Rifts Aftermath adventure idea: Petty thieves

[Shorty Lickens]

Many small pop-up trading posts are appearing all over the post-war landscape in Minnesota after the war. Most of them are for profit, a small amount provide charity services.
Some have basic security but most cannot afford regular protection. There is no law enforcement immediately after the war and some businessmen are inclined to use violence as a deterrent.
A new, amateur salvage and trading operation has been seeing its inventory stolen by someone or something. Normally its not worth the time and effort to chase them down and punish them but the lost revenue has finally convinced a scrapper named Lucina Mitchell to hire some free lance mercenaries for tracking and possibly retrieval. She is less interested in day to day protection and more interested in stopping the burglars outright.
The P.C.'s do some investigative work and learn the thieves are mostly children and they are stealing what they need to survive, or what they think they can trade for necessities. The players have to decide how to handle this dilemma. If it helps the GM make decisions, the scrapper/merchant is Unscrupulous but pays well, mostly likely in trade as opposed to cash. And she has lots of good loot.

This adventure idea is probably best suited for level one P.C.'s as they also might not have much in the way of resources and could be inclined to looting or scavenging to get ahead.

The trader/scavver community could be moderately well organized, with a working town center and job board and if needed, a hotel and public room. Or it could be literally a tent in the dirt with torches and bugs.

[Marcethus]

Sounds interesting.