The book of a dragon

The book of a dragon
Date 2083-03-04 GM KaterSalem Location Chimsee Bavaria AGS Status Threat Level: Deadly
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Catolic Church
Swerve La Rapide Triple Trouble Bannerette Amélia Bezerra	4xF9 Spirit CritterBasilisk Catlic Guard Catlic Mage Guard Astral Priest Mage Drone Swarm
Casualties and losses
	4xF9 Spirit, Basilisk, Catlic Guard, Catlic Mage, Guard, Drone Swarm

Summary

The Runners are ordered by Nebelherr to steal a book owned by the Catholic Church. The runners are able to do this successfully, but in the course of the run they are ascened by a priest who also looks through their masks.

Background

Through his spies in the Catholic Church, Nebelherr obtains the recordings of Swerve's interrogation and the items confiscated by the Catholic Church. He decides to use Swerve to get his old diary, which is also a powerful ritual focus and is still bound to him. This book is located in an old bunker of the Catholic Church on the neighboring island (Fraueninsel) to his residence (Herreninsel). It is important to Nebelherr to divert suspicion from himself, which is why he is extremely interested in Swerve and her chamberlains being recognized by the Catholic Church. He hopes that the Catholics will not think so far and suspect him behind the action. Therefore, the book is not delivered to him on the Herreninsel but first brought via detours to the Rhine Ruhr megaplex. Other dragons should also fall under the suspicion of having something against Catholics. Furthermore, he saw the last movie of Triple Trouble and wanted to see TT in person. There acting performances were very good in the film, unfortunately the others were not.

The Meet

Swerve has a conversation with Amelie who tells her that there is a request from an unknown contact to get in touch with her. Swerve agrees to make a connection via a burner. She receives a video of her interrogation by the Catholics and an offer to get her old stuff back. When she refuses, the contact, who calls himself Mr. Nebel, becomes a bit more explicit and says that he would have no more use for the video and that it could well find its way into the public domain. Swerve then agrees and is supposed to anaschieren two more runners. Mr. Nebel gives to understand that he contributes also still another fourth Runner which he has already selected. The meeting is to take place at the airport (SeaTAc) in two days. Swerve can convince La Rapide and Bannerette to support them. After a short investigation Swerve also finds out that the abbreviation Herr Nebel is used by the dragon Nebelherr.

TT receives a call from Ace Powers who says that an agent from DeMeKo has asked for her but not for acting but for a run. Ace makes it clear that he is not thrilled about it because he is afraid to lose TT as an actress but he wanted to give her a fair offer. TT accepts the offer and goes to the meeting at the airport to put on a show which attracts a larger crowd. But she can escape the masses by dressing up in the bathroom. The meeting takes place in a snack bar where Johnson Amélia Bezerra is already waiting for the runners. She explains the task of the run: get the book from the old bunker and bring it to an agreed place in a village on the edge of the lake. At the moment there are few guards and staff of the Catholics on site because a conference is taking place in Munich. The Runners agree and Amélia Bezerra equips them with DeMeKo SINs to act as bodyguards through the controls and fly them on her private jet to the vicinity of Chimsee.

The Plan

The runners get access to a motor boat and are then left to their own devices. La Rapide makes a call to Tundra and has Tundra check the Fraueninsel thoroughly. Tundra can help with some information and plans from the monastery. The piece of forest in which the bunker is supposed to be located seems to be quite unprotected. Unfortunately, she overlooks the fact that messages regularly go from an offline server to the host of the Catholics. The team then decides to go to a small island between Fraueninsel and Herreninsel and observe the situation from there. You can spot a few watchers as well as a few guards patrolling. They then decide to secretly cross over and advance to the bunker with the help of camouflage magic.

