[UA] Plot help

[Richard A Ranallo]

I'm working on a one-shot game that might eventually spin off into a
campaign, and I thought I might need a little help on wrapping the whole
thing up neatly.  The premise is that the PCs all knew each other in high
school (though not necessarily very well).  It's now 3-5 years after
they've graduated, and for various reasons, they're all back in their old
hometown together (a fictional suburb of Chicago).  Most likely, they all
end up leaving same boring party at the same time, and find a small
leather bag full of $1000 bills, adding up to around fifteen million
dollars.  The bills aren't marked, and don't have sequential serial
numbers; they seem untraceable.  Given that the characters will all be
hurting for money in some way, they're going to try to keep the cash for
their own.  For a day, they get to play Adventures in Moneylaundering,
since none of the characters will have any good criminal connections.

The next day, the first time someone checks on the money, they think
they've been robbed.  The bag is ripped open and bills are scattered all
over the floor.  But, looking closer, the character sees that the money
is all in $500 bills, and there are twice as many of them, still with
un-sequential serial numbers.  The next day, the money's multiplied to
$100 bills, and so on, until eventually, it will all turn into pennies
and, most likely, suffocate anyone who's unfortunate enough to be in the
same room at the same time.

What I have worked out so far is that the money is a side-effect of a big
magickal effect, performed by a local plutomancer years and years ago. 
The group is going to have to confront that effect somehow in order to
get the money to go away.  By the time the money turns to $100s and $50s,
the characters are going to be more concerned with getting rid of the
stuff than spending it.  The bills are all dated for the year that the
effect took place (even the $1000s and $500s, which haven't been in
circulation since 1969).  None of the characters are adepts, though one
is a self-styled "supernatual investigator" (loosely baesd on Dib form
Invader Zim), who's close to figuring out The Truth (or something like
it).  That, and everyone in the group knows one Adept (Johnny Sunshine,
pizza delivery specialist and entropomancer), but he's gone missing and
is presumed dead.

What I don't know is what this big effect should have been, and how the
characters can undo it.  I'm sure I can think of something on my own, but
there's no harm in a little idea mining.

>From Whom It May Concern,
Rich Ranallo

"Among the maxims on Lord Naoshige's wall there was this one: 'Matters of
great concern should be treated lightly.'  Master Ittei commented,
'Matters of small concern should be treated seriously.'"
-Hakagure

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