Background
Ricky Torrez couldn’t believe those assholes kicked him out. Gut Check was his band from the start. He built their sound from the ground up, he even came up with the name, and they had the balls to vote him out “because being in the band was starting to damage his health” and they “needed a bassist who won’t come on stage so geeked up he can’t read the setlist”. They even have a replacement lined up already! Fucking traitors. He didn’t know what they were gonna do without him hitting the streets and putting up flyers day and night, all he knew was he needed to get fucked up, bad, and he knew just who to talk to. His dealer Ian told him about some product he’s been selling around campus lately. The weird Jamaican dude that sold it to him said it was some sort of PCP-DMT-hybrid shit “that’ll blow your mind and take your soul to another level.”

Ricky never could have imagined how literal that would be.

This scenario is formatted for UA2e.

Setup
The PCs are seeing a mutual friend’s band (one of the PCs could be in the band, brought in to replace Ricky, if they are musically inclined, maybe some were invited by a band member, maybe some just happened to be there) perform at a house show in whatever town or city the GM prefers.

During the show, the band is attacked by a drugged out and furious Ricky but before he is able to cause major damage, his head explodes (Rank 4 Violence, Rank 5 Helplessness only for people who were good friends with Ricky). Any spiritually attuned PCs (someone with the Aura Sense skill for example) can notice the pale blue wisp of Ricky’s soul dart out of the stump of his neck and fly out through an open window (Rank 2 Unnatural) too quick to chase down. The show dies down rather quickly as most of the people in attendance freak out and run screaming from the house. Gut Check sticks around, quickly packing up their gear and making sure the attacked bandmate is okay before leaving with the rest of the panicked guests. The PCs can question the band during this time.

The members of Gut Check know that deep down Ricky was a good guy and while he may have been kicked out of the band, he was still a friend. Being a punk band, they trust their friends more than the cops to look into Ricky’s death. If they need a call to action that badly, they ask the PCs to try and get to the bottom of it. Being active participants of their local Occult Underground, the PCs know that getting the cops involved won’t do much good. Anybody who knew Ricky is familiar with him getting aggressive when he’s fucked up but it’s not much of a surprise that no one has ever heard of a drug that causes a person’s head to explode.

Clues from the Show
-Anybody who was close to Ricky knows that he has had trouble with drugs in the past, but whenever they’ve brought it up with him recently he’s said he kicked the habit
-Ricky is prone to rants when he gets angry, but he’s never gotten violent
-No one at the show heard gunshots
-Anybody who got a close look at Ricky before he died noticed that his eyes looked horribly blood-shot
-The last time the members of Gut Check saw Ricky was three days ago during practice at the frontman’s apartment. They were worried that keeping him in the band was making his drug habit worse so they all voted to kick him out. Ricky cursed them out before leaving. The band wasn’t sure where he went but they assumed he must have gone somewhere to buy drugs.

Clues from Ricky’s Body
Depending on the PC’s, searching through Ricky’s still twitching body could prompt some Rank 1 or 2 Self Tests.

-Ricky has a wallet with a driver’s license, an ATM card, three guitar picks, some rolling papers and $15 cash.
-Ricky’s phone is full of contacts, mostly friends, family, girls, and drug dealers; almost all first names or nicknames.
-He has a key ring with keys to his car, his apartment, his gym locker, and a lockbox under his bed. It’s likely at least one of the PCs have been to his place a few times and can remember the address. If not, any member of Gut Check knows Ricky’s address and will reveal the information if asked.
-There are small amounts of an ash-like red dust on his clothing.

By now the PCs should have enough clues and reason to start figuring out what happened to Ricky. The fastest way to get to the bottom of things is to track down Ian, the dealer that sold him the drug, and get him to out his supplier, a Narco Alchemist named Robert. Over the next few days more of Ian’s customers start dying. Before long, the police start looking into the deaths. The PCs could follow that trail, but it will only lead to information they have likely already found out (The deaths are related to a strange drug) and run-ins with the cops. After three days the detectives in charge of the investigation will have put enough clues together to arrest Ian and hold him in the county jail until he can be put to trial. If the PCs haven’t tracked him down by then they’ll have to figure out a way to contact him in jail. The local news will be all over the story by then as well.

