KRIMINAL Gifts

KRIMINAL Gifts
Date 2082-07-04 GM Aurora Location Northwest Canada Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Saint Nick	Saeder Krupp
Wychking Relay Scarecrow Cricket Potato	SK Wage Mage SK Guards Water Spirits SK Spider
Casualties and losses
None, somehow	Two guards, all of the spirits

Summary

A data theft performed on behalf of jolly Saint Nick in which the runners stole weapons schematics from a Saeder Krupp manufacturing plant. The runners arrived at the Canadian facility after a day's boat ride, and executed a stealthy infiltration plan. Or they did, until Cricket got caught by the spider trying to open a door. In the ensuing chaos all of the facility's guards were incapacitated, along with Wychking who almost died from oversummoning a spirit. With no one really left to stop them, the runners broke in and successfully stole the data. As Wychking's now free guardian spirit carried her unconscious body off into the sunset, the rest of the team went back to Seattle to get paid.

Background

It was a Sunday afternoon, and the runners were going about their daily routines. Potato and Scarecrow were grabbing fast food, Cricket and Relay were doing nerd things, and Wychking was killing a wasp hive on her porch with a flamethrower. After calls from their respective fixers, the team traveled to meet at Saint Nick's Snohomish workshop. Along the way, Wychking was attacked by a bug spirit posing as a KE officer; she defeated it handily (read: almost died), and showed up bloodied and drunk on Hurlg.

The Meet

Saint Nick greeted the runners by asking if they had been bad or good children this year. Cricket and Potato, who answered "bad", where both handed live grenades. Potato managed to chuck them out a window, and the meeting resumed as if nothing happened. Saint Nick explained that he had to get the best guns for all the good little boys, girls, and enbies of the world. As such, he wanted the runners to steal some weapons schematics from a Saeder Krupp manufacturing facility's offline server. He provided a boat to transport them, and said that one of them could have it if it survived. The runners agreed to accept payment in the form of various KRIME products, and gathered their gear to head out on the job.

The Plan

The team did some legwork on the boat ride over, and obtained a basic floor plan of the building. It was a pretty standard manufacturing plant, save for a security feature that allowed them to lower the entire thing underground. The facility boasted a security force that included two wage mages, so the runners decided to try for a stealthy approach. Scarecrow and Cricket would sneak into the building, supported by Relay's drones and Scarecrow and Wychking's magic invisibility. Potato and Wychking would wait outside to provide an exit if things went loud.

As the boat moved closer to the shore, the runners examined their plan for any potential flaws. One became apparent, namely that Cricket's lack of hygiene would lessen the effect of the invisibility. The team decided that their hacker needed a bath, and Wychking knew just the spirit to call. A great, horrific mass of tentacles rose from the depths and engulfed Cricket in a whirlpool of soapy water. Once it was sure that the techno was clean behind the ears, it spit her onto the deck and sunk back under the waves. Although she was drenched, it did nothing to extinguish the rage that now burned in her heart. Relay offered her a towel.

The Run

The run began with Cricket breaking into the host to get a door open. Things went great until they didn't, and in the span of a few seconds the host had two marks on her. As any hope of the run going quiet slipped away, Potato launched an HE grenade into a group of approaching water spirits. It did nothing, and the spirits responded by almost killing her. Scarecrow jumped into battle, and with her bare fists deleted a hostile air spirit from existence. Wychking, seeing that things weren't going in the team's favor, decided to summon her force eight guardian spirit. What could go wrong?

As blood gushed out of Wychking's face and her consciousness faded to black, she had a moment to reflect on the wisdom of oversummoning. As the other runners watched their mage drop to the ground, they had a moment to reflect on how she'd even survived up to this point. The on sight wage mage hit Scarecrow with a heavy manabolt, and it looked for a second that the run was verging on disaster. But Haven runners are built tough. Through sheer stubbornness Relay, Scarecrow, and Potato managed to drop the opposition, aided by Wychking's now free guardian spirit. With all of the guards dead or incapacitated, the team simply walked into the building and retrieved their data.

Aftermath

As the runners headed back to the boat, they got to watch Wychking's guardian spirit carrying her off into the sunset. Where they were going, nobody knew. Probably a bug hive somewhere. The rest of the team traveled back to Seattle and delivered the data to Saint Nick. They collected their various payments, congratulated themselves on a job well done, and went their separate ways.

Rewards

For Potato:

• Krime Barco de Pesco
• 2 karma
• 4k worth of ammo
• 2 CDP

For Cricket:

• Krime Bazoo Chrome
• 6 karma
• 2 CDP

For everyone else:

• 24k nuyen worth of Krime weapons, ammo, or accessories (up to 20 availibility)
• 6 karma
• 8k nuyen
• 2 CDP

For all:

• Optional contact: Saint Nick at loyalty 3

Game Quotes

Wychking, moments before eating 11 physical drain: "What's the worst that can happen?"

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Cricket

"If I ever see that drekhead Wychking again, I swear to ghost... who the hell sics a giant water spirit on one of their teammates?! And I thought I was unprofessional! Anyway, the run turned out alright. Almost got my brain boiled by the security spider, but that pretty much comes with the territory."

Potato

"Was an all around boring time, slow ride over, lot of quick action on the scene and then a slow walk through to the server. Can't complain to much I got a free fishing boat out of the deal."

Relay

Scarecrow seemed like a strong addition, though. My first time working with them...there's talent there. But...uh...I have questions. I have so many questions.

I THINK our hacker got spotted and then they put that together with spirit footage of the boat to make us, but I'm not sure. All I know is that I start sending out directions to the team and it goes to hell fast. This isn't the first time I've seen a mage knock themselves out, mind you...but this is the first time I've seen one almost die on their first cast. Maybe Wytch is past their expiration date...they've done some good work with bugs, but it takes its toll. I drilled a few holes in some spirits from a distance, but Potato was on "make sure the mage doesn't die" duty, which ain't the most fun, even if it's vital. Things went pretty sideways, but we were able to shoot our way out.

The last time I worked for the fat man was the first time I really saw the champ strung out on K-10. This time I looked around at a bunch of faces I don't recognize much. After about a year of being here, it's surprising how many faces I don't recognize anymore. This world just murders our people...we need to find something better.

Wychking

Santa Claus. Really. Krime has a guy roleplaying as Santa Claus? Running takes its toll, this is nothing new to me, but some of the dangers really make me have to push myself extra hard. The recovery period for each job is getting longer and longer... am I really going to get back into shape or is my path to climbing back into my prime going to get me killed all on its own?