Difference between revisions of "This is the Hour of Jack"
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==The Run== | ==The Run== | ||
First they decide to check out the immediate area of the sewers. Sneaking along they encounter some feral ghouls. Four were around the corner eating. Swerve tried to talk to them and ended up alerting the entire horde. Babylon turned one into a turtle, Swerve destroyed one, and Kate cut the other two in half. They decided to use the last one to distract the others. Using some mind magic they sent it away and retreated to see what would happen. | |||
The group waited. Most ghouls went away, but some did wander into the sewers under sophocles where the group was. In the meantime they called Nameless to try to handle the horde. He shows up. He greets everyone. He is surprised to learn this is where this group of ferals were. He says he’ll handle it. He immediately begins slaughtering ghouls. Babylon is understandably concerned and takes measures to curb his enthusiasm. She puts him in a barrier and uses Vexcraft to suppress his focus sword. She then puts up a barrier to block the ghouls, and uses mob mind to make them go away. She uses her magic hands to carry Nameless, and his sword, back. Kate gets a little too curious with it and Babylon discourages her from messing with it. To which Kate is somewhat annoyed. Nameless does get turned back. He says he must take care of them, and slowly walks after them. | |||
The group thinks on what to do next. Swerve notices an awakened pathogen in the air that isn’t HMHVV. They warn nameless and end up calling Kyra Symaras to see if she has any info. She seems concerned. She doesn’t have a lot to give them, but does warn them to be careful. Shy calls the N-51, and they send some supplies of C-Squared and equipment to help clean up an area. | |||
Babylon and Swerve set up a magical lodge and protection circles. Shy and Kate weld the gates to the other sewer entrances shut. They begin to explore and in an abandoned lounge find a box similar to one Kate found in the LA underground. This one however lacks the Renraku iconography. Shy and Kate think about what traps may be here. Putting their knowledge of explosives together they do remember that pressure systems exist, and to be careful of traps. Fortunately there is none. Opening it reveals 2 synthskin masks and some tubes. Babylon recognizes one as Nanopaste Disguise. They requisition a nanoscanner to try and see what is in the rest. One is Sealer, and one is Nanospy. They decide to put them back and place a camera there to see what goes on. nanites. | |||
Babylon and Swerve set up wards. Shy and Kate investigate the grounds. They constantly feel something watching them but can’t find anything. They do spot an astral signature that shy recognizes as the spirit that kidnapped the children. It was from a spirit power. | |||
Walking around they decided to check on the decker. Who is a bug? Or appears to be a bug. Feeding the description to others they remember Chitin. The dissonant Halloweener Technomancer. They promised good support. They even put a sprite in Shy’s Desert Strike to help it out. A dissonant sprite gives it some extra juice. | |||
They went to check on the performers. They turned out to be halloweeners. This was mostly ok. They did want to burn everything down but that is to be expected. What wasn’t expected was for Shy to give them K10. Which they immediately took. Kate told Shy that they need to leave. Like now. But a very thoughtful Babylon projected and healed and detoxed them. Crisis averted. | |||
The ward preps are finished underground and it is beefy. Even Swerve feels somewhat safe in it. So the Runners decide to sit down for some R&R. At midnight before the event, the camera on the nanogear gets a ping. A Shiawase I-DOL comes and picks it up. Gamorrah tracks it back to its “owner”. It appears to just be some dude who accepts the bots “service”. The bot hides the box and goes back to doing stuff for the owner. | |||
Babylon went out and collected some magical forensic evidence on this signature to use for later. | |||
Being cheeky, they decide to look for Asahiro magically, but to no avail. Shy called Red Sonya for some professional sniper backup. Shy also calls Hextech for some more direct and overt backup The subcontracting bills are getting higher. | |||
Kate does a matrix search looking for Asahiro. With Hextech’s ability and Gamorrah’s guidance, she managed to figure out that he was in fact in the city. He was last seen 8 hours ago in downtown at some event that Kate forgot about as soon as she read it. But the relevant info was relayed to the team. | |||
The group decides to rest before the main event. Babylon is woken up in the morning to Gamorrah shaking her saying all the watcher spirits are gone. She checks on them and discovers that the areas have all been astrally scrubbed. They also check and notice the box is missing from the apartment. | |||
They asked Chitin to take a look at the bot and discover its memories, but said it was formatted 5 hours ago. Chitin did techno BS and found out the command came from a R6 cyberdeck with a R3 Pitac. They all think this sounds suspicious. Kate has an inkling as to why, and remembers how Von Neuman operates. She tells Chitin that it is indeed strange and maybe he could look into it later after all this is said and done. She has a sneaking suspicion she sent the lamb into the lion's den, but doesn’t lose any sleep over it. | |||
The time arrives. Buffs are dished out, preps are made. Babylon and Swerve decide to up the protection and ward the entire stage. This is a big undertaking. They need help, and call in a few friends including Adeptus, Sanev, and Xyvis. Irene and Shy also help out using their magic. Kate, being almost anti-magic, stays out of it. In the end they throw up a very impressive Force 15 ward. Even Kate can almost feel it interact with the reality around it. The other mages leave except for Xyvis who stays for the festivities. Babylon and Swerve then cleanse the toxic taint from the Speaker’s crystal eyes, to which she is grateful. | |||
==Aftermath== | ==Aftermath== | ||
Revision as of 20:44, 6 November 2022
| This is the Hour of Jack | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Hail to the Pumpking | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| Factions Involved | ||||||||||
|
ShadowHaven Pump King Jack Bone Daddy Red Sonya Hextech | Shiawase | Aztechnology | ||||||||
|
Babylon Swerve Katherine Tyler Shy | Asahiro Kunitoshi | Unknown Assassin | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||||
| More stress for Kate than last year | Contracted Mages, Shiawase Spec Ops | |||||||||
Summary
Sophocles celebrates Halloween again. More of the same from last year. Kate almost dies, Babylon does cool magic, Swerve almost dies, and Shy continues to be the smooth, professional operator she is.
