[This session happened on March 9, 2015. This was more a dénouement and bookkeeping rather than an actual session, but Bookie’s player was back in town on Spring Break, so he got to do the datarun.]
Player Characters
Sin – male human rigger, knows exactly the wrong thing to say and says it
Murdoc – male elf kilt-wearing street mage, at home with the hobos
Prometheus – male human street samurai, handy with any firearm
The Fin – female human con artist and gambler from India, by way of Russia, posh and elegant
Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
Void – female human physical adept B&E specialist, a shadow that blends in easily
NPC’d Characters
Killroy – male human street samurai, specializes in hand-to-hand combat (and apparently machineguns)
Thursday, November 28, 2075, 11:00AM
After the excitement of the physical part of the run had settled a little, Bookie started the datarun side job. He sleazed over into the Emerald City grid and then sidled on into the host for PPC Logistics. [Bookie is specialized in quiet matrix intrusions, so has tons of dice to roll for this.]
Bookie relatively quickly found the target file (Apm0215-13) and started looking it over. It looked clean so he proceeded to copying it. Turned out it had a Probe IC attached to it, which activated immediately once Bookie started making the unauthorized copy. [Turns out tons of dice are no good if you have bad luck rolling them.] Bookie dodged the ICs attempts at tagging him long enough for the copy of the file to be made, but could not stifle the alarm going off. Bookie booked it out of there before nastier IC started responding to the alarm. This made the datarun a mixed bag – Bookie got the data, but set off the alarms, which was against the terms of the bonus.
When the data was turned over to Mr. Jumbotron, The Fin played fair with the client and explained that the data had been achieved, but the alarms had gone off. Mr. Jumbotron paid out half the bonus anyway, which was very fair on his part.
[As stated last posting,] About two hours later, the pay for the run arrived in The Fin’s account and she dispersed the funds to the rest of the team. The team also submitted a final expense report for the run. This covered the replacement of Sin’s Lockheed Optic-X2, 9000¥ for the 900¥ bribe to get the Electronaut away from the police [yes, those numbers are correct], some other miscellaneous expenses (replacement burner commlinks and such), and a 10% bump of pure profit.
Monday, December 2, 2075
The expenses invoice was paid in full. The team celebrated.
End of Session
[That was the end of the game session. We then spent some time doing some bookkeeping and working out training/healing/initiation time. The team used the “extra” money skimmed off of Mr. Jumbotron to enlarge the group fund to 17,000¥.
At this point we discussed what we might do with the group fund, including purchasing a Medium lifestyle to represent the group renting an office or meeting place where we could store gear and privately plan runs. We could easily afford a Medium lifestyle with Extra secure and Special Wok Area (defined as a garage where Sin and The Fin could park their vehicles). So we sent The Fin out to meet and make nice with real estate people and see what we could find. This will be retro-actively role-played out at a later date.
We also decided that we might want a group name of some sort to refer to ourselves as and after some discussion, we settled on The Pleiades Group, as there are seven of us and it is not too specific.
After the bookkeeping, we determined that all the downtime we wanted to take would wrap up December 8, 2075. Sin’s replacement drone won’t arrive until December 12th, but his player was OK with starting the next run before it arrived, so that is what we did. Run number four is titled Monkey Business! And I should have just finished running Session 3 by the time this posts.]
Session 1
Session 8 (The previous session)
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Thursday, March 26, 2015
Shadowrun Session Report – The Third Run – Session 08
[This session happened on March 2, 2015. It included the first real combat of the campaign.]
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
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
Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
Killroy – male human street samurai, specializes in hand-to-hand combat
Thursday, November 29, 2075, 10:05AM
The team exited the back door of the meeting building. The Fin, invisible thanks to Murdoc, took the actual package to the nearby docks where the Electronaut minisub waited for her. The rest of the team (Killroy, Void, and Murdoc), openly carrying the decoy package, moved back to the Gopher minivan, where Prometheus was waiting for them.
In a last minute bit of paranoia, Prometheus drove the Gopher around the Crowley Services building and down the road that cut across the alley where the meeting was supposed to happen, stopping at the back door the rest of the team had just exited. The person hiding behind the dumpster was still there and apparently not moving. Prometheus asked Killroy to step out of the Gopher and check to see who was actually behind the dumpster. As Killroy stepped out of the minivan, a sniper on top of the Crowley Services building shot at him!
Sin immediately had one of the Fly-Spies go high and spotted the first sniper and a second one moving up on the building the dumpster was against. A quick, quiet gunfight broke out, both sides using silenced weapons. Prometheus borrowed a Neuro Stun IX grenade from Killroy and lobbed it at the feet of the sniper directly above the team, knocking that sniper out. Void used the roof of the Gopher as a launch platform to jump up onto the second-floor roof of the Crowley Services, ending the sniper there with a thrown knife.
Killroy stepped around the dumpster and discovered that the person “hiding” there was actually dead and our Green Mohawk contact! A quick search determined he had been shot and his pockets were empty. While Killroy was searching our dead contact, Void stripped the sniper on the Crowley Services building of his weapons and personal electronics.
Prometheus suddenly remembered that while talking with Mr. Jumbotron, Mr. Jumbotron had thought he was talking to Mr. Green Mohawk, but Prometheus could see (through the video link) that Mr. Jumbotron had actually been talking to the troll. A switch had taken place! Prometheus quickly contacted Mr. Jumbotron and sent an image of the dead guy, asking if this was the actual contact. Mr. Jumbotron, very puzzled, said it was. Prometheus hung up on him before he could ask any more questions.
Prometheus had Bookie check the cameras of the building where the meeting had just happened. Bookie reported that a very live Green Mohawk, the troll, the orc, and a human in a business suit were about to leave through the front door. Sin moved his Fly-Spy that way and spotted them just exiting the building. Prometheus ordered an attack on them and then ran back down the alley at full speed, Killroy hotly on his heels. Void opted to stay at roof level and leapt across the alley, moving to flank them from above.
Prometheus and Killroy cleared the corner and immediately fired on the enemy team. Prometheus fired a long burst from his SCK Model 100 at the human in the business suit, dropping him. Killroy fired on full auto into the troll with his assault rifle, scoring multiple hits, but failing to drop the troll. That could be bad news. Meanwhile, Murdoc got back into the Gopher and started driving it forward to try and flank the enemy team. [“Try” because he does not know how to drive. At all.]
Prometheus switched targets to the troll, his boosted reflexes giving him time to pause to aim before firing again [spent a combat pass not shooting to clear the recoil penalties]. As the remaining bad guys fired ineffectually at Prometheus and Killroy [bad rolls on the GM’s part], Prometheus fired another long burst into the troll as Void hit the troll with a thrown knife. The troll fell dead. Killroy switched targets to the orc, not bothering to aim [or clear the recoil penalties], and unleashed another full auto attack. The orc dropped to the ground, very dead.
This left the faux Green Mohawk, who dropped his weapon and immediately surrendered. Void leapt down from the roof and started clearing weapons and electronics (including IDs) from the dead guys. Killroy tied up the faux Green Mohawk [now called Faux-hawk] and Prometheus, still brandishing his SMG ordered the guy to explain himself.
