Astral Harassment

Astral Harassment
Date 2084-12-16 GM Sample Text Location Seattle Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven
Triage Thunder Reed Chameleon	The Sorokina Siblings

Summary

The runners are hired to put a stop to persistent vandalism, perpetrated by spirits and targeted against a single Horizon employee. They defeat the spirits, locate the summoner, and put a stop to his exploits with some choice words to his relatives and a single bullet.

Background

Raquel Greene is an ordinary Horizon employee with an ordinary life. He writes reports and spam articles. In the course of his job, his words got someone fired, and drew the ire of their descendants, who visited an astral campaign of vengeance upon him. Two of these descendants moved on, satisfied, but one continued to bear the grudge. Now, Raquel is at the end of his rope and running out of money for new places to live.

The Meet

The runners meet up with the J, a nervous individual who has a friend with a problem. Apparently, this friend has been forced to move several times, as his house has been repeatedly damaged beyond practical repair by spirits. The regularity of these attacks prompted the J to previously hire an astral investigator, who determined that the spirits were bound to a summoner, but he never returned from his investigation into who it was.

After negotiating for a bit more pay thanks to a cereprax'd-up Reed, the runners agree to the job.

The Plan

The runners head over to Raquel's house and get going with their legwork. By reaching out to contacts and speaking to Raquel, they're able to piece together quite a bit of information. The crucial bits are these: Raquel is employed writing articles and performance reports for Horizon, and some of his previous writing may have influenced the firing of a colleague of his. Said colleague, one Kira Sorokina, also happens to be an extraordinary parent - her three children are full mages, now grown and being educated at Seattle University. Those three, Vera, Yaromir, and Georgiy, have a deal with Horizon - they'll work for them in exchange for a full college ride. With a tentative motive secured, the runners settle in to defend, and decide to track the summoner by assensing the incoming spirits. Chameleon sets up a hermetic lodge within the house for protection, Reed gets some barrier preps from a contact, and they begin to sleep in shifts.

The Run

On the very first night, three spirits enter the house and attack, making an attempt to vandalize the property. Thunder demonstrates his punching ability, while Triage gets a big headache while banishing one of them. His guardian spirit also puts in work, dropping a people's elbow onto a hostile earth spirit. Reed turns into a big dragon and is very happy about it. Meanwhile, Chameleon manages to pick up the signature of the spirit's summoner, and the general direction in which its astral link leads... which correlates with the known residence of the Sorokina siblings.

Astral signature and pictures in hand, the runners head to the center of Bellevue, and have a spirit use the Search power to pin down the location of the Sorokinas. This is quite effective, and the runners find an apartment in a B-zone. Via a liberal application of charm, they get themselves let up onto the appropriate floor, and approach the Sorokinas' apartment. It takes some cajoling to get inside that one, and eventually, only Triage and Reed are permitted to come in. Curiously, neither the astral signatures of Vera or Georgiy match the one they noted in the spirit's summoner link.

Once inside, the two sit down to speak with Vera, and apply a combination of intimidation and lies about their identity to put her on the back foot. Key to the argument is the proposition that they might just be Horizon employees, come to ensure that future co-workers aren't tarnishing the name of the company by picking on innocent citizens. They make it clear they know what's been going on, although Vera furiously denies the accusations of repeated vandalism. Maybe they did it once - no more.

With the runners able to discern the truth in this plea, all eyes turn to Yaromir, who barricades himself in his room. Thunder bashes down the door, and the runners advance, easily spotting the beginnings of a spell being cast from his fingertips. Reed pre-empts him with a single bullet, and the mage goes down.

After the application of a trauma patch from Triage, Vera and Georgiy are scared suitably stiff - and a good thing, too, because even a suppressed, subsonic shot is going to draw questions eventually.

Aftermath

The runners exit the apartment building before security can figure out what's happening, and thanks to their excellent intimidation tactics, the Sorokinas don't give away a word - for now, anyway. A job well done.

Rewards

8,000 nY (4 RVP)

+1000 negotiation bonus

7 Karma (7 RVP)

6 CDP (2 RVP + Base)

Optional Contacts:

Raquel Greene (1/2) - Horizon spam article writer (2RVP)

The Sorokina Siblings (3/1) - Full Mage 3-pack. Vera is grateful for you leaving her brother alive. (3RVP)

For Reed:

Otsdarva (3/1) (3RVP)

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Chameleon:I knew it would be a good job as soon as I saw Thunder walking up to Mr. Johnson's townhouse door. As solid a runner as can be, always has your six. The day got even better with two more Awakened runners, Triage & Reed. Triage brings heavyweight spirits and medicine as well. Lord knows I appreciate team mates with trauma patches close to hand. Reed...I fancy myself a linguist but words fail me. I first thought she was a CFD headcase or something. A cereprax junkie in the making I think. Reed is a very private person, I hope she picks up masking soon. World class Face though, just top notch.

The job was fairly straight forward: protection, detection, threat neutralization. Preferably, nonlethal. Spirit work. With Triage and Thunder & their astral buddies around I was on the verge of confidence. Imagine my shock and surprise when things actually went pretty much as we hoped. Mr. Greene's refrigerator and living room chair will have to be replaced. The errant sibling will have to recover from what looked like a sucking chest wound. Someone should tell Reed about stick and shock rounds. Preferably when she's 'praxed out and cogent.

There was an unaccounted for spirit of fire lurking about the siblings. I got the astral signature of the summoner I should pursue that. I fragging hate spirits of fire. I should really work on that grudge.

Thunder: Poor Rachel made enemies with the wrong pack but luckily has friends that care. One of those friends hired us to stop repetitive wrecking of her appartments and life. What started as protection and spirit hunt became a tracking and convincing the bad guy(s) to stop -job. Very good that the team was so versatile so that we could handle the broad range of tasks without killing any people. I feel like we helped both Rachel and the triplets to a better future and all had fun doing it! Thanks Team!