an adventure for the INDEX CARD RPG

What do I need to play ?

_the INDEX CARD RPG Free Quickstart , friends, a full set of dice for each player and a place to play.

THE INDEX CARD RPG is © Runehammer Games

GUNMEN TENTACLE PARTY is © Les Livres de l'Ours

Words by Kobayashi, Images by Alastair Jones © Les Livres de l'Ours - Levi Brush font by Levi Szekeres
CREATE A CHARACTER

1. BIO-FORMS
Only humans this time.

2. BUILD STATS AND EFFORT

Follow the ICRPG rules

3. CHOOSE A CLASS
You’re not in Kansas anymore, so marvel at the new possibilities!

BOSOZOKU
Basically a Japanese version of a Hell’s Angel.

STARTER REWARD: BOXING, on a result of 20+ on an attack, a human enemy is knocked-out.

DETECTIVE
A member of the Special Investigation Team, tasked with working on the most dangerous cases.

STARTER REWARD: POLICE BADGE, you get +3 to your CHA rolls when trying to Intimidate, Persuade or
Interrogate someone.

MASSEUR
Your mastery of Chinese medicine allows you treat almost any affliction with your bare hands.

STARTER REWARD: PRESSURE POINTS, INT power, your patient gets Basic effort HP back.

NINJA
Living on the edge of society, the ninjas are still around to protect Japan against any threats.

STARTER REWARD: NINJA SHOES, all Stealth rolls are easy.

BASEBALL PLAYER
Hearing Americans calling Baseball “their” national sport always makes you smile.

STARTER REWARD: BASEBALL BAT, reroll any Weapon effort that comes a 1 when you use your favorite bat.

SALARYMAN
A drone in some obscure enterprise. Boring? Yes, but you pay your rent and feed your family.

STARTER REWARD: SUIT & TIE, you’re reliable, re-roll your Basic effort when you get a 1.

SUMO WRESTLER
Don’t forget they wear pants outside work.

STARTER REWARD: SUMO PUSH, STR power, if successful a CLOSE opponent ends up on his ass, NEAR you,
losing his turn.
YAKUZA
A thug with a code of honor. Or so they say.

STARTER REWARD: TATTOO, add the damage you just received to your next attack check.

YAMABUSHI
A recluse priest living in the mountains who has vowed to protect the weak against the forces of evil.

STARTER REWARD: SACRED CURSE, WIS power, inflict Magic effort against Outsiders.

4. CHOOSE STARTER LOOT

THE PATH, MATSHUSHITA’S BOOK: +1 INTELLIGENCE
PRAYER BEADS: +1 WIS
TAILOR-MADE SUIT: +1 CHA
FATHER’S LEATHER ARMBAND: +1 STR
MILITARY LEATHER MITTENS: +1 DEX
SAKE FLASK: +1 CON
GHOST-LIKE DOLL: +1 Magic effort
THE BOOK OF FIVE RINGS: +2 Weapon effort
PIKACHU BACKPACK: +1 armor

5. PICK YOUR GEAR

Gun control in Japan is no joke. Even criminals rely mostly on knives and bladed weapons. Only a DETECTIVE
character should have access to a noisy firearm. Pick two:

Baseball bat Switchblade Brass knuckles

Butcher knife Saï Sledgehammer
Katana Tonfa Fireaxe
Tanto Bow Staff
Kusarigama Chain Kama
Tetsubo Kendo Shinai Nunchaku

And as for your gear, pick one:

CAMERA: one nice feature there is the night-vision mode.

MUSIC INSTRUMENT: as in the ICRPG rules. Electric guitars are a must.
TORCHLIGHT: this one might save you. Just sayin’
WWII HELMET: +1 armor.
TOOLS: as in the ICRPG rules.
WWII PILOT LEATHER JACKET: +2 armor.
A PICTURE OF YOUR HIGH-SCHOOL SWEETHEART: +1 when using powers.
IN A NUTSHELL
The characters of KATANA TENTACLE PARTY will fight horrors of the Mythos in modern day Japan, more precisely
Deep Ones and maybe even a Shoggoth. It can be summed up as “Takashi Miike does Cthulhu”. Go watch
Yakuza Apocalypse.

THE DRAMATIC INTRO

All characters were friends in school. Many years later, their favorite teacher has called them for help in his
hometown, a coastal village by the name of IKATOSHI. As our heroes arrive at their teacher’s house, they find
evidence that the local yakuzas have taken him to their hideout: an abandoned World War II naval base.

What’s going on?

✔ Deep Ones are trying to transform IKATOSHI into a hybrid colony.
✔ The Deep Ones hybrids disguise themselves as a yakuza gang.
✔ The characters’ teacher uncovered the existence of the Deep Ones. They kidnapped him.

What now?
✔ It’s night and the rain is falling hard.
✔ The naval base has three different entry point:
✔ One beneath the fish factory (entry 1), known by the local postman/grocery store owner
✔ One by the sea (entry 2), might be guessed by the players
✔ One in the forest near a deserted temple (entry 3). Known only by hybrid yakuzas.

