# ME5e Oneshot: Neighbourhood Watch The mining space station Omega is the heart of lawlessness in the already lawless Terminus Systems. Those who eke out a living here do so rubbing shoulders with mercenaries, petty criminals, adventurers, slavers, and gangsters, far from the protection and/or oppression of the Citadel Council. The residents of the Kima District have led turbulent lives in recent years; the occasional territory shift of Omega’s criminal syndicates was briefly interrupted by the altruistic reign of the vigilante Archangel, before the entire station was enslaved by the human supremacist group Cerberus, and then liberated by former and current figurehead Aria T’Loak. Despite her obvious status, the so-called Pirate Queen claims that Omega still has and will always have no titled ruler, but everyone on the station knows Omega’s one true rule: don’t fuck with Aria. In the aftermath of the Reaper Invasion, the galaxy is beginning to rebuild and the old borders are being redrawn. The Blue Suns mercenary company, for a time hailed as heroes for their part in fighting back the galactic genocide of the Reapers, have resumed their role as the extortionate guardians of Kima District, among other parts of Omega. Rental payments are compounded by “protection” rackets and gunfights sometimes break out in the streets, but for the most part it keeps the peace. Life continues as usual for the residents of Apartment Complex 66-B, until the arrival of a blood-soaked visitor sends them on a chase from Omega’s seedy streets to the neon halls of Afterlife. ## Pre-Game Info This section covers everything the GM and the players will need to know in preparation for the adventure. ### Setting The adventure takes place over several districts of the lawless mining station Omega, unofficial capital of the Terminus Systems. It is assumed that the adventure takes place some time after the events of Mass Effect 3, mostly to offer players the most variety when making their characters, but it is intentionally timeline-agnostic so that it can be fitted wherever makes sense. ### Character Creation Neighbourhood Watch is intended for roughly 4 characters of 3rd level. In addition to the normal starting abilities and equipment, players may take one free feat at 1st level, and start the game with one additional item of Common rarity. \columnbreak ### GM Information The governing powers of the Salarian Union have been left reeling after a brazen attack on one of their oldest colony worlds; unnamed assailants bypassed the orbital and ground-level defences with ease and stole the latest clutch of Kirosa family eggs. This is hardly common knowledge even within salarian space, and players will likely have no knowledge of this. Despite the seeming assuredness of Aria T'Loak's rule, Omega is never "stable" as various gangs and captains vie for their own slices of power. Rivalry between the Blue Suns and the Blood Pack has come to a head, and citizens across the station brace themselves for yet another bloody turf war. In a cunning bid to win the war before it begins, local Blue Suns leader Anton Karkarov has invited Weyrloc Kragg to a peace negotiation in the VIP section of Aria's personal club, Afterlife, where he plans to assassinate the Blood Pack Chief. Kragg suspects treachery, but his caution has been overidden by Anton's offer of an irresistible delicacy: deviled salarian eggs. Anton's plans are under threat thanks to the untimely presence of a salarian STG operative: Devos Klarr. Klarr's first priority is to locate the stolen eggs and return them safely to the Salarian Union, but he fully intends to discover who the Blue Suns bought them from, if he is able. Karkarov has dispatched troops to hunt down the STG agent under the guise of "protection shakedowns". ## Adventure This section provides instructions for running the adventure. ### Scene 1 - Neighbourly Concern Apartment Complex 66-B is a set of small Omega apartments, stacked vertically and connected by a communal stairwell and elevator, the latter of which has not been functional in living memory; see the 66-B Layout sidebar for more information on mapping. > ##### 66-B Layout > The spiral stairwell is 6 metres on a side and connects all apartments to the single entrance/exit on the ground floor. Apartments themselves are one- or two-room setups with minimal furnishing, no more than 10 metres on a side and 2 metres tall. There should be one apartment per PC, but players may decide to share if they prefer; feel free to let the players describe their own apartments if they wish. <div class='footnote'>Design by Lexi Abbey | Made with GM Binder</div> \pagebreakNum At the beginning of the adventure, ask the PCs to introduce their characters and say where they are located and what they are doing - they might be in their own apartments cooking, sleeping, etc., or hanging out at another apartment. #### Blue Suns Attack Once the scene has been set, a squad of four **Blue Suns troopers** and one **Blue Suns legionnaire** will arrive and begin attempting to gain entrance to the PCs' apartments, starting with the one on or closest to the ground floor. If questioned, the Blue Suns will spout something about "protective maintenance" and demand to search the property, but perceptive characters will overhear muttered orders between the mercenaries such as "Find the salarian" and "Execute any collaborators". ## While the Blue Suns begin searching the lower floors, a salarian in black armour coated with green blood falls out of the ventilation ducts and begins making death saves, roll initiative! The salarian is Devos Klarr of the STG (see above) who