Don't Threaten Me With a Good Time

Don't Threaten Me With a Good Time
Date 2081-10-12 GM SedatedAlice Location Seattle Metroplex Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Urban Shamans	Toxic Urban Shamans	Knight Errant
Delphi Rambozo Relay Rougarou Zephyr	Toxic Shaman Spirit of Asphalt	KE Officer
Casualties and losses
	1x Toxic Shaman	1x KE Officer's Dignity Just kidding, we all know they never had any in the first place

Summary

In which the runners help an eccentric urban shaman solve an issue with "the flow" by dealing with a toxic shaman and her friendly neighborhood spirit.

The Meet

The team are enticed by a rather strange job posting on the Haven's host and asked to come to a warehouse in Downtown Seattle (which the subsequently learn is a lodge for a group of urban shamans), where a rave seems to be taking place. Everyone manages to arrive at the location without issue, with the exception of Rambozo who crashes his Scoot in dramatic fashion and earns the ire of Bylleigh, their prospective employer, who is obviously high on red mescaline and begins shouting invective at him for what he's done to the poor Scoot. The rest of the team simply gapes in astonishment at the display for a few moments before they are called over by a woman in the middle of an discussion with a construction worker who is very eager to have his time card punched - leaving the two clowns to get caught in a feedback loop, they approach.

The woman, Jerry, dismisses her associate (a spirit of concrete, which the team manages to put together), who decides to stick around for a bit to listen (and to provide comic relief with his inexplicable Fargo accent). Jerry explains that Bylleigh (who continues his shouting match with Rambozo in the background during the conversation) has been very distressed lately, rambling about problems with "the flow" nearby and generally disrupting things; she explains that he's a bit "different" from the rest of them, but that they care deeply for his well-being and have put aside some extra funds in order to help bring him some peace of mind. The team negotiates for some up-front cash plus an expense account and some extra magical assistance from the concrete spirit in case things go sideways before accepting the gig.

The Plan

Beyond "go talk to Bylleigh and see what's up", not a whole lot - as he and Rambozo are about to head out on an ill-advised joyride, the rest of the team intercepts them and starts asking questions such as "what the frag are you talking about?" as he rambles semi-incoherently about a construction site harshing his vibes. Their new spirit pal is unaware of any magical disruptions in the neighborhood that might be causing this sort of issue, so the team gets Bylleigh to mark a map with the location of the disturbance (which he does with a strange rune that looks like a highway intersection) before heading out to investigate. Rougarou takes her own vehicle, while the rest of the team piles into Relay's rigger-mobile - Bylleigh says he'll meet them there. On the way they do a bit of brainstorming and determine that road construction is the most likely source of the disturbance in "the flow" of vehicles in the area and begin debating what to do about it.

The Run

While en route to the construction area near Touristville, Relay is pulled over by a KE patrol. The pawn starts giving the team the third degree before spotting Rambozo (who, it should be noted here for the record, has 8 public awareness) chilling out in the bed and goes to speak to him - everyone holds their breath and prepares for cop murder time as he reaches into his coat... only to pull out a pen and ask for the famous shadowrunner's autograph. Rambozo is pleasantly amused, humoring him and even drawing a clown smiley face on his forehead while managing to restrain the urge to kill long enough for the shockingly incompetent (or conversely incredibly intelligent, take your pick really) cop to leave them to their business. Rougarou breaths a sigh of relief that she decided to drive there separately.

As they approach the indicated area, the magical members of the team start to feel the place's bad mojo and confirm Bylleigh's suspicions - something is seriously messed up with the astral space here, almost as if its been polluted somehow... as they're putting the pieces together, their friend the concrete spirit materializes in the vehicle and engages in a bit of friendly banter before Bylleigh arrives in a miniature tank flanked by a dozen Dodge Scoots in formation. The team is naturally flabbergasted at this, but have little time to react before a disturbance in the road starts to grow and materialize into a spirit of asphalt, who really doesn't like all of these rude people driving all over it. Rambozo rushes to Bylleigh's side with his rocket launcher in hand while the concrete spirit (who doesn't care for scabs on a job site!) along with Zephyr's spirit of fire prepare to engage this new threat.

