Ongoing Plots
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Current Job
The group determined that JLee is looking to abscond with the money from the Renraku Arcology heist. She's currently in Boston while pretending to be operating out of Seattle thanks to a hardline Matrix redirect she purchased from the Code Coyotes decker gang in Boise, Auburn.
Mac, Maniac, Shiba, and Urni have limited-time credentials good until Sunday, January 27, 2058. They've used these credentials to rent a Renraku Busman passenger van and a Volkswagen Superkombi panel van. They flew into Philadelphia to meet up with Gregory Armtwister, collected their equipment flown into New York by the Rocky Mountain Harriers, and are now hunting JLee in Boston. Florian is travelling under his real name.
Game Mechanics
Three heists getting Shiba access to a computer system at a particular location. The decking is modeled by a board game determined by how well the PCs do: Poor, Good, or Exceptional. Points awarded according to how well the GM does: 1 for 1st place, 5 for 5th place. If the game produces a tie for any place after any tiebreakers are resolved, advantage goes to the GM if they are involved in the tie; otherwise, the relevant karma reward(s) are divided between the players.
Tracking JLee determined according to the accumulated points:
- 13+: Total success: Shiba can figure out where JLee is within a few hours. Chance of making more money than otherwise would have on the Renraku heist.
- 10+: Major success: Shiba needs a few days to track JLee down. Will likely result in a profit from this heist that recoups what should have been earned on the Renraku heist.
- 7+: Minor success: JLee flees the country, but the PCs find enough to track her down.
- < 7: Total failure: JLee escapes and can't be found.
1st non-GM player in each game earns 10k¥ during downtime. 2nd non-GM player in each game earns 5k¥ during downtime.
MIT&T
Easy Location: Computer Science Department
- Get Shiba a chunk of time in one of the faculty offices of the CS department that has a decked connection set up (about half the faculty have this).
- "Academics hate people telling them what to do, so security, while not nonexistent, is lighter than it should be. And they’re easily cowed, at least when they perceive they’re supposed to act deferentially, so there’s room for some social engineering."
- "Little of my time is going to be spent actually cracking the system. Most of it is going to be on data searches, which I’m going to need to hide among the usual traffic to avoid catching the eye of the system overwatch deckers."
- "So, if we go during working hours, which is, like, 10-6 for these people, I’ll be more efficient. Give me half an hour and I’ll get us something we can work with (Poor result), but give me most of the day (call it 5 or 6 hours) I’ll be able to get a lot (Good result)."
- "If we go overnight obviously there’ll be less people around, but that’ll make it harder to hide. I’ll need most of the night (call it 8 hours) just to get anything useful (Poor result)."
- Fairchild Building
- Shares building with Scanning Electron Beam Lithography (SEBL) workshop and the Central Machine Shop.
- Windows don’t open.
- Public access during business day, keycard swipe required after hours.
Hard Location: Matrix Security Overwatch Station
- Get Shiba 1 minute at the console where the university’s overwatch deckers operate (Excellent result).
- Senior and 1-3 junior decker on-staff at all times, one of them always plugged in if not both. 2-3 junior deckers and the most experienced senior decker during the day, 1 senior and 1 junior on two night shifts.
- Located in the campus secure data haven. Where the most important data is kept.
- JLee doesn’t have access to the secure data haven, but it contains the security data Shiba needs in a rapidly-retrievable form.
- Secure facility buried underground, guarded by high-grade technological and magical security.
- On-campus
- Not a public space, but they don’t check ids just to walk around campus.
- Modest campus security. No watcher spirits outside.
- In the administrative building.
- Front entrance in a front lobby.
- Door to front lobby open during business hours, requires card swipe after hours.
- Administrative staff behind desk during business hours.
- Watcher spirit that patrols the public areas of the first floor.
- Side doors with card swipes during the business day, locked and alarmed after hours.
- Off the main lobby.
- Full-time guard in the main lobby during business hours. Patrolling first floor after hours.
- Card-swipe door to get to access tunnel. Left side of lobby from the front lobby.
- Secure hallway to lower room.
- Descending slope—stairs and ramp, pipes and cables running beneath the floor—to put earth around it.
- Ultrasonic sensors covering the hallway.
- Secure door with ivy growing on the interior side of it at the bottom of the hallway.
- Lower guard room.
- Surrounded by earth. Only path an astrally-projecting mage or spirit could take is through the hallway, with ivy blocking the door when closed.
- Watcher spirit stationed in the lower guard room. Manifests and screams if anyone doing anything magical other than astrally perceiving.
- Two guards armed with pistols.
- Tracked security drone behind a concealed door, ready to be controlled by rigger.
- Biometric check (fingerprint) to get through secure door at the far side of the room, compared with record retrieved based on id presented to the guards.
- Hallway leads to server room and administration station, with decker jack-ins.
- Have to leave the secure area to use bathroom, eat, anything.
Novatech Regional Routing Hub
Novatech regional routing hub. Basic Matrix infrastructure. Good all around security.
