With apologies for all of the references I'm stealing...
"When Angels go bad, they go worst of all. Remember, Lucifer was an Angel..."
Somewhere in Downtown Sector 4138/C is the Church of the Immanent Escheaton (CIE). A recently formed religious group, they preach that the end of days is coming, and thus everyone should be prepared to meet the end with a cleansed soul. Those that have impurities upon their soul will linger in eternal torment in the barren voids of Limbo, forever denied the grace of those souls that know the Truth of Existence. Originally, this would not bother the authorities on Mort so much, after all another group of religious whack-jobs is nothing new for Downtown.
Of course, if that were all there is to it there would be no need for the BPN. Station Analysis knows two things that are not on the BPN. First, the group is the 'cult of personality' of a deranged rogue Necanthrope, and second that they have recently acquired a supply of a very virulent biotoxin. Neither of these is considered fit for release to the Operatives until they accept the BPN. Once they accept, the characters are charged with finding the CIE and stopping the leader setting off a bioweapon that would sterilise the Downtown sector and the Uptown above it. Why doesn't Cloak do something about this? They will do. Six hours after the characters depart, a Cloak team will follow to 'purify' the entire Downtown sector of anything living. You didn't tell your players? Good.
This relies upon a couple of details of StewWoP. 1) Downtown is actually physically underneath Uptown. Rain flows down, air flows up through the gratings, but there is no big 'sealed off barrier' that lets nothing through. Therefore, a gas attack in Downtown could affect Uptown. 2) Necanthropes can go 'rogue', with their own delusions. 3) Most people in the world are apathetic bastards. They wouldn't lift a finger to call a repairman if they thought someone else would (several housing blocks have frozen to death during cold periods, as no-one would phone the repairman).
So why would the characters take this BPN? Because Uptown Sector 1274/C is their home Sector (you may have to change the designations in the BPN) and nobody else looks to want the BPN (this is down to pure apathy). The other Slops are giving the BPN a wide berth, after all just because they live in that sector... besides, some other squad is probably going to take it. Why risk their necks? Someone else can do that stuff... Make it clear to the characters that nobody else is going to do it. Unless they want their home sector to be 'affected' by the target of a Black BPN, they are going to have to do something about it because nobody else could give a damn.
[The BPN halls in StewWoP are no doubt slightly different than in your own. You may have to modify the details of this part to fit your own WoP.] After standing in line for hours behind a fresh squad of SCL 10 Ops straight out of Meny, the characters finally reach the front of the queue and have their BPN Request Forms, Clearance Confirmation Forms, and Squad Availability and Liability Forms (and whatever other paperwork you feel like saddling your players with) checked and countersigned for this visit. From there, they are let through into the BPN Hall proper where large stands line the walls and jut out at random places, each covered with little blue scraps of plastic-coated paper. The hall itself is the size of several football pitches, and is crammed with Operatives each jostling to get the numbers of the 'cushy' assignments or racing to an appointment with their caseworkers in the offices branching off in various directions. Old and torn furniture is provided for the Operatives but there's about ten people for every one seat. It's humid, noisy and cramped. Only the guards watching down from a first floor gantry ready to stun those starting more than minor scuffles prevent the room turning into a war zone. Each subsector that the station covers has it's own area of boards that offers 'home-town' BPN's.
Assuming the characters check it, there are representatives from several squads lounging around the board, yawning, smoking, sizing each other up and generally being bored out of their skulls. All that's left on the board is a Blue for SCL 10's (a weenie BPN that would have the squad working for Sanitation) and the Black detailed above. If the Ops ask anyone whether they have thought about taking the Black, play up the boredom of the responses and the lacklustre tone of voice: "No way, let someone else do it..." "It's not like I can do anything about it..." "Between you and me? I say we leave it for Ops who can do it, we've got no chance..." Though they will talk up a storm, the other Operatives have no intention of taking the BPN. It's up to the characters.
