He Who Desires Beauty
Act 1: The Call
[Someone gets a call from their
fixer...]
"Hoi, you up for a run? I've got one here...but it's
from someone who I've never seen before, so I don't know how far to trust
him. He calls himself Winston, and he says he can offer you
something special. He was quite a weird fragger,
though."
[When the characters agree, read on....]
"He says that you
can meet his representative the day after tomorrow. The location is
an unused warehouse on the docks, near 432 Pike road."
Act
2: The Meet
At the meet location, which
takes place in an extremely slummy, nearly unused part of the waterfront,
the runners are approached by a man in a long, dark leather duster.
His skin is pale, and he has featureless blue chrome cybereyes. He
moves with a rapid, perfectly even and rythmic stride.
He will say,
with a slight southern accent, "Howdy, I'm Walker. Winston's been
expecting you."
[Walker's stats: B6(7), Wil4, Q5, S5(6),
Cha1. Pistols 8, Unarmed 6, Car 5.
Threat rat.: 4, Prof.
rat.:4. He has a cyberarm which increases his strength by 1,
cybereyes with thermographic vision, an internal smartlink, and Wired
Reflexes II. He has a Ruger Thunderbolt with an internal smartlink
(BF, 12 S).]
Walker will take the PC's through a twisting maze of
alleys and abandoned warehouses all around the docks. This maze will
lead to a steaming manhole.
Walker will take the PC's through
the manhole, through another catacomb-like maze of steam tunnels, which
after about half a mile will lead to small, rickety huts inhabited by a
bunch of hungry-looking orks dressed in rags and brandishing
switchblades. They'll all back off as they see
Walker.
Eventually, Walker will take the PCs to a rusted subway
car.
Act 3: The subway car
[Read the
following:]
The subway car stands silently, a relic of a world and a
way of life long passed away. In the flickering light of Walker's
flashlight, swarms of small, shifting shadows leap and play across the
tarnished metal box. The windows are cracked, and have holes in
them. One end of the subway car has sunk deeply into the pungent mud
underfoot, causing the opposite end to point ever so slightly away from
the ground.
Walker heads for the set of doors in the middle of the
car. One of the sliding doors is jammed closed, but the other seems
to have fallen open many years ago. Walker squeezes through, and you
follow.
Inside, the car is faintly illuminated by a small pile of
glowing embers which have been stacked upon some old aluminum foil.
Walker has switched off his flashlight, causing the shadows about you to
grow deeper and larger.
A voice hisses and wheezes like
the squeal of a diseased rodent.
"Please, my
friends, have a seat. Have a seat. Enjoy your visit to my
precious home, my castle."
Throwing glances up and down the
car, you find the source of this voice. It is a middle aged man with long,
greasy blond hari. He is wrapped in old, rotten blankets, which are
decorated with pictures of 20th century comic book superheros. An
odor of sweat and stagnation which floats in the air about you seems to
grow in strength as he shuffles towards you. The man gesticulates
towards the seats, as his raspy voices once again entreats you to sit
down.
"My name is Winston, friends. The car calls me
Winston, and the devil rats, and Walker here, too. To the world, I
am Winston. To myself, I am Winston as well."
He pauses, and
rubs his face with his red, chapped hands.
"But, I am not
Winston right now. I am not king here right now. I
am
missing someone. Without her, my castle under the sea will not
be complete,
and my kingdom will not prosper. I need Lisa
Kelly."
Lisa Kelly is a hot, up-and-coming simsense star, no more
than eighteen
years old. She's becoming a celebrity very quickly,
and her chips have sold
very well. Her songs are currently the
rave among those who consider
themselves the trendiest in the area of
popular culture.
"I can give you many things, my
knights. Many many things have I seen, and many many things do I
have. I can give you gold (Winston grabs some shiny aluminum foil
from under his blankets, and throws it on the floor), I can give you
nuyen, (Winston grabs an old 10,000 nuyen credstick from his blankets and
brandishes it), and I can give you my most precious
possession."
At this point, Winston slides the credstick
back within his blankets, and
whispers harshly, "here it is; my lady's
heart." He snatches a small
alabaster statuette from within his
blankets and holds it up. It is a
statue of a nude woman and a
man locked in an embrace. Although it is made
of cold, hard
stone, you feel as though the statue must surely have warmth
coming
from it, that the pale, cool surface of the stone must be soft
and
supple. Winston himself seems distracted for a minute, as he
gazes at the
statue.
