Children of the Seed
A Feng Shui Adventure
Written by Ernest Mueller
Premise: Genetically engineered plant-terrorists try to kill the characters after the TAC disappears in a flash of blue light at a televised twenty year reunion ceremony.
The Twist: The Aragami are the good guys. The terrorists want to punish the TAC and reawaken the Aragami to cleanse the Earth of "undesirables." The TAC has been "taken in" by Susano-Oh and Kaede to protect them, but they are in stasis.
Climax: The terrorists are destroyed by the enraged Aragami they awake by injecting it with their serum, and the characters must stop the Aragami before it levels Tokyo!
Backstory
The players are the children of the original members of the TAC, as described in the Background and Player Character handouts. It is twenty years later, and the members of the TAC have settled down to new lives and family. Japan has slowly rebuilt itself from the destruction it suffered from the rogue plants. The cherry tree in which Susano-Oh and Kaede sleep proved immune to investigation and has a park built around it (with convenient nearby SDF battalions). Business in Japan is otherwise vigorous as usual.
The Hook
The terrorists, led by an insane genetic engineer, have developed a serum to awaken the Aragami and to turn humans into plant-creatures. The serum is unnatural, a product of genetic engineering, and sends the Aragami on a destroying spree. Meanwhile, the TAC slumbers on in Susano-Oh's domain and must be rescued.
Getting Started
The adventure begins as the TAC attends a televised ceremony in a public square in Shinjuku (a neighborhood of Tokyo) commemorating the 20th anniversary of the successful resolution of the Aragami incident and the completion of the rebuilding of Japan after the near-destruction of all its cities. The stage is in front of the park in which the huge cherry tree, the last remnant of the great battle against the Aragami, stands. The TAC is called on stage to be honored, and the announcer (the mayor of Tokyo) goes on for some time about the heroic way the Japanese people banded together to counter the threat. Kusanagi, sitting with the PCs, notes that the mayor, at the time just a city functionary, was memorable for continually screaming like a little girl during the final attack.
Opening Scene
The PCs have seats on the front row of folding bleachers some 40' from the stage. A large number of news crews, etc. fill the gap. As Kunikida rises to speak on the behalf of the TAC, Kusanagi suddenly shouts, "Momiji!" and leaps with inhuman speed onto the stage as a blinding blue light appears, obscuring the TAC and reaching to the heavens. As it disappears the TAC is gone. One news crew abruptly opens up on the stage with machineguns that were hidden in their cameras! Simultaneously, a news van door slides open disgorging a squad of men in white baggy suits and gas masks with strange weapons that start spraying the crowd with a cloud of green gas, sending news crews and onlookers fleeing, choking and screaming.
Scene 1: Fear and Loathing in Shinjuku!
The TAC and Kusanagi are all gone. The politicians are still on stage, but taking cover as gunfire erupts. The news crew concentrates on the stage while the van guys go for the audience. They try to kill as many people as they can and then get away in the van. The green gas is actually coming from the white-suited figures. The news crew are terrorists affiliated with the Sylvan Veil, an eco-terrorist organization. The figures in white baggies are actually plant-men genetically engineered by Umo Daizan, an insane genetic engineer.
Four Eco-Terrorists, Warriors of the Sylvan Veil
Besides their news-crew equipment, these wackos have Uzis and sickles (symbols of the Sylvan Veil movement) concealed in their equipment. They intended to kill the TAC, but now that they are gone major politicians will do. If they are out of politicians, player characters will also do.
Unnamed Eco-Terrorists
Sample Dialogue: "Earth First! For a new tomorrow!"
