Ballroom Blitz

Ballroom Blitz
Date 2085-12-23 GM Robinton Location Downtown Seattle Status Threat Level: Milk
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Horizon	Other Runners Present (non-RVP)
Tsarina Reign Heart of the Tempest Gulliver Lanky Katherine Tyler Chameleon Obsidian Backseat Neijing Six of Hearts Professor Honeypie Neznayka Saint	Various Dancers Various Media Various High Society	Asura, Annette, Samael

Summary

The runners are hired to attend a high fashion "Winter in the Emerald City" event and while some merely dance and play bodyguard, others manage to dig deeper into the events of the attempted abduction. While the shrimp seasoning that was slipped into the VIP's food was missed, triggering her extreme shellfish allergy, enough other parts of the plot were foiled. The epi-injector that was spiked with Slab, intended to make it easier to help abduct her was fixed, the lookout scared off, and the person organizing the opfor and their exit was, likewise, driven off. Thanks to a powerful detox spell, the VIP was saved from the very mundane poison attempt on her life.

Background

"Why do I get all the fraggin' weird ones.... right. Well. Client is putting their star talent in the upcoming "Winter in the Emerald City" Ballroom competition and is worried about extraction. Problem is, client got no idea where the extraction is coming from. Good news is, client's got deep pockets to go really wide with this one.

Long story short - client wants to flood the competition with runners who can handle being inside a place like this just in case something goes sideways. Low pay if it's nothing but boring guard duty, pay goes up if you gotta blow your cover and shoot someone.

Leave the FBA and longarms at home. Concealability is a must. Fellow trogs gonna have a hard time with this one, the pretty privilege is pretty fraggin' high on this one, but if you got good manners and a good suit, you can probably hang.

No need to meet. Have your fixers contact me, show up individually, dance or whatever I guess? Don't blow the place up unless someone tries to grab our VIP. Hope nothing goes wrong and we get to milk some rent subsidies outta a client with deep pockets and deeper paranoia."

-Silas

The Run

Session 1: Social Hour

A number of runners make their way into the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, passing through SIN Scanners as well as Cyberware and MAD Scanners. They mingle, chatting between the lobby and the bar, while Tsarina moves to the ballroom and manages to spot two people working set up who seem to have a much more 'aware of their surroundings' vibe than they should have. While other runners generally keep their eyes open, nothing on the surface seems to be amiss.

Session 2: Formal Ballroom Competition

As the dancers take the stage, there are a number of excellent performances, notably by the run's VIP, Ms. Tasha Persephone Juarez, who delivers a command performance (14 Hits) despite her lack of augmentations or magical assistance. Some of the stand out runners dancing as well are:

• Chameleon with his partner Naomi Fisk in a stunning tango (10 hits)
• Lanky dancing a slow waltz with a provided partner (8 Hits)
• Obsidian dancing a foxtrot with a provided partner (9 hits)
• Gulliver who makes a good first showing in a waltz (3 hits)
• Heart of the Tempest and Neijing making an absolute menace of themselves during a Viennese Waltz (14 Hits)
• Honeypie with a provided partner doing a quickstep (5 Hits)

Lanky spots someone suspicious by the pool who doesn't seem to be swimming and seems to be conducting some kind of information hive from poolside. Obsidian spots the two people Tsarina noticed in the ballroom, and assesses them to reveal they have some light bioware combat augmentations as well as a general mood of anxiety and vigilance. Tsaraina continues checking over parts of the hotel, and spots a hotel staff member coming out of one of the conference rooms which has been set up as a first aid station; she is positive he is guilty of something. Backseat, Gulliver, and Six of Hearts both spot one of the servers in the bar, seeming to play a sort of look-out as they keep an eye on the bar and on the lobby.

Persons of Interest: Session 2

• One Poolside Guy, not swimming (Lanky)
• One Conference room staff member, seemingly guilty of something (Tsarina)
• Two Ballroom Staff members, with combat bioware and seemingly to have done something to the stage (Tsarina, Obsidian)
• One bar server, who seems to be playing lookout (Gulliver, Six, Backseat)

Session 3: Vogue and 'Street' Competition

Tempest and Lanky become aware that the two ballroom POI's are armed - small holdout pistols in concealed holsters under their jackets. In the bar, Gulliver intimidates the lookout into spilling that he is watching for any kind of security alert from the hotel or from Knight Errant under orders to send a comm message to an unknown commcode number if one happens. Honeypie becomes aware of the POI at the pool and that he seems unusually focused on his commlink. Chameleon overhears that there's a new cook in the restaurant kitchen who doesn't seem to know how to actually cook, which is unusual - and that he was hired on as a favor to the boss. Tsarina manages to get the conference room POI to slip that he was doing something with the supplies in the medical room conference area.

