Ah Shadowrun "Everything has a price".
I am a player in a roll20 campaign. All of us showed up and were waiting for the GM to show up. Eventually after a long period passed one of the players saw in the game description the GM had left a note saying he wouldn't be able to make it to this session or the next. Normally a two session no-show means, to me, a game is dead. However, as it was supposed to be our first session and most of the players are either new to Shadowrun or new to Shadowrun 5th I decided I would run a introductory game just to keep the game alive (I want to play, damnit).
So the team is hired to track down a missing daughter. She was in Touristville in Redmond slumming with a friend. The Johnson invited the group to sit down and they settled on terms. It was a 10,000 nuyen job to be split among the four of them. When asked if the Johnson could provide more information he invited his bodyguard to bring a girl over to the table. This shamefaced 16 year old girl settled down at the table, she was a witness to what had happened. One of the two mages (yep there are two) didn't pause he immediately hit the hapless girl with a mind-probe spell. Why bother asking questions when you can rip the information brutally from someone's brain using your miiiind magic? So as the girl sits rigid in the chair, sweat dripping off her brow Mr. Johnson frowns. I mean really, its not a pleasant sight to see anyone mind probed, especially a girl that is a friend of your daughter. However he wanted his daughter back safe and sound, KE wouldn't come to Redmond to find her at any real speed so being a parent outweighed moral outrage. With a firm image of the girl and the last person she was seen with ripped from the girl's mind and fresh in his, the mind mage used a mental link spell to send the image to the team's decker. Mr. Johnson took the visibly shaken girl, the surly bodyguard and the three of them left the runners to work.
They swung into action! The decker rendered an image of the guy they assumed made off with the girl. The mind-mage went to the bar to talk to the bartender. The decker went to browse the matrix to try to get info on the guy. The second mage broke out his alchemy kit and set it up on the table, in the middle of a busy club and began mixing potions(?). The street sam thought over what gangs might be involved with this operation.
The mind-mage got a name from the bartender after a short discussion between player and GM what a reasonable bribe would be (its not 5 nuyen if you're wondering). With name and image in hand the decker got a lead. It seems the guy does this sort of thing in Redmond every night, going to various clubs picking up a girl and leaving. Don Juan eat your heart out...or worse..
The Street Sam shrugged and headed to the door, as he was leaving the decker left too, plans of tracking the guy down spinning in his mind. The Mind-Mage followed and the Alchemist furiously worked to make potions at the table. Realizing his team had left him behind he quickly scooped up his hastily made concoctions and hustled to catch up. On the way out the Mind-Mage tried to talk to the troll bouncer and flash some nuyen around. Irritated the troll who had no love of the slumming round ears trying to make out like HIS people were so poor they'd leap at some cash flashed told him to buzz. The Street sam gave the troll a steely gaze and then left with the Mind-Mage. The decker managed to hack a security camera, then get the grid information of the car. After all, when you have wireless matrix, AROs, and chips who needs license plates anymore?
With a name, and an address the runners sped off to go confront the sleaze that made off with the J's daughter!
They arrived at the location and parked outside. The street sam spotted some gangers that were lounging a little TOO casually across the street. A big troll, an ork and three humans just loitering as gangs oft want to do. So the Street Sam threw open his door and swept out of the car, his black trenchcoat sweeping out behind him. A tumbleweed ARO drifted across their AR as he took in the scene with the gaze of a hardened warrior. The decker, mind-mage and alchemist stepped out of the vehicles as well. They began to walk towards the building that the sleaze ball lived in. The troll pushed himself off from the wall and confronted them pointing out that they weren't locals and wondering what business they had on their turf.
The mind-mage said they were going to be visiting their friend the sleaze ball on te 4th floor. The troll said, "Oh really now," and the street sam sighed because. IT WAS ON!
The street sam pulled his SMG and the potion the alchemist had given him. The troll seeing the gun come out tried to stab him in the gut with a short swo...er...knife (hard to tell with trolls really). Then it was bullets, bullets for EVERYBODY. The remaining gangers pulled their pistols and started shooting. Much to the despair of the decker the alchemist and mind-mage took cover behind his car. Mostly because the street sam might have killed them if they ducked behind his truck. Nobody messes with that tusker's wheels...nobody. The mind-mage managed to yank the passenger side door open just in time to keep from taking a bullet to the chest and thereby making the paintjob on the car look more legit. The Alchemist was not so lucky, he took a round to the head..thankfully his helmet saved him. As for the car window...not so much. Saves on air conditioning now, right? The Street Sam weathered the bullets like a hardened professional, ignoring them as they wizzed over his head. It was just another Saturday night for him. He stitched a burst of fire up the troll's chest. The decker tried to brick a ganger's smartgun that's when the mind-mage took control of the troll's mind.
As the song goes, "If you're happy and you know it, shoot a friend," the troll turned around, drew his shotgun and blew away the guy that tried to shoot the mind-mage. The remaining gang members seeing this magic brought into play and not wanting to get Trolled decided it was best to make like bananas and get the flock out of there. The team then heard from the alley of their target building someone cursing and running like hell.
That's where the session ended. It was fun and informative for us all. The new players go to learn a little of how the world of Shadowrun is. They got to smack around a few gang member and I learned that Alchemy is sort of lame. Cast spells ahead of time, sleep off the drain and be ready for a run in a few hours.
Everything has a price my left *beep*.
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