Shadow Tiger (englisch)

Über das Abenteuer

Shadow Tiger ist ein englisches Begegnungs-Kurzabenteuer von Lester W. Smith, das in der Ausgabe Nummer 44 des "Challenge" Rollenspielmagazins erschien, welches zwischen 1986 und 1996 von "Game Designers' Workshop" verlegt wurde. Der Verlag wurde 1996 aufgelöst. Eine Übersetzung ins Deutsche wurde erstellt von "Smokin' Ace".

Shadow Tiger

Shadowrun adventures should be fast moving and full of hints that more is going on behind the scenes than your PCs are picking up on. This is especially true when your shadowrunners are in an urban environment, where they are surrounded by untold numbers of NPCs with their own desires and goals. So what do you do when your players have really been on top of things, and they are already headed for the last scene in an adventure you thought would take them the rest of the night to finish? You give them an unexpected encounter, that's what. They'll never know that it was not originally designed as part of the adventure, and the world their shadowrunners live in will seem all the richer for it.The following encounter has been designed as such a filler for use during the course of a regular adventure. As well, it can serve to equip the PCs more fully for the conclusion of your main adventure, if you so desire.

A FOX FROM THE DARKNESS

At some point as the shadowrunners are walking or driving down a city street on their way to the next stage in a mission, a young Oriental woman runs into their path from the mouth of an alley and cries, "Help me, please!"then stumbles and falls (preferably into the arms of your most chivalrous PC). The PCs notice immediately that her silken robe has been torn and bloodied in various places, and the woman has an open scalp wound a few inches above her left ear. In the rush of the next few seconds, the PCs are unlikely to notice anything else about the young woman, but you can roll perception tests for them secretly:

• If any pass a target number of 10, they will notice that there are no wounds visible through the gashes in her robe;
• if they pass a target number of 12, they catch a glimpse of her eyes as they close —eyes that reflect light like a cat's.
• (If for some reason a mage views her astrally, the mage will see her astral form as a tiger.)
  

However, even if someone in the party notices such things, he will have little time to mention them before the next NPCs arrive. To simulate this situation, tell the players, "You all have one second to make a quick statement, starting now," and don't let them say anything once the time is up.

THE HOUNDS ARRIVE

As the shadowrunners are just beginning to react to the young woman's presence, a ragged handful of gang members trot out of the alley, armed with switchblades and heavy candlesticks. The gang members outnumber the shadowrunners by two, but they all look a little battered. (Use the Gang Member archetype on page 39 of the Shadowrun rules, and make them all Lightly Wounded and Lightly Fatigued. The candlesticks are silver, for reasons soon to be revealed, and can be treated as clubs in melee.) Upon spotting the shadowrunners, the leader of the gang members grates out, "That's our deb, chummers." "Here, kitty, kitty," another gang member calls, and there are evil snickers from the rest of the group. The leader tells the shadowrunners, "Move along now, and you won't get hurt." What self-respecting shadowrunner could avoid such an invitation to fight? It is suggested that the referee run this combat using miniature figures to keep track of who is where, especially as the gang members will close with the shadowrunners to make gunfire a problem.

FOX BECOMES A TIGER

After combat has run for a couple of rounds, the referee can introduce the next element into the scenario. The shadowrunners hear a husky growl from behind them, then a tiger (literally) in atom and bloody silk robe leaps into the fray, fighting on the side of the shadowrunners. Any wounds it takes in a round regenerate at the end of that round (that's right, it's a weretiger), except for Fatigue damage inflicted by the silver candlesticks (which the gang members will use as much as possible). The gang members will each fight on until seriously wounded, then will try to escape. The tiger will fight until it only has two points of Fatigue left before trying to escape. Statistics for the weretiger are as follows:

• Human Form:
  
  • Body 5,
    
  • Quickness 4,
    
  • Strength 5,
    
  • Charisma 5,
    
  • Intelligence 3,
    
  • Willpower 3,
    
  • Essence 8,
    
  • Reaction 5
    
• Animal Form:
  
  • Body 10,
    
  • Quickness 7,
    
  • Strength 10,
    
  • Charisma 5,
    
  • Intelligence 3,
    
  • Willpower 3,
    
  • Essence 8,
    
  • Reaction 5.
    

