Does This Look Infected?

Does This Look Infected?
Date 2081-11-04 GM Sarcarian Location Tacoma, Seattle Metroplex Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	The Infected	Yellow Lotus Triad
Charon Nitro Nogitsune Seven	Ghouls Vampire Banshee	Triad Goons Triad Mage
Casualties and losses
	12xGhouls, Vampire	5xTriad Goons, Triad Mage

Summary

In which the runners assist with the task of clear a group of infected out of a derelict building.

Background

Mr. Johnson (Brad Rowe, of Brad Rowe Realty Holdings Inc.) has hit the jackpot – one of his older buildings is located on the edge of a mana line, and Wuxing has floated a generous offer to buy it. Unfortunately he has a group of infected tenants currently living there who are in no hurry to leave, and after several attempts to get gangers to convince them to do so have ended in failure he has finally turned to the Haven for a higher caliber of criminal to get the job done.

The Meet

The team are contacted 2 hours ahead of the meet and told that they have reservations at the Tacoma Style restaurant in, you guessed it, Tacoma. Everyone manages to arrive without incident (Charon managing to find a shady route and avoid getting burned by the setting sun) and arrives to find their prospective employer waiting for them watching the sun set over the Puget Sound. After ordering drinks, he fills them in on the job, telling them that there are a group of squatters he needs cleared out of one of his buildings, with as little collateral damage as possible.

Charon takes the lead in negotiations, asking how many there are and if there’s anything in particular they should know, and he tells them over DNI that there are about a dozen infected, mostly strain IIIs, though there are a few who can apparently pass well enough as normal people. He offers the team 16k nuyen each for the danger of the job, but an edged negotiation roll pushes that number up to 20 grand (as well as an offer of a few month’s rent in one of his buildings, should anyone want a new place to stay). Everyone agrees to the price, and they are given a schematic of the building and a commlink number to contact him at once the job is complete.

As Rowe leaves, the team spots a van tailing his vehicle and decide to follow it – Nitro sends out a flyspy, while Seven drops into astral and projects. They grow concerned when the latter sees an air spirit following the van, but both manage to be stealthy enough not to be spotted. The van follows Rowe for a distance before driving to a dockside warehouse, and Nitro spots some thugs loading crates stamped with Wuxing shipping logos – a black markets knowledge roll confirms that they are likely smugglers for the Red Dragon Triad, and everyone tries to puzzle things out.

The Plan

After some speculation, the group heads to the building they’re supposed to clear out – Evergreen Terrace, a derelict tenement block condemned by the Metroplex. They scope it out via drone and astral recognisance, with Charon taking note of the rooms with boarded up windows and noting that they are the most likely place to find the infected. The team contemplates storming the building or firing in through the windows, but don’t really like either option very much, so they instead formulate a plan to lure them out into the open to pick off at their leisure.

Driving into the parking lot, Nitro spots someone laying apparently-unconscious in one of the derelict vehicles there. Evidently they’re not the only ones who noticed either, as a pair of cloaked figures emerge from the building to investigate; thinking quickly, Charon hops out of the van and strides over to the vehicle, causing the two of them to briefly retreat into the shadows. Looking inside, she finds a vagrant passed out with a BTL slotted into his jack, so she lifts him over her shoulders and waves the two ghouls over, asking if they’re looking for a snack.

While Charon distracts them, Nogitsune takes the opportunity to sneak out of the van and set up his smart firing platform before going off to take up a sniping position. Seven summons a spirit to sustain a few spells on him while Nitro deploys some drones for overwatch. Over DNI, Charon reasons that she can talk her way inside and speak to the leader to draw them out into an ambush, and the rest of the team readily agree to the plan.

The Run

Putting her facing skills to use, Charon heads into the building and chats with the ghouls a bit as they begin dismembering the unaware chiphead in front of her. She asks who’s in charge, and they tell her that someone named Agamemnon can be found on the 4th floor. Leaving the two to their meal, she heads upstairs, encountering half a dozen more ghouls on the way as well (who mostly give her curious looks but leave her to her business), as well as a fellow vampire (who is suspicious and questions her about what she wants). Telling them that she’s there to deliver a warning, Charon pulls off the etiquette check to allay the vampire’s concerns and gets them to lead her upstairs and introduce her to Agamemnon, who turns out to be a banshee.

Charon admits to being a shadowrunner but does not disclose that she has a team waiting outside. She tells the infected that she knows of “another team” who has been hired to come and clean the place out, and that they have very little time to vacate – selling the lie with an edged con check, Agamemnon asks her why she’s telling him this, and she manages to convince him that it’s purely out of self-interest, that too many infected in the area draws attention and puts her at risk, and that he and his group need to go underground and find somewhere else to hide out.

The 100+ year old face is able to convince her fellow infected of her good intent, and everything seems on track to lure the hapless saps into their ambush, when Nitro’s drone spots a van approaching the parking lot. Charon points it out to the infected and tells them they may have less time than she thought, and they begin arming themselves while she goes out to investigate.

As it turns out, the vehicle belongs to members of the Yellow Lotus Triad, who are more than a bit upset about losing out on the bidding war for the mana line to their Wuxing-backed rivals in the Red Dragons, so they’ve decided to just take over it for themselves and have come loaded for bare to get rid of the infected. The large Cantonese man who steps out of the van gives Charon one chance to frag off before the violence begins (after she pulls off a sufficient etiquette check not to just be lit up with wooden bullets like the unholy hell-spawn that she is), and the team elects to allow the two sides to fight it out so that they can mop up the survivors.

