The Anniversary

Notice: This run has been retconned due to significant thematic inconsistencies. The exact events, places, and parties differ from the run as played.

The Anniversary
Date 2082-08-29 GM OrionsRequiem Location Downtown, Seattle Metroplex Status Threat Level: Prime
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven The Draco Foundation	The Church of the Dragon - Bride of Dunkelzahn sect	Aztechnology
Delphi Mara Relay Vichnozeleny Master Morty	Tyranthoth Yenn, Bride of Dunkelzahn Veorvinteth Bride of Dunkelzahn guards Bride of Dunkelzahn Drakes	Jaguars
Casualties and losses
Vichnozeleny

Summary

In which the Draco Foundation hire runners to stop the Bride of Dunkelzahn cult, who are trying to open up an Astral Rift to bring back the Great Dragon President from the dead.

Background

Over the past six months, there have been leylines that have been subverted by Aztechnology geomancers to power rituals in the Aztechnology Pyramid in Downtown Seattle. Meanwhile, the Draco foundation has been recovering artifacts of Dunkelzahn's for protection, but was infiltrated by the cult and had three important items stolen from them: A powerful magical idol that was taken from one of Dunkelzahn's lairs near Halifax, a set of scales that had been stolen from a safety deposit box owned by Saeder-Krupp, and a vial of Dunkelzahn's blood.

The Meet

The runners meet up at the Draco Foundation HQ in Seattle. They are greeted by Ryan Mercury and are led to a private conference room where Nadja Daviar, Lofwyr and Hestaby are sitting and discussing world events. Nadja requests the runners recover the three artifacts from the cult and return them to the Draco Foundation intact. She promises each of them 100k Nuyen and Delta Clinic access at the very least, and when Morty requests a new deck for the job, there is no hesitation to hand it over. The Great Dragons and Nadja tell the runners that there are two known locations and an unknown where the leader of the cult, a Dragon named Yenn, is performing the ritual. The Top level of the ACHE and the top of the Aztechnology Pyramid. The runners agree to the terms of the job and head to Relay's safehouse to plan

The Plan

The runners spend some time researching the cult, the dragons and the rituals based on what they know from previous encounters with the leyline problems and the various locations. Deciding to contact Cascade to move them from place to place quickly and stealthfully, and once they have one of the artifacts, using Isadora Windthrope to help divine the location of the third part of the ritual. The group call a contact in the FBI and use her connection to get them safe passage to the upper levels of the ACHE before gearing up and heading to the former Renraku Arcology.

The Run

The team arrive at the ACHE and ascend in the elevator, being extremely cautious of their movements and checking every angle. In one of the abandoned rooms, Morty finds an "Agent" program with pure white eyes that promises him power in exchange for being uploaded onto his deck. Nicknamed "Deagent" by the Master, the group continue upwards and are confronted by Willis and a group of guards. Dispatching them and taking the Drake hostage and questioning him, he explains that he was just a worker at the joke shop before being recruited by Veorvinteth into the cult. Explaining that the dragon is at the top of the ACHE overseeing the ritual, the group also use a secret passage provided by Deagent, using an old construction elevator and discovering a secret room with one of Deus' strange metahuman experiments. The group move on and make their way to the overtaken floor where the ritual is being performed with Dunkelzahn's scales. The runners disrupt the ritual, managing to fend off Veorvinteth in her dragon from and causing the mana backlash to cause the dragon to disappear and an explosion rocking the top of the ACHE. The runners get to the helicopter flown by Cascade and take off after Vic begins to SURGE. A large laser is shot into the sky

The runners arrive as Isadora's home and quickly hide themselves inside her penthouse. Using Mara's Guidance spirit and Delphi's divination to determine that the location of the third ritual was somewhere downtown, but they needed the other part of the ritual to get a full grasp of the situation. Knowing that the Aztechnology pyramid was in a slightly ruined state after the events of a previous run, and now having been taken over by a cult and being evacuated, the group want a distraction to make their job easier so that they have some fight left for the third part of the ritual. To that end, they call in the Hellraisers, specifically [[Bar],racuda]], Cricket, Catharsis, Tombstone, Sweetie Sinful and Artemisia, who themselves subcontract Crane and the Nuclear Warlocks' Zombie Process to assault the pyramid. Arriving at the scene of a bloodbath, the Hellraisers fight with the cultists and Jaguar guards until another dragon, Tyrenthoth, comes down from his position guarding the ritual and confronts the Hellraisers. After a hard-fought battle where Barracuda was almost eaten, only to be saved by Black Samurai at the last moment as the gang work together to "slay" the dragon. In his last act, Tyrenthoth summons a large Comet spell down atop the area, and the dragon's body disappears.

