Tab-Classic Antarctica
From Tab Wiki
The following is a ready-made adventure premise that one can take and run with. It details the exploits of an expedition to Antarctica, set in the 1920's. The supernatural is part of the premise, but is a hidden element of the campaign world, which will come to the forefront as the adventure moves along.
The adventure that follows offers the first publishes glances at the upcoming Arth and Nexus Endtime settings from Tab Creations.
Premise
The world is an alternate version of Earth. The Year is 1924. Up until this point, history has progressed on the surface pretty much as is known in our own history. But in the shadows, things are amiss.
Eight months ago, Wells University—a small college in North Carolina—got a grant from a private organization known as the Society for the Advancement of Mankind (SAM). The grant was to put together an expedition to the distant and mysterious continent of Antarctica. The professor at Wells University who received this grant was Professor Starkmore, a professor of Geology.
Such an expedition is a risky venture in this day in age—where radio communication is new and not very reliable. This very fact was proven not two years ago in 1922, when SAM funded another Antarctic expedition through Boston University, known as the Fielding Expedition. This earlier expedition consisted of 22 men who set out in order to research the geology of the Ross Mountains in central Antarctica, exploring their natural structure and accessing if they have any valuable natural resources.
For two months everything went well. The Fielding Expedition set out on the ice and arrived at their destination. They transmitted regularly scheduled radio broadcasts, indicating that everything was normal and that the research was going well. Everything was proceeding normally until the night of September 5th. Then their regular transmissions suddenly stopped. The radio base the expedition had set up in South America to receive their broadcasts tried repeatedly to contact the Fielding Expedition, but always with no reply. Then, suddenly, on the night of September the 10th, five days after the last scheduled transmission should have been received, the South American radio base received the following broadcast:
"We woke up this morning and everything was not as it should be. The dogs had gone mad in the night. John, who should have been keeping watch was not there. Oh god, why did this have to happen? They found it in the rock. Yes... Look, I haven't much time. Tell my wife, tell Sarah, that I won't be coming home. It's already infected the food supply, the dogs, Samuel. I'm afraid it's going to infect me soon. That or the endless ice. Oh god, why did this have to happen? Tell Sarah I love her. She mustn't cry; not for long. She must find a new husband and... Oh god! It's here... Look, stay away from the crystal eye. Stay away from here! We are all dead! Dead! "
The transmission then abruptly stopped.
Following this final broadcast, the South American radio base sent out messages daily, asking for a reply. None were forthcoming. Eventually, hope was lost, and the newspapers wrote up the Fielding Expedition as one of the biggest scientific failures of the new century. Surprisingly quickly, it faded from public memory and into history. Until now.
Antarctica, 1924
In 1924 Antarctica is still very much part of the unknown. Discovered only 60 years before, not more than a handful of explorers have even attempted to map anything on the southern continent. Furthermore, it has been only five years since a League of Nations treaty declared Antarctica to be international territory. Despite this, the potential, and hope, of finding valuable resources to exploit in Antarctica is overwhelming... If one can bare the harsh climate... And the technology to do so isn't, as of yet, all that great...
The Starkmore Expedition
You are a part of this new expedition beoing operated by Wells University. The expedition is known publicly as the Starkmore Expedition, named after the professor who received the grant to make the expedition happen.
The expedition consists of 12 men: Starkmore himself, two experts in navigation and survival, four scientific experts and five men to provide the manpower for making the expedition happen. You are one of these people chosen to go on the trip.
All of the crew are to meet together at Wells University in North Carolina in July for organization purposes. The expedition sail from Albemarle Sound to the tip of South America by early September, and finally land in Antarctica itself by late September. By mid October the expedition is to arrive at the Ross mountains by traveling overland, where it is to set up base camp. From its camp it will begin to to investigate the surrounding area.
The purpose of the expedition is threefold:
1) It is to investigate the fate of the earlier Fielding Expedition, and to determine the cause of its failure.
2) It is to recover, if possible, anything of value from the remains of the previous expedition and the surrounding area.
3) It is to explore the geology of the Ross Mountains, taking rock samples, making topographical maps and exploring the existence of any natural resources nearby.
Other than by radio, the expedition will be cut off from the rest of civilization, including in general, any possibilities of getting more supplies. However, in January it will receive its one and only shipment of additional supplies into Antarctica. Recovering them will require another trip to the Antarctic coast and back.
Finally, the expedition has until April 17th to finish all its goals, arrange a pickup and depart Antarctica; for that is the last day the sun rises. After that, it is a long, dark winter.
Wells University
Wells University is a small, private university in the Raleigh area. It specializes in the physical sciences and has taken great pains to secure a variety of grants for research projects, including the one funding the Starkmore expedition.
The Society for the Advancement of Mankind
SAM is rather enigmatic organization. The Society is a privately owned foundation, which publicly funds various research projects and initiatives across the globe. The way that SAM chooses these projects—and the goals and investment that SAM has in these various projects—however, is kept a closely guarded secret by the organization. The origin of SAM's money that it uses to fund these projects is unknown.
