From SINners to Shadows, Game notes on everyday people becoming Criminals Options

[thorya]

thanks Kolinho.

Ed's favor came up next, it actually ended up being the week before the election, just with how the time line for the game worked out. (I wanted them to still be nursing some of the wounds from the street fight, so I bumped up the timeline for the next favor)

[ Spoiler ]

Ed gets the message, "I need a doctor. I'm hiding in a dumpster on 4th and Monroe (which I screwed up if you know Atlanta geography, the two don't intersect). Don't call LS. Frank." Ed bails on work and calls Kamen to bring his van. They get Maggie too, who was fortunately working night shifts this week. They cruise over and on the way Ed gives Frank a call. Jerry is chilling at his apartment working on customizing some hacking software. He has since quit his job (convinced that he's going to be a big time hacker like in the action trids! Lone Starr Action HERO!) and so has more free time, though his savings are dwindling quickly. Frank tells Ed he's been shot a few times and to make sure they're not seen when they come up to the dumpster. The group does a data search and immediately find the stories that are posted all over the Matrix. Two other officers discovered Frank doing a drug deal while on duty with two members of the Sundance Kids. Frank fired on the two officers and they returned fire. The two gangers were killed in the crossfire, but Frank escaped and is considered armed and dangerous. There's a city wide manhunt going on. The group smells a whole lot of crap in that news story. Kamen knows it's not Sundance Kids territory and he calls Cassidy. Cassidy tells him the dead gangers are from his guys and if Lone Star wants to try linking them to some crap, they would have a fight on their hands.
The group picks up Frank and get him into the van. Maggie patches up Frank and he explains that he's uncovered corruption in the Lone Star ranks. This is beyond the standard paid to look the other way level of corruption, Lone Star is actively working to put the CP gang in power in the underworld and working to get Mark Strong voted out of office. Frank has the information on a chip he has hidden in his shoe (as well as copies in his apartment that the gang assumes correctly have already been compromised). Kamen drives normally and tries to avoid Lone Star patrols. Frank tried to contact internal affairs and city hall, but apparently someone he trusted sold him out and he doesn't know who to trust.
Kamen wants to know why the hell they're risking their lives for a police officer. Ed tries to explain that Frank is okay. Maggie sides with Frank. Kamen lets Ed know that if it's between him and Frank, he's ditching Frank in the street. The group discusses the various options. Get Frank completely the hell out of dodge, find some place to hole up entirely in a magically protected sight (I explained that Lone Star can use spirits to hunt people down with the Search power very easily, for the new players), or get him to a territory that Lone Star can't reach him. It's at this point that they realize that Knight Errant has something to gain by exposing corruption in Lone Star. They get Jerry to do a search for corporations that contract with Knight Errant. They start researching and planning on hiding on corporate territory for a few days and while they work out a sale of the information on the chip to Knight Errant. (this discussion was about a half hour of real world time and various searches, so I decided they've been driving around for about a half hour)
Then a spirit manifests in the van. Maggie banishes it before it can do anything, but they suddenly hear sirens coming towards them (Maggie doesn't have any combat spells yet if you're confused why she banishes spirits). Kamen says that if another spirit shows up he's dropping a grenade on a pile of dynamite and diving out of the van. Screw Frank and screw them, he's not going up against spirits. Especially not for an LS guy he doesn't even know, regardless of how many times he's help Ed out in the past. Ed argues with Kamen, while Frank apologizes for putting them in danger. Maggie calls Jerry and tells him to look up the closest Knight Errant facility (Atlanta Technologies Limited, a petrochemical company that contracts with Knight Errant for security). She tells Kamen to drive and he floors it. (he changes out SINs on his commlink to be same one that was linked to the Delta Job) Jerry tries to hack into one of the Lone Star cars and ends up getting detected pretty quickly. He logs out and stops trying that.
They then have a high speed chase with three Lone Star Squad cars blasting at them with assault rifles and shotguns, but Kamen manages to mostly keep them far out of range. By the time A.T.L. is in sight, several security squads are in sight lined up there. Jerry calls up the A.T.L. security and says, "We have information, we want sanctuary."
The response comes from one of the security officers, "Enter corporate territory, stop the vehicle, and come out with your hands up." Followed by a map of corporate territory and an image of the van being set on fire if a certain line is crossed.
The van power slides into the corporate territory and is surrounded by security forces. The Lone Star vehicles screech to a halt just outside corporate territory and demand that they turn over the fugitives. The Knight Errant sergeant, tells them the team has been caught trespassing and that they can extradite them after they're done being tried in a corporate court. He then asks if the Lone Star officers want to come and take them.
Kamen tries desperately to hide his contraband in the van before they have to file out and are searched and arrested. The sergeant calls in someone higher up to come review the information they're offering for freedom and protection. They're transported to a higher security area and the van is confiscated. Knight Errant reviews the material and gathers more information and goes public with it. Knight Errant turns the group out at the same time and return their equipment, "assuming that they have the proper registration in their native jurisdiction." Though several cases of beer from Kamen's van is missing when it's returned.
The resulting Knight Errant exposure links one third of Lone Star to this scandal or some other corrupt activity as well as a lot of Atlanta's government. CAS military steps in and declares martial law. They arrest huge portions of the Lone Star force (though officially, the Lone Star corporation was completely oblivious to any of this corruption) and the military forces several city officials out of office. It takes a few weeks for things to settle down. The police forces in Atlanta are now severely understaffed. Frank gets reinstated with a promotion and is hailed as a hero for exposing the corruption and receives a promotion (and more than a few enemies), suddenly records of the high speed chase are lost and Frank clears their files relating to the group helping him. The underworld is also flooded with a lot of fugitive officers, desperate for work and with firearms training and a grudge against the system. Then Knight Errant let's it get out to the underworld that the CP gang was conspiring against other gangs with the Lone Star. Even after the military lets up on the martial law, the city crime rates peak and all out gang war is on. In short, Atlanta just got a whole lot worse and the stakes just got a lot higher in the underworld.

