The Call of the Monolith
| The Call of the Monolith | ||||||||||
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| Part of The Arrival | ||||||||||
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| Factions Involved | ||||||||||
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ShadowHaven Amelia Novak Followers of the Light West Coast Monolith | Rusted Stilettos | Monolith | ||||||||
| Astrid | Lone Sniper | Nuclear Spirit | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||||
| Lone Sniper | Nuclear Spirit | |||||||||
| This was an initiation run. | ||||||||||
Summary
In which Astrid takes a field trip to Glow City and gets a little taste of home in the process.
Background
Due to the events of The Arrival, Awakened all across Seattle have started having bad dreams which seemingly portend a nuclear apocalypse of unknown nature or origin. Several parties have been investigating, and uncovered ties to the Monolith, a toxic cult in the ruins of Chernobyl. Astrid, having come from the SOX, is no stranger to toxic cults, and having recently been to Seattle she too has started having the strange dream.
The Meet (Such As It IS)
Winding down from her busy day of druid-ing, Astrid prepares herself for bed at her home in the SSC wilderness. As she falls asleep, she dreams that she is lost and alone in the Metroplex - looking upwards, she sees a sky filled with yellowish thunderclouds, out of which a skull emitting a blinding light emerges before crashing into the heart of the city and incinerating everything. Waking up in a cold sweat, she makes some tea to calm herself down. Having heard of the mass dream phenomena taking place, she calls her "neighbor" (aka. the shaman living nearby who she is acquainted with) Eyes-Like-Eagle, who says that he has heard of the dreams but that they only seem to affect those in the city or who visit it. However he suspects it has something to do with "that blighted wasteland", as he refers to Glow City. Astrid has heard of the place and suspects that it may be connected as well, so she goes to her stone circle and makes contact with Boar, her mentor spirit, who serves as her spirit guide.
The Plan
Step 1: get into the Metroplex. On her last run Astrid crossed the boarder through the Carnation-Seattle Ranch which straddles the Redmond boarder with the SSC and has employees who occasionally smuggle people across it. As luck would have it, the same corrupt guard, Toby, is present when she arrives, and having previously struck up a rapport she is able to offer him the same 500 nuyen bribe to get her across without much of an issue.
Step 2: get to Glow City. Since Clyde isn't crazy enough to take her to a place like that, she is forced to walk there from the boarder. En-route she passes by the Body Mall and through 162s territory, where she draws the eye of a pair of ghouls who begin treating her like a piece of meat, both figuratively and literally. She attempts to ignore them, but soon finds them following her licking their chops; preparing to sunbeam them into the Seventh World, she is saved from starting shit with the gang by the timely arrival of Amelia Novak in boar form, who uses her Kiai power to frighten the pair off. Astrid however is more mentally resilient, and recognizes the boar for what it is (and a fellow follower of her mentor spirit) - tthe two tribals quickly strike up an amicable rapport. Amelia says that she too has had the dreams and felt Boar leading her to this place, but she is afraid to actually go to Glow City herself since she lacks protection from the radiation. She does however offer to escort Astrid the rest of the way there and make sure she doesn't run into anymore trouble. En-route, the pair pass by Kalanyr's Beaver Lake residence - Amelia warns Astrid never to go near the castle because a dragon lives there, and Astrid in turn tells Amelia about her tribe's legend about the story of the Dragonfall, when Feuerschwinge was shot down.
The two make their way to the outer perimeter of Glow City, where they find Chaplain Carmilla's manor; unwilling to proceed further, Amelia wishes Astrid good luck in her search for answers. Astrid first summons an air spirit to accompany her - asking that it aid her in protecting nature and agreeing to wear its talisman for a month in exchange for its service - then begins to approach the strange manor house. However she is spotted by a watcher spirit and subsequently confronted by a black-robed man who asks her business. She says that she is investigating the strange dreams, and the man brings her inside the manor to meet with the mistress of the house. Astrid naturally finds Carmilla rather suspicious, doubly so when the Chaplin says that she has need of an outsider to perform a task for her - listening and humoring the totally-not-toxic mage, Astrid learns that an "associate" of hers has "succumbed to the Glow" due to the dreams and run off into the heart of the city. She wants them recovered so she can learn from whatever insights they have gained without risking her own sanity. Astrid agrees to do so, but as soon as she is out of the manor promptly resolves to never see Carmilla again.
The Run
Now in Glow City and with knowledge that someone out there had some sort of insight into the nature of the dream which caused them to turn toxic, Astrid makes her way into the radioactive wasteland equipped with little more than basic survival equipment and her years of experience in a similarly hostile environment - she acquaints herself well, at least at first. Coming across a skeletal husk of a building, she spies a gargoyle on a perch which is in the early stages of succumbing to the toxic environment. Taking pity on the creature, she has her air spirit lift her up to its level and uses her animal handling skills to calm it, then decontaminates and heals the damage the radiation has done to it; the gargoyle coos appreciatively before, wisely, flying away from Glow City, and Astrid feels good about having helped cleanse the toxic taint.
