Crime Brûlée

Crime Brûlée
Date 2085-04-13 GM Villiers Location Seattle Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven El-Ahrairah Carleton Moreau	Hired Mercenary group
Nearl Thunder	Character1 Character2
Casualties and losses
	Magician, Adept, Leader, Rigger (fled)

Summary

The runners are hired by S3I to neutralize an assassination attempt that they discovered. Three mercenaries are located, two are captured alive, one is killed. The fourth flees the metroplex.

Background

Group X (possibly N-51) wants to assassinate the leaders of S3I durin a visit to the executive suite that S3I leases in the Zephyr-South office building. Group X has bribed the midnight shift to edit the camera system while re-construction work is done on the 4th floor medical lab. The opfor has installed a large shaped charge on the ceiling and set up magical and technical surveillance.

Before The Meet

Both Nearl and Thunder suffer three night of troubled sleep. At 04:05 am of the third night Thunder gets a call from Carleton Moreau asking him to pick up some sensors and a bug scanner before meeting him at his office in Touristville. He'd come to the office early [still on eastern time]. His chem-sniffer ring had give some strange readings passing some workmen in the elevator, he wants an olefactory scanner and bug scanner to test his suspicions. Thunder does some quick shopping and gets to Zephyr-South within 40 minutes. The olefactory scanner easily detected plastic explosive from the crack under the door of the space being renovated (Persephone LLC in room 4D). Lacking any B&E gear, Thunder went shopping for an autopicker to defeat the mechanical lock on the door. Thirty minutes later the lock was picked. A visual search of the room aided by the chem sniffer soon revealed a shaped charge installed under a false ceiling. Feeling a certain urgency Thunder gambled and successfully removed the detonator disabling the shaped charge.

Thunder and Carleton then carefully relocked the door and returned to Caarleton's office. Unfortunately they failed a perception test to notice the Shiawase Kanmushi moving along the ceiling towards the elevator. Carleton and Thunder reported their discovery to the building manager and waited anxiously for a response. The building manager then reported the issue to the owners of the building, [[[Seattle Software and Special Investigations]].

Meanwhile...Talulah Ashlocke Nearl is sleeping. Restlessly, but dreaming of alchemical potions. After waking and breaking her fast, Nearl began preparing for the commute to her Silver Ash Private Investigations office. Shortly after 09:00 Nearl got a comcall from El-Ahrairah telling her about the bomb on the 4th floor near her office and asking for her assistance. Nearle agreed to go to her office where she will receive another call

The Meet

Upon arriving to the fourth floor, Nearl sees a familiar face (Thunder) and a stranger (Carleton). After greetings and introduction Thunder starts to describe the events of the morning when all three receive commcalls from El-Ahrairah.

El-Ahrairah explains that the bomb was to be used to assassinate the top management of Seattle Software and Special Investigations. When examination of the building cameras showed that the faces and movements of the workers had been obscured by the midnight shift security guard who was being interviewed at S3I headquarters. El-Ahrairah says that S3I would continue it's internal investigation; they want Thunder and Nearl to do the external investigation - find and eliminate the threat of assassination. S3I will pay 20,000 nuyen with 5,000 front money for expenses. Carleton immediately offers to act as Thunder's fixer. Thunder agreed. The runners pointed out that, although powerful with magic and combat capability matrix skills were lacking. El-Ahrairah agreed and gave them the commcode of an up-and-coming decker named Two-Tone that would take care of their needs for 500 nuyen per hour. El-Ahrairah then forwarded the building video and asked the runners to keep them apprised of progress.

The Decker

Two Tone accepted the manipulated footage and estimated it to be a four hour job to obtain some usable footage. The runners agreed and set him to work.

Retail Tenants

The team used a combination of persuasion and bribery to obtain security camera footage from the four retail establishments on the first floor. The consolidated footage provided clear pictures of two of the mercenaries (the team leader and the rigger).

The Run

Once faces were available a spirit was set to searching. The rigger was located in central Snohomish moving north. The team was about 150 meters up the street. Thunder sent in a spirit to take out the leader (an adept). After an extended melee the adept won. Nearl then sent a spiritual combatant that exploded the apartment window and stunned the adept. The adept was flown out the window (invisibly) into the auto waiting below.

