Identifying a Problem

Identifying a Problem
Date 2081-12-27 GM Si1as Location Barrens (both) Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Daniel Lufe Madame Butterfly	Local Gangers	Yakuza
Ca1yps0 Rooster Silverpaw Stygian	Bubblegum's Gang Bubblegum	Rachel Raven
Casualties and losses
	Bubblegum's gangers.	None

Summary

Daniel Lufe hired shadowrunners to help eliminate some competition. The team managed to rescue a mostly unrelated woman from the Yakuza, then destroy an entire street gang before helping their leader relocate because their moral compass is utterly baffling.

Background

A small time forger, Bubblegum, and her crew were buying commlinks from the other gangers in town. They'd hack the SINs off the commlinks and resell them for a profit.

Daniel Lufe, a forger who works with the Haven, was miffed by Bubblegum and her crew interfering with his business. In addition to their sales coming out of his profit margin, some of the resold SINs were his work, and he has an expectation of quality. As such, he put in a request for Haven's help; in exchange, he offered a quality forgery for the runners.

The Meet

Meeting at a shit bar in Touristville, Daniel Lufe asked the runners to take small time competition out of commission. In exchange, he'd offer up a set of properly done forgeries and a pair of licenses to the team. After bargaining back and forth, the team successfully bargained a little loyalty for future runs (add Daniel Lufe as a contact,) and a little pocket change if the team cut the offending gang down to size. Daniel Lufe gave the team a few of the fake SINs he had made that were repurposed by Bubblegum's gang.

The Plan

Ca1yps0, through the power of the matrix, managed to find a receipt tied to one of Daniel Lufe's old SINs at an off-brand Stuffer Shack in Loveland. While Stygian distracted the attendant, Ca1yps0 jacked into the network and found a clear video of the elf who bought the fake SIN. The team decided to locate the elf, find out where she bought the SIN, and then knock some heads together.

The Accidental Side Quest

Stygian summoned a spirit of man to track down the elf, while the team sat around together in Loveland and got to know each other. After some time, the spirit returned, and the gang rode off to a Yakuza-owned gambling parlor. Silverpaw snuck in iron to ensure the team stayed safe. While Rooster went on a hot streak playing slots, Stygian located and introduced himself to the elven woman named Pell. After some introductions, they discovered that the woman was worried about her friend Rachel Raven, who was a lady of the night at this particular parlor. Rooster, with new, fresh winnings from the slots, made his way upstairs (in exchange for his winnings,) and--when alone in the room with Rachel Raven, explained that he was there to help her escape the Yakuza. Casting invisibility on Rachel Raven, Rooster stumbled out of the Yakuza den pretending to be more intoxicated than he was. As he departed, guards exchanged knowing looks and--in one case--a little coin at his short stint upstairs.

In the meantime, Ca1yps0 dialed up John Baptise, and a ride was waiting for the team and their woman. Stygian had John drop them off at a No Tell Motel, and both women were relieved to find out that they only wanted to know where Pell had gotten her fake SIN. After she yelled at him for the scare, she gave the team Bubblegum's location in Touristville. Stygian got Rachel Raven set up with Madame Butterfly, a far shade better than the Yakuza, and the team departed back to the "uncool barrens" to visit Touristville once more.

The Main Quest

Stygian talked himself and Silverpaw into the middle of Bubblegum's garage before taking a shot at the gangers. Rooster broke in through the back door, and Ca1yps0 took over a Dalmatian drone inside the facility to provide backup. Thanks to chokepoints, surprise, and an awful lot of luck (and/or edge,) the team managed to cut down the gangers, with Silverpaw and Rooster doing some heavy combat lifting. With her gang demolished, Bubblegum surrendered, but Rooster reminded the team that the J wanted Bubblegum put 6 feet under.

The team destroyed all the commlinks that Bubblegum's gang had collected. They decided to let her life IF AND ONLY IF she relocated out of town. Since Daniel Lufe wasn't sure which ganger was responsible, and since they had in fact demolished her entire Seattle organization, they felt confident that they had completed the mission despite letting her live.

