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
• 11/6: 2 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 after leaving the enemy body behind.

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, Norville Craddock, 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.

Afternoon Boating

As the team leaves the mall, Raum realizes that there are divination rituals which are likely causing the opfor to know where we're going in advance. The team decides to keep to the boating plan, uncertain how to circumvent the divination, but opts to change the lake to Lake Sawyer instead of Lake Tappi.

Raum summons up a spirit of Fire in order to play astral overwatch for them during the day. They rent a boat and spend the afternoon on Lake Sawyer having a lovely time. While doing so, Alison beigns to suffer a bit of brain fog, leadng the team to be a bit worried about her mental state. Chance does the some matrix searching for psychological data while the team continues the boat ride.

Lapse of speach like Alison is showing reads more as dementia so Raum whips out an ELEVEN HIT Performance of some of her favorite music as they take the trip.

Raum's water spirit comes back, reporting that he found a cultist safehouse in Hells' Kitchen with three or four members of the cult and it left after it was attacked by another spirit. Raum then contacts Beatrice to let her know that there's a cult house near her and recommends her moving - unaware that Sam has been arranging that on the side.

The Concert

The team decides to take the highways up into Redmond, so Chance does a quick run of the host in order to smooth the crossing process. The R5 Host is strong towards firewall, however Chance makes short work of it and spoofs the cyberware scanner to ignore Alison, but Sam's SIN throws an error. Ruam and he chat up the guards and manage to talk their way past it without alerting them nor bothering Alison.

They make it to Touristville without much further ado, and the team heads in for the concert. They scope out the location to make sure it's safe physically, magically, and on the matrix. They blend into the concert and them keep a sharp eye for anyone coming for Alison. Raum and her stay close together but don't go into the mosh pit because MAN is that a bad idea, while Chance and Sam keep an eye out.

Chance manages to spot a persona running around but doesn't get spotted himself. Chance dataspikes the fuck out of the script kiddie, using Tantrum only, who was poking around Alison's ware sending him out of the club with a wicked cause of feeling ill and a rebooted deck.

The crowd gets a bit rowdy at points, but Sam and Raum are able to keep things in check and not getting too out of hand, insulating Alison from the worst of it.

A Safe House of Their Own

While all this is going on, during travel times or places where Alison is trying on clothes or the like, Samael is busy making DNI phone calls. After a short conversation with Hank - spawning from sending the PTT some ARO images of Alison having a normal day, Samael arranges for a safehouse out in Redmond that is designed to help counteract the cyberzombie's background count. First, he calls his lawyer, Ashley Davis and gives her a retainer and some nuyen to secure a property in the Barrens near Fall City that won't require a SIN to pay rent. Then, he contacts Jaqueline Morrison and asks a favor, explaining he's arranging a new safehouse for himself and that he desperately needs it interior designed. In exchange for a chip, Morrison takes it on as a pet art project using surplused furniture from her stores and such to do up the medium lifestyle house as appropriately 'punk' and 'homey'. After the concert, Raum helps Sam acquire some punk discs to further make the place more Alison's so she has the music she likes.

He also arranges with Mara to come ward the place with an obfuscating ward which gets resolved at: PENDING

All of this to give Alison a place where she can attempt something of a normal, peaceful, life that is close enough to N-51 where Hank can call for help and where Alison doesn't have all the complications of being held in a perpetual coma while Hank works on cures or eliminating the cult.

Aftermath

The team drops off Alison at Chez Betty, a bar near Fall City with Beatrice, having given her a perfectly normal night out (from her perspective).

The trio is able to shift over into their new, much nicer, and much more stable, medium lifestyle safehouse in Fall City.

Rewards

Run Reward for "Reaching for a Soul" (16 x 1.3 = 21 RVP)

14k Nuyens (7 RVP)

10 Karma (10 RVP)

10 CDP (4 RVP)

Optionnal Reward :

Nerlithothep the Succubus (1/3) (3 RVP or 6 CDP)

Hank (1/3) (3 RVP or 6 CDP)

Roxxy Sparks (1/5) (4 RVP/ 8 CDP) (Raum Only for IKAG)

Chance qualify for mundane ascension for having dealt with a various range of matrix shenanigan even when out of edge, and winning his two first cybercombat.

Chance get a chip from Clint Wilder

Raum get a chip from Norville Craddock

Samael can get Watch the Suit at chargen (3 RVP)

Raum can take History is Less Certain Than We Are Taught with a rank of The Enemy.

Samael investment for Alison's safehouse get him another chip from Hank

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Samael - An incredibly smooth run through, despite the various hiccups which got handled so silently that our companion never even noticed. I cannot help but feel for this girl - trapped within the confines of her own cyberware. It is... entirely unprofessional of me to care, I know. Entirely unprofessional of me to leverage money and favors for this girl who owes me nothing and to whom I equally owe nothing. And yet. What monster would I be if I did not step in to help?

Raum - Note to self, Sam is one cagey son of a bitch, even if it might cause issues on the job. Still, handled himself well and escorting a goddamn cyberzombie around town went better than expected. Even if her aura makes my skin crawl, I can't help but feel bad for her. I hope "Beatrice" can get her some help, but that doesn't seem like something you come back from... Now, that cult? I need to know more, even if the stuff they're up to is twisted enough to make Craddock sweat. Can't resist sticking my nose where it doesn't belong, and they know something about the gods that I don't...

Chance Well, I knew I was gonna have to fry some kid who was on my tail and weaker than me, but I did not expect it to be randomly in a mall. At least the snooper I shut down at the daze was enough of a kiddy I didn't have to break him too bad. The look on his face when the Assquatch code his was almost worth the bulldrek of these cagey ass clients. Still, beats working for the pawn shop...