Stuff that irks:

1. Biggest problem with the run is the fact that there is a DMNPC that's built and plotted to overshadow the runners : Ms. Johnson is an Immortal Elf, with this description: "Stats: Frosty is a high-level initiate magician (at least grade 8 ) with some unique spell and magical abilities. Her magic follows a different paradigm than other magicians in the Sixth World, though it looks vaguely hermetic. Jane eschews cyberware. No stats are provided as Jane should be as powerful as the gamemaster needs her to be and balanced with the group."

Yeah, don't ask me how "at least Initiate 8" and "balanced with the group" should go together, but it doesn't matter, the adventure writes her for you, her stats don't matter since the outcome of her actiosn is plotted in advance... can you hear the choo-choo?

If I was using this NPC - which I am not - I could already hear myself asking myself "why don't she just do this and this and this and this herself?", and the adventure proves me right.

See p. 18: "This also provides an excellent opportunity for Jane to come to the runners’ rescue; if they are injured or in a fight beyond their abilities, she can help in a way to create more of a relationship between her and the runners." Classic "Let's make a pet uber NPC" mistake I thought people would finally stop making.)

And then more strange stuff on p. 32: "Luckily, Jane is able to handle the large gang attack. She’s fed up with the chaos of the city and just wants to get her job done, and her temper gets the better of her (fortunately for the runners). Once she casts a massive spell, however, the drain weakens her to the point of almost passing out. The runners are stranded in the worst slum of Lagos, surrounded by the dead ghouls, their transportation destroyed, their employer helpless, and the auction starting in just a few hours …"

I don't really get why an initiate grade 8 would exhaust herself handling a few ghouls. Most of the PCs I know can deal with such a task themselves just fine. At least if they have the heavy gear anyone sane I know would bring to Lagos.

But then, the adventure is damn railroady in order to show off the NPC: p. 33: "The runners should be faced with a number of ghouls and their spirits that will overwhelm them (i.e., if they can handle fifteen without problem, continue to increase the number of ghouls) in order to play up the scene as Jane reveals her abilities. In other words, the ghouls should keep coming until Jane reveals herself (this may only take a few combat turns)." Yeah, right. Too many for the runenrs to handle - making the fight nothing but a stage for the DMNPC to show off. Hope no runner blows some edge in this cutscene.

And yet, even after the runners are shown that Frosty is a mage far beyond their meager powers, she splits off to secure the transport when things come down, instead of moving with the team: p. 35: "“You realize what this means?� Frosty mutters to you. “Everyone is going to be after that map. Great. You guys go after it, and I’ll get a hold of Innocent Dobiri. If you can get the map from the Nubian, we’ll need to get out of Lagos … fast.�

I don't know anyone with half a brain that would not say "You can call him on the way, or let someone from us do it, but we want you Miss uber mage with us when we hit the targets."


2. The payment is “I’m willing to pay 2,000 nuyen per person, per day, plus a per diem of 250 nuyen with a guaranteed minimum of five days paid upfront. I’ll also cover lodging in Lagos, plus the cost of travel to and from Nigeria. If we find the lost item, and you assist me in recovering it, I’ll also split the ‘finder’s fee’ with you—which would be 50,000 nuyen for your team.�

And yet, for that much money thrown at runners, she can't hire transports that'll bring in heavy gear to Lagos, instead she has some idiot pilot on call who balks at flying with grenades? Railroady "don't let the runners bring in the gear they need" stupidity (see p. 16: "Arriving in Lagos short on weapons or gear should be enough of a hook to encourage the player characters to go out and purchase some needed items. Jane can also pick up a few things if the runners are hesitant to go out and about. Otherwise, this scene is all about meeting new people, making friends (or enemies), and getting to know the ins and outs of Lagos.") which I'll ignore.
Not to mention that the payments in Ghost Cartels were better than this. At least once the mission changes in the middle of the run the payment goes up.


All in all not a bad aventure framework, but it suffers heavily from the stupid urge to show off how awesome Frosty is, which ruins most of the plot due to railroaded and badly constructed reasons for the runners to appear as they matter. The adventure should be fine if run with a weaker NPC as the Johnson instead of the Immortal Elf.

