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hyzmarca
The Meet

The runners are put into contact with a prospective Johnson through the usual sources. The meeting is at a convenient upscale restaurant. The PCs should dress up. The Johnson, a Mr. Antonio Glavis, is a young Hispanic human in an 5000 nuyen suit who had no obvious bodyguards. He informs the runners that his ex-wife is more powerful and wealthy than he and recently won a nasty custody battle over their 2-year-old son Robert through blackmail and bribery. Immediately after gaining sole custody she sent the child off to a boarding preschool in Switzerland where he has languished for the past two months. Mr. Glavis offers the runners 50,000 up front to kidnap his kid from the boarding school and can be negotiated up to 80,000.
Should the runners take the job he provides them a packet of information about the school.


The Packet

The packet contains the usual crap propaganda brochures for the Glarus School for Exceptional Youngsters, for the most part. On the cover of many brochures is a picture of a large thriving green campus as viewed from the air. Others have pictures of children playing happily. The information contained within is rather worthless. The names of important staff members and teachers are listed, as is the number of students currently attending. All of the procures promise that the school will "transform your children into proper young men and women."

In addition to the brochures there is an actual copy of the school's tax records for the past year. These give the runners a list of every financial transaction that the school made last year.


The Legwork

The first thing the runners will notice should they do legwork is that the picture of the large green campus is a fake. The Glarus school is located on a mountain peak in the Alps. Only VTOL capable aircraft and exceptional metahuman climbers can reach the snowy campus.
Examining the tax records and making a TN4 school administration test or consulting a contact with skill in that area will reveal that the school does not have enough staff to meet the needs of the number of students they supposedly have.
A TN 6 matrix search on the employees listed in the brochure will reveal that the 'Teachers' are, in fact, medical doctors who specialize in biofeedback technologies.
An additional search, either a TN of 6 for characters with the Expert Research Bioengineers knowledge skill or a TN 9 matrix search will reveal that the school also employees a number of skilled bioengineers who have contributed to forced-growth cloning techniques.
At a TN of 12 the search also reveals a team of expert neurosurgeons.

The School

The school itself is a 4-story medical facility with a large helipad on the roof. This helipad is the only way in or out of the school. It doesn't even have a door at ground level. The runner's presence will be noticed immediately unless they are protected by invisibility and even then they will have to pass through cyberware and weapons scanners to get into the building. There are no external jackpoints.

The top floor houses the administrative offices and is where the Angela Clower, the headmistress of the school, can be found. The second floor floor contains the cafeteria, the security office, and other essential facilities. The third is where the action is. There are no walls, only a single open hanger-like space. Young children from ages 1 to 8 lie on sequentially numbered beds with trodenets on their shaved heads. All of them are apparently in comas; none respond to outside stimuli. In the event that a trodenet is removed the child will suffer dumpshock from a UV 8 host. The boy will not be here.
The bottom floor contains cloning labs and surgical facilities. In each cloning lab contains several large vats, 127 in all, each growing a complete version of one of the children on the third floor. A perception test at TN 10 or a close examination of the vats reveals that many of the clones are 'older' than the children that they were cloned from. In fact, some of the forced growth clones are nearing adulthood.
The boy can be found in operating theater #4. When the runners arrive his skull will be open and his brain will be on a tray. Also in the room is an open-skulled and brainless 'adult' clone, apparently in his early 20s.
Remember, the runners only get paid if they return the kid alive. Killing the surgeons in the middle of this delicate operation is not an option.


The Plot
The Glarus School for Exceptional Youngsters as pictured in the brochures exists entirely in a UV host that is equipped with technology pilfered from VisionQuest. The children, in a matter of weeks, experience decades worth of schooling. The simulation goes as far as to perfectly simulate their parents and extended families, giving them a full and happy childhood along with all of the skills one would expect of a person their age. The child's brain is then cut out of his or her head and implanted into a forced-growth clone who is of the appropriate age so that the neglectful parents who send their kids here don't have to deal with raising small children and have the gratification of seeing their adult children succeed. Robert's mother chose to age him to 24 and give him a Masters degree in Theoretical Particle Physics and a Bachelors in physics with a minor in Thaumaturgy.

Should the runners choose to force the doctors to put Robert's brain back into his real body they are forced to deal with an extractee who has a 24-year-old mind and a 2-year-old body. Should they choose to put his brain into the cloned body then they have to prove to the father that the 24-year-old clone is, in fact, his son.

