Thursday, March 15, 2007

The Urban Scavenger Hunt

Six, Glyph

The runners had spent a bit more down time finishing off projects, and getting more cyberware installed. Ki-Rin was having some problems with his bone lacing, sections of the dikote sheath had failed and his body was presently trying to reject his elbows and knees, Mal got him back into surgery to fix the problem.
Glyph had also spent some time at Mal’s getting some more headware squeezed into her skull. Ash, had not been heard of for a couple of weeks and the suspicion was that he was hanging out with his new magical friends.

Wednesday 27th September 2070

Six got a cryptic message on his Comlink from a man calling himself Milan. He had a job and the runners had to meet him at The Cat Club at 7pm sharp. Six put the call out but only Glyph was available, with a quarter of a million nuyen being touted for this job the small team would have to do.

Heading round to the Cat Club the runners realised that it wasn’t open for usual business. Rather than the street lined with taxi’s and clubbers cars, there were four pimped motorbikes, and a modified Citymaster parked outside. To the experienced eye of Six, he guessed that these were the vehicles of shadowrunners.

Heading inside they found two separate teams of shadowrunners. Both were also here to take the high paying job. They introduced themselves and it was cordial enough. The man who had called them all here arrived quarter of an hour late, and he let the runners know that only one team would be taking home the money. To get the payout they would have to compete against each other and the clock in a game of Urban Scavenger Hunt. He was going to com them a list of items, and the team back at 11pm with the most items checked off would win the money. Everyone was game.

He went round the teams, asking their team name and taking a comlink number to contact them on.

Gecko were first to pipe up, they were the team with the citymaster.
Gecko are an experienced team who have been running for about 3 years, made up of three individuals they have an elven mage (Kiss) , a human face / rigger (Bates), and a human Merc type (Tex)

Banshee were next to offer their comlink number and team name.
Banshee are a young team from Vegas. They are exclusively humans, and are all hooked up to their bikes. There is a hacker (Crimson) and two gun bunnies (Easter, Freshman) in the team and the mage (Lucid).

Six and Glyph were panicked, they didn’t have a name and when Milan pointed at the pair and asked if they were in Six just said that they didn’t have a name. Glyph quickly piped up that they were team Brutal Deluxe, and they handed over their comlink number to be contacted on.

Each team received the list and quickly skimmed through the host of bizarre items before heading out to their vehicles. Six and Glyph followed last contemplating taking out both of the other teams to ensure that they won, they wisely chose not to take on two experienced teams of runners.

[It was at about this moment that I checked my watch and Nick realised that this game was going to be timed in real time. 11pm my time, was 11pm San Francisco 2070 time]

The Urban Scavenger Hunt List

1. A set of 4 Lone Star wheels. 2 points.
2. Grid guide traffic camera. 1 point.
3. A gangers jacket. 1 point.
4. Live devil rat. 1 point.
5. Photograph of the team at the top of a support of Golden Gate. 2 points.
6. Footage of you rearranging and/or removing the letters on a corporation building to say something obscene. 5 points
7. The first base from the Giants stadium. 5 points.
8. Get a photograph of you having a drink in the Troll exclusive bar Hatchets. 1 point.
9. A tribal shamans Medicine Stick. Bonus points for how powerful it is. 1 point +
10. Steal one of the mayors monogrammed bathrobes. 2 points.
11. The entire door from a civic building. 1 point.
12. A spent Panther Assault cannon casing. 1 point Bonus point if you can prove the shell was fired at you.
13. Leave a dozen feral cats in a CEO’s office. 2 points Bonus points if it an A corporation.
14. Lone Star shoulder patch. 1 point. Additional points if it has a rank
15. 50 gallons of aviation fuel. 1 point.
16. A car that predates Gridguide. 2 point.
17. Video feed of being cuffed and escorted away by Lone Star. 2 points.
18. Lone Star footage of you speeding along Golden Gate Bridge. 1 point.
19. Severed Yakuza finger. 2 points.
20. Footage of you jumping from the golden gate bridge. 1 point.


They studied the list quickly and Six remote rigged his Dodge car to him, if they were going to do this they needed a bit more speed than the Step van offered. Once swapped over they sped to the San Fran Giants stadium. Six and Glyph were mentally working on which corporations lettering would make for something obscene.

En route to the Giants Stadium the runners spotted one of the thousands of grid guide cameras looking down to the road below from the bride they were on. Six Stamped on the brakes and skidded onto the footpath, Glyph leaped out with the miniwelder and chopped the thing off, chucked it into the rear of the car and one point was in the bag.

Screeching to a halt outside the Giants stadium they found that the team were having a training session. Six headed over to the window and attracted the attention of a cleaner in the merchandise booth. He spun her a line about how he was doing a charity treasure hunt and wanted to know if he could have the Giants first base for Unicef. The cleaner went off to ask someone if they could.

