This was my entry for the DOM grey BPN comp.
Other entries (and this one again) can be found on Department Of Misinformation
Linus Price is a very successful Darknight mole working his way up through the hierarchy of cloak. So far he has been keeping his head down and leaking information to his controller.
However he has a problem.
The above BPN just landed on his desk with a list of names. The BPN has already been issued and it is too late to stop it. He knows that some of the people on the list are dark night and:
Mr Price has another problem.
In a few weeks time he is due to marry socialite Jackelyn Natch. Miss Natch has a past that Mr Price suspects she will not be too willing to leave behind. In short he is rather jealous of the numerous ex's . He has been 'gathering' and fabricating incriminating evidence on his main rivals for some time - just in case he needed to 'remove' them.
Now he is a position to kill two birds with one squad.
Cloak sent over list A.
The squad will be given list B.
Mr Prices problems will be solved as long as the responding squad are good stupid little ops and don't ask too many questions.
For the sake of the ops its kind of hoped that they do.
At the end of the day it all comes down to the squad realising there is something fishy about the list of names that have been given, and thus eventually realise that Price is the source of the 'error'. There are a number of clues to this, starting with the briefing and getting more obvious as things go on.
It is suggested that if the squad ask any questions after the briefing and do any form of detective work that they are rewarded with clues that there is a problem. The BPN states investigate and asks for I&I.
If (as I suspect some squads will) they simply take the evidence from Price and go out and assassinate every one on the list, then cloak are going to be a little upset that the loyal ops and employees have been offed. Also the moment they leave the office Price will be quickly fabricating evidence against the squad to cover himself once the 'error' comes obvious.
As a result the squad have to realise there is a problem and act fast if they are going to cover their own arses on this one. Make it fairly easy to work out something is wrong but make them work to find out what.
Mr Price has a nice but small office, he is relatively young looking and seems to be doing quite well for himself. There is very little personal in the office, except for a photo on the desk of a very striking woman in a rather expensive looking ballgown. If the characters note the photo (and she is striking enough that if they have hormones they will) he will proudly inform them that it is his fiancée and then get down to business.
Any op who keeps track of the social life of Mort might recognise her as socialite Jacky Natch who is due to be married in 3 weeks. (Third eye's "Eye About Town" ran a 3 minute piece on it a few nights back)
As well of the list of names they are expecting Price hands them some 'evidence' of the dark night connections. This is the first clue that something is not quiet right as they squad should only be expecting a list.
The info in the files is faked but it is faked by a man who does it for the best, as a result it is highly unlikely that based just on the contents of the file the squad will get suspicious. It is when they start comparing this data with reality that bells should start ringing.
As a result, unless they are really paranoid, let Price brush off the 'extra' data with some comment that some times cloak are more efficient than they realises, and point out that this at least gives them something. Of course Price is hoping they will swallow his faked evidence and just go out and kill his rivals, so he wont stress their looking for more evidence too much. He will also stress that any problems or further stuff like warrants are required should be brought directly to him- making sure they have his direct line number. He actually has the Warrants available there and then if the squad wants them, (which he will point out). He needs to keep this 'in house' for as long as possible.
5 people are included below, but feel free to expand on this to add flavour of your own wop. For each person you add you should decide on a connection to Natch, some evidence that has been fabricated, and a clue will suggest this person probably is not guilty.
Ex op and now up and coming contract killer. Tempest is really enjoying the highlife and play boy life style his new position gives him.
The connection Price sees him as a rival because he knows Natch enjoys being pampered a the reflected glory spending time with Tempest gives her.
False Evidence: Macrey became a contract killer shortly after the death of his last squad (Giger's children) on a BPN against Dark night. Asking round will reveal there were problems in the squad because he wanted to go it alone before the unfortunate demise of the squad. Price has generated evidence that makes it looks like Tempest paid Dark night to bump off the squad and leave him free to go on the circuit. He has bank records that show a large purchase of shares by an account in Macrey's name from an account that Price claims is a Dark night drop point. [Any financier in the squad will know that this is a common way of making such payments]
Clue: Socially up to date ops will know that that Miss Natch appeared on the arm of Tempest at a the premier of "Nine."- one of the big block busters of the summer. Its not too much to go on. But if they realise there is a connection here it might make them look for more later.
