Shadowrun Report – A Dwarf in Need – Session 1

[This session happened on April 20, 2015.  Once again switching to the other GM as he had an idea for a run and I didn’t.  Bookie’s player is wrapping up a semester at college and so should be back by the time we play session 2, so he was ghosted in as an NPC.  Sin’s player was also wrapped up in some classwork and could not attend, but is expected to be available for later sessions, so he was ghosted as well.]

Player Characters

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
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)
Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
Sin – male human rigger, knows exactly the wrong thing to say and says it



Tuesday, December 24, 2075
The Fin received an early afternoon call from Svetlana Sabelanskya, her wetwork contact.  Svetlana asked if The Fin could put together a crew for some protection work starting in three days.  The Fin said it was very likely she could, depending on pay and the “fun” factor.  Svetlana indicated the “fun” potential could be quite high.  Svetlana then asked for a list of names and descriptions once The Fin had the team together so the client would know who they would be meeting.  The Fin agreed to supply this information and then started calling the other members of the Pleiades Group.

After contacting the rest of the Group and confirming they were available, The Fin sent Svetlana the list, but explained that only she, The Fin would be physically present.  The rest of the Group would be attending virtually so as to avoid crowding the client (and to avoid having several loose cannons present).  Svetlana arranged the meeting at a posh restaurant with private dining areas.

The Fin met later that afternoon with the client, a dwarf who said she could call him “Sam”.  Sam told her he makes his money by sniffing out other peoples deals and then swooping in to close the deal.  As a result, he doesn’t make many friends and collects the occasional death threat.  He recently received a death threat he is taking serious as it was delivered attached to his butler by a knife in the butler’s back.  Inside Sam’s home.

Sam was fairly certain this was in relation to a recent business deal he sniped.  He didn’t know it at the time, but a branch of the Triad’s were the losers in the deal.  The day after closing the deal the death threat and dead butler appeared, so he was fairly certain who the aggrieved party was.  [NOTE: Sam was pretty relaxed about all this and didn’t seem terribly concerned.  The players found this odd, but perhaps that’s just the kind of person he is.]

The main job was to protect Sam for four days, starting Friday, with an option to extend the contract if Sam wishes to do so.  The Pleiades Group would get paid 70,000¥ on Day 4 and the value of the extension would be something similar.  Sam also offered some additional money for two side jobs.  The first was 35,000¥ to find out what the deal is: is there a bounty on Sam, has a hitman been hired, is a Triad officer trying to save face, or what.  The second side job was another 35,000¥ to “fix the situation”.

The group relayed a series of questions for Sam through The Fin:

• How soon can we show up?  Now.
• Who’s protecting Sam now? “some people” – Northbridge Security Group, a private security firm.  Northbridge’s point of contact is Robert Kovacic [pronounced “Ko-va-chik”]
• Does Northbridge know they are being replaced?  Not yet.
• Will Sam let them know?  Yes
• When?  Tonight
• What time Friday does the job actually start?  11:00am [Sam was initially vague, but the players pressed for a specific time.]

The Fin negotiated with Sam for some up-front money and a half the base pay in escrow until Friday, in case Sam gets killed before 11:00am Friday.  Sam easily agrees to both conditions, immediately providing a credstick with 15,000¥ on it for expenses.  [Some might say “suspiciously easy”.]

After a short side discussion amongst the Group, The Fin accepted the job on behalf of the Pleiades Group.  Sam then delivered data relevant to the job: blueprints to his home, the address of the same, and the relevant information he had on the Triads he thought were after him.  The Fin quickly transmitted this data to Bookie so the rest of the Group could start looking it over.

Sam then asked The Fin if she wanted a tour of his home.  She said she did, so they left the restaurant.  Sam was driven in his own vehicle while The Fin drove hers.  Sam’s place was in a nice part of Bellevue with large grounds, especially in relation to the portion of the house above ground.  The Group, watching through The Fin’s video feed, noticed the following:

• The property was fenced with metal anti-scaling fencing and the top appeared to be electrified.
• There was a security gate with a guard, but the guard shack was actually back from the gate, with only a camera and an intercom terminal at the gate itself.
• The gate was controlled electronically from the guard shack.
• The property was landscaped with low flower beds and skinny trees with no foliage lower than 6 feet, providing excellent fields of fire from the house.
• The driveway went from the gate to both the house and a stand-alone garage.

• The driveway formed an oval in front of the house.
• The garage appeared to be a standard 6-car garage, but the blueprints showed it connected via a car lift to an underground garage that seems to hold a large car collection.
• There was no covered connection between the garage and the house above ground (although there was a path).  On the blueprints, the primary connection between the garage and the house appeared to be underground.

The Fin was directed by the gate guard to park in front of the house, which she did.  After a few minutes, Sam opened the door for her and proceeded to show her around the house.  [The GM left his player handouts at home, so we kind of skimmed over this part, knowing we’d have the actual maps in the next session.]  The above ground portion of the house was two floors plus fined attic space, with the servants housed on the second floor and in the finished attic space.  The ground floor was designed for entertaining.

Below ground were three more floors, each with a footprint significantly larger than the above ground floors.  The top floor was the main kitchen and guest rooms, plus a passage to the car collection under the garage.  The middle floor was living and entertainment area, while the bottom floor was all Sam’s bedroom, clothes closets, huge bathroom, a few opulent guest rooms, and his panic room.  According to the blueprints, there were several concealed passages and actual slides allowing access to the panic room from the upper floors.  These passages were sized for dwarves and would be claustrophobic to anyone taller.

According to Sam, he had a household staff of 60 people, half of whom were house security.  Northbridge Security Group also had an average of 20 people on site to increase security.