Yes, that one "oh look how bad an ass I am" scene is in there, I didn't write the damn thing.

When the ghouls begin to overwhelm the runners, read the following:
The ghouls continue to pour out from around the shacks, while more crouch inside and on top of the shacks, providing suppressive fi re. For every ghoul you take down, two more seem to appear. Your employer is holding her own, but as the odds get overwhelmingly against you, you hear her growl:
“Goddamn it! I’m hungry, I’m hot, I’m tired, and I am out of patience.�
With that, she drops her gun and raises her hands towards the ghouls. All the hair on your arms stands up. The smell of ozone sneaks in under the stench of decay. Th ere’s a loud pause, like the moment before lightning strikes, and you feel—something—rush along your skin, as the air seems to be sucked out of your very lungs. With a sound of thunder, ghouls fl y back through the air, a spray of blood and bone flinging out in a circle, away from you.
For a moment, there is only the fl ying bodies, and then with a loud snap, air rushes back in to you. Around you, dozens of ghouls are laying on the ground, some with limbs torn off , some crumpled into impossible shapes. All dead or dying. You’re all quiet for a second, shocked at the display of … what
exactly was that? Magic? No magic like you’ve ever seen.

It's a an ok run. Guard a person, track some people down, steal something, a chase. Basically a standard run but in an exotic location (africa), which offers some opportunities. I'd have preferred if the artifact played a bigger role, maybe some forced metaquest with it.

Just about every action of her is scripted, down to getting knocked unconscious by drain. That would be a good moment to kill her, should you choose so.

Another thing I dislike (which others may like) is that the whole run just is not magical enough. It's just a basic "get thing A, no, get thing B" plot. Could have been some mundane stuff, a prototype or a work of art, for all that it matters - the runners don't really experience the magic of that artifact. Bottled Demon was better in that regard. I expected more "Indiana Jones" or "Gold Digger".

Indeed. Any DM would be hard pressed to avoid the kill without looking stupid - she falls down in the middle of the runners, and they have more than enough time to kill her right then. (They are of course supposed to save her, but that was after the whole scene was designed to let her save them.)

The description of the ghoul fight says that there is the smell of ozone and then a lot of ghouls die. The mage for my group when playtesting, asked if he could roll to figure out what she cast. He rolled some Arcana and figured out that the spell was a limited target combat spell with elemental subtype. Jane learned a variant of "Slaughter: Infected" with Electricity damage. When she passed out, the mage made a snarky comment about biting off more than she could chew.

I really don't find Frosty's involvement all that intrusive, especially when you consider how the plot develops later. She really seems to me more a part of the overarching story- part of the background, if you will. What I mean is that her involvement is more about setting the contex of the player experience not the experience itself. My only issue is that there is no way my players are going to remember her from H and HB...

You changed the encounter then. Written as it is (especially the "tell it to them straight" section) there's no way a single combat spell - remember the limitations: need to see all your targets - would work. Also, if such a single spell would have worked, then the runners would not have been in peril since they would have been able to use manaball.

And it still doesn't solve the "oh, we go after the scroll, and our best mage goes to call the cab? Does she really want it?" inconsistency.

scripted so that no matter what the runners do the NPC saves them. There literally is no way for the runners to win at the ambush. If they should win the GM is told to simply increase the ghoul numbers until they are losing. That's simply bad design, and reeks of "look how cool my NPC is!" fanboyism.

But even with those subplots the advenure doesn't really wow me. Unlike Ghost Cartels it's rather conventional, and the artifact doesn't really come into play. It could be some high-tech prototype for all it matters.

But then runners smarter than the average thug might ask why said uberelf won't help them when the going gets tough if she did so before. If you've got an immortal statless character in your group you need very good reasons for her not to help out once, then go "calling a cab" in the final fight. the whole thing just feels too constructed, too "designed to make the NPC shine and the runners like it". I especially hate the "the runners can't win this fight, only the NPC will be able to defeat all those ghouls, no matter what the PCs do - but then she'll be k.o. from the drain, so the runners can feel useful. And she'll not take aprt in the finale, so the runners can feel as if they are needed again.