There Are No Tunnels

There Are No Tunnels
Part of Meatgrinder
Date 2086-03-04 GM Asmodeus Location Japan / Local Grid / MCT Global Grid Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	MCT
Bunny Hop Ca1yps0 Geodesic Silver Lining	Shuten Dooji Hachi Zetto Shiyon
Casualties and losses
None. Not yet, anyway.	None. Not yet.

Summary

Four deckers walk into a host. Shuten Dooji looks at them and says, "Why the long face?" "Huh?" Geodesic responds. Shuten Dooji eats a sprite. There are no punchlines.

Background

Ms. Johnson is a mysterious woman, and is interested in mysteries in turn. Most recently, this includes rumors, urban legends really, of a highly dangerous, highly sought after something deep in the MCT Global grid, local to Japan. Hachi Zetto Shiyon. Very little can be reasonably guessed at, and even less is known concretely.

She would like to change that.

The Meet

Four trusted runners, vetted and highly recommended by their fixers, are invited to attend a fun, innocently themed destination host. A Star Wars kind of energy, space fantasy, lasers and blades and delightful alien designs. The runners are on board a highly technical depiction of a space battleship, and traverse hallways and scaffolds as one of the crew. Following Ms. Johnson's instructions brings them face to face with another, bog standard sliding door, though the other side, once opened, immediately reeks of the unexposed underside of such attractions.

A dilapidated hall, broken down and rusted over and dark, with no doors on either side. A darkly silhouetted woman stands at the other end, smoking a cigarette.

She tells the runners they come highly recommended, which is good, because their target is extremely dangerous. Hachi Zetto Shiyon. Ring any bells? It shouldn't - those who learn about it often end up dead, or otherwise mysteriously missing. What is it, the team ask, and their Johnson only shrugs in response. That's what she wants them to find out.

Go to where it's often cited as being - as a Japanese rumor, it exists primarily on the Japanese grids. Do not delve too deep. Do not engage with it, if it does make itself known to them. Only find out what they safely can without dying, and report back with what they've gathered. She'll throw extra money on top of their base pay for every extra little bit of information they can find without being caught.

And it's as easy as that, ne? Off they go to do their research.

The Plan

The three runners who can actually do so physically travel to Japan to utilize its national grid, and to do some work on the ground questioning the locals too.

Silver Lining investigates a shady dive bar with stairs leading underground, and questions a man with his cyberarm pinned to the synthetic bartop with a knife. He is distraught - obviously - and says that he owes the bartender several hundred nuyen or else he's going to get even worse than this. Silver Lining considers this, and asks him bluntly if he has any information on Hachi Zetto Shiyon, to which the man responds, uh, YEAH, just gimme a few hundred nuyen and I'll spill.

Ultimately, very little is revealed beyond that which their contact has already told them - a mysterious entity, and missing deckers who go near it. The man describes Hachi Zetto Shiyon as "a featureless concrete block a mile high, a mile long, and a mile deep. Then, just as you turn away, you notice a door." Silver Lining leaves the bar with the sinking sensation that he may have been scammed.

Geodesic makes her way to the port of Yokohama to track down two hackers who claim to have found Hachi Zetto Shiyon, Shamemura, and DZ9. In addition to confirming what's been previously conveyed by other sources, they reiterate that it's a concept that seems capable of reading or controlling thought, that it's dangerous, and that they're surprised MCT allows it to exist, even if it is just a trap. There is importance too, they say, at a host located on the grid overlapping the peak of Mt. Ooe - the mythical home and gravesite of the great yokai Shuten Douji - who is real, and resides there on the grid. Or an AI that has taken his form, at any rate.

Ca1yps0 finds herself at an exclusive Black Shogun lounge, and after some schmoozing with the staff, is offered access to their exclusive, behind-the-curtain VIP lounge. She slots the psychotropic tripchip simsense the staff provide after a brief mention of Resonance attunement, and she finds herself ascended to a plane that is equal parts digital and dream. Sprites exist in that twilight, with knowledge forbidden to the surface dwellers. They reveal that, unfortunately, any knowledge regarding their target is speculative at best. A good guess at its nature is that of a con, a rumor out of hand, a convenient lie MCT tells to trap those hackers curious and skilled enough to make it too far - though using something wound into the fabric of their own global grid for such a thing is bold for a typically careful operation. another option, alternatively, is that due to Hachi Zetto Shiyon's proximity to Mt. Ooeyama, that Shuten Douji himself, the great digital yokai, may be a sort of guardian, or gatekeeper to its depths. An observation post for GOD? An administrative access point to the grids' scaffolding? This is where their knowledge becomes too thin to grasp.

