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New GM looking for some plot help

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Djinnocide

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« on: <09-24-13/1901:33> »
Hi guys. So I've taken on the task of running a game of 5e for some friends and I'm having a bit of trouble proceeding with my story. I'm a new GM with zero experience playing Shadowrun outside of the videogames, so please be gentle.

As for my problem, I'm kind of feeling like I've painted myself into a bit of a corner and I'm having trouble coming up with a good way to get out.

Here's the story so far...

I ran my players through Food Fight 5.0 a couple of weeks ago and decided to build off the events of that story for the second session. For those unfamiliar, Food Fight 5.0 involves the players being hired to rescue a girl from a mob family operating out of a restaurant. My players ended up getting into a gunfight with the gangsters there, killing them all in the process and blowing up a grenade inside the restaurant for good measure. The PCs rescued the girl, returned her to her father, and collected their reward. Thus ending the first session.

For the second session I had the players leave the happily reunited father and daughter to go to a dive bar they frequent in order to enjoy a celebratory drink or three. While there, one of the characters receives a phone call from an associate with Lone Star connections who explains to the PC that this Lone Star operative has discovered camera footage from a neighboring business that reveals our PCs walking out of the restaurant just as a grenade was detonated inside. The PC's contact suggests getting over to this location to delete this footage before other members of Lone Star get their hands on it. The rest of the session consisted of the PCs getting double crossed by the Lone Star operative, who turned the PCs whereabouts over to the remaining members of the mob family from the first session. The Mob surrounds the building that the team is now trapped inside of, and wires it with a ton of explosives.

Fortunately, this building, a pawn shop, held a panic room set up by the owner who just so happened to be a whacko paramilitary type Humanis Policlub supporter who had been using the business to front his hateful activities. The panic room contained a hatch in the floor which the team escaped out of just in time for the mob to blow the building up.

So now here I am, with my team in what I'm thinking is going to be an old, unused portion of the Seattle Sewer System, with no real reason for them to be there other than a means of escape. I'd like to give them something entertaining to do down here to justify putting them there in the first place, but I'm drawing a blank on anything besides a cliched dungeon crawler with a Rat Shaman at the end.

If anyone has any suggestions for quick hooks that I might be able to build off of I'd greatly appreciate the input.

I suppose I could have them just make their way out of there and onto something else, but I figured I'd pull from your expertise before giving up on the idea of a fun sewer romp.

I'm hoping to wrap up this mob retribution angle in such a way that allows my players to either disappear from their radar or allow them to establish some street cred so they can actually put themselves out there to the Shadowrun community and start making some cash doing runs.

Noble Drake

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« Reply #1 on: <09-24-13/1931:57> »
Sewers are great.... especially if they seem unused.

Ideas...

1. The team stumbles across some bones, just a few here and there but they are riddled with gnawing marks, and before they find their way out of the sewer they see some unfortunate city surveyor grabbed by something hunched, grotesque, and pale and drug away screaming into the dark.

If they investigate, basic ghoul nest... if not, then maybe they actually have a good night for once?

2. Sounds of laughter echo to them from somewhere in the sewers, investigate leads them across a sewer-dwelling gang of street kids which might make for good contacts to have

3. Looking for a way out results in finding an area that is very clean (not just clean for a sewer system, but like someone took serious effort to convert the place to a usable room) and full of low-tech medical gear... and maybe there is someone strapped down to a gurney, signs that they recently received some kind of surgery, then they suddenly wake up panicking because they don't know how they got here or what the surgery was about... then later the team has the owner of the sewer operating room after them (for rescuing his experiment if they did, and just for knowing where his lab is and thus being prime candidates for the next round of experiments if not).

Djinnocide

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« Reply #2 on: <09-24-13/2240:36> »
Some great ideas there, thanks Drake! I'm especially fond of that last one...

Malathis

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« Reply #3 on: <09-25-13/1014:22> »
Throw in heavy rains/sudden rush's of water for dramatic twists.

I think the old adventure predator and prey might have some good inspiration for things that can happen in a sewer, and can probably be addapted to fit into 5E.

Djinnocide

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« Reply #4 on: <09-25-13/1019:11> »
Thanks for the tip! I'll see if I can't round that adventure up.

SpyroD

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« Reply #5 on: <09-25-13/1334:34> »
If your players was a bit more experienced I'll said a toxic shaman with some cultist but I think is better the others.

GiraffeShaman

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« Reply #6 on: <09-25-13/1924:13> »
Put a high tech looking and locked door at a dead end. Make use of the closed door effect. The players don't have to go in, but they will probaly be too curious to resist. What's inside is up to you. BTL/drug dealer lair/storehouse? Mafia safehouse? Ghoul lair? Secret corporate lab?

