ProloguesBecause the setting got more complex then I anticipated and almost all players wanted to start with a fresh character I decided to play short missions with subsets of the group to make them get into the setting aswell as into their characters and relationships to each other befor starting with the main quests.
Askahain & YT: A dangerous audio file.Pengpeng & Toybox: Just get the truck out.Esmeralda: A killer's external consciousness.Also, I prepared news bulletins for each team (I planned to make this a regular thing to create rumors and give me the opportunity to reflect media reactions to the Runner's actions).
A dangerous audio file:News: Some clinics of chartiable organisations have been closed down by the police, most recently one of Médecins du Monde. Police chief Marko Brinkschreiber makes a statement illegal medical replications and organ legging were the reason. The public of affected regions is not to worry, BuMoNA has volunteered to take over medical services until the situation is resolved.
A TV-series 'The Crime Fighting Duo' with its legendary Angel Summoner and his side-kick the BMX Bandit is contracted for a second season.
The Runners get contacted by their fixer "der Vogt" with a job offer: A seemingly easy run on a lawyer's office - a data backup archive contains an audio file the client wants to see destroyed. Unfortunately the backup is not connected to the matrix, so someone has to break into the office and get physical access to it.
How it went: Askahain and YT meet in Aska's virtual online world and plan their approach.
YT scouts the building in his disguise as courrier, it is a 30 storey building, with the lawyer's office on the 20's floor. At the 25's starts a high security zone where he cannot persue any further, and the security gets weaker and weaker the lower the floors are. So they decide he hides in one office on the 5th to get locked in and make his move in the night.
With some digging by Aska they find a suitable bureau of a catering and event organisation with low security. YT manages to sneak into one office room of a person that called in ill this day.
Aska meanwhile probes the 20th floor security node for weaknesses while YT confines himself to boredom. Aska hacks the node and obtains the floor's plans. After he gets control of the buildings central security node that controls the corridor's cameras and eleavtor, and the night shift guards have taken over, YT makes his move. He unlocks the door from the catering office and starts the ascent to the 20th floor. To not raise suspicion he uses the stairs, not the elevators, Aska blinding the cameras on his way. YT then works his way through the lock on the law offices main door and after some more lock picking finds his way into the server room. He locates the backup server and connects his commlink, Aska starts to work his magic, locates the file, disarms the data bomb, makes a copy and destroys the file (the file implies a certain Marko Brinkschreiber involved in placing false evidence in the charitable clinics).
Meanwhile YT makes the aquaintance with a translucent, hovering person that appeared behind him. She is not hostile but turns out to be fascinated with his blue hair. Nontheless, she has to do her duty and inform her master of the intruders.
Shortly after, Aksa loses his control of the main security node and YT makes a close escape from the building, cursing the magical security at site.
Consequences: They left their break in very obvious and didn't try to make up a cover target or something of the like, so some security technician figured out what file was targeted, so the lawyer could adjust his strategy/obtain another copy of his initial source, the outcome of the case is not influenced.
Just get the truck out:News: The same about charitable clinics as Aska and YT got.
Some Ruhr-League-Soccer-News.
The Runners get contacted by their fixer "der Vogt" with a job offer: Inside information from some corrupt officers at custom's in Essen pointed out a lucrative target, a truck with second hand cyberimplants will arrive in the middle of the night, get the truck at a precise time when our man inside delays the take over of the next guarding shift.
They think it sounds too easy, but it is paid well so they accept. They make the specifised timing at the secured area of custom's and observe the arrival of the truck. But before the can make a move they observe the arrival of an armored, turret-mounted ambulance from BuMoNA (I only showed the logo together with the abrevation, they only have a vague guess what exactly they are dealing with but recognise it as an armed ambulance). The gates open, it passes, the gates close. And then another party arrives in two black vans, tempering with the gate's mechanisms (Pengpeng started to record the scene) and forcing their way in. They count 6 people in combat gear and assume there are even more in the vans, so they consider themselves outnumbered and stay put, content with just oberserving. Gun shots accour shortly after. Silence. More gunshots. In the subsequent silence they see how the vans and the truck are driving trough the gate and trailing off into the night.
They contact Vogt, tell him what happened and sent him the video footage. He is distressed, confused about the interest the truck apparently had aroused, and telling them he has to do some research he hangs up.
A killer's external consciousness:News: The same about charitable clinics as the others got.
Some news about an exhibition of magical artifacts from giants in the Horgardhaus.
Esmeralda gets contacted by a customer with an uncommon request: He wants to book a seance, but not at her place but in a restaurant. He pays double the usual rate, so she agrees under the condition they get a privat part.
She meets him, he identifies himself as "der Vogt", and though he regards her hand reading entertaining he is not interested in his personal fate. Instead he wants her to perform a farce on a very specific client of hers. It is a regular, she always suspected him being an assassin, but knew better than to ask. Vogt confirms this now, and wants her to dissuade him from his next target.
She is not thrilled by the prospect of fooling a killer, but it is easily earned money. Under the condition that this is a one time thing she accepts the offer.