Try to influence them on this one, but don't make it obvious that they Must take this BPN or your plot is ruined. If the characters don't have the hero complex needed to prove themselves, let them take the Blue (apart from the Black, it's a very slow day and there are many more Ops than BPN's). The Blue is a request to guard a street maintenance team in Downtown Sector 4138/C, covered by Third Eye (see Variations for more details).
The caseworker that authorises the BPN's will sign off the required paperwork (after several hours of waiting) and give contact details for Malachi Ross. If the characters ask for any more details, such as 'Why is this a Black', the case worker only knows that it puts the character's sector at great risk (pulling the strings for those with Dependants).
"I found God. He was sitting all alone in the parking lot of a 7-11, looking for the world he had left behind."
Malachi Ross (SCL 3c) is one of the higher-ups in the Department of Investigation. His office door bears the legend 'Malachi Ross, Department of Certain Things', but gives nothing more away. Inside is a single room, rather spartan in furnishing but large. Ross sits at the far side of a wooden desk piled high with dataslugs, disks and paperwork. He greets the characters and briefs them on the specifics of the situation.
A religious movement has started in Downtown. Whilst such a group would normally be left alone, the Church of the Immanent Escheaton is getting a dangerous number of converts. Ross believes that the leader of the group, known only as Melchior must have some kind of ability to sway people's minds, probably Ebb-related, in order for the group to grow so swiftly. This would normally have been a White BPN, however reports have come in that CIE members stole a shipment of a powerful biotoxin as it was on it's way to being deployed in Cannibal Sector 5. Ross is almost certain that Melchior wants to bring about his own doomsday in the Downtown sector. The biggest problem is that the toxin would spread through the Uptown subsector above, including the characters' homes. The toxin has a life span of 12 hours. Beyond that, it remains active in a corpse for up to four weeks. If this toxin gets out, the Uptown subsector and possibly a lot more of Uptown is going to end up seriously dead. The only problem? There's a hell of a lot of Downtown to cover, and not much time to do it in. Should the characters succeed there will be a fifteen minute special on the squad on a leading channel, and further media appearances. If they do this well, the squad is going to get thrown into the limelight, but only after the fact. There would be too much panic if the full situation was released to the populace before it was solved.
He will answer the characters' questions as truthfully as he can. He doesn't know where the CIE meet, or anything about it's leader other than the name 'Melchior'. He doesn't know much about their beliefs. He tells the characters to meet Shiver sergeant Rhodes on Downtown turnoff 462 for information from the scene. With reference to the biotoxin, dress up the above in suitable technobabble if the characters need more details. Ross will hand the group a termination warrant for Melchior and a release form allowing the squad to undertake any means necessary to prevent the release of the biotoxin, then tell them to go. Once they are out of the office, he places a call to Cloak Division. The characters have six hours of in-game time (keep track of this) to complete the BPN.
Sergeant Rhodes will meet the characters on one of the many identical down ramps heading into the grimy mess of Downtown (assume the characters meet with Rhodes while Ross is making the call to Cloak). He's set up a temporary roadblock trying to catch people coming up without the requested passes, but leaves that to the two Shivers he is with to take care of. He hasn't much information for the characters, all Rhodes knows is that there's a sting on the CIE and an Operative squad is taking them in. Given the fanatical nature of the Church members, that's fine by him. He's already lost four Shivers to the cult. Rhodes doesn't know where the CIE are hiding, nor does he know where any suspected members reside. He can however take the characters to the sites of two unusual disappearances and leave them to it. The Shivers have not yet had time to investigate the disappearances, having their work cut out for them dealing with Copycat Killers. The following can be run in any order, or even skipped depending on what the characters choose to do. Feel free to add more to make this long enough.
