| From: | Fade <runefo@***.UIO.NO> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Campaign Idea Followup (It's started!) |
| Date: | Mon, 15 Sep 1997 02:26:19 +0000 |
hired by a man calling himself 'Morion'. (Since one of my players is
about to, or has, subscribed to this list - and I don't think he'd
honor spoiler spaces - I won't say much about the campaign itself.
But I thought the first run was .. quite amusing .. so I thought I'd
share. (Before anyone wonders, the players had a *LOT* of fun too :)
It began innocently enough as the obligatory 'get the runners
together' run, only indirectly touching on the campaign, or so they
thought. Mitsurugi was called by someone called Morion, who had hired
a person to steal an item. He had been captured, and would probably
be transported from an MCT Security Station tomorrow morning. Get him
and the chips he had stolen. (The chips was the important bit; the
guy, Flea, was not so important, but alive was better. (He was a new
player, the other two had about 4-6 karma each.). They got 16K for
the job, 10K in advance. The 'doctor', Timothy Blaise (Some call
me... 'Tim' *cough* :) and Mitsurugi sat for a few minutes planning.
Then Mitsurugi says, "Damn planning. Let's improvise.. we should have
an electric plate cutter for the car, though.". They went sightseeing
past the security station.. MCT's standard OP made them decide
against trying anything there. (Corp Shadowfiles states MCT security
is in-your-face and deterrent rather than subtle. In this case it
worked... two full suit guys with attitude and gyro mounted
miniguns. A simple sleep spell would have sent them into gaga-land,
but as mentioned, they weren't pros.). In the morning they were again
a way off outside; two armored cars (Bulldog Couriers) left. The mage
soon determined the target was in the one going left (And took a
while finding back to his body - 3 minutes, he rolled somewhat bad.).
They pusued, finding it again just as they thought it was lost.
As it stopped to a red light, they stopped; the mage got
off and walked in front of the stop light, turned, and cast 'sleep'
on the cars in the driveway. The Bulldog had stained 1-way glass
(+8 TN to spells either way) so he didn't affect those much.. but he
cast a very low - force spell (He didn't want anyone to notice), so
he didn't affect the others much either! A while later the Bulldog's
crew noticed him and his second or third spellcasting and a gun port
was opened; someone fired. At the same time he cast another sleep
spell, and dodged in front of the car between them. (The driver, now
unconscious, no longer braked the car and started moving towards Tim;
he flew up (levitate person) to avoid getting hit in the crossing,
letting the guards practice skeet shooting.
Meanwhile Flea had tried a ploy of making a circus act for the two
guards of getting out of the manacles; they were amused until he got
entirely free, at which time one of them put a drug dart in him.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
(And put him back in the chait with the steel arm lockers.).
He did win a bet, though.. :)
While Tim was putting the drivers to sleep, Mitsurugi used the power
cutter to start opening the lock. He fumbles, overheating the saw. A
hasty jury rigging later he's back in business, cutting at the door
bolts instead of the armor plating. He cuts off three bolts, then
gets on to the roof to get the two topmost ones. About then they
realize the problem with sleeping all the car drivers in front - it
can still reverse. It does; Tim lands on the roof. (At S damage after
two bursts and a lot of karma)
The van starts going faster in reverse, to get out of the ambush.
They are both on board, though, so it doesn't matter that much yet.
As the rear door swings open a goon sticks his head out; he is
stabbed a few times by Mitsurugi and drops back in out of sight. But
the other guard stays put, delaying on the door, which leaves them at
an impasse. Mitsurugi leaps down behind the closed door; once there,
he uses sign language to signal Tim to start cutting at the roof of
the van to distract the guard inside.
There is, of course, a problem with standing on a very small step
ladder gesticulating on a speeding car; to avoid falling he clutches
at the door handle, it opens wide, then it slams back. Meanwhile
Tim dutifully starts cutting at the roof plating. The noise is, of
course, horrendous; the guy inside changes his delayed action to a
more general one and thus less definite; Mitsurugi tries charging in
and salamizing him. (He has combat sense, which gives him an
advantage in things like that.). He makes a heroic roll, and the
attack and the follow-up decapitates the guard. He watches helplessly
out of the corner of his eye as the other guard, stabbed, lifts his
shotgun and tries to blow him in two. The first shot hits midshipe,
almost throwing Mitsurugi out of the car. (S damage, knockback, into
a wall rather than out.. lucky break). The second shot misses, and
is the last thing that guard does before being sliced in two.
