Pereau. USC. Blutkreuz agents present. Burn after reading.
Younger Dryas, a cold
snap following a period
of warming at the end of
the last Ice Age, the Clovis If the PCs rescue Meli, they not only do the noble thing, during non-classroom hours. The PCs won’t have time to
people began to split they find some clues. In the motel room is a decoded look in either of those places because, as they start asking
apart and form separate German radio transmission from Orbst. It leads the for directions, they spy a man being shoved into the back
tribes. So goes the theory. PCs to Los Angeles where a well-known actor, Reginald of a Packard. At least one of the men doing the shoving is
From these, eventually, the Moore, is apparently serving as an SSU spy. There is no a Blutkreuz agent they have encountered previously.
Zuni descended. further information as to what the Germans planned to
do with this information. If the PCs do not follow this The chase is on!
Named for the stone tools
optional side mission, they do not receive this clue.
found at various sites The team either has, or must acquire, a car. Once this is
in the 1920s and 1930s, In either case, their next stop is Los Angeles. done, by whatever means necessary, they take off after the
the Clovis are thought bad guys. The chase leads across the city and up through
to be the first people to Chinatown, among the varied and strange architecture.
populate what is now
America. The “Clovis
LOS ANGELES Chinatown is both a real Chinese neighbourhood and a
Disney version of China itself. After the boom in Chinese
First” theory holds that After New Mexico, the team receives a cable from Dr. labour working the rails in the last century, Chinese
the Clovis were the first Schliemann. It is coded, and driven out personally by an immigrants learned that their culture was itself a means
people here. It is the NCO from the 509th Airbase located outside Roswell, to take in tourist dollars. So, there is a great Chinese gate
predominant hypothesis. New Mexico. Local papers spoke of a UFO crash there demarcating the entrance to the city. Many buildings ape
However, competing last summer. Those rumours are still in the air. this semi-realistic nod to China’s dynastic past.
theories, some involving
Note to the GM: Because the cable went through the Pedestrians and food stalls get in the way of the barrel-
Europeans coming to
509th, Majestic 12 saw it. This means Howard Hughes now ling automobiles. The players need to catch the Packard
America during the Ice
has an idea that Clio is up to something odd. At the end of without killing Dr. Pereau. Any crash causes damage to all
Age, have since arisen.
this episode, the PCs explore one of Hughes’ facilities. persons in the car. This is an age before seat belts.
The adventure focuses on
Upon arriving in Los Angeles, the team finds a town
the Clovis First theory as
much more like the 1930s real world version of the city %/87.5(8= $*(176 
it simplifies the lineage of
than that of 1947. Remember, this is 1947 with the war Use stats for Spy on pp. 145-146 of Dust Adventures.
people who are already
still raging. Los Angeles is a boomtown on pause. The
allegedly interacting with
great post-war expansion is yet to come. It is still a noir For running the chase, see the rules on pp. 47-48 of Dust
alien beings. While there
city, though, at least on film. Salacious rags pull down the Adventures.
exist thin “theories” about
greatest stars, while military media extols their virtues.
Native Americans and “Buy war bonds! Support the troops! Go see a film about Once the chase is over, the team should have Pereau in
ancient astronauts, they the Allied Victory!” their possession. In a safe place, they can ask him ques-
are in no way used here
tions. If requested, ASOCOM easily provides a safe
as a substitute for genuine Mixed between the two is the average citizen. Most house, in the form of a little bungalow. Pereau has done
research and the history of the young men are gone. Women have taken over a research into plasma fields. During the course of his
of these people as told by great many of the jobs those boys used to work. The studies, he came across the “squatting man” petroglyph. It
their own. Depression is over, but rationing is in effect. People still resembled, to him, a particular plasma field as would be
arrive in Los Angeles to pursue dreams of stardom, but
seen in the skies if something like a solar event occurred.
the war creates very different stars. Names like Bazooka
Joe and Rosie are right up there with John Wayne and He is preparing a paper on the phenomena and is sur-
Lauren Bacall. prised ASOCOM even knows about it. ASOCOM is in
everybody’s business in 1947. Pereau isn’t eager to help the
Founded in 1880, USC is the oldest private research
PCs. He is actually a communist sympathizer. Even now,
university in California. The campus is one place where
the PCs do still see young men, though even here, they are the wheels of the Red Scare begin to turn in the United
fewer than they would be during peacetime. The campus is States. In addition to other propaganda, newsreels, papers,
decorated with propaganda banners. “Join the Fight! Save and posters are beginning to rally Americans against
Your Tin Cans! Nylon is for Parachutes Now, Boys!” communism.

The professor the PCs are looking for is in the science Pereau himself is a Marxist, and disagrees with the Soviet
department. Dr. Lance Pereau is a physicist specializing approach to communism. He dismisses it as a “perver-
in plasma and plasma fields. He is in his office or the lab sion of Marx’s ideals with a side of totalitarianism.” He

32
 Chapter 3: THE NEW WORLD

is not a huge fan of the United States government either, Moore visited Pereau asking about his squatting man
believing they have exceeded their mandate under the theory at the behest of his handlers. Pereau thought it
aegis of national security. There are many nuanced points odd, but Moore passed it off as research for a science 3(5($8·6 648$77,1*
to be argued. The pre-generated PCs are firmly on the side fiction picture. Pereau has no idea what Moore really 0$1 7+(25<
of Uncle Sam unless a player chose otherwise. They are, wanted, but the man did mention some vaguely socialistic Pereau’s theory centres
after all, in the army during wartime. However, outside leanings. on the squatting man
characters might have all sorts of differing and conflicting petroglyph recorded
philosophies. The PCs have another lead to follow up.
on rocks in hundreds of
cultures in antiquity. He
This is a point the team may use to lean on Pereau. He is
headed for big trouble as the anti-communist sentiment 7+( /,0(/,*+7 believes the appearance
of this man in rock art
continues. Eventually, the War Department may out Reginald Moore is the team’s next lead. He lives in the stems from an actual
him. He cooperates fully if the team uses this leverage. Hollywood Hills and hosts a party that very night. A few phenomenon witnessed
See sidebar. cops are present as security but not a major presence. The by pre-historic people.
PCs can request backup from ASOCOM if they feel it According to his research,
Pereau also has another story to tell. Three days ago, he necessary. ASOCOM prefers to remain under the radar,
received a strange visitor, Reginald Moore, the famous the event probably took
but a police raid could be arranged. The Los Angeles place sometime at the end
actor and director. Well, formerly famous. Reginald’s stock department is not the most corruption-free group in
in Hollywood has been slipping since the war. His avant- of the last Ice Age.
1947. A little money could prompt an immediate raid
garde brand of directing has not set well with a wartime without having to laboriously go through channels. The image of the squatting
audience. His acting choices fall along similar lines. Thus,
man is nearly identical
while John Wayne has rocketed to fame in war movies, Moore is not the celebrity he once was, but his parties enjoy to that of a plasma event
Reginald has been left behind. a certain reputation for decadence that Hollywood loves. know as a Z-pinch. The
The PCs may obtain his address via the FBI or by bribing a event could have been
Moore is bitter about this. He also has a gambling and tabloid reporter. The party is invite-only, but the man at the
morphine problem. This led to his being recruited by the caused by a coronal mass
door is not going to mess with active duty military person- ejection (CME) on the sun.
SSU as an asset. Moore meets all sorts of famous people in nel. The thousand-yard stare goes a long way.
the limelight, and the SSU is always looking for anything It might also be caused
that leads back to strong intel or a chance to embarrass and by the detonation of a
Inside, the entire home is decorated in art deco style popu- thermonuclear weapon in
discredit an American war personality such as Bazooka Joe. lar a decade ago. Booze and, if one looks around, dope are
Stalin’s apparatus for propaganda is very proactive. Earth’s atmosphere. The
present. The PCs recognize various celebrities. shape produced looks
strikingly like images of
the squatting man. Pereau
has not considered the
possibility that a weapon
was to blame, as he
dismisses Vrill theories as
“military cover for secret
projects.”

The PCs would need to

bring up the possibility
of a weapon for him to
comment. Pereau also
has the controversial idea
that the Aurora Borealis
may have been caused,
or at least affected, by
this same phenomenon
approximately 12,000
years ago.

33
 When the PCs arrive, if there has not been a raid, they along with Dr. Carter, the team determines the native
find two large men cornering Moore in a hallway leading Tlingit are the likeliest resource for information about the
:+$7 7+( to one of the bathrooms. They are Russian SSU agents. tablet as they hold a long oral history of a stone “which
5866,$16 .12: One has an accent; the other does not. fell from heaven.”
The Russian agents are
Anchorage is their starting point. The team is to meet with
working for SMERSH.
668 $*(176  a Tlingit native who can guide them to one of the remote
Others, later in the
Use stats for Spy on pp. 145-146 of Dust Adventures. communities that still hold the oral traditions close.
adventure, work directly
for Rasputin. These They are warned that the Soviets may be present once
men operate under If spotted, the two men decide what to do based on how
many of the team they have seen. This is up to the GM’s certain invisible borders, drawn only on military maps, are
the direct order of the crossed. There are SSU recon teams inside American held
Kremlin. They know discretion. If the Russians saw the whole team, they exit
quickly. If they saw only one or two, they hold their territory.
that the squatting man
relates to the Vrill and ground. Moore looks very much out of his league. The Allies still control the vast majority of the Territory
that the Aurora Borealis of Alaska, and getting in is easy given the PCs are working
is connected. They
The Russians are not looking for a fight, and following
them is the better play here. They do everything they can for ASOCOM and Clio. Their first stop is Anchorage.
mention another mission
involving former SSU
to leave the party without attracting further attention. If
officer Natalya Roerich,
the raid was launched, an asset in the LAPD tipped them $1&+25$*(
which also seems to
off, and they are not present.
The largest town in Alaska is not very large. The entire
be connected to the
Should the PCs follow them, the Russians take a car from state has a population smaller than many American cities.
Aurora Borealis. This is
Moore’s house to an old hotel on Sunset Boulevard. There, The weather is rough, and it is winter when the team
a red herring. Natalya
they use a pay phone and go inside. They share a single arrives. Many of them fought in Zverograd and are used
Roerich’s adventure is
room. The one without the accent does all the talking for to such conditions. The front is far away from the city, but
detailed in the novel
the pair at check-in. the citizens walk around armed. There is a tremendous
Dust of Atlantis.
anti-Communist movement in the city. Banners disparage
If the team wishes to burgle their room, that is possible. Stalin and his state, while a captured Soviet tank sitting
The main purpose of the
The next morning, the agents head to Los Angeles Airport at the heart of a park has been re-painted red, white, and
Soviets’ presence here
where they get on a plane bound for Seattle, Washington. blue. The spirits of the citizens is upbeat, all things con-
was to confirm the theory
In their room is a road map of Canada showing a high- sidered. The PCs are to meet their contact at a local bar
that a plasma discharge,
lighted route into the Alaska Territory. The point at which balled The Brick House.
of the kind a powerful
the Russians intend to cross the border is not marked.
weapon would create,
There, a man slightly older than most of the team sits in
is what the squatting In an ashtray on the desk by the window, the PCs find a a booth. He has one leg stiffly held out as if it is arthritic.
man depicts. They were partially burned scrap of paper with coordinates scrawled The Rangers recognize this as a war injury.
then to proceed to the on it. Only a few are still legible. ASOCOM can help
Alaska Territory to find extrapolate using Alaska as a starting point. The coordi- Ted Taneidi was in the Big Red One, but took shrapnel
old Tlingit legends nates lead to an area of the territory currently under fire by to his leg in North Africa. He is a member of the Taneidi
regarding a sacred stone the SSU. Raven clan. He served his country, as he sees it, and has no
that fell to Earth. regrets. He mentions his desire to move to a warmer cli-
Capturing and interrogating one or both of the Russian mate because of the ache in his leg, but believes his grand-
From there, they agents proves difficult but possible. The GM determines father would scalp him if he tried. Ted is fond of playing
were to proceed with how much “encouragement” the Russians require before on movie stereotypes. Ted is something of an interlocutor
determining if there was spilling the beans. between the traditional clans that do not wish to integrate
any link to the Secret
with city folk, and those who already have. He takes the
City. GRU agents with With each of their leads in Los Angeles pursued to its end, group in his 1920s Ford Model TT truck far north to a
the Red Army were the team heads north to Alaska and the Russian offensive small outpost. From there, they take dog sleds into the
supposed to brief them. there. frozen wastes.
The SSU clearly knows
about the Seals but, if He explains all this before they leave. The Tlingit they
these Russians are to
be believed, they have
ALASKA want to talk to are the elders of another Raven clan
that shunned contact with “white aggressors.” They are,
no idea what the Seals according to Ted, a superstitious lot who produce some-
actually do. 1257+ 72 7+( )8785( thing akin to precognition at times. “Told me I’d hurt
Alaska is not yet a state in 1947, but it is at war, at least my knee while in a desert six months before I even went
along its west coast. The SSU launched an invasion of the to basic. Gave me a small sacred rock to ward off death. I
territory that once belonged to Mother Russia herself. guess it worked. Saw the Raven when I was laying there
Heavy Marine resistance stymied initial gains. The lines bleeding all over the sand we’d just taken back from the
fluctuate but, for the winter, have settled. Fox.” Erwin Rommel was known as The Desert Fox.

The PCs have been briefed prior to arrival in the territory.

