Shadowrun: Dragons, Lies and Videotape - 24/04/2013

As if last week's screw up hadn't been enough to make people question the competence of our heroes hired thugs, the session began with Killbo and Amoral exchanging the following words:

"Are we still invisible?"

"I think so. I can't see you."

Such is the way of incompetents. Thankfully having the sense to at least stop and plan before storming the office areas, they eventually opted to find a terminal to sneak up to. In their invisible state it was the easiest way to gather as much information as possible without arising suspicion. This was the closest either of them would come to competence. Neither mentioning the possibility of Amoral's micro-drone being utilized or Killbo, master stealth man, using his superior sneaking skills to move up alone while Amoral hacked remotely. Hindsight can be a real bitch sometimes.

Moving in, sidestepping past the GM's latest obstacle in the form immensely fat man heading for the lift the two made their way into the offices. Surprisingly it looked relatively normal, with various desk jockeys rummaging through files, demanding to know where last week's report is and generally trying to keep things running. Were it not for the continued whispered questions of what their bosses were hiding up on the first floor, it could have been any office anywhere.

Upon finding a large terminal far enough away from the bustle of workers, Amoral jacked into it and began forcing his way inside. After a few near misses and tense moments where the internal security systems seemed to be scrutinising him, he managed to find a list of recently accessed files. With each having increasingly spec ops styled names, he eventually picked out one labeled Operation Tar and Feathered Serpent and began to read. This of course led to him editing the access log and the usual preventative measures.

Keeping watch, Killbo listened in on a few of the workers and tried to pick out any information of use. Besides aforementioned questions of what was just above them, also mentioning Poultry was in a bad moon, there were a few questions of expenses. Along with the Camelot mercenaries expenses not adding up, someone there was taking far more cash than they should have. Someone cutting and running or was the infiltrator controlling the mercenaries doing a cash-grab? Unfortunately we never really got a chance to investigate.
While he was doing this the dwarf managed to pick out the small office Poultry was using for private calls.

Then Jeff Bridges showed up.

No, really. Apparently not knowing who the Dude was, the GM used his name for a generic NPC who sidled up to the terminal Amoral was hacking into and tried to access it. Somehow managing to avoid any overt Tron references, he accessed the terminal as Killbo kept himself hidden and Amoral froze, hoping no one would see him. Grabbing a few bits of potentially useful data, the Dude promptly walked off and out of the campaign.

With nothing more to be gained searching through the network of computers littered around the office, we did the only natural thing: Take a crowbar to Hedges' office and break inside!
At least that was Killbo's immediate response, which would have likely resulted in a very brief gunfight followed by death via Poultry. Getting their first, Amoral learned that it was not only well reinforced but extremely resistant to any kind of breaking and entering. Along with some sort of armour, a keycard system surrounded by plastic cased blocks to prevent skinlinks secured the door shut. Killbo, despite having the skill to rewire it, would have to do so with extreme visibility and they would likely raise the alarm.

Taking the somewhat more sane, far more dangerous, option we went after Poultry instead. Hoping to get some kind of reference to spoof the lock by hanging around him long enough, it seemed that the gigantic armoured walking tank was our way in. Using a wire-tap drone to access his personal profile (oh NOW you remember it!) we manage to get enough information from him to break the lock, all the while recording a certain conversation. Shouting at someone on the other end, Poultry was threatening someone called "Viper" demanding to know how Camelot had learned of the fake Mayweather and what the hell was going on with the mercenaries.

What was vastly more interesting was what we found upon getting inside Hedge's office. Taking up the large portion of one wall was Hedges in human form, Aztech representative and stooge, shaking hands with Sirrurg. A great western dragon and enemy of Aztechnology who had fallen off of public radar some time ago.

With our shock lasting just long enough for us to realise the value of this, Amoral immediately tried to get Killbo to take pictures for profit. The dwarf however, due to multiple anti-camera lasers, was wondering why the technomancer was suddenly obsessed with the large picture of staircases.
No we don't have any idea how they were blocking cameras and cyber-eyes of invisible individuals either, we were just working off of the fluff.

After a few fruitless attempts to bypass the lasers we opted to search for more valuables  Ever the traditionalist, Killbo began poking paintings trying to find. For once it turned out he was right, and a rather unimpressive image of flowers next to a vase swung open to reveal a complex safe. The unfortunate thing was that Killbo's back robbing tactic usually involved stealing the entire safe and breaking into it in a secure location. The sheer number of alarms and systems he would trip made that a definite impossibility. The safe itself required everything from retinal scans to passwords and a dial. Each would have to be entered properly and quickly otherwise explosives inside the walls would destroy it.

At about the same time Amoral, rummaging through the expensive mahogany desk, found a hidden terminal within. Accessing it through a draw, disarming many traps along the way, he found many defences intended to block any kind of entry from plastic coverings to no access ports. The only way inside was apparently a wireless transmitter.

Before either could progress further, the door creaked open. Stomping inside came Poultry, looking directly at the open painting exposing the safe.

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