Poor/Good/Exceptional performance based on which of three sub-locations. Iteratively higher levels of security. Ultra-fast search, so only a little time needed: 30 seconds.
Exceptional, core switching hub. Very busy work floor. Need to be able to open up panels and such.
- At same depth of security as Good, but way more visible. Much harder social problem.
Good, one of the maintenance decking stations nearby to the core switching hub.
- Inside serious magical security
Poor, office in mid-security section.
- This is outside the serious magical security.
A security area around it. AAA security inside. “Most of the metroplex falls into rating A security. This level of security generally covers any area with a Middle lifestyle, which accounts for the largest percentage of residential sections of Seattle. These areas receive excellent security, but the level of coverage decreases dramatically from the AA level, primarily because Lone Star lacks sufficient personnel. These areas usually have regular street patrols but only rare astral, drone or security- rigger presence.
Law enforcement in these areas is basically a call-and-response system. This means there are actually a lot of PanicButton booths and neighborhood watch groups and other organizations willing to call in at the slightest hint of criminal activity. This “community policing” tends to result in a higher number of false alarms, which in turn means response time is a bit slower.”
Enter through the lobby, which has keycard swipe pulling up a picture to be matched
Office building standing 7 stories tall on half the lot. Modest security in the area. No cameras, no wandering guards, no patrolling watcher spirits. Keys and keycards. Quick response time to problems, though.
Routing facility taking up the other half of the lot. Two stories tall, lots of air conditioners on the roof.
- Biometric access.
- Physical adept / aspected mage on security detail using astral perception.
- Air spirit on guard duty patrolling the switching area and decking stations.
- Equipped with emergency-release of FAB to slow astral intruders if the spirit alerts.
Main routing hub, with the servers Shiba would need access to for Exceptional result, is in the open. Lots of cameras. Personnel moving through regularly. Major air spirit passing through regularly.
Decking stations are regularly passed-by, but less strange to see someone decking there. Air spirit passes by regularly.
Beacon Hill House
Beacon Hill townhouse belonging to Juan and Genevieve (Gene) Fong. JLee’s MIT&T’s classmate's parents’ place (Pamela).
Poor/Good/Exceptional performance based on mix of time and location. Two sub-locations. 1 hour vs 1 minute. Any time of day.
Beacon Hill neighborhood, which is across the Charles River from MIT&T. Very expensive neighborhood, AA security from Knight Errant. Beacon Hill precinct, which is part of Boston (unlike MIT&T, which is in Cambridge). Expensive townhouse (row house style).
AA security (not, say, the AAA of Louisburg Square). “The AA rating is usually reserved for High-lifestyle areas and businesses that want constant coverage but don’t want to pay for around-the-clock deterrent measures. Patrols cover the area 24 hours a day, but are less frequent. Astral patrols take place on an irregular schedule, and there may not be a security rigger system set up. Drones and sprits may guard certain areas in place of humans.
Response is prompt, but will take a back seat if something is going down in a AAA area. The standard officers respond first and only call in a specialist if needed. Assignment to this area is also viewed as a promotion, so officers investigate complaints thoroughly, if not as quickly as in a AAA area.”
Astrally-projecting mages do periodic patrols. They move at 20-30 mph, not their full speed, to have a chance to spot what’s happening.
Hard location is the old roommate’s old bedroom, which they still keep for her. Has an antique decking setup that she can piggyback off of. Fourth floor of the house.
Easy location is the basement hookup to the local fiber-optic network. Laundry, storage, but people aren’t down there all that often.
Character Interests
Maniac will be watching Urni for signs of corruption by the horrors.
The group would like to know more of what comes from the Draco Foundation's investigation of Dunkelzahn's Dragon Stone and their retrieval of it from the dragon's astral enclave.
The runners have found evidence of activity by insect spirits in the assassination of General Yeats near Bug City. They made a deal with Red Sonja, a Chicago-area decker, to gain her assistance in entering the Containment Zone. Having now escaped, they are investigating an investment group controlling a set of businesses linked to the insect spirit activity. They are having Shiba investigate Mitsutaka Mizutani, an upper-class Seattleite that owns a number of area businesses, including Gallery S and the building in which it resides.
The group wants to know more about the people who run Gallery S. They've taken computers from the gallery that they can use to track them down. They've asked Shiba to search the ShadowNet for a crack that could let them access the encrypted contents of the computers.
Nine is looking for Erim, who has disappeared after tricking him into participating in the assassination of Dunkelzahn. One of his old school buddies tracked down someone who his sources say knew her, a thief in prison in Denver. The thief provided DNA samples of her and three associates. Nine used this information to determine that she is a regular patient at Berlin UltraMedical, and arranged for her to be kidnapped and interrogated when she shows up for a scheduled bioware implantation. Unluckily, Erim learned of the plot beforehand—though not that Nine was behind it—and has gone into hiding.
Maniac wants to find out more about Lone Star's possible involvement in Dunkelzahn's assassination.
The group is considering what to do about Dr. Leach's likely return to his unnatural experiments.
The group copied technical data for a trans-dimensional energy generator while in Bug City and is considering providing it to a trustworthy partner interested in strengthening the barrier between dimensions if they can find one online.