They were a rival team of runners hired to ambush our contact and plant a tracker on the package, but not stop it. Faux-hawk was wearing an earring that was a magic focus sustaining a physical mask spell. Once it was removed, he turned out to be an orc. Prometheus shot the orc in the face and then ordered the team to get back into the Gopher. The team was a little surprised at this, but did so. The gear taken from the enemy team was put under a tarp and Murdoc made the whole bundle invisible.
Meanwhile, back in the Ethernaut, The Fin, hearing what was going on over the commlinks, checked out the package. She found the tracking device and broke it. She then continued on to the drop-off point.
Prometheus drove the Gopher back out of the docks area, again following his planned route to avoid any further potential ambushes. [The GM let me know afterwards that doing so did actually avoid an ambush.] At the gate the group checked out, claiming they needed to do some remote testing and did the gate guard know of a good girlie bar they could “spend some quality time at on the clock”. The gate guard made a recommendation and Prometheus thanked him. As Prometheus’ window was going back up, he could hear the alarm just going out over the guard’s radio. Prometheus calmly drove to the arranged pick-up point to wait for The Fin to make the drop-off.
The Fin arrived at a set of docks adjacent to the drop-off location and hauled the package up, both still invisible. She then made the meeting with Mr. Jumbotron, turning over the package [she had Murdoc drop the invisibility spell during this meeting]. She also claimed the team had achieved the “Eliminate the opposition” bonus and would shortly achieve the data run bonus. She also explained what had happened with Green Mohawk. Mr. Jumbotron informed her there would be a short delay in payment for verification, but he was generally satisfied with the work.
The Fin then offered to sell Mr. Jumbotron the identities of the opposing team and everything Faux-hawk had told the team. After a short negotiation on price, she gave him all the data the team had and he paid the team an additional 14,000¥. The Fin left the drop-off point and met up with the rest of the team at the pick-up point.
About two hours later, the pay arrived in The Fin’s account and she dispersed the funds to the rest of the team. The team also established a “group fund” to cover incidental expenses for future runs.
End of Session
[So, yeah – combat in Shadowrun 5th Edition is very deadly, especially with heavily-cybered combat specialists like Killroy and Prometheus. Prometheus was built lean and fast and was averaging three combat passes each combat round, as was Void. Killroy was averaging two combat passes, but mostly due to poor rolls.]
Session 1
Session 7 (The previous session)
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
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
Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
Killroy – male human street samurai, specializes in hand-to-hand combat
Thursday, November 29, 2075, 10:05AM
The team exited the back door of the meeting building. The Fin, invisible thanks to Murdoc, took the actual package to the nearby docks where the Electronaut minisub waited for her. The rest of the team (Killroy, Void, and Murdoc), openly carrying the decoy package, moved back to the Gopher minivan, where Prometheus was waiting for them.
In a last minute bit of paranoia, Prometheus drove the Gopher around the Crowley Services building and down the road that cut across the alley where the meeting was supposed to happen, stopping at the back door the rest of the team had just exited. The person hiding behind the dumpster was still there and apparently not moving. Prometheus asked Killroy to step out of the Gopher and check to see who was actually behind the dumpster. As Killroy stepped out of the minivan, a sniper on top of the Crowley Services building shot at him!
Sin immediately had one of the Fly-Spies go high and spotted the first sniper and a second one moving up on the building the dumpster was against. A quick, quiet gunfight broke out, both sides using silenced weapons. Prometheus borrowed a Neuro Stun IX grenade from Killroy and lobbed it at the feet of the sniper directly above the team, knocking that sniper out. Void used the roof of the Gopher as a launch platform to jump up onto the second-floor roof of the Crowley Services, ending the sniper there with a thrown knife.
Killroy stepped around the dumpster and discovered that the person “hiding” there was actually dead and our Green Mohawk contact! A quick search determined he had been shot and his pockets were empty. While Killroy was searching our dead contact, Void stripped the sniper on the Crowley Services building of his weapons and personal electronics.
Prometheus suddenly remembered that while talking with Mr. Jumbotron, Mr. Jumbotron had thought he was talking to Mr. Green Mohawk, but Prometheus could see (through the video link) that Mr. Jumbotron had actually been talking to the troll. A switch had taken place! Prometheus quickly contacted Mr. Jumbotron and sent an image of the dead guy, asking if this was the actual contact. Mr. Jumbotron, very puzzled, said it was. Prometheus hung up on him before he could ask any more questions.
Prometheus had Bookie check the cameras of the building where the meeting had just happened. Bookie reported that a very live Green Mohawk, the troll, the orc, and a human in a business suit were about to leave through the front door. Sin moved his Fly-Spy that way and spotted them just exiting the building. Prometheus ordered an attack on them and then ran back down the alley at full speed, Killroy hotly on his heels. Void opted to stay at roof level and leapt across the alley, moving to flank them from above.
Prometheus and Killroy cleared the corner and immediately fired on the enemy team. Prometheus fired a long burst from his SCK Model 100 at the human in the business suit, dropping him. Killroy fired on full auto into the troll with his assault rifle, scoring multiple hits, but failing to drop the troll. That could be bad news. Meanwhile, Murdoc got back into the Gopher and started driving it forward to try and flank the enemy team. [“Try” because he does not know how to drive. At all.]
Prometheus switched targets to the troll, his boosted reflexes giving him time to pause to aim before firing again [spent a combat pass not shooting to clear the recoil penalties]. As the remaining bad guys fired ineffectually at Prometheus and Killroy [bad rolls on the GM’s part], Prometheus fired another long burst into the troll as Void hit the troll with a thrown knife. The troll fell dead. Killroy switched targets to the orc, not bothering to aim [or clear the recoil penalties], and unleashed another full auto attack. The orc dropped to the ground, very dead.
This left the faux Green Mohawk, who dropped his weapon and immediately surrendered. Void leapt down from the roof and started clearing weapons and electronics (including IDs) from the dead guys. Killroy tied up the faux Green Mohawk [now called Faux-hawk] and Prometheus, still brandishing his SMG ordered the guy to explain himself.
They were a rival team of runners hired to ambush our contact and plant a tracker on the package, but not stop it. Faux-hawk was wearing an earring that was a magic focus sustaining a physical mask spell. Once it was removed, he turned out to be an orc. Prometheus shot the orc in the face and then ordered the team to get back into the Gopher. The team was a little surprised at this, but did so. The gear taken from the enemy team was put under a tarp and Murdoc made the whole bundle invisible.
Meanwhile, back in the Ethernaut, The Fin, hearing what was going on over the commlinks, checked out the package. She found the tracking device and broke it. She then continued on to the drop-off point.
Prometheus drove the Gopher back out of the docks area, again following his planned route to avoid any further potential ambushes. [The GM let me know afterwards that doing so did actually avoid an ambush.] At the gate the group checked out, claiming they needed to do some remote testing and did the gate guard know of a good girlie bar they could “spend some quality time at on the clock”. The gate guard made a recommendation and Prometheus thanked him. As Prometheus’ window was going back up, he could hear the alarm just going out over the guard’s radio. Prometheus calmly drove to the arranged pick-up point to wait for The Fin to make the drop-off.
