Session started at 6:42 pm on 9/19/06
Attending players: Michael, Ben, Sarah, and Eva
Presiding GM: Aaron
So we've got the nova-coke bribe and we picked up the doctor from the airport. It's about 8pm so we should be just about on time for the concert.
Its in a real dive. They just took over a warehouse in Redmond, not a nice part of Redmond either. (Note: The adventure says the concert is both in Redmond and on the docks. This confused us greatly, as we don't know of any docks in Redmond, it lacking any water and all.)
About all can say for it is that the worst of the truck fleets passing by can't possibly drown out the music. They must not have expected as many people as they got, because all of the asphalt I can see is full of bikes and cars. There are huge crowds drifting around the outside of the building suggest their "facilities" were poorly chosen. It seems like someone must have paid off LoneStar to ignore the gathering. Or actually gotten permission from the property owners, novel concept that.
Ajax parks a few blocks a way after we buzz by to get a look at the place. We head there on foot. Ajax points out some local gangers. He says they're Black Fangs, and they're probably there with Nabo's blessing. There are folks sporting other colors in the crowd as well, could be interesting.
The north side of the building is where the trucks dock, but all the loading dock doors are locked down. The west and south sides of the building boast a couple large open doors where concert goers are entering. I can see some large troll and ork bouncers managing the crowd at the entrances. On the east side of the building there's another large door but it's locked as well. They've got a sick number of port-o-potties near the south entrance. I'd like to stay as far as possible away from that.
After some discussion we decide to try the back door on the theory that it's probably the stage door. Our knocking is greeted by a grouchy voice telling us to go away, but Ajax talks the guard into opening the door far enough to talk to us. The guard is loaded for bear. He identifies himself as Jagger. Ajax subtilely passes him the nova-coke and Jagger fortunately decides that is sufficient bribe for a set of back stage passes. I really ought to talk to Ajax about his slight of hand. Overall getting in was silly easy. It's a good thing for Nabo that no one has it in for him with that kind of security.
There's an opening act out on stage and it's damn loud. I really need to get some ear buds with sound dampening. B manages to spot Nabo and his crowd of floozies as they come down the stairs about a hundred meters away. There's another guy with him and Nabo is handing the guy his stuff, including his comlink before he jumps on stage. The guy and the girls head back upstairs.
We decide to see if we can get our mitts on the comlink, so we head upstairs. The crowd is deafeningly loud as Nabo jumps on stage and begins a song. I really need that sound suppression. That is my next purchase if we get paid for this.
Upstairs, there's a railing that overlooks the stage, out of view of the audience. Across the landing is a bored looking guard sitting outside a curtained off doorway. We make like we're enjoying the show by the railing. B says that the guy and the two girls are in the other room behind the curtain, and giggling. Fun.
All the noise is making me really jittery. I'm trying to keep from nervously looking around every five seconds, since I have no audio cues. The guys want me to get rid of the guard so we can head behind the curtain. I approach the guy guarding the curtain. He's not pissed but motions for me to go back downstairs. I make like I'm not hearing and get close enough to strike him without reprisal. He goes down. We move him to a quiet corner and concoct a plan where the doctor and I go in and see if we can get or switch on the comlink.
When I pull back the curtain I see the guy and the two girls on a couch with an array of drugs laid out around them. They are totally toasted. I could probably wave a sign saying "I'm stealing Nabo's comlink. My name is Lume." in front of them and they'd just giggle and remember nothing useful. I start looking around for the Nabo's stuff.
("I'm supposed to make you roll a perception check, but you know what I don't care."
~ Aaron)The comlink is in a pile of stuff in the corner. I grab it, wave bye to the folks on the couch and head back out. The doctor grabs Nabo's jacket and follows me out.
While I was inside, things on the dance floor went from rough moshing to screaming and weapons being drawn. Ajax reports multiple gangs erupting into open violence. We get the hell out of the backstage door before it can spread towards us.
We pile into Ajax's car and head off to some other part of town. Ajax is going to try to make friends with the comlink and see if Nabo had any other info than what we already heard.
("His email is actually encrypted, but you figure out that the password is Nabo."
~Aaron)Ajax manages to pull up a bunch of interesting junk from Nabo's comlink. The unpublished song lyrics should be especially amusing. Ajax is going to post them on some of the fan boards. That should explain the theft pretty well, assuming anyone cares.
Ajax tracks the email about the disk back to a hacker who goes by the handle of Zipper. This Zipper guy is apparently not as bright as he thinks he is.
"Lost tracks from a dead rocker have become available for purchase. Replies should be directed through [a blind email drop]."
~ the messageSo it looks like we'll have to track down Zipper if Ajax can't make headway on the blind email drop. Ajax tracks down her real name which is Willy Ishikawa. Apparently she is a dwarf, likes girls, and hangs out at Cathode Glow. Cathode Glow is a hacker hangout with quaint old computers and games.
We decide that the easiest thing to do is to track Zipper down for her info. Ajax passes off the jacket and comlink to a panhandler on the way in to the club.
The Cathode Glow would be neat if it wasn't so run down and creepy. There's a lot of cyber gear everywhere, some of the stuff I bet is at least a hundred years old. The AR view is even creepier. All the old crap is overlaid with creepy moving icons and we are greeted by weird electronic eye with a flat toned voice. I would swear the electronics icons are watching me. We find a booth and look around a bit.
The place is pretty empty of people. The doctor and I manage to spot two dwarf chicks sitting over in the corner. They're dressed vaguely biker-ish gear and seem to be playing some sort of game on their comlinks. There is a free booth behind them, so we move over there.
