Colour Code: White
SCL: 10
Departmental Authorisation: Investigation
Reccomended Package: Investigation
Consolidated Bonus: 400c/Op
Issued by: Third Eye News
Text:"Investigate 'Lesser Jack' Serial Killings in Downtown, and apprehend perpetrator."

Introduction

Once more a serial killer runs loose in Downtown. He calls himself "The Lesser Jack" in blatant idolatry of the god of serial killers, "Halloween Jack." His targets - the relatives of the blessed that his idol has taken. On Mort, you're not a serial killer until your thirteenth kill. {F*** what Karma says. 13 is the correct #, think about it - yeah, thought so}. As the adventure dawns, the Lesser Jack has taken his 12th. A young reporter, charismatic in an unholy way, by the name of Melissa October, employed by the 13th Victim TV show has become interested in the deaths. The 13th Victim TV show tracks Mort's "true" serial killers and police investigations. Melissa has decided to get an exclusive interview with the Lesser Jack after his thirteenth kill. She hopes this will launch 13th Victim's new season and will do anything to see it through.
Opening scene

"Its raining - as always on Mort, and spilled takeout food is mixed with blood in the gutter. Cars flash past, drivers averting their eyes from the corpse in the street. A crowd of Mort civilians jostles you in their attempts to sight the mutilated remains of a human woman. Shivers are scattered around the site and 2 or 3 speak with an attractive female reporter. The victim's mother weeps in the background while an angry young man in a grimy leather jacket attempts to comfort her. Shiver control lines have been drawn up across the front of the building."
On-site character sketches

Sergeant Emil Lee - "Shiver Squad 13 - The Lucky 13th" - The Lucky 13th holds the record for assigned serial-homicide cases on Mort, suprising since the cases are randomly assigned by Mort's central computer (SLA Info 5 task). Emil is mugging for Melissa's attention. He knows that the killer used a chainaxe, wore body armour, forced the door, escaped into the sewers (entrance adjacent to building) & left through the fire escape.

Melissa October - Incredibly over-zealous & enthusiastic reporter for the 13th Victim TV show. She obviously lacks common sense, but is a quality reporter with a haunting charm.

Christina Martinez (Victim) - A young woman in fashionable clothing with long brown hair. He hands have been hacked away at the wrists, leaving jagged & bloody wounds through which broken shards of bone extend. A blow to her head has collapsed the left side, destroying the eye and cracking the skull wide open. Her legs are snapped at horrific angles, a legacy of her two-story drop.

Imelda Martinez (Mother) - Imelda is mourning over the unfairness of her second loss in a week. Christina's brother - John Santiago Martinez - was killed by Halloween Jack last week.

Paulo Martinez (Victim's brother) - Knows quite a bit about Christina. She left her boyfriend in a clean break two weeks ago & has not found a new one since. She waited tables at Roxanne's Tavern in the Tavern Quarter. Paulo is a member of the Silver Rats street gang, as was Christina's boyfriend, Alejandro.

Crime Scene

The door has been broken in, the wooden frame chewed to pieces by the metal teeth of a chain axe. A small, compact living room with a dirty brown couch and blood spattered walls is the scene of the kill. Rats pick their way across the creaky floor boards, stealing pieces of spilled fruit. The window hangs open, carrying in the humid stench of Downtown Mort. A shallow bowl holds Christina's severed hands, smooth and pale with jagged gashes where they were severed and the words FOR HIM are scrawled in the victim's blood above the bowl.
Evidence

The only important piece of evidence is an empty drug ampule in the bowl. (Diff. 6 to notice) If it is found, the Shivers will send it to the lab and the players can check the data during part two.
The Sewers

Attempting to find the trail through the sewers is just not possible. The constant stream of slime and filth have washed away any trace of The Lesser Jack. If the players refuse to believe this, then send 'em throughout Mort and have them find some carriens or pigs to deal with.

