Cinnamon Buns and Cereal Killers

Cinnamon Buns and Cereal Killers
Part of Blood in the Machine
Orson Cordova's MARK
Date 2081-08-05 GM SedatedAlice Location Barrens Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Mistah Jay Charity Horace	Aztechnology
Itztli Doris Captain Boomerang Fintan	Andres Gutierrez Orsen Cordova Leopard Guard
Casualties and losses
Doris' sanity	some weird screaming server racks

Summary

Mistah Jay hires Captain Boomerang, Fintan, Itztli, and Doris to investigate a steadily increasing magical background count encroaching on his gang's turf.

Background

Andres Guillermo Gutierrez, an Aztechnology middle manager, suspected blood mage, and serial killer preying on Jay's people, had been captured by Haven runners and handed over to Mistah Jay for interrogation. Based on what they had managed to learn from him and the feeling of creeping despair in his people, Mistah Jay assumed that Andres had more associates still loose in the Redmond Barrens. He had assumed that their base was somewhere near one of the Stuffer Shacks that Andres managed to the Southeast of the gang's turf.

The Meet

The team is directed to meet Mistah Jay at his gang's primary compound, where Charity Horace greets them with freshly baked cinnamon rolls. Mistah Jay explains what they've learned from Andres' interrogation: that there were more blood mages in Seattle, Andres' had asked to transfer from LA to Seattle, and Andres has recently stopped acting like himself. He informs the runner team that while they have not been able to locate the mages' base of operations, it is most likely in a district immediately Southeast of his compound, close to where Itztli and the previous team captured Andres. Mistah Jay offers a total of 60,000 NuYen to the team in exchange for locating and capturing any more blood mages. The team agrees, with the caveat that they get Charity's cinnamon roll recipe, and arranges to have Andres transported back to the compound along with his personal effects for further examination.

The Run

The entire team summons spirits for protection, except for Itztli, who already has a guardian spirit with her. Fintan and Doris project to the suspected area to search a wide area, while Boomerang and Itztli drive to the location where Andres was captured, a building immediately next to a Stuffer Shack. Fintan and Doris find a heavy, depressing background and few spirits willing to speak with them, then decide to physically meet with the other two in order to search for clues. Finding no suitable psychometry subjects, Doris hacks into the Stuffer Shack's host to pull down their security footage and finds a half-pyramid, triangular mark on the footage. There's little to see on the footage other than the previous runner team obtaining snacks and several of Andres' visits. The footage has clearly been tampered with.

The team returns to the compound and Boomerang summons an earth spirit to search for any sign of a blood mage's athame or underground structures with a high background count. The earth spirit, a proud member of the local 414 Union, accepts the request, eventually returning with reports of a cavernous area with lots of wires. He additionally reports the movement of the only athame in the area towards the compound. While the athame is assumed to be with Andres on his way to Mistah Jay's compound, Doris believes that the wires are most likely part of a large Faraday cage. Boomerang believes there may also be a large amount of power infrastructure routed to the area, as the ground already acts as a strong enough signal inhibitor.

The next day, Andres arrives at a secure warehouse on the compound. The warehouse is coated in FAB II and features a large amount of cover inside for the purpose of breaking line of sight to the magician. The blood mage is mage cuffed, mage hooded, blindfolded, and strapped to an extremely sturdy chair for questioning. As Doris moves to question Andres, Itzli jumps ahead and kicks him in the gut, asking if he can remember her. He claims to not know her and is unsure of his own name. After failing to get any sensible information out of him with questioning, Doris secretly utilizes a Mind Probe spell to try and make sense of his rambling statements.

She witnesses fragmented memories of Los Angeles, an unconscious man, and a different life. It seems that some of the memories are from a man from Los Angeles and the others are from a kid from El Paso. The two most vivid memories are of a blond haired, blue eyed man in a hospital bed being stabbed, and a ware clinic in LA called Genetique. While assensing him, Itztli and Fintan realize that his blood sugar is low. Doris realizes that he may be diabetic and feeds him one of the cinnamon rolls she brought, then assenses him. She notices that he has an autoinjector that Mistah Jay's team missed, and Andres additionally appears to have a fragmented aura with part of his soul missing. This information puts most of Mistah Jay's crew on alert.

Still wanting more information, Doris performs a psychometric reading of Andres' athame and witnesses several of the sacrifices it was used to commit. She hears the name Orson Cordova, clearly sees the underground structure where he was hiding and performing rituals in, and realizes that this athame is especially ancient and has been passed down over the generations for a large number of murders. She throws it across the room, stress eats a cinnamon roll, informs the others, and insists that the athame is destroyed. Fintan contacts David Harsmen with the general description of the location, who then puts him in touch with Warboss. Warboss helps provide an escort for the team to enter the Ork Underground and search for the ritual chamber.

