Sorry folks.

Mr. White has been dazed by the rigors of rappelling down the side of a building while being shot at. Not his usual cup of tea.

His thoughts:

Splitting up is the worst possible idea. "Let's all go and get separately ambushed!" he suggests.

If we desperately need gear, then we desperately need gear. That's understandable, but we can't really drive all over town to each runner's pad and pick up stuff. Who's got lots of nice gear and is willing to share?

White may be able to help out on the safehouse front, I'll come back to that.

Regarding Acson, I think we need to maintain the guise of having been there to extract him (before they did something bad to him). If we can keep that going for as long as possible, then it makes him more compliant, and less likely to try to bolt, or cause us grief. White will certainly talk to him to calm him down if necessary. Slacker, say so and I'll roll some dice. Con? Etiquette?

What was the end-game plan here? I don't recall anything other than "extract this guy, right now!" What do we do with him now? Are we waiting for a phone call?

White has some contacts that he can use, might help with the safehouse, might even help getting an alternative vehicle if we wanted to go that route.

Yeah. The Scion said he would call you guys once you get Acson to a safe place.

I'm not going to make you roll at all since you already did a good enough job back in the banquet hall. Acson seems to be really confused when you talk to him about them planning awful things for him, though for whatever reason he's willing to go along with your explanation without asking questions about what exactly they were planning to do to him.

I think I've weighed in on most, but I'll reiterate so that we have it all in one spot nice and neat.

I don't have any opinion on where exactly to go. Needle's home base is as good as any. Assuming we aren't followed...

How long will it take for us to get there?

I don't think it's a great idea to split up, particularly for one person to go off alone. If we can do it quickly/inconspicously I'd be ok with swinging by somewhere. Not sure if it will come up, but if/when Eclipse comments again about how he thought it was just an interview Gardner will probably pipe up with a comment of "who goes to an interview with a Johnson you don't know anything about without anything to back you up?" He says this with a slightly aggravated tone, but with the overall feeling of a dissapointed teacher or parent. You get the feeling that he isn't trying to be mean, but the two giant bullet holes might be messing with his mood...

I'll mention calling up Mac, but if TW comments that he would prefer I didn't, I won't. If we exhaust our other contacts, then I'll revisit the option.

I would still prefer to get the healing started while we're on route, particularly if someone else can take the wheel (at least to keep an eye on the road ahead) while Needle handles things. At the very least it would help keep Tundra Wolf from slipping back into unconsciousness (depending on how long it takes to get where we're going).

Right now I have a pretty bad penalty on most actions. So while I would normally offer to help with things, I pretty much can't be anything but dead weight until I get healed.

reserved for rolls : posting IC

**EDIT**

Slacker let me know what to roll and if Danny can find us a "Half way House" that we can run into, make some plans and then break for Redmond or go somewhere else

cheers

Only thing TW will say is that most of the group is running dangerously low on ammunition (while looking at the boxes of wrong caliber ammunition stored under the seats with a look of consternation) and heading for a place that violence is the first, second, and possible third answer to any question. And yeah, he'll shake his head when Gardner brings up Mac. Not rudely or anything, just mention that he's not sure that it might lower our odds of a continued good relationship with him if we call the first time we get in deep water.

He's still pacing, and there's a sheen of sweat starting to show on his brow.

Ok, let's clear something up, shall we?

We are NOT dumping the bus. Why? It's Needle's home. That's right - she lives in the bus. Which is why she had it outfitted with Medium Lifestyle Amenities. She never thought it would get nearly destroyed when she drove it to the meet.

As far as getting to her home base? It's in Redmond, near the old correctional facility. That's where she normally parks the bus and stays, providing medical services to the locals for chump change and food and sometimes protection. It's not perfect, but it's her life.

So no dumping of the bus. You guys can get out and walk, but she ain't leaving her home behind.

Going directly to Redmond from here would require crossing the one main bridge across Pontiac Bay, the Evergreen Floating Bridge (well technically there's also the option of the 90 Express bridge, but I was assuming you guys wouldn't want to deal with the border gates and such for Council Island that is in the middle of the Bay). This direct route would take around 30 minutes depending on traffic.

If you take a more circuitous route using less obvious/heavily observed routes through Renton it would take you closer to an hour.

Agreed, no ditching the bus.

My vote would be to take the longer route. Particularly if it takes us through areas that are less observed where we can see if we're being followed. It'll also give Needle time to make sure we don't have anything trying to track us in the Matrix or whatever.

Someone else could grab the wheel while Needle does her thing (both Matrix and Healing), and we're all set even before we get to the "safehouse".

EDIT: No ditching the bus, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't find a replacement ride so that we can deposit Needle's home safely somewhere and take another means of transportation so that we don't risk it getting shot up even more...

Btw, where is Eclipse's place? Can't remember if it was ever mentioned and I don't see it listed on the character sheet.