From whatever sources they have from the previous scene,

34
 Chapter 3: THE NEW WORLD

7/,1*,7 9,//$*( government, the PCs may have to call for military
backup. That all depends on the GM’s willingness to
Dominated by large totem poles with contorted throw a moral quandary at the PCs.
faces looking out over the village, the Tlingit live
in wooden homes and lodges. Smoke rises from
several of the dwellings. Ted speaks to some of
the villagers in his native tongue. They all eye you
THE SECRET CITY
suspiciously. A project contracted to Majestic 12, the Secret City was
built to mimic Zverograd. The intent was to train the
In the largest lodge, against a massive carving Allies prior to the invasion of that city. The city itself is
flanked by two more totem poles, are several elders. located between Kurupa Lake and Cascade Lake in the
You know they would have looked exactly the same North Slope region of the Alaska Territory. While nei-
if you had visited back in 1847. Their way of life has ther lake is the Caspian Sea (upon which Zverograd sits),
not changed. Their leathery skin, and the way their
the two lakes allow for simulated amphibious assaults.
keen eyes track you, give you reason to think they
Also known as Labyrinth City, the Secret City is a
may have been waiting all that time just for your
twisting maze of tightly packed buildings that suddenly
arrival.
open into huge squares. While every effort was made to
duplicate Zverograd itself, intelligence available was lim-
The patterns carved into the wood behind the elders, as ited. Thus, while some sections look like exact copies of
well as on the totem poles, depict several anthropomor- Zverograd, others have streets in the wrong places, stat-
phic beings. Most prominently featured is the image of ues facing the wrong direction, or entire streets flipped
a raven. The elders, in their own tongue, speak about the from west to east. After the Axis losses at Zverograd
raven and Ted translates. reached ASOCOM, it was decided that Allied troops
would be better prepared for the fighting there.
“In the beginning, there was the sun, and it was An entire subterranean Metro system was dug out of the
good, but the dancing man came and distracted the Alaskan earth to further train soldiers for the bloody
sun so that the raven could steal it. So he did, taking fighting underground they would soon encounter. Yet
the orb away and leaving the land in darkness for the city itself is now a ghost town. There are no moving
many years. The great waves crashed over us then, cars, though fake and abandoned vehicles are found here
and we fled. It was a raven chick, who felt sorry for and there along the streets and there are no pedestrians or
the people, that guided us through the darkness and workers. It is as if an entire city has watched its population
back to the sun, which rested high in mother raven’s vanish overnight. A spooky place to be sure.
nest. A warrior climbed the tall mountain to her
nest and stole back the sun. When he placed it back All of this intel can be obtained from ASOCOM. What
in the sky, crops began to grow again, and the vast they cannot get is the existence of a secret Majestic 12
sheets of ice that covered the land melted away.” facility hidden beneath the Metro. Hidden access ways
lead inside from the Metro, however. The Tlingit do not
know about the secret base as such, but they know massive
The PCs can question the elders through Ted. They know excavating equipment was used even after the Metro was
that, at some point in the remote past, the world went dark. finished. This key clue should get the players thinking.
A flood occurred which coincided with the appearance of
what they call the dancing man in the sky. Their ancestors, The facility beneath the Secret City itself was designed
prior to the plasma event in the heavens, were entrusted to test the inhuman subjects Majestic captured from the
with a stone tablet that fell from the heavens. Axis, mostly gorillas and zombies. Both still roam the
undercity. Some even come above ground at times. This
Those who later warned them about the flood presented is another reason the Tlingit no longer come here.
them with the tablet.
During their excavations for construction of the sub-
The Tlingit buried the stone because it made people sick, city, Majestic 12 discovered the tablet the PCs seek.
and they had lost the box in which they were supposed to They stored it in the secret facility and began to study it.
contain it. Where they buried it, nothing would grow. No Unfortunately, the presence of the stone drove both the
animals would walk near the place. The location of the gorillas and the zombies wild, and the facility was overrun
burial sits below a site now occupied by a mysterious “false and then abandoned.
city.” The elders do not know the purpose of this city. It is
the Secret City, built by Majestic 12, of which they speak. Since that time, the SSU has pushed further inland and
See Dust Adventures pp. 127-128 for more details. captured the city. They have had no interest in it until
now. They thought it a curiosity and immediately took its
Ted convinces the elders that the PCs must see this city, purpose to be purely for training. However, now that their
but the elders are reluctant to allow this. A negotiation agents have uncovered a connection between it and the
takes place to convince them. If the PCs are unable missing stone, the SSU has dispatched teams to occupy
to convince the tribe or, if the GM wishes to play on the city. The PCs will need support from the Marines to
the tensions between the natives and the American take the city back.

35
 Remember, most of the city is barren. The SSU only just Shadows move, lights flicker, and winds rip through the
captured the land surrounding the city. Their real goal is buildings creating an unnatural sound, like the moans
to cut off Allied oil supplies in this part of the territory. and screams of the dead. Soldier units not led by heroes
Only top-level SSU officers even know that the SSU dis- do not remove suppression during the End Phase. While
patched a sizable occupation force to this fake Zverograd. heroes have a calming effect on their squads, when they
The PCs are about to find themselves in a pitched battle roll to remove suppression when activated, they do so as if
for a pretend municipality. Many of them already served they had no hero in the squad. The Priest’s special ability
in Zverograd and this feels like reliving a nightmare inside overrides this rule.
some sort of twisted dream.

>@ :$.( 7+( '($'

BATTLES IN Units in buildings and forest terrain are not alone. Eyes
THE SECRET CITY stare at them from inside shadows and behind rocks.
Whispers reach their ears, but as they turn, they see noth-
Use the following rules for playing miniature battles in ing behind them. Fear is in the very wind itself. Units with
the Secret City using Dust Warfare or Dust Tactics/Dust at least one miniature in a building structure or a forest/
Battlefield. wood terrain feature do not remove suppression during
the End Phase.

DUST WARFARE In addition, when a unit in a building structure or

a forest/wood terrain feature is activated, roll three
Warfare battles in the Secret City follow rules as normal
dice. Each hit scored results in the unit suffering a
battles using the Warfare Battle Builder (see Dust Warfare
1/1 C attack as mutated experiments from the failed
Core Rules, p. 65).
Frankenstein Project assault them. If the unit does not
However, the Secret City suffers the following two special activate in the turn, resolve the Wake the Dead roll
rules in Dust Warfare: Despite the deployment rules, the during the end phase. This attack is considered to have
wind and weather play havoc with Air Drop and reserves. happened prior to the unit being activated, so any sup-
When bringing in reserves (from Scout Vehicle, Reserves, pression gained from this attack is added to the unit
Air Drop or any other condition) roll a single die for that before it rolls to remove suppression. This attack ignores
unit. On a HIT result, the unit cannot come on board Cover but not armour.
that round and must wait until the next round to try
again. If there is a hero in the unit, the die may be rerolled
>@ +(// 67250
one time.
Rain pours onto the streets as if the heavens were
Regardless of the Condition determined by the battle trying to wash the city from the earth. While enemy
builder, the scenario may also fall under the conditions of Soldiers can be seen, they cannot be targeted beyond
Cold Snap (Campaign Book Icarus, p. 50). 20”. Vehicles may be targeted at up to 24” and Aircraft
at High Altitude only at 16”. Aircraft are likewise unable
Before the initiative is rolled for the first turn of the battle, to target Soldier units beyond 16” if the Aircraft is at
the player who placed the first Scenario Point rolls a single High Altitude. In addition, fog from the rain distorts
die. On a HIT result, the temperature has dropped and reality, and its icy cold delays reactions. All Soldiers units
the conditions for Cold Snap are in effect for that turn. of Armour 1 and Armour 2 are treated as if they have
Assault (Dust Warfare Core Rules, p. 53). If the unit
In addition, when fighting in the Secret City, replace the
already has Assault then reactions may not be taken at the
Conditions column of the battle builder with the follow-
start or end of its movement if it Marches.
ing entries:

>@ ((5,( &$/0

&21',7,216
The city is quiet; the weather is fair. While still creepy and
It is a rare battle that takes place under optimal engage-
cold, everyone is on edge and in awe of the Secret City. A
ment parameters. Conditions represent some of the
unit may not be given an attack order in the Command
unique battlefield elements that can influence a fighting
Phase until it has been attacked in the Unit Phase. This
group’s effectiveness. Regardless of the condition, all uses
effect is removed after the End Phase of Turn Three.
of Wiederbellebungsserum and similar Blutkreuz Zombie
abilities are considered to fall under the rules for Second
Generation Serum (see Dust Warfare Core Rules, pp. 56 DUST TACTICS 
and 120 as well as Dust Warfare Icarus, p. 24).
$1' BATTLEFIELD
Battlefield and Tactics games are affected in a similar
>@ 1,*+7 7(55256 manner. Reserves are blocked on a Shield die roll, and the
Labyrinth, Alaska is a creepy location. A dead city long cold wind and snow has an effect similar to Sand Storms
ago abandoned by any sane residents or caretakers. (see Dust Tactics Babylon).

36
 Chapter 3: THE NEW WORLD

At the start of a battle taking place in the Secret City using

Tactics or Battlefield, roll a single die.

>6+,(/'@ :$.( 7+( '($'

Units in buildings and forest terrain are not alone. Eyes
stare at them from within shadows and behind rocks.
Whispers reach their ears, but as they turn, they see noth-
ing behind. Fear swirls about in the wind. Units with at
least one miniature in a building structure or a forest/
wood terrain feature roll one less die to remove suppres-
sion when activated.

In addition, when a unit in a building structure or a

forest/wood terrain feature is activated roll three dice.
Each hit scored results in the unit suffering a 1/1 C attack
as mutated experiments from the failed Frankenstein
Project attack. This assault is considered to have happened
prior to the unit being activated so any suppression gained
from this attack is added to the unit before it rolls to
remove suppression. This attack ignores Cover.

>7$5*(7@ +(// 67250

Rain pours onto the city streets as if the heavens were
trying to wash the city from the earth. While enemy
Soldiers can be seen, it is hard to react to their movements,
as one cannot determine what is really happening. All
infantry units roll one less die when rolling for reactive
attacks against infantry units.

>)$&7,21@ ((5,( &$/0

The city is quiet; the weather is fair. While still creepy and
cold, everyone is on edge and in awe of the Secret City.
All infantry models that do not fly are more cautious and
aware of their surroundings. Until the end of turn three, possible the PCs elected to do the same, in which case the
all infantry have their move rates reduced by 1 square (4” thunder of battle can be heard above. The Majestic facility
or 10cm) to a minimum of 1 square (4” or 10cm). is sprawling, and encounters with SSU troops, zombies,
and gorillas occur.
Axis players with Mindless Zombies also benefit from the
unique circumstances of the Secret City. When a Mindless The facility was clearly well built, but the time since its
Zombie unit is activated, roll a single die, on a FACTION construction crews fled have left it in a sorry state. Trash
symbol the unit is treated as if it were within 1 square (4”
and feculence litters the halls, and the continued pres-
or 10cm) of the Blutkreuz (see Dust Tactics, p. 97).
ence of the stone created mutations among the gorillas
and zombies alike. The secret base is a kind of old school
TERRAIN dungeon crawling with monsters around every turn. Note,
the PCs exposure to the stone is not long enough to cause
The Secret City is massive. Be sure to include many build- such mutations. Of course, the GM doesn’t have to tell
ings and lots of rubble, statues, cars, and other terrain them that.
types that fit a city on the board.
While the streets above are a replica of Zverograd, the
The GM may choose to run this battle using the RPG secret facility known as The Labyrinth is modelled on
rules. In that case, abstract the larger conflict in favour of nothing that actually exists. It is not an actual maze, but
focusing on the PCs.
it might as well be. The twisting corridors loop back on
themselves, as it was initially designed to represent the

THE MAJESTIC FACILITY Zverograd sewers and Metro. However, once Hughes got
a hold of an Axis gorilla and zombie, he repurposed the
Once the battle is won, the Allies have control of the tunnels to study them.
city—at least for now. Unfortunately, the SSU already
penetrated the sub-city while the battle raged. It is entirely Coupled with the power of the Seal, Majestic has

37
 managed to make significant steps in bioengineering here. 6(&5(7 &,7< $3(0(1
The fruits of their labours would be their undoing though,
Characteristics
and Majestic soon had to abandon the facility. Today, it is
a nightmarish ecosystem populated by mutants. The PCs MB 3 MD 1 PH 3 PR 2
must fight through these to get to the Seal. Movement 6 Capacity 5 Initiative 4
Many of the “human” mutants are still wearing military Skills: Athletics 3, Attack: Melee 2, Interaction:
uniforms and lab coats. The apes have been spliced with Intimidation 1
human DNA to produce something that fits in neither Special Abilities: None
species. Continual exposure to the Seal, as amplified by
Hughes’ team, has also degraded the mental capacity of Special Powers: None
these creatures. Once, they possessed intelligence, now
Equipment
they merely survive.
Unless otherwise noted, ape-men are armed with a
Rather than map out the entirety of the maze, the GM variety of improvised weapons. These weapons are
should roll six Dust dice each turn. Three or more match- fragile and can break, but they can also be easily
ing faction symbols indicate a success. Three successes get replaced. Some ape-men are more evolved and may use
the team to the machine the Seal is powering. Three Axis a variety of other weapons, including guns.
icons indicate an encounter with four gorillas. Three SSU
icons indicate an encounter with five mutant ape-men. Weapon 5QJ 'DP 5DQN Special
Characters with Navigation skills add a die per Rank to Improvised
C 2 0 None
the party’s dice pool for this test. Weapon

