Enter the Nanomancer!

I’ve been chugging away at Scent of Decay (oh, I rhymed!) this week, including a rewrite of the climax. I think the new one is more dramatic and introduces a nemesis character that I hope players will enjoy. I haven’t written too much about this on the blog because I didn’t want to give anything away. However, I’m about to change that:

Spoiler Alert!!

The climax of the module revolves around Jon Fletcher (a brilliant scientist) and his work on self-replicating nanos. He’s been doing secret experiments to reanimate dead bodies using nanites to effectively take over for the corpse’s failed systems (brain, lungs, and heart, etc.). When Fletcher’s fiancée dies, he has her body stolen so he can try to bring her back to life. After injecting her with the nanos, he makes the mistake of kissing her on the lips which then transfers some of the nanos into his own system. The nanites then start self-replicating and eventually take over his body (since the little machines don’t realize Fletcher isn’t a corpse). At this point, Fletcher ceases to exist; replaced by a new being calling itself the Nanomancer. This new creature inherits all of the ambitions and intellect of Jon Fletcher, along with several million nanos surging through its body. Most of all, the Nanomancer wants to survive and, like any self-respecting self-aware entity, it thinks that taking over the world is a good place to start. Obviously the players will have to stop this from happening, and prevent their characters from getting infected with nanos in the process.

So, in a nutshell, that’s what I’ve been working on lately with the new module. I think it’s coming together pretty well so far. Btw, here’s a picture I did of both Barbara Bennett after being re-animated, and Jon Fletcher after he turned into the Nanomancer: