Friday Mar 29, 2024

Chromed Metal – 4 – Paying a visit

Scene 8

ContextThe night passes by. Dan found a Motel to spend the night, he made sure the Vitrix is safe and placed it on a secure fridge, hidden in the room. Spent $400 bucks to hold the place for a week, plus extra for full privacy. Irina will spend her night with the Aldecaldos, doing some ground work. They meet next morning at Chronoss Caffe, Irina picks Dan up, early morning to go there. We are in Night City. They plan to go by bike to north Watson, and pay the Voodoo Boys a visit.
Prompt🎲 Scene Check → Even better than expected
InterpretationA friend of Dan happens to be working at Chronoss Cafe

Nix → Heeey, Dan! Can’t believe you’re here, bud. Night City baby, radioactivity keeps us close, heh?
Dan → Nix, glad to see you around. Didn’t know you went back to bar tending
Nix → Not my choice, but it isn’t that bad, heh? Had a debt to pay, here I am.
Dan → Nix, I’m on a run. Need a safe place to talk. She’s Irina, don’t think you two have met.

Let’s talk more about Chronoss
🎲 Two adjectives for it SUM → huge + stylish
🎲 location PUM → Strongly Crowded

Chronoss is one of the biggest Coffee Shops of East Hollywood. It is usually very crowded, famous for its colorful walls, graffiti, loud music, and a good place for each to be on their own business and pass along the crowd, when busy. During daytime, the bar around the center is where people pick up all kinds of coffee, herbal drinks, hallucinogens too, perhaps why not something stronger, to get the day started. Nix leads the crew to a quiet, comfy corner.

🎲 Does Nix give in something to the story? → Yes.
🎲 PUM Discovery → Answer an open question
What’s the latest on the area?
🎲 SUM Inspiration → throw out + unstable + mandate
🎲 Who? → an old Being

Nix → Have ya’ heard the news? Good ol’ Arasaka got kicked out from Night City court, guess Government is back ladies. Night City may become a free state, strong NCPD and who knows, perhaps they will even get to hold tight Night City from the states. Can’t imagine…
Irina → Guess it’s good time for territorial warfare…
Nix → Well, Arasaka did keep things safe. I think it has to do with the government’s acquisition of certain Militech units, plus a good starting relationship. Things might get hot, as in real hot.
Dan → Are you safe here, Nix?
Nix → Yeah… I loaded two turrets on the roof. I just need to think through my jack, and bam, the hall will be filled in with high caliber rounds.
Dan → Sounds like a safe place. Nix, would you mind if I bring in some high value asset, for a brief time? Might need a safe place soon.

🎲 Nix’s opinion SUM → Stay neutral about it, nothing to add or say

Nix → I don’t know Dan… we’ve been through this in the past… You sure that’s a good idea? We trust each other.
Dan → Yeah, but don’t worry. It will be just in case. It’s good to have a plan B.

🎲 Does the GM want to do add anything? Peaceful → Remains silent, what do characters do?

Nix → Alright boys, will leave you alone. But before that, gonna bring some fried eggs and good fruity-fruit morning energizers. Anything else?
Irina → That’s fine by me

Dan and Irina finally alone, after Nix brings some juicy breakfast.

Irina → Got some info about the Voodoo Boys on North Weston (they are originally from south, Pacifica area).

🎲 SUM Inspiration (what are they doing there?) → look forward to + obscured+ pledge
🎲 Why? (reason) → Prevent Resources or wealth
🎲 To whom? → a desperate Ally

Irina → Looks like the Voodoo Boys are waiting for some lively cargo coming from North. They went through all the hassle of kicking Maelstrom’s ass to take North Weston, the old military front. Some amigos said they are bringing manpower, young boys from Nicaragua to join their ranks, plus additional warfare material. Apparently there has been some delay, so they’re kind of heavily paranoid about everything.
Dan → How is this going to help us?
Irina → Night City currency, is trust, Dan. Trust and Favors. Not money. They might need a hand with that, before they trust you. Or you thought they were going to give you a hug and take your stuff welcoming? Getting rusty, aren’t you?
Dan → Fine, better know about their business. Fair enough. Shall we go?
Irina → Yeah. Make sure you erase your records about that Motel of yours. You don’t want your logs to be hacked the hell out of your Cyberagent. Let’s roll.

Scene 9

ContextGoing to let PUM take over this transition, and give me a scene for the road trip. We’re going from East Hollywood to North Watson. After reading about it, Watson is quite filled of poor people living under tents, tall buildings and quite some military remnants of the fourth corporate wars. Let’s go
Prompt🎲 Scene Prompt PUM → Location specific event. 🎲 Circumstance → Location is moving or unstable. 🎲 Challenge → Could use a soft hand, empathy or wisdom.
InterpretationPUM is telling me to gather all context we’ve got so far. Voodoo messing up things at Watson, Maelstrom angry about it, cyberpunk poverty, and military things. This calls for social violence. I am going to roll a Maelstrom (🎲 Size → 1d4: [2] = 2) Roadblack, armed to the teeth. A protest of night city citizens behind, ramping up.
🎲 What seems the Maelstrom to be doing right now? (activity) → Controlling Faction (I admit, this was kinda obvious)

Irina → Dan, let me do the talking. Wasn’t expecting them out here, this early. (Dan nods).
(Irina stops the motorcycle by the roadblock, engine still on. Vehicles are kinda rare in Red)
Maelstrom 1 → You must be a fool to get your Aldecaldo’s ass around here. And who’se that, a corpse bag? Road is blocked. Only the dead come through.
Irina → Look, we’ve got no quarrel with you nor your friends. Normal, daily business, need to go north. Let us pass, no pun intended. Deal for both?