Attributes: Bod 6, Chi 1, Mind 4, Ref 6
Skills: Guns 8, MA 8
Weapons: Uzi (10/4/40), Sickle (9)
Six Plant-Men, Genetically Engineered Threats
These plant-men are pretty dense, and only know how run around spraying green gas everywhere. They are pretty dangerous, however. They look like people in bio-suits and gas masks until the masks are removed or the suits take damage, in which case they look like a huge mass of vines and creepers with eyes. They have what at first glance seem to be mitamas (blue seeds) set intheir foreheads but are really bio-microprocessors allowing them to be controlled by Daizan. Anyone taking 25 Wound Points of damage (or dying, for mooks and bystanders) from gas or plant-man hand-to-hand attacks starts transforming into a plant-man per the Corruption creature power (the twins are immune since they're already part plant). Dead bystanders turn immediately, of course.
Unnamed Plant-Men
Sample Dialogue: "Scraaaawww!"
Attributes: Bod 10, Chi 3, Mind 2, Ref 5
Skills: Guns 5, MA 7, Creature Powers 10
Schticks: Poison Gas (Damage 10 - CON), Corruption, Abysmal Spines
Weapons: Thorns (12)
Neat Things That Could Happen
The Plant-Men can convert GMC mooks (like local police) into more plant-men.
News crews have lots of cameras and cords and boom microphones, and cute anchormen/women to be chipper yet menaced.
One of the news crew has a grenade he will use as a last-ditch kamikaze attack if all goes poorly.
It's in a public square, with bleachers and fire hydrants and light poles and fried squid on a stick vendors.
The van has a lot of dynamite in it. The kind really vulnerable to shooting.
One of the news crew can grab the mayor and use him as a hostage. The mayor will scream like a little girl if this occurs.
To Grandmother's House We Go
The authorities reconvene. They can't figure out where the TAC/parents went, but they know the blue light is a sure sign of Aragami involvement. The tape in the camera reveals the posing of the head Sylvan Veil terrorist, who claims "this blow, struck in the name of the holy Aragami, will return the Earth to the vegetables where it belongs! Death to humanity!" The "seeds" in the plant-men are not normal, upon inspection by anyone scientific they appear to be a very high-tech kind of biological electrical circuit. Only one company is known to be working on that technology, the wealthy and eccentric Daizan Corporation.
The authorities say that they have no way of knowing what is going to happen next. They say that Yaegashi had a computer program that can predict the movement of Aragami, could the PCs go get it for them? Umeo, Yaegashi's son, thinks that it may be in his grandmother's house - Yaegashi lived there with his mother until he married Kome.
Scene 2: Look Out! Old Secrets and New!
The PCs reach Grandma's house without incident. She lets them in, but wastes as much time as possible by asking "So, is this your girlfriend?" of her grandson repeatedly, concentrating on Kiku, Kunikida's daughter (but pretty much any female PC will do). Once the PCs extricate themselves they can go search Yaegashi's old room, which Grandma has thoughtfully kept exactly the way he used to keep it. Grandma keeps showing up to bring the characters tea, tell the chosen girl what a catch Umeo is, and so on.
They find an old computer program, which Jun can get working with a little effort. It starts to run, and shows a perky, 15-year-old Momiji. "Hi! I'm Momiji! Which animal is on my underwear today!" A sequence of panties flash by before the mystified PCs until it settles on "Rhino Panties!!!". Before this can result in violence, a grenade crashes in through the window.
On Location
Mrs. Yaegashi's house is a large, two-story house with lots of rice-paper walls in the Tokyo suburbs. Yoshiki's old room has lots of computer books, computer parts, disks/CDROMs/optical storage/tape cartridges, etc.
Twelve Professional Terrorists, the Green Front
These are professional German terrorists deeply committed to the Green cause. They use good tactics and discipline. Their goal is to eliminate the PCs and neutralize any anti-Aragami threat.
Unnamed Terrorists
Sample Dialogue: "Achtung! Halt! Feuer!!!"
Attributes: Bod 7, Chi 1, Mind 5, Ref 6
Skills: Guns 8, MA 8
Weapons: H&K MP5 (10/5/30), Grenade (13)
Wolfgang Bauer, Terrorist Leader
Wolfgang is a veteran of several German terrorist organizations. He is a stone killer, and his philosophy justifies immediate violent action if it suits his version of the greater good. He opens with the shotgun, switches to BGB when pressed, and escapes if all his mooks are disabled.