Kamen's favor was next.

[ Spoiler ]

Kamen gets a call from his old gang. The leader says, "Hey are you still in Atlanta?" "Good, some punk shot up two of our guys when we tried to grab his bike and then knocked one of our guys into a truck when we went after him. He lost us on old I-85, we're still after him though. Can you get over there and let us know if he comes by you?" They send him an image of the guy they captured on a commlink. Kamen takes a look at it and notes that the guy has a dragon patch on the guys jacket. Kamen has an interest in Japanese folklore and recognizes that though this is an asian dragon, it's not Japanese. He guesses this guy is Chinese and has Jerry run a search on the image of the dragon and connections with criminals. He finds that it's one of many symbols popular with triad members. Kamen assumes that because of his old gangs connection to the yakuza, that they're after this guy because he's triad.
He rides off to intercept the guy and tries to get Ed to follow as backup. Ed's car can't keep up though and it ends up being Kamen chilling by himself on his bike on the side of the freeway. Jerry tries to find the guy through matrix connections or the occasional traffic cams, but their are a lot of failures along I-85 today. The guy zips by Kamen and Kamen goes after him. Kamen calls up the old gang and they tell him to stay on the guy and try to stall him, they're just a few miles behind.
They have a high speed chase down the freeway. The guy rams Kamen, but Kamen stays up. He loses him though. Jerry meanwhile has been trying the find the guy and notices that all the camera nodes crash as the guy goes riding by (a triad backdoor that allows them to automatically shut down cameras whenever they have a certain signal broadcasting, but Jerry doesn't know this) and Jerry is able to follow the guy by looking for where there are no active nodes and there should be. The guy got off the freeway. Kamen pulls off at the next exit and manages to head the guy off. Kamen forces the guy into an intersection and almost makes him wreck. Ed meanwhile is trying desperately to get over there. Kamen pulls up next to the guy and pulls out a slivergun. He tries to shoot out the guys tire, but he misses and the gun jams. Jerry finds the guys node and tries hacking it. The guy responds by pulling out a pistol and calmly putting 3 shots into Kamen, one at a time. Kamen tries desperately to dodge these shots, but doesn't have much success (Kamen's armored jacket spares him from the worst of it, but not enough that he thinks he's likely to survive another round like that). He tries ramming the guy, but it doesn't work. The guy lines for another round of shots and Kamen slams on the breaks. The guy speeds off. Kamen gets a call a minute later from his old gang letting him know they're at the exit and he should try to push the guy towards them so they can ambush him. Kamen tries, but the guy gets away from him. Jerry has been tracking the guys movements and guesses that he's heading towards a Wuxing factory. He tells Kamen this. Kamen tells his old gang, "Come on, we better hurry up. If he meets up with more Triad guys we'll never get him." The gang leader slows down, "What do you mean triad guys?" Kamen says, "He's triad, I thought that's why you were after him." "No, he just shot Donnie and Fat Max dead. Shit, we don't want to mess with the Triads. We thought he was some gun happy punk. Fuck. We better go hide some evidence."
Kamen is like, "What the hell?"
An hour later Kamen has 1000 nuyen wired into his account and they tell him to pretend it didn't happen.

[Froggie]

I'm very amused at the legs those cases of beer have had.

[Kolinho]

I'm very amused at the legs those cases of beer have had.

Indeed!

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

Really enjoyed Ed's favour. With your permission thorya, I may borrow parts for a side quest for my own group's ex-cop.

[thorya]

You're welcome to use Ed's favor. As a side note, Frank Serpico, is a reference to a real life officer of the same name (I picked the contacts name). It's where I got the idea for the mission.

[Kolinho]

You're welcome to use Ed's favor. As a side note, Frank Serpico, is a reference to a real life officer of the same name (I picked the contacts name). It's where I got the idea for the mission.

Thanks. I'll post how that works out, if I remember (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[thorya]

GM's notes for the next session, I'll have the game description up tomorrow.

Kidnapping Job

[ Spoiler ]

