Twilight 2000 1e - Black Madonna, The.pdf - Twilight 2000 1e (EN) - Matrinicz

The Black

Madonna

Ostrova 24

Oswiecim 24

Pokoj 24

Prudnik 2 5

Pszczyna 25

Pskowice 25

Raciborz 25

Rybnik 25

Sosnowiec 25

Strzelce Opolskie 25

Tarnowskie Gory 25

Tesin 25

Tychy 25

Zabrze 26

Zyardow 2 6

Zywiec 26

Rumors 27

Radio Traffic 27

Organizations 28

B Troop, 1/116th US Armored Cavalry 28

CIA 28

Czech 14th Motorized Rifle Division 29

Czech 1st Airborne Assault Brigade 29

Czech 3 Border Guard Brigade 30

DIA 30

GRU 30

KGB 30

Liga Handlowy 30

Marczak's Legion 30

Soviet Special Signals Detachment 1109 31

Soviet 129th Motorized Rifle 31

Wojsko Ludowa 32

Wojsko Slaskie 32

ZOMO 33

A City of Rubble and a Hill of Light 3 5

Getting to the Jasna Gora 35

A City in Ruins 35

The Jasna Gora 36

The Vaults 36

Into the Underworld 36

Referee's Notes 37

Underground Combat 3 7

The Madonna's Guardian 38

Glossary 39

Special thanks to the University of South Florida playtesters.

Credits

Design: Frank Frey, Jr.

Additional Design and Development: Loren Wiseman.

Research Assistance: Stephanie Robbins.

Art Direction: Rich Banner

Cover and Interior Illustrations: Steve Venters.

Interior Illustrations: Liz Danforth.

Game Designers' Workshop

PO Box 1646

Bloomington, IL 61702-1646

Reserved. Twilight: 2000 is Game Designers' Workshop's

trademark for its role-playing game of survival in a devastated

world.

Contents

The Black Madonna

Referee's Notes

Design Notes

The Adventure Plot

The Man Who Saw Too Much

The Diary of SSGT James B. Crenshaw

The Decision

Buyers

Background History

The Black Madonna

Operation Rampart & The Battle of Czestochowa

The Battle of Czestochowa

Aftermath

Special Notes

1 0

Silesia

Background

The War

Markiz Slaskie (Markgraf of Silesia)

Society in the Margravate

The Economy

Who's Who in Silesia

Julian Filipowicz

Marja Filipowicz

1 7

Colonel Alexander J. Kazanov

Captain Molly Warren

Major Karel Praceclovek

Lieutenant Valeria Kodarz

Major Rudolf Geissmar

General Bruno Stribrosyn

Father Wojiech Niekarz

Major Nikolai S. Volkhov

Captain Marion V. Fedorenko

Lieutenant Pavel B. Gulashev

Major Stanislaw Stranski

NPC Categories

Places of Interest in Silesia

Bielsko-Biala

Brzeg

Bytom

2 2

Cieszyn

Chorzow

Chrzanow

Czestochowa

2 3

Dobrodzien

Dvorce

Gliwice

Gluchohlazy

Katowice

Kety

Klobuck

Kluczbork

Kozle

Krapkowice

Krzepice

Lubliniec

Namyslow

Olesno

Opava

Opole

2 4

self-styled Markgraf of Silesia, Julian Filipowicz.

Capsule biographies of important individuals in and around

Silesia.

Details of many of the important communities in and around

Silesia, which will be of value even if your characters do not

choose to try for the Black Madonna.

Details and descriptions of several groups and organizations

which the characters may encounter.

Two maps of Silesia (one a general map of southeastern

Silesia and the other a map of the territory ruled by the Markiz),

and a map of the ruins of Czestochowa and the catacombs

beneath the Jasna Gora, where the Black Madonna lies hidden.

The Black Madonna

When I was a kid, my best friend was a kid from down the

block named Donald Kowalski. We played on the same Junior

Hockey team, and we hung out together after school, but I never

saw him in school. I asked him about it one day, and he said

that was because he was Catholic, and they have their own

special schools.

