Life in the Barrens AAR, How did it come to pass? Options

[FriendoftheDork]

Alright, I've been busy because of a LAN party last weekend, but now I'm ready to continue.

Previously on "Life in the Barrens":

The team moved into the first room - white, serene plascreet-covered walls with several holes, devices etc. Although vary, they couldn't detect any automated sentry guns or similar "traps" in this room, although they did see that the northern wall was a large mirror (and Trog barely managed to contain himself from firing at the big, bad troll pointing a shotgun at him ;) ).

To the north and south were maglock-sealed security doors, while to the east was a huge blast door with no appareant lock or opening mechanism. Jimmy, with his extensive knowledge of general corp security, recognised the one-way armor glass window, the room-sized MAD-scanner, olfactory scanners, cameras and microphones. Her also realized that the blast door was probably opened from a nearby security terminal.

Getting by the maglock-sealed doors proved easy, as they were only protected against rapid forced entry rather than the time-consuming method of removing cases and manipulating the electronics. The party was suprised to find 4 security guards in armor jackets still at their security terminals and scanner screens - or at least what was left of them. Only the bones remained, but they they still were in almost the same position that living guards would be. By each of the two security terminals were 2 buttons - one green and one red. In the northern end of the room 8 Ak-97s were locked in an armor glass covered gun rack.

While Jimmy checked out the scanner screens, Uzz got impatient and pressed the green button. Everything turned to black just as they heared the sound of a large Door opening electronically - the blast door. Uzz tried the button again a few times, but although it opened and closed the blast door the lights remained out. Luckily, Simon had bought a flashlight at the local Stuffer Shack. Trog and Uzz left to get their own flashlight while Jimmy checked out the southern room - spartan living quarters to the 8 security guards on shift here. Very eerily the skeletons sat at the table, poker cards still in hand (as much as they could be considered "hands"). There could have been no violence here, and even poison gas etc. should have made the guards at least fall to the floor choking.....

After the others got back, Uzz got a nice shower here (2 days since last one the poor elf!), and they proceeded through the blast door into a long hall. All of them failed their perception checks to notice the mingun emplacement over the blast door, and was lulled into a sense of security since Jimmy disabled the laser tripwires from the security station (still logged in).
Everyone could hear the sound of the gun activating and barrels started spinning rapidly making a high-pitched hum - reaction checks!

Although none of them did it very well, they were relieved to hear the comforting click-click-click of a gun without any ammo - phew! (ps ty for the idea 2bit - worked as a charm).

In the corridor Jimmy opened 4 of the 5 doors (going noth adns south), and found a huge eating hall w/kitched freezer room and fridge room, computer lab with 20 workstations, an almost luxerious R&R hall with all manners of multimedia entertaintment, and a gym with kendo-space, treadmills and cycles, even a tinyl swimming pool with treadmill harness to simulate prolonged swimming

A few skeletons were found on the floor of the computer room, one having some electronic paper reporting a security breach in one of the public terminals, while the dining hall had several skeletons scattered over the place with obvious signs of violence (bullets) and miscoloration from dried-up pools of blood. A stark contrast to the peaceful almost alive skeletons seen before. Since some of the preserved food only expired a few years ago, they had some to eat while half the team checked out the eastmost door - leading into a main hall with lots of doors to apartments. Most of them were real easy to hack, but Jimmy failed to bypass the anti-tamper system in the door to one of the two foremen - triggering the alarm. This sealed the door in question, as well as closing and locking all doors while making all the doors harder to hack (-4). Jimmy tried a few doors and jammed a few more before going back to the comp. lab, checking out the terminal with a securtiy leak, connecting to the secure netrwork, and opening the doors while shutting off the alarm (phew).

Only two of the doors remained locked - the door to the project leader's office requiring eye-verification and the elevator door requiring access to the security computer not yet found as well as a certain passcode.

Uzz managed to find himself some nice corp. suites to put on, while Jimmy found an old set of Katana and Wakizashi - which he "forgot" to show to the others...

Going further east, the team was ambushed unexpectedly - a hail of fire from an AK-97 greeted them. Most of them took cover, but Uzz after succeeding a composure check remained standing and managed to wound the unknown enemy (although he took a few hits himself). After a short firefight they all withdrew, and Trog went back to grab some AK-action of his own, by smahing the armored glass monter of the gun rack with his sledgehammer (suprisingly easy!). After gearing up and firing at the enemy, they pursued him and finally took him down. Turns out he was a ghoul in armor jacket and security uniform - weird.

Exploring the rest of the level was easy, and they found out that the other entrance to the facility was permanently sealed by concrete. They also discovered a storage room with lots of tools, equipment and spare parts, including what may be parts for cyberware implants! Simon (the sorcerer) felt a particular attraction to this room, and finally awakened.

They also found the security room, but Jimmy knows he has to get the right hacker programs to get into the system - perhaps the can access the elevator from here?

Well, that's all folks! I've been giving out lots of BPs to the PCs and now they have a home. Although the place is part of a dead-zone - a commlink with a better Signal rating than 2 should be able to connect to the Matrix wirelessly, as the facilty doesen't have W-fi inhibiting material. One step closer to becoming runners.

[Fastball]

Just thought you should know I'm looking forward to the next edition.

[2bit]

8) score! glad I got to help.

[Fezig]

Its interesting to see where this is going, especially to see the characters (and players) reactions to where this is going. Keep it comin, fun stuff :)

[FriendoftheDork]

Thanks guys, nice to see that my effort is appriciated :) Keep up the feedback.

