Taeksosin's Game Journal, Vol. I, Heavily influenced by Warehouse 13 Options

[taeksosin]

I so loved Paul’s game journal posts that I decided to copy him and put up the planning and the actions that occur during my weekly game. Originally, this game started as a secondary game for three of my players since the husband and wife duo at my table had just had a baby girl, and were out of commission for a month or two. I didn’t want to stop playing, so I had my three players roll up an alternative set of characters. We had been discussing Jesus’ betrayal and such at the hands of Judas in my weekly bible study group, and I’d twigged onto the idea that the thirty pieces of silver would make a neat artifact in an episode of Warehouse 13. After some cajoling from two of my players that also participate in said group, I decided the new game would be a Warehouse 13 ripoff, ie they’re people who are contracted by the same Johnson to investigate odd happenings and round up any artifacts that could be causing them. Of course, there won’t ALWAYS be an artifact, just to keep things interesting. My other two players have since recovered from said baby being born, and we all decided we really liked this game and set of characters, so g’bye other folks.

Without further ado, here’s the cast.

The Players

Bob: Bob originally started out as an NPC from the previous game who was taken over by a player who just loved how he operated. Big ol’ Troll Adept who split his points between learning which fork is used when and how to use his other hand to end lives. Based somewhat off the Troll martial artist archetype created by the inestimable UmaroVI, he’s a combination of Face, Meat, and delicious 14P punches (that I really need to double check the rules on).

Bungles: Possibly the oddest character at the table. Bungles is a dissonant technomancer/clown who, through a ton of odd circumstances, has ended up being taken in by a ninja clan who have implanted him with a cortex bomb should he get out of line. He’s currently on loan to ARC as a payment from his master to the group. Sociopathic and mean-spirited, his cover identity/disguise forced onto him by the clan is that of a six year old little girl. This is helped by a holo hood, AR clothing, and all sort of other technological trickery. Handles some infiltration, mainly of the confused/lost six year old girl type, as well as the Matrix end of things.

Hannya: Nevermind, this is the oddest character. Hannya makes her living as a paparazzi, breaking into simsense stars/starlets domiciles and getting that juicy dirt that the tabloids love to have. Is a voyeur, has a mild addiction to porn, and has some of the oddest augmentations in the books (enhanced breasts and penile enhancement). Steals underwear from her successful capers. Covers the B&E aspects of things, and isn’t too shabby with a gun either.

McConaughey: What happens when you cross a crippled lawyer and Archer? McConaughey has similar annoying attributes that the main character from Archer does, along with his wheel-chair boundness. Did I mention that he’s extremely prejudiced against people with any sort of augmentation? Thanks to his wheelchair’s smuggling compartment, he’s the team’s Sniper as well as primary Face.

McFly: The product of a night of collaborative brain storming between myself, my wife, and the guy playing him. McFly is a Gun Adept with issues. His Geas for the meat of his powers? He has to tuck his kids in for bed within the last 24 hours. Why he’s running the shadows? Well, his wife just loves the future’s equivalent of QVC and has run up quite a debt with the Vory purchasing drek that they can’t afford. A member of a Lone Star HTR, he’s dreading the day that his team gets called in to take down his team. Shooting people with pistols, and shooting them good is the order of the day for McFly. He’s also a pretty decent get away driver.

Taser: Finally, we have Thelma Quigley, aka Taser. Taser is a fourteen year old homeless girl whose Trickster mentor spirit has driven her pretty much insane. Think a Malkavian vampire, and you’re not too far off. Said spirit does watch out for her, but also has the annoying penchant of talking to her through inanimate objects for kicks. Cars tell her where they’re going, stop signs tell her to stop, and McConaughey’s wheel chair just HATES dragging him around all the time. She’s pretty handy with those lightning spells though, and is able to get around okay on the Astral as well.

Supporting Cast:

Arcturus aka Artie: I completely blanked on a name for their control, so I initially went with Artie just for the deliciousness of ripping off Warehouse 13, then later retconned to Arcturus. A fully statted Prime Runner (though he has an inordinate amount of knowledge skills) Artie is the guy that tells them about the suspicious things that could indicate artifacts.

Dwight “Mr. Bright” Conyers: Our protagonist for this run. This is the man behind the strange occurrences that send the runners chasing after him.

Onto the show!

Synopsis: The players are directed to investigate a series of high profile, headline shattering betrayals of things they hold near and dear to themselves.

Orientation:

Terrain/Landmarks: Mostly made up down town Seattle. For where there are potential for the players actively visiting, we have the Armistice Tower Suites (75 story high-rise condos) and the Space Needle/Eye of the Needle restaurant.

Weather: Being a Washingtonian most of my life, I can safely say that the weather in mid October (12-17) is the typical Seattle drizzle, with a good chance (4-6 on a die roll) of showers on days three and four. Rest of the week clears up to oppressive cloudiness.

