It is day 17 of month 3, 1042, on Stack Row, Brakka. Emmet Farrow and his Syndicate crew sell Rush in the stairwells of Block Eleven at every shift change. Three young workers have burned out on it. One of them is Pavel, Anton Becker's best friend, who has not spoken for a month.
Emmet's supplier is Casimir Lund. By day Casimir sells used engine parts from a stall in the Tinker Market. On rest days he is a Syndicate bookmaker at the Pipe Run, and he fixes the big races. He keeps his Rush in the basement offices of Old Foundry Nine. There a Syndicate chemist cuts it with cheap powder and presses it into paper doses. Each dose paper is stamped with a small red cart wheel, the mark Casimir also prints on his betting slips.
Emmet picks up his powder from a locker under a stall in the Tinker Market at 02:00 every third night. The next pickup is tonight. Casimir has also paid Fenna Tock to lose the big race on day 20, the next rest day.
Emmet Farrow wants to keep selling, and if caught, he will trade the drop for his life.
Casimir Lund wants Block Eleven as his market and the day 20 race to end the way he paid for.
The Block Eleven committee will pay in Marks and free rooms to anyone who drives the dealers out and finds their supplier.
Union guards in red armbands watch the corner. They act on proof, but they will not go into a block without the committee's word.
Pavel lies in his mother's flat on the ninth floor and does not speak. He is Mirek Dvorak's little brother.
The crew is the Unity crew, on the raider Unity. Mirek Dvorak is the captain, a Pipe Run champion who quit Rush and knows Casimir Lund as a bookmaker. Vorag Tulmar is a Gorr dock fighter who takes the hits. Lottie Gaskell is a Cogling engineer with a lightning gauntlet. Zofia Novak is a union singer and healer who grew up in Block Eleven. The player runs one of them. The GM runs the other three as companions.
Kip Thackery, Anton Becker and Fenna Tock are NPCs now. Kip leads the songs at rallies, Anton is an engine fitter in Block Eleven and Pavel's best friend, and Fenna is the best cart racer on the Pipe Run.
Stat blocks. Emmet Farrow and Casimir Lund fight from their character sheets. Count Emmet as 200 XP and Casimir as 450 XP. Union guards use the Union Rifleman stat block. Budget for four level 12 characters is Low 8,800, Moderate 14,800 and High 18,800.
The doorway, 18:00. On Stack Row, Emmet Farrow leans in the doorway of Block Eleven and smiles at the workers going in. 3 Syndicate Enforcer sell in the stairwells on floors 2, 4 and 6. 2 Rush Brute guard the landings, and 2 Syndicate Headhunter watch from the iron fire stair. With Emmet they are 8,350 XP, Low. On the steps, two committee members argue about a rent strike. A DC 14 Wisdom (Insight) check shows Emmet is scared, not tough. Once two of his men are down, or he is cornered, a DC 15 Charisma (Intimidation) check makes him name the drop and the time. Vorag Tulmar standing over him gives that check Advantage. He has never seen his supplier's face.
The committee. The players may bring the committee a dealer or a dose paper. Then the committee chair gives the Union guards leave to enter Block Eleven. A DC 16 Charisma (Persuasion) check gets the two arguing members to agree on this tonight. The committee paid for Zofia Novak's first viol, so her check has Advantage.
Pavel's flat. On the ninth floor, Pavel lies on a cot. His mother feeds him with a spoon. A DC 14 Wisdom (Medicine) check shows he is burned out and will not get better quickly. A Rush Antidote helps him sit up and eat. Under his cot is an empty dose paper with a small red cart wheel stamped on it. Anyone who knows the Pipe Run knows it is the mark on Casimir Lund's betting slips. Mirek Dvorak knows it at once.
The drop, day 18, 02:00. In the Tinker Market, the locker is under stall 40, which sells smog masks. At 01:50 a Syndicate Knifeman fills it and leaves. Following him without being seen takes a DC 15 Dexterity (Stealth) check. He walks to Old Foundry Nine. By day, Casimir Lund sits at his own parts stall nearby. A DC 16 Wisdom (Perception) check spots the same red cart wheel painted on his cash box.