Continuing on, she comes across a dead body and her scavenging instincts take over - appropriating the radiation-protecting cloak, she discovers that the dead man was shot in the head, and her spirit notices the reflection off the rifle scope just in time for her to attempt to dodge the resulting bullet. Unfortunately she doesn't dodge well enough, and ends up shot in the shoulder - her attempt to heal the resulting wound only seems to make it worse, so she decides to play dead. When the shooter - a Rusted Stilettos member - approaches to check her body, her air spirit makes quick work of them, engulfing them and knocking them unconscious. Astrid appropriates their gun as well, leaving them to recover in their own time, and goes to inspect the corpse, finding a commlink with a strange symbol etched on the side in uranium paint.
Injured, Astrid uses a Geiger counter to locate a relatively safe area to rest and recuperate from her wounds. Unfortunately she chooses a spot infested by amphora mites, and fails to notice their presence until she is bitten. Disoriented and hallucinating from the aisa-like toxin, she flees from the scene and stumbles out into the rad-wastes, wandering in a delirium and simply trying her best to follow the guidance of Boar. Soon, the first effects of radiation poisoning start to become apparent as she feels nauseous and starts to cough blood - she does her best to heal the damage to her body, but finds herself starting to succumb to her wounds and the environment. Just as she feels things start to go dark, she is found by a member of the Followers of the Light. Recognizing the symbol from the commlink she found, she hesitantly hands it over to the man, who offers to tends to her wounds and detoxifies her. Hesitant to accept help but knowing she will die if she doesn't, Astrid acquiesces.
Inquiring why the toxic cultist saved her life, Astrid is informed that the missing person she is seeking is a member of the Isotopes - followers of Kalanyr who were working with them to investigate the source of the strange dreams. The Followers are now worried that Kalanyr will blame them for what happened to his servant, so they want someone to find him and take him away from their territory. Astrid says that she will see to it, and bids the Follower good day. Now healed, she continues onward towards the center of Glow City, suffering under the increasingly strong radiation and accompanying punishing background count. Struggling through it, she summons her powerful water spirit ally Mannanan, offering to cleanse a polluted spring in his name if he aids her with recovering the Isotope, alive. Mannanan, and together the two manage to locate the erstwhile dragon simp with Boar's guidance. Finding him seemingly in the middle of a ritual to empower a nuclear spirit apparently possessing their body, Astrid prepares herself for combat and launches her ambush. With Mannanan's combat ability combined with her new gun, they are able to overcome the spirit-possessed Isotope, rendering him unconscious.
Making a makeshift sledge, Astrid drags the Isotope to the edge of Glow City and calls her fixer Rodney Goodman, managing to cut through the static to ask about a safehouse nearby - one thousand nuyen later and she's in an old squatter's apartment near the Crash Zone with her captive restrained by mage cuffs. Once the Isotope wakes up, Astrid questions him about what he was doing - he says that he has heard the call of the Monolith, and that he is neither the first nor will he be the last to do so. Telling the mage that what is coming is inevitable and the only way to survive is to serve, he says that not even Kalanyr can stop it, and lets slip that "those misguided fools up at Devil Lake" will soon serve the Monolith as well. Then he lapses into babbling in Ukrainian. Concerned about what he might be speaking of and seeking answers, Astrid calls Amelia to watch over him (who reluctantly agrees to do so) while she goes to pay a visit to the West Coast Monolith base.
At Devil Lake, Astrid manages to talk her way inside the WCM's fortified base, where she speaks to Bolt about the situation. The gang leader is irate since this is the second shadowrunner this week to visit him asking about the damn dreams and the Monolith, but manages to calm down enough for Astrid to explain things to him, saying that she has captured a toxic cultist who knows something about all this. However she doesn't trust the WCM due to the Isotope's words about how they will soon serve the Monolith, and Bolt's attitude doesn't help matters - deciding that passing on the warning is doing her duty , Astrid refuses to hand over the Followers of the Light who saved her life in Glow City, but does tell the WCM about Carmilla before being allowed to leave.
At a loss for what to do, Astrid seeks guidance from nature, going to a public park and seeking council with the Green Man, who appears to her as a moss-bearded old man that plays devil's advocate to her concerns - he says that there are people in the city who care about nature too, and that she should not judge them for not following her ways. She says that she does not trust Kalanyr or the WCM with the knowledge that the Isotope has about the coming threat, and seeks a third option, so the Green Man encourages her to trust in her instincts. As Astrid trusts spirits more than people, she speaks to her shamanic contacts and learns about the existence of Lord Emberrage and his grudge against toxics. Bringing the fire spirit the body of a fresh stag she hunted to immolate, she makes peaceful(?) contact and tells him her tale. Emberrage agrees to take custody of the Isotope in order to find out what he has learned from his contact with the Monolith (and thus how to better combat the coming threat).
Aftermath
Returning to her stone circle, Astrid once again communes with Boar, who congratulates her on her resilience and teaches her the art of cleansing. She remains troubled by the implications of what she has heard and the continuing dreams however, and resolves to do more to stop the Monolith (and acquire a dreamcatcher from her shaman friends).
Rewards
5 karma
20 CDP
Cloak w/ R6 Radiation Protection + M1 Garand w/ Custom Look, Extended Clip, Retractable Bayonet & Sling @ gear reward prices
IG1 discount
Optional Contact: Amelia Novak (C1/L3 Boar Adept) - 3 RVP/6 CDP
Optional Contact: Lord Emberrage (C5/L1 Fire Spirit) - 5 RVP/10 CDP
Optional Quality: School of Hard Knocks @ chargen price
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
"Well it seems that my purpose here is revealed to me...The nature is at stakes and i need to protect it whatever the cost may be."