TIME PASSES
Two months have passed since the events of The Man Who Laughs.
What have the party been doing in their downtime?
After the rise of the Joker another villain emerged. Called 'the Riddler' he made Batman solve a bunch of puzzles before he finally tracked him down. He is now a resident at Arkham Asylum.
TO THE VICTORS...
Stadium Ambience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6kOcKweQwA&ab_channel=NostalgicDreams
It's the biggest game of the football season and Bruce's favourite team the Gotham Rogues are in with a fighting chance.
To celebrate Bruce Wayne has hired out a private box at Rogues Stadium.
The box is just for Bruce, Alfred and the wards (party).
Bruce Wayne tells them that he will be travelling for a few weeks. He has some affairs he needs to tend to abroad. While he is gone they are to listen to Alfred Pennyworth.
"Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone."
The Gotham Rogues are off to a strong start as the game begins.
Bruce announces that he thinks in the light of their great service in defeating the Joker they deserve a gift.
I think you could each do with your own personalised vehicle.
Let the players describe the vehicles they want.
Bruce says that he will get his secret research division at Wayne Enterprises to get right on it.
The game is tied as they come into the second quarter.
Bruce says to the wards and Alfred:
"You know Captain Gordon told me that Henry Claridge's house was robbed before he was murdered. After what happened with the Joker everyone was so distracted that it was weeks before anyone even noticed that three of his most expensive works of art were gone. Removed from their frames."
In the third quarter the teams are still tied but suddenly the Gotham Rogues are on the attack and they are only ten yards from a touchdown that could turn the game.
Star quarterback T-bone Jones has the ball, when suddenly he drops it and runs screaming in the opposite direction.
Some of his team mates run after him.
He runs from their pursuit and security finally stop him as he comes off the field and tries to run into the changing rooms.
It looks like they are calling the medics. He is fighting not to be restrained.
Finally it looks like they sedate him and he is carry toward the locker rooms.
Having to rely on their second quarterback the Rogues go on to lose the game.
'And meet them both just the same...' says Alfred to master Bruce knowingly.
THE ROGUES LOCKER ROOM
If they investigate what happened to T-bone Jones then they find him being treated in the locker room.
If they can pass an average social skills check the coach tells them that he has had the medics sedate him.
He had a complete mental breakdown. He was screaming that he was being chased by dogs. Police dogs.
He kept saying they were going to bite him.
At this point his girlfriend rushes in and throws her arms around Jones who is lying on the benches in the locker room while medics fetch a stretcher. He wakes as she grabs him.
It is Selina Kyle.
If they pass a successful social check she will tell them that he received this telegram just before the game. She hands it to them with gloved hands.
It reads "It's going to be a memorable game. I'm betting on it - an admirer"
What they don't know is that the telegram is covered in the fear toxin that infected T-bone.
She walks off with the medics and Jones on the stretcher. They are going in an ambulance to Greytowers Medical Clinic.
If they can find a way of taking a blood sample and usingThe Batcave lab with a successful science check they can discover:
That the blood contains a powerful drug, its complex structure will take some time to analyze in detail but it might well induce anxiety and hallucinations.
TROUBLE NEAR THE GROUNDS
Alfred Pennyworth alerts them to social media - videos of rioting crowds - the worse elements of Gotham Rogues fandom. They are attacking random people and tipping cars over. He knows that the street they are on now - setting fire to houses - is the road where the family of Captain James Gordon live.
Can the wards head over there and manage the crowd in whatever way the party sees fit.
When they arrive any party member who touched the telegram starts to hallucinate - having mad visions that play into their back story in the lab and whatever other details of the characters background the GM has.
DEATH AT THE UNIVERSITY
Rain Ambience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AijCGRZmTzU&ab_channel=ASMRWeekly
Alfred says there have been reports of a strange death at the university - a Giles Pigeon was found with a terrified look on his face - scared to death they are saying.
Alfred Pennyworth can get them invited to Gotham State University as Wayne Enterprises is one of its largest donors.
