Itinerario autoguiado

Brandon lives in a second floor flat in a dingy apartment block. The key is taped inside the letterbox, just as Brandon said it would be. The lights are off, so the players will have to illuminate the rooms one by one as they go.

Once the light goes on the living room, something dodges away from the window, like a cockroach skittering away when the lights go on. It moves too fast for the players to see what it is, but it is approximately the size of a small child.

This is, of course, the scourger summoned by Montano. The players may want to rush out and check what was standing out there but it is soon obvious that there is no fire escape, nor ledge, nor anything else that the thing could have been standing on. The scourger, taken by surprise, has scrambled away to find a safer perch.

The flat is untidy, smelly and has clearly not been cleaned in many months. Ashtrays are overflowing on to the floor and other objects, such as cups and plates, have been used as impromptu ashtrays as well. Brandon is living the life of a single man who throws himself into his work. The place is decorated with modern art posters and ethnic knick-knacks.

The book collection is a mixture of technical works on forensics and investigation, science fiction and fantasy, and works on magic by the likes of Crowley and Spare.

The ‘ritual room’ is painted black and is empty but for a small black Japanese table. On this are a set of Thoth tarot cards, a bundle of yarrow sticks (used to cast the I Ching) and a bag of Viking runes, handmade in wood. There is also a case that contains a brass pendulum on a cord. Brandon uses this equipment to perform his divinations.

Brandon’s living room doubles as his office. The most important object in the room is clearly the computer. It sits at one end of the room, surrounded by piles of printed-out sheets, half-drunk mugs of coffee and loose 3.5 floppy disks. The computer’s screen saver is running, showing a starfield whooshing past.

Accessing the computer is easy. Brandon has not password-protected anything. The salient folders are ‘Current Cases’

and ‘Journal’. There is only one document in the ‘Current Cases’ folder, entitled ‘Hamilton’. ‘Journal’ similarly contains a single document.

Hamilton

Case Notes – Rupert Pryce-Hamilton. Missing.

Son of Alexander Pryce-Hamilton, currently footing the bill for this job. University educated. Looks a bit of a Hooray Henry. No job as yet. Continues to draw allowance of £3,400 per month from father.

Lives on Canal Walk, over the road from the Devonshire Arms, Camden Town. Known to drink in the Devonshire.

Old man hiding something. That’s to be expected. Had they quarreled? What about? Probably political differences – sons of rich daddies kick back hard sometimes.

Father does not know of any girlfriend. Rupert was involved with someone at University but nothing came of it.

Missing since 3rd December. Arranged to see friends at Torture Palace in Kensington, left at around 1 PM, not seen since. Torture Palace is heavy BDSM – possibility that Rupert was involved in that scene? Does not seem likely. Will ask for his father’s permission to look around the flat.

Have checked flat. Absurdly expensive place. All brushed chrome and Ikea furniture. Very sterile.

Many occult books on table, mostly ‘simple spells’ nonsense, spines not cracked, ergo not read yet. Clearly not bought by someone who knew what he was doing. Found credit card receipt in bin – bought from New Era books. Cannot see Rupert being involved in occult, so who are these for? Or was he getting into something heavier than BDSM? On that point, found no gimp masks, harnesses or anything of that ilk in the flat, so no idea what he was doing at TP. Must check the Torture Palace, but it’s not open again until this coming Saturday.

What was Rupert spending his allowance on?

The Final Case: Brandon Miles’ Flat

Clues In The Flat

A Search check (DC 20) is needed to find any of the following clues, if the players are making a general search. However, if they specify that they are searching in a given specific location (such as in the waste paper bin) then they find the clue automatically, without needing to make a skill check.

• There is one message on Brandon’s answering machine. Listening to this was what prompted him to email his friends (the PCs) for help. The voice speaks in a blank monotone, with slight electrical distortion, as if there was interference on the line:

We know all about you. We know what you have been doing. There is more happening than you understand.

You have been warned twice. Back off now and stay away, and you will be safe. If you continue to interfere, we will remove you.

• Alexander Pryce-Hamilton gave Brandon a spare set of keys to his son’s flat. (He kept a set of keys so that he could check up on his son’s lifestyle at any time, without warning.) These are currently sitting on the desk, beneath a layer of papers. If the players find these, they can let themselves into Brandon’s flat without attracting untoward attention.

• The drawer of the desk has a jam jar with a wad of money in it, bound up with an elastic band. There is a total of

£540 here, in £20 notes. This is Brandon’s advance from Pryce-Hamilton.

• Alexander Pryce-Hamilton also gave Brandon a business card, which has his address and contact number on it.

The players can use this to contact him directly. Hamilton’s estate is in Sussex, a train ride away.

Journal

Monday: Going to write this down. Not felt this rough in a long time, not since the Liverpool case.

There’s something in the air. Ever since I started looking into the Pryce-Hamilton case, I’ve been feeling like I was straying from the path. It’s that feeling you get when someone’s trying to send you a message. So, somebody’s jerking the strings. Who? Who have I offended this time? Bleh. Could just be plain old paranoia. That or the flu.

