The Porcelain Mask - Part II

Location 3 – The Warlord’s Armoured Train

It is extremely unlikely that anyone could approach this position without being captured by the Warlord’s men. Any individual or group doing so will be apprehended and dragged before the General in short order.

3A-3D – Big Guns

These are the main guns of the General’s War-train. Gun A is firmly trained upon the stalled Passenger Train; Gun B almost certainly has been ranged and focussed upon the same target; Guns C and D share the duty of launching flares into the night sky to illuminate the surroundings.

The area surrounding the War-train is being thoroughly patrolled by the warriors of the General. They are all efficient scouts and are currently terrified, both of the General and what seems to be happening on the Passenger Train. Nevertheless, the party will find it very difficult to Sneak close enough to the War-train without being spotted and apprehended. Patrols sweep the perimeter every 20 minutes or so and lookouts get to roll their Spot Hiddens (40%) every minute. Characters will have to make exceptional Hide or Sneak Rolls to even get close (figure players having to roll under 20% of their Skill value to succeed).Any troops capturing the party will, with a relief detectable by a Psychology roll, hurry their captives to the General’s 2IC – Chagatai - in short order.

3E – General’s Quarters

This is the engine for the War-train and also serves as the General’s HQ. If captured, the party will be dragged before the Warlord here. The characters will first be vetted by Chagatai, the General’s one-armed aide, who will exclude any women from meeting the General: he figures that clean, good-looking women will only serve to increase the General’s burgeoning harem, and that plain women will be summarily executed as missionaries – especially those dressed for action in filthy ‘unladylike’ apparel – for whom the General has a distinct disdain. For this reason women will be taken to Area 3H – the Machine-gun Emplacement - to await their destiny. See? All that mud did have a purpose after all!

Entering the drive train, the party will be confronted by a baroque scene: the entire room in which they find themselves is copiously swathed in red velvet, suggesting that the General pillaged the drapery of a theatre or cinema at some point. An enormous lacquered coffin reclines upright against the far wall, decorated with gilt dragons, Buddhist knots, ‘happy bats’ and other mystical symbols. The General - clad in a quilted, scarlet smoking jacket over his uniform - is poring over plans spread out on a table and held down by steaming plates of pungent Chinese food, from which he picks with a pair of black lacquered chopsticks. In a far corner a filthy figure squats, alternately mumbling, giggling and chanting, whilst rattling various talismanic objects and shuffling through ancient parchment pieces. There are four uniformed guards in the room, standing to attention and armed with Russian rifles.

Occult or Anthropology rolls will identify the shambolic figure in the corner as a Tibetan Bön Sorcerer, an exorcist and practitioner of that country’s shamanistic magic. He carries a flute made from a human femur, or thigh bone, a drum made from two human skulls, a conch shell and a prayer wheel. He also has a small hibachi, or charcoal stove, over which he mutters and sprinkles various herbal concoctions. Anyone Listening for a few rounds to the utterances of this creature will gain the unnerving impression that more than one voice is speaking through him. (No stats are provided for this fellow – he isn’t going to be around for too much longer...)

The General will only speak to the party through the translation capabilities of his aide, Chagatai. He barks his questions incontinently and takes prodigious pulls from a bottle of Chinese whiskey which stands on the table next to a freshly-cleaned automatic pistol; Psychology rolls will reveal that the General is in an extremely delicate and dangerous state of mind. The General has convinced himself that ‘factions’ have taken his favourite son captive in the train below; he suspects that the move is part of a covert operation – involving Hardcastle in some obscure fashion – that seeks to undermine his credibility with Chang Tso-lin, his boss. This is all completely beside the point, but he doesn’t want to hear any other scenario at present.

If "Jimmy" Chow is still with the party at this point, he makes a fatal mistake: assuming that the General will welcome any media attention, he offers to write a positive article about the warlord and his son, guaranteed to garner sympathy for the General amongst the readership. The General will shoot him dead out of hand at the first mention of Erh-Chang, emptying the clip into the unfortunate reporter’s body. Two of the guards toss the body unceremoniously outside (SAN 1/1d4).

