Lost Children
| Lost Children | ||||||||||
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| Part of GM ryncewynde88's Run Set Rural Rescuers | ||||||||||
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| Factions Involved | ||||||||||
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Nosferatu Blood Mage 14 Shadow Hounds F12 Blood Spirit |
Suitor Kilbo Photon Kitten | None | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||||
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Mystic Crusaders Johnson Suitor | Nosferatu Blood Mage | |||||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||||
| 14 Shadow Hounds | 1 Nosferatu Blood Mage | 1 Force 12 Blood Spirit | ||||||||
Background
The Mystic Crusaders have heard that there's something happening in a small town in rural North America, but don't have the resources to spare to investigate what is probably nothing important.
Wilver had been suffering from vicious animal attacks recently, and the Crusaders suspect an Astral element to this.
Location Note: Wilver does not receive enough traffic to be considered out in the Sticks.
Meet
The meet took place at Christa's Veggie Station, a restaurant in Touristville specializing in vegetarian cuisine. The runners met with a male Ork, where they were informed of the requirements: They were to investigate the goings-on in a small town known as Wilver, about an hour's drive or so outside Seattle's borders, and put a stop to the violent deaths taking place there. The only information the Johnson revealed was that there were astral anomalies in the area, there was more blood than there should've been around each body, and that in the unlikely event that the presence was actually dangerous, pay would be adjusted accordingly.
Run
The runners first did a quick Matrix search to determine local headlines: the attacks were ruled as wild animal attacks. They then piled into Photon's vehicle and headed out, booking a room at the only motel in the town.
They didn't find much in the way of details on the Matrix once there, only that the behavior of the animals was not typical of wolves, and they came up with a list of potential culprits. The team split up, Photon and Kitten heading to the bar to get to know the villagers, and Suitor and Kilbo to the joint police station/sheriff's office/morgue to take a closer look at the bodies. Local law enforcement consisted of Actually Local Law Enforcement: no corp involvement, just one overweight and bored guy behind a desk. He was easy to talk past.
Examination of the bodies revealed that the bite pattern was not consistent with either Cerberus Hounds or Fenrir Wolves, leading to the conclusion that Shadow Hounds, or really desperate/artificially influenced wolves were behind the attacks.
Discussion with the locals in the bar led to finding out about Cletus, the resident crazy old guy in a shack, who claimed the attacks were more than just wild animals. The team met up at his shack to question him.
Cletus, it was revealed, is an Aware, capable of Astral Perception. Neither he nor anyone else in town really recognizes it as such; he just knows he can see stuff others can't, and everyone else just thinks he's crazy. Over the years, he has developed his one talent excessively: he has very few skills in anything, really, but rolls a veritable bucket of Assensing dice.
Cletus has in fact seen the hounds with his own eyes, and reports that they are incredibly hard to see without his "special eyes", confirming the team's suspicions that they were dealing with Shadow Hounds, a pack of about a dozen, and that they were not the only things out there: There was a humanoid figure he described as having a scary, terrifying aura, and it noticed his observations. He also described it as dual-natured. The runners concluded that this was probably a Shapeshifter attempting to calm the hounds down.
Successful paracritter knowledge and matrix searches revealed that Shadowhounds burn in daylight. Successful area knowledge test and legwork with locals revealed that there was only one abandoned structure big enough: a barn roughly 2 hours walk away, and an hour's drive up a winding country dirt road. The team set off, with the intention of arriving less than an hour before sunset.
A successful paracritter knowledge check on the way revealed that Shapeshifters prefer to stay in their true, animal form. This led to the revised opinion that the pack leader was an Infected of some sort.
Upon arrival at the abandoned barn, the team discovered that there was a large sinkhole inside it. Photon sent a flying drone in to scout it out. They discovered a short tunnel leading to a den of 14 Shadow Hounds and a Nosferatu, all awake and waiting for the sun to set, along with significant arcane paraphernalia, which was correctly identified as a strong Blood Magic lodge. It was at this point that the team decided that talking probably wouldn't help, and they switched up their tactics.
The team piled firewood into the opening of the sinkhole with the intention of setting it alight and suffocating all those within. After some difficulties with a water spirit dousing the wood, solved with violence and a big gun, they managed to set the fire and contain the smoke. Several minutes later, after they were sure the shadow hounds were dead and the nosferatu was unconscious, Kilbo entered, using his internal air tank to avoid choking to death. Once he found the nosferatu blood mage (who they knew was merely dormant without air), he decapitated him. This released a powerful blood spirit, via the Death Curse ritual, from a type 1a Infected, in a blood magic lodge set up by said Infected. The blood spirit then proceeded to attack Kilbo, who did surprisingly well, considering he was not Awakened and was fighting a force 12 spirit. Photon sent in his Steel Lynx to back him up while Suitor provided Leadership, and Kitten sped up his bike by circling the barn for a bit.
The high-powered machine gun on the Lynx proved to be ineffective against the spirit's Immunity to Normal Weapons, and settled in to provide suppressing fire instead. Kilbo managed to inflict a small amount of physical damage by punching the spirit really hard with augmented strength. Once Kitten had attained sufficient speed, he entered the sinkhole and attempted to ram the spirit. He missed, several times, but each time he managed to recover and maintained speed by use of the principles of the Wall Of Death and driving on the walls of the round den. After 6 seconds (on the 3rd Combat Turn), Kitten managed to connect with the blood spirit. The blood spirit managed to disconnect from this reality.
Aftermath
The Johnson was surprised by the involvement of not only an Infected, but a blood mage too, and was suitably impressed by the fact that the 4 mundanes he hired managed to deal with such a strong spirit with no magical support. He readily agreed to the adjusted price.
Rewards
Player Characters
Kilbo
28k nuyen, 5 karma, +4 reputation with Mystic Crusaders, +1 with Atlantean Foundation, +1PA, 1 Designer Cloak (Custom Look): Shadow Hound Skin
Photon
28k nuyen, 5 karma, +4 reputation with Mystic Crusaders, +1 with Atlantean Foundation, +1PA, 1 Designer Cloak (Custom Look): Shadow Hound Skin
Kitten
28k nuyen, 5 karma, +4 reputation with Mystic Crusaders, +1 with Atlantean Foundation, +1PA, 1 Designer Cloak (Custom Look): Shadow Hound Skin
Suitor
18k nuyen, 10 karma, +4 reputation with Mystic Crusaders, +1 with Atlantean Foundation, +1PA, 1 Designer Cloak (Custom Look): Shadow Hound Skin, 150 nuyen spent on Exsang.