This adventure is one of my favorite "cures" for players who want their characters to become rich, the easy way. Andy certainly came up with a unique setting for a "bank job caper" adventure. My thanks to Andy for granting permission for me to host it on my web site. - Kevin Clark - Mar. 21st, 1998.

Diamonds from Premiere

by Andy Slack

HTML entry/layout/editing by Kevin Clark
( kevinc AT cnetech DOT com )
Please report errors to me.

http://www.geocities.com/pentapod2300/mag/diamonds.htm

Disclaimer required by Far Future Enterprises: This item is not authorized or endorsed by Far Future Enterprises ( FFE) and is used without permission. The item is for personal use only. Any use of FFE's copyrighted material or trademarks in this file should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks. In addition, this item cannot be republished or distributed without the consent of the author ( Andy Slack).

INTRODUCTION

Shells were starting to fall outside by the time we got into the main vault. The unmistakable rumble and squeak of heavy armor rolling past outside the bank made speech even more difficult. Stanford had found the box we were after and was stuffing it into his pack. Harris was standing quite still, thumb in his belt, rifle pointed at the ceiling, visibly wondering what was in all the other safe-deposit boxes.

"Come on," I yelled as the tanks fell back, firing as they went. "We haven't got time for that!"

Harris looked at Stanford, and they both grinned. Stanford was already pulling some sort of illegal-looking electronic device from his toolkit.

It was obviously no use talking to them. I ran back out and flopped down near a window, where I could keep watch for the Kafers.

Set on Beta Canum during the Kafer War, this scenario is suitable for a group of three to six PCs. The referee will need the 2300 AD rules. Access to Colonial Atlas, Beanstalk and/or Invasion may be helpful.

Beta Canum is about to be attacked by Kafer forces. Human intelligence estimates that the planet will fall in a matter of days. The PCs' sponsoring organization ( see Refereeing the Scenario) has learned that a safe-deposit box in Premiere holds a fortune in diamonds which the PCs are asked to retrieve. The PCs will each be paid Lv500 up front and Lv500 on successful completion of the mission.

The PCs will be provided with a map of the bank, as well as a letter introducing them to the bank staff and an electronic key to the correct safe-deposit box.

APPROACH

Continued safe operation of the Beanstalk cannot be guaranteed during the invasion ( if it hasn't been destroyed already), so the PCs will be inserted on the outskirts of Premiere by a small spaceplane at 0200 hours local time ( at a disused flying field, now only used as an emergency landing strip for the main airport, about 10 kilometers out of town).

Shortly after the spaceplane lifts off, leaving the party on Beta Canum, the PCs learn from news broadcasts that Kafer warships have entered the system and are bound for the planet. They will arrive in 1d6 hours. If they contact their sponsors, the PCs are assured that they will be picked up if they can return to the rendezvous.

RETRIEVAL

The spaceplane will alight at the drop-off point in 24 hours. It will wait one hour, then depart, regardless of whether the PCs make it back.

MAP DESCRIPTION

If a map is needed for an encounter on the way in or out of Premiere, simply describe or sketch an urban area you are familiar with.

For a map of the bank vault, you could use the one from Twilight: 2000 second edition ( also now owned by FFE along with 2300 AD - KevinC ), pages 182-183, if it is available to you ( or just create your own). Banks have not changed much over the years, although the functions are increasingly automated, and the after-hours teller positions are now manned by machines.

REFEREEING THE SCENARIO

The PCs' final careers should decide the nature of the sponsoring organization and the reason for retrieving the diamonds. For example:

Field agents or military personnel can be ordered in to prevent the Kafers from gaining access to a cache of strategically valuable industrial diamonds.
Troubleshooters or independent traders can be hired by the person or corporation owning the diamonds to retrieve them -- insurance doesn't cover acts of war, and the diamonds are worth millions. In this case, the diamonds can be industrial- or jewelry-grade items.
Thieves, smugglers and pirates can discover the cache by means of bribery or blackmail, and seize it under cover of the confusion caused by the impending invasion. Again, the diamonds can be jewels or industrial.
Mercenaries can use any of the above rationales.