The team follows the astral background to a series of tunnels with numerous carved stone items partially embedded in the walls, all of which featured Aztech symbology. They eventually reach a run down dwelling with a vault door in the wall. When opened, it's apparent that the enclosure is one large Faraday cage and features only wired connections save for a lone smartgun platform at the entrance. Using a data tap, Doris is able to identify a large number of storage units attached to the system. Boomerang moves ahead to find Orson Cordova, the blonde haired, blue-eyed man from Doris' visions, laying unconscious in a hospital bed and connected to a large number of ancient servers via datajack.

Boomerang cuts his datajack connector, putting him in dumpshock and knocking him out. Wanting to try and identify what was in the old servers, Doris directly connects her deck to them and examines them in AR, finding a very unusual status readout and an immensely powerful firewall. She begins to safely disconnect the server rack in hopes of finding a more qualified hacker to recover the data. Terrifying screaming sounds [1] begin blaring over the facility's speakers. Boomerang destroys the speakers while Fintan's battle corgi spirit disposes of the turret at the entrance.

Warboss calls the team, informing them that the Skraacha guards reported a large number of Leopard Guards arriving in the Ork Underground. The team immediately escapes with the server racks and Orson Cordova, narrowly avoiding the approaching Jaguar Guard squad. Fintan grabs one of the stone talismans from the wall on the way out. They escape the underground and Fintan calls Hanz "Schnellman" Beck for an extraction. Upon realizing that Fintan had a traceable enchanted item on him, Doris directs him to get rid of the Aztech talisman, and Fintan throws it out the window. Orson and the server racks are dropped off at Mistah Jay's compound and the team scatters to lay low for a few days.

Aftermath

A few days later, Mistah Jay calls the team back to the compound to go over what his team had learned: both Orson Cordova and Andres Gutierrez were suffering from severe CFD, and the server racks had all self-destructed after being removed. The server racks are sealed up, though Doris requests that they not be destroyed in case she needs to perform a psychometric reading of them.

Orson Cordova and Andres Gutierrez are both captured and in the custody of Mistah Jay. Orson, Andres, and all evidence are shipped to a secure location away from the compound. The athame is presumably destroyed in an appropriate manner.

Rewards

• 16,000 NuYen
• 5 Karma
• Charity Horace's Famous Cinnamon Roll Recipe
• 2 CDP
• RVP and CDP may be exchanged to take Mistah Jay as a 4/1 contact and/or Charity Horace as a 3/1 contact.
• +2 Reputation with the Watchers for Itztli, +1 Reputation for everyone else.

Game Quotes

Captain Boomerang sings incredibly poorly. "Don't worry, a few pints of Guiness and you'll be fine!" - Fintan "I think the Guiness would help the rest of us more..." - Doris

"We're not all serial killers. Right guys?" - Doris Deafening silence. "Haha well ANYWAYS!" - Doris

"There is one way you could sweeten the deal..." - Fintan, sliding a tray of cinnamon rolls towards himself

Doris' water spirit is looking around at Andres' possessions, to include a possible 4th world athame focus. "♫ Look at this stuff ♫ / ♫ isn't it neat! ♫ / ♫ Woudn't you think my collection's com - " - Water Spirit "None of this is neat! This is all awful!" - Doris "You're so crabby!" - Water Spirit "I'm not a crab I'm a nudibranch!!!" - Doris

"Which of you is the squishiest?" - Captain Boomerang

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Doris

How awful. All of this was horrible! I can't believe how old that athame was. Maybe I shouldn't have read it, but at least we were able to figure this all out and capture Orson. I think I stress ate a whole tray of cinnamon rolls all by myself over those two days... And I wish I was better at decking, maybe then I could have pulled down the data from those old servers. Hopefully we've managed to hit the source of the problem and prevent any more awful sacrifices for a little while...

Captain Boomerang

Went from drek I kind of understand to drek I got no fragging clue on. Getting this guy did nothing. We need to get rid of that fragging wraith, maybe torch all the drek he had down there. Never had combat break out, almost sad I didn't run into those Leopards and get a good bout in, but I was lugging a server and a body at the time. Would've needed my whole attention, at least.

Fntan

Some heavy stuff right there. To swim around in that depressing astral puddle, gave me the blues for a few days thats for shure. At least I've met a few good spirits. Hope Corgi Commando will answer my call again. The wraith must be destroyed as fast as possible, otherwise we might just end up having to deal with something much worse. Next time they call for help I'l be shure to make time, to torture the spirits like that is just wrong.

Itztli

After the last Run I did for Mistah Jay I alredy head the feeling that this isn't over yet, because with Aztech nothing is just over. They and their perverted perception of what is Aztecan are a disease to our and the Astral plane and as it seems not even that's enough for them and they try to infest the Matrix as well. This is still not over the sudden apperance of the Leopard guard make it clear this is going to be big, and I might not survive it but I will do everything I can to stop these pests.