Twilight 2000 1e - Kidnapped.pdf - Twilight 2000 1e (EN) - Matrinicz

Kidnapped

Approaching the Plant

The Makado Maryland Distribution Center

Contents

Kidnapped

"State Department" Offices

Underground Level One

Introduction

Underground Level Two

Referee's Notes

Concluding the Makado Complex Investigation

Jumping-Off Point

Country Home

Conditions in Frederick

Visible Facilities

Companions of the Road

Security Around Country Home

Equipment

Infiltrating Country Home

....37

The Blight

Hughes

Effects Across North America

Alert

From Bad to Worse

Main and Second Building

Disease

Main Building Ground Floor

Plague

Main Building Second Floor

Famine

Second Building

Marauders

Underground Level One

Characters and Organizations

Underground Level Two

Sergeant Benjamin Maddox

Food Storage

Corporal Virgil Connors

Materials Storage

Lance Sergeant Oliver Westmorland

Other Areas in Level Two

Guido

Underground Level Three

Allen Greeneberg

Living Quarters

Percival Washington Grant

Underground Level Four

Red Runner

Guest Recreation

Geronimo

Computer Center

Roy Masterson

Hughes' Hideaway

Jimmy Taylor

Reverend Ulysses Trask

Mayor Reginald Simpson

Harold Grayman

Jason Marks

Gregory Hillman

Mary Williams

Credits

Design: Timothy B. Brown

Development: Loren K. Wiseman

Cover: Steve Venters

Interior Illustrations: Tim Bradstreet, Liz Danforth

Art Director: Barbie Pratt

Graphic Design and Production: Lauretta Oblinger,

Dana Reischauer, James R. Kuntz

Text Manager: Michelle Sturgeon

Typesetting: Julia Martin, Michelle Sturgeon

Text Processing: Carol Etter, Charles Fossler, Karen Lumb,

David Moll

Colonel Cyrus James

Organizations

1 7

The Land

Feagaville

1 8

Feagaville to Jefferson

Jefferson

Jefferson to Weverton

Weverton

Rosemont

Brunswick

Sandy Hook

Bridge

Harpers Ferry National Historical Park

Harpers Ferry

Bolivar

61702-1646 USA. Printed in USA. Made in USA. All rights

reserved. ISBN 0-943580-69-2. Twilight: 2000 is GDW's

trademark for its role-playing game of survival in a devastated

world.

Bolivar to Charles Town

Approaching Country Home

Encounter Results

Rumors & Information Results

The Makado Computer Corporation

alike, to the West where better conditions exist. His biggest

obstacle is the New America stronghold in western Penn-

sylvania. The power vacuum is beginning to be filled by New

America, which is something Caldwell feels must be checked.

They block the way and could very well turn Caldwell's migra-

tion into a slaughter.

Caldwell needs the players to disrupt the New Americans by

seeking out and kidnapping their leader, Carl Hughes. Without

his leadership, the organization will certainly fall into disarray—it

is Hughes' powerful character and force of will which holds his

organization of varied extremists together. However, Caldwell's

orders will be clear. Hughes is to be kidnapped and brought to

trial, not assassinated. As the de facto administrator charged

with upholding the Constitution, Caldwell will have it no other

way.

This booklet includes the following materials:

• Introductory material for the adventure.

• Descriptions of those parts of Maryland and Pennsylvania

where the adventure takes place. You may notice that these

are roughly the same areas covered in Allegheny Uprising, but

conditions have changed so drastically that new explanations

are needed.

• Descriptions of various organizations, military and other-

wise, which the characters may encounter.

• Backgrounds and motivations for important non-player

characters in this adventure.

• A new set of encounter tables for use in North America

for the summer of 2001, at the height of the drought and the

beginnings of the famine disaster.

