>>18400401

Because of the dreaded FINALS MONSTER, I've only got about 3 pages of material that I can just C+V over. I'll put out what I have, but then I've gotta write manually, so bear with me.

So, the team had a few leads in Vegas. Not necessarily on Joy the physical adept, but on getting to know the people who might be able to steer them in the right direction. 2D had picked up work with a Mr. Johnson operating out of Caesar’s palace, and the team was prepared to meet him that afternoon. Geppetto had tried to get in touch with Don Dominic Freda of the Verontesse family, the power behind the Casino Consortium, but couldn’t pin the old mob boss down. Dervish’s sensei the Aztlan pit fighter had tossed him a reference to a man named Donald Kane, a black-ops spook who supposedly now worked Consortium security. Don Freda seemed like something of a presumptuous move on our part, so in the morning before the Johnson meet (and after freshening up), the team decided to see if they couldn’t find Kane.

>Shadowrun Storytime
>YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
>Butwait.jpg
>You're later making this than you promised!
>...just get typing and I'm sure storytime will cause me to forgive you anyways
>It's not like I normally only read sup/tg/ and you're one of the only good things to get archived these days or anything

>>18400431

As it turned out, the team got lucky on a hunch. As 2D and Geppetto scoped out Caesar’s Palace, Dervish stopped by the casino floor’s security office and got himself an eyeful. Making the rounds and checking in with the spiders and guards (or at least the ones that were publically visible) was a giant of a man (or at least a giant of a human), his tailored suit unable to conceal his barrel chest and Chris Redfield bicepts. Donald Kane was old, his wrinkles obscuring the faded ink of military unit tattoos, and he sported a big ‘ol handlebar moustache. He had worked black-ops in Bogota for years: running security for all of the major casinos on the Strip was still probably like a luxury dream retirement for this guy.

>>18400442

D'awww. Again, sorry, dude! Finals week is a harsh, harsh mistress. And thanks for the backhanded praise, you big 'ol softy, anon.

>>18400456

His name tag read “Security Chief Roger Larson.” Dervish approached and, in what might have been a minor mistake, asked, “excuse me, Mr. Kane?” Kane’s fingers twitched instinctively, reaching for an assault rifle that wasn’t there. Dead eyes, suddenly icy and robotic rather than glinting and full of light, locked onto Dervish.

“Wha’d you call me?”

Dervish coughed. “Sorry, Mr. Larson. Uhm. Sensei sent me, said you’d know him.”

Larson/Kane’s eyes narrowed. His frown showed teeth, an instinctive sign of primal aggression.

“I don’t know any Yaks, boy. Must have me mistaken for someone else.”

Dervish clarified,

“Sensei isn’t a Yakuza. He’s Mexican. A former gladiator. As old as you. Covered in prison tattoos. I think his real name is Jose.”

And, in a split second, Donald Kane was back to a grinning, jocular older-uncle figure. He chuckled heartily, grabbing Dervish by the shoulder.

“Well, why dintcha say so!? And fer the record, kid, his real name ain’t Jose. ‘Least, that’s not the “real name” I know; could be the bastard’s gone soft.”

Dervish gulped.

“So you’ll help?’

>>18400473

“Hell yes I’ll help,” Kane laughed, with just a trace of a Midwestern accent. “Yer sen-say and I go way back. God, where’s that spinning ball of cyberpsychosis livin’ these days?”

“Redmond, sir.”

“Well, explains why he never calls. So watcha need, son?”

Dervish explained,

“We’re looking for someone named Joy. An elf. Have you heard of him?”

Within an instant, Kane’s features reverted to the dark expression he had worn when Dervish first confronted him.

“Why you lookin’ for someone named Joy?”

“Uh, do you know him?”

“Answer the question.”

“Well, we need to question him. We’re after one of his friends.”

Kane took a deep breath.

“Joy’s well-known as the cheatingest shit on the strip, son. Not one of my casinos ain’t been grifted by his theivin’ ass. So I s’pose you could say, yes, I’ve heard of Joy.”

“Well, we’re not his friends.”

“So I gathered. Tell you what, whichever one of us finds him first, we’ll give him a turn with the other one.”

Dervish was pretty sure that he knew what that meant.

“Your turn happens after our turn, I’d assume.”

>>18400491

Hit the end of my notes, now it's all by hand.

Kane grimaced. “Technically, together the Consortium constitutes a Double-A corporation, which means extraterritoriality. Which means you don’t get to ask what we’ll do to him.”

Dervish saw Kane going to the dark place again.

“Thanks for your help, sir, but I’d really best be going. My friends and I have a meet with Mr. Johnson upstairs.”

Kane smiled, reverting once more back to his public persona.

“Have fun!”

The team organized across from Mr. Johnson, a hawkish sort of man. Mr. Johnson was lean and harsh, checking his watch with an annoyed sort of demeanor at almost eerily regular intervals. The team didn't know what he was waiting for, and didn't want to ask.

Geppetto coughed, and Mr. Johnson finally spoke.

"Greetings, gentlemen. I can see that you're professionals here, which is why I'm not making a point of pleasantries. I need you to rob a banker."

Geppetto nodded. "Go on."

"This banker has considerable debts to the Consortium, ones that he does not intend to pay for fear that his employers will catch the loss. The Consortium wishes his debt returned. Not returned with interest, not returned with violence, merely returned."

"Mr. Johnson, what, then, is the debt?"

"Two and a half million nuyen."

The team had to hide their surprise.

>>18400560

The Johnson continued,

"The sum is being kept on a platinum credstick. The banker is currently occupying one of the penthouse suites at the Four Seasons off the strip. We do not know which one. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to procure this sum of money and return it to myself or any Consortium representative."

