THE ROLEPLAYER’S GUIDE

TO
HEISTS

A Collection of 35 Capers For Any Tabletop RPG

A San Jenaro Co-Op Production
1
 HEISTS
The Train Job ...4 Luna Larceny ...108
Words: Liam Ginty Words: J.R. Zambrano
Art: Dyer Rose, Donald Kirby, Daniel Walthall Art: Galen Evans, Dyer Rose, Daniel Walthall

Down Where It’s Wetter ...10 Stealing Hope ...114

Words: Liam Ginty Words: Jay Henningsen
Art: Dyer Rose, Hector Rodriguez Art: Donald Kirby, Hector Rodriguez

In the House ...16 Get in the Robot ...120

Words: Olivia Hill Words: Liam Ginty
Art: Dyer Rose, Brian York Art: Dyer Rose, Daniel Walthall

Something Borrowed... ...22 Into the Beaches of The Twilight Sea ...128
Words: Liam Ginty Words: Liam Ginty
Art: Dyer Rose, Daniel Walthall Art: Donald Kirby, Daniel Walthall

The Crime to Prove Innocence ...28 Pure as the Driven ...134

Words: Olivia Hill Words: Liam Ginty
Art: Dyer Rose, Brian York Art: Dyer Rose, Hector Rodriguez

Paper Trail ...34 Marquis Deroux’s Compulsory Party ...142

Words: Liam Ginty Words: K. Roundtree
Art: Dyer Rose, Daniel Walthall Art: Dyer Rose, Federico Sohns

Austria In Flames ...40 Stealing Fire from The Gods’ Own Hearth ...152
Words: Kate Jeanne Words: JW van Heerden
Art: Donald Kirby, Hector Rodriguez Art: Dyer Rose, Federico Sohns

A Wizard Did It ...46 The Dead Man’s Party Job ...160

Words: J.R. Zambrano Words: Olivia Hill
Art: Donald Kirby, Daniel Walthall Art: Dyer Rose, Brian York

Caper in the Clouds ...52 The Grand Duchess ...168

Words: Kate Jeanne Words: J.R. Zambrano
Art: Galen Evans, Hector Rodriguez Art: Dyer Rose, Hector Rodriguez

Best In Show ...56 The Shuttle Game ...178

Words: Ren Ginty Words: Liam Ginty
Art: Dyer Rose, Hector Rodriguez Art: Dyer Rose, Hector Rodriguez

All That Glimmers ...62 Tell No Tales ...184

Words: Liam Ginty Words: Keith Evans
Art: Donald Kirby, Daniel Walthall Art: Dyer Rose, Daniel Walthall

The Main Branch ...68 The Third Loop-In Job ...190

Words: Heather Rusk Words: Olivia Hill
Art: Dyer Rose, Hector Rodriguez Art: Dyer Rose, Brian York

Exit the Dragon ...76 Three God Monte ...196

Words: Liam Ginty Words: JW van Heerden
Art: Dyer Rose, Daniel Walthall Art: Dyer Rose, Hector Rodriguez

One More Time ...84 TrueID2082 ...202

Words: Liam Ginty Words: Olivia Hill
Art: Dyer Rose, Daniel Walthall Art: Dyer Rose, Brian York

The Longest Trail ...90 Woosle’s Wonderlock ...208

Words: Kate Jeanne Words: J.R. Zambrano
Art: Galen Evans, Dyer Rose, Hector Rodriguez Art: Hector Rodriguez

Stealing Destiny ...96 Cult of Much More Than Personality ...216

Words: Kate Jeanne Words: Chris Falco
Art: Donald Kirby, Daniel Walthall Art: Dyer Rose, Hector Rodriguez

Lights, Camera, Action! ...102 The End ...222

Words: Liam Ginty Words: J.R. Zambrano
Art: Dyer Rose, Daniel Walthall Art: Hector Rodriguez, Donald Kirby

Steal This Book! ...228

Words: Chris Falco
Art: Dyer Rose, Daniel Walthall

2
 TABLES CREDITS
Special Safes ...9 Writers
Liam Ginty

Fantasy Loot ...67 Liam Ginty, Olivia Hill, Kate Jeanne, J.R. Zambrano,
Liam Ginty
Keith Evans, Ren Ginty, JW van Heerden, Chris Falco,
Modern Day Heist Loot ...75 Heather Rusk, Amanda Allen, Alvhild Sand,
Amanda Allen
Jon Garrad , K. Rountree, Jay Henningsen,
Safes, Lockboxes, and Vaults ...107 Heather Rusk
Chris Biller

Sci Fi Security Systems

Amanda Allen
...126 Editors
Sci Fi Loot ...127 Ash Walter, JW van Heerden, Jay Henningsen
Liam Ginty

Modern Security Systems ...140

Heather Rusk Artists
Security Companies ...167 Dyer Rose, Hector Rodriguez, Daniel Walthall,
Liam Ginty
Brian York, Donald Kirby, Galen Evans,
Mooks, Patsies, and Dramatis Personae ...175 Federico Sohns
Liam Ginty

Troublesome Locks ...195

Liam Ginty Layout & Design
Fantastic Security Systems ...214 Francita Soto & Keith Evans
Alvhild Sand

ESSAYS Special Thanks

Eva Long ...82
Freyja Katra Erlingsdó�r, Sarah Reher,
Liam Ginty Jacob Woosley, Piotr Piasecki
When It All Goes South:
The Heist-As-Farce Story ...148
Jon Garrad

Isabel & Fiona ...176

Liam Ginty

Making Your Macguffin Matter ...234

J.R. Zambrano

ONLINE SUPPORT
For high resolution versions of the images in this
book free for personal use* at your gaming
table, scan the QR-Code to the right with a
smartphone, or enter the following link into
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*Usage of the art in this book is subject to the San Jenaro Co-Op Art Reuse License detailed at the
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3

The Train Job
The Building
The train itself is a six-car locomotive pulled by the
JacksonDXengine.TheRoyaleCaboose,despiteits
name, is actually the second car from the rear. The
actual caboose is primarily storage, baggage, and
the like, but based on the manifest, they’re also
keeping some serious firepower in here – an
honest-to-god Gatling gun. You can expect at least
three, maybe four people back here too, if only to
man the gun when the time comes. What else is
back here, if anything, probably depends on the
passengers that day; anything from TNT to
petticoats, based on the records we were able to
acquire.
The Royale Caboose itself is easily the most
ostentatious railroad car in the country, maybe
the world. Double the length of a standard cab,
and almost one and a half times the height, the
Caboose was built for Winklebright by his private
engineering corps, aided by several summoned
servants (courtesy of Prospero). The Caboose
contains a small private kitchen, a bed, a parlour,
and an armored panic room.
Inside the Caboose is an utterly absurd display of
wealth. Velvet covers every surface that gold
doesn’t; it is, to our knowledge, the only railroad
car with a chandelier. The car requires an army of
mechanics, engineers, and attendants to keep it
polished and intact during the ride. These
custodians are usually kept in the car ahead of the
Caboose, allowed in only if something breaks.
The entire car is covered in a layer of hardened
steel, but it's also ensorceled by runes of
protection. During the infamous Battle of Boyer
Creek, the car withstood several direct hits from
an improvised mortar as well as, reportedly, a shot
from a stolen army cannon.
There’s only three ways in or out of the car. First
and second are the doors to the front and back.
These are guarded by two people, armed with
6
Words: Liam Ginty
Art: Dyer Rose, Donald Kirby,
Daniel Walthall
repeaters, on either side of each door. Rumors that
these guards have had their eyes and tongues cut
out are unsubstantiated. The doors are locked and
secured at all times, except during a changing of
the guard – usually every few hours; more often if
there's snow, to ensure the guards don’t freeze to
death. The third option is an emergency escape
hatch in the bottom of the car. This trapdoor is
linked to an ingenious system that can detect if the
train has flipped over, at which point it
automatically bursts open to allow rapid egress
from the car.
The two cars ahead of the Caboose are passenger
cars. Nothing special. In addition to the regular
passengers and the Royale’s dozen or so
custodians, the legendary bounty hunter Sally
Ride will be in one of these cars, transporting their
latest catch – a necromancer and bootlegger by
the name of Frank Coe. Sally will likely have their
Regulation crew with them, and it’s hard to say
which is more dangerous – the Regulation or Coe.
Op�mally, you don’t have to worry about either.
Finally you have the crew car. This is where the
train engineers and staff spend most of their time
during the journey. Not much more than some
tools and rough seating, maybe a workbench. This
iswherealltheuniformsarekept,though,andkeys
for the other cars.
So that’s the train; let's talk about the route.
The Colorado Midland Railway runs from
Colorado Springs up to Salt Lake City. Along the
way it passes through some of the most difficult
terrain in the Rockies – mountain gorges, sharp
bends, icy cliffs, and snowy peaks. It’s a dangerous
route even by train, but it’s the quickest way from
Leadville to civilization, especially as winter rolls in.
All of this is to say, this isn’t going to be easy.
Two major points of interest come to mind – first is
 Ebenezer Winklebright and his wife Myra are the richest people this
side of The Rockies and are currently transporting the previous year's
back-owed wages from the heart of their mining empire in Leadville to
their personal bank in Salt Lake City. Ostensibly they intend to pay
the workers, but we have it on good authority their plan is to abscond
with the cash and leave the miners to rot. That don’t sit well with us.

Alexandrian Prospero
The famed sorcerer of Brix-
wood and holder of the Last
Bullet.
We have no idea what he is
capable of. Be very, very
careful.

Hagerman Pass
The deadliest part of the trip
– steep cliffs, constant
avalanches, and �ght turns
makes this a dangerous spot
but poten�ally great for us.

5
California coast until he fell overboard during a
storm. Presumed dead, Prospero made himself
known at his own funeral, declaring his mastery
over the Keys of Solomon – which were now
Heist Title Goes Here
etched into his skin in an unsettling purple-red ink
that seems to shi� as you look at him.
What his actual powers are is not entirely clear.
He’s been observed binding demons, crafting
powerful runes of protection, and summoning
hellfire. It’s rumored he’s able to resurrect the
dead and force spirits to do his bidding, and the
events of Brixwood show he has some limited
powers of prediction. He has also acquired the
Last Bullet, a relic of mysterious origins that
imbues any gun it’s loaded into with the ability to
firewiththeforceofa16-poundcannonshot.He’s
a pretty bad shot, but I wager that won’t matter if
he draws on you with that thing.
The car itself is coated in an advanced steel
protective frame, and covered in protective runes
that make punching your way in nearly impossible.
The same protection is applied to the safe we’re
fairly sure the money is kept in. Not to say you can’t
figure something out, but you’ll need more than a
s�ck of dynamite.
Finally, this isn’t strictly speaking security, but Sally
Ride and her Regulation crew are almost certainly
going to be on the Winklebrights’ side more than
they are yours – what you’re doing is illegal, after
all. She’s the best gun on the train, and her gang
are all experts at their chosen professions. Frank
Coe, the
n e c ro m a n c e r
they’re
8
transporting, is supposed to be a relatively minor
Location
power,capableofforcingoneortwocorpsestodo Year
his bidding, and producing a miasma at will. He is
most likely bound by the hands and gagged Time
to
stop him from cas�ng any spells, though.
The Getaway
Your escape is going to depend a lot on where you
hit the train. The route passes over several large
rivers, through several mountains, and makes a
few stops in a couple larger towns between
Leadville and Salt Lake City – all of which present
some pretty opportune chances to get away
without a chase. If you hit the train during one of
the many stretches of open ground, you’ll
probably want horses and a carriage at the ready;
speak to Maria about that. She’ll fix you up.
The initial getaway is probably going to be the
easiest part of this. The hard part is going to be
staying alive and out of jail in a part of the country
that’s almost entirely in the Winklebrights’ pocket.
Even if you kill them during the heist, their money
goes far, and the authorities are unlikely to give you
a moment’s rest. You could go to ground in the
Colorado mountains, but it’s hard living up there.
Of course, eventually, you’ll have to get this money
backtoitsrightfulowners.Howyoudothisisupto
you, but your return to Leadville is likely to cause a
stir unless you can figure out a way to give away
$100,000 without anyone seeing you. Expect the
town to be occupied by any authorities you care to
name – Pinkertons, the Winklebrights’ private
security, and the sheriff’s men will not let you give
that money back without a fight.
Influences
Movies: "3:10 to Yuma" (2007), "The Assassination
ofJesseJamesbytheCowardRobertFord"(2013),
"Butch Cassady and the Sundance Kid" (1969)
Comics: "The Sixth Gun"
Games: "Red Dead Redemp�on"
TV: "Deadwood"
 Your stuff is missing. Several months ago you went on a bit of an
online shopping binge. Your goods never showed up, and no one is
answering your emails. We’ve just received word that the cargo ship
carrying your order went missing near The Cove, a local shallow, and
that an enormous beast matching the description of the seller (Mr. K.R.
Akken) has been spotted in the area. Investigate these strange
sightings, and try to get your stuff back.

The Cove
Local hangout for rogue
knife wielding sea turtle
gangs. Your first port of call.

Container Wreckage
Just visible from the shore, a
sunken labyrinth of steel
containers.

11
California coast until he fell overboard during a
storm. Presumed dead, Prospero made himself
known at his own funeral, declaring his mastery
over the Keys of Solomon – which were now
Heist Title Goes Here
etched into his skin in an unsettling purple-red ink
that seems to shi� as you look at him.
What his actual powers are is not entirely clear.
He’s been observed binding demons, crafting
powerful runes of protection, and summoning
hellfire. It’s rumored he’s able to resurrect the
dead and force spirits to do his bidding, and the
events of Brixwood show he has some limited
powers of prediction. He has also acquired the
Last Bullet, a relic of mysterious origins that
imbues any gun it’s loaded into with the ability to
firewiththeforceofa16-poundcannonshot.He’s
a pretty bad shot, but I wager that won’t matter if
he draws on you with that thing.
The car itself is coated in an advanced steel
protective frame, and covered in protective runes
that make punching your way in nearly impossible.
The same protection is applied to the safe we’re
fairly sure the money is kept in. Not to say you can’t
figure something out, but you’ll need more than a
s�ck of dynamite.
Finally, this isn’t strictly speaking security, but Sally
Ride and her Regulation crew are almost certainly
going to be on the Winklebrights’ side more than
they are yours – what you’re doing is illegal, after
all. She’s the best gun on the train, and her gang
are all experts at their chosen professions. Frank
Coe, the
n e c ro m a n c e r
they’re
8
transporting, is supposed to be a relatively minor
Location
power,capableofforcingoneortwocorpsestodo Year
his bidding, and producing a miasma at will. He is
most likely bound by the hands and gagged Time
to
stop him from cas�ng any spells, though.
The Getaway
Your escape is going to depend a lot on where you
hit the train. The route passes over several large
rivers, through several mountains, and makes a
few stops in a couple larger towns between
Leadville and Salt Lake City – all of which present
some pretty opportune chances to get away
without a chase. If you hit the train during one of
the many stretches of open ground, you’ll
probably want horses and a carriage at the ready;
speak to Maria about that. She’ll fix you up.
The initial getaway is probably going to be the
easiest part of this. The hard part is going to be
staying alive and out of jail in a part of the country
that’s almost entirely in the Winklebrights’ pocket.
Even if you kill them during the heist, their money
goes far, and the authorities are unlikely to give you
a moment’s rest. You could go to ground in the
Colorado mountains, but it’s hard living up there.
Of course, eventually, you’ll have to get this money
backtoitsrightfulowners.Howyoudothisisupto
you, but your return to Leadville is likely to cause a
stir unless you can figure out a way to give away
$100,000 without anyone seeing you. Expect the
town to be occupied by any authorities you care to
name – Pinkertons, the Winklebrights’ private
security, and the sheriff’s men will not let you give
that money back without a fight.
Influences
Movies: "3:10 to Yuma" (2007), "The Assassination
ofJesseJamesbytheCowardRobertFord"(2013),
"Butch Cassady and the Sundance Kid" (1969)
Comics: "The Sixth Gun"
Games: "Red Dead Redemp�on"
TV: "Deadwood"
 Special Safes
Liam Ginty
1 A box full of ghosts, cursed when they abandoned their duty

2 An immovable safe, u�erly incapable of being shi�ed by anyone but its owner

3 A safe that can run at speeds of over 45MPH

4 A lockbox locked by 10 incredibly valuable gems, each held by one of its owners’ demonic pets

5 A trunk that contains a shrunken universe, within which is another safe containing the loot

6 A safe with no door. In reality it has a thin metal shell hiding its door and lock mechanism

Adepositboxthatcontainsdozensofothersmallerlockboxes,eachonecontainingmoresmaller
7
lock boxes
A safe which opens to an enormous room containing the loot and a dangerous foe awaiting the
8
crew
9 A box, the contents of which are �meshi�ed, exis�ng 10 hours in our past

A trunk treated with special light bending paint, which causes its contents to be completely invis-
10
ible
11 A vault fi�ed with flame jets hot enough to melt the gold stored within

12 A case which immediately emits a rapid ac�ng psilocybin based gas upon opening
A safe the size of a building, the tumblers require human beings to manipulate them within its
13
maze-like internal structure
A vault which, when opened, begins transforming into an enormous mechanical golem, giving
14
the looters limited �me to get the stuff and get out
Asafewhichemitsahypersoundwhenunlockedwhichbeginstodissolvethebuildingarounditif
15
le� too long
16 A box that will only open on a specific date and �me

17 A sen�ent lockbox which dies when opened and is capable of begging for its life

18 An enruned safe which teleports away as soon as it’s opened, taking the opener with it

19 A safe that has been encased in molten rock, which has solidified around it
Three safes, one of which opens to an elemental plane of water, one opens to an elemental plane
20
of fire, one opens to the loot

9
 San Diego, California
August 4th, 2024
7PM
Down Where It’s Wetter
Kelp Forest
Near The Cove, rumored to
be extensively
boobytrapped.
Verify before heading in?

The IPC Lagoon

The boat with your stuff on
it. Beached just on the edge
of the con�nental shelf.
Suspicious amounts of EM
radia�on.

10
 Your stuff is missing. Several months ago you went on a bit of an
online shopping binge. Your goods never showed up, and no one is
answering your emails. We’ve just received word that the cargo ship
carrying your order went missing near The Cove, a local shallow, and
that an enormous beast matching the description of the seller (Mr. K.R.
Akken) has been spotted in the area. Investigate these strange
sightings, and try to get your stuff back.

The Cove
Local hangout for rogue
knife wielding sea turtle
gangs. Your first port of call.

Container Wreckage
Just visible from the shore, a
sunken labyrinth of steel
containers.

11
 Clearly, Tyrone will have more important things to
pay a�en�on to than us.
The breakers are all on the upper floor, and since
Marcus doesn’t trust corporate security firms or
the police, he has all his security systems wired to
themainbreakers.That’sthedouble-edgedsword
of not trusting anyone—you have to rely on your
own people’s skills, and if they don’t know security,
your security is a joke.
This is to say, security is a joke.
The security is the least of our concerns. You see
that van parked outside? The one that says
“Genaro’s Plumbing and Electrical?” That’s Marcus
Lords’ personal FBI tail. They’re this close to
finding evidence to tie him to a RICO case, and the
second they do, they’re going to storm his
property from all sides.
Fortunately, the FBI in this case isn’t some
monolithic entity. It’s Supervisory Special Agent
Jack North, who spends too much money on
online video game loot boxes and who doesn’t get
to see his kids anymore—not since he was
relocated to California and his wife left him for a
more stable option back in Virginia. He’s good at
his job but just above average for his rank. Lately,
his reviews have slipped as his family life took a
dive. He wants to get back in the saddle. He wants
to show the FBI that he’s just as good as the day he
joined twenty years ago, fresh outta high school.
He just doesn’t have the spark anymore, though.
He’s leading a team that includes Field Agent Dana
Boole, who is flirting with the idea of leaving her
job and doing YouTube debunking videos full-time.
She’s a passionate member of online skeptic
communities, and she feels like the FBI is
squandering her talents. She thinks she’s currently
just a glorified private investigator, spying on
private citizens, looking for meaningless fraud
causes. We can use that.
His team also features Field Agent Lucas Jones,
who is this close to retiring, and has fought being
put behind a desk tooth and nail. He’s said he
wants to retire doing what he signed up to do, not
pushing paperwork for Washington. He likes
fishing and hunting, and uses a pseudonym on
20
hunting forums where he’s praised Marcus Lords
for his safari hunt trophies. Deep down, he
admires Marcus, even if he’d never admit it
because most of his peers hate “that gangster rap
music.”
They’ve also got New Agent Trainee Pat North.
They’ve got a promising career ahead of them --
they’re ridiculously eager, with a solid record so far.
To New Agent Trainee North, this is the kind of case
they can build an entire career on. This means
they’ll go above and beyond the call of duty and
will likely stop at nothing to get the prize.
They’re watching the house inside and out, with
hidden cameras and microphones feeding into
their van. They’ve got an array of monitors inside
and at least one agent listening actively with
headphones at any given time. Most of the time,
they have one or two agents in plainclothes
wandering the neighborhood, pretending to be
random joggers or maintenance people. We have
the details on their rounds, but we can expect
some variance thanks to the party. They’re going
to be on high alert, since if Marcus was going to say
or do something incriminating, tonight would be
the �me for that.
The Getaway
In a perfect world, we all get jobs catering and
managing the party. We do the job. We get the
evidence to exonerate Kat. Then we walk out with
smiles on our faces and a little paycheck for an
evening’s hard work.
But you all know as well as I do that that’s just not
going to happen. So let’s talk about alterna�ves.
The upper floor balconies are an easy way out, if
you can handle a twenty foot drop. If you’re not
afraidtogodramatic,youcanalwaysjumpintothe
pool. Just remember the north side is the deep
end. The last thing you want to deal with is a
broken leg during the getaway.
If you need to blow the place fast, Marcus’s car
collection is your ticket out. Not only can you leave
in style, but you can nab a car so fast, there’s not a
cop in San Jenaro that can catch you. Of course,
that’s a last resort, since the moment you flee the
some rogue and hostile elements within the kelp
that will likely impede your investigation. Perhaps
spending some time gathering intel from the
turtle gangs may be beneficial here. Stay close to
the seabed, and make sure you keep orientated at
all times. Kelp can also clog up the fans and ports
on the submarine, so be aware that you may need
to perform maintenance as you move through this
area.
At the center of this forest is the IPC Lagoon, the
cargo ship carrying your stuff, in addition to around
$100,000,000 worth of consumer goods, vehicles,
medicine, and food. Much of the cargo the ship
was carrying has spilled across the seabed,
creating an intricate maze of containers
surrounding the ship. We’ve spotted movement
around this area, and several of the containers
have disappeared since we began surveillance.
What this means, we’re not entirely sure, but it
seems fair to assume someone or something is
either cleaning or scavenging the wreck. Whether
this is Mr. K.R. Akken or a third party exploiting the
situation remains to be seen, but if it's the latter,
this presents several opportunities for your team
to exploit.
Take care when navigating the container maze.
The tides here are unpredictable, and the
containers are liable to shift or fall as you move
through them. Do not get crushed by a container
of wet anime body pillows. It is not a good look for
a team of international super-thieves, just ask the
Belgian Burglars.
Sitting directly on the continental shelf are the
wrecked remains of the IPC Lagoon. Stolen reports
fromtheSanDiegoaquaticretrievalsquadindicate
the ship has suffered several catastrophic wounds
to its bow but not enough to sink it. The retrieval
squad is stumped as to why the ship sailed so close
to the coastline in the first place, but the damages
on the ship’s deck and siding are consistent with
several other similar wrecks reported in the last 5
years -- large, wide lashes, crumpling that indicates
crushing damage, and the tell-tale oil slick all point
to Mr. K.R. Akken. The enormous, unseasonable
iceberg sighted just above the ship is evidence
enough, should you be familiar with Mr. Akken’s
methods.
The boat’s layout is traditional for a cargo ship -
largely focused around maximizing space for more
containers, a large central cavity dominates most
of its design, with a 4 story tower to the stern
where the crew sleeps, eats, and commands the
ship. Below decks is largely made up of a series of
maintenance levels and service tunnels.
Relatively simple, but infrared satellite images
seem to suggest extensive renovation work being
done on the ship. Notably, visible from even the
coast line, a large sign has been erected declaring
the site to be “KRAKKEN INC. HQ.”
Once inside the boat, you’ll want to make your way
to the bridge, where the emergency black box is
stored. This will contain an extensive manifest that
should point you and your team toward the
containerwithyourstuffinit.Beincrediblycareful-
- Mr. Akken is almost certainly roaming this part of
the ship and may have already converted it into an
office space for his nefarious deeds.
The Score
Your stuff, over $50 worth of assorted goods
ordered during a particularly depressing episode
three weeks ago. The shipment contains several
pieces of “nerd” banded clothing, some RPG dice,
and a novelty keychain. You also recall ordering
several badges and buttons, but the evidence of
this seems to have disappeared from the
eAmababa-Mart orders page -- a common issue
with the site, but suspicious given the surrounding
circumstances.
Complicating matters further is the issue of the
customsbillyoureceivedinthemaillastweek.The
bill holds you and your team entirely responsible
for the entire cargo of the IPC Lagoon, resulting in
an import bill of over $350,000. The bill itself is
suspiciously wet and has dabs of diluted ink over
the letterhead, which misspells “Borders And
Customs Protection” as “Boarders And Customers
Predic�on”.
We believe Mr. Akken is involved in another of his
world famous scams and that the shipwreck and
customs bill is bogus. It’s also assumed that Mr.
Akken is involved in an extensive insurance scam,
given that he appears to be the owner of the IPC
Lagoon in the first place. How he intends to collect
13
the insurance while being visibly involved in
remodeling the wrecked ship is a mystery at the
moment.
The Security
Despite being a 75-foot-tall ancient squid
monster, Mr. Akken has shown himself to be
uncannily adept at technological security design.
Based on previous encounters with the enigmatic
CEO, you can expect extensive security covering
every inch of the cove, the forest, and the ship
itself. While he doesn’t often rely on flesh-and-
bloodsecurity,hehasbeenknowntoemploylocal
gangs to work as muscle and rapid response
forces, overwhelming targets with numbers rather
than complicated tactics. In many ways, this is wise
-- tight-knit, well-trained security is often
predictable and able to be subverted, whereas a
violent mob of knife wielding otters is less
vulnerable to clever hacking and undercover
work.
Along the beach are an inordinate number of
egrets. During an altercation with one of these
egrets, one of our advance agents discovered they
are in fact robotic spy devices developed by
“Security Egret Surveillance Systems Inc.”. We
highly suspect this is simply another shell company
controlled by Mr. Akken, but the main takeaway is
that the cove is littered with robotic camera drones
disguised as egrets. Given the sheer number of
14
them, it’s likely they feed back live to a central
location, presumably on the sunken ship. A signal
powerful enough to penetrate that far underwater
is liable to have some unforeseen issues, so there
may be some way to turn these egrets to your
advantage.
The kelp forest, in addition to being a visual
nightmare and possibly being inhabited by
dangerous otter gangs, is rigged to the nines with
extensive traps. It appears that this was originally
local fishermen laying lobster and crab traps in the
kelp, but that’s expanded to nets of fishing line,
deadly coral, and a host of weaponized wildlife
including electric eels. Presumably the traps are
the responsibility of the Otter gang briefly
encounteredbyourreconsub,thoughwhythey’re
so inherently hostile toward outsiders is still a
mystery. Take great care navigating this area. You
may wish to consider recruiting the help of the
turtles on the shore, or even the otter gang
themselves, to make your lives a li�le easier here.
The ship itself, even before renovation, was
designed to be a fortress against pirates. With
hardened bulkheads, heavy physical locks, and an
intentionally confusing floorplan on every level,
simply getting into the bridge will require some
clever lock work as the door is designed to only
open from the inside. The alarm system installed
on most IPC ships are heat based, triggering
whenever it detects a warm body moving inside
the ship. Given that the ship is currently sitting at
the bottom of a very cold sea, you may be able to
devise a way to hide from these sensors somehow.

The Getaway
Several difficulties stand in the way of a smooth
getaway, and planning for it is further complicated
by the relative lack of information we have going
into this operation. Once you have the manifest, in
a perfect world you’d simply make your way to the
correct container, collect your stuff, then make
your way back to the shore.

The first issue with this simple extraction plan is the

presence of Mr. Akken. He is almost certainly
inside the ship somewhere, and whatever his
plans are, he will likely oppose your retrieval of the
manifest and/or your stuff. As a 75-foot-tall
ancient sea monster, in terms of raw muscle mass,
he’s incredibly strong. Obviously capable of
dragging a cargo ship to the sea floor, his ability to
crush with his many tentacles is also terrifying, not
to mention the reach he commands. Getting into a
head-on fight with the beast would be unwise,
especially given you’ll be underwater at the time.
Mr. Akken has been known to be susceptible to
basic flattery and bribes in the form of scotch and
cuban cigars. If you manage to get a hold of some,
perhapsfromtheshipitself,youmaybeabletouse
this to your advantage. Failing that, there’s always
the option to drive the ship over the continental
shelf. Just don’t expect to get your stuff back.

Depending on how you proceed, bear in mind that

the entire site is incredibly precarious, and
dumping the ship may have some catastrophic
results -- landslides, whirlpools, and a thousand
loose cargo containers may make escape more
difficult than expected.

Otherwise, your main barrier to escape is the kelp

forest and its population. A prudent gang may
ensure that their route through the forest makes
their escape back an easier prospect, either by
deactivating traps and mapping a secure route or
by bartering for passage from the Otter gang.
Either way, you do not want to be stuck in the
forest while being pursued by Mr. Akken.

Inspired by - Sarah Reher

15
 1469 Rodeo Grove
San Jenaro, CA
23:00
In the House
Trophy Room
Marcus likes hun�ng big
game and moun�ng their
heads.
The trophy room is where
he holds business mee�ngs.
Perfect place to install hid-
den cameras and mics.

FBI Detail
This is the big risk.
We could do this job in our
sleep if it weren’t for this
crew watching every square
foot of the joint
16
 Marcus Lords is the newest big name in the San Jenaro hip-hop scene.
His career’s about to be abruptly ended but Marcus has evidence that
could exonerate one of your crew’s old friends, the world-class jewel
fence Kat. When he goes down-- which will happen soon courtesy of a
group of FBI agents surveilling his home from the street-- Kat will be
staring down the barrel of life without parole, unless that folder is
in your hands.

The Garage Music Studio

Marcus Lords collects cars. This is where Marcus makes

Luxury cars. Muscle cars. his magic.
Classic hot rods. re
He keeps his masters in heds
Great place to hide, and a for his two pla�num recor
good source of an escape and three gold singles.
vehicle in a pinch.
Leverage if we need it, or if
you want to make some
easy cash.

17

In the House
The Building
Marcus Lords flexed his monetary muscles when
purchasing “The Lords’ Estate” as he likes to call it.
His yard is massive and open, with a swimming
pool, basketball court, and open air concert stage
where he premiers new acts on his record label.
This is bad for sneaking but good for infiltration. His
property has a fairly massive staff, with
groundskeepers, trainers, technicians, and a
security detail all visible from the street.
Fortunately for us, he doesn’t trust cops, so he
doesn’t run background checks on new hires.
Theydohavetoundergoabitofinterrogation,but
what thief worth their paycheck can’t handle a
li�le interroga�on?
18
Words: Olivia Hill
Art: Dyer Rose, Brian York
Main entrances are on the front and back of the
main floor. The front’s a tight foyer, the back’s an
enormous picture window to Marcus’s master
bedroom--whichhedoesn’tuseexcepttoimpress
lovers. Since he’s having a house party and that
door’s gonna be wide open to the cool ocean
breeze, it’s probably the safest way in and out. If
you need, the upper floor has plenty of wide open
balcony space that’s not tough to climb. Getting in
and out of the lower floor means going through a
tight staircase, so know that going in. Try not to get
cornered down there.
Speaking of downstairs, that’s where the real work

The Crime to Prove Innocence
The Building
The Agency’s San Jenaro Field Office is a massive
two-story concrete building with a basement
meant to survive a nuclear explosion. Every
window’s barred. There’s a camera in every hall
and every office. Every office has tiered security
clearance keycard entry. It’s the modern
equivalent of a castle, and it’s designed specifically
to resist intrusion. Every foreign power in the
world would kill (and probably has) for just a peek
inside this office. There are agents whose entire
career is based on trying to get inside that building,
and we’re going to succeed where they’ve all
failed.
The drive itself is in Assistant Director Walter
Kerns’ office. He keeps the flash drive taped under
his desk. His office is full to the brim with his
collection of degrees, diplomas, and certificates
from every security conference you can imagine
and then some, along with assorted fishing
trophies. If he didn’t make a career surveilling the
American people and crushing political dissent, he
could make quite the living in the fishing
tournament circuit.
Fortunatelyforus,he’s onlyrarelyinhis office. Our
research suggests he spends about two hours a
day inside, and that’s when he’s even there. He
likes working the field. However, since he’s the
ranking agent in the office, he has two cameras in
that very small space, along with a motion
detector.
The main entrance has a tight security
checkpoint. We’re talking metal detectors. We’re
talking motion detectors. We’re talking infrared
sensors. We’re talking six very big guards with very
big guns. We’re talking no-nonsense, take-no-
prisoners policies that have resulted in a couple of
civilians vanishing to never be seen again. If you
don’t have passable credentials, if you try to walk
in with a gun, if you even sneeze the wrong way,
you could end up in a cell in the basement. Of
30
Words: Olivia Hill
Art: Dyer Rose, Brian York
course, the cell in the basement is through the
security system, so maybe that’s what you want….
One problem with security is that it’s not Agency
security. Security is all handled through Ironsides
Incorporated. Ironsides isn’t really a security
company--it’sactuallyaprivatemilitarycontractor
that sometimes hires out its “agents” (read:
mercenaries) as security officers for high-profile
clients like the Agency. Ironsides is notorious for
their work in the Middle East war on terror, where
theygunneddownnumerouscivilians.TheirCEOis
mostly known for viral photos where he slaughters
endangered species on safari vacations. Needless
to say, these security guards aren’t hired for their
merciful demeanors or balanced, ethical positions
on the power authority wields against citizens.
Most of them are itching to shoot someone, and
this hairtriggercan easilybeexploited. What it also
means is that security has a high turnover rate and
a low bar for background checks. After all, if they
excluded people with domestic violence charges,
they’d have to get rid of most of their workforce.
So,gettingajobwithIronsidescouldbeagoodway
in.
The main security office is on the second floor. If
we can secure it, the job’s easy. This is where the
“get a job with Ironsides” plan might come into
factor. Otherwise, it’ll mean stolen or counterfeit
credentials. During the daytime, there’s always
someone in the security office. At night, there are
ten to fifteen minute gaps for security patrols
where the office is temporarily empty. Ironically
because of the place’s general approach to
intrusion, it makes for a good place to ambush a
hapless security guard after their patrol. Just
remember, these security guards are not
pushovers. Some of them have innocent blood on
their hands, and they’re ready, willing, and more
than capable of shedding more.
The security office gives a full lay of the land, with
comprehensive camera systems and even a
 Clearly, Tyrone will have more important things to
pay a�en�on to than us.
The breakers are all on the upper floor, and since
Marcus doesn’t trust corporate security firms or
the police, he has all his security systems wired to
themainbreakers.That’sthedouble-edgedsword
of not trusting anyone—you have to rely on your
own people’s skills, and if they don’t know security,
your security is a joke.
This is to say, security is a joke.
The security is the least of our concerns. You see
that van parked outside? The one that says
“Genaro’s Plumbing and Electrical?” That’s Marcus
Lords’ personal FBI tail. They’re this close to
finding evidence to tie him to a RICO case, and the
second they do, they’re going to storm his
property from all sides.
Fortunately, the FBI in this case isn’t some
monolithic entity. It’s Supervisory Special Agent
Jack North, who spends too much money on
online video game loot boxes and who doesn’t get
to see his kids anymore—not since he was
relocated to California and his wife left him for a
more stable option back in Virginia. He’s good at
his job but just above average for his rank. Lately,
his reviews have slipped as his family life took a
dive. He wants to get back in the saddle. He wants
to show the FBI that he’s just as good as the day he
joined twenty years ago, fresh outta high school.
He just doesn’t have the spark anymore, though.
He’s leading a team that includes Field Agent Dana
Boole, who is flirting with the idea of leaving her
job and doing YouTube debunking videos full-time.
She’s a passionate member of online skeptic
communities, and she feels like the FBI is
squandering her talents. She thinks she’s currently
just a glorified private investigator, spying on
private citizens, looking for meaningless fraud
causes. We can use that.
His team also features Field Agent Lucas Jones,
who is this close to retiring, and has fought being
put behind a desk tooth and nail. He’s said he
wants to retire doing what he signed up to do, not
pushing paperwork for Washington. He likes
fishing and hunting, and uses a pseudonym on
20
hunting forums where he’s praised Marcus Lords
for his safari hunt trophies. Deep down, he
admires Marcus, even if he’d never admit it
because most of his peers hate “that gangster rap
music.”
They’ve also got New Agent Trainee Pat North.
They’ve got a promising career ahead of them --
they’re ridiculously eager, with a solid record so far.
To New Agent Trainee North, this is the kind of case
they can build an entire career on. This means
they’ll go above and beyond the call of duty and
will likely stop at nothing to get the prize.
They’re watching the house inside and out, with
hidden cameras and microphones feeding into
their van. They’ve got an array of monitors inside
and at least one agent listening actively with
headphones at any given time. Most of the time,
they have one or two agents in plainclothes
wandering the neighborhood, pretending to be
random joggers or maintenance people. We have
the details on their rounds, but we can expect
some variance thanks to the party. They’re going
to be on high alert, since if Marcus was going to say
or do something incriminating, tonight would be
the �me for that.
The Getaway
In a perfect world, we all get jobs catering and
managing the party. We do the job. We get the
evidence to exonerate Kat. Then we walk out with
smiles on our faces and a little paycheck for an
evening’s hard work.
But you all know as well as I do that that’s just not
going to happen. So let’s talk about alterna�ves.
The upper floor balconies are an easy way out, if
you can handle a twenty foot drop. If you’re not
afraidtogodramatic,youcanalwaysjumpintothe
pool. Just remember the north side is the deep
end. The last thing you want to deal with is a
broken leg during the getaway.
If you need to blow the place fast, Marcus’s car
collection is your ticket out. Not only can you leave
in style, but you can nab a car so fast, there’s not a
cop in San Jenaro that can catch you. Of course,
that’s a last resort, since the moment you flee the
scene in a cherry red ‘67 Chevy Impala with bass panicking from the agents’ assault, so we can
boost and ground effects, the gig’s up. sneak out so long as we’re not also in cuffs.

Remember the biggest hurdle to a clean escape is Now on top of all this, we need to be mindful of
the property itself. If you’re running from the leaving evidence. The FBI has put wiretaps,
house out the back, you could pass out from cameras, and microphones in strategic locations
exhaustion before you reach the street. If you’re throughout the house. While we can rely on the
going out the front, it’s a shorter trip, but you’ve crowd for some cover, that’s not a foolproof
got to pass by an active FBI surveillance crew solution. Once we’re in the lower floor, all bets are
looking for anything even remotely suspicious. off. Under no circumstances can we leave an
Good luck with that. My advice is to take the east evidence trail back to us.
end. It’s the second shortest path out, no active FBI
eyes, and the nearest neighbors are in Cancun for Influences
the season.
Television: “Leverage,” The Wedding Job (2009).
While the FBI is our biggest barrier to entry and
also our biggest threat while we’re doing our job, Music: The Coup - “Everythang.”
they’re also a perfect diversion. If we can feed
them just enough information to upgrade their
surveillance detail to a full-blown raid, we can use
that as a smokescreen. Millionaires and
billionaires from all over the world will be

21
 Forte Di Sicuro
November 21st, 2019
2 PM.
Something Borrowed...

The Floating Stage

Around 30 boats
permanently anchored in
the fort’s bay.
Likely the loca�on of the
ceremony itself.

22
World-renowned fashion designer Matthew DeMarcus and Oscar-winning
film heartthrob Zach Milgrave are finally tying the knot. The pair
have selected the beautiful island fortress, Forte Di Sicuro, situated
off the coast of Naples, as the venue of a lifetime. The lucky-in-loves
plan to wear One-Of-A-Kind Vincenzo Arefani Suits, rumored to be the
last ones ever designed by the greatest clothing designer of all time.
They would make a hell of a wedding gift, don’t you think?

The Keep
An overly com plicated mess
of hallways and massive,
empty rooms.
the suits.
Likely loca�on of

rtyard The Gatehouse

The Cou
n spa ce within r Accessible only by boat, the
pe t fo
A wides-tole walls, perfeca�er main entrance into the fort
the ca g and feas�ng will be guarded by a modern
dancinent. security.
the ev

23

Something Borrowed...
The Building
Constructed in 1602, Forte Di Sicuro was designed
to further secure the Naplese harbor and provide
an at-sea barracks for excess troops stationed in
the area. There was some talk of the fortress being
used as a means to retake Naples in the event of an
invasion by sea, but historically the fort was never
actually involved in any conflicts. At the time its
design was revolutionary, with many historians
believing it to be a prototype for the fort-building
techniques that would later lead to San Cristóbal in
Puerto Rico.
The fort’s primary line of defense is, obviously, its
walls. Tall and sloped to allow better lines of fire
from the ramparts, the walls are notably thicker
than most contemporary stonework -- nearly 30
feet thick in some places, which has led to a
number of local myths about hidden rooms and
passages, with some more fanciful rumours
stating that said passages are the headquarters of
local gangs, secret government weapons stashes,
or part of a covert laboratory deep under the fort.
It’s not known if any of these rumors hold any
water, but it should be noted that several
disappearances have occurred on the fort, and
many visitors report hearing voices in the fort’s
basement levels.
Situated in the middle of a large bay, the fort looks
beautiful in an Instagram photo but presents some
frustrating problems for a prospective thief. Any
approach by water is all but guaranteed to be
spotted long before you get to the walls. The
wedding party has commissioned a special,
custom ferry, which will be running between the
mainland and the fort. Security staff on the two
docks are likely to check IDs and report the arrival
of guests, and there’s a lavish welcoming
ceremony awaiting any arrivals. There’s a dance, a
secret handshake, and an incredibly convoluted
gi�ing ritual, so, best of luck with that.
The sea itself is a fairly major consideration to keep
24
Words: Liam Ginty
Art: Dyer Rose, Daniel Walthall
in mind. The whole event will take place on a sort
of floating stage made up of around 30 large
barges and fishing boats lashed together. In the
midst of this congregation, the grooms will say
their vows at the head of an antique viking
longboat decked in the shredded remains of
DeMarcus’s entire fashion career and the woven
tatters of every script Milgrave has ever received.
This flotilla will block much of the bay for several
hours at around sunset before the party moves
back to the fort. The fort is liable to be relatively
empty during the ceremony, though, obviously,
the suits will be occupied.
Within its massive walls, the fort has a pretty
simple layout that should be easy for your team to
navigate -- a large central courtyard sits in the
shadow of the keep, and in an event like this it’s
most commonly used for the after-party. Lots of
open space with a high visibility risk, but the
crowds should provide some distraction, and the
nature of the fort’s design ensures you’ll have to
pass through here on your way around the
complex. Try to avoid getting caught in the middle
of the traditional wedding dance contest or
karaoke.
At the center of the courtyard is the keep. Once a
fairly barren and utilitarian building apart from its
reinforced, sloped walls, the keep has recently
been renovated to accomodate parties such as
this. Large stock rooms converted into
ostentatious bedroom suites, complete with
modern bathrooms, cable and some of the finest
views of the Naplese coastline imaginable. The
renovation retained the keep’s outer facade, and
so the bedrooms, ballrooms, and dining suites are
all adorned with windows designed to safely allow
the stationed defenders to return fire on any
attackers using muskets and cannons, which
means very small windows. This makes entering
or escaping via a window a soundly difficult
prospect.
Once inside though, navigation should be simple.
Each floor only has one or two incredibly large
rooms, except for the top floor, which doubled as
officers’ quarters and troop barracks. So expect a
number of smaller rooms being used for only god-
knows-what -- based on satellite images, we
suspect it’s where the security company has set
up shop. The roof looks to have a small helicopter
parked on it, presumably for rapid transport
between the fort and the mainland.
The Score
It is said there are only ten people in all of history
who have ever truly perfected their crafts.
Vincenzo Arefani is one of them. A legend and
enigma, in their time they crafted the finest
clothes known to humanity, and bucked many of
the fashion industry trends by making them
primarily for working-class people.
Affordable even on minimum wage,
Arefani’s efforts led to a revolution in
clothing, with everyone scrambling to
copy their distinctive, flashy-yet-
workable styles. Before their
death, Arefani traveled to
their ancestral home in
Venice -- a modest stone
abode outside of the city
proper--anddesignedwhat
would be their final works.
almost imperceptible hand-stitched pattern in
the lapels, while the other is an incredible dark,
almost black, red two-button suit with the same
stitching, even less perceptible outside of the
lapels. Both suits have a high, wider-than-normal
collar, and are designed to be worn with all their
bu�ons done up.
The suits are nearly 100 years old, and despite
looking incredibly modern, require fairly specific
storage techniques to preserve the artwork in
every stitch. The Arefani Foundation mandates
that the suits be guarded at all times by one of
their private security experts, who will have eyes
on the suits at all stages of the wedding. This guard
will be armed. More interestingly, the guard will
also be linked to the suits through a revolutionary
new kind of security tag -- if they are ever more
than 50 feet away from the suits at a time, alarms
will ring in both the local security nest and

The suits’ original intended

purposes have been lost to
time, but even a novice
can see the incredible
work that went into these
outfits. Vincenzo’s
supernatural command
of the simple materials;
the exquisite, detailed
and effortless lines; the
casual rejection of
classical styles and bold
recreation of a thousand
years of fashion
development -- the suits
are breathtaking.
Described in simplest
terms, one is a very dark blue
three-button suit with an
25
 also at Arefani HQ.
There are a million rumors about the suits; some
may even be true. Some say they contain a map
leading to the Arefani fortune; some say the suits
have Arefani’s blood in every thread. The suits
have been said to be haunted, cursed, or blessed.
Some have said that they are bulletproof and
refuse to burn; others say that they are fakes. One
particularly pervasive rumor suggests that the
suits are actually facades, that the true works of art
can only be revealed by destroying the suits via
unknown means. Probably best if you don’t test
too many of these.
The most pertinent thing about the suits is that we
have no idea where they are being stored prior to
the event or afterwards. They’re most likely in the
fort proper, but beyond that we just don’t know.
With the amount of surveillance the event will be
employing, you can’t spend half the day
rummaging through every room on the fort, so
make it a priority to figure out their location.
Luckily the guest list for the event is a veritable
who’s who of the fashion and art world. Someone
will know where the suits are. Ask some questions,
but don’t make it too obvious.
The Security
You’ll be dealing with some of the best that the
celebrity security industry can offer -- which is to
say, decidedly fewer martial arts experts and
heavily armed gunmen than you’re likely used to --
26
but don’t take this as an invitation to go in guns
blazing. The fencing half of the heist becomes
suddenly much, much harder if you’ve massacred
half a wedding party to get your hands on the loot.
No casual�es here; no excep�ons.
As mentioned, the fort itself provides a clear line of
sighttoalmostanygivenpointbetweenitandthe
mainland, and the ways to get in are limited. The
main entrance is a large gatehouse, secured by
some of the only openly armed members of
security for the whole event. They’re checking IDs
and invitations (which are biometrically linked to
each guest’s eye scan and ‘aura’, whatever that
means) whenever a guest enters or leaves the
place -- plus the usual pat-downs and security
scanners to ensure there’s no weapons coming in
or any the� occurring.
The security company in charge of the wedding
has reportedly made a number of adjustments to
the fort, although they are limited by local
preservation laws. The guard house has seen the
most modification, with a large-scale jammer
installed on the roof, what appears to be a directed
sound weapon mounted to the dock-facing
window, and a number of security checkpoints
installed leading up to the main fort.
Expect plain clothes security to be present, aided
by a visible security presence at every stage of the
event. Usual black suits with sunglasses affair.
Sheer numbers are their main tool -- there’s not a
lot you can do if three or four of these guys want
you thrown out of the event. They’re all equipped the States within the week, but the club’s
with instant communication devices too, which president, Mrs Giorgia Moscatello, has apparently
means if one of them spots you, you’ll have scheduled a demonstration of the ancient vessel’s
seconds to deal with them before more start capabilities in open waters the day before the
showing up. wedding. We don’t encourage taking several jobs
in the same location, but the potential benefits
The security team has also placed something on here may outweigh the risks. Best of luck, team.
the roof of the fort, though we have no idea what
itis,andattemptstogetpicturesofthedevicehave
been stymied at every turn. It could simply be an
anti-paparazzi device designed to jam cameras
using directed lasers, but we don’t know for sure.

The Getaway
You’re spoilt for choice on this one. The
Mediterranean Sea is right there, and presents a
pretty obvious and attractive point of egress, but
bear in mind that you’ll need to go to ground
somewhere, and you’ll be relatively easy to track
from the sky. Having a safe house prepared
somewhere nearby, and a dock cleared, will help a
lot in this regard.

Alternatively, you could escape back to the

mainland with some ease; it’s only a 10-minute
boat ride away, less if you get a helicopter. They’ll
definitely see you, and you can expect local
authorities to be waiting, or at the very least on
their way, but you’ve dealt with worse. A
distraction may help, or a second team ready on
the getaway.

There’s also the option to escape via the air. They

have a helicopter, and I expect someone on your
team has experience. If you can get up there and
take off, they’ll have to rely on the mainland to
intercept you, and that’s a big head-start. Beware
of that mystery device, and make sure to sweep
the copter for bugs this time. We don’t want a
repeat of the Casablanca job.

Lastly, and this will require some minor footwork

before the main job -- Naples is home to a little-
known naval restoration hobbyists’ club that have
recently acquired and restored the H.L. Hunley,
the first “successful” combat submarine of its kind
in modern times. Developed by the confederacy
during the US Civil War, the thing is a deathtrap,
killing its entire crew and sinking four times in its
short life. The submarine is being shipped back to
27
 The Agency, San Janero Field Office
2020
Now
The Crime to Prove Innocence

28
 There are just some men at the top who want to see you take the fall.
No offense, they’ve told you. “Just business,” they say, knowing damn
well it’s your life and livelihood on the line.

But freedom’s in your grasp, and in this case, freedom looks like a USB
flash drive full of all the data
necessary to clear your name.
Just one catch -- it’s not really in your grasp.

Breaking into a clandestine intelligence

office can’t be that hard, right? Right?

29

The Crime to Prove Innocence
The Building
The Agency’s San Jenaro Field Office is a massive
two-story concrete building with a basement
meant to survive a nuclear explosion. Every
window’s barred. There’s a camera in every hall
and every office. Every office has tiered security
clearance keycard entry. It’s the modern
equivalent of a castle, and it’s designed specifically
to resist intrusion. Every foreign power in the
world would kill (and probably has) for just a peek
inside this office. There are agents whose entire
career is based on trying to get inside that building,
and we’re going to succeed where they’ve all
failed.
The drive itself is in Assistant Director Walter
Kerns’ office. He keeps the flash drive taped under
his desk. His office is full to the brim with his
collection of degrees, diplomas, and certificates
from every security conference you can imagine
and then some, along with assorted fishing
trophies. If he didn’t make a career surveilling the
American people and crushing political dissent, he
could make quite the living in the fishing
tournament circuit.
Fortunatelyforus,he’s onlyrarelyinhis office. Our
research suggests he spends about two hours a
day inside, and that’s when he’s even there. He
likes working the field. However, since he’s the
ranking agent in the office, he has two cameras in
that very small space, along with a motion
detector.
The main entrance has a tight security
checkpoint. We’re talking metal detectors. We’re
talking motion detectors. We’re talking infrared
sensors. We’re talking six very big guards with very
big guns. We’re talking no-nonsense, take-no-
prisoners policies that have resulted in a couple of
civilians vanishing to never be seen again. If you
don’t have passable credentials, if you try to walk
in with a gun, if you even sneeze the wrong way,
you could end up in a cell in the basement. Of
30
Words: Olivia Hill
Art: Dyer Rose, Brian York
course, the cell in the basement is through the
security system, so maybe that’s what you want….
One problem with security is that it’s not Agency
security. Security is all handled through Ironsides
Incorporated. Ironsides isn’t really a security
company--it’sactuallyaprivatemilitarycontractor
that sometimes hires out its “agents” (read:
mercenaries) as security officers for high-profile
clients like the Agency. Ironsides is notorious for
their work in the Middle East war on terror, where
theygunneddownnumerouscivilians.TheirCEOis
mostly known for viral photos where he slaughters
endangered species on safari vacations. Needless
to say, these security guards aren’t hired for their
merciful demeanors or balanced, ethical positions
on the power authority wields against citizens.
Most of them are itching to shoot someone, and
this hairtriggercan easilybeexploited. What it also
means is that security has a high turnover rate and
a low bar for background checks. After all, if they
excluded people with domestic violence charges,
they’d have to get rid of most of their workforce.
So,gettingajobwithIronsidescouldbeagoodway
in.
The main security office is on the second floor. If
we can secure it, the job’s easy. This is where the
“get a job with Ironsides” plan might come into
factor. Otherwise, it’ll mean stolen or counterfeit
credentials. During the daytime, there’s always
someone in the security office. At night, there are
ten to fifteen minute gaps for security patrols
where the office is temporarily empty. Ironically
because of the place’s general approach to
intrusion, it makes for a good place to ambush a
hapless security guard after their patrol. Just
remember, these security guards are not
pushovers. Some of them have innocent blood on
their hands, and they’re ready, willing, and more
than capable of shedding more.
The security office gives a full lay of the land, with
comprehensive camera systems and even a
number of hidden microphones. The Agency
knows surveillance, and they take a firm stance of
“if you don’t want it on record, don’t say it in the
office.” There’s a running joke in the Agency about
a worn patch of concrete in the parking garage.
They call it the “deepthroat wing,” because
numerous agents meet their informants in that
specific spot due to it being one of the only places
in the building without camera coverage.
One interesting point about the security office is a
privatetaperecorderthat’sbeenhookeduptothe
audio systems. One of the security guards has
been recording conversations in one of the offices.
As it would happen, one of the assistant directors
has been dealing with a foreign diplomat off the
books (and highly illegally.)
On the second floor is a half-assed retrofitted
restroom. They were trying to comply with the
Americans with Disabilities Act, they ripped out a
wall and dismissively threw the bathroom and its
wheelchair ramp together in such a way that most
of the walls and ducts aren’t up to the same
security standards as the rest of the building.
the drive. You can play close to your chest or put
your cards on the table. This is to say, you can
pocket the drive, get the hell out of the office, and
mount a strategy to strike back at the people who
burned you, or alternatively, you can put them on
blast by duplicating and broadcasting the
informa�on.
If you play it careful, you can strategically topple
the jerks in the Agency who hurt you. You can
pinpointeveryresponsibleactorandlinkindividual
acts of corruption to the individuals responsible.
This surgical strike option is all but guaranteed to
get results. After all, the Agency will drop a few
individuals if it means sweeping this all under the
rug. Members will throw the guilty parties under a
bus so quickly the bus driver will just think it’s a
speed bump and keep on driving. Sure, you’ve
made some high profile enemies if you do this, but
without Agency resources, you’re arguably better
off than you were before. The big difference is that
instead of using the Agency to go after you, they’ll
probably send mercenaries. Nothing you’ve not
dealt with, right?