Tim is still sawing at the roof, and, unnoticed to him, behind him
the driver has opened a door and is leaning up and out to shoot at
him. Tim finsishes sawing at a very opportunate moment; as he lays
down the Bosch powersaw he glances the driver and thinks, SHIT, and
flings a power bolt, miraculously getting serious drain. It has no
effect, damaged as he is, but neither has the driver's full auto
salvo - it misses. By that time Mitsurugi got the door to the cabin
open, sees the driver hanging out the window, and cuts at him. The
driver is lucky and notices the mad swordsman; he dodges, loosing his
grip on the door, and falls out of the van and into the street. They
both forget about him until he fires at Tim, who is still on the
roof; he is not athletic enough by half to get down on his own.
Still, Mitsurugi has enough to keep himself occupied with; he's
sitting in the cabin of a serously out of control van going reverse
at a high speed; it doesn't help that he cannot read the autopilot's
settings. (He's japanese; he has english - 2. Tim has Japanese - 3,
so they can communicate.. somewaht. A few misunderstandings is
common. (Also why he used sign language for sawing at the roof,
BTW). It didn't help that his only vehicle skill was bike - 2
either.. he got three turns in which to get a single success or the
car was going to have a big problem. (Tim had by this time thrown
himself flat on the roof out of the guard's view. The guard decides
to bug off and report the incident and get reinforcements.).
Mitsurugi did now manage to fumble the third turn roll, with no
successes (TN 2+damage, for 5).
The car crashed, badly, tumbling. Tim, on the roof, was lucky - he
got thrown off, getting only a light wound. Mitsurugi and Flea was
banged about a bit, but no big problems.. until the huge semi, which,
after avoiding Tim lying in the road, goes slightly out of
control, swerves, and hits the van.
Ouch.
It didn't hit head on, but enough to cause some damage. The van
started burning.. and Mitsurugi had to get the unconscious Flea out
of a chair, which was bolted to what was now the roof.
He found a release switch, opening the manacles and dropping Flea to
the floor. This wakes him up, he swears a lot as Mitsurugi tries to
get him out of there. He tries to find the chips in the van which is
rapidly becoming filled by an acrid, nasty - smelling smoke.
He thinks a bit, tries a locked box, shoots it up with a shotgun. He
uses two shots. (The shotgun allready fired, now with 1 shot left. A
defiance shotgun, yes.). He is lucky; the chips aren't hit. He grabs
them and runs off just as the van goes totally overlit. He is now
clad in glaring orange prison garb, with no cash or equipment other
than the shotgun he believes is almost full of shells. (Doesn't
check).
Mitsurugi and Tim was now in an area which was soon going to be
crawling with patrol cars. The bike can barely take two and
definitely not three. (Aurora racing bike). Still, getting away from
there wasn't as hard as it could have been; I didn't feel like giving
them a problem.
Flea went back to Morion and returned the chips, getting his fee
minus some of what the two others were hired for (4000) - he started
as a physad, with the '0' tech option.
Mitsurugi and Tim, both badly banged up, fled to Tim's apartment.
(Low lifestyle). There, they tried firstaid. (Failed). Then Tim tried
healing himself (failed) and Mitsurugi (3 boxes, tn 6, down to M+L or
so). They go to a street doc they've met before (but not a contact),
she takes 2K to keep quiet about'em and normal fees for their stay in
the little clinic. With their cash reserves, it's a bad hit but they
have little choice in the matter. Abous as it starts sinking in for
Tim that his hospital stay will cost a bit more than what he can
afford, he gets a call from Morion - he needs some assistance on a
research project; would he mind staying in his (luxury life style)
penthous apartment for a few weeks, being available for questions?
He didn't mind at all; imagine that!