The next job, Wash is contacted by an old friend of his within the Yakuza. Kenji Kin, a formerly trusted bodyguard and muscle for the Yakuza who screwed up (he doesn't like to talk about it) and ended up with two fingers missing. Kenji Kin has spotted a chance to redeem himself and he is willing to pay everything he's got to take it. Unfortunately, most runners don't want to do a kidnapping for 30,000 and a friend in the Yakuza.
Hiroki's eldest son, Takao, is getting married and Kenji would like to present a gift to redeem himself and restore his honor. When he was younger, Takao attempted to prove himself to his father by establishing a front corporation and laundering money from counterfeit merchandise through it. He was working with an executive at ADGT (strong ties to Aztechnology) to establish fake expenditures for the front corporations and make it appear legitimate. However, the executive, John Bradley, screwed Takao and embezzled massive amounts of the yakuza's money. The executive then arranged a transfer to another division of ADGT in South America. There have been two attempts on the executive's life, but he stays in corporate territory and 2 million of the yakuza's money in his pocket has helped with his personal security.
Kenji has been paying out of pocket to be informed of J.B.'s contacts and been waiting for the opportunity. J.B. finally slipped up. His yacht is docking in Savannah for a two day pleasure vacation and Kenji knows the harbormaster there.
Kenji is a scarred ork in his late forties. He’s deaf in one ear and has several cyber fingers. Kenji has expended a lot of his resources and feels he must pull this off without help from the Yakuza. J.B. normally keeps his travel secret and despite previous attempts, the yakuza has not been able to follow him. Kenji worked the docks at various points and was a smuggler for a little while. He has a contact in Buenos Aires that spotted J.B. and Kenji managed to get ahold of the fake name he was traveling under and his destination. He has rented a small boat for the weekend and gotten the spot next to J.B. He plans to hit J.B. while he’s on his boat. He’s going to try to rig up some dynamite on the rotor and a jammer on the side of the boat. He will detonate the dynamite when the boat is offshore and start the jammer, so that they can’t call for help. Then he’s going to pull up his boat and gun down the security in the water before grabbing J.B., but he’s worried that they’ll recognize him or get suspicious and blow his chances of planting the bomb. He needs a front man. And maybe a little more muscle for the actual snatching or in case things come to a gun fight. Kenji has the idea of a deep sea fishing trip as cover for the boat.
Korath Williams is the head of security for J.B. and his right hand ork. Kenji has a personal grudge against him for killing his girlfriend while she was working as an accountant for the yakuza when J.B. double crossed Hiroki’s son.
J.B. is an arrogant S.O.B. but he's got good security. He always has at least two guys with him and one guy in both his hotel room and on his yacht. They are highly trained, (Level 4-5 grunts) and he's got a spider contract through his company to maintain his matrix security. He likes high priced art and fancies himself a cultured individual. He'll probably visit several of the historic sight while in Savannah and he's staying at a 200 year old five star hotel while he's there. He's unmarried, but does have an escort service that he regularly contracts with. He's into orks. He likes to golf as well.

Security guys:
10 Boxes
Ranged Attack 11
Black Scorpion (Smartlink) 4P SA/BF
Relevant Skills roll 7
Others at 2
Body and Willpower 3
Reaction 4
Armor 11/9
Heads Up Glasses- (enhanced vision, ultrasound, spatial recognition, flare compensation)
Toxin Extractor Rating 3, Platelet Factory, Dermal Plating Rating 3
Combat Dose Quick injection Jazz
Commlink (Device Rating 4)

Korath:
12 Boxes
Ranged Attack 13
Ruger Warhawk 6p -2
Relevant skills at 9
Other skills 3
Body and Willpower 4
Reaction 4
Armor 8/6
Heads up Glasses
Toxin Extractor Rating 3, Platelet Factory, Pain Editor, Muscle Toner 2, Commlink (Device Rating 5)

J.B.:
9 Boxes
Body 2, Willpower 3
Relevant Social and Business roll 12
Other Skills roll 3
Reaction 3
Armor 8/6
Commlink Device Rating 5, Defiance EX Schocker

Mark's Favor (he was able to make the game)

[ Spoiler ]

Mark has a co-worker that asks him for a favor. He needs him to stop buy and check on his pet for him. It's just a mongoose and he's set up an automated feeding routine, but the thing frequently escapes from his cage. The co-worker has to go on a trip all of a sudden. He asks Mark to stop buy and make sure that the mongoose is still in the cage and if not he is given a special treat to lure the creature back into the cage so he can be locked in again. In reality it is a silver Mongoose and is awakened and quite intelligent. It hits Mark with its accident power and it gets stuck on him. He has a run of bad luck.
He get's mugged, has a computer crash, gets a flat tire, his security card gets demagnetized, etc. This leaves a visible mark on him in the astral plane. His friend has gone off to acquire another rare awakened fish. The thing will repeatedly try to escape and then get out of the house and into Mark's car to get away. It will present Mark's greatest desire to him and make him hallucinate. The little thing can be appeased if it is fed a fresh poisonous snake. At which point it will remove the curse. Mark can then blackmail the co-worker or extra a "favor" from him. Additionally, if Mark does a good job and proves reliable, his co-worker might ask him if he wants to earn a little extra cred by helping him with a black market animal deal. The co-worker will feel bad about Mark's miss fortunes and try to correct this by offering to pay for them.
The helping him is being back-up at a deal. The friend has a green fox, prized for its fur. He has sheared it and it trying to sell the fur, the deal goes sour, because the buyers think they're getting a fox pelt. They are not pleased. Tempers rise guns are drawn. This fur was going to be a gift and now the buyers want the fox instead, at half the price. Mark's coworker does not want to sell.

