Anomalous Readings
| Anomalous Readings | |||||||||
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| Part of The Arrival | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
| ShadowHaven | Major Corp | ||||||||
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M3chan1c Takeshi "Kaminari" Hatsuke Heather Bulldozer |
Character1 Character2 | ||||||||
Summary
Mr. Johnson needs to run a few scans throughout the city's underground landscape, considering the delicate, unorthadox, and somewhat annoying nature of his techno-arcane device being used in the process, he needs a group of capable, and speedy shadowrunners to defend the device during these scanning periods, and rush it from location to location before its readouts become corrupted due to the odd nature of the arcano-tech used to carry these scans out.
Background
Due to the frequent nightmares Seattle's talismongers and magic experts have suffered, some central figures have begun to pull strings and look into the cause of it. While at the moment of this report's writing things seem inconclusive, people are firm in believing this to be the turning point.
The Plan
Shortly after the meet, the party all gathered up in M3chan1c's truck to keep the group in one place throughout the run, thanks to the gridlink system in place, they would not have to worry about back tracking if they took a different exit to leave the underground after collecting the data. (Also Heather refused to let the other runners ride on her bicycle as she pedaled for them.)
Following the short argument about the best route to take to get to each site while leaving a clear, easy route to get to the delivery site, team-A managed to make their point as one of their members pointed out that site-B was in a far-less policed portion of town, with its service entrance being right next to a highway, letting the party have far less likelihood of being pulled over and having to explain the heavily restricted armor and obnoxious numbers of explosives mounted on each member of the team, Team-B still was mildly annoyed at the decision, even if they agreed to it, though, a round of greasy soy burgers ordered by M3chan1c settled everyone's nerves and stomachs.
As their resident tech-support specialist popped back into meatspace, he showed the group a layout of the region that they would be exploring underground, his matrix-surfing managing to find the party a delightfully straightforward path directly from Site-A to Site-B through some old service tunnels, cutting out any sort of backtracking through the surface, and thanks to Gridlink, they wouldn't even have to worry about finding a ride once they left out on the other side!
As the group arrived at Site-A, things were quiet, and pitch-black, it was an old room, seeming to be some sort of industrial pumping station. After some scrounging around, Kaminari and Heather found a fuse box which could possibly restore power to the room. Thanks to some creative scavenging and jury-rigging, M3chan1c was able to bring the lights back on in the room and give his drone the party some much needed sight lines. Bulldozer's military experience came in handy as he organized the party into a diamond formation in the high-ground in the center of the room to effectively protect the scanning unit, giving each runner clear fields of fire and some much-needed distance from the likely infected hostiles they would soon run into. M3chan1c, being one for 'practical solutions' and having far less knowledge on military tactics, decided now was an excellent time to test out his new Molotov cocktails, with a neat wireless feature that allowed them to become proximity mines, he hap-haphazardly scattered the miniature infernos all throughout the pumping station, leaving the party to remain firmly planted on their high ground. Unfortunately, when the scanner was activated, something odd seemed to be affecting Heather's plant spirit, causing it a rather significant amount of distress, after talking it over with the group, she decided to send her ally off, allowing it to continue to provide the party with concealment from their enemies, but without any more services to offer, additionally, Kaminari mentioned the very real threat of a plant spirit being in a room completely laden with makeshift firebombs.
As the device started to scan, the party quietly held their positions, waiting with baited breath for the moment the enemy finally approached as M3chan1c's support-gunnery drone started to go through his combat playlist in preparation for the first sight of an attack.
The Run
After a long wait, eventually, the sounds of small bursts of flame started to sound off across the room, M3chan1c throwing out a warning to the party that they had company just before they were set upon by a horde of underground denizens, the first wave was a violent rush of ghouls, which were immediately met by an intricate net of Molotov mines, suppressing fire, and combat spells, absolutely decimating their numbers at the start, the remainder being quickly mopped up by a combination of the party's fighters, giving them a small bit of breathing room.
With the short opening in the assault, M3chan1c gave a peek around the area, trying to see if he could spot any concealed hostiles in the area, going off some rumors given by the Johnson about hidden members of the ghouls in this area, according to the limited sensors of his drone, all seemed to be in order, save for a few dead demon rats near some of the detonated Molotovs, things seemed to be going along well, just in time for another rush of ghouls and rats, sending the party into a frenzy once again of ringing suppressive fire, plumes of flame from the Molotovs, yet more attacks from magical foliage, and a banzai charge from their street sam, the room once again exploded into furious combat! Landing on a nearby set of pipes and executing and excellent quickdraw with his katana, Kaminari sliced a leaping ghoul in half without breaking a sweat, his inate senses warning him about a group of unseen foes in the room, he quickly called out to his allies about the concealed ghouls performing some sort of unholy ritual. Taking the opportunity of the explosive-fearing druid's moment of distraction, Bulldozer turned and fired off one of his high-explosive grenades into the corner, blasting away a newly-arrived attack force in a split second, with the focusing magic-user being none the wiser of the attack.