Geppetto nodded. "Let's discuss payment."

"I believe that twenty thousand nuyen will suffice."

Geppetto gave the Johnson his best niggaisyouserious.jpg face.

"Add five thousand to that, Mr. Johnson, and you're giving us a one percent cut of the money we're being paid to steal."

"I believe it to be a satisfactory sum, especially given that the money is outside of the bank and currently in a vulnerable position. I have also heard it down the grapevine that you require the assistance of Don Freda with something. I can act as a laison."

"Be reasonable, Mr. Johnson. We're going to need at least fifty k."

"I can do thirty."

"Thirty-five with the five up front."

"Deal."

>>18400599

With a little bit of rudimentary hacking on 2D's part, the team was able to get a basic floor plan of the Four Seasons. It was agreed that it was best to try to do the run that night if at all possible, as although no time limit was given for the job, the target would likely be attempting to leave the city in the immediate future, and if he did the job was forfeit.

The first obvious pitfall was that the security had their own hardwired network. 2D didn't particularly relish the concept of attempting to sneak into the security room, so he poked around on the employee clearances on the public nodes to see if there was a shortcut. Low and behold, the two security spiders, one who operated during the day and one who operated during the night, had network backdoors that would allow them to connect to the hardwired system via special hardened uplinks, in the event that they needed to operate the system remotely (for instance, if they were out sick).

So, the plan started to come together. Dervish would nab the day spider as he left the building, at which point 2D would use his commlink to tell the night spider not to come, that he was going to try to clock in extra hours. From there, Geppetto would turn into fog (one of his banshee powers), infiltrate the target's room, and mind-control him into dropping the platinum credstick down the trash chute, for pickup by Dervish.

>>18400599
You're back! My day has been MADE.
>pic related MFW this thread

I'm getting ready to play in a new shadowrun campaign run by a buddy, and being new to both roleplaying and shadowrun these threads are excellent reference material. Can't get enough shadowrun storyteim!

>>18400641

Obviously, although the team didn't know which room the target was in, 2D could spoof his way into the system using the spider's AccessID, and find out that way. One problem remained, that of astral security. Spirits were doubtless patrolling upstairs, but 2D wouldn't be able to spot them, so there was a chance that Geppetto, being a dual-natured creature, would pop into the target's room right in time to be nuked by a fire spirit.

Still, it was the best plan the team had, and they decided to go with it. Dervish shadowed the day spider as he took the elevator down from the security room to the lobby, stepping into the locker rooms so he could take off his uniform--which incidentally sported a biomonitor, so the moment he had it off, being knocked unconscious would no longer pop on the security system.

The spider strolled, humming, to his car, and the moment he'd unlocked it Dervish put him into a sleeper hold, shoved him into his car, and bound and gagged him. 2D jogged from camera blind spot to camera blind spot to make his way to the car, where he took the spider's commlink and texted the night spider:

>Dude don't come in today, I need the overtime hours to buy Stacey a Christmas gift.

2D, thumbing through the day spider's contacts, had found his daughter. The night spider replied,

>You are such an ass, I was already like two blocks out. Whatever, but you owe me one, okay? I need a steady cash flow, too.

2D took the opportunity to yoink the profile specs of the night spider, if he needed to pretend to be him in the immediate future.

>Thanks man, you don't know how much this means to me. Coffee's on me for a week.

FUCK YES! These are AWESOME stories!

Why does Shadowrun have some of the best storytimes?

>>18400641
>Dervish would nab the day spider as he left the building, at which point 2D would use his commlink to tell the night spider not to come, that he was going to try to clock in extra hours. From there, Geppetto would turn into fog (one of his banshee powers), infiltrate the target's room, and mind-control him into dropping the platinum credstick down the trash chute, for pickup by Dervish.

Wouldn't the night spider already have arrived by the time the day spider left, for changeover? Not to mention, a sudden change of hours on the same day when you don't know if that is at all usual, and with short notice...

Well, guess I'll see how it played out.

Also unsure why the last part couldn't be done without the security system being down, but there you go.

>>18400720
Okay, well that makes everything better then.

>>18400647

Shadowrun is just a wonderfully unique game. I know that I always love seeing how other people play it, so I'm reciprocatin'!

>>18400698

With a quick "go time" to the team, 2D spoofed the profile specs of the night spider and backdoored into the security system, posting a message of,

>Caught in traffic, setting car to auto and running things from here until the jam clears up. Don't worry guys, I'm here.

He received a few dull acknowledgments from some security guards on the network, and proceeded to begin scoping out the hotel's security layout. There were tactically-networked security guards on each floor, and a single tac team just below the penthouse level to be deployed in the case of emergencies like, say, high-profile robberies. Pretty standard. The problem was the on-staff mage, who had a spirit rotation going through the penthouses, just as 2D had feared. He couldn't even peg the spirit's patrol routes, as spirits are invisible to cameras when manifested.

"I don't like these odds," Geppetto remarked to the team, having turned into gas in the elevator and then ghosted his way into the penthouse vent system (with 2D carefully opening necessary vents and stopping spinning fans for him). 2D agreed,

"Yeah, I don't like those odds either. Lemme see if there's something I can't do to distract the spirit."

>>18400720

>Wouldn't the night spider already have arrived by the time the day spider left, for changeover? Not to mention, a sudden change of hours on the same day when you don't know if that is at all usual, and with short notice...

Should have clarified, we'd checked the check-in times of the two spiders, and they were fairly sporadic. We guessed that the two of them did this a lot, which is where we got the plan from. They also both lived in the neighborhood, only a short drive away, so times weren't SUPER-stringent. There was a window of a few minutes. Which is unprofessional, yes, but this was a Four Seasons, not a megacorp.