Herb is a high ranking employee in the department of supplies.
The connection He dated Natch about a year ago and they have remained good friends since.
Fake Evidence: Price gives the squad an audio slug, (complete with time and date and place stamp) of some deal being made between 'Aster' and 'an unnamed Dark night agent' arranging for SLA 'supplies' to be redirected to a dark night warehouse. He also has details of a corresponding Yellow BPN which dealt with the recovery of said supplies form the ware house. The quality of the slug is not brilliant but the place stamp makes it clear the recording was made at Asters own uptown apartment.
Clue: Herb was no where near his house at that time and date. He was in central at a bar waiting for Natch. What is more, being chipped, he can conclusively prove it. He bought 2 drinks whilst he was waiting. One at 19:54 and the next at 20:12. The Time stamp says the recording was made at 20:04 and it takes over a hour to get from the central bar to his home. Of course if they do not challenge Herb with the 'evidence' he will not be able to reveal this.
Tom is a hard working and well liked op known for his loyalty to SLA. Feel free to swap him for some character the squad have met in the past if you want to give them an extra hint.
The connection: Yugari was one of Natch's 'first loves'. And the man she talks about most when she wants to put Price down. She also confides in Tom when she wants some one to talk to.
Fake Evidence: In his file if a photo of him with a guy in Dark night interceptor armour. He is obviously handing something over. The date/place stamp places it as happening in downtown sector 87 2 days ago.
Clue: The photo was a last minute patch up job by Price and its is perhaps the weakest bit of evidence he has. In fact it is a reworking of a photo from that premier (again). It was lifted from the Mort Times Online Photo Library. The original shows Tom with Tempest talking quietly in a corner (Tempest was asking for advise on a suitable thank you present for Natch's help). Tom has a copy of the original at home.
When the squad try to find Tom they will discover he and his squad (Mornington Cresent) are on New Paris on a silver BPN and have been for a week. Of course if they want to chase wild geese a trip to New Paris may be on the cards... If they can afford it.
Wrapper works for Karma where he is gaining quite a reputation for 'interesting' ideas. Phantom Pregnancy are trying to head hunt him at the moment, but he is reluctant to leave his current lab behind.
Fake evidence: Price have very good evidence here. Material from wrappers lab containing his personal DNA finger print has turned up in a Dark night lab raid.
Clue: Wrapper has no defence. The material did go missing from his lab and it did turn up in the raid. He reported its loss the the Karma security team as soon as it was noticed and he assumed they were dealing with it. He has no idea how it ended up in the hands of dark night. However now he thinks about it between the last time he saw the sample, and when he realised it was missing Price had visited him in the lab. He had turned up out of the blue to ask Wrapper not to come to the wedding, despite Natch having sent him an invitation. Wrapper had been very firm with the man that if she wanted him there he was going to go, and there was nothing price could do to stop him.
In fact Price himself lifted the sample and sent it on to his Dark night controllers. He has no idea what it was he stole. The Lab it was recovered from were trying to analyse it.
Alber is an attaché working in the new paris Embasy. He is SCL 4. The players snooping into this man is going to attract attention, so if they get this far without realising something has gone wrong have control really question what they are up to and call into question the names on their list.
The Connection: Alber met Natch on a flight back from New paris and they got talking. He mentioned he had a problem in that he needed escorts for formal embassy dinners and parties, but did not know any one on Mort and was a little reluctant to use 'escort' services cos of problems in the past. She quickly volunteered to accompany him.
The Fake evidence. Price thinks he has done well on this one. He managed to find a New Paris secuity report on La Croix., which he has doctored to read as if there is a possible Dark night connection.
Clue However Price has minimal experience with New Parisian, and actually any one who knows the language will immediately spot the inconsistency of the added in information.
