Underhaven Grotto Prep 1: Quiet Cleanout

Underhaven Grotto Prep 1: Quiet Cleanout
Part of Or'zet Underground
Date 2085-07-13 GM J.R. Location Undergrotto Haven Hotel, Ork Underground, Seattle Metroplex Status Threat Level: Hard
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Skraacha	Horizon	The Grey
Anansi John Galt Buck Samsara	Drone1 Drone 2	Gamma Grey

Summary

Vic reached out to the runners as an intermediary to their actual client, and explains why they'll need to meet the actual clients, the Undergrotto Haven staff. The Pc's head to the soon to open hotel and meet Hamish, getting the assignment and heading down to a very weird kind of encounter in the far reaches of the underground.

Background

The Underhaven Grotto is preparing for its grand opening in the fall, an expansive event hosting the 13th Or'zet Underground Music Festival. A few days back some of the Dwarves that Kirby Fangsbreath has been using to find and create tunnels out of his hotel hit some resistance and when they sent a small hit team down to investigate, those guys also didn't return. Hamish, Operations Manager for the hotel and right hand of Kirby Fangsbreath sent the characters on a fact finding and obstruction clearing mission.

The Meet

Vic meets the runners at the Big Rhino with a plate of oversized wings and a round of beers being delivered almost as soon as they sit. They're given the basics of the run here, and told they're going to go need to meet the actual employer to get access to the tunnels they need to do the job. The team agrees and heads about an hour into the Ork Underground until they find the security team guarding an entrance to the Underhaven. Upon arrival they present themselves to an angry-at-staff-about-everthing Hamish, manage not to blow the meet and get their general instructions and payroll agreements, noting the hotel is almost certainly built in a stable alchera of some kind.

The Plan

The team opted to eschew much traditional legwork in lieu of a half dozen or so contact calls for information on the tunnel obstructions and what is going on in the neighborhood and the new gang that has moved in, rather than go legwork or recon it in person. Anansi negotiated a contact in lieu some of the payment, and the rest of the team upon seeing the raw amount of Foci the security detail and Hamish were wearing negotiated for Foci as payment or back rooms/sleeping spaces in the grotto itself before opening time.

The Run

Rather than take the cart the clientele offered the runners went to hotel facilities allowing them to bring Ansasi's car, and circumventing a lot of the potential navigational difficulties of a slightly shifting alchera. They stayed relatively on course and made it to the Bellevue/Redmond tunnels and to the specific location the Dwarves reported back from in the first place.

Skipping past access tunnels and a tricky on foot tunnel that one tends to find going under 20 KPH and not in a car, the gang eventually find the distant branch of the Underground with an access just on the far side of the Bellevue wall in the Redmond Barrens, in gang territory that had been unaffiliated until recently. Contacts revealed a San Francisco gang called The Grey have recently seen about 50 members move into the area and declared it their property, and get mixed reviews about the group of supposed alien worshippers and weirdos from San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The group realized shortly after they exit into the OU neighborhood that the block or two of life that would normally be built up down here has been abandoned for awhile, and that the area has been barricaded in strategic locations to funnel everything to the central tunnel and an exit that has been sealed up with cars and a large steel door. The two teammates taking up the rear at this point, notice two Drones covered in Ruthenium polymers, just as Samsara decides patient and slow is no longer the viable approach at this point. The team notices a free spirit shaped like a flying saucer sitting astral out front and alerts it to their presence, leaving it to quickly disappear. A few moments of discussion through the door with Gamma Grey, and Samsara punches the door down while Buck takes aim and fires at one of the two Horizon drones.

At this point things move incredibly quickly for the team and The Grey. First, the team notices Gamma Grey and immediately does a full assensing to see just what they are looking at, and realizing it's 20 year old biosculpting things calm down quite a bit. Samsara darts in and Nerve Strike's Gamma with Master of Seven Chakras, doing exactly enough damage to knock the magic, and channeled spirit, out of the alien looking troll.

As the rest of the gang starts to mobilize in the rear, John Galt steps forward and casts a dangerously potent Mob Mind, taking over about half of the assembled gang in one hit, and nearly collapsing from the drain. Buck shoots down the second drone, giving the Shadowhaven Trideo Network their six month intro materials when the drones are eventually reclaimed.

Anansi steps in quickly to stop things from escalating any faster than they have to, and explains to Gamma that the team isn't unsympathetic but there's no way the Underhaven management or their Skraacha brothers are going to allow the aggression at the neck of the tunnel to stand. Gamma, used to channeling a friendly spirit and stripped of his powers starts rapidly failing composure checks and the gang, realizing half their number are under mental control, don't do much better.

After a brief, tense, and incredibly odd negotiation, The Grey agree to move out of the tunnels and into the parking structure overground, as well as into the surrounding neighborhood in exchange for a meeting with the Skraacha owners of the hotel. The runners took almost as much heat convincing the Skraacha this was a viable deal, but in the end a peaceful resolution was settled on.

Aftermath

Galt and Buck caught a little more media attention than they might have liked. The Grey have established a foothold and ally in Seattle. The Underhaven construction project will continue unnabated. The team informed the Skraacha of another underground threat down another shaft that their previous scouts ran into.

Rewards

Rewards: 15 RVP 20K Nuyen Or Double Value in Weapon, Qi, orPower, or Spellcasting Foci up to Rating 18 or equivalent lifestyle payments that last less than 3 months (12 runs) worth of time. (10 RVP) Any Foci are incredibly ornate dwarven manufacture. 4 Karma 4 RVP +1 Street Cred (1 RVP) 2 CDP (Run Guarantee)

Reputation: Skraacha +1 Horizon +1 The Grey +1

Buck, John Galt +1 Public Recognition.

John Galt +1 Notoriety (Mind magic gets around, even with these freaks.)

Priority Selection for additional missions for the Hotel.

Game Quotes

"I'm not saying it's aliens, but..." and then John see the spirit spaceship. "Huh. Fuck it, it's aliens."

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

John Galt - "This might've been one of the strangest runs yet. Went in expecting some kinda demon possession cult only to find that like... it was a buncha nerds enjoying the good drugs and some alien style spirits-o-man. Solid team, not looking forward to seeing my face on Horizon's trid network or some drek, but hell, at least I wasn't actually doing anything illgal. And as always #LBFI."

Buck: "Fragging Horizon drones. Fragging California alien fetishists. At least the trip down to the OU was nice. My face better not be on the damn news, though..."