The Play's the Thing...
| The Play's the Thing... | |||||||||
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| Part of Cross Flight Love Fight | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Cecelia Cross | Federated-Boeing | ||||||||
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Babylon Kitsune Skimmer Polka | Alexander-James Brodrick Johnson III | ||||||||
Summary
Cecelia Cross organizes some revenge on her ex-boyfriend Alexander-James Brodrick Johnson III. She knows he's got a date to the Paramount theater, and wants to ruin it.
Background
About a week ago, due to the comedy of errors that was Party Quarrel, Cecelia's manor was burned down, a precious family heirloom stolen, and her New Years party ruined. As if that wasn't bad enough, Brodie J has been boasting about how he got one over on Cecelia. Thanks to Cecelia's machinations, she set up Brodie J with her closest friend to go to a production of Hamlet from The Bard's Chosen Acting Troupe.
The Meet
The runners go to E-Vue, a trendy night club that caters to the corpkid demographics. Strong drinks and hard drugs are delivered over the bar, and after a brief discussion with the bouncer, a large human woman in a white suit. Talking to her on the way, Babylon recognizes a Cross Applied Technologies logo on her suit, and shows off her own connection to CATco. The runners are led up to a private booth on the second floor of E-Vue where Cecelia waits for them. She explains that there's a show in the Paramount theater in two days where there will be a target whose commlink she wants acquired. However the main goal is to ruin the production so that it is completely unenjoyable for the whole audience.
She offers the group 14k to ruin the show, and an additional 6k for getting the commlink to her undamaged. She also makes it clear she doesn't want the runners detected and she doesn't want anyone dead.
The Plan
Polka, who attended the meet in VR, dives into the Matrix to try and gather information about the Paramount and to see if he can hack the group into the guest list. He entered the host and attempted to edit the guest list, but was detected and surrounded by IC. Spending some time trying to get access to the file, eventually Polka was forced to Jack Out of the Matrix and suffer the dumpshock. Polka does get valuable information about Brodie J, such that he's been dating a lot of different people over the last week and a half, and that he has some ties to Shadowrunners, as is evidenced by a selfie on his MeFeed that shows Brodie J and King Beef in a club.
Kitsune tries to apply as an extra to the theatre troupe, but the company doesn't seem to be hiring at the moment. Instead she buys a ticket for the show the next day in order to establish something of a cover. Babylon prepares magical forces, summoning spirits in order to release them if need be, and Skimmer sneaks into the backstage area in order to lace some of the cast's novacoke with Pixie Dust.
The groups finds out that Brodie J is in VIP Box 1 and get Cecelia to cover the cost of VIP tickets and get Polka to edit the ARO files so that the tickets claim to also be in Box 1. The doors of the Paramount open.
The Run
Kitsune sneaks into the side of the building with help from Skimmer, and is able to find an elf by the name of Eric Lancaster alone in the bathroom. With a quick injection of Narcojet, Eric passes out and Kitsune assumes his appearance. Eventually she, in the form of Lancaster, is found by the other members of the troupe who want to go through their "pre-show ritual". Kitsune is led to the dressing room where a circular table is covered in Novacoke. Everyone in the cast, including Kitsune, takes this laced novacoke and immediately forgets that they took the extra drugs. Luckily they had consumed all of the pixie dust and weren't in danger of overdosing from that. However because the troupe forgot that they had taken the novacoke, their ritual was set up again and they took the novacoke again, Kitsune this time faking her participation. The rest of the troupe passes out from the overdose, but are not in any immediate danger.
Babylon and Skimmer make their way to the VIP boxes in the back of the theater and make their way to VIP Box 1. Opening it, the two runners are confronted by Brodie J's bodyguards. Large ork Razorfolk by the names Tee and Vee. Thanks to the Influence spell from Babylon, and a compelling con from Skimmer, the two runners are able to infiltrate the box as the bodyguards are sent outside. The lights darken and the play begins, with Kitsune and three cast members who she woke up with slap patches, are preforming some strange amalgamation of both Hamlet and Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Leading to the audience being disappointed.