While The Fin was getting the tour, the rest of the Group went over the data provided and what Sam was sharing.  Prometheus came to be of the opinion that Sam wasn’t hiring the Pleiades Group for security, but to “fix the problem,” but doing so in a way that no one could accuse him of hiring people to attack the Triads.

End of Session

[The Fin got to see the knife and the threat found in the previous butler’s back.  She was able to determine which branch of the Triad’s seemed to be targeting Sam and it was not the branch Sam thought it was.  I didn’t capture this in my notes, but I remember it happening as I started looking to see if it was the same branch the players messed with back in Mak Attack (the Eighty-Eights).  I’ll update this part when I get a chance to confer with the other players.]

[Additionally, there was no game April 27th as the GM and Void's player were at a Jazz Festival.  We had a movie night and watched Big Hero 6 and then played a game of King of New York instead.]

Session 2

Combat Cheat Sheet – Initiative Sequence

We’ve caught up to the game with my Session Reports, so I have to slow down posting those to once a week.  My goal is to get them posted Tuesday of the following week.  This means the session report for this week’s game will post Tuesday of next week.  Thursday’s will cover other things I have ready to post.

Today’s posting is one of the cheat sheets I put together to get combat correct as I’m learning the system.  It covers the Physical Initiative Sequence – next week I’ll post the one for the Physical Combat Sequence.

The rulebook has a great deal of material to cover and so has to condense many things into as small a package as possible.  As a result, some sections are particularly dense and it is easy to miss things, some of which can be very important.  I plan on putting together something similar for Matrix combat and Magic combat.  I’ll probably put together a supplemental on Rigger combat as it overlaps Physical combat and Matrix combat (or appears to – it might not once I dig into it).  Once I have them all done, I’ll make a PDF and post it in the downloads widget.

NOTE: my HTML formatting skills are not my strongest skills - I'm a Word guru.  The Word file has much better formatting than I can get here.  The PDFs will have the superior formatting.

Physical Initiative Sequence
Shadowrun, 5th Ed.

Overview

• Initiative is rolled each Combat Turn
• Initiative is changed by wound modifiers as they happen (meaning as you are wounded, your initiative drops immediately).
• Initiative suffers a -10 modifier for the first Combat Turn if you enter combat after it has started.
• You can spend Edge to automatically go first this Combat Turn.  This does not change your initiative roll otherwise.
• You can spend Edge to roll 5d6 as part of your initiative roll for a single Combat Turn.

Process (p. 158)

1.     Roll Initiative:
        a. See Initiative Attribute Chart on p159 for attributes and base initiative dice for each type of initiative.
2. Begin Initiative Pass
        a. Highest to lowest
        b. Ties broken by ERIC: Edge, Reaction, Intuition, Coin toss
3. Begin Action Phase
        • Taking a Delayed Action is declared here, plus if going before, after, or the same time as an acting character. (p161)
        • Actions taken in a Delayed Action are at -1 die.
        a. Declare Actions (p163)
                • 2 Simple actions or
                • 1 Complex action plus 1 Free action (Free actions can be saved until later)
        b. Resolve Actions
                • Walk = Agility x2
                • Run = Agility x4
                • Sprinting is a Running+Strength[Physical] test.  Maximum # of Sprinting tests = Running/2, minimum of 1
4. Repeat Step 3 for the rest of the characters in this Initiative Pass.
        a. Once every character has gone, subtract 10 from all initiative totals.
        b. Begin a new Initiative Pass at Step 2 for all characters that still have a positive Initiative total.
5. When all characters have an initiative total of 0 or less, Return to Step 1 for the next combat turn (assuming there is one).

Remember:

• Running characters take a -2 die penalty for all tasks except a Running skill check.
• Shooting at a Running character has a -2 die penalty
• Shooting at a Sprinting target has a -4 die penalty
• Combat Actions table: p163
• Matrix Actions table: p214
• Magic Actions table: p276

Shadowrun Report – Monkey Business – Session 4

[This session happened on April 6, 2015.  This session was after-effects and wrap-up of the Monkey Business run.  The report is late as I was ill this weekend and had a power outage due to a hail storm.  Fun times.]

Player Characters

The Fin – female human con artist and gambler from India, by way of Russia, posh and elegant
Killroy – male human street samurai, specializes in hand-to-hand combat (and apparently machineguns)
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



NPC’d Characters

Sin – male human rigger, knows exactly the wrong thing to say and says it
Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
Prometheus – male human street samurai, handy with any firearm


Tuesday, December 10, 2075

KONG Eyewitness News

For two hours last night, from 6:00 until 8:00, a group of people brazenly attacked a local chain of restaurants across the Seattle Metroplex in a series of lightning raids, in some cases quite literally.  Monkey Burger! restaurants across the heart of the metroplex were attacked by an unknown number of assailants.  Eye witnesses claim several two-person teams of attackers either broke in during the dinner rush or attacked from the drive-through lane.  In either case, the attackers targeted cooking ranges and cold storage workstations, damaging them beyond repair 

Knight Errant is still investigating the bizarre series of attacks, which included weapons such as machine guns, high caliber rifles, chainsaws, drone-mounted katanas, and even lightning!  As of this time, no group has stepped forward to present believable claims for the rampage.  Knight Errant has assembled a series of images of the attackers, compiled from security footage, pictures taken by by-standers, and artist’s renderings from eye-witness accounts.

At least one group consisted of mages.  This group left a trail of rampage featured lightning bolts, invisible people, and what police are certain was the disguise of a vehicle through magical means.  These images show the two mage suspects police are looking for:

• [Picture of Murdoc in his Aryan yuppie disguise]
• [Picture of The Fin with just her physical make-up]

They were using these disguises:

• [Green Mohawk dude sitting at driving wheel]
• [Faceless business man in a bowler sitting in passenger seat]

Police believe these two used magical masks and therefore these might not be their true faces.  A Knight Errant Mage Hunter unit is investing the attack sites for magical signatures.

A second team, dubbed “Bonnie and Clyde” attacked with either a chainsaw or a heavily customized assault rifle.

• [Picture of a woman and a man from above at a backdoor. The woman has a chainsaw, the man an assault rifle.]
• [Picture of Killroy in disguise standing inside near a freezer, shooting Vera at something off camera.]

Knight Errant suspects these two to be proficient in burglary due to the ease with which they bypassed the door security.  If you see either of these two individuals or this weapon [several shots of "Vera" appear on screen], do not approach them as they are considered extremely dangerous.

Finally, Knight Errant is also looking for the person or persons who controlled the following drones [pictures of Sin’s dualist drones and “Susan”].  Little is known about them, but one of the drones was stopped by Monkey Burger! security [video of downed drone lying on the ground is shown] and Knight Errant is examining it for clues as to its owner.  The Lynx drone had an illegal machinegun modification and is of special interest to Knight Errant.

The burning down of one of the two Monkey Burger! locations in the University District is considered to be an unrelated event and that story can be followed HERE [hyperlink to “The People’s Glorious Revolution – Or Is It?”].

Knight Errant considers all of these individuals to be extremely dangerous.  If you have any information about them or see them, do not approach them – call Knight Errant’s CrimeStoppers tip line immediately and you could win a reward!

End of News Report


In addition to the above news report, all of the local stations were featuring coverage of the Monkey Burger! attacks and news teams were waiting at the remaining untouched locations, which were inside other businesses.  In many cases, these other businesses either closed early or insisted that the Monkey Burger! locations closed to avoid damage to property and people.  Knight Errant security drones and officers were also dispatched to many locations.  These factors combined with the low payout per location convinced the team to call it a night.

Bookie edited all the video footage the team had collected to that only the attacks appear and no one’s face or name is recorded.  He then gave the files to The Fin, who passed them on to Svetlana, the fixer.  By Noon, payment of 35,000¥ was deposited in The Fin’s account and the money dispersed to the team, earning each 5000¥ for the night’s work.

The Fin had the Bugatti cleaned and detailed before returning it to the dealership.  Sin bought Void and Killroy steak dinners for completing his portion of the run.  Void and Killroy also had their Supra cleaned and even filled up the tank before returning it to the location they stole it from.

Murdoc, deciding that his current false ID may be blown, went to Gino, his drug dealer, to get a news false SIN and mage’s license.  This takes 12 days of downtime before both are ready.  He now has ID that says he is Damarius Abiah, a 30-something human woman of Persian ancestry.  He plans on using physical mask to make himself look like the ID.  [Surely nothing could go wrong with this plan.]

Void purchased a dead average-looking Suzuki Mirage so she has personal transportation.  Later, The Fin professionally introduces Void to Svetlana as an asset.  Even later The Fin introduces Killroy to Svetlana, also as an asset.  [This opens up the possibility of Void or Killroy picking up Svetlana as a contact.]

Prometheus spent some downtime increasing his Long Arms and Sneaking Active Skills, adding Throwing Weapons (by practicing throwing grenades), and even increased his knowledge of Sperethiel beyond just the cuss words and insults.  He still speaks it in a monotone that makes elf ears droop.

During this downtime, a news story appears indicating that AIPE had to transfer corporate funds to its New Foods! division to cover repairs and lost income from the Monkey Burger! chain of restaurants so as to keep the New Foods! Division afloat.

End of Session

The other item of business that was settled was in what parts of Seattle do the characters live.  Sin and Bookie’s players were not available, so those still need to be determined, but here’s the rest:

• The Fin: Rosemont Beach in Bellevue
• Killroy: Kent in Renton
• Void: White Center in Downtown
• Murdoc: Milton in Tacoma
• Prometheus: East Renton Highlands in Renton

In addition, the locations of the following three places was narrowed down:

• Pleiades Group offices: Queen Anne Hill in Downtown
• The Ascended Lodge, to which Void is Pledged: International District in Downtown
• The Pacific Lodge, to which The Fin is looking to join: Bainbridge Island in Outremer

Session 1

Session 3, Part 2

Shadowrun Report – Monkey Business – Session 03, Part 2

[This session happened on March 30, 2015.  This is Part 2 of Session 3.]

Player Characters

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


NPC’d Characters

Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
Prometheus – male human street samurai, handy with any firearm


Teams:

Team 1: Void and Killroy
Team 2: The Fin and Murdoc
Team 3: Sin and Bookie



Monday, December 9, 2075

7:21PM, Kent (Tacoma)

Void and Killroy arrived at the Monkey Burger! location in the Tacoma part of Kent to find the increased number of security goons were here and deployed differently.  Instead of being all up at the front, the second golf cart was deployed so it could see the side door directly.  This meant Void and Killroy could not approach the door unobserved.  Needing a new way to enter the building, they contacted Sin and asked him to send one of the Fly-Spies with them to check out the roof.  Sin was a bit busy (his drones had just been in a fire fight and he was attempting to leave the vicinity undetected), but after a moment the Fly-Spy on Killroy’s shoulder activated and flew over the building.  The video showed the roof was flat with A/C and ventilation machinery on top, but also a skylight over the food-prep area.

Void and Killroy stealthed up to the back of the building (where they were least likely to be seen) and quickly got onto the roof.  [Void simply ran up the side of the wall and then assisted Killroy up.]  Staying in a crouch to avoid being seen, they moved to the front of the building where the skylight was located.  The skylight was translucent, but Killroy’s cybereyes had thermographic capabilities, so he was able to easily locate the hot cooking range below them.  A short burst from Vera and the range was no longer operational.