A quick call to El-Ahrairah for an update and then off to S3I to drop off the team leader for an interview. Shortly thereafter Two Tone sent the team undistorted faces for the remaining two mercenaries, an adept weapon specialist and a magician. Another round of astral searching indicated that the adept was in the Tacoma ork underground and the magician was downtown.

The team decided to go for the ork underground first. The security at the Wailing Wall entrance deterred them so they opted for a surreptitious entry after using Thunder's knowledge of smuggling routes. The smuggler entrance was a substantial walk from their destination but they took the opportunity for a healing rest in a side gallery.

Upon reaching the apartment Thunder used the stealth dongle on his commlink for some device hacking. First the apartment door camera then the stealth tag on the wall opposite the apartment door were set to looping. Nearl (physical mask spell) knocked on the door while Thunder stood out of sight to the side. After an uncomfortable wait of 15 - 20 seconds a hail of bullets burst through the door. The adept inside decided that the conflict between two camera feeds showing an empty hallway on the one hand and an eyehole showing an ork and audible knocks on the other hand .... shenanigans. Unfortunately for the adept, Nearl did not die. Seconds later this mercenary was unconscious and bleeding on the floor.

Automatic weapons fire draws attention so the runners rolled the adept in a rug and snuck away invisibly as a crowd started to gather. After leaving the underground through a much closer exit, Nearl summoned the car via autopilot and gridguard. Thunder summoned a very reluctant spirit of air for more astral searching: the rigger was no longer in the metroplex area but the magician was downtown at the Gates Undersound Hotel. After dropping off the mercenary at S3I headquarters downtown the runners headed to the hotel.

The astral and technical security at a AAA rated luxury hotel is substantial so the runners approached their task carefully. Thunder tried to call Der Opa to arrange burner SINs but the old gnome was asleep. Nearl used some networking and was put in touch with Bubblegum who provided two rank 4 fake identities guaranteed to last two weeks. Thunder got a nice double bed suite (room 1704) while Nearl went to the mall level to get eyes on the mage. Spotting the mage leaving the restaurant, Nearl surreptitiously followed him to the third floor and observed him entering his room (303). After joining Thunder in their suite they discussed a variety of plans. Given the very tight astral security they'd observed, they opted to rely on mundane trickery as much as possible. At the cost of two favors they arranged for disguises from Naomi Fisk. They then ordered room service and closely observed the staff's attire. Two fashion spells for specific and detailed staff uniforms, a forensics cleaning of the room and astral signatures removed, and they were ready. The runners took the room service trolley down to room 303 and knocked on the door. The uniforms were convincing through the eyehole in the door and the sleepy mage made a fatal error and opened the door.

Thunder punched the mage unconscious and they dragged the mage to the bathroom. Nearl placed him in a mostly full bath tub and stabbed him in the neck with a survival knife. After wiping the handle he placed the knife in the mages hand in an unconvincing attempt to make it look like a suicide (a knife in the right hand of a left handed mage et cetera). After another round of forensic cleaning the left the hotel.

Aftermath

El-Ahrairah is quite pleased with the runners; two captured, one dead and one fled. Full payment is made and an offer to join S3I is extended. The murder of the mage is investigated but nothing leads back to the runners.

Rewards

Crime Brûlée High TL 16 RVP 20,000 Nuyen (10 RVP) 4 Karma (4 RVP) 4 CDP (2 RVP) 2 CDP (Base) Optional: El-Ahrairah C5 L2 (6 RVP) Optional; Bubblegum C1 L1 (1 RVP) Optional: S3I membership @ Discount (5 RVP)

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Thunder Another successful run with Nearl. Great team-mate. Like!!!
Last part of the job was very bloody business. Glad I didn't have to do any slashing. Thanks!
That was a nice double room. Comfortable bed. Too bad we had to leg it so soon. Dreaming of a nice vacation.

Nearl

I would have liked to stay in the room with Thunder longer. He's very... sweet. Good at his job, a good compatriot. I could get used to having him so close. I regret the choices that I've made that will force me to lose the contacts I've made, all in the sake of progress.