Gravity North is quieter than the downtown version, but is still very much in keeping with its reputation as a place to "get business done".

Caduceus has no issue summoning his spirit outside.  The electrical man shoots a few sparks between his "fingers" in acknowledgement of the shaman's instructions, then partly walks and partly slithers over to a nearby street-lamp which it then coils around and 'merges' into, presumably to keep watch.

The bar itself is well-warded and there's a metal-detector and troll with a wand at the door and decent-level fire elemental giving the bouncer some astral cover.

Let me know if you're going to try to sneak anything in - or try to convince someone to loo the other way

On the inside, Caduceus is offered his choice of a seat at the bar or a booth.  He notices several awakened members of the staff and a few elementals and spirits keeping an eye on things inside the establishment as well.

You can choose to change your mind on summoning while inside.  If you want to stick with your rolls, I'll also need an Astral Stealth.

Over the course of the next hour, he sees several "Johnson party?" groups get escorted up the stairs, which is presumably where the private meeting rooms are.

Koby receives the call from Caduceus while heating up some tofurkey in his mom’s microwave. He nods and mentally hits down the location and time.  He quickly scarfs down the boneless fake poultry and cleans up before heading to the meet. He arrives about 30mins earlier than the expected time. Noticing the metal detector and guard, Koby decided to leave his gun in his car before walking in.

With that much security, Caduceus won't try to sneak in any weapons, and he won't risk getting kicked out by conjuring spirits. He will save his strength to banish them instead, if the need arises. Or to conjure some later. Caduceus doesn't really expect things to get that dire anyway. So I guess he'll just hang around for an half an hour with his water, getting acquainted with the place and staff members, then chat with Koby for another 30 minutes until the meeting starts.

In reply to White Duck (msg # 5):

"Hoi, 'shit'? Imma professional. I was hired for a job and I did it. You wanna talk, ya go ahead. But you got questions about my game, I'll happily twist your elf-posing head off your neck 'til it's clear." His tone of voice doesn't suggest he's upset. Just matter-of-fact. If there's some questions about what he does, he'll provide evidence vis-a-vis twisting off heads.

When the car arrives at the bar, he'll ask, "you want me doing overwatch or what?"

Duck grits his teeth. Spirits be damned, he wasn't going to allow Hairy's threats to continue, especially when it might get in the way of the job.

"Did your job? If you call failing to do your job doing your job, and running away like a coward and dropping grenades in a public space when you fucked it up accomplishing something, clearly, you're delusional." he gets out of the car, removes his coat, then blocks Hairy's entry to the bar.

"Now, I don't accept threats. You wanna have a pissing contest, so I'm gonna beat the shit out of you here and now before you buck me when it would obstruct the job, whatever that job is." Duck puts his dukes up.

"So, take your fucking shot and apologize when I'm about to knock you the fuck out, or apologize now. Either way, you're done threatening me or any member of my team." With that, Duck motions for the ork to come at him.

The bouncer at the door quirks an eyebrow and looks both ways to see if the pair are potentially blocking any would-be customers.  Seeing none, he shrugs - apparently content to let things proceed, at least for now.

Hairy puts his fists up and mentally engages his reaction enhancers. He winds up for a solid punch and then... stops. He looks Duck up and down for a moment then laughs, wagging his finger. "Hah, ya almost had me. Goddam, fighting outside a meet. Okay, okay, I'll find a place to setup I guess. Jus' don't you frag me over. We're a team now."

He playfully slaps Duck's shoulder with enough force to topple a lesser man, and turns around to scope out the neighborhood for a fire escape or low roof he can clamber up to.

Duck snerked, wondering idly if he could get the ork to finally show up for fight club Thursdays. Hairy always knew when to dial it back, at least.

“Probably something to learn from that.” Thought Duck. He thumbed out a credstick with 10k balanced on it. It would probably be enough to get the guy on his feet. Who knows, maybe this one would scrap up some grenades. He flipped it i to Hairy’s pocket as he passed him, moving inside to look for Cadeuces.

