Caravan Train

Caravan Train
Part of La Famille Du Peintre
Date 2082-6-3 GM Sleevey Location Seattle Bullet Train Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Leonard MacLainn	Seattle Art Museum
Pell Orchid Trample Cricket Ryōma	Joheaux Belois
Casualties and losses
None

Summary

An anonymous, big shot J wants a relic from the Seattle art museum stolen off a bullet train.

Background

Players were called by fixers and given a job offer. A nice payday for a simple art theft. Somethings complicated it though. The first were Ryoma's noisy neighbors but the second was the J themselves. They seemed to be some sort of big shot, choosing to remain anonymous and sending an emissary, instead of meeting in person. Whatever the reasons, the runner put that aside for the moment and started to approach the meet site, a little Japanese cafe in downtown Seattle where's the J's man was waiting.

The Meet

Upon arriving at the coffee shop, Pell assensed it, finding the trace aura of a powerful spirit of some kind. The runners sized one another up and entered the shop. The inside was empty and cozy, with only a nevrous, suit wearing elf. Cricket immediately took the opportunity to start smoking. The J told them about the situation. The Seattle art museum was transferring some of it's stock after the news of King Beef's rampage. It was doing so by the midnight bullet train from Seattle to San Francisco. There the security would be lax and the runners would have an opportunity to strike and grab the artifact (contained within a briefcase marked by a red X) and get out.

After getting the baseline information, the runner badgered the elf to give them info on his boss. After agreeing upon the condition that the runners devices would be disabled, he told them a few scraps of info. The boss was very tall and talked and dressed like he was from 2 or 3 centuries ago. Additionally, there was some sort of aura around the man that made you want to follow him. Ryoma pulled the timid elf aside and told him to set up a line of communication between the elf's benefactor and Mrs Frost of the Seattle public library. A second assensing revealed the traces of the powerful spiritual aura were mostly centered on the elf. Setting that bizarre crop of info aside, the runners left to begin working on a plan.

The Plan

The runners milled over some ideas, eventually settling on having Trample drive out of Seattle to a point with long KE response times and wait for the train to arrive. The rest of the team would stay on the train, with Cricket stopping it from inside, letting them grab the package, hop onto Trample's ride and hightail it out of there, scot-free.

Cricket began by infiltrating the Train Station's host to put them on the guest list, along with their sprites. Trample went alongside as insurance or distraction, in case something went wrong. Despite several close calls with the security spider, Cricket was able to make it through and edit their names onto the guest registry, as well as finding out about the MAD scanners used in the train station. With the info in-hand and Trample driven out of Seattle about 300 miles, the day passed and in about 22 hours, the runners filed into the train station.

The Run

The security checkpoint was manned by 3 guards and one shinto priest, along with a MAD scanner. The runners managed to pass through the scanners, except for Ryoma. He pulled aside the Shinto priest, displayed his bodyguard license and was able to convince him to do a patdown, instead of a the scanner test, thus sneaking his weapons through. With everyone snug on the train (Pell being in the 2nd car with everyone else in the 4th) it began to depart.

After the train had begun to make its way along, Cricket entered their technomancer trance and began to place some marks on the train's host. Unfortunately, she was a bit too loud and the trains spider spotted her, sending a data spike her way which almost took her out. The good news was her efforts were not in vain, as she managed to get the marks necessary to have the train grind top stop, where Trample pulled up alongside the train. The bad news was the Spider had called the guards to lockdown the train cars.

Seeing this predicament, Trample faked a message to the train's security system, telling the guards to get to the back of the train. Only two of the guards fell for that but it was enough of a distraction for Ryoma to slip into the next car. With that chaos in place, Cricket's sprites brought down the lights and doors while Ryoma knifed two guards and joined Pell in the second cab while Trample used her magic to locate the briefcase. First cab. Ryoma loaded his Remington suppressor and kicked open the door of the first cab, revealing the museum curator, Joheaux Belois and his 6 bodyguards. As they began to fire back and forth, Cricket sat in her car, bleeding and realized something. The windows were weaker. She opened her DNI and relayed the message.

The articulated arm on Trample's Ares Roadmaster ripped through the window and grabbed the package, pulling the french man off of it while Ryoma took the fire from the guards. With the package secured, Ryoma and Pell leaped off the train onto Trample's car (with varying degrees of grace) as they began their getaway. Or so they though, as Trample took her sweet time breaking into the last train care and pilfering the art within. Finally, the battered runner pulled away and drove off into the sunrise.

Aftermath

Orchid and Pell stayed on the train and were able to keep their cover as passengers as well as do some damage control in interviews, keeping the information on Trample and Ryoma to a minimum but the damage had been done. Ryoma's face had been seen and he had broken his code. One of the guards died from his wounds. As they rode away, Ryoma and Cricket opened the briefcase to see exactly what was worth killing over. It was a set of taxidermy knives.

Returning to the J's man, Leonard, the runners were paid as expected, though Trample forfeited her share and Ryoma made sure that Leonard would do his best to find out if the guards he had stabbed would be okay. With a pocket full of nuyen and more questions than answers, the run was over and the runners went their separate ways.

Rewards

20k Nuyen (10 RVP)

3 Karma (3 RVP)

For Ryoma: -1 karma for breaking his code, 1 notoriety

For Trample: Up to 3 RVP in art, +1 Chip on Axolotl for wiring her info about the J and on Darla Geas for having given her some art

Pell: For healing the wounded guards, received 12k nuyen and 7 karma

Optional Contact: Leonard MacLainn (Connection 3/Loyalty 2) (4 RVP)

Game Quotes

"Do spirits like, work at Denny's?"

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Pell

Well, the heist itself was real awkward, as well as the representative. Ryōma seemed really shook up about the whole thing. Awkwardness aside, it went as well as it could be. Trample was a bit cavalier about stealing art though, but what's done is done. Orchid was excellent to work with, while Cricket was real reckless on the Matrix.

Cricket

Hah, that was pretty fun. Wreaked havoc on a train and almost got deleted by a security spider. The team did their jobs well, although Trample decided to almost blow it by wasting time stealing art. Ryōma was solid, even if he ended up having a pretty weak stomach, and Pell and Orchid didn't even get themselves caught. Not really sure how Orchid figured out that I'm a techno, but it probably won't be much of a problem.

Orchid

Trying to steal something of that power and get without being much of a problem, but at least the job was made and got without being shopt.