Slam in the Back of My Dragula

Slam in the Back of My Dragula
Part of The Crow of Seattle
Date 2082-06-20 GM Sarcarian Location Renton, Seattle Metroplex Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Knight Errant
Charon Zenith	Lavernius Jackson Knight Errant Guards Beast Spirit
Casualties and losses
Charon?	Beast Spirit
Charon burnt all her edge, and was revived from death using Blood Necromancy by the Black Lodge.

Summary

In which Charon hunts down another one of her targets with the help of the Black Lodge.

Background

Charon is a serial killer, targeting people who attacked her decades ago. See The Crow of Seattle for more info.

Lo-fi beats to be Infected to

On the night before the Solstice, Charon is preparing for the meeting of the Black Lodge to take place the next day when one of her zombie servants comes by and gives a physical letter to Charon. While she opens it, it sets off an alchemical prep that detonates in her face. Inside the envelope is a letter telling Charon to come to Rosemont Beach in two hours. After drawing on her eyebrows to replace what had been burned off by the alchemcial fire, the vampire leaves her home, getting into her antique car and heading to the meet.

On the way to the meet, Charon is attacked by a group of go-ganger who take an interest in her car. Pulling over to the side Charon gets out of the car and confronting the gangers, Charon explains that the car is vintage and that it would be a pain to replace, but that they can't have it. The gangers decide that they want whatever Charon has on her before they let her go and one of them sticks a gun in her face. Using her Fae-Touched ability, Charon intimidates the gangers, who quickly decide that discretion is the better part of the valor and get on their bikes and speed off as Charon makes her way towards the meet.

Charon spots a familiar banshee, feeding on some poor metahuman before telling Charon that Mr. Herenight wants her on the best behavior at the meeting tomorrow and she gives a briefcase to the vampire. After some small talk, Charon returns to her apartment and sits on one of the couches before opening the briefcase and finding an old-school investigation file of a man named Roland Escobar.

There's a full dossier on Escobar, including that he is suspected of being Lavernius Jackson, who lives in near Lake Youngs in Renton and is one of Charon's nemesis. Deciding that she can't handle the job completely on her own, she sends a message to Zenith, agreeing to pay the hitman 10k to provide a distraction for her to get into the facility clean.

"Don't Go off Half-Cocked"

Deciding to meet up for the job the next day, Charon decides to continue looking over the files before deciding that she wants a snack. Deciding to go into Redmond, she drives up to Purity where she spots Zenith and decides to drive down to the more down-trodden Sophocles. Zenith follows the vampire on his Shizuki Mirage to make sure that she doesn't eat any innocent people.

Charon eventually finds her way to the Starscreamer territory and approaches one of the spirit-corrupted gangers and punches him in the face. The ensuing fight leads to Charon being knocked unconscious after Zenith blows up the flamethrower's fuel tank with a well-placed shot. Before the vampire can regenerate, Zenith shoots the burning ganger in the face to end him before the vampire gets a chance to feed and the two of them drive off in opposite directions.

While Charon figures out how she's going to get into this facility, Zenith takes his role as a distraction seriously by calling in the two most professional distractions that he knows Kenneth "Flamesaw" Murphy and LB to come to the gated community and make as much noise as possible.

Going Off Half-Cocked

Getting to the gated community turns out rather easy, with Flamesaw and LB blowing a hole in the wall of the gated community. Zenith sets up in a tree line nearby and scouts the place out while Charon uses her Mist Form ability to sneak in. She makes her way across the yard towards the house and is spotted by a Beast spirit in the form of the dog. Using her weapon focus, a collapsible scythe, she slays the spirit and charges into the home where several goons, an electronic warfare specialist, and a mage are hunkered in defensive positions to deal with the angry vampire.

Charon delves head-first into the fray, clawing, biting and punching through her foes, while taking the damage that they dish out. Though they seem prepared for the vampire, with wood pulp, magic and tactics designed to take her down. Zenith fires a round into a window, shattering it, but begins to move before he is found. He takes a moment to consider if it's easier for him to just leave the vampire to her fate, or put himself on the line to attempt to get her out alive. Ignoring the sense it would be to simply leave her behind, Zenith manages to squeeze through the gate as it's opening and run to the house. Jumping up to the window he had shot out earlier and finding Charon laid out from the wounds she'd received after murdering the mage who had been protecting the house.

Zenith injects Charon with a savior medkit to keep her up and the two discuss their mutual dislike of the situation. Charon admits that she's doing this because she hates herself, but she hates the target more and that he hasn't suffered enough. The runners move up to the next floor, Zenith taping a bandolier of grenades to the door and Charon kicking it into the hallway filled with Knight Errant officers, detonating the grenades and turning the officers into chunky salsa. That having been dealt with, Charon jumps through the hallway and goes to the master bedroom, ripping the door to Lavernius' saferoom and finding the man ready to fight back.

