Identifying a Problem

Identifying a Problem
Date 2081-12-27 GM Si1as Location Barrens (both) Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Daniel Lufe Madame Butterfly	Local Gangers	Yakuza
Ca1yps0 Rooster Silverpaw Stygian	Bubblegum's Gang Bubblegum	Rachel Raven
Casualties and losses
	Bubblegum's gangers.	None

Summary

Daniel Lufe hired shadowrunners to help eliminate some competition. The team managed to rescue a mostly unrelated woman from the Yakuza, then destroy an entire street gang before helping their leader relocate because their moral compass is utterly baffling.

Background

A small time forger, Bubblegum, and her crew were buying commlinks from the other gangers in town. They'd hack the SINs off the commlinks and resell them for a profit.

Daniel Lufe, a forger who works with the Haven, was miffed by Bubblegum and her crew interfering with his business. In addition to their sales coming out of his profit margin, some of the resold SINs were his work, and he has an expectation of quality. As such, he put in a request for Haven's help; in exchange, he offered a quality forgery for the runners.

The Meet

Meeting at a shit bar in Touristville, Daniel Lufe asked the runners to take small time competition out of commission. In exchange, he'd offer up a set of properly done forgeries and a pair of licenses to the team. After bargaining back and forth, the team successfully bargained a little loyalty for future runs (add Daniel Lufe as a contact,) and a little pocket change if the team cut the offending gang down to size. Daniel Lufe gave the team a few of the fake SINs he had made that were repurposed by Bubblegum's gang.

The Plan

Ca1yps0, through the power of the matrix, managed to find a receipt tied to one of Daniel Lufe's old SINs at an off-brand Stuffer Shack in Loveland. While Stygian distracted the attendant, Ca1yps0 jacked into the network and found a clear video of the elf who bought the fake SIN. The team decided to locate the elf, find out where she bought the SIN, and then knock some heads together.

The Accidental Side Quest

Stygian summoned a spirit of man to track down the elf, while the team sat around together in Loveland and got to know each other. After some time, the spirit returned, and the gang rode off to a Yakuza-owned gambling parlor. Silverpaw snuck in iron to ensure the team stayed safe. While Rooster went on a hot streak playing slots, Stygian located and introduced himself to the elven woman named Pell. After some introductions, they discovered that the woman was worried about her friend Rachel Raven, who was a lady of the night at this particular parlor. Rooster, with new, fresh winnings from the slots, made his way upstairs (in exchange for his winnings,) and--when alone in the room with Rachel Raven, explained that he was there to help her escape the Yakuza. Casting invisibility on Rachel Raven, Rooster stumbled out of the Yakuza den pretending to be more intoxicated than he was. As he departed, guards exchanged knowing looks and--in one case--a little coin at his short stint upstairs.

In the meantime, Ca1yps0 dialed up John Baptise, and a ride was waiting for the team and their woman. Stygian had John drop them off at a No Tell Motel, and both women were relieved to find out that they only wanted to know where Pell had gotten her fake SIN. After she yelled at him for the scare, she gave the team Bubblegum's location in Touristville. Stygian got Rachel Raven set up with Madame Butterfly, a far shade better than the Yakuza, and the team departed back to the "uncool barrens" to visit Touristville once more.

The Main Quest

Stygian talked himself and Silverpaw into the middle of Bubblegum's garage before taking a shot at the gangers. Rooster broke in through the back door, and Ca1yps0 took over a Dalmatian drone inside the facility to provide backup. Thanks to chokepoints, surprise, and an awful lot of luck (and/or edge,) the team managed to cut down the gangers, with Silverpaw and Rooster doing some heavy combat lifting. With her gang demolished, Bubblegum surrendered, but Rooster reminded the team that the J wanted Bubblegum put 6 feet under.

The team destroyed all the commlinks that Bubblegum's gang had collected. They decided to let her life IF AND ONLY IF she relocated out of town. Since Daniel Lufe wasn't sure which ganger was responsible, and since they had in fact demolished her entire Seattle organization, they felt confident that they had completed the mission despite letting her live.

