TEXT: Night of the Pegasus 
  A D-Day Adventure for GODLIKE
  By Jordi Diest, © 2004
  Operation Tonga
  This mission reproduces Operation Tonga—the capture of the 
  bridges over Orne River and the Caen Canal—with GOD-
  LIKE flavour. The bridges must be held to ensure a supply 
  route from Sword Beach to the 6th Airborne Division, which 
  had dropped east of Caen to protect the flank of the Allied 
  invasion.
   The player characters are with Company D of the 6th Air-
  borne, 2nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry 
  (“Ox and Bucks”)—the first Allied soldiers to hit French soil 
  on D-Day, proudly wearing the division’s flying horse patch.
   They can be either Talents attached to the division and 
  placed under Howard’s command, or ordinary soldiers of 
  Company D. Non-Talent player characters should be allowed 
  to spend the same number of Will points in character creation 
  as Talents, but only for (non-hyper!) stats or skills.
   One character from the players’ group has been detailed, a 
  Talent nicknamed the Ghost, and the GM should create others 
  to fill out the Talent squad. The players are free to create the 
  rest of their squad from scratch or use ordinary soldier stats 
  from page 313 of GODLIKE.
  Game Moderator’s Background
  This mission is modeled after the historic Operation Tonga, 
  although a few details have changed. And the story has a 
  darker twist: One of the British Talents, the Ghost, suffers 
  from increasingly extreme mental strain that will turn him a 
  Mad Talent in the middle of the mission. As if that wasn’t bad 
  enough, a powerful German Übermensch, obsessed with Nazi 
  mythology, takes a special interest in the Ghost’s growing 
  power—with the players caught between them while strug-
  gling to capture and defend the bridge over the Caen Canal. 
  Scene 1: The Bridge
  The players are inside a 28-seater Horsa glider, in unseason-
  ally frigid cold, along with Major John Howard and other 
  soldiers of D Company’s first platoon, silently approaching 
  their designated landing zone (LZ-X) near the canal bridge at 
  0016 of 6 June 1944.
   The landing is not an easy one. The glider is going too fast 
  and the braking parachute, deployed late, does little to slow 
  the craft. It goes through the first barbed wire belt around 
  the bridge and crashes to a halt. All passengers take 2 points 
  of Shock damage in every location; both pilots are catapulted 
  out of the cockpit, taking the equivalent of 10 Area dice in 
  damage. And there’s one more unpleasant surprise. Have each 
  character roll 1d. If it comes up 5 or lower, the character’s 
  PIAT was damaged in the rough landing and won’t fire.
   Two more Company D gliders land nearby and the men 
  stumble out to help secure the bridge. (Three others, not fea-
  tured here, assault the nearby Orne River bridge.)
   Unbelievable as it may seem, the German soldiers on the 
  bridge don’t notice the crash. If the players are fast and care-
  ful, they can gain full surprise.
   The objective is a steel-girdered lift bridge slung low over 
  the water of the canal, straddled by a steel control tower. 
  Thanks to local civilians who passed the information through 
  the Resistance to the British Special Operations Executive, 
  Maj. Howard knows plenty about the bridge’s defenses and 
  directs his men precisely in the darkness.
   It is guarded on the west side by a German pillbox, manned 
  by a gunner firing an MG 34, a belt-feeder, and four riflemen. 
  Another two-man machine gun is set up in the bridge’s control 
  tower. On the east side, nearer the landings, is a gun pit built 
  beside the control tower, with a 5 cm Pak 38 cannon with a 
  crew of four and a platoon of 11 riflemen. Two more German 
  platoons—each with a two-man MG 34 team and ten rifle-
  men—are stationed in trenches in the barbed-wire perimeter. 
   The German soldiers are actually a mix of Russian and 
  Polish prisoners of war and German youths, led by veteran 
  German NCOs. When the attack begins, they try to launch a 
  warning flare to signal the garrison. 
   The Germans use suppressive fire to try to discourage the 
  British from charging to close range. If the fighting becomes 
  particularly fierce, the Germans surrender or run for it.
   The first signs of trouble with the Ghost appear here—
  shaken up by the hard landing, he overreacts to the German 
  defenses and panics at the first machine gun burst directed 
  his way, using his power indiscriminately to freeze German 
  troops. Steady leadership calms him, but he comes fully to his 
  senses only when the action dies down.
   Will Awards: +1 for capturing the bridge with light casual-
  ties.
