Grave Robbers on the Outskirts
| Grave Robbers on the Outskirts | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Ancients | Shedim | ||||||||
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Babylon Luna Voltage | |||||||||
Summary
The Ancients runners take out a colony of shedim on the outskirts of Tarislar.
The Meet
Luna is in the Daisy Chain, showing off pictures of her new boat and watching Voltage attempt to pawn off a keg of hurlg on the bartender with Gomorrah's assistance, when Ether approaches her and asks her to investigate a recent wave of disappearances near one of Tarislar's cemeteries. More concerning still, some of the graves there have been dug up. Luna fills Babylon and Voltage in, and requests their help in the endeavor.
The Plan
As Ether seems to think this is a pressing issue, the team immediately gets to work trying to figure out what people know.
Luna scouts the general area with her FlySpy, and manages to find a few sets of tracks leading out of the cemetery to a commune on the outskirts of Tarislar. She tells Voltage what she's seen, and asks her to find out what her contacts know. First, Voltage asks Freya if she can find any information on it. There isn't much, but it seems to be a small community that does some subsistence farming, and is run by a man named Eli Shaw. Less than satisfied with so little knowledge, Voltage goes to refill her drink and ask Jacqueline Grant if she's heard any rumors about it. Turns out, she has; the commune has an insular, cult-like vibe, and the residents mostly keep to themselves.
Babylon has been attending to business elsewhere, but given that Ether and Luna seem to think this is urgent business, she takes a taxi back to Tarislar and astrally projects over to the commune to scope it out. The place is strange; there's an oppressive, deathly feeling on the Astral, and the commune's inhabitants have sickly, weak auras. While Babylon doesn't spot any obvious dangers outright, there's clearly a problem here and the squad resolves to check it out as quickly as possible.
The Run
Babylon and Voltage go to scout the area physically, while Luna readies her drones to attack if necessary. They knock on the door of one of the houses and request to speak to Eli, but despite recognizing Babylon and her influence, the commune's denizens are reluctant to open up. Voltage is frustrated at their lack of compliance and begins pushing against the door, threatening to break it down if they refuse to speak to her and Babylon. Believing Voltage to be serious about her threat—which she absolutely was—they let the two Ancients in. The small house is uncomfortably cold, and Eli is seated at a table in the kitchen. Voltage notices that wood is strangely absent from the spartan interior décor as Babylon assenses him, and identifies that he's possessed by a spirit that she recognizes as a Shedim. She sends a DNI message to Luna, asking her to quickly buy wood pulp ammo for Voltage and her drone. They stall for time as they wait for it to be delivered, with Babylon putting on an act of hoping to learn esoteric magical secrets from him, and Voltage playing the clueless muscle (which is mostly not an act). Babylon touches him to initiate a mindlink, both as show of her ability and a method of initiating private conversation if Eli so wishes, and while they are in contact he begins to drain her karma.
It doesn't take long for Luna's drone to arrive at the compound, crashing through a window and dropping a clip loaded with wood pulp ammo on the table in front of Voltage. In a blur of movement, she takes the clip, swaps it out for the APDS she previously had loaded, and opens fire. She and Luna focus on separating the Shedim from the bodies they're possessing so that Babylon can destroy them on the Astral. The fight is difficult, with Voltage crashing fast on Kamikaze and taking a number of serious hits (including an EX-EX round to the face), and Babylon knocking herself out with drain. Only two possessed cultists remain standing by the time the two Ancients are nearly incapacitated, at which time Luna arrives in her Shin-Hyung and mows them down as they try to flee into the woods.
Aftermath
After Babylon and Voltage take some time to recover, the three of them sweep the compound for valuables, information, or any lingering threats. While doing so, Luna finds a paper journal that Eli had been keeping, which details his study of Shedim and his plans to summon a Master Shedim.
Rewards
+7 Ancients Rep
Ether (Connection 2) Loyalty 2 -> Loyalty 3 (3 RVP) (or 6 CDP towards Ether's Loyalty)
11 karma (11 RVP)
20k nuyen from looting the commune (10 RVP)
4 CDP (1 RVP)
Babylon: -2 karma from being Karma Drained.
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Voltage
Well, that was fragged up. I know I'm not a magician or anything, but I just don't get why anyone would wanna summon weird, nasty spirits like that for power when you could just get nice ones like Gomorrah to hang out with you. It just seems to me like there are easier ways to get what you want that don't mean you gotta play with fire and risk burning all the people around you, and I feel pretty bad for havin' to kill all those people who didn't do anything wrong.