The General asks several strange questions through the medium of Chagatai:

“Who has taken control of the Passenger train?”

“What is on the train that foreign spies would be interested in?”

“Who is Hardcastle working for?”

“What did Hardcastle arrange to have put on the train?”

“Is it a bomb?”

“What are the intentions of the Municipal Forces?”

The party can answer these questions – or not - as they see fit, and the General is not above smacking them around a bit to encourage them (his gun may be out of bullets, but it can still bludgeon effectively: 1D4+db). Of course, the General is not functioning at his best and the party’s best interests are served by appealing to Chagatai rather than the warlord; Chagatai himself is a bit worried about the General’s behaviour (Psychology roll) and any appeal to reason will resonate most surely with him.

At a tense moment in the dialogue, the Bön Sorcerer suddenly screams and leaps erect, scattering his accoutrements: he begins to speak in a loud voice, a Chinese dialect (actually Cantonese, a language unknown to the Sorcerer) uttered in a guttural, buzzing cadence. After he finishes, he screams again and slumps dead to the floor: one of the guards rolls him over and it is seen that his face has melted in an horrific fashion, eye-sockets bubbling and cheek bones emerging through the plastic mess. There is some confusion amongst those gathered (SAN Rolls: 1d3/1d6), but Chagatai (or any party member capable of Speaking a Chinese dialect,) can reveal that the shaman said:

“I am come to clear the way;

I move through dark and night;

My hunger is insatiable;

My might unstoppable;

I am the glory of Yidhra.

I am coming!”

Party members hearing this are able to make a Cthulhu Mythos roll to understand the reference to Yidhra: they understand the name to be that of a mythical entity connected to a Southern Chinese and Annamese fertility cult; a critical success will allow them to become aware of the hideous fecundity that is Yidhra.

After this, the interview is terminated and the party is hustled off to the Southern Machine-gun Nest (3H).

3F – The Harem

Normally this carriage would hold the regiment of men assigned to the train; currently it is doing service as the sleeping quarters of some the Warlord’s many concubines. It’s possible that some of the party members who were initially sent to the southern Machine-gun Nest (3H) will be sent here in search of bandages and hot water to aid several wounded soldiers there.

Inside, the carriage is draped with linen and clothing hung over clotheslines and dividing the area into many small cubicles; a larger open area, with a small stove, is just inside the door. Around this are arranged a number of the General’s ‘girls’. An entrance by any unknown men (or men not wearing the General’s uniform) will be met by screams and general hysteria; any women who enter, accompanied or otherwise, will be greeted with stares of cool appraisal and some sharp questioning.

Initial questions and comments will revolve upon the attractiveness of the supposed ‘new addition’ to the Harem, which is how many of the women here will take the entrance of another female: comments will revolve critically upon the newcomer’s appearance and the warlord’s growing penchant for the bizarre. Once the party member(s) manage to get a word in edgewise and explain their presence, a statuesque blonde White Russian stands forward and demands answers in a staccato fashion: she, it seems, is in control of this henhouse. If the Russian doctor is mentioned, she will insist that the gathered women begin to boil water in an ancient samovar hidden in the corner of the carriage and that they provide any garments that they can do without. While they scurry to do her bidding, the blonde bombshell coolly appraises the party representative whilst dragging on a cigarette.

The gathered women provide plenty of hot water and a multi-coloured display of silken fabrics which they deftly tear into strips for the purpose of field dressings. The Russian blonde strides to the door of the carriage and commandeers the presence of several soldiers in the Mess Tent (3G) outside: she demands that they carry the hot water from the samovar in whatever containers they have to hand. As the party individual(s) start to leave she instructs our characters to “tell Piotr that my heart is still with him”. The party (and the Keeper) may do with this morsel as they see fit.

3G – Mess Tent

All of the Warlord’s troops are currently using this large tent as their sleeping quarters/mess tent. Any party members who enter this area (heading towards 2F - the Harem - in search of medical supplies, for example) will note an air of tension gripping the 10-15 men waiting here (Psychology roll).