Ricky’s Apartment
Ricky has a small studio apartment above a convenience store in a cheap part of the city. It’s messy. Full of instruments, moldy dishes and dirty laundry. His fridge is full of beer and old boxes of takeout food. Giving the apartment a thorough search reveals a lockbox under his bed containing a large bag of weed, two grams of cocaine, an assortment of drug paraphernalia, and two small vials containing a thick silvery liquid, two doses of the drug that killed Ricky. One vial has a joint half submerged in the liquid.

Ricky’s Car
Ricky’s car, a 1998 Chevy Malibu, is parked on the street outside of his apartment. It is surprisingly clean by comparison. There is a fully loaded .38 Special registered in Ricky’s name in the glove compartment.

Ricky’s Gym Locker
Ricky worked out at the local YMCA. His locker is full of dirty gym clothes.

Ricky’s Income
Ricky payed for his bills, instruments and vices by working at a nearby fast food restaurant. His manager assumed he just decided to quit after not showing up for the past three days. They are unaware of his death. A few employees at both restaurants could be Mak Attax members, but even if the PCs somehow figure this out they are unrelated to Ricky’s death and the Narqui’s plans. They may have heard of a reclusive Narqui operating somewhere in the area but don’t know much besides that. After two days of unexplained drug related head explosion deaths word will have circulated through the local Occult Underground enough that the Mak Attaxers will know that something weird is going on. They might even want to help get to the bottom of it if they know the PCs are either not up to anything evil or in over their heads.

Ricky’s Phone
Ricky made calls to four people between the hours of midnight and 1AM two days before his death. They are all drug dealers Ricky has had contact with in the past. Each call lasted less than thirty seconds. The context of the situation should be enough of a clue as to why the names are important but just in case, any PC with a decent amount of street smarts can recognize that short phone calls at odd hours are hallmarks of drug deals. Their addresses can be found by asking around campus or by calling their numbers and talking them into arranging an in-house meeting. They all know better than to talk at length about deals over the phone. Details on the dealers are as follows. Use Stock Thug stats from the UA rulebook for each dealer if needed…

Ian McElhenney, Male, Caucasian, 27
Small time weed/pill dealer. Lives in a row home off campus. Bought a large supply of The Drug from the Narco-Alchemist Robert one week before Ricky’s death and sold it to numerous students hoping to expand his business. He knows that Robert lives in a shack in the woods near a trailer park outside the city and can give general directions to his place if pressed for information. If he is hit with news that the drug he sold to several people has led to their deaths, he will quickly crumble and realize he is in way over his head. Ian has been thoroughly creeped out by every interaction he’s had with Robert and can only dream of the kind of people he knows and what he is really capable of. He will reveal what he knows, but only if the PCs promise to make sure that ratting out his source doesn’t bite him in the ass later.

Bobby Lupo, Male, Caucasian, 20
Sells prescription medication stolen from his parents and friends out of his dorm on campus. Looks and acts like a tough guy but he’s never been in an actual fight and will break quickly if threatened physically. He sold Ricky some Percocet and Xanax during his drug buying spree and hasn’t heard from him since. Word of his death will be news to him and it will scare him enough to get him out of the dealer business forever.

Dwayne Carlson, Male, African American, 33
Career dealer living in a ghetto in a bad part of town. He’s in the process of forming a gang and has several armed thugs hanging around his place at all times. Ricky got in touch with him to buy coke but never got around to showing up to buy it. Ricky’s death will be news to him but he doesn’t care, one customer who never showed means nothing to him. Everything about this encounter should feel threatening. Dwayne rules his little slice of heaven with an iron fist. He is not afraid to pull guns on the PCs if they try anything stupid and will not hesitate to kill anyone he feels might compromise his ambition. Describe the PCs being patted down for weapons, have casual threats tossed at them by Dwayne’s gang members, snarling dogs, distant gunfire, nearby gunfire, anything to make the players get the picture that they are not in control of this meeting.

