A WOLF IN THE FOLD.

Grey BPN

The BPN begins at slayers crib, the players are requested to attend an interview by Charles Madison, A cloak operative. Madison stands six feet at the shoulder, and dresses in immaculate black clothing, complete with a cloak and high collar. Looking somewhat like a man out of time, Madison speaks with the air of one who has seen more than he wanted to.

"You were asked here because of your squads history, it seems that one of our operatives has gone rogue. You are required to bring him back to the fold so to speak."

This is as much briefing as the players are given unless they ask further questions.

The basics of the person who has defected are as follows.

Background: Truman was originally trained for a kick murder role within SLA industries. He was quickly discovered as one who could easily outperform all his peers and was selected for further training within Cloak Division. Rising quickly through the ranks as an assassin without peer, truman was volunteered for the Darkfinder list. He refused, and continued in his chosen profession, increasing his skills to include the nature of poisons and the capabilities of sniping and explosives. Truman started showing signs of disillusion within the ranks, he became increasingly despondent at the missions he was undertaking and one day, did not return from the mission that he had been assigned.

A month passed and as evidence of his missions success came back to the division, he was declared by cloak as a heretic for not returning to the base.

It was at this point that the sanction on his existence was authorised.

The players will be given full access to weaponry, vehicles, and technology to the limits that the gm feels necessary, they will then be given details of known associates that Truman had while still within the division.

The players will be told of three people who knew of him, these are Anastasia, An Ebon who acts as a soothsayer within downtown, Pagan, a kick murder operative based uptown, and Mortis, a Shaktar working within cloak division.

Each one of these people can be summoned by the players to give evidence.

Anastasia is blind, she is an ebon of many years experience, and she is very near the time of change. She put out her own eyes to try and stop the visions. None the less, she is perfectly cognitive and very aware of the nature of what the players have been asked to do. She has brought the cards of fate with her and offers to give the players a reading to try and ascertain what it is that they need to do to complete their contract.

If they do not accept the reading, anastasia is of limited other use. She knows very little else about Truman other than the fact that he had a base in lower downtown on the edge of the carrien sectors and that he had been exposed to darknight for a short while on one of his earlier missions. She is able to give them a location. Should they ask for it.

Should they take the reading, she will draw a five card spread, asking each one of the players (if there are enough) to draw a single card and place it before them, signifying what each one of them means.

The First card is the card signifying who takes the reading. This card will be the Sword of Justice, representing those who are pure of heart and clear of intent, those who are clear of purpose
The Second card is the card signifying those who oppose the players. This card will be purest night, with no stars dotting the velvet blanket. The Cards name is Night.(Gm's should describe the card in such a manner that the night appears Dark)
The Third card is the card representing the players allies. This card will have upon it the cloak of a king, the crown and the sceptre laying by the empty cloak. The Cards name is Power, pure and simple power. (Gm's should draw attention to the cloak rather than the crown and sceptre, giving the impression of cloak division)
The Fourth Card is the card that shows complications in the quest. This card will be the Bloodknife, and represents treachery and double crossing in all its forms. The Bloodknife is so called because it still has the blood of the person who's back it struck on it. (Gm's should hint that the card signifies a choice and possible personal betrayal)
The Fifth Card is the card that shows the outcome of the quest. This card will be the Shadow of Death, signifying the ruler of the cosmos. (Gm's should make reference to the nature of power and the fact that this battle is being fought over a far larger prize than what seems to be on offer)

Mortis is one of the few disavowed shaktar to be still permitted to live on mort. He was dishonoured by retreating in the face of hundred to one odds. He survived by destroying laying charges in a building that he was retreating through and detonating them behind him. He was one of the most honourable shaktar ever to live, and his elders declared that a worse fate for him would be to continue existing in the knowledge that he would not be allowed the release of an honourable death. They took his Shaktar name and braids from him and gave him a human name, the final insult. He waits alone now, shaven of his hair and stripped of his rainiments, waiting for death to come to him.

The players will be granted an audience with him instantly, as if he was waiting for them to call.

He will greet them in a traditional human fashion, and make no attempt to converse in Shaktarian at any point. He is very quiet in his nature and will not meet the gaze of any shaktar who is in the party. Quiet and to the point, he will speak clearly and answer without any variance in his answers.

What he knows of Truman is limited also. He worked with him on several occasions and at one point was part of the squad that encountered the darknight unit that captured them. He was taken with truman to the holding cells of darknight. What he remembers of the assault is limited, the cell attacked from a higher point of view, and took down three of the six members of the squad using long range rifles. The remaining members of the squad were taken down by some form of crowd control weapon, firing large concussive bullets. Mortis suggests that if the squad is to take on the darknight cell, they would be well served by having stun weapons and trying to capture them, as SLA would be sure to provide them with a bonus should they come back with live prisoners. He cannot remember what actually happened whilst they were captured. He will be happy to show them how the squad was attacked, and also to advise on where Trumans downtown base will be and how well armed it is. He will also be happy to show them how ambushes are organised and how Truman will be likely to organise an assault. He will also give them the word "Nocte" as something he remembers from the time he was held, he knows not what it means but believes that it may be a code word of sorts. Finally, he will give them the location of a cache of Darknight weapons and armour, he will not be drawn into a discussion of any sort about how or where he acquired these weapons from, and will speak no further on the matter. He asks, as the players are ready to leave, that if he is of any use to them, when next they see him, grant him the death he so desperately seeks.

The last of Trumans associates, Pagan, is the highest rated kick murder operative in the standard ranks of SLA today. His profile suggests that he is more than capable of killing anything given a day to plan and a blunt spoon to kill them with. He is not of a mood to entertain the players for longer than necessary, and will answer all the questions that they bring to him directly and with no further explanation other than that that was requested.

