Screech

Screech

Media Vulture
Sneaky Social Adept
Source: the rats that live in your walls
Discord	@discogoblin#9660
Reddit	[1]
Metatype	Koborokuru
Street Cred	0
Notoriety	0
Public Awareness	0
CDP	6
D.O.B.	5/3/2063
Age	22
Folder	[2]
Priority	Metatype - B Attributes - C Magic/Resonance - D Skills - A Resources - E
#Max IGs/Ascension	0
# Optional Infected powers allowed	0
Essence(Current/Max):	6/12
# Optional Drake powers available	Major Powers:0 or Minor Powers:0

Character Information

Summary

Seattle's NUMBER ONE source for INDEPENDENT journalism, bringing the people the UGLY TRUTH, 24/7!!! Screech is a ravenous, cannibal Gnawer- and worse- and honest media, hellbent on making a name for herself by sticking a claw in the Big 10's eye. She runs because well... truth doesn't pay the bills, and her audience goes crazy for pulpy true crime.

Goals

- EXPOSE the corruption of the corporate ruling class!

- BROADCAST her message to the people of the world!

- COPE with her ravenous hunger for bones!

- PAY her overdue rent!

Background

Cadence Conway: an indie news star, known for her daring, on-the-scene broadcasts and deep undercover exposes. She burst onto the scene with her coverage of corruption in Knight Errant juvenile court systems, purposely getting arrested to sneak recording gear into the jail. After that came her groundbreaking documentary on an ecofascist policlub in Snohomish, featuring a member of Seattle's city council admitting to campaign finance fraud on tape. By then big names were starting to notice, and Cadence got signed to Reverb News: a massively successful, independent outfit that she had looked up to since she was a kid. She dropped out of college and realized her dream of becoming a full time media, but as her company shifted towards mass-market appeal the relationship between the two soured. Cadence leaned harder into fringe stories ignoring the objections of her editors, gradually whittling her audience down to a small group of NeoA diehards. Then, the intrepid reporter poked the bear.

While researching a string of missing persons in the Barrens, she stumbled into an enormous conspiracy: a Tamanous organ legging operation that reached all the way to the corporate council. This wasn't some petty, street level corruption, but a billion nuyen industry of dead bodies and 'ware. Tamanous were smart, organized and ruthless, known for making examples out of snitches. Cadence said publish the story, damn the risk! Reverb was decidedly less gung-ho. When faced with the potential for violent retribution, the company threw its employee to the wolves. They fed her location to a Tamanous hitman, washed their hands of the whole affair, and quietly replaced her time slot that night with a nice, inoffensive cooking show. Cadence was grabbed on the way to her apartment by a hulking, slavering loup garou, and her story would've ended there if not for the actions of a single bold stranger.

This fierce bystander charged the loup garou armed with only a tire iron, giving Cadence a chance to tear free and escape down a narrow side alley. Her savior's warcry cut off abruptly as the garou turned its rage upon them, tearing the hero to chunks of viscera splattered down the rain-soaked gutter. Cadence called in every favor she had to cover her tracks and get to a ripperdoc, eventually being saved by an old acquaintance from way back in the Snohomish days. Bianka Dreschler, a seasoned fixer, responded to the crisis as best she could, but even as she arranged for an ambulance she knew that it was too late. Cadence succumbed to her wounds at the ripper's. Then, she got back up again. Her skin turned pallid, her hair fell out, and her molars grew into crushing vices. Then the ripper tossed a dead patient in the room, and she devoured the body bones and all.

It's been busy nights as of late for the reanimated media. Assets seized, SIN burned, and with medical debt nipping at her heels, she really didn't have much of a choice in accepting Bianka's offer of merc work. It's a temporary thing she tells herself, over and over again. She may have lost once but she's not down and out. Cadence Conway always gets the scoop. With a little bit of luck she can start a new platform, for real this time, without corporate constraints, then she'll drive a stake into the heart of this whole sordid conspiracy. She'll drag it out into the light even if it means burning herself up in the process.

