By Matt Seaborn

A small family of House Decados, the Romanovs, has split of and contacted The Hazat for sanctuary from the Decados in return for information on some particularly powerful Second Republic technology.

'The Treacherous Decados' in Word 6, PDF and space delimited text formats

This adventure is based in The Hub on Pandemonium, see pages 250-256.

It was written specifically for my players. A Hazat noble, an al-Malik noble turned Scraver, a Li Halan noble who joined the Eskatonics and an Avestite. It was implemented slightly differently but this is the original script.

A small family of House Decados, the Romanovs, has split of and contacted The Hazat for sanctuary from the Decados in return for information on some particularly powerful Second Republic technology. Amongst their numbers are some relatively important military personnel. The Hazat have decided to give them sanctuary, but more for the military information they can glean from the family than some rumoured technology. A Hazat agent must go to Pandemonium , locate the family and get them to Hazat controlled lands. The Hazat are fairly sure that the Jacovian agency is aware of the situation and are attempting to stop what ever is to happen. To combat this they have retrieved a noble son who has been at a Dervish monastery for most of his life. This will make it less likely that he is a Decados agent and also less likely to be recognised as a Hazat noble. He will be given a ship for this journey.

The message received stated that the agent should go to 'The Brazen Whore', sit at the far end of the bar and order a double whisky with ice on sundown. He will then be approached by a representative of the renegade family and they will be able to discuss terms of their defection. They warn to be wary as anyone can be in the employ of the Jacovian agency and that they can trust no-one. The Hazat limited information states that the Romanovs are a fairly normal Decados family, indulging in the normal tattooing, body piercing and other physical alterations, socially of a moderate level of power with some noted military pursuits. Also noted for their outspoken distaste for some, less than savoury, Decados activities, military, social and political.

The Jacovian agency have indeed intercepted the message, and would have stopped it if they were able to. However, as it got through, they have decided allow the Hazat noble to go to Pandemonium so that they can see what they can learn from both parties. To ensure that the Romanovs are unaware of their knowledge they have hatched the following plan.

They will watch the said bar, when someone sits at the given location the Romanov agent will kidnapped. Meanwhile a Jacovian agent will speak to the Hazat agent and feed him incorrect information, arranging for them to go to a meet. The meet will be a shady area that will allow the Jacovians to abduct the Hazat with no suspicious activity. They will then interrogate both prisoners and extract all the information they can, locate the Romanovs and destroy them.

However the players are the spanners in the works.

Sure enough the Hazat noble will go to the meet and the Jacovian agent, who will be dressed as a normal Scraver, who will claim to have been paid by a man down the street to tell him the following information, and then feeds the Hazat the location of the Jacovian trap. The Romanov representative will be abducted by two other agents, however the priests, who are looking for the al-Malik Scraver will notice this and attempt to prevent the abduction from working. The Romanov agent will get to the meet late and spot the Hazat and attempt to persuade him that he is the real rep and that he should go to a different location. The clue lies in the fact that he is obviously Decados and the first wasn't. The Romanovs can trust no-one. The al-Malik Scraver will over hear the first discussions (and the second if he hangs around) and get interested in the Second Republic tech and hopefully pursue them, going to one of the meets.

Whoever goes to the Jacovian meet (an unused warehouse) will be met by a surprise attack from a Kossack, they will loose. They will awaken and be interrogated by one Auramov Decados. The Jacovians are irritated that they failed to capture the Romanov agent. If they capture the Scraver they will discover (if he tells them) that he is after the Second Republic tech. They are as cynical of this as the Hazat and have little interest in it. They will offer the Scraver the tech if he will help them locate the family, in addition to a financial reward and the debt of the Jacovian agency. They will claim that just a few of the Romanovs have forced the rest of the family to leave. They just want them back. They will give him the night to think about it. The option for not helping them is not very appetising. If the Hazat is captured they will assume that he is after the technology and will make a similar offer to him as they did the Scraver, and tell them the same story. They are not aware that the Hazat are aware of the military personnel in the family if the Hazat mentions this they will claim that it is just a ploy on their half to attract in those who are interested so they can investigate them. The option of not agreeing to help them are the same as the Scraver, torture and death. However the Romanovs have their sources and will rescue the Hazat if he refuses to help them. However getting out will be tougher when the alarm goes off. Expect plenty of soldiers. If either agree they will be implanted with a tracking device (unbeknownst to them), released and monitored. The must make a Perception + Observe at -4 to notice the wound where it was implanted.

The Hazat will be able to got to the second meet (a night-club called Weasel Enema, industrial metal club) in either case. The al-Malik will be sent with him if both are captured and agree to help or inadvertently rescued if the Hazat is rescued. The Scraver will be being escorted from an interrogation booth to his cell when the Hazat and rescuer (a particularly violent child) appear. The guard will shoot at them and will be killed, thus the al-Malik is teamed up with the Hazat. The al-Malik, if released on his own will be able to find the meet if he overheard the second talk, if not see below although he will be told about where to go if the Decados know.

