Peace: Noblesse Oblige 3

Peace: Noblesse Oblige 3
Part of Unto the Furthest Horizon
Date 2087-07-03 GM Robinton Location Cara'sir Status Threat Level: Extreme
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Elias Zenthra	Major Corp
Peace Quinn Red Ribbon Obsidian	Character1 Character2

Summary

• 7/3: 5 Hours
• 7/10: 6 Hours
• 7/11: 4 Hours
• 7/16: 8 hours
• 7/18: 3 Hours

Current Total: 26 (x4)

So why do I love when I still feel pain?
When does it end?
When is my work done?
Why am I lone and why do I feel
That I carry a sword through a battle field?
So why do I love when I still feel pain?
When does it end?
When is my work done?
Why do I fight and why do I feel
That I carry a sword, that I carry a sword?

Background

The group has spent a year in relative peace after the events of NO 2, while all the various politics of the Tir have moved on without them - the Rinelle have not been wholly defeated and the Council of Princes holds a tenuous grip on the Tir.

And then chaos erupts as Prince Elowyn Hart is assassinated: Unto the Furthest Horizon: News 2

The Run

Friday Night, July 3

• • Paz heads to the Zenthra home and discovers that it's been broken into. Her father is at the Legacy Cara'sir Hospital
    • Ashelander is in a coma, having a punctured lung and damaged spine.
  • Quinn and Ribbon start gathering information on the shooting, scouring the matrix and trying to get some camera footage.
    • They discover that BOTH Elias and Ashelander reacted to the shooting
    • They have a series of buildings which are possible locations for the shooter, NE of Guild Lakes. Ribbon and Quinn search through businesses for camera options for the Sniper location in order to gather more info.
    • They find that the shooter uses a specmod/protmod ares desert strike, a chameleon cloak to cover himself, and dosed the area with c-squared. They also notice that the shooter was nervous about something as they were packing up.
    • They discover the target was Elias, not Hart
  • Obsidian sets a spirit to search for Elias, finding him at his bolt-hole apartment in downtown, passed out in a pile of novacoke.
  • The team convenes in the matrix, choosing to meet at Dante's host where they are seen meeting by the various fixers, Johnsons, and hangers-on.
    • The team realizes this has all the hallmarks of a Black Dagger operation - an elite former ghost solo agent.
  • Paz calls a smuggling contact which gets Obsidian and Red Ribbon into the Tir which burns the remainder of Friday night for those two.
  • Paz and Quinn head to Elias's downtown bolt hole
    • They pass themselves off as prostitutes to gain access to his apartment. In doing so, they realize that the security on the place is extensive, and yet they get let through regardless. Inside the apartment, it is clear that it's a sort of sex pad, but also a place secure enough for cladestine meetings. They realize that Elias, for some reason, knows that it was a Black Dagger who was shooting him, but they do not know why.
    • They Detox Elias before sneaking him out and getting him into diving gear, in order to break his trail.
    • Paz does know something is up, and gets Elias to admit something is happening, but he is not at liberty to say.

Friday Midnight, July 3

• • Quinn does some overnight searching:
  • Shadow Community - The best places for hiding out and/or getting out of the Tir is going to be on the outer edges - NE for SSC, NW for Seattle, SE for PCC, SW for the Free state.
  • Law Enforcement - "Soft" martial law trying not to rile a riot
  • Cameras and EWAR - Strangely dead - and the Tir Grid is obviously on high alert

Saturday Day, July 4

• • The team reconnects at the houseboat in the morning, with Paz interrogating Elias again - Paz learns that Elias is annoyed they are there and are sitting on him - he has 'calls to make'.
  • Obsidian calls Madame Butterfly in order to get help and put out a network to see if the agent runs - 4 hits.
  • The team convinces Elias to work with them and share information - he sends them to recover his data from the Zenthra house
  • The team scouts the Zenthra house and learns:
    • There is a MAG 8 mage watching the house from Astral.
    • There are a number of flyspys watching entrances and four rotordrones 500m up
    • Paz sneaks in, with excellent matrix overwatch, and discovers that Elias's room has been tossed and his data chips are gone.
    • the team sees a flash of Elias being very mature and serious and very, very, afraid before his normal "Eliasness" appears
    • Paz is spotted by the mage on the way out, resulting in a drone fight where Paz is ID'd by the opfor forces, taking some injuries but escaping
  • Back at the boat, Paz gets some healing and a conversation with Elias, revealing that the chips are in a black site of the Tir Defense Force loyal to a rival faction within the government.
  • Bhop calls in to let the team know that a rival shadowrunner team is en route to deal with them and will arrive Saturday night