Getting into Premiere

This is not easy, because it seems as if everyone else within thousands of kilometers is trying to get in as well ( to find a way off-planet before the Kafers move in). This not only causes congestion but also ties up most of the available transport. The referee should allow the PCs to find a vehicle after a short search, then implement the following encounters in any order:

Looters: A small band of thieves, equal in number to the PCs, is looting shops under cover of the confusion. They are Green NPCs, armed only with knives and clubs ( at the referee's option, they may be looting a gunsmith's shop and have access to sporting weapons such as FC-68s).
Refugees: A family ( parents, several children, grandmother and dog) try, to flag down the PCs and beg for a ride to the spaceport. These are Green NPCs and unarmed.
Armed Refugees: As above, but more desperate. If the PCs do not stop to pick them up, at least one of the family members will open fire with an FC-70 hunting rifle in an attempt to gain control of the vehicle. Treat the family as Green NPCs.
Riotous Mob: This mob is besieging an embassy in the city center, near the bank. They believe embassy officials inside the building will be rescued by tiltrotor and taken directly to the spaceport, and they hope to seize the aircraft and escape in it. The building is defended by Experienced troops armed with AS-89s; the mob consists of Green NPCs armed with knives, clubs and desperation.

Making a Withdrawal

When the PCs arrive at the bank, the staff will have fled. It will be necessary to resort to lockpicking or violence to gain entry to the building and vault, but PCs are usually quite capable of either. Once inside the building. They will discover a group of daring thieves with similar intentions ( but, of course, less noble motives) who will dispute their possession of the valuables. There are 1d6 Experienced thief NPCs, armed with pistols and shotguns.

Task: To pick the bank locks: Formidable Security Systems or one-half Electronics. 5 minutes.
Referee: This task is Formidable for the outside door, Impossible for the secure vault. Fortunately for the PCs, the thieves inside have already opened the vault door ( they locked the building doors behind them to conceal their presence).

For blowing in the doors, use the normal rules for explosives. The bank doors are made of one centimeter of wood sheathing five centimeters of toughened steel; the vault doors are 20 centimeters of toughened steel.

The thieves' lookout ( if the PCs pick the lock) or the sound of the explosion ( if they blow in the door) will alert the thieves, and they will ambush the party soon after it enters the bank.

No PC worth his salt will leave safe-deposit boxes unopened in such circumstances. There are several hundred present; their contents are left to the referee's imagination, and the total value of the haul depends on how much money you are willing to let your PCs have. Note that most of the paper money, deeds, contracts and blackmail letters they find will be worthless by the time they can return to a Kafer-free Beta Canum to use them.

Getting out of Premiere

This is no easier than getting in, and the PCs may well be running into the oncoming Kafers, who by now have landed the first elements of their force, although the space battle rages overhead. The referee should implement the following encounters in any order:

Kafer Scouting Party: A group of 2d6 Kafers with light weapons scouting ahead of the main invasion force. They are already aroused and will ambush the party.
Scene of a Firefight: Shattered bodies and wrecked equipment testify to a recent firefight. If you feel the PCs need heavier weapons than they have to get out alive ( yes, I know it's unlikely, but it could happen), have them find some light support weapons with the bodies, still in working order (FTE-10, M2-A2 plasma gun, etc.).
Kafer Atrocity in Progress: The party members see a band of Kafers massacring unarmed civilians and/or prisoners. If they just ignore it and make good their escape, they are definitely not hero material. If they intervene and win, the NPCs rescued will try to follow the PCs ( after all, they have guns). Naturally, the spaceplane is just big enough to accommodate the PCs' team and has no room for passengers.
Squad of Soldiers: Just as the PCs' spaceplane arrives, they encounter a desperate group of soldiers, cut off from their unit and looking for away off-planet, who intend to hijack the spaceplane and escape on it. The PCs must either surrender their places on the last spaceplane out of Beta Canum or fight to keep them. The soldiers are Experienced NPCs in the ground military career, armed with FAM-90s; they are equal in number to the PCs.

ALTERNATIVES AND VARIANTS

If the PCs don't make it back into orbit, they are stuck on Beta Canum through the Invasion and subsequent fighting. They can opt to lie low, join the resistance or find another way off-world. If they're still there at the end of the war, you can use many of the Twilight: 2000 scenarios published in Challenge with a few changes -- the Kafer War leaves Beta Canum in a similar state to Earth after WWIII, although in BC's case, help is available from outside.

Of course, it is quite likely that the player characters will "lose" the diamonds in a convenient location for future collection. The value of the diamonds, and their chances of getting away with it, are at the referee's discretion.
-Andy Slack

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Last Update: 1998 Mar 21
First Online: 1998 Mar 21
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