  Weapons and Equipment
  Each soldier in the players’ group is issued these items:
   • Uniform and beret
   • Helmet (2 LAR)
   • Knife or bayonet
   • Two hand grenades No. 36 (Penetration 2, Area 2)
   • Entrenching tool 
   • Haversack with various goodies (rations, cigarettes, 
    chocolate, etc.)
   • One toggle rope
   • Lee-Enfield rifle (for riflemen)
   • Sten submachine gun (for officers)
   • Bren light machine gun (for machine gunners)
   • Webley revolver (for officers, NCOs, and machine 
    gunners)
   • One PIAT anti-tank rocket
  
  NIGHT OF THE PEGASUS
  Scene 2: Interrogating the 
  Prisoners
  With the canal bridge secured (along with the bridge over 
  the Orne), the players may take time to interrogate captured 
  soldiers. Complete rules for interrogation can be found in 
  Combat Orders No. 1: Donar’s Hammer and at the GOD-
  LIKE Web site, www.arcdream.com/godlike.
   The players overhear young Germans muttering among 
  themselves about winter and ice and staring superstitiously at 
  the Ghost. They are loathe to discuss it, but the players may 
  draw more out of them in interrogation. 
   If pressed, they admit that their own commander has been 
  visited recently by a fire-powered Übermensch, Die Fliegen-
  fackel, from Überkommandogruppe 362, who issued explicit 
  orders that the troops should watch for Allied Talents with 
  powers over ice or the cold. “The Flying Torch” claimed gran-
  diosely that the Greek seeresses called the Pythia predicted he 
  would face “the coming of winter” on this summer day. The 
  soldiers dismissed it as ridiculous—but seeing the Ghost in 
  action has sparked superstitious dread in many of them.
   They have no idea where Die Fliegenfackel might be now.
   The Ghost, for his part, becomes even more spooked and 
  thoughtful on hearing about the Flying Torch and the Ger-
  mans’ interest in him.
   On more mundane matters, the prisoners can reveal that 
  they wired the bridge for explosives, but the demolition 
  charges themselves have not been set; they can be found in a 
  hut near the control tower.
   They can also reveal that the forces in and around Bé-
  nouville, commanded by a Major Schmidt, include five light 
  tanks, three half-tracks, and an infantry regiment, which 
  confirms Howard’s previous intelligence.
   Will Awards: Penalties as usual for failed Mental Stability 
  checks triggered by torturing prisoners.
  Scene 3: Holding the 
  Bridge
  Now the players can decide what to do to protect the bridge. 
  While most of the men will dig in around the bridge itself, 
  Howard  accepts any reasonable plan the players come up 
  with. They may, for instance, decide to begin combat patrols 
  to enlarge the security perimeter and control the town of 
  Bénouville across the canal. Civilians in town welcome them 
  with open arms—Mme Vion, head of the maternity hospital, 
  is also head of the local Resistance, and Resistance member 
  Mme Thérèse Grondrée has a café adjacent to the bridge 
  where she learned much about the enemy.
   There are five PzKpfw II light tanks (see page 268 of GOD-
  LIKE) parked in the Bénouville streets. But they won’t take 
  immediate action if they didn’t notice the warning flare.
   If the flare did go up, Maj. Schmidt, chief of the garrison, 
  and two Sdkfz 251 half-tracks (as on page 269 of GODLIKE, 
  but without the 7.5 cm Pak cannon) from Bénouville appear 
  German Conscripts
  736th Grenadier Regiment, 716th Infantry Division
  Body 2 Coordination 2 Sense 1 
  Brains 2 Command 1 Cool 2
  Base Will 3
  Skills Brawling 1 (3d), Explosives 1 (3d), Grenade 1 (3d), 
  Knife-fighting 1 (3d), Machine Gun 1 (3d), Mental Stabil-
  ity 1 (3d), Mortar 1 (3d), Pistol 1 (3d), Radio Operation 1 
  (3d), Rifle 1 (3d), Running 1 (3d), Submachine Gun 1 (3d).
  Weapons and Armour
  Stahlhelm (helmet) (LAR 2)
  Gewehr 41 Rifle (Damage width+2 in Shock and Killing, 
  Slow 1, Capacity 10, Range 120/1,000).
  Fixed Bayonet (Damage width+1 in Killing).
  MP 40 Submachine Gun (Damage width+1 in Shock and 
  Killing, Spray 2, Capacity 32, Range 20/100).
  PO8 Luger (Damage width+1 in Shock and Killing, Capac-
  ity 8, Range 16/32).
  Stielhandgranate 24 “Stick Grenade” (Damage width+1 in 
  Shock and Killing, Penetration 3, Area 4, range 35/55).
  MG34 (Damage width+2 in Shock and Killing, Spray 4, 
  Capacity 75, Range 200/2,000).
