ROACH-MOTEL SETTING: The Roach-motel campaign setting is in the ruins of an urban zone several miles from a nuclear target strike area. The buildings in this region were primarily tenements and large public housing blocks, Most average about 8-10 stories tall, the older ones being built of brick and the newer ones being built from sub-standard materials which slumped and in many cases collapsed once the shock wave hit the region. All glass windows have been shattered, leaving only slender fangs of glass in the window-frames and covering the cracked streets with drifts of broken glass. Many of the buildings have slumped or partially collapsed, some falling against neighboring buildings and resting in an unstable tilted ruin. The subways and basements under the streets mostly collapsed, opening deep fissures where the streets once were, and causing the buildings to either side to slump forward against each other until many former avenues are now vaulted corridors of wreckag: with the sky blocked out by the overhanging buildings. Rains of brick and plaster are still common monthes later as the ruined buildings continue to settle and crumble against each other The initial firestorm blew over this region, igniting countless small blazes which light the ruins for days after the Kinrise. Even weeks later, small fires can be found smouldering away inside the collapsing buildings. Ash and cinders have fallen everywhere, forming drifts across the rooftops, over those streets exposed to the sky, and inside the higher windows. Rain and later sleet fall sporadically from the sky, soaking the rooftops with radioactive water and ifleaking through the slumped ruins to gush in small waterfalls from open windows. The sky is constantly overcast and gray~black, occasionally lit by thunderless flashes of green lightning. The in the direction of the major city nuclear target glows with a constant aurora effect, a deadly rainbow of radiation which is reflected back from the glass-lined crater and flickers in the shards and piles of broken glass There are three/four major zones for exploration and adventure in the shattered city The Rooftops: Buildings in this low-income neighborhood were crammed next to each other, often with no more than a yard or two of space between them. The roofs form a more or jess continuous landscape of burnt tarpaper, cinder-drifts and shattered chimneys stretching for a couple of miles in any direction. This landscape is broken only by the chasms of the streets, which are often bridged by partially collapsed buildings, and by huge pock-holes formed by collapsed ceilings. The roofs are dotted with pools and puddles of radioactive water, usually surrounded by piles of dead pigeons, which sometimes lay three deep at the edge of the pools and in the sheltered lees of partially ruined chimneys Strange flickers of green fire dance across the roof-plains curling Will-O-Wisps of unknown’ origin. More mundane fires sometimes burst through the roofs, having slowly eaten their way up from deeper inside the building. Plumes of smoke often can be seen billowing and twisting up from the streets and from the open windows. The roofs are an open, desolate place, empty of any sign of life as far as the eye can see. Only the swirling, chuckling dust-devils of Wraithes and the occasional wisp of@ Ghost are common Kin encounters here. One rare encounter is the Ghost-Fog, a floating, faintly luminescent bank of mist which is actually composed of the writhing, squirming forms of hundreds of victims of the Bomb, vaporized together and now doomed to drift across the rooftops, moaning and weeping together. These are more than a Haunting, since the Ghost-Fog possesses all of the Racial Edges of Ghosts, especially Drain, and seeks to use this on any being encountered, but this composite horror is less than a full-fledged Ghost since it cannot control its own movement, drifting with the wind and can only coporealize into a cold, squirmy mass which bites and tears and clutches at anyone it encounters for a couple of turns before dissipating back into incoporeality. (Quick Stats: STR:80 FIT:1000+ DEX:Nil--20 for purposes of determining individual limbs and mouthes capabilities INT:0 WILL:40 PER:20 ATT:0 though individual faces and component bodies may have normal human appearances, most appear us charred, semi-skeletal burn-victims LUCK:20 SP:1000+ BHTH:16 All Ghost Racial Edges at 80 No discernible skills). The only other Kin likely to be encountered on the rooftops are the Bone-Dancers, Skeletal figures which can be seen dancing and whirlling madly among the rooftop wreckage, apparently wearing loose robes or sheets. Upon closer inspection, these prove to be whole sections of human skin stripped in long wide bands and wrapped about the Skeleton's limbs and torso, affixed sometimes with nails, sometimes