>Also unsure why the last part couldn't be done without the security system being down, but there you go.

The ventilation system was a problem, but also 2D wanted to get into the security system to counter the astral security. It was the one thing that could FUCK Geppetto completely arbitrarily, since he'd have to manifest HIMSELF to see the spirit, giving away his location.

>>18400748

2D relocated himself to the cafe on the first floor of the hotel, to better coordinate with Dervish (in the basement) and Geppetto (at the penthouse level). The cafe was set as the rendezvous point for Dervish and Geppetto upon the completion of their roles in the job. Absently chewing on an overexpensive salad, 2D IDed the target's penthouse (the target was sleeping fitfully), then checked the security feeds from the other penthouses.

Penthouse 1 one had a corper family, Japanese by the look of them. Sleeping. No dice.

Penthouse 2 had a single elf reading a book. Again, no dice.

Penthouse 3 had two sim-sense stars whom 2D recognized as a reality show guido and a porn star going at it like bonobos.

He could work with this.

>>18400813

2D tossed a message to the security mage.

>SPID8R: Hey, Mike, remember how we had that bug last week on the cameras up in the penthouses?

>Mike: Not really. That's for you two spiders to work out, not me.

>SPID8R: Well, it's still stuck in thermo, and I'm getting these weird feeds from P3. It looks like some kind of fight. Can you direct the spirit over there just to be sure?

>Mike: Sure, whatever.

2D promptly connected to Geppetto's earphones, with a cry of "go, motherfucker, GO!"

Geppetto dropped out of the vent into the banker's room and hammered him with a body-puppetting spell. Still asleep, the Banker instinctively punched in the combination to the room safe, produced the platinum credstick, and tossed it down the trash chute before returning to bed.

>Mike: Jeff, you idiot, they were just fucking in there. Like they were last night, and the night before.

>SPID8R: Dude, they really need to fix this bug.

>Mike: You're an idiot. Returning to patrol at P4.

2D sent Geppetto another message, this one to the tune of "GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT"

>>18400870

Geppetto didn't need much encouraging, and flew back up into the vent, following the ventilation system down to the cafe men's bathroom. He emerged from the restroom adjusting his tie, as though he'd always been there, and sat at 2D's table.

"The deed is done."

"Badass. Just gotta wait on Dervish, then."

Dervish jogged up the stairs to the lobby, whistling happily, and rejoined the team.

"You know, that was almost too easy."

2D, upon hearing Dervish's opinion, instinctively began running for the lobby as five thugs in balaclavas burst through the street entrance of the cafe, sidearms drawn.

"WHO TOOK THE TWO AND A HALF MIL WE WERE GONNA STEAL!?"

2D screamed, angrily,

"NEVER SAY IT'S TOO EASYYYYY"

Can you give us a more detailed build for 2-D when you're done with the story part of today's storytime?

>I would love to pull that kind of hacking shenanigans but my potential GM insists that technomages are weaksauce and I'm not sure if he was joking about having /anything/ you hack require Matrix combat... like even a Stuffer Shack's video feeds.
>So, I can at least get an idea about it from you I hope, since these stories are all kinds of inspiring.
>Also wondering if you were pure hacking style, or rigging too.

Wait, wait, the banker had 2.5 mil on a credstick, if he wasn't planning to repay it... why, exactly?

>>18400959

2D was hacking and rigging, although most of his rigging was just done via orders as opposed to jumping in (no simrig). At the start he wasn't particularly impressive, 2 Body, 2 Strength, 2 Agility, 4 Intuition (later 5), 3 logic (later 4), 3 willpower, 3 reaction, 6 resonance with a few submersions under his belt (later 8)

Most of his relevant hacking skills were 4s, and most of his complex forms were at six when he could manage.

As for requiring cybercombat for hacking, that's bullshit. Hacking is always a hacking+exploit roll. You can either choose to do it as an IP/test extended test, but the device rolls to detect your Stealth program/complex form every round, or to do it as an hour/test extended test, but the device rolls to detect once. Commonly referred to as "hacking on the fly" versus "probing a node." Cybercombat only EVER becomes relevant when/if you're detected, and even then only if they sic IC on you instead of booting you from the system.

That said, and I'm going to be completely honest here, mundane hackers are statistically better in almost every way to technomancers. The three things technomancers have up on hackers are A) they're way cheaper monetarily, B) they can thread any program they need for weird cases where they need languagesofts or sniffer programs that a mundane hacker wouldn't bother buying because they're too arcane, and C) sprites are the motherfucking bomb, because they're based off of spirits and spirits are broken.

Also, they can do resonance quests to do crazy stupid bullshit that hackers can't, but you won't really run into that in an average campaign aside from submerging.

>>18401040
What sort of Matrix work were you focused in?

>>18401054
Also curious as to whether you did more rigging work/Matrix work, and which you focused on more (and lessons learned from that).

>>18401010

We never asked, but I'm pretty sure it was just a lie to save face for the Johnson. That or he was in town to buy/gamble something ELSE, and his old debts were coming back to bite him. Or both!

>>18400955

So, the team was all ready to just book it, until one of the masked men caught sight of 2D and yelled, "the hacker's runnin' with the cash! What do we do, Joy!?"

One of the masked men, an elf, yelled back, "IDIOT! Don't use that name here! Just get the runner!"

Joy didn't have much time to give other orders, as he was swiftly distracted by the spatter of the yeller's guts all over the floor as Dervish boosted over the screaming crowd and began going to town on Joy's buddies. Geppetto began flinging spells as the enemy team broke formation to fight while one of them sprinted after 2D.

