This Scenario is a straightforward action game that starts with a light investigation, eases into a little breaking-and-entering, and finishes off with a mad chase through downtown San Francisco.

1. The Briefing

The Contractors are briefed at Coit Tower in San Francisco, California. They're sent to find and retrieve the source of some delta radiation, a kind of radiation common to "psychic" phenomena. They are told to hurry as there may be other groups pursuing the objective. The Contractors are equipped with delta radiation detectors and sent to the address where it was recently detected.

2. Locating the source of the delta radiation 

The building where the radiation was detected is about two miles away. It has 4 residential apartments and a boba shop downstairs named Bobasaurus. Using the detectors, the Contractors locate the source of the radiation: a yellow, centepede-like frog one of the second-floor apartment bathrooms. If they take too long, another group (Team B) arrives and kidnapps the store owner, and finds the source themselves. 

3. Returning the payload to the briefing point

Once the frog is secured (usually in a large soup pot), it sends out a psychic signal to everyone who has been drinking the shop's boba and compels them to protect it from the Contractors. What ensues is a high-speed chase from the boba shop to the briefing point where the Contractors are pursued by mind-controlled humans with golden eyes. 

Running Bobasaurus

As GM, your primary challenge in this Contract will to ensure that time continues to move forward as the Contractors investigate. This means:

• Having customers come and go at Bobasaurus as the Contractors look around and discuss what to do.
• Introducing Team B, and keeping track of their location and progress. 
• If someone calls the police, secretly tracking how long until they arrive (1d10 minutes)

Remember, in-game time and real-life time move in lockstep while Contractors are chatting in-character. Do not allow them to plan and share knowledge out-of-character. 

At the climax (once the group gets the alien), you have complete control over how many mind-controlled citizens show up and when, as well as how they're armed, etc. Almost anything you establish will feel fair and reasonable. Just be consistent. Turn up the heat and keep an eye on the real-life clock; you want the contract to resolve quickly. 

Adjusting the Setting

This Contract takes place in San Francisco, but it can easily be relocated to any urban area. Simply select a major landmark / building as the briefing point, and put the boba shop about two miles away, hopefully down some interesting streets.

You can also set this Contract in more rural areas. Increase the distance between the boba shop and the briefing point. Decrease the number of "zombies," but give them guns and trucks. 

Frank Vasquez

About six months ago, Frank Vasquez took a short break from his busy career as a software engineer and went backpacking in the Big Basin redwood forest.

There he encountered an unusual creature hiding under a log: It looked like a yellow toad, but its body was elongated and had many sets of legs, like a centipede. Frank approached the creature, captivated by its glowing golden eyes. He decided to capture and sell the creature. This could be his ticket to an early retirement. 

When he tried to grab the frog, its barbed tail whipped around and stung him on the shoulder. The wound immediately started oozing little gelatinous spheres and made Frank's shoulder stiff, but he successfully bagged the amphibian and brought it to his house. 

The creature worked its telepathic influence on Frank. Instead of selling it, he gave it a place to live in his apartment’s bathtub. He would sit for countless hours, staring into those golden eyes. Soon he was fully brainwashed, and the amphibian made its goal clear: to envelop this world with its influence. 

Its primary method of spreading its influence is via parasites. These parasites are contained within the gelatinous egg-like spheres that bud from the warts on its skin. Frank’s mission was to get as many people as possible to ingest them. 

To do so, Frank started a boba tea (aka pearl tea or bubble tea)  business called Bobasaurus. He mixes the alien’s parasitic eggs with the tapioca boba. Bobsaurus opened two months ago, and business is really starting to pick up. It seems like everyone who goes leaves a great review!

Now Frank’s mind has been twisted to the breaking point. He is a fanatic thrall to the yellow toad. The skin around the toad’s sting has turned yellow and warty and began to spread down his back. He keeps it hidden under his clothes for the time being, as secret as the shop’s secret ingredient. 

Jennifer Yang

Jennifer Yang is a professor of Biology at nearby UC Berkeley. While examining blood samples from undergraduate research volunteers, she discovered that many were infected by a strange and unusual parasite of a potentially alien origin.

