OOC: (We've discussed it in OOC, but I think everyone wants to move on right now. You can give a quick overview at the start of your next post wrapping things up or describing things you did such as getting drones operational, learning things, Selina inviting Mike over to her new apartment, Bongo playing with Rose in her garage with a variety of college kids. Some things could also be handled retrospectively afterwards. Some discussions and things could be picked up after this run. )

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It's Sunday May 25th in Baltimore. In the afternoon morning showers give way to the more typical dry cloud cover and temperatures climbing into the high seventies. The Boyz have set up something of a first aid station near the rear of the safehouse. With the warmer weather they've been doing crazier stunts without as much clothing to protect them from their poor choices. Also a little road rash can be as impressive to the lady chipheads, alcoholics, and squatters from the places on either side of the safehouse. With free nutripacks arriving daily and electrical connections the city doesn't cut off the boyz have to compete with other vices.

Brester puts in a call to Bongo, Paul, Willie, and Selina, requesting an actual AR link. He waits until each confirms availability before starting.

He looks a little rough, like maybe he didn't sleep much last night. However he also has some extra chrome shining around his right eye socket, so presumably he got something extra put in there.

He starts <<Hopefully you've managed to settle in. You might need some of that for this one. I've got a job for you, or really rather two jobs.

The first is working with a gang leader out of Harlem Tower 3, located here>>

He flips the group an ARO with coordinates
https://maps.app.goo.gl/UQGvKDzc2CQLD9iu6

He then continues

<<I suppose Harlem Tower 3 was supposed to be a nice place, being situated next to Harlem Inner Block Parks K101, Q112, and Za125. However as the level of effort they put into naming may suggest there was a certain lack of foresight.

Since it was a city project, they used eminent domain to level all the buildings there. What they put in is a ferrocrete and plastisteel brick about a hundred meters by a hundred meters on the ground and a hundred stories up, plus a few more stories for a parking garage below.

The key feature of these towers is they're trying to create Jeremy Bentham's panopticon for low cost housing instead of a prison. The apartments are narrow and long, kind of like from the footage you showed me of Frank's place. Except instead of doing it to give everyone a window, they do it to give everyone a visible door to the central maintenance tower.>>

He pauses for a moment and smirks a little before continuing. <<Well, you probably don't want to hear me going on about architecture or pre awakening Utilitarianism philosophy. Feel free to ask, but you'll probably do better getting more detailed information elsewhere. Let me get to the key points.

That monolithic rectangle has a couple tens of thousands of unfortunate SINNERs, probably about as many SINless, and a number of gangs, with Monifa's crew being dominant. She's the one with the problem>>

He sends another ARO with an image of a large black female Ork wearing a tank top to show off her muscles and many scars. Chrome eyes seeming to glow from the sun reflecting off the image, with West Baltimore stretching out in the background. Indicating the picture was taking from very high up.

<< Her problem is she's made an enemy but she doesn't know who. First there was a swarm of gangers that came from outside, rode the elevators up to the top of the building where her crew operates, and tried to take them out. They were noticed very early and that went very poorly for them.

He waves a hand <<Actually, a rather large part of the job description was describing how her gang won these battles. Anyway next a team more like runners tried a stealthy surgical strike using the stairs. Using stairs was also a poor choice. The third attempt involved a team coming in with a helicopter. Despite her descriptions of her gang's martial prowess it sounds like this attack nearly managed to geek her.

The job then is to keep her alive long enough to figure out who is after her and stop the attacks. She didn't explicitly specify bodyguard duty. However as a general rule if a Johnson dies they don't pay you.

You'll have to work out the details with her. If you accept I'll pass on your likenesses, or whatever disguise you'd like to use, and you'll meet her at the top of the tower. I did inform her that you're seasoned Runners who won't be working for less than three thousand. >>


He then pauses, takes a long breath, and a drink of something in a shot glass and continues.

<< However for all that I don't care about that job. I mean my reputation is on the line whenever I'm involved to be sure. But as a matter of priority all of that is secondary.

Monifa shared some images of the dead from her raids, and also of a number of other denizens of the tower that have been killed recently, in case that's related. I have some automated agents running to find certain images, and they took note of these >>

He pulls up a series of three photographs. Two with dead Orks and a third with a dead human. The thing they all have clearly in common is what appears to be a flower growing out of their right eye. They don't obviously have other wounds aside from some blood coming out of their noses or mouths.

<<That odd little feature is something I've only seen from a single spirit. I'm not sure if it was unbound, bound, an ally spirit, or what. In any case it's presumably a free spirit now, as I understand these things>> His visage gets a little clouded and angry (OOC: For anyone that can manage two hits on a social awareness test, which I think all of you can buy) before he gets serious again and continues.