The Fin arrived at a set of docks adjacent to the drop-off location and hauled the package up, both still invisible. She then made the meeting with Mr. Jumbotron, turning over the package [she had Murdoc drop the invisibility spell during this meeting]. She also claimed the team had achieved the “Eliminate the opposition” bonus and would shortly achieve the data run bonus. She also explained what had happened with Green Mohawk. Mr. Jumbotron informed her there would be a short delay in payment for verification, but he was generally satisfied with the work.
The Fin then offered to sell Mr. Jumbotron the identities of the opposing team and everything Faux-hawk had told the team. After a short negotiation on price, she gave him all the data the team had and he paid the team an additional 14,000¥. The Fin left the drop-off point and met up with the rest of the team at the pick-up point.
About two hours later, the pay arrived in The Fin’s account and she dispersed the funds to the rest of the team. The team also established a “group fund” to cover incidental expenses for future runs.
End of Session
[So, yeah – combat in Shadowrun 5th Edition is very deadly, especially with heavily-cybered combat specialists like Killroy and Prometheus. Prometheus was built lean and fast and was averaging three combat passes each combat round, as was Void. Killroy was averaging two combat passes, but mostly due to poor rolls.]
Session 1
Session 7 (The previous session)
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Shadowrun Session Report – The Third Run – Session 07
[This session happened on February 23, 2015. We scrolled time a couple days, just touching on what the group was doing to prep for the run so we could start the actual run this session.]
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
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
Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
Killroy – male human street samurai, specializes in hand-to-hand combat
Monday, November 25, 2075
Sin continued the check-out and maintenance of the Electronaut to make it ready for use on Thursday. Prometheus got a Toyota Gopher though his mechanic contact, Wheels. Wheels required a 3000¥ deposit in case of bullet holes - he knows Prometheus pretty well.
Tuesday, November 26, 2075
Bookie hacked the system of Crowley Services, a business near the planned meet. He inserted a work order for a service call on Thursday into their schedule, listing the work group as Mike Nelson, Joel Robinson, Tom Servo, and Gypsy Rose-Lee. He created temporary IDs under those names in their system for Prometheus, Murdoc, Killroy, and Void, respectively. After that he changed the icon for the truck to one for a Crowley Services service vehicle.
Sin put the Electronaut in a lake to verify there were no water leaks and that the rigger controls worked correctly. It checked out perfectly. The Fin spent the day practicing her Scuba skills and verifying all her gear worked correctly.
Wednesday, November 27, 2075
After lunch, Prometheus collected all of the video recordings from the squat apartment and then watched them on fast forward to get a feel for the workings of the docks. He plotted on a map where ambushes would be very effective and then mapped a route in and out to avoid those locations.
The Fin continued her Scuba practice.
Thursday, November 28, 2075, 9:00AM
The team loaded up into the Gopher. Bookie suppressed or changed the icons for the teams’ gear to appropriate (or at least non-threatening) icons. The Fin was in a full-body, insulated dive suit, carrying an emergency air tank and flippers. Her regular air tank was secured inside the Electronaut. The rest of the team were wearing jumpsuits with Crowley Services patches on them, concealing their normal gear.
Murdoc cast invisibility on The Fin and tasked a bound spirit to maintain it. The Fin was also carrying a collapsible duplicate of the package, based on images provided by Mr. Jumbotron. Sin was elsewhere, putting the Electronaut into the bay, but he left two Fly-Spies with the team. Bookie was with Sin in Sin’s nondescript panel van.
9:40AM
The entry team (everyone but Sin and Bookie) arrived at the Harbor Island security gate in the Gopher with Prometheus driving. Prometheus handed over the printed work order and the four visible members of the team showed their (fake) ID badges. The security guard saw that they were on the schedule as an expected group and waved them through. Prometheus drove through the port facilities slowly, so as to arrive at the meeting spot 10 minutes early. He kept to his planned rout to avoid ambush points.
9:50AM
The team arrived at the meeting point, an alley between two buildings, one of which was the Crowley Services building. Prometheus parked perpendicular to the alley so he and Killroy (in the passenger seat) could see down the alley. Also at this time, Sin moved the Electronaut into position at the foot of the docks, right by the nearest ladder. [This put the Electronaut about 40 m from the meeting spot.]
10:03AM
The contact has not shown and there might be a person hiding behind a dumpster down the alley and across the backstreet where the alley resumes between a different two buildings. [It was confusing for us, too, until we had the GM sketch out a map.] Prometheus called Mr. Jumbotron, reporting the contact was no-show. Mr. Jumbotron stated there had been an issue and the meeting was now inside the building to the right, plus the contact had friends with him. Prometheus negotiated a 5000¥ bump in pay for the last minute change of venue and then directed the team into the building.
The back door was adjacent to the alley, but not in the alley. Prometheus stayed with the Gopher while the rest of the team exited the vehicle, walked down to the far end of the alley, and then around the corner to the right, to enter the building. Prometheus kept one of Sin’s Fly-Spies and the other went with Void.
Inside the building, the backdoor opened on a multi-vehicle garage. No one was visible, but there were some bloody rags on the floor. Prometheus, being fed the video from the Fly-Spy on Void’s shoulder, called Mr. Jumbotron again, stating the contact was not visible and needed to step out or the job was done. Mr. Jumbotron put Prometheus on hold for a minute and then the contact (a human), plus an orc and a troll, stepped out, weapons ready. The contact was obviously wounded. Mr. Jumbotron came back on the line and asked if Prometheus needed anything else. Prometheus said they needed to point their weapons somewhere that wasn’t at his team. Prometheus saw the troll take the order over a commlink from Mr. Jumbotron and then the contact’s team lowered their weapons. Prometheus told Mr Jumbotron that contact was made and hung up.
While still tense, the meeting happened. The troll retrieved the package from a storage room and Murdoc healed Mr. Green Mohawk (the contact), which bought some trust. Once the team had the package, Killroy told the contact and his people to go back into the rooms they had come out of and close the doors. With minor grumbling, they did so. Bookie then killed the cameras in the building so Killroy could give the package to the invisible Fin and she could hand over the collapsible decoy version. Killroy unfolded the decoy to its full size.
In the meantime, Prometheus was keeping an eye on things outside and felt too stretched, so he set the Fly-Spy with him to face the alley and had Sin feed the video to his him directly. Prometheus then got out his SCK Model 100 SMG and readied it, one hand on the Gopher’s window controls. Paranoia was starting to ride high again.
Inside, the team prepared to leave the building: The Fin to make for the edge of the docks and the ladder down to the Electronaut with the actual package, while the rest of the group would carry the decoy.
End of Session
EDIT: Corrected the dates.
