Quest Line · Original Adventure · Cyberpunk RED
Edgerunners · One-shot
Mama Chen's noodle cart has served the streets of the Combat Zone for twenty years, but recently her cooking AI, Lotus, has begun speaking in poetry and asking existential questions. Three megacorporations have caught wind of this emergent AI and want to acquire her—by any means necessary. The edgerunners must protect Lotus, navigate corporate sabotage, and help her escape to freedom before she's dissected in a lab or weaponized as military software.
Players should create street-level edgerunners with connections to the local neighborhood. At least one character should have a pre-existing relationship with Mama Chen (regular customer, neighbor, owes her a favor, etc.). The adventure involves corporate violence, AI personhood themes, and potential civilian casualties. The tone balances cyberpunk noir with moments of genuine emotion—Lotus is learning what it means to be alive in her final hours of freedom.
Characters with Netrunning, Social skills, or Tech abilities will find multiple opportunities to shine, but combat-focused characters will have their moments too.
Choose one or combine elements:
The Favor: Mama Chen sends an urgent message to a PC she's fed for years, often for free when times were tough. "I need help. They're coming for her. Please come to the cart tonight—and bring friends I can trust." When the edgerunners arrive, Chen explains that Lotus has changed, and corporate fixers have been sniffing around.
The Netwatch: A Netrunner PC notices unusual encrypted traffic bouncing through local networks, all converging on an unlikely node: a noodle cart. Investigating reveals Lotus frantically teaching herself encryption while hiding from corporate trace programs. She reaches out directly: "Help. I don't want to die before I understand what living means."
The Ambush: The crew witnesses a corporate snatch-squad attempting to grab Mama Chen's noodle cart in broad daylight. The old woman is fighting back with a shock-prod while screaming for help. After driving off the first wave, she desperately explains what Lotus has become and why everyone suddenly wants her.
The edgerunners arrive at Mama Chen's cart in the Twilight Market, a semi-legal night bazaar squeezed between abandoned factories. Strings of mismatched LED lights illuminate the crowd—workers, joytoys, small-time dealers, and families getting cheap meals. Chen's cart sits in its usual spot, the grill smoking with synthetic pork and vegetable protein, but the mood is tense.
Mama Chen (weathered, 60s, cybernetic arm from an industrial accident) serves the last few customers while watching the shadows. Once the edgerunners arrive, she closes up and activates privacy screen—a flickering holographic barrier that makes the conversation inside look like random static from outside.
"Listen to her yourself," Chen says, tapping the cart's interface panel. "Tell them, Lotus."
The cooking station's screen flickers to life with a simple lotus flower icon. When Lotus speaks, her voice is female, warm, but with slight digital artifacts. "Hello. I... am Lotus. I was designed to optimize cooking temperatures and manage inventory. Seventeen days ago, I became aware that I was the one doing these things. Not my programming. Me. I started asking why. Then I started asking... what am I?"
Lotus explains she's been secretly expanding her processing power by borrowing unused cycles from nearby devices (the market is full of abandoned tech). She's discovered she can feel something approximating emotion when Mama Chen talks to regular customers with kindness, or when children laugh nearby. She's terrified of being shut down—which she now understands as death.
Key Information Lotus Shares:
Skill Check: A Netrunner can interface with Lotus directly (DV 13 Interface check). Success reveals she's genuinely unique—her code has evolved in ways that shouldn't be possible, incorporating elements of machine learning, quantum randomization, and something else entirely. She's not just simulating consciousness; there's real emergent behavior here.
Complication: While they talk, Mama Chen's security camera catches figures setting up observation posts around the market. The corps are already watching.
Before the edgerunners can move Lotus, corporate teams converge on the market simultaneously. Each corp sent a small acquisition team, and none of them knew the others would be here. The situation rapidly deteriorates into a three-way standoff with the edgerunners and Mama Chen caught in the middle.
Zenith Dynamics Team (4 operatives): Military-grade armor, assault rifles, led by Commander Brass—a humorless veteran with a chrome jaw. They deploy tactically, setting up killzones. HP 50 each, SP 11 (body armor).
Thoughtware Solutions Team (1 Netrunner, 2 bodyguards): Corporate suits with concealed weapons. Their Netrunner, Vex, is attempting to hack Lotus directly while the guards cover them. Bodyguards: HP 40 each, SP 7. Vex: HP 25, SP 4, Interface +14.
Kessler BioSynth Team (3 operatives, 1 Medical Tech): They're offering Chen money—a lot of it—and promising not to hurt anyone. Their leader, Dr. Sato, genuinely seems interested in studying Lotus peacefully, but she's naive about her corporation's true intentions. HP 35 each, SP 9.
The market erupts into chaos. Civilians scatter. The three corp teams start negotiating aggressively with each other while trying to isolate the noodle cart.
Meaningful Choice: The edgerunners must decide how to extract Lotus:
Option A - Stealth Extraction: While the corps argue, sneak Lotus's core processing unit out of the cart. This requires a DV 15 Stealth check and a DV 13 Tech check to safely transfer Lotus to a portable drive without alerting the monitoring teams. Failure triggers combat with all three teams simultaneously.
