This is another good introductory-level adventure, with plenty of opportunities for roleplaying, rather than combat.  If one or more of your PCs cannot refuse a "damsel in distress", then this makes a great complication to inject into an ongoing adventure.  If they delay to save the children, their main adventure may end up far more complicated.  My thanks to Andy for granting permission for me to host it on my web site. -Kevin Clark - Feb. 8th, 1999.

INTRODUCTION

A desperate woman turns to the PCs for help.  She needs them to kidnap her children...

The PCs are in a city on a frontier world of the referee's choice ( it doesn't really matter which, as long as it has been colonised by at least two nations).  They are approached by a young woman in need of help -- her children have been kidnapped by her ex-husband, and she desperately wants to get them back.

The woman says she divorced her husband some time ago in a distant city in another colony on this world, and she was awarded custody of the children.  However, her ex-husband, outraged at the court's custody decision, took the children and fled to the city of his birth -- this one.

She has filed a complaint with the authorities, but a combination of bureaucracy and disinclination to believe foreigners has resulted in her case being postponed by local courts many times.  Desperate, she is now turning to illegal means to get her children back, confident that if she can once return them to her own city, her ex-husband will be unable to kidnap them again.

She can offer the party Lv 300 each, plus Lv 50 per day each expenses, to repossess her children for her.  She has a maximum of Lv 5,000 available to her ( donated by sympathetic friends and neighbours).  The woman can provide legal documentation of the divorce and custody arrangements.

APPROACH

The PCs will need to locate the children first, by doing routine legwork, hacking or following the ex-husband home from work.

Task: To locate the children: Routine.  Information Gathering, Computer or Streetwise.  One day.

When the PCs succeed at the task, they have discovered where the children are living.  This is a built-up area with easy access to public transport and hire cars, so the PCs shouldn't have much trouble making their way there.

If they want to learn the daily routine of the children and their father, they must roll another task.

Task: To learn the daily routine of the children and father: Routine.  Streetwise.  One day.

The ex-husband leaves the house at 0700 to go to his job ( in a city office several kilometres away).  He returns at 1800 each evening, and is very punctual.  When he is gone, the children go to the neighbour's house.  They remain there from the time their father leaves for work until just before school opens at 0845.  Then, the neighbour takes them and her own children to the school, located just down the street.  She retrieves all the children from school at 1600 and cares for them until the ex-husband returns.

The school is a small, private facility, with several teachers and 30 pupils of various ages.  The ex-husband has withdrawn his children from normal schooling because he is a devout member of a minority church, and he wishes his children to be brought up in that religion.

If the PCs take the children from the school, their exact location will depend upon the time the time of day and is, therefore, left to the referee.  The students may be in one of the classrooms or in the playground area.  At least one adult will always be present.

RETRIEVAL

The PCs must organise their own getaway.  They will have to leave town at once, before the police start a kidnapping investigation.  If he is aware of the repossession, the ex-husband will mount a limited pursuit, but will not take any action that will endanger the children.

NPCS

The ex-husband, neighbour, other school children and any school officials encountered are Green NPCs.  All will offer mild resistance to the PCs' attempts to take the children, but none will endanger their own lives or those of the children.  All NPCs will contact local authorities to report the kidnapping as quickly as possible, except for the ex-husband, who knows that any investigation will reveal his illegal custody.

REFEREEING THE SCENARIO

The children are aged 7 and 9.  While they love their father, they would prefer to be with their mother.  They are aware that she has been granted custody, but they are confused and upset by the whole matter.

The main problem the PCs will face is persuading the children to climb into a car with a bunch of hardened ruffians they have never seen before, and the children may need to be seized and carried off.  Excessive rough-handling of the children will not be appreciated by their patron, glad as she will be to have her children back.

If the PCs take the mother with them, they will accompany the party willingly.  However, the father has concocted some tale regarding a crazy mother who may someday show up to kidnap his children, and he has shown the mother's photograph to the neighbour and school officials.  If anyone sees her, therefore, it may severely jeopardise the mission.

ALTERNATIVES AND VARIANTS

If the PCs take pity on the woman and do the job for free, they can be rewarded with a renown point each for this heroic and moral act.

If the referee wishes to complicate matters, have a few neighbours burst upon the scene as the PCs make their move.  A brawl will ensue as they try to stop what they think is a kidnapping.

Alternatively, have a traffic policeman who knows the children stop the PCs for some minor traffic violation as they make their getaway -- he will assume a kidnapping is in progress and alert the local police, who will pursue the PCs.

DESIGNER'S NOTES

As published, this scenario used the typical street map from page 47 of the Space:1889 rulebook.  I haven't reproduced this here, as whoever owns the copyright on that map now, I'm fairly certain it isn't me.  I suggest you use a sketch map of any suburb you know.
-Andy Slack

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