LAST GAMBIT OF THE MIND MASTERSDARWIN’S WORLD:

BY

DOMINIC COVEY

WWW.RPGOBJECTS.COMWWW.DARWINRPG.COM

PLAYTESTING: DOMINIC COVEY, CHRIS DAVIS, Chris Derner,, Chris Hoover, Ryan KellEy, Ethan Ripplinger, Aaron

Wiggins, Jeremy Lee.

COVER: DOMINIC COVEYMAPS: DOMINIC COVEYEDITING: CHRIS DAVISLAYOUT: CHRIS DAVIS

Requires use of the Darwin’s World: Survivors Handbook and the Modern d20 core rules. You can download the core rules here for FREE:

http://www.rpgobjects.com/index.php?c=md20

Copyright 2011 © RPG Objects. All rights Reserved.Visit our web site at www.RPGObjects.com.

Sam

ple

file

2

LAST GAMBIT OF THE MIND MASTERSLast Gambit of the Mind Masters is the final installment of a four-part adventure series focused around the “Savants“, a

powerful empire of psionic mutants who hold tyrannical

reign over the lands of the Old American South. The series began with the hunt to uncover the ruins of a strange facility abandoned by the Savants in Secrets of the Mind Masters, followed by a quest to end the Savants’ domination in Rise of the Mind Masters. The third adventure, In Pursuit of the Mind Masters, sent the characters across the Gulf of Mexico and to the ruins of New Orleans in a desperate race to catch the Savants before they detonated a weapon of unprecedented destructive capabilities.

In this final adventure the characters will at long last reach the end of their journey, and in so doing, hopefully thwart the last vestiges of the Savant Empire, preventing the detonation of their secret “doomsday weapon” before it can put to use against the people of the Twisted Earth.

THE ANNISTON WILDERNESSMuch of the action of Last Gambit of the Mind Masters takes place in a part of the Twisted Earth known to its inhabitants as the “Anniston Wilderness”. As such, this introductory section will provide you, as GM, with an overview of the region.

Like the Sahara and Gobi Deserts of the pre-Fall world, the Anniston Wilderness is one of the Twisted Earth’s largest continuous climate zones; the jungles and swamps of the Anniston Wilderness cover virtually all of the former states of Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, and southern Georgia. This rugged, young wilderness is vast and voracious, and over the past 200 years has quickly grown to cover entire towns and even the ruins of ancient cities, in some cases completely burying them under a maze of roots, vines, and towering tree trunks.

There are probably places in the Anniston Wilderness where the jungle recedes or diminishes, but whether or not such clear spots exist is open to conjecture. The only intelligent inhabitants

of the Anniston Wilderness appear to be the Savants (and, according to reports, some small tribes of savage natives), and these only live in small settlements near the Gulf coast, with access to the ocean. To these people the interior of the Wilderness is simply a vast, primordial jungle, and efforts to explore and map the jungle are secondary to simply surviving the region’s native dangers.

Unlike the Sahara and Gobi, the Anniston Wilderness is entirely unnatural. Before the Fall this region had a fairly mundane climate, but during the Fall (and in the years afterwards) the land underwent drastic changes. No one alive remembers what caused the great change, but the truth behind the creation of the Anniston Wilderness stems from the weapons being produced by the Ancients in the years just prior to the Final War. Refining the production of new forms of chemical weaponry known as a “foliants” (as opposed to “de-foliants”, used widely during the Vietnam War era), the Defense Department began the mass-scale stockpiling of a particularly virulent chemical known as “Agent Green” at the Anniston Strategic Options Center in upstate Alabama. Agent Green was a potent, fast-acting chemical intended to hamper enemy movement in wartime. An aerosol, Agent Green was to be dropped on occupied cities, airfields, and highways, causing the immediate and spontaneous growth of trees, vines, and heavy vegetation in a matter of days. The idea was to

create heavy growth where none existed, to prevent the use of roads and highways, causing confusion and delays in enemy troop movements/supply

distribution.During the Final War the only known use of Agent Green was on enemy-occupied San Jose, California (which is still heavily overgrown to this day). Before more of the chemical could be distributed and used, however, some kind of accident occurred at the chemical depots at Anniston, where Agent Green was being stored. There was no warning to the people in the counties to the south as, over the course of one week, vast clouds of greenish-gray gas were released into the sky. Clouds of Agent Green extending one hundred (and growing to two hundred) miles spread east-southeast from Anniston, sweeping

across Alabama and eventually the entire southeast coast, poisoning

thousands of miles of wilderness and regional watersheds.