Situation:

The original three betrayals given to the players as potential leads to scope out were:

1. The CFO of Ares handing over the AAA’s marketing strategies, current R&D projects, and the coming year’s product line information (marketing, designs, release dates, etc.) to Saeder-Krupp,
2. A Secret Service agent for the current president of the UCAS attempting to assassinate said president while he was giving a speech in Seattle.
3. A mid-level Aztechnology manager leaking videos of the various misdeeds that those blood loving boys get up to onto a few choice tabloid/gossip Matrix sites.

The first is practically untouchable to the players, though with some creativity they would be able speak with a secretary who’s enjoying a night out on the town.

The second is being held in Metroplex Prison, which in our timeline is still being run by Lone Star. Anyone with police contacts would be able to get some information, and possibly set up a meet if their connection is good enough, and if the group wants to spring for the necessary bribes.

The third is more accessible than the first, but harder than the second. Discovering where he lives is a simple matter of following the chatter on the various sites talking about the guy (and his short lived celebrity status as a whistle blower) but getting in is a whole other matter entirely, since he resides in corporate owned housing.

Following up on any of those leads will lead to the characters finding an small, ancient silver coin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrian_shekel provided the picture of them given to the players) in the possession of the three individuals. Assuming the players are going to contact Artie, he’ll inform them that the coin is probably one of the pieces of silver given to Judas Iscariot in return for his betrayal.

If the players pick it up, nothing happens. Artie will come collect it with one of those neat bags. Will remind the players that they really shouldn’t handle artifacts when they don’t know exactly what they’ll do. Informs them of the fourth big betrayal he’s uncovered.

The Gianelli family’s Don has turned state’s (well, Star’s I suppose) evidence and has ratted out the entire family in exchange for immunity and a new life. Lone Star currently has him sequestered in the Armistice Tower Suites on the 45th floor. The “apartment” he’s staying in is the entire floor, remodeled by Lone Star after they purchased it.

However, since he figures he’s a dead man, the Don is indulging in any hedonistic act he can think of before he gets his toe tag and body bag. There have been a cavalcade of high class prostitutes, male and female, making the rounds in the apartment for the last three days along with the most outrageous food choices possible. The officers babysitting him until they can move him out to a new life are starting to get fed up with having to cater to the Don’s whims, and are starting to wonder if they really need him for the trial.

However the players reach the Don, he’ll inform them that he was meeting with Dwight Conyers, aka Mr. Brighteyes, a fairly, well known Johnson who will represent anyone’s interests for the right amount of nuyen. He remembered letting Dwight into his office to talk about planning a run against a Vory warehouse, seeing a flash of silver, and coming back to his senses immediately after the closing of his testimony and presenting evidence of his family’s nefarious doings to Lone Star.

Mr. Brighteyes will be conducting business within the Eye of the Needle restaurant if the players go to confront him. He’ll be at a table, alone save for the two monstrous trolls that flank his chair at either shoulder. If pressured, he will pull a handful of identical silver coins from his pockets, toss them at the runners, and order everyone to “get them” while pointing at the team. Coins can be resisted by 2xWillpower(4).

The dirty trick of it though, is that Mr. Brighteyes is yet another victim of the coins. He had been given one and ordered to engineer five very specific acts of betrayal. All of the people are related to each other via his black book. Assuming he isn’t killed, Mr. Brighteyes will come to extremely disoriented and with no knowledge of what he’s done. However, if his commlink is examined, there’s a simple text file on it with the names of the first four people on it, the fifth is one that he doesn’t know and means nothing to the Runners (Equiv. of searching John Smith on Google).

Mission:

Armistice Tower Suites Security Detail:
1 R4 Watcher Spirit
1 Human Combat Mage
8 Lone Star HTR officers (1 troll, 2 orcs, 5 humans, two of the humans have obvious cybernetic limbs, all possess non-obvious betaware combat augmentations)
1 Mafia Don
5 prostitutes (1 orc female, 1 human female, 1 troll female, 1 elf male, 1 elf female)

Tower Setup:
This particular tower doesn’t have windows nor the beloved fire escape. Instead, each apartment/suite possesses what is essentially an escape pod, large enough for four average humans, that is driven by mag-lev and deposits its occupants a few miles away in front of a Lone Star precinct building. Security is pretty tight, a R4 Watcher spirit is on the roof with instructions to patrol and inform the mage present on the 45th floor of any suspicious activity, cameras everywhere, a Sys 3/FW 5 security system, four cybered Lone Star HTR officers in street clothes are actually in the apartment along with a fairly competent combat mage, two more cybered officers are outside the entrance to the apartment, and another two have temporarily taken over as the desk manager and door man to the tower during the Don’s stay.

Eye of the Needle:
2 Professional Bodyguards (Trolls, heavily cybered, armed with SMGs)
1 Human Johnson (full and obvious cybereyes, implanted commlink, tailored pheromones)

Execution: ARC will cover all itemized, reasonable expenses including bribes that can be shown to have a direct impact on recovering the artifact/proving there is no artifact

Administration/Logistics: Arcturus will be given a coin four days after the start of the artifact hunt, and will be ordered to betray ARC.

Command and Signal: Lone Star uses short burst communication via implanted commlinks, +2 to threshold to intercept.

[taeksosin]

Another post will be forthcoming a bit later today since my players have just about completed this run. I may just end up editing this one instead.