The team changed their aesthetics to better fit a college campus atmosphere. Pony and Thresher still opted to stick with their homeless regalia, figuring they could use it somehow in their infiltration efforts.
Wyrine and Kablisk did some Matrix searching to get basic info on the university, like a campus map. They decided their best chance at an internal access point would be located in the Ritchie School for Engineering and Computer Science, so they began walking from the Cherry Creek Shopping Center. They spent the twenty minute walk regaling Pony and Thresher with their previous exploits: their time with Rutha, the kidnapping of Taff Chakaodza that started the group down this path, and the rescuing of Maxine. The two were impressed with everything Cruiser, Kablisk, Wyrine, Richard, and Trigger had been through. The team had certainly made a name for themselves and had already lived a full life as Shadowrunners. Upon arriving on the border of the campus grounds, Pony used a quick summon to call up an air spirit and asked it to patrol the perimeter of the barrier he could clearly see in Astral that was enshrouding the Iliff School of Magical Studies. The mana shimmered in multicolored hues, pulsing in and out. The view inside the space was hazy, but some movement could be made out. The spirit was to assess the inside and sort out what kind of Awakened beings it could identify. Thresher took his own initiative to walk through the pedestrian entrance gate at East Iliff Avenue and South University Boulevard in order to look for a loading dock area within the complex of buildings in the Magical Studies campus. He found what he was looking for in the southernmost building and began handing out pamphlets that he had previously lifted from the Cherry Creek Shopping Center to aid in his cover. Thresher examined the comings and goings of any delivery-type trucks in the vicinity and saw a laundry service and catering vehicle parked in separate lots taking care of their daily duties. Thresher rejoined the team as they made their way to the Computer Science building. They noticed that everyone entering the building was swiping a card on an electronic reader that beeped with each pass. Waiting for several minutes, there was no sign of anyone trying to scam the security by passing with someone else or without a card. They recognized that they would need to get their hands on some student IDs. Thresher hatched a plan to use his pickpocketing prowess with a variety of techniques to distract and misdirect passersby while lifting their cards unnoticed. Again, he used the cover of handing out pamphlets and 'accidentally' knocked over his first victim with his massive troll girth. Thresher easily pulled the flustered student's ID off of him while gathering the bags that were knocked over in the confusion. Apologizing and letting the student go on his way, he was one card closer to completing his mission. The second card was nabbed with the help of Richard's Influence spell. Thresher spotted a student, sitting in the park, immersed in their work. With a quick flick of his hand, Richard implanted the idea that the student needed to urgently be somewhere else, forgetting all about the bag. The student ran off, frantic, while Pony sauntered up to the bag and pretended it was his own. He scored a bag of chips to give to Thresher, some plastic data printouts he could use later if he needed a disguise, and the ID. Pony thought he would work his smooth-talking magic on a third mark by distracting a particularly burnt-out looking student shuffling away from the Computer Science building. He captured him with an arm around his shoulder and some soothing words to gain his attention. The student nodded and listened along to Pony's proselytizing. Thresher swooped in to lift the card, but unfortunately wasn't discreet enough. The student's eyes widen and he walked away from the two of them at a brisk pace, sobering up after the revelation. Thresher made an attempt to pickpocket a distracted looking woman who was yelling into her commlink. She was having a heated argument with whoever was on the other end, but it didn't stop her from noticing his fumble at trying to grab her ID. She turned to Thresher in rage, but Richard fired off another Influence spell and the infuriated woman started using breathing techniques and counting down from ten to calm herself. While she concentrated on bringing her anxiety level down, Thresher made his move and walked off with the third and final ID card. Now Wyrine, Kablisk, and Pony were equipped to head inside without drawing attention to themselves. They realized after that final snatch that one of the cards was for a female student and the photo on the ID would be a dead giveaway if anyone looked at it. They hoped it wouldn't come to that and headed inside the building. The three entered a grand lobby with two sweeping staircases. Like many of the buildings on the University of Denver's campus, the Ritchie School was a converted mansion, remodeled to fit the needs of the department. They saw rows of projects spread out on tables in the lobby. Holograms and interactive displays illustrated computing concepts in varying states of completion. The team glanced over the displays and looked around for a building map. They located it and found that the public computer lab was on the third floor in the West Wing. They took the nearest set of stairs and headed up. Thresher and Cruiser took observation positions on opposing ends of the park, ready to respond at the first sign of trouble. Thresher munched contentedly on his newly-acquired bag of chips. Wyrine, Kablisk, and Pony casually walked through