Monday, December 29, 2014

Shadowrun Session Report – The Pickup – Session 01

This session happened on December 15, 2014.  I’m a bit behind in getting the sessions posted, but we are actively playing.


Player Characters
The Fin – female human con artist and gambler from India, by way of Russia (low level physical adept), posh and elegant

Void – female human physical adept B&E specialist, a shadow that blends in easily

Murdock – male elf kilt-wearing street mage, at home with the hobos

Sin – male human rigger, knows exactly the wrong thing to say and says it

Killroy – male human street samurai, specializes in hand-to-hand combat

Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser

Prometheus – male human street samurai, handy with any firearm



Wednesday, November 13, 2075

Void was called shortly after 7:00 am by Shisou Tomodachi, a fixer she’s worked with.  He needed a team on short notice for an extraction job with good pay – could she put together a team and meet with him by Noon?  Void said she should be able to do so and would call him back shortly.

Void immediately called The Fin to see if she would get a group together to do a rush-job extraction.  The Fin agreed to do so, but had a few additional questions, questions Void did not have the answers to.  So, while The Fin called people to see who was available for a rush job, Void called Shisou back to get some more details.  Shisou told Void that the job is on Friday with a tight timetable and good pay – nearly ¥50,000 with a possibility of bonus pay, but that’s all he could say until he met the team and did she have a team?  Void told him she was having one put together even as they spoke, but she needed the additional details to get the right people.  Shisou accepted this and told her to meet him at Marfreles in Renton, no later than Noon.

Meanwhile, The Fin had received positive availability from Bookie, Sin, Killroy, Murdock, and Prometheus (although he will be unavailable on Saturday due to another job).  When Void called back with the meet location, The Fin updated her on who was available for the job.  The Fin then texted the team with the meeting location and time.

[Prometheus is my (the current GM) PC.  We have two GMs for this game and each needs a character for when they are playing and not running (Killroy is the other GM’s character).  This is not something I like doing (running a game with my own character in it) and he is only available as I think they’ll need a sniper.  Prometheus in NPC mode is mostly a sniper and not the sharpest tack in the box.  He will not volunteer any insights and needs to be asked for them if he has any, but he is as competent as his character sheet lets him be when given a task.  I chose this personality on purpose so he would not take the spotlight while I’m running the game, but he is a known factor to the other PCs when the other GM is running.  He was not available for the previous run as there was no real need for a sniper and I just had him say he was on a different job at the time.]

Marfreles is a bar for discrete meetings of various sorts.  The lighting is low and the classical music is just loud enough to make listening to other conversations impossible.  The furniture is comfortable sofas and chairs clustered into groups around coffee tables.  Seating is available upstairs and downstairs with the main bar area open to both levels.  Drinks are classy and the bouncers are discrete and heavily muscled.

Void was one of the last to arrive and found the rest of the team clustered at the bar instead of seated.  She tried to not roll her eyes too obviously as she approached.  She noticed Shisou sitting at a large round table next to the stairs up (with a wall between it and the stairs to foil listening attempts).  Void gathered the group by simply telling The Fin their where her contact was sitting and walking over to the table.

Shisou was working three different commlinks as the group approached, but all three conversations were shut down by the time the PCs sat.  Shisou introduced himself, stated he knew Void, but none of the rest of them and he only did business with people whose names he knew.  The team introduced themselves to Shisou.  The more sharp-eyed runners noticed that Shisou was entering their handles into one of his commlinks and possibly accessing a database.  Once satisfied with whatever the commlink showed him, Shisou laid out the terms of the job:


  • The target is Perry Fuller, a 15-year-old at O’Dea Catholic High School in the First Hill neighborhood of Downtown.  The week has Parent-Teacher meetings in the afternoons, so there is an abbreviated school schedule.
  • The target must be taken Friday, between 9:00 and 9:15 am from his high school.  Taking the target early results in no payment.
  • The target is unaware he is being distracted and must not be injured (although some bruises are acceptable).  If the target is found to be injured at drop-off, payment will be halved.
  • Neither the school nor the target can be tipped off or the job is cancelled with no payment.
  • The target is to be dropped off at the playground in Joseph Foster Memorial Park in the Tukwila neighborhood of Downtown by 9:40 am.  There will be a Swift Wind Deliveries panel truck there for pick-up.  Be discrete to avoid attracting the attention of potential witnesses.


Once the team accepted the job, Shisou provided a picture of the boy for identification.  As this was a rush job, there were no blueprints for the school – the team has to get them on their own.  Shisou suggested they get working immediately, clearly suggesting they should now leave his table.  The team did so.

