Shakedown Breakdown
| Shakedown Breakdown | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Compound Interest | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Red Hot Nukes...? Red Ledger | Crimson Crush | ||||||||
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Gehenna Insight Makali'i(Retired) Oberon |
Mystico Fire Spirits Community Watch | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| N/A | Three Fire Spirits and the Known Whereabouts of One Peter "Mephisto" Essex | ||||||||
Summary
In which the Johnsons come up a little short.
Background
Red Ledger has a problem. Their meat? Extraordinary. Their matrix? Acceptable. Their Magic? ... Well, it could use some work.
With aspirations of big time business and big time profits, Ledger needs to up their game on the astral to stay competitive. Although sporting a few low level adepts and other Awakened, their don't have the knowledge or resources to train them. Huge problem, ne? Those are valuable assets going to waste right there!
To counter this, Hank and Walter Grey, twin dwarves and adepts, hatch a plan. Peter "Mephisto" Essex is a local mage who runs a small alchemical reagent shop in Touristville under the protection of the Crimson Crush - conveniently located close to their territory in the Redmond Barrens. The catch, of course, is that there's no way Red Ledger's muscle can outmatch the Crimson Crush's, let alone a former shadowrunner's, and it's unlikely Windfall and the rest of Ledger's top brass are willing to foot the bill to buy him out. Even if they could, tensions rising with the Crimson Crush would be bad for business, and not likely a prolonged conflict they could win in their current situation.
The Johnsons' plan? Pose as members of the Red Hot Nukes. Employ shadowrunners, and maybe tell a little white lie about collecting a debt. When the target inevitably can't pay up, have them kidnap him. Even if they find out they've been played and turn on them, it's the Red Hot Nukes they'll sell out to the Crimson Crush, and either way, once word gets out, it's the Red Hot Nukes Crimson Crush will go after, not innocent little Red Ledger. The opportunity to claim territory as warring factions divert resources elsewhere, or to claim allies in the pursuit of this conflict is a compelling side-benefit, on top of claiming an honest-to-God mage.
Plan set in stone, they gear up in red baseball caps and tacky nuclear-explosion sweatshirts, and they send out the call, bypassing the fixer network to directly post the job itself.
The Meet
Two slimy little dwarves in the Red Hot Nukes' finest gear meet the runners in a non-descript alleyway, just on the edge of Red Hot Nukes territory. Without giving their game away to the runners, they tell Gehenna, Oberon, Makali'i(Retired), and the AR presence of Insight to go collect on a suspiciously uncertain amount of debt connected to a magic shop owner in Touristville. While munching on pizza from a warmer bag sporting the logo of local pizza place Half-A-Slice, they also tell the runners that if their target can't pay up, that they should bring him back for them to have a "chat" with, along with whatever magical items and books might be convenient to grab in their home or place of business. Though the runners are instantly suspicious (enough so that Oberon assenses and finds that the two of them are adepts with nearly untouched essences, and enough to prompt Insight to take a close look at the Matrix to find a camera watching them from a nearby rooftop), the promise of even lowball pay like the 6k on offer is too good to pass up.
The Plan
Insight performs some legwork while the runners banter and Makali'i(Retired) apologizes for taking a swing at Oberon. The address provided by the Johnsons is verifiably a magic shop with a miniscule Matrix presence - Magus Mephisto's Magic Emporium. A search for the man himself reveals that he's more commonly known in the shadows as Mystico, a runner at least fifteen years out of the game by now, and a quick drive-by his shop lets her peep at his Matrix presence as well - a simple camera watching the till and slaved to a commlink running silent with a sleaze dongle. Insight makes swift work of the data inside, and finds among various accounting information and order invoices a history of mobile food orders. Not just to this place of business, but to another address as well, one that she finds is only a few blocks away, in a residential apartment complex.
Meanwhile, Makali'i(Retired) does her best ganger impression and chats up the local Crimson Crush keeping a close eye on their turf on the street corner. With orc solidarity and a few nuyen exchanged for some illicit goods, she works out of them the mage's status with the gang. He hasn't got any outstanding debt with the Crimson Crush at the very least, and as far as they know, he doesn't have any affiliations with other gangs, although the question itself garners some suspicion on their part. He's a human after all - he pays his dues, but he's never going to be one of the crew. Eventually, however, Makali'i(Retired) is satisfied that if this mage is double crossing them with the Red Hot Nukes, that at the very least they don't know about it.
The crew drive by the apartment complex next, and find a living space on the bottom floor alight on the astral with the same magical defenses that they'd found at his shop - a fairly decent ward to keep intruders out, and a watcher spirit to watch the meat along with it. Insight once again scans the Matrix, although finds nothing of high interest inside - a smart heating system, a trid projector, and very little else for the hermetic mage.
