The PC’s have a friend from a local business they frequent… One day she is very upset and it shows. She is a pretty 20 something Chinese woman. She seems young and innocent. The nature of her problem is her boyfriend is missing and no one seems to care or is willing to help. {This may be a bit weak to involve some players, tinker with it as needed}
Her boyfriend is a guitarist known to play around the city in various clubs. He is also known to gamble in the Chinese area of the city. He is also owed the gambling clubs a ton of money. His best friend is the girlfriends’ cousin… He is very wary of the PC’s. Both he and the woman are illegal immigrants. The cousin also gambles and recently has paid off some large debts to the Chinese Mafia {Red Herring}. Even if the Police were to take the case seriously they’d avoid getting involved with the Chinese Mafia. Most will take bribes and or conclude that it is just a young guy running out on a relationship. (It will turn out she is pregnant but she will not offer this information and will be a shamed when/if it comes to light… she will experience morning sickness… the cousin has guessed this and told his friend) The cousin will not explain where he got all the money from he paid off his debts with. He is very good with martial arts and will fight back if pushed. He is often armed if approached at night. He is working as a drug courier but PC’s need not know it.
The missing boyfriend plays mostly with a band called “The Blinded Dragons.” The band features the girlfriends cousin on drums… he is an avid drug user and drinker. The singer is a gothic type girl… she is actually a runaway and under age but has several fake id’s. She uses drugs occasionally and hangs around with some rather bazaar friends… they keep to themselves at shows and she joins them between sets… it will be hard to tell who if anyone is her boyfriend in the odd bunch. The bass player is an older guy who has played with several people who played with stars back in their club days. He hangs in there somehow and will say the kids keep him feeling young. He is always a bit spaced out and can play just about anything by ear. The other guitarist also about 20 something works in a music store and only plays with them occasionally. Most of the band tend to sleep to noon and work odd jobs.
They mostly play covers of hard rock and some speed metal, borderline punk stuff… the 2nd guitarist hasn’t played with them in a while. The only reason he did was he is hot for the singer… after a show one night backstage he saw her giving oral sex to the missing guitarist behind some old equipment they had stored. They left together shortly after. Disgusted with chasing after her he went outside to tell her off… out of nowhere some of her friends roughed him up and told him to watch himself or else, or forget about her but his memory is very foggy about it. He’s glad he didn’t get a tattoo like the rest of the band. A red dragon head with a blindfold over its eyes…
The girlfriend will not know anything of the affair. Most times she works late and when she can go she leaves early after the first set. The singer if confronted will deny it… and storm off. Some people in the clubs will say she used to prostitute herself down by the industrial area of the city. It’s a dangerous spot and many girls go missing. Even the pimps are scared so many of the free independents work there not to catch a beating or some reprisals for hooking on some groups turf. A couple of blocks nearby there are some run-down seedy hotels and apartment housing the city has almost completely forgotten about. Many bums lay about in the darkness, some grouped for safety but the gangs generally rule the night here. Police try to avoid the area all they can. Some folks venture in and about for various drugs, guns and sex.
In the alleyway of on of the back streets of the Chinese district there is a secret club. They have several basement levels and tunnels to other basements and some warehouses with cock fights, death matches and an assortment of illegal gambling. The place is run by some serious dudes with a lot of muscle behind them and even more eyes and ears throughout the area.
High-class brothels and drug labs also bring in a lot of money. There are a few gangs in the area running protection shakedowns on local merchants most of which is controlled by the Chinese Mafia in some way or another. They get a cut of just about everything that goes on and keep all parties off balance… and pit others against each other to keep themselves strong. No matter how bad things get here almost no one will speak up to outsiders and a person of the culture could hide here for years if they had to. The boyfriend worked in a poultry slaughterhouse but they have not seen him and tell the PC’s he is certainly now fired anyhow. They have a large turn around. {Could be a sinister angle to work here}A worker may tell PC’s of the man’s gambling habits.