"I mean I can see the bacteria on the table, but it's no worse than that one."
~ B, jokingly wondering wondering why we're changing tablesThey aren't talking, just playing. Ajax says its a semi-realtime strategy game. They finish it off eventually and switch to a less intense strategy game. We try talking about race horses but don't manage to get their attention.
Ajax stops paying attention to the conversation after a while and watches their game. Ajax is giving the loser suggestions over wireless. When she wins the other girl turns around and greets Ajax in a slightly annoyed way. She's Zipper and the other woman is Ia (Aye-ah).
Ajax is kissing up to Zipper, making like he's some sort of groveling fanboy. It would be cute if he didn't sound so pathetic. Ajax tries to get her to talk about the anonymiser, but she gets sort of huffy. She claims she was doing for a friend from Boston. He gets her talking about hacking, but even I can tell she's lying out her ears.
Ajax has moved from buttering her up to coax-threatening. She coughs up surprisingly quickly when he offers her a small bribe. Her "friend" is apparently a guy named Kerwin who owns a dive bar over in Redmond. Ajax thanks her and we head out.
Ajax is working on digging up info about this Kerwin guy while we head back towards Redmond. His bar is apparently called the Coda. No idea what he was going for with that. Ajax says that Kerwin is the son of K-spot Lumis, who was apparently a rather famous musician. I think I might have heard his name once or twice. Apparently this K-spot guy worked with the same label as Jet Black. K-spot died relatively recently. So maybe Jet Black was the artist who recorded the disk? That has the potential to be very exciting.
(OOC Note: Jet Black = super super famous rock star from the 2040's and 50's, much like Elvis)
So we are heading to Coda. It's a dive, about the worst I could imagine. Between a junkyard and an abandoned barbershop, Kerwin obviously don't even have the dough to fix Coda's damn neon sign. The chip heads on the sidewalk do not add to the decor.
We head inside. There's a local gang in the corner drinking, six sizable guys. There isn't anyone behind the bar. When we look in the back we find the back door wide open and muddy footprints fleeing out through the back yard. A sizable hole leads through the fence into the junkyard. Kerwin appears to have left a rather large puddle of blood where he slipped and scraped something on a pile of jagged metal just inside the hole. Ajax sends his car around to blockade the front gates of the junkyard as we move in.
B is telling us there are other people in the junkyard and he's pretty sure they are searching for something and communicating quietly or electronically. Sounds like we have competition. B directs us towards the nearest target.
We entered in the south-east corner and there are rows of junk running north to south. There's a guy in the next row and B says he's not wearing obvious armor, but he is carrying a manhunter. Ajax is busy taking out the guy's comlink and we are waiting for a signal to take him out.
B is about to shoot the guy but he spots us. Another goon steps into the row we are at the end of, I think he's got an assault rifle. Ajax yelps for B to pick a different target, but B mows down the guy who spotted us rather effectively.
There's a hiss of shimmering energy. I feel a spell wash over me but it can't touch me. B starts coughing up blood. He's still standing though. I didn't see the source of the spell. The mage must be invisible.
The guy on the ground is flailing around trying to shoot at us. He slips on his blood and I think he shot himself. He isn't moving any more anyway.
I take a shot at one of the guys down a few rows from us. He ducks back behind a pile of junk and my bullet buries itself somewhere in the metal.
The doctor steps up and heals B. The guy with the assault rifle opens up on the doctor and B. He tags B, but the doctor manages to shelter behind him.
Shooting these schmucks is not going to get rid of them fast enough. I duck out of cover and charge the two guys aisle-wise away from me. The guy further down fills the air with lead but he's not a very good shot. I zig around the puddles and scrap, untouched.
B takes some shots at the guy who's shooting at me. I don't think he hits.
I zag around the corner of the row of scrap and launch a flying kick at the nearest gunner's head. He's going to have one hell of a headache tomorrow but he manages to keep his feet.
The guy I'm not engaged in hand to hand combat fires a burst at me and one of the bullets hits me in the shoulder. It's not good. I keep my balance, but my left arm is going to be good for just about nothing in this fight. B tags him back and he falls over in a puddle.
The guy I kicked tries to shoot me, but he's too close and I shove his gun out of the way before he can pull the trigger.
The doctor is trying to figure out where the mage is. After a few seconds of concentration she tells us that he's down a few rows standing on the end of one of the piles of metal. She smacks him with a stun bolt and he falls off the pile with a wet thud.
I attack the guy standing next to me but he manages to jerk himself out of the way.
(The guy way down on the other end of the aisles, who was shooting at the others takes a few bullets from B.)
The guy next to me is still dodging and barely getting out of the way. Fortunately, he's so busy dodging he's not paying attention to my friends. B lands a bullet in his throat and he goes down gurgling ineffectually.
The surviving goons are running the hell away.
We manage to find Kerwin hiding in the corner of the junkyard. He's holding up the disk and he yelling that he'll break it if we come any closer. His leg is ripped wide open and full of mud. Geez what a moron. Ajax talks him down and gets him to let the doctor come over and look at him. The doctor heals him up so he's not bleeding all over everything. Ajax talks him into selling the disk. For a piddly 500 NY. Kerwin claims that he didn't make any copies of the data because he didn't have any way to read the disk. He's a lucky man who was way out of his league.
The doctor patches B and me up and we head off in the car to find a safe house to lie low in.
End of Session