The Porcelain Mask - Part III

Location 4 – The Passenger Train

4A – The Water Tower

This is the location of a water tower which is occasionally used to replenish the trains that pass by this location. There is also a small shack nearby, now decrepit, that was used at one time by railway workers.

Anyone viewing this feature using field glasses or binoculars from either the Warlord’s Camp or that of the Municipal Forces, can make a Spot Hidden Roll to observe the fact that the forward door to railway car C is hanging open and is obscured by the water tower, making it a possible means of surreptitious entrance to the train.

Climbing to the top of this structure (via a ladder on its side) will necessitate Hide rolls on the part of the one(s) so doing. Without these, they become easy prey for the Sing-song Girls flying overhead.

4B – Slumped Woods

Anyone passing close by this point will need to make a Spot Hidden roll (x2); those successful will see that the trees here have simply lain down across the tracks to derail the approaching train. The trunks have bent rather than having been cut; close inspection will also note that leaves and branches have coiled in an unnatural fashion, as if the trees suddenly lost the ability to remain upright and collapsed: noting this will necessitate a SAN-Roll for 0/1d2 points.

This is an example of Madame Yi’s Mutation power and part of her Cult’s plan to obtain the Mask of the Avatar. It will also reveal to the party of Investigators that, whatever his reasons are for being here, the Warlord and his troops didn’t derail the train.

4C – Second Class

The cars on this train are mostly of the typical Pullman type, with a connecting corridor along the southern side from which depend several seating compartments with sliding entrance doors. These compartments have facing bench seats and overhead luggage racks.

Entering the carriage, the investigators will notice immediately that there is a strange yellowish mist circulating inside: whilst ostensibly harmless, the party may well hesitate before braving the train’s interior without breathing apparatus. This mist has a tendency to pool on surfaces and acquire a sticky consistency like thin syrup: if allowed to set, it can be subsequently scratched off like hardened glue.

Another thing which may attract the attention of our band is the agitated clucking of a chicken towards the southern end of the carriage corridor. Following this sound will reveal several dead chicken bodies (and the remains of the crate that once held them) as well as the malformed spectacle of two chickens blended together into a two-headed, three-legged blasphemy. It is alarmed by its current state and bothered by the clinging mist, which has started to glue its feathers together, but it is otherwise alright. Following this avian perversion will allow the party to inspect the various compartments of the train through the glass partitions:

The human passengers of the train have fared less well than the livestock. In some compartments, the occupants have been systematically torn to pieces by something with massive claws and teeth; pieces of flesh, rent luggage and carriage fittings are strewn throughout the space, accompanied by a whirlwind of blood and shattered glass. In another compartment, the victims are more or less intact, but bloated and blackened, torn at by less egregious weaponry and seemingly dead of some toxin or contagion. A final compartment is the most awful of all: it contains a knotted web of flesh, several people all apparently blended horribly together, bones and organs re-formed, twisted and exposed; worse still, some of this mass is still alive, but hopelessly, hopelessly insane. Seeing this devastation – the combined attacks of Madam Yi, a troupe of her Sing-song Girls and one of her Children - necessitates a SAN Roll with the following loss: 1d8/1d12.

The only other thing to note about this carriage is that both the access hatches to the outside roof from the main corridor – one at either end of the carriage – are open. The Sing-song Girls have left them like this to allow quick access to and from the sky above.

4D – Third Class

From the outside, this carriage is completely sealed: the windows are covered with some yellow material and a constant stream of yellowish fluid dribbles out onto the tracks through cracks in the superstructure. Attempting to open either the windows or the northernmost door of the compartment (leading to car 3F) will yield no result as these valves have been glued shut by the yellow miasma. It becomes readily obvious that the only way into this car is to move along within the train using the crew access.

The quickest way into this car is via the corridor in car 3C. The porter’s key has been left in the lock and the door swings open in the intermittent gusts of the yellow mist; eventually, the door will become so caked in the effusion that it will be frozen in position, but for now it still moves. Beyond this entrance, the true horror starts to become clear.

The interior of this carriage is markedly different from car 3C; to begin with it is not a Pullman type, rather it consists of a central aisle dividing two rows of hard wooden bench seats, all facing towards the engine. The entire inside of this carriage is caked with the hardened residue of the yellow mist, softening the edges and blurring outlines: the walls drip and run with the yellow syrup, pooling on the floor and seeping through the woodwork. This morass forms a nexus at the Northern end of the carriage where the obscene bulk of a massively mutated Madam Yi can be discerned. She is huge, twisted, partially-hidden by diaphanous black-and-white wing-like veils which float and drift about her; her neck has distorted into a long segmented structure with double-sets of orifices along its length, from which gasps of the yellow mist vent: at the terminus of the neck is her porcelain visage, now cracked open to reveal a gaping maw of needle-like teeth. Two gigantic praying mantis claws have grown alongside her standard human arms with their terrible talons.

