Dead Baby Jokes, SR I Swear Options

[DocTaotsu]

Any of you have any good atmosphere for a "Exotic Meat Market"? A roving black market that caters to ghouls, wendigos and talismongers. I currently have it setting up in a forgotten tunnel off the Ork Underground and it's staffed partly by ghouls working for Tanamon.

I'm looking to take two magically active players (on a quest to find 6 dead babies) and really turn them on their heads, without getting them into combat. Unless of course, they're are incredibly stupid.

But I have plans for that.

My intention here to show them that dealing with spirits and with the darkest shadows of the the Awakened world is both creepy, dangerous, and leads you to some truly fucked up places.

And that's before you get to the metaplanes.

Suggestions? Hyz? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Chibu]

That sounds awesome (in an "I like Earthdawn" kinda way, not in a "I like killing babies" kind of way)

I dont' really have any suggestions though =( sorry...

[Cabral]

If you think your players will enjoy the reference, you could name it The Jonathan Swift Delicatessen.

Unless, there is some garauntee that "the man" isn't going to take a look at the establishment, it would need to have standard fare up front. Perhaps it's fresher than expected. Describe the look of freshly skinned animals with glazed eyes that at same time seem to stare sorrowfully into nothing and track your every movement.

[nathanross]

Wow, and right after I finished watching Sweeney Todd. You can always use a standard meat shop for the front (though I do like the idea of stumbling upon it in some dark alley at night. Really play up the images.

[DocTaotsu]

Yeah I envision it as a loose assemblage of various "vendors" that peddle to different flavors. It has security and secrecy on par with a major arms dealer meeting. I'm really trying to play up that Tamanous is the major player in the field of "creepy dead things". Right now the markets broken into two major parts. The first part is an open market that sells a staggering array of dead things and live animals/critters. The second part is an 10k at the door auction house for more "exotic" fare... this translate roughly into sapient creatures and other extremely unusual fare.

But yeah, if any of you have some cool imagery or something you'd suggests being offered, I'd highly appreciate it.

[Blade]

I did something like this. Actually it was a part of a whole scheme:

* A group of scientist gathered street childrens to use as guinea pigs in a boat somewhere ("they were bound to have miserable lives anyway, this way, they serve a purpose!"). Once the experiments were over, the children were transported to a place on the outskirts of the Sprawl and sent inside an old underground railway.
* The first stop was inside a brothel were rich clients could get whatever they wanted. They took some of the children and let the other to the second stop.
* The second stop was under an underground market controlled by ghouls. The ghouls first harvested organs in the basement, if there was some need (they were dealing with Tamanous) and everything else was sent to the market itself were it was sold as meat.

The scientists got money out of it, to be able to continue their experimentations (the funding was cut by the corp because of the bad PR they could get).

I didn't use any spirits or magic thingies because I like it better when the worst turns out to be human.

[WeaverMount]

It's pretty easy to make meat disgusting, but I have crazy high tolerance for disgusting. If you were trying to get under my skin, I'd suggest playing up the suffering of livestock, piled in barrels, party dismembered, so broken they are hoping for death rather than freedom. One of the other things I'd play up is how fundamentally alien the vendors and customers. Like the scientist idea try to come up mentalities completely devoid of humanity.


Random specifics
*Lawyer, consulting for the specific needs of these operations. This is a great way to drop hints about anyone from anywhere

*A whole clans/families being sold at higher price because they come with genetic history and 5 generations of medical data. I'm thinking of a high force shade who is cashing out there stock after decades of torture because they became powerful enough to get "home". I'd have a bidding war between a corp researcher and a shade.

*A psychologist selling a map(soft) of some city with emotional-isobars compiled via sim-sense blogs, crime indexing, colored by personal astral psychometric observation. For extra bit of "evil" s/he could be offering psych profiles of clients geographically arranged for as an option.

*A researcher/vendor who geeks out over the technology of P-Fixing. You could play them so obsessed/oblivious that they are wholly unaware that people are involved. I would then have someone call them out on how wrong it is to ignore the human element; let the players think there might be someone else down here with a shred of humanity ... but then they go on clairtfy extracting suffering/submission is whole point.