Bunny Hop, bound to the Matrix, does not join them physically, but instead travels the Resonance Realms in search of answers. If deckers have died or gone missing in search of this thing, she may seek to speak with the ancestral dead by way of the Graveyard, where hackers' last moments online are preserved in perpetuity. She feels a thousand harrowing deaths before finding simsense with the answers she seeks - a hacker with a foggy mind, walking in a city. She places it as New York, though only in broad strokes. Through the fog of his mind, disparate pieces cling together - though just as fall together like leaves on a pond's surface, he is shot from a dozen different barrels, and left to bleed out on the pavement.

It was a Foundation, she believes in retrospect as her mind once again becomes her own - with some kind of memetic agent that triggers Variance for even thinking outside the lines. Several shades darker and more treacherous than any she's seen before.

The Run

The team regroup on the grid and convey to one another what they've found. This is enough to go back to Ms. Johnson, though all agree that it's scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as what's been asked of them. The next step is obvious - the ascension of Mt. Ooe. While Bhop is forced to perform some Resonance trickery to keep up, the others travel physically to the cultural landmark and tourist destination of Ooeyama to weigh their options. It's there that they discover the existence of a Buddhist temple nearby as well, a publicly accessible Destination Host with area information and, what the hackers' keen eyes quickly discern upon visiting, a nested Data Host as well. Bunny Hop and Geodesic take the time to enjoy some of the touristy aspects, and retrieve a topological map of the region and the grid overlaying it. Silver Lining gets more ambitious, and reaches out to place his MARK on the doorway deeper.

The breezey mountaintop temple gives way inside to an utter void of sensation. Darkness all around, and no feeling to guide him either. Silver Lining can just make out scraping, shambling in the darkness, and treads carefully. His brave heart searches for answers they might seek - and they find them, it seems. A tome on the shelf, alone, bound in human skin. Its metadata is labeled, simply: Hachi Zetto Shiyon.

He deftly avoids the shambling mound that guards this place and beelines toward that book - and upon arriving, copying, and retrieving it, immediately discovers his error. It is opened - and the human face inside screams. The shambling mound becomes alive and lurches swiftly toward the decker, who has just as quickly slammed the tome shut and made for the exit. Despite that guard dog searching, he emerges back to the surface host, harrowed but unharmed.

At the very least, they have gained some credence to the theory that Hachi Zetto Shiyon is a myth and nothing more, a honeypot to trap and destroy nosy hackers with too much time and curiosity on their hands. They could go back with that.

"... Or, hear me out," Geodesic says.

The crew travel to the host of Shuten Douji, daemon of Mt. Ooe. His monstrous advisers receive them, and ask why they are here, and what offering they bring to the lord of this realm. Geodesic offers one of her sprites - which the demon lord gleefully eats. Bunny Hop, disgusted, nonetheless bites her tongue for the sake of the others' safety. They gain his cooperation, though only in part - he will not grant them passage to the realm beyond. Not without a fight.

He does reveal the nature of Hachi Zetto, however, or at least its location - it is an unassuming host disguised under one of the many waterfalls of Mt. Ooe, magically warded and containing a well, which functions as the entrance to the bit of its architecture under the influence of Hachi Zetto - itself some protocol, individual, IC, AI, or even the nature of the location itself, with specifics unknown.

Aftermath

This, the team agree, seems like enough to go back to their Johnson with - further exploration may compromise the second part of the operation. They were hired exclusively to gather data, and they've gathered as much as they can within the bounds of the run. Their Johnson, once contacted, agrees - further action would be too large a risk to the operation. Not a bad run, all things considered, for the four intrepid Internet explorers.

Rewards

--- Run Rewards for There Are No Tunnels (Medium x 1.5 Multiplier for 9 Hour Runtime, 12 15 RVP)
18,000 12,000 Nuyen (6 RVP)
4 Karma (4 RVP)
1 Street Cred (1 RVP)
10 CDP (4 RVP)
Bonus: Each runner can acquire a custom chain link tattoo for completing a Meatgrinder run. If they have existing Meatgrinder tattoos, this chain link is added to the existing chain on the same arm.

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.