The Price of Loneliness
| The Price of Loneliness | |||||||||
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| Part of All Hallows in The Haven | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
| ShadowHaven | Major Corp | ||||||||
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Augur Colcannon FW-6 Ophidia |
Character1 Character2 | ||||||||
Summary
Background
As the All Hallows event begins, your phone lights up with a contact from your Johnson - the Scavenger hunt is on...
The Meet
Each of their commlinks light up from their Fixer - they've been chosen for the first scavenger hunt team. Amid the magical and occult vibe of the season, they are to be the first to seek the Bell, the Book, and the Candle - and the first run is to find the Candle.
The team ends up across the street from the Hilton-Horizon Seattle, currently under renovations, where a member of the Spectres has to walk them through the idea that the place is a haunted house, not a murder spree - and at the end of it, in the basement, the candle for their scavenger hunt.
Legwork
The Run
First Floor
The team makes their way into the first floor, getting startled by one of the first 'haunted' anthrodrones as they begin the 'haunted house'. Lumi manages to spot that, whatever these drones where before being co-opted by the spectures. She manages to spot the blunted hand razors on the edge of the 'wraiths's hands. Lumi manages to navigate the "shadow maze" and get them to the stairs to the second floor down.
Second Floor
The second floor coming down is done in the style of a haunted Carnival, with the horror-drones clad in clown make up and getting incredibly close to each of them before twitching back away. The various 'carnival games' seem to be made of 'body parts', though the runners don't realize they are drones with synthskin.
Third Floor
The third floor is an apparent zombie apocalypse, with zombie drones augmented by an AR overlay for a horde besides them.
Fourth Floor
The fourth floor is seemingly empty - save for a ring of candles around a server terminal device. Ophidia and Augur sense a small build up of magic here, but the team disregards it and proceeds. As they take the candles, they all sense the gathered magic 'pop'. Almost instantly, the haunted house ambiance vanishes, replaced by sharp edged static - they hear over the mic the Spectre rigger being attacked by... something... and collapsing, and the sound of sobbing amid the static.
The Exit
The team makes their way up the stairwell, hearing "WHERE IS HE?" repeated over and over throughout the static as well as something that sounds like the number 3, repeated over and over. Only Lumi is able to hear the soft whisper of a woman's voice whispering to herself, over and over "My Name is ... three. My name is three... my name is WHERE IS H-... three..."
When they reach the second floor, the team begins to experience AR hallucinations of a face screaming out from the static, which Lumi is able to recall is likely beloning to "B3" a former novahot decker who died on a run and has become something of a urban legend under the name Lonely Three.
When they reach the first floor, however, the maze slows them down enough for some of the anthrodrones to catch up to them. Augur and Ophidia are injured in the fight, but Colcannon and Lumi managed to bring them down before they can move in for the kill - all while the strange AR being "Lonely Three" keeps screaming at them from the static about how they left her behind.
When they finally make it out, they find the Spectre kid hunched over a smoking RCC, with the display on the RCC reading:
"IAMTHREE... IAMTHREE... IAMTHREE... I AM... THREE... I... AM...
FREE."
Aftermath
The spectre kid promises to throw them some nuyen to cover the ass-ache of having gone through all this, and doesn't particularly hold Colcannon responsible for trashing some of her drones.
Lonely Three is free to roam the matrix. This will surely not be a problem later for anyone.
Rewards
- Medium Run: 10 RVP
- 6,000 Nuyen (3 RVP)
- 5 Karma (5 RVP)
- 4 CDP (2 RVP)
- 2 CDP Run Standard
- One candle for the All Hallows Scavenger Hunt.
- Lumi/WF-6 can take Shoot First for 2 RVP from Karma rewards
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Ophidia:Well that was a bon night. I don't get invited to many parties so I was hesitant about going but other than one disappointment about my costume, it was exciting and very ... educational. My team mates were pretty chill about the necromamncy and mind magic although they seemed a bit taken aback by my theft of the anthrodrone finger from the dartboard. Personally I think it's the perfect memento for a 'haunted house' event. I learned two valuable lessons tonight. First, whenever possible have a troll companion and try to make them like you. Second, having only a single combat spell that only affects living targets was serious error. That will be rectified by designing a formula for the lightning bolt spell asap.