On the Importance of Family
| On the Importance of Family | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
| ShadowHaven | The Jokers | ||||||||
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John Brown Glamor Rabbit Uber | |||||||||
Summary
Get the girl. It was a simple ransom, with simple implications - or so it seemed.
Background
Gang wars in the Barrens were about as common as the sun rising in the morning. Sometimes it was over territory or imagined slights. Sometimes it was driven by those higher up on the food chain as they played with their food. And sometimes it was about honest people trying to stand up to the corruption while the corruption threatened to swallow them.
A man by the name of Mr. J was such a shield against the tidal wave of corruption in the Barrens. He had formed a gang to protect a small black of territory and get the place cleaned up - no one should be afraid of a mugging or that they were going to be subjected to rampant drug dealing in his neck of the woods. His gang made sure shops stayed stocked, drug dealers were kicked out, and in general that life felt safer. It was a small haven in an ocean of shit - unfortunately, it was attracting a lot of attention.
A woman from his past came to him for help. Well, come to him in only in the fact she beat the daylights out of two his self-appointed body guards before they had managed to contain her. Shay had had a temper that had gotten her into a lot of hot water 5 years before which had made the decision to relocate to San Francisco a lot easier. Shay's sister Kira had decided to remain behind, scraping by in the Barrens as a waitress and bar tender with big dreams of putting together enough money to get out and do something better with her life. But it was almost inevitable that Kira found herself entangled with the wrong people. It had started out nice, but the more the relationship had progressed, it had becoming something much darker. Kira had tried to leave him. He had tied her up and put guards on her.
Shay had found out. She didn't have allies in Seattle anymore and didn't want to reach out to the Runner community directly so she had twisted J's arm to do it for her. The pair had felt that they would rather pose this as a ransom extraction rather than a rescue, hoping that the money would be an incentive to get Kira out alive.
The Meet
A bar in the Barrens had sufficed for the meet. Shay and Mr. J had bought the runners drinks (Rabbit "spilled" hers on the ground) and discussed the opportunity - they had 3 days to get the "hostage" out of control of the Jokers. Mr. J slid over most of the ransom that he claimed was being demanded, saying he needed time to come up with the rest of the 100,000. The runners were told they could either pay the ransom or not, it was immaterial - Kira just had to be brought back alive and unharmed. The runners took the initial 85,000 nuyen with them (to be split later between them) and set off to find their target. Mr. J gave them what information he could - a 'drop location' and 'commcode' that belonged to the kidnappers (he had instead paid for the information from a gang snitch).
Money in hand, the runners set out to find the girl.
The Plan
The plan was to figure out exactly where the girl was being held in the Barrens and get her out. Uber helped track down the commlink (though did suffer slightly when the commlink got a mark on his rig). Glamor astrally projected through the building they suspected the girl being in and successfully located her. Because they tipped off the hell hounds patrolling the building, the team decided it was best to go in now and figure it out later.
The Run
Rabbit took point. Taking John and Glamor with her on a ride with her grappling gun, the three went to the window of the room where the girl was being held. Glamor had left her spirit of man in the bathroom with Kira to untie her and protect her if anything went wrong. Rabbit took offense to the men that tried to shoot her and bifurcated them with a monowhip. John's Spirit of Air and Commanding voice managed to sow havoc with the guards that came rushing up. Uber's Cheetah added some bullets to the mixture and Glamor provided support - it was quick, but loud. The group managed to get the girl out quickly before anything more serious happened.
Aftermath
They took her back to the bar where her sister was waiting. It was a tearful reuinion. Mr. J presented the group with the missing 15,000 and thanked them for their help.
Rewards
25,000 Nuyen
1 Karma
2 CDP
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Glamor
They used Hellhounds, which hasn't been a thing I've seen since early on in a different career. The minds of the handlers were easy to manipulate, though.
Uber
I'm really glad that the Haven operators I've worked with so far don't seem to spend much time on legwork. I barely get any chance to start suggesting bad ideas before we start shooting! Happens every time. At least I got to try out my cheetah!