Edited David Little
Before I get into this adventure, I would like to give credit to a couple of people. First, and foremost, I would like to thank Joseph P. Benedetto for his VF-1C article, and his constructive criticism on how to improve the adventure.. Secondly, I want to thank Gary Gore for posting this article on his web page. Without that, the adventure would be a lot shorter. Also take a look at his drug kit, which is included in the Hummer Ambulance. Credit goes to John Long for the stats on the Hummer itself. Finally I would like to thank my good friend James Dalton for his input on the layout of the hospital facility and the addition of the EMTs to the teams.
Medical Team M6 was frozen in 1997. They were to staff the VF. The facility was hidden below an old abandoned farm about 5 kilometers due north of the town of Flintville Wisconsin, which is just northwest of Greenbay. Unlike the majority of the Morrow Teams, they were supposed to wake up just after the war and provide a safe, secure facility to help the surviving doctors treat and care for the victims of the holocaust. Construction began in the late Fall of 1989. Morrow industries bought the farmer's land and buildings under a private name. Over the next five years, they slowly excavated the ground below the farm and shipped in building supplies disguised in grain trucks. After all, they did keep the crops growing to throw off any suspicion. They also would throw large "Barn Parties" and bring in trucks of food, equipment and more material for the hospital. In the Spring of 1994, the facility was completed and stocked. Three years later, just before the start of the war, the staff moved in and went into cryosleep, awaiting the wake-up call.
Needless to say, it never happened. The team wakes up 150 years later than they were supposed to. Due to a slight defect in the team's computer programming, the facility did not wake up upon receiving the signal. Somehow, the signal got switched with a recon team's, so instead of the facility coming on line, a recon team was woken up. The facility would be activated upon Prime Base sending the Recon Team's wake up signal instead. Before this problem was discovered and solved, Prime Base fell.
The Facility itself is completely underground. The main entrance is located in the farm's collapsed barn. The team is equipped with two Hummers converted to Ambulance service (see below).
The reason the VF facility was built so far away from any major town was to prevent it from being overrun by the survivors, thus effectively negating its usefulness. In the off chance that a hostile force or desperate and armed survivors tried to take control of the facility, the MARS team was added as a defensive force, just in case.
The complex consists of a four level hospital facility. The first level is used for examination/waiting. The first portion contains a garage-like facility where the Hummer Ambulances are stored. This is reached by a large ramp which leads up to the barn above. Two large, metal doors are found at the opposite end of the garage. Behind these doors one large waiting room has been set up. There is but one door inside the waiting room which leads to a hall containing a total of eight examination rooms and two emergency surgery suites. At the end of this hall is a large door. Behind it is a large five meter long by three meter wide elevator which leads to the facility's lower levels.
Level two is used as the surgery ward. It contains a total of four surgery suites, fully stocked. These are off the main hallway that lead from the elevator. At the end of the hallway is another set of large double doors. This leads to the Recovery / ICU unit. Here a nursing station monitors twenty beds at all times.
Level three is the in-patient facility. This level consists of twenty, double occupancy rooms, a large nursing station, and storage for non drug medical supplies. For the comfort of the patients, two rooms share one bathroom facility which contains a toilet, sink, and tub/shower facility.
Finally, level four. The elevator opens to reveal three halls. One large hall directly ahead leads to three doors. The first is located directly at the end of the hall. Here more supplies such as bandages, splints, surgical gowns etc. are kept.
The door on the right of the hall is large and made entirely of metal. Beside the door is a numeric key pad. The door is locked and cannot be opened except by someone using the proper key code. Behind the door is a refrigeration unit where stocks of blood and other perishable medical supplies are stored. The drugs are kept in large metal cabinets that require a key to open.
The door on the left of the hall is similar to the one on the right. Another key pad is set in the wall beside the door itself. Again, the correct code is needed to open it. Behind this door all the drugs are stored under lock and key, just like in the refrigeration unit.
The hallway that leads to the left of the elevator contains two doors. The first one, about half way down the hall leads to the base's laundry room. Here six industrial strength washing machines have been set up. Linen is also stored here.
The door at the end of this hallway leads into the dining facility. A large room with sixteen tables has been set up cafeteria style. At the rear of the room is a large kitchen, complete with everything a modern hospital will need. Just off the kitchen is the food refrigerator and another storage room filled with canned food, bags of flour and other non-perishable items.
