Brief:
The world will end in thirteen days. You don't know how, you don't know why. All you know is that everyone and everything will cease to exist.
Urban Arcana:
In the world of Urban Arcana, dragons rule the boardrooms and bugbears rule the streets.
It is a world where monsters and magic exist, yet the human psyche just cannot fathom them and covers up
all supernatural events. Some, however, break that barrier and become aware of the world around them
and help Mages, Acolytes, and other magical characters fight with monsters from another realm.
This game takes modern adventures and combines it with a chaotic twist of magic, using creatures and spells familiar to those who play Dungeons and Dragons. The setting is simply Earth as we know it. Slowly creatures from another world, where magic and fantasy rules, have moved into ours. They are hidden by the human subconscious which disbelieves seeing horns on people's heads or monsters in the subway.
This campaign uses the Urban Arcana d20 Modern campaign setting adapted for D&D 4e.
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Report from Department 7, New York Branch From the desk of Chief CLASSIFIED CLASSIFIED Re: Day 01 Agents Grey, Mullins, and Monroe are dead. They were sent on a simple mission to recruit several Shadowkind who we feel would be an asset to Department 7. The three agents slipped messages to each of them instructing them to meet at a 287 West 51st Street. Here is who they were assigned to recruit:
The five recruits arrived at the appointed place and found the three agents dead. They were attacked by those who presumably killed the agents and were miraculously able to defeat them. Mr. Mercury found Agent Grey's cell phone, and intercepted an incoming call from Department 7, explaining what had happened. I decided to personally escort the second Department 7 retrieval group and to personally ask the members to join. While some were eager to join (perhaps a bit too eager), others were quite hesitant and would only come with us after the promise of payment and from pressure from the others. Admittedly, their first experience with us was not as we would have liked. One more thing concerns me. Miss Smith frantically reported (after trying for some time to calm down) that one of the men who attacked her had been killed. While she was looking through his possessions, he bolted up, looked straight at her, and said, "The world will end in twelve days." He then collapsed back to the ground. This concerned me greatly, but I didn't say anything to the group. Regardless, I decided that it was certainly in their best interest to come under our protection. We will keep them at headquarters for the night and, should they choose to work with us, we will send them on their first mission tomorrow.
Signed,
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I've seen many strange things in my time working at the Shadowkind homeless shelter at St. Patrick's Cathedral, but lately, I was concerned with something that I did not see: many Shadowkind were mysteriously disappearing. People naturally come and go from our homeless shelter as their situations change, but over half of our normal group had mysteriously vanished. At first, I wondered if perhaps they had gone back to whatever world they had come from in the same mysterious way as they had arrived in ours. But the Shadowkind population in the city itself didn't seem to change and Father Ford told me that nobody had yet figured out how to return to where they came from. I decided to contact Department 7. I've been on friendly terms with them and they still provide financial support to the homeless shelter here, but I hadn't really contacted them since they tried to recruit me as an agent all those years ago. But I'm still convinced that my place is here. A team arrived shortly before lunch. I must say that they were a ragtag group and not the professionals I had thought that agents typically were. I was surprised at their varying religious beliefs too: one, a graduate student, even seemed to serve the Fates from classical mythology. Of course, I have seen many Shadowkind arrive in this world with memories of their religions from previous lives. I do not know whether or not there is any merit to them. The group talked to the other guests in our shelter. "Grandma Dragonborn" as she always insists on being called, had recalled seeing some "ninjas" taking away a recent victim near the Madison Avenue Pharmacy. The group went there. Amazingly, the group returned not only alive, but with many of the lost victims. But many of them asked to speak with me alone. Bron was one of the first to be captured and told me that the pharmacy was merely a front for more sinister means. He couldn't bring himself to say exactly what he saw, but from what I gather, some mysterious group had sacrificed several of the captives and had planned to sacrifice the rest for some mysterious ritual. Emroch told me that he vaguely recalled that in the world that he came from, evil magic users would sometimes sacrifice others in the same way. I can only imagine what these people are planning. Many of these people all said that their captors had said several times "The world will end in eleven days." I'll admit, this is very disturbing. For the time though, I'm thankful that all are safe and I pray that they will continue to be. |
