Ikarus – A Cyberpunk 2020 Adventure

Ikarus

Author: Karsten Voigt <kv@karsten-voigt.de>
Based on a “Tatort” (german telly series)

Content:

Protagonists
Background
The Adventure starts
Who are the girls
What happens now?
The Cast
Ikarus
Holzmann
Ariadne
Linda Morry
Lady Cyber
Maria Hunter
Timeline

Protagonists:

2 or more cops, homicide detectives
1 or 2 netrunners
other chars who might have an interest in catching a robber.

Background

We have a big deal running, several billion Euros big – mayor redo of the telecommunication networks in Malaysia. Contenders are Digitel (USA), SMS (Germany/the country your players are from) and Arnot (France). SMS made the best offer to the Malaysians, we are only days till the contract will be signed. What is unknown to most, SMS made the deal because they knew exactly what the other companies were offering at a given time. To reach that goal, the SMS espionage office used freelance netrunners. The netrunner who penetrated the datafortress of Digitel is called Ikarus. In the past he hacked the passwords of their datafortess and sold them to Ariadne. Ariadne is a spy, controlled by Holzmacher, who directs SMS espionage agency.

What happened?

In a previous session 2 players played Ikarus and Lady Cyber. Lady Cyber survived that session and continued to play. Ikarus took his lover, Lady Cyber, to the top of a high building and hacked into the cities traffic control datafortress. Lady Cyber filmed Ikarus’ deed. He switched all traffic lights to green, in an effort to raise Ariadnes notice. Since she fears that her disguise might be penetrated she agrees to meet Ikarus on that building. Ikarus sends Lady Cyber away – something she obviously does not like. She sneaks back and films Ikarus and Ariadne kissing, but then a dark clothed man appears, strikes Ikarus down and throws him off the building. Ariadne screams and tries to stop that man, but then disappears with the man.

The adventure starts

The cops are called to the scene where Ikarus lies dead on the street in front of the high building… The have to struggle to get there, because traffic is in a total stand-still, since all traffic lights show green. (This is a nice hook if your players are not homicide cops (nearest officer) or to get other chars interested – better then watching the traffic jam) Ikarus deck and handy are next to him, broken. The cops search for clues is fruitless, both deck and handy are taken to the lab, the body is taken to the mort to see if it was suicide. A background check on Ikarus (his SIN with the name Ronny Hartung can be found) shows he is a known hacker, the lab can reveal that he hacked into the traffic system. This should make the cops suspicious of the “suicide theory”. The next days the cops search the room of Ronny. A short questioning of his mother reveals that she is a single parent (she has a bug hunting service).. she is in tears, but wonders why the cop come so late after the lady cop is already there and searching Ronny’s room. The cops wonder, too. :) As they climb up the stairs to Ronny’s room, they hear female voices… the ladies are shouting at each other, might even fight. My cops charged in, disarming the older lady who drew a gun as the cops kicked the door in. Problem: The lady is not only blonde, but also has a badge, showing she is federal police (If you want to play in Night City, make her Netwatch), assigned to assist our cops with her knowledge of computer crime. Remember? They are homicide…The badge says she’s Linda Morry.The other woman is a girl, slightly younger then Ikarus. Her name is Maria Hunter. She claims to know nothing. She is a friend of Ikarus, actually his girlfriend. That’s as far as she is willing to go. She breaks into tears, and the cops should feel sorry for her, Morry will say to her she can leave. Morry tries to steal a stack of paper. In my game she was caught – it was bank account data, showing that Ikarus had been rather rich for a boy his age. He received several payments, 8000 euro in cash.

Who are the girls?

Linda Morry is Ariadne. She has been sneaked into the police service to cover up what has happened. Both the spying and the murder of Ikarus have to be covered up in the name of National Interest… you know, jobs and high tech…. So Morrys strategy, as designed by Holzmacher, is to make the “Suicide Theory” more likely. That’s why she sent the kid out of the room as the cops tried to question her.
Maria Hunter is Lady Cyber. She is scared that she will be killed like Ikarus and is uncooperative. She has the tape hidden. Her motive is revenge.

