Excursion

Excursion
Part of The Arrival
Date 2085-12-30 GM Asmodeus Location Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine Status Threat Level: Semi-Prime
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Asahiro Kunitoshi Shiawase N-51 Woedica Kryptman	Monolith Cult	Great Dragons	Zurich-Orbital	Shiawase
Shy Intercession Blackhawk Thunder Eidolon	Preachers Cultists Vyraj Irij	Kaltenstein	Omega Dawn Hitsquad	Caspian Sea Mercenaries & Shiawase Samurai
Casualties and losses
Several points of edge were burned; Shy regained Mild K-10 Addiction, Eidolon lost some of his memory.	21 soldiers dead, 3 preachers killed, Vyraj dead, Irij captured.	Kaltenstein suffered moderate radiation burns.	1 member deceased.	CSPMC suffered 95% casualties.
Initiation Ordeal & Mundane Ascension for all runners.

Summary

Asahiro Kunitoshi acquires another fragment of the legendary Sohayamaru, but at the cost of a mountain of bodies. The runners manage to negate the recent indoctrination wave of fresh cultists in the toxic cult of the Wish Granter, but are unable to permanently contain its influence.

Background

See The Arrival metaplot.

The Meet

Asahiro hires the runners from Seattle via proxy and Matrix connections, arranging for their flight to a forward operating base near the perimeter of the Exclusion Zone. He's hired an unrated European mercenary company, the Caspian Sea PMC to provide boots on the ground. Asahiro diverted his personal diviners' attention to the next fragment and discovered it to have belonged to a collector of relics in Chornobyl by the time of the reactor meltdown. To his knowledge, the fragment remains in the Jupiter factory complex.

The Plan

Unfortunately, the complex is immediately outside of Prypiat which satellite imagery has confirmed to be one of the largest concentrations of the cult's forces. The plan is for the Caspian Sea PMC and a detachment of the N-51 to start a convoy and head into Prypiat, fielding a distracting assault to screen for the runner team's infiltration of Jupiter and subsequent retrieval of the artifact fragment. The N-51 has limited ordnance on site and there have been some sightings of 5th world artillery pieces in the city. The mercenaries will keep the cult's attention on them to give the runners a fighting chance; as soon as the fragment's secured, they're free to retreat and minimize casualties.

Unbeknowns to most, Thunder and Shy both received secret briefs from interested parties. Charon informed Shy that there's a force maintaining a shroud of Matrix interference over Prypiat. She wants to find the source and eliminate it, though for what purpose is unclear. Thunder, on the other hand, receives a call from Officer Raven who asks him to retrieve one of the power sources that the cult's shrines have at their core. Both runners agree, though they don't tell the other runners of these goals yet. Intercession's given a loan frame from Shiawase; it's unclear why Shiawase possesses such technology, implying they may have cyborgs in their employ already.

Asahiro gives Shy a blade as a gift, expecting her to not fail him in this task. The others gain skillsofts and toolkits to make this a reality, as well as promise of a handsome payday.

The Run

The convoy begins and the runners repair an old train to take a parallel route to Yaniv. Unfortunately, a great radiation storm kicks in and their guide, Kiril Kravchenko is lost in the storm that knocks everyone unconscious. The team awakens in the swamps to the south of Yaniv Station and regroup with limited supplies and with half of their team somewhat injured. Almost immediately, they're beset upon by mutated creatures. In the ensuing firefight, a gauss rifle shoots Shy square in the neck from an unseen angle and the creatures try to drag her off to eat her. Fortunately, the team manages to fight them off and force the creatures to retreat after several of their number perish.

Tracking the shooter across the Swamps and trying to gain a connection to the other mercenaries is difficult and mostly unsuccessful. Shy gets to high ground while Intercession tries to triangulate the interference's source. He succeeds, but is shot by the hidden sniper again, disabled completely by his borg frame taking too much damage. After dragging the broken frame to cover, the three stealth snipers in the team begin scanning the other hilltops for sign of the sniper, but find nothing. Presuming the attacker's relocated already, they get to repairing the frame and manage to get it somewhat functional. With this, they manage to escape the swamps without casualties, though much of their gear is destroyed in the wrecked train carriage.

