A few sessions before the climax, establish a GMC character named Rachel Prisco. She's a pleasant, vivacious bundle of energy, and quite a skilled digger. She might even accompany the GMCs and the doctor down to Chicago to look fruitlessly for trigestimone. They should get an impression of someone who can't sit still, who's nice, and who doesn't understand how nasty the world can be.

They should also get to know that Rachel and her boyfriend Paolo want to have a baby, but haven't so far. (If you have her going to Chicago with Martin and the PC, this could lead to an interesting conversation on the way back.)

Periodically, Rachel sets out with her boyfriend to scavenge outlying areas. Usually they tell someone before they go, but sometimes they forget.

On their last trip, they forgot. The first the PCs hear about their trip is when they get a panicked radio message from Paolo.

"Please, help me! Help, mayday, S.O.S.! This is Paolo Montello, I'rn along toute 34 in Aurora, me an' Rachel are pinned down!"

When pressed for details, Paolo tells them that they blew a tire and, while looking for a spare, they were set upon by a pack of "f***in' HUGE" wolves. (See page 123 of The End rules). He'll tell them that they've holed up in an old high school and are trying to scare the wolves off, but they need someone to come and relieve them--they aren't about to go out and look for tires until they get some backup.

He'll also tell them they have good news--they actually found an undamaged X-ray machine.

"I don't know if I ever told you, but I was an X-ray technician before. Didn't seem much use, but with a doctor... anyhow, we found this one, tried it out, it works. In fact, we found something really weird..."

At that point, the PCs hear the sound of breaking glass and screaming in the background. Attempts to get Paolo and Rachel on the radio are fruitless.

Investigate

Presumably, the PCs go out to investigate. Finding the high school isn't hard. The wolf pack can offer an exciting combat, or they can get scared off by a few gunshots, depending on the tastes of your group. The pack isn't too aggressive now, however; they've fed. Rachel and Paolo are dead inside the school.

What the PCs will find is Paolo and Rachel's jeep towing a trailer loaded with an X-ray machine. Lying in the back seat of the jeep is a manila envelope, and inside are X-rays of Rachel.

The first X-ray shows her torso from shoulders to waist. It's a good picture--ribs, vertebrae, etc.--but down at the bottom there's a bright patch. It's sharp and clear--not milky like the bones. The second picture is from her knees to the bottom of her ribs, and the object is clear. Anyone who is familiar with lUDs will recognize it as one, from its shape and placement. To those unfamiliar, it's simply a piece of metal in Rachel's uterus.

This should set off warning bells; Rachel talked about how much she wanted to have kids. Clearly this is a job for Dr. Frontinac.

Bluff

When confronted with the X-ray, Dr. Frontinac will bluff and play it dumb at first. If possible, he'll try to destroy the it--dumping chemicals on it, or setting it on fire. There may be a brief struggle while the PCs get it back.

He'll also try to get his hands on the X-ray. If the PCs have other evidence, however (the red X next to Rachel's name in his book, lowered birth rates in the colony, evidence from the Dregs) Dr. Frontinac will look pensive and then come clean.

"All right. I admit it. I planted that IUD in Ms. Prisco, and she's hardly the first. I have done my level best to sterilize this colony--and I'll tell you why."

If They Drag Him To The Sheriff

They may drag him before Jesse Williams and try to force him to explain himself. If they do this, he will simply claim that the characters have turned on him for some unknown reason.

"The X-ray proves nothing; it could easily he forged by holding an IUD in front of your stomach. It might not even be Rachel Prisco; did anyone besides these people hear her 'radioed help message?' Did anyone else examine her body?."

Dr. Frontinac is at least as credible as the PCs. He'll accuse them of conspiring against him, of being agents provocateurs from another colony, or (if he can pull it off) of being guilty of the Thrillkill murders.

The proof, of course, is to use the X-ray to check colony women. Still protesting his innocence, Dr. Frontinac will offer to set up the machine and use it. He'll try to sabotage it. ("Now they accuse me of sabotaging the X-ray machine they brought in? This is ludicrous. All its destruction proves is that my innocence cannot, now, be demonstrated.")

If the PCs find someone else to work the machine, or if one of them can use it, or if Gwen Walters is around to give examinations to some colony women, the gig is well and truly up. While the machine is being set up, Dr. Frontinac will quietly sneak back to his lab and inject himself with a lethal dose of morphine. (His suicide note is in the sidebar.)

If they can't prove he did it, they've got a nasty situation on their hands. They've made a terrible accusation against a great (and useful) member of the community. If they can roleplay things right, they may be allowed to stay in Elgin. However, they will be regarded with suspicion until they can prove themselves, or until Dr. Frontinac screws up.

