Silver Rush

Silver Rush
Date 2082-10-02 GM Archtmag Location Seattle Status Threat Level: Semiprime
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven SpinGlobal	Followers of the Light	Ancients and Cutters
Cold Hands Maestro Dr.Trauma Pell Sanjuro	The Shining One Toxic Mages and Adepts Cultists Radioactive Harvesters	Gang Members
Casualties and losses
	Partial	Vehicles and Injuries

Summary

Ancients hijack a secure SpinGlobal convoy, getting more than the expected. Weapons grade Plutonium. The plutonium follows a bloody trail, ending up in the hands of a toxic cult in the heart of Glow City. As they work to build a bomb to irradiate Seattle, runners intervene and manage to steal back the plutonium, narrowly escaping with their lives.

Background

Kyra Samaras needed plutonium for certain confidential science experiments she had in the works. Following corporate policy, she put in a requisition order for a sizable sample, 5 kilograms, and it was added to a secure convoy heading into Seattle. As it approached though, local members of the Ancients guess, correctly, that the SpinGlobal caravan had something valuable inside. Too correctly. Hijacking the convoy, they managed to steal it and move the cargo out before SpinGlobal could respond. As the gang members started to look through their assorted loot, they eventually realized that they had bitten off more than they planned.

Pu-239 is kind of a big deal.

Not sure how to proceed, the squad fortified in a safe house and called their superiors. This lead to quite a few frantic and hurried conversations among the upper echelons of the Seattle Ancients. Unfortunately for the squad in question, this also lead to the Cutters learning of this through their informants. The Cutters managed to reach the squad first.

Killing the Ancients and seizing the plutonium, they escaped the area in a hurry, taking an underground route to avoid detection. However, they never returned, sending no message and leaving their bosses concerned.

At this stage, both the Ancients and Cutters were out for blood. Both wanted revenge, and neither wanted the other to get their hands on Plutonium. The imminent gang war wouldn't end up accomplishing much though, as the package had been claimed by a third party, the Followers of the Light. Led by visions from the spirits they follow, members of the cult hunted down the Cutters and returned to use the plutonium in creation of a salted bomb, one that would spread radiation through wide parts of Seattle. It would expose thousands, potentially even millions, to the toxic environments that they revere, while keeping the city relatively intact.

While all of this chaos was happening, SpinGlobal, to put it mildly, was not pleased about what had happened. Kyra specifically, while actually not at fault in the slightest in her corp's eyes, felt incredibly guilty that she was indirectly responsible for plutonium being lost to unknown hands. Petitioning her bosses, and using her previous connections with the Haven as a justification, she receieved permission to hire a team of Shadowrunners to help in retrieval operations. While SpinGlobal would be doing their own work to try to recover the missing package, having a different approach working on it as well, was deemed to be a good enough idea. With this, Kyra hired a team of Shadowrunners, for her biggest job yet.

The Meet

The runners are directed to meet at the Daze, knowing the job is SpinGlobal related. Expecting some SpinRadical J, they are a bit confused when a convoy of armored SUV's arrives outside. Directed to get inside and not answering any questions, the runners reluctantly agree. Silently driven, armored guards in the other vans, they eventually approach a very official looking SpinGlobal building. Being told basically nothing about what's happening, they are a little nervous heading into the heart of corporate power. As they are lead inside the building, things don't really improve on that front, as they are politely escorted by an entire HTR team. Filed into a conference room, a shaken, but still friendly, Kyra greets the runners.

Giving them a quick rundown on the situation and stressing the need for them to accept, not just for their payment or for her, but for everyone in Seattle. Having plutonium in the open is a massive risk for innocents everywhere. Not entirely used to seeing this kind of concern from a corporate agent, they are a little confused, but ultimately accept the job, and the very lucrative payment promised on success. Kyra let them know that the plutonium was last seen with the Ancients, who had hijacked the delivery.

Part 1: Searching

As the team left the SpinGlobal complex, they started preliminary work. A few told trusted contacts that a crisis was happening, letting them know that things might end... poorly. They also found out about the brewing gang war, and headed over to the area. Heading near Echo Lake, skirmishes were breaking out all across Northern Redmond between the two gangs. Heading towards the heart of the conflict, where the safehouse presumably was after some digging, the team split in two. Cold Hands and Pell being elves, would head towards the Ancients safehouse, with Cold Hands sticking to the shadows and Pell trying a social approach to enter and gather info. Meanwhile, the other two, not being elves, decided to wait in the car.

Pell approaches Ancient's sentries and manages to make her way past by namedropping Babylon and being very elfy. She eventually manages to sneak her way inside the safehouse, and does a decent job at pretending to be an Ancient. She sees where the Ancient's squad died, bloody stains the only sign of what happened at this point. Cold Hands finds some bullet casings, which she performs psychometry on. In her vision, she sees the Cutters team that gunned down the Ancients, and puts together what happened to the Plutonium.

Meanwhile, the two in the car are minding their own business when a Toyota technical rolls up, filled with Cutters. Checking the pair, the Dr. Trauma and Maestro put on their best "not-elf" and "not-Ancient" impression, trying to look unimportant. They succeed eventually, and the heavily armed car moves on.

