Episode 1 – Wages of Fear
With few skills other than Action! the heroes set out on a fateful flight across Chaco, only to find rogue elements of the Paraguayan space forces. Their ship disabled or shot down, the heroes must ditch into the thick jungles, and though Professor Turnbull urges them onward, the group is stalked by the denizens of the Chaco.
Start with a Bang
Packed to capacity with equipment, supplies, porters, and guards, the heroes’ ship enters the final leg of a journey that’s brought together an odd collection of heroes for an equally odd mission. Their first stop is Outpost ParaÃso, the planet’s only spaceport and the closest thing Chaco has to civilization. With the jungle flashing below, the pilot receives a disturbing call on the radio from the Paraguayan space forces: Set your plane down at a nearby airfield or be shot from the sky!
From out of the sun dive four ageing Wibault 73S.1 fighters, surrounding the cargo ship like gnats.
Wibault 73S.1 Fighters
Though the heroes’ ship can likely outrun the Wibaults, the ships start the encounter with the drop on the heroes. Any actions other than proceeding on the stated coordinates prompt the Wibaults to open fire. Whether they choose to flight or flee, the results are similar, they are either shot down or damage sustained forces the pilot to set down in the remote jungle.
If the Wibaults shoot down the ship, the pilot has a chance to crash land the craft with a Piloting raise (against any appropriate penalties). Even if the ship escapes, a wayward bullet punctures a vital system (fuel, hydraulics, etc), and the plane starts to lose power. With a Piloting success, the pilot can land the craft in a field or other area without further damage, though the group is essentially stranded until they can recover their ship or find a new one.
Captured!
If the pilot chooses to relent, the Wibaults escort the heroes’ to a hidden airfield where a ragtag group of mercenaries waits. The mercenary captain, Goni Colque, a huge Bolivian with a nasty disposition, takes the group into custody, separates them, and locks them into sweltering metal cargo containers that line the airfield.
| Goni Colque could have either good or bad past dealings with a hero with a military background in the region. |
The heroes’ mooks (porters, guards and the like) are either incorporated into the mercenary outfit, killed or driven off into the jungle to fend for themselves. Unless the heroes’ have personal servants or other loyal minions, they most likely never see these folks again.
The Colque questions each hero in turn, though he does not torture them. Professor Turnbull immediately reveals his name and plans, and the Bolivian terminates the questioning. A few hours later an SS captain arrives with a squad of German soldiers. At first light, the SS captain loads the heroes into a military truck with a staff car escort. The truck driver gets lost after a few hours a driving. The officer in the staff car drives off to find the right way, and never returns. In the process of turning the truck around, it breaks down, stranding the heroes with 2 Nazi guards per wild card and a very nervous Paraguayan truck driver.
The adventure proceeds to Rumble in the Jungle
Crash Landing
If the pilot is forced down in the jungle, the plane is damaged beyond immediate repair, regardless of the Piloting roll to save the passengers (wings shredded off, engines afire, and the like). A number of the porters, equipment, provisions and guards are also lost (determined by the GM). The group should be no more than three or four days from Outpost ParaÃso and Turnbull is aware of its location, though it takes a hero’s Survival check. The denizens of the jungle, of course, await them. The Wibaults return to their airfield and Goni Colque, the Bolivian mercenary captain, dispatches several search parties to find the group, having been given explicit instructions from Jundt that overflight of the area is strictly verboten.
Rumble in the Jungle
This sequence assumes that the heroes have crash landed or are otherwise stranded in the jungle. If the group has been captured, remove the Hunters encounter and add one of your own design. If captured, the mooks that take the brunt of these encounters are the Nazis and their mercenary minions, rather than the heroes’ mooks.