Anyway, I was over to his house for dinner once when his

Great Aunt Lucja was visiting. She was this crazy old lady from

the old country that spoke hardly any English. I sat there through

dinner listening to her talk to Don's dad, not understanding a

word of what they said. After dinner, Don and I excused

ourselves and got up to go out and play, but she called us back.

She patted us both on the head, and said something to us while

she rummaged in her purse. Don's dad told us that she said she

thought we were both perfect little gentlemen, and deserved

something special as a reward. She finally came up with a cou-

ple of little cards with a picture on one side and printing on the

other. Don and I took the cards and thanked her, and then Don's

mom took her to bed. I looked on the back of my card. It was

in Polish, and I thought I had a Polish baseball card or something

until I looked at the other side. It was an old-time picture of Mary

and the baby Jesus. Mr. Kowalski said that it was a holy pic-

ture, and that old Catholic ladies gave them out to kids all the

time. "They were supposed to be educational. Don wasn't too

thrilled, but I thought it was neat. I had Mr Kowalski read the

stuff on the back to me. It was all about the painting (which

was called Our Lady of Czestochowa), and had all sorts of neat

stuff about sieges and battles, and thieves being struck dead

as they tried to steal the painting.../ loved it.

That old card got me interested in Polish history, and I started

to read everything I could find on it. I soon branched out to

history in general, but I aiways kept the card to remind me where

it all started.

I never dreamed I'd ever hold the real Black Madonna in my

hands some day.

REFEREE'S NOTES

This game module is designed to be used by the referee. Nar-

rative scenes describing certain events from the point of view

of the characters are provided to add additional color and detail

to the referee's narrative as he describes the situation to the

players. These narrative sections may be read to or by the

players, but all other sections are reserved for the referee only

(unless otherwise stated). Narrative sections are set apart in

italics for easy recognition.

The map and diary entries printed on the center pages are in-

tended to be removed by the referee and shown to the players.

To do this, carefully pry up the ends of the center staples with

a tool such as a screwdriver, remove the pages and carefully

bend the ends of staples down again. The text will now read

properly.

DESIGN NOTES

The Black Madonna is a different sort of Twilight: 2000 adven-

ture. It has the trappings of a classic horror story mixed with

some slam-bang action. Properly done, it can provide any

number of chills and goose bumps.

Like any good ghost story, this adventure relies heavily on

atmosphere and contrasts: The bustling life of Raciborz com-

pared to the desolation of Czestochowa; the sunlit woods and

fields of Silesia compared to the eerie dankness of the Jasna

Gora and its catacombs. Make the most of it. Set the proper

atmosphere, and you'll end up giving your players an experience

they won't soon forget.

INTRODUCTION

The Black Madonna is an adventure for use with GDW's post-

World War III role-playing game Twilight: 2000. In The Black

Madonna, the players are given the opportunity to recover a

religious and cultural artifact of tremendous value...the icon

called Our Lady of Czestochowa, also known as the Black

Madonna.

In addition, this adventure presents the referee with a wealth

of material on Silesia, an area in southern Poland. This material

may be used to provide a setting in which the players may search

for the Black Madonna, or may serve as a backdrop for other

adventures in southern Poland. The locales, personalities, and

organizations should inspire numerous adventure situations, and

referees should consider the material presented here as a

jumping-off point for their own creations.

— Frank Frey

PLAYERS SHOULD NOT READ ANY FURTHER

IN THIS BOOKLET IN ORDER TO PRESERVE

THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE.

This booklet includes the following material:

Introductory material for the adventure.

A history of the Black Madonna and its importance to the

Polish people, along with details of the Battle of Czestochowa

(May 24-June 7, 1997).

Background information on Silesia, including a history of the

what it was for originally. The dogs had chewed on it for a little

bit, but they gave it up as inedible, I guess. Inside there was

a large gold cup (I guess "chalice" is the right word) with enough

jewels to buy a small city...and the diary.

Loomis said we should read it because it might tell us

something. Loomis used to be with the brigade's S-2 shop, and

those Intel guys love to read things. Everybody else wanted to

find out where the cup came from— Loomis wanted to find out

about troop movements or whatever. I guess it was good to

know both.

