Catch Us Before We Fall

Catch Us Before We Fall
Part of Amhrain na Preachan
Date 2085-06-07 GM Fangblade_ Location Seattle Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven The Seelie Court Seattle Software and Special Investigations Zeta Key	Unseelie Fae	Pixy Squad
Trauma Raum Phototaxis Erika Bridger El-Ahrairah Sandalphon Ghostwire	Character1 Character2
Casualties and losses
0	1	1

Summary

A sleeper agent acts and tries to fight back against her programming, she's caught and accidentally brings runners into the fray, causing them to run into a trap. Because of her conditioning and mind probing, she's unable to realize or help the runners before the trap is sprung. Yet the runners are successful, and for the first time, S3I strikes back against the Unseelie fae in the longstanding battle against their unseen foe.

Background

Please see Amhrain na Preachan for more details.

The Meet

The runners three meet meek Erika Bridger, a coffee shop employee who had seen a string of murders within the apartment they live at. Given the circumstances of their deaths, Knight Errant wrote them off as natural causes, not murders. Given her anxieties and fear, she wanted to see if runners could dig up more info, so she gathered the last of her savings to find more info from intrepid sleuths; the runners.

The Plan

The team decides to go and start legwork by investigating the murder sites, starting at the office of the landlord of the building. Starting there, they threaten the night security worker for keys to the places, threatening to geek him. With multiple threats (And big bug phototaxis), their threats pay off, and keys to the rooms are acquired. At that point, the real run begins.

The Run

The team starts to find out some info about the deaths...

1. Derek Jacoby in 101
2. Andry River in 202
3. Jessica Kolasau in 303
4. Andrew Driver in 404

Derek Died of a heart attack, Andry died of asphyxiation, Jessica died of drowning, and Andrew also died of a heart attack. Hitting up Jessica's room first, they found pattern to the deaths immediately; Studio, apartment, died main living room in view of main window, from door camera shot with looper rounds, window smashed to unlock the door.

Sleuthing inside the apartment of Jessica found that her room was scrambled, and inside investigations found more info suggesting that Jessica was an undercover S3I operative. Psychometry from Phototaxis showed that all the deaths were related to S3I, and that this information was supposed to be kept private.

• Raum reached out to and talked with Sandalphon.
• Trauma reached out to both Ghostwire and not that she knew, but also El-Ahrairah.
• Phototaxis performed more psychometry to gather further info yet, and thanks to their info...

The team realized that Fellis Norman in 505, and Erika Bridger in 606 were in danger. Heading up to catch Fellis in 505, they found Erika at the door. A gut wrenching feeling caught the team as they started to quickly clue in that Erika was a sleeper agent / being mind controlled through magic to assassinate the targets in a spread out manner to avoid raising suspicions. That being said, her appearance here turned out to be a trap, and the team was caught in an ambush.

Caught with nowhere to hide, the team did their best to survive the ambush, caught by invisible and heavily armored assailants. Through the combat, the team held their own at massive damage to their own persons. Yet, holding their ground, they managed to fight off the heavily armored units. That's when the team found the lead of the assailant squad, an invisible drake. Using its critter powers to control actions and dish out spells, she was able to control and stop Raum and Trauma from approaching.

A last ditch effort from Raum included burning edge to stop the leader in their tracks, only for them to coutnerspell and try to fly away. In a second daring last ditch, Raum flung Trauma out the window with levitate, allowing her to catch up to and take out the high-soaring drake. A shot run out, and as the drake lost their flight, the two gazed into their eyes as the drake fell. The two, in that moment, shared a look of understanding, "Some day you'll meet me in the afterlife, and we'll talk about our differences. Until we meet again."

Finding the enemy combatants fully neutralized, the team, licking their wounds from the explosive and nearly lethal combat, returned to Erika Bridger to check if she was okay.

Aftermath

Trauma and the gang returned to Erika and interogated her briefly. Showing a picture, she immediately began to recoil from the pain of realization. Weeks and weeks of memory altering spells were starting to melt away after she had lapsed on her conditioning. She had lost so much of her memory, but Trauma told her plainly: Go back to S3I for help. Yet, in the moments before she left, Erika and Phototaxis shared a single moment. Seeing how Phototaxis had tried to save Erika even after it was revealed she was being controlled struck a cord with her, and she thanked Phototaxis, even going so far as to have tried to revive her from her being knocked out.

• Erika returned to S3I for deconditioning.
• El-Ahrairah thanked Trauma for keeping their secrets.
• Phototaxis and Erika shared a moment and grew closer through tribulation.
• Hotdog did not let her identity slip; no runner knows that she is Raum, and she did not let * * Sandalphon know that Hotdog was Raum, either.

Rewards

• 6ooo nuyen (3 RVP)
• 2ooo nuyen bonus for retrieving valuable paydata (S3I)
• 1o Karma (1o RVP)
• 6+2 CDP (3 RVP)
• +2 S3I Rep
• -1 Unseelie Court Rep

• Trauma curries favor with El-Ahrairah for keeping secrets safe. She get +1 Wild Index
• Erika Feels bad and imprints onto Phototaxis
• "*Hotdog*" takes and pays back the chip by selling out Unseelie Secrets. He gets +2 Wild Index

Optional

• Erika Bridger - C2L1 Breacher / Stealth service contact (2 RVP)

Optional for Phototaxis

• Erika Bridger - C2 L2 Breacher / Stealth service contact (3 RVP)
• Extra +1 S3I Rep

Optional for Raum

• Daredevil (6 RVP)
• +2 Seelie Fae Rep

Optional for Trauma

• Spririt Whisperer (8 RVP)
• Daredevil (6 RVP)
• El-Ahrairah C5 L1 (5 RVP)
• Extra +2 S3I Rep

Game Quotes

Anonymity is our Knife. Darkness is our Shield. Strike now at the enemies we face, let not the world know we shall fight back. Fight for those who walked before, to fight for those who walk after.

Raum has cameras in his contacts and would've sent pics of the OpFor to Sandy Phone.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Trauma: This gig almost went as poorly as one of my earlier gigs, thankfully we were quick enough that our employer didn't end up wasted by the mystery killers. One of 'em got away but thanks to Raum, I was able to stop the seeming drake before she got away. Feel bad I had to kindof leave Photo to the metaphorical wolves to do it, but her spirit and mine seemed to keep her safe enough while we dealt with that her. I seem to get a lot of gigs from people connected to this S3I, wonder if they're starting to hit my fixers up to direct me to these gigs at this rate. Guess I impressed 'em, and good on them for seeing my value.

Raum: This one really took it out of me, I think I might've stretched myself a little too thin during that fight. I just so fucking fixated on making sure that drake didn't slip away. Anyway, really weird job. Can't say I really understand *how* Ms. Johnson was being forced to kill her friends, but that has be gut wrenching. Hope she's alright, I know I'd definitely be feeling guilty after that. Smelled like some kind of fucked up coverup, but I'm not being paid to care about that. Yet. Still, I wonder who those assholes who attacked us in the hallway were...