The Fixer in my cyberpunk campaign realized that the party pretty much looks like a terrorist cell after having missed a single session
And this is the story of how the city got covered in a chemical weapon.
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Cop was the first to go online so I went ahead and started with his stuff.
Me: Cop, okay. You and your partner are called to a crime scene at a hotel in Japantown. The hotel is massive, even taller than the police station, and as you go further up it gets progressively nicer. With marble, natural wood, and air conditioning that brings in aromatic scents.
Cop: Okay.
Me: And when you get to one of the penthouses you immediately smell meat. Since you lived in a conflict hotspot you've seen things like when people get blown up or use suicide vests. It looks similar with how there are just chunks of flesh and bone everywhere. Roll me awareness notice
Cop: *over 20*
Me: The weird thing is that there is no sign of an actual explosion, so it seems like someone eviscerated the poor sob, but in a way that is way messier than a normal contract kill. Do you want to check out the body?
Cop: Yes. *over 20*
Me: It is very clear that this was done with claws and not knives, you also see teeth marks.
Cop: Maybe he had a pet?
Me: You would have been told if there was a pet in the building.
Cop: Somebody else's pet?
Me:... Do you want to keep looking?
Cop: *over 25*
Me: You manage to find a claw-like nail embedded in one of the bones, so this couldn't have been done with a cyber limb. You also notice that the bite patterns are weird. The person would have had to have surgically altered not just their teeth, but jaw to change how it is set. Possibly through a cyberlaw. *Rolls* And your partner finds a thick wiry hair.
Cop: Pubes?
Me:.....
So, then. Your partner spreads out the hair, it is over a foot long so it doesn't seem like it could be from a normal animal. He starts to bag it. Do you bring attention to the nail.
Cop: No
Me: Okay. Two other cops come in, for one roll empathy and the other roll your rifle skill
Cop: *has 3 empathy and rolls incredibly low, but gets super high on rifle*
Me: They are Detectives Russo and Primrose
Cop: An Italian guy?
Me: ethnically yes, but he served some time in the UK and has a London accent, you think he plays it up just to make you angry.
Cop: fuck
Me: And Primrose is one you actually like, both of you spend lots of time in the range training with guns.
Cop: Okay
Me: Russo just looks smugly at you and says "Cop what are you doing here?"
Cop: This is my case, no one told me you were coming.
Me: He looks at the scars from when you got shot in the head and smiles. "Well, I know you were in the hospital for awhile. There has been an uptick in killings. A serial killer who likes to cannibalize their victims."
Cop: Well, I hate your guts but I like your partner. So I guess we are going work together.
Me *Wondering why he voiced that*: He bristles. "well, since an Arasaka employee is dead we have more evidence for the suspect I just brought in."
Cop: No one told me about a suspect.
Everyone but Fixer arrived soon after (as he had missed it) and we had to explain what was going on.
Rocker spent his downtime playing his guitar and annoying his AI
Medtech made drugs while plotting to save Speed, and ended up getting the Russian Mob to be the distributor for the drugs.
Then Cop went to the holding cells to talk to Russo's prisoner.
Me: okay, every guard you see on your way there is either doing their best not to be anywhere near the cells, or actively trying to find a way to leave. Roll me resist torture/drugs.
Cop: Resist what?
Me: *looks at everybody's sheets. Medtech is the only one with resist torture/drugs, and has only one rank* Cool
Cop: *rolls 15*
Me: You don't like this place, but you aren't as horrified as the rest. Now then, when you get there *puts in an image of Jax from Mortal Combat* You see a nine foot tall five foot wide slab of muscle and metal held to a metal gurney, Hannibal Lector style, needles with tubes are stuck inside his neck, injecting him with a constant stream of strange green fluid.
Cop: What is his body?
Me: Higher than Medtech's (Medtech has 16)
Cop: Dear Christ.
Me: From what you know this guy is called Moe-Money
Everyone: *loves and laughs about the name*
Cop: Why do they call him that?
Me: Because he is from the Congo and no one can pronounce his actual name. And I'm not even going to try because I don't know where the vowels are supposed to be. You can see that he has a cyberjaw, and the end of each of his finger is a massive ripper claw. But you know due to your search that the murder was done with organic claws.
Cop: Well he is a suspect.
Me: He just smiles at you, and says. "I know my rights, I want my lawyer"
Cop: I don't know about that, I didn't arrest you, I just want to know about why you got arrested.
Me: "Because that asshole cop and his partner came in with heavy weapons and tranqs to take us the fuck out. My boss has been unconscious for like twelve hours, they aren't even letting him wake up."
Cop: Well that doesn't sound right, but I have more questions. Why do they think you are the killer?
Me: "They said something about cyberjaws, everybody thinks that just because you have one of these you gotta be some cannibal psychopath. You wanna know how I got this? Militias shot me in the goddamn face while committing ethnic cleansing. That's how."
Cop: Well you are cybered up and scary looking.