just by being wrapped, sari~style about the Skeleton. These Bone-Dancers will flee from any approaching Kin and cannot be dealt with. If pressed too closel they will fling themselves from the edges of the roof into the streets below,Just to avoid contact with other Kin Inside the Ruins: The interiors of the buildings are the preferred haunts of virtually everything left which can move freely about the shattered city. There are endless mazes of hallways, stairwells and apartments to be explored. Some hav. been gutted from fires. Some have streams of rainwater seeping through them. Most have been looted for precious or useful items by those who survived the first effects of the Bomb. Kin gangs rove endlessly through the empty apartment blocks, whooping and looting and smashing just to revel in the sudden freedom from the fear of discovery and the need for restraint. Inside some of the larger buildings small tribes of human survivors can still be found throughout the first six to eight weeks after the Kinrise. These have been sheltered from the massive direct dosages of radiation by the thicknesses of the surrounding walls. (There are relatively safe zones deep in the heart of larger brick structures especially at the middle floors away from the fallout on the roof and the streets, and from stray leakage from the open windows.) These survivors are doomed, however, since their refuge provides only incomplete protection and they are exposed to steady leakages from numerous sources. Also, the lack of prepared food stocks ensures their eventual demise es foraging will soon become necessary. (If AFTERWARS can be found, use any Mutant rules to produce small bands of rediation-resistant mutates after the initial couple of monthes. ) Fungoids can be found growing in the damp, moldy interiors of some buildings, usually those with deep basements which SB idhave permited the Fungus spores to spread up throughout the building. Inside infected buildings the walls and carpets will be thick with bulbous fungoid growthes, the ceilings slick with slime. Strange mushrooms grow out of the walls and piles of corpses, with the slime-slicked faces of bald children, crying and wailing whenever anyone comes near Other mutant funguses spawned in the depthes of the Wormholes can be found growing wherever people died in pain and suffering. These Hellshrooms sport snarling, fanged mouthes which snap at any who come within range. If the Hellshrooms cannot bite and Drain the Raw Flesh of passing characters they will set to wailing and giggling and shouting obscenities at the intruders until mobile Fungoids, attracted by the noise, come to deal with them The Streets: The street-level belongs to the dead and to the undead. Only Kin can survive the radioactive ash and poisoned water which drips into ankle-deep puddles of glowing green or corrosive orange. The streets are in darkness, lit only by the shimmerings of radioactive pools, the orange and red lights of nearby fires, bright at first, but steadily dying off as the days and weeks pass, and by the unearthly glow of the radioactive aurora when it is visible above the rooftops. The streets are choked with dead bodies, rusted and burnt out cars, strewn with wreckage and broken gless, It requires a DEX roll just to navigate through the worst sections. Chasms yawn wherever the asphalt has collapsed into the subway tunnels and sewers. The most common Kin on the \Fkimeu, balf-charred, rotting corpses which Gites ‘Pumbers right after ‘the Kinrise, manymurmering "Why won’t they bury me?" over and over to themselves. Most of these shell-shocked undead die off eventually due to the lack of human Herd to feed their Drain requirements. Ghosts wander the streets in dim, gauzey packs staring at the twisted street signs and building numbers in vain attempts to find homes or families lost to the bomb Atomic Zombies wander about as well, casting bright blue light over everything around them. Some of these have formed into loose gangs to seek out humans to destroy. Others have been enslaved by other types of Kin, especially those without. Nocturnal Vision who use the blue light shed by the Atomic Zombies to illuminate their surroundings. Such light-slaves usually wear only a thick leather collar around their neck attached to a chain-leash held by a handler Trolle and Ogre gangs are particularly common in the early days, though they later wander off into the Badlands in search of Herd prey. The same is true of the Weres. Only the Wererats, more numerous than was previously suspected, will stay within the city for very long. In the early days, the first couple of weeks, certain areas of streets will look like Kin block parties. Kin of all types will be found dancing and partying in the middle of the streets, gathered around bonfires or pools of radioactive radiance. These