She quickly developed a blood test to check for the presence of the parasite. By testing and surveying several hundred undergrads, she has deduced that Bobasaurus is the source of the infection. 

Jennifer has seen too many movies to trust the government with first contact with a new alien species. She is determined to personally capture the alien at Bobasaurs and work with the rest of UC Berkeley’s faculty to learn to communicate with it and make a positive first contact.

The fate of the world could depend on it. 

Luckily, Jennifer’s brother is well-established with a Chinese Triad gang, and she was able to convince him to lend her a few gangsters as an escort. No doubt her brother has his own angle to get involved in this “ground-breaking discovery” his sister keeps raving about. 

Jennifer is willing to do whatever it takes to find and capture the source of the alien parasites. She and her gangsters know not to drink the boba. They all come to the store armed with pistols.

Boba Tea Shops

If you are unfamiliar with Boba tea and boba tea shops, do a bit of research ahead of time (visit one if you can!). You can also watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMm2nxtf-aw 

Contractors will be contact by a Harbinger or a Harbinger's assistant and given the following directions:

Meet with Ralph Turlock at the top of Coit Tower in San Francisco, California at 5:00 PM this evening. 

Meeting at Coit Tower

• Coit Tower is a 200 foot tall concrete tower that sits at the top of telegraph hill in northern San Francisco. It is a tourist destination and is surrounded by parks and walking trails.
• It sits on top of telegraph hill. The only access road spirals upward to the top where there is a circular parking lot. 
  • The only cars in the parking lot are two police cars and a Pagani Huayra.
• The view from the top overlooks the entire city and the bay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iBi3Ox2oPE
• It is sunset when the Contractors arrive. 

The Police

As Contractors arrive, they will be approached by a pair of police officers who inform them that the tower is closed to tourists today.

• The tower is closed for a private event.
• Any Contractor who introduces themselves with their real name will be allowed to park and enjoy the tower.
• Any Contractor who refuses to introduce themselves or gives a fake name will be turned away. 
  • If the Contractors start to leave or the situation escalates, Sophia (Ralph Turlock's personal assistant) will intervene.

Sophia Smith

Sophia is Ralph Turlock's personal assistant. She is 25 years old and has straight hair to her shoulders. She wears a business-casual outfit and is well put-together. Her demeanor is warm and almost casual, however, she is a skilled administrator and a consumate professional and will not be bullied or bossed around. 

• Sophia's goal: ensure this meeting between the Contractors and Mr. Turlock occurs. 
  • She has a list of the Contractor's names and descriptions and knows that they can be pretty uncooperative at times. 
  • Sophia will tell the police to let the Contractors in if they have trouble with them.
• The NDA
  • Before Sophia allows a Contractor to take the elevator / stairs to the top of the tower, she will insist that they sign a non-disclosure agreement. 
  • She will explain that this is a standard NDA, and that signing it indicates that you will not discuss any details of this job with anyone outside the group.
  • She will tell the Contractors that Ralph has stressed that this is a time-sensitive job. 
  • If a Contractor takes the time to read the contract thoroughly, give them an Intellect + Culture roll, Difficulty 6.
    
    • Success reveals that this is a fairly standard NDA. If broken, it gives Prometheus Ventures grounds to collect insanely high financial damages on the signer.
    • Parital success or failure means it takes 10 minutes to determine that. Failure means it takes up to 20 minutes.
      • (You can allow other Contractors to urge them to sign it without finishing reading it).  
• Once all the Contractors are assembled and have signed the NDA, Sophia will take them to the top of the tower in the elevator. 

The Briefing

Ralph Turlock

Ralph Turlock is one of the four partners of Prometheus Ventures. He is dresed in black slacks, an expensive-looking button-down shirt, and a Patagonia puffy vest with a Prometheus Ventures logo on the lapel. 

The person they are meeting is actally a live hologram of the real Ralph Turlock. The technology is sufficiently sophisticated that only a close medical examination or Gifts would reveal that he is not actually there. 

Ralph is extremely professional and to-the-point. He does not play games, and he wants this mission to be a success. He does not withold information.

He will wait no more than 15 minutes past the meeting time to start the briefing. 

The Mission

"We’ve detected an intermittent surge of delta radiation nearby. That indicates some sort of supernatural entity. We want you to find it, acquire it, and return it to the briefing point unharmed."

