Promethean the Created - SAS - To The Flame.pdf

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I can give not what men call love; But wilt thou accept not
The worship the heart lifts above And the heavens reject not, -
The desire of the moth for the star, Of the night for the morrow,
The devotion to something afar From the sphere of our sorrow?
- Percy Bysshe Shelley, “One Word is Too Often Profaned”
An adventure for Promethean: The Created
Written by Jason Bolte Developed by Eddy Webb Edited by Genevieve Podleski
Layout by Jessica Mullins Art: Abrar Ajmal, Sam Araya, James Cole, August Hall, Gavin
Hargest, and Brian LeBlanc Playtested by Jason Bolte, Kevin Bolte
stOrytelling adventure systeM
Mental OOOOO
Physical OOOOO
sOcial OOOOO
WHITE WOLF PUBLISHING, INC.
2075 WEST PARK PLACE
BLVD SUITE G
STONE MOUNTAIN, GA 30087
76.120.246.161
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I can give not what men call love; But wilt thou accept not
The worship the heart lifts above And the heavens reject not, -
The desire of the moth for the star, Of the night for the morrow,
The devotion to something afar From the sphere of our sorrow?
- Percy Bysshe Shelley, “One Word is Too Often Profaned”
An adventure for Promethean: The Created
using the Storytelling Adventure System
Written by Jason Bolte Developed by Eddy Webb Edited by Genevieve Podleski
Layout by Jessica Mullins Art: Abrar Ajmal, Sam Araya, James Cole, August Hall, Gavin Hargest,
and Brian LeBlanc Playtested by Jason Bolte, Kevin Bolte
stOrytelling adventure systeM
scenes
10
Mental OOOOO
Physical OOOOO
sOcial OOOOO
XP level
o-34
WHITE WOLF PUBLISHING, INC.
2075 WEST PARK PLACE
BLVD SUITE G
STONE MOUNTAIN, GA 30087
© 2008 CCP hf. All rights reserved. Reproduction without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden, except for the purposes of reviews, and one printed copy which may be reproduced for personal use only. White Wolf, Vampire and
World of Darkness are registered trademarks of CCP hf. All rights reserved. Vampire the Requiem, Werewolf the Forsaken, Mage the Awakening, Promethean the Created, Storytelling System and To The Flame are trademarks of CCP hf. All rights reserved. All
characters, names, places and text herein are copyrighted by CCP hf. CCP North America Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of CCP hf. The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright
concerned. This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are iction and intended for entertainment purposes only. This book contains mature content. Reader discretion is advised.
Check out White Wolf online at http://www.white-wolf.com
76.120.246.161
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Something disturbs the slumber of a quiet, rural town. Sixty years ago, this
monster scarred the town in a terrible inferno. Now nearly rebuilt, the sightings
have returned. The monster, known locally as Moth, was considered nothing
more than a boogeyman to scare children. But those older folk who lived through
his first visit know better. They know that Moth brings trouble.
Confronted by a concerned Promethean, your throng enters the town in
search of Moth, investigating his mysterious return, and, if it comes to that,
removing him before the inferno begins again.
Introduction
To the Flame is a Storytelling Adventure System for Promethean:
The Created . It’s essentially a kit to running this story for your troupe,
which means only you, as the Storyteller, should read it. Like a kit, To
the Flame contains all the parts to build a story. The tools you use to
Created , as well as the usual paper, pencils and dice. When you get your
troupe together, you’ll use these parts and tools to build a story, but how
you put everything together is up to you. It depends on what you’re trying
to do, whether it’s a stand-alone scenario designed for an evening or two
of entertainment or a story in an ongoing Promethean chronicle. The
only right way is whatever is fun for you and your troupe.
Treatment
To the Flame is a story about a town’s attempt to overcome tragedy
once its past comes back to haunt it. Newton, a small rural community,
lost a sizable portion of its population in a great inferno. During the same
period a mysterious monster, known locally as Moth, terrorized the vil-
lage and is believed to be the source of the fire. The conflagration flared
up one night after part of the local coal-burning power plant collapsed,
sending sparks shooting into the nearby woods and spreading the fire into
town. By the following morning, most of the town had been incinerated,
and the death toll reached nearly a hundred. Now, sixty years after the
first fire, Moth is back and Newton’s citizens are terrified.
Rover Cleaves, a Promethean local to Newton, encounters the players’
throng and persuades the group to aid him in finding Moth and averting
another disaster in his hometown. He and the throng travel to Newton,
a small, secluded town, to begin the investigation. Starting with the
local diner and its gossip-queen owner, Miss Sue, the search continues
around the outskirts of town for the elusive Moth. Along the way the
group meets the Wainwrights, a pair of suspicious-seeming ghost hunters
who are tracking Moth for their own “scientific” purposes.
