Casino Clash

Casino Clash
Part of Emerald City Clash
Date 2087-08-07 GM Breeze Location Seattle, Everett Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Yakuza	Ciarnello Family
Exodus Mordred Poe H-R	Diamond in the Rough Staff Aria C Arridirre Peter D. Walton
Casualties and losses
None	One man's career

Summary

A very well executed heist for the sake of the ongoing gang war.

Background

Among the rivalries springing about in the greater Emerald City Clash, a more subtle one raging forth was between the Mafia and Yakuza. Constant syndicate rivals, the two were much less involved than the direct allies and enemies of the Cutters and Ancients, serving more like middlemen than as distinct belligerents. That did not stop them from wanting to undercut each other. But both sides needed information, and careful planning.

And the Yakuza had a tip on just how to disrupt the plans of a certain Ciarnello family. They just needed warm bodies to help round out the team.

The Meet

Exodus, Poe, Mordred, and H-R answered the call to a small Izakaya that Friday morning. They met with a young up and coming enforcer over in Tacoma, and got straight to business. They were needed to help in the pilfering of a special item, a datachip with specific decals on it that marked it as the target. They were not allowed to know what was in it, but they were allowed to work one of two angles to assist: bait, or deep diving in an infil to the casino they wanted hit for the chip called The Diamond in the Rough. Either the team would have to play cat and mouse and get a good chunk of the security force away (and hopefully avoid HTR) or they'd be in the belly of the beast for the run and have to risk fighting fairly tight security to get through and find this chip somewhere in the large casino. 10k a piece for being bait, 16k instead if they were bold enough to do infil. They managed to work together to bully this low tier enforcer into securing some burner sins for them to use here and to give them a bit of an operational budget to work with. With that, he leaves them to it.

The Plan

After some preliminary searching and prior knowledge on the scene gives the gang background info on the mafia affiliations and the general layout and staff roster of the place, they resolve to attack it from two angles. The first is some additional legwork and chip searching by Exodus a day before to see about finding the chip if at all possible. The second is for Poe to work his magic and his connections with a surprise would-be Ares wage mage now working freelance for the family to take him out of the picture. H-R would be handling any security and hopefully avoiding the spider inside, and Mordred could provide backup and flex into a number of different roles to help the team smooth things over and play things by ear.

The Run

Poe managed to convince his unwilling associate Danny Hoffman to give dirt on that soured employee in exchange for publicly embarrassing him in front of his superiors as a way to set up for his much more scrutinized return as an asset. Poe summoned a spirit to utterly befuddle this man in his sleep, planting a number of suggestions into his head that would make the next day awful for him and his employees. Meanwhile, Exodus made her way inside and drew the attention of the manager, one Aria C Arridirre. A young up and comer, social adept, and seemingly paranoid yet flirtatious woman. She gave her a look at the VIP section, gave Exodus a grand tour of the inside and a chance at a VIP lounge, and also demonstrated just how bad of an idea it would be for the team to mess with magical security this intense directly.

The next day came and the team came in with their fake sins ready, finding Pete D. Walton making a right fool of himself and aggravating the hell out of the manager. Mordred ran interference and got caught up in the ineffectual temper tantrum the mage through as H-R got Exodus in after Poe found the chip storage in the managers office with his spells and hung back. The plan worked, with only a slight hiccup that required Poe to pull the fire alarm and give Exodus just a bit more time to slip into the crowd.

Aftermath

The team made a clean exfil out of there, and the Yakuza were deeply pleased with getting information on the clientele the Mafia were trading to and trading for during all of this.

Danny Hoffman was pleased with Poe's performance, and took Walton "under his wing" as a very tightly controlled asset for the future.

Rewards

16k Nuyen (8 RVP)

4 Karma (4 RVP)

8 CDP (2 base + 3 RVP)

Poe can take a chip off of Danny Hoffman for helping him get his hands on an asset

Narrative Consequences

The Yakuza are able to get their hands on compromising information on the operations of the Ciarnello Family. Good help for the future, and means to help them deal with them behind the scenes during the war

Peter Walton, Rituallist Extraordinaire, gets ripped a new one by his bosses, and ends up getting pulled in by Danny Hoffman when he gives him an offer for a real position again and is practically his stooge

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Mordred stretched his jaw with a grunt. Walton didn't really know how to throw one, but it still stung having to take one on the chin. He stepped out of the Casino in the sweltering night air and glanced around the corner. The bouncers were in the middle of having a 'conversation' with the poor sot. He hesitated only a moment before trudging towards the small group.

"What the frag Pete?" said an Orc in a cheap suit. He loomed over the disheveled man like a mythical barn door. With arms that showed the characteristic bulge of bioware enhanced musculature making him look more like a cartoon than a metahuman. "Yeah, you should take a few days off if you know what's good for you." said the other, a furtive looking human with his sleeves rolled up. The shorter man poked Walton with what looked like a taser in a fold up finger tip and Walton grunted in pain. Mordred fought back a grin at seeing the man suffering from his success then intervened.

"Hey Chummers. Don't be too hard on the guy. I know how hard it can be when stress builds up. I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it." Mordred's voice was a glottal growl of scar tissue, he twisted his face into what he could best turn into an easy going smile. "Let me take this guy off your hands for a bit. I'm sure he just needs to take a walk." The Orc spat at his feet. "Sure. No synth off our nose."

Mordred reached down with a shaky hand and held it out to Walton. He briefly wondered whether or not the spirits possessing Walton's clothing was still present but dismissed the thought as a risk he'd be willing to take. He'd heard that those things were very, very literal. "Come on. No hard feelings chummer. I'll buy you a drink down the street." Walton looked at the cyberarm that recently dropped him bodily through a roulette table and hesitated. "It's alright." Mordred grunted. "hitting time's all done." He hauled Walton to his feet and slung an arm around his back. Walton was a good deal taller than the stocky operative, though he guessed that because of his own augmentations they were probably similar in weight. He slowly began to walk down the street away from the Casino. "So, you got any plans going forward? I don't know how much this place is going to agree with you in the morning?" Mordred asked.

Walton shook his head mournfully and sighed for a moment. "I mean...I did a bit of work for Ares. I guess I could always ask if they could up my hours." he was distracted and shaken up and he didn't notice as Mordred slowly but surely steered the conversation from the street into an alley as he confessed his frustrations. The after effects of the spiritual influence was clearly playing with his inhibitions. Then, Mordred made his move. With an effort of will Mordred turned and slammed his left arm into Walton's chest pinning him to the plastcrete wall with the force of a trash compactor. The indigo lights beneath the plates whining with the effort. Mordred knew that he didn't have long before the effort played hell with his nervous system and his hand started to jerk spasmodically. He raised his other hand and stiffened his fingers into a knife's point an inch from Walton's face. Walton for his part attempted to say "What the Frag" but his air was forced from his chest with an explosive whoosh. Mordred's eyes were electric blue stilettos in the darkened alley. He leaned in and spoke. "Alright, drekbrain. Listen up and listen close. I need something from you, and if I don't hear the right words in the right tone of voice I'm going to twist your optical nerves around your neck and choke you to death. Do you scan?" Walton's eyes went wide and he nodded once, a fleck of spittle dripping from his panicked jaw. "Good. When you go back to Ares like a good little wage slave you are going to have a great and comfortable life. But some day I'm going to find you, and I'm going to ask you a question and you better having a Fucking Answer."

Walton looked into those soulless blue cybereyes and he didn't see any amount of hesitation. He nodded again.

Mordred leaned in so close that the light from his eyes were all that Walton could see.

"Who. Is. Uther?"