The Sprawl Mission 1: The Birthday Party

I decided it would be fun to run some one-shots of The Sprawl, possibly extending into future missions if all went well.  I got seven people available to play, and since PBTA games work better with 3-4 players, I decided to run two missions for two different groups.  Perhaps at some point in the future members of the two teams will work together?

If you'd like to see what happened in Mission 2, there's a player's write-up here, but here's how things went down with the first group.

The Birthday Party

It's cough years in the future and the former United Kingdom has collapsed, devolving into a number of independent city states as global warming and the urban sprawl gradually obliterated the once green and pleasant land.

Central City: a megacity covering most of what used to be called the Midlands.  While there's officially a democratically elected government, everyone knows the real power is in the hands of the multinational corporations.

But there are things that the corporations can't do - or can't be seen to be doing.  And that's where the crew comes in.

The crew all received identical messages from a Miss Smith, telling them to meet her at Raphael's to discuss a job.  A rather more upscale restaurant that they were used to, as the pizzas came with real cheese.  If nothing else, the meeting might be worthwhile for the free meal.

Miss Smith explained the job.  Jiro Nihei was turning twenty-one in a few days' time.  His mother, Kimiko Nihei, was the CEO of Nihei Industries and had planned the kind of party that befitted the heir to the corporation.  A polite affair, with cocktails, piano music and a carefully curated guest list of high level NI employees.

What Jiro Nihei wanted, however, was drugs, women and loud music, and there was a substantial payout available in exchange for ensuring that he got the kind of party he wanted without his mother finding out about it.

Once terms had been negotiated, the team got to work.  Looking into Jiro's social media gave them some ideas on what kind of party he enjoyed: illegal raves.  Not the kind of thing advertised in public forums, but a dive into the deep web told them that his favourite DJ Mesmer would be performing in an abandoned warehouse on the canalside on the night of the party.

Keeping Jiro's mother in the dark would be a bigger challenge, and while giving her food poisoning was briefly considered, they finally decided on a body double and a handler.  Trenton hit up his cult for someone prepared to get the necessary facial sculpting to impersonate Jiro for a night, and Donau recruited a skilled operative to stay with him and deflect questioning.

The night of the party arrived.  Marsh Rat jacked into the Orion Hotel's security, deftly avoiding the Black ICE, and added a few extra names to the guest list.  Trenton headed inside, and managed to locate Jiro without arousing suspicion, easily persuading him to leave for a better party.  They headed for Jiro's private suite, where Jiro got changed into some clothes more suited to an illegal rave and Trenton tried to steal his phone.  Tried, since Jiro returned while he was still holding in, and took some convincing that nothing untoward was happening.

Meanwhile, with Marsh Rat in control of the security cameras, the double and handler were brought in to make the switch in Jiro's suite.  The double put on Jiro's clothes.  Donau diverted suspicion by posing as an incompetant waiter, and soon Jiro was out of the building and on Gear's bike.

They hadn't entirely avoided detection, as became obvious when another bike in Nihei Industries colours gave chase, but Gear and his bike were practically a single entity and soon shook off the tail.  The others got in an AI taxi and left via a different route.

At the warehouse, DJ Mesmer's show was in full swing.  Jiro threw himself in with enthusiasm, while Gear kept an eye on things to make sure nothing untoward happened before the others showed up.  Only one threat stood out: a man with the glint of a cybernetic eye implant who seemed to be recording.  One quiet little chat about living in the now and he was persuaded to stop the recording and erase his footage.  Disappointed, he headed off to sample the recreational pharmaceuticals on offer.

Jiro was similarly keen to indulge, but with the team keeping close watch, he was still more or less upright when it was time to get him back to the Orion Hotel.  Word from the handler was that Fake Jiro had played his part well and got an appropriate level of drunk.  However, the hotel were concerned about a potential theft and had tightened up security, locking down all external doors.

External doors were no match for Marsh Rat, however, and the garage opened up just in time for Gear to slide his bike dramatically underneath it.  Jiro was returned to his room, and the double and handler brought out again, and the team made their exit.

They met up with Miss Smith again the next morning, and got paid.  There was still one questioning bothering them though.  Who was behind this job?  While the exact source couldn't be indentified, they were able to find out who Miss Smith was working for.  Nihei Industries.