Wellstone City Wednesday – The Shadow of the Blackhand

Yesterday morning, the Chief of Police was captured by a rogue cell from within Blackhand Security. They car jacked him and kidnapped him outside of his home while he was on his way to work; this was part of an ongoing series of hits between the police and Blackhand in the Battery. The carjacking and kidnapping is by far the boldest move, but the police are worried about escalation. The media has been made aware of this, but so far, they are managing to keep a lid on it.

The PCs hear about the incidents from a rogue member of Blackhand Security; he just wants it all to stop before things turn to an all-out war between the private security force and the police. A duo of Albanians has also been tapped; they are fresh upstarts that want to gain a little influence by helping, but they know they are horribly out-gunned here, and they promise to give a little support to the PCs as needed.

The Police Chief’s family is putting up the reward for his safe return; it’s a modest $15,000, but that doesn’t mean that the PCs couldn’t leverage that into a favor later if they turn down the cash. Blackhand has given the Police 48 hours to release seven members of Blackhand Security as well as a large sum of money and guns that were stolen during a raid on a Blackhand warehouse. The exchange is supposed to happen in a couple of days at the same warehouse that got hit by the police.

The PCs are completely unaware that there is another player in this, a rogue DEA agent that has been playing both sides and having the cops and Blackhand take out strategic targets. Some of these are hard targets like the building, the Chief, and a raid on a customs clearing house at the Harbor a month ago. The other five hits have been soft targets and are merely meant to distract anyone who comes looking. A couple of cargo containers were hit three months ago by the police, a police impound yard was hit and three vehicles were stolen by Blackhand a couple of weeks after that. A number of police officers in the battery were assaulted by the rogue sector of the security force, which incited targeting Blackhand employees with aggressive vehicle checks and pulling over vehicles registered to Blackhand agents. Finally, the police struck back with a call to the IRS to have the leadership of the security firm targeted for audits.

The Chief’s wife wants her husband back; the force is being cooperative but closed with anyone working on the case because it’s an on-going investigation. The PCs will have to sort through several details on this adventure, and if they can figure out where the Chief is, they might be able to pull off a rescue operation before the exchange even takes place. The clock is ticking!

This entire adventure was constructed using the Wellstone City Adventure Generator! Check it out today to see what mayhem your characters can either cause or prevent…or both!