Ashcroft Hotel

The Ashcroft Hotel was a luxury hotel located in the Bank Block district of central Night City. After the Fourth Corporate War, the ruins of the building became part of the Hot Zone.
==History==
===Early history - 2020s===
After its construction, the Ashcroft became the largest, most expensive, and most exclusive hotel in Night City. Owned by the wealthy Ashcroft-Hammersmith family from England, this five-star hotel was favored by wealthy European corporates, tourists, celebrities and solos. By 2020, it was considered the ultimate expression in luxury and service in Night City, with rooms and suites renting from 300 to 5,000 eurodollars per night, and reservations were a must to stay at this establishment. Security was provided by plainclothes operatives contracted from Dieter-Kauffman AG, one of the finest German security firms, and was guaranteed in writing. The on-site representative of the family, and manager of the hotel around this time, was Winifred Ashcroft-Hammersmith. As she was reclusive and eccentric, her daughter Julia did much of the actual work. Around this time, Tina Allen worked at the hotel as a night clerk, and Walt Williams used to stay in one of the establishment's suites.
During the Fourth Corporate War, the Ashcroft Hotel was vastly damaged by the Night City Holocaust of 2023, with its tilted ruins soon becoming part of the aptly named radioactive Hot Zone.
===2030s - 2040s===
The remains of the structure were uninhabited for many years, though at some point they would become the hideout of an infamous Maelstromer known as Ripper, who maintained a notorious presence in the Hot Zone by using large groups of "diggers" — scavengers that were forced to give their lives for lost tech among the radioactive ruins in order for Maelstrom (and secretly Ripper) to profit. Ripper converted the Ashcroft into his base of operations, with him occupying much of the west wing's 6th floor, while his guards occupied the east wing, leaving the lowers areas to rest of his diggers. All ground accesses were block by metal shafts and rubble, with the only entrance being a makeshift walkaway that reached the seventh floor of the east wing.
In 2045, a group of mercenaries hired by the owners of the Forlorn Hope had the objective of ending Ripper's life. They had multiple ways to accomplish that, but if all else failed, a direct assault of his headquarters was an option. With the help of Valence, a former digger for Ripper, the mercs crossed the dangerous Hot Zone and approached the ruins of the Ashcroft Hotel. To access it, Valance told them about the makeshift walkaway that reached the seventh floor, as all ground accesses were either shut close by twisted, armored shutters, or blocked by rubble. While Valence stayed back, the mercs followed the trail upwards. Very few guards were located around the seventh floor, with most hanging out on the eighth. The merc group could either stealth through or fight all of them. Due to the baldy dilapidated state of the Ashcroft, even low-yielding explosions made the structure vibrate, and enough would make the whole building to collapse. If the mercenaries managed to talk with Ripper's guards by convincing them to betray their boss, they told the mercs that the guards only lived in the east wing, while Ripper and his "pet" — Skippy — had made the upper levels of the west wing their hideout. With that information, the guards left for good. Knowing their objective was to cross to the other wing, the mercenaries found a gnarled opening at the end of one room which was possible to cross. Very carefully, the mercs stepped on a welded metal gangway of bridges across the gap between the hotel's wings in order to access the western side.
