The Assault on Aszaryn

The Enemy of Your Enemy - Scene 1

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While working the fields in the World Above, the farm is overrun by a surface mutant attack. The assault is overwhelming and the only real choice is to run -- leaving the farm (and the route back 'home') behind. It is obvious from the size and organization of the attackers that this is just the beginning of an invasion. The mutants are coming for everyone in the World Below! And while you may not have much love lost for those who enslave you, there are still peopel you care about beneath the surface.

You must do something!

Before Play Begins

Give the players Player Handout 1 - Prologue and have them read through it. This handout provides basic background information on what it means to be a vampire in this world. The following exposition will build on that as the story is introduced

The Adventure Begins

Today started out like every other day since your existence as a Vampire began. You awakened and joined the ranks of others of your kind heading upward toward the massive doors that separated the World Above from the World Below.

Lined up like cattle, you were first handed a small bag filled with a few centiliters of liquid -- your morning allotment of blood. It was barely enough to fully awaken you; it was certainly not enough for the hours of labor that were ahead. But it was all you ever got in the morning, and it would have to do. Next, just before the great Inner Door, you were handed your farm implements. For one of you, today, it was a hoe... apparently you would be weeding and tending one of the lettuce fields. For another, it was a pitchfork... that meant turning compost. The third and fourth were simply handed leather gloves that meant harvesting duty. The mortals didn't like the vampires actually touching their food.

When the Inner Door opened, you shuffled in along with another twenty-four of your fellow slaves, and waited. Once the Inner Door was sealed, the vampire who had the good fortune of drawing door duty today opened the even more impressive Outer Doors, and the harsh glare of the sun stabbed at your eyes. Before you could adjust, though, you shuffled forward so that another group of your kin could be delivered to the surface. Once outside, you waited a few seconds as your eyes adjusted. You quickly sucked every drop of blood you could get out of your morning allotment before tossing the bag aside, and you headed for the fields.

The morning went by like countless mornings before it. You scratched at the soil with your hoe. You chatted idly with others in the fields around you, but you kept working all the time. The mortals had ways of knowing who was working and who was slacking. Slacking meant no evening blood allotment. And you knew there was always a vampire among the crew willing to sell out their kin for a few extra blood-bags.

Give the players an opportunity to get used to this rather unusual opening. Point out that they are not working side-by-side; in fact they are scattered around the farm area.

This begins a section where the characters will be allowed to express some reaction and make some limited decisions. This is still part of the prelude, however, and it is important to direct the PCs over the south wall and out into the adventure.

It's just after noon that things start to unravel. Shouts of alarm come from the north wall surrounding the farm. At first, you pay little attention -- attacks from a feral mutant or two are not uncommon, and they're dangerous, but not organized. The vampires on patrol duty can overpower any that breach the walls, even though they're armed with nothing more than clubs.

You turn back to your rows of vegetables, or back to digging the compost, but you realize that the sounds of alarm are growing, not subsiding.

Logically at this point, the players will have their characters try to figure out what is going on. When someone looks to the direction that the commotion is coming from, continue:

Looking up again, you see something you have never seen before... something that frightens you more than you have ever been frightened since being transformed. Scores of creatures are coming over the wall. They're overpowering the patrolling vampires and ripping them to shreds. Bits of flesh sail through the air as claws rend their bodies. And more are still coming.

And standing atop the wall is something else you have never seen or expected to see. A single mutant, larger than the rest, is howling encouragements and commands to the scores of invaders. This mutant -- this leader -- points in your direction, and a horde of mutants start to run toward you.

Take a moment and ask the players what their characters are doing. At this point, the PCs should be trying to run somewhere. But if you've got the inevitable player who thinks they're immortal, who says their character is running at the horde of mutants screaming battle cries, simply tell them that they must now create or choose a different character, because that character has been torn to pieces.

To those who try to run back to the passage to Aszaryn, read the following, and read it first:

You look to the passage back to the safety of the World Below, but dozens of your kin are already crowding through the Outer Doors. The doors seal shut with a boom, crushing someone's hand in the process. That option is already lost to you.

To those who try to run away from the mutant horde, and once the PCs who looked to the passage Below first have changed their decision, read the next passage:

There's only one option left. You turn and run -- toward the south wall, away from the invaders. The sounds of mutant howls are all around, and others of your kind are running as well.

Some don't make it. You hear their screams for a few brief moments.

You reach the south wall. The mutant horde is right behind you.

Give the players a moment or two to realize that fighting is not an option. If they do not grasp this immediately, make sure to increase your description of the carnage.

Having no other options, you turn to the wall and begin to climb. Your vampire abilities allow you to find purchase in the stone walls easily enough, and you clamber over the top. Others are trying to climb with you, but the pursuing mutant horde is upon them. Many are pulled off the wall and torn to shreds. The scent of all that blood stirs your hunger, even through the fear and the horror.

Taking one last look from the top of the wall, you see the mutant leader at the center of the farm, near the Outer Door. It looks around triumphantly, turns its head toward the sky, and howls. Others around him join in the victory yell. The mutants at the wall stop pursuing and turn to join in as well. You will never forget that sound.

You carefully clamber down the outside of the wall and look around. Three others are standing not far away. Just three, and you, the only survivors.

You all know that yours is not the only farm, and that Aszaryn is not the only city in the World Below, but you do not know where the nearest other city is. You also know that while you can feed on creatures living in the World Above, doing so for any length of time will turn you into one of them, You will become feral, losing your mind. If you are going to find safe haven, you'll need to do it quickly.

The party now has its first opportunity to introduce themselves to one another. But then they must decide on a course of action. That course should ultimately involve heading more or less south in the hopes that they can find shelter. Let them discuss, until they finally decide to set out into the wilderness.

When they are ready to continue, have them discover a thin path, something that might be a game trail, through the wilderness. Or is it something else...?

The party goes down the road until they reach a fork. Left? or Right?

If the party ignores the road, there's a "Get Back On the Road" Encounter.

This Encounter Ends Here

DM Notes

This "encounter" is really just the prologue to the adventure - there's really nothing for the players to do.

If they stay in the area, hoping the mutants will abandon the farm, they will discover that this is not the case. The creatures are happily devouring or destroying the crops, and are milling around the great doors that lead to the World Below. The more they watch, though, the more they will realize that the Mutant Leader really is a leader. It is directing the actions of the others, and those actions now involved either consuming or destroying the crops of the farm, and the breaking down of the south wall. And there is always a contingent waiting by the Outer Doors

It should be obvious that this is not a temporary threat -- the Mutants are an invading army and they do not seem predisposed to move on. The players should be reminded though, that there were vampire survivors - some got back inside. And not every vampire is sent to work on the surface each day. So friends (and possibly even family) are still in place below the surface. WIth the surface and its food supply no longer accessible, things are going to be harsh for the mortals in the city of Aszaryn, but history tells that this would mean even more turmoil for vampire-kind.

Parent Plot

The Enemy of Your Enemy