In the smog-choked, alternate-history landscape of the Wretched Interbellum, the line between man and machine is blurring. Rumors have reached your cell of a terrifying breakthrough by the Special Armed Police Force (The Kerberos): the Protect Gear prototype.
This isn't just armor; it’s a psychological weapon designed to turn a soldier into a faceless, unstoppable executioner. Your mission: Infiltrate, Sabotage, and Erase.
Mission Profile: Operation Wolfsbane
The Objective: Destroy the "Type-0" Protect Gear prototype and the metallurgical data required to mass-produce it.
The Location: The Eisen-Shiba Foundry, a fortified industrial complex disguised as a scrap metal refinery on the edge of the city’s neutral zone.
The Stakes: If this goes live, the resistance is finished. You don't just want to break the suit; you want to make the brass believe the project is a cursed, expensive failure.
1. The Infiltration: The Belly of the Beast
The Foundry is a labyrinth of steam pipes, red-hot vats, and armed guards.
The Approach: The characters can enter via the Sulfur Vents (requires Constitution checks against toxic fumes) or by hijacking a Supply Train (requires a high-stakes Stealth or Deception play).
The Complication: The Kerberos guards aren't standard police. They are veterans of the last Great War, equipped with MG42s and a fanatical devotion to the "Pack."
2. The Discovery: The MG-42 "Cerberus"
Deep within the sub-level laboratory, the players find it. The prototype is suspended in a pneumatic rig. It’s bulkier and more "monstrous" than the versions seen in the films—dripping with hydraulic fluid and smelling of ozone.
The Twist: The prototype isn't empty. A "Donor Pilot"—a lobotomized political prisoner—is wired directly into the suit's neural interface.
The Dilemma: Killing the pilot triggers a failsafe that locks down the lab. The players must decide whether to perform a "clean" extraction or a "messy" demolition while the pilot is still active.
3. The Sabotage: Engineering a "Malfunction"
Simply blowing it up is too easy. To ensure the project is scrapped, the players need to rig the suit to fail spectacularly during its final calibration test.
Technical Challenge: A character with Mechanics or Engineering must bypass the suit's cooling system.
The Math of Chaos: To ensure the core overheats without an immediate explosion, the player must calculate the thermal limit:
$$T_{crit} = \frac{Q_{output}}{\kappa \cdot \Delta A}$$(Where $Q$ is the power output and $\kappa$ is the thermal conductivity of the experimental alloy.)
4. The Escape: Through the Red Eyes
As the sabotage takes hold, the sirens wail. The "Type-0" wakes up. It’s not fully functional, but it’s mobile. The players must flee the collapsing foundry while being stalked through the steam by the glowing red lenses of the prototype.
Environmental Hazards: Molten metal spills, narrow catwalks, and the "Wolf" hunting them in the dark.
Final Stand: The players reach the extraction point—a rain-slicked rooftop. They must hold off a squad of Kerberos troopers until the suit’s rigged core finally reaches critical mass and detonates.
Key NPCs & Assets
| Name | Role | Motivation |
| Dr. Arisaka | Lead Engineer | Obsessed with "The Perfect Soldier." Will try to save his data over his life. |
| The Donor | The Pilot | A tragic figure who might briefly regain consciousness to help or hinder the players. |
| Unit 801 | Kerberos Squad | Elite hunters who use pack tactics to corner the players in the foundry. |
Game Master Note: This mission should feel claustrophobic and "heavy." Emphasize the sound of the suit—the heavy, metallic thuds of its boots and the hiss of its pneumatic joints. The players shouldn't feel like heroes; they should feel like prey trying to break their hunter's teeth.
Since you’re running a crew of hardened mercenaries, the tone shifts from a desperate struggle for survival to a professional, high-stakes heist. These aren't idealists; they’re specialists who know that the "Type-0" is a payday if they steal the specs, or a death sentence if they don't finish the job.
Here is how to tailor Operation Wolfsbane for a mercenary party:
The Contract: "The Red-Eye Clause"
The players were hired by a shady industrial rival (The Tatsumi Group) or a foreign intelligence agency.
The Pay: 50,000 Marks (half up front) and a clean slate for their previous war crimes.
The Bonus: An extra 10% for every gigabyte of metallurgical data retrieved before the demolition.
The Constraint: No "loud" explosives until the target is reached. If the city guard realizes what's happening too early, the extraction helicopter won't risk the airspace.
Tactical Variations for Pros
As mercenaries, your players should have access to specialized gear that makes the mission feel like a tactical operation:
Thermal Masking Capes: To bypass the Kerberos infrared sensors.
EMP Breacher Charges: Designed to fry the Type-0’s neural link without damaging the physical hardware (allowing for data extraction).
The "Iron Man" Strategy: Instead of just destroying the suit, the players might try to remote-pilot it to clear their own path out of the facility.
The Encounter: Combat Professionals vs. The Wolf
In Jin-Roh, the Kerberos unit is famous for their Pack Tactics. Against mercenaries, they won't just charge; they will use the foundry’s architecture to pin the players down.
Suppressive Fire: The Kerberos guards use MG42s to keep the players behind cover.
Flanking: While suppressed, "Hounds" (lightly armored scouts) will move through the steam pipes to get behind the party.
The Prototype Boss Fight: The "Type-0" is a tank in a hallway. Standard small arms won't dent it. The mercenaries will need to use the environment—dropping a vat of molten lead or using a crane to crush the hydraulic legs.
The Mechanics of Professional Destruction
Since these are pros, the sabotage requires more than a simple roll. They need to induce a Specific Failure Point.
To destabilize the Prototype's internal power cell without a premature detonation that kills the party, the lead Mercenary must balance the voltage output $V$ against the internal resistance $R$ of the experimental battery:
GM Tip: If the players fail this check by 5 or more, the suit doesn't just break—it enters a Berserk State, ignoring its pilot and attacking everything in the room with mechanical, unthinking efficiency.
Mercenary-Specific Objectives
To make the mission feel "authentic" to the Wretched Interbellum setting, give the players a checklist of secondary objectives that affect their final payout and reputation:
| Objective | Requirement | Reward |
| Data Ghost | Download the alloy schematics. | Permanent +1 to Engineering checks. |
| No Witnesses | Eliminate Dr. Arisaka. | Bonus payment from the "Silent Partner." |
| Scrap Metal | Bring back a piece of the red lens. | Can be crafted into a "Wolf-Eye" HUD (+2 Perception). |