PART 2

Several Possible routes of Investigation exist. Visiting all of them is not really necessary for the adventure. There is no concrete point at which the players should be told about the Lesser Jack's killing habit, rather clues just pile up until they reach a critical mass. (You'll know it when it happens - this glazed look comes over the players - honest!)
Records Investigation (fun with bureaucracy!)

The players get the run-around. If they go to Shiver Control in person, then they are first sent to the Shiver Department of Housing Accidents. From there they are directed to the Shiver Department of Axe Murders. But the Shiver Department of Axe Murders moved after the Shiver Department of Hangings launched a blitzkrieg on its offices. The department of Shiver Hangings is under assault from the Shiver Department of Motor accidents and won't help the players until they get a form from the Shiver Department of Departmental defense against Counter Departmental Offensive takeovers...
This lasts for hours until the players reach the Shiver Department of Axe Murders. (which is across the hall in a room marked"Department of Operative Execution - ONE WAY ENTRY"). If the players call, they get the Shiver Department of Axe Murders' answering machine, which informs them that they need a YZ-37a form to leave a message. The other victims are from all walks of life. (One is a SLA Operative). They have little openly in common.
When the Records clerk goes to do a search, he accidentally calls up the file of someone killed by Halloween Jack last week - a brother of one of the victims. (mention this in passing, just say a wrong name, if the players don't comment or dismiss it, hey!) All victims have been slain at home in a violent fashion with a chainaxe. Entry has been achieved by electronic lock-picking or brute force in each case.

The Morgue/Forensics Lab

The hideous abbatoir below Shiver Control is a room about the size of a stadium throughout which silent, hooded men in grey coats stride through. Shrieks of saws severing skin and the percussion of rib cages being broken provide a background symphony to the work of these dedicated SLA Industries employees. The players' case has been assigned to the Forensics Necanthrope, Premature Burial. Premature Burial not only looks dead, but smells of embalming fluid too. He's a hideous apparition in this realm of the dead, and never comes out into the light of day. There is little forensic evidence of the killer. Premature can deduce little from the wounds except that the killer is over six feet tall, muscular and right handed. If the players found the drug ampule, Premature informs them that it contained Strain-Five shatter, the copy cat killer virus. Christina had no traces of Shatter in her and it is probably the killer's, who used an air hypo to inject it.

Roxanne's Tavern

Roxanne's Tavern is a massive building built from an old auditorium down in the Tavern Sector. The battle gangs of the Crimson Sector of Mort meet her, displaying their colours openly and staking out pieces of turf within the Tavern itself. There is a side of the Tavern known as the "faceless hall" where many props hawk their services to the downtown gangs. The bouncing staff has shotguns and body armour and the atmosphere is one of repressed violence. Anyone drawing a weapon will die. There are about six hundred people in here at any moment and most of them have gang affiliations. Loud metal music sweeps the hall and there is a slam pit in the center. It is considered a poor sport to wear one's armour into the slam pit. Stormers will initially crush everyone, but eventually will be ganged up on. (To knockover a Stormer is considered a sign of great strength for a gang)
Several things can happen here:-

Christina's friend Marlene is the head waitress tonight and will tell the players that Christina did in fact have a clean break with her boyfriend and seemed rather cheerful. Christina was working regularly and seemed cheerful enough. To Marlene's knowledge, Christina was not seeing anyone new. Christina was spending extra time helping at a community center in her home Mort sector.

(*event) The player's should catch the very end of a newscast about Halloween Jack's latest kill - someone named David Pilurs. The crowd is shouting about what a lucky bastard he is and that he didn't f****ing deserve it. The players miss any mention of relatives. If any think to ask the crowd, there are told a sister was mentioned.