Aftermath

They met again with the J. Ca1yps0, unable to make it up the stairs in her chair, stayed in the car and participated via AR in the meet. After seeing the video footage, Daniel Lufe agreed to make their SINs as promised. He also gave them each some nuyen for destroying, instead of reselling, the commlinks. When the team departed the restaurant, they found Stygian's car door open with blood on the frame. Ca1yps0 was nowhere to be seen.

Rewards

Daniel Lufe as a 3-1 Contact. R5 Fake SIN (from a AAA corp) and 2x free licenses. Additional licenses at normal price without roll. 4k Nuyen 2 Karma 2 CDP (which can be used to instead buy Bubblegum).

Game Quotes

GM: [to Rooster] "If you were a better person, this would make you feel terrible."

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Ca1yps0

Recording this in the car while the rest of the team makes the hand-off with our J. My first job with this ShadowHaven outfit and I've gotta say, I'm really impressed with the talent here: Stygian is a solid talker with the confidence to walk right into a gang hidehout when he knows there's going to be a shootout, Rooster is funny as all hell and generous with his deepweed, and Silverpaw has to be one of the better shots that I've work with in a while (plus I'm pretty sure she's a second-generation changling, if she really was born with those cat ears). All in all a good crew, would definitely work with him again. Can't say the same about this J though if I'm being honest - he might do good work with his SINs, not to mention apparently being a fan of mine, but the guy gave me some weird vibes at the meet. Not to mention the mother-fragger was inconsiderate enough to pick a place with stairs after seeing that I don't have any damn legs, hence me being stuck in the car... Still though, everything went about as smoothly as could be expected, which was nice - I even made a new contact out of it after encouraging the team to let that Bubblegum go with her deck, and telling her how nice LA is this time of year. Things definitely seem to be looking up, I guess we'll see what the future holds in st-[unexpected user disconnection].

Rooster

We met the Johnson in one of the more touristy barrens bars. He turned out to be some sorta celebrity? But he mainly makes fake sins. He says, "He's an artist", and the problem is that some gangers were reselling sins. He wanted them "stopped". We took the job, and negotiated for some high grade fake sins from him too. That was lucky, because I think I needed a better sin. My last one was utterly worthless drek. Oh yea, I was working with Stygian, Silverpaw, and Ca1yps0. Silverpaw I already knew. She's a heavy hitter and knows how to geek a fool. She's chill. Next was Stygian, a talky mage who did some negotiation. Last was Ca1yps0. She's some sorta fish person? She explained that it was from Surge. She was a nova hot decker though.

Anyway, we tried to track down the gang selling these fake sins. The Johnson had only given us one of the fake sins that he knew of. Ca1yps0 tracked the sin's usage, and eventually we tracked the owner to a yakuza joint. It was a fairly typical casino/pachinko parlor/brothel. Stygian talked to the chick that we tracked down and apparently her friend was in some sorta trouble or some drek. I dunno, but they were arguing about how best to get this chick's friend out. I had made a bit at the slots though, so I went to the roulette machine and put it all on red. When that hit I traded it for a night with this chick's friend. I went upstairs, turned her invisible, and then walked her out. Which sucked, because I traded in all of my money and didn't even get my money's worth.

The group decided to drive those two chicks to a motel for some reason. Whatever. Ca1yps0 and I smoked up a cab with John Baptise while Stygian and Silverpaw got the location of the gang out of the chicks in the motel. Now all that we had to to was clean up the gang. We drove to their hideout, got prepped, got into position, and went loud. I snuck around back and when we went loud I ran the sentry on the back door through with my new sword. Then I went in through the back door and mowed people down with my smg. The chick that we were hired to kill surrendered though. The group decided to betray the Johnson. I didn't know we could do that. But yeah, we crushed the fake sins and let this decker chick leave. There's no way that that'll come back to bite us in the ass. Certainly not after we killed all of her friends and forced her to leave the country. Stygian might have extorted her too? Dunno. Then we met with the Johnson and got paid! When we came out Ca1yps0 was GONE. There was some blood in the car though, and her wheelchair was still in the car. It looks like she was kidnapped. Why would you even kidnap a fish person decker though? Weird.