While he was there he started work on the project; it involved trying
to find a way to keep someone's body alive after the 'spirit' has
been out of it for too long. (More than the six hours worth of
essence for mages). Tim's medical knowledge (Biotech 6, Cybertech 4,
Biology 6) was quite useful, incidentally. The application is
inherently beneficial; Tim did not consider the other options...
without going in detail it could be used to find a way to rip
someone's soul out and keeping them alive until.. something else...
replaces it. (Which is how he will get his soldiers, eventually).
While there he was briefly introduced to Leona and Vincent. (If
someone remembers my post a while back on animals with encephalon and
language skillsofts... Vincent's the lion in question, Leona is his
(physad) keeper. The implantation was an MCT project; it succeeded
but was deemed impractical. Morion needed a few good henchmen when he
left MCT's AMR - 57 unit. (Advanced Mystical Research) so he helped
Vincent get out of his position as 'mindless security animal' (They
found no other use for the leonine combat machine they had created, a
job which would inevitably become fatal for an unarmored creature,
however intelligent.). Leona (Osaki) became a welcome part of the
package deal. Vincent considers her a member of his 'pack', and
expects the females to provide food. That makes him a lot more
manageable, since he won't go hunt for food on his own unless he gets
really hungry. That also makes him her companion on missions, since
he is obliged in return to see to her safety.
Background:
What did I finally decide on as the effects of the
encephalon/language implant setup? First: A language skillsoft, like
any skillsoft, is 'useable' without further modifications. A language
skillsoft would impart a language skill without any need to
translate. (In the same way you don't need to translate a demolition
skillsoft; you just use it.). Secondly, that without other mental
modifications the effect would not be that drastic, and at best only
surface thoughts. But with encephalon and cerebral booster as well,
the effect is quite dramatic. But he is also still an animal,
socially a total 'barbarian' even though he might be able to beat
Karpov at chess. Neither is he able of fine physical manipulation,
which leaves much tool use and similar out of his immediate reach.
Background:
The guards in the van:
The driver and one of the cabin guys were regular corp sec guards
with threat - 3. The other 'chief' guard had WR - 1, smartlink, and
threat 5. The two in the cabin were armed with narcoject dart guns,
defiance shotguns, armor jackets and helmets. The driver had an armor
jacket, no helmet, and an AK97 SMG.
Backgrouns:
The previous team the players had were a *LOT* more professional.
They played unprofessional people because their characters *were*
unprofessional. They also got a bonus because they themselves acted
out the problems of language and so on with no prompting whatsoever
from my part. They roleplayed well, and on the whole did a hell of a
good job. They didn't discuss the actions on the fly, just, "um.. now
what.. OKay! I do xxxxx!".
Background:
How Morion knew to call the runners: A contact of Mitsurugi's,
Jack Monroe, worked in MCT. Morion, under another name, knew of him,
and asked for help in hiring shadowrunners. Jack doesn't know or
trust Morion well, so he suggest someone he has only recently gotten
in touch with - Mitsurugi. During the meet, Tim introduces himself as
a doctor (fortunately for me :) which gave Morion a good reason to
see if he can use these guys for more work later.
Background:
Well, the timing I told Flea about how things happened, and the rest
of the team, doesn't match up. (About a day's discrepancy). They
didn't compare notes, though, but it annoys me.
(The timing in a certain PBEM campaign is a bit off too. But the
players haven't noticed there either. (HI GUYS!) and I can explain
it. I really can. :)
One of the few times we've played, what, 9 hours without a break, a
sidetrack or anything and loving each minute of it.. :)
And now I've gotten myself a ruined foot and the flu.
BTW, if anyone wonders about the sig (and managed to bore themselves
through all of this) it's an allusion to a certain Roman lady that
was raped by the roman king in 600?B.C. ... which caused the romans
to abolish the monarchy. That is also why Julius Caesar proclaimed
himself Emperor and Dictator - it was considered a far less ambitious
and 'loaded' title than king. Considering, it's rather amusing how we
now think of the word 'Emperor'...
No, I woudln't have said this if I didn't have the flu. I'm bored out
of my gourd. Bear with me...
--
Fade
"Do you wish to dance with Lucretia, Mr. President?"
