No Cocaine in the Bedroom, Please

No Cocaine in the Bedroom, Please
Date 2086-02-23 GM Robinton Location Kent, Tacoma Status Threat Level: Milk
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Naomi Fisk	Major Corp
Chameleon Backseat Heart of the Tempest Brine Quoth Mirage Miut Grackle Asura Doggie Bag Titan Poe No Caller ID Funk	Character1 Character2

Summary

What starts as a housewarming party for Naomi and Chameleon turns into a race to find an ancient killer before he finds his target in the dream-logic of an Alchera.

Background

Naomi Fisk, after an extended courtship with Chameleon, has agreed to move in with him and, as such, they are throwing a housewarming party.

Act 1: The Party

Session 1

As folks began to filter into the housewarming party for Naomi and Chameleon, good conversation occurs as some of the Haven runners meet each other for the first time and some old friends reconnect. Chameleon's invitation pulls out some of the older crowd of the Haven as well as a small pile of newer runners without much street cred to their name - but willing to use the time and place to network a bit and meet some of their colleagues.

Session 2:

As the party, chatter, and food continue on, a sudden downpour of rain begins. While the Emerald City is always vaguely rainy, this seems sudden and just as equally severe. Broad sheets of rain pelt down on the condo's windows as dark clouds roll in with surprising quickness. There is the vague sense of ear-popping pressure as a massive stormfront rolls in, adding the occasional crack of thunder or brief pelting of hail from the upper atmosphere.

The sudden dimness in the early evening casts a shadow over the condo, as does the sense of foreboding and that comes with it.

A number of the party-goers notice the strange weather and Quoth, in particular, seems to be certain that they saw the walls bleeding for just a moment. Assensing the issue, they realize there is a magical front pushing the suddenly strange and severe storm.

Session 3:

The rolling of the rain over the windowpanes. The sky darkening with deep and foreboding clouds. The beginnings of the thin edge of tension, of adrenaline, of flight-or-fight. After all, this is a house filled with runners - fighters, awakened, killers, and thieves.

With a crack of lightning that rattles the windows, the storm seems to get worse. What was, a few moments ago, merely heavy rain has now become an utter deluge - and with it the near constant pinprick feeling of numinous perception.

The runners begin to understand what is happening - some of them erect mana barriers, some of them rely on their metamagic and protections; a number of them realize that what is occurring is BECAUSE of the storm - a mana storm is rolling over them, throwing off grand swaths of magic. Chameleon realizes that Naomi Fisk is missing as Poe does his diviniation:

His vision flickers in and out, a series of images that linger in his mind a moment. A river, crooked and bending, in an untamed wild frontier. Blood. So much blood, a river of it, running off a tall hill and slowly pouring down into the river. The smell of smoke - woodfires burning, the particular scent of trees and fresh air and grass and campfire stoves. A glint of metal. The sound of something bladed - a knife? An axe? Flying through the air. And then a scream. That might have sounded like Naomi Fisk. Pain, pouring off like rainwater, soaking into the earth to rise again, and then come pouring down in vast, wide, sheets of rain

And then the storm begins to land in earnest....

Act 2: The Storm Hits

Session 4:

The wave of magic that rolls over the small condo is almost tangible, even to non-awakened. The only one spared from that overwhelming sense of vertigo and distortion is likely to be Getaway, thanks to his drone body, but that only means he gets to play witness to everyone else swaying under the utter deluge of magical power.

Some fall, collapsing under the weight of it. Some stand, bracing themselves against the tide of magic like a child standing in the surf.

Their visions grow hazy, the magical effects of the storm buffeting the condo with multihued energies. And when it clears... it takes them a moment to realize what they are seeing.

The inside of the condo is gone, replaced by natural woods and a stone fireplace. Light streams in from through single pane windows and the sounds of woods and birdsong can be heard outside. A stone fireplace sits in the center of the room near freshly chopped wood.

As their mind begins to register that strangeness, they realize that everyone else in the room is likewise affected...

---

Having found themselves in a magical version of Seattle, 1871, the group begins searching for the missing Naomi Fisk. After some time sorting out the strangeness of their new appearences, the runners begin exporing the confines of this particular set of strangeness. Backseat, for example, realizes that under the context of the alchera, things will be "real" here. This is no mere illusion.