The first site is the fourth floor apartment of Hrefn (pronounced 'reffen'), a Brain Waster who vanished three days ago. The windows have been smashed by lumps of concrete and the apartment is freezing cold when the characters get there (a half-hour's walk), and there doesn't look to be much about. The whole place is quiet, barely any noise coming up from the street and the floor creaks badly underfoot every time a character moves. None of the Shivers will accompany the characters into the building, leading to a creeping sense of isolation while they are searching. Careful digging around will find two hand-bound books, in a sealed box under the bed, and an appointment card for the removal of a DNA tattoo. One of the books is a diary, with two strings of eight numbers entered for eight and three days ago. The number on the eighth day is followed by the word 'meeting'. The other book looks like a badly bound religious text, containing the details of the incoming Apocalypse and why the pious will assist with the Immanentising of the Escheaton. The receipt is for a seedy place several streets away. As they leave the apartment, the characters will see a street gang running from a very beaten street maintenance crew. If they want to follow, see The Acolytes, below.
The second apartment belonged to Marcus Allman, a human, and is in much worse shape. It's been abandoned for a week and is now infested with rats and cockroaches living on the decomposing food that has been thrown in a corner. The apartment is covered in old clothes, junk food cartons, empty cans of Slosh and other such garbage. That would be bad enough, but nothing has been moved or eaten for over a week, and the place reeks of decay. There are dead rats about under some piles, and roaches crunch underfoot as the squad moves about. Stuffed between the cushion and body of the only chair is a scrap of paper with two more eight digit numbers, separated into groups of four, and the words 'by nine' alongside both of them. Some cursory digging will reveal the same religious text as above, this one in a much worse condition. The two apartments should provide strong contrasts to each other, to set your players on edge.
The tattoo parlour resides down an alleyway out of the way of most human traffic. Run by a Wraith Raider by the name of Bartu, it pulls in those people wanting exotic and alien designs, even though all he does is copy the ones found in common image libraries. Bartu won't mention anything about Hrefn unless the characters ask nicely (money in hand) or otherwise (weapons in hand). Hrefn apparently wanted a particularly striking city scene removing from him. When asked why, he apparently muttered something about being 'impure'. Bartu just shrugged and got to work. Hrefn paid up, but asked to leave by the back way, said he was late for something, by then it was about eight. If the characters decide to look, the back door leads out to another maze of alleyways, but if they try tracking the alleys back to Hrefn's apartment they find that it is almost twice the time it took to get to the front of the tattoo place, and along the same streets (if they do decide to check on foot, rather than by a map, it will take at least one hour).
The clues so far shouldn't have been that hard to find (unless your I&I player has been slamming double vodkas for the past hour), but what to do with them... The clues are there. Each of the eight digit numbers is a Downtown Sector reference point used on computer maps of each sector (the two groups of four are standard in StewWoP, alter for yours as needed). They can work out (going by the note from Allman's apartment) that each of their leads was to have been at one of these points at nine. o'clock. Particularly creative characters would think to check the point mentioned for three days ago in Hrefn's diary along with the co-ordinates for the tattoo parlour would find that the quickest route there would be just over an hour. Checking the four points on a map allows the characters to triangulate where the CIE headquaters would be, an old shopping complex dating back to 250SD.
"Out of the frying pan and into the face of Death himself armed with a Gore-ex rotary tenderiser and bladecaster."
This can be run at any point during the above investigation, while the I&I player is recovering from his headache. A group of what looks like gang members come across the players. A brief altercation ensues. There should be enough members to make the gang a challenge, but each of them should be weak enough to make their only advantage be their numbers. The gang is lightly armoured and carries clubs, knives, CAF pistols/SMG's and some black-market firearms (mainly 10-10's). They are meant to be more of a nuisance than a real threat (even though this is a Black), but can lend some vital clues. If given a chance, once enough have been killed to swing the fight back in the Operatives' favour the remaining gang members will run off back in the direction of the co-ordinates. They will split up, losing the characters in a maze of walkways, planks, pipes and other elements of an urban maze. Of course, this doesn't happen if the characters waste all of them. This encounter does two things: First, it reinforces the false sense of security in the players' minds (the poor fools), secondly it can be a good way to drop clues that the group have missed (another string of numbers with 'be here' on a scrap of paper one of the bodies is carrying).
