Falling Dusk, Part 1
| Falling Dusk, Part 1 | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Crew of the Lady Theodora | Rusty's Crew | ||||||||
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Bunny Hop Knack Lingchi Triage | Hungry Vampires | ||||||||
Summary
The runners are contacted to rescue a missing salvager under attack by vampires near Forks. Complications arise when it turns out that the target was already infected by the vampires, but the runners are able to navigate the situation and return the target alive to the Johnsons with as much care as he can receive.
Background
Andrew Cole, a salvager working with the Crew of the Lady Theodora, has gone missing near Forks, SSC. Having lost contact with him for two days, the crew are worried for his safety, what with recent reports of missing persons and the deaths of hikers and campers in the area.
The Meet
The team meet with the three Johnsons in the Shot Gun bar, a low-quality but cosy-ish establishment in Tacoma near the docks. The Johnsons gave the runners what they could on Cole, and explained their reason to worry. After some negotiation on prices, the Johnsons offered to take the team to Port Angeles via boat, then a contact of the runners would drive them to Forks from there.
The Plan
The boat ride was fairly uneventful. Matrix research was done by Bunny Hop, and she was able to find out that Cole has been working in security, but was likely in Forks to survey the area off the coast for salvaging purposes, though she was still unable to find any recent activity by him. A bit of banter later, the team arrives in Port Angeles and gets on the road to Forks.
Their journey is interrupted when they stumble on the site of a murder, which consists of a blood-stained broken-down car in the woods and a dismantled campsite. There is one body, and signs of another death but no second body. Triage is able to determine that the one present body was killed via essence draining. At this point, the team are very confident that vampires are behind the disappearances and deaths. At the mention of vampires, the team's ride bounces, leaving them to walk alone through the dark and misty forests the rest of the way to Forks, checking into an inn for the night.
The Run
In the morning, the team is able to investigate the inn, learning that Cole stayed there before he went missing, and are able to further determine that he went to Destruction Island in search of ships to salvage. Lingchi astrally projected to the island to search for his aura, and discovered Cole in the process of infection with HMHVV, and two recently-turned vampires holed up in a lighthouse with very high essence.
Options are discussed, and the team settles on Knack and Lingchi projecting and manifesting on the island to talk to the vampires before resorting to combat. With an incredibly intimidating command from Lingchi, they are able to get the vampires to listen long enough to talk. One of them is able to explain that they were told by one "Rusty", apparently another vampire in the Olympic forest, that they would lose their minds if they didn't drain people to death, and that he could cure them if he had enough vampires to study.
While violence is strongly contemplated, ultimately the team is able to persuade the vampires that their only chance to get out of this whole situation is to go to Seattle, away from "Rusty". Once the vampires are gone, the team is able to safely recover Cole's unconscious body and get him to Farraday's Clinic before he wakes and needs to feed.
Aftermath
Lingchi tracked the two vampires from Destruction Island to find that they kept to their word and made for Seattle. What they did once they got there, though, will remain unknown.
Triage was able to keep tabs on Cole and determine that he was successfully cared for and fed as ethically as possible before deciding to leave.
Despite the complications, the runners were paid in full for a job well done.
Rewards
8 RVP Total
- 6k Nuyen (3 RVP) + 2k Nuyen negotiation bonus
- 5 Karma (5 RVP)
Optional
- Crew of the Lady Theodora at loyalty 2 (4 RVP)
- Andrew Cole at loyalty 3 (4 RVP)
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Triage: Ok, from the beginning. We were hired to go track down a missing person. Not abnormal stuff. We head over to where he was last seen, do some searching, looks like people there had been dying of essence drain. So fun times. We find the inn he was staying at, turns out we just missed him, and that he went somewhere called "Destruction Island." Who names an island that? Its like they wanted terrible things to happen there!
I-In any case, we check it out astrally, and there our target is, just infected, with the two vampires who did it still there. We talk to them and... We manage to get them off the island. The two... they said they would stop killing but...
I don't know. I don't know what to think.
Lingchi: I do not know what I would have done were I with a team that thought things through less and was more driven by anger. Everyone deserves a second chance. Everyone. That must be true. If it is not, then I do not know what the world is anymore.
Knack: Oh, man. I didn't expect a missing persons case to turn into vampire hunting! Not that this was, really, vampire hunting. There were a couple infected that didn't really know what they were doing. It was, well, I had mixed feelings, but in the end we decided to let them off. I don't know if I would have had the stomach to... never mind.
The more interesting thing is that there's some other infected out there, who apparently got those two to work for him? Creepy stuff.
Oh, the guy we were supposed to find? Poor guy... ended up infected too. But we got him out as okay as possible.
Bunny Hop: I don't really care if they're infected. OpFor is one thing, but killing people for fun, for profit, people who don't even know the stakes, that's unforgivable no matter who you are... That said, I guess I'm glad even still - they didn't deserve another chance, but I didn't want to watch another execution either...