[thorya]

Kidnapping Job-

[ Spoiler ]

A few weeks go by pretty quietly. Kamen finishes the bike he's been building, but still has to give it an awesome paint job. Jerry finally finishes reprogramming the Delta Nexus they stole and routes all their traffic through it (when possible). He also now has some agents on his side to help him while he's hacking. Ed's coke truck got vandalized while he was fixing a coke machine at the high school where he's had some problems with CP gangers.
Wash tells Ed that a guy he use to box with and still plays poker with occasionally says he wants a social guy to play a part for some job he's got brewing. Wash warns Ed that this guy is Yakuza and not to mess around with them. The last thing you want to do is get in debt to the Yakuza. He also tells them that his friend, Kenji, use to be in a lot more favor and was Takao's (the boss's son) personal body guard, but screwed up and has been dishonored by something Wash doesn't know about. Wash sets up for them to have lunch at a sushi place. Kamen speaks some Japanese and knows a little of Yakuza culture, so goes along to make to make sure Ed doesn't screw up.
They meet Kenji and things go well. Both sides seem to like one another and Kenji lays it out for them pretty straight. He tells them that he's after an executive that screwed over his boss Takao and stole a whole lot of money on a deal. He wants to catch the executive alive and deliver him as a present to Takao. The guy, John Bradley, is very security conscious and always has at least two guys with him. Normally he avoids leaving corporate territory, but is vacationing under a fake name. Kenji only knows this because he use to work the docks and run drugs and a contact in south america notified him. Kenji got in touch with the harbor master and has arranged for a boat he's rented to be tied up next to Bradley's. He assures the two of them that he'll do all the dangerous work and that he wants them to pose as the guys on the fishing boat fishing for the weekend. Kenji thinks that Bradley or his men might recognize them and he doesn't want them noticing something's off if they see someone on the boat. He lays out his plan to rig the boat with explosives and a jammer while it's in harbor and then blow it up out at sea and scoop up Bradley from the water. He'll pay them 25,000 nuyen to act as cover, answer any questions the security guys ask, not ask any questions, and to help him get Bradley out of the water and transport him back to land. He assures them that when the time comes that he'll pull the trigger if they need to.
Ed takes this at face value and accepts the job (I made a mistake here, the group assumed that Kenji really knew what he was doing and was a street samurai that could kick ass and take names, not just a body guard with a vendetta. I expected them to do some background work and assess whether Kenji's plan was actually a good idea or if they could come up with a better one. They assumed that a legit street samurai could really take the security when the time came to start shooting.) Maggie is not okay with going to help with what is clearly going to be abduction and murder, especially since it involves the Yakuza and refuses to even go along astrally and tells them that they're going to regret this. Jerry is really excited about "road trip" and Mark gets back from an extended business trip to Seattle and agrees to go along as well. Ed poses as the renter of the boat, Milton Rodgers, taking his friends fishing for the weekend. They get there Friday night and Bradley's boat is already there.
The first night Bradley and most of his entourage go out into the city. Kenji stays below deck and rigs up the explosives and Jammer. Jerry sniffs the traffic around the boat and decrypts the sensors' signals communicating with the yacht's computer. He is able to get good surveillance on the boat and finds out that the boat has a collision detection system that allows it to detect movement in the water around the boat. He tells the gang this and they figure Kenji might be detected. They resolve that they need to be a good distraction. The single guard left on the boat makes periodic rounds and then spends the rest of the time watching something in AR. Jerry intercepts this too and sees he's watching a trid about the wacky hi-jinks of an elf and a troll living in an apartment together in the big city. Ed decides that he finds this offensive because of the "offensive stereotyping of elves" and they start making the guards life hell. They "get drunk" and start fishing off the side of their boat. The cast out nets and lines right next to the boat. Mark tries fly fishing with a pole that has a sinker and bait on it. Kenji slips into the water on the other side of the boat. Kamen "drops" a rod in the water and they proceed trying to fish this out of the water. Then Kamen finds a boat hook and decides that they should try harpoon fishing.
All the while playing music. The guard repeatedly asks them to keep the noise down and tells them that they're not going to catch anything. They offer him a beer. Ed and him start having an argument and finally the guard tells them he's going to complain about them to the harbor master.
Jerry sees that the boat is constantly pinging the guard about movement in the water and "metal objects near the ship". The guard finally gives up and goes inside. Kenji gets the explosives and jammer in place. Bradley and his posse get back at 3 in the morning. The gang has settled down by this point.
The group gets a strongly worded message from the harbor master telling them that they will be removed if they do not improve their behavior. They take the boat out for the day and do some fishing for appearances sake. Jerry spends that night probing the ship and hacking in. He finishes at 2 in the morning. The rest of the group spends the time chilling and drinking. Sunday morning they go out again and they wait. Bradley's boat leaves late afternoon and Jerry follows it. Kenji sets off the explosives and they head towards the boat. There's no signal coming from the boat, so Jerry knows that the jammer is working.
As they approach they see the boat is listing but is still above the water. The boats node suddenly comes back online. Jerry moves quickly using his backdoor to jam the boats attempts to signal for help. They can see that two of the security guys are on the deck (including the head of Security who is an orc), one is in the water investigating the damage, and Jerry knows the other two are on the bridge of the yacht trying to signal for help and figure out what's going on.
Kenji gets out an assault rifle and straps on a bullet proof vest and straps on two grenades. He tells Kamen to take the boat in close, he's going to gun them all down. Kenji goes out on deck. Ed hides behind the bridge and gets out his pistol and waits for the fight he knows is coming. Jerry hides below deck. Mark hides in the bridge (he realizes that he has no pistol skill and has almost no chance of hitting) and Kamen is driving the boat. As they get close the bullets start flying.

This next section's a long fight, you can skip to the summary.

