This thread will be an in character account of the Qabbalah Caper which is GM'ed by Dumpshock's own moderator Dashifen. I am going to post a brief description of the other players and my character sheet below as well.

Host: Technomancer who the party doesn't know is one. We just think he's a hacker.

Buckshot: Host's brother, he's our street sammie who's obsessed with video games and guns, especially shotguns.

Sofia: She is our mage, and she's trying to find her ex-fiance who has gone missing.

D: She is a dwarf pistol adept who was my bar's bouncer.

Card: mystic adept who is intrigued by magic and the arcane. He is an investigator type.


Herb "Cosmo" Adderly (nicknamed Cosmo because he likes the drink)
Ork Adept

Stats
B: 4
A: 5
R: 5
S: 3
C: 4
I: 4
L: 2
W: 3

E: 5
M: 5

Total Karma: 31
Current Karma: 15

Qualities
Human Looking
First Impression
Incompetent: blades
Mild phobia: blades
Mild addiction: cram
SINer
Gremlins 1

Active Skills
Athletics Group: 1 (Gymnastics: 2)
Stealth Group: 3
Influence Group: 4
Perception: 4
Pistols (Semi-Autos): 6
Unarmed Combat (Parry): 1
Gambling: 1

Knowledge Skills
Black Markets: 4
Bars: 3
Business: 3
Current Events: 2
Mixed Drinks: 3
Gambling: 3

Adept Powers
Kinesics lvl 4
Voice Control
Commanding Voice
Melanin Control
Nimble Fingers
Facial Sculpt lvl 1
Sustenance
Combat Sense lvl 2

It was only a few months after my bar had been completely destroyed in the urban brawl battle. Luckily I had gotten some insurance on the place, but it wasn’t nearly enough to actually rebuild. It wasn’t long before all the insurance money started running low and I needed to find a way to live. I thought about bartending, but after owning a bar for a number of years, I couldn’t work for the pittance they get paid, and in the sprawl, you weren’t likely to get tipped very well.

My trusty head doorwoman, Dorielle, affectionately known as ‘D’, said that a few of the patrons of my one time bar were runners who were in need a few more talented individuals to round out their crew. What the heck I thought. Been practicing with pistols my whole life, I was a pretty good shot. Besides, I heard there was good money in running the shadows. Seemed like a good get rich scheme to raise the funds to reestablish my bar. Plus, it’s probably pretty exciting right.

Wrong, getting shot at isn’t necessarily the most exciting thing. In fact, it’s probably the farthest from it. Regardless, we did some odd jobs to build our rep and get some nuyen to get some nice gear. Not very profitable if you ask me, but we hadn’t really landed a big score yet. It was bound to happen sometime though.

A few months and a few jobs later, we had established a little street cred. White Castle, our friendly neighborhood fixer, told us that he had a big job we could probably get. He was pretty excited, which was unusually, because he’s usually grumpy as hell. Head up to a schaboz (sp?) to meet the Mr. Johnson, he told us. Of course we acquiesced, it’d been a while since the last job, and Buckshot’s trigger finger looked a little twitchy.

We meet up outside the schaboz and walked up. Pretty impressive little place, looked boring, but who cares as long as the guy’s going to pay our bills. Turns out the Mr. Johnson is Alan Juda, a Rabbi. Surprised me a bit, I didn’t think Rabbi’s needed people wacked. Never know though, right?

Great, we’re not wacking anyone, we are traveling to Hong Kong to get some incense from some Buddists. Worst part, we’re traveling by ship. Well I convince him to pay us well, cover our expenses, and front us half the money. Not a bad pull, especially for getting some dust.

He tells us that he has requisitioned a ship to transport us to Hong Kong. The captain’s name is Jack and that he’s a bronze dwarf from Hawaii. Supposedly he’ll be ready in a few days.

We set off to gather supplies for our journey, namely some Cram and Psych. Good think Mike Jones can hook it up or we’d be in a pile of drek for the trip. We procured a Autodoc and some other stuff, as well as a Minivan. I have to admit, Host is a pretty good hacker. Still don’t understand how he can just jack a car without actually jacking it.

Meeting Capt. Jack was an experience, that’s for sure. His crew they’re….well their special. Except Alexa, she’s pretty hot. Not really my type, but there’s something about her. Anyway, we load up and head out. Next stop, Hawaii. I guess we mean to resupply there.