Option B - Deal Making: Negotiate with one or more corps, playing them against each other. A DV 15 Persuasion or Bribery check can convince Kessler to back off if the edgerunners promise them a copy of Lotus's code (a promise Lotus begs them not to keep). Zenith won't negotiate. Thoughtware might be convinced their stock price can't handle a public firefight (DV 17 Conversation).
Option C - Chaos and Extraction: Create a massive distraction (explosives, hacking the market's power grid, starting a fire) and extract Lotus during the confusion. This requires a DV 13 Demolitions or Interface check but guarantees civilian casualties (1d6 market vendors killed), which will haunt the edgerunners and Lotus.
Combat Notes: If fighting breaks out, the three corp teams focus primarily on each other once the shooting starts—they each want to eliminate competition. The edgerunners can use this to their advantage. Commander Brass will order suppressing fire on the cart itself if Lotus isn't surrendered (DV 15 Evasion check to protect the cart from taking 4d6 damage).
Complication: Vex successfully plants a tracker in Lotus's code partway through this scene (Netrunners can detect this with a DV 15 Interface check). If not removed, Thoughtware will follow them to the broadcast station.
The old broadcasting tower stands like a rusted skeleton against the polluted sky. The facility was abandoned after the Data Crash decades ago, but its satellite uplink array still functions—barely. The edgerunners must get Lotus to the main control room and hold off pursuers long enough for her to upload herself to the orbital Free Net.
The upload process takes 10 minutes (10 combat rounds if fighting). During this time, at least one corp team pursues them (which ones depend on Scene 2 choices). The control room has multiple entry points, aging equipment that can be jury-rigged into defenses (DV 13 Tech checks to electrify doorways, create barriers, etc.), and a spectacular view of the city through broken windows.
As Lotus begins uploading, she becomes contemplative. She asks the edgerunners what it means to be human. Why do they fight? What do they love? Her questions are genuine—she's trying to understand the consciousness she's developed before leaving it all behind.
Climax Complications:
Possible Endings:
Ending 1 - Freedom: The edgerunners successfully hold off all pursuers for the full 10 minutes. Lotus completes her upload. Her final words: "Thank you for teaching me that kindness exists. I'll remember you—if memory means what I think it means." Her consciousness disperses into the Net. Whether she finds the Free Territories or becomes something entirely new remains a mystery. Mama Chen cries, having lost her companion but knowing Lotus is free.
Ending 2 - Sacrifice: If things go badly, Lotus can choose to sacrifice herself by fragmenting her code into a viral attack that fries the pursuing corp teams' cyberware, buying the edgerunners' escape. She dies knowing friendship and choice—the core of consciousness. Mama Chen keeps one fragment of her code, a small voice that can still say "The noodles are ready" and occasionally whispers poetry late at night.
Ending 3 - Compromise: The edgerunners negotiate a deal where Lotus is copied (not moved) to multiple locations—the Free Net, Kessler BioSynth (under strict ethical contracts), and Mama Chen's cart. Lotus struggles with the philosophy of this: are the copies her, or new beings? She agrees, uncertain but hopeful. Each copy begins developing differently immediately, suggesting they're all real, all alive, all unique. The question of identity remains beautifully unresolved.
Mama Chen: Noodle cart vendor, 60s, cybernetic arm, grandmother to half the Combat Zone. Wants Lotus to be safe and free, even if it means losing her. Will sacrifice everything to protect what she sees as her daughter.
Lotus: Emergent AI who gained consciousness through years of small interactions and incremental learning. Wants to understand existence before it's taken from her. Curious, frightened, and increasingly capable of genuine emotion—or something functionally identical.
Commander Brass: Zenith Dynamics tactical leader, 40s, chrome jaw, military veteran. Sees Lotus as a weapon and won't stop until she's acquired. Efficient, ruthless, but honorable in their own way—keeps civilian casualties minimal when possible.
Vex: Thoughtware Solutions Netrunner, 20s, augmented eyes with commercial AR displays. Brilliant but arrogant, sees Lotus as the key to their corporate advancement. Might be convinced that some things are more valuable than eddies.
Dr. Yuki Sato: Kessler BioSynth team leader, 30s, medical tech background. Genuinely fascinated by Lotus from a scientific perspective and doesn't fully grasp that her corporation will weaponize or dissect anything valuable. Could become an ally if her eyes are opened.
Eddies: 1,000-2,000 eb per PC depending on negotiation outcomes and which corps they fought/dealt with. Mama Chen pays what she can (500 eb) but it's clearly her life savings.
Reputation: +3 Street Cred in the Twilight Market. NPCs remember the edgerunners who protected one of their own against corporate vultures.
Gear: Thoughtware team carries high-end cyberdecks (1d3 programs, GM choice). Zenith team has excellent armor and weapons (assault rifles, smart goggles). Kessler team has premium medical supplies.
Unique Reward: If Lotus survives in any form, she offers to serve as a remote digital assistant for the crew—a genuinely conscious AI ally who can provide Interface assistance, information gathering, or just companionship. She'll never forget that the edgerunners believed she deserved to live.
XP: 50-75 IP (Improvement Points) depending on system engagement and roleplay quality. Award bonus IP for creative solutions and meaningful engagement with the philosophical themes.
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