Popular and Profitable! [Shadowrun Campaign Journal]

[Winds]

A campaign journal mostly intended for recaps. Read and enjoy.


The year is 2070. The crew is based in LA at the moment, the Seattle workers having just finished a job as tour security. Now they're on a job from a Mr. Johnson acquaintance of Fading Ghost.

The Crew:

With the exception of Ghost and Spade, the team is known on P2.0. Known quite well, in fact.

Mouse-A troll Street Sam, usually based in Seattle. The leader of the team's previous run, which had far reaching consequences. Currently involved in a body-guarding job away from the crew.

Pariah-A Face, also usually based in Seattle. Uses skill, magic, and...presence...to get the reaction or info she needs. Working with the team on a temporary basis. (A secondary character for Mouse's player.)

Dead Man-a sniper specialist. Came from Germany, currently has a day job in Seattle. Provides fire support and is an excellent lookout.

Fading Ghost-A combat mage. The leader of the current run. Doesn't use magic very often, but has useful spirits to do some of the work for him.

Enzo-A hacker and makework face. Has an array of useful programs. In addition to usual hacker resources, managed to get his hands on a VTOL, which is currently parked in Seattle.

Doc-A human Skraacha ganger and healer. Has a working relationship with Enzo. Also picked up:

Lynx-A ten year old street kid. Surprised the crew with her skills-she's the best driver out of them, and is actually more in touch with new happenings in the the than the rest.

Sawtooth-A Skraacha ganger and Shark shaman. Currently in hiding, due having shot and possibly killed a Lone Star cop during the height of metaracial tensions.

Grigori-A Vory smuggler and muscleman. A criminal SINner. Has good underworld contacts and knows the local gangs, as well as being able to get illegal supplies from the Vory. Unlike the team on the previous run, an LA native. (A secondary for Sawtooth's player.)

Spade-A 'hacker'. Actually a technomancer, though he's keeping that secret. (At this point in the timeline, technomancers are essentially unknown.) Not actually a great hacker, but uses sprites to make up for it. An LA native.


The current job:

The crew was tasked with recovering a hard drive from the flooded section of LA.

A fun job, for a team that didn't have anyone who knew how to dive.


Recaps:

Ghost's Run-Meet and Prep (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=16225850&postcount=3)
Ghost's Run-Confrontation (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=16242908&postcount=5)

[Onyxdeus]

Correction:

Shadowrunners Doc and Enzo were not involved in any unplanned altercations in Cal-Free. The P.2.0. ratings were reset after a glitch in the system. A college kid died of a nasty awakened stomach ulcer in a completely unrelated incident.

There is no proof in the Matrix that states otherwise.

[Winds]

Ah. Well then. Poor kid.


Fading Ghost's Run-The Meet and the Prep


A safe house, hidden in a building called the Pagoda. The Seattle crew, minus Mouse, are here. Fading Ghost brings a job to the table. Sawtooth turns it down due to his newfound 'popularity' (Which I air-quote, but he really is quite popular...) The others agree to at least hear it, so Ghost sets up a meet with the other major organizer of the job, Skinny Dipper. The meet will be in El Infierno. The crew gets there without much issue. Mouse arrives as well, having been called in by the group.

There are a lot of street kids running around, who immediately start offering to act as tour guide for water or food. And, in many cases, fighting for it. One such made a particular impression on the group: a ten-year-old elf girl who beat a thirteen-year-old boy. Mouse paid her in energy bars he had on him. Fading Ghost ended up proving her combat prowess again-she hit him in a sensitive area after being called a team pet. Mouse found this quite amusing. The crew is brought to the meeting place without further ado.

Skinny Dipper has two additional runners to assist with this run-Grigori and Spade. She explains that the job is to recover a hard drive from the flooded part of LA. It was once the property of a redistricting official. Complications include the environment, and the possibility of Horizon workers in the area. Pay is 20K per operative.

Ghost has the team move to a more private location to discuss team makeup and legwork. Spade brings them to a cheap restaurant he knows, plus Lynx who correctly guessed that the team were Shadowrunners and asked to come along. Doc took responsibility for her.

