Red Markets: A Game of Economic Horror

451 by the trappings of civilization and driven to the extreme by climate change. 4-5 is the Blight and its various complications, 6-7 interactions with other humans, and 8-9 landscape features that are man-made or resulted from the Crash. The 1 and 10 results on the d10 table are reserved for outside context problems or Legs that involve multiple elements from the four pairs. In this smaller version of the table, these are also the critical failure/success states because they make for the most interesting challenges. D10 Encounter Prompts Need more? The following table was used to write the entire d100 table at the back of this book. The essential questions remain the same, but now each is paired with a common point of interaction between the Market’s designs and the players’ choices. Roll the Black alone. Even numbers are the more forgiving state of an encounter (asking “Is it worth it?”), and odd is the failure-state of the same (asking “Is it enough?”). On a 2-3, the theme revolves around the natural world run amok after the Crash, unhindered There’s a chance for profit, if the Takers choose to accept some risk. What remains to be seen is... Was it worth it? When they went inside the post office with the sagging roof to salvage those documents, was it worth it? When they tried to get close enough to hack that armed drone, was it worth it? When they responded to those cries for help, was it worth it? If the crew takes on the risk, they open themselves to a financial, material, reputation-based, or emotional reward. But the opportunity doesn’t assure success. It also doesn’t protect characters from the consequences of the risk. That’s for the players and the dice to decide. Avoiding the risk, however, voids the opportunity as well. Furthermore, if the answer to the failure theme (is it enough?) was “no,” it’s easy for a Taker to walk into a disaster thinking they’re chasing profit that isn’t there. SUCCESS It’s winning the jackpot. A windfall. A free lunch. The Takers don’t even have to work for it. The only questions are... How? How did this opportunity land so fortuitously in the Taker’s path? Whom did the treasure originally belong, and how was it lost to them? How has it gone unsalvaged this long? Once the how is answered, it might also be prudent to ask... Why? Why has something so obviously valuable been left here? Was it intentional? To what end, and when will it come to fruition? If it wasn’t deemed valuable at all, who wouldn’t find it valuable? Freedom from the scarcity that rules the Loss suggests motives ruled by the Blight, radical belief, or something even worse. Regardless of the answers, nothing happens to the Takers on this Leg unless one of them miraculously screws up somehow. It’s a gift from heaven, but Markets should use such opportunities to think about what such a boon says about the setting and sets up for Legs to come. CRITICAL SUCCESS

452 Take a roll on the table below and see if it’s enough to spark the imagination. If not, continue on to “d100 Loss Encounters” (see p. 457). Just because a Leg doesn’t easily classify into nature, Blight, interaction, or remnant doesn’t mean it’s a bad encounter. The truth is actually the exact opposite: the more elements of the setting that interact with each other, the more real and immersive that setting seems. Multiple elements of the setting conspire to make a lose-lose situation. The crew runs into a hostile faction while suffering an extreme weather event. A number of casualties are made worse by the remnant of some Crash fortification. An aberrant shows up. Whatever the case, the crew can mitigate damage, but they can’t avoid the situation altogether. There’s also nothing to be gained from the encounter, or if there is, it’s not nearly enough to make up for the cost. 1 crITICAL MISFORTUNE Some turn of the weather or natural world benefits the Takers. It could ease their passage, hinder their enemies, or provide goods. However, no major benefits are available to Takers without some form of risk. The Takers can choose to push it for the added benefits, but they can move on unhindered as well. 2 FORTUNATE NATURE Some aspect of the weather or natural world threatens the crew. It could be an unpredictable shift in conditions due to climate change, a landscape shift caused by previous events, or a feral threat. Crews with exceptional skill might be able to avoid the encounter, but chances are resources will be lost due to the misfortune. It’s possible to make some bounty, but it’s doubtful that it fully covers what was lost. 3 UNFORTUNATE NATURE Casualties are isolated, hindered, easily avoided, or already dead. There is no such thing as a safe casualty encounter, but the Takers can choose to face these undead to pull cards or get at whatever treasures they may be guarding. However, it might be the better long-term choice to leave them rest. It’s being able to make the choice that makes the encounter fortunate. 4 FORTUNATE BLIGHT Casualties are in groups, unrestrained, hidden, or in great number. If Takers don’t engage the undead, it’s because they skillfully escaped a situation in which the C’s had the upper hand, likely using valuable resources in the process. If they power through the beasts, there’s some chance for bounty, but it only takes one bite to kill an entire crew. 5 UNFORTUNATE BLIGHT The crew encounters humans that are friendly or in a situation in which the Takers have the initiative. It could be people willing to trade, offer solace, or provide information. If the persons need help, the Takers can choose not to give it. It may hurt Humanity, but it might also save flesh; the choice is luxury. If the humans are hostile, it’s still a fortunate interaction if Takers have a chance (based on the dice or the situation) to get the drop on them. There’s no bounty in avoidance, but it might be the key to survival. 6 FORTUNATE INTERACTION Result subJect and Theme

453 The crew encounters humans that are hostile to them and seeking to gain the upper hand. It could be a financial or even emotional hostility, but unfortunate interactions in the Loss tend towards violence. But the dangerous part about humans is their cunning. While it might be a raider group just leading a charge, those with bad intentions do their best to make an ambush seem like a fortunate interaction. It’s possible for the crew to spot and accommodate to a trap before it’s too late, but it’s hard to stop someone willing to risk their life to end yours from doing damage. 7 UNFORTUNATE INTERACTION The Crash and the Loss leaves behind a lot of waste and treasure. To the desperate, waste might be treasure, but the dangers in retrieving it can turn treasure into waste. Unexploded munitions, salvageable equipment, spare parts, food — Takers lucky enough to find such things need to throw caution to the wind and grab them before someone else does. Of course, the reason the value remains available might be because others tried for it and died. Accepting the risk is the only way to know for sure. 8 FORTUNATE REMNANT This leftover is in the crew’s way or actively seeking to harm them. Most of mankind’s effect on the world during the Crash was overwhelmingly negative. Radiation, land mines, preserved pockets of infected — these nightmares were spewed all over the countryside within the first month. That’s to say nothing of the new cruelties and deadly experiments cooked up by members of the Lost in subsequent years. Some bounty might be recovered from the obstacle, but it’s questionable as to whether it will be worth the pain. 9 UNFORTUNATE REMNANT Multiple elements in the setting have cancelled each other out, leaving only the value with some or all of the risk removed. Feral animals destroyed the casualties but left the bounty. A believer group made a remnant safe, but abandoned the most valuable salvage for ideology. Whatever the narrative, a critical fortune encounter should cause players a sigh of relief. 10 CRITICAL FORTUNE Economists think about what people ought to do. Psychologists watch what they actually do. -Daniel Kahneman

454 meaning the transformation occurs within a matter of turns. Identifying an aerosol requires specialized equipment, a successful Awareness check up close, or a successful Foresight check if analyzing the area with footage or other data sets. 2. Converts Infected children that die during a certain stage of neruroplasticity sometimes retain a certain level of intelligence, even after death. But the consciousness steering this cognition is purely predatory. Mobs around a convert may be strategically placed, blocking off exits or flanking enemies tactically. Casualties can also resist the temptation to attack so long as the convert is in the area. Lastly, a convert can direct mobs to do the most rudimentary labor, such as pushing objects or digging by hand. All casualties lose these increased capacities when the convert is killed. Converts can operate rudimentary tools themselves. Jobs involving keys, shovels, rope, D10 Aberrants and MechanIcs Aberrants may not even exist. It’s up to each individual Market to determine how much evidence for their existence is real and how much is internet bullshit. And even if they are real in your group’s version of the setting, the Market is free to change the way their mechanics work or make up brand-new types. Still, if you want to confirm the Aberrant rumors found in “The Loss,” here’s ten of them available for random placement and complete with rules for use. 1. Aerosol A casualty, usually found amongst large mobs or stampedes, that emits an aerosol form of the Blight as a cloud of invisible spores. Humans that come within range of the cloud before it dissipates risk inhaling the Blight. In game terms, anyone within mid-range of an aerosol must make an infection check unless they are Immune, Latent, or wearing a breathing apparatus. Those that are infected change as if bitten by a Vector,

455 the Blight copes with this and pilots all bodies in the network as one. The result is a mob of unbelievably fast, coordinated corpses strung together by a web of taut, dripping Blight sinews. Ganglia’s are basically cooperating mobs. They have mass equalling the number of casualties caught in the web. They don’t have Shamble; the hive consciousness developed by the Blight makes them far faster than even Vectors. The only way to kill ganglia is to separate all its nodes by decapitating individual casualties, or by separating the web of sinews that connects the mass. Headshots require called shots (they ain’t slow and stumbling no more), and severing the sinews requires explosive or immolating weaponry. A ganglia’s effectiveness isn’t stopped by damage. A ganglia comprised of six casualties can still move without any penalty so long as one still has a single head. Being attacked by ganglia does damage like being attacked by any mob, except the Market need not choose between additional damage and knockback. If the knockback isn’t resisted, the victim is entangled in the web of sinews and takes damage every round they remain there. Infection checks occur normally. 6. Malignant For some reason, the Blight sometimes doesn’t stop metabolizing a cadaver’s tissue once the parasitic nervous system is made. Sometimes, it keeps going until the entire body is turned into a sprawling, pusating mass of black awfuleness. Pockets of malignant Blight don’t move or attack. Exposure to the flesh causes infection checks, but this aberrant primarily serves as an area denial weapon. Moving on or near it makes every step precarious and causes frequent attacks on Humanity. 7. Mutants The Blight can’t hop the species barrier. Until it does. No one knows how or why. Mutants are statted out like feral animals, meaning they have initiative and run faster chain, and other simple machines are not beyond them, and they often work mechanical elements into their hunting grounds. Anything with moving parts – such as guns or computers – tends to be beyond the reduced motor skills of the undead, but a convert can understand how such things work. Beside their intelligence, converts have no special abilities. 3. Empties Empties are casualties that have no predatory instinct. They do nothing besides repeat a single task – usually something from the victim’s life – endlessly. They don’t respond to humans, other casualties, or any other stimulus. Seeing an empty implies unsettling, uncomfortable thoughts about the nature of a mind infected by Blight. Empties don’t to anything, so they don’t need special stats. However, the severity of the Self-Control check suffered by discovering an empty depends on the context of the action being performed. An inexplicable or darkly comic action would just be level-1 check, but a whole group performing the same action would risk level-2. An empty that mimics or mocks something dear to the PC could provoke a level-3 check or higher. 4. Ever-Vecs Sometimes, a Vector doesn’t die. It just keeps running, feeding, growing stronger. It builds new muscle tissue and Blight sinews from the protein it has metabolized until it’s stronger and faster than human anatomy would allow. Treat an ever-vec as a Vector with a murder modifier of 5 or higher. Aside from making the monster exceptionally fast and strong, the Market could also use the modifier to increase the creature’s hit points. 5. Ganglia Blight sinews often break the skin during torpor. It’s theorized that when a number of casualties transform in close proximity, their different nervous systems intertwine and can’t distinguish one body from the next. Somehow,

456 regular casualties save from the fact that they are unharmed by headshots. Some other hit location, besides the head, holds the nexus controlling the Blight sinew. Finding where this nexus is located requires trial and error. Additionally, the loss of the only certainty a Taker had on the battlefield provokes SelfControl checks, and striking an unfamiliar target requires called shots. The shuffled in the same mob tend to harbor their new hearts in the same location. 10. Stalkers Survivor’s guilt has tricked the mind of many in the Loss into imagined hauntings by loved ones. They see the casualty of the person they let down perpetually advancing over the horizon, waiting for them to fall behind or make a mistake so they can claim revenge beyond the grave. Most learn to dismiss the hallucinations as just that… which makes it all the more tragic when, in rare instance, it turns out the stalker is real. Stalkers hold no special abilities besides tracking individual humans with supernatural precision. There is no way to elude the attention of a stalker besides killing it, but this is harder than it sounds. They are somehow aware of firearms and traps, maintaining distance if the intended victim has any protection. Skittish as they may be, stalkers are never too far away, shilloueted perpetually on the horizon, in view of their intended prey. A stalker’s primary danger is psychological, especially towards the individual of their fixation. Stalkers approach the objects of their fixation only when victims are at their most alone and vulnerable. than any human. Depending on the species, the Market might make them resistant to damage, increase the damage of attacks, or provide the creature additional tactics or twitches. The exact specifics of how the monster’s stats are buffed depends on the species that mutated. Regardless, successful attacks cause infection on humans and animals. 8. Scarecrows A lot of theorists propose that the Blight is a form of fungus. They’re wrong, of course; everyone is always wrong. But Scarecrows make a strong case for the plant life argument. Their sinews lock up inside the cadaver’s body, calcifying as they drive themselves out of the flesh and into the soil. It leaves the casualty immobile, stuck to the ground in a crucified pose. Meanwhile, the sinews grow into the ground – spreading like some cancerous weed. Each scarecrow has a “kill zone” determined by the Market. Within that radius, the scarecrow can attack anyone standing on the earth with its roots, once per turn and at the end of the initiative order. Takers have a chance to dodge. If struck, the attack always lands on both legs of the victim, and that person is considered grappled. Kill damage continues for every round until the character is dead or escapes. Infection checks for damage are made normally. Standing on stone or equally dense material prevents a scarecrow’s attack, as does elevating oneself beyond the tendrils’ reach. Any casualties operating within the kill zone share awareness with the scarecrow and can hunt prey anywhere within the sphere of influence, with or without line of sight. Decapitating a scarecrow stops all special abilities within its kill zone. 9. Shuffled Headshots don’t work. THE HEADSHOTS DON’T WORK. Shuffled casualties almost always travel in groups. They don’t differ in any way from All that I care to know is that a man is a human being - that is enough for me; he can’t be any worse. --Samuel Clemens