Once the priest have arrived they will presumably start asking around. They wander through numerous shops and bars (list some, including 'Night Razor', 'Alien Disembowelment' and 'Chucked Up'). Whilst in one bar ('The Bat and Faggot') which they note is similar to one of the pubs they have visited earlier in style, waiting for the Barman to finishing serving his current customer they notice that he sells the man some drugs, the wrapper emblazoned with the 'Alien Disembowelment' bar's logo. He will be unable (and unwilling) to help the Priests with their search and if asked about the drugs say 'If he gets caught with these I don't want be the one accused of selling them, costs a bomb to bribe the police!'. Although this will get them nowhere (the Romanovs have been VERY secretive) it will alert the Jacovian agency who will send some ordinary agents to corner them in an alleyway and make a brief interrogation. If they seem to know more than they should then they will be brought in and interrogated (see above) if not they will just be killed. If the agents decide to kill them then the guy they rescued will notice them and after some thought decode against rescuing them. However an agent will notice him, recognise him, say 'Hey! It's one of them! STOP!' and shoot at him, he will shoot back and kill one before being shot and fatally wounded. The Decados will be open to attack from the priests. Examining the bodies of the agents will reveal nothing but give them some money and two medium auto-pistols with silencers and ammo. The Romanov will carry a little money, no ID and some drugs (a blue powder) in a 'Club Bastard' wrapper. He will just be able to ask the priests to help his family before dying. The clubs often sell drugs in other clubs wrappers, thus getting them in trouble if the drugs are found. They rely of word of mouth to sell drugs, not advertising. It is common knowledge that the main rival to 'Club Bastard' is 'Weasel Enema' and can be discovered easily if people are asked. If they don't follow this lead they will be captured by the Jacovian agency and once it is discovered that they are just trying to find the Scraver they will be tagged, told where to go to find him (if they know) and released.

If the Hazat and the Scraver meet in the Jacovian base they likely have teamed up and will be together if they enter 'Club Bastard'. The Romanovs will be extremely suspicious about the stranger but will allow him to be involved in the talks if the Hazat insists on it. As soon as the Hazat walks in he will be shown to a discrete table and sat with until a Romanov Noble turns up. The Scraver will be ignored if he turns up on his own but suspicious activity will attract Romanov attention. If the Hazat (or the Scraver if he's with him) was interrogated by the Decados the Romanovs will know about it and ask them about it. If either occurs then the Decados guards will appear and attempt to apprehend the Romanovs present, but will not shoot first, however the Romanovs will shoot immediately. Just before this the priests have appeared and had just noticed their man when the troops appear. The Hazat will definitely help the Romanovs, as per his orders. The Scraver for the tech and the priests will go with the Scraver. The Romanovs will lead them out the back and down into the sewers. The Decados will follow. The Romanovs will insist that they must stop the Decados before going any further (and disposing of their many new 'allies'). A map should be drawn up and counters to represent players and bad guys. The GM should have a private map on which the Decados are tracked, only revealing their position when the players can see them. There should be twice times the number of guards as players for the players to deal with. They will be grouped together as the Romanovs don't trust them. The guards are armed with Assault rifles and 2 grenades each. All movement is quartered due to the 2' deep sewage.

Afterwards, when the PC's return, they will be help at gun point and asked how the Decados knew so quickly. The players must talk their way out of it. If the persuade them that it was nothing to do with them they must also persuade that they want to help them. If one of the PC's suggests them maybe bugged then they will be scanned and the bug removed (the players must make an Endurance + Vigour roll or become infected due to the environment).

Once the players think they have killed all of the opponents and they have convinced the Romanovs of their trustworthiness (either that or they have a fight with 10 armed Romanovs) they will be led to the Romanov hideout, on old abandoned steel press factory. They will only see but a few of the Romanovs, the others are safely elsewhere in the building. If they failed to kill all the Decados they will have been followed and the location relayed to the Jacovian agency. Otherwise the Decados have no way of locating them unless the players contact them. If they do so the Decados appear within 10 minutes by flitter with 30 guards and 5 Kossacks led by the Jacovian who interrogated them. All armed with assault rifles and grenades and the Kossacks also have sabres. They will surround the building and demand surrender. They will allow those working for them, and the priests, to leave the building. The Jacovian agent will then give the order to kill all of the Romanovs and the troops will advance in. The Jacovian will laugh at any protests made by the players, assuring them that they will get their pay (which they will, but nothing else offered). It is up to the players to stop them as they will slaughter the heavily out gunned Romanovs. A simple way would be to take the agent hostage.

Regardless of whether they Decados show they have to get 110 Romanovs (30 men, 33 women and 47 children) to the Hazat ship with the Decados on the lookout. They have the ship guarded, all crew removed and have patrols on the streets. This is up to the players to design a plan. The Romanovs do have some vehicles, but not enough. And although they could attempt to bribe their way through the presence of the Jacovian agency would make this approach pointless. They do have full maps of the sewers which get them to the spaceport, but this has been anticipated and will be guarded (not well due to the unsavoury conditions). There is a squad of 5 Kossacks guarding the ship. Three outside and 2 inside. Is a fight occurs outside and continues for more than 10 turns then the two inside will come out, otherwise they will wait in a quiet part of the ship until it is boarded.

The space port involves a large field of which the ships land. The blast shields they land on slide away to allow the passengers to disembark and cargo unloaded to be transported away through tunnels. No-one is allowed above surface here due to the extreme dangers or spaceships taking off and landing. The landing field is roughly circular and surrounded by walls and buildings. There are routes in for authorised personnel and vehicles. The entrances to the airport vehicle park, airport buildings are guarded, are all tunnels leading to the Hazat ship. They have not guarded the ship above ground and the personnel entrances have little security on them.