TToA Playtest: Vol. I, Chapter 2

Read chapter 1 here . 

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CHAPTER 2: PERIL IN PETROGRAD 

Meanwhile, in a cluttered Magician's Garret [Home Base] in snowy Petrograd, the Amazing Uri is rehearsing his magic act when his concentration is broken by insistent knocking. Irritated, he throws opens the door only to find the hall empty, but notices an envelope at his feet. Inside are a handful of ruble notes, about which Uri immediately notices something strange: on the face of every bill is an engraved portrait of what looks like an American gangster.

Intrigued by the obviously Counterfeit Cash, Uri throws on his overcoat, checks to make sure the Pistol in his coat pocket is loaded, and catches a carriage to the local Newspaper Office, to consult with his contacts there. No sooner has he entered the newsroom when a monstrous creature lurches out of the stairwell in the hall and crashes through the door after him. Uri nimbly evades the thing's clumsy first strike as a roomful of stunned reporters look on, and a flashbulb goes off as one quick-thinking photographer captures the action on film [By attacking here, the Arch Villain takes advantage of  the Newspaper Office's "Infamy" effect, which grants extra Villainy points].

"Am I not beautiful?" cries the monster as more flashes go off. "So what if everything but my head came from other bodies!" [This quote is the flavor text for this Minion, Maldehyde's Bride]

As a typing machine flies past his head, Uri realizes with a shock that his foe is female - if that word could fairly be used to describe a patchwork assembly of mismatched limbs. Regaining his composure in the midst of the chaos, he further understands himself to be the quarry of the abominable Amazon, and that the best way to avoid unnecessary injury to onlookers would be to make a quick exit. The next time a flashbulb goes off, there is a puff of sulfurous smoke, and the Amazing Uri is nowhere to be seen [After two rounds of combat, Uri makes use of his "Puff of Smoke" special ability].

As the staff runs screaming from the building, Uri emerges from a broom closet in the basement and takes a survey of his surroundings. Some dark smudges on a wall near the coal chute appear on closer examination to be large Fingerprints, no doubt left by the shambling she-devil as she staggered into the building. In the snow outside, he finds a trail of oversized footprints and sets off to trace them to their point of origin.

Within a few blocks he has reached the service entrance of Petrograd Hospital, whence the monster appears to have begun its trek. He draws his pistol, slips inside, and stealthily climbs a set of stairs to find himself near the entrance to an operating room. As he edges closer to the doors in order to peer through one of the portholes, a shadow moves across his field of vision.

Someone is behind him!

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Tune in next time for another exciting episode of Thrilling Tales of Adventure!