Void and Killroy moved to the back of the building to leave.  Void jumped down to the ground and started to move away, only to discover that the first golf cart had moved to cover the back of the building.  The lone security goon had spotted Void and started to call it in.  Sadly for him, he missed seeing Killroy, who fired two quick shots from his pistol, “Steve”, knocking the guard out with Stick-n-Shock ammunition.  While the other goons were busy calling over the radio for the first goon to report his location, Void and Killroy quickly left the area.

Elapsed Time: 7 minutes
Time to next location: 26 minutes


7:31PM, Greenwood
The Fin and Murdoc arrived in the Greenwood neighborhood and parked across the street from the Monkey Burger! so they could contact Prometheus.  In addition to more security goons at this location, a Knight Errant patrol car was parked in front of the restaurant.  Prometheus was nowhere to be seen.  The Fin called him and he responded he was now available as his previous client had just left the area, all he needed was a target.  The Fin identified the target as one of the cooking ranges inside the building, about three meters to the left of the side door.  Prometheus said he needed to move to make the shot and would call back shortly.

After a minute or so, two small explosions seemed to happen inside the restaurant as Prometheus fired twice into the cooking range with his Remington 950 loaded with APDS ammunition.  The Fin’s phone then rang.  It was Prometheus asking if The Fin needed anything else.  She sent him the last two addresses on her list, explaining that Murdoc was drained and needed to rest for an hour before being able to cast again.  Prometheus asked if the targets were the same and The Fin confirmed they were.  Prometheus then agreed to take care of them.  The Fin then took Murdoc to a nearby park (at his request) to allow him to recover from the drain he was suffering.

Elapsed Time: 8 minutes
Time to next location: 14 minutes


7:35PM, SEA-TAC Airport
Sin arrived at the Private Pilot’s entrance to SEA-TAC, where his passengers and their cargo disembarked.  They exchanged contact information with Sin and agreed to deposit his share of the money when they delivered the cargo and got paid.

Elapsed Time: 2 minutes
Time to next location: 8 minutes



7:45PM, SEA-TAC Neighborhood
Sin and Bookie arrived at the SEA-TAC area Monkey Burger!, where they found a full-on SWAT van parked in front and SWAT officers in evidence in addition to the extra security goons.  After looking over the scene, Sin backed his vehicle into a parking spot facing side of the Monkey Burger! opposite the side entrance.  Sin then asked Bookie if he thought he could hack the controls of a Knight Errant SWAT van.  Bookie said he was willing to find out.

[Start cinematic description mode]

The camera is focused on the Knight Errant symbol on the driver’s door of the SWAT van.  The camera pans up slightly and then focuses in on the door’s locking mechanism.  With a sudden “thunk”, the locks all engage at once.  A muffled voice from inside the SWAT van can just be heard to say “Did you hear something?”  The camera view shifts to the dashboard controls inside the van which suddenly light up.  The engine start sequence displays and the engine comes to life.

Then the sirens start blaring and all of the lights on the van start flashing.

CUT TO the back of Sin’s panel van.  The rear doors slowly open, exposing Susan machinegun barrel.

CUT TO looking from inside of the van, over Susan’s barrel as it adjusts its aim on the Monkey Burger!  On the right side of the shot the SWAT van can be seen peeling out in reverse, lights and sirens blaring.

CUT TO one of the security golf carts, facing towards the front of the restaurant.  The two security goons are looking at the SWAT van as it rapidly backs up.  Their expressions of confusion turn to horror as the van turns, aiming right at them and accelerating!

CUT BACK TO the shot over Susan’s barrel.  Police and security goons are just starting to chase after the SWAT van when Susan’s machine gun fires!  Everyone in view dives for cover as the machine gun rapidly chews a hole in the side of the restaurant.

CUT TO interior of the Monkey Burger! as the fryer units explode into sparks and parts, a short fountain of cooking oil shoots up from both fryers and then splatters on the destroyed machinery.

CUT BACK TO exterior shot of the back of Sin’s van.  Susan slowly withdraws and the doors silently swing shut.

CUT TO shot from above Sin’s van, looking back towards the restaurant.  The van exits the bottom of the scene while in the background chaos erupts at the Monkey Burger!.  There are the sounds of gunfire, screams, and the SWAT van can just be seen pursuing a golf cart full of security goons who are shooting at the SWAT van.

FADE TO BLACK

[End cinematic description mode]

Elapsed Time: 4 minutes
Team 3 done for the evening.


7:54PM, Fircrest
Void and Killroy arrived at the Fircrest Monkey Burger! to find not only the additional security goons, but four Knight Errant police cruisers spaced evenly around the restaurant.  Officers in body armor are standing at the drive through entries, checking vehicles.  There are several news drones circling the restaurant and small crowds stand across the two adjacent streets, waiting for something to happen.  [This location is on a corner, inside the parking lot of a retail strip center.]

Killroy decided to go a little Rube Goldberg due to the situation.  He had Void drive their car into the alley behind the strip center.  There he climbed up onto the roof and set one of his smart-linked machine pistols on the front ledge of the roof, pointing at an adjacent restaurant, minus its silencer.

He and Void then drove across the street to the side of the Monkey Burger! and parked in the gas station there with a clear view of the side wall of the Monkey Burger!, right were the cooking range was on the inside.  Killroy them loaded Vera with APDS ammunition, but kept Vera low so the crowd standing around would not see it.  He then triggered the machine pistol through the smart-link.

The sound of the machine pistol firing drew the attention and fire from all of the police officers and the security goons.  The combined fire quickly turned the front of the greeting card store into an excellent approximation of Swiss cheese.  The watching crowd cried out in excitement and immediately started taking pictures and video with their commlinks.