After that, the rest of the adventures depends on the PCs’ choices. The following pages give you a map of
the base with plenty of room to take notes and everything the PCs will find there. Use timers to prevent the
game for stalling.

GM NOTES
IKATOSHI
Small coastal village surrounded by a forest.
A gang of yakuza took over the town’s fish factory one year ago.
People with a “weird look” started to move in.
The PCs’ former teacher started to investigate the matter and asked his former students for help.

THE UNDERGROUND BASE

✔ A World War II abandoned military base.
✔ Corridors are large enough to let two people walk side-by-side.
✔ All doors are big metallic, unbreakable, bunker doors.
✔ Bio-organic luminescent material now covers some of the walls.
✔ The whole place seems to “breathe”.
✔ The air smells of rotten fish.
✔ Some corridors are submerged.

WHO GOES THERE?

✔ Hybrid yakuzas who don’t like being bossed around by Deep Ones.
✔ Deep Ones, unsatisfied with their offspring work.
✔ A couple of ill-fated lovers, KAORI and TOSHIRO. She’s human, he’s a hybrid. She knows too much.
✔ The PCs’ teacher, locked in a room, tortured, unable to walk without assistance.
✔ A shoggoth, the Deep Ones’ secret weapon. Unleashed if things go wrong for the fishmen.
✔ A special forces unit tasked with eliminating weird creatures and any witness.

If the Deep Ones feel like they are loosing they will retreat and unleash a shoggoth on the town.

EVENTS
✔ The special forces assault begins 20 turns after the PCs arrival. They come through entry 1 and 2.
✔ The shoggoth will awaken if the Dee One Lord is killed or when the special forces assault begins.
✔ Once the shoggoth is released and/or special forces arrive, all rolls become HARD.

IF THE BASE GOES ON HIGH ALERT

✔ The base in on lockdown : entry 1 and 3 are sealed shut with huge blast doors. Entry 2 is the sea.
✔ Deep Ones are waiting in the sea (2 per players).
✔ Patrols are now made of two Deep Ones and two Hybrids.
✔ The Special Forces will destroy entry 1’s blast doors to enter.

ABOUT THE MAP KEYS

I use a very good technique I saw in Chris McDowall’s Into the Odd (great game by the way, go grab it): each
room description starts with what the PCs see immediately, then, in italic, is what they see upon closer
inspection.
MAP KEYS

❶ Operation room DIFF. 10 TIMER A patrol of two yakuzas arrives

A small room with an open door. A hybrid is on watch duty (2 chances out of 6 he’s sleeping on duty). The
alert button is very close to him.

❷ Big pool of water DIFF. 10 TIMER A Deep One emerges

There’s nothing there, but it will nonetheless keep the players on edge, especially if you ask for WIS rolls
each time they pass by this pool. If they succeed, they see something move down below… (fish actually).

❸ Staff room DIFF. 12 TIMER The generators stutter and the whole place goes dark for 1 turn
A small room with two open doors. Two hybrids are playing a video game. There’s a full rack of bladed
weapons here.

❹ Code room DIFF. 13 TIMER Two Deep Ones come to take the Yakuza Boss to the Deep One lord
A windowless room, full of cigarette smoke. The hybrid yakuza boss is here with two more hybrids. There is
a desk, lots of paperwork, a big flat screen TV and an aquarium full of fish waiting to be eaten. There are
two entries here. Searching the place will allow for two rolls on this adventure’s loot table.

❺ Medical room DIFF. 10 TIMER Two Deep Ones come to take Kaori to the sea
This room is locked (2 challenge). Inside is KAORI a young woman who fell in love with a hybrid Yakuza,
TOSHIRO. She’s to be offered to the Deep Ones. Once found by the PCs, the hybrids will come for her in 1D4
rounds. Searching the place will allow for one roll on this adventure’s loot table.

❻ Generator rooms DIFF. 10 TIMER Two hybrids come to drink beer and bitch about the Deep Ones
Locked (1 challenge). Four big humming generators stand in the room. Sabotaging them cuts all power in
the base (see room ❼ as well). A few emergency lights go up allowing to see no farther than NEAR
distance. Every Deep One and Hybrid go on high alert.

❼ Chief commander’s room DIFF. 14 TIMER The Bio-organic matter will seal the room’s doors
A room totally covered in bio-organic matter, two shaman healers and the Deep One Lord meditate here.
The light is slowly pulsing as the heartbeat of a giant creature. Searching the place will allow for two rolls on
this adventure’s loot table.

❽ Petty officers room DIFF. 12 TIMER The shoggoth signals the PCs presence to the Deep One Lord
A big cocoon of bio-organic matter lies in the middle of the room. The cocoon is slowly pulsing, things are
moving inside. Electric cables are plunged into it. Damaging the cocoon awakes the shoggoth inside. Cutting
or removing the power cables weakens it but it keeps sleeping.

