Buried Treasure

Introduction

Buried Treasure is a Dreamwalker Diceless adventure designed for a team of three to six beginning characters. The Mana Talents add-on may be required for certain parts of this adventure and can be downloaded at www.pigames.net. Alternately, the director may choose to ignore any reference to mana talents contained within this text.

The Dreamer

Ben Grady, age 68
Retired Military/Civil Service

Abilities
Fitness: 0, Awareness: +1, Creativity: 0, Reasoning: +2
Field of Expertise
Military (retired), Civil Services
Skills
Boating (proficient), Leadership (novice), Survival (expert)
Luck: 1, Discipline: 3, Extra Experience: 5

Ben Grady married his wife, Eva, just after they graduated high school back in the 50’s. To support his new wife, Ben enlisted in the army, retired, worked in the civil service on base and then retired again. He and his wife were very happy together until she died a year ago at the age of 67.

Ben loved his wife dearly and has been unable to cope with her death. He has been spiraling into depression ever since. After much urging, his son finally convinced him to seek help and his therapist recommended him to Project Dreamwalker.

Dreamworld Information

The Dreamworld
Type:		Realistic
Key Locations/Events:		Lake Bucking Ham, campgrounds, fixing the boats, underwater diving, the sunken house
Denouement:		Passive
Details:		Catch catfish for their eggs (roe)
Unreal:		Mobile

Taenia
Theme:		Lake denizens
Number		Molt		Manifestation
35		Larvae		Natural form
3		Drones		Alligators
1		Queen		Giant catfish

Underworld
Setting		#Drones		Mana Pocket
Highschool gym		1		16 (prom decorations)
Campground		3		29 (tent)
Ben’s living room		0		12 (recliner)

Entering the Dreamworld

Upon entering the Dreamworld, the characters find themselves on the dirt shoulder of a four lane highway. The sky is just beginning to brighten with the dawn. The land on either side of the highway is heavily wooded and a large lake can be glimpsed through the tree line to the north.

Not far away, a dirt road cuts through the forest. A homemade wooden sign is planted in the ground, where this road joins the highway. This sign has an arrow pointing down the dirt road. It reads:

Lake Bucking Ham, 1/4 mile
Food – Fishing – Camping

The Barrier prevents characters from traveling far along the highway or deep into the woods. Unless they head directly for the lake (see Lake Bucking Ham, below), characters have little choice but to follow the dirt road to the landing.

The Landing

After a short hike, the road opens onto the Lake Bucking Ham boat landing. A concrete ramp slopes down into the lake, enabling fishermen to back their boat trailers into the water. Several cars and trucks (with powerboats on trailers) are parked nearby in a gravel parking lot.

A short distance away from the ramp is a ramshackle, wooden bait and tackle store that looks as if it has been added on to several times (for more information, see Bucking Ham Palace, below). The dirt road continues west, beyond the store, into the RV Park (see below).

Lake Bucking Ham

In the real world, Lake Bucking Ham is a small, muddy freshwater pond that is known more for its mosquito population than its fish. In Ben Grady’s Dreamworld, Lake Bucking Ham is a huge, freshwater expanse closer in size to a small sea that teems with fish and other aquatic wildlife. The Barrier extends just off the shore and surrounds the entire lake.

Bucking Ham Palace

Bucking Ham Palace is the local general store. A homemade sign on top of the building depicts a cartoon cowboy riding a bucking pig. The store’s name is painted underneath the picture.

Bucking Ham Palace sells everything you would expect a general store to sell—-canned food, insect repellent, lighter fluid, charcoal, beer, live bait and tackle, etc., all at double the normal prices. The store also rents out half a dozen fishing boats.

Bucking Ham Palace is owned and operated by Nathan Dyson or “Big Nate” as he is known (see below).

The RV Park

The RV Park is a series of intertwined camping and RV lots centered around a public restroom. Several Unreal families are currently camping there—-three in RV’s and six in tents. These are average, everyday people, enjoying brief vacations. They own the vehicles (and boats) in the parking lot at the boat landing.

The occupants of the RV Park are just waking up. Soon they will be making breakfast and later, some of them will go fishing on the lake (three of them own boats). All of the occupants are friendly and sociable, and welcome conversation with newcomers.

The Dreamer

When the characters first arrive at the landing, Big Nate and the Dreamer are outside near the rental boats. In this dream, Ben Grady is a still young man in his early thirties. He wears a fishing vest and floppy hat, festooned with colorful hooks, flies and fishing lures.

Big Nate is a red-bearded, bear of a man, standing well over six feet tall and weighing in at almost 400 pounds, most of it in the belly. Despite Big Nate’s intimidating appearance, he is a jovial person who loves to do two things—-fish and drink beer (more of the latter than the former). It is a running joke among Big Nate’s friends that if you inserted a keg tap directly into his gut, you could drink from it for weeks.

Big Nate is currently hosting a Taeniid larva.

