Invest in the Future

Introduction

Invest in the Future 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

Troy Hamby, age 58
Tire Plant Foreman

Abilities
Fitness: +1, Awareness: 0, Creativity: 0, Reasoning: +1
Field of Expertise
Factory Laborer
Skills
Computers (novice), Leadership (novice)
Luck: 1, Discipline: 1, Extra Experience: 1

Troy is a foreman at the Booker Tires tire factory where he has worked most of his life. He is happily married with several children, grandchildren and one great grandchild.

Troy is a practical man who is nearing retirement age. Over the years, he invested a tidy sum into his company’s retirement package. Not long ago he was contacted by a stockbroker who claimed to have an “inside line” on some stock that was sure to go through the roof. Troy was hesitant at first, but the broker laid out the facts and figures in such a sensible manner that by the time he was finished, Troy felt he was on to something big.

Still fearful of being taken, he went to the man’s office in the city to verify he worked for a real brokerage. Then, satisfied, he withdrew all the money he could from his retirement plan ($775,000) and invested it with the broker. Needless to say, the whole thing was a scam. The broker took the money and immediately skipped town.

Troy is devastated. He has become surly and withdrawn, and is afraid to admit to his wife that he lost their entire retirement money. Troy has taken to drinking of late and one day his supervisor caught him drunk on the job. The supervisor had heard rumors as to the cause of Troy’s depression and sent him to seek counseling.


Dreamworld Information

The Dreamworld
Type:		Realistic
Key Locations/Events:		The hotel, getting upstairs, the bank, robbing the bank, the getaway, the hideout
Denouement:		Passive
Details:		Rob the bank’s main vault and take the money back to the hideout.
Unreal:		Inert

Taenia
Theme:		Menacing trees/forest
Number		Molt		Manifestation
13		Larva		Leaves in hair, bark-like skin, green clothes, acorn jewelry
2		Drone		Dead and withered trees
1		Queen		Dead and withered tree

Underworld
Setting		#Drones		Size of Mana Pocket
Troy’s Basement		1		24 (model train set)
A 747 airplane en route to California		2		13 (black box)
Woodstock		1		9 (microphone)

Entering the Dreamworld

Upon entering the Dreamworld, the characters find themselves on a busy sidewalk in the downtown area of a large city (arbitrarily determined by the director). The city appears normal except that the sky is dark with smog and the smell of burning rubber fills the air.

(Fluff: The air pollution is a dream representation of the conditions Troy has worked under at the plant for most of his life. This information is available to a Joined character who makes a routine reasoning-based investigation task.)

The characters materialize in front of nice hotel. The Dreamer is inside the hotel and the characters can see him in a second story window, staring out at the bank directly across the street.

The Hotel

The hotel is five stories tall. Entrance can be easily gained through the front door. On the roof of the building is a locked door that leads to a stairwell. An employee entrance and an emergency exit are located in the alley around back, although both of these doors are also locked.

The first floor of the hotel contains a lobby, check-in counter and elevators to the upper floors. An inconspicuous door provides access to a stairwell, but the door cannot be opened from this side. Two front desk employees stand behind the counter and a doorman stands near the elevators.

The only other thing out of place here is the decor—-several fake potted trees have been arranged around the lobby. These trees are twisted and gnarled, with leafless, claw-like branches. The characters should immediately sense a deeper meaning behind this although at this point they are unable to determine what.

(Fluff: This little effect represents the current Taeniid manifestation. A Joined character can make a challenging reasoning-based investigation task to learn more about it. For more information on the source of the fear, see The Hideout, below.)

The Dreamer has checked into the hotel using his real name and is currently in Room #775,000, which is actually on the second floor. There are several ways for the characters to learn the exact room number, the least inventive being a door to door search from the ground floor up.

The simplest thing for the characters to do is to Possess one of the clerks and look up Troy’s name on the computer registry. However, a note should be made here about the nature of the Unreal—-the Dreamer views them as real people, at least for the course of the dream. With that in mind, Possessing someone in plain sight of other Unreal causes a ripple of unease to travel over the entire Dreamworld. This should be a warning to the characters that the Dreamer has become agitated and is threatening to rebel. If the characters do something like this again, the Dreamer attempts to wake up (see Violence and Rebellion, pg. 29). The director should remind the players that characters are rewarded for pacifying the Dreamer by interacting with the Unreal and treating them as they would people in the real world.

A smooth talking character may be able to convince one of the desk clerks to give up the Dreamer’s room number. Alternately, the character’s can have the clerk ring Troy’s room and talk to him on the telephone. Regardless of what the characters have to say, Troy immediately panics and leaves the hotel via the stairwell, exiting into the alley around back. Depending on what the characters do next, they might spot him a few minutes later, hurrying across the street. In this case, he tries to rob the bank on his own (see The Robbery, below) and unless the characters act quickly, they might find themselves on the outside looking in when things start to go bad.