Kidnapped

"Bang—you're dead, " he shouted, a dirty-faced urchin bran-

dishing the taped-up remains of a broken M16. The obligatory

argument from the alleged target child ensued, sounding all too

familiar, a scene from everybody's youth. What was frighten-

ing, though, was that these kids were arguing about calling in

air strikes, area fire, and small unit tactics like they were veterans

themselves. I guess in a way they were. They'd probably got-

ten to the point where they barely noticed guys like us—just

another group of heavily armed men walking along their street.

The morning was already hot, without a cloud in the sky. The

mist which should have been hugging the ground was con-

spicuously absent. It hadn 't rained appreciably all year, a fact

everyone was acutely aware of. Ca/dweil had been noticeably

gloomy for about a month, for much needed thunderclouds

either didn't materialize or rolled by without so much as a driz-

zle. His people and organization were in desperate trouble, he

knew—no doubt the subject of the many high level conferences

he had called at his headquarters recently. None of them seemed

to have cheered his mood, which made an early morning sum-

mons from him all the more surprising.

We met outside his HQ, where he wordlessly motioned us

into a jeep. He drove us out past the settlement, pulling off the

road to a culvert along a dusty field. We all got out and followed

Caldwell to its edge. He bent down and dug into the soil with

his hand, bringing up a clod of dry dirt, which sifted through

his fingers.

"This is my brother-in-law's field. I helped him work it last

fall, " he said emotionlessly. He held out his hand for all to see.

"These were planted six weeks ago. "

What he had in his hand were half a dozen pathetic looking

seeds of corn. They had sprouted, but hadn't grown much at

all. It was obvious that they were beginning to rot. The whole

field was full of rotting seed and would not yield a harvest this

season.

"The ground around here in Mary/and and in Pennsylvania is

bone dry down to the eight-inch level, "he continued. "I know.

I've been sending patrols out looking for a couple of weeks now.

Nothing. They can't find any place within 50 miles that is any

better. " He tossed the use/ess seeds aside and sat right down

in the dirt.

"I'm responsible for a few thousand soldiers and God knows

how many civilians. " He chortled softly and shook his head,

"And in a few months there won't be anything to feed them. "

The silence was only broken by the barking of a distant dog.

Caldwell got up, brushed himself off, and abruptly announced,

"That's why I've decided to move everything I've got west. "

REFEREE'S NOTES

Kidnapped is the first Twilight: 2000 adventure which deals

with the effects of the drought, famine, and plague which will

once again lay waste to North America in the years 2001 and

2002. As such it is the first taste players will have of the horri-

ble situations and deplorable conditions which will certainly

result. The emphasis of the adventure module is to prepare the

player characters for the conditions as they become worse.

As the referee, you should take advantage of the text pro-

vided here, especially the narrative sections, for delivering the

feeling of foreboding and desperation to your players. Things

are no longer changing ever so slightly for the better—they are

instead beginning the long, fast slide to disaster as everyone

is abandoning their feeble efforts toward recovery in favor of

scrambling for food.

— Timothy 8. Brown

INTRODUCTION

Kidnapped is an adventure for Twilight: 2000, GDW's post-

World War III role-playing game. In Kidnapped the players are

members of, or are at least loosely associated with, the civilian

government enclave in the Maryland area, headed by Roger

Caldwell. More than likely the players have already gone through

the adventure in Allegheny Uprising, and presumably they were

successful. However, regardless of the outcome of that adven-

ture, Kidnapped can be played by any group of characters.

In brief, the conditions in North America are going from bad

to worse —much worse. Caldwell recognizes this fact and has

decided to move his entire organization, soldiers and civilians

PLAYERS SHOULD NOT READ

ANY FURTHER IN THIS BOOKLET

IN ORDER TO PRESERVE

THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE.

CONDITIONS IN FREDERICK

Caldwell's specific orders to the characters were to travel to

Frederick, Maryland, and meet up with three other men who

will be accompanying them on the mission. The journey through

panic-stricken Maryland will be nerve-rattling and sickening, but

largely uneventful. No one will pay particular attention to several

heavily armed soldiers moving through, provided those soldiers

aren't trying to requisition local vehicles.

