Slaying the Foul Maiden to Rescue the Fair Dragon

Introduction

I usually begin the Plot of the Week section by explaining what event inspired me to create it. The purpose of this is to hopefully provide new GM’s with a different perspective on the common events of everyday life. Everyday life can be a wonderful source of ideas and inspiration. I find that oftentimes just a simple phrase or seemingly common event will serve as a spark for a truly wonderful Shadowrun plot.

This particular plot was actually inspired by a story I heard many years ago, about a man that most thought was a bum (or homeless person, for those of you of the PC persuasion). The man was apparently done a kind turn by a good Samaritan, and a few years later this good Samaritan was mentioned in this man’s will. It seems that this was actually a rather eccentric millionaire and he left his entire estate to someone that loaned him a dollar for a cup of coffee.

I found this story particularly interesting, as it highlights the preconceived notions that most of us have about people. I decided it might be fun to design a plot line around these lines, to challenge the players preconceived notions about the Shadowrun universe. Sometimes the best plots can be straightforward ones, as the players will look for subterfuge and intrigue at every turn, and if it doesn’t exist they usually end up creating it for themselves.

One other thing I will be adding to the Plot of the Week is a section called adventure hooks, to discuss possible ramifications of the run. Hopefully this will assist you in smoothing the transition between scenarios, and creating new scenarios that result from the actions your PC’s take in the game.

The last thing I wished to mention was that I have had several people ask me why I don’t provide a full module rather than just a basic plot line. The reason for this is that I dislike modules myself personally. These adventure scenarios are designed to be basic enough to allow you to customize them easily to fit in the scope of your campaign, and to balance the opposition to the party. I’ve always found modules to be too rigid for my style of game mastering, and I think the best games are the ones that are tailored to suit the party. Well, enough posturing, let’s get on with the plot.

Setting the Stage

The characters are contacted by their fixer at a rather odd hour, and asked if they can attend a meet immediately if not sooner. Apparently the fixer has a very rich, very desperate Johnson that needs a team as soon as possible. Seeing the nuyen signs flash before their very eyes, the players will undoubtedly be interested. Have the fixer give them an address in one of the best neighborhoods in town, a large estate in a very secure area. This in and of itself should be unusual, as it is almost unheard of to be invited to a Johnson’s home for a meet. Have the fixer ask them for an ETA, and no matter what the players quote for a time, the fixer should place them on hold for a moment, and then come back to them and ask them if they could possibly get there any sooner. This Johnson is very desperate.

The characters will be provided with any passes needed to get into the nicer areas of town, and when they arrive they see a huge mansion on almost 5 acres of gorgeous property. The place is walled in, and has a large front gate. Security at the house will usher the runners in with almost no questions asked, and will not even bother to search them. They are obviously under orders by the Johnson to get the runners inside post-haste. Your runners should feel both an air of tension and apprehension.

The runners are led into a large library, and a rather extravagant one. Behind a solid oak desk sits a young woman in her early thirties. It is obvious that she is very distraught and looks as if she hasn’t slept in days. She orders the guards out of the room, then introduces herself.

This is the players’ Johnson, Lady Elizabeth Tounborne.

There are two things the players will probably learn about Lady Tounborne almost instantly. One, she is very wealthy. The second, of course, is that she is also a dragon. Even if none of the players assense her astrally at this point, her race will become obvious as she lays out the run for them.

Lady Tounborne is soon to be a mother, and it seems that her egg was stolen from the Mansion sometime last night. Whoever pulled the job was professional, efficient and they also knew enough to know that the Lady was out last evening. Quite a few of her security guards were killed trying to protect the egg, but to no avail. Someone has made off with her unborn child, and she wants her egg back in the worst way.

If your players begin negotiating with her for a price, the Lady is quite willing to pay any sum of money for the safe return of her egg. There are two things to note about these negotiations. The Lady will not set a price. If asked how much she is willing to pay, she simply responds with “anything you want”. As you can imagine she is not willing to put a price on her unborn child as if this were just a simple business negotiation. If the runners charge an exorbitant amount, allow them to. But give them no karma for the run, and make certain that they earn every single nuyen. If the runners do the job for their usual fee she will pay it gladly on whatever terms they set, and they will earn standard karma for the run. If the runners don’t even mention money, when the run is over she will make certain they are well paid anyway and they will have gained a valuable contact as well.

Lady Tounborne is young as dragons go, but she is certainly not someone to be trifled with. She is honest, honorable and has a very pleasant disposition, but at the moment she is frantic over the loss of her unborn child. If the players refuse the run based on the fact that she is a dragon, she will call them bigots and have them thrown out of the mansion. If this does happen, the runners’ street reputation will probably suffer somewhat and you can be certain that the fixer will probably not send them on any well paid runs for a while as they have just cost him/her a very lucrative contract.

Behind the Scenes

The dragon’s egg was extracted from the mansion by another shadowrunning team, hired to extract the egg for a powerful female hermetic mage that wishes to use it in her spell research. The players should be provided with enough clues to track down this other team. What the players do not know is that the mage in question already knows that the players are looking for her. She has hired several people to watch the dragon’s mansion, and when the players arrived she was informed. She will hire the same team that she used to extract the egg to stop the players. This shadowrunning team should be well balanced and good opposition for the party, but not insurmountable.

The female mage will be keeping the egg in her own mansion, and it will have excellent security both physically and astrally. This should be a challenging scenario for your players. If they did charge an exorbitant price, then beef up the opposition a lot more. Make it more difficult and time consuming to find the other shadowrunning team, and have them ambushed by several other runners and runner wannabes to slow them down even further. Make certain that they earn every nuyen, after all no outlandish greed should go unpunished.

The female mage should have a very nasty disposition, and should be both powerful and cunning. The more evil and conniving this NPC, the more fun your party will have when they finally dispose of her. The party is working against the clock on this one, as it is only a matter of time before this evil wench will finish her research, which will destroy the egg and kill the baby.

Successful Resolution

This adventure is successfully resolved when the players track down the other shadowrunning team and find out the identity of the female mage, then infiltrate her estate and get the egg to return Lady Tounborne. If they are successful and did not charge the Lady an outrageous sum, she will be quite pleased with them. If they didn’t mention money at all before going on the run, she will reward them handsomely and become a very valuable contact for the party in the future. In short, the party needs to slay the foul maiden to rescue the fair dragon.

Adventure Hooks

This adventure has a variety of hooks. The NPC mage could have been part of a powerful magic group that is going to be rather upset with the players for killing one of its members. The other shadowrunning team may also have friends that will wish to take revenge on the party sometime in the future. On the positive side Lady Tounborne could also become a valued contact, and if the party played their cards right she might become a friend as well.