Películas

In real history, Operation Greif was a Nazi mis-sion in which a number of commandos dressed in American uniforms and infiltrated Allied lines.

Their purpose was to confuse the Americans by

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changing signs and intercepting orders, and of course commit as much sabotage and chaos as pos-sible. This was strictly against the rules of war, and because the commandoes were dressed in Allied uniforms, they could be summarily executed as spies—and were.

In Circa Europe, these infiltrators have another mission as well. The commandos were sent ahead to prepare the battlefield at Verdun. Disguised as American troops and using captured equipment, these elite SS troops are led by Otto Skorzeny. This hulking bruiser is the man Hitler entrusted to rescue Mussolini from his imprisonment at Gran Sasso.

Skorzeny leads not only his elite soldiers, but also a cadre of sorcerers who will perform the actual cere-mony (use the stats from the Dark Ones in the Gilga-Ash setting, see p. 180).

This encounter can happen early or late in the sto-ryline. The party should show up just as the cultists are finishing their spell. If the do-gooders act quick-ly, they can stop the madness but it should be a close call. Indeed, having them screw it up is no biggie.

The army of the dead arises and there’s a whale of a fight to be had. The heroes can be in the middle of it, or they can rush off to warn the Allied command.

Their reward: being dispatched to another hot spot.

The numbers here are up to you. Start with one commando and one cultist per Cast Member (plus Otto) and see how it goes. If the heroes are making things too easy, have another squad of commandos rush in.

Berlin

Hitler remains in Berlin most of the time, though he takes frequent trips to the Eagle’s Nest (his hide-out when he thinks the Allies are after him) and Neuschwanstein.

Most of Germany’s veterans are either heavily involved in the Battle of the Bulge or trying to slow down the very angry Russkies from the east, so Berlin is actually fairly lightly defended. It’s still got plenty of AA, anti-tank guns, and militias, but tanks and stand-up troops are in short supply.

This scene doesn’t really impact the plot but it’s as good a place as any to rid the world of a monster (in human form).

The Spear of Destiny

Being the occult nut that he is, Hitler both before and during the war sent teams of archaeologists around the world in search of various occult arti-facts. One such item was the Spear of Destiny (see p. 168). According to legend, possession of the Spear would bring its owner the power to conquer the world, but losing it would bring immediate death. This ancient item was actually made by the followers of Gilgamesh from the great Cedar Forest of Sumeria thousands of years ago. Legend has it that the wood came from the physical tree-form of the Watcher itself!

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Name: Otto Skorzeny

Motivation: Ensure the operation’s success Critter Type: Human, barely

Attributes: Str 5, Dex 5, Con 5, Int 4, Per 4, Will 5 Ability Scores: Muscle 16, Combat 17, Brains 14 Life Points: 65 Drama Points: 5

Special Abilities: Fast Reaction Time, Hard to Kill 5, Mental Problems (Severe Cruelty), Nerves of Steel, Resistance (Pain) 5, Situational Awareness, Status 4

Maneuvers

Name Score Damage Notes

Dodge 17 — Defense action

Grenade 16 30/20/8 Slash/stab

Knife 17 15 Slash/stab

Punch 17 15 Bash

Submachine gun 17 17 Bullet; use pistol ranges;

can autofire

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Imbued with some of the Watcher’s essence, it brings power, but always with a taint. Its use by a Roman soldier during the crucifixion just helped imbue it with even more evil.

The Spear has helped Hitler gain mastery over the Necronomicon, and has been brought onto the bat-tlefield of the Ardennes to help lend power to the Nazi offensive. Moving in a heavily guarded convoy, the Spear may cross paths with a group of by-passed Allied characters as they suddenly find themselves cut off and trapped behind enemy lines.

Neuschwanstein

You’ve no doubt seen pictures of the fairy tale Castle of Ludwig the Mad. What you may not know is that in Circa Europe Ludwig was driven made because of a present brought to him from one of his courtiers. The vassal in turn had bought the book from a traveling merchant who had recently visited the Middle East—in a region that was long ago called Sumeria.

King Ludwig of Bavaria was a vain and foolish man who believed the promises of his courtier that the Necronomicon would bring him everlasting rich-es and youth. Ludwig spent his kingdom’s treasury on building a complex of buildings whose shape could channel the arcane energies to harness the powers that the evil text would release. This castle was to be called Neuschwanstein.