Frederick suffered heavily in the nuclear attacks. Fort Detrick

was obliterated, as was Camp David, which is north of the city.

The civilian population dispersed at that time, virtually abandon-

ing the city to its craters and radiation. When that died down,

the town was gradually repopulated, but its residents suffer from

the understandable paranoia of living in a city which has been

nuked.

Today Frederick is the western bastion of power for Caldwell

and the Civgov. It has been raided at times by motorcycle gangs

and other marauders, but the soldiers of the 228th have man-

aged to keep the city's defenses intact. All westward and north-

ward entrances to the city are completely barricaded. Other en-

trances are gated and patrolled, and the perimeter of the city

is patrolled through the night.

Many of the convoys planned for the journey westward are

scheduled for assembly at Frederick. From there they will move

up Route 70. In preparation for these moves, advanced patrols

have been sent out along the highway as far as the outskirts

of Hagerstown to secure the road for the convoys. Back in

Frederick, the vehicles are beginning to arrive: a hodgepodge

assembly of old school buses, beat up pick-ups, motorcycles,

and army trucks, all loaded down with vital equipment.

Jumping-Off Point

It's been three days since Caldwell announced his plans to

abandon Maryland entirely. Panic soon followed. Specific con-

voys were announced, and every capable vehicle for hundreds

of miles was requisitioned by the troops. The desperation was

obvious in the faces of the civilians —though we/come to come

along, many of them were simply incapable of making the

journey on their own. Caldwell had organized civilian convoys

as well, but he had to make some very hard decisions about

the importance of certain individuals, giving precedence to those

people he knew would be valuable on the journey and at their

destination. Mechanics and technicians were rated more

valuable than farmers or the untrained. I didn't envy Caldwell

at all. Orders to the troops were specific and had an air of

desperation themselves: "All personnel are to lend whatever

aid they can to accompanying civilians up to and including the

use of deadly force to protect their safe passage. "

In three days, the most peaceful area of the eastern seaboard

has turned to complete chaos. One old-timer said he hasn 't seen

anything like this since Saigon. Every piece of valuable material

is being ripped apart and stacked on trucks or wagons. An old

man is packing his chickens and the sheet metal from his home

onto a wagon. Since there are no animals in sight, it's apparent

he means to pull the wagon himself. The price of alcohol has

gone through the roof, against specific orders to the contrary.

Gunfire has broken out in minor disputes over fuel and transpor-

tation, and the soldiers have more than once had to quell near-

rioting as the entire area prepares to bug out.

What's getting to me is the noise. The noise is deafening: the

noise of buildings being torn into components; the noise of

desperate people ye/ling for their rightful share of everything;

the noise of children crying for their parents, who are all too

busy to keep a constant eye on them; the noise of stills being

torn down, or engines being fired up for the first time in months.

All this is the noise of panic, and it's sending chills down my

spine.

COMPANIONS OF THE ROAD

The commanding officer of the battalion in Frederick will direct

the characters upon reporting to a communications shed behind

the headquarters. He will remark that this is one of the few

buildings which hasn't been torn down for transport yet. Inside,

the characters will be introduced to the three other men along for

the operation: Sergeant Benjamin Maddox, Lance Sergeant

Oliver Westmorland, and Corporal Virgil Connors. For physical

descriptions, consult the chapter, "Characters and Organiza-

tions."

The importance of this meeting is to allow Corporal Connors

to relate his story to the player characters. Remember, the rank-

ing officer among the player characters is in charge of the opera-

tion, as directed by Caldwell. The non-player characters in-

troduced here are subordinate. The player characters call the

shots.

