Where's My Super Suit?

Where's My Super Suit?
Date 2085-08-16 GM Sarcarian Location Toronto, UCAS Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Amalgamated Studios	Horizon Group
Fennec Jessie DeVux Ragamuffin Stacy	Security Dogs Security Guards Security Spider Security Spirits	Ace Powers
Casualties and losses
	Security Dogs x2 (knocked out)

Summary

In which the runners steal a superhero suit from a movie set.

Background

Amalgamated Studios is currently shooting their latest Batman movie ("Batman Triumphant") in Toronto, but have been having trouble with striking unions slowing down the shoot. Hoping to force the studio to the negotiating table, one of the union members - going by "Mr. Brown" - makes a deal with a broker of dubiously-acquired entertainment merchandise using the name "Jackson" to contract thieves who can steal a very expensive costume from the set. Since the intricately detailed superhero suit cost the studio $500k to make, they only had one built before stiffing the costumers on their overtime pay; seeking retribution, Mr. Brown seeks to have it stolen in order to make the studio come to an agreement with the union, planning to finance the operation by having his contact sell it to a collector.

The Meet

The runners are contacted by their fixers and told to meet with their prospective employer at the Bellevue Hilton hotel in, well, Bellevue; everyone manages to make it into the relatively high security district and blend in with the crowd without drawing undue attention to themselves. Stacy is told that her employer ("Jackson", representing "Mr. Brown") is "in the industry" and declines an offer from Ace Powers of additional cash for information on the job. Outside the hotel, Koi spots some Horizon Mini-Zeps advertising the new and exciting retail products; the zeppelins in turn spot Fennec, in her Scarlett Clover disguise, which gets the wheels in Ace Powers' head churning.

Meeting up in the lobby, they take the elevator up to floor 16 and congregate outside the door to suite 10. Entering, they find a well-dressed human man with horn-rimmed glasses who offers them drinks before they get down to business. He explains that he's a broker of industry goods, and that he has some associates in Toronto who are looking for professionals who can steal something from their employers for him to sell - everyone gets paid, and the studio is forced to come to the table with the striking teamsters and costumers unions. He offers the team 10k each plus travel expenses, but Stacy and Fennec manage to negotiate the number up to 14 each with some extra perdem to pay for better lodgings while in town.

The Plan

Having made arrangements to travel via domestic airline flight, Stacy goes to get her beauty sleep while Ragamuffin attempts to summon and bind a new spirit friend. Meanwhile, Fennec and Koi hit the Matrix, looking through entertainment industry gossip and paparazzi websites - they find some scandals with one of the lead actors and stories regarding the work stoppage from the crew members (and subsequent hiring of scabs). Figuring that they can either get inside as extras or scabs, or attempt to blackmail some of those involved. Fennec also gets a call from Ace Powers - who she met on her previous run (see: Into the Void) and who spotted her through the facial recognition protocols of the mini-zeps outside the hotel (see: The Last Horizon of Ace Powers for more on Mr. Powers' latest reasons for monitoring Haven runners). She is able to negotiate a deal whereby Ace will provide her with access to a fresh Horizon SIN in exchange for some information on the Amalgamated Studios shoot; using this info, Ace decides to send his latest team of in-house runners - the Alameda Avengers (see: An Ace Up One's Sleeve) - to sabotage the shoot so that Horizon's newest blockbuster can out-perform their rival studio's.

At SeaTac, the runners are able to avoid sticking out and get past the SIN scanners for domestic flights without issue; Fennec manages to smuggle her monofiliment yoyo past security, but ends up clocked by the security Aware as a technomancer. She is able to convince them that there must have been some mix-up with Horizon's licensing systems, and a quick call to Ace secures her the needed paperwork to be able to fly and avoid a heavy fine for being an unregistered techno. On the flight to Toronto, the team engage in various small-talk while the Matrix fox regales them with conspiracy theories about local insect spirit infestations and Stacy enjoys some pirated anime.

Upon arrival at Billy Bishop Airport and the Royal York Hotel, the team rest up from their flight while Stacy heads to the entertainment district and performs a back ally sonata in a successful attempt to wild summon a local spirit. She tells the masked phantom-of-the-opera esque ghost that she and her friends want to pull a little prank on the local movie shoot, promising karma if he's able to find a discrete way in; the spirit says that it knows some of the local ghouls who dwell in the sewers, and may be able to negotiate safe passage for a price. Additionally, Stacy asks about local talent who can perform a smudging ritual for her, and the spirit, Maximilian, points her towards a fortune teller in the village who can conduct the ritual; heading to their place of business, Stacy negotiates a price of $1000 in order to remove psychometric impressions from a suit she wishes to leave behind in place of the one they're meant to steal.

