Playing babysitter

Playing babysitter
Date 2087-01-17 GM Breeze Location Seattle Sprawl Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Kruger	Aleph Society	Knight Errant
Dango Gilgamesh Lich Armadillo	AS Adept AS Magician	Lisa the Beat Cop
Casualties and losses
A brave flyspy got bonked, and a troll got boinked	Both were killed, with 3 spirits being disrupted alongside them	She won, girl scored a date she DID NOT deserve

Summary

Playing babysitter in an old warehouse between owners at the moment is a major pain in the ass. Sometimes because of blood mages. Sometimes because an annoying KE officer keeps coming around and trying to get some with your teammate. But hey, good surveillance and strong cooperation (and avoiding the mental alterations of your enemies) is solid, good paying work.

Background

Kruger and his criminal network are in the business of reallocating goods and wealth to others. One such good they were working on transferring was an Athame a former member of the Aleph Society had "removed" from him after his untimely death. The focus had been developing some interesting properties, notably a bloodthirst and the ability to call out to other magicians to be bonded, and so they had been struggling to find a suitable buyer who wanted such a thing. They were going to find a fence eventually, someone foolhardy enough to buy it, but they needed time. And, well, a relic as powerful as they were holding garners a lot of attention. There were possibilities of those from the DIMR, AF, and the other members of the Aleph Society trying to get something of theirs back. Really, it was just a massive security risk to Kruger's own assets if it was around his people.

So...

Time to use Shadowrunners as cannon fodder.

The Meet

The meet took place in a dive bar in Downtown, a place his preferred liason Alyssa Reid could try and talk her way through negotiations and figure out who these assets were and what they looked like before giving the job. It was always good to see faces when you want to figure out reliable assets to call upon later. The four for the task were Dango for surveillance, Gilgamesh and Armadillo for muscle, and Lich for magical support. They didn't get much in details: Pick up the Item from their guy, hold it safe from anyone who wasn't ID'd as one of theirs for as long as it takes, and then handing it over when their man came to collect. If there was any signs it was opened at all before then, they didn't get paid. She offered 16k per person, and three locations they would try to send collectors to when ready the team could hold up in. The team managed to snag a little bonus if the cops didn't get involved at all - while all that mattered was not losing the item, a lack of heat on them would be ideal. A few locations with their own hosts would also have little authenticator keys for the resident hacker to use to spoof being an administrator for ease of operations.

The Plan

Ms. Reid left the group to discuss and gather their things alone - the less she knew the less likely the location would be leaked early. Looking between a cabin in the woods of Snohomish, a motel room in the Barrens, and a warehouse in Bellvue, the team settled on the warehouse. It'd be more defensible and had better odds against a sniper attack, while also being conspicuous enough that both them and their adversaries wouldn't be able to bring the big guns. Besides, unlike the Barrens and Snohomish, Dango wouldn't be dealing with too much noise and interference and the cameras were all hers with no other users inside to bother her, so she could keep an eye out just fine. They arranged for pick up over in the barrens to be smuggled in with Amradillo's foreknowledge of smuggling routes, and got the others to the warehouse safely too with it, and got set up. Gilgamesh got them a week's worth of food, and Dango got to work establishing control over the host and fortifying.

The Run

Dango had most of their surveillance needs covered - the annoying part was that in making sure no one could get them through the warehouse windows by repurposing the old worker drones and having them board up the windows was that a beat cop kept coming around to make sure the team kept the noise down. This cost Gilgamesh his time and patience as he at first had to stave her off with professionalism and eventually offering dates to the girl. There were other small interruptions the first two days - kids checking out the activity in the warehouse, or messing with the host, those were normal.

More worryingly were the calls Lich felt from the athame. Unaware of its nature, its desire for use, to be soaked in blood, he felt its pull again and again and again. It could not force him into action throughout the days there, but it was a constant worry and pull he felt sewing anxiety in the team as he warned them. Furthermore, someone was clearly trying to do recon on the team during the nights. The second night saw them nearly attacked. Whoever was after them, they were well equipped for the task - Dango recognized that they were packing RPC, and while chasing them off a powerbolt fried her flyspy.

It was on the third night that the team was assaulted by the small force. First a blood spirit came to try and ambush Lich and Gilgamesh in the night. Awakening the other two who were sleeping, they found themselves facing off against an adept and a mage. Despite being outnumbered, spirits and mental manipulation backing up a formidably trained adept proved to be a challenge for the three, especially since their fourth lacked her more destructive tools for now. But thankfully, poisons and martial prowess killed the adept and incapacitated the mage. Unfortunately, Armadillo's bloodlust and desire for challenge led him to killing the mage, unleashing a blood shade that nearly overpowered him. At the very least, they had some time to recover, and with all three combatants fighting together with some recovered strength, they weren't totally overwhelmed and survived the night.

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.