Actually traveling by sea is much worse than you would expect. It was excruciatingly painful. At least Buckshot and I could play Matrix games because Host brought along his satellite link. Shit, I got so bored I started playing practical jokes on a few people. Card may or may not be missing one of Rabbi Juda’s books. Opps!

Finally, we arrive at Hawaii. Word is we are going to meet up with Jack’s sister. However, when we make landfall, some guys tell Jack that this big wig named Luke took over the supply depot. Looks pretty suspicious, not to mention Jack doesn’t look happy. Not to mention, they won’t let us refuel. We head back to the ship and Jack tells us that the shit just got real. He wants us to find his sister and try and “arrange� a meeting between himself and Luke.

Card gets sick, the gutter jumper puked on my new kicks. Hell of a time to get the flu, we’re in Hawaii right. It’s supposed to be the best vacation spot on Earth. Too bad we aren’t on vacation. We check out Jill’s old office building. It’s empty, so we decide to set up shop here.

We decide to check out a few of the legitimate establishments that Luke owns. We’re thinking dumb luck might land him in our laps. We hit up Caveman Capes and one other place with no such luck. We did see a few of Luke’s lackeys though. We bug one, literally, just to see if we can’t find anything useful.

We decide to check out the Flamingo, a casino, to see if he’s there as well. Turns out, he’s not. However, I do find out that he comes in a few time a week and he’s always here for special events. As fate would have it, there’s one in 2 days. The event happens to be a celebrity poker tournament, which is going to be televised. I hate those things, nothing worse than watching people who suck at poker playing one another. It’s miserable.

We all meet up to discuss what we’ve found out. Not much, but someone decides I should try and convince Earl Jones, a semi-famous Synthetic Blue Grass musician, to let me play in his stead. I’m pretty good, not to brag, but come on. Somehow I end up in Earl Jones’ hotel room playing him in poker, trying to let him let me play for him. I have to resort to some dirty tactics to persuade him to agree.

The team decides that while I’m playing in the tournament, they are going to raid Luke’s mansion. I’m supposed to tell them if he leaves the casino during the tournament…oh yeah, and I’m supposed to win the tournament too.
I get my disguise on, let me say, I look more like Earl Jones than Earl Jones himself does. The guys wish me luck and I head out. I guess they are prepping to raid the mansion, supposed to break in right as the tournament starts.
Speaking of tournaments starting, I start off like shit. The dealer must have something against me. Thankfully, my luck turns around and I pull a slick bluff and pull in some heavy chips. After a few hours, it’s clear that there are about 4 of us that have any real skill. Luke’s still here, so I’m assuming my buddies haven’t run into any trouble, or at least none they couldn’t handle.

With an hour left in the tournament, my chip count is pretty high. This comedian and I are neck and neck. We eliminate the other hacks and proceed to duel. I know I’m coming out with profit regardless, but I’d be nice to get a little extra on top. The dealer shows me love and deals me two queens. The pot gets pretty big and the flop drops me another queen and two aces. Man, the dealer really does love me, too bad he’s a dude. We both go all in, and show our cards. I go the pocket queens and he’s got ace and king, suited. The dealer flips a five of clubs on the turn. One out of the way, one left. And of course the dealer flips a king on the river, to my dismay. I tip my hat to the comedian; the lucky fcuker wasn’t funny at all, taking all my money.

Luke congratulates the both of us and security leads us to the exchange booth. Luke was still talking to the media, but I alert Host that the tournament’s finished and I got 2nd place, 350,000 nuyen large. Though, I was going to have to give half of it to Earl for letting me play.

I bounce out that bitch as fast as I can. I got to give Earl his cut and grab my stuff and meet up with the crew

So I swing by Earl’s room. He’s overjoyed, and actually brought up a bottle of bubblely. I share a quick drink with him, but we both want to leave, me to go to Luke’s mansion and him to celebrate ‘his’ 2nd place finish.

I taxi it over to the tunnel that Sophia’s spirits made. I’m hoping I managed to beat Luke back. When I get inside, everyone’s just watching TV and hanging out. Of course they’re not doing anything while I’m working hard to make us some money. Everyone’s excited about their cut of the price money. I think I heard Buckshot say he could buy a new gun now.