This false sense of security can be a true boon. After all, the characters have had a nice little investigation, took their time, used their brains, and if he's lucky your I&I player hasn't overdosed on aspirin for his headache yet. They've just beaten off a group of CIE members, how much harder can it be? These Blacks aren't all they're cracked up to be, not really...
Yeah. Right. Keep dreaming. This operation just kicked into high gear. The players probably have an hour left at most before Cloak (or Stigmartyr, depending on your WoP) descends and destroys every living thing in this sector, your characters included. And they have well and truly seen nothing yet. If everything is going according to plan the squad should be moving in on an old shopping complex (think the kind of factory outlet places where the goods are stocked up haphazardly in a huge space... Makro is the best example for UK groups). They should be still thinking enough to sneak, if not hit them with a sniper on the way in. If Melchior realises that there is a squad of Operatives coming for him, he will not hesitate to open the valve and release the biotoxin. Three CIE members ring the shopping complex with sniper rifles (FEN 30-30's, skill as you desire). Characters who studied the map could possibly find an underground way into the complex, bypassing the ring of snipers, or they could take the snipers out (the CIE members don't have IR sights, any good Kick Murder op should), or simply ace Stealth rolls and sneak in unnoticed through a breach in the wall.
Once inside they will be confronted with the CIE, including Allman and Hrefn, and Melchior at the head of the huge space set aside for what looks like worship. From here, it all goes to hell. There are about three or four hundred CIE converts living here full time, making the place look like a refugee camp. The breakdown is Human, Ebon, Brain Waster and Wraith Raider (Stormers don't 'get' religion and the CIE goes against Shaktar ideals. The CIE frowns on drugs, and therefore Frothers). These are armed as the GM sees fit, and are easily enough to rip the characters to shreds. Melchior starts running for the characters as well. From here, the characters have two options. One, they can start shooting (the FBI approach). The fight should have an undertone of disgust as the characters realise that they aren't mowing down people bent on their deaths or even on very much. For them, the CIE was as much a way to relieve the tedium of life as anything else. Are the characters really doing any good by killing them? Melchior will ignore the characters, moving with an almost religious relevance towards the back of the complex, towards a canister with a valve on top. Characters have precisely one minute (sixty seconds) to kill Melchior before he releases the toxin. Whether they can see him or not depends upon how many of the CIE members they strike at (assume one moves up for every character to start with, and each one killed/knocked out is replaced with two others). Even if Melchior does down the players will have to fight their way to the canister. Once they grab this 'holy relic' the acolytes will back off and let them leave. Any 12mm or greater shot at Melchior that misses has a 1 in 10 chance of puncturing the canister and ending it all. If all of the characters walk out of this fight scene you're doing something wrong.
Alternatively, if the characters don't go in all guns blazing, they can try talking to Melchior. Over the course of the conversation it becomes abundantly clear that he is seriously disturbed. He will quite logically and calmly reason that what he is doing is for the best, and that the characters would be doing the right thing by helping him. Pull every string the characters have. Melchior, if they talk to him, should be one scary guy not because he is a Necanthrope but because he is totally, irrevocably insane. It will take a truly fantastic argument to avoid having him release the biotoxin, but if the players manage to come up with such a moment of role-playing, they might just stop him.
In the end, it doesn't really matter how the players stop Melchior. They have to get to an area where they can contact Rhodes, who will relay a simple 'mission accomplished' to Ross. If they do this, they are going to have to recover the canister of biotoxin. By the time they come out of Downtown a Third Eye News group will be waiting for them, going for an exclusive on The Doomsday Cult and the Operatives that Saved the Day. This media attention won't let up for several weeks. The characters are now rich, now stars and so on and so forth. In the far more likely event that Melchior (or a bad shot) releases the toxin, the last thing the characters see is the falling forms of the CIE members as they dissolve back into protoplasmic goo (think of the Central Park FMV in Parasite Eve) before the same happens to them. If the time runs out, even if the characters convinced Melchior not to release the biotoxin, Cloak Division troops in powered armour start an efficient purge of the entire sector with high-powered flame guns. Woe betide the characters that happen to be in their way.
