The Medicine Man.pdf

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medicine man
iNtrOductiON / WHAt’s GOiNG ON
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credits
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cONteNts
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WritiNG
Walt Ciechanowski
LiNe deVeLOPer
editiNG
cOVer
Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan
Andrew Kenrick and Matthew Pook
Paul Bourne
iNtrOductiON
WHAt’s GOiNG ON
WeLcOme tO PrOsPerity
The Gold Nugget Saloon
Player Character Opportunities
Are You Calling Me a Liar?
Grave-Digging
tHe cure-ALL effect
I’m OK Now
You Don’t Look so Good
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GrAPHic desiGN & LAyOut
Paul Bourne
creAtiVe directOr
Dominic McDowall
dOc POrter
Following Porter
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Art directOr
Jon Hodgson
tHe diNOsAur
cOmANcHes
Cave Encounter
Forest Encounter
A Comanche in Distress!
Hunting Party
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tHe NiGHt sHift
Betrayed!
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exPLOriNG tHe miNe
Front Entrance
The Secondary Entrance
Spelunking
The Control Centre
escAPe!
ePiLOGue
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Published by Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd (UK reg. no. 6036414).
Find out more about us and our games at www.cubicle7.co.uk
© Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd. 2013
BBC, DOCTOR WHO (word marks, logos and devices), TARDIS, DALEKS, CYBERMAN and K-9 (word marks and devices) are
trade marks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence.
BBC logo © BBC 1996. Doctor Who logo © BBC 2012. Dalek image © BBC/Terry Nation 1963. Cyberman image © BBC/Kit
Pedler/Gerry Davis 1966. K-9 image © BBC/Bob Baker/Dave Martin 1977.
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iNtrOductiON
Medicine Man
is intended to be a fast-moving adventure that should take a single evening to play.
It pits the characters against an old enemy that is trying to resurrect their race. The
characters arrive at a small mining town in the American Old West and discover strange
happenings, mostly involving a travelling snake oil salesman. The clues lead to a new gold
mine that was quickly and suspiciously abandoned. Once they discover the true threat the
characters have to grapple with the thorny question of how to deal with it.
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WHAt’s GOiNG ON
Millions of years ago, the Silurians feared an apocalypse and put their entire race into stasis.
The cataclysm they feared never came to pass and the Silurians continued to sleep as humanity
evolved. Occasionally, a human who unwittingly unearths one of these Silurian pods.
This is exactly what happened in Colorado, 1877. Mining magnate Harlan Grainger found a gold lode
and immediately laid claim to it, purchasing the mountain and building a railroad from Denver to
his new town of Prosperity. Many settlers flocked to the new town in spite of a hostile Comanche
Indian tribe in the region, hoping to find work or even prospect on their own.
Unfortunately, Grainger’s initial dynamite blasting in the mountain caused a fracture that
buried a Silurian pod and destroyed its upper level. Only the Triad, the three leaders of the
pod, survived. Believing that humans to be an aggressive and hostile species and unable
to use force due to depleted numbers, the Triad decided that the best way to deal with
them was to change the atmosphere and reintroduce prehistoric flora and fauna to make
it more conducive to Silurian life.
The Triad consists of Melchor, Ekon, and Sarka. Melchor is the guardian; he controls
the Ceratosaurus. Sartha is the medical scientist; she created the plague, the drug,
and the hypnotic machine. Ekon is trying to unbury old equipment so that he can
begin the process of changing Earth’s atmosphere. Ekon then intends to awaken
other Silurian pods.
The first thing the Triad needed to do was stop the mining before it damaged
more equipment and any remaining Silurians that happened to survive. Ekon also
needed a workforce to aid him in unearthing the equipment. Sarka found an answer
in Doc Porter, a travelling salesman hawking elixirs. She hypnotised him and then let
a plague loose in the town. Doc Porter’s elixir was the only cure. Once the townsfolk
started using it, they became susceptible to hypnotic manipulation.
The local Comanche tribe was not so fortunate. When its members caught the plague,
no cure was forthcoming. When the Silurians did turn their attention toward them, it was
only as a food source for the Ceratosaurus. Furthermore, the Silurians strengthened the
settlers’ fear of the Comanche through hypnosis to the point that any Comanche is now shot
on sight. Between the settlers and the dinosaur, the Comanche have not been able to get to
the mountain or into town to get the elixir or deal with the threat.
Currently the Triad’s plan is almost complete. The Atmospheric Converter is already drawing
power from the magma beneath the mountain (which is actually a dormant volcano). Within a
couple of days the machine will be ready to start changing the atmosphere, warming the Earth
significantly. The Triad then plans to seed the world with spores and fauna while contacting
other pods. By the end of the summer of 1877, the world could be overrun with Silurians.
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WeLcOme tO PrOsPerity
an investigative sandbox
Medicine Man does not have a strict sequence of scenes; once the characters arrive, different groups
can choose different actions based on what clues intrigue them the most. Some players might insist
on travelling to the mine during the first night, some might decide to go grave-robbing and catch a
glimpse of the hypnotised miners, and some may decide to just go to sleep and wait for the next clue
to arrive. You have to be ready for all situations.
