Heart of the... Raccoon?

Heart of the... Raccoon?
Date 2085-09-05 GM Eva Location Seattle (Various) Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Geoff Montgomery XLII the Raccoon
Raum Doggie Bag	Lydia van Bredevoort
Casualties and losses
	Lydia van Bredevoort

Summary

Geoff Montgomery XLII the Raccoon has a particular shiny thing in mind! A necklace owned by one Lydia van Bredevoort, a rich girl enjoying her priviledged lifestyle to the fullest! Geoff promises many other, less shiny things in return, should the runners secure his prize!

Background

Lydia van Bredevoort seems like your average rich girl enjoying their families' money. With a gothic aesthetic and a habit of attending the fanciest parties in town, she is in possession of some of the shiniest possible objects. Geoff is, naturally, extremely interested.

For the job, a pair of discerning runners get the call. Alessa P is recovering from a night out when she calls Raum, who happens to be up and at 'em at the ripe hour of 5am. The job offer is a bit vague, but there is some promise of payment for theft? Raum dons their disguise. With the help of a spirit, it is quite a convincing face.

Doggie Bag is adjusting to his new life, and is actually sleeping in. Fiendest calls and wakes him up with a similarly vague job notion. He agrees, taking the new Roadmaster out for a spin.

The Meet

The pair meet up in an abandoned building in Puyallup. Empty and slowly rotting out, one light sits out of place in the mid-morning gloom. The mismatched runners share a bit of awkward conversation, unsure if they're even the entire team.

Heading into the main room, the runners find Geoff, in his full regalia. A seemingly normal raccoon with some kind of electronic enabled harness on him. There is a brief recreation of the misunderstanding Doggie Bag had on New Year's Thieves. In the past two years, though, he had figured things out! And now recognizes Geoff for what he is.

In terms of job details, Geoff is a bit vague. Referring to payment in terms of equivalent numbers of Metalinks, and the target as a "fancy lady" in "fancy areas of town" and the like. The runners *do* get a picture and that will have to suffice. Raum tries to drive up the price a bit, to minimal success.

The Plan

The team does some very basic searching online, finding Lydia's public social media pages. She is a frequent partier, and posting about the new up and coming event that is tonight! The runners intend to find her at that party and either lift the necklace off her there or follow her when she leaves.

In order to get invites, Doggie Bag reaches out to Fiendest, who gets a lucky roll and has a second hand connection to a pair of partygoers. The runners meet up with these partygoers, a couple by the names of Jane and Kathy. The group meets a nice coffehouse in Auburn, both runners having swapped to high fashion armor.

The pair is fairly personable, and not overly attached to their tickets. Instead of a bribe, we offer to do them a service. They are apparently interested in Fiendest (or perhaps Ghouls in general?) and wish to get something of a closer look or introduction to her. Doggie Bag is happy to oblige them, though Fie charges him a service for forcing The Crypt to be open earlier than usual.

The Run

Arriving at the party, the runners do their best to blend in with the crowd. Security is solid but not full panoptic. The party is in and around a large ballroom, but due to high attendance it is quite packed. Lydia arrives, and the runners are able to piece together than she is some kind of awakened, and has a bit of a cool body temperature, perhaps implying she is a vampire. Raum decides to cozy up to the target, and spends some time playing the fool, hoping to be the target of her feeding. His boorish behavior seems to work well enough, and Lydia asks him to meet up with her at the end of the night.

In the meantime, Doggie Bag leaves the party and hides out of sight nearby. Raum heads into the bathroom for a quiet place to do some magic. Though the spirits are fighting back something fierce, he does manage to conjure a F6 Fire Spirit for later use.

Meeting back up with Lydia, Raum goes with her to her apartment complex. Doggie Bag tails behind in his truck. Arriving at the apartment building, Raum tries to say something snide to keep the target on her toes. She reacts and even attempts to strike him, though he dodges the blow. With the situation quickly heating up, Doggie Bag acts quickly. He dons his armor jacket and sword, and runs into the street. Grabbing Raum and running into an alleyway in a faux-kidnapping. Lydia yells "Mine!" and quickly gives chase, meaning to reclaim her dinner.

Combat ensues. Doggie Bag is sticking with his sword to keep the fight quiet, and is fairly ineffective between trying initially to do stun damage (before remembering she has regeneration), and his normally quite poor swordfighting skills. Raum is able to apply pressure from another angle, mixing Manabarriers with the un-manifested spirit's astral combat. For her part, Lydia is launching fairly nasty manabolts into Doggie Bag, and chews through a good portion of his health. Luckily for the runners, a combination of her own drain damage and the astral combat damage knocks her unconscious with magical damage.

After the fight, Raum calls in an emergency service from Hack Skellington to chop up the camera footage. Replacing the most recent minutes with some old horror movie clips. Raum suggests that they just kill Lydia. And although he is reticent at first, Doggie Bag is fairly easily convinced. Her death is likely a boon for the people of Seattle. Before leaving, D.B. scrubs Raum's magical signature, and realizes that the necklace they were after is actually a F3 Power Focus.

With the hastily provided matrix cover now established, the runners grab Lydia and get into the truck to high tail it out of here. On the way back to Puyallup, D.B. drains a few points of essence from Lydia (+2), before killing her permanently.

Aftermath

Geoff is overjoyed with the additional jewelry provided by the runners (everything Lydia was wearing), and quickly dons the special necklace he had specifically desired. He is very happy with the team's performance!

Rewards

Base Rewards

• 12k Nuyen / Gear rates for Electronics (6 RVP)
• 10 Karma (10 RVP)
• 2 CDP
• Raum owes Mack and Hack 1 chip
• D.B. owes Fiendest 1 chip

Optional (taking from above rewards):

• Good Looking and Knows it (10 RVP) Or Social Chameleon for Raum (7 RVP)
• Perfect Time for D.B. (5 RVP)
• Geoff Montgomery XLII the Raccoon (C3/L4) (7 RVP) (May substitute 2 CDP for 1 RVP)

Game Quotes

"Well, I've got a boyfriend, so kepp your teeth to yourself, big guy" - Raum

"The natural predator of the short king is the goth girl, so that works out." - Dawnfire

"And I'll be like: Surprise, I'm a Dumb Vampire, haha!" - John

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Doggie Bag: Geeked a vampire tonight. Not really what I expected to be doin', but that's how it is sometimes. I wondered at first what my infected friends might think, but Lydia was sloppy and selfish. Not good for our image or our longevity. If someone's got a problem with what I did, I've no issue explainin' things to them. Raum seemed like a decent guy, though it's always hard to tell with the charming types. Could just be doing a trick on my head.

Raum: I really need to stop running into vampires, I'm going to start developing a reputation for it. Getting to rub elbows at a fancy party was a good time, sucked that I spent most of it trying to keep from losing my lunch after getting fucked up by drain though. Started to get a little nervous when the muscle wasn't finishing the job against that vampire, but it all worked out in the end!