Quarrelsome Quarry

Quarrelsome Quarry
Date 2082-02-09 GM Sarcarian Location Tacoma, Seattle Metroplex Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Bellerophon	Some Poor Fragger Who Upset The Wrong Omae
Glamor Nogitsune Rooster Sp4rks Zenith	Le Loup Blanc
Zenith burnt edge to smackdown a Called Shot: Through and Through and Into against the target.

Summary

In which the runners are hired by a foreign bounty hunter to track down and bring in his quarry.

Background

Bellerophon, a professional paracritter hunter who occasionally takes on regular bounties, has a problem - one of his targets, a wolf shifter called "Le Loup Blanc" ("The White Wolf") has fled Quebec for Seattle. Unfortunately he is unable to track the target down, being currently occupied with other contracts which demand his full attention, however he is unwilling to take the hit to his professional reputation that letting the White Wolf go would entail, so he has chosen to subcontract the job to local professionals.

The Meet

Bellerophon has the runners meet with him on the matrix, where he appears in classic huntsman garb. Everyone manages to rez in without much trouble (Zenith notwithstanding, as he has trouble with the modern matrix), though Glamor does so after nearly being arrested for open use of magic in public and barely getting away from KE in the process. Appearing in a virtual tavern, their prospective employer shares some simsense drinks before getting down to business. He explains the nature of the job (i.e. wetwork) and the target, offering 8k per head which is swiftly negotiated up to 10k each by Glamor; additionally, he offers them an extra 4k each if the body is mostly (i.e. 90%, including the head) intact. Nogitsune is a bit uncomfortable taking a hit on a fellow shifter, but he holds his tongue since his nature isn't a known fact in the runner community.

The Plan

After reviewing Bellerophon's dossier on their target, the team meet up for a bit of legwork. Everyone calls up their respective relevant contacts to get some more information on the White Wolf and his activities in Seattle, and since nobody has their contacts at a high loyalty this ends up spreading the word far and wide that someone is looking for the White Wolf, tipping their target off to his pursuit - however, they do learn some useful bits of intel in the process, namely that he has had all his illegal gear smuggled into the metroplex and has taken on a contract. While waiting for a tip on the location of their target's safehouse, Nogitsune suggests visiting Fenris Nacht, a club for shifters (as well as the more feral changlings, shamans, beast way adepts, etc.) in Tacoma that he has been to before, and looking for more information there. Everyone but Rooster (who has a pathological fear of augmented/sapient animals and is aware of Nogitsune's nature from a previous run they were on together) agrees to accompany him. Glamor meanwhile conjures a spirit to search for the White Wolf based on the physical description given by Bellerophon, starting at Fenris Nacht and working out from there.

The Run

Arriving at Fenris Nacht, the quartet of runners (Rooster being at his nearby home watching combat biking reruns and preparing for murder) manage to talk their way inside - Nogitsune is waved inside by the bouncer, while Sp4rks and Zenith get the side-eye as normal-looking breeders and Glamor gets the third-degree as a dryad (aka. ElfPlus). They manage to pass their etiquette tests and get inside though, finding a bunch of urban primitives clubbing together with literal animals. Sp4rks and Zenith hit up the bar, proceeding to get drunk on Hurlg and flirt with patrons (Sp4rks has good luck with an adept that seems interested in him, while Zenith pointedly ignores a red-headed elf that looks disturbingly like his missing wife). Meanwhile Glamor puts her charms to work and starts asking around about their target (further tipping him off), while Nogitsune stores his gear before turning into a fox and mingling with the crowd.

While the humans get more and more drunk, Team Elf is hard at work - their keen eyes spot out a white wolf stalking the crowd, and the team debates what to do. Glamor decides the best course of action is to go and make friends with the wolf, seemingly managing to succeed in doing so and avoiding getting her hand monched too hard in the process. Rooster, after seeing the spark of intelligence in the wolf's eyes through his teammate's sensors, decides it's Murder Time and hops on his bike in the direction of the club, while Zenith politely excuses himself to go sneak onto a nearby rooftop with his rifle. Glamor plays friendly with the White Wolf, getting him to change back to metahuman form so they can talk and coaxing him into revealing that he's a contract killer before persuading him to "show her how he shoots sometime". By this point he's onto the fact that she's been looking for him, so he feigns agreement to get her to come somewhere alone with him so he can kill her before she kills him.

With Glamor leading their target out to his vehicle, Nogitsune changes back to metahuman form and gets into ambush position; Sp4rks proceeds to get the number of the person he was flirting with before joining him, with Rooster arriving shortly thereafter. With the team in position, Glamor employs a glue strip spell to stick the White Wolf's shoes to the ground as he's opening the car door for her, and the ambush is launched. The shifter's instincts kick in and he seizes the initiative, ducking behind the door to avoid a burst of machine gun fire from Rooster before grabbing Glamor to use as a metahuman shield and putting a gun to her head. He proceeds to just avoid the first sniper shot from Zenith (who's still a bit drunk, and harried by the local background count) as well as a shotgun blast from Nogitsune, who barely manage to not hit Glamor in the process.

