The contact number Dana Oaks gave you actually rings up Athack. Which is a good thing for your Negotiations considering she would have matched your hits. Athack at least is willing to hear you out a little and will give you each an extra 1000nuyen (total of 4000nuyen each) as he and his men meet you at the docks to take custody of Jack and his boat for evidence.

Uh, I never said anything about a boat. All they wanted was Jack. If they want the boat, its extra. 2,000 per runner extra.

The increased drain actually came up in my face to face game last night. We had heard talk from Catalyst Demo Team members about it being an optional rule (and therefore not used in Missions), we were a bit confused because we thought it was a straight rule. We looked it up, and it's apparently a rule that was errata'd to be an optional rule, or something like that... In any case, whether we are using it or not, the rule is net hits, not straight hits. And the spellcaster can choose not to use the net hits, thereby reducing both the damage to the target and the resulting drain.

But moving past all that, yes we can just move on, we might be able to go back and look for the stone, but I wouldn't keep my hopes up. My spirit probably couldn't help us, but I would be a poor player if I didn't at least make the attempt, ya?



If he gave us a different contact number during the mission briefing I will go ahead and call that number. I think he did mention he was doing something else (probably dealing with Mercurial) while we were going out on this mission.

You aren't getting any more for the boat. You are greeted at the docks by a sizable KE force and they take control of the boat siting it as evidence in the prosecution of Jack. It is registered in his name and will surely contain evidence of his crimes.

Sounds good, I'm letter her sleep. I'll try and clean her up a bit if we are sitting around waiting at any point also.



Gardner will nudge Mr. White (either physically or over the matrix), "Don't push it, he already gave us some extra and we don't want him getting pissed and taking more equipment into 'evidence'"

(This is said after Mr. White pushes for the extra 2k, so if Athack gives it, then cool. Otherwise, particularly if Athack starts to get pissed, Gardner will try to step in and get Mr. White to back down. I know we had trouble, but really, we need to take what we can get before the cops decide to arrest us after all...)

Dude slow down. I never said anything about going to the docks, or meeting KE. It's your game. If you want to handwave KE taking the boat, so be it, but you're assuming stuff that one one's posted.

The deal that we had was for Jack. KE were huge pricks about it. So, negotiation got us some more cash. Great. If KE doesn't want to pay for the boat, which is extra, then we'll fence it to some smugglers. And if KE wants to play the "Oh, you'll GIVE us the boat or else!" then we can talk to Jack about how much his freedom is worth.

Honestly, it's kind of the easiest way to go. I don't know anybody to fence a boat to, and it probably played a bit into getting us that extra 1k each for handing him over.

And who knows, maybe they picked up the signal of the boat once we got into open water. Once they have that they can meet us at whatever port we end up at. Our job was to bring Jack out into Athack's jurisdiction (is he KE or LS? I forget...), which we did as soon as we got him into open water...

Hmm...wonder where they document that errata. It's not listed at all in the FAQ or latest version of the pdf. Oh well, I'll keep that in mind in the future. Like you said we can move on.


The call is answered before it even finishes the first ring. An older human with age and worry lines creasing his brow appears in your AR vision. He has a hard edge to him like maybe he used to be a runner himself. Before you even say hello he demands to know if you have found his daughter.

When you tell him that you have her safe and she's sleeping off a rough couple of days, he is absolutely ecstatic. He quickly arranges for a meet with all of you and Mac at a local McDougal's restaurant.

*shrug* whatever we have to do here. I'm roleplaying a character who is getting jerked around by his business partner (KE). I can meta it and just shrug it off, sure. The character that I'm playing is pissed about this though, because it's a shitty deal. "Great, after we were huge jerks to you, you brought us Jack. Here's your cash, thanks for doing our jobs for - hey wait a minute. Is that Jack's boat? Awesome! We'll just take that as well, and everything on it. See you later. Hey, are those weapons you have legal?"

Also, I've got a contact that may be able to help us turn over something like a boat.

Athack didn't warn you Knight Errant was going to seize the boat. You just arrived at the docks for the meet and his men take it. Are you going to argue with them at that point and try to run away with Jack?

Athack is Knight Errant.

No one has said anything about going to the docks. If anything, we'd bring Jack to them. Not at the docks, and not with the boat.

Like I said. Whatever. If that's what happens so be it. But I think its crappy from a character perspective, and I don't much like our actions being dictated to us from a player perspective either.

