Adolescent Surged Shinobi Amphibians

Adolescent Surged Shinobi Amphibians
Date 2081-05-17 GM Doc McGuffins Location Bellevue
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Chipper Vichnozeleny Athena John Brown Troika	Evo

Summary

What starts as an innocent investigation about unpaid pizza deliveries spirals into near-HTR assault on a corporation asset and prison break.

Background

Everyplace Pizza, a Seattle pizza company contacted Shadowhaven in desperation considering all other options had failed. Several times, strange deliveries had been called in without any payment being given to the delivery boys. The manager's attempts at talking to the pizza boys about their deliveries all failed, so he reluctantly called the more expensive yet capable services of shadowrunners to get him out of a tight spot before he'd get fired for incompetence.

The Meet

Vichnozeleny picked up a fellow runner on her way to the meet, but most had their own vehicles. After closing hours, Everyplace Pizza was a quiet establishment so the group had little need for discration during a nice, smoggy Bellevue evening. The manager explained the situation and offered what information he could without breaching any confidentiality for his businesss. All the unpaid deliveries, their locations, time stamps and even who'd delivered them! One of the delivery boys was still in the kitchen, doing dishes on his late shift, so two of the team went to ask him a couple of questions. With John Brown's social skills, the meet went smooth as butter. Athena followed up by delving into the Matrix and doing some background research on the missed deliveries at this point. Not too much turned up, but Brown's and Athena's combined efforts gave them the latest delivery and possible suspicions about those responsible.

The dishwashing elf in the kitchen was tight lipped at first, but eventually admitted that it was his cowardice that led him to not pick up the credstick after something just opened a manhole cover and began reaching for the pizza box. This had happened several times, but he hadn't managed to improve on his behavior. Realizing that not much else could be gained from talking to him, the two runners left him be. John Brown summoned a task spirit to do his dishes, however, allowing the poor delivery worker to leave home early. How nice of him!

Key parts of the puzzle were established: the deliveries were often left by manholes, suggesting a connection with the sewers. The delivery boys and girls were terrified for some reason and didn't pick up payment even if it was tossed out.

The Plan

The plan was simple: go to the waterfront where the latest delivery had occurred four hours prior and do some looking around. Find the ones responsible, have a friendly chat and ensure that deliveries will be made on time.

The Run

As one can expect, things weren't that simple.

Getting to the waterfront was easy enough but there was no sign of anything suspicious in the slightest. Getting right to work, the team went into a dark alley where the delivery location was according to the manager's records. There was a heart-warming sign: a commlink for public use, presumably for less fortunate people. Acting on nothing but good faith, there was a deposit for payment next to it with little preventing anyone from stealing it. Still, the call was easy to track to this primitive pay phone system, so the lead wasn't completely dead. Finding little else to go on and another manhole cover nearby, the team surmised that whoever's doing these prank calls must be underground in the sewers. Vic recalled at this stage that this section of Seattle's underground complex is popular with unwanted dregs and particularly SURGEs. After questioning a nearby hobo with little results (and rewarding him for his willingness to help, what a nice gesture!), all four descended into the reeking, stinking bowels of Seattle's plumbing. Exploring and keeping a sharp eye out on things, they eventually bumped into a hobgoblin that seemed particularly surprised.

This hobgoblin gave the group their first new lead: The Sallies. Presumably, they were a group of SURGE salamanders that frequent this part of the sewers and are the most prominent group of any kind. If anyone would know about pizza crime, it'd be them. The hobgoblin not only got paid for helping but everyone asking him questions were uncharacteristically helpful for a bunch of surface dwellers. For these two reasons, he gave what advice he could and scurried along while the runners chased after this new trail to seek out the Sallies. After trudging through filth for a decent while, the group encountered a chihuahua SURGE going by the name of Chipper in a tiny shack that could be barely called a house. The team's adept, John assensed him and noted him to be highly magically capable. After a brief exchange, he assured everyone that the Sallies would be around soon and any questions the team had would be answered then. True to his word, four salamander SURGEs turned up soon, riding speeders in the sewers and talking to each other like a bunch of kids. It was almost like they were teenage mutants of some sort.

The Sallies - Bach, Handel, Haydn and Chopin - explained the situation once the team's more socially inclined members started asking questions. In the end, the story was rather simple! While the Sallies had the intention of paying for each delivery, the pizza boys always turned tail and ran as soon as they saw even a trace of the Sallies with their own eyes. As a result, their credsticks were never picked up and delivered back to Every Place Pizza. Realizing that the Sallies were innocent in the grand scheme of things, the team advised them to set up an alternative payment system that could work. Everyone was in agreement, although anything open like walking into the shop and ordering pizza in person wasn't the most welcomed idea. Chipper had an arch-nemesis in Seattle, going by the name of Slasher. He and his goons at EVO Corporation have long pursued SURGEd individuals for villainous reasons and it was this that only further strengthened their desire to remain in the sewers, out of sight.

Being the upstanding criminals that they are, every single one of the runners agreed to help out with this by breaking the everloving hell out of Evo's nearest SURGE prison. The Sallies and Chipper were incredibly pleased by this, although they had little to offer in terms of payment. Given that this was a crime against metahumanity that Evo was committing, the Haven's bleeding hearts were willing to do this pro bono. So, the location was acquired, Matrix searches were done and plans were hatched. Fortunately there was a demolition expert in the group who had a big, loud plan for corporate plots such as this.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

John Brown

This one gave me some warm and fuzzies, for sure. I've never brought down a building before, and this one definitely needed bringing down. I think we only killed the one drone, too, and Tim seemed like he had it coming after how he talked about the fucking black site he worked at. "Helping the community" my ass. Anyway, he died as he lived: doing as he was told, blindly, with no real regard for the consequences of his actions on himself or others. Also, the Sallies seem like good people to know. That invisibility they pulled off was pretty slick, and they seem to be all over the Underground.