Idiot you negotiated with a dragon
| Idiot you negotiated with a dragon | |||||||||
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| Part of The Crow of Seattle | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Sphinx | catholic church | ||||||||
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Swerve Charon La Rapide Spider |
2xGuards 1xMage 1xSniper F10 Airspirit | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| F10 Airspirit | |||||||||
| Charons retirement run | |||||||||
Summary
Swerve looks for a way to help Charon whose body begins to die and contacts the black lodge. She is sent on a mission to steal orchialcum, which ends with her and La Rapide having an interview with Sphinx, a subordinate of the Sea Dragoness, in the presence of the Leviathan Messoria. They are questioned by the two and Messoria reads Swerve's mind. The two offer the runners a chance to save Charon, but of course they have ulterior motives. Swerve can convince Charon after some time to try the way of the dragons. To get the help of the Sea Dragoness the Runners have to free an Eco terrorist from a prison in the AGS in the special rights zone Karlsruhe in a smaller town called Bruchsal. The Runners manage to do this and escape together with the terrorist. They then fight for control of an ancient ritual site used to transfer Charon's body to a Master Shedim through the Book of the Underworld and at the same time transfer her mind into an elven body provided by Harlequin.
Background
The Sea Dragoness is looking for a way to use her recently acquired artifact "The Book of the Underworld" (The old man and the sea). When Messoria reads Swerve's thoughts, they see Charon as a good way to use the Master Shedim in the Book of the Underworld to harm the Black Lodge. So they offer to help but have the ulterior motive of just letting Charon die. Since Charon is looking for her own solution after Swerve tells her about the plan, she contacts, among others, Treasa ke'Vedryn who then calls Harlequin and asks for a favor. Harlequin still has some favors open with dragons and soon figures out that the Sea Dragoness has her fingers in the pie and just wants to kill Charon. He calls in a favor, informs Sea dragoness about the spirit pack (which makes the work of the artefact way harder) and offers to help transfer Charon along with the spirit pack into another body (that of a good friend who died of brain death).
The Meet
Swerve has consulted her network of contacts for a way to save Charon. She is referred by Silas Vespasiano to Mr. Herenight. He hints at a solution where possible (though he doesn't have one) and takes the opportunity to use Swerve as a free runner to steal orchialcum from a warehouse he learned existed shortly before. Swerve falls for it and uses some contacts to scout out the warehouse and pulls La Rapide into the run with her. The two go to the warehouse with the intention of stealing the orchialcum but are spotted by a Watcher hovering outside. Swerve sends out an air spirit to kill the Watcher, but it flies away and a few seconds later when the Watcher reaches his mistress the Leviathan Messoria, she destroys the air spirit without further ado. Messoria and Sphinx are just discussing some things and Sphinx sends one of his spirits to look after the situation. The ghost reaches the warehouse and Sphinx can see through the link that it is Swerve and La Rapide. The two try to run away when they see the powerful ghost. Sphinx lets them escape and whistles the ghost back. Together with Missoria, he sets out to pay Swerve a visit in her apartment. When the two runners arrive there they are surprised by Sphinx and Missoria and after some questions the dragoness decides to simply read Swerve's mind. After a short discussion with Sphinx, they offer a solution for Charon in the name of the Sea Dragoness, but Swerve and Raps have to convince Charon and they have to free a prisoner from a prison in the AGS. Also, it would be necessary to clear a ritual place of the Catholic Church. The Runners agree, but they don't really have a choice.
After Charon is let in on all this by Swerve, she decides to confront Mr. Herenight. He agrees to a meeting and reveals that he doesn't really know a solution to Charon's problem and has only used Swerve. Charon then goes through her Black Lodge network to check it out. It seems that no one knows a solution to her problem. So she also contacts Treasa who only hints that she knows some old entities that might help but nothing more. Treasa secretly contacts Harlequin to protect her investment in Charon. Charon finally receives a call from Knife who confirms that the Black Lodge knows of no solution, but that there are rumors that dragon magic can help get rid of the infection and that this might be a solution to their problem. Knife suggests that he would rather try to find a solution with the dragons to be able to fight them later than to go voluntarily to death, but leaves the decision to Charon. Finally, Charon agrees to meet with Sphinx and Missoria and receives the same information as the other runners about their destination in the AGS. They are to free an Eco terrorist named Miranda Knight from the maximum security prison in Bruchsal. Bruchsal is in a zone in the AGS that is administered by the military. After the liberation, they are to contact Sphinx again for further instructions. An expense account will also be set up.
The Plan
The Runners do their homework and contact some contacts to obtain plans from the prison and matching Burner Fake SINs from S-K. The plan is to appear as an S-K delegation at the prison to interrogate Miranda Knight under the pretext that there is evidence of further targets in her cell. Since Miranda doesn't know anything, the runners want to negotiate with the prison warden to take Miranda with them. In order to place the necessary data in the host of the prison they hire Spider who manages to change the necessary files after a faundation dive. To put the plan into action they need to do some dirty laundry about the warden to make sure that she will play along. So, with the help of Mr. Cromwell, the Runners fly into the AGS and register their burner fake SIN with the military's surveillance software.
