RIDDLES
On Earth 33 the Beatles are all still alive and have reformed for a final sell out tour - including a performance at the Gotham Arena
But the night before the performance the band have been taken hostage by Edward Nigma.
MIDNIGHT CALLER
It is midnight, it's raining hard the night before the performance by the The Beatles at the Gotham Arena. When the doorbell rings. Alfred opens the door, outside is Talia Iblis (really Talia al ghoul) he brings her in and wakes everyone up who is asleep.
Talia Iblis is drenched.
She explains that a man came up to her and said that I should give these to you - Bruce Wayne.
Each one is a piece of card on each is a riddle.
In reality she knows the Riddler herself and this is all part of her fathers plot.
She says the man said each one leads to one of the four. I just thought he was crazy but I just heard - the beatles have gone missing. They've been kidnapped.
He said that a friend told him about you (Bruce Wayne).
Bruce asks Alfred to take Talia into the dinning room and get her a coffee and a change of clothes she is drenched from the rain - then show her a bedroom she can can get changed in.
Bruce talks to the wards and suggests there's no time to lose and they should split up - solve the clues and then split up and rescue one each - finally coming to the fourth.
Unknown
Oliver Queen, Selina Kyle or Harleen Quinzel might help them at any of the hostage sites.
Q: What is it that no one wants to have, but no one wants to lose, either?
A: A lawsuit. Solomon Wayne Courthouse
George Harrison is tied up in the dock. Henry King is the judge. He will use psionics to read players minds and tell them their secrets / sins.
Q: What has two hands, a round face, always runs, yet always stays in place, too?
A: A clock! Old Gotham Clock Tower
Ringo Starr tied to the bottom of the bell the Calendar Man is about to ring the bell which will batter Ringo.
Julian Day
Q: I am an instrument whose music always comes from the heart. What am I?
A: An organ! Gotham Cathedral
Paul McCartney crucified above the altar - tied but Jean-Paul Valley is holding a hammer and nails.
Q: If you know me, you’ll want to share me. If you share me, I’ll be gone. What am I?
A: A secret! The Batcave
John Lennon dangling from the ceiling of the Batcave.
Edward Nigma
The Riddler will reveal that although they have solved his riddles they still don't really know which game they are playing or who they are playing against.
ROLLING NEWS WITH VICKY VALE
The next day reporter Vicky Vale sums up yesterday's events before the concert and announces that due to events the concert has been postponed.
She is now outside Arkham Asylum where she reveals last night during the Beatles concert there was a break-in and a break-out. Someone broke in and broke out Joker.
This morning a bomb went off in District Attorney's Harvey Dent's office. The DA was rushed to the hospital where he is believed to be in a stable condition.
They then cut to a press conference with James Gordon saying that he has set up the bat signal as they need as much help as they can bringing this dangerous individual to justice.
This news obviously occupies Bruce Wayne and he immediately sets about trying to work out what the Joker is up to.
GUNK MOUNTAIN
The police and Batman are busy fighting the Joker resources are stretched thin.
So now when Alfred sees a load of strange reports about a mountain of strange coloured gunk outside the Greytowers Medical Clinic he thinks its a fit job for the Wards (the party).
Bruce Wayne asks if they could stop in and send his best wishes to Harvey Dent while they are at Greytowers Medical Clinic as he is recovering from the Joker's bomb blast in a hospital room there. Tell him that Bruce will take care of the bill.
When they get there it's on the sidewalk outside the tower - a small mountain of gunk - it looks like the top of a giant ice cream cone fell off and landed on the street.
A successful perception check reveals:
It looks like Big Belly Burger Sauce (the same sauce they used to defeat Bork).
There appears to be a dark form inside it.
If they scrape away the sauce they see that it's a person.
A dead person. Bound and gagged.
A successful perception check reveals that the sauce is dripping down into the cracks and not filling them up. If they lft up the stone below they find a wooden box with two arrows and severed human hand in. The arrows have native american markings.
The body Oliver Queen - he was in town for the Beatles concert - he has the much sought after tickets hidden on him - rolled up in a cigar case.
If they examine the camera feed the cameras were cut.
But if they examine the feed earlier and make a successful perception check:
They see a man that looks like a workman - young, thin white man.
He obviously avoids letting the camera's see his face. He walks through to a hall opens a box. He cuts some wires and the feed goes dead.
A successful examination of Queen's body reveals that he had been drugged before drowning in the sauce.