Urni is knitting herself a sweater out of various animal hair that she's gathering.
Urni is funding the takedown of an elven poacher operation in the California Free State.
Urni has RaverD of the Brain Eaters keeping track of Eldarian Thornsong.
The runners recommended Tyrinni Bluefeather to Janus Koskey.
Favors Collected
“Shaky” Sheila owes Nine a favor for helping her avoid buying bad medical chems.
The Yakuza running The Wet Tooth owe Kambei a favor for him helping defend the brothel the night Dunkelzahn was assassinated.
Favors Owed
Maniac owes bear a favor for helping stabilize Sarah Poole, the insect spirit host mother, during her surgery.
Reputations
Duchess Hethfanithi Malralniell Ridrinril of Tír Tairngire is irritated with the group disrupting her awakened animal poaching operations in Seattle.
Hestaby has taken notice of Maniac.
The Draco Foundation benefited from upfront and unpaid discussions regards the horrors and conditions in the Chicago Containment Zone.
The Dunkelzahn Institute for Magical Research is grateful to Maniac for his cooperation in their experiments with Dunkelzahn's Dragon Stone.
The world knows that the shadowrunners known as Maniac, Mac, Urni, and Nine rescued five people from the Chicago Containment Zone in accordance with Dunkelzahn's will.
The decker Sarina "Shiba" Kōmura owes her freedom from the CCZ to the runners.
The runners rescued Georgia Davis, University of Washington thaumaturgy grad student, from the control of the Piper.
Mac helped the Brain Eaters defend Sundowners the night of Dunkelzahn's death.
Maniac helped the Red Hot Nukes take a truck protected by Lone Star.
The runners helped the Brain Eaters take territory near Glow City from the Rusted Stilettos.
The runners are backing the support system for the Plastic Jungle and are therefore developing significant influence therein.
Renraku and the Sprawl yakuza have a photo of Kambei and Maniac in a yakuza vehicle during the kidnapping of a Renraku executive.
Possible Jobs
Shiba wants assistance in stealing a flying boat.
Group Treasure
Astral Projection Mask
- An iron mask in the form of a delicately-featured elf, their eyes closed, pearls embedded in a third eye at the forehead.
- Learning to astrally project costs 50k¥ less, but you need this mask to astrally project.
- This limitation can be removed with 50k¥ worth of additional training.
- 10k¥ black market value
Unicorn Horn
- A horn hastily removed from a unicorn, the base cut roughly.
- 10k¥ towards any magic training or 20k¥ towards learning Initiations, Health Spells, Shamanic Paths, or learning the rituals Circle of Healing, Circle of Protection, or Ward.
- 8k¥ black market value
Holiday Heist Accounting
| Payments | |||
| Zone | Target | Score | Expected Value |
| 1 | Renraku Community Hospital | 6d4 k¥ | 15 k¥ |
| 2 | Life Oasis Hydroponic Garden | 1d20 + 1d8 + 1d6 k¥ | 18.5 k¥ |
| 3 | SynthTech Cyberware Manufactory | 30 k¥ | |
| 4 | AoiYume TriD Studios | 2d20 + 3d8 k¥ | 34.5 k¥ |
| 5 | Celestial Flow Aquaculture | 39 k¥ | |
| 6 | Lift Monitoring | 33 k¥ | |
| 7 | Kōhaku Alchemy Institute | 45 k¥ | |
| 8 | Arcology Sentry Assembly | 5d10 + 6d6 - 2 k¥ | 46.5 k¥ |
| 9 | Renraku University of Seattle | 60 k¥ | |
| 10 | Skyview Condo of Kiyohiko Matsuyama, Managing Director of Renraku America |
5d12 + 4d10 + 4d8 + 4d6 + 3d4 k¥ |
94 k¥ |
| 10* | Kiyohiko Matsuyama Artwork | 3d4 x 10 k¥ | 75k¥ |
| Total Acquired | 205 + 9d4 + 11d6 + 8d8 + 9d10 + 5d12 + 3d20 k¥ + 3d4 x 10 k¥ |
490.5 k¥ | |
| Acquired Range | 280 - 701 k¥ | ||
| Total Expected Payout | 486 k¥ | ||
| Payments Received | 0 k¥ | ||
| Incidental Costs and Windfalls | |
| Item | Amount |
| Bribe | -300¥ |
| Credstick | +500¥ |
| Decking Software | -1100¥ |
| Drugs | -300¥ |
| Maniac Replacement Knee Joints | -5000¥ |
| Urni Physical Therapy | -4000¥ |
| Maniac Electronics Cyber-Tools Wear and Tear | -600¥ |
| Mac Electronics Toolkit Wear and Tear | -600¥ |
| Maniac Mechanical Cyber-Tools Wear and Tear | -200¥ |
| Mac Wand Realignment | -900¥ |
| Premium Vodka | -400¥ |
| Drugs | -500¥ |
| Micro-Saw | -300¥ |
| Custom Security Board | -4000¥ |
| Total | -17,800¥ |