In human form, the creature does 5M1 Stun with fists; in animal form it does 9S3 Wound damage with +1 Reach. In either form, the creature has a Running Modifier of x5.

AFTER THE FIGHT

After the fight is over, if the gang members have fled or are defeated, the weretiger will turn to face the shadowrunners if it is still conscious. It will crouch down protectively, growling to warn them off. If they have not attacked it already during the fight and if they do not do so now, after a few tense moments, the creature will revert to human form, gather the remnants of its robes about itself, and tell the PCs, "Follow, please," then turn and head back down the alley. (If the shadowrunners have attacked it at some point, after a warning growl it will flee.) The creature speaks very little English, so it will not respond to questions the shadowrunners might ask, other than to repeat, "Follow, please." If the shadowrunners follow, the weretiger will lead them to a dark doorway deep in the alley. Remnants of the door itself hang from twisted hinges, and burn marks attest to the fact that explosives were used to break it open. Inside, the PCs find a two-story apartment that has been ransacked recently. The bodies of four gang members lie lifelessly in the ground floor's main room amid the debris of expensive furnishings and a scattering of smashed magical artifacts. On the stairs leading to the second level lie the slashed body of an elderly mage and the smoking remains of two more gang members. The second level consists of one open room with an extensive hermetic library, much laboratory apparatus, and a trio of hermetic circles. Both the library and the lab have been ransacked, and the circles have been defaced. (But the library retains a rating of 4 in Sorcery, 4 in Conjuration, and 7 in Magical Theory, assuming that any shadowrunner mages take the time-half an hour per point-to search through the rubble. If the referee desires, a few magical spell focuses can be discovered as well.) The room also contains an empty steel cage in one corner, near the open door of which lie five dead gang members. The weretiger points from itself to the cage. Then, pointing to the bodies of the gang members, it acts out the events that led up to its encounter with the shadowrunners. From that pantomime and the clues that lie scattered about the apartment, the shadowrunners can piece together the following tale.

THE WERETIGER'S STORY

Roger Salmud, the mage who owned this apartment, was growing old and feeling his power slip inexorably away. Theorizing that the regenerative powers of werecreatures might hold a secret to regenerating his own magical abilities, Salmud sought to obtain one of the creatures for study. Through contacts in China, he came into possession of a female weretiger, which he had shipped to his residence. This evening, while Salmud studied the creature, a gang of street toughs decided to kill the old man and steal his possessions. But Salmud proved to be tougher than they had imagined; he took six of the gang members with him to the grave. The rest of the gang set about trashing the place, until they discovered on the upperfloor the iron cage containing a young Oriental woman. Figuring that the old mage was keeping her for his own perverse enjoyment, the gang leader opened the cage and dragged her out for the whole gang to have some fun with. They quickly discovered that they had a tiger by the tail, so to speak. Five of them fell to the creature's claws before someone picked up a silver candlestick, wholly by accident, and discovered that it could do permanent damage. The remaining gang members scrambled for candlesticks as well, and the weretiger leapt out a window and fled down the alley, where it stumbled upon the PCs. The gang members followed, intent on revenge, and the weretiger decided that with the shadowrunners' help, the odds were more to its liking.

ENDING THE ADVENTURE

From the weretiger's point of view, one thing remains to be done. It must escape the confines of the city and find a suitable wilderness to dwell in. Making its way across the city in the form of a disheveled young woman who speaks almost no English will be extremely tough, but trying to travel through the city in tiger form will draw unwelcome attention as well. If the shadowrunners accompany the creature to the city limits, it will be forever grateful to them and may serve as a wilderness contact in later adventures. Besides this reward, of course, the shadowrunners also have the possibility of obtaining magical items and research materials at Salmud's apartment- items that might aid them in the course of whatever mission they were involved in before the weretiger stumbled into their midst. (And don't forget to give them a few valuables such as the silver candlesticks.) Of course, they might also have some healing to do before pressing on, but that's the nature of life for a shadowrunner.