The effect of this chemical

Sam

ple

file

3

disaster was immediate in many places, turning miles of countryside into aggressively-expanding, jungle-like wilderness. Efforts were made to combat the chemical gas, but to no avail, as Agent Green proved to be seeding the land far faster than it could be purged. In the end Agent Green won out, swallowing up the land in its voracious, verdant embrace. To this day the entire southeast grows thicker and more impassable with each passing year.

UNDERSTANDING THE MAPIn Pursuit of The Mind Masters is accompanied by a somewhat detailed adventure map spanning a part of the Gulf Coast ranging from what used to be New Orleans to Miami, Florida. Using hexes to measure distance, this map allows you as GM to keep track of the party’s progress as they proceed in the adventure.

Hexes: Each hex represents a single day’s travel by foot for a reasonably-encumbered, average party of humanoids. Parties that have vehicles, or some other means of expediting travel may travel two or more hexes per day, at the GM‘s discretion.

Triangles: Special sites detailed in the text are indicated on the map by a numbered triangle.

Blue Lines: Rivers are indicated by a blue line passing through a hex. Rivers are difficult to traverse, as few ancient bridges still stand. A party crossing through a hex with a blue line loses an additional day of travel (thus these hexes require two days, instead of one).

BEGINNING THE ADVENTUREThe adventure begins a few days

after the characters flee the ruins of New Orleans (“Nolenz”) at the conclusion of In Pursuit of The Mind Masters. Presumably

this will have been achieved by a desperate crossing of the Pontchartrain Bridge, but however the characters accomplished their escape from the terminal-infested ruins is irrelevant. Once clear of the city, the characters will plunge headfirst into the jungle - and will soon confront the dangers that lurk within.

J0. NOLENZ (EL 0)The ruins of New Orleans are not detailed in this adventure, but rather serve as the arbitrary “starting point” for the party’s adventures through the Anniston Wilderness. If you’ve played the previous adventure, In Pursuit of The Mind Masters, the characters will have just left Nolenz in a hurry…

J1. HUNTERS & HUNTED (EL 20)A heavy fog has settled over these dismal

bayous, a vast swampland that seems to stretch forever. Ancient trees rise from the slate grey mud of the marshes, their limbs bare except for near their tops, which bristle with heavy foliage, blocking most of the eerie blue moonlight. Stray beams of weak light manage to break through the canopy in places, creating oddly shifting pools with a dim glow. The swamp itself burbles and bubbles with a life of its own, but other than that the marshes are silent and empty, filling you with a sense of extreme isolation.

All of a sudden you hear a loud splash echo through the swamp, followed by a cry, then, in the distance, the howl and barking of raving dogs. You rush for cover among the reeds just as thin lances of light - perhaps lanterns and torches - become visible, steadily advancing in your direction.

As soon as the PCs take cover, several creatures come stumbling through the swamp in their direction. Any characters observing from hiding will notice their general appearance: they resemble albino apemen, savage creatures often found in the ruins of old cities, but they wear torn rags for clothing and move along with a surprisingly nimble gait, hopping swiftly through the thickets and muddy embankments of the bayou. The creatures are members of a fallen society of apemen that once dominated the coastal areas of southern Mississippi and Alabama, but whose civilization is now in steep decline.

As you watch, the fleeing apes come under fire from a small group of armed mutants emerging from the treeline, brandishing lanterns and

JOURNEY THROUGH THE WILDERNESSIn this adventure the player characters are essentially just trying to get from Point A (Nolenz) to Point B (Miami). Their travels will take them 900 miles through some of the world’s harshest terrain, a vast new region of jungle and swamp that is the strange legacy of some of the most powerful weapons used during the Final War. This huge region covers the entirety of what used to be the southeastern states, its trees, vines, and marshes burying the wreckage of the Ancient world. Old cities, highways, and towns have completely vanished under this unnatural green forestland, leaving virtually no landmarks for travelers to navigate by. It is a teeming, shadowy realm of jungle canopy and wild mutant beasts, rife with shifting marshes and bayous, with rivers that continuously change course to confound maps and would-be explorers. Guidelines for the trek through the jungle will be presented later.

Sam

ple

file

4

Sam

ple

file

5

SWAMP APESThe apemen (“swamp apes”) are descended from the more technically-advanced ape empire that once dominated this region. These primitive offshoots exist on the fringes of that dying civilization, dwelling in squalid savagery in the swamp. They are still intelligent, however, though they lack the spark of brilliance that once characterized the apemen of the Anniston Wilderness (see area J4).

