Koncerning Kittens

Koncerning Kittens
Date 2082-05-18 GM Shadowhand Location Puallup Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Reality Hackers
Milliam Lambda Field Mouse Delphi Canter	RH Goon x3 RH Mage Beast Spirit
Casualties and losses
None	Stunned, Surrendered and Banished

Summary

"Five little kittens have lost their mittens and they begin to cry..."

Background

Tricks & Treats is a popular up and coming shop that caters to the matrix and magic crowds respectively. Zion, co-owner and talismonger of the shop is looking to provide a special gift to her partner M0rd3K41's birthday. She has come across a litter of very special kittens, and she's willing to pay a group of highly trained professionals to retrieve them for her.

The Meet

The runners are contacted by their various fixers, and told to meet the Johnson at a small cafe in Northern Puyallup. Converging on the "Just Soy" Cafe, the five enter to the sight of the elvish talismonger Zion waving enthusiastically, and her new boyfriend LB sitting at her side, glowering protectively. The initial introductions are made, and snacks provided before Zion goes into her impassioned plea to the runners to work for her. Stating that her partner is coming up on his 45th birthday, she admits that she has just the perfect thing to brighten not only his day, but his remaining days. She shares that her various contacts have clued her in to the existence of a box of matrix capable kittens, namely Bastet's, that are in possession of a Matrix gang called the "Reality Hackers". Believing that no good can come to the kittens in the arms of these criminals, Zion hopes to liberate the kittens, and see that they are placed in good homes. But most importantly, that her surly partner is given his pick of the litter as a birthday present. Offering 10,000 nuyen as a reward for their services, Zion makes her final plea to the runners, under the watchful and protective eye of LB. The runners confer and agree, that the terms are acceptable, and reassure the emotional elf that her hands will soon be full of special little furballs.

The Plan

Everyone loads up into Canter's sportscar except Lambda, whose very presence seems to set everyone on edge. Lambda does a Matrix search to determine the level of activity within the area for the Reality Hackers, and learns that usually there is many more of them available, but that they are currently away on a "special mission", leaving a bare bones crew to protect the valuable kittens.

Driving to the location provided by Zion, Canter checks the area for wireless devices and discovers that the building has it's own host. Sleazing her way in, she encounters a casino-like environment, with several individuals busily gambling their lives away, as patrol IC wanders the room. The IC pays slight attention to Canter, and she eventually manages to slip out of there view and search the host for anything dealing with security. Finding a rusty old filing cabinet filled with files, She quickly disarms the data bomb protecting the security files, pulls them, and then leaves behind a special file courtesy of Lambda, who states that the file will aid the team by redirecting forces within to a site of his choosing. Having everything well in hand Canter drops out of the host to study the files.

Shortly after, six goons come pouring out of the building, leap into a vehicle and tear away, presumably to hunt down Lambda at his fake coordinates. Lambda, and Milliam also head out, presumably to redirect any location attempts by deckers in the matrix, to redirect any further activity.

Mouse enters the Astral, and circles the building checking for guards and such. Finding that the western fire escape is manned by a goon, Mouse tries to enter the building on the third level, only to be rebuffed by an astral barrier. Checking carefully, he learns that the entire third floor is warded against intrusion. He then returns to the car, shares the info, and summons his Spirit of Man, Mr. Gambler, who stands and waits for further instruction.

Milliam manages to leap her way to the roof of an adjacent building, waving merrily to Delphi and Mouse. She and Dumas settle down to provide over watch for the crew while the continue their legwork.

Mouse finally turns to Mr. Gambler, and asks if he would sleaze his way past the barrier and scout out the third floor, to which the Spirit of Man happily agrees. Easily penetrating the barrier, the spirit takes a lap and returns, to report that there are 3 more goons inside, as well as a beast spirit which seems to be concealing something within the southwestern apartment's closet. Armed with this information, the team decides to attempt to sneak their way to the top of the fire escape, quietly deal with any resistance, and collect the kittens.

The Run

Canter channels a Guardian spirit to aid her in the potential combat that is on the horizon. Mr. Gambler conceals Delphi, and he and the astrally traveling Mouse accompany Canter and Delphi as they work their way stealthily to the top of the fire escape. Reaching the top, they can see the Reality Hacker guard staring with glazed eyes out across the area, presumably on watch. On a hunch, Mouse instructs Mr. Gambler to use his powers of influence to suggest to the guard that she check the lower levels of the staircase, succeeding. The guard moves to do just that, but on a hunch peers closely into the corner where Canter is hiding, spotting her, and firing a wild burst at the aged racer, who manages to safely dodge the bullets. Mr. Gambler uses his mystical powers to ensure that the guard will fall victim to an accident, which results in the rather dramatic failure of the guard's SMG. Canter quickly takes aim, and drops the Hacker in her tracks, with a well placed burst of rubber bullets.

Moving into the building by sleazing through the barrier, Mouse spots the internal guards, moving to investigate the shots fired. Delphi cracks the outer door lock with her autopicker, and pops the door open, sneaking inside as Milliam and Dumas deal handily with the two guards. Milliam places one guard in a subdual lock, as Dumas uses his deadly fangs to inject narcojet into his hapless victim, sending him into the land of the unconscious. Milliam offers her captive the opportunity to divest herself of weapons and walk out unmolested, to which the terribly outclassed elf agrees quite emphatically.