[FriendoftheDork]

Previously on "Life in the Barrens":

Ok this time Uzz didn't play much part as a gunshot wound had become inefcted and the good doctor Simon put him to rest after giving him antibiotics. (yeah the player was AFG)

So therefore the team wanted to play it low, rest, heal and not leave the facility too much. Still, they knew that in only 2 days they'd have to get the info about los Vatos, or they'd have to make something up when Jared ".44" Burns returned.

On the way to the Stuffer Shack Trog got involved in a shootout between 7 Blackrock orks and 2 Vatos.. Trog managed to sneak up on most of them, suprising all but a single ork. Los Vatos was pinned down from heavy fire, and one of them was shot to pieces by the ork leader using an Uzi 3.

Trog managed to shoot their leader with his shotgun at 30 meters, and about half of the other orks started moving towards him, shooting. Their cheap streetlines didn't do much good at that range, but as they got nearer wounds started to accumulate despite the troll's tough hide and leather jacket.

The situation turned into a melee, and Trog managed to beat all 3 of them barely (kinda hard when 3 people are making called shots on you every turn).
Coming back to the others, he noticed that the remaining orks had moved away, but one of the Vatos they beat down with baseball bats had some life left in him, and the Vatos was pleased to see him alive when Trog dropped him by.

Did I tell you that the team found some cybertechological spare parts in a storage room in the facility? Well, Trog contacted his street doc working at the local Chop Shop, and if they trade in parts they can get something installed as well! Cyberware, here we go!

But first things first. Everyone but Uzz went over to the Vatos the next day, telling them about Burns and his deal. Instead, they got a deal with the Vatos to set up a false meet with Vatos people and a fake Mr. Johnson working Ares (played by Simon). They also got some false comlink information to trade to burns were this meet was described and the Johnson referred to as representing Ares.

They get measly 500 for this, but they accepted without haggling (yeah, Uzz was missing).

Anyway, that's pretty much were we left off. We spent some time going over rules, talking about BPs, etc. so we didn't play that much that evening.

Well well ,stay tuned for meeting mr. Burns. As you may remember, he's got a hit on the PCs, so he just wants to trick them into giving him info before killing them... this could get dangerous.

[Konsaki]

Sounds like you are running a great game there. Makes me wish I could be a part of it.

[FriendoftheDork]

[FriendoftheDork]

Previously on "Life in the Barrens":

The day after dealing with the Vatos, Jimmy (actually Vanessa, more to follow) mailed mr. Burns and told him they had the info.

In the evening they got a knock on the door, and Jared Burns entered. He got to check out the chip with hardcopy of a Vatos comlink, and got to read the impportant bit about the fake mr. Johnson meet (even the name Ares). Pleased, he took a look around and noticed they were all there ready to fight if he drew his gun (Trog even stood as his side). So instead, he payed them all - 4000 :nuyen: in all!

Then one of them (Uzz or Trog I think) asked him about further employment, as if he had mentioned that earlier - he hadn't but he did say he could meet them tomorrow evening at the local church ruin to talk about it. Jimmy got suspicious when s(he) realized that this was the same place that they set up the ambush on Fritz the ork Shaman...

Simor stayed home as he didn't want to be seen by Blackrock members etc. prior to making his fake Mr. Johnson appearance.

Despite the general warnings of paranoia, they did show up (after getting a new armor jacket for Trog, and some programs for Jimmy). No one was there, and they all failed perception checks to notice Burns laying in wait in a ruin 500 meters away with a sporting rifle! Jimmy wanted to stay back hidden anyway, so Burns never saw him (5 hits on Infiltration).

Burns aimed and was about to shoot and suprise tests were made. Everyone was suprised except for Uzz, who also got better initative. He made a perception test, not enough to see Burns outright, but enough to get a feeling that he should dodge.

He took cover just as the bullet hot the exact place where his head used to be (called shot).

Still, being far away Burns was not easily seen. Only Jimmy managed to locate him from his hidden position, and started to make a matrix representation of the area with burns' location marked out.

Trog started to run in the general direction, trying to get partial cover along the way. Uzz kept his cover and waited. Burs starting to take delay to shoot Trog as moved with aimed shots, which started to slow him down.

A few rounds later, Jimmy had broadcast his tactical presentation to the other teammates, Trog had been shot up pretty badly (18 dice on body resistance test is just not enough!), and took full cover. Uzz got the location and decided to take a long walk around to flank the enemy.

Burs was out of targets, so he reloaded and moved trying to get behind Trog's cover - without realizing that Jimmy tracked his every move and relayed the info to the team. While he moved slowly, Uzz moved on an intercept course, then waited for him to fall into his trap. Trog simply moved around his cover to remain out if sight (successful infiltration roll).

As Burns moved, Uzz got a critical success on his infiltration roll, and managed to get just 1 meter away from Burns. He suprised him, blasting away with his Ares Predator. Trog came out of cover to blast as well, further making it harder for Burns to dodge.

Burns used all the edge he got, and was reduced to 1 wound box left (considering he was shot 2 times without dodge and 2 times with, this is very good!). Knowing he would be dead even if he ran away or tried to kill Uzz or Trog (and at -4 to all actions), he instead dropped his rifle and surrendered.

So the question came up... should they let him live or not? Burns was willing to go to great lenghts to keep his life, so in the end he agreed to give away most of his stuff, get 2500 :nuyen: more for them, and assassinate Fritz the Shaman for them (giving them 2000 more effectively).

