Mission 1: Down Under

Theme Song: Down Under by Men at Work

Plot Summary: The crazed son of a scientist killed by the Nazis (Karl Offelmann) hatches a scheme to force the governments of the world to cooperate with his plan of revenge.

Sessions:

1. The new double-oh agents are called to MI6 headquarters in the pre-dawn, because a Q-branch technician (Lachlan Cunningham) had tried to walk out with a secret file about Nazi chemical warfare experiments during WWII. He had been captured shortly outside of HQ, but his contact had gotten away with the file. He mysteriously dies during interrogation, but the agents follow clues to the "Down Under Shop" in London. They find links to Sydney, Australia. They immediately fly there and are met by the local agent, Jerome Goodner. But at the MI6 station house, they find his new partner (Dick Henderson) dead. They give chase to a ninja who was watching the house, and capture him after his car crashes.
2. With the ninja tied up, the agents head into Sydney to investigate the local branch of the Down Under Shop. They find an underground tunnel to the AERL (Australian Environmental Research Lab), and links to its CEO, Mr. Tajima. At the shop, they find that material has been forwarded to the AERL branch by Ayers Rock. They return to find agent Goodner dead and the ninja rescued. That day, they overhear a Mr. Khan informing Tajima of Falstaff's identity -- and they fly out to Ayers Rock.
3. Arriving at Ayers Rock, they rescue an employee of the Down Under Shop (Felicity Foxworth) who was being kidnapped by her employer (Bernard Drysdale). Blake Cannon has a brief fling with her, and then leaves her at the hotel as they follow via tracer bug the cars that picked up Drysdale. They find an underground base deep in the outback under an aboriginal village, but are captured when they go down into it to investigate. They find themselves face-to-face with Karl Offelmann, who reveals his plans and sets them to be exposed in the desert to be faced with a "walkabout".
4. The agents survive the arduous walkabout in the desert, and eventually Falstaff captures a wild horse and rides it to the town at Ayers Rock. They then race back to the hideout to stop Offelmann before he can launch his plan. They arrive and cut off the escape. Falstaff faces down and shoots Offelmann down in his control room, while Hyde faces Saito in the lab (with his finger on the nerve gas trigger). Falstaff shoots Offelmann, but they have to race out before the base is is flooded with the nerve gas.

Featured Characters:

• Karl Offelmann: the revenge-obsessed villian who had set himself up as "Uluru", god of the outback.
• Kenji Saito: the guilt-wracked Japanese scientist who had saved Offelmann as a boy and was then convinced into aiding his schemes, in his new Australian identity as Mako Tajima.
• Hiroshi Neida: the female ninja, codenamed "Hiroshima", who follows Saito in the ancient code of honor. She worked undercover as the receptionist for Mako Tajima.
• Noguo Kagi: the male ninja, codenamed "Nagasaki", who also follows Saito's orders.
• Simon Frober: the young German pilot who was hand-picked by Offelmann to carry out his plans of revenge on the Australian government.
• Jerome Goodner: the alcoholic local agent for MI6 in Sydney.
• Felicity Foxworth: the beautiful employee of the Sydney branch of the Down Under Shop, who was unwittingly a part in the plans.

Date: December 1983

Experience: 5000 (four sessions at 1000 each, with the final one doubled for a successful ending).
Fame Points: +30 for Cannon, +45 for Falstaff, +20 for Hyde.
Hero Points (ending): 4 for Cannon, 3 for Falstaff, 3 for Hyde.

Real-World Background: The plot from this was taken very much from the published module. However, the module itself was based on the record of Nazis in Australia. In 1986 (three years after this game was set), the Australian government held the "Menzies Inquiry" into claims that that Australia was a safe haven for Nazi war criminals after WWII. For example, physicist Earnest Hirsh fled Nazi Germany as a Jewish refugee, before WWII. He ended up working with some of the German scientists at the Weapons Research Establishment in Adelaide, but always assumed their appointment was public knowledge.

• Records found to show Australia hired Nazis
• Australia a "safe haven" for Nazi war criminals
• Australia, Nazi Haven for the new Millennium?