Or'zett Underground: Talent Acquisition 4 SREEEEEEEEEEEEE EZ

Or'zett Underground: Talent Acquisition 4 SREEEEEEEEEEEEE EZ
Part of Or'zet Underground
Date 2086-01-01 GM J.R. Location Border of Glow City, Redmond Barrens. Status Threat Level: Deadly
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Horizon
Geodesic Caliban DAD Silver Lining Katherine Tyler Garuda	Horizon Security Spyder The Foundation
Casualties and losses
None	none

Summary

A team of runners is sent after some aspiring talent for the Or'zett Underground who went missing for a month in a suspected foundation dive, and have to deal with a variety of puppetry and...less savory elements in order to get her back.

Background

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EZ, metasapient musician and the biggest talent that the Or'zett had managed to get into talks with for the festival, had been poking around a particular host for the sake of inspiration and...well...getting her kicks. But foundation dives are a rather dangerous endeavor, especially alone, and one wrong step lead to variance and a 30 day variance. She became the people's sun. She would watch them, play music for them, be adored by them. For millenia, the sun performed. Again, and again, and again.

The Meet

The runners arrive without much issue the morning of New Year's Day at Elmo Stubitz's private abode, amidst the residue of the celebrations prior. After some reminiscing about prior jobs, Elmo goes about introducing the crew to the eccentric SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEE (performing name SCREEEEEEEEEEEEE EZ), a metasapient who often performs out as a normal dj...who is a scooter. She had been poking about and exploring the metroplex, taking note of their equipment, and then promptly just...disappeared, apparently for 30 days as of the time of this meeting. She had been parked, searching in an A&R host and poking around, and then she...just vanished. Her scooter was left outside, in an autolock mode and just apparently abandoned. The team is to find SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE and try to bring her back willingly, though they have no authorization to do so by force (essentially, don't do anything that would make her unhappy to sign a contract.) Elmo offers about 2k nuyen upfront for calling people on holiday, and another 16k for getting the job done. And as a little side package, everyone will receive a VIP ticket for the festival for it.

The Plan

Investigating the metasapient's last known location, the Horizon Host, is the only shot the team has on the whereabouts of the disembodied diva. She might have left a valuable clue back in there, or she might be stuck. Either way, there's only way possible way forward, and that's the way the group has got to go. For the most part, the majority of the crew is good to go, though Garuda's lack of funds has her rocking a Little Hornet...still. So she hitch-hiked onto Kate's device instead.

The Run

The beginning of the run is simple enough. The group gathered at a safehouse Kate over in Sophocles, and made their way into the host with a quick hack on the fly. They started sleazing around trying to find the entrance of the foundation, all the while informing their least experienced diver what to expect, until they find the way in-a pot hole that is passed over the first time walking past, but was visible when doubling back. However, as the team gathered, a Spider had dropped down to ask questions about what the team was doing (though he hadn't really seen the whole team). Garuda (whom he did not see before) went to talk to him, distract him a bit, as the team got sleazing and within second just dove right in, Garuda being dragged by the hitchiker. The Spider, with more information than they knew he had, decided to not report them and returned to his work.

As they entered into the foundation, the gang finds themselves at first on a bus as idealized cartoon versions of themselves, riding into a tunnel. Kate and Silver Lining realize immediately from the music that begins to play once they enter that tunnel that this is a foundation based on the hit kids puppet show, the Splorks! Its creator started it about 2 years ago, and it was quite the hit! However due to his own inability to handle fame leading to a heap of crimes and scandals that lead to him losing his Horizon citizenship and the show being cancelled. He got arrested, it was WILD. Regardless, once out of the tunnel and moving into the foundation proper (Splorksville), the crew became their own splorks! Geo became Mathy Splork, Silver was Silver Splork, Kate was Blue Splork, DAD was Dad Splork, and Garuda was Feather Spoke. The crew realized they would have to pretend to be on one of those adventures like in the show in order to move about safely in the foundation. They would need to find the nodes, then SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, and then hopefully get out.