Oh, I get where you're coming from. It's the same as when you were unwilling to pay Pip up front. I like the role-playing, and it can definitely make sense. But in this case it's kind of the nature of the business of shadowrunning. We run under the law, and our lives aren't even legal. I don't remember them being immense jerks to us before, but it's been a while and I don't particularly feel like going back and finding it. Yes, they probably wouldn't treat us with a whole lot of respect, but see previous statement about the nature of the business...

Ok, let's roleplay out you calling Athack from the boat. You say "we have Jack."

He asks "where are you?"

I don't want to step on Slacker's toes, but from a purely logistical standpoint, it wouldn't take much for a KE spider to cover the call and track it back to the middle of the sound (or wherever the open water we're in is)

"We'll bring him to you. How about the KE station on 119th Street and Beaumont Avenue?"

And just for the record. I love the roleplaying too. I was only moving forward with how KE wants to meet with you ASAP especially with the additional cost your talked out of them. The quickest way to do that would be to have them meet you at the docks.

"That's not what I asked. Where are you now? Dana wants this guy now and I think we are paying you enough to get that."

Remember, Athack doesn't like shadowrunners and you in particular after the previous meeting; and you have made a point of making him know that you don't like him.

Based purely on this, the last thing Mr. White would do is pilot a smugglers boat, possibly full of stolen goods, along with his wounded shadowrunners and their illegal gear, and an unconscious just-rescued hostage over to KE.

"Where would you like to meet, Detective?"

Athack grinds his teeth and mutes his mic for a second as he orders one of his people to start a trace on this call. "You seem to be trying to hide something from me, Runner. " He spits out the last word in a way that lets you know he sees no difference between you and Criminals like Jack. "I'll ask you again....where are you?"

This. This is exactly why Mr. White is cautious about dealing with them while they're dictating terms.

"You seem distracted, Detective, I'll give you a call when we're ready to meet." click.

Next call is to my fixer buddy (regional fixer, connection 5, loyalty 4), Charisma + Loyalty = 9. I need to see if I can stow a boat, and if he/she thinks we can part with it for some nuyen.
9D6E5 => [ 5; 4; 4; 5; 6; 1; 1; 5; 4; => 4 success(es) against 5 ] = 4 | ones: 2

Remember the roll for a contacts Connection rating. He rolled a 2 instead of the 5 or 6 you'd want with that connection rating. He's unavailable currently.

And you do understand that Athack has you're commlink code, right? As long as it's turned on, he can run a trace on it since you hadn't been disguising your number at all.

Alrighty. Is there a quay or warf that lets people pay-and-park?

Just to double check, I'll also try a mafia underboss (connection 4, loyalty 4). Maybe the mob wants a boat (and the grab bag of whatever's on it).

9D6E5 => [ 1; 6; 6; 2; 3; 6; 6; 3; 6; => 5 success(es) against 5 ] = 5 | ones: 1

The dice gods love me today.

My comlink can't... like, not let people trace it? That seems like a feature that someone would have incorporated at some point.

1d6 → [2] = (2) for Connection.

And I don't know, does Mr. White have any knowledge skills related to Seattle docks/quays?

Around this time, Gardner has finished his call with Fiona's father. He notices Mr. White hanging up, "So when are we dropping off Jack with Athack? We're meeting up at a McDougal's downtown in about half an hour to get Fiona home." This is said out of earshot of Jack FYI...

If you have the appropriate skills you can mod your commlink code with a test. Or there is certainly programs you can buy for your commlink to do something like that. I don't believe you purchased any, did you?

Area Knowledge: Seattle?

7D6E5 => [ 1; 3; 5; 3; 4; 2; 1; => 1 success(es) against 5 ] = 1


"As soon as I can figure out what to do with this boat, we'll be on our way."

Mr. White scans the docks and harbor. If only he could find something that let people park boats.

This requires someone actively reprogramming the code on the phone (it's a quick software test I think, maybe hardware). You can also try to redirect a trace, but that also requires someone actively working on the matrix to redirect the call. Also, knowing that a trace is happening would help... he muted the phone, so in character we likely wouldn't know for certain anything is happening...

EDIT - Slacker's got this covered sorry

It seems that Mr. White has approached this situation naively. He has never dealt with someone tracing his comlink. You're right, he didn't hear Athack tell someone to trace him.

