Tears of Sand

Tears of Sand
Part of Tears Trilogy
Date 2079-01-15 GM SadSuspenders Location Dubai Result The totem was returned to the False Face Society, to the best of our knowledge
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Ronin Grimoire Marionette Rogatty Vydra	10,000 Daggers	UGB
Commanders and leaders
SysOp TANJ	Unknown	Unknown
Casualties and losses
None	Several shrapnel wounds, one guard infected	3 agents

Background

It was not only resources that MCT pillaged from Tsimshian, and it took Crimson Fox several years to track down the totem she sought through several different buyers, until she finally found it had been unloaded to a museum in Dubai after all research on its purpose had failed.

Meet

The runners met at Council Island, at the Council Island Inn without much issue. The Johnson was a Native American Dwarf, who did little to hide her disgust at the runners, especially those with exposed augmentations. She informed them their goal was to procure a totem from a Dubai Museum of Cultural Art. After a terse negotation, the runners agreed after being provided with a ten thousand nuyen slush fund. They were informed a Cascade Ork smuggling ship was their ticket in, and there was an info broker in town they were to contact in a market district.

Run

For legwork, Ronin began by trawling runner hosts and chatrooms to find any mention of the the museum, eventually, he found out a CAS based team had hit it a couple years earlier, and made mention that the sewers were a viable option. Seeking more information, the runners contacted the face for the run, who informed them of the sewer's layout, and of the ghouls prowling around. After this, Ronin conducted a dive into the museums security host, dodging the bees that dogged him, and eventually found the security plans for both the totem and facility, and learned the route through the sewers was now mined, and the rest of the museum was protected by something called "The Metal Underneath". Following this, considering all their Seattle based legwork done, the runners boarded the ship.The Cascade Orks had only one rule, do not go below the deck they were on. Despite everything, the runners followed this.

While passing Singapore, an unknown group boarded and searched the ship, but the runners obeyed the orks' orders, and remained hidden. During the rest of the trip, Marionette tried to question one of the sailors for more information, but for some unknown reason, the ork wasn't especially happy to discuss things he was told to keep secret with a dryad.

Eventually, the group arrived at the docks at night. While waiting for everyone to get off the ship, a man bumped into Marionette. At first they couldn't find anything, but eventually found a small stealth tag planted on him. When they turned back to face the man, he was gone. They then headed off to the info broker's, eventually arriving at the Faraday Caged residence. The info broker filled in some blanks, found them a place to stay, and placed an order for scuba gear so they could travel through the sewers.

In the meantime, Vydra, after gleaning the information from a couple street kids, managed to come upon a nearby Vory outpost. After conversing with the soldier who greeted him at the door, he eventually procured their demolitions specialist, an ork teenager named Bumble. The group then gathered once more to scout out the sewers, looking to make a deal with one of the nonferal ghoul packs and hoping they could deal with the ferals. Eventually they struck a deal, in exchange for turning in the infected ears the ghouls had collected to the police for nuyen and giving that to the ghouls, they would temporarily deal with the ferals. Vydra took the plastic bag full of ears up to a nearby police station, and after being directed by a fairly bored receptionist, deposited the ears into a large inhuman machine, and grabbed the credstick out of the slot. After handing the nuyen over to the ghouls, the time for planning a preparation was at an end.

The team moved at 0500 hours, looking to wedge themselves in the seam between the changing of the guard. They signaled the ghouls, and submerged themselves into the murky waters. Eventually they reached the old crumbling stairwell up to the museum. Bumble went first, digging up the mines, and resetting them, so they'd go off after allowing two triggers to go off. The team proceeded up the stairs and reached an old generator, which Ronin plugged into. Grimoire and her spirit juiced up Marionette with movement and invisibility, and Vydra stood guard. Marionette zoomed up the stairs and through the museum, dodging through Modern art and millennium old pottery, and at one point almost running into a group of school children, and finally, arrived at the room the totem was being held. At that very moment, Ronin shut off the power, and Marionette grabbed the totem and slide under a blast door as it slammed down. In an instant, Marionette was back with the team, and with Vydra covering them from the advancing security, they dove back into the water, just in time to hear the mines going off and the ghouls swarming.

The runners returned to the dock, but found their ride to be silent, without an ork to be found, as they stepped closer, a dart shot right past Marionette's ear, and they were set upon. Ronin jumped into action, charging the foes in a nearby building, diving through a window, and tackling one, while Marionette contended with the sniper, and Vydra pulled a pipe off a nearby building. The fierce melee in the nearby building turned up as Ronin cut the hand off one man, while Vydra crushed the skull of the other. After barely 7 seconds, it was all over, the body of the sniper falling from his tower. The bodies were found to possess no fingerprints, their commlinks were wiped, and they seemed to be surveying the boat. The Cascade orks eventually came out of their boats, and admitted to being paid by these men to not interfere. The runners, seeing them as the only way to get home, stowed their anger.

To dissuade any treachery from the Johnson, the runners told the Johnson they'd only meet her publicly at Dante's, and the Johnson relented. The hand off went off without a hitch, and with the image of the Johnson cuddling the totem like a child fresh in their minds, the runners stepped out of the bar, just in time to see a pale mask with tears of blood from a passing car window.

Aftermath

With the Totem in hand, Crimson Fox left Seattle, for the time being.

Rewards

23,000 nuyen, 2 karma, +2 rep with the Crying Masks, and Bumble at loyalty 4