457 Markets should never feel constrained by the d100 list; the only purpose of the list is to speed up game preparation. If an entry has already been played out or wouldn’t fit into your campaign, just walk up or down the list until you find one that works. D100 Loss Encounters To roll on the d100 table, read the Black as in the ten’s place and the Red in the one’s: a roll of B4/R2 is now a 42. B10/R1 is now 01, while B10/R10 is 100. A cow trots past as Takers are about to round a corner. The animal is bleeding from a dozen wounds, slicked with sweat, and mad with exhaustion. As their eyes follow a trail of blood up the road/across the field/etc. (wherever the game is set), the crew sees a line of hundreds of Vectors spreading back over the horizon, loping after the poor creature. Apparently, a distant enclave fell to an outbreak a short while ago. The hungry victims chased after the last of their livestock until the stampede of Vectors arrived here. Those that recover from the terrible sight (Level 3-4 checks) can use appropriate skills to realize there are only two options. The crew can quickly find and secure some shelter against the Vectors until they pass or enter torpor. This option adds days to the journey, eat through rations, and flays the minds of the crew as they listen to the apologies outside. Then they’ll just have to deal with a glut of new casualties along the route to the job. The second option is to find/use a vehicle to drive around. The fuel cost can be mitigated if they drive through the horde, but better hope none of the sprinting monsters manage to grab on. If neither happens in time, the fastest Vectors arrive in one and twos, but if the crew isn’t gone by the time the main group catches up, it’s over. A small herd of (herbivorous animals appropriate to the local area) is visible in the middle distance, grazing peacefully. On a successful Shoot check, Takers can pause to hunt and gain one refresh for their rations from butchering the results. Casualties are attracted to loud weapons, as usual. Climate change can bring about extreme drought, and though the area the Takers service may be spared for now, they aren’t free from the byproducts. Any reasonable skill can detect the dust storm coming: Awareness, Foresight, Profession: X, Research (“I programmed a weather alert into my user settings!”) But a warning won’t mean much. The storm is approaching fast. Takers need to find a shelter, clear it of any casualties, and seal things up immediately. Those caught outside take one Stun to the chest for every round spent in the storm. Worse, the buffeting noise and swirling patterns are keeping the casualties roused. Failed Awareness checks inside the storm navigate PCs towards zombies biting at the winds instead of towards help and shelter. Two mobs of casualties flank either side of the Taker’s intended route. Depending on the shambles, the crew could try and run through the two groups, then outpace and evade them once they converge. They could spend rations and find a different path to the job. Finally, the Takers can attempt to kill the creatures and pull cards. The latter is a regular casualty combat, but remember that noise always attracts more. black/red DescrIPTION

458 Takers come across a casualty buried up to the chest in the dirt. The corpse was so badly damaged by other zombies during infection that it barely revived. Its hands are tied behinds its back and buried; the thing can’t move but to snap at passersby. Everyone makes a Self-Control check upon the realization that burying victims and waiting for casualties to fall on them is an execution method used by the Meek. The strap of a messenger bag is visible across one shoulder, hinting that the victim might be carrying something. Success on a Foresight check realizes that the Meek execute themselves using the same method, often booby-trapping the area around the body with mines. A Mechanics or appropriate Profession check can disarm the trap, allowing the crew to retrieve the empty messenger bag. Otherwise, going near the zombie triggers the explosion of a buried DDJ (no Athletics to dodge). The device does Kill damage to all hit locations, causes knockback, and entangles the victim by impaling them with carbon-fiber wires. Then a car alarm rigged to a nearby telephone pole goes off. The buried casualty is killed by the device’s explosion, meaning the Taker has to make an infection check against flying gore. Even if the victims survive uninfected, the crew must deal with incoming mobs as those caught in the explosion rip the wires from their flesh. A single locomotive and boxcar rests on train tracks in a valley or large, flat plain. From a safe distance, the Takers can see it’s the home of a nomadic group of traders out making their rounds in the Loss. The group is besieged on all sides by a stampede, but the height of the cars makes dispatching the creatures safe work. The enclavists slowly kill the creatures with spears, preparing to move the train down the line after they pull cards. Then a whistle sounds in the distance. The smoke of an automated drone train burns down the tracks, headed to restock some DHQS settlement down the line. The Takers can hear the squeal of the larger train’s brakes from miles off, but it’s hopelessly overburdened and heavy. Even if the besieged locomotive throws itself into reverse, the collision is inevitable. The Lost won’t get the horde dispatched in time to ditch. Everyone aboard is doomed to be eaten or pulverized in a massive derailment. The Takers can help. Check Awareness or Foresight to see the switch box between the two locomotives. The crew can try to race there in time and figure how to switch the tracks, or they can lure the stampede to one side so the enclavists can ditch off. Or they can wait, check Self-Control for watching the disaster, and get a ton of salvage from the obliterated casualties and surviving cargo. A DHQS Punch Bot has suffered a failure of its targeting system. One Taker can make an Awareness check. On a success, a repetitive thump against wood can be heard (the bot is trying to execute a tree with its cattle gun). On a critical success, the Taker can identify the sound for exactly what it is. If the crew investigates, the punch bot turns on its alarms to attract more casualties and attacks, confusing the humans for infected. Faulty target acquisition means the Punch Bot can’t do called shots, but the cattle gun manipulators do Stun + Kill damage, and the claws grapple that Taker’s body part. Treat the Punch-Bot as a Management force (re-skin legs as “treads” and head as “cameras”) with double armor to all hit locations, requiring two successful attacks before hit boxes being to fill. The Punch Bot can be hacked if someone can ride it long enough to access the maintenance panel on back. The electronics within the machine are worth bounty, as is the trail of exterminated casualties in its wake.

459 A decrepit grocery store sags under the weight of water damage. Though otherwise looted, Takers that make an Awareness check can see the remains of a wailing wall inside, miraculously undamaged. A cardboard sales cutout has been pinned with notes, photos, and maps from the Crash that would be worth 2d10 Bounty to a tragedy tracker. Foresight, Awareness, or appropriate Profession skills can warn that the floor is likely in as bad a shape as the roof. Retrieving the documents would mean risking falling into the lightless, flooded basement, not to mention waking any casualties wandering above or below. Do they risk it? A cliff or hill blocks the route. Scaling it requires dangerous Athletics checks or additional Legs as the crew takes the long way around. There is a roadway/ railway tunnel that passes through the obstruction, but it’s obviously been trapped. Throughout the tunnel, it appears as if a giant spider has webbed the entire length of the passage. Those with sufficient Scavenging or Awareness recognize the tunnel was trapped with rigged DDJs. The carbon-fiber filaments have threaded through casualties wandering through the tunnel over the years, leaving them trapped and suspended. If the crew picks their way through the web, they might be able to recover unexploded DDJ’s and pickpocket bounty from the impaled zombies. But none of the C’s are completely immobile, and the Takers could set off a DDJ themselves. Walking through a suburb, the Takers come across an untouched house. The surrounding homes have obviously been looted and exposed to the elements, while the one in front of them is so pristine it still has intact windows. Spray painted across the door, faded and weathered, is “Vectors basement.” If the Takers risk venturing inside, the three Vectors in the basement have long since entered and exited torpor. A successful Foresight roll tells the Takers that shooting the Casualties from the top of the basement stairs is the safest plan. In the house Takers find two sets of winter clothing, 4 Bounty, and 2 Haul worth of clothing and kitchen gear. A successful Scavenge check finds an unbroken bottle of whiskey. Takers come across a bridge spanning a major river or canyon. Bypassing the crossing would take two additional Legs across extremely rough terrain, costing two rations each instead of one to traverse. The military checkpoint at the edge is long-abandoned but still intact. Over the wall, the bridge is still jammed with derelict cars and the casualties trapped inside them. It would be possible to jump off the military barricade and hop across the vehicles’ rooftops before the zombies roused themselves. However, once the Takers start this process and agitate the dead, a deafening boom shakes the bridges foundations as a car explodes behind them. It appears the army mined the cars while the casualties were caught in torpor. As they stir for the first time in years at the sight of new prey, the mines are going off. Takers can sprint across the bridge, using Foresight to determine whether the lane they are in might contain a bomb. They can freeze, waiting to be eaten by the casualties or dying as mines cause the bridge to collapse. Or they can ditch off the side, praying they can survive the fall or shimmy all the way to the end on the struts.

460 Due to climate change, the weather turns uncharacteristically cold. If snow is possible for the place and time of year, it snows. It might snow in places it hasn’t ever snowed before, or perhaps there’s an ash cloud from some distant disaster. If Takers can’t scavenge some winter clothing from the wastes, they take 1d10/2 Stun to every hit location every Leg of travel. If they sleep between Legs, they must choose between a Self-Control: Trauma check for the fear of announcing their position with a fire, or two Stress damage for a long night of biting cold. However, the casualties are a little slowed by the freezing weather. Shambles reduce to one every two rounds for the remainder of the Legs unless the zombies are close enough to frenzy. A wildfire is coming. Takers will detect the oncoming danger in time on a successful Awareness check (smoke), Profession: Animal Handling (the wild animals are fleeing away from the fire), or other reasonable Profession: X skill. Takers need to find non-flammable shelter, a waterway, a way around, or try breaking through to already burnt areas immediately. Those caught in the fire take one Kill to the chest and legs for every round spent in the fire. Once out of the fire, take 1d10 Stun to the chest for smoke inhalation. Takers can refresh their rations with the animals caught in the fire. A small town or neighborhood, consisting of no more than a few houses and a gas station, appears to be populated entirely by mannequins. The plastic statues seem weather-beaten and sun-bleached, but it’s clear that each was carefully dressed. Faded color photographs have been cheaply printed from dead social media profiles and stapled on each figure’s face. Check Awareness or Foresight to realize that casualties are frozen amongst the mix of stock-still figures, blinded by the image stapled to their dead faces and held in place by manacles chaining them to posts in the ground. Call for Self-Control checks. Successful Scavenging discovers the curator’s hideout in a cellar. She long ago committed suicide. Some goods are salvageable, but finding the stopping point of the woman’s descent into madness calls for another Self-Control check. A garbage truck lies in the middle of the path, with a mob of casualties in torpor around it. Takers can see a dead man in the driver’s seat, something clutched in his hand. If the takers make any noise, they awaken the mob, but even if they don’t, the Ubiq specs in the man’s hands activate. It plays an audio file loud enough to awaken the mob and draw another near it. Unless the takers spend an action to destroy the Ubiq specs, they hear the message, even over the sound of fighting. “Truck’s almost out of gas. No way I can bring the prisoner back to the enclave. Don’t worry though. I’ll put him to good use. He’s in the hopper; when the zeds climb in, I’ll hit the crush button. This is for you Sara!” Takers that hear the entire message must make a level-2 Self-Control: Trauma check. The specs are heavily damaged and only worth 1 bounty. There is nothing else salvageable.

461 Takers come across a young Latent boy walking amidst four dron-key’s, each loaded down with gear and armed with shotguns and rifles on swivel mounts. The machines assume firing stances and target the crew once they are in sight, but they don’t open fire. Scratchy voices shout a warning through speakers that any who wish to approach should to do so unarmed. Any Profession skill related to drones or advanced electronics can recognize that the units are being remotely piloted via satellite uplink. If the PCs approach peacefully, the boy offers to trade refresh at one bounty apiece: he has both rations and ammo for one type of weapon the crew carries. He might be able to sell intel about the upcoming job site, dependent on Market fiat and pricing. The boy apparently believes the drones to be his actual family rather than piloted machines. He’s personalized each with decorations, crayon drawings, and nametags. Sensitivity or Foresight reveals that the Latent child is used as the hands for the robo-crew, changing their batteries and reloading weapons from dead drops left around the Loss. He’s never met the pilots in person and doesn’t know they exist. The dron-keys don’t like it if Takers bring this up, but the voices appear to love the child even if their reasons for excluding him can’t be understood. They break off engagement rather than deal with criticism, but they only fire if the child is threatened. Otherwise, trade is uneventful and the robotic pack moves on its way. A precinct of ex-cops rolls up on the crew, flashing sirens silently so as to avoid attracting the undead. There are roughly as many officers as Takers, but they’re kitted out in fully militarized police gear, complete with automatic weapons and armor. They tactically deploy, point weapons at the crew, and demand they put their hands behind their heads. If the Takers don’t acquiesce, a gunfight starts immediately. If they do, the “Chief” charges them with illegal weaponry and violating curfew according to some outdated martial law edict passed down during the Crash. They are there to confiscate everything and let the crew off with a “warning.” Successful Sensitivity realizes that the believers are split. Half the crew are good cops, gripping to delusions of maintaining their profession to keep from going mad after the Crash. The others have gone full raider and use the badge to dupe the other half and their stupider victims. Use Persuasion to question the legal justification for the arrest and sow dissent. Intimidation can speak directly to the raiders and assure them the payday isn’t worth a bullet. Finally, use Deception on the true believers to convince them the crew is “undercover.” In a wooded area, a camouflage sheet and large collection of brush has blown away from where it concealed a dirt road off the main highway. If Takers pursue the route, they find an abandoned barn concealed deep in the forest. A cart outside has been painted to read “Premium Snake Juice!” Opening the barn door leads to an outpouring of snakes — all of which are poisonous. Check Self-Control to stay calm. Those that stay still or run away are not bitten; only taking a regret leads to attack. Inside, the amateur herpetologist apparently got bit while milking one of his stock, knocked over two enormous shelves full of terrariums, and promptly died. The building is now covered in pissed-off, hungry, poisonous snakes... but the man’s workbench holds a fully-automatic, silenced assault rifle, two refresh worth of ammo, a packet of rations, and mason jars filled with some liquid. An appropriate First Aid, medical Profession, or Foresight check recognizes the jars as venom, which can be sold to doctors at 1d10 bounty per jar for the production of antivenom.

