Attention Renraku Shoppers
| Staring | Fräulein Ärtzin, Garbo, Liam, Shirayuri |
| With | Girl in White |
| Introducing | Hyalmánúra Melehtë, SANKAI Ikito, Sharp, URUSAI Mimi, YASUDA Keirin |
| Previous Episode | S01E02 – Observe Safety Precautions |
| Next Episode | S01E04 – Happy Holiday, Citizen |
Stymied by the quarantine on the levels above them and chased away by blue-eyed security officers, the team retreats to the plinth levels to regroup.
Session 1 - 2023/03/09
Walking in the Garden
| Who | Garbo, Liam, Shirayuri, SANKAI Ikito, URUSAI Mimi, YASUDA Keirin |
| When | Sunday, December 21, 2059 (Day 3) |
| Where | Hydroponic Garden, SCIRE, Level 21 |
Fräulein Ärtzin stays with KANZAKI Kazuki and the other rescued survivors in an office unit on Level 24, while Garbo, Liam, and Shirayuri surveyed the hydroponics level. Based on the presumed vision capabilities of the drones and the temperature anticipated in and around the greenhouses, they decide golden hour is around dusk — there will still be enough light for them to see normally, and the drones should have no particular advantage.
At one of the climate-controlled entrances, Shirayuri attempts to remove the maglock's access panel and discovers it has already been removed once before: the screws are in place, but they've been cut short on the inside and the whole thing was fit back in place with stickytack. Inside the panel, the wires that she would typically sever to release the lock have been retrofitted with a snaplock fitting, allowing them to be easily disconnected. They realize somebody has already been here.
As they round the corner of a greenhouse, somebody projects a laser-pointer like image on Garbo's chest — a stop sign. The team takes a few moments to decide what to do, and eventually decides to obey. A few minutes later, it blinks three times then shuts off.
The team is able to figure out which direction the symbol likely came from, and sneak in that direction. After passing another green house, they hear somebody moving in the hydroponic orchard in the center and spot some in one of the utility sheds further ahead. A voice from the shed demands they identify themselves, and Garbo claims they group is "Survivors, like you." The voice orders them to gather around a home security camera perched on top of a nearby greenhouse and says "Glasses off, say Cheese." The laser pointer reappears, this time with an arrow pointing upwards and the word "Here".
Deciding the team is clean, the other group invites them into the utility shed for introductions and to talk:
- SANKAI Ikito is the person who was attempting to counter-stalk them in the trees; he's a heavily cybered man (both arms, torso, and one leg) in a tattered suit with clear mid-level Renraku executive markings. Throughout the conversation, he speaks nothing but Japanese, much to Liam's chagrin.
- URUSAI Mimi is a Japanese teenager, with a hearing impairment offset by custom-built cat-ear headphones. She's the one who designed and operated the laser projector, a scratch-built device built into and around the housing of a large[1] flashlight.
- YASUDA Keirin is the third member of their group, a tall half-Japanese teenager (from her build, Liam suspects she's a human-looking ork) who the team recognizes as the barista who worked the snack booth near their photography setup.
Despite seeming uncomfortable with it, Keirin does almost all of her group's talking. They were all near the team's photobooth when the attacks started — Keirin was working, Mimi was at the arcade, and Ikito had been shopping nearby and was in the bathroom. On encountering the Dervishes, they ended up escaping down and further into the arcology instead of towards the exit as the team did. They holed up the first night inside a store in the mall.
When they ventured out the next day, they found the mall exits heavily guarded by drones but the interior spaces more lightly covered. They decided to head down to the garage and on-ramps on Level B2 and possibly escape that way. That's where they had their first encounter with the blue-eyed security guards patrolling near the between-level ramp they used. They were able to take out the two guards (it's where Keirin got her armor and Mimi got her machine pistols) before reinforcements arrived. They were able to spot the highway ramp, with the crash barriers deployed and guarded by more drones.
Session 2 - 2023/03/16
Closed to Trauma
The group initially plans to hit the hospital on Level 10, only to discover the containment doors are in place above Level 11. Unlike the earlier biohazard situation, these doors have no power, which means the integrated displays don't indicate why they're shut. Furthermore, they appear to be spot-welded as well.
They move to check out the elevators and find the cross-shaft doors open. They open the exterior doors on Level 11 and Level 10, only to be greeted by sheets of flat steel welded over the entryway.
They head down to Level 9 and move laterally, finding the paths back up to Level 10 have been blocked off in the same way.
Batteries Are Included
They head down the ground floor, figuring they'll start their search for a few Work Spiders to harvest power cells from there. They spot a likely target near one of the skating rinks, though without power on the lower levels to keep it frozen it has become a shallow pool. Most of the glass tables in the surrounding food court are smashed pieces, and there are plenty of blood smears on the floor and on the walls of the snack shacks. Shirayuri and Fräulein briefly notice a manta-ray-like shadow on floor, but lose track of it in the darkness.