The seventh floor of the west wing was not as titled, however, it had been transformed into a maze of metal sheets that Ripper created in case someone tried to invade his territory. It was full of turns with no exits, secret doors, as well as cameras and automated weapons controlled by the local NET Architecture. Most important, Skippy was protecting this area; even if the crew managed to stealth their way across the maze, Skippy was guarding the stairs that led below into Ripper's lair. With no other option than to take her down, the mercs managed to reach the sixth floor, Ripper's private playground and the place where he stashed the tech he later sold to Rocklin Augmentics, as well as other "toys" he kept for himself instead. Due to the Maelstromer's paranoia, he didn't trust anyone to be in the same floors as him, so he was completely alone. While investigating the rooms, the mercs encountered an escaping hatch with a self-destruct trigger that would demolish the whole building. With this in mind they continued, soon reaching Ripper's bedroom. Of interest, they found his laptop, and if they managed to hack it, they were able to find information on his dealings with Rockling Augmentics; horrific, yet very well-kept notes on his experiments; and even a report about a Nanoswarm Incubator. Another room held Ripper's depot, holding very valuable tech that he either kept for himself or sold to his partners. After finding Ripper's dungeon, where he tortured his victims, the mercs were able to see how much of a monster Ripper actually was. In that room they found Lago, Ripper's personal ripperdoc and assistant, with a scarred body and strapped into what looked like a linear frame, with the whole thing on roller wheels. However, he was not able to move by himself. He told the mercs about the horrendous experiments Ripper was doing, and that the they had to get him out of there, as he preferred to go to prison than stay one more day there. That, or a bullet in his brain were his demands. In the neighboring workshop was Dustbunny, Ripper's latest victim and experiment. This room also had the screen which showed the cameras' recordings. The cage where Dustbunny was held was in one of the room's corners. Next to it was an elevator shaft which apparently went down only three floors, but if looking right at the bottom, the mercs were able to recognize an uncountable number of corpses in different states of decomposition. No matter what the crew decided, there was enough evidence for both MAX-TAC or Maelstrom to want to stop Ripper and his cyberpsychotic behavior. Either killed by them, or in a fight against the crew, Ripper's days were over.
Even with Ripper gone, Maelstrom continued to use the Ashcroft as their center of scavenging operations.
==Layout==
===2020===
The Ashcroft was a twain-split building occupying a large portion of a city block, which was mostly owned by Ashcroft & Hammersmith either way. Considered the most luxurious hotel in Night City, the Ashcroft had several fine restaurants, lounges, and expensive shops in its premises, with multitude of exquisite rooms and suites distributed among its floors. On the rooftop there were AV landing pads, and the building was connected to the adjacent Ashcroft & Hammersmith Store.
===2045===
The nuke heavily damaged the structure, but the building still stood, in a relative way. The gleaming metal trim was pitted and burned, though the large sign on the side could still be read with the establishment's name on it. The Ashcroft had always been a tall hotel split in twain, however, after the nuke one of the wings had tilted rakishly against the other, with both wings keeping each other upright. Most of the roof's structure was damaged but still in place. All ground accesses were blocked by twisted, armored shutters and rubble, but the interior could be accessed by following an improvised walkaway, rising like a snake and coiling around the tilted east wing up to a hole on the 7th floor.
Most of the windows seventh east wing floor were broken, and any plush furniture was long gone, thrown to the street below. The floor was tilted and broken, with platforms made of old planks providing stable standing to walk. The building was in such a bad state, that any large or small explosions could accelerate its inevitable collapse. The west wing's 7th floor was not as tilted, but it was a maze of metal sheets and weapons. The 6th floor of the west wing was Ripper's private playground, where he stashed much of the best tech his diggers discovered, as well as where he tested those weapons on people. All windows of this part of the structure were boarded over, and power was obtained through a long series of cable jury-rigged into the city's grid. This floor had a number of rooms, one of which was Ripper's bedroom. This master room was decorated with parts from multiple CEO's luxury suites, as nothing matched: a large king-sized bed with an ornate, exotic wood frame (slightly scorched in places) covered in ultra-luxe silk sheets; an oversized "dog bed" for Skippy sitting on the floor; armories and chests; and despite the boarded windows, they were surrounded by vivid green velvet curtains. Another room held Ripper's depot, in which he placed the most valuable tech he had, dividing them in crates marked for Maelstrom, Rocklin, and himself. Another room housed his dungeon, where he tortured his victims in any sickening way possible. This room still had a broken piano in the center of the room. The final area was a workshop where Ripper did all of his experiments.
==Gallery==
Ashcroft Hotel Map 01 REDTOTRHR.jpg|A portion of the semi-collapsed west and east wings' 7th floor in 
Ashcroft Hotel Map 02 REDTOTRHR.jpg|Ripper's lair on the west wing's 6th floor
Ripper 01 REDTOTRHR.jpg|Ripper fighting a group of mercenaries in the piano room
==References==
Category:Cyberpunk 2020 Locations
Category:Cyberpunk RED Locations