Kin have opened the bars and poolhalls, and will lend a sick semblence of life to a couple of neighborhoods for the first week or so, until they become hungry or bored and wander off in search of prey or more entertaining surrounding. (The Ogres and Goblynnes will stay until the booze and looted free food are gone.) Withered Men and Bug Walkers will move into the eshes of the Kin-parties once their more flamboyantcousins have departed Beneath the Streets: The Underground of the shattered city is home to most of what is left of its human inhabitants and to loathesome invaders from the Wormholes. The human survivors are huddled by the hundreds and thousands into scattered fallout shelters and converted basement refuges. Where possible, they have gathered food supplies from the buildings above or are surviving on Civil Defense rations stored for unknown years in the shelters for the possibility of the Disaster which no one really expected anymore, but which happened anyway. These survivors are huddled in the dark, or cringing under rationed candlelight waiting for some kind of signal to come on the worthless radio sets packed amid the dehydrated beans and bottled water. Some shelters have their own generators, water recycling systems and other amenities which will allow them to outlast less well-equipped refuges, but ultimately, all such pockets of survivors are doomed. No one can survive long enough outside to escape from the city without rad-suits. The survivors will last only until the air, or the food, or the water runout. Or until the hungry Kin-gangs find them. Scattered among the civilian shelters are Target Alpha redoubts and other clandestine government bunkers. These are well stocked with equipment and food. They are also well armed and might prove a surprise for raiding Kin. At least one such bunker has been stocked with rad-suits and sends heavily armed Extermination Teams out into the ruins regularly to hunt and destroy Kin. There is little purpose to this activity. The bunker is run by a mad commander who isconvinced that the Kin are responsible for the Spasm War and that humanity must “take back” the streets from the roving undead. The increasingly paranoid troopers under him will continue to follow orders for as long as the food and the ammunition are in good supply. Eventually they will mutiny and try to escape from the city into the Badlands. The Wormhole monsters have been sneaking into the sewer and subway tunnels for decades, but now that there are no concerted efforts by either the Herd or the Kin to stop’ them, they are swarming toward the surface. In some places the streets have collapsed into the subways, which have crumbled into the sewers beneath, which in turn have opened into the Wormholes, opening up 100+ foot deep rifts and chasms. Whole tribes of Crawlies and Kikulaluits have migrated up to explore the ruins of the surface world. Less savory things are slithering up, to feed. CITY ELEMENTALS Died with the City. Most were vaporized with their consituent populations when the city-core was atomized. Their remnant has formed into The Bomb, a huge distorted face visible sometimes under the glass of the crater. This being resembles a giant face, more than a city-block across, pressed up against the glass of the crater as if it were a swimmer trapped under thick ice. It screams at onlookers sometimes, but all they can hear is an incoherent rumble, a thunder under their feet. Whenever it speaks, it releases a new blast of radiation so intense that even Kin can feel its skin-crawling emissions (like a swarm of fire-ants crawling over their bodies, complete with stings which do 1SP of damage and raise red welts. Those with bodily fluids willfind themselves cozing blood from their noses and ears, or shedding glowing tears for a day after the exposure. Any Herd they touch for that day will die instantly, burned to a blackened, pus-cozing crisp in seconds.). The radioactive aurora is said to be the Aura of The Bomb, new lord of the dead city. Other lesser Elementals have mostly withered and died Some minor ones (3D10 Stats) struggle vainly to fend off the kin gangs stalking the shelters. These are growing progressively weaker, turning gaunt and starved and glassy-eyed as their charges die off. (lose 1 FIT/Day unless Luck roll is made) One mad Concrete sits huddled in an empty basement shelter while it slowly fades into transparency. howling and leughing in the dark. Another has turned into a vast, long centipede thing with several heads (all Kin-like. pale with fangs and manibles and glowing eyes). This Concrete has embraced the Kin of the street parties as its last charges, changed its form and now wanders those neighborhoods singing and shouting maniacally and calling all the Kin out to dance in its streets. Another has decided to avenge the atrocities