[This session happened February 1st. This session ended up being a spontaneous side job for a side job to the main job. Seriously.]
PCs
Void – female human physical adept B&E specialist, a shadow that blends in easily
Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
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
Killroy – male human street samurai, specializes in hand-to-hand combat (and apparently machineguns)
Friday, March 13, 2076
The afternoon after the caper at the boutique electronics store [see Session 3], the team returned to the Pleiades Group office. Killroy presented Bookie the Fairlight Excalibur cyberdeck, Bookie leering at it as only an alcoholic decker can. Bookie immediately swapped his peripherals over to the new deck and hit the power button.
Instead of booting up, the Excalibur exploded in a shower of confetti! Killroy nearly fell out of his chair, laughing at the look on Bookie’s face!
Somewhere on the way back, Killroy had acquired a dummy cyberdeck and rigged it with confetti bombs as a practical joke on Bookie. While Killroy and the rest of the team were still laughing, Prometheus leaned over to Bookie and said, “I have reasonable rates.” [Killroy’s and Bookie’s players are brothers in RL, which should explain the reason for the prank.]
Once things had settled down a bit, Killroy presented Bookie with the actual Fairlight Excalibur, plus a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label as an apology for the prank. After checking for more confetti bombs, Bookie accepted both the cyberdeck and the apology. He declined to share the whiskey.
The team turned to discussing the next side job – raiding a construction site for a power-actuated fastener [a pistol-shaped tool for firing concrete anchoring bolts into place] and possibly some thermite. Sin and Void had located a suitable construction site near the Federated-Boeing Shipyards in the Downtown district of Seattle. While discussing the details, talk turned to a way to misdirect Knight Errant investigations after the fact. The simplest method seemed to be framing a nearby street gang for the job, possibly by painting some gang-sign on a couple of walls or equipment. Another possibility was leaving a dead ganger on the property, staging the death like an accident. Void had issues with killing anyone we were not being paid specifically to kill [she has Code of Honor: Assassin’s Creed as a negative quality]. Prometheus [who suffers no such compunctions] agreed to throw the ganger off the building himself.
Further discussion suggested a better way: grab several gang members using NeuroStun, disguise ourselves as them while robbing the construction site, “accidentally” miss a security camera when deactivating the cameras, and get recorded by that camera looking like the gang members. The group could then leave the unconscious gangers on the site and reset the security for the site. When the gangers wake up and go to leave, they’ll trigger the security and alert Knight Errant on themselves. Knight Errant will then review the camera footage, arrest the gangers, and we never get tagged. What could go wrong? [A surprising number of things as it turns out.]
Looking into the local gang situation, the only gang in the area that seemed like a good fit were the Troll Killers, a racist bunch of red-necks with a hate on for any of the Awakened races. Perfect. They deal drugs, so Murdoc used his contact Gino to arrange a buy of 20 units of Nova Coke at 11:00 PM that night. The Fin contacted Baelthor [a low-level shadowrunner she hired for the Sam’s Run who happens to be immune to NeuroStun] and hired him cheap to “pop some NeuroStun on some unsuspecting gangers”.
10:00 PM
Prometheus, Killroy, and Murdoc arrived at the scene of the drug deal and scouted it out. After placing some drones to observe the area, they then settled down to wait in a van two blocks away. During this time, Prometheus fell asleep [critical glitch on his Perception test]. No one on the team noticed, but this lapse had consequences…
11:00 PM
Baelthor arrived at the site of the drug buy, followed shortly by three members of the Troll Killers – the dealer and two bodyguards. Baelthor was relaxed and when the suspicious gangers asked him what he had in his hand, he released the NeuroStun grenade and said, “Just a spoon.” The three gangers dropped unconscious almost immediately.
Unfortunately, there was a fourth ganger in a building across the street.
The fourth ganger started shooting up Baelthor, who fell back into a doorway for cover, leaking blood. Sin immediately floored the accelerator on the van Prometheus, Killroy, and Murdoc were waiting in. It took 9 seconds for the van to get to Baelthor, which felt like forever as the ganger continued to hose down Baelthor’s doorway with lead.
Baelthor magically healed himself of some of the damage he had taken and then went on the offensive against the ganger, muttering to himself, “I’m not getting paid enough for this.” Baelthor cast Fireball at the ganger for little effect, exposing himself to the ganger’s next attack. Luckily [for Baelthor], Killroy could now see the ganger’s position [second floor bedroom window directly across the street from where the drug buy was supposed to happen] and fired a grenade from the grenade launcher under-mounted to his Ares Alpha assault rifle. The shrapnel filled the room and killed the ganger just as the van pulled up. Prometheus [wearing a gas mask and chem-sealed armor – the NeuroStun was still active] popped out of the van and dragged the three unconscious gangers into the van. Baelthor piled into the van at the same time. Once all the cargo and the team were back inside the vehicle, Sin drove it away. Baelthor was dropped off at a bus stop outside the territory belonging to the Troll Killers.