Saturday Day Legwork

• • • Body Doubles: Paz sneaks out for equipment under a disguise, getting theatrical make up, and other such things to make the body doubles.
    • Body Doubles: Task spirit from Obsidian makes impersonation rolls: 10 hits to disguise the mannequins as the team. F8 Mana Barrier around the boat.
    • Ribbon Calls:
      • WRN3 - cause Matrix data confusion around what the friendly team is doing and how the hostile team is searching, to make it harder for them. 7 Hits in excahnge for fresh Madelines from a bakery in downtown Cara'sir
      • Skinshedder - Skin agrees to track down the opfor runner intel for two to four karma from Ribbon, depending on how difficult it proves to be
    • Disguises:
      • Quinn Shifts masks to be something else. Ribbon shuffles her snythskin mask, Paz dresses up like her old Clownsona for 10 Disguise, Quinn 7 + Impersonation, Ribbon 5+ Synth

Saturday Night, July 4

• • Ribbon, Paz, and Obsidian sleeps this section: Paz and Obsidian recover an edge, Paz heals her stun track.
  • Quinn sets surveillance over the boat using drones and the boats sensors and begins to go looking for information.
    • No official permission given to pass to anyone
    • A non ID'd blip came in from the SSC that was classified as a "large bird migration"- Quinn is able to realize it's an incoming Banshee and the operator mis-ids it on purpose
    • She knows they land in Fairview, and the TBIRD goes offline. The landing site is guarded by Go-Gangers and the rival team fades offscreen into public transportation
    • Quinn accumulates all the data for a dead drop blast to news sources

Sunday Day, July 5

• • The Tir declares a National day of morning for the death of Prince Eloywn Hart. All work for the day is cancelled, leaving only Defense force Curfew units out on the street.
  • Skinshedder contacts the team and reveals: One ranged sam elf, one melee sam troll, dwarf decker, elf mage. All from the SSC, all Amerindian, smuggled in through Fairview on a thunderbird
  • The team determines that the opfor thunderbird is heavily armored and, according to Skin, has a Dwarf Rigger inside it
  • Shadow Community: Gunslinger Adept Elf. Troll Cyber Tank Samurai. Dwarf Cyber Decker, rumored to be a Technomancer. Elf Hermetic Death Dealer
  • Quinn Matsearch: 19 Hits
    • Most of Elias's matrix appearence is carefully curated. She is able to find that anything which is not "party boy" curated is deleted from the matrix.
    • She eventually finds a photo of Elias that is earmarked for deleted by Marcus Fade, the Rinelle decker they met in prior runs, but for some reason the delete didn't take.
    • The team realizes that their opfor is the actual Tir Government, and that Elias has been playing them - and both sides. Obsidian realizes that the first mission was to remove a faction of the Rinelle that Elias found too extreme and get in with the monarchy at the same time. The second mission was to assassinate a rival, and now they're embroiled in what may be a radical takeover of Cara'sir.
  • Obsidian Task Spirit:
    • F8 Alarm ward over the utility building
    • two, two man, armor jacket patrols
  • Obsidian resumes Detect Enemies to keep an eye on the hostile incoming runners
  • Rest Action: Paz
  • Ribbon Fly spy Scouting:
    • Finds secret door to offline host for the blacksite: R10 Host
    • Spots and gets spotted by opfor rigger - with some snark back and forth.
  • Quinn's Matsearch
    • Finds Fixer: Ana Laguna - hired the hostile opfor team to hunt the runners