What is happening now?

Nothing much. Thanks to Morry the investigation goes on slowly, and the cops are pressured from above to close the case. Lady Cyber is unsatisfied by the whole thing. She told Ikarus mom about her tape and was urged to take action. That she does.She pressures some of Ikarus netrunner friends by showing him a tape that shows both the friend AND Ikarus accepting money from Ariade for passwords. The guy is scared, but helps Lady Cyber to edit the tape and publish it on the net: ARIADNE WANTED FOR MURDER. This kicks butt.

Holzmacher urges Ariadne to take the tape back from the person most likely to have it, Lady Cyber. So Ariadne changes disguise from good cop to bad Ariadne and breaks into Lady Cyber’s flat. She can’t find the tape, having to wait till Lady Cyber comes home. She then interrogates the girl, gun drawn…

But the cops see the tape too. They draw the same conclusion, and want to get some answers out of Lady Cyber. They come to the flat, and ring the bell. Hard to tell how your chars will deal with that. Here Ariadne told Lady Cyber to send the cops away. This was not to the cops liking, so they just entered. Lady Cyber couldn’t tell the cops about the situation, since she knew that Ariadne could listen to any conversation using the cops cellphones. So she types on her computer: “turn the cell phones off!”. The turned off cells cause Ariadne to flee. The cops manage to trace Ariadne and follow her to a safehouse. They (the cops and Lady Cyber) surprise Ariadne there, who spills out the whole story.
Ariadne is now interested to prove she’s innocent. She edits the original, digital tape Lady Cyber brought in a way that makes it possible to see that the dark man is Holzmacher. In a deal with the police and to relieve her conscience she also helps the cops to get the stolen offers from Digitel out of Holzmanns computer… This is monitored by Holzmanns security, who sends a squad of goons that way to kill Ariadne, and every other witness…. I am sure you can deal with the following bangbang allone .)

The Cast

Ikarus (NPC)

Role: Netrunner
Age: 17
Very good, has access to Digitel, sold passwords to Ariadne, was in love with her.

Holzmacher (NPC)

Role: Corp
Age: 47
The bad guy. He isn’t often around (but might show up for the finale). He wants to keep things secret, at least till the Malaysians signed the deal with SMS, better for ever. He is willing to waste Ariadne and everybody else if it should be necessary. His problem: Each stiffy makes it harder to hide things! So he won’t kill to soon but try to pressure police to stay out of it and use Ariadne to guide the cops in all the wrong directions.

Ariadne/Linda Morry (Player)

Role: Spy
Age: 28
Is both Ikarus and Holzmanns lover. Holzmanns sees a security risk and kills Ikarus as his love makes him foolish and dangerous. Morry is sorry about Ikarus who she liked, and did not agree with his murder. But Holzmann has control of her and she has to do what he says. Her conflicting interests can make her sneak info to the cops if they have no clue at some point. This could either happen because she wants to: “8000 euro is the price for a password on the black market” or unwilling: trying to shorten an interrogation, blocking promising attempts, stealing data… good way to make a mere newspaper article about the SMS/Malaysia deal of interest to the cops…

Maria Hunter/Lady Cyber (Player)

Role: Netrunner
Age: 16
She is neither a good netrunner, nor a good photographer / filmer. She thought of Ikarus as her lover, and hates Ariadne because she feels cheated by her.

2 Cops (Players)

These guys are straight cops. The want to get the murderer, and as they learn of Holzmacher, they want him, preferably dead, since he has a corp passport.

Timeline:

  • – 7 days: Holzmacher uses Ariadne and the netrunners to get access to the competing offers.
  • – 0 days: Ikarus gets killed trying to get Ariadne.
  • – day 2: Lady Cyber publishes parts of the film on the Net. Have fun.

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