Recruiting For The Skeleton War

Recruiting For The Skeleton War
Part of Hail To The Pumpking
Date 2082-10-03 GM Asmodeus Location Sophocles, Redmond Barrens Status Threat Level: Low
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	Demoncallers, Starscreamers	Merlins, Nuclear Warlocks of Salvation
Sweetie Sinful Dr.Trauma Zombie Tahki	Pump King Jack Mack and Hack Zombie Process Camilla Irene Kenneth "Flamesaw" Murphy Mindy Dahnerhardt Katherine Curran Dante Palmer Carolina Petrovski The Weekender Rev. Toby Newton
Casualties and losses
None	None

Summary

The King is back! Halloween is just around the corner, and Pump King Jack has big plans to spread the joy of terror (with candy!) to all the denizens of the Sophocles area. He needs help getting it all set up however, so he has called on this band of runners to lay the groundwork for his brilliant plan...

Background

Pump King Jack was a force of terror and fear in the community of Sophocles, until he was banished by a powerful concerned citizen by the name of Babylon. He has since had a change of heart, and now wants to bring the thrill of Halloween back to Sophocles, and all those looking for a little chill up the spine. He says he's a new spirit; even hints that he is the true spirit of Halloween. Only time will tell as Jack puts his plans into action, with a timetable expiring on All Hallow's Eve...

The Meet

The meet takes place in the sewers below Sophocles, at an old scream park that Jack used to haunt in his day. Jack is excited to see the crew, and quickly goes into his plans to make Halloween a memorable event. His needs are very specific: bring me candy, bring me bodies, and bring me awakened who are not squeamish working with the dead. He has no idea where these things might be found, but trusts in the runners abilities and contacts to find what he wants. Not really seeing any reason to deny Jack his desires, the team quickly agrees. They then head out to acquire the necessary ingredients to Jacks big plan.

The Run

Suspecting that the candy will be the easiest thing to acquire, Dr.Trauma calls Rev. Toby Newton, asking for a potential sweet supplier who is willing to swing a deal. The Reverend is happy to help, identifying a potential contact at a local Stuffer Shack, who is happy to unload several cases of lime candy that is close to it's expiration date. Dr.Trauma quickly agrees, as the quality of the candy seems to be the least of their concerns.

Zombie has a lead on a potential source of bodies, paying a visit to the somewhat unstable Mindy Dahnerhardt. After some sensual innuendo, and even more sensual negotiation they manage to convince Mindy to hand over several intact corpses. Promising to visit again, Zombie returns to the group, with a sly smugness to their expression.

Sweetie Sinful just happens to know a guy, by the name of Zombie Process, that could prove a valuable lead for awakened individuals. Calling him up, she explains the situation. Zombie Process agrees, but only if Sweetie can provide someone capable of punching his teeth in, in an underground fight club scene. Zombie immediately offers the opportunity to fight Mack and Hack, as a potential twofer. Zombie Process agrees, and sets up a location for the fight to take place. At the fight club, the ring contains three opponents; Mack, Zombie Process, and a newcomer introduced by Kenneth "Flamesaw" Murphy by the name of Irene. Irene, dressed in her standard panda shirt powers up, as the Adept that she is and quickly takes the lead against her two opponents. Mack is definitely not looking so hot, and after two rounds, is almost done for. Tahki takes the opportunity to cast a force 12 Trid Phantasm, inspiring the crowd and confusing Mack's opponents. Declared the winner, Mack steps out of the ring, with a nod to the runners, while Zombie Process grudgingly give up the number to a potential necromage. Sweetie makes the call, and convicens the former member of the Nuclear Warlocks of Salvation to at least consider the job.