The Run
With the data Spider has obtained and a little research in the matrix, they find out that the director is seeking the mayoralty in Spyer and is about to start a public campaign. They also find evidence that she is regularly seen in the red light district of Bruchsal. The Runners decide to investigate, posing as possible workers at the red-light sauna club and planting some cameras (using mind magic) in the room the Director has booked for the evening. Charon re-enters the sauna club via the roof just before sunrise and retrieves the cameras they had placed. Since the roof hatch was opened, there was a silent alarm and two security guards look after the right. With a little magic, however, the two can be distracted and Charon escapes unseen with the incriminating material.
The Runners follow their plan procure a BMW Teufelskatze and drive on the registered day to the prison. There they are received by the heavily armed Military Protection Squadron. The officer in charge is pretty pissed off because he has no information about the visit of the S-K employees (the military has its own system and visits must be recorded in both systems). After some back and forth the runners find out that the officer who is blocking them has a personal grudge against Miranda Knight and since she is threatened with a very intense interrogation with possible pain the officer finally lets her pass. A guard of the prison (the prison is a separate company that is controlled and protected by the military in the outer area because there were massive problems with the Baden Crusade movement in the past) takes her to an interrogation room and after a short threat can be convinced to deactivate the sound recordings, but the image recording must remain active (laws). Two other guards bring the prisoner and La Rapid takes position in front of the room while Miranda Knight is interrogated by Charon and Swerve quite roughly and with the help of brain magic. They quickly realize that Ms. Knight has had training to withstand the whole thing. So they let themselves be brought to the director's office.
The Directories receive the runners and are quickly confronted with the incriminating material, and their panicked reaction is amplified by magic. This is how the runners manage to get Miranda Knight handed to them, even though this is against AGS law. They get into their BMW and want to drive outside, but the officer at the exit won't let them through as this is against AGS law and threatens to radio HQ. But after understanding that they're getting Miranda Knight and since he didn't see through the runners' masks, he asks Charon to get out. He offers to pretend they never came by if Charon guarantees Ms. Knight dies after her interrogation at S-K. Charon agrees, and the runners are free to leave prison. They contact Sphinx, who orders them to Hamburg. On the way to Hamburg, Charon's condition continues to deteriorate. In Hamburg, they let Miranda Knight out on a corner in front of the harbor on the orders of Sphinx and they themselves board a coal transporter that takes them to the open sea. There they are placed in a small dinghy and have to wait a few hours until two submarines unexpectedly appear next to them. Charon is to get into the submarine in which Sphinx is, the others are to get into the other boat and in the following operation take care that no Catholic forces advance to the ritual site.
Many hours later, the runners reach the coastal region where the ritual site is and are ferried across by speedboats. They attempt to repel a Catholic patrol but are almost overwhelmed by the Catholics' superior numbers. Thanks to the help of the Sea Dragon's agents, however, the runners can be rescued and the ritual is carried out with great difficulty. The runners except for Charon are then driven back to Seattle, which takes about two weeks. There they are dropped off and receive a warning from Sphinx not to get in touch with Charon. He shows them a video of Charon's body arriving at the airport. Spier at least confirms the authenticity of the video material.
Aftermath
Charon is drawn into the artifact "The Book of the Underworld" during the ritual, the artifact draining both her entire mind and that of her spirit pact partner. The trapped Master Shedim is prevented by Charon's spirit pact partner from taking over Charon's body for some time, but eventually Sea Dragon and Missoria succeed in anchoring Charon's mind in the elf body provided by Harlequin. Harlequin takes the body with him, which is embedded in a biotank. It wasn't until two months later that Harlequin dared to take Charon out of the tank in her new body and start the procedure to bring her back to life. The new body belongs to an old friend of Harlequin's who was brain dead. Harlequin had a Deltaware Cortical Bomb installed as a precaution (justice, so to speak, since Treasa controls the spirit associated with Charon). Harlequin also extensively explored Charon's mind during the time of her coma.
The Master Shedim, now in Charon's body and controlled by the Sea Dragon, is secretly attempting to inflict maximum damage on the Black Lodge. The merciful end for anyone who gets in his way is probably a takeover by a Shedim.
Rewards
Swerve and La Rapide gets:
- 40.000 Nuyen (20 RVP)
- 40 Karma (40 RVP)
- 22 CDP (10 RVP)
- +2 Sea Dragon Rep (-8+10=+2)
- -10 catholic church rep
Spider:
- 40.000 Nuyen (20 RVP)
- 15 Karma (15 RVP)
- 2 CDP
- +10 Sea Dragon Rep
- Spider can pick Sphinx (8/2) for 9 RVP from above.
Charon retired (and is not longer on her body)
Optional out of RVP above:
Swerve:
- Though as Nails up to 3 Ratings (5 RVP x Rating)
- Will to Live up to 3 Ratings (3 RVP x Rating)
- Memory Palace (6 RVP)
- Mnemonic Vault (8 RVP)
La Rapide:
- Memory Palace (6 RVP)
- Mnemonic Vault (8 RVP)
- Battle Hardened up to 3 Ratings (2 RVP x Rating)
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Charon
That's it. He was right all along. FUCKING. ELVES.
Never trust them, not even one. It's her fucking fault for asking me to try this much, even if I knew deep down there was no way some draconic fucks would ever think I'm worth saving. I so fucking knew it and yet... I caved into something so pathetically -human- as hope. Now I'm stuck in this dogshit body with nothing to show for it while that fucking thing rampages and undoes everything I've managed to do so far. All I can do is try to eventually make contact with Herenight and get him to wipe this fucker out - or get away from this god damn clown and kill it myself. He thinks he can control me; for the time being he's right, he's got me by the throat. That won't last. I serve no-one.