462 The Takers come across a large number of vehicles abandoned in the middle of nowhere, in an area being aggressively reclaimed by nature. There is no obvious accident to have caused a pile-up, no barricades, no indication of why a large number of people would abandon their vehicles en masse, especially this far from the Recession border. Grass, bushes, and other vegetation have grown over the sides of the roadway as well as up and around the vehicles themselves. Takers find it easier to walk down the road on top of the vehicles, rather than thread their way through the rows of cars. A successful Research check will get the story while an Awareness check alerts the Takers to the danger before they start walking down the road. During the Crash, the military sent a helicopter to pull a VIP out by air — the traffic jam starts where the helicopter was hovering over the road. As folks surged out of their cars to try and climb on the helicopter, soldiers opened fire, killing a large number of civilians. Most posters on the Ubiq forums discount the military’s claims they were firing on Vectors, but for once the nascent DHQS wasn’t lying. There are two mobs of Casualties in and amongst the vehicles that will attack the Takers if they climb up on the vehicles. Takers hear a trumpet being played in the distance. The tune isn’t recognizable or skilled. If the Takers follow the sound, it leads into a wooded area. As they exit the tree line, they find the musician up a lonely tree placed in the middle of meadow. The image would be a surreal pastoral were it not for all the casualties clamoring to try and eat the man in the branches. As the Takers arrive, the man stops blowing his horn. The undead see the easier meat and go for the Takers on the ground. This appears to have been the plan: risk attracting more casualties for the chance at attracting the bait to distract them. Takers can now check Awareness: casualties are pouring out of the woods on all sides. There’s one mob in each cardinal direction, including the ones around the tree. Running away between the lines of undead requires an Athletics test, or the crew can try to fight through a mob. As the Takers rile up the undead prey instinct, the man ditches out the other side of the tree and makes a run for it. PCs that kill all the casualties gain scavenging rights equal to the number of mobs killed. If they catch or kill the man, he’s an unarmed runner called “#5” from the Eat Clean crew. He was a courier for two doses of Supressin before he got stuck. The city the crew needs to cross through is a no-go zone. The blockaded streets apparently did nothing to keep the Crash out, but it has tightly corralled the dead into impassable throngs populating every street. There’s no hope but to go around, adding two Legs to the journey. If a Taker makes the Awareness check, they spot relatively new graffiti on the exterior road signs and walls. Each advertises “Charon’s Shortcut” and points in the same direction. If the Takers follow, they find Charon high atop a makeshift battlement build inside a sewer culvert. The man is an obvious LALA, but he claims to be able to navigate through the city’s aquifer and sewer tunnels for the price of 2 bounty per passenger (“One for each eye,” he jokes.) He has no weapons, but he seems to have been in business for some time. If the Takers pay up, Charon drops a ladder. Once on top of Charon’s wall, they see he has flooded the tunnels. He takes them aboard a raft made of old pallets and pulls a taut wire strung down the length of the waterways. The only light comes from exposed manhole covers where casualties occasionally drop into the inky blackness. Takers hear the screams of others that threatened Charon into giving them passage. Charon abandons those that do not pay in the lightless tunnels, diving overboard, and escaping through safe underwater passages only he knows. The thieves wander hopeless, either starving in the labyrinth or pulled under by the groping hands of the submerged dead just beneath the surface. Hearing the desperate cries of the lost in the tunnels provokes a Self-Control check, but not so bad as the one if the crew threatened Charon and he abandons them. Aside from the new nightmares, those that pay get to the other side safely.

463 It’s a beautiful day. The Takers come upon a herd of semi-wild horses roaming the Loss, too fast to be molested by casualties and freed from their farms. A Taker with the appropriate skills can attempt to mount and break one as a personal horse. Otherwise, Takers can pause, have an interlude, and heal one Humanity as they watch them graze. Unseasonable rains have created a flash flood. A successful Awareness, Foresight, Profession: X, or Research check will alert the Takers in time to get out of the creek they’re wading through. Takers caught in the surging water take 1d10/2 Stun to the legs as they are swept downstream a ways. Once the Taker struggle out of the water, they notice the casualties, which were attracted to the sound and also swept downstream, piling up at a bend in the creek. Make a Self-Control: Trauma check for having been in the water with them and gain 1d10 Bounty on a successful Scavenge check. A dog with saddlebags comes trotting up to the Takers and sits down a few yards ahead of them, tail wagging happily. Tied to the dog’s saddlebags is a note asking whoever finds ‘Bruno’ to please send any spare rations, and ask for Q Cell out of the nearest enclave - they’ll make good on your help. If the Takers do not add any rations to Bruno’s saddlebags, he will follow the Takers for 2 legs, whining the whole way, before trotting off. No Profession: Animal Handling checks will be able to convince him to stay. If the Takers do add charges of rations to the saddlebags (one will do), Bruno will lick that person’s hand and then trot off the way he came. Any Takers following Bruno come upon a vehicle. Succeeding an Awareness check means the Takers notice that Bruno has stopped and is growling at the vehicle — Bruno’s Taker handler has died and is now a Vector, but trapped inside the vehicle. A Foresight check reveals that the Takers could, with a sufficiently powerful weapon, simply shoot the Vector through the closed windows of the vehicle, although this will track a mob of Casualties. If the Takers do not engage the Vector and simply walk off, Bruno stays by the vehicle. If they successfully kill the Vector, they find 1d10 Bounty, a journal with Q Cell’s brainstorming plan’s for a Score, and Bruno follows the Taker who put the rations in his saddlebag. Bruno is trained, has the Friendly upgrade, and comes with the harness gear. There are several vehicles in the middle of the road ahead. They look like they’ve seen maintenance and new parts within the last few weeks, not sitting out here for five years — this is a Crusader caravan just sitting in the middle of the road. An Awareness check alerts the Takers to the Vector (who is several hours past the apologies stage) lurching out from the far vehicle while they still have time to run away. If the Takers kill the Vector, the rest of the caravan has entered the torpor stage and can easily be decapitated with a machete (there’s one in the back of the experimentation ambulance). Make a Self-Control: Trauma check upon entering that vehicle. Blood and viscera are splattered everywhere — a team was experimenting on/observing a Latent dying and didn’t kill them fast enough to prevent the Blight’s awakening. The Vector the Takers killed outside was one of the Latent’s victims. The caravan has 1d10 in Bounty, a machete, and 3 Haul of medical supplies.

464 The sound of fighting reaches the Takers from around the bend. As the Takers approach, the last person with a gun defending a small caravan goes down under a mob of Casualties. There are two preteen children and one adult enclavist on the other side of the mob from the Takers. The children are looking around for somewhere to run while the adult is picking up a melee weapon they clearly have no idea how to fight with. The mob of Casualties is busy tearing apart the corpse under them — the Takers could just walk away. If they kill the mob or otherwise help the enclavists escape, the survivors thank them and tell the Takers to contact ‘Delta’. A successful Research test will tell them that Delta is a Taker based out of an enclave several pre-Crash states away, with a good reputation on the Ubiq forums. These are Delta’s Dependents, who were being escorted to the Recession when the coyotes escorting them ran into a mob too big to handle. There is 1d10 bounty on the bodies of the coyotes. The enclavists ask the Takers to escort them to the nearest enclave, promising payment. If the Takers refuse, the enclavists ask to tag along to the jobsite reasoning that is still safer than trying to walk through the Loss on their own, even if they do have enough rations to make it. If the Takers get the enclavists to safety, Delta will pay them 15 bounty and give them a +Rep spot “Takes care of our own.” On an Awareness check, the Takers notice the campfire before stumbling across it. Sitting at the campfire is a lone, older woman putting a pot in the coals. There are signs of her having recently butchered a large animal. If the Takers approach, she will greet them warmly and offer to share a meal and a drink. A successful Awareness check let’s the Takers notice that she drinks from a different jug or that she adds something to the food she passes it to the Takers. Alternatively, a successful First Aid or appropriate Profession check tells the Takers that the meat roasting in the fire is human. These alternate checks can be made from stealth if the Takers do not approach the campfire. If the Takers eat with the woman, the poison does 1d10 Stun damage to the head per round. Once all of the Takers pass out, the woman signals her Sawney Bean-like clan from their hiding places. The Takers are returned to their junkyard enclave, trussed up upside down, and prepared for slaughter. It turns out the clan is a sect of the Church of Holy Communion. They perform a ritual where they blood test victims for immunity before slashing the throats of victims. This “fine meat” goes to church elders. Latents are chained up to the junkyard fence outside, allowed to be eaten, and used to deter other casualties once they turn. Waking up before the ritual begins is the last chance for the crew to escape. If the clan is killed, they have nothing but melee weapons and bows, but they’re carrying 1d10 bounty. Someone’s last stand against the undead has sterilized the surrounding landscape. The Takers see a makeshift outpost surrounded by hundreds of casualty corpses, each shot in the head. Years ago, someone with an arsenal of weapons took out as many C’s as they could before dying under the horde. Any casualties that survived the attack have long since wandered away. However, the blighted corpses have killed off the local flora and fauna. Not even grass or mold grows in the area. It is utterly silent as not even insects are present. Seeing the effect of the Blight on the landscape is a level-1 Trauma threat. Crossing the area is a level-2 Stress threat. Bypassing it takes an additional two rations. There is nothing salvageable in the outpost and attempting to dig through the pile of corpses is a level-1 Stress threat.

465 Across the expanse of an enormous empty parking lot, the Takers spy a strange obelisk over four stories tall erected in a corporate park connecting three drab office buildings. Obvious range markings chalked into the asphalt reveal the structure to be a sniper’s nest. The tower is made of filing cabinets, hundreds of them stacked, welded, and riveted together. It’s supported by wires bolted into the concrete of the surrounding buildings, and a tiny hut made of plywood is perched at the top. Rope bridges lead between the hut and the roofs of the three office buildings, but there’s no easy way to the top: every other piece of office furniture was stacked in the entryways of the buildings from the inside. It would take days to clear the barricades and go up the stairs. It appears possible to climb up the handles of the filing cabinets; all the units on the ground have been filled with concrete to add weight and stability. Takers that try to climb find the drawers labeled with letters corresponding to prime numbers (B, C, E, G, K, M, Q, S, W) are trapped. Some merely slide out when the handles are gripped. Others slide out but drop a payload of cinderblocks or caltrops. Some have grenades or sawed-off shotguns rigged with tripwires. Markets should roll for each of the four stories; success means no trap, failure means trap. Takers can use Athletics to leap to safety if a trap is triggered. Foresight can provide insight as to the pattern, but only after at least two are triggered. At the top, the LALA that built the tower is long dead of some mundane disease, and the crops in his rooftop gardens gone to seed. A rifle can be found on the corpse, along with a hard drive containing 2d10 bounty worth of pre-Fall media. Takers encounter a Circus inside a newly secured college gymnasium or rec center. Circuses are high-end illegal gambling events where people fight casualties for sport, sponsored by degenerate elites for rebroadcast in the Recession. The building is well guarded by Recession mercenaries under the employ of wealthy sports fans attending the games in person via private helicopters. The rest of the crowd is made up of local factions, believers, and other crews. Anyone can compete in the games, but the only game is blood sport. No ranged weaponry is allowed, and the fighting takes place in a massive pool complex drained to make a pit. Casualties have their restraints cut and are sent down the old waterslides into the arena. Takers can bet on their crewmembers, but the odds change depending on how difficult the encounter is made. Fighting with an edged weapon is standard, but using a blunt weapon ups the odds by one (2 to 1). Odds increase again for every mob added, and again if the Taker fights in the octopus’s garden (a kids’ area with a lot of slides, where casualties, weapons, or traps can be thrown down the tubes at random by fans). Anyone bit during a fight must take a blood test before being allowed to exit. Anyone infected gets shot by the guards. Latents and the uninfected are ignored. The Immune are taken into custody by slavers co-sponsoring the event. As the Takers are walking down the road, a light spring rain begins. Takers can continue walking through the shower or turn off to the big box store in the distance. Approaching the store, they spot rain barrels on the roof. If they try to get out of the rain in the store, they have to kill a small mob of Casualties wandering through the store in singles and pairs. If the building is secured, Takers can scavenge 2 Haul of electronic parts and one refresh of water rations from the rain barrels.

466 While passing through a suburban neighborhood, the Takers hear loud music blaring in the distance. If the Takers don’t want any part of it, they need to add a Leg to get away from the music. If they go forward, they see signs that the area is being “card farmed.” Pre-Crash tract housing with garages shared a similar floor plan: a recessed double-car garage leads up a short flight of steps into a narrow laundry room before entering the house. In neighborhoods where residents had enough time to board up windows to prevent looting, some Takers turn these areas into card farms. They break in, reinforce existing fortifications, open the garage door about one foot, and start blaring music. They pull back to the laundry room, remove the steps, and push the washer/dryer in the doorway. This funnels C’s through two checkpoints and puts their heads right in striking distance for the elevated farmers. As the Takers reach a house absolutely surrounded by casualties, it appears this man bit off more than he could chew. To save them, Takers must chum the horde away from the house, destroy the malfunctioning stereo system blaring on the roof, and get inside to help a pair of men trying to hold the garage zombies from advance. If they succeed, the smaller of the two men runs away. The larger of the two — who is obvious suffering from some sort of mental handicap — has been bitten multiple times. The smaller man messages the Takers on Ubiq: “I can’t do it. He’s my brother.” The reward for making the hard choice is Scavenging checks for bounty on the piles of C’s in the garage. A flash flood of heavily contaminated water catches the entire group off guard. A successful Awareness check gives a character one round to find high ground and warn others, but by the time the water is visible, it’s up to the ankles and rising fast. Perhaps a sewage treatment plant’s reservoir has burst open or a group of raiders has diverted a river in order to wash away a horde of casualties. Regardless, the water causes 1d10 stun to the chest if a character is immersed in it. Submerged characters that fail a Self-Control check take 1d10 Kill as they swallow a significant amount. Vehicles may be washed away or damaged. The flood may also carry hazardous debris or casualties. The water subsides relatively quickly, but other threats may remain. At a minimum, survivors take Trauma damage as they imagine what diseases could be lurking in the filth covering them. The Takers come across a single corpse at the base of something tall (a building, bridge, mountain pass, etc.), which fairly obviously landed headfirst. If the Takers roll the corpse over or make a Scavenging check, they find an old-fashioned media player/recorder clutched in the corpse’s hand, underneath the body. Picking it up starts the last recorded file playing and triggers a level-2 Detachment threat as a frightened, pain-laced voice comes on: “My name is Jimmy Alden, I’m from Macon, Georgia, I was out here visiting family when everything went to shit. ... If you’re listening, please let my family know I’m dead... and that I love them... Oh God, it hurts... I finished off those crazy fuckers trying to get in the car with the kids, but I think some got in my mouth and I’m out of bullets...” If the Taker’s haven’t turned off the recording by this point, they make a Self-Control check as they listen to Jimmy turn into a Vector, followed by the sound of the Vector going over the edge of the tall structure and hitting the ground. The recording is worth 1d10 to an archivist or crusader group, while the electronics by themselves can fetch 1d10/2.