The triad goons are armed with regeneration-defeating ammo and have better magic at their disposal, but the infected have superior numbers, and are forewarned and prepared for an ambush. Nitro’s RCC has marks placed on it after the infected spider attempts to recklessly hack it (mistaking it for their opposition’s matrix support), so he quickly reboots before their devices can be compromised. Seven sleazes his way past the ward around the building and is able to observe the resulting slaughter from the astral (witnessing a trio of ghouls tear apart the projecting triad mage), while Nogitsune takes a few pot shots through the windows with his sniper rifle to pick off stragglers. Charon meanwhile struts over to the triad van and double taps the mage’s body with her hand cannon, just to be sure they’re dead.

The short brutal fight is over quickly, with about half of the infected surviving. The two ghouls from earlier come outside to inspect the enemy vehicle, finding their new vampire friend waiting with another corpse for them to snack on. As one of them converses with her and the other busies themselves under the hood of the van (placing a data tap so that their spider can remotely hack it), the team decides that now is the time to launch their surprise attack on the survivors.

Seven, still projecting into the building, opens things up by stabbing one of the ghouls through the heart with his weapon focus sword. Charon grabs one of the ghouls outside and tears his neck out with her teeth, while Nogitsune deletes the other with his sniper rifle. Thinking quickly, the infected hacker sends a command to the van to try and run over Charon, but it does little thanks to a low acceleration speed and vampiric regeneration. Nitro’s rotodrones head into the building and start mopping up survivors, while Seven targets the escaping strain I’s – he manages to take down the vampire while they’re in mist form, but the banshee is able to slip away in the chaos.

Aftermath

After dispatching the remaining infected (including the hacker, who puts up a less-than-valiant fight) - minus the only one who was given a name (natch) – the team takes a little bit of time to rest and recuperate before giving their employer a call. They tell him about the unexpected arrival of the Yellow Lotus goons, and he tells them not to worry about it and that he’ll have a clean-up crew take care of the bodies. He thanks them for their prompt work and gives them a location for the handoff – the warehouse that the team saw the Red Dragons at, which makes them immediately suspicious (as it naturally should).

Heading to the warehouse prepared for trouble, the runners steel themselves for an ambush or an attempt to screw them over on payment. Thankfully for them the Red Dragons don’t actually have Rowe’s back enough for him to try something (especially given they just survived a Yellow Lotus hit squad and a nest of infected), and he’s also in a good mood since he’s about to receive a big payday. After a few questions which he skillfully avoids answering, he hands over the team’s full payment and thanks them for a job well done.

Rewards

• 20k nuyen
• 2 karma
• 2 CDP
• +1 Red Dragon Triad rep
• +1 Wuxing rep
• Optional Reward: Can convert up to 10 RVP into run expenses at 4k nuyen per point.

Game Quotes

Charon: “Ugh, I didn’t know ghouls taste like McHugh’s chicken nuggets”.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Charon: "Forty years ago, I might've felt bad for Agamemnon. Now, I only feel pity for what a moron he is. Monsters like us should know the most important rule of all from day one: never trust anyone. No matter how good the deal seems, no matter how much you need it, no matter how promising it all sounds. Never. Trust. Anyone. It's his damn fault for walking into it. Now he knows it and he'll be coming for me sooner or later. I don't hold a grudge if he does -- it's only nature running its course. And those triad wanna-be thugs... I told them they didn't want to mess with what was inside that building and they didn't listen. For fuck's sake, they're all so cringe. If everyone listened to me and did what I told them to do, this world would be a better place for me. And really, isn't that what matters?

PS: Good shooting, Nogitsune. Remind me not to end up in your crosshairs."

Seven: "Start recording. Seems folks in the Haven know how to have a good time. Haven't had much chance to deal with the infected before, and I was slightly worried that Charon might've had some sort of sympathy for them once we figured out what our target was, but she pleasantly surprised me. I always appreciate not having to hold back. Convenient that we had her on the team...

New Line. The ghouls were interesting to observe. Some held themselves as little more than beasts, but a few maintained their intellect. Ironic how that enabled us to oust them with greater ease. A pack of ferals would probably have just attacked as soon as they had the advantage, and then we'd have to deal with the Triad on top of that. As it was, though, they were too trusting. Much too trusting...

New Line. Shame I wasn't able to catch that banshee during the clean-up. He seemed like he might've been fun and educational to take down, if he weren't so busy running. Other than that, however, I found this a very satisfying work experience. End Recording.

Nogitsune: "Report on the mission dealing with infected...Being an assassin I'm wary of a Mr. Tanaka that give his real name, he is a dead meat or someone who is prideful. Those ghouls showed to be a annoying to deal with, blocking up the windows to make it hard to pin them down with a .308 round, *Growls*, overall i was able to drop a few and take a nice prize from one of them to remember that hunt. Sadly trick I learned from a rigger, didn't get to see any action but if our Vampire friended needed to flee quickly, Sentry Fox was set up. not sure why it kept saying "KILL ALL LIFE". My mentor told me during the mission to make sure to keep these things stay down, to spare anyone of the bloody details, remove central nervous system from infected

"After mission Report, was waiting for the Mr. Tanaka to turned on us, had sentry Fox ready to deploy with one trigger on my commlink, but lucky enough we got paid and left without a problem, just be warned around this one, for anyone who work with him in the future. Charon, Happy to work with a fellow hunter.