The Run

They manage to penetrate the area unseen and pick the lock to the bunker. The bunker has a slight negative pressure, opening the door is correspondingly difficult and triggers an alarm due to the pressure equalization. The background radiation in the bunker is quite high. Swerve summons a very powerful fire spirit. The team has to solve a bible puzzle in the first room, which they succeed after a few failures and triggered traps. They then penetrate into a room in which many books are stored and 4 ghosts are on guard. A confrontation ensues which the runners can decide for themselves. La Rapid finds the book in a case protected with bulletproof glass. She cuts open the glass with her mono whip and takes the book. None of the runners can decipher the letters on the book. The runners find another door in the facility and discover an old dusty office space with old monitors and an adjacent server room with ancient hardware that is still powered. When Swerve shows signs of wanting to destroy the servers, a child in the shape of an angel appears on one of the screens and begs to be spared. The runners ask if there is a way to free the AI and receive a drawing from the AI describing which elements to remove from the server room to free it. Swerve calls Tundra and with her help she manages to remove the hardware elements. On the way out, the Runners encounter the facility's security forces, who have already moved into position after being alerted by the pressure equalization alarm. A priest in the astral room is also on the scene. He askens the runners and the fire spirit to try to enter the bunker to summon a large spirit. But he is driven away by a suddenly appearing powerful spirit. Together, the runners manage to overpower the guards and their critters and drones. They capture one of the guards and drag him onto their boat. Swerve uses her magic power to get into the guard's mind to learn as much as possible about the book. However, she can only find out a little because the guard himself knows nothing. La Rapid then takes care of the guard. When La Rapide wants to open the book to take pictures of it, she hears a voice in her head telling her to keep the book closed. After briefly askening the book, which reveals that it is an F10 Ritual Focus with a dragon signature, La Rapide and Swerve let go of the book. The Runners bring the book to the agreed location where it is picked up by another team to lead the trail into the Rhein Ruhr megaplex. The runners are taken by Amélia to Nebelherr's estate on Herreninsel.

Aftermath

While the other runners have to wait for the host at a well-set table (including the best wines and blood for the infected) in the mansion, Swerve is allowed to go to the basement of the complex and wait in a large swimming pool for the arrival of Nebelherr. Nebelherr dives through a tunnel underwater into the pool and has a "nice" conversation with Swerve. He leaves her the missing equipment and assures her that he will make the records of Swerve's interrogation and all traces in the matrix disappear. Then he asks for a normal sized towel and when Swerve turns around he stands in front of her in human form. After dressing for the occasion and making the "request" that he would like to have the AI that rescued the runners from the bunker, he escorts Swerve upstairs. The Runners have a pleasant evening with Nebelherr. TT can exchange autographs with Nebelherr. Nebelherr also asks if TT can imagine working on a DeMeKo production. Before the Runners are seen off by Nebelherr, he makes it clear to Swerve that he considers them an asset from now on because of their good service. He warns the Runners not to reveal his involvement in the theft should the Catholic Church come knocking.

Nebelherr managed to conceal the theft. Currently, the Catholics believe that the culprit has golden scales and that the Runners were hired by S-K. The Catholics will be able to identify the runners over time, and a response from the Catholic Church is expected.

Rewards

1,25 Time Multy:

• 20.000 Nuyen (10 RVP)
• 10 Karma (10 RVP)
• 12 CDP (5 RVP)

Optional (taking from RVP above):

• Amélia Bezerra (10/2) for 11 RVP

Swerve:

• have to take Amélia Bezerra
• can reduce phobia of Catholic Agents/Orgs, from Severe to Moderate for 5 RVP
• gets back her missing non-magical things that were in possession of the Catholic Church

La Rapide:

• Perceptive II (5 RVP)

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

la Rapide

Well, that was terrifying. Not sure how well it would have gone for me without the drugs, but I think it was a good thing that Swerve and I took them. Thankfully I kept enough control to not open the book. I'm sure that the dragon wouldn't have been in such a good mood if I did. Speaking off, it sure was an experience when the guts wore off and I realized how fucking dragged we could have been while eating dinner with a fucking dragon. I just hope this works out for Swerve. Being so heavily involved with dragons and drakes can't end well.