Dervish's next blade blow was blocked by a thin razor just like it. Standing in front of him was a harsh-looking elf brandishing a similar cyberblade setup: a razorboy. The elf was wearing Ancients colors.

Joy yelled,

"Shit! Razorwind! Get him!"

and beat feet out of the building, with Geppetto struggling to keep up while under fire from the remaining gunman.

>>18401091
DON'T YOU FUCKING STOP NOW PRICK

>>18401054
>>18401068

2D belongs to the dronomancer stream, which is a technomancer tradition that primarily offers rigging bonuses. Thus, with the rigging angle shored up, I was free to develop him as I wanted in the hacking direction. Since most of the team's plans revolved around a lot of legwork and then a sudden burst of action, 2D was mostly geared towards hacking on the fly, with a high-power stealth complex form with Mute functionality to compensate for the increased chance of detection. I also gave him a bunch of cybercombat goodies like Black Hammer, Armor, Shield and Attack because focusing on hacking on the fly put him into the line of fire a lot more than probing nodes.

>>18401091

Geppetto was the first to notice that the enemy gunmen were using sticknshock when a tiny micro-taser hit his leg and nearly blacked him out, flooring him. Cursing, he stumbled to his feet, but Joy was gone. He yelled,

"D! We've lost him! Take care of this guy and move out!"

Dervish yelled back,

"I'm trying! Holy goddamn!"

'Razorwind' was matching Dervish blow-for-blow, engaged in a high-stakes sword fight between Dervish's sangre y acero and some kind of elvish fencing art. Figuring the jog came first, Dervish activated his skimmers and boosted for the outside, intent on making it to Caesar's Palace and, if he could catch him, tackling Joy.

Unfortunately, Joy was long gone, having doubtless gone invisible as he fled.

Also unfortunately, 'Razorwind' lifted off his feet as he activated his own skimmers, and gave chase at eighty miles an hour.

>>18401149

>the job came first

Although Dervish certainly did go for a 'jog' of sorts.

>>18401149

Geppetto fought off the gunman he was facing (read: bodypuppeted him to stick his obnoxious taser-shooting gun in his mouth and pull the trigger), and charged into the lobby to find the remaining gunman searching the pockets of a thoroughly-worked-over 2D, glancing anxiously towards the security elevator. He announced into a mic,

"Hacker don't got it, Joy! Must be the sammy!"

Geppetto would have gotten the guy right then, but with a BLAM, a security guard vaulted the front desk and did Geppetto's job for him.

I find this song to be appropriate whenever Dervish does something ricockulous, and in this case I put it on while we were playing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TNJQZLdSuY

So, you know what's badass? Parkour.

You know what's more badass? Parkour chase scenes.

Still needs some badass. Let's try a parkour chase scene across the Vegas strip.

Nah, not badass enough. A parkour chase scene where the two participants are SWORD-FIGHTING when they catch up to each other.

Better, but it still needs a bit more. I'm thinking WOLVERINE KNIFE-HAND FIGHTING.

Better. Now we just add that both participants have goddamn ROCKETS FOR FEET, and we have a real man's chase scene going.

Pedestrians shouted and pointed out at the Bellagio fountain as the two dueling figures sped across it right in the middle of the nightly light show, dodging bursts of water while periodically pinging off of each other like Beyblades, if beyblades were made of approximately 50% more meat, 100% more murder, and 200% more awesome. Dervish vaulted the divider and launched into the middle of the street, dodging cars in wide banking turns and ducking in between vehicles as Razorwind charged headlong towards him, knocking off side mirrors and chunks of fender with his blades.

>>18401232

Geppetto quickly covered things with the security guy ("We were just eating in the cafe! We're on the security footage and everything! The spider can confirm that!") and, after a quick healing spell for 2D and an "all's clear" message from 2D's spidery alter-ego, Geppetto and 2D returned to the car (I forgot to mention, they had stolen a car because they couldn't take the rigger van from Seattle down to Vegas) and made for the Strip.

As Dervish neared Caesar's Palace (captcha: technovid palace,), Razorwind picked up speed, desperate to get his two and a half mil before he lost it to the Consortium. Dervish literally backflipped up the casino steps, dodging blade swing after swing until, with a BLAM, it was all over. Razorwind stopped chasing. The warning shot, placed by a troll sniper at the doorway, had made its message clear. He'd lost. Pushing his feet forward, he boosted back into the streets and was gone.

2D and Geppetto arrived at Caesar's Palace in time to witness Dervish handing the platinum stick over to Kane.

"Good job, kid! You know, we think we may have pegged Joy."

Dervish groaned.

"You don't say."

>>18401232
>keep checking the catalog all week for this thread
>get most badass chase scene conceivable
>mfw

>>18401232
lost my shit completely at
>you know what's bad ass? Parkour

>>18401232
HRRRRNG

>>18401313

"No, I mean, we got intel on what his next job's gonna be. Intercepted a courier."

Dervish brightened up.

"Oh. So you're gonna help us nail him?"

"Well, really, YOU'RE going to help US nail him. You up for another Johnson meet?"

The team got paid, and reconvened with both Kane and Mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson continued to check his watch, although now he seemed to be doing it more frequently.

"Good evening, runners. How'd you like to play at wearing white hats, for once?"

Geppetto grinned.

"If it means we get Joy, I'll wear any hat you want, Mr. Johnson."

Mr. Johnson cut right to business.

"Mr. Joy is set to rob the Bellagio vault tomorrow night. Horizon is hosting a party, so most of our security assets will be focused on the ballroom. There's also been a recent shift change between casinos--part of Consortium policy, you see, so we have a lot of rookies on-staff. You're runners, you're competent, and you know how runners THINK, so we want you as our extra security detail."