Me: "Everybody is. This is America, everybody everywhere else things ya'll are all a bunch of psychos."
Cop: Well you are my only suspect.
Me: "And I didn't do it."
Cop: "Why do they think you did it?"
Me: "I've worked for Militech before, they got me during a hand off for a job I did."
Cop: "Well that seems like motive"
Me; "No it ain't. I had a completely different job. Bodyguard detail on another exec"
Cop: Look, I'll see about what I can do. I think Russo is wrong, but there's a lot on my plate.
Me: He just looks at you for awhile, smiles, and then you see the needles in his neck strain as his muscles bulge. "Rolls Resist Torture/Drugs* Now, there is actually a lot of cyberware that helps with drugs. Such as cyberlivers, special blood, biomoniters, and all of that. "Rolls over 30 between his cool, resist torture skill, and cyberware* And The green juice just spurts out of his neck *gets over 30 on strength feat* And the metal table strains as he rips his way out of it and walks over to the bars.
Medtech: *looking at the pdfs that lists types of cyberware.* Wow, there are a lot that work against drugs. I want some of those.
Me: Moe-Money smiles at you, raises a hand, and says. "High five."
Long discussion between everyone on if this is a good idea, eventually Cop does the high five through the bars, and doesn't get instagibbed.
Me: Okay, in one of the cells you see a guy who has been laid out and is getting the same chemical treatment as Moe-Money, he is completely unconscious. Speed is in another cell. And there is a bearded guy with cyber arms in the fourth. He hops up on a bench and rattles the bars. "I want my lawyer, I know my rights."
Cop: What are you in for?
Me: "Nothing! Nothing. They didn't even charge me. They went to Bruno's home in the middle of the night with guns and lights, woke Bruno up without identifying themselves."
Cop: So what did you do?
Me: "Defend myself. When the people in black come in the middle of the night with guns there is only so many things you can do. They have done this before in Bruno's childhood. The rebels."
Cop: And what did they rebels do?
Me: "Oh you know. Point a gun in your face and try to make you work for them and go and point guns in the faces of other people in the middle of the night so they do that too. But I did not do that, I did not. I was Brazilian Special Forces. I fought the rebels. Then I come here and be a mechanic. A good mechanic."
Cop: So why did the cops come for you?
Me: "Bruno does car modifications. Modifications, not chopping them apart. People show me papers, they come to me, they say 'Bruno I want sick ride, help me out.' And so they pay me and I modify their cars. Some of these papers may have been forgeries. Bruno did not know that."
Cop: And you are here with the others because?
Me: "When you come in the middle of the night with guns and try to take Bruno, then Bruno will beat the ever loving shit out of you until you put Bruno down. I am not as good as some of these others. See giant man, he is like if Medtech was a giant scary black man of death"
Cop: Yeah, he is like Medtech.
Me: Do you say that in character?
Slow realization of my players that there is a guy who know medtech.
Cop: Wait, you know Medtech?
Me: "Yes, do you? She is in Night City? We worked in different special forces group, but sometimes we work together."
After that it was kinda a mess as we tried to figure out what everyone was doing. Initially Cop said he was going to help break Speed out, but then he decided not to. Rocker started a mob in the street, but wasn't going to help more than that, and there was some confusion as the other prisoners that got mentioned were being put into the same transport as Speed to a more secure location.
Cop was not happy about that last part.
Medtech decided to set a bomb on the transport to blow open the door, in the middle of a flash mob.
Me: Seriously?
Medtech: I roll to try to get people away from it. *Nat 1*
Me: Roll again
Medtech: *doesn't make it a complete fumble*
Me: You do not implicate yourself, but you don't manage to get people away. How long did you want the timer to be
Medtech: one minute
Me: While setting the bomb *rolls for Bruno's escape abilities. He has tech gear in his cyber arms along with making them both double jointed and able to rotate 360 degrees* *Bruno manages to escape his bonds, hide that, and roll to start to free Moe-Money *he succeeds* You hear screaming on the inside
Medtech: Oh God.
Me: *rolls to see how many people are hit in the explosion, if the driver can keep the car stable, and what is happening in the truck.* Okay, so, it tips over, people get shredded by shrapnel-
Medtech: Come on
Me: You set a bomb in a crowd. Anyways, the smoke is broken up as Russo sails out and lands *rolls* right next to you, groaning in pain as Moe-Money gets out with his friend slung over his shoulder. You see Bruno, his bonds still slightly on his limbs as he bolts, and Speed is following as well. Bruno spots you and waves.
Medtech: Bruno? *Medtech is fairly good with roleplaying*
Me: *rolls to see if the other cop is still conscious, she is* so, Primrose gets out of the car and she looks pissed. Everybody needs to roll initiative.
Moe Money and Primrose went first
Me: *rolls* So, Moe-Money has rampage. Which lets him use his body instead of reflex on his hand to hand skills *I am fudging some rules so things make more sense, so Rampage does work with martial arts* And he just goes for a straight punch that is so powerful that you can hear the strength as he turns his body.
