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The Snows Harvest
INTRODUCTION:
Valentin Danilenko has long been trying to uncover who distributes the Western drugs to the youth in Taganka, and though he knows of several dealers operating within the area he is at this time only concerned with one who uses children to distribute the poison. Having located one of the dealer’s crew, Mihail, he watches and waits, using the Izbushka children as his ears and eyes.
Mihail works for Sergei Markevich, one of the player’s characters. Mihail is among Sergei’s crew of seven, three of the crew being player characters as well. Sergei, when organising a distribution, brings the group together to pick-up the drugs from Mafia sources and then distribute them. It saves him having to carry the drugs and be busted.
When Mihail receives the word from Sergei of a pick-up of the latest shipment the following day, Mihail is grabbed by the Izbushka children and taken to the Izbushka where Mihail meets with an eager Valentin. Valentin, in private rooms, tortures Mihail into telling where the drug pick-up will take place and the time. Left bleeding, Valentin leaves Mihail and tells those Izbushka children who grabbed Mihail to intercept the Mafia, murder and steal the drugs - he has a plan to stop the dealer from ever using his western corruption on the children again.
The day of the pick-up, Valentin’s children surprise and gun down the Mafia who manage to retaliate and slay one of the Izbushka children, but the attack is brutal and unexpected. The two Mafia fall to the bullets and the Izbushka children complete Valentin’s plan, taking the cocaine and fleeing in a van to a glass warehouse, burning their comrade’s body before leaving.
There at the warehouse they go about cutting the cocaine with crushed glass. Meanwhile at the Izbushka, Valentin brainwashes Mihail into a stupor of servitude and numbly accepts Valentin’s proposals - to distribute the cocaine cut with the glass.
This adventure is the beginning of a slow persecution from the Mafia against Sergei and his crew.
EVENTS
These scenes I used to disorientate and delay game play - these were improvised as necessary and some may prove useful plot devices later...
Dimitrii & Sergei: At the meeting with the Mafia Dimitrii may be accused by Stefan who has never trusted this freak. Sure, the younger kids, fine, but Stefan doesn’t trust him a bit. Send Sergei a note saying that Dimitrii had the opportune moments to do it. He has the intelligence, the strength, and the will. Who knows what friends he keeps. This could be tied in with the cars following Dimitrii and the men entering a building after Dimitrii.
Sergei: At the Kotelnicheskaya Apartments, as he is opening his door he hears children screaming further down the corridor. If he follows the sounds it seems to be coming through a service door beyond the T-intersection. If he inspects through the door he will find a long metal floored corridor, the plaster falling off in places. The further he goes the darker it gets (it grows cold and there is the sound of water slapping against the side of something, like he was in a boat) - the first gate of Binah. SEE THE ARCHBISHOP UNDER SLAVES OF THE WILL SECTION FOR MORE INFORMATION HERE.
Dimitrii: Notices black cars, tinted windows following him. If he is alone and tries to evade them he will see four men get out of the car with Makarovs. They are pasty-faced and walk stiffly. They search for him, and he should be allowed to escape.
AT THE RUSALKA one of the character’s is grabbed by the black and white robbed Izbushka children and told to repent his ways, give up the sins of a Western culture and accept the one true way into their lives. Give up capitalism - the Izbushka get overeager and try to tear the Western clothes off the character…
WALKING AWAY FROM THE RUSALKA AT NIGHT they hear the repeated screams of a girl not too far from where they are. If they get closer they find themselves in dark and cold alleyways. The screams stop. If they look they might find shredded and bloodied clothes.
SCENE 1:
Sergei Markevich is contacted by Svyatoslav Borisov and told of the arrival of four kilograms of cocaine, he ordered from the Mafia, has arrived and that he should pick up the product the following day at the Kaltinovskie Cemetery (west side gazebo) at midday and bring payment of 500 million rubles. Sergei, in usual fashion to avoid the handling of the drugs as usual will contact his crew and arrange meeting at the location together.
The Kaltinovskie Cemetery, located behind the Pet Market was used to dispose of bodies during the Red Terror - so many bodies were tipped into pits at night that the Illusion broke through and dogs and other creatures gathered to scavenge on the corpses, leaving limbs strewn about everywhere.
Mihail will not turn up which may concern Sergei, but the rest of his crew shall - six in all, including the three player characters.
The stink of the pet market drifts with falling grey snow here, urine and feces mixed in an ammonia coctail. Out of the drifting snow masoleums and pointed sanctums peek over the cracked and grimed wall surrounding the cemetery. Snow presses the sides. Tunnels of granite vaults burrow into the ancient graveyard, the scent of decay and pollution ripe, and statues glare down within hidden folds of sepulchures smeared in soot and snow.