The Score
Freedom looks like a flash drive. To the rest of
the world, it’s a weathered little gray thing
with a tag that says “CASE # 4327009-B.” To
you, it’s a lease on life. For something so
important to your continued
existence, it’s treated with triviality.
It’s just taped to the bottom of AD
Kerns’ desk. It’s just your average,
run-of-the-mill Scotch tape. Hell,
the tape is actually reused -- he
took it off a file folder. That’s
how little your life means to
these people: They’ll destroy
everything you’ve ever known
or loved over a lie, and they
won’t even dignify you with a
new piece of tape. It almost
feels like they’re daring you,
challenging you, telling you that you don’t
have what it takes to walk in there and
take it.

There’s really two approaches to take with

31
 Of course, this approach is tough. This means
getting a tiny piece of plastic and silicon outside a
building full of agents, metal detectors, and coffee
cups full of hot fluid that can destroy little flash
drives in a heartbeat. You might only get one
chance like this, so losing that drive is a career
ender -- period. If you lose that drive you might as
well step outside that building and immediately
get on a cargo boat to a non-extradition country.
Hope you’re mul�lingual.
The other choice is to blast that information out
“hack the planet” style. Email it to every journalist
who might listen. Post it on blogs and social media
accounts. Just get it out there the way you’d get a
napalm bomb out there. There are four huge
problems with this. If you publicly implicate the
entire Agency, the entire Agency will run defense.
To put it bluntly, they have ridiculous resources at
their disposal, and there’s a good chance the story
will get crushed before it makes the waves it
deserves. The second problem is that the public
doesn’t really care unless it’s sexy. A
repository of Agency data just looks
like spreadsheets and PDFs of
redacted documents to the
32
untrained eye. It’s definitely not prime time news.
So actually making people care is its own issue. The
third issue here is that it’s hard to find anyone who
will listen. Mass media is essentially state run
propaganda at this point, so getting them to go
after the Agency would be tough at best. You could
find a source like MakoLeaks, but nobody trusts
them due to that scandal and their aid in the rise of
western fascism a few years back. The fourth is,
well, enemies. Even in the absolute best case
scenario, you could get the bad guys locked up, but
don’t pretend for a second they can’t run an op to
have you killed from within prison. While you’ve
cleared your name, you’ve created a supervillain
backstory.
The Security
The security itself is fairly run-of-the-mill for a
government intelligence office. Which is to say,
fairly good but nothing to write home about if you
have experience as a professional spy. The systems
are all under-funded and outdated. They were
top-of-the-line when they were new. But when
they were new, The Simpsons was still a thing
people talked about around the water cooler
every Monday morning.
They’re outdated, but they’re no joke.
Remember, this place is meant to
resist intrusion. It just presumes
intrusion means some schlub or
patsy or two-bit diplomat’s son
trying to earn his way into an
organized crime syndicate by
stealing a file folder. Take any
one of the systems, put it in a
plain white room, and you can
crack it with little issue. The
problem is the saturation. The
whole place is full to the brim
with systems and
contingencies, and you’ve got
to manage it in a building full of
trained opera�ves.
The real threat here isn’t
the systems themselves,
but the Agency’s
population. Everyone in
the building has at least
basic training in intelligence operations. While it’s
sparse at night, it’s not exactly empty and every
single face in the halls gets more attention. So the
security, really, runs one of two ways:
You can handle the job in the daytime when the
place is full to the brim with spooks. You can sneak
around carefully and go through an alternate
entrance, or you can walk through the front door
with stolen or counterfeit credentials and hope
nobody recognizes your face.
You can handle the job at night where you’ve got
more breathing room, but the security team gets
to pay extra special attention to every face on
every camera.
Your choice.
All the doors have keycards with specific access
requirements. This could make getting into Kerns’
office a bit difficult. This could mean taking
advantage of security or janitor access, since the
hourly workers are for some reason trusted not to
cause an international security incident with their
keycards.
concrete below or employing a helicopter. But if
you can find a good way to get off a massive
building safely, the Agency will be too busy
scratching their heads and gawking at the
cleverness of your plan to actually pursue.
Instead, they’ll send a spy. As soon as there’s a
confirmed escape, the Agency will send one of its
top operatives, Tanya Starling, to hunt you down
likeadog.She’sgood.Verygood.Maybeasgoodas
you. In fact, her whole thing is shockingly similar
to yours. She was a damn good operative, and had
a record like nobody else, up until the Agency
machinated this awful docket of false information
to burn her. Instead of facing life in a concrete cell,
she chose to accept an offer and work for the
Agency on more … clandestine operations. Who
knows? This might be what the Agency is trying to
set up for you. The good news here is, before you
make a decision, you can find out all about the job
expectations while she’s chasing you down and
trying to erase your friends and loved ones.
Influences
Television: “Burn No�ce,” Season 4 (2010)

The Getaway Movies: The Bourne Trilogy

The getaway could be just as easy as the entrance. Music: KMFDM, Professional Killer
If everything goes off without a hitch, it’s as easy as
going out the way you went in. But nothing ever
goes off without a hitch, does it?

While the Agency doesn’t have the most

impressive security systems, everyone inside
knows enough security protocols to execute a
good lockdown. The second anything goes awry in
the Agency, the second a false keycard is detected,
the moment an unknown person walks out of an
assistant director’s office when that assistant
director’s out in the field, alarms will sound and
immediate lockdown procedures begin. The
whole first floor becomes a deathtrap of agents
who are all armed and certified with thousands of
rounds fired on a government shoo�ng range.

Inthesecases,thebestescapeisprobablytogoup.
The roof isn’t without some security, but it’s the
last place anyone expects an intruder to go, since it
would mean jumping off a massive building to
33
 United Cellulose Realities Building, Mega-York City
February 32nd, 2020
Midnight
Paper Trail
The Peak
247 stories high, topped with a statue of Her
Divinity Ĉefurbo, the roof of the tower presents
several interes�ng opportuni�es for entry and
escape. Just watch the lightning generators.

Libris Vault
The 154th floor has been converted
into the world's last remaining phys-
ical library.
Special air condi�oners keep the
place toxic to humans but perfect for
preserving the paper.

34
 I’ve got good news and bad news. We have confirmation that the last
mission was a success -- the entirety of UCR’s citizen identification and
employment system is offline. As of tonight, every living being in
Mega-York City is off-grid. No one is going hungry, for once.

Bad news is they have a paper back-up. This is something corps used to
do decades ago; basically it’s a copy of the data but in an old, analog
book. Probably a lot of them. You have to get in and destroy them
before UCR has their drones restore the info and undo this liberation.

The Shutters
A MAX-TOR Emergency Plated
Shu�er System. A baffling ap-
proach to security you’re almost
certainly going to run into at some
point. ZenZen said they might
have a physical solu�on?

Entrance Floor
Typical of the UCR, their entrance is five stories
off the ground and accessible only by elevator.
S�ll, this is the easy way in -- mondo security
though.

35

Paper Trail
The Building
The United Cellulose Realities Building is the
world'slargestCorpocology,housingnearly60,000
worker-citizens in 200 residential floors.
Construction began immediately following UCR’s
victory in Mega-York War 3, and doubles as a sort
of memorial to the several million killed in the
conflict. After UCR established its demesne in
Mega-York and sunk its amygdala engines into the
local meta-lattice in 2014 they constructed the
building to serve as a headquarters for their east-
coast branch and as an experiment in vertical
company township. The building is fairly
nondescript from the outside. Besides its sheer
scale, it resembles a classic Old States skyscraper,
only twice as large, four times as wide, and on
s�lts.
The building is entirely self-sufficient, with farms
growing food, atmospheric condensers and
aquifer miners providing ample water, and a dozen
factorylevelsproducingeverythingfromincredibly
potent pharmaceuticals to games consoles. The
building’s goal is to create an environment you
never have to leave -- partially because being
outside in Mega-York can be a deadly thing on the
best of days, but also because making an
environment to enforce corp-culture from scratch
turnsouttobesignificantlycheaperthanremaking
reality to enforce corp-culture. Spinal fuel is not
cheap, though harvesting efforts within the
building were offsetting costs somewhat - at least
un�l you sha�ered all that with the last job.
The first 200 floors of the building are the
habitation or residential floors. Row upon row of
low-cost housing occupied (until recently) by
SURF-Level uncitizens working in some facet for
UCR. Anyone under PARTITION-level is legally and
meta-physically bound to these first 200 floors --
unauthorized leaving is punishable by immediate
caloricization. The residential floors are
comfortable enough. Every tenth floor is a retail
floor, stocked with UCR subsidiary grocery store
36
Words: Liam Ginty
Art: Dyer Rose, Daniel Walthall
chains, fast food outlets, and luxe dispensaries.
These provide the uncitizenry with everything they
could need -- at least that’s what the natal
brochures say. In reality, most of the retail floors
are barren and the uncitizenry never earn enough
credit to buy anything but the basics, often directly
from their factory commissariat.
The Libris vault is on the 154th level, near the top
of the residen�al zones. More on that later.
The odd entertainment floors (every 20~ floors)
are similarly desolate. Advertised as being hubs of
culture, movies, and music, with theme parks and
concert halls intertwining with theaters and art
galleries, the reality is that these floors are
understaffed and unmaintained and have
become homes to local gangs, who use them as
headquarters for their illicit activities. It’s hard to
say what the gang situation is right now, especially
after what you did, but expect these folx to get in
your way eventually. And don’t expect them to
hate the corps, plenty of them wear corp branded
gang uniforms. Be on your toes.
Thesefloors arelikelyto bein utter chaos sinceyou
turned off UCR’s ID systems. Good luck.
Above the residential level are the factory floors.
20 stories of filth, the blackened lungs of the
building, coughing refuse on those below them.
UCR claims these to be highly efficient, modern
working environments, where cheerful workers
consensually produce all the goods needed for our
society. According to them, it’s the most advanced
facility of its kind in the world and a successful
experiment in the Neo-Company Town project. All
these places produce is suffering. Hundreds die
every year in avoidable accidents, their families
receiving a company fruit basket and an eviction
notice. The sheer amount of agonite produced by
these 20 floors necessitates a dozen Ardorists to
prevent the total collapse of the local meta-
Indra’s Sphere is an impossibly powerful magical artifact capable of
controlling the weather for 100 kilometers in any direction. It is
being kept aboard a colossal prototype war zeppelin belonging to
Reginald Percival: Military industrialist, art collector, and self-
righteous prick. Take his orb, and you take the Cape. With me so far?

Cargo bay/Ambass
ador’s
Quarters
Seems Mr. Percival
fi�ed his cargo bay has re-
most comfortable foto feel al-
new guest. r his

bassador
An Americanitahma military in-
cozying up w
dustrialist?
ck.
Imagine my sho
ld be leverage, could be
Cou an they’re
more trouble th
worth.

Automaton Hub and

Hangar
Prac�cally crawling with e
li�le complica�ons; som
with wings, some with als
leg
and guns, all ready to de ny.
with unexpected compa
A nasty start, pally, but I
have faith in you.

53
The security booths have access to an array of
technological security solutions, robot security
guards, and a vast array of cameras and lockdown
systems (designed to create killzones in the
hallways and stairways), so if you find a locked
door or an army of gun toting tin cans, look for the
nearest security booth.
As mentioned, these floors are most likely in an
enormous upheaval after you destroyed UCR’s ID
systems. Expect riots, a lot of anger, and a lot of
fighting. Gangs already held a great deal of power
inside the towers, and you’re probably going to see
them coming to blows with the much heavier
armed (but fewer in number) security forces, with
the regular people caught in the crossfire -- the
more things change, right?
Above the residential spaces, security takes on a
more ... white-collar character. A lot more
roaming remote drones checking ID badges and
attempting to walk you to the exits if you’re found
somewhere you shouldn’t be, only calling on the
deathsquad robots after you’ve been led out of
the nice, clean offices. You could perhaps try and
hack these drones to help you through the eldritch
office mazes? They should be running basic
OPTIUM OS, but expect some corp firewalls, and a
failed attempt will probably trigger some more
immediate and harsh responses.
There’s a handful of notable additional security
measures in the Gilded levels. Each mansion has
its own security team of around 6 highly trained
mercenaries, mostly ex-corp black ops in working
retirement. These people are bad news.
Enhanced, both cybernetically and meta-liminally,
they’llbeheavilyarmedandwillhaveaccesstothe
same security drones and robots as the rest of the
tower, almost certainly with heavily customization
(read: more guns).
enormous class war-riot triggered by a total loss of
their ID systems), the entire building rapidly
deploys a series of massive steel plates, encasing
the entire building in a near-impenetrable shell.
This shell is capable of withstanding everything up
to (but not including) a reality negation field, and it
can keep people in just as well as it keeps people
out. There must be some method of getting
supplies in and and execs out, if only to keep the
board members happy -- look for service
entrances and workarounds.
The Score
You’re looking for a book. This is an antiquated
information delivery mechanism where the data is
physically stored on paper and bound together.
Almost all books were lost in the Enlightenment
Wars when Grizar, the Unspoken One of
Information force-uplifted our society, but the
technique to produce books was recently
recovered by UCR and used to construct the only
known library in the world.
The Libris Vault is on the 154th floor, within the
residential zone. It’s relatively easy to access,
assuming the service elevators are still working,
and you can wire your way past their
security (easier
said

They’re also going to be on high alert and on the

lookout for unfamiliar faces. Be very very careful as
you sweep through these levels.

Finally, the big one. UCR has just completed

development of their new MAX-TOR Emergency
Plated Shutter System, and they have a hell of a
hair trigger for deploying it. Whenever a full
lockdown is announced (such as during an
38
than done). The vault itself is a large, if mundane
and quite sparse, floor, consisting mainly of a few
hundred rows of shelves and a disorganized mess
of books in desperate need of a filing system. It’s
entirely locked down from the inside -- no
windows, one airlock style door in and out, solid
steel walls reinforced with thick concrete. It’ll be
dark, as artificial light is known to attract Grizar,
and everyone is still a little concerned about
what’ll happen if they discover UCR is making
books again.
Your main challenge here will be finding the book.
There is presumably some kind of catalog you can
find, be it digital, physical, or cerebrospinal, but we
have no idea. You’ll also be on a tight timer --
unless you can find and overcome the system, an
emergency purge protocol will trigger if any axis
mundian being is detected inside for more than 30
minutes. That means fire, lots and lots of fire.
Don’t make the mistake of believing this will do
your job for you though -- the records are almost
certainly stored in a fire-concept removed micro-
la�ce. Flames simply cease to exist near it.
The book itself is likely to be big, very big. It’s a hard
copy of almost 300 million people’s names, ID
numbers, and privilege levels. We estimate you’re
looking for a book about 6 feet tall and with over
50,000 pages. Or several volumes eventually
adding up to this. Either way, it’s going to be
difficult getting it out of the building. We’re talking
about over 750 pounds of paper, so make sure you
have a plan for destroying this thing when you find
it.
Getaway
I won’t pretend this is going to be easy. It’s not.
Getting in the building is tough enough with the
MAX-TOR system in place, getting out while
carrying a car’s worth of paper with you,
potentially pursued by murderous mercenaries
and whatever other horrors you stir up in there
sounds almost impossible. Luckily, you don’t have
to get out with the book if you can find some way
of destroying it in the building itself. A good reality
weaver should be able to remove the book from its
micro-lattice, at which point fire should do a fine
job against it. Failing that, you could see if the rules
of it’s micro-lattice think lightning counts as fire up
on the roof.
After you’ve managed to destroy the book, escape
still presents several issues. You could try and lift
the lockdown, though that will require you finding
the central security office, and it’s not on any of our
stolen plans. You could try and escape through the
Boardroom if you have a Dreamwalker with you,
but that place presents its own nightmares. I can’t
in good conscience recommend walking into The
Board’s home turf. You all seem very nice -- it’d be a
shame to see you erased from reality. Maybe if you
can find an offering to buy passage, this route
could work.
There’s always the hard way: Bring enough
hardware, blast a hole in the side of the building,
and use that for your escape when you’re done.
You’ll need to get your hands on a reality-
negation-field-generating missile, and the means
to fire one. The remains of Camp Elysium haven’t
quite fallen into the river just yet; you might want
to check that place out for leads.
Oh, one last thing: the rioting citizens, the gangs,
the remaining mercs -- someone at the top of
these groups must have some plans on how to
escape. You may want to try and ingratiate into
their ranks and see if they have any intel for you.
Good luck.
Influences
Movies: Dredd (2012)
Books: A Colder War by Charles Stross
39
 Altaussee Salt Mines, Salzkammergut Mountains
Austria
May 1945
Austria In Flames
- - - INT
EL - - -
One of t
the trov he largest ite
treasuree, this incred ms in
panel se is two folda ible
gium. U ts stolen from ble
n f
about 1 olded it me Bel-
many 501 by 15 feet a asures
incredib 0 year-old thnd (like
ly fragile ings) is
.

Secret German
Missile Bunker
the Nazis
Hiding art isn’tinagllin the
have been do ut. They’ve es-
Salzkammergcret missile
tablished a searby Ebensee.
project in ne
forced
If word is correcat,re finally sta-
laborers there
ging a revolt.

40
 3.5 billion dollars’ worth of looted art by master European artists,
plus the contents of Hitler’s personal library. Nazi high command
funneled these stolen treasures to the Altaussee Salt Mine after it all
nearly went up in flames due to Allied bombing in Berlin.

A week ago, Hitler offed himself (good riddance). Nonetheless, the

powerful and murderous Gauleiter August Eigruber is doing everything
in his power to blast the whole art hoard into smithereens as the Reich
is clearly teetering on the brink of defeat.

Eight US Airplane Bombs

When the Allies bombed
Linz, eight bombs landed
but didn’t explode.
Eigruber has crammed
them all into the mine in
crates labeled “Marble,
handle with care!”

When the miners dis- y in

covered what was reall
the crates, they wiselythat
planted decoy bombs lling
went off harmlessly, stauld
un�l the Resistance co
bring you in.
The problem is they forgot
to make a map or count eth
remaining decoys.

41

Best In Show
The Building
The Qianmen Hotel is located in the heart of
Beijing. Being just a few blocks from Tiananmen
Square, it’s a bustling metropolis. Qianmen Hotel
beams over the city, nesting at the edge of the
residential sector. A relic of its age, many around
the neighborhood find the glass exterior an
eyesore among the concrete jungle -- though you
will never hear these complaints said out loud. It
was built in 1996 by the Wang Family, still a
powerful entity within the community that holds
possible �es to the Triad.
The inside consists of 42 floors and 554
guestrooms. Your party will need to worry about
only a handful of floors. G (Ground Floor) has
access to a loading dock, a kitchen, laundry, and a
service elevator. The minimum foot-traffic service
elevator is only accessible on G in the kitchen and
floors 4-42. Above the lobby is where the Beijing
Dog Show Expo is held.
The Great Hall is located on the third floor and is
made up of four smaller halls with the partitions
pulled out. There are six large entrances equally
distributed within the enclosure. On the north side
is the stage where three judges sporting red suits
and a gold bow pin loom around: Brittany Lang,
Huī yīn Zhao, and Yuàn bó Li. The hall is filled with
rows of tables, each holding at least 1 to 4 cages
with various sized, bored dogs. The room is
divided into seven sec�ons:
• Spor�ng Group (they run fast)
• Hound Dogs (don’t look like a squirrel)
• Terrier Group (demanding and loving)
• Toy Group (small but fierce)
• Non-Sporting Group (both the best and the
worst dogs)
• Herding Dogs (running circles around you)
• Working Dogs (the score’s loca�on)
58
Words: Ren Ginty
Art: Dyer Rose, Hector Rodriguez
The cages are fitted with dog details, any ribbons
they’ve won thus far, and a combination lock. The
noise is overwhelming and chaotic; owners
standing guard at their dog’s cages shout over it
but it settles when the judges take to the stage
every half an hour to start arranging the next
par�cipants.
Each dog section can work for and against your
team. The Sporting Group is mostly quiet but
intense. All eyes will follow all that moves. Hounds
are vocal beasts and can blow an eardrum if
provoked. If they sense something is wrong, they
will sound an alarm or at least stun anyone in their
area. Terriers will be territorial of their cages,
especially in all the commotion. Jack Russels will be
the biggest offender in this group. If you have the
score at this point, avoid this area; it will bring heat
on fast. Toy and Non-sporting sections are, besides
adorable, always barking; this is a safe section to
hide in. Do avoid putting fingers in the cages --
they’re cute but great defenders. Herders will get
overwhelmed in excitement when presented with
another dog. If a dog is spinning a lot in their cage,
turn around or it might knock its own cage off the
table. Working dogs are natural born guards, but
the right bribe might pursue them to look the
other way.
Always keep in mind: All of these are dogs, and
many will drop whatever they’re invested in at the
moment to chase a single ball or a treat.
The score will be located near the stage in the far
right corner, and the judges are scanning the scene
in anticipation for the Bāo Bāo’s arrival. Bāo Bāo is
scheduled to make an appearance at 10:30 a.m.
and will be arriving at the hotel by limo. He will be
strolling with Ms. Shū lán Wang across a red
carpet,showingoffhisstuddeddiamondleashand
collar. The pair will pause a few times to turn
toward cameras and smile. Once she reaches the
bare stairs to the hotel, staff will help pull out the
cart and cage and pull it up to the entrance. Once
Hitler. The Nazi Party has “purified” tens of
thousands of pieces of art from museums and
confiscated untold treasuries’ worth of artistic
masterpieces from Jewish families under the
direction of Alfred Rosenberg’s hellishly devious
office, the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg.
The hoard in the mine is unimaginably precious.
(The local Resistance leadership whisper they’ve
spotted the Mona Lisa in there.) It’s certainly
enough for a new would-be dictator to renew the
war and put a stop to the rumors of peace.
Although if the zeitgeist is right, Theodore
Roosevelt’s elusive Arts and Monuments team
are racing to Altaussee as well. But there’s no
guarantee they’ll make it in time -- even if there
was a reason to trust the Americans to do things
right, which there isn’t.
The Security
Altaussee Mine is supposedly operating as
normal, with both the Germans and the miners
playing out a façade of pretending there’s nothing
out of the ordinary going on, and all those crates
contain stone and tools instead of tons of bombs
and priceless art. However, what’s not normal is
the rotating system of armed guards Commander
Eigurber has set up, both patrolling outside the
entrance in shifts around the clock and guarding
the art stashes themselves on the lowest three
levels in groups of 3-4 at a time. According to the
miners’ union, who mobilized to enlist help
fromyouandtheResistanceandprotecttheart
at great risk to themselves, they’ve overheard
the Nazi guards using passwords in the dark
that change daily.
themselves with the Reich out of cowardice, self-
preservation, or simple bigotry. By the way when
we say the miners have mobilized … they’ve
unfortunately had to work around one miner,
Niklas Pichler, who was found out to be on the
take from the Germans, taking their dirty cash to
skulk around, eavesdrop, and report back on any
“suspicious” ac�vity from the workers.
No one can stand a scab, but the union hasn’t been
able to get rid of Pichler without letting on that
they know he’s the informant, so for now he stays,
hopefully in ignorance of the plot to save and
liberate the art that could free all of Austria from
the Reich’s thumb.
The most urgent risk is that Eigruber is absolutely
determined to detonate the 8 airplane bombs as
soon as possible, and the miners have run out of
excuses to stall. Eigruber himself is a terrifying
fanatic who barely sleeps. As you may have heard,
the unspeakable atrocities he carried out at the
Mauthausen concentration camp won him a
promotion and the personal favor of the Führer
himself. Eigruber casts a sallow and looming figure,
one who pops up unexpectedly to check on his
troops at all hours of the day and night. If he has his
way, it’s all over for you and the art, so above all,
make sure the Germans don’t light those bombs.
And hurry.
Keep in mind that the very nature of a salt mine is a

While the 100-some miners in the union

have solidly backed the Austrian
Resistance, united by the pressing
need to prevent more crimes
against all humankind, you
probably can’t count on all the
local townsfolk to be
sympathetic. Austria has
been under Nazi rule for a full
seven years as part of the
“Greater Germany,” and
most Austrians have at
least outwardly aligned
43
risk in and of itself. Being surrounded by pure salt
clears a head cold like nothing else, but can also
cause dehydration, dizziness, and other maladies.
Although the advent of the combustion engine
made the mine much safer and palatable as a work
environment, it’s still a dangerous business. Last
year a cave-in crushed 4 men to death. The miners
are used to working right next to swinging
pickaxes, heavy sledgehammers, overloaded
carts hurtling through the gloomy tunnels, and
blasting dynamite. If you aren’t, keep an eye out
for all that going on during the 16 hours of the day
when shi�s are working at the mine.
I’ve left this one for last because it doesn’t even
qualify as rumor; it’s more like a whisper among
this miasma of paranoia permeating Austria right
now. During these past five months since the
Soviets marched on Berlin, a true madness has
swept the whole Nazi command. The cyanide and
pistol that did away with the Führer was only the
final incarnation of some deeply bizarre and
diabolical workings.
44
Supposedly… as Hitler was handing out orders to
his cronies from the Kehlsteinhaus (the Eagle’s
Nest, by Berchtesgaden) he ordered a new
personal guard be created by his scientists: a
griffin, a monstrous human-lion-golden eagle
hybrid, birthed to personally guard the Führer
from enemies.
Now, I’m not saying this guard exists, but if is does
then it’s been unchained by the death of its
master. And Altaussee is a little uncomfortably
close to the Kehlsteinhaus as the crow flies. Even
with the military checkpoints dug in since the
Soviets started marching this way, a person could
probably drive it in 2-3 hours with a sturdy
Panzerwagen.
 The Getaway
This is going to be daunting. As mentioned before,
there’s one elevator going straight up to the
surface of the mine, and while it’s quite large, it’s
also slow and creaky. Ascending with carts and
donkeys means trekking through sloping dark
tunnels for many kilometers in more or less single
file.

When you emerge from the mine with the

treasure, the surrounding mountains are steep
and treacherous with the spring snowmelt, and
the long-running occupation means that Nazi
forces are checking papers and vehicles on all the
main roads.

The only bright spot here is that you have a

powerful ally in the local resistance band, the
Salzkammergut Partisans. Their leader, an
ambitious 40-something socialist named Albrecht
Gaiswinkler, can probably find you weapons or
transportation to make good your escape.
Albrecht has also assembled a militia of 300 fierce
fighters and amassed a, frankly, quite impressive
cache of stolen German armaments.

This new Partisan militia has gamely embarked on

a campaign of guerilla harassment and sabotage
for several weeks now that is having some
moderate success, leaving the Nazi supply lines
disrupted, their vehicles prone to mysterious
mechanical problems, and their rank and file
stressed and underfed. Halle-freaking-lujah.

Influences
Movies: Woman in Gold, The Monuments Men,
Jojo Rabbit

Books & Comics: BERLIN, Stealing the Mystic Lamb

Music: Song of the Par�sans

45
 The Unrepentant Tower of Zolvan the Imperiller
Third Confluence of the Spheres
Eventide
A Wizard Did It
The Upper Tower
Here's where th
being conductede. ritual is
It’s also where lva
tum is, which mZo
igh t
n’s Sanc-
b
easy way into the va e an
you can stay out of ult -- if
sight

r
The Lower Towe
ces have
Zolvan’s apprerna�nd wide to
come from faritual -- as well
conduct this urages of body-
as their ento ngs, and kit-
guards, hireli is is where A great place to blend in, but
chen staff. Th g. you can be sure Zolvan is
they’re stayin keeping an eye out for any-
one straying from the pack.

46
 Words: Liam Ginty
All That Glimmers Art: Donald Kirby, Daniel
Walthall

The Building
Mount Gigaroth is one of the largest mountains in
the Uragaant range, and has been the nesting
place of Alfatrax the Great for at least the entirety
of the 5th Age. At its peak the summit used to be
nearly 30,000 feet high, but since the Last Great
Battle between Alfatrax and the arrayed armies of
Bolotarian, the mountain is topped with a plateau
at around 25,000 feet. It’s notoriously difficult to
scale, known for its incredibly steep inclines and
razor sharp greystone outcroppings. Many would-
be mountaineers have lost their lives on the
ascent.
Within the mountain’s stone lies a labyrinth of
tunnels carved out by nature and eons of
adventurers, civilizations, and monsters who have
for some reason or another made Gigaroth their
home. Many come simply to bask in Alfatrax’s
aura, some come in hopes of gaining the dragon’s
favour, and more to loot the tunnels themselves.
As such, several small villages dot the inside of the
mountain, connected by a ramshackle smattering
of caves populated by cave-dwelling monsters.
You’ll have to navigate these caverns if you wish to
make an approach from the caves. Expect heavy
resistance -- those that inhabit the caves
do not welcome strangers, and it is said
that the walls are dusted with the ground
bones of foolhardy adventurers.
intruders, but this is also their home, so tread with
a degree of respect. They have lived in the
mountain longer than humans have lived in its
shadow. They could make invaluable allies.
Running parallel to the caves (and often
intersecting them) are thousands of tiny
passageways, the largest of which are about as
wide as your arm; the smallest are barely big
enough to see. These all connect to the Breath, an
incredible instrument carved into the mountain
itself by the dread lich Draxxus. Its purpose, if any,
is unknown, and the interface is currently under
heavy guard by the Bolotarian Tintinnabulation,
the militant arm of the state religion. Why is, again,
unknown, but my sources believe the instrument
to be some means of communicating with Alfatrax
outside of the hours of tribute.
The Great Tower of Communion coils around the
outside of the mountain like a vast snake.
Essentially a fancy flight of stairs with a rail track,
this “tower” is constantlypacked with carts loaded

It’s hard to say what you should expect in

the tunnels themselves, as they are
incredibly vast. Our limited scouting
efforts have revealed some small tidbits of
information, however; the tunnels are
primarily inhabited by demi-drakes, a species
of bipedal creatures halfway between a dragon
and a dog. They’re about four feet tall and seem
capable of constructing traps and basic weapons.
My advice would be to stay clear of them where
possible -- it’s unknown how many are in these
tunnels, or what kind of traps and secret tunnels
they may employ to surround and kill any
64
 Fantasy Loot
Liam Ginty
1 An enormous chest of gold, too heavy to be carried

2 A magical staff that makes the holder view the world as they would wish it to be

3 Twenty golden jeweled house flies, very difficult to catch

4 Gems magically enchanted to be liquid at room temperature, and solid when heated
Three diamonds which appear to be glass until combined in a specific way, at which point they
5
become an incredibly valuable stone
Ten pieces of gold, each with incredible value, which can be used as two-way conversation
6
devices
A mirror which if broken will shatter into a little less than the value of any one item the breaker
7
needs at that �me
8 An incredibly rare (and vicious) breed of Dragon-Mu�, worth an enormous sum

9 The deed to an asteroid in the void-plane made en�rely of gemstone

A magnificent universe-fire opal, which contains one of the original flames of creation. Staring
10
too long causes the viewer to become eternally lost in its fractals
11 Millions of pieces of currency from a long dead civiliza�on
A gilded blade without a handle, forged by the greatest swordsmith of all time. Turns to dust
12
upon use, and has an inscrip�on which says as much
Three fairies, capable of repairing anything and everything, who owe their rescuers one favour
13
each
14 A �me jewel which holds an hour of �me

15 A pair of enchanted scissors capable of cu�ng anything its blades can close around

16 A pain�ng depic�ng the loca�on of the par�es greatest desires

AsignedcopyofTheMagicalusMalical,oneofthemostwellknownandlovedtombsonmagical
17
theory ever produced
The most beautiful dress in the entire universe, made of dream-silk and embroidered with
18
singing pearls
Themost beautiful suit in theentireuniverse,stitched with woven sunlight and pressed with the
19
visage of the true face of God
A healing potion which adds one year to the life of the drinker, even if they are mortally
20
wounded

67
and networked together to form the sentience of The Score
the tower. This room might not be where the
magic happens, but it’s where it’s directed. The Crown of Orom is a legendary work of art and
magic. It’s said to be all that remains of the fabled
The nexus is a planar gateway, currently shut AgeofOrnythrax--anagesoancienteventhegods
down so as not to disrupt the ritual. If activated don’t really remember it. This crown is priceless,
though, with the proper materials, you could butyou’reprobablymostinterestedinitbecauseit
attune this gate to anywhere in the multiverse. contains your souls.
Helpful news if you’re trying to escape.
Of course Zolvan’s Unredoubtable Vault also
Zolvan’s Unredoubtable Vault exists in its own contains the treasures of a thousand kingdoms.
pocket dimension whose main entrance is Some of it’s bound to be worth a few gold pieces.
through Zolvan’s planar nexus. What little we Y’know, here or there.
know about this comes from the souls of brave
adventurers who managed to escape Zolvan’s
sanctumandwereluckyenoughtobekilledbefore
Zolvan caught up to them. The treasure of a
thousand kingdoms is said to reside inside, but
the literal crown jewel of the collection is the
Crown of Orom, a priceless relic -- all that remains
of the Age of Ornythrax.

49
Ah, Main Branch. There’s a certain prestige to doing business here. Not
many people come here to manage their own money; this branch doesn’t
have time for you unless you have -- or owe -- six figures.

You’ve been casin’ the joint for months and tonight’s the night:
tonight, you pull the Bank Job.

Second Floor
No money here, but it’s a
real maze!
Second floor fire exit?

lt
Main Vau
L oc k typ e; needs a
Solace st
speciali
lly op e n during busi-
Usua urs
ness ho

69
where they can’t be unleashed upon an
unsuspec�ng tower.
The Observixion is all about seeing what is and
isn’t there. It’s a nexus of information and
prophecy and has the spells to back it up. And
overseeing the flow of information is the Tri-Mind,
a magical construct forged from the souls of
Zolvan’s three greatest rivals, bound and
enthralled by Zolvan’s terrible power. This vengeful
construct governs each of the golems found in
Zolvan's tower and is itself housed in a nigh-
indestructible and gaudy golden golem body.
Zolvan, ever leery of an attempt to free the prideful
spirits of his rivals, long ago removed the Golem’s
animating core. So they’re basically in a big fancy
motionless statue, powerless to do anything but
govern Zolvan’s magical security network.
And thanks to its mastery of prophecy and
divination, every intrusion into the Observixion is
already known to the Tri-Mind -- so unless you
have some way of tricking destiny or fate itself,
you’re not ge�ng in there unaware.
As for the Nexus itself, it’s the most obvious way in
or out of Zolvan’s Vault. You better believe it’s
protected by Zolvan’s own personal spells. Rumor
has it he has a permanent scrying spell set up here,
allowing him to view the room’s inhabitants
remotely. Also, sophisticated alarm spells are
woven over every entrance and exit to the room.
On the planar nexus itself you’ll find no less than 12
separate alarms and wards. One amplifies any
force applied to it a thousand fold back at the user.
One electrocutes you. One transforms all the liquid
inyourbodytoice.It’sbadnews.Anyonehopingto
use the nexus undetected has got to figure out
how to dispel or confuse the warding spells.
The vault itself is tucked away in an inaccessible
pocket dimension. Thanks to some posthumous
recon, we can tell you that the vault is protected by
the bound spirits of a band of brave adventurers
who once tried to infiltrate this far in. The heart of
the vault is a strange plane all itself. It’s said to be a
realm where thought itself is given form -- so, you
know the drill, it turns your thoughts against you,
fight with a shadow version of yourself, yadda
yadda. The Crown of Orom is hidden inside. You’ll
have to think about it hard enough to retrieve it
from the chaos.
One last thing to keep in mind: The Crown of Orom
holds your souls. Once you have the crown, we
don’t know how to guarantee you get the right
soul back into the right body. And it goes without
saying that when Zolvan discovers the heist, you’d
be�er be sure he doesn’t trace it back to you.
The Getaway
You’ve got a couple of options here. If you can
manage to keep the planar nexus active, that’s a
pretty easy way out. Of course, if its energies do
disrupttheritual,youcanbetZolvan(ormorelikely
one of his apprentices) will come down to check it
out. So be careful trying to take the fastest way
out.
You could also try to escape into the subterranean
tunnels and labyrinth of caverns that’s accessible
via elemental research. They say that Zolvan’s
most determined “experiments” escape via this
route -- so it’s possible, if potentially a little
crowded.
Or you could try and time your exit with one of the
entourages. Once the ritual is done, Zolvan will
doubtless have work for his apprentices to do. If
you can sneak out with them, that might be a great
way to keep the arch-wizard from getting on your
tail. You might want to plan for that.
Influences
Movies: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, The Two
Towers, Cube
Books: Guards! Guards!
Music: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Night on Bald
Mountain, In the Hall of the Mountain King
51
 The Skies Above Cape de San Jenaro
Santa Catarina, Brazil
May 6th 1937
Caper in the Clouds
Trophy Room/Cap
tain’s
Private Runway
Percival Indust
acquisi�ons, loriviens’g collected
rowed from foreignly bor-
Most of them, anywlands.
ay.
I think one of h pe
curates the sadisli� le
t robots
seum sky mu-

Captain’s Quarters and

Control Center
This is where you’ll find the
Orb.
If I had to tell you to expect
security, you wouldn’t be
worth hiring for this job.
But do expect security.

52
 Our agents have secured several passes for you and your team to the
infamous Coiled Viper tournament, a once-in-a-generation martial arts
battle royale.

This time, it’s taking place on a private island about 200 miles off the
eastern coast of Cuba. The organizer of the tournament, Dr Viktor
Oduya, is suspected to hold the last known copy of The Confluence of
Power, almost certainly secured in his private suite atop his Tower of
Trials.

The Tower of Trials

An eight-floor obst acle
ch of
course with a pinta
deathmatch bru lity.
ted at the
Your score is locaffi .
top, in Oduya’s o ce

The Tunnels
Infrared imagingtu shows a
s
vast network of islannndel.
throughout the
They’re likely uselddbbeyuseful
security but cou s.
for your purpose

77
great deal. Your passes technically mark you as a
spectator, but the tournament has long
encouraged a blurring of the line between
observer and participant, and there’s nothing
fighters enjoy more than an unexpected challenge.
We’d be remiss not to mention here the rumor
going around that Oduya owns a pair of golden
man-eating tigers, trained from birth to protect all
members of the Oduya family. We have no
evidence to support these rumors, and we’re not
entirely sure how they got started. Still, maybe
keep an eye out for that.
Viktor himself is of course a world-class martial
artist in possession of the most deadly text on the
art of combat ever written. He has undoubtedly
read much of its contents and is reportedly
undefeated in battle. It would be wise to take all
precau�ons to avoid a direct confronta�on.
least 100 days submerged. Where he would keep
such a thing, how he’d crew it, and how he would
get to it in an emergency, we don’t know. If you can
find it, and you can commandeer it, this would be a
useful way to get around the storms, but if it exists
Oduya is sure to have crewed it with his most
deadly guards.
Influences
Movies: Mortal Kombat, Enter the Dragon,
Bloodsport
Books: Dr. No
Music: Nina Williams - Tekken 2
Video Games: Tekken, Mortal Kombat

The Getaway
The island is fairly isolated, so escape will require
some planning. A handful of pleasure yachts and
one or two more useful vehicles are kept at the
island’s single dock, and Cuba is rela�vely closeby.

Theislanditselfalsohasitsownsmallairport.Ifany
of you are talented pilots, this is a good option.
Several planes should be there for the duration of
the tournament, and several pilots will be enjoying
the hospitality of the island while
their clients ba�le.

Be aware that weather reports

show a number of large storm
systems will begin circling the
island almost exactly when the
tournament begins, building in
intensity before breaking right after
the tournament ends. It’s clear this is an
intentional act on Oduya’s behalf to further
isolate the island from the outside world, but
we’re not sure exactly how. Whatever the case,
take caution when attempting to escape the
island.

Finally, it’s long been rumored that Oduya

maintains a personal escape submarine
with enough supplies and fuel to last at
80
 Eva Long
Liam Ginty

REWARD: $49,000,000 WALLY BUCKS

82
 Beijing
2010
10AM
Best In Show
Canine Fun House
Child-sized fun ho
dogs and their owuse for
ners.
It’s equipped with
distor�on mirrors giant
agility obstacles, a, dog
and a labyrinth of ball pit,
tunnels to get lost crawl
in.

Vendor Hall
great
A maze in itself but as an
loca�on for suppliel gues d
ts.
unsuspec�ng hote

56
 It is the last day of the now-legendary “Party In The Sand” music
festival, and taking the main stage tonight is a surprise guest: Julia
Santiago, widely understood to be the greatest guitar player to ever
have lived. She has publicly stated that tonight will be her final
show, and she intends to play Crystal Blue, a mysterious and priceless
guitar rumored by many to be cursed.

Cursed or not, it’s worth more than the last 3

bank jobs you pulled combined.

Get it and get out. Simple, right?

The Red Stone Stage

Carved into the side of a
mesa, this ancient
auditorium is one of the
most beau�ful places in the
world.
Great acous�cs too!

Grigg’s Canyon
Just before the fes�
grounds, a�endee val
funneled through th s are
canyon before the is �ght
the event proper. y get to

85

Best In Show
The Building
The Qianmen Hotel is located in the heart of
Beijing. Being just a few blocks from Tiananmen
Square, it’s a bustling metropolis. Qianmen Hotel
beams over the city, nesting at the edge of the
residential sector. A relic of its age, many around
the neighborhood find the glass exterior an
eyesore among the concrete jungle -- though you
will never hear these complaints said out loud. It
was built in 1996 by the Wang Family, still a
powerful entity within the community that holds
possible �es to the Triad.
The inside consists of 42 floors and 554
guestrooms. Your party will need to worry about
only a handful of floors. G (Ground Floor) has
access to a loading dock, a kitchen, laundry, and a
service elevator. The minimum foot-traffic service
elevator is only accessible on G in the kitchen and
floors 4-42. Above the lobby is where the Beijing
Dog Show Expo is held.
The Great Hall is located on the third floor and is
made up of four smaller halls with the partitions
pulled out. There are six large entrances equally
distributed within the enclosure. On the north side
is the stage where three judges sporting red suits
and a gold bow pin loom around: Brittany Lang,
Huī yīn Zhao, and Yuàn bó Li. The hall is filled with
rows of tables, each holding at least 1 to 4 cages
with various sized, bored dogs. The room is
divided into seven sec�ons:
• Spor�ng Group (they run fast)
• Hound Dogs (don’t look like a squirrel)
• Terrier Group (demanding and loving)
• Toy Group (small but fierce)
• Non-Sporting Group (both the best and the
worst dogs)
• Herding Dogs (running circles around you)
• Working Dogs (the score’s loca�on)
58
Words: Ren Ginty
Art: Dyer Rose, Hector Rodriguez
The cages are fitted with dog details, any ribbons
they’ve won thus far, and a combination lock. The
noise is overwhelming and chaotic; owners
standing guard at their dog’s cages shout over it
but it settles when the judges take to the stage
every half an hour to start arranging the next
par�cipants.
Each dog section can work for and against your
team. The Sporting Group is mostly quiet but
intense. All eyes will follow all that moves. Hounds
are vocal beasts and can blow an eardrum if
provoked. If they sense something is wrong, they
will sound an alarm or at least stun anyone in their
area. Terriers will be territorial of their cages,
especially in all the commotion. Jack Russels will be
the biggest offender in this group. If you have the
score at this point, avoid this area; it will bring heat
on fast. Toy and Non-sporting sections are, besides
adorable, always barking; this is a safe section to
hide in. Do avoid putting fingers in the cages --
they’re cute but great defenders. Herders will get
overwhelmed in excitement when presented with
another dog. If a dog is spinning a lot in their cage,
turn around or it might knock its own cage off the
table. Working dogs are natural born guards, but
the right bribe might pursue them to look the
other way.
Always keep in mind: All of these are dogs, and
many will drop whatever they’re invested in at the
moment to chase a single ball or a treat.
The score will be located near the stage in the far
right corner, and the judges are scanning the scene
in anticipation for the Bāo Bāo’s arrival. Bāo Bāo is
scheduled to make an appearance at 10:30 a.m.
and will be arriving at the hotel by limo. He will be
strolling with Ms. Shū lán Wang across a red
carpet,showingoffhisstuddeddiamondleashand
collar. The pair will pause a few times to turn
toward cameras and smile. Once she reaches the
bare stairs to the hotel, staff will help pull out the
cart and cage and pull it up to the entrance. Once
it’s set up, the staff will lift Bāo Bāo into the cage Wang Family, Shū lán Wang, will not be away from
and lock it. Then he’ll be escorted by six tattooed Bāo Bāo for too long. All hotel staff and judges
men in a cart to his designated table in the Great know Mrs Wang well, so unless your team can
Hall by 11 a.m. grow clones, don’t bother using her as a disguise.

The second floor holds the Canine Fun House The score is alive; it breathes, squirms, whines,
(which takes up two smaller halls itself) and a large barks, and possibly bites. Any of these factors can
vendor hall. The fun house is a vibrant vomit of give the game away. Be prepared and never ever
colors and saturated with overstimulated dogs and let the dog get hurt. Bāo Bāo might be less of a
a faint aroma of B.O. It is a massive scene of chaos nuisance if you attempt to earn his trust.
and the perfect eyesore to help lose someone Otherwise, if Bāo Bāo doesn’t want to go with you,
who is possibly tailing you. then he won’t budge; your team will need to carry
him or transport him by other means.
Nextdoor is the vendor hall. This is the hall your
team needs to scout out for Bāo Bāo’s medication. Sidenote: Bāo Bāo is a massive drooler. Bring a
Booths are lined in rows with large banners towel for the sake of his fur and your clothes.
hanging over every 20th booth with designated
lane numbers. Three particular vendors are
friends with Shū lán Wang and will be able to
recognize Bāo Bāo well. Maybe a map will have
details on their booth locations, but be on the
lookout for these vendors:

• Sonja Smirnov of Pet GPS

• Tony Li of Fur Be Gone
• Haru Tanaka of the Good Dog Bakery

The Score
Bāo Bāo (Bun Bun) is a 160 pound, red fur
Tibetan Mastiff and is currently worth $2
Million. He has accomplished a lot in his short
life time, by winning every Dog Show
Working Class Division since he was three.
Now, at eight years old, Bāo Bāo is still an all-
time champ and seen as a trophy himself. So
much so that many investors on the black
market have bid high dollars to own such a dog.

He is a lot of dog and in his older age has

developed arthritis and diabetes. As he is 160
pounds, you will not be able to just walk him out
if he’s tired, and he will get tired. Secondly, his
diabetes should not be taken lightly; make sure
you have insulin available to give him if he needs
it. There is a medical center set up on the
second floor in the Vendor Hall your team
should visit to get some extra before leaving.

The owner, the granddaughter within the

59
Mutsun tribes, in Southern California. Just a few
miles West of the San Andreas fault, the harsh and
unpredictable landscape was created by seismic
activity, and it’s still normal to get mild to moderate
tremors in the area today. In a funny turn of
coincidence, Roosevelt’s old rifle has gone missing
on land that he himself named the Pinnacles
National Monument back in 1908. For a hundred
years, the area was popular with outdoors
enthusiasts doing everything from climbing to
camping to spelunking. In 2012, an enterprising
member of Congress from Fresno, California
named Representative Candice Smith passed
legislation naming Pinnacles as a National Park in
an effort to improve conservation of the flora and
fauna, as well as the spiraling rock peaks that give
Pinnacles its name.
Pinnacles is a vast area of land with entrances on
the East and West ends of the park. The Eastern
entrance is more popular, and the road there ends
at the Visitor’s Center. The West side has a small
ranger station which is functionally understaffed
and almost abandoned. This area is mainly used to
access the Balconies trail up to the caves. Beyond
those entry roads, 90% of the park is only
accessible by foot or mule. Be careful if you
venture off-trail into the backwoods: while a large
part of the park is backwoods, it’s a combination
of difficult terrain covered in brush and
treacherous climbs up sometimes-unstable rock
formations. One important note: This weekend
the campgrounds are almost completely booked
by eager hikers and rock climbers, despite
weather reports that call for rain. In hilly and
mountainous areas around here, where it is so dry
much of the year, heavy rain causes deadly
mudslides every year.
Two of the most notable trails in the park are the
High Ridge trail, which begins near the West
entrance and leads to the Balconies overlook with
one turn and the Balconies Cave on the other side.
Although the Balconies Cave is often heavily
regulated to allow the sensitive local bat
population to live in peace, right now the entire
area is barricaded off due to seasonal flooding
within the caves. Anyone entering would have to
bring scuba gear and an expert knowledge of cave
diving. They would run a risk of irreparably
damaging the habitat of the bat colonies. The
other notable trail is the Condor Gulch trail, which
leads to the scenic High Ridge Overlook. This is a
very popular spot with birdwatchers, and many
bird enthusiasts travel to Pinnacles for sights of the
majestic California Condors. It’s possible that
Grant E. Chapman headed there in order to kill a
condor or steal an egg out of the communal
nesting grounds that the condors build on the cliff
sides, based on his track record of despicable acts
towards rare animals.
Security
For the first week that Chapman was missing,
Pinnacles was crawling with police who worked
with park rangers to sweep on and around trails,
looking for an injured billionaire or his body. Chief
Ranger Richard Randallson was in charge of
clearing the High Ridge trail during the search, and
immediately afterwards he was spotted in the
middle of a public altercation with Ranger Yasmin
Gutierrez. This could have been about some
aspect of the search or the open secret that
Gutierrez is resentful about being stuck in a low
level position doing park communications despite
her experience in trail rescue and nursing before
joining the Park Service. It’s worth noting at this
juncture that Randallson isn’t usually an erratic or
angry person, but he has been under financial
stress from heavy student loans he incurred
getting a PhD in art history which never led to an
academic job.
Officially, the police search has been called off, but
unofficially a number of search and rescue
enthusiasts have been coming out to comb over
the park on their own, galvanized by Tom Hong, a
collegestudentinthenearbytownofSoledad
who hosts a popular true-crime
podcast. You will have to contend
with the
93
 The Getaway
Congratulations! Your party is now in possession of
a very heavy, loud dog. If you haven’t already, your
team will need to make a mad dash down to the
second floor and find the medical booth. If
someone is tailing you, you can lose them best on
the second floor. Once insulin and dog are in hand
and any potential tail is averted, continue to the
lobby. The front door is still filled with paparazzi
from earlier and should be avoided at all costs. To
get to the back door, you need to go down to floor
G.
Now the team is outside. Do you risk the city
crowds? Or risk your lives in the Underground
City? Rendezvous point will be at the park at the
north side of Tiananmen Square.
walk in the park. No, it will not be easy. Near the
Square is a pool of people. If your party managed
to make friends with Bāo Bāo, he will walk calmly
alongside the party. Remember, he will need
intermittent breaks due to his arthritis. If your
party did not gain Bāo Bāo’s trust, he will be unruly
and loud, causing passersby to no�ce.
Influences
Movies: Seven Psychopaths, 101 Dalmatians, Okja,
Free Willy
Books: How to Steal a Dog
Music: Who Let the Dogs Out

Option A: your team hire a driver to pick you up at

the hotel parking garage and race to the
rendezvous point.

Option B: The heat is on and your team is being

chased. Flee to the Underground city across the
street and down one block. During the Cold War,
Chairman Mao ordered the construction of the
Underground City. Its purpose was to provide
shelter and a bunker for food in case of nuclear
fallout. Built under Beijing’s city center, it is easily
accessed and was abandoned soon after the Cold
Warwascalledoff.However,therearerumorsthat
trapdoors into the tunnels were created in every
household near the city center. Due to its
temperate climate, the homeless took up
residenceuntilafewyearsagowhenagroupcalled
the Dragon Tribe usurped it. The Dragon Tribe are
Triad rejects and are, for the most part, drug
addicts who spend their days trying to make a
quick buck and get more. In other words, the Tribe
might overlook the dog but not wallets. Do not let
your guard down. Another issue with the tunnels is
although they are great for dodging angry Triad
members, they are a maze. A blog posted an
unfinished map someone once tried to create of
the Underground City, and that is the only one
known. It’s possible your team could get more lost
and pushed into a bad spot.

Option C: Walk through the park. This common

turn of phrase is as literal as it gets. Yes, it will be a
61
 The Bureau of Destiny, Celestial Pyramid
18 PWW (Post-Wyvern Wars)
01:00
Stealing Destiny

The Celestial Pyramid Pattern Spiders

A rota�ng crystalline hub of These uncanny beas�es are
celes�al bureaucracy �reless weavers, some-
suspended in the sky, ove where between arachnid
marking the horizon ab and automaton.
the grey and miserable
Gorgon City. Fragile-looking but sharp
and extremely precise.

96
 Alfatrax the Great’s roost has stood untouched for an age. It has seen
the rise and fall of empires; the nation it currently resides in didn’t
even exist when Alfatrax made its nest. It’s said that Alfatrax’s hoard
contains more riches than every ruler’s treasure trove combined. The
Lost Sphere of Elm, Tweik’s Eight Stones, the Unity Blade; all these
artifacts and more rest somewhere inside Mount Gigaroth, as well as an
estimated million tons of gold and gems.
You’re going to steal every single coin of it.