The next day a street urchin came around with a box (with no bomb!) to Uzz who was out gardening (yeah he's cleaning his old worthless garden trying to grow something there). In the package was a severed head (Fritz) and a credstick with 1000 additional nuyen. Now the head is on a pike in the Vatos turf, the team got some money to get more stuff, and everyone's happy (well except for Fritz of course :D )

After a few days came the day of the false meet. El Rey had though it out pretty well, and sent over a whore/disguise specialist to give Simon a total corp makeover. Simon, with his new Vatos bodyguards (Hector and Carlos) met up at Aces, the local Scumpit, and the meet went well with no Blackrocks to come in shooting. They were observed though, and the Blackrock took the bait, meaning they will report back to the feds they're working for that Ares is involved.

Later that night El Rey had to throw a major party (as they got a false credstick at the meet), with lots of booze, drugs, women, violence and fun. A favored amusement was to throw molotov coctails over blackrock turf and shooting the bottles in midair scattering flames everywhere (and Trog/Uzz team won the prize for best team!).

In the downtime that follows, the team has managed to get hold of Trog's contact at the Body shop, and by trading in the (mostly alphaware) cyberequipment they found down in the facility they can get some choise cyberware :) (technically they trade in build points for this). Perhaps alphaware didn't exist in 2030, but what the heck ;) None of the players objected (strangely enough).

They're gonna have almost a month of downtime before the next job, which will actually be a shadowrun involving a combat drug, a mezzed up Amerind street sammie and enraged Sasquatches! And I'll reveal something about Jimmy's real gender...

Stay tuned for "Life in the Barrens!"

[DireRadiant]

Lot of fun, and I like the sniper scene.

Great write up.

[2bit]

awesome, sounds like youre having a good time. great to see the characters come into their own, like mr. hacker wannabe who turned the sniper ambush around.

[FriendoftheDork]

I'm glad this story entertains you :) It's been awhile as I've recently had a computer crash losing my entire harddrive.. oh well.

First of all, regarding Jimmy, aka VANISH
Vanessa Janice Van Creuff. Hacker, Thief. She uses a worn hoodie, and large red AR-glasses, and her dirty shoulder-lenght blond hair is hidden under a cap. She appears to be a boy about 16, as she is flat-chested with androgyneous features.

Masquerading as a boy was mostly to avoid unwanted notice from horny Barrenites, but also to better hide from the law, more specifically her Father, Renraku, and Lone Star. ATM her real gender is unknown to both the other characters and players (the player is male also).


Now, previously on "Life in the Barrens":


The first part of the evening was spent on downtime: The runners got themselves cyberware, programs, weapons and everything else they could get. However, the voice counting down every night at 12, followed by longer and longer periods of total power shutdown worried them, and Vanessa attempted to hack the system. She got in after jacking her comlink to the security terminal through wire, and then managed to get in by careful probing. However, her stealth program of 2 wasn't enough to avoid triggering an alert, and although she made a new admin account she was almost attacked by a black ICE while in hot sim!

She managed to log off before it engaged though, and after that got in by her backdoor and disabled certain security systems, and got access to the project leader's apartment.
She also learned that the cause of all the death around here was due to some anti-intrution measures involving some toxin/gas or something.

This was actually an gene-engineered virus causing extreme lethargy, making the affected gradually go into torpor without noticing any pain of discomfort. They simply cease to do anything, and die of thirst in a matter of days (luckily the PCs never found out the hard way).

What she did find out however, was that the periodic power shutdowns was a potential danger as if the power shutdown would last for too long, the virus would be released into the air. Van figured that they only had 14 days until this would happen. She also figured that this attack could not be controlled in any way on this level, but perhaps the lower ones? Unfortunately the elevator required a passkey to activate, and the only one who had that, project leader mr. Hidero Taneki had escaped the facility prior to the disaster that killed everyone else inside. Taneki-san was tracked down to the Arcology by data search, where he was M.I.A at the time of the Arcology shutdown.

They went to mr. Singh to get explosives, and had to wait 12 days to get the grade 10 foam they wanted! Although no one of them had used it before, they got the manuals they could and set up a blast using one kilo. They set it off a few rooms away, while half the party was outside the complex. The blast was just sufficient to make a sizable hole, however the explosion triggered an alarm, and a familar voice said: Warning! Releasing Lethargy-inducing toxin in 59, 58, 57... They ran for it and got out as soon as they could. Time to find a new home.

For the time being they are living in the old shanty building. Something good did come their way though: Mr. Singh called them about a job! A REAL job!

spoiler warning: The remainder of this post contains plot from the Scalp Hunter adventure idea from Runner Havens!


Scalp Hunter: The party met Mr Johnson in the local Aces bar, a place known for it's orkish and troll clientele, heavy drinking, loud music and fighting.

The Johnson (a skinny black man with an annoying voice and ghetto-style clothing) gave them an offer: To stalk a certain person he does business with until dawn, without interfering, and reporting everything he does afterwards.
Although the PCs had a healthy sceptisism to a job to stalk someone that cannot be named to described until the job starts, they accepted for 8000 :nuyen: total, and 1k in advance.

After the meet, Vanessa left to buy a spy camera from mr. Singh (only Uzz had cybereyes with interal camera), Uzz took position outside to photograph everyone entering Aces, while Trog and Simon stayed inside trying to act normal (ok, Trog acted normally be starting to drink and hang out with his drinking buddies).

An indian street samurai entered, with tribal leathers, warpaint, two tomahawks and even 2 scalps in his belt. He went over to the bartender and Trog overheard him asking for Novacoke despite the loud music. He was directed to the Mr. Johnson, who Trog saw passed him some drugs under the table.
The Johnson then left, leaving a meaningful look to Trog and Simon.