Lavernius pulls a gun on Charon, and Zenith shoots it out of his hand while Charon grabs the man and chokes the life out of him. The vampire makes sure the man is dying before getting out into the yard and heading towards the fence. Zenith, realizing they had forgotten to clean up, dumps some C-Squared onto Charon's blood and was confronted by KE from outside coming to reinforce the officers inside. Zenith leaps out a window and meets back up with Charon, the two of them busting through the fence, which knocks Charon out, and then Zenith picks her up and runs through the community towards the hole that Flamesaw and LB had created earlier.

Dumping Charon onto the back of the bike and slap patching himself and her, Zenith calls up Ghaz, asking him for a way into the Ork Underground. Once Zenith agrees to paying whatever steep price is asked, Ghaz gives him a location to get to, but tells him that he has to lose the cops before getting there. Heading off towards the location, Charon and Zenith try and lose the cops, though Charon takes several bullets that she is luckily able to regenerate from.

When all seems lost as Zenith's bike gets hit in the axle and the back wheel seems to be falling off. Zenith tries to pull everything he can get from the bike, but Charon turns and drives herself forward, letting herself be completely consumed by her virus and jumping off the bike, heading towards the cops and ripping the police apart as Zenith drove off towards the meeting point Ghaz gave him.

While Charon fights the cops in a blood-fueled rage and ripping apart the streets of Renton (before eventually dragging a group of vampire hunters who arrive on-scene into the sewers), Zenith passes out and is treated by an OU medical professional before he goes to talk to Ghaz about the whole situation. LB and Kenny meanwhile are able to exfiltrate cleanly.

Aftermath

Days later, Zenith goes to Charon's apartment, gathering up all the materials together and using the gasoline from her vintage car to accelerate the fire. He pulls the fire alarm to get the rest of the apartments out before starting the fire and getting the car out of the garage, fencing it through Black Cat.

KE, having suffered over a dozen causalities, searches high and low for Charon's body in the sewers, however they are able to find only unidentifiable torn-apart remains of the hunters who perused her there. Meanwhile, Charon awakens on a blood-soaked alter in a dark place surrounded by hooded figures - the Black Lodge managed to recover her body and bring her back to life using Blood Necromancy, however as with all things there is a price that must be paid. Mr. Herenight castigates her for her recklessness before explaining that she now owes the rest of her eternal existence to the Lodge, and that she will need to be dark for a while while the situation blows over.

Rewards

For Zenith:

• 22k nuyen
• 11 karma
• 22 CDP
• 1 Notoriety
• 1 Public Awareness
• No Man Left Behind
• Owes Ghaz 3 chips for a hot exfil, must upgrade to loyalty 3.
• Suzuki Mirage was totaled and subsequently scrapped for parts.

For Charon:

• 22 karma
• 22 CDP
• 4 Notoriety
• 4 Public Awareness
• 4 chips owed on Mr. Herenight
• +120,000 to Wanted
• Lost lifestyle and vehicle, Jane Lupercal SIN burned
• Further consequences TBD with Thematics, will likely include a geas as well as lost essence and negatives from Blood Necromancer

Game Quotes

Charon: "How dare they- he hasn't suffered enough yet -- I can't die here..." -After burning edge to murder a security mage of her vendetta target and passing out from 14 damage Manabolt.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Zenith

Frag.

Ghostdammit.

I didn't like Charon. I didn't hide that. This ain't how I wanted her to go out though. I got dragged into her drek before and it ended with a friend of mine dying. This time I didn't know the fragger and I was being paid to help out with infil, but I got way more involved than I should have. Hell, she gave me the location of her apartment and told me where the keys to her fraggin' car were. Once she was inside I should have just left, trusted LB and Flamesaw to get out and just collected my payment. She would have been dead, but it wouldn't have been on me. I would have done exactly what I'd been contracted to do.

Instead, I went in like an idiot and helped Charon butcher more people, drawing even more heat on us and giving more fuel to the Light the Shadows drek. Even that I could live with, sometimes jobs get messy, especially when you let them get personal. But having to carry a bloodsucker's unconscious hoop through sniper fire and onto the damn Renton streets was already a pain, but I lost my bike and Charon...

Frag. Ghostdamn fraggin' drek.

Charon saved my life. She did more than that, though she didn't know it. So I owe her. Clearing out her apartment is the first part, and fencing that car will stop from anyone else investigating her from it, but she gave me this list. I ain't gonna do the serial killer thing, but I'll finish the job. Professional courtesy and all that.

I hate being a professional sometimes.