The Hoard
treasure
A million tons oafm agma
heaped uponAlfatrax some-
pocket, with .
where inside

The Breath
An enormous einm strument
ountain by
carved into thd lich, Draxxus.
the esteeme
mplete
Rumored to bael.co
and func�on
nown
Sealed off for unk
reasons.
The Caves of Cala
mity
A cave system at
the mountain, thfu ll o
riddles
traps and monsters f deadly
ted by Alfatrax’s po a�rac-
wer.
63
 Words: Liam Ginty
All That Glimmers Art: Donald Kirby, Daniel
Walthall

The Building
Mount Gigaroth is one of the largest mountains in
the Uragaant range, and has been the nesting
place of Alfatrax the Great for at least the entirety
of the 5th Age. At its peak the summit used to be
nearly 30,000 feet high, but since the Last Great
Battle between Alfatrax and the arrayed armies of
Bolotarian, the mountain is topped with a plateau
at around 25,000 feet. It’s notoriously difficult to
scale, known for its incredibly steep inclines and
razor sharp greystone outcroppings. Many would-
be mountaineers have lost their lives on the
ascent.
Within the mountain’s stone lies a labyrinth of
tunnels carved out by nature and eons of
adventurers, civilizations, and monsters who have
for some reason or another made Gigaroth their
home. Many come simply to bask in Alfatrax’s
aura, some come in hopes of gaining the dragon’s
favour, and more to loot the tunnels themselves.
As such, several small villages dot the inside of the
mountain, connected by a ramshackle smattering
of caves populated by cave-dwelling monsters.
You’ll have to navigate these caverns if you wish to
make an approach from the caves. Expect heavy
resistance -- those that inhabit the caves
do not welcome strangers, and it is said
that the walls are dusted with the ground
bones of foolhardy adventurers.
intruders, but this is also their home, so tread with
a degree of respect. They have lived in the
mountain longer than humans have lived in its
shadow. They could make invaluable allies.
Running parallel to the caves (and often
intersecting them) are thousands of tiny
passageways, the largest of which are about as
wide as your arm; the smallest are barely big
enough to see. These all connect to the Breath, an
incredible instrument carved into the mountain
itself by the dread lich Draxxus. Its purpose, if any,
is unknown, and the interface is currently under
heavy guard by the Bolotarian Tintinnabulation,
the militant arm of the state religion. Why is, again,
unknown, but my sources believe the instrument
to be some means of communicating with Alfatrax
outside of the hours of tribute.
The Great Tower of Communion coils around the
outside of the mountain like a vast snake.
Essentially a fancy flight of stairs with a rail track,
this “tower” is constantlypacked with carts loaded

It’s hard to say what you should expect in

the tunnels themselves, as they are
incredibly vast. Our limited scouting
efforts have revealed some small tidbits of
information, however; the tunnels are
primarily inhabited by demi-drakes, a species
of bipedal creatures halfway between a dragon
and a dog. They’re about four feet tall and seem
capable of constructing traps and basic weapons.
My advice would be to stay clear of them where
possible -- it’s unknown how many are in these
tunnels, or what kind of traps and secret tunnels
they may employ to surround and kill any
64

to the brim with tribute for Alfatrax. Partially
constructed by the dragon himself, the tower itself
is the fastest way to the top of the mountain, and
very simple in its construction. Only a few, very
select members of the Bolotarian state religion are
allowed passage up the mountain and only the
most elite of those get to ride the train that ferries
the bulk of the coins, gems, and other small
valuables alongside the marchers. They do make
for quite a sight, though, decked in their red and
purple regalia, a thousand unique oak masks
hiding their faces and (supposedly) protecting
them from Alfatrax’s wrath.
The Score
A million tons of gold, gems, and unimaginable
treasures from centuries of ceaseless hoarding.
The sheer scale of hoarded wealth is staggering,
and the religious elites speak of being frozen in
rapture upon seeing it in person. Bolotaria has
been depositing the vast majority of its valuable
items into Mount Gigaroth for centuries now. It
began when Bolotaria I made a concord with the
dragon. The exact terms of the deal are known
only to the Bolotarian royal family and,
presumably, Alfatrax, but they were etched in an
Edict and are enforced by powerful draconic blood
magic. We know a few details about the concord,
thanks to a declassified version given to us by the
Bolotarian spymaster:
• Each day, Alfatrax’s weight in treasure must be
given in tribute.
We know from records at the time that Alfatrax
was a mere half ton. It would appear no one at
the time knew how quickly a dragon grows in
the presence of gold.
• Alfatrax will cause no harm to the people of
Bolotaria.
• Alfatrax will, if called upon in the old ways,
defend the na�on against any rival Dragons.
What the “old ways” refers to, and why
Bolotaria was concerned about rival dragons, is
a ques�on of some debate.
Alfatrax is the only surviving dragon (that we
know of) and has been for most of Bolotarian’s
existence. It’s suspected the old ways may be a
spell or special language known only to the
Bolotarian royal family.
• No harm shall come to Alfatrax.
• No portion of the hoard shall ever be taken
from the mountain.
• Let the treasure bind this contract. For as long
as it lays within Mount Gigaroth, so this pact
will remain.
While all of these points are important for us, the
final two are of special importance. We believe
that by taking the entire hoard all at once, we will
technically not be removing any “portion”, while
also removing the binding from the concord.
This may seem like an impossible task. It may be an
impossible task, but the people of Bolotaria are
starving, and soon they will be unable to supply
the dragon with its demands. You are their last
hope.
The Security
Depending on your definition of security, you have
three main issues to deal with. First, the Caves of
Calamity’s inhabitants do not, generally, do well
with strangers. There are reports of some people
making allies with them, but they are inherently
distrustful of people -- especially humans. The
demi-drakes are especially dangerous, capable of
magic and advanced trapmaking. Tread carefully,
take a gift, but be ready to have to fight your way
through them. Second is the Bolotarian Church.
This is where things get complicated.
While the Bolotarian royalty and high lords have
signed off on the plan, several members of the
church have been in open rebellion against the
decision since it was made. And given that they’re
the ones actually transporting the gold, you’re
going to have some resistance. The Great Tower is
packed with armed guards, as you might expect
for a road that carries an entire nation’s daily gold
output, so an open assault there is doomed to fail.
65

Several people have tried to rob the Great Tower’s
Congregation in the past -- the most successful was
a thief named Cate Hu. They built a perfect replica
of the railcar that moves along the tower’s outer
edge, bribed an engineer to disable the main car,
and then blackmailed a senior bishop to obtain
genuine church robes. They even got halfway
down the mountain before a Seer (that’s a church
battle oracle, for reference) informed the guards
about the scam. Bad news for Hu, but good for us --
we know about the seers now. If you want to
assail the tower, you’re gonna need some kind of
psychic protection, impeccable disguises, and a
whole lot of luck.
There’s also some church guards, clerics, and
under-mages milling around the Breath; we don’t
really know why they’re guarding it, but it’s gotta
be worth a look.
Last, and more obviously, Alfatrax. The dragon
sleeps at the heart of the roost, only stirring to feed
everyfewyears.Forthemostpart,wedon’texpect
it to be an issue, but you should still take care when
removing the treasure itself to not disturb the
dragon.
A hundred of the best strategists, tacticians,
soldiers, and mages recently gathered for what
was supposed to be a mock-battle command
exercise. The finest minds in warfare, magic, and
tactics from all across the world worked tirelessly
for three days trying to devise a way to outrun, slay,
or otherwise escape Alfatrax should you be
discovered before the heist is complete.
66
They concluded that if you were
able to drop one of our moons on
Alfatrax, that may buy you enough
time to escape, assuming the world
survived the impact.
Do not engage Alfatrax.
The Getaway
Yourprimaryconcernonthegetaway
will be how you shi� such an
enormous amount of treasure all at
once. Besides the obvious weight
issues, that much currency is bound
to make a racket, awakening Alfatrax
and dooming us all.
We have some ideas -- the tunnels could probably
ferry that much gold fairly quickly if you were able
to have them flow to capacity somehow. There’s
also an enormous hole in the top of the mountain
that more than one mage has attempted to use to
steal some of the pile. The mountain itself is quite
steep, and would likely be a reasonably fast way to
remove the gold if you could somehow get it to
“pour” out by blasting a large enough hole in the
side.
The grand vizier wizard Car-Kefx has some ideas
about animating the gold itself, and using the
Breath to remotely remove the gold. He is quite
mad, but it's as good an idea as any at this point.
Whatever you choose to do, the Church is likely to
try and stop you when they twig. If you can figure
out a way to steal a million tons of gold without
them noticing? Good on you. Otherwise, be ready
for a whole bunch of pissed off zealots throwing a
wrench into everything at the worst possible
moment.
Influences
Books: “Waterdeep: Dragon Heist”
Music: The Mountain Goats, “In League With
Dragons”
 Fantasy Loot
Liam Ginty
1 An enormous chest of gold, too heavy to be carried

2 A magical staff that makes the holder view the world as they would wish it to be

3 Twenty golden jeweled house flies, very difficult to catch

4 Gems magically enchanted to be liquid at room temperature, and solid when heated
Three diamonds which appear to be glass until combined in a specific way, at which point they
5
become an incredibly valuable stone
Ten pieces of gold, each with incredible value, which can be used as two-way conversation
6
devices
A mirror which if broken will shatter into a little less than the value of any one item the breaker
7
needs at that �me
8 An incredibly rare (and vicious) breed of Dragon-Mu�, worth an enormous sum

9 The deed to an asteroid in the void-plane made en�rely of gemstone

A magnificent universe-fire opal, which contains one of the original flames of creation. Staring
10
too long causes the viewer to become eternally lost in its fractals
11 Millions of pieces of currency from a long dead civiliza�on
A gilded blade without a handle, forged by the greatest swordsmith of all time. Turns to dust
12
upon use, and has an inscrip�on which says as much
Three fairies, capable of repairing anything and everything, who owe their rescuers one favour
13
each
14 A �me jewel which holds an hour of �me

15 A pair of enchanted scissors capable of cu�ng anything its blades can close around

16 A pain�ng depic�ng the loca�on of the par�es greatest desires

AsignedcopyofTheMagicalusMalical,oneofthemostwellknownandlovedtombsonmagical
17
theory ever produced
The most beautiful dress in the entire universe, made of dream-silk and embroidered with
18
singing pearls
Themost beautiful suit in theentireuniverse,stitched with woven sunlight and pressed with the
19
visage of the true face of God
A healing potion which adds one year to the life of the drinker, even if they are mortally
20
wounded

67
 First City Bank
Present Day
Now
The Main Branch

Offices
Aux. Vault!
Possibly treasure
?!

68
Ah, Main Branch. There’s a certain prestige to doing business here. Not
many people come here to manage their own money; this branch doesn’t
have time for you unless you have -- or owe -- six figures.

You’ve been casin’ the joint for months and tonight’s the night:
tonight, you pull the Bank Job.

Second Floor
No money here, but it’s a
real maze!
Second floor fire exit?

lt
Main Vau
L oc k typ e; needs a
Solace st
speciali
lly op e n during busi-
Usua urs
ness ho

69

The Main Branch
The Building
This branch is big: beyond all the general bank-
type stuff, there’s a whole upper floor dedicated
entirely to branch officers and commercial
finance activities. The main floor is neatly divided
intoacustomer-facingfrontandpersonalbanking
advisors’ offices, with exits into the main lobby of
the tower and the street.
It’s important to remember, different areas have
different security, and different risks. The upstairs
offices have none of the cash you came for, but
may prove to be a great place to hide from anyone
who stumbles across your crew on the off hours.
The main lobby has the least aggressive electronic
security,butmovingfromthelobbytoanyareasof
interest will cause plenty of interest. ATM rooms,
vaults, and the IT/Electrical room are guaranteed
to be secured with the most aggressive alarms
and sensors, and may even be under constant
surveillance. The lunchroom and the bathrooms
may provide a good place to wait out a busy period
in the day, but again, you’ll need a plan to get
anywhere.
Areas
The main doors open into a fairly spacious lobby,
where the day-to-day tellers have their little
counter on the right, and a long hallway to the left
that leads off to the mortgage and personal loan
offices. There are two auxiliary vaults in the walls
of designated offices. These are small and are
never guaranteed to be in use. They are used
when something unusual comes through and
usually only for a single night at a time. If they’re in
use tonight, they’ll be locked. If not, they won’t.
You can’t know if there’s something in either of
them until you go look - so you need to plan
whether you’ll bother. The potential rewards
mightbereallygreat…buttheremightbenothing
at all.
There’s a solid wall directly in front of the main
70
Words: Heather Rusk
Art: Dyer Rose, Hector Rodriguez
door that has the bank logo on it in exceptionally
fancy metal decor. The main vault is behind that
wall, across from the safe deposit box viewing
rooms. This area is highly secured, with motion
sensors, vibration sensors, heat sensors,
everything available. Getting into the main vault
needs a foolproof plan, possibly a set of keys, and
a lot of either luck or skill.
The back of the main floor contains bathrooms,
the lunch room, various supply closets, the
electrical/IT room, and the ATM room for the
ATMs that face the inside of the office tower’s
main floor. This hallway is relatively easy to
navigate, but every door that comes off it is
protected by a separate alarm.
Finally, directly to the left of the front door is a pair
of ATMs and a night safe that face the street
outside. Behind them is a very small ATM room
built to look like a bulkhead. This room is easy to
breach, but it relies on looking like nothing at all.
This room is small, cramped, and very difficult to
manoeuvre in.
All the windows that face the outside are
equipped with ultrasonic glass-break sensors that
will trip the alarm if the window is broken or cut.
The business teller booth is protected by
bulletproof glass. No cash is kept outside the teller
stations at any time. There are four fire exit doors
on the main floor and one that leads out to the
second floor hallway of the tower. Every one of
these doors is connected to a fire and police
alarm.
It’s also important to look at the building lobby
outside the bank branch — it’s a typical office
tower main floor, with the bank branch taking up
the northwest corner, a restaurant and
convenience store along the northeast side, and
the elevators, security office, and information
kiosk rounding out the south end. There are
escalators running up to a second floor atrium
with seating and public space, and a few smaller
fast food stations. The bank has two fire exits to
the inside of the second floor, but they are
magnetically locked at all times, and only released
if there’s a fire or other emergency.
The second floor of the branch is mostly taken up
by offices for the commercial banking agents. No
cash or easy negotiables are stored on the second
floor, but it does present a pretty good place to
hide in — or to set up an ambush.
There are two main hallways branching off from a
small private lobby with small hallways coming off
that. There are emergency exits leading from the
ends of the hallways to points within the public
second floor of the tower in case of fire.
In case of fire or other emergency, the entire
branch has predefined procedures for
evacuation. The magnetic locks on all the
emergency exits release and every staff member is
instructed to evacuate from the nearest available
exit. A handful of staff, designated as “responsible
persons” close any high-security areas (like the
vault) and then evacuate. The alarms are set to
automatically alert the police after a certain
threshold of alarm is reached, and they respond
fast.
Routines
There are a few predictable rhythms to the
branch. Every weekday, they open for business
promptly at 7:30 a.m. They remain open until 4
p.m., and they lock the vault in the last five
minutes of the day. Officers, personal banking
agents, and commercial banking agents have
slightly different schedules based on their clients’
needs, but none work regularly before 7 a.m. or
a�er 6 p.m.
Everyweekday,sometimebetween6and9p.m.,a
team of four cleaners enter the branch and clean it
top to bottom. They are not allowed to open
anything sensitive, but have complete access to
everyroom.Onaverage,theytakeabout2½hours
to finish once they’ve begun.
If an ATM is out of order, there will be a technician
there to fix it within an hour, unless it’s after 10
p.m. They don’t appear to move after 10. The
technicians have access to the ATM rooms, but it’s
impossible to tell if they’re able to open the
machines themselves.
There are security guards throughout the tower,
who conduct patrols at regular intervals around
the entirety of the building. They don’t seem to
enter the branch itself unless there’s something
happening.
Finally, there is an armoured car that comes
nightly. The security guards go into the branch and
have access to secure areas. Trying to observe
them further than that got you in some hot water
once when they called the police.
The Score
You’re looking for 48 kilos of corn seeds — no,
dummy, it’s cash. Cold, hard lucre. There’s a
battery of ATMs, a night deposit box, the main
vault, two auxiliary vaults, and, depending on your
timing, you might just be able to get yourself a
truckload haul too. The auxiliary vaults may or may
not be in use at any time; even the best casing job
can’t really tell you.
You could go in in the middle of the day, guns a-
blazing and a hostage situation. You could try to get
in after hours and do it the sneaky way. You might
even want to try and ambush an armored car
crew. The rest, as they say, is up to you.
The Security
It turns out that banks do a fair amount of work
securing their assets. There’s a perimeter alarm
system, regular interior and exterior guard patrols,
a closed circuit TV system on constant record, and
if you happen to be there when the armored car
crew arrives, you’ll have to deal with their security
measures as well.
71
 The perimeter alarm includes:
• Door and roof hatch sensors
• Ultrasonic glass break sensors
• Seismic alarms on all vaults
• Mo�on sensors everywhere
• Tamper alarms
• The guards
If you hire a good alarm specialist, they should be
able to get around most of the sensors, but the
CCTV and patrols need to be dealt with separately.
You might be able to convince a night guard to
sleep through a few patrols. Of course, that guard
might already be sleeping through the patrols, but
will it be the same guard tonight? And what about
the CCTV?
Speaking of guards, the tower has a small security
force on duty 24 hours a day. These guards are a
mixed bag: some of them are dedicated, skilled
and engaged; others are just filling a spot and
collecting a paycheck. The latter are probably easy
to persuade to look the other way, the former …
maybe less. It’s a crapshoot with guards. Your crew
might benefit from buttering one or two of them
up, but you’ve also seen plenty of turnover in their
crew as you’ve been on the case. Either way, you
know you’ll need to be in and out in under 20
minutes if you go in quiet at night. Otherwise you’ll
need to deal with a guard patrol.
The Armored Car Crew
Being inside the bank when the armored car
shows up opens up the possibility of raiding the
ATMs and night safes, but you have to deal with
armed, trained people who can and will deal with
anyone they find out of place. How much mayhem
is your crew willing to cause? Are they willing to
overpower the crew to get those assets?
If you decide to take the armored car down, you’ll
need a plan. These guys case this joint every night,
just like you do. In fact, before you got careful, they
likely almost caught you at least once. You’ll need a
solid plan to surprise these people, and an even
better one to convince them, one way or another,
to open things up for you.
72
This is a dangerous route, and the quickest way to
move from a nice orderly bank robbery into a very
easily deadly gunfight. So if you do it, do it smart.
Security subsystems
The vaults and ATM rooms all have some extra
security systems you'll have to deal with. These
systems are extremely tough to crack, but the
rewards are juicy. There are alarms and sensors
everywhere in these areas. These also appear to
be monitored by CCTV 24 hours a day. You’ll need
some smarts to get these prizes.
The main vault
The main vault has a manual and Solace Security
System electronic lock, plus a secondary inner
door. That door is easier to handle: it’s nominally
blast-proof but it’s a thin door with a mechanical
lock on a physical key. Once inside the main vault,
everything is kept in locked cabinets, but they’re
not super strong. If you can’t find the key ring, a
hammer will do, eventually.
Unless you time your heist with the bank’s usual
vault opening procedures, you’ll need to work for
every cent you pull out of here.
The secondary vaults
The secondary vaults are nearly identical to each
other. Each is inside a ground floor office behind a
regular interior office door. One is equipped with a
Martin Locks lock and the other with two manual
locks. The electronically-locked vault has a small
interior cavity and may contain nothing, or some
amount of foreign currency.
The manually-locked vault is used mainly to store
high-value objects that will move through the
bank’s internal delivery system. There’s an even
chance that it will be empty or contain something
small and very valuable, but never cash. These
things may be art objects, jewels, precious metals,
stock certificates, or negotiable paper (certificates
of deposit or cashier’s cheques are most
common).
 The ATM rooms
The ATM room is, in itself, actually less secure than
the vaults are, mainly because each machine has a
tiny safe in it. The room is behind a locked door, but
the lock is a standard key lock, and the doors range
from solid wood to metal-clad. The room itself is
full of receipt rolls and boxes of envelopes, and is
generally a little bit messy because the cleaners
are not allowed to enter without supervision.
Inside the ATM rooms that face the outside, there
is also a night deposit safe. These hold night
deposits in cash and cheques that local businesses
will drop in after hours. Some of the street toughs
you know swear up and down they figured out
how to fish deposits out of the safe back through
the drop drawer, but it never lasts for long, the
deposits aren’t very big on their own, and you’re
looking for the bigger fish.
To access these machines and the money inside,
the crew will need to either bring safe-cracking
equipment or ambush the armored car crew while
they have a machine open. Each machine safe has
a Solace Security Systems lock, which you need
special keys to open — and the armored car crew
hold the only copies.
The Getaway
How your crew approaches a getaway will depend
entirely on how they approached the score in the
first place.
If you go in in full daylight with guns a-blazing,
you’re going to need to get from the inside to a
getaway car and then out past some extremely
angry cops. If you can be in and out in under 10
minutes, you’ll be able to get out before they arrive
and, with a little fancy driving and a little luck,
evade the cops long enough to hide your haul. The
73
longer you take inside, the more backup they can
bring in, and the harder it will be to get out.
Do you sneak in in the dead of night, carefully
avoiding alarms, locks, and guards? Then the
escape is largely the same as they way you came in
— just sneak back out and try your damnedest to
make it look like you were never there. Of course,
all bets are off if the armored car pulls up when you
weren’t expec�ng it…
Either way, you’ll want to have a car. Whether you
put it in the loading zone out the back of the
building, or park it nice and normal-like, that’s up
to you. Just make sure everyone knows where
they’re going when it all goes south.
Influences
Movies - The Italian Job, Armored, The Great Train
Robbery,Hudson Hawk
Podcasts - Heist Podcast, Criminal, Swindled, Reply
All
Songs- Alabama 3 - Woke Up This Morning
Judas Priest - Breakin’ the Law, Cage the Elephant -
Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked, KMFDM - Go To Hell,
NOFX - Seeing Double at the Triple Rock, Rancid -
Cash, Culture, and Violence, Rammstein - Benzin,
KMFDM - Money, Stromae - Ta Fête

Once you’ve made the great escape, you’ll need to

go to ground for a while. No amount of
preparation will save your crew if you’re suddenly
living it up on mysterious money. Keep your head
down, your crew quiet, and your faces out of the
news, and you might just be able to spend your
haul from… the Bank Job.

74
 Modern Day Heist Loot
Amanda Allen
1 A cancelled video game. A few copies were made, but never distributed.

2 High grade superfuel for the cancelled F9-B fighter jet

3 The lost arms of the Venus Di Milo

4 A concoc�on that causes invisibility when drunk

5 Names and Addresses of high profile donors to a far right paramilitary mili�a

6 Prime blackmail material for a wealthy world leader

7 A data key detailing a corpora�on's off-book ac�vi�es

8 1.7 Billion Euros in cash

9 A collec�on of prin�ng plates for several major global currencies

10 The last remaining Ganatura plant, known to many as “Super Weed”

11 A large supply of untraceable military grade weapons

Evidence of a massive conspiracy against a now-lost peoples by a corporation exploiting their
12
land
13 A CEO’s phone with address book, phone numbers, and Solitaire High Score

14 An ID badge for Goggle, a so�ware corpora�on at the cu�ng edge of internet technology
An prototype of the AV-101, an experimental weapon capable of damaging inorganic material
15
whilst leaving organic material unharmed
Concrete and indisputable evidence of a conspiracy suppressing the truth that Vampires, Were-
16
wolves, Zombies, or all three walk among us
17 An address for the ‘Drone’s Club’, a secret mee�ng place for idle rich and privileged since 1834.

18 The Honjō Masamune, the lost sword of the master swordsmith Masamune.

19 Experimental body armor, fire retardant and completely bulletproof

20 A piece of computer code that when compiled, generates true, hard AI

75
 An Island Somewhere In The Caribean
1998
9PM
Exit the Dragon
Fight Arenas
The site of the various
deadly duels to the death
that will take part over the
tournament.
They make for great
distrac�ons, but be careful:
These fights are to the
death.

The Docks
This is how most o� f the
g to the
fighters will be ge n
island.
and
Good place to gentlyinwfoay off
might be your o
the island.

76
 Our agents have secured several passes for you and your team to the
infamous Coiled Viper tournament, a once-in-a-generation martial arts
battle royale.

This time, it’s taking place on a private island about 200 miles off the
eastern coast of Cuba. The organizer of the tournament, Dr Viktor
Oduya, is suspected to hold the last known copy of The Confluence of
Power, almost certainly secured in his private suite atop his Tower of
Trials.

The Tower of Trials

An eight-floor obst acle
ch of
course with a pinta
deathmatch bru lity.
ted at the
Your score is locaffi .
top, in Oduya’s o ce

The Tunnels
Infrared imagingtu shows a
s
vast network of islannndel.
throughout the
They’re likely uselddbbeyuseful
security but cou s.
for your purpose

77

Exit the Dragon
The Building
The island, named Omo in intercepted
communications, is a verdant paradise that serves
as a private resort for the rich and famous most of
the year. Private villas and five star amenities dot
the island, staffed largely by entourages of the
island’s various guests. These facilities have been
bought out entirely by the Galvacan corporation --
itself a shell company controlled by The Oduya
Family.
The Oduya family is one of the most powerful
conglomerates in the world, with their fingers in
everything from news media to pet food. Viktor,
the current head of the family since his father’s
untimely demise and his sister’s tragic
disappearance, has been renovating the island for
sixweeksnow.Thefamilyhasbuiltaroundadozen
“arenas” heavily themed and equipped with traps
and hazards for the fighters to contend with.
Imagesfromthespysatellitewehackedlastmonth
shows an arena floating in the ocean 2000 meters
offshore, one suspended several hundred feet in
the air between two large cliff faces, and one
apparently surrounded by magma.
While the tournament itself is being held across
the entire island, your main focus for this heist
should be the Tower of Trials. A 8 floor-spire in the
center of the island, the tower is the location of
the final round of the tournament: a grueling,
brutal ascent through a series of deadly
challenges, each culminating in a battle royale
where only half of the active fighters may advance
to the next floor.
The tower is an ancient building of dubious
architectural origins. What information we have
states that the very same tower has been used for
every Coiled Viper tournament ever held, which
would make it over 2000 years old. Despite this
apparent age, reports say the tower appears
sturdy, well-built, and even beautiful. Its base
resembles a mid-1500s European castle which
78
Words: Liam Ginty
Art: Dyer Rose, Daniel Walthall
seamlessly blends into something reminiscent of
an Indonedian pagoda before finally being capped
with a large bronze and silver dome with the
Oduya family crest etched into the metal. How this
tower is transported bit by bit across the world
without leaving even the slightest paper trail is a
mystery.
Every generation, the inside of the tower is
rearranged and redesigned, so the exact trials
fighters face this go-around is almost impossible to
know in advance. However, one of our agents
identified several members of the construction
crew who have been discussing various workplace
grievances and concerns regarding their lives after
the project. (A rumor suggests that all construction
workers are killed after the tower is complete.) You
may want to seek some of these agitating workers
out before your heist.
At the top of the tower lies Oduya’s personal suite,
one of the few rooms we have a full layout of
thanks to the fact that Oduya has opted to ship his
own private office (the blueprints of which are
public record) to the island bit by bit and have it
reconstructed on site. In contrast to the rest of the
tower, the office is a high-tech, minimalist suite
with a vast array of cameras hooked up to an
augmented reality projection device that allows
Oduya complete observation of the entire island
at all times. The tower appears to have a large
microwave receiver built into the top dome, and
we suspect that may be receiving signals from a
hidden satellite locked in geosync directly above
the island, feeding live imagery to Oduya’s
monitoring suite.
The suite also contains the target: The Confluence
of Power. Normally this mythical text is kept deep
within the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. Luckily
for us, the reward for winning the tournament is a
chance to read a single page from the book, and
so Oduya has had it moved to his office and placed
neatly on his desk behind a simple glass screen.
 The Score
The Confluence of Power is a book widely
considered to contain the most deadly martial art
known to man. Its origins are clouded in myth,
with several competing schools of martial arts
around the world arguing that their old masters
penned it. The truth is, no one is sure who wrote it
or what style it’s most related to. The only people
who have read the text in full in living memory are
The Oduya Family, and they’re not telling. The
winnerofthelastCoiledVipertournamentrefused
to speak publicly about what they learned from
the page they read but notably still holds the
record for the longest win streak in Boxing
history.
The story goes that Oduya’s family came into
possession of the book by winning the very first
Coiled Viper tournament centuries ago. When the
time came to pick a page to read, Oduya’s ancestor
instead challenged the book’s author to a duel,
which they won (through luck, skill, or treachery,
depending on who you ask). The Oduya family has
been the holder of both the book and has held the
mantle of organizing the Coiled Viper ever since.
The book itself is apparently very plain, made of
simple (though, obviously, very old) paper and
bound by stitches along the spine. Oduya’s
restoration specialist travels wherever the book
goes and is the person most likely to have
knowledge of the book besides Oduya himself.
Presumably the restoration specialist has also read
at least some of the book and will be armed with
some of its techniques, but they could be a
valuable source of informa�on.
The Security
Besides being an island full of the
world's most powerful martial
artists, Oduya employs some
of the most capable and well
equipped mercenaries from
around the world to guard the
island. Guns are banned on
site, but the guards carry
modern hun�ng bows and are
specialists in close quarters combat, both
armed and unarmed. Satellite thermal images
show an extensive underground network of
tunnels connected to a central security suite at the
heart of the island, from which our experts believe
guardscoulddeployanywhereontheislandwithin
just 4 minutes.
The aforementioned monitoring system is active
all over the island, including within the tower itself.
It’s a Trampas system, so facial recognition is based
on the DeepSkin algorithm, which can be fooled
with some elaborate face paints. This will make
you more visible to human eyes however, so
weigh your op�ons carefully.
The security system for the tower itself is,
fundamentally, the vast array of traps and trials it
contains. Its outer walls are closely monitored and
guarded, as well as being specially treated to deter
anyone climbing from the outside, so your ascent
will almost certainly require you facing these trials.
Our agent on the island reported seeing several
enormous glass tanks, numerous mirrors, an
industrial sized crucible, and what seemed to be
thousands of silver chains being carried into the
tower before they went radio silent.
The fighters themselves also serve as a sort of soft
security system. The rules of the tournament
encourage spontaneous challenges, and those
challenges must be met unless you outrank the
challenger
by a
79
great deal. Your passes technically mark you as a
spectator, but the tournament has long
encouraged a blurring of the line between
observer and participant, and there’s nothing
fighters enjoy more than an unexpected challenge.
We’d be remiss not to mention here the rumor
going around that Oduya owns a pair of golden
man-eating tigers, trained from birth to protect all
members of the Oduya family. We have no
evidence to support these rumors, and we’re not
entirely sure how they got started. Still, maybe
keep an eye out for that.
Viktor himself is of course a world-class martial
artist in possession of the most deadly text on the
art of combat ever written. He has undoubtedly
read much of its contents and is reportedly
undefeated in battle. It would be wise to take all
precau�ons to avoid a direct confronta�on.
least 100 days submerged. Where he would keep
such a thing, how he’d crew it, and how he would
get to it in an emergency, we don’t know. If you can
find it, and you can commandeer it, this would be a
useful way to get around the storms, but if it exists
Oduya is sure to have crewed it with his most
deadly guards.
Influences
Movies: Mortal Kombat, Enter the Dragon,
Bloodsport
Books: Dr. No
Music: Nina Williams - Tekken 2
Video Games: Tekken, Mortal Kombat

The Getaway
The island is fairly isolated, so escape will require
some planning. A handful of pleasure yachts and
one or two more useful vehicles are kept at the
island’s single dock, and Cuba is rela�vely closeby.

Theislanditselfalsohasitsownsmallairport.Ifany
of you are talented pilots, this is a good option.
Several planes should be there for the duration of
the tournament, and several pilots will be enjoying
the hospitality of the island while
their clients ba�le.

Be aware that weather reports

show a number of large storm
systems will begin circling the
island almost exactly when the
tournament begins, building in
intensity before breaking right after
the tournament ends. It’s clear this is an
intentional act on Oduya’s behalf to further
isolate the island from the outside world, but
we’re not sure exactly how. Whatever the case,
take caution when attempting to escape the
island.

Finally, it’s long been rumored that Oduya

maintains a personal escape submarine
with enough supplies and fuel to last at
80
81
 Eva Long
Liam Ginty

REWARD: $49,000,000 WALLY BUCKS

82
Effective immediately, Eva Long is a wanted corpo fugitive. On the morning of April
8th, WallyCorp’s entire inventory of the hotly anticipated Super Super Gamer
Gamer Deluxe was stolen by Mrs Long after an extended and extensive infiltration
of WallyCorp’s internal systems, a compromising of WallyCorp’s official vendor
relationships, and the complete destruction of WallyCorp’s Seattle Special
Economic Zone’s infrastructure.
The details of the heist will be published on the CorpoNet® for authorized users as
they make themselves evident, but for immediate publications: Mrs Long has
spent the last 6 years leveraging her global shipping company to gain the trust of
WallyCorp, as well as WallyCorp’s many serf entities. Mrs Long’s company was so
well run, so cheap, and so effective, that it quickly became WallyCorp’s primary
shippingpartner,handlingquadrillions of globo-dollars of merchandiseeveryyear.
Last week Mrs Long attempted to redirect 300 shipments without prior
authorization, and in the resulting conflict, triggered a leak of all WallyCorp
internal documents, as well as the utter annihilation of the WallyCorp Seattle
Special Economic Zone’s TITAN class peacekeeping mecha force, as well as
WallyCorps Happy Time Thorium Reactor.
While no fatali�es occurred, the damages are incalculable.
Mrs. Long is wanted dead or alive, and special social privileges will be considered
for anyone with information that leads to her capture or the retrieval of the Super
Super Gamer Gamer Deluxe systems.

REWARD: $49,000,000 WALLY BUCKS

83
 The Mojave Gorge
April 20th 2021
7PM
One More Time

Backstage
An incredibly complex and
sprawling microcity
dedicated to managing
the fes�val.

The Crush
One of the uniqus�e charac-
l is they
teris�cs of the feingvaat once,
have 5 shows goother.
all close to each wds meet --
Where their cro.
that's the Crush

84
 It is the last day of the now-legendary “Party In The Sand” music
festival, and taking the main stage tonight is a surprise guest: Julia
Santiago, widely understood to be the greatest guitar player to ever
have lived. She has publicly stated that tonight will be her final
show, and she intends to play Crystal Blue, a mysterious and priceless
guitar rumored by many to be cursed.

Cursed or not, it’s worth more than the last 3

bank jobs you pulled combined.

Get it and get out. Simple, right?

The Red Stone Stage

Carved into the side of a
mesa, this ancient
auditorium is one of the
most beau�ful places in the
world.
Great acous�cs too!

Grigg’s Canyon
Just before the fes�
grounds, a�endee val
funneled through th s are
canyon before the is �ght
the event proper. y get to

85

One More Time
The Building
Started in 2018, the first Party In The Sand was a
significantly reigned-in affair: 3 bands, one stage,
and a very exclusive guest list. The response from
the music media was electric, and the festival has
rapidly expanded in the last few years, this year
adding a 5th stage and another half dozen bands.
Everyone involved, from the guests to the
management, agrees that the festival has grown
too big, too fast, and the event is simply a mess.
Lucky us.
The event takes place in an especially gorgeous
portion of the Mojave just outside of Las Vegas.
Various environmental protection treaties with
the Mojave Tribal Nation forbids roads within two
kilometers of the site itself, which helps create a
strange atmosphere of otherworldliness about
the place but also presents your first barrier to
entry. Most of the equipment, staff, and bands are
flown in via helicopter, with the crowds ushered
through a two mile hike from the nearest parking
facilities. The walk itself is said to be a deeply
spiritual experience, with many attendees doing
hallucinogens and taking their time during the
stroll. The festival organizers frequently put on
small shows along the trail: light displays, art
presentations and, notably in the Griggs Canyon,
movies projected onto the canyon walls.
Griggs Canyon itself is a notable feature, an
incredibly tight valley leading to the larger canyon
the event takes place in. The gorge has become
legendary as a sort of ritualized entrance way. It’s
said so many people are smoking such an
incredibleamountofmarijuanathatit’simpossible
to pass through the enclosed space without
receiving an intense secondary high. If this is your
entry point, be aware of that. These heists go
wrong enough without half of you stoned out of
your mind first.
Once you’re past the press of bodies, you’ll arrive
at what is affectionately called The Crush. The
86
Words: Liam Ginty
Art: Dyer Rose, Daniel Walthall
Crush is basically the center of the event. It’s where
the campsite is, where vendors are set up, and is
“conveniently” equidistant from the 5 stages set
up this year. This makes it a somewhat busy space.
It’s good for camouflage -- anyone would have a
hard time tracking you through the chaos -- but a
nightmare for best-laid plans.
The exact layout of The Crush is intentionally left
to the crowd itself, forming organically where
peopledecidetosetuptheirtentsandstalls.Based
on aerial photography and reconstructive analysis,
last year the vendors set up a sort of ring
surrounding the campsite, which seems to lack
any kind of cohesive structure whatsoever.
Attendees frequently set up their own mini-
concerts and events, further complicating any
a�empt to pass through The Crush.
Surrounding The Crush are 5 stages; The Red
Stone Stage to the north, The Sun Stage to the
east, The Moon Stage to the west, The Wind Stage
to the north east and the Hype Stage Sponsored By
Hype-Dunk Energy Drink to the north west. The
Hype Stage is the newest addition to the line up,
after Torpin Food Industries donated a significant
amount of money in exchange for a cultural art-
development tax break. The name is the source of
some frustration by old school attendees who feel
as though the event has “sold out,” and rumors
suggest a considerable protest movement will be
a�ending the event.
Each stage will be active nearly 24/7, with only
small breaks for maintenance happening between
eachset.Thesebreakslastaround45minutesand
might be your best chance to get on stage as
security will be lax, and the crowd won’t be paying
attention to you. You’ll need to bluff your way past
a couple security guards, but that shouldn’t be a
problem for you.
A ring of tents and temporary shelters form a
labyrinthine ring around the event behind the
stages. This is where the vast majority of
equipment and crew can be found, from the
extensive maintenance team to the world-class
sound engineers. Much of the performers’
entourages will also be here -- friends, family, staff
and so on. Expect frequent badge checks and
heavy security. This is perhaps the most heavily
guarded section of the event, moreso even than
the private sleeping areas for VIPs and performers.
You’ll have to pass through this section to get at the
caves where the musicians are staying anyway, so
be ready.
Speaking of the caves: Behind the makeshift tent
city, carved into the cliff face itself by a
combination of weather and ancient peoples, are
a complex and intricate network of rather
comfortable caves. These caves are converted into
dormitories and bedrooms for the event and are
reportedly incredibly luxurious. They have
running water, power, and internet -- all the
comforts of home. This is where the musicians will
be staying whenever they’re not on stage and the
most likely location of Crystal Blue. We don’t know
whereinthecavesSantiagoisstaying,anditcanbe
very easy to get lost in there, so you may want to
secure a map from backstage before coming here.
By all accounts the caves are quiet, and all security
is handled remotely via a subtle and non-invasive
camera system, but the media often likes to
exaggerate with stories of wild, drug-fueled orgies
and sci-fi security systems that scan attendees’
DNA to verify identity. There’s likely no truth to
these reports, but be careful regardless.
The Score
The single most beautiful,
expensive, and well-known
guitar in all existence. Crystal
Blue is legendary. Even
playing a single song using it
is considered both a rite of
passage and an omen of an
incredible career to come,
with many musicians
paying untold fortunes to
play it in private, let alone
actually record a song using
it.
Crystal Blue has a dozen or more origin stories,
some more fantastical than others. Some say it
was a prototype designed by the master guitar
artisan Sylva Kobe at the turn of the century, some
say it contains the souls of every musician to have
played it, some say it’s merely a very well-made
hollow-body guitar. We may never know the truth.
Theguitarwas firstseen publiclyin 1954duringthe
Newport Jazz Festival. As each performer left the
stage, they handed the beautiful turquoise bodied
instrument to the next act on, and newspapers at
the time commented on the strange way the
instrument seemed to get better with each new
pair of hands.
Since then it’s passed hands behind the scenes
thousands of times. Every musician you care to
name has at one point played or owned the guitar,
and it seems to find its way into every important
musical event in history. It was there when Eddie
Bun played in front of the Wall Street bull. It was
there when God and Man broke up atop their
recordingstudioinBrooklyn.ItwastherewhenOld
Ronna was shot by U.S. troops at the infamous
Gasket Street protests. How it came
into Julia Santiago’s possession
isn’t known, though her status as
one of the greatest musicians of
our �me is likely part of it.
Physically, the Crystal
Blue is a beautiful
object. Its neck is
constructed
87
from some dark, hard wood -- possibly ebony or
some African hardwood -- while the body is a
beautiful, shimmering turquoise. The strings
traditionally are gold, though it’s been observed
to have more standard strings at times. Otherwise
it looks like a very well-made hollow-body guitar.
Security around the guitar itself is difficult to
discern. It’s reasonable to expect the guitar will be
kept in some kind of case or secured cabinet.
Santiago isn’t known to be an overly paranoid or
security-focused person, but don’t assume that
means the guitar will simply be out on display, ripe
for the picking.
The Security
Several security companies have been contracted
for the event, and most of the performers will also
be bringing their own private security teams. This
presents some unique challenges and
opportunities. Firstly, having so many groups
involved makes concrete information on what to
expect difficult to lock down. We know from
previous years that the event uses a sophisticated
smartcard system, whereby all attendees are
given a lanyard with a P4DL0CK SmartCard. This
card identifies the holder’s privileges, where
they’re allowed to be at the event, meal plans,
camping site allowances and so on. This card is
checked at every gate, stall, and door, and it’s
reasonable to assume you’ll be subject to random
spot checks in the VIP and backstage sec�ons.
Our insight into the general event security ends
there unfortunately. Each security firm tends to
have a very particular set of rules and standards
they adhere to, and by employing over a dozen
separate teams, the organizers have made it very
difficult to find gaps in their armor. You can expect
the usual security common at any large music
event: plain-clothes security in any large crowd,
lightly armed guards posted at any entrance to a
secured area, and an on-site rapid response team.
Said team will almost certainly be better equipped
than the rest of the security, with vehicles and
weapons, so try not to cause too much of a
commo�on.
The performers’ private security teams are
probably going to be your most difficult challenge.
88
These will not be rent-a-cops, trying to earn a little
extra pay on the side. These will be security
professionals with years of experience and top-of-
the-line equipment. Santiago herself employs ex-
Spetsnaz operative Sergio Jerusalem. Jerusalem is
a terrifying figure -- 8 feet tall and built like a tank --
but his physicality is nothing compared to his
renowned search and rescue abilities. During the
Siege of Essex, Jerusalem single-handedly
evacuated3membersoftheBritishroyalfamily(as
well as their dogs) from the castle grounds,
thwarting a Column 88 ransom plot with a surgical
precision and leaving no survivors. Whether he will
extend this degree of protection to an object
remains to be seen, but you’ll want to avoid
getting on his bad side either way. It’s no
exaggeration to say this man could kill every single
one of you without a second's hesita�on.
On the other hand, so many security teams
working together can’t be easy to organize, and
these companies are known to be somewhat
headstrong -- that is to say, security companies are
staffed by stubborn bastards, and they don’t play
well with others. This may present some ample
opportunities for you to exploit, should you keep
an ear open and be ready for it. Just don’t push
things too far. The last thing you want is to have the
event locked down because you sparked a gang
war between two rival security companies. Again.
The security setup in the caves is a little different
than elsewhere. The event wants the performers
to feel safe and comfortable, like they have their
privacy. This means no rent-a-cops, no obvious
checkpoints or security cameras. That doesn’t
mean the caves are unsecure -- far from it -- it just
means that the security systems are hidden,
subtle, and immediate. If you’re made in the caves,
expect to be evicted with extreme prejudice. Don’t
dally.
The Getaway
If everything goes well, you could just walk right
out the way you came. The event isn’t locked
down, and they’re happy for people to come and
go. Many campers need to visit a local town to get
supplies at some point during the event.
Of course, things don’t always go as we hope. The
festival has a number of more immediate egress
routes. Most of the equipment and staff are
brought in via heavy lifting helicopters, which stay
on site for much of the event in case of an
emergency and to make cleanup easier. Stealing
one would require you to find where the pilots stay
and take their keys -- and for one of you to know
how to pilot an advanced heavy-li�ing helicopter.
You could scale the cliff face and flee into the
desert itself, though this isn’t a very good idea and
should be avoided if possible. The nearest town is
not an easy hike away, and the Mojave can be an
unforgiving place for a band of thieves without
extensive desert hiking gear. You’ll also definitely
be in full view of every single person at the
fes�val, so, you know, good luck.
One slightly less traditional route would be to wait
it out. The campsite is, as mentioned, sprawling.
One could conceivably hide out there for the
remainder of the festival and slip out with the
crowd, your chances of success go up if you wait till
right before Santiago goes on stage. She’s the
closer, and this would give security very little time
to do a full sweep of the campgrounds before
people start leaving.
89
 Pinnacles National Park, Paicines, California
January 8, 2021

The Longest Trail

Chaparral
Ranger Station
The much-neglected ranger
sta�on at the Western
entrance to Pinnacles Park,
o�en staffed by only 1-2
rangers feeling bored and
lonely.

h Ri dg e Overlook
Hig
� ng ground for
nes
A famoufos rnia Condor.
the Cali
hey are cri�cally ecame
T d and b ,
endangeinrethe wild for a �me
ex�nct g in 1987.
beginnin
90
 An ecoterrorist group has broken you out of of your prison cells and
brought you to an undisclosed location offering a deal: solve the
mystery of a billionaire who wandered into Pinnacles National Park
with a famous antique rifle and disappeared in order to clear the
activists’ name, and they’ll set you free. Make sure you bring back the
answer within 48 hours, or you’ll all return to jail.

The Balconies Caves

A family of flying fox bats
roost here, the most
dis�nc�ve species in
California.
Caves are currently closed to
the public because of flood-
ing inside.

Campground Visitor
Center
The administra�ve hub for
Park Service employees,
and the busiest place in the
park.
Campgrounds cluster be-
hind.

91

The Longest Trail
The Score
In 1921, a young Teddy Roosevelt acquired a one-
of-a-kind hunting rifle as a gift before leaving to
explore the Colorado territories. “Betsy,” as it’s
come to be known as in historic circles, is an
absurdly extravagant Sharps rifle manufactured in
1877, inlaid with gold filigree and boasting a
custom crystal sight and solid ivory stock. In 1960,
the Roosevelt family put the rifle up for sale at an
estate auction where a young and ambitious
fellow named Grant E. Chapman bought it for
$200,000 with a stack of bank bonds. Since then,
Chapman has toted Betsy around the world on a
variety of semi-legal and blatantly illegal exotic
game hunts as he accumulated more and more
wealth in the oil trade. The scale of Chapman’s
poaching has actually led Kenya to request that
Interpol put out an arrest warrant so he can face a
judge in Nairobi on charges of conspiracy to traffic
in critically endangered species such as rhinos and
mountain gorillas. In 2019, Chapman’s San
Francisco insurer valued Betsy at $2 million as a
totally unique piece. Ten days ago, Grant E.
Chapmantookhisbillionaireselfforastroll withhis
multi-million dollar rifle in Pinnacles National Park
and hasn’t been seen since.
It appears that Mr. Chapman’s cold-blooded
children are waiting to pounce on the estate.
While Mr. Chapman’s son Patrick has been
appearing on local news channels making tearful
faces and calling for the missing persons search to
continue combing the park, he was caught on a
livestream muttering “good fucking riddance” to
his sister Susan after one of the latest press
conferences. The police are paying no attention to
Patrick and Susan because they’ve successfully
put all the public blame on a controversial
environmental group called The Blue Flame. The
Blue Flame, originally a small crew of Los Angeles
anarchists who hosted sit-ins about global
warming, has been elevated to the level of
“ecoterrorists” after a group leader was arrested
92
Words: Kate Jeanne
Art: Galen Evans, Dyer Rose,
Hector Rodriguez
for sending Grant Chapman and his colleagues
online death threats last November, claiming in
masked YouTube videos that “poachers get
poached,” complete with tasteful splattering egg
anima�ons.
As much as the Blue Flame hates the Grant
Chapmans of the world, they’re not murderers,
and they want to clear their names so they can
resume their more clandestine activism without
excess wiretapping from the feds. It’s for this
reason they’ve staged a stealthy jailbreak to bring
your crew of thieves and miscreants together,
offering a rich reward if you can unravel the
mystery of Chapman’s disappearance, so the FBI
stops gleefully claiming that ecoterrorists have
blood on their hands in this well-publicized case. If
you succeed, Blue Flame will cut you all loose and
give you software with nearly limitless
possibilities -- it can crack any code, freeze any
camera stream, and drain any bank account you
wish. They’ll also let you keep the antique rifle as a
funsouvenirofthisquestionablecaper.Theclockis
ticking, and if you don’t succeed within 48 hours,
Blue Flame will put you right back in jail with
nothing to show for it.
Speaking of risks of apprehension by law
enforcement, the FBI is at least somewhat
distracted because this weekend happens to be
the weekend of a Presidential Inauguration. You’re
still wanted criminals, though, and if you are
apprehended in exposing the mystery of
Chapman’s disappearance you obviously can’t
take advantage of that reward. You’ll be going back
tojailwiththeBlueFlameclaimingtheyhavenever
met or even heard of you, but reaping the benefit
of having their name cleared.
The Location
Pinnacles National Park is located on the land of
the Oholone people, particularly the Chaon and
Mutsun tribes, in Southern California. Just a few
miles West of the San Andreas fault, the harsh and
unpredictable landscape was created by seismic
activity, and it’s still normal to get mild to moderate
tremors in the area today. In a funny turn of
coincidence, Roosevelt’s old rifle has gone missing
on land that he himself named the Pinnacles
National Monument back in 1908. For a hundred
years, the area was popular with outdoors
enthusiasts doing everything from climbing to
camping to spelunking. In 2012, an enterprising
member of Congress from Fresno, California
named Representative Candice Smith passed
legislation naming Pinnacles as a National Park in
an effort to improve conservation of the flora and
fauna, as well as the spiraling rock peaks that give
Pinnacles its name.
Pinnacles is a vast area of land with entrances on
the East and West ends of the park. The Eastern
entrance is more popular, and the road there ends
at the Visitor’s Center. The West side has a small
ranger station which is functionally understaffed
and almost abandoned. This area is mainly used to
access the Balconies trail up to the caves. Beyond
those entry roads, 90% of the park is only
accessible by foot or mule. Be careful if you
venture off-trail into the backwoods: while a large
part of the park is backwoods, it’s a combination
of difficult terrain covered in brush and
treacherous climbs up sometimes-unstable rock
formations. One important note: This weekend
the campgrounds are almost completely booked
by eager hikers and rock climbers, despite
weather reports that call for rain. In hilly and
mountainous areas around here, where it is so dry
much of the year, heavy rain causes deadly
mudslides every year.
Two of the most notable trails in the park are the
High Ridge trail, which begins near the West
entrance and leads to the Balconies overlook with
one turn and the Balconies Cave on the other side.
Although the Balconies Cave is often heavily
regulated to allow the sensitive local bat
population to live in peace, right now the entire
area is barricaded off due to seasonal flooding
within the caves. Anyone entering would have to
bring scuba gear and an expert knowledge of cave
diving. They would run a risk of irreparably
damaging the habitat of the bat colonies. The
other notable trail is the Condor Gulch trail, which
leads to the scenic High Ridge Overlook. This is a
very popular spot with birdwatchers, and many
bird enthusiasts travel to Pinnacles for sights of the
majestic California Condors. It’s possible that
Grant E. Chapman headed there in order to kill a
condor or steal an egg out of the communal
nesting grounds that the condors build on the cliff
sides, based on his track record of despicable acts
towards rare animals.
Security
For the first week that Chapman was missing,
Pinnacles was crawling with police who worked
with park rangers to sweep on and around trails,
looking for an injured billionaire or his body. Chief
Ranger Richard Randallson was in charge of
clearing the High Ridge trail during the search, and
immediately afterwards he was spotted in the
middle of a public altercation with Ranger Yasmin
Gutierrez. This could have been about some
aspect of the search or the open secret that
Gutierrez is resentful about being stuck in a low
level position doing park communications despite
her experience in trail rescue and nursing before
joining the Park Service. It’s worth noting at this
juncture that Randallson isn’t usually an erratic or
angry person, but he has been under financial
stress from heavy student loans he incurred
getting a PhD in art history which never led to an
academic job.
Officially, the police search has been called off, but
unofficially a number of search and rescue
enthusiasts have been coming out to comb over
the park on their own, galvanized by Tom Hong, a
collegestudentinthenearbytownofSoledad
who hosts a popular true-crime
podcast. You will have to contend
with the
93
 Marquis Deroux’s
Compulsory Party
The Building
The party is at the magnificent Deroux Estate, the
centerpiece of the town Everdale. Surrounding the
estate are various fruit-bearing trees, especially
peach and apple, as well as plants of all sorts given
as gifts. Outhouses are situated a respectable
distance from the entrance. A long marble
stairway leads to an ivory door surrounded by
Grecian pillars. The door is significantly higher
than any door in the Kingdom. A guard’s entrance
leads into the barracks in the “basement.” You can
also see a balcony on the upper floor leading to the
Marquess’ room.
The small parlor room leads into the ballroom,
which is almost as large as the entire first floor. The
grand staircase to the second floor is on the
eastern side of the room. People will be dancing,
eating, and drinking to celebrate the Marquis' 35th
birthday. There's a mahogany stage in the center
of the room, where musicians and entertainers of
allsortswillperform.Thisstagecanrisealltheway
up to the second floor. At the stroke of ten, the
Marquis’ favorite brass band will play, and the
stage will rise up near the ceiling to reveal all the
gifts Deroux has received this year. The Captain of
the Guard, Delphine Benoit, rises up with them
and gives them one by one to the Marquis. The gift
is opened, the person's name is read, there is brief
applause, and that person leaves.
Anyone left (aside from the Marquis) is executed
the next morning.
North of the ballroom is the dining room, which is
a yearly staging area for the kitchen staff’s
appetizers, drinks, and other delights. Sully (the
head cook) and his staff will be busy making gator
meatballs or amazing dishes in the kitchen to the
east. Some may be resting briefly in the kitchen
servants’ quarters to the furthest east.
144
Words: K. Roundtree
Art: Dyer Rose, Federico Sohns
All the servants’ quarters (upstairs and
downstairs) contain beds and storage chests, and a
communal chamber pot next to a window.
Upstairs, there’s a large hole in the center of the
floor, so the stage can be raised. To the north and
south of the staircase are two long, thin hallways
running east to west.
On the northern side, you can find the Marquis’
bedroom, which is as opulent and pretentious as
the Marquis himself.
The guest bedroom is on the far western side of
the north hall. There is a modest bed, a
chamberpot, and a dresser for the guest’s
possessions. Duke Cormier currently stays here.
On the western side of the second floor is a
balcony overlooking the ballroom. Some guests
will tarry here.
The late Marquess’ room is sealed off completely.
Nobody is allowed to enter on penalty of death. If
you were to get inside, you’d see a white room
covered in dust. There are several paintings of the
late Marquess with her son at various ages. The
bed is white lace, but modest. Atop the bed are her
wedding dress and her favorite green suit. A
balcony hangs outside of her room. This is
seemingly the only entrance that does not require
breaking the seal to the door. Underneath the bed
is a hidden hatch, with a ladder leading to a
twisting hallway. This leads to the basement
menagerie.
The laundry room has numerous washboards,
soaps, and other cleaning agents. There is always
at least one servant working here. It also contains
several sets of dirty and clean clothes, if you were
looking for a disguise.
The pantry is just below the kitchen. It has
95
you to make it worth her while. This could be as
simple as embarrassing the Marquis, or as cruel as
stealing someone else’s gift, condemning them to
death. If not placated, she will tell the guards
exactly what you did, and maybe some things you
didn’t do. She gifted the book, “A Beginner’s Guide
to Decora�on.”
finds out his mother’s room has been broken into.
You could exit through the guard’s entrance,
though they will be fully mobilized in the event of
an alert. You could disguise yourself as a guard if
you avoid the Captain. She knows everyone who
works under her.

Sabin Francois is our client. To most, they’re a Madame LeBlanc’s horse and carriage is waiting
wealthy merchant who specializes in trinkets. outside for her to leave. It is designed to seat her
Manypartygoersboughtgiftsfromthem. Tosome, and several servants. It’s right there.
they’re a fence for stolen goods. They may provide
extra funds if you provide choice goods from the If you are found out, the Marquis will send a
palace. They’re normally quite gregarious and hun�ng party led by Captain Benoit.
rosy-cheeked, but they seem quite sickly today.
It’s in their best interest that we succeed, but they
aren’t skilled at skullduggery. The best they could Influences
possibly do is distract someone in conversation if Video games: The "Hitman" series, The “Thief”
you needed to sneak around. series
The Marquis Olivier Deroux is the first to mention Literature: Terry Pratche�, “Guards! Guards!”
his own generosity. He gifts Everdale jobs, his
presence, and lovely parties, so it’s only natural
that the populace repay him in kind. He owes it to
them to be strict, and allows no exceptions, unless
it would be particularly exciting or dramatic..
He is personable enough, but brings most
topics of conversations back to himself. He
favors burgundy, lime green, and lavender
clothing. He always wears a red cavalier hat
with a green feather given by his late mother.
He doesn’t like talking about her. It fills him
with melancholy. He will stay in the
ballroom unless urgent matters call him
elsewhere.

If the gift room is destroyed, he won’t

execute anyone, except the ones
responsible. He will be out for blood.

The Getaway
If each of you leaves a personal gift for the
Marquis,youcanstayforthewholepartyandlikely
won’t have to escape.

If you don’t, there are a few op�ons.

