Dead Man’s Hand - 2024 Shotgun Scenario Contest
Program or Outlaw agents are tasked with eliminating a March Tech scientist at a casino hotel and retrieving a package of his.
Handler Info
Set this scenario in 2019 or later. Dr. Titus Wheeler is a former MAJESTIC scientist turned March Tech employee with a gambling habit. The Program or Outlaws has learned that he will be stopping at the Maryland Live! Casino & Hotel in Hanover, Maryland for two days of gambling on his whirlwind tour of meeting business executives. He is transporting something that the Program or Outlaws wants retrieved after eliminating the doctor. Dr. Titus Wheeler is guarded by three Breckenridge security guards.
The “something” is a strange alien entity that seems to take on the state of a solid, liquid, and gas all at once. It is not from Earth, and allowing it to escape would be dangerous as it can mimic items in its environment when hiding or feeling threatened. It is a lab-modified L’gy’hxian placed in a sealed container in Dr. Wheeler’s hotel room. The sealed container will fail and the L’gy’hxian will be somewhere in the hotel room when Agents go to secure it.
The Casino & Hotel
The Maryland Live! Casino & Hotel is located on the outer perimeter of the Arundel Mills Mall with easy access to Route 100, I-97, and I-695. The casino is a busy, heavily populated business in the evenings with multiple restaurants, rows of machines and tables, and a stage for music and comedy acts. The hotel itself has 300 rooms across 17 floors with conference rooms and a luxury spa. There are two entrances to the building: the hotel entrance off Arundel Mill Circle and one on the front side by one of the mall entrances. Metal detectors dot each entrance, and casino security checks anyone with bags coming in and out. A Luck roll determines if an Agent gets carded or not and their ID checked in the system. Agents will not be able to enter the casino with weaponry, but the hotel is free game. Map
Agents will be briefed by their handler at the Sports & Social Bar within the casino, being subtly supplied a picture of Dr. Wheeler and explain that he is guarded by three guards, holds his liquor well, enjoys card games more than machines, and has an item of interest in Room 212 where he’s staying. Dr. Wheeler will be at the casino hotel in two days, giving Agents time to prepare.
The Live! Sandbox
Dr. Wheeler will spend time moving between baccarat, blackjack, and the poker tables. There is a high stakes poker section he can wander into at any point in time, further making attempts to get next to Dr. Wheeler difficult.
Security cameras are everywhere, so Agents will need to be discreet physically and digitally. Computer Science 60% gains access to the employee roster with home addresses and the like, as well as control of the security systems; further Persuade or Disguise rolls can be used to bribe casino workers or pose as workers or gamblers. Any Craft skill related to metalworking can be used to reproduce a badge with a fake name; otherwise, Persuade 40% is needed to convince a supervisor that the Agent belongs.
Agents can scope out the hotel room. A Persuade roll with hotel staff can get a replacement keycard; a Craft (Electronics, Microelectronics) roll can be made to bypass the room. An INTx5 or Search roll can figure out likely places Dr. Wheeler’s package could be placed for easy finding.
Agents with Science (Chemistry) 40% or Pharmacy 50% can create drugs tailored to the approach the Agents want to use: nausea, heart attack, whatever they may desire. A critical success allows for cutaneous applications rather than intravenous injection. A Stealth roll at +20% can get the drug past the security checkpoints. Causing distractions nearby can briefly draw the attention of Wheeler’s guards, allowing for Agents to carry out what they need to do.
The Package
Agents will want to take control of the package while Dr. Wheeler is on the casino floor. The problem is that after Agents enter the room, checking the spots they determined were useful if they checked the room previously, or now using Search, they will find the container unlocked, knocked open on its side. A yellow glowing mist hovers around the box. An Agent will need to roll DEXx5 to avoid inhaling the mist. A failure means a CONx5 roll is needed to avoid consuming strange alien vapor that leaves an Agent high for 1D4-1 turns and all rolls at -20% for the duration on a failure. A critical failure results in alien visions of multiple alien beings walking on the swirling fluid surface of Uranus, with a gargantuan bat-like creature ever present, resulting in SAN Loss 1/1D6 to Unnatural.