<<This all comes from a run gone bad. An uncommon occurrence with my crews, but they knew this one was a high-risk high-reward scenario. Four team members, this spirit, and a client of sorts went out. Only the spirit and two of the runners got out, I have some camera footage of that, but after that they promptly dropped off the grid. I was worried the runners succumbed to their wounds and the spirit simply vanished into whatever spirits vanish into when their time is up.

Maybe not. >>

He shares a still image. It's of a woman who is clearly a spirit. Her opalescent skin, beautiful face, and hair full of flowers could have been done with cosmetics, but her flowing green dress seems to work like a snake's tail without any legs where legs should be. She's also clearly stronger than a woman of her apparent size and light musculature as she holds up a large dazed looking troll in obvious black body armor with an array of horns growing out of his head that almost makes it look like he has a mane. A little bit behind them a human woman in similar black armor with a katana hilt poking out over her shoulder and a black Mossberg AM-CMDT shotgun in her hands. Her race is a bit hard to pin down. She has a nose that seems to not have healed properly after getting broken and looks like she recently took a nasty slash to her face that lets you see through her right cheek to where some teeth should have been. She isn't that large, but the thick soles on her black boots raise her up to maybe five foot eight. Those boots are leaving splotches of blood behind leading up to a wall, however the photo appears to have been blurred to obscure if those prints lead to a door or entry.

<< I'm very interested in being able to still derive some benefits from that run, and to do that I need the help of that spirit. If they're messing around in that tower presumably they have some business. Business means they care about something. Caring about something means there must be some leverage to get them interested in working with me. Perhaps that won't even be too hard. I don't think they'd have any reason to dislike me. Maybe they'd have called if they'd ever had a comlink or any awareness of myself. The team shaman handled all spirit interactions, but she seems to not have made it back at all.

Before you ask I don't feel at liberty to discuss the nature of the run. In part because I wouldn't want to ...taint any information you might get about what happened should you come across any. Also client privacy and all that. But maybe you'll find out more later if this pans out.

I have teams that I've worked with longer than you. But if any of the runners from that job are still around I don't want them getting hurt, though I'd very much like to talk to them as well, and I don't want any situation with the spirit escalating. You've shown a particular and surprising restraint in your last jobs that I think makes you my best bet for success and not burning bridges.

I'm afraid I don't have a lot more information for you. The troll runner was a big tough razorboy going by Double Barrel, and the female was a physical adept and informal team leader going by Cadillac. She liked to use the first name Camila with her fake IDs so that might be her real name, but not necessarily. I don't know their real names or SINs, or even if they properly have them. I'll send you some aliases from fake IDs, but I haven't gotten any pings on them. I have no idea what the spirit went by.

I'm offering 50k if you can get me some useable info on what the spirit has going on in the tower and get them to share with me about the run. You can get part of that money by finding either of those runners, if they're able to share anything useful. Finding them might pay other dividends as well.

I anticipate working with Monifa will give you a sort of license to investigate in the tower in a way that would usually be very bad for your health. Though don't get my runners or that spirit on their radar. Also, as an advance if you agree, I'm sending over some narcojet pistols to the safehouse. I guess you can sell yours if you want, but I wanted to make very sure you all had a non-lethal option. Careful about overdosing with multiple shots too quickly.


One last matter. You're going to want a hacker for this. Angel has really been working on their athletic skills. Lenny, well, at least he's interested in another run. If you'd rather someone new I have a hacker I trust called Livewire. He can't do some of the amazing things Angel can, lacks some of the sophisticated corporate hacking techniques of Lenny, but he's able to operate on his own initiative, shoots straight, and conserves ammo. Let me know who you'd like to include. >>

Having gotten that long winded speal out he leans back at his desk and waits for the team to reply.

As the month nears its end, Selina (or in this case Kimberly McKenzie) can finally move into her new apartment. A big improvement over the safehouse, even though that also has its purpose.

It takes her a few days to get settled in, getting a few new pieces of furniture, and to rearrange everything to her taste. Almost a whole week is needed to prepare her Magical Lodge, which Selina puts up in her own bedroom (the one with the direct view over the harbor; Dawn will get the bedroom with direct access to the terrace). It still feels a little weird, that both of the bathrooms can only be accessed through the bedrooms, and the walk-in-closets only through these, but she will surely get used to it. It's not a big deal, and the rest of the apartment is super nice and the view and the cool terrace totally make up for it, anyways. And it does keep the whole floor plan tidied up, so there is that as well.

Kim also got to meet her direct neighbors, who have the other side of the terrace, a lovely couple in their fifties, who also happen to have two cats. Selina's charming nature quickly won them over. They were very friendly and welcoming, and immediately offered to help in case she needed anything. [ OOC: Friendly Neighbors Quality ]

With only a couple more days to spare, much of her time is also occupied with her fashion design job, the shaman spent a number of hours with summoning and binding two spirits, who agreed to a number of services after some friendly negotiations. Selina tends to treat her spirit as equals and not as servants, which usually goes over well.