Unfortunately, Kaminari's warning came too late for the party to be able to interfere with the enemies that remained completely invisible to them, with a horrid bellowing, the party all faced the east doorway, which cracked and shook before the entire wall gave way, revealing a toxic ogre mage, bellowing at the defending party. Immediately, M3chan1c's drone started unloading on the monstrosity, blowing chunks out of the creature with gusto as the rest of the party wheeled on it. With a horrifying shriek, the mage caused a series of ghoul corpses in the room to liquify and attempt to reform, taking the shape of a severely misshapen ghoul berzerker which immediately started to charge Bulldozer, who immediately turned and started to trade blows with the fear-inducing monster.
Kaminari quickly sprinted up to take on the mage, dropping at its feet and going for another frenzy of slashes, only to be deflected by the creature, which immediately turned to the Street Sam, then responded in kind by blasting him with a radiation beam until the warrior fell in place, eliminating one threat, the beast turned, only to be met with a flurry of M3chan1c's machine gun fire and a powerful blast from Heather, sending the toxic mage to its grave, the creature screaming as it began to messily decompose and melt in place, leaving behind only a massive skull and dissolving its summoned flesh servant, just in time for the scanner to let off a quiet, but relieving ping, signaling it was finished.
Aftermath
After a short argument between Bulldozer and M3chan1c over who should get the mage's skull, ultimately resulting in the rigger's Steel Lynx, S1ash3r, proudly sporting a new hood ornament, the party made their way on through the tunnels on the way to Site-B, resulting in a rather uneventful second data collection, with only the occasional demon rat to blast interrupting them from time to time as they idly discussed the reason for such a quiet trio of hours, the group agreed that they had probably wiped out all of the local ferals in the area while they were on Site-A. After the data was collected, all it took was a matter of following the map out of the underground, hopping in the truck, and driving back to the good Johnson ahead of schedule, retrieving plenty of praise for their timeliness as the eager doctor got to work on extracting their data, showing off the available loot for the party to partake in.
Rewards
--- Run Rewards for "Anomalous Readings" (Medium, 11 RVP)
Pick and choose accordingly:
- Ares Redline & 500 Nuyen (2 RVP)
- Ares Lancer (4 RVP)
- Monosword & 1,100 Nuyen (1 RVP)
- Vibro Sword & 1,000 Nuyen (1 RVP)
- Vibro Knife & 1,500 Nuyen (1 RVP)
- Shiawase Arms Incinerator & 2,000 Nuyen (3 RVP)
- Hazmat Suit & 1,000 Nuyen (1 RVP)
- EVO HEL Suit & 500 Nuyen (1 RVP)
- Free months in various properties owned by Dr. Shinra (Medium Lifestyle, up to 10 months) (Ask @Asmodeus for details, there's one for each Seattle District) (Up to 44,000 Nuyen, max. of 11 RVP)
2 CDP
Game Quotes
M3: I would like to catch the skull
GM: It's the size of your Rib Cage
M3: I would not like to catch the skull
GM:The drone now looks metal as fuck
Heather:My hearing pool is zero, I have no ear.
Toaster: "Bulldozer is in combat mode right now, so all he really does is just grunt oddly."
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
M3chan1c:"The rewards for this run were... something, though, can't really complain, we got plenty of downtime, and I got to see just how wonderful Molotov cocktails are when used properly. To be fair, I also got a pretty damn fine reward out of it, I can't remember a time S1ash3r's looked more badass, more drones aught to have badass battle trophies mounted onto 'em. One thing I know for certain, I don't plan on going underground again anytime soon if I can avoid it, place gives me the damn creeps, especially with those invisible ones sittin' around like that."
Takeshi "Kaminari" Hatsuke: I have a new-found respect for Ghouls... and radiaion... and perhaps a cough... 本当に(truly), I am lucky to be alive. Though it is a shame I already have the finest blades money can buy; I thought I would have to find a fence for the run rewards to make my way. But to my surprise 神先生 (my Spirit Mentor), who has never allowed me to touch a firearm, did not take issue with the laser rifle. Perhaps it is because, like blades, they were used by man, to hunt man.
Bulldozer: first time i have engaged these ghouls in combat, and while the reports i read while in the militia about them being punch of parásita was useful.. some of them where.. before i engage them again need to purchase more firepower