Kamen runs out on the deck and shoots at one of the security guys. Kamen barely hits the guy and he shakes off the damage. Ed sights in on the head of security and takes a shot. Scores a good hit. The securities guys fire back. Kamen dodges and Kenji gets hit. Kenji fires a full auto shot burst back at the head of security and really hurts him. Mark aims. Jerry starts spamming the security guys with alerts from the boat and then starts hacking commlinks. Several of the guards take off their glasses to avoid the visual spam in the middle of the fight.
Both groups keep firing. Kamen spends all his actions dodging. The other guards come out on deck. Both groups take a few hits and penalties start stacking up. Mark finally takes a shot and misses. Kenji drops the head of security, but the security guys hit him and he goes down. Jerry gets into the first security guy's commlink and through there into his PAN and his smartgun system. He ejects the magazine and the guy retreats.
Kamen hits the deck and is pissed. He thought Kenji was going to take these guys out and there are still two security guys shooting at them and another one in the water struggling to get back on the boat. He crawls to Kenji and grabs one of the grenades. Ed and Mark and the Security guys shoot at each other. Mark gets hit. Ed gets hit again. The security guys have both been hit now. Jerry starts hacking Bradley's commlink and finds out that Bradley is below deck. He get into Bradley's smartlink and has it fire inside his jacket. He is detected on the way in, but ignores the IC and moves onto the next one.
Kamen tosses the grenade onto the other boat but it's a gas grenade and rolls harmlessly to a part off the boat where no one is. Ed finally drops one of the security guys and other one has finally gotten on deck. Mark gives up on shooting anyone successfully and hits the deck and crawls towards Kenji. Jerry tries getting into another of security guys commlinks, but doesn't succeed.
There are two security guys still up. One has been shot by Kenji and by Ed. The other has just gotten onto the boat and hasn't been hit yet. Bradley is somewhere below deck. Kamen has been hit once but soaked all the damage (though he's low on edge now), Mark has been hit once but it was a single shot and he's in good shape, Jerry is fine below deck, and Ed is hurting and considering hiding below deck for the rest of the fight.
Kamen decides that he's going to get owned in a gun fight and jumps onto the yacht with a knife out. He gets shot by the security guy that he's approaching. Ed decides the only way he can take this new guard is if he can disarm him. Ed takes aim and shoots the gun out of the hand of guard who just got back onto the boat. The disarmed guard dives for cover. Jerry gets into the commlink of the guy that Kamen is fighting and ejects the magazine. Mark gets to Kenji's assault rifle and tries to pick out a target, but the only guy he can see is the one Kamen's going for.
Kamen stabs the security guy and it gets caught in his armor. Ed waits for the guard to reappear. The guard pulls the trigger on Kamen and it clicks on empty. Then the guard punches Kamen, but Kamen soaks the damage easily. Ed is still waiting in cover. Bradley comes on deck with a shot gun and not seeing anyone unloads two shots randomly into the bridge. Mark fires suppressive fire all over the other boat until the assault rifle clicks empty. Bradley yells, "Come get me you lousy sons of bitches. I'll kill everyone of you." Mark grabs Kenji's side arm.
Kamen and the guard continue fighting and neither one is in good enough shape to actually get through the other's armor. Ed lines up a shot on Bradley, not wanting to give away his position on a crap shot. Suddenly, the guard that was hiding grabs the shotgun and puts a pistol to Bradley's head. He yells, "You can have him if you let us live."
Ed and the security guy negotiate a surrender of Bradley as Kamen and the other security guy struggle for a few more rounds. The security guy points out that it's not in his interest to say that he betrayed his boss and he'll just claim the ship went down and they were the only ones that had on life jackets. Finally Mark convinces the two of them to stop fighting. Mark wraps Bradley in zip ties and they get him below deck. They arrange that two still conscious guards Jerry will allow the guards to signal for help once they are 15 minutes away. Jerry disables the bilge pump so that the ship will take on water faster and sink.

tl;dr- Everyone but Jerry gets hurt. Kenji almost dies. Kamen and a guard have a slap fight in armor. When one of the security guys thinks he will be facing assault rifles and sees that two of his team are already down, he stabs his boss in the back and makes a deal with the team.

Jerry and Mark try first aid on Kenji and barely manage to keep him from bleeding to death. They also try to treat Ed and Kamen's wounds, but just make things worse. Once they're away and heading back towards shore they contact Maggie and beg her to come fix them up. She reluctantly agrees. Meanwhile, they try to figure out what the hell to do with Bradley. They get Kenji awake for a few minutes and ask him where they are taking Bradley. He gives them an address and a number to contact. They use Kenji's commlink and get in touch with the guy. After some miscommunications and some threats the guy finally agrees to meet them as a secluded mostly abandoned harbor to transport Kenji and Bradley to some undisclosed location. Maggie also heads to this harbor.
The group decides there's too much evidence on the boat and that it might raise too many questions. They mount dynamite on the battery systems and send it out into the water. Mark does it this time and when they set it off, the ship goes down as planned.
Once they're on shore, Maggie is able to drug Kenji up enough that he's conscious. Kenji's guy is eyeing everyone suspiciously, but Ed politely points out that they went above and beyond on this job. Kenji considers this and tells his guy to give them directions, that they're coming too. The team loads into Maggies tiny beat up car and follow along. They come to a big plantation home in the middle of nowhere. There are lots of cars. Several guards approach their vehicles as they pull up, but Kenji talks to them and Valets appear to take the cars away. Kamen and Mark help to drag Bradley inside. The group finds that they're all woefully underdressed, as there is a large wedding reception going on at the house. Kenji indicates they should follow and they are greeted in the hall by a man they later learn is Takao (it's his wedding). Takao looks very pleased at Kenji's present. Kenji is shown up stairs and they are seated at a side table and brought a selection of the best real sushi they've ever had. Later Takao stops by their table and introduces himself. He tells them that he is in their debt and he appreciates having his body guard returned alive.
Monday Ed gets a deposit in his account for 50,000 nuyen and a message from Kenji, "I doubled your fee for the extra trouble and if you ever need a favor, call me."

