Blue Grass and Red Necks
| Blue Grass and Red Necks | ||||||||||
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 Elmer Coomer | ||||||||||
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| Factions Involved | ||||||||||
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ShadowHaven Maryann Clay John Hartfield Halflight | Clay Family | Coomer Family | ||||||||
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Nearl No Significant Harassment Thunder |
Character1 Character2 | |||||||||
Summary
Maryann Clay & Bobby Coomer sweethearts from feuding families. Maryann wants fame and fortune as a bluegrass musician and Bobby wants to live and work in nature. Based on several years of visions as a Seer Maryann tries to manipulate events such that they are married by their old pastor with her grandmother's wedding ring before moving to Seattle; her with an agent and some bookings and he with a job in Snohomish.
The runners ignore a veritable banquet of red herrings and get them married by Thunder with a bit of yarn in a Quaker ceremony. As a consequence they do not encounter the shadowrunners hired by the Clays and the Coomers nor the Clay moonshine still and Coomer marijuana grow-op. Similarly they do do not calm the restless graves in the Ginter cemetery and acquire the cooperation of Rev. Colson for a marriage.
Background
Maryann Clay is an astounding banjo player and Bobby Coomer is a competent guitar player. Upon graduating from high school they moved to Lexington to attend the school of music at the University of Kentucky. The soon meet Jane Janney a whiz Bass player and form a bluegrass trio. Jane is a birthright member of the Religious Society of Friends (aka Quakers). Over time Bobby and Maryann drift away from their original church and attend meeting with Jane. Maryann is ambitious and desires fame and fortune and begins experiencing visions of marriage and a performance in Seattle along with horrifying visions of...other outcomes. The three begin to concoct a plan to try to make the happy outcomes occur rather than the bloody alternatives. They prepare files to be left on two phones for the two shadowy figures that recur in her visions: a huge troll with a bow and a figure surrounded by corpse like spirits drinking .... something. They leave a trail of clues through the Daniel Boone National Forest to the Pioneer Weapons Wildlife Management Area for "The Troll of My Dreams". They leave a trail of clues leading to the Ginter Cemetery for "The Drinker". After arranging a cabin reservation for the future runners they go back to practicing.
The Meet
The Johnson, John Hartfield is waiting at Cherry's Shakes with two burner commlinks, one for The Troll of My Dreams and other for The Drinker. He expresses anxiety seeing the Thunder and Nearl come through the door and surprise followed by dismay when NSH follows. Thunder receives the first commlink and, after some slight hesitation, gives the second to Nearl with an apologetic look towards NSH. Hartfield explains his situation and offers 15,000 Nuyen for the runners to locate the couple and ensure that they are married. If they can do it within a week he would pay an extra 1,000 and throw it a case of world class bourbon whiskey. Additionally the team was told that maryann had reserved a cabin for them 19 months previously. The runners gave a preliminary acceptance of the terms, Mr. Johnson explains his concern - Maryann is a Seer trying to manipulate their actions to make her visions come true. A very dangerous idea in his view. He then urges the runners to utilize their normal professional judgement in conducting the investigation.
Legwork Phase One
An examination of metadata of the commlink files showed that they were all created during a two week period 19 months previously. The cabin was reserved for 2 at same time. Matrix searches on the couple provided information on education, awards and performances.
Travel
No flight plan filed, a stealth flight. Careful piloting using terrain features to avoid radar coverage. Three international border crossings without a radar ping.
The Cabin
The team thoroughly examines the cabin and environs. The cabin is empty but has no security measures other than a mechanical lock on the front door. Nearl spots a forest spirit but it is more than a kilometer away where a path from the cabin leads into the forest. Nearl and Thunder spend the night in the cabin with Nearl taking first watch. NSH berths the team's mobile base at the Longbow Marina about 6 kilometers away.
The Plan
The plan is - get more information through interviewing locals. Nearl & Thunder pose as a couple thinking about locating to the country. They allegedly met Maryann and Bobby about 19 months ago that interaction impressed them. They want to know about them...Get information to determine where they are hiding ... friends, favorite locations et cetera. NSH deploys a flyspy for drone support, sets up shared comms, and prepares for matrix support as needed. Nearl and Thunder plan their interviews. First the couple's pastor, then the golf course for lunch followed by the bowling alley in Frenchburg
Legwork Phase Two
The couple travel to the Salt Lick Church of God to interview the pastor, Charles Colson. They arrive just in time for the afternoon service. A skilled speaker the pastor ends a rousing 20 minute sermon with a Move The Spirit (Opium Den) spell. The congregation doesn't want to resist. Nearl does and is successful. Thunder fails to resist and his spirit is moved.