Wolfgang Bauer
Sample Dialogue: "Komm out! Give us the disk! You vill cooperate or be eliminated."
Attributes: Bod 8, Chi 2, Mind 6, Ref 8
Skills: Guns 15, Sabotage 12, MA 12, Drive 13
Weapons: Desert Eagle x2 (12/3/9+1), Benelli M3 shotgun (13/5/7)
Schticks: Both Guns Blazing x5 (AV +2, Damage 24 - 2xTGH + Outcome)
Grandma Yaegashi, Japanese Grandmother
Grandma doesn't like her house getting torn up. She's gunning for Umeo to get married as soon as possible. She is very nice and very pushy.
Grandma Yaegashi
Sample Dialogue: "You boys! Not so rough in the house!"
Attributes: Bod 5, Chi 3, Mind 4, Ref 6
Skills: MA 10, Cooking 12, Persistent Matchmaking 16
Weapons: Broom 7, Rolling Pin 8, Random Household Objects 6
Neat Things That Could Happen
Computer monitors make nice popping noises when applied to people's heads.
Lots of computer media is usable as thrown weapons, or can be confused with "the" diskette.
People can get whacked through rice paper interior walls.
Grandma can go all Bruce Lee on the mooks.
Grandma can get endangered and held captive by Wolfgang.
Grandma can heckle Umeo about getting a girlfriend.
Wolfgang can drop a flash-bang and escape out a window to his waiting getaway car.
Finding the Bad Guys
The PCs can follow Wolfgang, if he escapes. He will high-tail it to the secret lab. The computer program fromthe disk (if accessed at the house or in transit) says that the Aragami are asleep, but being awakened by some external force. It gives a location in an underground lab belonging to the Daizan Corporation, and shows a very large disturbance happening very, very soon. It also locates the missing ex-TAC members inside the cherry tree in the park! The authorities, if contacted, "can't move without hard evidence" against Daizan Labs. Naturally it's up to the characters to stop this threat.
Scene 3: Science is cruel! Secrets revealed!
The party has to break their way into the lab through access tunnels and a total of about a dozen AV6 security guards. They reach the lab in time to find Umo Daizan, evil and crazed genetic scientist (and CEO of the Daizan Corporation) shouting "You fool! You've led them here!" at Wolfgang. A squad of a dozen security guards form a line between the PCs and Daizan. Daizan kicks off by releasing a gas (he claps a mask to his mouth) that transforms all the mooks and Wolfgang into plant-creatures! He shrieks, "Don't you understand! This way we can rule with the Aragami in the perfect world! We will still be their masters, and with their power bring this industrialized abomination of a society down for all time!" (He likes saying things likethis.) He also plans to wake a sleeping Aragami that he will send towards the cherry tree and tear it down in order to reawaken Susano-Oh.
On Location
Daizan Labs is a big underground facility. The combat zone is a big, stainless-steel, three-story-tall laboratory with plenty of wall-sized computers, consoles, chairs with restraints, weird beam projectors, chemicals, plants, animals, and plant-creature animals in little glass cages, and more. There is a mitama in a plexiglass bell on a pedestal, with lots of technical thingys pointing at it.
Umo Daizan, Insane Genetic Engineer and CEO
Daizan intends to irradiate the mitama and cause it to merge with an animal, reawakening an Aragami. He has a bunch of cages of little critters around the lab, just in case. He only shoots enough to get PCs out of his way to set off the beam. Daizan looks like a white-haired Japanese scientist in lab coat, with a strange cybernetic helmet with a mitama-shaped protrusion on the front. He uses this to control his plant-men.
Umo Daizan
Sample Dialogue: "Japan will be a forested utopia again, under my benevolent subjugation!"