You can jump off the balcony from the second

floor outside. This will have the added bonus of
shocking the Marquis, as he’ll likely faint when he
147
 connotes. The Bigger Fish is richer, better
connected, more powerful, and — at first glance
and on superficial inspection — more dignified
and be�er behaved.
The Bigger Fish isn’t interested in the Money
Spinner, although they might well own it or at least
control it indirectly. They’re not even that
interested in the MacGuffin Up Front. They’ve
passed the point where conventional wealth is
really of interest to them. But they often have
niche interests; they collect something rare and
unusual, or there’s something of extreme
sentimental value to them and merely extreme
value to everyone else. The Bigger Fish puts the
Real MacGuffin in play. Their endgame is getting
the Real MacGuffin, and they’ll kill to get their
hands on it. To get the Bigger Fish out of play is a
ma�er of death or capitula�on.
The Amateur
TheAmateur’sasmall-timer,evensmallerthanthe
PCs. They might have some essential skill, gear or
intel that the PCs need, and they’re often the weak
link in the Fi�h Wheel’s opera�on.
BUT: they can’t be trusted. The Amateur will
crumble in the face of the Nasty Bastard, if they’re
not working for the Nasty Bastard already and in
their pocket all along. If the Bigger Fish or the
Invincible get involved, the Amateur is a dead man
walking. If they have anything going for them, it’s
the Invincible in their pocket, and without the
Invincible they’re no threat at all. The Amateur, in
short, is a liability, and if you have the opportunity
to remove them from play in a lethal fashion to
show the stakes are raised, they’re the logical
choice to be removed.
Your players are likely to object to this. The
Amateur, as an exploitable weakness, is an
advantage to them, and players don’t appreciate
having their advantages taken away even if it is for
the sake of the story. Which is fair enough. So the
Amateur does need to give the players something
of direct and substan�ve use for a job.
It can help to make the Amateur complicit in the
first heist of the story, and the cock-up that makes
the second heist necessary; your players might see
150
fit to remove the useless git themselves, and at the
very least are unlikely to mourn the Amateur’s
passing if the Amateur is a liability to them.
The Sleaze
The Sleaze doesn’t get their hands dirty. They’re a
white-collar, hands-off kind of criminal; on the
edge of the rough life, happy to profit from it, but
mostly dealing with money and secrets, not goods
and guns. The Sleaze is generally in the Nasty
Bastard’s pocket, or the Bigger Fish’s; they
generally have the leads on at least one of the
MacGuffins, and can point the PCs in the direction
oftheMoneySpinner.Andifyou’reabouttohitthe
third act and need to ramp up the tension, the
SleazecaninvolvetheFifthWheelortheInvincible.
The Sleaze is, a�er all, a coward.
If you’re looking for a kickstart for the story, the
Sleaze can provide it. If you need someone to
replace the Amateur in the second or third act, the
Sleaze is there waiting in the wings. If you need to
finally fence the Real MacGuffin at the end of it all,
the Sleaze is waiting behind the desk they’ve
occupied, fairly comfortably, throughout the
whole thing.
The Fi�h Wheel
The Fifth Wheel is where the complications start
coming from. The Fifth Wheel owns the Money
Spinner, and has been deeply put out by the PCs
interfering with it. The Fifth Wheel is dangerous,
often a match for the Invincible if they can get the
advantage of surprise, but is also late to the party
and running to catch up with the plot.
Withinthestorystructure,theFifthWheelappears
at the end of the first act, and enters play in the
third; it’s the Fifth Wheel blundering in to enact
directandbrutalvengeancethatmakeseverything
start turning toward a conclusion. Once they have
theMoneySpinnerinhand,thePCsshouldfeelthe
pressure as the Fifth Wheel starts spinning toward
them, and the denouement of the story usually
triggers when the Fifth Wheel is misdirected into
the Nasty Bastard.
To really complicate matters, introduce two Fifth
Wheels; one’s running their own heist, parallel to

Stealing Destiny
The Building
“The ancient poets animated all sensible objects
with Gods or Geniuses, calling them by the names
and adorning them with properties of woods,
rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and
whatever their enlarged and numerous senses
could perceive.” --William Blake
Long ago the Celestial Pyramid was a serene and
untouchable mystery, humming away to
unknowable logic and chiming like crystal flutes. As
the Wyvern Wars stripped away large chunks of
the material plane, the ensuing chaos also
removed much of that mystique from the
Pyramid. Its ticking clockwork has been ransacked
by scrap pickers, as it were, meaning that the
original blueprints are wildly inaccurate and there
is a black market of ransacked Celestial odds and
ends that does a roaring trade, full of
unpredictable, self-interested pawnshops and
pe�y thieves.
98
Words: Kate Jeanne
Art: Donald Kirby,
Daniel Walthall
By now it’s become painfully obvious that the gods
who are supposed to be above it all are just as
scared and driven by petty desires as the rest of us
-- at least, those of us who survived the mass exiles
in the Wastes to filter, like so much flotsam, into
bedraggled shantytowns in the miserable crush of
Gorgon City. Sure, being appointed Demigorgon of
Childhood Nightmares sounds like a gig that would
have you comfortably set up for life… but only up
until the day your boss's boss forces you out and
installs his ridiculously incompetent brother. In
short, plenty of people get called gods, demigods,
etc., but it all boils down to a day job like any other.
This is what we call a prime opportunity: the
absurd mess of overpowered beings running the
Pyramid left it riddled with selfish infighting and a
massive gaping absence of accountability, like a
wedge of Rockport cheese. That’s the only reason
it could possibly be infiltrated by a bunch of
mortals with questionable scruples. That’s you. For
instance, it's a great stroke of luck that the post of
All-seeing Mirror at the Gate is temporarily vacant
due to lack of qualified applicants. But don’t let the
prevalence of squabbling and infighting make you
overconfident about the prospect of recruiting
allies within the Pyramid itself -- deities as a rule
have about as much enthusiasm for working with
mortals as you would have for teaming
up with a garden slug. If you
want to elicit cooperation from a
Pyramid denizen, the first step is
to stop thinking about things
that humans find enticing
and valuable. Find
something you can offer a
god that would make
them sit up and take
no�ce.
The Loot
The Loom of Destiny is at
once awe-inspiring and disconcertingly humble.
For all its mythic and metaphysical proportions,
the physical loom can be carried by one adult
human, although it’s probably a bit unwieldy. It’s
always painted as battered and worn, but not as
fragile as a wooden and hemp contraption built by
the oldest gods of time and space ought to be.
Whoever brings the Loom to the Dukes of Hell will
be given an extraordinary reward in addition to
vast earthly riches: each thief may remove the
strand of their very own destiny from the blue,
dim, and dark-cloth. This will free your fate from
celes�al and infernal meddling for all of �me.
TheDukesarebeinguncharacteristicallygenerous
simply because, with all their reserves of ancient
demonic power, they can neither remain
undetected within the Celestial Pyramid nor
exercise the mortal imagination required to
confront the guardians of the Loom. Not to
mention that a new war among the immortal
powers would be bad for business. Keep in mind,
plausible deniability is everything with Hell. If
caught, you will be hung high and the Dukes will
swear to Satan they've no idea who you are at all. If
successful, you'll be bound to the terms of the
bounty on threat of extra special eternal torment.
You may have some paranoia about the
motivation behind this whole bounty, which is an
intelligent and sensible thing to have when
demonic forces are involved. There’s a simple
reason why the Infernal Underlords would bother
to form a contract with mere humans to retrieve
the Loom: one of the only things that can level the
playing field confronting a Bureau God in their
own domain is imagination, which is a human
specialityweevolved in placeofmoreuseful things
like claws or corrosive blood.
Thereisacatch,whichistobeexpectedformortals
attempting to grapple with the eternal. All the
relevant folklore indicates that if a non-deity
touches their own strand of destiny, their mind
may simply snap like a twig. The closest analogy
would be laying your hand on the Crystal of True
Sight in the Amber Cave: a crushing tsunami of
forbidden knowledge that mortals occasionally
survive, but with minds that are radically different
from what went under. The relatively sane
alternative, of having another crew member seize
your strand while you seize theirs, requires a nearly
unthinkable, stomach-churning level of trust. Be
very sure that your teammate is, indeed, nothing
more than your teammate before you let them
take total control of your fate.
There's a saying about trust among thieves, but
one way or another it's up to you to figure out how
to take hold of this most esoteric and alluring of
treasures. If you dawdle, another crew will
undoubtedly complete the bounty first, driven by
the insatiable human thirst for a sip of control in
this deity-rocked world.
The Security
The only obstacles in your way are the five realms
that form the Bureau of Destiny, each controlled
by the minds of fickle gods with very specific quirks
and personalities, and the fearsome hive-mind
spiders that peacefully spin the threads of fate for
every being on this plane.
Reaching the Loom of Destiny requires your crew
to traverse the five paths that comprise the Bureau
of Destiny. As you probably already know, "paths"
is at best a clunky metaphor for these planes of
existence. Really, the best we can tell, each
appointed deity's mind defines the path as a sort
of dream being run by their consciousness, with
strong personalized laws dictated by the nature of
their duties and personal eccentricities. When you
enter each of the five domains comprising the
Bureau of Destiny and meet the gods on their own
territory, the key thing to remember is that you
may need to rely on imagination -- sometimes, it’s
only through creativity and ingenuity that you can
attempt to shift the parameters and expectations
of a path so there is some chance of defeating or
evading the reigning god.
When you navigate the first path of Journeys, the
God of Roads will be imbued in everything around
you. His sense of humor is as present as the wind in
the trees, and his rigid ideas about etiquette and
hospitality stand as firm in that place as the law of
gravity does here. There are plenty of well-known
folk tales about encounters with the God of Roads.
Sowhenindoubt,fallbackontheobviouslessons
from those: watch out for the dogs, have a few
good jokes up your sleeve (actually good jokes),
99
 and don’t look behind you when walking at night.
The Nymphs of Lovely Dreams rule the next path
of Serenity--this is the realm where your crew are
at high risk of getting stuck in the dream-clouds
that permeate the path like fog rising off a river, a
byproduct of the Nymphs’ work manufacturing
dreams for the world below. The daydreams are
dangerously recursive, nested, and flow like a
sticky golden honey, as restful as lying in a field on a
clear summer’s day. Their mocking proverb to this
effect is inscribed on all their altars: “Expect poison
from standing water.” The central danger of the
Nymphs is their mastery of hedonism, and ability
to grasp and manipulate the most heavily
guarded desires of a human mind. Below, stories
of the Serenity path are most often told with
accompaniment from soulful pipes to invoke the
light and music of revels,
Ravens of the
Goddess of Rage
These wicked rg corvids are
e
the size of a la ell-
d on the
greyhound, w endfeless and
carnage of an eld.
brutal ba�lefi precise.
and extremely
100
calling deep dreamers to join the path and never
leave. To put it politely, any interlopers who prize
themselves most on their rigid self-control are
susceptible of giving in and dying while lost in the
lifelike delusions. Do not underestimate the
slinking, elusive call of utter peace that follows that
hard-fought ba�le against tempta�ons.
The Goddess of Rage defines the third path of
Battle. There is at least some clarity in that
mandate,butpleasedon’tmakethemistakeofthe
last crew we briefed in thinking that it’s possible to
persevere in an outright fight against a god who
rules the realm of Battle. You wouldn’t think this
needs re-stating except that she sent back a
previous crew in a single matchbox. As her
proverb goes ahead of her on the wind with her
sky-blackening ravens, “The cut worm forgives the
plough.”
It’s hard to be completely sure about this, but you
may find some advantage in the mantra of the God
of Naming as you traverse their realm of Secrets:
“If the fool would persist in his folly he would
become wise.” In the world dictated by a lover of
intricate wordplay and riddles, that’s the most
we’ve got for you to go on. Some possible avenues
to traverse this path could involve creative
loopholes or double meanings in promises and
agreements, or a bold effort to discover the secret
name of the God of Naming itself as a means to
exert power over them in their own domain.
One area where we have zero
intelligence is the Subdivision
of Endings -- appropriate
insofar as it’s under the
jurisdiction of the Deity of
Silence, but frankly
extremely frustrating. Is
force meaningless in the
Bureau of Silence? Probably. Can
hydrogen-based lifeforms survive
there? Maybe. Not to be
cheeky, but good luck telling
the tale afterwards. It
will potentially be
extremely lucrative if
you can.
The Getaway
Two valkyries guard each entrance to the feasting
halls. These are seasoned warriors, and each
would be a formidable foe. But they’re also within
shouting distance of a horde of warriors who’ve
spent centuries preparing for the end of the
world. This should go without saying, but it’s best
to avoid open conflict as you will be significantly
outnumbered. The valkyries are generally
impervious to bribes, blackmail, and threats, but
trickery is an honored tradition and may provide
some means to escape their wrath -- if you can
prove that you did so honorably.
When it comes to Freyja’s hall, unless the fates
intervene in your favour, be prepared to entreat
with Alvhild Sagadatter and her girlfriend -- a
formidable pair who have fended off innumerable
interlopers wishing to gain an audience with the
goddess. Alvhild herself is an unmissable,
imperious figure -- towering over prospective
entrants to the hall, with long brown hair and
searching eyes that assess all visitors
impartially. If you wish to get past her,
you’ll need more than bribes or flattery.
Once you have found your way inside the
halls,youshouldbefine--solongasyou
do not draw the gods’ ire for some slight
or insult. You are allowed to approach
the gods directly, but beware of doing
so in a way that might seem
overfamiliar or disrespectful -- unless
you wish to make yourself a distraction
in the most fatal way possible.
or directly, even for gods, so it’s possible this has
been hidden from them. If the rumors about
impending Ragnarök are true, and this is destined
to be the final solstice, the more urgent danger
may hide the lesser threat. Perhaps they know
something of what will happen, but not enough to
preventyoufromsucceeding.Eitherway,travellers
near Gálgviðr swear that they heard the rooster
Fjalar crow, while others heard growling from the
cave of Gnipahellir -- known portents that
Ragnarök is at hand.
Youwillneedtofindawaytorelievethegoddessof
her necklace without her noticing -- or without
any of the gods being able to catch up to you. You
could look for some way to obscure the theft itself,
or you could create a diversion. You might be able
to provoke the gods or their guests into a rage or a
combat of wits. You might even choose Freyja
herself, provoking her enough to repeat her earth-
shaking display of fury -- but then you'll have an
enraged goddess to contend with. Of course, gods
and jötnar aren’t the only ones primed for a fight;
you may want to mingle among the gods and the
guests to find poten�al tensions to exploit.

Several of thefigures you can expect to

meet in Asgard have some gift of
prophecy or foresight. This
includes Frigg, Freyja, and
Heimdallr. Frigg and Freyja both
practice seiðr -- Norse magic that
includes divination and the
weaving of fate, not to mention
hostile magic and curses. You may
want to carry a few protective
runes, in case someone notices you
making the attempt and decides to
hurl some curses at you. Frigg is
reputed to foresee the future,
although she never shares her
prophecies. Fortunately, prophecy
and visions never work in obviously
157
 You could attempt to convince Loki to aid you in
some way. He is unlikely to steal the necklace
himself--heneverrepeatsatrick--buthenursesa
powerful grudge against the Asgardians, and may
Those who are especially daring may attempt
Location to
climb the great tree Yggdrasil itself. Be Year wary,
though, for Midgard is only one of nine realms you
may end up traversing. You should familiarise Time

Heist Title Goes Here

consider it a good way to take it out on Freyja. Play
your cards right, and you may even get free
passage to Jötunheimr. Of course, you’d still need
to escape Jötunheimr with the necklace in your
possession -- but that’s a problem for later. Beware
of any deals he offers you, though, and remember
that he is as likely to turn on you as to aid you.
A final note. It seems the necklace is tied together
by a fish-hook clasp. If you can get into arms’ reach
of her, and remove the necklace without being
spotted, and can escape before anyone realises
what has happened -- then the necklace itself will
be rela�vely easy to remove.
The Getaway
yourselves with the dangers and opportunities
posed by each realm, for they are as varied as they
are immense. In particular, beware lest you end up
in Niflheim, the world of mist, or Muspelheim, the
realm of fire, for these are most treacherous to
mortals. Little is known of Vanaheim, the home of
the wise and long-lost Vanir, for few have travelled
from there or back since the war long past.
Regardless of the route you take, be sure to move
swiftly and obscure your path, for the wrath of the
gods is long and far-reaching. Tricky, but not
insurmountable for clever thieves, surely?
Influences
Inspired by - Freyja Katra Erlingsdó�r

Of course, once they notice the missing necklace,
you’ll have an entire pantheon hunting you to the
ends of the nine worlds. You might be able to buy
yourself some time by being subtle, or clever, or by
going undetected, but it’s unwise to tarry once
you’ve got a hold of the prize. So you need to be
verysureofhowyou’regoingtomakeyourescape.
Fortunately, you have several op�ons.
Television: Vikings (2013); Norsemen (2016)
Video Games: "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" (2011)
Music: Bjork - "Medúlla;" A-Ha - "Cry Wolf;" Arch
Enemy - "Breaking the Law;" Richard Wagner -
"Ride of the Valkyries"

You could try to escape via the rainbow bridge

between Asgard and Midgard. To do that, you'd
need to enter Himinbjörg, Home of Heimdallr, the
ever-vigilant,whosesensesareunparalleled.Good
luck with that.

While you are getting the necklace, you could

attempt to steal Freyja's eagle coat, which turns its
wearer into an eagle capable of flying between
worlds. You’d need to find out how it works
beforehand, and then you have the problem that
only one person would be able to wear it.
Alternatively, you could steal Thor's wagon, which
he keeps at his hall, Bilskírnir, in Þrúðvangr
(Thrudvang in common speech), unless he has
come to Valhalla for the daily thing. Another
possibility is to steal Sleipnir, Odin’s eight-legged
horse, which is attested as the greatest of all
horses. Of course, this would mean provoking
Freyja even further or angering equally powerful
gods and adding to the risk.
158
 Tonight is the spectacular premier of Three Aces High, the latest film
by master director Eliena Hearts. It’s supposed to be great, but we’re
more interested in the pre-screen show. We’ve got a tip that the final
copy of lost film The Last Night In Belgium is being displayed for the
stars. Film buff or not, that thing is worth $8 million. And the gold
canister’s gotta be worth a couple bucks too.

Screen One
The place only has the one
screen, but it's huge. Seats
be
500 people and it will
packed tonight.
tail.
Good place to lose a

The Green Room

Fancy name for a converted
conference room. This is
where they’re holding the
reel. Expect guards and
alarms, but look at that vent
sha�!

103
 Words: Liam Ginty
Lights, Camera, Action! Art: Dyer Rose, Daniel Walthall

The Building
The Rouge Theater is a Hollywood mainstay, stage, then absolute silence is enforced by about a
constructed in 1902. Every film that matters has its dozen stewards who have been known to eject the
premiere here. Its owners, the Mishka brothers, film’s leading actors for talking. There are three
haveprettyopentiestothemob,whoprovidealot floors to the theater, accessible by a staircase in
of the alcohol, drugs, girls and muscle for the the back, and a door to the projection booth at the
extravagant parties the theater is renowned for. top.
They also own most of the local government,
which is why the cops turn a blind eye to the For the most part, the basement isn’t much to
various mishaps that happen on the property. write home about -- generator, service closets and
HVAC, as well as an employee break room. Plans
The exterior facade is decked out in an expansive for the building seem to show a missing room near
nordic style, designed to evoke a stave church. Lots the generator, which I think is probably Theo’s
ofintricatecarvingsand wooden dragons’heads. A
few years ago a fire broke out thanks to a broken
camera bulb; it nearly burned most of the multi-
tiered entrance gateway to the ground. It’s since
been restored using the same ancient nordic
wood as the original structure. How they got
the money for that, I have no idea.

The theater itself is built slightly underground;

partially for noise, partially because Theo
Mishka was paranoid about a proletariat
uprising and wanted it to double as a bunker.
Past the front doors is the lobby -- an
enormous and extravagant space that
continues the viking theme, with a
massive wood-carved mural taking up
much of the inside wall. Expect the
lobby to be teeming with celebrities and
stars on the night. From here you have a
set of doors leading into the main
screen, an employee-only elevator that
takes you to the basement, a
passageway leading to the concessions
kitchen, and a sidedoor to the Green
Room.

Screen 1, the only screen in the building, is

massive. It can comfortably fit 500 people
and has one of biggest movie screens in the
country. Usually during premieres, the
director will give a short speech from the
104

The Dead Man’s Party Job
Background
It’s said that when Jennica Jones plays the piano,
the world listens. She’s a once-in-a-generation
talent. Truly hypnotic. It’s impossible to look away
when she’s playing. Go ahead. Look her up on
YouTube. I’ll wait.
See what I mean?
Tonight, she’s performing at a private party at the
San Jenaro Natural History Museum. That
wouldn’t be a problem, except the party’s being
held by a bunch of vampires, and it’s not just a
party -- it’s an auc�on!
The vampires are bidding for the right to turn her
into one of them. If she becomes a vampire, she
can’t perform for the public anymore, her talent
will be forever locked away, but they don’t care. To
the monsters, she’s a prize, a trophy, a symbol of
status to hang on the altar of conspicuous
consumption. The highest bidder gets to control
her art.
We’re going to get in and get her out. The
problem is, the vampires can’t know until she’s a
safe distance away. That means one of us has to
stay and pretend to be her until the crew’s far
enough away that the vampires can’t track her
down.
The Building
The San Jenaro Natural History Museum is
enormous, high-profile, and full to the brim with
vampires. Once every season, the vampires rent
out the whole building and meet there to talk shop
about...whatever vampires talk about. Normally
it’s just run-of-the-mill politics. Tonight, the star of
the show is Jennica Jones. You’ve probably seen
her -- she has over ten million subscribers, and
record labels are in a bidding war for her. Tonight,
she’s going to play the last concert of her human
life. Tonight, she’s the focus of an auction where
162
Words: Olivia Hill
Art: Dyer Rose, Brian York
the winning bidder gets to turn her into a vampire
and lock away her legendary talents for
themselves. She’ll be performing on a stage front
and center in the presenta�on wing.
The entire museum’s open to the vampire
patrons. We expect about 200 vampires, if our info
is correct. They’ve come from all over the west
coast, with some even flying from abroad for this
particular party. While that’s a lot of vampires,
that’s less than 5% of museum capacity, so don’t
expect dense crowds.
We’ve heard the investigative sciences wing will
be of particular interest, since two featured
scientists from the 19th century became vampires
and are expected to be in attendance. Some
vampires are tickled pink by the concept of
celebrating a vampire’s accolades from more than
a century ago when they were human. They think
they’re pulling the wool over human eyes, so this is
like a murderer returning to a crime scene -- they
can’t resist the urge.
The insect exhibition is a specially organized
meeting place where old allies and rivals can meet
and make deals since they might only see each
other once every fifty years or so. Think about
every smoky backroom pool game you’ve ever
infiltrated, and make every attendant a 300-year-
old monster. This place is dangerous as hell, but if
you need to get dirt on someone, this is the place
to go. If you need to isolate one of the vampires,
this is the place to do it. There’s a sort of
gentleman’s agreement to keep out of each
other’s business in that room and that room alone.
Another huge point of interest is the supersaurus
exhibit. It spans three stories, so you can get a full
view at any desired height. It’s three stories of old
bones. I guess the vampires are interested in
seeing something older than even them. There’s a
lot of ways we could exploit it, like if we need to
 everywhere, and we have some reason to believe
they’re not just for showing people to their seats -
- last week at the gala for Sandy Lauper, some
bozo’s flashbulb went off and they had to scrape
him off the pavement outside by the time the
goons were done. Good news is it’s dark, and they
don’t have radios as it’d interfere with the movie-
going experience.
The Green Room is where you’re really gonna
haveproblems.Let'sstartwiththebasics;3guards
on constant rotation around the room, and a
steward right next to the glass itself. She’s there to
answer questions, but she also looks like she could
break your arm in 8 places before you say
‘Houdini’. You’ve got an alarm box right by the
door,and somekind of newfangledelectronic lock
system that’ll make leaving the room impossible
until one of the Mishkas resets the alarm. Worse,
the glass case itself isn’t just for show -- it’s fitted
with a Komisar Sonic Alarm system. In short, there
are a dozen microphones pointed at the thing,
and if they detect the glass so much as cracking,
they’ll trigger an alarm. You’re gonna have to
either disable or confuse the system if you want a
clean escape.
Now, this is just a rumor, but some people are
saying the film on display isn’t quite what they
remember watching all those years ago. That the
case looks wrong, or there’s some scenes out of
order. Could be nothing, could be the Mishkas
have a fake on display and the real film
elsewhere. Might wanna figure that out before
you leave.
though; sewage has a way of ruining old priceless
filmstock.
You could also escape via the roof -- looks like the
HVAC system has some large enough tunnels to
take you there, but that’ll make a lot of noise and
you might have company up there.
There’s also two doors -- front and back. The back
door is behind the film screen, and leads into an
alleyway just behind the theater that runs right to
Franklin Ave. It’s rarely used ’cause the Mishkas
have this whole thing about showing off their
workforce through the front door.
Speaking of the front door, that’s a perfectly good
way out if you can time it with the end of the
premier--themediablitzandthestarstryingtoget
home should be great cover even if you’ve been
made, but traffic is going to be a nightmare at that
point. What else is new, am I right?
Influences
Movies: Hollywood (1923), Hail Caesar! (2016),
Sunset Boulevard (1950), Get Shorty (1995)
Music: Annie Get Your Gun, Singin’ in the Rain,
Rear Window OST, Max Steiner’s soundtracks

Oh, and last thing -- those guards are definitely

mob, which means they’ll have guns and won’t be
afraid to pull them at the last minute. Unless you
wanna end up wearing a new pair of shoes at the
bo�om of the Reservoir, be very careful.

The Getaway
You’ve got a couple of options here, some are
better than others. First, the theater has a sewage
system in the basement behind the HVAC
machines. It's a tight fit, and it smells like shit, but
it’ll eventually put you right into the city’s system,
and from there anywhere you like. You’ll need
some way to protect the film if you go that route,
106
 Safes, Lockboxes, and Vaults
Chris Biller
1 Thurwell-Sen�nal

2 The Belly of Treklaxumborg, 1,289th Devil of Bureaucracy

3 Geordy Mitchell thermite-proof

4 Everprotect

5 Prototype quantum pocket storage chamber

6 Freedom 1776 gun safe

7 Sábháilte of her Royal Majesty of the Summer Court

8 VB-X467 data safe

9 Wellis Mogin Irradiated

10 SecMax

11 Corbin’s Cantankerous Coffer

12 Grue du Monde Hobnail

13 A secret capsule in the center of the Sun

14 Casbold

15 Hindenburg Impervious

16 Franklinite

17 Thisublaud Global Seed Vault

18 Old mother Switchwi�’s haunted chest

19 Secure Excess Baggage Bag

20 Moneychanger’s Panop�con

107
 Fool’s Landing
The Atlantic Ocean
Evening
The Grand Duchess

The Grand Ballroom

If majesty had a shrine, this
would be it.
This is where the pain�ng
will be on display -- ironically
it’ll be at its most vulnerable
when it’s most visible.

p er S ta t esrooms
Up
rich p eo ple have to
All those ewhere.
stay som
o o m ” is a collec�olance
Each “r s -- an excellent p r
of suite tain your cover, ot
to main m the crowd, bu s”
hide fro ut for “entourage
watch ote security.
of priva

168
 In order to help raise falling morale after the latest Lunar debacle,
Zephyr Spencer, the President of the Moon, has pulled out all the stops
and will be swearing in the new Lunar Administrator in the shadow of
The Flag Neil Armstrong planted on the moon.

That flag is worth millions. It would be a shame if someone stole it

moments before the big speech.

Control Room
Central hub controlling
security and atmosphere for
the en�re Hab.
Requires level 4 or 5 keycard
access.

Main Reception
Once the heart of humanity on the moon, now
an outpost for the poli�cally ambi�ous or inept.
It’s where the big ceremony is going down.

109

Luna Larceny
The Building
Lunar Administration Habitat-1, aka the Lunar
Hab, aka Moon Base Prime. This was the place
that humanity first planted its feet on the shore of
the cosmic ocean. Gloss over the fact that the only
reason we got there was feuding billionaires
competing to see whose dick was bigger -- turns
out neither; NASA came from behind and won the
race -- and it’s a fine picture of humanity’s
poten�al.
The Hab, as it’s colloquially known, is the
prototypical space base. Built in
the late ’20s, it has
large viewscreens and giant
mission-control-styleconsoles-
- the very best that NASA had to
offer at the time, with a few
touches of venture capital
funding. Originally intended as a
research station and the bedrock
of a new human settlement, this
place was built to be functional,
not elegant. But most of the Lunar
Embassies are still located there
instead of in the palatial estates of
Luna City or Neo-York, under the
Sea of Tranquility. (The inhabitants
have largely abandoned the lunar
110
Words: J.R. Zambrano
Art: Galen Evans, Dyer Rose,
Daniel Walthall
surface since they realized it was cheaper to build
self-contained underground cities.) President
Spencer insists that hosting official events here is
meant to remind dignitaries of the monumental
effort it took to tame the moon, and has nothing to
do with “watching the rat bastards squirm in that
retro eyesore.”
As a result, the Hab has become a political testing
ground for the usual cadre of emissaries,
diplomats, and scientists who rub shoulders with
visiting dignitaries and host official events. It’s a
melting pot of the ambitious and the inept, and
right now it’s also host to a who’s who of Lunar
society. It’s the perfect opportunity for social
advancement, especially in the shadow of the
latestdebacle.Thatmightbeanangleyoucanlean
on if you’re looking for a way to get at the flag, or to
access a restricted area. Information and favors go
a long way on the moon, if you don’t mind getting
your hands dirty.
The main entrance for visitors and employees to
the administrative Hab is the Rail Depot. It holds
two tracks that can run simultaneously; these
tracks come in through the north side tunnel that
quickly dives under the lunar surface and heads to
the various switchpoints. The railcars are smart
buggies that run on Luna’s manifold rail system.
The occupants of each car can program it with
separate destinations; it will automatically travel
through the manifold tunnels crisscrossing
through the lunar crust to the various
undergroundhabitatsortheArmstrongSpacePort
on the surface. The railcars are all painted in the
baby blue of the Lunar authority; to access the
depot, they require an encrypted chip that
identifies them as part of the Lunar authority.
There is a small rail control room to the south
overlooking the rails. The system performs
automated security checks along the east side
before the entrance to the Main Recep�on.
The Hab itself consists of three main areas: the
Embassy Wing, the Control Room, and Main
Recep�on.
The largest of these is the Embassy Wing, built
atop the skeleton of the Hab’s medilab -- back
when the Hab provided for everyone in the colony.
Now it’s home to off-world consulates, and has
been redecorated so many times you can barely
tell it’s where the first Lunar Hospital was, except
for the fully-stocked suite of auto-med stations
that were too convenient to remove. They’re well
maintained and full of drugs, sutures, and other
devices suitable for most medical emergencies.
The entire wing was once a large, open area,
partitioned by temporary curtains as needed.
Since conversion it has been partitioned out with
semi-permanent walls, but you can still see the
larger, more open structure of the original Hab if
you know where to look (The edges of the new
walls don’t quite align with the edges of the Hab,
allowing particles in the air and sounds to leak
between rooms)
The whole thing is maintained by a staff of
maintenance and cleaning robots. They have
access to most of the facility via a network of
tunnels and shafts that run between the areas,
bypassing the security. Of course, these
maintenance corridors aren’t designed for human
access, and the maps of the tunnels have been lost
to time. No one but the bots really knows where
they go. As far as we know, there aren’t any
cameras in them, so if you’re looking to get around
unseen, it might be worth the risk.
The main Control Room is the heart and brain of
theentireHab.Accessisseverelyrestrictedtoonly
those carrying levels 4 and 5 keycard access, so
Control Room Administrators, the Chief of Security
and the Administrator theirself. The many monitor
banks give occupants a panopticon-style
awareness of the activities in the Hab, while banks
of computers and systems maintain airflow,
pressure, communications, and fire suppression
systems. The room itself is fairly crowded with
equipment and is the only area on the station
without cameras watching it every second.
Then there's the Main Reception. Part museum of
lunar history, part opulent display, the Main
Reception is in the Hab’s old hydroponics facility.
Here the elite gather amid artifacts from the dawn
ofhumanity’shistoryonthemoon.Youcanseethe
old lunar modules, ancient earth cameras, and of
course The Flag is here as well -- although it’s been
moved from its traditional home to the main
ballroom here, to be held in position behind the
stage for the president’s speech. At the appointed
hour, The Flag is to be proudly unfurled, along with
two newly commissioned banners that will surely
get the nobs hobbing with renewed faith in the
administration. It would cause an absolute scandal
if something else were unfurled instead, and you’d
do well to be long gone before that discovery is
made.
And all around the Hab is the wild, untamed lunar
surface. Humanity experimented with
terraforming for a while, and the landscape still
bears the scars of that. In particular parts of the
Mare Tranquilitatis bear void-adapted flora; this
experiment never really went anywhere on
account of how toxic they proved. And if you
believetherumors,in thecavern networks created
under the Mare Serenitatis you can find
genetically engineered moon beasts that roam
out when the moon is dark.
But those are children’s stories. The real danger is
the unstable, uncertain landscape -- but if you’re
willing to risk it, it’s unguarded and unmonitored
for the most part. If you can spoof the Hab’s
proximity sensors, you could get right up close
pretty much anywhere. And the Hab being the
Hab, you can probably still find old access hatches
that lead to unexplored maintenance tunnels.
The Loot
The Flag by itself is a standard government supply
3-by-5-foot (0.91 by 1.52 m) nylon flag with a few
minor alterations. The original horizontal and
vertical poles were made from gold-anodized
aluminum tubes in two telescoping parts.
Between the two of them, the flag cost the United
States $80.50, with the lion’s share being the
tubes. It was not created to survive the harsh UV
rays that hit the moon's surface, and shows some
major color bleaching because of it. However, its
burial under moondust protected it enough that
the original design and colors still appear, if a bit
muted.
111
personal watercraft -- Tabitha Marsden, for
instance, has brought her own motorized
windsurf board.
You could always get the Vault to eject itself -- but
then you’d be trapped underwater in a sealed
chamber with no way out. Good luck with that
one, Houdini.
The Who’s Who
Quinn “Doctor” Blakesworth
Quinn Blakesworth is a gambler the same way Da
Vinci was kind of a painter from time to time.
Baccarat, roulette, races… she’s done it all. If
there’s a risk, she’ll take it, and bet that you won’t.
Blakesworth is also an art collector or treasure
hunter, depending on whom you ask, with a
particular love of sculpture. Her gifts have graced
the Grand Duchess before.

Tabitha Marsden

Tabitha Marsden is one of the world’s greatest Virgil Alvarez

pyrotechnic artists. Flames, lightning, lights,
fireworks, illuminative illusions that make you
believe in magic -- she does it all. Everyone knows
how her eye for lighting and spectacle caught the
Duchess’s attention while she was touring with the
Unrolled Stilettos a few years back. What most
people don’t know is that she’s also an amateur
detective who has turned her expertise at pulling
off lighting stunts into a side gig solving mysteries
across the globe.
The Duchess’s favorite new discovery, Virgil Alvarez
is an up-and-coming poet who is sure to be
destined for great things -- if he doesn’t drown in
the high society waters he’s found himself thrust
into. Kid is green in just about every sense of the
word. He’s out of his element when it comes to
dealing with people and the sea, if the month-long
supply of dramamine he’s brought with him is any
indica�on.

She’s obviously on board to help celebrate the

Grand Duchess in style -- but our contact on the
inside says she’s been paying an awful lot of
a�en�on to Ms. Blakesworth.

Wylie ‘Apollo’ Dupree

Yes, that Apollo Dupree. A legendary pianist,

who, if you believe the rumors, has a string of
wealthy lovers who’ve helped finance his world
travels. The gossip rags have cooked up a flirtation
between Dupree and Duchess Lily, and it seems
like he’s hoping to find his newest patron and
inspiration here. He’s sure to play a time or two
while aboard. That’s always good for drawing a
crowd.

173
 King Orvatz Silosz I Arthur Devereaux

Kings and queens have been turned away from the
Grand Duchess -- so the presence of his Imperial
Majesty, Silosz I, is a massive middle finger to
monarchies the world over. The self-declared king
of a self-declared micronation built aboard an old
research outpost off the coast of the Solomon
Islands, Silosz I has declared the “crowned heads of
Europe” illegitimate for their abuse of power and
thedisregardforthesovereigntyandsafetyoftheir
subjects. He has summarily laid claim to the
territories owned by the signatory nations of the
Treaty of Westphalia, citing multiple grievances,
and has declared them free to use for all who
swear fealty to him.
Doubtlessly he is enjoying the attention, and
being aboard the Grand Duchess is an opportunity
for a figure as public as Silosz I.
Arthur Devereaux is Duchess Lily’s greatest rival.
The two have bid and outbid each other on
fabulous art objects. They have competed for the
same lovers’ affections, and seek to outdo each
other. Where Lily would throw a charity ball,
Devereaux might arrange a gala opening of a new
artist that Lilycouldn’t reach. Thetwo haveclashed
for so long they may as well be lovers. And yet, the
flame of rivalry between the two burns hotter than
any other passion.
Influences
Movies: “Titanic”
Games: “Starship Titanic”
Music: Lonely Island, “I’m on a Boat;” “Somewhere
Beyond the Sea;” 1940s-era café jazz

Contessa Marlena Francesca Ruiz y Rodriguez

The Contessa prefers to be called a patron of the

arts, which is one way of looking at it. Her family’s
estate and material wealth were stripped during a
coup, and she finds herself without a country at
the moment. As the story goes, the money taken
from her family has gone to fund the renovation of
atleastonepalace. Butthathasnotdampenedher
spirits nor stopped her from promising supporters
the backing of a wealthy patroness -- at least, once
she is able to recoup what is righ�ully hers.

We know that the legendary cat burglar, S, as

they’re called by Interpol, will be aboard. We don’t
know how they found out about this job, or how
they managed to contact us in the first place -- but
we received a note this morning that simply reads,
“The game is on. We’ll see who’s best. Regards, -S.”

Accompanying the note, we found a copy of an

invitation to the Grand Duchess, with any useful
information scrubbed clean. They could be
anyone. So take care who you befriend.
174
 The National Museum of Natural History
Washington D.C.
February 3rd 2019
Stealing Hope

rity
Main Entrance Secu
etal
X-ray scanners anthdem not
detectors make ice se r en-
such a great cho fo
trance or exit.
114
Your mission is to steal the Hope Diamond, arguably the most famous
cut gemstone in the world.

Vent Access
A screwdr
cu�ers areivaellr and some bolt
between you that stand
a�on system. and the ven�l-

Security Cage
On a �med lock, nand in-
al
place outside of orm
business hours.

Reinforced Concrete
Emergency Vault
If the Hope Diamond
descends into this, good
luck ge�ng it back out
again.

115

Stealing Hope
The Building
The National Museum of Natural History is a
sprawling facility of 1.5 million square feet (roughly
the size of 18 American football fields) that houses
over 126 million specimens of plants, animals,
fossils, rocks and minerals, human remains, and
cultural artifacts. It is also the daytime home of the
world's largest group of scientists dedicated to
the study of natural and cultural history. Over 185
professionals gather under this roof to catalog,
study, and preserve natural relics of this planet we
call Earth.
On the east and west sides of the building, on both
the ground and first floors, are maintenance and
staff areas which are inaccessible to the public.
The northwest corner of the property houses the
large geothermal heating system, surrounded by
a 10 ft. tall wrought-iron fence with the fun, pointy
bitsatthetop.Ourintelsuggestthatanentranceto
the large ducts hides behind an unmarked metal
panel. Once removed, you’ll find an aluminum
grating secured with a simple hardened padlock.
We trust that this should prevent no significant
problem, should you decide to utilize this either to
enter or escape the complex.
Sources say the main security hub is on the
northeast side of the first floor. Here you will find
the video room where staff can view the many
security cameras that cover the building as well as
monitor the various door and window sensors at
night. Security personnel also have computers
here to activate and deactivate the keycards used
to access the various staff-only areas. We know
that several other security terminals are placed at
other convenient points in the building for quick
access.Someofthesemightactuallybebehindthe
doors conspicuously labeled as “Security,” but
we’ve been unable to verify this independently.
The building itself consists of three floors. The
116
Words: Jay Henningsen
Art: Donald Kirby,
Hector Rodriguez
ground floor, which has a north entrance to
Constitution Avenue, contains the Atrium Cafe on
the northwest side, various museum shops in the
center, and the Baird Auditorium in the center of
the south wall. Research wings (which are
accessible to staff only, and then only with a
currently-valid keycard) comprise a large part of
the southwestern side and the entirety of the
eastern wing of this floor.
The first floor has a southern entrance from the
National Mall -- by far the busiest means of ingress
and egress -- which opens into the rotunda, where
Henry, a preserved 11-ton, 13-foot-tall African
bush elephant greets visitors. The rotunda itself
has two large staircases in the northeast and
northwest corners of the room, both of which lead
to the second floor. In the southeast and
southwest corners of the rotunda, you’ll find a set
of smaller stairs leading to the ground floor and
elevators that connect all three floors. Unless
you’re climbing, jumping (not recommended
unless you have something soft to land on), or
finding some other, sneakier means of travel like
heating and cooling vents, these are your only
ways to travel between the floors.
Moving out of the rotunda on the first floor, you
have the newly-renovated Hall of Fossils to the
east, the mammal display to the west, and the
Ocean Hall to the north. The mammal exhibit
loops around to the northwest into the Human
Origins display, which connects back to the Ocean
Hall to the east. In the center of this loop is the
Ocean Terrace Cafe. The Hall of Fossils loops
aroundtothenortheastthroughtheFossilLaband
into the African Voices exhibit, which connects
back to the Ocean Hall to the west. In the center of
this loop is another staff-only research wing.
Traveling up the main stairs or the elevators leads
to a space the same size as the rotunda that forms
thecentralhubofthesecondfloor.Fromhere,you
can peer over the circular railing at Henry or head
 GLOBE is retiring its space shuttle today, a great tragedy for the
boundless human spirit, but a great chance for us to make one of our
biggest clients a very happy woman. The Space Shuttle Jemisin sits on
its launchpad, fueled and ready to go. All we have to do is take it.
Oper
ation
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astro here ldin
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and wnauts be they kee
of the here th fore lau p the
gear. ey sto nch -
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they’ll beal close during
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launch.

179
 password and an 8-digit code that is texted to the
government-issued cell phone of the guard who is
trying to log in. Getting both of these is likely going
to be difficult, but perhaps some of the members
of your team are skilled at social engineering and
cloning cell phones. However, if you create a
distraction, you may be able to access a computer
that someone has already logged in to, provided
you have access to the room and you can get to the
computer before the 10-minute activity timer
expires and locks it again.
All the exterior doors and windows of the museum
are equipped with sensors attached to the central
security system. Doors are locked after hours, and
opening any door during this time will trip a silent
alarm. Most of the exterior windows don’t open,
and if you break them, you’ll trigger a silent alarm
here too. Breaking a window isn’t going to do you
much good, though, unless you also have a quick
way to get through the wrought-iron bars on the
outside.
Once you get past the not-inconsiderable building
security, you have to deal with specific anti-theft
measures designed for the Hope Diamond itself.
First and foremost, a hardened-steel mesh
security gate with a timed lock physically blocks
access to the display case outside of normal
operating hours. The only way to bypass this, aside
from actually destroying the gate (which would
probably take more time and create more noise
than is prudent), is to figure out how to hack the
computer system and fool it into thinking the
museum is open. This will also turn on the lights,
disable some of the other security sensors, and
unlock the front doors (all of which will alert any
guards in the building), so you’d best have a plan
and a strict timeline before you do this. The good
news,however,is that it will beeasyto get backout
of the building.
Finally, and perhaps the most difficult part, is that
the Hope Diamond is sealed in a display case of 3-
inch-thick bulletproof glass. If the glass is
damaged or breached in any way, the entire
enclosure descends into a locked vault which is
itself encased in solid reinforced concrete. As you
might guess, this also triggers an alarm which
alerts both onsite staff and the D.C. Metropolitan
Police Department.
118
You’ll have to devise some method of preventing
the Hope Diamond from descending into the vault,
or else you’ll never get it out of there in time.
Perhaps some clue lies in the computer system
that controls the security. You may even be able to
compromise the vault or rig it with some lower-
tech mechanical solution like a rod inserted
through it that prevents the diamond from
dropping down. This problem in particular will
require some crea�ve thinking.
The Getaway
Since you’re not likely stealing the diamond
during the museum’s normal operating hours,
you would be wise to plan an escape route ahead
of time. Also keep in mind that a vehicle screeching
away at 3 a.m is more likely to draw attention to
your team, so a foot escape might be prudent. Be
sure to do the smart thing and split up.
A high profile theft such as this will probably trigger
responses from both local police and the Federal
Bureau of Investigation. Since these forces will
likely erect security checkpoints at major
thoroughfares and airports in an attempt to catch
the perpetrators leaving the city, your best bet may
be to secure a safe house ahead of time to wait out
the heat.
The Metropolitan Police Department has quite a
large collection of closed-circuit cameras which
monitor various parts of town. You’ll need to utilize
every tool at your disposal to avoid the MPD
tracing your escape. Travel through buildings,
change your clothes, walk near other people if
they happen to be out and about, double-back on
your route -- do whatever you can to throw them
off the trail while you make it back to your
designated rendezvous point.
Unless you were very thorough, museum security
and the MPD will almost certainly have at least a
few pictures of your team, so you’ll want to stay
off the streets once you get to your safe house. It’d
be a shame to get caught after the heist because
you were hungry or bored, so hopefully you
stocked up on enough food, drinks, and
entertainment to last a few weeks.
Once the local and federal forces come off of high-
alert, make your way out of town via one of the
many roads leading in and out of the city, hopefully
in a car you haven’t used at any other time during
the planning or execution of the heist. Consider
avoiding other nearby cities such as Baltimore or
Philadelphia and traveling to a more unassuming
place. West Virginia might be a good choice.

Your final goal should be to get the gem out of the

country, but we’ll leave the details of that up to
you.

Influences
TV Shows: “Mission: Impossible,” “Leverage”

Movies: “The Score,” “How to Steal a Million”

119
 The complex is on the shore, and the ocean
presents a promising point of entry, but be aware
that the Coast Guard patrols the water at all times
and any detected trespass will trigger an
immediate scrubbed launch. That said, I hear they
don’t have side-scan sonar, so underwater
approach should be clear.
Each area also has unique security concerns. The
Visitors Center has the least complicated setup --
one security office, camera coverage and some
basic locks on important doors. The emergency
train entrance does have 24/7 guard coverage but
besides that, shouldn’t be too much of an issue for
you.
182
TheVSHhasbottlenecksecurity--there’sonlyone
way in, and one way out. Anyone inside the Hab is
probably going to know the faces and names of
everyone who is supposed to be there, so any
cover identity is going to have to be airtight -- they
very rarely give tours to very special VIPs, but
we’re talking kings, queens and billionaires here.
Tread carefully. Once inside, the actual system is
very simple; locks and cameras mostly.
The Operations building is a mess of complex
systems and physical security -- they have at least
100 armed guards in or around the building at any
one moment, as well as dozens of laser systems,
voice and retinal scanners for almost every door,
and a passcode system for the elevators for every
Republic Elite forces are preparing for an all out assault on the last
remaining outpost of the Colonial Special Army.

While the battle is sure to be heated and the fighting brutal, you’re
not there for that. We have confirmed reports that the CSA intends to
deploy the Tenka Battle Frame, a mech of overwhelming power and, most
importantly, unimaginable value. Use the battle as cover, get in and
take control of the Tenka before the CSA use it to destroy the
Republic Elite, or vice versa.

Mech Storage Bays

The main storage lot for the CSA’s
ground mech force.
Not where the Tenka is, but it could
be an excellent distrac�on

Emergency Overflow Drainage

Due to the base’s loca�on in the
center of a valley, flooding is a
regular hazard.
These tunnels could be an easy way
in.

