The Shadowrun Supplemental #16

What's Up Chummer?
The PCs have a job, and a problem. Early Monday afternoon, their Fixer calls, saying there was a Johnson ready with some work for them. The meet is to be at Cicero's, a known Mafia hangout, for ten o'clock P.M.-sharp. At eight o'clock, the PCs are getting ready for the meet when Joe calls one of the PCs. Joe can be a friend of a friend, contact or an old drinking pal of the PC. Joe is incoherent and distraught, rambling about "she's leaving me." He hangs up on the PC, and it's time to get to work.

Tell it to Them Straight
It's 10P.M., and it's time for the meet at Cicero's. If the PCs are smart and case the joint before going in, they will notice both Mafia thugs and Yakuza thugs stationed around the block. Oddly enough, they don't look like they are preparing to kill each other.

Cicero's isn't a bad restaurant, if you like equal parts of Mafia thug with your pasta carbonara. The front door has a sign in the window "Closed for Private Party"-maybe someone told them it was your birthday. Seeing as you have an invite, and no one is stopping you, you walk right in. Inside is a mobster convention of the low-level leg-breaker type. On the left, a contingent of Yakuza, probably all kung-fu motherfraggers, warily eye the right, populated by beefy Mafioso. As the door closes behind you, all comversation stops and eyes lock onto your group. One of the Mafioso breaks away from a knot of thugs and approaches. Scarred face and glinting cybereyes lets you know this is Johnny Valentine, one of the hardcore leg-breakers for the Mafia in this burg.

"What, you were expecting some fraggin' Don to meet you? They ain't got time for you. I ain't got time for you, but I'm makin' it because this is a family affair, ya see? Siddown over there and I'll let you know the score." Johnny indicates a central table with a whiplash-lean faced Yakuza, Nakamura, seated on the left end.

After the group is seated, Nakamura begins. "Johnny and I have a mutual problem. His brother and my sister have been carrying on in a most disrespectful manner to both of our families. Since neither of us can send our own people out to . . . straighten them out? We need outsiders."

"Now we ain't askin' ya to whack them. Just separate them an' get em to us."

"Kill my sister, and you will surely have more things to worry about than what color to dye your hair next. So ka?"

PCs who are watching the street will notice a man and woman approaching the restaurant, apparently having an argument. On a successful Perception (5) test, the observant will notice the glint of a gun in the man's hand. Multiple successes will let the PC recognize the man as Joe, the caller from earlier, a freelance electronics wiz. Either the PC who makes the observation will say something, or some thug will, but in any case, Johnny Valentine will look outside:

Johnny Valentine looks out the front window, bored for the moment with his Yakuza counterpart's haggling with the PCs. Recognition dawns across his face as he stands up from the table and cries out, "Joey!" That's when the first gunshot rings out, shattering the front window and sending a Yakuza soldier to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs. Chaos follows, with all the thugs in the room drawing their own guns and opening fire on the opposite side.

At this point, the PCs have to decide what to do. Do they throw in their lot with one or another group, or try to just get out of the restaurant? The front entrance becomes the center of the gunfight, but there is a back entrance out through the kitchen. When the PCs manage to get out to the street, read them the following description:

The Yakuza and Mafia continue to exchange gunfire in the night as you beat a hasty retreat from the meet gone wrong. As you cut through an alleyway, heading back to the main drag, you notice someone dragging a body from the main street into the alley. The harsh glare of a streetlamp soon tells you that that someone is a ghoul, complete with fresh bloodstains around his mouth and a cast-off janitorial uniform with nametag: Bob. An open manhole in the center of the alley is the obvious destination for Bob the Ghoul.

When the runners hit the street again, after their encounter with Bob the Ghoul, they will run into Johnny Valentine again, along with three of his Mafioso buddies. Johnny sports a wound in his leg, but he looks as mean as ever and still wants the runners to find his brother, now more than ever. He fears that the Yaks will blame Joe for the shootout and kill him. He offers the runners five thousand nuyen apiece if they can get Joe back to him. He stresses that time is of the essence, saying that Joe probably has only 48 hours before the Yaks can track him down wherever he's staying. If the runners accept, Valentine will give them a chip with the last known address he had for Joe, over in Everett on King Street. The runners are to find Joe and bring him back to Cicero's, where Valentine will be waiting.