Old Foundry Nine. A gang of street kids lives on the upper floors and hates the dealers below. A DC 14 Charisma (Persuasion) check, or a hot meal, gets them to show a back way through the old boiler room. In the basement offices, 1 Syndicate Underboss, 1 Syndicate Chemist, 4 Rush Brute and 2 Syndicate Headhunter guard the cutting tables (14,450 XP, Moderate). The back way gives the players surprise. The chemist gives the brutes fresh Rush in round 1. Lottie Gaskell can cut the boiler room lights first with a DC 14 check with Tinker Tools. If the fight goes badly, the boiler room stair leads back up to the street kids, and the dealers will not follow them there. In the office are 400 doses, a cash box with 480 Crowns and Casimir's book of drops and payments.
Casimir hits back. If Emmet was caught or the foundry was raided, Casimir sends 2 Race Fixer and 4 Syndicate Headhunter to find whoever talked (10,100 XP, Moderate). They reach Block Eleven at 23:00 on day 18. They wait on the fire stairs outside the third floor. A DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check from a window spots them before they move.
The race, day 20, 14:00. At the Pipe Run, thousands of workers watch the big race. Casimir Lund calls odds from a booth by the finish line. If Fenna Tock leads after the second lap, 2 Race Fixer wait at the far turn with cable nets. A DC 16 Wisdom (Perception) check from the stands spots them first. Casimir's Syndicate Underboss, 3 Syndicate Headhunter and 4 Rush Brute guard the booth. At the booth, shown the dose paper and his book, Casimir runs. Catching him in the crowd takes a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. Mirek Dvorak knows every gap in the Pipe Run stands, so his check has Advantage. With Casimir, his men make 17,650 XP, High. The crowd is the way out. If the fight goes badly, the crew can slip into the stands, and the Syndicate men will not shoot into thousands of Union workers. Showing the book to the Union guards at the gate also ends the fight, because the brutes and headhunters scatter rather than face the militia.
The arrest. With the book or a dose paper tied to Casimir, the Union guards arrest him and post a bounty on his men. Without proof, they only take Emmet.
Day 17, 18:00. Emmet sells forty doses at shift change.
Day 18, 02:00. The drop is filled. Emmet's crew moves into Block Twelve too.
Day 19. A fourth young worker burns out in the stairwell of Block Eleven.
Day 20, 14:00. Fenna Tock is netted at the far turn of the Pipe Run if she tries to win. Her cart is wrecked.
Day 25. The rally in Revolt Square starts. Casimir's men sell Rush in the crowd.
Good. Emmet is gone, the foundry stash is burned and Casimir Lund is arrested. Block Eleven's stairwells are clean.
Mixed. Emmet is gone but Casimir escapes, or the stash is burned but a new dealer comes within a month.
Bad. The dealers stay, and someone who helped the players is beaten on the fire stairs.
The Block Eleven committee pays 160 Crowns to each player character and gives each a free room in the block for a year.
The Union militia pays the posted bounty, 1,000 Marks per dealer brought in. This is the Bounty Board Contracts gig, and more papers wait at Anvil Station.
The foundry office holds 480 Crowns and 3 doses of Rush Antidote.
The street kids of Old Foundry Nine become eyes on the street for the players.
Heroic Inspiration for keeping Fenna Tock safe at the far turn or for getting Pavel to eat again.
The man in new boots. Casimir's book shows a buyer in new boots who paid for fifty doses last week. Kip Thackery has seen the same man hand Marks to dockhands with no union cards before the rally.
The other blocks. The book lists drops in three more worker blocks of the Hall District.
The bookmaker's boss. Casimir paid a share of every fixed race to someone in Odds Hall. The Syndicate will send someone to find out who broke the Brakka trade.