The most wealthy character has payed to have an ether flyer built by the inventor of the party. Everyone has been invited to accompany him on his first trip, a trip to the moon and back, which should only take 12 hours. Poorer characters are being taken to work in the ships engine room, and a navy officer has been taken to pilot the ship. Make sure you invent a suitable premise for each character to travel on the ether flyer. As soon as the players have read through their character sheets, etc. and are prepared for the adventure, begin by decribing the take off to them, as well as where they all are and what they are doing (mainly sitting in the common room or the conservatory unless they have a specific job to do).
Now is a good opportunity to show the players around the ether flyer, describing the prominant rooms. If you have the rule book, read chunks of text from the 'Your Ether Flyer Described' section on page 86-87. If not basically tell them about the comfortable lounge type conservatory, the small lab that the inventor has installed, the large greenhouse which holds the plants which provide Oxygen for the passengers, the hot, noisy engine room and the small control chambver at the front of the ships. Their cabins are basic with simply bunk beds, a desk and a toilet cubicle. Answer any questions they may have and make sure they are well briefed before progressing. After about six hours they are in close proximity of the moon. Read the following to them:
You see the face of the moon before you, featureless and grey, except for a soft smudge of green light, maybe a mile wide.
It should not be hard to encourage the players to investigate the glow, which eminates from a deep gorge which cuts down into Luna as far as the eyes can see. If somebody asks what the glow is, get one of the more intelligent players in the party to make an intellect roll. If the charcter is successful, tell him that the glow is a particular event which many explorers and ether pilots claim to have witnessed on the far side of Luna. Nobody really knows what it is, and most scientists have their own opinions, most of them being completely ludicrous (amuse the players with such stupid explanations). One explanation of note is that it is the home of a civilisation of moonmen, or selinites, although this should be dismissed also as ludicrous.
Suddenly, the flyer stops handling correctly, and the rate of descent is increasing rapidly. The scientist (or whatever) of the party should realise that there is obviously some kind of atmoshere here, as the ether propellor would be able to manage to control the ship in a vacuum. The party should be encouraged to try and inflate the hydrogen baloon in an attempt to control the ship, but it is too late.
Read the following to the players:
The flyer finally smashes into a ledge, and eyeryone is thrown to one end of the cabin in a heap, together with some loose equipment. The flyer totters for a moment, then rolls off the edge and falls again. It hits the next ledge with a solid, bone jarring finality.
The crash could well hurt people thrown around. Also tools and things could hit them. Give them a chance to hold onto something, etc. There is a chance that anyone in the engine room is hurt by coal falling from the steam boiler that powers the propellor. They can shield themselves in any appropraite way, but, diving out of the engine room could be a hasty move, as they are smashed into a wall as the ship crashes.
When the players inspect the damage, explain to them that although the hydrogen bag is ripped and many rivets have popped, the damage looks worse than it really is and can be easily fixed. However, then the inventor discovers that the diamond in the ether propellor has been smashed and will need to be replaced. The party should therefore decide that decending down the gorge towards the strange glow is their only option.
Day 1
The party abseil into the gorge. Fill the day with exciting (although not life threatening) incidents. Early in the day the strap on the bag in which the party carried their provisions should break, and the tins of food will be lost (somone could be hit by them as they fall) the party will therefore be forced to forage for food. The party will find two types of fungus, one brown and one a slightly glowing yellow green shade. The brown fungus is edible if the characters try to eat it, although it has a slightly metallic aftertaste. The green glow fungus releases a mild burning acid when broken. It could well be the cause of the strange green glow. It is definitely not edible!
The party should encounter a huge swarm of bat-like creatures. D10 will attack the party each turn. These will wound characters on the roll of 1 if the charcter attempts to shield himself or block the bats or on a roll of one or two if the charcter does not defend himself. These bats numberless, and no matter how hard the party fight, they will keep on coming. They will knock weapons out of the parties hands, leaving them defenceless. The only way to scare them away is to throw a handful of glow fungus at them. The acid burns through the skin of some of the bats, and the rest will fly away.
Day 2
If the party do not clear away the glow fungus from the rope when they are abseiling, it will eventually burn through it, and a member of the party can get hurt.
