Gandalf970

I think this is enough for my game!  Thank you everyone for all of your help!

One of the things they find in the search of the drug factory is a log of people who have signed into the drug factory testing lab.  Two names are significant?  Who are these people and what are they doing on this list?

Most are Professional Skills or Knowledge Skills. Flirting would be Charm. Read is the appropriate Language-Literacy. Falconry is Animal Handler.

All of this is based on my opinion/experience building characters for a long time, not on the books
Hunting - Depends on if you mean someone who makes their living hunting or what the nobles called hunting.  If it is the 1st then it is a set of skills - tracking, stealth, survival (appropriate environments), knowledge skill about plants and fauna, appropriate skills with hunting weapons (bow, spear, etc) and maybe a professional skill hunter 2nd type is maybe survival and appropriate skills with hunting weapons (bow, spear, etc) Tourney/Compose/Dancing - knowledge skills maybe based on a characteristic Falconry - Animal husbandry Flirting - Charm Heraldry - High Society Read - literacy for the appropriate language Play Musical Instrument - there is a specific skill for that with a list of instruments.  It is like weapons familiarity Battle - No idea what this is

So Ninja's show up and challenge the party as they leave the bar.  After dealing with them, either killing or running they find a clue that takes them to an old chapel in the suburbs.  Under the alter they find?  Who's next, what do they find?

I am running a two shot adventure for two players.  I picked Dark Champions set in 1980's looking for a spy feel.  I did this exercise a few times and made for some great adventures.  I will do the opening scene and some background.  The next poster will advance to the next scene and so on.  Please only post one at a time, don't post back to back, but you can post more then once to advance the story.  I would like to see where we can go with this.  
 
The story cannot get too deep, lot's of action and adventure should ensue if you want to help.
The two recruits wake up hung over in a bar.  They stumble out into the tavern and see fifteen people dead.  All have been beaten to death and many have their throats cut.  After searching around a bit, the back door opens and a man enters.  He tells the players that they have to leave with him now or the FBI will be all over this place in five minutes.  I will be timing the players to see how long they wait, what happens when they leave the bar?

The as-yet-undiscovered side effects are risky, however. 
 
To revisit "rage monster:" 
 
The drug works by opening the user's psche, tuning him in to cosmic probabilities, which he can unconsciously manipulate to stack the most minute of details in his favor (hence "instant success").  The effects are most intense about ten minutes after the second drug is ingested and least about sixty seconds. 
 
The side-effects, however, last up to one hour.  As the mind slips away from its unconscious cosmic awareness, it fights to retain it.  The psychic backlash feeds desperation and panic into any unguarded consciousness nearby, easily up to a thousand meters. 
 
The end result is the creation of blind berserker rage within the minds of all who are affected (failed EGO check).  This (murderous?) fury will last (amount by which roll was failed) d6 in minutes?  Hours?  Days? 
 
The drug user collapses and suffers 4d6 Con drain
 
---------------------- (break for merged stuff) - - - - - - 
 
 
Sorry, Thia: 
 
Looks like we cross-posted.  I was intrigued by the idea of alternate interpretations for "rage monster," and had not realized there was a turn-based system in play. 
 
I will see my way out.  (I work 12-14 hours a day; six days a week.  "turn based" means I probably won't be available when my turn comes around). 
 
Still, I will keep watching! 
 
And my replies have been merged, so let me go back up there and break them.   

Oh, oh. Got it. The drugs are completely normal except they are part of a unique trial that’s being given to soldiers through the VA. This thing goes all the way... TO THE TOP!! The two abnormal ones will only work when both are taken, one is a primer and one is an activator — the order they’re taken is irrelevant, and the timing is irrelevant, it can be active for up to 3 months (because science). When BOTH hit the system, it turns people into... what?
 
What’s the actual effect of having both of these things in your system at once?

However, hidden in every bottle, are two tablets of a new designer drug, which you wouldn’t know just by looking; only after exposing them to black light do the highlighted drugs pop. While this may seem exceptionally complex and obtuse, it’s at the height of the war on drugs. It’s critical that the odds of them being caught mid-shipment are minimized and that they can pass muster by all except the most dedicated investigator. They want to use standard routes then get them into the hands of local pharmacists with whom they have their network. From pharmacist to street pharmacist.

As the players fight off or run from the gunfire they remember the mausoleum and find a secret door.  There is a computer panel that opens and it leads to?  Where does it lead to?