Background
Events in Sophocles have been strange to say the least. Abductions, strange spirits, astral gateways. All of this leads up to Halloween.
The Meet
The Runners are contacted by Bone Daddy. Kate and Babylon know the routine by now. But Swerve and Shy get to join them this year. As they get to Sophocles Bone Daddy says it's pretty much the same tune as last year. He has prepared a dossier of threats and information for them. Babylon, Swerve, and Shy have been involved in some of the events. Kate has been working elsewhere this month.
The information is as follows:
MCT Sniper tried assassinating a Johnson that helped Bone Daddy investigate missing children; the last one at the time had gone on a violent spree in school before being expelled. He went missing afterwards and a bag-wielding lanky spirit was suspected to be responsible for the missing children.
An abandoned school in Redmond was apparently built on ancient Sioux burial grounds. Recent astral disturbances had spurred the resting dead into a frenzy. Teenagers had gone exploring the school on a dare and gone missing; simsense recordings from runners confirmed the same bag-wielding spirit rescued them from screaming, empty-eyed ghosts screaming in a classroom choir. The school is still terrifyingly haunted and extremely dangerous.
Runners discovered a potential plot for Horizon to perform a psyop on the Sophocles community council by brainwashing them in one of their Downtown spas. The Speaker has had recurring nightmares of being blinded by a searing bright light incinerating her eyeballs, emanating from the East.
A gum toad going by the name of Amerio was disrupted in the Metaplane of Man. Pumpking Jack presumably has temporary control of his spirit information network. Grand Duke Zaleos is a mysterious spirit in Sophocles controlling a spirit airport terminal that allows spirits to possess consenting metahumans for weekend visits to Seattle. MoM spirits claimed to have seen Horizon logos on the armor of metahumans ravaging heretical symbols in the metaplanes. Possible signs of a noospheric psyop?
The security details are as follows:
--- Bone Daddy's Security
Three Starscreamers + Speaker who will carry out Jack's Calling Ritual He managed to track down a Cyberscreamer, but they seem somewhat unhinged. Limited Matrix OW. Local spirits provided a contingency of two. They're here mostly to watch things, not interfere.
--- Potential Security Concerns
Sewers are rarely patrolled due to a lack of manpower. People have reported that the wilted plants often rustle unnaturally like something's moving around. Spirits complain often that they feel like they're being watched. Speaker has had premonition dreams about being pierced by a pillar of light. Faded signs of an unknown high-Magic astral signature was found in the area.
The Plan
The team decides to show up a bit early and set up. They want to check out some of the things on the list. Going from last year, they check the sewers first. The mages make a suggestion of setting up a lodge and a ward there. First they decide to check out the immediate area.
The Run
First they decide to check out the immediate area of the sewers. Sneaking along they encounter some feral ghouls. Four were around the corner eating. Swerve tried to talk to them and ended up alerting the entire horde. Babylon turned one into a turtle, Swerve destroyed one, and Kate cut the other two in half. They decided to use the last one to distract the others. Using some mind magic they sent it away and retreated to see what would happen.
The group waited. Most ghouls went away, but some did wander into the sewers under sophocles where the group was. In the meantime they called Nameless to try to handle the horde. He shows up. He greets everyone. He is surprised to learn this is where this group of ferals were. He says he’ll handle it. He immediately begins slaughtering ghouls. Babylon is understandably concerned and takes measures to curb his enthusiasm. She puts him in a barrier and uses Vexcraft to suppress his focus sword. She then puts up a barrier to block the ghouls, and uses mob mind to make them go away. She uses her magic hands to carry Nameless, and his sword, back. Kate gets a little too curious with it and Babylon discourages her from messing with it. To which Kate is somewhat annoyed. Nameless does get turned back. He says he must take care of them, and slowly walks after them.