The sammie was calm in the beginning, drinking some and flirting with the whores and then he went into the bathroom where he prepared the drugs and got high.
Coming back his behavior was more aggressive and confrontational, and Simon astral percieved him as becoming more and more angry.

At this time though an ork looking for trouble started pecking on Simon, and turning his attempt to offer him a drink into an insult ("What? You're trying to hit on me??!!"). The fight didn't last long, as Simon was beaten up and crawled out of the bar.

The amerindian, hereforth known as Red Hands, also had some fun by beating up 3 gangers and tossing them out.

After some time he left, and Uzz followed, in turn followed by Vanessa. Red Hands ignored the street whores and gangers (who wisely didn't confront him), and Uzz got by with a good Etiquette check as well while Vanessa just snuck around them.

Red Hands stopped for a piss, and then the punks from Aces returned on motorbikes, one carrying an Ares Predator. Red seemed oblivious for some time, but as the Predator was aimed at him, he spun around throwing his tomohawk blindingly fast and killing the punk in one shot. He then jumped on the next victim, throwing him off his bike and stabbing wildly with his spurs. The last one fled the scene as Red Hands scalped his victims, looted them quickly and chased after with one of the bikes.

Vanessa and Trog ran for the bikes and pursued as well on a safe distance. Both being good drivers, they managed to keep up the wild chase through the Barrens, even jumping into Bellevue. There Red caught up with the last ganger and made short work of him.

While he was scalping, a police cruiser rolls up, and out pops a lone star fresh from the academy thinking he's busted the Mayan Cutter... Red plants a tomahawk in his brow, and proceeds to shoot his female parter with the stolen Predator. Adding 2 new scalps to his belt, he gets into the cruiser and drives on.

Trog and Van, amazed, follows suit still, even as Red drives through the checkpoint at Council Island. Trog drives in as well, doding the bullets that come after him from the confused guards. Vanessa pulls a con about being a NSA agent as she drives through, and by making a Long Shot she avoid getting fired upon.

Now they're tracking Red through the woods - which is easy as hes' bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds. Trog then catches up and observes him beating up a large hairy thing - a sasquatch! After awhile 3 more Sasquatches comes by, and eventually Red Hands drops and his skull is caved in. The light of the dawn shines on his broken, lifeless bloody body. Mission accomplished.

Vanessa got some nice video of Red Hand's final hour, and together they managed to get over the wall to the water, although Trog get's shocked a bit from the electric fence. They swim over the dam (using edge), and get home safely.

Well that's it. They'll probably get 10k for this job as a bonus for getting inside Council Island and getting the nice footage.

[FriendoftheDork]

Ok guys, now we're played another run, this time the 4th ed On the Run module.

I could give you a summary of the events, but it would be spoiler heavy.. still if anyone wants to know how THIS team dealt with the mission, reply and I will post it :)

[Meriss]

I'm guessing with lots of explosives ;)

[Jaid]

i'm interested. just spoiler tag the whole thing :)

[marghos]

[FriendoftheDork]

Ok then, previously in "Life in the Barrens"

Our poor barrenites have come a long way from their humble beginnings. Although they have lost their underground lair, they have done a few jobs including their first Shadowrun, and now they have been able to get some cyberware, bioware and commlinks.

Uzz has gotten in touch with some of his previous friends and contacts (of no little importance), and is now living in a nice condo in the Downtown district with adequate security, creature comforts, and lifestyle. Still, his expensive lifestyle costs alot, and now he needs a job soon to keep it up.

Simon has gotten away from the Barrens, and now rents a crappy apartment in Renton - not much but at least he doesen't need a troll to keep him safe from marauding gangs while he's astrally projecting. His magical powers are still mediocre at best, but he's got a lodge now and is usually busy studying.

Vanessa a.k.a Jimmy has moved from the worst parts of the Barrens to the "safe" part of Redmond where there are still corp and Lone Star presence, and where tourist go "slumming". She still keeps up the masquerade though, and lives a low lifestyle here protected by bribes both to Lone Star AND the local gangs. This gives her good access to various BTLs, but these combined costs are still pretty heavy and she's even behind on some payments - she's desperate for a job.

Trog... is Trog. He's still smack in the middle of the Barrens, a good buddy of Los Vatos Locos and few other than the Blackrock orks dare touch him (and they don't bother). Life is hard and poor, but if anyone can survive here it is a big, scary and heavily cybered troll. Booze is cheap, but he's bored and wants to get out to knock some heads together and make lots of nuyen in the process.

Luckily Uzz gets a call from his Fixer called Sarah, who has a real job for them, where they can expect a nice Mr. Johnson and good nuyen - and Uzz gathers the team and they all go to Infinity Bar after dressing up quite alot - they have to look the look as well....

[ Spoiler ]

After Jimmy and Trog gets some suits, they all meet up. No one is stupid enough to bring any firearms through the checkpoint, and they get in without a hassle.

They speak to the chica bartender, and Uzz charms her with a smile, so they get up to the Blue Room where Johnson waits with no problem. After a short introduction, the Johnson presents the case:

Find an old optical disk stolen from his employer before it is sold on the black market. The disks contains music data that has great sentimental value to the Johnson's employer.

Of course, the team thinks this a bit odd - they don't get to know exactly what's on the disk, they don't get to check out the crime scene - it seems like a needle in a haystack. However, the Johnson informs them that the disk itself is very rare on today's market, and that someone is trying to sell it to people in the Seattle music industry - which is a limited group of people. Just by snooping around they should be able to locate the disk he wants.