38
 Chapter 3: THE NEW WORLD

Notes This is Howard Hughes’ version of the ideal post-war

American home. Blood and other unidentifiable liquids
Ape-men armed with weapons other than improvised have long-since dried on the walls and floor. A side table
have the appropriate Attack skill at 1. 6(&5(7 &,7< ,17(/
even has a set of keys for a non-existent car. Hallways Among the many files
branch left and right. If the PCs turn around and look is useful information for
Once through the Labyrinth, the PCs arrive at the Majestic
at the wall they entered from, elaborate murals suggest a the team. Most of the
Facility designated SC-1. A map and key follow below.
pleasant suburban neighbourhood that never was. information relates to the
“scientific” experiments
SC-1 RESEARCH
A punch key card lies on the floor. This is used to access
conducted at this facility.
the labs deeper in the facility.
FACILITY
These break down into
two groups: documents
. <$5' understandable to a
Whether the maze was designed to serve some practical
layman, and documents
function or it was developed out of the paranoia in Hughes’
understandable only to
mind, the central research facility is, if possible, even more A barbeque covered in snow, a doghouse with a
an expert. Dr. Carter can
bizarre than the rest of the Secret City. The facility is grey mutt lying inside, his black nose protruding
decipher some of those,
permanently frozen at Christmas time, 1945. As the team from the opening, and a swing set. This was a yard,
but remember she is an
makes their way through the facility, it is like exploring the or at least it was supposed to be something like one.
archaeologist.
dark corners of Hughes’ psyche. People did not only work
here; they lived here, and the idea of Hughes’ “underground The files collectively tell
Utopia” is frightening to sane minds. Everything here is fake, from the snow to the dog’s nose.
the background of the
If the team looks inside the doghouse, they find a man’s
Secret City. Majestic 12
severed head.
recovered “samples” of
0$3 .(< Axis Gorillas and Axis
. /,9,1* 5220 Zombies, and brought
. '(&217$0,1$7,21 them here to attempt to
An empty fireplace would have once warmed this quaint modify them further. The
The vault-like door on this once hermetically sealed room sitting room. An old radio, nearly four feet tall, stands in
hangs open. Spatters of dried blood and bloody hand- results backfired, and the
a corner. You can imagine kids gathered around listen- team was overwhelmed by
prints make up a grim finger-painting across the walls. A ing to Little Orphan Annie and Sky-King. Suddenly, you
cold body lies in the center of the floor. Two windows, their creations. Of course,
miss home very much. A window looks out on the frozen all this is interesting but
webbed with cracks, are inset on the east and west walls. diorama vignette pretending to be a yard.
Showerheads hang from the ceiling. A very old and rust- not what the PCs need.
coloured trail leads inward.
The information vital to
. .,7&+(1 their mission also lies
This was a decontamination chamber as evidenced by the
windows and shower spigots. Hughes attempted to make within the files. These
In 1939, one of you had a brother that went to the detail a strange, radiating
sure none of what he was doing got out, and nothing from
World’s Fair in New York. He brought back a postcard energy that appeared
the outside got in. His paranoia was, for once, justified.
that showed “the kitchen of the future.” This room to be coming from
Sadly, the decon airlock did not work. Things got in and
looks a lot like that but, like everything else, nothing underneath the forest.
things got out. Some of those “things” are still here.
here actually functions. A pair of mullioned windows Whether by coincidence
The body is that of a scientist named Rodney Malcolm looks out on the cold, dead yard. or Hughes’ design, the
judging by his ID. facility was built over
where the Tlingit buried
As the team takes in the kitchen, three ape-men attack
To either side are observation chambers and male and the Seal long, long
from the south.
female toilets, respectively. In each toilet is a neatly pressed ago. Some scientific
boiler suit that would have been worn once one went speculation suggests the
through decon. The scientist wears one under his lab coat. $3(0(1  Seal might have corrupted
the DNA of the ape-men.
The blood trail is from a soldier the mutant ape-men See stats above.
hunted and slaughtered for food some time ago. Hughes ordered the area
excavated. The Seal was
. 52206'250,725,(6 dug up, and was about to
. (175$1&( be shipped to Area 51,
Continuing with the “opulent suburban home” when the ape-men overran
You have entered the foyer to a very fine house. An theme, each of these dormitories is designed to look the facility. According
aluminium Christmas tree, surrounded by gaily- like a room, but all of them are children’s rooms. to these documents,
wrapped presents, dominates a chessboard-tiled Looking at the baseball gloves still smelling of lano- scientists were completing
floor. Stairs sweep up, but lead nowhere, sug- lin, trophies, toy soldiers, dolls, and pink and blue tests in Lab 4 just before
gesting another level to this make-believe house. beds, you imagine an idealized childhood Hughes the records cease. The
Instead of tinsel, frozen entrails gruesomely dangle never had.
from the tree.

39
 Aside from these nostalgic bits of detritus, the rooms are Unlike other facilities, these offices were actually func-
unoccupied, though two contain long-dead bodies that tional. The team can find intel here in the many files held
were never used as food. in cabinets and scattered across the floor. Roll three dice
Seal is located there. each round the team searches. Three Faction Symbols
indicate they find something of value. Three Targets indi-
The science involved is  $. 75$0 cate either ape-men stumble by, or the SSU arrives at the
very complex, but PCs entrance. If the PCs left a guard at the airlock, he or she is
with Knowledge: Science, about to earn their combat pay.
This tram runs round the facility like a cable car
understand some sort
would in a modern city. Apparently, Hughes wanted
of genetic mixing went
to give the impression of commuting to and from
on. That mixing was then
work. Given the size of the facility, it is a practical 668 63(7=1$= 
further polluted from
application of his demented illusion. From the bloody battle above, SMERSH dispatched
exposure to the Seal.
these Spetznaz to uncover the secret below before the
Americans. The ape-men do not distinguish between SSU
The tram still runs, if the PCs wish to try it, but it should
and Allies. All are prey to them.
break down in an area the PCs should see.
Use stats for Spetznaz on p. 153 of Dust Adventures.
. ',1(5 The Spetznaz are as well trained and hardened as the
Rangers. This could be a difficult fight. Should the GM
A Depression-era diner with a fresh coat of paint. wish, the combat could take place in the “Forest” at 22.
Things are upbeat here. A jukebox control sits at
every table. Clearly, Hughes had a vision for tomor-
row. A door leads to the east toward what is presum- . &21)(5(1&( 5220
ably the kitchen.
A slide projector still functions in the middle of a
large conference table. The image on the screen
The door swings on a hinge. In the kitchen is the horror of
is that of a hulking, simian-looking soldier in an
the ape-men’s diet. Blood and flesh sit on a butcher’s block.
American Army uniform. A slogan fills the bottom:
An oven and stove still radiate heat. The ape-men were here
“Go Ape for America!” Cups stained with coffee lie
recently. At the back of the kitchen is a freezer. The players
in the positions their drinkers must have left them
really do not want to look inside there. No, really!
years ago.

. &251(5 %$5 If the players look through the other slides, they see a pro-
paganda campaign designed to introduce Americans to
You might have found this corner bar in your own the idea of ape-men hybrid soldiers. Obviously, the project
neighbourhood. It is like so many in America. The never made it this far. Should the GM wish, another,
stools, however, are all empty and the neon signs have secret project Majestic 12 was working on could also
long since gone dark. Somehow, the Christmas lights appear here. That project, and concomitant adventure, is
strung along the bar still wink in red, blue, and green. left to the GM’s imagination.

As the team enters, they hear glasses breaking. Two of the . /,%5$5<
ape-men, liquored up, are throwing shot glasses at each
other in the back. When they see the PCs, they attack.
Books litter the floor like a child threw a temper
tantrum. Shelves are overturned and microfiche is
$3(0(1  strung from the ceiling like strips of meat left out
to dry. No doubt there is a great deal of knowledge
See stats above. in this library, if anyone could now find a way to
organize it.
. 2)),&(
Roll three dice. If two or more Targets appear, there are
A secretary with a fashionable hairstyle ought to four ape-men here. If not, the PCs may explore the room.
be sitting at one of the two reception desks in this It is up to the GM if they find anything worthwhile. If the
wood-panelled office. The windows look out on team is behind on the plot, this is a good device to deliver
elaborate murals depicting the New York skyline, clues to steer them back on course. As in room 19, this is
with the addition of science fiction, ray gun-gothic also a good place to drop clues for future adventures.
buildings dwarfing even the Empire State Building.
Offices with glass walls and wooden doors line the
interior. File cabinets lay at the back.

40
 Chapter 3: THE NEW WORLD

This was an evacuation room. The door coming in said so,

. 7(55$&(
but it is no longer readable. However, the shattered console
is labelled. Whatever vehicle rocketed out of here left blast
You have just stepped out into desert dusk, the sun and scorch marks on the concrete floor. At least someone
slung low in the sky, cut in half by the horizon. The got out. There are rails in the shaft, which would have
sounds of wind fill your ears, as do the noises of guided the escape vessel. They can be used along with rope,
insects. However, there is no wind, no insects, nor to climb back out. Alternatively, enemies from above, such
even a sky. It’s all looped audio recordings and a as the Spetznaz, could infiltrate the facility from here.
high-resolution projection against a wall opposite.
Still, if you had to work down here for months at a
time, this might be a welcome environment, if not a . *<0
bit surreal and creepy.
A full gymnasium featuring rowing machines, free
After they take in the scene, a shadow blots out the sun weights, and a half basketball court. The lights
like a solar eclipse. This shadow is no satellite, but an ape- flicker on and off, casting the shadows of workout
man who was brachiating above. He attacks the people machines along the walls. Jump ropes and medicine
who disturbed his safe area. balls are scattered about.You see no activity.

This room is otherwise empty.

$3(0$1 
See stats above.
. /$% 
. 7+( 3$5. NOTE: An access card is required for entry into this room.

It could have been cut by a giant razor right out of Splayed open like a high school biology frog is an
the picturesque center of any small town in America. ape-man on an operating table. The room is ice
This is a park. A central fountain is dusted with snow, cold and the body well preserved. Various medical
trees have shed their leaves but are strung with devices are scattered across the floor.
Christmas lights, and a small pond is scarred with
a matrix showing skater’s paths along the ice. The
The ape-man is dead, and the other ape-men fear this room.
room itself is huge, the sky fitted with bulbs repre-
senting stars. Bing Crosby’s White Christmas plays
quietly from unseen speakers. It would be a peaceful . 322/
scene, if only those hulking shadows in the crepuscu-
lar light weren’t rapidly moving toward you. The pool is a miniature vignette of an arctic sea—
small chunks of ice float like bergs in the freezing
water. Somewhere at the bottom appears to be a
There are two ape-men for every player present. Half of
corpse.
those are armed with Thompson sub-machine guns. The
other half wields rebar and other scavenged items as clubs.
The body is that of a scientist. He has a card for the labs.
Benches, trees, and the like provide some cover. The ape- Getting to him is difficult. Anyone diving in must make a
men do not attack with any discipline. The PCs have to Physique test against a Difficulty of 3 or suffer 1 damage
capitalize on that advantage. from hypothermia.

$3(0(1  3(5 3& . /$% 

See stats above.
NOTE: An access card is required for entry into this room.

. (9$& 5220 Complex vats nearly eight feet tall line the walls.
Each is filled with a bright green liquid. Two con-
A room with a round shaft leading up to the vanish- tain what appear to be ape-men in some sort of
ing point above you. Scaffolding around the aper- suspended animation. Two others contain human
ture suggests a vehicle was once mounted within. beings. Tubes on top of each vat spider their way
A control panel, now smashed, is in the corner. At downwards toward a central hub. Attached to that
one point, this must have been a quick route to the hub is a control panel.
surface.

The humans are, upon close examination, zombies, but in

well-preserved states. The ape-men are the last generation

41
 created here. Waking any of them, and thus opening the
. 7811(/ <
vats, is a Knowledge: Science check at a Difficulty 2. Any so
woken are drowsy and disoriented. Sedatives are found in a
medicine cabinet pulled from the wall and left on the floor. Black and yellow danger stripes warn against entry
to this area. Stencilled letters one foot high read,
“Tunnel Y.” A rail, like that of a tram, is set into the
. /$%  concrete floor. The tunnel disappears into darkness
far, far ahead.
NOTE: An access card is required for entry into this room.

This tunnel is identical to Tunnel X except that it eventu-

Petri dishes, and Erlenmeyer flasks, and beakers,
ally leads to where the zombies “lived.” If the PCs travel
oh my! This room is a mad scientist’s playground,
down this tunnel, they come to a severed arm gnawed to
perhaps literally. A skein of tubes and the aforemen-
the bone—clear evidence of zombies. If they keep going,
tioned containers wrap around the walls on sturdy
throw a small horde at them.
tables. A large, stainless steel cooler lies at the end
of the room. A chalkboard sits in the center of the If they persist, they may wind up dead themselves.
room but has been erased of all equations. Instead, it
merely says: “Help us.”
:5$33,1* 83 7+( 6(&5(7
This is where genetic samples were mixed and matched CITY
to create the ape-men, which now plague the site. Hopefully the PCs have the Seal in their possession. The
ASOCOM would love to get their hands on some of SSU now knows of their involvement, if they did not
these samples. previously. The GM may wish to drop Novikova’s name to
build up to her later introduction.
. /$%  The Seal begins to sicken those around it as the other six
do. Obtaining the Seal successfully concludes the objec-
On a stainless steel table, under a still functioning tive for this episode.
halogen light, is the Seal. It is translucent, with a web
work of tiny, gold wire veins inside. It is right there;
nothing stopping you from taking it. *(77,1* 287
The PCs may have marked their way through the
Labyrinth as they went, but if they got lost at any point,
The above description serves to make players think there is
such markings might prove more harmful than useful.
some sort of trap. There is not. They may take the Seal and
Repeat the same dicing process to get out of the mazes but
leave. Of course, any Spetznaz still in the facility take issue
add a die for having left marks if the GM desires. Once
with this. More could arrive down the shaft in the Evac
outside, the team must contend with any remnants of the
room if the GM wants to throw another encounter at the
enemy not previously dealt with. Getting back to friendly
team. Like the other Seals, glyphs are laser etched on the
lines ends the episode.
surface. These are not readily translatable. The GM may
select something suitably foreboding for a later translation.
WRAPPING UP
. 7811(/ ; The team has won the next tablet. It is larger than the
others previously found. It also appears to be powered
Black and yellow danger stripes warn against entry within by some sort of crystal that is not VK. No one
to this area. Stencilled letters one foot high read, has any idea what this is. The stone is taken back to the
“Tunnel X.” A rail, like that of a tram, is set into the Octagon for study. While the PCs were exploring the
concrete floor. The tunnel disappears into darkness Labyrinth below the Secret City, Marines captured many
far, far ahead. SSU troops. One of them talked.

It seems that this officer was unhappy about his command

If the players wondered where all the ape-men went, this being overridden by SMERSH. His troops were ordered
is the answer. Far down the tunnel (over a kilometre) is a to this “worthless fakery of Zverograd.” He knows that it
living facility that once housed the apes. If the PCs decide relates to an operation in Brazil. He gives up a single name,
to explore the tunnel, they hear the whooping and shouts Colonel Ursula Novikova. ASOCOM confirms that SSU
of ape-men the further they go. If they continue, do with agents are fomenting rebellion in Rio de Janeiro. An inter-
them as you wish. The facility is not detailed here. It cepted communication from SSU agents there indicates
would require some heavy troops to get in and out of the another Seal may be located somewhere on that continent.
ape-men’s lair alive.
The PCs’ next stop is South America.

42
 Chapter 3: THE NEW WORLD

d the
I began with Clio not long after my country entere
’s reputa tion, as well as my budding
war in 1941. My father
nce.
own, garnered me influence and Above Top Secret cleara
would reveal themse lves to me. I
I expected many things
d, I learned
suspected battle plans and secret weapons. Instea
in the univer se. The Vrill, they almost
that we are not alone
, dad, I
seem common to me now, six short years later. Father
wish you were still here to read this, to advise me.

lyph in
Following the discovery of the “squatting man” petrog
I took a train to Clovis ,
the Grand Canyon, the Rangers and
. Dr. Schlie mann, your old mentor , found the same
New Mexico
feel
petroglyph at a site in Clovis. I was excited. I could
ring of histor y waitin g to open before me. Oh, dad,
the wellsp
it was exhilarating. Then the assass ins showed up.