• Delta Radiation
  • Give the Contractors an Intellect + Science roll to learn what they know about Delta Radiation.
    • If the succeed, you can give them the following information and let them explain to the group. Otherwise, Ralph will inform them. 
  • As some of you may know, delta radiation is a particular type of radiaiton that is associated with telepathic activity. 
  • When present, it forms a linear connection between two points in space, usually with a distinguishable source and destination. 
    • Think of it like an invisible string that connects two people while telepathic abilities are being used.
• Point of Detection
  • Using our advanced telemetry, we have detected a surge of delta radiation about two miles away.
  • Coordinates: 37.799805492125934, -122.43501418601075
    • (you can also give an address)
  • He points to the road on the right: https://i.redd.it/dvmwi3w8l3h11.jpg 
  • The percision of our instruments should narrow it down to a specific building, at least. 
• Detect-o-Magics
  • We have these “Detect-o-magic”s for you. Everybody gets one. 
  • They are a common, plastic, children's toy that "detects magic" with a display of flashing lights, beeps, and whistles. 
  • These particular Detecto-o-magics have been retrofitted to detect delta radiation. 
    • When delta radiation is nearby, it buzzes and lights up, and the compass on the top will whirl around.
    • When the device is positioned in a delta ray connection, the compass will point towards the source (north is the stronger side, south is the “reciever”).
  • "We will need these back. If you keep them, the job will be a failure, and we will have to send someone to go collect it, with interest."
  • "But, if you bring it back, we may be able to work with your employer to let you keep one as payment. Perhaps one more developed than these."
• Delivery
  • The source of the radiation must be delivered alive to a secret garage on the drive up telegraph hill Coit Tower.
  • He’ll point it out.
  • The garage entrance is near the top of the spiral road to the top of coit tower. 
  • "We will have measures in place to prevent people from following you up the road."
• Gold Rush
  • "Don’t take too long. If we detected it, that means others detected it. There may be other people looking for this thing, whatever it is. Could be the government."
  • "I doubt it will still be around tomorrow."
• Transportation
  • The Contractors must provide their own transportation.

The Location

The coordinates lead to a victorian apartment building on Lumbard street. It is three stories tall. The ground floor is a boba tea shop named “Bobasaurus.” The two floors above are residential.

There is a fire escape on floors two and three (an extendable ladder allows people to escape but does not provide ground-level access). Residents access the upper floors through a door that leads straight to the sidewalk. All of the fire-escape-egress windows that lead into the apartments are barred on the inside.

Bobasaurus is in the red-outlined store. The other store is currently empty and has a "for-lease" sign.

Bobasaurus

Bobasaurus is dinosaur themed boba tea store. It has a sign out front and on the window with this logo.

Inside is a small ordering area with bar seating at the windows and two small tables with plastic chairs. For the most part, it is a grab-and-go sort of place, typical of boba tea shops. 

They have a unisex bathroom with a lock. The lock requires a code that anyone can get from any employee.

A pair of japanese tourists are purchasing boba tea when the Contractors arrive.

Behind the counter are two workers: a young woman and a middle-aged man. The woman is manning the register while the man is moving about doing restocking / cleaning / other work. 

Internet Research

Anyone who searches Bobasaurus on the internet will find the following information without a roll:

• The store opened a month and a half ago.
• There are no other locations. 
• It has excellent ratings on all relevant websites. 
  • People are especially in love with their signature drink: The Bobasaurus Rex. 

Advanced research using contacts, special tactics, or a complete success on a Intellect + Investigation roll will provide the following information:

• The resturaunt is started and owned by Frank Vasquez
  • They used to be a software engineer, now they own Bobasaurus. 
• The ratings from customers are unusually glowing.
  • Bobasaurus may be cheating the rating systems somehow (perhaps with spoofed reviews? They appear legitimate. . . ) 

Entering Bobasaurus

A couple of teenage japanese girls are purchasing boba tea when the Contractors arrive. They are tourists who speak to each other in Japanese. They are simply first-time patrons who are hanging out and sight-seeing in San Francisco. 