Mark's Favor

[ Spoiler ]

Mark is asked by his co-worker to look after his "ferret". Mark stops by and the "ferret" has escaped. His co-worker has many other animals in cages around the apartment, but most of them are fed using automated systems. He uses meat from the fridge to lure the mongoose back into its cage. Then puts a heavy box in front of the door of the cage to hold it closed. On his way home one of his wheels blowsout. He gets Kamen to help him fix the damage. He comes back the next day and the battery in his commlink malfunctions. Jerry is able to patch it up, but Mark is getting suspicious. He sits in a chair at the tap out and one of the legs breaks on it. Maggie assenses him and realizes that there is an active power effecting him. She tries to counterspell it, but obviously fails. Mark goes back the next day and finds that the "ferret" has escaped again and eaten the snake out of one of the other cages. Mark tries to catch the mongoose but gives up when the LED lighting in the place burns out.
Meanwhile Maggie tries to put wards on Kamen's van. (Maggie has the cursed quality, because her instructor is from a Shaman tradition and she is a hedge magician, so summoning and putting up wards for her has been going pretty bad) This goes poorly. She manages to ward half of the van and then tries again and manages to make a distorted ward that glows faintly on the astral and is very obvious. She successfully wards Mark's car. Maggie and Mark go to investigate the Mongoose. Maggie determines that the Mongoose is in fact dual natured. Mark tries to reason with it, guessing that it's very intelligent. He offers it meat from the fridge if it agrees not to make a mess. It clearly refuses. He sees the half eaten snake and asks if it wants another snake. Mark promises that if it behaves that he'll be back with live snakes for it to eat. They take a picture and Jerry does a data search for dual natured ferrets. They figure out that it's actually a silver mongoose and illegal to have in the country. Ed uses a contact to track down a guy that will sell Mark snakes cheap. Mark and Mongoose come to an understanding and Mark's bad luck ends. When his co-worker returns he agrees to pay for any damages and tells Mark that he will really owe him one if he promises not to tell anyone about his illegal animal collection.

[thorya]

I've been busy with a move so have not been playing a whole lot, but figured I would put up our most recent game.

GM's notes for the Bounty Hunting Game-

[ Spoiler ]

KE's has made announced that they will be attempting to clean up the streets of Atlanta, because Lone Star is clearly unable. They are making publicly available criminal records for hundreds of criminals that Lone Star is letting run rampant through the streets of Atlanta. Additionally, in an effort to encourage citizens to step up and take over where Lone Star has let them down, they'll be offering bounties on the worst of the criminals. These bounties will be announced on the "Big Bounty Showcase". The first "Big Bounty" showcase features three individuals. The bounty is 10,000 nuyen each and the first bounty turned in receives a brand new GM Doberman.

1. A former LS sergeant who is a humanis member and while in the service had a number of police brutality charges against non-humans that were covered up. He is suspected of running an orc baiting ring and believed to be targeting orcs and trolls in the Atlanta area. (he is hiding out in the suburbs of Atlanta with family and reaching him will require infiltrating Humanis)
2. A former beat cop who is suspected of having stolen thousands of nuyen worth of drugs from LS evidence and dealing drugs. He is a known associate of CP. He specifically sells to children and is suspected of having used LS resources to take out competition while on the force. (He is hiding with CP associates)
3. A former LS surveillance specialist. He is a rigger that is currently using stolen drones to spy on and blackmail important or wealthy public figures. (He stole 12 LS drones, including flyspies and a steel lynx. He is operating out of an unmarked garage and has a package boy that picks up the payments for him and leaves them at various drop points)

The next week's "Big Bounty" features the "Lone Star Perverts"-

1. A former member of the Child Protective Services branch of LS, who would take bribes to cover up child abuse and sexual assault against minors. He was also accused of child molestation several times, but the charges were always dropped.
2. The Cyber Peeping Tom, he is a former LS computer services personnel. He records people in their homes using their own electronic equipment and then sells the videos to anyone with money. Many people have had their privacy violated and never even known they were naked all over the matrix.
3. The enforcer, a Troll racist with extensive CP contacts. He was recently revealed to be one of the corrupt LS captains' personal enforcers. He has raped several women. LS plays up racial/metahuman tensions implying that he preys upon young white human girls and brutally attacks them. In reality he is not so choosy in his targets.

The Game

[ Spoiler ]

The group is hanging out on a Friday night at the Tap Out, they've still got another Month or two on the Epidex job and aren't in any rush. Then Jerry gets a link sent to him from one of his buddies about the "Big Bounty" trid that's been put out. The guy just thinks it's a cool, like a western trid come to life, and is sending it to Jerry because he thinks Jerry will find it cool. Jerry sends it to the rest of the crew and they watch the video. They're immediately intrigued and Jerry spends the rest of the night searching the matrix for information on the guys. Meanwhile Ed gets in touch with his LS contact to get the dirt on these guys and starts following up some street rumors. Ed does most of the heavy lifting on this footwork. By Saturday morning here is what they've found out-
The Racist- He has a lot of contacts in humanis and still has some friends on the force that would cover for him. Chances are he left the city or is hiding out in the suburbs. He has a few relatives in rural areas as well.
The Drug Dealer- (Tyler Gin), Ed finds out who Gin's two closest CP friends are, Lee Brown and Norton Smith "Smittie", he also knows where Lee Brown's territory is. Lee Brown does drugs and Smittie is a pimp.
The Rigger- He stole 12 drones when he left LS, including a steel lynx. He has a number of mini-drones he is apparently using to follow public figures. He sends all of his stuff through proxies and they don't have any ideas where he is.