121

Get in the Robot
The Building
Camp IRIS is the final holdout of the Colonial
Special Army (CSA). It’s a heavily defended military
fortress designed to withstand everything from
frontal assaults to orbital bombardments. It’s from
here that the CSA was able to lead its campaign of
terror across La’atom. This morning, the Republic
Special Army plans to finally storm the camp with
an all-out attack consisting of ground troops, air
support, and orbital strikes in an attempt to end
the CSA’s presence on La’atom once and for all.
The CSA, meanwhile, has an overwhelming
counterattack planned, utilizing their ace in the
hole, the Tenka. As far as we can tell, the Tenka is
held underground in a special storage chamber
known to connect to several emergence points,
presumably for use as a defensive weapon capable
of being deployed in the midst of an attacking
force’s line. These launch tracks are hidden when
122
Words: Liam Ginty
Art: Dyer Rose, Daniel Walthall
not in use, and ground penetrating radar was
ineffective at finding these entry points -- besides
which, it's unlikely they’re accessible on foot
anyway.
Starting on the outside, the camp is perched atop a
raised plateau. The CSA deployed nanomachines
to carve out the cliff face as a first line defense. The
cliff is about 10 feet tall at its highest point, and
serves as an effective stalling feature against
ground assault. A large dirt ramp facilitates
movement in and out of the base, but as you can
expect, this is heavily defended -- several layers of
gates, walls, and death zones make this a difficult
break-in point. The attack should give you some
cover -- most of the systems are designed to stop
an army, not a small group of people, and many of
the security systems will be unmanned during the
attack as the CSA pulls its forces back behind the
main walls of the camp. You’ll want to
either trick the cameras into letting
you pass by or get access to the
passageways inside the walls, away
from the automated guns and death
traps.
Past the ramp, you have the wall
proper. Around 30 feet high, the walls
are constructed from an unknown
alloy that seems to resist any attempt
to cut or blast into them. They are
also inclined at a sharp angle away
from the base itself, making attempts
to scale it difficult to impossible while
providing an easy means of deploying
defensive troops where and when
they’re needed. We have some
unconfirmed intel that the metal the
walls are made out of reacts very
poorly to extreme cold, which on a
limited scale may allow you to climb
them easier, and on a larger scale may
make the barrier a moot point. Our
intel also suggests that, in emergencies, the walls
canbemovedupordownbysomecentralsecurity
system, but this hasn’t been observed in any other
CSA base, so take it with a grain of salt.
The main gate is nothing special, a large ramp that
lowers and raises flanked by two large guard
towers topped with automated 100mm anti-
armor plasma projectors. The temptation may be
to hack the cannons, and I don’t need to tell you
that any automated system is vulnerable to
hacking, but the CSA famously have some very
powerful anti-hacking systems in place -- auto
brain-jacking ICE (intrusion countermeasures
electronics), meat-heat counter worms, and
worse. The gate itself will only raise if you can
access the manual override inside one of the two
towers, and you’re only getting in one of those if
you have the eyes, fingerprints, and voice of one of
the base commanders to open the emergency exit
facing the outside of the base. Rumor has it their
munitions chief spends a lot of time on The Big
Wheel, an orbital casino. You’d have to be quick,
but that might be your best chance.
The walls are also dotted with all manner of
emplaced weapons -- plasma projectors,
flamethrowers, conventional weapons, and
heavier-than-air gas deployment points. These
are, for the most part, automated systems hooked
up to thermal, EM, and standard camera systems.
Any approach needs to keep these defenses in
mind and either subvert or effectively defend
against them, or this is over before you’re even
through the front door.
Inside the base, security relies largely on a
biometric scanning system; an on-base server has
a biometric identity logged for every single CSA
soldier. This system replaces passwords and keys
almost everywhere on base, and your life is going
to be a lot easier if you can get your data on that
server. The building it’s kept in is close to the wall,
and is likely to be lightly guarded during the attack.
That said, it employs a DANFULL lockdown system
linked to dozens of sensors around the server
room itself. The short version is: If it detects any
unauthorized entry -- either through weight
sensors in the floor, changes in ambient
temperature, or through EM interference from
implants or tech -- it causes an immediate
lockdown of the building, flooding it with liquid
bakelite, which will quickly harden, killing or
immobilizing anyone inside. This is not a pleasant
way for a thief to die.
The base has a number of other notable structures
besides the usual barracks, offices and logistical
facilities. Their orbital uplink dish sits mostly
useless now that the CSA’s satellite network is as
good as gone - still, rumors persist of some kind of
secret weapon they have up there. These sorts
almost always have a secret weapon somewhere,
so it might be worth your while to check out the
data stream. There’s also the Krysis mass driver,
used mostly to deliver materials into near-earth
orbit, it’s a 2000 ton electro-magnetic cannon
aimedatthe moon. I’msureyou can comeup with
something to do with that. There’s also the
standard mech hangars. The CSA still has a few
dozen X-500 series CUTTER frames they’re likely to
deploy as soon as the fighting begins, so these may
be empty by the time you arrive. If you find
yourself in need of a combat frame though, these
are significantly easier to get a hold of than the
Tenka. The building is unlikely to even be locked.
One final thing of note on the surface: The base is
patrolled at all times by a heavy unmanned aerial
drone fleet, commanded from the strangely
spheroid-shaped building near the center of the
base. We can’t detect any doors or easy ways in; it
looks like the drones use special access slots
designed for them and them alone. If you could
get one of your members inside this facility and
have them navigate what is almost certainly a very
unfriendly environment, you could access the
drones’ neural network and utilize them for your
own means.
Dotted around the base at several points are
entranceways to an underground portion of the
facility. We’re led to believe this is largely a
maintenance space and repurposed missile
storage and deployment structure, consisting of a
single, wide open space spanning roughly half the
overall length and width of the base itself. Our
ground penetrating radar has trouble properly
mapping this space, likely due to micro-quake
generating anti-surveillance equipment. However,
our source tells us this space is usually packed with
vehicles and repair crews but is occasionally used
123
 as an air raid shelter by the higher ups. When this
happens, they often clear a large amount of space
away and have what is grimly known as a “Final
Feast.” Absurd as it sounds, you may be walking
into a party down there.
Whatever is down there, at the far end of the
facility is where the Tenka should be. Set into a pair
oflaunchrails,it’sverylikelythattheCSAintendsto
deploy the Tenka against the Republic troops
behind their line as a surprise counter attack. The
launch rails connect to a complex high speed rail
system that allows the mech to emerge over
several different points around and outside of the
base. Optimally, you’ll steal it before it launches,
but if you’re too late, you can also use these rails to
launch any compatible CSA vehicle, including the
CUTTER frames.
The Score
The Tenka Battle Frame is, by far and away, the
most deadly bipedal assault vehicle in the local star
cluster. Along with experimental ionized shielding
124
and an automated electronic countermeasure
suite, the Tenka sports a grey-goo nano-machine
adaptation unit,theonlyoneof its kind. This allows
the pilot of the machine to rapidly manufacture
weapons, equipment and supplies at will by
directly converting nearby matter. The goo is
capable of constructing everything from basic
hand to hand weapons, to fully functioning
missiles and plasma projection cannons.
Combined with state-of-the-art thorium injection
propulsion, The Tenka is near unstoppable in the
right hands.
Unlike the standard frames, the Tenka also does
away with standard kinesthetic operation, instead
using a direct brain-to-chip interface, directly
translating a pilot’s intent into action faster than
any other control system we have. This has one
major implication for our mission: by default, the
Tenka will not accept you as a pilot.
New pilots need to undergo a grueling month-long
interfacing process that imprints their brain
patterns onto the Tenka’s systems and fine tunes
the machine’s capabilities to the pilot’s mental
loadcapacity.Thegoodnewsiswe’veuncovered
evidence that says this process can be rapidly
sped up by using pre-recorded brain scan data.
To that end we’ve included data chips of each of
your brain data with this dossier. The bad news is
that the process will still take a few minutes, and
while it enables the usage of the most basic
systems of the Tenka, it will not allow you to
utilize its more powerful and esoteric functions.
For that, you’ll need to kidnap its current pilot:
Nino Taran�no.
One of the most exceptional pilots of our
generation, Nino is equally deadly outside of the
mech. Current world champion in a martial art
known as Old-Type, they graduated top of their
class at the CSA military academy, and they have
over 500 confirmed kills. We have video footage
of them single handedly defeating an entire
platoon of mechanized republic troops, and
they’re the only known person to successfully
mechjack in active combat. They’ll likely be
underground awaiting launch orders, so access
should be easy, but knocking them out and
dragging them to the cockpit of the Tenka will be
difficult to say the least. It’s possible we’ll be able
 a daily concern for him, and to date he has been
deposed as captain and either executed or cast
overboard thirty-three times. It never lasts; his
soul is bound to the fleet after all, and eventually
he finds himself as captain again, sharper, meaner,
and more resen�ul of his role.
Morgan Kayn does not sleep, but keeps an
increasingly erratic schedule as he gets more and
more frustrated with his role as Ferryman of the
Dead. He often inspects the ships of the fleet,
keeping him away from the Fata Morgana for
hours at a time. None ever see him travel between
the ships; the rumours say he travels through the
cursed timbers, manifesting in corners that none
are watching. Officers with something to hide
keep dozens of mirrors aboard their ships to
improve sight lines and prevent Morgan Kayn
from appearing behind them; these are inevitably
destroyed when he finds them.
He is paranoid, angry, and bitter. Not fearing
death and not fearing any more divine
punishment, he is nigh on unbeatable and unlike
any foe you will ever fight in combat; how does
one fight that which can not die nor fears their own
destruction? Fortunately, Morgan Kayn has never
travelled to the floating settlements, remaining
bound to wander only the ships proper. He trusts
utterly no one and values stemming the tide of
insurrection above celestial bookkeeping. Even
when he takes a personal interest in you (and he
certainly will), avenues to retreat will always be
available and even if you find yourself cornered he
will certainly cease caring about you to investigate
any half-way plausible rumour of mutiny
amongst his crew of backstabbers you feed to him.
At least un�l you cause more trouble.
Sincethefleetiscrewedbythosewhoaredamned
beyond redemption, each crew member on each
ship can be considered to be a monster of some
sort. Chained to their stations with collars of
indestructible steel are some of the meanest
buccaneers and bloodthirsty pirates in history.
You'll recognise some of them. You'll probably spot
at least one of your old crew mates here. This is the
fate that awaits you should you fail. Consider
them your peers at best, and your foils at worst.
The ones permitted to patrol as guards and
custodians have longer chains around their necks,
188
which constantly tangle with each other. Brawls
are a regularity; a common way to blow off steam
between these patrolling angry spirits, and would
be highly lethal if the participants were capable of
dying. They are all, to a soul, dishonest
backstabbers who bear no love for their lot in the
afterlife or towards their crewmates. And they all
unreservedly hate Morgan Kayn. They can be fast
allies and exploitable patsies if you play your hands
well. You can easily ferment mutinous behaviour
amongst the ships, all of which will keep Morgan
Kayn and his officers busy.
Each ship will be unique due to the sheer number
of designs of ships, one or two dating back to the
previous millennium, and each ship’s different
method of demise and subsequent
cannibalisation by its spectral crew will further
complicate the layout. Each is likely captained by a
notorious buccaneer, only kept in check by the
resentment of their crew and the whims of
Morgan Kayn. Given that all the legendary tyrants
of the waves are dead, expect to run into a few of
them down here in positions of power (or ironic
punishments). If you ever regret not being able to
fight Blackbeard or Bart Roberts while they were
still alive, well, I would say this was your only
chance to get to do this if that wouldn’t draw a
huge amount of a�en�on to yourself.
You will inevitably have to traverse the towns and
hovels that make up the floating settlements
towed by the fleet. You will find similar rogues and
cutthroats, some stationed here due to their
incompetence at all things nautical, others as part
of their punishment for squandering their time at
sea. Their competence ranges greatly, but their
anger runs deep. This anger is tempered by their
precarious positions in the towns, as they are
protecting and serving the innocent souls,
handling their honoured passengers with kid
gloves so as not to further anger the Powers That
Be, generally waiting on, pampering, and keeping
them safe from any nautical nightmares that find
their ways aboard.
Even amongst the honoured passengers of the
fleet there will be threats; they are virtuous in the
eyes of the Powers that Be, which means they are
probably not our kind of people. It stands to
reason most are content to be peacefully
 Sci Fi Security Systems
Amanda Allen
1 A �ghtly locked safe that requires a constant DNA scan to open

2 Robo�c Watchdogs with brainwave scanners that can react to their prey’s plans on the fly

3 The HEIMDAL Mk.2, a security cyborg connected to every camera in the facility at the same time
Holographic soft-light projection monitors, able to pass through walls, and disappear and re-
4
appear at will
5 Pressure sensi�ve floor plates which ac�vate hard-light walls around anyone who trips them

6 Web-like monofilament wire, controlled by a micro-AI to capture thieves

7 Automated turrets that disintegrate their vic�ms, leaving no trace of them

A door protected by a trans-dimensional gateway at its entrance. The correct dimensional co-
8
ordinates must be entered before opening the door, otherwise it leads to the wrong universe
Emergency temporal shift security system, capable of teleporting an entire building to a desig-
9
nated secure loca�on in case of unauthorized access
10 A vehicle lock which only responds to the voice of its owner, locking intruders inside
Location locked nano-matter printers capable of rapidly assembling a security response to
11
threats on the fly
12 Limited use keycards which disintegrate a�er a specific number of uses
A large open room where the floor is largely made up of holographic tiles. Stepping off the path
13
will result in an immediate fall
14 A �ght web of laser beam trip-wires
Poison darts that launch a memory altering toxin, causing immediate short term memory loss,
15
erasing the last hour or so from the vic�m’s mind
16 A freezing gas, that leaves its vic�m trapped in an icy substance, but otherwise unharmed.
A room with traditional entrance, requiring a person to be teleported inside from a central loca-
17
�on
Reality augmentation drive which causes all combustion based weaponry to fail, giving the
18
melee-equipped bots an overwhelming combat advantage
A nanite swarm which, given time, will rewrite the victim’s personality and make them a worker
19
drone for the facility
20 Generic Keycards which change their proper�es based on the holder’s DNA pa�ern

126
 Sci Fi Loot
Liam Ginty
1 The long lost blaster of Zan Felzas

2 A miniaturized pleasure ship

3 A blaster proof black cape, embroidered with the legend of a fallen space emperor

4 A data chip with an en�re galaxy’s medical debt encoded on it

5 The memory stack of a long-lost mega-corp CEO

6 10 cases of black market body-augmenta�ons

A vial of experimental nanomachines, capable of rewriting the drinker’s genetic code from
7
scratch
A still active Galacti-Bank Premium Black Card, a credit card with an unlimited spending limit. It
8
will expire in 24 hours
9 A coupon for an all you can eat buffet at the universe's most expensive restaurant

10 The plans for an advanced virtual reality suite with �me dila�on capabili�es
A digital music drive containing the last known recording of Zar Zar Rubles, the inventor of the
11
popular music style, Jizz
12 The last remaining member of a species of chameleon

13 A data chip containing a backup of popular Gal-Net site, The Brigades Bay

14 A pair of incredibly cool jet boots

A Solar-vibro shield, made of a hyper-strong collapsible alloy and equipped with a folding mech-
15
anism
16 5 vials of Guin-Le, a gas that causes intense dreams that become true
A Caligan-Table Friend, an experimental watch sized food generation device that creates snacks
17
based on its user’s brain waves
18 A nano-swarm that imprints on the first person it sees
The Impreatrix, the last remaining hyper-ship, easily the fastest and most powerful fighter craft
19
ever designed
20 A data chip with your work contract on it

127
 I can hear you now. “Our Lady of San Jenaro is 85 meters tall. Are you
okay? Are you on drugs? Do we need to get you some help? We can’t just
steal a giant copper and steel statue”

In order, yes, yes, of course, no, yes we can and I’m going to lay out how
we’re going to do it.

Our Lady of San Jenaro

85 meters of steel and cop-
per represen�ng the
ingenuity of San Jenaro.
What a be�er way to honor
it than to steal it in plain
sight?
Shows how far we’ve come.

ld o f H ephaestus
The Fie
siv e la w n complexis
A mas lleyball and tenn d
with vo running paths an
courts, ks.
dog par
o be � er place to
There’s nil.
lose a ta
d
F l o re s Boulevar
Santa
’re w ai�ng for the
While westart, we grab chili
show toian hot dogs and
vegetar d in a huge flour
wrappe
tor�lla.
LLY IM P O RTANT!!
VITA

191
 Kalth is dead. Their body floats high above the world, its rotting
carcass littering our rapidly drying oceans with the divine flesh.
Experts agree we have around 2 weeks until the oceans are gone and
life on our planet becomes untenable. In Kalth’s final moments, their
followers reported having the exact same Dream: a Godseed, held within
the God’s dying dream. Retrieve the Godseed and restore our world
before it is too late.

es
Archiv
sp ir e, this
in th e Dreamo nta in s all
With cial forest c ower debts
ar�fi ecords of p has built
the r ssets Kalth
and a
up.
or th a look?
be w
Might

nt ra nc e H all of Gold
E
seem like a
What mighhtt of stairs is a fo-
simple fligannel for concepts
cusing ch .
and ideas
o re� ca lly possible to
The m?
hack the bea

129
 Into the Beaches of
The Twilight Sea
The Building
While most of you have dreamwalked before, it’s
important to keep the basic principles of the art in
mind, as the space you’re entering is dangerous
and unstable, given Kalth’s rapid brain death.
Remember that, for the most part, a dream will
take you wherever it desires, and only through the
use of an effective cover identity and a powerful
will can you break free of the guided path.
Especially important given the divine nature of the
dream you’re stepping into is the impermanent
nature of Dreamlands. The beings, objects, and
places you step into will only exist as long as they
are held in memory and are only accessible when
you hold them in memory. As always, take care
when interacting with native dreamforms. If they
recognize you as an outsider they can quickly
become agitated and activate a suite of defense
systems in response. In standard dreams, it’s
perfectly reasonable to expect you might defeat
one of these beings in combat, but within a divine
dream -- even a dying one -- such an act would be
suicide. While in many mundane Dreamlands, you
may be able to recover from ejection or the death
of a form, a divine dream is not so forgiving - death
here means death in the waking world too.
Kalth’s Dreamlands are a relatively well mapped
out space. They were loved God and invited many
of their worshippers to personally roam the non-
liminal space that made up much of its existence.
Their death almost certainly will throw the space
into disarray as their ability to maintain it dies out,
but by and large, you can expect most of the
locales to be nominally similar to our records. You
will, unless you go to extreme lengths to avoid it,
find yourselves in the Didactic Sea. This is a sort of
barrier designed to filter undesirable elements
from the enormous number of thoughts that pass
through the Dreaming. It also serves as an
effective radiation shield against the background
energies of the Dreaming.
130
Words: Liam Ginty
Art: Donald Kirby, Daniel
Walthall
The sea itself is normally full of visiting
worshippers, attended and aided by a fleet of
ships manned by permanent Dreamers taking
residence within the God’s dream. However since
Kalth’s tragic demise, most of these Dreamers
have passed on to other beings or woken up, and
without that support structure, it’s a long swim to
the shore. You may find an abandoned vessel
somewhere in the sea that still holds shape
enough to ferry you, but don’t count on it. The sea
is also home to a number of aquatic creatures,
mostly fish. These are physical representations of
thefundamentalrulesholdingthedreamtogether,
so try to not kill too many; you wouldn’t want the
airtosuddenlystopexistingorfortheentiredream
to suddenly become pure sound, for example.
These beings can be manipulated with the proper
training and tools, and the rules can be twisted
and tweaked, but expect any changes to be
temporary here. Divine dreams are much more
resilient to dreamhacking than mundane ones,
a�er all.
Assuming you survive the waters and regardless of
what direction you go, you’ll end up on The
Twilight Sands. Every grain of sand here is a
thought ground down to nonsense. They’re
forgotten names and half remembered days that
span all the way back to Kalth’s pre-ascension.
Most worshipers will spend some time here,
basking in the Divine’s cast off ideas. You’ll want to
have your cover story prepared before you hit the
beach however; the gilascopic beings living in the
sand act as a security scan system and will sample
your dreamself before marking you. If they mark
you as an undesirable, it’s quite possible they’ll
just devour your form there and then, ejecting you
from the dream. You’ll want false memories to
throw them off, and if possible a false form just in
case something goes south.
Otherwise the beach is relatively nondescript. It
was most often used as a staging point for
worshippers looking to delve into unknown or
 The Urn of Departures, the item you’ve been hired to steal has little
monetary value, but its presence in the temple draws tourists and
pilgrims from across the world. Its loss would devastate the temple’s
ability to collect money for the community, so your crew needs to sneak
in with the forgery, bypassing tourists, temple acolytes, and the Sect
of Chaos; swap the forgery with the original, and escape through a
maze of tunnels. It's the only way to prevent the Sect from obtaining
the artifact and using it to open a portal to Chaos itself.

um
Inner Sanct
le roo m , but decor-
A simp beau�ful murals
ated with a variety of natural
depic�ng na.
phenome
c t re gu la r tour groups .--
Expe la r guard patrols
a nd ir re g u
Hidden Staircase
The only way to access the
stairs is to remove al
ar�facts from their l three
pedestals.
Each ar�fact is trapped.

he Ca t acombs
T
itab le p athway tofor the
A ver certain death
almost ted.
unini�a
on ly escape roudte.
Also, youersanctum is seale
once th

197
 Gods are able to pass their seeds on to us mortals
before they die, but in the very rare cases a God
dies unexpectedly, the seed is usually stuck
somewhere deep inside them. It’s only thanks to
Kalth’s nature as the God of the Ocean that we
were able to track the Godseed to their
Dreamland. Most lost Godseeds stay lost, and the
God’s very concept is lost forever. We can not let
that happen again.
The Godseeds are surrounded by myths which
makes it very difficult to determine what is true
about them and what is merely fable. The
Godseeds are said to speak to whoever holds
them, telling them the future seconds after it’s too
late to avoid terrible circumstances. They’re
supposed to grant incredible powers to their
holders in moments of intense and enormous
strife. Stories tell of the Godseeds having dreams
of their own that can reach out and overtake a
divine dream. The only thing that’s certain is these
are not objects to be handled lightly. While it may
be tempting to feel as though the hard part is
behind you when the loot is in hand, take every
precau�on with the Godseed.
132
The Security
The dream itself contains a number of divine
security measures geared mostly toward stopping
curious worshippers wandering off into Kalth’s less
friendly Dreamlands. In addition to each area’s
“quirks”, the entire dream is patrolled by a faceless
horde of lost spirits, pulled from the ether into the
dream to serve as guards and guides. Expect a
number of these spirits posted almost everywhere
in the dream, especially on the roads between
locations. It’d be a miracle if you made it even a few
hours in the divine dream without having to talk
your way past one of these spirits.
These spirits have, by and large, forgotten most of
their actual lives, having used their essence in
staying embodied for so long in the ether, so any
personality or memories are purely creations of
Kalth, given to them like uniforms. Don’t be
shocked if several spirits seem to remember you
or act exactly the same as each other. You could
perhaps use this to your advantage -- the spirit’s
memories must be stored somewhere in the
dream space. Find it, and you control an army of
ghosts.
The good news is the degradation of the dream is
creating large gaps in the metamaterial making
up the dream’s fundament, and the overall
weakened state of the place makes it pretty easy to
dispose of these beings -- a simple application of
magic of sufficient physical force should allow you
to tear a hole or push a spirit through an already
existing one. Be aware that this will almost
certainly cause a heightened state of alert
throughout the dream; you could probably
only pull this trick once or twice until the
dream ejects you.
After you enter the Dreamspire, it’s a
different story. No one is supposed to be in
here but the dream entities Kalth allows in, so
expect a fight no matter how good your
cover is. You can also expect the spirits
inside the Dreamspire to be a
step up from the regular spirits
outside - these will be amped
up on the last of Kalth’s
strength, and entirely
unhinged from any specific
corporeal form. I don’t know how to fight a fully
sized ghost galleon complete with an ectoplasmic
ocean in a library, but I have faith you’ll figure it out.

Lastly, the Godseed has been known to generate

its own spectral guardians. The capabilities of
these beings are shrouded in as much mystery as
the Godseeds themselves - they’re set
to be unstoppable beings of
pure projected idea and will,
taking the form of abstract
concepts and leaching all
power from the world
around them directly into
the Godseed itself. We
know the Godbuilders
Guild has a lot of hands on
experience working with
Godseeds, maybe ask
them if such a being is real
and/or stoppable. Someone
must owe you a favour by
now?

The Getaway
The usual ways to exit a dream are not available
here--divinitydoesnotletitsdevoutleavequiteso
easily. The primary method of extraction we’ve
identified is the head outside the Dreamspire. Its
natureasafocusmakesituniquelysuitedasanexit
point. Have a Watcher ready to catch you when
you dreamwalk into it, and you should be fine --
provided none of the spirits you kicked into the
Ether have a grudge, I suppose.
completely missing when you get there, and the
space may collapse under the weight of your own
metaphysical actions. Use magic or acts of great
strength sparingly and prepare for the
consequences.
Influences:
Movie: Paprika (2006), Inception (2010), The
Matrix (1990)

The Ether itself is also a pretty good escape route -- Book: The Craft series, The Dream Quest Of
assuming you have some experience in the non- Unknown Kadath, The Killing Moon
space and are able to find your way back to your
physical form. This is a pretty dangerous route for Games: Bloodborne (2015)
all but the most expert dreamwalkers, you could
very easily become overwhelmed in the Ether and Comics: Nameless (Grant Morrison)
find yourself in the wider Dreamlands, lost in an
ever shifting dream spaces. You could find worse
ways to go ... but not many.

One thing to keep in mind is the deteriorating

nature of Kalth’s Dreamspace. Kalth’s dream will
probably last a few months before it completely
falls apart, but you can expect entire regions of the
Dreamspace to be corrupted, ruined, or even
133
 The Swiss Alps -- Chateau Mont Bre
18th of September, 1989
2 p.m.
Pure as the Driven

La Bassie
One of the best ski spots in
the world that no one ever
gets to use. Krieger will be
hos�ng a ski contest here
today.

age
The Gar
fastest, most
f the e
Twentyfuol vehicles on tohdified
beau� -- all heavily m
planetving on snow.
for dri

134
Emanuel Krieger, head of a secretive global shipping cartel and acting
president of the European Central Bank, is holding a birthday party
at his private ski resort on Mont Bre in the Swiss Alps. Krieger is using
the party as a cover for the auction he’s hosting that evening.

Up for sale are five original mint plates, stolen from the ECB last
year. With these plates, anyone in the world could produce all the cash
they could ever need. Sounds right up your alley.

nge
The Krieger Lou
Named a�er th e man him-
self, this private lounge is
n is going
where the auc�o
down.

the walls are

Apparently all-w
isguised one ay-mirrors?
d

Surgical Unit
Krieger apparently requires
regular medical a�en�on
for an undisclosed illness
and keeps a world-class
surgical unit and team on
hand at all �mes.

135

Pure as the Driven
The Building
Chateau Mont Bre is a lavish Swiss castle nestled in
the heart of Mont Bre, a beautiful mountain
known worldwide for its splendorous views and
outstanding alpine sport opportunities. The
Chateau was originally constructed sometime in
the 14th century, though the modern building is
largely a restoration built around the original ruins
in 1967. ItisatrulyiconicpartoftheSwissski resort
image, and perhaps one of the most well-realized
examples of the style. Sporting a large turret, wide
open halls and rustic yet modern decor, the
Chateau has been Krieger’s main getaway location
since he purchased the eastern side of the
mountain in the late ’80s.
Since its purchase, Krieger has made several
modifications and adjustments to the building and
surrounding area. Most notably, the eastern side
of the mountain has been entirely converted from
a dense forested region to a premiere ski resort, at
quite an expense. Major landscaping work,
deforestation, and experimental snow generation
technology all combined to create what is
reportedly the greatest series of slopes in the
world -- not that anyone gets to ride them. Krieger
is notoriously protective of the resort, only
allowing others on the mountain during his
famous birthday parties, where he hosts what has
come to be known as the La Grande Chute, a ski
competition involving several rounds of races,
slalom courses, and a final ski jump over the
Chateau itself. The winner of this event is invited to
a private dinner later that evening, to rub
shoulders with the most powerful men and
women around the world.
This year, in addition to the fine dining, Krieger is
also hosting a clandestine auction in the Krieger
Lounge -- an avaricious room, decked in the wood
of the felled forest that once surrounded the
building. It contains no fewer than four ornate
fireplaces, and is dominated by a table rumored to
be a restored Viking long table from Krieger’s
136
Words: Liam Ginty
Art: Dyer Rose, Hector Rodriguez
ancestral homelands. Enormous tapestries cover
the ceiling, framing the stained-glass skylight that
is designed to create an almost psychedelic
kaleidoscope effect against the night sky. The hall is
open, with very little space to hide, but is
traditionally lit only by candlelight -- so dim enough
to provide some cover.
Directly below the Krieger is a ballroom, where
most of the “public” activities for the evening are
planned. In addition to the skiing, Krieger has
booked popular band Infinato -- a symphonic
metal group known for having over a dozen
members, and for their wild onstage antics. The
band also apparently has a private meeting with
Krieger a�er the show.
Outside the dining hall, the castle is a dizzying
network of corridors and rooms full of old
paintings, most of which are entirely unused and
largely uninteresting. There are rumors that the
old castle still retains its staff passages, a network
of tunnels used by the castle’s servants to tend to
the royalty without being seen. Other castles with
similar networks all lead back to the servants’
quarters, which for Mont Bre is in the second
basement, right below the surgery unit.
TheSurgeryUnitisofsomespecialinterest--we’re
not sure why Krieger needs it, but he’s in the SU at
least three times a day having something done to
him. Rumors abound, of course. Theories range
from aggressive cancer to advanced cybernetics,
with one particularly virulent internet rumor
suggesting Krieger is in the process of completing
an immortalizing mind upload process. Whatever
the truth, he keeps an incredibly well-paid team of
experts down there 24/7, and they have every
comfort of home -- comfortable dorms, a well-
stocked kitchen, and everything a growing surgery
team needs to do their work. We also suspect the
main power generator is on this floor, based on
schema�cs.
Some other details you may want to keep in mind.
The roof of the castle has been converted to a
private guarded helicopter landing pad. It also has
a private sewer system that kicks out into a nearby
lake, but infiltration via that route will mean
swimming through an expansive purification and
recycling system that rivals a small city’s. Also, a
large guardhouse just outside of the castle’s main
gatehasbeenrepurposedintoahigh-techsecurity
suite.
Krieger’s ski resort surrounds the castle and, as
mentioned, includes a ski jump over the chateau
itself. The resort is often regarded as one of the
greatest in the world, with thrilling slopes, wide
open runs, and twisty tight courses. Beautifully
well-kept scenery and an incredibly well-designed
lift system only makes the fact that Krieger keeps it
all for himself that much more infuriating.
Attending the ski event this evening will be a
veritable who's who of the professional ski world,
but you may want to take particular note of
Christina Hazra, a skiing champion well-known for
her outspoken anti-capitalist ideals and occasional
internationalist militant adventurism. Why such a
person will be present during this celebration of
wealth isn’t on our files, but I suspect she’ll be of
some assistance, one way or another.
The Loot
The European Central Bank
maintains a library of
currency printing plates.
These, combined with special
inks and materials, would
allow their owners to print as
m u c h
untraceable,
undetectable money as they desire. Krieger has
stolen five of these plates: the Pound, the
Deutsche Mark, the Franc, the Dollar, and an
experimental prototype of something called a
Euro. Besides the obvious and immediate value,
these plates could also be reverse-engineered to
produce more plates, potentially causing all
manner of problems for the world economy.
We suspect this latter point is the reason behind
the auction in the first place -- it seems improbable
that these billionaires would be willing to spend so
much money on securing counterfeiting materials,
but many of these people have a vested interest in
controlling global economics and likely have plans
for how to best exploit a crisis brought about by a
complete destabilization of several nations’
currency.
The plates are large sheets of nickel -- light enough,
but unwieldy to carry by hand. Their location prior
to the auction is unknown. It seems somewhat
likely that Krieger will have them displayed
somewhere in the house for prospective buyers to
examine, but it’s equally likely that they’re being
kept somewhere offsite to be brought in under
heavily armed guard just as the auction begins.
Poke around a li�le and see what you can find out.
As of the weekend of the event, the plates are
most likely being kept in
Krieger’s private mountain
vault in France. Other items
that have been stored in
this hyper secure facility
have all had a unique
radiation signature, so
it stands to reason that
the plates
will have it
t o o .
Could
be
137
 Words: J.R. Zambrano
Woosle’s Wonderlock Art: Hector Rodriguez

The Building
Woosle’s Wonderlock exploded onto the scene, dominates the neighborhood above and below.
literally, four years and 357 days ago in Geneva, During its operating hours, members of the bank
and since then has expanded to serve the magical can visit their vaults to make secure deposits--and
elite who wouldn’t dare keep their money in that if you believe the rumors, keep all manner of
vault in London where poor people can just walk in questionably legal goods, magical and mundane,
and store their pittance alongside valuable stored away from prying eyes. The bank is warded
treasures. It is a testament to the magical against every known form of scrying. The few
community’s progress. It’s a masterpiece of wizards who have been brave enough to try to
elegant, modern design--at least as far as the peek into Wonderlock are still recovering in
wizarding world goes, which means it looks very S██████’s, repeating to any who ask: “Woosle’s
much like a 19th-century brownstone, only it’s Wonderlock is the bank that can’t be beat--just ask
made out of white marble. A sleek W emblazoned me, I tried!”
on the front of the building serves as its only
signage as well as a focus for some of the magical
wards on the front of it. It The bank was designed
by Gryphantheus Aegilwald Schorff-Thratt
Woosle, a mysterious recluse’s mysterious recluse.
Rumor has it he was one of the few to profit off of
the war in the 90s, hanging onto the wealth of
those who sided with the dark lord, and then
pocketing three kingdoms’ worth of treasure
when the war came to its sudden close. The
building itself exploded onto the scene almost five
years ago, causing quite a stir when it pushed aside
Drindlewell’s Clocks, Gormanth’s Gizzards, and
Hildebrandt’s Fine Dresses to claim the central
block of Fisk Alley.

The old buildings weren’t destroyed, just bent

out of shape. Though their owners have long
since been priced out of the neighborhood, and
the buildings have been enfolded into the
Wonderlock. And all around it, Fisk Alley has
changed. No longer is it the quiet backstreet in
Geneva, where fine wizarding artisans come to
ply their trade. It now exists to serve
Woosle’s elite clientele. If you
thought gentrification was bad, try
adding magic on top of it.

Speaking of, the Wonderlock is

nothing short of a magical marvel.
Woosle’s pride and joy, this bank
210
The bank can be split into three sections. First are
the public areas, where the elite can visit to be
pampered by Woosle’s exclusive services. These
include magical spas and saunas, complimentary
meals provided by a staff of willing bank-elves, a
centaur masseuse, and hot springs warmed by
Woosle’s pet dragon, Whimslydale. Normally the
lobby of the Wonderlock is all most people get to
see. It has a gift shop, a coffee shop, and a
wondrous view of downtown Geneva. However,
it’s been redecorated for the anniversary gala.
Wooslehashiredbackalltheartisanshepricedout
of the district to come and create a masterpiece of
opulence. We’ve seen goblins at work
constructing a miniature replica of the
Wonderlock’s explosive “founding,” pixies, nixies,
and sprites capering about with ingredients
enough for a thousand cakes -- or one incredibly
large one -- and a veritable army of serving staff
who are rehearsing their every move. From what
we can tell, the planned dinner consists of an
elaborately choreographed dance number that
brings each course to its guests. If you can dance
and own clothing suitable for a black-tie gala, you
might be able to blend in here.
Then there are the vaults themselves. Many are
located in the upper floors of the bank, where the
ultra-wealthy can be assured a private room that
magically manifests for whatever their needs
might be. Inside the upper vaults you’ll find the
standard array of illicit magical treasures. Magical
gems that capture souls; gold stolen from dragons;
crystallized light from a dark and baleful star that
whispers soft promises to all who hold it close. But
if there’s anywhere in the bank that you can duck
out of sight, it’s here. Woosle is obsessed with
privacy for his clients, and not even his staff can see
what goes on up here. Of course, first you’d have to
get into one of the private rooms. Should be easy
for your Crew; they’re the tops.
Then there are the Lower Vaults. These are
everything you’d expect. Minecarts that travel
impossibly fast along dangerous tracks that
definitely haven’t been updated or maintained
since the 1800s, despite being only five years old.
Caverns that suddenly drop off and lead into
unspeakable depths. A network of confusing
passages that intersect and shift -- this place is a
magical hazard. But if you can get down here, it’s a
great place to lose whatever heat might be on
you.
Woosle keeps this place locked up tight. Only the
most elite of the elite are allowed down here --
that or the ex-magical special forces who now
serve as a de facto wizarding security company.
The last thing the wizarding world needed was a
PMC, but Woosle created one. And now it patrols
thelowerhallsofthebank.Thisplaceisadungeon
and you’d better believe that here there be
dragons. And centaurs. And ogres. Woosle is fond
of hiring magical beasts to protect the scads of
other magical beasts that are supposedly kept
down here. Info coming out of the lower levels is
sketchy at best, but from what we can piece
together, there’s a whole magical ecosystem
brewing down here. The lower level comprises
four distinct “biomes” connected by railways and
other passages: a fiery desert, a windswept aerie, a
humid, swampy plant zone, and the obligatory
underwater level. There’s always one of those. We
don’t know which zone the gorgant is kept in, so
you’ll have to find that out once you’re down
there.
The Score
The wimple-maned gorgant is an incredibly rare
version of the typical gorgant, born under the most
unlikely set of circumstances. We won’t bore you
with the details -- you don’t need to know that
much about the moon. Suffice it to say this
creature is typically one of a kind. With a silky
black coat, shot through with russet specks, horns
made of coalesced moonlight, fluffy wings, and a
tuft of fur that should have a “gorget-shaped
pa�ern” at its base, this beast is strange to look at.
But it’s worth a fortune to our client, who wants to
see it released from captivity, and has promised to
pay extra for any other beast that should happen
to escape during the a�empts.
Of course, if you’re careful, you could probably
secure an extra payday from the vaults as well.
211
 Modern Security Systems
Heather Rusk
CCTVeverywhereinthebuilding.There’sadooronthemainfloormarkedCCTVoperator.Itmay
1
or may not be occupied.
2 3 guards who patrol the building day and night.
A big safe at the end of the classic laser hallway. In this hallway, though, the lasers don’t turn on
3
the alarm. They laser you.
4 A card reader on every door. You’ve seen people swipe a li�le white card to get in the doors.
The door is hard to look at. It’s not ugly, exactly, but when you focus on it, it shifts and slips past
5
your a�en�on. There’s been an urban legend forever that this vault is haunted.
From a ways back, it looked like a standard number code panel on the wall. Now that you’re
6
close, the bu�ons have zodiac signs on them.
The door has a camera and a video screen next to it. There’s no sound from the screen. You’ve
7 watched someone hit the doorbell, and then make signs at the screen. Moments later the door
buzzes open
There’s a door with several biometric devices. Each time someone enters, a screen shows a
8 different biometric reading they must supply. There doesn’t appear to be a pattern to the read-
ings it wants.
There’s a desk in front of an office. An old man sits at the desk. He greets anyone who ap-
9
proaches with movie quotes. He won’t let you in unless you can supply the next line.
There’s a large panel of buttons. The buttons have braille markings, and no other. You need to
10
put in some kind of passphrase.
There are 2 doors, each with a button. Both buttons must be pressed at once, or neither door
11 opens. If you hold the button down on either one for too long, it will break the circuit and not re-
set for several hours. The doors don’t face each other, and there is no cell service in this area.
It’s a fully-functional security department: there’s guards, a few alarms on the most sensitive
12
areas, and consistent ligh�ng and surveillance.
There’s a vault in the sub-basement, or rather, there’s a rumour of a vault in the sub-basement.
13 There’s one door down there with no handle, but a prox reader. It doesn’t look like either of the
prox systems in use above ground.
Accounting works in an nondescript office cluster, oddly arranged around a central room that
14 doesn’t seem to have a door. They seem to not understand if someone visits them and asks
what’s in the middle. No employee who’s asked that ques�on stays employed very long.

140
 The front desk is staffed by two very nice people who love to help anyone get to where they’re
15
supposed to be. Theygreet everyonewho walks in thefront door. It’s veryhard to get past them.
16 All the doors are mag-locked.
It’s Cornpop, the company dog. He’s a very good boy, and heaven help you if he doesn’t recog-
17
nize your smell.
There seems to be RFID tagging on nearly everything in the area. Use a computer? RFID to un-
18 lock it. Door in or out? RFID. If you pass by a corner and the screen pulses, you’re expected to
RFID into the area to account for the mo�on sensors.
The building is locked down at night with roller shutters. They cover all the doors and windows,
19
and the control box to bring them up needs both a key and a code.
There are a series of alarm systems that cover different areas of increasing security. Each has a
standard user ID/code scheme set up, but each user ID has a different code for each area.
20
There’s someone on staff who will respond to any tripped alarms to try and help you get your
code sorted out.

141
 The Deroux Estate, Everdale
The Marquis’ 35th birthday

Marquis Deroux’s
Noon till late

Compulsory Party
The Marquis’ Room
clothes are
If the Marquis’tu rn to his
ruined, he’ll re ard nd a ser-
room with a gu. a
vant to change
�its is
Every one of hisnosiuve.
garish and expe

Main Floor Upper Floor

142
 Tonight is the Marquis Deroux’s 35th birthday, and the whole town of
Everdale has gathered to celebrate, because it’s the law. If you don’t
provide a gift, you are executed the morning after the party.
Our client forgot to send their gift in time. You’re outsiders and don’t
have gifts either, so you’ll be executed if you stick around. Your
mission is to break into the gift room, leave the gift, and either escape
or leave gifts yourselves. You’re also welcome to anything else you
find of value that would not be missed.

The Basement
oor — the
Really the firstaflin entrance
stairs to the mne storey.
are as tall as o
nded by
Everdale is suurrdoigu a few feet
swamp. If yo low the base-
outside or be it water.
ment, you’ll h

Entrance
s
The obvio
the front dus entrances are
entrance inoor or the guard
the back. ’s
If you have
you can re rope or a ladde
Marquess ach the late r,
The Menagerie ’
to make su room. You’d hav
If you’re feeling par�cularly don’t catc re the guards e
bold, Missy the gator laid Nobody’s h you, though.
allowed th
golden eggs. They’re in the ere.
shallow end of her pool.

143
 Marquis Deroux’s
Compulsory Party
The Building
The party is at the magnificent Deroux Estate, the
centerpiece of the town Everdale. Surrounding the
estate are various fruit-bearing trees, especially
peach and apple, as well as plants of all sorts given
as gifts. Outhouses are situated a respectable
distance from the entrance. A long marble
stairway leads to an ivory door surrounded by
Grecian pillars. The door is significantly higher
than any door in the Kingdom. A guard’s entrance
leads into the barracks in the “basement.” You can
also see a balcony on the upper floor leading to the
Marquess’ room.
The small parlor room leads into the ballroom,
which is almost as large as the entire first floor. The
grand staircase to the second floor is on the
eastern side of the room. People will be dancing,
eating, and drinking to celebrate the Marquis' 35th
birthday. There's a mahogany stage in the center
of the room, where musicians and entertainers of
allsortswillperform.Thisstagecanrisealltheway
up to the second floor. At the stroke of ten, the
Marquis’ favorite brass band will play, and the
stage will rise up near the ceiling to reveal all the
gifts Deroux has received this year. The Captain of
the Guard, Delphine Benoit, rises up with them
and gives them one by one to the Marquis. The gift
is opened, the person's name is read, there is brief
applause, and that person leaves.
Anyone left (aside from the Marquis) is executed
the next morning.
North of the ballroom is the dining room, which is
a yearly staging area for the kitchen staff’s
appetizers, drinks, and other delights. Sully (the
head cook) and his staff will be busy making gator
meatballs or amazing dishes in the kitchen to the
east. Some may be resting briefly in the kitchen
servants’ quarters to the furthest east.
144
Words: K. Roundtree
Art: Dyer Rose, Federico Sohns
All the servants’ quarters (upstairs and
downstairs) contain beds and storage chests, and a
communal chamber pot next to a window.
Upstairs, there’s a large hole in the center of the
floor, so the stage can be raised. To the north and
south of the staircase are two long, thin hallways
running east to west.
On the northern side, you can find the Marquis’
bedroom, which is as opulent and pretentious as
the Marquis himself.
The guest bedroom is on the far western side of
the north hall. There is a modest bed, a
chamberpot, and a dresser for the guest’s
possessions. Duke Cormier currently stays here.
On the western side of the second floor is a
balcony overlooking the ballroom. Some guests
will tarry here.
The late Marquess’ room is sealed off completely.
Nobody is allowed to enter on penalty of death. If
you were to get inside, you’d see a white room
covered in dust. There are several paintings of the
late Marquess with her son at various ages. The
bed is white lace, but modest. Atop the bed are her
wedding dress and her favorite green suit. A
balcony hangs outside of her room. This is
seemingly the only entrance that does not require
breaking the seal to the door. Underneath the bed
is a hidden hatch, with a ladder leading to a
twisting hallway. This leads to the basement
menagerie.
The laundry room has numerous washboards,
soaps, and other cleaning agents. There is always
at least one servant working here. It also contains
several sets of dirty and clean clothes, if you were
looking for a disguise.
The pantry is just below the kitchen. It has
“He’s been down this way already. Or has he? That room
looks familiar. But they all look familiar. It’s just… wait,
what was he thinking? He’s getting tired. So tired. Did
something brush against him? What was it? Nothing
around but shadows. Thick shadows. Is he seeing things?
They’re more liquid than light. Were those eyes? He can’t
go on. His energy’s fading. He just hit the ground. His
body’s giving up. Those eyes are the last thing he’ll see…”
clothing that covers most of your body can
provide a limited protection, but enchantments or
blessings are recommended.
The protection in the basement is less directly
dangerous, but can make stealth more difficult; it’s
effectively an antimagic bubble. The cultists of
course have a “key” of sorts that they weave into
their spells to bypass this, but most other
preternatural power simply seems to fail. In that
case, potentially dozens of empowered cultists is
likely security enough. But if you can figure out that
key…
In the Black Room, where the artifact will be kept
before the ritual, the only real protection is a lack
of light. There’s only one way into here, with thick
reinforced cement on all sides, making it difficult
to carve a new path. But nobody else should be
inside, unless they’re there to retrieve the object
themselves.
The Getaway
They’ll know when you take it. Maybe not
immediately, but they’ll know soon enough. Your
options, given the protections within the place, are
unfortunately limited. The simplest, if far from the
easiest option, is to simply backtrack the way you
came and hope you can leave before they notice
their pride and joy has been stolen. If you already
have a way to stop the wards, the spirits, and the
disorientation, it’s very unlikely to hit you any
harder going back than it did going in. Once you’re
outside of the Center, they’re unlikely to follow
you, at least in the sense of any conventional
chase.
Another way, for someone mystically inclined,
would be to very briefly tap into the artifact’s
power. If you know what you’re doing, you could
diminish the concept of matter enough to walk
throughthewalls,ordiminishtheconceptofspace
to the point of simply appearing outside. That said,
you could risk tearing a hole in reality, which is
what we’re here to stop in the first place, so
consider this a last resort. A very last resort.
Influences
TV Shows: “Supernatural” (especially S13E9 and
S2E12)
Books: “Skin Game” (The Dresden Files)

There’s one more thing worth mentioning… if they

do complete the ritual before we get to it, all isn’t
lost, but things become much more difficult.
We’ve estimated that the artifact’s power needs to
build for the first hour or so afterward, as it can’t
just let the other realm in one solid burst — it
needs to “trickle” inside. The magic can be
reversed in this period, but expect things to get
weird. Expect the aforementioned spirits to be
stronger and more blatantly hostile. Expect the
building itself to warp and change. Expect the
concept of physics itself to become more of a
“sugges�on” than a guarantee.

After that hour, though… well, don’t let that

happen.

221
 The Security
You’ll have to worry about the staff, your fellow
partygoers, and the Marquis himself. Keep in mind
there's a whole town’s worth of people here.
Guards patrol the grounds, of course. Most guard
the ballroom, but a few patrol the hallways. At
least one guard is always in front of the gift room.
Guards are issued a uniform, a sword or mace, a
blackjack, and a crossbow or pistol.
Officer Savinien will take time to visit the
Menagerie to make sure the animals are fed. This
isn’t his job and he’s been reprimanded several
times, but he cannot stand the conditions these
animals are kept in. If he had his way, they would
all be released into the wild or into proper homes.
He has a special affection for the dogs. He has a
shiny silver whistle on his person, and he gifted a
set of grooming brushes.
Officer Maggie will be less patrolling and more
wandering. She’s decided that she gets paid just as
much regardless of how hard she works, so she
doesn’t try. She’s in love with the Captain, but
thinks her crush is completely hopeless. She has no
possessions of note, and she gifted the Marquis
the same block of cheese she gi�s him every year.
Officer Honorine is always itching for a fight,
especially when she's bored. Guard duty on the
Marquis' birthday is generally very boring. She
really loves darts, and set up an impromptu board
in the barracks, and carries those darts on her.
Nobody wants to play her because she’s too good.
She gave the Marquis a wicked-looking mace.
Captain Benoit is loyal, but criminally underpaid.
She’s going through a divorce and is taking care of
her kids by herself. By far the toughest person
here. She doesn’t fight fair if she feels she will lose.
She will patrol the entire building, and will make
sure to be in the gi� room just before 10:00 p.m.
The Head Maid, Virginie, has been trying to
unionize the staff. She really wants the pay rates
from the wish room, so she can convince the
Captain that she’s being exploited. (She’s being
paidnearlythesameamountasMaggie).Shehasa
list of all the staff with their stance on unionizing.
146
She’s given the Marquis a loaf of homemade
bread.
SullyistheHeadCook.He’sreallybusyanddoesn’t
want you bothering him or his staff. He doesn’t
care what you do otherwise. He gave the Marquis
a wrapped charcuterie board with summer
sausage, various cheeses, and fish roe, properly
chilled.
Manny hates the Marquis and his job, but he’s
very good at accounting. The Marquis is terrible
about following Manny’s financial advice, and he
gets duty after duty after duty that is not in his job
description. Writing up the wishlists, making sure
people don’t go in the gift room, writing the
forbidden gifts list. He stays because there is little
other work he can do, and out of a duty to the late
Marquess. It is rumored that he is the Marquis’
true father. Manny isn’t telling, but they have very
similar eyes. He performs his job with tenacity, but
is brusque and ready to snap. He gave the Marquis
a hand-sized painting of the Marquess, which he
has had for years. Barring any other moving gifts,
this will be the Marquis’s favorite by far.
Duke Cormier talks at length about his brand new
timepiece. He claims it can predict the exact time
and date of your death. He’s prone to exaggerate,
especially to the Marquis. He’s in love with the
Marquis, but Deroux either doesn’t notice or
doesn’t care. He plans on proposing after the gift
ceremony. After his name is called, he will go
upstairs to the guest room and get the
engagement ring he hid. When he isn’t in the
ballroom with the Marquis, he’s checking on the
ring to make sure it's still there. If it isn’t, he’ll
throw a fit, and nobody throws a fit quite like Duke
Cormier. He gifted the book, “1,001 Tales of
Romance.”
Madame LeBlanc is covered head to toe in jewels,
and can give you a story about each one. She is
known as a cold, cruel person who treats servants
like dirt, but she is seemingly polite. She loves to
make mocking jokes about people, though the
Marquis assumes she’s doing this in good fun. She
is not. If the Marquis is humiliated, she’s delighted.
She has an especially keen eye for outsiders.
Unless you’re cautious, she will almost certainly
notice you sneaking about. If she does, she’ll tell
you to make it worth her while. This could be as
simple as embarrassing the Marquis, or as cruel as
stealing someone else’s gift, condemning them to
death. If not placated, she will tell the guards
exactly what you did, and maybe some things you
didn’t do. She gifted the book, “A Beginner’s Guide
to Decora�on.”
finds out his mother’s room has been broken into.
You could exit through the guard’s entrance,
though they will be fully mobilized in the event of
an alert. You could disguise yourself as a guard if
you avoid the Captain. She knows everyone who
works under her.

Sabin Francois is our client. To most, they’re a Madame LeBlanc’s horse and carriage is waiting
wealthy merchant who specializes in trinkets. outside for her to leave. It is designed to seat her
Manypartygoersboughtgiftsfromthem. Tosome, and several servants. It’s right there.
they’re a fence for stolen goods. They may provide
extra funds if you provide choice goods from the If you are found out, the Marquis will send a
palace. They’re normally quite gregarious and hun�ng party led by Captain Benoit.
rosy-cheeked, but they seem quite sickly today.
It’s in their best interest that we succeed, but they
aren’t skilled at skullduggery. The best they could Influences
possibly do is distract someone in conversation if Video games: The "Hitman" series, The “Thief”
you needed to sneak around. series
The Marquis Olivier Deroux is the first to mention Literature: Terry Pratche�, “Guards! Guards!”
his own generosity. He gifts Everdale jobs, his
presence, and lovely parties, so it’s only natural
that the populace repay him in kind. He owes it to
them to be strict, and allows no exceptions, unless
it would be particularly exciting or dramatic..
He is personable enough, but brings most
topics of conversations back to himself. He
favors burgundy, lime green, and lavender
clothing. He always wears a red cavalier hat
with a green feather given by his late mother.
He doesn’t like talking about her. It fills him
with melancholy. He will stay in the
ballroom unless urgent matters call him
elsewhere.

If the gift room is destroyed, he won’t

execute anyone, except the ones
responsible. He will be out for blood.

The Getaway
If each of you leaves a personal gift for the
Marquis,youcanstayforthewholepartyandlikely
won’t have to escape.

If you don’t, there are a few op�ons.

You can jump off the balcony from the second

floor outside. This will have the added bonus of
shocking the Marquis, as he’ll likely faint when he
147

The End
The Building
The Last Island is a nexus of creation and
destruction. It is all that is left of the Universe, and
here as reality becomes unbound, everything
takes a last furious stab at existence. Gods,
monsters, myths, legends, aliens, robots, sentient
colors, and bad jokes abound. This is the last place
anything will ever be. And somewhere, amid all
this, you’ll find the End of the Universe.
It’s hard to make a map when everything is
constantly shifting. But the island generally seems
to trend towards stability, the closer you get to
the center of it. Near the shores are the creatures
and places that never existed. You might walk past
a colossal behemoth from outside reality, beached
against a world it was never meant for. You might
find a library full of books written by everyone who
always had a book inside them but never let it out.
You might get swept up in the roiling storms of
reality that sweep through and unmake everything
caught in them, leaving behind only raw, barren
rock and strangely helical craters, so be careful.
Closer in are the Fields of Ending, which sounds
poetic, but it’s also where at least a dozen
armageddons are happening -- the forces of Good
and Evil are lining up to get one last scrap in to see
who gets bragging rights as the universe closes up
(and they are zealous about finding recruits). Great
devouring aliens from the furthest galaxies are
swallowing an ever-shifting sea of strange stars as
the more belligerent gods egg everything on.
World Trees from at least a dozen non-human
mythologies burn. Or blossom. Or split in twain.
Holding out amid the various final battles is also
where you’ll find the Bastion. This is the last
holdout for folks who just want to go about their
day. It would be truly spectacular if it weren’t all
ending -- these disparate beings from across space
and time and imagination all gathered here to just
try and get by. Now it’d be impossible to catalogue
everything, but our intel says the only ones you
224
Words: J.R. Zambrano
Art: Hector Rodriguez,
Donald Kirby
really need to worry about are the Archetypes.
These are universal concepts but also individuals
with their own personalities and wants and needs,
and it’s weird if you think about it too much.
As you might expect, all the mythic ones like the
Ruler, the Creator, the Seer, the Lover, the Origin of
Life, the Trickster, and so on can be found here. But
there’s a lot more to reality than that, so you might
also find the Merchant, the Innkeeper, the
Annoying Neighbor, the Nerd, the Weirdo, the
Rebel (cause optional), the Busybody, the
Beekeeper, the Country Doctor, the Teen
Detective, the Anachronistic Prospector, Crono
and the gang from Chrono Trigger, and, well, you
get the idea. Not all of them take too kindly to
interlopers.
The skies above the island are a raw, roiling storm
of reality called the Sundered Empyrean. While
the island is relatively stable, the skies are pure
creation--everythingexistsallatonceinitsrawest
state.Andrunningrightdownthemiddleisagreat,
ominous crack, hence the "Sundered" part of the
name. We don’t know what’s behind it, but we do
know that floating amid the Sundered Empyrean is
a still-functional research station that was
originally meant to study black holes (relatively) up
close and personal.
They really don’t make ‘em like they used to -- it’s
still intact after countless aeons. If you can
manage to get aboard, you might learn something
from the instruments inside. There’s no telling if it’s
been affected by the storm of reality. We know an
artificial intelligence helps run it, maintaining a
staff of robots, but surprisingly there are also plain
ordinary humans aboard, who are still carrying out
their duties. Guess the human spirit really is
indomitable.
Research Station Mu-Beta-0 is sturdily built for the
scientist on the go. There are three main research
If they do the job successfully, they annoy the
Bigger Fish, or they involve the Fifth Wheel, or the
Amateur sells them out.
If they don’t, they owe the Nasty Bastard, and if
they don’t pony up, the Invincible will be after
them.
Enter the Sleaze, or the Amateur, who can put
them onto a way of settling their debts: the Money
Spinner.
The Money Spinner is such a poisoned chalice that
the PCs need a third go-round to clear the decks;
they need the Real MacGuffin, the thing that will
actually make their problems go away. Whatever
they steal here will give them the leverage they
need over the Nasty Bastard. They will, of course,
be competing with the Invincible, or the Fifth
Wheel, or both.
In the aftermath of this second job, all the plates
are now spinning. Success, here, means avoiding
or removing the Invincible and setting up a Fifth
Wheel to take either the Bigger Fish or Nasty
Bastard out of play. And from a dramatic point of
view, it means the Real MacGuffin ends up in the
hands of the PCs at the end, even if their endgame
is to sell it back to the Bigger Fish.
One final note. Not every scene in these stories
involves the PCs. It’s OK — arguably necessary —
to have things happen offstage so those plates fall
down in a satisfying way. The world of your game
can’t sit there inert when a PC isn’t looking at it; the
world needs to be dynamic, and your supporting
cast need to be working toward their goals in-
between the actual heists.
The Characters
The Nasty Bastard
Usually an older male character. Well-connected,
feared more than respected, fingers in a lot of pies,
holds the strings on a lot of people -- including the
PCs. The Nasty Bastard put the MacGuffin Up
Front in front of the PCs, in all likelihood — but they
know it’s a harder score than they’re letting on,
and if it goes wrong, the PCs will be in their debt
and need the Money Spinner to pay them off.
The Nasty Bastard is almost untouchable — but
not quite. They have one weakness; one deep dark
secret that would ruin them if it got out, one
enemy they can’t afford to cross, one thing they
want so badly they make life complicated for
themselves. For the PCs, eliminating the threat of
the Nasty Bastard involves finding out who or what
that is, and ge�ng their hands on it somehow.
It might be a file — a little black book or secret
deposition with everyone they’ve ever screwed
over written down. It might be an objet d’art —
something of enormous sentimental value, or
something that would complete a collection, or
something their old mum left behind. It might be
the Bigger Fish — the corrupt banker or cop or
politician who makes what they do possible and
could be “persuaded” to retire or confess by a
group who had the dirt on them. But most likely,
it’s a loose cannon; an armed and dangerous Fifth
Wheel who’ll clean house if they have a
mo�va�on.
The Invincible
The Invincible or Invincibles are real hard cases.
They’re stone cold killers, and only one person —
generally the Nasty Bastard, but sometimes the
Bigger Fish — can keep them on a chain. Our Mr.
Ritchie likes his Invincibles Russian, for some
reason.
The Invincible can’t be beaten, unless you take
them by surprise or really wear them down, and
can’t be bought: they’re motivated mostly by
loyalty. They do the job they’re paid to do, for the
person who pays them to do it. Mostly, paying off
or taking out their employer removes them from
the field, too. Occasionally, the Invincible will keep
coming, out of deep-seated loyalty or a nastier-
than-average personality, in which case you’re
down to Plan B: Distraction. Throwing the Fifth
Wheel in their way, or setting up a bigger target
they don’t work for? Digging up their own deep
dark secret or finding the one thing they’ll detour
hard to protect? That works.
The Bigger Fish
What separates the Bigger Fish from the Nasty
Bastard? Class, with everything that word
149
 connotes. The Bigger Fish is richer, better
connected, more powerful, and — at first glance
and on superficial inspection — more dignified
and be�er behaved.
The Bigger Fish isn’t interested in the Money
Spinner, although they might well own it or at least
control it indirectly. They’re not even that
interested in the MacGuffin Up Front. They’ve
passed the point where conventional wealth is
really of interest to them. But they often have
niche interests; they collect something rare and
unusual, or there’s something of extreme
sentimental value to them and merely extreme
value to everyone else. The Bigger Fish puts the
Real MacGuffin in play. Their endgame is getting
the Real MacGuffin, and they’ll kill to get their
hands on it. To get the Bigger Fish out of play is a
ma�er of death or capitula�on.
The Amateur
TheAmateur’sasmall-timer,evensmallerthanthe
PCs. They might have some essential skill, gear or
intel that the PCs need, and they’re often the weak
link in the Fi�h Wheel’s opera�on.
BUT: they can’t be trusted. The Amateur will
crumble in the face of the Nasty Bastard, if they’re
not working for the Nasty Bastard already and in
their pocket all along. If the Bigger Fish or the
Invincible get involved, the Amateur is a dead man
walking. If they have anything going for them, it’s
the Invincible in their pocket, and without the
Invincible they’re no threat at all. The Amateur, in
short, is a liability, and if you have the opportunity
to remove them from play in a lethal fashion to
show the stakes are raised, they’re the logical
choice to be removed.
Your players are likely to object to this. The
Amateur, as an exploitable weakness, is an
advantage to them, and players don’t appreciate
having their advantages taken away even if it is for
the sake of the story. Which is fair enough. So the
Amateur does need to give the players something
of direct and substan�ve use for a job.
It can help to make the Amateur complicit in the
first heist of the story, and the cock-up that makes
the second heist necessary; your players might see
150
fit to remove the useless git themselves, and at the
very least are unlikely to mourn the Amateur’s
passing if the Amateur is a liability to them.
The Sleaze
The Sleaze doesn’t get their hands dirty. They’re a
white-collar, hands-off kind of criminal; on the
edge of the rough life, happy to profit from it, but
mostly dealing with money and secrets, not goods
and guns. The Sleaze is generally in the Nasty
Bastard’s pocket, or the Bigger Fish’s; they
generally have the leads on at least one of the
MacGuffins, and can point the PCs in the direction
oftheMoneySpinner.Andifyou’reabouttohitthe
third act and need to ramp up the tension, the
SleazecaninvolvetheFifthWheelortheInvincible.
The Sleaze is, a�er all, a coward.
If you’re looking for a kickstart for the story, the
Sleaze can provide it. If you need someone to
replace the Amateur in the second or third act, the
Sleaze is there waiting in the wings. If you need to
finally fence the Real MacGuffin at the end of it all,
the Sleaze is waiting behind the desk they’ve
occupied, fairly comfortably, throughout the
whole thing.
The Fi�h Wheel
The Fifth Wheel is where the complications start
coming from. The Fifth Wheel owns the Money
Spinner, and has been deeply put out by the PCs
interfering with it. The Fifth Wheel is dangerous,
often a match for the Invincible if they can get the
advantage of surprise, but is also late to the party
and running to catch up with the plot.
Withinthestorystructure,theFifthWheelappears
at the end of the first act, and enters play in the
third; it’s the Fifth Wheel blundering in to enact
directandbrutalvengeancethatmakeseverything
start turning toward a conclusion. Once they have
theMoneySpinnerinhand,thePCsshouldfeelthe
pressure as the Fifth Wheel starts spinning toward
them, and the denouement of the story usually
triggers when the Fifth Wheel is misdirected into
the Nasty Bastard.
To really complicate matters, introduce two Fifth
Wheels; one’s running their own heist, parallel to
the PCs’, and the other one is the target. Why’s it
relevant to the PCs? Because the Real MacGuffin
or the Money Spinner is involved, and there’s a
perfect opportunity for the PCs to sweep in and
make off with it at the end, pulling their own heist
a�er the heist. What could possibly go wrong?
The Heists
The MacGuffin Up Front
The score in the first heist, and the objective of the
first act. The Nasty Bastard is dangling it in front of
the PCs, but there’s a catch (there’s always a catch)
which makes that first heist a no-win situation for
the PCs. If they pull it off, the Amateur enters play
and escalates matters; if they don’t, the Nasty
Bastard owns them now, and they need the
Money Spinner to buy their way out.
The MacGuffin Up Front should be something
directly and obviously valuable. It should be
portable and easily mislaid. A diamond the size of a
baby’s fist, an amount of cash that fits in a gym bag,
the keys to a safe-deposit box: something that can
easily get lost on a plane, mixed up in a pocket, left
in a glove compartment, eaten by a dog if that’s
what it takes to complicate ma�ers.
The Money Spinner
As the objective of the second act, the Money
Spinner is an activity, rather than an object. It
produces enough cold hard cash that it can
become a sort of temporary MacGuffin. It’s not
what the Bigger Fish actually wants, and it’s not
what the Nasty Bastard originally wanted, but it’s a
substitute; enough to get the Nasty Bastard off the
PCs’ backs and enough to bring the Fifth Wheel
into play when it’s interfered with.
What you’re looking for here is an operation. Fight
clubs, drug houses, gambling rings, black
marketeering of all kinds: that’s the sort of thing
the Amateur is involved in, the Fifth Wheel owns
and oversees, and the Nasty Bastard has half an
eye on. It might not be the target of a heist in its
own right, but the Money Spinner is a vital
complicating factor. Getting hold of it, or more
accurately the proceeds from it, puts the PCs in
such a pickle that they need the Real MacGuffin to
get themselves out of it.
The Real MacGuffin
The score in the second heist, and the objective of
the third act. Ideally, it should be a known factor in
the unfolding cascade of cock-ups, entering play in
the second act; this is the unknown element you
drop on your PCs that allows them to bring
everything together.
The Bigger Fish is after the Real MacGuffin —
whether it’s something they want stolen or
something stolen from them doesn’t really matter,
but it’s theirs and they want it back and deadly
force will be employed to secure it.
Money won’t do the trick here. The Real
MacGuffin is something unique and irreplaceable.
Think antiques, artworks, jewelry. It needs to be
distinctive — the Bigger Fish needs to recognize it
at a glance. Ideally, it’s something pawnable, but
hard to sell at its true value; there needs to be
some incentive for the PCs to keep hold of the
damn thing.
The Real MacGuffin might also be the single point
of failure for the Nasty Bastard. Maybe they’re
racing the Bigger Fish to get their hands on it,
maybe the Bigger Fish wants them to get it back.
Maybe the Sleaze knows about it and sets it up for
the PCs.
Finally, the Real MacGuffin might be a person. The
Sleaze or the Amateur may be in possession of
such dangerous knowledge that whoever has
them in hand will come out on top in the end; all
your PCs have to do is keep them safe from
everyone who wants them silenced because they
know too much…
151
 Asgard
A Fortnight before

Stealing Fire from Winter Solstice

The Gods’ Own Hearth

Sleeping Quarters
In Sessrúmnir, this houses
thousands of warriors.
Freyja’s longhouse sleeps a
god.