I won't give any of these NPC's statistics. Either they wouldn't be needed (what use would Malachi's stats be?) or they would need modification to match your group. I've assigned rough power-levels based upon your PC's, so you can customise as needed.
Malachi Ross - A reserved, dark skinned man with a military bearing. His hair is worn long, pulled back out of his face. He wears a conservative Arducci suit and almost exudes authority. For a man in charge of the Department of Certain Things, he certainly looks the part. Stats: None needed.
Sergeant Rhodes - A Shiver sergeant wearing Body Blocker armour, with his helmet under his arm. Messy red hair is cut short enough to keep out of his eyes and is plastered to his head by rain. He's gruff, not liking the fact that he knows jack about what is really going on, but is tolerant of the Operatives if they treat him as an equal. Stats: Use the stats for a Shiver in the back of Karma. Tweak.
Hrefn - Brain Waster, meticulously tidy. She always kept her apartment well ordered in order to better channel the Ebb. Melchior's personality overwhelmed her when the two met, with Hrefn slowly moving to the position of Melchior's Vassal. She is now fanatically loyal to Melchior. Stats: Brain Waster at about the level of your PC's.
Marcus Allman - Human slob. A lazy individual, Marcus did nothing but watch TV, smoke, drink and eat. On one of his trips to the store, he met with a representative of the Church of the Immanent Escheaton, who sold him on the religion as a way to express himself rather than shouting at the TV. He swiftly became a devout follower. Stats: Less than the PC's, but fanatical about the CIE
Bartu - Noted for his perfect hand-eye combination and his ability to memorise patterns, this Wraith Raider was born on Mort bur flunked out of Meny. Bored, he tried living as an artist but swiftly found that the World of Progress has no need for most kinds of art. Hooking up with a human DNA tattoo artist, Bartu learned the craft and now has his own parlour. He treats client confidentiality very well, but Operatives with a cause can sway him. Stats: sub-PC level but not by much. High Dexterity.
The Acolytes - Loyal (some would say brainwashed) followers of the Church of the Immanent Escheaton. Some act as recruiters, others act rather more forcefully to gather followers. Stats: Two should be a match for one of your PC's. In the final scene where the PC's get dogpiled the characters should have a very hard time getting back up.
Melchior - Lunatic Necanthrope. Melchior flipped from the dream-visions he saw in the White. He put them down on paper, creating his very own Gospel, which he passed on. While powerful, Melchior is scary simply because he has flipped. He believes that a properly blessed death is the only way for the soul to be purified before death and he does so want to help everyone. Melchior should look like an Angel after meeting H.R. Geiger, and his Gore Cannon looks like an implement of the Divine wrath. Stats: Hard. Melchior should not be easy to kill, but should not be a walkover either. It's a hard balancing act.
If the players take the Blue BPN you can still rope them into this (assuming you like this BPN and don't think 'Yes, they took the Blue' :)). They are guarding the street maintenance team on the street outside Hrefn's apartment. Everything is going quietly until a group of Downtowners wander up and start talking with the Operatives, asking them why they are standing wasting their time when they could be bettering their minds. The group won't take no for an answer, and attacks the characters if they don't agree and volunteer to go along. Characters that go along with the acolytes have a chance to speak with Melchior, to find out what is going on and to try talking him out of it. If the operatives beat the tar out of the acolytes they will find material on the CIE on their bodies. The nearest Shiver they can report to is Sergeant Rhodes, who puts a call through to Ross. Ross offers the characters the chance of the Black with full information.
This plot was inspired by an adventure for Aberrant. Quotes heading the sections come from HoL, Neverwhere and my own fevered imagination. This BPN does include several details probably unique to StewWoP but these should all have been noted. If you feel that this BPN does not include enough violence, then feel free to add more people beating the tar out of your Operatives. If you believe that the clues are too vague... they are. That's part of why it's a Black. It's testing the characters to their limits of thinking and if Stigmartyr turns them into Operative Fried Nuggets it's their own fault. I think that's everything...