Revenge of the Teddy Bear

Revenge of the Teddy Bear
Part of The Toys that Made Us
Date 2081-05-30 GM SedatedAlice Location The MATRIX
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Unicornergy Toy Company John the Security Spider Spider Couronne Athena El Ellie	Anonymous Hackers
Casualties and losses
Reality . . . Or was it hyper-reality? Also a med-bed!

Summary

The top is still spinning.

She set the bed on fire with her mind.

This was all to secure the plans to a mad scientist's doodle?

Wait.

Had we jacked out?

And why do I suddenly have a friendship bracelet?

. . .

. . . . . . . . . !!

Background

Benjamin Johnson, CEO of Unicornergy Toy Company, has had one hell of a week.  He is convinced that against all odds, a team of shadowrunners made it into his R&D facility and wreaked havoc on behalf of one of his enemies.  How else could you explain what had happened at the Toy Fair?  That unicorn. . .well the poop was supposed to be cute and fluffy, not literal weapons grade vile brown water.  Razz and Friends had declared the marketing rights contract they had signed with Unicornergy null and void as the company had A) publicly embarrassed the popular children’s trid, and B) had not managed to secure a single merchandising contract with anyone for the rest of the Razz and Friends line.  His fledgling company was on the verge of collapse - their good name ruined, the investors fleeing faster than the water had erupted from the unicorn’s behind. . . Well, you get the idea.

And now hackers had hit him again.  They had broken into the companies R&D files (which John the Security Spider had assured him had been badly shredded by a wild techno-cat he called a bastet) and stolen everything of value.  Unfortunately, the head of the R&D lab was a bit eccentric and had been designing an eight foot tall teddy bear that shot neutrino beams out of the rainbow on its forehead (the man was always quoting some 5th world show called Future something or another and said the bear came from that) - in his spare time of course!  The man had made the mistake of storing the data at work and it had been taken by the hackers.  And of course, this was the file the hackers were holding over Johnson’s head, claiming that unless he paid them an exorbitant amount of money they would leak the plans of the death bear all over hell and creation - this would be the death knell for his company if it happened.  Attempting to beat his ransom deadline, Johnson had sent a team of security spiders out to find where the hackers were keeping his data.  The spiders found a UV Host.  And were never heard from again (it wasn’t the first time Johnson had had to clean up a few bodies).

Desperate and panicked, Johnson reached out to shadowrunners - their kind had started this whole mess, surely more of them could fix it.

The Meet

Four strangers had gotten a call. Little do they know they would leave four best friends forever.

They met downtown, four stalwart brain cases - Athena, Spider, Couronne, and Ellie. Johnson offered them a lot of money and equipment for what looked like a simple job - get back the files hackers had stolen from him before he had to pay the ransom. He knew where the files were. Half of the job was done already. And he was willing to pay upfront.

What's the worst that could happen?

The Plan

Get into the host, get the file, get out.

It was supposed to be easy.

The Run

The host was. . .odd. It presented itself as a dirt lot in a very busy section of the Matrix - there was nothing special about it but there are a bunch of kids seemingly playing there.  In the exact middle of the plot was a child height table with several child sized chairs strewn out about it.  Some of them are occupied, but there were four seats open.  One child was sitting behind a DM screen, rolling dice for the others sitting at the table. "Play a game with us?" She asked the group. "All you need is a name on the sheet!" She seemed to be inviting them to enter their wonderland. They all wrote down a name:

Ellie became Ellie the Jelly.

Athena became Gnosis.

Couronne became Marhaly.

Spider became Anansi.

They woke up in a tavern after a night of restful sleep. Each donned a costume and headed out to greet the day. They heard stories of something to the East that had been causing problems for the Land for sometime - and that it had a magnificent treasure that if they acquired would bring peace and balance to the land. They set off, having obtained an adequate amount of supplies and the advice of an old man on the street about not getting in the way of people opening doors.

Into the forest they went, searching for the right path through. Ellie seemed to be the best equipped as everyone else managed to take a path leading to nowhere. Ellie found an old lady sitting on the front porch of her cottage - for the price of a song and answering a few riddles, the old woman told them how to get out of the forest and push onward. (The free sprite disappeared as quickly as it had appeared before the host noticed it.)

