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Road Hogs: Chronicles of Redemption
Chapter 9: The Skyline Swindle
Adventure 9: The High-Rise Heist
Eight good deeds were marked in their ledger of redemption, leaving only four remaining before Morwen’s curse would be shattered forever. The highway climbed into the clouds, leading the Road Hogs to a sprawling, high-tech metropolis built on sheer mountain peaks. The adventure generator tables configured their next target:
| Element | Result | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Town Type | Bustling or busy | Apex City, a vertical wonderland of glass towers and flying transit tracks. |
| Noteworthy Feature | High-tech or futuristic | Holographic billboards and automated delivery drones dominate the sky. |
| The Scenario | Recover stolen goods | Reclaiming a stolen hard drive containing the city's life-support codes. |
| The Location | The Zenith Penthouse | A luxury top-floor apartment accessible only by glass elevators. |
| The Objective | Corporate Espionage | A corrupt corporate executive has stolen the data to sell to a rival cartel. |
| The Complication | Automated Security Lockout | The building's defense AI goes haywire, trapping everyone in the penthouse. |
The Road Hogs parked their choppers in an underground transit bay at the base of the Zenith Tower. As they adjusted their jackets, an anxious elven technician named Janice intercepted them near the express lift.
Janice: You have to help me! My boss, Director Sterling, just stole the master encryption drive containing the environmental grid codes for the whole upper district. He is up in the Zenith Penthouse finalizing a sale to an illegal cartel. But something went wrong—he activated a corporate security override, and now the tower's defense AI has gone rogue, locking down the top floors with deadly automated security drones!
Perry: A rogue AI and a crooked executive. That sounds like a very expensive mess, Janice. Why not just cut the power to the building?
Janice: If the power drops completely, the atmospheric stabilizers fail, and the city suffocates! Someone needs to get up to the penthouse, bypass the defense grid, and take that drive back before the cartel's stealth transport arrives at the roof pad!
Buster: Automated drones mean we do not have to hold back our punches. Let us take the express elevator.
Mac: The main elevator shaft is completely shut down by the security grid. We will have to climb the maintenance crane on the exterior of the building and hotwire the penthouse window washing platform to sneak inside. Buster, get ready to manipulate the heavy counterweights manually.
🎲 Challenge: Forcing the frozen mechanical gears of the exterior maintenance rig eighty stories up
GM Designations: Brawny Challenge | Difficulty: 5
Player Dice Pool: Buster tackles the frozen winch mechanism. He rolls 3 dice (Matches Brawny Trait). True to his Stubborn quirk, he refuses to wait for Mac to hack the digital brake, hauling the raw steel cables with pure muscle, increasing the difficulty to 6!
Dice Result: [1, 6, 4]
Outcome: Success! The 6 hits the maximum difficulty line. The gears snap into place with a shower of sparks, lifting the platform to the penthouse ledge, and Buster recovers 1 Resolve Token!
Buster: *Ugh!* Who needs a digital override when you have got arms like these? Watch your step, boys, it is a very long drop down to the lower highway.
They smashed through the reinforced glass balcony door, stepping right into the opulent, white-marble living room of the Zenith Penthouse. Red emergency lights flashed across the ceiling, and three levitating defense drones equipped with laser apertures immediately turned toward them, humming with lethal energy. At the far side of the room, Sterling and two cartel agents were cowering behind a bar counter, holding the glowing data drive.
Perry: Looks like the welcoming committee is automated. Let us clean the room before the tech salesman skips town.
Laser Grid Lockdown
The Hogs fanned out across the marble floor as the rogue security drones opened fire, burning lines into the expensive furniture.
⚔️ Combat Challenge: Dismantle the rogue defense drones and secure the encryption drive
GM Designations: Agile/Crafty Battle | Effort Tokens Required: 6
Round 1: Mac slides across the slick marble to slice the drone power lines!
Dice Pool: 3 dice (Agile). Difficulty: 5.
Dice Result: [5, 5, 3] — Exceptional Success!