The Adventure Plot

The following background is assumed for the adventuring

group. Characters with other backgrounds will have to be

adapted into the adventure by the referee by whatever means

needed. A referee may freely alter this material in order to in-

corporate it into his particular Twilight: 2000 campaign.

The players are survivors of the US 5th Infantry Division

(Mechanized), which was destroyed near the Polish city of Kalisz

in mid-July of 2000. It will be handy if the players' group has

someone with Combat Engineer specialty; if one is not available,

a suitable NPC may be provided (by means suggested later in

this adventure).

This group has been heading south for the last month, hop-

ing to rejoin friendly forces. They've picked up rumors of an

American unit somewhere in the vicinity of Dobrodzien. They've

also picked up rumors of a group calling itself the Wojsko Slaskie

(Army of Silesia), which claims to be the armed might of so-

meone called the Markiz Slaskie (Markgraf of Silesia) and which

operates in the area south of the city of Gliwice.

(Players and referees should read the section entitled The Bat-

tle of Czestochowa (page 9) for a complete description of events

leading up to the destruction of that city.)

The main adventure begins with the discovery of a body in

a cave.

THE DIARY OF SSGT JAMES B. CRENSHAW

(These are selected quotations from the diary of Staff

Sergeant James B. Crenshaw, 1st Battalion, 256th Infantry

Brigade, 5th Infantry Division, United States Army. The players

should be shown the copies on the pull-out pages. This copy

is provided for the referee's use.)

July 24, 2000

I haven't had time to write anything for a while because we've

been running ever since Lask. We got hit by Polish horse soldiers

about ten klicks out of town, and lost the last of our vehicles

except for the Hummer. We nailed 'em pretty hard, though, and

they didn't chase us.

July 26th, 2000

The Lt. says that we ought to head for Chestoshova because

that's probably where that cav troop we met last week went.

Bailey and Carter said they'd rather head for Krakow and see

what they could find there. We split up our gear and separated.

They headed southeast on foot; Lieutenant Anderson and the

rest of us kept going south in the Hummer.

August 18th, 2000

Just North and east of Klobuck we were crossing a stream

and bottomed the Hummer out on a rock. We lost most of the

oil out of the crankcase, and that stopped us for good and all.

You can run a Hummer on alcohol, but you can't fill a crankcase

THE MAN WHO SAW TOO MUCH

We found what was left of him in one of those caves that

are all over the place around here. It looked like he built a fire

in the mouth of the cave, and lived for a day or two before in-

fection or the flu or something got him.

He had an M-16 and a few rounds of ammo we could use,

and some canned goods the dogs couldn 't get at, but other than

that, there wasn't much that hadn't been torn up pretty bad.

Except for the rucksack. It was one of those heavy-duty canvas-

and-leather jobs, held shut by a couple of straps. I don't know

with creek mud and expect to get very far. We stripped the Hum-

mer of everything useful, took what we could carry without kill-

ing ourselves, and buried the rest.

We figured we could come back and get it once we had

scoped out Chestawhatsis.

After a while the Lt. said we shouldn't just stand there 'til

our torches burned out, we had to go on, and so we did. It

seemed like hours, but I think it was just a few minutes. A cou-

ple of times I think we went over the same ground, but I'm not

sure. We finally came to a place where there was a faint light

coming from the passage off to the right. We went down it and

we came to a large room.

It looked like a chapel or something. There were torches and

candles burning, so somebody else was must live down there

or visit once in a while.

Then we saw them.

They were Polish paras. I know the uniform. They were stood

up against the wall like an honor guard, only they were dead.

Every one of them was dead, and had been for some time.

There was a raised altar or something at the far end of the

room. There was a body lying on it. It was an officer, and he

looked like he had been praying when he died. Up on the altar,

there was an old picture. It was dark, and hard to make out,

but I saw that it was a painting of the Virgin Mary and the Christ

child, like on an old-time Christmas card. The frame was covered

in gold and had jewels all over it. I saw more gold near my foot,

and I bent to look more closely. There were piles of the

stuff on the floor, like it had been hauled in there and dumped.