Session 1
Session 6 (The previous session)
Session 8 (The next session)
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
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
Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
Killroy – male human street samurai, specializes in hand-to-hand combat
Monday, November 25, 2075
Sin continued the check-out and maintenance of the Electronaut to make it ready for use on Thursday. Prometheus got a Toyota Gopher though his mechanic contact, Wheels. Wheels required a 3000¥ deposit in case of bullet holes - he knows Prometheus pretty well.
Tuesday, November 26, 2075
Bookie hacked the system of Crowley Services, a business near the planned meet. He inserted a work order for a service call on Thursday into their schedule, listing the work group as Mike Nelson, Joel Robinson, Tom Servo, and Gypsy Rose-Lee. He created temporary IDs under those names in their system for Prometheus, Murdoc, Killroy, and Void, respectively. After that he changed the icon for the truck to one for a Crowley Services service vehicle.
Sin put the Electronaut in a lake to verify there were no water leaks and that the rigger controls worked correctly. It checked out perfectly. The Fin spent the day practicing her Scuba skills and verifying all her gear worked correctly.
Wednesday, November 27, 2075
After lunch, Prometheus collected all of the video recordings from the squat apartment and then watched them on fast forward to get a feel for the workings of the docks. He plotted on a map where ambushes would be very effective and then mapped a route in and out to avoid those locations.
The Fin continued her Scuba practice.
Thursday, November 28, 2075, 9:00AM
The team loaded up into the Gopher. Bookie suppressed or changed the icons for the teams’ gear to appropriate (or at least non-threatening) icons. The Fin was in a full-body, insulated dive suit, carrying an emergency air tank and flippers. Her regular air tank was secured inside the Electronaut. The rest of the team were wearing jumpsuits with Crowley Services patches on them, concealing their normal gear.
Murdoc cast invisibility on The Fin and tasked a bound spirit to maintain it. The Fin was also carrying a collapsible duplicate of the package, based on images provided by Mr. Jumbotron. Sin was elsewhere, putting the Electronaut into the bay, but he left two Fly-Spies with the team. Bookie was with Sin in Sin’s nondescript panel van.
9:40AM
The entry team (everyone but Sin and Bookie) arrived at the Harbor Island security gate in the Gopher with Prometheus driving. Prometheus handed over the printed work order and the four visible members of the team showed their (fake) ID badges. The security guard saw that they were on the schedule as an expected group and waved them through. Prometheus drove through the port facilities slowly, so as to arrive at the meeting spot 10 minutes early. He kept to his planned rout to avoid ambush points.
9:50AM
The team arrived at the meeting point, an alley between two buildings, one of which was the Crowley Services building. Prometheus parked perpendicular to the alley so he and Killroy (in the passenger seat) could see down the alley. Also at this time, Sin moved the Electronaut into position at the foot of the docks, right by the nearest ladder. [This put the Electronaut about 40 m from the meeting spot.]
10:03AM
The contact has not shown and there might be a person hiding behind a dumpster down the alley and across the backstreet where the alley resumes between a different two buildings. [It was confusing for us, too, until we had the GM sketch out a map.] Prometheus called Mr. Jumbotron, reporting the contact was no-show. Mr. Jumbotron stated there had been an issue and the meeting was now inside the building to the right, plus the contact had friends with him. Prometheus negotiated a 5000¥ bump in pay for the last minute change of venue and then directed the team into the building.
The back door was adjacent to the alley, but not in the alley. Prometheus stayed with the Gopher while the rest of the team exited the vehicle, walked down to the far end of the alley, and then around the corner to the right, to enter the building. Prometheus kept one of Sin’s Fly-Spies and the other went with Void.
Inside the building, the backdoor opened on a multi-vehicle garage. No one was visible, but there were some bloody rags on the floor. Prometheus, being fed the video from the Fly-Spy on Void’s shoulder, called Mr. Jumbotron again, stating the contact was not visible and needed to step out or the job was done. Mr. Jumbotron put Prometheus on hold for a minute and then the contact (a human), plus an orc and a troll, stepped out, weapons ready. The contact was obviously wounded. Mr. Jumbotron came back on the line and asked if Prometheus needed anything else. Prometheus said they needed to point their weapons somewhere that wasn’t at his team. Prometheus saw the troll take the order over a commlink from Mr. Jumbotron and then the contact’s team lowered their weapons. Prometheus told Mr Jumbotron that contact was made and hung up.
While still tense, the meeting happened. The troll retrieved the package from a storage room and Murdoc healed Mr. Green Mohawk (the contact), which bought some trust. Once the team had the package, Killroy told the contact and his people to go back into the rooms they had come out of and close the doors. With minor grumbling, they did so. Bookie then killed the cameras in the building so Killroy could give the package to the invisible Fin and she could hand over the collapsible decoy version. Killroy unfolded the decoy to its full size.
In the meantime, Prometheus was keeping an eye on things outside and felt too stretched, so he set the Fly-Spy with him to face the alley and had Sin feed the video to his him directly. Prometheus then got out his SCK Model 100 SMG and readied it, one hand on the Gopher’s window controls. Paranoia was starting to ride high again.
Inside, the team prepared to leave the building: The Fin to make for the edge of the docks and the ladder down to the Electronaut with the actual package, while the rest of the group would carry the decoy.
End of Session
EDIT: Corrected the dates.
Session 1
Session 6 (The previous session)
Session 8 (The next session)
Friday, March 20, 2015
Some Notes about Prometheus
Typing up the notes for Session 7, it occurred to me that Prometheus (my character) was doing some stuff that might need some explaining.
Prometheus is heavily cybered, with an Essence of only 0.85. He has Aluminum Bone Lacing, Cybereyes (with Flare Compensation, Image Link, Low-light Vision, Smartlink, and Vision Magnification), Cyber ears (with Audio Enhancement 1, Damper, Select Sound Filter 4, Sound Link, and Spatial Recognizer), Alphaware Muscle Replacement 2, a R6 Cyber Commlink, and a Bioware Synaptic Booster.
He is the team gun combat specialist, with the highest initiative and being able to shoot virtually any weapon made with some level of skill. He is a complete disaster in a social situation, very similar to Leon, from The Professional.
This is a bit one dimensional for a character, but as an occasional GMPC, he works fine. When I’m running the game, the other players tell him what to do and he does it, otherwise he sits back and lets them shine. When I’m playing, he defers to the other players until the shooting starts, then he works hard to keep his team safe by making the other team dead.
The other GMPC is Killroy and he is built along similar lines so to not be critical while the other GM is running, but he is the strongman with a narrower range of weapon skills. We talked this out during character creation so the team would always have a heavy, even when one of was running and our character goes NPC for the run or is just unavailable.
When I'm running the game, I tend to have Prometheus be initially unavailable for the run, to get the players to see what the job is and make a plan. If that plan requires Prometheus, he becomes available. If not, Prometheus stays off stage. This seems the most equitable way for the characters the GMs run to be handled.
Prometheus is heavily cybered, with an Essence of only 0.85. He has Aluminum Bone Lacing, Cybereyes (with Flare Compensation, Image Link, Low-light Vision, Smartlink, and Vision Magnification), Cyber ears (with Audio Enhancement 1, Damper, Select Sound Filter 4, Sound Link, and Spatial Recognizer), Alphaware Muscle Replacement 2, a R6 Cyber Commlink, and a Bioware Synaptic Booster.