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I'm sorry for being the bearer of bad news. After theft of the blue dragon egg and its recovery by Department 7, we attempted to intercept it from some fledgling agents who were delivering it. We have dealt with Ronald Jacobson and our Changeling friend pretended to be him. However, that fool blew his cover when they became suspicious and wound up dead. To our knowledge, they do not know the identity of our organization. The fledgling agents delivered the egg straight to the blue dragon, who was residing in the Statue of Liberty. A group of us rode some of our air elementals to the crown, but we were too late. They had turned the blue dragon to their side and it assisted them. I am the only one to have escaped alive. While we had hoped to be able to raise a dragon ourselves, I think this is hardly a setback. After all, the world will still end in ten days. |
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Dear Mom, Don't be afraid, but I died today. Or at least I nearly did. But I'm all better now. Us Gnomes are hearty people. I was swimming in the hot tub and then this Halfling named Lindal tells me he's looking for a mole in our company who's leaking secrets and getting people to attack them everywhere they go. It wasn't me, so I told him that. They talked to a lot of other workers here, then found out that a Githzerai named Giovanni who works in Computers was giving some information. But he's a nice guy and I don't think he really did it. Or if he didn't he must have been forced into doing it. About that time, all these scary guys showed up in the pool and started firing guns. One of them shot me in the head and I blacked out. Next thing I knew, I was kissing a beautiful angel! Actually she was an Eladrin agent named Esmerelda who was giving me CPR. She also healed the big gaping whole in my head. I think she likes me, but she's really tall. The agents wound up killing all the scary guys. They didn't know how they got in, but they wanted to find out. So they went up to security and found that Susan Campbell was the mole who let in the big scary guys. And worse, she was a Lamia. I remember you telling me stories about those things and how they were made up of icky bugs, but could turn into people. Well she was one of them, but they flamed all the bugs and now she's gone. It's my job to clean up messes like that. So I cleaned up the dead bugs and some other dead bodies (Giovanni got killed in the crossfire). All the coworkers Susan Campbel captured were okay, but she put a sleeping spell on them or something. Nothing to mop up there! Oh, and there was weird thing that happened. You know how on TV they say things like "The Olympics start in nine days"? Well, turns out that Muddy, a fellow Gnome, told me that the TVs in the security rooms said "The world will end in nine days." Weird huh? Must be an ad for a new movie that's coming out. Maybe I'll go see it sometime. Hope everything's going well at home. Love the sweater you knitted me. Your Loving Son, -Willy Wilson P.S. Since you were afraid I was with a bad crowd, attached is a list of all my coworkers. They're all good people, but only two of us are Gnomes. P.P.S. Don't tell anybody about any of this. It's classified. |
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Channel 4 News - Coverage You Can Count On |
Shadowkind News Network - Seeing What the World Doesn't |
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A deranged hospital patient suffering from severe burns had apparently recovered beyond doctors' expectations. He had woken up and began violently hitting hospital workers and bystanders. After a brief struggle, the patient was sedated and will continue to be monitored. |
Although hospital workers believed that they had received an injured patient, they had unknowingly taken on a mummy into the hospital. He attacked the surprised workers and unleashed many of his powers. A female Eladrin visitor came into the room and, using a radiant longsword, managed to help destroy the mummy, who exploded in a wave of pestilence. Fortunately, nobody was infected with Mummy Rot and the hospital workers quickly tried to rationalize the event, unable to believe what had really happened. The Eldarin hero of the day left before she could be identified. |
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In this week's "Life on the Street" segment, we explore the life of street musicians. Although many of these people live their lives in obscurity, there are a few who gain some level of fame. Regardless of how popular they are, each musician brings a bit of character to the city. |