Geppetto continued to smile.

"Asking price?"

"Forty thousand, a shot at Joy, and a personal audience with Don Freda."

Geppetto frowned.

"Forty thousand can't be split three ways."

"I know. Which is why there will be four of you."

>>18401378

A lithe elf with anglo-saxon features entered the room in grey fatigues and a beret, quietly sitting between the team and Mr. Johnson.

"This Sean Falstaff, codename 'Bend.' Former Tir Ghost, went mercenary a few years ago. We figure that if anyone knows how to infiltrate a set-up like ours, it's him. So we bought him out as a...consultant."

The team gawked, but Geppetto immediately picked up the dialogue.

"You know our fixer, Danny. He vouches for this guy?"

Kane grinned.

"One hundred percent."

Bend turned to Geppetto, saluted, and announced,

"Good friends, actually, sir. In a purely civilian capacity."

Dervish chuckled.

"I like this guy."

With a sniffle, 2D began to weep quietly.

Just now discovered this, so excuse me if I take some time and catch up.

Props for the excellent writing thus far.

>>18401438

As everyone looked at him awkwardly, 2D burbled,

"I just...I'm having flashbacks to our last ninja, and you look...you look so close to the real deal. I...I'm sorry, I need to ask you some questions."

2D straightened up, locking eyes with Bend.

"Do you have any outstanding warrants for multiple child homicide?"

The former Ghost blinked.

"What."

"Answer the damn question."

"No. That's stupid."

2D looked at him judgingly.

"Are you under monitor by a cop corp?"

"No."

"Would you identify yourself as a ninja badass?"

"If you want to look at this that way, sir, but I prefer 'infiltration specialist.' I don't do wetwork if I can help it, and the 'ninja' implies assassination."

"Have you ever sold your team out because a sprawl ganger scared you?"

Bend's eyes narrowed.

"That one is actually insulting."

With a sob, 2D grinned and grabbed Geppetto and Dervish by the shoulders, using them for support as he wept openly.

"We found him, guys. We found an infiltrator that doesn't suck."

>>18401540
I'm laughing so hard right now. I feel 2D's pain and joy. That's one dramatic way to weave a former shitty character into the story.

>>18401438

>This is Sean Falstaff

Augh, all the misspellings.

>>18401504

Cheers, man! Thanks for the compliment.

>>18401540

The team was given the rest of the night to scope out the security systems of the Bellagio vault. 2D continued to ask Bend incredulous questions.

"So you've never been arrested."

"No, but I was special ops before I went merc, so I always enjoyed certain liberties."

"So no outstanding warrants."

"Why do you keep asking me that?"

"SO I CAN NEVER BE HURT AGAIN."

Bend gave 2D a look like in pic related.

"Look, I'm going to go check out this back elevator. The blueprints only had one elevator, the one I came up on, so I'm betting this leads to somewhere secret. We should scope it out to make sure that Joy's team hasn't set anything up."

2D began sniffling again.

"Oh my god, you have good, tactically sound ideas and everything."

Bend briskly powerwalked towards the elevator in question, the better to avoid the damaged channer.

All things considered, the vault level was fairly unremarkable. A u-shaped hallway with an elevator at either end (one that led up to a reinforced door on the main level, one that was a seekrit) and, in between, a security room with food vending machines, a spider nexus, a room full of drones keyed to the spider nexus, the vault itself, and a bathroom. Geppetto set up on the casino floor, the better to assense the partygoers in the ballroom to see if he could spot Joy early.

>>18401661

Bend found a security elevator, keyed to only the ground and vault floors. Experimentally, he followed it up, and found himself in a long, reinforced hallway. Following the hallway, he hit a dead end, but there seemed to be hinges on it...

With that, Bend exited into the first-floor men's bathroom off the Casino, through a secret door behind one of the sinks. He called in to the team,

"Secret entrance in the casino bathroom. Hidden but way less reinforced than the main entrance. If they know about this they'll have a way easier time of it, considering the elevator's mechanical so 2D's got no control over it."

2D blared over the comms,

"DUDE YOU THINK OF EVERYTHING."

Dervish sighed.

"Shut up, 2D. Yeah, that's a good thought, Bend. Get your tacsuit and gecko grips, I'm thinking we cloak you and then stick you on the ceiling of the bathroom."

Bend responded curtly.

"Acknowledged. We'll need someone watching this exit."

Dervish set up in the nexus room to protect 2D, and the team prepared for the run. That's the downside to being white-hat: you know SOMETHING's going down, but never WHEN.

>>18401761

All was quiet for most of the day. Geppetto summoned a fire spirit and a man spirit to act as astral security belowdecks, then boredly observed media personalities milling about and making contacts. He received a sideways glance from Darius St.George, one of the personalities at the event.

This all changed when all the lights went out. Belowground, in the vault level, everything reverted to the familiar crimson of emergency power.

2D gestured to the Bellagio's security spider.

"Shit. Jack into the nexus, make sure everything's fine."

The rookie spider plugged in, and immediately began foaming at the mouth. His biomonitor started flatlining.

2D: "FUUUUUUCK. DERVISH GET OUT THERE AND SEE WHAT'S GOING ON."

2D called up a fault sprite, dove the nexus and found himself next to the de-rezzed icon of the security spider, across from an icon of a red-hatted Italian plumber tooling with the virtual pipes of the security system.

Activating his black hammer complex form, he announced, bomb-headed icon grinning manically,

"Oh, it is ON."

