Never Frozen Bottom Flows

Never Frozen Bottom Flows
Date 2086-10-07 GM Breeze Location Seattle, Puyallup Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Unknown Remnants
Devil Stryker Armadillo Red Rover	Corps Cadavre Gangers Adam Erman Evelynn Erman
Casualties and losses
none, despite the attempt to counterspell a large ritual	All destroyed

Summary

Simple jobs to execute are not always simple jobs beneath the surface. It is unquestionable that secrets hide out of sight, from another time, waiting to be uncovered. Those who stumble upon it unknowingly are not warmly welcomed. Those who were privy to its history must be privy to its failings.

Sometimes there's just no coming back from a mistake.

Background

Puyallup is not a place unfamiliar with gang violence. On a Friday evening a week or so prior, it was "business as usual" as they say. Small time Go Gangs were killing each other without a shred of empathy, long eroded in the hunt for survival. Until, suddenly, there was only silence.

This silence, from the house these gangers took refuge in, was a deafening condemnation of a place long since abandoned. A place people did their best to ignore. A place best left undisturbed. But by noticing its danger, by hearing tell of its malice, it becomes so much harder to ignore.

Hence why one smuggler, a man by the name of Grams and a small time fixer himself, set about to get to the bottom of things. For his crew and neighborhood...and for his own fears.

The Meet

Grams is not a wealthy man compared to most other fixers. His budget for shadowrunner work is slim and his venues impromptu. That was why Armadillo, Devil, Red Rover, and Stryker had to wait a few minutes to meet him in an alleyway to get the details for the job. He kept it short and sweet: investigate the house the gangers disappeared into, make sure there isn't gonna be a problem for others in the neighborhood, and if there is a problem...deal with it. He hoped it would be a simple enough measure to handle. 4k for the job was as much as he could monetarily but, Devil's charms worked in the team's favor as he relented in giving them access to some of his other goods should they complete the job. After giving them a commcode, a location, and a reminder not to flirt with their Johnsons next time, Grams left. And the runners went to work.

The Plan

Preliminary legwork did not result in much. Rumors about the broken down housing unit being an abandoned, forgotten, disheveled and haunted place people tended to avoid. Actually looking into the place revealed an unnatural silence and darkness to the place. Clairvoyance revealed the bodies of gangers that were presumably from the prior shootout, killed by necrosis and lending credence to the theory that this was a magical foe they were dealing with, but not much else. Without much else to go on, the team could only brace themselves for whatever they were going to face, and pressed onwards.

The Run

Armadillo breached the threshold first, the other four joining his side through the halls of the ruined housing unit. Devil's ability to sense motion came in quite handy to counter the lack of sight and sound, as she noticed movement from what seemed to be the locations of the bodies, and Armadillo wasted no time. The group found themselves in a firefight soon enough, bodies of the deceased raising their guns to strike them down. Thankfully, being aware of their presence mitigated the major threat shambling corpses posed to the team, and a majority of the danger was circumvented with quick action. Red Rover attempted to work on counter-spelling the rituals in place that kept the place so difficult to observe, but the backlash of a singular attempt nearly killed her, and she had to fall in. The group, unsatisfied with this being the root cause of the danger here, searched the place high and low until they found what felt like a strange section of the floor in the Northwest corner. Smoother than the old wood, sleek as well. Armadillo, Stryker, and Red Rover joined forces to pry it open by force, and ripped the hidden door up to reveal a stairwell heading down below. Another Clairvoyance...revealed it was a massive labyrinth. Devil stretch her vision out as far as she could with the spell...and all she saw was darkness and bodies amidst the wreckage of this forgotten lab. With no other option, the team once again delved down together.

Devil marked their passage with spray cans of paint as they travelled along, with the team keeping an eye out for traps and avoiding the remaining automations. All the while, they tracked down what sounded like a distant clanking of metal against metal. Of someone or something trying to be free of bondage, perhaps. That was their only lead, and they followed it like a thread of sound. Further and further and further, until they reached the apex of the sound behind a large, metal door. They did not risk it. Armadillo pried the door open as Red Rover and Stryker threw grenades right at the source of the clanking.

Adam was sent flying back in pieces into the rubble at the other side of the large room. The Grand Zombie of Evelynn watched his corpse for a moment, had a brief conversation with the others, and went over to look over the poor, broken man. Then, politely, she asked for release. And Stryker did not hesitate.

And there was only silence.

Aftermath

Grams was filled in on the situation. He's since marked the housing unit as a space to avoid to others and to monitor for any traffic.

They will observe that stillness for a while longer.

Rewards

Run Rewards for "Never Frozen Bottom Flows" (10 RVP)

4k in nuyen (2 RVP)

Gear rates for Weapons/Armors/Drugs up to Availability 14, or Magical goods up to Availability 12

6 Karma (6 RVP)

6 CDP (2 RVP + 2 Base)

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.