The Zenda Agenda
The Plot
The players are newcomers to the Hole. They arrive shortly before the wedding of Sir Palomades, a famous plains knight, to Lady Shvaugn, the daughter of Archduke Norris of Dragon City. Lady Shvaugn has been kidnapped by Reginald Archer, the automobile baron of the North Quarter.
Dragon City's monarch, King Tannarak, has hindered slave capturing and trading within Dragon City, and many of the industrial barons want him assassinated. Archer intends to leave enough clues so that a group of adventurers can rescue "Lady Shvaugn", or at least an imitator who has been cosmetically altered to look like the bride-to-be. The imitator's job is to arrive at the wedding without much time for scrutiny, and in an opportune moment, murder Tannarak.
The adventurers, of course, will be blamed for the murder.
Chapter One: An Uncanny Ressemblance
Scene One: A(r)rival
The PCs are boarding a small DC-9 airplane in Ottawa, heading for Toronto. It is raining, but the weather is not very bad. The plane takes off, and drinks are served by one of two stewards. Suddenly, the wind picks up and the plane is pitched, violently to the side. PCs are tossed out of their seats and the plane drops below the cloud level. A lightning bolt (!) hits the plane's engine (at the tail), and the plane goes into a dive. Any PCs who go into the cockpit will discover that it is empty. The captain's jacket is hanging on the back of the door, but the plane is on auto-pilot. The plane crashes, and all characters are knocked unconscious.
Quotations
"Would you like coffee, tea, juice or a softdrink, sir?"
"Can I get you a blanket or a pillow?"
"This is the Captain speaking, we're experiencing a little bit of minor turbulence, and your on-board meal may be a little... bzzt... fzzzzz...(the speaker goes dead)."
"Ohmigod! We're gonna die."
Scene Two: Awakening
The PCs awaken in the remains of the airplane. The PCs and their DNPCs have survived, as have 5 others. There are 9 others who didn't make it. The survivors include:
- Tanya Williams, one of the two stewardesses. Tanya is blonde-haired and blue-eyed, and aside from PS: Stewardess, she has no appreciable skills.
- Gavin Coleman, insurance salesman. Gavin is supposed to have a meeting with the Director of special programmes first thing in the morning and is very panicky.
- Raymond van der Beek, an older man vacationing in Canada from the Netherlands. He speaks almost no English. He was on his way to Pearson International Airport to get a KLM flight back to Amsterdam.
- Buffy Friedman is a 12-year girl who was going on vacation with her family. Her parents didn't make it, but her annoying kid brother is still alive.
- Jody Friedman is the 10-year old brother of Buffy. While Buffy can't stand Jody, Jody doesn't know that Buffy exists. All Jody's attention is directed at his Gameboy system. Until the batteries run out, that is.
There is no evidence of civilization nearby. There are mountain ranges in the distance, although there are no mountains anywhere in south-western Ontario. If a character climbs a tree, he or she will be able to spot a dirt road about a mile away. The road leads toward and away from the mountain range. Heading away from the mountain range will eventually take the characters to Dragon City.
Quotations
"OhmigodOhmigodOhmigodOmigod..."
"Gross! Lookit all the blood."
"Danke u wel."
"Like, shouldn't we wait here until help comes."
Scene Three: Goblinization
Chapter Two: Go Among Mad People
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."