Assuming this does not happen, the characters must still get to the second floor and find the Dreamer. The characters can gain access to the upper floors by various means, including the alternate hotel entrances mentioned above. If they try to use the elevators, the doorman politely informs them that only hotel guests are allowed upstairs. The doorman is a likable fellow that is just doing his job. If the characters show some courtesy and can come up with a plausible lie (such as “We’re surprising a friend”), he may let them pass.

This is another instance where Possession might come in handy, although with similar results as above. Alternately, a character who has Possessed one of the desk clerks may tell the doorman to let them pass without incident.

Another simple way to bypass the doorman would be to use mana to alter up some cash and personal identification and then check in to the hotel as a paying guest.

Room #775,000

Room #775,000 is clean, but otherwise unremarkable. Its only window faces out onto the street and looks down on the bank. A ski mask, a long trench coat, a hastily drawn map of the inside of the bank and an unloaded sawed-off, double barrel shotgun are on the bed. A box of 12 shells sits on a nearby nightstand.


(Fluff: The number 775,000 pops up several times during this dream. It is the amount, in US dollars, that the Dreamer lost in the investment scam. If the characters do not realize this right away, the Joined character may learn the significance of the number via a trivial reasoning-based investigation task.)

The Dreamer

In this dream, Troy is a younger version of himself (about 30 years old). He spends most of his time watching the bank and pondering the robbery. His plan is to walk into the bank with the shotgun hidden beneath his trench coat, then don the ski mask and get the bank manager to open the vault. His getaway car is parked on the street in front of the bank.

Troy is very suspicious of anyone who comes to the room, and refuses to open the door. The lock may be picked with a routine fitness-based criminal task or it may be kicked in with a routine fitness-based athletics task. The characters may also use alteration mana to simply dissolve (Reshape) the handle and lock (4 mana points) or the entire door (10 mana points). In any case, Troy dives for the shotgun and attacks the characters, using it as a club. The characters may try to subdue or Join with Troy as normal.

The Denouement

The dream’s denouement involves robbing the bank vault and getting back to Troy’s hideout with the loot. The Dreamer has only a vague idea of where the hideout is but he is certain he can get there safely once he gets away from the bank. (For more information, see The Hideout, below).

The Bank

The name of the bank, Lifelong Trust and Investment Banking, is boldly written across the front of the building.

(Fluff: Lifelong Trust and Investment is the name of the bogus company that Troy invested his retirement money in. This information can be extracted with a trivial reasoning-based investigation task.)

The bank itself is two stories tall. Large glass doors provide entry to the front and there is a locked security door on the loading dock around back.

The first floor contains an open lobby, teller windows and the bank’s main vault. Once again, several fake twisted and gnarled trees are arranged around the first floor lobby.

The second floor contains a security monitoring room, public offices for loan and mortgage consultation and private offices for senior bank employees including the manager.

The characters may wish to scout the place out before commencing the robbery.


The Main Vault

The main vault is actually an armored Cadillac. Its contents are locked in the trunk. The rear license plate is a digital combination lock that opens the trunk. A keyboard is fastened to the car’s rear bumper and wired to the plate and the correct combination is: C5L2VR New York

Once this combination is entered, the trunk pops open revealing stacks of cash inside totaling $775,000.

(Fluff: The Cadillac vault is a replica of the car owned by the man who swindled Troy out of his money. After Troy withdrew his retirement funds, he went to the Lifelong Trust and Investment office to drop off the money. The Cadillac was parked on the street outside and although Troy’s conscious mind dismissed it as irrelevant, his subconscious remembered seeing a picture of both the man and the car on his desk inside.)

The Joined character may learn all of the above information, including the license plate number, with a challenging reasoning-based investigation task.

Alternately, the lock may be bypassed with an improbable awareness-based criminal task, although the character must have an electronic tool kit to do so. Once again, alteration may be used to simply dissolve the trunk (8 mana points) although doing so in plain sight of the Unreal is not recommended.

Blowing the trunk open without damaging its contents requires not only the explosives themselves, but also a challenging reasoning-based engineering task. If the money in the trunk is destroyed, the Dreamer realizes the denouement cannot be achieved. The world turns gray and lifeless, the Unreal disappear and the characters and the Dreamer are instantly transported to the Hideout (see below). The Dreamer curls up into a corner of the hideout and spends the rest of the dream in misery. The characters are immediately attacked by the Taeniid tree drones.

(Subdenouement: Opening the trunk via the combination lock. This causes a minor outpouring of mana (5 points) that all characters can benefit from although only the character who actually opens the trunk should get the story awards at the end of the adventure.)