If The PCs Hear Him Out Before Taking Him To Jesse

If the PCs are willing to listen, Dr. Frontinac will try to persuade them that what he did was right. There's no script to follow for this; read Dr. Frontinac's journal for the type of arguments he'll use to try and taring the PCs around.

Give your PCs a chance to make return arguments, but Dr. Frontinac isn't going to change his mind. Instead, he'll debate them right back. The usual arguments (along with his responses) are included below, to give you an unfair advantage:

"Children are our only hope for the future!"

"What future? This earth has been cast aside, like an empty carton after the milk has been drunk or gone bad. We're just maggots in the midden-heap... The only thing the future holds for us are dubious human attempts to forge empires. Given our record in the past, the odds aren't good.

When you factor in the empirical fact that the best, most just and most virtuous of us are gone forever, the odds become even worse. Elgin, right now, is probably the best that human society will offer from now until the end of time.

"Face facts; every child born is doomed to the same dismal thing; a future where every day they wake up knowing that once upon a time there was a God, a place called heaven where virtue was rewarded--but that they have no chance for that blessing because they were born at the wrong time!

Do you want to explain that to them? No, there is no future for the children of today. No future except the bitter knowledge that they were born after all the virtue in the world has been sucked out by God."

"Shouldn't people have the right to decide for themselves?"

"In principle, people ought to be trusted to make ethical decisions--as long as they are the only ones harmed. But this is not the case; conceiving a child today inexorably harms it, dooming it in advance to eternal annihilation after what is likely to be a short and miserable life. Consider; the old government long held--correctly--that they had not only the right but the duty to remove children from households that were unfit. Well, today there is no such thing as a household. The world is unfit."

"Wait a minute; people should be trusted to make ethical decisions until they harm another. Doesn't having an IUD implanted without your knowledge or consent count as 'harm'?"

"No one is being harmed by being denied children unless children are reduced to the level of a commodity. If children are entertaining toys, or loyal worker or potential soldiers with no souls of their own to I concerned with, then your argument is valid. But cannot help but believe the parents' concern for their children ought to outweigh their concern with their benefits bearing children will have for them."

"Before the fall, lots of people didn't believe in God or an afterlife. Why was it O.K. for them reproduce then, but not now?"

"Because then no one knew, and no one couple know. Now, there can be no doubt; children born today are bom doomed. Ignorance was an excuse in the old days, coupled with the knowledge that the un verse was just; if the consciousness simply expired after death, it would do so for all. Now, however, we know that we and our children will be the only ones to suffer this unique penalty. We earned it; but why should our children pay for our crimes?

If the PCs show signs of being bored with the debate format, he'll also spring a few other arguments on them.

His Arguments

"This discussion is becoming tedious. Consider the difficulty you will have convincing people that your outrageous claims are true. Your arguments can't sway me, so let's move from the philosophical to the practical. Ths colony needs me.

In the first place, you and I both know that Elgin is pitifully undefended against the more predatory colonies. The idea of future for human kind has no merit; we must, instead concem ourselves with the future of these humans here in Elgin.

"I can give you a list of the lives--irreplaceable souls that would otherwise be simply gone now--that I have saved since the Apocalypse. Can you say the same thing? In my life, my actions have caused no deaths; again, can you make that claim?

"Elgin has a future. There could be twenty, maybe even forty happy years here for all of us--if there isn't an epidemic or an invasion. With my help, those disasters are less likely. Are you going to let me help you and all of Elgin--or are you going to give it up and breed a damned generation?"

Having said his piece, it's up to the PCs to decide. Don't rush them. Don't push them. Don't argue one way or the other. (Though you might argue both ways if you want to.)

Your PCs should feel that the future of the colony depends on their answer--and they should be right. If they turn Dr. Frontinac in, their reputations may suffer in the short term--but ultimately, they should be vindicated. If they protect him, they should know that they are in silent complicity with his plans, for good or ill.

Dr. Frontinac's Last Words

To the Citizens of Elgin:

It has been a pleasure and an honor to serve you to the best of my abilities. I am sorry that I cannot serve you further.

You will hear things that may shock you. You will hear that I implanted IUDs in you; and I did. My reasons for doing so are too lengthy to go into now, but are fully outlined in the journal I keep in a locked metal box in my bedside table. The key is around my neck... but suffice to say, I simply feel that this world is not a fit one for children.

There is, perhaps, one last service I can offer Elgin before I die; one final time, I urge you to increase your defenses. Consider how easily I, who loved you and had only your best interests at heart, was able to perform concealed actions that, had they been obvious, would have earned me the hate of this community. I beg you, do not scorn this message because of the messenger.

It's hard not to pray. Oblivion awaits.

More Sin

Introduction
Meeting the Good Doctor
Frontinac's Secret Agenda
Climax and Confrontation

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