of the Kin upon its former charges and has withered into a glowing fiery skull which has gathered the skulls of those slain by Kin marauders in its neighborhood animated them as Burning Skulls, as per the Spell, and hunts the Kin with a shrieking pack of these flaming streaming and bobbing in its wakeROACHBOY PC’S Attribute Modifiers: STR:+60 DEX:+20 FIT:+40 INT:-15 ATT:-20 Racial Edges: Armor, Extra-Attack, Poison Gas Starting Edges: Armor (5), Extra-Attack (2 total starting) Notes: Extra-Attacks can be raised to 3 at a cost of 10 Max Humanity, but no higher. Roachboys do not normally Drain, but rather simply feed on any edible substances they can find. PC Roachboys may acquire the Drain (Raw Flesh) Edge by paying the 10 Max Humanity acquisition cost. Roachboys who can Drain may use their Drain Edge to heal damage taken by absorbing the SP of another being. SP Drained do not count toward the SP required for daily feeding. Roachboys with Drain may use that Edge normally against other Kin (IE without the +50 Escape Roll, as per the Drains of other Kin-predators). SP Drained from Kin heals damage at a 2pt/pt Drained ratio, but does require FIT Rolls to avoid rolling on the Drug Effects table. Roachboys can become addicted to Draining Kin. They can also become addicted to Draining in general (make an Addiction Roll each time the Drain is used) Roachboys so addicted will have difficulty forcing themselves to feed regularly rather than Draining ("Stop CHEWING your food and just SWALLOW it! The screams are beginning to annoy me.") Assume that each failed Addiction roll causes the Roachboy to develop a 5SP/night Drain requirement to feed the addiction. These rolls are cumulative Flaws: Fire--Triple damage; Diet: must eat own SP/day or lose 1 FIT from starvation (and you though that FIT bonus wasa gift!); Compulsion: Must make WILL save to avoid attacking any other creatures encountered if daily SP feeding requirement has not already been satisfied (or if any Drain Addiction has not been met) Roachboys are immune to the effects of radiation, both direct and secondary through consumed SP’s (though they still take the normal Rad effects if they Drain irradiated Herd) They get a FIT save against any poisons encountered. Once such a save has been made, however, the Roachboy is permanently immune from that specific type of poison (not the class, just that specific brand or formula). They do not age and are immune to all natural diseases Roachboys who are killed do not Resurrect as Kin do unless they have acquired and used Drain. Non-Draining Roachers ,can be killed normally. Those that have Drained have become something more "Kin-like” and will Resurrect as Kin do. A dead Roachboy turns into a pale, rattling husk within a few turns (if Drain-capable). Inside this busk, all meat and juices have dryed up, or been drawn into a hard oval chitinous egg-case shell located inside the abdomen. After one day has passed, this will “hatch” and the reborn Roachboy will burrow and crack its way out of the dead husk of its previous life. Such reborn Roachboys will be smaller, the size of a young child, and ravenously hungry. It will have SP and will have to Drain feed its way back to full health before normal feeding can resume Feeding: With such an outrageous feeding requirement, Roachboys are probably only playible at all during the early days of the Kinrise. As time passes and the available foodbecomes scarcer, they will have to devote almost all of their time to feeding and will probably be partially starved most of the time anyway. hence the NPC stats in the book. Only the extremely rare PC Roachboy even has a hope of maintaining its sanity or a screp of humenity for very long after the first weeks of the Kinrise. A number of means and strategies may be used to procure food in the ruined city Scavenge: with the Scavenge skill 1 roll may be attempted per hour. Success results in finding 4D10 SP worth of edible food during the first week after the Kinrise. Subtract 1D10 for each week thereafter until a minimum of 1D10 is reached This represents the relatively abundant amount of “free meat laying around the streets in the early days, which becomes less abundant as the scavengers and decay wear away at it Roachboys will always be able to find at least 1D10 worth of edible SP with a Scavenge roll, even if they are gnawing bones and chewing old drapes. Roachboys can eat almost anything Above Ground: Use encounter tables for prowling through the ruins. 