A Brotherhood in Need

A Brotherhood in Need
Date 2081-09-04 GM Video Location Redmond Barrens Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Brotherhood of Iron	The 162s
Ironclad Moth Relay Beuford "Saint' Mcgill
Casualties and losses
	5 ghouls. 1 oni.

Summary

The runners were hired by a doctor at a poor clinic in the Barrens. Someone had stolen his ware. The team investigated and discovered it was the Brotherhood of Iron. They made contact with the Brotherhood and learned the ware (and several Brotherhood members) had been taken by a rival gang - the 162s. Ghoul kidnappers who capture people with ware and steal it right from their bodies.

They rescued the kidnapped Brotherhood members and recovered considerably more ware than had been taken from the Redmond clinic.

Background

The Brotherhood of Iron are a group of cyber singularity seekers. They are almost all FLR. Their leader is Consta. They have an apartment building stronghold in Kingsgate.

The 162s are a gang of ghouls who have been kidnapping people in Redmond in order to harvest their cyber. They work with the Tamanous gang, who are organ leggers.

The Meet

The doctor explained that the theft had happened the night prior. He showed them the room that the ware had been stolen from. There was a padlock that had been cut and a maglock that had been picked.

Moth negotiated, with help from Ironclad for a bit more nuyen, and an agreement to help them with any ware they might want to purchase with that money.

The Plan

Ironclad, Moth, and Relay studied the scene of the crime and found a few oily footprints. Beuford "Saint' Mcgill and Moth were able to track the footprints, and Relay and Moth studied the camera footage. In summary, they observed three men with FLR, often greyware. The van had a gang logo. Moth recognized that it was the Brotherhood of Iron.

Ironclad was particularly interested in their quest for cyber singularity, and could easily pass for one of them. A plan began to form that he could make contact with them.

With more research, and a call to Relay's contact Dr. Henry Wallace, they learned that the Brotherhood's leader was Consta. Wallace offered to introduce the team to the Brotherhood, so long as their goal was to help them.

The Run

They arrived in Kingsgate. With Relay's flyspy scouting ahead, they learned that someone was harrassing a junior member of the Brotherhood over another ware theft. Ironclad headed up and rescued the junior member (Shawn) by intimidating the yelling man with Clad's special brand of threatening banter. Shawn appreciated the help, and took Ironclad inside to meet Consta.

Ironclad learned that the Brotherhood had recently been robbed! Another gang - a group of ghoul kidnappers had stolen much of the ware that they had acquired, and kidnapped at least one of their members. They took at least one of his limbs.

Beuford "Saint' Mcgill recognized who the ghouls were. The 162s. Moth knew from that information where their territory was in the Barrens. They could help the Brotherhood, returning their missing member and his cyber, and potentially recover the doctor's cyber in the process.

The runners headed to the underground to confront the ghouls. They wanted to keep the ghouls away, so they would not get bitten. The best bet seemed to be sneaking up, and then hitting them with a grenade. If they were in the small space of an underground room, a grenade would be extra effective. Chunky salsa. But they also knew that there was likely delicate ware nearby. Definitely not a place for frag grenades that would harm nearby ware.

The team was particularly well set-up for stealth. Relay scouted ahead with his flyspy drones. Moth and Ironclad had RPC cloaks. Beuford "Saint' Mcgill cast improved invisibility on himself.

They were able to get close enough to realize another complication. There were five ghouls clustered around a surgical table where an oni was in the process of removing the limbs from one of the Brotherhood of Iron members. Two more captives from the Brotherhood were nearby, likely planned for surgery next.

They couldn't chuck a grenade in. It would hurt and possibly kill the Brotherhood members.

The runners quickly made a new plan. Beuford "Saint' Mcgill distracted the ghouls with trid phantasm - the appearance of a squad of Humanis attacking them. At the same time, his guardian spirit grabbed the man off the table and fled with him. The other two kidnapped Brotherhood members were able to escape in the chaos. Once the three victims were clear, Ironclad tossed in the flashbang grenade. All but one of the ghouls dropped. Relay's drone killed the other one.

It was time to find the stolen ware. Ironclad had a singularity like moment of clarity (13 successes on visual perception!!!), and was able to find every piece of stolen ware. The limbs taken from the Brotherhood member. The doctor's stolen ware. Other ware stolen by the ghouls. More than they had expected to find.

They caught up with the injured man, still carried by the spirit. Relay had a valkyrie chamber in his van to help stabilize him. Ironclad uses his medical skills and cybertech skills to reattach the limbs. The man was greatly calmed.

They returned to the Brotherhood. Three members rescued. One's limbs restored. And they gave them all the ware they found that did not belong to their Johnson. Consta was thrilled. He offered Ironclad membership in the Brotherhood.

The team headed on to the clinic and gave their Johnson, the doctor, all his stolen cyberware back, and got paid for a job well done.

Aftermath

Ironclad returned to the Brotherhood and is now helping all of them to maintain and upgrade their cyber limbs as they need.

The clinic is able to continue caring for its poor clients in the Barrens.

Rewards

12k Nuyen
7 karma & 2 CDP, or 6 karma and 0 CDP and Consta at a 2/1
Ironclad: membership into the group contact, The Brotherhood of Iron

Game Quotes

Thug who was intimidating Shawn, to Ironclad: "What are YOU doing here, Braveheart?" Ironclad: "Buckle up, chucklefuck!" And lots more insults! Until the man gave up and walked away.

Moth: "We did so much hoodin' goodin'!"

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Moth

Moth here! This was my 47th run. What a great team! We kept chasing the clues. And those Brotherhood of Iron folks were really interesting. I talked to them a little about my ware. Not many folks can tell looking at me that I only have a little more than one essence left. There's so much pressure to do well. To keep taking harder jobs. I want to be my best. I want papa to approve of me. But I don't want to lose my personality. My sparkle. My 'me'. Maybe these guys can help me understand it. They talked a lot about balance. But, at any rate, I felt so good about this job. We figured out how to help our Johnson and the Brotherhood. And take out those terrible ghouls that were doing so much harm. I'd definitely run with these folks again. Great skills. Great ideas. Hearts in the right place.

Relay

When this run came up on the Haven, I didn't know who the thieves were, but I had a sneaking suspicion about the type of people they were. Part of my motivation in taking the job was to be a go between and prevent further violence. We've all stolen something here on the Haven--it's part of what we do. Sometimes we're in the right, but most of the time we're in the grey. We didn't quite manage to avoid violence, but at least it was directed at the folks literally ripping the chrome out of people's bodies. That shit is way different. And--yes--I'm aware that Ironclad offered to do that for our J, but I'm going to pretend he was joking. I genuinely hope he was. That is...well, it's brutal. Instead, Ironclad helped reattach a limb that was ripped off someone's body, and that's a nice step toward the right side of grey for our army doc. First time working with Saint. He's got a condition that makes me keep an eye open, but he did good work and kept it as non-violent as possible. I am cautiously optimistic about working with him again; Moth is always a professional, as is Ironclad. If anything, it's that professionalism is what scares me about our Doc.