At a bend in the river the party met a party of Trolls. Rather than let Anansi, Marhaly, and Gnosis shoot them with their bow and arrows, Ellie convinced her peers to let her try and talk to them. It turned into a Disney Princess sing-a-long, where Ellie inspired the trolls to help the group and hopefully change their ways. Sweet bread was exchanged and the trolls gave the party their boat so the party could move up the river unhindered. They named the boat 'Colors of the Wind.'

The owls had stopped hooting.

It took several days to make their way up the river. Marhaly managed to catch fish, which Ellie cooked for the party - but even in death, it felt like the fish were still watching them. Gnosis - who was the captain of the ship - had to stop Anansi from setting the boat on fire to counteract the fishy feelings they all had. Soon though they came to a convenient dock, tied up the boat, and attempted to cross their last obstacle - the mountains.

Ellie intimidated a goat. Marhaly found a passage through the mountains using her powers of being a dwarf and also French-speaking. It was a long, boring walk through the mountains to get to the Bearren Planes of Rainbow Destruction during which Marhaly made everyone friendship bracelets.

But eventually they found it - an eight foot tall stuffed bear shoot neutrino beams from its eyes and in general terrorizing anything that came through near the crystallized essence. Ellie predictably ran up and hugged it. Marhaly gave it a bracelet. Anansi gave it spider badges and convinced it to go back to where it came from. The horrific bear, now so full of friendship, ran off and exploded into hearts. The group of stalwart adventurers dug up the essence and ran for the rocky door in the distance as the air around them started to shift. Something was very wrong, they had to go through the door but they kept getting in their own way, until Marhaly was polite to it. Through the rabbit hole and they were out. . . were they? Was this the real place, this dirt lot with children, or was it The Land?

Ben Johnson got them set on their way after Ellie gave John the Security Spider a ticket to her next show.

Aftermath

A med bed was set on fire, Spider is convinced she did this with her mind.

Couronne made a top and started to spin it. It spun and spun and spun until someone bumped the table and now you'll never be sure if it stopped spinning.

Ellie was pretty unfazed because she got a teddy bear.

Athena was tight lipped, but seemed to be glad to have made friends.

Rewards

Custom Item: Matrix Persona crafted during the run (high fantasy hackers!)

Custom item: Friendship Bracelet (Garnet and gold for Spider, Sapphire and silver for Ellie, Tanzanite and rose gold for Athena, Opal and gold/silver mix for Couronne)

22,000 Nuyen

4 Karma +3 CDP to obtain the knowledge skill: The Power of Friendship, rank 2

OR:

20,000 Nuyen 3 karma +6 CDP to acquire the skill : The Power of Friendship, Rank 3

For Ellie only:

-1 concert promo ticket given as a bribe to John the Security Spider

+1 QT McWhiskers teddy bear

For Athena only:

+1 Captain's hat (to be delivered the next day with a receipt showing Athena ordered it)

Game Quotes

"I'll call her Ellie the Jelly." "Why." "She looks like a jellyfish in that outfit!" - Couronne. "Ellie sings Rattling Bob to the drunken tavern." - Doc "The babbling river is spoken word singing songs from Pocohantus, I guess we'll go with it since none of you will stop me." - Alice "Can I use my skill in mathematics to know the wavelengths of light being used to make the boat appear as all the colors of the wind?" ". . .I'll allow it." - Aurora to Alice "The boat is now mathematical." "Please explain how you would use Knowledge: Religion to set the boat on fire." - Alice to Aurora "WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO SET MY BOAT ON FIRE?!" - Gnosis to Anansi. "I intimidate the goat!" - Ellie the Jelly "I make gem bracelets with the rope using my DIY knowledge skill!" - Marhaly "The clown poofed immediately into a cloud of electricity, glitter, and . . . Novacoke." - Alice, explaining the death of a Sparky IC "I just rolled the Power of Friendship! How could I pull out a knife now?!" - Anansi "HOLY DREK GUYS I JUST SET THAT BED ON FIRE WITH MY MIND." - Spider "Is the top still spinning?" "On my table, you rolled so well that it might spin forever due to craftsmanship." - Alice to Couronne

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Spider

Oh my goddess, I set the bed on fire WITH MY MIND!!! I'm still in the host! This isn't real, this isn't real... D=

Couronne

"That run was crazy. My first time entering a UV Host. And I'm still not even sure if I've actually left it yet. I've got this gem bracelet now, and the top is still spinning…. What is real?"