467 Cars and trucks have been circled around a group of casualties, effectively corralling them. Large signs reading “PLEASE DO NOT SHOOT THE SICK” are hung up around the vehicles. The mob is contained within the corral as long as the vehicles are not moved or tampered with. If the characters leave the scene, nothing else happens. If the characters try to scavenge materials from the vehicle, then they risk being attacked. A failed skill roll means a casualty can grab them with a single attack. If the attack succeeds, the character is pulled into the corral. If the characters kill the casualties, they find no bounty on their bodies. After a few minutes, a sniper will open fire on them. A maddened, LALA Latent created the corral, believing that Supressin can reverse the Blight in a long-dead casualty. She has been scavenging in order to save up enough bounty to buy Supressin for everyone in the corral. She cannot be reasoned with and will fight to the death if the Takers kill the casualties in the corral. Remember she will turn into a Vector when she dies. She only has a standard rifle and the noise will attract other casualties in the area. A group of immune hunters, prisoners in tow, are taking a rest at an abandoned school playground. A sniper with a heavy rifle takes over-watch on the camp from the roof of the building. The group is obviously shifty and ready to shoot, but they’ll trade if approached carefully. The Immunes are tied to the jungle gym. They’re gagged and badly beaten. It’s a level-3 Detachment threat to see them and do nothing. When speaking to the leader of the slavers, he’ll demand all crewmembers present take a blood test before they go on their way, but Intimidate can convince him no payday is worth a bullet. If the Takers provoke the full-blown gunfight required to save the Immunes, they can scavenge from the slavers and earn the +Rep Spot “Law in these Parts.” Just remember that the rescued will need some sort of provisions if they’re going to make it to safety. The crew sees a huge military convoy approaching in the distance. The equipment is outdated and barely holding together, indicated the group is made up of traitors. It’s up to the Market whether the troops are former American soldiers, Canadian diaspora, or part of another national military. Regardless, the crew heads East towards the border. They have drone cover, so it’s very hard for Takers to hide from them. Still, they aren’t hostile. The leader (who demands to be called Captain Hannibal) even comes to speak with them. He promises they won’t have to be Takers for very much longer because he’s going to “give the world back to humanity’s real survivors.” Check Sensitivity to realize the commander has come unhinged. Best-case scenario, all the troops are doomed for slaughter. Worst-case? They breach the border and cause a second crash. There’s nothing the Takers can do to stop the massive force save rat out fellow Lost to the DHQS. Call for SelfControl: Stress checks. On the plus side, the doomed soldiers are willing to trade and will even gift some rations; they won’t need them where they’re going.

468 On a highway or other larger roadway, the Takers come to a small waterway. The bridge across has collapsed of neglect and exposure. Numerous cars were on the bridge when it collapsed and now join the rubble blocking the water, creating an impromptu dam on one side of the bridge and shallow mire on the other side. The banks of the waterway are not steep. If they are in a vehicle, a successful Awareness, Driving, or appropriate Profession skill will tell them it is safer to ford across the dry waterbed further down, where less water has escaped the dam and the bed is drier. If they choose to ford at the collapsed bridge, a failed Drive check means they get stuck in the mud and must make a successful Resistance check to get their vehicle out. If on foot, a successful Athletics check means they can wade across the water or hike through the mud without any further penalties; a failed check requires spending an extra ration, as it is tiring. Hiking further down the waterway to the drier section takes time (spend a ration but no checks). If the players cross at the bridge, they find optimized Ubiq specs and 1d10 in the glove boxes of abandoned cars washed past the dam. Characters that fail an Awareness check stumble across numerous potholes/ sinkholes in the ground. Resulting from an experimental scatter bomb used in the Crash, the tiny pits are now hidden by grass. Every PC must make the check and any failure causes 1d10 stun to the leg — it is possible to twist an ankle badly. The ground is too unstable to drive a vehicle across — any attempt automatically damages it. Casualties are nearby, hidden in the grass in torpor. Loud noises awaken them. Check Self-Control to prevent a shout if injured. The crew follows train tracks for a bit to avoid the main roads. They find a passenger train, long derailed in the Crash. The double-decker dining car operating as the caboose remains on the tracks at the top of a hill, but bloody handprints and shifting shadows in the windows suggest the inside is filled with casualties. Scavenging checks reveal the inside likely contains valuable goods with a long shelf life: instant coffee, over-the-counter painkillers, etc. Foresight can come up with a plan that eases engagement with the creatures. The car is still on the tracks and at the top of a hill. If someone has the Mechanics or Profession skills necessary to detach the car, the crew can send it down the hill, pull the manual emergency break, and send the zombies flying. They’ll all be knocked prone and much easier to kill. The car contains 2 Haul of salvable goods, plus a mob’s worth of bounty. Takers encounter a family travelling across the Loss in a horse-drawn wagon. The man attends to their armored horse and his wife rides shotgun (literally). In the back, a Latent girl dangles her feet off the tailgate, playing with dolls. If asked about why they’re risking a crossing, they tell a story about how their little girl got bit playing next to the fence. They sold everything to buy Supressin and save her, but their enclave didn’t allow Latents. They’re out looking for a new home. About ten minutes after the Takers part ways, the chopping of helicopter blades can be heard. Check Foresight or Research to remember that DHQS trains new recruits in old-school choppers: the ones you can hear coming. Rumor has it that newbies have to prove they believe in homo sacer on their first outing by opening up on some Lost (the Market rolls in secret: even it’s true; odds mean not today). Do the Takers rush back to save the family or get under cover themselves? Do they try to draw the gunner’s attention? Can they save the horse and cart too, or will the family be stranded in the Loss with nothing? Either way, Self-Control checks are needed. If the helicopter guns down everyone in the wagon, two vials of Supressin can be found in their meager belongings: the parents were going to join their daughter in quarantine.

469 It is unusually windy, causing one of the Ubiq Aloft servers to crash. Check Awareness to spot it as it crashes or the PCs may just stumble upon it at the Market’s discretion. Regardless, it contains salvageable electronics, if the characters can reach it — it’s either stuck in a tree, atop a building, or someplace equally challenging. The noise of its crash has alerted casualties in the area. If Takers salvage the materials, the most valuable parts are the hardest to move. The server might be extremely heavy, or the carbon nanofiber balloon might still be partially inflated, capable of pulling Takers a dozen feet off the ground with a strong gust of wind. The terrain ahead is extremely treacherous and slow to walk through. A recent storm has knocked down many trees or the rubble from a bombed neighborhood chokes the path. Bypassing it would take an extra Leg. Navigating through is faster but hidden danger lies within the debris. Noxious hazardous chemicals create clouds that can choke unwary Takers, and casualties pinned under debris can still reach and bite. The Takers come across the crashed vehicle of another Taker crew. There is a Casualty in torpor strapped into the driver’s seat as well as one or two other corpses in the vehicle, either also Casualties in torpor or dead by self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head (mix and match at the Market’s discretion). There are 3 Haul of goods in the trunk (roll for price point), 1d10 bounty on the dead Takers, and one charge of gas in the vehicle. The Takers are passing underneath a large series of interstate overpass exchanges, or through a canyon, or amongst a series of tall buildings. The web of makeshift bridging and flags makes it apparent that some sort of massive enclave set up shop there, using the elevation as defense. The construction looks to spread at least 500 yards in every direction. Takers see a bell in the path with a weather worn sign reading ‘ring for entry’. Check Foresight to realize this might not be a good idea, and Stealth to continue on unnoticed. Passing underneath silently still causes everyone a Self-Control: Stress check (new enclaves mean new jobs), but it’s far preferable to getting the inhabitants attention. Once they make noise, Casualties begin raining from the sky. The enclave fell long ago, and the resulting zombies plummet to their deaths in search of new victims. Takers must check Athletics to run through the rain of Blight cadavers. Those that fail catch corpse shrapnel. Treat this like a Kill damage explosive that requires an infection check. Critical failures are direct hits, inflicting Stun + Kill to every hit location, as well as risking infection. If the Takers can get undercover, they can wait for the rain to stop and salvage bounty from the stains on the ground.

470 A horn sounds in the distance. Over the horizon, a massive semi-truck pulls into view. The NatGas vehicle is part of the infamous Titan Trucking fleet and pulling two trailers behind its massive fuel tank. If any of the Takers have Ubiq, they get pinged by the username “Flapjack and Baz.” If they answer, they’re greeted by a dash cam view of a wild-eyed trucker and his squinting, chain-smoking partner riding shotgun. The pair is working a job for the DHQS, hauling supplies to a settlement somewhere out West. The satellite feed and government handlers are warning them they’re about to drive through a stampede. They’re trying to divert to a different route, but that’ll cost them the on-time bonus. “Fuck that,” summarizes Baz. They’ll plow through the bastards. Flap promises to drive the Takers the rest of the way to their destination for free if they hop aboard the trailers and repel any casualties that latch on. If the crew agrees, he’s as good as his word to any that survive. If they don’t answer the call or decline, the truck plows forward anyway, come hell or high water. There is a small shack by the side of the road, along with a wooden sawhorse painted bright yellow directly in front of the bridge/pass/(choke point appropriate to the setting) the Takers were planning to cross. Awareness or Foresight check to notice the two snipers positioned to cover the tollbooth. The tollbooth operator demands 2 bounty per person, 1 per pet (except horses, they’re counted as vehicles), and 4 bounty per vehicle (including horses). A successful Persuasion, Leadership, or Intimidation check will bargain them down to 1 bounty per person and 1 per vehicle or 3 bounty for the whole group (Market’s discretion). The Takers come across a military last stand from the Crash. A choke point was created using the local terrain and sealed off (the soldiers triggered an avalanche, blew bridges, etc.) but erosion has opened it back up, allowing the Takers through. The Takers can continue on their original route or take the shorter, newly opened route. If they do go through, they need to make level-2 Self-Control: Detachment check — there are dozens of skeletal corpses dressed in weather-damaged military gear, slumped against remains of the choke point. Anyone with medical or law enforcement Professions recognize that some wounds were self-inflicted; a major gunfight broke out near the triage station, no doubt a fight about putting down the infected. Takers call these “Wait and See” massacres. 1d10/2 uncharged assault rifles and 1d10/2 uncharged pistols are still salvageable. Takers reach the bottom of a long-incline with a long abandoned military checkpoint on top. If it’s in an urban area, the road leading up the long hill is lined with boarded up townhouses tightly spaced together. If it’s a rural area, the checkpoint is at the top of a cleared highway overpass lined by concrete medians. The Takers are walking up it to avoid the zombies wandering underneath. Unbeknownst to the crew, casualties trapped in an armored personnel carrier see the humans approaching, lunge towards them, and strike the brake lever. The tank is now rolling downhill, careening off the sides of the road and gaining speed. Those that succeed can use Foresight to predict where the APCs path will take it and step out of the way. Those that fail need to use Athletics to dodge (taking 1d10 Stun to a random location) or ditch off the side of the road. If in the townhouses, they jump through a townhouse window to find a mob inside. If on the overpass, they take falling damage and find a mob waiting underneath the overpass. Once the APCs gets beyond the Takers, it crashes for good. Refreshes of ammo and two rifles with the automatic upgrade can be found inside.

471 Takers see a broken down convoy of Crusader vehicles by the side of the road. They’re armed and guarding their stuff, but not hostile otherwise. It’s uncertain whether this group has succumb to temptation to use unethical experimentation in their desperate struggle against the Blight, but, if they haven’t, their resolve is definitely weakening. None of them look like they’ve slept in days, and weeping can be heard in the back of one of the ambulances. The leader (when not muttering to himself) offers trade for anyone that can help fix their vehicles. They’ll also pay bounty for samples of interesting cases of infection. Latents can earn a bounty for spit, hair, or sweat; 2 for blood; 3 for semen or sexual fluids; and 4 for bone marrow. The prices for Immunes are doubled, but the Market rolls in secret to see whether this group kidnaps ‘munies or not. Anyone injured receives free medical care, but the Crusaders bedside matter is less than comforting (check Self-Control). When approaching a suburban area, the Takers smell acrid smoke and see a small pillar of black wafting upwards. Small fires are common in the Loss and there’s nothing to tell them this is any different. As they walk through the streets though, the smell of smoke is getting worse. Those that roll Awareness can hear a voice in the distance, along with faint crackling sounds. If the Takers turn back, they find the houses on the road they just came in on engulfed in flames. In fact, blazes seem to be popping up all over town, and shadowy shapes can be seen walking amongst the flames. Eventually, the Takers round a corner and find the source of the shouted numbers: a Black Math cultist atop a painter’s scaffold stands before a burning church, using a flamethrower against the hundreds of casualties locked within. The stampede pouring out the door is scattering, covered in burning napalm and unable to track prey. The whole city is on fire as they spread in every direction. The Takers have to get out of the burning city before they get trapped and suffocate. If the Takers escape and venture into the ashes later, they find a working but empty flamethrower on the cultist, his burned flesh caught in a rictus smile. The weather forecast is getting very bad. If inland, the forecast calls for tornado super-cells. If near a coast, a tropical storm is about to make landfall. Due to climate change, these storms are expected to be cataclysmically large and long. The Takers can choose to find shelter now, spend two extra rations, and lose one Stress waiting out the storm. However, Foresight suggests that the smart move might be to push as deep into the front as possible before it hits. Thunder and lightning brings casualties from all over, but those caught in a storm aren’t smart enough to take shelter. If the Takers can push deep and hole up in the eye of the storm, debris and flooding will take care of any casualties that would appear for the remainder of the journey. Essentially, the Market would remove the appearance of casualties until reaching the site, even if loud weapons were used. If the Takers don’t race the weather, mobs of casualties move back in before they get close to the storm’s epicenter.

