Guys and Dolls

Guys and Dolls
Date 2081-03-12 GM tkul Location Auburn, Seattle (UCAS)
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Shine Rapture Roadkill Baron	Kenran Kai Clan Yakuza Thug x7

Summary

The 'runners rescue a Bunraku doll named "Valerie" from the clutches of the Kenran Kai Yakuza and deposit her in the care of a former John, "Frank," who professes his love for her.

Background

The Shadow Haven ticker flashes with a new incoming job post -

"I need help saving the love of my life from the people that are holding her captive. - Frank"

The Meet and Legwork

Shine, Rapture and Roadkill arrive for their meeting with Frank, a clueless , farm-boy"Mr Smith" rather than a professional Johnston. He professes his love for a joy-girl named Valerie, lamenting that her employers "control her life, won't let her go, and don't even let her leave the premises". Three things very quickly become apparent to the Runners:

• Frank wants them to rescue a Bunraku doll.
• Frank is completely clueless about operational security, even flashing a 40K Credstick in full view of the bar patrons at the meet.
• Frank probably doesn't know (or doesn't care) that "Valerie" is most probably not that Benraku dolls original personality.

Frank transpires to be especially jumpy, all the more do due to the delay in the arrival of Baron, the teams face, and due to Roadkill's "stinking murder hobo" ambience. Shine displays sufficient calm and professionalism to induce the Johnson not to run out the door in a mild panic, but her delaying tactics only work so well and she is soon forced to cut the deal herself. When Baron does finally arrive, entering this fine, farm-town bar in his finest "pimp-suit" Shine, Roadkill and Rapture hastily hustle him out of the building before he spooks their hire out of the deal. The team agree very quickly that "Frank" is out of his depth, cannot be trusted not to do something stupid that will give the 'run away to the target, and probably lacks the guts to go through with the run if they don't act quickly. The teams self-impose a two-day time limit on the run.

Through Frank, the groups manages to uncover the following details:

• Entry to the brothel is gained by asking for Madam Fuijworah.
• The mah-jong parlour is always packed full of customers of mostly Chinese, Phillipino and Japanese descent.
• He hires Valerie's favours for 5000 Nuyen an hour.
• There are usually at least half-a-dozen guards on the premises equipped with suits, assault rifles, sub-machine guns, pistols and swords.

The leg-work quickly reveals (to the surprise of none of the runner's concerned) that "Valerie" is indeed a Bunraku doll in a brothel beneath the Orange Blossom Mah-jong parlour. Without a hacker, the team are forced to rely of contacts to learn as much as they can about the Orange Blossom, the staff who work within, and the layout itself. Baron's KE detective contact Rebecca Montex comes through for them with a considerable amount of useful information but expects something in return - the establishment of a data-spike at the location in question.

Through Rebecca, the runners learn the following about the establishment and it's personnel:

• The establishment belongs to the Kanran Kai Yakuza.
• Mashida Tostua acts as head of security. This gentleman disapproves of running a banraku parlour. Removed a pinkie in protest at being assigned to the parlour.
• Eto Tatsuo handles matrix operations for the facility including blackmail stings, acquiring persona fixes and developing/marketing BTL chips.
• Fujimorah Kitsune is the madam and manager of both the mah-jong and Bunraku aspects of the Orange Blossom. She is a full Magician of either the Chaos or Black mage traditions. She is also an Alchemist. Like Tostua she is disgruntled, though in her case it is because she has hit a glass ceiling within the Kenran Rai due to being female.
• Knight Errant Captain Boyd Powers is likely among the blackmail victims controlled by Eto Tatsuo.
• A cyber-clinic also operates out of the facility.

The Plan

The group briefly consider the prospect of adopting a social engineering approach and approaching one of the disgruntled Yakuza or Captain Powers as their "in" to the facility. However, given their particular skill-mix the team reluctantly agrees that they are not at all suited to a subtle approach. Instead, the group decides to infiltrate the Orange Blossom, portraying themselves as a rich eccentric (Baron) and his two bodyguards (Shine and Rapture). Roadkill, meanwhile, takes advantage of his squatter life-style to stake-out the building from the outside.

They enter the mah-jong parlour, where Shine and Baron immediately stand out as the only non-Asians present. They do however gain access to the banraku parlour through a door in the kitchen leading to a stairwell leading down after asking for Madam Fujiwarah. Shine notes a discoloured patch in the roof of the stairwell which she recognises as concealed anti-personnel mine. Baron speaks with a gentleman the group refer to as "The Voice" who appears to be a yakuza face. Baron makes several attempts to obtain a night with "Valerie" without specifically asking for the girl by name. Eventually, Shine speaks up and complains that her boss met some "farm-boy" loser and his "dumb-ass, big-breasted, big-assed blonde bimbo gal-next-door" and has been lusting after her ever since. The Voice immediately produces Valerie, and Baron shuggles off to enjoy a night of BDSM passion with Frank's beloved.

The runners depart an hour later, with Baron promising to return again soon to sample Valerie's delights.

Aside from the mine in the roof, the scouting mission discovers:

• The Bunraku parlour consists of a single "waiting room" with a bar manned by the Voice, half-a-dozen guards and several naked dolls.
• One corridor leads away from the waiting area with a set of double doors at the far end (the Cyber-clinic) and eight other doors, four on either side of the corridor.
• There are six camera's inside and four outside. Maglocks and key cards are required to access the kitchen, and to access the stairwell from the kitchen.

Roadkill continues to observe for the remainder of the night and notes that:

• Local parking remains sketchy at any hour.
• Multiple guard and domestic staff shifts arrive and leave during the night.
• Madam Fujiwarah and the other "officers" attend the location for meetings in the early afternoon then depart.
  

Rewards

10.000 Nuyen

6 Karma

2 CDP

Game Quotes

Hobo is my spirit animal.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

SHINE: I'm unsure as to whether rescuing a Benraku doll in her chipped persona for a lover-boy is truly a "rescue". Have we simply exchanged one set of masters for another, even if that new "master" truly loves the woman he -thinks- the extraction was? For sure the physical body of that poor woman, Valerie, will be far better treated by "Frank" than ever she would have been by the Yakuza. But what of "Valerie's" soul? Her mana spirit. Stoicism teaches that I remain unmoved by horror and strive ever that I be true to myself. And yet have I been? But for the grace of fate, Valerie's tale could very well have been my own.