"Buildings have always been my passion. I wanted to be an

architect even before I knew what the word meant. Whenever

anybody built anything bigger than a doghouse anywhere in the

neighborhood, I was there. Fortunately for me, Rosemont was

a growing town, and there was a great deal of construction go-

ing on, particularly on the "strip" near 1-340. I used to ride my

bike the four miles over there to watch them put up all sorts

of stuff.

prise. There, on the lot where the gigantic excavation was, stood

a manufacturing plant... one of those sheet metal prefabricated

atrocities that you see everywhere. It was the local branch of

that computer company you all know and love—they made a

big show about putting their factories in America and employ-

ing Americans. I remember thinking it must have been mostly

underground, like an iceberg, considering the basement they had

been digging. I asked my girlfriend's brother about it as he

worked there. There wasn't any basement, he said, just what

you saw on the surface. We got to talking, and he let slip

something else...about a third of the plant was sealed off. They

did something very hush-hush for the government in there, he

said...a/most no local people were allowed in.

I couldn 't get it out of my mind for a while. There were quite

a few things that didn't add up. There was a parking lot that

was three times bigger than it needed to be and a huge

transformer building less than a block away that sent some

cables underground. Off in the distance, there was a telephone

company's microwave tower, with a path cleared through the

trees fromitto the building—the kind of path they clear to bury

underground cables.

It didn't take me long to figure out that there was a great deal

more of the building underground than on the surface, and it

must have been built to hide something very impor-

tant...something that needed a lot of power, something that

needed a microwave tower nearby. I thought about it for a while

and finally solved it. What clinched it was the parking lot—the

parking lot big enough for landing a good-sized helicopter,

something the size of a Sea King II. You've all seen Sea King

Us in newsreel footage of the President getting off his helicopter.

Something weird was going on there —that was for sure. "

Sergeant Maddox interjected his comments next. He had the

thick accent of a South Carolina native and an unfortunate habit

of chewing tobacco —where he got the stuff must be a story

in itself.

"That's where I come in. I was stationed with Connors in Ger-

many, and he'd told me that story before. You know, the kind

of story you'd tell to pass the time—when you're in Germany,

any story about home is welcome. Anyway, not until I got in-,.

volved with the intelligence unit Caldwell formed did the story--

click for me, so I got the two of them together. According to

Caldwell, what Connors is describing is exactly the kind of ac-

tivity Hughes and New America have been up to for the last 30

years —that is, making secret underground hideaways across

the country."

So far, thin though it may be, this situation is the only lead

we have to finding Hughes' headquarters. Connors can easily

lead the entire group to the location near Brunswick. Frankly,

the two sergeants have merely been sent along to help out —

they can produce orders signed by Caldwell himself to that

effect.

This is a high priority mission,

and Sgt. Maddox has papers

from Caldwell authorizing him

to requisition anything he

needs.

"We moved away when I was 12, and I remember that they

were excavating a giant foundation for something just as we

moved away. I remember because they were digging incredibly

deep, and I was afraid they were going to hit one of the old

limestone caves they have all through the area. I learned in later

years that an excavation of that size meant that the building

was to be more than 12 stories. That struck me as odd—no other

building in the county was that big, and I didn 't see why there

needed to be one unless somebody was building a national cor-

porate headquarters there.

"Well, I grew up a bit and went to college, going for a degree

in architecture. One summer, I decided to go and visit an old

girlfriend and drove past the strip on the way. I got quite a sur-

MAP OF FREDERICK

EQUIPMENT

This is a high priority mission, and Sgt. Maddox has papers

from Caldwell authorizing him to requisition anything he needs.

However, since vehicles are at a premium for the evacuation,

Maddox has been ordered to take only one vehicle, probably

a Hum-Vee or a 2 1/2 ton truck. The players may opt to take

no vehicles whatsoever, considering the dangers along the road

to Brunswick. Marauders would easily be able to ambush a single

vehicle on the road, whereas individuals moving along the road-

side might disperse and avoid a trap.

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