Sessrúmnir
Freyja’s hall of valor, fi
the brim with warrio lled to
will rally to her aid if rs who
anything happens.

152
 It is the longest night of the year, and Asgard is full of bustle and
celebration. Despite this, observers note a sense of unease, for some
fear Ragnarök is at hand. Whether this is subterfuge or prophecy, time
alone will tell; for enterprising thieves, it’s a chance for the heist of
a lifetime. With Freyja’s Necklace in your possession, you will be
legends; skalds will sing your fame for ages to come. That is, if you can
get the necklace and escape -- with your lives.

Working Hall
No hall looks ex
Sessrúmnir. actly like
The central
clockwise frosemc�on,
butchery, kitch the top:
and workroomen, pantry,

The Main Doors

The only way guests may
enter the feas�ng hall.
Guarded by Alvhild
Sagada�er and her
girlfriend, Svana.

153
 Stealing Fire from
The Gods’ Own Hearth
The Building
Welcome to Asgard, where the gods make their
home. It is one of the nine worlds, a vast realm of
verdant fields, nigh-impassable rivers, and grand,
imposing mountains. Asgard is divided into
numerous realms, each ruled over by a different
god. All kinds of beings live or travel here, including
gods, jötnar, dwarves, dark elves, light elves,
valkyries, even humans. To attain your prize, you’ll
need to travel immense distances, facing many
dangers and monstrous creatures; make your way
past warriors and other safeguards intended to
keep out interlopers; and steal a powerful god’s
most prized possession while surrounded by the
most powerful beings in existence.
To steal the necklace, you'll need to come within
arm’slengthofthegoddessFreyja.Youwillfindher
in one of four places -- Fólkvangr, her field of valor;
Sessrúmnir, her hall where she welcomes half of
those who die in battle; her home, which no
person may enter without her permission; or
Valhalla, Odin’s hall where the gods gather daily to
discuss matters of governance. If you want a fun
storyforawinter’sevening,askoneoftheskaldsto
tell you the tale of Odin and the sons of Borr, and
the crea�on of the world.
(The story goes that in the center of the great void
Ginunngagap lived Ymir, ancestor of all the jötnar,
and Auðumbla, the primordial cow whose milk
nourished him. Auðumbla licked salt from the rime
stones of Niflheim, revealing Búri, father to Borr.
Borr married a jötunn, Bestla, and they had three
sons -- Odin, Vili, and Vé, who killed Ymir and
carved the world from his remains. From Ymir's
body, the sons of Borr fashioned the world -- from
his bones, the hills; from his blood, the oceans and
lakes, and the seas to encircle the earth. They
continued their toil until nothing of Ymir remained;
usinghishairforthetrees;hisskullfortheheavens;
his brain for the clouds; his teeth for pebbles and
rocks;andMidgardtheymadefromhisbrows.And
thus Nilfheim’s poison permeated all creation, for
154
Words: JW van Heerden
Art: Dyer Rose, Federico Sohns
Ymir was born from the poisonous vapors from its
icy rivers, and the poison remains at work across
the nine realms. It yet persists in Niflheim, where
the rime awaits the thaw of Ragnarök, when all
conflict will be brought to a final confrontation and
the world will be reborn.)
Fólkvangr is a beautiful green meadow, with
rolling hills stretching out towards the mountains
in the distance. It resounds with shouts, laughter,
and the clash of swords as valkyries and warriors
prepare for Ragnarök -- the end of the world.
Travelling merchants and blacksmiths come here
from many other realms, bringing victuals, armor,
weapons,trinkets,andothertributes.Inthecenter
of Fólkvangr stands Sessrúmnir. It is a tremendous
longhouse large enough to accommodate
thousands of warriors, valkyries, and visitors. It has
many exits in case of war and servants' entrances,
but guests must enter through the main doors,
which are guarded by two valkyries. You may be
able to pass yourselves off as a group of
merchants and blacksmiths, or as servants, so
long as you do your research and come
appropriately prepared.
The hall itself is a wooden structure built atop
layers of stone and covered in a thick layer of turf.
The walls are sturdy and impervious to assault
while also providing insulation. They consist of two
‘courses’ of turf, each four feet wide, separated by
a layer of gravel. Inside, at the top of the building,
two roofbeams run the length of the hall. Pillars at
regular intervals support the roofbeams; a
crossbeam above these pillars connects the
roofbeams and supports the roof ridge beam with
another, shorter pillar. In Sessrúmnir and Valhalla,
these roofbeams and roof ridge beams are
impossibly long, as if they were built from the
bones of Ymir himself. Wooden beams along the
roofbeams support the upper and lower rafters.
Each set of rafters consists of two pieces of wood,
connected at an angle to form the distinctive
shape of an upturned ship. Wooden panels at the
base of the walls hide the lower rafters from view,
while also creating a space known as a skot, meant
to prevent wood rot -- but it is also large enough for
a human to pass through or hide in. Likewise, an
enterprising thief may be able to make their way
around via the roof beams -- if they can find a way
up there in the first place.
Apart from the main hall, the building also includes
an enormous skáli or kitchen. Here servants grind
flour, bake bread, churn butter, and prepare meat
and vegetables for roasting, while others carry
dishes back and forth. The exit from this room
leads to a nearby pantry and a butchery where
fresh meat is prepared daily. A short corridor leads
to a large workroom with looms and worktables,
where warriors practice crafts like weaving,
sewing, and leatherwork. The sleeping quarters,
on the opposite end of the building, can
accommodate at least a thousand warriors. Near
this room is the exit leading to the lavatories,
situated some way away from the main building.
Inside, a row of evenly-spaced fire pits runs down
the center of the hall, in a sunken part of the floor.
Hundreds of benches and tables are arranged on
both sides of the hall. Above each pit, a wood-lined
smoke hole in the roof acts like a chimney,
providingawayforsmoketoleavethebuildingand
for light to stream in. Like Odin’s hall, it is filled with
a tumult of warriors, valkyries, and other guests.
Those gathered here are fiercely loyal to the
goddess and tolerate none who wish her harm.
The heavy oak doors are intricately carved by the
finest artisans and illustrate various scenes from
legends representing the goddess’s fields of
influence. They can be shut and locked from inside
or outside.
A few leagues west is Freyja’s home, in a pleasant
grove of trees that is always mild. This is a
beautiful, strong turf house, large enough to
accommodate 20 people, although only her
husband and two daughters ever shared it with
her. The main hall is a large, open room, where
Freyja and her guests can sit in comfortably around
tables arranged around a large fire pit. Its structure
matches that of the larger hall, although its
dimensions are easier to grasp and is divided into
multiple rooms. No one can enter without
permission. The general layout matches
Sessrúmnir’s, with Freyja’s bedroom towards the
back of the longhouse, but with a much smaller
skáli and pantry, and no butchery or workroom.
Odin’s hall has 540 entrances, although Valgrind is
its most famous; equally famous is Glasir, the most
beautiful tree in the nine worlds, that stands in
front of the building. It is surrounded by a lush and
fruitful meadow, where the goat Heiðrún and the
hart Eikþyrnir wander. If you take the time to wait
outside, you might even see them milking the goat
-- not for milk, but for the excellent mead served to
those in Odin’s hall. It’s possible that you might
intercept and tamper with this in some way, but a
lot of people are drinking in that hall -- you’ll need
to find some way to affect everyone at the same
time, or make sure that the altered mead reaches
the right table.
Several guests may be visiting Asgard while you are
there. One is Aegir, a sea jötunn who is a friend of
the gods and has hosted them at his own fantastic
feasts. Another is Sigurðr, a famous warrior who is
fated to battle a dragon before his death. Likewise,
rumors also suggest that Freyja may have invited
some of the Brísing smiths who made her
necklace. No one has seen the Brísings or can
remember who they are, exactly, except that they
are dwarves. Presumably Freyja knows, but she
may only have known where to send the
messengers -- not to whom. She is also said to be
expecting the return of a powerful valkyrie,
Brynhildr, who has spent long years away from
Asgard, engaged in private business on her
mistress’s behalf.
155
 The Score her necklace three times: once when Loki stole it,
once when Freyja became so angry that it broke,
Describing Brísingamen as an amber necklace is and once when Thor borrowed it to impersonate
like describing Mjollnir as a hammer, Yggdrasil as a her at a wedding. Those last two events are
tree, or Fenris as an angry wolf. We know next to related, incidentally. The skalds tell of the king of
nothing about the method of its construction, the jötnar, who stole Thor's hammer and as
except that it was forged by Brísing smiths and that ransom demanded Freyja's hand in marriage.
the craftsmanship is incomparable. It's made Freyja's rage at this affront was great enough to
from strands of solid gold, woven together to shake the halls and break Brísingamen clean off
resemble a hempen cord and burnished brighter her neck. Heimdallr convinced Thor to
than sunlight on freshly fallen snow. The front of impersonate Freyja at the prospective wedding,
the necklace is set with three amber gems of borrowing Brísingamen to make the disguise
varying sizes, each burning with the fires of a convincing. Needless to say, the festivities did not
thousand forges. Together, the effect is like three go according to the king's plans -- Freyja got her
suns se�ng in a broiling sea. necklace back, the giants got a new king, and
Thor gave the skalds a memorable
Freyja herself cuts a magnificent tale.
figure. You can recognize her by
her red-gold hair, her cloak of It's unclear whether the
eagle feathers, and necklace contains any inherent
Brísingamen. Freyja magic or bestows any powers
and her father came on its wearer. After having Loki
here ages ago as steal it from her, Freyja may
hostages, part of have taken precautions, so
the peace you may need to find some
settlement that way to obscure it from scrying,
ended the Aesir- warding, or similar magics.
Vanir war and And you should check it for
united the two any protective runes before
clans. Today she touching it.
is a respected
deity associated The Security
with sexuality,
love, marriage, The only way for mortals to
and magic, often reach Asgard -- apart from
invoked by lovers dying as heroes -- is to travel
and people who the Bifröst, the burning
wish for children. rainbow bridge linking it to
A giant boar, Midgard. You will need to get
Hildisvíni, is her past its famous guard, Heimdallr
constant companion, whether she is travelling in the ever-vigilant, who watches
her glittering chariot drawn by two house cats, from his fine house Himinbjörg for
moving among the warriors in her hall, or threats, invaders, and signs of
attending the daily assembly with the other gods. Ragnarök. He drinks excellent
The people of Midgard (or Earth, if you insist) mead from a private stock of
appreciate her generosity and her no-nonsense barrels stored nearby. Although Loki’s tricks have
attitude to matters of love and sex, but the given him a reputation as “a bit of a rube”, his
inhabitants of Asgard respect her formidable hearing and eyesight are unmatched. If he spots
temper and ferocity in ba�le. anything amiss, he will blow the great horn
Gjallarhorn in warning.
As far as we know, she's only been separated from
156
Two valkyries guard each entrance to the feasting
halls. These are seasoned warriors, and each
would be a formidable foe. But they’re also within
shouting distance of a horde of warriors who’ve
spent centuries preparing for the end of the
world. This should go without saying, but it’s best
to avoid open conflict as you will be significantly
outnumbered. The valkyries are generally
impervious to bribes, blackmail, and threats, but
trickery is an honored tradition and may provide
some means to escape their wrath -- if you can
prove that you did so honorably.
When it comes to Freyja’s hall, unless the fates
intervene in your favour, be prepared to entreat
with Alvhild Sagadatter and her girlfriend -- a
formidable pair who have fended off innumerable
interlopers wishing to gain an audience with the
goddess. Alvhild herself is an unmissable,
imperious figure -- towering over prospective
entrants to the hall, with long brown hair and
searching eyes that assess all visitors
impartially. If you wish to get past her,
you’ll need more than bribes or flattery.
Once you have found your way inside the
halls,youshouldbefine--solongasyou
do not draw the gods’ ire for some slight
or insult. You are allowed to approach
the gods directly, but beware of doing
so in a way that might seem
overfamiliar or disrespectful -- unless
you wish to make yourself a distraction
in the most fatal way possible.
or directly, even for gods, so it’s possible this has
been hidden from them. If the rumors about
impending Ragnarök are true, and this is destined
to be the final solstice, the more urgent danger
may hide the lesser threat. Perhaps they know
something of what will happen, but not enough to
preventyoufromsucceeding.Eitherway,travellers
near Gálgviðr swear that they heard the rooster
Fjalar crow, while others heard growling from the
cave of Gnipahellir -- known portents that
Ragnarök is at hand.
Youwillneedtofindawaytorelievethegoddessof
her necklace without her noticing -- or without
any of the gods being able to catch up to you. You
could look for some way to obscure the theft itself,
or you could create a diversion. You might be able
to provoke the gods or their guests into a rage or a
combat of wits. You might even choose Freyja
herself, provoking her enough to repeat her earth-
shaking display of fury -- but then you'll have an
enraged goddess to contend with. Of course, gods
and jötnar aren’t the only ones primed for a fight;
you may want to mingle among the gods and the
guests to find poten�al tensions to exploit.

Several of thefigures you can expect to

meet in Asgard have some gift of
prophecy or foresight. This
includes Frigg, Freyja, and
Heimdallr. Frigg and Freyja both
practice seiðr -- Norse magic that
includes divination and the
weaving of fate, not to mention
hostile magic and curses. You may
want to carry a few protective
runes, in case someone notices you
making the attempt and decides to
hurl some curses at you. Frigg is
reputed to foresee the future,
although she never shares her
prophecies. Fortunately, prophecy
and visions never work in obviously
157
 You could attempt to convince Loki to aid you in
some way. He is unlikely to steal the necklace
himself--heneverrepeatsatrick--buthenursesa
powerful grudge against the Asgardians, and may
Those who are especially daring may attempt
Location to
climb the great tree Yggdrasil itself. Be Year wary,
though, for Midgard is only one of nine realms you
may end up traversing. You should familiarise Time

Heist Title Goes Here

consider it a good way to take it out on Freyja. Play
your cards right, and you may even get free
passage to Jötunheimr. Of course, you’d still need
to escape Jötunheimr with the necklace in your
possession -- but that’s a problem for later. Beware
of any deals he offers you, though, and remember
that he is as likely to turn on you as to aid you.
A final note. It seems the necklace is tied together
by a fish-hook clasp. If you can get into arms’ reach
of her, and remove the necklace without being
spotted, and can escape before anyone realises
what has happened -- then the necklace itself will
be rela�vely easy to remove.
The Getaway
yourselves with the dangers and opportunities
posed by each realm, for they are as varied as they
are immense. In particular, beware lest you end up
in Niflheim, the world of mist, or Muspelheim, the
realm of fire, for these are most treacherous to
mortals. Little is known of Vanaheim, the home of
the wise and long-lost Vanir, for few have travelled
from there or back since the war long past.
Regardless of the route you take, be sure to move
swiftly and obscure your path, for the wrath of the
gods is long and far-reaching. Tricky, but not
insurmountable for clever thieves, surely?
Influences
Inspired by - Freyja Katra Erlingsdó�r

Of course, once they notice the missing necklace,
you’ll have an entire pantheon hunting you to the
ends of the nine worlds. You might be able to buy
yourself some time by being subtle, or clever, or by
going undetected, but it’s unwise to tarry once
you’ve got a hold of the prize. So you need to be
verysureofhowyou’regoingtomakeyourescape.
Fortunately, you have several op�ons.
Television: Vikings (2013); Norsemen (2016)
Video Games: "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" (2011)
Music: Bjork - "Medúlla;" A-Ha - "Cry Wolf;" Arch
Enemy - "Breaking the Law;" Richard Wagner -
"Ride of the Valkyries"

You could try to escape via the rainbow bridge

between Asgard and Midgard. To do that, you'd
need to enter Himinbjörg, Home of Heimdallr, the
ever-vigilant,whosesensesareunparalleled.Good
luck with that.

While you are getting the necklace, you could

attempt to steal Freyja's eagle coat, which turns its
wearer into an eagle capable of flying between
worlds. You’d need to find out how it works
beforehand, and then you have the problem that
only one person would be able to wear it.
Alternatively, you could steal Thor's wagon, which
he keeps at his hall, Bilskírnir, in Þrúðvangr
(Thrudvang in common speech), unless he has
come to Valhalla for the daily thing. Another
possibility is to steal Sleipnir, Odin’s eight-legged
horse, which is attested as the greatest of all
horses. Of course, this would mean provoking
Freyja even further or angering equally powerful
gods and adding to the risk.
158
159
 San Jenaro Natural History Museum
December 2021
Night
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ho but
Not sureour advantage,.
that to a clever bunch
you’re

Primitive Humans
Exhibit
The vampires have this area
set up with numerous
cap�ve humans for feeding.

We’re already in for a tough

job, but if we can help,
that’d be our good deed for
the century.
160
 Jennica Jones is performing at a private party at the San Jenaro
Natural History Museum. That wouldn’t be a problem, except the party’s
being held by a bunch of vampires who are bidding for the right to
turn her into one of them. To the monsters, she’s a prize, a trophy.
We’re going to get in and get her out.
The Stage
the party.
The focal point of
�on will go
It’s where the auc
down.
we’re
The place wheereperformance
gonna give th
of a life�me.

Insect Exhibition
Clandes�ne mee�ngs
happening here.
Might serve for a good dis-
trac�on or source for black-
mail.

161

The Dead Man’s Party Job
Background
It’s said that when Jennica Jones plays the piano,
the world listens. She’s a once-in-a-generation
talent. Truly hypnotic. It’s impossible to look away
when she’s playing. Go ahead. Look her up on
YouTube. I’ll wait.
See what I mean?
Tonight, she’s performing at a private party at the
San Jenaro Natural History Museum. That
wouldn’t be a problem, except the party’s being
held by a bunch of vampires, and it’s not just a
party -- it’s an auc�on!
The vampires are bidding for the right to turn her
into one of them. If she becomes a vampire, she
can’t perform for the public anymore, her talent
will be forever locked away, but they don’t care. To
the monsters, she’s a prize, a trophy, a symbol of
status to hang on the altar of conspicuous
consumption. The highest bidder gets to control
her art.
We’re going to get in and get her out. The
problem is, the vampires can’t know until she’s a
safe distance away. That means one of us has to
stay and pretend to be her until the crew’s far
enough away that the vampires can’t track her
down.
The Building
The San Jenaro Natural History Museum is
enormous, high-profile, and full to the brim with
vampires. Once every season, the vampires rent
out the whole building and meet there to talk shop
about...whatever vampires talk about. Normally
it’s just run-of-the-mill politics. Tonight, the star of
the show is Jennica Jones. You’ve probably seen
her -- she has over ten million subscribers, and
record labels are in a bidding war for her. Tonight,
she’s going to play the last concert of her human
life. Tonight, she’s the focus of an auction where
162
Words: Olivia Hill
Art: Dyer Rose, Brian York
the winning bidder gets to turn her into a vampire
and lock away her legendary talents for
themselves. She’ll be performing on a stage front
and center in the presenta�on wing.
The entire museum’s open to the vampire
patrons. We expect about 200 vampires, if our info
is correct. They’ve come from all over the west
coast, with some even flying from abroad for this
particular party. While that’s a lot of vampires,
that’s less than 5% of museum capacity, so don’t
expect dense crowds.
We’ve heard the investigative sciences wing will
be of particular interest, since two featured
scientists from the 19th century became vampires
and are expected to be in attendance. Some
vampires are tickled pink by the concept of
celebrating a vampire’s accolades from more than
a century ago when they were human. They think
they’re pulling the wool over human eyes, so this is
like a murderer returning to a crime scene -- they
can’t resist the urge.
The insect exhibition is a specially organized
meeting place where old allies and rivals can meet
and make deals since they might only see each
other once every fifty years or so. Think about
every smoky backroom pool game you’ve ever
infiltrated, and make every attendant a 300-year-
old monster. This place is dangerous as hell, but if
you need to get dirt on someone, this is the place
to go. If you need to isolate one of the vampires,
this is the place to do it. There’s a sort of
gentleman’s agreement to keep out of each
other’s business in that room and that room alone.
Another huge point of interest is the supersaurus
exhibit. It spans three stories, so you can get a full
view at any desired height. It’s three stories of old
bones. I guess the vampires are interested in
seeing something older than even them. There’s a
lot of ways we could exploit it, like if we need to
163
 confound one of them and escape. Then again, it’s
three open floors, so a clever vampire could
exploit that if they suspect one of us. There’s
nothing stopping one of them from turning into a
bat to close the distance quickly. The trick here is to
not get caught.
Backstage is our most important point. That’s
where Jennica’s being held until her performance.
We need to get in, replace her with one of our
own, and get out. It’s a fairly small backstage area,
but with vampires we have a few unique security
issues to consider. We’ll come back to that in a
minute.
The prime interest point aside from the actual job
is the primitive humans exhibit. The vampires are
using it as a cafeteria. They have some captive and
somewillingkinksterhumansinthere,readytobe
drained of their blood. It’s gonna look like every
BDSM blood party scene from a vampire movie,
except without the pounding techno music and
strobe lights to drown everything out. That room
will not be for the faint of heart. Understand that if
one of the vampires invites you in there, they’re
going to expect you to drink blood with them, or
they’re tricking you into becoming the next snack.
The Score
Jennica is the score. We’ve got to get in, replace
her with our own person, get out, get Jennica
outside the range of vampire powers, and make
sure our person can get out.
To be safe, this means Jennica needs at least 100
miles’ distance between herself and San Jenaro.
Maybe more. This shouldn’t be on a plane,
because it’s too easy to track passport and ID
crossings.
Let’s be perfectly, redundantly clear here though:
we don’t get to celebrate once she’s out of the
building. We have two major concerns still ahead
of us at that point before we can call this gig a win.
First off, we have to successfully replace her. That
means one of our members has to perform in her
place for a while, sit and smile through the auction,
and get out before they become a bloodsucking
creature of the night. I don’t envy the person who
164
has to fool a room full of ancient monsters that
they’re a world-renowned musician. My advice
would be to use the context to your advantage.
Stall. Get sick. When you’re on stage, use the
nervousness to your advantage. The music doesn’t
have to be the performance of a lifetime, but the
ruse has to be.
Then we also have to get Jennica as far away as
possible. Like I said, 100 miles is the goal, but more
is better. Vampires have all sorts of sneaky tricks
for tracking prey and calling their victims back to
them from a distance. Some can even teleport to
people they know, so long as they’re within a
certain range. This isn’t just about escape from
vampires, though. If we’ve got a celebrity in
custody,anysinglewitnesscouldblowthejoband
give away our location. It just takes one bystander
uploading a clip to Twitter, and we’re as good as
vampire food.
These two problems each rely on one another. If
one falls apart, the other does. If Jennica’s spotted
outside the party, our plant is as good as dead. If
ourplantgivesawaythegameandhastoescapeor
gets caught, we’ll have vampire bloodhounds on
us as fast as you can say Type O Nega�ve.
The Security
Museum security’s nothing to write home about.
They have a nice, modern system, but mostly the
kind of thing meant to catch teens breaking in after
hours or people making out in the nooks and
crannies, with a few cameras targeting high-value
artifacts. This is to say, nothing we’ve not dealt
with before. If anything, you should worry about
taking this stuff for granted in the face of the bigger
issues.
Most of those after hours security systems won’t
even be active since there’ll be full attendance
throughout the museum. The vampires have a
dedicated security force watching monitors,
though, looking for anything suspicious.
Fortunately for us, when it comes to vampires,
suspicious just means “not commonplace for
people who murder others for food.” You have to
blend in as best you can. Go in with a backstory,
and well researched. If you say you’re a medieval
plague doctor, then you’d better know exactly how
plague victims behaved, because there are people
in this room who were there and saw it firsthand.
Fortunately for us, the vampires are
overconfident. Jennica’s not particularly well-
guarded. Just a couple of brutes watching her door.
We’ve all dealt with worse. Her security detail is
being managed by a vampire called the
Auctioneer. Nobody knows their real name or
seen their face -- they hide behind a wrought-iron
mask. It’s silly but effective. We know the
Auctioneer is about 300 years old, and has led
high-profile auctions like these about once per
decade, and all over the world. Every ten years,
every auction, they learn new languages, and hold
the auction in a new city. This is the first auction
held in English, and the first in North America, so
it’s a big deal. They’ve amassed quite a following.
Some vampires have followed these auctions for
hundreds of years, so in a way, the Auctioneer is a
bigger celebrity for this crowd than Jennica.
If anything, the breadth of experiences and skills
are the biggest threat to our safety. Vampires can
read minds. If you’re thinking about robbing them,
and they’re listening to your thoughts, you’re as
good as dead. So you’ve got to be unobtrusive,
and you’ve got to keep your thoughts all over the
place. Try to think “vampire things.” Method acting
is your friend, here.
On the way to the museum, I recommend looking
up some videos about “live action roleplay,” or
“LARP.” It might help you fit in with the vampire
party, so you don’t s�ck out like a sore thumb.
The Getaway
Like I mentioned above, the getaway is a two-part
process. First off, we have to get Jennica out. Then,
we have to get our plant out.
Getting Jennica out is a matter of a subtle but
effective distraction. We need to neutralize the
security detail long enough to make the switch.
Since it’s just two thugs, that shouldn’t be too hard.
We can deal with that creatively. Unfortunately the
thugs are both brainwashed, boring, blank-slate
types. You don’t have anything to specifically
appeal to them with.
Except blood. They’ll respond to blood the same
as any vampire. So keep that in mind.
Once we’ve made the switch, getting her out is
slightly more complicated. We basically have two
choices available to get her from the backroom to
the exits -- we can escort her out through the main
rooms, or we can use the service hallways.
The main halls will be full of vampires, but dark.
This means more chance she’ll be spotted, but also
we can take advantage of the crowds to blend and
sneak. We have to cover her up, and we have to
make sure she’s not too nervous as to give the
game away.
The service halls are more directly safe, since we
don’t have to go through the hungry crowds. But
getting in and out of the halls will be hard; they’ll
draw suspicion, and they’re all on cameras. We
either have to take advantage of the cameras
panning, or we have to distract whomever is
watching the security monitors. Once we’re in the
halls, if anyone sees us, alarms could sound.
So either route is complicated, and we need to go
in with a full awareness of what they mean.
Once we’ve got Jennica far, far away, we need to
get our plant out. That means we need to split the
team. Some of us focus on Jennica. Some focus on
the plant.
There’s a few avenues for escape here, depending
on timing. If the plant can get out of sight, out of
mind for even a moment, they can use the same
methods to jet. But since it has to be a little while
after the initial extraction, there’s a good chance
the plant will have to wait until after the auction,
and use their new vampire owner as an escape
plan. We don’t know who all is bidding, but there’s
200 potential customers, each would necessitate
a different style of escape plan. That’s why our
plant needs a support crew ready to help bail them
out, provide cover fire, or whatever else.
Plan Z? The absolute, last-ditch plan to get our
team member out? We have someone at the
auction, ready to bid. We have to be the highest
bidder. This will mean an untold of, unimaginable
amount of money and who knows what else. But
165
 it’s not like we’re going to pay the bill. We just need
to win, and get out before anyone gets what’s
happening. But remember to study up on your
auction strategies. Don’t bid too aggressively, or
else people get suspicious. Don’t start too high,
and never try to awe the crowd with a bid. You
don’t want to be the next victim on the auction
block.
Influences
Television: “Leverage,” The Scheherazade Job
(2010); “The Originals” (2013).
166
Movies: “Blade 2” (2002), “Interview With the
Vampire” (1994), “What We Do in the Shadows”
(2014).
Music: Bauhaus, “Bela Lugosi’s Dead;” Cage, “Look
At What You Did;” Concrete Blonde,
“Bloodletting;” Helium, “Baby Vampire Made
Me;” Neil Young, “Vampire Blues;” Norma Tanega,
“You’re Dead;” Outkast, “Dracula’s Wedding.”
 Security Companies
Liam Ginty
1 United Lock&Key

2 Ki

3 Unbrokeyn

4 Untgar And Son.

5 Pres�gial Security Solu�ons

6 Knock Twice Inc

7 Pe�gwen, Pe�gwen, And Holivan Locksmiths

8 Endevorship Limited Security Holdings

9 Dr Blizzint’s Wonderous Securing Contrap�ons

10 Golden Leaf Systems

11 Cyber DigiKeys and Wetware

12 Freedom Secured LPC

13 Coyote Reality

14 Chain

15 Cliq

16 Open Security Limited

17 Titan Safety Inc

18 The Untold Preserva�on Society

19 Warehouse 343b

20 The Royal Lock Forgers Union

167
 Fool’s Landing
The Atlantic Ocean
Evening
The Grand Duchess

The Grand Ballroom

If majesty had a shrine, this
would be it.
This is where the pain�ng
will be on display -- ironically
it’ll be at its most vulnerable
when it’s most visible.

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168
 The Grand Duchess is the premiere luxury liner. Only the most select
society has ever been aboard this floating testament to elegance. For
its 50th Anniversary Voyage -- and its namesake’s 75th -- the legendary
ship will be host to “Fool’s Gold,” a painting so rare even we didn’t
know it actually existed until today. All you have to do is get aboard
the ship, enjoy a nice voyage, and steal that painting before you reach
port on the other side.

The Bridge
This is where the Captain
steers the ship. And the
central loca�on that all of
the security systems feed
into.
If the grand ballroom is the
ship’s bea�ng heart, the
Bridge is its paranoid brain.

Below Decks
This is where valuables too
risky or too big to be le� in
personal suites are kept safe
in the ship’s hold.
It’s also where you’ll find
everything that makes the
ship go, from crew to
machinery.

169

The Grand Duchess
The Building
The Grand Duchess is the pinnacle of luxury. Over
the past fifty years, this legendary cruise ship has
been plying the Atlantic, ferrying the height of
fashion and society across the ocean -- where to
doesn’t really matter; the Grand Duchess is a
destination all its own. Its namesake, the Grand
Duchess Ada Lily, is known for her selective eye.
Kings and queens have been turned away in favor
of artists, thinkers, and other darlings of the café
society set.
The Duchess captures an elegance that never
was. Its exterior is modern, minimalist, and
timeless, thanks to the brilliant eye of its designer,
Artwell Sinclair-Rosenwinkel. Ro, as he is better
known, has designed watches, soup cans,
skyscrapers, and according to classified
documents, inflatable dummy artillery for the
British army. But all of that pales in comparison to
the Duchess.
While the exterior is a shrine to minimalism, the
ship’s interiors evoke a collision of Old World
wealth into an art deco fever dream. Marbled,
tiled floors and curving arches are par for the
course here. And at 1,132 ft long, there’s room to
spare for opulence. The Duchess’s main deck is laid
out with lush carpets, and Bolivian rosewood
furniture in each room. Open to the public are
small art galleries, featuring a collection of
priceless artwork and artefacts -- gifts from the
ship’s storied passengers. You’ll also find small
lounges, observation bars with an ocean view, and
other spaces for the passengers to grab some
seclusion from prying eyes.
But the shining jewel is the Grand Ballroom. This
massive open area was created by opening a well
in the upper decks, to form a multi-story room
with an almost theatrical feel in the middle of the
ship. Twin staircases take passengers down into
the middle of the ballroom, which is laid out with a
stage for the ship’s chamber orchestra. Banquets,
170
Words: J.R. Zambrano
Art: Dyer Rose, Hector Rodriguez
performances, readings, fights -- everything that
happens on the ship happens here. It’s the heart of
the ship, and here’s where “Fool’s Gold” will be
proudly on display once the Grand Duchess is
underway.
The upper decks are where all that prestige comes
home to roost. Here you can see some of
Rosenwinkel’s disdain for material wealth shining
through in the design. The ceilings are all slightly
cramped, and sloped at odd angles. The rooms are
too close together. And it’s all on purpose. If the
main deck of the ship shows off how perfectly
limited space can be used to create an impression
of openness, the upper staterooms are a
testament to how open space can be made to feel
oppressive.
The Grand Duchess’s multi-room suites might be
cramped, but they are still incredibly well
appointed. All that space has to go somewhere,
though. If the rumors are to be believed, the
Duchess’s love of clandestine affairs and secrets
means there’s a network of secret passages that
run between the upper and lower decks, allowing
someone with access -- and a good map -- to get
anywhere on the ship without being spotted by
security.
That’s worth keeping in mind, since the Grand
Duchess is going to be at capacity for the 50th
anniversary journey. A collection of Duchess Lily’s
friends, enemies, lovers, protegés, and hangers-on
have been invited aboard. Accompanying them
are a select few servants and staff -- there’s an
allowance for a personal entourage. And while
some of the wealthy guests do travel with only
theirpersonalvalet,it’sanopensecretthatmostof
the “attendants” accompanying guests are private
security contractors. They’re typically left to
themselves on the upper deck, so you might want
to be careful if you go snooping around uninvited.
Belowdecks, on the other hand, you’ll find that But “Fool’s Gold” is no ordinary painting. As the
function rules everything around you. Elegance story goes, Gentileschi painted it after a brief,
gives way to well-lit corridors and efficient use of passionate run-in with Salomé Janus, an explorer
space. Here’s where the circulatory system of the from the New World. Depending on which story
ship resides, so you’ll find boiler rooms nestled in you believe, clues hidden somewhere in the
among networks of pipes and ducts and wires. painting lead to anything from the actual El
Everything in the ship feeds back down here. It’s Dorado to maps of sunken treasure ships. This
also where the crew are quartered; everyone from enduring belief makes “Fool’s Gold” worth more
engineers to waitstaff is barracked somewhere than dreams to the right buyer.
out of sight.
The Security
Further down below decks you’ll also find the two
mainholds;thesehavebeenrefittedtobeanextra The Grand Duchess is an interesting one, security-
layer of security for the guests. Anything that’s too wise. There is the usual array of shipboard alarms
big or too valuable to be left in the upper rooms is that sound in the case of fire, plus pressure alarms
kept down in these vaults, which are a prize unto on the priceless art on display in the public areas --
themselves. Here you’ll also find a small mooring but nothing your crew shouldn’t be able to handle.
hold where guests may board while the Duchess is The real security is proximity. There’s no getting on
already at sea. or off the Duchess without someone knowing
about it. In the fifty years that the ship’s operated,
And running all of this is the Bridge. The Bridge is a they’ve never had a stowaway.
work of paranoid art. We heard rumors that
Rosenwinkel was some kind of ex-spook -- and the
layout of the bridge seems to prove it. There’s a
security hub that monitors everything that’s not
on the ship. Radar, sonar, radio, even satellite
transmissions can be monitored from the
sophisticated equipment built into the Duchess’s
comm arrays. On top of that you’ll find controls for
every part of the ship. Any door can be opened or
shut from the bridge. If it happens on the ship,
someone on the bridge knows.

The Score
“Fool’s Gold” is a work of apocryphal art that we
weren’t sure actually existed until the Duchess
herself announced that it would be on display. And
if you needed proof of power or prestige, this is it.
This painting is the work of Artemisia Gentileschi,
the greatest painter of her generation. To give you
some background, she made a name for herself
during the Baroque period, becoming the first
woman to join the Accademia di Arte del Disegno
in Florence. She traveled the world, painting strong
and suffering women out of myths and legends.
The last time one of her paintings hit the usual
markets, it went for fifteen million, and that was
just a draft of her “Judith Beheading Holofernes,”
which cost its current owner three private islands
and a fleet of yachts.
171
 A reporter once used scuba equipment to try and
hang onto the hull and climb aboard. But when
they emerged from the waterline, security was
waiting for them. Guests have, on occasion, tried
to smuggle paramours or other uninvited guests
aboard in their luggage, but they’ve always been
found. This security is highly trained,and knows all
the old smuggling tricks.
The best way to get aboard might be to assume
the identity of an expected guest. All you’ll have to
do is fool the biometric readers (we don’t think it’s
anything fancier than fingerprints or the odd
retinal scanner) and hope that no one realizes
you’re not who you say you are. But once you’re in,
you’re in. Due to the elite clientele, only a select
fewareasontheshipareactivelymonitored.That
said, rumor has it that Rosenwinkel installed a
system of listening devices and motion sensors
throughout the ship that can identify and track
passengers by their unique stride -- literally making
a trackable footprint of everyone’s ... footprints, so
that guests can be pinpointed at a moment’s
no�ce.
The best defense is that the elite tend to run in
smallcircles;eveninthelarger-than-normalcrowd
of birthday guests, everyone knows everyone. And
they’re all there to catch a glimpse of the “Fool’s
Gold,” which is on display for all six days and five
nights of the Duchess’s journey -- before being
locked back away in the hold. We’ve assembled a
who’s who of who’s whos for you at the end of this
briefing.
Or you could wait until the painting is securely
stashed in the Vault. Designed by self-styled
locksmith provocateur, Pinkgodzilla2 -- the same
Pinkgodzilla2 who was caught inside the Bank of
England’s gold vault painting the bars red -- this
vault is a testament to security. Pinkgodzilla2 has
been chasing the ‘uncrackable safe’ for twenty
years, and the Vault is the latest in a series of solid
a�empts.
To get inside you’ll need three keys, each one a
foot long. One key is held by the Captain of the
ship, one is held by the Duchess herself, and the
final key is hidden somewhere in the ship’s
architecture. But it doesn’t stop there. Each of
these keys is biometrically keyed to its bearer --
172
voiceprint, fingerprint, retinal scans, heartbeat
sensors, not to mention the coded phrase
recordedintoeachkey.Whenthekeysareinserted
in the vault, each of the speakers must say their
code phrase aloud while their data is read. Get any
of this wrong and the keys self-destruct, rendering
the vault door inert.
The vault is blastproof. Not even the military has
the kind of explosives you’d need to penetrate it --
you’d destroy the Grand Duchess before you even
dented the vault. But long before then, you’d trip
the anti-tamper circuits, forcing the vault into
lockdown mode. When this happens, thermal
charges embedded in the door trigger and fuse it
together, leaving you with a sealed box that only
Pinkgodzilla2 knows how to crack.
Other countermeasures include secondary
bulkheads to trap unauthorized guests in a section
of the boat that is rumored to be ejectable, and
silent alarms that alert the Captain and the
Duchess anytime someone is within fifty feet of
the Vault. Not to mention the sensors inside the
Vault. And those are just the ones we know
about. Pinkgodzilla2 designs these for fun -- and
this is the culmination of twenty years of thought
experiments combined with the budget to realize
them.
The trick won’t just be getting “Fool’s Gold” -- it’ll
be getting it off the boat. With the painting in such
an obvious spot, someone’s sure to notice once it’s
gone.
The Getaway
Once the Duchess is underway, it’s nothing but a
luxurious meander across the Atlantic Ocean.
With everything monitored so closely, they’re sure
to notice if a boat comes racing up to the side -- so
if your plan is to leave before the ship arrives at its
destination, you’ll want a plausible reason for
whatever vehicle you’re coun�ng on to be there.
In emergency situations, for instance, the Grand
Duchess has been known to radio nearby boats
and has never once been refused aid. Even then,
with the missing pain�ng, it’s a dead giveaway.
Certain of the guests have brought their own
personal watercraft -- Tabitha Marsden, for
instance, has brought her own motorized
windsurf board.
You could always get the Vault to eject itself -- but
then you’d be trapped underwater in a sealed
chamber with no way out. Good luck with that
one, Houdini.
The Who’s Who
Quinn “Doctor” Blakesworth
Quinn Blakesworth is a gambler the same way Da
Vinci was kind of a painter from time to time.
Baccarat, roulette, races… she’s done it all. If
there’s a risk, she’ll take it, and bet that you won’t.
Blakesworth is also an art collector or treasure
hunter, depending on whom you ask, with a
particular love of sculpture. Her gifts have graced
the Grand Duchess before.

Tabitha Marsden

Tabitha Marsden is one of the world’s greatest Virgil Alvarez

pyrotechnic artists. Flames, lightning, lights,
fireworks, illuminative illusions that make you
believe in magic -- she does it all. Everyone knows
how her eye for lighting and spectacle caught the
Duchess’s attention while she was touring with the
Unrolled Stilettos a few years back. What most
people don’t know is that she’s also an amateur
detective who has turned her expertise at pulling
off lighting stunts into a side gig solving mysteries
across the globe.
The Duchess’s favorite new discovery, Virgil Alvarez
is an up-and-coming poet who is sure to be
destined for great things -- if he doesn’t drown in
the high society waters he’s found himself thrust
into. Kid is green in just about every sense of the
word. He’s out of his element when it comes to
dealing with people and the sea, if the month-long
supply of dramamine he’s brought with him is any
indica�on.

She’s obviously on board to help celebrate the

Grand Duchess in style -- but our contact on the
inside says she’s been paying an awful lot of
a�en�on to Ms. Blakesworth.

Wylie ‘Apollo’ Dupree

Yes, that Apollo Dupree. A legendary pianist,

who, if you believe the rumors, has a string of
wealthy lovers who’ve helped finance his world
travels. The gossip rags have cooked up a flirtation
between Dupree and Duchess Lily, and it seems
like he’s hoping to find his newest patron and
inspiration here. He’s sure to play a time or two
while aboard. That’s always good for drawing a
crowd.

173
 King Orvatz Silosz I Arthur Devereaux

Kings and queens have been turned away from the
Grand Duchess -- so the presence of his Imperial
Majesty, Silosz I, is a massive middle finger to
monarchies the world over. The self-declared king
of a self-declared micronation built aboard an old
research outpost off the coast of the Solomon
Islands, Silosz I has declared the “crowned heads of
Europe” illegitimate for their abuse of power and
thedisregardforthesovereigntyandsafetyoftheir
subjects. He has summarily laid claim to the
territories owned by the signatory nations of the
Treaty of Westphalia, citing multiple grievances,
and has declared them free to use for all who
swear fealty to him.
Doubtlessly he is enjoying the attention, and
being aboard the Grand Duchess is an opportunity
for a figure as public as Silosz I.
Arthur Devereaux is Duchess Lily’s greatest rival.
The two have bid and outbid each other on
fabulous art objects. They have competed for the
same lovers’ affections, and seek to outdo each
other. Where Lily would throw a charity ball,
Devereaux might arrange a gala opening of a new
artist that Lilycouldn’t reach. Thetwo haveclashed
for so long they may as well be lovers. And yet, the
flame of rivalry between the two burns hotter than
any other passion.
Influences
Movies: “Titanic”
Games: “Starship Titanic”
Music: Lonely Island, “I’m on a Boat;” “Somewhere
Beyond the Sea;” 1940s-era café jazz

Contessa Marlena Francesca Ruiz y Rodriguez

The Contessa prefers to be called a patron of the

arts, which is one way of looking at it. Her family’s
estate and material wealth were stripped during a
coup, and she finds herself without a country at
the moment. As the story goes, the money taken
from her family has gone to fund the renovation of
atleastonepalace. Butthathasnotdampenedher
spirits nor stopped her from promising supporters
the backing of a wealthy patroness -- at least, once
she is able to recoup what is righ�ully hers.

We know that the legendary cat burglar, S, as

they’re called by Interpol, will be aboard. We don’t
know how they found out about this job, or how
they managed to contact us in the first place -- but
we received a note this morning that simply reads,
“The game is on. We’ll see who’s best. Regards, -S.”

Accompanying the note, we found a copy of an

invitation to the Grand Duchess, with any useful
information scrubbed clean. They could be
anyone. So take care who you befriend.
174
Mooks, Patsies, and Dramatis Personae
Liam Ginty
1 Johnny Three Times Three Times Three Times

2 Xak Ruffali

3 Mean Grant

4 General Presten Kaligan

5 Guntar Wolf

6 Legete Maphius

7 Vlad’s Brothers

8 The Unspeakables

9 Werner The Knife

10 Marion Laughlin

11 Elspeth Crow

12 Zi

13 Vesta Engag3d

14 Zhi Ruo

15 Rulf Bearhart

16 Samson Hanhaur

17 Ash Core-Meltdown

18 XR-78

19 Broken Tartarus

20 Draxxus Bombastus

175
 Isabel & Fiona
Liam Ginty

REWARD: 2700 GOLD PIECES

176
Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Let it be known across the land that the rogues known as Isabel
and Fiona are hereby wanted for criminal mischief, larceny, mayhem and unlawful
possession of exo�c animals!
Theso-called“FiendishJesters”havebeenathorninthesideofthegoodpeopleof
Griffin’s Peak for the last sunturn. The duo have blazed a trail of so called “pranks”
and capers on the most respectable and elite members of our great society -
stealing the Marquis Of Dream’s most prized pillow collection, replacing the
scepter of the hidden saint with a chocolate replica, and utilizing strange and
mysterious magics to infect the local clergy with a most dire and terrible bout of
chronic flatulence.
Their most recent caper was so despicable that even detailing it here brings tears
to my eyes. The unsuspecting members of the Eloquence Society were enjoying
their 14th annual ball of the year, a small soiree of just 400 of the richest, most
powerful, and well respected members of our community were about to
announce the winners of their community awards when the Fiendish Jesters
struck, stealing every single one of the 30 diamond encrusted platinum trophies,
replacing them with shapeshifted weasels, which quickly caused all manner of
calamity when the spell wore off mid-way through the celebratory feast after the
event.
Anyone attempting to apprehend this terrible twosome are reminded that telling
them apart is nigh impossible, as though they’re enchanted in some way, any
attempt to do so will always result in you being incorrect. The duo have used this
trick to escape capture many �mes. Beware!

REWARD: 2700 GOLD PIECES

177
 Florida
July 8th 2021
2:00 AM
The Shuttle Game

Visitors Complex
For the tourists, but they do
run bus tours - special ones
for VIPs that take you
**everywhere**

Vertical
(VSH)
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’s w h er e t h e goods are
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it ’s m o v ed
t in.
-- if we can ge
178
 GLOBE is retiring its space shuttle today, a great tragedy for the
boundless human spirit, but a great chance for us to make one of our
biggest clients a very happy woman. The Space Shuttle Jemisin sits on
its launchpad, fueled and ready to go. All we have to do is take it.
Oper
ation
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s w
astro here ldin
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and wnauts be they kee
of the here th fore lau p the
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launch.

179

The Shuttle Game
The Building
We’re looking at the GLOBE Launch Center (GLC)
here -- this place has been the heart of the world
space program for over 40 years now. It’s a massive
complex with dozens of buildings, launchpads, an
air force base, a museum, and even a dock. For
the purposes of the heist, we’re mainly concerned
with four locations -- the Visitors Complex, the
Vertical Storage Hab (VSH), the Operations
Building, and Launchpad X-2. Each is connected by
overground roads, but they are also connected by
several underground tunnels, including a secret
train designed for use in disasters or emergencies.
The Visitors Complex is what most people see
when they visit GLC -- it houses a selection of
attractions, including older rockets and exhibits.
Thereareseveralimportantplacesofinteresthere;
first is the conference center, which has a lightly
patrolled entrance to the emergency train system.
It looks as though a group of flat earth theorists
have the convention center booked for this week,
which is sure to cause some chaos you might be
able to exploit. Second, there is a bus station that
operates a fleet of tour buses ferrying visitors
around the grounds -- rumor has it they offer
special tours to VIPs that get you much closer to
the launchpad. Every visitor receives a unique bio-
pairedbadgethatisscannedateveryoneofthe20
security gates do�ed around the GLC.
The Vertical Storage Hab, referred to either by its
formal abbreviation as the VSH or simply 'the Hab’,
is where the shuttle is kept before launch. It’s an
enormous building and easily the most secure
part of the entire GLC. No windows, no secret
entrances -- just one big door for the shuttle, and a
smaller one to its right for the people. The inside
layout is a highly guarded secret, known only to
the on-site engineers and security. Infiltrating this
area would require getting the plans from an ex-
employee or hacking their internal systems before
you do anything else. Once inside, it should be
pretty easy to stow away aboard the shuttle
180
Words: Liam Ginty
Art: Dyer Rose, Hector Rodriguez
before it’s moved to the launchpad -- make sure
you bring a snack.
The Operations Building is the beating heart of the
launch center. It’s from here that the rest of the
center’s operations are coordinated. The building
itself is fairly nondescript and small -- four floors,
conservative architecture and relatively minimal
security. The first floor is made up of a large
reception area, a guest space for meeting VIPs, a
conference room, a security suite which connects
to the bulk of the GLC’s systems, and a number of
small private offices for staff. The security room is
probably the most important room here. It’s the
nervecenterforthestateoftheartsecuritysystem
covering the GLC; every video feed, sensor and
alarm feeds back here. Staffed 24/7 by a team of
10 security specialists and locked with voice, face,
and fingerprint scans.
The second floor is made up almost entirely of
Launch Control. You’ve seen this room in the
movies -- it’s the one with the big screen and all the
computersandlotsofcleverpeoplewithheadsets.
These are the folks who will know if something
goes wrong first, so it might be a good idea to get
someone in here.
Third floor is offices and work spaces, nothing too
exciting -- but there is an emergency elevator
direct to the train system here. Why? I don’t know.
But it’s currently under construction. Something
to be aware of.
Finally, the fourth floor -- this is where they keep
the astronauts before launch. Imagine a mid-
range hotel, the kind of thing you might have
thoughtwas“fancy”beforeyoustartedstealingfor
a living. All six members of the crew will be
present here, under guard, for 72 hours before
launch. Highly monitored. Each astronaut has
theirownroom,butwehavewordthattheyliketo
meet up for a little party on the rough at nights. All
the gear the astronauts will be wearing are also
stored here, with the exception of their helmets,
which are kept on the bus.
Lastly, we have the launchpad. This sits empty till
24 hours before launch, at which point they wheel
over the shuttle using a massive crawler-
transporter. Once it gets to the pad, there it sits
while a crew of specialists check it over from top to
bottom and do the final preparations for launch.
It’s also during this window that the computer is
programmed with the final guidance using a
special port in the cockpit. Then, two hours before
launch, the crew boards via the service structure.
The Score
The Jemisin is a space shuttle modeled off of the
NASA STS design, with some minor adjustments
for better reusability and with full moon-shot
capabilities -- thanks to its ability to be paired with
much larger disposable booster rockets. Our client
has requested this particular model, as opposed
to its sister craft, the Le’Guin, for reasons they’ve
opted not to share with us.
The Jemisin was recently renovated, by adding a
new computer system and retrofitting a series of
maintenance tunnels into the craft's
superstructure to make repairs easier. They were
also able to upgrade the air filtration system, which
in turn allowed them to expand the storage
compartments to almost double their original
holding capacity, rocket capability
notwithstanding.
It has an estimated value of $10 billion dollars,
assuming you can find a buyer. Which we have.
The Security
The entire GLC has full security camera coverage,
all streamed to a series of five security towers and
directly to the main security room in the
Operations building. They use the Randelforth
security system, which means any interruption to
the feed immediately triggers a full lockdown.
This can also lead to a scrubbed launch if the issue
isn’t dealt with within 10 minutes, so be careful!
The roads between the various facilities also have
ID checking systems every half mile that uses RFID
to automatically check every badge that drives
through it for sufficient access. If it finds a non-
authorized badge, that triggers a lockdown.
Thankfully, the RFID can be spoofed -- all we need
is a legi�mate card and we can clone it.
181
 The complex is on the shore, and the ocean
presents a promising point of entry, but be aware
that the Coast Guard patrols the water at all times
and any detected trespass will trigger an
immediate scrubbed launch. That said, I hear they
don’t have side-scan sonar, so underwater
approach should be clear.
Each area also has unique security concerns. The
Visitors Center has the least complicated setup --
one security office, camera coverage and some
basic locks on important doors. The emergency
train entrance does have 24/7 guard coverage but
besides that, shouldn’t be too much of an issue for
you.
182
TheVSHhasbottlenecksecurity--there’sonlyone
way in, and one way out. Anyone inside the Hab is
probably going to know the faces and names of
everyone who is supposed to be there, so any
cover identity is going to have to be airtight -- they
very rarely give tours to very special VIPs, but
we’re talking kings, queens and billionaires here.
Tread carefully. Once inside, the actual system is
very simple; locks and cameras mostly.
The Operations building is a mess of complex
systems and physical security -- they have at least
100 armed guards in or around the building at any
one moment, as well as dozens of laser systems,
voice and retinal scanners for almost every door,
and a passcode system for the elevators for every
floor past the first. It’s not all doom and gloom, don’t expect a chase. Or do. No one has ever
though -- we got some documents that show a stolen a space shuttle before. We don’t really
basement level labeled “Emergency Bunker”. A know what they’ll do.
quick look through some security documents
suggests that in the event of terrorist attacks, all The only other thing you need to worry about is
members of staff -- including security -- are rushed the potential for an OSBM, an outer space ballistic
into this bunker. Of course, the entire complex is missile. No government will admit to owning any
put on lockdown too, but that should be an easy space-bound weapons platforms, but if anyone
thing to figure out, right? has access to one, they’re gonna be friendly with
GLOBE. The specs we got off the dark web say
The launchpad doesn’t have much in the way of they’re capable of blasting a shuttle out of orbit, so
security -- they have a lot of cameras, and a few you might want to plan for that.
guys with clipboards checking badges, but
compared to the rest of the complex, this should Influences
be a cakewalk.
Movies: Armageddon, The Right Stuff, Mission
One last thing to keep in mind -- about 20 miles Impossible
south of the complex is Bay Point Air Force Base.
This base’s primary role is the development and
testing of experimental rockets and planes, but
theydohaveacouplefighterjetsandenoughguys
with guns to put a real dent in any heists you might
be running in the area -- not to mention the risk
they pose to your getaway. There’s a direct link
between the base and the complex in the form of
a microwave transmitter atop the Operations
building and a hardened railway that runs from the
emergency train system.

