All Our Days

All Our Days
Part of String Theocracy
Date 2020-06-27 GM Pillare Location Touristville, and then Cottage Lake area Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Cutters
Wild Star Aristotle Scurvy Moth

Summary

Angela was worried that several of her technomancer students had gone missing, and most recently Red Rose. She hired the runners to find Red Rose.

They tracked the missing technomancer to a Cutters factory, and defeated her guards in order to rescue her.

Background

There have been a number of kidnappings in the Redmond area; see related news report. Red Rose is the third student of Angela's who had been taken. One student, Pale Horse, had been found. One was still missing.

Of the runners involved looking for Red Rose, one had investigated two prior kidnappings in the area. Aristotle had helped find a kidnapped orc tech producer; see report, and a student kidnapped by the yakua; see report. In both cases, the victim was given the drug Laes.

The Meet

The team met Angela in her matrix host, which looks like a grand library. She explained that Red Rose was missing. She knew her real name was Scarlet, and that she lived in Redmond. She encouraged the runners to find Rose's friend (and Angela's student) Black Sun at an AR cafe. He might know more about her personal life. Angela sent a sprite with Moth to help show that the runners were genuinely working for Angela. The team agreed to find Red Rose, and return her safely.

The Plan

The team arrived at the AR cafe, The Getaway, which had a medieval fantasy theme. The team adjusted their appearances to match.

Aristotle, Scurvy, and Moth caught sight of a knight with a black sun on his tabard. Aristotle, Scurvy, and Wild Star watched the exits, while Moth approached Black Sun. He was happy to talk to her after she mentioned a quest to rescue Red Rose. He gave them her full name, Scarlet Ortega, and a description of her. He provided pictures of her avatars, but did not have one of her real appearance. He provided her address, and the information that her sister lived there also, and was likely devastated with grief. He confirmed that Red Rose had been in trouble with the law in the past.

Wild Star checked with her contact Harvey Sanders, and obtained Rose's file, including a picture of her true appearance. The charges were for drug possession, from kami to psyche. Wild Star attempted to summon a spirit to search for Red Rose, using the picture, but the spirit couldn't find her. They likely needed a better idea of where to search, and something personal for a material connection.

The team headed on to Rose's house. There was mail piling up, but the sister was home. She opened the door after Moth gently explained that they were investigating Scarlet's disappearance, and hoping to bring her home. The living room was a mess. Was this from grief? Wild Star could see from her training as a detective that it looked like the crime scene - a place where a scuffle had happened. Moth encouraged the sister to tell them what happened. She confirmed that Scarlet had been kidnapped from her home. A group of Lone Star officers came and took her. It was suspicious since Scarlet hadn't done anything wrong in some time, and Lone Star usually sent a single person to check in. Scarlet resisted arrest and there was a fight. It had looked like only three officers, but there was a fourth who had gone around back. They drove off with Scarlet.

Wild Star called in to Lone Star, as an active detective, and quickly verified that these were imposters. She checked the back where the fourth man had been, and verified his boots were not Lone Star issue. Scurvy investigated with keen vision, and found some kind of compartment under the floorboards in Scarlet's room; likely for her drugs. Moth asked the sister for any details she could remember from the fight that might possibly identify the imposters. The sister confirmed they were human, and remembered from the fight that one had a tattoo on his ankle. An unusual design. Moth did not immediately recognize it, but could tell it was some kind of gang or syndicate symbol; she called her father King Midas and he was able to confirm that the upside down spade (like the playing card) with barbed wire was the sign of the Cutters. Likewise, he knew that their turf was around Cottage Lake. That would help considerably in searching. Aristotle searched Scarlet's bedroom - with the sister's permission - for personal items that would help search for her magically, and took her trodes and a hair brush with her hair.

With the knowledge of the location to search, and the personal effects to make a material connection, they had the pieces needed for a more effective magical search. Aristotle called her contact Ariel Lopez, a shaman who could summon a spirit of man to search using the personal effects. She owed Aristotle a favor, and agreed to help. Moth arranged for them to use a Laesa safehouse near Cottage Lake to set up for the spell, and meet Ariel. Ariel arrived and confirmed for the team that Scarlet was nearby; she could lead them to her location. Scarlet was in an abandoned factory building in Cutters turf, back along a road barricaded by the Cutters.

The Run

Wild Star summoned a spirit of beasts - a gangly wolf - to help scout a path to the abandoned factory that bypassed the road barricade. The team would need to approach on foot, leaving Moth's car beyond the barricade. Moth helped them move stealthily, and they bypassed more Cutters as they approached, darting through the alleys of the area.

Aristotle switched to astral projection to scout the factory, with confirmation that Scurvy would tend and carry his body if needed. He scouted carefully, avoiding the watchful eye of a spirit over the warehouse. He found that the factory was a large open space, with abandoned equipment. There were four guards (two awakened - a mage and an adept), and one victim being guarded who was injured, and had been treated with Laes.

The team planned to sneak up to the warehouse, and ambush the guards. However, as they were almost at the door, they set off a trip wire, and were all hit by a grenade. Wild Star and Aristotle were particularly hurt and needed stim patches. The guards, alerted by the explosion, began to flee in the opposite direction out of the warehouse.

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.