ACHEs and Pains
| ACHEs and Pains | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||
| Factions Involved | |||||||||
|
ShadowHaven Zigzag | Insect Spirits | ||||||||
|
00 Charon Nogitsune Rooster Skimmer |
Flesh-Form Caretaker Spirit Insect Shaman | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Flesh-Form Caretaker Spirit, Insect Shaman | |||||||||
| This run featured betrayal and was considered a failure by the Johnson. | |||||||||
Summary
In which the runners are tricked into escorting an insect shaman and a caretaker into the bowels of the ACHE, before discovering the ruse and murdering them to prevent a catastrophe.
Background
In State of Decay, a team of runners from the Haven discovered and destroyed a fly nest below Slater Cryogenics (a Tamanous front) in Redmond. This nest was overseen by one Mr. Warwick, a necromancer-turned-insect-shaman and ally of Patricia Windthrope, the head of R&D for nuYou Biosculpting and an initiated shaman who has fled to Chicago (see: Minor Arcana, Introductory Entomology, and New Year, nuYou for more in this plotline). Warwick escaped the destruction of the nest, along with a flesh-form caretaker spirit inside a ghoul body, and he has sought refuge with the 162s, where Zigzag revealed to him the location of a recently-vacated Disassemblers clinic underneath the ACHE which she has heard of through the grapevine (see: Streetwise Hercules). Believing this to be the perfect place for a new nest, he tricked Zigzag (who is rather dim and does not know of the bug business) into sending some ghouls to scout the place out under the pretense of taking it over as new organlegging clinic - when they didn't come back, he paid her enough money to hire a team of runners from the Haven to escort him (along with the caretaker) to the site of their new operation.
The Meet
Zigzag has the team meet with her at the Slater Cryogenics building, which has been gutted by the explosion of compressed gas tanks stored on the premises after the events of State of Decay; she remains ignorant of the true purpose of the site, and chose it merely to illustrate the scale of what was lost and the need for a new place to set up operations. Everyone manages to arrive in the barrens without much trouble, and are met by the ghoul in the burnt-out garage - she is unaware that Charon was on that job, having been distracted from being there so she didn't get caught in the crossfire. After finishing off her lunch and tossing the bone to a gnawer (freaking the hell out of 00), she explains what she needs of them - escort a pair of VIPs into a secure, dangerous place in exchange for a relatively easy payday. Charon and Skimmer negotiate out a price of 16k nuyen along with some favors from the 162s (Charon wants living victims and a way to dispose of bodies, while Skimmer wants food deliveries for his mentor Nameless' colony of ghouls in Glow City).
The Plan
Once terms have been settled on, Zigzag reveals to the team where they need to go - first to Club Penumbra to pick up their VIP, then into the bowels of the ACHE to locate the gutted Disassemblers clinic. She remarks that it is far outside of 162s territory, but that Warwick insisted and that she knows enough not to ask questions of her bosses. Sending them off, the team hop into Nogitsune's jeep and drive downtown to the venerable club, managing to get past the bouncer and inside to meet up with Warwick (an exceptionally-creepy-looking individual who assenses as mundane, thanks to masking, and manages to pass for sane enough that the team attribute his behavior to being an organlegger rather than an insect worshipper). Warwick recognizes Charon from their last meeting, but says nothing for the moment, telling the group that his associate is waiting for them in the OU and that the group will need to devise a way inside the ACHE. Nogitsune has been inside before (and even recorded the route) during the events of Streetwise Hercules and is able to guide them to their destination, though some slight adjustment is needed to avoid a dangerous, partially radioactive section of the old tunnels, taking the team into unmapped territory; they agree this small risk is worth avoiding radiation, though all are wary of Warwick, especially when they pick up his strange masked companion.
The Run
After traveling through the Ork Underground and using Nogitsune's knowledge of smuggling routes to avoid Skraacha territory, the team arrives at a hole punched in the ACHE's foundations that was used for smuggling people out during the Shutdown, and which is still occasionally used to get residents out (or get shadowrunners inside). En-route, Charon DNI's Warwick and asks for a private chat once they're on foot. Finding a safe place for the vehicle, the team proceed inside the tunnals - Nogitsune takes the lead to scout ahead, Rooster and 00 keep a close eye on the strange masked ghoul with Skimmer taking up the rear. Lagging behind, Charon and Warwick converse privately - Warwick reveals he knows it was her at Slater Cryogenics and that she is responsible for the destruction of the operation and the death of his associates. She tells him it was just business and that she doesn't care what he's doing as long as she's paying them, smooth talking him into revealing some of his intentions and his connections to nuYou's operations in Chicago.
Listening into the conversation over Charon's image/sound link, Skimmer makes a call to Nameless, his spiritual mentor, and asks his opinion on bug spirits; after being told to cleanse them in holy flame, he responds with a complex full auto burst directed at Warwick's face. He's able to dodge thanks to danger sense, and the caretaker spirit manages to slightly confuse Skimmer before attempting to flee, dodging a shotgun blast from Nogitsune and soaking one from 00, but ends up put down by Rooster's SMG fire. Warwick meanwhile is knocked to the ground by more boolet form Skimmer and knocked out by Charon, who persuades him to let him live for the moment so that a contact of hers can attempt to get some information out of him.