With everyone else in the area now looking at the greeting card store [or rather, the remains thereof], Killroy eased Vera out the car window and fired a silenced long burst at the Monkey Burger! wall, right where the cooking range was.  Seeing the shots blow through, Void quickly pulled out of the gas station parking just as nearby potential witnesses were realizing where the real action was.

Elapsed Time: 8 minutes
Team 1 done for the evening.


7:58PM, a park in Downtown
The Fin received a call from Prometheus.  Prometheus asked if he was allowed to shoot through someone to do the job.  Before answering, The Fin asked why.  The restaurant was in the University District of Downtown and the local fraternities, having heard of the Monkey Burger! attacks on the news had decided to protect their favorite eating location with a wall of fraternity brothers.  The location had nearly 200 people in fraternity shirts from most of the fraternities on the local campuses and according to Prometheus, “They keep standing in my way.”  The Fin explained, in small words, that Prometheus was not allowed to shoot through anyone to complete the job and that doing so would negate the pay for the job.  Prometheus acknowledged her instructions before hanging up.

[Prometheus had to move to a different location to make the shot, but did so.  This happened “off camera” as Prometheus was an NPC at this point, so no details.]

Elapsed Time: 10 minutes
Time to next location: 4 minutes


8:12PM, a park in Downtown
The Fin received another call from Prometheus while re was waiting for Murdoc to recover.  Prometheus reported there was an issue with the final location – it was on fire.  So were two golf carts.  Plus there was a mob of students yelling and chanting things like “Long live the Revolution!” and “Down with corporate excess!”.  As a result, Prometheus was not certain what to do.

After thinking on it a moment, The Fin ordered Prometheus to leave it alone – the job was done for the night.

Elapsed Time: 2 minutes
Team 2 done for the evening.


End of Session

[It was late when we got to this point, so we saved the wrap-up until the next session.]

Session 1

Session 3, Part 1

Session 4

Shadowrun Report – Monkey Business – Session 03, Part 1

[This session happened on March 30, 2015.  Due to the large amount of things covered, I’ve divided this session into two parts.]

Player Characters

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


NPC’d Characters

Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
Prometheus – male human street samurai, handy with any firearm


Teams:

Team 1: Void and Killroy
Team 2: The Fin and Murdoc
Team 3: Sin and Bookie


Monday, December 9, 2075 (Continued)

6:30PM, Issaquath
Having worked out a solid method of achieving their goals, Void and Killroy stuck with it.  They quietly stepped up to the Employees Entrance and Void picked the lock in a little less than 6 seconds.  Killroy stepped into the noisy kitchen area and fired the silenced Vera (his favorite assault rifle) at the cooking range, quickly destroying it.  As the Monkey Burger! employees were trying to figure out what was happening, Killroy and Void slipped away into the night.

Elapsed Time: 1 minute
Time to next location: 34 minutes

6:41PM, Central
Sin arrived back in Central, barely a half-hour after hitting both Monkey Burger! in the neighborhood.  Knight Errant presence is wide-spread and very noticeable.  Playing it cool, Sin drove to the Pratt Fine Arts Center on Grid Guide, letting the automated driving system handle everything.  Once there he pulled into the loading dock and called the number Kaylee had supplied.  After a terse conversation, four people exited the art center’s rear doors and piled into the back of Sin’s GMC Bulldog step-van demanding that he leave NOW.  As Sin calmly pulled out of the parking lot, he could see flashing lights go off inside the art center and in the near distance hear police sirens start up.  Sin realized that whatever his passengers had been doing to keep the alarms from going off had stopped and now was the time to get out of the area, pronto.  He stepped on the gas and, through some creative driving, was nowhere to be seen when the police surveillance drones converged on the art center.

Elapsed Time: 9 minute
Time to next location: 28 minutes

6:47PM, Aurora Village
With their Bugatti now disguised as an electric blue Lamborghini, The Fin and Murdoc went through one of the drive-through lines at their target, ordering a pair of Jungle Meals™.  Murdoc himself was physically masked as a businessman in a bowler with no face, while The Fin was wearing the earring that makes the wearer look like Mr. Green Mohawk from the previous run.  Once they were at the window, the cashier turned to get their payment for the food and paused when she saw no face on Murdoc.  Before she could do anything else, Murdoc stood up in the seat, held the window open, and fired a lightning bolt past her and through the two refrigerator/workstations behind her.  They both exploded, showering a hail of condiments and sides across the kitchen.  The Fin stomped on the gas and Team 2 took off.

Elapsed Time: 8 minutes
Time to next location: 11 minutes

7:05PM, Thomas
Void and Killroy arrived at their target in the Thomas neighborhood of Renton and noticed that there were additional Monkey Burger! security goons on site, along with a second golf cart for them to move around in.  Two of the new goons were stationed at the front of the drive through lanes, one per lane, and the other two in the additional golf cart, sitting in front of the building.  Luckily, the goons were scrutinizing the people in the vehicles in the drive through lanes to the exclusion of all else.  This allowed Void and Killroy to easily approach on foot at an angle where the building hid them from all of the security goons.  Repeating their tactics from Issaquath, they were in and out in less than 15 seconds, leaving startled employees and a destroyed cooking range in their wake.  Their next stop was picking up one of Sin’s locations across the border in the Tacoma part of Kent.

Elapsed Time: 1 minutes
Time to next location: 15 minutes

7:06PM, Northgate
The Fin and Murdoc arrived at the Northgate Monkey Burger! only to discover the elevated security.  As the new security goons were positioned to stop exactly what this team was planning on doing, they took some time to look the place over before approaching.  Not feeling they had much more in the way of options, they entered the drive through lane again, this time with their Bugatti disguised as a Madagascar Orange Aston Martin Vanquish Volante.  They ordered four banana shakes and then somewhat impatiently waited in line.