End of Session
[Important lesson learned – do not assume your non-mobile drones have all the approaches covered. The fourth ganger had approached form behind the building we had Sin’s drones parked on, so we never saw him until he started shooting. In the future, at least a couple of drones will be on patrol around the area so we do not get surprised by this. If I (as Prometheus) had not critically glitched, we might have been tipped off or known to check for snipers, but that didn’t happen.]
[The write-up for next session will be a bit sketchy as I missed the game due to illness and no one else took notes. Le sigh.]
Session 1
Session 3
Session 5
[This session happened January 25th. My notes are getting better now that we are actually doing things rather than talking out the plans. This session covers the Pleiades Group securing a Fairlight Excalibur for Bookie to use on the main run.]
PCs
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
Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
Killroy – male human street samurai, specializes in hand-to-hand combat (and apparently machineguns)
Friday, March 13, 2076
Looking over the security on the boutique electronics store containing the only Fairlight Excalibur in the Seattle Metroplex, the Pleiades Group realized it would take hours to slowly bypass the many security layers involved. Therefore, the Group decided to do a caper to get the Excalibur instead.
The Fin disguised herself as a sex-bomb lush to distract the small number of morning employees. Murdoc assumed his physical mask personality of Grandma Tang (an unguessably old Chinese woman), then cast invisibility on Void. Killroy positioned himself in the alley behind the store fronts, ready to get to the roof in a moment’s notice. Sin had a previously stolen rigged BMW 400GT parked nearby and ready for use as a get-away car. Prometheus was bodyguarding Sin’s body while he was jumped in. Bookie was keeping Killroy off the local surveillance cameras and providing technical expertise on electronics to The Fin via micro-transceiver.
The Fin went in first. Sashay-ing through the large revolving doors, the deep v-cut of her blouse immediately drew the attention of all three store employees. She asked to be shown the high-end video equipment she needed for her “hobbies”. She immediately received excellent customer service.
Shortly afterward, Murdoc as Grandma Tang entered the store. Void passed through the rotating door in tandem with “Grandma Tang”, the invisibility spell keeping the store employees from being aware of her presence. “Grandma Tang hobbled up to the service desk on the opposite side of the store, set down a computer deck, and then started to slam her cane on the service desk, demanding loudly in broken English, “Race start in 10 minutes. You fix!” Two of the store employees immediately brought an index finger to side of their nose, the third, being a little slow on the uptake, realized he had self-selected to assist the angry Chinese woman. He put on his best customer service face and went over to help “Grandma Tang”.
While the attention of the store staff was split, Void started defeating the locks on the Fairlight Excalibur display. Twelve seconds later, she signaled to Killroy the locks were unlocked and he was up. She then stepped back to a nearby wall and, most importantly, out from under the skylight.
Killroy quickly scaled the back of the building to get to the roof. He was wearing the physical mask earring and looked like “Green Mohawk Dude” [see Session 8 of The Third Run]. Just as he was doing this, an actual customer entered the store, a human male wearing khaki slacks and a polo shirt with a chain store logo on it. This person was nearly under the skylight when Killroy shattered it with a blast from his automatic shotgun, shocking everyone inside the store (except the Pleiades Group members) into immobility.
Killroy jumped in through the now shattered skylight, landing adjacent to the Fairlight display. “Bwa-hahaha! At last – it is MINE!” He pulled out an electronic clicker and pressed one of the buttons, making it beep. He then attempted to lift the display case off the Fairlight Excalibur, intentionally failing. “Oops, wrong button.” He pressed the other button on the clicker, which made a be-beep noise. Killroy then lifted the display case off and tossed it aside. He reached into the display and took the Excalibur off its display, triggering all of the interior alarms, which, among other things, locked down the rotating door.
Pocketing the Excalibur into a satchel, Killroy turned to the innocent bystander and declared, “Don’t let The Man keep you down!” Killroy then shot out an exterior window with his shotgun and exited, climbing into the perfectly timed stolen BMW 400GT that was just arriving. Sin then drove Killroy and the car away.
Back in the store, the employees were blinking rapidly, just starting to come out of shock at the impossible thing that had just happened. Void carefully exited through the missing window pane, careful to not make any noise while walking on the shattered safety glass. The Fin pulled her clothes together and, stating her husband could not know she’d been here, left the store next, shortly followed by the bystander, who was seriously taking Killroy’s words to heart.