1 encounter roll for every 6 hours spent nosing about. Below Ground: In the first weeks after the Nuke strike, use the Sewers column in the Hunting Charts from MUSICAL VEIN, Each time an encounter comes up mark it off, Subsequent rolls of that number produce an encounter result only with @ luck roll. Special and animal encounters can be repeated normally, however. Hunting/Tracking: One roll/hour is permitted. Success nets 1D10 worth of small animals (probably rats and/or various types of insects or other scavengers). This roll does——_——— not change over time UMANITY LOSS FROM CANNIBALISM (From Notes on Ghoul-campaign) Food is disguised, true nature is known, but cannot be determined by appearance. -2 Food is “parts” not disguised, but also not recognizable as buman remains. -4 Food is recognizable as detached body parts Consumption of meat directly from fresh corpse. -8 Consumption from a badly deteriorated or particularly gruesome corpse. ~10 Consumption of flesh from a living victim. (As per Drain unwilling, ALWAYS unwilling. -6 or -12)ROACH-MOTEL NPC’S KLIP STR:78 DEX:52 FIT:62 INT:12 WILL:28 PER:21 ATT:0 LUCK: 18 BHTH:15 (+20) SP:80 Max Humenity:25 Current:25 Edges: Armor (10), Claws (102), Danger Sense (71), Drain-Raw Flesh (62), Extra-Attack (2/BT), Nocturnal Vision (61) Skills: Breakaway (55), Hunting (31), Pistol (56) Rifle (61), Scavenging (41), Stealth (61), Streetfighting (58), Wrestling (58) Description: No hair, top of head is covered with banded chitin. otherwise top half of face, including eyes nose etc. is human with dark brown skin, Lower face is insectile with huge mandibles replacing the mouth and lower jaw. Legs are covered with large, razor-sharp spines. Klip is a fighter-enforcer for 2-Face and is one of the group’s major scouts and foragers. He has placed traps along all of the easy approach routes to the Roach-Motel (non-lethal catch traps) and checks them regularly. He has hidden away numerous caches of ammo in the surrounding ruins and has prepared sniper positions marked out in every building on the same block as the lair, as well as having prepared escape routes from each, A former gang-member before the War, Klip has no known hobbies or interests outside of eating and combat 2-FACE STR:80 DEX:48 FIT:55 INT:23/8 WILL:21 PER:27 ATT:0 LUCK:32 BHTH:16 (+11) SP:112 Max Humanity: 40 Current: 40Edges: Armor (10), Claws (55), Extra-Attacks (3/BT), Nocturnal Vision (57), Poison Gas (55) Skills: Alertness (41), Boxing (53), City Knowledge (20), Diplomacy (33), Gambling (41), Hunting (24), Intimidation (39), Persuasion (34), Scavenging (46), Stealth (56), Wrestling (88) Description: Body as per normal book description. But head is divided into two distinct heads fused together at 3/4 angles to each other. One is human with long blonde hair, dirty and stringy, and glassy blue eyes. The other is purely insectile and chitters angrily whenerver it is hungry and he does not immediately feed it 2-Face is the brains and the leader behind the Roach-Motel scheme. His mind is divided between two separate consciousnesses. With a successful WILL roll he can suppress the insectile mind and function with his full intelligence. In this mode he is surprisingly friendly and personable, a former street survivor with a “dude” persona. He will gladly describe his plans to build the Roach-Motel into a “sanctuary” for refugee humans, whom the roachers will protect and provide for in exchange for being able to “dispose” of the bodies of their deceased. He has a passion for gambling and cannot resist a wager (as long as it is short of totally disasterous for his plans). He will very much prefer to negotiate around any conflict situations and will try to recruit Roachboys to his cause. He does not trust other types of Kin but will treat them with cautious respect as long as they do not pose an immediate threat and seem willing to exchange information and deal. He sees himself as the architect of a “new world of Survivors, man!”If the insectile side of his persona cannot be suppressed, he functions with an 8 INT. He can still use all of his skills at their listed values, but his manner will become coarser, more confrontational. Rather than intellectual he will become cunning and scheming. In this mode he has managed to bully and Intimidate the others into aiding him in his “plan”. In this mode he will be gloatingly open about the secret agenda behind the Roach-Motel, the true motivation of the Roachers which he hides even from himself: The human refugees are there to be bred as fodder. He does not know enough about Radiation and its effects to know that his plan is doomed, and that the refugees crammed into the center of the lair will continue to slowly die off until they are all gone. There is no hope of establishing a breeding population this close to the radioactive city core RAYD STR:61 DEX:39 FIT:61 INT:03 WILL:07 PER:22 ATT:0 LUCK:24 BHTH:16 (+17) SP:85 Max Humanity: 30 Current: 30 Edges: Armor (15), Claws (86), Extra-Attacks (2/BT), Nocturnal Vision (52) Skills: Club (82), Pistol (49), Scavenging (56) Stealth (54), Sword (85), Throwing (51), Wrestling (82 Description: Short and squat with no discernible neck. Upper head