Murdoc noticed the security goon at the front of this line giving him the stink eye.  [Murdoc was wearing the same physical mask disguise to avoid having to cast the spell again and the goon noticed this.]  Murdoc casted mana bolt at the goon, but it took a second mana bolt to knock the goon out.  The driver in the car in front of them noticed the guard slump and started getting out of his car to see what happened, so Murdoc cast lightning bolt at a nearby tree to encourage the driver to instead leave immediately.  The driver was convinced and, covered in splintered tree, got back in his car and peeled out, temporarily drawing the attention of the other security goons.

The Fin drove her car up to the now cleared pick-up window.  All of the employees inside were down on the ground seeking cover.  Murdoc could see the four banana shakes sitting by the closed window and attempted to slide the window open.  Unfortunately he could not get a good grip on the smooth exterior of the window and it wouldn't open.  The cashier, however, had noticed his efforts and reached up from cover to slide the lock closed.  This frustrated Murdoc very much – he wanted those banana shakes!

Deciding that expediency was the order of the day, he cast lightning bolt on the part of the window away from the shakes, shattering all the glass, but drawing the attention of the security goons.  Standing in the passenger seat, he cast lightning bolt a second time, this time at the refrigerator/workstations in the kitchen area while grabbing one of the nearby banana shakes.  The security goons moved to flank the car The Fin and Murdoc were in, so The Fin decided to floor the gas and get out of there immediately.  The goons fired submachine guns at Murdoc, who was still standing in the passenger seat, trying to maintain his balance and avoid spilling the banana shake at the same time.  Through some form of miracle, the goons missed Murdoc, Murdoc was able to slide down into the seat, and the shake was not spilled.  In celebration, Murdoc quaffed the shake [which was similar to drinking the shake, but got more on him].

As the two of them drove away, Murdoc informed The Fin that he was very drained from all the magic he’d been casting and maintaining.  There was a very good chance that he might knock himself out at the next location, possibly before the objective was destroyed.  Not liking those prospects, The Fin called Prometheus to see if he was available yet.  Prometheus said he would be shortly – where did she need him.  The Fin gave him the address of the Monkey Burger! in Greenwood.  After a pause, Prometheus replied, “I’m already there.”

Prometheus was working an overwatch job where he provided sniper cover during a street-business meeting happening at the Monkey Burger! in Greenwood.  Prometheus asked The Fin to delay her arrival by five minutes so she would arrive after 7:30, which is when his current job would be over.  The Fin agreed.

Elapsed Time: 10 minutes
Time to next location: 10 minutes + a 5-minute delay

7:18PM, Riverton
Sin, Bookie, and the passengers arrived at the Riverton Monkey Burger!, where security now also included the extra golf cart with four additional security goons.  Sin moved to the back of the truck and prepped his two Duelists and “Susan” for the attack.  The passenger team’s Face, Paco, spoke up and said, “When you said you had to go knock over a Monkey Burger!, I thought it was an euphemism for buying a lot of food.  What are you doing interrupting the run for this?”  Sin’s response was, “This is what I was doing when you interrupted me for a pick up.”  This was hard to argue against.

Sin sent in the three drones from an obscured parking lot near the Monkey Burger! and commanded them to stealth up to the side entrance from the rear.  The Duelists got into position first, but one of them was seen by the security goon watching that drive through line.  The guards moved to flanking positions to attack what they thought was one drone, so Sin orders both Duelists to attack, pushing the fight to out in front of the restaurant.  This provided an excellent distraction, allowing Susan to get into position.  Susan then shot through the side wall, into the cooking range on the other side with “her” machine gun.  While that happened, the security goons downed one of the two Duelists and started working on the second one.  Sin wasted no time issuing a recall order and both drones sped back to the panel van, dodging gunfire.  Once both remaining drones were in the vehicle, Sin drove away, avoiding being seen entirely.

Elapsed Time: 3 minutes
Time to next location: 12 minutes

End of Part 1

[Color quote of the session: blue-nosed, tea-totaling The Fin talking to Murdoc, who is starting to feel the strain from all the magic he’s been casting:

“Isn’t there another drug you could take for that?”]


Session 1

Session 3, Part 2

Shadowrun Report – Monkey Business – Session 03 Delayed

Session 3 covered a ton of activity all over Seattle and is going to be broken into two parts to avoid a giant, single, wall of text.  Due to visiting In-laws, Date Night with my wife, and actual work at work, the first part is delayed.  It will post Tuesday, April 14, with Part 2 posting two days later.  That will give me enough time to write them up and perform QC on the text.  It was more fun than a barrel full of monkeys to run and was crowned “weirdest run I’ve ever played in” by Murdoc’s player.

Tangentially, I’ve also started writing some short fiction to flesh out the different districts in my Champions campaign.  That campaign is not slated to start until this summer, but I don’t have anything more specific than that as there are too many variables right now.  The short fiction will post as I have material written.  The first thing will be a Noir-ish detective piece introducing the Bricktown and Monastery Hill districts.  I have a rough outline and just need time to sit down and finish writing the story out.

Later!

Shadowrun Report – Monkey Business – Session 02

[This session happened on March 23, 2015.  The beginning of the run.  I’m switching to a timeline approach to keep things straight.  It started off easy in this session, but during Session 3 chaos took over.]