Meanwhile, Delphi makes her way into the apartment, staging herself just outside the bedroom door, waiting as she hears movement from within. As the door opens, Delphi places her pistol against the head of the boss, and calmly informs him that the fight is over, surrender immediately. The boss is not having it however, and attempts to Clout Delphi, blasting the air where her head used to be just before she moved it out of the way.

Mouse works his way past the final combatants, and enters the closet to confront and banish the bound beast spirit. Succeeding, he peers at the now revealed box of kittens, who meow piteously at the noises around them.

Delphi, assisted by the sudden appearance of Dumas, the rather impressive and aggressive black panther companion of Milliam, manages to finally convince the boss Hacker that the fight is over, and to stand down. Swearing revenge, the boss drops to the floor and surrenders, allowing the team to take possession of the kittens.

Aftermath

Checking the kittens over to ensure that one, they are okay, and two, that they are in fact techno capable kittens, the team collects the box of bastets and heads out. Stopping to pick up treats and toys, the team plays with the kittens as they head to Trix & Treats to deliver the package to Zion. The happy talismonger is even more overjoyed, as she throws her hands in the air at the sight of the runners and kittens. Collecting the box, she takes it over to her friend and colleague M0rd3K41 presenting him the kittens with a gleam of triumph in her eye. Showing a rather large and uncharacteristic amount of emotion himself, the decker reaches within and pulls out one large male, and begins to stroke it softly, the edges of his goggles beginning to fog over. Smiling at the success, Zion gives him a hug and takes the box of kittens back to the runners, who either adopt a kitten themselves, or promise to place the kitten in an appropriately loving home.

Rewards

10k Nuyen (5 RVP)

-or- 20k in Foci or reagents (5 RVP)

8 Karma (8 RVP)

2 CDP

(And a Bastet Kitten that is totally for flavor and has no actual impact in game)

Optional Contacts:

M0rd3K41 at 2 loyalty (4 RVP)

Zion at 2 loyalty (4 RVP)

LB at 1 loyalty (2 RVP)

Game Quotes

I have enough room for everyone but one person...so I can take everyone but...::eyes darken:: Lambda. --Canter

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Lambda

As expected, the performance report is within acceptable parameters. I will begin the recording of... biometrics for the sake of transparency. Perhaps there is room for cooperation amongst these colleagues after all. Initial assessment was off the mark by a small margin, perhaps due to unexpectedly anomalous variables. So far, success is confirmed and I will log the encounter as complete. The elf that was present, however, appeared more inquisitive than what would be wise. Perhaps secondary security measures would be wise to repel her attempts...

Mouse

OKAY SO this was my first run with the folks from Shadowhaven instead of them just asking me questions about spirits and it went totally well! I saw a ghoul who was also a Gnome, and it was awesome! He was super friendly and he had a girlfriend which is weird, but like, also great! Neat to see people pushing back against the stereotypes, but it also leads me to SO MANY QUESTIONS that probably I shouldn't ask or he might tear my head off because he was very friendly but also very scary and mean at the same time.

And then there was a lady with a cat. The cat's name was Dumas, and the lady was like--super country. LIKE SO COUNTRY. Or maybe not country but like--definitely had some trouble with the urban stuff except jumping around! She was like a rubber ball bouncing. There was also an investigator with a skull thingy and she was super into cats, which is great, because we were rescuing cats. (By the way meet Miles Davis, my little buddy who has a bed inside my bottom desk drawer of my dorm.)

There was an old lady who may ACTUALLY have lived in a retirement home, but drove like the wind, her arm skin and neck skin juuuuust flapping as she went. And there was this like--this dark aura surrounding the weird business man who wasn't very friendly and really made me want to sit on the other side of the table and maybe not talk to him, but he was nice.

And then I met Mr. Gambler who was a neat spirit of man and we talked about the weather and life and cards and also he helped me get my new friends past some sneaky guard people, but he didn't do a perfect job because they shot at the old lady which was super rude. But she seemed okay, (probably a ninja,) so I went in and asked the beast spirit to maybe go back to his own stuff because it was mean of the summoner to keep him here, and then we rescued some cats!

The end!

Delphi

Well this was an interesting one. Milliam and Dumas were a pleasure as always, though I wasn't familiar with any of the others. Canter seemed quite full of life and was a good driver, plus she held up well in a fight. Mouse seems like a nice kid just starting out, hopefully he keeps that wide-eyed look for a while. Not sure what to make of that Lambda guy, but he has a major case of bad vibes. Oh and apparently LB is dating a talismonger now, which like, hey good for them.

The job itself was pretty straightforward, though it went a bit louder than I'd have liked - thankfully nobody got seriously hurt. We got the bastets and pretty much everyone took one for themselves. If I didn't already have 3 cats, including a bastet, I would have done the same, but Megaera is enough to handle already and I know someone who might be interested in taking care of one.