The occupants of the seats in this carriage are all male and they sit facing forwards with fixed stares, murmuring in unison the word “Yidhra”, over and over. Again, a successful Cthulhu Mythos roll will reveal the nature of this chant. Between the monstrosity and the party is a young man who turns as they enter: if they have a photograph of him the party will quickly discern that this is Erh-Chang. He is covered with the yellowish effusion, which has seemingly stuck him to the floor, and he seems sunk in some kind of narcoleptic haze. Nevertheless, he sees the party as some kind of means of escape and he holds out towards them a knapsack which, by his gestures, he seems frantic for them to take. In desperation he tosses the bag to the nearest adventurer as the beast behind him reaches out its hideous claws and snatches him closer to begin its horrible mating...the party may wish to exit before Erh-Chang is dismembered and tossed to the four winds.

If the party manages to gain some safe haven where they can examine the knapsack, they find inside it nothing which at first seems of any use: there is a pair of chopsticks, a small ceramic bowl, some cash, a train timetable, a compass, a paperback copy of E. A. Wallis Budge’s Egyptian Magic, a receipt, an address book and a train ticket. These last three are the items of interest: the train ticket is for his current, stalled, trip; the receipt is for the telegram which he sent to Professor Hardcastle; the address book is pertinent for the parcel which he sent on the Mail Train with its destination address – Professor Hardcastle’s home in the International Settlement. Whatever he was carrying, it is now most likely en route to the Professor, in the earlier Mail Train.

Having gotten in here with relatively little opposition, the party will feel the full force of Madame Yi’s anger in the form of her four Sing-song Girls who converge on this carriage at her telepathic behest. Leaving will be harder than the party expects, and the knapsack will be high on the ‘Girls’ list of recoverable items.

4E – Engine

The engine of the train has seemingly ploughed into the slumped trees that block the track and then rolled over sideways. The trees can be seen here to have become spongey and soft allowing the train to become derailed without causing too much damage to those aboard. The engine is still hot when the party gets here – not hot enough to create steam but still warm and cooling. The furnace stoker can be discovered here, swollen and blackened as if dead from a massive injection of poison, with a shovel gripped in his hands as if he died while fending off an attack.

4F – Coal Truck

The coal truck has also rolled off the tracks, spilling its load onto the ground. Any attempt to comb through this debris will unleash the driver from the Engine who has buried himself here to escape attack from the Sing-song Girls who killed the stoker. He springs from the coal, lashing out at the nearest person with his shovel (40%; 1d6+1d4). He will calm down quickly if soothed by conciliatory gestures (or if he sees that he’s bashed someone ostensibly human) and will reveal that the stoker was attacked by “strange women, who flew down out the sky”. The party may wish to keep this fellow with them or they may choose to send him either to the Municipal Forces or the Warlord’s Train: the decision is theirs. If they choose the latter option, the General will interrogate this witness and decide that two hours is one hour too many to investigate the Passenger Train and will start shelling the train prematurely.

4G – Dining Car

This car consists of sixteen tables (eight on either side of a central aisle) divided from each other by etched glass partitions. When the adventurers enter, the tables are set for dinner with cutlery and napery: glass vases with single roses have – for the most part – been knocked over by the derailment but everything else seems to be in order. Those entering will observe that the ceiling hatches at either end of the carriage, opening to the outdoors, have been opened (allowing attacks by the Sing-song Girls if needed).

In this area the party will discover the corpse of one of the train staff, swollen and blackened and with a large stab wound in his back. While examining this body, the party may be detected by one of the Sing-song Girls: the windows here are large and un-curtained and a Spot Hidden Roll (25%) by the ‘Girls will bring them in force. 

4H – First Class

The First Class carriage has a series of eight sleeper compartments connected by a single corridor along the southern side of the car. Given that the trip from Nanking to Shanghai is not that long, the compartments are opened and unmade, in hiatus until being used for a longer haul. Each compartment has a fold-out bed and a cupboard containing a sink and a mirror: no personal effects can be found here at this time. Every second room has a connecting door to the room preceding it so that the rooms can be sold as suites of two compartments; thus, there are four suites in this carriage. Like all of the carriages, the rooftop hatches have been removed to allow access by the Sing-song Girls. Additionally, the rear door of this carriage, through the concierge’s room, has been left open onto the tracks.

Resolution

Eventually, one way or another, the Sing-song Girls are going to pour down out of the sky and try to take out the party; how the party responds is up to them. If they get back to the General’s War-train they will be taken in and the Warlord’s big guns will finish off the horror that hides within the Passenger Train. He will pull up stakes and leave shortly after reducing the ‘Train to a pile of slag, the tracks along with it. The party will be offered protection and medical aid (if required) and will be returned to Shanghai the following day.

