PinkCat: Running in the Shade “Trapped” (A different sort of SR campaign report)
17 February, 2018To understand what is going on here, you had best read the first PinkCat: Running in the Shade post, but short summary, this is a campaign report for our Shadowrun campaign set in NorCal through the filter of a cartoon made by one of the team members.
Episode Thirty-Four: Trapped
Guest Starring: Clawz, DoubleUp and Tora.
The group is meeting at a new restaurant, TechnoTaco, when the floor drops out and they find themselves in a maze. A crackly electronic voice says, “Now you must escape the Maze of Danger [tm]! Even with your skills you cannot escape the technomatic perfection of Maze of Danger [tm]!” Cue chases through corridors, crazy traps, wacky robot soldiers, references to various science fiction shows and movies until they finally break in and confront the technomancer behind it all. Once confronted, he apologizes and offers candy and soda and shows how all of the traps were really harmless (nerf spikes, colored mist and so on). He just wanted to test his haunted maze and wanted people to take it seriously.
What really happened:
The team was called to a meet at Tempura Taco (in Karaoke Room 6) where we met a “Mr Takahata” who was accompanied by a dwarf bodyguard. We are hired to penetrate San Bruno Superior Security and modify certain security recording to remove evidence in them, this is the sort of thing we do, so we sign up.
San Bruno Superior Security is a local firm HQed in the former San Bruno County Jail, not the easiest place to get into. Double Tap goes in as an arms salesman and Bladez as a potential new recruit and the exterior is open to view, so we can get a good view of just about everything but the section we need to get into.
Luckily the techs who work in the computer wing and pretty easy to spot, so we scope them out over several days, finding out where they like to eat, patterns and such. We find several technician that PinkCat, Toru or Bladez could pass as, make up forged badges, prepare proper disguises and wait for an opportunity. The chance come up, the techs go out to lunch at a local eatery, Toru bumped into our targets and scanned their keycards while a program from PinkCat got their security ID ping from their comlinks, a quick change in the van to complete the disguises and PinkCat (with advice from the absent Sparky) cracked the security on their car.
Toru and PinkCat, as other people, drove back to the facility, flashed ID to the gate guard and drove in. The spoofed key cards and IDs worked fine, getting us in without any trouble, but then we had to actually find the datastorage area and get to the files. Which we were successful at without attracting attention. Once she had access to the datastorage system, PinkCat was able to work her magic, pulling down the files that needed to be altered and several others to muddle the datatrail. The file she was there to modify triggered an alert on her cyberdeck, so PinkCat pulled up the file, to see images of Double Tap and Bladez in combat (from the “Things Go Wrong“ episode) edited in and with that the door is locked down, the alarm is sounded and a mocking voice comes over the internal comm, “You shouldn’t have messed with my system!” It was the technomancer from that run who sucked us into this run. While he was busy gloating, PinkCat moved to hack the door and slid right through his defense, opening it before he could react.
They were almost to the emergency exit when two security officers arrived and shouted at them to stop. PinkCat did, dropping behind cover when they fired a warning shot. Toru, a more violent person, drew her machine pistols and started a shoot out. Taking out the guards is a mater of seconds. So, we then bolted for freedom, scrambling over the fence and into the van. Soon we were racing for freedom and out of the area. Poorer in money but wiser in experience. We later learned the technomancer’s name is Vortex and he seems to be on the warpath for us, probably even more so now that we have foiled his first revenge plot.
Notes: And so our past come back to haunt us. This was the first game ever without Sparky as T (Sparky’s player) is suffering from some rough medical problems and can no longer attend the games, which is very sad.
Previous Episode 33 “Toy Story“. Next Episode: 35 “It’s a Concert, Tina!“
Photos “Xilitla, maze” by Roͬͬ͠͠͡͠͠͠͠͠͠͠͠sͬͬ͠͠͠͠͠͠͠͠͠aͬͬ͠͠͠͠͠͠͠ Menkman is licensed under CC BY 2.0, Jail image from the Light in Prison website and used without permission.
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