THE ADVENTURE (1) THE INVITATION "Always remember, when a suit comes offering you a job, ask yourself 'if this guy is as on-the-level as he says he is, how come he has the need for a punk like me?'" - Mr Fixit. At 3:00 P.M., the party member with the best reputation for investigational skills receives a telephone call from a deep-voiced man who identifies himself as Christopher Sarracen *. He offers a job to the party that is worth $80,000 dollars U.S. (If using GURPS Cyberworld, he's offering 122,500 Swedish krona, 60,000 U.S. dollars and 1,405,000 Greek drachmae or, to put it less atmospherically, $25,000 in krona, $50,000 in U.S. dollars and $25,000 in drachmae, for a grand total of $100,000 worth of currency of various quality). Sarracen won't explain what the job is, but if the P.C.s are interested in discussing it further, he tells them to meet his representative at The Valley of the Kinks simsense parlor downtown. They need not recognize their contact - the contact will approach them. Once this information is given, he will hang up. He will not answer questions over the telephone. If a character successfully rolls against Savoir-Faire (Corporate) or Streetwise, they will have heard of Sarracen. For Savoir-Faire (Corporate), consult the following table. The player knows all facts corresponding to the number they made their role by and below. Roll Made by Information 0 Sarracen is a successful businessman. 1 ...involved in the simsense industry. 2 Sarracen produces very violent, but rather popular, trips. He is the head of his own company, imaginatively called, "Sarracen Entertainments". 3 Sarracen's organization has been investigated by the police on a number of occasions. 4 Various investors have tried to buy in to Sarracen's business. He is happy to take money, but refuses to let anyone get near to the workings of the company. He plays his cards very close to his chest, and trusts only a chosen few. He never hires strangers for important jobs. 5 Sarracen has recently been selling off quite a few shares from other companies here and there. Sarracen Entertainments doesn't seem to be in debt. So what was he raising money for? 6 Sarracen recently but very quietly moved almost all of his assets out of the United States 7 ...even going so far as to sell many of his holdings as quickly as possible, often for less than they are worth. For Streetwise, consult the following table. As before, the character knows information corresponding to the amount the player made the Streetwise roll by and lower. Roll Made by Information 0 Sarracen produces very violent, very popular simsense Entertainments and trips for Sarracen Entertainments. 1 Sarracen doesn't just hire anyone to act in these things, even the really grotty ones. He works only with carefully chosen people. 2 Many of the most popular trips are pure violence with almost no plot other than "one day, a person got tortured to death". 3 The "stars" in these torture-trips tend to appear once only. Rumours abound that the deaths are not being faked. 4 The cops have investigated Sarracen on more than one occasion. He has never been charged. 5 ...because he always managed to bribe the police. 6 ...but then he kidnapped and used an inspector's son in one of his films just to prove that he could do anything. But the inspector got mad, and is getting close to finding proof of what happened. 7 The inspector is Inspector Andrew Rainie *. His son was 19 - his name was Jarvis. If the players want to poke around in Sarracen Entertainment's computer, they will not find any such machine on the net. The fact is, it has been shut down until everything blows over. If the players go to meet the contact, go to (4) The Valley of the Kinks below. If they research Sarracen, go to (3) Researching Sarracen. If they do nothing, go to (2) Doing Nothing. [In Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0., the cash offered will be 30,000 euro. Replace Savoir-Faire (Corporate) with Stock Market but Streetwise is still Streetwise. You'll have to estimate how much information to give based on the quality of the roll] [In Shadowrun, the cash offered will be 80,000Y. Replace Savoir-Faire (Corporate) with Etiquette (Corporate) and Streetwise with Etiquette (Street). You'll have to estimate how much information to give based on the quality of the roll.] (2) DOING NOTHING "Standing around doing nothing does not mean that life will pass you by. It means that life will run you down like a dog and leave you a bloody stain on the tarmac" - Darwin's Daughter. A week after the players were first contacted, they will hear on the news that Christopher Sarracen, a respected entrepreneur and simsense entertainment pioneer, has been killed. He was turned into swiss cheese at point blank range by a CY