Player’s Information:
The PC’s are contacted by a business factor on Kubotoa (A-764854-D), looking for a small team to infiltrate a mansion. The Board of Directors of the Singletary Corporation, LLC, have a problem. The CEO of the corporation has been out of touch for weeks, and hasn’t been seen in person in months. He was always reclusive, but this is the longest he’s ever been gone. The corporation is facing a financial crisis occasioned by the CEO’s absence & non-leadership. The Board has voted the CEO out, but the local law requires that he be present at the company offices to handle the transfer of power.
The CEO’s last known whereabouts is his mansion at the edge of the city, which sits in a secured, walled compound. The PCs are hired to deliver the CEO to the company offices. They are authorized, as contract employees, to employ all necessary force to secure the CEO unharmed and bring him to the offices. The mansion is technically corporation property so they are not trespassing. The Board requests that the building itself be damaged as little as possible, but expect some damage as the CEO had installed numerous security measures without advising the Board; he was known to be very concerned about his personal security. Payment will be Cr 10,000 per man, plus any hospital expenses. Excessive damage to the mansion will be deducted from the pay.
The Mansion – Image from wikimedia – Public Domain
Referee’s Information:
The CEO was in fact paranoid. The mansion, a 3-story structure with basement, is surrounded by a wall and electrified fence, and all manner of visual security, but all of it is camouflaged. The mansion has its own power plant, so cutting external power will not help. The referee can devise any manner of intrusion prevention devices both outside and inside the mansion. Devices should not be lethal; 1D electrical shocks or normal tranq rounds are the guideline. The referee can determine how many devices must be neutralized/avoided to get to the doors.
Windows are heavy duty glass, requiring anti-vehicle weapons to break, and the roof is sloped such that insertion by rooftop would be very difficult (roll 11+ every round to avoid sliding off). The Board prefers that the team enter by the front door, the only door for which they have a pass key.
Inside, the mansion is lavishly furnished, very clean, well lit, and very quiet. The PCs will see occasional serving robots floating around on grav modules, cleaning and tending to the house. These robots will not interact with the PCs at all, and will maneuver to avoid contact (so as not to disturb legitimate guests). The mansion has both conventional stairs and contragravity lift shafts going to all floors.
The mansion will have multiple guest bedrooms, meeting rooms, a main kitchen on the ground floor and sub-kitchens on each other floor. The referee can include any room or feature desired, but leave room in the design for the robot storage/maintenance areas. The mansion staff is entirely robotic, both mobile and stationary robots.
There will be traps deployed throughout the mansion. Suggested indoor traps are hallway doors that lock and block the hallway, sleep gas, laser-triggers, more tranq guns & shock devices. The PCs progress will probably slow to a crawl as they stop to search for traps. Some traps can be disabled by shooting them. Interior walls and doors should be treated in the same manner as those aboard starships (see the Double Adventure Death Station).
The CEO (the PC’s have pictures) will occasionally appear on video comm screens that are placed throughout the mansion. He will be abrupt and rude, all comments around the theme of “Get out” “you are not welcome here” and “I’m calling the police,”. He will not want to interact, or answer questions, nor will he believe their assertions of their purpose. This is actually the house computer, running a hologram avatar program. It will not assist the PCs in any way. The computer core is in the basement, along with the powerplant. Hacking the computer will require computer skill and a roll of 10+ (DM +1 for INT 9+) Traps can be detected on a roll of 10+ (DM +1 per level of Tactics skill, and for INT 9+) and disabled using whichever of Mechanical, Electronics or Computer seems most relevant. The powerplant can be shut down by a PC with Engineering skill OR Mechanical-3+, or by use of gunfire or explosives.
Any gunfire, including lasers, will activate the second level security protocols, which consists of releasing armed guard robots (also on grav modules) to interdict and defeat the intruders. The central computer has the equivalent of Tactics-2, and can direct the robots in tactical maneuvers like surrounding the PCs or splitting the party with robots or locking doors. There are visual and IR detectors throughout the house, the PCs would have to disable the central computer to avoid all the detectors. The house knows where they are from the moment they enter.
The robots are armored with Cloth/reflec and armed with x-ray laser rifles, skill-1. The number of robots should be determined by the referee; but should at least equal the number of the PC’s party. If the referee does not have Book 8: Robots, or JTAS # 2-4, assign the robots physical stats FFF and a movement speed of 4; when one stat goes to zero speed drops to 2, when 2 stats go to zero, the robot shuts down. Otherwise treat them as regular NPCs. Loss of power to the mansion will not shut off the security robots, but it will break their radio contact with the central computer. Each robot has a default route through the house; it will engage any intruders detected on that route.
At the center of the top level is a bedroom suite; and in the center of the room is a large bed. Upon this bed lies a dead man, the CEO. A character with Medical skill will determine (8+, DM +1/level) that he has been dead for several weeks. Cause of death was some kind of illness, details are left to the referee but no foul play is indicated, and the PCs will not be accused of murder unless the body is destroyed. Whatever security robots are still functioning when the PCs reach the top level will make a ‘last stand’ at the doors to the bedroom suite.
By the bed is a control computer. On a roll of 6+ (DM for computer skill) the PCs can shut off all of the mansion’s security measures. After that, they can just walk out.
The Board of Directors will consider confirmation of the CEO’s demise as fulfillment of their contract. An insurance adjuster will inspect the mansion and may deduct from the PC’s pay if the house has been excessively shot up.
Referees can use this adventure as the start of a campaign; the Singletary corporation has many sites on Kubotoa and elsewhere in the subsector. The PCs could be hired as a permanent troubleshooting team.