  5 cm PAK 38 (Damage width+3 in Shock and Killing, Slow 
  3, Penetration 8, Area 4, Burn, range 250/2,900).
  Veteran German Reinforcements
  716th Infantry Division, 2nd Engineering Company
  Body 2 Coordination 2 Sense 1 
  Brains 2 Command 1 Cool 2
  Base Will 3
  Regular Skills Brawling 2 (4d), Endurance 2 (4d), Explo-
  sives 2 (4d), Grenade 3 (5d), Knife-fighting 2 (4d), Machine 
  Gun 2 (4d), Mental Stability 2 (4d), Mortar 2 (4d), Pistol 1 
  (3d), Radio Operation 2 (4d), Rifle 2 (4d), Running 2 (4d), 
  Stealth 2 (4d), Submachine Gun 1 (3d).
  Frogman Skills Brawling 2 (4d), Endurance 2 (4d), Explo-
  sives 3 (5d), Grenade 3 (5d), Knife-fighting 3 (5d), Mental 
  Stability 3 (5d), Pistol 2 (4d), Radio Operation 2 (4d), Run-
  ning 2 (4d), Stealth 3 (5d), Swim 3 (5d).
  Weapons and Armour
  Stahlhelm (helmet) (LAR 2)
  Gewehr 41 Rifle (Damage width+2 in Shock and Killing, 
  Slow 1, Capacity 10, Range 120/1,000).
  Fixed Bayonet (Damage width+1 in Killing).
  MP 40 Submachine Gun (Damage width+1 in Shock and 
  Killing, Spray 2, Capacity 32, Range 20/100).
  PO8 Luger (Damage width+1 in Shock and Killing, Capac-
  ity 8, Range 16/32).
  Stielhandgranate 24 “Stick Grenade” (Damage width+1 in 
  Shock and Killing, Penetration 3, Area 4, range 35/55).
  MG34 (Damage width+2 in Shock and Killing, Spray 4, 
  Capacity 75, Range 200/2,000).
  8 cm Granatwerfer 36 (mortar) (Damage width+2 in 
  Shock and Killing, Slow 2, Penetration 5, Area 6, Range 
  500/2,625).
  
  NIGHT OF THE PEGASUS
  in 30 minutes. If the flare did not go up, it takes the Germans 
  two hours to send the half-tracks to investigate. The half-
  tracks retreat after Schmidt observes the nature of the forces 
  holding the bridge.
   These troops come from the 716th Infantry Division, 2nd 
  Engineering Company, and they are superior to the conscripts 
  and youths that defended the bridge. 
   During these attacks The Ghost must roll a Cool+Mental 
  Stability check every time one of his comrades in arms dies 
  near him or if he is about to die. After the first failed check, 
  curious things began to occur:
   • Corpses begin to freeze solid.
   • The air temperature begins to drop very quickly; apply the 
  rules for cold described on page 25 of GODLIKE.
   • A region around the bridge begins to freeze over. Every 30 
  minutes the zone’s radius expands by one kilometer.
   • The Ghost adopts an autistic attitude and starts to mutter  
  incoherently. A Brains+Education roll recognizes the mutter-
  ing as Shakespeare’s poem “Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind.” 
  By this time the Ghost is so far gone he attacks anybody who 
  tries to touch him—and he is immune to Will contests.
   If Schmidt survives his scouting expedition, the players face 
  one attack every hour. If he dies, the attacks come every two 
  hours. Choose from the following encounters:
   • Three PzKpfw II tanks attack. If the lead tank is disabled 
  on the bridge or before reaching it, the others can’t advance 
  past it and retreat.
   • A mortar team begins firing on the bridge from some-
  where in Bénouville. The Talents can try to locate it—if they 
  can avoid German patrols along the way and coming back.
   • A sniper attacks from the church tower in Le Port, north 
  of Bénouville. Unless the players have a better idea, Howard 
  tasks them with finding and silencing him.
   • A fighter-bomber attacks the bridge and drops a bomb. 
  (Incredibly, the bomb bounces harmlessly off the bridge with-
  out exploding.)
   • Two German platoons (20 soldiers) try to storm the 
  bridge with help from a PzKpfw IV medium tank (see GOD-
  LIKE, page 268).
   • A barge armed with a 3.7 cm Pak 35/36 cannon (GOD-
  LIKE, page 267)  tries to distract the soldiers while two 
  frogmen begin to set various demolition charges. (Watch the 
  Ghost’s condition carefully—as the area freezes over the river 
  will become more and more icy.)