While the team is subduing Warwick, a shadowy presence in the darkness (the villain of Streetwise Hercules, and the originally-intended OPFOR before the betrayal) uses its fear power on Charon, causing her to flee into the darkness; thanks to some quick thinking on 00's part, she is guided via AROs along the route the team took and doesn't end up lost and hunted by an even more powerful vampire, with the rest of the runners following close on her heals. They are able to get out of the underbelly of the ACHE and back into the OU, at which point they take stock of their situation and consider their options.
Aftermath
While Skimmer considers what sort of lie to tell Zigzag, Charon calls up Agamemnon and tells him what happened; he is initially incised, especially as he is tied to her actions after facilitating Charon's meeting with Warwick in her previous job, but after she offers to clear the slate of favors he owes her Agamemnon agrees to interrogate Warwick for his secrets and subsequently make him disappear to the best of his abilities (though he warns that this sort of person doesn't just disappear and that someone will come looking for him). The team makes their way to Loveland, taking steps to ensure they aren't followed, and meet up with Agamemnon's agent to get a magemask and magecuffs before Charon (along with 00 and Skimmer, who have been to Agamemnon's establishment before during the events of The Lotus Flower Blooms Far From the Sun) bring Warwick to him, having a brief conversation before leaving him to the banshee's tender mercies.
Skimmer calls up Zigzag and tells her that the VIPs are dead. She is obviously angry and demands to know what happened, and he asks if she really wants to know; she says she does, and he tells her that she owes him a favor, and that she knows better than to ask questions she shouldn't. She gets the point, and says that the failure is on him (and Warwick, who she told not to go into Disassemblers territory); she says she'll come up with something to tell her bosses and doesn't burn him as a contact (and in fact still offers to hold onto the other's numbers if they need her personal services), but the team isn't still getting paid and the failure will stain their reputations. They accept this as a consequence of keeping a bug nest from growing between the ACHE, and congratulate themselves on a job, well, done.
Rewards
- 10 karma
- 2 CDP
- 1 notoriety
- Optional Contact: Zigzag (C1/L1 "Mobile Body Disposal") for 1 RVP or 2 CDP
- Optional Contact (for 00 and Skimmer): Agamemnon (C4/L3 Fixer) for 6 RVP or 12 CDP
Game Quotes
Nameless: "...come again?" Skimmer: "We were hired to escort some insect folks." Nameless: "Burn them in holy fire, they are a plague upon this earth like the locusts of Egypt!" Skimmer: "Alright, that's all I needed to hear." [proceeds to shoot the VIP in the face] |
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Skimmer
Bug Spirits. Did a number on Chicago a while back, and are a real problem there today. And now I find out that this guy is looking to do the same thing here under the ACHE, establishing another Bug City. I'm pretty sure I'm against that, but after all this teaching form Nameless, I begin to wonder if he thinks all life is sacred, including the bugs. So I unobtrusively call him up. Clarification is made with no room for interpretation. I shoot the head bug guy, he dodges; I shoot him again, he goes down with a bit of assistance from Charon. Other bug guy gets lit up by pretty much everybody, goes down as well, but manages to make me feel a bit off before doing so. Whatever, the Grey Mana makes what could have been a bad situation a minor inconvenience. Charon wants to transport the head bug to a guy he knows to glean more information, and I'm marginally okay with it as long as the end result is he's dies. Zigzag wasn't happy, my fixer wasn't happy, but it is what it is. I failed a job that shouldn't have existed. I'm okay with that. And the city is a little bit safer. I feel good about that.
00
“God, this run was a dumpster fire. Alessa calls me up, and already it's off to a bad start. Way she goes on about this, feel like I should have said no. Work for some really not good people, organleggers and ghouls. So, against my better judgement and with a look from the Wolf, I take the job. Get to the meet, blowing through the SIN scanners heading into Redmond without trouble, and meet the J. One of the other runners knows them. Simple job, escort some crazy fraggers somewhere in the Underground to let them set up a new organlegging clinic.
Heading out to meet the VIP, we head to Club Umbra. We almost played here, back in the day. Wonder what would have happened if had? Gah, no time for reminiscing. So we meet the VIP and the guy gives all of us bad vibes. His associate that we’re to also escort along? Even worse vibes. Turns out, the VIP was a fragging Insect Shaman and his associate was a fraggin’ Bug Spirit. So, Skimmer, one of the other Runners, makes a call, and talks with someone to, I don't know? Get advice maybe? Either way, he gets off his call, and then tries to blast the VIP and the Bug. Bit of a fight, but we put them both down. Charon has a contact that can extract more intel out of the VIP, so we get him to fraggin Loveland. Looks like Charon’s contact was related to the last job I did. We get the VIP to the contact, none of us get paid, and we might have an international crime syndicate wanting to harvest all of our organs. Just another day as a Shadowrunner. Yeah, just another day. End Recording.”