Maelstrom 1 → You do the simplest noise, and we make you a bullet range, understood?
Irina → Gotcha.

Irina and Dan make it through the Roadblock, with the gas stable at a low speed, they go through a mass of protest. It looks like Maelstrom is organizing a siege against the north established Voodoo Boys, who took strategic city access from the north, and a fortified position.

Going to let SUM GM take a (tense) action
🎲 SUM GM Action → Remains silent, what do characters do?
Fair enough, Dan and Irina drive through the masses.
🎲 Any trouble? (Unlikely, since GM didn’t add anything) → Yes, and…
🎲 PUM Challenge → Have to endure, resist or withstand

Suddenly, a gas bomb is thrown very close to the motorcycle. Let see if Irina reacts. There’s a violent crowd of people building up noise right now. The gas grenade came out of nowhere.

First, Dan needs to spot the grenade, second, Irina needs to be able to drive-dodge the thing. DV is going to be 🎲 12+1d10: 17 for both rolls.

Dan: Grenade, at 3′! Move!
Irina: Holy crap (accelerates fast, twists to the left)

Irina ignites and turns her Motorcycle to let the grenade fall on their back, the grenade starts releasing a gas, people start screaming and running in all directions, Irina is fast enough, the gas doesn’t reach them.

Good time for another (Tense) GM Action
🎲 SUM GM Action → Lays out environmental hazards or dangerous traps
🎲 Is it clear who is attacking? → No, possibly.

But that wasn’t the only grenade, rather the first. The air on that block begins filling with gas. 🎲 Dan wants to see who is throwing the grenades (DV12). 🎲 Who? → a strange Enemy. 🎲 Is it Voodoo? (Unlikely, that wouldn’t be strange) → No, for now. 🎲 NCPD? (Likely, Nix informed us, Night City is reclaiming power) → Yes, possibly.

Scene 10

ContextDan and Irina are caught in a cross-fire between Maelstrom and the NCPD. Bad timing, but might mean good, as it might give the Voodoo Boys up north a break. Let’s try to escape this parade.
Prompt🎲 Expectation check → Happens as expected
Interpretation🎲 Special circumstance → Hidden presence sneaking or watching. 🎲 Will we be traced through the net? → No. 🎲 Challenge → Something needs protection or care

“NCPD!” can be heard, as one truck approaches from the side, throwing gas, spreading out the civilian and opening firepower at scattered maelstrom gangs. Shooting to kill. The only motorcycle on the way will probably be a target too.

Let’s throw in some decoration
🎲 SUM Adjectives → crucial + spread out

People starts opening up to the sides, getting inside shops, and back alleys, scattering out, Dan and Irina are being targeted for shoot to kill orders.

Dan → God bless Night City… Irina! We’ve got to hide the motorcycle, we are an easy target
Irina → Oh give me a break! F*#K!

Irina dodges the bullets and gets into a side, tight street, covered in litter and trash.

🎲 Is there any open garage by chance? → Yes. 🎲 Anyone in it? → Yes. 🎲 Describe someone → Knowingly Exotic. 🎲 SUM NPC Behavior → Draws weapons, stands ready to fight

Irina drives into an open garage on that side street, taking a deep breath as they seem to be out of danger, but it is just a brief moment, until a tall, fully-tattooed, chromed man shows up with a huge, fat shotgun from the side. He’s about to trigger that thing. Moral choice, as Dan knows, that’s not their place. But it’s life or death now. And it’s Night City, after all.

🎲 This has to be an initiative roll. The defending man is set to open fire

Irina (gets to act first) → WAIT! Don’t shoot! Wait!!

🎲 Persuasion vs DV 10+1d6: 11

Bearded man → Get. The. Hell. Out. Of. My… GARAGE!
Irina → Listen, we’ll pay. We just need to drop the bike for an hour or so, until things chill out. $300 – Cash.

Bearded man 🎲 SUM Opinion (favorable) → Remind about an overlooked detail
Hm… you might want to rip off that plate chip. It stinks of NetWatch traces.
Irina → Ah… thanks. (She rips off a sticky tag transmitting a signal, throws it away as far as she can into some other building roof, and comes back inside). Name’s Irina. That here, still catching his breath, is Dan.
Bearded man → You can call me the Bearded Man, for now. Now give me the cash, you fools.

Let’s figure out what does the bearded man talk about
🎲 SUM NPC Contribution → Reveals to belong to a faction that conflicts the PCs

Bearded man → Thought you were NCPD, the f*#%ing bastards been sending covert agents all around the area. I insist, Maelstrom should raise my pay, won’t be fixing their sh%t for much longer if they don’t catch up. Voodoo Boys already kicking their asses, and now the NCPD. Bah… You two, better take your bike in one hour, or I’ll goddamn kick your asses too.

Dan and Irina look at each other, Dan pays the 300 bucks upfront. They take a breath, close the garage, and wait for the hottest of the shootout to end. Night City might become an urban warzone, although it looks like quite a move from the Night City council this time… But what will the Voodoo Boys do? And how will Dan’s Vitrix help here? Will they be able to sell it out for temporary protection to Dan’s gang family?

To be continued…

JeansenVaars

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