Alternatively, the party may try to escape to the camp of the Municipal Forces. This will lead any surviving Sing-song Girls after them and unleash their perversion upon the soldiers gathered at that camp. During this fight, the two-hour time limit imposed by the General will run out and he will start shelling the Passenger Train into oblivion. The Sing-song Girls will scream in despair and flee to see if aught can be rescued of their goddess, leaving Major Li to regroup and try to work out what was going on...

Statistics:

Madame Yi

Madam Yi is one of the many avatars of the Outer God Yidhra. This being appears as a human female dressed in beautiful white and black robes which constantly billow on some unseen wind. She may hover or fly on the same phantom wind. Madam Yi’s beautifully delicate visage is like the painted face of a porcelain doll: its blood-red lips and closed, almond-shaped, black eyes are forever frozen on a smooth and bone-white mask. Its long black hair is braided into a single plaited queue. The avatar’s hands both end in very long, razor-like black fingernails.

Cult

The Mother of Woe’s cultists are always led by women. Like all avatars of Yidhra, it requires regular infusions of fresh genetic material as well as a steady supply of young males with whom it mates. The products of these unions are, for the most part, simply re-absorbed by the avatar but, occasionally, the mutated, monstrous offspring are given to the cultists to raise or eat. The fathers of these creatures are always ripped to shreds by the avatar during the mating process. As with worshippers of Yidhra’s other avatars, Madam Yi’s followers take on aspects of the creature: their skin becomes white, like porcelain and their nails grow to prodigious size and sharpness. Like all cultists associated with Yidhra, the avatar communicates with its followers by telepathy.

Attacks & Special Effects

Madam Yi’s initial attack is by means of a hypnotic song: a hauntingly-beautiful melody that entices its victims. The victim must beat the avatar’s POW on the Resistance Table or else walk calmly into its waiting arms to be shredded and absorbed.

If the song fails to subdue its attackers, Madam Yi has two other options. The first is by means of its long queue, which is actually an animate tentacle, able to strike up to ten feet away and tipped with a black spike. The avatar will generally deploy this weapon from a point above her attackers, hovering over them as it strikes. Occasionally (20% of the time), the avatar’s queue, will have a poisonous tip, much like that of a scorpion: the venom injected by this stinger is POT 13 and does 1d6 points of paralysing damage per round for 1d6 rounds if not successfully resisted. Its second and most deadly form of attack is by means of its razor-sharp claws, which deal punishing damage.

Madam Yi’s other attack is its ability to reform living matter, even its own, and twist it to its own perverse will. By successfully striking an opponent and spending a minimum of 5 Magic Points, it can reform the base structures of living beings, distorting limbs, removing sensory organs or creating bizarre new growths. A favourite trick is to seal a creature’s mouth and nose, thereby leaving it to suffocate, but this mutative power is limited only by the Keeper’s imagination. As a general guide, it costs 5 MPs to affect a single organ (skin, heart, brain) or bodily system (skeletal, nervous, endocrine); 10 MPs to affect two individual creatures or to blend them together; 15 MPs to break down a creature into basic components and 30 MPs to alter a creature’s state from animal to vegetable or vice versa. The victim of such an attack must oppose their CON against the MPs in the attack on the Resistance Table to avoid the affects of the mutation. NB: that Madam Yi can use this effect upon itself or its followers at will, to create interesting features for use in combat; in such cases, no Resistance Roll is required.

The Mother of Woe

char.	value	char.	value	char.	value
STR	27	POW	60	SAN	n/a
CON	69	DEX	36	Magic Points	60
SIZ	17	Move	10/15 Flying
INT	25	HP	43

Damage Bonus: +2d6

Weapon: Razor Claws 90% (automatic when hypnotised): 1d6+db; Spiked Tentacle 85% (automatic when hypnotised): 1d4+3+db (plus possible poison); Mutation: Victim’s CON vs. the MPs in the attack to resist the specific effect

Armour: None; but Madam Yi cannot be harmed by normal weapons

Skills: Any, as desired by the Keeper

Spells: None, for the purposes of this scenario.

SAN Loss: It normally costs 1/1d8 Sanity points to see Madam Yi; in her currently mutated form it costs 1D4/1D10

Sing-song Girls of Madame Yi

These cult leaders of Yidhra, like all of its devotees, take on aspects of the Elder God’s avatar. The Sing-song Girls develop long, razor-sharp fingernails and their faces take on a smooth, porcelain-like consistency. As well they develop individual retrogressive features giving them strange and unexpected capabilities.