Pagan holds the memory of his friend close to him, and will not tolerate suggestion that he has turned on SLA. He knows of the downtown base, but he will also (if questioned) tell the players of the incident with Darknight. He is very aware of what happened, as it stands, he was the one who rescued both Mortis and Truman from the darknight cell. The final member of the squad had been fully converted by the time the rescue was mounted, there were some residual effects on Mortis that caused him to flee at a later point, but there was thought to be no other adverse effects on Truman. It appears that this is now some effect that was not detected. Pagan is very knowledgable in the ways of darknight, having killed many of them over the years. The standard method of converting operatives to their cause includes optic flares designed to over load the brain and cause seizures that can only be rectified with specialist chemical therapy. Also such things as bio tech rounds that take over the targets mental processes and confuse friend with enemy, causing a slow but continual breakdown of basic mental processes resulting in the operative finally converting fully to darknight. Pagan will be unwilling to give any explanation as to how he knows all these things, simply stating that he would prefer it if no more of the loyalists were taken by the subversives.

Upon starting out to capture Truman, the players will most likely start at his base, if they do, fine, read on, if they don't, there is very little useful data on Truman in the files. The players may decide to search his house in uptown. If they do, they will discover nothing in the way of conclusive evidence, the only things that have any relevance to the case are several pages of SLA sensitive data that have been stored in his house. There are several plans for the downtown base, detailing the locations of possible sniping areas, and also how the darknight cell is prepared to swoop on the players.

If the players try going through trumans old haunts, they will find nothing more than hearsay on him.

The players can approach the downtown base in any of a number of ways, if they make use of the plans they have, they will find that the plans are accurate for the first part of the insides of the base, however, the rooms are not as marked. Also, the sniping points that are noted on the map are not used, the plans for the base were deliberately left behind by truman when he left. (Gm's may think this a little bit nasty on the players, consider this, Cloak division lose one of their operatives to darknight, they DON'T search his building for plans?)

The Players will eventually make their approach to the building, if they are wearing the Darknight armour and weapons that were shown to them by mortis, they will be fired on from above by a hidden sniper. The sniper is in fact at the top of the base and aiming downwards with a full field of fire to use. He will be sharp and accurate and will spare no mercy for players that are downed by him.
If most of the players are downed, the sniper will be taken out by the darknight cell above him, and the darknight cell will move in to take the players captive.

If they approach the building dressed in normal SLA clothing, truman will appear to give himself up, holding his hands high and appearing unarmed. The squads briefing was to take him alive, so shooting him is not an option. It is at this point, that the darknight cell above will make their move. Striking from above, the cell will utilise all the technology and methods that Pagan (if they spoke to him) advised them of. The techniques that they are using will be in direct contrast to those that Mortis mentioned. The Darknight cell is being led by Mortis himself, and will be acting in a completely different manner than mortis told the players about.. The first move by the darknight cell is a large scale optic concussion device being detonated, this weapon will be fired from above, detonating in the centre of Trumans chest.

If all the players are rendered unconscious by this weapon, they awake in a darknight holding cell, what happens from there is up to the GM.

If some of the players make it through this, Truman is dying, the shot has ruptured several internal organs. As he dies, if one of the players gets to him in time, he will pull them closer and whisper "Ma…..Di….S….." before dying.

The darknight cell will attack if the players look weakened by the assault. They will not put up much of a fight and leave as soon as one of them is injured. As the players take stock of what has happened, Charles Madison appears on the scene, and makes to remove the body by himself. He will make reference to the fact that the players have been hit by the darknight weapon and will make steps to rectify this.

He carries with him a hand held optic rectifier, and insists that the players are all treated on the spot for the effects of the flashbomb that they were subjected to. He informs them that he will treat them all and that they will be slightly disorientated for a while after the treatment. Any players being treated by the device will be rendered unconscious immediately. If Madison gets all the players in this way, they wake up in a darknight holding cell, again, GM's discretion.

If the players will not submit to this treatment, then Madison will

(if the players number less than 3 conscious, or are badly weakened) Attack and attempt to subdue them all.
(any other circumstance> Inform them to return immediately to headquarters to collect payment.

The truth of the matter is that Madison was the final operative who was taken by darknight on that day, he was fully converted and sent back to SLA. Using his position, he framed Truman for all the things that he was doing, and then had mortis put in a secure location until he was certain that the conditioning had taken hold. When this had been accomplished, he then began to take steps to convert more operatives to the holy war. The players were the first to be selected.

If the players kill Madison, they are left with a problem, as no one will be around to back them up. Likelihood of them living once they return is not very high. Their best chance is to try and stun madison and return him to SLA with a full report, a debriefing by cloak will then reveal all the things that had happened and the players will be exonerated.

Darknight Weaponry

Concussion Bomb - A large Sound/light bomb that causes visible shockwaves in the air. The weapon has a blast radius of 40m, and due to the nature of the bomb, will affect all the people in the area equally. Targets in the blast radius have a basic defence of 10, targets with photochromatic lenses or anti blinding devices have a defence of 12, those with Sonic shields of any type have a defence of 15, anything with both will have a defence of 19. Targets in the blast radius must roll 2d10, and score lower than their defence to stay conscious. Those affected by the bomb will remain unconscious for a number of rounds equal to 20 minus their concentration. Other side effects can be assigned as the gm sees fit. In any case, hearing will not return (unless the ears were shielded) for a number of minutes equal to their CONC (the more sensitive will have been more focussed and therefore more affected).

Statistics

For the Basic Darknight operatives, use the templates in Karma for civilian converts
Mortis has statistics equal to the serial killer template
Madison has statistics equal to the Ex war criminal template.

Comments appreciated.

John

The Pagan in the Darkness.

More of John's fiction

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