As the two elves snoop near the safehouse, a fire spirit materializes, looking very not-friendly. Deciding to leave, as nothing else seemed of great interest around, the two ran out of the area as fast as they could. Most of the random Ancients milling around didn't react immediately, their escape rather quick.

Regrouping with the rest of the team, the group managed to find pictures of the Cutter's in question, using Cold Hand's vision as a guide. This allowed Pell to summon a spirit to search for the missing group. After a while, the spirit managed to find one of them underground, dead. It was a lead, though perhaps a bad sign.

Heading over to the area, the team go in their vehicles and started driving over. It was around this time that the Ancients caught back up, several bikers closing in on the team. Cold Hands, on a bike as well, managed to draw their attention, leading the Ancients on a chase away from the others. Eventually she crashed. The sniper shooting her didn't help. After getting hit with various painful attacks, she collapsed unconscious. The team circled around to help though, and they managed to disable the enemy Ancients, not killing them, but definitely keeping them from following anymore.

The team heads into the underground, navigating dark tunnels in the 3rd layer. As they weave through rooms and hallways, they head in the direction the spirit guided them. Eventually, they spot a pack of feral ghouls, noticing them thankfully before they noticed the team. They decided to take a circuitous route to avoid the ghouls. They manage to succeed at this, and take a side passage to get to the other side. It also leads them to the Cutters, or part of them at least. It seemed like some of them had been savaged by the ghouls in the area, torn apart and eaten. No plutonium though.

Heading deeper, the team reached a room, barricaded, but the door broken open. Inside, they found the last member of the Cutter's squad. They were not killed by Ghouls.

In the quiet closet where the man had taken shelter from ghouls, others had found him. As best the team could tell, the man was ritually murdered, a knife still embedded in his chest. The plutonium was gone.

As the team tried to think of a way forward, Cold Hands knew what she had to do. Striding forward, she grasped the silver knife and let the visions flow through her.

Taking the role of the killer, she moved through the tunnels in search of the plutonium, driven by holy visions. When the times comes, she stabs the knife in with glee. Change is coming, and she is at the forefront. The vision expanded, decaying nuclear towers stand above a dead wasteland. She feels warm, powerful, driven. The source calls to her.

Needless to say, it was a powerful experience, espically for someone new to psychometry like Cold Hands was. Her composure broke, and she babbled to the team of the plans in motions, of the cult at work.They quickly put together that Cold Hands saw the rotting nuclear cooling towers of Glow City. The scope of the mission had expanded.

Sending a message to Kyra, they updated her on the situation, while at the same time preparing to enter the most inhospitable part of Redmond. Cold Hands perhaps had the toughest time ahead of her. She had just felt her first taste of toxic magic, and while unlikely to affect her alone, now, she needed to follow the trail to its source, to delve into the heart of the nuclear wastes. Would she come out the same?

Part 2: Into Glow City

As Kyra conferred with her superiors, she came back with good news for the team. She had secured them a ride! The team however was slightly worried they needed more firepower to assault a cultist compound, so they managed to get her to agree to sign on another member, Sanjuro. The weeb troll swordswoman was happy to join.

The ride, as it turned out, was a VTOL, with an HTR team inside. The pilot would take them into Glow City, close to the middle, and the HTR team would guard the plane. The runners would search the area and find where the plutonium was being held and return it.

Flying over, the team embarked into Glow City, geiger counters at the ready, the rotting hulls of the district looming around them. Glow City, while a terrible place, isn't abandoned, and as they began traveling away from the plane, people watched from a distance, curious about the runners invading in their midst.

The teams approaches a few of the locals, who eye them warily. Sanjuro, shows off the ritual knife they found to see if the people knew the group who used them. They didn't say much in response.

Rewards

Time Multiplier x2.11 - total RVP 65

70k Nuyen (35 RVP) or 140k in Gear Rewards taken from Nuyen Rewards

Gear Reward Options: A24 or lower, except for Foci

• Cyberware - Deltaware available.

• Drones

• Vehicles

• High or Luxury Lifestyles

• Jetpack

• Foci, A20 or Lower

15 Karma - 15 RVP

30 CDP - 14 RVP

1 Streed Cred - 1 RVP

+5 Rep with SpinGlobal

Optional Contact: Kyra Samaras as a 5/3 (7 RVP) - taken from other rewards

Optional Qualities, taken from other rewards:

For Any: Indomitable (Physical) - 8 RVP

For Cold Hands - Spirit Affinity (Nuclear) - 7 RVP

For Cold Hands - Home Ground (Glow City), Astral Acclimation - 10 RVP

For Sanjuro - Toughness - 9 RVP

Awakened may receive Deltaware augmentations for 15 RVP taken from other rewards.

Game Quotes

"Magic shit am I right?" - Sanjuro in response to Cold Hands opening herself to the toxic background and just walking off.

"Light, Warmth, Family" - Cold Hands having not-toxic thoughts.

"I saw a woman in the glow. Faceless but beautiful. She is the Shining One, and she is coming." - Cold Hands

"Oh, God showed up."