>>18401830

Geppetto spurred his spirits to search for hostiles and attack, and got no response. He tried to contact them again, and once more got no response. Which was weird, because mages have an intuitive connection to their bound spirits and know when they get poofed, and both spirits were manifested and very much alive. He jogged over to the main vault elevator, to find the blast doors open, and the elevator already at the vault level. The clak-clak-clak of silenced gunfire sounded from below.

With a melodramatic sigh, Geppetto hovered down the shaft.

Down below, Dervish exited into the hallway to find a troll in a security uniform emerging from the vault with a backpack full of...something, while a human in combat-armor dual-wielding silenced SMGs covered his back. Perforated security guards littered the hallway, no match for the gun adept.

Dervish figured that he'd be a bit more his speed, and activated his boosters.

In netspace, 2D tossed digital bombs at Mariohacker, while setting the node's IC to lock the bastard in the system. Wherever he'd come from, this fucker was HIS.

That is, until he saw the entire environment de-rezzing around him as a third, cloaked icon began crashing the node.

>>18401900

Recognizing the stink of Two-Times (bastard!) 2D quickly jacked out before the node crashed, with Mariohacker and his fault sprite locked in it. Mariohacker was a good thing, because the fucker had some serious dumpshock in his future, and couldn't jack out because of the modded blackouts that the IC were hammering him with. The fault sprite was a bigger problem, since 2D's fault sprites were never on quite good terms with him, and one of them had just had its connection severed from him, freeing it into the Resonance. This would require later attention (namely finding and killing the little bastard in the Resonance before it could go full Free Sprite and put a name to its hated former master), but right now Mariohacker was the greatest issue. 2D exited the now-ruined nexus room and, in a hunch, checked the bathroom.

There he was. A fat neckbearded bastard who looked like he spent too much on /v/ was lying face-down on the bathroom floor, with his datajack adaptor still plugged into some exposed wiring that he'd drilled out of the wall between the bathroom and nexus. The dude was out cold, having suffered the full effects of a dumpshock.

Next to him was a tasteful potted plant with gold flecks in it, for some reason.

2D put his poser combat boots to their (roughly) intended use and began to stomp on Neckbeard's head until he started hearing snaps.

"WHOSE JUMPING ON WHOSE HEAD NOW YOU GOOMBA BITCH."

Breathless, Geppetto stumbled into the room, and sternly lectured the air,

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me, you two."

2D looked at Geppetto quizically as the fire and man spirit manifested, both completely stoned off their asses and giggling to each other.

"DUUUUUUDE," the man-shaped column of infernal fire announced.

"DUUUuuuuuUUUUDE," agreed the slender mockery of all that is man.

>>18401941

>Who's jumping on whose head, rather.

"Dude, why are your spirits completely fucking bombed?"

Geppetto took one look at the tasteful potted plant, cursed loudly, and began stomping on it with his fancy loafers.

"God dammit 2D, you're wearing boots, help me out here."

Confused, 2D proceeded to stomp his bloodstained boots on the plant, strewing pottery and plant matter everywhere.

"I'm not getting any closer to understanding this."

Geppetto grunted, continuing to kick at the plant.

"Haven lily. Causes a positive background count."

"English, please."

"The bastards got my spirits stoned."

The fire spirit choked out a few belly laughs and announced,

"Bro, I'm not stoned!"

2D stared at it sideways.

"You look pretty stoned to me."

The man spirit put on its serious face and said,

"No, honestly. He's not stoned."

2D and Geppetto both looked at the man spirit expectantly. After about five seconds it broke into a squealing laugh.

"Pffffffcuz he's a FIRE spirit so he's BAKED!"

The man spirit and fire spirit high-fived and promptly collapsed into hysterics. Geppetto facepalmed with a "whap" noise.

"Great. They're completely fucking useless like this."

>>18402007
This other running team is pretty fucking competent.

>>18402007
>baked

>>18402007

Meanwhile, in the hallway, Dervish was picking bullets out of his orthoskin while scraping the gun adept guts off of his cyberblades. As the troll retreated into the secret elevator, Joy materialized long enough to hit the "up" button. Unfortunately, the system was purely mechanical, so Dervish wasn't able to make it before the gates closed and the elevator began ascending.

In the bathroom, Bend looked down as a human wearing an earpiece and a few active foci entered and then scooted into one of the stalls. He murmured,

"Look, boss, I can only hold the mind control on the troll for so long. Sooner or later he's gonna remember he was a security guard. I'm maintaining it as long as I can, but you need to get out of there. I'm pretty sure we already lost Click-Clack and the Plumber."

Grinning like a loon, Bend proceeded to follow "geek the mage" protocol, flipped upside-down into the bathroom stall, and proceeded to garotte the guy, hitman-style. The mage went limp, and all his maintained spells dropped.

In the secret hallway, there was a call of "alright, guard, lead me back to the security entrance," followed by the sound of a roaring, enraged troll, and a cry of "OH GOD MY LEEEEEGS"

>>18402050
>listen to the mage talk first
>"Oh my god, you have good, tactically sound ideas and everything."
>geek the mage while the elf is in a hardened hallway with a now angry troll
I think 2D is going to believe in God after this.

So is Bend a DMPC or a new player?

>>18402050

Dervish, Geppetto, and 2D ascended the secret elevator to find Bend and a very, very pissed-off troll security guard putting cuffs on a screaming Joy. One of Joy's legs was snapped off below the knee, spurting blood, and he was screaming deliriously as paramedics stormed into the room through the secret entrance.

"Jesus Christ," muttered 2D, "It's beautiful."

The troll picked up the backpack and handed it to Geppetto, who gasped at the feel of an extremely high-force magical item within. The troll announced, in an irate Joisey accent,

"Gets this backs to the vault. Hestaby's gunna want her focus unders lock and key."

