2nd Run
The team is contacted by Forest, their fixer (whom they've never met in the flesh) on a Thursday morning. It seems that an associate of Forest's needs some help. Not much nuyen, but if the team can help the guy out, Forest will owe them a solid.
Shango and Ivy have day jobs, so Cipher, Zephyr, Boudicaea, and Zed head over to a run-down commuter hotel. While Cipher stays outside, and Boudicaea stays in the lower hallway, Zed and Zephyr meet with George, an orc baggage handler. George is near hysterics, but the two get the idea that some bad people are out to kill George, and have already burned down his apartment.
Meanwhile, Cipher notes an orc gang slowly gathering outside the hotel. She alerts the others. Zed and Zephyr take George (George is carrying an armored case that he won't drop for anything) out, while Boudicaea and Cipher work to slow down the gang. Cipher opens up on the gangers lounging outside, and Boudicaea confronts the gangers as they enter the lobby and pull a gun on the desk clerk. (Confrontation meaning two bursts from an SMG into the lead orc.) After a confused firefight (and a completely wrecked lobby; the gang hit everything BUT Boudicaea), the team gets George out and with Ivy and Shango (who have gotten away from the jobs by this time.)
It's clear that what people want isn't George, but the case. While Ivy calms down George, Zed hacks the lock and the case is opened, revealing...
Two very corroded daggers, two very corroded flintlock pistols, some sealed clear bags with ancient leather bags inside them, a set of data chips, and an rusted iron ball. And a lot of RFID stealth tags.
Ivy persuades George to talk. George had the case land on his baggage cart after a commuter plane blew up on the tarmac while landing. George decided to take the case home with him, hoping it might have something worth a lot of nuyen. Shortly after getting home, his place was attacked.
Legwork time. Zed and Zephyr hit up the streets, and find that someone is passing out scanners set to a specific tag frequency, promising gear for anyone who finds a case and returns it. Ivy uses some academic contacts, and finds out that an archeological team in the Yucatan just came back to the city, only to die in a tragic accident upon landing. Viewing the data chips gives the team a look into the archeological world of 2072, with ancient tombs guarded by real spirits. Meanwhile, Boudicaea notices something odd about the iron ball. Fiddling with it, she manages to twist it open...inside is a map on orichalcum leaf to a site in Occupied Texas.
How to make money? Poor George doesn't have much. The team elects to sell the case (minus the hidden map) back to the university as a 'finder's fee'. Ivy arranges a meet.
However, the team didn't notice the blood on the bottom of the case. A somewhat more professional gang hires Rizzo the Rat Shaman to find the case, and makes a hit on the team, with Rizzo's Spirit of Man providing backup. Shango runs off in fear; and the team learns Zephyr's secret, while fighting the gangers in a crowded room. Between Zephyr's drake form and Boudicaea's weapon foci, the team cancels the spirit, while Cipher, Zed, and Ivy barely hold their own long enough for the heavy hitters to help out. When Shango returns, he quickly figures out what happened, and the case is freshly polished.
After all that, the meet goes smoothly; although unhappy at having to pay ruffians, getting back the case PLUS the data chips that recorded the excavation makes the expense worthwhile. Forest is happy that the team saved one of his contacts; Forest's loyalty increases by one towards the team. The team doesn't mention the map to anyone; they're intending a little expedition of their own, looking for the buried treasure of Jean Lafitte...