and eyes are insectile. Lower face is human with a lantern-jaw and broad yellow teeth. He drools uncontrollably in the presence of anything edible, whether or not he is currently hungry. Rayd is the disposable idiot-trooper of the band. He is incapable of anyconversation other than repeating what has been said to him and laughing dully. He is a passable marksman, but is not intelligent enough to load a pistol by himself. Typically, he will stealth up to a target, unload his clip (of however many bullets the others have loaded for him, usually only a couple of rounds at a time) and rush in to wrestle it into submission. He is the one that the others send in to test intruders or to cover their retreat. Only the fact that he is unwaveringly loyal to 2-Face has prevented the others from feeding on him just to be rid of his painfully brutish presence, His only redeeming value is that he is fond of young children (making sure to avoid them before having fed for the day) and never tires of playing games with them, much to their parents horror SKRIBBLE STR:82 DEX:46 FIT:68 INT:07 WILL:26 PER:22 ATT:0 LUCK:26 BHTH:16 (+18) SP:94 Max Humanity:20 Current:20 Edges: Armor (15), Claws (93), Extra-Attacks (2/BT), Nocturnal Vision (52), Poison Gas (68) Skills: Art-Graffiti (48), Breakaway (50), Intimidation (34), Lying (39), Mechanics (31), Scavenging (59), Stealth (65) Description: Face is mixed, with black insectile eyes top of head covered by chitin with wiry tufts of black hair (usually painted or dyed a bright red or blue). Has human features but insect-mandibles protrude from corners of mouth which is distended into a broad leering smile. He covers the chitin shell of his body with spray-painted graffiti designs and his purely human arms are heavily tattooedSkribble was a graffiti-artist befor the Spasm and has taken advantage of the sudden lack of unappreciative police critics to plaster every wall in reach with elaborate murals and placas. He is most fond of working with flourescent paints which glow eerily under the radioactive light of the crater’s aurora. He has decorated the interior of the Roach-Motel, at least the part used by the roachers themselves. He is also responsible for keeping the ventilation system and the generators going (despite which both are usually nonfunctional). He is inordinately proud of having repaired the elevator recently and forces terrified human refugees to ride up and down with him in it while he adds new patterns to the murals he is painting over the elevator walls. He has veru little loyalty to 2-Face whom he thinks is “starkers" and only stays with the group because he gets fed regularly with them LADY-BUG STR:81 DEX:40 FIT:54 IN 1 WILL:19 PER:20 ATT:10 LUCK:16 BHTH:16 (+10) SP:56 Max Humanity:50 Current:50 Edges: Armor (5), Claws (54), Drain--Raw Flesh (54), Extra-Attacks (2/BT), Nocturnal Vision (50), Send Dream (80) Skills: Breakaway (44), Dancing (46), Fashion Sense (32), Hunting (22), Pistol (52), Scavenging (27), Seduction (33), Stealth (43), Wrestling (85) Description: The most human-appearing of the group, her head is entirely human with long dark brown hair, dark eyes pale skin, and carefully lipsticked crimson lips. Her limbs are clean and wholely human-looking, with the additional insectile legs usually folded close to her body. Her breastsprotrude through the chitinous shell that covers the rest of her body, giving her quite human (and impressive) cleavage/contours. She uses Fashion Sense to pick out scavenged clothes which hide her inhuman features and when fully attired she appears as an averagely attractive but distinctly overweight woman (think Wilson-Phillips, not the blonde...). She uses Send Dream to broadcast erotic dreams starring herself, to selected male targets (when she can find them) to set them up for a later attempt at seduction. She is addicted to Draining with a 20SP habit and views consuming a live partner the ultimate sensual joy (that 50 Humanity is obviously a temporary and doomed figure). She is nominally 2-Face’s lover, but regularly beds any of the others or any human or humanoid Kin that she can wrestle to the ground when the mood strikes, though she considers everything other than Draining a poor substitute. (She engages in such behavior primarily as an attempt to sublimate her Drain cravings.)ROACH-MOTEL PC’S CONRAD “KIN-KILLER” BAYNE (player Craig Lantz) STR:78 DEX:47 FIT:61 INT:11 WILL:27 PER:21 ATT:10 LUCK:25 HTH:15 SP:86 Max Humanity:50 Edges: Armor (5), Aura Sight (51), Danger Sense (61), Drain-Raw Flesh (65), Extra Attack (2/BT), Locate Human (51), Nocturnal Vision (47), Speed (57) Skills: Automatic Rifle (58), Breakaway (55), Knife (85), Pistol (55), Throwing (55), Martial Arts-Hard (87), Streetfighting (57), Wrestling (85) Alertness (30), Demolitions (19), Explosives (57), First Aid (20), Hunting (17), Kin Lore (18), Lying (32), Scavenge (35), Stealth (57), Streetwise (32), Torture (14), Tracking (30) Description: Conrad Bayne was a newly trained Target Alpha field operative who had been on a Seek and Destroy mission to a tenement-zone of the city at the time of the Spasm. His limited experience with the Kin (previously only Black Magic cults and some re-animated corpses) had left him with a passionate hatred of all Kin, His zeal and dedication to rooting out concealed cells of Kin and their Crowley buddies (both equally contemptible by his standards) had already made his reputation in the organization after only a few field trips. On this latest he was hunting a horrible female “corpse-thing” which looked like a flayed human body covered with transparent green slime, with a local @uide/street merc. The bomb hit just as he was closing in on the thing’s hiding place. Reborn as a Roachboy after the blast, Bayne has had a terrible time adjusting to his new existence. His face & head as well as his arms are still completely human, allowing him to wear his police-like field helmet. He has wrapped the tattered remains of his Target Alpha uniform around his inhuman body and totes a full arsenal of Target Alpha field gear. Bayne has devoted his post-war existence to bemoaning the “curse” which has warped his body into one of the very monsters that he hunts, and mercilessly tracking down and destroying as many Kin as he can find in the hopes that he can redeem himself and recapture his lost humanity, (He is rapidly going quite completely insane.) (Campaign note: Bayne’s Big Moment will come when he comes face-to-face with a Target Alpha “Extermination Squad which is scouring the rubble looking for things like him Whether he will identify with his old comrades in arms, who now loathe what he has become and would gladly exterminate him (as well as smelling disturbingly like a hot lunch) or with his new companions, with whom he has formed a reluctant but practical alliance will determine his ultimate fate. He will either save the Kin group from the Exterminators or help Target Alpha to rid the ruined city of Kin and then spread out into the countryside. (They will probably either destroy him after their mission is complete, or at best strand him alone in the ruins. )] D-KHAN (Player Doug Paugh) STR:75 DEX:47 FIT:67 INT:10 WILL:21 PER:20 ATT:03 LUCK:21 HTH:15 (+15) SP:88 Max Humanity: 44 Edges: Armor (10), Claws (73), Extra Attacks (2/BT), Nocturnal Vision (31)Skills: Automatic Rifle (66), Club (70), Pistol (74), Rifle (23), Streetfighting (66), Kickboxing (75) Diplomacy (47), Intimidation (45), Skateboards (52), Swimming (84) Description: Before the Spasm, D-Khan was recruited to act as Conrad Bayne’s “native guide" on a Kin Hunt in his home community. D-Khan was a long-term street merc with numerous ties to the authorities. He operated as Bayne's scout and local spy, as well as handling negotiations with the local gang bosses. After the Bomb, D-Khan adapted fairly easily to his new condition. He still acts as Bayne’s scout and right hand back-up muscle. He has strapped several salvaged skateboards to his multiple limbs and where the ground is unbroken enough to allow it, he skate-swims low Lo the ground for speed and cover. D-Khan looks like a typical Roachboy, only thinner an more wiry than most. He still wears the tatters of his street garb and has rigged a number of clever holsters for the many salvaged and concealed weapons he has picked up. His plan before the Bomb was to conquer the streets and that hasn't changed. He is a merciless, ruthless raider who delights in sneak attacks and ambushes, glorying in his persona as a Street-Mongol [Campaign notes: D-Khan’s loyalty to Bayne will become crucial when Bayne has to choose between Target Alpha or his new-found monster friends. (Alpha can be talked into sparing Bayne, but not D-Khan, almost assuring a messy, bloody fight of some type.) D-Khan’s casually ruthless combat-oriented style will be challenged when he runs into survivors of his old community in the shelters. Ultimately, he will have the choice of becoming an utterly inhuman monster, or becoming champion for the weak and desperate. ] ROMULUS (player Michael Sokoloski) STR:90 DEX:41 FIT:66 INT:10 WILL:19 PER:35 ATT:03 LUCK:34 HTH:18 SP:100 Max Humanity: 20 Edges: Armor (10), Drain-Raw Flesh (61), Extra Attacks (3/BT), Nocturnal Vision (60), Poison Gas (41), Speed (41) Skills: Wrestling (101) City Knowledge-Local Neighborhood (40), Fashion Sense (41), Intimidation (33), Scavenge (76), Stealth (68) Description: Little is known about Romulus prior to his rebirth as a Roachboy. All that is known for sure is that he was hiding in the alley where Bayne’s final Kin Hunt as a human being came to an end, he was well-armed at the time, and he has an extreme dislike for the authorities