Attributes: Bod 6, Chi 3, Mind 8, Ref 7
Skills: Guns 14, Science 16, Fix-It 15, Run Corporation 13
Weapons: Weird Electrical Pistol (11/4/10, make TGH check vs amount of damage inflicted or be stunned till end of sequence)
Schticks:
Wolfgang Bauer, Plant-Man
Wolfgang wasn’t expecting to get the green thumb, and will attack anyone in range, PC or otherwise. He instinctively wants to get back at the PCs, Daizan, and the German government.
Wolfgang Bauer (Plant-Man)
Sample Dialogue: "Nein... Was ist los… Arrrrgh… Scraaaawww!"
Attributes: Bod 8, Chi 2 (Mag 10), Mind 6, Ref 8
Skills: Sabotage 12, MA 12, Creature Powers (15)
Weapons: Thorns (12/5/unlimited), Spines (13)
Schticks: Abysmal Spines x2, Blast (Thorns), Armor, Tentacles (Extendable Arms), Both Thorns Blazing (like BGB but using his Blast)
Twelve Plant-Men, Genetically Engineered Threats
These plant-men attack the characters mercilessly, as they are entirely under Daizan's control. When they transform the bioelectric "seeds" grow in on their foreheads. They do occasionally take a shot or two off to break some scenery.
Unnamed Plant-Men
Sample Dialogue: "Scraaaawww!"
Attributes: Bod 10, Chi 3, Mind 2, Ref 5
Skills: Guns 5, MA 7, Creature Powers 10
Schticks: Poison Gas (Damage 10 - CON), Corruption, Abysmal Spines
Weapons: Thorns (12)
Neat Things That Could Happen
There are many chemicals that burn or corrode plant (and PCs) lying around.
The gas the plant-men puts off restricts a lot of sight.
If Daizan gets de-helmeted the plant-men attack anyone and anything around - computers, other plant-men, their former boss, etc. Daizan's electricity pistol works well against these guys by design, however.
All the animal cages could get opened sending little critters of all descriptions into the fray.
The Aragami Awakens
At some point a beam from some technowidget somewhere shouldgo off and irradiate the mitama with blue energy. The seed will shatter its protective casing and fall to the floor, striking… a large beetle freed from one of the cases! The beetle grows to immense size and monstrous aspect, and Daizan screams in triumph. A bioelectric control seed grows over the Aragami's real seed - but suddenly, it cracks and falls off, ruining his cybernetic control. The beetle crushes Daizan like a bug and burrows out of the lab complex, headed for the cherry tree in Shinjuku!
Scene 4: Final Showdown! Japan in Peril!
The beetle Aragami rampages through the streets of Tokyo as it streaks towards the cherry tree. SDF forces try to help, but to no avail. At the park perimeter they have tanks, bazookas, and more; but their weapons are ineffectual.
Beetle Aragami
Like a number of other Aragami, this creature is not intelligent per se but has a good degree of animal cunning. It is following a vague instinct to dig Susano-Oh out of the cherry tree, and it will not relent unless killed. Damage will distract it for a little bit, but it will resume its original course at inopportune times.
Kabutomushi, Beetle Aragami
Sample Quote: Crunching of buildings, smashing of cars…
Attributes: Bod 15, Chi 2 (Mag 15), Mind 1, Ref 8
Skills: Creature Powers 15, Martial Arts 14
Weapons: Horns (23), Trample (17), Gas Eruption (18)
Schticks: Abysmal Spines x4, Armor x4, Damage Immunity (normal bullets), Foul Spew (acidic beetle gas, takes 6 shots but covers an entire street)
Self Defense Force Soldiers
These brave soldiers shoot all their ordinance at the Aragami to no avail. They try to jump out of their tanks before they are melted by the acidic gas or stomped into scrap by the huge monster. Many twist dials on their little radios madly, yelling "The monster is approaching the city!"
Unnamed Soldiers
Sample Quote: "Dame da! (It's no good!)"
Attributes: Bod 7, Chi 0, Mind 4, Ref 6
Skills: Guns 8, Martial Arts 7
Weapons: A little bit of everything
Neat Things That Could Happen
All your usual car chase options, complicated by tanks, choppers, and large explosions from overzealous SDF soldiers.