Sp4rks, hoping for something resembling a peaceful resolution to the situation, attempts to talk the White Wolf down, telling him that it's over and that he should go out with some dignity, and asking if he has any final messages he wants passed onto loved ones. He manages a great speech despite being drunk thanks to the power of edge and tailored pheromones, but the White Wolf remains unconvinced - he says that he has a mate back in Quebec who he had to leave behind, that he was forced into the life of a killer by circumstance, and that the runners are no different from him at the end of the day if they're willing to kill him for the bounty on his head. Sp4rks and Nogitsune are both moved by the sentiment and hesitate on pulling the trigger, but Rooster wonders why everyone is bothering with all this talking drek and sprays a focused burst of bullets at the White Wolf. He eats the lead and starts to toss Glamor into the car, so Zenith smacks down a Through and Through and Into on him, covering the poor dryad's dress in blood and knocking her assailant to the ground with a bullet in his chest.

Aftermath

As Zenith puts away his rifle and makes his escape, the White Wolf attempts to crawl away but realizes it's a futile effort and reverts to his natural form to die - the team have the injured animal cornered, some feeling a lot worse about themselves than others. Sp4rks places a set of trodes on the assassin and asks if he has any last requests, and is sent a file to deliver to his mate back in Quebec. He promises to do so, and Nogitsune grants him a quick merciful death after some words of respect for a fellow predator. Rooster is proud of himself for doing his hooding run for the month (as he sees it he's done a great thing by helping to kill this menace to the community), while Glamor is merely upset that she'll have to purchase a new dress. Zenith tells the team he'll meet up with them later, and everyone else grabs the body and high-tails it off into the night before someone comes to check out the gunshots.

Calling up Bellerophon, the team are sent a location in the OU and arrive at a disused subway station a few hours later to meet with him, having arrived via lay line travel using Corf's services. Everyone squees out a bit at the smol cute minecart spirit (with Glamor feeding him some reagents to become his friend), and the bounty hunter accepts the body in return for payment. He and Sp4rks share a few words on the ethics of his profession but end up parting amicably, and everyone leaves with mixed feelings. A few days later, Zenith (having received word from his fixer Argent about the location of the White Wolf's safehouse) checks out a squat in the barrens to find self-destructed sniper rifle and a ballistic mask which he takes as a trophy.

Rewards

• 14,000 nuyen
• 2 karma
• 10 CDP
• Optional Contact: Bellerophon (C4/L2 Slayer of Monsters) - 5 RVP or 10 CDP
• Optional Contact: Corf (C1/L1 Helpful Lil' Minecart) - 1 RVP or 2 CDP (can buy up to 4 loyalty because he's friendly)
• For Sp4rks: +1 chip on Bellerophon, can use RVP/CDP to upgrade loyalty to 3. Can purchase Amelia Novak as a 1/4 contact.
• For Zenith: Loup Blanc's Custom Ballistic Mask for 1 RVP @ Gear Rewards prices.

Game Quotes

Nogitsune: "...is this what humans call guilt?"

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Glamor

This was a bit of a strange run, assassinating a shifter. Though, I did meet the most adorable little minecart! Hopefully we'll be great friends in the future!

Nogitsune: Mission was to deal with a Shapeshifter, who was a skilled assassin like myself...It's never easy hunting down a equal like myself. it's always hard to have to kill another assassin, as you know it's in the back of you're mind, it's going to be someone who will put you down, of course that's going towards everyone else in my team, someone will hunt you down and kill you, it's maybe not just you but those you hold close... i know it's sounds weird coming from someone like me who enjoys killing. i been at this job for such a long time, my hair was bright red when I first started and now it's pale white, I'm just waiting for that day, when some kid that i killed their father, try to track me down and end me... it be no hard feelings, but i won't go down without a fight.

Rooster

Yeah, so, this run went weird cuz. We had to meet up in the matrix at first, which was weird, but whatever. My commlink had a wiz samurai persona loaded up though. I think I was the coolest looking person in the meet. The J was Bellepheron, and he seemed pretty cool. He hunts monsters for a living. I kinda want to hunt monsters for a living too moe. But yeah, he had a monster run to Seattle and he wants us to track it down for him. He said something about not shooting it up too bad too, which is weird.

Turns out Nogitsune was in the run too! I didn't realize until I heard him over the DNI. He's out here hunting his own kind.

The group went to some sketchy shifter club to try and find him. It was full of monsters so I decided not to go. Maria Gennaro said he was gonna be in Puyallup anyway, so he wasn't gonna be there. Except it turns out he was. Glamor got to talking with him. I headed over to the club after that. I wasn't gonna go into the club unless I absolutely had to, but I wanted to be nearby. Glamor led him out just as I showed up. I almost bolted... but I couldn't. It doesn't matter how scary the monsters are, I can't let them scare me off completely. That's not representing the Screamers fool, and I can't make the gang look scared.

The plan was for Zenith to shoot him, but that didn't go all according to plan. We ended up gunning him down the old fashioned way. But right in the middle of killing this wolf monster Sp4rks tried to strike up a conversation with it. It was weird cuz. But yeah, I lit it up again and Zenith finished it off. He also shot Glamor, but she didn't see too mad. Afterwards I met a minecart and got Bellepheron's comm code just in case I need advice monster hunting. It was a sweet run!