I have
I cannot believe I typed that sentence. Never could
s saved
imagined my life taking such turns. One of the Ranger
fancie s me. I suppos e if I were a
my life. I believe he
s,
typical, obsequious woman, I would be flattered. Perhap
n you and me, dad, all right? I
I am at that. Just betwee
a woman in
keep up the cold façade you taught me I’d need as
but tonigh t I cried when I was alone. I
the academic world,
cannot honestly say I am cut out for this.
who, upon
An archaeologist in Clovis told me she saw someone
ption, remind ed me of you. He, too, was seekin g
her descri
a moment , I imagin ed you
the squatting man glyphs and, for
Zuni,
might still be alive. It was a nice moment. She is
” who
and her people have an oral tradition of “sky beings
the ways of civili zation upon her people . These same
bestowed
race from the heaven s. The
sky beings warred with another
squatting man, she says, is a recording of that war.
it matches
A nice story, but according to ASOCOM scientists,
wave. The Ranger s and I next headed
a certain kind of plasma
this
to Los Angeles, where a scientist first put forth
I
theory. Blutkreuz tried to grab him before us. Again,
scientist
grudgingly admit, the soldiers came in handy. The
which
thinks a powerful weapon might cause the plasma field,
Maybe the
would have been visible in many parts of the world.
Zuni people’s mythology is more than just a story?
we went
From Los Angeles, and a movie actor turned SSU spy,
t have an oral tradit ion
north to Alaska. The Native Tlingi
that fell from heaven . The locati on, they
about a stone
ic 12.
said, was under a secret base — a base built by Majest
experi ments took place there. I never though t we, I
Horrible
right? I never though t we’d
mean the Allies, the good guys,
but we
experiment on our own soldiers. It was horrible dad,
so small in the face of this
retrieved the next seal. I feel
y. I though t it was a wellsp ring, but it may
wall of histor
turn out to be an abyss.

43
 CHAPTER 4:
REVOLUTION

+2:$5' +$6.(/ Following the clues found in the previous episode, the tribes, to a Portuguese colony, to an independent state.
Born in Michigan in 1911, Rangers find themselves en route to Brazil. The heat and Getúlio Vargas has been Brazil’s leader since the 1930s.
Howard Haskel has been crowded streets of Rio serve as stark contrast to the cold Currently, he rules an authoritarian regime that is
with the OSS/ASOCOM wilds of Alaska. unpopular with many.
since the beginning of the
war. Prior to that, he was a This unpopularity gave the SSU cause to believe a
“diplomat.” His specialty
is Brazil and, more broadly,
BRAZIL revolution in the cities might lead to a communist
conversion. That would be quite the coup for the SSU.
South America. Prior to the The history of Brazil stretches back some 11,000 years Agent provocateurs, propaganda experts, and soldiers
war, he was working with to the oldest human remains found in the Americas. are backing a pro-communist revolt against Vargas. The
other Allies for the U.S. Since that time, it has gone from a series of indigenous
Now, he spends a lot of his
time tangling with the SSU
and tracking Nazis gone
missing under Odessa.
Most of these, he confides,
find their way to Argentina.
The PCs are going to meet
some down the line.

Haskel is gregarious and

carefree. This attitude
probably keeps him sane
in a country that is rapidly
falling apart.

44
 Chapter 4: REVOLUTION

situation the PCs find when they land in Rio de Janeiro An offer to take the PCs to the poor favelas is interrupted
is calamitous. Riots explode on the streets, neighbour- by one of Haskel’s local assets shouting from the window.
hoods burn, and Allied walkers, modified for police (/ '25$'2
duty, attempt to control the crowds. Looking out, one sees a mass of people about to storm
Sometimes dismissed as a
the “safe house.” It seems the crowd has been informed of
mistranslation, El Dorado
The Allies who, in one of many “deals with the devil,” the Allied presence here. Since the Allies support Vargas,
technically means “the
supported this brutal, oppressive regime out of expedi- the crowd is angry. The PCs need to get out quickly.
golden man.” Kings of
ency, back Vargas. While ASOCOM has advisors, spies, Unfortunately, the crowd below prevents them from exit-
the Muisca of Columbia
and even a limited number of troops stationed here, the ing at street level. The roof is their only way out.
used to dip themselves
loss of continental Europe, and now much of England, is
Haskel and his associates set fire to all the documents in in gold and ritually bathe
the Allies’ chief priority. Things have gotten out of hand
the apartment and follow the PCs out afterward. in a sacred lake. Over the
very quickly in Brazil since the eyes of ASOCOM have
years, this idea became
been elsewhere.
conflated with a city of
21 7+( 522) gold.
6$)( +286( From this vantage point, the characters spot a telegraph Whether one calls it El
The PCs land with their plane under fire from SSU- wire they can use as a zip line to a roof across the street. Dorado or something else,
backed rebels in the tree line. From there, they can make their way down to street level lost cities have populated
and run. However, there is a chance the crowd could spot the imaginations of
Mortars tear chunks out of the tarmac as the chat-
them, and they have no transportation if they do. Westerners since the
ter of SSU machine gun fire sweeps down from the conquistadors first
Stealth checks at Difficulty 2 get them to the ground arrived in the Americas.
tree line.You run to the waiting jeep and pile in.
safely. The GM should decide if the crowd notices people Francisco de Orellana
Your driver, wearing a jungle print shirt over fatigue
three stories above or not. Most people are focused on and Gonzalo Pizzaro (the
pants, is less than phased. “Commies, what can you
storming the safe house after all. younger brother of him
do, right?” He smiles, shifting a cigarette between
his teeth. who destroyed the Incas)
If anyone is spotted, best make it Haskel and his men. This
sought the legendary city.
isn’t a glorious way for a spy to go out, but glory and war
Records state they did not
Once away from the airport, the PCs catch their breath. are only partners in propaganda, not on the field. The PCs
find it. In any case, a series
The man driving, Howard Haskel, wears no rank insignia. can do little to help Haskel as the crowd swarms around
of fortune hunters has
The PCs may assume he is an ASOCOM agent. He shares him and beats him to death. The same goes for anyone
likewise sought the lost
the current state of the country, as described above, with with him.
city and its riches. To date,
the team as he drives them into town. The safe house is no one has found it.
located downtown, or what is known as the Zona Central. $/21( ,1 5,2
Haskel takes a circuitous route because burning cars and The El Dorado referred to
other improvised barriers block several roads. The PCs are once again on their own. Dr. Carter is in the telegram addressed
winded from the run and clearly afraid. The city is bub- to Novikova is, in fact,
They stop at a high-rise hotel just blocks away from bling over, and it’s hard to say where friendlies might be a city with much gold.
the American Embassy, now under siege. The PCs can located. As the team thinks about what to do, keep them While the buildings are
intervene if they wish, but their mission does not involve moving using the rioting crowds and firefighters between not gold, the temple at the
the embassy. Vargas’ men and the SSU backed guerrillas. centre is. This is because
it is powered by one of
Once in the safe house, the PCs can get the scoop on Eventually, they are going to either try to find friendly the Seven Seals. The gold
Colonel Ursula Novikova. Haskel tells them she is a lines or make for the favelas. Friendly lines are at the keeps the radiation inside
Colonel in the Soviet Army who transferred to SMERSH embassy, but that is being overrun. Where other Allied and crystals focus the
two years ago. She has spying and combat experience. advisors are inside the city is unknown. If the PCs have energy. At one time, it
According to what Haskel knows, her loyalty is to no idea how to proceed, Dr. Carter has a colleague who powered a great machine,
Rasputin not Stalin. lives in the city. She remembers his address, as she has a though it has long since
photographic memory. ceased to function.
One of Haskel’s assets photographed her in the favelas
less than 48 hours ago. She is blonde, tall, and striking. The PCs can make their way there. The El Dorado the PCs
“Something to write home about, huh, boys?” seek is located in the
Amazonian jungles of
What she was doing in the favelas is beyond him. She )81(6 Bolivia.
is not, to the best of his knowledge, involved in the
Ireneo Funes is an archaeologist from Argentina currently
revolution but is here on business for Rasputin. Haskel
living in Brazil and working for a government museum.
intercepted a message sent to her at a local telegram office
He is a friend of Dr. Carter’s and, quite possibly, the
and decoded it.
PCs saviour in this scene. With the city in tumult, and
“Find the Sun Disc. Proceed to El Dorado. Retrieve the nowhere to go, Funes home is a welcome redoubt.
Seal.” Haskel has no idea what it means other than the
He lives in a modest residential neighbourhood in Zona
legend of El Dorado.
Norte.

45
 Funes is a man in his mid 60s. He is trim, prone to wear- 52&+,1$
ing a Panama hat and a tie. He knew Dr. Carter’s father
)$9(/$6 and expresses his condolences. “You have become your Corrugated iron roofs top makeshift dwellings
Some 1,000 shantytowns, own woman since I last saw you, Jessa.” He always calls her steeped in a wave against the blue sky behind them.
or favelas, exist in Rio. They by her first name. This hill favela boggles the eye, more like a growth
are crowded, poorly built than anything planned by men. Some 50,000 live
Funes is a more typical academic than Carter or her father.
and semi-lawless. The here in abject poverty. The sweat, cooking oils, and
He does not believe in the nonsense that Clio is on about.
largest among them cling stench of garbage overpower you as you approach.
History, for Funes, is very much written. There are only
to the hills flanking the
small pieces yet to be worked out.
city. Poverty, as Americans
know it, is different than This is not a place to wander aimlessly. The tension is
He discourages Carter and the team from pursuing palpable in the air. Many of the poor feel slighted or even
favela living. PCs will note Novikova or El Dorado any further. The jungles are dan-
these places have more in oppressed by Vargas. Soviet flags hang outside many resi-
gerous and the SSU is not fooling around. dences, but the police are on patrol. Big, blue riot-walkers
common with Hoovervilles
than any ghettos found in stomp down the narrow streets. The favela is not in riot, at
Among the rumours he does know to be true, is the Nazi
American cities. least not yet, but the authorities are prepared.
presence in his homeland of Argentina. “Dreadful people,
and not uncommon to see them walking around.” He dis- This is not an area where the team wants to openly
likes them, but does not have the hate for them that their wear their armour and uniforms. They stand out as
enemies have earned. He is more interested in making sure Americans, but not unduly so. Carrying around assault
they do not seize control of his homeland. rifles and the like will get them in trouble with both the
locals and the police.
Funes agrees to take the team to the bruja woman in the
Rochina favela. He is not happy about it but, like her The bruja lives in one of the squalid shanties that make
father, he knows better than to try stopping a Carter when up the complex labyrinth of Rochina. Inside, she lives
their mind is made up. alone, a mangy cat her only companion. The small one
room home smells of spices and incense. When Funes
speaks with her, he does so in a language older than the
Portuguese colonization.

They reach some sort of arrangement and Funes asks Carter

for money. Once she hands this over, the bruja slips it
under a sugar skull on a nightstand. She then takes a bottle
of rum and several grass reeds. She swigs the rum but does
not swallow it. Instead, she spits it in a mist over each of the
team member’s faces. She then whacks each with a fistful of
the reeds and says a prayer in her native dialect.

As she does this, her bare, brown feet slap the cold tile floor.
A kind of dance begins, and she forms the team into a circle
then dances round them three times. She addresses the team
in her own language. Funes translates.

“She says you have bad spirits bound to you. Blood

is on your hands. Much more blood will find you
before your quest is over. You seek El Dorado, or
you think you do. Soon, you will understand its
secrets but at great cost. Go then. I will give you a
stone that shows you the way to what you seek. Take
it and be gone.”

With that, she hands them a small crystal tucked in a

gold plated box. The rock is hewn with a few indecipher-
able sigils upon it. As the PCs hold it, they gradually feel
nauseous. The stone glows very faintly when pointed
toward Peru.

The PCs can ask whatever else they want, but the woman
refuses to answer anything more. The money she demanded
appears to be just enough to cover the box. If the team asks
Funes why she helped, he shrugs. “She has her own ways.
There are things that are supposed to be in her world, and she
facilitates those things.”