The party meet the Dean of the university David Chambers.
The Dean admits that the psychology department. About 8 months ago Professor Ronald Strange committed suicide, jumping off the roof of the department. Then about a month ago Professor Jonathan Crane's body was found in the bay about a week after he disappeared and now Professor Giles Pigeon has been found dead in strange circumstances.
You know, I didn't know them very well. I don't know what is sadder, discovering that Strange had a wife and son he left behind when he killed himself or that Crane has no next of kin we can contact, his people came from Georgia as far as the police can tell. They say they'll keep looking.
"Suicide's are not unusual in psychiatry departments but murders still thankfully are."
The professors bodies have been taken to the Gotham City Morgue.
He is holding something back but an average successful social skill check means he will reveal:
That Professor Giles Pigeon was found holding a hand full of corn - the grass not grains.
Unknown to the party what really happened is the Crane pushed Strange off the roof, faked his own death - using the body of a lowly university janitor none of the professors are even aware is missing. A thin man. - came back to kill the others using his fear drug.
If the party wants to speak to any surviving members of the department they can speak to:
Professor David Reed
He is hesitant and shy but a successful social skills check will get him to reveal:
Strange, Crane and Pigeon were all working on the subject of fear. Strange on fear inhibitors, Crane on the chemical evolutionary roots of fear responses and Pigeon on the roots of fear in early childhood trauma.
Crane had a government contract and was doing work that was classified - no one at the university knew what it was.
His own work is on treating emergency trauma.
Professor Harleen Quinzel
She thanks them for providing her with her most fascinating patient at Arkham Asylum, the Joker
She says she knew Crane and Strange but didn't really know Pigeon.
A successful social skills check gets her to reveal:
Pigeon had taken over Crane's classified work.
Crane was set to win an award at the upcoming Dixon-Finger Awards, in a weeks time, that honor great work published each year by academics at the university, for his paper on the evolutionary roots of fear responses in humans.
THE MORGUE
If the party somehow find their way into Gotham City Morgue, inside they will find the body of Professor Pidgeon being examined by Doctor Mortimer Gunt. The professors dead fist still clutches several blades of corn.
He is feeding data collected from his corpse into a computer.
If they manage a successful social skills check or a stealth and computers check:
They discover that his blood contains traces of another slightly different complex chemical compound that while not fatal in itself would induce high levels of anxiety in anyone consuming the drug.
If they take the blades of corn - after a successful stealth check - they can get it analysed at the labs in The Batcave but the results will take time.
If they investigate the bodies of Jonathan Crane
ANOTHER VICTIM OF TERROR
Let the party plan to go somewhere in their downtime.
At some point interrupt proceedings...
The party are out in Gotham when they see people running in fear.
A successful perception check reveals they are running from a large man - Mikey Reed.
He is screaming. 'They are everywhere - I hate you dam zombies.'
He is under the effects of Scarecrow's drug and believes all the other people around him are zombies including the party.
They will have to fight Mikey in order to subdue him.
Once they have defeated him if they investigate his background (streetwise check) or wait for him to recover and interrogate him (Social Skills check) they discover:
Mikey Reed is a well known gangster, hired muscle for bookie called Johnny Wise who is protected by The Falcone Crime Family. Johnny runs his operation from Linden Dry Cleaners in Little Italy.
If they interrogate Mikey directly he tells them that Johnny sent him to follow one of his customers.
"Just follow him around and tell Johnny what I saw. That's all. But what I don't know is this guy must have made me. He leads me down an alley and then turns and shoots a dart into me. Next thing I know there's zombies everywhere, moaning, endless seas, hungry for human flesh."
If they asks what he looks like he describes Jonathan Crane in vague terms.
INTERROGATION OF JOHNNY WISE
Laundry Ambience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zXgztLRwek&ab_channel=RelaxationAmbience
The Linden Dry Cleaners is protected by three Falcone Family Goons protecting the establishment. Johnny himself is unlikely to put up a fight.