It wasn’t longer than a few minutes when we see that Luke’s limo is arriving. We quickly devise a plan to pin them down by the entrance and subdue his entourage. Two of the guards walk into the foyer, completely unsuspecting that they are about to be jumped.

As soon as Host gave the signal that the door was locked, D and I lit up the guys in the foyer. They started laying down suppression fire, while their mage summoned those air spirits. One of them decided to try and tackle me. Luckily I bounced out of the way towards the window. I’m not a huge fan of getting attacked by spirits. Thank god for Buckshot, he lit up that fraggin’ spirit.

Finally, we subdue Luke’s bodyguards and capture Luke. We retreat through the tunnel and head to Jill’s old office building. He’s forthcoming about the information as to where Jill’s being held. Kind of surprising, but he assumes we can be bought by a low life like him. He offers use a couple grand each. Not bad, but we’d be screwing our primary employer’s associate….and he still owes us 5k nuyen, much more than the 3k he offers us.

We fake a message to Luke’s henchmen that are holding Jill on his yacht. They respond favorably, hopefully it goes down easily; I’ve had my fill of gun fights for one day. We relay the message to Jake that we got Luke and we’re getting Jill.
A few hours go by, the deals goes though. One of Luke’s guys looks a little edgy, but he doesn’t do anything stupid. We head out a little ways, and sit back and relax. We just got to wait for Jack to figure out what to do.

Jack decides to turn Luke over to the authorities. Jill subsequently acquires all of Luke’s unknown assets. I’m really sure what happens to the legit properties that Luke owned. They probably got taken over by the government. What did I get? Oh, just a couple new suits and a sweet racing bike. Plus we got a quality hookup when we are in the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Leaving Hawaii was a little sad. The thought of being on the ship again for over a week again was definitely not appealing. However, it was a necessary evil. We had to get to Hong Kong pronto. The time on the ship passed slowly. I took up training my hand to hand combat skills. That run in with the air spirit made me realized, that it might be important to improve them.

In about a week, we see Hong Kong’s on the horizon. It’s a sight to behold, skyscrapers litter the island. Captain Jack tells us about the city itself and about the different areas. He needs a few days to unload is cargo and restock, so we have some time to kill. We decide to head to the city proper and explore a little.

After a little tourist action, we decide to get a taste of the local food. It’s a pleasant place, with great food and service. Everything was going fine until some guy busts in and runs to our table. He gives Card a box and tells him to keep it. He basically drops it off and starts running to the back of the restaurant.

Just as he makes it into the back, three guys come in looking all tough. Through the fly-spy, we see the guy get tagged by another group of six guys who had come around the back, all dressed the same. The group of three guys come up to us and begin to question us about the guy who gave us the box. We give them the run around and portray a calm demeanor. Soon they leave, but leave some guys back to trail us.

We see some of the attractions in attempts to dispel any negative impression that these guys have on us, but they stay on our tails. We decide to split up to try and lose them. For some reason I get it in my head that I want to start using genetic infusions. I’ve heard mixed things, but the potential is too overwhelming. Eventually I figure out that I can buy them at this black market. I figured that I should probably go tomorrow, since I’d prefer not to go alone.

I start making my way back on foot. I’ve got plenty of time to kill, so I decided it might be fun. After a long, but enjoying walk home, I reach the hotel. I enter the room I share with Card and we decide to turn in for the night. It turned out to be the biggest mistake of my life.

I wake up with cold steel pressed against my forehead. A quick glance to my left reveals Card’s in the same predicament. The two would be assassins are dressed in all black with their faces covered. One of them asks Card where the data was. He responded, saying he had hidden it safely somewhere. They call his bluff.

As hopeless as this looks, I try to use my commanding voice to get them to remove the guns from our foreheads. In that instant of opportunity, Card attempts to disable his guy. After they recover, they attempt to blast us. We both leap out of the way, nearly grazed by their hot lead.

Just then Buckshot kicks our door down looking all doped up. He drops the one assassin that Card had previously injured. Card picks up the downed assassin’s gun and unloads on the guy next to me. However, he is unaware that it’s a machine pistol, and he lays down a burst of fire that sprays both him and me. One of his rounds slices though my arm, it hurts but it’s not bad. I’m never rooming with that Trog again, you be sure to remember that.

Sophia shows up just in time to drop the last guy. We regain our composure and begin to check out the bad guys, see if they have any ID.