The Reformation
This metaplot deals with a bounty hunt - 24 names to be dead by the 1st of September 2081. Runs involving the hunt expose preferably player-organised teams to one (or more) of the bounties, to be delivered to an assessor in a modern castle estate on Herron Island, in the Seattle sounds. List is HERE
The run format is simple. Provide the players with the opportunity to kill one or more of the people on the list. The bounty is 32,000¥, or 16 RVP (Max High Threat), and is per HEAD, not per RUNNER. Negotiation is not allowed - consider the assessor, Valois, to have a negotiation dicepool of Fuck Off. However, teams will need to divide the bounty, lowering the threat level. Balance the threat level by issuing Karma to match RVP requirements, or by introducing 'bounty hunters' - NPCs who also want to win the bounty. Players can attempt to kill several targets in a session.
Bounty targets should be more likely to flee than stay and fight, and those less combat-capable should have at least one protector.
Conditions for bounty payment are: Whoever DELIVERS the target's head to Herron Island Estate is paid 32,000¥.
If you need notes on a character, contact Dark, as he has a list, including special notes for some characters.
Factions Involved
Patriots First Bank
The Assessor of the hunt, one Valois, is a french banker, currently working for the Patriot's First Bank as a Mr. Johnson and Bounty Assessor. He currently resides in rooms at the Herron Island Castle.
Goals
- Verify the death of the 24 bounties.
- Pay the required amount for each bounty.
The Financier
Nothing is known about the financier as yet, aside from the fact that they own Herron Island Estate.
Goals
- Kill 24 people of different backgrounds.
Locations
Herron Island Estate
Herron island is a privately-owned estate with an airfield and a dock, extensive forests, and a castle built on a spire of rock overlooking the sounds. Bounty hunters deliver the heads to the assessor inside this castle. Inside this castle are a number of waiting rooms, a garage displaying a number of expensive vehicles, and the assessor's office.
Boats are available from the mainland, but GMs are encouraged to use transport not owned by the runners as prime targets for other bounty hunters to steal the head(s) runners may have acquired.
Upon delivery, the runners are trapped in a reinforced mage cell while the assessor verifies the bounty. (This cell inhibits the summoning of spirits, weakens magic and is a faraday cage when sealed) If the bounty is proven to be false, the bounty hunters are executed by gases, boiling oil (napalm stats) or gun turrets. If the bounty is verified, the hunters are released, 32,000¥ per head richer.
If you can, take a good hard look at the place on the astral. There are plenty of free spirits around the place, but something about the castle has them spooked. It could be that giant frag-off alarm ward around the place. If that's even what it really is. I don't know, something about it felt... Off... And that's not even going into that weird, dark astral cloud over the place. It's seriously creepy. I couldn't figure out what the frag was up with it myself, so, now you know what to look for. --Riot (talk)
Runs
News
Summary of Repository as Kept by Twitch
Valois is (supposedly) a middle-man, hired by an undisclosed group to present a list of bounties. Appearing inside the Shadowhaven guest node, he offered 32,000 nuyen for the head of each person from the list. This was greeted initially with great interest, but soon people began to worry about who was on the list.
There are several individuals on this list that seem to have strong ties. It starts with Barbara Sykes, who was researching the effects of Halley's comet, which caused the SURGE and creation of natural orichalcum, the latter disappearing when the comet left. Note that orichalcum has not occurred naturally before or since this time that we know of, but it can be made artificially by a capable alchemist. She revealed that some people were caught in an explosion/explosions that resulted in them being exposed to Orichalcum. This exposure has given them a very powerful resistance to mind magic, to the point of repelling Deimos, one of the strongest mages on the Haven. Linked to this case are Briana Rasmussen, Aiden Cooper, and one more unnamed person who Brianna indicated but is not indicated in Haven files. It may also involve one other, but this is based off speculation. This last one has a time frame for the exposure of approximately 5 weeks prior to the posting of the list. Aisa Hirito was also caught in an explosion, which means she may also be related to this group. Dr. Boo has mentioned that another target is also involved in research regarding SURGE and/or "heavy metal poisoning." This may also be related. In total, we are looking at at least 6 individuals who are very likely connected through one thread; this is incredibly unlikely to occur from 24 randomly selected individuals.
The other observation noted is that many of these have also upset their superiors. The Haven has discussed and many agree it is a possibility that Valois' list is not a single list, necessarily, but multiple lists combined together.
Alternatively, there is another working theory that it is a single list with multiple red herrings, probably the more criminal types, in order to throw people off track and/or convince people that no matter how nice these people seem, they are on the same level as Humanis and Hand of Five members by virtue of sharing a list.
Possibile things to look into: Was Aisa in an Orichalcum explosion? William Toten was treating an epidemic in the Ancients. Was this related to the first group? Is he a part of the second group, an unrelated hit?
And it would be neglectful not to mention the e-ghost Madame, who seems opposed to Valois and refuses to be in the host while he is. Madame has given two major pieces of information: the address of a host that may have answers (?), and that there is a ritual in preparation that “must be stopped.”
There is some indication that the castle in which bounties are taken (owned by Lucky Inc., a gambling company, and whose CEO, or at least their face, operates the ferry running between Tacoma and the island) is a mage trap and there may be something sinister lurking below. Viper, in a conversation with the supposed CEO, indicated his father bought the island, and that most of his coworkers were spirits. Shamrock also indicated that the father performed some kind of ritual on the island, causing centuries of growth to occur over 50 years.
You're forgetting the SURGE. They are related somehow. Dr. Boo (talk)
I'm not hugely sure, but wasn't the ferryman dude the CEO of Herron Land Holdings, the subsidiary? - Deimos (talk)
Re: Madame; it seems less she doesn't want to appear in the host and more cannot appear in the Matrix while Valois can access it. Hence, we had to acquire a dummy head. -Tanuki
Some kinda weird, ancient, powerful summoning/weather magic thing's going down, drawing on the ambient abundant mana of the island, which itself may technically be made from a form of sacrifice magic, albeit a self-sacrifice due to drain, like the people killed performing the Great Ghost Dance, but thankfully on a much smaller scale. -Witchblade
And that mage trap room temporarily severs a spirit-summoner link, but doesn't dismiss the spirit, and the link returns when you leave. -Shamrock