Hairy found himself a comfy spot at a parkade kitty-corner to the venue.  There was a tense moment when the sniper already keeping an eye on the night-club got touchy about the unexpected company.  However, Hairy's winning personality - or perhaps his willingness to share his wares - quickly diffused the situation.  Soon they were quietly swapping stories while scanning the surrounding area through their scopes.

Over time-period he was in position, several high-end vehicles (and a few lower-end ones) dropped off individuals at the club.  A couple had bodyguards, most did not.  Unfortunately there was no way to know which one was "your" Johnson - though it was generally possible to figure out who was a Johnson and who was a runner.

-----------------------

The inside of the Gwas clean but comfortable.  A few individuals sat quietly at the bar, others talked in low voices at relatively private booths.  A low hiss undercut the music playing over hidden speakers, suggesting at least one white noise generator was in play as well.  Servers circulated to take orders but otherwise kept out of the way.

After calling several other "Party for Mr. Johnson?" groups, one of the waitresses approaches Caduceus and the two with him to escort him upstairs.  At the base of the stairs, you undergo a brief patdown by one of the bouncers before being escorted to the second floor.

Eventually, you were seated in a private room with your potential employer - a tall, well-dressed human. He was calm enough to let you know he'd done this sort of thing before, so you weren't surprised that he got right down to business as soon as the waitress closed the door behind her.

"Thank you for coming," he said. "I represent a local agricultural company that's trying to obtain plant samples from the jungles of Amazonia. We had made arrangements with the Amazonian government for an authorized expedition into the country, but those arrangements recently fell through. So now we have a fully-equipped scientific expedition with nowhere to go ... unless we can get into Amazonia through a less official route, if you catch my meaning.

We have transportation, supplies and local guides ready to go; all we need are some people with experience crossing borders on the quiet. I'm told you're a resourceful group; would a hundred thousand nuyen divided among you be enough to buy your services for a week?"

“Well sir, I gotta say, I’m glad that you already have the structure in place. It tells me you know logistics quite well. You also seem to have some business saavy. With that in mind, I’m going to have to respectfully decline your initial offering on behalf of my team. An old mentor of mine used to tell me that when you scope a project, you can get fast, good, and cheap, but you only get two.” Duck flips a cigarette into his mouth from his coat, a purple and gold zippo appearing in the other hand, coming up to the end of the butt, and lighting it. He leans back a bit and takes a drag, blowing the smoke politely outside of the booth.

“You’re running on a strict timeline, so fast you need. We have a reputation for efficient, discrete, and successful work amongst our clientele. Can’t help it, we’re just damned good at what we do. However, like I said, you can’t get all three, right? We ain’t cheap. I’d greatly appreciate it if your next offer was a more legitimate one. It would have to be in order for us to take on a project so wide in scope.” Duck grins, taking a sip from a drink he ordered from the bar and looking to the Johnson for his reaction.

OOC: Will make whatever the appropriate social rolls are here, just let me know my TN after Good Reputation and my adept powers are considered. Also, I’ll go in and recolor in a few- posting from my phone as I’m jhaving some home internet issues.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:10, Fri 16 Nov 2018.

Base TN is 7.  I'm not seeing your new powers on your character sheet, nor am I seeing an edge for "good reputation" - perhaps it's not updated?

Koby decides to order a club soda before the negotiations began. He decided to let the others take the lead in the negotiating the price since he was sure his new team members would be able to get them a good deal. His main focus was to look out for them in other aspects.

As Caduceus sat and listened to the deal being negotiated, he couldn't help but feel a tinge of worry that he may have wasted his friends' time. It was his own contact that had gotten them this potential gig, after all. If they couldn't cough up the right price, then he would owe Duck, Koby, and Hairy an apology. But he would wait to worry about that when it became relevant. He had a feeling the Johnson was just lowballing because that is what Johnsons do. Drek, it is what he himself would do in the Johnson's place.