472 Takers get caught in a torrential downpour. Roads flood and paths turn into bogs. The flooding isn’t dangerous (yet), but it’s hard to move. Keeping livestock or vehicles moving requires checks to keep from foundering in the mud. Anything costing rations costs double as the crew grows heavy with damp. Everyone must make Self-Control: Stress checks as the onslaught continues. Eventually, the crew reaches a rickety looking railway trestle bridge with a flash flood raging beneath it. They can push through and try to get out from under the front, or find shelter and lose two rations a piece as they wait for the storm to pass. If they cross, pick one Taker at random. They must roll Athletics to keep from falling as a rotten plank breaks. If the Taker fails, they don’t drown, but getting to dry land requires ditching all their gear. After the storm, there is plenty of fresh water about and the crew can refresh up to five charges of rations. A passenger jet lies crashed in a field, nose buried into the earth. The fuselage snapped in half; one wing and the rear of the plane burned down to the framework, and the grass in the area is still poisoned by jet fuel. The front half of the plane is accessible if a Taker wants to climb up a dozen or so feet in the air. Inside, those not decapitated in the Crash have turned, but most remain strapped to their seats. The stench of jet fuel still hangs in the air; the use of firearms is not recommended. Getting to the front of the plane requires running through a gauntlet of rotting hands and nails. If someone manages it, the black box is worth 2d10 bounty to tragedy trackers, and the jet fuel remaining in the starboard wing, though not healthy for actual engines, is still highly flammable. Takers that make it to the buried cockpit can hit the manual release and dump the contents outside. Market picks an aberrant from the list or makes one up. It shows up out of nowhere and begins assaulting the PCs mentally and/or physically. There is no explanation as to where the thing came from or how it came to cross the Takers’ path at that exact moment. Sometimes, shit just happens. A loud boom distracts Takers from their journey. An Awareness check notices smoke in the distance. Takers that investigate need to spend an additional ration to make the journey, but they find a downed StopLoss helicopter in a field. Only a doctor has survived, but he’s busy trying to stabilize one of the militarized orderlies in critical condition. The doctor promises that help is coming, but he can already see the mobs slowly stumbling towards the wreckage. He promises the Takers a reward if they help him survive the incoming mobs until rescue arrives. They can shoot him or abandon the vultures, stealing their First Aid kit for the cost of a SelfControl: Detachment check. If they fight off the dead, a helicopter loaded down with heavily armed orderlies arrives. The care provider waves the troops off just as they are about to insist on a blood test for immunity. He instead provides the Takers with a first aid kit, a dose of Soma, and a StopLoss medic alert bracelet loaded with a prepaid care plan (no upgrades).

473 A large group of young men approach. Their gear looks amateurish, but there are a lot of them. They seem to be making quite a bit of noise intentionally so they can attract casualties, and they relish their destruction: picking off limbs with axes and kicking the things to death. If they see Takers, they run up and urge them to freeze. The leader explains the group comes from a newly established enclave (they won’t say where, and it’s up to the Market if this is lie). Their former home was destroyed in an outbreak caused by “Latent traitors,” and the trauma has taught them all the necessity of the Triage movement. If the crew has any Latents in its midst, they demand the crew leave them behind for justice. The hate group can be convinced this one “isn’t worth it,” but not that their views are wrong. They greatly outnumber the Takers, but they’re cowards at heart. Crippling or killing the best of their number causes the rest to scatter and flee. Off the beaten path, the Takers come across a Briar Rabbit fortification: a large number of DDJs set off down a hallway/between two walls (manmade or rock formations)/ etc., typically set up such that a safe path through exists for humans. If the Takers make three out of the following checks, they can chart the path through: Athletics, Awareness, Criminality, Foresight, Mechanics, Research, or an appropriate Profession: X. An Athletics check is required to successfully navigate the path without taking damage — 1d10 to both legs on a failed check as the Taker stumbles into the wires. Past the patch, Takers find a two family enclave — Self-Control check upon seeing the bodies, recently dead from starvation. At the sound of people, a toddler, no more than a year old, wanders out of a building, obviously in need of food and water. Level-2 Self-Control: Detachment check to leave the child behind, Level 2 Self-Control: Stress check to rescue the child. There are 6 bounty and 2 Haul of goods in the enclave. Takers spot a small dog waiting for them in the road (pug, Jack Russell, Chihuahua, etc.). The animal barks at the crew if they don’t follow it down a side road, attracting mobs of casualties. If the Takers make the detour, they arrive at a small suburban neighborhood. Awareness checks notice the drag marks through the grass and relatively fresh bloodstains. Other animal companions (dogs, horses, falcons, etc.) grow visibly upset. The small dog runs off. Suddenly, a dozen, much-larger canines emerge from between the houses. The pack has learned that casualties are poisonous and living meat is required to survive. Athletics is required to get away and climb something too high for the dogs to reach. Immobile casualties lurk in the long grass of the lawns, legs crippled by the canines, but each is capable of attacking if stepped on. A dog bite does Kill damage and grapples unless the Taker makes a Resistance check. Killing a few of the beasts causes the ferals to retreat. Nearby houses haven’t been looted, so surviving Takers may make Scavenging checks. Takers find a beautiful garden hidden a ways off their route. It’s very well maintained, and much of the produce is ripe for the harvest. There’s no one around, though a Profession: X or Research check can tell that someone must come out every few days; the methods for keeping pests away from the crops are as green as possible and require a lot of labor. Takers can take the crops for a free refresh of rations. There’s also a seed vault in the shed, with 3 hauls worth of materials that can be easily sold. But the crew was photographed coming up the trail to the garden. If anything is stolen, the crew is now hunted by a commune of Detoxins calling themselves “Incorruptibles.” The group believes the Blight was caused by GMO crops and food preservatives; they regard the violation of their foodstuffs to be blasphemy and an affront to the group’s survival. If the Takers take nothing, the crew gains the +Rep spot “Cruelty-free” as the Incorruptibles bump their posts on Ubiq.

474 A small museum stands remarkably intact, albeit locked up. The stench of death is in the air. Characters can find the corpses of several raiders or scavengers near the museum. It looks like they were trying to get in when someone inside the building shot them. If the characters attempt to contact the occupant no one answers. Breaking in without making noise (and alerting nearby casualties) requires a Criminality check. Inside, they will find a single dead person, the former curator of the museum. A First Aid check reveals the curator bled out from a gunshot wound but was not infected with the Blight. A Scavenging check of the museum reveals no useful loot aside from a rifle with one bullet left and 2 charges of rations — the curator used or spent everything else in the museum in order to protect its contents. The museum was dedicated to something pointless, like quack medical instruments, popsicle stick sculptures, or salt-and-pepper shakers. The realization that the curator devoted his life to protecting useless trash is a level-2 Detachment threat. If the characters linger too long, other scavengers or raiders appear, looking for revenge. If the Takers know any Archivists, giving the location of the intact museum to them provides the +Rep Spot “Respects the Dead.” A recent thunderstorm has knocked trees or power line poles into the road. Takers can make a Mechanics check to safely clear the road or Athletics checks to scramble over safely. If they go around, spend an extra ration or charge on a vehicle for the extra leg. If they go through, the ground is muddy and a bit treacherous. In addition, a mob of Casualties was caught in the storm and washed onto the road. Half of the mob is already permanently dead from bashing their heads into trees and other landscape features, while the other half have to struggle to their feet. Normal rules of scavenging apply. It is a baking hot day. The temperature just keeps rising and there’s no wind. A First Aid, Foresight, or Research check warns the Takers that they need to find shelter and get out of the sun before they suffer from heat exhaustion. If they are in a vehicle, it will overheat and require a Mechanics check to get started again if they do not wait out the worst heat in shelter. If the Takers continue through the heat, everyone makes a Health check. On a critical success, the Taker consumes an extra ration to deal with the heat. On a success, one extra ration plus 1d10/2 Stun to the head. On a failure, the Taker is suffering from heat exhaustion: extra ration, 1d10 Stun to the head, and 1d10/2 Stun to the torso. On a critical failure, the Taker is suffering from heat stroke: two extra rations, 1d10/2 Killing to the head, and 1d10 Stun to the torso. At the end of the day, the Takers stumble across the body of a messenger Taker, killed by heat stroke, and can take the messenger’s bicycle. A convoy of stopped vehicles, all with intact windows, lies ahead filled two mobs of casualties, all still wearing seat belts and currently in torpor. Careful Takers could clear out the entire convoy, looting both mobs and their vehicles for two haul worth of goods. However, each vehicle is locked, requiring Criminality checks to open a door silently. If the convoy mob wakes up, they will create enough noise to lure in another nearby mob. As the work goes on, anyone with Profession: Medicine or Alertness realizes that, for everyone in the cars to be infected with the doors locked, literally everyone in the convoy had to be hiding a bite. When the bodies are checked though, no infection wounds are visible. The news provokes a level-3 threat against Stress for all who realize it. (The Market knows the cars were hiding from mobs when an Aerosol aberrant came by, but the Takers have no way of knowing this.)

475 Anyone with Ubiq specs or a laptop is pinged by a Taker in the area. She explains that a casualty bit her, the blood test was positive, and it’s only a matter of time before she turns. She ran out of bullets and has no way to kill herself. She begs for help before the batteries die. If the Takers go to her location, they find she is stranded on top of a small building surrounded by a mob. Killing her with a longrange weapon is a level-3 Detachment threat, plus it may attract the attention of the mob. If the Takers fight their way through to her, they can find out what her last request is, which may heal two humanity if fulfilled. She begs for death so killing her then is only level-1 Detachment threat. If the characters do not follow up on her location, then she will become a Vector and attack the group before they finish the leg. Takers find themselves suddenly surrounded by dogs of every size and breed. The animals keep their distance, but more and more join their ranks, keeping pace with the crew at a respectful distance. They don’t look feral; in fact, these are some of the healthiest dogs they’ve seen since the Crash. If they remain calm, the crew eventually comes upon a dumpy old woman cooking stew on a camp stove. She looks up, greets the newcomers, and returns to her cooking. Successful Research (or simple conversation) reveals this to be the legendary Alpha, a Taker rumored to keep herself safe with a circling pack of dogs trained to lure casualties away from their master. If asked, Alpha confirms her identity and reveals the Takers are only seeing about half the pack now, as the other fifty or so are out on duty. She occasionally stops eating to scroll through camera feeds of various pooches on the perimeter. If the Takers stop and burn their rations for the day, the dogs stop circling and come into play, healing one Humanity for each PC. Alpha will gift a crew that’s good with animals a newborn puppy. Though helpless now, the dog will grow into an animal capable of service in two jobs, with both the Friendly and Hardy upgrades already purchased. Needles to say, anyone attempting to harm Alpha or her pack will be ordered eaten by the horde of attack animals surrounding them, but the interaction is otherwise quite pleasant. Takers who make a Foresight check note how good the area ahead would be for an ambush; an Awareness check spots the crew of teenage Raiders set-up ahead. Going around the ambush requires an extra Leg’s worth of rations. The crew has two more members than the Taker’s party and none of them are over the age of 15. A successful Intimidation check will convince them too many of them will die if they fight the Takers. Persuasion or Deception will convince them that the Takers aren’t carrying enough for the fight to be worth it. If a fight breaks out and the Takers survive, they can Scavenge the crew’s weapons and 1d10/2 of Bounty, but will gain the -Rep spot “Child Killer,” regardless of who fired first. PCs that make an Awareness or Research check spot Taker sign, a form of graffiti used in the craft to communicate with other crews. The signs advertise a respite at Sunset Glens. If Takers go, they find a gated community with no community, merely a single model home inside a wrought iron fence. A sign on the gate reads, “Shady Pines Enclave Coming in...” dated two years ago. The gate is easy to climb, but to enter the house the crew has to crank a generator for an electronic security system. They must state their names into a camera to “sign-in” before the door opens. Inside, they find bicycle run generators, a functioning hot water heater, and a table with a “Take a Weapon, Leave a Weapon” policy. Stated rules require the crew to clean the house and replace water in the cistern from the well before they leave the respite. If the crew stays the night, the amenities heal one Humanity. If they abuse the respite policies, they still heal Humanity, but the crew gains the -Rep Spot “Scrub Crew.”