   • Two German gunboats approach the bridge and attack.
   At 0200, Pevnost is dropped by parachute at within 50 
  yards of the Orne River bridge to begin Operation Rascal, 
  teleporting Talents and heavily armed commandos to dis-
  rupt German the rearguard. These “rascals” make excellent 
  reinforcements if the players have suffered heavy casualties; 
  otherwise their orders are to range into the countryside and 
  make trouble behind the lines “as only Talents can.”
   Will Awards: +1 for each tank, half-track, or gunboat de-
  stroyed. +1 for protecting Pevnost and the “rascals.”
  Scene 4: Fire and Ice
  At 0700, the Royal Navy begins coastal bombardment as part 
  of the Overlord landings—the shelling can be heard even in 
  Bénouville. And the Germans launch their fiercest attack yet. 
   By now much of the Bénouville garrison has abandoned the 
  town, but Die Fliegenfackel leads an attack force composed 
  of three SdKfz 165 Hummel self-propelled guns and three 
  infantry platoons (each with 10 riflemen and an MG 34).
   Die Fliegenfackel times his attack carefully, waiting until 
  most of the Rascal teams have come and gone but reinforce-
  ments from Sword Beach have not yet entered the town. 
  He targets the Ghost, not other Talents, using his powers to 
  destroy Allied heavy weapons and spotlight Allied Talents for 
  his troops and saving his Will to resist Talent attacks. As he 
  circles the area, the cold in the region grows worse and worse. 
   Die Fliegenfackel wants to face his nemesis in what he 
  imagines will be a battle of cosmic proportions.Unfortunately 
  for him, the Ghost is beyond the usual limits of Talent powers 
  and shrugs off Die Fliegenfackel’s attacks. 
   Unfortunately for the players, the freeze deepens as the 
  Ghost confronts Die Fliegenfackel. Each round, each charac-
  ter takes a point of Shock damage to each limb. The Ghost 
  does not stop until Die Fliegenfackel is frozen solid. 
   At this stage the only way to break the Ghost’s concentra-
  tion and interrupt this deadly condition is for someone else to 
  kill Die Fliegenfackel. If the players manage that before that 
  final showdown, the Ghost comes near enough to stare at the 
  body with dead eyes. Either way, with Die Fliegenfackel dead, 
  the Ghost walks away without another word.
   Around 1300, the players hear Bill Millin, the piper of  
  No. 1 Special Service Brigade at Sword Beach, playing the 
  pre-arranged signal indicating that they are ready to relieve 
  the paratroopers. A few minutes later the commandos reach 
  the bridge, the first troops of thousands coming to pursue the 
  enemy into librated France. 
   If the players succeeded, the bridge over the Caen Canal 
  will be known from now on as Pegasus Bridge.
   Will Awards: As usual for defeating a hostile Talent. +1 for 
  each tank destroyed. +5 for holding the bridge until relieved.
  SdKfz 165 Self-Propelled Gun
  Armour Ranges: 3 to 1 cm Heavy Armour Rating: 3 to 1, 
  open top
  Guns: 150 mm cannon (Width+13 in Killing, Area 
  10+Burn, Penetration 9, Slow 4) and one MG34 machine 
  gun (Width+2 in Shock and Killing, Spray 4)
  Maximum Speed: 26 mph
  Crew: 6
  Weight: 24 tons
  
  NIGHT OF THE PEGASUS
  Die Fliegenfackel  
  (“The Flying Torch”)
  Name: Emil Bauer.
  Nationality: German.
  Political Affiliation: Nazi (National Socialist).
  Rank: SS Sturmbannführer.
  Decorations: Iron Cross First Class, General Assault Badge, 
  Close Combat Badge.
  Dependants: Mother, Father.
  Motivations: To win the war.
  Known Parahuman Abilities: Die Fliegenfackel can fly and 
  transform his body into a brilliant living torch.
  History: Emil Bauer gained his powers when the 6th Panzer 
  Division attempted to relieve German troops at Stalingrad.
   Bauer is obsessed with the theories of Hanns Hörbiger, 
  an Austrian engineer whose Glacial Cosmogony (1913) is 
  a favourite of Nazi mystics. Drawing on the myths in the 
  ancient Edda, Hörbiger wrote that the solar system began in 
  a cataclysmic collision of fire and ice—and the first Aryans 
  descended from embryos inside that ice. 
   In 1943, Bauer traveled to Delphi to ask the Pythia about 
  his future in the war. The Oracle cast this omen: “As you 
  came from the sixth and tried to save the sixth  in vain, no-
  body will save you when Winter reclaims you in the sixth day 
  of the sixth month.” This clear reference to the loss of Sixth 
  Army so enraged Bauer that he killed the Oracle with his 
  powers. Of course, another Oracle soon appeared.