He then glared back at a swiftly-paling Joy, malicious glee in his eyes.

"Gots youz, yah punk."

Geppetto, as he walked the backpack back down to the vault, called up Mr. Johnson.

"Johnson. It's over. Returning to security rounds. We expect our cred at the end of the night. Geppetto out."

>>18402115
Now to wait for the part where 2D starts humping Bend's leg.

>>18402098

That will be explained shortly.

>>18402115

The next day, the team was escorted to Joy's fortified hospital cell. His leg had been reattached, although the look on his face suggested that it didn't much matter if his likely fate was any indication.

Geppetto said two words:

"Two-Times."

Joy grimaced.

"I'll tell you everything if you can promise me one thing."

"I'm listening."

"Tell them to make it quick."

Geppetto looked back at Mr. Johnson, standing in the hallway, who nodded slowly.

"That can be arranged."

Joy exhaled loudly.

"We have two more teammates, Mirage and Stimpack. Mirage is a bio-sammy, and Stimpack's a healing mage. Each of us has the codes to a satellite uplink that Two-Times operates through, so that if we ever really needed to find him we could cross-reference our access points." He tossed a small teddy bear with a data port to 2D. "Here."

2D connected to the teddy bear, and found himself diving a satellite over Southeast Asia. The theme from "2001: A Space Odyssey" played in his head, as the sun rose in his sensors, warming his solar cores. Terabytes of broadcast data raced through his mind.

In the real world, 2D came violently in his shorts and then passed out. Joy winced dully.

"Ew."

Geppetto didn't miss a beat.

"Where are Mirage and Stimpack?"

YAY! STORYTIME!

>>18402216

Joy frowned.

"Haven't seen hide nor hair of Stimpack. Might have gotten geeked. Saw Mirage, though. She got out of the game. Married into Shiawase."

Geppetto had a bad feeling about this.

"Shiawase North America?"

Joy laughed cruelly.

"Try Shiawase proper."

Geppetto rubbed his temples, exasperated.

"Brilliant. We're going to Japan."

From the floor, 2D wheezed,

"...awesome..."

Dervish looked at Geppetto.

"We've still got that talk with Don Freda, if you want, Geppetto."

Geppetto sighed.

"I guess. It'll be a formality, though. I'm not sure how many people he knows in Neo-Tokyo. We've got something to cover first, though."

He turned to Bend.

"Bend, how'd you like to sign into our contract full-time?"

Bend raised an eyebrow, nonplussed.

"Sounds like you're into dangerous work."

"How's hunting down a rogue hacker for a hundred thousand sound?"

Bend smiled.

"I did always want to see the cherry blossoms."

In the REAL real world, the players and GM congratulated our new player on passing the test. He was officially our replacement for Trout's player.

>>18402272
>mfw
A damn fine replacement for Trout, while 2D seems to have had the best 48 hours of his life. Glorious.

>>18402272

The meeting with Don Freda was a mildly awkward one, because not only was Geppetto a representative of a different mob family, the Finnigans (kind of an irony, considering he was Italian, not Irish), but also the hacker was wearing jizz-stained pants. These difficulties aside, Don Freda offered what little help he could.

He knew a man by the name of Taka in Neo-Tokyo. Taka was a man of the vilest sort, capable of committing any crime if there was a profit in it. However, he was also an oni, a brightly-colored metavariant of orcs endemic to the region, and for that the Yakuza and the corps had not picked him up. He remained a valuable contact of gaijin criminals in Japan, and Freda had no doubts that he would prove useful if appropriately...greased.

We were not to trust Taka under any circumstances, however. The Don assured us that if anything happened to one of Dona O'Malley's faithful servants, he would be most displeased.

With little else to offer, the Don greased our palms a bit more for our troubles (2D promptly used this money to buy more drones, two little manhack-like unfolding buzzsaws for personal defense, while Dervish upgraded his combat armor), and arranged for a flight to Neo-Tokyo.

And that's where I'll call it for tonight. As usual, I'll stick around for questions and the like, at least for a little while.

>>18402360

On that note, anyone else in the process of archiving this so I can make reference to it next time, or should I go ahead and do it?

>>18402386
You probably should, if you don't see it up already. No questions here, just basking in the glory of this story.

>>18402360
How did you find such an awesome group and DM for this?

>>18402439
I too want to know this. Seriously, you have to give up your soul and a kidney to have awesome like this happening?

>>18402439
>>18402464

The GM is a great guy, and has been my roommate for two years (although he's moving out this summer). He's got a bad habit of being a little hardcore about his games sometimes, but in the case of Shadowrun, it works vastly in his favor. The system was basically made for him.

Geppetto is my other roommate, and is a really chill Christian dude. Geppetto was basically an exploration for him; he wanted to create a character that he himself would actively find reprehensible, as a thought experiment, and succeeded greatly. When he was playing Geppetto he had kind of this on/off switch thing going. When he got into character, he REALLY got into character.

Dervish and Bend are both players that we cherry-picked from other games that we'd had with them, and found them fun in. Dervish, we'd played with more than Bend, so Bend was a little of an experiment, but by God was it an experiment that worked out. Bend runs with the team to this day, even though Geppetto and 2D are no longer with him and Dervish.

So, basically, luck, but also cherry-picking of players we knew. Remember, this game wasn't always all good characters.

>>18402437

Aight then, archived.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/18400401/

These things have a habit to go gold overnight, so I'm probably going to check this at like noon or something and shit myself. I'm happy that so many people get a kick out of our gaming stories!

>>18402548
It might go up slow since you started later than usual. It'll probably gold instantly when the usual crowd sees your next thread and goes to look this one up.