476 Characters that make an Awareness check see a zip line on top of a nearby building leading several blocks ahead. A Foresight check determines that if someone took the trouble to put up a zip line, there was a good reason for it. A follow-up Awareness check spots craters littering the ground ahead. Profession: Demolitions or Foresight reveals that the military must have mined the area and it is extremely likely that unexploded ordnance is still around. Bypassing the area entirely adds two extra legs to the journey. Characters trying to go through the minefield must make an Awareness check or suffer 1d10 Kill and Stun to every hit location (mines are very dangerous). A critical failure triggers multiple mines that endanger other Takers and alert nearby casualties. Characters that wish to use the zip line can easily get to the top of the building but using the zip line is a level-2 Trauma threat and requires a Resistance check to hold on. Failure results in a drop that inflicts 1d10 kill to both legs and may detonate a mine. Mechanics can be used to rig up a device to safely hold onto the zip line without risk of falling off. Characters with a pro-go camera can record the zip line run and sell the footage for 1 bounty. A structure with external stairs, such as a fire watchtower, has numerous casualty corpses scattered around it. The stairs have large gaps, where someone deliberately removed multiple rungs. It is possible to jump the gaps with a single Athletics check. Failure inflicts 1d10 kill to both legs. Characters that reach the top of the structure see a strange device powered by a solar panel. Several skills, like Research or Profession: Electronics can reveal that the device is a jury-rigged noisemaker, set to play pirate ska fusion metal in order to lure casualties up the stairs. The casualties fall through the gaps and break their skulls or legs. 1d10 bounty can be scavenged from the corpses around the structure but 1d10/5 casualties are still active there, just crawling around with broken legs. The device can be disarmed and looted with a successful Mechanics check but failure indicates the character does not disarm it. At a random time later on, it will activate and alert anyone near the character carrying it. The device is worth 3 bounty and weighs 1 haul. Zoos didn’t fair well in the Crash, but some animals got loose and adapted quickly to their freedom. In this instance, the Takers have made the mistake of wandering into the territory of the wrong beast. Pick one: Lion: always has initiative/ two attacks per round/ blows do Kill+Stun or Kill and knockback/ 20 hit boxes Bear: attacks do Kill+Stun and knockback or grapple/ 30 hit boxes Rhino: attacks do Kill + Stun and knockback/ 40 hit boxes/ armored against all but firearms Elephant: 100 hit boxes/ counts as being hit by a vehicle Predators know not to eat casualties (they claw their heads from their shoulders easily enough) but that they need to hunt live prey. They only break off attack if sufficiently wounded. Herbivores are protecting territory and only stop once Takers flee the area. If the PCs kill the majestic beasts, Foresight or Research reminds them that superstitious folk medicine has grown in popularity since the Crash. Many of the animal’s parts can be sold for a high profit. The Takers wake up to a solid frost (if it’s the summer, call it an ‘unseasonable frost’). Their footing may be treacherous, but if the Takers elect to press on before the frost melts they will find 2 mobs of Casualties along their route, unable to shamble after them. If engaged at melee range, the Casualties can still attack, but treat each Casualty as a mob of one (they are too spread out to gang up on the Takers). Normal scavenging from Casualties applies. Make an Athletics check to avoid twisting an ankle (1d10/5 Stun to one leg) in the slippery footing.

477 Takers who make an Awareness check realize that the ground beneath their feet is hotter than usual or there are plants and insects in the area which typically only thrive in warmer climates. A successful Foresight or Profession: Computer Science check means they have alerts programmed into their Ubiq specs (if the Takers have Ubiq specs) — these alerts go off due to the high levels of carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide in the area. Spend one extra ration to go around the area. Takers who fail these checks take 1d10 Kill to the chest as they breath in the fumes, before realizing they need to get out of the area. On their way out, they come across the body of a Taker who asphyxiated from the fumes. Most of their gear has been damaged by the sulfur dioxide, but the Takers can scavenge one axe with the Sturdy upgrade from the body. Take 1d10/2 Stun to the chest for the time required to examine and pull gear off the body. A successful Research check later let’s the Takers put together the clues: they were walking over a coal seam fire. Posting the location of the fire to the Ubiq forums gains the crew the +Rep spot “Helpful.” This check can be made whether or not the crew took damage from the fumes. A dron-key is leading a mob of casualties across the path of the Takers. Characters can easily remain silent and wait for it to pass or they can attack the mob themselves. If they kill the mob, the dron-key stops. Characters with Ubiq specs or a laptop will realize it is sending an encrypted message to someone over Ubiq. If the characters wait for a few minutes (perhaps by looting the corpses of the mob) and leave the dron-key alone, the dron-key’s owner reestablishes contact with it and speaks to the characters. She is grateful that the characters have spared the dron-key and tells them that she is at a nearby enclave and used the dron-key to kite the undead away. If they make sure the dron-key returns safely, she will pay them 2 bounty and provide a +Rep Spot “Upstanding Ex-citizens.” Characters with a Profession: Computers skill (or equivalent) and a laptop can hack the dronkey’s security system and claim it for their own. In this case, the owner eventually discovers the theft and identifies the characters by using the cameras on the dronkey. The characters gain a -Rep Spot “Thieving Takers” in this case. Extreme weather and erosion caused a landslide some time ago, half-burying a large mob of casualties. The result is a treacherous hill that conceals dozens of undead, many of which can still get up and attack unwary travelers. All characters can make an Awareness check. If successful, they spot several corpses in the ground, half-buried. Bypassing the hill takes an extra two legs. Walking down the hill requires an Athletics check in order to avoid the undead and avoid slipping on the unstable terrain.

478 The Takers pass by a farm, a house and barn visible from the road with no signs of fortification. A teenage girl comes running up to the Takers, begging them to “please come help, something’s wrong with Daddy.” If they walk away, make a Self-Control: Detachment check. Walking towards the house, making a Sensitivity or Persuasion check reveals that the girl is a Shepherd, as is her father. Inside the house, on the second floor, in the master bedroom, is Daddy, strapped to a bed with several leather belts. Once the first Taker walks into the doorway, the belts snap as the Vector lurches out of the bed. He is so tangled in the bed and belts that he is limited to one Shamble for two rounds, although the murder modifier is otherwise unchanged. The girl screams at the Takers that they can lure him into the barn “with the others” and then runs back down the hallway. She will show back up on round three with Scent Blocker and throw it on the Takers, if they haven’t killed the Vector by then. If the Takers run away, they must make a Self-Control: Detachment check as Daddy will almost certainly kill the girl. If the Takers manage to kill the Vector, the girl will begin wailing in grief — make a Sensitivity, Persuasion, or Leadership check to calm her down before the 3 mobs of Casualties in the barn break out. If they succeed at calming the girl, she will show them two Haul worth of goods (in addition to the supplies she takes for herself [the Takers will not have to spend any rations on taking care of the girl]) and accompany them to the nearest enclave. If the Casualties do break out and the Takers survive, they can Scavenge three mobs worth of Bounty but the girl runs off. Takers come across an eerily silent stretch of road. If it’s in a rural area, there is little to be seen besides a gas station and adjacent feed store riddled with bullet holes. If it’s an urban area, the two buildings across the street from each other can be of any type, but the pavement between is littered with the corpses of casualties. Those with Ubiq get pinged simultaneously. One has a message addressed to “those on the road,” while the other is a cheap public bandwidth, reserved for advertisements pre-Crash. The addressed message is from the last surviving member a Black Math cult in one building. He warns the crew that his sect has been fighting a cult of Meek for days. He’s the only survivor and out of ammo, but he’s fought them to standoff. The other message is the Meek, screaming, “Reinforcements come brothers! Come to help us destroy the defilers and transcend!” The Meek are armed with two riflemen and two kamikazes. The latter are armed with vials of Vector blood. They’ll try to get as close to the crew as possible, take cover, then inject themselves while the rest of the cult lays down covering fire. The hope is to infect the whole crew and start a fresh outbreak in the area. There’s only one, unarmed Black Mather left, but he’ll try to help if he’s convinced he can take at least one of the Meek with him. If the Takers survive the fight, it yields almost nothing of value. The cults had been besieging each other for days. The rations are gone, the ammo spent, and the weapons damaged in explosions.

479 An overturned semi-truck and trailer has been partially scavenged but valuable machine parts from the truck’s engine are clearly visible on the ground. It looks like whomever was scavenging it left in a hurry and never returned. A Scavenging check reveals that the survivor has been gone for some time as the exposed parts show signs of weathering — they are still usable though. A Mechanics check is required to identify the valuable parts. The trailer is still closed. A cursory check shows it will not open from the outside. A Mechanics or Awareness check reveals it has been welded shut from the inside. If the characters can somehow find a way in the trailer, they find a single casualty hidden in crates of machine parts. The parts were bent and damaged when the truck flipped over, so finding useful ones would take days of sorting. A successful Scavenge check finds 1d10 bounty of small parts with a few minutes of searching. Of course, if the characters linger too long in the open, casualties or raiders may notice and attack them. On the road ahead there are several Army sized large trucks in a circle. Make an Awareness check to notice the four mobs of Casualties coming out of the truck corral for the Takers before they are three shambles away. If the Takers succeed the check, the Casualties are six shambles away. If the Takers kill the mobs, they can scavenge from the trucks. The Casualties are Army soldiers and therefore assumed dead after going MIA. Their gear has been exposed to the weather too long to be worth scavenging. The convoy was carrying samples of the Blight, still in their test tubes, to a research base somewhere in the Loss — the orders in the lead truck do not specify where that base is. A successful Research or Networking check can sell the samples for ten bounty to the Crusaders or the Meek. The convoy contains two haul worth of medical equipment. An abandoned National Guard outpost with a pre-fabricated watchtower is spotted. Characters can easily bypass it but if they investigate it, they will find that scavengers have picked it clean. Even the casualty corpses have been dragged away and burned. All that is left are the sandbag fortifications, heavy metal barricades, command post, and watch tower. It is easily defensible. Characters with binoculars who climb the watchtower can make an Awareness check to get a clue about what the next leg of the trip will contain. A Scavenge check reveals a mortar hidden in the dirt. It has no shells, but it can still fire. Each Taker in the crew rolls a Black die and adds their SPD. The Taker with the lowest roll begins sliding down the edge of the sinkhole that opens up under their feet. Make an Athletics check to arrest the slide without injury. If the Taker fails their check, they slide into the dry underground cistern the sinkhole has just opened up and take 1d10/2 in Stun to both legs. There are 2-3 Casualties in the immediate area the Taker slides into, all of which have Bounty on them. Two more mobs of Casualties are attracted by the loud noise of the Taker hitting bottom; both mobs are minimum five shambles away. Getting back out of the cistern requires two Athletics checks. The Takers spot a DHQS farm up ahead and the fruit has just ripened. But the forecast is calling for a killing frost overnight. If that’s accurate, most of the food out here will go to waste since the drones aren’t out and harvesting. Even if they were, they couldn’t get everything in time. Athletics check to get up and over the fence without injury (1d10/2 Stun to one leg or arm on a failed check). Takers gain one refresh of rations and regain one Humanity if they harvest some fruit. The fruit would spoil before they could get it back to their enclave, so Takers may not harvest any as Haul.

480 A locust plague has sprung up in the area. The creatures swarm over every surface, blacking out the sun. Waiting for the feeding frenzy to die down costs two extra rations and does one Stress damage as the swarm settles down. Walking through the creatures is possible, but the constant buzz and prickling legs represent a level-2 threat to Stress. Casualties are drawn to the noise. Ask the crew to designate a leader to navigate the swarm or have everyone check Awareness separately. On a failure, the Taker walks right into a lone casualty lost in the swarm. On a success, they just manage to avoid them as they snap their teeth at the air, lurching silhouettes moving in the swarm. Realizing the dead are amongst the cloud causes a level-2 Trauma threat. Those with successful Foresight checks that brave the plague realize the protein in a locust can’t be ignored back at the enclave. Any synthetic fabric can be used to trap and bag the insects, and every Haul of dead locusts is worth 1d10/2 bounty back home. A pickup truck is stuck in the middle of a shallow pond. There are boxes and bags in the bed of the truck, clearly visible. However, a mob of casualties is standing near the truck. The thick mud floor of the pond slows them down, so characters can easily outrun them or shoot them down with ranged weapons. If they do not lure them away from the truck, several casualties bleed on the boxes when they are shot, ruining any salvage in the truck. A Foresight check allows the characters a chance to realize this before they attack. There is 1d10/2 bounty in the truck’s bed if the characters make a successful Scavenging check. Around the bend, the Takers come on a dead trade caravan between enclaves. The mob of casualties that wiped it out look up from where they are chowing down on one of the bodies and start lumbering after the Takers. Make an Awareness check to realize that the body the casualties are abandoning will get up as a Vector in four rounds. If the Takers survive, there is four haul of goods in the caravan and 1d10/2 Bounty from the caravan members. Alternatively, if the Takers call either the origin or destination enclave to let them know what happened to the caravan and where they could come pick it up, they will receive a four bounty finder’s fee and a +Rep spot “Honest.” Takers find a raccoon digging up a half-buried bag by the side of the road. If they shoo the creature away, they find a bag with a full complement of grenades and a refresh of rations. The bag hasn’t been there long, and Foresight suggests the explosives were meant for a fallback position. Diverting down the path reveals a weapons deal between the Chosen and the Meek. The Latent group has a Vector restrained with dogcatcher snares. Those not holding the fresh infected have guns drawn on the other group. Just seeing what the Meek have done to themselves requires is level-2 Detachment threat: teeth filed to points, eyes gouged out, running sores cut into flesh. They’re aesthetically molding their bodies in preparation for transformation. They’re mostly armed with melee weapons, but the negotiator is covered in plastic explosives and has nails taped all over his bodies. Though wary, both groups are dealing with each other. The leader of the Chosen takes out an IV bag, syringe, and pump. She injects it into the Vector and starts draining it. The lead Meek licks what remains of his lips and throws a bag of 4d10 bounty on the ground between the two groups. Imagining what the Meek plan to do with that much hot Blight requires a level-4 Detachment check if the Takers choose to walk away. Planning to stop an arms deal between a group of armed infected and a group that envies them requires a level-3 Trauma check. If they win, the crew can scavenge anything left over that’s not on fire or covered in infected blood.