The Community Center

A small Downtown building with dirty, cracked white walls and broken windows fixed with cardboard and tape. The skyline is dominated by Suburbia and the rain here is mixed with dirt washed down from the higher classes' residences. A half-broken sign reads " Unity Centre". Inside, children rest on makeshift pallettes, their skin blotched with disease and pollution. A child cries as he thrashes around on the bed, his atrophied limbs and bleeding gums the results of his mother's addiction to SLA-Industries manufactured drugs. The floor is slick with blood and filth and the air is filled with the plaintive cries of children. Several children are gathered around a flickering TV set, watching Captain Contract and Shl'llr gun down the enemies of SLA Industries. As the players move through the centre, one of the older kids changes the channel to "Gore Zone" just as a pair of cognates are disembowelled by a manchine. The children cheer at the deaths... The staff is hostile to the PC's, but one of them will talk to them. Christina was on time most evenings and played with the children. She points to the group near the TV and mentions that Christina has been a heroine to them since her brother died at Halloween Jack's hands. "They thought it was cool, Jack killing her brother and all that. Made her a celebrity. They watched her brother die on TV."
Staging hints for the second part.

The players will have to work out the evidence for themselves to discern the link between the twin Jacks' victims - don't just hand it to them. There's a couple groups of clues in each place.
I hate "find the killer at home", "shoot the killer" & "collect the pay adventures". Half the fun in this adventure is to figure out WHY he's killing people and then who's next.

Several important events occur to drive the adventure, but have no set times. This is perfectly fine - it allows dangerous battles and driving connections, rather than "oh yeah - it's another dead body. Guess you blew it!"

PART 3

Attempting to track down David Pilur's relatives (Halloween Jack's latest victim) proves a difficult task. Central records is closed in the evenings and Melissa October has had all surface references to all Pilurs in the phone book deleted. The same is true at the Mort Central phone directory. The players should have to be imaginative during this scene. Computer programming skills to restore deleted info, breaking into Melissa's or Pilur's apartment, tracing the hacker who deleted the records, visiting Pilur's workplace (bakery near his home) etc. Pilurs' home has a picture of his sister and a cat that yowls plaintively at the players. Her address is on both his phone and computer. Pilurs' sister is named Ariel and she lives over in the Mitchell quarter of Downtown, apartment 308, a corner lot. Her phone is out... During this time, Melissa has visited the Depth Charge and called an acquaintance. She is unavailable all throughout Parts 2 & 3.

PART 4

The Grand Melee

The players should stop down the Street from Ariel Pilurs' apartment. This is easy to achieve, simply ask them if they wish to drive right up to the front door in full view of anyone. They generally thank you for being such a nice GM and then play right into your hands.

Melissa has hired a number of props equal to the number of players who are similarly equipped and trained. One prop heads with Melissa to protect her during the interview, while the others fan out and wait. This is an excellent chance for counter-sniper work, ambushes and all sorts of other nasty tactics. The players must be smart and effective to make it. The props are fighting to delay first and foremost, and will be happy to merely suppress players. If the players are smart, they should have to run a gauntlet to reach the front door as weapons spray around them. Otherwise all they will find is a bloody corpse.....

The street has plenty of cover (cars, mailboxes, trashheaps, doorways, etc.) and there is a hotel with a fire escape across the street. (excellent position for a prop) If someone gets to about the fifth floor, they might be able to spot the Lesser Jack through a window and nail him. The apartments have a fire escape also, which connects at 312. Inside the apartment building, cover can come from furniture, stairways, doors and hostages. (as examples) 308 should either have its door closed or a prop on guard. (GM's choice)

Run this with as much drama and surprise as possible. The players should not be expecting an armed squad preventing them from reaching their goal. Once props start exiting doorways and sniping from cover they will get confused as hell. Keep them this way. Have the props constantly try to pin them down with smoke, suppressive fire and explosives. Keep them faceless, making the players wonder if a rival company has decided to interfere in the operation. This is your chance to shine and blast away on almost equal terms.

The Lesser Jack needs about five rounds to kill Ariel and he and Melissa escape after ten rounds. The Lesser Jack is pumped up on Shatter, packing a chain axe and wearing body armour.