They easily find a group of four worker drones in standby mode, ripe for the taking. Shirayuri rushes up and drops the first one, while Liam and Fräulein drop a second. As Fräulein and Garbo are repositioning to follow the much faster teammates, they realize that Shirayuri and Fräulein werne't seeing things — a flight of four stealthy vectored thrust drones begin dropping concussion grenades on them.
Shirayuri finishes off the two worker drones, while the others turn to engage the Mantas. Liam and Garbo don't have much luck, but Fräulein bags one before Shirayuri is able to rejoin them. She takes out one Super Mario style — she leaps onto it's back, runs it through, then jumps off onto a higher balcony level — and Fräulein finishes off the last one.
They scavange power cells from two of the workers, then beat feet and find someplace to rest for a few hours.
Survival Shopping Spree
The team hits an outdoor explorer/survivalist store. It's mostly been ransacked, though it's tough to tell if it was before the attack or after. They're able to aquire a small amount of gear — three sets of Xiao Technologies Night Hunter goggles, two Ares Armored Survivalist jumpsuits (one chemical resistant, one fire resistant), three Flare Guns, and a noisemaker drone. They strike out on survival food and camp cooking gear.
Session 3 - 2023/03/23
Swimmers, Sasquatches, & Spells, Oh My!
| Who | Fräulein Ärtzin, Garbo, Liam, Shirayuri, Hyalmánúra Melehtë, Sharp |
| When | Sunday, December 21, 2059 (Day 3) |
| Where | Ferrarius Pharmacy, SCIRE, Level 3 |
In lieu of the aborted attempt to access the Level 10 hospital, they try to make due with a pharmacy in the mall.
The door is open when the arrive, but doesn't look heavily ransacked from what they can see. Shirayuri and Liam enter first; she heads towards the prescription counter while he sneaks up behind the checkouts. Shirayuri realizes somebody is in the drug lockup when she spots a low light flashlight moving around. From the sound, she thinks the person may be barefoot.
Liam notices that the stockroom door has been forced open. He then hears glass breaking underfoot, but looks down and can't see what he stepped on.
Garbo pretends to be an old Japanese man looking for his meds to get a conversation started while Shirayuri sneaks closer to the prescription counter. A female voice replies that this is all his fault.
There are sounds of a Dervish nearby. Fräulein checks the hallways and finds nothing, but repositions someplace with better cover just in case. While Garbo continues to protest his innocence, Shirayuri sneaks past the counter towards the stockroom; she's greeted at the threshold by a very large, very furry fist.
When Shirayuri pauses to take a hit of jazz, her attacker — a sasquatch — charges out of the back room, shoving her halfway to the checkout counter then backing off. Liam has some familiarity with them, and realizes he's not trying to hurt her. He leaps over the counter and tries to hold her back. He can't get a grab on her so has to interpose himself.
While Liam and Shirayuri argue over the fighting, Fräulein casts barrier spell to trap the sasquatch. He is immediately cowed, and starts whimpering. The woman — an elf wearing a swimsuit, a jacket, and little else — steps out of cover and begs Fräulein to stop. When she does, the girl goes straight to the sasquatch and calms him down.
She explains how they got up here. She's introduces herself as Hyalmánúra Melehtë, from Portland[2], but they can call her Núra[3]. She was here for a swim meet, and was in the pool when everything went crazy. She held her breath and stayed under until she couldn't any longer.
When she couldn't find any other member of her swim club, she left the swim stadium and tried to find her way out. She found Sharp locked up inside a truck in the garage. She was able to bust him out, and he's following her out of gratitude. He seems to be able to understand Sperethiel, but she doesn't understand his sign language.
As she's telling her story and the team is gathering supplies, Fräulein assenses her — her blue eyes don't glow, but it doesn't hurt to be careful. She discovers that Núra is pregnant, which is a surprise to the young woman.
The team grabs what supplies they can, plus a collapsible stretcher. They don't have shoes that will fit, but they give Núra one of the survival jumpsuits to wear.
Loose Wiring
| Who | Fräulein Ärtzin, Garbo, Liam, Shirayuri, Hyalmánúra Melehtë, Sharp, Girl in White |
| When | Sunday, December 21, 2059 (Day 3) |
| Where | Electronics Boutique, SCIRE, Level 4 |
The next place the team wants to hit is an electronic store. There is one on the way back to their hideout, but when they arrive there is light inside. Most of the group hangs back while Shirayuri sneaks up to investigate.
Inside, she finds a pre-teen girl with bandaged eyes. She's sitting on the couch in front of a working trideo display (the source of the light) with a stuffed animal. She's surrounded by hospital bedding and vending machine foods.
Fräulein sneaks up to check her out on the astral. She has a significant amount of headware for soembody of her age, though more essence than Fräulein. She's bored and lonely.
They fall back to confer with the rest of the group. They decide it has to be a trap, and not a risk worth taking with the new survivors in tow. They avoid contact.