Employees

There are twelve tellers, three loan officers, three security guards and the bank manager at the bank during the course of this dream.

The bank manager is infested with a Taeniid larva. She is the only one who knows the combination to the main vault and has chosen to be away from the bank for the duration of the dream in order to prevent the denouement from being achieved. If the director wishes to foreshadow this event, the characters may spot her leaving the bank soon after they arrive in the dream (see Entering the Dreamworld, above).

Two of the three security guards wear uniforms. One is plainly visible in the first floor lobby. The other is in a locked room upstairs, monitoring the security cameras. The third security guard is dressed in plain clothes and acts as a bank patron. A routine awareness-based streetwise task is needed to recognize him for what he is.

One of the twelve bank tellers is infested with a larva. He becomes very agitated upon seeing Dreamwalkers and does everything in his power to stay away from them, even going so far as to leave the bank. He immediately alerts the uniformed guard in the lobby, citing “something suspicious” about one of the characters.

The guard makes it obvious that he is watching the character and radios for backup if the character does indeed do something suspicious.

The Patrons

There are three to eighteen patrons in the bank at any given time. Only three of them are noteworthy for purposes of this adventure.

1. One of the bank patrons is a blind man. His seeing eye dog is a filthy golden retriever in a severely advanced stage of rabies (foaming at the mouth, shaking and twitching, etc.). No one else seems aware or concerned about the dog’s condition. Upon seeing the Dreamer, the dog begins to growl. If the Dreamer does not leave the bank, it attacks. This may severely hinder any attempt to discretely scout out the bank.

(Fluff: Many years ago, Troy was unexplainably bitten by his own family dog and has never trusted dogs since. This information is available to the Joined character with a quick scan of the Dreamer’s memories (no task necessary).

Rabid Dog (“Sparky”)
Abilities
Fitness: +1, Awareness: +2, Creativity: 0, Reasoning: 0
Skills
Brawling (proficient)
Gimmicks
Natural Weapon: Teeth (B1, 1inj)
Luck: 0, Discipline: 1, Extra Experience: 0

2. One patron is an elderly man named Mr. Harris. Mr. Harris has a history of heart problems. During the robbery, the stress of the hold up proves too much for him and he has a heart attack. A doctor’s “black bag” (6 mana points) and a routine reasoning-based medicine task is needed to stabilize his condition, although Mr. Harris eventually needs hospital attention. If the characters do not help him, the Dreamer becomes highly agitated; the Dreamworld ripples and he threatens to rebel and wake up.

(Fluff: Troy had a minor heart attack while at home several years ago. Luckily, he had been talking with his neighbor at the time, and his neighbor immediately called an ambulance but Troy has spent many troubled nights wondering what would have happened had he been alone. A search for this memory agitates the Dreamer and requires a challenging reasoning-based investigation task.)

3. One patron is a pregnant woman named Molly Cranston. Sometime during the robbery, her water breaks and she goes into labor. If a character goes to her aid, several other patrons attempt to help. A routine reasoning-based medicine task is needed to stabilize her condition. If the characters find themselves in a standoff with the police (see The Standoff, below), they may actually have to help her give birth. Again, if the characters do nothing, the Dreamer becomes highly agitated.

(Fluff: Troy’s granddaughter just had her first child, making him a proud great grandfather. This information is available without the need for a task.)

The Robbery

The various powers available to Dreamwalkers combined with the general inventiveness and creativity of most players makes the details of the robbery almost impossible to predict. Therefore, the director is largely on his own during this portion of the adventure and the following text might need to be amended.

If the characters decide to follow Troy’s original plan and walk in, flashing guns and barking orders, a silent alarm is immediately triggered. After the initial outbreak of panic, disbelief and confusion, the terrified bank employees and patrons comply with anything the characters want.

If the uniformed security guards are obviously outnumbered and/or outgunned, they surrender their weapons. They much rather comply so long as the characters seem relatively reasonable and are not killing patrons at random. However, the plainclothes guard is trigger-happy and attacks the characters as soon as they are distracted.

The Stand Off

The characters have only a few minutes to open the vault and make good their escape before the IRSPD police arrive and seal off the building. This could turn into a long, drawn out standoff.

A police negotiator named Jean Newton sets up a telephone dialogue with whatever character is perceived to be the leader of the group. If the characters have taken employees or patrons hostage, she tries to negotiate their release. Jean meets any reasonable demands, including requests for medical attention, and even goes so far as to allow the characters to leave the bank in their getaway car, provided they do not take hostages with them.

(Note: Although this is quite unlikely to happen in the real world, the Dreamer’s subconscious mind actually wants him to achieve the denouement and often does little things to help him along.)

If the characters do something rash, like shooting a hostage, the police assault the bank with tear gas canisters and then storm the building. The characters may still be able to escape in all the confusion.