Eclipse's place is... some unspecified low-rent, anonymous housing. Unlikely to be the barrens ('cause who wants to deal with ghouls every day?) but possibly close... he's definitely on the "gang protected" side of things over "law enforcement response"

I think going to the Barrens is just fine. We've still got some ammo for the LMG (presumably!) which, worst case scenario, we can use to take more weapons from the assorted lowlife.
Next order of business: Patch everyone up* and lay low, waiting for the call. I agree we shouldn't ditch the bus... not that it's even my call to make. But! I do think we should transfer Ascon to a different vehicle before going to the meet, even if we have to steal a little Honda Spirit and stuff him in the back.


As for Gardner: "I had enough t' deal with the Johnson if it went that way... not a frontal assault on corp holdin's."

*I'm at 11 dice currently before medkit, so I will be assisting Needle.

Well, there are 12 districts of Seattle, so roll me 2d6 and I'll base where your home is that way since you hadn't specified one earlier.

The LMG has about 30 rounds left I believe (if I remember correctly, it fired 6 at the bus, 6 at Silas, and then you would have fired 6 at the drone to destroy it and it had a 50 round clip).

www.random.org says... I live in the [1,1] district

Is it possible to critically glitch your living location? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

LMAO... I guess that puts you nextdoor to the entire Ghoul population and in the apartment above the Halloweeners (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

First off, Silas has obtained an address of a safehouse where you guys could stash the bus safely. It's in Renton and only 5-10 minutes out of the way. Is Needle willing to store her bus there while you all make your way elsewhere to your own safehouse? The bus should be safe in the warehouse, Dannyboy would stake his reputation on it.


Hmm....well in this case I was just going to add up the dice rolls to count against the list of districts in the Seattle 2072 book. With a total of 2, I've got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that it wouldn't be too far out of the way to swing by your place along the way to Redmond. The bad news is that your place is in the Bellevue district which is overly protective of its calm serene image (meaning lots of security drones and a heavily watched border with the Redmond Barrens to ensure no riffraff gets into their cultured suburban society).

If Needle is willing to go along with Silas's plan to store the bus temporarily in his contact's safehouse, it would avoid being an obliquely obvious eyesore in Bellevue. But you'll still want to be cleaned up and not bleeding all over each other if you want to avoid attention.

Swinging by your place would add 10-15 minutes to the drive time. Alternatively, trying to go to it after the team has reached Needle's idea for a safehouse would take 25-30 minutes.

No, he just has a nosy neighbor who doesn't like Eclipse very much and is just itching to call Knight Errant about him.
The neighbor may or may not also work for Horizon.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

You guys have to remember that the bus isn't just Needle's ride, it's also her home. If we drop the bus somewhere - and I am ok with leaving it in the warehouse for the moment - she has nowhere to hide out unless someone wants to take responsibility for making sure she can follow you to a safe resting spot.

Although, once at the warehouse, she can fire up the Valkyries and start doing some much needed triage.

I think I may have mentioned this previously ... but you are one EVIL sunnuva !! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Wow, isn't Bellevue like a High or Luxury Neighborhood? Can you even think you can find a "Low" Lifestyle there... I don't claim to know Seattle neighborhoods either current or Shadowrun canon, but I've definitely heard that like you said, Bellevue is "exclusive"


Before that, I definitely think we should work on patching up our team before we try going through any major districts. If Needle is ok with dropping off the bus at a safehouse, I say we stop and gather our wits before we leave it. Make some plans and what-not. Even if we decide to move to a different safehouse for a more "permanent" solution, we should at least have a plan.

I'm ok with us going out quickly to find a suitable replacement car for the time-being. Go get a rental Van or something. You know, for us to use to get around for now.

Housing that buts up against the plasticrete walls topped with razorwire that marks Bellevue's border with the Redmond Barrens can be low lifestyle. The HOA does require the exterior of all buildings maintain a clean facade, but this close to the Barrens, the tenants don't have the extra expenses to keep the interior of the home very well.

The apartment building Eclipse stays in is 50-60 years old. It has fairly well kept shrubs out front and a fresh coat of paint on the outside walls. Inside though, the elevator hasn't worked in over a decade, floor boards have rotten through in many of the apartments and water stains are about as close to art as these walls ever get. But the tenants are still proud to be able to say they live in Bellevue. And I'm sure you know its those type of people who struggle so hard to maintain an image that most get upset by those around them who don't fit in or threaten their illusion of prosperity with little things like blood trails and other signs of violence.

Nice. That would definitely work, and you just gave O'Ryan some great flavor for his Lifestyle, lol (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I do try.

Btw kiir, did you get my PMs? I need a little bit more info to fill out the debrief log for the Back in Business mission if you're planning to use Gardner at a con this weekend.

I think Kiir has the right of it.

I love all the flavour. That is awesome Slacker - I'll get off my lazy butt soon and open up Runner's Companion to fully flesh it out with what you've provided. (Which will be a shame since there's a better than nil chance I'm dumping it after this run.. D:)


"Hey uh... when we get that rental van, mind swingin' by Bellevue? Not that far outa the way, I have guns 'n medical supplies..."