[BNW] Bargainers - New trick and adventure idea

[Kirk Monsen <munchwolf@yahoo.com>]

Last word on bargainers for a while (for some reason I
feel they should be called borrowers ... hmmm).

Lender- With an extra success during creation the
bargainer can make a totem non-linked.  This item can
be used by anyone, even another bargainer, and will
never take up a totem slot.  Of course no bargainer in
their right mind would use such a device for the one
simple reason ... it's cursed.  The totem has a
malignant demon trapped inside that quietly demands a
large price from the user.  This could be anything
from having to sin, only being able to use it to kill
certain people, so forth ... think Friday the 13th the
series.  Maybe its a ring that emulates blaster powers
but it MUST kill it's target or the user suffers a
derangement.  Maybe it possesses the user while used. 
The curse can be any number of things, and
unfortunately for the bargainer, he won't know what
the curse is until the object is used (the curse is
decided by the Guide).  Most of these objects are
given to other people to use, and in return the
bargainer gains favor from the forces below.


Along similar lines, the adventure idea:

Delta Drugs

Someone had mentioned the concept of Delta Steroids to
increase the power levels of deltas.  This is a
similar idea.  Delta drugs are wafers laced with an
unknown substance (mentioned below) that temporarily
give a reg some delta powers.  Each wafer is different
and the powers granted are no determination on any
latent delta powers the reg might have.  To use the
drug the reg must make a Spirit roll (TN 20).  If the
reg botches he gets a severe addiction plus two wounds
to the torso as well as not having the drug work.  If
he only fails then he still gets a severe addiction
and only one wound to the torso, but the drug works. 
On a success he gets a mild addiction (but no wounds)
and the drug works.  On an extra success there are no
ill side effects, and the drug works.  Wounds caused
by the drug cannot be healed by normal means, they're
even resistant to delta powers (treat as a toxin).  It
takes a week after going cold turkey before these
wounds can be healed, and then only !
at one a week.  The benefits of taking the drug is a
reg can for about 5 minutes emmulate whatever delta
power the drug was designed for.  Note these drugs are
built for regs.  If a delta tries one, or a reg takes
more than one kind then the TN goes up to 30 and the
results are worse.  Botching will mean taking 3 wounds
and getting a severe addiction.  Failure gives 2
wounds, a severe addiction, and NO powers.  A success
will give 1 wound, a mild addiction, and powers.  An
extra success grants a mild addiction and powers.  Two
extra successes will be needed so there are no ill
effects.

So what's in these drugs?

The story so far:  Carl 'Soylent Green' Murphy is an
unregistered bargainer who is contracted through the
Department of Defense for a pharmicutical company DD
Chemicals (The DoD is unaware he is a bargainer). 
Carl has always believed in taking shortcuts.  All
short cuts were allowed in his book.  He cheated and
scammed his way into getting a Pharmacy PhD with the
belief that the end result was more important then the
means used to get there.  After college he received a
fellowship with the DoD to study Delta powers.  The
concept of Delta powers intrigued him and for the
first time he really did the work of collecting data,
but after repeatedly not getting anywhere he resorted
to his old tricks, stealing the results of coworkers. 
Soon his collegues resented Carl's knack for getting
their credit and a labratory accident was arranged. 
It yielded unexpected results.  Carl survived and his
bargainer powers were awakened.  After 'rewarding' his
coworkers to their own private lab accidents (none of
them became deltas) he learned from the demons that
they would help him in his quest if he helped them,
and so the idea of Delta drugs came about.

But what are Delta drugs?  Hmmm ... considering Carl
has no qualms about human life, and that he chose the
alias Soylent Green .. yup, you guessed it.  All Delta
drugs are made with the finest 100% grade A Deltas
available.  Part of Carl's week long ritual involves
taking a captive delta (not many willing volunteers
for this) and drain his lifeblood out of him.  Also
while the delta is still alive several organs are
removed (depending on the particular delta power) and
all the icky body bits are crushed up and distilled to
find the essence of the delta.  Normally if a
bargainer tried this procedure he'd only be able to
make 1 or 2 wafers, but since Carl takes great
pleasure in his work, the demons have given his a few
pointers so that he can make about 10 - 15 wafers from
1 delta (it still takes about a week total).

So how does he managed to get away with this?  Well
the DoD thinks he's still in research stage and hasn't
begun testing.  Most of research assistants don't know
his special ingrediant, nor do they know he's testing.
 They just think he's still collecting samples from
various deltas.  Since he's working for the DoD on a
Top Secret project, most of Delta Prime don't know
anything about his work, and those who do also think
he's still in research phase and know not to touch
him.  Effectively the government won't touch him, but
the DoD is starting to get restless and want results
soon.  Carl knows despite his progress he can never
give results, since he won't be able to mass produce
his drugs.  For now he's still working on his
masterplan whice involves large ammounts of untraced
money, trying to refine the formula to make it less
lethal/addictive (he would like to be able to take it
eventually), and to capture an alpha or two and reduce
them to powder.  He figures he still has a few years
before he can pretend to start testing the drug and
can keep this scam going for a while.

So how again is he doing this?  Ah, that's where the
deal with the demons come in.  Another bargainer
friend of his runs a small cult called The Church of
Omega.   seems to be nothing more than a group of regs
who only want to be Deltas, worshiping them as the
superior being.  In reality the group sees Deltas as
untrained fallen angels.  Their plan is to find their
own ascention into becoming beings more powerful than
Delta, and Alphas (well that's their plan, it's not
going to happen, and they're all deluded kooks, but
it's what they believe).  Carl is just using them to
help collect the 'lesser beings' (deltas) and a few of
his assistants are also part of the cult (keeping an
eye on the group).  In return he supplies the cult
with the drug, and has promised to help them ascend.

So how does the party get involved?  Well they can be
either Defiant or Delta Prime and sent to investigate,
or maybe run across any number of things:

Missing deltas, or missing unregistered deltas
New drug on the streets
Rash of crimes commited by new 'deltas'

maybe even slowly bring these elements in some of the
previous adventures and make it part of a campaign.

Possible conflicts:  Well, Carl can call on the DoD if
he feels people are investigating him.  DoD can come
down on Delta Prime investigaters (but they will be
asked by their superiors to 'unofficially' continue
the investigation since they want to know what's going
on), maybe even his the players with a large squad of
'Deltas'

Some considerations:  There arn't that many wafers in
existance.  Carl has only made about 10-15 a week, and
who knows how long he's been doing this.  He probably
only has 5-6 different types of delta drugs available
and most of the drugs are with the cult.

This shouldn't be an easy adventure for the players. 
Carl is a well fortified villian.  He has several
flunkies of different types he can call on (cultists,
agents, maybe even mercenary gangs that will work for
drugs).  He has several intermediates who should
appear as the main villian before the players discover
him.  He is a bargainer with about 4-5 totems (so
alone he should be quite formidable), but won't
directly attack the party.  Finally if things seem to
be moving slowly, have Carl decide the posse knows too
much and he plans on making them his next wave design.

Eventually I might flesh this out further.  If anyone
tries this idea, or does a write up I'd like to know
how it went.

-Munch Wolf

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