Six remote rigged Glyphs car to them and they split up, Glyph was off for some cats.
Then while Six waited he remote rigged his Jeep to the airfield and contacted his flying instructor and asked to buy 50 gallons of aviation fuel. And once paid he pursueded Jerry to load the two barrels into the back of the Jeep. Jerry was more than happy to help. 20:40 the Jeep rolls into the airfield remote controlled. Jerry loaded the fuel into the rear and the Jeep groaned under the weight.

Six then contacted his dad. As an old car nut he was sure to be able to source a pre-gridguide car. Papa was interested in his sons new project of restoring old cars, but didn’t know any off hand. He said he would call back. Dad actually liked the idea of this new vintage car project that Six was about to take up but his son is always so keen to just take on any project and finding a good vintage car took time and couldn’t be rushed. No point in looking till the morning, so he carried on watching the trid.

Six then got onto the phone to Nunzio, a mafia man he would be able to source a Yak finger. Nunzio told Six that a Yakuza man wouldn’t just let his finger be hacked off and it would be easier to whack him. The Mafia were more than happy with wet-work but Six would have to pay the rate for it. Six paid. At about 10:30 the severed finger gets dropped into a remote rigged Jeep which is heaving under the weight of 50 gallons of aviation fuel in the rear.

Six got onto the phone to Snow. He asked to borrow a Panther Assault Cannon for a couple of test shots. Snow agreed to hire it to him, and then as Six tried to tap him up for some more of the bizarre items on the list, Snow guessed what was going on. Snow knows Milan, a fixer with flair. Milan’s thing is to find good shadowrunners in cities around the world, he then sells the shadowrunners contact numbers to corporations who are looking for good runners. Milan finds these cash cows with high paying Urban Scavenger Hunts, the money fronted by his backing corporations.

Six’s conversation was interrupted as the 1st pitcher of the San Fran Giants, Rickie Diamond opened the side door and asked which charity Six was collecting for. Unicef is a wonderful charity and when Six used its name he was lead through and out onto the pitch. A lifelong Giants fan, Six’s jaw dropped slack. Not only was he stood on the pitch that he had worshiped from the stands, he was surrounded by the first team, the second team and the reserves who were all having a mid week training session.
The next twenty minutes was a roller coaster. Press photos of Vincent Caznotti being handed the first base was just the start. The team manager came out after hearing what Vincent was doing for charity declared that the San Francisco Giants would also make a pledge and handed Six a cheque for a hundred thousand nuyen. Six’s head was swimming and he quickly called Unicef San Fran to get one of their men down to take the cheque. As it was for charity the team manager then thought that the first base would be better signed, and that was whisked away from Six to be signed by every member of the team.
Six contacted Ash’s sister, Daisy. He had panicked, and now tomorrow morning his civilian SINned name along with his shadowrunning face will be splashed all over the media and that could only be bad, he needed Daisy to hit that delete button.
Six made his excuses and was waved away by the San Francisco Giants as the hero of the hour.

Glyph was talking to women in comfortable shoes about cats. She was at the San Francisco Cattery and spun them a yarn about how here cat had been put to sleep when she was a child and now Glyph wanted to make amends by taking in as many poor unfortunate cats who were destined to be euthanized. Glyphs story was so compelling and heart felt, that the cattery owner was prepared to hand over 20 evil, mangey furred, flea bitten, hissing, spitting cats to be cared for by Glyph. Upon hearing about this Six convinced his girlfriend to drive the beaten up transit van to meet up with Glyph to collect these cats. Six had to promise a holiday to Paris in return.

Six, in the Dodge with a grid guide camera and a signed Giants first base headed to Snows to meet up with Glyph who was driving in the transit full of caged cats intent on tearing her to shreds. The runners had a brief chat with Snow, thanking him for the Assault cannon and the climbing gear he had dug out for them. Six asked if Snow could pull some favours with Duncan Croner, the San Fran Police chief, and Snow pointed out that they knew his phone number as well.

Leaving the van of livid cats they headed off to the barrens, the plan was for Glyph to shoot at Six with the assault cannon, so that they could film it and collect the spent casing. They found a strip of run down suburbia and they staged a faux shooting of Six. He was going to run and leap clear and the shell fired by Glyph would just miss him. They were going to film it first person shooter style from Glyphs perspective.
It took three attempts to get the footage just right, Six jumped too early, Glyph fired too late, and it looked phoney but the third one was the charm. Collecting up the spent casing they sped away.

The phone call to Duncan Croner came up with some more good news. They had to pay, but he would be able to get them a set of Lone Star wheels and a shoulder patch, they would have to pay, and Six and Glyph now owed the Police chief again. They would have to collect the wheels a bit later.

Back to Snows to drop off the Panther AC and to pick up the van load of felines vehicles were remote rigged all over. The helicopter that they had liberated a few weeks ago was controlled into San Fran airspace, the Step van was brought back online, and Six drove the cat van to a water works. The helicopter was landed nearby and cats were loaded into the hold. The rappelling gear was lobbed into the footwell. Six and Glyph ran back to the water works and nicked the main door with the alarms going off they hot stepped it across to the step van, and threw the heavy door into the back. The step van was remote rigged across to their next target. Mitsuhama.

