A Devotee Of Conrad Of Constance

A Devotee Of Conrad Of Constance
Date	2083-02-05
GM	Aurora
Location	Puyallup
Status	Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
Casualties and losses

Summary

A newly infected vampire asks the Haven to find his brother, who has been researching some twisted lore in an attempt to cure the vampire of HMHVV.

Background

The brothers are mages, the vampire a Magic 6 IF 3 mage (Francis Charles), and the other a Magic 9 IG 6 mage (Father Charles). Father Charles has been tempted by a twisted insectoid version of Spider, as his Mentor was Constance Of Conrad. He doesn't realize he hasn't been speaking to the real Spider.

The Meet

The meet takes place in an abandoned parking garage filled with rats. Swerve is excited that the J is a vampire, and Francis asks for the party's help. The team quickly agrees, and afterwards Swerve offers to help the Johnson with his affliction (probably meaning talking to Amelie and Jean-Baptiste.

The Plan

Reaper, Bannerette and Run the Steel Earn the Brass "Steel" go to the Catholic church nearby that Father Charles would give sermons at. Quickly, Reaper starts a fight with the priest on duty, who paralyzes her with nerve strike. The priest has Knight Errant arrest Reaper, who loses her SIN while out on bail. Luckily, Energizer is nearby and she picks up the slack left by Reaper's absence.

Meanwhile, Swerve spends almost two hours having spirits use the Search power, who detects the location of Father Charles. She astrally scouts out the location, and feels a background count aspected to some twisted mix of Christian Theurgy and something adjacent to Insect. During this time, Energizer is doing a matrix search on Conrad Of Constance. Her matrix search turns up information on Constance Of Conrad, as well as rumors that awakened who follow Spider have been hearing a voice that sounds like their mentor, but the tone and intentions are different, in addition to some information about terrible spider-bug creatures being released.

The Run

The team heads over to the location where Father Charles is performing his summoning rituals. They find some Webbing traps and a Force 8 ward, and soon combat breaks out. Swerve takes heavy damage despite Energizer's best efforts to IATF the team, though Bannerette and Run the Steel Earn the Brass "Steel" manage to take out the mage with help from Swerve's spirits. Then Energizer manages to find a physical trap with a matrix icon, activates it, and that kills the last physical spirit.

The last astral spirit tries to sneak away with Father Charles' body, though Run the Steel Earn the Brass "Steel" stops that (at the cost of a leg to the dead mage), and Swerve and Bannerette discover that Father Charles wanted to bring Conrad of Constance's spider to the physical realm. The party breaths a sigh of relief and returns to Francis.

Aftermath

Francis Charles pays the team and is sad about the loss of his brother. Swerve convinces him to join The Night Throne, though he's... somewhat unhappy with this arrangement.

Rewards

6k nuyen - 3 RVP
4k nuyen worth of Reagents (Christian Theurgy OR Dark Magic) OR 2k nuyen - 1 RVP
8 karma - 8 RVP
6 CDP - 2 RVP

Optional:

Francis Charles (2/2) for -3 RVP

Game Quotes

"Like... I didn't want to beat the shit out of the priest, but..." ~ Reaper

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Bannerette

This was an interesting one. Im starting to run into these bug-types more often lately, and it's the second day in a row I had a job involving the church. Maybe it's a sign for me, or maybe it's just a coincidence. In any case, I've found myself wanting for negotiation skills, since I failed to stop a fight between one of my team mates and a priest. Then again, what can you do when it escalates that far? Im no wordsmith after all. I hope they don't hold a grudge for leaving them paralyzed on the church floor, but what else could be done? I couldn't blame them if they did though, I'm more than a little miffed that Swerve up and ran on us in the fight. Instead of saving the brother, I ended up gunning him down, too. At least he didnt go all the way crazy, before the end. I wonder what happened with that grimoire though...