The characters should not feel safe. Play on their fears of being within a labyrinth of crypts, statues appearing and disappearing. Muted animal screams and the howl of wind through the channels of masoleums.
Having wound their way through the mires of the dead the come across the gazebo crouched under the west wall. Polluted snow nearly entrenches the sides of the building whose arches are arabesqued in byzantine whorls. Inside two bodies lie bullet-ridden, blood icing the dull stone. Both men are dressed in heavy trenchcoats and their Makarov pistols lie scattered and nearly emptied.
The men’s bodies are ridiculously filled with bullets. Inspection reveals they were shot from behind first. The bullets range from their legs to their heads and at least twenty in each man. Both men are heavily tattooed, as in the style of Mafia men. A cellular phone on one of the men is still working, untouched by the attack. 90,000 rubles can be found upon their selves. The stone is peppered with bullet holes. More blood lies sprayed further along the west wall of the cemetery and the characters will note the trenches of movement of other people (more than five it seems) and if they search deep enough - bullet casings from Klashnikov machine guns (7.62mm) - at least 50. A trail of dark snow (blood-stained) leads from the point of the casings back along the trail.
Following the trail the characters will find the west gate and beside it a blackened and charred body of a man. This is the Izbushka child shot by the Mafia dealers and later burned with petroel.
Allow the characters to investigate, fret, and panic. Unknown to them Izbushka children observe them and their actions, take photographs and follow them - notice their meeting with the Mafia and report back to Valentin.
SCENE 2:
Should Sergei contact Svyatoslav about the incident it will work in their favour, but only barely - Stefan will still be furious and arrange the meeting anyway.
By late afternoon Svyatoslav Borisov becomes concerned and calls his dealers and, receiving no answer, goes to Stefan who sends Kirill with Svyatoslav to investigate the Gazebo. They will find the bodies unless they have been removed, the bullet casing, and whatever is left and then return to Stefan. Stefan will not be happy and calls Sergei Markevich asking him and his crew to meet with them at the Gazebo in the Kaltinovskie Cemetery, not allowing Sergei to explain or deny. Stefan tells him that he will see him there at 6pm.
In the fading light Stefan will await Sergei, who may or may not turn up. Should he not Stefan and his Mafia crew will hunt out Sergei and the punishment will be two deaths a day (see below). Should Sergei arrive with his crew then he will get off lighter.
Stefan will be awaiting Sergei with Kirill and Svyatoslav (who cradles a Klashnikov AK47). Stefan is not happy. No money. No drugs. Two men dead. First things first Stefan wants the 500 million rubles, and he then waits for Sergei to explain the situation. He is not too sure that Sergei is telling the truth and if they say it wasn’t them he wants them to uncover who did it - he doesn’t care that they say they didn’t murder his men, but he knows that only they knew about the meeting other than his men. Stefan will nod to Kirill who will walk behind the group, move forward, unholster his Tokarev while Stefan keeps them occupied with conversation saying, as Kirill moves forward to one of the crew at the back (not a player character), that until they solve this problem one of his crew will suffer for every day unsolved. With that Kirill blows a hole through the head of one of Sergei’s crew making sure the splatter sprays them. The shot is loud ending Stefan’s words and the body silently drops to the ground.
Stefan continues as they are shocked, that once his crew are dead he will move on to Natalya, and then his family. Stefan, Kirill and Svyatoslav then leave without any more explanation.
SCENE 3:
If the characters do not begin searching one crew member will be slain each day. No warning. A hit from nowhere. The remaining two NPC crew members will flee the following day and they will be the next targeted, their bodies dumped at a conveinient location so Sergei witnesses it.
Mihail is given small bags of cocaine to distribute that evening and begins distributing it over the next seven hours, offering it to youths and to one dealer not associated with the Mafia.
Where they can investigate for now -
Other Dealers in Taganka
No other dealer will know of any cocaine except Nikolai Studenov (known as the Anarchist) a small time dealer, ex-science student who makes his own LSD and sells it on the side at local clubs. If approached by Sergei he will, for a small amount of money, tell him that he was recently offered cocaine by a young boy and gives his description… dirty, street kid, denim jacket with Aquarium patch on the back (Sergei will recognise it as Mihail)
Mihail’s slum
Located in the high-rise slums built south of Taganka during the 70’s, the buildings have fallen into disuse and ruin, some even hazardous to living. They are bleak square buildings, an after effect of Stalin’s demise and modernist construction. Square, stone and steel.