Babylon attempts to distract Brodie J as Skimmer uses a shrewd social maneuver in order to get a hand on Brodie J and palm his Fairlight Caliban without him noticing. Kitsune, still disguised as Lancaster, begins screaming about how Brodie J gave Lancaster an STD, which causes his date to slap him hard as Babylon and Skimmer make a quick exit. The team exfiltrates successfully and drive to meet up with the Johnson.
Aftermath
Returning to E-Vue, the runners find not only Cecelia, but the date who had been with Brodie J in the meeting room. Cecelia has her "friend" removed from the room forcefully and receives the commlink from the runners, paying the runners what she owes and dismissing them with as nice a compliment as she was willing to offer "Perhaps Shadowrunners aren't all the scum of the earth."
Rewards
- 14k NuYen for ruining the date. An additional 6k for getting the commlink. (10 RVP)
- 3 Karma (3 RVP)
- 2 CDP
- Optional: Cecelia Cross (4/1) https://www.shadowhaven.info/Cecelia_Cross (4 RVP)
- Due to the consequences of their own actions: Kitsune has a Mild Addiction to Pixie dus
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Skimmer
"Babylon... Something about that woman is... intoxicating? Dangerous definitely. She had me doing things I never would have even considered. I mean really, coming on to a creep like Brodie J? Stroking his chest in an effort to conceal the fact that I was trying to steal his commlink? Brrr... I don't know what came over me, but I'm pretty sure that woman had something to do with it. I'm gonna have to watch myself around her; I'm practically a married man. Practically..."
Polka
I'm embarrassed to say that I definitely botched some of the prep-work on this run. Though... perhaps 'botched' isn't the right word; failed might be more apt. I didn't cause the group to get detected, but I was unable to contribute meaningfully to the task which we were hired to accomplish. Perhaps I'm still off my game from the fiasco in Bellingham. I should start from the top though.
We were hired by a rich Johnson to take revenge on her ex-boyfriend, who had slighted her. She was a corpo kid of some import. The job was to wreck a play and steal a commlink. I was there to do the usual legwork; forging tickets, digging up dirt on actors, that sort of thing. I ran into a major snag when I was attempting to infiltrate the host. I was tasked with finding a few files worth of data and altering the guest list to get the team into position. I was spotted nearly immediately as I entered the host. The host had much better defenses than I had anticipated, and it felt more akin to trying to hack into a police station or a corporate site than into a theater. Once I was spotted the first time the host went on alert and I was unable to actually perform my tasks. Thankfully, the team was able to cover for me. The face squeezed the Johnson for extra money so we could acquire tickets legally, and the plan to spike the cast's novacoke supply was pulled off without a hitch. One unconscious staff and horrid performance of Hamlet later and the job was done. The team had grabbed the commlink and ruined the play.
Babylon
Best. Job. EVER! Not only did I meet and make friends with a CatCO scion (represent!), I got to help her get revenge on her ex and ruin a social event in the process. It pretty much checked off all my boxes as far as good run criteria. Brody J was just... he was just perfect, I mean it was truly spectacular to see, like this guy was the mark, and Skimmer and I played him like a damn fiddle. Gotta say that guy was a joy to work with - normally physads are all about their guns, but he really knew how to run a honeypot, not to mention manage to keep up with me and my new mentor during the pre-run partying phase. Great partner in crime, would work with again - bit religious for my taste, but it was nice to trade cool bible quotes with someone while we worked our respective magic.
Kitsune was nice to see again - I still don't understand why she hides what she does when she's so good at it, but more power to her really, she got her part of the plan done and took out the cast of the play with the pixie dust Skimmer planted before doing the whole show herself disguised as one of the actors and calling out Brody J on stage. Polka was a fun omae, even if he had a bit of trouble on the 'trix, and it was neat to meet a wiz decker for once; never thought I'd meet a hermetic I could hold a conversation with (nevermind a sasquatch), but it was a good time, hopefully we'll be able to work together again.
I still can't believe I met Cecelia Cross honestly, but I'm glad I did - she seems to be on a warpath, and I want to be there when she makes that fuckboi see just how much a mistake he made when he fragged with her heart (not to mention apparently sent runners to burn her damn house down - like, goddamn, that's just cold). Might be that CatCO's star hasn't set quite yet.