Jerry is most adamant about going after the racist, but Ed doesn't think he (being an elf) can infiltrate humanis and they're the best bet of finding the racist. They also consider putting out a fake offer of information on the rigger on the matrix and offering to sell it for a 100 nuyen to lure the guy into spying or attacking them so that Jerry can trace the guy back, but Jerry doesn't think he can handle the guy on his own if he's a professional and the rest of the team is hopeless on the matrix. They have the best information and so decide to follow up on Lee Brown to go for Tyler Gin and then if they have time go for the racist.
Jerry puts some surveillance on Lee, both matrix and a drone. Ed hits the street nearby asking around the neighborhood to see if he can turn up anything, he finds out that another guy has been through looking for the Gin as well. Ed tracks this guy down and realizes that this other bounty hunter (Mongrel they find out later) is tailing someone. Ed starts tailing Mongrel. Jerry gets a lot of nothing, some people go in and out of Lee's place and there might be some drug deals going on, but Gin doesn't show. Kamen stays in touch with the guys and is waiting with Maggie for any news of Gin, so he can ride in to take him down.
The guy Mongrel's tailing has been hustling pool and he finally leaves the bar. Mongrel follows and Ed follows him. Jerry has brought his drone in to help follow Mongrel. Mongrel apparently stops following the guy, but instead takes a short cut the guy off. Ed follows Mongrel, Jerry tries to follow the pool hustler, but the hustler spots the drone and spooks. A chase ensues. Mongrel chases down and tackles the guy. Mongrel beats the guy and demands to know what he knows. Ed approaches in the middle of this.
Mongrel jerks the guy upright and explains that it was just a misunderstanding and suggests that Ed keeps moving. He tries to slide out a gun and stick it into the hustler's back to make him confirm the story, but Ed sees the gun. He responds, "You have a license for that gun? Maybe I should call for back-up."
Mongrel tries to play this off and hide the gun, but ends firing into the ground at the hustler's feet.
Mongrel asks if Ed's Lone Star and Ed replies, "No, Knight Errant."
Mongrel buys this hook line and sinker. Mongrel laughs and tells him to get lost because Knight Errant doesn't mean shit out in the barrens. Ed reminds him that in a month KE's going to be the law in Atlanta and asks if he wants to start making enemies early. Meanwhile, Mongrel has kept the hustler pinned against a wall. Ed stares Mongrel down and Mongrel caves and suggests that they can split the bounty, "60-40%" with 60% going to Mongrel. Ed does some fast talking about how he doesn't need Mongrel, but convinces Mongrel to trust him a little bit and they agree to question the guy together.
There is more beating and questioning of the hustler, but he gives up very little. Ed asks the guy what his favorite color is and tries to stick his gun in the guys mouth when he answers to intimidate him. He ends up hacking the guy in the face with the barrel of his gun. He promises the guy that Knight Errant can erase crimes better than Lone Star ever did. He tasers the guy once just to show he's not afraid to be a dick. The guy tries to intimidate right back and tells Ed that there are guys waiting just around the corner for him and they'll be pissed if he doesn't show. He asks if Ed wants the whole CP gang on him. But the guy slips up and lets go that he's supposed to deliver drugs to the house. Ed decides that the guy is a dead end. He tasers the guy unconscious and searches him for the drugs. He finds actual cash and a bag of pills. Kamen and Maggie have been around the corner the whole time for this. Ed and Mongrel head to the crack house.
Everyone there seems completely stoned, except for a tall man in a large duster, with a staff and a fedora (This a Dresden Files reference for anyone not familiar, so this guy is a wizard private eye). The tall guy is questioning people and not getting a lot of answers. Mongrel starts searching the place. Ed picks one of the less stoned guys and pulls him aside. Ed starts a conversation with the stoner about how he's supposed to deliver a stash for a friend to "description of Tyler Gin" and he can't find the guy. He flashes the drugs he's just lifted from the unconscious pool hustler. The addict suddenly becomes very helpful, but is suspicious, because he realizes that people are after Gin. He agrees to give Ed the address of Gin's "girl" in exchange for some of the pills, but immediately Mongrel and Dresden are nearby waiting for the information. The stoner is suddenly vary suspicious and Ed suggests that maybe all these CP posers should get the hell out of the house before the CP gang teaches them what no trespassing means. Ed winks at Mongrel and Mongrel nods and drags Dresden outside. Then the stoner types an address into Ed's commlink for him.
Kamen and Maggie are waiting outside, to jump Gin if he tries to flee. Mongrel eyes them suspiciously. Maggie eyes them back. Dresden goes invisible and heads back inside. Maggie tries looking for him astrally, waits to stun him when he comes back out. She realizes he's not coming back and runs around the house. She sees him in his crappy car with a woman driving and tries to chase them on foot. Loses him. She sends a force 1 spirit after them to "stop them", Dresden knocks it to the curb. Kamen and Ed go to the address that they got. Dresden follows. It's a whore house and meets with the dealer's drug "girl". Kamen waits outside to make the grab if the guy tries to run. Ed bribes and threatens the girl for information. He gets that the dealer comes by to see her every Wednesday. Dresden blasts his way into the whore house, but is quickly chased back out by the muscle downstairs that make sure Johns pay. Ed slips out the back. Maggie sees Dresden being chased out of the house. She decides that he's a threat to the gang and tries to tranq him with slap patch. She hits him, but it's not enough. He asks her what the hell she thinks she's doing. She tells him to go looking for another bounty. He pulls out a Ruger Super Warhawk and tells her to get lost. She doesn't take the hint and keeps arguing with him. He threatens her with fire (He gathers it in his right hand very and it very showy with it). She tries to dose him with a combat chemical (I don't remember which one). He sets her on fire. Molly (Dresden's apprentice) pulls up and yells at him for blowing the door off the place and setting someone on fire when they're supposed to be getting information. She tells him to get in the car drags him away. Maggie puts herself out and takes a shot at the car as it putters away, but misses. The guys at the whorehouse have their guns out and are watching the whole thing. Maggie decides to high tale it out of there.
Jerry hacks the whore's commlink and gets the name/info on her Wednesday night client. He uses it to track him down to an address. Ed and Kamen go to investigate. Jerry has his copter following. They knock. No response. Ed tries to force the lock. While he's trying, there's a shotgun blast through the door and Ed is hit. He's fortunate and the door and his armor takes most of the damage. They kick down the door and search the place. They find drug making equipment and chemicals. The guy has already skipped out. Jerry spots the guy and the others run to their car to go after him. The dealer sees the drone and shoots it down. The guy makes it to his car. Kamen rams the car and pins it against a barrier. The dealer gets out of the car and tries to run. Kamen runs the guy down. Ed hops out and tasers the guy unconscious.
They drag the guy into the van and zip tie him. Then they raid the drugs from the guys place and steal a few of his chemicals. They get Jerry to act as the front man for the group and turn in the bounty. Jerry claims he did it himself. He claims that the guy broke into this apartment and that Jerry wrestled the drug dealer to the ground and then taser him with dealer's own taser. Then he realized he had seen the guy on big bounty and brought him in. He collects the bounty and a new nissan Doberman.
Dresden bags the racist by himself and the rigger is still on the loose.
Maggie ends up tracking down Dresden, using an actual old landline. She finally explains the situation, apologizes, and arranges a meeting. They meet in a coffee shop and sort things out and Maggie begs that she knows magic but doesn't have anyone that can teach her how to do it correctly. She promises not to tranq him again. Dresden has a soft spot for women and has any number of people he ended up working with try to kill him at some point so he agrees to help her learn magic. They arrange weekly sessions to meet and review magic. Dresden tries to warn her not to bring any electronic devises near him. Maggie's commlink gets fried in their first meeting.