Tuesday: I should trust my own instincts more. Yesterday’s spider-senses were leading me right.

Hamilton was definitely in with a bad crowd, some of whom were more than capable of stirring up the bad vibes. Worried about where this is leading. If I’m not careful, I’ll piss off some very nasty people.

Wednesday: Not only am I getting poltergeists, I’ve got someone human on my tail, too. I’m definitely being followed. (Could be that Hamilton senior has a guy watching me? He seems the sort.) I saw the guy briefly when I stopped and looked in a shop window. He was short. Chinese, I think. Long coat.

Thursday: And now they’re stepping it up some more. They’ve put the chills on me. My breath was clouding today. I had all the heating on and it was making no difference. This is how it begins. There’s always a temperature drop first. Well, if nothing else, it shows they’re feeling threatened. I’m not about to break this off just because a bunch of tuppeny-hapenny sorcerers tries to scare me off. What are they trying to hide?

Friday: Well, we have an open declaration of war at last. I’m telling myself this means they’re scared enough to break cover, but in truth it’s me who’s terrified. I’m on the point of phoning Hamilton and telling him that the deal’s off. I don’t care how much money he offers. At the same time, I don’t want to let young Hamilton down. That’s the trouble with cases like this one. You find yourself getting to like the person, even if you never met them. You start to feel like you’re the only hope they have, that they’re in the dark somewhere crying out for help and if you don’t answer, nobody will.

So, no backing out of this now. I’m not confident that I can handle this on my own, though. So, the only thing to do is to call in some backup. I know just the people.

The Final Case: Brandon Miles’ Flat

• There are claw marks on the outside of the bathroom window, as if something had been trying to prise it open from the outside. The scourger made these.

• The players might expect to find a photograph of Rupert somewhere, since Brandon was investigating his

disappearance. Hamilton did indeed give Brandon a photo, but Brandon has been carrying it around with him and asking people if they have seen Rupert. He still has it in his coat. If the players want to find a photograph, they must either ask Hamilton for one or get one from Rupert’s flat.

The Neighbors

The players may want to talk to Brandon’s neighbors to find out if they have seen anything. His downstairs neighbor is Mrs. Clegg, an old woman with horn-rimmed glasses and a deep distrust of cold callers. The players will need to fabricate a good reason to ask her questions, or she will simply shut the door in their face. If they persist in harassing her, she will call the police.

To get Mrs. Clegg to talk, a PC must show some proof of authority. She is the product of an older Britain, with no respect for anyone scruffy, disreputable or other than white. In her imagination, all ‘darkies’ are thieves and layabouts, and young people are all troublemakers. Policemen, on the other hand, are charming and trustworthy.

Mrs. Clegg did not approve of Brandon, who she believed was ‘meddling with the hoccult’, but she thought him better than ‘them two darkies upstairs’. She has not seen Brandon for a day or two, but does remember seeing some young hooligan in a big coat going through the bins for the last two nights. This is the scourger, who took the form of a youth in order to conceal its identity. It has been searching through the refuse from Brandon’s flat, looking for useful information.

Brandon’s upstairs neighbors are Julius and Martin, a pair of Rastafarians. They will be wary of answering the door to strangers, because there are large amounts of cannabis on the premises. Their reaction to the players will depend greatly on the character concepts that have been chosen. Anyone who could be taken for a police officer – a private detective, for instance –will not be welcomed; if the players persist, Julius will fetch a pool cue and Martin a samurai sword, to encourage them to leave. More anti-establishment characters are more likely to be given a welcome and may even be asked inside for a smoke.

Brandon got on very well with Julius and Martin, who respected him for his interest in spiritual wisdom, even though he did not share their religion. He, in turn, was sometimes able to tap them for grapevine information from their contacts. The Rastas will be concerned to hear of Brandon’s disappearance but will not wish to become involved in any search for him. They have troubles enough of their own.

If they are asked about the events of the past week, they will say that they have heard someone moving about on the roof, who they thought was ‘the Babylon’ (the police) until they went up to look and saw nothing. A fire escape leads from the back of the Rastas’ flat to the building’s flat roof, so the players can go up and have a look around if they choose to.

The Rooftop

The building has a flat roof. The scourger is often found here, with its ear pressed to the air ducts. A successful Search check (DC 20) finds a tuft of coarse brown hair caught in the sharp corner of one of the ventilation outlets. This is from the scourger, which snagged itself.

The Final Case: Brandon Miles’ Flat

• The Scourger •

This vile little creature is in service to Nicolas Montano. It has standing instructions to keep up surveillance on Brandon’s flat and on anyone who seems to be pursuing the same lines of inquiry that he was. Although Brandon is now in Montano’s hands, the scourger is still being kept on the job. Montano is intelligent enough to know that Brandon had friends and that someone will come looking for him.

The scourger will hound the players for the duration of the adventure. It will keep relaying information back to Montano, which will put the players at a definite disadvantage. At the early stages of the adventure, Montano does not know how much of a threat the players represent. Later on, he will be able to arrange ambushes (see Montano’s