Quest Line · Original Adventure · Powered by the Apocalypse
Monster of the Week · One-shot
A shapeshifting predator has claimed a three-mile stretch of I-90 as its hunting ground, appearing only in the dead hours when fog rolls across the asphalt. The hunters must uncover the creature's pattern, find its nest beneath an abandoned rest stop, and stop it before it claims another victim on the lonely highway.
Players should create hunters familiar with pursuing supernatural threats. This adventure works best with a mix of investigative and combat-focused playbooks. The scenario involves body horror, vehicular danger, and themes of isolation. Content warnings include: graphic descriptions of partially consumed bodies, vehicular accidents, and claustrophobic underground spaces. Establish safety tools (X-card, lines and veils) before play.
The adventure assumes the hunters have access to a vehicle and basic monster-hunting gear. They may have a home base nearby or be passing through the area.
Choose one of these hooks or modify to fit your group:
Highway Patrol Contact: A sympathetic state trooper contacts the hunters about three disappearances in two weeks. All long-haul truckers, all between 2-4 AM, all in heavy fog. Their rigs were found idling on the shoulder with doors open and blood on the seats. No bodies recovered.
Personal Connection: One hunter's cousin, a truck driver, called them three nights ago from I-90 saying something was following his rig in the fog. He hasn't been heard from since. His truck was found at mile marker 42, engine running, half-eaten sandwich still on the dashboard.
Following the Trail: The hunters have been tracking unusual disappearances across the Midwest and the pattern converges here—a predator establishing territory. Local news reports dismiss the incidents as driver fatigue and wildlife encounters, but the hunters know better.
The hunters arrive at mile marker 43 just after dawn. The fog has burned off, revealing a red Peterbilt semi pulled onto the shoulder. Yellow police tape flutters in the morning breeze. If the hunters have law enforcement contacts, they can access the scene; otherwise, they'll need to use stealth or social manipulation to get close.
The cab shows signs of a struggle: the driver's side door hangs open, the seat is shredded with four parallel gashes, and dark bloodstains cover the steering wheel and door frame. The blood is human. The driver's logbook shows the victim—Marcus Webb, 47—was making good time until his final entry at 2:47 AM: "Fog thick. Something in the road?"
Investigation reveals:
Investigate a Mystery (10+): The scratch marks aren't from dragging a body—they're from something heavy pulling itself along the asphalt. The residue is biological but unlike any known animal secretion.
Read a Bad Situation (10+): Whatever attacked the driver came from the road itself, not from the woods. The pattern suggests the creature waited until the truck slowed, then struck fast.
If hunters follow the trail into the woods, it ends at a drainage culvert after 200 feet. The blood disappears into darkness.
The hunters have several investigative threads to pursue:
Research: Local libraries, truck stops, and online forums reveal this isn't the first incident. Seven disappearances over eighteen months, all in the same three-mile stretch, all during fog, all between 2-4 AM. One survivor from six months ago—Dale Hutchins—now refuses to drive at night.
Interviewing Dale: He's staying at the Crossroads Motel (exit 41) until his rig is repaired. Dale is traumatized but willing to talk to people who believe him. He describes a woman standing in the fog near mile marker 44, waving for help. When he slowed down, she moved with impossible speed, leaping at his cab. He saw her face change—jaw unhinging, eyes reflecting his headlights like an animal's. He floored it and escaped with only a shattered window.
"She looked like someone I knew," Dale says, trembling. "My ex-wife. But Tracy's been dead five years."
Truck Stop Intel: At the Flying J (exit 42), late-shift workers mention the old rest stop at mile marker 42.5 that closed fifteen years ago. "State sealed it up after some vagrant problems," says a waitress named Chen. "But sometimes you still see lights moving around there at night."
Staking Out the Highway: If hunters position themselves on I-90 during the target hours, they need to generate fog conditions (this is a specific requirement—the creature won't appear otherwise). When fog rolls in:
The creature's stats (in combat):
The abandoned rest stop is a concrete bunker with boarded windows and a rusted "NO TRESPASSING" sign. The creature's lair lies beneath it, accessed through a maintenance tunnel hidden behind the collapsed bathroom structure.
Entering the Nest: The tunnel descends thirty feet into a storm drainage system that connects to the interstate's understructure. The walls glisten with the same oily residue from Scene 1. Following the main passage leads to the creature's chamber—a widened section where it sleeps during daylight hours.
The chamber contains:
Confronting the Creature: The hunters must choose their approach:
Ending One — Direct Combat: Fighting the creature in its lair is dangerous. In enclosed spaces, it can attack from any angle using wall-crawling. Fire forces it into defensive positions. If the hunters set the egg sacs ablaze, the creature fights with desperate fury to protect them.
Ending Two — Trap and Burn: Smart hunters may lure the creature into a prepared trap. Pouring accelerants and creating a controlled collapse of the tunnel can destroy both creature and eggs simultaneously. This requires:
Ending Three — The Mercy Question: If hunters investigate the creature's remains (or capture it), they discover it was once human—a transient who sheltered in the rest stop decades ago and underwent a horrible transformation. Strange fungal growths cover its original human form like a parasite.
Does something else lurk deeper in the tunnels that created this creature? Do the hunters mercy-kill it, try to save the human inside, or simply destroy the threat? This choice affects the tone of the resolution.
Marcus Webb: The latest victim, never seen alive. His logbook and personal effects paint a picture of a dedicated family man three days from retirement. His wife has been calling his phone non-stop.
Dale Hutchins: Survivor, late 40s, weathered face and shaking hands. Staying at Crossroads Motel. Wants to believe he hallucinated the whole thing but knows he didn't. Will help hunters if they protect him from retaliation.
Officer Sarah Brennan: State Trooper, early 30s, frustrated by the official "animal attack" explanation. Quietly helps the hunters if they're professional. Wants answers for the families.
Chen Park: Night shift manager at Flying J truck stop, 50s, observant and practical. Knows every rumor about this stretch of highway. Feeds lonely truckers and remembers the old rest stop "before it went bad."
Dale's "Ex-Wife" Tracy: The form the creature took. The real Tracy died in a car accident. The creature's mimicry pulled details from Dale's memories, creating an almost-perfect copy that moved wrong and smiled too wide.
Experience: Standard Monster of the Week advancement triggers apply. Hunters likely earn experience from:
Loot:
Story Rewards:
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