He is the team gun combat specialist, with the highest initiative and being able to shoot virtually any weapon made with some level of skill. He is a complete disaster in a social situation, very similar to Leon, from The Professional.
This is a bit one dimensional for a character, but as an occasional GMPC, he works fine. When I’m running the game, the other players tell him what to do and he does it, otherwise he sits back and lets them shine. When I’m playing, he defers to the other players until the shooting starts, then he works hard to keep his team safe by making the other team dead.
The other GMPC is Killroy and he is built along similar lines so to not be critical while the other GM is running, but he is the strongman with a narrower range of weapon skills. We talked this out during character creation so the team would always have a heavy, even when one of was running and our character goes NPC for the run or is just unavailable.
When I'm running the game, I tend to have Prometheus be initially unavailable for the run, to get the players to see what the job is and make a plan. If that plan requires Prometheus, he becomes available. If not, Prometheus stays off stage. This seems the most equitable way for the characters the GMs run to be handled.
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Shadowrun Session Report – The Third Run – Session 06
[This session happened on February 16, 2015. We are now on target and in focus as a group and got the job done, despite a major left curve thrown at us.]
Player Characters
Void – female human physical adept B&E specialist, a shadow that blends in easily
Prometheus – male human street samurai, handy with any firearm
Murdoc – male elf kilt-wearing street mage, at home with the hobos
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
Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
Killroy – male human street samurai, specializes in hand-to-hand combat
Saturday, November 23, 2075, 4:00PM
Sin contacted Kaylee to arrange for a truck with a trailer hitch for the job. She came through again, providing a loaner vehicle for the job, The team had it from 9:00PM until 4:00AM and then it must be back.
Now, the plan was to paint the truck a solid shade of green, so Bookie could edit it out of the front video camera feed like a reverse green-screen effect. The side cameras could be looped, but there was traffic on the road going by Cap’n Freddies and an inopportune vehicle would tip off how and when we did the job. Murdoc was to use physical mask to turn the Electronaut and its trailer the same color so they would not appear on the camera on the way out. Cap’n Freddies closed for the day at 5:00PM and the team planned on doing the heist at Midnight, so they had time to get the truck painted.
At 11:00PM, Prometheus took position in a tree on an adjacent empty lot so he could provide overwatch and a warning if something started to go wrong. The Go/No-Go point for the job was set at 11:50PM and Prometheus settled in for what should have been a quiet wait.
At 11:30PM, the lights went on inside the offices for Cap’n Freddies, despite no one approaching from outside and the building being empty. Prometheus alerted the rest of the team. There were no video cameras inside the offices for Bookie to hack into, so they had no eyes inside, but the job was still tentatively on.
At 11:50, the lights were still on and Prometheus was thinking it might be a timer switch. After a short radio conversation with the team, they decided to wait another five minutes to see what happens.
At 11:51PM, Prometheus heard the sounds of an argument in the office [his Bose cyberears are tweaked for this sort of thing]. The argument got loud and then a guy came running out the front door. Freddie then stepped out of the door and shot the guy down in the parking lot. Bookie could see Freddie’s arm doing the shooting, but not his face on the front camera. Freddie then went back into the offices and closed the door. WTF?
Prometheus immediately called off the job. Something else was going on here and they did not want to get caught in the middle of something they don’t understand. The team completely agreed – plus they could try again in a day or two. Sin returned the truck to Kaylee early for cleaning.
Prometheus then used his burner commlink to call Knight Errant and report a shooting. The operator was somewhat blasé about it until Prometheus forwarded a copy of the video from his Nikon cybereyes. The operator became much more serious and asked Prometheus to stay on the line. Within a few minutes, two police cruisers arrived and four officers got out of the cars. Prometheus had an excellent view of the whole thing and was broadcasting it back to the team. Two officers checked the body and two others knocked on the door. All four officers had weapons drawn.
There was some yelling through the door from both sides and then one of the officers pulled a stun grenade. They then stormed the offices, leading with the stun grenade. There were a few shots inside and then two officers came out, announcing on the radio an unconscious suspect, a dead victim, and requesting more back-up.
Prometheus then started hearing words like “ladder down” and “tunnel”. When four more Knight Errant officers and an ambulance arrived, Prometheus could hear some of the officers searching the inside of the offices a bit, but not all of them. In the meantime, the ambulance guys pulled an unconscious and shot Freddie from the offices and put him in the ambulance. After 10 more minutes, all eight officers exited the offices and called for a full SWAT team and enough officers and support for a full raid on a posh house at the far end of a tunnel that started here and followed the shore of the small lake about a mile.
This was when Prometheus decided to leave the area before he was spotted carrying a hunting rifle. He ditched the burner commlink down the first sewer drain he came across.
Sunday, November 24, 2075, 7:00AM
The morning local news was all about a successful Knight Errant raid on a posh house in a nice neighborhood, completely breaking up an extortion, racketeering, and blackmail operation. The criminals apprehended were all part of the Ghost Shadow Syndicate, a part of the Triads in Seattle. It was the only thing on the local channels all morning long.
The team talked about what to do. The Electronaut was now inside a crime scene and would be stuck there for quite a while. Sin volunteered that he was friendly enough with a desk sergeant to get small favors, but nothing like getting the Electronaut released. The Fin said, “Just make the introductions. I’ll take it from there.”
The two of them went to talk with Desk Sergeant Frank Sipowitz. After some discussion [and the exchange of 900¥ and a good bottle of Scotch], The Fin came out with papers showing that the Electronaut was hers, was not part of the investigation, and could legally be removed from the scene. She, Sin, and Killroy went over to Cap’n Freddies with a pickup. The site was somewhat quiet as all the glory was over at the other end of the tunnel. The Fin presented the papers to the two officers on duty and then had Sin and Killroy load up the minisub while she chatted with the officers.
Once the minisub was loaded, the three of them drove away with it. They took it to Sin’s garage, where he started checking it out and prepping it for the run on Thursday.
End of Session
[So this was not what was planned or expected by the players. The GM had set up the timing on the argument at Freddies before hearing our plan and then just let things play out. I think all the players felt this was way better than what we had planned, but I will admit that at one point I thought I had messed up calling in Knight Errant.]
[I'm not going to list links to every Session as this run took nine sessions to complete. Once they are all posted, I'll go back and add the link for the next session forward to all the posts.]
EDIT: Corrected the dates.
Session 1
Session 5 (The previous session)
Session 7 (The next session)
Player Characters
Void – female human physical adept B&E specialist, a shadow that blends in easily
Prometheus – male human street samurai, handy with any firearm
Murdoc – male elf kilt-wearing street mage, at home with the hobos
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
Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
Killroy – male human street samurai, specializes in hand-to-hand combat
Saturday, November 23, 2075, 4:00PM
Sin contacted Kaylee to arrange for a truck with a trailer hitch for the job. She came through again, providing a loaner vehicle for the job, The team had it from 9:00PM until 4:00AM and then it must be back.