[The statue is actually a rating 5
Stimulation focus. The magical nature of
this item can be seen by
any astrally perceiving character. They will know
that it can be
sold for a decent price on the street. Winston is a rat
shaman;
did I mention that?]
"Will you go, my noble knights, and
bring me my lady? When she is here, I
shall no longer need this
substitute for her heart. Bring her to me the
night of her
concert, and I will give you my lady's heart. Meet Walker
where
you met him tonight, and he will give you my heart for
me."
[No,that's not a typo. He dosen't say 'lady's heart' in the
last sentence]
At this point, Winston produces a crumpled
publicity poster advertising Lisa Kelly and her upcoming weekend concert
at the Kingdome, one of the very biggest and most famous sports and music
arenas in the city.
[If the players choose to negotiate, they
can get some cred thrown into the deal. They can get increments of
1,500 nuyen per success in negotiations. It will be paid to them
immediately in a motley collection of bills and single-use credsticks,
some of which have bloodstains on them. The focus, however, will
only be given in exchange for the star.]
"Good luck, my
knights! Bring me my lady, that she may illuminate my
kingdom
under the sea!"
[Winston's stats: B4, Q3, S2, C5, I4, W6,
R3. Conjuring 5, Sorcery 5,Pistols 5, Stealth 3. Initiavive 3
+ 1d6. Combat Pool 6, Magic Pool 5. His spells are Stimulation
5, Manadart 5, Mask 5. He wears Armor Clothing and is packing a
Ruger Super Warhawk.]
Act 4: The
Kidnaping
Kidnaping Kelly has potential to be come
problematic. She has many passionate fans, and well-paid
bodyguards. In addition, Lone Star will be patrolling the
Kingdome. The Kingdome is your basic oval-shaped sports
stadium. All the exits on the north side of the stadium will be
blocked off by Lone Star for security reasons. There are only 5
exits open, evenly spaced around the east, south, and west sides of the
Kingdome. A stage will be set up in the northern quarter of the
field for Kelly, and additional makeshift seating will take up the rest of
the field. The north quarter of the entire stadium, including the
locker rooms and hallways and whatnot, is entirely blocked off by Kelly's
bodyguards to anyone except for Kelly herself and the people who are
directly involved with the performance (ie technicians, etc.). This
is where Kelly's changing room ( a converted, cleaned up locker room) may
be found.
The concert starts at 8:00 PM, which is indicated on
the poster. Kelly will arrive 3 hours beforehand in order not to be
stuck in a huge crowd of fans. She will arrive by a Mitsubishi
Nightski. (H4, 45/120, B5, A3, S4, P4.) The Nightski is fitted with
an autocannon which pops out of the rear trunk. It is driven by a
valet named Billy who has a Nightski skill of 8, and an initiative of 6 +
1d6. Billy will never get out of the limo. The auto cannon
will be fired by a security guard in the car, who has a skill of 4 with
the weapon.
The performance itself will actually begin at 8:10 PM,
and will end at 10:30 PM. Kelly will leave at 11:30, once the crowd
has thinned out. Kelly has decided to do something slightly unusual,
and so there is no opening band, or anything like that. The evening
is planned to be 100% pure Kelly.
The Lone Star stats should
be in your 3rd edition sourcebook somewhere.
Kelly's
bodyguards:
B6(9) Q6 S5 C3 I5 W5 E.2 R5(9) Initiative 9 +
3d6.
Skills:
Car 6
Pistols 6
Negotiation 4
Stealth
2
Unarmed Combat 6
Cyberware:
Air Filtration 5, Dermal 3,
Skillsofts (Edged Weapons 3, Bike 3, electronics
3, Rotor 3, Winged 3,
Ettiquete 3), Smartlink, Wired Reflexes II.
Each guard has a Predator
II with 3 clips of exploding ammo, a lined coat,
armor clothing, a
concealable holster, a pocket secretary, a boosted ear
phone, a knife,
a gold docwagon contract, and expensive macho suits.
The security at the
Kingdome is mostly concerned with stopping annoying autograph takers and
keeping people out who want to try and sneak in. They aren't
expecting anything like an abduction attempt commissoned by a madman who
lives underground.