46
 Chapter 4: REVOLUTION

$0%86+ Back at Funes’ place, he has either already put a tracking

device on the PCs or does so now.
Once the PCs leave the bruja’s home, Novikova and her
men tail them. The group moves in a practiced way, employ- ,5(1(2 )81(6
He wishes them well. In his deal with Novikova, it is
ing locals to help follow the team and alternating between An Argentinean, Funes
specified that Dr. Carter not be injured and be given safe
these locals. The routine is protocol. It is now night, for the passage out of Brazil. They do not harm her, but they do moved to Rio over a
bruja only performs that ceremony near midnight. The PCs not let her leave on her own either. decade ago when he
witness a flurry of activity in the favela. was brought aboard
The team needs to make haste getting out of the city, as the national museum.
Men and women alike come out of their homes. They are SSU troops quickly block off the roads. That is one of the He is knowledgeable
armed with sticks, rocks, pipes, and simple firearms. The paratrooper’s objectives. Once free of the city, they can about pre-Columbian
crowd flows toward Rio, more and more joining like a make their way to Peru, where the stone leads them to the civilizations and steeped
flood intent on deluging the city. The crowd is organized, bruja’s granddaughter, Louisa. It is up to the GM whether in the legends of El
and leaders appear here and there, barking orders. Among SSU troops are encountered along the road to Cuzco. Dorado. He does not
the crowd, the PCs see a couple of houses explode from They are not expecting trouble, but an authoritarian buy into these legends,
the inside as SSU walkers rise up ready for battle. Some of regime does like to control its roads. however.
the citizens, now that the team looks, are clearly Russian,
Once inside Cuzco, the team sticks out to some degree. Funes has actually met
Spetznaz out of uniform.
While there are other Americans and Europeans here, all Colonel Novikova. She
As all this happens, Novikova springs her trap. When carry special identification papers issued by the SSU. Thus visited him not long
the PCs are making their way through one of the narrow far, only those deemed “dangerous” have been rounded up. ago—a few days—asking
alleys the favela calls streets, they find themselves cut off. about El Dorado. He
SSU agents are covering each exit. They want the stone. *(77,1* 72 3(58 disappointed her by
Novikova suspected the old woman was lying regarding El giving her his honest
Peru is currently part of the SSU following a revolution
Dorado. However, she could not force the woman to talk opinion that the city is but
and the arrival of SSU troops. As Americans, the PCs
given her standing in the community. a legend. She insisted it
cannot simply fly into Cuzco, where they are headed first.
was not, and produced
ASOCOM can provide fake passports, but the team is not
several intriguing pieces
liable to hold up to scrutiny. The best option is to cross
668 63(7=1$=  he could not identify as
over via the jungles on the Brazil/Peru border. ASOCOM
Use stats for Spetznaz on p. 153 of Dust Adventures. belonging to any known
has assets that can smuggle them across this way.
pre-Columbian culture.
The fight is designed to go against the players. This should From there, they make their way to Cuzco.
spur them to run. Their only option is to take to the roofs. Funes advised her to seek
Thus begins a foot chase over the uneven, and sometimes a woman in the Rochina
fragile, roofs of Rochina. CUZCO favela, a shaman, or bruja,
who might know of such
Every round, each player rolls four Dust dice. If the result Cuzco was the Incan capital city before the arrival of things.
shows three Faction symbols, the PC steps onto a weak Francisco Pizzaro in 1532. Pizarro and his men witnessed
spot on a roof and falls through. It takes another round the ritual of Incan Kings covered in gold dust riding a barge Funes may betray the
to recover. Use the normal chase rules found in Dust to the centre of Lake Titicaca. They were well aware of the party later, for what he
Adventures. vast wealth the Inca had. A meeting was arranged in a cen- sees as the greater good.
tral plaza inside Cuzco. There, the Spaniards ambushed the
If Novikova recovers the stone, the PCs need to find Inca and killed them. They captured the leader, Atahualpa,
another way to El Dorado. In this case, Funes is able to who rode into the plaza on a golden litter.
help them. After all, if the PCs cannot reach El Dorado,
this episode ends rather anti-climatically. Pizarro ransomed Atahualpa for gold. From every corner
of the empire, gold poured in, but it was not enough for
If Novikova fails to get the stone, Funes turns traitor. He Pizarro. He strangled Atahualpa rather than releasing him.
puts a tracking device in one of the PCs rucksacks or oth- The Incans knew the Spaniards wanted all of their gold
erwise hides it on their belongings. Only if the team looks and hid much of it in the city called Paititi, or El Dorado.
for such an item is it found. In this case, Funes has been
bought by the Russians not through money, but through El Dorado translates as the “golden man,” not a city of
an assurance that they very much want to eradicate the gold. However, a city of gold called Paititi has long been
Nazis in Argentina. With Funes’ help, they promise to do thought to exist somewhere in the Purina Amazon. In this
so. The Russians are not lying. Stalin has not forgotten adventure, the city is real.
Hitler’s betrayal, and the Russian people have not forgot-
Right now, the PCs need to find the location of the city.
ten what the Nazis did to them. They want revenge.
Inside the Quirikancha—the courtyard of The Temple of
Once the chase is concluded, the team witnesses a battle the Sun—the PCs meet the bruja’s granddaughter. Once
mounting between Vargas’ forces and the mob. The mob they display the fragment of the strange crystal, Louisa rec-
is backed with Soviet walkers and Spetznaz troops. As the ognizes them. The stone glows brightly when they approach
two sides tangle, Soviet paratroopers dive out of planes her as she wears a similar stone around her neck. It also
and glide to the hills surrounding the city. The Soviets glows. Of course, she is not the only one waiting for them.
have been planning this for some time. The Ahnenerbe is here as well.

47
 7+( AHNENERBE expedition to find Paititi. If the PCs want a chance to stop
them, they need to move fast.
Since the fall of the Nazi regime and the death of
Adolph Hitler, the Ahnenerbe has sought a way back to Louisa explains that the walls of this building used to be
power. Among their unique acquisitions is the original sheathed in gold plate. Pizarro took it all along with much
interview recording with the alien, Kvasir. From him, more. Louisa also answers any questions the PCs have, if
the Nazis learned of the Seven Seals. In fact, they were she is able. She believes in Paititi, but does not believe in
the first to learn of them, but they lost power before any aliens should that come up.
could be recovered.
While she explains the gold plated walls and the capture
Operation Odessa moved many loyal Nazis to South of Atahualpa, the Ahnenerbe observe. The building is
America, particularly Argentina. There, they have mostly full of tourists, but they are beginning to clear out.
continued research and experiments, but have been The PCs therefore have a decent chance of spotting their
hampered by a lack of VK. Part of the VK they do have watchers. A bonus die to any relevant checks is granted
is used to create the Ubermensch, a fearsome Teutonic once the building begins to empty.
warrior dreamt of early on even before the war. He is the
Aryan ideal. The Ahnenerbe has a limited supply of them. If they are seen, the Ahnenerbe may realize their cover is
The Ubermensch they possess reminds the PCs of the blown. If they are not spotted, they wait for the meet-
monstrosity they found in Angers Castle in France. ing to end and follow Louisa and the players back to her
apartment. There, she says she will show them the way to
The Ahnenerbe have two of these warriors with them. Paititi as recounted by a Spanish monk in the 16th century.
She has surreptitiously taken the manuscript from the
Because the Nazis have been in South America for some dusty files of the museum. A European archaeologist,
time, they are well positioned to intercept the PCs once studying it prior to the war, brought it to light when he
they learn that ASOCOM believes El Dorado is real. found a similar account in the Vatican archives.
How they discovered this is unknown, but a mole may
be involved. Not every Nazi who fled the Axis came
to South America. Some were recruited by the United /28,6$·6 $3$570(17
States and work for ASOCOM as part of a project
known as Operation: Paperclip. Louisa invites the team back to her place to show them
the document. On the way there, they have a chance of
Colonel Heinz Lohse, a thoroughly despicable creature, noticing the Ahnenerbe following them. If so, they can try
leads the Ahnenerbe in this mission. Colonel Lohse is to lose them, but the Ahnenerbe has sent former Gestapo.
an ideologue. He believes in the Aryan race, World Ice They are very adept at tailing someone and work in singles
Theory, Atlantis and Ultima Thule. He is convinced the and pairs. The Difficulty is therefore 3.
German peoples’ destiny is to unite the Earth and fight
off the Vrill when they return. To do so, he believes the If it becomes clear to the Nazis that the team has made
Nazis must seek the help of the Anunnaki. them on the streets, they make their move in the most
secluded place possible, likely an alley. If the Nazis are
not spotted, the team makes it back to the apartment
LOUISA unassailed.
Louisa traces her ancestry back to the Incans. The bruja There, Louisa pulls the fragile leather-bound book down
is her grandmother who taught her some of the bruja from a shelf. She has kept it here, casually, as if the great
ways. When she sees the crystal, she recognizes it from powers of the world are not after its contents. She opens the
her grandmother’s things. Her grandmother came to book and reads in Spanish that she then begins to translate
her in a dream—so she claims—and told her to come to (see opposite).
Qurikancha to meet these white men who might redress
what previous white men had done before them centuries
before. “The white man will defeat the white man, and all $+(1(15%( 
of them will die. Then we will inherit our homes again and
Use stats for Axis Grenadiers on p. 144 of Dust
rise as the empires we once knew.” Her grandmother made
Adventures.
her memorize this.

Louisa is less impassioned about this than her grand- 8%(50(16&+ 

mother, for she has less faith in the old ways than the
bruja does. While Louisa has a very vague and limited Use stats on p. 194 of Dust Adventures.
clairvoyance, she believes her people are slated to become
victims of the European’s war. Already, communists have The Nazis’ goal is to grab Louisa or the book. They are
seized power in Peru. not interested in the characters themselves, though they
will dispatch them if they get in the way. Because this is
Louisa consults at the Cuzco museum. She is an expert SSU territory, the Nazis have less intel than they would in
in Incan history, and has therefore encountered the SSU Argentina. They only know about the meeting between
agents in Cuzco and knows they have already mounted an the characters and someone important, because they have

48
 Chapter 4: REVOLUTION

assets in Blutkreuz. Blutkreuz itself has already found a

way to Paititi.
APRIL 1, 1533
The Nazis do not want to be captured by the SSU. If We are deep into the jungle. Surely, Eden itself could
a firefight breaks out in the apartment, local authori- not be so hot, and yet I hear tales of a tree of life and
ties arrive within five turns. The Nazis escape before twins who survived a flood. I am reminded of Noah, and
that with or without the book or Louisa. They already the stories of our own Christian Bible. These people
have an ace in the hole, which is not revealed until the have no written language. They pass their stories down
endgame plays out. one from another, generation to the next.
Once the Ahnenerbe threat has been dealt with, Louisa Pizarro thinks them barbarians, but I see they are more
and the PCs should also leave the area. Police involve- than that. There is a deep wisdom in their eyes. They are
ment inevitably brings the SSU. Louisa shows the PCs the heathens, certainly, but has not God fashioned them as
diary and the map. She believes, based on elements of the such?
monk’s account, that she knows the location of Paititi.
APRIL 2, 1533
Their next trek leads them deep into the jungles of Peru. I have come to know these men. They wear such strange
plumage. They say things no European has heard before.

THE PERUVIAN JUNGLES

Our translator is weak and sickly. He has taken on the
illness that we have brought with us from Spain. These
people are vulnerable to it. If Pizarro does not wipe them
The jungles of Peru are part of the Amazon Rainforest.
out with his cannons, God will see that our diseases do.
They are deep, largely unexplored, and dangerous.
This is the way of the Lord. Christ died on the cross for
Venomous snakes and unfriendly native tribes both lurk
our sins. Whose sins do these people die for?
within. Navigation is extremely difficult but, as Rangers, the
team has been trained in jungle warfare.
Tonight around the fire they spoke of something. I do
Prior to their excursion, Dr. Carter consulted some maps not know what. Gestures and rough-hewn attempts at
and drew a map of her own to the city based on those. communication indicate they will show me something. I
hear the words “Paititi” and ”El Dorado.” This is what
Pizarro is after, and they are leading me to it. Perhaps
Day upon relenting day cause you to shed sweat by they are barbarians after all.
the pint. The jungle is hot. Insects and birds call out
between the trees and deadly snakes hang from APRIL 6, 1533
thick branches.You’ve seen no other human or even There are no words for this day. These folk did not
evidence of human passage.Your armour is heavy, build this place. This place… I have not even mentioned
even carrying it on your back does little to help it. Today we came upon a miracle. We came upon such
against the heat.You are fatigued beyond words. a thing as has not been seen since miracles walked the
Only the songs you learned in training buoy your world routinely. This is more than the Tower of Babel;
spirits. Rangers lead the way, but maybe that’s the this is more than Eden itself. This is a city made of gold.
way to hell. Each building is plated in glistening gold. The sun skips
off these priceless walls and drips to the streets below.
Sticky, hot, and swarming with mosquitoes, these jungles They brought me inside the central pyramid. It is aligned
are as bad as any encountered on Pacific Islands. Dr. to the stars in Orion’s Belt, if I am able to understand
Carter keeps up, but she is not as used to marching in my host’s meaning. The interior is like nothing I have
these conditions as the team is. ever seen. It is a machine, but no machine built by men. I
cannot begin to understand its meaning or what it does. I
A native tribe, long-descended from the Incans who origi-
do not believe the natives remember either.
nally protected Paititi, picks up the characters’ trail. They
are very stealthy, and the GM should allude to the feeling
The place frightens me. There is no presence of God
of eyes on the party, but when they go to check, they find
here. I cannot feel the Lord. I am alone.
nothing. Not a footprint, nor a broken stalk of grass. It is
spooky. Difficulty 4 to spot these natives. I must never tell Pizarro about this place. Something
unnatural lurks here.
The tribe does not interfere with the team at this point.
They have already tried to prevent the SSU from taking
Paititi, and were slaughtered by the SSU’s superior fire-
power. This time, the tribe is watching closely. They are
not fools. While they are isolated, a few of them do travel 7+( :,'( 6:$7+
to the cities and know of the war. Those members know
As the PCs trek through the jungle, they come upon what,
the Allies are the least of the three evils. The leader of this
at first, looks like a clearing.
group is such a man. He may decide to approach the team
before they reach Paititi.

49
 &$7(48,/
Catequil is the current
leader of his tribe. Their
purpose, since the invasion
of the Spanish in 1532, has
been to keep Paititi hidden
from outsiders. As the SSU
came to Peru, Catequil’s
elders knew it was only
a matter of time before
the city was discovered.
Catequil suggested
enlisting the help of the
Americans, but the elders
refused. They knew all too
well what Europeans have
done with Incan treasures.

Now, those elders are

dead, futilely trying to
defend their city from the
SSU and the Axis. Catequil
and his small village are
all that remain. As the
last “elder”—he is only
30—Catequil decided
to approach the PCs. He
knows the secret will not
be kept, but he believes
the Allies offer the best
chance of keeping the
secrets of Paititi out of even
worse hands.

Catequil describes a
golden pyramid they call
the Temple of the Sun.
There, the SSU began
excavations, but the
Germans are there now
as well, though he only
knows of one faction. The
Ahnenerbe is there too.
Catequil describes the
“walking beasts” that tore
through the jungle. He can
affirm they were Axis, and
that the SSU and Axis are
fighting over the city now.
The PCs do not know, but modified Axis walkers cleared
Without warning, the jungle opens up before you. the area. With huge, rotating blades instead of regular
At first, you think you have stumbled upon a natural weaponry, these Luthers cut right through the jungle like
clearing but soon realize it is manmade. Someone, a lawn mower. The PCs encounter these modified walkers
or rather something, has cut a swath through the once they reach Paititi.
jungle. Trees felled like matchsticks. The rough loam
of the jungle has been ripped from the ground as if
by a great hand. The trail left is symmetrical, like a )(5'(/$1&(
canyon cut through the canopy of the Amazon. What
This encounter provides both danger and opportunity.
could have done this?
The fer-de-lance (known locally as “jergón sacha”) is one
of the most dangerous snakes in South America. Their bite

50
 Chapter 4: REVOLUTION

may cause necrosis (requiring amputation) or even death. Even still, hints of gold catch the delicate rays of sun
Should the GM wish it, one of these serpents attacks a PC. that make it through the canopy above. The Temple
They are quick and well-concealed. The unfortunate hero of the Sun, standing before you, is over two hun-
sees their leg swell and begins feeling very ill—headache, dred feet high and, if your eyes do not deceive you,
nausea, and light-headedness. coated base to tip in solid gold.