Agents can roll Alertness. A success means they notice a faint distortion of light in one part of the hotel room by a mundane object. An Agent who gets close will be jumped by the L’gy’hxian as it transforms back to its natural state, provoking SAN Loss 1/1D8 to Unnatural. Handlers can describe it as some sort of squat, black, four-legged spider that undulates, roils, and skitters fast along the floor, and can extend its limbs to horrific lengths to whip and stab at Agents. It also expels more yellow mist that will affect other Agents the same way before it disappears within the room and takes the places of an object in the room. An INTx5 roll can determine that the entity can’t morph into an object larger than its own mass. An Alertness roll is still needed each time to determine where the entity is because of how fast it is.
The entity will use its whip, knife, and energy beam attacks to chip away at Agents. If it manages to kill an entire team of Agents, it will eventually figure out how to leave the hotel room and move on to parts unknown.
Killing it with bullets is difficult as it seems more resistant to such an approach, but crushing it with a blunt object or stabbing with a knife, proves more effective, if an Agent can hit it with Melee Weapons or Unarmed. There are plenty of improvised weapons in the hotel room that can be used — lamps, chairs, a waste basket, whatever Agents want to use.
Agents could very well wait until Wheeler goes back to his room and find an aftermath with Wheeler and two of the security guards dead, and one greviously wounded to warn the Agents of what awaits them inside before passing on. There are blood stains, strange burn marks, and a few severed fingers scattered about the room. The scene costs SAN Loss 0/1D4 to Violence. The scene above will play out.
Agents who take care of the entity on their own with a Criminology 40% or higher will know exactly what is needed to clean up the scene or gets a +20% roll to help clean up. If the Agents deal with the scene after Wheeler returns, Criminology 60% is needed due to additional bodies. A failure means that the best Agents can do is set up the scene to be a murder-suicide, but be unable to remove the bodies
Reward: 1D4 SAN Regain for killing the entity
Stat Blocks
L’gy’hxian
Trapped and experimented on
STR 12 CON 14 DEX 18 INT 10 POW 20
HP 13 WP 20Armor: 6 points of strange non-euclidean matter state; full damage with blunt or stabbing weaponsAttacks: Matter Knife 35%, damage 1D4; Matter Whip 45%, damage 1D4+2; Energy Ray 50%, damage 1D6+2Skills: Athletics 99%; Dodge 75%Matter Knife: The l’gy’hxian extends its strange body into a knife point sharp enough to cut flesh and metal very easily.Matter Whip: The l’gy’hxian whips a part of its strange body out, sending sparks through the air, and leaving faint burns on bare flesh on contact. On a critical success, the whip grapples to a target’s face, requiring a STRx5 roll to remove.Energy Ray: Costs 8 WP per use. Base range of 15 meters, and burns like hell when struck by the concentrated beam of orange-purple light. The affected target must roll SAN Loss 0/1D4 for the Unnatural as weird alien chittering and chanting fills the target’s head. On a critical success, the target must make CONx5 roll or fall unconscious for 1D4-1 turns.Vision Mist: Any time a l’gy’hxian attempts to attack its target, it dispels a yellowish mist that causes hallucinations. A DEXx5 roll is needed to move one’s head as a free action any time an attack is made on the l’gy’hxian. A target must then succeed on a CONx5 roll or take -20% to all rolls for 1D4-1 turns.SAN Loss: 1/1D8
Dr. Titus Wheeler
Ex-MAJESTIC, current March Tech, age 67
STR 8 CON 10 DEX 10 INT 18 POW 10 CHA 10
HP 9 WP 10 SAN 40 BP 30
SKILLS: Alertness 35%; Bureaucracy 50%; Computer Science 60%; Persuade 40%; Science (Biology) 80%; Science (Chemistry) 60%; Unarmed 40%
Breckenridge Guards (3)
Corporate contracted security
STR 14 CON 13 DEX 12 INT 11 POW 12 CHA 10
HP 14 WP 10 SAN 45 BP 36
SKILLS: Alertness 50%, Dodge 40%, Drive Auto 50%, Firearms 50%, HUMINT 40%, Law 30%, Melee Weapons 50%, Persuade 40%, Search 50%, Unarmed Combat 50%.
ATTACKS: H&K Mark 23 pistol, 50%, damage 1D10 Night Stick, 50%, damage 1D6+1 Unarmed, 50%, damage 1D4
Credits
Dead Man's Hand was written by Max/Owlbear for the 2024 Shotgun Scenario contest.
Source: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15K5k2X2fvEomCYlEzrilWTL-v67Nx_izPCqBmHvlXYI/edit