The trek through the jungle is a tense, dirty and laborious affair with superstitious porters, trigger-happy guards, and a phantom that stalks the group day and night, striking at the least opportune times. Below are three scenes that can be used to drive home the precarious position that Turnbull has put the group in, as well as methods for providing hints to the other heroes’ and supporting characters’ motivations, quirks and secrets. Trekking through the jungle from the crash site to the Outpost requires a daily Survival check. If all checks are successful, the Outpost can be located in three days. Any failed check adds a day to the journey, while a roll of 1 on a Survival test leaves the heroes stranded in the jungle at least a week until they find their way again (requiring at least three Survival successes).
Feel free to add additional encounters here, as appropriate. The flora and fauna are fairly typical of an earth jungle, though the creatures may look a bit different. The Sci-Fi Bestiary and the Pulp GM Toolkit are excellent resources for additional sci-fi/pulp encounters, with everything from dinosaurs to the Decapitator!
The Hunters
Once his patrolling fighters report in, Goni Colque sends search parties far and wide. Led by two native scouts, the men of these search parties are soldiers hardened by at least three years of war in these very jungles. They’ve seen the horrors of war and even more terrifying things that lurk in the Chaco.
Hardened Mercenaries
Native Scouts
The Ghouls
After the war, the Guarani natives immediately melted into their new jungle home.
Out there, small clans and even full tribes encountered strange creatures and even stranger energies. What they encountered there drive these men to unspeakable acts of horror, including cannibalism, desecration of and some say, raising the dead. Such men are called Wañusqa by the unmarred locals. Though it’s widely believed that some radiation or other poison has caused the phenomenon, others claim that the changes to the natives are the deliberate act of an as yet unknown enemy.
The Wañusqa may approach the party in groups of 2 or three and offer assistance or trade during the day. They likewise may be encountered as they finish up a complex ritual at the shrine described below.
With a Notice check, local native mooks in the party recognize these men for what they are. Local native Wildcards recognize Wañu with a Common Knowledge success. Heroes can recognize Wañu with a Knowledge (Chaco) or Common Knowledge check, if applicable, otherwise they can sense the Wañu’s purpose with a Notice against a Stealth. If recognized, the Wañu scouts flee into the jungle.
Either way, the Wañu attack the party at night, using poisoned javelins or arrows and even some firearms. If engaged in melee, one Wañu per Wild Card remains, fighting with their massive clubs, while the others flee.
Wañu Ghouls
The Shrine
At some point in the jungle trek, the heroes come across a Guarani shrine meant to ward off the evils that have transformed their brethren. Within this shrine is an artifact of early humans that occupied Chaco. The artifact is a silvery metal cylinder about eighteen inches long with a roughly carved cube on one end. The entire artifact is crowded with strange writing and drawings of men bowing before fiery winged beings. The writing is in a root language of Sumerian Sanskrit. Those with knowledge of Sanskrit cannot make out words, but recognize the similarities on a Knowledge success.
The artifact is one of many markers left by the ancients and used to locate the heavenly home of their gods. As detailed in Episode 3, a functional marker can be used to locate the temple dedicated to these gods on the Chaco moon of Jasy Jaterei.
Use this encounter as is or as part of another encounter in the Wages of Fear section.
Laqha’uku
Natives and other locals speak of this creature in hushed tones, some believing that speaking about it causes it to appear. The Guarani name for it translates to Deeper Darkness (though players not of this world believe it roughly translates into Plot Device), and it is an insatiable creature that stalks the jungles picking off prey and melting back into the forest. Large parties (such as the heroes’) are particularly vulnerable.
Laqha’uku
The creature plays with the group over the course of their journey, appearing as a vast shadow, a strange rotting smell, its unnerving baby-like cry, and even snatching unwary mooks. Though it eludes the heroes’ investigation and attacks, it finally chooses to finish its game, culminating in a chase scene. The thing bursts from the jungle in broad daylight, finishing off all but a few of the mooks in the party and attacking the heroes themselves. It should be apparent that it is nearly invulnerable to the heroes’ attacks and that a visible and reachable bridge across a vast chasm is their only hope. Beyond the chasm lies Outpost ParaÃso.
Navigator
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