There is little the team’s medic can do for a snakebite

unless they came into the jungle specially prepared. Paititi does not look like Machu Picchu or any other
However, the native tribe that has been tracking them may Incan ruins we are now familiar with. It is only now
now intercede. They have remedies of their own and treat being excavated. As the PCs approach, they hear the
the injured PC at a nearby village. Their leader, Catequil, faint popping of small arms.
is familiar with modern culture, though not overly so. He
is one of the Incan descendants of this tribe who occasion- Small arms echo in the jungle dark. The vegetation is
ally ventures into the cities. so thick you can only see ten or twenty feet ahead of
you. A roaring begins, something like a jaguar fused
Once the injured party member has been taken care of, with a Harley motor. It is terrible. A headless body
Catequil offers to help the PCs reach Paititi. is suddenly thrown from the jungle in front of you.
No, not merely headless. Most of the upper torso has
The PCs best bet is to allow Catequil to lead them into been torn away. The next second, ripping through the
Paititi. They could simply follow the well-travelled rut the trees, emerges a giant Luther with two arms wielding
Axis made in the jungle, but Catequil can sneak them in circular blades. They have made quick work of the
closer to the Temple of the Sun. SSU solider that now lies dead at your feet.

PAITITI This is their introduction to the battle that rages for

Paititi. The SSU are going toe-to-toe against the Axis.
There, among the tangle of vines and other growth, The Axis is using walkers armed with circular blades as
beneath the great biomass of the Amazon, peeks well as traditional Luthers. The SSU have standard walk-
a stepped pyramid made of gold. All around you, ers but more men.
mounds in the vague shape of pyramids suggest the
layout of a city, but one overgrown centuries ago. The battle converges on the Temple of the Sun—right
where the player characters happen to be.

51
 The team has two options. Join the fight, or attempt to If they are spotted, the bloc sends men to shoot them off
gain access to the temple while the battle rages outside. the pyramid. Given the conditions on the ground, they
The second choice is the better option right now, but cannot spare too many.
they will have to deal with the victors later.
Once atop the pyramid, Catequil clears away some brush
This is an abstract battle. The PCs encounter only those that was obviously arranged to camouflage the entrance.
forces the GM wishes. Use Spetznaz for the SSU and He presses his hand onto a gold plate, and the noise of
Grenadier stats for the Axis. The battle is a great distrac- gears precedes the opening of an entrance with a stairwell
tion allowing the team to reach the pyramid relatively leading down. Catequil closes it immediately behind him.
unchallenged.
It takes any other bloc at least ten rounds to figure out
how to enter the Temple of the Sun.
7+( 7(03/( 2) 7+( 681
The “temple” is actually a giant machine found by the
Catequil tells the PCs that the way inside is through the
Incans. They did not build it. Those who preceded them
top. There is no entrance below. The PCs therefore need
did not build it. This machine was built in remote antiq-
to climb up the small mountain the pyramid has become.
uity just after the Flood. It was erected by the Anunnaki.
There is a 1 in 3 chance the team is spotted climbing
No one alive knows how to work the machine. Indeed,
the pyramid by one of the blocs below. The GM decides
after millennia of disuse, it may not even function. At
which bloc. Roll once for every 50 feet. A Faction Symbol
result indicates they have been spotted. Successful Stealth some point, it was a power plant. One that utilized the
checks obviate the need to roll. The blocs do not spot the ley lines of Earth’s magnetic field to transfer energy over
characters in this case. a network used by the Anunnaki. The Great Pyramids,

52
 Chapter 4: REVOLUTION

too, are based on such a design though built as a copy of

the original transformer in pre-pharaonic Egypt.

Gears carved of stone populate the interior. The stairway

leading deeper into the pyramid is utilitarian, not
ceremonial. However, there are symbols painted over the
underlying structure that were put there by the ancestors
of the Inca long, long ago. As the characters descend,
they duck and weave among the various machinery—
some stone and some metal.

After a 50 metre journey, they come to what was once an

operations room. There are stone seats (actually another,
living material which has since petrified) positioned before
consoles. These consoles look like obsidian balls and no
longer function. Each seat has been turned toward the
centre of the room. A web-shrouded skeleton sits on each.

In the centre of the chairs is a casket made of gold. It

looks pod-shaped, not at all Incan. Inside is a human
skeleton, that of a great king. He sits inside a suit made
of gold. The suit itself looks a bit like the armour worn
by Winter Child. In fact, it has the same purpose, to
contain the power of the being within. The suit does not
fit the skeleton. It was made for an Anunnaki.

Inside the “casket” are jade carvings, gold coins, and

other items of value. One is the Seal the PCs are looking
for. That sits at the head of the remains. An aperture
shaped like the Seal lies on the wall. If placed within, the
pyramid begins to power up, and gears rotate, but the
old machinery fails and nothing happens.

Catequil says that all their culture comes from this

tablet. That is legend and not strictly true. In fact,
their culture comes down through the survivors of the
Anunnaki-led human civilization wiped out during the $)7(50$7+ 2) 7+( %$77/(
Flood. Catequil only knows the distorted version of The SSU likely win. They have more resources in the area
that—a brother and sister brought civilization, agricul- to draw on and they can call in air support. Even now,
ture, and the like to the Inca after a great flood. helicopters are headed to Paititi to reinforce the SSU’s
position. The team has a small window to take on the
The king in the casket is an early king of Pre-Incan people. remaining SSU soldiers and escape. One of the best ways
He is, literally, the “Gold Man” or El Dorado. The Inca, to do this involves using the Axis walkers to tear into
when the Spanish first encountered them, would cover the remaining SSU troops. This ought to be a cinematic
their king in gold dust and take him by barge to the centre encounter, with a firefight between the team and the SSU
of Lake Titicaca where he would deposit gold objects as made epic by the use of walkers fighting each other, one or
offerings. This, too, is a distortion of why the gold suit two equipped with spinning saw blades.
exists. It is, in fact, akin to a radiation suit. Once, this
pyramid ran on Anunnaki energy—that selfsame energy It is a rumble in the jungle and the PCs have to win to get
hidden in the Middle East. That has since run out. The the Seal out.
people who survived the Flood gradually lost their knowl-
edge. Their decedents mythologized the original historical The GM should decide how many troops are left. It is
uses of gold and the story of the Flood. possible some of the Axis were captured as well. A sample
force of surviving SSU is provided below, but GMs should
The PCs may take whatever it is they like, but the Seal is modify this based on the current capabilities of the team.
all that matters for the adventure. The suit is incredibly Once this second, smaller battle is over, the team is to take
heavy, being plated in gold, and was once powered to the Seal of out of Peru.
assist movement.

By the time the PCs have made it down to the casket, the 668 )25&(
bloc that won, or pursued them outside the pyramid, gains
10 or more Spetznaz
entrance. Alternatively, the team might get out just as the
battle draws to a close. 1 or 2 medium walkers

53
 Scale the encounter based on the PC’s current strength. The GM needs to decide how and when the ambush takes
They’ve got the Seal. You want this to seem more danger- place. Any surviving Ubermensch are with the Ahnenerbe.
ous than it is. At the end, indicate the helicopters are arriv- They have at least five former SS troopers with them.
ing. That should get the team hauling tail out of the area.

$+1(1(5%( 
127 287 2) 7+( :22'6 <(7 See stats in Dust Adventures p. 194.
The team may have made prior arrangements to get out of
Peru. The Allies could provide a submarine exfiltration,
but the team will have to hump it to the Amazon and take 8%(50(16&+ 9$5,(6
that further into the jungle to rendezvous with the sub. See stats in Dust Adventures pp. 148-149.
Other plans may involve getting back to Brazil where the
Allies, presumably, still have control.
:5$33,1* 83
Whatever route they take, the team has one last adver-
Hopefully, the PCs have the Seal in their possession.
sary to deal with—the Ahnenerbe. They did not have
If not, one of the other factions does. (See Seals Lost
the manpower to engage in a direct confrontation with
in Chapter 10 for what to do if the PCs fail to capture
either the Axis or SSU and thus decided to wait until a
each Seal). The ending of the adventure does not depend
victor emerged. This they have done. How they found on the PCs having all Seven Seals. It is probable the
the location of Paititi is left as an unanswered question. It team returns to ASOCOM for a debriefing. There, Dr.
may be they interrogated Louisa after the characters left. Schliemann informs them that their next target is the
They may have also used spies in SMERSH. Possibly, they Chintamani Stone.
even used clairvoyant powers. Who can say what occult
resources they have in Argentina? Dr. Carter and he explain the nature of this Seal in the
next chapter. If the team does not have time to return to
The Nazis ambush the team when they are at their weak- The Octagon, a coded cable can relay the information
est. The Germans are not as stealthy as Catequil and his from Dr. Schliemann.
men, and the team has a much better chance to spot them
(Difficulty 2). If spotted, the team is not surprised. Their next destination lies to the east, in the strange,
debauched city of Vladivostok….

54
 Chapter 4: REVOLUTION

of
We came into Rio under fire. The airfield was full
crater s. The SSU was trying to foment a revolu tion
a.
there like they have done with most of South Americ
he gave me a wink on the
The Ranger I told you about,
in my
plane ride over. I don’t know. I don’t need a man
life. You taught me that. I’m digres sing. Focus, Jessa.

We barely made it out of the “safe house” only to

The
arrive in the poorest neighbourhood I’ve ever seen.
in turned my stomac h. Of
conditions those people live
one
all the legends you told me as a kid, El Dorado was
I was certai n had to be made up by greedy men. Turns
trail
out it wasn’t. A witch woman in Rio put us on the
of the lost city. Unfortunatel y, the SSU weren’ t our
only opponents. Nazis, dad. They’re still out there,
they
living in Argentina. They didn’t get the Seal, but
very well might have.

The city, which the natives call Paititi, really is

it
made of gold. I could not fathom it if I hadn’t seen
for myself. SSU walker s and Axis walker s fought each
.
other for control of the temple in the city centre
We snuck in and grabbed the Seal. Dad, that was no
think
temple. That building was some sort of machine. I
the Anunnaki made it. There’ s... I can’t believ e I’m
saying this... there’s a whole missing part of our
history we’ve been kept in the dark about. That temple
.
was older than the pyramids. I think they are linked
pyrami ds are some sort of power plants .
Possibly, the
The mind stagge rs.

I’m scared, dad. I’m scared for my life but even more
afraid of what I’ll find at the end of all this. God,
to
if only I could talk to you. You’d know just what
say to me.

-- Jessa

55
 CHAPTER 5:
THE CHINTAMANI
STONE
5$6387,1·6 *2$/6 The fourth Seal sought by the PCs is known as the before disappearing in Vladivostok. Kestrel was found
A mystic, a seer, and Chintamani Stone. A Buddhist legend, the stone allegedly murdered the next day. His message related the discovery
a psychic, Rasputin is fell from the heavens and is considered sacred. Like the of an Axis project to find Shambhala, the lost Buddhist
far more open to the other Seals, a similar origin/discovery story predominates. paradise. In his message, he said the SSU was on to the
supernatural than Stalin. The Chintamani Stone is said to have been found in a lead as well. The Chintamani Stone is referenced, though
While Stalin wants to chest that fell from the sky. Four other relics were also Kestrel clearly had no idea what it meant.
mine alien technology contained within this same chest. Variously reported to be
only for its practical a jewel or a stone, the Chintamani supposedly possesses Dr. Carter and Dr. Schliemann make the connection
application in theatres of wish-fulfilling power. To date, no one has found the stone, between the lost city of Shambhala and the Chintamani
war, Rasputin is convinced but one Nikolai Roerich spent some time in search of it Stone. The PCs are sent to Vladivostok to pick up the
other powers, perhaps during the 1920s. trail Kestrel was following. Dr. Carter speaks excellent
more consequential, can Russian, though it may prove helpful if at least one of
be drawn from this alien The PCs have little to go on. An intelligence agent code- the PCs does as well.
technology. named Kestrel sent a coded transmission to ASOCOM

Rasputin knows a good

deal more about the
Seven Seals than the rest
of SMERSH. He chooses
to keep this knowledge
secret. In addition, he has
men loyal to him bent
on the recovery of the
Seals. Rasputin has some
idea that the Seals must
be collected to open an
ancient doorway. He is not
yet sure where or how this
comes to be.

He and Stalin remain

friendly in public, but
are rivals in private. The
search for the Seals may
give one side or another
an advantage in their
inevitable struggle for
power.