Now, the plan was to paint the truck a solid shade of green, so Bookie could edit it out of the front video camera feed like a reverse green-screen effect. The side cameras could be looped, but there was traffic on the road going by Cap’n Freddies and an inopportune vehicle would tip off how and when we did the job. Murdoc was to use physical mask to turn the Electronaut and its trailer the same color so they would not appear on the camera on the way out. Cap’n Freddies closed for the day at 5:00PM and the team planned on doing the heist at Midnight, so they had time to get the truck painted.
At 11:00PM, Prometheus took position in a tree on an adjacent empty lot so he could provide overwatch and a warning if something started to go wrong. The Go/No-Go point for the job was set at 11:50PM and Prometheus settled in for what should have been a quiet wait.
At 11:30PM, the lights went on inside the offices for Cap’n Freddies, despite no one approaching from outside and the building being empty. Prometheus alerted the rest of the team. There were no video cameras inside the offices for Bookie to hack into, so they had no eyes inside, but the job was still tentatively on.
At 11:50, the lights were still on and Prometheus was thinking it might be a timer switch. After a short radio conversation with the team, they decided to wait another five minutes to see what happens.
At 11:51PM, Prometheus heard the sounds of an argument in the office [his Bose cyberears are tweaked for this sort of thing]. The argument got loud and then a guy came running out the front door. Freddie then stepped out of the door and shot the guy down in the parking lot. Bookie could see Freddie’s arm doing the shooting, but not his face on the front camera. Freddie then went back into the offices and closed the door. WTF?
Prometheus immediately called off the job. Something else was going on here and they did not want to get caught in the middle of something they don’t understand. The team completely agreed – plus they could try again in a day or two. Sin returned the truck to Kaylee early for cleaning.
Prometheus then used his burner commlink to call Knight Errant and report a shooting. The operator was somewhat blasé about it until Prometheus forwarded a copy of the video from his Nikon cybereyes. The operator became much more serious and asked Prometheus to stay on the line. Within a few minutes, two police cruisers arrived and four officers got out of the cars. Prometheus had an excellent view of the whole thing and was broadcasting it back to the team. Two officers checked the body and two others knocked on the door. All four officers had weapons drawn.
There was some yelling through the door from both sides and then one of the officers pulled a stun grenade. They then stormed the offices, leading with the stun grenade. There were a few shots inside and then two officers came out, announcing on the radio an unconscious suspect, a dead victim, and requesting more back-up.
Prometheus then started hearing words like “ladder down” and “tunnel”. When four more Knight Errant officers and an ambulance arrived, Prometheus could hear some of the officers searching the inside of the offices a bit, but not all of them. In the meantime, the ambulance guys pulled an unconscious and shot Freddie from the offices and put him in the ambulance. After 10 more minutes, all eight officers exited the offices and called for a full SWAT team and enough officers and support for a full raid on a posh house at the far end of a tunnel that started here and followed the shore of the small lake about a mile.
This was when Prometheus decided to leave the area before he was spotted carrying a hunting rifle. He ditched the burner commlink down the first sewer drain he came across.
Sunday, November 24, 2075, 7:00AM
The morning local news was all about a successful Knight Errant raid on a posh house in a nice neighborhood, completely breaking up an extortion, racketeering, and blackmail operation. The criminals apprehended were all part of the Ghost Shadow Syndicate, a part of the Triads in Seattle. It was the only thing on the local channels all morning long.
The team talked about what to do. The Electronaut was now inside a crime scene and would be stuck there for quite a while. Sin volunteered that he was friendly enough with a desk sergeant to get small favors, but nothing like getting the Electronaut released. The Fin said, “Just make the introductions. I’ll take it from there.”
The two of them went to talk with Desk Sergeant Frank Sipowitz. After some discussion [and the exchange of 900¥ and a good bottle of Scotch], The Fin came out with papers showing that the Electronaut was hers, was not part of the investigation, and could legally be removed from the scene. She, Sin, and Killroy went over to Cap’n Freddies with a pickup. The site was somewhat quiet as all the glory was over at the other end of the tunnel. The Fin presented the papers to the two officers on duty and then had Sin and Killroy load up the minisub while she chatted with the officers.
Once the minisub was loaded, the three of them drove away with it. They took it to Sin’s garage, where he started checking it out and prepping it for the run on Thursday.
End of Session
[So this was not what was planned or expected by the players. The GM had set up the timing on the argument at Freddies before hearing our plan and then just let things play out. I think all the players felt this was way better than what we had planned, but I will admit that at one point I thought I had messed up calling in Knight Errant.]
[I'm not going to list links to every Session as this run took nine sessions to complete. Once they are all posted, I'll go back and add the link for the next session forward to all the posts.]
EDIT: Corrected the dates.
Session 1
Session 5 (The previous session)
Session 7 (The next session)
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Shadowrun Session Report – The Third Run – Session 05
[This session happened on February 9, 2015. The group is getting more focused as we start the preliminary runs for the big one.]
Player Characters
Void – female human physical adept B&E specialist, a shadow that blends in easily
Prometheus – male human street samurai, handy with any firearm
Murdoc – male elf kilt-wearing street mage, at home with the hobos
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
Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
Killroy – male human street samurai, specializes in hand-to-hand combat
Saturday, November 23, 2075, 12:30AM
[RetCon: During the meeting in the dead man’s apartment, The Fin asked Mr. Jumbotron for an empty Ebony credstick for part of the job. He produced one on the spot from a jacket pocket. After the meeting, she had Bookie rig it to show maximum value.]
Continuing his chase of the unknown drone, Sin was able to follow it via his own drone past Harbor Island when suddenly the link went dead. Reviewing the video, Sin spotted a flash near one of the cargo cranes just before the link dropped – someone sniped his drone!
Sin asked Prometheus to check the video from the apartment. Doing so, Prometheus confirmed that Sin’s drone was hit by a sniper on one of the cargo cranes. Unfortunately, the camera does not have high enough resolution to get any kind of identification on the sniper. Paranoia is running high, but the run continued.
Sunday, November 24, 2075, 11:00PM
The Fin and Killroy went to Cap’n Freddies disguised as a corporate exec and her bodyguard. Flashing her Ebony credstick got Freddie’s immediate attention and they started looking through the stock on the lot.
Meanwhile, Void infiltrated the office shack through a back door. Bookie had hacked the security system and looped the cameras Void would otherwise have shown on. The back door opened onto a maintenance/storage area that did not connect to the offices. Near the back of the storage area, Void cut through the ceiling and accessed the crawlspace above. She disconnected a HVAC duct and squeezed into the messiest office she’d ever seen. It took some time to find the datastick she was supposed to swap for Sin’s contact. She squeezed back through the HVAC vent and got the duct back in place just as Freddie returned to his office with The Fin and Killroy in tow. She then cautiously left through the back door and exited the premises.
End of Session
[This was a short write-up, but the infiltration run was plenty tense due to the short amount of time Void had to break in, find and swap the chip, and then get out. She literally finished reattaching the duct to the vent the minute Freddie returned to his office. Quite the nail-biter.]