At each of the doors to the concert hall,
there are two Lone Star cops standing on either side of the door watching
the crowd and giving directions to tourists. At the restricted
doors, they will keep everyone out (the doors will be locked anyway, with
a level 6 maglock).
Tickets will have been sold out since before
the characters were given the mission, since Kelly is supernova hot.
The PCs therefore cannot get tickets unless they mug someone or forge
them.
Once inside, the PCs will be able to go almost anywhere
without too much difficulty, except for the northern restricted area of
the stadium. There is an occassional Lone Star officer in the
stadium, but not many. There are four bodyguards blocking the
eastern approach to the northern restricted area, and four blocking the
western approach. They are standing behind old-fashioned wooden
police barricades. There will be a fair number of nutty fans at any
one time trying to squeeze past the barrier,and the bodyguards will
therefore always have their hands full.
In Kelly's
dressing room in the restricted area, there are no guards. There
are, however, two bodyguards who always stand outside the door. One
bodygard follows Kelly at all times, but he waits at the door with the
other two bodygards when she is changing. (Kelly will change costume
numerous times during the concert.)
It will be hard to
remain undetected in the north part of the stadium, because there are a
dozen technicians and assistants milling about. The wide hallways
are very clean, and all the equipment is neatly stacked against the
walls.
However, there is a large air vent which runs through all
the tunnels in the stadium, and which also leads into all the locker
rooms. Crawling in it is slow, tiring, and will make the character
attempting it get covered with soot and grease. Attempting to crawl
quickly will actually make quite a lot of noise as the duct
vibrates. In addition, it's very dark; the only light available is
what trickles in through the occaisonal grille. One of the grilles
will have to be unscrewed before entry into this vent is even
possible. For this reason, it could become tricky to get out of the
air vent at another point, since the screws can only be unscrewed by
someone outside with the appropriate tools.
Finally, here are Lisa
Kelly's stats:
B3, Q3, I2, C6, W2, S2, R2, Initiative 2 +
1d6. She wears no armor, has an
unarmed combat skill of 2, a
pistols skill of 2, and carries a Beretta 101 T
(6L) with 1 clip of
standard ammo hidden on her person. She has threat and
professional
ratings of 1. Hidden in her left earring is a rating 7
radio
transmitter which let Lone Star and her bodyguards know exactly
where she is
at all times.
The characters can expect hot pursuit
first from Kelly's limo and
a second limo full of any bodyguards who are still alive, as well as from
a horde of Lone Star squad cars, if they don't get rid of that earring
first. Basically, if they don't notice the earring and get rid of
it, or if they don't happen to have something which will dampen the
signal, they'll be in for the fight/car chase of their lives. It
will also get hard for them to get to the drop off point to meet Walker,
since the Star will coordinate their cars and try to cut the PCs
off.
Act 5: The conclusion
If the PCs
manage to get Kelly to Walker in the warehouse, he will give them the
Stimulation focus, as well as any agreed-upon nuyen which had not yet been
paid. He will then disappear into the shadows of the docks. If
the PCs have been chased by cops, they'd better get out of there fast and
hide somewhere; Walker and Winston will probably be okay since they will
be taking Kelly and her transmitter so deep underground. If the PCs
have disabled the transmitter and have time to spare, they can wonder what
the fate of this beautiful young woman will be...
The GM can do
whatever he wants with the fate of Kelly after the run is over, and relay
it to the characters in the form of news flashes. Personally, I think
it would be cool if she "disappeared without a trace." Then, many
years later, word goes around in the shadows about a
psychotic.
Rat shaman who has a strikingly beautiful, yet
insane and constantly screaming with terror, young woman who looks vaguely
like Kelly did when she was wealthy and happy. But that's just
because I have a dark, perverse imagination. ;)
In terms of
Karma, the PCs should get 1 for surviving (as usual), 1 for abducting
Kelly, and 1 for successfully delivering her to Walker. 1 bonus
point of the PCs got rid of the transmitter before calling down the
cavalry on themselves. In addition to these Karma awards, don't
forget to give the individual awards. (You know, for good role
playing and stuff like that.)
_________________
- The
Blood Soaked Ronin <http://www.stuco.uni-oldenburg.de/~james/runs/he_who/[email protected]>
(21:15:24/02-08-2000)