The BPN states third eye coverage. This is because pictures of Dark night agents being brought in always makes good news. In order to facilitate this third eye have been given a copy of the real list by Cloak. Thus if the squad contact third eye to discuss arrangements for a particular person some confusion should occur.
Similar confusion can occur if they contact control for more info on the people on their list. As the list that control have related to that BPN is completely different.
Obviously if they contact cloak in general and not Price directly it will soon be picked up on.
Price will be monitoring the squad as best he can. However he is not high enough up to have easy access to chips etc. He will try to get details of the squad wavelength of them so he can listen in.
It is possible that they may decided Natch is some Dark night super link seeing as she keeps turning up connected to these people. Should they follow this up they will find a very intelligent stunningly beautiful woman. Natch is not an SLA employee. Some five years ago she went to Meny on the finance package, however she failed to pass the basic combat course and so dropped out. Basically she can not stick it in combat. The Mort time premier report made a snide remark about her being scared by the gun fire on the film. However despite not completing Meny she did make a number of useful contacts that are now paying of.
She is an expert social climber, her use of Tempest and LaCroix hint at this. She is very well read and more than capable of holding an informed conversation on almost any subject. Her marriage to Price may seem a little out of character: Sadly, she actually loves the man.
Obviously she has no idea about his dark night connections, although she is more than aware of his jealousy - she sees it as the one fly in the ointment of their relationship.
Hopefully at some point the players will realise that the list is fake, and then put together the connection to Natch clues and realise that Price is responsible.
What they do next is up to them. They may decide to go to cloak, in which case they will be throughly debriefed/ interrogated/ tortured depending on how believable their story comes across when they tell it, and how many loyal operatives/employees they have 'dealt with' before they work it out.
There is the basic fact that, through little fault of there own, they haven't completed the BPN. However if they do hand over Price and the proof cloak MIGHT be generous in this respect and award them a bonus SCL/Credit payment to make up for it. Alternatively they can always go and do the real BPN (see below)
Of course if they take their time Price will be able to generate fake evidence that suggests the squad are Darknight operatives and that they are discrediting/ removing the loyal operatives. In which case they could easily find themselves without a leg to stand on. Also once Price is happy he has covered his back he will be warning his controllers that the squad are out there and the contents of the real list. Obviously darknight will move to cover these problems, so if the squad do not act fast they nay find themselves too late.
It is possible the players might obtain the real list of control/ third eye/ cloak/ some other contact, whether or not they deal with Price's treachery. Certainly if they do pick up the real list and just get on with the job and ignore Price he will be a little annoyed his plan failed, but in a few months he will be in the position to remove his rivals anyway. As long as the squad keeps quiet about the "misunderstanding" he will probably see no reason to act. However if they do make waves they may be come a threat..
And we know all to well what Mr Price does with those he considers a threat....
If the squad do get 'distracted' by Prices list you might want to have Dark night move to neutralise the danger to those on the real list, and thus force the squad to move a little quicker. These efforts could come in extracting the loyal dark night whose cover has been blown before cloak and move in and arrest them, or simply in killing those who know too much. Alternatively if your players like a little more gunplay in their games you could send a dark night squad up against them, thus covering Price's treachery.
To cover the 'real BPN' option here is the real list and their dark night connections. If you add more 'suspects' to Prices's list , you may want to balance it out by adding more to this one.
She works in Department of Shocks shares and bonds and has been feeding false information into the stock market machines and thus effecting the prices of varias key shares. All the data for these 'miss-entries' are in the cache of her computer at work
She is a Dark night wannabe who has swallowed hook line and sinker their lies about a better life is SLA is brought down. However she is very carefully and there is no literature or similarly incriminating evidence at her apartment. Thus short of a confession it is going to be hard to prove that she is not just incompetent. - A little use of that intimidation/ interrogation skill may well be in order :)
Connection to Price: She knows that Dark night have an agent working in cloak because she recieved instructions from him once. But she has no idea who he is.