Six noticed on one of his car feeds that one of his cars had attracted police attentions. They were looking to tow the vehicle away. They guessed that the traffic camera that they nicked had a RFID tag. Six got Bum Fluff to do a high speed drive by the scene to draw away Lone Star so that he could move the car.

10pm and time was getting tight. The helicopter landed briefly on top of the Mitsuhama distribution centre. Not quite the main HQ, but good enough. In the down draft of the rotor blades Six and Glyph hopped out and unloaded 20 cats onto the roof. Once done Six remote rigged the helicopter away. The rope was secured off and Glyph hung over the side of the building she got out the miniwelder and started cutting off and repositioning sign letters.

Lone Star had a hi-ab crane ready to hoike his car away and Six had to move it, he reversed hard and rammed the Lone Star car and then jammed it forward and remote rigged his car away. Bum Fluff was speeding in the opposite direction to draw off Lone Star and narrowly missed Six’s car. Six sent this car to meet up with Snow, who he had arranged to burn the RFID tag out of the camera.

Glyph had attracted the attentions of Mitsuhama security and Six had to drill them with the flip turret gun mounted on the van. And this caused the alarm to go off. Glyph had to work quickly. Cutting off letters and re-welding in a different position.

Six was pleased. u shit Mama was too good to leave alone and Glyph had done well. Now for the cats. Glyph put in one of the windows and they were lucky to come across the CEO’s office. Six verified with the flyspy which he then positioned to film the cats getting pushed in through the window.
ushitMama security reinforcements turned up and began to start shooting at Glyph, while she passed screaming cat after screaming cat into the executive officers office. Six dealt with these also with the HMG on his van and a grenade.

Time was running really tight now, and they called back the chopper and fled the scene. They sped as fast as they could to Lone Star HQ where Duncan Croner had the wheels and the shoulder patch set aside. Six and Glyph headed inside and Six spotted a ganger being booked in. He headed over and asked for his jacket. The haggling was quick, and in the gangers favour, but Six got the leather gang colours Glyph got the wheels and the shoulder patch.

They sped back to the Cat Club and arrived with only a few minutes to spare. The other two teams were already there and were sat with their collections. Six and Glyph brought in their collection.

Banshee were surrounded by their collection Set of 4 lone star wheels. Grid guide traffic camera. A ganger jacket Photograph at top of golden gate The door from the national library. Lone star sgt. shoulder patch. 50 gallons of aviation fuel. Footage of jumping off golden gate (bungee)

Gecko Sat with their Lone Star wheels. Grid guide traffic camera Gangers jacket Live devil rat Rearranged corporate letters. AAA corporation Photograph in hatchets.

Seeing their oppositions collections Six and Glyph surveyed their own trophies. A set of 4 Lone Star wheels. Grid guide traffic camera. A gangers jacket. Footage of you rearranging and/or removing the letters on a corporation building to say something obscene. The first base from the Giants stadium, signed. The entire door from a civic building. A spent Panther Assault cannon casing. Leave a dozen feral cats in a CEO’s office. Lone Star shoulder patch. 50 gallons of aviation fuel. Severed Yakuza finger.

Milan joined them a few minutes shy of 11pm and was pleased to see that all three teams were gathered. He quickly totted up the points, and it was clear to see that Brutal Deluxe had won. The money hit the comlink.

A few days later Six and Kitty flew to gay Paris, and were able to confirm that there are a lot less street cameras than in the UCAS.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOOHOO We rock!!

Owain said...

Well, Milan organises many of these across the globe. Maybe one day in the future you could get invited to another one of his Urban Tresure Hunts ;)

Anonymous said...

Quater of a million! You arss :]

I only miised 2 runs and have lost out on 750k! Have i done something to upset you Mr E?

Owain said...

Yeah, you went snowboarding. That'll learn ya.

And it wasn't 750,000 anyway. It has been about a quarter of that.

Anonymous said...

Chill out Ash, I'm up about 160k - you haven't missed out on anything like as much money as you think you have...

Anonymous said...

Hurr-hurr, that'll teach him.

It's hard to type with no movement in your elbows y'know...

Owain said...

What? You're a decker. You can type without moving anything more than brainwaves.

Anonymous said...

Alright clever clogs... Christ, some people take allothe fun outa things.

Killjoy!

:-P

Owain said...

Killjoy? I read ya. I wonder if you will have full articulation by the next game? Because I know full well it is tres hard to fire a rifle with semi rigid elbows ;-P

Anonymous said...

Well that'd certainly be interesting wouldn't it???

Not...

Owain said...

I suspect it would be an abuse of the GM-ly powers I have been gifted.

Although I think that it would be quite acceptable for me to do from the artistic comedy angle.

Anonymous said...

I suppose it would if you want your game to become a slapstick comedy affair.

Will we also have to wera baggy trousers and 6's cars fall to pieces?

Custard Pie cannon anyone?

Owain said...

I don't think that it would degenerate into slapstick comedy. The loss of articulation of the main joins is not a laughing affair. Ask any scarecrow!

Anonymous said...

I thought that was the tin-man?