The Johnson also impresses upon them that the disk is not be copied or spread around at all, and expects them to destroy any copies found that they don't give him.

Mr. Johnson offers 10k, half in advance. That's very nice for such a green group, but he got them recommended by Uzz's contact. Uzz still manages to drive the price up to 11k total, althuough they only get 5k upfront.

Now for some legwork - Jimmy searches the matrix, while Uzz makes his contact ask around for anything about this special disk - and in a few hours they learn that NaBo - the ork rockstar - has recieved a mail regarding a disk with the recording of an old dead rock star. They also learn that NaBO has a concert tonight in the Barrens!

Since this is their only lead, they start planning. Jimmy wants to get in touch with NaBo himself, and then make a deal with him to learn who sent the mail in the first place. This isn't easy though, as NaBo is a star and not available to everyone asking - and sending a message through his fan mail won't work.

Uzz and Trog simply wants to go in the concert and steal the commlink, but Jimmy comes up with a plan: To fake an audio recording on an assassination attempt on NaBo set during the concert - this is easily done by using Uzz's adept power to duplicate any voice, and make it sound like Black Rock hires an assassin to kill NaBo for "thinking he IS something".

They try to get in touch with NaBo by going to his former gang - The Black Fangs. But they can't help them other than telling them that NaBo is driving around with corp guys in his mobile star trailer, and that Jager is dealing with security.

So they go to the concert place in the Barrens - warehouse. It's still early in the day, so there are people all over the place rigging it up, making a stage, bar, delivering porta potties etc. Uzz sees and records a converstation between Jager (NaBo's security chief) and a lone star officer, where a bribe takes place.

He then wants to go in for a look - goes to the Port-a-Potties™ truck, acting like he's one of them, and goes into the front seat for a jacket and cap with the corp logo. A worker asks him out, but believes he's a worker late for work (good disguise check).
Uzz walks into the warehouse easily fooling the Troll guards stationed outside, and scouts out the locations including the place where NaBo is most likely to be right before and after the concert.

Trog wants to buy some tickets, and notices some black-market sellers nearby. He's shocked and insulted by the price (500 :nuyen: ), and tries to intimidate the seller to give him 3 tickets for 100! Trogs lack of charisma, combined with the seller's ready Ares Predator and 3 buddies nearby means the attempt fails miserably, and Trog get's blacklisted by the black marketeers - Trog backs off, in a rare glint of common sense and let's it be.

Uzz wants to have a date with him, so he checks up his old sweetheart in the Vatos, Claudia. In fact, she's already bought 2 tickets and wanted to ask him out in the first place!

It's now evening, and they still haven't managed to get in touch with NaBo. Jimmy mails Jager concerning an attempt on NaBo's life, saying he has evidence. He even find a good sniper spot where an assassin could kill NaBo as he walks in the back door, and warns Jager about it. Unfortunately, Jager's commlink is off - he logged off when he started to get spammed by mails and calls, and won't get any until after the concert from anyone he doesen't already keep on his favorites list and from his gangers.

Uzz wants company, and buys two tickets for 1000 :nuyen:, then proceeds to find a pretty ork girl, offers her the ticket and the company of Trog, which she accepts (being a great fan and not having any ticket!). Together the two pairs go to the concert, while Jimmy waits outside.

The concert is great fun, and they drink and listen to the music and have general good fun - especially Trog is in his right environment :) They want to get backstage though, so Uzz starts stir up a few large drunk trolls and gives them the idea of get past the security and metal bars, get upstage to stagedive! This causes enough disruption that they manage to get backstage.

They sneak past the lone guard here easily, and goes right for NaBo's dressing room - which to their suprise is occupied! An ork guard and 3 scantily clad ork girls are getting hot and heavy on NaBo's couch. When he noticed them and confronts them, the Trog's date whispers into his ears "get him". She doesen't need to ask him twice. Trog takes the ork in his massive arms with wired-reflexes speed, and proceeds to squeeze him unconscious. Tossing him into a corner, Trog takes his place on the couch with now 3 ork hotties who are too high and drunk to mind, while Uzz picks up NaBo's commlink lying in the floor. Uzz and Claudia goes down, find a nice corner and proceeds to make out themselves...

When the concert is over, NabO and co comes out, ignores the oblivious pair making out in the corner, and comes upstairs to his dressing room where he finds Trog making BIG love with no less than 3 groupies. Since he's helped himself with the booze in the room he's oblivious to danger and wants to party with NaBo... with the still unconscious Black Fang guard lying in the room! NaBo's security proceeds to throw out Trog who is too drunk to fight back.

Ah, ah perfect concert :D


Now they have the commlink - and get's the email easily. It doesen't tell them much though, and Jimmy lacks a Track program to trace it. After some ado, he get's hold of his hacker contact who traces the email for him to a hacker named Zipper.

After some searching they find that Zipper is a female dwarf hacker who hangs out at Cathcode Glow.

Jimmy insist on going there alone, (so much for hacking the party members's commlinks), and tries to find Zipper to make a deal with her. Since she's not the only dwarf chick hacker in the place, he initially can't find her. Jimmy also fails his etiquette check to learn her location, and the other hackers look at him as someone out of place. After all, even if he's a hacker, he's nothing like these old-timers with their outdated antique equipment, and goes about in hidden mode when most communication here is done by free chat in active mode.

In the end though, he figure that one of the dwarf girls couple playing a game together must be Zipper, as he knows she's a lesbian. Now he calls Uzz, who calls Zipper by her commcode number (gotten from the hacker contact), and pretends to be a girl who found some comlinks to hack). Jimmy watches the couple, scans and detects the right comlink, decrypts the call and even uses his sniffer program to intercept the call. Now he knows how she looks like.

