Date: October 3027
Location: Port Moseby
Title: NightShadow
Author: William H. Keith, Jr.
Type: Encounter (BattleTechnology 0102)
Synopsis: Presented as an in-universe training tool for MechWarriors and trainees using FASA's MechWarrior RPG, this Encounter gives referees the tools to incorporate the Nekekami into their "simulations."
Kelvin Horst, owner of Horst Metals Enterprises and last living member of House Horst, lives in his palatial country estate at Horstwald - a refitted fortress dating from the Age of War. He sends his representative, Sendic Henning, to hire mercenaries to guard a valuable delivery (a book-shaped item wrapped in paper) from the time it arrives to when it can be shipped onto another freighter the following day - amounting to roughly 20 hours of sentry duty at Horstwald to supplement his 20 servants and bodyguards.
A map is provided, showing Horstwald's layout and giving details on the alarm system, the main building, the west wing, the servants' quarters, the garage, the gatehouse and gate, the estate wall, Lake Horst, the patio pool, and the surrounding woods.
A second map gives interior details of the west wing, where the package is being stored. It features an entry hall, bathroom, conference room, dining room, kitchen and storage pantry, offices, a den, bedrooms (with Horst's having a secret elevator to the vault), a house security room, a wine cellar (with a secret door to the outer vault), the outer vault, and the inner vault.
The mercenaries have full authority to deploy the seven guards and themselves as they see fit.
Once the defenses are set, the game master will follow the Encounter guidelines to have the Nekekami agent test the mercenaries' defense plans.
The Nekekami will infiltrate Horstwald and try to slip by or neutralize sentries, enter Horst's bedroom, drug him to get details of the security plans, then take Horst to the Outer Vault and eliminate the guards there with grenades and gas.
Upon opening the vault and discovering the prize is not there, he will interrogate Horst again to learn that it is hidden in plain sight in a fake book back in Horst's library. Once he has the book, he will kill Horst and then lie low until the search has died down, or steal a guard's uniform and blend in. If flushed, he will make for the woods (relying on traps he placed on the way in to slow pursuit - mines, explosives, tripwires, etc.), or go for the garage to steal a vehicle.
If forced into combat, the Nekekami has a dagger, three throwing knives tipped with nerve poison, a silenced pistol, climbing claws, 20 meters of climbing rope, 10 caltrop mines, three lengths of tripwire, a vial of truth serum, two gas grenades, and three flashbombs.
If the mercenaries thwart the Nekekami entirely, Horst will reward them handsomely. If Horst dies, Horst Metals Enterprises will tie the payout up in court. The Nekekami will try to commit suicide if trapped. If the mercenaries do take him alive, the LIC will collect him and be a source of future contracts.
The package is a list of senior ISF agents in the Draconis March, along with identifiers, code words, and call signs. Horst's intent is to put it aboard a Horst Metals Enterprises ship bound for New Avalon. If Horst dies and the mercenaries retain the book, they will soon be targeted by the ISF and more Nekekami.
At the referee's option, Sendic Henning may be an ISF agent, serving as an inside man for the Nekekami.
A brief bio identifies the Nekekami agent as Hanzo Lee, an expert in traditional weapons who avoids unnecessary bloodshed.
Notes: The Nekekami are given a full article in the same issue. Successfully transitioning to canon, they appear in Heir to the Dragon and the Twilight of the Clans series (a quartet having been slipped aboard TASK FORCE SERPENT). They appear to have originated in BattleTechnology, since they don't appear in canon fiction until Heir to the Dragon (published in 1989), while BattleTechnology 0102 was published in 1987.
Keith had a penchant for creating societies of ruthless assassins in the Combine. Mercenary's Star featured an exile from the Saurimat - a more Azami-themed group of assassins (later retconned into temple guardians, with the assassins being a renegade sect that was quickly snuffed out). For the Nekekami, Keith went full ninja.
One plot hole immediately stands out - why are the freighters bringing the item to the DropPort on Port Moseby and having it wait there until it can be loaded onto another freighter? Why not just keep the DropShip out at the Jump Point until the second freighter arrives, and transfer the goods through a ship-to-ship umbilical, or aboard a shuttle? What is gained by hauling it all the way in-system? In deep space, at least, nobody is going to be sneaking up on you.
Essentially, this MechWarrior RPG scenario tasks the players with defending their castle against Batman. Just on first blush, it's going to be pointless to maintain a wide perimeter - he'll just take out guards or slip by them. A better option would be to concentrate your security at key chokepoints (Horst's bedroom, the outer vault, the inner vault) and hope to overwhelm any intruder with massed firepower. Put a reaction team in the wine cellar. If he gasses the team in the outer vault, the reserve team can open the secret door and storm in while the Nekekami agent is trying to use Horst's handprint to get the vault door open. (Even more fun - wait until the Nekekami agent is in the inner vault, then sneak in from the wine cellar and slam the outer vault door shut, tossing in some knock out gas of your own, first.)
Having spent the 80s and 90s reading Dragon Magazine, I always felt that BattleTech's RPG-side was undersupported, compared to what TSR was producing for D&D in its periodical. It's clear that, in this second issue, William Keith was clearly trying to establish Pacific Rim Publishing's BattleTechnology up as a source for RPG scenarios.
This initial offering looks like a lot of fun, assuming the GM doesn't go out of his/her way to screw the PCs with a betrayal by Sendic Henning. (A betrayal is warranted, though, if the PCs come up with a plan that, when paired with the Nekekami guidelines, will end the scenario prematurely in a curbstomp.)
The only problem I see is with the setup. (Granted - without a setup, there's no scenario, but...) Horst could have handed the book straight to the LIC, which is openly coordinating with MIIO at this point. The setup even states that the LIC has a large listening post on Port Moseby. Horst could have given the book to the Davion Ambassador on Port Moseby. (If Helm has a Davion Ambassador, Port Moseby has one.) Scan the book into a digital file and summon a ComStar courier to take it to the local HPG for transmission to the New Avalon.
I'm not even sure what good this data will do when it arrives. Horst's plan is to ship it via one of his own freighters to New Avalon. From Port Moresby, such a journey will take weeks (assuming the freighter is a DropShip getting Pony Expressed between JumpShips) or months (if the freighter he's using is a JumpShip going there jump-recharge-jump). As soon as the ISF became aware of the book's theft, they would have begun changing codes and alerting their agents. By the time that the book gets to the MIIO on New Avalon, 90% of its contents will be old news.
I do think content like this suffers from the contrivance that BattleTechnology is an in-universe publication. While that helps add immediacy to the news articles and interviews, it makes anything presented as game support material (presumably the primary role) awkward, since game stats wouldn't fit in an in-universe publication, and makes it unclear if the events in the "simulation" were based on canon in-universe events.