“Grandma Tang” resumed demanding her computer be fixed. The store employee attempting to assist her explained that he couldn’t right now as he needed to talk with the police when they arrived. “Grandma Tang” seemed to accept this, picked up her computer, and hobbled out of the store. She asked for assistance stepping over the minimal ledge of the window frame and the employee assisted her leaving the store.
Shortly after “Grandma Tang” left the area, the local Knight Errant HRT arrived to secure the area.
End of Session
[Sometimes shock and awe is just the way to go.]
[Use of the clicker as misdirection was a last minute add to the plan and provided the crazy element that the employees’ memories would focus on rather than what anyone looked like. Bookie (as NPC) was able to scramble the video recordings, so eye-witness reports would be all Knight Errant had to go on. The Fin’s lush disguise would keep the employees from remembering anything above her neck and the “angry Chinese grandmother” clearly had no clue about computers, removing her from the suspect list in the eyes of the store employees and probably Knight Errant as well.]
[Next session is the side job for the Construction Gig side job. Spoiler: it did not go as smoothly as this one did.]
Session 1
Session 2
Session 4
[This session happened January 11th, but I didn’t get around to writing it up until two weeks later. My notes for what happened is barely a paragraph with side notes on which contacts will be used to get what and how much time and money it takes to get things. We did work out which side jobs were going to be necessary for gear and to turn a real profit on this run.]
PCs
Bookie – male elf alcoholic hacker, favors whiskey with a whiskey chaser
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
Void – female human physical adept B&E specialist, a shadow that blends in easily
NPC’d
Killroy – male human street samurai, specializes in hand-to-hand combat (and apparently machineguns)
Wednesday, March 11, 2076 [Later the same evening.]
With a plan in place, the Pleiades Group started hitting up their contacts to locate the necessary gear to complete the run. Sin went to Danny Archer (his fixer contact) and Kaylee (his trusty mechanic/fixer) looking for arrestor wire – it was a long shot with both contacts, but with several military bases in town it was possible to find it. Killroy went to his arms dealer, Leona, to locate an Aztechnology Striker and some thermite (for evidence destruction). Void went to her fence, Sarah, for ten doses of NeuroStun X, willing to pay an expediting fee to get it quickly. Void also contacted her fixer, Shisou Tomodachi, and asked for a set of Gecko Tape Gloves, also paying to expedite that acquisition as Void wanted time to practice with the gloves and associated gear before the job. The Fin contacted Aung San, her fixer contact specializing in acquisitions, and offered 3000¥ for a working harpoon gun, with harpoons, no questions asked. [The Fin effectively paid for a Shadowrun to steal the equipment.]
While this burst of communication was happening, Bookie finally returned from his scouting mission of the Everett Ares host. The host looked brutal and he would need a topline cyberdeck to pull it off. He’d hacked the Fairlight Hub, looking for the nearest Fairlight Excalibur in Seattle. He’d hoped they had a warehouse or storefront of their own in town, but no luck. The only Excalibur in the Seattle Metroplex was in a luxury boutique electronics store in the middle of Bellevue, the center of a AA security zone. After a short discussion, the Group decided it was worth boosting the Excalibur to maximize Bookie’s run on the Ares host to get the route the target would take.
Additionally, Prometheus decided he needed a power-actuated fastening tool [a powered concrete anchor gun like John Malkovich uses in the movie Red] to anchor the harpoon gun for the Smash and Grab backup plan. As he would likely abandon the tool shortly after using it, he did not want to just buy one and leave a trail for Knight Errant to follow. He discussed this with Void and she agreed to go with him to a construction site after hours and help pick up the needed gear, plus anything else that could be resold at a profit. Like a bulldozer or crane.
Thursday, March 12, 2076
In the morning, Void and The Fin, both disguised, went to Bellevue to scope out security on the electronics shop. What they found was not good. The store was on a corner, sandwiched between two adjacent stores and was replete with active security devices [apropos for a high-end electronics boutique]. The Excalibur itself was on a pedestal in the center of the store, inside an armored glass display case with biometric locks and several motion and vibration sensors INSIDE the case. They brought this information back to the office so the Group could plan the heist.
End of Session
[A large part of the actual game time was dedicated to Bookie hacking the Fairlight Hub to locate an Excalibur. Running a decker takes a relatively large amount of real time for the small amount of game time consumed, but what are you going to do? Bookie’s player had hoped to find a warehouse where we could “liberate” more than one Excalibur so we could sell the extras to significantly increase our profit on the run. No such luck. The rest of the session was discussing what gear we needed and who we’d ask to locate it. By spreading the search over many contacts, we kept the value of each request low, keeping the time increment on the contacts’ rolls to one day as much as possible. This also made it difficult for anyone not part of the Pleiades Group from figuring out what we are up to and should make it very difficult for Knight Errant and/or Ares to track us through the gear after the fact. This last part is very important to us.]
Session 1
Session 3