Characters

Dr. Wagner

Dr. Wagner is the chief neurosurgeon at Glarus. When the runners find him he will be operating on Robert's brain. Like Cher and Madonna he has neither a first name nor a last name.

Human
Age 42
Bod 2
Str 3
Qui 3
Int 8
Cha 5
Wil 6

'Ware
Microscopic Vision

Active skills
Etiquette 4
Negotiation 3
Biotech/Neurosurgery 8/12

Knowledge Skills
Medicine 10
The Metahuman Brain 12
Medical Technology 8


Angela Clower
The founder and headmistress of the Glarus school. An insane visionary with a strong personality and exceptional business skills. Is sort of like an evil version Angela Bower from Who's the Boss.

Elf
Age 37
Bod 3
Str 2
Qui 4
Int 9
Cha 10
Wil 8

Active Skills
Etiquette 8
Negotiation 9
Intimidation 7
Interrogation 6
Leadership 8
Assault Rifles 5


Robert Glavis

Human
Aspected Hermetic Conjurer
Age 2/24

Bod 1/5
Str 1/4
Qui 1/5
Int 6
Cha 6
Wil 4
Magic 0/6

Active Skills
Athletics 4
Conjuring 3
Aura Reading 5
Computers 2
Car 2

Knowledge Skills
Particle Physics 8
Submarine Sandwiches 18
Beer 12
Spirits 4



Generic Security x 5

Bod 4
Str 4
Qui 6
Int 3
Cha 2
Wil 8

Skills
Small Unit Tactics 4
Assault rifles 5
Negotiation 3
Etiquette/Police 3/5
Biotech/First Aid 3/6

Equipment
Medium Security Armor with Gel Packs
Security helmets with radios
Ares ELD-AR loaded with Hyper+DMSO or Seven-7+DMSO
Ares HVAR loaded with APDS
Turtle
Wow...nice and nasty idea...*yoink* eek.gif biggrin.gif
nezumi
VERY cool idea. I'm definitely going to have to use this one. Good job!
knasser

Yuck! But very cool idea. Will save for a particularly dark mood.

Cheers,

-K.
RainOfSteel
QUOTE (hyzmarca)

Generic Security x 5

[...]

Wil 8

Generic security guards have Willpower 8?



QUOTE (hyzmarca)

The child's brain is then cut out of his or her head and implanted into a forced-growth clone who is of the appropriate age

In order for a human brain to develop to adult status, it needs to actually grow and mature into an adult-sized brain.

How about removing the brain immediately upon capture, "growing" it during the VR simulation at an accelerated pace, and then putting it in the adult clone?

--------------------------------------

Also, doesn't miraculously producing adult children two-four years after pregnancy lead to all sorts of speculation and talk in polite/wealthy society?
Slithery D
What he said. There are two problems with this: brain size and brain development.

A 2 year old brain put into a fully grown skull is going to rattle around. Too much empty space. And the difference between a 2 year old brain and an adult one isn't just size and certainly isn't experience, but development of various neural connections and subparts. Children aren't selfish and without adult levels of empathy and self control (only) because they haven't had enough time to practice or learn them: they can't because the appropriate parts of their brain that provide those functions haven't developed yet.

A 2 year old brain with 20 years experience is still pretty damn dumb and limited. Probably unusually good at putting square blocks in square holes, though.
Derek
The basic premise is good, but two things (besides those allready mentioned)

The stats are all a little high, especially Angelas (Int 9,Cha 10,Wil cool.gif I mean, I understand "an insane visionary with a strong personality" But wow, those are more or less max stats. Also, her skills are rather high. Same with the rest of the characters.

Second, the school seems a bit hard to get into:

QUOTE

The school itself is a 4-story medical facility with a large helipad on the roof. This helipad is the only way in or out of the school. It doesn't even have a door at ground level. The runner's presence will be noticed immediately unless they are protected by invisibility and even then they will have to pass through cyberware and weapons scanners to get into the building. There are no external jackpoints.


So, is this a Shadowrun, or a straight on military assault? Because, based on that description, only a straight on military assault will get through. You should probably make at least an attempt to give the runners something to push on. Maybe a matirx connection, maybe scale the cliffs, etc... I don't know xactly what, but something, some weakness.

Intersting idea, with some good morality choices for the runners near the end.