Swamp apes are a simple race that has always lived in the swamps, and with the passage of years have simply become better adapted to life in the marshes. Unfortunately that same simplicity has been their undoing, as in recent years the Savants began expansion into the fringes of the Anniston Wilderness, bringing the apemen of the deep bayou under their control.

For years the swamp apes have been living on borrowed time; disorganized and unsophisticated, they stand no chance against the Savant mind masters and their minions. The swamps of the Anniston Wilderness have proven to be their one and only ally, and their people have fled into its unnatural landscape to evade capture. The Savants continue to hunt for their kind, gathering them up wherever they are found and sending them off to be used as slave labor. Only a few tribes of original swamp apes are left now; their future is uncertain at best.

Swamp apes are identical to albino apemen in game terms, albeit with slightly increased intelligence. Physically they are also similar, though their fur is often grey or off-white, and usually matted with mud or other decaying vegetable matter.

torches. Several ugly individuals in leather and plate armor stand confidently with weapons brandished, firing casually at the apes and felling one or two in the first volley. The leader of these mutants is much taller than the rest, clad in the iconic peaked, all-concealing hood of a Savant lord, but looking like a brute. The mutants lead a pack of disfigured hounds with brightly-glowing eyes, which immediately bare their fangs and begin running across the swampy ground in pursuit of their simian prey.

The apemen are being pursued by a small force of Savant slave warriors, a pack of trained seers (see Appendix 1: New Creatures), and a Savant slavemaster, who has been tasked with rounding up this particular band of escaped apemen and bring them back to the compound at J2. Presumably the PCs will intervene (wittingly or unwittingly) as more and more of the fleeing apes are cut down trying to get away. The Savants only number a dozen or so, and their over-confidence could give the characters an advantage. If the characters attack, the Savant forces will be taken by surprise.

Morro Island Slave Warriors (11): HP 91 (see below).

Advanced Seers (6): HP 43 (see below).Slavemaster: HP 216 (see area H at Morro Island,

below).

Morro Island Slave Warriors (Mutant Strong Hero 3/Guardian 9): CR 12; Medium-size humanoid; HD 3d8+6 plus 9d10+18 plus 3; HP 91; Mas 14; Init +2; Spd 25 ft; Defense 27, touch 19, flatfooted 25 (+0 size, +2 Dex, +7 class, +8 equipment); BAB +12; Grap +16; Atk +16 melee (1d6+4, cleaver), or +15 ranged (2d8+4, Remington Streetsweeper); FS 5 ft by 5 ft; Reach 5 ft; SQ medical incompatibility, diurnal; AL

Savants; SV Fort +10, Ref +7, Will +5; AP 6; Rep +3; Str 18, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 4.

Occupation: Slave (Craft [structural]), Perform).Background: Tribal (Survival).Mutations and Defects: Diurnal, Interior Moisture

Reservoir, Multiple Stomachs, Atrophied Cerebellum (Cha) x3.

Skills: Craft (structural) +6, Intimidate +10, Knowledge (Tactics) +5, Listen +4, Perform +0, Spot +4, Survival +5.

Feats: Archaic Weapons Proficiency, Armor Proficiency (light), Armor Proficiency (medium), Endurance, Far Shot, Great Fortitude, Personal Firearms Proficiency, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Primitive Technology, Simple Weapons Proficiency, Toughness, Track, War Chant [B&L].

Talents (Strong Hero): Extreme Effort, Improved Extreme Effort.

Talents (Guardian): Defender +2, Weapon Focus (Remington Streetsweeper), Tactical Aid, Weapon Specialization (Remington Streetsweeper), Defender +4, Greater Weapon Specialization (Remington Streetsweeper).

Possessions: Cleaver, Remington Streetsweeper, 24 rounds of 12-gauge ammunition, master craft tactical vest +2.

Advanced Seers: CR 7; Medium-size mutated animal; HD 8d8+8; HP 43; Mas 13; Init +4; Spd 30 ft; Defense 18, touch 14, flatfooted 14 (+4 Dex, +4 natural); BAB +6; Grap +7; Atk +8 melee (1d6+2, bite), or +11 ranged touch (2d12, eyebeams); Full Atk +8 melee (1d6+2, bite), or +11 ranged touch (2d12, eyebeams); FS 5 ft by 5 ft; Reach 5 ft; SQ eyebeams, low-light vision, scent; AL none; SV Fort +7, Ref +9, Will +3; AP 0; Rep +0; Str 14, Dex 18, Con 13, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 7.