Last but not least is the hallway that leads to the right. It contains two doors. One to the left and one at the end of the hallway.
The doorway to the left leads into a large, fully stocked laboratory. At the rear of the room is a smaller airlock-like door. This leads into a smaller laboratory set up to handle biological contaminants. A separate, airlock-style elevator leads to the surface. This leads to a small storage shed, which is still standing. The elevator is used to bring biological hazards to the lab. This lab isn't as well stocked as you would find in a major hospital, but it still does the job.
At the end of this hall is a single metal door with a alpha- numeric keypad, and a swiper for an ID card. To enter this room from the outside, MP IDis required, and so is the proper code.
Behind the door are twelve cryo chambers and twelve lockers. This is where Medical Team M6 awaits the wake-up call. The lockers contain the team's clothing, equipment, and weapons. There is also a single computer placed in the wall. This links to a satellite dish located above which can be used for communication purposes. The computer controls the wake-up procedure and also contains the team's orders. Unlike most bolt holes, this facility is not designed to be abandoned. It can be used again and again.
Located beneath the facility is a small fusion power plant that will keep the hospital powered for thousands of years.
The hospital gets its water supply from underground reservoirs, which go through a filtration system located in the storage room on level four. The hospital keeps 2000 liters of filtered and purified water inside the storage room.
Medical Team M6 contains a total of twelve members. All members come from medical backgrounds. Two are full-fledged doctors, one is a virologist, one is psychologist, two are EMTs who drive the Hummers, and the rest are nursing staff. The stats and skills are to be determined by the GM.
The team receives its wake up call.
After they revive and get dressed, one of the team leaders will query the computer for their orders. They will receive the following message.
To: MP MED. M6
ORDERS:
- Contact surviving doctors in Greenbay Wisconsin. Work with them to help the sick and injured survivors.
- Contact other MP Teams based in Wisconsin and Michigan.
- Contact Prime Base for further orders.
- Survive.
The team will obviously try to contact prime base, or at the very least, send out the wake up signal to activate the recon teams. When they do so, the computer will give them an error, dish inoperable. The team will have to go to the surface and try to repair whatever is wrong with the dish.
Next, the team will discover that their exit is filled with the rubble of the barn. This shouldn't be too much of a problem for them to clear away. If need be, they can use the bio-hazard elevator to get to the surface.
When the party finally manages to reach the surface, they will discover a pleasant, summer day. To their surprise, they will discover that the only building still standing is the metal storage shed that houses the bio-hazard elevator. Not only has the barn collapsed, but the farm house was burned to the ground some time in the distant past. As for the team's satillite dish, it is buried in the rubble of the barn and is damaged beyond repair. The fields have been swallowed up entirely by the forest. They will discover that something has gone horribly wrong.
The medical staff will still be able to send the wake up signals for the recon teams and the MARS team. They will receive a reply from the teams within 48 hours.
I am assuming that the party will begin to explore the surroundings, or at the very least, they will head to the town of Flintville.
Flintville is a small community of some one hundred and forty seven souls. They have no vehicles, and use horses and carts for transportation. Only a handful of the town's inhabitants have modern firearms (about ten men own well-maintained hunting rifles.) The other weapons are crossbows, hunting bows, knives, and about another thirty black powder rifles. The town's economy is supported by farming and hunting. Several of the nearby farms keep large herds of cattle, pigs, chickens, emu and whitetail deer. They trade with other small communities for pre-war goods such as books, glass, metal, and the like. The town contains at least two blacksmiths, several tanners and seamstresses. The people are not very wary of strangers, but a well armed stranger is treated with cool respect. They are honest, hard working people who are in the middle of the growing season. This town is frequently visited by mailmen and about twice a year gypsy truckers stop by and trade with the people. This town has little trouble with roaming gangs, since they are off any major trade routes. They are occasionally hassled by unpleasant mutants which roam the ruins of Greenbay.
Either way, they will discover several fields full of grain crops, corn and other vegetables. They will see no one tending the fields. When they finally make it to Flintville, they will find the streets all but deserted. It appears to be a well populated town. The first house they come to will be occupied. When they knock or call out, the party will hear someone bumping around and after several minutes the door will open, showing a single woman in her late forties. She is dressed in a simple buckskin dress. What will catch the parties attention, are the bandages wrapped around her eyes. She will ask the party what they want. Depending on the players reaction, she will either turn them away, or invite them in. Her name is Silvia Goldsmith, and she has spent the past years as one of the town's seamstresses. If the party asks her what is wrong with her eyes, she will explain that she got the eyeburn, and is now blind for the rest of her life. She will break down into tears. Again, if the party asks what is wrong, she will say that she isn't long for the world, because no one will take care of her. She will explain that a large portion of the town is now blind, or will be soon because of the eyeburn. At least Thirty percent of the town is infected with the virus.