56
 Chapter 5: THE CHINTAMANI STONE

VLADIVOSTOK
This coastal city is home to the Soviet Pacific Fleet. Of $ 1RWH WR *0V &+$5/(6 /$871(5 ,,, 
course, most of the fleet is currently deployed elsewhere. 7KLV HSLVRGH GLIIHUV IURP SUHYLRXV &2'(1$0( ´.(675(/µ
Far away from Moscow, Vladivostok has served as a “pres- HSLVRGHV LQ WKDW WKH 3&V KDYH PRUH Lautner was approximately
sure valve” for SSU men and women on leave. Stalin has IUHHGRP WR SXUVXH VFHQHV DV WKH\ VHH 50 years old. He served
overlooked the presence of the Vorovskoy Mir in the city, ILW RU DV WKH FRXUVH RI WKHLU GHFLVLRQV with distinction during
because even he recognizes the need for an area where OHDGV WKHP. 9ODGLYRVWRN LQ SDUWLFXODU LV the First World War. A
soldiers can engage in illicit activities. Once the war is GHVLJQHG OHVV DV DQ HQFRXQWHU DQG PRUH minor Baron by birth, his
won, he plans to crush the Vorovskoy Mir and bring the DV D PLQLVHWWLQJ. 7KH IRUFHV DW ZRUN LQ family’s wealth was all
city completely under his control. WKH FLW\ DOO KDYH WKHLU RZQ DJHQGDV DQG but wiped out during the
KRZ WKH 3&V LQWHUDFW ZLWK HDFK GHWHU- Great Depression. Lautner
For now, the city is a relatively lawless place. The authori- PLQHV WKH ILQDO RXWFRPH. developed a drinking and
ties look the other way as contraband flows through gambling habit and soon
Vladivostok. The black market is one of the chief means 7KH *0 QHHGV WR XVH WKHLU LPDJLQDWLRQ became the black sheep
by which the average SSU citizen supplements their WR ILOO LQ WKH LQHYLWDEOH EODQNV EHWZHHQ of the family. He drifted
rations. It is a necessary evil for now. As a den of iniquity, ZKDW KH RU VKH H[SHFWV WKH SOD\HUV WR GR for a while, until he found
Vladivostok has quite the reputation. When the Japanese DQG ZKDW WKH\ DFWXDOO\ ZLQG XS GRLQJ. himself in Shanghai where
seized Shanghai, much of the “Whore of the Orient’s” 7KHUH LV D IUHHIRUP HOHPHQW WR PXFK RI a man like him could get
duties fell to Vladivostok. Stalin is not happy with the WKH HSLVRGH. %H IRUHZDUQHG 3&V RIWHQ lost. In the mid 1930s, the
compromise, but his priority remains the war. GR WKH VWUDQJHVW WKLQJV ZKHQ QR VLQJOH Foreign Service recruited
SDWK LV FOHDU. +HFN WKH\ GR WKH VWUDQJHVW him for espionage work.
Vladivostok looks less like a Soviet city right now and WKLQJV ZKHQ WKH SDWK LV FRPSOHWHO\ FOHDU Kestrel was central to
more like old Shanghai. Neon glows in the cold nights and revealing some of the
prostitutes lure soldiers into dark clubs where American Japanese Empire’s
swing music can be heard. Sailors on leave, along with earliest plans.
members of the other SSU forces, are the predominate serves now as a kind of free zone of illicit activity
inside the SSU itself. Rumours abound as to why While he was not the most
clientele. Westerners exist here openly, though they all fall
Stalin allows this, but most agree Vladivostok will not stable of intelligence
under the watchful eyes of SMERSH. Stalin has gained
continue as it is once the war is over. agents, his natural charm
intelligence from such westerners operating as spies within
the city, and he is content to allow them to continue to and aristocratic breeding
Multicoloured neon bathes gritty snow that falls gained him access to the
do so as long as his intelligence apparatus has control over
in heaps along the narrow streets. The Pacific is upper tiers of society.
what actually plays out. Having a Petri dish of foreign
cold up here, and the wind chills the coastal city to Conversely, his troubled
spies on his territory is of great benefit to him right now.
degrees not experienced in civilized climes. past allowed him to win
Under Stalin’s watchful eyes, another player has emerged— friends on the lowest
General Rasputin. As he is the Director of Intelligence, all The PCs debark from the merchant trawler. They have levels of society.
information passes through men loyal to him. Most of this been provided with false papers. SMERSH, running
reaches Stalin. That which Rasputin wishes to remain secret With the fall of Shanghai,
a check on them, see they’ve been involved in smug-
Lautner did some work in
does not. See sidebar for more information on Rasputin’s gling and the like in the South China Sea and elsewhere.
China before being moved
involvement. See p. 144 of Dust Adventures for more This cover has the advantage of being believable but the
to Vladivostok. There,
information on Rasputin. disadvantage of exposing the team to arrest. Mostly, the
he passed on valuable
authorities expect this sort of rabble to wash up in the
Vladivostok is also infested with Axis intelligence agents. intelligence while making
port city.
In fact, Orbst himself has a team working on his behalf to a name for himself in the
find the Chintamani Stone. All of this intrigue revolves The pier is full of young touts and porters eager to serve black market. ASOCOM
around the murder of the ASOCOM agent known as as guides for the PCs. Most of these are orphaned Russian helped in this regard,
Kestrel. The first part of this episode involves the PCs nav- kids trying to eke out an existence in wartime Vladivostok. as it bolstered his cover.
The older kids are rounded up and conscripted into the Kestrel was murdered a
igating the dicey, espionage-laden streets of Vladivostok
Red Army. week before the arrival of
while trying to find out what else Kestrel might have
the PCs.
known and why he was murdered.
The first order of business is following up on the death of
The first scene opens with the PCs arrival by merchant Kestrel.
ship, to Vladivostok.
The PCs have several options to pursue as noted below.
Kestrel’s murder is the catalyst that set in motion a whole
Her buildings are not so different from any other
series of events going on behind the scenes in Vladivostok.
Russian city marked with the might of the Soviet
The team may encounter some or all of the possible events.
Empire, but there is an Asian inflection to the
Their decisions, and the GM’s wishes, determine how
designs as well. This influence from the East cannot
things unfold.
prepare one for the sheer vitality this city enjoys.
It is unlike any Soviet city you have been to before.
Vladivostok remains unscarred by the war and

57
 7+( 0$-25 3/$<(56 ,1 9$66,/< .$0,16.,
9/$',92672. Vassily is a member of SMERSH in Vladivostok, but he
The following section outlines the who’s who of the city. actually works directly for Rasputin. His loyalty to the
Each person is tagged to a specific location, but the GM General of Intelligence is unwavering. Kaminski believes
need not restrict him or her to that place alone. Use that Stalin’s ego, much as Hitler’s ego before him, will
their motives and their knowledge to determine their eventually lead to ruin for the SSU. He has therefore
actions. At the end of the section, you are presented with a thrown his support behind Rasputin.
scenario for Kestrel’s murder. As GM, you may use this or
toss it aside in favour of another route. The only necessary However, Kaminski has spent too long in Vladivostok,
discoveries involve things that the PCs need in order to and has become corrupted by the city’s many vices. He is
proceed. If they fail to find any of this intel, the GM must addicted to morphine accessed through illegal shipments
find another way for it to fall into their hands. making their way through port. The addiction caused
him to make some recent missteps, and he has been trying
to keep these from Rasputin. Kestrel was on to one of
$5.$'< 7+( 3,03 Kaminski’s blunders thus giving Kaminski good reason to
A nasty piece of business, Arkady is a member of the take him out.
Vorovskoy Mir. Many also consider him a traitor to that
Kaminski lives in a nice flat in a residential area of the city.
organization because he fought for the Soviets earlier in
the war. Called “the pimp” because that’s how he made his
start prior to landing in prison, Arkady has since branched $/(;$1'5$ .252.29$
out. He deals in black market food and drugs, as well as
prostitutes. His connection to Chinese gangsters gives him This former Russian aristocrat now makes her living as a
a supply of “Oriental” girls for men on leave to sample. “taxi dancer,” not quite a brothel prostitute, but certainly
in the same business, at least in Vladivostok. As a taxi
Without morals, Arkady only lived by the Vorovskoy dancer, she is paid for dancing with men at clubs. Each
code. Sadly, he is known as a “suka,” having sided with the dance is paid for separately. Negotiations for more inti-
Soviets in the war. Those who consider themselves true mate services are made afterward with a percentage going
Vorovskoys would see him dead. to the host club.

He operates out of an old, Tsar-era hotel near the After the Bolshevik Revolution, many “White Russians”
ocean, taking up the entire penthouse level. The hotel (those loyal to the Tsar) were forced to flee. Some wound
was constructed during an ill-planned attempt to turn up in other countries, and many went to the Russian
Vladivostok into something akin to the Paris of the East. Ghetto of Shanghai. Alexandra lived there until the
It never materialized. Stalin has similar post-war plans. Japanese occupied the city. Things became tougher for
the Russians there, and she came to Vladivostok to help
Kestrel owed a significant amount of money to Arkady. take care of her family. A circuitous route of other White
This is one possible motive for his murder. Russians enables goods to be sent to Shanghai via smug-
gling channels.
5(,1(5 :8/) Alexandra is out for her family and herself. In the course
Wulf was a merchant marine and U-Boat officer during the of her work, she comes across useful bits of information.
First World War. At least that’s his cover story. He was, in Among these is the knowledge of half a map suppos-
fact, driven to leave Germany with the rise of the Nazis, as edly showing the location of Shambhala. One of the
he was loyal to the Weimar. After the Nazis were exiled and SMERSH agents had it in his possession. She copied it
hanged, Wulf felt he needed to serve the Fatherland again. while he slept.
He thus became a spy for Blutkreuz or, rather, an asset. He
Kestrel might have tried to take it from her, resulting in
is not actually a member of Blutkreuz, but Orbst has gotten
his murder.
valuable intel from him in the past.

Wulf does not trust Orbst, believing he has his own agenda
beyond that of the Fatherland. As such, he has been
$ 6&(1$5,2 )25 085'(5
recruited directly by Sigrid von Thaler to keep tabs on what This is a sample scenario describing what might have gone
Orbst asks about in the city. down and why. The GM is free to use this as he or she sees
fit or leave it out altogether. In the last few weeks, Vassily
In theory, Wulf is now a triple agent. He is a true patriot Kaminski received a message regarding the Chintamani
loyal to von Thaler and the Fatherland. Stone. The agent had obtained half a map from a White
Russian refugee coming back to Vladivostok from
Wulf has little personal reason to have killed Kestrel, but Shanghai. The man was old, a bit crazed, and offered the
may have done so on von Thaler’s orders. map as passage. The map made its way to Vassily Kaminski.
He spends most of his time in flophouses or in one of the When the message came in about the Chintamani Stone
brothels, where he is fond of one woman in particular. and Shambhala, Vassily knew he had valuable information.

58
 Chapter 5: THE CHINTAMANI STONE

He did not know that the taxi dancer, Alexandra, copied demands $5,000 American or the equivalent in gold for
the map. the map. She claims not to have it on her person which
is true. She gave the map to a friend for safekeeping. This
Kestrel found out that Kaminski had the map and “friend” is a Chinese sailor who is in port for a few days.
burgled his flat before he could turn it over to Rasputin. If she does not come to retrieve the map before his ship
Kaminski was in a morphine haze when this occurred, departs, he is to take it to relatives of hers in Chinese
and has no idea where the map went. Kestrel, for his territory. Of all the people encountered in this scene, the
part, contacted Alexandra about the map, knowing that Chinese sailor is perhaps the only one who intends to do
Kaminski was a client of hers. The two have an on-again, what he says.
off-again relationship. Vassily is not the only agent after
Alexandra’s affections. The sailor is staying in nice hotel along the port. If the PCs
get the money they return to Xaoc to give it to Alexandra
Wulf is in love with Alexandra and when he saw Kestrel and only to discover that a “gruff German customer” who
her together for the second time, he murdered Kestrel in an fancies her has abducted her. Wulf, consumed by jealousy,
alleyway. He robbed him to make it look random. In the took her against her will. He holds her at his flophouse.
process, Wulf acquired the original map.
Orbst is on his way to collect the map from Alexandra
There are now two maps, one original and one copy. when the PCs find out she has been taken. The two groups
Alexandra is a very talented artist, and her copy is identical. tangle inside Xaoc. Arkady the Pimp owns Xaoc and is
very intrigued at this turn of events. Meanwhile, word has
The PCs have two sources from which to obtain the map. passed to Vassily Kaminski, through one of the other taxi
Unfortunately, Wulf has already told Orbst and von Thaler dancers, that Alexandra told some Americans she had a
about his copy. Likewise, Kaminski got a message through copy of the map.
to Rasputin about the map that was then intercepted by
Stalin loyalists in SMERSH. In other words, everyone For all parties involved in any firefight at Xaoc, use stats
knows there is at least one copy of a partial map showing for Spy on pp. 148-149 of Dust Adventures. There are
the location of Shambhala. That map has just become the three members of any given faction.
hottest piece of property in Vladivostok.
It is now a race to Wulf ’s flat to get Alexandra before
anyone else does. The GM may decide the team gets
+2: 7+,1*6 0$< )$// there first, or arrives just after another faction. Between
72*(7+(5 Arkady’s gangsters, Orbst’s men and Vassily’s SMERSH
The following is one way the Vladivostok episode may agents, they have their hands full. Once they get a hold of
play out. The GM has enough information on the parties the map, they have to escape from Vladivostok.
involved to arrange another outcome altogether. What is The map shows an area without names. It could be
most important is for the PCs to get one of the maps, or at anywhere. The PCs need the second half of the map. A
least a copy. note on the back of the map they have (copy or not) lists
The PCs arrive in Vladivostok and begin looking for a Russian family name. Alexandra knows of the family.
information related to Kestrel’s murder. Searching his flat They were close blood relatives of the Romanov’s. Those
is a good option. While there, the team finds that Orbst who survived the Bolsheviks currently live in Japanese-
has also sent Blutkreuz agents to search the flat. The two occupied Shanghai. The trail now leads to China.
teams tangle. A picture of the taxi dancer, Alexandra, is
found, along with a matchbook from the club she works
at—Xaoc (“Chaos”). THE WAR IN CHINA
At the beginning of the war, before Germany set their eyes
If the PCs drive the Germans off, they get the clues.
on the rest of Europe, the Japanese were already expand-
ing their Empire into China. That was in 1937, and the
%/87.5(8= $*(176  war in China has gone on for ten years. This unrelenting
invasion ravaged China. After Pearl Harbor, the United
Use stats for Spy on pp. 148-149 of Dust Adventures. States backed the Chinese Nationalists under Chiang Kai-
shek as they fought against the Japanese. When Chinese
Assuming they now have this lead to follow, the team pro- communists formally joined the SSU, they too became the
ceeds to Club Xaoc, modelled after American nightclubs enemy of America.
of the day. An expatriate French band plays popular music
from both Russia and America. Wulf is hanging out at the In the years since, the Chinese nationalists, bolstered by
bar when the PCs arrive, and takes note of their asking for Allied support, have pushed back against Axis expansion.
Alexandra. He tries to eavesdrop on their conversation. They now have a narrow corridor leading to Shanghai
though which they are launching an attempt to retake the
Alexandra doesn’t have much use for the map itself, city and its valuable port, and ASOCOM is helping.
but she now knows the Allies want it as well. That
makes it valuable. With enough money, she could leave The PCs link up with ASOCOM units in China, flown
Vladivostok and get her family out of Shanghai. She in over “The Hump”—a dangerous route of resupply