Hey, how did 2D die? Or did he retire?
Also, as someone interested in Shadowrun, and making a decker(do they still call them that?), do you have any tips?

>>18402668

Deckers are pretty much invalid now due to commlinks replacing cyberdecks as a superior tool, although there's a hacker conclave in the fluff called the Dead Deckers Society which harkens back to the old days.

2D is a technomancer, which if you're going back to the old editions is closer to an Otaku from 3rd edition than it is to a decker.

Most of my advice about hackers would just be common sense. Invest in a REALLY good stealth program with mute functionality, and make sure you have a suite of agents or sprites ready to help you out. Exploit, Spoof, Analyze, Edit, and Browse are also all musts. If you really want to pull out the cheese, then get a nexus and botnet your enemies by having registered agents all assist you at once for bullshit amounts of dice.

I'd probably have more advice but I'm kind of tired. In other news, found some 2D drawfaggotry I had lying around:

>>18402689

I'll prolly open up the next thread with it.

>>18402668

Oh wow, totally missed your first question.

2D actually retired (!) rather than dying. I think I've let slip what becomes of him in other threads, but I'm beginning to think I should keep it mostly vague so it can be more interesting when it comes around in-story after the Japan arc.

>Concluding questsar

Yes, Captcha. It did mark the conclusion of his quest.

>>18402733
I've heard technomancers are a little weaker.
Do you suggest a technomancer, or a hacker for someone just starting out in Shadowrun?
Also, is it possible to do everything from the relative 'safety' of your apartment as a hacker? Like getting the guys in meatspace to relay stuff, you know?

>>18402825

Hacker, if only because the techno stuff is basically just refluffed hacker stuff made weirder, so it helps to understand basic hacking before you go techno. Technos also ARE weaker, as I covered earlier.

Also, yeah, it's really easy to hack from safety, especially if you have a big signal range. 2D's signal was 10, which meant that he could have done every single job from across Seattle. I didn't make him do it because that's dumb.

That said, it's really easy to do the "lawn-chair hacker" build. Just get your team some satellite uplink spy toys and go to town. There's even a lifestyle called the "complete immersion lifestyle" or something where your character is basically a torso hooked up to an IV drip in a bunker somewhere. Three guesses what Two-Times was!

This is becoming one of my favourite things on /tg/

Its up there with old Empire Builder, STALKER Quest and Boone

>>18402929

Aww, thanks dude! I don't know what to say!

>>18402922
In 4e, it's only a torso if you want it to be. Otherwise, you're just some guy paying 30k a month to drool and look at cg while drones or nurses massage you.

>>18402922
Cool to know.
What about rigging? Can a hacker extend into that arena without suffering too badly, too?
Though from what I've read, the only things you need is a car with an internet connection nearby.

>>18403002

Yeah, the hacker and the rigger roles got basically fused.

You'll wanna pick up a control rig, though, which is a 0.5 essence piece of headware that makes you just flat-out better at controlling vehicles when you're jumped in. Hence the title of "rigger."

And to think this story spawned from a That Guy thread...

>>18403020
Alright, thanks man.
One last question:
What should a hacker never ever do?
Not something stupid(leaving personal info in the node), but something that you don't realize was a fuckup until you're being shot at/black bagged.
And thanks, man!

>>18403036
That's what makes it so much better. I got all kinds of feels when 2D started crying with joy. Sure, Trout stories were funny, but this is a total upgrade. It's like those were the setup for such an emotional moment.

>>18403038

Don't leave tacnets and active communications up if you don't need to. The benefits are nice (constant communication, stat bonuses for coordination), but what a lot of people don't realize is that communications can be monitored WITHOUT hacking them, if the enemy has a good sniffer program or signal interceptor toy (I forget what it's called, Bend has one). Point being, given enough time and if they know where to look, enemies will recognize that you're running Overwatch without ever having to actually hack your stuff and risk alerting you.

This is assuming your GM plays the enemy intelligently, that is.

Also, unless you're just flat-out DELETING footage, never assume that the use of an Edit program is permanent. It can be undone by a spider who knows where to look. So, don't always rely on the hacker editing you out of cameras. In a pinch when you think the footage will be scrutinized by a good spider, rather than Editing, just delete footage entirely and start looping the few minutes from before over and over again.

Also, always remember that you have the option to log out after an alert. If shit gets really tight, you don't NEED to keep pushing like the street sammy does. You can always just bail by pulling the plug (although depending on your level of immersion you might take dumpshock). Not that I endorse this as a regular thing, but if it's your life versus success on a legwork test, go with your life.

A lot of hackers just keep brawling with the IC to the very end. Hell, I tried before I got wise.

>wake up
>read this thread
YYhhheaaw good start for the day

Yay! This thread made my day! Thanks TwoDee!

Guys, I just downloaded the 4th edition core Shadowrun book.

Which edition is the best? I haven't read it yet, but I'm really interested.

>>18403194

Generally 3rd and 4th are peoples' favorites. 1st was when it didn't really know what it was doing and just ripped off Gibson for pages and pages, and 2nd was really bland for the most part aside from some bug spirit expansion stuff. 3rd was when it started having its own voice in cyberpunk fiction.

4th is a little more "modern" than 3rd's more traditional cyberpunk, leading people to like 3rd's fluff better (a lot of the "dark mysteries/conspiracies" of 3rd, like AIs, are just kind of unremarkable things in 4th), but 4th far and away has the best system.

>>18403178

You're welcome, dude!

Was wondering when this would happen. We forgive you. This time.

>>18403240
Thanks, man. I'll try to get my group into it. Maybe as pic related.