Selling Redmond by the Pound

Selling Redmond by the Pound
Part of Compound Interest
Date 2085-08-27 GM Madotsuki Location Touristville Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Crimson Crush	Red Ledger	Knight Errant
Asura Chersky Chance White Thistle Jag Biggs	Belt Paydirt
Casualties and losses
	Belt Paydirt Several Low-level Enforcers

Summary

The Red Ledger try to pull a fast one on the Crimson Crush using a traitor within their ranks, who hires the party to help unwittingly. The party decide not to play along.

Background

Red Ledger had been looking to expand into more lucrative parts of Redmond ever since eliminating their main rivals, Chrome Crash. Belts, a Crimson Crush lieutenant, was lured in by their potential, and helped hatch a plot in which Red Ledger would feign submission to CC and then take control of the meeting by trickery, forcing CC's hand. He poisoned some of the security that was planned to show up to the meeting, using it as an excuse to hire shadowrunners under his personal employ, who would help with taking on the more numerous Crimson Crush.

The Meet

Belts invites the party to a cheap pizza place in Touristville, Giantello's. After arriving, sweeping them for bugs, and setting up a white noise generator, he explains the situation: later that night, the Crimson Crush is hosting a meeting with Red Ledger, an up and coming Redmond gang. Belts, along with two other lieutenants named Jag and Biggs, will be meeting with Paydirt, a representative from Red Ledger, along with his security entourage. Belts tells the party that some of the Crimson Crush enforcers who were supposed to keep watch have gotten sick all at once, and that as a result he's hiring shadowrunners to watch for any foul play on the part of Red Ledger. He provides schematics and details on the club, offering the party 12 thousand nuyen. Chance asks if drugs could be offered, but Belts turns him down, telling him to just buy the drugs with the money paid. The team finding this acceptable, they filter out and begin legwork.

The Plan

Chance begins searching the Matrix for information on Paydirt and Red Ledger. Paydirt, at least once he's able to tune his searches to filter out the similarly-named Aardvark SURGE adult film star, reveals surprisingly few results, being a relatively new recruit to Red Ledger. The gang itself is also rather small, being careful in their growth and largely centered around the loan sharking of one Windfall. While Chance searches for information, Asura, White Thistle, and Chersky head to the club hosting the meeting, a Touristville club popular with out of town tourists and Crimson Crush goons both named Heavy Thump. Jag is there early, keeping the meeting room secure. Asura keeps watch near the entrance over the balcony. White Thistle, rather conspicuous inside, decides to keep watch outside the fire escape on the back entrance. Chersky, having summoned a guardian spirit earlier in the afternoon, sets up at the bar. Thankfully the stools are high enough to see out over the dance floor, and he strikes up a conversation with the Bartender, who tells him of how ruthless Red Ledger are, his friend having suffered at their hands. They keep watch until the time of the meeting.

The Run

Belts arrives, making sure to tell the other runners to contact him before making any moves before heading up to the meeting room. Biggs follows after, and finally Paydirt arrives with his small entourage. The club by this point has grown quite busy. Chance takes the initiative, deciding to defy the Johnson's orders by gaining access to Paydirt's commlink. The team's attention is taken away, however, when Asura spots a suspicious man failing to blend in take out a sensor array and aim it at the door (clumsily dropping it in the process), and White Thistle hears the distinctive sound of a Fly Spy buzzing around outside. Chance probes the suspicious man's communications, and reveals what is quite obviously two undercover Knight Errant officers trying to get evidence for a sting. White Thistle heads down to try and intimidate the man inside, but he holds his ground. When Chance cuts their communications afterwards, however, the man inside decides he's too compromised and makes for the exit. Having gotten himself marked through a failed snooping attempt on the drone operator, Chance turns his attention back to Paydirt's commlink, swiping an encrypted file before rebooting.

Through this pilfered file, the team discovers that Belts is a turncoat working for Red Ledger, and intends the team to follow his orders and assist the Red Ledger assault to force the Crimson Crush's hand. The team, swayed by the bartender's story from earlier and deciding to stick with the lesser of two evils, decides to reveal this plot, though not before White Thistle calls Greg to try and pass the message to Crimson Crush leadership. The message is broadcast over the club's speakers just as the planned Red Ledger reinforcements arrive, and a fight breaks out.

The reinforcements outnumber White Thistle four-to-one, but their handguns can do little against the ghoul's incredible durability, and she slaughters them one by one. Asura swiftly takes out the two guards on the balcony who came in as part of Paydirt's entourage, sliding around with her shotgun. Chance provides Matrix support, speeding up the team's awareness and debilitating the enemies, while Chersky turns him invisible to keep him safe and sics his spirit on the enemies. Paydirt and Belts both attempt to flee, with Biggs and Jag in pursuit. Paydirt jumps off the balcony, but is trapped levitating by Chersky. He's then finished off by a midair headshot from Asura. Belts, meanwhile, attempts to blow a hole in the back entrance using a hidden HE grenade, but as he sticks his head through to climb to safety, Chersky's guardian spirit appears, decapitating him with his axe. The Red Ledger forces dispatched, Biggs and Jag flag down the team and ask to know what's going on.

Aftermath

Biggs and Jag are unappreciative, suspecting the runners initially of being in the know and trying to explain their way out of the situation, but Biggs suddenly gets a call from a higher-up. The higher-up confirms that White Thistle immediately tried to pass the message along and did not know, and additionally authorizes payment to the runners for helping, though only 8,000 each, less than the runners were initially promised. Chance calls his cybersurgeon contact, Clint Wilder, to fence 'ware ripped out of Paydirt, using White Thistle's freezer equipment to transport the body, making up the difference. Belts and Paydirt are dead, and though neither were particularly important to Red Ledger, their expansion is stymied for the moment, and they may have to deal with conflict with Crimson Crush in the near future.

Rewards

• 12,000 Nuyen (6 RVP)
• 7 Karma (6 RVP)
• 2 CDP
• Chance can use 3 RVP to buy Impenetrable Logic

Game Quotes

"I didn't know ghouls could reproduce!" -Chersky "I REPRODUCED WITH YOUR MOTHER LAST NIGHT." -White Thistle

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

"Well that was wild. Good old fashioned barroom blitz. Ain't seem a throwdown like that in years, an' somehow I wasn't the one getting knocked out. This decking stuff is definitely the better gig than muscle. Though that Thistle got muscle for days. If I was born like that, whew. Now..about the host architecture in Club thump. I don't usually bitch much, or care for host work, but I gotta hit that foundation. Monkeys coded that thing, and they did not write shakespear first.."

Asura

"I hate having to work with gangsters, but at the very least we prevented a much more predatory gang from taking over the area and making life for the locals hellish. Besides...I quite enjoyed ripping them a new one. They really should have been more open about what they were planning for but, I'm glad I rallied the other runners into this. The metaphorical cannibalism of the criminal underworld is useful."

White Thistle

"THESE STUPID GANGBANGERS. I WOULD HAVE GONE ALONG WITH THEIR PLAN, TOO, IF THEY'D HAVE BEEN HONEST WITH ME. BUT THE PRICE OF DISHONESTY IS DEATH."