Turns out the devil went down near Juilliard. A number of bystanders witnessed what they said was "the fiddle spectacular of a lifetime" in which an anonymous Gnome had a contest with what appeared to be a demon. "This place is a crossroads," an elderly elf said. "This gnome done challenge the devil to win his momma's soul back. And he did it!" Witnesses said that after hearing such spectacular music, the demon tried to kill the Gnome, but the Gnome managed to defeat him. He was unavailable for comment. |
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A number of statues were anonymously donated to St. Patrick's Cathedral and placed in the garden to the back of the building. Many of them depicted everyday individuals, but they nearly all had a look of horror on their faces. One was even a very lifelike statue of the parish priest, Father Brian Ford. Later that day, Father Ford decided to have the grotesque statues removed from the premises. |
Reports came in earlier today about a Medusa in the area of St. Patrick's Cathedral. The beast appeared without warning and petrified a number of innocent bystanders including Father Brian Ford, who runs a soup kitchen for Shadowkind at the parish. Fortunately, a Shadowkind tour group came by which miraculously happened to contain a number of highly trained specialists who dispatched the Medusa and her minions. |
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Thankfully, the mayor's cat has been rescued and is safe and sound. The poor cat, named Muffin, was caught in a tree earlier today and it took much of the fire department and other public services to get her back down. Fortunately, the cat was unharmed and the unofficial mascot for the city is safe and sound. |
A number of Shadar-kai clad in traditional clothing were suddenly brought into our world through the mists of the Shadow and in their confusion began attacking civilians. The NYPD riot squad was dispatched and a group of Shadowkind were able to stop the Shadar-kai. Initially, Mundane news crews arrived at the scene, but allegedly left to follow a bigger story. |
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From the Desk of Dr. Ronald Marlowe Patient: Rowena Sparrow Audio transcript of last session: So, I was taking a leisurely walk through the Central Park Zoo and I swear I saw a big, green monster rampaging through, with two cars chasing it and shooting it. Crazy right? But that's what I saw. I was freaked out and so were a lot of other people, but then the story started going around that there was some elephant that got loose and the zookeepers were trying to tranquilize it. I know what I saw, that wasn't no elephant. I'm seeing other weird stuff too. On my way out, I thought I saw a group of people. Nobody else seemed to notice them, but three of them had pointy ears, one had a huge beard, and one had demon horns. You'll think I'm crazy, but they just didn't look human! Saw a newscast today about some Islamic terrorists taking over a plane in Germany. I had this feeling it wasn't the whole story and that they were actually saving the plane from... something else. They showed a little bit of security footage and the people looked like photoshopped versions of the people I saw in the park! It's weird, really weird. But somehow, I think they're there to save us. I think the just saved us twice! And I feel like there's something strange about all those power blackouts that keep happening around the world. They're not blackouts, they're worse. The world is getting devoured and it's coming to an end! Don't you believe me, Doctor? The world will end! Diagnosis: Believes that strange monsters exist and is appears to be seeing the same individuals in different places. Illogically believes that current events are leading to the end of the world. Diagnosing patient with paranoid schizophrenia, consisting of visual hallucinations and delusions. |
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[Information about this day is currently classified. But all things are meant to be revealed...] |
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My cover in the Corsone Syndicate got blown, but I think they knew I was a spy anyway. A pity too, because I was on to something. The last message I got from Department 7 told me to investigate what the storm that was engulfing the whole world was. My informant also told me about a mysterious group that kept appearing and who seemed especially interested in stopping the new team. She even said it was rumored that the new team had some sort of prophetic vision where they saw that the storm covered everything except New York and that José defected to them to help end the world. Don't know if I believe it, but it would make sense that that's why they attacked him and got fired as a result, if that rumor is true too. It became instantly clear that those low on the ladder in the Syndicate didn't know what was going on. So while everyone was busy with a pit fight, I snuck into Louis Corsone's office. If anybody knew anything, he did. After several minutes of searching through his files, the door opened...only to reveal Muddy and Lindal. They said that they had been thrown into the pit fight to fight a huge preying mantis named "Lurtz" but they'd scared away those watching the pit fight and teamed up with Lurtz to help him escape.