Larval Store Owner, “Big Nate”
Abilities
Fitness: +2, Awareness: +0, Creativity: 0, Reasoning: 0
Skills
Athletics (novice), Boating (proficient), Brawling (expert), Leadership (novice), Survival (proficient)
Luck: 2, Discipline: 1, Extra Experience: 1


The Boats

Ben and Big Nate are deep in conversation about the condition of the rental boats—-all of which have been vandalized and are unsuitable for use. The characters can catch the gist of the conversation as Big Nate attributes the vandalism to “punk kids”. Ben looks extremely discouraged, which is not a good sign.

If the characters approach the two men, Big Nate’s mouth drops open in surprise. He makes an unconvincing excuse about hearing the phone ring and quickly retreats to the store, closing the door and locking himself inside. If the characters make a scene by pursuing, accosting or attacking him outright, the Dreamer becomes highly upset and might even threaten to rebel (see Violence and Rebellion, pg. 29).

If the characters do nothing or show no interest in the boats, Ben gets into his pickup truck and drives back to the highway. Once he reaches it, he stops, parks the truck and buries his face in his arms. Tears of failure and disappointment flow as he realizes the dream’s denouement cannot be achieved.

The Dreamworld turns an unhealthy shade of gray. Three larvae molt into drones and begin to wander around the campground, attacking anyone they see.

3 Natural Form Drones
Abilities
Fitness: +2, Awareness: +2, Creativity: 0, Reasoning: 0
Gimmicks
Natural weapon (teeth, claws), Tolerance to Pain
Skills
Brawling (proficient), Athletics (proficient), Survival (proficient)
Luck: 0, Discipline: 2, Extra Experience: 0

The Denouement

Once the characters Join with the Dreamer, they may learn the dream’s denouement. In this case, the goal is for Ben to catch some catfish in order to cut out and cook up the roe (fish eggs) for his wife, Eva.

What to Do

The characters have several options as to how to help Ben achieve his denouement. The simplest is by repairing one of the boats via Reshaping (3 mana points). However, the characters must be careful not to do this directly in Ben’s presence.

Another option is to alter Ben’s fishing gear, making it more suitable to fish from the shore (2 mana points). The characters must know what type of gear is required—-simply having the survival skill or scrolling through Ben’s memories is enough to impart the desired information.

The characters can also try to make friends with one of the other campers who own a boat. A routine awareness-based leadership task is needed to convince one of the fishermen to take on passengers. The characters receive a bonus of +1 effort because these campers are generally a nice group of people. If the characters do a good job of roleplaying this encounter, no task is needed—-the fisherman agrees to take the characters out on the boat and even invites them to eat breakfast with his family before they go out on the water.

(Incidental Achievement: Roleplaying the encounter.)

Alternately, a character could just Possess one of the campers and take his boat. If a character chooses this route, you may wish to add in a few complications by having the Unreal’s family intervene. The Possessed Unreal’s wife (or husband) may want to come along, as do their children. If forced to stay ashore, the spouse becomes angry and gives the character a good tongue-lashing, the children begin to cry, the rest of the campers voice their disapproval. How well the characters treat the Unreal family may be a good indication of whether or not they get extra experience for interacting with the Unreal.

Gone Fishing

When the characters start fishing, they see plenty of fish jumping on the surface of the water. Unfortunately, after nearly an hour without the slightest tug at their lines, it becomes obvious that no fish are biting. Any character looking for Taenia spots a larval turtle watching them from a stump jutting out of the water. If molested, it dives into the water before the characters can get close.

It should be apparent to the characters that the fish are being kept away by something underneath the water. Characters may dive into the water to see what the problem is. If so, use the normal rules for swimming and holding one’s breath. If the characters engage in strenuous activity (such as fighting), you may wish to assign penalties of +1dif to +2dif to all tasks.

One way around this problem is to alter up some scuba gear and the skill to use it.

Underwater

Beneath the surface of the water, the floor of the lake is rocky, uneven and choked off by tall weeds. In some places, the lake extends down to untold depths.

Several large, unnaturally colorful schools of bass and brim (fish) can be seen swimming around. These are being kept away from the Dreamer’s hooks by Taeniid larvae that have infested some of the lake’s wildlife.

6 Larval Bass
Abilities
Fitness: -1, Awareness: 0, Creativity: 0, Reasoning: 0
Skills
Athletics (expert)

2 Larval Snapping Turtles
Abilities
Fitness: 0, Awareness: +1, Creativity: 0, Reasoning: 0
Gimmicks
Natural Weapon (beak), Natural Armor (shell)
Skills
Brawling (novice), Athletics (proficient)

1 Larval Water Moccasin
Abilities
Fitness: 0, Awareness: +2, Creativity: 0, Reasoning: 0
Gimmicks
Natural Weapon (fangs), Poison
Skills
Brawling (proficient), Athletics (expert)

The larvae fight only if cornered. As soon as the Dreamwalkers enter the water, they flee into the lake. Only the snake may be encountered again—-it dives into a bed of weeds and waits for a safe opportunity to later attack.

