Beyond the Pain - New Scenario


Jonas Hedkvist (jonhed@RSV.SE)
*Jerker Eriksson* (dr_avalanche@HOTMAIL.COM)



So now I'm finally working on a new scenario. Well, actually I started on this back in 94, but has been lying in my bookshelf for some time. I don't know why, but suddenly I got this urge to finish it. But then I came to the end of what I had written previously, and I understood why I had ended it. I don't know how to make a decent ending to this scenario. So now I thought I might ask some help of those on this list who have a creative imagination and wants to help a pitiful soul like me.
Anyway, here is the basic premise of the scenario so far...
BEYOND THE PAIN
*Background*
A friend of the PC's is studying medicine, and while on duty at the local hospital, he notices that the death rates for one particular surgeon is extremely high. He notifies the chief of surgeons who promise to look into it, providing the friend doesn't tell anyone about the discovery until the check-up is completed. The friend agrees, and soon after returns to his hometown for summer vacation. Unfortunately, the whole staff of surgeons are members of the sect Ordo Fratis Mortis (for more info about them, please check your copy of Legions of Darkness or whatever it's called in English), and they plan to kill the friend with voodoo magic (described in one of the rule books).
*The Play*
The friend arrives at the home of one of the PC's, while everyone is gathered there. It's a warm summer evening and everyone is glad to be having a vacation. The friend starts to scream as his eyes are squeezed out of their sockets, his legs are twisted a full 180 degree, and big holes appear in his chest. Then he starts to burn and dies with a whimper.
The players will hopefully be wanting to find out what happened to their friend and who might be responsible. They learn that the friend arrived back from the city where he studies just the day before, and with this in mind, they might be inclined to think that whatever happened was because something that happened in that city. Also, the autopsy report is misleading, claiming the case to be one of the rare instances of spontaneous self-combustion. The players might think that somebody has been tampering with the body, because there are no mentions of the holes in the body. Actually, the autopsy is done by a coroner who is a member of OFM, and he is used to hiding things in his reports that might lead to a discover of what OFM actually does.
When the PC's are in the other city, they can talk to class-mates of the friend and find out that he had been troubled by something he discovered while on his latest course at the hospital. At the friends dorm, they can talk to even more people, all indicating that he was worried about something, possibly something that happened at the hospital. In his room, they can find notes pointing to a surgeon who seems to be having a frightfully high death-rate on his operations (both on the operating table and in post-op). The friend also seemed to have talked to the chief of surgeons. The players might go and talk to the surgeons, all of whom deny knowledge about anything criminal or otherwise mysterious. After their talk with the surgeons, the players are marked for death by the surgeons who starts to summon inferno-creatures (Nepharites and such) to kill the players.
The players can do some research about OFM, Marbas and other things related to this case. The players will eventually realize that all of the surgeons are involved, and soon find themselves in a deadly battle for their life, and what are they to do?
This is where I have come to a dead-end. I don't have any real ending, or final for my scenario. I don't want the OFM to have any kind of master plan, but I would like the players to find out that this is only a section of a lodge of OFM, and that there are more insane surgeons out there. Does anyone have any ideas of how to make the ending some sort of climax or something, but still leaving things open for the players to continue to find out the truth? If so, please mail me or the list and let me know your suggestions.

What if the local OFM, after unsuccessfully having tried to kill the PCs decides just to 'dissolve' and the surgeons leave town to join other groups of OFM? The PCs could then stumble over articles about murders similar to those committed by the local OFM, or discover secret medical journals suggesting identical 'accidents' at other hospitals. The PCs could then make it a personal aim to search and destroy the order, with tracks that could easily lead higher and higher in the hierarchy. 1