With a successful social skills check Johnny Wise will reveal what happened.
He has had a customer who keeps winning big. It's suspicious Johnny Knows something is up.
"So he comes in to collect his winnings - he bet heavily against the Gotham Rogues - but most guys win they collect straight away and they don't make big bets against their home team. I give him the money no questions asked but I send Mikey Reed to follow him. Next thing I hear Mikey has gone bananas yelling about zombies or some shit."
Johnny tells them if they leave him a number he'll call when he comes in again. When he collected he laid a big bet on a local boxing match. With his suspicious winning streek, Johnny guesses he'll be in to collect his winnings soon. The match is tomorrow night but sometimes he takes a day or to too collect.
The fight is Hibbens vs Grant at the Vespertilio Gym.
FIGHT NIGHT
Dell Hibbins vs Ted 'the Wildcat' Grant at the Vespertilio Gym.
If the players attend the night of the fight. They see that Carmine Falcone is in the audience.
If they have a successful Vigilance check, the party overhear rumours that he has bet large on Ted 'the Wildcat' Grant.
Bookmakers are taking last minute bets from the crowd that is gathering.
They will also see famous female boxer and rising star Gina 'Gigantica' Dean. She is thought to be a contender for the heavyweight world title.
And if they are very successful on a perception check they will see a woman watching Gina that will turn out to be Diana Prince. She is there because Gina is secretly a rogue Amazon who betrayed her people.
Dell Hibbins changing room contains three Falcone Family Goons.
They are there to ensure that he does as agreed and throws the fight in the fourth round.
They would have a very hard time getting Dell Hibbins to admit that he is being paid and threatened to throw the fight. It would be a hard check.
In Ted 'the Wildcat' Grant dressing room is just his aging coach Len Castle. Ted has recently received a telegram (one laced with the fear drug like the one given to T-bone Jones).
Just before the fight begins the crowd parts and walking to his seat by the side of the ring, surrounded by henchmen is Oswald Cobblepot. He is clearly a respected figure amongst the gangsters. He makes a big show of betting on Dell Hibbins - making a bet against Carmine Falcone.
He is accompanied by Victor Zsasz but it will take an Underworld Knowledge check for the party to know that.
As the fight starts there's obviously something wrong with Ted 'the Wildcat' Grant he is running away, cowering, barely defending - when Dell hits him with a light blow he goes down and hugs he mat. He's not getting back up. The referee has no choice but to give him the ten count and end the match.
The crowd aren't happy - some throw chairs into the ring - the place is on the verge of a full blown riot.
Some of the crowd get violent - Gina 'Gigantica' Dean knocks one of them out but then her and the party's attention is drawn by Diana Prince who sends one rioter literally flying across the room. In that moment they see a look of recognition on Gina's face as she realises who it is. Gina then stuns everyone by turning into a giant, growing in size till her head almost touches the ceiling. Most of the crowd are running for the exists. Dina attacks Gina leaping up and punching her just above the belt but she slams her giant fist into her and sends her crashing across the ring.
Whichever side the party fight on they will make an ally of that character. If they fight on neither then Gina knocks Diana out shrinks back down and gets away.
ANOTHER DEATH AT THE UNIVERSITY
Alfred informs them that he has reports that there has been another murder.
David Reed one of the professors that you met was found by police in the early hours of yesterday morning tied to a chair in his home after an anonymous call tipped them off.
Apparently the police have security footage from his home security system that shows the killer but he is wearing a mask.
To see the tapes they will have to either:
Break into the evidence locker at G.C.P.D. Central
Bribe a corrupt cop with a streetwise check
Convince Captain James Gordon to give them a copy of the tapes using a social skills check
Some other clever plan.
THE TAPES
If they get their hands on the police tapes they show Professor Reed is in his study.
Suddenly the whiskey glass falls from his hand and he begins to scream.
At the same time the security camera on the front door sees a man with a broad brimmed hat unlock the front door with a key and walk in and up the stairs.