EDIT: Corrected the dates.
Session 1
Session 4 (The previous session)
Player Characters
Void – female human physical adept B&E specialist, a shadow that blends in easily
Prometheus – male human street samurai, handy with any firearm
Murdoc – male elf kilt-wearing street mage, at home with the hobos
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
Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
Killroy – male human street samurai, specializes in hand-to-hand combat
Saturday, November 23, 2075, 12:30AM
[RetCon: During the meeting in the dead man’s apartment, The Fin asked Mr. Jumbotron for an empty Ebony credstick for part of the job. He produced one on the spot from a jacket pocket. After the meeting, she had Bookie rig it to show maximum value.]
Continuing his chase of the unknown drone, Sin was able to follow it via his own drone past Harbor Island when suddenly the link went dead. Reviewing the video, Sin spotted a flash near one of the cargo cranes just before the link dropped – someone sniped his drone!
Sin asked Prometheus to check the video from the apartment. Doing so, Prometheus confirmed that Sin’s drone was hit by a sniper on one of the cargo cranes. Unfortunately, the camera does not have high enough resolution to get any kind of identification on the sniper. Paranoia is running high, but the run continued.
Sunday, November 24, 2075, 11:00PM
The Fin and Killroy went to Cap’n Freddies disguised as a corporate exec and her bodyguard. Flashing her Ebony credstick got Freddie’s immediate attention and they started looking through the stock on the lot.
Meanwhile, Void infiltrated the office shack through a back door. Bookie had hacked the security system and looped the cameras Void would otherwise have shown on. The back door opened onto a maintenance/storage area that did not connect to the offices. Near the back of the storage area, Void cut through the ceiling and accessed the crawlspace above. She disconnected a HVAC duct and squeezed into the messiest office she’d ever seen. It took some time to find the datastick she was supposed to swap for Sin’s contact. She squeezed back through the HVAC vent and got the duct back in place just as Freddie returned to his office with The Fin and Killroy in tow. She then cautiously left through the back door and exited the premises.
End of Session
[This was a short write-up, but the infiltration run was plenty tense due to the short amount of time Void had to break in, find and swap the chip, and then get out. She literally finished reattaching the duct to the vent the minute Freddie returned to his office. Quite the nail-biter.]
EDIT: Corrected the dates.
Session 1
Session 4 (The previous session)
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Shadowrun Session Report – The Third Run – Session 04
[This session happened on February 2, 2015. A lot of talking and planning this session, plus we (the entire group) were still not very focused, so not a lot actually happened.]
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
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
Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
Killroy – male human street samurai, specializes in hand-to-hand combat
Saturday, November 23, 2075, 1:00 AM
Sin got one of his Fly-Spy drones to apartment 3E, the one “Spiderman” was observed going into. Observing no interior lights and all the windows closed, Sin looked for a way to get the Fly-Spy inside. He found the dryer duct worked as an entrance. Once the drone was inside, Sin broadcasted the video signal so the team could watch and record it. There was no movement nor anyone visible in the living room/breakfast nook/kitchen area. Sin moved the drone into one of the bedrooms and found a body with a combat knife buried to the hilt sticking out of it. There were also three bullet holes in the body. Sin had the drone do a quick 180 and got it out of there.
The team reviewed the video tape and noticed two significant things:
There was an extended conversation at this point about what to do and whether their observation squat was compromised or would be if the police came to investigate the body. After a couple hours of discussion, the group decided that with the cold weather, the open window, and Bookie remotely shutting off the heater, the body would not be noticed by the neighbors for long enough that the run was not compromised. Several of Sin’s smaller drones were positioned to observe apartments 2B, the parking lot, and apartment 3E for additional operational security. The group then dispersed to their homes with the exception of Prometheus, who stayed in the squat to keep an eye on the video camera recording the docks.
With his paranoia quietly gnawing at him, Prometheus decided to send an anonymous message to Mr. Jumbotron (as the runners now referred to Mr. Johnson, but never where he could hear them). The message contained an image of the body in 3E and an image of the ID badge. An hour later, Mr. Jumbotron contacted Prometheus and asked for more details [Prometheus isn’t very good at the whole “sending anonymous messages” thing]. Prometheus related everything the group knew and then asked if the dead man was related to “the project”. Mr. Jumbotron did not answer the question, but requested [demanded, actually] a meeting at midnight in apartment 3E. Prometheus passed the word to The Fin and let her contact the rest of the team.
At midnight, The Fin, Prometheus, Void, Murdoc, and Killroy met Mr. Jumbotron in 3E and reviewed what they knew. Mr. Jumbotron insisted the project was still good and the team should continue on – he would have this quietly cleaned up so the police would not get involved.
Leaving the meeting, several people notice a drone that might have been listening to the meeting fly away. Sin dispatched one of his drones to start tailing the fleeing drone. A quick security sweep turned up a vehicle rigged for remote control with a camera pointing at the building apartment 2B is in. Murdoc sent a water spirit to investigate the rigged car and found some sort of electrical devices in the trunk along with some large tanks. After Murdoc reported that, Bookie quickly hacked the car’s control systems and drove it into the bay.
End of Session
Session 1
Session 3 (The previous session)
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
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
Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
Killroy – male human street samurai, specializes in hand-to-hand combat
Saturday, November 23, 2075, 1:00 AM
Sin got one of his Fly-Spy drones to apartment 3E, the one “Spiderman” was observed going into. Observing no interior lights and all the windows closed, Sin looked for a way to get the Fly-Spy inside. He found the dryer duct worked as an entrance. Once the drone was inside, Sin broadcasted the video signal so the team could watch and record it. There was no movement nor anyone visible in the living room/breakfast nook/kitchen area. Sin moved the drone into one of the bedrooms and found a body with a combat knife buried to the hilt sticking out of it. There were also three bullet holes in the body. Sin had the drone do a quick 180 and got it out of there.
The team reviewed the video tape and noticed two significant things:
- The curtain of one of the windows in the breakfast nook area fluttered from a breeze. The windows had all been closed when Sin scouted the outside, so the assassin had exited the apartment while Sin’s drone was crawling through the dryer vent.
- There was an ID tag on a lanyard hanging from the inside doorknob in the bedroom with the body. After some computer enhancement, it was identified as a FHM ID badge for a William Roskinsr. FHM was the same company that hired the team for the current run. Paranoia started rearing its head.
There was an extended conversation at this point about what to do and whether their observation squat was compromised or would be if the police came to investigate the body. After a couple hours of discussion, the group decided that with the cold weather, the open window, and Bookie remotely shutting off the heater, the body would not be noticed by the neighbors for long enough that the run was not compromised. Several of Sin’s smaller drones were positioned to observe apartments 2B, the parking lot, and apartment 3E for additional operational security. The group then dispersed to their homes with the exception of Prometheus, who stayed in the squat to keep an eye on the video camera recording the docks.