As soon as they told me that, a secret passage opened and out stepped Louis Corsone himself! He was guarded by the Kuzzer Brothers and proclaimed that he knew from the start that I was a spy. In a panic, I shifted into my beast form to run away, but Louis Corsone ordered the brothers not to fire and he chuckled as he said they should let me go. When I didn't face any resistance in the passage, I snuck back and found a wall that was actually a one-way screen showing the office on the other side. I could see what was going on and I could hear the proceedings through a speaker. To my astonishment, Muddy and Lindal were sitting on couches talking to Corsone about what had happened to them in the last few days. The mafia leader seemed especially interested in hearing that the world would end. Incredibly, Lindal told Corsone that he could mind read him to see what he had seen in the future. I instantly remembered all the horrifying stories I'd heard of Mind Flayers using their tentacles to devour others' brains or make them mind thralls. I'd hated being around Corsone because of those stories. Either Lindal was incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. Corsone grasped his tentacles around Lindal's head, closed his eyes, and made a strange sucking noise as he apparently read his mind. Then he suddenly stopped and angrily said that all the memories he was reading were of his companions telling him about the future. He was never there. Looks like Lindal really is incredibly stupid. He began to read Muddy's mind then and after many agonizing moments of waiting, he finally stopped, visibly shaken from what he'd seen. Corsone noted that he and his men weren't anywhere around at the end of the world and wondered why, to which Muddy and Lindal had no answer. About this time, Egnos stumbled through the door. What could possibly bring these exiled Department 7 agents to this secret mafia base? Apparently, he said he was following the Fates and they brought them here. I've never been one to believe in coincidence, but I also find it hard to believe that there's something to that claim. Apparently, Edgnos had seen the future too, so Corsone asked some questions about them. He in particular asked about Jaina, a vampire bounty hunter who had apparently been after him in the future. Corsone revealed that she was after him because he had killed Giovanni Hall! I was shocked to hear that. He was a Department 7 agent who was reportedly killed by Susan Campbell, the Lamia who tried to take over Department 7 last week. But Egnos had instead killed him in cold blood. Even though he had helped her, he didn't deserve to die. I uncontrollably shifted into my beast form, but calmed myself when I realized I would blow my hiding spot. The three had asked if Corsone would help to prevent the end of the world as they had seen. He said he would, but calmly said that they didn't seem to be capable of stopping the end of the world and were liabilities. He gave a hand signal and several more secret passages opened up and armed mafia soldiers came out, opening fire. The Kuzzer Brothers opened fire too, but were distracted when Lurtz, the big beast the three had befriended in the pit fight, burst in. I used the distraction to shift into my beast form and run in to help. As soon as we'd started, it became obvious that we were outgunned and outmatched. They dropped a few mafia soldiers, but everyone nearly died. Corsone tried to grasp Lindal's head, likely trying to make him his mind thrall, but Egnos stopped him just in time. I told them to get out of there and they ran as fast as they could. I stayed behind long enough to give them a good head start, but it became obvious that I couldn't stay there any more. I ran out of the room and escaped the complex. I wound up in the bookstore being used as a store front and ran through in my beast form, not caring who saw me. Besides, the Mundanes will just think a dog got loose. I don't know what I'm going to report to Department 7. The Corsone Syndicate knew I was a spy from the start, but let me stay. They now have a firsthand account on how the world will end. What does this mean for us? And was Corsone lying when he said he would do everything in his power to stop the world from ending? Or is he the one actually orchestrating it? -Agent Black |
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[Information about this day is currently classified. But all things are meant to be revealed...] |
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[Information about this day is currently classified. But all things are meant to be revealed...] |
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[Information about this day is currently classified. But all things are meant to be revealed...] |
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[Information about this day is currently classified. But all things are meant to be revealed...] |