Later on that evening, Stacy and Fennec bring Koi and Ragamuffin out bar-hopping, both to look for drugs that they couldn't bring through the airport and to search out disaffected striking union members near the set - the group end up at Sneeky Dee's, a bar on Collage Street down the road from the intersection which has been cordoned off for the movie set. The faces assist the less socially inclined folks with getting inside past the bouncer by threatening to cancel him for showing favor to more aesthetically-pleasing changlings, and are able to get the nerds into the crowded Saturday night show. While Fennec goes about procuring some drugs for Koi, the decker makes use of the techno's Mona Lisa subscription to scan the faces of the patrons and see if any of them show up in union databases; as luck would have it, a group in a booth eating some nachos prove to be members of the striking Teamsters. Meanwhile, Stacy gets inordinately inebriated and heads out into the allyway to vomit, where she's met by Maximillian who tells her that he's secured safe passage for her through the sewers and provides her with a necklace to show the ghouls.

Fennec approaches the union members and ingratiates herself to them with free drinks and a pleasant attitude, intimating that she supports their cause and wants to give their employers a black eye so that they'll be more open to negotiation. Convincing them of her sincerity by revealing her true identity and telling them they can cause her a lot of trouble if she's lying, she's able to get the teamsters to tell her that the costume they're looking for is stored in a specificity trailer on the east side of the set when not in use or being maintained, and that there are ghost hounds guarding it from intruders as well as drones and access control measures. She's also able to learn the name of the security coordinator - Bernard Phillips - for the set, and that the scabs who have taken the workers places come from a company called Eisenberg Associates. Content with their information gathering efforts, the team thank the teamsters for their assistance, deciding to spend the remainder of the night bar hopping and enjoying themselves before the job proper.

The Run

After waking up from their hangovers, the team spend their afternoon fabricating disguises and hacking their way into the database for the agency providing the scab workers to the studio in order to slot in their information so that they're able to gain access to the set; Stacy meanwhile plans to enter separately as a temp worker and gaslight her way past security by ensuring them her paperwork is en-route. Managing to get past both the picket line and security, the team blend into the crowds of background extras and workers - while Koi, Ragamuffin and Stacy stay unobtrusive during the filming, Fennec decides to pretend to be an extra in the scene that they're filming hoping of making it into the movie, managing to convince the assistant casting director that someone wanted to have a foxgirl in one of the background shots.

When the lunch hour comes around, the team see the suit moved to the trailer and the pair of dogs outside. While Stacy distracts some guards near the manhole that leads to their sewer escape route and Fennec finds the security coordinator and marks their RCC in order to subvert the camera infrastructure, Koi and Ragamuffin make use of concealment from Rag's spirit to stay hidden as they approach the dogs to knock them out. Koi forks some loop orders to their camera collars, but some nearby pyrotechnics work sets off her flashbacks, so she freezes up before firing her taser gun while she fights off the urge to go berserk; Rag's spirit meanwhile engages in astral combat with the ghost hound, getting into a losing battle before Koi snaps out of it and takes it down with silenced stick-and-shock timed with the explosions so that it remains unheard.

With the dogs taken care of, Ragamuffin makes Koi invisible, who goes to snatch the suit and make her way towards the sewer. To cause a distraction, Stacy uses Commanding Voice to make one of the scab workers go and assault the unconscious dogs before causing an enormous scene in response and provoking onlookers to intervene. Fennec and Ragamuffin take this as their cue to leave, entering the sewers right behind Koi while Stacy slips away, satisfied with the chaos she's created.

Aftermath

In the sewers, Fennec is able to keep her composure while talking her way past the ghouls who come to investigate the disturbance by showing them the necklace Maximilian provided; Koi again resists the berserker urge as the surge of adrenaline hits at the sight of them, while Ragamuffin is more fascinated than anything by the Infected. After being suitably bribed, the ghouls show them to a safe exit from the sewers. Once they're in the clear, the team contact their employer who gives them the address of a storage unit in Scarborough where they can bring the suit for storage; when he receives conformation that it's secure, he wires the promised payment to the runners accounts.

Rewards

14,000 nuyen (7 RVP)

5 karma (5 RVP)

8 CDP (3 RVP + 2 base)

Optional Quality: Alibi and Innocuous @ chargen prices

For Fennec:

+2 Horizon reputation (for feeding Ace Powers intel)

+1 Public Awareness (for appearing in the trid as an extra)

Optional Gear Reward: Horizon Fake SINs + Licenses

For Stacy:

-5 karma (for making an exchange with a wild spirit, and also being The Worst)

+10 wild index (for tipping the spirit extra karma)

Narrative Consequences:

-The mech suit from Batman Triumphant is stolen, delaying production on the trid's climactic scene and forcing Amalgamated Studios to come to the negotiating table with the striking union workers.

-Horizon exploit the delay and the reports of incidents on set to harm Amalgamated's market share.

Game Quotes

Stacy: "C'mon dude can't you see that we're just vibing like fr gamer we're on that skibidi aura."

Quinn: "Hey... *touches fingers,* I need some Dopeadrine... can you help me get some?"

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Koi - "Finally... a run that doesn't have any major traumatic set backs..."