Hooks
First, the PCs have to survive the shootout. While neither the Yakuza nor the Mafia are specifically targeting the runners, they will if they get in the way. This could draw the runners into a nasty gunfight with a lot of people, as well as earn them some serious enemies.

Second, there is Joe. One of the PCs knows him, at least peripherally, and with Johnny Valentine's exclamation before the shooting started, it could be reasonably inferred that his brother is the same Joe that called the runner earlier. What clinches it is when the PCs run into Valentine after the shootout.

Third, even if they don't want to get into bed with the Mob, there is the chance they could find Joe and turn him over to the Yakuza, if that was their pleasure. Doing this will earn the runners an enemy in the form of Johnny Valentine, which might give them some pause.

Assuming they take the job, good runners will try to do a little legwork before riding off to the rescue. Matrix searches will reveal very little on Johnny's brother beyond what is on the chip. His name is Joe Valens, he lives in Everett, and his occupation is listed as "Systems Design Engineer," a fancy way of saying Joey is someone who puts hardware and software together into something that actually works. His apartment is located on King Street, not the best neighborhood in Everett, but far from the worst.

Pushing the Envelope
The PCs aren't in the best position to negotiate anything. With tensions as high as they are between the Yakuza and Mafia, wiser heads will suggest accepting what they are offered by Valentine. Maybe, when their position is more advantageous they can bargain, with either the Mafia or the Yakuza.

Debugging
What if the PCs don't want anything to do with the hunt for Joe? Well, it won't be long before the Mob finds out that Joe called at least one of the runners the night of the shootout. From there, the Mob will apply pressure on the runners to get the job done. And if they refuse to cooperate, the Mafia has plenty of concrete shoes about to take care of troublesome 'runners.

What's Up Chummer?
Now the runners have to find where Joe is. Following the information on Joe that Valentine gave them leads the runners to an apartment in Everett on King St. On the third floor of a five-floor walk-up is Joe's place. It's a rat hole in a rest's nest; but then again it is also a dry place to sleep at night, more than a lot of people have.

Tell It to Them Straight
If the runners decide to take a look-see in Joe's apartment, read them the following:

For the brother of a big-time mob enforcer, Joe Valens lived in a drekhole of an apartment. It didn't help that someone tossed the joint pretty good. The synthleather couch was slashed up nice. The trid set smashed to bits, the kitchenette a shambles of strewn food containers and broken appliances. The dingy bathroom is a mess; even the toilet was broken to pieces. No one's home, at least not now, but it doesn't look like Joe left with anything other than the clothes on his back.

If they decide to camp out and see who turns up at the apartment, read them this:

You settle in to watch and wait, hard to do when you have a time limit on the job, but sometimes necessary. But all good things come to those who wait, and this job is no exception. At around two in the morning, the day after the shootout, the first visitor to the King Street building arrives. He's a medium-height human, dressed in a worn sweatshirt and synthetic denim jeans. His face is obscured by the sweatshirt's hood, but the furtive way he looks about tells volumes about who he is and why he's here.

This is Joe, arriving back at his apartment to gather some of his things. He knows that people are looking for him, so he chose to come back when he figured that people would be paying the least amount of attention. He couldn't have been more wrong; both the runners and the Yakuza are watching for him to return to his apartment. The Yakuza have already been there, tearing it apart for clues as to where he was hiding, but found nothing. When the runners finally confront him, he'll be wary at first. But eventually, if they gain his trust, he'll break down and tell his sob story:

"Look, I'm sorry I got you into this, ok? I didn't know who to call. Couldn't call my brother, that'd be nuts. He would just want to put some goons on me and lecture me about family and duty and crap. It's my life, you know? I don't want anything to do with his slotting Mafia. That's why I changed my name, stayed away from the old neighborhoods. When I met her, man, it was like love at first sight. Sure, I knew who she was from her family name. I mean, I ain't in the Mafia, but I'm not a beetlehead, scan? So we met at a local coffee shop, we kept things as low-key as possible. Then our brothers found out. And they started leaning on us both to split up. But we were still together. Then she started talking about how she had to go talk to her brother. Yesterday she said she had made up her mind, she had to do what needed to be done. I begged her not to go. I told her that he'd never let her loose again. But she's a stubborn one; we argued outside of a restaurant. I had brought a gun along, just an old revolver that I kept around because of the neighborhood. I waved it around while we were arguing, but she just wouldn't listen. Then the shooting started and I heard shouting. I hit the ground, I'm no fool. There were ghouls running all over the place, grabbing the wounded and hauling them off to the sewers. It was like some bad B-grade sim. I got the hell outta there, crawled under a car and then ran. I didn't see what happened to her... have you? If you know anything, you gotta tell me!"

After Joe gets done with his story, let the runners begin to try and explain things before hitting them with the Yakuza Thug Squad(tm).

Hooks
The runners have a couple of choices in this scene. They can lie in wait outside the apartment, inside the apartment or in the building. If they choose to wait inside the apartment, modify the second blurb to reflect that. The runners who stay outside will see the people who follow Joe to the apartment, but if everyone is inside, they're in for quite a surprise.

If the runners take too long to follow up on Johnny's chip's info, you can have them find the apartment more of a ruin after a shootout between Joe and the Yaks. A bloodstain by the window will be the only trace of Joe, however, but that will allow the runner to track him, either by magic or by following up quickly with street docs on gunshot wound victims.

After the Yakuza thug squad hits, and presuming everyone is still alive, the runners can use the attack and vague hints about where his girlfriend is to lure him to whichever side they want to turn him over to. Or, the runners can cut Joe loose and let him fend for himself.

Pushing the Envelope
If the runners are having too easy a time finding Joe, or you want to make things more interesting, you can include as many false trails as you think are necessary to make the runners really work at tracking Joe down. You can also increase the number of and/or skills on the Yakuza thug squad for when it is finally time to have a shootout. If they mopped the floor with the Yakuza, you can always have a bunch of Mafia thugs show up with Johnny Valentine and have them "suggest" that the runners hand Joe over. This could make for some interesting role-play as Joe pleads with the runners to not turn him over and the runners argue whether or not they can trust Valentine to keep his word.

Debugging
If the runners kill Joe, or the Yakuza kill Joe, well, what a fine mess this is. If the players kill Joe or allow the Yakuza to kill him, they have earned Johnny Valentine as an enemy. Use your discretion as to what level of an enemy he is. It might be best to start Johnny off as a level 1 enemy, only to increase it later as he gains time to concentrate on hunting down the runners.

If the runners get a hold of Joe, and bring him to the Mob, Valentine will actually pay the runners what he said he would, 5000 per surviving runner. They now have Valentine as a contact, should they wish to work for the Mafia more. He could also be a good contact for acquiring weapons or other illegal gear. Joe might also ask the runners at some future point to help him out, most likely to help him get out from under his brother's thumb. Which could be an interesting dilemma for the runners if the Mafia has employed them on jobs.

If the runners get a hold of Joe, and bring him to the Yakuza. This is just as bad for Joe as if the runners had killed him. Nakamura isn't interested in his story, just revenge. The Yakuza will kill Joe and send parts back to Johnny as a message. This will also earn the runners Johnny Valentine as an enemy, as he will blame them for his brother's death.

If the runners let Joe go off on his own, it's up to the GM whether or not he actually survives on his own. He might not be the same kind of hardcase that his brother is, but he has managed to make it this far on his own. If the runners could use someone that can provide them with electronics help, he can even be used for a contact. Only through exceptional role-playing should he be added as a Level-2 contact or above.

Johnny Valentine
Johnny Valentine is from a family of Mafia leg-breakers. His father broke legs for the Dons, same as his father and so on. Young Johnny ran numbers for the local capo years back, before he started down the same path as his father. Johnny excels at making people understand that their interests coincide with the Don's interests. Over the past couple of years, he's brought in enough "business" that the Don has let him use their cyberware clinic to give him an edge in dealing with troublesome "clients."

