Down With Darius

## Background

Horizon's international music star Darius D'Ambrosio and his girlfriend have broken up. Horizon believes it is important to his image to be in a relationship and so give him some time to make a connection. He organizes a New Years party at the Pleasant Dreams, a recently repaired strip club on Sunset Alley in the Puyallup Barrens.

## The Meet

The runners met with an elf in the back corner of the Shadowed Alcove. He explained that he wanted Darius kidnapped and brought to a nearby warehouse for extraction so that he could be ransomed back to Horizon. He handed over a dossier on Darius, his security and the guest list of the very exclusive party. Deacon's fixer, Jenny Jane, had already gotten her on the guest list as she matched Darius' personal preferences near perfectly.

Seeing where this was going Deacon demanded more money for being used as a honeypot and convinces the J to loosen his purse strings.

## Legwork

Deacon leans on her 'talent scout' Sleezy McGee and Grzegorz hires Lil' Viper to assist in researching the other guests, there are a number of pornographic actresses and lewd models (Lisa Dani, Alana Alaria, Donna Belladonna) competing for Darius' attention as well as Darius' agent (Robert Adamson), a fellow musician (John Conington) and Don Henry, a man with a suspiciously blank matrix shadow.

Grzegorz hires Viper again to loop cameras and other minor tasks for the run itself and they make a plan for Deacon to seduce Darius, Lead him to a private booth and knock him out so he can be taken out a back exit and hustled to one of their cars while Grzegorz makes a distraction for security.

## Run

Things were already off to a bad start when they arrived to find security patrolling the alley they had assumed would be clear. Deacon walks up and is ushered past the bouncer, Óphis slips in with her invisibly, opens a back door for Grzegorz and hides up in the gantry while Deacon makes her moves. There is a mystery woman that was not on any list, she is awakened and keeping an eye on the astral plane.

Deacon plays it cool, grabbing a drink and looking over at Darius as he serenades a group of potential suitors. she catches his eye and he invites her over. she continues to be a little distant, in contrast to the women showering him with complements and attention. This intrigues the rockstar and he focuses his on the hard to get target. The tables turn when Deacon feels the full weight of a social adept's attention falls on her and she cannot convince him to come with her and he instead convinces her to leave with him. On que a number of guards ask the other women to dance with them and the main force turns to leave the club with Darius and Deacon.

The runners have a hurried conversation as they figure out how to deal with the turn of events. They nearly settle on stealing the limo the squad is heading for but decide to tail it to Darius' hotel when various complications with that plan arise.

Grzegorz and Óphis are unable to keep up with the limo and to the hotel arrive slightly after the limo. Guards are posted but they note a weakness in the room's balcony: only the unknown mage guards it and the two make quick work of scaling the wall unseen underneath her and stunning her, slightly less quietly than they would like. Inside Darius and Deacon are drinking and chatting when Darius senses pierce through the sound barrier and hears muffled sounds. he moves to investigate and walks into the bubble. Óphis attempts to silence his comms and biomonitor as Grzegorz hits him with stick'n'shock rounds but the call goes out to his guards.

Grzegorz hit's Deacon leg with a SnS round to lend her credibility as she runs out, yelling about a kidnapping, and congests the hallway as the guards enter. By then Grzegorz has blinded the unconscious mage and Darius is halfway down the building and they cannot risk firing at targets they cannot see and potentially drop their charge several stories. They race down the stairs and are dropped nearly as soon as they leave the building. Darius is loaded into Grzegorz car and with Viper's help they lose their pursuers and make it to the dropsite. Darius is exchanged for a credstick and is boarded on a jet out of the country.

Deacon is questioned for a bit but her cover holds and she is let go with Horizon's sincere apologies.

## Aftermath

**Horizon star kidnapped!**

International superstar, Darius D'Ambrosio, was kidnapped on New Year's eve, just before midnight this weekend. The kidnappers have not yet come forward with demands. Staff at the hotel Darius was staying at are tight-lipped about the incident. However, witnesses near the scene reported a brief bout of gunfire could be heard. Witnesses at the scene say that the man was loaded into a Hyundai Shin-Hyung, but n other information is available at this time, but police ask anyone who knows anything to come forward. You can call the Lone-star anonymous tip hotline.

## Rewards

* 13,500 Nuyen
* 2 karma
* 3 CDP

## Player After-Action Reports

*In Character* accounts of events, general impressions, or memorable moments