The Flamesaw Redemption
| The Flamesaw Redemption | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Mothers of Metahumans | PCC Elite Maximum Security Prison | ||||||||
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Vip3r Samsara Setback Relay Mara |
Prison Guards Prison Adept Prison Spider Prison Mage | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Prison Mage, Prison Spider | |||||||||
Summary
In which Mothers of Metahumans hires the ShadowHaven to release Kenny "Flamesaw" Murphy from prison
Background
During the events of Evergreen Kingdom, Kenny misunderstood the invitation of Samsara to the amusement park downtown and instead hid in the wheel-well of a jet on it's way to the Pueblo Corporate Court with the help of a mysterious human. Upon arriving this human gave Kenny a briefcase and, while waiting for a cab to Fun City, had it detonate and destroy part of the airport. Kenny was then arrested for terrorism and moved to the Fun City Elite Maximum Security Prison.
The Meet
The runners recieve a call from their fixers about a Johnson from the metahuman-rights group Mothers of Metahumans about the imprisonment of Kenneth "Flamesaw" Murphy. Due to the laws of the PCC and Fun City in particular, the Mother of Metahumans lawyer is unable to get a license to practice law for the Corporate Court before the court date set for Kenny's trial. The runners are asked to break Kenny out before his trial date.
The runners are told that MoM has a smuggler that they can use for the run, and give them the commcode of Cascade. They're told they will be given 10k for successfully completing the job, but after some negotiation with the Johnson, she also agrees to pay for Burner SINs that they will need in order to complete the job after some negotiation with the rest of the team.
The Plan
The runners go back to Relay's base and begin searching through the Matrix for information. They find out about the racist history of Fun City, how the city was once a hub for the Humanis policlub and is focused on the greatness of the past (read: before metahumans). They also do some research into the PCC Elite Maximum Security Prison that Kenny is being kept in. They find that there is a Rating 9 Industry Host for the prison that is defending the various devices that exist in the prison. Through R-33's connection to The Helix and Vip3r's mentor, they are also able to confirm the presence of an offline host inside the prison itself.
There is a discussion about going in as members of the Corporate Council Catering business that supplies the prison with food, however due to a lack of facing skills within the group and the fact that the truck only supplies the prison once a month, the group is dissuaded from this plan.
The group makes their way to PCC via Cascade's smuggling boat loaded with the runners as well as Relay's Ares Roadmaster and set up in one of the smuggler's safehouses. Relay sends drones out to the prison to see when the prisoners get yard time before starting to modify the Roadmaster to be submersible and Mara flies over to observe the prison astrally. Discovering Mana Barriers on the secure entry lanes for vehicles as well as Watcher Spirits and Air Spirits patrolling the area.
Mara returns to her body and the runners decide to try and solve some issues by turning to the divination of a guidance spirit. Samsara is concerned about Kenny's Flamesaw hand, and the divination returns a future where one of the guards of the prison takes the Flamesaw and delivers it for payment to a black marketeer. The runners decide that the best choice is to ambush the guard and grab the Flamesaw along with an employee ID before assaulting the prison.
The runners use a second divination after finding out that Kenny was not out in the yard with the other inmates to try and locate their Troll friend. The runners find through divination that they'll find Kenny "Isolated, for the safety of others" and determine that it might mean he's in solitary confinement.
The runners leave the safehouse and head to the Mucky Mouse Memorial Ferris Wheel, which shadows an underpass where they find three Black Marketeers waiting to buy the highly forbidden cyberware chainsaw. Setback and Samsara sneak out of the van that the runners borrowed from Cascade's garage and incapacitate the guards with PepperPunch and Neurostun. Setback locks up the Black Marketeers and they drag the unconscious guard to a No-Tell Motel. Vip3r takes the guard's commlink and finds out that he has a family and that his youngest daughter's birthday is that night. They call up Cascade and find out that the smuggler has Lael wine in her safehouse that they can use so long as they pay her back.
The runners interrogate the guard, and find out that Kenny is in the solitary confinement in the third subbasement, and when questioned about how to get the prisoners moved to the highest level, mentions a contingency plan in case the city floods. Bringing up the lower-level inmates and holding them until the flood is over and the cells can be properly checked. The runners spend some time discussing their options and eventually settle on creating a large water spirit and using it's ability to control the weather to create a storm that will cause the weather service to issue the flood warning.
After making their final preparations, the runners load into Relay's Roadmaster and make their way to the prison.