Is an operative. A couple of Darknight BPN's he has done have gone pear shaped for no obvious reason. In fact Arc is innocent, these problems were just 'one of those things'
Connection to Price: On one of the pear shaped BPNs his squad found a data slug containing all the info on their squad in the hands of the Dark night team they were investigating. With the slug was an encoded memo from some one called L.P. Unfortunately the slug and the memo were destroyed in the explosion, so the squad have to take his word for it.
An Employee in Department of Data retrieval. Spence had been feeding choice bits of information to Dark night for years now using an anonmous mail drop. In exchange he thinks dark night are building up a nest egg and a new identity for his 'retirement'
Connection to Price: There isn't one. But Price fears that being in Dara Retrieval Spence may have seen enough information to put his identity together.
Owns a popular Night club in up town. A number of known Dark night sympathises that cloak is keeping an eye on. It is possible that Lewis is aware of who these people are and is assisting them in some way. Cloak want this checking out.
Connection to Price: Early in his career Price was brought her to be wined dinned and persuded. Lewis is rumoured to have an incredible memory for names and faces. It is one of the 'selling' points of his club that he never forgets a client.- (In fact this is a rouse produced using an extensive data base and a very efficient secretary and a tac com. However Price's visit and who he talked to is in the database.)
Glover works as warehouse manager for DPB in their Uptown storage depot. This is a large and rambling warehouse that supplies most of the central and uptown outlets. As a result there are miles of boxes and deliveries coming in and out every day. Glover has made avaiable a small corner of the warehouse for storage by Dark night, who can bring in their own trucks and boxes. He has also provided them with legitimate looking id cards so they can bring the stuff onto site without being searched or arousing the suspicions of the security.
Glover is not a Dark night convert. His loyalty is insured by the fact that Dark night are holding is eldest daughter. His family and neighbours believe she is at finishing school on New Paris. The charade is maintained by regular letters, phone calls and e.mails from her, that appear to come from new paris. In fact she is being held in a Uptown condomion, Sector 18.
Of course there is no way that the squad can find out this information, as all the people dealing with Glover, making the drops etc are too low down the ladder to be given such info. But IF you are feeling soft or want to let the squad have a feel good moment you could have one of the NPC's with Rival company have heard some clue about a girl being held hostage at that address, or may be let them trace back the physical location via the redirect Price set up. Guarding her are 4 Dark night with skills and equipment comparable to the squad. Unless the squad really fuck up they will not be expecting anything.
Connection to Price: Price set up the rerouter through the sla-net for these communications. It was a bit of a rush job and if anyone takes a good look at it the source will be obvious.
Obviously the protagonists want to be on a par with the squad, so that if they do decide to resort to roll playing they will have a suitable challenge. So rather than give complete characters I have instead listed the skills/ abilities the NPC is known for and any outstanding equipment they have access to. Scale the actually ranks to fit with your squads abilities.
Christian Macrey A.K.A. Tempest, - Death Squad Package, Flexible weapon (uses a customised pair of nunchakus), Gymnastics. Wears maxed out Phase inc.armour.
Herbert Aster - Employee, Business admin, SLA info, Communique.
Tom Yugari - KMS package, Rifle [He has the sniper rifle with the dial up ammo facility on DOM - sorry the name escapes me atm.], Marksman, climbing, Wears Silverback.
William Rhys Ap Earners AKA Wrapper - Lots of research orientated skills and not a lot else.
Alber La Croix - Communique, Diplomacy, Bribery. Pistol (carries a fen 603)
Natch - Seduction, Diplomacy, Evaluate opponent.
Price - SLA info. Communique, Rival company info, Computer subterfuge, Forgery. Psychosis :Jealousy.
Patricia Walsh - SLA information, Business finance, Commnique. Carries a "self defence" CAF47
Micheal Arc - Strike squad. Drive mili, Pistol, Martial arts (uses 2 mulilators in hand to hand). Crackshot armour
Richard Spence - SLA info, Rival company info, Computer subterfuge
John Lewis - Seduction, gambling, Brawling, Blade 1h (uses an illegally held Vibro sabre), Rival company info,
Matt Glover - No real abilites going for this guy - If he had may be his daughter would not be in the mess she now is.