The next week, there is a special on the "perverts" of Lone Star.

There's a pedophile.
A peeping tom that's hacked thousands of commlinks and used them to record people at home. Then he sells intimate moments at 10 nuyen a minute.
An enforcer for the CP gang. He's a troll that has raped several women.

They find out that the pedophile use to work in Child Protective services. He would accept money to make child abuse and neglect charges go away. He also dealt in child pornography on the side. They don't get much information on him, except a list of cases he handled.
They learn a few possible associates of the enforcer, but nothing solid. Additionally, they don't want to tangle with the CP gang, since Ed will probably be recognized and he's made several enemies in the gang.

Ed realizes that he's heard about a guy that will sell you video of any woman, all he needs to know is her address. (7 out of 9 on a street rumors check, which is the most successes anyone's had on a check in this game without using edge) He follows up on it and arranges a meeting. He tries to get video of a whole bunch of CP people. Jerry traces the guy, owns his security (the guy's firewall and analyze didn't roll more than 1 hit on any roll despite having 12 dice the entire time Jerry was hacking in). Jerry traces him to a coffee shop. They go after him in the physical. After Ed has sent the money, the guy leaves the coffee shop. Jerry follows the guy in the matrix. The guy gets on the bus. They get the route and intercept it. Ed gets on. They guy is in disguise, but Ed spots him. Ed follows the guy off the bus. The guy notices him and tries to run. Ed tasers him. The guy drops on the second dart. They load him into the van. They try to wake the guy and question him to find out where he keeps his data files (they figured out that he created a worm for a specific type of commlink and is downloading video and audio from them all over the country constantly, so he must have servers and massive storage for this). He however uses the opportunity to go VR and signal for help from his drones. They tranq him immediately and the group avoids the drones.
Jerry again turns in the bounty and claims that he was just riding the bus and the guy got on right next to him. So Jerry just tased him with the new taser he had gotten from wrestling the drug dealer to the ground.
Meanwhile, Jerry's girlfriend, Stephanie, is becoming concerned that: Jerry suddenly quit his Day Job and hasn't found work yet, he has strange bruises, he went out of town randomly, and getting money from apparently. She thinks this means he's started doing and dealing drugs. She talks with Maggie to try to figure out what's going on, but Maggie gives her the run around and Stephanie finally confronts Jerry about what the hell he thinks he's doing bounty hunting. Jerry calms her down, but things aren't looking so hot for his relationship. (He had a girlfriend as a contact, but wasn't clear what role she played in his life)