The faces of the Sing-song Girls are their most alarming feature. They are mostly immobile and their eyes are shut; however, when they snap open their eyes and mouths, the porcelain material of their faces cracks to expose black eyes and maws filled with needle-sharp teeth. Blows to the heads of these creatures leave depressed fractures, like damage done to chinaware, which slowly repair as they heal.

Yidhra’s Sing-song Girls pose as madams of courtesan establishments, engaging human women to work in their businesses but not conducting such business themselves (because their true natures would be quickly discovered). Amongst their normal duties is the pursuit of exceptional genetic material with which to gift Madame Yi: such individuals are drugged and brought before the Deity for assimilation. At other times the Sing-song Girls are set to protect and nurture the Children of Woe which Madame Yi bestows upon them. The Sing-song Girls are all linked by telepathic contact to Madame Yi and information is instantly shared between them all. This makes them deadly in combat and dangerous to engage in a long-term strategic battle.

The older a Sing-song Girl becomes, the more retrograde she becomes in her evolution. Such creatures develop wings, gills, poisonous fangs, armoured skin and a myriad other benefits. On average, for every ten years that a Sing-song Girl has served her particular avatar, she gains an extra feature.

Note that, while the Sing-song Girls usually have spells, in this scenario they’re running without. A massed confrontation like this is pretty deadly, whereas generally they are only encountered singly. As well, fire is very deadly to these monsters and a successful flame-based attack directed against one of them – incendiary grenade, flame-thrower, Molotov cocktail – will destroy their insectoid wings, leaving them earthbound and easier to deal with ... until they regenerate of course.

“Peony Princess”

char.	value	char.	value	char.	value
STR	14	POW	15	SAN	0
CON	11	DEX	14	Magic Points	15
SIZ	13	Move	8/16 Flying
INT	15	HP	12

Damage Bonus: +1D4

Weapon: Nippers (2x) 30%: 1d8+1D4 +Grapple (with 2 successful strikes); Bite 40%: 1d6 Sting 30%: 1d2+Paralysis (CON vs. CON to Resist), lasts 20-CON rounds

Armour: None; however, a Sing-song Girl recovers all lost Hit Points within 24 hours

Skills: As per normal humans

Spells: None, for the purposes of this scenario

SAN Loss: 1d2/1d8 to see a Sing-song Girl of Madame Yi

“Wild Chrysanthemum”

char.	value	char.	value	char.	value
STR	15	POW	14	SAN	0
CON	10	DEX	15	Magic Points	14
SIZ	13	Move	8/16 Flying
INT	15	HP	12

Damage Bonus: +1D4

Weapon: Claws 60%: 1d6+1D4; Bite 40%: 1d6; Pheromones: With this attack the Sing-song Girl can subdue any males attempting to harm her. Any male in her vicinity must pit their POW against her CON: failure means that the victim becomes highly suggestible to the Sing-song Girl’s demands (NB: that no-one can be made to explicitly harm themselves whilst subject to this effect, although suggestions to move into harm’s way will be heeded).

Armour: None; however, a Sing-song Girl recovers all lost Hit Points within 24 hours

Skills: As per normal humans

Spells: None, for the purposes of this scenario

SAN Loss: 1d2/1d8 to see a Sing-song Girl of Madame Yi

“Peach Blossom”

char.	value	char.	value	char.	value
STR	15	POW	14	SAN	0
CON	11	DEX	15	Magic Points	14
SIZ	13	Move	8/16 Flying
INT	15	HP	12

Damage Bonus: +1D4

Weapon: Claws 60%: 1d6+1D4; Bite 40%: 1d6; Sting 30%: 1d4+Paralysis (CON vs. CON to Resist) lasts 20-CON rounds

Armour: None; however, a Sing-song Girl recovers all lost Hit Points within 24 hours

Skills: As per normal humans

Spells: None, for the purposes of this scenario

SAN Loss: 1d2/1d8 to see a Sing-song Girl of Madame Yi

“Shimmering Butterfly”

char.	value	char.	value	char.	value
STR	14	POW	15	SAN	0
CON	10	DEX	14	Magic Points	15
SIZ	13	Move	8/16 Flying
INT	15	HP	12

Damage Bonus: +1D4

Weapon: Claws 60%: 1d6+1D4; Bite 40%: 1d6; Electric Shock: +1d8 points to the attacker for all physical melee or hand-to-hand attacks successful against the ‘Girl, or by the ‘Girl against her enemies. Keepers may rule independently on the conductivity of certain weapons.

Armour: None; however, a Sing-song Girl recovers all lost Hit Points within 24 hours

Skills: As per normal humans

Spells: None, for the purposes of this scenario

SAN Loss: 1d2/1d8 to see a Sing-song Girl of Madame Yi