or HT= 10mm machine pistol / CW= MoskArm NovUzi 9mm S.M.G. / LC= Colt Peacemaker Elite .45 Machine Pistol. It all comes to much the same in the end. The authorities don't know who killed him. Apparently, he was well liked by everybody. Yeah, right. The adventure is over, not least for the deceased. [In Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0., the weapon that turned Sarracen into a dairy product was a H&K MPK-9 medium sub-machine gun.] [In Shadowrun, Sarracen was made subject to necromantic spells by an Ares Crusader MP machine pistol] (3) RESEARCHING SARRACEN "Information is *the* drug of the 21st century. And like all drugs, too much can be bad for your health" - Channel One. If the party has contacts with Savoir-Faire (Corporate) or Streetwise, they can roll on the appropriate tables under (1) The Invitation above. Any other research can only show that Christopher Sarracen is the owner of Sarracen Entertainments, which produces simsense programs and trips. If they check the stock market, shares in Sarracen Entertainments are doing well. (4) THE VALLEY OF THE KINKS "Pornography may be the deformed child of nature and art, but its the only child they ever had together. That alone makes it worthy of respect" - Scarr. The Valley of the Kinks is a simsense parlor. From the outside, it appears to occupy the bottom level on the north side of the Lattimer Building - a 30 story silver complex containing a variety of businesses. In fact, the parlor also extends underground for some way. The outside is covered in fake sandstone panels a few inches thick, engraved with Egyptian hieroglyphics. Not only do these hieroglyphs not say anything, but many of them were made up on the spot by engravers who thought they would look nice. At the very top, carved in Roman letters a foot high, is the name of the establishment. The large glass entry doors are flanked by two security guards. These are physically identical young men (natural twins). They each wear black long-sleeved shirts and black trousers with red medium monocrys vests over the top. They each also wear reflective sunglasses and are carrying both a tonfa and an auto-pistol on their hips. The guns are CY or HT= Glock 17 9mm / CW= S&W 9mm Urban Defenders / LC= Soryu Akagi 9mms. The two guards are ST 12, DX 11, IQ 9, HT 11 and have Brawling- 14, Guns (Pistol)- 13, and Tonfa- 12. This information is probably irrelevant. I can't imagine why the players would want to attack these guys, but you never know what players are going to do. The security guards will not speak to, or otherwise notice the characters unless directly spoken to or if they think that the characters look like they might frighten clients by their appearance. If the characters speak to the guards, they will find them to be scrupulously polite. However, any question other than one for street directions will be met with "I'm sorry sir / madam, but I'm not allowed to give out information like that". If the characters look like they might frighten clients, the guards will say either "I'm sorry sir / madam, but I'm not allowed to let you in dressed like that" or "I'm sorry sir / madam, but I'm not allowed to let you go inside with that". If anyone has visible cyberwear and is not wearing a nice suit, they are sure to get the first response. If anyone has a visible weapon, they are sure to get the second response. Immediately inside is a large white marble room some 12' high. Soulless, high-pitched electronic "mood" music plays quietly in the background. Potential customers wander around each other and various plastic potted plants as they view the selections displayed on holographic stands about the room. There are around twenty customers in the selection room at the moment, and five attendants. The attendants are dressed like the security guards, save that they have no weapons, and their red vests are made of pseudo-silk instead of monocrys. When a customer has made a selection, an attendant will receive their payment and take them to an underground booth to enjoy the "show". Those with chip slots can simply have the experience slotted into their head - a trip chip. This costs $10 per hour. Those without chip slots must wear special virtual reality suits, for which there is an extra $10 per hour charge. Given the name of the place, it should hardly surprise the characters that the majority of the simsenses are of a sexual nature. Moreover, the majority of the sexual simsenses cater to minority tastes. Moreover, most of these tend towards violence. Some allow the customer to be the victim of violence, although most (and certainly the more extreme ones) allow the customer to be the perpetrator. If the P.C.s check, they will find that many of the most extreme are produced by Sarracen Entertainments. These