Several shops feature herbs, antiques, fruits and vegetables as well as just about anything else under the sun. People who have been smuggled in illegally pay off their debts by working endlessly in these shops and will do as they are told or be severely punished or killed. Some of the older generation will have charms or remedies for just about any reason or event being very superstitious. They may talk of strange things in the night even the mobsters avoid… and will go off on strange tales, legends or get confused and lose their place. {Some may have had/have glimpses through the Illusion}
If the Chinese Mafia gets wind of characters asking around about their activities or the missing guy they will check up on them over the next few days. When satisfied it is not a sting or action by law enforcement authorities they will arrange to “meet” with PC’s… and question them. They will want to know: Who they are? What do they want and is this a ruse to get the boyfriend out of paying them? What do the PC’s intend to do? If the girlfriend is with them to translate they will keep her as a means to draw out her boyfriend… they know also she is pregnant but will not say how… {Could be a strange angle here}He has 48 hours to appear and pay or they will cut her apart piece by pain-fully bloody piece. (There will be a large mirror in the room it is a one way mirror and if anyone is sensitive to things may sense a great evil or powerful force behind it… maybe even unnatural in some way that makes their skin crawl) If the girlfriend isn’t with them have her abducted and a means to get the PC’s to the meeting with the Mafia inquisitor. Build them up to be quite imposing and fearless of reprisal. Don’t hesitate to rough up PC’s these guys make people disappear for a living 24-7. {What is this “evil” they sensed? How does it fit into the Mafia? Is there something more to the Mafia Inquisitor who interrogates them?}
The missing boyfriend’s apartment is padlocked for non-payment of rent. The super can be bribed for access once. The second time he will get suspicious and chase off the PC’s. Unless they pay the owner the rent he won’t help. (He will lie about it and add to the amount due) The guy is just another deadbeat skipping out on the rent. Once inside the boyfriends apartment should they look in his bedroom closet, a thin man in a black leather jacket and a ski mask will bolt out and rush past PC’s. Crashing through the window (2nd or 3rd story depending on effect desired) and seem to be dead… lying still… if they rush down or observe the man he will rise up and run off apparently uninjured or disappearing if unobserved. The street and apartment should be too busy for this to take place in the daytime or serve up some other manner of obstructions to breaking in until the evening. The owner will come up with a shotgun 5 minutes after the window is broken. The Police will not arrive for some time in this neighborhood. How the PC’s deal with the slum lord owner should be interesting. Neighbors may peer from doors or windows but generally not get involved. They will have seen Mafia enforces looking for him recently and his weird friends have not been around lately. {Perhaps an observant PC may notice a tattoo on him as he passes by… maybe grab him and the jacket comes off. A clue can be found like a set of keys or directions… He should however, on matter what, manage to escape spectacularly! What did he come back for? Did he get it before interrupted…?}
If a PC should take a chance and call the missing mans name he will pause a moment and then continue on. A few minutes later… the phone will ring. An Asian voice will say… The boyfriend is dead to this life… forget him and stay away for your own sakes and promptly hang up. Some notes, card & letters can be found here from the girlfriend making her appear very needy and clingy. Maybe she drove him off with her plans for their future together. Some photos of the singer in lingerie, S & M type situations and his bed can be found in a shoebox in the bedroom closet. A hand gun (hasn’t been fired recently if tested and is not loaded)
There are two windows, gated to the fire escape and two in the rear one is slightly raised. (The
dust around it disturbed) Also inside the missing boyfriends apartment… there will be some missing items and traces of blood in the bedroom carpet… a window will be slightly ajar. When/if the PC’s search the place a second time… more items are missing. The landlord has been stealing a few little things… if PC’s gain access to his apartment and know what to look for there will be a box with some of the missing items. A pawnshop receipt can be found also in his wallet should things come to that. Maybe even some photos of the singer he stole from the apartment to implicate him further in the thefts. {He may be an new informant for the Mafia since they are looking for the boyfriend there and may report back what happened to thicken things up a bit}
In a few nights a club regular if asked or questioned previously will have some information for sale. He will say he saw the missing man in the industrial area with some of the singer’s friends.
He will lead them there… since most addresses are missing. It is a trap of course... once PC’s arrive they are lead to a darkened abandoned apartment house… someone will call for help from inside… when the PC’s enter it will be an ambush. The man with the mask will be there.
If appealed to as the boyfriend and told of his girlfriends fate he will act aloof and cold… but
if reminded of the baby… and his humanity appealed too he will be swayed and want to save her. The group he is with are the singers friends. They are also not what they appear and he has already crossed over the line somehow and joined them as child of the night or some kind of cult... 'so many options. He is still new to it and has residual feelings toward his old life. {Could it be he is some kind of special being and they let him get that much in debt to control him... How does the Mafia know about the baby...? Is the baby special too? Who is running the Chinese Mafia?}
I am open to suggestions where to take this from here... feel free to use this idea for any non-comercial application... lol! :-P