the door and examined the situation. There was a study group discussing a presentation they were working on. A number of students studying solo or accessing VR Matrix were spread throughout the room. The three picked a place to sit farthest away from everyone else. Wyrine kept his cyberdeck hidden in his bag, but pulled out the cords to plug in his Cyberjack and the local access point. Kablisk used his fake Cyberjack to imitate Wyrine, in case there were any nosy students looking their way. They both slumped over and entered the University of Denver host. Pony kept an eye on the two, pulling out the plastic data sheets that came into his possession. He looked over them as if they meant something, playing the part of diligent student. They began their Matrix journey already inside the host, a regal castle modeled after something straight out of a fantasy trideo. They looked around and saw the tapestries, the wooden furniture. They began probing around to find out what they had access to and what kind of user status they could gain inside. At the mention of the host's Spider, Wyrine had an idea and made his first successes. He discovered that if he could track down the 'Spymaster,' he could acquire admin-level status and have his run of the majority of the information found here. There was a lot of outside chatter about what kind of ruse would be best to distract UoD staff while the team infiltrated the Magical Department on campus - an explosion, posing as cleaning staff, using some kind of portable storage to smuggle out artifacts were some of the suggestions. With a series of keystrokes and some poking around to locate the Grand Hall, Wyrine faced a massive oak table that stretched to the horizon. Each seat was filled with a different and unique face. Wyrine needed to recognize which one was the Spymaster. Another round of manipulating code revealed the Spymaster's identity and Wyrine raced to meet the construct. Faces whizzed by at lightning speed until he arrived at the one he was looking for. Wyrine could feel the net closing in, like someone was hunting him. He'd been far too fortunate with how well he'd breached the defenses and someone had picked up on his scent. He quickly ran a few programs to mimic the Spymaster, ultimately copying the form as a kind of doppelganger, complete with the same user status. As the warning klaxons quickly kicked in with Wyrine's final achievement, they shut off just as suddenly. The admin status erased Wyrine's presence as a mere 'student,' and replaced it with the current prestige. Those stalking him were forced to retrace their steps and look elsewhere for the time being. Wyrine passed on some of his more powerful station to Kablisk, so that he could share in the information-gathering activities. Then they got to work with a list of different avenues they wanted to look into. Some prodding and poking turned up an inventory list of all the cataloged artifacts found in the Iliff School of Magic, along with a sign in list of visitors to the department. Kablisk pored over the inventory to find the item the team had desperately been searching for. There it was. Listed as 'Celestial Atal, Scroll of.' What could that mean? Once he confirmed all the necessary information, he turned the inventory over to Thresher, who asked Kablisk to add some other artifact data to make the list less obviously related to UoD, and then passed it on to his Occult Specialist, Ahmil. Thresher confirmed that the Clarity of Grace, the item Squid provided details on in a commlink message, was part of the list. It was a piece of parchment with magical runes embedded in it, sealed in a pane of glass. He asked Ahmil for pricing and buyer interest of the mid-grade objects, hoping that there would be a few more items he could lift for profit when they entered the Iliff School, ones that wouldn't be so hot to bring a lot of unnecessary attention to the group. The idea at that point was to pose as an organization that would remove artifacts for research purposes or something similar. Wyrine found that the position of authority most frequently found in the sign in list was 'Overseer.' He got to work on shaping the data to craft new identities for the runners who planned to enter the building and remove the artifacts. Pony's air spirit returned with a report on the Awakened beings it had witnessed on the grounds of the Iliff School. It spotted several paranormal critters: a Cerberus, Razor Cat, and Naga. Several dozen magical humanoids inhabited the space as well. Kablisk did a quick check to get some information on the creatures. They appeared to double as guard animals, in addition to their research purposes. The Shadowrunners continued to hash out their plan. Turn off the magical defenses? A database search yielded the Principle of Autumn, a pair of jewelry pieces buried somewhere below campus, underneath the Magical Department. Extracting the artifacts became the next challenge. A massive electronic repository kept all magical items cataloged in separate sealed containers, each with its own security. Each individual item was equipped with its own tracking and if removed from its storage, it would set off some kind of alarm. The group continued to talk about their options and weighed the pros and cons of aggressive and stealthy methods of infiltration.
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AuthorI'm Dobie, GM of this Shadowrun group. I've been playing Shadowrun since Second Edition, though I had a serious hiatus and have just recently picked up Fifth Edition to get back into the Shadowrun universe. Archives
September 2017
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