with whom he has had “misunderstandings”. Romulus took an immediate liking to the inhuman beauty of the Kikulaluit whom Bayne was hunting and hed squared off to protect her from the hunters after their rebirth. The confrontation was broken up when a band of Ogre scavengers blundered into the midst of the stand-off and caused the almost opponents to close ranks against the newcomers. Both sides continued to maintain thereafter that they would have easily triumphed if the battle had continued to its natural conclusion. Romulus is huge, standing well over seven feet tall. His face is relatively human, with his head covered by a chitinous shell. He has two mouths, one human and one insectile, with mandibles, set just beneath it. His limbs are powerfully muscled end are human-looking at the base, thoughcovered with brown chitin, insectile at the ends. His favorite tactic is to stealth up behind an opponent and catch him in a triple bear hug, which will crush just about auything to death in one round. Romulus believes that his survival and transformation are signs that he is destined to build a kingdom upon the rubble of the city and he is determined to make himself the pre-eminent figure among the various Scavenge Gangs of Kin survivors. He works with Bayne because he sees in Bayne a convenient tool for eliminating his potential rivals. The ultimate fate of their alliance is still very much up in the air since both see themselves as the ultimate leaders of the group [Campaign notes: Romulus’ biggest choice is not going to be linked to whether or not he ard Bayne come to blows again (that will be settled more or less by Target Alpha and the choice Bayne makes), but rather where exactly he will build his "kingdom"; On the barren rooftops, living as nomadic roamers above the chaos of the rubble canyons below-~an all Kin tribe since the humans couldn’t survive there; In the streets and the ruined buildings--where he would have to battle endlessly against other Roachboys and Kin rivals; In the shelters, where he could become the tyrant~ruler of an captive population destined to die out eventually; or Will he take his followers into the darkness of the upper Wormholes where Human and Kin can survive, if they can defeat the monstrosities which lurk there. ] S-KHA (player Jennifer Bradley) STR:27 DEX:43 FIT:31 INT:22 WILL:21 PER:26 ATT:19 LUCK:20 HTH:5 (+12) SP:51 Max Humanity:37 Edges: Armor (7), Claws (61), Drain (51), Nocturnal Vision (51), Speed (45) Skills: Ambidexterity (43), Breakaway (43), Club (42), Knife (33), Spear (43), Throwing-Knife (43), Throwing-Spenr (52), Martial Arts-Soft (43), Streetfighting (53) Alertness (36), City Knowledge-Wormhole Entrances & Tunnel Locations (30), Cooking (30), Fear Resistance (31), Hunting (31), Scavenging (46), Smuggling (30), Stealth (43), Surveillance (30) Description: S-Kha is a long time pro at scouting the Human world, Her tribe has been driven progressively nearer the surface world by something Unspeakable below and scouts such as she have been smuggling surface goods like food and metal implements into the Wormholes for years. S-Kha had a well-established cover as a bag lady which she had used for years until Bayne saw through her disguise and identified her as a “monster”. She knows that she owes her life to Romulus’s intervention and uses her skills to provide him with more food than she would consitute herself if eaten, in order to maintain his goodwill. (She does not trust these Roachboys at all; they remind her too strongly of certain Wormhole residents.) She has not told them about her tribe yet, for fear that they would see them only as a ready food-source, but she is considering recruiting this band as protectors for her people against the horrors which are even now edging closer to the shattered surface world Though there is no longer any need for her disguise S-Kha still wears two overcoats over a scavenged bathrobe because she has not grown accustomed to the chill of the sunless surface. She carries exquisitely carved bone weapons.cies aacaameaaaalacancamcamlaalal but will only throw the ones she has made from scavenged materials. (Campaign note: S-Kha carries the key to the only way that the Roachboys can survive for any length of time with their Humanity and sanity intact. Moving into the Wormholes would give them access to ample food and the opportunity to regularly combat menaces to the Kikulaluit tribe and any surface world survivors. Also, the Wormholes could be reached, with a little tunneling, from many of the intact shelters giving the human survivors in those shelters their only hope of escaping the ruined city or of living more than a month or two on stockpiled supplies. She also knows that she could be responsible for the destruction of her tribe if she brings ravenous, uncontrollable monsters among them. ]