Third Party Rescue

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Third Party Rescue
Part of Flight of the White Owl
Part of A Scattering of Deadly Petals
Date2082-09-16
GMDejapes
LocationSeattle
Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven
Sahalé
Ru Xiao
[[SignificantNPC::Eighty-Eights Triad]]
Black Chrysanthemum
Fidem
Samsara
Varia
Jennifer McCallister
Bo Sun
Many Guards
Casualties and losses
OpFor neutralized without fatalities


Summary

Runners are hired by a third party to rescue the son of Ru Xiao after he was captured by a rival triad.

Background

The Black Chrysanthemum is a powerful and brutal Triad that has been muscling its way into Seattle at the expense of the three Triads already established in the city. Increasingly, they have come into conflict with the Eighty-Eights Triad.

Sahalé is a Salish smuggler with ambitions concerning both the Tribal Council and the city of Seattle. Unlike other movers in the Salish-Shidhe Council, Sahalé is unafraid to enlist and involve outsiders in her plans. She is currently looking to build up a network of allies in Seattle to move her goals forward.

Ru Xiao is a recently-promoted White Paper Fang within the Eighty-Eights Triad. To cement her position, she had her son engaged in a traditional political union with an influential boss within the Eighty-Eights. Unfortunately for her, her son was captured by the Black Chrysanthemum under circumstances that revealed an illicit romance. This limited Ru Xiao's options for asking for help from within the Eighty-Eights. She weighs a brutal ultimatum from the Black Chrysanthemum that has her facing the unenviable choices of sacrificing her son, sacrificing the progress she's made within the Eighty-Eights, or betraying the Eighty-Eights.

Sahalé catches wind of the going-ons and she decides to offer Ru Xiao a fourth option.

The Meet

The four runners are asked to meet in the matrix and visit an illicit subhost buried within the public host of the Everett Gardens and Arboretum. There, they meet with the persona of Sahalé, presenting herself as always as a white owl.

The runners express willingness and eagerness to rescue an abducted young man and return him to their mother. However, their enthusiasm dampens when they hear the of the two Triads involved. Fidem, with the assistance of the rest of the team, negotiates an optional higher reward for returning Paul Xiao unharmed.

With the team agreeing to the job, Sahalé offers them three leads to follow up on. The first is the street-level enforcer, Bo Sun, that was the muscle in Paul Xiao's capture. The second is a Black Chrysanthemum data host that is shielded against outside intrusion and would require physical access within an apartment complex wholly owned and guarded by the Triad. The third is the mastermind of the young man's capture, who is currently undergoing limb maintenance at a cyberdoc clinic.

The Plan

The team opts to meet up in Fidem's penthouse suite and plan their moves from there. After a short discussion, they decide to go after Bo Sun by luring him out with the prospect of an exclusive BTL from Fidem. Jennifer McCallister, with the assistance of Varia, runs a search on Bo Sun and discovers the contact information of one of his underlings. Said underling was not a strong practitioner of operational security, and his social media revealed one of Bo Sun's drop off houses.

The runners set off soon after, driving to Tacoma in Fidem's luxury vehicle.

The Run

After arriving with the drop-off point, they interact with an out-of-his-depth door guard who is star struck by the sudden and unexpected appearance of a BTL star. Fidem coaxes a meeting with Bo Sun out of him while Jennifer McCallister obtains Bo Sun's contact information by hacking the guard's commlink from the car.

Soon after, they confront Bo Sun in a rain-drenched Downtown alleyway. Bo Sun turns out to be an augmented troll with a telescoping guan dao, and he is accompanied by several guards and a security decker. Fidem gives him an ultimatum in a gambit to secure a meeting with Bo Sun's boss, but the troll enforcer has a quick temper and things quickly escalate to a fight. Jennifer McCallister keeps the decker busy while Samsara and Varia engage the Triad soldiers in an alleyway brawl. They end up disabling or paralyzing the opposition. In the aftermath, Jennifer McCallister hacks Bo Sun's commlink and unearths a deleted message exchange that points the team towards a reference to the 'Black Fortune.' Fidem recognizes this as a Tacoma night club with rumored Triad links and the team deduces that Paul Xiao is likely being held there.

At the Black Fortune, Fidem oversees and offers cold inspiration from the car, while Jennifer McCallister infiltrates the host of the club in order to learn the physical layout of the place. Meanwhile, Varia tosses Samsara onto the roof, and Samsara manages to land quietly. She lowers a rope for Varia to climb up after. Unfortunately, the former pit-fighter is neither a terribly fast climber nor a particularly quiet person, and she is noticed by a club employee in a corner office. That employee attempts to make a call, but Varia alerts Jennifer McCallister to the danger and the technomancer squelches the commlink.

Still maintaining the element of surprise, Varia and Samsara decide to boldly break in through the dance floor skyline, rappel down, and then swing their way through the VIP viewing window. They crash into the elevated VIP rooms which they suspect Paul is being held in and immediately engage a heavily augmented guard, a gun adept, and a mage. After traded blows, a gunshot, a flashbang, a spell, and a very angry fire spirit, the fight ends in the runners' favor. They rescue Paul Xiao and make an escape.

Aftermath

Paul Xiao is returned to Ru Xiao, who is surprised but wary at the sudden good fortune. As per a request from Sahalé, the runners deliver an encrypted file on the White Owl's behalf. This completes their job and they are wired payment and given access to a credit line for purchasing or upgrading fake SINs.

Ru Xiao ultimately decides to accept Sahalé's offer and the two ambitious women become unofficial allies.

Rewards

  • ¥ 20,000 or ¥ 40,000 in gear credit to buy fake SINs and licenses up to avail 18.
  • Either ¥ 6000 or 3 Karma if you refuse the extra reward.
  • 2 CDP


Optional Contacts:

  • Sahalé at 4/2 (aka the White Owl, Salish Smuggler)
  • Ru Xiao at 4/2 (Eighty-Eight White Paper Fang)

Game Quotes

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Varia - This was a good job, I think. No one had to die. Samsara was difficult to work with at times and un-predictable but very competent in combat. Not a planner. Jennifer McCallister could do well hiding her techomancer abilities but is a powerful hacker. And Sionohann Flannegan ... It was a a good job.

Fidem

As it turns out, I have not lost a step when it comes to making someone do what I want. Though I do not believe that the triads are people I should be taking as lightly as I do when I don my... older mask.

I am grateful the child was returned to his mother, though I have a number of concerns about the matter, perhaps it just had to do with the criminal syndicates, but perhaps we're simply seeing the Lord work in mysterious ways

Samsara

Oh man, this run was great! I got to fight that Bo Sun dude and beat up a bunch of guards and rescue someone, it was awesome! Plus uuuhhhh well uh okaysoFidemandVariawerereallycute... it was kind of hard to stay focused... yeah I think I have some thinking to do.