Monday, May 25, 2015

Shadowrun Report – A Dwarf in Need – Session 4

[This session happened on May 15th.  We had some discussion about the ethics of the situation and things we should think about during play, but mostly we played it as it came and didn’t think too hard about it during the game.]


Player Characters

Void – female human physical adept B&E specialist, a shadow that blends in easily
Murdoc – male elf kilt-wearing street mage, at home with the hobos
Prometheus – male human street samurai, handy with any firearm
Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
The Fin – female human con artist and gambler from India, by way of Russia, posh and elegant
Sin – male human rigger, knows exactly the wrong thing to say and says it


NPC’d Characters

Killroy – male human street samurai, specializes in hand-to-hand combat (and apparently machineguns)


11:00 AM, Friday, December 27, 2075
[Chronologically, the first thing that happened was 35,000¥ being deposited in our company account per the contract.  However, we all forgot and the GM didn’t remember to tell us about it until things were already started, so I’m putting it here as an aside.]

Void started updating the physical security of Sam’s home by adding or replacing locks.  She also identified places where unauthorized access to the house could be had for later placement of cameras and/or alarms.

The Fin claimed two adjacent guest suites in the underground part of the house, one as the Group HQ for the job and one as secure sleeping space for the Group during the job.

Bookie updated the matrix security on the home by placing a few data bombs on equipment an attacking decker might want to seize control of and then the central security server.  He also set up one Probe and one Tar Baby ICE on the security server as a warning system and flytrap, respectively.  He then went looking for the wet bar listed on the blue prints.  The Fin had already been there and locked up all the good booze, leaving only light beer.  He shrugged and took some back to Group HQ, drinking one on the way.

Sin moved his panel truck into the underground part of the garage and set up drones to supplement the security cameras and as an additional patrol on the grounds (comprised of a fencer drone armed with two katanas).  The drone cameras were set in locations Void had ID’d as potential access points [that were not doors or windows] and in the sniper nests that Prometheus had identified back on Tuesday.  Killroy rigged some improvised mines to hide in the sniper nests as well so the Group could trigger them once an enemy sniper was in position.  [Somewhere at this point the GM mentioned some other cargo vehicles in the garage, but not everyone heard him.  This will become important later.]

Prometheus volunteered to stay awake the entire job, accepting two doses of Long Haul Murdoc had scored from…well…a truck stop, really.  [His drug contact, Gino, doesn’t deal in over-the-counter stuff.  It’s beneath him.]  Prometheus held off taking the Long Haul until 6:00 PM so he would not fall unconscious while still on the premises when the drug wears off.  [It last four days, conveniently the length of the protection job.]

The rest of Friday passed uneventfully.


Saturday, December 28, 2075
During the day The Fin followed Sam around, discretely staying in adjacent rooms and using her boosted senses [from her Adept powers and her spirit companion*] to track his position.  She over heard him coughing several times during the day and then overheard complaining on a call that “either my runner allergies have kicked in or they brought some runner germ in with them”.  The Fin activated her Astral Perception power and verified Sam was not under magical attack or some sort of spell.  She then brought in Sin and his Med Kit to check for anything mundane.  The Med Kit reported that Sam was poisoned and the poison was starting to take a noticeable effect.  It asked if it should administer the antidote.  After a brief internal struggle, Sin told it “yes”.

Based on the data from the Med Kit, the Group estimated Sam was poisoned last Tuesday and would have been dead the next Tuesday if we hadn’t noticed.  Looking at Sam’s schedule for the day, he had three business meetings and lunch by himself before meeting The Fin for to discuss the job.  This suggested that the Eighty-Eights might not be the only ones who want Sam dead right now.

The Fin had Bookie cross-check the members of Sam’s personal staff with previous business Sam has done, looking for anyone who lost big or went out of business after Sam did his thing.  [The personnel records were given over by Sam after The Fin asked for them, his business files were purloined by Bookie on the sly.]  Bookie found four candidates: the garage mechanic, whose 3rd cousin twice removed lost her business due to Sam, and a group of three orphans who lost their home when Sam decommissioned the orphanage and turned it into a hotel but now work for Sam as his cook, maid, and steward (in charge of purchasing supplies for the house).  The Group rapidly decided that the mechanic (Sheldon Marshall) was a coincidence due to the distant relationship with the aggrieved person, but the other three were viable suspects.  A Fly-Spy drone was assigned to the kitchen to keep an eye on things there.


