Chestnuts Out of the Fire

Chestnuts Out of the Fire
Part of A Scattering of Deadly Petals
Date 2082-07-14 GM Sarcarian Location Tacoma, Seattle Metroplex Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Fan Yang	Black Chrysanthemum
Basilisk Gav Jacinto Newt (As played by Discogoblin) Sanjuro Wychking	Spirit of Air Spirit of Earth Spirit of Man Triad Boss Triad Goons
Casualties and losses
	Spirit of Air, Spirit of Earth, Spirit of Man, Triad Boss, Triad Goons x3
Newt burned edge to Not Yet Dead

Summary

In which the runners are hired to break up a Black Chrysanthemum smuggling operation at the Tacoma dockyards.

Background

The Black Chrysanthemum have been making inroads into Seattle after their decline following the Tempo Wars (see: A Scattering of Deadly Petals for more), and as part of those efforts the Triad has been increasing their presence in the smuggling rings at the Tacoma docks. To that end, they have bribed or coerced several dockworks and foreman into complying with them, and have started upping the pressure by threatening the families of those who don't go along with their business operations. One such worker, Zhang Wei, has come to the attention of Fan Yang, a shipping manager who is concerned that his family will be next to be threatened by the Black Chrysanthemum. Lacking the ability to move openly against them without putting himself at risk, he decides to build on his recent dabbling with professional criminals (see: A Seaside Escape and hire a team of runners to do the job for him.

The Meet

The runners are contacted individually by their fixers and told to meet with Mr. Wu (Yang) at the Peaceable Kingdom restaraunt in Tacoma, where they are able to briefly pass as normal people and talk their way inside for their reservation. After a bit of food and polite small-talk, Fan Yang gets to the point - he tells them of the Triad operations at the dockyards, and that he needs them to deal with the problem for him before his family is targeted. The team ask a few questions, and he tells them of Zhang Wei and grants them limited access to the dockyards to ask around, offering them 14,000 nuyen apiece for their services.

The Plan

After accepting the job, the team are left to finish their meal and plan their approach. Heading to the docks, they decide to split up - Basilisk, Gav and Wychking head to talk to Wei, while Newt and Sanjuro sneak around to look for signs of Triad activity (Newt, naturally, removes her clothes to make full use of her chameleon skin for this task). While the A team do the talking, the B team get stealthy; Sanjuro ends up caught by a guard and is unable to talk her way out of things ("Ummm, I was looking for the bathroom!"), being escorted away, but Newt manages to remain hidden and catches sight of a mirrorshades-clad man speaking in Cantonese over his commlink and decides to follow him to see what he's up to.

In Wei's office, the A team speaks to the dockworker and ask about his dealings with the Black Chrysanthemum; Wei is initially reluctant to talk, fearful of what the Triad will do to him if they find out, but a bit of combined persuasion/intimidation from the runners convinces him that it's better to be truthful with them so that they can deal with the problem for him. He tells them much of what is detailed in the Background section, and that several of them are meeting in one of the warehouses tonight to oversee the processing of a large shipment of BTL chips. Back out in the dockyards, Newt follows the Triad goon to the very same warehouse, taking it upon herself to infiltrate in order to get eyes on the layout inside and how many people they'll be dealing with.

The Run

Infiltrating the building by climbing up the side with her gecko hands and breaking in through the HVAC system, Newt manages to avoid the notice of the air spirit patrolling the vents and take note of the floorplan and the number of triad goons, as well as another pair of spirits (though she doesn’t spot the mage, who is off-site). While she does so, the rest of the team kit up for a fight based on the information Newt relays to them; as they plan and prepare to break in and start taking goons out, Newt notices something that catches her (and Raven’s) attention - a jade statue inside one of the cargo containers, which looks to be quite magical to her third eye.

Throwing caution to the wind, Newt sneaks out of the vents and towards the statue at the urging of her mentor spirit. She manages to lay her hands on it, but is spotted by one of the spirits just as the rest of the runners kick in the doors. Gav and Sanjuro take up the bullet sponge role, soaking dozens of bullets from the Triad mooks while engaging them with chainsaw and sword respectively; meanwhile Basilisk sneaks inside like a stealthy snake and stays beneath notice while tossing around retro gas grenades and darting people with narcojet, and Wychking stays behind cover while directing her guardian spirit to keep the others busy on the astral.

The Black Chrysanthemum puts up a good fight, giving the runners a run for their money, but they ultimately prove to be no match for the experienced combatants - with the sole exception of Newt who, being caught flat-footed without armor or a weapon, makes for easy prey for them and ends up filled with of complex full auto fire. Calling out to Raven to save her, the statue she stole activates and causes an accident, leading to a cargo container falling and providing her just enough cover to survive (though full of bullets and down for the count).

Bringing the fighting to a swift conclusion, the runners target the remaining goons with spells and grenades, putting them all down and killing several. Grabbing one to interrogate and pulling Newt from under the rubble, they slap a trauma patch on both and beat a quick retreat.

Aftermath

Reviving Newt and getting her to a street doc for proper medical care, the team bring their captive to Fan Yang and tell him of everything they learned and that the Triad shouldn’t be conducting their operations on his turf anymore, given most of their goons are now dead. He is a little annoyed with how loud they ended up going, but accepts it as a job, well, done.

Rewards

• 14k nuyen

• 3 karma

• 8 CDP

• -40 Black Chrysanthemum rep

• Optional Contact: Fan Yang (C6/L1 Fixer) for 6 RVP or 12 CDP

• Optional Quality: Tough As Nails

For Newt:

• Thousand-Yard Stare

• Optional Gear Reward: R2 Qi Focus (Adept Accident)

• Optional Quality: Will To Live

For Wychking:

• +1 chip on Fan Yang

Newt

"This job would have gone perfectly, were it not for that cursed spirit of man. I mean, not only had I scouted out the enemy, but through Raven's sight I had found the most fascinating little statue. I was this close to getting away unseen when that spirit spotted me. One thing led to another, and I ended up becoming the enemy's target practice. Were it not for the good grace of Raven I would've died there, but as it stands my teammates managed to extract me. Still, I got the statue. If I didn't have to stay in this wretched hospital, I would be tempted to call this run an overall success."

Sanjuro

“Okay so I might have bungled sneaking a little bit but I made it work and went back to the team but Newt went in and then she almost died and then we had to go in and save her and I got shot like 3000 times and there was this big guy with a sword and we fought and I got shot more and it was really close and I had to jump in front of a lightning bolt and then grab Newt and run out and it was a lot! I need to get better at this sneaking stuff :(“