Not quite sure but Ninjas! There should be Ninjas! 😁

A body. 
 
They recognize the man as the deacon that had tipped them off to unusual traffic in and out of the church's private cemetery-- particularly near the turn-of-the-century mausoleums--  just a few days ago.  There is a throwing dagger in his carotid artery.  The blood is still just a bit sticky. 

Unbeknownst to the players, the assassin is still lurking in the rafters of the church, clad in black body armor with twin katanas on her back. She moves with Olympic level agility, capable of clinging and swinging in near silence. She killed the deacon, but she has her reasons — that tip he gave the players wasn’t exactly out of the goodness of his heart. As she evaluates the situation, the screech of tires and the yammering of voices shouting orders come from outside, and bullets start blasting holes of light through the front doors along with the chatter of uzi and AK fire. 

It leads to a drug lab and distribution center.

They appear to be legal prescription drugs, in typical bulk packaging.  If opened to examine the contents directly, all drugs bear the appropriate color, shape, and marking of the brands and medications they claim to be.  

Many years ago I bought Ptolus and my group really wasn't into it.  The DnD version just didn't strike them as they couldn't do "what they wanted" with the classes, spells and story etc.  My group is really about having the mechanics support the roleplaying they do.  So I started a new campaign and decided Ptolus Fantasy Hero Version would be the meal.  
 
They are so in love with it and have really went crazy with Hero and Ptolus.  One is a rogueish type with decent skills and got his first follower.  He runs atop the rooftops and is a half-elf who only needs to sleep 3 hours a day.  He is super active and came from the Warrens (a slum type district). 
 
The next player chose a Necromancer type player who was using Vampiric Touch (heal by draining body).  He learned later that he was gaining corruption from doing this and decided to find religion.  We created something called the Sisters of Mercy where the third sister was the sister of retribution and justice.  He has been able to heal the corruption by doing good deeds for the church and gives me another plot hook.
 
The last player is a face man who is a gambler who took 25 points of luck.  He likes to flip a coin and decide what to do, great fun.
 
Thank you to the forums for the ideas about the story.  I used many and they are working for a Demon named Deimos, they haven't put it all together yet.  They have been collecting items for him to make a huge summons and after about 20 sessions are now starting to see the light. 
 
Three of the four in my group have been gaming together for 40 years the other about 20.  I think the combination of this system and our experience have made this one of the best campaigns we have ever played.  We are all dreaming about it and really really roleplaying.  One of the guys really was a min/maxer and that was all he cared about, but now he is really doing some cool things.
 
We are using the hard recovery where they only get recovery of body every two weeks.  It makes the game grittier and they don't charge into many combats.  Also the Prescence mechanic and social combat have been unbelievably well received.  Can't say enough about how much we are loving this game.  We all looked at each other the other night and said, "I wish we had started playing this game years ago"!
 
Thanks again.  If you interested in more I can post more info.  If you looking for a great City to adventure in for Hero, Ptolus is the way!
 

drunkonduty that's what I was thinking as well, cobbling it together wouldn't be hard.  The spell casting would be unique if the players want it and the monsters, spirits and abominations are pretty easy to manufacture with Hero.  Cool gonna see if the party is ready for this after the Ptolus campaign finishes or if it does.

And then there was a TPK!  The party had done a fine job of endearing themselves and decided to help the city.  There was a Necromancer who was controlling the Necropolis.  They entered and he let them in.  The Necromancer had 1000 skeletons and 8 vampires.  He told them he only wanted a staff from the vaults of the Knight's of Pale and he would leave.  They relayed this message to the leadership of the city and through some persuasion they agreed to give him the staff and he would leave.  They asked the party to deliver it as they had no experience dealing with these situations.  
 
They delivered the staff that was in a sealed lead box.  Then as they are walking away 13 meters to be precise the lead character decides he isn't having it and attacks.  What they didn't know which is where they failed is that he wasn't just a necromancer, he was a lich.  So with 100 skeletons and  8 vampires the party fought valiantly for 27 seconds and that was it.  I rolled all the dice out in the open and understandably they were upset.  Usually they check out everything, learn about what they are doing, but this spontaneous reaction was the end for them.
 
It was a fun campaign and hopefully we will have some more if they will talk to me again.