Employees

Behind the counter are two workers: a younger woman named Rebecca and an older guy named Frank Vasquez.

Rebecca is 18 years old. She just works there. She has no idea what’s going on with the boba, but she has drunk some. 

Frank Vasquez: is in his mid-fourties. Franks brain has been thoroughly corrupted from the amphibian. He is now more of a fanatical cultist than a person, though he hides it fairly well. As soon as things go off the rails, he will begin ranting: “She will bathe the earth in her light! We will absorb it through our skin and be replenished!”

Menu Items

• The Bobasaurus-Rex (a giant milk tea with three kinds of boba and pineapple chunks)
• Taro-dactyl (a taro milk tea with boba and whipped-cheese topping)
• Bronta-boba-saurus (a simple matchta milk tea with boba)

(They also sell custom drinks, including a few without boba)

Behind the Counter

The boba shop is fairly normal behind the counter. There is one back room that has an entrance both from behind the counter and through the parking lot. 

The back room’s stock is relatively good as well, though the boba is all contained in tupperware containers instead of any sort of productized packaging. The back room is locked and only Frank has the key. 

Finding the Source

Detecting Delta Radiation

The Detect-o-magics will alert in the following circumstances

• Someone within 30 feet drinks a boba for the first time.
  • The detect-o-magic will buzz and flash for 7 seconds. 
  • The Contractors can't get a bead on the location of the delta ray connection unless they are anticipating the event, have the detect-o-magics out, and are willing to wave them around the person who indicates. 
    • If they do, have any Contractors using the device roll Perception + (Investigation, Alertness, or Science).
      • Partial success: the source is in either the second or third-floor apartment above this building. 
      • Complete success: the source is probably in the second-floor apartment bathroom. 
• They are within 1 foot of Frank
  • Frank has a strong and continuous delta radiation signal, and he is the only one. 

Visitors to the Store

As the Contractors investigate, time passes. Customers come and go. Some will eat in, others will get their orders to-go. Some have drank the boba before, some have not. 

• A trio of brogrammers (think frat bro software engineers)
• A pair of businessmen wearing expensive suits
• A college-aged couple on a first date. 

Team B: Professor Jennifer Yang

Professor Yang will arrive with 2-4 traid gangsters and immeditately investigate the main area. It is your choice when to introduce them. If the Contractors are making good time, give them a while. If the Contractors are dragging their feet, you can introduce them earlier. 

Unless the Contractors interfere, team B will do the following:

• After they look around, Jennifer will order several drinks to go and immediately store them in an ice chest in the SUV she arrived in.
• Jennifer and her goons will then break into the back room from the parking lot. Frank will find her, and they will threaten him with their guns, tie him up, and begin interrogating him.
  • This will cause the detect-o-magics to go off  as Frank and the alien transmit.
• Soon after kidnapping Frank, Professor Yang and his muscle will go upstairs, unlock his apartment with his key, and capture the alien.
  • One of the gangsters will get stung and will be suffering from the effects.
• They will escape over the bay bridge, pursued by the alien's protectors. 

If they accomplish this, the Contractors will, of course, fail. 

Triad Gangster Stats

• Initiative: 6 dice
• Attack with pistols: 6 dice
• Body: 7, Mind: 5
• (Average human in all other respects)

The Apartments

These are standard city apartments. There is only a single door to access them, and it is at street-level in between the building's two shops (see the picture). 

• There are buzzers for each apartment.
  • Two apartments have people home and will answer the buzzer, but they are suspicious of unexpected visitors. 
  • A great cover story may convince them to buzz the Contractors in. 
• The front door has a standard commercial deadbolt lock.
  • It can be picked with the proper tools, but it will take time and probably attract attention (and get the police called).
• There is a fire escape. 
  • Contractors can climb up to it with a Dexterity + Athletics roll, Difficulty 8 (lower with proper equipment).
  • Once on the fire escape, its ladder can be lowered to the street. 
  • It is up to you whether you put bars on the inside of the apartment windows. (depending on desired challenge level)
• Frank's apartment is locked.
  • Another standard commercial door lock.
    • Frank is not home and holds the only key.
  • There are a multitude of additional deadbolt locks on the inside, but they are not engaged since Frank is not home.

