Bravado in the Bluff
| Bravado in the Bluff | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Horizon ArgleBargle | TerraFirst! | Green War | Them Runners | ||||||
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Fidem Ramen Shamen Black Samurai Insonia |
Sassy Creep Blockhead PewPew | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Creep | |||||||||
The Hook
ArgleBargle is in town for a concert. Before things could get underway, all of their gear was stolen. Horizon being Horizon quickly replaced everything; there simply isn't time to find it all when big business is churning. But among the gear was an heirloom guitar passed down from Dietmar Bargle's grandfather to his father and then to him. The band would like the runners to find it and bring it back.
Background
The concert itself was widely publicized. Given that the band is from out of town, it was obvious that they would be bringing a lot of equipment with them. Evan Barnes took this as an opportunity to be his own TerraFirst! cell. He took out a loan with his father's Gladius as collateral. Then he hired runners to steal the gear before it could be moved in to the Seattle Convention Center. His plan was to get some publicity by getting the show canceled and contacting the news media so he could make his statement while threatening to detonate the band's equipment. Unfortunately he didn't consider that Horizon would simply replace everything. In that way it was lucky for him that he did get the heirloom guitar.
In order to pull of his scheme, Evan procured a fake bomb. Unbeknownst to him this fake bomb was actually a very real bomb. Green War had picked up on the operation and saw an opportunity to make a martyr. Someone who was willing to die on a small hill to make a difference. After replacing handing over the very real bomb, the Green War agent re-hired the same runner team to make sure that no do-gooders interfered with the eventual and very public explosion planned.
Pressing Flesh
The Haven runner team was summoned to the Seattle Convention Center for a 1 PM meet. They arrive and find Ace Powers in the atrium lobby waiting for them. Given the client, he warns the runners about pictures or posting to social media. Then he leads the group in to meet ArgleBargle. The band is expecting a little more of a to-do, but the runners settle in without skipping a beat.
Niklaus Bargle describes to them the issue - namely that all of their stuff was stolen and there is a particular guitar they want back. There isn't much to go on, but the runners are resourceful, so it shouldn't be a problem. After a bit of haggling, a price is agreed upon and the job is accepted.
With that squared away, Ace Powers has a few words for the group before letting them to their devices:
“I don’t care what you do, just stay out of Horizon’s hair. If we had some more resources, Horizon would be all over this, but we have more important things to do right this second. As it is, we’ll have to look for the stuff after we’ve got the show squared away. If you do find the gear, give me a call so we can pick it up. You may not be working for Horizon here, but make no mistake, you are working for Horizon.”
Ace Powers is a Clone. Probably.
The group begins planning by shit-talking Ace Powers, concluding that he's a clone and not to be trusted. After that they get to work with the apparent plan of find the guitar and return it.
The Search
To begin, Insonia executes a quick matrix search for instruments for sale that might match equipment the band has used. Being so close to the actual theft, there are not a lot of hits. However, they do find one instrument across the bridge in Bellevue. Quickly they head over to check out Tina’s Instrument Emporium and Pawn Shoppe. On the way they notice that not only does the city have traffic monitory infrastructure, so do the news stations. With another quick search on one station, Insonia pinpoints the trucks heading into the tunnel in downtown that leads to the bridge across Lake Washington. This is a stroke of luck, given that it was based on a guess that the thieves headed in this direction. But it works out.
At the Shoppe, Ramen Shamen and Fidem head inside. The manager is a Hanuman with died hair who sits on the counter. Leslie, as she is called, is happy to show them the instrument and with a little bit of monetary encouragement she hands over the address left by Stan Shunpike in Puyallup. This is a fake name of course, which the runners quickly verify. While they are driving, Insonia does another matrix search to stitch together the freely available traffic cam footage from the local news stations into a set of likely destinations for the two trucks. As they return to Tina's Instrument Emporium and Pawn Shoppe, these results return indicating the trucks either; left the city on highway 90, crossed the sound to Vashon Island on a ferry, entered a very posh neighborhood around Norma Beach, or entered a warehouse district in Auburn.
Black Samurai and Fidem go in to talk to Leslie again. Things are decidedly less friendly this time and after some threats and some broken merchandise, Leslie gives them Sweet Susy's name. She doesn't have any contact info for the Ork, but the two have some familiarity and Leslie is willing to buy what Susy brings in without question. It's obviously not stolen, right?