They learn that Seattle of 1871 is a quickly growing and spreading town. There is a sort of hustle and bustle with that sense of a quickly blooming frontier town. While Chameleon's "house" is on the outskirts, there is a largish business district and residental one.

Guided by Poe's vision, Chameleon learns that south of where they are now - more or less where Bellvue should be - there is a bend in the river that coincides with the vision. That bend occurs in what would eventually be called the Puyallup district.

Session 5:

As the group makes their way into town, they are greeted by the various townsfolk in a relatively cordial fashion. Beyond the 'cover' that the Alchera has provided them, the people within it seem to treat them as if they are expected people among town, have lived there forever, etc. Even any sort of incidence of oddness, such as the talking bird, seems to get glossed over in a sort of "Oh how precious, you taught that bird to talk!" sort of way. The relatively odd height of some of the runners doesn't even seem to register, even as they have to hunch to enter doorways of buildings, prompting responses like "well they grow 'em tall where ya'll from" and similar.

The town is laid out before you - For what amounts to a frontier town, it has become more or less a frontier city, taking over most of what would in the future be the Downtown and Bellevue districts. The other districts - what would eventually be Everett, Snohomish, Redmond, Puyallup, etc. are all more or less untamed wilds. The city is clearly in the process of expansion, pushing outwards at a breakneck pace, as can be seen from new construction on the outskirts of town.

As the group makes their way into town, they are greeted by the various townsfolk in a relatively cordial fashion. Beyond the 'cover' that the Alchera has provided them, the people within it seem to treat them as if they are expected people among town, have lived there forever, etc. Even any sort of incidence of oddness, such as the talking bird, seems to get glossed over in a sort of "Oh how precious, you taught that bird to talk!" sort of way. The relatively odd height of some of the runners doesn't even seem to register, even as they have to hunch to enter doorways of buildings, prompting responses like "well they grow 'em tall where ya'll from" and similar.

The town is laid out before you - For what amounts to a frontier town, it has become more or less a frontier city, taking over most of what would in the future be the Downtown and Bellevue districts. The other districts - what would eventually be Everett, Snohomish, Redmond, Puyallup, etc. are all more or less untamed wilds. The city is clearly in the process of expansion, pushing outwards at a breakneck pace, as can be seen from new construction on the outskirts of town.

While exploring the town, Titan discovers that the local Native tribes are up in arms about the expansion of the city. Quoth and Caller overhears that the Mayor, Michael Brown, recently took care of some natives for being problematic - but since then, there's been a string of strange animal deaths that has the town nervous. Caller learns that the animal deaths have been coming from the south and slowly marching northwards.

South of the city, near the bend in the river that would eventually be the Puyallup district, Poe summons a wild spirit and is answered by a spirit salmon from the river. Meanwhile, Chameleon investigates the area and realizes there was a native family here by the river and it was removed from the area by force - he finds blood on the ground.

Tempest manages to sort out, through a detect enemies spell, that there is a person of interest - a black haired native man, with blood tears painted on his face, at the southern edge of town and moving northward.

Session 6:

The sense of the Alchera begins to come together, the magic of the place giving each of you an intuitive understanding of what the others are finding.

The Mayor - Michael Brown, recently 'took care of' some local natives. And south of the city, at the bend in the river, some of the runners have found what remains of a small tribal homestead - with the markings of blood.

In the strangeness of the alchera's magic, it occurs to you, somehow, that the word "Puyallup" means "The People at the Bend in the River" in the native language. And just as swiftly as this fleeting knowledge of their language, Lushootseed, comes, it leaves just as swiftly.

Somewhere, south of the city and north of the river, a native man with black hair and blood tears painted on his face moves north. And somewhere, in the town, the Mayor's family awaits....

Act 3: Old Ghosts - Tears of Red and Tears of Salt

Session 7:

From the south of Seattle, the Man with Black Hair stalks his way north into the City. His face bears painted tears of red - something in the magic of the Alchera telling you that the one large tear and two smaller tears symbolize his wife and two daughters.