Player Characters

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



NPC’d Characters

Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
Prometheus – male human street samurai, handy with any firearm

Teams:

Team 1: Void and Killroy
Team 2: The Fin and Murdoc
Team 3: Sin and Bookie


Monday, December 9, 2075, ~5:00PM

5:00PM
Teams 1 and 2 needed vehicles to do their parts of the run, so they went to get some.  True to their own forms, each team went about this in their own manner.  Team 1 took the straightforward path and boosted a parked Toyota Supra.  They considered it flashy enough to not be flagged in Bellevue as questionable by the police and not so flashy that it would be memorable in Renton.  The Fin on the other hand, would not stoop to using a used car for the run and so she went to an exotic car dealership and conned the salesman into allowing an unsupervised test-drive with a full tank of gas in a Bugati Ultra Sport convertible.  Posh indeed.

6:00PM, Various locations

All three teams hit their designated first target.

Team 1:
Void and Killroy parked in back of the flagship Monkey Burger! in Medina.  Stepping unnoticed through the drive-through line to the back door (a neat trick when carrying a 4-foot long chainsaw), Void picked the maglock in under 10 seconds.  [She attempted to roll for it at first and then realized she could buy the necessary successes in two rounds in an extended test.]  Once the door was open, Kilroy pushed through to the small cubby near the back door where the rear security guard (who had noticed them on the monitors) was just getting up from his chair.  A short burst of “stick-and-shock” ammo from his silenced assault rifle (named “Vera” of course), and the guard went down unconscious.

Checking to see if they’d been noticed, Void and Killroy were pleased to see that the noise from the extremely busy kitchen area had covered them.  Killroy stepped into the kitchen area and called out, “Everyone!  Step away from the stoves!”  This was barely noticed.  What got the attention of the employees was Void starting up the chainsaw and revving it several times.

With eyes as big as sauces the employees scrambled out of her way as she attacked one of the cooking ranges, sending sparks and partially-cooked burgers flying.  One she was satisfied the range was out of commission, she went after one of the refrigerator/worktable units [cold drawers under a work station for assembling burgers].  This time lettuce and tomatos were sprayed across the ceiling as she cut through it.

Just as the front security guard started to respond to the screaming from the kitchen area, Void and Killroy quickly exited through the back door and left the premises.

Elapsed Time: ~2 minutes
Time to next location: 14 minutes

Team 2:
The Fin and Murdoc, using physical mask, presented themselves at the back door of the flagship Monkey Burger! in Yarrow Point as health inspectors.  Due to the busy-ness of the kitchen, the manager was distracted enough to accept their story and pawned them off onto an assistant.  [The assistant was a youth whose voice was still breaking.  Me doing his voice nearly derailed the game due to laughter as none of the players had never heard me do that voice before.  Yes, I do voices for some of the NPCs.]  Under the guise of “inspecting the equipment” Murdoc used lightning bolt to completely wreck a refrigerator/worktable and one of the ranges, much to the dismay of the young assistant.

As the assistant went to go get the manager, Murdoc and The Fin slipped out the back door and drove away.

Elapsed Time: 9 minutes
Time to next location: 16 minutes

Team 3:
Rather than go in himself, Sin sent in one of his Ares Duelist drones, armed with dual katana blades, into the flagship Monkey Burger! in Central.  Marching in through the front doors, the duelist scattered the people standing in line and alerted the guard in the corner something was up.  The guard drew his pistol on the drone and ordered it to halt.  Sin responded by sending in Susan, his Steel Lynx combat drone.  Susan smashed through the front doors and brought her mounted machine gun to bear on the guard.  This got his full and undivided attention.  A short firefight ensued.

The guard scored a solid hit on Susan, but the drone’s machine gun hit him several times across his armored jacket and knocked him unconscious.  During this brief firefight, the duelist drone hacked away at the target equipment, which took much longer than desired, but was quick enough that both drones left the building before the guard in the rear security station could get his armored jacket on and into the kitchen.

Elapsed Time: 2 minutes
Time to next location: 5 minutes


[NOTE: all locations after this are T-shaped buildings with dual drive-through lanes, one on each side of the building.  There is no interior seating at these locations, although there is a walk-up window at the front, where the bar crosses the T.]

6:07PM, Central
Team 3 arrived at the other Monkey Burger! location in Central.  Not wanting to endanger his drones or anyone inside with another firefight [The Fin was insistent that no people get killed – only equipment], Sin instead drove Susan (now armed with APDS ammo) around to the side of the building and shot out the range on the other side, using a drone inside to time the attack so no one was in the line of fire.  He then drove Susan out of there before the lone guard in the golf cart up front could respond.

Elapsed Time: 3 minutes
Time to next location: 20 minutes

6:16PM, Newport
Void and Killroy arrived and decided to change tactics slightly.  As they only needed to take out a single cooking range [smaller location = lower ceiling on allowed damage], using the chainsaw was not necessary.  They walked up to the “Employees Only” door on the side of the building and Void quickly picked the lock.  Killroy stepped in and fired a short burst from Vera (now loaded with APDS ammo) into a cooking range, destroying it.  Killroy and Void then quickly walked away while the security guard was trying to determine what all the screaming was about.

Elapsed Time: 2 minutes
Time to next location: 12 minutes

6:23PM, in route
While on his way to his next target, Sin received a call from Kaylee, his mechanic contact – she needed to call in a favor for some friends.  Her friends were doing a run at a museum in Central and their ride was picked up by Knight Errant, who were unexpectedly presenting a heavy presence in the area.  Something about attacks on a couple fast food places in the area.  They needed someone to come pick them up immediately before Knight Errant noticed they were in the (very closed) museum and Sin owed Kaylee several favors.  Not in a position to argue, Sin agreed to go pick them up, telling Kaylee he’d be at the address in about 20 minutes, depending on how heavy the police presence was.

6:24PM, in route
Sin called The Fin and told her he was going to be delayed on getting his next locations in order to repay a favor to Kaylee.  The Fin was frustrated about this, but Kaylee had really come through for them during the previous run, so The Fin OK’d the change of plan.  She arranged for Team 1 to pick up Sin’s last two locations, Kent and Fircrest.  Void and Killroy were OK with this as their route was the shortest and they were already planning on picking up the Fircrest location anyway.