uses the stats of an **Eclipse Engineer**. #### Aftermath If Devos is stabilised, he will explain that the Blue Suns have stolen something extremely valuable to the Salarian Union, and promises an incredible reward if they help him retrieve it safely. He is too injured to continue, but will direct them to a Blue Suns controlled distribution centre in Kima District to steal the shipping manifest. If Devos died, searching his body will reveal a map to the distro centre with the note "#225790 - the bounty of Sur'Kesh glides on wings of silver". ### Scene 2 - Postal Inquiry The distro centre is purely automated, including its security. Cargo is loaded and unloaded from hover-trucks which enter and exit through an 8m-wide doorway onto the Omega skyline. Across from the loading bay is the humanoid entrance, which consists of a 4x4-metre shutter next to an unmanned security checkpoint which is locked against trespassers (DC 10). The local server to control security and log the shipping manifests is situated in the far left corner of the loading bay, in a 4x6-metre room - the door to this room is locked (DC 15) and requires a keycard or RFID chip to open. The loading bay itself is 20x28 metres and filled with plenty of cranes, hover-trucks, and shipping containers to hide behind. ## At any one time, the loading bay is patrolled by four **loki mechs** and two **fenris mechs**. #### Getting the Data Retrieving the data requires access to the local server, the door to which can either be hacked, or tricked by disabling one of the **loki mechs** on guard and extracting its RFID tag. ## Accessing the local files reveals that shipment #225790 contained crates from three different ships, and was sent to a sushi bar in the Carrd District called Gryll's Gills. A DC 13 Electronics check reveals that the ships' names were the Dawn's Ascent, the Argent Kestrel, and the Silverfish. ### Scene 3 - Dining Out Gryll (he/him, batarian **commoner**) is the proprietor and head chef of Gryll's Gills. He received the shipment from the Blue Suns, but doesn't know where they got it from, and claims to believe they were the eggs of some exotic bird (this is a lie). Gryll kept the crate from the Dawn's Ascent (a restock of various herbs and spices) while the crate from the Silverfish was sent on to the Blue Suns barracks elsewhere in the district, and the create from the Argent Kestrel was delivered to the VIP kitchens of Afterlife for a big meeting between the Suns and the Blood Pack. *If the party does not put together the connection between "wings of silver" and "Argent Kestrel" on their own, consider making Gryll act incredibly nervous and shady about that crate in particular - he is a coward, and will cave under interrogation.* #### Retrieving the Eggs The party will need to somehow gain access to the VIP kitchens of Afterlife. They could attempt to find out the password from club-goers ("Jaruut"), or sneak in through the Staff Only sections that connect the VIP and public areas of Afterlife. If they are caught, they'll be brought before Aria T'Loak, who is not in a good mood with the upcoming "peace talks" and is of half a mind to throw troublemakers into the mines, or out the airlocks... if the party is honest with her about the STG involvement, she will grant them access to the VIP kitchens - unwilling to show direct support for the Citadel race governments, but not wanting to drag the Terminus Systems into war with the Salarian Union. ## Fortunately, the eggs are still vacuum-sealed in a cryogenic transport crate. Unfortunately, the crate is bulky and obvious, and it is unlikely the party will be able to sneak them past the assembling Blue Suns and Blood Pack guards. Tensions are running high, and any sign of tampering, such as firing off gunshots or pulling the fire alarm, is likely to kick off a firefight between the Suns and the Blood Pack, which should provide ample cover for sneaking the eggs back to Devos' ship. > ##### Lack of Details > The areas of Afterlife are not mapped out in this adventure, nor are the numbers of merc forces specified. This is because it is assumed that, given their level, the party will die if they engage in direct confrontation with Karkarov and Kragg. Skill checks and clever uses of roleplay should instead be encouraged to come up with a creative means of extracting the eggs. If they do get into combat, assume that 1d6+1 **Blue Suns troopers** arrive every round, and the same number of **Blood Pack troopers**; they will fight each other as well as the party. <div class='footnote'>Design by Lexi Abbey | Made with GM Binder</div> \pagebreakNum ### Epilogue and Reward Upon successful retrieval of the eggs, Devos (or an STG proxy if he is dead) will reward the party with 800,000 credits (enough to purchase a **lacus-class frigate**) and a particularly lethal NDA which they are "encouraged" to sign. Alternatively, Aria T'Loak may instead give the PCs a ship and exile them from Omega so that they don't cause any further trouble while she gets the situation between the Blue Suns and Blood Pack under control. ## The matter of who stole the eggs originally, and why, is still unknown. The STG or other forces may take note of the party's usefulness in this matter and contact them for further mercenary work. Tensions are also still high between the mercenary gangs of Omega; if the party was not exiled and wishes to remain on the station, the monetary reward will go a long way towards improving their gear and acquiring training (aka levelling up) in preparation for their roles in the coming violence. <div class='footnote'>Design by Lexi Abbey | Made with GM Binder</div>