He hangs around until Zipper and her girlfriend goes home, and learns where she lives by shadowing them.

Next day Uzz and Trog meets up with Jimmy and tries to get hold of Zipper. They call the buzzer on her apartment block, but she doesen't answer, as she was up all night playing with her girl, then came home to play alot more....
They follows someone in in the morning, but don't get past the maglock at Zipper's apartment floor, so instead they decide to wait until she comes out.

Zipper's girl leaves first, then she comes herself. Trog walks past her while Uzz walks up to her to talk to her. She is quite initmidated by the presence of Trog alone, and Uzz's calm smiling confidence and his remark "oh, that's just trog" when she glances nervously at the massive cybered troll doesen't help. She spills the beans, telling the PCs about her employed Kerwin Loomis and the disk he wants to sell. She tries to contact and warn Loomis, but Uzz simply grabs her comlink and accessories. In the end she promises never to tell anyone about this, get's her commlink back, and proceeds to leave town WITHOUT warning Loomis.

Ok, now the team get's a new location: Coda. They go their right away, Uzz and Trog walks in while Jimmy goes to the backdoor to guard it, but he fails to observe the Shangri-la retrieval team.

Uzz and Trog asks the bartender for Loomis, but he sees this through the security camera and proceeds to escape while sending the Thrasher gangmembers at them. Jimmy observes Loomis escaping to the junkjard, and follows suit. Meanwhile, Trog and Uzz talks to the gangers, and when getting nowhere simply leaves when they get the report from Jimmy that "Elvis has left the building".

They leave and starts for the junkyard near the hole in the fence, while the gangers follows suit. Loomis trips over rubble and cuts his leg, and the gangers comes after Trog and Uzz to stop them. They discuss a bit more (the gangers are not eager to start a conflict with such a large troll), when Trog and Uzz notices the Shangri-la team running towards the junkyard going through the main gate. Since their objective is Loomis, and they're triangulating his commlink, they ignore the runners and the gangers.

Jimmy get's told though, and proceeds to escort Loomis away from the corp guys and back through the hole. Jimmy is a good thief and sneaks easily, but Loomis sucks big time. Luckily, on 13 dice the Shangri-la team fails their perception check miserably, and they get across unseen. During this time Jimmy pickpockets Kerwin while supporting him, and get's the disk.

Now in a dashing act of negotiation, Uzz convinces the gangers that this team is after Loomos (true enough) and that they'll help Loomis into safety if the gangers can stall the corp guys for awhile. Scoring a critical success (6 hits) on a -4 leadership test, Uzz convinces them!

Trog lifts the injured Loomis and runs away with the team, while the gangers make a distraction. Although the gangers are easily incapacitated by the security team's tasers and the mages' Stunbolt, they runner team gets away!

Away from the corp guys, Uzz and Trog asks Kerwin for the disk, which to his suprise he doesen't have! He thinks he's lost it, and Trog and Uzz are upset that he lost it. During this time he reveals than the disk was from his dad K-Spot, and contains JetBlack's music. Still Loomis is scared and tired and only wants to get away from it all.

Now the team has the disk. The smart thing to do would be to call Mr. Johnson right away and set up the delivery. They don't doubt the have the right disk, the deal fits, the mail fits, and Loomis even said it was JetBlack's music.

So that's exactly what they do. Although Jimmy realizes that they might be able to play the disk using the Cathcode Glows' machines, he tells the rest of the team it can't be done.

Mr. Johnson is unavailable at first, and the team has to wait 3 days before they can meet him and Infinity again, but they simply hide and stay low for the duration. The Shangri-la team doesen't have enough data on the runners to track them, and JetBlack and his people never learned about the disk in the first place since the team never visited Marli Bremerton.

The team met with Johnson, and needless to say he was pleased. They got their 5k bonus in additon to the 6k promised, and the chance to work for him again - and 7 karma for their outstanding performance.

We finished somewhat early that evening, but everyone had a great time and the group were pleased with themselves. The player playing Simon only was present the first part of the run (the briefing), so he didn't play any part in the adventure.

All in all I must say it was a fun game, as despite having to skip half the module it was quite successful. In hindsight I might have made the party easier to track down, and even launch an attack on them while they were in hiding, but what the heck.

[FriendoftheDork]

So... any feedback?

[Konsaki]

Ya got a good team running there. Now it's time to throw a 'bad' johnson or a run that has a high chance to go wrong on them. :D

[FriendoftheDork]

[FriendoftheDork]

Alright, the new module Double Exposure is under way. First part is called Digging Their Own Graves.

Although this module is 2nd edition, I'll spoiler hide it anyway, in case your GM is about to play it.

Previously on "Life in the Barrens:" (well 2 of them still lives in the Barrens at least)

The team earned some good money and karma on their last run (On the Run), but 2 weeks later they had recieved no new offerings and Uzz was starting to worry about his high lifestyle... would he be reduced to the gutter again?

Then, while watching a rerun of a show called "Guns and Ammo", he got a call from... Mr. Singh! It had been awhile since they worked for him, but for old times sake they came to meet him about a "real easy honey of a run", although they party feared the offer was just to work in his Stuffer Shack again... minimum wage sucks and Singh often paid less than that for work that might include enforcer activity or beating up Humanis.

The offer was this:

[ Spoiler ]

A van from Aztechnology drives tonight. Steal the cyberware parts in the van and bring it back, and you get a share (30%). They also got 1500 nuyen in advance.