5:00 PM , Sunday, December 29, 2075
Sin was watching the steward bringing in supplies and observed her dropping off part of the supplies in the kitchen.  Just after the steward left the kitchen, Sin noticed a small drone climb out of one of the boxes and exit the kitchen.  Sin set his Fly-Spy after the drone and alerted Prometheus that something was happening.

Prometheus, after watching the video feed from Sin’s drone, alerted The Fin that a potentially hostile drone was in the house.  Void, who noticed something was up, walked over to the video display and said she recognized where the drone was.  The Fin ordered Bookie to locate the enemy rigger and Murdoc to move immediately to the room Sam was in now.  She then stepped into that room herself (it was Sam’s home office) and shut him up by telling him there was an active threat to his life in the house right now.

Bookie dove into the Matrix and started hunting the rigger while running silent.  Bookie quickly found the enemy rigger’s link to the drone and started backtracking it.  He then quickly started marking the rigger’s console until he could determine the rigger’s location in meat-space – the rigger was in Sam’s underground garage!  Bookie relayed this information to Prometheus and then started bricking the rigger’s console.  After one attack on the console, Bookie was then attacked by a previously unnoticed enemy decker!  The two fought furiously in the Matrix until both had to jack out to avoid triggering Demi-GOD attention and involvement.

Meanwhile, Prometheus activated his synaptic booster and raced through the house to the garage, informing The Fin along the way.  [His voice came out a bit higher pitched than normal due to the synaptic booster.]  Void also moved out of the Group’s temporary HQ to get to the enemy drone, while Killroy started searching for the steward.  Void arrived at the drone before Prometheus arrived at the garage and after briefly observing the drone, picked it up and stuck it in a box.

Seconds later, Prometheus arrived at the garage.  He paused to listen, attempting to locate the enemy rigger in the cavernous underground garage.  He heard the sounds of something metallic being assembled from one of four cargo trucks.  [Think 30’ U-Haul moving trucks.]  Prometheus called for Sin to send one of his fencers as back-up as he approached the cargo truck.  The noises stopped, suggesting that Prometheus was not moving as stealthily as he hoped [possibly due to the synaptic booster making him a bit jittery but mostly due to a bad roll of the dice].  Once the fencer joined him at the rear of the truck, Prometheus rolled the back door up, exposing an enemy fencer holding an assault rifle!  He also noticed that the back of the cargo area was noticeably closer than it should have been, suggesting a hidden compartment.

Prometheus fired off a couple of bursts** from his SCK Model 100 submachine gun, which put down the enemy fencer.  Sin’s fencer climbed into the cargo truck, moved to the back of the cargo area, and cut open the wall, exposing the enemy rigger hidden in a concealed compartment.  The enemy rigger responded by tossing a HE grenade between Prometheus and Sin’s drone, far enough away the enemy rigger would be (mostly) out of the blast radius.  With his highly boosted reflexes, Prometheus calmly fired another burst from his SCK Model 100, killing the rigger, and then dove for cover to avoid the grenade’s explosion.  Sin’s drone had just enough time to grab the rigger’s body (and strapped on console) and duck into a corner of the hidden compartment before the grenade detonated.

End of Session


[* I recently sat down with The Fin’s player and re-entered her character into Hero Lab.  Doing so reminded the player how many enhanced senses The Fin has, which is why they suddenly appear in the session notes as she now remembers to use them.]

[** This was an error on our part – when performing two Simple Actions in a combat pass, only one can be an attack action and Prometheus made two.  This is something we (the players and the GM) need to remember about the rules.  Also, recoil penalties are applied before you shoot, not after.  Not a problem here, but something to remember, especially as the two street samurais in the Group tend to favor burst fire for attacks.]


Session 1
Session 3

Session 5

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