Narrative Significant Qualities

Positive

Rat Queen (Animal Empathy, Infected: Gnawer): Screech is a fledgling strain 2 infected with all of the problems that entails. On the upside, she can now manipulate her Qi, and has a strange affinity for creatures of the night.

Beat Reporter (Online Fame, School of Hard Knocks, Linguist): Screech has never shied away from putting herself in the field. She knows the city like the back of her hand, and is already amassing a new online following for her coverage of Seattle's sordid underground. Whether this fame is good for her running career remains to be seen.

Negative

Muckraker (Data Liberator, Electronic Witness, PSC IV: Nosy): For better or worse (usually worse), Screech truly believes in her mission to publish nothing but the truth. Her infection has only increased her fervor, and she will happily expose morally dubious practices even if it means screwing over a client. She also likes to film her jobs- blurring the faces of her team, of course- and publishes them in the form of videos on her exclusive subscription feed.

Run History

Name	GM	Metaplot	Threat	Date of Run
Green Gold in the Ashes	LHOG		High	15 August 2085
What I do for a Paycheck	PatGriffin		Medium	21 September 2082
On Angel's Wings	PatGriffin	Call of the Shadows	Spicy High	17 September 2082

Affiliations

Contacts

Contact	Connection	Loyalty	Archetype	Profession	Aspects	Chips
News Van Dan	3	3	Legwork	Guerilla Reporter (Infobroker)	Infobroker, Conspiracy Theorist, Drone Operator, Hacktivist	Even
Bianka Dreschler	3	3	Fixer	Info-Broker	Chaos Magic Magician, Anarchist, Paracritter Lover, Linguist	Even
Zigzag	1	2	Service	Driver/Organlegger	Ghoul Organlegger, Actually a Good Driver, Dead Drop, Infected Networker	Even

Enemies

Tamanous: This time around it's personal. Screech hasn't given up the goal of exposing Tamanous's smuggling ring, but will have to restart from square one after her own editor burned her research.

In Character Information

Matrix Search Table

Threshold	Result
1	It's easy to find the website for Chatterbox News, as the links have been spammed across half the Emerald City. All of her published articles are available free of charge, with a subscription-tier system for her "documentaries" keeping the whole thing afloat.
3	It's not too hard to connect Screech's writing style to the microcelebrity Cadence Conway. The interesting thing is that- according to the Knight Errant- Conway died several weeks ago due to a 'cyberpsychosis event'. Details on the incident are shaky, at best.
6	The whole thing stinks of a botched hit job. Two unnamed victims were left on the pavement , both with extensive bite marks on their bodies. The sheer brutality makes it likely that it was meant as an example to others. Whatever the media was doing before then must've ruffled some feathers.

Shadow Community Table

Threshold	Result
1	"Wasn't that some rockerboy back in the 70's? Had the hair like a skunk?"
3	"The shifty little adept with the snaggletooth? Yeah, I've seen her. Asks a lot of questions."
5	"A journalist, a bad luck charm if ever there was one. She's always recording through that bat of hers, you know? I heard she sells the footage online."

Assensing Table

Threshold	Result
1	A worryingly dark, sickly aura that is nonetheless pulsing with zeal. She seems confident and driven, fixated on her goals to the point of obsession.
2	Such dense Qi can only belong to an adept, but it seems rough and unrefined. No cyberware implants at all.
3	Likely infected with HMHVV. Her aura shows signs of malnourishment and old wounds that haven't fully healed.
4	Magic 4, Essence 5. She's a gnawer, a strain 2 manifestation found only in dwarves.
5	No other astral signatures on her, and her strain is resistant to conventional disease. Unsurprisingly, not a technomancer.

SINs

Kayla McKenna, R4 Burner: Look, it's all she could afford.

Character Plot Hooks

Here are characteristics of the character that GMs may take advantage of to add complications to runs, or to otherwise use when in use. If you want to use them in unrelated to runs, please ask first.

Aspect	Information	Related Run(s)
Aspect 1
Aspect 2
Aspect 3
Aspect 4
Aspect 5