Given that there are two locations in the metroplex where the trucks might be (the others lead out of town, to some degree), the group decides to check out the fancy neighborhood in Norma Beach while Ramen Shamen sends a bound spirit to use the search power around the warehouse district in Auburn. There's some serious security in Norma Beach, watchers, beast spirits, and an actual host for the neighborhood, but the runners are game to pursue the option. Black Samurai plants a datatap on a camera mounted on the wall around the upscale estates. A mark on this has Insonia enters the host. Things don't go so well as the decker tries to watchdog the guard's commlink and the host goes on alert. As ninja styled IC emerge, Insonia jacks out and the group drives away maintaining cover well enough to not raise further security suspicion on their vehicles.
Luckily, the spirit returns from it's arduous search. After 80 minutes of looking, it did indeed find the guitar in question. It's about 21 kilometers from the warehouse. The spirit leads the group to an abandoned school in Puyallup. Located between Loveland and Tarislar, the dysfunctional building is kind of in no-man's land, solidly in an E-zone. Surrounded by squatter apartment blocks, reclaimed fields, shanty towns and decaying single family housing, they watch as a truck pulls up the crumbling drive to the school. The equipment is quite obviously of the 'band' category.
When Runners Collide
Unbeknownst to the intrepid runners, another runner team is overwatching the school. As they drive up and approach the barrens rats moving the gear, this other runner team is watching. Before the flash of swords and cacophony of shots begins, our runner team approaches the moving crew. The initial two run and Sam heads off to tackle them. He does so easily, but as he does, Sweet Susy steps out. The two sides converse and the Haven runners let Susy and her lackies go after finishing unloading their truck and getting as much info as they can manage from the group. They even tell Sweet Susy to message Leslie to let her know that she is in fact going to get to keep her fingers.
With the info that only one guy waits in the school it seems safe to move in. Black Samurai and Insonia move in to the north gym of the school while Fidem and Ramen Shamen check the gear outside for the item of interest. PewPew, the enemy decker attempts to tag the Haven runners a few times, but Insonia's tech is able to ward this off. Inside the group finds an incompetent TerraFirst! activist. While his intentions may have been good, he's obviously done everything wrong and the group isn't shy about letting him know. Fidem even calls Chloe Green to chew the poor guy out.
During the back and forth, Evan Barnes shows the group his fake bomb. This bomb turns out to be not so fake and Insonia is able to determine that it is connected to a microtransceiver for remote detonation and posses accelerometers meaning the group should not move it. This is a little too close for the other runner team (now working for Green War) instead of Evan. The two groups clash; swords, drones, deckers and magic all collide for a quick but pitched battle. There are some close calls, but the Haven runners are easily able to overcome 'Them Runners' and make the actual bomb safe.
With the opposition down or on the run, the Haven runners find the guitar in question. Then they split the stashed equipment, taking half to Leslie and half back to the band.
Post Script
The band returns the instrument and ArgleBargle is pleased. With the job completed in less than 8 hours payment is made and thanks are given while Ace Powers tries and fails to corner Sionann. The runners are even comped tickets to the show.
Rewards
High threat -> 15 RVP
- 12,000 ¥ (6 RVP)
- 7 karma (7 RVP)
- 4 Extra CDP (2 RVP)
Optional:
- Sweet Susy the barrens rat (C1/L1) - 1 RVP or 2 CDP
- Leslie the Pawn Shoppe manager (C2/L1) - 2 RVP or 4 CDP
- Niklaus Bargle professional bandmate (C4/L1) - 4 RVP or 8 CDP (This is on account of Sionann being more famous than the band and passing the contact info to the other runners)
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Insonia - Fairly straightforward, except for when I got shot. Good reminder not to do that, I guess. Interesting team - felt out of place trying to look like Jane Q. Shadowrunner, mirrorshades and all. Getting a bit sick of being the mook all the time, especially if it still gets me shot. Maybe I ought to get some real dress clothes - something to impress the Horizon types. Ooooor I could not, and figure some other way to stand out?
Ramen Shamen - This was a pretty straightforward and standard run, I didn't expect the decker to go out of their way to get shot, or eco-terrorists to wanna steal stuff from a band but... All this has really reaffirmed is my hatred for Ace Powers, and given me solace I am not alone in such. I look forward to planning his ultimate demise with Fidem.