Epic stop to the ritual.  The party decided to go down into the hell spawn pit.  Thanks to Lord Liaden for the advice on this.  The players lost their minds over the blood, faces, snake rope and were very hesitant to move into this adventure.  They climbed down this blood ridden hole and were very scared.  They fought a war demon and finished off a blood demon.  One player almost died and he was probably dead if it wasn't for his vampire attacking another player.
 
They finished off the demon and now are going to reap some rewards and try and rebuild a part of the city into their own light.  Might be a little while as they figure out how they are going to proceed.  They are sticking to their guns about not being heroes, but they have helped people.

I would put caps down, though, now that I’m thinking on it, which I mentioned in one of @Gandalf970’s threads, and I mention him here as I think he’ll find the discussion interesting. So for me, using some real world examples;
 
All Persona skill are: Gestures, Incant, Cost END, Only Known Powers (-0), Only Equipped Persona (-0), RSR (specifically a stat roll for EGO, which is -1 for 20 AP), but in reviewing my notes and my builds not all of those are consistent, and I would likely go back and make a few changes, such as:
 
* -1/Power Rank (I - VII), and equate that in terms of cost to 1/20
* Ironically, this means that my system works similarly to yours, and a player could buff up their ability to throw, say “Fire” or “Support” skills (I would be largely fine with it)
* My CAP on that, though, would be Stat/5, or, Stat/3, depending on my mood and what I think worked in context with common and dramatic sense. 
 
I mention that because I didn’t see you list any specific limit, and I wasn’t certain where you wanted the final average difficulty to fall (I am usually looking to cap people out at 14-, after difficulty modifiers, any higher and it can get into automatic territory).,
 
Tired, making a 4 or 5 course meal, rambling. But hopefully that’s giving you some context around my thoughts.

Haven't worked on it, but absolutely loved that game and setting.  It felt like Catholic D&D - praying to the Saints actually did something and the forces of Satan were everywhere.
 
It captured the feel of the kind of fears medieval Catholics would have had.
 
I wonder if its possible to get that game running on Windows 10?
 
EDIT:  Oops!  I though he said Darklands. 

Not sure if this should be in Fantasy Hero or not.  I am thinking about running the Deadlands Hero style.  Anyone ever do any work on this?

I forgot to mention:
 
Figure out in advance whether you want a fall to be instantly lethal or not before you start the session. You could easily end up with all the PC's falling if the bad guy is skilled or lucky in his attacks. Or if the PC's decide to free climb down the ropes rather than tie themselves securely.
 
You can always choose to have the fall be into a deep and icy pool of water where the cult leader could fish them out, tie them up, and revive them...which leaves you open to run an "escape from the cultist" or a "escape from the slave markets" session later.
 
Instant death from falls is unpopular among PC's outside of some hardcore old school D&D players. And particularly when there's an outside chance of a total party kill-off.
 
You could also have the cult leader unexpectedly die way too quickly, since it's only one guy. Or have the PC's decide after his death that there must be some reason why he picked that particular pit in which to set his trap and want to thoroughly explore the place. Not a bad idea to take some of your existing underground plans (which you expected to use elsewhere) and have a map of that ready too go if the PC's pull a rabbit out of they're hats and kill off the bad guy in the first phase of combat.
 
 
(Sorry, I'm a worrier.)

Wow I would love to hear more about your campaign setting and details, details details.  This is deep deep deep and I love it.  It would be great if you could do a knowledge dump on us.  I would love to read it.

It's been a fun campaign so far.  Currently the crew is taking a Dungeon Crawl break from the mass setting absorption in the classic In Search of the Unknown.  I believe it's the first adventure published by TSR for Dungeons and Dragons.
 
It's so old nobody at my table (besides me) knew what it was. 
I slightly predate D&D, electricity, pyramids, fire and other modern novelties...
 
One other aspect of the setting that was a big change from convention is that there are no known Gods.  Almost everyone worships The Light and fears The Dark.  Much smaller numbers of people worship (secretly) spheres of influence rather than specific named deities such as The Harvest, The Wind, The Sea, The Hearth, etc.
Shepherd Flynn worships The Storm (Tempest Cleric template) and his access to unconventional spells has lead to some suspicion from his fellow Shepherd.
 
In one episode Shepherd Flynn heard the name Varkuul in the rolling thunder of a lightning strike and upon inspecting the impact point - found a spiraling image of lightning burned into a tree stump.  He carefully cut away the wooden disk and carries it hidden on his person.
 
A plot point that won't get exposed to the players until very late in the campaign is that the old Gods are as sheltered / imprisoned by The Hold as the humans are.