As far as the dancing goes, the competitions continue with Juarez competing in the established vogue, while the runners do so in the Virgin Vogue for newcomers:

• Chameleon makes an excellent showing, owing to his ability to manipulate his own body - 14 Hits
• Gulliver makes a good showing for a newcomer, getting some light acclaim from the crowd - 6 Hits
• Tempest leans in to her magical appeal and her charismatic aura, delivering an excellent performance - 12 Hits
• Obsidian makes a good showing of herself as well, despite being new to the dance scene - 5 hits
• Lanky steals the show as both an excellent dancer and taking inspiration from past Drag and Vogue performances - 15 hits

Persons of Interest: Session 3

• One Poolside Guy, not swimming or drinking and very focused on his commlink. Slightly nervous and very clearly involved in some manner with what's going on. (Lanky, Honeypie, Backseat)
• One Conference room staff member, who tampered with the medical supplies (Tsarina)
• Two Ballroom Staff members, armed with concealed pistols and with combat bioware and seemingly to have done something to the stage (Tsarina, Obsidian, Tempest, Lanky)
• One bar server, playing lookout with instructions to report on any security response (Gulliver, Six, Backseat)
• One restaurant cook, who seems to not be a good cook, hired as a favor to the boss (Chameleon)

Session 4: Realness Pageant

No Bodysculpting adepts allowed

At the pool, Honeypie gets the poolside guy to drop that he's waiting for an important call before dinner, while in the ballroom proper Lanky is able to realize that the two armed men seem to be sweeping the stage after every few performances, and notably before Juarez performs. In the bar, Gulliver intimidates the everloving hell out of the lookout, who hands over his commlink and bails. Unfortunately, there is nothing incriminating on the commlink. Tsarina is able to intimidate the conference room suspect into dropping that he was hired to tamper with the epinephrine supplies, replacing it with Slab - all he knows is that one of the dancers is allergic to something and likely to need said anti-allergy emergency medication. Backseat sends a message over to one of his contacts and learns that Poolside guy is named Alex Andres, and is a low level 'talent scout' - i.e. extraction of talent for rival companies.

Only Obsidian participates in the Realness pageant, making an excellent showing alongside the more tenured performers.

Persons of Interest: Session 4

• One Poolside Guy, named Alex Andres, not swimming or drinking and very focused on his commlink. Seems to have something set to occur during the dinner that occurs during session 5. (Lanky, Honeypie, Backseat, Obsidian)
• RESOLVED: One Conference room staff member, who tampered with the medical supplies, replacing the epinephrine with Slab. (Tsarina)
• RESOLVED: Two personal security detail members, disguised as hotel staff, keeping an eye on Juarez. (Tsarina, Obsidian, Tempest, Lanky)
• RESOLVED: One bar server, who was the opfor's lookout, scared out of his mind and gone. (Gulliver, Six, Backseat)
• One restaurant cook, who seems to not be a good cook, hired as a favor to the boss (Chameleon)

Session 5: Awards Ceremony and Dinner

In the kitchen, Chameleon realizes the not-cook is looking out for Juarez's order, but lacking any sort of kitchen knowledge himself, is uncertain what is occurring besides perhaps him over-seasoning her food.

In the pool, however, Alex Andres realizes he's been made and that there's not a lot of good options here. Too much attention on him means it's time for him to bug out. He makes a series of polite excuses to Obsidian's advances, while Backseat manages to nick his commlink. As Andres makes a hasty escape, Backseat is able to examine the commlink - it's clearly a burner one, as there is nothing on it. Granted, this in and of itself is suspicious for someone 'waiting for a business phone call'. While Backseat is holding it, a DNI message from an unknown commcode appears on the screen - DNI: "I've been made. Drugs are in place. I'm out. Send the payment to the usual places."

At the conference rooms, Tsarina is able to get them to double check their supplies to find that the epi-injector set aside for Ms. Juarez has, in fact, been tampered with. They profusely thank her for bringing this to their attention and immediate dumb the slab, replacing it with the epinephrine that should be there.

In the ballroom itself, Lanky explains to Juarez's personal security detail about Andres, and then carries on to the awards ceremony while the security begins arranging things.

Aftermath

Run Success:

As the dinner continues, Ms. Tasha Persephone Juarez is called up for a variety of awards, as is Tempest, Neijing, and Lanky.

During the main course, however, despite the dinner not being fish, Juarez begins choking uncontrollably due to her extreme shellfish allergy. Neijing, seated at the same table, is able to immediately diagnose it as anaphylactic shock, and Tempest drops a ridiculously large force Detox on her. She is immediately thankful for the timely help, and completely unaware of any of the other moving parts of the plot to abduct her.

1 Public Awareness for winning dance awards:

• Heart of the Tempest (Clarissa Mao - R6 UCAS)
• Neijing (Wei Hu - R6 UCAS)
• Lanky (Calum Edwards - Real UCAS)

Rewards

Milk Run - 5 RVP

• 2 Karma (2 RVP)
• 2000 Nuyen (1 RVP)
• 4000 Nuyen in lifestyle subsidies (1 RVP)
• 4000 Nuyen in High Fashion Gear, such as high fashion armor, mods, or misc. clothing under Avail 19 (1 RVP)
• 2 CDP - Run Standard

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Tsarina

"...Hah. I spent the whole time just avoiding people and focusing on work. At a damn party. It's like nothing's changed after all~"

Lanky "Mistakes were made. Far too much exposure, but at least it was my real face and "he's a Vogue dancer now and into weird Tarislar shit" is not the worst cover for my operational personas I suppose. On that dancefloor though...I fragging nailed it. Hard enough I did not even feel like I had to hurt somebody.."

Backseat

"How do you beat a team trying to forcefully extract you? Hire an even bigger team to stop them. The rich really do live differntly to the rest of us. I almost feel bad for the opposition. They were competently set up but the amount of runners we had, we just dismantled them. Just had to show them we were onto them and they ran. Didn't want to even try to fight us. If only all jobs were this simple."

Chameleon: "Quite a night. A strange combination of business and pleasure. One of them went well, I guess 50% is better than 0%. I think the tango went ok but I missed the shady cook poisoning the food. I think Naomi's irked that I left her alone at the banquet. All she talked about as I was driving her home was the elven Face we met, Gulliver. Perhaps I should keep a low profile for a while."