The shaman took a deep breath and set his focus on other tasks for the moment. Namely, he kept an eye on the astral to make sure no magical trickery was afoot. After all, one well-placed suggestion could have White Duck agreeing to be compensated with a truckload of circus peanuts or something. Not on my watch, he thought to himself. Caduceus made sure to get a good glimpse of everyone's auras. Both for future reference, and to know who was magically active so that he could keep an extra close astral watch on those who were.

The edges of the room glimmered slightly with a ward of reasonable strength.  Caduceus guessed it was at least a force 6, possibly higher.  This was definitely a high-end meeting place as wards on the individual rooms was uncommon.

The Johnson was mundane with a bit of headware.  Most likely a data jack, though other augments were a possibility.  He was confident - obviously someone who had done this thing before.  And at the moment the snake shaman could see a few read pulses of irritation, though they were quickly suppressed.

"Perhaps I wasn't sufficiently clear about the expectations.  Flight arrangements and clearing customs will be taken care of.  Payment for the guide is taken care of as well.  For a week of your time you are being paid enough to put bread on the table for half a year.  An all-expense paid trip to the tropics in exchange for keeping my team safe.  I can give you 20% up front, but I think the base offer is more than generous as it stands"

For the record, the payday you made on the last run is *far* from typical in the Shadowrun universe.  100k is equal to 20 months of a medium lifestyle and isn't out of line for a week of bodyguarding.

EDIT: grammar
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:17, Wed 21 Nov 2018.

Now that he had a more thorough understanding of the astral atmosphere, Caduceus allowed himself to relax a bit more. He remained off to the side and continued to observe the exchange, both physically and astrally, but left the actual negotiations to White Duck. If they couldn't get a better offer, so be it. But if they could, well, then all the better.

Duck seems unfazed by what the Johnson considers to be enough to put food on the table for half a year.

"Right, so what I got out of that is a 20% advance on pay for the job. Perhaps you could detail any potential issues we might encounter, identify any bonus opportunities we might find appealing, or any other actual perks of this job? An all-expense paid trip to the tropics would be great if we were going there for a vacation, but this won't be, especially not if we run into any awakened jungle critters. Speaking of awakened jungle critters, that could be the very tip of the iceberg, as you have yet to inform us as to the potential opposition we'd face, as you aren't trying to hire us to go there and ride jet skis." Duck leans forward, picking up his drink and taking a gentle sip, his demeanor calm.

"You know, the free trip to the tropics bit might work for any timeshare sales you have scheduled for today and appear to be confusing this meeting with. To me though, it honestly sounds like the kind of filler in a sales pitch that adds no value and obscures the bottom line. We'll be outside of our usual access to contacts, goods, and services, we'll be traveling on your dime, which could very well leave us stranded, and we'll be having to look after a team of researchers who might very well get distracted by the pretty scenery you're pitching to us and get themselves into trouble. We could use some more details, as presently we don't even know how many folks you want us to look after, what sorts of threats you're anticipating in order to hire us to begin with, or even what exactly your team is after. Since I don't take my coffee black or my contracts at a minimum, you may want to consider sweetening this deal a bit. To be direct, I'm still on the fence, and the grass on your side isn't any greener at the moment. A 20% increase in base pay might fertilize the grounds just enough to hop us over, but an advance isn't something we really need in the first place."
This message was last edited by the player at 16:39, Thu 29 Nov 2018.

The Johnson leaned back, looking somewhat annoyed.  "Local fauna are the principle reason for your presence.  No opposition is expected.  There should be no issues with the initial customs agents so long as you keep calm and let our guide do the talking, however there's certainly a possibility of patrols within the jungle.  It's an escort mission.  Your job is to keep my 3 botanists safe and un-interrupted.  Departure is in two days and you'll be looking at 6 days in the jungle.  2 days in, 2 days out, 2 days contingency.