6:25PM, Bothell
Murdoc wanted to try something different, so when The Fin drove the Bugati [now disguised as a Lotus by way of a physical mask spell] into one of the drive-through lines, he turned himself invisible and got out of the car.  Murdoc then walked up to the Employees Only and attempted to use lightning bolt to fry the maglock.  Instead, he over did the power and WELDED the door shut.  [He critically glitched the roll.]

Luckily, no one inside immediately noticed.  When The Fin got to the front of the line, Murdoc stepped up, held the to-go window open, and then cast lightning bolt over the cashier’s shoulder at the two refrigerator/worktable units that he could see.  This fried the units and scared the be-geebuz out of the cashier.  Murdoc then fell back into the car, his head landing in The Fin’s lap.  The Fin stomped on the gas and got them out of there.

Elapsed Time: 4 minutes
Time to next location: 18 minutes

End of Session


[Color quote of the session:
The Fin: “You what!?”
Murdoc: “Well, I am high…”]

Session 1

Session 3, Part 1

Shadowrun Report – Monkey Business – Session 01

[This session happened on March 16, 2015.  Once again switching back to being GM.]

Player Characters

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



NPC’d Characters

Prometheus – male human street samurai, handy with any firearm
Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser



Monday, December 9, 2075, 1:00PM

The Fin received an early afternoon call from Svetlana Sabelanskya, her wetwork contact.  Svetlana had a peculiar job where the Johnson has specifically requested The Fin.  Svetlana was not entirely surprised the job was offered as she had heard rumors of someone with money asking around about The Fin and The Fin’s group.  Svetlana asked if The Fin would please meet her at The Frelika Tearoom at 2:00pm?  The Fin agreed.

The Fin and Svetlana met at the Frelika Tearoom.  After some small talk while their orders were taken and the tea delivered, Svetlana came to the point.  A Mr. Johnson had a job and had asked specifically for The Fin and her associates.  The job was to vandalize as many locations of the Monkey Burgers! fast food restaurants  between now and Noon on December 11th.  There were both a maximum and a minimum amount of damage that must be done, based on the size of the establishment.  The three flagship locations must sustain between 4250¥ and 8500¥ in damage.  The dual drive-through locations must sustain between 2800¥ and 5600¥ in damage.  The small shops built inside other business musts sustain between 550¥ and 1125¥ in damage.  Payment was based on a per location hit basis:

• Flagships pay out 3000 per location hit,
• Dual drive-through locations pay 2000, and
• Interior shops pay 500 per location.

The following conditions apply:

• No subcontracting
• Must present video showing the destruction happening for each location or no pay
• Must not be positively identified or arrested or no pay
• Must not go over the limit set for damages or no pay

Svetlana was very perplexed about the job and why it came through her, but there it was [and she wasn't going to turn down the handler's fee].  Would The Fin be accepting the job?  After some thought, The Fin accepted the job.

The Fin contacted the rest of the Pleiades Group and arranged an immediate meeting as the clock was ticking on the job.  Prometheus was busy, but promised to call once he was available.  Killroy never answered and The Fin left a voicemail.  Bookie was very drunk, so Sin had to go get him.  Void and Murdoc were available [and sober...when Void was anyways] and agreed to get there quickly.

Once Sin and the sobering Bookie arrived, The Fin laid out the job and a map of the Seattle Metroplex showing the locations of every Monkey Burger! establishment inside Seattle.  The group decided to concentrate on the stand-alone locations only, leaving the interior shops as supplemental or targets of opportunity.  Looking at the map, they divided the restaurants into three routes and broke up into teams, one team per route.  Each route started at one of the three flagship locations and then proceeded to a series of dual drive-through locations.

Route 1 started in Media and then went through Newport, Issaquath, and Thomas.  This route would be covered by Void and either Killroy or Prometheus, depending upon who became available first.  As Void had no weapons designed to damage commercial cooking stations, she borrowed a monofilament chainsaw from Sin, christening the team Team: Chainsaw.  [Sin actually had two chainsaws, he bought them as alternate weapons for his duelist drones, but had not installed them yet.]

Route 2 stated in Yarrow Point and then went through Bothell, Aurora Village, Northgate, Greenwood, and then two separate locations in the University District.  This route was being covered by The Fin and Murdoc and was christened Team: Restrain the Mage.  This route would be the most dangerous as it ended in Downtown, whereas the other two routes ended in lower security status parts of Seattle.

Route 3 started in Central, went to a second location in Central, and then went to Riverton, SEA-TAC, Kent, and Fircrest.  This route was assigned to Sin and Bookie and was dubbed Team: Gimp.  The Fircrest location on this route might be covered by Team: Chainsaw if time became critical.  Void and Sin discussed this a bit so hand-off would be smooth.

The Group started working their contacts to get values for the different pieces of equipment inside the restaurants so they could avoid doing too little or too much damage.  Void paid her hacker contact to track down restaurant blueprints and the prices on large panes of glass.  With all the data collected, The Fin made suggestions on what equipment would make for the quickest work, emphasizing the need for these to be quick in-and-out jobs.  Then the Group started applying disguises so they would not be recognized.  Sin assigned two of his Fly-Spies to the other teams so he could see if anyone else ran into trouble of any sort.

End of Session

[Killroy’s player was unable to attend due to work, so we wrapped this up after the planning stage was complete, which still made a fairly complete session.  I made notes of the various disguise and magic rolls made to obscure identities for use in later sessions.

The players all agreed they run sounded fun and weird and they were looking forward to the actual run starting.  I tried to not giggle too much, knowing what I had planned.  :D]


Session 2