That Font Ever Flowing

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That Font Ever Flowing
Date 2082-05-02 GM Archtmag Location Renton, Seattle Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Rogue Magicians
Charon Max "Dench" Britvic Hare Trigger Ace	Rug Seller Greg Blood Spirit
Casualties and losses
Charon burnt a point of edge.	Black Mage's sacrifice temple

Summary

Four runners try to find a missing girl. It's way worse than you think.

Background

There's been a bunch of orks going missing in Renton's less constructed areas. This has attracted some attention and runners are contacted by their fixers to make sure this isn't something really bad.

The Meet

The meet is somewhat simple. The mother of Ling, the kidnapped ork girl, is obviously distressed and trying to keep herself in check as one person after another turns up. Massive troll, a rabbit girl, completely cloaked figure asking questions -- you name it. The mother offers tea and tells what little she knows -- Ling worked a job after school to make ends meet, doesn't have any enemies and that's about it. Occasionally didn't take the bus to save money. Charon offers 500 Nuyen for the mother to keep her going until they find her daughter. The mother's insistent on not taking it, but Charon convinces her to keep it, since an upper class vampire like her doesn't really need it.

The Plan

The plan is to go track the route Ling took home, question local joints, maybe find the kidnapper. Failing that, use Hare as bait.

The Run

The run starts with Charon's car almost being stolen. She stares the two delinquent orks down and gives them one very generous chance to leave before they scratch her rims further. This happens. Later, two of the party arrive at the soy fast food joint Ling worked at. Charon forces her way to the front of the line, tells the people complaining to back off with a glare. She asks for the manager, heads to the back room and questions the man smoking cigars in the back as much as she can. Leveraging her Private Investigator license (which is fake), she gets a few answers, but unfortunately nothing useful. Failing to get much, she heads off with Ace while Hare and Dench head off to their homes to get equipment.

While tracking down the path Ling took northward towards her home, Charon spots a spirit while Ace notices a blood trail. Checking the trail, Ace notices it's heading in a direction while Charon sneaks into an abandoned building, aiming to get to the roof where the spirit's perched at. Ace follows after her and picks the lock on the roof access and Charon kills the watcher. The trail is followed and some store managers nearby are questioned once the trail runs cold, including a simsense shop, an abandoned building, some squatters and a rug seller. Various ends are tracked, such as a couple buying a big rug being tailed home and cruelly interrogating homeless people, but to no avail. All they get to know from a hungover woman is that Ling was taken by a big figure and the homeless woman hid out of fear.

Unfortunately, there is no progress made, so it's time for plan B. Hare is set to be bait as a somewhat defenseless-looking individual and the kidnapper takes the bait. The fight's over sooner than one can even imagine as Hare pumps the ork full of concussive shock. Pinned in an alleyway, he's interrogated by the most horrifying vampire he's ever seen while Dunch, high on Guts, holds him down and is blissfully immune to Charon's vampiric intimidation powers. The unrepentant mass murderer appears to not really have much to answer for and claims all of his victims to have died. Charon feels something is off about this, since the man is mundane, and drains his Essence down to the last drop for daring to attack Hare.

After this, they decide to go looking back at the stores and circle around the back. The rug store's back door is locked, but Charon Mist Forms under the door frame and wrests the barricade off from within. Upon closer inspection, this back room has a rug concealing a trap door which the team opens up, showing a ward for Charon's dual natured eyes. Given that there was a watcher spirit at the crime scene, she feels this is a lead once more. A drone flies down from Ace, checking the underground as Charon turns her dual-natured state off and sleazes past the ward. Screams come from deeper within, revealing the shop owner to be the cause of the murders instead. A black mage, summoning a blood spirit!

Dench sets his shield as a barricade in the doorway and Ace shoots a frag grenade in the cramped ritual room where the mage and his fellow spirit are completely eviscerated. Dench resists the shrapnel thanks to his shield without issue, but so does the blood spirit which is now free to rampage. Considering it's currently in its domain, the team decides not to fight it here and runs back while it consumes its past owner's body's remains. Once back on the surface level, the team prepares to fight the blood spirit as it zooms after them -- Charon's prepared and with State of Purity filling her body with malice, punches the blood spirit into a gory explosion in a single hit.

Aftermath

Unfortunately, the girl couldn't be saved. Regardless, Hare accepts the payment, having to pay her rent. Charon leaves it and gives the woman her condolences -- while Ling's dead and gone, the mage won't be sacrificing anyone else.

Rewards

• For everyone but Hare Trigger: 12 Karma (12 RVP)
• Hare Trigger: 11 Karma, 2000 Nuyen (12 RVP)
• 2 CDP

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Charon

I punched a fucking blood spirit. Feels bad for those folks in the ghettos somewhat, but hey. I punched a fucking blood spirit. Also I wasn't aware changelings came in rabbit flavor. What the hell?

Ace and Dench are cool. I owe 'em one for having my back.

Hare Trigger

Well, this one could have gone better. The fellow with the club almost got the drop on me, but thankfully the rest of the team was close enough to distract him. Thought that would have been the end of it, but the others had a hunch the trouble went deeper, so we followed up, and whaddya know? Fragging blood mages, spirits, creepy hidden murder rooms, all the drek straight out of the Trids. Mage got diced before the fragger could be more of an issue, but that blood spirit demonstrated some impressive resilience to grenades. At least, til Charon punched it. Good thing she was around, because my weapons were pretty much useless. Still, job done, though I can't help but feel like a rotten bitch for accepting payment when we couldn't save Ling...