The Underground Bakery

The Underground Bakery
Part of Baker Wars
Date 2082-02-02 GM Aurora Location Nache, Salish-Shidhe Council Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Saul Goodman	Sapphire Knuckles
Delphi Entropy Nogitsune	Ganger Thugs
Casualties and losses
	Ganger Thug x2

Summary

In which the runners are hired to recover a shipment of artisanal flour from just across the border.

The Meet

The runners are asked to meet at the Underground Bakery in Downtown Seattle - a quick matrix search confirms that the bakery is, contrary to its name, an upscale place that services rich clientele and serves real food. Everyone arrives around 3am to find the place closed up, however after ringing the doorbell they are invited into the kitchen where Mr. J is preparing fresh-baked pastries. He explains what he needs from them - recover a shipment of flour which was hijacked by gangers on its way through SSC territory - and offers them 6k each for their work. Delphi squeezes him for a bit more cash, and after the J explains that he doesn't have a lot more to offer she places a call to her fixer Sarah Snow, who agrees to re-arrange the catering for her upcoming fundraising schedule this month to get the Underground Bakery some more work in exchange for a chip. With the increase in business, Mr. J is able to offer the team 8k each as well as gift cards for the bakery and extra food to supplant their lifestyle costs, which the team eagerly accept after tasting the pastries.

The Plan

There was no plan - the team decided to drive across the boarder and hope for the best. After being pointed in the right direction (the J noted that the truck was hijacked by a gang called the Crimson Knuckles, who have loose associations with the First Nations, and was last reported in Nache, a small town a few miles into SSC terratory), Delphi does a quick matrix search for information and pulls up the location of a few known safehouses in the area to give them a place to start looking.

The Run

Hopping into Nogitsune's truck with some fresh-baked goods for the road, the team makes it to the boarder without issue but ends up getting flagged for additional inspection; thankfully luck is with them and their SINs hold up to inspection, and they were able to hide their guns in the smuggling compartment well enough to avoid detection. After selling a lie about going to Nache to enjoy the beautiful sunrise, they are waved through with a warning to look out for trouble with the local gangers.

The drive to town is uneventful, however upon arrival the team encounters a quartet of gangers in the road huddled around a flaming barrel. Nogitsune attempts to drive around them but they move to intercept, so Delphi shows her gun and tells them not to make any trouble. She attempts intimidation, however the gangers have the team outnumbered and attempt to extort a toll out of them. Not wishing to pay, initiative is rolled and shots are fired. Nogitsune seizes the initiative and puts some gel rounds into one of their chests, knocking them out immediately, while Delphi heroically cowers behind cover to avoid getting shot. Entropy meanwhile uses fling to throw the barrel at the gangers, knocking one of them out and nearly getting geaked as an obvious mage before the gangers composure breaks and they bolt, avoiding being run down by Nogitsune.

After making sure he's not on fire, Delphi revives the knocked-out ganger and intimidates him into revealing where the shipment was taken (and that the gangers were just as disappointed as her to find out that it's actually flour and not novacoke). Heading to the warehouse under cover of concealment from Entropy's earth spirit, the runners are able to avoid the gang spotters and have Nogitsune sneak up on and knock out the half-asleep guard in the gate booth. Sneaking inside, they look around and find a bunch of food - any drugs that were stored there having unfortunately already been moved - and loot some snacks along with the artisanal flour, loading it up in the truck after confirming that there's nothing else worth taking by reading the shipment log. On the way out, they encounter a vehicle full of gangers, however Nogitsune is able to out-wheelman them and drive fast enough to get away without needing to engage in another fight.

Aftermath

Returning to the metroplex, the runners manage to cram their stolen goods into the smuggling compartments and successfully conceal it from the boarder guards, talking their way through and returning to the Underground Bakery to receive their full payment, along with a steady supply tasty treats for the next few months.

Rewards

• 8,000 nuyen
• 6 karma
• 4,000 nuyen worth of lifestyle cost reduction from 4 months worth of baked goods.
• 1 rank in Connoisseur plus a spec in Baked Goods (8 CDP equivalent)
• 750 nuyen worth of frozen foot-long krill sandwiches for Entropy and Nogitsune, plus 50 nuyen worth of soyburgers for Entropy

Game Quotes

Delphi: Please try to be professional and don't set the gangers on fire with flaming garbage... Delphi: [approximately 3 seconds later, after Entropy proceeds to do exactly that] "What did I just say?!"

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Delphi

Nice change of pace with this job after my last few gigs - a lot lower stakes than solving a murder in LA or finding that kidnapped little girl, not to mention my encounters with... well, best not to dwell on that now. Still, money was tight this month and I didn't have a lot of detective work other than the gig with Informer, so I needed the cash from this gig and was quick to accept after doing a bit of math and figuring I could just manage to keep the lights on with what the J was offering. I tried to push for more cash when he said it was out-of-town, and even got him a bit of extra business with some rich clients to help pad the bill, but at the end of the day it was a pretty simple retrieval so I wasn't exactly expecting a lot of pay. Still, the team handled it well - they let me do the talking when I had to and handled the fighting bit when that failed, so I can't really ask for more there. I was a little disappointed that there weren't any drugs to steal, but judging from the psychometric impression I got from that logbook so were the gangers. Oh well, next time.

Entropy:

Allow me to preface this by stating that I noticed this run was odd. A bakery in the middle of Seattle's downtown using actual flower. That said: It was beyond hilarious to see the Gangers upset that the flour was not the novacoke they thought it was. And yes. The flour was flour. For pastries. Damn fine pastries. I recommend you all have a bite before you even complain about it.

Nogitsune

Stomach hurting ate far too many pastries oh why do I feel so full….my stomach…..Shark you are bad….ugggh…Job was simple, get flower. Knocked out a ganger but had to deal with idiots on road block….OWWW…..stomach hurts. Felt a bit left down that it was easy.