While out in the nearby woods, Moth attacks the throng, surprising
the Created in a swift attack before escaping into the sky. As the group
recovers from the attack, the Wainwrights ambush the throng and kidnap
Cleaves. Now without their guide, the group must either go back and
attempt to rescue Cleaves or continue forward in their investigation of
Moth. Pursuing Cleaves entails a wild goose chase from a haunted hotel
to a house full of Pandorans, as the Wainwrights (who are Lilithim in
disguise) set up multiple traps for the throng with Cleaves acting as bait,
in an effort to allow Moth to cause another Great Fire.
Both the investigation of Moth and the pursuit of the Wainwrights
are hampered in part by Newton’s local Fire Stomp Festival, a celebra-
tion in remembrance of the Great Fire. The entire town is busy with
their festivities, the highlight of which is the Fire Stomp Dance, in
which the entire town dances around a giant bonfire. Moth interrupts
this celebration, and the happy crowd quickly turns into an angry mob
out to seek revenge on the nearest scapegoat: the Prometheans.
The throng escapes and follows Moth to the top of the now rebuilt power
plant. Working their way to the roof, the throng must make one last stand
against the mystifying Created, either persuading him to halt his path of
destruction, or destroying him before he causes more harm to the town.
A b o u t t h e S t o r y t e l l i n g A d v e n t u r e S y S t e m
If this is your irst Storytelling Adventure System (SAS)
product, you’ve chosen a ine place to start. To keep this lean
and focused, though, we haven’t included a lot of the core
premises and Storyteller suggestions that are at the heart of
the SAS. Whether you’re a new Storyteller or an old hand, be
sure to read the free SAS Guide , found at the SAS website:
Here are some of the features available in To the Flame :
Interactive links.
Clicking on anything in purple will
take you directly to the section referenced, or to an
appropriate character sheet or prop. It can also take
you to an external website that could be useful.
Scenes.
• Clicking on a scene name in the scene
lowchart or the page number in the scene card will
take you to the full write-up of the scene.
Bookmarks.
•
This PDF is fully bookmarked, so you
can jump to major sections at any time when the
ile is open.
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A Chapter in Your Chronicle
This story is designed to work either as a one-shot adventure or as a
natural part of your ongoing Promethean chronicle. Since there is no
means of determining the particulars of your particular storyline, the set-
ting and characters are flexible enough to work with the personal prefer-
ences of you and your players. Regardless of what city your chronicle is
currently taking place in, the town of Newton can easily be just outside
of it, a small rural community that exists just an hour or two away from
your current location. The geographic details of Newton are purposefully
vague, and the culture is that of a generic small town.
You can use this story in a number of ways. If the throng is in need of a break
from their normal routines, consider this an exciting trip to the countryside.
If their situation is such that they need to lay low for a while, Newton is a
fine, unassuming locale. Due to the nomadic nature of Prometheans, this
could also be just another stop on their ongoing Pilgrimage. Some of the
characters provided can even be replaced by others the throng has already
encountered along their journey. Characters such as Cleaves and Miss Sue
may be replaced with more familiar characters if need be, especially if it is
difficult to persuade the throng to travel to Newton in the first place.
Theme: History Repeats Itself
A town already beset by tragedy is drastically close to experiencing a
new one. Tragedy is not uncommon with Prometheans and is a part of
the human condition. Aiding a community from experiencing further
strife is a dramatic way of understanding mortality and the misfortune
inherent to mortal life. What is the nature of tragedy? How do people
respond to catastrophe? How is it caused and why does it happen?
Mood: Creepy Paranoia
Enter a scary place and scary things will follow. Newton is a creepy place
even for monsters like Prometheans: a town down on its luck and instilled
with an overriding sense of heartbreak and paranoia. Having a creature like
Moth haunting the area merely adds to the fear. The troupe should feel a
sense of dread and terror, as if something bad is destined to occur soon.
Backstory and Set-Up
Before you sit down with your players and begin the first chapter,
there are a few aspects of the story that need to be established. You
can reveal as much of this information to the characters as you wish –
it’s primarily to put the story’s event into a historical context and add
descriptive flavor to the story. You have complete control over the
amount of information you reveal to your players; it is up to you how
firmly you want this story to reside within your chronicle.