The Getaway
Your getaway for this one should be obvious --
once aboard the shuttle, initiate launch and break
through the atmosphere, then land at the
coordinates attached to this dossier. The shuttle
flies along a pre-approved programed path, but
that can be circumvented from within the cockpit
or modified if you get control of the device they
use to upload the flight path.

As a getaway vehicle, the Shuttle has some ups and

downs -- it’s blisteringly fast, capable of the 17,500
mph needed to escape the earth’s pull, but it’s also
pretty obvious -- those booster rockets leave one
hell of a trail, and you better believe they’ll be
tracking you from orbital satellite as soon as they
figure out something is wrong.

The air force base might scramble fighters or

launch missiles, which will pose an issue until you
get up to speed. That only takes a few seconds, so
183
 The Sea of the Underworld
Under a Full Moon
20th May 1722

Tell No Tales

The Fata Morgana

The Flagship of the Fleet, a
monstrous flying war
galleon tethered to the
seas by flotsam and ship-
wrecks

184
 Gather round friends, and grab a drink. The Golden Era of Piracy is
all but over and the great powers carving up the Caribbean will have
us all swinging from ropes before the year is out. But since ye are
destined to be aboard the Fleet of the Dead before too long, mayhaps
you can preemptively change the Charter of Souls to better reflect
fates you believe you deserve. Immortality, anyone?

Floating Town
steads
Innocent souls w
sea repeat their ho died at
on board these lives’ work
towns and relaxshipwreck
damned toil to dwhile the
to their final de eliver them
s�na�ons
A source of
escape routeinsfoarma�on,
but plenty of hond fast allies,
witnesses nest

Dead
The Fleet of the
Every ship wrecked at sea
ne point.
has been here at o
Most of them adre ropes
Captain’s Cabin interconnecte. by
and walkways
A macabre trophy room on
the Fata Morgana.
Full of charts, documents,
and The Charter of Souls

185

Tell No Tales
The Location
The Fleet of the Dead claims every soul buried at
sea. Every soul consigned to Davy Jones' Locker,
willingly or not, awakens on a ship similarly
claimed by the waves, all under the command of
Morgan Kayn, Captain of the Fata Morgana and
Ferryman of the Dead. This psychopomp delivers
these souls between the lands of the living and the
Shores of the Dead through the Seas of the
Underworld. The fleet is sailed by a crew of
unblessed and unvirtuous souls toiling to earn
their passage to the Shores of the Dead, the worst
offenders of which to only be freed from their
service come Judgement Day.
The Fata Morgana itself is a terrifying image; a
galleon fashioned with ostentatious macabre
decorations with spectral sails. It runs maybe two
hundred and fifty foot from its stem to stern. It is a
relatively new galleon as far as shipwrecks are
concerned, and was clearly intended to be a royal
flagship in life. It capsized upon its maiden voyage,
all hands lost and now serves as the flagship of the
Fleet.
Its armaments in life were legendary; in total sixty-
five cannons of varying sizes, including six mortars
and a staggering forty-eight bronzed 24-pounders,
and here they are crewed at all times by the sea's
most ruthless buccaneers, chained to their
stations and itching for a reason to use their
armaments on the ship’s two gun decks. Below the
second gun deck is a third deck for mariners to take
their short breaks to fight and roll dice, and
barracks space for the navy of the dead. A shallow
hold runs along the ship’s keel, transformed into a
brig to contain some of the damned souls who
have upset Morgan Kayn.
The ship would be dangerously low in the
waterline for its size given its shallow keel and
overabundance of armaments, but this is of little
concern as it levitates a fathom above the
waterline at all times, parting the sea before it
186
Words: Keith Evans
Art: Dyer Rose, Daniel Walthall
withspectralabandon.Arounditshull,clingingtoit
like barnacles and tethering it to the waves, are
smaller shipwrecks, pulled by the immense weight
and mass of the Fata Morgana and its spectral
winds. These shipwrecks anchor the Fata
Morgana to the sea bed, slowing it little, but
keeping it bound to the Sea of the Underworld. No
one rightly knows what would happen should it be
detached; maybe the ship would float up to the
land of the living?
The rest of the fleet follows in the wake of the Fata
Morgana, and is made up of a spectral equivalent
of every ship and boat that has been sunk at sea.
Each ship wears the scars that sank it; sloops sunk
by cannon fire sport their holes yet refuse to sink,
capsized brigs are damp and coated with thick
layers of algae and barnacles. The fleet even has
funeral pyre barges little more than carbonised
heaps of charcoal, stinking of burnt meat and
incense.
As souls are eventually delivered to their fates
upon the many Shores of the Dead, older ships
that are no longer required are discarded or
pillaged for materials to meet the needs of the
other ships. The oldest ship in the fleet is around
eight hundred years old at this point, captained by
a particularly angry group of Vikings. Ships
abandoned to the seas of the underworld are
quickly obliterated by whatever monsters lurk
there, and any unfortunate soul trapped there
would be quickly consumed and forever lost to
even the Final Judgement.
Many of the smaller ships are lashed together as
small townsteads; not everyone who dies at
sea is a sailor, and there is hardly space aboard
all the warships to hold passengers. Countless
innocent souls make these flotillas home while
they await their final fates, towed by the more
powerful ships. Whilst waiting to be delivered to
their destination, these innocent souls often live
out the only life they knew, albeit aboard a
permanently floating home under an eternally
grey sky, and so there are small blacksmith shops,
taverns, and all matter of houses, hovels and villas,
catered for resentfully by the damned members of
the Fleet. Some of these townsteads are
connected by narrow ropewalks or permanent
bridges between the vessels. The end result is that
the fleet is less an organised armada than a clump
of flotsam trailing from behind the Fata Morgana
like a net is trawled from a fishing ship.
The Score
The Charter of Souls contains a list of all those who
die or are buried at sea, and their final destination
to which they are to be delivered on pain of
angering the Powers That Be. Your names will be
on this should you die at sea or be executed for
piracy, which given your activities of recent will be
soon enough.
The Charter is a seemingly endless parchment
made from the skin of blasphemers. The ink that
adorns it is mixed from the blood of mutineers.
The box it is contained in is fashioned from the
bones of captains who betray their crews and
nations, lined with the velvet fashioned from
falsely flown flags, locked by a devilishly
complicated device forged from steel tempered
with the souls of cooks who used too much
oregano.
T h e Dragged behind the ship are countless ropes; each
Charter itself is invulnerable and resists all
attempts to tear its parchment or erase its ink;
names can not be scratched nor fates altered. All
entries upon it are final, amendable only by the
Powers that Be themselves, and they have not felt
the urge to do so for thousands of years. When not
being consulted by Morgan Kayn it is kept in his
personal cabin aboard the Fata Morgana,
alongside charts that map the oceans of the
underworld, the equally lengthy ship's log,
sufficient ink and quills to note all of history’s
deaths at sea, and the ship’s cat.
In the normal order of things, a person dies at sea,
their name is entered in the ledger, and they are
delivered to their appropriate destination in the
afterlife. However, if one was to get access to that
charter, enter their name and put the destination
as a place in the mortal realms... well, Morgan
Kayn would be under an obligation to deliver you
back to this realm, each and every time you died,
forevermore. Immortality is the goal.
The Security
In total the Fata Morgana holds four hundred and
fifty souls, three hundred of which are the most
depraved naval officers and pirates to die at sea
forming the Navy of the Dead. Morgan Kayn has
the first pick of crew to serve on his flagship, and
takes the best of their fields to crew his ship,
regardless of how well they actually fit for his crew.
containing a keelhauled soul who has displeased
Morgan Kayn in some fashion.
Morgan Kayn himself has
been hand selected by The
Powers That Be to ferry
souls for all eternity, a task
that has taken its toll on him
over the centuries. A rogue, a
traitor and a blasphemer of the
highest order in life, his
punishment has
been handed
early on from on
high and forever
he will remain
bound to this fleet.
The threat of mutiny is
187
 a daily concern for him, and to date he has been
deposed as captain and either executed or cast
overboard thirty-three times. It never lasts; his
soul is bound to the fleet after all, and eventually
he finds himself as captain again, sharper, meaner,
and more resen�ul of his role.
Morgan Kayn does not sleep, but keeps an
increasingly erratic schedule as he gets more and
more frustrated with his role as Ferryman of the
Dead. He often inspects the ships of the fleet,
keeping him away from the Fata Morgana for
hours at a time. None ever see him travel between
the ships; the rumours say he travels through the
cursed timbers, manifesting in corners that none
are watching. Officers with something to hide
keep dozens of mirrors aboard their ships to
improve sight lines and prevent Morgan Kayn
from appearing behind them; these are inevitably
destroyed when he finds them.
He is paranoid, angry, and bitter. Not fearing
death and not fearing any more divine
punishment, he is nigh on unbeatable and unlike
any foe you will ever fight in combat; how does
one fight that which can not die nor fears their own
destruction? Fortunately, Morgan Kayn has never
travelled to the floating settlements, remaining
bound to wander only the ships proper. He trusts
utterly no one and values stemming the tide of
insurrection above celestial bookkeeping. Even
when he takes a personal interest in you (and he
certainly will), avenues to retreat will always be
available and even if you find yourself cornered he
will certainly cease caring about you to investigate
any half-way plausible rumour of mutiny
amongst his crew of backstabbers you feed to him.
At least un�l you cause more trouble.
Sincethefleetiscrewedbythosewhoaredamned
beyond redemption, each crew member on each
ship can be considered to be a monster of some
sort. Chained to their stations with collars of
indestructible steel are some of the meanest
buccaneers and bloodthirsty pirates in history.
You'll recognise some of them. You'll probably spot
at least one of your old crew mates here. This is the
fate that awaits you should you fail. Consider
them your peers at best, and your foils at worst.
The ones permitted to patrol as guards and
custodians have longer chains around their necks,
188
which constantly tangle with each other. Brawls
are a regularity; a common way to blow off steam
between these patrolling angry spirits, and would
be highly lethal if the participants were capable of
dying. They are all, to a soul, dishonest
backstabbers who bear no love for their lot in the
afterlife or towards their crewmates. And they all
unreservedly hate Morgan Kayn. They can be fast
allies and exploitable patsies if you play your hands
well. You can easily ferment mutinous behaviour
amongst the ships, all of which will keep Morgan
Kayn and his officers busy.
Each ship will be unique due to the sheer number
of designs of ships, one or two dating back to the
previous millennium, and each ship’s different
method of demise and subsequent
cannibalisation by its spectral crew will further
complicate the layout. Each is likely captained by a
notorious buccaneer, only kept in check by the
resentment of their crew and the whims of
Morgan Kayn. Given that all the legendary tyrants
of the waves are dead, expect to run into a few of
them down here in positions of power (or ironic
punishments). If you ever regret not being able to
fight Blackbeard or Bart Roberts while they were
still alive, well, I would say this was your only
chance to get to do this if that wouldn’t draw a
huge amount of a�en�on to yourself.
You will inevitably have to traverse the towns and
hovels that make up the floating settlements
towed by the fleet. You will find similar rogues and
cutthroats, some stationed here due to their
incompetence at all things nautical, others as part
of their punishment for squandering their time at
sea. Their competence ranges greatly, but their
anger runs deep. This anger is tempered by their
precarious positions in the towns, as they are
protecting and serving the innocent souls,
handling their honoured passengers with kid
gloves so as not to further anger the Powers That
Be, generally waiting on, pampering, and keeping
them safe from any nautical nightmares that find
their ways aboard.
Even amongst the honoured passengers of the
fleet there will be threats; they are virtuous in the
eyes of the Powers that Be, which means they are
probably not our kind of people. It stands to
reason most are content to be peacefully
shepherded to their eternal rewards and so aren't Underworld,youwillinevitablyfindyourselfslowly
going to tolerate anything that rocks the boat, so to s�rring from your false death slumber.
speak. Expect them to rat you out to the officers of
the fleet. You can't trust an honest person. My reckoning is you have what will feel like two
weeks to accomplish your goal, but this is another
The Getaway one of those “traditional” elements. It’ll be
different for each of you, I’m afraid. Listen carefully
There is a major problem here, and the sharper to your own heartbeat as a guide to how long you
ones amongst you will have already worked it out; have le�.
the only way to board any of the ships in the Fleet
of the Dead is to be buried at sea, or otherwise How do I know all of this? I think you already know
consumed by the waves. Traditionally then, this the answer to that one, mates. I do hope you
means you have to be dead. succeed like I did, as I'm getting mighty bored of
being theonly oneof my kind. And yes. I did say the
Traditionally. We can exploit that. We have access draught tastes suspiciously like rum. Cheers.
to some plants and a ritual from the old world that
can still one's heartbeat to a standstill, and safely It's too late to back out now me hear�es. Yo ho.
berevivedhours,maybeevendayslater.Youtakea
heady mixture of these plants, mixed into a Influences
draught that tastes suspiciously like rum, you
woozily climb into these caskets stacked behind Pirates of the Caribbean" film series. "Sea of
me, and we dump them overboard at high tide. Thieves", "Ravenloft" & "Dreadfleet". Running
This will be enough to convince the world that Wild, Swashbuckle, Red Rum, & Iron SeaWolf for
you're dead and you'll awaken, not quite dead, music. The dimensions and descriptions of the
aboard one of the ships in the fleet. Fata Morgana are roughly based on the "Vasa”
Not being truly dead means your name will not be
on the Charter yet, which is both essential to this
caper (as scribing your own fate for yourself is the
goal), and one of your biggest problems. You will
be an anomaly aboard the fleet, and they will have
little precedent on how to handle you. Enterprising
rogues such as yourself should be able to exploit
this, and from whichever boat you manifest upon
you can work your way along the lashed together
ships towards the Fata Morgana.

Given that you'll not need to bring anything back

with you when the draught wears off, after you
enter your names to the Charter of Souls in the
fashionyouprefer,youshouldbeabletowaititout
and awaken safely in a coffin floating in the middle
of the Caribbean somewhere, safe in the
knowledge that the next time you visit the Fleet of
the Dead you'll be delivered to the port of your
choice in comfort and style. Of course, your major
concern will be needing to accomplish all of this
before the draught wears off. You will need to act
fast. There are hundreds of boats and dozens of
floating towns in the fleet, and whilst time flows
sideways and slow there in the Seas of the
189
 San Jenaro
Tomorrow!
Midday
The Third Loop-In Job
Palo Verde
Boulevard
Prong one o
“Land.” f the plan.

This is th
for a trucek o
b
nly safe stre
et
transport O ig enough to
ur Lady.

ro River
The San Jena
the plan.
Prong two of
“Sea.”
’re ap pro p r ia�ng a trash
We ugh to carry
barge big etnuoe.
off the sta

Not Shown: THE BLIMP

Prong three of the plan.
“Air.”
We’ve got a blimp, baby.
And don’t you know we
gonna be stealing a giant’re
metal statue with it.

190
 I can hear you now. “Our Lady of San Jenaro is 85 meters tall. Are you
okay? Are you on drugs? Do we need to get you some help? We can’t just
steal a giant copper and steel statue”

In order, yes, yes, of course, no, yes we can and I’m going to lay out how
we’re going to do it.

Our Lady of San Jenaro

85 meters of steel and cop-
per represen�ng the
ingenuity of San Jenaro.
What a be�er way to honor
it than to steal it in plain
sight?
Shows how far we’ve come.

ld o f H ephaestus
The Fie
siv e la w n complexis
A mas lleyball and tenn d
with vo running paths an
courts, ks.
dog par
o be � er place to
There’s nil.
lose a ta
d
F l o re s Boulevar
Santa
’re w ai�ng for the
While westart, we grab chili
show toian hot dogs and
vegetar d in a huge flour
wrappe
tor�lla.
LLY IM P O RTANT!!
VITA

191

The Third Loop-In Job
“The Building”
There’s no building. Well, I mean, Our Lady of San
Jenaro is a building. Technically. But it’s not like
there’s some mysterious jewel inside where you
can just sneak in, grab it, and sneak out. We’re
stealing the building. So instead of “The Building,”
let’s call this sec�on….
The Score
192
Words: Olivia Hill
Art: Dyer Rose, Brian York
That’s the stuff. We’re stealing Our Lady of San
Jenaro. She’s just affixed to the ground with some
steel rods. Nothing you’ve not dealt with before.
Now here’s the double-whammy of our trick. First,
we’re going to project a duplicate of her with
holograms. Then, we’re going to make her
invisible. That way, when we take her away,
witnesses will be none the wiser.
The dupe comes in the form of a simple hologram.
We’re not talking super space age stuff here -- we
just need the level that fools people in a theme
park ride. Lights, mirrors, and the cover of a light
show. You see, we’re going to take it during a light
show commemorating the city’s anniversary. All
the flashing lights and fog machines -- they’re
basically asking us to take it. So we’re going to
politely do them a favor and do it. It’s important we
act during the light show for the same reason a
magician does their trick when the whole
audience is looking. We control where they’re
looking, so they don’t see when we pull the old
switcheroo right in front of their faces. It’s not a
fool-proof plan, but it only needs to buy us about
five minutes to get the statue and get far enough
away that they can’t stop us.
The invisibility is handled by a massive blanket
made with carbon nanotubes. You know how I
said I’d need to hold onto the cash from our last
job? Let’s just say a giant blanket of carbon
nanotubesisn’tcheap.Butit’llallbeworthit.What
does the sheet do? Simple. It manipulates
temperatures around the sheet in layer bands
which bend the light around it in subtle ways not
dissimilar to a mirage. The nanotube arrangement
cools the air on the lower part of the statue, while
warming the air above. This’ll create a heavy
refraction effect that will make the statue look like
the sky around it. Okay I guess it’s not that simple.
But it works, and you’re just going to have to trust
me. I can’t do negativity right now -- we’re about
to pull off the heist of a millennium.
Now here’s the real genius of the gig. We’re going
to run the plan in triplicate. Land, sea, and air.
That way if there’s a holdup, we can cut and run
and still have two contingencies. If there are two
holdups, we still have a third plan for backup. For
each of the three plans, we have to loop in a
specialist outside the team. Normally I’d only stick
with known associates. But in this case, we’ve got
to find the right people, and the triplicate plan
means even if one of them betrays us, we’re still
good.
The land plan involves a big truck. The kind they
transport bridge and skyscraper parts with. The
first loop-in is a Stacy Washington, a labor
organizer who was the first to uncover the truth
about Our Lady of San Jenaro. It turns out, the
governor sold out the statue to some awful
religious special interest group. They weren’t
going to take it, per se, but they were going to
change the inscription from something celebrating
workers to something denigrating undocumented
immigrants. They can’t change the inscription if
the statue isn’t there now, can they?
The sea plan involves a trash barge. Or I guess it’s a
recycling barge, which is really kind of poetic if you
think about it. The second loop-in is Chevalier
Moreaux, a boating enthusiast. Well, not really a
boating enthusiast. They’re more of a… logistics
specialist. Strike that. That’s not it. You see, they’re
actually—okay they’re a pirate. Chevalier’s willing
to do thejob forpracticallynothing. Theyjustwant
the challenge. Fortunately, we can provide
challenge. Oh boy, can we provide challenge.
The air plan involves a blimp. It’s a big one. Hard to
miss, but hopefully people will be too distracted
with the light show to notice the low-flying plane.
The third loop-in is Baron Esperanto. He’s a little…
let’s just call him… um… completely
untrustworthy. But what he lacks in
trustworthiness, he makes up for in owning a very,
very large derigible. The statue’s already fitted
with hooks for the maintenance crew to set up
their pulleys and scaffolding. We can just fly in,
quickly hook up some chains, and pull her right off
into the sky without even landing. Presuming of
course that Baron Esperanto doesn’t sell us out.
The Security
Here’s the most beautiful part of this plan. There’s
no security. At least, no real security. After all, they
don’t need to position guards to stop people from
taking an 85 meter tall statue. How is that even
possible? What kind of doofus would steal an 85
meter tall statue?
Theanswer?Thiskindofdoofus.Andthroughpure
criminal genius.
There’s some security on the lawn, but we’re
talking rent-a-cop level security, and some police
who are none the wiser. Real amateur hour stuff. If
you can’t deal with that, you should probably pack
in the heist game and head home to your momma.
I guess I should also mention that Interpol Special
Investigator Theresa Moon kind of sort of knows
that we’re going to do the job during the light
show. I know this sounds bad. Especially what with
herrecordof…letmesee…140convictionsand…
ummm … zero escapes. But what are numbers,
anyway? You know they inflate those statistics to
make themselves look good. But also, she doesn’t
really know that we’re stealing the statue. I doubt
she’d believe someone if they told her that. She
just knows we’re going to do something big and
ridiculous. As far as I’m concerned, we just keep
her in the dark for as long as possible, and make
sure we use the moment when she finds out as a
smokescreen. You’ve all seen her. Square-jawed.
Intense, with fire in her eyes. Muscular and cut like
a classic Greek statue. Absolutely gorge -- anyway.
Imagine her face when she finds out we’re stealing
Our Lady of San Jenaro. She’ll do a double take, a
triple take, a quadruple take, and by the time she
hits her quintuple take, we should already be long
gone.
The Getaway
This is probably the hardest part. Usually we’d just
pocket the goods, blend into the crowd, and catch
the next flight out of the country. We can’t exactly
do that with the Our Lady of San Jenaro. We’ve got
to stow her away for the next steps. I’m sure I don’t
need to tell you this, but we can’t exactly dash off
into the night.
193
 This is going to be where the real art comes in. The
improvisation. We can control which of the three
plans we go with. We can choose when during the
light show we steal the statue (I recommend
during the Flight of the Valkyries, because that’s
just perfectly dramatic). We can choose
everything up until the statue is on the way out.
We might have to deal with jet skiing tourists,
unexpected winds, traffic jams, or who-knows-
what. This is why I’m working with the best darn
crew in the business. You’ve got to run
interference. You’ve got to make off-the-cuff
diversions. You’ve got to find potential problems
and cut them off at the pass. This means that the
easy part is up until the moment we have the
statue. If we’re smart, we can have it stowed away
for safekeeping in five minutes. But every
complica�on adds precious seconds to that �me.
My advice is to go big or go home. I mean, of
course it is. But I think we can all agree that a heist
this size needs distractions that compare. When
you’re wheeling tons of steel down a major
thoroughfare, you can’t just use the old “your
shoe’s untied” trick. You’ve got to think flashy.
Sparky. Bangy. In fact, any extra time we have
before the heist starts, maybe we should set up
some flashy sparky bangy tricks around the city we
can resort to when push comes to shove.
Also, remember that at least one of the three
plans is bound to go south. We can use that!
We should use that! After all, there’s a good
chance it goes south because one of the
ne'er-do-wells we’ve hired decided to
turn on us. But that’s part of the
brilliance. We go in expecting one of
them to do that, and when they do, we
shine a light on
194
them and turn them into the diversion of a
lifetime. After all, we’re talking about people with
massive trucks, boats, and airplanes. These are the
kinds of people that don’t have to try hard to get
the attention of an entire police force and maybe a
completely hypothetical gorgeous Interpol agent
that isn’t Theresa Moon because I’d never call her
gorgeous because I don’t have a long, protracted,
complicated romantic history with her, to chase
a�er.
Influences
Television, Manga, Film, Games: Lupin III. This
whole heist is an homage to the legendary manga
creator Monkey Punch. His Lupin III stories are full
to the brim with over-the-top, exciting, weird heist
action. Lupin’s a massive cultural touchstone in
Japan, spanning multiple long-running manga,
eight feature films, multiple live action films, six
direct to video movies, musicals, a shelf’s worth of
records, and more than twenty video games. The
moment we started talking about this book, my
first words were, “OMG I HAVE TO DO A LUPIN
STYLE HEIST.” Lupin III basically pioneered the
tongue-in-cheek fourth wall breaking style you see
in my own novels and in the Deadpool films. If you
want to get started into classic Lupin, The Castle of
Cagliostro is a wonderful place to jump in, directed
by the truly amazing Hayao Miyazaki, who you’ve
probably heard of from his work in My Neighbor
Totoro, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke,
and Kiki’s Delivery Service. But there’s a
new 3D animated movie called Lupin III:
The First that’ll definitely be out by the
�me you read this.
 Troublesome Locks
Liam Ginty
Culaver’s Watchful Friend - A Sentient Lock, fully capable of remembering who opened it and
1
speech
Reandyan Ironscaled Snake - A lock which is also a living snake, which uncoils harmlessly if the
2
correct key is used
3 Grindbell And Sons. Auditory Security - A lock you must play a specific piece of music to unlock

4 Quantum Security Mk 3 - A lock that only exists when not being observed

5 Insta-Sequence Verifica�on Qi - DNA-based lock that requires a full DNA sequence to open

6 Pair-Bond U�lity Securolock - A lock that requires someone to physically hold it open at all �mes
Uncle Bezzos’s Social Sieve Bolt - A lock that only opens when paid a large sum of money directly
7
related to the openers perceived economic class
Reversal Deployment Lock - A lock that, when unlocked, deploys chains, or monofilament wire,
8
and binds the unlocker.
9 Zorkian Bike Lock - A basic seeming dial wheel lock. Numbers are in an alien numeric system
Jinxies Puzzle Lock - A lock that requires complete disassembly to get to keyhole, with many
10
parts of the lock having to be removed to create the key itself.
McCain’s Fluid Lock - A lock consisting of 4 cylinders, each requiring an exact amount of liquid
11
poured in each to unlock
Speed Challenge Lock - A lock that must be picked in under 30 seconds, otherwise it sends a se-
12
curity alert. No key.
Thermal Deterrence Seal - A lock that increases its surface temperature as it’s being picked until
13
it’s hot enough to cause serious burns
SPHINX Lock - A lock that asks three irritatingly convoluted riddles that must be answered to un-
14
lock
Good People Only Morality Check Lock - A lock that scans the users brainwaves and social media
15
accounts and only unlocks if their moral compass is aligned with the lock owner’s
Ring Key Lock - A lock whose key is a series of rings held by a variety of people which must be as-
16
sembled exactly right to func�on
CyberMonitor EYE Lock - When unlocked, this system injects a tracking monitor nanomachine
17
into the unlocker’s bloodstream that dissolves a�er a day or so
Délicat - A lock made entirely out of hyper-fine glass. If any part of it breaks, renders the entire
18
lock unusable and permanently closed
Signet Link One Use Lock - A lock designed to be used only once. When opened, it immediately
19
dissolves.
20 Luck Lock - A lock with a lever that spins the tumblers to a random posi�on

195
 Temple of the Nine Community Center
The conclusion of the Feast of Days
Before the evening
Three God Monte ceremony

pl e C om p le x Grounds
Tem
s, v isito rs , an d temple
Tourist s thrum around
employee of Ianus in the
the statue.
courtyard
m e m b e rs o f the Sect
If any n t , y ou will see
a re pr e se
some here.
196
 The Urn of Departures, the item you’ve been hired to steal has little
monetary value, but its presence in the temple draws tourists and
pilgrims from across the world. Its loss would devastate the temple’s
ability to collect money for the community, so your crew needs to sneak
in with the forgery, bypassing tourists, temple acolytes, and the Sect
of Chaos; swap the forgery with the original, and escape through a
maze of tunnels. It's the only way to prevent the Sect from obtaining
the artifact and using it to open a portal to Chaos itself.

um
Inner Sanct
le roo m , but decor-
A simp beau�ful murals
ated with a variety of natural
depic�ng na.
phenome
c t re gu la r tour groups .--
Expe la r guard patrols
a nd ir re g u
Hidden Staircase
The only way to access the
stairs is to remove al
ar�facts from their l three
pedestals.
Each ar�fact is trapped.

he Ca t acombs
T
itab le p athway tofor the
A ver certain death
almost ted.
unini�a
on ly escape roudte.
Also, youersanctum is seale
once th

197

Three God Monte
The Building
Until recently, the temple of the nine gods -- so
named for the number of deities once worshipped
here -- was reduced to a mere tourist attraction.
Visitors are still drawn here from across the world
by the architecture, the temple’s storied history,
and the artifacts stored in the inner sanctum.
However, in the last six years it has found renewed
purpose as a community center. Local inhabitants
visit daily to learn basic skills and receive
counselling on spiritual, emotional, or mundane
matters from the handful of priests who live and
work on the grounds. As a result, the greatest
number of people at the temple on any given day
arevisitorsfromthecommunityandlaypeoplelike
groundskeepers, teachers, healers, cleaners,
guards, and other staff. Almost none of them are
aware of the dangers posed by the artifacts in
their care.
Only the most senior priests at the temple, high-
ranking government officials, and members of the
Sect of Chaos know that each of these artifacts is a
potent relic whose power is undiminished. One of
them, the Urn of Departures, could bring about
the end of all things. Fortunately, the keepers of
the temple have no plans to use the relic for its
intended purpose. Instead, they are content to
exploititasatouristattraction,raisingfundsforthe
poor and needy in the community. However, the
Sect of Chaos has no such scruples and is actively
mobilising to acquire and use this artifact. They
must be stopped -- and you must be the ones to
stop them. To do so, you must reach the artifact
before they do.
History has erased most of what was known
about the nine gods whose statues stand here, and
only three of these statues still bear recognizable
figures. Today they are worshipped as Ianos, Ignus,
and Iranos -- the gods of gateways, fire, and the
sky, respectively -- but these gods have had many
names across the ages. Throughout the centuries,
people have ascribed dominion over those realms
198
Words: JW van Heerden
Art: Dyer Rose, Hector Rodriguez
to many gods, but scholars are certain that the
original gods differed significantly from those
worshipped today. If what we know about the
artifact is true, the original god of doorways was
very dangerous indeed. Almost nothing definitive
is known about the remaining six gods, although
theories abound. If you think it may prove useful,
you could visit the Library of Gint to search for
specific hints about the nine gods. It's possible that
knowing more about them would give you some
advantage when dealing with the numerous traps
and hazards hidden throughout the complex. Be
warned: Although the Library is rumored to hide
raremanuscriptsandresearch,thestacksgoonfor
miles. Arrive prepared.
Scholars have found evidence that separate cults
worshipped all nine gods at the temple
simultaneously, with each performing weekly rites
to their gods on a closely monitored schedule and
observing communal feast days over the course of
a solar year. The original arrangement was
probably less peaceful than that sounds, but the
temple’s subsequent history was more than
turbulent enough to make up for it. Innumerable
religions, cults, and sects supplanted those who
came before them -- occasionally by reviving
buildings found abandoned by others, but more
often by ejecting current inhabitants using force
and violence. Where casual visitors might be awed
by the craft or bored by its familiarity, careful
observers will read a history of conquest and
downfall in the stones.
The first thing visitors to the temple will see are the
high walls surrounding the temple complex on all
sides. Approaching from the front, they may see
glimpses of the statue to Ianus through the
archway;everyonewhowishestovisitthetemple
must enter through the imposing double doors
setintothisarch.Thearchwayoncewasgilded,but
locals have long since stripped it down to bare
plaster; likewise, the doors are made from solid
wood decorated with delicate carvings, which
long since weathered down to mere contours.
Gaining access to the complex is easy -- you simply
walk through these doors which are always open,
in honor of the god Ianos whose statue stands in
the center of the courtyard. During wars and
catastrophes anyone who is relatively strong may
close and bar these doors, but unless you manage
to alert everyone and all hell breaks loose, this
won’t be a problem for you.
Once inside, you will see the courtyard, the
statues, and the temple itself -- the only structure
visible aboveground. You’ll also see a veritable
throng of people of all ages going about their
business whether religious, cultural, or community
focused. The temple also employs ‘official
supplicants’ who wander the crowd soliciting
donations for the temple and its charitable causes.
By far the most effective supplicant is Trampas
Johnson, a large, friendly man with childlike
enthusiasmforgoodworksandthetemple’sgoals.
He’s also a musician, which is the main reason he's
so good at collecting donations. You’ll be able to
spot him carting his lute with him wherever he
goes. He has been a useful source of information,
although he is unaware of what our group intends.
Despite his affable demeanor he is a strong,
capable warrior well trained in many ways of
inflicting violence. Be prepared for him to be
exceedingly angry if he catches on to what you’re
attempting. On the other hand, if the Sect of Chaos
attempts to stop you, you may be able to solicit his
help in dealing with them.
To reach the artifact, make your way
into the temple and down the stairs
behind the altar. Temple acolytes
take visitors on tours to the
innersanctumsixtimesaday
-- twice in the morning,
twice in the afternoon,
and twice again in the
evening. Joining a tour is
relatively cheap, and
maintenance staff usually
clean up a few minutes
after each tour ends. The
artifact is one of three
displayed on a marble shelf
that sits atop a square dias.
Each artifact rests on a
separate piece of material -- leather, cloth, and
satin,fromlefttorightinthisorder:thebrazier,the
urn, and the scrying bowl. Visitors will see no
visible security measures apart from the guards
posted at the entrance to this room. So far, so
good, right? This is where things become more
complicated.
The Score
You will find the item on the center of the shelf,
between the brazier of Ignus and the bowl of
Iranos. The Urn of Departures; the Cup of Eternal
Exits; the Vessel of Valiant Entry -- your prize has
had many names, each bestowed upon it by cults
who controlled it at different times to reflect the
nature of the deity they worshipped. (For a while it
was even known as the Vase of Precious Leavings,
due to a translation error by the reigning cult. Once
the cult died out, the next cult emptied out the
supposedly sacred ashes of former leaders that
had been stored there, gave it a good rinse, and
repurposed it according to their own
interpretation of the urn’s intended use.)
Whatever its name, it appears as a medium-sized
ceramic vase, fat and round as if it was meant to
hold a great deal of liquid. It looks almost benign --
unless you are especially sensitive or attuned to
forbidden magic, in which case you may be able to
sense a slight shiftiness in its appearance, as if it
was not wholly there.
Its first, most literal name refers to a belief that
touching it acts as a portal to another
place, possibly even
another realm or
dimension. It acquired its
second, more ominous
interpretation when it was
venerated by a death cult,
who thought of the
gateway as one to a more
permanent destination.
Most recently, it was an
object of reverence for a
militaristic sect whose
primary feast days
coincided with the
conclusions of successful
campaigns and who used to
carry it at the front of victory
199
 marches. None of these meanings are entirely
accurate, although each contains an element of
truth. The artifact can be used to open a portal to
another world, certainly, but the object itself is
consumed in the process. And while it would be
useful to open portals at will, the portal it opens
leads directly to the domain of Chaos where the
god of destruc�on lives.
The Security
This last factor is what has drawn the attention of
your competition -- the Sect of Chaos, who
worship the beings from this realm and the
principles theyembody. The Sectplans tostealthe
artifact themselves, but they must commit the
robbery during a propitious alignment of the stars,
during the full moon in two weeks’ time. Once
they have it, they plan to head into the tunnels
below the temple, perform the ritual, and
unleash Chaos itself. You must acquire the artifact
before they do, or nothing will matter. Simply
stealing it is not an option, either, since that would
cost the community an essential source of income.
You have been issued with an excellent forgery; it
has only the slightest imperfections that allow you
to tell it apart from the real thing. Smuggling it into
the inner sanctum poses an additional
challenge, but not significantly more than
sneaking in and stealing the original in the
first place. As a last resort, you could
a�empt to
destroy the
artifact -- but
the ritual
takes half an
hour, and the
room will
only be
200
sealed for 15 minutes.
Our information suggests that the original church
kept the artifact here because they wished to keep
it from those who would misuse it -- really, those
who would use it for its intended purpose. The
temple has several reasons for making so little
effort to vouchsafe its artifacts. The artifacts are
prized primarily for their cultural significance, so
the uninitiated have no reason to believe them to
have value in and of themselves. Visitors pay
primarily for the opportunity to see the artifacts in
situ, as it were, surrounded by the murals that are
the only perfectly preserved elements from the
original temple, and to share in the awe of the
ancient worshippers.
Not only are they protected by hidden trickery, but
handling them incorrectly could kill you. The elder
races crafted the brazier from living metal,
imprisoning part of the creature’s soul within the
receptacle. It yet retains within its core a hatred
for all humanity; mortal hands may not touch the
vessel, lest flames ignite to envelop the trespasser.
Cause the slightest ripple upon the surface of the
scrying bowl and the waters will expand to a
column that surrounds you, and you’ll find
yourself unable to breathe. And as for
touching the urn -- disturbing the object in
any way immediately seals the entrance to
the inner sanctum from above, locking you
in with the relic. Be sure to open the secret
exit before you move the urn, otherwise you’ll
never get it to budge.
The temple also has more mundane security
measures. A century ago, well-practised guards
wouldperformregularpatrolsaroundthecomplex
to protect the treasured items within. Today,
guards still patrol the various floors, but they are
sporadic and undisciplined, with most guards
sticking close to their posts. In truth, most of these
'guards' are volunteers, consisting almost entirely
of particularly zealous members of the religious
groups that still observe rites here. Of course, it is
perfectly possible that the temple leaders have
added security measures that we have failed to
detect without closer inspection -- so be on your
guard regardless.
Trampas mentioned a lot of suspicious people
hanging about recently. It’s likely that the Sect of
Chaos are aware of our attempts to remove or
destroy the relic, and are scoping out the temple in
the hopes of flushing out their opposition and
crushing them. Don’t hesitate to do away with
anyone who attempts to stop you. You want to
look out for three people in particular. The sect
leader, Kordula, is sure to show up in person to
oversee the Ritual of Opening. After all, what’s the
point of destroying the world if you don’t get to be
there when your patron arrives to deal out the
rewards? She’s a fat woman of medium height,
with a thin face and piercing eyes. She's deadly; do
not underes�mate her.
Kordulanevergetsherhandsdirtyifshecanhelpit,
so look out for her two goons -- Gerome and
Gregory. These two are near inseparable, but they
couldn’t look more different. Gregory is skinny and
short with freckles; Gerome is tall with an
immense belly and a huge, immaculately sculpted
beard. These aren’t your average goons, mind;
they are both armed with flame-sharp blades that
are easily concealed within a cloak or even a thick
vest. Either way, keep your wits around you, lest
you become a part of the sacrifice.
The Getaway
Once you remove the artifact from its display, the
room seals automatically and you’ll have 15
minutes to swap the artifact with the forgery -- or
destroy the original -- and escape. If you’re found
inside the sanctum after the breach, you’ll have
difficult questions to answer. Better to seal
yourself in, take the urn, and escape through the
labyrinth of tunnels below the complex, giving
yourself time to complete the destruction ritual
elsewhere. However, you must trigger the exit to
the catacombs beneath the tunnel before sealing
the room itself, otherwise that exit will be
inaccessible.
The exit to the catacombs is hidden below the dais,
and you need to activate it with a tile puzzle on the
back of the marble shelf. Escaping this way
involves traversing a maze filled with hiding spots,
ambush loca�ons, and unsprung and
undiscovered traps. These were left here as a
result of the nearly endless succession of
occupations, some of which happened before
recorded history, so the complex below the temple
is a veritable labyrinth of derelict traps, dead ends,
and lost secrets. Our spies report that the Sect
recentlyobtainedacopyofthemap,drawnbythe
only known survivor to have successfully traversed
the catacombs. Unfortunately, it seems that
Kordula carries this on her person at all times.
Also, the mapmaker failed to note the locations of
any traps or hazards, except for some especially
unmistakeable ones, because she became
increasingly concerned that someone would use
her knowledge for ill. Hopefully none of the Sect
have made their way into those catacombs.
Hopefully.
Regardless of what else you encounter, remember
that the temple complex is a place of power, rife
with mystical energies and unsolved mundane
mysteries. Do not let the current, communal
atmosphere lull you into forge�ng that.
Influences
Television: “The Shannara Chronicles”
Video Games: The Lara Croft series; the Uncharted
series
Music: John Williams - "Indiana Jones" soundtrack;
Nathan Johnson - “Knives Out” soundtrack
201
 The Trigintillion Complex
2082
Night
TrueID2082

Security Clearance 4 - ZONE D

This is the treasure room. Top security. Top scru-
�ny. But the prize is in sight. Play it safe, play it
smart, and we enjoy our new lives.

Security Clearance 3 - ZONE C

This is the heart of Trigin�llion® opera�ons.
Massive popula�on. Cubicle farms as far as the
eye can see. If we can avoid the social climbers,
we should be able to march right through.

Security Clearance 2 - ZONE B

Most Trigin�llion® employees spend their free
�me here. Bars. Clubs. Hobby centers. Music
venues.
It’s the night life for the day shi� and the day life
for the night shi�.

Security Clearance 1 - ZONE A

This is the residen�al area. Apartments no
bigger than prison cells. The popula�on’s so
dense that every block needs machines to filter
the carbon dioxide and eject breathable air.

202
You might want to change your name. You might want to change your
gender. Hell, you might just want to correct the typo on the city it
says you were born in. Whatever it is, if you want to change your
TrueID™, you need to be with us in that room when it all goes down.

203

TrueID2082
Background
After the International Identity Homogeneity Act
of 2079, every citizen of the “developed world”
has been issued a TrueID™. Society voted. Well,
12% of society voted. The 12% that was allowed to
vote decided that every person was one static
entity and thus should be issued a single,
permanent, binding identification implanted on
their person and readable by corporate law
enforcement officers. This, they said, was for
everyone’s safety. Freedom isn’t free, they told us.
The Trigintillion Corporation® issues these
TrueIDs™ in the form of nanochips injected into a
person’s arm, which quickly slither their way into
the human brain where they develop tendrils
which leech their way into even the most resilient
mind. The tendrils exist as a failsafe. After all, if
hackers could just break into a TrueID™, they could
upend the entire system. A hacked TrueID™ node
results in the licensor’s* death as the tendrils emit
overwhelmingsystemshockswhichshutdownthe
central nervous system instantly. As Trigintillion®
puts it in their TrueID™ slogan: “Identity. It gets
under your skin.”
What happens when the person you are now isn’t
the person you were when you received your
TrueID™? Quite simply, you’re fucked. You have to
accept the identity you were given. You have to
use that name and that persona on all corporate
government documentation. The TrueID™
custom-tailors your advertising experiences to
that identity. If that identity is a boy and you’re a
girl now, tough shit; you’re getting advertisements
that remind you that according to that little silicon
spider in your brain -- the one the rest of the world
identifies you as -- you are a boy. Did you go to med
school only to realize you couldn’t handle the sight
of blood day in, day out? You’re stuck with
Trigintillion IndentureLoans™ until your 120th
birthday. The only real way to change the content
on a TrueID™ is to break into the Trigintillion®
mainframe. Unfortunately for a would-be hacker,
the mainframe itself updates every thirty seconds
204
Words: Olivia Hill
Art: Dyer Rose, Brian York
with its hard-wired intranet backup. If the version
on the mainframe doesn’t match the backup, it
reverts to the backup version. What this means for
us is, to change the mainframe, we have to be in
the Trigintillion® server room, connected to both
the mainframe and the backup server, pulling the
virtual switches at exactly the same time. It’s a
good thing some of the best cyberspace hijackers
in the business all share the desire to change their
TrueIDs™.
You might want to change your name. You might
want to change your gender. Hell, you might just
want to correct the typo on the city it says you
were born in. But if you want to change your
TrueID™, you need to be with us in that room
when it all goes down.
The Building
The servers are in the top of the Trigintillion
Complex. In spite of its intimidating silhouette on
the skyline, the security itself isn’t much more than
your average tech conglomerate. It’s good
security, but not great security. There’s a motion
detector array. Infrared. Human security guards.
Drones. Every other job we’ve done has been lead-
up to this. Don’t let it get to you too much.
The worst part of all this is we’ve got to get through
Trigintillion City®. Trigintillion City® only allows
Trigintillion® employees within its walls. Because
of the extensive background check system, we
can’t just all get jobs in Trigintillion®. Besides, there
exists a hierarchical security system. There’s four
tiers of security clearance, each layer harder and
harder to get into. Only security clearance level 4
employees can access the top of the Trigintillion®
complex where the servers reside. Unfortunately
for us as well, security clearance 4 employees also
cannot leave the security clearance 4 sectors at
all.
For this, we have the Traveller Protocol.
The Traveller Protocol is a viral program we’ve
worked up, which allows one TrueID™ user to
temporarily overwhelm another, essentially
letting us take over another person’s body and, in
essence, their identity. If we play our cards right,
two people can each transfer to a clearance level
1, 2, 3, then 4 identity, and make their ways to the
server rooms.
But it’s not that simple.
There are two ways to get the Traveller Protocol to
work: We can do it with finesse and consent, or we
can brute force it.
If we brute force it and take over someone else’s
identity without their consent, we run the risk of
failure, which means immediate alarms and, if
they can identify us, instant death as our own
TrueIDs™ fry our brains. No fun.
If we do it the smart way, we can pick sympathetic
targets, speak directly to their minds, and ask
them permission for temporary residence in their
bodies. Keep in mind, even Trigintillion®
employees hate Trigintillion®. Most of them long
to see the corporation’s evil empire toppled. They
just don’t have a way. What we’re doing here? It
makes the first cracks in the system. It shows
weakness the people can use to break down the
wall. So if we find would-be dissidents, there’s a
good chance we can convince them to let us use
their bodies for the job. It just means convincing
eight or more people to join in our little revolution.
If they go willingly, we face no major risk of failure,
alarms, or brain frying.
The Score
The score is our identities. But more accurately,
205
 the score happens when we
breakintothosetwoservers--the
mainframe and the backup
database. The system itself is the
Stephenson. You know, the
legendary supercomputer that
trade commission records say
doesn’t exist? That one. We can’t
just crack in, though; we have to
find our files in a sea of 20 billion
encrypted entries. To put it lightly,
this might take a little while. Since
we’re going to be body hopping
our way through Trigintillion
City®, we can’t exactly take
physical media in to help with the
cracking effort. In this case, we’re
gonna be kicking it old school, like
20th century code cowfolx.

But tell methat,as a hacker,you’venot dreamed of
breaking into a Stephenson. This is like the hacker
holy grail.
Once we find our entries, it’s really just as easy as
editing the fields and coordinating the data so
both databases say the same thing. The sky’s the
limit. In fact, that’s literal. Want a pilot’s license?
Youcanhaveone.Somaybebeforegoingin,havea
clear idea of who you want to be on paper. Who
am I kidding? You know exactly who you are and
exactly what you want that computer to say you
are. I don’t need to remind you.
Why can’t we just rewrite the whole system?
Ultimately, it’s because rewriting one record takes
long enough. Rewriting the whole group will be
pushing it. A full system rewrite would take days of
server power, and that would mean maintaining
system connec�on for days at a �me,
uninterrupted. After more than a few hours,
there’s no way Trigintillion® isn’t going to swarm
those server rooms with an entire army if left
unchecked.
We can’t brute force that, either. We can’t just
erase the system. This is precision work. Any hard
action against the database runs the risk of killing
everyone we affect. So, theoretically, crashing the
TrueID™ system could result in the death of more
than 80% of the earth’s population. That’s not
206
liberation … that’s genocide. But know that if we
break the system once, we become legends. We
become inspiration for other activists, other
hackers. We show them that Trigintillion® simply is
not unbeatable. We might fix four or even ten
identities with this mission. Whomever comes
after us might free one hundred people. After that,
a thousand. In time, we’ll tear down these walls.
We’ll be defined by our own selves, not by what
society and corporate hegemony dictates.
There’s also side benefits. Want to be rich? You’ve
got it. Want to have guaranteed top-tier health
care for life? You’ve got it. You want to be on the
Trigintillion Police NoArrest Platinum Premium
Member® list? You’ve got it. All these things, these
things that kill us, that keep us in the slums, that
keep our stomachs rumbling and our bodies falling
apart? They’re as complex as changing a 0 to a 1 in
adatabase.Forafewminutes,yougettobeagod.
You get to be the entity that shapes fate. Don’t let it
get to your head, lest you end up like them.
The Security
The security, like I said before, is the basics for an
international tech conglomerate. Not easy to
penetrate by any stretch of the imagination. I don’t
want to harp on the way motion detectors,
infrared detectors, lasers, drones, and security
officers work. You know all this by now.
Thebigthingthat’s uniqueto this job is theidentity
detectors. The cameras utilize software that
analyzes things like speech patterns and body
language, as well as facts about the individual’s
specific behavior in order to detect things like body
doubles. This includes but is not limited to posture,
general temperament, and gait. They operate on a
25% margin of error. If you only act 75% like the
person you’re impersonating, they know
something’s up, and they will dispatch security to
your loca�on immediately.
What does this mean for you? It means you’ve got
to play the part of a complete stranger. You’ve got
to quickly learn who they are, how they behave,
and how they speak in the amount of time it takes
you to convince them to let you take their body or
in the time it takes to steal their body. Fortunately
for us, their TrueID™ has a ton of data on them, so
you can do quick research by accessing that
information. But you can’t just make up body
language and speech patterns. You have to do that
well. You have to act. You have to perform. Who is
best at this job? Someone who has had to pretend
to be someone they’re not for most of their life.
Yeah, that means this team should shine.
This also means you’ve got another distinct
advantage if you go the consensual route with
your body swaps. If you interact with them, appeal
to their emotions and sympathy, not only are you
not being an evil shit and stealing their body
without their permission, but you’re also learning
who they are as a person. This’ll give you a better
chance of fooling the TrueID™ detec�on system.
The Getaway
The one actual easy part of this job is the getaway.
It’s like escaping a skyscraper with a parachute: All
you’vegottodoisjump.Exceptinthiscase,“jump”
means just jacking out of your current body.
You can just do that. You can skip out, and come
home to your real body a new person according to
all the world’s computer systems. You can
absolutely do that.
The hitch, though? You’re leaving a Security
Clearance 4 Trigintillion® employee in the server
room. They have to answer to the guards. They
have to sit down and debrief about what
happened. They might be reprogrammed.
Interrogated. Tortured. It’s hard to say. They might
just disappear. But then again, the company might
understand that they weren’t in control of their
body and let them walk away with a slap on the
wrist.
Are you willing to take that risk?
Alternatively, you can get that employee out to
safety. You can get them back to their cubicle. You
can erase security records. You can do all sorts of
shit to protect them.
Or, hear me out here … you can give them a new
life.
While you’re in the TrueID™ systems, you could
spendafewextraminutesdigginguptheirrecords.
Because sometimes, when you’re in the process of
coming out as someone new, an ally is an ally
because really, they’re looking for that validation
for themselves. They know what it’s like to want to
be recognized as someone new. Deep down, they
can relate. They know what it’s like to have this
huge, complicated identity that doesn’t match
who they are deep down,and you have the perfect
opportunity to help them along that path.
Influences
Novels: William Gibson - Idoru (1996)
Television: Ghost in the Shell Stand-Alone Complex
(2005)
Film: Johnny Mnemonic (1995), The Matrix (1999),
Black Magic M-66 (1987)
Video Games: Omikron: The Nomad Soul (1999),
Heaven Will Be Mine (2018)
Music: Icon of Coil - Machines Are Us (2004)
* Ci�zens with a TrueID™ do not own the TrueID™. The TrueID™ is wholly-
owned property of the Trigin�llion Corpora�on Holdings®. Further,
Trigin�llion Corpora�on Holdings® will be referred to as “The Benefactor.”
The ci�zen will be referred to as “The Host.” Upon installa�on of the TrueID™,
the Host agrees to the Benefactor’s terms and condi�ons as stated on page
4,693 of the TrueID™ user manual. Failure to accept these terms and
condi�ons will result in the immediate forfeiture of the TrueID™ technology
unit, which will result in but not be limited to the death of the Host.
207
 Woosle’s Wonderlock Bank - Fisk Alley
Geneva, Switzerland
12:07AM
Woosle’s Wonderlock
The Ba
When t nk
h
Wonde ey say Woo
the sce rlock explod sle’s
ne, they e
meandt ionto
Woosle t.
buildi ’s has push
place inngs aside anded three
Fisk Alle the center otaken its
towerin y, where it r f
finance g edifice of m emains
. odern a

The Upper Vaults

This is the most bank-like
part of the bank.
This is a show of opulence to
a�ract the most elite clien-
tele with services like luxury
vaults that build in spa
treatments and soothing
music along with private
rooms where clients have
the utmost privacy.

208
 Woosle’s Wonderlock is throwing a gala for their fifth anniversary
next week, and you’re going to make their treasures disappear. In
particular, our client wants you to open one Vault 10006-A, where,
supposedly a magical beast we’ve identified as a Wimple-Maned Gorgant*
resides

Fisk Alley
This magical neighborhood
was once an ar�sanal
district that has since
transformed into expensive
cafes, luxury goods stores,
and something called
“co-working spaces.”

It’s being lavishly

redecorated for the gala --
if you’ve got an eye for
design, you might be
able to get some up-close
recon.

The Lower Reaches

Like everything else in the
wizarding world, Woosle’s is
much bigger on the inside
than it is on the outside.
Underneath the secure
vaults is a labyrinth of tun-
nels and tracks that lead into
untold depths. If you believe
the stories, this is where to
find magical beasts.

*Don’t ask. There’s a reason our fees for dealing with the wizarding world are triple the norm.