Deciding that now would be a great time to talk to The Weekender, the team heads out to a remote bar where they are said to hangout on the weekend. Entering the bar after using Incubus Shroud to sway the bouncers, [{Zombie]] and crew enter to discover one bartender and two patrons. One of the patrons is obviously The Weekender, The other patron, unrecognized by the runners is one Carolina Petrovski, political debutante and Humanis club leader, calmly sipping her whiskey and obviously annoyed by the intrusion. Zombie gets it into their head that their thirsty, and tries swiping the bottle from Carolina. She immediately responds by shooting Zombie in the genitals, dropping them to the ground, writhing in agony. The Weekender is amused by this, and offers to accept Jack's proposal is she can continue to abuse Zombie. The team agrees, and Dr.Trauma makes it even easier, by slapping a prepped Dehydration spell onto the downed runner. The screen fades to black, as the abuse continues, fading back in with the successful team riding away, with individual bottles of whiskey from Carolina to show her amusement.

Tahki calls her talismonger, [[Katherine Curran] and requests for a potential contact for more mages. Katherine is happy to help, offering up a number to the Merlins, a hermetic group that has strong ties to Finnigan Family. Sweetie makes the call, and after some social fumbling, manages to convince them to send a contingent to speak with Jack, and decide whether they can work with him and the other mages. Having completed the necessary steps, the contact Jack, who tells them to check back in with him the next day.

The Run, Continued

The next day, the runners get a panicked call from Pump King Jack, stating that they are needed immediately at his base of operations to help defuse the situation. The runners head out immediately, arriving to a desolate wasteland of destruction above Jack's sewers, suggesting a fierce battle has taken place. Calling ahead to see if things are alright to continue, they receive the go ahead and head down. Jack explains that things were fine for about three hours, but the mages came to "creative differences" and started fighting. He hopes that the runners will be able to talk them down, and get them back on track. Zombie and Dr.Trauma head of to speak with Camilla, while Sweetie and Tahki, head of to speak with the Merlins.

Sweetie manages to approach Camilla without incident, who is seated on a grandiose bone throne, surrounded by several downed Merlins. Explaining that she has no time for idiots, Camilla flatly refuses to work with them. Zombie uses their considerable social talents to talk Camilla into at least meeting with the Merlins to discuss terms, while Dr.Trauma tends the wounded. Meanwhile Sweetie encounters the prideful Merlins, who also refuse to continue working with their hated opponent. Sweetie is quite verbose, offering an alternative to violence, to which the Merlins grudgingly agree. Finally able to meet without killing each other, the mages finally relent, agreeing to work together for the advancement of necrotic knowledge. Relieved that the potential nightmare has been at the very least pushed back a while, the team heads back to Jack to claim their just rewards.

Aftermath

Jack is overjoyed at the results, and happily hands over credsticks to the runners. Zombie and Tahki offer to help him further as he needs, and Jack quickly takes them up on the offer, suggesting that the "cause' needs roughly 20,000 reagents to be successful. The team then departs, unaware of what the have actually done...

Rewards

2,000 Nuyen

1 Karma

2 CDP

1 Starscreamers Reputation

For Zombie: High Pain Tolerance 1 @ Chargen Price

For Everyone Else: 7 more Karma

Tahki's Initiation Ordeal

Game Quotes

Asmodeus: Zombie, roll Negotiation for CBT. You get a +2 because it's beneficial for the Weekender.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Tahki

"Jack's back! I couldn't be happier. I was afraid that him being banished was going to end the fun, but apparently he managed to reform his nature and become the Spirit of Halloween. Now he's looking to spread the joy of terror, and he's asked me and a few others to help him do it. What's the big deal? An army of zombies marching through the streets of Sophocles, that's what. It's gonna be a blast!"

Zombie

"Fuck. Jack's changed, man. Like it's definitely him and that's real wiz but the guy... he's missing that spark. He's too restrained. Seriously, he wants to do one night and dip out for the rest of the year? What happened to Halloween every day? And all this drek about non-violence, I mean come on. We're gonna avoid killing cops? On HALLOWEEN? I don't know what the hell happened to Jack but this ain't the spirit I signed on with. If he can't get it together... let's just say someone else is gonna have to take the initiative."