At the restaurant, Mouse informs the team that he will not be involved, as his current work does not make it a good idea for him to clash with Horizon. The rest of the team is onboard, with Skinny Dipper sending Pariah to assist the group in Mouse's place. The team uses this time to do a little more research on the mark, as well as identify several college studies that may be of use in preparing for the environment. A plan for the advance work is ready.

Enzo, Doc and Lnyx plan to investigate UCLA. Spade and Pariah will befriend a particular student. Dead Man, Fading Ghost, and Grigori will scout the area in person. After this, the crew will purchase needed equipment. Grigori's Vory contacts will be providing a good bit of this.

Pariah and Spade have no particular difficulty. Spade's investigation makes it possible for Pariah to present herself as the mark's 'type', and they get useful information without any notable difficulty.

Dead Man, Ghost, and Grigori also gain useful information. Ghost's spirits and Astral capability prove very useful-he plants a Watcher that notes how surfers and the like get in and out of the caldera. He also discovers a powerful water spirit bound in the area.

Enzo, Doc and Lynx have more difficulty, however. Enzo and Doc are wearing suits-and there is a counter corp protest going on. The team is splattered with RFID paint. Lnyx reacts violently, attacking the most vocal of the students with a knife. The three of them end up causing a car chase, which Enzo ends by destroying the choppers following them.

Some minutes afterward, all record of their visit and...hurried exit...have been erased from the Matrix. Including police reports, all footage of the events in question, and in some cases the sites that held the info.

Finally, the team, minus Spade, go to purchase their gear. Thanks to some fancy negotiation work by Pariah, the gear is obtained for a decent price...or at least not an exorbitant one. Spade, meanwhile, questions a gang contact and learns that the spirit Ghost encountered was bound by the Ancients-and they're on the alert.

And so, the stage is set for the job itself.

[Onyxdeus]

Just a trio of points; random topics concerning the campaign.

1) I should REALLY stop giving fellow players bad ideas, even as a joke. The ensuing events tend not to work in our favor.

2)We learn, once again, that going cowboy is not the way to engage an enemy underwater.

3) That nuclear submarine WILL be ours, just like that VTOL...

[Winds]

1) Eh. We'll see how this one goes.
2) It worked out, didn't it?
3) Hmmmm. I still don't think we can manage that with our current supplies. And I don't fancy the idea of piloting the thing through the Lacuna, which is pretty much the only way to get the thing out of there. Still...if we manage it...


Fading Ghost's Run-Confrontation


The day of the run. The team meets Skinny Dipper at the marina, where the Vory have delivered the goods. Skinny Dipper has brought in another high-profile 'runner to provide the 'wheels'. Kane is present, with a boat for use on the run. (Incidentally, Lynx is the only one who recognizes him as, well, him. Having a fangirl on hand can be useful.) After the team inspects the gear and finds it in decent condition, they pile on and get ready to head out.

On reaching the dive point they had selected, they start investigating the area. Dead Man's magnification goggles spot a group of Ancients on a cliff overlooking the caldera. Fading Ghost spots three astral form Ancients on the surface of the water. Spade notes no unusual Matrix traffic, however. The crew is split into three groups. Dive team j, consisting of Pariah, Enzo, and Grigori. Dive team i, consisting of Fading Ghost, Spade and Skinny Dipper. Surface crew, consisting of Kane, Dead Man, Doc, and Lynx. The dive teams will go down one at a time. Since each team has a hacker, a mage, and muscle, one team will be below while the other handles overwatch. Dead Man provides surveillance, while Doc is support/medic.

Team j dives first. The crew's air tanks allow one hour's dive before they turn back for safety. Team j finds the mansion, marks it on Tacnet, and returns. Meanwhile on the surface, Fading Ghost finds that the astral form Ancients are using at least one minor spirit to search the area. Dead Man, meanwhile, identifies a laser mike in the hands of the cliff watch Ancients. Whether it's pointed at our boat or not is unclear. The team makes sure to chatter appropriately for a leisure dive group unless in parts of the boat where additional precaution can be taken. Team i prepares to dive next. They find the mansion, marl a usable entrance through a broken window with glow-paint, and confirm that the hard drive will be in a secure room on the 'second' floor. (The second and third floors were crushed together during the flood.) Skinny Dipper wanted to go further, but Spade was unhappy about that prospect...the last that the rest of the team knows of this is Dive Team i disconnecting from Tacnet.