If you're looking for a sweetener, Amazonia contains a good range of raw natural ingredients that could prove of value to the right people here if you know what you're looking for.  You're welcome to bring back what you wish so long as your primary focus remains the protection of my scientists and the fruit they're there to acquire.

I can bump the final payout by 10k.  If that's not sufficient, then I'll be on my way to find someone who's a bit hungrier."  He put his hands on the table, getting ready to push back his chair.

EDIT: Fixed spelling
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:55, Sat 15 Dec 2018.

Caduceus continued to sit back and observe, letting his attention drift around the room, on both the physical and astral levels. What he head, however, was sounding more and more promising. The more details the Johnson revealed, the more reasonable the offer sounded. Duck was right not to accept the terms without getting the details, but now Caduceus was hoping that this deal wouldn't fall through. Some time in the tropics sounded like a good time, work or no.

He might have to brush up on his knowledge of rainforest critters though, if they were going to be out in the wilderness. Last thing they would need is to go halfway across the world only to find out they were going to be traveling through rockworm territory. The guides would hopefully be able to help with that too though.

Duck's look betrays nothing. He calmly takes another sip of his drink and a drag of his smoke, looking around. Knowing Cadeuces well enough at this point, he noticed the shaman's ears perk up at the mention of magical plants. Julia, who is from the area and who sells these very types of goods in the shop, could probably provide some intel on what to gather as well as a place to fence whatever they find. With a short sigh, Duck looks to the Johnson and nods.

"Alright, we'll take you up on that."

The Johnson nodded in return.  "Good.

Departure time will be 2pm Sunday.  I'll send the departure information by around 10 that morning.  You'll be lugging whatever you choose to pack, so best to leave the kitchen sink at home.  Also, while the guide can finess a few things, heavy weapons are going to draw attention neither we nor you will want."

He removed a credstick from his pocket and dialed in the agreed advance before authorizing it and sliding it across the table and standing up.

"If there are no further questions, I'll leave you to your shopping and other preparations and we'll see you in about fort-eight hours."

You can get in a few more questions before he walks out the door if you have any

As the Johnson was getting up to leave, Caduceus finally spoke up to ask a question. "Do you have any more-exact map coordinates for the area we will be traveling to? I would like to look up the specific type of terrains we will be moving through, and what sorts of wildlife we might encounter. Not to mention the weather..." Caduceus liked the wilderness just fine, but had never been much into camping or extensive hiking. So if the terrain was going to be rough, he wanted to know ahead of time. He might invest in a conjuring focus or two as well, specific to the terrain, if he felt so inclined.

"We'll be flying into Iquitos, then heading west.  The guide will share the specific target coordinates once you're across into Amazonia.

The rainy season finished a month ago, so expect hot & humid.

The room's booked until the top of the hour if you need it."

He exited, closing the door behind him, leaving the three runners to think about what they'd just signed up for.

=================

Across the street, the elf next to Hairy nodded and began breaking down their weapon.  "My team's done.  Good luck an' see ya around."  He moved swiftly down the stairs and hopped into a van when it pulled up to take on himself and a couple of others coming out of the nightclub.

So - what's next?  Do you guys want to hang out at the club with Hairy keeping overwatch?  Head elsewhere to chat?  Call it a night and meet up tomorrow?

OOC: Sorry for the late post, but I have one last question before the Johnson leaves.

IC: After Caduceus had asked his question, Koby decided to ask a question too.

Do you know if there are any other human or metahuman organizations and or elements in the region that we are going through? Do we know if the region we are heading to is claimed as territory by any particular organization?

Hairy waves at the sniper as he packs out. "Good workin' with ya. See you around?"

Hairy will wait for the team to leave, try to spec out the car. Johnson's sometimes have nice wheels, and it would be good to recognize it in the future, for whatever this job is.

"Obviously there'll be the border guards.  No specific groups beyond that that we're aware of.  It's pretty dense territory.  Could be some locals I suppose, but nothing major.  The satellites just show jungle and water."

The Johnson has now left your room.