Stygian

Gotta say, Daniel is such a fraggin' tool. It's what fame does to people. I'm not angry, just disappointed. Whatever. Anyway, he hired us to take out some two-bit hack operators who were scalping dead peoples SIN's. I agree with him, it was travesty and barbaric scam with no fraggin' art to it. He gave us a list of some of his product that Ca1yps0 looked into. She got a ping off one and so off we went.

Apparently whoever was using it visited this knock-off Stuffer Shack. Ca1yps0 went in accessed the cameras while I went in and chatted up the clerk. Poor girl. Such a dreary existence that yearns for a better life. It's a typical story, but with so many endings. It'll be so interesting to see just how the coin of her choices lands. Got her comlink at least. [sighs.sim] Another time for that. Suffice to say Ca1yps0 got what we needed and we were off again, this time to Yakuza parlor.

One we reached the parlor we went inside. The lady we looking for was easy to spot. Rooster came in and played the games so that he was nearby in case muscle was needed. I nonchalantly made my way over to the lady and struck up a conversation about our losing streaks. She mentioned that the night had been rough and luck was not on her side. Ca1yps0 had managed to inform me that the lady, Pell, was worried and waiting for her friend that work at the parlor as a lady of the evening. Pell was about to get up and offer her machine to me and then stopped when I told her that perhaps her luck was saving itself for something more important. Being obviously confused, Pell asked what I meant and I told her that she would be getting a private DNI request and that she should accept it. She did and immediately was offered aid by myself and the others to liberate her friend, Rachel.

After some discussion, Rooster's luck at the tables offered an opportunity for Rachel to be reached. I don't know if he ever realized, but it looked like the Yakuza thought of him either as a wretch or a sad charity case. Either way, they were understandably accommodating and relieved when he desired to spend his winnings for time with one of the bordello girls. He made his payment and flipped through the book till he found Rachel and was led to her room. Once in privacy with her, she was brought into the DNI with us and Pell. We explained the plan to her, then Rooster cast his spell and led her out under the noses of the Yakuza and their surveillance.

We took the girls to a "No Tell Motel" where Silverpaw and myself talked with Rachel and Pell in a room privately. Pell thought we were there to kill them and threw a fit for how scared she was by us. Once she calmed down, we asked her about where she got her Fake SIN from and she gave us the deets. As a repayment for her info I made a call to Madame Butterfly for Rachel, suggesting to the Madame that Rachel was a rare beauty worth hiring and a friend of Pell's. Madame then contacted Pell and the rest we shall say was smooth sailing.

With the gangers location now in our possession we headed off to the Redmond. Once there we found a simple operation. The gangers were punks and loudmouths, easily swayed and made to dance car salesman's jig with little effort. Once we were face to face with their boss, Silverpaw and I were witness to a shoddy operation. Bubblegum, as she wanted to call herself, claimed to have such a vast inventory like she was running a bulk candy shoppe. I admit, at that moment I pulled the trigger on the op too soon. I was praised for bravery, but frag I think I almost bit it. What a rush. Anyway, Silverpaw and Rooster were the ones that earned their pay in that gun fight. Ca1yps0 managed to flip their drones, which helped immensely. I meanwhile, after thanking the universe for intervening momentarily on my behalf out of it's love for me, dove behind Bubblegum's product and kept from getting shot.

After the fight Bubblegum was the only one alive and we decided to let her go. She seemed more inclined to skip town and find something else to make money. We concluded the run with the destruction of the stockpile of SINs and returned to Daniel for our pay. Then we found out that Ca1yps0 was kidnapped. No rest for the wicked, as they always say.