The Run
Mara summons a Force 9 Water Spirit and sends it towards the water that surrounds Los Angeles. The spirit begins to whip up a storm that builds to it's torrential rain in about two hours. The runners park a fair distance away from the prison and wait for the rain to pour down before they take their drugs and start the assault. Relay fires the Roadmaster's mounted assault cannon and blows a hole in the wall, alerting some of the snipers that are on duty and drawing their fire as Setback and Samsara rush into the facility. Taking care of the snipers before moving to much further forward, the runners advance and Setback blows a hole in the wall of the prison. Met with significant resistance, the runners dive forward and manage to disable the guards without killing most of them.
The runners dive forward, with Vip3r entering the host and trying to eject the spider before holding out to stop the spider from deploying any automated defenses, too busy looking for the technomancer. Meanwhile Setback explores the upper level of the prison and finds the spider, removing them from the Valkyrie module that sustained the spider and damaging him to the point where he wouldn't regain consciousness.
Samsara smashes through the walls of the prison and eventually finds Kenny in the center of a macramé circle. Encouraging the prisoners to rise up against their oppressors and riot, the prisoners do exactly that, overpowering the remaining guards and rushing out of the building. Samsara slots a bodyguard BTL and protects Kenny from the chaos, including a large explosive secured by Mara from her TerraFirst contact and detonates it, killing the spider and causing rubble to rain down on the yard, crushing several of the escaping prisoners. The runners get Kenny back into the Roadmaster and drive off, eventually driving to the water and communicating with Cascade to pick them up and arrive back at Seattle.
Aftermath
Returning to the Seattle Metroplex, the runners meet up with their Johnson and receive their payment from the charitable organization. Kenny is returned to the Skraacha headquarters where he is given a sharp talking-to by Warboss.
Rewards
- 4k worth of Burner SINs (1 RVP) (Paid up front)
- Cascade (4/1 Smuggler) (4 RVP or 8 CDP)
- 10k (5 RVP)
- Kenneth "Flamesaw" Murphy (2/1 Handsome Troll) (2 RVP or 4 CDP) (Can raise loyalty up to 6 with up to 18 RVP)
- 30 Karma (30 RVP)
- + 10 Mothers of Metahumans Rep
- + 5 Skraacha Rep
- Samsara: Natural Athlete (7 RVP)
- Vip3r: Hi-rez (4 RVP)
- Setback Magic Resistance III (6 RVP)
- Relay: Subtle Pilot (4 RVP)
- Mara: Focused Concentration (4 RVP)
- 2 CDP
Game Quotes
-Aurora |
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Relay
I don't--like--I don't normally do things like plan a prison heist for 10,000 nuyen when I'll have to make 36,000 nuyen worth of preparations. As a math guy, it's bad for business.
Samsara and I have been in a couple of scrapes together--and Kenny seemed important to her. Besides, Fun City is incredibly racist, and if Kenny is anything like Samsara proper, I genuinely believe that he didn't realize what was going on. That guy needs to be watched 24/7 and probably needs a regular hand attachment, but nobody should live and die in solitary. Oh yeah--and that elf is like--CRAZY racist.
I guess NoirBot is like--programmed to flirt with Kenny? When we got back, and everyone piled out of the Roadmaster to get in their own cars, NoirBot did about six minutes of exposition on Kenny's jawline. Like--ENTIRELY TOO MUCH TIME on Kenny's jawline. And--sure--you think "Samsara punches holes in buildings, she's definitely going to be mad about this," but then she started doubling down with NoirBot...and THEN someone gave Helper Mk II a Flamesaw t-shirt. So now Helper is wearing it all the time and walking around constantly holding power tools in one hand. He's even started using motor oil to make himself a little beard. It's adorable and objectively terrifying.
So, if we've confirmed two things this week, it's that there has never been 100 nuyen worse spent than on personasofts--even AFTER losing 26,000 nuyen on that job, and also you should always call a water spirit to start a flood before attacking a Fun City prison. Unless they figure it out...in which case everyone stuck in solitary is going to die because they'll refuse to bring them above ground.
Huh. Now I'm going to be a little panicked every time it rains down in L.A., but how often could that possibly happen, right?
Vip3r
So, for all the time I spent stressing over this job, I'm impressed at how flawlessly we were able to pull it off. No unforeseen complications, nobody died or got seriously hurt... I mean, that's incredible for such a high-stakes run.
On the other side of that, though... there was a lot about this run that I would rather not have had to face. Being in a city built on a foundation of hatred for metahumans, in that close of proximity to a prison, with my teammates asking me all these questions about what my own sentence was like, and Mara looking at me the whole time like I'm a fraggin' bug under a magnifying glass. I hate it when mages do that. And her questions in particular dug up some memories that I'd seriously prefer to forget. Really looking forward to another week of nightmares at minimum, that'll be great!
Having faced that, though, and gotten some good catharsis in, I feel like I've somehow come out of this experience stronger? I can't really explain it.