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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LongGoneWriter" data-source="post: 6912813" data-attributes="member: 6857996">CORPORATE DOWNSIZINGFor use with Shadowrun Fifth Edition. HEIR TO NOTHINGSILKEN WALLPAPERUSELESS GLUEHEADLESS HUNTERGUTTED MACHINESTAR CROSSED BOOKLAZY EYE ADVENTURE BACKGROUNDFive years ago, Ikeda Electronics was one of the more powerful AA megacorporations in Japan. Many in the corporate circles thought it would soon become a fully-fledged AAA, or be swallowed up by Renraku. Ikeda Toyoshi, CEO and founder of Ikeda was diagnosed with a terminal illness and began siphoning away his company’s profits in order to find a cure. Toyoshi’s disease was cured, but his brush with death caused him to be obsessed with discovering the secret of immortality. To buy himself time, Toyoshi fitted himself with the best augmetics that nuyen could buy. Toyoshi dumped everything into finding any possible method of extending his life. Soon, every single nuyen that Ikeda had was funneled into this quest.  Nothing remains of Ikeda Electronics except the empty shell of their corporate tower and the few individuals kept around to maintain appearances until the Renraku buyout. Toyoshi’s son Jiro swept all of Toyoshi’s expenses into a top-secret project called Wellspring. Hoping to wring some kind of profit out of his father’s madness, Jiro sold the idea of project Wellspring to Renraku as a revolutionary formula to reduce or even reverse augmentation essence cost. Jiro is no fool, and knows that heads will roll if Renraku discovers the ruse. His plan is to mask the ruination of Ikeda Electronics under the cover of several well-coordinated attacks from many fronts. Jiro covertly contacted the extremist environmental politigroup The Thundering Herd, making up stories about toxic magic being practiced on the Ikeda site. Jiro is assured that they will dispatch their greatest warrior, a centaur, to gut the corporate facility and remove all traces of toxic magic. Jiro also hires a group of shadowrunners to steal everything related to his father and Project Wellspring. To maintain the illusion of a working corporation, Jiro pulls a decker named The Eye out of retirement to man the Ikeda complex’s defenses. Unfortunately for everyone involved, deep in the bowels of Ikeda Electronics, Toyoshi has kludged together so much cyberware and preservative magics that he has become a cyberzombie. CONFLICT OF INTERESTSThe runners are contacted by their fixer offering them what he calls a “milk run”. They are asked to dress well and go to a high-end restaurant in Tokyo. Once there, an impeccably-dressed man (Jiro) introduces himself as Mr. Tanaka and buys whatever the characters wish to eat before getting down to business. He explains that he represents a third party that is very interested in the rumored upcoming merger between Ikeda Electronics and Renraku. His employers wish to confirm that everything is on the up-and-up, and wants a discreet group of professionals to investigate the secret Ikeda project known as Wellspring. Their task is to gain access to the Ikeda compound, secure any and all records of Project Wellspring, and analyze them for discrepancies. If Project Wellspring appears to be as revolutionary as the rumors describe, the runners are to destroy all records; if not, the runners are to steal the data and deliver it to Mr. Tanaka. Mr. Tanaka gives the runners a strict deadline to accomplish their task, but assures the runners that building security is alarmingly lax and even antiquated in places. The runners will be paid ten thousand nuyen apiece only if the Project Wellspring data is either confirmed clean or returned to Mr. Tanaka. IKEDA TOWERThe Ikeda Electronics corporate building is a fortress rising high above the Tokyo skyline. Basic observation of the tower during the few days of preparation time reveal that very few people come in or out of the building, while more perceptive runners notice that the shapes that move around behind the windows follow almost robotic patterns. All the “workers” in Ikeda Tower are in fact motorized mannequins that move about with simple programming.  Probing the history of Ikeda Electronics uncovers some potentially useful information: Ikeda Toyoshi was apparently a philanderer before his illness took hold, and frequently used the penthouse of Ikeda Tower as an office and den of luxury. Scanning the Matrix in Ikeda tower shows a large number of drones. Matrix security is present, but lackluster in all but a few places like the penthouse. Runners might also notice other individuals scoping out Ikeda Tower; these are Thundering Herd members finding the best entry point for Ulysses, known on the streets (but not to his face) as “Glue”. Mr. Tanaka contacts the runners immediately before the heist and warns them Glue might interfere with the job. B & EThe only physical security are packs of drones that sweep the floors in regular patrols.  