Sophie Potter, Female, Caucasian, 30
Lives and cooks meth in a trailer park outside of the city limits near the woods where Robert lives. She sold Ricky a small amount of meth before he left quickly for “a meeting” (buying The Drug from Ian). She is manic, paranoid and prone to rambling due to chemical inhalation and frequently sampling her own product. Besides the meth lab, her trailer is full of spiritualist texts and occult paraphernalia. She has an air of desperation, like someone who is trying to scavenge meaning from a ruined life. She knows about Robert and has spent some time with him. She refers to him like a sort of guru or mentor but will only reveal this information to the PCs if they question her about a strange man living in the woods or experimental drug cocktails. It’s bound to come up in one of her ramblings if a PC strikes up conversation about her occult collection. A successful Notice check will reveal that Sophie is quite pale and has needle marks going up and down her arms. If she is questioned about this she trails off and tries to avoid the question. If pressed she will say she’s had trouble with heroin in the past, but she claims to have kicked the habit. It isn’t difficult to tell that she is lying and a successful medical-related test will reveal that the needle marks are recent. Pressing her on it further will reveal that, while she’s telling the truth about kicking heroin, Robert has been taking large amounts of blood from her on a regular basis. Sophie can be talked into leading the PCs to Robert’s shack by either careful persuasion or threats to turn her in to the cops.

The Drug
The drug called “Moon Burn”, an experimental modification of the Mars Dust formulae, is a cocktail of PCP, DMT and human blood created by the Narco-Alchemist Robert in an attempt to farm human souls. He’s been regularly draining Sophie of blood for use in its creation over the past few weeks. The original plan was for the drug to slowly suck the soul out of the user by keeping them awake over the course of a week leaving a body that appeared to die from exhaustion. Due to a miscalculation in the amount of blood used, the drug sends the user into a short fit of rage before causing their head to burst in a bloody and spectacular fashion. Robert is unaware that his drug isn’t working how he planned, all he knows is that he is acquiring souls faster than he expected. He is fine with this.

Moon Burn is ingested by smoking a joint or cigarette soaked the drug in its liquid form, similar to ingesting PCP. Oddly enough, the fact that the smoking implement is wet with the drug doesn’t prevent it from catching fire and produces an eerie blood red ash. After about an hour the drug kicks in and the user enters a trance-like state while suffering from a series of horrifying hallucinations (Rank 8 Stress Test in every category) and an increasingly intense migraine. Blood-shot eyes and minor bleeding from the ears and nose is common at this stage. During this time the user will violently attack anyone or anything that sets them off. This can be for anything as slight as being bumped into on the street or being cut off in traffic. Once another hour has passed or shortly after becoming violent the migraine worsens to a maddening pressure; the user is in unimaginable pain for a few brief moments before their head bursts like a watermelon full of cherry bombs, spraying blood and brain matter on anyone nearby and dealing 1d10 damage as teeth and skull fragments fly outward like shrapnel. Any PC dumb enough to try the drug will effectively become a ticking time bomb.

Robert’s Plan
Robert is farming souls in order to pay off a Merchant Avatar, Leonard Zane, who has promised a him a lead on a piece of the formula for The Philosopher’s Stone in exchange for 333 human souls. Robert has begun trickling batches of Moon Burn down to several dealers in the area. He prefers to spread his product through several channels rather than selling directly to users. It helps him keep an extra layer of security between him and the cops and allows him to maintain an air of mystery that keeps buyers interested.

This is but one possibility for Robert’s motivation behind the killings, he could be collecting souls for use in a turf war, a more advanced formula, appeasing a demon, a misguided attempt at gathering charges or anything else that fits your tastes or the structure of your campaign.

Robert’s Shack
Robert lives in a shack a few miles into the woods near Sophie Potter’s trailer park. A successful Notice check upon entering the woods or PCs with outdoorsy backgrounds will reveal a rough trail of beaten down grass and broken twigs, the only path to the shack the PCs or anyone they’ve spoken to are likely to know about. The hike takes several hours, much more if they don’t find the trail. The shack is secluded enough that a sizable explosion (not out of the question considering the shack contains the lab of a Narco-Alchemist) is the only thing likely to draw any unwanted attention to the area.