The couple linger in the rear pews after the service to interview the pastor. The pastor, having seen the troll's face lifted towards the sky in ecstasy by his sermon, gravitates towards Thunder. Thunder engages as a fellow fan of the outdoor life and soon arranges times for a bow hunting trip and some fishing for crappie & bluegill. When the conversation turns to Maryann the pastor explained that when the couple left for college they'd drifted away from the Church of God and only attended when home for visits. Instead they'd begun worshiping with a meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, known colloquially as Quakers. This led to a brief discussion of a very large ecumenical conference being held at a nearby religious center.
Next on the agenda was lunch at the Carrington Green golf course, a small 9-hole public course run by the county. The couple used the ecumenical conference as an opportunity to chat up Sarah the waitress. She tells them about how big it is and how much she appreciates the extra tips. She's partly useful as an information source about the couple. She's somewhat dismissive of Maryann but is effusive in her praise of Bobby. A veritable dreamboat.
After a brief discussion the team decides to go to the Four Season's Christian Center, site of the Ecumenical Conference to look for family members to talk with. On the material plane the center is bustling with a county fair atmosphere with a large number of locals in attendance in addition to the delegates. On the astral plane the center is a dazzling array of aspected micro domains. The permanent facilities have a background count of 3. The clusters of tents a count of 2. There are few spirits but quite a few projecting magicians.
The team uses tech to find family members starting with Maryann's photo. NSH used her sensor arrays along with video feeds from Thunder and Nearl to photograph and geolocate everyone outside a building during a brief period of time. Using facial recognition software they identified the 50 faces most likely to be related to Maryann. The geolocations showed an obvious cluster of a dozen or so people.
The team quickly identifies the Clay Family patriarch, William Clay and approach to strike up a conversation. As might be suspected he's hostile about Bobby and disappointed with Maryann. Although reluctant to speak with the runners he warms up considerably when asked 'who is Maryann's best girlfriend?' Maryann's best girlfriend (and bass player in their bluegrass trio) is the Quaker girl that tries to keep Maryann grounded.
The Run
Once the team realizes that Maryanne and Bobby are probably hiding with the Society of Friends delegation to the Ecumenical Conference the run boils down to talking to a staff person to locate the Quakers. Upon entering the meeting, Thunder and Nearl are chided by a mildly disappointed Maryann for not bringing the ring or the pastor. The couple are married in a quick ceremony by Thunder with the bride given away by Nearl and witnessed by the Quaker congregation and a flyspy drone's sensor array. NSH then made a quick flight to pick up the wedding party to drop off at the Salt Lick Church of God to meet the Pastor.
Aftermath
After depositing the newlyweds and collecting their well earned rewards, the runners spend the next week socializing and partying. Thunder, having found Rev. Colson simpatico spent most of the week bow hunting and fishing with Bobby and the Rev. NSH was bored to tears the first day or so then got hooked up with a couple of young bootleggers with rigged muscle cars. Turns out that high speeds and curvy mountain roads are an exciting combination. Nearl's experience wasn't quite as enjoyable. They were deluged by a torrent of real estate agents offering ranch houses, brick houses, frame houses, houses with barns, houses without barns ... Everyone wants to sell a house to that cute couple (an elf and a troll...just delicious). Maryann and Bobby move to Seattle shortly after the runners return.
Rewards
16,000 Nuyen [Base + Time Bonus] (8 RVP)
8 Karma (8 RVP)
2 CDP (Base)
+5 Faction: The Religious Society of Friends (Hicksite)
+2 Faction: Black Lodge (Nearl)
1 case of Hartfield Bourbon Whiskey
Optional: Maryann Clay C6 L1 (6 RVP)
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Nearl
Młynarz, what are you thinking...? Getting out of the city while the heat dies down, sure. But this is... in the woods. Hmm. Well, at the very least, the break was nice. The short... ad-lib on my part turned out to work quite well for us. I hope I didn't put thunder in too much of a situation, being on the spot like that. He seemed to like the sermons, though. Heh. Sermons. W-well, ahem. I wonder if Iron would be appreciative of how well kept I made myself? I do... I do think that I want to focus more on making myself a solid team player. A respectable magi. Perhaps working with Młynarz really is the right thing to do... I haven't heard from her in so long... so...
Thunder
What a wonderful countryside! And what complicated families!! I guess all families are complicated, but hating each other that you want to kill each other is different from actually doing it, which those families seem to do regularly. This romance turned out with a happy ending as far as I can tell, so we can feel proud we managed to prevent blood-shed. Performing a wedding ceremony was an honorable new experience. I'll keep an extra eye on those love-birds from now on.