simsenses tend to follow the plotline "you and a group of people kidnap a stranger and torture said stranger to death in creative ways". If the characters ask anyone, attendant or customer, about the Sarracen simsenses, they will find them highly recommended as being "very realistic". The P.C.s will just have to wait. No-one will pressure them into choosing a simsense, but neither will anyone immediately rush up and announce themself as the contact. After the players have been there for about fifteen minutes, a short middle aged woman will approach the most attractive of them rather nervously. She will start with "hello" and then proceed to engage in small talk about anything trivial. Her conversation is stilted and she is clearly uncomfortable. She isn't their contact. She's a low-level corporate executive who would like to cut their backs with a surgical scalpel and then lick off the blood, but she doesn't quite know how to go about asking if they would be interested. She will not raise the subject herself. Just to help flesh out the small talk, her name is Mary Gray, she works for Duracorp, she thinks the pollution in the air has been getting worse lately, she "isn't political" but she thinks that something should be done about the economy and that United States troops should stay in the United States unless the country's safety is "directly threatened". If the characters ask her straight out what she wants, she will reply "oh - um" and then run away. Soon after, the party is approached by a tall, slim man of (Asian) Indian ethnicity. He greets them all by name, although he will decline to give his own. He tells them that Mr Sarracen sent him to be their contact but will refuse to give them any details about the man or his own employment with him. He doesn't know what the job is about, and doesn't even know what the P.C.s have been offered. All he knows is where Mr Sarracen is, and that Sarracen wants to talk to the characters directly because he doesn't want to give his location away over the telephone. He doesn't even know why Sarracen is being so careful. The contact is completely unarmed and is psychologically incapable of fighting. If they go with him, he will lead them through the staff section of Valley of the Kinks and to an underground car-park where a black stretch-limousine is waiting. He insists that the party ride with him in this vehicle. If they have brought their own transport, he is willing to arrange for it to be stored in the underground car-park until they come to get it later. The large uniformed chauffeur, who will chat cheerfully about recent sporting events but will give nothing away about his employer, has ST 12, DX 11, IQ 10 and HT 12. His Driving (Car) skill is 14. If forced to fight, he has Brawling-14, Shotgun-13, and a sawn-off shotgun under his seat - CY= Remington M870 12g / HT= Browning Auto-5 12g / CW= Remington Model 60 12g / LC= Colt Homelands 12g "hunting" shotgun. Once again, I fail to see why the party should end up fighting here, but if they do, that's what they will face. The driver will take them on a circuitous route through the city for an hour or so. Roll vs IQ to realize that this is an attempt to shake off anyone who might be shadowing them. Assuming that the players don't start a firefight in the back seats, they can proceed to (5) The Meeting. [In Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0., the twins carry Militech Arms Avenger 9mm medium autopistols and wear medium armoured jackets. Their tonfas are still tonfas. They have INT 5, REF 7, CL 5, MA 7, BODY 8. They have Brawling +6, Handgun +4, and Melee +2. Give them both one cyberoptic with anti- dazzle and lowlight - its not in the original, but there's just more cyberwear in Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0.. The chauffeur has INT 5, REF 7, CL 4, MA 5, BODY 6. He has Brawling +6, Driving +6, Rifle +4 and the sawn-off shotgun is a Sternmeyer Stakeout 10. Give him a Basic Neural Processor and a Vehicle Link too. Again, I fail to see why these combat-stats should come in to play, but if you are playing Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0., they probably will. Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. players are all psychotic]. [In Shadowrun, the twins are Body 4, Quickness 4, Strength 4, Charisma 3, Intelligence 2, Willpower 3, Essence 6, Reaction 3. They have Unarmed Combat 4, Firearms 3, and Armed Combat 2. They wear Armour Vests and pack Colt America L36 light pistols. Treat their tonfas as clubs. The Indian gentleman will be an Elf. The chauffeur has Body 4, Quickness 4, Strength 4, Charisma 2, Intelligence 3, Willpower 3, Essence 6, Reaction 3. He has Driving 5, Firearms 3 and Unarmed Combat 4. His shotgun is a Remington Roomsweeper].