Dawn arrives from Seattle a day before Brewster calls. It's been over a year now, that the teenager was rescued from the grasp of the two dwarf brother pimps along with a bunch of other girls. The petite elf was very reclusive and forlorn back then, but a lot has changed in the meantime. The physical abuse took maybe a month or two to heal, while the emotional scars will likely stay with her forever. Despite those, she lives a happier life now, and she is grateful for the opportunity provided to her. Not everyone in her position ever gets that chance. It still feels a little bit like a dream to her, one from which she hopefully never has to wake up. Cole had provided her with a proper SIN under the name Dawn Summers back then, an orphan that was taken in by Kimberly McKenzie, who acts as her legal guardian until she becomes an adult herself.

Together with the new apartment, Selina has been looking into leasing a car, as she only has her bike otherwise, and so she drove to the airport to pick up Dawn in a sleek, white Rover SUV. Happy to see her, after being about a month apart now, the elf girl rushed in with a big smile to give Selina a hug, then immediately took a step back to play it cool. Yeah, that really didn't work out so well. On the drive back to the apartment, there was a lot of talk about how blue the sky is and how pretty those clouds are. Dawn compared the color of the sky to her own blue eyes. She likes it already.

School will only start in late summer, so there will be at least three more months for Dawn to get used to her new surroundings. Not that it will be hard to get used to her new space, considering how nice it is. And she is not leaving that much behind, either. Mostly bad memories. And those can stay in Seattle.

<< Runner teams and helicopters? If this Monifa is actually looking for protection, she will have to do a lot better than three thousand. Digging up some information about what is going on there might be more reasonable. Stopping the attacks... that really depends on who that is and what it is they want. Only thing that is clear, they have quite a few resources on their hands and are willing to waste them for this. But, well, no harm in hearing her out. I understand that this part is mostly an excuse for digging around there, but it's still a job. >>

Bongo spends the time he has before any new run Brewster comes up with sussing out the infrastructure and the social structure of the area around Frank's building. Over time, he starts to blend into the daily comings and goings of the vendors, shoppers, buskers, sun seekers etc. A plan begins to formulate in his mind, but it is still nascent.

Rose gets him to meet the college students she thought might be worth a shot to form a group that plays together occasionally. In general, not too bad. With some help they will tighten up. One of them, Johnny Tate, is a passable composer and does pretty well on keyboards and trumpet. He seems to be the leader of the crew and garners respect from them. There is a young drummer, Teddy Smith (why do young people hang on to the diminutive of their names? Huh. There is Willie, too.), who is eager as all get out, and once he hears Bongo play he latches onto Bongo as if he were a second skin. Questions flow like water from a fire hose.

"What do I do to get my high hat more salient"
"How do you get that multi-rhythm so smooth?"

The answer is almost always the same: practice till your limbs feel like falling off.

##########

Willie spends his time in between constructively, practising with his knives till they feel more a part of him than they did before. Once in a while he drops in on the Boyz to watch their driving antics. Nothing like what he can do, of course. After a few days he is just part of the background for the gangers. Fine by him. Talking usually gets him into trouble.

Brewster leans back with a smirk <<To be clear I impressed on her that was three thousand per individual. Just establishing a baseline for being worth your time. The fee from myself for my project was for the group. You could add more crew if you think it would help, but you would need to divide the payout. Also keeping things discrete gets harder with more people.

Their opponent might have deep pockets. However we don't know the nature of things. Also less scrupulous Johnsons have been known to take advantage of the fact that Shadowrunners are substantially cheaper if they don't come back. Either way it makes financing a follow up run cheaper, especially if you have a fixer worse than myself that doesn't know about what happened to the least team. >>

Willie mulls over what Brewster said. He adds his two nuyen worth. (Inflation affects opinions, too.)

<<Whoa. If that body needs guarding, I'm in!>> Oh, Willie.

<<But, yeah, there was some kinda power creep going on. What comes after helicopters? Dragons?

<<By the look of it, the spirit could have been the next level, but I think if it wanted Monifa, we wouldn't need to worry about protecting her and her gang.>>

<<Yes, >> pipes in Bongo. <<Monifa looks like she could handle mundane attacks well enough, but weird shit magic and things that materialize right out of thin air look to be beyond her gang. I agree with Selina that if we have to deal with the next level of escalation, 3000 each seems low. If it weren't for Brewster's link to her, it would almost look more profitable to help out mystery Enemy Number 1. But then, what would our in be?