209
 Words: J.R. Zambrano
Woosle’s Wonderlock Art: Hector Rodriguez

The Building
Woosle’s Wonderlock exploded onto the scene, dominates the neighborhood above and below.
literally, four years and 357 days ago in Geneva, During its operating hours, members of the bank
and since then has expanded to serve the magical can visit their vaults to make secure deposits--and
elite who wouldn’t dare keep their money in that if you believe the rumors, keep all manner of
vault in London where poor people can just walk in questionably legal goods, magical and mundane,
and store their pittance alongside valuable stored away from prying eyes. The bank is warded
treasures. It is a testament to the magical against every known form of scrying. The few
community’s progress. It’s a masterpiece of wizards who have been brave enough to try to
elegant, modern design--at least as far as the peek into Wonderlock are still recovering in
wizarding world goes, which means it looks very S██████’s, repeating to any who ask: “Woosle’s
much like a 19th-century brownstone, only it’s Wonderlock is the bank that can’t be beat--just ask
made out of white marble. A sleek W emblazoned me, I tried!”
on the front of the building serves as its only
signage as well as a focus for some of the magical
wards on the front of it. It The bank was designed
by Gryphantheus Aegilwald Schorff-Thratt
Woosle, a mysterious recluse’s mysterious recluse.
Rumor has it he was one of the few to profit off of
the war in the 90s, hanging onto the wealth of
those who sided with the dark lord, and then
pocketing three kingdoms’ worth of treasure
when the war came to its sudden close. The
building itself exploded onto the scene almost five
years ago, causing quite a stir when it pushed aside
Drindlewell’s Clocks, Gormanth’s Gizzards, and
Hildebrandt’s Fine Dresses to claim the central
block of Fisk Alley.

The old buildings weren’t destroyed, just bent

out of shape. Though their owners have long
since been priced out of the neighborhood, and
the buildings have been enfolded into the
Wonderlock. And all around it, Fisk Alley has
changed. No longer is it the quiet backstreet in
Geneva, where fine wizarding artisans come to
ply their trade. It now exists to serve
Woosle’s elite clientele. If you
thought gentrification was bad, try
adding magic on top of it.

Speaking of, the Wonderlock is

nothing short of a magical marvel.
Woosle’s pride and joy, this bank
210
The bank can be split into three sections. First are
the public areas, where the elite can visit to be
pampered by Woosle’s exclusive services. These
include magical spas and saunas, complimentary
meals provided by a staff of willing bank-elves, a
centaur masseuse, and hot springs warmed by
Woosle’s pet dragon, Whimslydale. Normally the
lobby of the Wonderlock is all most people get to
see. It has a gift shop, a coffee shop, and a
wondrous view of downtown Geneva. However,
it’s been redecorated for the anniversary gala.
Wooslehashiredbackalltheartisanshepricedout
of the district to come and create a masterpiece of
opulence. We’ve seen goblins at work
constructing a miniature replica of the
Wonderlock’s explosive “founding,” pixies, nixies,
and sprites capering about with ingredients
enough for a thousand cakes -- or one incredibly
large one -- and a veritable army of serving staff
who are rehearsing their every move. From what
we can tell, the planned dinner consists of an
elaborately choreographed dance number that
brings each course to its guests. If you can dance
and own clothing suitable for a black-tie gala, you
might be able to blend in here.
Then there are the vaults themselves. Many are
located in the upper floors of the bank, where the
ultra-wealthy can be assured a private room that
magically manifests for whatever their needs
might be. Inside the upper vaults you’ll find the
standard array of illicit magical treasures. Magical
gems that capture souls; gold stolen from dragons;
crystallized light from a dark and baleful star that
whispers soft promises to all who hold it close. But
if there’s anywhere in the bank that you can duck
out of sight, it’s here. Woosle is obsessed with
privacy for his clients, and not even his staff can see
what goes on up here. Of course, first you’d have to
get into one of the private rooms. Should be easy
for your Crew; they’re the tops.
Then there are the Lower Vaults. These are
everything you’d expect. Minecarts that travel
impossibly fast along dangerous tracks that
definitely haven’t been updated or maintained
since the 1800s, despite being only five years old.
Caverns that suddenly drop off and lead into
unspeakable depths. A network of confusing
passages that intersect and shift -- this place is a
magical hazard. But if you can get down here, it’s a
great place to lose whatever heat might be on
you.
Woosle keeps this place locked up tight. Only the
most elite of the elite are allowed down here --
that or the ex-magical special forces who now
serve as a de facto wizarding security company.
The last thing the wizarding world needed was a
PMC, but Woosle created one. And now it patrols
thelowerhallsofthebank.Thisplaceisadungeon
and you’d better believe that here there be
dragons. And centaurs. And ogres. Woosle is fond
of hiring magical beasts to protect the scads of
other magical beasts that are supposedly kept
down here. Info coming out of the lower levels is
sketchy at best, but from what we can piece
together, there’s a whole magical ecosystem
brewing down here. The lower level comprises
four distinct “biomes” connected by railways and
other passages: a fiery desert, a windswept aerie, a
humid, swampy plant zone, and the obligatory
underwater level. There’s always one of those. We
don’t know which zone the gorgant is kept in, so
you’ll have to find that out once you’re down
there.
The Score
The wimple-maned gorgant is an incredibly rare
version of the typical gorgant, born under the most
unlikely set of circumstances. We won’t bore you
with the details -- you don’t need to know that
much about the moon. Suffice it to say this
creature is typically one of a kind. With a silky
black coat, shot through with russet specks, horns
made of coalesced moonlight, fluffy wings, and a
tuft of fur that should have a “gorget-shaped
pa�ern” at its base, this beast is strange to look at.
But it’s worth a fortune to our client, who wants to
see it released from captivity, and has promised to
pay extra for any other beast that should happen
to escape during the a�empts.
Of course, if you’re careful, you could probably
secure an extra payday from the vaults as well.
211
 The Security
The Wonderlock is exactly that. As we say, it’s
warded against all kinds of magical spying. No one
can apparate in or out of the place. No
teleportation, no holes in reality -- nothing. So you
can’t count on magic to help you here, at least not
in the typical ways. Woosle knows the rules of the
bank, though, and has taken precautions for those
who might try to turn the weaknesses against him.
Take the lobby, for instance. Right now it’s a
security chief’s nightmare -- there are a ton of
workers present, and on the night of the
anniversary gala it’ll be full of hoity-toity types as
well, meaning even more people. But Woosle will
be handing out badges to every single guest --
these are designed to shout loudly if taken into a
forbidden area, and must always be displayed.
Each badge has its own personality and can
speak, so it can tell a questioner if the person
wearing it stole it or is trespassing.
Anyone caught without one is subject to
immediate ejection, though -- early recon showed
Woosle experimenting with an ejection system
that forcibly spat out crash-test gnomes from the
establishment. So be careful when you’re going in
-- it might be be�er to have than to have not.
Still, rumors abound of a network of magical
tunnels used to help transport goods from place to
place. Woosle doesn’t want things apparating in
his place, but guests demand the magical
conveniences they’re used to -- you can bet any
tunnels that don’t appear on the official map are
sure to be closely monitored, though. Especially
when you consider that Woosle also employs a
veritable zoo of magical creatures. And we’re not
talking just the humanoid ones, either. Woosle has
a way with words and beasts. We know he has at
least two families of Acromantulas that are
constantly on the prowl for intruders. So be
watchful -- spiders are bad enough, nevermind
when they’re a colony of magical spiders with a
taste for human flesh, who’ve been paid to spy
andweavetheirwebswheretheymightcatchfolks
unawares.
Ifyoucangetpastallthat,Vault10006-Aisdownin
thelowervaults.Eachareadownhereisseparated
into biomes, and each biome is home to its own
variety of magical flora and fauna -- all of which you
should assume to be hostile. Not necessarily
because they’re on Woosle’s payroll, but just
because wizards love nothing
more than to poke danger in
the eye and say, “Nothing

On the Upper Levels, as we mentioned, you’ll

have an easier time, owing to the obsessive
privacy measures in place. Don’t get distracted
by the amenities, though; the workers in each
facility are direct hires by Woosle, and the man
prides himself on buying the loyalty of everyone
he comes across. You can expect them to pass
along information about anyone who doesn’t
belong, even if they don’t tell you to your face. And
they’ll be passing word to the gang of wizards that
are the magical equivalent of an ex-Spec Ops
team. These are Woosle’s handpicked magical
guardians. Each one is a skilled magical
combatant, equipped with the best wands and
enchanted flak vests that money can buy. There
aren’t many of them, but one of Woosle’s
Witchstrike team is said to be worth ten wizards,
so take care you don’t get
outnumbered and face down two of
them.

212
bad will happen to me.” So why not keep angry
beasts that can level a house locked up below your
bank?

They’re a security hazard all their own. But what

you’ll really want to watch out for is the Grommler.
This beast is said to roam the ceilings of the lower
vaults, swinging from stalactite to stalactite with its
fleshy appendages; we believe Woosle can see
through its eyes and speak through its mouths.
And the last thing you need is for Woosle to know
he’s been bamboozled. The man is vindictive
enough to buy a whole city and bankrupt it
because a barista made his coffee with cream
when he asked for almond milk. Understandable,
but try not to be seen.

The Getaway
While magic might not be the best way in or out --
those mine carts are sturdy. If you can get one
going fast enough, you might be able to crash
through the walls and coast to freedom. Woosle
controls the Wonderlock, but outside of it you’ve
got considerably more ability to get away.

You could in theory release the magical beasts

that are kept down in the biomes, but that’s sure to
attract attention. It might be enough attention to
slip away unno�ced. But you never know.

There’s one last possibility we’ve scouted out -- the

underground tunnels have not been fully
mapped. It’s entirely possible you could go deeper
even than Woosle’s Wonderlock and find your way
out wherever those tunnels lead -- if they indeed
go anywhere.

Influences
Inspired by - Jacob Woosley

Movies: “Harry Po�er” (series)

Graphic Novels: “Stardust,” “The Books of Magic “

TV: “The Magicians”

Music: John Williams

213
 Fantastic Security Systems
Alvhild Sand

An earth-shattering sound of an alarum bell ringing, loud enough to knock people over or
1
provide other environmental hazards
A booming voice that calls out a nonsensical riddle. If not answered in time, it threatens to rouse
the magical guardians. Thankfully, a scrap of parchment nearby has a reminder that the correct
2
answer is to tell the mouth to shut up, and to get rid of the parchment to maintain operational
security
A door with a magically significant number of locks (3, 7, 9, 13). Only one of them is actually
locked. Locking (and, presumably, unlocking) one of the others sets off a complex magical effect
3
that makes the door open to somewhere other than its original location. This isn't so much a se-
curity system as a portal system
An Illusory Floor with very subtle markers for which steps are real, and which lead to environ-
4
mental hazards such as dead-drops and acid pits.
A room with mirror-walls. The mirrors, if left untouched, function solely as the focus of a scrying
5 spell that activates when the room is entered. If touched, they enter two-way communication
mode with the very busy castellan who has much be�er things to do.
A bound air-elemental that throws a howling gale against anyone not wearing the proper au-
6
thoriza�on amulets, rendering progress difficult.
A maze enchanted so as to always lead out as long as you keep turning right - because adventur-
7
ers always go le�
A stone door so heavy only the rare-metal automaton in the room can open it (with proper lift-
8 ing technique). Or can it? The Automaton is enchanted to only respond to the voice of its creator
- or anything that sounds close enough to it
Nine crows that stare menacingly from various posts in the room, the closest just slightly out of
9
reach. They do not move. They do not caw.
A false treasury with cheap knock-offs and trash temporarily disguised to look like valuables
10
and/or the object your heisters are looking for
A telepathic imp that pleads with the party to turn themselves in and deliver any stolen valu-
11
ables. It sounds like their mothers.
Spikes. Everywhere. They grow, and undulate, and quite like to be scritched behind the... Spikes.
12
Where the ears should be.
A classical set-up of filling out the missing piece from a set of statuary, along a theme (ie, three
monkeys that see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil; elements or seasons, great magical minds
13
of the 51st century, etc). One of the pieces that might be the "correct" missing piece is broken.
Will it work anyway?

214
 Anyone entering the room is transformed into a rodent. This is an extremely localised spell that
14 wearsoffwhentheyleave.Thisisbecausetheexitisrodent-sizedandhiddenfromobviousview.
There's also cheese in the room. It is very tasty, but not magically so.
A sacrificial altar requiring the blood of an innocent to be spilled upon it to reveal the secret exit
15
beneath. Death may or may not be required.
A sacred flame that burns all with ill intent springs up covering all entrances and exits once
someone steps into the middle of the room. It must either be navigated athletically, magically -
16
ortheheisterscanhopetheirintentdoesnotcountas"ill"totheforcebehindthecreationofthe
flame.
Eachwalloftheroomhasadooronit.Eachofthemleadbacktothesameroom-unlesstheyare
17
all entered into in a specific sequence.
A bottomless chasm requiring some improvised means of traversal to bring the explorers to a
18
ledge on the other side.
19 Oops, it's a barracks room with appropriately thema�c guards playing cards!

20 Metallic Flesh-Ea�ng Insects, immune to magical damage and flame. Not immune to crushing.

215
 Homestead Community Center
December 21 2020
12:00 AM

Cult of Much More Than Personality

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The grounds expand further
than the property size
should allow for, and make it
hard to focus on what’s
within, even the building it-
self.
Might be warded? Ask the
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216
tooth toot t
 They have it. The Tooth of the Void. We had eyes on them. We thought
they were still looking. But it’s there. We can feel it. If we don’t get it
back, they’ll complete the ritual at midnight, crack open the veil, and
invite in another realm -- a realm that doesn’t get along with ours.

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 Cult of Much
More Than Personality
The Building
On November 18th, 1989, the Homestead
Community Center was officially condemned, and
the last few of those living within were forced to
vacate. Thirteen days later, a young man named
Anthony Mires purchased the property, ostensibly
to restore it. Nobody’s seen anything done about it
since; no contractors, no construction equipment,
and little more than a few shady figures here and
there around the structure. A single boarded-up
front entrance and two or three permanently
sealed fire escapes are the only apparent forms of
egress, but seem to go undisturbed, despite
occasional evidence of movement inside.
From afar, the center never seems like anything
more than a creepy abandoned building, but once
you get a little closer, things become a bit weird.
The property’s small, but a few steps onto the
grassy land surrounding the building and you feel
almost cut off from everything else. The center
seems as if it would require a day’s trek to reach,
and once you’ve gotten close, the streets
surrounding the square are almost too far off to
see. Even during the day, light starts to fade, as if a
stormfront were rolling in, blocking off the sun’s
rays. At night, even the moon and stars wash out
to a dull flicker.
As you come closer still, a keen eye will find little
inconsistencies around the exterior of the
building. There are sections of brick that are a little
“Something’s wrong. Something’s changing. Worming
into his mind. Where did it come from? He’d checked. No
ward. No magic. No spies. But something’s still there. It’s
grasping hold. Vision’s fading. Can’t focus on anything.
Whispers fill his head. Everything’s numb, and yet
everything hurts. When did he hit the ground? When did
the light fade? Is there any way to warn the others? Warn
them about what they missed?”
218
Words: Chris Falco
Art: Dyer Rose, Hector Rodriguez
newer than others, odd cracks in the wall, and piles
of detritus that have built up with no apparent
cause (given the lack of activity). With some careful
prodding, you’ll find covered holes, hidden
doorways, and a few other ways to get into the
building.
Any of the hidden passageways from the outside
lead into the (darker still) main corridors, which
seem to wrap around and encompass the entire
building. They’re mazelike, and almost seem to
shiftsonomapremains“uptodate;”ifyouhaveto
turn left to get to a specific room one day, you need
to go right the next. They tend to be oddly empty,
but prior to the ritual, expect some level of activity
as cul�sts come and go.
These hallways lead into various other rooms:
bedrooms, ritual spaces, and storage spots,
among others; several of these might even have
lesser magical trinkets and materials, if you have
extra time to search through them. Some of these
doorways are easily visible, but others are molded
into the wall, beneath hidden hatches, or are
otherwiseobscuredfromview.Combinedwiththe
oppressive, twisting shadows that seem to almost
flow through the walkways, it can be incredibly
difficult to find specific locations. If you time it
right, however, you might be able to catch wind of
a cultist heading towards the basement for the
ritualitself.Theritualoccursatmidnight,soexpect
a lot of movement star�ng around 11 p.m.
If you do manage to find the proper entrance in the
proper hall at the proper point within the building,
you'll find a stairway leading downward. Cold
concrete crumbles with every step, and it seems to
require an eternity to descend. At the bottom,
you’ll find yourself inside a spacious meeting area
that looks right out of a cheap television show. A
large podium in front of an altar is positioned
towards the opposite end you enter from (the
exact direction varies, with how the building
shifts). Rows of chairs are arranged throughout
the room, facing the altar. Depending on the time,
they might already be here, preparing for the ritual
(expect them to mostly all be there by 11:30 p.m.)
Or, if you’re late (just before midnight), they’ll
already be enacting their magic, and the Tooth will
be found on the aforemen�oned altar.
Assuming you manage to get there in time, there’s
one more hidden room of note. Behind the altar,
the third brick down from the top acts as a lever
you can use to open the wall into a corridor. That
leads to the Black Room, as they call it. You won’t
be able to see anything, as light is snuffed out as
soon as you step inside, even from supernatural
sources. It will take approximately 15 steps
(depending on your stride) before you’ll find the
pedestal where the Tooth of the Void is kept, which
goes up to about waist level. It’s out in the open,
but touching it barehanded is little better than a
death sentence..
The Score
The Tooth of the Void is an incredibly powerful
artifact. Said to have been left by a leviathan from
another realm, it carries a terrible, unnatural sort
of power. It’s been rumored that using it as a focal
point, a ritual invoking enough power from this
world can use it to create a gateway to whatever
realm it came from, one inimical to life — or even
simple material existence — in ours.
You can feel the Tooth of the Void as soon as you
get close to it. The area feels… not cold, exactly, so
much as it has a palpable draining sort of aura
around it, chilling in its own way. The area just rubs
the skin in the wrong way, as if the space around
the artifact is offended by the presence of warm
flesh.
Touchingtheobjectwithoutprotectivecoveringis
a fate almost worse than death. The power
contained within it reacts badly with the living.
Even a light brush of bare skin across risks
irreversible loss of mental faculty; victims of this
fate show no evidence of any conscious mental
activity, and they can only be kept alive with
immediate application of life support. It’s unclear if
it unravels the mind entirely or simply disperses it
across somewhere else, but nobody has ever
recovered from it.
If it’s inside the Black Room at the time — and it
should be, up until a few minutes before midnight
— you won’t be able to see it. But once you get it
out… it’s not particularly easy to focus on either.
The artifact is made of a pitch-black substance
that doesn’t properly reflect light, in the vague
approximation of the shape of a shark tooth, but a
bit too long and a bit too sharp. It’s larger than you
can confidently hold in a single hand, at least 8
inches across at the widest point. Actually studying
it is very difficult; because of its nature, the eye
doesn’t want to focus on it, and you’ll quickly find
yourself with a severe migraine if you try.

Her arm brushes against it as she steps forward. It’s

smooth. Cold. Too cold. She can still feel it even as she
pulls away. Spreading over her. Goosebumps tighten,
skin taut to the point of pain. The sensation creeps
upward, almost her arm. Along her shoulder. Up her
neck. It hits her head and her mind reels. Reality seems to
break around her. Her senses are lost. Her sense of self is
lost. Her mind exists but has no focus. There’s no point of
consciousness. No point of perception. Every part of her
unravels at the seams. Cast across an empty Void.
Dispersed un�l nothing remains...”

219
 While the fate of the world is more or less at stake
here, this mission doesn’t have to be entirely
charitable. Certain questionable groups run
“censoriums,” well-protected warehouses filled
with dangerous artifacts that should never be
used, but are kept intact just in case. If you can’t
find a way to destroy it (or choose not to), it won’t
be too long before you hear an offer from such an
organization. It’s very unlikely they’ll take no for an
answer, but it’s also unlikely they’ll say no to any
price you demand (beyond their other artifacts).
Eitherway,somethingsarefarmorevaluablethan
simple currency.
Of course, you could simply try to keep it for
yourselves.Itspowercouldtheoreticallybeturned
to other ends than an effective apocalypse. But
you wouldn’t be so short-sighted... would you?
The Security
The complex lacks typical doorways; everything
that looks like it should be a door or window is
sealed and blocked off to the extent that you’d
need explosives or something similar to bypass it.
Instead, as mentioned, you need to keep a sharp
eye out for the little inconsistencies that reveal
hidden passageways, inlets, hatches, or nooks
within the place.
Mundane impediments are the least of our
concern, however. This isn’t some new-agey cult
that merely believes in the power of positive
thinking; these are warlocks, wizards, and
witches, and not all are entirely human. If you run
into one of them without a proper disguise or
other ability to go unnoticed, expect far more than
a clumsy knife fight. Expect to have your every
action cursed and to risk death from fatal accidents
caused by the slightest missed movements. Expect
your mind to break down and conscious thought
to become impossible. Fighting is not an option
unless you can bring similar mystical might to
bear.
Most powerful among them is the founder
himself,AnthonyMires.It’snearlycertainthathe’s
not entirely human, as he looks the same today as
he did when he purchased the Homestead
Community Center years back. We unfortunately
have little more than rumors to go on as to his
220
exact level of power, though. Some say he can call
upon dark spirits with a moment’s invocation,
others claim he can conjure hellfire itself, and still
others have told us that he’s entirely unkillable.
Whatever the extent of his abilities, it’s likely best
to simply avoid running into him.
The compound is enchanted with a multitude of
protections. Scrying is utterly impossible with the
wards present. Unaware minds won’t even pay
attention to the place, but those that know of it
and find their way onto the property trigger the
first of its more active protections. It’s uncertain if
this magic reveals you to the Void these cultists
worship or if they've bound some lesser dark spirit
into the property, but if you don’t utilize a proper
protective charm or spell, it quickly finds its way
into your head. While not fatal, it rapidly erodes
your focus and willpower, leaving most who
succumb to it “spaced out” on the ground,
unreac�ve with only the barest hint of awareness.
Once inside, the protections become more
insidious. The building itself has a sort of labyrinth
enchantment on it, allowing it to shift and
rearrange itself in response to intruders; those in
the cult seem to have an instinctive ability to
navigate it despite this. While more frustrating
than deadly on its own, this allows more time for
its less tangible protectors to do their work. Spirits
born of shadows creep along these dimly lit
corridors, invisible except to an
extremely well-trained
or supernaturally
enhanced eye.
These entities
slowly sap your
energy as they
brush against you,
each touch drawing
just a little more of
your life force
away. Most
hardly
notice until
just before
t h e y
collapse
lifelessly on
the ground.
S i m p l e
“He’s been down this way already. Or has he? That room
looks familiar. But they all look familiar. It’s just… wait,
what was he thinking? He’s getting tired. So tired. Did
something brush against him? What was it? Nothing
around but shadows. Thick shadows. Is he seeing things?
They’re more liquid than light. Were those eyes? He can’t
go on. His energy’s fading. He just hit the ground. His
body’s giving up. Those eyes are the last thing he’ll see…”
clothing that covers most of your body can
provide a limited protection, but enchantments or
blessings are recommended.
The protection in the basement is less directly
dangerous, but can make stealth more difficult; it’s
effectively an antimagic bubble. The cultists of
course have a “key” of sorts that they weave into
their spells to bypass this, but most other
preternatural power simply seems to fail. In that
case, potentially dozens of empowered cultists is
likely security enough. But if you can figure out that
key…
In the Black Room, where the artifact will be kept
before the ritual, the only real protection is a lack
of light. There’s only one way into here, with thick
reinforced cement on all sides, making it difficult
to carve a new path. But nobody else should be
inside, unless they’re there to retrieve the object
themselves.
The Getaway
They’ll know when you take it. Maybe not
immediately, but they’ll know soon enough. Your
options, given the protections within the place, are
unfortunately limited. The simplest, if far from the
easiest option, is to simply backtrack the way you
came and hope you can leave before they notice
their pride and joy has been stolen. If you already
have a way to stop the wards, the spirits, and the
disorientation, it’s very unlikely to hit you any
harder going back than it did going in. Once you’re
outside of the Center, they’re unlikely to follow
you, at least in the sense of any conventional
chase.
Another way, for someone mystically inclined,
would be to very briefly tap into the artifact’s
power. If you know what you’re doing, you could
diminish the concept of matter enough to walk
throughthewalls,ordiminishtheconceptofspace
to the point of simply appearing outside. That said,
you could risk tearing a hole in reality, which is
what we’re here to stop in the first place, so
consider this a last resort. A very last resort.
Influences
TV Shows: “Supernatural” (especially S13E9 and
S2E12)
Books: “Skin Game” (The Dresden Files)

There’s one more thing worth mentioning… if they

do complete the ritual before we get to it, all isn’t
lost, but things become much more difficult.
We’ve estimated that the artifact’s power needs to
build for the first hour or so afterward, as it can’t
just let the other realm in one solid burst — it
needs to “trickle” inside. The magic can be
reversed in this period, but expect things to get
weird. Expect the aforementioned spirits to be
stronger and more blatantly hostile. Expect the
building itself to warp and change. Expect the
concept of physics itself to become more of a
“sugges�on” than a guarantee.

After that hour, though… well, don’t let that

happen.

221
 ????
????
????
The End
The Endless Ocean
If the Island is everything,
then the ocean surrounding
it is ... nothing.
If you can keep yourself
from being swallowed up,
this is a great place to get
away from it all.

The Last Island

You can’t have the end of
everything without, well,
everything.
Including the stuff that
never actually was.
And it’s all here, on the last
li�le bit of anything, a solit-
ary island of shi�ing space
and �me. If you’re going to
find the End of the Universe
then looking at the one
place where everything is is
a great place to start.
222
 There are jobs, and then there are jobs.

The universe is ending. Hey don’t look like that. You had to know it was
gonna happen one of these days -- reality is unfurling while worlds
that were, are, and might never be collide headlong into each other
amid the unwoven warp and weft of the cosmos. And beyond the storm-
wracked shores of that last lonely island lies only a grey and dark
and silent ocean.

That’s where you come in. You’re going to steal the end of the universe.
See what I mean about jobs?

The Bastion
Whatever this intersec�on
of structures once was, it’s
now an enclave of rela�ve
stability, where the beings of
this collapsing reality take
shelter.
Anyone who’s everyone is
here. You might even meet
yourself, if you look hard
enough.
Research Station
Mu-Beta-0
A scien�fic research sta�on
designed to endure the
event horizon of the
strongest black holes
floa�ng, s�ll opera�onal, in
the Sundered Empyrean
above the island.
If you can get aboard, you
might find some
unchanging shelter.
223

The End
The Building
The Last Island is a nexus of creation and
destruction. It is all that is left of the Universe, and
here as reality becomes unbound, everything
takes a last furious stab at existence. Gods,
monsters, myths, legends, aliens, robots, sentient
colors, and bad jokes abound. This is the last place
anything will ever be. And somewhere, amid all
this, you’ll find the End of the Universe.
It’s hard to make a map when everything is
constantly shifting. But the island generally seems
to trend towards stability, the closer you get to
the center of it. Near the shores are the creatures
and places that never existed. You might walk past
a colossal behemoth from outside reality, beached
against a world it was never meant for. You might
find a library full of books written by everyone who
always had a book inside them but never let it out.
You might get swept up in the roiling storms of
reality that sweep through and unmake everything
caught in them, leaving behind only raw, barren
rock and strangely helical craters, so be careful.
Closer in are the Fields of Ending, which sounds
poetic, but it’s also where at least a dozen
armageddons are happening -- the forces of Good
and Evil are lining up to get one last scrap in to see
who gets bragging rights as the universe closes up
(and they are zealous about finding recruits). Great
devouring aliens from the furthest galaxies are
swallowing an ever-shifting sea of strange stars as
the more belligerent gods egg everything on.
World Trees from at least a dozen non-human
mythologies burn. Or blossom. Or split in twain.
Holding out amid the various final battles is also
where you’ll find the Bastion. This is the last
holdout for folks who just want to go about their
day. It would be truly spectacular if it weren’t all
ending -- these disparate beings from across space
and time and imagination all gathered here to just
try and get by. Now it’d be impossible to catalogue
everything, but our intel says the only ones you
224
Words: J.R. Zambrano
Art: Hector Rodriguez,
Donald Kirby
really need to worry about are the Archetypes.
These are universal concepts but also individuals
with their own personalities and wants and needs,
and it’s weird if you think about it too much.
As you might expect, all the mythic ones like the
Ruler, the Creator, the Seer, the Lover, the Origin of
Life, the Trickster, and so on can be found here. But
there’s a lot more to reality than that, so you might
also find the Merchant, the Innkeeper, the
Annoying Neighbor, the Nerd, the Weirdo, the
Rebel (cause optional), the Busybody, the
Beekeeper, the Country Doctor, the Teen
Detective, the Anachronistic Prospector, Crono
and the gang from Chrono Trigger, and, well, you
get the idea. Not all of them take too kindly to
interlopers.
The skies above the island are a raw, roiling storm
of reality called the Sundered Empyrean. While
the island is relatively stable, the skies are pure
creation--everythingexistsallatonceinitsrawest
state.Andrunningrightdownthemiddleisagreat,
ominous crack, hence the "Sundered" part of the
name. We don’t know what’s behind it, but we do
know that floating amid the Sundered Empyrean is
a still-functional research station that was
originally meant to study black holes (relatively) up
close and personal.
They really don’t make ‘em like they used to -- it’s
still intact after countless aeons. If you can
manage to get aboard, you might learn something
from the instruments inside. There’s no telling if it’s
been affected by the storm of reality. We know an
artificial intelligence helps run it, maintaining a
staff of robots, but surprisingly there are also plain
ordinary humans aboard, who are still carrying out
their duties. Guess the human spirit really is
indomitable.
Research Station Mu-Beta-0 is sturdily built for the
scientist on the go. There are three main research
labs,onefocusedontheisland,onefocusedonthe
ocean, one focused on the sky. Each of these
research labs has its own staff and their own
security classifications. But if you’re here, it should
be no trouble at all to blend in. The station was
built rugged, but once you’re inside, they’re still
using badges that aren’t even keyed off of
biometric data. It’s just a question of finding the
right ones. When not on duty, the staff gather in a
lounge and fully-stocked bistro-style cafe with a
great view of the end of everything.
AllaroundtheIslandisavastoceanthatwashesup
againsttheshores.Itisgreyandsilentanddark,but
don’t let that fool you. That tide is coming in, but
the Island of Reality is splitting apart at the seams
too.
And somewhere amid all of this is the End of the
Universe. Which, again, you’re going to steal.
The Score
The End of the Universe. It’s exactly what it says on
the tin, and it’s pretty much everywhere around
you. Reality is coming apart, and the End of the
Universe is the thing driving it all. We don’t know
what it looks like, but our client said to
look in the spaces between and
then muttered something
about cosmic rules and to
hurry it up because they
had a bet to win.
We know that
a beautiful light spills out from between the
sundered reality, but whether the end is drawing
up that ocean of nothing or is tearing everything
apart, we don’t really know. But if anyone can steal
it, it’s you.
The Security
There’s a lot standing between you and the End of
the Universe. For one, the gods and angels and
devils and so on have been waiting for a long time
for their final battles. And they don’t care if it
destroys everything. This is what they’ve spent
eternity waiting for, and they are going to have it.
These are your primary concerns. Celestial and
Infernal generals on both sides are getting zealous
about finding recruits, to the point that there are
literalpressgangs,somewithscalesandsomewith
feathers, wandering around to figure out which
side you belong on.
Joining up might put a cramp in your style, but it
might be a way to gain access to the various
camps around the battlefields. It’s not just the
gods that are out to see this final battle through.
There are forces at work that want the
Universe to end. Riders of the End Times, all-
225
 devouring beasts, and various beings who have
sworn fealty to raw destruction are all sure to take
no�ce once you start poking around at The End.
Theonlyfolkswhodon’twantthingstoendarethe
denizens of the Bastion. They’re just trying to get
by on the dwindling scraps of existence that collide
with the Island. They’re not so much a security
threat to worry about as a consequence you’ll
want to watch out for. According to our client, the
final gong sounds at midnight, and as it gets closer,
the inhabitants of the Bastion are sure to get more
agitated and desperate to survive. So be careful
where you are once the last night falls.
You’ll want to keep an eye out for that research
station. We don’t know exactly what they’re up to,
or why they’re trying to research things here, but if
you’re looking to escape the storms, that’s
probably a good place to hole up. Curiously,
nobody seems to be paying any attention to it. At
all. Might be worth checking out.
The research station’s security is laughable, but
we know that it’s been
maintained as long as it
has by an
226
artificial intelligence that runs everything. There’s
no telling what it’s seen over the years, or how
stable it is. Our intel confirms that considerable
processing power is dedicated to observing the
‘unfolding phenomena’ as it refers to the Island in
its intercepted transmissions. Also, the station is
transmitting to someone. If you’re caught aboard
it, that someone will definitely be notified. Same
goes for if you’re spotted poking at the seams of
reality.
Then there’s The End itself. First you’ll have to find
it. As before, our client has been frustratingly
vague about where (or even what) the end is.
Only that you’ll find it somewhere in the spaces
between. Our client was also adamant that it be
youandyourcrew.Theyseemedtothinkthatonly
some combination of all your skills would even get
you in the door to where the End was, and that
onlyyouwouldknowwhattodowiththeEndonce
you have it.
We hate this cryptic stuff as much as
you, so we
compiled
some extra
information.
At midnight,
the last bell
sounds and
everyone clocks out, so-
to-speak. So you’ve got ten
hours to find things, give or
take. There are two big
places to look for spaces
between: in the crack in the
sky and at the heart of the island. Of
course, the standard Cryptic BS clause applies,
so be sure and get real metaphorical about “spaces
between” and, for that matter, “the End,” just to
cover all your bases.
The Getaway
To be honest, we’re not sure there’s any
getting away from this one. You might
have some luck if you can get aboard the
station. Or maybe one of those creatures
from a reality not our own might be
better suited to surviving whatever
happens next, but there’s no telling what will
happen once you steal the End of the Universe.
Reality could reboot or come undone. Maybe
there’s a total protonic reversal in store.

Whatever happens, it’s been an absolute pleasure

working with you. Guess it’s time to go be legends
... and on the off chance you make it through to
some kind of other side, good luck, and fiat lux.

Influences
Graphic Novels: The Sandman, The Books of
Magic, Good Omens The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the
Galaxy

TV: The Good Place, Good Omens

Mythology: Armageddon, Ragnarok

Music: We didn’t start the fire

227
 “Fantasy Lore” Gaming Store
July, 2020
10:03 p.m.
Steal This Book!

Interior Goods
Exhibition
Area has been described as
“maze-like” by our contact,
containing over a half dozen
corridors parallel and per-
pendicular to the entryway.
The book can be found here.

oor
Front D
rc ed soda-limess,
Reinfo dual pane glasistant
silicateted by pick-re -sidebar
protec ased pin-and d up by
lever-bg system backe
lockin y laminated r�se
five-pl rbon alloy mo
iron-cag mechanism.
bol�n
228
 “The Roleplayer’s Guide to Heists” has just been released to massive
fanfare and record sales among the tabletop roleplaying game fanbase.
Despite all expectations to the contrary, however, our contact in the
FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) has informed us that a single printed
copy remains on their shelves. Unfortunately, due to earlier
obligations, we were unable to arrive before closing time, and we must
have the book on release day for the sake of our reputation..

Rear Alleyway
to Trash-co
Exit adjacentsa nit™ for
Waste Dispo y leUmployees.
easy access b ler latch
Circular tumbith
reinforced w mechanical
Al-27-isotope
safeguard.

Market Exchange Center

Ma�hew “Master of
Dungeons” Mitchell tarries
within this area filling out
documenta�on following
the cessa�on of public
access.

229

Steal This Book!
The Building
The FLGS structure is part of the “Town Center
Strip” mall shopping edifice, constructed in 1987
during the city council’s policy push involving
commercial expansion for the sake of tourism and
local convenience. The unit itself was leased in
Juneof2017byMatthewRyanMitchell,thestore’s
sole proprietor and one of only three individuals
known to work at the locale according to our most
recent informa�on.
Despite the recent rental, the age of the property
itself is beginning to show, perhaps to a greater
extent than would be expected. The brick exterior
is cracked and faded, sidewalks are broken down
as weeds fill their cracks, and the glass is dusty.
Similarly, the scattered maintenance ladders at
the rear, which lead to the roof, are rusty and likely
dangerous to climb, and the windows at the top
230
Words: Chris Falco
Art: Dyer Rose, Daniel Walthall
providing a view into the different rental units are
smudged and faded. The only part of the complex
that stands out in any appreciable manner is the
sign itself on the storefront, positioned above the
front entryway, which has colorful, bright lettering
with backlighting and images of cards, dice, and
similar hobby-oriented decora�on on either side.
Past the southern entrance at the front, patrons
can find a veritable cornucopia of gaming-related
products, with displays for roleplaying
commodities immediately seeking to grab
attention and advertise recent productions or to
draw focus to the reduced prices on older fare.
Decoration is plentiful and varied, ranging from
portrayals of specific “superheroes,” fantasy
universes, and futuristic “sci-fi” settings to more
generic but easily recognizable symbols and
images representing various facets of the hobby
itself, such as note-taking equipment or
specialized tabletops. Take care when getting
close; most of these aren’t secured and even slight
brushes will cause the poster board cut outs to fall
down flat.
A somewhat compact “open gaming space” with
at least a half dozen hobby-designated surfacetops
arranged in perfect symmetry (with
complementing seating fixtures) is visible off to
the west side, just south of the primarily
paperbound commodities. The “tabletop gaming”
section is in the northwest corner of the space put
aside for the aforementioned paperbound
paraphernalia, sprawled across 8.7 meters of
horizontal space and occupying a quinary strata of
wooden shelves coated in shellac varnish. They’re
arranged in an odd combination of parallel and
perpendicular arrangements, making navigation
difficult, but offering easy cover, especially in the
shadows. “The Roleplayer’s Guide to Heists”
should be located among these shelves, in a
position according to an archaic alphanumeric-
based ordering system. Our research provided a
slight riddle regarding how to use this system: “left
to right, top to bo�om.”
To the east side, figurines made of metal or
various polymers are put on more immediate
display next to card-based gaming sets and their
individual prints. Details on pricing can be found on
labels on or next to each individual piece or set,
with the most valuable cardboard prints (with
holofoil ornamentation) being displayed most
prominently. Similar sections are dedicated to
cured resin dice whose polyhedral surface count
ranges anywhere from three to over one hundred,
although most lie in a range of four to twenty.
These displays are adjacent to the merchandise
exchange center, where a digital sales registry is
set next to a baggage assembly space. This meter
high counter can provide easy cover to move past
the view of any centered behind this area, as unlike
the other shelving spaces, it’s built directly into the
floor and thus solid -- minus a single gateway that
allows for employee entrance at the south edge.
Generally, both the initial entryway and rear
gaming space should be empty and allow for
convenient, obscured pathways to travel through,
but rumblings among the underground
community surrounding the building suggest that
every other week the store hosts a demo of sorts
forsomeofthegamingproductsthathaverecently
been put on sale. We’re uncertain if this is the
week that’s being done or not, so this should be
found out before you complete the final planning
stages.
Onthenorthernsideofthelocation,anemployee-
specific lavatory (as designated by the marked
poster board located just above it) is visible next to
the rear exit, which is painted to be the same color
asthemanilla-tintedwallsthatenclosetheinterior.
The camouflage is easy to perceive, however, due
to cracks in the paint and the door handle still
being visibly raised past the surface. This leads into
the back alleyway. This space is mostly kept clear,
even during store hours, but a Trash-co Waste
Disposal Unit™ can be easily accessed. Such an
amenity could provide a potential place to hide
temporarily,whetherwithinthereceptacleitselfor
by simply obscuring line of sight from the door by
obfuscating oneself behind it. Note, however, that
the western entrance of the alley is blocked off
with a cross-patterned linear low-density
polyethylene-coated steel wire fencing barrier.
The Score
“The Roleplayer’s Guide to Heists” is the most
recent release from an upstart publishing group by
the name of the “San Jenaro Co-op.” Nearly 20
writers, editors, and artists worked together in a
profit-shared business arrangement to put this
impressive display of creativity and artistry
together for consumption by the gaming public.
Anticipation of its release has been “hyped up to
the max,” as our contact antiquatedly put it, and
physical copies have been difficult to come across
for those that didn’t “kickstart” its release.
Thebookitselfisboundwithinthe“PremiumColor
Heavyweight” designation provided by the
offshore printing platform that acts as the
manufacturer of this and similar tomes. Printed on
21.6 x 27.9 centimeter 70# white paper with a 378
ppi inking density, its case bound in laminated
plankboard, and held together with a solidified
acrylic substance. Entirely digital versions of the
product exist, but they’re considered far less
231
 valuable than the printed alternative that we’re
a�er (and not nearly as collec�ble).
It’s most easily recognizable by the iconic design of
the cover. The design seems to replicate the
blueprints for a Class 2 Modular Vault System’s
reinforced door, added to with notes, sketches,
andlabelstorepresentthosethatmighthavebeen
drawn out by an actual “heist” team. Along the
spine, “The Roleplayer’s Guide to Heists” is clearly
printedinasimilarfont,andsoshouldbeabletobe
spotted on the shelf even if it’s (for some reason)
not prominently displayed.
Inside are 35 different heists taking place in
varying settings, from fantasy wizard’s towers, to
obscure cult headquarters, to pre-modern space
shuttle launchpads, to office buildings, to far future
“cyberpunk” locales. Accompanying them are
essays with advice on how best to make use of
these, create a campaign revolving solely around
heist scenarios, modify on the fly when things go
wrong, and time a heist scenario itself, among
several others. All of it’s 232 pages are written by a
combination of industry newcomers and veteran
freelancers, allowing for a remarkable variety of
differing viewpoints.
It’s unknown how exactly Mr. Mitchell was able to
acquire enough copies to not only meet, but
exceed local demand so soon after release, but the
opportunity is nonetheless right in front of us.
Despite our preoccupation during daytime hours,
it’s of utmost importance that
we be able to claim to have
received the product on day
one; it’s simply not
acceptable to be anything
but an “early
232
adopter” with this supplement.
The Security
Security within and without the FLGS is
indisputably peak among its peers within the strip,
but any system has its flaws. A multi-piece
mechanical security bypass kit is suggested, if
available, dark hued attire with accompanying
headgear and silent footwear, and some method
of distrac�on.
The front entrance, once secured for the evening,
is protected by a pin-and-sidebar “handle” lock
and backed up by a stainless steel, doubly
reinforced mortise latching mechanism. It requires
an asynchronous dual key system to attain entry
from an exterior vantage point, or else its security
must be disabled from the interior side through
manual unbarring. The portal construction itself is
fashioned with brittle material, and so even with
its reinforcement, it could theoretically be
shattered. However, this is not recommended, as
the shopping center’s small size makes it difficult
to perform this action without being noticed by
anyone inside, and may risk any active alarm
systems being triggered (as outlined below).
The rear exit is partially obscured from view in the
interior by a plentiful allotment of different
shelving units and extended counter space, but it’s
solid A3-graded oak and secured with a
comparatively advanced locking mechanism. The
circular “asylum” lock with interchangeable
copper-zinc core can only be
operated with a control key
and is backed up with an
interior-controlled
anodized aluminum-
bodied steel-
reinforced deadbolt
system.Informationgatheringreportssuggestthat
theownerlikelykeepsacopyofallofthenecessary
keys on hand, and it’s also possible that backups
may be stored elsewhere. With adequate luck, the
deadbolt itself may not be engaged until the
owner leaves, but this seems unlikely, as such a
knowledgeable individual is likely expecting
trouble after such a prestigious product launch.
S�ll, it might be wise to check.
Matthew himself, the store’s mysterious owner, is
typically present for several hours after closing,
finishing the accounting and bureaucratic
documentation for the day’s sales and labor (or
lack thereof). Usually, he performs these tasks at
the computer built into the sales registry in the
southeast section, and so will be found primarily at
the exchange counter. This provides him with a
direct line of sight to the front door, and a
minimally obscured view of the back entrance. We
know little about him beyond his moniker among
peers as a “Master of Dungeons,” and so it’s
recommended that he not be underestimated, as
he likely has some level of experience with secure
facili�es.
Two other employees similarly work part-time
within the FLGS: a woman named Eliza Tarrana,
and Matthew’s brother Steven. Both of these
individuals are known to typically leave as soon as
business hours are complete for the day, but it’s
possible that after such a busy sales day they might
be asked to work “overtime” to help with the
increased load of post-closing tasks that need to be
done.
Preliminary scouting reports also declare the
premises as being equipped with a Springshield
X130 Auto-Dial Alarm System with wireless
interface directly accessible through the owner’s
cellular PDA system, allowing for immediate alert
of any obvious tampering or unexpected
movement. Typically, it’s not armed until after the
owner departs for the evening, which is usually
well after midnight. However, given the recent
promotion, it’s possible that it may be set as a just-
in-casemeasure.Tonote,thisislesslikelyifademo
is currently being run, which provides all the more
reason to be certain whether or not they are doing
one this week.
The Getaway
Strip malls are rarely traversed after the cessation
of commodity exchange for the day, but
nocturnally-oriented employees are often found
with vehicles still stationed within the parking
area, so keeping an escape vehicle nearby is likely
not too suspicious if done carefully. The lot is
ostensibly lit, but the high-intensity discharge
lamps utilized for this purpose are unstable and
easily “flicker out,” providing inherent cover of
darkness with minor finagling.
If the group lacks a vehicle, our contact provided
one for the purpose of acquiring the needed
product, so long as it’s returned before sunrise,
lest his guardian suffer anxiety over the
uncertainty of his geographic position upon
awakening.
This automobile, designated simply “E90,” should
be more than sufficient, sporting a 1.5 liter 4
cylinder engine capable of delivering 95
horsepower, front-wheel drive system with disc
brakes, and multiple storage compartments.
Capable of travelling up to 40 kilometers of
distance with a gallon of fuel, it can easily carry the
group out of the area of suspicion without needing
another stop.
Assuming no alarm systems are triggered, none of
the crew have been spotted or reported, and no
call has been placed to the city police station, the
egress itself should otherwise present with no
obvious complications. As has been said
previously, however, do not underestimate the
“Master of Dungeons,” nor let the group’s guard
down at any point until the book is safely on our
shelf.
Influences
Books: Every “Don’t Steal This Book” sidebar in
existence.
Movies: Every “You Wouldn’t Download a Car”
commercial.
233
 Making Your Macguffin Matter
J.R. Zambrano
When you plan a heist, as a player or a GM, there
are a lot of things to consider: the movement of
guards, the actions of the Crew, what could
possibly go wrong, and most important of all, what
you’re stealing. Because what’s the point of pulling
a heist if you don’t have something cool to steal?
So let’s talk about how to make your macguffin
matter. In storytelling a macguffin is just the thing
that drives the story. It’s the Loot you’re there to
steal. It doesn’t matter if it’s a rare necklace, a
stockpile of gold, plans on microfilm--it’s there so
that other things (guards, security systems) can try
to keep you from ge�ng it.
You can find some amazing roleplaying
opportunities if you take some time to make your
macguffin matter. It’s not just that you’re stealing
the necklace, it’s that the necklace is the only thing
you had left of your inheritance before your family
was disgraced. Or the big diamond is your last
chance to prove that you can still do the job. Or it’ll
be enough to open up that quirky donut stand you
always dreamed of.
When we know what the Loot means to our
characters, suddenly the stakes are that much
more personal. That’s where we want to be--
becausetheheistitself?That’sjustplot.That’lltake
care of itself, but what will make it stand out is
when you can hang a good story on the
frameworks we’re presenting here in the book.
And the way you do that is by making it about
characters, not the plot.
There are a few ways you can make your Loot all
about your characters--you can make it personal,
make it metaphorical, make it spectacular, or make
it dangerous.
234
Make it Personal
This is one of the easiest things you can do as a GM
or a Player. Make the Loot something personal to
your characters. Think of the Heart of the Ocean in
Titanic. The necklace is valuable, but its real value is
to Rose. It’s emo�onally priceless.
How do you make something personal? The key is
specificity and history. In Pulp Fiction, Bruce Willis’
gold watch is just a watch, but it’s emotionally
priceless because of its history and connection.
Because of it, you understand both why he can’t
leave it behind, and what it means to get it back.
Even if the object isn’t something you have a
personal history with, you can still make
something emotionally priceless by having a
connection to the Loot. Or the people holding the
loot. Instead of the necklace being the only thing
you have left of your mother, it’s your enemy’s
family heirloom, the last connection they have
with their loved one. Sure, it’s worth a lot of
money, but the real score is the knife you’ll drive
into your foe’s heart.
Revenge is a great way to make your macguffin
meaningful. In the Sting, the whole point of the
Heist is to get revenge on both a corrupt policeman
and crime boss who murdered Robert Redford’s
friend, ex-partner. The same goes for needing it to
prove your innocence of a crime you didn’t do--the
only way you can prove you didn’t steal Lady
Holliday’s Necklace is to stop the Baseball
Diamond from being stolen, and the only way you
can do that is by stealing it first.
Or you need it to help someone you care about. In
Supercrooks,theLootmattersbecauseit’stheonly
way to pay off the debt to a mentor. Maybe your
character needs the diamond to bail out a friend.
Finally, you can make it something personal but
incredibly petty. This works best when there are a
few other characters who have already established
grandiose meanings, and even better if you can
combine a ton of these motives all at once - one
person needs the money to retire, one wants to
stick it to the casino owner, one is in it for the thrill,
one for the art of the heist. But if you’re the thief
who just wants to make enough money to open a
donut shop on the coast of Miami and watch the
sunrise while handing out delicious donuts--then
it’s going to feel so satisfying to get that. Again, the
key is specificity. It’s not just that you want to open
a donut shop--you want to open the seaside donut
shop and get away from the hustle and bustle. But
now we’re drifting into metaphor territory, so let’s
talk about that.
Make it Metaphorical
Another great technique is to think about what the
macguffin represents. This kinda takes away from
the specificity of the Loot, but it still gives it a lot of
meaning. Because it’s not just a ship you’re
stealing--it’s freedom. It’s not just a diamond
you’re stealing, it’s redemption in the eyes of your
mentor. It’s not just a pile of gold, it’s a slap in the
face to every rich bastard putting his heel on the
neck of hard-working crooks like you.
You’ve probably seen this a million times in films
and TV shows. The Loot matters to the character,
but it’s all about what it symbolizes in their life. This
can be something a character gains by stealing it:
freedom, respect, redemption, mercy. Or it can be
something a character loses or breaks through
because of it: you finally have what you need to
leave the criminal life behind. Until the next “one
last job” comes around.
This has the advantage of giving your character a
unique point of view in the heist. Once you know
that what you really want is to prove you’re the
best--your goal in the heist changes. Now you
don’t just have a reason to be in on the heist, but
you have a way to inform your character’s actions.
A character looking for respect might act
differently than a character looking for freedom.
Finding the metaphor in what you want is a great
waytostillfeellikeyouwinevenifyoudon’tgetthe
Loot itself. If you’re looking to play games where
you’re the plucky crew who never actually walks
away getting that payday, or who are kind of
Happy-Go-Lucky thieves like Lupin III in Castle of
Caligiostro, then finding what you get out of every
heist is important. It keeps you coming back
because Heists aren’t about the money--they’re
about happiness. Or the thrill of it. Again, this is less
a loot specific thing, but once you have this, you
can tie that metaphor to the Loot and have a lot
more fun trying to grab it.
Make it Spectacular
One of the big things about a Heist is the spectacle
of it. Why go through all the trouble to come up
with a complex plan if you’re not also going to steal
the statue of liberty. Go big. Carmen San Diego big.
Lupin III big. If you’re running one of these Heists as
a one shot, or are looking to really amp up the
heist, make the Loot something spectacular.
Make it something impossible to steal. This isn’t
necessarily a great character motivation tool, but
life doesn’t have to be all about internal drama.
Sometimes you just want to drive a tank down a
highway and ramp it off of something else--and if
you want impossible plans with impossible stunts,
you need impossible loot.
The best part is you can still put a personal or
metaphorical meaning on this, and then you’ll
have to try and justify all of it. Loot like this sets the
tone of your heist--which is the other thing a good
piece of Loot can do.
The heist where you steal Big Ben should feel
entirely different to the heist where you break into
a museum to steal a priceless diamond. Stealing
something big and over-the-top means you’re
probably going to get that kind of plan--because
when you sit down at the table, the implicit
understanding of the game is ‘we’re going to
succeed at this heist.’ And if it’s implied that you
totally can just up and steal the Pyramid outside
the Louvre, then everyone starts thinking bigger.
They start to wonder how to make it happen. Just
like if you decided to just make it about stealing a
painting--the planning is going to be more realistic.
People will get granular, worry more about
cameras and guest placement in the ballroom, etc.
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 Whatever you decide to steal, the Loot is a great revenge on the owner of the diamond because
chance to set the stage for the kind of Heist you they framed you and got you locked up for five
want to have. years.

Make it Dangerous But heists are all about colorful characters.

The same thing goes for heists to stop someone
from getting something dangerous. If your loot is a
bomb or a bioweapon or a nuclear core, then the
Crew has to consider more than just how do they
steal it--they have to figure out what they’re going
to do with it once they have it.
This is a great tool if you’re looking to play a Heist
where the team is assembled to try and stop a
disaster from happening. If you want to go the
classic thieves doing the wrong thing for the right
reasons route, then this can be a way to set up
characters with a noble motivation. Again though,
you’ll probably find more success if you make
something personal.
Stories work best when they’re driven by the
characters in them. Making something Dangerous
or Spectacular can be tricky, because you can get
caught up in the plot of it--but these are some fun
and interesting ways to make the heist appealing
to all kinds of players.
The Real Loot Is The Friends We
Made Along The Way
In the end, getting players and the GM all on the
same page is what it’s all about. You’re all there to
tell the story you’re going to tell together, whether
it’s through roleplaying or hardcore grinding of
mechanics, you’re still figuring out what happens
next. If you want to make it all about the
characters, the biggest thing you can do is just
come out and say why you want the thing you
want.
Whether you’re playing larger than life or not, it’s
the Crew that makes the heist. And the Crew
makes the Loot meaningful. Even if it feels weird,
it’s never too late to say what the Loot means to
your character. Every good heist film has a scene
where the characters stop and talk about what
they’re after. A great way to start that scene is to
turn to the person next to you and ask:
“What are you going to do with your share of the
treasure?”
Whether you’re the GM or a player, this is the
perfect way to give space to air out those
motivations. You can get all kinds of character
moments,youcansetupintriguesorinterpersonal
conflicts. You can lay out a variety of different
reasons--and the best heists will have a team of
characterswhowanttosteal theLootfortheirown
reasons. One character wants to prove themselves
innocent, one character wants to get revenge, one
character wants to get back their family heirloom--
one character just wants to stage terrible avant
garde plays. Whatever the reasons, once you have
them out there, you’ll make your macguffin--and
your heist--more meaningful.

It can be harder to do this in a roleplaying game

where you can’t just script everything. But all you
have to do is give yourself the opportunity to say
what the Loot means to you. It might feel a little off
to stop in the middle of talking about how you’re
going to get past the bank vault lasers, and instead
say that the necklace you’re after is the only thing
you have left of your family. Or that you want to get
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