[#24] To Help a Man Escape from Himself
Credible threats have been made by this client's worst critic
Everyone has enemies, as it’s a natural part of life for every species. However, some of the more paranoid can see spectres around every corner, irrespective of if they’re actually there or not.
In this session, the cybermercs (the party) meet up with a client to escort them out of the city, via a densely crowded street festival, and a diner where they find an identical twin who claims to be the real client, leaving the party to figure out who’s who.
Setting:
This narrative takes place in Night City, a neon metropolis of towering skyscrapers, high-tech advancements, and urban decay. The city breathes with glitzy life 24/7, and there's nothing that you can't find here for the right price provided you also know the right guy. Even if you don’t, this city’s a melting pot of neocorporations, street gangs, and the increasingly rare ordinary person; use your wits and I’m sure you’ll do just fine.
Specifically this takes place in downtown NC on a dark and stormy night, with a brightly lit festival taking place on street level. The cybermercs need to navigate this festival and make their way to the All Nite Moonlight Diner.
Story Beats:
Meeting the client
Red herrings
A truth revealed
Meeting the client:
We begin in a cramped dirty elevator on the way up to the floor they’re supposed to meet the client. While they’re waiting the cybermercs receive a file from Domino, the local co-ord1, recapping the job: “Collect Ben Abel from unit 45, floor 36 (Passphrase: “and the other on the cat”), and get them to the All Nite Moonlight Diner”. With a ding, the elevator arrives.
If the characters don’t already know each other, a suggested opening is each of them have taken a part-time gig with a security firm to help cover some of their bills. NC can be expensive, and hey, this should be easy enough right?
Ringing the electronic buzzer at unit 45, they are greeted with the phrase “One eye on the frying pan” spoken from a distorted speaker. Respond with the correct passphrase, and Ben opens the door an inch from unit 47, which is opposite unit 45; clearly paranoid as he looks up and down the hallway for anyone else before ushering everyone in.
Ben is a middle aged balding man, with small spectacles, and plain clothing. He continually reiterates the need for discretion, and constantly asks if they were followed or watched. In one corner of the room is a television, which is hooked up to cameras in the hall way, elevator, and the building entrances. He again repeats the plan, which is to use the Sakana2 festival as cover to misdirect anyone following, and to get to the diner where an anonymous driver will take them out of the city before anyone else gets to him first. If any threats appear, then the cybermercs are to do what they do best and take them out.
Clumsily donning a trench coat, wig, and fedora, he gestures to the door and requests that the cybermercs check the hallway before they set off. A mother and small children are returning from shopping, and Ben refuses to step out into the hallway until they’ve entered into their unit (“You never know”); but otherwise makes it to the elevator and down to street level in one piece.
Stepping out onto the street, he almost passes out from the sheer amount of people taking place in the Sakana festival, and a moderate bout of ichthyophobia3
Red herrings:
Giant holograms of sea life fill the sky in a shimmering display of multi-coloured clouds, while down on street level the sides of the road are packed with food vendors, street performers, and charlatans looking to make a quick buck.
As much as the plan is for the crowd to provide cover for this escape, it works both ways and there are several times where Ben can become separated from his bodyguards:
Feel free to use as many or little of the below encounters as you like.
Entering into the crowd, a shoal of people dressed in elaborate fish costumes weave through the crowd reducing visibility immensely and deliberately running through groups of people to split them up. At one point, Ben may disappear under a costume, although brushes it off as nothing to worry about once rescued by the cybermercs.
One of the cybermercs is accused of being a pickpocket, since they’re clearly not interested in the festival so why else would they be here? Unless the quickly escape, then they risk being delayed by a no-nonsense local lawman who comes over to investigate.
A delicious smelling food truck labelled “Taco To-go” drives slowly through the crowd, before deciding to set up shop right in from of the cybermercs and drawing in additional hungry crowds of customers who all press forward, forcing the cybermercs apart.
A genuine thief appears and lifts Ben’s wallet, which causes him to panic before attempting to sprint away. If he loses the cybermercs in the crowd, then once they catch up he states that he was able to get his wallet back with no difficulties, despite the thief being nowhere in sight now.
An observant cybermerc may notice that the local security cameras all seem to be trained on them. There’s a local surveillance hub that they can investigate, however while there’s signs of a forced entry, whoever was watching them is long gone by the time they arrive.
Michele the Magnificent, a sharply dressed street magician, is looking for a volunteer to “teleport” between two boxes, and is insistent that Ben be the one to do it since they’re dressed so distinctly. Looking through the crowd, the cybermercs can spy a strikingly similar person among the audience, who is likely supposed to be the Michele’s actual “random volunteer”.
A truth revealed:
Down a darkened alleyway, they arrive to the All Nite Moonlight Diner. It’s hard to tell who’s inside since the windows don’t look like they’ve been cleaned since the building was built. There’s a smell of grease that’s been shaped into something resembling food, which combines with the smell of cigarettes to form an oppressive blanket on the senses.
Most patrons keep to themselves. There’s a couple having a quiet but heated disagreement, a few gangers examining the spoils of a profitable evening, and several ordinary people just enjoying a quiet burger. At the far end of the bar sits a man with long hair in a trench coat and fedora.
Ben gets jumpy at this last man, who turns to face the cybermercs looking a them through a small pair of glasses and a very familiar face.
Ben (Seated at the bar, now standing) is immediately furious with the cybermercs for leading their stalker straight to him. He informs them that they waited at their unit for as long as possible, but the cybermercs never showed up and so he had to make his way here through the dangerous streets alone. Obviously he’s going to dock their pay for this.
Ben (standing with the cybermercs) exclaims this is ridiculous, and the other Ben is an obvious plant from “them” in order to confuse and divide everyone. They met the party at the agreed time and place, and were never separated from them for more than a moment so how could they not be real?
The cybermercs now need to figure out which one they trust more. During the festival, if:
Ben was separated from the party for more than a minute, then the Ben seated at the bar is the real one
Ben was never separated from the party, then the one seated at the bar is an imposter.
Whichever Ben the cybermercs pick, the other becomes agitated, then panicked. Drawing a sidearm they shakingly demand they be escorted to their driver as per the agreement, and will become violent if something isn’t done, threatening to shoot the other (real) Ben if they don’t get their way. It is up to the cybermercs how they want to resolve this, although if they don’t decide quickly then the Ben’s will resolve it between themselves permanently.
Taking care of this final complication, the surviving Ben thanks the cybermercs for their assistance (Begrudgingly if they chose the other Ben to survive) and makes their way out the back entrance where the driver’s waiting to escort them from NC to an undisclosed safer location.
Job theoretically well done, Domino also sends thanks to the cybermercs and wires payment to each of their accounts; along with a little bonus so they can enjoy the festival.
What did you think? Any ideas, feedback, want anything expanded on, or do you intend to use this in a session? Let me know!
This session was originally written with Cyberpunk Red in mind, and the original prompt for this session was a classic twist ending with an evil twin.
Cowritten/Edited with the assistance of Alsanna.
HowTTaS is unofficial content provided under the Homebrew Content Policy of R. Talsorian Games (Creators of Cyberpunk Red) and is not approved or endorsed by RTG. This content references materials that are the property of R. Talsorian Games and its licensees.”
Fixer in Cyberpunk Red terms. A person who arranges jobs or finds things for people.
Japanese for fish
Fear of fish