Of course they were a bit disappointed about the inital downpayment, last time they got 5k, but Singh convinced them that it was an easy quick job over in one evening.

He was right. Although the party spent a couple hours planning it all (several hours in real time), they did manage to come up with a few nice plans. They knew where and when the van left, how it looked like. They also checked up on armored vans in the matrix, and found out Aztech often uses certain models, with 2 bucket seats, 3 folding seats in the storage section, and 3 optional firing ports.

Basically, I had to update the stats of the armored truck in the module, and just made it a Bulldog step van with armor 12 (better than limousines, worse than ares citymaster), improved speed, pilot 3 (with autosoft 3 program) and the 3 firing ports. Since the driver was a rigger, I gave it a vehicle control rig as well.

Jimmy and Trog rode out on his bike to check out the route, and found a couple of nice ambush places were they could jam the vehicle enough for them to attack it. Jimmy also hacked an old crappy car for them to block the armored van with.

Plan 1: The GridGuide makes sure that traffic runs smoothly in Seattle, and in theory all vehicles are connected to it. Because of innovations in AR and wireless matrix, traffic signs and lights are things of the past, as the GruidGuide system can just control the flow of traffic itself much smarter and efficiently than having the drivers look at signs and lights. (Well this is my take on it at least, everyone can run their own Shadowrun world).

Thus, Jimmy wanted to spoof the signal from the GridGuide to certain cars, making the cars believe that the signal for stop came from the Grid. Basically he could hack the Grid itself and control traffic totally, but I adviced him that security would be VERY high and that hacking the cars themselves would be easier.

The plan was simply to make the car in front of the Aztech van stop, so that it would stop as well. Then make cars from other directions to drive, so they would crash into the other cars making a traffic mess.

Plan 2: The mage Simon summoned an Air Elemental force 4, and wanted it to use it's accident power on the armored van. That would force a crash test, with -4 (the force of the elemental). Once crashed, it would be vulnerable to attack.

Plan 3: Uzz was walking the street, toying with the Gridguide at a zebra crossing, sending AR signals that he wanted to cross the street, thus stopping vehicle traffic in certain directions. Additionally, he had a Predator loaded with APFSDS rounds, one with Ex-EX, and if all else failed he would shoot the driver through the bullet-proof glass.

Plan 4: Trog was also on foot, ready to engage the armored truck with his combat axe. Basically he said "I've got a plan" "What?" "Combat Axe!"

The plans... succeeded. Jimmy and Uzz caused chain crashes (at rather low speeds but nevertheless blocking traffic). Most importantly, Simon's spirit managed to use his accident power and the driver, a rigger in cold sim no less actually failed his crash test and ran straight into the edge of a building.

The driver and the 3 guards with AK-97s were all suprised.

Simon then used his car to drive behind the truck to block the truck from reversing, Trog ran to the rear of the truck and simply chopped a whole in the back door (He did 16 damage with it!), Uzz ran after and shot twice through the darkened bulletproof glass wall seperating the driver from the cargo area. Even at -6 he hit the driver and the second bullet killed him. The suprised guards could only grasp their rifles and shout alarm before Uzz shot down 2 more of them. Trog made the whole bigger, and then Uzz shot and killed the last guards.

It was all over in 3 seconds. Trog retrieved the cases of cyberware (2), and they fled the scene of the crime. They met up a bit later, used a tag eraser they got from Singh to remove the security tags on the cases, and then met up with mr. Singh in the Barrens. They only got 6000 for the cases though - mr. Johnson though it was more. Still, it was pretty easy money and no one got hurt (except the aztech personell and the material damage on cars and psychological scarring of the people at the scene of the crime, but that didn't seem to matter to this team).

Unbeknownst to the team however, a lone high tech spy drone recorded the attack on the van, getting good image of Uzz and Trog. This was sent by Mr. Johnson, which is Special Agent Simon Juàrez of the UCAS FBI! He saw the team in action at Council Island, and kept the video records from the investigation to use for blackmail. He also though that these guys must be pretty resourceful, and spied on them to learn who the members were.

He also hired Mr. Singh to hire the party for the Aztech job to get more damning evidence against the team, and will try to hire other fixers to give them a third job... but not until some time has passed to make sure they won't get suspicious.

Well that's it. Next run will be the legendary 1st edition Queen Euphoria!

More next week I hope.

[FriendoftheDork]

Oh and yeah... please give me feedback so that at least I know someone read the whole thing before the thread ends up on page 3...

[Crusufix]

Hey, you've got a group that operates better than mine does, lol!

And yes.. the , 3 or 4 times I've run the Double Exposure module.. it's always had a pretty high casualty rate.

It's just damn tricky, and I found I had to fudge a lot of NPC reactions to bypass naive player mistakes.

[FriendoftheDork]

[FriendoftheDork]

Ok it's that time of the week again, and this time we started the module "Queen Euphoria". Once again I will spoiler tag most of the game just in case, even though it's a first edition module or something.

"Previously on Life in the Barrens!"

The team earned a few ks on the mission against Aztech, but hardly much. They got a Mr. Johnson only two days later, but as they speak to Mr. Singh (the Fixer) he informs them that this Johnson recently found out he had a cranial bomb - the wrong way.

Thus no job. 2 weeks pass, and Uzz has a hard time paying for his High lifestyle, and has to take up loans to get by. His credit is good though so it doesen't matter (and strangely the system allows him to do this without paying back).

