Chasing the Dragon

Chasing the Dragon
Part of Cross Flight Love Fight
Date 2082-02-20 GM OrionsRequiem Location Downtown, Seattle Metroplex Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Alexander-James Brodrick Johnson III	The Draco Foundation
Babylon Setback Master Morty Pell	DF Security Guard DF Technospider DF Guardian Spirits

Summary

In which Alexander-James Brodrick Johnson III hires shadowrunners to steal a statue, and thinks it's a good idea if he comes along for the heist of the century.

Background

After stealing the prototype Cross Applied Technologies building scale model in Party Quarrel, Brodie J has been thinking about the way to make the model much cooler. Going through his various friends and networking contacts for ideas for ways to make it better for his purposes, he eventually found out about a statue being imported by the Draco Foundation for 25th anniversary of Dunkelzahn's inauguration and death. Deciding that this important piece of history honoring a fallen president would be better in his pet project, Brodie J put out the call on ShadowHaven for runners to help him pull off this heist.

The Meet

The runners receive notifications from their fixers that they are required to meet at E-Vue. The runners arrive at an appropriate time and are met by VJ, the troll bouncer that seems to be the only member of the security team for the club. The troll prevents the runners from entering the venue and tries to explain that they live in a society and that lines exist for a reason until Vee comes to get the runners. Vee leads the runners back to the VIP booth permanently reserved for Brodie J. The club is pulsing with music and DJ Hi-Horse is once more playing music in the venue. The runners are forced to wait until they hear a very intoxicated Brodie J exclaim from the top of the DJ's booth that he's about to perform the heist of the century before jumping off of the booth with a paraglider and lands safely on the other side of the dance floor.

With the theatrics out of the way, Brodie J approaches the runners and gives the team a selection of drugs, which Master Morty takes huge advantage of. The rest of the runners take some drugs to sate Brodie J's selfless naivety, including Babylon taking Zombie Dust thanks to the influence of her Seducer mentor spirit. Brodie J explains that the group needs to help him by going to a warehouse downtown and stealing a statue for him, and best of all, he's going to come with them to pull of the heist! He offers the runners 22k in order to pull off the heist and will even provide a truck for the runners to bring the statue back to his place. The team agrees to the pay and go about the legwork.

The Plan

Brodie J brings the runners out to the back of E-Vue and reveal the truck, a large Mack Hellhound, complete with flamethrowers in the front of the truck. Meanwhile, Master Morty digs into the Matrix to try and get a better idea of what the runners are targeting. The Master discovers that the warehouse is a special supply warehouse for the Draco Foundation, and the statue that Brodie J is looking to heist is a half-tonne statue of Dunkelzahn, commissioned by the Draco Foundation to be unveiled on the 25th anniversary of his death on August 9th, 2082. Master Morty also finds a rating 5 host in the warehouse, but doesn't enter it yet.

Babylon, leaving her body in the truck, astrally projects over to the warehouse, accompanied by Pell's Guardian spirit. They find the place patrolled by two Force 6 Guardian Spirits who appear as spear-wielding knights. However, before too much more can be gleamed, the team is surprised by Babylon's body getting up and walking out into the street. Due to the Zombie Dust that she had taken from Brodie J's stash, a spirit of man found a prepared vessel while it was floating around the Astral and decided to possess the body. Babylon's body began walking towards the street, but was luckily stopped by Setback who used her Narcojet finger in order to knock Babylon's body out. Babylon realized that something was happening with her body and rushed back, only to find that she had been knocked out. Deciding to put the spirit's signature in her little black book, she is given a slap-patch by Brodie J and explains what she saw in front of the warehouse. Deciding that they had done enough legwork, the runners gather into the truck and attempt to head towards downtown.