   Now, nearly a year later, on the eve of June 6th he has 
  become very nervous about this omen. . . .
  Game Stats
  Body 2 Coordination 2 Sense 2 
  Brains 2 Command 2 Cool 2
  Skills Anti-Tank Rocket 3 (5d), Brawling 2 (4d), Dodge 2 
  (4d), Endurance 2 (4d), First Aid 2 (4d), Grenade 3 (5d), 
  Health 2 (4d), Inspire 3 (5d), Intimidation 3 (5d), Language 
  (English) 2 (4d), Leadership 3 (5d), Map Reading 2 (4d), 
  Mental Stability 3 (5d), Navigation (Land) 2 (4d), Pistol 4 
  (6d), Radio Operation 2 (4d), Survival 3 (5d), Tactics 4 (6d).
  Base Will 16
  Talent Powers (Cost: 88 Will points)
  Alternate Form: Body of Fire 2hd (Attacks, Defends, Robust, 
  Useful Outside of Combat; Flaw: Glow -1/2/4; 4/8/16; 16 
  points total).
  Harm: Fire 5d+1wd with Area 3+Burn (Attacks, Defends, Ro-
  bust, Useful Outside Combat; Extras: Area +1/+2/+4, 5 points/
  rank; Burn +1/+2/+4; Flaws: Graphic -1/-2/-4; Glow, -1/2/4; 
  Attached to Alternate Form, -1/2/4; 4/8/16; 51 points total).
  Flight 1d+2hd (Defends, Robust, Useful Outside Combat; 
  Flaw: Attached to Alternate Form, -1/2/4; Glow -1/2/4; 2/4/8; 
  9 points total).
  Notes: Die Fliegenfackel uses multiple actions to attack while 
  using smoke and superhot flame to deflect attacks. If he takes 
  enough damage to kill his fiery form he instantly reverts to his 
  powerless human form.
  The Ghost
  Name: John Dempsey.
  Nationality: English.
  Political Affiliation: None.
  Rank: Corporal.
  Dependants: Father.
  Motivations: To survive the war.
  Known Parahuman Abilities: The Ghost can turn his body 
  insubstantial and freeze with his cold glance.
  History: John Dempsey was studying English Literature when 
  the war started. His Talent manifested in paratrooper training 
  and he was immediately assigned to a Talent squad. For all his 
  training and early enthusiasm, however, the true face of war 
  has affected Dempsey deeply. Now he only wants to escape all 
  this madness.
   As his own madness deepens, he recites Shakespeare’s poem 
  “Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind”:
   Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
   Thou art not so unkind
   As man’s ingratitude;
   Thy tooth is not so keen
   Because thou art not seen,
   Although thy breath be rude.
   Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
   Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
   Then, heigh-ho! the holly!
   This life is most jolly. 
   Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
   Thou dost not bite so nigh
   As benefits forgot:
   Though thou the waters warp,
   Thy sting is not so sharp
   As friend remember’d not.
   Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
   Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
   Then, heigh-ho! the holly!
   This life is most jolly.
  Game Stats
  Body 3 Coordination 3 Sense 2 
  Brains 2 Command 1 Cool 1
  Skills Anti-Tank Rocket 2 (5d), Brawling 3 (6d), Dodge 2 
  (5d), Endurance 2 (5d), First Aid 2 (5d), Grenade 3 (6d), 
  Health 2 (5d), Inspire 3 (6d), Machine Gun 3 (6d), Map 
  Reading 2 (4d), Mental Stability 2 (3d), Mortar 3 (5d), Navi-
  gation (Land) 3 (5d), Parachute 4 (7d), Pistol 4 (7d), Rifle 3 
  (6d), Submachine Gun 3 (6d), Survival 3 (5d), Tactics 2 (4d).
  Base Will 2
  Talent Powers (Cost: 58 Will points)
  Insubstantiality 2hd (Defends, Robust, Useful Outside 
  of Combat; 7/14/28; Extras: Breather +2/+4/+8, No Sink 
  +1/+2/+4; 28 points total).
  Harm: Cold 1d+1wd (Attacks, Defends, Robust, Useful Out-
  side Combat; Extras: Cold +1/+2/+4; 30 points total).
  
  NIGHT OF THE PEGASUS
  The Caen Canal Bridge at Bénouville (facing east), June 6, 1944.
  The bridges over Caen Canal (left) and Orne River.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Godlike/Godlike Night of the Pegasus.pdf