The men here are nervous, shakily smoking unlit cigarettes and dragging on personal caches of alcohol. Their gaze is constantly drawn to the north and west of the War-train’s position, away from the stalled passenger train. If questioned, the men will respond to the questioner on the basis of low Credit Rating roll – upper class, command, types will only receive a glib, or bland response. A successfully-rolled low Credit Rating (40% or less) or a failed high Credit Rating roll (50% or higher) will gain a useful response.

Word is coming in from the outlying patrols that there is something following the scouts and that it has attacked one patrol, taking them out with relative ease. Rumours have started, stating that the enemy is invisible, or that it has supernatural capabilities un-thought-of (at least by this current crop of soldiers). Once one soldier breaks his silence, the others join in, compounding rumour upon rumour: one scouting party was brought back in, cut to ribbons; another party hasn’t radioed in and is presumed dead. The upshot is that the stalled train below is ‘possessed’ by something unearthly and the men are increasingly of the opinion that it should be shelled into oblivion rather than explored.

3H – Southern Machine-gun Nest

This is a machine gun emplacement and any of those who gain the Warlord’s ire will be tied up and kept under guard in this pit until he is satisfied that they can go. If the party is first vetted by Chagatai, any female characters will be sent here. This is a muddy hole and ferociously cold at night; the guards and gun crew are unchivalrous and generally loathsome, making lewd and grotesque suggestions to the female prisoners. The party members should deal with these as they see fit.

If things seem to be going badly for the captives, a White Russian, a former doctor of the Czarist troops, appears and shoots the most obnoxious warrior, thus pacifying the rest of the louche troopers. Of course, one of the gathered party prisoners may have already thought of this method of pacification; if so the doctor will simply comment “well done” and get on with things, as below:

The doctor (whose name is Piotr) brings with him three wounded men and six stretcher-bearers, and hurriedly asks the gathered prisoners if they have any First Aid or Medicine skills. The stricken are badly mauled and terrified: one has lost both his legs below the knees; one has been horrifically slashed across the abdomen; the last has had the back of his skull slashed off, along with several deep gashes down his back. The party can lend assistance if they have the stated skills; otherwise, the doctor will give them his pass and tells them to go to the Harem (3F) and get fabric for bandages and all the hot water they can carry. If the party members are well supplied with the requisite skills, the Gun crew will be sent in search of the water and bandages instead.

The wounded speak the following languages:

Patient 1: Jin; Mandarin; Wu (the Shanghai dialect of Chinese)

Patient 2: Russian; French; Mandarin

Patient 3: Mandarin; Jin; Wu

Party members can attempt whatever skills they have to communicate with them.

(It’s a good time to point out that the various dialects of “Chinese” exist in a state of “mutual intelligibility” – that is, two people who speak widely different dialects, will still understand each other while not being able to talk the other person’s particular pidgin. For someone with fluency in a particular Chinese dialect, understanding is not a problem; being understood is the tricky part! Keep this in mind when the Bön Sorcerer gives his final utterance as well.)

In treating the wounded, the party discovers that these men were attacked by a black shape that sped upon them out of the darkness and slashed them up without a second thought. All that they are able to convey initially is that it was a ‘monster’ with armour and a strange low method of moving. And that it spoke Chinese, in the Cantonese dialect.

Medical skills (with the appropriate successful rolls, applying the stated penalties) must be utilised in the following fashion:

Bleeding must be stopped in all three cases (-15% Medicine or First Aid);

Shock must be combated (-10% Medicine or First Aid);

The possibility of Infection must be reduced (-05% Medicine or First Aid);

Dressings must be applied.