Be familiar with the adventure; read through it a couple of times to ensure that you understand the
basic elements. Do not worry about the order of events; just follow actions of the player characters
and pace the events and supporting characters accordingly. Some groups might cut to the chase in
short order, while others will take longer figuring out what is going on. As long as you have a passing
command of the elements, you should be able to draw the adventure to a satisfying conclusion.
A gold mine is only a short walk (about half a mile)
from the town; indeed the town would have been
built atop of it if not for the rough terrain. A small
river cuts across the land, dividing the town and
mine from the woods (where the Comanche live).
The river is not too deep and horses can cross it;
during the day it is patrolled by a couple of Pinkerton
deputies.
The characters can hear the sounds of piano playing
and singing coming from the saloon. A character with
a background in Earth History and making even a
cursory observation of their surroundings can make
an Ingenuity + History roll (Difficulty 9) to realise that
they are in the Old West, somewhere on the eastern
edge of the Rocky Mountains. Judging by the wooden
buildings and several tents on its outskirts, this is a
relatively new town.
As its dark, most citizens are either at home or in
the saloon; very few people are walking in the street.
Most men are obviously armed, although they tend
to wear their guns cross-draw (as opposed to the
‘Hollywood Rig’ that one commonly associates with
gunfighters).
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WeLcOme tO PrOsPerity
The TARDIS lands in an alley between the Gold
Nugget Saloon & Hotel and Frank’s General Store
in the mining town of Prosperity, Colorado. It is
a warm summer evening not long after the sun
has set and the air is crisp, not the cool October
afternoon it is supposed to be. It is not even
Tombstone or 1888. If you include a Prologue (see
the
Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space
rules), then the Doctor notes these facts, but wants
to ascertain where they are anyway, as he will need
to recalibrate the TARDIS’ circuits. At least he is
fairly certain that they are still on Earth.
Like most small Western towns (at least in the
cinema!), Prosperity has one main thoroughfare,
unsurprisingly named ‘Main Street,’ although
informal streets run parallel on either side. The
Railroad station sits a block to the south, where
one end heads toward Boulder and the other
end up toward Sentinel Mountain. Indeed, an
entire mountain range is laid bare to the west
and the city is nestled in a valley in the foothills.
tHe GOLd NuGGet sALOON
The first place the characters are likely to enter is
the Gold Nugget Saloon. Characters anticipating a
‘classic Western Saloon’ might be disappointed to
find that the saloon has real doors (a necessity given
the threat of Comanche attacks).
Inside, the saloon resembles more the ‘classic’
Western scene, with several tables and a bar. A
man plays a small piano by the rear wall with a
woman singing next to him. Based on those offering
encouragement, her name is ‘Pearl.’ Gamblers,
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including the mining foreman, play cards at one table
near the door, and three African-Americans sit at a
corner table. A character making an Awareness +
Ingenuity roll (12) can tell that these three men are
confused and agitated.
At some point Sheriff Pullman enters the bar for
drinks, providing the characters with another person
to interview. Tom Grady, the bartender and manager
of the saloon (Grainger owns it) asks the characters
if they need rooms for the night.
decided to come to Prosperity anyway. Unfortunately,
when they arrived today they learned that it was true;
Mr. Grainger personally told them that he made a
mistake in thinking that there was substantial gold
in the mine, blaming it on a prospector’s trick.
Note: If the characters have not picked up on the
fact that nobody is leaving town, one of the cousins
mentions it. They still believe that they are not being
told the truth, but they find it hard to believe that a
whole mining town would just shut down in order to
make them go away. There are quicker ways to do
that if someone were so inclined and Mr. Grainger
seems like an honest man.
‘Sheriff’ Joe Pullman:
Sheriff Pullman and his four
deputies are Pinkerton agents who were hired by
Mr Grainger to keep the town safe from Comanche
attacks. Pullman’s law-enforcement duties were
supposed to end with the appointment of an actual
sheriff, but the town never got chartered. Pullman is
not particularly bothered by strangers, although he
warns the travellers to keep an eye out for ‘Indians.’
Fred Bell:
Fred Bell is the miner foreman and the
local card sharp. He is disappointed that the mine is
closed, but without gold, there is no reason to mine.
A character making an Awareness + Ingenuity roll
(15) notices that Frank does not entirely believe the
excuse, but if pressed for a reason, he admits that he
doesn’t know why. He just has this ‘nagging feeling.’
Player Character Opportunities
Where are we?
While this question is likely to garner
strange looks, any citizen can tell them that they
are in Prosperity, Colorado. The answerer suspects
that the characters are not local and perhaps didn’t
know the town was here, given that Grainger only
started mining in May. Now it’s mid-July and the
mine has shut down. Most folks are preparing to
leave. If the players ask, there is no sign of anyone
actually packing and leaving, which is unusual for a
mining town.
The Agitated Men:
The three African-American
men are three cousins, Charlie, Nate, and Jacob
Plunkitt. They travelled to Prosperity from Denver
due to advertisements for miners in the local papers,
but when they arrived in Boulder they’d heard that
Grainger had shut the mine. Believing this to be
‘friendly dissuasion’ due to their countenance, they
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