With the larvae gone, schools of fish begin to return to the area where Ben’s hook dangles. Some of the larger bass are several feet long and look as if they weigh at least a dozen pounds.

Not long after the characters chase off the larvae, a drone alligator knifes through the water, traveling along the bottom of the lake in an effort to stay concealed. A routine awareness-based survival task is needed to spot the drone. This is done at +1dif unless characters state they are specifically watching for Taenia.

When the alligator drone is in position, it swims in and attacks with its bite. If it scores a triumph, the character is trapped in the alligator’s jaws, taking automatic damage each Turn as the drone begins to roll over and over. In addition, any tasks the character attempts suffer an additional +2dif.

Worse still, the water moccasin lying in wait also takes this opportunity to attack one of the other characters, receiving a +1 effort to its first attack because of surprise.

Drone Alligator
Abilities
Fitness: +2, Awareness: +2, Creativity: 0, Reasoning: 0
Gimmicks
Natural Weapon (teeth, claws, tail), Natural Armor, Tolerance to Pain
Skills
Brawling (proficient), Athletics (proficient), Survival (proficient)
Luck: 0, Discipline: 5, Extra Experience: 0

Once the drone is killed, fish again return to the area. In a short time, Ben catches enough catfish to achieve the denouement.

(Incidental Achievement: Any character who uses his own skill to fish.)

Resolution

Once Ben has caught his quota of catfish and cut them open for their roe, he smiles. A backwash of mana spills out from the cooler where he keeps the fish eggs, and washes over the entire lake. Ben happily continues to fish as the characters search for the Taeniid nest.

Buried Treasure

A waterlogged replica of Ben’s house lies upon the floor of the lake. A large hole has been staved into one side of the house and a few tendrils of raw mana wisp out of the opening. The characters should be informed that stray mana such as this often denotes something of great significance to the Dreamer.

Unfortunately, a giant octopus has made the house its home. It attacks anyone that ventures near but does not venture far from the house.

Unreal Giant Octopus
Abilities
Fitness: +4, Awareness: +1, Creativity: 0, Reasoning: 0
Gimmicks
Natural Weapon (tentacles, beak), Tolerance to Pain
Skills
Brawling (expert), Athletics (proficient), Survival (proficient)
Luck: 0, Discipline: 1, Extra Experience: 0

The octopus attacks with its tentacles. Any character struck must make an immediate routine fitness-based athletics task or else be caught in its grip. Thereafter, the character takes automatic damage from being crushed and all attempted tasks suffer an additional +2dif.

The Real Treasure

Inside the house, tendrils of mana seep out of a cluttered closet. Inside the closet are several photo albums, letters and other items of shared personal significance between Ben and Eva. These personal treasures represent real world items that Ben has packed away and forgotten about in his grief. If the characters discover these items, Ben remembers about them in the morning. He immediately pulls them out and spends several hours in happy reminiscence of his time with his late wife.

(Subdenouement: Finding the album (all characters involved).)

Once the characters finish at the house, they may continue on to the nest.

The Nest

The Queen is a giant, bloated catfish hiding in the mud at the bottom of the lake. The nest is actually inside the Queen. Her eggs have taken the form of roe (fish eggs).

Catfish Queen
Abilities
Fitness: +3, Awareness: +2, Creativity: +2, Reasoning: +1
Aspect
Mana (Open Aspect) 25
Mana Talents
Mettle
Gimmicks
Natural Weapon (bite), Inexhaustible Energy, Tolerance to Pain
Skills
Brawling (expert), Athletics (proficient), Survival (proficient), Telepathy (expert, drones only)
Luck: 2, Discipline: 5, Extra Experience: 0

The Queen attacks with her bite. Characters bitten must make an immediate routine fitness-based athletics task or be swallowed whole. The character takes 1inj from acid per Turn from the Queen’s digestive juices. Characters trapped inside gain an additional +2 effort to all attacks and may cut or blast their way out by doing at least 3inj from within. The Queen uses mana to Channel Damage and Heal herself as needed.

Two alligator drones float in the weeds nearby, and attack any who approach the nest/Queen.

2 Alligator Drones
Abilities
Fitness: +2, Awareness: +2, Creativity: 0, Reasoning: 0
Gimmicks
Natural Weapon (teeth, claws, tail), Natural Armor, Tolerance to Pain
Skills
Brawling (proficient), Athletics (proficient), Survival (proficient)
Luck: 0, Discipline: 5, Extra Experience: 0

Aftermath

After the fight, characters with the Survival skill are aware that roe is considered a delicacy among some people and should be given an opportunity to eat the roe (ugh).

(Incidental Achievement: Eating the roe (all characters that do). Do not tell them it is an Incidental Achievement though, until after they have left the Dreamworld.)

The End