The Siege on the New Universaeum

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The Siege on the New Universaeum
Part of The Reformation
Date2081-03-10
GMDarklordiablo
LocationHerron Island Estate
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven
Captain Boomerang
Yata
Kera
Rambozo The Clown
Trash Panda
The New Universaeum
Inutilis
Valois


Summary

With members of the Shadow Haven discovering the truth behind Valois' Bounty List and what The New Universaeum is planning, a team was assembled specifically from runners who had not involved themselves in the bounties before, under the idea and hope that doing so keeps the hands clean of everyone who worked for them.

Background

See: The Reformation.

With much discussion in the Shadow Haven channels, the haven as a whole quickly learned the truth behind the bounty list, and the terrible plan behind The New Universaeum. Runners began to investigate, and came to the conclusion that they must be stopped.

The Meet

Trash Panda arranged for a private room in The Daze, dressing herself up in a 5th world military general outfit and using her Telescoping Mirror on a Stick without a Mirror as a pointer to point out things on an AR map of the estate she was projecting in the middle of the room. After filling everyone in on what was going on, she explained some of the major problems that were suspected.

  • It is believed that there is a massive lodge necessary for the ritual, and damage to the lodge may cause a magical backlash that could wipe out a large chunk of Seattle.
  • It is believed that the ritual will align in some way with the eclipse, likely to start at the same time.
  • It is believed that the ritual as a whole is a 3 part series of rituals.
    • One ritual to gather energy
    • One ritual to summon a force 30 spirit
    • One ritual to command it to use a powerful great form mind magic spell to compel mages to only be able to perform magic if they buy the products The New Universaeum is selling.
  • It is believed that the window where they ritually summon a force 30 spirit will be the best chance to stop the plan.
  • It is believed that the safest way to disrupt the ritual is to force it to fail, either by removing one of the participants from the lodge, or knocking one unconscious.
    • It is believed that doing so will cause all of the energy already stored for the ritual to backlash onto the ritual participants, rather than exploding over the whole metroplex.
  • Capture will obviously be a very, very bad thing.

The Plan

Trash Panda goes over the plan of attack. She wants to go in alone while the rest of the team acts as a diversion. The idea being that with a much more obvious and overt mess, all security will be paying attention to the distraction team while Trash Panda can quietly infiltrate unnoticed to disrupt the ritual. She intends to covertly find the ritual chamber, identify a participant, and use a Paint Grenade containing DSMO/Narcojet, as well as a Gas Grenade containing Neurostun X, just to be absolutely certain.

Yata objects, not willing to allow Trash Panda to go in alone. The pair argue back and forth about it, Trash Panda insisting that she is the only one who can do it, and that if something goes wrong she can't risk someone else being there when she makes her escape. Yata insists she can handle herself, and will have a few advantages Trash Panda does not have. After arguing for a while, Trash Panda relents, and the infiltration team shall be made up of Trash Panda and Yata, while Captain Boomerang, Rambozo, and Kera create a distraction.

Kera had spent time preparing a literal army of 625 rats to assist with the assault, using a spirit to use animal control on several devilrats and ordering them to control normal rats. She may have forgotten how exponential growth works. She also got hold of a few troll corpses to raise for assistance in the chaos that was to ensue.

The distraction team was going to enter by way of the ferry, claiming to have a last minute bounty, they would bring a burnt and heavily damaged head and claim it to be one of the bounties. Inside the head would be a hidden gas grenade to knock out Valois, and the team would then begin fighting their way out, causing as much commotion as possible in the process. Meanwhile, the infiltration team would be snuck in the back way via a boat provided by "Dandy" Dale Hardin.

The Run

The distraction team got on their boat, and began the trip last minute to turn in a "bounty". This was interrupted by Inutilis, who ambushed them along the way and managed to do nothing of any significance because the entire group is incredibly incompetent.