I saw a gold cup, and reached out to pick it up. When I touched

it I heard Davis scream, worse than Alvarez. I jumped up and

saw the body on the altar was moving/ As God is my witness,

it was standing up! I looked around, they were all moving. All

those dead paras. Davis collapsed. I didn't see what happened

to anybody else, I just ran. I remember running forever. I

remember crossing the ditch again, and running some more.

Then after a while I was outside, and I kept going. I don't know

what direction I went, or how long I went. I wanted to put as

many miles between me and that place as I could. When I

couldn't run any more, I stopped. I noticed that I'd cut myself

pretty bad on something. Laid open most of my left arm. And

I still had the cup clenched in my hand. I guess you do weird

things when you panic.

August 20th, 2000

Alvarez and me went ahead to scout Chestushova. The place

was in worse shape than we thought. I guess they worked it

pretty good. In town it was a nightmare. Rats the size of cats,

cockroaches the size of Volkswagens (God only knows what

they've been eating lately), flies everywhere. It stunk worse than

anyplace I can remember. The Lt. said to meet on top of the

hill on the edge of town where the monastery used to be. It was

twilight when we got back to the hill, and Rudy had dinner

waiting.

August 22nd? 2000

/ wish Davis hadn't seen those bats. Later on on the 20th,

Davis saw a bunch of bats coming out of the ground. The Lt.

said where there's bats there's a cave, and where there's a cave

there's good shelter. So we all had to pull up stakes and go ex-

ploring. I thought it was a great idea at the time...everybody

knows about the treasure that crazy polock colonel buried in

Chestyshova...and gold is a meal ticket for a long time in

Krakow, I hear.

We found the entrance where Davis saw the bats. It looked

like the rain had washed it open a couple of days before. We

made some torches to save our flashlights (we only had two

anyway) and headed in. We ended up in a sloping passage that

went on downward for a while, and we followed it. Pretty soon

we heard the sound of rushing water. We went on a little more

and it got louder and louder until the tunnel leveled off and we

ran into this big ditch. ..it looked like a storm drain or something.

Alvarez said something about it being the river sticks and

laughed like she made a Joke. I didn't get it, but the Lt. told her

to shut-up. Lt. Anderson was really getting nervous.

We lost Jenson crossing the whatever-it-was. It was only

waist deep, but he slipped and went under. There wasn 't a yell

or nothing. He was just there one minute and gone the next.

He had one of the flashlights.

We went on along the passage on the other side. It went up

a little bit then levelled off. We walked for a bit. It's hard to tell

how much you move underground. None of us were pacing it

off. After Jenson, we were all pretty spooked. We came to a

bunch of other passages that went off right and left. Then we

came to these little rooms full of piles of bones. God, there must

have been everybody that ever died in Poland down there. I

never saw so many bones in all my life. Alvarez was praying

out loud, she was really spooked, then she stopped, and her

eyes got wide as saucers. We could all hear it then. It was a

low moaning sound. The Lt. said it was the wind. Well, Alvarez

lost it. She just broke and ran. I don't know where. Down one

of those tunnels I guess. I was too scared to stop her. She had

the other flashlight. We couldn 't see where she had gone, and

the Lt. said we had to stick together anyway. Hesaidshe would

be OK, she'd come to her senses, and find her way out.

We lit the rest of the torches and went on. A couple of minutes

later we heard a scream. I never heard a sound like that come

out of a human throat, but it must have been Alvarez. Lt Ander-

son didn't say anything, but I could see him swallowing hard,

trying to look like he wasn't scared.

August 24?, 2000

I've been walking for days. I don't have the faintest idea where

I am, or what day it is. My arm is pretty stiff, but I don't have

anything to treat it with except a little of the hooch we saved

back last time we cooked fuel for the Hummer. I put half of it

on the arm and half of it in me. Felt better for a while.

August ? 2000

Found cave, built fire.

Hard to write arm hurts, eyes spin.

Food OK, fire OK, for a while.

hear dogs or something outside

too weak to get wood

gun after fire gone

save last bullet

THE DECISION

After they discover the chalice and the diary, the players must

decide what they want to do. It is obvious that the painting Cren-

shaw saw is the Black Madonna. It is also obvious that whatever

happened under the ruins of the Jasna Gora, the gold chalice

is real, and is evidence to support Crenshaw's story. That story

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