Backstory
Moth Visits Newton
During a particularly warm summer sixty years ago, the citizens of Newton
began to see a strange creature flying above their town. At first, only a few
witnesses would speak openly about seeing this monster; no one wanted to
be labeled a lunatic who rambled about impossible flying monsters. The town
shrugged off these stories as rumors by local nutjobs or pranks by the area’s
youths. The tone changed when the mayor, Stanley Powell, ran into a town
hall meeting ranting about seeing “that Moth creature.” Afterwards, dozens of
eyewitness reports flooded into the police station and the local paper. While
no one reported injuries from their encounters with Moth, tension mounted
throughout town as the creature’s unpredictable and unsettling visits contin-
ued. Eventually, a pattern emerged: he appeared more and more often around
sources of bright light, especially fire. Some particularly cocky or curious folks
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would host sky-watching bonfire parties in the hopes of catching a glimpse of
Moth. Some took his presence seriously, fearing he was a demon or an ill omen.
Others viewed Moth as a lark, a harmless and funny creature that visited their
town, regarding him more as a humorous anecdote than a threat.
The Tide Turns
Speculation ran wild as the citizens of Newton debated the meaning
behind Moth’s visits. Some said he was an angel, others an omen. After six
months of near-constant confrontations, Moth’s novelty began to wear off
as Newton became troubled. The town’s crops were failing, and normally
healthy buildings were falling apart, which they blamed on Moth (a correct
assumption, as his Azothic radiance filtered into the entire town). Rover
Cleaves was also targeted by the town, as the area around his home was the
most affected by the blight (a result of his own Wasteland effect). While
he tried to plead with the people, he could not turn their hearts; the Flux
was too ingrained in the ground for them to show him pity.
The Great Fire
One evening, as the men at the local power plant were changing shifts, a few
workers spotted Moth flying around the main furnace of their plant. Because
of his ubiquity by this point, the men thought nothing of it. At midnight, the
regulatory valves in the plant began to fail; by two o’clock in the morning, the
entire system shut down, and a fire that began with a few sparks at the plant
spread into the nearby woods. All of the workers at the plant died in the fire;
one of them was Rupert, Miss Sue’s husband. Within an hour, the fire spread
to the outskirts of Newton. By four o’clock, half the town was engulfed in
flame. Firefighters from several counties worked together to fight the blaze
and evacuate the town. By dawn, the fire was contained, but the damage was
done: one hundred people dead and hundreds more left homeless.
The Aftermath and Rebuilding
In the sixty years following the inferno, Newton has struggled to
recover economically, physically and spiritually. Rover Cleaves left
town in the fire’s aftermath. Moth disappeared. Newton’s citizens are
on edge, expecting an imminent catastrophe.
Fitting the Backstory
into your Chronicle
The history of Newton can be more than just flavor for this particular
story. There are a number of ways to incorporate this town and its his-
tory into your chronicle before the characters meet Cleaves.
Stories of Strange Prometheans: Moth’s Lineage is unknown. Have
the characters heard of such creatures? Who is his demiurge and have
they encountered her yet? Giving Moth a more detailed background
can add more depth to such a mysterious character.
Cleaves Wanders In: Cleaves is an intentionally nomadic character,
even for a Promethean. Have the characters crossed paths with him be-
fore? He claims to be emotionally attached to this town, but why did it
take him so long to return?
The Locals: Since the actual location of Newton is never defined, the
town can be located in most chronicles just a few hours away. Newton
can act like an exurb to a larger metropolitan area; it is remote enough
from the city to be a separate entity while remaining close enough to
have some overlap in the population’s culture. With this in mind, the
denizens of your chronicle’s city can be aware of the situation in Newton,
or at least know a little something about the Great Fire.
Set-Up
Establishing Newton, its history and the characters surrounding the town in
your chronicle has many benefits to the overall story. First, the most important
Storyteller character to introduce is Cleaves, as he’s the initial spark that
sets the story in motion. If you do not choose to use him, a replacement of
his can work as well, particularly a character the throng does not know very
well who can be given an emotional connection to Newton. The character
could be a Frankenstein who was reborn after the Great Fire, an Ulgan with
a strong connection to the surrounding forest, or even a mystical Zeka.
i S m o t h A Z e k A ?
The power plant used in this story is a traditional coal-burning
one, a common building throughout the world. However, with a
few slight adjustments to the story, you can certainly introduce
the Nuclear Prometheans into this story. This Lineage is described
in detail in Saturnine Night (pp. 77-80). For this story to work,
just replace the Great Fire with a Chernobyl-like calamity, make
the power plant a nuclear one, and change Moth’s Lineage and
Bestowment to that of the Zeka.
Second, Newton can be a familiar destination for the throng. Unlike many
small, rural towns, Newton lends itself to the odd and the outcast: a perfect
Promethean stronghold. The throng may have a familiarity with small town
life or more remote parts of the country, thereby lending them an advantage
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