The team went someplace to start planning.  [I either forgot to ask where or forgot to write it down in my notes.  This is something I need to improve on as a GM.]  The Fin told the team to start gathering data on the high school.  She asked Bookie to hack the school’s computer system to get class schedules and floor plans   Void went and walked the neighborhood while Sin sent out some drones to scout the area from above.  Murdock used a physical mask spell to appear as an Aryan preppie to blend inwith the neighborhood and found a good spot to summon an air spirit to send into the school to scout.  Prometheus was sent to find a good place to observe the comings and goings at the school and find a good sniper spot or spots.  Killroy decided to go shopping for some non-lethal ammunition.  While everyone was gone, The Fin made arrangements for an extraction bag [a bag large enough to hold an unconscious person and having enough straps to be able to easily carry them].

Bookie found the schools firewall a bit more of a challenge than he was expecting, but he was able to get into their system and make it his.  The school schedule was available in the public area.  Floorplans for floors 2-4 were available, but not for the 1st floor.  This confused the team at first as the school only appeared to have three floors.  When Bookie went to grab a file on the school’s security personnel, he set off an unexpected data bomb.  A bit spooked, he dropped out of their system before anyone came looking.  While waiting for things to cool a bit on the school’s computer system, he and The Fin discussed fake ID’s and whether or not Bookie could make one.  The Fin felt she could use one to go look at the school herself.  Bookie decided he could, but not before the job had to be over.

Murdock’s air spirit scouted the high school interior.  The spirit was able to confirm no wards on the school.  It ran into one warded locker in the principal’s office and found cameras in the stairwells.  Up on the third floor, it was able to locate Room 305, the room the target would be in between 9:10 and 9:15 on Friday (according to the class schedule).  In Room 305 was a teacher grading papers who noticed the air spirit.  The spirit fled the building when “the guy started getting pushy” and left the school.  Murdock had the spirit check the elevator area and then released the spirit.

After scouting the area with drones and working out the travel time from the school to the drop-off point, Sin contacted a mechanic he knows, looking for a “loaner” vehicle that would blend in better in the neighborhood than his panel truck would.  In the meantime, the rest of the team returned with photos of the school from multiple angles so they could get a feel for the structure.

The Fin asked Prometheus what kinds of parents were arriving for the parent-teacher conferences.  Prometheus said they looked corporate and many had bodyguards and armored luxury cars.  This was concerning to The Fin and she asked Bookie to look into Perry Fuller and who his parents might be.

End of Session

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Shadowrun News Reports - November 7 to November 13

This is a listing of news blurbs that happen between the last run and the next one.  The next run starts November 13 (in-game), so the final news item is a little early, but it will come out during play and I don't want to list it in the actual session report.

Astute readers will notice that AIPE appears in a previous post.

Thursday, November 7, 2075

(Seattle Metroplex) Alvarez Integrated Power Equipment (AIPE) announced today a new line of micronized power cells, the Energin line of products.  Providing twice the power over the same lifespan, the new line will provide greatly expanded possibilities for cybernetics and many types of portable electronics.  Pricing on these new power cells is “commensurate with their expanded capabilities”.  No word on how this will affect manufacturers who use AIPE power cells.

Monday, November 11, 2075

(Seattle Metroplex) Knight Errant announced today several raids on organized crime fronts in the Everett District took place over the Veteran’s Day weekend.  Unnamed sources say the raids were against several known Triad fronts and were triggered by the anonymous delivery of evidence in the form of financial records belonging to the Eighty-Eights criminal organization.

Tuesday, November 12, 2075

(Seattle Metroplex) Alvarez Integrated Power Equipment (AIPE) announced today the pricing schema for the Energin line of micronized power cells.  The pricing is slightly higher than their previous line and rumor has it that they have also eliminated their discount system for cyberware manufacturers.  AIPE stock values increased significantly after the announcement.

Wednesday, November 13, 2075

(Seattle Metroplex) gang violence flared up overnight in the Everett District.  The Knight Errant Gang Taskforce reports that members of a Vietnamese gang known as the 19 Hatchets were targeted by an unknown group and many of the gang members were killed, including their leader, known as Buddy Mak.  Many, including Buddy Mak, were killed at a “party house” the gang maintained at 1905 Hoyt Avenue.  “Someone was surely angry at the 19 Hatchets,” a member of Knight Errant said, speaking anonymously as they were not authorized to comment on the case.