Silver Lining:The Plug in Oaxaca
| ← Episode 7: The Pay-Offs and The Rip-Offs | Return to Episode List | Episode 9: San Francisco Will Lift Your Load → |
| December 2, 2022 – Episode 8: The Plug in Oaxaca | ||
The Knaves are on the lookout for some missing drugs and have hired the Silver Lining to find them.
Cold Open
You watch in horror as the man grabs the arm of his attacker, pulling it from the socket with a sick crack. He throws the screaming figure aside without a glance.
'What did i get myself into.' you think.
Summary
A few days ago Greco and the Violet Hunters landed at Serpent City on Hydrus, pick up a new supply of an illegal narcotic known as slo-mo from Knave cell, the Oaxaca Knights. Unable to get a hold of the Knights contact, Arturo. Greco suspects something is wrong, but him or his crew go into Serpent City without getting a lot of attention from rival gangs, so he calls upon the Silver Lining to investigate. His request of them is straightforward: find out what happened, take care of whoever caused it, recover whatever goods they can, and return to him. He gives them all the information he has.
The truth is main enforcer of the crew, Ruy Di Silva, recently found out his girlfriend, a stripper named Admina, was pregnant with his child. Seeing the life of a gang enforcer as no way to raise a child, Di Silva resolved himself to leave the crew - a prospect Arturo and the crew's cook, Mauricio, made clear wasn't possible. Instead he ambushed the gang just as they were about to load their mule car so they could bring the shipment to Greco on his next arrival. His plan was to take the shipment, get what he could for it, and use that to escape from the planet before thing got too hot.
Unfortunately, Di Silva was shot during the ambush and the two of them are now on the lam, with the Blue Dragons not far behind. The Dragons are a a rival gang who already had their eye on Admina because of her relationship with Di Silva. After losing tracking her the night of the ambush, they've been trying to catch back up with them and are getting close. Admina's been doing her best to keep Di Silva moving, but he needs real medical care.
The PCs will have a handful of decisions to make on resolving this session. Do they follow Greco's orders blindly? Do they help Di Silva and Admina? Admina won't accept a solution that results in Di Silva's death. "We both grew up without our parents, I'm not going to do that to our child. Everything he's gone through - all of this won't be worth it."
Scene 1 - Meeting with Greco
The cargo door lowers to reveal several well dressed - and well armed - individuals fanning out in the hangar bay. Greco stands in the middle, facing the lowering door. He wears a loose cut violet dress shirt with an open collar, black flared-out trousers belted high on his waist and a black fedora with a violet hat band. In his right hand he carriers a heavy sub-machine gun over his right shoulder. The others are equally well dressed, and share among them some accent item - a scarf, a pair of sunglasses, a pocket square, pinstripes, colored or tinted violet.
Greco comes aboard the ship to discuss the job. The rest of his crew stays outside. He checks his weapon and hat at the door (without being asked).
This is everything he knows:
- His cell picks up product, "an.. elixir, called 'slo-mo'.. from this space port for distribution off planet."
- Slow-mo users experience an extreme slowdown of time, so it's mostly used as a party drug, mixed with other drugs to help extend the sensation from them, or during sexual encounters to extend those out. Unfortunately, over use can removes inhibitions... turns you into a bit of a psycho at high enough doses.
- He only knows the name of three of the six Knaves in the cell here by design. Mauricio, the 'cook', De Silva, the 'muscle' and Arturo, the 'contact'.
- The local cell went dark a few days ago. The only information he can get is that there was an attack at the garage where they prep mule cars. So they're either on the run or were totally wiped out.
- "I can't take my people into town. I do and the Blue Dragons will be all over us, and I don't have time to do that amount of killing I'd need to to move freely. That's where you come in. You can move more freely than I and my crew. And besides, I get to act as a distraction. While you go into town, the Blue Dragons will be watching us, wondering what the fuck we're doing sitting at the space port so long.
- The job's simple. Find out what happened. Find the perpetrators. Deal with them. Or bring them to me to deal with them if you're squeamish about that kind of thing. Find the product. Bring it back if it isn't too hot. I don't expect you to serve 5-15 on a possession charge, or some shit like that. Good help is hard to come by, after all. And you've proven to be good help in the past.