59
 the Allies make from Assam, India to Kumming, China. from the windows. One of their caretakers, bleeding from
Once in Kumming, the team proceeds northeast to the blast, begs the PCs for help. It has nothing to do with
6+$1*+$, Shanghai. The journey to Shanghai takes 30 hours. their mission, but the PCs are the kids’ only hope. There’s
Shanghai was a hotbed of Again, this is a spot where the GM can simply indicate enough wreckage they can use to create a makeshift ladder
espionage activity prior the journey in the fashion of an Indiana Jones film. to get the kids down. Do they want to spend the time
to the onset of the Second doing so? They must weigh the costs carefully.
Once outside of Shanghai, the PCs link up with another
World War. Nations saw
wave of troops entering the city. The Battle for Shanghai
the inevitable conflict
is destined to go down as among the bloodiest urban 67((/ 6$085$,
coming and Shanghai,
combats of 1947. The PCs round a corner in the former French Concession
at this point ruled by the
West, became a major of Shanghai, and run into a Japanese walker and an infan-
try unit. The PCs may try stealth to avoid the walker, or
source of intelligence 7+( %$77/( 2) 6+$1*+$, they may have requisitioned their own walker to combat
and counter-intelligence
operations. When the The Battle of Shanghai is in its second day when the it. These walkers were built using help from the Germans
Japanese took control PCs arrive. Using a narrow corridor carved out via great and their expertise with Vrill technology.
of Shanghai during the losses, the Nationalist Chinese, assisted by the Allies, have
war, much of this activity launched an invasion of the city. The Allies dropped walkers 6WHHO 6DPXUDL
ceased as westerners for use in the attack, but their numbers do not match those 7\SH Vehicle-Walker (Medium) [Cost:2]
were put in internment of the Steel Samurai the Japanese have at their disposal.
+DQGOLQJ 0 [Cost:0]
camps. The city, once
known as The Whore of the
The Japanese were not expecting the attack, and a great Speed 9 (25km/h / 15mph) [Cost:4.5]
Orient, went dark. Her taxi
many of their resources are occupied defending their 5DQJH 300km
dancers serve only the
islands from American Marines. There is a chance the
Allies can retake the city and then fortify it. While the :HLJKW 7 tonnes
Japanese soldiers now, and
port is very important, the symbolic victory of recaptur- /HQJWK 5m
the multilingual buzz that
once filled the streets, is
ing Shanghai would recruit more Chinese to the cause of +HLJKW 4m
now gone.
fighting the SSU. &DSDFLW\ 10 [Cost: 5]
Allied aircraft carriers hit the Japanese naval defences Armour 4 [Cost:3]
This has been the
condition of Shanghai until
around the city hard, and continue to drop bombs over &UHZ 1 (pilot) [Cost:0]
the invasion. Historically,
Shanghai even as they are engaged in dogfights with Giant Sword,
no such invasion took
the Japanese. The citizens are rather accustomed to the Weapons Chainsaw,
place, though the city was
bombing, and are seeking out safe redoubts with a calm 40mm Autocannon [Total Cost: 13.5]
liberated. Ultimately, the
sense of urgency.
Sensors Standard [Cost:0]
nationalists lost the civil
Japanese troops engage with Chinese on the streets. The Other Smoke Launchers [Cost:1]
war that followed, and
PCs need to reach the Russian ghetto where the family Bulky 4, High Maintenance 1,
Chiang Kai-shek wound
Alexandra knows, the Dhukovs, live. The team must navi- )ODZV Skill Based 2 (Pilot, Attack)
up in Taipei.
gate the urban war going on around them and reach the [Total Flaws: 7]
Much of the spirit of the
Dhukovs. Of course, the Axis already has Japanese units
city has been borrowed
headed to the ghetto for the same reason. Orbst radioed Weapon 5QJ 'DP 5DQN Special
for Vladivostok though,
ahead to ensure the Allies did not get to the Dhukovs first. Giant Sword C 3/3 1 None
as history went, nothing Chainsaw C 2/4 1 Cutting 2
Along with the invasion, ASOCOM Rangers (not the
like that occurred.
team) attempt to liberate the Japanese internment camps. 40mm
Liberties are taken where A (15) 3/2 1 None
If the city isn’t captured, the Allies want to get their Autocannon
necessary to fit the themes
citizens out.
and events of the Dust Gizmo Points: 22
Universe.
Gizmoteer Rank: 5
(1&2817(56 ,1 6+$1*+$,
The PCs arrive in the midst of the Battle of Shanghai.
-$3$1(6( 62/',(56 
Making their way to the Russian ghetto brings them into
contact with parts of the city under siege. The path also IMPERAL JAPANESE SOLDIER
brings them into contact with a moral quandary, one of
many found during wartime. Below are a few examples of Characteristics
encounters the GM can use. They are by no means exhaus-
tive, and the GM is encouraged to supplement as they wish. MB 2 MD 1 PH 1 PR 2
Movement 3 Capacity 3 Initiative 3

%851,1* 253+$1$*( Skills: Athletics 2, Attack: Melee 2, Attack: Firearms 1,

Attack: Heavy 1, Awareness 1, Interaction 1, Repair 1.
The PCs stumble upon an orphanage that has taken a
direct hit. The resulting fire leaves children screaming Officers and NCOs: Add Attack: Melee (Katana 1),
Willpower 2

60
 Chapter 5: THE CHINTAMANI STONE

7+( '+8.296
This royal family traces
a very close relationship
to the deposed Tsar and
his family. Rasputin has an
interest in them, as he was
fond of certain members of
the Romanovs. He has lost
track of them over the years,
but the family may ally with
him later. Such an alliance
is outside the scope of this
campaign, but it gives the
GM some loose ends to
pursue later.

The Dhukov family was

among the patrons of
Nikolai Roerich in the
1920s. He left them a map
he claims he made when
he found the lost city of
Shambhala. At least that
is how the story goes.
Special Abilities: None The family does have the
Special Powers: None other half of the map. They
divided it in two so they
Equipment would have something
to bargain with if they
Weapon 5QJ 'DP 5DQN Special
ever had need. The other
Ammo, 4, half is already in the PCs
Type 100 SMG 10 3 0 Rapid Fire, possession, or at least a
Reload 1 copy of it is.
Ammo 6,
2/ An aging, senile member of
Type 92 MG15 15 0 Autofire,
1/2 the family decided he could
Rapid Fire
no longer tolerate exile.
Bayonet Knife C 1 0 None
He would return to Russia
Katana C 2 0 None and offer his half of the
Type 94 map for forgiveness. An ill-
5 2 0 Ammo 4 conceived play to be sure.
Nambu Pistol
Howa Type Ammo 5,
15 2/1 0 The Dhukovs themselves
47 AR Rapid Fire
have yet to plan any
expedition to the lost
city. According to the
7+( :+,7( 5866,$1 *+(772 map, when fitted with
The Russian Ghetto houses the bulk of the Russian the other half, the city
community in Shanghai. Because these refugees fled lies in the Gobi desert.
the Bolsheviks, they are not considered communists. That is a far cry from
Therefore, the Japanese have largely left them alone. It is Instead, they are driving into the ghetto with three walk- where it is commonly
only because of Orbst’s message that the Japanese have ers and 30 men. The PCs must get to the family first, or located somewhere in the
come to find the Dhukovs. Orbst had no idea the message rescue them from their captives. This is no easy feat. A Himalayas.
would arrive during an invasion, and expected his Japanese map of the ghetto appears below.
allies to round up the family with little difficulty.

61
 Alexandra’s family, the Korokovas, is in the ghetto as What the PCs find is actually the lost tomb of Genghis
well. The PCs are unlikely to know any of them unless Khan. Once sought by historians and fortune hunters
7+( *2%, '(6(57 Alexandra asked them to help her family. Since she did alike, the tomb is one of the great lost treasures of the
A 500,000 square mile not know about the siege, she probably assumed she could world. Filled with death traps, the tomb houses a deadly
area of desert, the Gobi get them out with the money the PCs gave her. In that array of protections. Combine this with both a Japanese
is a place inhospitable case, she might provide an excellent means for getting out unit led by Orbst and SSU troops under the direction
to human habitation. In of the city as she has hired an outdated U-Boat, run by of Rasputin, and the PCs are about to put themselves
the 1920s, an American a mercenary crew, to smuggle her family from Shanghai. into the middle of a very deadly mystery that has gone
archaeologist set out The U-Boat is sitting under the Whangpoo River between unsolved for 700 years.
to find the missing link Shanghai proper and Pudong.
somewhere in the Gobi The PCs have to make a perilous trek across open desert,
but instead found the Once the PCs get the Dhukov family, they run into a for flying across the Gobi invites both the SSU and the
Axis to shoot them down. The PCs make their way from a
first dinosaur eggs. problem. The family does not want to give them the map
starting point in southwestern Mongolia. Once they reach
Conditions are harsh, with unless the team helps them out of the city. At this point,
their goal, they find the Great Khan did not possess a Seal,
temperatures reaching a couple of the mercenaries, along with Alexandra, arrive
but his tomb holds keys to the location of Shambhala.
extremes. The Gobi is a in the ghetto. This odd reunion causes another point of
cold desert, and ice and dispute—there is not enough room on the U-Boat to get
snow cap some of the taller
dunes. The sheer size
both families out.
MONGOLIA
allows for various types Alexandra is not going to give up the fact that she has the Most of Mongolia currently falls under the Japanese
of terrain. Among those U-Boat, but the PCs may suspect she has a way out if she Manchukuo puppet state. The Allies took back a portion
are steppe and scrubland had a way in. What they do next is up to them. Several of the southwestern area of the country. It is from this safe
as well as the dreamlike scenarios may result: area, surrounded on all sides by the SSU and the Axis, from
Taklamakan Desert. which the team departs. They must venture far into the
• The team gets the Dhukovs out of Shanghai separately. Gobi Desert by convoy in order to reach the location of
The PC’s destination lies Once they do so, through whatever means, the Shambhala. When they arrive, they find the tomb instead.
within the Eastern Gobi Dhukovs hand over the map.
desert steppe. Both the In a small base inside Allied territory, the PCs can cable
SSU and the Axis currently • The PCs forcibly take the map from the Dhukovs. It is ASOCOM by code. Schliemann insists that Shambhala
clash in this area. Veterans not terribly difficult for armed soldiers to search and has never been located in the Gobi in any known account.
of North Africa find the procure the map. Whether the team leaves the family to Dr. Carter agrees with him, but insists that the map points
war here familiar. its fate or not is up to them. there. Of course, this map, yet again, simply points to
another map. Such is the life of treasure hunters.
Water is not as impossible • The PCs learn that Alexandra hired a mercenary
to find here, as it is submarine. They persuade or force her to take them, The PCs must make the long journey to the point
in other areas of the and possibly the Dhukovs, out of the city. indicated on the map while combating both harsh desert
desert. However, fatigue conditions and the enemy.
overcomes those travelling • Simply by retracing their steps, the PCs can fight their
and the trucks sent with way back to friendly lines and link back up with the
the team are prone to Nationalists. Of course, this offers no small amount (1&2817(56 ,1 7+( *2%,
breaking down in the of danger as the way they came into the ghetto has The PCs are most likely to encounter units from the SSU
extreme conditions. The since shifted between the two sides. The team has to or the Axis. Neither is something they wish to run into.
GM does not have to play engage with, or avoid, Japanese forces including Steel If encountered, assume a small unit has been separated
through these events, but Samurai walkers. from its main body. They each have one light walker and
can describe them as
perhaps 20 infantry total.
part of the experience of • However they make it out of the city, the team should
getting there. now have both pieces of the map. Consulting a map of The GM should adjust the encounter to the team’s current
East Asia reveals the position of Shambhala somewhere strength, if necessary. Use the appropriate stats from Dust
in the Gobi Desert. With navigational skills or help Adventures.
from ASOCOM, they can locate the precise location.

Dr. Carter remarks on the dangers of the Gobi and how

even the great Genghis Khan respected its reputation as a THE GREAT KHAN’S TOMB
killer of men. Buried for over 700 years, the secret location of the tomb
died with those who built it, but secrecy is not its only
protection. Deathtraps await those foolish enough to loot
TO THE GOBI the emperor’s tomb.
The section of the Gobi the PCs must reach lies inside The PCs may either arrive first, second, or third. They
the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. While the team are in race against the SSU and the Axis. The map and
thinks they are looking for the Lost City of Shambhala key assume the PCs arrived after the SSU but before the
that is not what they find. Shambhala itself lies further Axis. It is not until they see the SSU soldiers left outside as
along their path. guards that they spot the location of a hole into the earth.

62
 Chapter 5: THE CHINTAMANI STONE

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Once inside the tomb, Dr. Carter quickly determines

that this is no lost city but the lost tomb of Genghis
Khan himself. Remember, everyone thinks they’ve found
Shambhala.

Below is the map of the Khan’s Tomb as well as the map key.

When the slide ends, the door shuts behind the team,
*8$5'6  apparently sealed. A noxious and deadly gas slowly fills
the room. As the first to spring the trap, the team finds no
Use stats for Spetznaz on p. 153 of Dust Adventures.
human remains here. They are to be the first of the Khan’s
victims in a very long time. Physique checks are made at
. (175$1&( Difficulty 2 every round inside the swirling vapours. 1
Damage results for each failed test.
The desert has preserved the tomb. The still air has The trap itself is designed to keep the victims in the
not been ruffled by human breath in nearly eight room. High up on the ceiling from various vents, the gas
centuries. Cobwebs, like the finest silk screens, hang pours in. Of course, this trap was designed prior to the
in front of you. The light from your torches penetrate invention of portable explosives and firearms, so the PCs
the gossamer threads revealing shapes beyond. should be able to blast their way to safety. If they wish
to loot the chamber, that is their affair. Make up what
The shapes are actually bodies, desiccated in the desert air. treasure you like.
They could almost pass for sleeping men. These corpses
are piled like cordwood, without ceremony. Dr. Carter
notes that they must have been the workers who dug this
. $'9,625·6 &+$0%(5
tomb, their secret sealed with their deaths. In a single stone casket lies the Khan’s advisor who commit-
ted suicide upon his master’s death that he might serve him in
the afterlife. He wears accoutrements of jade, silver, and gold.
. 75($685( 5220
Also a trap room, the team trips said trap as soon as they
set foot on the stairs. The stairs become a chute that
. &+$0%(5 2) 7+( :,9(6
deposits the characters into a treasure room. Gold and The Great Khan’s wives, too, gave their own lives and were
silver objects, taken from the far corners of the world, are interred with their lord to please him in the next world.
twined together with webs and chests of more valuables. Twenty caskets stand upright along the wall.

63