A Shadowrun Based on Into The Night by Firkin
| A Shadowrun Based on Into The Night by Firkin | ||||||||
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| Part of Dance Around The Fire That We Once Believed - The Ex-Firewatch Story | ||||||||
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| Factions Involved | ||||||||
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ShadowHaven Ex-Firewatch Eighty-Eights Triad Bai Hu Kani Pandora Scion Susurros | Knight Errant | Finnigan Family | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||
| None | None | Lexi O'Neill captured and extracted | ||||||
Background
A bar belonging to the Eighty-Eight Triads has been attacked by a female ex-Firewatch magician; unleashing a large fireball spell on the premises and severely injuring several civilians. Because this incident occurred during the middle of Fleet Week, it has caused substantial chaos and Knight Errant are especially intent on apprehending anyone involved. As a result, Everett is practically swarming with KE security.
Meet
The meeting was initially to be hosted at the Golden Dragon teahouse in Everett, but was called off when the Shadowrunners made their approach and discovered that the teahouse was being watched by Knight Errant HTR officers, presumably in preparation for an imminent raid. The Johnson, a Mr Ngo Shen, designated a warehouse that his syndicate used to smuggle goods in and out of the California Free State as the secondary location and later met them there.
The job was for the Shadowrunners to recover the culprit of the magical attack alive; preferably returning her to the Eighty-Eights to extract their own justice, although the Johnson would have also been satisfied with law enforcement taking her into custody. The opening offer was for a payment of 24,000 nuyen each, but this was later upgraded to 33,333 per head through excellent bargaining by Susurros and Scion and clever exploitation of Triad numerology by Bai Hu. For this renegotiated price, the job was agreed to.
Run
Mr Shen provided the Shadowrunners with security camera footage from the bar at which the attack occurred. Closer analysis of the culprit's face during still-frame shots when the fireball spell detonated revealed distortions that suggested the culprit was wearing a disguise. The runners became convinced that this incident was a false-flag operation rather than a genuine attack by ex-Firewatch personnel.
The runners conferred amongst themselves and agreed that the crime scene in question was likely to have already been swept clean by Knight Errant, or would currently be in the process of being so. Instead, they decided to find a local street security camera and attempt to hack it to obtain any relevant footage entering or exiting the bar. After finding such a location easily enough, Scion requested that the rest of the team create a distraction to divert the attentions of any passing KE drones or personnel. She proceeded to enter the Matrix and gained access to the Seattle Metroplex Host, where she was able to evade the attentions of a Seattle metro security decker and retrieve video footage showing the culprits. Flagged videos pulled from various cameras around Seattle showed that the individual bearing the ex-Firewatch mage's likeness seemed to have also spent some time at a combination of skater's park and sports bar known as XXXtreme.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group encountered several wandering drunken sailors who thought they recognised Kani. The misunderstanding turned into a fight when some of the runners mocked the sailors over the mistake, with Kani and Bai Hu engaging in a brawl with the seamen with varying levels of success. The incident was filmed on commlink by a growing crowd of spectators who cheered and jeered as the fight continued. The brawl finally ended with Knight Errant patrol officers arriving on the scene and being convinced by Susurros that the sailors were at fault, after which they took them into custody and told the others to take off.
With the aid of Scion's information, the group made their way to XXXtreme in order to try and pick up on more information. First impressions revealed that the skaters were engaging in extraordinarily dangerous stunts, such as launching themselves through rings of fire and whirling razor blades. As the runners wandered the area, Bai Hu was alerted through his magical senses to the presence of ghouls lurking behind a mana barrier; likely serving as clean-up crew in the case of fatalities, information which he informed the others of through DNI. Susurros headed upstairs to speak with the owner of the establishment; after failing to get information by posing as a reporter, he blackmailed the man into allowing them to see the security footage, using the threat of exposing their staff of ghouls to drive away business. The owner quickly caved and agreed to help, providing the group with security footage showing a number of individuals entering the bathrooms dressed normally but leaving them disguised as ex-Firewatch. Susurros took an image of the mage's true face and summoned a spirit of Earth to track her down.
The mage responsible for the attack on the Triad bar turned out to be a member of the Finnigan family of the Irish mob; a rival syndicate that competes with the Eighty-Eights in many areas of business. The magician's name was Lexi O'Neill. The Earth spirit tracked her to a nearby Everett park where she and many other members of the Finnigan family, as well as many Irish-American inhabitants of Seattle, were celebrating an annual celtic harvest festival. Since the area had a detectable magical background count that would have adversely affected the runners and benefited the Finnigans, the group decided not to engage the target there but to attempt to lure her elsewhere. Susurros and Scion approached under the guise of Finnigan enforcers representing a senior boss in the crime family who wished to meet with her. She agreed to follow the runners after some initial misgivings, fearing that she was about to be executed for her unsanctioned actions towards the Eighty-Eights.
The rest of the team cleared out a nearby shack of its squatter inhabitants and waited for the rendezvous. When Susurros and Scion arrived with O'Neill, the group launched their ambush. Pandora managed to clip the target with an alchemical arrow that did a notable amount of damage but was unable to neutralize her entirely due to her significant magical defenses. Kani experienced similar difficulty, being unable to neutralise the enemy mage in time before she would be able to unleash a magical attack of her own. Bai Hu was finally able to slow her down through the application of nerve strikes, allowing the team to safely incapacitate her without any real resistance.
Aftermath
The runners contacted Mr Shen and informed him of the nature of the false-flag operation O'Neill had perpetrated, at which point Shen mused that this would have to mean war between the two syndicates. O'Neill's unconscious form was delivered into the custody of the Eighty-Eights and the Shadowrunners were duly paid for services rendered, and even offered the use of the Triads' black market connections if they were interested in using them.
Rewards
16.67 RVP (Nuyen or Gear of up to availability 18), 2 Karma, +3 reputation with the Eighty-Eight Triads. +1 Public Awareness to Kani and Bai Hu
AAR
Pandora - (10.43 RVP worth of gear, 7 karma, 2480 nuyen) That Finnigan mage was indeed powerful. She could have contributed positively to this world, yet she choose to use her magic for crime, putting innocent lives at risk for monetary gain. Regardless of her circumstances, that is unacceptable. Thankfully Kani and Bai Hu were there to help me, as I fear I would have been overmatched alone. Scion and Susurros also provided wonderful assistance, both in legwork and through social maneuvering, though I fear this line of work is particularly dangerous for a pacifist.
Kani: Always hate to see gang wars soiling the name of organizations like Ex-Firewatch, but sometimes that's just how the chips fall. I'm quite happy we were able to show that it was the Finnegan family, and not Ex-Firewatch, that was responsible for the slaughter of innocents, even if it seems to have been one member acting alone.