A brother is on the verge of losing all humanity when he is promised by a techno-purist that he can be saved. Is it a trap, or just another dream that will inevitably fall short?
Game Setup
Below is a list of items, characters, or locations that you will need to create or pull from your game system of choice. This gig offers you the framework to the story, but it is up to you as the GM to flesh out the characters, fill in the world, and react to the crazy things your players will inevitably think up. In order to make your playthrough easier, read through the adventure ahead of starting.
Skill Checks
For each skill listed below, determine what skill in your game system best represents each one to use. Each skill is listed with a difficulty rating of Low, Average, or Hard. Determine what those values are for your system based off the description below.
Easy – Most players with any skill will almost always succeed.
Average – Players with low skill will sometimes succeed, players with high skill will often succeed.
Hard – Players with low skill will almost never succeed, players with high skill will sometimes succeed.
| Street Knowledge | Hacking |
| Investigation | Athletics |
| Persuasion | Intimidation |
| Local Knowledge | Lock Pick |
| Cryslar Winston (Businessman) – A member of the wealthy Winston family and company. He is looking to hire the players to find his brother but puts his family interests first. |
| Jacobin Winston (Street Kid) – Jacobin has been addicted to cybernetic implants for years and has nearly replaced all of his human body. |
| Dr. Randal Gaines (Medic) – Runs a successful cybernetics and implants clinic in the city. |
| Sleepless Spirits (Bar) – A bar and brewery in the Arts district which the Doom Scryers gang owns and operates. People with implants are not welcome. |
| Doom Scryers (3-5 gangers, 1x medic, 1x caster, 3x dealers/soldiers) – A political gang and movement that looks to rid the world of cybernetics and technological implants. They believe that the line between humans and machines should be clear and not crossed. |
| The value of a standard job fee and the value of a generous bonus fee. |
| 1-2 Combat cybernetics. |
| 1-2 Spells or rituals if your game includes supernatural themes. |
Overview
After Cryslar hires the crew to find his brother Jacobin, the team is pointed toward an anti-cybernetics gang known as the Doom Scryers. Ultimately the crew finds Jacobin with the dead body of former gang member Sascha after he has succumbed to cyber psychosis.
Job Offer
After Jacobin was nearly killed in a gang attack years ago, he became addicted to combat implants. Now he has gone missing, and his brother Cryslar is looking to hire a group of edge runners to find him. Fearing the worst, he asks the crew to bring him back if possible, or proof of his death if he has been consumed by psychosis.
As part of a wealthy family, Cryslar will do what he can to stay anonymous and hire the crew through an intermediary or posting. He will pay an average fee for the job, and a generous bonus for keeping the identities of him and his brother off the airways.
Information Bits:
- Jacobin had undergone dozens of enhancement surgeries never using the same surgeon twice.
- The last surgery was performed six days ago by Dr. Randal Gaines and Jacobin hasn’t been seen since.
- Gaines’ clinic is in between the Medical and Arts districts of the city. (Players are given the address.)
- [Street Knowledge Easy] The clinic is on the edge of the Doom Scryers territory.
- [Street Knowledge Average] Doom Scryers are known to attack people with visible cybernetics.
- [Investigation/Persuasion Average] Jacobin has multiple combat implants including improved hearing and vision.
- [Local Knowledge Hard] The target of the job is Jacobin Winston, a wealthy socialite. (Cryslar offers a bonus fee upon completion to keep this fact quiet)
GAINES CYBER CLINIC
The clinic is small, but well kept and in an expensive part of town. There are no guards present, but an [Investigation/Technology Easy] check finds a hefty electronic and digital security presence. Ceiling mounted weapons are interlinked with the camera and motion sensor systems, and a combat A.I. protects the electronic devices. Should the players defeat the A.I, they can access the patient files with a successful [Hacking Average] check.
Jacobin’s file contains information only on his most recent surgery to implant a retractable blade into his arm.
A robotic assistant meets the players after they enter the lobby directing them to wait until the doctor is available. Speaking with Dr. Gaines, the players can learn a few things.
- Jacobin received an augmentation a few days ago.
- Jacobin was the last patient of the night. Upon leaving he walked into the Arts district and the Doom Scryers territory even after Dr. Gaines informed him it was dangerous.
- [Persuasion Average] There have been multiple attacks by the Doom Scryers in the last month on clinic patients.