*IMO anytime you have a group with a sharp insider/outsider mentality engaged in commerce there will be mechanism to exploit outsiders. This might be super sexy vampires who play up the Ann Rice just to grab a snack. Also don't forget the snake oil. A spirit formula, dragon eggs, and locations of 4th sights all work nicely.

hope that helped

[swirler]

If you think your players will enjoy the reference, you could name it The Jonathan Swift Delicatessen.

heh just call it "A Modest Proposal"

if you want disturbing meat images or ways to portray it I have a couple movie scene suggestions.
Ravenous, okay yeah its about canniobals, but the most disgusting scene for me was the steak dinner near the begining. They made that beef look horrifyingly gross. This coming from me, a self proclaimed carnivore.

another suggestion is a scene in Appocalypse Now. I forget where it is, but they have the natives or whatever following Brando butcher a live ox. it's like they murder it
it was disturbing as hell the first time I saw it

[Aaron]

Shouldn't have posted, sorry. *headkeyboarogi7kdvrb5jvt*

[DocTaotsu]

It's pretty easy to make meat disgusting, but I have crazy high tolerance for disgusting. If you were trying to get under my skin, I'd suggest playing up the suffering of livestock, piled in barrels, party dismembered, so broken they are hoping for death rather than freedom. One of the other things I'd play up is how fundamentally alien the vendors and customers. Like the scientist idea try to come up mentalities completely devoid of humanity.


Random specifics
*Lawyer, consulting for the specific needs of these operations. This is a great way to drop hints about anyone from anywhere

*A whole clans/families being sold at higher price because they come with genetic history and 5 generations of medical data. I'm thinking of a high force shade who is cashing out there stock after decades of torture because they became powerful enough to get "home". I'd have a bidding war between a corp researcher and a shade.

*A psychologist selling a map(soft) of some city with emotional-isobars compiled via sim-sense blogs, crime indexing, colored by personal astral psychometric observation. For extra bit of "evil" s/he could be offering psych profiles of clients geographically arranged for as an option.

*A researcher/vendor who geeks out over the technology of P-Fixing. You could play them so obsessed/oblivious that they are wholly unaware that people are involved. I would then have someone call them out on how wrong it is to ignore the human element; let the players think there might be someone else down here with a shred of humanity ... but then they go on clairtfy extracting suffering/submission is whole point.

*IMO anytime you have a group with a sharp insider/outsider mentality engaged in commerce there will be mechanism to exploit outsiders. This might be super sexy vampires who play up the Ann Rice just to grab a snack. Also don't forget the snake oil. A spirit formula, dragon eggs, and locations of 4th sights all work nicely.

hope that helped

Oh I'm going to throwing snake oil all over the place, teach my mages to roll into my game with a magical theory of 2.

I guess i'm missing it, what's evil about what the psych tech is doing?

And the Shade or some form thereof is definitely going to be making it into the scene.
"Oh me? I'm getting 'out of the business' going on a nice vacation." Grins, barring thousands of needlepoint teeth, "But don't worry chummer, I'm sure I'll see you around." Counts his cool hard nuyen and strides away.

[Game2BHappy]

Actually, the post from Aaron reminded me...

He has a good run posted on his site called "Born to Die" that has some similarities to your idea. Fun to run on its own and might give you ideas for yours as well.
http://pavao.org/shadowrun/adventures/

Couple minor details about his run that apply to your adventure idea:

[ Spoiler ]

It deals with a free spirit using the bodies of the dead to feed a gang of ghouls.

[WeaverMount]

>Oh I'm going to throwing snake oil all over the place, teach my mages to roll into my game with a magical theory of 2.
Oh have fun with that. I know I would! Just remember to respect that rank 2 is still almost professionals, and your mage is likely in the top 95% in logic. It should take a solid con to take him, but from the way you are talking totally pro cons should be a dime a dozen.
>I guess i'm missing it, what's evil about what the psych tech is doing?
I was thinking the buyers for those data would be various shadow spirits (not exactly meat market fair, but I think it's in the vain you are looking for). Causing/enabling horrible suffering for money is pretty evil. About the client list, betraying the trust you make as a mental health provider by turning your client files into a dinner menu .... for money or favors no less, is about as evil as it comes.

[DocTaotsu]

Well they're certainly not stupid (and one is a pornomancer) but that doesn't make them impervious to an excellent con, especially if it's only partially a lie. Sure that's the whale testicles you need, but it's been denatured to the point where it's useless. A rating of 2 may not pick up on that (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) .

And that IS evil. I hadn't realized it was a practicing psych who's selling her clients/research for the purposes of feeding shades and what not.

[DocTaotsu]

Thank you all who responded. The scene went down wonderfully.

Course this might be a recurring theme so if you have anymore ideas... please don't hold back.