Where There Are Crumbs...

Where There Are Crumbs...
Date 2081-05-25 GM Aurora Location Bellevue, near Marymoor Park
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Couronne Esper La Rapide	FBI

Summary

The runners are hired by the FBI to covertly investigate reports of an insect spirit hive that has infiltrated somewhere in Bellevue. They scope out a new club that seems to be the headquarters of the insect spirit hive, gathering information about the Shaman, Abram Pate.

Background

The FBI was alerted to the presence of an insect spirit hive somewhere in Bellevue by one of their magical assets.

The Meet

Esper, La Rapide, and Couronne are picked up in Renton and, after a rather awkward and silent car ride, arrive at an undisclosed location that turns out to be an FBI building. The Ms. Johnson tells the runners of the presence of an insect spirit hive somewhere in Bellevue. They need the runners to investigate and find out where the insect spirits are, who the shaman is, and what they are planning. They also need everything to be done covertly, so as to not put their undercover operatives at risk of being exposed. The Johnson offers 12,000 nuyen but Esper negotiates for an additional 6,000 nuyen upfront.

The Plan

Esper gets in touch with her contacts Rick Rampant and Amelie and Jean-Baptiste and La Rapide gets in touch with Queen Elizabeth XXIII to find out if they had heard anything about insect spirits in Bellevue. They each indicate an area near Marymoor Park. Couronne does some Matrix searches for missing persons reports and for new businesses near Marymoor Park, finding a new club near Interlake High School in NE Bellevue and that there had been several new missing persons reports recently that were then retracted the next day, also there had been a decrease in crime in the area. The new club was becoming quite popular, gaining more social media attention, and branching out to attract people from further out of Bellevue.

The runners plan to scope out this new club, thinking it might be the insect spirit headquarters. Using a mix of synthskin face masks and amazing makeup artist skill by Esper, they all don pretty great disguises in order to case the club.

The Run

Initially, there is concern that Couronne might not be able to bring her cyberdeck into the club. So the runners look around back of the club to see how they might be able to sneak the deck into the club. They find an air vent but don't know where it leads to. So Couronne hacks into the club's host in search for building maps. Upon finding an encrypted file with the maps, Esper talks with the bouncer (who is an infiltrated insect spirit) and cons him to bring up a map of the building for her, meanwhile, Couronne then snoops and intercepts the file in order to side-step the file encryption. With the maps accessed, they determine that the air vent leads to the women's bathroom, so they put the cyberdeck in there for Esper to retrieve, while Couronne and La Rapide head inside the club.

La Rapide assenses and identifies several dual-natured persons in the club. Esper then uses psychometry on the club, learning that the club extends deeper into the earth a bit. She experiences people who were told to meet there and brought to the back of the club, then attacked and brought to the below area, where their minds were infested with hostile psychic entities. Esper is able to note the shaman's astral signature, but not his face. She contacts the Johnson and asks if they have any quick-silver photographs of shaman suspects that she could look at to compare astral signatures, which they do.

Aftermath

Esper is able to match the astral signature and identify the shaman as Abram Pate, and the Johnson reveals that the insect spirits are burrowing types with ant mandibles and ant eyes. The Johnson is satisfied with the information gathered and gives the rest of the pay.

Rewards

• 18,000 nuyen
• 7 Karma
• 2 CDP

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Couronne

"Thinking back on the run, I think we probably didn't actually need to work so hard to get my cyberdeck into the club since Esper found out all that we needed astrally by psychometry-ing (sp?) the club. Oh well! It was good pay for the work anyways."

Esper

This was a quick job. It would have been far more difficult to sort through the psychic residue left at that club had it not been recently consumed by such single-minded wild thought constructs. There was more we could have accomplished, but our foes were far harsher than we were prepared to face, and the client requested we remain undetected.

La Rapide

Not much to do for me. But I gues that happens sometimes when the team does a good job. So easy NuYen for me.