*Rolls for both, Primrose's block is higher*
Me: And Primrose just manages to smack it away with her taser-nightstick sending a jolt through his body that he manages to resist. *rolls Primrose's attack*
so a thing about my NPCs is that I roll a d100 on how powerful they are, then some more on certain special traits like ambidextrousness, bloodlust, eidetic memory and the like Primrose rolled a nat 100 and then confirmed it multiple times on the first one.
Medtech knows about this and got told before the session that one of the NPCs rolled that well.
Me: So, Primrose kicks him in the chest *rolls normal damage* That isn't enough to get through Moe-Money's armor, but here's the thing.
Medtech: What?
Me: You see the air ripple as an unseen force adds to it *rolls again and adds the damage to the previous one* So there is just this shockwave as Moe-Money gets thrown backwards and drops his friend.
Medtech: The fuck?
Rocker OOC (He is still playing music and hasn't noticed what is going on): Is that Hamon?
Me: *rolls to see if the other guy is waking up, he is* Okay, what are you going to do?
Medtech: Knock out the cop near me.
Me: okay roll.
Medtech:...
Me: You are dealing with a trained cop that is Cop's rival.
Medtech: Rolls *fails against Russo's block* Oh come on.
Me: He actually doesn't have that high of a reflex, and his bonus to block is one. You just rolled poorly. *rolls and succeeds against medtech* So he hits, but doesn't do enough damage to get through your armor. Make a stun save
Medtech: *succeeds*
Me: Okay, so you are still up. and so Speed is going to help *takes the malus for headshots and succeeds* *rolls damage* If he hadn't held back the punch this guy's head would he everywhere Now, roll Resist Torture/Drugs
Medtech: 15
Me: You are hallucinating terrible things as the guy with Moe-Money gets up, opens up pitch black eyes, and starts mentally assualting everyone. Then he grabs Moe, and they disappear.
Medtech: Oh yeah, you told me that psychics are a thing. And some NPCs mentioned it.
Me: Yup.
The rest of the game wasn't really noteworthy until the end. Cop was in-character pissed at Medtech for causing the escape, Medtech refused to confirm or deny anything, Rocker didn't do much.
Cop followed more stuff and went to a circus that had some genetically engineered animals that had been thrown out as rejects, but didn't ask any of the questions that would get him what he needed, and didn't do anything that pissed off the circus.
Medtech ended up drinking what was essentially flavored ethanol as whiskey and passed out until the next mission, then woke up in her death-machine after Bruno drove her there.
Medtech: Wait, did you do anything while I was asleep?
Me: Bruno looks offended. "I would never do anything to your cyber arms while you were asleep. Modifications like that can be incredibly dangerous."
Medtech: I, uh, nevermind.
Me: He starts talking the ins and outs about cyberware and which places have worse side effects, better prices, or better quality
Eventually they all went to the place to learn about how to do their mission, get onto a cargo boat and document video evidence of a Petrochem ship having illicit cargo. Not physical evidence as that might cause problems.
Since none of them had cybereyes the fixer gave them a camera.
As Medtech and Rocker both had the pilot boat skill I had them just pilot a speedboat out there themselves instead of using an NPC driver, as they approached the ship I did some rolls. In the module the session was based on they were not supposed to have a chance to get on, but instead I had decided to do rolls depending upon how much time they took in the bar *they took awhile talking to people, playing music, and trying to listen in on conversations* So they ended up being late enough that I did a roll on if they had enough time to try to get on and try to defuse the bomb. That background roll lol-noped the possibility of the city not getting blanketed in hydrochloric acid.
So we ended that session with them just barely not getting hurt by shrapnel (everyone had over 18 SP and no one rolled getting hit in the head), and a giant death cloud approaching.
This was Fixer's response when we told him about this.
Fixer: I am gone for one session and the city is about to get destroyed.
Me: Have you seen your group?
Fixer: Just, everything explodes. Why would they even have that job?
Me: It is almost as if you are a somewhat famous group in the underworld with at least one member who is a known demolitions and chemistry expert.
Fixer:...fuck.
The group also had a long discussion about their various in-game friends.
Cop is in the best position with barely any enemies (A street samurai) and friends who are high up in Arasaka and Militech, along with a smuggler girlfriend.
Fixer has a police commissioner enemy and a corporate enemy, but has a NetSec friend and a Cyber-Swat captain on his side.
Medtech's brother is a Traumateam assassin, has a trauma team boyfriend, a Russian Armsdealer friend, and spec opps friends.
Rocker has a Russian mobster girlfriend and a Revolutionary mentor, but has a Media ex-girlfriend who wants him dead, a rocker ex-friend who wants to murder him, and a techie father whose eye he ripped out that has connections to corporations, the police, government, gangs, and more.
The consensus is that Rocker's Dad might be the most dangerous enemy that any of them have.
If our group ever actually plays, I hope that I'll get to play this character. And that he will end up having to either chop off or lose his hand.
