Gland Theft Alto
| Gland Theft Alto | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Factions Involved | ||||||||||
| ShadowHaven | Seattle Concert Hall Security | |||||||||
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Joule Europa Canter Katherine Tyler Zombie | Several guards | Mindy Dahnerhardt | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||||
| One of Zombie's legs. | ||||||||||
Summary
The team are hired to abduct a respected concert violinist, so he can have all his loaned cyberware ripped out. The runners are, predictably, not super comfortable with doing that, and try their best to throw things off-track.
Background
Milo von Raum is an up-and-coming concert violinist with a secret - his talent is mostly thanks to a very, very expensive skillchip, for which he took out a loan that he never paid back. The mysterious creditor has decided they're tired of waiting, and have now hired independent street surgeon/harrowing sadist Mindy Dahnerhardt to do some aggressive repossession (plus interest) of Milo's material assets.
The Meet
The runners meet with Mindy outside of her Tacoma storage unit-slash-murderbox, and are immediately put off by her aggressively cheerful and friendly demeanour. Their discomfort only grows as she reveals the nature of her (and, by extension, their) employment - namely, the fact that they're being hired to take a man to be tortured to death over some unpaid debts. They try to convince Mindy that they can just retrieve the chip, with Canter going so far as to try and magically influence her, but to no avail. It is at this point that Joule steps away, not prepared to get involved with a pretty horrible situation, and a replacement runner is contacted - Zombie.
Things go much smoothly with someone on Mindy's particular wavelength involved, and Zombie manages to convince her that they can keep the other runners in line (whilst everyone conspires over DNI to sabotage the run).
The Plan
The runners decide to warn Milo of the bounty on his head before he can perform at the Seattle Concert Hall. Initially, Canter tries to hack into his commlink, but digs too deep and ends up alerting him, at which point he switches it off.
Zombie and Europa instead plan to infiltrate the building itself, by using their alleged natural charm to con a patron into buying tickets for them.
The Run
Of several options, Zombie chooses to flirt with a particularly unpleasant stockbroker and pickup artist, and fairly easily convinces him to pay for the pair's tickets, as well as availing themselves to several expensive drinks on his credstick. They depart "for the bathroom", heading instead for Milo's dressing room. Zombie distracts the guard by pretending to be incredibly drunk (while in reality only being *very* drunk), while Europa sneaks into Milo's room.
Europa explains that the runners were hired to kidnap him, recommends that he pack up and leave before a more unscrupulous gang of runners can be sent in their stead, and caps it off with a very detailed description of what awaits him if he doesn't. A *very* terrified Milo agrees that he should probably lay low, and, satisfied, Europa leaves. Zombie takes a brief detour to corner the stockbroker in a bathroom and traumatise him with illusion magic, because he was just the *worst*.
Canter, meanwhile, works on doctoring footage to show the runners being piled upon by guards and barely managing to escape, so that they have a plausible cover for intentionally sabotaging the job. To sell the authenticity of the footage, Zombie asks Europa to punch them in the face, which Europa does. Canter, however, tries to intervene, and so Europa ends up immediately sucker-punching an old woman unconscious.
Aftermath
Mindy is *incredibly* disappointed in the runners for failing to retrieve their target, and more than a little suspicious given three of the four runners' previous retiscence. However, a convincing performance from Zombie (as well as a soft spot for seeing them looking beaten-up and pathetic) manages to melt her heart. She agrees not to take anything out on the other runners, provided she's allowed to amputate Zombie's leg, "to leave a mark on you that's really mine."
The whole thing has weirdly intimate vibes, and the rest of the runners back away uncomfortably.
Zombie agrees with far more enthusiasm than was expected. What follows is several hours of gruelling, agonizing amputation that is "not sexual, but also not *not* sexual". Afterwards, Zombie walks off with a spring in their freshly-cyberlegged step and a new name in their commlink.
Rewards
For Europa, Kate, and Canter:
- 14 karma (14 RVP)
- +2 CDP
For Joule:
- +2 CDP for showing up
For Zombie:
- Obvious Full Leg (Used) (3 RVP)
- Mindy Dahnerhardt at L5/C4 (8 RVP)
- 1 horrible, horrible subscription code. (Can be sold for 4,000 nuyen OR redeemed for 4 karma towards knowledge: anatomy OR given to a someone who’d like it for +1 chip) (2 RVP)
- 1 karma (1 RVP)
- +2 CDP