The Wolf and the Bear

The Wolf and the Bear
Date 2085-06-20 GM Scranton Location Minsk, Belarus Status Threat Level: Deadly
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Minsk Vory, Shadow Demon
No Significant Harassment Phototaxis Chameleon	Volk Wraith (Spirit)
Casualties and losses
None	Wraith destroyed

Summary

A Red Vory avtoritet demanded discreet investigations on some inconsistencies in logistical reports on what has been shipped by the Belorusan branch of the Vory, and suspected his former protege to be attemtping a coup

The Meet

The runners are invited by their fixers at the Volga Bath House and Spa, a Red Vory owned location, under the management of Mikhail Antonov. Once there, the owner let them in an especially constructed private sauna, where they met Medved, a large troll man and Red Vory legend. After some banter, in which the Johnson and Phototaxis almost threw hands, the outlines of the mission were explained.

The Minsk branch of the Red Vory had the very important role of receiving the smuggling cargo from mainland Russia, and redestribute it to the various markets of central Europe, and thus served as an important logistics center. In the years past, his protege, Volk, a wolf shifter, has overseen the operations with the iron fist expected of an high ranking Vory woman, but in the last two weeks, more and more traffic has went missing, more specifically weapons and military gear.

All clues seemed to point at an armed uprising being organised, and thus, Medved asked the runners to investigate before the other leaders of the mainland syndacate mobilized for war. As much as he had little reason to hope, he begged the runners to do their best they could to find evidence of this not being Volk's fault, and in case they were certain she was to blame, grant her a swift death

The Plan

The party left early afterwards, taking advantage of No Significant Harassment's flying boat to travel by sea and avoid annoying border checks. After an excruciating trip, they manage to reach Minsk, where they becan preliminary work. NSH scouted through their smuggling and black market connections wheter the missing weapons were being sold via other channels, and discovered that they were most likely being stockpiled.

Chameleon, meanwhile, donned the clothes and identity of a wealthy Seattle-born investor, looking to expand his business to eastern Europe, and seeking an audience with the powers that be. After some asking around, aided by Phototaxis, he managed to meet the spokesperson of the Volk, an old lady, who embodied the sterotype of the "babushka" perfectly. After some lying, she was convinced into setting up a meeting with the target, whom chose to communicate via matrix. The following talk was mostly uneventful, as the party refused to risk it and trying to hack her, and she denied the group a chance to meet in the flesh.

Additional scouting happened afterwards, with a preliminary outside glance at the mansion she was residing in, and finding the security to be quite tight. A plan was concieved to try and find actionable proof against the target by tracking down one of the weapon shipments. Via cordination with Mikhail, whose commlink number was given to the runners by the Johnson, they knew the next shipment was due to arrive the day after to the riverside harbour. Once there, NSH sent drones to scout the area where the boat would dock, Chameleon physically infiltrated the warehouse where the container will be transported after the delivery was made, and Phototaxis sent spirits to look for potential ambushes. Two snipers set up their nests, and greeted the people of the mainland Vory that came as an escort to the cargo. The following conversation made it clear that the leader of the Minsk branch was acting a bit inconsiderate and erratically in the last period, but nobody felt brave enough to challenge her. Managing to avoid detection, the runners looked as the whole thing went down, and exfiltrated. Later, the cameras placed in the warehouse by Chameleon managed to catch on video the men of the Minsk Vory loading up the weapons and transporting them to the boss's mansion.

The Run

Having found damnable enough evidence, the party moved to action, that being sneaking inside the mansion and taking out the target. NSH drove their boat via the river to be as close as possibleto the private harbour the mansion sported, and made their boat invisible to act both as getaway vehicle and mobile command center, then they sent a flyspy to scout ahead. Phototaxis sent spirits to both enhance Chameleon stealth and provide astral scouting, finding an undistinct presence of large power lurking within the main building, while Chameleon himself was the one to physically enter the location.

After infiltrating the external perimeter, the runners came across a corpse of a vory man with wounds that matched with a large animal biting him in the neck (which matched with the target being a wolf shifter). The security detail quickly disposed of it, while still being clearly distressed by how one of their colleagues just died.

Once inside the mansion, thanks to some excellent maglock bypassing, the party finally had eyes inside, and found in the basement a locked door, leading to what was presumably a lodge. Once that door also fell to Chameleon's deft fingers, the party was confronted with what was inside the room: a huge vaguely humanoid mass of shadows, who Phototaxis identified as a Wraith, a shadow spirit capable of influencing metasapient minds into devolving into violent psycopaths and that quite literally fed on bloodshed and suffering.

Taking a gamble, the party decided to talk with Volk rather then just killing her, and they found her in a state of confusion, as her mouth full of blood made it clear she had just killed one of her underlings. The woman, it turned out, was indeed under the influence of the creature, whom she mistook as a spirit of Man, and that there was, indeed, a plan to organize an uprising against the main Vory, but that the desire was most likely implanted by the wraith, which stood to gain a massive influx of power in the upcoming battle and the deaths associated.

So, the party realised that the task of "resolving the root issue of the missing shipment" meant that disrupting the spirit was now the main target, but Chameleon accurately determined that he alone wasn't up to the task. So, with the consent of the Vory boss, they attempted to lurk the wraith outside of the basement of the mansion and down by the river, where they would ambush it. The whole offensive hinged heavily on NSH ramming it at high speed with their boat, but the high force spirit was fast enough to dodge it, and in the following confrontation grievously wounded Chameleon and disrupted both of the spirits Phototaxis sent against it, but in the end fell to a combination of mana strikes from the adept and bullseye bursts from the boat weapon mounts.

Rewards

Deadly 20 RVP x 1,67 = 34

32,000 nuyen (16 RVP) 16 Karma (16 rvp) 4 CDP (2 rvp)

Optional: Mikhail Antonov as 2/2 (4 rvp) Optional: Gearhead at gen price (11 rvp) for No Significant Harassment

Game Quotes

"PLEASE WORK FOR ONCE, BULLSHIT BURST" MarWceline.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Chameleon:Ohmigodthathurts. The bleeding's stopped and the stitches look tight. <voicemail: Dr. Noison Gayle. "Hi Doc this is Chameleon. I will arrive Seattle later today, I need medical attention. I think I have some cracked ribs and there is blood in my urine"> <voicemail: Naomi Fisk. I have to miss class Monday and Tuesday, I'm in the clinic again.>. Ok now a tranq patch....

No Significant Harassment: That was a pretty annoying run but I am glad I could help a comrade out. And that spirit slippery little bastard but got it at the end. Really nice end of the story all considered hope she can recover soon and get back to fighting the good fight but now stronger with her experiences.