Other Groups
After the announcement of the Starkmore Expedition several other groups have shown interest in the endeavor. One such group, the Fraternal Order of the Right (FOR) extended to Wells University an offer to help organize and promote the expedition. Although Wells University initially was about to accept FOR's offer, SAM insisted that FOR not become involved. SAM provided no explanation as to the reasoning behind this request. However, as SAM was footing the bill for the expedition, Wells University could not refuse their insistence, and the offer was officially rejected.
Instead FOR has gone to Yale University, where they plan to fund and organize their own Antarctic expedition, scheduled to leave sometime in November.
Character Creation
Character creation for for the Antarctic Expedition adventure uses all of the usual rules for character creation with the following additional options.
Character Backgrounds
All of the “Pulp” backgrounds presented in the character creation chapter earlier in this book are available in the adventure, as well as the following three new backgrounds.
| Background | | | | | | | | |
| Doctor | | | | | | | | |
| Scientist | | | | | | | | |
| Survivalist | | | | | | | | |
Doctor
You are a medical doctor. When people get sick, fall down and break themselves, are exposed to the elements for too long or otherwise get their health in a difficult situation, you are there to patch them back together and make things all well. You are knowledgeable about biology and can even perform surgery.
Scientist
The world is a very rational place to you, for you are a scientist. You explore the unknown, theorize about the boundaries of what is known to man and create experiments to prove things one way or the other. You are the way of the future, and you'll see that mankind gets there.
Survivalist
You're used to the outdoors, the wilderness, the elements and the hardships that may bring, Perhaps you are a native of a an extremely cold climate—such as an Inuit—or perhaps you just so experienced because you are driven to put yourself in difficult situations;. Either way, you are a survivor.
Domains & Abilities
All backgrounds available in the Antarctic Expedition adventure have the Maneuvers domain, with the exception of the Mystic. The Mystic is the lone character type which has access to the Magic domain instead—although her powers are mysterious and secretive, and should be kept in the shadows.
At the GM's option the Doctor may be given access to the Heal and Cure powers as non-supernatural cinematic abilities. If used in this way, invoking either power costs a maneuver point and takes a few minutes to use, as the doctor patches up and tends to the wounds of the target of the power. If the GM chooses this option, she may want to forbid the Mystic access to the Heal and Cure powers, so as not to overshadow the Doctor's role in the adventure.
Both Maneuver Points and Magic Points are regained at the rate of one per hour of warmth and rest. The “warmth” part is important to note, as characters freezing from the cold are suffering, not recovering. Being left out in the elements deprives the character of their chance to regain their moxie points.
Equipment
Each character in the adventure has $1000 to spend on personal equipment. This may not reflect an actual one thousand dollars US at a 1920's level of inflation. GMs who don't care about being historically accurate with units of currency can glaze over any monetary differences in prices and wealth. Those who wish to be more accurate, can pretend that each generic Tab-Classic dollar ($) is equal to some unit of actual currency in game (such as $1 Tab = $0.25 US).
GMs can let players purchase equipment from any of the lists available earlier in this book, subject to restrictions for equipment that doesn't make sense given the setting—such as platemail or computers. Additionally, the GM may allow players to purchase equipment that isn't found on any of the earlier lists, deciding the price, weight and other stats on a case-by-case basis.
Supplied Party Equipment
The Starkmore Expedition funding is supplying the following equipment to the expedition as a whole. All personal equipment is to be purchased seperately.
Starkmore Expedition Equipment: 2160 rations of food, 2 snow tractors, 1 disassembled ground drill, 2 windmill generators, 2 kerosene stoves, 1 chalkboard, 6 blowtorches, 4 kerosene lanterns, 2 sets of boxed cooking gear, 2 camp radios, 4 trail radios, 1 set of aircraft tools, 2 sets of general purpose tools, 2 sleds, 1 pallet of tar paper, 12 buckets, 4 personal tents, 1 main tent, 15 sleeping bags, 24 boxes of matches, 6 flags, 12 shovels, 6 hatchets, 4 bow saws, 40 snowshoes, 12 sets of climbing gear, 12 ice axes, 2 flare pistols, 4 boxes of flares, 1 electric signal lamp, 36 sled dogs, 4 benches for base camp, 20 bamboo poles, 2 mallets, 40 bags cement, 6 large hammers, 48 sticks of dynamite, 50 blasting caps, 8 crowbars, 12 brooms, 2 movie cameras, 1 guitar, 2 harmonicas, 3 still cameras, 1 straitjacket, 2 pairs of handcuffs, 1 case of biology and geology instruments, 1 medical bag, 1 box tobacco, 1 typewriter with paper, 12 binoculars, 1 gasoline-powered generator, 2 tons kerosene, 1 ton gasoline.