The man with the abdominal wounds – a White Russian – is the one with the lowest life expectancy. He will crave water in his final hour, but the doctor will limit this and will focus on the other two casualties, who stand a better chance of survival. Pain management – utilising the flask of vodka in his breast pocket, or some other means (some of the Gun crew have opium) – is his best recourse and will keep him talking. He mentions that the thing which attacked him and his colleagues was “armoured, with one or two big swords” and “it laughed at us like we were nothing at all”. Despite this, he claims to have stabbed it with his Cossack blade before it took him out with a casual slash. He says that it seemed wary of their lights and attacked without them hearing its approach. He offers his opinion that, if the Czar had known about and had used such soldiers, he (the Cossack) wouldn’t be dying at this particular juncture. After this, all that can be gained from him is his disjointed singing of his national anthem before he succumbs to unconsciousness. He dies soon afterwards.

Once hot water and bandages arrive from the Harem (3F), the patching of the wounded will proceed apace; shortly thereafter, the balance of the party will show up, ejected from their conference with the General. Give the party time enough to compare notes and consolidate their information before the following happens:

Without warning, one of the General’s soldiers comes crashing over the sandbag barricade, covered in blood and, carried in one hand, his other arm which has been slashed off at the elbow. He is hysterical (naturally enough) and babbling about a ‘monster’ following him from his position; he’s sure that his comrades are now dead: any soldiers in the Machine gun emplacement instantly panic and scramble for cover. Those party members with a high POW and a successful Fast Talk, Orate, or Bargain roll will be able to command these fellows to hold the line, otherwise they disappear. Shortly thereafter, the Arthropod Child of Woe leaps the barricade and engages our party and any others in the encampment.

This creature is shaped much like a gigantic scorpion, with an hideously-malformed human face. It is hopelessly insane and chortles as it attacks the humans in its vicinity (for statistics on this creature, see the end of this scenario). The best method of dealing with this horror is to rotate the machine-guns 180° and use them (or command the soldiers to use them) to blow the creature to Kingdom Come; however, the party may come up with some other means of combating it. If they defeat it, the party will discover a Cossack blade embedded in one of its human eye-sockets...

Weapon	Base Chance to Fire	Damage	Base range	Attacks per round	Bullets in Gun	HPs	Era S$ Cost	Malfunction	Common in Era?
Maxim 1910 (Russia 1910 to 1950)	15%	2d8	200 yards	Burst (550 rounds per minute)	250 round cloth belt	20	60,000	00%	Uncommon

If the Child is destroyed, an hideous scream will emanate from the direction of the Passenger Train, dying away into a brooding silence...

The General wades in...

The sounds of battle bring the Warlord and Chagatai to the scene, just as the party (hopefully) despatches the monster. The General begins to issue orders to the effect that the Passenger Train should be shelled as soon as possible, but will be cut short either by A) a party member, or B) Chagatai. If the party re-states its intention to locate Erh-Chang in the stranded train, the General gives them a window of two hours to do their best before he starts to blow the Hell out of the train (his nerves have been a little rattled by the sight of this many-legged horror in his encampment). The party should take this as a warning to go and come back quickly, and to not waste any time...

Statistics:

The Warlord, Chang Tsung-chang

A subordinate of Chang Tso-lin’s Fengtian clique and a fearsome military organiser, Chang was instrumental in toppling Shanghai for his master’s benefit. Unlike many other warlords he was marginally less self-indulgent than his superiors, largely foregoing the peacock uniforms and masses of medals; instead, he concentrated on the amassing of power for its own end. The son of a witch and an itinerant trumpet player, at his height, he was referred to as the “Warlord of the Three Don’t Knows” – he said he didn’t know how many concubines he had; how much money he had, or how many troops he commanded.

He was called the “Dog–Meat General” due to his fondness for a Manchurian form of gambling called Pai Gow, or ‘eating dog meat’. He was said to command a huge harem of women – Chinese, Western, White Russian, whatever – whom he referred to only by numbers - as he found it too hard to recall their names - and to each of whom he gave a washbowl and a washcloth, printed with the flag of their home country. He was fond of decorating telegraph poles with ‘cut melons’ (that is, the heads of his enemies) and he never travelled anywhere without his own heavily lacquered and decorated coffin.

