Traveller Adventure: Concrete Shoes

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Concrete Shoes


An adventure for Classic Traveller Little Black Books set in the city of Athens on Elysium, a TL8 agrarian world.

Summary
After the run-in with Victor Marconi's goon squad during The Trouble With Textiles, the characters want a face-to-face with him.

Background
Victor Marconi's name carries weight in the criminal underground of Athens. He's an underboss for the Marconi family, running operations in Athens and the surrounding areas. He works as the Special Projects Manager at Marconi Construction, a position which gives him incredible leeway to schedule extracurricular activities as needed. He rarely gets involved directly, preferring to send his amoral lover Claudia Frey to take care of the dirty work. He has access to a small army, a mercenary strike team and a cache of firearms if needed.

He will agree to see the characters without an appointment if they mention anything about the Vesper family. Otherwise he'll have his assistant schedule a meeting for the following day. The Marconi Construction offices are comfortable, but not ostentatious. The characters will meet with Victor and Claudia in a conference room around a long polished table that can seat 20. Victor will ask Claudia to step outside if the characters insist on speaking to him alone.

Adventure
Victor is a businessman at heart. If it boosts his bottom line he'll listen to the characters, but he's not afraid to intimidate or break a few kneecaps to get his way. The Vesper situation can be resolved if 30 suits of Cloth armor are delivered to Victor in 3 days for retail price - the original request was for 50 suits in 2 days for 75% of retail. Victor will not help get the factory back online, but the characters should be able to find enough suits of Cloth in 2 days by using Streetwise, Admin, Liason and Broker skills in the Cronus Downport.

If the characters managed to capture Claudia in the dust-up during The Trouble With Textiles, then Victor will offer much more reasonable terms to get her back - he will pay to get the factory repaired and stand in line for his armor like everybody else. However, he'll look for an opportunity to get revenge on the characters.

If the characters held their own against Claudia's goon squad, Victor will offer to leave the Vespers alone if the characters agree to do a job for him. Details of the job appear in An Errand for Victor.

If the characters ask about the data crystal planted during Stop, Thief?, Victor will ask for CR 1500 to reveal the name of the person who wanted it planted and taken off-planet. He was approached by Marcus Lee, a member of the Elysium Guard here in Athens, to make it go away.

If the meeting goes badly, Victor will ask the characters to leave and continue sending goons to the factory until the Vespers have no choice but to leave Elysium or submit and become Victor's indentured servants. If the characters try to attack Victor, the entire office will come alive and fight them, Claudia first.

Victor Marconi (UPP 77A589 Bribery-2, Cutlass-1, Gambling-1, Leader-1, Streetwise-1 Items: Cutlass, TL14 Long Range Communicator) rarely wears his cutlass, but always has it within easy reach. His greatest weapon is his communicator, with which he can summon...

6 Mercenary Strike Team Members (typical UPP 798645 ACR-2 DM +2 for Dex, Air/Raft-1, Blade-1 Items: Blade, ACR with HE rounds, 3 spare magazines, Mesh armor - feel free to personalize them with different skills and extra equipment) will home in on Victor's communicator and arrive via Air/Raft within 90 seconds. They are well paid and as loyal as money can make them.

Claudia Frey (UPP 897647 Gauss Rifle-2, Brawling-1, ATV-1 Items: Mesh armor, Gauss Rifle) will be in or just outside the conference room where Victor meets the characters, so she'll be the first on the scene if anything happens. She'll brawl since she keeps her Gauss Rifle hidden in the company ATV, but she'll have at least 6 goons to back her up - more if the characters successfully defended themselves during The Trouble With Textiles.

40 Goons (UPP 868444 Baseball Bat-1 DM +2 for Strength, Brawling-1 Items: Baseball Bat) can be assembled and outfitted within 4 hours.

Further Hooks
If the characters capture Victor, then they'll be hunted down by Anthony Marconi, the head of the Marconi Family. Anthony has a planet-spanning network of criminals and mercenaries, so unless the characters retreat to the relative safety of space they probably won't survive the next 48 hours.