Reaching for a Soul

Reaching for a Soul
Part of A Quest for Transcendence
Date 2085-11-04 GM Zerre Location Seattle Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven [[SignificantNPC::Hank]] [[SignificantNPC::Nerlithothep the Succubus]]	Major Corp
Chance Samael Raum	Character1 Character2

Summary

Current Runtime:

• 11/4: 6 Hrs

Background

During Anamnesis, Samael learned the truth about Hank's sibling, the cyberzombie who has been liberated on Ghosts, Memories, Consciousness. With enough medical drugs to keep her alive for another month, the team gathers again in order to help her once again. While Chance was present on the run, he's not familiar with the depth of the problem and Raum entering the team is a new variable to be resolved....

The Meet

The runners get their various contacts directing them to the job - Raum and Chance from their fixers, and Samael from Hank directly. They head to a small no-tell motel located in Pullayup for the meet.

The team meets outside the no-tell motel, chatting briefly about their skills and ability before going into the meet. Raum begins to feel the BGC of the area, likely put off by the cyberzombie in question, though he doesn't know that part. Raum does some cleansing, and then the team discusses, prompted by Sam, if Raum can create positively aspected BGCs - though sadly, he cannot.

Nerlithothep, who goes by Beatrice in the shadow community, greets them at the door of the hotel - with Allison, the Cyberzombie on the bed, connected to a medkit. The implant which regulates her mental stimulation, an Evoked Memory Stimulator, is faulty and the team needs to help fix this problem. Beatrice explains we need to take the cyberzombie out as if it was a normal person in order to build more memories.

Chance takes a look over the hardware at Beatrice's permission, to see if he can repair the memory stimulator. The cyberzombie is equipped with: Datajack, Biomonitor, Autoinjector, Memory Stimulator, Move By Wire, Cybertorso. They discuss that neither BTL nor Simsense will resolve this as the memories encoded into the EMS need to be personal.

As Chance digs into the files, Raum haggles Beatrice a bit for later services and Samael considers where they can take Allison - opting for non violent ideas; more or less, trying to steer the job into 'take the cyberzombie out on a date night in Pullyup.'

The Plan

Samael proposes that they take Allison out to someplace to have a "normal" night out.

• Puyallup local soup kitchen
• Auburn shopping mall
• Boat ride on Lake Tappi
• Out dancing at Stucks Carnival
• Comedy Horror Movie?

Their plan is to make the crossing from the C zone in Puyallup to Auburn, while Chance calls the Duke Brothers to make some noise elsewhere in order to cause some distractions.

The Run

Puyallup Local Family Restaurant

The team stops for breakfast, opting for the fancy actual meat options, after checking over the restaurant that nothing seems particularly out of the norm. Alison attracts some attention from the patrons and Raum gives them a bit of a eyeball back and the team is left in privacy. As they talk, the team learns Alison likes punk rock and so Raum contacts some of his contacts to arrange a concert later in the day.

Raum does some digging into what makes Alison tick, learns about her nature as a cyberzombie, and gets a bit tchy when he learns that Samael had some foreknowledge as to what Alison was.

Auburn Shopping Mall

The team heads up to Auburn, with Chance working his matrix magic to get them through the checkpoints without any complications. Their sins pass through the scanners, the Dukes make a big enough distraction to make it easier, and on the team goes. They select a smaller mall, and Chance gets his hooks in the host whiel Raum and Samael treat Alison to a shopping montage. While changing, Alison has a bit of a moment when facing just how much her body has changed from what she remembers it as - thankfully, Raum is able to talk her down.

On their way out, the team notices there is an astral presence snooping around and Chance spots the opfor Decker trying to get camera access for the mall.

And then Chance fries the enemy decker. Utterly, utterly, fried. In the realm of 18 biofeedback damage. One of the opfor manages to make Samael, and the two end up in the parking garage in a gunslingers duel with subsonic ammo while Chance covers the cameras. Samael, without a drop of bleed of his own shed, snags the enemy's commlink and vault of ages for the other two members.

The enemy commonlink appears to not indicate the opfor is being paid in nuyen, but being promised the idea of a "Boon of Transcendence". He was to recover the Vault of ages, which is almost empty now. Enemy priority targets are Hank and a Shadow Spirit named Nerlithothep as well as Allison.

The Phone Call to Raum's Contact

Raum recalls that the Boon of Transcendance is tied to rumors of trascendence and wacky 'edge' theories about surpassing the physical form somewhere between magic and technology. Raum suggestions we look for a Cyber Singularity Seeker Cult - and that this is really quite alien and 'out there'.

Raum finnally gets in touch with his contact to ask some questions about all this. The contact feels like this is "fucked up", which is concerning. He explains how some fucked up Hermetics eventually discovered something being called Cybermancy which allows for the creation of things like Alison, the Cyberzombie.

The symbol being used on Alison is not really hermetic, however, but is closer to the demon Azathoth. So Alison is no longer a corporate asset and is likely a cult focus - a group called the Cult of the Transcended Flesh.

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.