Malathis

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« Reply #7 on: <09-26-13/0825:40> »
Put a high tech looking and locked door at a dead end. Make use of the closed door effect. The players don't have to go in, but they will probaly be too curious to resist. What's inside is up to you. BTL/drug dealer lair/storehouse? Mafia safehouse? Ghoul lair? Secret corporate lab?

Make it broom closet, yes a broom closet in the sewers behind a heavily secured door.

Noble Drake

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« Reply #8 on: <09-26-13/1127:27> »
Put a high tech looking and locked door at a dead end. Make use of the closed door effect. The players don't have to go in, but they will probaly be too curious to resist. What's inside is up to you. BTL/drug dealer lair/storehouse? Mafia safehouse? Ghoul lair? Secret corporate lab?

Make it broom closet, yes a broom closet in the sewers behind a heavily secured door.
Ooh, yeah... that's the creepiest/most terrifying suggestion made yet (and no, I am not being sarcastic).

If I did that to my players they would be stressing out for months (in real life) trying to figure out what it meant.

Djinnocide

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« Reply #9 on: <09-26-13/1542:09> »
I think I've decided to go with  a variation on Noble Drake's suggestions. Here's what I've got so far. Feel free to critique or make suggestions...

First things first, it's pitch black down here. Seemed like a good idea to take advantage of my team's complete lack of light source. Everyone has low-light vision, but nothing that will help them in absolute dark. If they ask about having something that will help, I'll suggest they use their commlink's dimly lit screen. Once they get moving they'll discover a backpack in the middle of the tunnel with some odds and ends inside including a commlink and some flares. If they check the device (before the battery dies), they'll find an email on it from a company called NuYu, thanking the recipient for inquiring about their augmentation exchange program and suggesting he stop by one of their several Seattle locations. There's also going to be pictures of a young couple on the commlink as well as several unanswered outgoing calls to someone named Chloe. If they strike up the flares, they'll notice that the backpack was in a puddle and that there's a smear leading away from the bag and around the corner.

From there, the team will round a corner and stumble onto some four-legged animals eating something off the ground. I'm undecided just what these animals are, but I'm leaning toward either your garden variety dogs, or something a bit more intense like a pair of hellhounds or devilrats. If the team lit up the flares, they'll be immediately noticed, but if not I'll give them the chance to sneak past. Ultimately, the dogs will be eating the remains of the backpack owner who appears to be the same man in the commlink image. I'll have a flier for NuYu in his pocket, just in case they blow it with the commlink and decide to search the man instead.

At the end of this segment of the tunnel they'll come to a junction. If they go left, they'll come upon an out of place security door which will lead to that operation room. If they go right, however, they'll notice that the sewer tunnel pitches steeply downward. As they proceed, they'll eventually come to a man with his back to them. This man, in bloody scrubs, is  bending over, picking bundles up, and tossing them over a large drop-off. If confronted, he'll try and play it cool when he sees that he's outnumbered, but will eventually try and get the drop on them. If the team investigates the drop off and the bundles, they'll find the man has been tossing human body parts down into a deep chasm. If they find a way to illuminate the bottom (maybe with one of those flares), they'll see those ghouls that Noble Drake suggested. Once they decide how to deal with this man, they'll eventually have to head back to the junction and inside the room.

Once they're in there, they're going to see all sorts of budget medical supplies and equipment, as well as a series of used cyberware parts (several still wet with blood). In the middle of the room they'll see a sheet covered table with a human shape beneath it. If checked, the sheet is covering  a woman (the same woman in the commlink pictures, Chloe Whidmore). I'm considering having her still alive and having her awaken with a scream. If she awakens, she'll explain what she was doing there and who the man they found dumping body parts was. (thus explaining NuYu)

If they team searches the room they'll find a staircase behind a door leading them out of the sewer and into a shoddy looking makeshift storefront for NuYu. It's the middle of the night, so they won't have any security issues, but they'll need to turn the alarm off before they can leave the building.

From there, I'll plant the seed that they need to get their van back (left a couple of blocks away from the pawn shop), but I might mention that, at this point, there's probably a LOT more Lone Star on the scene (might make someone roll for that info). However, the part of town they're in right now is the infamous Gang Row, and they're going to have to hoof it into a better section of the area if they want to try and call for a cab or something comparable.

Either way, they'll be making some sneak rolls and possibly either fighting gangs or mob/lonestar. Once this is resolved, they'll be notifying the NPC with the lonestar contact about the double-cross and either dealing with that or wrapping it up.

Thoughts?