Outcome: 2 successes remove 2 Effort Tokens. Mac clips the internal wiring of the first drone, causing it to crash and explode! (Remaining Effort: 4).
Round 1: Perry uses his wits to hijack the cartel agents' communication frequency!
Dice Pool: 3 dice (Crafty). Difficulty: 5.
Dice Result: [1, 2, 4] — Failure.
Action: Perry uses his Gift of Gab to broadcast a fake evacuation announcement through their earpieces, spending 1 Karma Token to lower the difficulty to 4. The 4 now counts as a success!
Outcome: 1 success removes 1 Effort Token. The cartel agents flee toward the emergency stairs! (Remaining Effort: 3).
Round 1: Buster swats the remaining drones with a luxury sculpture!
Dice Pool: 3 dice (Brawny). Difficulty: 5.
Dice Result: [5, 6, 2] — Exceptional Success!
Outcome: 2 successes remove 2 Effort Tokens. (Remaining Effort: 1).
Mac rolled behind a leather sofa, came up spinning, and launched his heavy wire-cutters straight into the sensory lens of the lead drone. The machine sputtered sparks, veered wildly out of control, and smashed face-first into a large holographic aquarium, shorting out instantly.
Meanwhile, the two cartel agents took one look at Buster lifting a massive abstract bronze statue over his head and decided the paycheck was not worth the medical bill. They scrambled past Director Sterling and bolted straight down the fire escape stairs, leaving the executive completely alone.
Sterling: Wait! Come back! You can't leave me with these... these monsters!
⚔️ Combat Challenge: Shuting Down the Final Threat (1 Effort Remaining)
Round 2: Mac executes a technical shutdown on the primary console!
Dice Pool: 3 dice (Agile). Difficulty: 5.
Dice Result: [2, 5, 4] — Success!
Outcome: The final Effort Token is removed. The defense system is disabled and Sterling is cornered!
Mac lunged across the main executive desk, tapping a rapid diagnostic sequence into the master override pad. The red emergency lights instantly flickered over to a calm blue, and the final defense drone dropped harmlessly to the carpet, its engines powering down completely. Buster stepped up behind Director Sterling, plucking the glowing encryption drive out of his trembling hand like a grape.
Buster: I believe this belongs to the citizens of Apex City, slick. Your corporate career just reached its final floor.
Nine Down, Three to Go
By the time the Apex City corporate security squads arrived via flying transports to take Director Sterling into custody, Janice had the encryption drive safely re-installed into the main grid terminal, stabilizing the city's air supply.
Janice: You three are absolute legends! You saved the entire upper district from environmental collapse. The municipal board has authorized a lifetime supply of high-grade synthetic fuel credits for your bikes!
Perry: Free fuel is the best kind of fuel, Janice. Keep those AI systems on a shorter leash from now on.
As they stepped back onto the window-washing platform to head down to their bikes, a powerful, swirling current of violet magic enveloped their heads. Mac gripped his ears as they began to itch furiously. When the light faded, Perry looked at him and grinned. The long, floppy pig ears were entirely gone, replaced by normal human ears. Only their prominent pig snouts and tusks remained from Morwen's original spell.
Mac: Look at that! Nine good deeds down! We can actually hear the wind without all that flapping, boys!
Perry: Nine down, three to go. The finish line is practically in sight. Just a few more wrongs to right, and we can finally look in a standard mirror without laughing.
Buster: Then let us get back down to the asphalt level. The engines are cool, the tanks are full, and the highway is waiting.
The three choppers roared to life in the mountain air, their exhaust echoing through the high canyons of Apex City as the Road Hogs dove back onto the open road, tracking down their tenth path to full redemption...
The journey approaches its climax! Road Hogs combines high-octane action with the fast, narrative-driven rules of the Tricube Tales system.
Grip the handlebars and forge your own destiny across the blacktop in this fantastic setting created by Richard Woolcock.
👉 You can find it here: DriveThruRPG - Road Hogs
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