Once they reach the premises of Yaniv, the team splits; Shy says she'll go after the other N-51 troops in Prypiat and see if she can't disable the artillery to help the team. Afterwards, Thunder elaborates that getting the shrine power sources could be useful - while the others aren't as convinced, Blackhawk tags along southeast in search of Kiril, their guide, whose body hasn't been found yet, only his backpack. The team wanders further away from Prypiat, discovering an underground complex where the cult's set up. Perhaps it was some kind of military installation at one point, a radar station, but instead they are captured by the cult and taken before the shrine one by one to be indoctrinated.

Meanwhile, Shy's counter-sniped in Prypiat again and dragged to safety by the remaining N-51 elements who take shelter inside buildings, using a very makeshift field medic hospital to keep people from dying. With no-one else to call on, Shy risks by calling on Woedica's name. The former blood mage arrives on horseback, furious that she'd be called away despite her tight schedule in the Wild Hunt. Shy asks for help, getting decontaminated and healed mostly to full health again. Woedica can't remain for long, but will keep an ear out for further summons. She manages to sneak out properly this time and finally gets revenge on the sniper trying to catch her a second time. One of her N-51 comrades bounds across a long sightline quickly, but gets caught by the gauss rifle sniper regardless. Shy, able to spot the muzzle flash, takes the sniper down in return. With another casualty, they move to the eastern half of Prypiat to engage the first howitzer.

Shy discovers the howitzers to be toxic spirits, able to materialize and astrally project to rapidly relocate. She convinces the toxic spirit to engage in murder, no matter who the target is. Filled with bloodlust, the spirit agrees and lets a shell be loaded. With N-51 troops going on rooftops of apartment blocks to act as spotters, Shy engages in indirect battery fire on another concentration of cultists near the riverside. At the same time, the cult's hit by an unknown trio of operatives with rifles and backpacks. The artillery rends most of them severely and another howitzer is destroyed. After this, Shy kills the spirit, disrupting it back to its home plane.

After that, she engages in another firefight with the cult, taking severe casualties but getting cover from the rooftop overwatch and the three operatives who keep pushing into the riverside buildings. Wounded but not out, the two parties disengage from one another. Shy asks for help but the three spec ops refuse, stating their goal to be looking for dangerous terrorist accomplices. Shy continues moving forward and gets to the interference's source as located by Intercession in the swamps. She finds some kind of sustaining module with life support functions and a number of signal amplifiers. Unable to ascertain its exact purpose, she notices a universal connector port and jacks in, asking her team to run overwatch and form a security perimeter. In the device's VR space, she encounters a young boy calling himself Vishnyk the Herald. He wanders in an abandoned Prypiat with Shy, asking questions about the outside world and apologizing for something. Shy asks if he can disable the interference, to which he agrees after some persuading. Unfortunately, it'll take time. Shy agrees to stay with the boy until it's done and starts to see Prypiat shrinking, the VR space growing more and more cramped as an impassable fog creeps in, signaling the dying of the Matrix interference. After it's about to close in fully, he boots Shy out and apologizes one last time. Finally able to contact her team properly again, Shy asks for Woedica to take the boy and take him somewhere else. Reluctantly, the Wild Hunt's rider agrees and spirits the Dissonant Technomancer of the cult far off.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party's about to be indoctrinated. Eidolon's taken before the shrine and hears familiar brainwashing whispers in his head when a firefight erupts. The spec ops trio has found the bunker and attacks the cult, causing all kinds of chaos. The party barely manages to get out of the crossfire and realizes they're chasing Thunder. Unsure why, they arrange a distraction and sneak Thunder out through another path in the underground complex. Dissatisfied with having their target slip, the spec ops call for their own artillery to bury the evidence of their presence. The runners escape just barely, with Eidolon having averted brainwashing by shooting the power source instead of grabbing it.