The group thinks on what to do next. Swerve notices an awakened pathogen in the air that isn’t HMHVV. They warn nameless and end up calling Kyra Symaras to see if she has any info. She seems concerned. She doesn’t have a lot to give them, but does warn them to be careful. Shy calls the N-51, and they send some supplies of C-Squared and equipment to help clean up an area.
Babylon and Swerve set up a magical lodge and protection circles. Shy and Kate weld the gates to the other sewer entrances shut. They begin to explore and in an abandoned lounge find a box similar to one Kate found in the LA underground. This one however lacks the Renraku iconography. Shy and Kate think about what traps may be here. Putting their knowledge of explosives together they do remember that pressure systems exist, and to be careful of traps. Fortunately there is none. Opening it reveals 2 synthskin masks and some tubes. Babylon recognizes one as Nanopaste Disguise. They requisition a nanoscanner to try and see what is in the rest. One is Sealer, and one is Nanospy. They decide to put them back and place a camera there to see what goes on. nanites.
Babylon and Swerve set up wards. Shy and Kate investigate the grounds. They constantly feel something watching them but can’t find anything. They do spot an astral signature that shy recognizes as the spirit that kidnapped the children. It was from a spirit power.
Walking around they decided to check on the decker. Who is a bug? Or appears to be a bug. Feeding the description to others they remember Chitin. The dissonant Halloweener Technomancer. They promised good support. They even put a sprite in Shy’s Desert Strike to help it out. A dissonant sprite gives it some extra juice.
They went to check on the performers. They turned out to be halloweeners. This was mostly ok. They did want to burn everything down but that is to be expected. What wasn’t expected was for Shy to give them K10. Which they immediately took. Kate told Shy that they need to leave. Like now. But a very thoughtful Babylon projected and healed and detoxed them. Crisis averted.
The ward preps are finished underground and it is beefy. Even Swerve feels somewhat safe in it. So the Runners decide to sit down for some R&R. At midnight before the event, the camera on the nanogear gets a ping. A Shiawase I-DOL comes and picks it up. Gamorrah tracks it back to its “owner”. It appears to just be some dude who accepts the bots “service”. The bot hides the box and goes back to doing stuff for the owner.
Babylon went out and collected some magical forensic evidence on this signature to use for later.
Being cheeky, they decide to look for Asahiro magically, but to no avail. Shy called Red Sonya for some professional sniper backup. Shy also calls Hextech for some more direct and overt backup The subcontracting bills are getting higher.
Kate does a matrix search looking for Asahiro. With Hextech’s ability and Gamorrah’s guidance, she managed to figure out that he was in fact in the city. He was last seen 8 hours ago in downtown at some event that Kate forgot about as soon as she read it. But the relevant info was relayed to the team.
The group decides to rest before the main event. Babylon is woken up in the morning to Gamorrah shaking her saying all the watcher spirits are gone. She checks on them and discovers that the areas have all been astrally scrubbed. They also check and notice the box is missing from the apartment.
They asked Chitin to take a look at the bot and discover its memories, but said it was formatted 5 hours ago. Chitin did techno BS and found out the command came from a R6 cyberdeck with a R3 Pitac. They all think this sounds suspicious. Kate has an inkling as to why, and remembers how Von Neuman operates. She tells Chitin that it is indeed strange and maybe he could look into it later after all this is said and done. She has a sneaking suspicion she sent the lamb into the lion's den, but doesn’t lose any sleep over it.
The time arrives. Buffs are dished out, preps are made. Babylon and Swerve decide to up the protection and ward the entire stage. This is a big undertaking. They need help, and call in a few friends including Adeptus, Sanev, and Xyvis. Irene and Shy also help out using their magic. Kate, being almost anti-magic, stays out of it. In the end they throw up a very impressive Force 15 ward. Even Kate can almost feel it interact with the reality around it. The other mages leave except for Xyvis who stays for the festivities. Babylon and Swerve then cleanse the toxic taint from the Speaker’s crystal eyes, to which she is grateful.
Aftermath
Rewards
- 15 Karma
- 12 CDP
- Optional Contact: Pump King Jack, 5/1 Halloween Spirit of Man (5 RVP or 10 CDP)
- For Babylon: May purchase Loyalty 6 for Pump King Jack
- For Kate: May purchase Jury Rigger at chargen rate (10 karma)
Game Quotes
>72P AP-3 >the dumpster is now red chunky salsa to the next LEVEL man |
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Katherine Tyler
Why am I the bomb expert? Sometimes I hate being the bomb expert. We saved Sophocles, and Halloween was a blast. Well, like a fun blast. Not a literal C4 induced explosive blast. Thang god. We stuck it to Asahiro, and therefore to Shiawase. So it's a good day for me. I finally made friends with the King of Halloween. It was good to see people happy. Pretty much every job I do in Sophocles makes me feel good about myself after.