Sunday Night, July 5

• The black site run begins
  • The team gets their data tap in place to loop the camera on the roof of the government building and then Mob Minds the watcher spirits to get them to fuck off.
  • What follows is a quiet infiltration through the utility building and down into the black site. A firefight breaks out which is only bypassed by two incredibly large and reagent heavy Mob Mind spells.
  • The team steals the data chips back and manage to not blow themselves up with the R10 Data bomb.
• Elias's Manifesto
  • On the files are records of how he took over the Rinelle and used the runners to eliminate parts of the Rinelle he didn't agree with. He parlayed that into rank in the Tir monarchy and played both against the middle. His ultimate goal - use the Rinelle in an open uprising to eliminate the Council of Princes, all so he might reign as High King and allow the government to be strong enough to withstand something he calls 'the coming darkness'

Monday Morning, July 6

• The team meets to figure out what, exactly, they're going to do and pour over Elias's notes. They eventually decide, after much debate, that they need to discover the reason WHY Elias is doing all this, what the coming darkness is, and how it is influencing him.
• The main problem being - he refuses to answer. The more they speak with him, the more it becomes clear that his vision for the Tir would not only be more than a little dangerous, it would be outright a disaster and result in more than a few violent uprisings and corporate takeover attempts - even if he succeeds.
• The team does the only reasonable thing - and solves the problem by way of a bullet.

Aftermath

• Edge Burnt: 3 (Paz, Obsidian, Ribbon)
• The team turns Elias over to the Tir, which causes a number of things to occur in rapid succession.
  • The hostile shaodwrunner team is called off by the Tir Government that hired them.
  • Elias is announced as an unfortunate follow up victim of the politically motivated shootings
  • The Rinelle go to ground as their leader has been killed.
  • The black dagger agent escapes as he is no longer of any particular consequence to quelling the potential Rinelle uprising, though he is shoot on sight in the Tir.
• The team meets, one last time, at the house boat with someone who introduces himself as 'representing the Council' to reward them, telling them that they can never speak of these events.
  • Paz is promoted to Count and leader of House Zenthra
  • Obsidian's exile to the Tir is ended
  • Ribbon asks for clemency for the Rinelle, which is grudgingly granted
  • Quinn asks for Tir help in killing her father, a high profile Vory figure (next time, on QUINNQUEST....)

Rewards

Run Time: 25 Hours (x4) Extreme: 30 RVP x4 = Up to 120 RVP

120 RVP

• 140,000 Nuyen (70 RVP) bounty on bringing in Elias
• 30 Karma (30 RVP)
• 20 Karma earmarked for qualities, buying off negquals, etc. This becomes CDP at normal RVP Rates if unspent.
• 2 CDP Run Guarantee

Qualities gained: All: History is Not as Certain as We Thought and may buy one rank of 4th World Knowledge

PAZ: N/A - retired, see below

QUINN: Master Debater. Hallucinations (Neg).

RED RIBBON: Codeslinger: Hack on the Fly

OBSIDIAN: Focused Concentration, may buy off Prejudiced. May take an Initiation

LOV - may apply for Thematics approval for up to 120 GMP award in lieu of RVP. Paz retired to become a Fixer contact, pending review from thematics.

Game Quotes

"Sometimes, things that we learn hurt."

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Peace - "I'm going to miss him. Not the fascist he became. But the brother I lost the opportunity to love when I ran away. And now fate has me chained once more. I never could avoid it, could I, Elias? I was always the heiress to the Zenthra name. I was always going be taking care of you. I'll live to make sure they remember the man you could have and should have been, had I not left. You deserve that least. Rest well, sweet prince that never was. Goodbye, Elias. Goodbye... Peace. I guess now I have to truly come home after all these years."

Quinn - "I hope Elias was right, and that I can make whatever little piece left of Peace happy. It's my final charge from a man whom I saw so much of myself in, and yet, never knew why until I was staring at the hole through his head. Elias, you were a flawed, and delusional man. And yet, I'll miss the connection I felt we had. Although, if these people keep their word to me, I'll have no regrets."

"I'm so close to finally cleansing myself of this stain upon my life. Let's just hope I get to see it through."

Red Ribbon - "To think... that we almost fell for it. If we hadn't figured out what was in those chips - if we hadn't been persistent about it - I don't know what would have happened. I swore to myself, once, never to trust those above me to make the right decision, and to take responsibility for all my actions myself. I think this is the closest I've come since then to breaking that vow."

"What kills me is how well he played the part. I believed, even just a little, that he had the best interests of the people in mind. In the end... just as bad as all the rest."