Mihail slummed it out in the basement of one of these behemoths, using the caretaker’s telephone as his personal contacting service. The only way to the basement is down a rusted and squealing metal staircase. The light bulbs glow with brown light, so heavily caked in grime as they are. Through long hallways lined with rusted and noisy pipes lost in darkness they eventually arrive at the caretaker’s room where Mihail’s slum is a mess, his bed overturned and magazines scattered carelessly - his phone torn from the wall and smashed against one wall.
GAME INFORMATION:
That night youth at the Rusalka nightclub will purchase cheap cocaine from the shady Mihail and it will be their last high - cut with glass which will rip their lungs and throat. They end up dead by the end of the evening. Only nine youths purchase from the brainwashed Mihail who walks around like a zombie, his demeanor putting off more people than his drugs attract. At the Rusalka bouncers uncover the bodies in the toilets and inform Anastasia - the owner.
Izbushka children watching report to Valentin who hoped the Mafia would simply murder the dealer he now identifies with photographs. If Sergei returns home the Izbushka children supply Valentin with the information where Sergei lives. Thinking a conspiracy underfoot he sends some of his children to murder Sergei the next evening, they lie in wait for him near the Kotelnicheskaya Apartments and when they ambush him at the entrance it will alert Sandolphin to their presence…
SCENE 4:
The next day, Anastaisa Zotov, owner of the Rusalka contacts Sergei and asks him and his crew to meet with her at the Rusalka. NOTE: the two NPC crew members do not show. One will turn up dead, later on. The characters are let in by Anastasia’s two bouncers who follow them to the bar where Anastasia sips on brandy, two more bouncers behind her. She tells Sergei and the crew that she doesn’t want them dealing their drugs here any more and if she sees them doing so she will deal with it.
If they ask why she tells them that last night nine youths wound up dead in her nightclub - the product of cocaine supplied by one of his crew, Mihail. She possessed the drugs and uncovered they were cut with glass (she won’t listen to explanations). They can have Mihail back - he couldn’t speak a word of sense. Two bouncers move off and retrieve Mihail who limps like a zombie, his face blackened and bruised (care of the bouncers). Anastasia has them escorted from the club.
Mihail is deluded and weak. He can’t talk properly (he babbles about "the father")because of a swollen lip and the characters will have to wait until the next day for him to speak or they can let him go, in which case he will stumble back to the glass warehouse where they can follow. Mihail’s body has been scarred, his back flogged, arms cut, nipples removed and castrated - should they check.
SCENE 5:
This happens the second day when Sergei returns to the Kotelnicheskaya Apartments. Three Izbushka children (not dressed in their robes) equiped with Makarov’s (the weapons he took from Sergei Taranushenko’s room - he purchased the weapons to use against Sandolphin) will rush from across the street through the snow firing madly (they are not that skilled - 6 in Firearms) at him and whoever is close all the while running toward him. After several rounds of fire and panic Sandolphin notices the children and appears to drag them to purgatories above.
Everything will deepen horribly black and the snow swirls madly into a deafening blizzard… the characters may make out the Izbushka children buffeted and carried up into the air. Whatever the result the blizzard passes and the Izbushka children are gone.
SCENE 6:
The warehouse is place the characters should travel to uncover the thieves and murderers whose actions place the characters’ lives in danger. They can locate the warehouse by interrogating the weak-minded Mihail, letting him loose and following him or by trying to uncover where someone would get glass (possibly uncovering the old glass factory). Though this relies heavily on Mihail - he is the key to the adventure after all.
Located along the Moskva river, south of the Taganka Ploshchad (the square surrounded by the Metro), the old factory can be found. Abandoned in the late 70’s due to dangerous working conditions and too many deaths due to glass dust inhalation the warehouse was left to rot. A steel construction of old furnaces, smoke stacks and piping it now rusts under a shield of snow overlooking the stagnant river.
The Izbushka children will play a deadly game of cat and mouse with the characters and use their Klashnikov AKR’s. Lead the characters through an industrial graveyard, sheets of glass, piles of molten glass, etc. There is no plan, but make it a dangerous and evasive chase. The characters can either murder the Izbushka children remaining (four) or capture them. The drugs can be found in the office blocks of the factory on tables, cut with glass - totally useless.
OUTCOME:
If the characters contact the Mafia and alert them to the children the Mafia will arrive and inspect, find the characters innocent and leave - the award for this adventure the characters’ survival. Relations with the Mafia have soured, Crew are dead, money is lost, drugs are lost, and no answers to why these children did what they did.