During the day they party find an old abandoned ether flyer. read the following to the players:
As you look over the lip of a ledge, you see a wrecked ether flyer, its back broken and hull split open. You realise that this must be the ship of Vladimir Tereshkova, who visited the moon on five different occasions. He never returned from the last trip.
Allow the players to look araound the ship.
Control room: The guts of all the mechanisms have been ripped out. There is nothing of use here.
Common Area: Empty. Passageway to other rooms and stairs to Cargo Hold.
Cargo Hold: There is some rope here. There are some empty crates with 'Remington' stamped on. Each contained 5 rifles.
Greenhouse: Filled with overgrown plants. Some of the creepers try to grab hold of a member of the party. They can be easily chopped, but the player must be careful not to hurt the person they are trying to free.
Staterooms: These are empty.
Conservatory: Most things have been destroyed or removed. There are some torn charts, which are useless but appear to be of a cave system.
Engine Room: There is nothing of value here. Get someone to make an observation roll to see if they notice a scratching at the door to the ships lab.
Lab: As the party opens the door, 22 large lab rats, each with two wounds, jump out and attack the party. Once the rats are killed, the party can inspect the lab. There are human skeletons here as well as some torn cloths. The party also find a small button with a Russian symbol on it.
Later, after the party have resumed their descent, they encounter a Giant Catterpillar like creature. Its mandibles will attempt to grab hold of one of the charcters and crush him until he is unconcious. This creature is reasonably strong, and should have a suitably large number of wounds.
Day 3
The party find some armadillo like creatures which are completely harmless. They are also edible.
Eventually the party reach a cave. Read the following to them:
As you reach yet another ledge, you notice a large and obvious cave, next to which are craved the initials VT. You step inside to find a huge chamber stretching out before you. There are a number of passages leading into more chambers.
Allow the players to wander around the caves for a while. These are suitable encounters.
After a while the charcters reach a steep passage, which will take 5 consecutive agilty rolls to climb. (Here, the most agile character should climb, then throw a rope down to the others.
Read the following to the players:
You pass through a cavern where you are waist deep in water. After what seems like hours, you find a passage and climb out onto dry land. You are in a large chamber, indentical to many you have seen so far inside Luna. Suddenly, you hear a loud flapping from above, as a giant bat like creature flies towards you.
The bat is aggressive, but does little harm to the characters. After the bat has taken 5 wounds, he will shit on one of the players then fly off. The shit is corrosive, and the player will lose wounds if he does not return to the previous cavern and bathe.
Eventually the party will fall asleep in a large, dry chamber. After a number of hours, the will awake to find themselves surrounded by four hidious, alien, six-legged creatures. These are the legendary Selinites. They are armed with Remington Breech Loading Carbines, and have them trained on the party. The party are escorted to a chamber fitted out as a study and chamber. At a desk is seated Vladimir Tereshkova. He rises as he greets the party, saying:
'You don't know how happy I am to see you all. As you have no doubt stumbled across my ether flyer, it must be obvious that I have been here for a long time. I'm not sure how long; the days are so hard to measure down here. When I stumbled upon these caverns for the first time, I was struck by the great riches here. Diamonds! Of course, I had to return to Earth for further supplies. Unfortunately my Ether Flyer crashed the next time I came here. My crew wouldn't cooperate. They wanted to 'serve the Czar'. I fed them to my lab rats of course. Now, I will find your ship, repair it and return to Earth. I'll leave you to make my excuses for me.'
Vladimirs room is full of lab equipment (if after the adventure a character chooses to take this equipment, it is sufficient to permit study of one extra field of research on the ship), books and furnature. There are large diamonds, suitable for repairing the ether flyer, on Vladimir's desk. The party can ask Vladimir a few questions before being taken to a chamber fitted out as a prison. The escape is guarded by four Selinite custodians, each armed with a Remington breech loading carbine. Give the players some time to review the situation. After a while, one of the guards speaks. His voice is harsh and twisted, with the words being produced with great difficulty using his inset vertical jaws. His name is K'Chuk, and he is the one one of his kind who can speak English. He will explain to the players that he is the races 'retainer of knowledge'. The party will need to try and persuade him that it is logical to overthrow Tereshkova. He will not suspect that Tereshkova is lying to his race, but is angry with Vladimir, as his improved fungus growing techniques freed more Selinites to work in the mines, and as a result many Selinites died.
