Mobster Manipulation

Mobster Manipulation
Date 2082-09-07 GM Aurora Location Redmond Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Republic of Dave Finnigan Family	Humanis	Horizon
Absolute Zero Gremlin Vip3r Eddie Fingerguns
Casualties and losses
	Buncha mooks

Summary

Eddie Fingerguns of the Finnigan Family mafia is in hot water and hires shadowrunners to make him look like and upstanding citizen and help keep him out of prison. Instead, the runners bully him into being a better person for real, and conscript him into helping repel a Humanis attack against the Republic of Dave and defending the patrons within.

Background

Absolute Zero and Vip3r are attempting to vibe together with some homemade Zen brownies when they receive a call from Sarah Snow, alerting them to a job. Gremlin receives a similar call from Ether while taking an especially cranky BunBun to the vet to be treated for worms.

The Meet

The three meet up at a bar owned and operated by the Finnigan Family, where they meet the Johnson, Eddie Fingerguns. Eddie is going to be featured on an episode of UCAS's Most Wanted, and wants the runners to make him look better by swapping all footage and images of him from the production with new images of him doing good deeds before the show goes live, which he believes will make the showrunners look foolish and keep him from being arrested. Vip3r haggles up his offer before Zero expresses doubt that he has much more to offer, but they do convince him to throw in an introduction to Jennifer O'Toole for anyone who wants it. The team learns that most of Eddie's "good deeds" were staged, including feeding the homeless, and Vip3r puts the fear of god into him with some well chosen words in response. The three convince him to instead 'actually' do some good for the community and turn his life around. Eddie has an existential crisis, and the team winds up with a ludicrous volume of fish and chips from the bar's kitchen for the homeless in the process.

The Plan

The team will gather footage of Eddie actually doing some good by donating the money intended to pay them to Dr. Tony Hanks' charity clinic and coaching him through an interview afterwards. They will then release the footage in order to make KE look bad for putting time and resources into worrying about people like Eddie instead of doing things to help people in need.

The Run

The team plus Eddie distribute food to the homeless and take Eddie to Dr. Hanks' clinic to make the donation. He is initially hesitant to accept the help from a mobster, but Vip3r is able to put him at ease by convincing Eddie to extend protection to the clinic. As the interview is wrapping up, a man with a gunshot wound enters the clinic in a panic and informs the runners that Humanis thugs are assaulting patrons at the Republic of Dave. Zero and Dr. Hanks work together to stabilize and heal the man's wounds, and the team rolls out to attempt to fend off the attack.

When they arrive, Humanis members can be seen through the window, beating up on customers inside. Vip3r disables a chromed up combatant via Matrix shenanigans that delete his leg functionality, before being locked into Matrix combat with a Humanis decker. Zero tries for a stunbolt through the glass, which hits its target but doesn't take him down, while Gremlin tries to snipe through the window, putting a hole in the glass. Now alerted to the runners' presence, the goons exit the diner and target Zero and Gremlin. Gremlin does some damage before getting punched into paralysis by an enemy adept, leaving Zero to draw aggro and attempt to keep attention off of Vip3r in the car. The Humanis goons try very hard to geek the mage, but are ultimately unsuccessful, as Zero takes a bullet but is able to avoid the rest while dropping the adept and putting the gunners on the ground with the sheet of ice created by an ice storm. Eddie comes in at the last minute to clean up the goons while Zero checks on Gremlin.

The decker that Vip3r has been dueling with tries to make a getaway from his hiding place in a car behind the diner. Vip3r disagrees and bricks the engine, giving Zero an opportunity to jog up to the car and double punch stunbolts into the decker until he takes a nap.

Aftermath

"General" Dave welcomes the team to his sovereign nation and offers them real potato fries in thanks before launching into a piano solo. Zero levitates Gremlin in and sets her on the back of the piano so that she can enjoy the ambiance.

Dr. Tony receives help for his clinic, then crashes for several days.

Vip3r sends the footage of Eddie's interview to her cousin Finn, who sends it to a friend working on the show out of a desire to fuck with Ace Powers. Ace flips shit when it goes live and fires the show's producer, never learning where it came from.

Vip3r gets a call from Jennifer a few days later, as promised. She's pretty cool.

Eddie gets arrested a few days later for something unrelated, but is released on bail. His existential crisis is ongoing.

Rewards

8k nuyen - 4 RVP
9 karma - 9 RVP
2 CDP

Optionals:
Jennifer O'Toole (Connection 3) at Loyalty 3 with 1 Chip for -5 RVP
Dr. Tony Hanks (Connection 2) at Loyalty 3 with 1 Chip for -4 RVP
"General" Dave (Connection 3) at Loyalty 3 for -5 RVP

Game Quotes

Vip3r: You're a drekhead, but I actually wanna help you, because you're so pathetic. Eddie Fingerguns: Gasps! I... yeah...

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Absolute Zero

Ya know, it's nice to just get to do something that helps sometimes. Like, don't get me wrong, I'll do whatever Vips does, 'cause somebody's gotta have her back, but sometimes that means doing shit that doesn't feel super great. I mean, I get it. That's how it goes when you do this, and like, what are the alternatives? Go out and get a job as a wagemage, helping a corp out to frag people over on a global scale? No thanks. Not for me. And anyway, my mom would kill me.

But this time, we just got to do some good stuff! Feed the hungry! Defend the defenseless! Illuktuk was hyped for that one 'cause that's kind of his whole thing. It got real intense for a second there, on account of I took a bullet and it hurt like crazy and Lucky got real pissed on my behalf, but I managed to keep my head on this time. Which is good, 'cause I really don't want to scare anybody. Although...it mighta made those Humanis goons think twice about their choices... Nah, not worth it. They won't be coming back around there any time soon. We made good and sure of that.

Gremlin

I maybe went into this a bit too strongly, but they were hurting innocent people! Then again, they pretty much immediately gave me noodle bones and I got to discover what being a boneless nocturna felt like, so less cool. But I got to meet Zero, and Viper, which was nice!