With his paranoia quietly gnawing at him, Prometheus decided to send an anonymous message to Mr. Jumbotron (as the runners now referred to Mr. Johnson, but never where he could hear them). The message contained an image of the body in 3E and an image of the ID badge. An hour later, Mr. Jumbotron contacted Prometheus and asked for more details [Prometheus isn’t very good at the whole “sending anonymous messages” thing]. Prometheus related everything the group knew and then asked if the dead man was related to “the project”. Mr. Jumbotron did not answer the question, but requested [demanded, actually] a meeting at midnight in apartment 3E. Prometheus passed the word to The Fin and let her contact the rest of the team.
At midnight, The Fin, Prometheus, Void, Murdoc, and Killroy met Mr. Jumbotron in 3E and reviewed what they knew. Mr. Jumbotron insisted the project was still good and the team should continue on – he would have this quietly cleaned up so the police would not get involved.
Leaving the meeting, several people notice a drone that might have been listening to the meeting fly away. Sin dispatched one of his drones to start tailing the fleeing drone. A quick security sweep turned up a vehicle rigged for remote control with a camera pointing at the building apartment 2B is in. Murdoc sent a water spirit to investigate the rigged car and found some sort of electrical devices in the trunk along with some large tanks. After Murdoc reported that, Bookie quickly hacked the car’s control systems and drove it into the bay.
End of Session
Session 1
Session 3 (The previous session)
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Shadowrun Session Report – The Third Run – Session 03
[This session happened on January 26, 2015. We started late and things went a bit slow as we (the entire group) were not very focused. This lasts two more sessions as we do recon and gather information, which tends to leave certain characters with little to do. That said, all the planning and research means we are very prepared for the run when it happens.]
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
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
Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
Killroy – male human street samurai, specializes in hand-to-hand combat
Friday, November 22, 2075
Sin spent some time during the afternoon flying a Lockheed Optic-X2 around to check out Cap’n Freddies [sic], where his contact, Kaylee, indicated we could find a Proteus Lamprey available for a large five-fingered discount. The big sign over the low office read “Boats! Boats! Boats!” and the lot was full of used boats. Sin got a picture of Freddie and then checked out the stock. In addition to the Lamprey Sin was looking for, Freddie also had a Vulkan Electronaut in stock!
Cap’n Freddie – You’d buy a boat from this guy, right?
Sin contacted The Fin and let her know there was an Electronaut on the lot and plans were immediately changed. With an Electronaut, SCUBA gear will not be necessary for the run, nor would water-proofing the package be necessary. The plan for the run was to get the package and one team member into the minisub and have Sin remote-pilot it around the island while the rest act as a decoy for anyone attempting an intercept. The plan for stealing the Electronaut would take some thinking.
To get operational data on the various dock facilities on Harbor Island, The Fin and Bookie investigated the marina apartments on the south end of Harbor Island to see if the team could rent or commandeer an apartment for the run. The Fin went to the leasing office, acting as a corporate scout looking for a corporate apartment. She got the floorplans and prices, which let the group decide that squatting would be the better way to go, budget-wise. After the rental office closed, Bookie hacked the rental office’s computer system to get a record of all the leases and what the current occupancy status was on all of the apartments.
Looking at the maps, Prometheus indicated that two of the empty apartments lined up well for observation, one on the 2nd floor and one on the 4th floor. Sin sent a Fly-Spy to the apartments to check the sighting angles and which neighboring apartments were actively occupied. The 4th floor apartment’s line-of-sight on the docks was blocked by the West Seattle Bridge, so Prometheus chose the 2nd floor apartment, Apartment 2B, as the best place to set up a camera to observe the rest of Harbor Island.
At Midnight, Prometheus and Void met a couple blocks from the apartments and walked over. Void led Prometheus over the fence and through gaps in the security camera coverage. As they are approaching the selected building, Void spots a person in all black climbing an outside wall and breaking into an apartment on the 3rd floor of a different building than their target. Void and Prometheus stayed hidden until the mystery man (now dubbed “Spiderman”) finished breaking in. They then quietly passed around the far side of that building and broke into 2B. Once inside (and after verifying the apartment was empty), they contacted The Fin to report that they were in and what they had seen. The Fin requested Sin immediately send a drone to see if “Spiderman” was a runner returning home or if something was happening that might draw police attention to the apartments.
In the meantime, Prometheus unpacked the camera and supplies he had brought and set up light housekeeping in the furnished apartment.
End of Session
Session 1
Session 2 (The previous session)
Session 4 (The next session)
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
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
Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
Killroy – male human street samurai, specializes in hand-to-hand combat
Friday, November 22, 2075
Sin spent some time during the afternoon flying a Lockheed Optic-X2 around to check out Cap’n Freddies [sic], where his contact, Kaylee, indicated we could find a Proteus Lamprey available for a large five-fingered discount. The big sign over the low office read “Boats! Boats! Boats!” and the lot was full of used boats. Sin got a picture of Freddie and then checked out the stock. In addition to the Lamprey Sin was looking for, Freddie also had a Vulkan Electronaut in stock!
Sin contacted The Fin and let her know there was an Electronaut on the lot and plans were immediately changed. With an Electronaut, SCUBA gear will not be necessary for the run, nor would water-proofing the package be necessary. The plan for the run was to get the package and one team member into the minisub and have Sin remote-pilot it around the island while the rest act as a decoy for anyone attempting an intercept. The plan for stealing the Electronaut would take some thinking.
To get operational data on the various dock facilities on Harbor Island, The Fin and Bookie investigated the marina apartments on the south end of Harbor Island to see if the team could rent or commandeer an apartment for the run. The Fin went to the leasing office, acting as a corporate scout looking for a corporate apartment. She got the floorplans and prices, which let the group decide that squatting would be the better way to go, budget-wise. After the rental office closed, Bookie hacked the rental office’s computer system to get a record of all the leases and what the current occupancy status was on all of the apartments.
Looking at the maps, Prometheus indicated that two of the empty apartments lined up well for observation, one on the 2nd floor and one on the 4th floor. Sin sent a Fly-Spy to the apartments to check the sighting angles and which neighboring apartments were actively occupied. The 4th floor apartment’s line-of-sight on the docks was blocked by the West Seattle Bridge, so Prometheus chose the 2nd floor apartment, Apartment 2B, as the best place to set up a camera to observe the rest of Harbor Island.
At Midnight, Prometheus and Void met a couple blocks from the apartments and walked over. Void led Prometheus over the fence and through gaps in the security camera coverage. As they are approaching the selected building, Void spots a person in all black climbing an outside wall and breaking into an apartment on the 3rd floor of a different building than their target. Void and Prometheus stayed hidden until the mystery man (now dubbed “Spiderman”) finished breaking in. They then quietly passed around the far side of that building and broke into 2B. Once inside (and after verifying the apartment was empty), they contacted The Fin to report that they were in and what they had seen. The Fin requested Sin immediately send a drone to see if “Spiderman” was a runner returning home or if something was happening that might draw police attention to the apartments.
In the meantime, Prometheus unpacked the camera and supplies he had brought and set up light housekeeping in the furnished apartment.
End of Session
Session 1
Session 2 (The previous session)
Session 4 (The next session)
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