Suspicious of their Johnsons and almost certain that this is more "surprise extraction" than it is "debt collection," the dutiful runners nonetheless hatch a plan. Break in, leave a threatening note. Call this number, pay up, or deal with the consequences. If they can settle it without violence, all the better.
The Run
Oberon dons his chameleon suit and stealthily worms his way around the apartment. A quick pick of the lock on one of his bottom floor windows reveals that the mirrored glass was hiding the back of a hefty bookshelf, somewhat typical of a hermetic. Opting to ditch that plan, Insight informs him that there are likely to be two weak points in the security - rooftop access is often left unlocked, meaning scaling the top of the building is a viable option, and a small window meant for basement ventilation, which appears frosted over and not well protected, given its size is too small to fit anyone of any size. Oberon, double-jointed and honorary cat, accepts the latter challenge, and manages to easily unlock and squeeze through.
Inside is a dark, miserable bathroom. He takes the note that their face Gehenna had previously written with as eloquent a threat as possible, leaves it on his bathroom sink, and crawls back out the way he came. It's not until two o'clock later that night that they receive a call from an extraordinarily furious and flustered mage, who denies up and down that he owes anyone money. He claims that he's already paid "you all" off for this month, and that if they lost track, that's their issue and not his.
Privately, the crew confer over DNI, and confirm to each other that their Johnson is taking them for a ride. They never wanted debt collection, they only ever wanted the mage himself, and were using "debt collection" as a pretext to undersell the danger and lowball the offer. Thinking quickly, Gehenna plays it cool despite this revelation and tells their target to meet them at a dive bar in an hour's time to talk this over. The Johnson, catching on to the game himself, finally gets that they aren't Crimson Crush after him for protection money, and warily demand to know who is calling. They agree to meet, one hour, and hang up - and immediately call their Johnsons to demand a raise. The Johnsons, woken up and a little flustered themselves, hastily agree to the demand of an up front payment with the rest given on delivery of the mage. Oberon, sufficiently pissed, suggests they take the money and run, that this wasn't even a job sent through the fixer network, and that two drekhead smalltime gangers would have no impact on their reputation. The others overrule him, and agree to complete the job as assigned.
After some brief discussion, the crew also decide that meeting in person is actually a terrible idea. Instead, they hide themselves, mask their presence, and wait in ambush outside the front door of his apartment.
When the mage emerges, Makali'i(Retired) instantly strikes him over the head with overwhelming force, knocking him out cold. Three fire spirits materialize around him in retaliation, apparently tasked with protecting him, and a brief brawl ensues - Makali'i(Retired) once again, with her bare hands, embraces and slams the charred skull inside one of them into the Earth, dissipating its flames, while another grins, spreads, and embraces her in flame.
Insight's summoned spirit of fired ceramic bolts forward as well, and brandishing a blade, floats into the air and engages in combat with another fire spirit, each trading blows and elemental flame. Gehenna chimes in as well, leaping from the van where Oberon waits to snipe that fire spirit out of the sky with a blast of magic.
Makali'i(Retired) eventually finds the skull of the fire spirit embracing her as well, and through gritted teeth and charred flesh, crushes it against the brick of his apartment. Having barely survived, she swiftly helps the rest of them blackbag the unconscious mage, throw him in the back of the van, and speed away before they can be spotted by any neighbors.
Aftermath
Waiting for them back at the alleyway, the two dwarves confirm the mage's identity - a small, coordinated team of metahumans decked out in unconvincing Red Hot Nukes wear take the mage, fit him swiftly with magecuffs and blinders, and throw him into the back of their own van. The dwarves toss them cred sticks with the remaining pay, hop in the van alongside their allies, and hastily speed away.
Oberon is mildly annoyed, so he decides to kill the dwarves, and invites Gehenna along on a quest for a little midnight snack.
Rewards
- Rewards for Shakedown Breakdown (Medium, 13 RVP)
- 6000 nooj (3 RVP)
- +2000 nooj (Negotiation)
- +2000 nooj (Renegotiation with Leverage on Shady Johnsons)
- 5 Karma (5 RVP)
- 12 CDP (5 RVP + Base)
- Optional for Gehenna:
- An introduction to Alias (5/1) (5 RVP)
- Optional for Makali'i:
- 12000 nuyen worth of commlink upgrades at gear rates up to availability 15 (take the remainder as a cash reward at nuyen rates) (3 RVP)
- Optional for Oberon:
- Dwarf Essence (0 RVP) (Contingent on a run)
- Optional for Insight:
- Up to 4,000 bonus nuyen in paydata (2 RVP)
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Makali'i(Retired): Hands are burned to drek. 80% sure the fuzzy one is a vampire. 60% sure if those dwarves go missing, he's related. Can't get a read on the short one. Didn't interact with the decker much. Professional. Needed to get complicated, fuzzy one had to sneak in and leave a message. I need a drink.