The Hanzo job:

(for up and comers)

The players fixer approaches them with a job offer, 10,000-15,000 to go in and snatch a sword from some ones house.

The sword in question is Hatori Hanzo’s sword, this sword was used by Hatori Hanzo back in the 1600/1700 era of Japanese history, when he was a shogun assassin. Once a great powerful Japanese lord commanded him but after his master was killed Hatori Hanzo became a ronin, a master less warrior, he wandered the lands looking for his masters killer to take revenge. Once his quest for revenge was satisfied Hatori Hanzo became what most ronin end up becoming, a mercenary for hire, renown for his mastery of the blade he quickly made a name for himself as an unbeatable warrior. He ferocity in battle was unmatched, their was no one in the lands that could beat him.

A few century’s after Hatori Hanzo’s death, the sword is said to have reappeared in the hands of a young general named Napoleon Bonaparte, it is said that the sword led him to some great victories. The sword was later seen in the hands of Brigadier General William Throsby Bridges, who led the Australians at Gallipoli.

Some time in the 21st century the sword went missing, until recently when John Wau, head boss for the Seattle arm of the Yukuza, he is showing it off at a party of his in two weeks time, to every major player in the Seattle area, Yukuza, Triads, Mafia, Mega-corps, Lone Star, Knight Errent, the heads of all these people are among the list of guests.


Some rumors about the sword:
The swords blade is so sharp that it cuts through light, rendering the user totally invisible.
During his “rebellious” years, Harlequin had this sword.
The sword is a strong magical foci.
The sword is the only weapon that can kill a dragon with one cut.
Who ever uses this sword is given the strength of all its previous users.
The sword actually changes its appearance to suit the user, and it was actually Excalibur, and the sword of Attila, and Kusanagi-no-tsurugi (japans Excalibur), and Zulfiqar (sword of the Middle Eastern prophet Muhammad), and the sword welded by Joan of ark, and many others.

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The run for this sword is being spoken about on the shadowlands (web forum) by some people, a lot of people are saying that going for this sword is a stupid idea, manly because some people they know are going for it and they want to convince people to not go for it.

The PCs are being hired as a meat shield by a better equipped and informed running team, if they say no to the job the fixers is to call the “Johnson” and then tell the PCs the price has gone up to 25,000 for the job, and increase this in 25,000 intervals until 100,000 per head. If still no, it’s no hard feelings. The sword it self is worth 5,000,000,000,000 on the black market.

The security for this job is being done in 3 circles starting at the house and working outwards. Lots of ground presence on the grounds itself and out the front this is about 3-5 cars full of men with assault rifles ready to move to where the problem is.

The FBI will be their as will DocWagon

house floor plan: http://www.architecturaldesigns.com/florid...plan-6316hd.asp

I read the title and assumed it was a very dangerous 'personal service'. :/

I'm sure the run will have a happy ending, Yerameyahu.

"Let's steal us a Bunraku Parlor."

Ooh, *nicely* done.

"Parker, you'll be the massage therapist." "Because she has strong fingers?" "No, because this guy deserves everything that Parker does to him. Parker, ground rules... No stabbing."

Leverage is a good show for Shadowrun at times. I have to check out the British series, Hustle, however.

It's 100% con, so it's less good for a 'Shadowrun show'. But still great.

At which point, it's worth far, far, FAR more than the PC's lives are worth, and no one will pay that amount. Even if that number is in UCAS$.

Another thing to throw in, if you'd like, is Hatori Hanzo, the descendant of the historical Hatori Hanzo (The Assassin) and Hatori Hanzo (The Swordsmith), being guided by his ancestor spirits to expose the sword as a fake, and to redeem the family honor...

And that's where my brain shuts down... Wow. Yeah, not a happy fun time in my head, folks.

I mean, worse than usual. I should just stick to the slapstick jerk comments.

My god a 5 trillion nuyen sword!!! for that much it better be stuck in a stone and make you king of England.

We already got that sword wandering around in Shadowrun...

Uhhhhh Ok then. Just make sure you to Kill Bill to get it. That's the only way to get a Hanzo sword that I'm aware of.

The Bride went straight to the source...

And there's also Bill's Brother...

But she only got him to change his vow to never make another sword again by promising to kill Bill.

Five trillion nuyen? Let's try to remember that Big D's 200 million nuyen was a major part of Wuxing making AAA status.

They say it's worth that. But, really, can you put a price on such a priceless artifact?

The only way to find out what it's worth is to hold an auction. Auctions are great heist/con scenes, too.

Even then...

No, the true cost of something like that is measured only in blood and bodies...

Some comments:

1) If you're offered 10k to steal some objets d'art from some guy's house, and your fixer is willing to jump the price up to 25k and eventually tops out at 100k (1000% of the original offer), you very firmly tell your fixer, "No," and then add the fixer to your blocked contacts list.

2) Anything worth 5 trillion nuyen is stored in a vault designed to take multiple direct hits from Tsar Bomba. If it's stored in someone's house, the house owner is a dragon. The dragon is always home and never sleeps.

I don't even think the items in DotA are worth that much.
Anything worth 5 trillion(to whom, exactly?) is probably so well known the number of people who could buy it can be counted on one claw(dragon) or well manicured hand(immortal elf.)
I'm not even sure the ambient mana level of the Sixth World could support a single item worth more than a mega corporation.

To be frank, once you hit the gross GDP of entire continents, the item becomes essentially priceless. There would be almost no reason to sell such a valuable item.

Canray got it right, you can't monetize such an artifact. The only measure is how much you're willing to sacrifice to take it from someone else.

How much is the Mona Lisa worth? The Leaning Tower of Pisa? The outfit Elvis was buried in?

Exactly. No cash is worth those things...

That's gonna be about tree fiddy.

What the hell is 'tree fiddy'?

Can't believe that sat there this long without such a reply.

"Three Fifty"?

I once gave a player group a sword like that...and they worked out very quickly it was too dangerous to use. It was a very nice sword. The combat stats were that if it hit an opponent, the opponent lost d6 body parts (it didn't really matter who the target was, or what armour they were wearing). Within 2 runs they gave it to the most dangerous Yakuza assassin that they knew about: wiping out all past history with the Yakuza, and gaining a very valuable ally, and significant favours.

The sword was very memorable, probably more than any other loot I have every given out, as was the danger associated with trading it for favours.

Hey, what about the infamous "Black Blade"?

despite the fact that the sword is worth that much, do you really think that it would be sold for that on the street

I also get somewhat irked with the sword's alleged history : Bonaparte wasn't exactly know for lugging around a frigging katana, and he's well-know enough that such a detail ouldn't go unnoticed... He was also an artillerist by formation and not exactly a great believer in swordplay.

The sword's rumored abilities also don't add up with it's origins : the first owner wasn't renowed as an unbeatable commander but as an unbeatable warrior. it would make more sense to have abilities focused on individual/small scale fight rather than strategy.

Id's also second the point that if the Jonson is willing to inflate the reward by a factor of ten, any sane character should bug out : either he's not expecting them to come back to collect their pay or he's planning soem screwup to save himself the expense.