Thunder's absolutely dead set on retrieving the power source and attempts to continue looking for it. On their way out, Eidolon and Blackhawk looted toxic alchemical preparations from the dead cultists the spec ops killed, using one of them to repair Intercession's borg frame. Thunder's invisible and hiding from his pursuers, but continues moving east. The rest of the team attempts to keep tabs on the Omega Dawn presence, having finally identified their attackers. Intercession fools them into thinking the party's headed east with an unsecured radio transmission -- OD follows the lead, only to be led into another Monolith firefight. The team follows behind, finding the remains of counter-battery fire and destroyed Howitzers as well as dead cultist corpses. Thunder's refusing to let the objective drop, so they contact Raven now that their comms are working (thanks to Shy). Raven claims Kaltenstein's on her side, so Eidolon begins a rapid marathon to the Great Dragon to ask him personally. Unfortunately, Kaltenstein has no idea who Raven is. Eidolon distracts him long enough for the Wish Granter to fire a powerful burst of radioactivity at the dragon and knock Kaltenstein down on the ground. This causes another storm to begin brewing and Eidolon runs for cover. Thunder, trapped in the bunker's stairwell while waiting for the storm to subside, has an argument with the other runners about whether it's smart to go down and find the power source. Blackhawk threatens to eliminate him if he persists.

Shy plans a bold flanking assault to give the Caspian Sea mercs a chance at surviving their assault. The final howitzer's near the Palace of Culture in Prypiat, right where the cult's stronghold is. She goes around, sneaking most of the way in and almost succeeds in assassinating the artillery crew. Unfortunately, their armor proves too sturdy to kill in one hit and the N-51 flanking element gets caught in a desperate firefight in the Monolith's flank. Due to Eidolon's distracting of the dragon in search of answers, the storm kicks in at the worst possible time. Shy's partially clipped by the storm as she runs for cover, having gassed most of the cult's forces with smart corrosives and nerve gas. The N-51 squadmates detonate their jury rigged demo charge, causing all of the artillery shells of the howitzer to detonate at the same time. Unfortunately, the firefight hastened their progress and only 70% of them explode. Fortunately, this completely eradicates the howitzer itself and kills several cultists. The power source of the shrine is left intact and the storm carries with it an indoctrinating scream, one which affects Shy who the Dissonant Herald indoctrinated during her stay in the VR dreamworld. In a last ditch attempt, she uses Rocuronium on herself to paralyze herself so she won't be a danger to her squadmates.

Eidolon has a conversation with an old man in one of the older wood-crafted trench bunkers he took shelter in. An offer is made, but since he refuses the offer based on the man's unwillingness to offer all the exact details, the man leaves and wipes the memory of the conversation for the most part. The storm abates once Kaltenstein recovers and climbs back to suppress the storm. Now, Eidolon sprints back to his team and explains that Raven's claims are not backed up by Kaltenstein. Thunder finally lets this side objective drop after they hear Omega Dawn continue a firefight within the bunker the shrine is in. Instead, they use charges looted from one singular OD corpse to collapse the bunker stairwell and trap both the cultist and OD inside.

Without having the ability to fully clear the side objective, they focus on the artifact fragment; Asahiro's contacted but he's furious that they have been trying to look for the guide and look for power sources instead of prioritizing the fragment. He demands they seek it at once or he'll target them with missile barrages instead. The team gets near Jupiter, gets ambushed by the cult sniper Vyraj and takes him out in short order. They also acquire the N-51 squad's frequency and rendezvous with them, realizing they can rescue Shy from certain death. Thunder calls a bound spirit to use Movement and speedily get to where Shy's paralyzed, treating her most critical wounds and dragging her out while Asahiro reluctantly orders a missile barrage on the Palace of Culture.

The Jupiter Complex itself, after all the artillery and most of the cult presence is destroyed, is a relatively easy place to clear. Aside from a thoroughly mutated toxic critter which Intercession handily tanks, they not only find the sword fragment but their guide, Kiril. Possessed by a spirit, he's taken outside and the team requests extraction. With them is Shy, who is paralyzed, Kiril the guide, bound and restrained and Irij, one of the gauss rifle wielding cult snipers whom Eidolon wants to try and recruit and rehabilitate in the WCM. The chopper arrives and extracts all but the team; the helicopter's weight limit is reached and the team has to run back to the FOB in the winter night. They manage to fend off the stragglers of the cult from shooting the helicopter down as it flies away and disengage, almost suffering lethal frostbite on their way back.