Frank’s Apartment (no 2)

Frank's apartment is a simple one-bedroom apartment. The front door enters into the living room. Standing at the door, the Contractors can see the dining nook and part of the kitchen in one direction, and in the other, a short hallway that leads to the bedroom and bathroom. 

The Living Room, Dining Room, and Bedroom

These rooms are all very spartan, almost as though this place is a rental. There is no decor or family photos. There is little clutter or signs of living. 

The Kitchen

Similar to the rest of the house, the kitchen is surprisingly bare. However, there are a multitude of tupperware containers all over, including in the sink. 

The fridge contains some bottles of Soylent (a real-life drink product that people use to substitute meals) and some tupperware containers full of boba. 

The Bathroom

The alien in Frank’s apartment lays in the bathtub, which has been converted into a boba-y soup with little floating balls and a lime green foam on top. 

The alien itself looks like a cross between a toad and a centipede. She has 16 webbed legs, bumpy, warty skin, and a thick abdominal “tail” that is swollen with eggs and churns passively all the time. There is a small barb at the tip of her tail, which it may raise above its head like a scorpion when threatened. Her eyes are golden with dramatic horizontal slits. Its lips are uncannily human, and it has a snake-like tongue with two long tendrils that wiggle around in the air while it’s extended. 

She does not emerge from the bathtub, and the bath tub's murkey water (looks a bit like a matchta boba tea with pearls and foam) prevents the Contractors from seeing her.

Stung

She will attack the intruders if they reach into the bathtub or try to grab her. Her stinger has 6 dice to hit and will ignore any Armor that does not cover the arms. 

Anyone who is stung receives a Severity-1 Injury as a painful stinging sensation spreads down their arm. After 5 minutes, the wound will begin to bubble with boba-like alien eggs, and the Injury will worsen by 1 Severity. 

Capturing the Alien

She can be contained in a metal soup pot or through other means. In the case of the soup pot, a Contractor must close the lid manually (using both hands) or using some clever equipment / tactic. 

Her psychic powers will go wild when she gets kidnapped, causing lots of other people who she has hypnotized earlier to attack the contractors as much as they can, in cars or on foot, from wherever they happened to be. This will cause the Detect-o-magics to go absolutely crazy, beeping and flashing. 

Enthralled

Once captured, ask everyone who was stung or who ate a boba to roll Mind, Difficulty 6. 

Those who fail are fully enthralled. 

• Their eyes turn gold, like the alien's
• The alien controls all of their Actions
• If they receive a Severity-2 Injury or higher, they "snap out of it" and are no longer fully enthralled.

Vessels

Anyone who gets an Outcome of 1-3 (partial success) is a vessel.

• The alien can control its Vessels once per hour and force them to take a single Action. 
  • Use this wisely. Force the escape driver to crash the car, or have a Contractor attack one of the other Contractors. 

Escape!

Once the Contractors get the alien, they must escape!

• Half the NPCs who recently darnk the boba for the first time will be Fully Enthralled. 
• All of the NPCs who drank the boba a long time ago (including Rebecca) will be Fully Enthralled. 
• No NPCs become Vessels. 

NPCs that are enthralled will attack the Contractors mercilessly. They have no regard for their own personal safety or for those around them. They will attack using deadly force and improvised weapons (or actual weapons, if they have them). 

Remmber to use mob combat rules for large groups of similar enemies. Note that the mob's "health" is significantly reduced by the fact that taking damage ends the mind control effect. 

Enthralled from all over the city make their way toward the Contractors. This means you can add any number of people you want to the encounter at any time. 

• People in cars will attempt to crash into them
• People on the street will run up to them wielding knives and try to kill them. 
• People will jump out of their condo's windows and try to land on them. 

The Path to Escape

The shortest path takes them down lumbard street:

​​https://goo.gl/maps/nDdvdw5JPNeoW5Kb8 

Give them a choice to face off against an attacking vehicle or go down lumbard street. No sane person would opt to go down lumbard street when another route exists.

Prometheus ventures will deploy a spike line at the bottom of the coit tower, and activate it once the contractors get through. They are directed via a voice to exit via a door in the garage which leads to the bottom of telegraph hill, where they may easily slip away undetected.