And indeed, shortly after the assassin makes an appointment with her - she telling him "I already booked you for tomorrow, I knew you would call"
Next day he arrives for his appointment, he always looks different (different face, hair, clothing, walk etc) but Esmeralda recognises his aura. His high degree of cyberimplants render his aura dim and from their previous encounters she knows something of him died alongside with it. She serves as something like his lost spiritual connection to the universe. A bit guilt ridden she commences her fake seance, reading his hand, looking into her crystal ball, playing tarot, commanding an air spirit to materialize out of thin air as a swarm of ravens - and fakes becoming more and more concerned. She convinces him something bad is going to happen and he has to hide abroad for some time.
He thanks her and leaves immedtiately.
Vogt is pleased: This came a lot cheaper then arranging for high security for the target! He then admits he had Esmeralda also assensed when they met in the restaurant to estimate whether she is a fraud or of some usefull powerlevel. He tells her she passed the test and he is always looking for talented freelancers and right now could use some magical addition to his roster - Esmeralda is willing to work again for him, as long as none of her customers is involved.
Mission 1: Damsel in Distress?News: A blood bath occured in Essen in the night, customs and another unidentified party were involved.
Police chief Marko Brinkschreiber involved in the closing of several charitable clinics was dismissed under suspicion of corruption by the Central Anti-Corruption Department.
Some more news about Karl Kombatmage and the Combat Biking League.
Vogt contacts all the chummers, he has a job offer. But he is not charged with the briefing, Johnson will take care of that, he only knows the mission entails an extraction.
The group goes to the meeting which is taking place in a luxury restaurant, the "Ligne d'Horizon", a restaurant built in the skyway between two skyscrapers on the 80th floor. Apparently Johnson is not very subtle about displaying his power - maybe overdoing it a litte.
With the exception of Esmeralda the group does not do well in this noble environment, they look brutish (or on case of Aska, who chose to represent himself only in AR via his pal YT, appear out of place).
Johnson explains the mission: Kidnapped person, her is Miriam van Nitzelroy, last time her commlink was active it was traced to this coordinates which are in Dortmund's north district which is a z-zone. It appears to be under media surveillance right now, so Johnson advices to take precautions accordingly, also puts some nanite masks and face scans on the desk ready for the Runners to use. They fail to become suspicious (in fact the scans are from known Vory Shestiorka - Johnson wanted to cause them some troubles too if he can get it for free this easily) and take the RFIDed suit case.
During the briefing Johnson makes no secret of his animosity towards shadowrunners in general and these types in particular. His starting offer reflects that. The Runners try to negotiate, but they fail to appear as a unified front: Toybox and YT almost start a fistfight because Toybox tried to swat Aska's spyfly and Esmeralda gets infuriated by Toybox's chauvinistic comments and Pengpeng's suspicion towards magic. Their negotiation attempts fail horribly.
Esmeralda demands a higher share of the payment, the group refuses and insult her even more, she waltzes off. Johnson leaves too, appalled by the haggling over their share. He prepares to hire another, more competent team, from another fixer - and I see my campaign dying in childbed...
Askahain hacks Esmeralda, traces her flat and forges an exorbitant bill from her electricity provider in hopes to create an urgent economic neccessity. I was almost about to hug him but on a fluke he lists his own commcode as Esmeralda's responsible consoultant - she calls him and recognizes his voice... m(
The group decides to call Vogt and tell him of the difficulties - he calls Esmeralda and starts to convince her by putting things into a different perspective ("of course these ruffians don't shine in a noble restaurant, but on the streets they are the ones who can guarantee your safety" etc). Finaly she agrees and the group meets at her place, apologies are made and accepted (not without Toybox almost rising another issue when he sniffs around in her flat...).
Finally they accept the job and start going over the details.
Their target is in gang controlled territory, YT has some knowledge of the Spartacus Union (radical anti-cons) being active in this particulary part.
Toybox offers to call a friend (Jimbo) from a radical left troll go-gang who might know of the Spartacus Union. The call is made and the group learns Jimbo's gang has a positive relationship towards the Union but resent their unholy alliance with a very brutal, morally corrupt go-gang in their neighborhood, the Black Sharks.
Jimbo offers contact information: A certain Saltstone who sometimes acts as representative of the Union.
The group decides to drive to the location and take a look around, meanwhile Toybox calls Saltstone and firstoff tells him they want to extract a girl and are on their way but he cannot name his employer. Saltstone asks how many they are and when they will arrive (which both Toybox willing tells) and ends the connection.
A lot of faces are being palmed and the group prepairs for a not so warm welcome.
Not satisfied Toybox calls Jimbo again and complains, "we are all comrades!" and makes Jimbo arrange a meeting with Saltstone (Jimbo is portrayed very gullible and dumb so I went along with it). Saltstone agrees to meet Toybox alone.
Toybox complies (but covers himself with a drone with a sniper rifle) and meets Saltstone. He tells him he is a good friend of Miram and is worried about her wellbeing. Saltstone assures him she is well and living here on her own volition. Toybox is surprised about that, asks if he can assure himself of that. Calls are made, Saltstone offers Toybox to meet Miriam, alone (Miriam saw an opportunity to learn who her father sent and maybe make them a better offer, and acted on it, though they all are suspicious).