In the north of Seattle, the Mayor - Michael Brown, the man who murdered those wife and children. But in a flash of dream-logic, your mental tracks not to the north... but to the south where it pauses, for just a moment, on a homestead your mind tells you, suddenly, is the Brown homestead.

As this image fills your mind, the door to that homestead opens and out walks the mayor's daughter - Emma Brown, the lovely star of the County King. And just as quickly, you see a flash behind the mask - the same alchera-mask that each of you have around you.

Underneath the appearance of Emma Brown is Naomi Fisk.

And as you realize the Man with Black Hair is travelling north, "Emma Brown" begins her afternoon stroll southwards towards the river...

In town, Quoth finds the mayor and begins to accost him, only to find out that not only is the mayor entirely unrepentant, most of the townfolk approve of his driving out of the native Puyallup tribe and families - it is only retribution they fear. Near the south end of town, NCID finds the mayor's daughter - Emma Brown, with Naomi Fisk more or less trapped inside, apparently forced to play the part of the girl in the Alchera's dreamlogic.

South of town, the team catches up to the Puyallup hunter. Chameleon and Tempest intimidate him into stopping while Doggie Bag plays guard, and then Grackle's subtle influence seems to take all the fight out of him....

Session 8:

Act 3: Session 8 - Time to come home

The dream logic wavers around you, the town of Seattle in 1871 and the woods north of the Bend In the River becoming hazy. In the way of dreams, you are all together again, the surroundings hazy.

Before you, the First Nations Man - Chogan, your mind provides - stands. The white paint covers his face highlighting the two painted tears. The first is larger, and the next smaller - clearly indicating a spouse and daughter.

"Blood called for blood," he says in Southern Lushootseed, though somehow you understand him perfectly. "In my pain, in my desire for revenge, I did not want to simply murder. I wanted him to feel the pain I felt, to hold his daughter in his arms as red tears fell to soak the earth."

Dark eyes glance, briefly, to Tempest, and then back.

"I know not how long that hatred has held me here. But perhaps...."

Whatever wisdom, whatever enlightenment, the alchera-spirit of what was one Chogan of the Puyallup Tribes fades ino the blurring haze of half-wake. There is the feeling of that disorientation, that moment between a deep and dreaming sleep and the waking world where everything is sort of... sideways.

And then you realize, eyes blinking slow realizations, that everything IS sideways as the group of you are back in the apartment in Seattle, 2086, laying on the floor of the apartment.

And outside, the rain has passed and a dim, morning, sun begins to crest the horizon painting the sky in every color of creation.

Rewards

Rewards for "No Cocaine in the Bedroom, Please" (Milk Run)

• Milk Run - 5 RVP
• 3 Karma (3 RVP) for convincing Chogan, the Puyallup man, to not murder an innocent
• 2,000 Nuyen (1 RVP) as a thank-you from Naomi Fisk for saving her
• 2 CDP (1 RVP) for experiencing the effects of an Alchera
• 2 CDP Run Guarantee
• 500 Nuyen paid from Chameleon (x20 = 10K from Chameleon)

Narrative Consequences:
Naomi Fisk owes Chameleon a chip for his efforts to organize a rescue for her, being aware of what he did once the dreamlogic stopped forcing her into the role of “Emma Brown”.

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Grackle - It was weirdly sobering for a housewarming party, yet at the same time enlightening. An Alchera that captured a perfectly preserved slice of the 5th world, and brought it into the 6th, revealing truths unwritten. If such wonders can happen, I can't help but wonder if perhaps mysteries from yet more ancient times may not be as lost to us as we think...

Chameleon: Although it's nice to get to know your colleagues I never thought they would get to know me so...well. I owe all of our guests a huge thank you!

Titan: Well, I don't get what happend, but I got a real steak and real whisky. I guess, was worth the trouble... Uhm, where the fuck is Princess?

Backseat: Not the weirdest trip I've had at a party. Shame I didn't get to share the Novacoke I brought though...

Doggie Bag: Wiz-kids say it's an 'Alchera'. None too familiar with that, but all *too* familiar with magical bull-drek. Another mana-induced headache. Not sure they'll ever abate. Some days I wish I was born Mundane, then I could stop tryin' to learn all this nonsense. Guess I've always needed... special tutoring. Tthis isn't any different.