Aftermath

• Shy is indoctrinated with the Monolith cult's brainwashing and will require extensive Psychotropic ASIST Biofeedback deprogramming to remove it (RP with other PCs with the Psychology skill or Mind Probe spell or have the N-51 subcontract experts in this regard to get rid of it). She also regained the K-10 Addiction as Mild. She can use this run as an initiation ordeal if one is available. She may increase Woedica's and Charon's Loyalties by 1 and gains a chip on Charon for helping her thwart toxicity. Asahiro grants her Onikara, a F7 katana weapon focus dedicated to the god of war.
• Blackhawk manages to get most of the toxic influences in his body purged as Shiawase's contract promised due to expert DNA manipulation and cleansing practices. This includes digging out the uranium fragments of the bullet in his chest that refused to regenerate out in order to buy off Blighted. The direct contact with the Wish Granter's call permits him to buy Battle Hardened, possibly helping in resisting its call in the future. He can use this run as an initiation ordeal.
• Eidolon had another touch with the Wish Granter and survived by resisting its effects. As a result, his name is whispered in the spirit world as one standing against corruption and he gains +7 Wild Index. Retrieving a gauss rifle from the cult is also seen as a magnificent trophy; he gains +15 Faction Reputation with the WCM. Eidolon may use this run as a mundane ascension if he wants. After he wakes up one day, a week later, he notices his shakes to be gone and a message from an Aztechnology logo signature, saying 'children have strange pranks sometimes.' His posting of the toxic mutant biopsy on the Helix gains him +3 Helix datahaven Reputation. Eidolon may use this run as a mundane ascension.

Intercession's survived excessive damage in a foreign borg shell, getting more adaptive with the systems he operates. He can buy Perceptive 1 & 2 at chargen rates due to his expert skills at sensory scans so far. He may use this run as a mundane ascension.

• Thunder didn't manage in retrieving Raven's requested item, but saved Shy's life in the nick of time and managed to evade Omega Dawn's expert hitsquad sent to eliminate him. He can take Catlike at chargen rates and gains -2 Omega Dawn Reputation (based). Raven's saddened by the lack of research, but will retain him for now. He may use this run as an initiation ordeal.

Due to the catastrophic casualties inflicted on the cult by the small N-51 detachment, they're unable to thwart explorers in the Exclusion Zone in the near future. More people go in seeking to complete secretive contracts from various shadowy employers, either succumbing to toxicity or coming back with various artifacts left behind by the mana storms or the cultists.

• The shrine power sources were not retrieved and given to either Raven or the forgotten memory in Eidolon's memories. As a result, the toxic call reaches various individuals across Europe, appearing in their dreams and compelling them to seek their true destiny in the Exclusion Zone. The individuals giving into the temptation are never seen again, but the cult's numbers slowly and steadily begin replenishing. Raven's unable to compensate for the emanations of the shrines and can't arrange for the development of protective equipment against it, making further incursions against the toxic cult exceptionally dangerous.
• The Wish Granter's call is muted for the time being by Kaltenstein's disdain for the spirit and active participation in preventing the toxic taint from spreading to the rest of Ukraine. His speaker has made a public statement that the Great Dragon is disgusted by the Ukrainian government's inaction and paralysis in handling this phenomena and urges them to take more decisive action. Ukraine has in turn made a clear statement that Kaltenstein shouldn't violate their airspace this way again or they'll take it as an act of aggression. For this reason, Kaltenstein's sent mostly his metahuman agents to perform warding rituals near the quarantine cordon around the perimeter of the Exclusion Zone and is rumored to hire shadowrunners through intermediaries to destroy the cult's people where-ever they manifest.
• Woedica extracts the dissonant technomancer, the Herald, from the Monolith's grasp and as a result the shroud of noise around Prypiat disappears. The technomancer's current where-abouts are unknown, but she asserts to Shy that she found him a relatively safe place where experts will look after his rehabilitation after his torturous loneliness.
• Kiril's toxic contamination and exorcism are treated by Shiawase's experts. He's offered the chance to become a Limited Corporate SINner for Shiawase and he accepts, becoming a Ukrainian expatriate and joining Kaltenstein's efforts to thwart the Exclusion Zone's corruption by acting as a guide. He believes he can still find his mother's ghost somewhere within its borders.
• Irij is unaccounted for, the Gauss RIfle-wielding cultist being kept by Asahiro. As a result of what is no doubt brutal interrogation, Shiawase begins a tyrannical stranglehold on intel on the cult's activities and their divination practices become absolute lifelines on any large scale operations taking place within the region. Stock markets indicate that this has resulted in a marked boost in Imperial Kami Services' economic growth.
• Asahiro Kunitoshi acquires another sword fragment, snatched from complete corruption at the final hour. Sohayamaru's built closer to completion and spirits in the metaplanes where guardians dwell begin speaking of him with increasing amounts of reverence. In some circles, assassins note that assassination contracts against him have begun to fail due to spirits refusing to take offensive actions against him.