But Toybox chickens out because he thinks when they realise he lied about being a good friend of Miriam they might kill/arrest him.
The group retreats and considers their options. They start scouting the block. Pengpeng starts socialising with one of the Spartacus Union's guard and gets a brief summary of how the block is struggling to maintain stability, finally they got a new doc (the last one was shot), try to rooftop-grow some food and how they could use every able-handed person.
Pengpeng feels sorry for the guys, but job is job.
Their chat gets interrupted by an emergency: Somewhere the Union had a fight, three persons have severe gunshot wounds and are being brought right now. The guard guy makes an excuse and runs off. Pengpeng retreats.
The group maintains surveillance and obersves how the injured are brought in and Miriam and an obscure autodoc-drone take of them. It becomes clear the Union lacks narcotics because only one patient gets dosed - one Miriam struggles through the greater part of the night to keep alive.
The Runners are considering to use the chaos to their advantage but agree to postpone the extraction until the patient is in the green.
Aska all the while gathers intel by hacking Miriam's commlink (and learning she just recently changed 'links) and Saltstone's.
When the group decides to make their move he monitors their in- and outgoing connections, ready to isolate them.
The Runners decide to waltz in in Toybox's armoured Tata Hotspur and drive right through the guards (they found out they don't have weapons sufficient to penetrate the car's armour) up to the door where they located Miriam's appartment. Due to some avoidable confusion and bad understanding they stopped to early and had to engage the night guards in a firefight. Pengpeng knocking them out with gel ammo, Esmeralda dealing stunbolts.
When a sniper targeted Pengpeng Toybox retaliated and drew first blood by killing with his drone. Having still one shot left he kills another guard on the ground. Discontend arises in the group between actions.
A larger group of guards closes in on the car, blocking Toybox's way - he accelerates and maws right through them ("I turn on the windscreen wiper"). Panic rises for a brief moment when a ghost materialises inside of the car, but Toybox takes emergency measures and fires an APDS round from his steel lynx comabt drone arme with a Panther XXL sitting in the trunk right trough the seat cushions - almost taking down one of his passangers.
Pengpeng covers the Runner's back while they move in and drive right towards Miriams appartment. YT jumps off and enters the building, engaging Miriam who was alarmed by the gunshots and trying to run upstairs - he taisers her unconscious and carrys her to the car.
Meanwhile Pengpeng piles up a lot of Union guards until they realised they should retreat - calling in reinforcements from the Black Sharks and trying to join forces with Saltstone and a better armed group of the Union. But the moment Saltstone sticks his head out leading the charge Toybox transforms him to goo with a precise shot in the head.
Three Black Sharks on heavy armoured bikes with Uzis and incendiary grenades were at the time present at their gang's workshop in the neighboorhood and closing in when the group made their retreat but ultimately were to disorganized and no match for the group, thus managing to somehwhat damage the car with their grenades.
We had some argument on the effects of gel ammo/knockdown effects on targets on a bike.
The Runners make their exit, Toybox driving over the unconscious bodys of some of the gangers. The rest of the group cursing him for the blood bath is interrupted by Aska linking them a newsfeed that is showing "scenes from a gang fight" with zoomed in footage of Pengpeng's face and smoking revolvers, the "killer drone" and one of the grenades explosions plus the car. The cursing continues ("damn we forgot to take on the masks", "great, now we're on the media").
Then Johnson calls in, referring to the media attention as unfortunate and thus changing the paramters: The group is to meet him now in another part of the z-zone, their HTR-ambulances have clearance to get back over the border but the Runners will encounter problems with the police now that their car has been flashed on every sensationalist newsfeed. But that is the Runners' problem Johnson is not willing to let his package suffer from.
The Runners agree, but Toybox gets worried the BuMoNA will shoot them down in order to not get connected with their crimes (he exactly read my mind there, I had already planned an ambush^^). He opts for keeping Miriam a while longer as insurance - but the other Runners rebell and don't want to let him make the situation any worse.
So they meat with Johnson, who is covered by two armed ambulances and a helicopter that covers everything in a bright spot of light. Pengpeng and YT deliver the tied up Miriam (YT sneaks an RFID-tag into her shoe, because he and Askahain were secretly worrying about her), afterwards Johnsons tells them to "now play along well and I will grant you another 500 for your inconvenience" and the ambulances pelt the Runners with gel ammo down to the ground (those faces were priceless until they realised it was nonlethal ammo!).
Shortly after, the media spun the footage of this scene as a "recovery of a hostage from vile gangers" and "BuMoNA takes care of their own" identifying Miriam and explaining her family ties.
The group is annoyed, worrying about future jobs and regretting their low payment, while I face-palmed they didn't even bother to take some loot, especially the obscure autodoc drone which was in fact a heavily overmodded prototype I placed there for Aska (Aska's player loves shiny loot).
They decide to call it a day and to drive even farer north into the z-zone to find a border where they can pass more easily, worried about their reputation, all swearing each other to never work together again. I was asking myself if I somehow managed to orchestrate a faux TPK on my first run^^