Enzo readies a electronic counter-counter measure program and loads it on Fading Ghost's comm, as it was the only one he could reach. Having just replaced that comm due to it having been tapped by Enzo, he was not particularly pleased. Still, the dive team resurfaces without any issue.

Tacnet message log:

Fadingghost: Spade, what the **** was that? Best case scenario, that weird motion in the kelp beds was a shark!
Spade: Yeah, stupid risky. But leaving it uninvestigated would have been risky, too. Now we know Horizon has a nuclear sub down here. With ECM, too.
Enzo: I have ECCM on my and Ghost's comms. Should be fine now. Let's get Dive Team j back down there.


Meanwhile, Kane steps in. Being nervous about the Ancients watching his boat, he suggests that Dead Man swim the the cliff, scale it, and take them out. Dead Man, however, doesn't have the athletic skill to pull this off. The team starts working together on a plan to take them out-with a coordinated assault to stop them from calling for help. Grigori will scale the cliff, requiring a change to Dive Team j.

Lynx: I'll do it!
Doc: You said you can't swim.
Lynx: Oh...I guess you'll do it, then.
Spade: Did...did she just trick you?


So the final plan is this: the modified Dive Team j of Pariah, Enzo, and Doc will go down to retrieve the hard drive. Grigori will scale the cliff and wait in hiding as Spade cuts their Matrix access by spoofing their comms. Fading Ghost will track the astral mages back to their meat bodies, there using a Thought Control spell to take them out with their own guards. Dead Man will provide fire support to Grigori from the boat.

Team j gets to the mansion and quickly notes two things: there are other metahumans in the mansion, and they are employing ECM chaff. They reach the ballroom, which seems to be their 'base'. The room has been set up with motion-activated flood lights. There are two people inside: one is leaving, heading back towards the entrance where Team j is hidden. Pariah goes invisible, then moves toward the one that's still in the room. (Pariah, it should be noted, is under the control of a guest during this session.) After the moving person is out of sight, she drops invisibility in order to cast control thoughts, and 'suggest' that he go back to the sub and take a break. Unfortunately, this tips off the rest of the Horizon team, due to their use of Tacnet. He leaves, but his pal returns and shoots Pariah with a gyrojet pistol-a good shot, given his ally was between them. Combat begins.

Enzo and Doc get to cover. Enzo hacks his way into the Horizon crew's tacnet, seeing four more incoming. Pariah is shot again, and makes for cover. (Thankfully, her dive armor is uncompromised.) There she stays for the remainder. Enzo gets admin level access to the enemy tacnet. He shares their feeds with the team, and adds five markers indicating incoming Saeder-Krupp assets. Meanwhile, the four other Horizon workers arrive in the doorway to the ballroom. Huddling is usually a good survival tactic when diving. Not so with a mage around. Doc overcasts a Ball Lightning spell for all he's worth-and does it *well*. The resulting burst of energy is severe enough to char the water itself for twenty feet around the luckless team. The last man surrenders-sort of. At a 'suggestion' from an angered Pariah, he shoots himself. The final linving member of the crew notices that the Seder-Krupp incoming are, well, not. Far too late, however. The team makes for the secure room-as it was hermetically sealed, it has air.


In the meantime, above the water, Grigori does an amazing job. Covering three miles of water in an hour, and a similarly thorough job on the climb. (It's good to play as an action hero, isn't it?) Unfortunately, here things go a bit pear shaped. Dead Man was keeping direct track of Grigori's progress-then, to see if the Ancients were looking at him, he gave a mocking wave. (This would be the bad idea Onyxdeus mentioned.) This cued them in to Grigori's having reached the clifftop-and to the sniper orc that has a bead on them. Combat begins with an Ancient attempting to hold Grigori at gunpoint. Grigori responds by grappling him, forcing the elf to drop his weapon. Dead Man then shoots another. (This, by the way, is a three mile diagonal angled headshot. Dead Man can shoot, all right.) The three astral mages react as well-two head for the clifftop to provide magic support, while one readies himself to summon the water spirit Ghost encountered before. Ghost then follows the astral cords of the mages to Miami. Noting their single guard, he successfully takes control of her with his magic, and prepares to take out the mages. Spade, meanwhile, executes a security lockout on one ganger's com, and gains admin access to the next.


Here the session ends.