The Getaway

As with the robbery itself, the characters have many ways to go about fleeing the scene.

As mentioned above, if negotiations go well, they might be allowed to drive off on their own. The characters may use mana to tunnel down into the sewer system and make their escape that way (14 mana points). They may Possess some patrons and try to slip out unnoticed, although this might be difficult to do while toting $775,000 cash. They may even decide to use the vault itself to smash through the bank’s front doors and break through the police barricade.

The Cadillac is armored and reinforced (like a real vault) making it virtually bulletproof and escape is almost assured however, the driver must make a routine fitness-based driving task. Failure means he haphazardly bounces off police vehicles, parked cars, sign posts, telephone poles and possibly even pedestrians, causing 1inj to everyone within the car (or 1fat if the characters are wearing seatbelts). In this case, the police open fire on the car—-to no effect, but the director should feel free to describe the action.

(Fluff: As soon as the characters leave the area of the bank, the Dreamworld ripples and shifts and the characters abruptly find themselves in the dirt driveway of an old abandoned farmhouse. This is Troy’s hideout.)

The Hideout

The hideout is located out in “the country” where the air is fresh and clean and the water tastes like wine.

(Fluff: The water here literally tastes like wine.)

The hideout is surrounded on all sides by large, untended crop fields and there is nothing of interest for miles around.

Once inside the hideout, the Joined character can feel the Dreamer’s desire to examine the stolen money. This is a good time for the character to disengage from the Dreamer. Upon doing so, the Dreamer immediately sits down and begins to tally up the loot. As he does this, both the Dreamer and the money start to glow brighter and brighter until at last a multicolored wave of pure mana radiates out from him and washes over the Dreamworld. The characters may absorb some of this mana (10 points each) to replenish their supply.

The Dreamer continues counting and is now oblivious and impervious to anything that happens for the remainder of the dream. Give the characters a few moments to revel in his/their triumph before one of them notices that another change has come over the Dreamworld.

At some point, a thick forest has sprung up around the farmhouse. The trees are tall, dark and menacing. Many of them are dead. The characters sense something even more unpleasant emanating from deeper in the woods—-this feeling comes from the Taeniid nest and can be used to home in on it and the Queen.

However, not long after the forest arrives, the characters are attacked by two Taeniid drones.

2 Dead Tree Drones

These drones manifest as large, dead oak trees. They are slow and lumbering and act last every turn, lashing out at the characters with gnarled, fist-like branches.

Abilities
Fitness: +3, Awareness: +1, Creativity: 0, Reasoning: 0
Skills
Brawling (proficient)
Gimmicks
Natural Armor (B2), Tolerance to Pain, Vulnerability (Fire)
Luck: 0, Discipline: 2, Extra Experience: 0

If the characters take refuge within the farmhouse, the drones are strong enough to tear it down bit by bit. The Dreamer is still caught up in the euphoria of his success (or the misery of his failure, depending on what happened), and is unaffected by any of this.

Once the drones are destroyed, the characters may proceed on to the nest.

The Nest

The nest is located in a low-lying, boggy depression filled with stagnant water. The Queen manifests here as a huge, dead oak tree and is almost indistinguishable from the surrounding forest.

The Queen remains still until the characters venture within striking distance. The lead character entering the bog must make a challenging awareness-based survival task to see her. If the character fails the roll, the Queen attacks with surprise.

Dead Tree Queen

Like the drones, the Queen is mobile but slow, attacking last in each turn. She attacks characters with her gnarled fists, or hurls spear-like limbs at them if they remain at a distance. In either case, she Channels Damage through her attacks and Heals herself as needed. The Taeniid Queen never leaves the vicinity of her nest.

Abilities
Fitness: +3, Awareness: +2, Creativity: +4, Reasoning: +3
Aspects
Mana Points (Open Aspect) 25
Skills
Athletics (expert), Brawling (expert)
Gimmicks
Natural Armor (B2), Tolerance to Pain, Vulnerability (Fire)
Mana Talents
Marksman
Luck: 0, Discipline: 2, Extra Experience: 3

Once the Queen is destroyed, the characters may also destroy her eggs. In this dream, the eggs are scattered throughout her branches having taken on the shape of worm-riddled acorns.

Aftermath

Once the Queen is destroyed, the colony can no longer reproduce and Troy’s mind can begin the long process of healing. The characters are free to leave the dream and wake up.

Back in the lab, the medical staff encourages the characters to talk about their experiences within the dream as discussion often helps with dream recall. This is a good time for the characters to talk about the Cadillac vault. This information is very important, as the license plate number and the type of car can be used to help track down the swindler. In this event, Troy gets most of his money back and the characters can feel good about having helped out.

The End