Taking a Gigabite Out of Crime

Taking a Gigabite Out of Crime
Date 2083-12-30 GM Sarcarian Location Chicago Status Threat Level: Deadly
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Fiendest Ghoul Liberation League Corpseman Isadora Windthrope	Westside Redevelopment Project	Invae
Gigabite	Westside Employees	Fly Spirits
Casualties and losses
None	Chicago Gentrification Project is mired in scandals.	One Fly Nest underground is razed.
Gigabite burned 1 Edge. Ascension run.

Summary

Gigs makes better ties with the GLL and helps their little bind in Chicago.

Background

Gigabite's been trying to improve the situation of the ghoul population in Seattle. She sees a Holy Grail for her predicament, the Ah-Tabai Consumer Goods in Aztlan which makes crab cakes infused with metahuman blood. These could fuel ghoul dietary needs without any undue harm to anyone, but she can't achieve that goal at the moment. As a result, The 162s have a vile reputation due to necessity, snatching people on the streets.

The Meet

Gigabite arrives to a concert in Snohomish due to a flyer advertising Letterbomb's gig there and meets Isadora Windthrope who introduces Gigabite to a ghoul lawyer, Jason Barns, after some drinking and conversing. Sensing that Gigabite is someone who likes doing the right thing, Isadora and Barns both take some liking to her. Jason implies that he's familiar with the GLL and that they currently need help. He can arrange a meeting with Blaine Hammond himself, the current and more militant leader of the GLL. Gigs takes a road trip, leaving her more sensitive gear at home. Hammond doesn't have the same idealistic optimism as Midas, but offers her a way to get better acquainted if she helps them out first. Westside Redevelopment Project is a non-profit that seeks to improve Chicago after the whole Bug City disaster and its after-effects, but the gentrification is pushing the GLL out of their current territory and more importantly people are disappearing, fast. Gigabite offers to help out, considering she's seen Universal Brotherhood remnants and remembers nuYou being mentioned in some recent advertisements - something she remembers from Seattle.

The Plan

Gigabite boldly drives to Westside and despite her scary looks manages to finesse both the police force as well as WRP receptionists, arranging a meeting as a private donator to the non-profit's cause. If there are bugs, she'll root them out and provide Hammond with a 'smoking gun' kind of evidence that is undeniable and can halt the gentrification project in its tracks. If she succeeds, she'll get more support from the GLL.

The Run

Ashlee Franklin is the outreach rep that Gigabite meets with. After pulling some strings, Gigabite scrounges up 10,000 Nuyen as a donation thanks to Corpseman and Fiendest. By showing her ability to funnel monetary gains into the project, Gigabite ingratiates herself among WRP workers and gets a tour of their working facilities. While Ashlee is away printing paper copies of some of their material, Gigabite scrounges through her file lockers, discovering a bunch of documents that she can later provide to Hammond, including nuYou's involvement as well as Ares in their donators' list, but also a curious name: Patricia Windthrope.

During a tour, Gigabite is impressed by the non-profit's industriousness when she spots a less maintained tunnel. The workers off-handedly note that it's not safe due to poor supports, but Gigabite wants to see all sides, both good and bad, and convinces the escort to let her go investigate, although a common worker named Frank is told to tag along. She investigates the tunnels without much happening, only some distant noises until she comes to a sewer junction and spots peculiar symbols and sigils. When she's investigating with a micro-camera on her vest and a flashlight, she hears something behind her and sees a masked man grabbing Frank and vanishing in the tunnels. Gigabite gives chase and finally catches up to another masked man hanging from the ceiling. Unperturbed, she doesn't openly show hostility but demands that the obvious insect host gives her Frank back. A woman and another masked man appear soon, holding both Frank and a memory-erasing substance. Gigabite tries to convince them to let her leave without drinking it, but eventually she relents under the insect spirits' pressure and downs the substance, forgetting the last hundred minutes. With Frank in tow, she returns and completes the survey without much issue.

Upon returning to Hammond's lodgings, she reviews the footage and feels triumphant, having proven her suspicions right. Hammond still doesn't think this is a slam dunk since the footage could be called doctored, so Gigabite considers riling the local populace into a riot, a lynch mob. Unfortunately, the nearby area called the Shattergraves is filled with feral ghouls who'd rip a lynch mob apart. This gives Gigabite an idea and she calls Fiendest to ask how the ghoul horde Nameless held some years ago in Renton was controlled. Fiendest provides what information she can and Gigabite collects fresh blood and ghoul pus alike before wandering off to the Shattergraves with her guitar. Like a death metal Pied Piper, she leaves a trail of fresh blood in her wake while playing sorrowful metal at full blast. She collects a crowd of ferals numbering near a hundred, some Flesh Form flies blending into the horde. Having checked where the site she spotted the flies was by reviewing her camera footage, Hammond had given her the nearest entrance. Carefully and with unceasing performance for hours, Gigabite leads this horde into the underground tunnels, heralded by her growling voice and distorted guitar strumming. They eventually find a Fly Nest and the horde is about to divert when Gigabite grabs a jar of fresh blood and tosses it through the lodge's ward. The scent drives feral ghouls wild and an ocean of teeth, claws and flesh smash into the ward repeatedly, rending it apart like a horror trid. The horde floods the nest and slaughters everyone inside, but one scout manages to climb on the ceiling and confront Gigabite. Thanks to her augmentations, she avoids its pestilent vomit from affecting her and blows its grip on the surface by making all of its limbs bleed slick. The bug falls and Gigabite throws her bandolier of pus and blood onto it, leaving the fly spirit to be ripped into pieces by a hungry horde of ghouls.

Aftermath

The recorded footage as well as later uncovered physical evidence of a fly nest mires WRP in a scandal, withdrawing a lot of their former supporters. In addition, while a single Fly nest isn't enough to eradicate the solitary species, their underground network is highly in danger now that Gigabite's collected horde might accidentally ram into one of their holdings at any time. Gigs also informs Isadora that someone sharing her name was a patron of a bug-infested group. Isadora is perturbed and pays Gigabite for the information in exchange for keeping this a secret, to which she agrees.

Rewards

• 12,000 nuyen (6 RVP)
• 6 karma (3 RVP)
• 8 CDP (3 RVP)
• 3 GLL Reputation
• 1 162s Reputation
• Ascension rewards

1. Optional Contact: Isadora Windthrope (C3/L3 Rich Kid) - 5 RVP or 10 CDP
2. Mandatory Contact: Corpseman (C6/L1 Fixer) - 6 RVP (must pay in cash to repay a debt owed)
3. May join the Ghoul Liberation League faction (connection 2, costs 10 karma)
4. Optional Quality: Solid Rep (Ghoul Liberation League)

Game Quotes

Wait, how are you, a magician, interacting with Jason Barns? He's got to be toxic-- I DON'T CARE ABOUT HIS INTEGRITY, HE'S A LAWYER.

Gigabite's AAR

Really, I don't like the fact that Hammond's just there, pushing a more militant agenda. I get what he's saying and I've seen how even I can be exploited when I try to convince people to be nicer. And yet, I still hope that there is a better alternative, somewhere, sometime. This whole event's made me realize I'd rather run with a solid gunbunny than solo, even if I often have to rein them in. For now, at least, I've improved my relations with both the 162s and the GLL. Hopefully, with their networks, I can push for a better future and finally get Ah-Tabai to work with me. Maybe... maybe.