Johnny has been getting more involved in the political side of Mafia business as of late. He wants his problems with his brother solved quickly so that there are no problems down the line for his "work" at the polls. If asked, Johnny would complain that people really don't understand how much work it takes to get people to go out and do their civic duty and vote - the way the Dons want them to, of course.

Joe Valens
Joe Valens is Johnny Valentine's younger brother. Joe bolted from the Family a couple years back and has been scraping together a living on his own, using his talents as both a decker and electronics specialist to make ends meet. He wants nothing to do with the Mafia, and goes to great lengths to make sure that he's not working for them whenever someone comes to him with a job offer. His troubles increased greatly when he met Nakamura's sister. Always a rebellious child, Nakamura's sister wouldn't stand for Joe's plan to hide away from both the Yakuza and Mafia. She wanted to confront her brother and make them leave the two alone. And that's when all the trouble started.

Nakamura
When the Yakuza soldier's sister started dating Johnny Valentine's brother, Nakamura was forced to do something he didn't want to do: talk to his rival, Johnny Valentine. The two set aside their rivalries long enough to agree to a plan to separate their siblings so that business could get back to normal - and they could get back to wiping the floor with each other.

Bob the Ghoul
There isn't much left upstairs in Bob the Ghoul's head. A one-time social worker who contracted the Krieger strain, "Bob" has reverted to a nearly animalistic existence. Haunting the sewers in his cast-off jumpsuit over the one relic of his normal life-the armor vest he was required by regulations to wear when visiting clients- Bob lives a claw to thighbone life. But he is quite the expert in ghoulish cuisine, able to determine if a chunk of flesh is "ripe" enough to eat and where it came from with a sniff from his nose. It's not much, but it's all he has now.

Mafia Thugs (5)

B	Q	S	C	I	W	E	M	R
5	4	4	3	4	3	6	-	4

INIT: 4 + 1d6
Dice Pools: Combat 5
Karma Pool/Professional Rating: 3/3
Race: Human

Active Skills: Car 3, Etiquette 3 (Mob 4, Street 5), Interrogation 3, Intimidation 4, Negotiation 3, Pistols 5, Shotguns 5, Unarmed Combat 3, Knife 3, Club 3
Knowledge Skills: Area Knowledge (local turf), Local Politics 2, Rumor Mill 4, Smuggling Routes 2, Underworld Finance 3, Underworld Politics 3
Weapons: Ares Predator [HP, SA, 9M, 15(c), 2 clips regular ammo] Range (TN): 0-5 (4), 6-20 (5), 21-40 (6), 41-60 (9)
Defiance T-250 [SH, SA, 10S, 5(m), 15 shells (slug)]
Range (TN): 0-10 (4), 11-20 (5), 21-50 (6), 51-100 (9)
Armor: Lined Coat [4/2]

Yakuza Thugs (5)

B	Q	S	C	I	W	E	M	R
5	4	4	3	4	3	6	-	4

INIT: 4 + 1d6
Dice Pools: Combat 5
Karma Pool/Professional Rating: 3/3
Race: Human

Active Skills: Car 3, Etiquette 3 (Yakuza 4, Street 5), Interrogation 3, Intimidation 4, Negotiation 3, Pistols 5, Submachine Guns 4, Unarmed Combat 3, Knife 3, Club 3
Knowledge Skills: Area Knowledge (local turf), Local Politics 2, Rumor Mill 4, Smuggling Routes 2, Underworld Finance 3, Underworld Politics 3
Weapons: Browning Max-Power [HP, SA, 9M, 10(c), 2 clips regular ammo]
Range (TN): 0-5 (4), 6-20 (5), 21-40 (6), 41-60 (9)
Uzi III [SMG, BF, 6M, 24(c), 3 clips regular ammo, folding stock for 1 point recoil compensation, top-mounted laser sight]
Range (TN): 0-10 (3), 11-40 (4), 41-80 (5), 81-150 (8)
Armor: Lined Coat [4/2]

Yakuza Hit squad (3)
A step up from the usual Yakuza thug, this hit squad trio specializes in taking out people for a purpose. They work well together and will try to complete their assignment swiftly and brutally. There is no mercy to be had from these assassins.