Skills: Hide +5, Listen +8, Move Silently +6, Spot

Sam

ple

file

6

+6, Survival +3 (+7 when tracking by scent).Feats: None.

Development: These Savant servitors flee if the PCs put up stiff resistance (which is likely), and will retreat if they lose more than six of their number (not including the seers, which are expendable). The slavemaster avoids fighting if possible; he will withdraw if his men break, slowly retreating and regarding the PCs with a vengeful stare as he melds back into the night.

AFTERWARDSOnce the PCs have dealt with the Savant hunting party the remaining swamp apes will cautiously approach them. They’ve grown to fear outsiders over the years, but clearly the PCs aren’t their enemies. Furthermore, several of their number are in need of immediate medical attention, suffering bite/bullet injuries from their pursuers, and the swamp apes have no means of tending the injured. The characters have an opportunity to bridge the gap of racial distrust by helping in any way they can; some of the wounded will respond to treatment, others will have to be carried.

To the party’s surprise, the swamp apes speak a primitive dialect of Gutter Talk, which only a person with that language can understand (unless the PCs have a language translator, in which case it will be able to translate for them), but even with the most primitive gestures it becomes clear that they are being hunted by forces of the Savants and are trying to escape deeper into the swamps. If the PCs have some way of communicating with them, they can learn the following:• The swamp apes are the "original" denizens of the

Anniston Wilderness, descended from a “dying empire” located “somewhere to the east” (they’re not sure where exactly). The Savants are only new arrivals (a decade or so), and have attacked, enslaved, and waged a war of genocide against them in an effort to uproot them and take their territory.

• The Savants use mind powers and clairvoyance to find the swamp ape encampments in the swamp and mount raids to round them up and take them as prisoners. Captives are taken to a compound here in the bayou, not far from where the PCs currently are. The swamp apes the PCs saved escaped from this same compound the night previous.

• A particularly cruel Savant overseer runs the compound, called “Morro Island“. Apparently this overseer is allowed to run the old plantation however he wishes, and his superiors elsewhere turn a blind eye to his depraved activities. These activities include performing experimental surgeries and horrific medical procedures on his

captives, most of whom die from the treatment.• There are some fifty mutant guards and servitors

at Morro Island, as well as a handful of trained apemen who serve their master in the role of assistants and toadies. They keep watch over more captive swamp apes and other creatures. Several of the escapees have family who are still back at the compound, and these have vowed to return to free them - at any cost.

If asked about the Anniston Wilderness in specific, the swamp apes don't really know all that much. The cataclysm that changed the entire region occurred generations ago, long before any of them can remember. They do know the geography of the land, however, and will tell the party (whom they assume to be unprepared for the dangers of the swamp) to accompany them and stay close as they journey all night through the marshes.

If the PCs ask why the Savants came to the swamps in the first place, the swamp apes become shifty and evasive, alluding vaguely to the Savants' "greed". But they are either unable - or unwilling - to give a more detailed explanation for the Savant presence in the Anniston Wilderness.

Snogg, the leader of the swamp apes, is just as eager to learn of the PCs, where they came from, and their mission. He doesn’t know much about the Savant Empire beyond the Anniston Wilderness, nor of the warp-bomb or the events of the previous adventures, but he and his followers will be enthralled by their tales of other peoples holding out against the Savants, and of the epic struggle of the Arid City alliance (as detailed in Rise of the Mind Masters). At the culmination of their story, Snogg boldly declares that the swamp apes are “brothers” of the Arid City alliance, and will commit themselves to helping do whatever they can to tie down Savant resources in the unfolding war. It’s a grand gesture (and perhaps one that will only make the party laugh), but while the PCs may be skeptical about Snogg’ potential contributions to the rebellion against the Savants, at least for the time being the party has found allies in this distant and miserable corner of the Savant Empire.

RETURN TO THE COMPOUNDGiven the chance, Snogg and his apeman followers lead the PCs deeper into the swamps, where they indicate a safe place to rest. If asked, they tell the party that the Savants won’t travel this deep to find them (at least not at night), especially after the PCs sent them packing. The Savants are likely to have returned to their island compound in the swamp to lick their wounds. They’ll be better prepared tomorrow, and are certain to send a larger and more powerful party after the PCs (and escaped apemen) to eradicate them.

Remarkably, Snogg doesn’t seem too concerned by this, and the remaining swamp apes also seem to be in

Sam

ple

file