Rewards

• 50,000 Nuyen - Contract payout (25 RVP)
• 100,000 Nuyen - Bonus Pay for weakening the cult (50 RVP)
• 80,000 Nuyen - Noise Generator disabled; Unknown benefactor's Bonus Pay (40 RVP)
• 50,000 Nuyen - HTR Recruit "Irij" Extraction + Cult Intel for Shiawase (25 RVP)
• 100,000 Nuyen - Raven's bounty for securing a power source to develop countermeasures against the Wish Granter's call FAILED
• 100,000 Nuyen - EUSC Bounty for securing a power source to contain the Wish Granter's call FAILED
• +5 Shiawase Reputation

--- Life-threatening experiences

• 80 Karma - Mission Success against overwhelming odds (80 RVP)
• 20 Karma - Prevented the Monolith's manatech knowledge from falling into suspicious hands (20 RVP)
• 30 Karma - Destroyed all identified Monolith Shrines to minimize brainwashing Hidden Side Objective Not Completed

--- Intel Gained

• 42 CDP - Gained comprehensive knowledge of Combat Tactics, Magical Threats, Mercenaries, Shiawase, Military, Military Vehicles, Paracritters, Psychology and Ukrainian (20 RVP)
• 1 Street Cred (1 RVP)

--- 180,000 Nuyen for Optional Gear; this can be extended at gear rates with the liquid Nuyen gained (90 RVP):

• Eidolon can get a Gauss Rifle, Peak Discharge Battery Packs and Hand-Loaded Gauss Ammo from looting Irij. He can also replace most of his lost gear.
• Blackhawk can get gene treatments due to Shiawase's tinkering with his DNA to fix his radiation poisoning and blighting. He can also get the Omega Dawn's looted bullpup AMR (Barrett for flavor mostly, he already has one).
• People can take some of the looted +DV Depleted Uranium rounds for Assault Rifles, Machine Guns and Sniper Rifles.
• Cyberdecks and RCCs of Shiawase design
• Skillsofts
• Drones, upgrades, pilots, autosofts
• Military vehicles
• Shy can keep the F7 Shinto Weapon Focus katana granted by Asahiro.
• Intercession can buy borg shell upgrades and new shells if he so desires.
• If none of the nuyen is spent, you retain 33% as liquid nuyen rounding down.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Blackhawk

"They came back alive... they're all alive... thank... thank god. I just wish there was more I could have done but we got out. There is too much drek going on right now and it's becoming a bit agitating. Also that man... he deserves freedom. No man is fucking "property." I need to get him out... someday. I will get him out.

Thunder

"Why do things end up so confusing? Maybe it's the toxics doing their work. I guess I'm just lucky they didn't corrupt my mind too. I wonder how they did it to the others? The toxics even corrupted an Omega Dawn squad to go after me. OD was obviously there to help us secure the power sources for Officer Raven before they got turned against us.
Raven seemd disappointed with me, but also forgiving.
I guess we were all very lucky to get out alive.
Poor Shy. I've seen her survive a lot. My prayers go out to her, that she may recover and be herself again soon."

Eidolon

I guess every runner reaches a point in their career where they thought someone was a better man than they proved themselves to be. Or maybe I'm just a dumbass, I really thought Asahiro was better than this. I should probably be more concerned with the mystery man who erased himself from my mind, or what Raven asked Thunder to do that got Omega Dawn involved... but I'm mostly disappointed, even if I got paid more than the original amount due to the sheer dent put into the cult. I *am* a little concerned about how naive Thunder is... but I lack the tools to convince him that he cannot take what everyone says at face value.