Ludwig used the book and soon the Watcher was drawn to the thick woods around his monumental castle. The thing picked off the occasional worker and terrorized a few outlying villages, but otherwise allowed the power-mad king to finish his project.

In 1886, a few heroic types figured out what was going on. They pulled a few strings and managed to have Ludwig’s court declare him insane.

The king knew his time was up, but construction of his castle wasn’t quite finished. He hurried the ceremony anyway and read from the Necronomicon while dozens of villagers with pitchforks stormed the fortress’ halls. Fortunately for the world, one of the castle’s turrets built to channel the eldritch energy into Ludwig was misaligned. The mad king screamed in horror as he realized he had “misfired”

and sent that malevolent power straight into the bowels of Neuschwanstein. There it opened a por-tal through which dozens of deadites and other

hor-rors emerged. They devoured the invading mob in a three-day orgy of blood, saving Ludwig for last. If the King was mad before, the sight of his people being murdered before his throne for three full days added “stark” and “raving” to his title.

In the end, Ludwig was devoured as well. The portal’s energy was only temporary and the demons as well as the Necronomicon were sucked back to their own time. It was said that Ludwig accidental-ly drowned in a nearby lake, but locals still repeat ghastly tales of horror and murder in that pictur-esque castle.

Fast forward to World War II. Hitler’s researchers have discovered a lost manuscript of one of Ludwig’s advisors in which the tale of this early Necronomicon is told. The SS moves into the castle and begins to renovate it for their own diabolical purposes. As a perfect focal point for arcane energies (with the com-pletion of the mis-aligned turret), the castle is the new focal point for conjuring demons, and even cre-ating entirely new horrors from the Evil Dead and Germanic symbology. The project is code-named

“Ahnernerbe” (Ancestral Heritage).

Captured troops and Nazi soldiers alike (some sacrifices require willing subjects) are fed into the ceremonies here, giving rise to new monsters with which to defeat the Allies. Characters might enter the deceptively Cinderella-like castle either against their will or as part of an Allied strike team sent to demolish this evil bastion.

The Watcher is active in the thick woods sur-rounding the castle, so Allied spies and the rare Nazi resistance do not survive long. The entire region is protected by a ring of hidden 88mm AA guns (see p.

200), and an entire company of Tiger tanks (see p.

199) are hidden beneath the thick canopy, overlook-ing all the approachoverlook-ing roads. A coterie of flyoverlook-ing demons and possessed villagers in the surrounding countryside complete the defenses.

Neuschwanstein is currently off-limits by the U.S.

Army Air Corps as a historical landmark. By the time that changes (when the Allies discover its true purpose), the SS sorcerers will have a sort of “force field” over the demon generator that protects it from aerial bombardment. Bombs will detonate over the palace, but no harm comes to it.

When the time comes, the castle must be destroyed by ordinary men (and maybe women) who battle or sneak their way inside.

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V-Weapons

With the introduction of his supernatural troops in the Battle of the Bulge, Hitler is also planning on a very special Christmas present for London in retali-ation for the almost nightly British air raids turning his beloved Berlin into a moonscape. Several V-2 rockets have been modified to carry hundreds of pounds of animated body parts—mostly hands but also some heads. These will be targeted on London and other major population centers, where they will burst high over the cities and release their horrific cargo to rain down on the unsuspecting Brits in a grisly and demonic shower of gore. The bombard-ment will be immediately followed by a wave of reg-ular V-2s to set the city on fire and occupy its defenders so that the animated limbs can cause the most chaos. Hands might turn off pumps, scream-ing heads lure rescuers into burnscream-ing buildscream-ings, and other devilish mayhem.

The characters in this scenario would be a special squad dropped far behind enemy lines in an attempt to stop these attacks before they are released on an unsuspecting British populace. Their job would be to infiltrate the heavily defended base to not only sabotage the rockets before they lift off but to also find and destroy the containers holding the macabre limbs. Perhaps they might even somehow discover that these limbs were severed/animated at Neuschwanstein, and thus gain an important clue as to the castle’s true purpose.

Another interesting tack is to send the group to London during the “Bits Blitz” (or be part of the Home Defense). They are ordered to move through

the burning city to wipe out these devilish abomina-tions. All the while new V-2s are exploding over-head, Screaming Mimis sweep through the skies, the city is burning, and air raid sirens blare.