Meanwhile the main team infiltrate the top of the Aztechnology Pyramid and find the second part of the ritual already underway. The runners discover that the ritual has been partially tainted with blood magic and are ambushed by the mages and Jaguars that remained at the top of the pyramid. The runners grab the idol that anchored the ritual and during a massive mana backlash two of the Bride of Dunkelzahn's drakes attempt to stop them. Vic, using her new SURGE'd properties, jumps forward and detonates a series of grenades on her person as the rest of the team escapes, only hearing their compatriot's last words as she dies as a hero to the team. Another magical laser fires into the sky

Getting onto Relay's new helicopter, Mara and Delphi quickly do another divination and determine the location of the final ritual, which is the Space Needle. Delphi puts out an all-hands-on-deck notice in ShadowHaven's Old School chatroom and asks for their help to keep the cultists off them while they confront Yenn. Many runners flock to the Space Needle and take part in the battle at the Needle while the runners approach in a helicopter and find a woman sitting at the top of the needle with the vial of blood, with a large rift beginning to open. Through a series of negotiations with the Dragon, she is convinced that the proper way to be with Dunkelzahn isn't to bring him back, but to join him in the other side of the rift. Yenn flies into the rift, and as it is beginning to close, Morty, prompted by the promise of a certain item by Nadja Daviar, throws his deck into the rift, sending Deagent into the rift, even though it was already partially uploaded to the public grid by Morty.

Aftermath

The runners return to the Draco Foundation and Delphi hears the two Great Dragons and Nadja talking with someone, though when they open the door, there is no one to see other than the imposing figures before them. In addition to the rewards for the run, each runner is presented with additional rewards. Real SINs, noble titles, corporate positions and secrets of the Matrix are offered to each, with the trade off of being indebted to powerful people, each is given a small amount of time to consider their options...

Rewards

For Team: 100k Nuyen (50 RVP) 30 Karma (30 RVP) 22 CDP (10 RVP) 1 Street Cred + 50 Draco Foundation Rep + 10 FBI Rep + 10 Aztechnology Rep + 25 Saeder-Krupp Rep + 30 Tir Council Rep + 50 Shadows of Seattle Rep + 25 Streets of Seattle Rep

For Master Morty: 856k of gear rewards toward cyberdecks up to Avail 28 (214 RVP) Delta Clinic Access Draco Foundation Coin of Favor 784k towards ware up to Avail 28 (196 RVP)

For Delphi: Shiawase Kintsukuroi (Shiawase Brand version of Trompe L'Oeil commlink) (12.5 RVP) Delta Clinic Access (15 RVP) 1,530,000 worth of ware, vehicles, drugs, weapons, tech up to Avail 28 (382.5 RVP)

For Relay: Nissan Helicopter (55 RVP) Delta Clinic Access 150k Shares of Dairy Queen Stock 1,420,000 worth of Ware, vehicles, drones and weapons up to Avail 28 May use RVP to buy off Paraplegic at Chargen Costs May use RVP to pay lifestyle costs

For Mara: F7 Power Focus - (31.5 RVP) Integrated Chemseal YNT RPC FBA: (7.5 RVP) 1,484,000 worth of Magical gear, forumla, foci, armor, vehicles up to Avail 28 (371 RVP) Can buy Lightning Reflexes at Chargen Price May spend RVP on lifestyles

Optional Contacts: - Willis (DragonJapes Regional Manager) (4/1 Drake) (4 RVP or 8 CDP) - Hanako Shinoda (6/1 Shiawase Seer) (6 RVP or 12 CDP) - Cascade (4/3 Smuggler) (6 RVP or 12 CDP) - Isadora Windthrope (3/2 Teenage Seer) (4 RVP or 8 CDP) - Ryan Mercury (8/1 Prime Runner) (8 RVP or 16 CDP)

Hellraisers (Cuda, Catharsis, Cricket, Tombstone, Crane, Arti, Sweetie):

- 100k nuyen (50 RVP) - 20 Karma (20 RVP) - 22 CDP (10 RVP) - May buy off "An Overwhelming Despair" - 1 Street Cred - 4 Public Awareness - + 20 Streets of Seattle Rep - + 50 Shadows of Seattle Rep - Optional Contact for Cricket and Catharsis: Corf (1/1 Minecart) (1 RVP or 2 CDP)

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Vichnozeleny

The following is a recordingsent to the Haven's databanks from an unknown source three seconds after Vic flatlined. The song itself appears to be Vic singing with an acoustic guitar, and while the words are in Russian, a linguasoft managed to translate them:

"Who told you we were enemies?

Everything's quiet and mindless on the path to Pripyat

Hey, why in a hurry? Stalker, brother, wait!

Have a drink with me and my rifle.

No one likes the Monolith, everybody's shooting at us, but the Call helps us survive.

And when the night comes all stalkers run away from the center of the Zone.

Monsters hiding everywhere, I can't even take a walk.

Hey, dude, enough with shooting, just let me sleep!

The radio set crackles, Duty starts running to attack;

Throw a grenade - make 'em run a little faster.

No one likes the Monolith, everybody's shooting at us, but the Call helps us survive.

And when the night comes all stalkers run away from the center of the Zone.

Anomaly on the left; tell me something, brother!

Geiger counter is crackling so I take a step back.

Throwing lots of bolts around so I can find a safe way.

Marking for the Monolith a safe path through it all.

No one likes the Monolith, everybody's shooting at us, but the Call helps us survive.

And when the night comes all stalkers run away from the center of the Zone."

Master Morty

"At first I thought Deus was the key... but now that I have the journal of Dodger, new avenues have been opened before me. At some point I may be forced to deal with the consequences of releasing the Deus shard upon the Matrix; but for now... I have new information to consider. I can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel; ascension will be finally be mine. After that? Well, there is the fate of metahumanity to consider..."