Scene 2 - Investigation
Location: Knaves Repair shop - used to load drugs into mule cars. Located in the Oaxaca section of Serpent City
The 4 Aces Repair Shop is an abandoned looking free standing concrete brick and metal building, surrounded by multi-story tenements. The windows are boarded up and a faded "closed" sign is taped to the front door. To the rear of the building are two padlocked rolling garage doors.
Inside the building, a burnt out vehicle, a mid-sized sedan, sits in the middle of a repair bay. The interior is completely destroyed by fire. The rear and most of the front is charred. There is still a little light blue paint on the very front. The floor around the vehicle is also charred and the work benches are covered in soot.
Physical Investigation Tests: Challenging .
| Oaxacan Locals | ||
| Local Resident of the Oaxacan distruct of Serpent City, they may have usefull, though somewhat Limited Information but can be a bit Untusting | ||
| ||
| ||
|
Investigation can reveal a few things:
- There is a cleaner spot on the workbench - it looks like something was here during the fire and was taken.
- There are fliers for the 'The Magic Sword Strip Club' inside the garage, and some can be found in the alley behind the garage as well.
- It was a quiet night, the first indication that there was any trouble was the smell of smoke.
- Witnesses could see flame coming from the garage. A 'pretty lady tarted up like a stripper or something.' showed up in a car. 'Ass hanging out, that sort of thing. I saw some junk fall out of her car, maybe you can find something in the ally.'
- A large man came from the garage carrying a trunk, he needed help and was holding his side. They put the trunk in the back of the car and they drove off.
- The man closed the open garage door and padlocked it. By now the flames had died down.
- A successful Hard search can find dried blood in the alleyway
- No one has come by since. They are the only ones to ask any questions.
- There are six bodies - one in the driver's seat, one in the back passenger. One in the trunk. Three scattered around the garage.
The two in the car died in place and are fairly well charred. ID can be found on their bodies, these are Blake Tran, in the driver's seat and Fulton Tobler in the back seat.
Closer investigation will reveal bullet holes in the wall opposite the car from the garage door. The windows are blown out, and the frame has bullet holes in it.
The one in the trunk appears to have been bound, though the ropes are burnt away. The trunk is closed. The wallet/ID of Ruy Di Silva is found next to the body.
One body looks like it has had its head bashed in with a tool of some type, and is slumped over against the workbench - the weapon cannot be found. This body also has a few bullet holes in the torso. A gun rests next to it, unfired and the safety still engaged. This body has an expired NAC military ID for for Mauricio Damone, the cook.
One in the bathroom attached to the bay appears to have been shot to death on the toilet. The door is barely holding onto the frame, several bullets had been fired into the bathroom while the door was closed. The person and toilet are pretty well shot up. The identification is for Zexian Hai
One body (to the left of the bathroom) has a broken neck and collapsed windpipe. No bullet holes. a few 9 mm shells on the ground here. a gun matching the shells is under the body. Identification shows this to be Arturo Martinella, the leader/face for the crew.
There are several dozen spent shells of a high caliber just to the rear of the car drivers side of the car where Di Silva was standing. Afterwords he tossed a few flares into the passenger compartment of the car to burn up the evidence there.
Encounter 3 - Tracking Admina
Location: The Magic Sword Strip Club - Owner: Silas Crane
The Magic Sword sits in the middle of town the Oaxaca district, flanked by liquor and pawn shops. Outside the front door is a concrete statue of a knight on a horse rearing on its back legs lit with a color-changing spotlight. The knight holds aloft a sword, shimmering with multi-colored lights. The horse's eyes are two pink lights. The bouncer at the front door lets you in with no difficulty, should that be the way you wish to go. Inside the music is banging loudly as a partially dressed woman dances on the center stage, spinning on a pole. Other women flank the walls and topless waitresses clamber about tending to patrons.
Here, the investigation continues.
|
|
Enc 4 - Admina's Apartment
Her apt is on the 3rd floor of a 10 story walk-up tenement overlooking the street. Questioning the locals doesn't turn up much. No one's seen her for a few days. They recognize the description of Di Silva.
The apartment is a small one-room efficiency with a hot plate and a mini fridge. There is no bathroom. A small, crummy bed against one wall. The room is a mess, clothes scattered, garbage over full, etc. The PCs will have to search Challenging through that mess to find useful clues. Scribbled notes holding snippets of plans: The location of the 4 Aces Repair Shop, 'wait around the corner until msg from Ruy',needing to find a place to hide out for a few days and someone to smuggle them off planet. On the back of that page is an address, the 'Shur-Rest Motel' on the other side of the Oaxaca district. A pregnancy test showing a positive result.