<<Having said that, I am in for negotiating with Monifa and then using her permission into the building to work towards the bigger job.>>

Willie adds, << If there have been raids with gangers and helicopters, the protection gig isn't likely to be quiet should the next wave come.>>

a funny look comes over Willie's face should anyone be watching him. "Should the next wave come? What am I becoming, some college twit?"

Bongo comes back, <<Any idea how the other gangs in the building will react to agents of Monifa poking around? And if we get to talking to the spirit, are we to keep your name, Brewster out of it at the start? >>

Brewster leans back and rubs his chin while he thinks, then he replies <<I have heard of free spirts doing various sorts of jobs. However Monifa didn't talk about defeating a sprit. You'd think if a spirit was trying to kill her she'd either have something she'd want to brag about...or she'd be dead. Now, it does occur to me that someone might leave a little detail like that out prior to negotiations. Just defeating a spirit doesn't solve your problem, you'd have to expect another to be sent your way, or for that one to return.

But then why being willing to share the pictures of the unfortunate souls getting flowers ahead of the funerals? She wasn't shy about mentioning a spirit in the fight with the first runner type team, though she felt she resolved that through the gangers being well versed in "geek the mage first" tactics.

I think it unlikely our free spirit is out to get her. But in any case please don't antagonize it. That's also probably good advice for your health as well.

By the way being the head gang of a tower like that means she has at least some magic user or users in her crew. She didn't mention it, but I feel reasonably safe presuming. That's also part of why I'd expect the other gangs to continue to be at least somewhere deferential. Also there's the old Bedouin proverb "I against my brother, my brothers and I against my cousins, my cousins and I against strangers. " An outside force tends to be unifying.

As for my name don't spread it around too broadly, but I think it would be fine to share with the spirit. Though it's quite possible they aren't any more aware of my name than I am of theirs. If they operated near the team long enough maybe they could have picked it up. Without my comcode they wouldn't have known how to get ahold of me, if they'd wanted to. I don't think I'd be perceived as having done anything untoward in regards to the team or the spirit's summoner, but it's possible all the spirit knows is that their summoner didn't make it back.

I'm afraid you know as much or more than I do about how much summoners fill their spirits in on such details. >>

Bongo thinks for a moment. <<So, how many of Monifa's crew have died? This could be a concerted effort by the other gangs in the building to get rid of the top dog. Or at least weaken her.

<<I mean, how else did two separate teams make their way up the building without being harassed by the gangs they passed? >>

He scans the images to see if there are any common elements to the flowers growing out of the corpses.



<<Selena, you have any clues about this flower spirit? Like, stories, myths, whatever?>>

Willie pipes in. <<What kinda helicopter was it? And what happened to it? Did Monifa's crew bring it down or was it used by survivors to escape? Uh. Maybe these questions are for Monifa, but maybe she shared info?>>

Brester smirks a little <<It would be atypical to bring someone outside for an assault on the building. But sometimes atypical leadership is how people get to the top. I wouldn't rule it out.>>


Though for that reason I'd almost rule out Monifa being forthcoming about the details of her current strength and casualties. Certainly she didn't tell me. I also have my doubts of her ability to visually identify helicopters, but you could ask. I care more about someone's reputation. She doesn't seem to have a reputation of screwing over business partners. Though she's a bit unstable and, perhaps necessarily, prone to violence. It sounds like she's quick to make friends which could have its advantages, but being professionals with some distance might help keep her on better behavior.

In any case she knows I know you're interacting with her. Assuming you take the job.

Normally legwork ahead of time is a good idea, but I presume her whole crew is on edge and keeping an active eye out for any runner types nosing around. >>

He screws his face up a little in though <<I doubt it's one of the other gangs though. She probably makes it her business to know all about them, and she could go after them directly. Wanting a group like you implies she thinks the threat is external. But again neither she nor I know that for a fact.>>


Even crappy cameras used by crappy photographers in 2070 are pretty good. Bongo can zoom in on the digital images. In all cases it's a single English Daisy
https://www.thespruce.com/thmb/w21mOMB7AnUn...63c062e3463.jpg

The flowers don't look exactly right, as if maybe they were fake. Though obviously they didn't grow naturally out of the corpses. The bodies appear quite fresh in the photos, and not arranged, as if the pictures were taken before the bodies were even touched, as opposed to the decomposition that would exist if the flowers grew naturally.

<< @Bongo: Sorry, no idea about the spirit. Never heard of any that do something like this. >>

Getting back to Brewster, it probably does not hurt to let him know they are not simply accepting a first offer, just because, even though she does think it is a decent offer.

<< Alright. Let's say we are interested. There is a lot of vagueness involved, and probably some pretty nasty people. We also don't really know, what Monifa is good for. Assuming we take your job, we pretty much have to take hers as well, regardless of how it pans out. So, I feel that you could do a little better here... >>