- [Persuasion Easy] The Doom Scryers are a gang of techno-purists. They believe that technology implants and cybernetics ‘taint’ the human soul. They have been targeting the clinic.
- [Persuasion Hard] Jacobin didn’t disclose his previous surgeries, and when the doctor was performing surgery, he saw enough cybernetics to drive a person into psychosis. Gaines referred him to a removal facility.
DOOM SCRYERS
It is not difficult to find the Scryers on the streets of the Arts district. The Sleepless Spirits is owned and frequented by the Scryer members. The players can discover the Sleepless Spirits through an [Investigation/Street Knowledge Average] check, or by spending a few hours finding a small group of Scryers and following them until they head for the Spirits.
If any players with visible cybernetic implants enter the Spirits, the skill check difficulties will increase by one level. A group of 3-5 Scryers will ask those individuals to leave, and if the players refuse, the Scryers will attack them to force them out. If the players beat the Scryers, they will answer the players questions and give them any of the info listed below.
Information that can be gathered at the Sleepless Spirits:
- The Doom Scryers don’t know where Jacobin is currently.
- [Persuasion/Intimidation Easy] The Scryers often harass people coming out of the Gaines Clinic. Multiple members remember seeing a person with the description of Jacobin leaving a few days ago and him talking to Sascha Bonne.
- [Persuasion/Intimidation Average] Sascha is a former Doom Scryer member who left the gang after she was part of a group of gang members that attacked and nearly killed a man years ago. She now believes she has found a way to save the techno-heathens.
- [Investigation Easy] A handful of the Scryers look like they have been in a fight recently. They inform the players that they attempted to attack Jacobin a few nights ago but he was too tough. They saw Sascha Bonne speaking with him after the fight.
- [Technology Easy] Hacking into the basic camera system, the player finds a recording of the front of the building. Jacobin fights off multiple gang members before leaving the scene with Sascha Bonne.
- Sascha Bonne believed she found a tome of spiritual magic and left the gang. She lives in a small house next to the Arts Park.
SASCHAS HOME
There are multiple ways to approach the home including one of the side windows, the back porch through the alley, or the front door along the street.
All of the doors are locked, but multiple windows have been broken out and are accessible by an [Athletics Average] check.
With a [Lock Pick Average] success, the players can open the locked front or back door.
The team can enter the home without alerting Jacobin with a [Sneak Easy] success as he is distracted by the body of Sascha.
Inside the home old, ripped, rolled, and fading documents litter the rooms. Runes and symbols have been painted, erased, and painted again all over the home. In the main living space, Jacobin stands over Sascha’s dead body inside of a brightly painted ritual circle, his hands covered in blood. He is in a daze staring at Sascha’s body and won’t act until there is a noise or other action that grabs his attention. Should the players try to speak with him or draw his attention, he will immediately attack.
CYBERPSYCHO JACOBIN
Jacobin is no longer responsive to conversation or persuasion as he has been over taken by psychosis from his implants.
This combat should be a difficult one for the players. Below are a few ideas to make the encounter more exciting.
- Cybernetics: Armored implants that reduce the impact of attacks, a retractable blade in one arm that the players may have already learned about, and a speed booster that allows him to move from one player to another easily.
- The entire fight, he has a smile on his face and laughs every time he attacks a player.
- Should he severely injure a player or knock one down he will move on to another character as if he is playing with them.
- At half health, he will use a hidden flame thrower in one arm to attack the nearest players and ignite the home.
- Adrenaline implants will allow Jacobin to fight through any severe injuries and until he has lost all of his health without negative impacts.
WRAPPING IT UP
After the players defeat Jacobin, they can either take his head or his engraved watch as evidence that he has been killed. Around the room
Once the players have returned proof to Cryslar of Jacobin’s death, he will pay the players the fee they agreed upon. If the team figured out at the beginning of the mission or throughout the scenario Jacobins and Cryslars family connection and didn’t publish it or reveal it to another source, then they receive the additional payout as well.
No matter how the adventure concludes, there will be possible consequences and follow ups.
- If the players decide to reveal the family connection of Jacobin, the Winston estate will seek very aggressive legal action.
- There are many groups in the city that may approach the players about what they saw, or if they recovered any of the old documents in Sascha’s home.
- Jacobin’s cybernetics and Sascha’s tomes are worth quite a bit to the right people.