He was notable among the warlords as the first to recruit women into his army as nurses and significantly boosted morale and the effectiveness of his troops by doing so. In 1925 he entered Shanghai with his troops, forced its capitulation in the name of Chang Tso-lin and held it in his master’s name until 1928, when Chiang Kai-shek won it back through the efforts of his Northern Expedition. Instrumental to Chang Tsung-chang’s power was his use of armoured trains which he manned with the help of White Russian refugees fresh from defending the tracks of the Trans-Siberian Railway. For his efforts on his warlord master’s behalf he was named the administrator of Shantung under the Fengtian clique. He was eventually captured by Kuomintang forces but allowed to leave the country in 1932; unfortunately, he was assassinated by the son of one of his rivals before he could escape.

The “Dog-Meat General”

char.	value	char.	value	char.	value
STR	15	POW	20	Move	7
CON	17	DEX	13	HP	18
SIZ	19	APP	12	Magic Points	20
INT	15	EDU	10	SAN	65

Damage Bonus: +1D6

Weapon: .45 Automatic 78%: 1D10+2; Club 80%: 1D4+1D6

Armour: None

Skills: Dodge 65%; First Aid 60%; Hide 45 %; Listen 80%; Martial Arts 70%; Mechanical Repair 55%; Rifle 70%; Sneak 30%; Play Trumpet 65%

Spells: None

SAN Loss: Unless he loses the plot completely and does something horrific, it generally costs no SAN to see the Warlord

Chagatai

Half-Mongol, half-Russian, and claimed by neither, Chagatai lost his left arm in the Russian retreat from Mukden during the Russo-Japanese War of ’04-’05. Since then, he has little time for political or nationalistic rhetoric and has found a cynically comfortable roost with the erratic Warlord regime. He is aware that Chang Tsung-chang is volatile and unpredictable, but his results cannot be disputed. Most of Chagatai’s time is spent keeping unnecessary distractions out of the General’s line of fire and he acts as an efficient filter of his leader’s priorities. At bottom, Chagatai gains a lot of personal satisfaction from working with Chang, not to mention a lot of cash, and it would take a great deal for him to abandon his post. And don’t underestimate him: one-armed or not, he’s deadly with his knives; even the ones that aren’t coated in poison…

One-handed, Right-hand Man

char.	value	char.	value	char.	value
STR	14	POW	15	Move	7
CON	17	DEX	14	HP	17
SIZ	17	APP	14	Magic Points	15
INT	17	EDU	15	SAN	75

Damage Bonus: +1D4

Weapon: .44 Revolver 65%: 2D6+2; Dagger 70%: 2D4+2; Dagger (Thrown) 75%: 1D4+1D2+2

Armour: 2 point Heavy Leather Jacket

Skills: Bargain 85%; Dodge 75%; First Aid 75%; Hide 55%; Listen 80%; Martial Arts 45%; Mechanical Repair 60%; Psychology 75%; Rifle 40%; Sneak 50%; Throw 75%

Spells: None

SAN Loss: It costs no SAN to see Chagatai

Arthropod Child of Woe

This monster is fast and dangerous. Assuming a scorpion-like paradigm, it is quick to attack and able to cover territory very speedily. The beast has a human-like face (with extra eyes) and the ability to Speak Cantonese; however, the rest of it is shaped like a huge scorpion. Given that the creature has been damaged in a previous encounter, the Arthropod Child of Woe has a -20% penalty versus attacks which originate from its left flank.

Arachnid Crawler in the Dark

char.	value	char.	value	char.	value
STR	23	POW	14	SAN	0
CON	17	DEX	17	Magic Points	14
SIZ	30	Move	9
INT	11	HP	24

Damage Bonus: +2d6

Weapon: Claws (x2) 85%: 1d8+db+Grapple (with 2 successful strikes); Tail 30%: Paralysing poison (Resist CON vs. POT): speed reduced by half/sting. If Speed is reduced to less than 1 by repeated stings, the character is paralysed and will die in CON rounds without First Aid or Medical treatment.

Armour: The Child has a chitinous hide that resists 6 points of damage from every strike by normal weapons

Skills: Sneak 75%; Jump 65%

Spells: None

SAN Loss: It costs 1d4 / 1d10 points of sanity to see a Child of Woe