481 Takers see a campfire in the distance. If they approach, they find a group of sitting around it on the steps of a public library, huddled against the chill. Research or Foresight checks reveal them to be members of the Bonhoeffers, a well-known hardline Archivists group. The Bonhoeffers offer a place by the fire and what food they have. They pleasantly ask where the Takers are going and discuss their faith. After some time, it’s apparent the archivists fuel the fire with distressing items: wooden bats that could be melee weapons, good clothes, functioning backpacks, etc. Watching them keep the bonfire lit causes a level-2 Stress check. If asked, they claim only that the items are of no worth, and those that disagree can camp elsewhere. The Market should ask everyone to roll Black and add their ADP. The character with the lowest number has to go pee. When the PC walks around the side of the building to relieve themselves, they find the naked bodies of the family the Bonhoeffers executed before the crew arrived. If anyone bothers to ask why they killed the men, women, and children, they respond that it was because they were burning books for heat. But books are of worth; not people. Check Self-Control and start combat as appropriate. A recent rainfall has washed away some brush concealing a path off the main road. Along the path are the eroded remains of several primitive booby traps. At the end of the path, the Takers find a heavy metal door closing off an airlock that, due to a lack of electricity, is unlocked — the Takers can open the door with no resistance. Inside is the hoard of a prepper who, judging by the dust all over the place, never made it out to their bunker. The food has long gone bad, but the Takers find an arsenal of guns and ammunition, a small library of survival manuals, a mechanic’s toolkit, and an electronics toolkit. Approaching a river, the Takers find it wider than expected and the bridge marked on their maps now starts and ends partially in the water. A successful Foresight or Research check tells the Takers that during the Crash a retreating military blew the local dam to create a barrier to slow down the casualty stampede coming after them. The crew should head down river, where it thins out and slows down a bit. If the Takers try to wade through the river to the bridge, a single mob of casualties that have washed up against the bridge claw their way up onto the bridge. An Awareness check notices them while they are still in the water and unable to attack. If the casualties make it up onto the bridge and the Takers kill them, the normal Scavenging rules apply. Otherwise, the bodies and any bounty on them are washed away. Takers encounter a DHQS drone swarm. The small aircraft are launched in batches from missile batteries and fly in pre-programmed formations, gathering intelligence for the government. A hundred of them dot the sky. The units are within range for two turns (three for anyone who made an Awareness check) and one can be shot down for every successful Precision Shoot check. A crashed drone provides 1d10 bounty worth of sophisticated electronics. After those three turns, the drones ascend beyond the effective range of weaponry. Those that make a Scavenging, Mechanics, or Profession: Drones check while salvaging parts realize this drone is outfitted to carry small packets of ordinance. Whether they realize it or not, a squadron of six drones has split from the flock and returns to drop payload on the meddlers. The bombs are inaccurate (Market rolls 6 dice; evens miss and odds hit) and Takers that know of the threat can make Athletics checks to dodge under cover, but each does explosive Kill + Stun damage. Even misses can set buildings on fire and attract Casualties.

482 The Takers are passing by an abandoned gas station when music begins playing over the outdoor speakers. An Awareness or Foresight check tells the Takers that the music is motion activated and how far to move to get out of the sensor’s range. If they make the check, only two Casualties come out of the station and the Takers are far enough away to simply walk off. If they do not make the check, 2d10 Casualties come out of and from behind the station. If the Takers kill all the Casualties, they can make a Scavenging check — the speakers are still powered by two solar cells on top of the gas station, which are worth 5 bounty each and take one haul each. The path is strewn with debris — some powerful weather went through the area the other day (depending on the area, suggest using a tornado, hail storm, or thunderstorm) making the road ahead treacherous. The Takers can go around without penalty or spending any resources. If they continue down the path, they make an Athletics check to avoid spraining an ankle (1d10/2 to one leg on a failure), find 2d10 Bounty from Casualties decapitated by flying debris, and encounter 1d10/2 Casualties. A light drizzle starts up. On a successful Awareness check, the Takers notice that something smells a little... off. On a successful Foresight check, they checked the weather forecast for the day. On a successful Profession: Computer Programming, the Takers get an alert on their Ubiq specs. They have started to walk/drive through acidic rain. If they succeed a check, the Takers can get undercover or go around the storm before the rain does too much damage. Otherwise, lose one upgrade on every piece of gear exposed to the rain. If a piece of gear does not have any upgrades, it requires an extra bounty or a successful Mechanics check to fix during upkeep. If caught out in the rain, on a successful Scavenge check the Takers find a spear with the Sturdy and Crossbar upgrade abandoned by the side of the road. In the distance, the Takers can hear several bursts of gunfire, then silence. If they investigate, they find the remains of a raider group being devoured by a mob of casualties. The raiders have scavengable gear but their gunfire will surely draw more undead soon. If the party can clear out a mob in 1d10 rounds, they can scavenge up to 2d10 worth of bounty from the dead raiders with a successful Scavenge check before another mob appears. The Takers see a fortified house that appears to be abandoned. If they investigate, they see a dead man who clearly shot himself near a pile of supplies, including rations and bullets. Tripwires are lined on each door and window of the house. An Awareness check is required to notice them and the market may decide to allow such checks if the players specifically ask for it. If a tripwire is triggered, small explosive charges blow holes in the ceiling, releasing a mob’s worth of casualties in torpor on the characters. They begin to stir and will attack in one round. The entire house is a trap rigged by Meek cultists trying to infect humans. The rations are poisoned with Blight and the bullets are duds.

483 The Takers spot a vehicle in the road up ahead. Three men are standing around with weapons out, but not pointed at the Takers, while a fourth is changing a tire. All three guards continue their bickering as the Takers approach. On a successful Networking check the Takers realize from the bickering that this is a group of Takers out of the nearest Randian enclave. They are willing to trade but will try to sell all of their goods at upkeep x3 Bounty. A successful Sensitivity check will inform the Takers that none of the Randians are mechanics, including the guy trying to change the tire. With sufficient spouting of the Objectivist philosophy and a Persuasion, Deception, or Leadership check, the Takers can charge the Randians two times the number of charges they spend on a Mechanics check (limit 4) plus three bounty for labor in fixing their tire for them. A failed Mechanics check will result in a -Rep Spot “Over selling.” A drone copter descends into view, flashing a strobe light at the Takers. A voice announces over the speaker “We will be coming into view shortly. Do not shoot. We seek to parley.” A few minutes later, a DHQS squad pulls into view. They carry some of the finest gear the Takers have ever seen (silenced automatic rifles, carbon-fiber collapsible hand axes, basilisk’s skin armor, etc.). Each is flanked by a next-gen dronkey, one of which carries a mini-gun on its back. Each of the three is a management level Market force with the determined advantage. The Stewards wait and get prepared to shoot. The Takers need to send forward a representative, and the rep can pick which one they want to speak to. Every successful Sensitivity check gets a read on a squad member. There’s Twitchy, who obviously thinks everyone is out to kill them and the Takers are no different. There’s Vet, who sees the crew as a tactical variable to be dismissed... for now. Then there’s Patron, who seems deeply uncomfortable holding guns on former countrymen. No matter who they parley with, the stewards just want to pass by unmolested: they don’t have time to hide as the Takers go by, and no one wants a gunfight. If Takers are skeptical of their motives, the Stewards assure them they have no designs on their enclave (they don’t let them know how they know about the enclave). Twitchy promises not to kill them if they let them pass. Vet promises to delete their faces from his drone’s camera, and he can be persuaded into changing the status of Lost characters to “Unaccounted For.” Patron dumps 2d10 bounty in the road as a toll for passing. Regardless of how it goes, dealing with the DHQS is a level-2 Detachment threat. For hours, Takers have been seeing signs for “Skeeter’s Treasure” painted all over the place. If they choose to follow them, they come to an actual drive-thru theater, apparently allowed to survive as a local historical site. In a rural area, the screen is set up on the rocky cliff face of a hill half-blasted away to make room for the parking lot. If in an urban area, the screen hangs from a long-abandoned factory as part of urban renewal. Either way, in huge red paint, the screen reads “YOU WIN. COME AND GET IT.” In the middle of the message, a body hangs from the neck from one of the giant screen’s struts. Those with binoculars can see 5d10 bounty stapled all over the canvas of the screen. Across the dirt parking lot, craters and body parts dot the ground. Apparently, Skeeter mined the ground leading towards his treasure screen in every direction. It takes Awareness, Foresight, Self-Control, and time to navigate the minefield. Mechanics or some sort of military Profession is required to disarm mines. Those that go around and try to rappel down from the wall the screen is mounted on find that the largest explosives were reserved for wise guys. Even if those that set them off survive, the high elevation causes a landslide that destroys all the bounty. If the Takers make it to the screen intact, they can take the bounty. Upon closer inspection, it appears the hanged man had his hands handcuffed to his belt; it turns out this is Skeeter’s sick joke rather than his suicide note.

484 The path is blocked by a river straining its bank, swollen by distant rains. The bridges were blown up in yet another failed retreat during the Crash. But it seems the army installed the prototype of what has come to be called a “troutline” before they left. The device is a net composed of thin, carbon-fiber netting and strung to the bottom of the river. The whole thing is suspended on a thick metal cable strung between sturdy trees on either bank. Across the wire, wheels and a counter weight move a miniature Punch-Bot to and fro across the river. The idea was to catch any casualties crossing the river on foot in the net, dicing them on the thin metal wires or having the Punch-Bot fire the cattle gun into their brains if they climbed high enough to trigger the sensors. Takers can cross if they use the guide wire as a handrail and walk across the top of the net (check Athletics). However, mid-way through the crossing, a derelict boat comes into view, teeming with casualties from an outbreak on board. Meanwhile, the bot activates as casualties on the net trigger its sensors. Check Athletics to balance on the net as the passing Punch-Bot makes holding onto the guide wire impossible. For those at the back of the line, check Athletics to move faster and get beyond where the boat full of undead will strike the wires. Finally, check Resistance to hold on as the boat strikes the net. Falling into the water risks drowning, confrontation with submerged casualties trapped in the net, or, at minimum, the loss of important gear. The Takers come upon a massacred horse-drawn caravan. The only visible bodies have been so thoroughly consumed as to be rendered inanimate. The carpet armor was torn from the horses and the animals stripped down to the bone. No sign of the casualties (or aberrants) responsible for the deaths remains. Whatever it was, it wasn’t human. Humans wouldn’t leave the cargo completely intact. What the caravan was hauling is up to the Market, but it’s valuable. If using the MBA rules, the wagons hold 1d10 + 5 units of supply — enough to start a small business. If the Takers want to offload everything to a wholesaler, there’s enough for 1d100 bounty. But how do they get it back to the enclave?

485 Dependants References Needy Strained Severed Taker Crew Weak Spot Soft Spot Tough Spot Potential Skills STR Haul Unarmed Melee ( ) ( ) ( ) Resistance Athletics SPD Shoot ( ) ( ) Stealth ADP Awareness Self-Control Scavenging Drive INT Foresight Research ( ) ( ) First Aid CHA WIL Networking Persuasion Sensitivity Deception Criminality Mechanics Profession Intimidation Leadership Refresh Trauma Stress Crack Crumble Break Threats Detachment Taker can carry STR in Haul and personal gear 1 Essential Static Backpack Rations Rations can be spent to Buy-a-Roll on skills that require exertion. Additional spends add +1 Essential Addictive Charged Effect Qualities Upkeep Charges 00000 00000 Effect Qualities Upkeep Charges Static 1 1-2 3-4 5 6 10 7-9 ALT ALT ALT ALT ALT ALT RED MARKETS 1 Character Advancement: 1 Potential = 10 Bounty Skill Points = Bounty equal to new skill level (1B = 1 Skill, 2B = 2 Skill, etc)

486 Effect Qualities Upgrades Upkeep Charges 00000 00000 Effect Qualities Upgrades Upkeep Charges 00000 00000 Effect Qualities Upgrades Upkeep Charges 00000 00000 Effect Qualities Upgrades Upkeep Charges 00000 00000 Effect Qualities Upgrades Upkeep Charges 00000 00000 Effect Qualities Upgrades Upkeep Charges 00000 00000 Effect Qualities Upgrades Upkeep Charges 00000 00000 Purchasing Price = Upkeep x2 Failing to meet Upkeep causes a malfunction Crit Success: No refresh but still functions Success: No refresh and -1 upgrade Fail: No refresh,-1 upgrade,and must be repaired Crit Fail: Item lost Taker: 2 Retirement Milestone Savings Bounty Bank Upkeep Break Point Sustenence Maintenance Incidentals Survival Equipment Health Projectced Earnings Rent Dependants Purchase Pro. Dev. Humanity Favors

487 Client Start Red Die Black Die Black Die As A Favor Provider Undercut Provider Default Start Start Buyer’s Market At Value Labor Hazard Pay 100% Mark-Up Expenses Contract is offered at the Demand price only AND client earns a - Rep spot to use in future negotiations Contract is offered at the Demand price only (Black result on a equilibrium roll) Contract is offered at the value of Supply+Demand (Black + Red) Client agrees to add the crew’s break point to the price (Black + Red + break point) Add one Bounty per Taker per Leg to Hazard Pay. (Ex: a crew of four on a three-Leg run earns 4 x 3 more) The equipment upkeep of every participating Taker is added into the price (no one pays upkeep this session) Double the cost of the job before Labor RED MARKETS NEGOTIATION SHEET Crew Name Enclave Weak Spot: A character flaw or secret that can be leveraged to provide +1 Sway Soft Spot: An area of sentiment or great passion that can be exploited for +1 Sway Tough Spot: For NPC clients, this takes the form of a specific need the client has for the contract. It can be exploited for +1 Sway For Takers: Working a client’s weak, soft, or tough spot into the roleplaying behind a skill automatically adds +1 Sway to a roll. This bonus remains even if the check fails, so success means +2 Sway, but a failed play on a spot is still worth +1 Sway. Spots must be learned in scams or using Sensitivity + Rep Spots: If the crew has earned a + Rep Spot for a notable deed, the negotiator can work it into the roleplay for a bonus +1 Sway. For Clients: Sensitivity: Clients can sacrifice a turn to learn one spot from the Taker in negotiations Gift Spot: Once per negotiation, a client may “sweeten the pot” with a piece of gear, earning an irresistible +1 Sway - Rep Spot: If the crew has done something unprofessional, incompetent, or dishonest in the past, the client can use it once for an irresistible +1 Sway To Start: Player makes a Leadership check (see above) Heads Up: Red and Black cannot be parallel while in negotiation. Each die resolves at the same time (moving simultaneously once both parties have spoken). It takes 1 Sway to advance unopposed, but in head up, dice only advance by pushing (negating an opponent’s Sway and having some left over) Fixing Price: On the last round, player makes a Leadership check. On a success, Black moves right and parallel with the Red (higher price). On a failure, Red moves left until parallel with Black. Parallel dice indicate the agreed upon price. Undercutting: Competition will try to undercut agreed upon prices, unless eliminated or left out because the PCs are “preferred providers” of a job line. Resisting an undercut requires a successful CHA check or a dedicated scame. Failure means the price goes down one space; critical failure means two spaces. PCs undercutting competition always succeed (there must be a game), but they start on “As a Favor” on the tracker. Clients Have... Playing Spots Negotiation Charm Skills Determining Price Networking: Persuasion: Sensitivity: Deception: Intimidation: Roll a check to find a contract or find info about it. Total failure means undercutting to “As a Favor.” Success moves +1 Sway, or defends against opponent’s Sway if heads up. Can be used with spots. Intimidation can be used to end negotiations early with a threat to “walk out.” Work in a spot to move and end negotiations in the same turn. Read an opponent’s weak, soft, or tough spot, but sacrifice a turn to do so. Failure wastes a turn and provides no information. Lie about the crew’s abilities to move +1 Sway. Can be used with spots. Deception can defend against the client’s spot play with “poker face” To Begin: Black + Leadership / 2 (rounded up, to a max of five rounds) equals the number of turns. Failure means rounds are rolled secretly. To End: Success has Black meet Red at the higher price, and failure brings Red down to Black at the lower price. Leadership:

488 PORTFOLIO Contract Name Spot +/- Job Line Breakpoint Price Equip. Earned Earnings (projected) Bounty per Taker TAKERS GENERAL NOTES: REPUTATION Totals RED MARKETS CREW TRACKER Crew Name Enclave

489 Investment Liquidity (-1 every session) Inside Trading (+1 per action) Investments and Speculation: GENERAL NOTES: Risk Rate of Return RED MARKETS CREW SHEET:MBA RULES Crew Name Enclave Small Business Name: Corresponding Score/Contract# Liquidity Troubleshooter Employee/ Taker Working Liquidity Remaining Supply Gouge/ Mark-up Total Earned Value per Unit

490 ActIon Economy Every character starts a combat round with one tactic, one twitch, and one freebie. Lengthy actions, or tasks, take up an entire turn or more and sacrifice tactic and twitch. tactICS Tactics resolve with Initiative. Tactics include: • Firing a weapon • Making a Melee or Unarmed attack • Drawing or holstering a weapon • Running to cover • Reloading a weapon or refreshing charges on other tools • Administering first aid • Barricading a door • Full Defense (converting an Tactic to a Twitch) • Full Offense (converting the Twitch to a second Tactic, which moves to the end of the initiative order) TWITCHES Twitches go off when prompted by Market forces. Twitches are limited and are almost always either… • Roll Athletics checks to dodge attacks • Roll Athletics checks to get under cover • Block an incoming Melee or Unarmed attack • Recover from knockback • Quick draw an item by dropping previously held gear • Reload or perform another quick action, as allowed by a specific gear’s upgrade FREEBIES Freebies include intellectual and verbal actions that can be carried out while performing tactics, twitches, or tasks. Characters get one multitask per combat cycle. • Foresight rolls to get tactical information • Awareness rolls to spot something • Shouting or whispering, or CHA skill checks where appropriate • Making a Self-Control test All freebies are under the one-and-done rule. If the freebie required a roll, the Taker either made it or did not. COMBAT SUMMARY CHEAT SHEET ORDER OF COMBAT 1. Players roll Black and add their SPD. 2. Players declare from most to least. The Market spends Red dice to place Market Forces in-between their numbers. This is the initiative order. 3. The highest initiative player declares a tactic, spends to make a roll, and resolves the action. a. Black is damage. Red is hit location. The difference between Kill and Stun damage is determined by the gear used. The damage is unmodified by extra spends unless the gear is specifically upgraded (or use the “Bust Rule: Random Damage” p. 281). b. Twitches are demanded by the actions of Market forces and may go wherever the player wishes. Twitches unspent at the end of the round are discarded. 4. Assess damage and any penalties. 5. Once ever player and Market force has had a turn, return to step 3 and repeat (or use “Bust Rule: Random Damage” p. 281).

491 SpecIal Maneuvers Block: Make a Melee check to direct an attack to a specific piece of gear. Make an Unarmed check to direct damage to a specific hi location. Firearms cannot be blocked. Cover: Characters in cover cannot be attacked as long as they are in cover. Characters are out of cover if they attack. Twitches can be used to return to cover. A tactic or twitch must be used to move to cover if the character doesn’t start out there. Called Shot: Player declares a called shot on their tactic and moves to the end of the initiative order. If the Taker’s twitch remains unspent, the Taker can make a precision check to hit the target of their choice. On a success, the player can dictate the narrative of the success, up to and including the death of the target. FIrIng Into Melee: All rolls are precisions rolls, and failure hits an unintended target. Flank: To hit an enemy in cover, they must be flanked. This requires either an Athletics or Sneak test to move into position. If the Sneak test fails, the Forces get to declare a free attack. If the Athletics test fails, the forces get to declare a free attack. Dodges can be attempted normally if the Taker has a twitch left. If an enemy moves to flank and isn’t stopped, Takers they moved against are no longer considered in cover. Full Defense: Convert your tactic into a twitch. One twitch can go off whenever prompted by Market forces, but the second can’t be used until the player declares full defense on their initiative. From that point on, twitches respond to threats normally. Full Offense: Turn your twitch into a second attack. You must declare this on your initiative and it can’t be taken back. The second attack moves to the end of the initiative order. GrapplIng: Make an Unarmed check against the target. On a success, the target is grappled. Make a Unarmed check every subsequent round to keep the target restrained. If the target is a Casualty, make a Resistance check instead. Knockback: Certain weapons have knockback, which lays a target out prone. It costs a tactic to get up from the prone position. Ready: Abstaining from all actions for one round (no tactic, twitch, or task) allows the Taker to do one of two things: 1) move to the top of the next initiative order or 2) roll Black + Skill + Potential for the next check. ReloadIng: Refreshing charges costs a tactic if it is an item worn on the belt; refreshing gear is a task action if it is stored in the backpack. Rush: Takers can burn both a tactic and twitch to rush the enemy. This must be declared on their initiative. The Taker makes an Athletics test. If it succeeds, the Taker can use their twitch as another tactic and perform a Melee or Unarmed attack. If the first Athletics test fails, the Market forces get a free attack. The player can choose to eat the damage and finish the attack, or use their twitch to break off the assault and try to dodge. Spray: If a weapon possesses the ability to spray, on a success a PC can choose to burn their twitch and keep firing. The Shoot check must be successful first, but upon burning the twitch and spending 3 charges, the player can choose to deal damage again to the same target or make a separate hit on a different target nearby. SuppressIng FIre: A Taker spending 3 charges on a ranged weapon and burns one tactic to suppress an enemy in cover. That means the enemy cannot move or attack that round. Takers that are suppressed must make a Self-Control: Trauma check to move from cover, and the enemy gets to declare a free attack against them.

492 A Aberrants 38, 160, 454 • Aerosol 160, 454 • Ever-vecs 16, 454 • Empties 162, 455 • Mutants 163, 455 • Ganglia 164, 455 • Converts 166, 454 • Scarecrows 167, 456 • Stalkers 168, 456 • Malignant 169, 455 • Shuffled 170, 456 Action Economy 273, 490 • Tactic 273 • Twitch 273 • Freebie 274 • Task 274 Advanced Electronics 262 Armor and Accessories 255 Assessing Risk 438 At-A-Glance • Character Creation 181 • Vectors 303 • Negotiation 322 • Spots 336 • Scams 339 • Workplace Essentials 359 • Scores 395 • Campaign Structure 413 • Small Businesses 426 • Loans 441 B Backing Out 344 Believers 150 • The Meek 151 • Shepherds 151 • Chosen 152 • Triage 152 • Black Math 153 • Archivists 153 • Holy Communion 154 • Detox 154 • Crusaders 155 • Randians 156 • LALAs 157 Blight 32, 295 • Explanations 39 Boom 172, 353 • Default Checks 176 • Basic Refresh 241 • The Last Shall Be First 277 • Will to Live 283 • Lucky X 283 • What if the Dice Don’t Meet? 343 • Labor Shortage 372 Bounty 108, 211, 233 Bust 172, 354 • +1 Or It Can’t Be Done 176 • Accuracy Counts 201 • Interest 211 • No Budget; No Buy 228 • High-Stakes Refresh 242 • Individual Initiative 277 • Fog of War 277 • Random Damage 281 • Alternative Hit Boxes 281 • Permanent Damage 282 • God’s Blight 306 • No Hiding the Truth 335 • Peasants Don’t Scare Me 336 • The Loss Never Forgets 338 • All or Nothing 338 • What if the Dice Don’t Meet? 343 • Competitive Market 372 • Uncertain Vignettes 419 • Asshole Coworkers 449 Buy-A-Roll 7, 173

493 C Campaign Structure 413 Casualties 37, 296 Character Advancement 214 Character Creation 181 Charges 7, 173, 179, 234 Chumming 300 Collision 283 Combat 272 Combat Maneuvers 285, 490 • Block 285 • Called Shots 285 • Cover 285 • Firing Into Melee 285 • Flank 285 • Full Defense 286 • Full Offense 286 • Grappling 286 • Knockback 287 • Ready 287 • Reloading and Rearming 287 • Rush 287 • Spray 287 • Suppressing Fire 288 Combat Round 275, 490 Contracts 325, 358, 360, 379 Crafting 242 Crash 32 Criminal Organizations 143 • Narco Cartels 143 • Smugglers 144 • Valets 144 Criticals 175 D D100 Loss Encounters 457 DHQS 88, 138 Damaging Casualties 298 Default 176 Determination Advantage 293 Difficult 178 Drugs and Healthcare 251 E Enclaves 113, 120 • Ubiq City 28, 121 • Leper 122 • Distributy 123 • Mont Liner 124 • The Consolidated 124 • MyWay 126 • The Rock 127 • Light City 128 • Achieve 130 • Papa Doc’s Railroad 131 • Troutfitt 409 Encounter Prompts 451 Encounter Themes 450 Equilibrium 362 Exclusion Zones 135 F Falling 283 Fixers 349 Freebie 274 G Gear 232 Gear, Designing New 244 Gear List 245 Gear Packages 213 Gift Spots 337 Gifted 293 Gouge Consumers 432 H Haul 194, 237, 264 Heads Up 328, 332

494 Healing • …in the field 281 • ...between jobs 227 Hit Locations and Damage 280, 282 Homo Sacer Policy 79 Hot Strain 305 Humanity 310 I Immunes 34, 95, 307 In-Character Collaborative 399 In-Character Opposed 397 Infection 34, 306 Initiative 275 Insider Trading 438 Interludes 446 Investments and Speculation 436 J Job Creator 358 Job Lines 325, 420 L Latents 34, 102, 187, 306 Leadership 205 • Opens 330 • Closes 343 LifeLines 112 Liquidity 434, 438 Loans 441 Looting the Dead 289 Looting the Undead 301 Loud Weapons 298 Luring 299 M Market Forces 178, 291 Mass 296 Mr. JOLS 217, 401 N Non-Negotiables 332 Notable Taker Crews 144 • The Moths 145 • GILF 146 • D-Town Takers 146 • Digital Forensics Inc. 147 • Eat Clean 147 O One-and-Done 173 Operation Utility 62 Opposed Checks 178 Out of Character Consensus 400 P Peeling 299 Penalties 278, 282 Pets 260 Poison/Drugs 284 Potentials 194 • Strength (STR) 194 • Speed (SPD) 195 • Adaptability (ADP) 196 • Intelligence (INT) 196 • Charm (CHA) 197 • Will 197 Precision 178 Premade Takers 220 Prep Work 324 Private Sector 139 • StopLoss 140 • Alosine 140 • Frond Engineering 140 • Beemail 140 • Longest Haul Trucking 140 • Singularity Security Solutions 141 • MDNN 142 • Many Hands LLC 142

495 • Tragedy Trackers 142 • Vulture Investors 143 Pro Bono 439 Procedure 173 R Rates of Return 439 Rations 180, 195, 253 Rebels 148 • Vindicated 148 • Papineaus 149 • Traitors 150 References 210 Refresh 196, 236, 240 Regrets 313 • Cracks 315 • Crumbles 315 • Breaks 316 • Fight 315 • Flight 315 • Freeze 315 • Disassociation 316 • Dependency 316 • Delusion 316 • Self-Destruction 317 • Betrayal 317 • Convalescence 317 Rep Spots 338 Retirement Plans 214 Romero Effect, The 48 S Scavenging and Crafting 242 Scams 339 • Intelligence Gathering 340 • Price Manipulation 341 • Partners In Crime 341 • Negotiator Support 341 • Discourage Competition 342 Scores 361, 394, 395 Self-Control Checks 312 Selling Gear 242 Settlements 132 Shamble 296 Skills 198 Small Businesses 425 Soft Spots 185 Specializations 199 Stampedes 302 Stratostructure 28 Stun vs. Kill 280, 282 Success at Cost 175 Suffocation 284 Supply/Demand 362 • Subsidiary 363 • Flooded 364 • Scarce 364 • Volatiles 365 Supressin 97, 255 Sway 327 Sway Skills 333 Sway Tracker 327, 487 T Tactic 273 Takers 110, 114 Tontines 218 Tools 258 Torpor 37 Torpor Lockdown 59 Tough Spots 185 • Lost 185 • Bait 186 • Latent 187 • Immune 188 • Believer 188 • Steward 189 • Hustler 190 • Fencemean 191 • Scavenger 192 • Roach 193

496 Trained 292 Troubleshooting 429 Twitch 273 U Ubiq 23 Undercutting 343 Uniform Retirement Plan 216 Upkeep 223 • Sustenance 223, 224, 229 • Maintenance 223, 224, 229 • Incidentals 224, 226, 230 V Vectors 35, 303 Vehicles 265 Vignettes 415 • Cope 416 • Support 417 • Engage 418 • Milestone 419 • Dream 403 • MBA Options 434 W Weak Spots 184 Weapons 245 When to Roll 174 Will 179, 197 Work/Life Balance 434 Working a Double 424 Workplace Essentials 359 • Goods/Services 360 • Equilibrium 362 • Economy 366 • Client 370 • Competition 371 • Travel Time 373 • Site 373 • Complications 376

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