The shack itself looks like an old boxy trailer with a shoddy extension jutting out from one end, made by hand out of scraps of metal, tarps and wood. The “proper” half of the shack contains Robert’s basic living quarters and is filled with books covering topics both scientific and occult, backpacks of various sizes, an extensive collection of strange alchemical ingredients and a small fortune in illegal drugs. The extension contains Robert’s pride and joy, a huge unstable jury-rigged lab made of various pieces of modern and antique chemistry equipment Robert has stolen or otherwise acquired throughout his years in the Occult Underground. The lab is filled with highly volatile chemical and magickal solutions and is likely to explode violently if a fight breaks out near it.

The entire shack is filled with a thick haze of smoke that smells of chemicals, incense and the electric charge of magick. The souls Robert has been collecting sit in a large heavy chest in old mason jars and medical specimen containers. He currently has only five souls but if left unchecked, the number will quickly skyrocket over the coming weeks. Opening or destroying the containers will release the souls.

Reggae music plays loudly from a boombox somewhere in the shack. It helps drown out the souls’ screams.

Conclusion
The PC’s investigation will ultimately lead them to a showdown with Robert. When the PCs find him he is clearly high and isn’t happy to have unexpected visitors but he won’t get violent unless he feels he is in danger. If alerted to how his drug is affecting people Robert starts digging through his notes and becomes frustrated, mostly with himself for making such a rookie mistake.

Robert isn’t much of a fighter. His primary concern is continuing his work uninterrupted so he’s quick to offer the PCs work, magickal artifacts, supreme cosmic power, or loads of drugs just to get them off his back. If the PCs pick a fight with Robert he tries to knock them out with any large heavy objects he can find around his shack (Most likely a heavy book, tacky wizard/tree statue, or if he’s really desperate one of his bongs). If things get really bad he’ll pull his gun to threaten them but will only resort to lethal force if the PCs are clearly trying to kill him. He has no compunctions about killing people but hiding bodies would simply take way too much time out of his work.

If they’ve really pissed him off and Robert is able to successfully subdue the PCs he’ll tie them up in his shack and perform an experiment on them. Once the PCs come to, Robert will inject one of them with a concentrated dose of Moon Burn and observe the effects. This concentrated dose takes half as much time to take effect and the hallucinations are worse (Rank 10 Stress Test in every category). After his first test subject dies he’ll move onto the next PC, and the next, and so on until their souls have all been harvested or the PCs find a way to stop him.

Depending on how the PCs handle the encounter Robert could serve as a mentor and/or an in to the Occult Underground, he could offer them a job, feed them rumors, serve as a frequent antagonist or the PCs could interrogate him to find out who he sold his shipments to and fuck with his operation, or just kill him and be done with it.

Robert, The Narqui
Obsession: Creating the Philosopher’s Stone at any cost
Rage: Anyone questioning his ability as an alchemist
Fear: The cops
Noble: A genuine interest in mundane chemistry. He could probably be quite successful if he ever cleaned up.
Wounds: 30

Body: 30 (Strung Out)
General Athletics: 15%
Struggle: 30%
Speed: 50 (Tweaker)
Dodge: 50%
Run Away: 25%
Handguns: 30%
Initiative: 50%
Mind: 70 (Druggie Wisdom)
General Education: 35%
Notice: 40%
Chemistry: 55%
Occult Lore: 45%
Soul: 70 (Dealer Charm)
Charm: 50%
Lie: 45%
*Narco Alchemy: 60%
Deal Drugs: 60%

Minor Works: Serpent on the Pole, Athanor, Quicksilver, Aqua Vitae
Significant Works: Moon Burn, Mars Dust, Jupiter X

Possessions: A fully loaded .38 revolver, 11 more rounds of ammunition, a small fortune in illicit drugs, a weird shack, a fully loaded Narco-Alchemy lab, 3 minor charges, 1 significant charge, lots of Bob Marley merchandise

Violence: 3 Hardened, 2 Failed
Unnatural: 8 Hardened, 3 Failed
Helplessness: 2 Hardened, 1 Failed
Isolation: 7 Hardened, 3 Failed
Self: 4 Hardened, 4 Failed