Session 4 - 2023/03/30
Missed Connection
The head out the next afternoon, sans extra survivors, and head back to the electronics store to see if the girl is still there.
The store is completely cleared out, everything is gone all the way down to the carpets. There is absolutely no evidence the girl (or anything else) was ever there. They break into the store room to see if anything they're looking for is there. It too is stripped to the walls.
Welcome to Weapons World
| Who | Fräulein Ärtzin, Garbo, Liam, Shirayuri, Aaron Gallardo |
| When | Monday, December 22, 2059 (Day 4) |
| Where | WeaponsWorld, SCIRE, Level 3 |
The next shop is a gun store: Ares' WeaponsWorld. It takes a bit of work, but Shirayuri is able to bypass the tamper-resistant lock and get them inside.
There is evidence of a firefight inside — scuff marks, spent shell casings, and expended Dervish darts. They realize that none of the debris is in the tracks of the panic doors, just as they slam shut and the spotlights flood the room. A voice instructs them to drop everything their carrying and take off their shoes if they want to leave with their lives.
They attempt to talk their way out of it, and the response is gunfire including suppression from two heavy weapons — an LMG and an HMG. Fräulein's barrier spell is able to hold the gunfire at bay long enough for Liam and Shirayuri to bust their way into the security corridor, and she follows it up with a few lightning balls.
Garbo uses his voice powers to demand they cease fire. They comply, then one of them calls out to Garbo by his real name.
Once the gunfire stops, Garbo identifies the store manager as Aaron Gallardo, an FBI armory clerk he worked with in Chicago. They go back and forth catching up a bit, personally and on the current situation. Garbo lies and claims he's still with the Bureau and the rest of the team are "asymmetrical assets". He agrees to hook them up with a case of external smartlinks they can take the cameras from, plus guns and armor. Aaron regards ammo as more valuable, so they'll have work out an arrangement for more than a couple of hundred rounds.
Session 5 - 2023/04/06
Loose Lips
The group finds Hardware House much like the other stores — ransacked, though not as bloody as the outer promenade areas. As normal, Shirayuri scouts the entrances. The doors have no exterior-facing locks, but she finds one of them is unlocked. The team stacks up outside the door before heading in.
Inside Shirayuri spots a light through the racks and informs the others over their microtranscievers. They hear microphone clicks over the same frequency, and then the light goes out. Unknown to her at the time, she accidentally disabled the encryption on her radio and broadcast her warning in the clear.
Garbo follows Shirayuri, while Liam swings wide and Fräulein tries to catch up as best as she can.
As stealthy as she usually is, somebody spots Shirayuri. In Japanese, somebody orders her to get down on her hands and knees and crawl out into the aisle. A second man comes out, relieves her of her weapons and handcuffs her.
Fräulein and Liam hang back, while Garbo steps out of cover. He says they're survivors and tries to de-escalate the situation. It works, though he does have to hand over his gun. They are brought into the stock room, where they find a third guards and five other survivors.
Garbo fills the group of people in store in on how we got away and what has gone on since this event started. He leaves out the fact that they're shadowrunners, but does mention a few too many details about what the team has been up to.
While they're talking, Fräulein projects into the room to figure out what's going on. Most of them are as she expected, except for one of the guards. His aura looks very much like the blue-eyed Renraku security agents they've already encountered. More worrying, she spots three Dervishes in the elevator, apparently waiting for instructions.
When Garbo and Shirayuri try to leave, the guards refuse to let them go.
Session 6 - 2023/04/13
Loose Lips, Continued
Not content to leave Garbo and Shirayuri in the custody of one of the blue-eyed hostiles with Dervishes close at hand, they work up a plan to free them. Once the civilians have gone to sleep, Fräulein manifests near Garbo and Shirayuri to loop them in.
Liam collects Garbo and Shirayuri's weapons from where they were disarmed, then Fräulein enhances him with a deflection spell before erecting a barrier in front of the elevator doors, hoping the Dervishes comparatively flimsy dart ammunition won't be able to penetrate it.
Liam moves in and immediately cold-cocks one of the three non-blue-eyed guards. The blue-eyed guard (who they thought was asleep) leaps to his feet and attacks Liam. The power of his blows makes it clear he has both bone and muscle enhancements the regular guards lack. Shirayuri rushes in to help.
When the elevator door opens and reveals the three Dervishes, the remaining guard immediately opens fire. Unfortunately, his SMG is easily and unwittingly able to breech the barrier and let them out. The presence of the Dervishes turns the tide quickly, their neurotoxin darts dropping Liam and Shirayuri.
Fortunately, the blue-eyed guard retreats into the elevator. Fräulein, Garbo, and the security guard are able to destroy the three Dervishes. They quickly stimpatch their downed teammates and retreat to the pharmacy. They hole up there for a few hours, until they're sure they haven't been pursued, before returning to base.
References
- ↑ D-cell Maglite style
- ↑ In Tir Tairngire.
- ↑ "neu-RAH", like "neural" without the "l".