Bring on the KE folks.

Yeah, the book says you can run silent so that your commcode can't be traced to your commlink. Any calls or messages would be waiting for you once you come out of silent mode, but you also can't make calls with the commcode while silent.

It's either a Hacking+Software (2) test to reprogram the commlink temporarily (lasts until you reboot it). Or a more permanent option would be Hardware + Logic (2).

Can't the location awareness functionality be toggled on or off?

Doesn't matter. Its a game. The technology doesn't have to make sense.

Even with say, the GPS turned off, they could trace the call based on where the commlink is connecting to the Matrix. All commlinks in 2072+ are full interconnectivity... Trying to keep a location secret is the Redirect Trace Matrix action.

Aha!

"Drop me off right over there." White points to the nearest Thing-That-Is-Not-Water (or a buoy).

"Since I operate in the strange grey area between legit and not legit, I don't mask my comlink, so that means anyone at all can trace my exact location. Drop me there, I'll arrange a meet with KE to hand over Jack, while you find somewhere to put that boat until we can figure out what to do with it."

I'm assuming you guys force Jack to tell you about some out of the way dock that you might be able to stash the boat at for a while, and make him take you there. As you are getting closer to it, a pair of KE coastal patrol boats with spot lights show up and call for you to shut the engines down and put your hands up.

If you comply, they will board your ship and take you all in temporary custody while they pilot the boat to their own docks where Athack. is waiting for you with more KE. They shuffle off with Jack. As Athack's huge form walks up to the three of you. "What kind of shit you trying to pull little man? All you had to do was hand him over and there would have been no need for all of this. Do you have any FUCKING idea the amount of paperwork I'm going to have to do for this drek?"

He's absolutely disgusted with you, but he has his orders. He tosses three credsticks at your feet as he orders a couple rookies to let you go. He looks at Gardner for a second and just shakes his head. This is definitely going to hurt the working relationship the two of them had before all of this.

As the group of you try to leave with Fiona, one of the medtech officers that had hooked her up to an IV drip starts to protest, but Athack just tells him to frag off and let you take your client.

There's no further harrassment about your gear. He just wants you the hell of here.

Lightning fast response.

Let's go finish up.

This is why even modern day criminals will often only use burner phones that they dispose of regularly.

Well, i was typing that up before i saw you posting that you just wanted the closest spot of land. But really, I would guess that you don't want to be hiking back into town. The entrance to the Pirate's Cove is a goodly ways down the coast from even the edge of the Barrens.

Gardner's eye widen in surprise and then he sighs as he takes off his TacSpecs and rubs his eyes. "This thing is molten hot, White, I'd rather ditch it somewhere than risk a colleague getting caught with it. Do you want me to call up Athack and smooth out whatever it is you just said to him?"

Gardner sounds completely sincere and caring about this. (OOC, I've read a thread or two about trying to fence stolen gear, and it really doesn't seem worth the trouble for the maybe 10%...

I would have stopped things before it got this far (see above post, which was written before seeing this, but not posted before) Yay delay in posting!

"Sure, Gardner. Athack seems to be angry that a shadowrunner wouldn't tell him where he was located. I'm surprised that all the other 'runners he talks to give him that info right away."

At the McDougal's restaurant Fiona has woken up enough to at least greet her father who was the true Mr. Johnson for this mission. It is a very happy reunion. While her father is seeing to Fiona's wellbeing, Mac comes over to hand you all the credisticks with your completely payment. He has a big goofy grin on his face. "It's always good to help out an old friend....Thanks for everything you did to get her back."

Everybody gets MacCallister as a Loyalty 1 Connect 5 contact. If you already had him as a contact (which I believe Gardner did) increase his Loyalty by 1 upto a maximum of 4.

After Fiona has fallen asleep in Moreau's arms, he will wave you all closer though he gestures to talk softly. "Thank you. From what little Fi could tell me, it sounds like you really pulled her out of something nasty. I hate to have to ask, but did you recover the stone? The Foundation was hoping to recover it if possible. There would certainly be additional compensation if so."

Should I roll to talk with Athack? or can we just roll with it and go back to that original Negotiations we had...

Delays in posting can always be an issue on forum games. I'm willing to let you intercede if you want to and you can probably smooth over things with Athack considering your prior connection to him. He does want to pick up Jack ASAP though.

There should be five credsticks. Our two companions will want their cut as well.