Spotting a suspicious-looking figure watching the commotion from the window of one of the nearby buildings and speaking on a commlink, Delphi assesses them and confirms that they are a toxic shaman with the same astral signature as the spirit. As combat begins, she seizes the initiative and tags the target's commlink icon before they can flee for cover, then gives the rest of the crew an inspirational pep talk. Rambozo fires his RPG at the asphalt spirit, which manages to no-sell the explosion and becomes rather irate. Bylleigh emerges from the tank, osmium mace in hand and determined to play the hero, only to fall down from the weapon's weight. The various spirits keep eachother busy while Zephyr works to unbind the toxic spirit from the summoner, hoping that it will decide to leave on its own. Relay (rigged into a rotodrone) fires on the shaman, hitting them square in the chest and causing them to collapse, before Rougarou wall-runs up the side of the building and finishes them off with her sword.

Unfortunately the newly-unbound spirit doesn't return to wherever it came from with its summoner dead, and the team start to frantically debate their options. Brute force would seem to be out, so Delphi goes for a hail-Mary and suggests to the toxic spirit that it head in the direction of Glow City (which, she and her con dice assure it, is a lovely place where it won't be bothered by all of these rude people). After a bit of deliberation, the spirit agrees to the proposal and goes off to become Somebody Else's Problem. Rougarou recovers the toxic shaman's commlink - a burner which contains half a dozen other numbers who she was attempting to contact for assistance. Lacking a hacker to trace them, they place the link in a Faraday pocket for safe-keeping. The bad vibes recede and the background count returns to normal once it leaves, but Bylleigh isn't quite finished yet, using his mini-tank to explode a bunch of nearby construction equipment; Rambozo, Relay and Rougarou assist him in order to avoid more collateral damage, and the team heads back to the warehouse.

Aftermath

Returning to the rave, the runners initially have to wait in line until Bylleigh arrives (after storing his fleet) and gets them inside. Jerry and her union worker buddy thank them for all the help (as well as the info on the network of toxic shamans, who have given them trouble before) and give them the remaining payment, as well as their sincere thanks. As a bonus, Bylleigh also provides everyone with the card of a friendly mechanic who can set them up with their own rides.

Rewards

• 10,000 nuyen
• 3 karma
• 4000 nuyen in vehicles and vehicle mods (scoots for all!)
• 2 CDP

Game Quotes

Bylleigh: "Good job rocket-launchering the neighborhood." boops Rambozo's nose

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Delphi

Well, that was certainly an interesting first job with the Haven.

I can't really say that I expected there to be a literal clown on the team, but everyone was competent enough at their jobs that things worked out all right, all things considered... expect for that toxic shaman of course, but then it's difficult to feel too bad about that (especially after I had to take half a dozen showers to get my skin to finally stop crawling from whatever they did to the astral).

That Bylleigh dude was fun to hang out with, but he kept staring at me and saying "you should really get that checked out", so now I'm pretty sure I have a bug in my head or something. Good times, good times.

I didn't really feel right taking all that money from those shamans, especially since I probably could have unraveled the mystery just by taking red mesc with their pal, so I just sort of gave the credstick back to them and took this dumb scooter as payment instead - I'll probably regret that decision when I need to pay my rent, but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it and see if the good vibes keep flowing until then.

Relay

Some jobs you do for the money. Some jobs you do because you want to make the world better. And some jobs you do because there's a clown doing the cabbage patch and a drugged out shaman riding a Dodge Scoot like a horse. This was that kind of job. Zephyr and Rougarou did their jobs, the new face reminds me of Moth but--like--on another timeline. Rambozo made people die laughing. That was absolutely necessary to say, and you know it.

Most magic types are made a little uneasy by my cyber. Bylleigh (are we sure we're spelling it that way? Can we go back in time and tell his parents no?) liked my flow, and I didn't know how to react to that. It was different. While I knocked the toxic mage down, Rougarou finished the job and I can avoid some of the moral greyness in taking a life that was causing pain. I know, I know...it's annoying. I'll be quiet.

Zephyr

I’m having trouble coming up with words that accurately portray what happened on this run but I’ll try my best. We had an interesting cast of characters with us this run: Rambozo the publicly famous clown that apparently keeps a stash of rocket launchers around, Delphi a new face in the Haven did well in convincing a toxic spirit to take up residence in Glow City because “the asphalt is better over there” (or something like that), Relay the rigger that never ceases to amaze with a sniper rifle, and Rougarou the sword-artist that ended the toxic mage.

We all met at a rave which was also in an powerful urban shaman lodge and we were asked to help Bylleigh(?) restore the “Flow”. After a bit of research we discovered the location that was giving him concern, a construction site which had become he new home for a toxic spirit of asphalt. Luckily the summoner was near by, unluckily I may have disrupted her hold on the creature just as she was shot… also around this time Rambozo shot a rocket at it… which was not very effective. Fortunately Delphi with some quick thinking and fast lying convinced the spirit to go else were.