After leaving the apartment, two thugs that were staking out the come at them from a basement-leading stairs. They have been staking out the apartment waiting for Admina to return, and jump them because they think they're working with her/Di Silva. The Dragons are on a lookout for them.
| Blue Dragon Thug | ||
| A random blue dragon thug | ||
| ||
| ||
|
Enc 5 - The Shur-Rest Motel
PC arrive Di Silva in the middle of a Slow-mo dose, brutally mangling the arm of a Blue Dragon thug, referencing back to the Cold Open.
Di Silva is bloodied, with a crazed look in his eye. He has an bandaged wound on his abdomen which is bleeding through the wrappings. He has also has a fresh stab wounds on his arms and another wound in his right torso. Two Blue Dragon Thugs remain and have scrambled behind cars for cover. Crouched in a door is a young woman, Admina, but her hair has been dyed blue, instead of her normal brown hair. She panicking and waving about a gun.
Di Silva also has the following complications on him:
However, these will not effect him until the Slo-Mo wares off, when they all get stepped up by one, and he will gain Slow-Mo Withdrawal
|
|
If the PCs decide not to intervene, Di Silva will take out the two thugs eventually, but slowly. Admina finally gets off a few shots, but mostly isn't that useful (she's not used to firing a gun, and has never been in any situations like this). At the end of the fight, Infected Shot to the Gut and Shoulder Shot will both be stepped up beyond and there is a good chance he will die without immediate medical attention.
Now is the time for the PCs to decide what to do. Assuming he lives, Admina will not accept any solution which turns him over to Greco. "Isn't there someone else to pin it on? That was his plan." Assuming Di Silva isn't completely unconscious, he will plead his case as best he can. Admina is pregnant and he wanted out. The Knaves never would let him out, in fact Arturo and Mauricio threatened her life. He saw no other way then to get rid of anyone who knew who he was here, and try to pin it on another gang. Unfortunately Arturo got a shot off, and he didn't have time to finish setting things up. His plan was to try to offload the slo-mo to someone, though he wasn't sure who, and once he got money from the sale try and hire someone to smuggle them off-planet. He was going to lay low a few days and wait until things died down, but clearly they didn't. Blue Dragons started track them almost immediately, and they'd been hiding at the Shur-Rest from them. He had already used a few doses of slow-mo so he could outwit/take out Blue Dragons, and he can feel the drug "chewin at the corners of my mind" and "each dose is like a body blow, worse than any punch I've ever taken". "I can't stand this kind of work. I don't want to think of all the lives we ruined selling this horrible stuff..." Both he and Admina plead with the PCs for help.
This is their chance to make a difference in their lives. The only thing in the way, of course, is Greco.
Enc 6 - Convincing Greco
What they need to tell Greco, whether they need to convince him or deceive him, depends up how much they want to actually help Di Silva and Admina. Someone will need to contest against him. Failure does not necessarily mean they fail at what they're trying to do, depending. But that Greco may not trust them with things in the future. He may even outright say that to them, considering he doesn't have much evidence to go on, and it may more be a hunch.
| Konstantino Tyndel | ||||||||
| Konstantino Tyndel, aka Dino the Greek, aka Greco, grew up in New York City in Megalopolis, NAC. Average height, a promising middleweight boxer who fell into a life of crime after injuries sidelined his career. | ||||||||
| Distinctions | ||||||||
|
|
| ||||||
Hinder
Gain a when you switch out this distinction's for a . |
Hinder
Gain a when you switch out this distinction's for a . |
Hinder
Gain a when you switch out this distinction's for a . | ||||||
| Attributes | Skills | |||||||
|
|
| ||||||
|
|
| ||||||
|
|
| ||||||
| Signature Assets |
|
| ||||||
|
|
| ||||||
|
| |||||||
|
||||||||
Tag Scene
A handful of customs officials pick through the ship, banging upon walls, checking crates, and generally being a pain at a transfer gate orbiting Hydrus. You've never experienced this level of scrutiny upon leaving a system...
| Musical Inspiration | |
|---|---|
| Song: | This Is America 
|
| Artist: | Childish Gambino |
| Listen online | |
 Spotify
| |
 Amazon Music
| |
 YouTube
| |