The party should now realize that this town is in desperate need of help.
The townspeople will gladly accept any help the party is able to give them. A large number of people who are now blinded because of the eyeburn will commit suicide, unless the party intervenes.
The first thing the party will have to do is discover just what the eyeburn is, then determine how it is spreading.
The second thing they need to do is try to isolate the virus, and discover a cure for it.
The third thing they need to do is eliminate the cause. If they can accomplish all three tasks, they will have completed the mission.
The eyeburn is a virus. It is a mutated form of rabies that attacks only the optic nerve of the victim. Once infected, if the victim is unable to fight off the virus, they do not die. They go blind instead, which can be far worse than dying.
The virus is subcutaneous, which means that it is transmitted through bites. The reason it has spread to epidemic proportions in this small town is because of the rats. The rats have become infected, so have the fleas that live off the rats. This spread to the animals the people keep, and to the people themselves.
The team should be safe from the virus, as long as they sleep in their vehicles, and keep themselves clean, so as not to attract fleas or rats. If the GM wants to be a real nice guy, he can force the party members to make Constitution checks every day. If they fail, they have been bitten and infected with the eyeburn virus. However, if the party treats the victims while wearing bio-hazard suits, they will not have to worry about this.
There are two methods of dealing with this epidemic. First is isolate, and produce a vaccine or a cure for the Eyeburn. The second Method is to hunt down and kill all the rats and other infected animals. This will take a very long time. Obviously, creating a cure will be the easiest. The team most definitely has the facilities for it.
I have two means of dealing with this disease. The first method is described below. This is a simple way of handling it. The second method is to download the file I wrote up which covers the rules for handling disease, a disease list, and medical drugs which are posted on this site (see below).
The disease is fairly strong. If infected, the victim has a -2 to their constitution check. After one day, The victim must make another check, again at a -2. If he fails, the victim will take 1D6 damage. This damage is not standard damage. It comes directly off the victims Constitution. The stat doesn't really change, it is just used as a gauge to figure out how long it will take the disease to run its course. Once the stat reaches 0 the victim will slowly go blind over the next twenty four hours. The blindness is permanent, as the optic nerve has been destroyed. Now, every time the victim makes his Constitution roll, he will regain 1D6 Constitution points. Once the victim regains his or her full Constitution, they have beaten off the virus, and is now immune to it. This isn't a very realistic method, but it should work well enough.
Now, if the team is able to find a way to cure the epidemic, they will be faced with the task of caring for a large number of blind victims. This is a daunting task in itself. To top it off, many of these people will be suicidal due to their permanent condition.
The team is intended to be used by the players. However, with a little effort on the part of the GM, they can be created, and used as NPC's. If the GM wants, he can also have the players be one of the recon teams, or the MARS team. The adventure would not work very well in that case, unless members of the party have a medical back ground.
In regards to the two Recon Teams and the MARS Team; Other than supplying help in treating the sick and helping the blinded townsfolk, they will play a very small part in this adventure. If the GM uses this as a starting point, the players have thirty six MP personnel, more than enough to help the small community while they wait to contact other teams.
Recon Team M6A is located 500 meters off of Highway 141, just 1 Km north of Anston. The bolt hole is hidden in the forest. The main entrance is overgrown with plants and trees and will require a lot of work to clear so the team is able to get the V-150 out of the bolt hole.
Recon Team M6B is located on the outskirts of the ruins of New London. They will have the same trouble that Team M6A has, as the exit to the bolt hole is filled with rubble from the collapsed building. This Team's bolt hole was built below a Morrow-run Gas Station. The reason this Team was placed in New London was its nearness to the larger communities of Appleton and Oshkosh. They were to try and locate surviving medical staff and facilities in both towns to be supported by the FV facility. Pointless now, considering the mission is 150 years out of date.
Finally, MARS team M6C is located below the remains of a small farm, 3 kilometers east of the town of Oconto, on Highway 22. The placement of the four caches are up to the PD.
