Midnight Bowling

The players are contacted by a corpo named “Miss Camera”, a Diverse Media Systems Talent Manager who needs to get back “stolen property” before the end of the night without being involved directly. She invites them to The Last Metro, an edgerunner bar in the Redlight District built in a repurposed metro station.

Miss Camera is an overworked corpo with a bulky professional-grade Nikkon cyberoptic as a left eye. She wears a violet power suit and always half-listens, often diverting half of her focus to the incessant emails being beamed into her brain. She is abrupt and direct. She reveals the stolen property is Lukas Schwann, the main actor of the megahit Termination movie franchise had been kidnapped. Renowned for his imposing stature and iconic accent, Schwann has been captured by local boostergang called the Roller Kings. She affirms that he is currently under surveillance at their nightclub, the Bowlsky, located in the Multimedia City neighborhood of Ville-Marie. If pressed, Miss Camera discloses that she had no choice to turn to external resources, because there is no time to make a requisition to the security department. She provides no further details.

Multimedia City remains as the only neighborhood that still resembles the historical Old Port of Montréal. Filled with glass spires for offices, production studios and media companies, its proximity with rough neighbouring Old Port and Griffintown have convinced the city to finance an occupying force of Militech Arms police officers. When players cross the district, roll 1d10. 1-2 they are hailed by a 6-man Militech anti-riot squad and searched if acting suspicious, 3-6 they can see a Militech police squad in the distance, 7-8 they stumble upon a smashed Militech drone and 9-10 they can see anarchist activists smashing a camera tower.

The Bowlsky is an eclectic mix of bowling alley and nightclub; cover charge 4 €$. Decorated to evoke 1950s Americana, with its orange tiles and blue and red décor, it attracts overworked corpodrones, managers and production technicians: a complacent crowd which has nothing to do with the edgerunner and booster crowd that hangs at The Last Metro. The Roller Kings, a small party boostergang who dress and speak like 50s greasers, operate the Bowlsky as a front. They aren’t heavily armed: they only hide light SMGs, 9 mm pistols and switchblades in their red and blue bomber jackets. The gang takes their name from their skate foot cyberfeet implants, which can be deployed to increase their MA to 25 if they skate on flat ground.

When entering, players immediately notice the roaring modern dance floor to their left, where the DJ projects bowling pin holograms over the crowd. The central area is occupied with booths and a large bar, while, on their right, down a few steps, some inebriated partygoers pathetically attempt to score strikes in the eight bowling alleys. A humanoid robot on wheels wearing a cute patterned dress named “Miss Betty” distributes bowling shoes and beers. A handful of cameras are scattered around the club. Behind the bar, a swing door leads to the kitchen, where a dystopian approximation of late-night nachos, chicken wings, and old-school style cola are prepared. The kitchen connects to an alleyway behind the club, the manager’s cluttered office, the VIP area and the club’s storage space in the basement. A dozen Roller Kings are working security tonight, of which two pairs are covering the club’s main entryway and the doors to the VIP section and another pair occupies a booth in the back of the dancefloor, casually dealing out party favours: synthcoke (+1 REF), Boost (+1 INT), X (euphoric) and Third Eye (+2 Awareness/Notice, Hallucinogenic).

The last six RKs are partying out back in the VIP section.This is where Lukas Schwann, the muscular and handsome actor, is partying his temporary freedom away with his new boyfriend, a greaser nicknamed Rusty. The section is a miniaturized version of the Bowlsky with four bowling alleys and comfortable booths. We can reasonably blame the three synth-champagne bottles and the ten doses of various drugs (synthcoke, X) scattered about for the assembled crew’s horrible bowling scores. Lukas Schwann and half of the Roller Kings are high and wasted (-2 to all Checks).

At around 4 in the morning, an hour after the closure of the Bowlsky, Rusty and two other Roller Kings anonymously escort Schwann to an apartment tower a few blocks away.

If a fight were to break out at Bowlsky, Militech police arrives on the scene in 1d6+2 minutes, with drones taking point in half that time. The Roller Kings will skate away from the scene quickly.