Hazards
Part of any game set in the hostile conditions of Antarctica, is dealing with the environmental hazards present there. Pay special attention to fatigue, food and supplies. At extremely cold temperatures metal may begin to stick and complex equipment—like cameras—break due to the cold. Also appropriate are optional rules that game the game more gritty, such as the rules for bleeding and lasting injuries.
The Cold
Antarctica is a dangerous place. The weather itself can kill you. Thus, when out in the elements you will make actions against fatigue from the cold every hour. The difficulty of this action depends on how cold it is—the weather rating. There are four weather ratings in Antarctica: Cold, Freezing, Biting and Deadly. The target numbers for each rating are as follows:
| Weather Rating
| Target Number |
| Cold
| 10 (Average) |
| Freezing
| 12 (Difficult) |
| Biting
| 15 (Daunting) |
| Deadly
| 19 (Desperate) |
Campaign Secrets
The following information is the the Game Master's eyes only. It details the events and circumstances surrounding the plot of the adventure.
Adventure Backstory
The Society for the Advancement of Mankind (SAM) is actually the cover organization for a clandestine group of time-travelers. This group—called the Retributers—secretly operates throughout the world fighting the agents and spawn of an extraterrestrial menace known as the Devourer.
The Retributers have their headquarters at the End of Time, but their agents in the field (read: in this world and time) rely on a series of sub-bases set at specific weak points in space and time. These weak points can be cracked open, and a series of “jumps” made to reach the HQ. However, all of these paths back must go through a choke point in Antarctica 12,000 years in the past. The problem is that the base the Retributers have sat this choke point has gone “dark.” There is no traffic and no communication that can go in or out. Something must have happened to the base. So the Retributer agents in this time—working under the guise of SAM—had the Fielding Expedition sent to Antarctica two years ago to secretly try to find the remains of the base under the ice, and to examine the remains to know what went wrong.
But that expedition met disaster and never returned.
So SAM has organized and funded another expedition—the current Starkmore Expedition to once again return to the vicinity of the Antarctic base and discover what happened. In order to accomplish this, all NPCs on the expedition—save for Professor Starkmore himself—are actually Retributer agents.
But there's a catch. Another group of time travelers who oppose the Retributers—the Preventers—have taken notice of the expedition. This group of time travelers operates under the cover of the Fraternal Order of the Right (FOR), and the Retributers know this. This is why FOR was forbidden from involvement with the Starkmore Expedition. And it is for this reason that FOR is funding their own expedition—seeded with their own agents—to travel to Antarctica and disrupt things.
Adventure Outline
When the adventure begins, characters should have time before the expedition sets off to meet each other, talk among themselves and make any last minute plans or purchases.
Once the expedition sets sail, the characters have a long voyage ahead of them. Sabotage should spice things up, or perhaps trouble with the natives during the stop South America before setting off to Antarctica.
Once the Antarctic has been reached, the environment should be the first big hazard, but once players are getting used to that, it would be a great time for the first sighting of the Devourer Spawn. This doesn't have to be a fight, just something to show that things are not quite as they seem.
A good portion of the adventure should be mystery and wonder as the players explore the ruins of the Fielding Expedition, perhaps finding scrawled notes or journals left behind. They should find the remains of the Retributer base under the ice, complete with mysterious technology, and fight the FOR expedition, which is on its way.
Devourer Spawn
| Str: 12 | Dex: 8 | Spd: 7 | End: 7 |
| Int: 3 | Per: 5 | Chr: 2 | Det: 6 |
| HP: 17 | MP: 8 | Dmg: +1 (+2) | Arm: +1 |
Pale tentacled horrors that lurk beneath the ice, the Devourer Spawn are creatures born of the ultimate destruction.
Size +1: A devourer spawn's large size applies as a bonus on attacks to strike it in combat. It also applies its size as a bonus to the damage it deals, since it is capable of bringing more weight to bear on its attacks. Effective damage from this is listed in parentheses.
Horribly Fast Movement: Devourer spawn can move up to twice their Speed a pass when sliding over the ice.
Many Tendrils: Devourer Spawn have a mass of tendrils that allow them to make up to three attacks per pass. In addition, they have give up an attack to gain +2 to a grapple attempt with another tentacle—in essence grappling with many tentacles at once.
Terrifying: When a Devourer Spawn is sighted, all characters seeing it must succeed on a TN 15 Determination action or suffer the effects of fear.
Preventer Agent
| Str: 7 | Dex: 7 | Spd: 6 | End: 8 |
| Int: 6 | Per: 6 | Chr: 6 | Det: 5 |
| HP: 14 | MP: 11 | Dmg: +0 (+3) | Arm: +0 (+1) |
These stats represent a Preventer agent, either as a saboteur, or an embedded agent in the other Antarctic expedition funded by FOR.
Survival Specialty: Most Preventer Agents have a specialty in Survival.
Projectiles Specialty: Most Preventer Agents have a specialty in Projectiles.
Bluff Specialty: Most Preventer Agents have a specialty in Bluff.