The Eye knows that Ikeda is in damage control, and doesn’t put up the kind of resistance one might expect from a hacker of his reputation. He spends most of his time watching trashy soap opera trids, only sending a pack of drones at the runners if they are particularly loud and destructive. He defends himself on the Matrix, but otherwise lets the basic encryption of any devices in the building fend for itself. As the runners search the tower for the records of Project Wellspring, they feel and hear the detonation that marks Glue’s entrance into the facility. Mr. Tanaka contacts the runners again and urges them in the strongest terms to avoid Glue. The centaur armed to the teeth and quickly goes about making a mess in the tower. Glue is likely to cross paths with the runners and is more than willing to get into a scrap with the runners, especially if they call him by his street name. The centaur can be convinced to leave the runners alone, or accompany them to the penthouse. He is eager to cause destruction, but the ease with which the drone patrols can be avoided means Glue is limited to petty vandalism if he joins the runners. The runners can reach the penthouse fairly quickly, which they discover is radically different from the corporate blandness below. The penthouse is constructed like a traditional Japanese temple interior, with the paper walls of antiquity replaced by sumptuous silk screens. A powerful guardian spirit is bound to the silk walls and reacts aggressively if the runners are disrespectful to the furnishings. MILK GOES BADAbout the same time the runners reach the penthouse, Toyoshi the cyberzombie wakes up in the sub-basement of Ikeda Tower. Toyoshi is convinced in his cybermadness that Jiro is responsible for his “imprisonment”, and cuts a swath through Ikeda Tower to the penthouse to find his son. Toyoshi cannot distinguish Jiro from anyone else, and attacks everyone on sight. If Glue did not join the characters, he is searching the basement for toxic magic when the cyberzombie stirs. In either case, Glue attacks the cyberzombie and manages to cut off its head before he is cut down in a pitiful amount of time. The centaur’s foolhardy attack gives the runners time to hide. Even headless, Toyoshi continues his rampage. The paydata is in red wood-backed book secured in a safe with a physical lock concealed in the wood of Toyoshi’s desk. Stealth is paramount in avoiding Toyoshi in the penthouse, especially until the runners manage to disable him. While Toyoshi is not as weaponized as one might expect from a cyberzombie, he is still as durable as a tank and can easily crush bones in his hands. The guardian spirit in the silk walls can prevent the cyberzombie’s backup visual sensors from easily seeing through the silk, but Toyoshi quickly picks up on any sounds and crashes through the flimsy silk walls to attack. The guardian spirit recognizes Toyoshi’s shredded essence and does not attack the cyberzombie. The Eye is intent on evacuating Ikeda Tower as soon as the cyberzombie wakes up. Runners can convince him to use his drones and decking skills to impair the cyberzombie, especially if they use the Project Wellspring data to prove that Ikeda has no money to pay the hacker. In the same safe that holds the paydata is a black leather book of poetry Toyoshi shared with his favorite mistress. If the cyberzombie sees a runner with the book, it flies into a rage and focuses its attacks on that runner. Runners who use the poems can confuse the cyberzombie, or cause it so much emotional distress that it commits seppuku by pulling out its artificial organs. At a critical juncture in the cyberzombie’s hunt, the runners are contacted by their fixer or by The Eye, urging them to evacuate Ikeda Tower before orbital ordnance is used to destroy all evidence of the cyberzombie. Soon after the call, Ikeda Tower is destroyed. SETTLING DEBTSOnce the dust has settled, the runners are approached by a representative from Renraku who offers them a moderate reward in exchange for their silence about the whole Ikeda matter. In the event that the runners are able to subdue Toyoshi, Renraku offers a bonus for whatever remains of the cyberzombie. Ikeda Jiro disappears from the world stage, never to be found.</blockquote>

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