The Run

As they arrive at the warehouse, Setback attempts to ram the wall of the building, but is held off by Babylon saying that making noise is probably not their best bet, no matter how much Brodie J is into it. Instead, Setback jumps out of the truck and begins trying to chainsaw the gate open. The guards on security attempt to stop her, but her armored body is resistant to gunfire. The Guardian Spirits materialize and attempt to stop the intrusion, but Pell's Guardian spirit and Setback's shotgun make short work of the astral entities. They also knock out the security forces in front of the warehouse and finish sawing through the gate.

While the distraction is going on, Master Morty sends an all-clear signal to the Knight Errant squad that was dispatched because of the noise in the middle of downtown. He also enters the site's host and finds a persona that is monitoring the situation and attempting to get some sort of response. Acting quickly Master Morty marks the persona and hits it with a solid data spike. Unfortunately Master Morty did not realize that the persona was that of a technospider working for the Foundation. Babylon creates an illusion around the wall of the warehouse while Brodie J uses smart corrosives loaded into a SuperSquirt to melt the plascrete so that they can sneak in. The runners check the perimeter to make sure that they're clear before Master Morty activates the warehouse's winch and carries the dragon statue over to the Hellhound's bed and places it down. Setback runs through the facility and finds the Technospider who is bleeding out and manages to stabilize them before they leave the mortal coil.

The team leaves downtown as quickly as they can and begin travelling to Brodie J's drop off location.

Aftermath

Brodie J takes the Hellhound onto the I-90 and over the access bridge to Council Island. The truck pulls through very well-to-do neighborhoods until stopping at a diplomatic attaché. The truck pulls into an overly large garage and Brodie J seems disappointed that his new friends will not be able to see the statue in it's proper place with the other trophies that he's obtained. Brodie J takes the runners through the house and leads them down to the basement past a series of locks where he shows them the scale statue of the Cross Applied Technologies building. The team takes some time to harass the Johnson family's personal chef as Babylon steps outside and makes a call to Cecelia Cross who is out on a lake somewhere.

Cecelia does not seem pleased with being disturbed on her night off, until Babylon explains that she's on a job for Brodie J and that she has found the statue that Cecelia has been seeking for quite some time. Cecelia asks Babylon if attacking Council Island is technically considered a terrorist attack before hanging up on the runner and planning her next move.

Rewards

• 22k Nuyen or 44k Nuyen worth of Drugs(11 RVP)
• 1 Karma (1 RVP)
• Optional Contact: Alexander-James Brodrick Johnson III at up to loyalty 3 (RVP taken from nuyen or karma)
• 2 CDP
• +5 Federated Boeing Reputation.

For Babylon:

• +1 Chip on Cecelia Cross
• +3 Cross Applied Technologies Rep

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Master Morty

"Who knew spiders were so squishy? That guy might wanna consider an alternate life plan, if that's all the resistance he can put up for Master Morty... But I digress. The plan wasn't much of a plan, more of a smash and grab, and smash we did. Setback decides to create a "distraction" by sawing away at the front gate while the rest of the team circles around the side and eats a whole through the wall with Brodie J's nanite gun. Then it's an easy grab with the overhead winch system to load the statue and beat feet. I like this Brodie J guy, he is generous with his drug collection, but I was a bit annoyed that I had to keep asking him for more. And more. And more..."

Babylon

Ah dear Brodrick, always up to something - In this case, stealing some statue of Dunklezhan for some asinine project of his. Whatever, he amuses me, and he pays well, not to mention the opportunities to frag him over for Cecelia. As it turns out, he stole a model of the old Cross HQ from her (and burned her house down in the process) - I finally found where he's keeping it, but have yet to figure out who was responsible. That will come in time I suppose. For now I'll simply enjoy the spoils of my labor and wait for all this to bear fruit.

Pell

And so now I've met the much-talked-about Brodie J. He seems nice, in that "Means well, but is a giant fragging idiot who doesn't know how to do things normally" kind of way. Morty's gutsy in asking for drugs from Brodie, I have to admit. Anyway, this went off without much of a hitch, aside from Babylon's body being possessed while she's projecting.

I swear, if Brodie's making a fragging diorama out of this.