Their first stop was by the library in Downtown, Splorksville! that was really smokey, where they met Booksy Splork the librarian! She was really helpful in helping the gang find books to learn about Math! She also quietly slipped Kate a ticket like the one they would use in the shows, which had a number that was barely real and would guide them to their destination, and on the back was just a Horizon Credit Mark. Geo was incredibly fast at recognizing where this ticket led them, which happened to be a door where the smoke and some noises were coming from. Opening it led to a gambling and coin counting corner, with a massive plaque in computer font that said DO NOT SPEAK ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS IN CLOSED DOORS. While it was distressing, Ge...Mathy Splork was curious to try to enter an elevator she spotted inside, and when she did so, she found ARCHIVAL NODE! From the elevator, she also managed to spot that the Sheriff regularly left the police station and entered the library. As if they had to keep sending information. Neat!

In order to keep learning more on their merry adventure, the crew headed over to the station to have a talk with Sergeant Splork! The team wanted to show him their appreciation, and learn more about the force, so he gave them a tour of the office! He showed them the jail cell, you don't look in the corner that's just a bit dark, then to the office where they noticed the security node, and finally showed them the yard! Which was full of unhappy people, another one of those signs, and was probably another node don't talk about the nodes. Mathy wanted to know how the rules that Sergeant Sheriff enforced were made, and he told her that the king and the council were the ones who made the rules. So Mathy decided to take the crew to the king's palace. She....jumped on a police car, faded to black as they moved across, and then was inside the cop car. The others, who were well behaved splorks, were content to just wait for the bus. Full of prisoners from the yard. I'm sure it's fine.

On the way, Mathy Splork overheard a conversation between the two police offisplorks escorting her that what they were doing with those....prisoners giving them to the king was awful, and Mathy played along. Meanwhile on the bus, the crew noticed that the guards who were driving the bus had a suitcase full of candy, which was really coded for common street drugs. But regardless of that, the gang all arrived at the King's Palace! As they entered, when they were in the in between of the fade to black, they noticed a node menu popping up for them-a master node. Some small changes were attempted, maps pulled up, beast failed to be calmed, and variance was even triggered a few times, but being right at the master node meant that failure was at the very least not as major a threat. With the foundation mapped, Mathy interrogated the king while Silver and Dad tried to make Splorksville even nicer than it had been. The king told Mathy that ever since the Sun commanded them to commit these acts, they've had to follow them. She decided to go and speak to the sun, and the king remarked that the sun rarely talks back anymore. It's too busy making music.

The Sun does not make music in the original show.

Realizing that SCREEEEEEEEEEE became the sun of all things, the team worked to pull her out of it, and while variance triggered once more, they were once again close to the master control node and able to calm the beast in time before things got bad. SCREEEEEEEEEEE was quite cooperative as the team helpfully filled her in on the details of what went down, and the group managed to make a hasty retreat from the foundation-after everyone but Feather Splork left anchors for later.

Aftermath

The crew got out safe and didn't have much of a struggle contacting Elmo and getting SCREEEEEEEEEEEEE back. She got to hitch a ride on Kate's Paladin for a while until the scooter was retrieved, but there weren't any further complications. The gang got paid, with a lot of them having the option for more pay data later on. A rather successful adventure into the deepest parts of that host.

Rewards

18000 Cash (9 RVP)

6 Karma (6 RVP)

Contact: Elmo Stubitz 3/1 (3 RVP)

2 CDP

Anchorheads in the Horizon A&R (Dirty Secrets) Host. For Geodesic, Kate, Silver Living and Dad, locked into the godawful "Meme Splorks" foundation Architecture.

+1 Rep Horizon

Game Quotes

"100 Technomancers died so I didn't have to answer that question" - J.R.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Garuda

"Yknow...first foundation dive? not as bad as my first time dealing with the more supernatural kind of work. It was...weird, and not fun, and I really prefer what I do on a regular basis, but...this isn't the worst job I've had. I'll give Lucky credit on that one."

Silver Lining Foundation dives are always a trip, and this one was no different. Kind of messed up to see the show like that, especially after what SREEEEEE decided to do to it. Think I'm going to need to take a break from that kind of trid for a while.

DAD: "How the fuck did a children's show end up being worse'n Dracula's Castle or whatever the last one is? Place was terrifying. Anyway, lots a' good paydata there. Definitely going back. Never letting my kids watch the Splorks again, though. Weird shit."