Upon arrival at the island, the distraction team tried talking to the wild spirits, hoping to strike some sort of deal with them for aid when the time came.

The infiltration team arrived at the back way, and noticed a secret entrance. Trash Panda triggered the hidden button with Magic Fingers, and the team gained entry to a hidden dock. Dale was stuck inside the dock, but Trash Panda was able to open the door a second time with the spell still maintained. Dale wished everyone luck, and sped off.

Yata and Trash Panda began attempting to work out how to find their way up, and with a powerful Spacial Sense, Trash Panda advocated using the vents which would go straight up. Yaya however had no Gecko Tape Gloves for this, and a frustrated Trash Panda had to levitate her up the vent until they reached the ward of the lodge. At this point, Trash Panda secured her Grapple Gun to the inside of the vent and lowered a line for Yata to secure on themselves to bring them the rest of the way up.

While this is going on, the distraction team meets with Valois, and presents the head. Rambozo is brought into a chamber cut off from the team for the exchange, and Valois takes the head into another room to scan it. The gas grenade goes off, but Valois has time to be alerted of the deception when the scan begins, and he activates a security function intended to kill any team who attempts to bring in a fake head.

The team is subjected to microwave radiation and a flood of other lethal contingencies, Rambozo smashes his way through glass windows to get to where Valois was, and Kera ends up surfing across increasingly deadly room on a table to escape through the smashed window.

Meanwhile, the infiltration team is exploring the upper areas of the castle, Trash Panda feeling terrible from the extreme background count, and mostly relying on her mundane skills as a master thief. The pair traven through the vents to find more info on where they need to go, and Yata realizes things are too quiet and so she taps on her belt to make a "tink" sound to see if this silence was magically created. It was not, and the guard went to investigate. Trash Panda was furious.

The infiltration team discovered they needed to go several floors up, and returned to the vertical shaft. The accent was slow, but possible. When they reached the right level, the team began to explore and found the exact site of the ritual, and saw the participants preparing.

Meanwhile, all hell broke loose on the distraction team, as they began their retreat. The forces they had mustered, including the rats, spirits they had swayed, and the undead Kera raised, easily overwhelmed everything thrown at the distraction team as they proceeded to fall back while fighting, allowing their rat army to swarm the castle and make up the front lines.

When the ritual began, Trash Panda struggled with her magic to cast a few final spells to get the vent open, unscrewing it from the outside using magic fingers and Clairvoyance to see what she is doing. With the vent removed, she and Yata snuck down the hallway and approached the room where one of the participants was assisting. The door was locked, and unable to be opened due to a key on the inside. Using an endoscope, she was able to get line of sight on the key so she could cast another barely capable magic fingers to unlock the door. She then opened the door a crack, rolled her 2 grenades inside, and shut the door. Yata and Trash Panda then fled.

The pair slid down the vent shaft to get as much distance as possible, as both sensed the backlash of the failed ritual was going to be big enough to require distance. They made their way into the submarine in the hidden dock, and Yata piloted them out.

Finally, the upper levels of the castle simply vanished without fanfare or explosion. It simply vanished. The distraction team soaked some damage from the shockwave. Many of the rats that had gone to the upper levels were lost forever, and the rest died to the shockwave.

Aftermath

  • Following the destruction of Herron Island Estate, the team got a call from an unknown source. A mysterious E-ghost who died in the crash thanked the team for what they did, and transferred money into their accounts as a token of gratitude. The team still isn't sure who this mysterious e-ghost really is, what their allegiances are, or what their future goals are. But ¥12,000 is ¥12,000 and it was given with no strings attached.


Rewards

  • ¥12,000
  • 9 Karma
  • 2 CDP

Game Quotes

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Captain Boomerang

Glad we stopped that. I am constantly in awe atbthe qiality of runners in the Haven. I always felt I was a big shot, but between Kera's literal army and Trash Panda and Yata sneaking in and taking out one of those guys completely unseen, well, I know I still got a ways to go.