Aftermath

They met again with the J. Ca1yps0, unable to make it up the stairs in her chair, stayed in the car and participated via AR in the meet. After seeing the video footage, Daniel Lufe agreed to make their SINs as promised. He also gave them each some nuyen for destroying, instead of reselling, the commlinks. When the team departed the restaurant, they found Stygian's car door open with blood on the frame. Ca1yps0 was nowhere to be seen.

Rewards

Daniel Lufe as a 3-1 Contact. R5 Fake SIN (from a AAA corp) and 2x free licenses. Additional licenses at normal price without roll. 4k Nuyen 2 Karma 2 CDP (which can be used to instead buy Bubblegum).

Game Quotes

GM: [to Rooster] "If you were a better person, this would make you feel terrible."

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Ca1yps0

Recording this in the car while the rest of the team makes the hand-off with our J. My first job with this ShadowHaven outfit and I've gotta say, I'm really impressed with the talent here: Stygian is a solid talker with the confidence to walk right into a gang hidehout when he knows there's going to be a shootout, Rooster is funny as all hell and generous with his deepweed, and Silverpaw has to be one of the better shots that I've work with in a while (plus I'm pretty sure she's a second-generation changling, if she really was born with those cat ears). All in all a good crew, would definitely work with him again. Can't say the same about this J though if I'm being honest - he might do good work with his SINs, not to mention apparently being a fan of mine, but the guy gave me some weird vibes at the meet. Not to mention the mother-fragger was inconsiderate enough to pick a place with stairs after seeing that I don't have any damn legs, hence me being stuck in the car... Still though, everything went about as smoothly as could be expected, which was nice - I even made a new contact out of it after encouraging the team to let that Bubblegum go with her deck, and telling her how nice LA is this time of year. Things definitely seem to be looking up, I guess we'll see what the future holds in st-[unexpected user disconnection].

Rooster

We met the Johnson in one of the more touristy barrens bars. He turned out to be some sorta celebrity? But he mainly makes fake sins. He says, "He's an artist", and the problem is that some gangers were reselling sins. He wanted them "stopped". We took the job, and negotiated for some high grade fake sins from him too. That was lucky, because I think I needed a better sin. My last one was utterly worthless drek. Oh yea, I was working with Stygian, Silverpaw, and Ca1yps0. Silverpaw I already knew. She's a heavy hitter and knows how to geek a fool. She's chill. Next was Stygian, a talky mage who did some negotiation. Last was Ca1yps0. She's some sorta fish person? She explained that it was from Surge. She was a nova hot decker though.

Anyway, we tried to track down the gang selling these fake sins. The Johnson had only given us one of the fake sins that he knew of. Ca1yps0 tracked the sin's usage, and eventually we tracked the owner to a yakuza joint. It was a fairly typical casino/pachinko parlor/brothel. Stygian talked to the chick that we tracked down and apparently her friend was in some sorta trouble or some drek. I dunno, but they were arguing about how best to get this chick's friend out. I had made a bit at the slots though, so I went to the roulette machine and put it all on red. When that hit I traded it for a night with this chick's friend. I went upstairs, turned her invisible, and then walked her out. Which sucked, because I traded in all of my money and didn't even get my money's worth.

The group decided to drive those two chicks to a motel for some reason. Whatever. Ca1yps0 and I smoked up a cab with John Baptise while Stygian and Silverpaw got the location of the gang out of the chicks in the motel. Now all that we had to to was clean up the gang. We drove to their hideout, got prepped, got into position, and went loud. I snuck around back and when we went loud I ran the sentry on the back door through with my new sword. Then I went in through the back door and mowed people down with my smg. The chick that we were hired to kill surrendered though. The group decided to betray the Johnson. I didn't know we could do that. But yeah, we crushed the fake sins and let this decker chick leave. There's no way that that'll come back to bite us in the ass. Certainly not after we killed all of her friends and forced her to leave the country. Stygian might have extorted her too? Dunno. Then we met with the Johnson and got paid! When we came out Ca1yps0 was GONE. There was some blood in the car though, and her wheelchair was still in the car. It looks like she was kidnapped. Why would you even kidnap a fish person decker though? Weird.