If circling around is not possible, there are usually two choices: either cross- ing the Border despite guards, or surrendering. The first is not as impossi- ble as it sounds. With the right artefact, the stalker may turn invisible or walk through walls and disrupt power distribution to the security systems. An artefact that will crumble away metal with its touch will swiftly get rid of any length of chain link fence. Even a dense fog will significantly improve your chances.
Surrendering has its own rules: you conceal arms and artefacts. You only surrender during the day because at night the guards, fearful of artefacts being used as weapons and the creatures of the Zone lurking about, will take nobody alive. You should also surrender as close to a base with person- nel from someplace else than just the Institute as possible. The presence of outside witnesses will have a restraining effect and other officials usually dislike the Institute. If there are no other charges to be pressed, the sen- tences for a mere Zone intrusion are light. A first-timer will get away with probation and a repeat offender will sit a year, at most. Possession of arte- facts or weapons can easily add a year or more per artefact to the sentence. Some have tried fighting their way out but with mere guns it is usually not possible. The soldiers have better training, weapons and equipment. Once reinforcements have been requested, their flow never ends. Depending on where the firefight takes place, within fifteen minutes you may be facing a platoon of guards, a couple of armoured vehicles, half a dozen snipers in prepared locations and three to four helicopters. An armed charge across the Border has to be immediately successful or it will fail.
Trading
Even after returning from the Zone, the danger does not end. The artefacts will still have to be sold, the dealers kept happy, the Institute snitches tricked and hideouts and secret caches kept hidden. There are representatives of many agencies shopping for artefacts in the borderlands and nearby popu- lation centres but finding just the right people may be difficult. Different buyers are interested in different things and most teams have more than one client. If one disappears the others are still there and if one deal goes pear- shaped or is interrupted by the Institute all the loot is not lost.
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The SciFi Roleplaying Game
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Besides the dealers, there are travelling merchants. Some are only tempo- rary dealers, some are Institute-affiliated investigators and some are shop- ping for specific artefacts or effects. The last ones are prepared to pay great sums for exactly what they want but do not care for anything else. Their backers may be military, terrorists or even Institute researchers who want to acquire samples past the official routes and without the knowledge of their superiors. Old deals and clients can pop up later in surprising places and events. Clients are often also in competition with each other, which makes trading complicated. Doing business with one may burn bridges with others. The going price for artefacts is a great mystery. Special samples from the Zone with no discernible xenological properties can only be sold to specia- lized clients. A xenobiologist may pay hundreds or even thousands of euros for a preserved mutant body part but nobody else will be the least bit inter- ested. Xenochemists will be interested in Witch’s Jelly but everyone else abhors it.
Cosmic baubles; small, toylike objects with harmless but easily demonstrab- le effects (such as Pins) are worth €100-1,000, depending on rarity and the client. An artefact with properties useful for industrial or military applica- tions but having no real use in and of itself may be worth € 500-3,000, again depending on rarity as well as the significance of the properties for spe- cific industries. For example, Weights, White Wheels and So-sos all interest different fields of industry.
An artefact that can as such be used as a weapon or a tool, (e.g. Itch) or that replaces difficult or expensive industrial processes can be worth €1,000 to €10,000, depending on rarity and power. If it does exactly what the client was looking for, the price may be many times that. Estimating upwards from that gets hard. What is the market price of an artefact that can change the world in one go or defeat any power (like the Death Lamp)? What will the agencies inter- ested in artefacts be willing to do to lay their hands on it? Is it even safe to tell about it? Metaphysical artefacts are problematic because determining, let alone demonstrating, their pow- ers may be very difficult. Also, rumours of cursed artefacts are very good at quenching de- mand. On the other hand, it is precisely the meta- physical artefacts that wreak most havoc on the laws that our scientific world view is based on. Stalkers may bring back loot worth a signifi- cant sum from just a single expedition. They will be paid in small, unmarked bills, favours, money transfers to hidden bank accounts in tax havens or in equipment and information that only the client’s handlers have access to. The sums are large, the information sensitive and nobody trusts anyone or wants to reveal more than they absolutely have to.
Money and artefacts will buy you contacts and allies but not trustworthy friends. Now and then someone will try to cheat the stalkers on a deal or even ambush them to get the artefacts. All sorts of safeguards and guarantees are a big part of the business. And when those safe- guards fail, people die.