HARVEY'S HAVING TROUBLE FACING REALITY
The party go and see Harvey Dent. Half his face is bandaged up along with most of his body.
He is suffering with severe burns and heavily sedated.
He is sitting up in bed trying to flip a coin but in his state he fails to catch it.
"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's all just stupid chance. If I hadn't knelt down behind the desk to tie my shoe before the bomb went off I'd be dead. I'm alive by chance. I'd be dead by chance. Call it?"
He flips the coin and fails to catch it. It roles off the bed and lands on heads.
His wife Gilda Dent arrives with flowers from well wishers.
She confides to the party that she is worried about her husband that he has been acting strangely and seems almost heartbroken.
DOWNTIME AND ALFRED'S UPDATE
Offer the players some downtime, somewhere of their choice.
Alfred Pennyworth will inform them when they get back to Wayne Manor that a truck was reported stolen near the Hinkley Place branch of Big Belly Burger.
MURDER IN THE GRAVEYARD
Joker has taken over part of downtown and is holding hostages. Batman is busy on the scene as our most of the city's cops.
There has been a murder in the graveyard at Divinity Church. So Alfred tells the wards to investigate.
As they arrive at the church. A man passes them coming out of the graveyard.
If they stop him he tries to make excuses and get away. He seems to urgently want to go.
In the graveyard stands a nun. Sister Maggie Kyle looks down over a body on the floor covered in blood. Next to the body someone has dug up some of the earth in the graveyard - not one of the graves.
"There was a man. Blond hair. Scruffy looking. Strange accent - Australian maybe? He said he was a cop he dug the body out of a mountain of blood - then seeing she was dead just pushed her out of the way and started digging at the earth under her. He grabbed something that was buried under it and ran. You must have almost passed him coming in. He was smoking and swearing. He seemed like a detective but then he just snatched whatever it was and bolted."
A successfully perception check on the body reveals:
It is the dead body of Batgirl (if they remove the mask a hard social knowledge check reveals that she was really Barbara Gordon.
That it isn't blood but ketchup.
The hole of dirt that was below the body is only a few inches deep.
If they keep digging they would find another two arrows and a severed foot.
They also find tire marks were a truck has been reversed up and stopped just short of the body.
GOTHAM 1888
They run out on the street they see the man they passed coming in walking quickly down the road.
He takes a sharp left disappearing down Hatters Avenue.
A great plume of smoke from his cigarette bellowing out behind him.
Following they see him heading down the alley towards Porky's bar.
If they catch up to him they can hear he is muttering something under his breath.
He sees you and yells 'Get back!'
Just as he yells the whole street is enveloped in a blinding light and everything goes black.
When their vision returns, it's blurry at first, they at the same place but in the Gotham City 1888. Describe the scene.
PORKY'S 1888
They notice that they and the blond man are all dressed in period clothes. Get the party to describe what they are wearing.
"FUCK! Sorry about that"
Says John Constantine, the man they followed down the avenue. They see that he is holding something in his hand.
A successful perception check will reveal:
It's an arrow
Knowledge (Education) check will reveal:
It's of native american origin with native american markings
It is broken
Perhaps we should get a drink and regroup?
John leads them into Porky's Saloon.
Through the saloon doors and up to the portly barman in a waistcoat.
"Three fucking whiskeys"
He drinks all three.
"Do you have any money?"
What do they do about not having any money?
A man comes over and interrupts, a tall cowboy, his face half burnt or mutilated.
"What are you doing with my arrow?
Says the bounty hunter Jonah Hex. Accompanied by a native American man (shaman) Flaming Star
Hex asks where they got that arrow. Flaming Star says that it is a sign and he pulls an arrow from his own quiver and the markings on the arrow are the same as on the arrow from below the body in their time.
Hex says he is looking for some folk to help him with a job.
He is headed up into the mountains in search of Tom Tannarak.
"Heard of him? No? He's blind. Sounds easy don't it. But that blind man has sent ten men to the land none of us have seen. They say he is a warlock. That he summoned a demon and made a pact with it. Whatever the truth and I seen enough that I don't doubt strange things happen, he is a killer and I am going to bring him in. He will face justice. He will have his day in court and on the end of the hangman's rope."
They agree to join him on his hunt for the warlock.
"You fella's got horses?"
He will give one a lift on his horse and the rest of the party will have to walk.
They leave the bar with Jonah Hex in search of the warlock.
WARLOCKS TRAIL