Dave
hyzmarca
QUOTE (RainOfSteel)
Also, doesn't miraculously producing adult children two-four years after pregnancy lead to all sorts of speculation and talk in polite/wealthy society?


It should but it never does.

Let us suspend disbelief here. This isn't intended to be a "serious" adventure despite how dark and disturbing it is. It is, in fact, a campy parody of Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome. You see, in Soap Operas there is a tendancy for very young children to quickly grow to an age that is useful to the story. This is typified by the infant being sent off to "Swiss Boarding School", despite being far too young to actually attend school, and then returning as a teenager or fully grown adult in a few months.

Thus, I have decided that there is, in fact, an actual Swiss Boarding School where rich soap opera characters send their children to be rapidly aged. Eschewing the possibility of a time dialation field, rapid growth cloning technologies seem to be the obvious bet.
RainOfSteel
QUOTE (hyzmarca)

Let us suspend disbelief here. [...]

Oh. That explains my puzzlement. I avoid daytime soaps like the plague and always have.

In The Days of Our Running, that would all make sense.

Someone once told me something similar about about Palladium Books' Rifts. My response for that is the same as for this, so I reproduce it here.
QUOTE ("RainOfSteel")

QUOTE ("cornholioprime")

And exactly how many times have you seen the oft-sigged Phrase, " 'It's Rifts. It doesn't have to make sense' ??"

A lot.

However, when Rifts does make sense, it's coolness factor goes up by about 1d6 x 100%.




durthang
QUOTE
Children aren't selfish


When did this happen?
Ed_209a
QUOTE (Slithery D)
Children aren't selfish and without adult levels of empathy and self control (only) because they haven't had enough time to practice or learn them: they can't because the appropriate parts of their brain that provide those functions haven't developed yet.

I had to re-read the sentence myself. Let me cut out some of the non-critical clauses...

Children aren't selfish ... because they haven't had enough time to practice or learn them: they can't because the appropriate parts of their brain ... haven't developed yet.

ie Children _are_ selfish, but it's largely a physiological condition, not just educational.

The same way an infant's brain in an adult's body still can't walk because the "walk" part of the brain is still under construction.

Creepy 'run though. Nice job.
Crusher Bob
Just wait until one of the team wants the doctor to implant his own brain into the kids body, so they can claim all of dad's inheritance. It's like the head of Vecna!
Westiex
QUOTE (Crusher Bob)
Just wait until one of the team wants the doctor to implant his own brain into the kids body, so they can claim all of dad's inheritance. It's like the head of Vecna!

Yeah. It'd be interesting, seeing all of the runners compete with each other to see who gets their head chopped off first ...

As an aside though, what about a shcool for the misbehaving kids? They're educated through VR to behave more politely. Imangine, you send the kid to the school for a year or two and when he comes back, he's all polite, cured of things like drug use and anti social behaviour, not to mention acing his tests.

And if Lone Star ever gets ahold of the technology ...
Turtle
QUOTE (Westiex)
[QUOTE=Crusher Bob,Sep 28 2006, 04:17 AM]
As an aside though, what about a shcool for the misbehaving kids? They're educated through VR to behave more politely. Imangine, you send the kid to the school for a year or two and when he comes back, he's all polite, cured of things like drug use and anti social behaviour, not to mention acing his tests.

And if Lone Star ever gets ahold of the technology ...

May I refer y'all to Lone Star Sourcebook pp. 74-77? biggrin.gif Been there, done that, it's a nasty piece of penal punishment. Especially when you program some "breaks" into the rehab simsense that throws the prisoner back into prison reality before sending him back into the rehab loop. He'll come out of rehab wondering when they will pull the plug the next time, and if this whole new life is real. cyber.gif
hyzmarca
QUOTE (Westiex @ Sep 28 2006, 05:24 AM)
QUOTE (Crusher Bob @ Sep 28 2006, 04:17 AM)
Just wait until one of the team wants the doctor to implant his own brain into the kids body, so they can claim all of dad's inheritance.  It's like the head of Vecna!

Yeah. It'd be interesting, seeing all of the runners compete with each other to see who gets their head chopped off first ...

QUOTE
What’s the matter Dina? Don’t you recognize your own mother?!


Yeah, the off thing is that this scheme might actually work for five minutes, longer if the runner can fake brain damage and longer still if he actually has some.

QUOTE
Yes, but in Drake Ramoray’s body.Why is this so hard for you to get? I thought you were a scientist!
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