❾ Signal room DIFF. 12 TIMER Toshiro will die

A former communication room, lighted by candles, pentacles everywhere. A shaman is torturing a hybrid
(TOSHIRO) using watery tentacles coming out of a magic cauldron. The PCs teacher is lying on the floor. Two
hybrid yakuzas watch the scene in horror. Searching the place will allow for one roll on this adventure’s loot
table.

❿ Submerged corridors DIFF. 12 TIMER The Deep Ones notice the PCs
Corridors full of dark water. Deep Ones use those corridors to relax and dream, barely visible.
ANTAGONISTS

DEEP ONE (x6)  HYBRID YAKUZA (x20) 

Think of a shark able to run after you. There’s no Though still close to their human heritage, the faces
place to hide from the wrath of the Deep Ones. of the yakuzas shows their inhuman roots. Their
tattoos all revolve around a sea-theme, and look as
Rolls +2 STR they’re moving if you watch them for too long.
Actions Rolls +2 STR
HARPOON: a nasty attack that does gruesome wounds.
Target must succeed at a STR check or drop what it’s Actions
holding. CHARGE: random furious attack, +2 to weapon effort,
WATER TELEPORTATION: the Deep One disappears in a pool hitting the guy is EASY.
of water to reappear in another one. ATTACK: make sure each yakuza uses a different
BITE: image being bitten by a 5 foot tall piranha. weapon to give some flair to this basic attack.
CALL FOR HELP: 1D4 yakuza come in 1D4 turns.
DEEP ONE LORD  Judo flip:
Bigger than the others. Scales are thicker and darker.
Its dark eyes like pools of nothingness. SHOGGOTH 
Formless pools of dark bio-organic matter,
Rolls +3 STR constantly changing and moving, producing
Actions inhuman sounds that feels like the death cries of a
HARPOON: a nasty attack that does gruesome wounds. thousand whales.
Target must succeed at a STR check or drop what it’s Rolls +5 all rolls
holding.
GRAB&CRUNCH: the brute grabs a character and Actions
squeezes. Fun sounds could be heard. TENTACLES: grabs a character on a successful attack.
THROW: if a grab & crunch was performed, the brute Succeed at a STR check to free yourself.
throws the target against a wall. 1D4 of the target’s DIGEST: a grabbed character is slowly absorbed by the
loot ends on the ground. shoggoth.
LASHING: tentacles whipping at you (Weapon effort).
DEEP ONE SHAMAN (x3) 
Covered in scares shaped like the letters of a dark SPECIAL FORCES  (x10)
and forbidden tongue. They’re here to eliminate all threats and witnesses.
Won’t hesitate to tell you “you’re safe now” and
Rolls +2 INT then shoot you to death.
Actions Rolls +2 all rolls
HEALING: INT power, the shaman hums words that
heals all his allies in a NEAR radius. Actions
STAFF ATTACK: if a character is too close. Comes with CONTROLLED BURSTS: weapon effort to one target in a
Deep One curse words and spit. NEAR area.
WATER MAGIC: INT power, tentacles made of water grab
the character. Roll STR to free yourself. GRENADE: All targets in the NEAR radius of the impact
make a DEX check. On a failure, take WEAPON effort
damage.
ADVENTURE LOOT
1 SACRIFICIAL DAGGER: glows when Deep Ones are nearby.
2 TAKE-AWAY RAMEN: get 1D4 HP back. 6 cups. Takes one turn to eat one.
3 CAR KEYS: belonging to a stolen sports car parked in the village.
4 NIGHT-VISION CAMERA: probably taken from one of these “underground explorer” tourist.
5 MINDWHIP: INT power, inflicts Magic damage to Shoggoths.
6 WWII GRENADE: does ultimate damage in a NEAR radius.
7 TORCHLIGHTS: 1D6 of them, those generators aren’t that reliable you know.
8 DEEP ONE COMMAND WORD: WIS power opposed by CHA check. Use one word order on hybrid.
9 DEEP ONE MUSHROOMS: get back 1D6 HP back.
10 MASTERWORK KITCHEN KNIFE: +1 Weapon effort.
11 SEA KISS: INT power, allows you to breathe underwater for 1D4 turns.
12 MEDICINAL TEA LEAVES: the whole group gets 1D8 HP back if they all take one turn to make tea.
13 DEEP ONE RAMEN RECIPE: probably one of the best ramen you’ll ever eat.
14 KENDO ARMOR X2: +1 to armor.
15 ADRENALINE SYRINGE: a dying character immediately wakes up with 1 HP.
16 DEEP ONE MUMMIFIED HAND: breaking one finger makes you invisible for 1D4 turn.
17 ORICHALCUM TETSUBO: does Ultimate effort against Deep Ones.
18 IGN-GHAZI POWDER: reveals invisible things. 10 doses.
19 Omamori: basically a Shinto amulet. Reroll when you get a 1 on a dice. 3 uses.
20 ZEN KOAN: this uplifting koan inspires you for greatness. Ultimate effort on your next action.

A FEW NAMES IF YOU NEED THEM

Male Female
Goro Manami
Ichiro Hanako
Daiki Etsuko
Ryu Rei
Taro Izumi
Saburo Yoshiko