This time though, when he gets the call it's from an unknown person saying he knows Mr- Singh:

[ Spoiler ]

The caller's name is Ellory Whitecastle, and he can offer Uzz and the team a well paid job judging from the fee he get's from Mr. Johnson to contact them. He tells them to meet 11pm at pier 36, Tacoma.

Uzz and the team discusses this, and everyone agrees that they need the job, especially if it's lucrative. Trog rides out to Tacoma to check up on the meeting place with Jimmy, and they find that it's very hard to ambush someone there or spy on people there, and find no hidden cameras or wireless devices.

They meet Mr. Johnson who tells them that he doesen't want the tridstar Euphoria to attend some events to promote the Strice Foods product Amber Gel. Thus the PCs are to detain Euphoria before her first event (in 2 days), and entertain her until the last event, when she is to be released. The girl is not to be harmed!

The Johnson offers them 10k nuyen each, half when Euphoria is gone and the rest after she is released and alive and well. Uzz starts his usual bargaining even though this is almost more money than he has got from all their previous jobs together! He brings up the fact that kidnapping an international trid star is risky business, and that he wouldn't normally want to do this to her. Basically instead of having Johnson offer the team 20k each (as the module says) and the risking the Johnson LOWER his offer if he gets good bargain roll, I just made him lowball the inital offering. It also fits since most of the team has low and squatter lifestyles.

Johnson and Uzz gets equal number of hits, thus the deal is 20k each, allthough delivery is unchanged - they don't get anything in advance. The team accepts anyway, because it's a shitload of nuyen, but also because they want to spend time with Euphoria. Euphoria baby, Euphoria!

The team get's a place to hide the girl - Royal Meadows apartments in Redmond. They check it out. It's a shithole, so the team decides to hide her somewhere else, although the money still will be delivered to Royal Meadows.

Simon (the sorcerer) starts to check out Pacific Towers where Euphoria lives on 21st floor astrally. He finds the tall building to be unwarded, and starts going through room for room in Euphoria's penthouse suite. There he encounters a spirit guarding what probably is Euphoria he leaves them alone after assensing them. He bothces the assensing on the spirit, and think what's really a fire elemental to be beast spirit.

He checks out the other rooms, and this time he encounter 2 spirits and a sleeping man. One of them, also a force 5 fire elemental pursues Simon and attacks him astrally. Simon almost gets knocked out cold, but barely manages to escape.

Meanwhile Uzz uses his contacts to get information about ephorias security, and Jimmy uses the matrix as much as he can.
They learn that Knight Errant has got the job, and that she also has a Bodyguard named Osprey, and also a Mage named Stone. Simon says there is a Shaman as well (because of the "beast" spirit), but they cannot find any more evidence of that.

The team finds a rat and goes back to the old Renraku secret lair they used to live in before the gas/disease thing (see previous post). Trog puts on a gas mask and throws the rat through the front door gently... he forces the rat to stay inside until it is obvious no one is dying... the place seems safe. However, there is no power, and the team cannot go further in than the first room. Trog goes to buy some food and drink, and Uzz buys some survival gear so they can camp. Trog also buys Amber Gels because he remembers commecial were it seemed Euphoria liked it (silly idea but he's actually right - she loves the stuff).

Now Uzz, Jimmy and Trog goes to Pacific Towers. Uzz has rented a suite there for a week, and Trog acts like his bodyguard while Jimmy seems like some drunken hanger on.

Meanwhile Simon rests in the crappy apartment to get over all the stun damage he got from the astral combat, and to set up a ward there.

While Uzz checks in at the Pacific Tower, they all checks out the place as well and discreet as they can, looking for security measures. They find out that there is an elevator that goes to each floor, and that there is a thumb reader on it that allows right person to go to the right floor. The backup fire stairwell is similarily guarded (there wasn't one in the module but I felt that it would be silly not to have some kind of fire escape).

They also find out that all the elevators are controlled from the security station in the lobby, which is wired and not connected to the matrix - this security setup is more than 20 years old. In the lobby is a single security guard (with a Panicbutton to Lone Star) and a courier for room service.

The team check out their own suite for security, finds out if they can get from there to Euphorias penthouse (they can't as they can't get a grapple gun soon enough). They check out the possibility for using Levitate spell as well.

In the end, after hours upon hours of planning, the team decides a frontal assault.
Uzz goes in disguised, shoots both the security guard and the courier with his newly aquired tasers before they can react. So far no alarm.

Jimmy comes in, also disguised, and starts to work on the computer system. After a few seconds, he has hacked in, tripped the alarm, fought and destroyed a black IC, turned off the alarm, found the security code to Lone Star after defusing a Data Bomb, and then switched to AR to call Lone Star and abort the alarm.
He also turns off the cameras and gets the code to all the doors in Euphorias penthouse. Sounds easy, but he used 3 or 4 edge to accomplish this!

Uzz, Trog and Jimmy takes the elevator up to the penthouse, and goes in. They encounter a guard, but Uzz takes him down with yet another taser shot before he can react.

In the living room they encounter 3 more guards who are also taken down before they can do anything, and one is killed by Trog's supressed SMG. They rushed into her bedroom, and used neuro-stun to sedate her while Simon sicked his force 4 elemental to attack the one guarding Euphoria (actually only providing her with spell defense but they didn't know that).

They quickly leave the building, Jimmy erases all traces of them including all data that Uzz had ever rented a room there (in addition to 4-6 more random stories with tenants). They go out to their car that they stole an hour ago, and drives to the Barrens.

Mission accomplished. Well, part one at least. Now for some complications....PS we started 5pm and finished the kidnapping 4 AM... man this was a long session!